august mingle

[stellafortunamods]

August Mingle
Welcome to Teyvat - a vast magical world of adventure.
Happy new year....! In Teyvat, that is. It is now January ingame, and Liyue's people go about their disaster recovery efforts with more vigour than before. After all, Liyue's biggest festival is slated to occur in the latter half of the month - the Lantern Rite!

The Rite of Parting - Rex Lapis' funeral - passes without much incident, and Liyue collectively breathes a sigh of relief. With the Fatui being chased out of the yard, it seems that peace will finally return to the harbour city as they rebuild from the storm. You'll also get to watch three million Mora's worth of incense go up in smoke, so there's that.

Eager to focus on the future, Liyue folk have begun discussing the upcoming festival. The Lantern Rite commemorates hope for a new beginning and continued prosperity, and the construction of the festival centerpiece is currently underway. This year's Mingxiao Lantern will soar into the sky amidst thousands of smaller lanterns, and it will take the shape of a fallen Adeptus to commemorate the Adepti's contribution to Liyue's lasting peace.

Unfortunately, you're not quite out of the frying pan yet. With the Fatui gone from Liyue, the Ministry of Civil Affairs turn their attention to solving another issue that has cropped up after Osial's revival and subsequent defeat. Quite a few miners have gone missing from the Chasm, and the likelihood of finding them will only grow slimmer as the days go by. Both the Millelith and the Adventurers' Guild have pitched in to search for the kidnapped people. All clues lead to Nantianmen - and it's just your luck that Geovishaps and their hatchlings have come out of hibernation at around the same time. These lizard-like beings have shells of solid rock, and they seem especially agitated at having their territory invaded. Solving the mystery of the missing miners will take more than just a day's work.

State of the World

With the Lantern Rite set to open on January 21st, all of Liyue have come to visit the harbour to set up their stalls and pitch in to craft the Mingxiao Lantern. Hopefully the miners are found before the festival begins - the Lantern Rite is a festival of reunions, after all. Not to mention the Geovishaps' increased activity will inadvertently lead to them burrowing around in the rocky mountains. There's a small, but non-zero chance of them hitting an ancient seal somewhere and unleashing a buried threat.

Unless... that was their intention all along?

Please direct all questions to August's OOC post!

Comments

[sufferean]

[That earns a couple of blinks and a blank stare.]

...Hold on. You know Machias?

[How? Did Machias get dragged into something like this, too? Rean guesses it's possible, after all, he and Elliot are here, but...

It just doesn't sit right. Wouldn't Jun have mentioned that before? Never mind that Rean has a distinct feeling that, if that were true, he would have somehow heard Machias' screeching from across the multiverse.]

1/2

[whiteshroud]

[!

Oh. Oh no. He hecked up.]

[whiteshroud]

[Time for plan DISTRACTION. He quickly scans the crowd until a ways away he spots someone that maybe could be Sooga in his disguise. Or someone entirely else.]

Oh hey, is that Sooga over there? His disguises have gotten really good, I could barely tell.

[sufferean]

[The sad part is this almost works.]

Huh? Yeah, they have been, he fooled me the other day, but—

[Realization dawns.]

Hey, wait. Are you just trying to distract me?

[whiteshroud]

[Damn. He really had hope that'd work. This is so much easier with Kou.]

N- No...?

[He says, unconvincingly.]

[sufferean]

[...Mmmmhm. Rean just gives him a Look™.]

...You are, aren't you.

[A little slower, to drive the point home that he's not squirming his way out of this one:]

Why do you know Machias?

[whiteshroud]

[Damn damn and damn. He knows that Look™ and he knows that tone. He screwed up this one alright, and now he has to have this awkward conversation]

Well, it's not like I know him personally. I've never even met him.

It's more, uh... how to put it... [Is he stalling? Yes. Because he was hoping to never have this conversation]

Where I'm from, there's...fictional versions of you guys that're...famous?

1/?

[sufferean]

[Rean's not going to ask Jun to hurry up, but the Look™ will continue until explanations exist—]

2/?

[sufferean]

[excuse him, what]

3/3

[sufferean]

I'm... a fictional character. Where you're from.

[He's repeating it like he's trying to make sense of it, not like he doubts what's being said.]

...Well... I guess it's not the first time I've heard of someone being real that we thought was a work of fiction, but... across worlds, that one's new...

[...]

What's it like? The book I'm from?

[Oh, you sweet summer child, Rean, you think it's a book.]

1/2

[whiteshroud]

[Man watching Rean react to this news fills him with embarrassment. Were they not in public, Jun would be tempted to teleport away and hide honestly.

But alas, no such luck]

Mm... something like that. Forneus said certain ideas and things can unwittingly cross between worlds sometimes...like how the culture of Liyue has a lot in common with cultures of other worlds. My theory is that it has something to do with that...somehow.

[Look it's still a working theory.]

[whiteshroud]

[Still, it's a small relief that Rean seems to be handling it well. Except that small relief is dashed as Rean follows it up with that question]

What's it like-?

[Oh Christ, he's asking him what the book is like? Jun normally loves to talk people's ear off about anime, but suddenly when it's with REAN it's so different. He opens his mouth for a moment, but no sound comes out. Yeah, you know what? New tactic.]

Um...actually, I think it'd be easier to just show you.

[He'll reach into his bag and pull out the Magical Girl Alisa light novel. Because yes, he sure does carry it around]

Here. It's pretty different from everything you guys have said about your lives, fair warning.

[sufferean]

I mean... makes more sense than anything I could come up with, so I'm willing to run with that—

[Huh. Rean wasn't expecting him to like... actually have it on hand?

Rean takes the book from Jun, looking down at the cover with a face a bit like a deer in headlights.

It's wild looking down at a book and seeing an illustration that is unquestionably of yourself. Although, Rean supposes he's glad that he doesn't look bad? Kind of dark and mysterious, which is cool, in a way, but...

Hang on. Wait. He recognizes the design of those headphones.]

You, ah... mind if I borrow this for a bit? [He is absolutely trying his best to sound as normal as possible right now.] I'll return it in this same condition, of course.

[whiteshroud]

[Lucky for Rean, Jun is still not that great at picking up on social cues with people. So any strangeness to his behavior gets waved off in Jun's mind as him being weirded out by a light novel about him.

Which you know what? Valid]

What...? You actually want to read it...?

[Ok that's a surprise. But he doesn't have a reason to say no. And since since Rean is clearly not a sketchy dude from an underground corporation, it probably won't end as badly as the last time he loaned a book]

Well, okay! Go ahead. Forneus gave me other stuff to read, so take your time.

[sufferean]

I mean... I ought to at least try to catch up on what you know, right?

[Yes. That's it. And definitely not trying to desperately figure out how terribly they portrayed him.]

That way we're on the same page, at least. Literally and figuratively speaking.

[whiteshroud]

[..................


Yeah ok not even Jun will fall for that one.]

You just wanna know if Demon Prince Rean is cool or not, don't you.

[sufferean]

[PAIN]

Oh, Aidios. They made me a Demon Prince?!

[Read: Yes.]

[whiteshroud]

[He knew it...]

Well, yeah. You can tell by the outfit. I know my knight uniform might give the wrong impression, but people in my world don't usually dress like this.

[...]

Well, maybe if they're goths.

[sufferean]

[Can the earth please just swallow him now?]

I-it's not like people in my world usually do, either...

[That doesn't sound like a defense of his world so much as it sounds like intense shame.]

[whiteshroud]

[Sorry the geo archon's retired. Dig your own hole.

And what is that tone of shame? Did...did he recognize the outfit? Was THAT of all things accurate?

Jun decides it's probably best not to ask. For now.]

Haha...I figured.

I wouldn't take the story too seriously. It's just supposed to be fun and lighthearted. I figured out pretty early on that the story was nothing like the lives of you and your friends.

[Magical Girl Alisa wasn't a complicated story. Unlike reality. ]

If it helps, just think of it as some AU fanfiction.

[sufferean]

[He does, and it is.

Why, of all things, did that have to transverse dimensions...?!

Rean tries, and mostly fails, to pull himself back together, but looks tiredly over at Jun.]

I'll try not to let it get to me—

[Except then Jun is saying words, probably, but they don't make any kind of sense to Rean.]

...Uh. Can you maybe, um... translate that last bit into layman's terms?

[whiteshroud]

[oh so they don't have fanfiction in Rean's world? How disappointing. So many worlds seem to lack such a precious treasure. He sighs and explains]

Fanfictions are stories that're based on an already established story, but written by someone whose not the original author or acknowledged as "canon". Canon, of course, meaning that it's part of the true narrative of the original story...kind of like church canon law, but for fictional stories.

[Still just as serious though]

AU means "alternate universe". It's a genre of fanfiction where they use the same characters but put them in a different setting, usually to see how different circumstances would change things.

Like "What if Rex Lapis worked in a coffee shop instead of being an Archon?". A story like that would be considered an AU fanfiction.

[sufferean]

[Rean manages to keep a straight face as he listens to the explanation. And once Jun is done explaining, he just sighs.]

Ohhh... I didn't know that was the term for that sort of thing.

I've, ah... had to help proofread for my friend's literature club before. And the head of the literature club had some... interesting ideas about how to repurpose the personalities of people she knew and events she heard of...

[whiteshroud]

Really?

[Consider his interest piqued! And being the good innocent Christian boy he is, his brain does not go to the gutter]

I've heard authors like to write what they know, but how so?

[sufferean]

[oh, you sweet summer child, you gonna Learn today,]

...Ah... how do I put this.

[Rean's making a point of not making eye contact as he describes this, and he sounds somewhere between wanting the earth to swallow him whole immediately and just irritated about the whole thing.

Still, if he's making Jun experience this sort of awkwardness, he can't run from it himself, so...]

Imagine someone writing a bunch of stories where you and your friends were all... I mean, I don't know if I can say "romantic" in good faith... but... um...

[His usual attempt to deepen his voice to sound more "adult" is definitely failing him, and his voice might be cracking a little.]

Touchy-feely?

...Specifically with you and your male friends? Exclusively with the males...?