JANUARY MINGLE

[stellafortunamods]

January Mingle: A Ballad in Goblets
Welcome to Teyvat - a vast magical world of adventure.
You open your eyes to an unfamiliar sight. A cool breeze flits through rustic buildings and sunny streets, carrying the smell of flowers and wine. The very air itself seems charged with mana, the warm pulse of the land palpable beneath your feet. This is a new world, a world where the elements compose all of reality. Before you is a bubbling fountain, and a key is entwined between your fingers. And that weight on your hip? A sparkling bauble that you've never seen before, yet it feels natural, as if it had always been there.

Asking around nets you the name of this world - Teyvat - and the name of this city - Mondstadt, blessed by the Anemo Archon, Barbatos. Your new home is accessible with the key placed in your hands, though this also brings to mind another question. How will you get money? Food isn't free, after all.

Luckily for you, there's plenty of jobs available for the enterprising Traveler. Be it taking requests from the Adventurers' Guild, or working part-time at one of Mondstadt's many food establishments, Mora is to be had when hard work is involved. The cuisine of Mondstadt is best paired with its wine, served at bars or enjoyed in private with a few friends.

And about that shining gem. locals will tell you that it is a Vision, a sign of favour from Teyvat's elemental gods. With the Vision on hand, you find yourself capable of commanding one of the seven elements. What will you do with this newfound blessing? Use it for good... or for evil?

Mondstadt's liveliness doesn't diminish when night falls. Bards sing through the wee hours of the night, and the lights of the city help keep most evildoers at bay. All seems peaceful, a pastoral idyll of a life that seems more at home in a storybook. Yet for those Travelers who venture out beyond the city's walls and into the ruins dotting the landscape, they may discover hints of a bloodier past now forgotten.

Glancing at any of the calendars in the city will tell you the current date. August 10th was the day you arrived. As soon as the last minute of August 16th slips away, the world around you changes. A blink, and time itself rewinds by seven days. Looking outside, the mown lawns have regrown, the windmill needs fixing again, and the well is once again full. Just what is happening here? It seems only you, Traveler, remembers the week that never was.

State of the World

For the first two weeks of the game, IC time will be looping from August 10th to August 16th. It's currently late summer in Mondstadt, and the trees are just beginning to turn out their autumn colours. The weather is cool and pleasant, with light showers on Tuesday (11th) and Friday (14th). It's also a good time to go out gathering berries and nature's bounty from Mondstadt's forests and valleys.

These two weeks will let us trial out our commissions and regains system and craft improvements for February onwards. There will be no activity requirements for January, so all threads started during this time period can be used for regains!

For all questions regarding January's mingle and events, please head over to our OOC post.

Comments

[whiteshroud]

Mm, I agree. Dozens of people showing up at once out of thin air in the center of town seems almost impossible not to notice.

Unless...it's something they weren't supposed to notice.

[complementing]

[She blinks at him.]

Huh? Are you implying that someone's just...magicking everyone in the city to have really specific amnesia?

[whiteshroud]

[Jun gives a nod]

It's not unheard of. People without enough spirit power will fail to perceive or forget seeing certain phenomena. A magic gate in a shopping mall won't be seen by shoppers, or a monster attack will be remembered as a bad earthquake, for instance.

Most of the time this "amensia" occurs naturally on Earth, but sometimes memory-wiping spells need to be used to maintain order. But in a world with this level of magic energy... [He puts a hand to his chin] It's hard to say if it's natural or not.

[That sure is a lot of info to drop on someone. Thanks Jun]

[complementing]

—oh! You're right, a lot of those things happen on my world too, naturally and un...naturally? Intentionally? Especially the magic gate in a mall thing.

[What an oddly specific example!!]

It doesn't seem to be negatively affecting the locals, at least. But then, we haven't been here that long. Maybe things will change on the full moon, or the nighttime will reveal a secret in the city. Something like that.

[whiteshroud]

[Wait she actually gets what he means? Well, that's a pleasant surprise! He hasn't encountered that since leaving his world.]

So you're familiar with that side of things. That makes things easier.

[Less exposition he has to do. Good.]

Mm, you're right. We should keep an eye out for any other unusual occurrences. They might give us a clue to what's really going on.

[complementing]

Yup! Kinda lived that life for a whole year...but yeah, agreed! Maybe we should postpone talking to the boss of the city, too. If it's unnatural, then they might be the ones causing it.

[whiteshroud]

["Lived that life for a whole year". He notes the timeframe and the past tense. Likely she wasn't tied to any official groups in the Underground, but rather is one of those folks who just responded to a local incident like the XRC did. Which is fine by him. He's had good experiences with those types. ]

Haha, I'd like to hear about that sometime.

[Both as a professional dealer-of-weird-shit and out of personal curiosity about her. He puts his hand on his hip. There was a lot unusual about this situation, but there was something reassuring about treating this like another mission. Look for clues, find the source of the anomaly, figure out how to resolve it. Even if they were in another world and his powers were gone, the procedure was still the same]

They're on our list of potential suspects, for sure. He said the one in charge was Acting Grand Master Jean, right? That's a name to remember, I think.

[complementing]

I probably wouldn't mind talking about it sometime.

[Probably. It's hard to say. She's still wondering if she's going to wake up at some point back on her cross at the Gates, this whole world nothing but a dream she'd thought up to distract herself.]

Right! I don't think it'd be too hard to look up some of the people who work under her either. Could be a "the top official is ignorant to their underlings' evil machinations" sort of situation. [She taps her chin.] But this still doesn't really give us a lot to go on...

[whiteshroud]

[No lucky for you Minako the tiny green haired boy in a knight costume is somehow very real. ]

That could be the case too. [Is he confident enough to put money on it? No. But it's a lead, and it's important to look into all of them]

True, but... [He holds up his apartment key, jingling it] We did get a valuable lead. It's important in an isekai to have a homebase area, right? We should try to locate ours.