OPEN: catch-all for April

[ladyemperor]

🧙 WHO: Meiniang and YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: Quests but also anything and everything!
🕒 WHEN: During the beautiful month of April
🗺️ WHERE: Anywhere and everywhere
⚠️ WARNINGS: Probably none, but subject to change if anything crops up


General April Shenanigans
i. The Survival Option
[Living as a concubine for many years didn't exactly prepare you to live life on your own, and having to learn to draw her own bath, get her own food was definitely an experience. Made much easier, of course, with the various magical conveniences like running water and electricity.

And made easier still because her first thought when seeing all of it was wondering how it worked, why it worked. That took up time in her day that would have been spent in bed with the covers pulled up and a book she'd only really be reading half-heartedly. Having to learn how to live one's life anew made it easier to try and forget the life she'd had.

The emperor's death feels simultaneously like yesterday and yet like too long ago so she stubbornly keeps the white silk flower in her hair though the pure white clothing she'd worn was impractical and for all that she had to grieve, she'd also been thoroughly spoiled by Rui An and the luxury of the Imperial Palace. So plain clothes it is.

Do you...]

A. Find her at breakfast, 8am
[Learning to wake up this early is hard for a concubine that usually woke up whenever she wanted, but it was either this or go hungry and Meiniang had never liked that feeling. Though she does find herself longing for some plain buns, or even noodles as she eats her cold fruit, chasing it with warm tea and frowning as she does so.]

...I can see how this would be refreshing in the height of summer, but to eat it like this now when it's so wet outside feels odd. [It's definitely why she's already on her third cup of tea at this point.]

B. Find her standing at the top of the stairs
[This would usually be the time when Rui An comes to bring her an umbrella. And also to tell her not to go out. But on her own, Meiniang takes one look at the water then proceeds to pull the bottom hem of her robe up a little so she can actually tie it tight and wade into the water.

She knows more than one of the emperor's other concubines would be raising their eyebrows at her, probably outright saying that was exactly what they'd expect from her of all people but none of them are here. In the end, it's once again just her.

If you're at all hesitant, she turns to you and offers a hand.] Do you need help?

Comments

[angel_of_death]

[Her words prompt yet another transition in the boy's demeanour, his expression shifting from one of contentment to one of distant thoughtfulness.]

......I thought something similar might be the case for me. The clothing you and my friends wear hasn't been associated with that region for a long time now. You're more likely to see it in very old art, or images depicting myths or the long past. But some of the things they have work in a similar way to things much closer to my time.

It's as though something happened back then that allowed them to discover that sort of technology much sooner.

[ladyemperor]

[Hearing that someone is likely from so far in the future that everyone she knows was long dead is a more sobering thought than she'd expected.

Still, she puts the thought aside for now to focus on the conversation with a tilt of her head.]

Technology? [That was something neither Li Min nor Gu Yun had showed her.]

[angel_of_death]

...Oh. I guess that's a newer word, too?

[He's not sure if it is. It's just a word he's known for so long he's been under the impression that everyone is aware of it.]

Technology is... well, the things we use in addition to ourselves to function. Like how wheels made carts and carriages possible, and those things made it easier to travel with more than what you could carry on your own. Advancements in technology make it easier to do certain things.

Just realized some of this tag had disappeared ahhhh

[ladyemperor]

[Technology itself is a new word, more often than not she heard them called inventions. But even then the rest of it makes her pause a little before she smiles.]

It is a new word. But I assume this technology they have isn't simply carriages and wheels otherwise our worlds really are more different than I realized.

[angel_of_death]

[The boy inclines his head, mulling over whether or not she might be joking in her words, but eventually drops the thought.]

I think what they have would be classified as steam-powered.

[That's the best way he can describe it, anyhow. He may be from a future era, but his education in traditional subjects of learning is unfortunately a little behind, both due to the war and his work in it.]

[ladyemperor]

...Steam-powered? Like the steam from water?

[That is definitely news to her and she files it away as yet another thing for her to read about.]

That's amazing.

[angel_of_death]

It is.

[He still wonders how Gu Yun manages to wear his armour without getting burned. It must have a pretty sophisticated cooling system.]

They might have books about that sort of thing in one of the libraries around here, if you're interested in the subject.

[ladyemperor]

I am very interested. They truly do have all kinds of books about all kinds of subjects here, don't they?

[Back home the books were all collected in one place and did not cover half so many subjects.]

[angel_of_death]

They do.

[And though he is from before the days of the internet, this much is no marvel to him.]

Do they not have as many where you are from?

[ladyemperor]

Not as many as here. The imperial library had an extensive collection but we never had things like magazines or newspapers.

[Information that could be bought and sold by just about anyone, things meant to be read and then discarded afterwards.]

And we weren't normally encouraged to go to the library whenever we wanted to. They'd say it was "unseemly". [Though by the smile on her face it's clear that she has absolutely frequented that library as much as she wanted, seemliness be damned. Hey, if she was going to be punished with copying out the late Empress Wende's entire 30 volume of writings on how to be a proper lady then she'd more than earned her right to be there whenever she wanted.]

[angel_of_death]

[That statement has him actively bristling. Unseemly. He can just picture some group of old codgers complaining amongst themselves about women reading.]

Unseemly, or unseemly for a woman? What a load of rubbish. They're just afraid women will realise they are every bit as smart as men.