isleofavalon | OPEN: catch-all for April

🧙 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?

Threaded | Flat

[Darin often woke up at sunrise to train, so by the time breakfast rolled around, he was good and hungry.]

[Something about the woman eating fruit pinged him as familiar, and so he approached her with a smile.]

Are you maybe in the market for something that'll warm you up?

[Meiniang wasn't completely oblivious to what food looks like, having been relegated to working at the laundry once as a young concubine for punishment. No fancy dishes then for a little nobody who had only one friend that had not fared much better than she had.

But even knowing what food looks like before it becomes food doesn't prepare her for the bustle of the shops and all the vegetables and fruit that she doesn't recognize.

So when she sees someone who seems to know what they're doing, she's leaning over to look at a red fruit she's never seen before, reaching out a hand to gently touch the outside of it. There was really only one way to figure out if something was edible.]

One, please.

[Never mind that right now the contents of her basket consisted entirely of single items, one small block of cheese, something she thinks must be bread but is browner than any bread she's ever eaten, one of what she thinks is a pear but is in a shape she's never seen.]

[If Meiniang were all decked out in her concubine get-up Hijikata would be far more alarmed to see a lady of such standing wade into the flood water, but as it is he doesn't bat much of an eye. They all need to still go out to take care of essential errands after all. Regardless, he beelines towards her from the other end of the still-dry corridor when he sees her go down.]

You shouldn't go out like this, you'll probably get sick. They've got waders they'll lend out to us. Best call the reception and wait until someone brings a pair to your room.

A

closed to Walter

B