[mingle] the space (april).

[fracturamods]

interim mingle

( WELCOME BACK, TRAVELERS. )

There's nothing but the clatter of train tracks, and the odd feeling of almost floating.

When you wake, it's hard to tell exactly what it is that you're missing - only that you are. There are pieces that aren't quite right, even if you're not sure where those pieces would normally be. Pieces of what, exactly....? Well, if you had to put a word to it, it would be - yourself, probably. Or did you get something back recently? In addition, characters will find that they've been allowed to bring back souvenirs from this most recent trip - trinkets, nothing violent, but items that can fit in your character's pockets, whether that be sentimental or otherwise.

The place you've found yourself in is strange, certainly. It's probably worth exploring a bit. For those who have been here a while, they might notice some expansions. Though it just as easily seems that the only form of welcome or explanation that you have, comes from nothing more than a slab of marble.

It might've changed since the last time you saw it. Today it reads:

(*´ω｀)o That wasn't so bad, was it?
Hey, you know how that old song goes?
Do you believe in magic? (☆▽☆) Do ya?

Hope you found what you were looking for!

You might have changed since the last time you saw yourself too - perhaps with a new emblem on your clothes, or a portrait on your skin. In addition to that, it seems like Home Base is on the fritz again…?

It seems that suddenly and at random, characters will be able to suddenly see visions of memories that aren't their own flash before their eyes. Pieces of your lives or where you were before this will suddenly slam into other's heads, as clearly as if they experienced the event and the feelings themselves. You might have an inkling of where your memory went and what it was - but you'll need to talk it out with that person in order to recollect it in all its strength back to yourself. Don't you want to keep those precious parts of yourself? It's best if you don't fall more to pieces while you're here. (Memories that have been lost in fragments cannot be sent to others - that's more fun for the future!)

There's no need to fret that much though. You've already gone through the ordeal once, and you might be able to see results from it. Or maybe you'll get a glimpse of where you're going next. Even so, it's best that you don't get too comfortable, because there is still the unshakeable feeling:

There's still much more ahead of you.

Comments

[disreguarded]

[ if only wei wuxian knew how much beau yelled at jin ling over the course of a month, god

also, she bursts into laughter at peacock. ah. ]

Makes a lot of sense. We had a week where we gained animal parts? And he had a big peacock tail. That's fucking funny that you said that. [ beau explains, grinning a bit. ] But - yeah. I get it. He had his reasons, even if those reasons didn't stop me from wanting to kick his ass.

You knew his parents? [ she sounds sympathetic here. ]

[givethemhell]

[This is why she got assigned JC kin.

FAIR MOOD THOUGH HONESTLY and he also laughs because FIRST OF ALL gaining animal parts somehow ain't the weirdest thing he's heard of, and second, a peacock really does fit. Unfortunate... Truly the little mistress struggles.]

Ah, I wish I'd been there to see that! You don't happen to have any pictures, do you? [TRAGEDIES IF SHE DOESN'T... But he's also glad to hear that, since in his opinion, it strikes a good balance between being understanding of why Jin Ling turned out as he did without wanting to coddle him about it. 10/10 he already loves Beau and he still doesn't even know her name.

His expression softens a little at the question that follows. HM. ...If Jiang Cheng weren't here, he might just say "yes" and leave it at that, honestly. But if their paths cross, he has no doubt the things he'd try to keep tucked away would end up spilling out sooner or later. So:]

I did. Never got along with his father well, but his mother was my shijie - like an older sister.

[He definitely speaks with the tenderness of an overly-fond little brother.]

[disreguarded]

[ UNFORTUNATELY she doesn't have pictures and it's the saddest thing ever. she shakes her head at his question, giving him an apologetic look. but she does listen to the rest - she knows jin ling's parents are a big part of the reason why he is the way he is, and having that context, she thinks, will help her later.

she is going to be seeing a lot of him eventually, after all. ]

Ahh, sister, huh. They sounded like good people, by what I... saw? Heard. Both. [ beau says, nodding. ] So you're basically Jin Ling's uncle. Well, one of them.

[ and she scowls, because jiang cheng. ] I think I - vaguely heard about you from Jin Ling. I heard more from A-Sang. He had nothing but good things to say about you, for the most part.

[ in her opinion, anyway. getting into trouble is a good thing in beau's book. i also do love that she hasn't introduced herself in return yet this is stupid ]

[givethemhell]

[Jin Ling as a peacock will just have to live on in his imagination then, which to be fair is just as hilarious...

That "saw, heard, both" would probably be more concerning if they weren't in the middle of memswap hell themselves BUT FOR NOW, he just nods - nods, because of course his shijie is a good person. The best! And if Jin Ling was the one talking, then surely he'd have good words for his father, too. EVEN IF HE WAS A SHIT.]

Mm, I am. He does have quite a few of us! [HE JUST ASSUMES SHE'S SCOWLING ABOUT JIN GUANGYAO THIS IS STUPID. The thought of Nie Huaisang having good things to say about him earns her a little huff of a laugh, too.] Did he, now? We were close for a while. He was always one of the first to volunteer whenever I needed a partner in crime.

[Like breaking in and out of the Cloud Recesses with booze or replacing Lan Wangji's poetry with porn... Squad.]

[disreguarded]

[ beau grins a bit. ]

Really? That's fucking hilarious. [ nhs mentioned some stuff, but. ] I actually met A-Sang because I was reading some of the really fucking obnoxious erotica in the library and we like, discussed how stupid it was. So maybe that's not super surprising, that he had a wild streak.

He said you snuck in booze a lot. Which like, respect.

[givethemhell]

[THAT SURE SOUNDS LIKE NIE HUAISANG. He laughs, shaking his head.]

His taste in erotica has always been refined. I'm not surprised he had a word or two to say about something not up to his standards.

[The only fuckin non-gremlin among them was Jiang Cheng and even he got dragged into their shit CONSTANTLY... Anyway, with a conspiratorial grin:]

I did, as often as I could! Living in the Cloud Recesses was like living on house arrest if you were sick at the same time. Thousands of rules, the blandest food you could possibly imagine - if I didn't sneak in what little I was able to get through, we would have died a long time ago!

[disreguarded]

Ugh. Sounds like the Cobalt Soul. I think I mentioned that to him too.

[ blHEHHH. ] Bland food, huh? What kind of food do you prefer, then? Maybe we can make it, I'm fucking starving.

[givethemhell]

To think there are more places like that out there...! It's almost a crime.

[DRAMATICALLY PLACES A HAND TO HIS CHEST like he's a Victorian maiden about to keel over from the vapors.

But oh does his expression ever brighten up at that. What kind of food do you prefer, she says!! He holds up his fingers, counting off each as he goes.]

Meat, salt, spice! The heavier and stronger the flavor, the better! [Everything Gusu Lan's diet is tragically, tragically lacking in. He gestures vaguely after that, already turning to head toward the door.] Lucky enough, we just got a bigger kitchen in. I'm sure we've got the ingredients for a good curry or stew in there!

[disreguarded]

[ okay, she seems what nhs meant about how this guy is over the top. beau loves it, though, grinning a little, finally. ]

Yeah? So why aren't we fucking making curry like, right now? [ he looks like he wants to, so she jumps down to follow him to the door to the kitchen. ]

[givethemhell]

[THAT'S WHAT HE'S HERE FOR to distract people from their bad days with his stupid over the top nature and also spicy curry.]

Ah, you're going to have to do me a favor first, though!

[Which presumably doesn't have to do with helping him cook, since as soon as they get to the kitchen, he just starts rummaging around in the fridge to pile ingredients onto the shared counterspace.]

[disreguarded]

[ she squints, leaning against the counter. ]

Yeah? It depends on what it is.

[givethemhell]

If you could be so kind as to give me a name to call you by...?

[PLEASE BEAU YOUR INTRODUCTION!!!]

[disreguarded]

[ SHIT THAT'S RIGHT ]

Oh - fuck. Sorry, it's Beau. Beauregard. [ she pauses. hesitates. she really doesn't want to say her last name? so she doesn't. ] Just Beau is fine.

[givethemhell]

[He just laughs, bright and amused, as he sets about slicin' and dicin' ingredients.]

Good to meet you, Beau! You know, worst parts of being here aside and all that. Can you get me a pot? They're over there-- [NODDING in the direction of the cookware.]

[disreguarded]

[ off she goes to grab a pot! ]

Good to meet you too, properly. [ beau says, handing over the goods. ] Here's hoping this place doesn't fuck us too badly.

[ and she adjusts her beanie! she's very protective of this hat. ]

[givethemhell]

[It's a very cozy-lookin' hat! He can understand her fondness, in part. He'd be fond if he had a cozy hat too, dang.]

Haha, well, things haven't been quite as bad as they could probably get! Though it does seem like the people that end up here don't usually have a good track record with luck, as I mentioned.

[He says this with a grin though, and his tone is light with amusement. Sometimes your luck is bad and you just gotta roll with it... Find the humor where you can!! Anyway, more importantly:]

How do you take your spice?

[disreguarded]

[ yeah, don't she know that about luck. in any case. ]

What, do you mean like how spicy I like shit? Go hard. I like spice.

[givethemhell]

[Sometimes your luck is just the WORST... But he grins the grin of a spice goblin at that!! OOH BOY. He likes Beau already though, so he won't go comically overboard.]

Good taste, good taste! Much better than the disciples from Gusu. Can't even tolerate the sort of pepper you'd get in the shakers at the food court here, hah!

[disreguarded]

[ oh hey so I totally forgot this was a thing but beau absolutely has a bracelet around her wrist that wei wuxian can probably see now that she's closer; it's gold, patterned all around with the beast-head symbol of the nie sect. each of the crests has cobalt eyes!

she also vibes so hard with that spice goblin grin. ]

Honestly, that doesn't surprise me. Jin Ling seems like the kind of dude who would scream if you put something spicy in front of him. [ snort. ] I'm used to spicy stuff. So.

[givethemhell]

[WHAT A MYSTERIOUS BRACELET HMMM as if her easy reference to Nie Huaisang wasn't enough of an interesting thing to note. He'll definitely wind up bringing that up at some stupid point in the future, out of nowhere.

TERRIBLE THOUGH. HIS NEPHEW!! He makes a face, shaking his head.]

If that's the impression Jin Ling gives you, then it's dishonor on Yunmeng. Almost everyone who come from there likes a good spice to their food! [Jin Ling has BETRAYED.] I never got to see his spice tolerance for myself, though - I only made something spicy once, and he'd managed to avoid having to eat it.

[The cursed congee... At least the food Wei Wuxian is cooking now has a lovely smell to it! No terrible anti-poison rice here.]

[disreguarded]

[ please do, she will never explain unless she is asked ]

He screams and runs away from everything, so. [ sniff. also what if wei wuxian just got a memory of a super angry beau (who has owl feathers and a scarf that's only just barely covering the fact that her mouth is a beak) chasing peacock jin ling through a mansion. the memory starts with beau slamming jin ling against a wall and hissing in his face. jin ling's stupid peacock feathers poof out. he wriggles free, takes off running, and beau chases, tackling jin ling and sitting on him, telling him that she's listening.

I don't have anything to say, Jin Ling says, tiredly, and the memory ends.

she wrinkles her nose, because she gets the sense that something is missing. ]

What the fuck.

[givethemhell]

[He's the same dang way and that's exactly why he nyooms when he nyooms. HE'S COMIN FOR THAT BRACELET LORE!!

--After he's done dealing with this Murder House Lore, anyway. It's not that he doubted anything Beau said, or was even surprised by most of it, but seeing it unroll in front of him is a bit of a different feel. Like, wow, seeing animal features on human people really is funkier than hearing about it. WILD.

More important, though - the contents of the conversation itself. The light it paints Beau in. The way she treated Jin Ling, tried to reach out, tried to help, but held reasonable grounds about it. Wei Wuxian's wondered before, how much different Jin Ling would have been if the only disciplinary figures in his life hadn't been Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao. Seeing his nephew like that makes his chest ache; the reminder that he'd had a hand in it - It isn't fair! That some people get a second chance to live and others don't! - is no sweet pill to swallow, either.

Still, he's able to shake the remnants of foreign sights and feelings away quick enough, focusing again on Beau as he gives his pot another stir.]

—Well, I can't blame you for having that opinion if you had to chase him down like that more than once. Can't disagree, either! He did like to run any time things got too embarrassing or made him too angry.

[And he's only known Jin Ling for like, a month?? Damn.]

[disreguarded]

[ somehow beau doesn't know much about wei wuxian other than the fact that he yelled something about sleeping with someone before a big battle and also he was probably jin ling's uncle? and that he was a troublemaker when nie huaisang was young. she's missed the whole yiling patriarch thing, which is incredible.

in any case, she's vaguely confused. ]

Yeah, half our conversations ended in him running away from me. Wait, what did you see? Was it one of those memory share things? [ ugh. ] Was it when I tackled him?

[givethemhell]

[THAT IS TRULY INCREDIBLE boy he ain't gonna be the first one to bring it up either, terrible and wild.]

Haha, already dealt with one? [Though he assumes she's dealt with one here and not that she was plagued by them in murderhaus too, god.]

But yes, it was that. You had him backed against a wall and he took the first chance he could get to run from you. You pinned him to the ground after that. The two of you were arguing about some sort of item and a flute? He had used an item to try finding where the flute was because Hunter wouldn't tell him.

[Which was wild to hear but surely there are more people with the name Hunter in the world WHAT ARE THE CHANCES.]

[disreguarded]

Several. [ she grumbles. ] I can't believe this fucking place does it too.

[ anyway. once she hears the memory described to her, she jolts slightly. oh, fuck. yeah, that's right. a lot of emotions cross her face, from anger to indignation to a bit of sadness, notably at hunter's name. ]

... Yeah. He was trying to help us stop the House from killing us, he was just going about it in the wrong way. Hunter - Hunter was supposed to die, but we kept him alive. Jin Ling got mad about it.

I figured out after that conversation that the best way to get Jin Ling to help properly was to give him shit to do. Tell him he can help, guide him, and don't let him just run around pissing people off until they cut him off entirely.