A Lantern Festival

[liongeneral]

Thanks to the help of a great many individuals that bore through a General's excited ramblings a festival has been created.

A perfect floor has been found with a brilliant night sky and all that was left was to set up and decorate. If you were looking to dress up in the style of the Luofu that has all been provided by the General. (Think Space Fantasy China) As well as lanterns, sparklers, food and more.


Riddle me This

Written on Lanterns that are hanging around are riddles. A common little game to play during Lantern Festival. If answered correctly the lanterns will drop a prize out from their bottom. Tiny little plush plush Ditings.

Here are some riddles to get you started but feel free to make your own:

What buildings have the most stories?

I have a little house in which I live alone. It has no doors or windows and if I want to get out I must break through the wall. What sort of house do I live in?

What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?

This lovely maiden eats no meat but eats leaves. She labors each day spinning and weaving for the benefit of others. Who is she?

I can follow you for thousands of miles and not miss home. I do not fear cold or fire, and I desire neither food nor drink. but I disappear when the sun sets behind the western mountains. Who am I?

Festival Feasts

No festival is complete without an array of food to eat. There is Tangyuan which are glutinous rice flour filled with a sweet filling. Dumplings filled with delicious meats and vegetables. Baobing which is shaved ice coated with many sweet syrups and some have fruit right on top of them. There is also Congyoubing, a scallion like pancake, Youtiao which is fried dough sticks and a sesame flatbread.

There are also some truly Luofu treats brought directly from the ship. Songlotus cake that when you bite into it it makes a crisp laughing sound. Just the once. It's a funny joke to play on outworlders so... all of you, I'm afraid. But there is also steamed puffergoat milk a sweet and warm treat that's a favorite of the General. And lastly berrypheasant skewers which are just a sticky fruit skewer but the type of fruit it is? Well, it might be strange to explain to all of you. It's different though!

Much of this was made here at the hotel so you don't have to worry about any Loufu extraterrestrial meat being inside your food. Hahaha... unless...

Dancing and Sparklers

Lovely music is playing the entire time, right from the Loufu. And something easier for couples to dance to once the hour of the lanterns release gets closer.

There are also dazing sparklers. Now... He didn't bring fireworks but if one of you did that's on you. And feel free to fire them off. But the Luofu does not take responsibility for any actual fireworks set off in the building.

Lanterns and Wishes!

Jing Yuan will help instruct how the lanterns work with the help of any familiar with the tradition despite the small differences from world to world. But you take a lantern or make your own and write your wish upon it. So that it may be seen and then perhaps granted.

You light the little candle beneath, give it a moment for the hot air to fill and then... when the hour strikes everyone releases them together!



🏮 A happy Lantern Festival to everyone and may everyone's wishes in the Hotel come true. 🏮

Comments

[venomnom]

[Reiju changes into a style reminiscent of the cheongsam in her usual colors of white and pink. She glances around the floor with a curious gleam in her eyes, then eventually wanders over to reach for a lantern with a riddle.

This lovely maiden eats no meat but eats leaves. She labors each day spinning and weaving for the benefit of others. Who is she?

She angles the lantern toward the nearest passerby.]

What do you think?

[Later, she constructs a lantern for herself under the careful instruction of another. When it's time to pen her wish, she pauses with the brush poised in her hand to address her neighbor.]

Who do you think decides on which wish to grant?

[cathasahat]

[ Lynette is also investigating the festival--she stops to consider the riddle on the lantern. ]

Hm, I would have said a spider at first but that isn't quite right. I've heard silk is made by worms, so perhaps that's the answer?

[venomnom]

I think I heard something like that once. Then we'll go with the silkworm.

[She appraises the lantern. No sooner than she reiterates Lynette's answer does the lantern pop open from the bottom, yielding a small plush. It drops to the floor and Reiju kneels down, picks it up, and straightens to hold it out for Lynette to take.]

It looks like you were right. Here. It's yours.

[cathasahat]

[ She takes the plush, turning it over in her hands as she looks at it. ]

How cute. Would you like to try to get one of your own?

[venomnom]

[It is quite cute.]

I already got to see one, so I'm fine. I wouldn't be opposed to trying another riddle with you, though.

[airdnd]

[ Sumina's writing hand is similarly stilled; she has no idea what to write down as her wish. ]

I, ah... Nobody...? Wait a moment - these wishes aren't related to the ones we've been promised as guests here, are they...?

[ She'd been under the impression that these are just for fun wishes, or a hopeful gesture, like tossing coins into a fountain... but what if they aren't?! ]

[venomnom]

[Reiju arches her eyebrows. She can't say that the thought hadn't crossed her mind, so her answer comes easily enough.]

I don't think so. If you're that worried, though, you can write the same wish down.

[airdnd]

[ Leave it to Sumina to draw lines to connect things that aren't actually connected... But at Reiju's extremely reasonable and valid suggestion, the innkeeper seems to just deflate. ]

Ah, that's... The problem being... I'm not so sure what that wish would be, anymore, Miss Reiju.

[venomnom]

[She sets her brush down.]

Did something change your mind?

[Well, clearly something did, but the wishes are a delicate matter (for her, at least), so she'll leave the pace to Sumina.]

[unliminal]

[ Riddles are a welcome distraction, even if he's not exactly practiced at figuring them out himself. Still...how hard can it be? He thinks he's got this one figured out already... ]

A panda. Okay, gimme the next one!

[ Did he even listen to anything beyond "eats leaves"? No... ]

[venomnom]

[A panda?

She turns the lantern around, inspecting it for changes. When there's none, she lets the lantern go and reaches for the one beside it.]

"I can follow you for thousands of miles and not miss home. I do not fear cold or fire, and I desire neither food nor drink, but I disappear when the sun sets behind the western mountains. Who am I?"

[unliminal]

[ Tapping his chin and thinking it over for a moment (though really, how much thinking he's doing is up for debate): ]

Wind? No, wait — a shadow? I bet it's being all cutesy about shadows.

[venomnom]

[She nods. On that, she agrees.]

A shadow, then.

[The lantern opens from the bottom, and out pops a plush. Reiju catches it and holds it out to Gojo.]

Congratulations. It's yours.

[startraveler]

[Aether is good at making lanterns, having learnt it back in Liyue for their Lantern Rite festival, so he's happy to help out with constructions. As the question is asked, he takes a moment to think about it.]

Where I'm from, the wishes were heard out by the adepti... hm, I guess you could call them guardian beings of the region. They are long living and they posses supernatural powers. But in here... Do you think this place has a god or something else watching over it?

[venomnom]

[Much appreciated, Aether. Reiju isn't the craftiest person around, but she at least knows how to follow directions, so her lantern is coming along nicely.]

If no one else, there's the concierge.

[That they can see, anyway.]

Have you had a wish granted by the adepti?

[startraveler]

True. Plus, we were promised that this place will grant us a wish.

[He's still not sure what to think about that.]

The adepti helped me out many times, but none of them were able to grant my wish.

[venomnom]

Is that why you're here?

[The hotel, the floor—however he chooses to take it.]

[encoffins]

You think these wishes will actually come true?

[Seems more like a traditional sort of gesture to Vincent; but what does he know? Anything is possible in this hotel.

At any rate, he fiddles with his brush in one hand, too, not having written anything yet.]

[venomnom]

The worlds are vast.

[Who can say? Anything is possible. At the same time, she's not terribly given to such romance.

She nods toward his brush.]

Have you decided on what to write?

[encoffins]

Hm. Suppose it can't hurt, either way.

[Again, a rather faraway stare at his brush, his lantern.]

I don't think my wish would be any different than the one promised by being here. To help my Planet.

What about you?

[venomnom]

I'm still deciding.

[She sets her hand down on its side, resting the brush over the tabletop.]

Is your planet in danger?

[cardsharked]

[The status of her own wish isn't readily apparent. Has she made one already? Does she even plan to? For now, her hands are anything but empty, instead occupied for now with a sampling of all the foot that had been on offer. At the question, she pauses.]

That's some question, pinkie. I figure that answer's gonna depend on who you hope is listening.

[And from that response alone, one couldn't be blamed if their initial impression was one of a woman who thinks that wishes do not normally come true or that some aren't worth granting at all.]

[venomnom]

[She tucks a hand under her chin, angling the brush away from herself.]

Then it's a question of faith.

[It's an angle she hasn't considered. In fact, Odette strikes her as someone who's wholly free-spirited. It's always a perspective exercise with her.]

I'm not sure that I can come up with an answer.

[cardsharked]

Tch, I guess you could call it that. [She holds onto the word for a moment, as if turning it over in her hands, then shrugs in acceptance. Yeah, if faith's the closest word for it, then that's how it is.]

Someone who says that likely doesn't have somebody on their side to hear their wishes...or is used to not having them come true. So what is it - you just a skeptic?

[To her credit, for someone who's asking such assumptive questions, Odette makes no noticeable attempts to see what Reiju's been writing. She's either too disinterested or too calculating to try and steal such an obvious peek.]

[venomnom]

[Odette may be closer to the truth than she realizes. But how precise is it? Reiju considers the options presented to her before leaning back against her seat, her blank lantern forgotten.]

I was raised in a household of science. Gods have had little to do with my life. Rather than a skeptic, you might say that I'm ignorant.