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 exhales lightly at the recollection. That's so like Sumina, to remember something an insignificant guest said months prior.]

Yes, in part.

[She turns her attention back to the lantern she's made, sizing it up.]

My wish has little to do with it, but I can't say that the two are unrelated. After all, there's so much that I don't know. I suppose, like you, I want to broaden a certain perspective of mine.

[airdnd]

[ Tipping her head to one side... ]

And... Is it all right if I ask what that certain perspective is, Reiju?

[venomnom]

. . . If I had to put it into words, I'm curious to know how other people live.

[airdnd]

Oh...?

[ Well. How could she not smile at an answer like that? ]

So what have you learned during your stay thus far, then? I'm curious, ahaha.

[venomnom]

[Aren't they all?

There's so much to see and learn—for some, more than others. The worlds are full of survivors, and nobody wants to be alone if they can help it. But that sounds too mawkish, doesn't it?]

That the worlds are not so different as I had thought.

[airdnd]

Ah...

[ Sumina's earnest surprise is spelled clearly in her features; in the way her bright eyes widen, and blink a few times at Reiju. She'd... Come to think the opposite - which only makes her more curious about Reiju's perspective. ]

I... I would have thought the opposite. I do think the opposite. That all of our worlds are so very different, in ways I would have never thought... But what makes you say that they aren't so different, Reiju?

[venomnom]

[She cranes her neck to gaze up at the ceiling.]

No, what you say is correct. The worlds themselves are different and beyond imagination. This hotel alone has shown me that.

[Her imagination has never been especially active. There's always something surprising around the corner, which has been good for passing the time. It's been, dare she say, fun.

Reiju lowers her head. Her eyes fall on the lantern in front of her.]

The people, on the other hand, are not so dissimilar.

[airdnd]

[ Reiju is having fun...! 🥹 ]

Both are true, then. Ahaha, of course.

[ She's so very right. Isn't that what she's learned here, too? That even though their worlds are so different, their realities so dissimilar from one another, at the end of the day, they are all still people with hopes and dreams and fears and emotions, even if their features are different, or their powers take different forms.

Everyone still has a heart. (She is two seconds away from becoming a Kingdom Hearts character.) ]

You know, back home, at my family's inn... It's like that, too. The worlds we see visitors from aren't as diverse as with this hotel's, but still.

[venomnom]

[Plot twist: She runs the hotel in Traverse Town.

What Sumina says puts more into perspective. If even someone as connected as she has been affected by the hotel's diversity, the worlds are truly nothing short of impressive.]

Is it different here, because you're a fellow guest and not the proprietor?

[airdnd]

It's quite different. I didn't think it would be, when I first arrived, but...

It really is something else, to see the same people day in, day out, and to have... time, to get to know them. If you were a guest at my inn, Miss Reiju, it's very likely that we would have had one or two conversations over the course of a day or two before you'd be on your way, and after that - we'd very likely not cross paths again.

[venomnom]

[If things had played out differently, she might never have met Sumina at all. It's a sobering thought. (Every day is.)]

That's how it is. This place affords us the luxury of time.

[airdnd]

[ It really is - and what's more, Sumina can't help but think about the fact that there are really only a handful of them remaining who checked in at the hotel's grand opening, aren't there... ]

And it really has been quite sometime, hasn't it? A few months doesn't seem like a long while in the grand scheme of things, but...

[ She shakes her head. ]

Ah, I don't mean to bring the mood down, Reiju.

[venomnom]

I thought we were having a meaningful discussion.

[Her smile is wry—amused—as she observes Sumina. She's seen worser moods in days back home. At least times with Sumina are peaceful.]

What's brought this curiosity on?

[airdnd]

[ Reiju's presence is as steadfast and reassuring as ever, and her worry is shortly assuaged. She's always so composed, and that's part of why the two of them do time and again end up having meaningful conversations, isn't it? ]

Mm... I talked with General Jing Yuan earlier, and our conversation reminded me about our fellow guests who've come and gone. With good reason, of course, since... Well, vacations don't typically go on for so long. And just now, I realized... there are only a handful of us left, from when the hotel first opened.

[venomnom]

Sooner or later, the rest of us will check out.

[It's an inevitability. And, given the nature of the hotel, the likelihood of ever seeing those departed guests again is next to zero. Even Jing Yuan and Sumina will leave someday, never to be seen again. That's reality.

And yet.]

Does that sadden you?

[airdnd]

[ It is an inevitability, one that Sumina feels she of all people should be prepared and well-equipped for, and yet... Everything is different here, where she's been made to shed her mantle of innkeeper. Would it have been better if she'd stuck to her insistence of making this a professional, business trip of sorts from the beginning?

Probably not. But thinking about it... ]

It does. I would feel much better if I knew for certain that I would be able to see you all again through the doors of my family's inn, but... It's not something that's possible at the moment, I think.

What about you, Reiju?

[ She's never seen the other woman be sad about anything, really, but she has to ask... ]

[venomnom]

[Does it sadden her?

She thinks about it for a moment. Is it sadness? Or is it regret or something else entirely? She wouldn't say that it's saddening. Bittersweet, perhaps? But even that's a little too strong.]

I'm used to coming in and out of people's lives. In a way, I don't feel too differently about experiencing the same here.

[After all, she's known from the start that nothing would last. She doesn't carry the sort of sentimentality people like Sumina do. It's just a reflection of who Reiju is, and not a failing on the parts of those people.]

[airdnd]

[ That's... well. The answer that Sumina wishes she could provide for herself. But she is a sentimental person, perhaps despite her attempts to be otherwise, and that's only gotten... worse? More, with her stay here. She should be used to coming in and out of people's lives... ]

I see... Aha, you really sound like one of my cousins when you say that, you know.

[ And with pink hair... Reiju could totally pass as a Heartleaf. ]

[venomnom]

[Is that a good thing?

It's a thing, she decides. She can't decide for Sumina's cousins, but she can speak for herself.]

But it doesn't mean it's the only way. I don't think it's unnatural to miss someone.

i thought her headphones said 69 help

[airdnd]

[ As far as Sumina is concerned, it's a good thing! It's a reasonable, level-headed way of looking at things, she thinks, that reminds her of the emblematically adventurous Elenaril, whom she would consider to be the gem of their family. It's high praise. ]

Mm. Most certainly. It's just... I'm wondering if I'm starting to get too attached, I suppose, but perhaps that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[ ... ]

If I could find a way to make sure everyone here can eventually reach the Elderflower Inn, then I think... I'd feel a lot better.

they could if you want them to—

[venomnom]

[Reiju can only smile as she often does. She can't tell Sumina what's good or bad when it comes to matters of the heart. All she can think is that Sumina is blessed to have her humanity.]

Have you spoken with the concierge? Maybe he can give you an idea or two.

[airdnd]

[ She seems to deflate at that, if a person could deflate. ]

Have you? I've never really gotten anything useful out of Mr Bennet...

[venomnom]

[Heh.]

I haven't talked to him in person. Is he as courteous as he sounds?

[airdnd]

Yes, but also every bit as... noncommittal. He seems to just be going with the hotel's every whim, like there's nothing he can do about it. [ A beat. ] Maybe there isn't anything he can do about it. Which only brings up more questions...

[ A sigh. ]

You're right, though. Perhaps it's time to ask him some more questions.

[venomnom]

[Oh, Mr. Bennett. What a handful the hotel must be.]

There are guests from all corners of the worlds. They might have something to share, too.