October Test Drive Meme!

[reddosmod]

OCTOBER 2022 TDM

Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!

All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.

Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.

Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.

If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: A snowy, rocky beach in winter. ]
[Image Two: Bowls of mushroom soup and bread. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Dali painting of the moon as a city]
[Image Two: Twisted, warped cityscape]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Monster choking a sleeping person to death]
[Image Two: Death hovering over a sleeping person]

BONUS PROMPT
[Image One: Liminal Space image of a nondescript room with strange ledges]
[Image Two: Cenobite woman with borg-like attachments to her face]

[NAVIGATION]

TDM Questions • Reserves • Taken • Applications • Full Navigation

[Jump to Comments]

STANDARD ARRIVAL

WHEN: First Week of NOvember
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk, Koz's Orphanage
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A

---

You're one of the lucky ones. Your journey is smooth sailing and you wind up exactly where you're supposed to: on the Farther Shores. You grow out of your squid body without a hitch, either with the help of another Sleeper or one of the Wakers, and you get to discover this new world. All new Sleepers might take some time to find their bearings. It might be tricky to remember how to use your body parts the way you're supposed to. You might stumble around the beach or forget how to talk - but don't worry! It'll come back to you sooner or later.

Hopefully, you've found something to wear, either in your Welcoming Bag or otherwise, and can start familiarizing yourself with your surroundings. Maybe you help some other squids out on the beach. Waking up sucks! You feel for the little guys. And hey, maybe you're hoping one of those squids is a good friend...Stranger things have happened.

SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK
This is not the greatest month to wash up on the Farther Shores. It's November and you'll pretty much immediately hate it! The waters are frigid but not quite frozen yet, but that won't make your arrival any less uncomfortable. Thankfully the Boardwalk seems well-stocked with heavy blankets and furs to give to newly awakened Sleepers. Barrels of hot chocolate and hot alcoholic cider are readily available to warm people up. There are several stalls selling hearty soups willed with mushrooms, potatoes, beans, and other filling components.

Fresh baked bread and pastries are sold on wax paper. Enjoy a steaming cinnamon roll or croissant or just your standard bread and butter. Many bakers have set up temporary stoves and seem to invite teaching Sleepers how to cook and prepare bread and pastries. Maybe knead some dough, learn some tricks of the trade. If you help out ab baker, they might even thank you with a sack of flour or other ingredients for bread!

Like last year, as the Moon shifts to Bone, whispers and hushed talk begins anew among the Trenchies about The Tower. There are whispers that something feels wrong. "You know Trench is his body, right?" one might say. "But look at what's been happening. Is everything alright?" There is nervousness, agitation. Trenchies can't seem to put a finger on it. One of the old fishermen mutters under his or her breath if overheard in this time. "Long time since we tried to leave the Tower's shield. Hope didn't bring anything back from out there. World's a strange place."

None of them seem to have anything specific to add. They just seem nervous for some reason.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

IMAGE OF THE SELF

WHEN: Halloween through all November
WHERE: All of Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Distorted Reality, horrifying cityscape images, mounting paranoia, displacement

---

"They say that Trench is the body of the Tower." It is a saying so often repeated during the Bone Moon season that it becomes more of a mantra. Whether or not it is actually true remains a hotly contested debate between Arcane Scholars and Disciples, one of the few times that neither side fully agrees even with themselves. Yet, if it is true, what happens if the person whose body serves as a city begins to have an identity crisis of sorts? That certainly seems to be the case this month.

At random times, it just happens. You're walking from one place to another with your friend. You just stepped out of a lantern network teleportation circle. You open a door. Suddenly, everything is just wrong. It feels like you are in a surrealist's nightmare. Walls appear to be bleeding concrete in all directions. Stairwells twist impossibly, as if M. C. Escher himself were the architect. The pathway to where you intended to go warps and transforms itself into a perilous, twisted monstrosity that you have to navigate. Worse? The way you got here is just gone behind you, leaving you only the path forward.

Navigating this isn't impossible, but you will definitely need help. It might be that one has to stand on another's shoulders to get over an obstacle and then help them up. Maybe someone very small has to crawl into an opening to reach the door handle so the way through can be found. It varies, and the effect lasts only as long as it takes to get where you're going, but while you're here the reality continues to shift and some of these twistings could easily crush you! Don't tarry too long!

NOTE: The physical danger here is from environmental hazards. Feel free to choose any you like, but they will all return to normal when your character reaches their intended destination. Trenchies know nothing about this, though if one asks one of the former wastes, they will ward themselves as if against evil. They know something, but they dare not speak and will whisper hurriedly that the sleeper had best not talk too openly about this. "Best not to draw attention right now."

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP

WHEN: Last Week of October through the first week of November
WHERE: At Home, in your bed
CONTENT WARNINGS: Severe Insomnia, Sleep Deprivation, Deprivation induced hallucinations and mood swings

---

Something is clawing at your mind from the moment that the first signs of the cold coming. You can't put your finger on it, but even as you see the people of Trench preparing for the next month's arrival of sleepers, you can see they feel it too. Something claws at the mind and for a few people in Trench, this becomes a very literal problem. The thoughts are so overwhelming that you can't manage to find a good night's sleep. This problem is especially prominent for new Sleepers, who seem prone to arriving with terrible bouts of unexplainable insomnia.

That sounds simple enough to deal with, right? Perhaps some sort of sleep aid, or working oneself to exhaustion, and you can power through it, right? No. Nothing seems to work at first. Searches for a monster are futile. Warding and incense seem utterly ineffective, and no matter how hard you try, night after night you cannot sleep. You are terrified of falling asleep. If you fall asleep, you may never wake up! Even characters who do not fear a mortal death feel themselves compelled by this, and the longer that they do not sleep the more corruption risks them at its door. A night or two missed is one thing, but eventually irascibility sets in. Hallucinations may eventually start to crop up. The body needs REM sleep. It needs dreams, yet the horror that threatens the person will not allow them to sleep, for fear that it will come for them while they sleep. What 'it' is, they do not know.

There is only one solution. For those who already spend time with others? This is a simple thing, but they must still agree to do it. You can solve this curse only if you do not sleep alone. Another must stay awake for the vigil through the whole night. Simple enough given their insomnia, but they will be assailed by their own horrific lack of slumber. Only, after you have had a good night's sleep, be sure to care for the other who was so kind to you. Why? Because anyone so unkind as to not help their erstwhile companion sleep after they have finally gotten rest will find out that those fears were not unfounded and the next time they sleep, they really do not wake up!

Death, in this rare case, comes in the form of a heart attack. Its source is unknown, and all that the sleeper will remember is the worst nightmare of their life as they lay in bed, dying in soundless screams. So, be sure to take care of each other, sleepers!

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

THE VEINS OF THE TOWER

WHEN: November 1st (And only November 1st)
WHERE: Beginning anywhere, ending in A Nightmarish Place
CONTENT WARNINGS: Liminal Space, Disorientation, Hints of horrible monsters, Possible Death, Insane Zealotry, Mutilated Bodies

---

Rumors have lingered since the first encounters two months ago of a 'space between spaces' that people could accidentally fall into that this occurrence has not been entirely limited to the month it first happened in. Every once in a while, on unusual days, it has happened since that time. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to it, but it has happened again. Maybe you took an accidental step backwards. Or maybe you were crazy enough to have identified some spot you disappeared before and you were actually experimenting with the effect every day to see when it happened. You know, to chronicle the dates it happen, to keep a record, to understand it better, all of those sorts of things that cause some sleepers to poke things that are Better Left Alone because that's what some sleepers do with their free time, and then they touch the spot with something and suddenly they and everything around them are sucked in. How you got there is not important. You're here now, wherever here is.

Only this time its different. You're not in the spot you were last time, and in the distance you can hear shuffling of feet. Dread enters your heart, as you know that you do not have the means to fight whatever it is. You have an overwhelming urge to run, to flee at top speed. You and whoever is "lucky" enough to be with you must run as fast as you can, around corners, a roaring, inhuman scream echoing through the hallways, slamming into walls. You can't quite see it, not unless you want a swift, awful death at least. But around a corner there is salvation, an elevator shaft and the door is open. Frantic scrambling, running and jabbing buttons will cause the doors to close, just as something black like a giant hand grabs the far wall. You hear the rush, the scream. The elevator shudders three times as something pounds on it, but you're safe. Or, are you?

Instead of the usual moldy hallways, you see what looks like a hospital hallway. Anyone who lived through the nightmare may have awful flashbacks, but nothing is chasing you this time. The impossibly stretching hallway seems ceaselessly unchanging, each door locked, at least until you happen to notice a grate on one of the overhead air conditioners open wide. If you are curious enough to crawl up and into it, you're treated to a long scramble through the passageway, right up until you hear voices, menacing ones in the distance. Crawl quietly!

A grate emanating ugly, light is up ahead. As you and your companion work your way over, you're hopefully not heard. Through the grate, you see something awful. Two mutilated and disfigured figures speak while a third, calm and ordered looking woman listens. She seems to have mutilated her throat such that she should not be able to speak, and the other two appear have performed torturous experiments on their own flesh, their twisted visages that of the 'Zealots' that the Sleepers sometimes whisper about in fear. "It is almost time for the harvest. We made the quotas last cycle but only barely. The need is greater. Sacrifices must be made," one hisses. The other nods vigorously. "Yes. The situation is decaying. We have to move to stop this before it gets out of hand."

Before they can say more, however, the third woman looks up, directly at the grate. She smiles once, and a voice echoes from her throat as what appears to be a mouth inside of it moves, her own lips unmoving. "Continue this discussion later. It seems the problem has worsened. We will need to step up security in the meantime." She reaches out a hand and wrenches. The air shimmers around them and suddenly the duct you are traveling in collapses and breaks beneath you. Instead of falling into the farm, however, you find yourself falling through darkness for what seems an eternity, until you collapse hard to the pavement, in front of the entrance to the Gate, your breath coming back to you slowly, shakily.

NOTES: Death is possible should a sleeper assault the first creature. It is a being of impossible angles and blackness, is itself unkillable and will rend its victims to oblivion through brute force. Fighting the Zealots is not possible through this prompt. The grate cannot be opened in time to exit into the Sleeper Farm and engage them. However, the astute will be certain that there was for a moment an actual entry through and into the Sleeper Farm, somehow. Those familiar with these locations will recognize them as being Floor 1, the Stalls

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Comments

[baiyueguang]

[Not so long ago, Lan Xichen would have chuckled indulgently and tried to reassure Nie Huaisang.

Those days are... not quite gone per se, but his priorities have shifted. There's a tightness in his chest that won't release, and when Huaisang mentions da-ge and A-Song, the tension only grows tighter.]

Yes, I remember. I'm sorry, da-ge's passing is still fresh for Huaisang.

[He takes a few steps closer so that Huaisang can really see now; Lan Xichen doesn't look drastically different but the angles of him have sharpened, the lines in his face have deepened and there is a maturity to him that wasn't there before.]

For me, that was over a decade ago.

[fanfavors]

[A decade, Xichen says, as casually as if it makes any sense to say. Huaisang almost isn't listening, trying to muffle the stir of his grief and process Xichen's (somehow even more) refined appearance at the same time. A decade, and oh, well, that explains it, doesn't it? He's so shocked to see Huaisang out of step, out of time.

But why, Huaisang thinks, and puts a pin in that, too, for later. He's blinked owlishly at Xichen for long enough; now his brow furrows and he opens and shuts his mouth a few times, perhaps laying on thick precisely how lost for words he is. (Because he is— but still.)]

I don't understand— Xichen-ge is really ten years older? I saw you last week...

[To hang on his sleeve and moan about managing his clan's stupid saber training regimens, specifically. A whole fucking decade, really?

Huh. ...He has questions (and in his defense, who wouldn't), but instead he holds his hands up just a little and shakes his head.]

If something happens in ten years that's upsetting to Xichen-ge, don't tell me! I don't know anything about how this works, but it's not like we have to do anything now, right?

[Like, 'cause they're squids or something, he means. Don't think too hard about it.]

[baiyueguang]

[He also saw Huaisang not long ago, hanging on his sleeve to moan about managing his clan's affairs. Very little had changed over the years.

Except...

But Huaisang was not there yet. Maybe he didn't even know.

Maybe things could be different.

Lan Xichen takes a steadying breath, and a quiet laugh, hidden behind his sleeve escapes him.]

No, nothing you should worry about. I was just very surprised is all. It is good to see you well.

[fanfavors]

[Huaisang brightens automatically, ready and willing to swallow 'nothing you should worry about' the same way he always has. Honestly, if that is indeed the case, he is ready and willing to believe it unquestioningly? Time travel? No, he'll pass, thanks; that opens up too many possibilities and tugs at too many would-be headaches. He would love it if there were nothing he had to worry about.

So, then. He supposes what's left is to have a friendlier, less confusing chat with Xichen, to which end he next says:]

In that case, come and see what I've drawn!

[Fellow artist, come and look at his sticky-note landscapes, and-- ah, now he hastily leans his elbows back onto the table, to cover all the pornography with his sleeves. Landscapes, Xichen.

Look at the landscapes. Nothing here is crude.]

Has er-ge found anywhere to buy ink and good paper...?

[baiyueguang]

[There are few better ways to pique the First Jade of Lan's interest. He enjoys all manner of art, and is quite keen to see what Nie Huaisang has drawn.]

I have. There are a number of shops selling supplies in the Willful Machine. Some familiar and some I have never before seen in my life.

[He just barely manages to hide the excitement in his voice as he glides over for a look. Briefly he glimpses some of the more... creative doodles, before Huaisang's sleeve covers them up and it gets a lift of his brow and a quirk upwards at the corner of his mouth as if to say Saw that.

But he is not his uncle and this is not the Cloud Recesses. He's very tempted to put on Lan Qiren's affect, however, and demand Huaisang copy the tenets a few hundred times.]

Huaisang has always had a good eye for composition. ...And anatomy.

[There it is, the smallest of smiles and a glint of mischief in his eyes.]

[fanfavors]

[Wow, on the short list of people he'd never have wanted to compliment his command of anatomy lest they make him want to vaporize on the spot (there are two other people on this list, no points for guessing)... That's mortifying in the way that constantly crying publicly on Xichen ought to be, which is to say, very. Huaisang manages a chuckle and then loudly clears his throat, turning in his seat to face the table properly and reach for his landscape.

If, in the process, he casually sweeps the generous anatomical studies to the side and leans his elbow over them, don't mind that at all. Nothing suspicious has taken place here.]

Huaisang thanks er-ge for the generous compliment, [he mostly mumbles, and puts "Xichen saw the dick drawings" in his pile of things to never think about again. Ahem. Okay.

He's still on this earthly plane. He picks up his borrowed library pencil and holds it like a brush, twirling it around his fingers idly while he taps on the landscape with his other hand, look, look, behold this again and nothing else.]

I already miss having my own inks... Will you show me where? Going to town alone is such a bore.

[baiyueguang]

[If you think Lan Xichen hasn't seen worse sitting in on his uncle's lessons, you'd be sorely mistaken. At least Nie Huaisang has taste.

He still gives his nod of approval over the landscape. Huaisang has such an enviable whimsical flare to his work that he cannot help his smile as he lets his eye wander across the scenery.]

Er-ge would be happy to oblige. I am thinking of making a run today, if Huaisang has time?

[It was, indeed, true. Part of him missed the simpler days when he and Jin Guangyao could indulge the whims da-ge's little brother. Part of him wanted to keep an eye on Huaisang. And part of him had seen tubes of a paint called 'acrylics' in shades of blue and pink so vibrant they almost glowed. It made something old and repressed in him itch.]

[fanfavors]

[Somebody in these clans had to have good taste in tasteful (and not tasteful) nudes, Huaisang is glad to be that person, as long as he doesn't have to make eye contact with Xichen about it.

Therefore: art! He always has time for art, and he has absolutely nothing else to be doing, which is a spectacular change from the usual lately. He taps the eraser end of the pencil against his chin anyway, like he has a schedule to think about.]

And then er-ge would be hungry, and stop at an inn? [Or whatever they're calling them, around here. Buy him lunch, also, Xichen? Thanks.] I have plenty of time, when I'm finished here.

[Hiding the naughty art in his sleeves, he means. Ahem.]

[baiyueguang]

[Huaisang knows him too well. It brings him joy to know it. It feels like a stab in the kidney.]

Finished with your research, you mean...?

[He knows that's not the case. Nie Huaisang has never done today what could be put off tomorrow, especially when there was a free lunch in it for him.]

I will just return these. Will Huaisang be ready when I return or shall I pick something out to pass the time?

[fanfavors]

[Ah yes, with his research. Definitely that. Huaisang gives him a sheepish kind of chuckle instinctually, cut short when it reminds him too sharply of those days back at Cloud Recesses, when he lived in constant but also comfortable dread of Xichen telling Nie Mingjue he failed all his classes again.

Yes. His research. The research he was certainly doing, before he got sad about Mingjue. That research.

He thumbs the corner of one drawing, shaking his head, like no, no, don't hustle on his account...]

Don't rush, don't rush! There must be plenty of books here that have caught your eye. [Pick out something nice and give him an extra five minutes to shove this shamefully large amount of drawings somewhere else, ahem.] I'll come and find you!

[baiyueguang]

[Once Nie Huaisang has squared his things away, Lan Xichen isn't hard to find, tucked away down an aisle of artbooks. Predictable as ever.

Though the First Jade of Lan seems both so engrossed and also furtive about his reading selection one might think it were a book full of paintings of plump pink women sharing a single length of gauze and not another scrap of fabric between them.

It's not porn.

It's worse.

It's cubism.

When Xichen registers Huaisang's footfalls, he snaps the book shut as though he were reading something scandalous, and in one swift motion, slides it back onto the shelf from whence it came. He's all warm smiles when he turns to face Huaisang.]

...All set...?

[fanfavors]

[So here's a double standard: Huaisang is absolutely mortified that Xichen has seen his horny little drawings, but he would gladly lean in to see just what tasteful filth could make Xichen snap a book just like that in a heartbeat. It's only world-destroying when Xichen is making quiet little quips about catching somebody with porn, see.

That said: this does seem like it's the less sensual stack of art books, overall... Huaisang's gaze roves over the shelf Xichen is standing at, curious, even as his shoulders slump in the tell-tale New Huaisang Problem fashion.]

Er-ge, this library is out to torture me...! I went to return my borrowed book, [a huge concession from him, you're welcome, Archive] and the shelf!! It wasn't the same!!

[It took him several more minutes of huffy wandering, Xichen!! None have suffered the way Huaisang has suffered.]

Let's go, let's go, I don't want to be harassed by shelves any longer.

[baiyueguang]

[Cubism - A History and An Analysis 1907 - 1914 sits innocently on its shelf where Lan Xichen left it. Of course this particular square would be embarrassed by such things.

An eyebrow slowly rises at this bizarre complaint. There was, of course, always something out to get Nie Huaisang; paperwork, courtiers, due dates, an enraged Da-ge; but library shelves is a new one.]

...Is Huaisang sure he had not just forgotten where the shelf was...?

[Which seems more likely, and what he would have written it off as entirely if, indeed, he had not already experienced some very... odd phenomena around Trench.]

[fanfavors]

[This doubt... he's probably earned this, but also: the shelves have really and truly bullied him, thank you!!]

I didn't!! I went directly back to the same one, and it had gone!

[Here, he reaches for Xichen's sleeve, to shake it a little. This injustice!!!]

Just try it, try it— let's leave this area and come back, and these books will all be replaced with something else!

[baiyueguang]

[Lan Xichen lets himself be led away, and if he casts a brief, yearning glance over his shoulder at the shelf full of art through the ages of other worlds, well, who can actually blame him...? The man doesn't get to try new things very often.

It doesn't take long for Huaisang to make his point, when they emerge, the shelves seem to be in a different order from when they came in.

Lan Xichen glances at Nie Huaisang out the corner of his eye.]

Did it look like this when Huaisang came to find me...?

[fanfavors]

[Credit Huaisang this, he patiently does a circuit around with Xichen, just to prove this library is messing with them on a fundamental level. He gestures broadly at the shelves, pointing accusingly at the guilty books when they return.]

It didn't! You were standing right here, reading a book with a white spine! [but he didn't see anything more incriminating than that, and now the book is gone, so congratulations on being spared that particular mortification--] Now where is it? Er-ge, you see?

[Rude of the shelves, frankly. He waves his hand again, deciding:]

This place must be full of spirits.

[Bored ones. Not resentful ones.]

[baiyueguang]

I do see now, yes. It's quite fascinating.

[It probably says something about the lives Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen lived that their reactions to a library ever shifting its shelves are, respectively, affront and annoyance, and intrigue and delight.

What that might be is anyone's guess, but it does say something

Lan Xichen is making half-baked plans about packing provisions and spending a week in here so he almost almost misses the remark about spirits.]

...Do you suppose I should put up some wards before we leave? Or is this just one of the many quirks of this city...?

[fanfavors]

[Huaisang likes to put his nice things in specific locations and always know what specific locations they're in so he can look at them and get the serotonin hit he deserves from owning nice things, that nobody is moving around or burning or anything else--!!

So yeah, they've got differing opinions on the magic, moving library. He tugs Xichen's sleeve, already half-turning to go back the way they came and leave now, rather than have to wait around for Xichen to marvel at the shelves some more. Because he says "put up some wards," but Huaisang knows better... it'll become a whole thing...]

The city, it's the city! Let's go, someone else will take care of it! The gentleman at the desk already knows about it, I think...

[xichen please. he'll starve here.]

[baiyueguang]

[Lan Xichen lets himself be led out with minimal protest and, perhaps, what is a brief, longing glance over his shoulder. Oh that is going to be a fascinating adventure, but first he has someone who needs to be spoiled with lunch and art supplies.

The city itself seems relatively calm, aside from the nervous whispering of a few of its denizens (it's probably fine and not at all to do with some twisting alternate version of Trench people keep falling into)]

Is there somewhere in particular Huaisang likes to eat, or shall we explore our options?

[fanfavors]

[Ah, and if Huaisang lights up about exploring lunch options in the exact opposite way that he did not for exploring the Archives - well, that is what it is. Lunch is explored and chattered over, mostly about the quality of restaurants in town and all the art things Huaisang is excited to get, and then, the big hog: the art supplies shopping.

It's a whole new world, is the thing. Huaisang favors ink and monochrome, but in the face of acrylic paint and so many very textured media, he's a touch overwhelmed - in a good way! - by choices. Look at all the watercolors! The papier-mâché! More brushes than he could possibly stick in his mouth carry!!

Presently, he is holding up a chunk of wood, because he is about to get very passionate about woodcuts for at least one whole month. Xichen!! Look!!!]

Er-ge, what do you think? This is a fine wood, isn't it? Huaisang will craft er-ge a memento for his new home here.

[put it next to those yearning paintings of yours]

[baiyueguang]

[Lunch is an adventure in the new and unexpected; Lan Xichen gets his second glimpse of coffee and, yes, unfortunately, it really does smell like that. Actually trying it will be an adventure for another day.

But really, it's the art stores that are most captivating. The sights! The colours! The selection! Lan Xichen spends an hour alone just marveling over varieties of paper he's never seen before. (What is construction paper? Who knows! Why does it come in every colour of the rainbow? Don't ask Xichen, he's just happy to be here!)

A block of wood is thrust right under his nose, his nostrils a hair's breadth from getting splinters. He can smell cedar.

He steps back, eyeing it with interest.]

...That is very kind of Huaisang.

[Please leave his yearning paintings out of this, he painted those when he was like, 20, and he keeps seeing all the mistakes he made (not unlike his life).]

Is Huaisang planning on trying his hand at woodblock prints...? I'm afraid this er-ge is only passingly familiar with the process.

[fanfavors]

[Everybody gets to make embarrassing, yearning art about their crush, Xichen - most people just do it on ordinary-sized paper and throw it away hastily, instead of giving it to them to display for all time. Hubris, buddy. Hubris.

Huaisang hums fondly over his selected woodblock, turning it over a few times to observe it from every angle, as if he knows what to do with it.]

I am! Er-ge will see the first results. Even er-ge's untrained eye can offer worthwhile critiques, after all.

[Because oh boy, are his early woodcuts going to suck. He trusts Xichen's constructive criticism, anyway.]

Could it be that that messy library has books on the techniques...?

[baiyueguang]

On things such as composition, certainly. Unfortunately, not on the process of actually carving the wood.

[Look at his hands, Huaisang! This is not a man who is part of a social class that knows the first thing about woodworking and the tools required for it. He's privately thinking this woodcut thing is going to last a week until Huaisang realizes the splinters just aren't worth the effort.]

You may be able to locate a professional on the omni, if you are interested in trying new things...?

[He's still going to hang any woodblock prints from Huaisang on the refrigerator (whatever that is) like the proud er-ge he is.]

[fanfavors]

[Once Huaisang figures out that woodcuts are not an artform he can put in his mouth and get away without tongue splinters, it will be truly short-lived. But until then he has a vision of very elaborate and precise woodcuts, like he's seen before— so it will be an exciting week to experiment. Ready the bandages.]

Ah, [he says, brow furrowing just a smidge, then with all of the "ugh, schoolwork?" he possessed back in Gusu,] A teacher?

[Must he, that sounds boring, actually... Can't Xichen battle the library for him, instead...]

I don't know— What is it people do around here, anyway?

[Where are. The sects.]

[baiyueguang]

[Lan Xichen is already making a note of first aid supplies and various medicines for when Huaisang inevitably has a mishap with something sharp.

He raises his sleeve to hide his smile.]

Yes, a teacher. I know how Huaisang did his best to avoid such things, but one may be beneficial in this regard.

[He selects a package of foil paper. They look fun and iridescent in a way Huaisang might enjoy and put to creative use -- something to slip in his bag on the way out as a sort of consolation gift for when the woodworking inevitably gets shelved.]

Perhaps less a teacher and more a private tutor. At any rate it would be wise, if only for Huaisang to learn how to handle a new set of tools