Shu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
singlemilletgrain) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
vivala2025-07-02 04:29 pm
singlemilletgrain) wrote in vivala2025-07-02 04:29 pm
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乙巳 005: 小暑
[video broadcast]
[Is it time for another Yanese festival? Shu bows to the video feed with her usual greeting.]
Hello, Corsairs. We are in the midst of difficult times, once more. I am glad that our aims have succeeded thus far, but it seems as if the fighting will become more pitched shortly.
Perhaps some levity is in order. In Yanese culture... [here we go again] the middle of the seventh month of the Lunar Year is called the Hungry Ghost Festival. The correct word would be preta or 餓鬼. It isn't the best translation, but there is a folk belief that the spirits of the ancestors return during this time and need to be honored, then escorted back to the afterlife. Normally, this is a very solemn affair, but of course, as ancestral veneration is not a part of your cultures, we can focus on the merriment.
Please join me this evening. We will make paper lanterns and paper boats and escort them down the river to the beyond.
If that is not to your liking... [there is a faint twinkle in her eyes] Perhaps we may share some ghost stories.
[action, by a River Somewhere That Is Definitely a Real River in this setting]
[The days are long in the summer. When the first rays of the sun begin to glimmer golden red as it descends below the horizon, Shu appears with quite a large number of candles, folding paper, and calligraphy pens.]
We guide the souls of the ancestors back to the beyond. The flowing water is the barrier between life and death. The river escorts them. We honor them with a few words and we write our hopes for them upon these lanterns.
The ancestors, of course, do not have to be your actual ancestors.
[action, for Turtles]
[It is high time that they keep their appointment andhear embarrassing stories about Donnie when he was a wee turtlekin share a meal together. Having some experience now with Raph's bottomless pit of an appetite and his, ah... completely undiscerning palate, Shu has thought long and hard about how best to improve his experience with food. The feast she has prepared is slightly different: instead of being set out family style, she plans to bring out one dish at a time so as to guide the direction of the meal more closely.
Of course, he is equally as likely to just inhale everything as he is to learn anything, but one can only try one's best.
She leaves the door unlocked for them. They are welcome to come in and out whenever they please, even if she has never actually said this.]
[Is it time for another Yanese festival? Shu bows to the video feed with her usual greeting.]
Hello, Corsairs. We are in the midst of difficult times, once more. I am glad that our aims have succeeded thus far, but it seems as if the fighting will become more pitched shortly.
Perhaps some levity is in order. In Yanese culture... [here we go again] the middle of the seventh month of the Lunar Year is called the Hungry Ghost Festival. The correct word would be preta or 餓鬼. It isn't the best translation, but there is a folk belief that the spirits of the ancestors return during this time and need to be honored, then escorted back to the afterlife. Normally, this is a very solemn affair, but of course, as ancestral veneration is not a part of your cultures, we can focus on the merriment.
Please join me this evening. We will make paper lanterns and paper boats and escort them down the river to the beyond.
If that is not to your liking... [there is a faint twinkle in her eyes] Perhaps we may share some ghost stories.
[action, by a River Somewhere That Is Definitely a Real River in this setting]
[The days are long in the summer. When the first rays of the sun begin to glimmer golden red as it descends below the horizon, Shu appears with quite a large number of candles, folding paper, and calligraphy pens.]
We guide the souls of the ancestors back to the beyond. The flowing water is the barrier between life and death. The river escorts them. We honor them with a few words and we write our hopes for them upon these lanterns.
The ancestors, of course, do not have to be your actual ancestors.
[action, for Turtles]
[It is high time that they keep their appointment and
Of course, he is equally as likely to just inhale everything as he is to learn anything, but one can only try one's best.
She leaves the door unlocked for them. They are welcome to come in and out whenever they please, even if she has never actually said this.]
no subject
It's funny to imagine you as a big complainer.
[ Aira is very curious about Shu's backstory—especially thinking back to her tale about the farmer and the Xian, and what the nature of Shu's personal attachment to it might be. ]
I'm gonna keep it private, I think. I mean, my idea is just to check in with her like I used to. Hopefully it's okay that we haven't talked in a while.
[ "A while" has been years and years. At some point, the whole ritual started feeling too childish, so she stopped. ]
no subject
[It seems Aira doesn't really need any particular help - simply time to voice what she was feeling aloud. Shu places any more materials Aira might need by the riverbed before quietly withdrawing.]
...And you might be surprised. I was young once, too, you know. It is always easier, somehow, to complain to your family.
no subject
[ Aira isn't in any rush, and she's happy to leisurely multitask. The right words for her prayer ought to come eventually, and there's no point in trying to force it. ]
I'm happy to complain to just about anyone, personally.
no subject
[…she pauses.]
Actually, because there’s a very good chance they wont.
[With that strange statement, Shu bows slightly and departs to allow Aira her space. She is too polite to linger when a need for privacy has been expressed. But she does not go far. Up and down the river, there are those tending to their lanterns with whom she briefly exchanges some words. She returns in about half an hour as the river begins to fill with bobbing lights]
How fares the message, Aira?
no subject
Soon enough, the calm and beautiful dusk washes over her again, with the tranquil flow of the river trickling in her. Aira settles on a few sentiments: that somehow she appeared in a strange world, but she's met amazing people, is fighting for justice and peace, and she's even learned to make some halfway decent clothes. She writes, thinks, then writes some more.
By the time Shu comes back around, Aira is finished and watching the first of the candles to appear on the river, flickering and drifting with the current. ]
All done. Did you get a chance to write one, Miss Shu?
no subject
[Shu smiles as if the idea hadn't occurred to her.]
You need not worry about me. I have the opportunity to do this every year, after all. I wanted to share a bit of my home with you all in a more concrete way, so -- I have mostly been assisting the others.
[Behind this is the implication that she, of course, has plenty of lanterns she might wish to light.]
It is always a... calming sight. Watching the river take them. It sometimes feels as if something of yours goes with them.
no subject
There's a bunch of them, huh? Miss Shu, you must be pretty popular.
[ But no surprise there. Maybe Aira ought to take Shu's example and try organizing something of her own. A fashion show, perhaps? Though that would take a lot of frigging work. ]
no subject
[Shu arches an eyebrow.]
I... do not know if anyone is here because of my popularity or lack thereof. I imagine we all have people we would like to remember. This festival in my world is simply an opportunity to take time aside in your life to give them the honor they are due. And to share in the griefs and joys of your family and friends.
no subject
Sorry. I know. It's just... hehe. Sorry!
[ What in the world is even funny. Aira clears her throat some more and tries again. ]
I used to put a ton of energy into being popular, so I extra notice this kind of stuff. Miss Shu, you're definitely one of the most popular Crimson Corsairs, for sure. Top five at least.