aeternas | Event #2

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Event #2

Leading to a Crossroads

INTRODUCTION

Two days have passed since the bone dragon was defeated. An entire part of downtown is now closed off completely while scientists examine the remains and take samples from the ooze that had been used to terrorize the citizens of Mondstadt. The harpastum stadium lies in ruins, with the skeleton corpse unmoving while it’s inspected, and many people have lost their homes due to the rampage of the monster. For now, hilichurl and mitachurl sightings have ceased, and none seem to be making their way towards the city. Clean up begins, and though the people have been shaken by this turn of events, the city still stands strong and begins their recovery.

However, there is a restless unease that’s felt all around. No one understands what prompted this attack, where the dragon came from, or how it was defeated. Who defeated it? There’s no way of knowing unless someone claims to have been the one- and there’s no shortage of nutjobs who said they did it without any way of proving it. So the mystery seems unsolved for the moment.

However, a lot of people point to one person- a streamer. He’s the talk of the town, and if you didn’t know his name before, you do now. The biggest tabloid on the market, The Teyvat Enquirer, has a huge headline in its paper the very next day:

BENNY’S ADVENTURE TIME: HOW AN ONLINE DAREDEVIL BECAME THE SAVIOR OF MONDSTADT

It’s in every store. To small shops to grocery stores and bookstores, Bennett’s face is plastered all over with a deep dive, detailed history of what’s publicly available online to know about Bennett. And it’s selling like hotcakes. They’re claiming he took down the dragon all by himself, with the strange fire powers he had on display in his streams. Plus, it’s all over the internet too, with his VODs being clipped and reposted everywhere. There isn’t a person in all of Teyvat who doesn’t know who Bennett is.

The normal news is reporting on Bennett as well, but there’s also the search for a mysterious man who’s only identifier is the mop of ginger hair on his head. He hasn’t been seen since the incident, and people claim he was the one fighting the dragon alongside someone else who has also gone unidentified. There’s also news about all the missing harpastum players and other residents of Mondstadt that had gone missing during Ludi Harpastum- none have been found, but for the first time, they were able to be followed. The discovery of the domain has been located, but it will not let anyone go in. Scenes from Dawn Winery include the Knights roping the area off, and heavy security now sit in front of it, not allowing anyone to pass.

FARMER'S MARKET.

Due to classes closing for the next few weeks as Mondstadt recovers from the attack, the students of the university have decided to do charity drives to help those who had the unfortunate happening of losing their home, getting injured to help with medical bills, or, god forbid, lose loved ones. Throughout the next few weeks, a collegiate farmer’s market opens up on the university campus, and it has a variety of stalls to visit:

Bake Sale: Something a lot of students can get in on is showing off their baking and making various kinds of baked goods! Some students are great at it, some are not! Feel free to patronize them or perhaps get baking yourself!

Organic Stalls and Snack Stalls: Not just students have come to participate, as a lot of Mondstadt’s local farmers brought all sorts of different vegetables to sell to help raise money to rebuild. And, you can't go without all sorts of snacks, from cookies to popcorn to small food trucks that feature food from any other country except Mondstadt. Dig in!

Handmade Goods: It’s not a farmer’s market without all sorts of neat clothing, pottery, and other knick knacks. Feel free to discover any kind of stall selling cool things for your house!

Cook Off: For those who can, there is a cook off to make meals for those who’ve lost their homes. The competition is fierce, and all food made will be delivered by aid groups to those in need. Face off against your friends and neighbors, and see who can make the best dish!

Couple’s Painting: The art department of the university has donated a ton of supplies to the market, where two people can paint each other on a canvas for a fee. All proceeds go to charity, and the two people will end up with their stunning (or not so stunning) portraits of each other. Can you just sit still? We’re trying to do a Picasso over here!

The Alchemy Shop is also taking this opportunity to provide some classes to help people with the rebuild. They’re free during this time, so take advantage of what their crazy, local alchemist has offered. He’s going to talk and talk and talk with the passion of forty poli-sci professors who care way too much about NGO’s except it’s alchemy and a lot more useful. Be careful not to get stopped by him after class, you may not survive.

Potion Making Classes: With a focus on extending one’s stamina and helping people get a good night’s sleep, these classes will teach characters on how to make stamina and sleep potions. Be careful when creating them, and make sure you measure their potency to the correct amounts. 🙂 Characters will learn that these are not hard potions to make and the materials are easily found.

🔋 Stamina potions need one part iron ore, two parts matsukake, and one part fowl, mixed with water.

💤 Sleep potions need two parts dandelion seeds, one part raw meat, one part cecelia, mixed with water.

Transmutation 101: Make that old bike you weren’t using into wood instead! This is a class to help people create useful materials for everyday use, especially now when building materials are in high demand. But remember, students- to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. No cheating…

Local businesses have also opened their doors, at least the ones left standing. Volunteers are welcome at any business to get them back up on their feet. There’s also an auction happening at the Cat’s Tail, which is definitely going to make a certain employee of theirs so, so happy. Bid against your neighbors, friends, enemies, so you can win that piece of weird antique furniture for your house or office and help the Mondstadt relief fund!

TO HIDE IN SHADOWS.

During this time, the Knights are actively on the lookout for people who have marks like the one Bennett displayed in his VODs. Though the public might be convinced that Bennett is their hero, the Knights aren’t buying that he’s the only one, especially since there’s video evidence that more than one person is displaying what looks like elemental powers. It helps that they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, so they’re mainly on the watch for people actually using the powers first, though they do know there could be a similar mark on people.

They are not hiding this fact. News outlets are putting out that there is a monetary reward for anyone who can give the Knights information on these persons of interest. They currently do not know who they are, but fear mongering among politicians has started to rise up, painting them as dangerous and a threat to society. Decarabia is offering refuge to these people, welcoming them to come and be free of Mondstadt’s oppressive, sinful atmosphere. The Knights are not letting people leave easily, and all flights out of the city are canceled. If your character does leave, it will be incredibly difficult (or your character was just very prepared in case of an emergency.)

If caught, the Knights will try to detain characters who display using their powers or if they can see the constellation mark. If you have your character detained by the Knights, please comment here. Feel free to fight the Knights if you’d like, escape from them, or avoid detection all together. All in all, it’s clearly not safe to stay in Mondstadt for much longer.

MISC

FOR ZHONGLI:

Life will go on as normal for him, except he’s starting to experience all sorts of bad luck. The bad luck can be anything you want, and will affect anyone he’s with too. 🙂 If Zhongli happens to be around Bennett, Ren (Hu Tao), or Venti please let me know ASAP for details. The trio from the Occult House are also available for Zhongli to do things with or be introduced to other characters. They can be NPC'd by anyone for threads if it comes up.

FOR BENNETT:

The Knights come for him, and will try to detain Bennett and bring him to the Knights HQ. Bennett can do a number of things here:

They can try to detain him anywhere you’d like, anytime you’d like, in any situation he may be in, whatever works best. He can absolutely participate in the rebuild of the city, this might even help him deal with the Knights.

Bennett can avoid being detained or he can willingly go with the Knights. If he tries to resist being taken away, there will be an active manhunt for him and he will be escalated to being considered dangerous and a wanted criminal. He can also go into hiding and just not be found at all- which will avoid any escalation and accumulation of stars like he’s a criminal in GTA.

If he goes with them, he will be interrogated about his new powers and then closely monitored. They sound like they're going to prepare for moving him to a science lab, which is not where anyone wants to be. During that time, social media will explode with half the people wanting him free and half the people wanting him locked away for their own safety. There will be protests outside of the Knight’s HQ demanding that Bennett be left alone to live his life like a normal person, and Decarabian diplomats will advocate for him to be taken to Decarabia, claiming he will be safe there and they will ensure Mondstadt’s well being by taking him. The Knights will do an investigation by asking his family questions- if you want to do more with that with his dads and the Knights, that’s a free for all for you to decide ;) Let me know what you ultimately decide to do with Bennett, as it will affect the story!

CLOSING

Exploration is currently not available for characters to go out and see the world. This is the fallout of the conflict with the dragon, and the start of a journey for our characters. There will be a poll among the group in a month or so for where everyone would like to go next within the country of Mondstadt, so be ready for that!

As it stands right now, the group has found these items so far, which no one has currently figured out what they do:

Zhongli: Old rotted lyre, necklace from Natlan.
Bennett: Trinket from the hilichurl domain where the missing people disappeared in.

The dragon itself was ultimately defeated by Ajax (Childe) and Zhongli.

This log is a little bit of a slice of life break after the heavy opening log, but there's some things in it that will help everyone prepare for the adventure ahead.

To Be Continued…

FULL NAV • BACK TO TOP

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do it

Sure why not lmao

they got him

Farmer's Market

[Have you ever seen such an unamused guy running a stall? The only thing keeping him from being absolutely hostile is the fact that he wears a facemask, so he at most just probably gives of "bored as hell" vibes and not "will bite your face off" vibes. Kuni has no idea how he got roped into manning both the bake sale and the cook off, but at least no one has tried to talk him into actually making anything.

Who cares if he's better than any of these idiots? They don't need to know this.]

Cat's Tail

[Even with the facemask, there is the most murderous aura coming from the guy behind the bar today. He's not on auction duty and there is probably a reason for it.

As he makes drinks, he is shamelessly muttering:]

I cannot fucking believe this. Throw this on me without warning, is that even legal here, what is wrong with people...

Wildcard

[What something else? Hit me up!]

[According to some of the worms surrounding him, he has a twin. At first he just rolls his eyes and turns away and when they bring it up for a second time he asks them to shut up unless they had some sort of wish to loose their teeth. So at first, when he returns from a much needed toilet break, he isn't even aware that said 'twin' has manned the bake sale booth as well. At least, until the same annoying worm who brought it up first, points the other out to him. And it doesn't help that the team's manager is nearby to encourage him to talk and be outgoing.]

Tch. [Kunikuzushi rolls his eyes before he turns around to face this twin.] Don't make this difficult. [He isn't entirely aware of the fact how much of a twin the other is, especially not when he is wearing that facemask.]

[Someone nudges Kuni when the other guy turns to face him, and Kuni, not paying attention, turns to see what's going on.

He then promptly turns back around and storms out of the stall.]

I'm done here.

[He doesn't even bother to maybe make his voice sound a little different, so it probably sounds to Kunikuzushi like he just told himself to fuck off.]

OPT-IN TO BE DETAINED BY THE KNIGHTS OF FAVONIUS

Kunikuzushi

no subject

Bennett

Niwa Kunikaki

A bit of bake sale and a dash of wildcard

no subject

Cat's Tail

no subject

cat's tail 🐈

no subject

Kunikuzushi (for everyone who wants to get the stink-eye or be an annoying customer)

Couple Painting! Give her dat stink eye :D

He's good at stink eyes

bake sale 🧁

Sorry for the late, I was in job-searching land