Open: Takes a lot of medicine to make it through the wintertime

[vineleaves]

The first day of Dark was difficult enough to get through. When the situation didn't improve after a few days, however, Dionysus really began to worry. That the house would stop cooperating when it comes to creating food at the same time his own powers of generation have become so severely diminished... it doesn't sit easy with him.

He is grateful that he still has some powers, but he's been finding it difficult to produce grapes or wine (or any related products) of any quality, whereas before it came to him like breathing. But he considers it his duty to do what he can to offset the dwindling supplies, so every day he spends a few hours creating what he can: grapes, raisins, cartons of grape juice, and of course, bottles of wine, before diligently distributing it to the various kitchens and eating-places in the house. Wherever he thinks people may go to look for something to eat. Should anyone need him, he shouldn't be too difficult to locate.

Comments

[vineleaves]

He raises an eyebrow. "Can't say that I do."

[lightbearinglord]

"It is a wine. Gusu is famous for it." After a brief pause, Lan Wangji remembers anew that this will not be obvious, and adds, "Gusu is where I came from."

[vineleaves]

Despite living in a place with Shakespearean characters and barricade boys and everything else, it had never crossed his mind to consider that this might mean there's a wine he hadn't heard of before. He's got mixed feelings about it, honestly. Excited of course that he might be able to eventually try something new, but it is proving to be a painful reminder that his powers are weak at the moment.

"How is it?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Fragrant and mellow. My husband is partial to it." Lan Wangji eyes the spread of supplies Dionysus appears to be setting out. "Is it only grape wine that is your purview?"

[vineleaves]

“It is. Very specific, I realize. Annoyingly so, in this case.”

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods in acknowledgement. "Emperor's Smile is a rice wine." If Dionysus could also create rice, that would be exceedingly useful, so perhaps it follows that he cannot.

[vineleaves]

“Rice would be helpful right about now,” he responds, mostly to himself. “I do like rice wines though. Not as much as my own, of course, but I’ve liked what I have tried.”

[lightbearinglord]

With the barest hint of fondness, Lan Wangji says, "My husband claims it is the best wine he has ever tasted." Somehow, despite the solemnity of his voice, it is obvious that this is a claim made by a man who has tasted many wines. Lan Wangji, who has tasted comparatively very few wines himself, recalls the task he came here to do and briskly crosses the kitchen to start opening cabinets and examining their contents.

[vineleaves]

"In that case, I hope I get a chance to try it some time! Such a glowing review!" He's still 100% sure he wouldn't like it half as much as some of his own wines, but he wouldn't exactly turn it down.

[lightbearinglord]

"Typically, the mansion can produce it." Lan Wangji frowns a little into a largely empty cabinet. It contains nothing but an unnecessary quantity of vinegar, which will do nothing to feed anyone without more substantial ingredients.

[vineleaves]

"Typically the mansion can produce a lot. Right now it's being very uncooperative." He casts his eyes up at the ceiling at that last bit, angrily.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." For a moment, or more likely two, Lan Wangji is occupied with continuing to examine the cabinets and drawers of the kitchen. At this point, he has more pairs of chopsticks than he has of anything to eat using those chopsticks. Then he glances toward Dionysus again. "That is why you are here," he ventures.

[vineleaves]

Dionysus similarly had gone back to putting his offerings away, but when Lan Wangji speaks again he stops.

"...You think it was planned?"

[lightbearinglord]

"It is possible." Lan Wangji keeps looking levelly at him. "I meant that you are here, in this kitchen, to help." It isn't a question, but it essentially functions as one. He's wary of unknown gods and their intentions. Magnus' father does not love him as he should.

[vineleaves]

If whatever spirits or gods who control yanking people from their normal universes were aware that food production was going to be dimmed, it might make sense to bring someone who can make his own fruit, if for no reason other than to keep everyone from dying. But if that was the case, wouldn't it make more sense to bring someone with a wider skillset? Persephone or Demeter would make for a much more logical deus ex machina right now.

"I'm trying."

[lightbearinglord]

The tiniest measure of tension goes from Lan Wangji. Trying to help is all that he can ask of anyone here. It is all he can do, and he's not certain how useful his own help is just now, anyway. He nods. "Thank you."

[vineleaves]

Dionysus smiles. Were he someone else, he might find it pathetic for a god, an actual god, to be basing so much of his current self-worth in the opinions of complete strangers. He isn't someone else though, and as Xanthias so often liked to point out, he's only half a god. These days he feels it.

"Let me know if there's ever anything I can do for you!"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji does not smile, because he rarely does, but there's the faintest impression of approval glinting in his eyes. "And I for you," he returns. "I am a cultivator."

[vineleaves]

"...Of what?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji's face returns to sheer inscrutability. Clearly Dionysus did not read his carefully-lettered pamphlet. Perhaps the only use for that is, in fact, in the opportunity it provides him for making Wei Ying copy lines as a preamble to more enjoyable activities. There are worse uses, at least. "Of qi," he says.

[vineleaves]

"Oh! Well that does sound helpful then!" Does he have a fully formed mental concept of what this entails? Absolutely not, but it sounds impressive, so he's impressed.

[lightbearinglord]

"More information is available at young mistress Tress' welcome table," Lan Wangji informs him. "There are multiple cultivators here.¹"

¹Except fifty percent of them are the worst. But we won't talk about that to relative strangers. On the bright side, twenty-five percent of them are the most beautiful and radiant person in the universe.

[vineleaves]

“I must have overlooked it, sorry, orientation day was a bit of a whirlwind.”

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods, accepting this. He has rarely met a new arrival who was not distressed to some extent, Sagramore being the obvious exception. He has already thanked Dionysus for his help, so he doesn't bother repeating himself, but he dips into another precise bow out of respect for his divinity and for his willingness to bolster the mansion through the season. Then, having seen what he needs to see here -- that is to say, very little -- he is gone in a flutter of white robes, to reconvene with his husband regarding his hunting efforts.