discedo | ❀ - [Video/Action] - 第五 [中秋節; Mid-Autumn Festival, Discedo]

[Hopefully by now, most people on Fortuna have somehow received a prettily wrapped package containing four different varieties of home-made mooncake outside their doorstep. Those within Discedo had them hand-delivered; everyone else...hope they made it...]

Hey everyone! I know things have been really crazy recently, but if you have a chance [pause] and are in someplace where it's safe to do it [pause...], you should definitely go outside and take a look up at the moon! If you squint really closely, maybe you'll see Chang'e ( 嫦娥), the moon goddess who lives there, or the Jade Rabbit making medicine!

[A soft, kind of wistful laugh] At least, that's what I would say if we were at home...

Anyway, I hope all my packages made it safely, but even if it's not the same moon, you can definitely still eat the mooncake! There's 4 kinds: lotus-paste, red bean, green tea, and chocolate! Just for variety.

I included egg-yolk in a few of them, but you don't have to eat it if you don't like it.

[Oh wait...] Yeah, and I guess it's China's birthday tomorrow too.

祝你生日快樂，老師！ You're still old, by the way!

Oh, and I don't care if you changed to simplified, you're still going to have to get all your greetings in traditional from me! [Yes, Taiwan did just stick her tongue out in the video. How mature.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm just glad I can help you out. It's not really anything special.

Well... if there's anything I can ever do to help you in return, you can always ask me, okay?

Of course! But for now, I'm just glad I can help you.

[Welp, time to get mixing.] Do you want to hold the bowl while I stir?

Actually, do you think I can stir? I think it might be fun to try... Does it have to be a certain consistency?

Sure, no problem! [She obligingly shifts positions, offering her the spoon.] I'll tell you when to stop, how about that?

Okay! [Ilyana at first starts off pretty slowly, but then starts really getting into it, stirring like mad, just barely keeping the contents in the bowl.]

[Well, Taiwan's impressed] Whoa, whoa! Where did you learn to do that?

Hehe, well the twins back home used to try to teach me to cook. I actually got sort of okay at it but... there usually isn't much food around, and I'm not good at anything fancy.

[She was starting to get a bit tired now, but at least it looked to be quite whipped now.]

Well, this doesn't have to be fancy... Cake is pretty easy!

[Well, she's banging around looking for her bake pans, but Ilyana is free to eat some batter if she wants it.]

The twins? Are they your siblings?

I don't know, cake can be pretty hard too sometimes.

[She is sort of tempted to eat the batter, and was about to dip a finger in for an experimental taste, but the question gives her pause.]

No... I lost my family a very long time ago... But, they're like my adopted family. They found me on the side of the road seven years ago, and... I've kind of been with them ever since. Well... until coming here of course.

Well, not with me, okay?

[Taiwan listens attentively to Ilyana's story, her face genuinely sympathetic and concerned.]

How old were you then...? That must have been difficult to adjust to...

[Ilyana nodded, thinking back to just how long ago it was.]

I was very young... I think I might have been six... But there were a lot of people in my village who took care of me. Of course, everything was different when I decided to try to find my own way in life. If Muston and the others hadn't found me on the side of the road... I probably would have died.

Heh... it all seems so long ago, and far away now. It's strange how much life can change in just a few years...

Ah...it's wonderful, sometimes, the nice things people can do. [Taiwan is determinedly focusing on that, rather than on anything negative.]

I'm glad you had people who could take care of you, even though you were so small.

❀ - [Video/Action] - 第五 [中秋節; Mid-Autumn Festival, Discedo]

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