In retrospect, it probably starts on that moonless summer night, when Xingqiu’s nighttime jaunt brings him under the shadow of a red mountain. Under the shadow of this red mountain, he feels a strange meaning on the wind that stirs him to lift his head, and at that moment, his gaze falls upon the fleeting figure of a yaksha flying through the clouds.
Liyue legends say it is fortune to gaze upon an adeptus in one’s lifetime, but Xingqiu is rather inured to the sight after seeing Adeptus Xiao at Hu Tao’s funeral parlor every other week. Still, that faint silhouette glowing jade-like under the distant starlight stays with him for hours after, and even when he closes his eyes to sleep, he can still feel the chill of the mountain air sinking into his bones.
For a long time, though, Xingqiu is convinced it all starts when he wakes up one morning filled with the burning desire to perform a live reading of his novel in Liyue Harbor’s most public square.
Xingqiu would like to keep his secrets, remain uncursed, and have some fun with his best friend. Unfortunately, in life, things rarely go to plan...
Transcript of Part 1 is available here.
Stage: scripting (unstarted)
The art was made using Clip Studio Paint and all features available in Clip Studio Paint Pro. Two custom brushes and the default fine flat oil brush were used.
The text divider is an SVG drawn in CSP before being converted to an SVG file with Photopea, an entirely browser-based replacement for PhotoShop. Then it was converted into HTML using this SVG to HTML converter. Artist's comment: Please consult your adblock before venturing onto these sites, I cannot guarantee what anything looks like without uBlock Origin...
Chongyun's exorcism symbol was first made in Vectr, a free browser vector drawing software, before changing to use SVGator.
Author's comment: The idea for this story was almost entirely triggered by Xingqiu Yoiyoi Kokon MMD. If you understand you understand. The Cynical Night Plan Xingqiu MMD is also very good. Check them out, okay?
This story has been created using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The tools used were as following:
For writing questions, please contact simkjrs @ twitter or @ tumblr. For art questions, please contact simkjrs @ twitter or kuuhaiyu @ tumblr. For technical questions or other matters, you can contact qquwq at qquwq5@gmail.com.