Open Gong Xi Fa Cai

Date: 25 January 2020
Time: Full day!
Venue: One of the City Hall's halls

It was shaping up to be a lovely new year. Qing watched as the sun broke through the horizon, scattering golden rays across the city. It was a Saturday, and he'd been up all night preparing for it. Even though he had no parents who required immortality, he stayed up through the night anyway, counting down the hours until the day was due to begin.

The hall was cloaked in red and gold. Banners with chinese calligraphy hung on the sides of the entrance in and out of the hall, and a red square with the character "福" was placed upside-down above the doorpost. Inside the room, there were tables full of traditional and modern foods — pineapple tarts, bowls of prawn crackers, sweet glutinous rice cakes known as nian gao, and more. A separate table with drinks stood near the foods, cups on either side of the drink dispensers. Firecrackers, unlit, were draped from the walls; pictures of oriental dragons and rats were scattered around the room.

By the doorway was a table with a pyramidal pile of oranges, the topmost fruit gleaming like gold. At the base of the pyramid lay a strip of red packets, each containing a token $2.

Qing didn't know anyone who celebrated the lunar new year, but he hoped that people would come all the same.

"Ah," said Qing, uncharacteristically friendly, "Welcome! 恭喜发财，新年快乐!"

It was a time for joy, and celebration, and laughter. The edges of his eyes crinkled kindly as the god moved to greet his first guest. He didn't expect her to have any idea of what to do, but he grabbed two oranges from the pile, and a red packet, and handed them to her with both hands. Zheng Qing expected that she'd receive them with both hands, too, meeting her at the door with a smile on his face.

"Been a long time, huh? 'S no problem, just get back into the mood." With that, Qing waved a hand around the hall. She could sit wherever she wanted. The aura she was emanating was weirdly gentle, but they could all do with some gentleness this new year. Qing didn't think anything of it. He'd seen more than enough funny things in his time on the island.

Now that the first one had arrived, he felt like more would follow. With another pair of oranges and a red packet, he stood by the door to wait.



Note: completely open!! just hop in whenever. no post order.

"No, no, not at all!" Before he could reply to the girl, a boy hastily apologised for "interrupting", with a deep bow. "Come in — celebrate the new year with us — or me, mostly." Qing smiled at him — a welcoming sort of grin — and offered him the same thing he'd offered the girl. He refrained from calling the kid, "kid". In the school, they were mostly legitimate kids — out here, he didn't know who was an adult who'd ended up stuck as a child.

"We can't all be home for the new year," he explained. "So we have to make do with the people around us."

It was partly the reason he'd set it up here. Qing sure didn't miss the other gods' meddling in his affairs, but they'd been the only family he'd known. It was the year of the rat, this year; a whole milienna's worth of celebrations, and more.

He waved aside the girl's words with a genial motion of his hands. As long as she was enjoying herself...

"You can call me Zheng Qing," he said, still smiling. "What are your names?"

"Nah." Qing shrugged again, waving the kid inside. He stood by the door again, to wait, quirking a brow at Serena's words. Well, if she wanted to be called that, then who was he to disagree? He nodded then; if she hung around, there would be no fights breaking out. He could just feel it. She was a pretty peaceful thing.

A few more people filtered in. Qing greeted each of them the same way. They milled around, interacting with each other; total strangers made family in one of the world's oldest traditions. It warmed Qing's heart to see so many gathered in the place — he felt as though finally, though it wasn't home, that he had found a place to be.

"Lovely, all. Now that everyone's here--" Everyone wasn't here, but a good many were gathered already. Qing fiddled with the bright red scarf around his neck. "--Let's toss the yusheng — lohei. Grab a pair of chopsticks, everyone."