welcome to Silently Into The Night
Hello and welcome! We are a modern-day reincarnation AU of the novel/donghua/drama Mó Dào Zǔ Shī, also known as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Chén Qíng Lìng, or The Untamed. The characters have been reincarnated into modern day, where some have regained their memories of their cultivation days, while others have not yet. Original characters are accepted, but please have a good story for them if they were a cultivator in their past life. The RP takes place in Palo Alto, California, and is set in the current year.
Modern Reincarnation AU
silently into the night redeim
Blueprint is a premade Proboards v5 theme designed and built by punki of Adoxography and Pixel Perfect. SILENTLY INTO THE NIGHT is the work of REDEIM. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Mó Dào Zǔ Shī is copyright Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. All images belong to their original owners.
updates
JULY 07, 2020
And we're officially open! Feel free to leave questions or chat with us in the cbox. :)
JULY 06, 2020
Soft opening of the site!
Colleagues (Meng Yao) [complete]
Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 9:19:01 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 9:19:01 GMT -8
Meng Yao was absolutely delighted with how serious Mingjue was taking his suggestions. Part of him had just said it to make conversation. He figured because the older man wasn't particularly close or overly familiar with people that he'd just brush him off, but he was taking him seriously.
"So if I buy a junker, you'll come over to my place and help me fix it?" he asked, thinking about the, decidedly not a junker, 1955 Ford Thunderbird he'd had sitting in his garage for the past year. He'd found it in a junkyard when he was doing fieldwork for a science lab class and fell in love with it. Then he did what he normally did, got bored after attaining what he wanted.
"As for cooking, I have a kitchen. No set up required. Though you'd probably be stuck wearing a 'kiss the cook' apron unless you bring your own," Meng Yao teased. He didn't own that apron, but he'd certainly buy one to see Mingjue wear it.
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 16:51:34 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 16:51:34 GMT -8
Mingjue nodded very slightly and said, "If you wanted my company and help, I do enjoy fixing cars, and I'd be happy to help. We'd have to figure out how our schedules aligned though."
He made a face at Meng Yao's description of his apron and said, "I rarely wear aprons when I cook, pretty much only when I'm making something I know will be very messy. Anyhow, that apron sounds like something that would be more your style than mine."
He considered Meng Yao's comment about his kitchen and then added, "How well stocked are your supplies and tools in your kitchen? When I mentioned setting up a kitchen, I wasn't so much talking about the physical space as figuring out what cooking tools you might need and what cooking staples are worth stocking. The physical space of a kitchen is generally the part that comes with a living space, and sometimes it's worth changing, but most of the time, it's simplest to adapt to it, also cheapest."
He wasn't sure how interested Meng Yao actually was in this topic, or if the other man was already a decent cook. Making sure that he wasn't lecturing Meng Yao on something he already knew about, he added, "Though you might already have your own feelings on this. I don't know how much you cook for yourself, especially if you do already have an apron."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 17:05:43 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 17:05:43 GMT -8
Meng Yao tried to stop himself, but couldn't help from laughing, rather loudly. "Your face, when I mentioned that apron." He placed his hands on his stomach, still laughing, "I don't even own that apron, but for that face, I would 100% buy it!"
After a minute or so, he was able to control his laughter and calm down a bit, "as for the conflicting schedule thing, you have my number now. We should set something up," he said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
"You're so serious," Meng Yao said, making a silly "serious" face. "I know most houses have a kitchen, I was teasing you. My kitchen is pretty stocked though. I've taken care of myself for a long time, so cooking was something I had to learn a while back. That being said, I can make maybe 30 dishes really well, enough to open a restaurant, but nothing else."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 17:45:33 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 17:45:33 GMT -8
Mingjue decided that he wasn't going to dignify the further discussion of the apron with a response. Meng Yao laughing that hard was kind of amusing though, and he couldn't help but smile a little bit along with Meng Yao's laughter. It did feel kind of good to get that much laughter out of someone, even if he was pretty sure that Meng Yao was teasing, and possibly testing, him just a little bit.
Mingjue nodded when the comment turned to the schedule, and he said, "If you actually want to, and go ahead and text me about it now, I won't forget later. I obviously can't right now since I'm driving."
Mingjue thought about how Meng Yao talked about cooking. It was a little bit strange for him because he rarely made specific dishes except for holidays and special events. He'd reference recipes mostly if he wanted to figure out how to cook a specific thing, but generally he just cooked based on what he had available, and he rarely cooked directly from recipes even when he referenced them. He said, "I've been told that I am serious before, so this is not surprising. Do you just make dishes by the recipe every time, or do you experiment with them? I don't usually use recipes when it comes to cooking. I learned from Huaisang's mom, my step-mom, when I was younger, and even when I use recipes it's mostly as a reference to learn something new. There's a few things that I always cook the same way, for holidays and stuff, but even that, I could probably write a recipe down for, but I'm not sure that there's ever been a written down recipe for any of them."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 18:24:45 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 18:24:45 GMT -8
"Yes, I actually want to. Why? Do I not look mechanically inclined?" Meng Yao asked. He knew he most definitely looked like he'd be completely clueless around a car, and in truth, according to Mingjue, he probably was. That whole book smarts versus practical application thing.
He grabbed his phone and quickly typed a text to MingJue's number saying, "You. Me. Old car repair date~" with a winky-face emoji.
"My core 30 dishes are all in here," he said pointing to his head. "Then again, like I said, I have a photographic memory so I probably wouldn't need a recipe in front of me to follow one." He crinkled his nose at himself, unsure if that counted as cheating, "with those dishes, I used to use a recipe, but throughout the years I've modified them to suit me better. So I guess to answer your question, I would use a recipe until I know that I like the dish and decide it needs to be improved."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 18:57:24 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 18:57:24 GMT -8
Mingjue shrugged a little bit and said, "I wasn't sure if you were asking a hypothetical or you actually wanted to do something like that. It wasn't in what you'd said you liked to do with your time earlier, and like I said, I don't know you that well."
He paused for just a second, and then thoughtfully added, "Yet."
It was becoming pretty clear that Meng Yao was at least somewhat interested in getting to know him. If they hung out more than a few times before Meng Yao got bored of him, he was going to have to be sure to have Meng Yao actually meet Xichen, and maybe Huaisang, to help make sure that he was actually OK. Meng Yao was confusing.
Mingjue said, "It sounds like you have a decent feel for what you like in cooking at least then. I don't think that I've ever actually cooked a written recipe that I looked up exactly the way it was written first try though. I can figure out the way the recipe is structured and make substitutions so that it's more to my taste or the taste of people I'm cooking for or what's available in the grocery store. So I usually improvise and make variations as I go. I'd definitely still count memorizing a recipe and cooking directly from the directions as cooking from a recipe even if you didn't have it physically in front of you."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 19:07:48 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 19:07:48 GMT -8
"I am a man of many mysteries. But one of things I said I liked to do was learn new things, this most definitely falls into that category." Meng Yao flashed a big grin, as genuine as his earlier laughter, "I appreciate your use of the word 'yet'."
He was having a really great time on the drive home. He had half expected the car ride to be in complete silence but he thought it was going rather well. It felt really natural to talk to Mingjue and he found himself having genuine fun. Meng Yao carefully reigned himself in, making sure nothing appeared different on the outside. Getting close to people for things other than sex was usually out of bounds for him. He'd have to watch himself around Mingjue.
"Call me a cheater why don't you," Meng Yao feigned injury at the memorized recipe comment, then smiled. "You might find this a surprise, but I find you easy to talk to."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 19:17:44 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 19:17:44 GMT -8
Mingjue nodded and said, "That's fair. Often enough when people have told me they like learning new things as a hobby, they don't mean it like that, but more in the sense of reading about things, which is also, of course worthwhile, but not all that many people in academic crowds seem to see why I'd want to get my hands dirty with dealing with something that a mechanic could do for them."
Mingjue was honestly surprised, and that showed a bit on his face, when Meng Yao said that he was easy to talk to. He said softly, "I have not had many people tell me that before. Most people seem to think that I'm too serious to be easy to talk to, or that I'm insufficiently talkative."
He'd heard both of those many times before. Sometimes even from Huaisang, when Huaisang was complaining about him to him. He knew that his little brother didn't mean it the same way that many of his peers had in high school and college, but that didn't mean that it hadn't still rankled a bit. Xichen was one of the few people who'd never told him in that frustrated tone that he was too serious.
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 19:39:13 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 19:39:13 GMT -8
"You're the one who challenged me and my book smarts. I get several things out of this challenge. One, it appeals to my competitive nature. Two, I either learn something new because the books were indeed, insufficient or three, I prove you wrong and my books smarts prevail, which ties back to number one, my competitive nature." Meng Yao chuckled and shook his head at his own logic. Studying psychology was interesting, for sure, but it just helped him point out to himself how messed up he really was.
"Well I don't know what's wrong with other people, but I find you incredibly easy to talk to. If you think you don't talk much, please take note that you've done a lot of talking in this car ride. Can I talk someone's ear off and fill a silence the size of the Grand Canyon, yes. Have I had to? Absolutely not." He glanced over at the other man, immediately wanting to turn the psycho-analysis off himself and onto someone else.
"Is there something wrong with being serious?" he asked.
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 19:49:11 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 19:49:11 GMT -8
Mingjue nodded slightly at Meng Yao's explanation of what he got out of it and said, "I see. I would be happy to help someone learn something new, and it's pleasant to see someone who often relies on book learning be open to the thought that there might be something to be gained outside of it."
He shrugged at Meng Yao's comment that he'd talked plenty during the car ride and said, "I have no problem answering questions. Like I said before, I'm fairly straightforward about such things, but I am not inclined to add to conversations without prompting or being asked my input. If you'd decided that what you wanted to do for the car ride was talk to me about things without asking questions or soliciting my input, I wouldn't have been bothered by that."
That was, in fact, how a lot of long car rides with his little brother went. He knew that Huaisang did listen when he needed to talk to Huaisang about things, but their dynamic was such that it tended to be Huaisang who did all the talking. Xichen would solicit exchanges with him, asking his opinion and trying to get him involved in the conversation, but he'd not met many people, at all let alone in his age group, who cared to do that.
He added, "I suspect that means that you're a skilled conversationalist more than anything about my conversational abilities."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 20:05:26 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 20:05:26 GMT -8
"Mingjue-ge! You're going to make me blush with all these compliments," Meng Yao giggled, hiding his nose and mouth in the shirt he was wearing. "First I'm open minded for a bookish person and now I'm a skilled conversationalist?"
He pulled his face from his shirt and started fanning himself dramatically, "you've got me sweatin' like a sinner in church," he said with a heavy southern drawl.
He laughed at himself but then schooled his features, "please give yourself more credit though. You can be quite chatty when you want to be, and you say very interesting things. I'm looking forward to learning from you."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 20:18:01 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 20:18:01 GMT -8
Mingjue would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't paying attention to the traffic on the highway. He muttered, "What is that accent even meant to be?"
Mingjue shrugged very slightly at Meng Yao saying that he could be chatty and replied, "I'm not the most practiced conversationalist. This is the most that I've talked with anyone other than Xichen in a while. Like I said, I'm not prone to getting involved in conversations without prompting."
He added, "I'm glad to know that I'm not boring you though."
He was a little surprised at the amount of traffic considering the time of night. He'd initially taken the 101 route out of SF, since that was what he was used to for heading back to Palo Alto, and taking new routes through the City was always hazardous. However, as they got to the turn off for 92, at the prompting of his GPS, he decided to switch to the 280 route for the rest of the way down to Los Altos Hills. He wasn't sure if it was normally the faster way, but from his GPS's complaining, he was guessing that 101 had either construction or an accident further south.
He felt like he was proving his own point about not being a great conversationalist as he found himself not knowing what to say next.
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 21:06:12 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 21:06:12 GMT -8
"Sir! Are you talkin' 'bout my accent? Lil' ol' me?" Meng Yao continued in that southern drawl before dissolving into laughter again. He reached over and lightly hit Mingjue on his upper arm a few times as he laughed.
As his laughter started to peter out he looked over at Mingjue. "I'll have you know I haven't laughed like that in a long time. I usually do the," he offered a cute and pretty laugh that showed off his dimples and was suited for flirting, "but rarely do I just.... guffaw like that. You are hilarious. 'Tis a fact now."
Meng Yao was genuinely so entertained by their conversation that he didn't notice the traffic, the change in direction or the fact that Mingjue didn't seem to know where to go next in their conversation.
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 11, 2020 21:33:45 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 11, 2020 21:33:45 GMT -8
Mingjue was genuinely sort of surprised that Meng Yao seemed to be enjoying the interaction so much. He shook his head just a little bit when Meng Yao said that he was funny, not sure what brought one that decision on the other man's part. He wasn't sure that he agreed, but he wasn't going to argue with Meng Yao about it. It was a nice feeling to have someone seeming to actually enjoy his conversation.
Even so, he'd lost steam a bit, so for the moment, he focused on driving, not able to look over at Meng Yao other than glimpses out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if this was the point where it would get actually awkward because he couldn't figure out the next step of the conversation. He told himself that if they got to the ramp onto 280 and he hadn't figured out what to say yet, he would try to say something. He really hoped that Meng Yao would figure out how to restart the conversation before that though because Mingjue was pretty sure that this was decidedly outside of his skill set.
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 11, 2020 21:47:20 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 11, 2020 21:47:20 GMT -8
Meng Yao was so busy smiling to himself, it took him a minute to realize the conversation had lulled. He glanced over at Mingjue and could practically see the wheels turning in his brain as he looked for a conversation topic.
Meng Yao pressed his lips together tightly and tried to do some deep breathing. He couldn't believe how adorable Mingjue looked as he hunted for a conversation starter. He started shaking silently in his seat, repressing his laughter into silent ones the racked his body.
He couldn't take it any longer and burst out laughing again. We're talking knee slapping, head thrown back and possibly even a snort, laughter. "You look... so earnest... trying to come... up with a topic," he said, through laughter and gasps.
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