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]
Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 8, 2020 13:44:57 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 8, 2020 13:44:57 GMT -8
Mingjue had a consistent schedule these days, which he appreciated. He had to get all of his studying done during the day on the weekends, but he definitely preferred mostly working weekday afternoons at the club where he was the bouncer. They were quieter. It wasn't that he never worked the weekends, but he generally only was there for events.
Normally, Wednesday evenings were quiet, but apparently this was not a normal Wednesday. He'd had to politely convince three people to leave already, and the main shows hadn't even started for the evening. He was currently watching the party there for a twenty-first birthday carefully. They'd had two of the three problems earlier, and he didn't trust them to not cause another. There were some regulars scattered around the rest of the space, and while he didn't entirely understand why people would be regulars at such a place, he also knew that they knew better than to cause a problem. Granted, the boss had hired him at least in part because he had no clue why someone would want to be a regular and therefore wasn't a problem for any of the dancers. The closest he got to getting it was knowing that the athleticism of some of the dancers was pretty impressive.
The birthday party crowd seemed to have settled down some, transfixed by the show currently on stage, and Mingjue took the opportunity to walk around the space and check on the room from some different angles. He also wandered by the door to the backstage area, both to check that no one was lingering there who shouldn't have been and so that if any of the dancers needed to get his attention, it would be easier for them to do so. It would have been easier if the birthday party was in a part of the room he could get to quickly from his usual station near the backstage door.
He sighed as he waited there for a bit, greeting a few of the dancers he was friendly with as they went back to get changed for their sets later in. He hoped that the rest of the evening would be more typical of a Wednesday.
Meng Yao
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 8, 2020 17:44:33 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 8, 2020 17:44:33 GMT -8
Meng Yao slipped in the back door of the club and headed straight for the changing room. He had been out to eat "on the town" and the waiter had completely dumped an entire plate of pasta in his lap. Meng Yao had, of course, smiled graciously and tried to calm the frazzled waiter down but to no avail. So instead, he asked for his food to be boxed up and headed straight for the club, knowing he had at least one change of clothes in his locker.
As he fiddled with the combination lock on the door he felt a tap on his shoulder. Shit.... it's Wednesday isn't it... He painted a smile onto his face and slowly turned, "Preshea, darling, how are you?" he leaned in and gave her an air kiss on each cheek.
Preshea mimed her kisses back, "good lord, Yao-i, are you on your period?" she pointed to his lap.
Meng Yao closed his mouth but kept his smile in place, looking down his front where the marinara sauce had stained his shirt and pants. How many times do I need to tell this woman, my name is Meng Yao - not Yao-i. "Shay-shay~" he said in a teasing voice, dishing back what he'd been served, "at least we know I'm not pregnant!" He turned back to his lock and finished the combination.
With the locker open, he sorted through clothes, pointedly ignoring the dancer huffing impatiently behind him.
"Are you dancing tonight? You never dance Wednesdays," Preshea asked, snipping at him.
"No, I never dance Wednesdays because they're slow and tips are bad, but I know this is your night so I'm sure the crowd will be as rowdy as ever as they go crazy over," he looked down at her outfit, cringing to himself, "your new outfit. It looks so good!"
"Thanks, bitch! I do look good don't I!" she strutted up a few paces away and back, missing the buried barb in the compliment.
"Gorgeous," Meng Yao replied no longer paying her any attention. He selected a fishnet top, sadly, the most substantial top in the locker and a pair of skin tight jeans that he'd probably have to fight his way into. "Go kill it girl!" he said with false enthusiasm, ushering her towards the door leading to the public.
He had been in such a hurry to get rid of Preshea he completely missed the bouncer at the door, otherwise he'd have at least said hello. Instead, he tugged his shirt off over his head and stared at the stain, pretending his frown could clean the material. That'll be a dry cleaning bill. He tugged down his pants, having to wriggle out of them not only because of the drying stain but because they too were skin tight.
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 8, 2020 18:01:19 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 8, 2020 18:01:19 GMT -8
Mingjue was surprised to see Meng Yao come in to the club, it wasn't one of his usual nights. He found Meng Yao generally a little bit unsettling, but the younger man was clearly having a bit of a rough evening considering the amount of what looked like pasta down his front. He scowled thoughtfully from his spot near the door to the changing room, and then called out voice loud enough to carry, but soft enough that patrons wouldn't eavesdrop, "Um, Meng Yao, if you need a layer that's a bit more substantial I've got one of my brother's, uh, jackets? overshirts? something like that out in my car that you could borrow if you wait until my break in about ten minutes."
He realized that he should probably clarify, "He's around your size and much more fashionable than I am."
He wasn't sure if Meng Yao would accept the offer of help, but it was literally his job to make sure that the dancers at the club were safe, and he'd have worried over them even if it wasn't his job. He liked being sure that people were safe when he could.
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 8, 2020 18:32:47 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 8, 2020 18:32:47 GMT -8
Meng Yao looked up at Mingjue's voice, surprised to see him there, "oh, sorry. Didn't mean to give you a free show without your consent," he said with a wink.
He started slipping into the clean jeans, jumping up and down to get them up all the way, "though I figure this part is far more entertaining than the regular shows. I know I look like a fool jumping around in here. I'd really appreciate the shirt, I'll make sure to have it dry cleaned before returning it."
He buttoned his jeans and knowing he had another shirt coming, decided to remain shirtless until then. He started folding his dirty clothes and placing them into a neat pile. He blew a strand of hair out of his face and sat down, only then realizing that his hair must be coming undone if he had to blow it out of his face.
"I can definitely wait though, are you sure your brother won't need it?" he asked, getting up and heading to the mirror, letting down his hair. The jet black mane tumbled out of its bun and cascaded down to his waist before he raked his fingers through it, trying to tame it a little before caging it again.
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 8, 2020 18:47:48 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 8, 2020 18:47:48 GMT -8
Mingjue blinked a few times at the free show comment, trying to will his brain to catch up. He was mostly turned away from Meng Yao, and it wasn't like the other man had stripped all the way down before he'd looked away, but he'd noticed the shirt. Finally he said, "I, uh, wasn't watching you change, just saw the shirt that you grabbed while you were talking to Preshea."
He continued to look away, used to the sounds of the dance of getting into too tight jeans because his younger brother sometimes insisted on wearing them, another thing that didn't entirely make sense to Mingjue, but he figured that it wasn't his clothes, so it wasn't his problem.
He laughed a little bit at Meng Yao asking if his brother would need the shirt. He said, "Considering Huaisang left it in there without wearing it weeks ago, I think that he'll be pleasantly surprised if I give it back to him. He's probably completely forgotten where it is. He was bringing it along in case it got chilly during an evening event or something, so it's not doing anyone any good just sitting in the car."
Mingjue glanced back into the room once the noises of frustration over the jeans stopped. He was a bit surprised that Meng Yao wasn't wearing a shirt, and that he had his hair down, but the shirt at least made a certain amount of sense, he was after all waiting for a different shirt. Mingjue said, "I'm going to do another walk around the main area. There's a group of guys here for a twenty-first birthday being kind of disruptive, so I want to check they're not starting any new nonsense before I take my break. And then I'll be back with the shirt in a few minutes."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 8, 2020 18:56:28 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 8, 2020 18:56:28 GMT -8
Meng Yao watched Mingjue in the mirror, smiling to himself at how determined he seemed to not look at him. "I never said you were watching my show, only that I stripped in front of you," he said smirking.
He flipped his hair to the other side, still raking fingers through it, "I'll see you when you get back then. Thanks again." He pushed his hair behind him, pulled it up to the top of his head, and smoothed it down on his scalp before starting to twist it to make his bun. "You seem like a doting older brother. You're like a completely different person when you talk about your brother."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 8, 2020 19:05:10 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 8, 2020 19:05:10 GMT -8
Mingjue smiled a little bit sheepishly and replied, "Oh, I mean, I work here. I'm used to it. I've just learned to mostly look at people's faces."
He actually smiled when Meng Yao mentioned that he sounded like he doted on his younger brother and said, "I've watched out for him for a long time, and he's seven years younger than me, so I guess so."
He waved a bit and headed to walk around the main area. The birthday party was still being better behaved, for which Mingjue was relieved, and no one else had started anything. His phone buzzed in his pocket to tell him it was time to take his break, and he slipped out to the small parking area for employees in the alley, grabbing his food and the shirt from the car. It was a soft black swishy thing that Mingjue didn't entirely know how to describe, but he thought he'd seen Meng Yao wear something at least somewhat similar. He didn't really know enough about clothes to be sure. Huaisang was a little bit taller than Meng Yao, but not by enough that Meng Yao would drown in the shirt the way he would if Mingjue had offered his own overshirt, which had been his first thought.
He returned went back to the changing room with the shirt in one hand and his food in the other, and when he got there, he held out the shirt towards Meng Yao, "Here, hopefully I'm not too far off about your respective sizes. Do you mind if I eat in here? I normally go back out to my car, but it feels silly to go back and forth, and I try not to eat out at the tables. I don't want the patrons seeing me not looking properly stern."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 8, 2020 21:26:18 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 8, 2020 21:26:18 GMT -8
Meng Yao finished tying his hair back up, assuring himself it was sufficiently tight and wouldn't come back down easily. He looked at himself in the mirror, turning from one side to the other, I don't work out and dance at a strip club for people to only look at my face. He thought sourly.
He turned when he heard Mingjue come back in, "that looks perfect," he said, taking the shirt from him and holding it in front of himself. "Feel free to eat here, I don't mind." He slipped the shirt on and adjusted it so it would hang correctly, it was only a little too big for him, but nothing too noticeable. "Your brother has expensive taste and a good eye," he said, eyeing himself in the mirror.
"I could only imagine Mingjue-ge sitting at one of those tables trying to snack and look properly intimidating," he let out of tinkle of laughter as he imagined it. "Sorry, the 'ge' slipped out, I hope you don't mind."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 8, 2020 21:57:29 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 8, 2020 21:57:29 GMT -8
Mingjue chuckled and said, "I was aware of the expensive, so I'll take your word on the good eye. I had to regulate his clothing expenses until he started selling his art a few years back. A bouncer's salary does not pay for as much expensive clothing as he would have liked."
Mingjue went and sat in a corner, opening his insulated container and fishing out the still warm pork bun. He shrugged at Meng Yao's use of Ge and said, "Enough of my younger brother's friends use it that it's not that weird. My best friend sometimes does too, so again, not super weird. Don't know you all that well though, even if you've been working here for a while."
Mingjue didn't tend to get to know the dancers unless they wanted to be friendly with him. He'd learned pretty early on in the over six years he'd been working there that some of the dancers wanted to have as little to do with the job outside of the job as possible, which meant not befriending their coworkers. Being the bouncer was a kind of weird position in all that as well.
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 9, 2020 8:17:32 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 9, 2020 8:17:32 GMT -8
"Your brother is an artist? What kind of art does he do?" Meng Yao asked, grabbing a chair from in front of the mirrors and dragging it over to sit near Mingjue.
He placed a hand on his own chest and put on a mock hurt/shocked face, "you don't know me that well? We should fix that, Mingjue-ge" he teased. He leaned in to get a better look at the pork bun, "is that all you're eating? That can't be your entire dinner, can it?" Meng Yao walked back over to his locker and picked up his bag of leftovers, "do you want the rest of this? I promise this is not what landed on my clothes, that was someone else's meal."
He walked back over to Mingjue, leftovers in hand, and flipped the chair so he had to straddle the back of it to face the other man. "Why haven't we hung out before? You're kind of a mystery, you know that?"
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 9, 2020 8:52:52 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 9, 2020 8:52:52 GMT -8
Mingjue felt like he didn't have an entirely good answer to the question about Huaisang's art, but he made an attempt, "He won't actually let me see the vast majority of the stuff he does for commissions, though I know some of that's digital. He does do fan painting, and some Chinese calligraphy and traditional brush painting. He's a fine arts major at Stanford though, so that's meant a lot of different types of art materials coming in and out of the house the past few years. I've not kept track of it super well."
Mingjue ignored the teasing because he wasn't quite sure how to respond to it. He'd simply stated a fact. They'd barely interacted before this. He was surprised when Meng Yao offered him food. He eyed the leftovers somewhat suspiciously. Mingjue wasn't a picky eater precisely, but he knew what he liked food-wise, and he didn't tend to venture outside that zone terribly often. Xichen dragging him to restaurants was pretty much the exception to that. He said, "I've got a second one, and this is more like my lunch than my dinner. I always cook after I get home, and I've only got classes in the afternoon, so I don't get up until around noon most days."
Mingjue shrugged and said, "I'm not sure that I'd consider myself mysterious. At the very least, I'm not mysterious on purpose. It's my job to keep the dancers and the space safe, and I know that for some of the dancers that means the bouncer isn't someone they're close to. I try to make sure to let you set the tone of if you want to be friendly because I don't want to be invasive. The boss told me when he hired me like six and half years ago that the bouncer before me wouldn't leave some of the dancers alone and that's why he got fired."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 9, 2020 9:45:31 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 9, 2020 9:45:31 GMT -8
Meng Yao quirked an eyebrow at Mingjue's description of his brother's art, it sounded to him that maybe his brother was creating possibly pornographic materials, but he didn't care, he latched onto the Stanford part. "Wait, your brother goes to Stanford? I got there too, I'm a psych major."
He shook his head, a little upset with himself, he really thought he was more of a people person than this. How did he not know anything about the bouncer. "You're in school too? I really don't know a thing about you, do I? Where do you go?"
He set his leftover's down on the table, if MingJue didn't want them, he wasn't going to be pushy. "Well I don't mind being friendly with coworkers, I never meant to ignore you, I just don't see you very often. I'm usually here on the weekends and I think I've only seen you at special events. You're kind of hard to miss, so I don't think I've had many run ins with you, but I could be wrong." He half-heartedly shrugged his shoulders, "I may have been called self-centered a time or two, so I may have had chances to chat with you that I just missed. Sorry, it was never my intention to be rude."
He offered his hand, "start over? Nice to meet you, I'm Meng Yao."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 9, 2020 9:52:22 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 9, 2020 9:52:22 GMT -8
Mingjue wasn't entirely sure he trusted how easy it was being to talk to Meng Yao, but none of this was stuff that he was particularly uncomfortable sharing. Plenty of the other dancers were aware that he and his brother were both students or of his schedule. And Meng Yao was being friendly. Xichen always told him he should have more friends.
Mingjue nodded slightly and said, "Yes, my brother attends Stanford, as do I. I had started my undergraduate degree there right after high school, but I had to take time off, and I'm returning now to finish it. I'm a civil engineering major."
Mingjue shrugged and added, "And you're right, I'm not normally here on weekends. I used to be more a few years ago, when I was still working all the hours I possibly could, but right now it's my chance to see my little brother. I do work events though. And I'm supposed to be quiet and unobtrusive, it's my job here."
He didn't add that he was generally quiet and unobtrusive, at least as much as someone his height could be. He added, "But it is nice to meet you properly Meng Yao. I'm Nie Mingjue."
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Meng Yao
MDZS Character
No
Pansexual
SingleAF
Velexa
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Jul 9, 2020 10:01:34 GMT -8
Post by Meng Yao on Jul 9, 2020 10:01:34 GMT -8
Meng Yao grasped his hand and shook it firmly, grin and dimples on display, "nice to meet you Mingjue."
"So you're a doting older brother putting his younger brother through college. You're kind of a fluffy teddy bear under the intimidating facade, aren't you?" He withdrew his hand and rested his chin and hands on the back of the chair he was straddling. "I'm surprised I've never seen you around campus, I mean, I know it's huge, but we somehow managed to run into each other cities away, here in San Fransisco, which is large and populous, you'd think we'd run into each other on campus."
Meng Yao did a quick assessment of the other man, trying to place him. With his photographic memory, there was no way he'd miss the man if he'd seen him on campus, but his mind did stop on someone who he could now relate to Mingjue. His face lit up, "Nie Huaisang! He's your brother?! I've seen his work displayed on campus! He's an amazing artist, you must be very proud."
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Nie Mingjue
MDZS Character
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Jul 9, 2020 15:04:04 GMT -8
Post by Nie Mingjue on Jul 9, 2020 15:04:04 GMT -8
Mingjue shrugged, not entirely sure he agreed with Meng Yao's assessment, but not wanting to debate it either. He said, "Huaisang is doing most of that himself honestly. He got a full scholarship for art stuff."
He did smile when Meng Yao praised his brother and said, "I'm glad that you appreciate his art. I'm very proud of how much recognition he gets for it, but I have to admit that a lot of it is sort of lost on me. It's pretty, but I don't really understand the details of what makes it good or bad art. It makes Huaisang happy though, and that's important."
He contemplated Meng Yao for a moment and said, "When I'm on campus, I'm mostly in the engineering buildings, and this is my first quarter back, so I'm not surprised if we've not seen each other around. I do go to Huaisang's exhibitions when they open because he wants me to show up, but unless my best friend decides he wants to see them a second time, I don't normally go more than once."
A thought crossed his mind and he said, "I'm going to be done with my break soon, but if you didn't drive and you live on or near campus or on the way down there, and you don't mind waiting around until the end of my shift, I could give you a ride back."
He didn't know if Meng Yao would take him up on the offer, but he'd given various of the dancers rides home enough times, especially when someone was bugging them, that it seemed like the right offer to make.
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