Poll: Inter-realm transport options (drama)

[china_shop]

Poll #33446 Inter-realm transport options

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

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How do random Dixingren end up in Haixing?

View Answers

there's a black market in tokens allowing travel through the Dragon Gate
9 (69.2%)

there's a third Gate (which may or may not piggyback off the Dragon Gate)
6 (46.2%)

Ye Zun acquired a power to jury-rig a temporary Gate
4 (30.8%)

someone has a really strong portal power
3 (23.1%)

a prisoner on a hundred-year sentence dug an extremely long escape tunnel from their prison cell... upward
0 (0.0%)

thanks to an ambitious former Dijun's infrastructure programme, there's a mostly forgotten pulley system / elevator
0 (0.0%)

an inventor built an illegal teleportation device
2 (15.4%)

the original starship still exists, far outside the city, and it has a beam-me-up transporter and juuust enough warp core left to power it
3 (23.1%)

native Dixing megafauna instinctively tunnel in upward spirals, and one or two of them just kept tunnelling (and then some enterprising/desperate young soul painstakingly carved in a staircase)
4 (30.8%)

other
2 (15.4%)

Does Lao Chu own any items of clothing that aren’t black or dark blue?

View Answers

one Hawaiian shirt that he liked the look of at the time but never wears
2 (15.4%)

other (please specify in comments)
2 (15.4%)

no
9 (69.2%)

Comments

[trobadora]

Hee! All the transportation options are hilarious, but my actual theory is a) illegally used tokens, as you say, and/or b) portal powers that can piggyback on the official passage while bypassing the Dragon Gate. (Aka, what I wrote in How We Save Each Other. *g*)

As for Lao-Chu: no. If someone at one point gifted him some colourful item - and I wouldn't put it past the SID team to do that as more or less friendly teasing (less, early on; more, later) - he got rid of it immediately, and therefore doesn't own it any more. Until and unless either Xiao-Guo or Shen Wei gifts him something, he will continue to do this - he knows what he likes, and he's sticking with it. (And honestly, I don't think either SW or GCC would try to change that.)

[china_shop]

The illegally used tokens seems like such an easy thing to stop -- I feel like if that's the only way people are getting up, all you need is to post a sentry at the entry or exit points and voilà. But yeah, if it piggybacks and branches off that would work.

Until and unless either Xiao-Guo or Shen Wei gifts him something, he will continue to do this - he knows what he likes, and he's sticking with it. (And honestly, I don't think either SW or GCC would try to change that.)

See, I just don't know if that's what he likes, or if he's copying the Envoy. Maybe finding out that Shen Wei sometimes wears colours a colour would give CSZ license to branch out a little too? As a kid, he at least wore a mix of black and white:

[facethestrange]

"See, I just don't know if that's what he likes, or if he's copying the Envoy."

Ahh, I love this?? xD The SID making fun of CSZ being an Envoy fanboy is one of my favorite things, and if cosplay is involved, they may have a bigger reason to think that than I thought. ;D

"Shen Wei sometimes wears colours a colour"

Hee!! ♡ (There was a post somewhere on tumblr that was like 'Shen Wei wears blue because Kunlun wore blue, and Kunlun wore blue because present day Shen Wei wears blue' - I love when the time loop does things like that. :D Which is all the time. :D)

[trobadora]

I think splicing into the passage makes the most sense, yeah.

As for CSZ, IMO he's not just copying the Envoy - maybe that's how it started out, but he does like what he's wearing. My headcanon is definitely that he has no interest in changing it. (And I don't think what someone wore as a child means anything for their adult tastes.)

[facethestrange]

Hee, now I want to know a situation where SW would give CSZ any clothes, black or not - some kind of SID 'Secret Santa' equivalent? :D :D

[china_shop]

I wrote a little ChuGuo "undercover as a couple" thing where Shen Wei had taken CSZ to his tailor to fit him out in a suit. :D :D :D

[trobadora]

Hee! That would be fun! :D

[donutsweeper]

Lao Chu has an esthetic he has to maintain so all his clothes are dark black or blue... expect for his boxers. No one's going to see those so he goes all out with wild colors and patterns.

He will never speak of the time Zhao Yunlan noticed them. If he doesn't acknowledge it then it NEVER HAPPENED.

[china_shop]

expect for his boxers. No one's going to see those so he goes all out with wild colors and patterns.

LOL!!! (And heeeeee, now I want that fic. :D)

[facethestrange]

Ahahah, this is a fantastic concept, yes! xD :D :D

"No one's going to see those"

*ahem* I feel like that's gonna change soon. xD

[facethestrange]

I saw this video on tumblr today and immediately thought of your comment. xD :D :D (Entirely sfw, it's socks and not boxers. :D)

[donutsweeper]

bwhahaha perfect! yes!

[china_shop]

LOLOL! *chef's kiss*

[teaotter]

Okay, so I think it's two-fold. In my headcanon, Dixing *is* the remainder of the very damaged/depleted ship that brought them here. The portals are run by the ship's computer. If you're lucky and determined (or have the right power), you might stumble onto a way to get the ship to generate a temporary, one-way portal that sends you to the surface.

But I also think there are the traditional methods of bribery, trickery, and seduction to get the portal guards to send you through. It just depends on what resources you have. Though I think it's less likely to be "you get a token" and more "someone does you a favor and scans their token long enough to open the portal for you."

[facethestrange]

This is SUCH a cool theory, and I voted for the spaceship just because of your comment! :D

[china_shop]

*In my headcanon, Dixing *is* the remainder of the very damaged/depleted ship that brought them here.*

Ooh, fascinating! In your headcanon, do the existing residents know that? And is the ship sentient?

(I don't know how much it's okay to throw potentially contradictory canon microtrivia at your headcanon. It sounds like a nifty headcanon, and there's no reason why you shouldn't slot it into canon if you want to, and I think it's all hearsay microtrivia anyway. ;-)

[teaotter]

I *will* respond to this in excruciating headcanon detail, but it's too much to type on my phone tonight. ;)

[trobadora]

that makes a lot of sense about bribery and all that, yeah!

[facethestrange]

I voted for just about everything, lol, just because I don't really have any detailed theory and the options are so much fun. :D :D But what I've always lowkey assumed is either some kind of bribery/black market thing or someone's secrets powers/inventions, or both. And in addition to that, I voted for the spaceship (because of teaotter's comment! :D) and for the megafauna tunnel with what sounds like an absolutely nightmarish staircase inside, lol, just because it's both adorable and horrifying. :D

And Lao Chu has exactly one colorful item of clothing but it's not a Hawaiian shirt, it's some kind of pastel kawaii sweater that Xiao Guo got him (like this but with puppets on it - I couldn't find any but I'm sure they exist xD), and he does wear it but only when they're alone. :D :D

[china_shop]

I voted for just about everything, lol

Hee! *wins*

and for the megafauna tunnel with what sounds like an absolutely nightmarish staircase inside, lol

Ha, I just realised that this could be an analogue for the novel's Buzhou Mountain path to Heaven (if Haixing was Heaven, which relative to Dixing it could kind of be if you squinted). :D

And Lao Chu has exactly one colorful item of clothing but it's not a Hawaiian shirt, it's some kind of pastel kawaii sweater that Xiao Guo got him

LOL, awwwwww! <3 <3 <3

[autodach]

Omg that sweater XD
I am blessed with imagining Chu Shuzhi wearing this at home.

[autodach]

Lol great polls♥️

The elevator is the funniest option, but I voted for illegal access tokens.
Chu Shuzhi has only black and blue clothes, and weak colour vision so he thinks the blues are also black.

[trobadora]

Oh hey, that's a fun headcanon about CSZ's colour vision! Aw. ♥

[china_shop]

but I voted for illegal access tokens.

I'm interested in this option because I think it implicates the Regent (since technically only the Envoy and the Regent have permission to travel through the Gate). Is he corruptly trading in illegal access tokens, on the one hand, while punishing escapees that the Envoy brings back, on the other?? Or are there other people in the palace who can make access tokens somehow? /mostly rhetorical, hi! :D

and weak colour vision so he thinks the blues are also black.

Hee! *hearts*

[facethestrange]

"and weak colour vision so he thinks the blues are also black."

LOLOL, this is fantastic and I love it. :D