Thread by @gooseislands

Accident Elderly Acquisition
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It started like most things in Yunmeng, there was a need.

They had lost nearly all the elders to the Wen, only 3 survived. Two, a married couple, had been visiting their newest great grandchild at the time. And the third was

Relatively unknown and managed to be evacuated and pass unnoticed.

But 3 was not enough to teach the next generation, to pass on the traditions and lore.

YMJ and GL had already been in an agreement, sending disciples to LP in exchange for supplies to GL.

It was simple enough to request a few Lan Elders to assist the few Jiang Elders.

Winter was the best time for the exchange, everything in GL came to a slow halt in the face of a cold northern winter.

YMJ, on the other hand, was the southern most of all the great

sects and would barely see, at most, a light frost.

The elders had agreed on one season, two at most, to lend their help.

However.

It is one thing to know that Yunmeng has warm winters, and another thing for their old bones to experience it.

The elder quarters were built on the outskirts of Yunmeng Jiang, most elders taking a quick boat into the heart of the sect.

This was not to exclude them, but by choice. YMJ was a cultivation sect within a city, built in a similar manner as most southern sects.

(The Wen had also favored this design).

And thus a space was made for the elders to enjoy peace and quiet.

Disciples would bring them any paperwork, once or twice week they would head into Yunmeng Proper to host meetings with SLJ and teach the young disciples.

In between outings to Yunmeng Proper, they enjoyed walking the gardens, quiet games of Go and othe board games, painting, writing poetry.

They were rather enamored with their quiet life.

And when the Lan Elders came, well, it was no wonder they wanted to come back.

At first, it was only the Lan Elders than joined them in the winter. But, despite the rules for gossip, it spread very quickly to all the sects that YMJ

was hosting other clans elders. And for Sect Leaders, particularly young ones, it sounded like a neat solution.

Their (annoying) elders would get a vacation and they would get work done without having to argue for weeks with grumpy elders.

For the first few years it was mostly the Lan Elders and a few from other Southern Sects

SLJ, who had a Sect and a City to run, saw very little of the slowly increasing numbers of Elders.

In fact, their care was entirely delegated to one of his senior staff who had

experience running a hotel.

Later, ppl would look back at this and everything would click into place.

But at the time, everyone was baffled. Of course you respected and cared for your own Elders, but openly inviting everyone? For months at a time? Sometimes half

the year? Absolutely wild
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It took almost 10 years to fully establish, and by then there was nearly 30 full time residents and another 100 that would join them during the winter months.

In exchange for hosting them, YMJ had gotten many favorable trade agreements from

other sects. (Sometimes so favorable it was for the best the Elders in question knew nothing of them).

And the Elders in question would do small tasks for the sect, mostly teaching the children or disciples every now and again if they were able.

But most interestingly, at the end of winter, their would be a grand celebration. Any art work, poetry, music, or even plays done by the Elders would be displayed or performed.

There would be a week long Go tournament, that became quite popular.

Debates and Lectures were scheduled and drew many scholars to YMJ to attend them.
--
LQR had been attending YMJ First Flower of Spring Festival since it had begun, but had never had the time to fully take an entire season off from his work.

He was openly impressed with the young SLJ for creating such a festival that honored the scholarly arts in a way he had seldom seen.

(He was also secretly grateful that the majority of the Lan Elders left for months at a time and he was finally able to get work done)

And SLJ was not a smug man, but he was prideful. And he should take pride in this. It is one thing to have a festival that is popular with civilians and cultivators, but rarely does a cultivation sect attract attention from the royal palace.

YMJ was busy everyday, but the sheer number of people who had been drawn to the Sect was truly astounding.

He had heard from Elder Fa that YMJ had become a popular tourist city. Protected very a Great Sect and the staggering beauty of the lakes and the amount

of detail SLJ had put into every inch of rebuilding, it was no surprise it had become so popular.
--
(YMJ quietly introduces the concept of retirement homes and going south for the winter and ends up hosting all the Snowbirds)
#mdzs #MXTXReverseTropeFest

Idk where I was going, I just saw accident elderly acquisition and I was possessed 🤷🏼‍♀️💜

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