you are an ancient chinese poet in exile
Created for the 2024 Neo-Twiny Jam in Twine Harlowe. This project is exactly 500 words.
You are an ancient Chinese poet in exile at a beautifully scenic location, but... you miss your friends very much. Go about your day haunted by how badly you've been treated by the emperor while also worrying that he's being taken advantage of by bad-faith officials at court, drink lots of wine, stare at rivers, and also the moon.
Optional but recommended soundtrack for this game: "The Fisherman's Song at Dusk" by Hong Ting
Content warnings: Alcoholism, metaphorical suicide.
Any errors in historical portrayal are entirely my own. This project is wholly born from vibes and period dramas with haphazard research in-between.
Cover image is "Li Bai Writing Poems (李白寫詩)" taken from the British Library for non-commercial use, background image is Dong Yuan's "Xiao and Xiang Rivers" which is in the public domain and lives in the Beijing Palace Museum.
Comments
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Ooo, I'm obsessed with the way you describe the scenery! Being able to paint such a vivid picture in such little words is genuinely admirable, and I instantly felt myself being immersed into the world and shoes of the character you were describing. I also adore how the little things the player chooses to inspect reflects the poem being made at the end, it's something I wasn't expecting, but was a lovely way to incorporate the results of the choices, tying things together neatly at the end! Nice job!! :>
oh this is sooo sweet and melancholic i had fun reading this !!!! i rlly love the poems created at the end! also love the optional soundtrack! ty for sharing :]
thanks for playing!! :)
Love it, the writing is very elegant and conveys perfectly the character's melancholy.
thank you very much! <3
The writing in this is so gorgeous, and, if I may be so lush, paints just as beautiful a picture as the cover image. I really liked the way you made use of the word count with the custom poem made at the end from our actions in the day; now I'm curious why we got kicked from the court that made us so melancholy
thank you so much!! haha we probably got kicked from the court because we said something that the emperor didn't like or we flew a lil too close to the sun and the emperor thought we were trying to overthrow him <3
XD that sucks for us! I hope he comes to his senses and unbanishes us someday :3
Agreed! The poem at the end was such a lovely way to bring together the choices made.