⇋7 Snow on Mountain Jade
Title: Snow on Mountain Jade
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Rating and Warnings: PG; implied drug use
Characters: Taiwan
Word Count: 605
Notes: Done for hetalia_contest's 'Recycling' week. I used Week 008's prompt of 'Highlanders'.
Summary - Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains.
Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains.
The ones you’d find in Taiwan during the 1800s, the ones far, far away from her small cities and her endless plains. The ones so tucked away into the contours of the highlands, behind the thick temperate rainforests, that the only ones who want to find them ever can.
And it’s a painful journey to get there. Painful for many reasons; the unwillingness of people (and they were Yao’s people, always Yao’s people, never hers) to transport her to such (savage, full of the barbaric natives) remote places; the dull stinging in her chest as she passes through her land, which had changed so greatly in the past three hundred years that it was unrecognisable, absolutely unrecognisable from the way it had been for the four thousand years before that; and the excruciating need, the throbbing ache from the dire need of opium.
It was February; a chill, raining day in mid-February. It was a nice rain, a still rain; no wind to fling it around the plains, no ice to tear through the foliage. Yet the roof of her small cart provided no warmth or shelter, and the nation could only pulled her heavy skirt around her legs tighter, shivering violently. If from the weather or the addiction, she had no idea. Her mind as they travelled was as cloudy as the pouring sky, as clear as the mud the cart was sliding through, splattering her skirt as it struggled into the Taiwanese highlands.
Taiwan finds the den she seeks eventually; not far from a Bunun village, but far enough. Taiwan hopped out of the cart and landed on the pebbles lining the tropical forest's floor, sinking further into the increasing amount of mud as Taiwan stepped across them, following their trail through the endless greenery to the rotting, wooden hut. Even from here, the tang of opium that had wafted down the path, carried by the rain, could be smelt.
And Taiwan slinks into the den with more dignity than she deserves; her body is still shaking, even more violently as the overwhelming opium-laden atmosphere engulfs her. Yet she manages to shake and squeeze her skirt free of its drenched state and pat her damp hair down and adjust its ornaments in her unstable state; she wouldn’t be able to do this once she managed to get settled down in here, after all. She finds her way into the corner of the den, further inhaling the scent when a man she recognises as a regular; a thoroughly tanned man, with ink lining his face and chest, hands her a large pipe from a small table near to where he was sitting. He gave her a strange look, which might have been a smile, or an attempt to speak, before he relaxes back into the disintegrating wooden walls of the shack; Taiwan lifts her skirt up and clumsily fits into the empty spot next to him, giving her a chance to properly look around the dim, dampening room for the first time since she entered. Men and women lay around the den, some with their own pipe, and some gathered around a lamp, all with darker skin and inked bodies and eyes with remarkable difference to the Han immigrants, or the light haired, large nosed men that visited on ships. Taiwan shifted in the corner, breathing deeply with a contented smile crossing her face for the first time in hours, before lifting the pipe to her lips.
Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains - they were the only places her people could find any peace.
Notes:
- During the time of Qing’s rule of Taiwan, millions of Taiwan’s inhabitants became addicted to opium. It was such a problem that by the time the Japanese annexed Taiwan, they put heavy penalties into effect, and started campaigning against the use of the drug.
- Also during the time of Qing’s rule, the natives of Taiwan, who were mainly Austronesian people, not ethnically related to the rest of mainland Asia (something that should definetly be noted), retreated to the highlands (the highest of which is, in fact, Jade Mountain), to the East of Taiwan, while the Han Chinese mainly settled in the plains and coasts of the island. These natives, as well as the ones who always were in the mountains, are known as Highland Aboriginals.
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Rating and Warnings: PG; implied drug use
Characters: Taiwan
Word Count: 605
Notes: Done for hetalia_contest's 'Recycling' week. I used Week 008's prompt of 'Highlanders'.
Summary - Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains.
Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains.
The ones you’d find in Taiwan during the 1800s, the ones far, far away from her small cities and her endless plains. The ones so tucked away into the contours of the highlands, behind the thick temperate rainforests, that the only ones who want to find them ever can.
And it’s a painful journey to get there. Painful for many reasons; the unwillingness of people (and they were Yao’s people, always Yao’s people, never hers) to transport her to such (savage, full of the barbaric natives) remote places; the dull stinging in her chest as she passes through her land, which had changed so greatly in the past three hundred years that it was unrecognisable, absolutely unrecognisable from the way it had been for the four thousand years before that; and the excruciating need, the throbbing ache from the dire need of opium.
It was February; a chill, raining day in mid-February. It was a nice rain, a still rain; no wind to fling it around the plains, no ice to tear through the foliage. Yet the roof of her small cart provided no warmth or shelter, and the nation could only pulled her heavy skirt around her legs tighter, shivering violently. If from the weather or the addiction, she had no idea. Her mind as they travelled was as cloudy as the pouring sky, as clear as the mud the cart was sliding through, splattering her skirt as it struggled into the Taiwanese highlands.
Taiwan finds the den she seeks eventually; not far from a Bunun village, but far enough. Taiwan hopped out of the cart and landed on the pebbles lining the tropical forest's floor, sinking further into the increasing amount of mud as Taiwan stepped across them, following their trail through the endless greenery to the rotting, wooden hut. Even from here, the tang of opium that had wafted down the path, carried by the rain, could be smelt.
And Taiwan slinks into the den with more dignity than she deserves; her body is still shaking, even more violently as the overwhelming opium-laden atmosphere engulfs her. Yet she manages to shake and squeeze her skirt free of its drenched state and pat her damp hair down and adjust its ornaments in her unstable state; she wouldn’t be able to do this once she managed to get settled down in here, after all. She finds her way into the corner of the den, further inhaling the scent when a man she recognises as a regular; a thoroughly tanned man, with ink lining his face and chest, hands her a large pipe from a small table near to where he was sitting. He gave her a strange look, which might have been a smile, or an attempt to speak, before he relaxes back into the disintegrating wooden walls of the shack; Taiwan lifts her skirt up and clumsily fits into the empty spot next to him, giving her a chance to properly look around the dim, dampening room for the first time since she entered. Men and women lay around the den, some with their own pipe, and some gathered around a lamp, all with darker skin and inked bodies and eyes with remarkable difference to the Han immigrants, or the light haired, large nosed men that visited on ships. Taiwan shifted in the corner, breathing deeply with a contented smile crossing her face for the first time in hours, before lifting the pipe to her lips.
Taiwan’s favourite opium dens were in the mountains - they were the only places her people could find any peace.
Notes:
- During the time of Qing’s rule of Taiwan, millions of Taiwan’s inhabitants became addicted to opium. It was such a problem that by the time the Japanese annexed Taiwan, they put heavy penalties into effect, and started campaigning against the use of the drug.
- Also during the time of Qing’s rule, the natives of Taiwan, who were mainly Austronesian people, not ethnically related to the rest of mainland Asia (something that should definetly be noted), retreated to the highlands (the highest of which is, in fact, Jade Mountain), to the East of Taiwan, while the Han Chinese mainly settled in the plains and coasts of the island. These natives, as well as the ones who always were in the mountains, are known as Highland Aboriginals.