voidtreckernet | video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

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video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

( Lan Jingyi, appearing briefly on ICP, soaked from head to toe, actively dripping water with his hair and ribbon plastered down either side of his face, his, er, nightgown likewise... plastered... against him... and it's white, this is a wet shirt contest and no one told anyone who showed up on platform, they all just suffered together. )

Look, if anyone's trying to find me and is confused why I'm not in my tiny short bed cabin, I'm staying in the "inn" carriage the next week.

( that's it, that's him wanting to inform the ones who'd probably want to know but being in a less than happy mood to track everyone down so doing it in the most broadreaching, effective way the train's got going for it. )

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[ Oh gosh, he's still getting more of this hairplay. Inigo will gladly keep sitting here, as still as he can be with this giddy excitement in his stomach over getting his hair played with like that, and instead consider Jingyi's question.

.. as well as he can while being distracted, anyway. ]

Mother always said I look a lot like father. [ Inigo pauses for a moment. He smiles, though perhaps with an edge of something faintly sad in it. Not too sad, though. It feels like Jingyi had it worse than him in that department, so he's determined to be strong here. ] But.. I'm not so sure about that. I was still very young when she said that, you know? A lot could have changed over the years.

[ It didn't. Inigo still looks like his father could have been his older brother instead - but with how little selfconfidence Inigo has and how strained his relationship with his father is, he'd never acknowledge that. ]

Mm, not sure if it does or doesn't, really.

( since no one's chiding over inappropriate amount of time spent playing with hair, Jingyi mentally shrugs and figures he's got a bit more leeway. part of it he figures is Inigo's enjoying physical contact, part of it is he's not sure Inigo always knows how to say no, for his own sake or anyone else's. )

Who we do or don't look like, we're still ourselves. I guess in that way, it never really matters. People like to cross lines though, from what I've seen. Or, you look just like so and so, no wonder you act like this, or why don't you act like that, when you do look like whoever it is. Guess it's a benefit to being orphaned too young to remember otherwise, and with no one around to remember either.

( There are no comparisons, and he sounds so... settled with that, as if it's factual and true and generally doesn't bother him. Because he is, because it doesn't, because the world is cruel and he's always known that, and accepting it doesn't mean he gives up on anything, either. )

... yeah.

[ It's a quiet answer.

And along with that answer, Inigo definitely is starting to actually lean into the hand that's playing with his hair now - giving a nonverbal answer as to what's going on here. He really does like it, and since it seems like Jingyi is fine with doing this much, Inigo figures - hopes, desperately - that the other doesn't mind him getting a little more comfortable with it in turn too. Just letting it show, rather than keeping it to himself. ]

I guess.. there's benefits and negatives to both. [ Inigo can't say he would have prefered to be orphaned-- though he could see quite a few benefits with it compared to his own situation.

But he wouldn't trade his memories of his mother for the world, no matter how much they hurt. ]

Being compared to your parents.. It can really suck. Especially when there's so much to live up to. [ He hums, and then frowns. ] Not that I'm saying you have it good, necessarily. Or easy.

[ There's negatives to it too, after all. Some that Inigo knows he himself might not even be able to imagine. ]

But it does seem kind of nice to not have that pressure on your shoulders.

( it's turning into a slow mental shift toward hah, he's had rabbits do this before, and also when you're working through someone's fur, since longer hair combing is more of a tradition, and more something only done for the ill or a spouse or a child. Short hair is whole new, undefined, and permanently unclassed territory, so more amused and indulgent than anything else, he'll keep playing with Inigo's until he finally gets tired of it.

As far as family expectations... )

Just different things. Sizhui has a different pressure than I do, until our sect leader either marries or formally adopts. His father's sect heir by technicality, and he's been raised as heir to an heir, stuff like that. Not anything I have to worry about. And if I want to disappoint anyone, I've got all sect elders, on top of my sect leader and my best friend's parents. Who are definitely the most skilled cultivators in all our realms.

( He snorts, and finally gives in to trying... to do tiny braids with Inigo's hair. )

I'm sure it'll surprise you to hear I'm probably the most punished junior of my generation, and I think the generation above and below me too.

[ Inigo lets out an amused little breath. It sounds sort of content at the same time too - the same way a pet might sound content when you give it pets in just the right spot. ]

Wow, I'm so surprised. The guy who never bothers to hide his opinion in absolutely any situation gets punished the most? [ No, that's certainly not a surprise. Though Inigo doesn't think it's a bad quality, really. It's what makes Jingyi Jingyi, when it comes down to it.

After all, it's the first thing Inigo would name about the other when being asked to describe him. It feels like an integral part of him. ]

Though you do seem pretty good at sticking to rules otherwise. [ LIKE THE WEIRD 'NO ROMANCE BEFORE MARRIAGE' THING.. ] Do they just hate people backtalking them that much..?

( these tiny braids are happening, almost like tiny French braids if jingyi even had the concept of that name. the styling, sure. less so a specific name, here as he's prettifying pet inigo.

he snorts, then frowns, mostly to himself. )

I follow the rules that make sense to me. Not the ones that don't. As far as backtalking... I can tell it's different for people here, but you don't talk back to your elders where I'm from. It's unfilial, it's disrespectful, and if you're doing it you better have a reason other than not simply liking them. Otherwise you know you'll get punished.

( this is the state of things, and the reality for him. technically even here. )

Writing hundreds of copies of rules, going without meals to reflect, physical endurance holding a position kneeling or in handstands for hours, beatings with discipline rods... depends on what you did for how severe, but it's all fairly normal.

( for him, personally, for the Lans in general, for the sects and the culture her comes from. )

Not whippings. That's... that takes a lot. Though it's not unheard of.

[ Every single day Jingyi's world only seems weirder and weirder to Inigo.

He's not even sure that he's ever heard of anything quite like it. He's met so many people on the train, heard about so many different worlds.. but Jingyi's has just all these weird intricacies that fit together to form the oddest world possible.

Sure, it's not like backtalking wouldn't be rude in Inigo's world either, but that's just.. social norms, rather than it having anything to do with filiality.

It's something he considers as he sits there for a moment in silence, letting Jingyi still work on his hair. ]

Beating kids is already.. a lot, you know.

[ Inigo is pretty sure his mother never would have stood for something like that.

And yes, yes, he's well aware that in his world kids that age are instead sent out to war, but that's different, clearly. ]

( there are slips of hair escaping as he does this, but it's a nice, silly focus, and he is so determined he'll make this work, even if these are indeed very small french braids to hold in place with the length of inigo's hair. )

You make it sound like we go around beating up kids. It's not like that.

( since degrees are up to the enforcer, and he was hardly a walking bruiseball growing up, aside from what he gave himself simply living. most his were endurance based... he truly can't see why this is a lot, having lived it himself. he always knew the consequences to what he choose to do, and if he was caught. )

I'm from a martial arts clan. We don't practise or condone violence for the sake of violence. We believe in clear consequences for actions knowingly taken. If you're not clever enough to keep from getting caught, you know exactly what'll happen. It's not a surprise.

I know, but...

[ Inigo's voice trails off. He doesn't want to question something when it's clearly such a normal thing in Jingyi's world, judging by the way the other speaks of it - but it still doesn't quite sit right with him all the same.

It's not like Inigo has never been scolded before in his life, but he remembers most of that just being verbal. (And even that was already bad enough for a guy who does as badly with any remotely negative words as Inigo, his feelings bruising like peaches.) Physical punishment in any way just seems.. weird. ]

I don't know. [ He finally says, the mood seeming to dip a little. It sounds a little contradictory with that 'I know' from a moment ago, but this is more an 'I don't know what to say' kind of admission. He doesn't pull away from Jingyi, letting the other still braid his hair like that, but Inigo stares down at the tips of his shoes. ] I guess it's since our worlds are so different.

[ No one thought of punishing any kids anymore when things got really bad, during that hell Inigo lived through for years. Everyone had to watch people suffer and die - and sometimes those people were just kids.

It taught Inigo a lot about the preciousness of life, and the importance of being kind and gentle with other people. ]

( Irony, in the end, that a world ending was better in its understandings of kindness and gentleness... than whole other worlds, who knew kindness and gentleness in different, but familiar still, forms. )

Mm. Cultures are enough. We could be from the same world, and still have big differences in that, right? The things we believe, the ways we act. Between cultivators and normal mortals, there's already a big difference. Between groups of cultivators, big differences. Between places sharing nothing?

( he's starting on a second braid there, Inigo. the first is holding fairly well for now, though without being bound together, it'll shake out soon enough. )

It's a miracle we can relate at all.

[ A miracle.

Maybe Jingyi is right. After all, when their universal translating system is taken away, most of them can't even understand what the other is trying to say. And even when they can understand each other verbally, there's still so many customs and ideas that are unique to each world..

It's kind of dizzying.

At least Inigo is sitting up straight now he's seriously thinking about things, though he's still just letting the other guy play with his hair as much as he wants. ]

I don't like thinking about that too hard. [ He finally says, his voice gentle. He's staring ahead instead of looking over at Jingyi. ]

Not that our differences are bad, or that our uniqueness isn't good, but.. on the other hand, it feels a little lonely. Thinking about whether anyone at all out there would ever truly understand all of me..

( there are now two rows of tight little braids slowly fraying back into Inigo's usual hair style. Jingyi listens... and he wonders, what does being fully known mean to someone afraid of what that loss would be?

Kindly for the moment, he doesn't ask. )

No one can fully know another person. For good or ill, but I don't think that's lonely. Open yourself up, form those bonds, and you might find the people who see you for who you really are. See you clearer than you see yourself.

( instead of setting into a third row of tiny, tight braids, he gives Inigo's shoulder a squeeze. )

Or you might not. Kinda think being known like that means being aware of what you can lose, and wanting it anyway.

( he does not, frankly, think Inigo can actually handle that. nor does he think Inigo's alone in that. far from it, even in the relatively small numbers of their overall crew: barely a village worth of people. )

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video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

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