[un: Chengmei] video

[thesuspense]

Did any good come from your parents?

[Perhaps that seems like a personal question. He does not care.]

What's the point of family?

[Now, this may seem cynical, and it possibly is, but he doesn't really sound it. He doesn't seem bitter, he smiled a little, then looks to a point off-screen.]

See, daozhang? I'm trying.

[A pause, then he corrects himself with a wave of one hand.]

Hear.

Comments

[Text] un: live in the moment

[flirtatiousdancer]

[ This is not a conversation he wants his voice or face attached to. Nope. ]

Why is this something to ask other people. Shouldn't you already know?

un: chengmei | video

[thesuspense]

Why don't you talk instead of writing? It's tedious. Do you think everyone wants to read that much? Do you think everyone can?

[Accessibility is a truly important feature when one is possibly trying to show off potentially positive conversations to someone very much blind.]

You know, it takes a lot to criticise my question by asking an actually pointless one yourself. Now you have that in writing. Embarrassing.

If I knew, why would I ask?

STUBBORNLY TEXT

[flirtatiousdancer]

Because it's a personal question and I don't see a reason to put my voice and lovely face to answer you.

[ And you're not Xiao Xingchen, or Zhou Zishu. So he's not going to behave himself. ]

And if you want an answer from me, answer mine. Don't be dull.

MORE STUBBORNLY VIDEO

[thesuspense]

I did answer your question. Is there something wrong with your ears? With your brain? Just your manners? Or do you need to read everything twice and talking is too fast for you to keep up?

Perhaps it's for the best you don't speak, if this is how it goes when you have the time to write, no doubt your tongue would spew even more uselessly.

TEXT ON PRINCIPLE

[flirtatiousdancer]

I wouldn't have trouble if your words weren't nonsense.

action;

[binghua]

[Xingchen has, unfortunately, gotten pretty used to having Xue Yang always find him anymore. He doesn't like it, but it is what it is.]

I never said you weren't trying.

action;

[thesuspense]

Truly? My mistake, it sounded like something you'd say.

[Xue Yang leaned back on his hands, his eyes on Xingchen, smiling to himself - as smiling at him was largely pointless - as he watches him.]

Do you think it matters? A parent's love.

[binghua]

[He's just going to ignore that little jab. There's nothing to gain from such an argument here.

As for the question, he cant answerr right away. A parent's love isnt something he ever had, at least not when it came to his own parents. At least not that he can remember. Maybe his parents did love him, but something terrible happened to separate them when he was still so small and uncomprehending. Maybe they didn't care at all or just simply couldn't take care of him and he ended up abandoned that way.

Xingchen has wondered these things before, more so when he was younger on the mountain, when he couldn't sleep, but also sometimes when he was traveling as a rogue cultivator.

Looking back, he hadnt traveled for very long, but he still saw a fair number of people and thdir relationships.]

I do. Children tend to be happier and more confident when their parent supports them.

[thesuspense]

I don't know. I was happy enough when I was little, I was too dumb to know better.

[He looks at where his finger isn't, wondering what difference parents truly made when the world is the way it is.]

Do you think they are weaker for it too, daozhang? Having such support all their life. What happens when they lose it?

[binghua]

I believe it depends on the child's temperament as much as the parent's care.

[This, of course, is based on what he's seen in snippets, as well as what he considers ideal. And then, even though Baoshan Sanren wasn't his mother, didn't she still raise him and give him shelter and food and keep him alive and healthy most of his life? He draws from this, too.]

Death is also a part of life, even though it leaves others to grieve. Some children may accept this more easily than others. I imagine if a parent were more protective, it would be harder to part ways, for a child to know how to function in the world.

video | @taken for granite

[rumorate]

Parents and family are two different things.

[At least in her opinion.]

Good can only come from your parents if they're prepared to make the effort. But family is who you choose.

video | @chengmei

[thesuspense]

Ah.

[There is a pause, as this is something that has never occurred to him. However, he remembers that he does have a purpose for that question.]

So, I take it your parents were pointless?

[rumorate]

One was. One was a robot, so she was literally programmed to be useful.

[But she was the only mother she's ever really known so she's willing to give Grace the credit.]

[thesuspense]

[Obvious confusion on his face, because he has never come across the term 'robot' before, so he just has to ask.]

Like a slave? A servant?

[rumorate]

Uhh ...

[She should be used to having to explain these things by now and yet.]

A robot is a machine that's designed to behave like a person. So I guess ... servant would be the most accurate, but slave isn't wrong in the sense that they're not normally compensated the way humans are.

un: white pawn; video

[chosenbylight]

[Anduin could answer this question honestly. He could give this man honest information, spoken from the heart, about his relationship with his father and the trials and tribulations thereof.

There is something in his delivery that makes him reconsider doing so, however.]

Is this in regards to the family units that we have been assigned into, perchance?

[A family which -- he and Anduin happen to be assigned to together, as it so happens.]

un: chengmei | video

[thesuspense]

...

[For a few moments, Xue Yang just looks at him through the screen, considering what he means and then considering what to answer.

In theory, he's asking these questions because he is supposed to really get in touch with things he's never felt, but--]

I don't know, didi, how close to me do you feel? [Suddenly there is a smile, a sweet one, and he leans forward.] Have I been a good brother? Are you going to give Yang-ge anything? I'm being good.

[chosenbylight]

[Oh, well. That is... Maybe not the reaction that Anduin had anticipated.

Is this role-playing? Is he being serious? Anduin is far too honest a person for anyone to just spring this sort of thing on him out of the blue.]

Oh. Well. I, uh.

[He takes a minute to recover himself and try and redirect the conversation in some way.] I have never had a brother before we arrived here in Ke-Waihu. Nor any other siblings. It is an entirely new experience for me.

[thesuspense]

You're doing so well with it though, didi. Don't worry.

[Such brotherly encouragement. His smile hasn't shifted and he is amused by the stuttering, but just brushes past it anyway.]

Do you have candy?

[chosenbylight]

[Uhhh. Does he look like he is someone who would have candy?

Was that an honest compliment? This person is very confusing.]

Do you like candy?

un : deft hand of little deaths (voice)

[scrapgege]

My parents were very good people.

... Well, I didn't get along very well with my father, but I think all sons probably have a moment like that. Bur they did their best to raise me into someone the country could be proud of.

un: chengmei | voice

[thesuspense]

And you are what they got?

[It's possible that this exercise in potential curse removal would be a little less doomed if he elected to be anything other than a little shit at any point, but then it wouldn't be him.]

So, nothing much good? What would you say?

voice

[scrapgege]

That's...... the opposite of what I said.

voice

[thesuspense]

You are just full of yourself.

What country is proud of you?

voice

[scrapgege]

My country doesn't exist anymore. But back then, for a while, they were proud of calling me their Crown Prince.

I don't know that I repaid them well enough.