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 Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:37 pm
Following Hayden into the bataireacht studio, Líanlí felt a sudden wave of regret for having had this brilliant idea and having convinced Hayden to go along with it. Really, he didn’t even know what would happen with the magical knight thing. Would he always be stuck with his folding fan? Would he get something else later? What had Pendour had before she’d gotten her magical ocarina and did that progression, if one existed, at all reflect on how Líanlí’s own trinket might theoretically evolve? Did the ancient art of Irish stick-fighting have any relevance at all to how Líanlí would have to conduct himself as Kaifeng?
Moreover, would any of that matter at all if he got himself concussed in this class, or had his limbs broken in a thoroughly unmagical and un-miraculous sort of fashion, or something like that? Líanlí didn’t think so. Not really.
By someone’s reckoning, he probably should’ve felt some kind of shame about hovering so close to Hayden’s back around so many other adults. Distantly, Líanlí even recognized that he was acting less like a twenty-eight-year-old who was looking around at Actual Houses, rather than apartments, and worked as a magical knight outside of his music……and more like the tiny children he often saw at the music stores around town, clinging to their parents, elder siblings, or babysitters while being taken to piano lessons. Even so, Líanlí couldn’t deny: he didn’t much like the look of the other students, currently milling around before class.
More specifically, he didn’t think he liked how his own build stacked up against everyone else’s. Offhand, he felt like he and Hayden were probably two of the tallest people in the room—both at or around 188 centimeters, or six-foot-two, more than respectable enough in the height department—but the look of everyone else’s builds made Líanlí uncomfortably aware of his own and how (he thought) it would stack up here.… So many of them—at least of the ones whom Líanlí noticed—actually looked like they worked out. Líanlí………looked like he ran a lot, took many, many long walks with his dog, did yoga, and meditated every morning. Because that was what he did.
With his glasses, ponytail, and black tee with the cover art from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge splashed across the chest, Líanlí supposed that he very possibly also looked lost. As someone shorter than him but with quite decent tracts of land attached to his chest passed by, Líanlí huddled closer to Hayden’s back and let slip a soft, uneasy whine.
Hayden sighed. The roll in his eyes was palpable as he said, “What are you being pointlessly dramatic about now? Because I did warn you that you’d probably be the only—”
“Not that, thanks,” Líanlí hissed, then made another uncomfortable sound. “It’s like when Zhìháo used to show up to things and be, like, the fat cousin? Except skinny now.”
“It’s like you being needlessly dramatic about being a beginner at something.” With a huff, Hayden pinched the bridge of his nose. “That is what it’s really like here, Lí-Lí.”
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 1:19 am
Technically speaking, Enfys Griffiths had no special responsibility to anyone at these classes. He was, as far as anyone knew, a newcomer, having recently moved from Destiny City to live with his boyfriends, cut off from a family that disapproved of his """"lifestyle"""". (Whether the polyamory or the homosexuality was more a problem in his lovely little backstory was left to any individual listener's imagination.) He was a stranger here, if well-practiced in baitareacht, such that he actually tended to impress the people who watched him work. Few people have pressed him on the particulars; there was just enough pain there to make it seem gauche to do so.
That was all true for Enfys Griffiths.
The thing was, Enfys Grifiths was walking around with a head full of Tristan Baskerville's memories, and Tristan Baskerville had been at this studio for years, and the instinct to want to help new people was practically inbuilt into him. It had been something of a self-appointed duty, once, as one of the longest-term, most experienced students.
Now, he was somewhere in the middle of the pack; neither the newest student nor one of the oldest. Certainly, it could have excused him from newbie-welcoming duty, but he didn't want to be excused.
And it wasn't exactly hard to recognize the newbie. The class was small, everyone knew each other's faces, and a tall, attractive person with long, dark hair, wearing a My Chemical Romance t-shirt....yeah, that was someone new.
Enfys recognized the man with him--Hayden was one of his fellow regulars, and something of a friend. So it was all too easy to stride over, easy smile plastered on his face.
"Hayden!" Enfys greeted. "Who's this with you? Someone who wants to join our class?"
He'd been living in Destiny City for so long, it had sanded down much of the Wales from his accent, but it was still there, in the way words rolled off his tongue and the way they fell into sentences. Just enough to indicate that Enfys was by no means American-born.
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 1:53 am
“Enfys!” Hayden grinned back, waving at somebody—which instinctively made Líanlí’s throat tighten in a way that he knew was fundamentally stupid.
It was one of the few things he and his therapist had ever talked about that wasn’t related to his music, (more recently) his Táotáo, his latest Weird Hookup Story, or the fact that the only reason he actually turned up at her office was because he’d picked a doctor who’d made it a requirement for getting his Adderall prescription and Líanlí rather enjoyed having all his neurotransmitters working (more or less) properly.
Something something, Hayden had literally never left Líanlí behind for other people. Something something, Hayden had never done anything to indicate that he would do something like that (and more often, went out of his way to make sure that he knew where his Lí-Lí was at all times). Something something, but Líanlí nevertheless got all tight in the throat and chest when it looked like Hayden ever might ditch him, because Qiang-er Da-ge Qiang-er had always ditched Zhìháo as quickly as possible, and Xinyan had ever resented being made to deal with her annoying er-di when she wanted to spend time with her friends instead, and then there were the ******** twins, and, and, and, and—
……At least the blue-haired, attractive person had come over to them, even if Líanlí had not entirely heard what he’d asked. Or, for that matter, what Hayden had said back to him. Líanlí’s brain didn’t successfully rouse itself back into the conversation until he felt Hayden gently nudge him with his elbow.
“What?”
“Do I look like your mother? You know how to introduce yourself.” A few strong notes of concern snuck into Hayden’s voice like the undertone notes of the top-shelf tea, regardless of how he tried to keep things light. Slightly furrowing his brow, Hayden gestured at the Tall, Broad, Blue-Haired Person and said, “Enfys was asking if you want to join the class?”
Without needing to think about it, Líanlí nodded. He leaned around Hayden somewhat so he could wave ‘hi’ and get a better look at this Enfys person: blue-green eyes, cute freckles (not as cute as Ming-er’s, but that was because he’d married Qi-jie, and Qi-jie deserved to have the spouse with the cutest freckles), very handsome. Made it easier to smile more genuinely.
“Líanlí Huáng,” he said, “and—yeah? Thinking about joining the class? Hay-Hay’s only been nagging me for thirteen years about ‘Please try doing more than cardio and yoga,’ and I, uh?” He shrugged with cabbage-like innocence: plain, simple, uncertain what else he was supposed to say for himself, if anything. “Finally decided to listen, I guess?”
“Please forgive his absent-mindedness,” Hayden added. “Lí-Lí……needed a less-than-pleasant experience to get out of his comfort zone about this. He’s still kind of processing it.”
Líanlí didn’t need to think about nodding for that answer, either: he and Hayden had discussed ahead of time how to talk around the whole “got stabbed by a Negaverse General because he’s a magical knight now and these things happen” issue and the “almost fell into a pit of assorted pointy, stabby objects at an evil wizard tower in space” thing.
Something something, Destiny City’s crime rate. Something something, Líanlí got mugged, which motivated him to get Less Bad at protecting himself, which meant finally listening to Hayden about strength-resistance training. Something something, perfectly plausible and really, who’d have any reason to question that?
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 1:59 am
Hayden's friend seemed distracted. Nervous. It made sense, really; Enfys wasn't exactly at his best when he was hauled into a new environment, especially if it at all felt as if it were against his will. Good, then, that Líanlí had someone he already knew to join him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Líanlí," he said, doing his best to mimic the pronunciation he'd heard, even if ti wasn't quite his natural cadence. He wouldn't hazard a guess as to where it was from, but certainly enough people joked about Welsh being consonants and sneezes that he wasn't going to purposely ******** up someone else's name.
"Destiny City provides plenty of less than pleasant experiences, I've heard," he said, sympathetically. Sometimes, he even provided them himself. He wondered if it was mundane or magical suffering that brought Líanlí to a martial arts class, and swiftly decided it didn't matter. Instead, he beckoned.
"Come on, let's introduce you to our teacher and get you settled in. This is as good a way as any to get you set up to defend yourself."
Hopefully, Líanlí would find this group as comforting as Enfys did--even if ti took some time.
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