[ ...ah. this is somehow very different to how he was imagining this scene from the brief explanation jiaoqiu gave him before. he'd thought dying to a "wolf" meant a typical unintelligent monster, a brutal but fast attack that would be over quickly.
seeing how quiet and how drawn out it all was in reality, and how there was no one there with him when he died... ]
...Wasn't picturing that scene quite right in my head before.
[ he was very vague about it on purpose, to be fair.
silence, for a moment, as he watches himself slowly bleed out in an alleyway. after a moment, he glances in fidelio's direction - not directly at him, just in his direction. ]
I suppose I didn't do it justice. [ a little wryly. ]
His name is Hoolay. A celebrated war general among the borisin.
[ his jaw works. ]
The borisin enslave our kind - foxians. We captured Hoolay years and years ago to keep him prisoner, but he escaped the prison when we came to transfer him between ships. There weren't very many witnesses to it - only me, Moze, and Miss Xueyi, who died in the chaos.
Moze escaped, to tell the others, leaving me as prisoner. [ a beat. ] I told him to do this, for the record.
[ ...he thinks this is a pretty good example of why sometimes you need to just execute a person instead of leaving them alive with any chance of coming back, but this doesn't really seem like the time to point that out.
more importantly... ]
That kind of shite really does happen in pretty much every world, seems like. One group always comes up with some reason to oppress another.
It does, doesn't it. [ ... ] I grew up in a relatively safe place. Our ship is a haven for our kind. But General Feixiao was a slave until she found our way to us.
[ he glances at fidelio. ]
There's always oppression, but there are always those willing to fight against it.
He was. He leads his own ship, and takes care of the people there. General Feixiao is the Arbiter General of the Xianzhou Yaoqing - my home, where the population is mostly foxians such as myself.
But we are all the same people, under the same banner. [ ... ] The paripus are far more scattered and less organized, so I'm led to believe.
Yeah, we live all over the place. Riots break out in the cities sometimes, but they don't usually amount to much. Rarely organised efforts, anyway, and the majority tribes always did their damnedest to make sure we didn't have the resources to mount any sort of large-scale opposition.
[ which was part of what had made louis so appealing.
the mirrors flicker, and a different memory starts to play (because this is somehow all i have that really depicts just how much life fucking sucks for the paripus). ]
watching basilio in pain, especially when he's so small - that's one thing. the other is to watch fidelio, just as small, grit his teeth and run, try to take care of someone when he's still the age that needed taking care of himself. jiaoqiu lets out a shaky breath as it finishes, and then looks at him, frowning.
it's not pity. it's empathy, on his face. care. ]
Ah, Fidelio. [ ... ] I know this means nothing, really, but I do so wish I could have met you and your brother earlier in your lives.
[ it fucks him up a little every time too, even though it's nothing new, nothing he hasn't been remembering every day for more than a decade. it makes the fear and guilt and hopelessness all feel fresh again every time it replays, and reminds him that he's just as powerless to keep basilio safe now in this place as he was then. ]
Well, if that meeting was happenin' in our world, you would've been havin' a dead miserable time of it yourself already without worrying about a couple of kids.
[ he's not going to hug fidelio because he thinks they are both not really huggy people in general, but he knows that a little bit of touch has been so grounding for him over the past few weeks. so - carefully, he rests a hand on fidelio's shoulder. ]
Even so, I am of the strong belief that nobody should need to go alone. [ even if he is a hypocrite about it sometimes, but that's because he doesn't always think of himself as a person. ]
I'm sure that being here hasn't made things easier, necessarily. Last week must have been awful.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
seeing how quiet and how drawn out it all was in reality, and how there was no one there with him when he died... ]
...Wasn't picturing that scene quite right in my head before.
no subject
silence, for a moment, as he watches himself slowly bleed out in an alleyway. after a moment, he glances in fidelio's direction - not directly at him, just in his direction. ]
I suppose I didn't do it justice. [ a little wryly. ]
no subject
[ ... ]
Sorry, for whatever that's worth. Pretty awful way to go.
no subject
Thank you. [ genuinely. ] I'd do it again, if I needed to, but I can't deny I'd prefer something a little more peaceful.
no subject
...Who was that, anyway? Not the sort of wolf I was expecting.
no subject
[ his jaw works. ]
The borisin enslave our kind - foxians. We captured Hoolay years and years ago to keep him prisoner, but he escaped the prison when we came to transfer him between ships. There weren't very many witnesses to it - only me, Moze, and Miss Xueyi, who died in the chaos.
Moze escaped, to tell the others, leaving me as prisoner. [ a beat. ] I told him to do this, for the record.
no subject
[ ...he thinks this is a pretty good example of why sometimes you need to just execute a person instead of leaving them alive with any chance of coming back, but this doesn't really seem like the time to point that out.
more importantly... ]
That kind of shite really does happen in pretty much every world, seems like. One group always comes up with some reason to oppress another.
no subject
It does, doesn't it. [ ... ] I grew up in a relatively safe place. Our ship is a haven for our kind. But General Feixiao was a slave until she found our way to us.
[ he glances at fidelio. ]
There's always oppression, but there are always those willing to fight against it.
no subject
he nods. ]
Jing Yuan was one of them, yeah?
[ he remembers jiaoqiu saying his people were depending on him, though he didn't have much context at the time. ]
no subject
But we are all the same people, under the same banner. [ ... ] The paripus are far more scattered and less organized, so I'm led to believe.
no subject
[ which was part of what had made louis so appealing.
the mirrors flicker, and a different memory starts to play (because this is somehow all i have that really depicts just how much life fucking sucks for the paripus). ]
no subject
watching basilio in pain, especially when he's so small - that's one thing. the other is to watch fidelio, just as small, grit his teeth and run, try to take care of someone when he's still the age that needed taking care of himself. jiaoqiu lets out a shaky breath as it finishes, and then looks at him, frowning.
it's not pity. it's empathy, on his face. care. ]
Ah, Fidelio. [ ... ] I know this means nothing, really, but I do so wish I could have met you and your brother earlier in your lives.
no subject
Well, if that meeting was happenin' in our world, you would've been havin' a dead miserable time of it yourself already without worrying about a couple of kids.
[ ... ]
But yeah. Might've been nice.
no subject
Even so, I am of the strong belief that nobody should need to go alone. [ even if he is a hypocrite about it sometimes, but that's because he doesn't always think of himself as a person. ]
I'm sure that being here hasn't made things easier, necessarily. Last week must have been awful.