"Oh, no, Chris-guniang, everyone I know is here! All the rest of my family is dead."

"Right.  Sorry."

"...what's, uh, gun yang?  It's not translating, I thought it was a name earlier."

"It's the polite thing to call a woman you don't know very well."

"Ah.  'Kay."  They almost succeed at covering up the slightest wince with another crooked smile.  "Is there a boy version- is that what Qyong Lin is?  Anything else I should be calling people?"

"Oh, no, Chris-guniang, that's my courtesy name. You call a man you don't know very well their family name and then 'gongzi.'"

Slight nod.  "Mmkay.  And- martial brother?  It's translating but I'm not sure it's a- thing we have so much."

"Oh hm, I've been letting- I said my first name first-"  They make a face.  "What I mean is, my last- my surname is Brooks actually, we do it in the other order.  Not that I mind or anything, I'm used to people our age using first- personal names with each other pretty much all the time."

"Didn't you say your name was Wrongmountain? Is that your courtesy name? --A martial brother is a member of the same sect."

"It's my deed name- for, like, formal stuff, or formalish at least, when we're not around humans.  And then my remembrance name is Amal, that's for Strider business, but if I'm the only one here it's probably not gonna come up."

"So if I want to be polite I should call you... Brooks-guniang? Wrongmountain-guniang?"

"Deed names you don't normally use with a title- or like, if you're old-fashioned or making a point of how somebody outranks you, you'd say their position first, but I don't have one, so."  Slight hesitation.  "Brooks Guniang I guess would be the equivalent, yeah.  Kinda prefer Wrong Mountain but it doesn't matter that much."

"Oh, Wrongmountain, we don't want to use a name that isn't the name foreigners use! That wouldn't be polite at all."

"Cool cool, okay, thanks.  I mean, it's translated anyway, or I would if I was doing it- my last name's technically a word too but that just came through as sounds, yeah?"

"All of your names are just sounds to me."

"Ah, okay.  The deed name means 'wrong mountain', did that work?  And Amal means 'hope' but it's from a language I don't speak, it's sounds to me too."

"Yes, it worked. How did you get it?"

Chris grins, a bit more openly than before.  "I was learning how to handle myself in the woods, and my teacher took me and my- martial sisters?  Fellow students?  Took us to this mountain near where they lived that had a kind of a split peak, dropped us off at different places and told us to meet up at the top.  They'd grown up there, I was basically a city kid- I misunderstood the directions, got turned around, and wound up on the lower peak hollering "I'm here, where are you?" for like an hour till I figured out what happened. 

So by itself that's a funny story but it's not something you'd make a name out of, right, student names don't have to be impressive but still.  The thing is that on my way back down, I found someplace where people had been secretly dumping their, uh, poisonous trash instead of dealing with it properly, and it was hurting the land.  So cleaning that up wound up being my coming-of-age, and she gave me the name as a reminder to leave room for happy coincidence in my life."

"Aww, that's really sweet. My courtesy name is 'Qionglin,' which means 'beautiful forest,' but there isn't really any reason for it. --Wei-gongzi's is 'Wuxian' which means 'having no envy,' because his clan leader was in love with his mother who ran off to marry his father instead."

"Aww, yours is pretty."  They crane their neck, trying to see if Wei Wuxian is still in the room and how he's reacting to the parental tea being spilled.  "I'm guessing- no, actually, I cannot guess who picked that."

"His clan leader, although his clan leader's wife was... not happy about it."

"Oof, I bet.  That must have been super awkward."  Chris grimaces sympathetically.  "How'd you two meet?"

"Wei-gongzi saw me practicing my archery and complimented me. He said I was one of the best at archery he'd ever seen. Then I got scared during the competition and couldn't hit the target, but he told me I just needed to keep practicing and I'd figure it out."

"Aww, that's sweet."  Oh no he's adorable. Why is the not-quite-zombie adorable.  "Sounds like he made quite the impression."

"Oh, yes, Wrongmountain. The next time I met him I committed treason to save his life."

Blink.  "Was that, uh, before the war, or during- I mean, not that I'm judging either way."  Well, they're a little bit judging, but mostly just confused, and trying to settle into the patient listening mindset they got taught for ghosts.  "I know war is rough on people no matter who's winning."

"They killed Wei-gongzi's entire clan and I helped him rescue his brother and escape."