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There are things Jing Yi expects when he flies through the window to his rooms.
Like his rooms. Like the floor being where he expects. Like all the furniture being out of the way of anyone flying through a window.
He finds none of those things.
There may or may not be a crashing noise. Or a very undignified yelp.
"Atheist or agnostic or just nonreligious?"
...
He has not escaped the bureacratic ticky boxes. (And technically he asked for this, in the spirit of 'say yes to the clerks to make them like you'.) What is the least incorrect here. "Agnostic."
"Are you attracted to men, women, both, or neither? You can also refuse to answer."
(Aurora is technically supposed to say 'are you gay, straight, bisexual, or asexual?' but has deviated from the script because refugees literally never give useful answers to that question.)
"Both." (That's true of most people, why are the Cascadians dividing the people up like that?)
"Do you identify as the gender the doctor said that you were when you were born?"
(Aurora is also editing the wording on this question to obtain useful answers.)
"How many children do you have? Including adoptive children, biological children you're not in contact with, and miscarriages and abortions if you know about them."
"Zero." (...and probably staying at the number because his fiancee probably died over a thousand years ago NOT DOING THE MATHS.)
There is a flash of relief across Aurora's face.
Aurora would like to know the country he was born in, the country he came from, his native language, whether he is deaf or hard of hearing, whether he is blind or has serious trouble seeing even when wearing glasses, whether he has difficulty concentrating or remembering or making decisions, whether he has difficulty walking or climbing stairs, whether he has difficulty dressing or bathing, and whether he can perform errands like grocery shopping or going to the doctor's office alone.
Jing Yi is very abled.
And hopefully the demographic form accepts "Great Tang" and "Chinese" as a country of origin and a first language.
The form does NOT accept Great Tang as a country. Would he like to put it down as China.
Well, no, but if it came to hand to hand combat between him and the form, the form would win, so he'll accept it going down as 'China'.
"What education have you had?"
"Tell me years of education, whether you went to school or stayed at home, and what you specialized in if anything and I'll figure something out."
"Associate's degree in East Asian Studies, then. Marital status?"
"All right, that's all for the demographics." She types for a minute or two. "You can get public housing for free for as long as you like anywhere in Cascadia by asking at a public housing building. The local public housing is right next door to the immigration office and I can walk you over when we're done. The conditions are pretty spartan-- bedroom, bathroom, and living room/kitchen-- but it's yours and you never have to let anyone in that you don't want to. They come already furnished but you're welcome to customize it to your taste once you have some money."
"I have a friend up in Portland. Is there a good way to get to the public housing there?"
"You can check the Cascadian government website on your phone or--" She opens a filing cabinet and pulls out a piece of paper. "Here's a map."
The map has the locations of the public housing marked. It also has a bunch of areas which are BRIGHT RED, which the legend informs Jing Yi means "toxic radiation-- do not enter."
He takes the map. He's definitely not going to any places labelled 'toxic' if he can help it. That seems like it would not be good for his lifespan.
"Thank you for your help."
"Okay, the next questions I'm going to ask you under penalty of perjury. That means that it's illegal to lie when you answer them. It's okay to make an honest mistake. If you discover you made a mistake, you should tell me right away. You're just going to have to pay back the extra money we gave you. If we discover that you lied, then you're going to have to pay a fine of twenty percent of the extra money you got. You're not going to go to prison for lying. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth?"
"Do you own anything worth more than a thousand dollars?"
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