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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.
The next day is Jing Yi's Cascadian civics class, so that he can become a full citizen of Cascadia (?!).
Another Asian man, one Jing Yi doesn't recognize from remedial classes, is sitting at a desk in silence.
The fact he could get full citizenship is so weird. ...not that he's going to not do it out of principle, or anything. (And as much as voting is also so goddamned weird, but he is also aware that he will get enough political opinions that he is going to vote.)
Look, fresh meat a new person! Who he can make social overtures at so his social life becomes less hermit-y. He sits down next to him. "Hello!"
The new person's face doesn't change at all.
"Hello," he says, as if he has been firmly instructed that he is to return other people's attempts at small talk, which is true.
Is he going to be driving this whole interaction? He is going to be driving this whole interaction. Which wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that with the information he has ('is in a civics class') there is no non-prying questions could he could ask. 'Why are you here' would be prying, 'how do you feel about voting?' is just a bizarre question.
Which leaves him only with really banal rhetorical questions. "Portland's pretty good, right?"
"...am I bothering you?" (Because that is the polite version of what he wants to say, which is 'You don't say much, do you?')
He's in too deep. There is no escape, not until the instructor shows up to explain that voting is perfectly safe and lots of fun. He just has to make the best of it. "Have you been in Portland long?"
A response! A full sentence! With a verb in it! "Just in time for classes, eh?"
"What... brought you to Cascadia?" he says, lapsing into being the rudest man alive because what else is he meant to do here?
"I visited Cascadia on a mission trip when I was fourteen and fell in love with Aang Wei. My brother was kidnapped and in the confusion I escaped to Cascadia."
(John Lan looks to be in his early twenties.)
...
???
???
So, on the one hand, he is Qualified to deal with kidnappings. On the other, he was qualified several centuries ago and in a different country. "Is he alright?"
Apparently this Aang is good enough to warrant adjectives, which is high praise. "That's good!"
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