close enough but not too far | Glowfic Constellation

little-sparrow

On Monday, Ayako had not tried to talk to her upperclassmen, except for reporting in about Wei Wuxian's ill-advised shop slot, and even that she'd made as quick as possible. If she was stressed they were infinitely moreso, their time was more important than her feelings, and anyway she knew what she was supposed to be saying to herself so it wasn't like it was particularly a burden to just say that and not make someone else do it.

Except on Monday evening, Hitomi-senpai had pulled her aside and said "Do me a favor and cut it out."

When Ayako took more than three seconds to come up with an answer Hitomi said "Suzume-chan, you're a great kid, and in three years I think you're going to do a great job, but you're fourteen. You're not supposed to be figuring this out on your own. We have a whole system for that, and it relies on you talking to us when you need to."

"You're all busy."

"Not so busy we can't do our jobs."

And that had been that. Hitomi, it seemed, had only gotten better at hugs in the last three years. And-- it's not that Ayako hadn't been telling herself over and over that she'd done what she was supposed to, she'd kept an eye on things and told Haruto immediately when something weird was happening and she'd followed her upperclassmen's lead and managing Shanghai was not her job or her responsibility and she couldn't act like it was her fault when things went wrong, but hearing it from Hitomi felt different.

But she was going to be reporting to Rin from now on, because Rin wasn't Lan Xichen's personal friend, and also she should probably interact more with the Anglosphere, because that hadn't just been Ayako's blind spot, none of them had thought about it enough.

All of this is to say that at breakfast Tuesday morning, Ayako leaves Wen Ning with the Shanghai table, where he will almost certainly not become breakfast himself, and looks for somewhere to sit among the English-speakers.

Total: 17

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have-the-temperament

Boston has a couple seats open at the freshmen end of the table, next to where Marcy is methodically transferring oatmeal into herself with one hand and doing flashcards with the other.

little-sparrow

"Hi! Can I sit here?"

(Her power-sharer is prominently on her wrist, but not so much so that it looks like she's deliberately flaunting it.)

have-the-temperament

"Sure!" Marcy stacks up her flashcards and pockets them. She should get to know the enclaves that haven't made themselves prominent via bizzare and/or threatening drama.

little-sparrow

She sits down. "Ayako Mochizuki. I'm from Kyoto."

have-the-temperament

"Marcy Park, Boston." Japan; neat. Her father's parents or grandparents probably still have grievances, but she never met the latter and the former didn't air them, and it's not like Ayako did anything.

little-sparrow

Korean surname, that could be awkward, but it doesn't seem like Marcy is inclined to make it awkward so Ayako's not going to be the one to bring it up! Would it be obviously-enough a friendly joke to say 'I have heard nothing but good things about Boston' meaning she has heard very little end of sentence or would it sound like flattery, she doesn't know how Anglosphere people do this and normally she'd lean on the fact that everyone knows she isn't flattering them because why would she do that but if there's one thing this weekend has taught everyone it's that you can't coast on reputation across the language divide.

So instead she goes for something weirdly direct but according to Hitomi they like that on the Anglo side, which is "Oh cool. --I'm creative-writing-slash-politics-track, I figured I should probably be getting to know more people on the English-speaking side of the room? Nice to meet you."

have-the-temperament

"Oh cool, I'm splitting incantations and artificing and I don't think of politics as being a formal track so much but I definitely do more of it than the rest of my year." It makes sense that Kyoto would formalize that more; if she remembers her international relations class they're more in the thick of things in the sinosphere. Hopefully that phrasing was a good way to disclaim any expertise without sounding like she's not worth talking to. "It's likewise nice to get to know someone from your side of things."

little-sparrow

"Incantations and artificing isn't a combination I hear much, what made you pick it?"

have-the-temperament

"My affinity is projectiles and I'm mundanely good at languages, and I'm good enough at time management that my parents didn't think I ought to give up on either yet."

little-sparrow

"Oh, that's a great affinity. --mine's performing, I get a lot of song spells, it's part of why I'm creative writing track."

have-the-temperament

"Oh cool, song spells are awesome." Should she mention that she knows a couple people with music affinities? Not yet, they're kind of embarrassing. "Do you play an instrument or just sing?"

little-sparrow

"I mostly sing, instruments aren't really worth the weight allowance to bring in and freshmen don't get first pick of hand-me-downs, but next year Makoto-senpai's planning to leave me a harp."

have-the-temperament

"Nice. A portable one, or did she or someone make one of the big ones you play sitting down?" She vaguely thought the portable ones were called lyres but that might be an anachronism.

little-sparrow

"Someone a few years ago, don't know how many exactly but he got it as a hand me down too, made a-- lap harp, I think it's called in English? And we've been passing it down since then."

have-the-temperament