it's still deeply unsettling that there are real actual people i have never met who know about me because i was born the male heir of a old american southern line. like, my brother (who is also trans) visited the old family house out of idle curiosity, over two decades after it did not belong to us anymore and we had distanced ourselves from every aspect of the culture. and the people now living there assumed he was me. they saw a man with our last name and figured he *had* to be me, since i was the only amab child.
like it's so so weird for these people, another old southern family, to have kept track of this shit well enough to make that mistake. and even weirder for them to treat my brother like returning royalty. they sure as hell didn't retract any hospitality once he clarified, but i'm pretty sure my brother could have admitted to war crimes and they still would have rather died than violate upper class southern hospitality rules.
like i know why this happens. i know that the american south is still hella aristocratic in places. i understand that this other family values the shared history between our families, even if most of it was us being shitheads. even if my family no longer shares their status culturally or economically. even if my dad would likely have sold the old place himself, only prevented from doing so by my aunt deciding to be a hilarious stereotype and manipulating my dying grandfather into changing the will in her favor so she could sell it instead. point is that these people Know I Exist and Care About My Existence and it freaks me out
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directly referring to this / @gloryseized
Tulin loves learning, even if it can get pretty boring sometimes with the Elder when he's running his Gatherings or with Mum when she's tryna teach him stuff like how to properly dust off hammocks.
Tulin really, really loves Link, and there's no but or though or even if 'bout that.
It figures, then, that he'd really-really-really love learning with and 'bout Link, which is something that's been true and holding true ever since the hero stepped foot into these peaks — 'specially now that they've started language lessons!
Hylian Sign, it turns out, is somehow way more and way less finicky than what he knows of Rito Key. The movements are smaller and can get real compact — kinda quieter, in a sense — so it's taken a lotta fine-tuning on both their parts to allow Tulin to do more than just understand. It's different from everything else he's currently learning and trying, but, y'know, he thinks he's been doing a good job of picking it up!
He must be, 'cause even Dad seemed a little lost and very impressed when he recounted all that he and Link went over this time during dinner tonight — lightly testing him on everything and turning to Link for the answers he wasn't sure of. Which is, like, Dad-speak for answers he doesn't know, and how neat is that?! Tulin basically knows more 'bout this than his dad, now! And-and Link's getting better at making out bits and pieces of Rito, too: when he started teasing Dad 'bout falling behind for the first time in his entire life in warbling tones, his friend jumped right in and joined Dad's side on teasing him back!
( Totally unfair of him, by the way. Tulin had to swipe a bread roll from him when he wasn't looking for that!
...And then passed him his last piece of trout when Link caught him mid-bite 'cause he felt bad, but the point stands! )
Hehe. Link really is the coolest. And the nicest! They'd touched some more on how to talk 'bout others in his people's tongue today — hard to explain when the Hylian equivalents don't really tell you anything useful 'bout anyone, and probably harder to wrap your head 'round when that sorta blankness is what you've grown up with — but Link hadn't complained, or pretended he completely understood so Tulin would stop, or anything else like that.
He'd stopped anyway though, 'cause it's a lot and he can be a patient teacher as well! As long as Link knows they have words that mean something like I like you without actually saying that, or I hate you without actually saying that, he's perfectly happy to leave recognising them and how to use 'em for next time. Maybe he can even try showing Link some Rito Key! Ooh, ooh, can Link whistle? Can he get Uncle Harth or Mr. Huck to make him one? How awesome would it be to see him say you-that-I-like? Or— or you-that-I-love!
...Which Tulin, now that he thinks 'bout it, doesn't know how to even remotely say in Hylian Sign.
That's no good.
He leans further out from his roost, keen student for the last time tonight as he watches Link go through the motions of, "I love you." It looks pretty simple and very doable, so it's with a huge smile back that he shuffles to the very edge of his hammock, wings rising to wholeheartedly repeat after his friend—
—Only to fall straight out, directly onto Link with an oof!
"Tulin," Mum's voice cuts in from above them, and that's totally unfair of her, 'cause it's not like he meant to fall! S'not his fault — not for that, and not for how he suddenly can't stop laughing, giddy with almost-sleepy silliness and the warmth that burst in his chest when Link caught him.
"Sorry," he says when he's got his breath under control again. He pushes himself up from where he's landed, eyes bright as he straightens, shakes out his wings, and tells Link, the way he told Tulin: "I love you!"
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Yuzuki can't believe the chance she's been presented with all at once. Because this - the man in front of her, she's sure of it - has to be Takaya, the creator of the Nyx cult... the very same cult that she's been investigating since it first appeared at just the beginning of this month!
Of course, she has to be careful. She's not stupid - a cult leader has to be a dangerous man, and she doesn't want him thinking that she has any kind of nefarious intentions. To be honest, she's actually quite scared; and she can hear her heart racing uncomfortably in her ears as she thinks about what she's about to do. But... she really mostly is just genuinely curious - that should be something he wants, right? It's not like she's trying to do anything stupid like take him down. So...
"Excuse me!" she calls out boldly, before even really realizing what she's doing. Once she's sure he's got his attention, she tries to dial back the enthusiasm a bit, and once again speaks in a more serious tone.
"You're... you're Takaya, aren't you? I saw your interview. About Nyx... and the end of the world."
@quillheel ( starter for takaya! )
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