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[daozhangs]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, XIAO.XINGCHEN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** XIAO.XINGCHEN has joined 018.07.154.55 <XIAO.XINGCHEN> You have reached Xiao Xingchen. <XIAO.XINGCHEN> I am often away from my laptop, but I will do my best to answer as soon as I'm able.

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[daozhangs]

( it's as he suspected - runyu is lost and confused despite all attempts to act as though he has things under control, and xingchen would very much prefer not to leave him alone under such circumstances. luckily, he isn't asked to, warmly assuring: ) I'll stay, then. ( and, as promised, he's shifting around to face the door, a hand lifting to lightly cover his eyes as a gesture of good faith.

the shuffling behind him is largely unidentifiable to one who hasn't yet learned to attune himself to the nuance of sound, but xingchen is nothing if not patient, tracking the boy's general movements to and fro with half of his mind while the rest of it slips into something closer to a shallow meditative state. an impotent meditative state spurred by the long-ingrained instinct to regenerate qi anytime he feels lacking in it, a state which he exists in (by his understanding) permanently within this realm.

'what's this?' the voice draws him fully back to the present, and his brow flickers in puzzlement for a moment beneath the top of the hand over his eyes. ) May I see it? ( his other hand lifts palm-up into the air beside him, though he keeps his eyes dutifully covered until he's received (tacit or implicit) permission to open them. a daozhang is true his word, after all. )

[fishfairy]

[ Little Li frowns in thought, reluctant to surrender something that seems to belong to him. Even if it's to an older boy who's been honest with him, holding back is easier, safer, after years of bullying. There's enough fault to be found with him already. He reaches up to his hair, trying to tidy it, before letting his hands fall to his sides.

The daozhang still hasn't turned around. Li tilts his head again before letting a small smile replace his worried frown.

He shuffles in his makeshift clothes and tugs on his sleeve, holding the necklace up. ]

You can look now.

[daozhangs]

( when the answer does finally come, xingchen allows the hand over his eyes to lower to the floor, a few fingertips resting there to assist in balance as he shifts back around to face the room and the boy within it. his gaze falls at once on the necklace, of course - it's still looped around runyu's neck, so the waiting hand drops now as well, and instead xingchen lifts up a bit from his crouch to shift a meter or so closer (a carefully unhurried movement so as not to startle), kneeling again within arm's reach of the boy and his necklace.

here, both hands lift to carefully take the coin between his fingertips, as lightly as he can hold it so as to make sure runyu knows that he doesn't plan to steal it. he recognizes the 24-character charm, of course, having made a number of his own not long ago - but those typically call forth prosperity and wealth, or failing that, protection. this one boasts the same character twenty-four times, the xī which means 'rest' or 'breathe'. and while part of him tries to maintain that he shouldn't leap to bold conclusions, xingchen is also quite certain he'd recognize his own handiwork. quite certain he does recognize it, etched into each line of the coin which runyu wears around his neck. ) It's a charm, ( xingchen says, since the whole purpose for looking it over was to be able to explain what exactly it might be. his eyes lift to the boy's, holding the edges of the coin so that runyu can see the face of it as xingchen continues. ) This character, xī, means 'to rest'. It seems that whoever gave you this coin hoped that it might help to ease your worries. ( and with this, the hand not holding the coin drops to catch the back of runyu's, a ghost of a guiding touch to lift it up so that he might return the coin to him, setting it in the boy's palm. )

(cw: child abuse, mutilation)

[fishfairy]

[ Little Li's head lowers to the coin necklace, following Xiao-gege's return of it. Frowning, his fingers brush over the character about rest slowly. Perhaps his mother knows that he's started to cut the scales away now and spends many hours at night trying to do it right. But if she knows, is it all for nothing? What does "rest" mean? ]

( He pouts at all the questions and glances back up at the older boy, holding the coin up again. ) What does that mean? If I don't worry, Mother will. I don't want her to cry again. Did she make it?

[ If she did, he would have to apologize but ignore that. Obeying those words would hurt his mother, his only friend. ]