2021-05-21: A Little Familiar

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  • Log: A Little Familiar
  • Cast: Xantia, Fei Fong Wong, Citan Uzuki, Lily Keil
  • Where: Aphel Aura - Residential District
  • Date: May 21, 2021
  • Summary: Xantia's search for her identity continues to turn up little -- but it's too soon to give up just yet. Lily and Xantia get to meet the Uzuki family, while Xantia extracts a promise (...sort of) from Citan. Fei gets some good news from Yui.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Other than the promise of a potential ally against Solaris, for a number of the Black Wolves this trip had some personal significance as well. Fei and Xantia both are well aware of the link between Shevat and their fighting style. Even though they discussed this before and agreed that doesn't necessarily mean they've actually been to Shevat... well, at least Xantia was hoping there would be something for her to learn by going there.

Part of her was hoping that as soon as she got here, people would recognize her and she'd finally get some answers about who she used to be. Even though another part was scared of being immediately put into custody for something she couldn't remember, as her vague memories of having once fled from people of Shevat might imply.

In the end, neither happened. It's the same as any other place Xantia has visited. People looked at her, some of them more curiously than others, but nobody actually approached her for either reasons she was thinking they might. Looking around the city Aphel Aura likewise didn't immediately trigger any feeling of familiar in her. It all felt as alien as you might expect a floating city to when you've never been to one.

In the end, she ended up gravitating towards the city library. 'Books' may not be the first thing anyone thinks of when they think of Xantia, but this is not actually that unusual. If anything, it's a return to form, to back in days past when he spent much of her time reading books to learn about the many things she'd forgotten, or perhaps never knew about. Much like back then, she's doing this with the primary motivation of finding something, anything in these books that might jog her memory.

Obviously, upon entering, one will find Xantia standing at one of the shelves with her nose in an open book. But her head immediately turns as soon as familiar faces enter, smiling as she immediately addresses one person in particular.

"Fei! How was it for you? Did you you learn anything, was anything familiar at all?" As always, she's just as enthusiastic about others regaining their lost memories as she is regarding her own situation.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong is happy to help Xantia with whatever she may need but Fei is about as good at BOOK LEARNIN' as Xantia is. Usually. In this life anyway. Xantia knows full well that Fei is not nearly as focused on finding the secrets of his own past. He sort of figures, usually speaking, that just because finding out the truth behind his secrets is, well, TRUTH--it rarely helps. Why, the best thing from THE SECRET PAST in his life? Emeralda? HE had no idea about her when he first saw her! He just sort of felt ... warm? But he didn't have to look for her. She just sort of showed up.

But he wawnts Xantia to be happy and Xantia needs the truth.

"Well, sort of." Fei rubs his neck. "But I don't think it's the sort of familiar stuff that's going to help you too much."

He brightens. "We ran into Yui and Midori! They're here! They're uh--They're Doc's family." He smiles faintly. "They're doing alright." He pauses. "Um, Yui is from Shevat. And we can trust her--! So maybe she knows something?"

MAYBE? He can't really be sure. "...I'm mostly just relieved they're okay. Maybe I'll remember something when...I'm used to that?" He smiles. "The Queen wants to see us though? So if anybody knows anything, she probably would?"

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "I should hope so, Fei. We have known each other long enough, haven't we?"

    So says Yui Uzuki, who has apparently entered the library quietly just moments ago. Not far away, peeking out from behind a bookshelf, is her daughter -- she must be her daughter because the resemblence is rather striking. Midori doesn't say a word and instead studies Xantia intently, her face a mask of serious contemplation.

    "Have you seen that husband of mine? He had said he would meet us here," Yui continues, looking this way and that. "But it doesn't seem as if he is."

    It's a little too quiet for Citan to be in the same room with other people, after all.

    Slowly, Midori continues to slip out from behind the bookshelf, as if attempting to get a closer and closer look at Xantia.

    Yui turns her head to regard her daughter. "...Midori."

    Like an animal spotted by a predator, the nine-year-old freezes on the spot.

    "Please don't mind her, she is only being curious," Yui sighs. Then, she regards Xantia anew. "Oh, we have not been introduced, have we? Fei, would you introduce us to your friend?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

If someone had asked Lily if she'd have a nice time at a sky city she'd have said definitely not... but Aphel Aura is different from the impressions she'd had of such a place. An enemy of an enemy; a people who are not quite as different as she'd imagined. And...

Well, meeting people from the past. Fei's past. Maybe Xantia's past.

Lily likewise gravitates towards the library eventually, a few subjects in particular her interest. She has a lot to think about herself, though not all related to here, and right now...

She happens to step from one of the other shelves holding a ponderous tome on Ether, and looks over Xantia. "Find anything?" she wonders, and then spots first Fei--and then, new people! A little quiet...

"Please do," Lily says of introductions and Fei, pausing to look around at the group.

She's been busy, for her part. Hard to find even!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Of course Fei is slacking on recovering lost memories, as usual, but Xantia isn't about to give him a hard time over that. She knows his stance on these things, and there's this Other Guy complicating matters to boot, so taking things at his own pace is probably for the best. Still, no reason to not hope for Fei to just happen to run into more good Emeralda-like things in this place that might have something to do with him, right?

Though it's immediately clear that Fei has been distracted by things not related to his long-term memory. "Right... I heard something about that during the fight." She looks around a moment, before shaking her head. That Citan... she has a few words to say to him about this dropping out of nowhere.

"But, that's weird isn't it? If you know Doc's family, that means they weren't always here. So they were on Filgaia? Then how did they get back here before we did? I thought the tower was sealed..." She frowns for a moment, then quickly recomposes back into a smile. Though not very concerned about etiquette, even she would feel weird to keep speaking as if the very people she was speaking of aren't right there.

Pre-empting Fei, she introduces herself to Yui: "Oh, sorry, I forget about that a lot... I'm Xantia, Fei's sister! Nice to meet you!" That's all she actually says about herself, so Fei can feel free to elaborate. In the mean time, Xantia kneels down to be more on eye level with Midori, smiling as she gives a little wave. "And nice to meet you too, Midori!" She doesn't seem to have particularly noticed the girl's interest.

When she rises back to her feet, she raises her other hand, the one holding the book, in greeting to Lily. "This one's pretty interesting, it's about the Great War between Solaris and Shevat that happened a long time ago." She glances at the book's cover, pausing a moment before adding, "...It feels strange. Not so much like I'm learning new things, but as if I'm refreshing my memory. It makes me wonder... what if some of the things I know came from these books...?" Of course, she hasn't really found a shred evidence of her having been here before, but there's something about these books, somehow... and that's not the only thing.

"...hey, Lily? Isn't that strange, that we can read these? Why aren't these in... Shevatian? ...whatever Shevat's language is."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei jumps a little when Yui speaks. Yui is so quiet sometimes it's easy to miss her! In a crowd or otherwise! "I didn't mean it like that," Fei's cheeks redden. "I'm just telling Xantia because she hasn't met you before--and well, she's had to deal with a lot of 'Hey lets speak just kidding it's a trap' scenarios so..."

"Not since yesterday," Fei adds, regarding HUBBY. But he does look over to Midori, giving her a smile.

Xantia should know Midori. Yui too.

"Hey Xantia," Fei says. "This is Yui. And Midori. They're Doc's wife and daughter. Midori's a little shy, but she's a good kid. You can trust her. And well--you definitely need to have dinner at Yui's place some time," Fei says, ever thinking of food first but to be fair he's now talking to Xantia.

"It's not by blood or anything," He adds. "But when I was at my lowest point--uh--after what happened, you know. Xantia did a lot to pull me out of it. And we've been hanging with each other ever since. We help each other out--and we've got some similar stuff going on."

His cheeks redden further. "I uh--Yui's from Shevat. I guess... she had mentioned but I just wasn't paying attention at the time?" Fei laughs awkwardly. "But we knew each other back from, uh, from Lahan."

Midori's a great kid.

"Midori's a great kid," Fei ammends.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Politely, Yui laughs, shaking her head. "Of course. I know what you meant, Fei."

    Midori is still only nine, though -- while that warning from her mother has its effect, it can't keep her from turning her gaze towards Lily as she approaches... with an extremely large book. Ever so slightly, the young girl tilts her head to one side, her brow furrowed as she regards Lily.

    "..."

    She doesn't say a word.

    "Sister? Oh, Fei, you didn't tell me that you had family," she teases, because even though Fei corrects the matter, she would already know, wouldn't she? After all, Fei's father is...

    But she again shakes her head. "No, I understand. 'Family is more than blood', isn't that right?" She turns to Xantia. "Thank you for taking care of him, Xantia. We had been worried about Fei." After what had happened, perhaps it stands to reason.

    Midori, meanwhile, regards Xantia steadily as she lowers herself to child-height -- in about the four-foot+ range, Midori is about normal for her age. ...Though she still doesn't have a word to say to Xantia, instead fixing her with a prolonged stare.
    Then, after a moment, makes a slight series of movements with her hands.

    "She says, 'hello'," Yui translates, watching her daughter. "She hasn't met this many new people in some time."

    "Ah, oh dear," calls out a familiar voice from the doorway. "Yui! I was afraid you would get here first. I hope you have not been waiting long?" Citan moves to approach the group of them, shaking his head. "I am sorry for being late. I ran into your grandfather. ...Oh, and I see you are not alone," the doctor adds, glancing between the rest of them.

    "He does like to talk, doesn't he?" Yui remarks, smiling slightly. "In fact, it reminds me of someone..."

    Citan sighs. "I do not believe I am... quite that bad, now..."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily wasn't there at a certain initial fight, having hung back to make sure Riesenlied could make it up the tower, but she's gotten some of the details by now. But here.. Hmm.

Lily doesn't step into the part of the conversation before she was really here--of how Yui would've gotten here ahead of them--but she does show up in time for introductions and to listen to Xantia talk about the war.

"That says something itself, doesn't it? That this information is familiar. Maybe some of what you know is from these books, or similar." A pause. "I've been reading up on their old texts, myself. Firstly on Ether. There's a lot of theoretical background I never had access to before." But isn't it strange? Hmmm.

Why can they read it...?

"It is interesting that their language isn't different like Solaris's. Maybe something to do with differing approaches? They don't seem to look down on the surface in the same way."

"Then it's good to meet you Yui, Midori." Lily looks right back at Midori--gently, but clearly. She notes her furrowed brow, and tilts her head back thoughtfully. But that is all.

"More than blood... yes, that's true," Lily agrees on family.

A laugh, as Citan and Yui interact. "If he talks half as much as the doctor here..." She inclines her head to greet him.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

This sure is a lot to take in for Xantia. She can't help her mental process immediately going back to that vague memory of running from Shevat... in that memory, she was running through a desert. She was wondering how that could make sense, but if there's people from Shevat living on Filgaia...

She shakes her head. This isn't the time to start worrying about that again. She's been here a while now and nobody's done anything to make it seem like this is a dangerous place for her to be. And there's certainly no reason to suspect Citan's family from being somehow dangerous to her.

"Sorry," she apologizes, before realizing that Yui isn't going to realize why she's apologizing for something she was only thinking about. She semi-smoothly makes this about something else. "...For, uh... being rude, if I was? I don't really how to act when meeting new people who aren't new people to other people I know. ...If that makes sense?" She wouldn't have been able to put it any less awkwardly if that really had been the first thing on her mind. It's still true, regardless.

She doesn't feel any less awkward about being thanked, looking much like Fei did earlier with the way she rubs the back of her neck. "Aw, it's nothing you need to thank me for... it's like Fei said, we help each other out. I have amnesia too, so, you know... we understand each other pretty well." Not just because of the amnesia, that was just the first thing that came to mind. Naturally, with Fei's suggestion of good dinner, Xantia's attention is immediately maxed out. "Oh, really? Well, I'm always happy to eat good food!"

Xantia blinks at Midori as she makes a hand signal of some sort. When Yui translates, she nods in understanding, then mimics the same hand signal back to the girl. Xantia only needed to see it once to imitate it flawlessly. She doesn't question this form of communication, perhaps she's already understood what's going on here.

To the matter of the books, Xantia nods to Lily, as the explanation given makes good enough sense. "Well, that's convenient for us! I kind of wonder if that Ether Theory book would look familiar to me... somehow I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. At this point I feel that maybe it's better if I do things without understanding them, that seems to work out better than when I try to think about things too much."

And then Citan arrives. Xantia instantly zeroes in, crossing her arms, looking a little annoyed. "Well, I guess I don't have to ask you whether this place is familiar. All this time you already knew all about Shevat, and you never said anything!" Then her expression softens, and she smiles. "I suspected, though. I saw you using palm strikes that one time, I was pretty sure that was Shevat Open Palm. But I never said anything about that either, so I guess we've even!" Uncrossing her arms, she finishes that thought with a shrug. "What I don't get is why you don't use it more often."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei rubs her neck and adds, "Uh well... That's right." to Yui. He's at a bit of a loss for words. Midori's method of introduction to Xantia makes him smile, though, since it seems like they're getting along. The other voice in Fei's head goes quiet for a bit though the faint anxiety never leaves him.

"Grandfather... Wow..." Fei says. "You've got a big family, Doc...!" The Elements that left with him, and Yui's extended family. Fei's honestly impressed. "...Who'se that?" Fei asks of Yui.

He doesn't argue against Yui's interpretation of her husband though. He does rub at his neck again instead and looks to Lily as she shows up instead of commenting on it!

"Oh Lily! Hey!" He beams. "Glad you were able to make it up!"

He offers Lily a hifive with one of his hands. JUST ONE.

"...Huh... Yeah, come to think of it, Doc's style is pretty similar too..."

Fei as usual is kind of a dumbass.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Yui shakes her head. "No, that's quite alright, Xantia. Believe me, you've hardly been rude. I understand that you must all have a lot of questions, and I suppose it must be a shock to be here," she continues, glancing up at the ceiling. "...We should have tried to make contact with all of you sooner," she adds, only to shake her head. "...No, I should leave that to her Majesty to explain."

    Xantia mimics the gesture perfectly. Midori's sober, determined expression doesn't quite soften as such, but something about the intensity of her gaze lessens. Slowly, she nods, as if this were acceptable to her.

    "Ah... you wound me, Lily," Citan sighs, his shoulders slouching.

    "To answer your question, Xantia... many of the people in Shevat share blood with people from the surface. Having our own language would make things difficult. That, and we are hardly as isolated as Solaris," Yui explains, only to pause as she glances between Lily and the others, her husband included. "Would one of you introduce me to your other friend?" Yui asks, perhaps realizing that formalities haven't happened over in this corner. "I am Yui, and this is our daughter, Midori."

    "That would be... this is Lily Keil, formerly of Kislev," Citan answers readily.

    "Ah, I thought I detected a slight accent," Yui muses. "I've always wanted to visit Kislev. I've heard there are flowers that only grow on the mountains there."

    "A 'big family'... Hmm," Citan says, folding his arms over his chest, his expression oddly pensive for the moment at Fei's remark. Then, he nods, a strangely distant smile on his lips. "...Yes, I suppose that is true, again."

    At Fei's other question, Midori lifts a hand to her chin for a moment. "My grandfather, do you mean? Perhaps you might meet him later, though don't blame me if he talks your ears off, Fei," Yui says with a light laugh. "His name is Gaspar."

    Citan's response to Xantia's question is to slowly raise both hands before him, palms forward, as if in conciliation. "Guilty as charged, I am afraid," he says, shaking his head. "I did not wish to say anything in the event we were overheard," he continues, glancing the once in Yui's direction.

    She nods, as if to confirm this statement. "Yes. My husband said that you encountered one of our agents on the surface. Like her, I had my own means of communicating with Shevat. That's how I was able to return here with my daughter and the rest of the villagers."

    The fact that Citan didn't have one... does that mean that Shevat doesn't consider him a citizen? Perhaps that could be one reason why the both of them opted to live on the surface--

    Xantia's other observation appears to catch him somewhat by surprise, though, since Citan blinks. "Ah... is that so? Well, er, if I am being honest about it... it has been some time since I had last 'fought in earnest', let alone hand-to-hand. Fortunately, I have had a very patient teacher," and the fact that he here glances at Yui again might say quite a lot more than words ever could.

    As for Fei, he just... slightly shakes his head.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Of coure Xantia's ways make sene to Lily--but Lily isn't the one being asked. She does notice the way she communicates with Midori, though, and can't help but look to see how that works.The book... "It might," Lily admits. "I think the same--you've found something here, anyway. Though... I should say this is a pretty old book." She pauses. "But I think that's fine; you do well working intuitively; some people are just better feeling than thinking."

Lily also has nothing bad to say about good food. At all.

"Of course," Lily answers Fei, and accepts the high-five because it's Fei. "Wouldn't have missed it." Would she allow this for most?? Definitely not.

"I understand if you can't say too much," Lily allows next to Yui--and grins at Citan. Being able to poke at the mysterious doctor a little is kind of fun. But... Introductions. "Oh, sorry," Lily says, having forgotten to introduce herself.

"Mm-hm. I still have a bit of it. Guess you can't entirely take the Kislev out of the woman." Flowers, though... Hmm. "Yes."

A big family. That's... nice. Lily admittedly has a little of a bittersweet reaction to such a thing, considering.

"Hmm..." Lily considers; Citan, perhaps not a citizen, or lacking a method regardless. Wanting to avoid being overheard... He has secrecy on a level that even she never quite did.

"A teacher, then?" Lily notices. "Well, it's a good set of skills to have."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia is quickly learning to appreciate Yui, both for being of the same mind that she is that Shevat should have gotten involved sooner given everything that's happened, and for answering a question as definitively as only a citizen could. "Wow, so Shevatian isn't even a thing? Huh." This is helping to alleviate her concerns, it's far from Solaris's attitude regarding Filgaia and its people. Shevat is already sounding more like a reliable ally.

When Fei is being a little slow about things, Xantia steps over to him, to poke him in the ribs. "Come on Fei, pay a little attention for once, you're always missing obvious things!" She remains standing close to him, which has a hidden purpose - she waits until others are in conversation before she lowers her voice to ask him about something.

"How's The Other Guy doing?"

That seemed to come out of nowhere, it's not like she could have heard the voice in Fei's head. But then, she does tend to bring Id up a lot, timing may have nothing to do with this. "I was a little worried he'd have a grudge against people from the sky in general..."

She's back to acting perfectly natural when she jumps back into the book conversation with Lily a bit. "Heeey, you're making it sound bad. I do a lot of thinking, I'm plenty good at that! Just, not about what I'm doing, when I'm doing it." She's smiling though, she got it, she's not actually insulted. "Actually I think... hm, maybe there's a book here that'll help me talk to Midori?" Talking with your hands, she never would have thought about that before today.

Her reaction to Citan... well, he should have realized it would excite her to hear that he hasn't been fighting in earnest, especially given he can use similar techniques as she can. "Well, then I know how you can make it up to me. Fight me, in earnest! I wanna see what you can do when you get serious!" There's a dramatic fingerpoint and everything. She almost immediately drops her hand down though, clarifying, "...I don't mean right now, of course. Just, you know, sometime. It's a promise!" She's apparently already decided it is before she's gotten a response.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei does, at least, not think it's too unrealistic that Citan didn't have a communicato to get here--after all, he's Solarian and he saw how Maria reacted. Even if he could get aslyum here, he doubts it'd be all that welcoming. Except maybe now, when things have gotten this bad. He laughs a little and adds, "It's alright. I don't mind having my ears talked off. Just so long as I'm not expected to get everything off the bat...!"

He is quiet for a moment. "The rest of the villagers, huh..." Fei rubs at his neck. "It's going to be tough to...avoid them, huh? I don't want to cause them any stress, so--if there's anywhere up here I should just not go. I can just--not go there."

He lets his arm drop. "Fought in earnest...? Huh..." Fei thinks it over. "Well, if this is you holding back--I'd hate to imagine the alternative."

It doesn't seem to bother him though. He grimaces when Xantia nudges him in the ribs. "Ahh--sorry! I just... sort of get in my own head a lot, I promise...! It's not intentional!"

Xantia asks how the 'Other Guy' is doing.

"...He's calm." Fei murmurs, glancing once more to Midori before adding, "Better than I expected actually. Since--well, to be honest, he didn't want us to come here."

He isn't going to offer up Id's History Of Spooky Scenarios in front of Midori and honestly it isn't at the forefront of his mind either. He's honestly and truly genuinely happy to see Midori and Yui alive and well.

And the same goes for the Other Guy, though he'd never admit it.

"Sign langnuage?" Fei asks. "She's just quiet but it could work."

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Grandfather may be a good person for you to talk to, in fact," Yui muses, considering Fei. "He's quite knowledgable about Shevat's history."

    Which makes sense because he was, you know, actually present for most of it.

    "Not as such, no," Citan says, picking up where Yui had left off, regarding the local language. "I suspect that 'Solarian' as a language developed due to linguistic drift after the Day of Collapse. Unlike Shevat, as Yui had said, it is a much more 'restricted' society. That, and it provides another barrier between the Third Class and the rest..." But he shakes his head. "In any case, while I cannot promise that everything in this library is necessarily in a language that you will understand, many of the texts should be."

    "Actually... about that, Fei. I don't think they blame you for what happened now. Since they've been here, they've come to learn more about Solaris and its role in what happened that night... still, if it's uncomfortable for you, I understand. But I don't think anyone from Lahan bears a grudge."

    ...Well, except for Dan, but Dan might be another story entirely.

    "Actually, there is. Would you like me to show you later, Xantia? We've been learning it together. She can hear without any difficulty, of course, but I thought it might make her feel less..."

    She trails off, glancing down at Midori who is still studying the two new people intently. After a moment, she glances up at her mother and takes a step closer to her. "...Less lonely, perhaps." Midori hadn't had many friends among the children her age back in Lahan, as Fei would recall -- she had almost a painful shyness at the time.

    "Perhaps I might still go someday," she muses to Lily. "I had thought once about traveling there when Midori was older. I sketch as a hobby, you see," she explains, prompting Citan to glance her way though he says nothing.

    Xantia then tells Citan how he can make it up to her... by having a fight.

    "Ah... i, is that so, Xantia," Citan hazards, fidgeting with his glasses as if he were put on the spot. "You are interested in... fighting me? Well, er... I am not certain about..."

    "Dear, she only means a sparring match," Yui tells him, briefly putting a hand on his shoulder. "It shouldn't be any harm."

    "Yes, of course. I was aware of that," he says, shaking his head as if in disbelief. "Well... I will see, then, Xantia...?" What in the world has just happened? Did Yui just agree to this for him?
    (yes)

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily laughs with Xantia's smile. "That's fair." Hmm. A book about sign language. Of course! Well--...admittedly, there is a truth here, and is it that Lily is just as interested as Xantia in seeing Citan fight more 'earnestly'. Not that she'd say it in quite the same way.

She looks with a little concern at Fei as he speaks of the other villagers, but she isn't in on the conversation about the Other Guy. Not at the moment anyway. Instead, she listens to Citan's reassurance... Hmm.

"That makes sense," she says of the linguistic drift. "I think that sounds like a reasonable theory--if nothing else they need a way to be apart from their 'lessers'," she says with a harder cast to her eye. But Yui..

"There's a lot to see there," Lily says. "I can particularly recommend the forests in the winter--harsh conditions, sure, but sunrise is worth it from the right perch."

...This may be the nicest thing Lily has said about Kislev in the company of her friends at all.

"Hmmmm," she comments on the way Citan has been volunteered for this. She is amused.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia gives Fei a sympathetic look when he brings up the Lahan survivors. She doesn't know what to say... until Citan makes a hopeful statement in that regard. "...Maybe you should go, then," she gently suggests, but she won't insist. She doesn't know what it'll take for Fei to stop blaming himself for what happened, but anything that might help can only be a good thing.

Her response to hearing about Id is, initially, only a "...Huh." Didn't want them to come here... is there some kind of grudge here after all, or does he have a different reason for that? Chances are good that Fei doesn't know and Id isn't telling, because that's how these things tend to go. "Well... as long as he's calm, I guess. I've been worried since Stein... or, the guy who made Stein more of a problem, rather. It must have been hard to calm down... I'm proud of you for managing that."

Xantia nods along with Citan's additional explanation regarding the language matter, not understanding every part of that, but it makes good enough sense. And when Yui adds that there is in fact a book about sign language, she nods that much more vigorously. "Sounds great! Talking with your hands sounds interesting, I never would've thought that was possible! And, you know..." She smiles faintly as she looks to Midori. "I don't want anyone to feel lonely."

Xantia likes Yui more and more, appreciating the help in convincing Citan that a friendly sparring match is a good idea. "It'll be fiiiiine," she adds, nodding in Lily's direction. "You're not the only doctor we have, I'm sure Lily can help if things get a little out of hand."

That's... reassuring...?

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Well," Fei admits to Xantia. "...Some things he and I agree on, I guess. Some things are worth getting furious about. What he did... It's worse than murder."

That might explain a little about Id if he shares that opinion here. After all, if murder isn't the worst that you can do... maybe it's a little easier TO do.

But he's distracted by Yui. "Oh--well--sure, I can talk to him--"

But Fei is DESTROYED from even this by what Yui says next.

I don't think they blame you for what happened now.

Fei blinks in utter confusion. "Huh?"

They've come to learn more about Solaris and its role in what happened that night

Fei blinks several mores times in disbelief.

I don't think anyone from Lahan bears a grudge.

Tears flow from his eyes. "You're...joking right? That's impossible...There's no way they'd..."

He takes in a few deep breaths, nearing the edge of a panic attack but then he squeezes his eyes tightly and then slowly opens them again.

".....No, that's just...that's just running away. I should talk to them. If they don't hold me a grudge. It's important we hear that. Both of us. And if they do-- Well, the least I can do is to take whatever they've got for me. Now that things have calmed down, if they want me to buzz off--I can do that too."

It's...impossible, isn't it? How could they...?

The Other Guy is in complete disbelief. Some people, if Yui is telling the truth here, are far stronger than he could know. And if that's true, then what he's--

"...I'll check on them soon."

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Midori nods; though her rather serious-seeming demeanor doesn't precisely 'melt away' or anything, she does seem as if she's somewhat pleased at the prospect of having other people speak to her the way she prefers to speak to others.

    "A little... out of hand?" The doctor, meanwhile, seems to be liking this less and less, glancing between Xantia, his wife, and... Lily. "Surely not!"

    But then, as Yui explains how the residents of Lahan are doing, he has a reaction that prompts from her a closer look. "...Fei?"

    He's the subject of attention from all three Uzukis, frankly: concern from Citan, that worry from Yui. And from Midori, a more difficult-to-read look yet she stares right at him, one hand balling up the material of her skirt. No, actually, Midori looks like she might be about to cry herself for the moment, before she backs up against the bookcase just as Fei makes his decision and slowly lets out a breath, her own tension easing.

    "Are you alright, Fei?" Citan asks. He shares a look with Yui, then nods. "Yes... when you are ready. Perhaps, it may do you some good. I cannot know what they feel, now, but it has said that time and perspective can do much to heal wounds. And... yes, as you had said. There is a time when we must all face what we have been evading."

    It just comes in very different forms for some of them.