#(though that isn't to say he doesn't understand the woes and dangers of poverty)

[deiscension]

It is of the utmost importance to me that all of you know as pretty and sanguine and effervescent and every other syrupy word for being beautiful and decadently surreal there is, Xie Lian is also exceedingly messy. He collects trash for a living. He has two cursed shackles. He could break your spine with his pinky. There’s about 800 years of poorly processed trauma up in that noggin of his. He just likes being nice. He prefers being nice. He has chosen violence, vengeance, isolation, and ruin before-- it brought him nothing but sorrow, and though it was sorrow he believed he deserved (and sorrow he rightfully deserves, to a degree), and sorrow he still wears, it’s kindness that fills his day to day. His heart is not pure, but it’s been washed off and revitalized. He doesn’t stand for senseless violence, but who is he to deliberate on what is and isn’t senseless to the one whose hands have deigned it necessary to dye themselves red? Who would he be to turn down those same hands if they reached out in despair, in need? His promise to save the common people may go unfilled on the grander scale, he refuses to give up on the sentiment. Because the sentiment is not about saviorism, but saying if heaven will not look at you, then I will; if not even the ghosts will have you, then let me hear your troubles; if even the very earth we walk upon forgets your footsteps, then let me remember. It’s not because he’s a god. It’s not because he’s a good person. It’s because he’s just Xie Lian. He’s fallen from great heights and knows the taste of mud, blood, grief, and vengeance. He can’t promise much of anything because he really is quite a joke of a god... but at least then he can give you a much needed laugh, right? His mess isn’t something he’s in a hurry to untangle. He’s still deeply entrenched in it, but he won’t let that blind him to those who must also bear the ordeal of existing under such fickle laws of heaven and nature.