#liyiji jiaahu

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once upon a time (not long ago) there was a jadeblood who saw a light only she could see. she followed it down past her cloister, down past her caverns, down past the furthest depths anyone had ever seen, and what she found there was the first sun, long dead and yet still, somehow - "i do not live, but i will not die, for my fuel is your blood," it told her. she could not understand what she saw: a thousand eyes, a hundred mouths, features carved into stone that wept light like foul water. "bring me tinder to keep my flame alive, and this light will be yours, for as long as i shine."

once upon a time (not long ago) there were bluebloods who lived trapped between the sea and the sands, caught in an endless battle against those below and those above. when they died, they burned their bodies and cast them to the sky - but one sweep, the battles would not end. a body was left unconsecrated, its po still bound, and when the sun rose, the body rose with it. the body did not realise it was dead. and so it came to each door in the village, pounding on the doors. but it did not realise it was dead, and yet it had forgotten what it was to be alive - so it called out for names of those long dead. it spoke of the journeys of those not yet hatched. and when the sun sank below the horizon, the body collapsed with it, and all within the town hurried to consecrate it before the sun rose again.

Liyiji and Marduk's outfits, with some lore! They agreed to match outfits prior to the ball on a rainbowdrinker theme, but neither quite thought to actually clarify what kind of rainbowdrinker they meant.

Marduk's representing the more traditional rainbowdrinker, with a horrorterror / Ipomoean bent. Liyiji's a mixture of a jiangshi and vetala - with the latter being a corpse possessed by a demon in Hindu mythology, who possess full knowledge of the past, present, future, and everything in between.

I enjoyed the details in doing these! Little horrorterror faces, and writing on Liyiji's prayer slip and robes - two different scripts to represent the incompleted formal/religious slip on his horn, and the more casual, scrawled, common dialect that's been scrawled across the robes to try and consecrate the body after it collapses once more. Would that actually work? Unclear, but Liyiji has probably mentally prepared a passionate five page fucking essay prepared to argue one perspective or another in case anyone at the ball asks.

[12thperigeeball]

Grand Couturier Nominee No. 14 - Liyiji Jiaahu

Submitted by: Marduk Lector

I want to nominate Liyiji Jiaahu to be the [ ] Ball King [ ] Ball Queen [x] Grand Couturier

of the Ball of 12th Perigee Eve 2023 because ….1. [SINCERE] While one could argue that his outfit features some deviation from the most common drinkers, one must applaud his commitment to historical tradition; for a drinker consumes ones’ blood, yes, but as the draining of blood marks the transition between life and death, what is blood in the first place save a metaphor for a soul?

Besides, the sheer commitment of hopping instead of dancing on the ballroom floor..!

[mirkstrolls]

△ Taz, what will you do if Liyiji doesn't deal well with whatever blood color you might be?

–…

–/ l-ke j-aahu

–/ don’t l-ke anyone enough to r-sk gett-ng murdered over my caste

–/’d probably have to k-ll h-m

–unless / could f-gure someth-ng else out

–but that’s not l-kely to be poss-ble so.

[9/10 VERY UNCOMFORTABLE]

[inkstainedmapmaker]

[ PROFILE ]

NAME: Liyiji Jiaahu

PRONOUNS: He/him/his

SYMBOLHIGHT:  The tome

CASTE: Egyptian blue (#1034A6)

AGE: 18 years old / 8 sweeps

STRIFE: 2x3kind, combined with a net

DESCRIPTION:  An anxious historian who lives alone on his boat in the sea, and deals with his anxiety through an increasingly waspish demeanour.

[ APPEARANCE ]

5'10", stolid: broad-shouldered, broad-waisted, built like a brick. Graced with blueblood strength and kept in shape through years of deep-diving, but with a solid layer of fat that makes him look misleadingly soft. Covered in sunburn scars that’ve gone blue with pigment across his face, shoulders and back.

Mid-back hair that he keeps in one or two plaits, and wears very simple, sun-bleached cotton tunic over pants. Owns a pair of gold-plated reading glasses on a chain that he uses when he’s online.

[ MISC ]

His lusus is an old archelon that he occasionally uses to tow his boat.

He grew up on the coastline of south-east Alternia with Riccin and Myrrha, and rarely uses English outside of the forums. He’s passable in his region’s particular dialect of Seadweller Sign Language, but by no means fluent.

He lives on a two-room houseboat, and sails around the south-eastern Alternian sea. Goes on shore twice a sweep to help run one of the larger historical conventions, where he serves as a panel moderator.

[activatingaggro]

I kept saying I'd do a picture of the four trans trolls in the cast, because they all have been in the same room at this point.

So Li, Riccin, Kindra, and Pheres - who is less tiny and more just surrounded by the 6ft+ crowd.

[activatingaggro]

Churning through ball pictures, so first up: Liyiji and Marduk, being dweebs, because college taught me that at any party, you will have at least three people sitting on the ground somewhere, in a corner, ignoring the perfectly good couches nearby.

Liyiji’s armour is a duplicate of one of Sayiid’s generals. It’s historical, he says. He’s being humble, he says, when the truth of the matter is that his ancestor’s boots are literally just too big to fill in.

[activatingaggro]

Marduk keeps assuring people that this is his happy face. This is a lie, but it makes Liyiji laugh, so it works out.

[activatingaggro]

8. How does your character feel about religion? for Liyiji, 19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now? for Marduk, 24. What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually? for Apollo, and 40. How is their sense of humor? Do they have one? for Pitbul!

Later, I will do sketches of IC character takes on these, because talksprites are out but drawing my little fuckheads instead of this comic is so very in.

8. How does your character feel about religion?

Liyiji is a fucking asshole. He would be the radical atheist, tipping his fedora and sneering over his horn-rimmed glasses, if he actually cared passionately about this! But both of his moirails have been borderline religious fanatics, because he finds religion baffling, silly, and ultimately pretty fucking pitiable for a troll to believe in.

He's very big on the idea that people can control their own destiny, because his psionics allow him so much freedom in doing that for him. The idea of willingly choosing to not only give up that freedom, but to assume everyone inherently lacks that freedom, is pretty much batshit fucking insane to him: it's like someone cutting off their leg to prove a point in that anyone in the world can be injured at any time. He doesn't agree with it, and he doesn't understand it.

But since he finds it pretty pitiable, he only bothers with a half-hearted kind of debate over it. He doesn't get it, but this is one of the topics where he doesn't need to get it, and he's more apt to get pissy and start arguing if someone's overly derisive of religion, just because of whom he associates those kind of beliefs with.

19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

Marduk joined the Education Program willingly at about six sweeps, and she joined it out of a genuine sense of altruism and interest in the law. When she was younger, she thought that the Empire was ultimately made to help the people within it. When laws were treated as draconian, rather than general guidelines, society suffered - and why would anyone create a world where you treat your citizens with malice?

The Education Program was illuminating, for a troll that had lived a largely coddled, middle-class life, surrounded by olives and teals almost exclusively. The realisation of exactly how much the Empire treats its citizens as property threw her, but she could almost rationalise that. Surely it was for the greater good! But the more that she encountered the various depravities of the Empire and the program, the more that she started to falter.

The round the time that she met Hinnom, she started realising that the Empire wasn't made to be fair, and by the time that she Ascended, she wasn't precisely distressed to be plucked up as the Hanhai Lady's handmaiden. She wouldn't have been able to change the laws. But perhaps she could work to change things through politics..?

She's becoming increasingly disillusioned with that, too. She tries to keep an eye on the longhaul of it all - the more that she's integrated into the highest tier of politics, the more that she might eventually be able to nudge and influence and push others towards an equal and fair society - but Marduk isn't actually very good at that. She wants things to change now, because anything in the world could happen to her friends in the meanwhile, and the idea that she might have enough influence to start work in two or three centuries is an alarming one that she can't really see as real.

24. What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?

Apollo is the butter that keeps the party going! Or his social group, in general. He's the Lube Man of social etiquette, just sliding through life --

-- and through any social snafus he finds himself in. He just can't take anything seriously! Whereas Hap might enthusiastically, earnestly really just want things to go well, Apollo is generally led through life by the rule of funny.. and because he's not a clown, and he is an official Fleet soldier, murder can't be the punchline. If Longhaul didn't cull him, Zavare would stare disapprovingly, and Apollo's pretty sure that'd be worse.

As a result, his social groups and activities tend to be everywhere and with everyone. Apollo is the person that always seems to be underfoot. Worse yet, Apollo is the person that always seems to be underfoot, doing something - and the only rhyme or reason to it tends to be "someone asked", or as a lot of people dread hearing, "this is going to be HILARIOUS".

40. How is their sense of humor? Do they have one?

Pitbul has a pretty good sense of humour, but she's significantly less easily led than Apollo is. While she's used to reining him in from his stupider stunts, ever since he blew off his jaw and a decent portion of his chest, she doesn't often actually stop him. Instead, she redirects. Sure, gradually adding food dye to people's drinks just to see what point they'll notice could be hilarious, but why not just change the flavours of all the drinks before people even arrive? Make the cherry mixers bright lime, it'll be great -

Pitbul's sense of humour also tends towards the less physical or proactive, and more towards outright bullshitting. She will lie to you, straight-faced, just to see how far she can pull your leg before you catch on. She will make up things on a dime, telling completely batshit lies, and she'll never break character. She's great at poker! She's absolutely infuriating for a lot of the more straight-laced batteries, and when she and Apollo are in the same place, they're pretty much infuriating to everyone around them. Because Pitbul loves dry wit and bullshit, but what she loves even more is improv.. and all it takes is a certain kind of look from her, and Apollo will start laying out the hooks for some ridiculous, earnest timeshare for this bridge of shit in Canada that they absolutely, truely, totally really own.

[activatingaggro]

3, 9, and 15 from the fantroll ask meme!

3. Which of your fantrolls is your favorite? Why?

I started answering this FOUR FUCKING YEARS AGO and then never finished it, so tossing this out of my drafts four fucking years later. Luckily, my answer has not changed, hahaha.

SIPARA: because she’s an extra, extra doll, and a fascinating chance to write someone who loves plenty of people, but whom is ruthless enough to fuck you over without hesitation anyway, and who - despite that - is still such a fucking kid. Sipara’s the most sheltered and the most genuinely young of my fantrolls, which’s fucking delightful to me.

She has the biggest ambitions of any of my characters! She has the worst intentions of any of my characters. Sipara wants to change the word for the betterment of her people. She sees society’s flaws, and she thinks she knows how to fix them, but the world that she holds is a better one wouldn’t be better for anyone but she and hers. And she’s fine with it, because as far as she’s concerned, they’re the people that matter. She’s going to make things better, for them and for everyone that comes after them.

Even if she has to sacrifice them, or sacrifice herself, to guarantee it.

PHERES: My second fave! Pheres is a conglomerate of every fucking disaster I knew in my adolescense, shaken up thoroughly with some altruism and self-loathing. Pheres is familiar as an old shoe to me and super fucking easy to write. He’s not sympathetic, but he’s nostalgic.

And he’s also my favorite character for the fact - Sipara doesn’t particularly change over time! She’s been the same person she will always be from age six to age twenty four, but Pheres is malleable. He changes with his circumstances, and as a result, the Pheres that existed in 2015, at the start of play, is not entirely the same character as the Pheres of 2022. Their core is the same, but their goals, their dreams, what they’re willing to do to achieve them, and at the core of it, how much they value themselves has changed as he’s grown and healed up over time.

Which of your fantrolls have developed ancestors?

MEDEIA DYSSEU/CUCKOO: anxious, eager-to-please, wants to be your FRIEND ancestor of Pheres Dysseu/Rmeros Cuckoo, functionally speaking. Former helmsman that got picked up by the Summoner’s rebellion. She used her knowledge of the industry to infiltrate Daedal’s university of helming by getting hired on as her personal assistant. Unfortunately, when the rebellion sprung to life, Daedal realised that Medeia was a spy. Imperial soldiers arrived, Medeia was killed..

.. and in the split moment between life and death, she discovered her bodyhopping abilities, fleeing into Daedal’s body. After that, it’s ambiguous what happened! “Daedal” was revealed as a spy, and executed. Medeia was presumed dead in the process. It might even be true.

Medeia’s linked in with Rmeros and Pheres, thematically in their desire to survive, but while Rmeros has limits and Pheres has martyrdom carved into his soul, Medeia was willing to do anything to stay alive. Morals are something you can’t witter over if you’re dead.

It makes her really fun in the hemoswap AU, which is a side setting we end up writing every six months or so. In that, the Summoner’s revolution succeeds, the hemospectrum is overthrown, and through murderous political gambits, the Dysseu/Cuckoo lineage ends up at the top of the heap. Medeia’s a kind, well-intentioned leader of the species that has presented herself as a god to the population.. and having stolen one descendants’ body already, has kept and raised her remaining two descendants as additional manifestations of her divinity, a trinity-esque Three in One. What does not live cannot die, and the Sun does not live, for it is fucking eternal.

Her descendants are less than keen on their role as spare parts, but Medeia’s my favorite ancestor for the different flavour of dystopia she offers. "They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas.”  What are characters willing to sacrifice for a world that benefits them? What should they be willing to sacrifice?

DAEDAL: Sipara’s ancestor, a grouchy, apathetic Ron Swanson-esque bioengineer who helped found the field of interstellar helming, and ran a major university in her time. Had a blueblood matesprit in space, had Medeia as her sidepiece, and was hemoloyal enough that her death-by-bodysnatching was kind of inevitable.

Daedal doesn’t really have much of a deal! She’s Sipara without the social connections, and without the inherent altruism that powers at least some of Sipara’s motives. Sipara values those around her, even if she’s fucked up about it - Daedal doesn’t, and Daedal views those around her ultimately as tools to be used. The only person that matters to Daedal is, ultimately, Daedal, with the end result being that she dies alone and betrayed.

BONESEER: Riccin’s ancestor, a wandering yellowblood who lived in an area that thought psionics were magic. They got plucked up by a circus, put on display, escaped.. and ever since then, lived in the woods as a witch, selling fortunes and making threats. They think they’re a tree. They are entirely sincere in this belief! There’s two or three drabbles on the backburner focused in on them and Sayiid, but I am absolutely marvelous at posting drabbles, so those will likely never see the light of day, hahaha.

Other ancestors..

ID does not have an ancestor, because he’s a random slurry output - and a troll with a face that looks like a good third of the kids in Temasek as a result, oops - but he has a currently living descendant living in one of the IEP’s creches, an unnamed Conetl from his first-and-only genetic contribution. He intentionally does not think about this, because that’ll involve figuring out a way to blow up the IEP again. Eventually, there will probably be an offshoot bloodline technically descended from Vadaya and ID, and the IPC will be very excited, and the IEP will be fucking outraged, but that won’t be anytime in play.

Calico Kuanfu is in a weird position. The Kuanfu bloodline is technically fairly common! To be named Calico from the Rickshaws’ associated caverns, a troll has to sport specific markings and come from one of several bloodlines, while falling close enough to a set range of navy that the rickshaw guardian won’t reject them. As a result, Kua doesn’t really think much about ancestors or descendants in the traditional way. Every Calico before him, despite having come from several different bloodlines over the sweeps, is his ancestor -- and every Calico that comes after him will be his descendant.

Those random Kuanfu motherfuckers, however, are just strangers blessed with an unusually gorgeous visage. =:V

With that said, he is technically an ancestor, in that the latest Calico pupa was dropped off on the Rickshaw while he was in space, and he didn’t discover it quickly enough to drown the kid before his lusus got attached. He is very pissy about this. He is so incredibly pissy about this.

Melete Etheri’s ancestor is Reba’s character, Nomizo! She’s very close to a direct descendant, with only a minor amount of genetic contribution from others, but Nomizo has always objected to that classification. His psionics are astral projection: hers are incorporality, weaker and ultimately more useless to the organisation, as well as just in general. Their relationship has always been fairly toxic. If they weren’t both bound to the IPC, it’d probably have turned murderous.

But thankfully, they’re just kind of fucking stuck dealing with each other instead. Much to their own resentment, but also to the regret and resentment of every poor fucking soul that gets in between them.

Liyiji’s ancestor is Sayiid! Hatched in the late days of the Blue Republic, and in the dim light before the Empire’s rise, she started off life as a tealblood bards’ squire along the coastline. When the Empire rose, the Blue Republic fell, and their people were scattered. Sayiid fled to the sea, taking on the life of a pirate and mercenary. In the early nights of the Empire, when even the oldest rickshaws were still just glorified boat towns, she formed and then led one of the largest pirate coalitions, dodging the Leviathan as she harried those brave or foolish enough to risk the deep waters. Her name was at every lip on the southern coast. Her people’s blade would end up at every throat on the southern seas.

Then her moirail died, compelled or drawn or lost to the horrors beneath the sea, and Sayiid lost her fucking mind. She abandoned her coalition, cast away her people, tore the symbol from her chest and the braids from her head. Death did not grace her early. She died at an old age for a blueblood, and Liyiji - her only descendant so far - views her as the biggest fucking embarrassment for an ancestor that any troll could be unlucky enough to have.

In between his living in her boat, using her weapon, copying her clothes, and viciously defending her in every historical debate that inevitably pops up when his coworkers note his last name. It’s hard to resent someone almost as much as you idolise them, and he’s not really pulling it off.

[12thperigeeball]

Grand Couturier Nominee No. 15 - Marduk Lector

Submitted by: Liyiji Jiaahu

I want to nominate Marduk Lector to be the [ ] Ball King [ ] Ball Queen [x] Grand Couturier

of the Ball of 12th Perigee Eve 2023 because …. [| Because she didn’t paint her skin glowing and get it all over the glasses. |] [| Like some trolls managed. |] [| But. Uh. |] [| She put a lot of work in. |] [| She made it interesting. Despite being very. |] [| Jade rainbowdrinker. |] [| She studied her theme. Found a historical precedent. |] [| And made it something unique for the ball. |] [| That’s what this is about. |] [| Right? |]

[activatingaggro]

Finishing things? EHHH.

Liyiji’s new default for “casual” shit, Hadean and Melete’s judgemental corner of a larger Dynasty group picture, Nana taking selfies, Nana and Glitch being disasters, Nana being a fucking disaster (not ft Amplifier, the third girl she’s jerking around).

[activatingaggro]

1) I came to the grim realisation that all of these fucking characters are past the point of Ascension the other day, and that means - adult names, adult jobs, adult clothes. Thankfully, it doesn’t really take long to knock out reference images.

So first up: Liyiji’s adult title is Annalist Mandarin, with the latter coming directly as his job title, because blue is not a creative colour. He got plucked up post-Ascension by the Ipomoean government, almost entirely because his sun-scarring was deemed very fashionable, and his job is technically to record and preserve historical and sociocultural objects found along the southern shore of the continent for the district. “Technically,” because he’s set to get sort-of-maybe abducted into a more space-adjacent position in current plots.

His outfit here’s mostly jade to mark his position as a government worker - the tilmahtli’s design signifies his department. The amount of gold accessories are not really standard to his position, but Liyiji figures that just because his bosses are jades doesn’t mean he has to dress like a jade.

2) Second up - first part of Liable’s iron lung cover. Torn between horror and aesthetic, here, because one of the primary ways that Hanhai is distinguished visually from the other districts is that Shepherd demands everything’s ultimately pretty, even when the item in question is the biopunk prosthetic integrated into your descendant’s chest.

3) Thread illustration!

Background’s still a WIP, lots of detailwork still to be done, but getting back into the habit of drawing up my favorite bits of threads. And one of the favorite bits in question:

You're so good at controlling yourself, you don't even blink when he just stares down at you over your little sleep joke. He looks appalled, like you'd just gone and said you were going to self-pail all over his rug- and then it morphs. He turns quickly, but not quick enough to hide the blue spreading across his face. It's even at the back of his ears by the time he ducks back in to his little kitchen, and you almost want to laugh. Is he really so shy?

But that's how you get tea thrown at your face. Still- "Are you blushing?" You tease, incapable of restraint. "Why are you blushing?" He's absolutely shy, the little shut-in. And your ancestor worried about you not getting out enough! Next to the Annalist, you were a regular socialite!

Liyiji’s having a long, long night.

[mirkstrolls]

△Taz, does it bother you that Liyiji just assumes you're blue?

–not really

–he’s a blueblood, and 99% of bluebloods can’t handle the concept of other castes be-ng as smart and perfect as them, or whatever

–bes-des 

–how do you know /’m n o t a blueblood? ;]

[0/10, ENH]

[activatingaggro]

INKTOBER: FRIGHT, 8

LIYIJI JIAAHU | 4.15 SWEEPS / 9 YEARS OLD RICCIN KAYATA | 5.08 SWEEPS / 11 YEARS OLD

OFF THE COAST OF TEMASEK, EAST HANHAI SEA | 1040 words

Riccin’s all bones and all legs, at this point in his life: when he crosses the railing and flings himself down onto the deck, he looks like nothing more than a sack of sticks caught in a bag of canvas.

You inform her of such promptly, and the only response she can muster is rolling onto her back and whining.

“Don’t be mean to me, brother,” he cries, writhing back and forward like he’s about to die. His back squelches on the floorboards, wet fabric sliding just enough to nearly send him sprawling more, but you don’t move to grab him. He’s not going to fall into the water. “Chiloa says it’s nasty to be mean, and I’m allowed to crack folks heads over that. I came for a reason. Shouldn’t you have fucking seen that?”

“I see a lot of things,” you tell her with a sniff, and you aim a kick at her hip. It hits her ass instead, or what you think is probably just about her ass - it’s hard to tell, when she’s wrapped in so much fabric, and all it gets you is a swipe of that long arm, anyway. Riccin said she was off to see the stars, last half-sweep, and now she’s saying she’s off to become a clown. You didn’t think either of those needed this much cloth, though. In this heat, even with the moons still low before midnight, she's going to be sweating through all of those long before the hour's up.

And then she's going to smell.

You hate when people smell. "Get up. Before you dry out."

"Maybe I ain't ever going to dry out." He climbs to his feet unsteadily, shaking out his hair in a spray of water that engulfs the rest of the dry deck around him. "Maybe I'm just gonna drown, on account of the fact you don't care," he complains. "Every last bit of me's gonna go all pruney and gray, and it'll be all your fault, 'cause you made me paddle all the way out here just to get on your fucking ship --"

"You could've taken the boat." She's been a head taller than you for more than six perigees, now, but it's still strange to have to tilt your head up to look at her. When you step in close, you could probably fit right under her chin, you think, if you wanted scratch open her cheeks with your horns. "No one was stopping you. Come on. Let's go inside."

Your boat isn't very large. It's about the size of a postage stamp, you can admit now, not much larger than any of the olives or the yellows that live in the seatowns. But you don't mind. There's history carved into every board, and there's a story in each nail. You don't know much about your ancestor, but when you'd dreamed of it on the harbor that night, sweeps ago, with your symbol carved into the door --

Well. Riccin's a good friend, because if he hadn't insisted, you don't think you'd have ever gone to find it. And stepping inside of the little cabin has always felt like you're stepping into a place you've belonged, even back when it was all half-rotted boards and ruined fabric.

She immediately swings towards the bed, sprawling out across the netting, and you don't even object: you just head to the stove, feeding in wood from the stack you keep beside it. It's dangerous, people keep telling you, to keep a wood-burning stove on your wooden ship, but they don't know what you know. Most of 'em, at least. When you peer back at Riccin, she's watching you, her eyes glinting in the firelight and her ears swiveled to face you.

"Is that new?" he asks, curious. "It looks new. Chiloa says you can tell, ‘cause things get all rusty when they’re old."

"You know nothing in here's fucking new. I just clean it." You close the hatch and dust off your hands on your pants, then wander over to the bed. You settle down below it, your head leaning back against the leg. "So," you say. "What did you come for?"

Riccin's never been good at hiding anything. She puffs out her cheeks at you, lolling around, but her indecision only ever lasts a moment. It's been one of the things you've always liked about her. Myrrha lies! Myrrha lies like she breathes sometimes, just to see if you'll believe it. Riccin never, ever does. She's as reliable as your visions.

Even if it takes her ages, sometimes, to get there. "Spit it out," you demand, "or I'm going to toss you back overboard."

"You fucking wouldn't," he says, suspicious, and then, when you climb to your feet, it transforms into a wail. He kicks out. His foot lands right in your gut, and you don't like scuffling, but it's Riccin. You've had a hundred thousand dreams, every night before you even pupated, and you've never dreamed of them so much as harming a hair on your head. So you grab hold of her foot and you yank, hard enough to tug her towards you. Her knee goes up, even as her ears pin back. She pops you soundly in the nose - you flail at her hair - something crashes to the ground behind the two of you -

- and then you're on the ground, Riccin sitting knobby-kneed on top of you, his oversized fangs making his pout into something thoroughly ridiculous. "You're so mean!" he complains.

"You just kneed me in the nose," you huff back.

"You fucking deserved it!" She huffs, shaking her hair out, and when her ears flick forward again, it just pushes the entire mass forward. "I came to ask you a question," she says. "Not to fight. Bulgemunch. I just wanted to know --"

"Ico says all helms die, and that’s just what we’re here for, and - Chiloa says that ain’t true, but you dream of lots of things, and -”

“- Li,” she says, all in a rush, “does that mean I'm going to die?"

[activatingaggro]

terrible blueblood notes

Because I’m clearing out my drafts / askbox for the first time in four years. x)

Calico is a first-name, for Kuan’s brooding cavern, that’s given to wrigglers with a very specific spotting pattern. His lusus only picks up wrigglers that have that spotting pattern, which is how all of the leaders of II-J end up going by Calico: there’s probably been one or two who’s legal name didn’t match up, but they get called it regardless.

The way succession works on his rickshaw is that there is a set of five bloodlines in the area that all have the same markings, but different castes/horns/surnames. There’s usually only one or two a generation, and the guardian of I-J will only take grubs with those specific markings. As a result, all kids with those share the first name Calico, which has come to be the title of the leader, and the title gets passed down from one Calico to the next upon Ascension. The way it usually works out is that a second Calico is hatched out and retrieved by the current Calico at age thirteen or so, and then raised up, so they’re taking over the Rickshaw at eleven or twelve years old.

Kua was born in a weird cycle where he was the only Calico hatched out for nearly twenty years, and his successor only hatched when he was about ready to Ascend. As a result, he’s never really left charge of the Rickshaw, and was thoroughly inclined towards judging over what he perceived as his successors deliberate errors in being the small child leader - which is subsequently why, ic, he ended up drowning them and taking back his lusus fairly early on in his arc.

The demographics of Kua’s rickshaw is highly mixed, which’s meant to be shown in the character names: Feiyan was a Han dynasty empress, Guifei was a Tang dynasty consort, Chōmin was a Japanese politician, and Kuanfu was a famous Chinese pirate, despite the fact his particular Rickshaw only speaks Korean. This is kind of supposed to be representative of the fact the community is incredibly xenophobic and fucking weird, as seen by Kua just flat-out refusing to learn any other languages, despite the fact it’s not a monoethnic community: the language emphasis was probably set up by an early Calico to help isolate them from everyone that’s not from their particular cluster of rickshaws.

Liyiji’s legal name is Nán Hǎi! He started calling himself Liyiji at four sweeps, after he read about a famous early advisor from pre-Imperial days. He still answers to Nan Hai, occasionally, when people catch him in the right mood.

His original lusus was a sea bunny, which is to say, a cat-sized slug. He ditched her as a little kid and sought out turtledad instead, because he eyed up Myrrha, Weeds and Riccin, and decided he wanted a lusus of the same gender. Group turtlewrangling (and children attempting to sex it) was the result.

Melete spent a few sweeps near the awful (wanna-be) blueblood enfantes of Myrrha, Weeds, Riccin and Liyiji. She currently only maintains contact with Weeds, and occasionally Liyiji - Myrrha and Riccin have swung too far into their respective forms of extremism to find her tolerable, for different reasons.

[activatingaggro]

Would Liyiji like space if he got to do privateer stuff like Kua does? For that matter, would he get along with Kua, or would both of them get irritated really quickly?

Kua would be endeared by Liyiji, but it’s always worth keeping in mind: Liyiji is a scruffy teenager from the sea, and Kua views everyone that lives on the sea that’s above teal as being his, even if Liyiji speaks Hokkein and would personally rather die than ever set foot on a rickshaw. Kua would adopt him, attempt to mold him into a pirate, and attack him like a chicken brooding on a kitten.

STAY UNDER HIS WINGS. HE’S TAKING HIM FLYING.

Liyiji would not like Kua. Kua talks too much. Kua is touchy. Kua is emotive to the extreme! But he’d warm up gradually, as Kua adjusted to his boundaries, because dude has helped raise and actively leads an entire fucking city of kids, and ultimately, Li is nothing that he hasn’t seen before. So he’d get Li warmed up him gradually, and -

Li would actually really like privateering, weirdly! It’s low contact, it’s him alone on his ship, and his foresight means that he’d always be aware of what he needs to do to survive - it’d be very little stress, and it’d actually be less stressful for him than being on the sea, because no one can accidentally climb on his starship during the daytime this way. It wouldn’t really be great for his mental health, long-term, because the minor, constant interactions he has forced upon him is part of what keeps him from going entirely batshit from going batshit, but in some hypothetical where Kua was placed in charge of him, Kua’s constant check-ins would be enough to keep him stabilised (and annoyed).