( ship catch-all ) its straight stem is hollow inside

[soups]

CHARACTERS: Jiang Yanli & You!
LOCATION: Various locations around the ship
DATE: Post mission, onward
CONTENT: Various prompts for their time in between missions!
WARNINGS: Will be added to top levels as necessary

⇢ FOOD STORAGE: after carrying a large weight for months, jiang yanli finally has a crying jag
⇢ KITCHEN: soup's on! you help make the soup!
⇢ SIMULATION ROOM: welcome to simulated lotus pier, where everything's made but and the lotus seeds don't matter
⇢ ITEM TELEPORTATION PLATFORM: jiang yanli has finally made the decision to update her wardrobe...
⇢ SHARED BEDROOM: ...and is now terrified of what her roommate might think of the idea.

Comments

[softmouth]

[Dusty's problem is almost exactly the opposite. Back home, he'd never really had any privacy, and that was the way he liked it. It means he'd grown up to be the type of person who didn't bother to hide his feelings all that much and who doesn't really expect others to either. It hadn't been intentional, invading Jiang Yanli's privacy, but it also doesn't particularly register as any kind of invasion either.

Anyway, he was already on his way to food storage, planning to grab some dry rice to add to a giant vat of chicken soup he's been putting together to simmer. When he comes to the door and hears crying inside, he waffles for only a couple of moments before he pushes the door open and steps inside to see her there weeping. For a moment, he's awkwardly silent, and then he glances away, biting his lip before speaking, voice quiet and careful.]

Are you okay?

[soups]

❰ this is embarrassing. she jumps, choking on the sob she'd had to suck back in, mid-jag. jiang yanli stands up with a clatter of the crate beneath her, making sure to collect her robes around her quickly. she suddenly wants to take up as little space as possible. ❱

Y-Yes, I— Hm. ❰ her hands wipe at her face, make sure her hair is placed correctly. there's no getting rid of the redness in her eyes or cheeks, or the dampness of her bangs, and her quick bows don't make her look any more put-together than before. ❱ It's my fault for being in a publicly accessible space, my apologies. Please feel free to get what you've come for.

[softmouth]

[It's probably obvious to both of them that she's really not okay, or so Dusty thinks. It's something he doesn't really understand, this need for people to pretend that they aren't affected by things, that they don't have feelings or at least the total aversion to showing those feelings. As he sees it, if someone is hurting this way it's just as important to help as it would be if she were injured and bleeding.

But even if he doesn't understand it, he does know about it. Ches and Jasha and a few others he's grown up knowing have this same reaction, the immediate instinct to pretend that any moment of weakness had never happened, that they weren't affected by whatever bad things had happened to them either recently or in the past. He figures it's probably some difference in how people were raised - Ches had never punished him for feeling things, had never made him feel stupid for it or like it was wrong, had just comforted him.]

No no, hey, no need to apologize. If you need a moment to yourself, then take it. I'll grab the rice and be right out of your hair.

[For a moment, he chews on his lower lip, just looking at her with a sort of soft expression on his face.]

Or...look, I don't mind if you cry. I won't think less of you or anything. If you need to talk we can talk about whatever's bothering you, or if you'd rather a bit of a distraction, we could look at the stove and you can ask any questions about it?

[soups]

❰ it would be incorrect to say she's never been punished for emoting. yu-furen of the yunmeng jiang clan was very much a cold woman, and her first child was quickly delegated the role of third parent, a dutiful daughter who was seen but not heard unless caring for her brothers.

it doesn't occur to her that this is at all the root of the issue. instead, it makes sense, logically, that she should only bother direct family with emotional outburst in dire circumstances, where it would be basically impossible to not let the emotion leak out.

after bowing, she takes a bit more time to straighten herself out, hiding her sniffing as much as she can. ❱

Thank you for your kindness in accepting such a scene — I just couldn't possibly...my problems are truly my burden to bear, not a stranger's.

❰ letting go of her robes, she twists to look around at the food supplies around, happy to be distracted with something task oriented. ❱ What have you come in to collect? I'll gladly help carry it out and you can show me how to work the dials again.

[softmouth]

Oh, it's not really kindness. I guess I'm just not the sort of person who gets bothered by other people having feelings. I've never really understood why people react that way or think poorly of it.

[But he's also not going to push if she's obviously uncomfortable with people seeing her cry. Pushing it is never good, it just makes people miserable and more upset, and he doesn't want to be that guy forcing her to be vulnerable with him. When she chooses to help him get the stuff he's looking for and go back to look at the stove, he nods and smiles at her, a sort of fond smile.]

Sure! I was getting some rice to put into the chicken soup I'm making. Have you ever had chicken soup? I mean, I'm sure your culture probably has a version of it, most do, but the one I'm making is North American.

[soups]

❰ she herself isn't one to judge the emotions of others either — it's an internalized hypocrisy. 'my low standards for others and my high standards for myself.' it's quite a hill to climb, and certainly won't be scaled in one session of feelings discussion. ❱

Yes, yes — I've made a chicken soup before. ❰ ginseng, mushroom, lotus, chicken of course...it's not beyond her that people make things differently based on where they're from, so jiang yanli doesn't even offer her ideas of what one may look like. wherever north america is, she'll be learning how they make their own.

she turns to step on the crate she was previously using as a stool, quick to grab a medium-sized back of rice from a shelf above. with a hop down, she smiles as genuinely as she can. things will feel less embarrassing when there's a task to focus on. ❱ I'm excited to see how you cook this...I'm never without need for new ways to make soup.

[softmouth]

[What emotional problems could be? Dusty's got his own hang-ups, mostly around being slow to process what he's feeling and acting out before he really understands why, but it's a long, slow slope of learning.]

I thought you might've. It's one of those things that's pretty universal among most cultures, at least in my experience. You should show me how to make yours sometime.

[He watches as she hops up on the stool and once she's down and ready to head back to the kitchen, then smiles when she says she's excited to learn a new way to make soup.]

Oh? You a big soup fan? I mean, it's one of those dishes you can't really go wrong with, right? I started mine by making chicken stock...

[The explanation of how he's made the soup up to the point he's at manages to get them back to the kitchen, and he heads right over to check the pot.]

Where were you from? Some part of Earth? Maybe I'll recognize it.

[soups]

I adore soup. It's something of my area of expertise. My home's specialty soup requires certain things that don't come in the average supply drops, so I'll have to ask Viveca for the proper ingredients again.

❰ she made it once before for those who come from her same world, but only kept it for them. it seemed most fair, after all. most other people got familiar foods from home all the time.

they discuss the intricacies of dusty's soup until they reach the kitchen, and jiang yanli hefts the bag of rice onto the counter before moving to the sink area to roll up her sleeves, beginning to wash her hands. ❱

Our encompassing territories are referred to as China, but I'm specifically of the Yunmeng Jiang clan. I married into another clan, but I'll always be a first daughter of Yunmeng Jiang. Our world makes pots of soup over an open flame, not a stove.