tl;cr meme

[marriagebroker]

post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.

Comments

2/2

[poans]

On the question of his dream job, all he knew was that he didn't want to go back to his old vocation. In canon, Yi Sang goes on to explain how he'd see children playing with an abandoned toy on his way to work, only for them to be taken to the factories he'd designed for maximum efficiency as soon as they could speak. He'd never wanted to hurt anyone. He'd only ever dreamed of flying, of being free and sharing in laughter with everyone around him. He would have liked any job that would allow him to pursue knowledge without leaving a trail of blood in his wake, except he knew it wasn't likely. He had little thought for the future, left with no choice but to continue walking until his feet stopped for whatever reason. If that was because he died, then so be it; in fact, he would welcome eternal rest if it came for him. Yi Sang was tired and mentally trapped in the white square, imprisoned in his own mind and isolated from the others because of it.

At the same time, Yi Sang loves stars. In his hometown, he would lie on the ground and stargaze at night. When he made the mirror and showcased it to his fellows at the League, the possibility its surface reflected was one of stars in the night sky. It allowed him to feel as if he were soaring, and it was his happiest experience in recent memory. In summation, his sentiment toward stars meant he viewed what Nico and Aventurine shared as something truly special, and he, alongside Maya, chose to honor that by gifting them with a pair of malformed balloon lovebirds. They were worthless, but the thought was there. After all, even if Yi Sang claimed to be nothing without thoughts of his own, his sentiments still remained.

By the onsen, Yi Sang was starting to shift his cognition and regain some of his long buried hope. He was finding purchase by trying to be more social from this point onward, so he was more emotive and responsive compared to before. As he wanted to connect even more with his fellow players, he was perusing the cards to learn more about them when Aventurine approached. Yi Sang, however, is an awful liar and all but immediately outed his own secret, which was frankly mortifying for him. He quietly pleaded to move on and was gobsmacked by what Aventurine considered a little embarrassing secret. He pushed back on this straightaway, stressing that it meant something for his late father's clothes to have persisted in embracing Aventurine when the man himself could not. Yi Sang is not so naive that he doesn't understand the necessity of sacrifice in the name of progress. He himself had left everything behind in his hometown to seek a better, more stable life with his compatriots. It was because of this and the additional losses he'd endured later down the road that he recognized the significance of holding onto something. Yi Sang has never cared about wealth, and he'd let go of his last tether to the past via Gubo, had left without shoes and walked hours in the rain barefoot until he was ravaged by the pain—and as a result of the consequent emptiness and despondency, understood deep in his heart just how much those clothes must have meant to Aventurine, who was heartrendingly gentle and determined.

As the week progressed, Yi Sang grew increasingly concerned for Aventurine over the truth booth; thus, he asked after him at the rager before torturing him with his obliviousness toward Yingying's romantic advances. Yi Sang has an odd sense of humor where, at one point in canon, a fellow of his lectures everyone for getting their lefts and rights mixed up, to which his answer is, "I am . . . left-handed . . . " He is not. This is his awkward attempt at cracking a joke in a shameful moment. In this case, his statement of his age was more of a confused response, but what incidental humor there was to his words was somewhat reminiscent of this.

At any rate, he feels that he owes Aventurine and Luka a great deal with respect to Yingying. Without them, he would never have picked up on her intentions. Aventurine respectfully kept himself from relaying too much, so Yi Sang appreciatively shifted the focus back to the former. Worried as he was, he opted not to force the subject of Nico if Aventurine wasn't willing, and so they discussed the ceremony instead. He was much more optimistic this time around and believed they were performing reasonably well, as it was really a matter of trial and error to suss out the patterns at this point. He also learned that Aventurine had tried to hand his wish over to Yingying, which was yet another touching gesture that demonstrated his kind heart. Quite the businessman, indeed! Aventurine was always investing in others, so much so that Yi Sang questioned him in regard to himself. Upon glimpsing the heavy burden Aventurine carried on his shoulders, however, he abstained from pushing in this very inebriated scene and decided to revisit the topic later.

Consequently, the fourth and final week saw Yi Sang's determination to watch over Aventurine more than ever before. He was determined to give him a good time, so he looked for ways to cater the grilling experience to him. Bizarre as Yi Sang's sense of taste is, it was fortunate that Aventurine personalized his own lettuce wraps. Of course, it was also pleasant to share what he enjoyed about his native food after being forced to leave his hometown for survival. Canon reveals that Yi Sang had terribly missed rice at T Corp. to where one of his fellows had almost believed that he'd gone back to their hellish home district for it. It was a taste of home, and this particular date reflected Yi Sang's heartfelt hopes for his struggling possibilities across the mirror worlds—that they all keep company with peace throughout their lives. This was what he wished for Aventurine, too.

Alas and alack, the peace did not last! The last set of secrets to drop made such a splash that it might as well have been a flood. Aventurine was doing poorly, so Yi Sang sought to talk to him. He probed about Aventurine's luck, and, while religion has very little to no legitimate presence in the City, he understood that his friend—something Aventurine had been calling him all along, even if as a formality—had survived an unfortunate amount of hardships. Hearing about how Aventurine's worth was allegedly a handful of copper coins left Yi Sang with such a visceral sense of wrongness that he immediately fought back. What Aventurine had said on their first date still held true, but it was in line with Yi Sang's recent epiphany—that they must keep going, regardless of the despair and challenges that awaited them, and only in doing so could they live on and seize the value in the moment. Aventurine, he thought, should be free to decide his own lot in life. In turn, Yi Sang's heart vibrated to Aventurine's request that they take the faithful step together, and he finally voiced the sentiment that had been brewing within him all week: Break the bird cage and fly free. This is, in fact, the iconic line of his story in canon, as well as a reference to his speech at the third ceremony, where he paid homage to Aventurine's prior wisdom by speaking of a companion who would rise with oneself in place of walls, so that one may fly unchained. With a companion, both smiles and the stars could fall within reach.

As the tension from this night lingered, and he couldn't fault anyone for feeling the way they did, Yi Sang did what he could by trying to soothe Aventurine through the quiet gesture of passing on a cup of coffee during the final truth booth. He continued to keep an eye on him, and was moved by how open and vulnerable Aventurine allowed himself to be in the face of Nico's heartfelt performance. It was sweet, honest, and precious. Yi Sang is noted in canon to have always enjoyed keeping precious things in bottles and watching them. This was in part why he kept the observation to himself as opposed to put Aventurine on the spot. It was Aventurine and Nico's moment, besides.

At the farewell, they differed in the sense that Yi Sang, in his sloth, had once let things go far too easily. He'd bend with the wind, giving everything a slantwise glance that allowed the things that mattered most to fester. After realizing where he'd erred with his erstwhile fellows over the course of the game, he was resolved not to repeat those mistakes. He now wants to hang on and be present for Aventurine, a dear friend, whenever the latter might have need of him for as long as he can, no matter the struggles involved. As for Yi Sang's unfinished business, he'll most definitely be needing help once he returns to the City, lest he be murdered in cold blood within an hour. His promise from the post-game group chat will also always remain: Aventurine need not make up excuses for meeting, but simply ask for him, and Yi Sang shall be there.