kaisou | video; un: X_GoldenSword

WHO: Jin Ling and the network at large
WHERE: Zodiac.
WHEN: Feb. 9
WHAT: help my dog is not allowed in this motel room.
WARNINGS: some level of trauma. incoming MDZS cast feelings explosion, likely going to bring up family estrangement at least, will update if anything changes.

[The video turns on to a young man, slightly underfed, in clothes clearly hemmed in and altered to fit his slighter frame. Just in view at the bottom of the screen is the top of a shih-tzu's head.]

Well, I can't get this stupid app off my phone, so I might as well: anybody here know any place that lets you bring your dog in with you? The motel's not gonna let me bring Sunny in even though she's housebroken and well-trained and wearing a diaper, the assholes.

It better be a cheap place, too! I just got here, I'm still looking for a job.

[The dog barks, and Jin Ling's stormy face immediately softens as he glances down at the dog.]

Yeah, no, I know. Don't worry, I'll get us somewhere nice. [Pat pat.] Good girl.

Oh, and: best pet stores in the city? Cheap's not an option there, my dog deserves the best.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The kid doesn't hate him. If anything Jin Ling's always wanted to know more, but—well. Right now, with the memories suddenly rising up in the back of his head, he remembers not only his mother crying, but everyone talking about how cruel the Yiling Patriarch was—to have killed his own martial sister.

He usually has a better grip on his memories than this. It's just—]

When do you think?! She still has a picture of you! On your birthday, she takes it out and she cries!

[It's snapped out, but he huffs out a tired breath afterward. Okay. Okay.]

You can't come get me. I have a dog. [He remembers that—Wei Wuxian is terrified of dogs. Angry as he is at his Uncle Ying, he won't trigger a panic attack or send him up a tree or something.] You're gonna be way too scared of her, even though she's tiny and she'd never hurt anybody. Jiujiu's coming to get me.

...

["I thought she'd have burned every picture after the things I said back then" he wanted to say. For once he managed to keep his stupid ass mouth shut. That was one blessing of beating himself up over this. It made him be quiet.

It's true that the thought of Jin Ling being with a dog made Wei Wuxian want to jump reflexively. He wanted to go anyway, just to make sure his nephew was safe.

But if Jiang Cheng was going to get him... well, that's probably the better option.]

Good, stay where you are and he'll help you. [...] He'll threaten to break your legs if you move, so you better stay.

I couldn't go anywhere anyway, the motel wouldn't let me bring Sunny in with me. Which is stupid, do they think I've got enough money for her to stay at a pet boarding place?

[That one pirate guy barely had enough cash in his wallet for Jin Ling to get himself a motel room.]

Where the hell have you been, huh, Uncle Ying?

["Sunny" is just the kind of name Jin Ling would give to a dog, huh?]

They expect you to if they're gonna accommodate a pet that they won't ever believe is trained. Loads of people say their dogs are friendly and good and then they run all over everything!

[Maybe he's projecting because every time Jiang Cheng's dogs get the zoomies inside his ass runs up the stairs to latch onto Lan Zhan habitually. Still if Jin Ling is struggling with finding a place due to money, he clearly didn't have Jin Clan reach.]

... I've been in this city for the past year for work. I'm a researcher with POKEGO now and I have been for a long time.

[He's intentionally avoiding what he was doing before that.]

But how did you get to this city? What are you doing here?

My Sunny would never! She's a good girl, I trained her and everything!

[Sunny absolutely would. That dog is a devious little beast who knows her owner loves her dearly. Jin Ling fidgets a little, then leans over to pet Sunny, who remains out of sight.]

POKEGO? Aren't those the nerds? [A beat.] Wait, okay, you are a nerd, of course you'd join up with them. Ugh. What, did POKEGO make you leave your family? [As full of bravado as he sounds, there's the weight of experience behind it. After all, the Black Order Zealot who'd recruited him had been pretty adamant about it.

There's a silence. Then:]

I hitchhiked here, how d'you think I got here? And I'm here to do some, uh, research. Yeah. [Casper, in the back of Jin Ling's head, dryly remarks: Well, as family reunions go, this one's going great so far. Still—could be useful. He says he's a researcher? Wonder what he's looking into.

Yeah, Jin Ling's wondering that, too, but he's still too hurt to ask. Later, he decides. He'll ask later. He can hear Casper sigh in the back of his head but whatever! Whatever! His ghost isn't the boss of him!]

The hotels don't know that! I don't even know that! Do you really expect that they'd take someone with a dog at face value even if she's little?

[These are painful life lessons you must learn, A-Ling. People ain't boutta trust no doggo unless you got hundreds of dollar. But maybe he's projecting again.]

POKEGO isn't the reason I left all that time ago. We just had interests that I learned were aligned after I left. [He would have been with the Order if he hadn't gotten lucky. But he wasn't going to tell Jin Ling that over the public network. And he absolutely wouldn't say exactly why he left right now.

As for that thing about research, that's such an obvious lie.]

Why would you need to hitchhike here for research? What research are you doing? Solo studies for someone your age should have accommodations or recommendations for a contact and lodgings.

[Says Wei Wuxian who at that age was also a notorious hitchhiker with no affiliation. No wonder a scrawny guy like him at the time got mugged to near death. But that experience just made him worry for Jin Ling more.]

And besides, shouldn't you be closer to home?

Yes! They should! Who's the one paying them to stay in one of their crappy rooms, huh?! [Kid, you pickpocketed a man's wallet for that cash, and also, the man has a point.] And she is little, she couldn't do that much damage!

[Silence.]

So why the hell did you leave in the first place, huh? You cut everyone off, you made Mom cry. What did you even do? Did you get in trouble with the mob or something? [It used to be the leading theory between him and his friends on sleepovers: that Uncle Ying had gotten into witness protection, for some opaque reason they could only guess at.

It used to be a funny joke. Jin Ling's not laughing anymore.]

...if you tell me why you left I'll tell you what I'm researching and why.

I dunno about that! The tiny dogs are the most violent, you know!

[Littler animals are so small because they're closer to hell after all.

As for Jin Ling's follow up question, there's silence on his end as well. He's not going to like the answer. He's not going to like the fact that Wei Wuxian didn't leave so much as he was enough of an asshole that everyone in his life cut him off. It's not that complicated at all.

Wei Wuxian was selfish.

But this isn't something to be told here.]

Meet with your jiujiu first so he can take you somewhere safe and help you settle.

[He was putting this off, though. It's true that over the phone isn't a place to say... anything. But he was also putting this off to not have to face it right now. He... he needed to figure things out.]

Sunny wouldn't, she's a good girl! She's never trashed any of the places we stayed in, not once.

[Because you don't stay long enough for her to really get started on trashing the place.]

Ugh. Fine. [He crosses his arms with a great big huff, even as Casper sighs in great resignation.] But this isn't over, Uncle Ying! You're gonna tell me what happened one way or another.

...she really misses you.

...

[Wei Wuxian disconnected the call with that. There's just as much Jin Ling is hiding and his stomach twisted. He was worried. If he was at home, he shouldn't have needed to hitchhike like Wei Wuxian did.

"She really misses you", he said.]

Haha... God only knows why.

[Just muttered to himself. That's a disaster to contend with after his nephew was with someone who will protect him well.

After not too long, that someone will receive a text.]

video; un: X_GoldenSword_X

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