Shen Yuan | November Catch-All

[xiaoxiuya]

Who: Shen Yuan, CR group, People who actually want to talk to the weird metal faces . Maybe more to be added later, who knows!
What: Thread starters for people who want to get bogus relationship advice from Google translate; Shen Yuan Starts a Group Chat, TBD
When: Throughout November
Where: Deernet and beyond

Content Warnings: TBD

Comments

text: un: tenskulls

[stayscared]

[he's familiar enough with group chat, though it's along the lines of aol chatrooms (he certainly did make a family chat room and this isn't hitting him in the feelings at all), his other points of reference are prodigy chat and regrettably myspace. how he's managed to figure out the omni at all owes a lot to forums, newsgroups and the era of geocities. (the omni is better and faster and less irritating than any of these by far)

he doesn't feel much like taking a selfie, he's not really much of a selfie person these days (read: years) so he'll read the room and see that birds are pretty well received. can't go wrong with a bird picture. these are the pigeons he's feeding. or are they doves? he doesn't know.]

Shen Yuan: Thanks for the add, and hello all. I'm familiar with the group chat, but it's been a while. Good to "meet" you all as well.



[bless this moment of normalcy, honestly.]

text | un: cleansingsong

[baiyueguang]

Welcome, Mike-xiansheng. It is a pleasure to "meet" you as well. I am Lan Xichen.

A-Yao has spoken most highly of you.

[stayscared]

[well that's a very nice thing to hear, and one of the most surprising things. so many titles here. it's making him sweat a little. sure, he could just ask, and he probably will, but ...maybe he can figure it out? some of it? a-yao ...well, that could only be one person, because he doesn't know anyone else in this group. so that gets jotted down into the 'notes' of his omni. a-yao = jin.

resisting urge to crack joke about jin guangyao's judgment. god, it's so hard to take a compliment seriously. he should probably look into why that is. thankfully, none of this translates through text.]

I would speak the same way of him. And I'm probably going to.

A question before I embarrass myself (too late. amendment: embarrass myself further): what do you prefer to be called?

[baiyueguang]

Formality might dictate Zewu-jun, but as my sect is not here for me to lead, Lan Xichen is most appropriate.

If I may ask, what formalities does Mike-xiansheng prefer? I am realizing many of us are from wildly different cultures, and you should not be the only one making such an effort.

[stayscared]

[notes that with "formal" next to it. just in case.]

Lan Xichen it is, then. Do you ever shorten it? Like just "Lan"? Or, is that not how that works?

I was never one for formalities. Mr. Enslin is my father, Michael sounds like someone's mad at me, unless we're talking about writing. So Mike's fine, but I don't hate Mike-xiansheng. It just feels like a lot of effort, but I'm not the one making the effort, so I should probably not look a gift horse in the mouth.

It's grown on me.

[what he means to say is it sounds nice. and he associates it with comfort: that's you jgy.]

[baiyueguang]

Has it? That is good to hear. It brings me joy to see A-Yao making friends.

To answer your question, Lan is my sect and family name, the same as the 'Jin' in Jin Guangyao's is his, and the 'Nie' in Nie Huaisang's is his. 'Xichen' is fine if you wish to be informal.

[stayscared]

I think I get it. That's good to know. Maybe Xichen when I know you better.

[why is it easy to just type things without bristling. without being prickly. it's the distance. the time to think about a response. and the feeling of not having to be "on".]

[baiyueguang]

Of course, I would never wish to presume. Lan Xichen is fine.

And thank you for asking. It hadn't even occurred to me that naming conventions would vary so much.

[Xichen likes texting too; it's quick enough to feel like a conversation, but slow enough that he can consider his words and those of others more thoroughly.]

[poorlittlesange]

[Jin Guangyao is having a Feeling about this. It might be called 'happiness,' which is also why he is too embarrassed to comment about it.

+5000 friendship points to Mike Enslin.]

[xiaoxiuya]

Welcome Mike, it's nice to finally meet you ^_^ Any friend of Jin Guangyao is a friend of mine, and all that.

Hey, quick though admittedly weird question: you're American, right? Or English-speaking, at any rate?

[stayscared]

Yes, and all that.

Not a weird question. You'd really have to try to make it weird here. I'm both American and English-speaking. Why do you ask?

[how is this happening? any friend of

he

has he been adopted into a friend group

oh god

here come the tears

no wait these are different tears. he can stop these. if he is going to dehydrate he is going to do it with alcohol not tears. tears can come after alcohol]

[xiaoxiuya]

[Awww, Mike. You've definitely been adopted bro, this is your life now.]

Nothing bad! It's just that, like you've probably noticed, my three Chinese friends here all grew up in a very formal society, and it seems like the majority of Trench is, if not Western per se, at least from cultures that are American or European-derived, you know what I mean? So I'm trying to be a bridge and help them adapt, but I'm not actually Western myself, so there's going to be some gaps, you know? I'm afraid you're going to end up being held up as an example a lot, sorry about that. XD;

I'm also Chinese, for the record, but I grew up in a different, less stratified China than they did. Different worlds, different normals, you know?

[stayscared]

[this is his life now.]

I do know what you mean. I've had a bit of a look around, and yeah. I've seen it.

It's very cool of you trying to bridge that gap, and I'm all in for helping, but I don't know if I'm ready to be an example. At least, not a shining example. Some days, more of a cautionary tale.

Different worlds, different normals, I couldn't have said it any better.

[he needs that on a baseball cap.]