ArchivedLogs:Parental Advisory
| Parental Advisory | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
2016-01-27 "Well. Since I'm not wanted here, I'll just take my literal mutant ass and go /gay around/ somewhere else." |
| Location
<NYC> Hua Residence - Chinatown | |
This apartment is cramped but tidy, perpetually redolent of incense. Two small windows look out on the crowded street below, but do not admit much natural light. Chinese calligraphy scrolls, sumi-e paintings, and colorful auspicious prints decorate the peeling walls. The dining table is inside the kitchenette, and the living room is circumscribed by bookshelves packed with Chinese volumes. One corner has been set up as a shrine, a low cabinet supporting a bronze statue of Guan-yin, two red lotus candle holders, and an tripod incense pot. A bamboo bead curtain demarcates the hallway that leads to three tiny bedrooms and a single bathroom. The kitchen is littered with cups and bowls, though the sink is no longer overflowing. Tag is still diligently working through the remaining backlog, the sleeves of his rainbow vortex hoodie rolled up to the elbows. He's wearing black cargo pants with flowering green vines climbing up the outseams, and his boots are bright, glossy pink. His hair, divided up into rainbow sections, is tied back in a shot ponytail save where a few tresses have worked loose along his temples. He is determinedly ignoring the rest of the apartment. Hua Mei-lan sits on the couch, dressed in a long wrap tunic of cerulean blue and matching trousers, both edged in white. Her graying black hair is braided and coiled up at the back of her head, and she holds a bowl of soup between her bony hands. She hasn't touched it in a while, though, as she has been speaking, in Mandarin with a distinctive north Chinese twang. "...{then /Tian-yi/ talked on the phone with them /again/ and finally got my treatment rescheduled for Friday. Really, putting it off like that just on account of weather. It's as if they would /prefer/ if I just drop dead.}" Tian-shin sits beside her, back straight and hands folded primly in her lap. She wears a pink satin blouse with ruffles at the collar and a long, pleated gray skirt. Her hair she wears up in a neat bun with no visible ties securing it in place. Skillfully applied makeup almost conceals the shadows under her eyes. "{I'm sure they got you in as soon as they could, Mother,}" she replies wearily. "{With the storm, they probably had a lot of people to reschedule.}" Tag finishes washing up and mops down the counters perhaps more thoroughly than altogether necessary. It's only when he's run out of obvious things to tidy that he finally drifts into the living room and sink down to sit on a cushion on the floor beside Tian-shin, leaning against her leg and not meeting their mother's eyes. Mei-lan studies Tag as he enters her field of vision and takes a seat. "{At least you're growing your hair out again, Tsai-hong. You don't look /quite/ so much like a boy now, or a /lesbian/.}" Her thin lips press together. "{Not that I suppose it makes much difference at your age, and with your voice and...ah, you may as well just take refuge and go be a nun. You, though,}" she turns to Tian-shin now, suddenly smiling again, "{there's still some hope, if you'd only take your future a /bit/ more seriously. I was talking to Fong Bi-yun last week and /her/ eldest--you remember Fong Jia, he's an accountant--finally divorced that American floozy. We both think you'd be a good match, but of course I don't know your schedule now...}" Tian-shin drops one hand to Tag's shoulder as their mother starts on her diatribe. More than once, she opens her mouth as to speak, but then does not. Only when Mei-lan begins trailing off (obviously prompting for her to fill in) does she finally say, "{My schedule is quite busy, Mother. I don't have time for dating.}" Tag's shoulder hunch in tighter and tighter beneath Tian-shin's hand as he listens, but he does not interrupt, either. "{I /might/ become a monk, but not because I'm too old to marry and certainly not because you think I should,}" his voice is even and calm, if small. "{And we're both perfectly capable of sorting out our own lives. You shouldn't stress yourself trying to sort them out for us.}" "{No time! That's just the problem, you're running out of time!}" Mei-lan takes hold of Tian-shin's arm earnestly, as if she means to bodily shake her daughter free of her madness. "{Fong Jia is not much to look at, but he's reliable and well-mannered and highly regarded in the community despite his poor judgment in picking his first bride.}" To Tag she merely shakes her head, the disappointment plain in the wrinkle of her brows. "{You are very clearly not. Tian-yi told me you are living with a /man/! Some kind of mutant /Mexican/? Tian-shin, you really must move back home, if not to take care of me, then at least for the sake of your chastity and your reputation.}" "{I like Fong Jia just fine, Mother,}" Tian-shin replies wearily. "{He's very nice, but I don't want to /date/ him, much less marry him. I have a career--/two/ careers--and great friends and neighbors. I'm just not feeling the need to go seek out romance at this point in my life.}" Tag sighs, then draws a long breath, as if bracing himself. "{She is living with /two/ men,}" he says, keeping his voice steady, "{and neither me nor Joshua poses any threat to her /chastity/. And anyway, /I'm/ a mutant, and so is she.}" Mei-lan scoffs softly. "{Career! All your lawyering is just another way to play hero. Now, the teaching, that is right livelihood, but do you have to teach at /that/ school? You have a special talent, that doesn't make you some kind of /mutant/.}" At first it seems like she's just going to ignore Tag altogether but then she turns on him, "{You are a bad influence. You had better not be /gaying/ around with your sister.}" "{Mother, I /am/ a mutant!}" Tian-shin blurts, exasperated. "{/Tag/ is a mutant. /Father/ was a mutant. That is not some kind of slur or 'newfangled American fad', it's literally exactly what we are. And we are not...gaying around. With each other. I mean--I'm not /gay/, but that isn't the point...}" Tag just goes stock still and turns away from their mother, jaw clenched. A loose tress of purple hair hangs down over his cheek. "Well. Since I'm not wanted here, I'll just take my literal mutant ass and go /gay around/ somewhere else." He launches to his feet and makes for the kitchen window, grabbing his bright yellow jacket from the back of a dining room chair and pulling it on savagely. Throwing the window open, he is half out onto the fire escape when he pauses and ducks back in to look at his mother and sister. "{I hope the treatment...goes well.}" He bites his lower lip. "{I'll call.}" | |
