@fateguardian sent in a letter.
🩸 What’s the worst injury they’ve ever had & the story behind it? /yongqi
She has a scar behind her right ear. It is probably the worst scar she has, and even pushed, she is unwilling to share the story. There was an incident. She was a child who managed to slip her caretakers and run into a crowd at the marketplace, where young dancers were performing. It was the spring festival, and so there was joy, sweets, laughter, and the little girl just wanted to see all the wonders. Even today, all she can recall is the horrid eyes of the person who pushed her off the fence she was sitting on, right under the hooves of a horse. While it was standing, the sudden appearance of a child scared it, and it shot upwards, landing one of its legs, grazing her head. Blood poured, and a hot pain followed. The child passed out. She awoke at home to a frantic mother and a worried doctor trying to reassure her [and possibly himself] that the child would live. She did. The scar, though, was shown to her every single time she dared disobey her mother's words, reminding her of the debt of gratitude and the consequences of being selfish.
☀️ What’s their happiest childhood memory? /jiming
You always know how to hit a pain point. His childhood had a lot of good and warm moments, yet he remembers almost none of them. His inner sadness and inability to focus on whatever good comes his way erased from his mind all but one comfort memory. One with his little brother. The two of them became separated quite early, yet there was a time they would spend their days playing and living a carefree childhood. One time, the two of them ran away from their keep and hid in the forest, playing little prison escapees with their teacher being their hunting guard. The game was cut short by his falling off a tree and twisting an ankle, which resulted in them being scolded. Buwei took the blame for it all, defending his brother as if he were the elder of the two. They were forced to copy texts for almost two weeks straight until they managed to write without spilling ink even once. Both the escape and the time spent together as they sat and repented have become a precious memory of freedom and brotherly care for him and a motivation to never leave Buwei to fend for himself.
🔒 What’s a secret they’ll take to their grave? /yueji
She actually is very impressed by those who improve on the art and break the established forms. She was raised in respect of thr old masters and it is ingrained in her that performing her craft as they taught it is the only way to show her respects plus she believes she herself has nothing to add - she believes that being born into her troupe means that she is here based on her birth and not her talent therefore she herself is not talented enough to do so herself but secretly seeing the audacious youths who dare to break current boundaries she looks up tj then and hopes to be able to perform their arts one day. She would sooner die than admit to that, as there is a level of hubris linked to such acts, and thus she will openly oppose those who have, in her mind, no respect for the ones who came before them.
🦉 What piece of advice do they give everyone but never follow themselves? / buwei
To be themselves and to be brave, unabashedly so. He believes, naively of course, that truth and honour will always shine through, even if momentarily such things seem impossible. It is ironic as he himself often limits himself and puts himself at the back to allow others to shine, feeling himself lacking and feeling he needs to improve more before he can actually take the spotlight. To others, he will say that imperfections are what make us better, driving us to constant evolution, but he does not give himself that same grace.
🔥 What’s something they’d burn the world down to protect? & 🖤 What’s a “villain” trait they actually possess? chunhua
[I smooshed the answer together] To the untrained eye, Chunhua is near-perfect. We're talking 'Practically Perfect in Every Way'. She's good and kind and caring and would be almost insufferable, honestly, were it not for one thing - and that thing is actually a big problem. She has a very set understanding of the world. And her love of freedom at all cost for everyone can be a downfall. She stands up for what she believes, even if at the cost of the person she is defending. She doesn't understand nor cares for societal norms and the consequences of her actions. She is willing to take them for herself and forgets that she may end up destroying someone's own peace by her fight. In that way, she's quite selfish - her morals, whatever they may be, will always take precedence over safety. Her naive belief in the goodness of the world can be seen as a stubborn refusal to understand the intricacies of the world around her. In that way, her villain trait is a lack of smart compassion. She will end up as a turning point in some people's downfall into ruin, and she will refuse to understand that it was her foolishness that led them there.
🌟 What’s something small they did as a child that hinted at who they’d become? /jianyu
Jianyu has few memories from his early childhood, so he does not know this, but back in time, when he was still with his brother, the two of them would spend many hours observing birds. They would sit in a bush or on a branch, still and silent, just hoping not to scare the creatures, watching them go about their business. He had his favourite mandarin duck that he would observe, watch it grow, build a family, and he wished to see it thrive. When it got hunted down and presented to him at dinner, he cried so badly that he got sick. The memory, although buried behind all that happened to him, has shown his patience and the way he gets attached to those who catch his interest to a point where their well-being becomes directly linked to his own. Pretty useful for a devoted assassin and guard to throw his life organically for the one he's sworn to protect, no?
