' ah ? ' and at first there's a flinch , fast followed by the criminal retreat of his hands into his red robe's sleeves , the yin - yang taijitu permanently stained onto the back of both of his palms trying to shrink and hide away their evidence of the rest ; what full body inking he's never dared to show . ' ahaha ... well ... ' there's the impulse to roll with the awkward laughter and to snatch control of the conversation immediately for himself . to tell ritsu with a plain lack of seriousness that what adults always said about anyone with tattoos were true . they were all criminals and delinquents and troublemakers good little kids should've stayed away from . doubly so when finding company with them without fail frightened , intimidated , and painfully drove off the better - minded others . but even that would have been not quite the truth , betraying a far more personal story of when yan qing himself was still innocent and felt nothing short of treasured to be decorated by peonies and bamboo alongside the indelible stamped brand of his lord ; the burden of righteousness stamped onto his back . it's just too old a story . too stale , too bland and selfish with a ghoulish misery , out of place and out of time in a city like this in an era where servants no longer seemed to exist . as mature as ritsu tried to carry himself , it was an adult's responsibility to still recognize a child and carefully manage their growth and exposures . so yan qing doesn't tell the tale of an orphan from over a thousand years ago with skin said to be clear and light as porcelain , who'd been blessed to bear a monetary fortune stained prick by prick into his body truly before any irreversible act turned it proof of criminal persecution , or unbearable abandonment betrayed the prizing meanings it was initially supposed to bear . yan qing , his eyes dodging , clears his throat and adjusts himself before quietly reversing his hands' retreat . as if they hadn't always been visible ; as if by their being pointed out and questioned had only just caused them to appear . ' you've never seen something like this before ? ' he opts for the literal , vanishing himself from any mention . for ritsu's sake . and for his own , too , he privately thinks . ' ... it's a yin and yang symbol . daoists use it mostly as a reminder for coexistence and balance . all things are a part of each other , and too much or too little of anything , from the physical to the spiritual is no good . the bamboo goin' up my arms's mostly decorative ... but on my shoulder there's a dragon ! y'wanna see it ? s'pose if y'wanted to give it some kinda meaning , you could say it's a metaphor for transient things . loong's a creature a' yin , so that's fiction and myth . they lord over waters and the mist and intellect , so throw in the bamboo forest and you've got a reminder . read between the lines , keep your cards close to your chest ... ' it's bittersweet ; his smile is too , but at least like this --- he wasn't lying . ' even that which is invisible to the eyes can still exist within the mind . that's all . '
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
vaporwave
discoholicmusic
dededos
annaxmalina
kaledo-art
pixelskylines
