I can't stop rewatching your clips of Xiao during the Lantern Rite, like Xiao is me during Asian family gatherings and dinner parties. I just sit quietly trying to mind my own business and not draw attention to myself but someone goes and points me out anyway to get me involved in the chatter and I'm just awkwardly sitting there like "Uhhhhh what is socializing???"
it's definitely something Hu Tao would do (and did) and everyone else has their own ways to keep him engaged in the social circle. it's part of opening himself up to the world after all!
but breaking out of the hermit habit is hard, Xiao really has not much of an idea than how he usually speaks his mind of toward others as himself rather than a guardian yaksha adeptus. or what he's thinking at the moment, putting him on the spot 100% of the time.