#i got tracked down!!!!

Ever since I read right over left (marked for death) I've wondered - if the stories in the rope knots of Yanqing's uniform weren't intended as a warning, what was their intention? Maybe I'm missing cultural context, but I couldn't glean what Jing Yuan (or whomever could have decided the design) intended by them! Also, whether Jing Yuan sewing swallows in Yanqing's new uniform meant he realised the stories were A Problem, and if this was before Dragonprayer Terrace and really planned for Yanqing's birthday, or if that was the excuse and he hurried to make the new uniform after Apyra

Hopefully the questions make sense, I think I kinda rambled for a bit haha. Regardless, I really loved your fic — thank you for taking the time to write it!

(warning, long response)

First of all, thank you for the question, and congratulations on tracking me down! I'm not sure if i put my tumblr in a lot of fics or not, i tend to forget easily, but it probably took some effort, and I applaud your dedication!

For those not in the know, i wrote three fics last whumptober about Yanqing(hsr), my favorite being Right over Left. In Yanqing's second uniform, Jing Yuan codes stories into it with rope knots about hubris- the man who tried to ride Pegasus to the gods' realm (a greek myth) sailors trying to swim to sirens(another greek myth, i was having fun) and a sparrow being tossed around by a storm (a reference to Yanqing, who's got sparrow motifs all over him.)

The way I intended it, Yanqing was to perceive this as an insult and a warning. An insult, because Jing Yuan just handed him this robe as a present to a new Lieutenant, and the coded messages say "don't fuck up." A warning for the same reason, a sort of this is what will happen to you if you fail. However, he doesn't really realize that it's warning him about hubris. He calls them "echoes of foolishness and death." Canonically, he's got a problem with seeing things in black and white (victory/defeat, success/failure, etc) and I just wanted to throw this at him and see how Yanqing would react.

badly. he reacted badly.

The way Jing Yuan intended it was guidance. Yanqing is young and brash and becoming ever so slightly more unpredictable as they adjust to his growing power as an Ice pathstrider. He doesn't want Yanqing to believe that he's above everything, or that he can overpower rules that were set in place to protect him.

Hubris is defined as excessive pride or self-confidence. Jing Yuan misread Yanqing. He thought Yanqing might become overly prideful or self-confident, and get himself killed because of it, and as the Seat of Divine Foresight, really wanted to mitigate that future.

Dragonprayer Terrace is where everything blows up. Jing Yuan thinks Yanqing went to Dragonprayer Terrace to fight, because he's too ovreconfident in his skill. Yanqing, however, believes he went to Dragonprayer terrace not because of pride or self confidence, but loyalty to the general. He makes a mention of this in that section- "wherever the general goes, so does he."

In truth, Yanqing is being overconfindent and prideful. He tries to take on a challenge he was warned not to. He believes he has the power to overcome that challenge, to hell with the rules. That is overconfidece. That is pride. But Yanqing reads it as loyalty, and he reads Jing Yuan telling him to go home as a betrayal.

So Yanqing was supposed to see the ropes as an insult and warning, and Jing Yuan was supposed to see it as guidance. Because of that, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That's the way I saw those, anyways.

The swallow embroidery, on the other hand, is based on something entirely different. i made a post on here awhile ago about swallows being a symbol of homecoming and new beginnings. I wanted to tie Yanqing back to the character we see ingame, who uses swallow return as a move, has little birds all across his unifrom, and on his phone case. But I also wanted to use the homecoming/new beginnings thing, because that is very cool, and he has that same motif way too many times for me not to play with it.

I said in that post that I imagined it as Jing Yuan telling Yanqing that he'd always have a home, no matter what happened. It's also a sort of apology for fucking up and leaving Yanqing there, because Yanqing saw that both as an inevitable outcome of betrayal and failure, which invited Apyra's attention. (I didn't elaborate in the fic, because in canon the Phantylia quest was very clearly a High Stress Situation, and Jing Yuan physically did not have time to take care of Yanqing. Having Yanqing get back on his own was the only feasible option at that time, because what was he supposed to do? abandon a battle that could destroy the luofu, so he can take Yanqing back to the mainland?)

I do realize now that people would probably need that context to get the swallow thing, which is absolutely my bad, ngl. Sorry fam.

Oh, also you got it right- Jing Yuan absolutely was making an excuse on the birthday present. I said it was to give Yanqing a last out, if he really had changed and didn't want the apprenticeship. I don't actually know how he got a really pretty robe ready that fast. Minor failing on my part. (For now, we can just assume he had a plain silk robe ready for Yanqing's birthday, and gave it to Yanqing a few days after this, and spent about thirty straight hours embroidering as fast as he could lol)

This was the majority of my thougut ht process while writing it. I'm not sure if this entirely answered your question, but if not, feel free to message again! also, don't worry about asking on the fic, if you want. I don't mind. If I've left a plothole, it's something I should probably know about, and elaboration on points I've already made means I can share my brainworms :D