#yu(f)

i’ve been tagged by @ink-and-petrichor​ for this one, so thanks! raine seems really chill, and i totally understand what she means by just being on her own and watching the stars and feeling the wind on her face in the silence -- honestly, could use some of that right now myself. ANYWAY. i’ve done this before for Zhen & Lu, Ren, Jia & Jun, and Shou & Teng, so i’m up to my last two characters, and they are... the Yus. 

Yes, so there’s Yu(f), the girl who’s obsessed with work, and Yu(m), who I dub as ‘The Stoic One’. So let’s get to know them! I’ll be using the set of 15 questions that is more appropriate for my story! rules:  answer 15 questions as either yourself or one of your OCs, then tag 15 people. 1. What is your full name? Yu(f): Yu Yu(m): Yu Yu(f): Don’t get mistaken though, i’m on the fourth tone, like ‘Jade’. That guy’s on the third tone, like ‘Rain’ or something. 2. What does your name mean? Yu(f): Are you seriously wasting my time with these questions right now? Didn’t I just answer that? 3. What are your nicknames / other names?  Yu(f): (gets ready to walk off) Yu(m): Yu. Just sit down. Yu(f): I’m not your dog, you don’t tell me what to do! Yu(m): Yeah. You really want to prove Zhen right? That you can’t get your ass off of work for even 30 short minutes? Yu(f): (... slowly sits back done) Fine. You’re convincing her to cook for me after this. 4. What’s your gender? Yu(m): (holding a hand up to the other Yu) Yeah, I’m male, she’s female. 

5. What’s your sexuality? Yu(f): Seriously, are they allowed to ask such questions?  Yu(m): We were warned. Yu(f): Ah. Fine. Okay, I don’t really know okay? Maybe I’m straight. Maybe I’m bi. Maybe I’m just someone who’s trying to finish the paperwork that’s piling up on my desk because guess what? No one does any work around here! And guess who’s left picking up the slack? Yu(m): ... You caught her on a bad day. Anyway. I’m likely straight, but don’t really care either way. 6. Where are you from? Yu(f): We. Don’t Know. That.  Yu(m): We aren’t really supposed to know. Yu(f): That’s the whole point, isn’t it? We aren’t supposed to know anything about our pasts. We aren’t supposed to remember. We are dead and all those are bygones now -- it doesn’t matter. You are starting to sound like Shou. 7. How old are you? Yu(f): I don’t know. But if I had to guess, I’d peg myself as around the same age as Zhen. 21 maybe? 23? Who the hell knows.  Yu(m): I should be older. Maybe 25 - 26. Teng’s still the oldest among us, though.  8. Any special talents? Yu(f): Huh. Yu(m): ...  Yu(f): I mean, dear ol’ Yu here has the tendency to trip over his own feet and accidentally slice himself open on any surface he happens to fall on. Don’t judge him by his stoic good looks -- he’s a dork. Yu(m): I-I.. It’s not like I... sometimes, sometimes it’s like... my feet moves and -- Yu(f): -- yeah and the air comes over and trips you over. Sure. You don’t have to keep up your ‘cool’ facade with us. We all know it’s garbage. Yu(m): It’s not! A facade! Yu(f): Anyway. I guess my greatest talent is somehow still staying sane despite living right beside Zhen and her kid. And now Shou too, apparently. People like to say I’m impatient, but can they withstand those three chaos of human beings? Huh, yeah. I thought not. 9. How do you look like? Yu(f): How narcissistic do you want us to be, to describe ourselves? Yu(m): She’s not good-looking. Traditionally, I mean. Yu(f): He only can say that because he’s gotten big-headed from all the talk about ‘that cold, dark and handsome guy’ from the ‘Noisies’ but honestly. He’s standing beside Teng all day. It’s not difficult to be considered attractive. Yu(m): There’s Jun too. Yu(f): ... Fine, but Jun is a menace to society and everyone knows that. It’s like, do you want that pretty, delicate-looking boy who picks your pockets and threatens your children, or that ~~ unknown brooding handsome man ~~ who, as far as they know, has no odd quirks to speak of? Yu(m): I have no.... quirks.  Yu(f): Sure. You know you only speak to me ‘cause you can’t speak to anyone else. 10. What’s your aesthetic? Yu(m): She’s messy hair. And coffee. And work. A lot of coffee, and a lot a lot of work. Yu(f): I’ve already said it earlier, didn’t I? He’s that nasty brooding literature-character types that people just love to fawn over. People are just so desperate and lonely here, they’ll grab at anything. He even stands sullenly in the corner of the room! He’s got all the traits down! He pretends like he doesnt know what ‘trope’ he fits into but he knows it and he knows it well. Don’t be fooled. Yu(m): Hey! I... I don’t... uh... don’t besmirch my good name! 11. Who’s your best friend? Yu(f): Best friends don’t exist around here. We might get whisked off anytime, what for make friends? Yu(m): ... 12. Would you ever get a piercing / tattoo? Yu(f): Who’s to say I don’t already have one? Yu(m): ... You.. you do? Yu(f): Ha. You wish you knew. 

so @cawolters​ had created her own tag game for international women’s day, which is all sorts of amazing and i’m so glad to have been tagged!!! <3 <3 (edit: also have been tagged by @aslanwrites, so thanks!!) Guide: answer these seven Qs in the voice of your female character(s), and then tag somebody!  of course, the three female characters in my wip is Zhen, Yu(f) -- but for this, since it’s pretty obvious it’s the female Yu, i’ll just call her Yu -- and Jia, so i’ll be doing this for them! (btw i found this really difficult to answer because... spoilers??? abound????? but also they might change so i dont really know what to write at some parts?? but okay you know what fine, let’s have some spoilers here) (also note that all of their answers pertain to their pasts / backstories) 1. Who was your mother and what did she teach you?

Zhen: i don’t have a mother. For real, though. Yu: My mother’s harsh, and she’s made me stronger. Jia: my mother’s a strong, tough woman. she’s got to be, to raise a kid on her own.

2. Do you have any sisters (related or not)?

Zhen: yeah, i have a few. they’re all major pains in the asses though Yu: No. Jia: I’ve got a younger sister. We’re pretty independent of one another

3. How has your gender shaped your path in life?

Zhen: I don’t know. the woman who raised me was pretty great, and i never really cared about the other sex too much anyway. like, people tried to bully me sometimes i guess but i never really cared too much about it, they never really affected me. i’ve faced worse anyway. gender doesn’t matter when it comes to that. Yu: i’ve been raised by a very strong, fierce mother, and it has followed me throughout my life. i am not affected by discrimination, or by prejudice. there’s no point in caring about such lesser things in life when there are other more important things to look towards. Jia: yeah. i mean, women aren’t regarded as highly as men are. i’m only in my early-20s and people already nag at me to get married and settle down and like, then what do you want me to do for the rest of my life? take care of kids and clean up after the house? i have loftier aspirations than that. it’s so annoying. they keep yammering on and on , but when it comes to the men, it’s all about getting somewhere with their career. i know it’s stressful either way, but still. maybe i don’t want to get hitched so young, yknow? ah, whatever. you can do something about it only if you actually do something about it.

4. What does the woman you admire look like? Who is she?

Zhen: she is the kindest, most patient woman i’ve ever known. she has a bunch of rowdy kids and -- okay, i can’t say she has never lost her patience, she has a pretty bad temper despite how i’ve described her -- but she’s never lost hope in us, yknow? she’s strong and fierce and full of fight. i couldn’t have asked for a better person in my life.

Yu: she’s strong and capable. no one can ever doubt her capabilities, and around her, i just want to get better myself. i need to match up to her standards, to reach her expectations. i just... can’t.

Jia: well the woman i admire is myself. i mean, why admire someone else when you can just look up to yourself right? who can you be better inspired by than your own creativity and your own mind and your own capabilities? i strive to make myself better and to achieve my goals , and i am constantly inspired by my own improvement and growth. say what you want, but that’s just the truth.

5. Why do you think women are considered the gentler sex?

Zhen: honestly??? i have no clue. haven’t seen that much gentle women in my life. they’re all pretty fierce and kick-ass. i guess it could be through history, yknow, in imperial china the empress just manages the harem and takes care of household duties and makes sure the house is all pretty and in place and presentable while the emperor does all the bigger political and military stuff. you won’t ever see the emperor touching a needle pin, will you, and all the women are the handmaidens and servants and weavers while the men are guards and military officials. i mean, it’s not like men don’t go near all these supposedly dainty stuff, it’s just that it’s made to be the official job of women. personally i’d love to just handle things at home because it’d be too troublesome managing a country’s affairs, but i don’t think that’s because i’m gentle. it’s because i’m lazy as hell and i’m owning it.

Yu: What Zhen said. surprisingly she hasn’t really spouted that much crap in this interview. she’s actually being decent, for once.

Jia: sometimes women are still regarded the gentler sex because we’re still perpetuating it ourselves! you hear women on the streets saying things like, ‘i want to find a rich husband who can take care of me for the rest of my life’ or that ‘i’ll settle down and stop working when i get married’ or having aspirations like ‘having a baby and making a family is my only dream in life’. not that it’s wrong, but it just perpetuates that idea of a woman not taking any action for herself! women are strong, alright? look at zhen’s example of the imperial palace. the concubines and the empress’ entire purpose of being in the harem is to gain the emperor’s affections in order to give him a baby, and that might seem like it’s all, but do you know how difficult life in the palace can be? do you know how strong these women are, emotionally, mentally, physically, to take the toil and stress of constantly being pitted against one another-- even if they’re just fighting for the emperor’s affections? and those shoes!! Have you seen the shoes they have to walk in? and they have to kneel and bow and walk delicately and gracefully in those??? and that hair! do you know how heavy their hair can get --

Zhen: you know, i kinda think you’d make a great concubine or empress in those days Jia: i probably wouldn’t even get past the first stage, i’m too rowdy

Zhen: yea, but if you were born in those times you’d learn to be a little more disciplined and dignified and you’d have kicked so many of those asses there

Yu: ... i thought we were trying to fight for women, not encourage fighting among women

Zhen: i’m just saying, yknow, none of those scheming people would have a chance against jia because she’s the fiercest, most scheming person there is! i don’t know if she’d be able to handle the responsibility of empress though... all that dignity and grace and needing to upkeep appearances... 

Jia: yea. i would not want to lead that empress life. that kind of being poised and proper and dignified to upkeep appearances sorta thing is probably more for Yu

Zhen: but Yu won’t be able to take all the scheming. she’d just lock herself in the room to do her work in silence and she won’t even catch a glimpse of the emperor

Yu: ... you know i’m right here, right?

(shoe reference that jia is talking about)

6. What is a piece of your personality that you are proud of?

Zhen: ehhhh.... i don’t know. i can take pretty good care of people, i think. sometimes, when i feel like it. unless it’s too exhausting, then maybe not.

Yu: i think i’m pretty resilient, but i can do better.

Jia: i’m a go-getter. i’m determined, and i’m strong, and i’m hella capable. if i strive for something, you know eventually i’m going to get it.

7. When did you accept your own body and its strengths/weaknesses?

Zhen: well. you just gotta accept that your own body is what helps you breathe and eat and sleep and basically carry you around, yknow? i’ve never really had much problems with my own body, tbh. it serves me well

Yu: sometimes i still think i’m too weak, that my body can withstand more. but sometimes you need more rest in order to go on.

Jia: if i can’t count on myself and my own physical body to do things, then who else can i count on? once you’ve figured that out, it’s pretty easy to accept your own body for what it is.

(some of the questions are not exactly answered because, well... you know)

hello!! thanks so much for the prompt!! i’ll be doing this for Jia and Yu (f) from my wip like all things out of season. This takes place before the main novel’s events, and before Zhen has met Lu (though it won’t be mentioned / relevant). As with all the other snippets so far, you don’t have to know what my novel is about to read it, just the basic premise that everyone is struggling to move on in the afterlife.Hope you enjoy! The rest will be under the cut!

Snippet #3 - Yu (f) and Jia 

(1378 words)

ahhh thank you! i’ll do this for Yu(f)!