Title: Unexpected Answers I (or, The Obligatory Lunar Festival Episode, 2017 Edition)
Description: "Li-Ming is proud and vain, and that is very noticeable, but it's another thing if it should concern Sylvanas."
Notes1: So I started up a Twitter handle where I just post IRL slice of life BS and general updates on specific things i.e. mostly fanfiction. You can find the link on my profile.
Notes2: I also uploaded cover art for How Does That Even Work?, which was done via request by Psykotic101. Eventually, I will get around to working on and uploading cover art for this story, as well. (Yes, I drew that. It's on my Deviantart page. I do more than just anthro OCs.)
Notes3: I finally got around to making a chapter dump document, and as of this post I'm currently sitting at seventy-three prompts. I want to get every Hero in here at least once so I don't have to worry about a potential Mass Archive Panic, but for future stories that take place further down the line (read: many, many years later) I can't guarantee everyone will be present...because if we did, those would never get a proper conclusion outside of me burning out hard.
Notes4: Artanis was originally going to show up in this chapter, bewildered when Li-Ming confides to him how close she's gotten to Sylvanas since Chapters 15-16 (which, chronologically, is over the course of the 2016 chapters), but that would've been shoehorned. Don't worry; he'll show up in the next chapter.
Notes5: I know some readers might disagree with where I'm going with this, but yes, as "popular" (as in, popular to a few readers) as Sylvanas/Nova is, this is still listed as having Li-Ming and Nova as pairs (and now Valeera, but there's barely any room to include that in the description anymore). Now normally I don't make note of this because I find this as a detraction from immersing myself in a fanfic, and if you've so much as read a single Naruto-centric fanfic then you know there's PLENTY of this going on, so much so it takes a while before you get started reading. Now this won't have, and I'm going to pull an astronomical number out of my ass, forty or so "candidates" that Naruto harems are notorious for, and while I still refuse to call this a "harem" by modern anime standards, it's still a harem in that there are at least three (Nova, Li-Ming, and Valeera, and four, if you count Leoric; but let's face it, no one's going to, you're here for the yuri) people subtly and not-so subtlety vying for the attention of the object of their affection. Don't look at this as a "bait and switch", because it's not. I could go more into this, but it's such a mess of a topic between Eastern and Western values that it'd have to be reserved for another chapter that won't eat up too much space.
"You look…different."
Li-Ming turned around and, not for the first time, did a double-take. It was very rare to see Sylvanas in anything other than her chainmail armor and the few articles of casual clothing Jaina and Li Li bought and heaped on her from their trips to the more advanced cities in Hubworld. Seeing Sylvanas in an orange yukata embroidered with green-blue flowers and a rouge phoenix upon her breast was even more of an eye-opener.
Granted she almost always wore that perpetual frown that was expressed for a variety of occasions, mainly being a disdain for the mental fluctuation of childish simplicity that passed for common sense and fanatical, one-tracked stupidity and barbarism. Tonight, however, it seemed subdued—plain, even. It was as natural as the way of the Nexus, and the one thing Li-Ming couldn't stand above demons and blissfully ignorant mages was seeking to understand the nature of spells and philosophies and unable to grasp them.
As the years wore on, trying to understand what Sylvanas's frown expressed, especially now, was becoming a greater obstacle.
If Nova can overcome that, why can't you? said that inner deepness. Sometimes it sounded like Isendra. Sometimes it sounded like Leah or Eirena. Most of the time, it even sounded like herself.
Li-Ming tried not to frown at her, but she did, and wondered what Sylvanas would think of that. She sniffed, folded her arms, and turned her nose up. "No, I did not get Botox and I did not get facial reconstructive surgery, thank you for asking. You know a person can look different without makeup, right?"
Sylvanas blinked, and it surprised her how much Nova compared her to a cat. She made that lazy, half-lidded gaze into a work of art. Even the way her long, foliate ears rotated, twitched, and moved up and down against her skull in varying degrees was not so much feline as it was canine. Right now they were upswept, the inner shells facing toward the mingling crowds and the open food and game stalls. She was calm. "…I wasn't going to insinuate such a thing. And yes, I know cosmetics can enhance…or detract…a person's appearance. I used to apply them in my youth."
Li-Ming placed both arms akimbo and cocked a hip. She noted Sylvanas arching a brow at that. It's just the attitude, she was telling the voice in her head that she was totally sure wasn't her. You're a child compared to her, so of course I'm going to give her a bit of lip. It comes with the package.
Right, said the other. Just like Spectre Nova. Why don't you ask her how that went?
She ignored her. "And pray tell, Sylvanas, since you are presumably better in the know, what do you think the lack thereof does for me?"
The Banshee Queen tilted her chin downward and studied her face. "It makes you look…softer. Younger. More—"
"Asian?"
Sylvanas snorted. "Well, yes. I suppose so. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how you look one nationality and sound another."
"Ha! And I daresay you don't have any problems with people constantly comparing you to the archetypical elf in standard fantasy fiction."
"No. They're not even trying. But as I was saying, my previous assessment is not a negative. It's just—"
"Just?" Li-Ming ventured, and later that night she would ask herself why she had sounded so defensive about it. Most people were stupid; the Nexus just amplified it. If they could so easily accept the default Nova and her variants as part of this unofficial 'harem', why couldn't they? Why let their quirks slip by but not hers? Because she was not as heavily transitioned as they were?
"It's just," Sylvanas paused, searching for the right word. "It makes you look more, well, natural. More 'you'."
Li-Ming blinked, her posture shedding its tension. "Eh? More 'me'?"
"I had always thought you were trying to look like something you're not. Now trying to act something you're not—that is another thing, and not something I or anyone else can change, no matter how much we gripe about it." Sylvanas folded her arms within the yukata's voluminous sleeves. "But whatever people say about you, no matter how false their assumptions may be or how close they hit to home—you shouldn't listen to them."
She blinked again. "Eh?" Was this really the same Sylvanas speaking to her, the same person with a penchant for murdering people left and right on a whim and loved flipping the metaphorical bird at everyone, from not just the lowest serf to the most influential politician but a Power and a Lord of the Storm regardless of the circumstances?
"I'm saying you're better than that. Much more." Sylvanas reiterated. "You never gave me the impression you were someone who let a few paltry words and actions get to them. It's always about charging in heedless of dangers, getting blown up in the process, and getting back up again." She inclined her head. "Am I not wrong on that?"
Li-Ming shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She averted her gaze from Sylvanas and moved it to the ground, and felt ashamed, and that made her grimace.
Sylvanas stared at her. Then she sighed, resigned, her shoulders slumping. "Come now, Li-Ming. You know I didn't mean it that way. What did I just say?"
"I know what you said," Li-Ming grumbled. But, she mused as an afterthought, to hear it from someone that could be called (on very loose terms) a friend, someone who was not Isendra or Eirena made it all the more harder to bear.
You know why, said the other, and Li-Ming inwardly sneered.
Stuff it.
"Then chin up, girl," Sylvanas added, and from the corner of her eye Li-Ming saw her face fall. No, 'fall' was the wrong word; there was a subtle shift in her features that made her appear as if she had come off too harshly in her assessment. She was proven correct at the low grunt and the return of the frown on her face. "This is not a night for frowns and brooding. Smile more; it looks better on you."
Li-Ming's head whipped around so fast it made the both of them think it would have caused whiplash. "Did you just say something positive?" About me?
Sylvanas frowned at the goggling sent her way. "Yes, I know, I can't believe I said that, either, but better it came from me. Do you really want someone like Jaina to act all preachy about bringing harmony to your surroundings and all that Taoist bullcrap? No, I didn't think so." She beckoned toward the stands and the general revelry with another incline of her head. "The night is still young. I don't care too much for festivities and revelries, but your holiday and mine are not so different. Let us pay our respects to our elders and take pleasure in what we have…because you know when this is over, it's back to causing financial ruin and General Autism 101." She started walking.
Li-Ming huffed, caught up with her, and matched her stride. "I assure you, I will do no such thing…but if I should, well, there's always collateral and property insurance to cover the whole mess."
Sylvanas scoffed, but the intonation was not rude or in denial. Arms folded back in their sleeves, she lead the way on padded geta, her back straight and proud, her ears standing erect and pointing toward the heavens. It was a clear night, but one would be unable to find that many stars in the sky with how much light was being put out by paper lanterns and the soothing, bioluminescent radiance of the glow-lamps on the thoroughfares.
Li-Ming sneaked a discreet glance at the taller woman, studied the crowd (and saw not a blonde hair in sight), and inched closer toward her, close enough for their robes to touch.
This is much better, isn't it?
After a moment's indecision between choosing making a rebuttal and feigning ignorance, she decided that yes, yes, this was much better.