The Awakening of the Awakener

Thoughts

XiFan liked to believe that he did his best by his windtakers when it truly came down to it. This was something that he had believed for quite some time. Something that he was clearly needing to rethink. He had always believed that when he was forced to really think about how he handled his WindTakers, he handled them well. He was the Senior Disciple after all and that was not something that was taken lightly. Being the Senior Disciple was quite difficult and it was a job that he took rather seriously. The Senior Disciple was quite important to the sect, he had a job to care for and train all of them. It was not exactly easy to do by any means, of course, and it was incredibly trying at the best of times. Still, he did it because he knew that it was important, and XiFan liked to think that he had done them right. That he had taught them well, and that their training truly aided the others when they needed his help. After all, it was not easy to train a ton of people, and certain not those in the early stages of adulthood. Most of the WindTakers were on the cusp of entering the adult world, if they had not recently done so already, and as anyone knew that was a very trying time for anyone to go through. There was a lot of changes when moving into adulthood, especially whilst entering the martial world and the WindTakers did it together. It was something that was important because such a transition was not easily taken alone. A lot of the WindTakers were outcasts. XiFan liked to believe that the WindTakers Institute was a place for them to feel included, no matter what had happened to them nor who they were or what their background was. A place for them to have somewhere to go, and that was what he strove for. It was how XiFan himself felt. He felt that the WindTakers was a place for anyone who needed someplace, and it did not matter what they had or where they came from.

Clearly, he needed to be reassessing that situation. Perhaps it was his own idle sense of self that had allowed the bullying to pervade among his Windtakers, perhaps he had just been more then willing to turn a blind eye to the actions which the others were taking, XiFan did not know, but once he had taken to actually taking the time to watch Lu Ping, he realized that it was a bit worse then he could possibly even believe. He had been allowing a sense of superiority to reign among the other WindTakers for the fact that Lu Ping seemingly did not have any martial abilities. Though XiFan had believed otherwise, and he still did, the fact remained that no matter how certain that he was, the others had not the same belief that he did, and that meant that they saw themselves as better, considering how often XiFan tormented him into doing something, trying to force Lu Ping to reveal himself. He had only himself to blame. The realization that one of his WindTakers was being bullied, was being outcasted, despite the fact that he had desired to have it become a refuge for anyone regardless of their status or who they were, well it was quite hurtful and a rather big strain on his pride that he had not noticed it before. He could not believe that he had allowed such things to go on, to continue on until it had gotten as bad as it currently was. It was quite awful. He could not believe that such things were happening right under his eyes. 

Lu Ping, well XiFan had to say that he did not know whether to admire the other or to be appalled. He seemed utterly unconcerned. XiFan did not want to think of whether that was that he just really did not care, or if he was just too used to it at this point that it did not affect him as it had previously done so before. He did not even really know when the bullying had begun. Was it a recent development, or was it a long time in the making. He supposed that it did not matter considering the fact remained that it was happening in the first place. He would need to fix this, he could not allow such things to continue on. 

He steeled his resolve after he saw Lu Ping shoved into the wall of a hut, and reigned himself in, stalking forwards and ordering the WindTakers to leave Lu Ping with him. Lu Ping just leaned against the wall, staring at him with dark eyes. XiFan wondered why it was that there was a dark sense of...danger hiding, lurking rather, underneath the boy's eyes. 

"Lu Ping," XiFan began. "How long has that been happening?" Lu Ping smirked, crossing his arms and cocking his head to the side as he leaned backwards.

"How long has what been happening?" He asked, playing innocent. 

"Lu Ping," XiFan grit out, loosing his patience. Lu Ping rolled his eyes. 

"Senior Disciple, whatever it is you are concerned about, just drop it. I assure it, it is not nearly as big of a deal as you make it out to be." Lu Ping gave him what seemed to be a little mocking smile, before kicking off of the wall to walk away from him, brushing past him slightly as he did so. 

XiFan just watched as Lu Ping left the clearing. He knew that there was more to this, but for some reason, the naive and slightly idiotic and over dramatic Lu Ping that the Windtakers seemed to know had disappeared during their conversation. Something about his demeanor, his eyes especially...they were beginning to seem different.

XiFan knew that something was bothering Lu Ping. That much had been obvious when he had caught The other crying alone in his room, but he had not expected it to shake the boy so much. What exactly was bothering him.

XiFan was worried now. Lu Ping had never been so...subtly mocking before. There was something else at play, and XiFan was worried about what it could be.