Chen offers Jessic a thoughtful look and an actual giggle at the image of Qiu shouting “hewwo!” at people’s doors. It really did help her understand Qiu better, though she would need to tell the Princess that just asking for a duel was a better approach for Chen than all this pressure to force a fight with her at high stakes. Well, maybe. She was trying to figure out what made her want to fight, that was part of this conversation. It’s complicated!

When Jessic asks about the Princesses, Chen contemplates for a second, resting her chin on one hand and almost pouting. Then she starts ticking off fingers for the nine kingdoms as she goes through them aloud. “Pasalkhen: Qiu, I wanted to be friends, but I hurt her feelings and my moms aren’t cool with it, it’s a whole thing.
Terraced Lake: also Qiu right now. Ishan was friends my Mommy Ysel I think, but she’s more like an aunt to me, I don’t really know her that well and have no idea where she is now.
Sourcefall: Hestia’s my mom, so I mean, I guess she’s cool.” Chen stopped, chose not to laugh at her own pun, moved on. “I mean, Sourcefall is most of where I grew up after the hot and cold alliances split up, but it’s hard to say I’m friends with my own mom cuz it’s different.
Ys: same thing, I think Mommy Ysel tries to be more like friends than Hestia but she’s also really demanding and kinda scary.
Plains: Jezara is cool! Maybe I could say she’s my friend? We haven’t really hung out that much, but I text her cat pictures of my leopard sometimes. And uh, I really want to go visit her and turn into a cat, it sounds really fun.” She blushed at that one.
“Tesla Hive: I’ve only seen Kikil at formal visits and she’s kinda scary
Radiant Lands: Yin’s a vassal, but I kind of hate her. I mean, I know it’s mean of me, but but, she’s so over the top and she scares other people, and she cursed Hyra (the wolf that’s here with Yue) and really upset Rose! And when I defended my friends earlier she backed off, but I’m pretty sure Mommy is gonna be really mad at me for not siding with Yin, so it’s like extra double frustrating!
And, uh, Sky Castle is you and you seem cool but we didn’t really know each other before this.

So...uh, I guess I kinda hope to be friends with Jezara and you, and maybe Ishan. And I don’t know if I can really be friends with my moms but I want to like them and for them to like me even if I can’t beat up Qiu. And I want to be friends with Qiu but like, not in a way where she’s, like, expecting me to give her this big special fight with so much pressure where no matter what I disappoint her or my moms or all of them all at once!”