Falling like ashes to the ground

Bajie nodded and chuckled at all the right places. It was good to just relax and meet someone new, though there would always be that voice in the back of his mind, warning him about not getting close to people. Yet somehow he always ended up walking down that path, even still, he would always try to tell himself he was only out for himself and that the only reason he had friends was because they were like a commodity to be bought and traded.

As Megara stopped speaking, Bajie allowed a few moments of silence to pass as he smoked. Meeting a new person was always an interesting navigation. He asked himself lots of questions, like was this person worth knowing, would they be a commodity he could one day use to his advantage. Then there was the balancing act in general. He didn’t like to get too personal right out of the gate, but then if the conversation was going to continue, he had to say or ask something.

He took another drag, the weather felt too mundane, but it also wasn’t like he was going to dive into his deep and personals. Well, if he was going to figure out what sort of worth they might have as a friend, he was going to just have to ask some mildly personal questions.

So, are you a resident or a visitor? He asked, it felt relatively like a safe question. It skirted the edges of personal, but not blatantly a directly personal question either.