heng_like_a_dragon

Will do. See you around. Oh, and enjoy the food.

[Short and sweet. Off he goes with a wave. He's got other deliveries to make, after all.]

[As promised here are a few photos of Blade and Jing Yuan utterly entranced by the beauty that is Ying on stage.]

You were gorgeous! (★‿★)

[Caleb is a good bro and Dan Heng appreciates him greatly. He's saving all of them to his phone immediately.]

Thank you. I'm glad that my nerves didn't get the better of me during the performance.

Could not tell you were nervous at all! I think you have a good chance at winning!

(March also has a lot of photos, do you want those?)

[A bit after midnight and not all that long after she messages Blade, it's Dan Heng's turn to get her worried voice message over the sound of fireworks -- and possibly worse?! -- in the distance.]

You're okay -- you're all okay right? Please be okay.. I heard things that are definitely not fireworks.

[The next words are so quiet and she didn't actually mean to send them.]

I need people to be okay...

[Dan Heng... isn't used to people worrying about him, even though he really should be at this point. Still, he answers her quickly since Faye sounds so distraught.]

Yes, the three of us are safe and alright. They don't know where we live, and we intend to keep it that way. Jing Yuan and I will make sure that Blade is safe.

[He hesitates, uncertain of what to say now that he's heard something he probably shouldn't have.]

...If it will help, you can stay with us until we get more news. I don't know if you have anyone you can stay with right now, but you shouldn't be alone, just in case.

Dan Heng, I called your boyfriend, and he says you guys are doing okay so I’m not gonna ask that. But you better stay inside!

[A beat.]

When were you gonna tell me about that Teresa lady?

[Having seen that message on the app, Dan Heng has been considering the best way to inform people discreetly that he and his partners are fine. March takes the initiative this time, and for that he feels both blessed and cursed... especially when she mentions Teresa. Just hearing her name is enough to make him remember the look on her face as she ran him through with her weapon over and over and over—

He takes a deep breath.]

We won't, I promise. If necessary and possible, we'll run rather than engage in a fight.

As for her....

[He pauses and sighs quietly.]

... I'm sorry. I did plan to tell you after you had settled, but... the timing hasn't been the best. There are some... consequences for the way I survived her attack. Consequences that I've been meaning to tell you and Caleb, too.

[Her legs feel just a little weak with relief with confirmations from first Blade and now Dan Heng that they're safe. There's still others she's waiting to hear from... but she's met so many capable people so far... surely...?]

Good... that's -- that's good to hear. I heard so much gunfire in the distance I just...

[The relief is practically tangible, even if there's still considerable concern and tension in her voice as well... and now it's her turn to hesitate.

... he wasn't really wrong that she shouldn't be alone. Honestly what could she do out here in the middle of the city surrounded by fireworks and probably-not-fireworks in several directions. Still the hesitance clings to her voice just a little.]

... are you sure I wouldn't be intruding...?

[... she couldn't deny that being around Blade tended to be just as grounding as being around the best friends she'd ever made, and both Dan Heng and Jing Yuan had felt like safe people, when they spoke before.]

I don't really.. have anything with me right now.

[She sure isn't a short walk from her apartment right now, with how she'd been walking toward the danger as if she were the brave first sacrifice in a horror movie...]

Caleb doesn't know? Dan Heng.

[She's doing her very best impression of a disappointed Welt. Still, she's not surprised Dan Heng kept this big important secret from everyone, mostly because he's done it before—she'd known him ever since she first opened her eyes and he hadn't really said anything about his past, before they stepped on the Luofu.]

I'm not gonna lie, I would've liked to know all this stuff way sooner. I feel like I just got dropped into the deep end of a swimming pool and everybody's telling me I have to do a breast stroke and all I know is how to doggy-paddle. [Which is to say it's a lot, her poor one brain cell is doing its best to keep up.] But...I get why you didn't wanna tell me immediately. So I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Can we talk? All three of us? After this. I'll even buy you guys lunch!

[says March who doesn't even have a job.]

He knows I died.

[Dan Heng closes his eyes. He feels... tired. Like all the years of his past lives are suddenly weighing down on his shoulders and chest. Even with that, his pride doesn't allow for him to bow his head... despite wanting to. Still, Dan Heng wants his friend to know that his silence has been for a different reason. Where the Dan Heng she knew wanted to keep his Astral Express friends safe from the consequences of Dan Feng's actions, this Dan Heng—]

It... happened only three, almost four months ago, March. Even telling my colleagues was... difficult.

[His voice is very quiet as he says this. "Difficult" is an understatement. It's one thing to tell the people he works with what's going on. That can be more impersonal. It's another thing entirely to tell the people he's close to. Part of him still feels shame for even asking Zhongli, his own damn cousin, to comfort him like he was a terrified child. He still feels guilty that he died and couldn't defend himself.

He pauses for a moment.]

...Do you even have the money for that? [Dan Heng suddenly envisions a March 7th who doesn't know how credit cards work and getting into tremendous debt.] I'll pay for lunch. But... yes. We can talk.

[yeah kind of hard to miss the pomsky barking over the network—]

But he doesn't know how you came back?

[Four months ago...worry and heartbreak snag and twist together in her throat, threaten to choke her. Four months he's been carrying this and she didn't know, and Caleb might've known some of it but not everything. She wants to come over right now and hug her friend, tell him it'll be all right now—she's here, she can shield him, she can help.]

...you know that you can talk to us about anything anytime, right? And we'll be here for you whenever you're ready. I won't judge, promise.

[A beat.]

I'm working on it. [Currently, it's...uh. It's. Going.] At least let me pay for the drinks.

[Sending along a quick link to the comment thread as context before she asks:]

So we learned about the Watchmaker and the Family from Gallagher, so I know the Family’s up to something shady. But what did he mean by “assimilating people to their cause”?

[Well, Dan Heng can't ignore a voice call like he can a text, so this is the wisest thing March has done. He reads through the thread, and both memories and knowledge begin to rise up in his mind.]

Mm... it's a little complicated, but I'll try to simplify it. The Family has methods to bring outsiders into their "Family" and further The Harmony's cause. Usually, those ceremonies are conducted on a large scale, but I have read of cases where it can be done on an individual basis without the use of such a ceremony.

Really? Yikes, now I'm really glad we didn't trust the Family. That's shady. [Himeko was right, the only people the crew can really trust on Penacony are each other. Between the IPC and the Family and every other guest having some kind of agenda, it's really giving March a headache.]

He seemed to know what he was saying. I don't trust him because he was using us and Acheron to prove "death's" existence in the Dreamscape, but...I talked to Caleb, and he says Mr. Sunday was trying to revive the Order. So Aventurine wasn't wrong there.

[There's a pause, then a groan.]

Ugh, all this because of Clockie.

Although that hasn't happened in quite some time, it's wise to keep that in mind when dealing with them. Every faction has their motives, for good or ill. The Trailblaze is unique: we're largely neutral in our dealings with the other factions, minus the Stellaron Hunters.

[He hums softly at that. Dan Heng has to think for a moment, allowing his memories to help fill in some gaps.]

That is, indeed, what Sunday and the head of his family were trying to do. Even if Sunday protested that as his goal, the end result would've been the same. As for Aventurine... he has his own motives outside of the IPC. Otherwise, why make such a risky move?

[Dan Heng has to put forth every effort to not sound amused. Can't have people thinking he's got a personality or sense of humor, no sir.]

Well, Clockie is the manifestation of a Trailblazer's dream. It makes sense that would happen.

Yeah, we don't have ulterior motives! That's why we're the ones on the case in Penacony. [She's read maybe one too many detective novels. But she does pause a moment at the mention of the Stellaron Hunters, and, with a distinctly joking note:]

I wouldn't call dating one of them neutral, yeah. Even a former one.

[Ahem hem. Anyway.]

Ugh, he's got more motives too? That figures, he's slippery. [And then there's Sunday. She lets out a breath.] No matter how I try, I can't understand why and how someone would go around reviving a dead Aeon. And I'm...I guess we should've seen it coming, that Sunday was a part of this plan—it's becoming a trend with our trailblazing expeditions, and I don't like it—but. He seemed so nice, and he seemed to really care about Robin.

[A beat.]

Clockie is what now.

Indeed, though I don't know how much of a "case" it is.

[A beat.]

Hmm, somehow, I feel that there's a certain cosmic irony to that fact.

[Moving swiftly along to avoid existential dilemmas!]

Such things are not mutually exclusive. He can care about Robin while still wanting to put her into a cage where it's allegedly safe. However, from what I've gathered, he took it from righteousness to self-righteousness and caged himself instead. As for why... it depends on the person you ask, and the Aeon they attempt to revive. Reviving Akivili would be unconscionable. Reviving Ena to enact a true dream that life couldn't escape from, where they wouldn't know pain... that might be worth it to one who views people as inherently weak or childish.

[Dan Heng says nothing about the Permanence. Perhaps he's deeply cynical after all the years of reincarnation, but how can there be Permanence when there is Finality? His people couldn't reproduce, and thus would eventually go extinct. Just as they have now, with Dan Heng being the only Vidyadhara left.]

You'll find out soon enough.

[He may or may not be teasing her by being cryptic.]

Even if there weren’t actually any murders, there’s still a mystery to solve!

[Yeah, whatever cosmic irony there is, it flies over March’s head. Having a -1 INT mod will do that.

She shudders at the thought of reviving Akivili. Part of the Path of Trailblaze is knowing there’s an end to the expedition—every passenger will, someday, disembark from the train. (March hopes that if ever their time to leave comes they all do it together.) The idea of dragging Akivili back long after THEIR travels have ended…yeah, no.]

So he thinks…that people are weak, and that the only way to keep everyone safe is to put them all in a cage? [A pause.] That’s awful. Not to mention blind! Even if there’s so much pain in the future that it scares you, you can’t just go to sleep and dream forever to escape from it. That just isn’t possible.

[March is a lot of things, but she’s never been one to back down from the future. The idea of trying to escape it because of the horrors it might contain is alien to her—yes, it might have horrors, but it might have such splendid adventures too. You take the good memories with the bad.]

Don’t leave me in suspense like this, Dan Heng!

[Dan Heng can't help feeling proud of her for having such a nuanced opinion. Granted, he feels that she's always had such opinions. It's just a matter of explaining it to her in a way that she understands.]

I agree with you. That being said, some dreams are too tempting to wake up from. The dream he wanted to create for people would always target that emotional weakness. All those memories and the missing pieces that would make you want to stay in the dream for eternity....

[He remembers the dream Sunday tried to trap him in, now, and how the fact it was too stable made him realize it was just a dream. To live in a dream for all time... Dan Heng never wants that, but he wonders if he will have the strength of will to defy it again in this life. He hopes he never finds out.]

I've already spoiled too much of the ending to our journey in Penacony.

Are you busy right now?

[ does he know Dan Heng's daily schedule? yes, but he is still going to ask. it is an old habit of his considering other people and their time before himself. ]

[Dan Heng understands this well as he's the same way. At least, in this life he is.]

No, I'm not, but even if I was I would make time for you, A-Yuan. What can I do for you?

[March is a Nameless, with all that entails. Freedom and the ability to decide for oneself what the future will look like is something she believes wholeheartedly in. Even if it means pain, she'd still choose to wake up and get out of the cage. How will she make new memories, after all, if she stays in one place her whole life?]

Using people's hopes and desires against them, so they can't hope for anything anymore because what's the point of it in a perfect dream... [He can't see it, but she's shaking her head.] He wouldn't be helping or saving anybody! He'd just be crushing their spirits, and then they'd be as good as dead anyway.

[She pauses. Huffs out a breath.]

Well, good luck to him, finding my memories. [Trust her, she knows firsthand how difficult that is.] If the Order manages to pull any of them out I'll throw a party for THEM.

[There's a very audible groan on her side of the line.]

Ugh, now I get why people skip ahead to the last page of mystery novels. Jeez.

I would not like to bother you while working, A-Heng. [ sometimes he cannot help but feel as though he asks too much. ] Your company, if it is not too much trouble.

Where are you right now?

Then it's a good thing I'm done preparing for the fall semester. My schedule for the rest of summer is wide open.

The living room at home. Mimi needed a good brushing, and then the rest of the Creations we have started begging me to get brushed as well.

[He's covered in cats and their fur. Please help.]

IC Inbox

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text | after Dan Heng's drag performance

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voice | un: fairylights | gemini dm

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voice; private, off-app

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voice; un: photocutie

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Spoilers for 2.3!

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text, un: jingnyan.

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