loong | a great escape;

a great escape;

[ this planet.. is a tranquil one. lonely, but peaceful. there are no intelligent species here, but that is, perhaps, for the best - dan feng's penance continues, after all. in escaping the luofu he was not attempting to escape general punishment, only the molting rebirth. fear of losing himself, of losing his memories, his sense of self..

perhaps it made him a coward, to flee, but warm memories are all he has now, and he could not bear to part with them just yet.

so here he waits, alone in his own beautiful purgatory, awaiting the end of his days, nursing his ailing mind, existing in torment and in bliss in equal measure. his hatching rebirth will come in time, and only then, perhaps, will he be free of his sin, or at the very least, free of his pain. the crime of the previous life must be atoned for in the next, but.. his memories of the quintet would vanish, save for in dreams, and his reincarnation could live on.

it's a lush, lovely planet, where he has escaped to, slowly orbiting the glowing deep of a black hole, where time, for him, runs more slowly, dragging out like a string of sticky molasses. there are thick forests and vast wetlands, eighty percent of this world is water, and there is no sign that intelligent life has ever existed here. no ruins. no scrawled paintings in caves. no hidden chambers beneath the seas. three hundred years he has spent combing the globe and found nothing to suggest that anyone but he has walked the earth here. only animals. insects. fish. they make decent company, but dan feng still keeps to himself, living out of a modest shelter built near the water's edge.

three hundred years, and he speaks to no one, says nothing, until the day the majestic luofu blots out the light of the diffracting black hole.

the sight of it stills his heart in his breast, and dan feng finds his throat running dry, but when the small starskiff lands he is standing quietly, watchful and calm, the tip of his tail swaying behind him as he watches jing yuan disembark, resplendent in his general's clothing. he takes a deep breath.. releases it. ]

.. you must have been very keen to find me, to brave the dangers of the black hole.

[ for time.. time is a precious thing, every hour he spends here could be a year on the luofu. ]

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[ blade's words cut deeper than any sword or spear ever could, hitting with such terrible intensity that it kicks the breath from his lungs. hot tears sting his eyes. how can he possibly bear this? his yingxing would never have been so cruel. he has a harsh man at times, but - ]

Stop. Just stop.

[ dan feng's voice falters, his body going still as he bows his head. this ache in his heart is a thousand times more painful than his torture at the shackling prison had been, he would take a lifetime of those terrible nails through his body over this pain. the guilt that dan feng carries over the sins that they committed is deeply entrenched in his soul, he does not need blade to remind him of it, not when it is always at the forefront of his mind. ]

Calling him dead is hypocrisy on your part, when you have chased my reincarnation across the stars, when you would not let him know peace. If Yingxing is dead, then Dan Feng is, as well. If Yingxing were dead, he would not feel grief, he would not feel pain and regret for what he had done. He would not hate me so passionately.

[ his fingers curl, white-knuckled against blade's chest, his breath rushing. ]

[The look he gives Dan Feng is blank. Lacking in genuine emotion or sympathy for the scene before him. There is some logic to this. He has set out with a vengeful heart. Of five names three must pay a price.

He'd explain how he is nothing more than an instrument but knowing it would upset the other to an even deeper level stops him. There are other ways to get the point across.]

How can you look at this husk and see anything but? He's gone. What memories that haven't been devoured by the mara have been erased by Kafka. This body is not how you left it. It holds none of the warmth it once did. You who are unchanged by time looking just as you once were with your memories in tact... [It's a different argument they used to have. That he is aging and that's something that has to be understood and accepted. He will change and change quickly and Jing Yuan and Dan Feng would just have to accept it. The candle of his life has been extended but the price...? It was everything. His memory. His body. All that he had was forfeit.] The shards of the past that you see on me are not enough to create a whole person. Not enough to recreate him.

[ the look on blade's face, the complete lack of recognition, of empathy..

dan feng didn't want to believe it. jing yuan prepared him, told him what to expect, but words alone could not have been enough to really, truly prepare him. this man who wears his husband's face, who walks with his body.. can it really be true? is he truly gone? is there nothing left to be salvaged? if that is the case.. why is he bothering? why is he trying? is any of this worth it at all? dan feng feels numb. his heart bleeds profusely.

he made a promise to jing yuan, a promise that the three of them would be together again, but how can it be worth it, if one of them is gone? if the love between them is broken? blade does not remember him, he does not remember how fully and desperately they loved each other, he does not remember the laughter or the warmth, how they would lay together under the moon, how he was one of two people in all the cosmos that could make imbibitor lunae smile as bright as the sun.

he doesn't know what to do. ]

All right. [ he says softly, hollowly, because what else can he say? blade will continue to insist that yingxing is gone, no matter how much dan feng aches for it not to be true. he doesn't have the strength for this. closing his burning eyes, dan feng's hands again relax, the fight going out of him like a fire extinguished. this, perhaps, is the torment he truly deserves. ] I will do as you say.

Hmph.

[Is the only answer he gives to Dan Feng's acceptance to what is. That makes all of this easier. No need to bear the weight of feelings that have long slipped through his mangled fingers.]

Do you wish to continue? [He is hilt deep in the dragon before this all came to a stop.] Or should I go?

[Kafka expected them to mingle together longer but things feel as icy as the water they're currently in. The sooner they depart from one another the better, no? This will only gnaw at his mara and he needs this moment to be erased by Kafka's threads sooner rather than later.

What else can be done here or said? What does Dan Feng even want from him if Yingxing is dead? To start anew? That's worthy of a scoff. How would that even work? And with Jing Yuan who looks at him like a specter when he thinks he isn't looking.]

Don't go.

[ he shouldn't cling on to something that is too shattered to repair, but.. dan feng is nothing if not stubborn. he cannot return to jing yuan empty handed. he cannot let this man go, either. both mean more to him than all the stars in the sky. he can't give up, no matter how this hurts. even if yingxing is changed beyond recognition, dan feng is committed to him, even if all he has left is this - the broken pieces left behind.

he will put them back together again even if it kills him.

lifting his hands, dan feng cradles blade's jaw, thumbs tracing the strong line, and draws him in close, fangs sinking against blade's lower lip, tugging. long fingers slide into blade's dark hair, and dan feng kisses him hard, deep, licking into his mouth with renewed vigor. ]

[He lets out a "hrmp" at being told to stay. He'll listen, do as he's told and what's expected. He snaps his hips forward, preparing to continue their rutting.

Blade lifts his chin at the touch, allowing Dan Feng to touch and take him in. There's nothing left of the man he once knew and the sooner he understands that the better. Every part of him tainted and torched by the Mara. What he doesn't expect is the tug forward and the fangs that bite into his flesh. The sudden heat behind everything.

He growls at the fierceness of it, participating in full. He bites back and surges against Dan Feng to return the kiss and take control. Fighting to lick into his mouth instead, his hips doing short meaningful thrusts into the other man.]

[ perhaps he is delusional, but dan feng will never believe that there is nothing left of yingxing. he is changed, surely, and greatly changed at that, transformed into something beastly and painful, but there are flickers of the flame that dan feng once knew. it's there in his stubbornness and his ferocity, in the way that he kisses so fiercely - yingxing had burned like starfire, and blade is no different, whether or not he wants to believe it.

the soul that twists beneath dan feng's hands is still a shape that he remembers. ]

That's better..

[ he whispers against blade's lips, hooking one thigh over blade's hip to hold more tightly to him, to allow him to thrust even deeper still, his vent tight and pulsing all around the thick length of his cock. dan feng's claws hook and drag, trailing fiery welts down blade's back as he leans back against the stone, allowing it to shoulder his weight so that he might wrap both legs around blade's hips, squeezing tight as a vise. ]

Good boy.. don't stop.

[He growls at the endearment, his thrusts turning fast and brutal in the familiar vent. There are faint memories on how they used to fuck. How both his lovers liked to be pounded senselessly. He remembers how easy it was and is to slide into this slick vent. How it took too long to get Jing Yuan loosened up for either one of them and how he was far too eager and to his own detriment sometimes.

Memories linger and buzz at the corner of mind. They're warm... Flaked in gold. But the pleasure keeps the madness from slipping in. The desire to find release in the depths of his former lover is enough to keep him grounded. It just makes his thrusts erratic and desperate.

Their past is one he can barely hold onto. The faces and fleeting moments flicker in and out. Impossible to hold onto... Those days are far behind him now. He can't give either Dan Feng and Jing Yuan what they want. He can never return to who he was. And he's not sure either of them will be okay with that. The sadness in Jing Yuan's eyes. The past in Dan Feng's...

He can't follow them anymore.]

[ no, he cannot return to who he was, any more than dan feng can. the man who was once the proud high elder is gone, undone by his hubris and foolishness. blade has been too deeply harmed to ever simply.. snap back to the person he once was. but that does not mean that dan feng will give up on him, will stop loving him. he will always carry a flame for this man. for all of them.

their bodies crash together in the water, dan feng's arms tight around blade's strong shoulders, his fingers slipping into that dark hair, scratching at his scalp. dipping his head, dan feng presses hot kisses along blade's throat, over his pounding pulse, sucking bruises there that will heal too quickly. ]

Come for me.

[ he whispers against hot skin, heel digging into the back of blade's thigh as his vent tightens, squeezing, hot tears burning his eyes that he refuses to release. still, his tone is imperious nonetheless. ]

Let me feel you..

[Mentally, Yingxing is a lost ember. That love they had will never return or ever be the same. Too much time has passed and it has eroded and become marred and tainted. But the body... The body remembers a great many things. Even if this shell he walks in is a different beast. Every mark, scar, blemish carved into his flesh.

It remembers the feel of Dan Feng. The wet feel of his vent. How he liked to touch and be touched in turn. The command of the High Elder's voice when he wanted him to go harder, faster, gentle and of course when he demanded that he come is engraved in him even if he can't recall mentally. This broken shell forgets nothing...

Those words are uttered and his body obeys. His hips thrust upward once more, his cock deep in the depths of the slick vent where it stays as it unloads rope after rope of hot seed. He fills the slick cavern as he had done countless times in their long lost past. And he releases much the same as he did before. Silently, with his cock twitching deep in the depths of his partner, never one for pulling out of either of his lovers. He always enjoyed making a mess of them, watching it drip out of them or pushing it back in their abused entrances.

He remains still after he releases, letting the old memories come and then slide off his mind. Needing not to be drawn back into these moments lest the mara coil around him and he drowns them both in this lake.]

[ the man yingxing once was may be lost, but blade is still here, and however much he may wish to run from his past, dan feng will never let go, will never stop chasing him, or loving him, no matter how different he becomes, no matter how much blade despises him in return. a dragon's heart never falters, never releases.

and so he holds on tightly, latched onto blade as their bodies move together, easily remembering all of the things that had been lost between them. ]

Very good..

[ he whispers, when he feels blade beginning to tense, when he feels his cock twitch and spill burning heat into his body. dan feng groans, sinking his fangs against blade's shoulder as he rides him, falling into the warmth of the pleasure as he finds his own peak, his vent tightening, squeezing, tail lashing behind him, then curling around blade's back.

humming, he laps at the wound left behind by his fangs, a deep purr in his chest. ]

[Despite his best efforts memories do slide in. He remembers moments like this. The heated vent around his cock. The fangs. The moans. The scents. A long time ago it was just the two of them. But those memories are faded because...]

It's not the same...

[He murmurs out the words, his fingers digging into Dan Feng's smaller waist. It isn't the same. There's a warm body missing. A mess of hair. Someone rambunctious and loud and over eager...

Someone they loved very much.

Jing Yuan, of course... His head gives a violent throb. Gold sparking in the corners of his vision for a moment but he holds it back as best he can, trying to grab for these old memories.]

We need...

.. I know.

[ dan feng's answer comes softly, gently. ]

We need him.

[ things will never be the same with only two of them, no matter which two it is are together. they are three of a kind, and should not be apart, no matter the circumstances.. this is a promise that they made long ago.

but dan feng's time is growing short. he lifts his hands, taking blade's face between them. ]

Take some time to yourself, now. And when the time comes.. find us. We will be right where you expect us.

[This flood of memories is hard to parse. Hard to decipher. He's struggling, trying to let things slip through his fingers as he shouldn't hold onto these seemingly precious things.

Three of a kind. Two pair. Ace... They have always meant to be three.

He lets his face be taken, the water sloshing around them and his back being bent to meet the former high elder's gaze. They will be right where he expects him. Old memories churn and slosh, flashing gold and red in his mind as he tries to put the pieces together of where he's meant to be.

When he thinks of Jing Yuan he thinks of the Loufu. He recalls all the scripts and the path they're in danger of taking. Propagation. When he thinks of Dan Feng... it's muddled. He thinks of the train. The Trailblaze. The former companion they're always following and keeping an eye on. But that's not quite right... Because this isn't who he's been tailing the past decades. Not quite, anyway.]

I gave my word to Destiny's Slave...

[Because Dan Feng might not know these important things. How different his life is from before. How its bound to others. New people. New friends. A new family. They are a group both different and similar from what he knew before. He cannot go back on what he swore to Elio. But after these promised conclusions...

His brow furrows, uncertain how they all meet at the end of this. How many years away the finale will be.]

Jing Yuan is old now. And you must be too. [The blunt truth must be said.] And the fate of the Xianzhou alliance rests on the edge of a knife... You don't know what I know.

[And Dan Feng should know if he intends to return there... Perhaps the script will know what to do with this new element that is the former High Elder.]

There is no need for you to abandon your word. No need to leave anything behind. Continue on your path until it reaches its end. And then..

[ and then, find them. dan feng is a selfish creature, he would have blade with him now if he could, but he is no fool - making demands would only shatter this moment, and drive this man further away, even if dan feng would damn the universe to keep all of them together, if it came to it. so he believes. ]

.. we will wait for you. For the right time.

[ blade carries a weight now, a new heart, a new reality that he cannot be forcibly separated from. it is tempting to simply.. join him. to take up arms with this elio as well, if it meant staying close to him, for he knows that their parting will tear up his heart.

but he could not do that to jing yuan. he loves them both so fully, so completely, and he cannot abandon one to chase another. his thumb smooths over blade's cheekbone, over his lower lip. ]

That's not...

[Blade puts a hand to his head, uncertain how much of the script should be said. Kafka wouldn't have left him here with Dan Feng for no reason. This isn't just some romp. Everything she has them do is with purpose and intent...

Keeping the Loufu from it's original path is paramount. He tries not to think about that conclusion and what it means. It spikes the mara... Memories of the past overwhelming and the people that mean something to him within it.]

Are you going back to the Xianzhou? [That first before revealing any more.] To Jing Yuan?

Yes. That is the plan, for this moment.

[ he had come out here to find blade, to deliver their message, their plea, and now that it has been relayed.. there is little to do but to wait.

dan feng can sense the mara curling in blade's bones, and so he reaches to gently place his fingertips to blade's eyelids, closing them. right now, the sight of dan feng will only hasten the mara's approach. best that he keep his eyes shut. oh, but how dan feng misses that beautiful violet shade.. ]

Jing Yuan will need to hasten his retirement, if the three of us are to find one another again, but it will still take time. What is it that you wish to say?

[Blade grits his teeth, scarlet peering at Dan Feng and steeling himself so to make it through this conversation. Kafka wouldn't have just let Dan Feng here without reason. It's security to keep to the desired script.]

He probably hasn't told you... But Jingliu lives still. Marastruck and mad with revenge for the Abundance. And there is no cost does she will not pay to the see the Plague Authors downfall. With the help of a merchant they have procured the remains of the Propagation.

Kafka has worked hard to make sure the Xianzhou is on its current course. But it can easily stray to its original end. With Cloud Knights infected with Propagation and nothing more than mindless drones. And Jing Yuan will...

[When he first heard this future it was easy to feel nothing. Jing Yuan was a faint memory and their time together often erased from his mind due to Kafka's threads. But the Xianzhou is more prominent in his mind these days. They shift further to the surface and linger. It's harder not to feel blinding anger this time.]

Jing Yuan was nearly turned into a Void Ranger in one of the Loufu's recent struggles, pierced by three different paths. Destruction, the Hunt and Permanence... The script implies that with the taint of Destruction being inflicted with Propagation would turn him into the Eight Lord Raveger that Jingliu seeks to control in order to purge the world of Abundance.

That future cannot come to pass.

[ blade speaks, and dan feng listens, though it's clear that he is becoming increasingly alarmed with every word, most especially when jing yuan is brought into it. his blood runs cold at the very idea. ]

No, it cannot.

[ he says sharply, his expression harder than it had been before, luminous eyes bright with focus. ]

I will not allow that to happen. Not while I still live.

[ his jing yuan. their jing yuan. dan feng would tear apart the stars themselves to keep him safe, even if it means being at odds with jingliu. to think that she would have designs on jing yuan, the boy that she all but raised.. truly, she is lost to them entirely, a thought that pains him deeply. ]

What must I do?

[Kafka would be pleased, he thinks. Diligently making certain the script sees its preferred end. But what can Dan Feng do? There's a reason that he's here, no? A variable that could send the Xianzhou back on its path of destruction or keep it from it...

His eyes flutter, trying to think, but the look in Dan Feng's eyes helps ground him, curiously. The protective dragon that will do everything in his power to protect that which both of them cherish.]

The Xianzhou cannot stray from the Trailblaze. And there are forces determined to make them do just that... Dan Feng, none of us are as we were. You cannot hesitate in the face of Destruction. I don't know the details or the situation on the Loufu... But you at least can go there and observe. Make him be honest about the situation and guide him as you once did all those years ago.

[The old dragon would be a fine safety net should things go awry. If the Trailblaze makes a misstep leaving ample opportunity for the Xianzhou Alliance to become lost to their ends.]

If he's not alone I do not think he will make such foolish self sacrificing choices.

[That's the hope, anyway.]

[ dan feng knows well that he is only one person against the tides of the universe, but he tore up the foundations of the luofu to protect baiheng, to return her to them.. he will do the same, for jing yuan, no matter what it takes. of that he has no doubt. if jing yuan is walking a knife's edge, then dan feng will carry him across. ]

I understand.

[ he will not allow jing yuan to stray. he will not allow jing yuan to lose himself, and become something terrible, even if it means having to go up against jingliu. sacrificing one another cannot be permitted. dan feng nods, laying a hand over one of blade's. ]

You have my word, I will watch over him.

[ and of that, blade should have no doubt. dan feng may have sinned terribly, but he did it for someone that he loved, and there's no denying that he would move heaven and earth to protect those dear to him. blade, too, is included in this. ]

I will go, then, before the mara consumes you once more.

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a great escape;

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