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[goldenjoined]

[lol good luck]

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[goldenjoined]

You're hurt?

[questioning, though he leans back enough to assess Dan Heng visually again. he smells like he should be injured, he's holding his arm suspiciously, but not like it hurts.]

[skypiercing]

[...Of course. Of course.]

...Not anymore. I was healed.

[It's just blood loss, and that's not an injury but the aftermath of one. And his arm... well.]

[goldenjoined]

The Emanator?

[gaze sharpening, fixing on that arm.]

[skypiercing]

[A tightening of his grip.]

...Yes.

[Why did Blade have to be so prying?]

[goldenjoined]

How are you feeling?

[Dan Heng doesn't seem marastruck, but an Emanator doesn't use their power without leaving their mark, least of all an Emanator of Abundance.]

[skypiercing]

As I said I am no longer injured. Once I recover from the bloodloss, I will be fine.

[He lets out a sigh. There is no throwing Blade off the scent, is there?]

It is my fault. I acted with too much haste and too little planning. But what he is doing to Jing Yuan... I cannot abide it.

[goldenjoined]

[sitting back on his haunches, still assessing, but... nods.]

You're asking me to look after him. Why not lick your wounds together?

[What Did You Do]

[skypiercing]

[There's a quiet, pained noise when Blade sits back on his haunches, pulling away from proximity. But if this is what it will take for Blade to listen... Maybe he'll leave and focus on Jing Yuan if he tells him.

(he doesn't want him to leave, he wants to reach for the man and cling as tightly as he can until he feels less like crawling out of his own skin)]

He will not want to see me. I tried to help him avoid Dan Feng... and failed. Dan Feng... made a lesson of it and made him watch.

[There is the source of the shame.]

[goldenjoined]

[he stills. whether it's because of Dan Heng's words or the sound he made is unclear.

then he's in Dan Heng's space, bandaged hand gripping the shoulder he isn't favoring, eyes wild.]

What did he do?

[skypiercing]

[The very second Blade touches him has Dan Heng reeling. He cannot feel it entirely, but it's too much and not enough because of it. He's managed to hold himself together in absence of the balm physical touch would provide, but with it right there?

It's probably a little alarming how he seemingly collapses into that grip.]

[goldenjoined]

[it is extremely alarming, in fact. he's not withdrawing, but going very still again instead, not even breathing as he tries to figure out what the fuck this means.]

[skypiercing]

[Why do you gotta do him like this, Blade???

Not that Dan Heng is thinking much of anything as he burrows his head against Blade's shoulder, breathing heavily. One hand comes up to fist into his sleeve, as if to anchor him there.

He wonders if this is what it feels like for regular people, to rise to the surface after drowning. It's only after a few moments for his body to adjust that Dan Heng can manage to speak.]

...His healing has side effects. It... hurts, not to touch.

[And he will not ask that of anyone, not when it is his own fault.]

[goldenjoined]

That's what I was asking.

[with a note of frustration. but it's simple enough to hear the problem and wrap his arms tight around Dan Heng, crushing him in closer.]

[skypiercing]

[There's another quiet noise of relief when Blade crushes him closer, his body sagging into that hold like a puppet with cut strings. It hasn't stopped hurting once since he'd left the shrine.]

You asked what he did. I told you.

[Sorry he's like this, Blade.]

[goldenjoined]

I asked how you feel.

[half-snarled, but he's only holding tighter now, seeing how it gives Dan Heng relief.]

[skypiercing]

How do you think I feel?

[His voice is a quiet but exhausted growl, because Dan Heng is probably just as bad in some ways as Blade is when it comes to Feelings, at least with vulnerable ones like these. Fingers twist into Blade's coat tightly, just as much out of desperate need as anger.]

I promised I'd help him and I made everything worse!

[goldenjoined]

I was asking about Mara.

[skypiercing]

Oh.

[Well.]

...I am fine. As far as I can tell, I seem to be resistant to Dan Feng's... condition infecting me. And Jing Yuan seemed lucid, if furious.

[Vidyadhara were not prone to Mara besides, unless influenced by something more than time. Their reincarnation cycle was a protection against that.] Contact with Dan Feng has not been an issue for me.

[goldenjoined]

[tucks his face into Dan Heng's hair and breathes in his scent. and sighs.]

Okay.

[skypiercing]

I didn't realize that was something you were concerned about.

[The fact that Blade seems relieved is... a lot to process. Too much maybe, when he feels like this.

It won't stop him from pressing just a bit closer, though.]

[goldenjoined]

The Emanator is already too much. I feel sane in comparison.

[skypiercing]

[The sound that escapes against Blade's neck is too bitter to be a proper laugh, but it's somewhere in the range of one.] His sanity is deeply fractured. At times I think he doesn't quite understand the differences between us, or our times and realities. He... dotes, at times. He's violently insane at others. His obsession with Jing Yuan is...

[The quiet hiss of a wince says Enough about Dan Heng's feelings.]

[goldenjoined]

I know.

[softly. just. yep.]

[skypiercing]

I underestimated how much.

[Just as softly.] I thought I could speak reason to him.

[goldenjoined]

[...clumsy backpat.]

You understand now? That it took this long with me, and he's far worse off.