[So, wherever Hua Cheng happens to be (please don't say "Xie Lian's room" because this isn't a group thread), Yona comes across him eventually. That execution was a whole lot of yikes!
So, when she does come across him, she sort of pauses, and then -]
[ They can go hang out near the woods or something that seems calming and away from people that are all - well, reactive. We all know Xie Lian will be with people right now.
Hua Cheng glances her way, head cocked a little and braid between his fingers. ]
[ She's valid, and he's probably contemplating stripping and shaping some branches and wood into projects.
Hua Cheng is quiet, for a beat, weighing the words. ]
Angry, but fine. [ A wry but dark look passes his expression. ] There are many people I've punished, over the centuries, whether by my own hand or not. They were guilty - corrupt officials, unjust and cruel gods, the list could go on and on. I've lived through any number of wars. Injustice and unfairness are long familiar notions to me.
[So this kind of thing is a constant even when you're around for 800+ years, huh. That's depressing to think about.]
They do. And it's easy to talk about wanting to change it, but... it's not so easy to actually do it. [See: how close they were to fucking up week 0 and how they actually did fuck up this week.] ...it's going to be hard not to lose my temper if we find out who was responsible later, I think.
[I have once again forgotten to ask where Hua Cheng is.
Anyway, hopefully Yona isn't so Claude-adjacent that Hua Cheng is avoiding her, because when she spots him, she keeps a respectful distance away to avoid emotionshare if he doesn't want to share it, but she raises a hand in greeting.]
[ It's fine, who knows where he is. The port? Still in the area, there, probably. ]
Ah, Yona. [ Since she doesn't have Claude in tow, it's fine. Hua Cheng moves to come closer, though not into the emotionshare radius just yet, inclining his head in return, seeming... in a much better mood, actually! ]
Aside from - [ handwave, execution, although there's a flash of red on his hand that wasn't there previously? ] - today is going much better.
[Sometimes you just hang around a place after you see someone get eaten alive by a crocodile.
But, haha, yeah. That execution sure was a lot. Yona's eyes widen slightly as she catches sight of the flash of red on his hand, but - she's not really close enough to get a good look at what it is.]
[ Honestly Hua Cheng has a bad habit of doing that, as if he can find something they missed the day before. ]
Hm? [ At first, he doesn't understand what would cause that question. But then he realizes where her gaze is drawn, and lowers his hand. Around his middle finger is a red string, with a neat, bowed knot. ] The opposite, actually.
Yona still looks like she wants to kill someone, but it would probably not be a good thing for her to go full on vigilante (yet). It's not like she really has a target.
So here she is, heading for the forest to find one. Plenty of trees there! She's got her bow in hand, but she's also got a bunch of pent-up energy that might make shooting hard... god, she misses her sword.
Anyway I assume somewhere along the way she's going to run into Hua Cheng. When she spots him, she nods once in greeting, but still looks mad.]
[ Usually, after the trials, Hua Cheng makes a habit of going and looking at the "worlds" that deaths occurred in, if they couldn't solve one (or both). Tonight, there's no - will for it. If there's clues, they've been buried in the ruins, thrown in the fire, cast aside in someone's room as swiftly as possible. It's - infuriating.
There's cold fury in every line of his body, safely packed into a neat box - because for as petty as he is, as abrasive and wild, he does not lash out without cause - and it doesn't... quite temper, seeing Yona.
But he huffs an airy laugh, no voice backing it. Almost a you, too? ]
Yona doesn't lash out without cause either, usually. Sure, she might yell at someone or lightly punch them, but potentially lethal attacks? Those are reserved for when there's a good reason.
If anything is a good reason, convicting someone whose only crime was defending themselves and letting someone who brutally cut off a girl's head is. Unfortunately, Hua Cheng isn't responsible for that (unless you're playing the long con), so she can't just outright attack him.
[ Considering Snow's personal love of Sumire there is no long con here for that murder. But Hua Cheng's gaze flicks after her bow, to the trees, and he can't say he's surprised. Maybe some would say it's in poor taste, but if that's the only outlet she has, then who are they to judge, anyways?
... but is it her only outlet?
He nods his understanding, but comes closer to her. And then bops her in the shoulder with a fist, lightly, enough to give her a nudge, before drawing back. Head cocked, he takes a step back - and then beckons slightly, with the same hand. ]
[Yona can talk again! Yaaaay. Wherever Hua Cheng happens to be on Monday, Yona will eventually come across him. She starts to raise her hand in a wave, but learning from previous experience, spots one of those bubbles filled with dark fog and pulls her hand back to avoid popping it.
Unfortunately, one drifts just in front of her foot as she's stepping forward, and she pops it under her foot.
It's very late at night, and they can hear rain coming from outside. It's strange, Yona thinks - watching this not-much-younger version of herself, with much longer hair, panicking over the body of a man in ornate robes who has just been stabbed, looking between him and a person Hua Cheng will recognize as Soo-won. He has blood on his cheek, and he's carrying a blood-stained sword.
"S-Soo-won... Quickly, call a doctor!" "King Il will not wake again." There's the soft splat of a drop of blood hitting the ground from the tip of his sword, and then: "I killed him."
The Yona of several months ago shakes her head.
"What are you talking about? Y-you aren't someone who could do this..." "You don't know how I have lived for this day."
(Ignore the opening theme and the little aside with Hak, Yona didn't see that part.)
"Wh-why? My father cared for you since you were a child..." "You're right. I loved King Il, too."
Soo-won explains, then - how his father, Yona's uncle, had been passed over when their grandfather chose a successor. How people doubted Il, but his father had wanted to protect him. How King Il had, after ascending to the throne -
Killed his own brother.
"No... my uncle died in an accident..." "That's the official story. But King Il stabbed my father to death with a sword."
The long-haired Yona stares at Soo-won in shock.
"Do you understand? King Il, who was thought to hate weapons and avoid conflict, killed my father with a sword."
She doesn't want to believe it. Then, she didn't want to believe it - and even now, looking back on this memory, she wishes it wasn't true. But it is - Soo-won says it, it's the truth, and watching, Yona murmurs it herself even as the girl she was denies it.
The Yona of the past flinches at her reflection in the steel of Soo-won's sword.
"I have avenged my father, and to honor his final wish, I will become King of Kouka."
Tears fill her eyes, and she looks down at the corpse in her lap. Soo-won admits he hadn't expected her to be here; she admits she had come to tell her father that she couldn't ever forget Soo-won himself.
And then, from behind here, there's the sound of a door opening. A man in dark robes enters, accompanied by soldiers - "Everything is ready." - and glances briefly at Yona before turning his attention to Soo-won - "Did Princess Yona see you?"
Soo-won doesn't speak, but he doesn't have to for this man to know.
"That will make things quick." A flick of his gaze towards Yona, and: "Kill her, Lord Soo-won. Silence the princess."
Yona stares at him, disbelieving, and whispers his name.
His gaze hardens, and he raises his sword.
She struggles to her feet, tries to back away - falls, and knocks over a lantern. The candle spills out and catches a tapestry on fire, and in the ensuing chaos and rush to put it out before someone notices, Yona flees for the door, dazed and confused and wishing so badly that this wasn't real.
She hears footsteps behind her as she runs, and then -
Then, something wraps itself around her ankle and yanks back. She lands hard on the ground of a courtyard, and soon finds herself surrounded by soldiers with the same sorts of weapons her father was said to abhor. The same sorts of weapons her father was said to have killed her uncle with.
"Prepare yourself, Princess. This is for the Kingdom of Kouka."
She turns her head towards where she had been running from, where Soo-won is now standing, accompanied by more soldiers and that man in dark robes. Her vision blurry with tears, she calls out for him -
"Soo-won!"
...and the soldier raises his sword, taking aim at her neck.
(Memshare ends at timestamp 8:02.)
Haha! Wow that's awful give her a few moments, she hates reliving that.]
[ It's actually good to hear her voice, even if their fight on Saturday spoke just as loudly - and Hua Cheng turns to greet it. There's a cloud of bubbles - only a few, but enough - that he's avoiding, like he's trying to outpace them without running, so he's careful much like her in her movements.
And then, the bubble pops, and the world shifts, just so.
Disorienting as it is, it gives way to the memory. And there's no stopping it, once it's started, so there's no attempt to intervene. Hua Cheng knows better, from collecting memories with his butterflies and replaying them - you can't stop the past.
(But he's always hated being an outside observer, for situations that he wish he could have stopped.)
He circles the scene as it plays out, recognizing Soo-won instantly. Understanding what's happened, what's happening. Perhaps many in the Realm would be shocked to see this, to hear the coldness in his voice, the blood on his blade. The blood on his hands, in reality. But he can't really say he is. Not with all the reminders of the Heavens that he's seen traces of in the young man since first meeting him.
But he doesn't want to see Yona's face in this scene. He can already see the one of now, reliving every second of a betrayal that clearly rocked her to her core. (The only reason he isn't vaguely considering Soo-won's neck being snapped is because they seem better off, now.)
Each step of the memory, he shifts, keeping an eye on Soo-won and his apparent retainer. (Where is Yin Yu, he wonders absently - perhaps tending to Ghost City in his stead, until he can return with news of the things that he and Dianxia faced in the Realm.) But as it ends, his steps bring him to the true Yona.
There aren't any words of comfort, as he waits for her to steady herself, watching as the scene fades. ]
It takes a little while, but after a few agonizingly long moments, Yona lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. That's... when she realized that these bubbles were showing people's memories, she'd started trying to avoid them.
[ Hua Cheng keeps his gaze forward, for a long time, as if seeing through where the memory once stood in front of them. Where Soo-won once was. He lets out a low, soft noise, in response to her question in that voice, so different from the anger behind even her very first kick.
But so very much like that crying little girl, that seems like it wasn't even that long ago. ]
All of it. [ Gently, but honestly. ] My condolences.
[ For the loss, for the betrayal, for the lies being cast off from her life to reveal an ugly truth beneath. ]
We don't have to talk about it, Yona. So long as Soo-won is no threat to you here.
[ Wherever you are, Yona, there is a butterfly rather suddenly flying past. Its wings flutter, shimmering to the point of being almost luminescent - before it flies a circle, up and around, coming to land...
This is a surprise, but there's only a moment or two of confusion as she sifts through her memories (the weeks before are a little fuzzy, but... she remembers talking about butterflies, with someone. And with these animals that have appeared...
With a smile, she brings her finger up to her nose to try and ease the butterfly onto it so she can get a better look at it. If this is what she thinks, then nearby, there should be...]
Hua Cheng?
[Her daemon, at least, isn't staying still. The small, crimson dragon is headed over in Hua Cheng's direction, and will stop in front of him and look up at him curiously.]
[ The static buzzes in his ears, but Hua Cheng doesn't pay it any mind. Instead, he leans down, offering the dragon his still-intact hand for its inspection. ]
I remembered our discussion, no matter how fuzzy it was at the edges. I thought you might like to see it, even if it's not one of my actual butterflies, but instead a companion from the Realm.
[ The butterfly does move to her hand, lazily opening and closing its wings so that she can see the subtle patterns and luminescence of it. ]
[well, to be quite honest, yona isn't really sure what to do with herself now that she's alive again. just wait and see what comes next? that's never really been her style.
so, she's walking around because she can't really bring herself to sit still. when she spots hua cheng, she brightens up immediately and calls out to him.]
[ Considering the kind of person she is, Hua Cheng isn't shocked to see her out and about. To hear her voice is
it's nice. He's glad, and immediately responsive, perking up and scanning to find her. A beat, even with a pleased look on his face, and then - instead of beckoning her for a fight, he holds out his remaining arm. ]
[ Congratulations you walked into my trap. Yona is the one that gets yeet
No, actually, she takes his hand and while he does use it against her, he tugs her closer and tucks her under his arm. A small moment of relief, and he's had enough previously dead teenagers come running at him for hugs today. ]
It's good to have you back.
[ Also with her under his arm like this it's harder for her to judo flip him. Or kick him. ]
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dawnblushed) wrote2020-10-11 02:46 pm
w1, sunday
So, when she does come across him, she sort of pauses, and then -]
...hey, are you alright?
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Hua Cheng glances her way, head cocked a little and braid between his fingers. ]
Mm? I'm fine, Yona - no need to worry.
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You're sure? It's okay to say so, if you're not - everything that's happened over the last few days is... well, it's a lot.
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Hua Cheng is quiet, for a beat, weighing the words. ]
Angry, but fine. [ A wry but dark look passes his expression. ] There are many people I've punished, over the centuries, whether by my own hand or not. They were guilty - corrupt officials, unjust and cruel gods, the list could go on and on. I've lived through any number of wars. Injustice and unfairness are long familiar notions to me.
The innocent always bear the weight of injustice.
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[So this kind of thing is a constant even when you're around for 800+ years, huh. That's depressing to think about.]
They do. And it's easy to talk about wanting to change it, but... it's not so easy to actually do it. [See: how close they were to fucking up week 0 and how they actually did fuck up this week.] ...it's going to be hard not to lose my temper if we find out who was responsible later, I think.
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w2, sunday
Anyway, hopefully Yona isn't so Claude-adjacent that Hua Cheng is avoiding her, because when she spots him, she keeps a respectful distance away to avoid emotionshare if he doesn't want to share it, but she raises a hand in greeting.]
Hua Cheng... how are you doing?
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Ah, Yona. [ Since she doesn't have Claude in tow, it's fine. Hua Cheng moves to come closer, though not into the emotionshare radius just yet, inclining his head in return, seeming... in a much better mood, actually! ]
Aside from - [ handwave, execution, although there's a flash of red on his hand that wasn't there previously? ] - today is going much better.
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But, haha, yeah. That execution sure was a lot. Yona's eyes widen slightly as she catches sight of the flash of red on his hand, but - she's not really close enough to get a good look at what it is.]
That's good. ...you weren't hurt, were you?
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Hm? [ At first, he doesn't understand what would cause that question. But then he realizes where her gaze is drawn, and lowers his hand. Around his middle finger is a red string, with a neat, bowed knot. ] The opposite, actually.
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w3, saturday
Yona still looks like she wants to kill someone, but it would probably not be a good thing for her to go full on vigilante (yet). It's not like she really has a target.
So here she is, heading for the forest to find one. Plenty of trees there! She's got her bow in hand, but she's also got a bunch of pent-up energy that might make shooting hard... god, she misses her sword.
Anyway I assume somewhere along the way she's going to run into Hua Cheng. When she spots him, she nods once in greeting, but still looks mad.]
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There's cold fury in every line of his body, safely packed into a neat box - because for as petty as he is, as abrasive and wild, he does not lash out without cause - and it doesn't... quite temper, seeing Yona.
But he huffs an airy laugh, no voice backing it. Almost a you, too? ]
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Her, too.
Yona doesn't lash out without cause either, usually. Sure, she might yell at someone or lightly punch them, but potentially lethal attacks? Those are reserved for when there's a good reason.
If anything is a good reason, convicting someone whose only crime was defending themselves and letting someone who brutally cut off a girl's head is. Unfortunately, Hua Cheng isn't responsible for that (unless you're playing the long con), so she can't just outright attack him.
She raises her bow, then gestures at the trees.]
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... but is it her only outlet?
He nods his understanding, but comes closer to her. And then bops her in the shoulder with a fist, lightly, enough to give her a nudge, before drawing back. Head cocked, he takes a step back - and then beckons slightly, with the same hand. ]
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w4, monday
[Yona can talk again! Yaaaay. Wherever Hua Cheng happens to be on Monday, Yona will eventually come across him. She starts to raise her hand in a wave, but learning from previous experience, spots one of those bubbles filled with dark fog and pulls her hand back to avoid popping it.
Unfortunately, one drifts just in front of her foot as she's stepping forward, and she pops it under her foot.
A moment later, they find themselves in a castle.
It's very late at night, and they can hear rain coming from outside. It's strange, Yona thinks - watching this not-much-younger version of herself, with much longer hair, panicking over the body of a man in ornate robes who has just been stabbed, looking between him and a person Hua Cheng will recognize as Soo-won. He has blood on his cheek, and he's carrying a blood-stained sword.
"S-Soo-won... Quickly, call a doctor!"
"King Il will not wake again." There's the soft splat of a drop of blood hitting the ground from the tip of his sword, and then: "I killed him."
The Yona of several months ago shakes her head.
"What are you talking about? Y-you aren't someone who could do this..."
"You don't know how I have lived for this day."
(Ignore the opening theme and the little aside with Hak, Yona didn't see that part.)
"Wh-why? My father cared for you since you were a child..."
"You're right. I loved King Il, too."
Soo-won explains, then - how his father, Yona's uncle, had been passed over when their grandfather chose a successor. How people doubted Il, but his father had wanted to protect him. How King Il had, after ascending to the throne -
Killed his own brother.
"No... my uncle died in an accident..."
"That's the official story. But King Il stabbed my father to death with a sword."
The long-haired Yona stares at Soo-won in shock.
"Do you understand? King Il, who was thought to hate weapons and avoid conflict, killed my father with a sword."
She doesn't want to believe it. Then, she didn't want to believe it - and even now, looking back on this memory, she wishes it wasn't true. But it is - Soo-won says it, it's the truth, and watching, Yona murmurs it herself even as the girl she was denies it.
The Yona of the past flinches at her reflection in the steel of Soo-won's sword.
"I have avenged my father, and to honor his final wish, I will become King of Kouka."
Tears fill her eyes, and she looks down at the corpse in her lap. Soo-won admits he hadn't expected her to be here; she admits she had come to tell her father that she couldn't ever forget Soo-won himself.
And then, from behind here, there's the sound of a door opening. A man in dark robes enters, accompanied by soldiers - "Everything is ready." - and glances briefly at Yona before turning his attention to Soo-won - "Did Princess Yona see you?"
Soo-won doesn't speak, but he doesn't have to for this man to know.
"That will make things quick." A flick of his gaze towards Yona, and: "Kill her, Lord Soo-won. Silence the princess."
Yona stares at him, disbelieving, and whispers his name.
His gaze hardens, and he raises his sword.
She struggles to her feet, tries to back away - falls, and knocks over a lantern. The candle spills out and catches a tapestry on fire, and in the ensuing chaos and rush to put it out before someone notices, Yona flees for the door, dazed and confused and wishing so badly that this wasn't real.
She hears footsteps behind her as she runs, and then -
Then, something wraps itself around her ankle and yanks back. She lands hard on the ground of a courtyard, and soon finds herself surrounded by soldiers with the same sorts of weapons her father was said to abhor. The same sorts of weapons her father was said to have killed her uncle with.
"Prepare yourself, Princess. This is for the Kingdom of Kouka."
She turns her head towards where she had been running from, where Soo-won is now standing, accompanied by more soldiers and that man in dark robes. Her vision blurry with tears, she calls out for him -
"Soo-won!"
...and the soldier raises his sword, taking aim at her neck.
(Memshare ends at timestamp 8:02.)
Haha! Wow that's awful give her a few moments, she hates reliving that.]
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And then, the bubble pops, and the world shifts, just so.
Disorienting as it is, it gives way to the memory. And there's no stopping it, once it's started, so there's no attempt to intervene. Hua Cheng knows better, from collecting memories with his butterflies and replaying them - you can't stop the past.
(But he's always hated being an outside observer, for situations that he wish he could have stopped.)
He circles the scene as it plays out, recognizing Soo-won instantly. Understanding what's happened, what's happening. Perhaps many in the Realm would be shocked to see this, to hear the coldness in his voice, the blood on his blade. The blood on his hands, in reality. But he can't really say he is. Not with all the reminders of the Heavens that he's seen traces of in the young man since first meeting him.
But he doesn't want to see Yona's face in this scene. He can already see the one of now, reliving every second of a betrayal that clearly rocked her to her core. (The only reason he isn't vaguely considering Soo-won's neck being snapped is because they seem better off, now.)
Each step of the memory, he shifts, keeping an eye on Soo-won and his apparent retainer. (Where is Yin Yu, he wonders absently - perhaps tending to Ghost City in his stead, until he can return with news of the things that he and Dianxia faced in the Realm.) But as it ends, his steps bring him to the true Yona.
There aren't any words of comfort, as he waits for her to steady herself, watching as the scene fades. ]
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It takes a little while, but after a few agonizingly long moments, Yona lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. That's... when she realized that these bubbles were showing people's memories, she'd started trying to avoid them.
Memories like this are exactly why.]
...how much of that did you see?
[Her voice is small.]
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But so very much like that crying little girl, that seems like it wasn't even that long ago. ]
All of it. [ Gently, but honestly. ] My condolences.
[ For the loss, for the betrayal, for the lies being cast off from her life to reveal an ugly truth beneath. ]
We don't have to talk about it, Yona. So long as Soo-won is no threat to you here.
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w5 monday
Boop. On her nose. ]
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This is a surprise, but there's only a moment or two of confusion as she sifts through her memories (the weeks before are a little fuzzy, but... she remembers talking about butterflies, with someone. And with these animals that have appeared...
With a smile, she brings her finger up to her nose to try and ease the butterfly onto it so she can get a better look at it. If this is what she thinks, then nearby, there should be...]
Hua Cheng?
[Her daemon, at least, isn't staying still. The small, crimson dragon is headed over in Hua Cheng's direction, and will stop in front of him and look up at him curiously.]
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I remembered our discussion, no matter how fuzzy it was at the edges. I thought you might like to see it, even if it's not one of my actual butterflies, but instead a companion from the Realm.
[ The butterfly does move to her hand, lazily opening and closing its wings so that she can see the subtle patterns and luminescence of it. ]
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It's really beautiful.
[She smiles down at the little butterfly, taking in the patterns on its wings.]
A whole flock of them must be amazing.
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w7, friday
so, she's walking around because she can't really bring herself to sit still. when she spots hua cheng, she brightens up immediately and calls out to him.]
Hua Cheng!
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it's nice. He's glad, and immediately responsive, perking up and scanning to find her. A beat, even with a pleased look on his face, and then - instead of beckoning her for a fight, he holds out his remaining arm. ]
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and then judo flips him]It's good to see you again.
[...judo flipping him isn't entirely off the table, actually, but she'll at least say hello first.]
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No, actually, she takes his hand and while he does use it against her, he tugs her closer and tucks her under his arm. A small moment of relief, and he's had enough previously dead teenagers come running at him for hugs today. ]
It's good to have you back.
[ Also with her under his arm like this it's harder for her to judo flip him. Or kick him. ]
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