would the dreams in the black water drown us far from harm

[fugu]

Who: He Xuan.
What: Catch-all for bodyswaps, couch-crashing, and various other things. There will be open top-levels, and please don't be shy if you would like something just for you!
When: Throughout April.
Where: All over Trench, but especially around the Docks and the rock caves.

Content Warnings: Will always be at the top of the comment or in the subject line on a per-tag basis. HX's info/permissions here.

Comments

[fugu]

"Mm," He Xuan acknowledges, refusing to be baited by that. "His Highness Xie Lian. I owe his husband a lot of money. Anyway, be careful of that guy, he's not a bad person but he's powerful and unlucky, a dangerous combination."

[xiaoxiuya]

"He's royalty?" Shen Yuan asks, his interest piqued. "How interesting. Someone should warn him away from the other royals around here, they're a bit of a bad crowd." Well mostly one particular emperor, but anyway.

"Was it nice to see someone you knew?" he asks, propping his chin up on one hand. Time for his most favorite game: getting people to tell him about themselves~

[fugu]

He Xuan shrugs a shoulder loosely. "Maybe if it was someone else I'd feel one way or the other about it." He'd spent a lot of time with Xie Lian, found him canny and easy to get along with, but their paths had diverged again once he completed his revenge. Someone like Hua Chengzhi, that would really elicit some strong feelings, or either of the Shi brothers, or even one of the other heavenly officials he'd known as Ming Yi. But Xie Lian had been banished from heaven so long their paths hadn't really crossed until late in life, just tangential players in each others' stories. "But we should get along fine. I'll probably be keeping an eye on him." For Hua Cheng's sake.

[xiaoxiuya]

"That's really nice of you." And another brick in the growing edifice of Shen Yuan's regard for this ghost: he grows ever more sure that actually, He Xuan is a really good person by the day.

"There's a few people I wouldn't mind seeing again, myself." Liu-shidi, maybe. Shang Qinghua, so -- sigh -- he'd have someone around who really gets the whole story-logic/transmigration thing... "It'd be complicated though, since most of them knew me as somebody else. And then there's a few people I'd be happier never seeing again." He grins wistfully. "What about Xuan-ge? Anyone he'd just as soon throw back if they turn up here?"

[fugu]

"..." He Xuan glances down, exhales through his nose. "I tore this one guy's head off not that long ago, and that still didn't make me feel any better about how he ruined my life. So I'd probably be in trouble if he showed up here." When he grins there's a hint of fang, like maybe what he means is he would spend all his time just rending Shi Wudu all to pieces. But he puts that hint of insanity away again quickly, sips his tea. "Does Yuan-di have enemies?"

[xiaoxiuya]

Ah, good old-fashioned jianghu justice. Shen Yuan sips tea and doesn't say a single word in judgement of the head-ripping thing, for good or bad. He deliberately set up a demon to have a ceiling beam drop on their head once, he has no leg to stand on here. Insted he focuses on the question He Xuan asks and says primly, "Not by my own will, I assure you. But..."

He sighs deeply, mood turning melancholy as it always does whenever he thinks about Luo Binghe, even after meeting that other Binghe who was so happy with his Shen Yuan. It's all well and good to say Binghe might forgive him, but when it comes to actually seeing him again and having that conversation Shen Yuan would just. Rather not. Better if Binghe moves and forgets about him completely. "When I learned cultivation, it was under the aegis of a being sort of like the Pthumerians, only much more...personal. It spoke to me, made me do things. Terrible things." He sighs again, glancing out the window. "The kind of things someone would deserve to have their head ripped off for, probably." Or their arms and legs, no need to be picky there.

[fugu]

"I cannot imagine Yuan-di doing terrible things intentionally," He Xuan admits, perhaps a little blasé about being given such a serious confession. "So how can he be blamed? But then. I suppose if my enemy had told me something had forced him to ruin my life, I still might not have stayed my hand. Anger often blots out reason and leaves behind mercy."

[xiaoxiuya]

"I'll have you know I've said some very unkind things on the internet in my time," he snarks back. "But yeah, that's what worries me the most. If the person I'd been forced to hurt the most turns up here, he might be too angry to listen to me...and in the other version of that world, where the person I replaced hurt him of their own free will, the way he took vengeance on them..." He grimaces again, badly enough to justify hiding his face behind his sleeve.

"I don't want to endure that," he admits. "I agree that he deserves some form of justice, I'd make amends with him if I could, but I'm not going to just lie back and let him torture me. I don't deserve that, I don't think."

[fugu]

"You don't," agrees He Xuan (even though he is so biased.) "Don't worry, I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt you."

He says it flatly, an obvious declaration, and doesn't hide himself after because he doesn't consider it an emotional or romantic thing to say. It's probably been true since the wharf, and only become more acute. It's been a long time since he had anyone in his life that really felt like family, and he won't let it be taken away.

"So what did you do, exactly?" he pries, changing the subject like that admission wasn't worth dwelling on.

[xiaoxiuya]

Well, Shen Yuan thinks it's romantic, and he turns pink all over while smiling at He Xuan shyly. "You're very sweet," he declares, without a single microscropic shred of irony.

"But...uuuuugh..." The smile vanishes and he buries his face in his hands. "I was forced into the body of a dead peak lord and required to take up his identity. I took over the personal instruction of his least-favored disciple and looked after him for three years -- and then, just before he'd come of age, I personally drop-kicked him into hell."

He peaks at He Xuan over his fingertips. "He's half-yao, you see. His father was the emperor of the demonic race, and it was Luo Binghe's destiny to master his powers in the Endless Abyss and take up his father's throne. But he could only do that if someone put him in the Abyss in the first place. And the System didn't give me any options for doing it nicely."

[fugu]

"Only Yuan-di could feel bad about pushing a demon into hell to become a king," He Xuan murmurs politely, because frankly, he fails to see the big deal. Anyway, whatever, he can fight a yao if he has to, especially a half-breed, no sweat.

He stands up, tea finished, and runs a comforting hand along Shen Yuan's shoulders as he passes him to check the rice and start heating his pan. "You don't still have something like that in your head, do you?" he checks, since he would hate to abruptly be exorcised because something forced Shen Yuan's hand.

[xiaoxiuya]

"He was still just a kid though," Shen Yuan mumbles towards the table. "And he was so sweet and kind that age...I couldn't even tell him what was going on, the betrayal must have hurt him so much..." It hurt Shen Yuan so much, he can admit that now, and he wasn't even the one being betrayed.

The touch to his shoulders helps ground him, though, and he's able to pick his head back up and smile, if sadly. "Free and clear," he says, tapping one of his temples. "There was this one time last fall when everyone with darkblood was manifesting small objects uncontrollably, and I accidentally installed small versions of the System onto a few walls and some teacups." And Jin Guangyao's hand mirror, wince. "But they were just annoying, they couldn't get into anyone's heads or make them do anything."

[fugu]

"Let me know if that changes," He Xuan says. "Even if it won't let you directly. Feed me bits of spider plant or something so I know you're being controlled." Since that whole tummy ache last time he was here was caused by the corrupted bits of that very same plant, now returned to normal thankfully. And he could survive another stomach ache if that's all it took.

The fish sizzles brightly as it hits the pan, filling the air with steam and smoke and the scent of spices, chili an eye watering note among them. He adds some rice wine, shakes the pan to catch it alight, and flambés the fish with deft movements before covering the fish and putting out the flame.

"Plates?" he says, because he doesn't care if Shen Yuan sets the table but he can't divert from cooking to find something to eat off.

[xiaoxiuya]

"Pfft, okay. I'll do my best." He watches with awe as He Xuan cooks -- where does a ghost even get cooking skills like that?? -- transfixed to the point that he jumps a little when He Xuan asks for plates. "Right, of course --"

He puts two down by He Xuan's elbow and then goes ahead and sets the table. Xuan-ge may not care, but Xiu Ya does, and in this at least he has to admit she has a point. Which is also why he refills both of their teacups.

"Xuan-ge has many useful skills," he comments, back to watching with admiration dancing in his eyes as He Xuan plates up the fish. "How did he come to acquire them all?"

[fugu]

It's a simple dish that he places on the table, a neatly arranged dome of rice topped with fillets of a sticky-spicy fish that are seared crispy on the outside and flake tenderly inside. Shen Yuan's portion is more significant than his own, but He Xuan isn't particularly hungry right now and is mostly eating to be polite.

"Cook fish enough you get good at it," he says; and fish has been his staple diet for a long time. Though the truth is, as a demon king he had servants and worshippers just like Hua Cheng.

"I like to cook," he admits. "But remember, I was a spymaster for a long time. I had over a dozen puppets in the Heavenly and mortal realms. Knowing specialty skills is useful for that kind of thing, so I picked things up whenever I could." Really he just likes to learn, was a scholar before he was a ghost.

[xiaoxiuya]

"Xuan-ge realizes that just makes him even more impressive, right? All that time spent learning new skills and improving the old, I'm quite envious." And wiggling a little in delight as the plate is set in front of him and he takes a deep inhale of its delicious scent.

The taste has him wiggling further, nearly dancing in his chair in a way decorum never permitted when he was a peak lord tasting Luo Binghe's cooking. "This is delicious!" he praises, smiling broadly at He Xuan when he isn't stuffing his face. "Ooh, it's going to be hard to let you go home again if you cook like this every night," he teases, expecting nothing; simply wanting He Xuan to know how highly he's valued.

[fugu]

He Xuan doesn't blush, may not entirely be physically capable of it, but he lowers his lashes in gratified embarrassment and plays with his chopsticks a moment, studying this highly praised food like he didn't just cook it. "Yuan-di is too kind," he murmurs.

But he has to look up to enjoy the sight of the other actually eating his creation, a little charmed by that energetic bouncing. "I'll stay and cook for as long as you need," he says seriously. "Though I really only bother with fish." Because it's easier than bartering the fish for something else.