#jingliu then baiheng then dan heng and then blade/yingxing

[artheresy]

Bad news for everyone, I’m getting an animatic idea for the HCQ again and it’s devastating me inside bc I can literally picture everything IT HURTS 😭

Lets see if I can follow through with this one

Gonna rant about it in the tags if anyone wants to feel my insane o7

[ohhnyoo]

You who once went by.

[zephyrine-gale]

high cloud quintet commission for jing yuan's va!

[k9wa]

𑣲 RENEWAL. ft. DAN (F)HENG

⠀ — it is not he that is familiar to you, nor you to him.

⠀ OR

⠀ — time and reincarnation aren’t enough to ever make you truly forget each other.

⚠︎ angst if you squint, fluff, mild hsr spoilers? thank u to the high cloud quintet for having the most heart breaking lore, i listened to memory by toby fox on repeat while writing this.

dan heng wasn’t sure what to feel when his eyes met yours.

familiarity? no, that’s not possible. he’s never met you.

nostalgia? no, that too was not possible. he cannot name one person who your eyes could possibly remind him of.

…what was it? what was it that had left dan heng unable to will his gaze to move somewhere else? surely the intense eye contact was leaving you uncomfortable, even he was beginning to feel squirmy in his own skin as you stared back at him with an equal intensity.

dan heng can feel something in the deepest pit of his mind, leaking down and adding to the tense knot in his gut. 

yet, the feeling isn’t…unwelcome.

it’s warm. it’s akin to a comforting hand on his shoulder, or a small squeeze to his fingers. he could not, no matter how hard he tried, recall a time such a sensation had left him so utterly speechless. 

“dan heng?”

it’s welt’s voice that finally pulled him out of his trance, his eyes blinking rapidly a few times before he turned his head to look at the older man.

“sorry. what was that?”

dan heng shook his head as if to rid himself of the thoughts of you. what was your name again? yukong had just informed him. not that he was really listening, anyway.

the conversation between his crew and the sky-faring commissions helm master continued on, talk of stellarons and something about the cloud knight’s general. dan heng couldn’t seem to focus despite his efforts.

another voice calls out to him just before he can depart alongside caelus and march, however this time it is not the deep and rough voice of his companion, but one that is much sweeter, and seems to strike a chord somewhere within him.

“dan heng?”

he turns around and is once more met with your eyes. dan heng willed himself to blink and nod before he could be entranced by them once more.

“i apologize, but…”

you trailed off before you were able to get the words out of your mouth, and there you found yourself back in the odd silence the two of you had just broken out of.

“…have we met before?”

you asked, and it finally clicked with dan heng where he had seen only snippets and flashes of you before.

my dreams, he thought. the dreams that haunted him night in and night out, but would occasionally grant him just a glance of a peaceful memory.

“no. we haven’t.”

you’re an amicassador of the sky-fairing commission, one brought on board long after he was banned from the ship that you called home. your meeting at any point before now would have been impossible.

yet, his mind drifts to the occasional memory he has only when deep in slumber.

“yingxing gifted me this.”

he looks down at you, head in his lap as you pull a small jade coin out of your pocket, a fine “永” carefully carved into the surface.

“he has too much time on his hands now that jing yuan is growing.”

your chuckle is soothing to his ears, the sound like a balm applied directly to his soul.

your face is unclear, almost as if his eyes are unfocused. yet your voice is unmistakable.

“i don’t disagree.”

is all he responds, fingers idly pushing a few stray hairs behind your ear as he looks down at you. although he can’t see it, he can feel the grass he and you reside on, smell the pollen off the fresh flowers the breeze blows towards him, can feel the sun on his skin.

“you’re sure?” you question again, voice just as calming as he was sure he’d imagined until now.

“you just—“ you chuckle a bit, almost awkwardly. “—seem so familiar, is all.”

you try to approach the topic subtly, but you truly did know him. from your own dreams, the ones you had that woke you in a cold sweat from just how real and jarring they felt, regardless of whether they were mild or sweet in nature. they conjured such emotion in you.

“baiheng was telling me of reincarnation.”

you muse to him, sitting with one hand on the ground just over his crossed legs, leaving you leaning across him.

“do you believe in such a thing?”

“of course.”

he nods, hand naturally finding it’s place on your waist.

“don’t you?”

“i don’t think so.”

you reach your free hand out to play mindlessly with the silver trim of his robes.

“it’s a nice thought, though.”

dan feng can only hum quietly.

“some day,” he began, drawing your attention back up to his face. “after i reach my end, i’ll come back to find you.”

the small tug of his lips could only be described as a smirk, but it felt softer than that.

“to prove it to you.”

you tilt your head teasingly, brow cocked.

“how will you recognize me?” “I would know you blind.”

he can feel his chest warm as you smile at him.

“i’ll hold you to that.”

“sorry.” dan heng bowed his head lightly. 

“but we haven’t met before.”

he was being truthful, you hadn’t. it was your past lives that you two had been acquainted, had formed a bond so strong that it appeared to have transcended death itself.

dan heng did not wish to have dan feng’s deeds or past haunt him any more than they already do. the urge he felt to sit and talk with you, to perhaps hold your hand or touch your face would surely only lead him down a path he’d apparently gone down centuries ago.

“right.”

you nod at him, bowing yourself.

“sorry to keep you, it was nice to meet you.”

dan heng was released and regrouped with his crew, march and caelus bickering about something or the other and walking ahead of him. he decided to stay a bit further behind with welt.

his decision quickly regretted when welt gave him a knowing look, the lines on the older man’s forehead deepening as his eyebrows pushed together.

“you know them.”

“i know who they used to be. that’s all.”

welt can read the room well enough to know to end the topic there. dan heng had never enjoyed or been keen on talking of dan feng, and being back on the xianzhou alone had already left him with an unusual tension in his shoulders.

even as he walked away, moving up to engage in conversation with the sillier two of the quadrant, dan heng couldn’t shake you from his head. your smile, the way you held yourself as yukong introduced you, the small laugh that he had not expected would weave itself so deeply in his chest.

he kept walking on anyway. dan heng was not him.

⠀ 𑣲 MASTERLIST / GOT A REQUEST ?

[rainbowdonkee]

Ichor of Two Dragons | Honkai Star Rail

"You are my reincarnation. A mirror image. A past life's sin must be repaid in this one."

"You're right. You are my past but you won't follow me into my future!"

[la2yn0va]

Yandere High Cloud Quintet x Male Reader Headcanons

Cw: Stalking, Manipulation, Abuse, Blood, Daggers, sadism, unhealthy obsession, 18+ shit/topics.

Characters: Jingliu, Jing yuan, Dan Feng/Heng, Blade/Yangxinq, Baiheng. (Separate and Together)

———

Jingliu

Jingliu is a very gentle lover, sure she’s a little (massively) possessive of you, but it’s fine. She teaches you swords fighting, she protects you from any threats, and she’s a joy to be around with the quintet.

You relationship started like any other cliche love story. She saw you walking around aimlessly and feel in love. To her, you were beautiful. In fact, she was convinced you were idrilia or at the least her descendent.

So, she watched (stalked) you. For a LONG time. Watching as you walk around without purpose, as others glare jealously at you, as others OGLE at you.

It disgusted her, to see others practically drool or even dare to face you. Her eyes twitching involuntarily, her pupils shrinking in size, looking like a rabid animal.

So, using her skills as a seasoned warrior, she leads those people into very dangerous territory. Watching as the abominations of the abundance tear them to shreds.

She then accidentally bumps into you, and that’s how your relationship started. You know, the normal cliche romance novel beginnings. (Call me crazy….but I don’t think she bumped into you accidentally..I think she did that shit on PURPOSE)

Jingliu only feels comfortable allowing the quintet to touch/look at you. To her, it’s another win over them, she got the best looking person the entire xianzhou will ever have.

But then, when we got Mara-struck. Things changed. HORRIFICALLY.

Mara-Struck jingliu doesn’t bother to hide her obsession for you. Before she escapes the luofu, she steals you away, even breaking your legs so you couldn’t resist.

But don’t worry, she didn’t break them to the point you won’t heal from it. You will, you HAVE to. Your beauty simply couldn’t allow such a disgusting thing to exist to your body.

She cuffs you and ties your legs together, making sure you couldn’t resist any of her loving gestures. A kiss here, a cut there, a slap here, a gut punch there.

Looking down at your bloody and bruised body below her, she can’t help but smile. Your tears and blood making your skin glow beautifully, making her weak in the knees.

She dips down and grabs your chin, harshly lifting your head up to face her as she leaned in to lick your tears.

Jingliu: Your so fucking beautiful~

Her voice trembles as she kisses you, forcing her tongue deep down your throat. Forming a small icy dagger to draw more blood from your angelic body.

Jingliu: Mmm~ All bloody and bruised for me—BY. ME. You have no idea what you do to me~~!

She moaned out, cutting open another wound into your body. Feeling euphoric as she hears you sing your beautiful screams of pain—Pleasure

Jingliu: You did this too me~ YOUR the reason I’m Mara-struck! It’s your fault for being so FUCKING gorgeous~! For that.. YOU. OWE ME YOUR LOVE. YOUR VERY EXISTENCE ITSELF~~!

10/10. A terrifying yandere.

Sadistic, Impulsive, Delusional, Possessive, Obsessive and Clingy Yandere.

Baiheng

(I know she isn’t meant to have the horns but I couldn’t find a better picture)

Unlike jingliu (and pretty much everyone here) bai heng could never have the heart to physically harm you.

No no no, such an atrocious act like that never crossed her mind. How could she ever harm your delicate body?

Baiheng would much more comfortably gaslight—Manipulate—would much more comfortably win you over with her humor.. and alcohol.

She’s generally good at hiding her obsessive tendencies from you, besides being extremely clingy. If she doesn’t have a hand wrapped around you she feels like she’s loosing her mind.

Baiheng would take you on expeditions to other planets, protecting you, tasting different types of alcohol, showing you off.

She lets you do her hair and groom her tail, and touch her ears. She also keeps her tail wrapped around your waist.

Baiheng would manipulate you into believing and only being completely reliant on her and her only. Your family? Leave em’ they’re holding you back. They wouldn’t accept your relationship with her.

Your friends? She’s the only person you can trust, those others are trying to steal you away from HER! Why have such boring friends when you can hang with her and the quintet?

Your job? Quit. You don’t need money or anything like that. She has your back, she’ll simply TAKE money from others and support you like that.

Baiheng is an emotional and mental manipulator and isolationist with a ‘healthy’ dose of controlling—Type of yandere.

One thing your don’t have to worry about is physical abuse. She’d never harm your body in any way.. that and she fucking dies.

Also she’d probably give you a pet name that has something to do with alcohol or stars/trailblazing

Bai Heng: My dear~! I brought alcohol from another planet! Come taste it with me and the quintet!

Bai Heng: Come my star, your family isn’t important. IM the only person who’ll treat you right~ I have money, a high status, a ship that can travel to different planets~

Bai Heng’s tail hugs your waist and her hands cup your face, pepper kissing your face to no end, only finding your embarrassed face adorable and using it as motivation to continue.

2/10, probably the best yandere here to have obsess over you.

A Manipulative, Isolating, Possessive yandere.



Jing Yuan

He is also a relatively relaxed yandere. He doesn’t even have to try hard to get others to leave you alone.

Similar to bai heng, jing yuan would never physically harm you. He’s much more comfortable manipulating you.

Also similar to BaiHeng, he’d isolate you and forge your mind to be utterly and even pathetically reliable on him.

Using his status as general of the luofu, he’d forge some fraudulent evidence on your friends and family, having them arrested and even humiliated in public.

Then he swoops in again, and lifts you and your family up. He offers you reassurance, he suddenly finds the TRUE criminals, he punishes those who verbally assaulted you and your people.

Jing yuan still wishes to have your family’s blessing in a normal, everyday person would. But he isn’t afraid of just taking you away from your family and friends.

He’s a blend of baiheng and jingliu, he has bai hengs manipulative tendencies and jingliu’s violent behavior on others to secure you for himself.

Jing yuan: Come with me Love. I wish to teach you swords technique.

Jing Yuan: My love, would you care for some chess lessons?

Jing Yuan: Seize these criminals! Being those who have harmed the L/n’s to me. I shall allow the l/n’s to punish them accordingly.

4/10–Similar to baiheng but a little more dangerous as he does have violent tendencies.

A Manipulative, Possessive, even Self-Indulgent Yandere.

Blade/Yingxing

Yingxing is also surprisingly normal. He uses his charm and crafts things for you to win you over.

He gets Dan Feng to tell him how to crafts those arm braces the Vidyadhara use to feel others warmth from miles away, so he can craft one for you.

He crafts you multiple weapons you have interest in. A sword that can morph into a scythe, a spear that elongates, a chain that has blades (takeda from MKX and 1)

The only negative tendency I see him having is being overly possessive and clingy to you. So he’s controlling, but that’s it. Until he becomes blade.

BLADE—Remembers you, his mind is completely fulled with imagines of you. His obsession and yandere-ness upgrading 10 folds.

Blade takes you in broad daylight, he doesn’t bother any types of subtleties. Your his, you always were.

He’s not suave as yingxing is, he’s just blunt and clingy. A scary violent dog that WILL kill anyone who even looks at you besides the stellaron hunters.

A part of him is annoyed that you’re scared of him, stop shaking and just hug him back you ungrateful fuck!

But there’s a part of him that thrives on it, that breaths it in, swims in your fear. Knowing that your fear will control you, and using it to destroy any hope building in you.

And when the Mara acts up and Kafka isn’t there to stop it..you sir, are fucked. His darker and unhinged personality takes hold, purposefully instilling fear in you.

He throws you in the woods and chases you down like the weak little prey you are. Using the dark, foggy, creepy environment to make you more paranoid.

Sneaking up behind you and breathing on your neck just to disappear as you flick around to face him. Then when he catches you, he reassures you that he’ll protect you, before using his sword to make you bleed.

Unlike jingliu, blade is happier and more then willing to completely rip off your limbs to keep you in place, so don’t push him.

Also similar to her, he loves your tears and blood, enjoying how it makes your skin shine even more than usual.

Yingxing: Your not distracting me dear. Infact, I find myself working better when you’re on my lap.

Blade: Sit still. Or will slit open your throat.

10/10 a more dangerous jingliu.

Delusional, Overprotective, Sadistic, Clingy and Possessive Yandere.

Dan Heng/Feng

Dan Feng is a clingy yandere. Knowing that he’s eventually gonna be reincarnated, he wants you to worship him so you’d love him in his next life.

He isn’t afraid of just taking you in daylight. After all, who would challenge the High elder Vidyadhara?

He ALWAYS wraps his tail around your body. It normally stays on your waist. Thighs if he’s getting jealous or angry, ankles if he feels your challenging him.

Dan Feng keeps you beside him at all times, he the type to teach you history, magic, aeons. But he never teaches you how to fight, he wouldn’t want you to fight back against him.

Dan Feng is a self-indulgent and Possessive Yandere. But what about Dan Heng?

Dan Heng at first doesn’t want to approach you. He knows your Dan Feng lover but also knows how much he’s hurt you.

He tries and TRIES his damnedest to stay away from you. But it seemed Dan Feng love to you transferred to him.

Dan Heng, unlike Dan Feng is a much more softer yandere. He’s clingy and protective of you, allowing you personal space that Dan Feng would’ve never given you.

Dan Heng never transforms into his dragon form, as he knows you’ll get a panic attack if he did. He’s much more happier loving you as Dan Heng then Imbibitor Lunae.

Dan Feng obsession over you also transferred to Dan Heng, so in case that obsession takes over him, he teaches you how to fight, how to exploit his weaknesses.

Dan Feng: Cease your struggles. It’s pointless to fight back.

Dan Feng: Correct~ see how much more knowledgeable you get when you’re around me?

Dan Heng: Forgive me… I don’t wish to make you uncomfortable.

Dan Heng: I am not Dan Feng. I will not harm you or push your boundaries.

Dan Feng: 5/10–Self Indulgent and Possessive yandere

Dan Heng: 3/10–Possessive and Protective yandere.

The Quintet

Your fucked. There’s just other no way to put it, your fucked.

At first they find it hard to share you, they want you all to themselves, it’s too damn suffocating to share you with four other people.

So, they take turns. Jingliu gets Monday’s, Yingxing gets Tuesday’s, Dan Feng gets Wednesday’s, Jing Yuan gets Thursdays, and Bai Heng gets you Friday.

They all share you on the weekends. Taking you on dates privately from the citizens of the luofu.

Escaping them is an absolutely laughable concept. It’s not possible to get away from them, so you might as well learn how to live with them.

The five of them would try to manipulate you into hating the others and liking them more. But they wouldn’t use the others insecurities or share their secrets. Mearly telling you why THEY’RE better.

Speaking of, what are dates like with them? Jingliu’s dates are a murder spree, she takes you to a territory full of the abundance creatures and makes you watch as she kills them all. In her mind, this shows you how well she can protect you.

BaiHeng is more traditional, taking you on a picnic in a nearby planet. Yangxinq would take you on scenic walks dates.

Jing yuan dates are lessons in fighting and chess. Dan Feng’s dates are library ones.

Jingliu and Dan Feng don’t care about your personal space. It’s there’s space too. The other three would try to pry them off of you but be unsuccessful.

You have accessories of them on your body. A glove from Yangxinq, a necklace from Jingliu, a bracelet from bai heng, a weapon from Jing yuan, an arm brace from Dan Feng.

When bai heng dies and jingliu gets Mara-struck shit hits the fan. Jingliu is much more obsessive with you, trying to repeatedly steal you away from Jing yuan who is protecting you from her.

Dan Feng tries to input a forbidden protective barrier on you that causes him to get outcasted and furthers his desire to bring back Bai Heng.

Yangxing and jing yuan gets more protective and possessive over you, with jing yuan’s protectiveness being amplified once yangxing dies and Dan Feng is banished.

Jing yuan isolated you completely from anyone and everything besides him. He can’t take anymore of him friends dying or leaving.

He cries into your chest, hugging you deathly while promising to protect you and degrading himself for not doing more to save his old friends.

Jingliu would try to find you, but eventually she’d leave the luofu, believing jing yuan was hiding you somewhere in the cosmos.

Years pass and the only person you ever need and ever interact with is jing yuan. He’s in a much more better mental state but still extremely overprotective and isolating you.

Blade try’s to find you but falls, Dan Heng represses his obsession of you. No one finds you, and that’s good, no one can take you away nothing can hurt you.

Until SHE finds you. Jingliu comes back and she somehow finds you. Of course he hid you here. Right under where the high cloud quintet would hang out.

She doesn’t steal you immediately. No no no, she needs to make sure it’s you and that jing yuan hasn’t corrupted you in any way.

She gets angry when you mistake her for Jing yuan, so, she decides to cleanse you of him. She steals you away and leaves the luofu and the xianzhou entirely. She doesn’t need that trauma machine of a ship anymore.

She has you, that’s all she needs, all she WANTS.

———-

God fucking damn I’m never doing this again ;-; (maybe)

[moomoomooing]

[wentian]

Animated Short: Ichor of Two Dragons | miHoYo Anime

"Cheers!'

[generalsdiary]

gays are so tragic.

any gay ship, any queer ship in any form of video game, anime, tv show, or movie where they're censored or made by homophobic ppl is so tragic.

the way they yearn to be together, which is shown by actors/voice actors/animators/writers. and, of course, we all grasp at the tiniest crumble, and the fanbases are the ones that recognize them and keep them alive- that is where the couple escapes the constraints, restrictions, and homophobia.

ex. in gi they said they will explore more same-sex couples by labeling them in game as 'best friends'. (kavetham, cynari, etc.)

so, of course, we, fanfic writers, write them as tragic, or even cursed yaoi, and yearning and all the heart-wrenching pieces because there's pain in their existence. they are our escape and something we relate to but we also offer them an escape, making them alive with our funny words and silly au's.

also some honorable mentions of good depictions of queer couples; good omens, shadowhunters (malec), our flag means death, the originals (freelin). (feel free to add more)

also, only pure hatred and disgust at the queerbaiting seen in media (I'm looking at you supernatural). furthermore, gender identities in media are a whole different issue and topic; where is the recognition overall, especially in video games, for enby's and similar?

honorable mention to bg3 for having great body options (trans friendly) and more gender options than the usual f/m.

there's also tragedy in queer characters, who fandoms depict and destroy by ignoring their sexuality, ex. yelena from marvel's black widow who is confirmed asexual. (which pains me as an aroace individual)

thus we write them as tragic and pained because, just like us, they also have to be hidden or censored, many queer ppl cannot come out due to so many varying reasons. sadly, we aren't safe everywhere and have to be careful. media is a nice escape, so I guess we can relate to our sad gays who are so much more like us than we thought at first hand.

dear writers, artists, and creators keep creating art and keep giving them life. we give them air to breathe and the hope that they give us. that is how this relationship with our favorite fictional characters transcends all bounds, we keep each other alive and comfort each other.

this rant was inspired by my mutual commenting on how homosexual my love confessing fic is (here if you're interested).

[phreinne]

high-cloud quintet luvrs rise up ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

notepad coming soon~ 🌿☁️

[carulenes]

I have so many scattered thoughts re: Blade, Jingliu, and Dan Heng and the entirety of the HCQ after Clouds Leave No Trace

This is gonna probably be long as hell since I haven’t stopped thinking abt it for two days straight and will contain spoilers for the new HCQ quest in 1.4 as well as references to other leaks, this is mostly just a jumble of a bunch of theories and ramblings to get my thoughts out, some of which I already had and others that started to jump out during the quest. obv other ppl may have come up with similar conclusions and i obv might not be right myself but based on the narrative presented to us up until now, these are what I feel make the most sense. TLDR at the end.

Dan Heng vs “running away”

I find it fascinating, and frankly disingenuous, that that both Jingliu and Blade consistently frame DH’s explanations of no longer being Dan Feng and only containing fragments of his memories as "trying to run from his past". I’ve also seen some in the fandom claim that DH’s position on the matter shouldn’t be trusted as he’s an “unreliable narrator”, which could be true, but it’s a stance I disagree with as it goes against the structure of DH’s narrative as it’s been set up since the beginning of the game.

From day one until the present, Dan Heng is shown to be fully willing to atone for the sins of his past:

The moment he was allowed to move freely aboard the Luofu after having quietly accepted exile for crimes he shouldn’t have had to pay for, he decided of his own volition to seek out the current high elder and make amends with both the Xianzhou and his past in general, even when doing so made him a target for even more suffering:

Narratively speaking, he never once backs away from the punishment considered owed to Dan Feng's actions.

Dan Heng, the result of a forced rebirth process that was then manipulated to leave him with combat prowess and broken memories he neither wanted or should have possessed to begin with, was escorted away from the only homeland he knew, after being held in prison for crimes he legally should not have been judged by from the moment of his birth, with only the few possessions his previous incarnation had possessed, forced to jump from spaceship to spaceship without even recognizing the destination. The only reason he ever ran at all is due to the ages spent fighting for his life against an enemy he didn't recognize and never truly recognized him, one that refused to die no matter how many times they fought. One who caused unmatched destruction in his hunt for Dan Heng, fully willing to destroy anyone and anything in the way of his goal— a shadow of his past:

This is why personally (emphasis on personally) I believe that the longing in question from the leak regarding Dan Heng polishing his spear is in reference to the Luofu, as to me, it makes sense that he would long for and think of the homeland he never got to witness thoroughly with his own eyes and could only experience in books while caring for the weapon he uses to keep himself and others safe from the force of destruction that trails him:

In fact, it isn't until after Dan Heng joins the Astral Express that he begins to fight back against the assertion that he must eternally suffer for the past; this is because this is when he finally has something other than himself to protect. We are directly shown this in his animated short, when the memory of the other members of the Express crew serve as the motivation to spur Dan Heng out of the internal conflict he was drowning in, and also as his prime reason for going to meet with the others in the HCQ aboard the Luofu:

This is likely possible largely due both to the fact that Vidyadhara cannot succumb to mara, as well as the fact that he doesn't have the same specific memories as the others, and so he is not shackled to the same chains that now bind Blade and Jingliu.

———

Blade and Jingliu

In Blade’s youth, Jingliu describes him as someone who was “defiant” in a way she claimed not to like. I find this fascinating given that the two are so incredibly similar at present, which I feel is due in part to Blade’s unwavering respect for her even after the pain she caused him, both because of who she is as the former Sword Champion and the amount of Abundance abominations she alone had been able to slay, as well as the pain she inflicted giving him new purpose, a choice to give him a “second chance” despite at one point having wished to leave him to his misery as a fate worse than death, as described in her character story.

Both Blade and Jingliu experienced great suffering in their childhoods

Blade's swordsmanship ability comes directly from Jingliu’s tutelage

His personal oath comes directly from Jingliu, as she forced it into his psyche over and over through death and rebirth in order to force him to remember:

They both took on deals through which they are able to have access to suppression for their mara:

And both are fighting towards goals that are implied to, at least currently, be impossible (following who I believe to be extremely suspicious individuals):

Also, both are equally stubborn, seen both through their refusal to take no as an answer to Dan Heng's wishes to no longer associate with them and through their refusal to listen to anything that may trigger or directly refute their perceptions of reality:

But most importantly:

Blade and Jingliu both became mara-struck very quickly after Baiheng’s death.

It's repeatedly mentioned that mara is linked to to the artificially stretched lifespans of Xianzhou natives, but also that a fundamental aspect of the affliction is tied to the accumulation of painful memories. Given that vast scope of the destruction that occurred during this bane, and the extreme closeness both Jingliu and Blade had to the deceased and beloved Baiheng (in addition to the trauma of being transmuted into another species entirely, in Blade's case), it's no surprise that both of them are affected so deeply. Additionally, a common treatment for mara is avoiding accessing painful memories or suppressing/removing them entirely.

As Blade himself states that the effects of mara affliction are unique to the individual, I can't make a sweeping judgement of the symptoms all the mara-struck; the specific manifestations of Jingliu and Blade's afflictions, however, can be related to the concept of complicated grief:

We see these symptoms heavily within Jingliu, who literally wears a blindfold to avoid seeing anything that can trigger painful memories, has a voiceline describing how she can't remember many details of the time she and Baiheng spent together, speaks how she's plagued with nightmares about Baiheng, and she refuses to not only prohibit herself from forgetting the pain of what happened to her that day, but also the remaining members of the HCQ.

Similar observations can be made for Blade; he notably speaks very little and withdraws from most social situations, not wanting to take part in “annoying conversations.” His particular form of mara affliction is, by his own admission, unusual and devoid of any real emotion. The few moments of reprieve are spent either thinking too much or not thinking of anything at all. When his mara strikes, though, he shuts down, going completely numb and lashing out at whatever's in his way- not unlike certain displays of trauma responses in real life. He asks directly, “Why does someone like her have to be buried, burned to ash, and eventually forgotten...? Why!?” And given Yingxing being quoted saying directly during this quest that he doesn't wish for an overly long life, and Blade's intense suicidal ideations in the present, it's not a far reach to suggest that he also wishes that he died with her or in her stead.

And both are unable to find purpose in a life without her:

Blade and Jingliu both accuse Dan Heng of being unwilling to accept the past, but both of them are quite literally and physically unable to do so themselves— Dan Heng was even the only one to have spent extended time in the Shackling Prison, even though he should not have had to due to his rebirth, while both Blade and Jingliu were both wanted criminals who managed to escape. They both walk carrying the pain of the past through the present because they feel empty without it. And, unlike Dan Heng, neither one of them have a future that they feel can look forward to.

On that note, Jing Yuan, the only member of the HCQ who is capable of succumbing to mara and yet hasn't, is also the only member to directly acknowledge Dan Heng's autonomy and existence. This extends to Dan Feng as well, as both Blade and Jingliu most often refer to both Dan Heng and Dan Feng interchangeably with the title of Imbibitor Lunae, rather than their names.

The only ones to continue to deny Dan Heng's existence and rebirth are those who are unable to leave the past behind, such as the mirage echoes forever tied to Scalegorge Waterscape, as well as Blade and Jingliu, forever tied to their own suffering.

[Side note: This is exactly why I believe HYV decided to have 1.3 end with an entire questline based around the showing the process of accepting death and healthy grieving: to act as a direct juxtaposition to Blade and Jingliu, who both are unable to engage in the process themselves.] ————

Yingxing and Dan Feng/Blade and Dan Heng

Yingxing the Furnace Master and High Elder Dan Feng were very close. They were good friends, yes, but they were also bad for each other, according to Kafka:

Which would be easy enough on its to write off as her own interpretation of a story she’s heard but doesn’t know enough to understand. But Jingliu, the living member of the HCQ most affected by their actions, shows agreement with her assessment, pointing out that she’d found it strange “to see someone so arrogant get along with someone so proud.”

These specific traits are mentioned and attributed to them multiple times— the arrogant craftsman and the proud high elder. The reason for this is also stated by Kafka: “Together, they did something bad— something terrible. It led to horrific consequences.”

The emphasis that they did it together, almost directly after stating that the pair were bad for one another (which was a conscious choice to have her say, as her statements of their shared mistake and Blade's memory loss would have sufficed on their own), is important not simply because they both made and adhered to the plan; it’s important because it implies that it was directly because it took the two of them specifically to create the chaos and unrest that took place and not anyone else. This isn’t a condemnation of either of them as individuals, but Jingliu herself points out that even the smartest people can make extremely ill-advised decisions in the heat of the moment.

If Yingxing hadn’t arrogantly believed himself alone capable of handling and utilizing the remains of the very Emanator it took a plethora of combatants including the entire HCQ to take down (likely leading to the loss in the usability of his hands as a result):

If Dan Feng hadn’t proudly believed his “salvation” more righteous than the autonomy of those mortals he sought to save, "letting" them continue living as though the right to withhold the honor of dying for a cause they believed in was his alone, while also seeming to blindly believe himself incapable of being deceived or misunderstanding something:

None of the resulting fallout would have happened.

Only one with powers like those of the High Elder of the Vidyadhara could have attempted what Dan Feng did, and only an outworlder who has experienced the allure of immortality and experienced the fear of not having enough time would be willing to assist, given the Xianzhou’s stance on acts regarding immortality.

Furnace Master and High Elder, filled with blind confidence in themselves, blind confidence in each other, enabling each other (Yingxing calling out to Dan Feng and implying that they had to be the ones to make a choice, Dan Feng being moved by his human heart’s words and his own exhaustion with watching the deaths of those around him) to make a dangerous choice at a critical moment when their close companion is in mortal peril (more accurately already dead but they couldn’t accept that), and make the decision to ignore the autonomy of everyone involved. They had no contingency plan because they were sure that, with each other, that it would work. Because of this, they both share the blame, their noble intentions not enough to outweigh their unforgivable sin.

Jing Yuan is noted to have “always understood the price better than any of [the HCQ], yet he never spoke up, never did anything”, but anyone who has had the experience of trying to tell an arrogant or prideful person that they’re wrong or making a mistake knows that that’s an uphill battle on its own. Add in that it would be two against one (one of whom he already canonically bickered with constantly throughout their companionship), asking two of the most stubborn people he knew to give up on their desire to save the beloved (for Yingxing, Baiheng; for Dan Feng, his people), the two that were closer to each other than he was with either of them (not to imply that the HCQ weren’t all very close to each other because they definitely were but in obv differing ways) right in the middle of a high stress situation where there’s no time for arguing, and what remains is Jing Yuan with no options but to watch as disaster unfolded before him and everyone else, knowing that their minds were already made up.

Yingxing never wanted to be immortal or to see Baiheng suffering, but his own hubris helped lead to both.

Dan Feng never wanted to endure the sight of meaningless death, and yet directly caused it due to his pride, believing he had the right to play god and interfere with the natural process of death, or to consider that he may be wrong.

They were good friends who were bad for each other, and good people who made an exceedingly bad decision.

In the present, it’s been over 700 years since the last meeting of the High-Cloud Quintet, meaning Yingxing and Dan Feng have been essentially dead for roughly 7x the length of the HCQ’s entire existence. Their new identities, Blade and Dan Heng are clearly meant to parallel each other, but as opposing forces going in different directions, given Blade’s unwavering desire to die, and Dan Heng’s unwavering desire to live and to protect those he cares for. Both were put through immense suffering that, in the same vein, provided the means of “freedom” for them— Blade, through the sword; Dan Heng, through banishment. And both have found new colleagues to consider allies, though even the two groups are opposed to one another.

At this point in time, they’re enemies in all respects, and the chances of any reconciliation between them in my opinion is VERY slim for multiple reasons not limited to how much time has already passed at this point:

1) Dan Heng does not trust Blade at all and actively considers him one of the biggest threats to both his own and his companions’ safety, with good reason. The only way this could feasibly change is if Blade were to stop hunting him, which likely would not happen because

2) Blade is wholly devoted to Elio’s predictions for him, which Dan Heng’s existence would be paradoxical to. One of Blade’s wishes is to kill Imbibitor Lunae specifically in revenge, and he doesn’t (or can't) accept Dan Heng’s existence; if what Dan Heng claims about his identity is true, then that could only mean the future Elio promised must be false, which would strip him of the only purpose he has left in this world, leaving him as an empty, undying husk. This matter is also complicated by the fact that

3) There is still no cure for the mara that afflicts Blade, which would be the only avenue through which Blade could even begin to consider accepting Dan Heng and potentially reconciling. Both he and Jingliu were able to discover methods of having it suppressed, but both were temporary fixes: Jingliu notes that her time is beginning to run out, and Kafka had to use alternate means to reduce the potency of the mara within Blade after it violently flared up after merely being on the Xianzhou, which is likely the only reason the meeting between the HCQ could even take place with his attendance. On top of this, there’s also the fact that

4) Blade’s feelings for Dan Feng are likely very complex as well. Deep down, there’s clearly still some fondness there in the way Blade looks back on the time spent with Dan Feng, but he’s also one of the people he deeply resents and wants to see dead, which I believe could be due to his belief that it’s Dan Feng’s fault that Baiheng died. There is a choice-dependent voiceline from Baiheng deep within Dan Heng's memories that calls out to him to save them from the starskiff, but we know that it crashed. He tried to invoke the Transmutation Arcaneum, but it failed, instead turning Baiheng into a half-dragon monstrosity whose wails of pain echoed all around them. And then, though he wasn’t the one to deal the final blow, he might as well have by giving the location of the dragon’s weak spot to Jingliu. To top everything off, everything ended with Blade within an immortal body, one that leaves him in constant pain, particularly during the healing process after “death”.

From his perspective, it’s easy to see just why Blade could place the blame of Baiheng’s burial and the near destruction of the Luofu solely on Dan Feng, accusing Dan Feng alone of being the one to stubbornly adhere to the plan; it’s also easy to point out Blade’s hypocrisy given his role as Dan Feng’s accomplice. There are multiple potential reasons for this in my opinion: his brain, afflicted by both mara and prior memory loss (though he never forgets Dan Feng’s eyes or “how cruelty burst out from beneath the mirror-like emerald calmness”); his arrogance, leading him to absolve himself of any guilt or wrongdoing because he believes himself incapable of failing; the current youth-like quality of his mind, reduced to immaturely (by which I purely mean the dictionary definition of having/showing emotional development of someone younger) craving nothing but revenge while simultaneously absolving responsibility by saying “He did it! Not me!”. Also, considering Jingliu’s dialogue to Dan Feng where she says to him “If your death can return everything to how it was, I would do it,” and the many ways Blade already emulates Jingliu, it isn’t too difficult to consider that he may have taken that duty on himself out of grief and longing.

Along with these reasons, the narrative emphasizes that even almost a millennium after Yingxing and Dan Feng’s deaths, destruction follows in their wake whenever their new lives cross paths. Dan Heng learned this quickly, hence his fervent desire to keep distance and his relative uncertainty of anywhere that could possibly be safe for him, though he also learned rather quickly that this was futile. Blade was always able to find him, entire spaceships destroyed in his unshakable desire to kill him. On the Xianzhou, not only was Dan Heng dragged into a fight with Blade, but so too was Yanqing. This cycle of destruction is implied to have been so constant for Dan Heng that it’s likely the entire reason he never feels safe or feels unable to confide in anyone so as to not risk putting them in danger.

----

The Destruction Trio

Imbibitor Lunae, Blade, and Jingliu all being on the path of destruction is no coincidence given their histories. The three “sinners” all shared a key trait: being able to cope with death and painful losses. Both Yingxing and Dan Feng viewed her as arrogant and proud, respectfully, which was another commonality between them. This leads all three of them to not only become the orchestrators of their own self-destruction, but the destruction of those around them as well: Dan Feng witnessing countless deaths and being forced to be reborn as another; Yingxing’s loss of his gift and creative abilities as well as the transformation into the immortal Blade who only sees himself as a weapon; Jingliu’s abandonment of her sacred oath and everyone she killed during her time under the influence of the mara poisoning her mind. Only Dan Heng walks a different path, as he is the only one to have directly stated that he accepts the past that happened but refuses to let it stain his bright future.

The three of them are also intrinsically linked in their pain. Dan Feng and Yingxing's mistake led directly to Jingliu's suffering; Jingliu's treatment of Blade led to his becoming a living weapon and catching the eye of the Stellaron Hunters, and also to him being able to inflict similar suffering to Dan Heng by hunting him constantly. Blade and Jingliu both are of the mind that this is inevitable and inescapable, but only Dan Heng is in a position to be able and willing to question whether he really does have to continue feeling that pain.

While it's still very early on in HSR's lifespan making it difficult to make any real concrete theories, for now I predict that Jingliu will die in her attempt to kill the Abundance, and I also believe her to be aware of this deep down, as she likely sees this as a way for her to atone and find her peace. It also makes most sense for Blade to die at some point as well, considering his parallels to Jingliu, his current character and the fact that while Yingxing used to fear not having enough time in life when he was young, he came to accept his mortality in his elder years after the full life he lived with the HCQ; it could even possibly be in defense of Dan Heng, which could provide a full-circle end to their cycle and their story, a form of closure that no other broken pair has seemed to get so far. Their respective character stories, while directly representing their current struggles, can also be viewed as allusions to their fates as well, with Blade's referring to his death and Dan Heng's highlighting him seeing the dawn of a new day. I also think it could be feasible for the discovery of a method to remove Blade's mara and for him to grow content with the Blade of today, even with powers he doesn't want, similar to Dan Heng accepting that Imbibitor Lunae's powers will always be a part of him; a "miraculous cure" sort of ending could be very clunky if not handled well in my opinion, though.

----

The Reunion

Though it's phrased in a metaphorical way, I feel pretty sure that not only did we just see the reunion alluded to by the PoWC bracer, but also that this is another remnant of Jingliu’s influence that some part of Blade’s subconscious must have clung to:

Note the usage of “should”, a term with many meanings but the most applicable being “expressing a conjecture or hope,” rather than something like “will”, which would indicate future tense or an inevitable event.

Jingliu’s splash art alone shows her pouring out a cup of alcohol

In Jingliu’s character story, Baiheng is said to have brought Jingliu “divine nectar from the other side of the universe”

At the beginning of the companion quest, in the Seat of Divine Foresight, she mentions wanting to have a glass of wine and reminisce with old friends

She is the one to bring the jade flask that Blade handcrafted himself for her when she releases the starskiff in her memory

When the remaining quartet reach Scalegorge Waterscape, she directly mentions that she never believed the 4 of them, with their many grudges and all friendship lost, would gather again and specifically quantifies the hundreds of years that have passed

She does this twice more, mentioning the seven centuries and how they all did this 700 hundred years ago

She is the one to point out that, in the past, they all promised to meet together again for a drink no matter what happened

She says that she believed “those joyful days would flow indefinitely before us” which also fits within the imagery of drinking

There are multiple visual nods to drinking in her flashbacks as well: there’s the quintet having a toast, as well as Jingliu pouring out the alcohol once again while Yingxing sips off to the side, which symbolically is a good representation of the way she poured so much of herself into Blade (whether intentionally or unintentionally) that so much of him resembles her now, down to the bow on the back of his clothes (and even their similar splash arts). There’s also a glimpse of Yingxing and Jing Yuan drinking together. Because both of them were children when they each met Jingliu for the first time, it makes sense that Jingliu and the others were likely the ones to teach the pair to drink once they each came of age.

Jingliu mentions that they will likely never all meet again, and bids farewell to the HCQ.

Finally, at the very end of the quest, she directly says:

Blade mentions alcohol only once, when he says, "The miraculous thing is that in my brief moment of death... all the pain went away... like when we drank to drown our sorrows." In Jingliu's case, we know that she was affected in much the same way as Blade, becoming more confident and boastful under the effects of drinking, mentioning that the nightmares and pain from her childhood memories were no longer so terrifying. For both of them, alcohol is another form of suppression of pain, not unlike substance abuse seen in real life, which grieving individuals are at higher risk of falling victim to.

While it’s possible this wasn’t the reunion that alluded to and they could technically all reunite once more in the future, the sheer number of references to the contents of the backstory mentioned in the bracer lead me to believe that this isn’t the case, as well as Jingliu stating herself that this would likely be their final meeting before she pays her own ultimate price. Not to mention the fact that very specific circumstances had to be in play for Jingliu/Luocha, the Stellaron Hunters, and the Astral Express to all end up on Jing Yuan’s doorstep at the same time. Specificity like that is rarely duplicated, particularly in HSR’s canon, which features many characters with formerly close bonds being separated for whatever reason with no closure to their relationship. The four of them even getting one reunion was a blessing in itself, even though none of them felt particularly happy about it afterwards.

TLDR: Dan Heng is accused of running from his past, but he is the only one of the three "sinners" capable and willing to do so; Jingliu and Blade are heavy parallels of each other and share the same pains of complicated grief; Yingxing and Dan Feng together (and Blade and Dan Heng by association) bring out the worst in each other and represent a cycle of destruction that neither of them are currently able to escape from; the reunion mentioned by the bracer was likely Jingliu's idea that Blade also began to internalize and we likely just watched it occur; Dan Feng, Blade, and Jingliu were all incapable of handling death and loss and this inability is what lead to the three of them causing so much pain and destruction for themselves, each other, and everyone around them.

[cqrvidart]

they make me so unbearably miserable and i have such deep brainrot for them right now. anyways !!!!!! throws up . also i fear tumblr has destroyed the quality rip commissions

[devotedlystrangewizard]

renheng is arguably too delicious for the average hoyoverse fan because when i found out one of the main characters is haunted by a spectre of his past who hates him so much entirely because he once loved and trusted him. and they watched the stars together. and they have matching bracers that they can sense each other through. and they were closer than any other two in their old friend group. and

[spiritofpassionfruit]

High Cloud Quintet be like: Lets all die and not tell Jingyuan.

[avnasace]

it genuinely saddens me that jing yuan was the youngest and ended up being the most vunerable to death of all the hcq but hes the only one left standing thats not gone or mara struck

it saddens me even further that hes the one who had to pick up the pieces: kill his master, exile his friend, imprison and basically execute his other friend (and now have to talk normally to his reincarnation), and presumably witness another friends death

[cappuccilious]

High-Cloud Quintet summarized up in the worst way:

LiuBai: Taking a vacation leave was a bad idea because your wife became ashes so you vow to destroy gods

RenHeng: Dragon got clickbaited that baby-making gone wrong so your husband hunts you because you forgot said baby-making

Jing Yuan: I got back from therapy, what’s cooking guys?