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M.LIST / MY READING LIST / CARRD
quotev ☆ ao3 ☆ wp
additional notes: please feel free to translate & take inspiration from my works, but include visible credit please!! you do not need to ask me in advance :)
dao !! merry christmas and happy holidays to you ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡ hope youve been doing well <3
REN!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS & NEW YEAR TO U AS WELL THANK U SM FOR CHECKING IN!! I HOPE 2026 WILL BE NOT ONLY KIND BUT ALSO FULFILLING FOR U ❤️❤️❤️
Your eyes flutter open to the low, orange glow of firelight. Your head throbs, and your body aches as if you’ve toppled down a flight of stairs. Rubbing your forehead, you grumble out, “Wha…?”
“Ah. You’re awake.” A voice, to your left. You crane your head sideways to see Dan Heng crouching beside you. His face looks sculpted in the firelight, his features both illuminated by the flickering light and beset with deep shadows that ghost across his skin.
“Dan Heng?” you mumble. Your voice comes out in a hoarse croak. “Where are we? What happened?”
He frowns. “You don’t remember?”
“Not really, no.”
Dan Heng sighs, his shoulders dropping slightly. “You wanted to do some last-minute Christmas shopping for March and Stelle. On our way to the Intergalactic Mall, we were hit by an unexpected solar storm which interfered with the navigation system]. This is where our pod crashed.” He looks out at the storm howling beyond the cave mouth in angry lashes of white. “Unforunately, the blizzard is interfering with communications. We will have to wait until it passes to contact the Express.” His eyes dart over to you. “How do you feel?”
You attempt a grin. “I’ve been better. Though,” you add, hoping to lighten the mood, “I have to say, you’re looking pretty good for a crash victim yourself.”
Dan Heng sighs for a second time. “At least your optimism has not suffered too heavily.” His tone of voice suggests exasperation, but there is warmth in his eyes as he speaks. You throw a playful wink his way before a realisation hits you, and you hesitate.
“Wait. How long have I been out for?”
“Around a day. To be precise, twenty-six hours.”
“Doesn’t that mean…” Your lips pull into a grimace. “Today is Christmas Eve, right?”
“That is correct.”
You pout. Deeply. “Damn it. That… really, really sucks.” Crossing your arms, you confirm, “And we definitely won’t get back to the Express in time?”
“It is highly unlikely.”
“Stupid solar flare,” you mutter. “I guess the Christmas star was shining a bit too brightly, huh.” Dan Heng almost chuckles. You take that as a win.
As you’ve been speaking, the cold has been creeping up on you, bit by bit. You realise it now and shudder, but when you try to stand up and move closer towards the fire, pain shoots through your body. Dan Heng’s attention snaps toward you when you utter a sharp hiss.
“Dao?”
A guilty smile spreads across your lips, containing hints of a grimace. You rub your neck. “Um, so this is super embarrassing, but I literally can’t get up right now. Could you bring me closer to the fire?”
Dan Heng blinks. You wonder whether the request was too forward of you, but the next moment, carefully as ever, he stoops down and lifts you from the floor, cradling you close as he walks a few paces back to the fireside. The residual warmth of his body chases away the biting cold which has stolen upon you. During these brief steps, you find yourself wishing that time would stop, and that you could stay like this—just for a bit, just for forever.
He lowers you down beside him. His hand lingers on the small of your back, like he, too, isn’t ready to let go. You shuffle against him in such a way that you manage to sit up straight, leaning against his torso. It’s warmer like this. A few beats of silence pass before you feel Dan Heng’s arm snake around your waist and tug you just an inch closer.
You rest your head on his shoulder, staring into the fire. Sparks pop among its branches. “I’m sorry for getting us into this mess, Dan Heng. At least if I’d gone alone, you could be back at the Express celebrating instead of being stuck here on some random ice cube of a planet with me.”
He shakes his head and, to your surprise, smiles. “There is no need to apologise. If I’m to be stranded with anybody on Christmas Eve, I am… glad it is you.”
“Oh.” You enclose those words in your heart like smouldering coals in a furnace, to save for future winter nights. There’s a faint flush on Dan Heng’s skin which you don’t think comes from the firelight. A tendril of mischief sneaks into you, and you don’t have the heart to push it away. “Say, Dan Heng, could it be that you… like me?”
“Be quiet,” he says. The fondness in his voice is painfully obvious. “You need to focus your energy on recovering.”
“I think you like me, Dan Heng.”
He glances away as you say his name, just barely—a reaction you take immediate advantage of. Leaning closer to him, you croon, “Dan Heng,” stretching out the vowel sounds of his name in a sing-song voice.
Flatly, he proclaims, “I take my previous statement back. I would rather I were stuck with anybody else.” The dusting of crimson on his cheeks suggests otherwise.
“Hehe. We both know that’s a big fat lie.”
The hint of a smile, or maybe a trick of the light. “Perhaps.” He turns to you, then, with the warmth of the hearth reflected in his pale irises. “For all it is worth, given the present circumstances… Merry Christmas, Dao. I truly hope this coming year is filled with happiness for you.”
“Aw. I hope the same things for you, too. Once we get out of this damned cave, of course.”
——————
Merry Christmas!!
R!!! HOLY GUACAMOLE THANK YOU SOS OS SOSOSOS OMUCH FOR THIS LOVELY PIECE OMG??????? I WAS LIKE SO FLABBERGASTED WHEN DAN HENG ACTUALLY SAID DAO LMAOOO I HAD TO REREAD THAT PT A COUPLE TIMES
THANK YOU SO MUCH OMG!!!! THE FACT THAT THE MCS DIALOGUE IS EXACTLY WHAT ID SAY HAHAAHAH YK ME SO WELL!! THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE THIS PIECE AHHH UR WRITING IS SUPERB AS ALWAYS!! LOVEL OVE LOOOVE THE WAY HE YEARNS AND THE WAY ITS SO SUBTLE AND THE WAY HE DOESNT WANT TO LET GO UGH R UR GENIUS MIND!!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!! I AM SO SO GLAD TO CALL YOU A GOOD FRIEND IN 2025 AND SOON IN 2026 AND BEYOND!!
Hello, I was suddenly born in Gaza, and I'm trying to connect with people to help me share my story on Tumblr. 🍉
I'm engineer Walid Al-Qatrawi, 34 years old. I'm the father of Adam, Hala, and Nay. I've lived in the Gaza Strip since I was born.
I don't want to talk too much. You all know what's happening to us in Gaza right now, from famine and malnutrition to children who are now the most important and in dire need of your support, not just financially but morally as well. In light of the lack of income and the enormous challenges we face daily, we are reaching out to our community asking for support. Any contribution, no matter how small, will make a huge difference in helping us welcome our daughter into the world safely.
DAN HENG/GN!READER ☆ It was a restart for him; but there you were, he thought—as if nothing had ever changed.
start from the first chapter!
series masterlist ♡ ao3 ver. ♡ previous ch. ♡ next ch.
We were in a field of flowers.
And I loved you.
Dan Heng supposes he was foolish for thinking he could escape—that his too-loose wrists and his unbound steps alone meant he was free. He served his sentence; he evaded persecution; he had boarded a train that drifted wondrously throughout the universe.
And there you were, he thought. Cruel.
We were in a field of flowers.
The dragon’s will has always been here.
Carmine on flax; graphite air; crackling wood. It is here even if they are not. That’s just the way it goes, he supposes, overlooking the fields of his beloved, the cascading smoke which rose, blooming across the sky. Cruel. Too cruel.
His treasure. The dragon hung his head and he wept. Ash stained his skin and the dragon wept; smoke bellowed all throughout his lungs and he wept; the darkness of his closed eyes gave way to the image of his beloved and he wept. Their silhouette, leaving.
The dragon’s will has never been his.
And their name, a mantra. The dragon muttered it over and over, sound tracing the desolate ground, the cacophony of reds and oranges, turquoise parting from flax.
A hand reaches through the smoke, wrapping around the dragon’s wrist. It’s not his beloved; he knows.
“Dan Feng,” the voice, wavering, “Dan Feng, you need to get out of here. Guiying isn’t—”
“Do not utter their name,” the dragon seethes, unable to perceive. The world blurs before him, and his face feels impossible warm, sparks nipping at his skin. How cruel. How cruel and disgusting and mad.
The touch of his beloved ghosts over his hand and for a moment, he believes that his beloved is here. The dragon’s will is here! They’re here, they’re here! It’s been so long, it’s been too long—Guiying, Guiying, Guiying—
“Dan Feng!”
“Enough.”
They’re gone.
Dan Feng peers past his ruined hands, pinky devoid of a string. He raises his head. The sky is red. He stares at the ground, turquoise on nothing. Flax is gone.
Gone.
“Guiying,” he mutters, “Guiying, they’re still inside the cabin. This is usually when they start working. I must warn them of the fields’ catastrophic state and—”
“Dan Feng,” the voice says, far too real and far too foreign, “they’re not here.”
“Silence! Leave me! Guiying is inside that cabin and—”
“They’re gone, Dan Feng! Guiying isn’t here anymore! You must free yourself from this bout of insanity, and remember the recent events which have led up to this moment! Baiheng is gone, Guiying is gone—”
But that’s not right! Dan Feng raises a hand, waves of water crashing down onto the ruined field, flooding the flames away as remnants of grain course down the hill. His beloved is of similar nature to him; they must be alive! He must search for them, across the cosmos, across the universe, across—
“Focus, Dan Feng!”
“I must search for them,” he says, gaze unfocused. Turquoise on obsidian. “I must find them. They told me they were headed towards Kalevala. I must depart!”
“Dan Feng, you must think about this rationally! The universe is filled with planets, with stars and with danger. As a High Elder, the Luofu needs you! You cannot depart for a journey with no end—”
“Leave!” Dan Feng yelled, hands digging into the earth—his beloved did this, once—and his head hanging low. He has always been cruel. They have always been crueler.
Water dips into the crevices of his hands, clinging to his fingertips. And he looks up, the world beginning to clear up, the sky beginning to reform, its fragmented parts now melting into one.
And he stares. And all the fervor within his body crawls from his veins, from outermost parts of his limbs, from the pores of his skin, and they mold. Souring inwards, like fruits left out for too long, like love to the point of irrevocable ruin.
How cruel, he thinks. How cruel and lovely and so utterly profound.
The dragon’s will has never been his; similarly, neither have they.
And I loved you.
Dan Heng is not who he once was.
But his past lives linger over him like a phantom, hand on his shoulder and mouth next to his ear. “That’s them,” it whispers, unmistakable. And it, for once, is right. Dan Heng looks at you, and he is reminded of a life he never lived. Of a cabin on a hill, of turquoise on flax, of wings beating home.
Similarly, he is reminded of carmine. He remembers mold, of crackling wood and ashen skies. He remembers the sour taste of bile, the hollow carving of his chest. He remembers clawing his hair and digging into the earth you once adored. And he remembers weeping.
Dan Heng is not who he once was. But there’s a heavy hand that palms at his heart when he does so much as look at your face, and there’s a sour taste that finds the back of his mouth when he remembers the syllables of your name. Guiying. You were cruel. He wonders if you still are.
“Hello, fellow Trailblazer!” you announce once more. The first time, he had completely blanked. This time, however, he is himself. Dan Heng is not who he once was; based on your reaction, he supposes it is the same for you.
A restart for him. An entirely new life for you. He won’t be here long, anyway. He’ll just do some formalities and move along. The universe is vast. Too vast, for a small man such as himself.
But then his eyes find yours again and Dan Heng is reminded of all the memories which were never his: of red strings, of harvest, of running his deft hands through yours. Dan Heng is reminded of home, of the bed made for two, of the wind chimes that’d ring whenever a breeze passed.
How cruel, he thinks. How cruel you still are.
“Hello,” is all he can manage to say. He wants to know what your name is, now. He wants to know why you left. He wants to know if you remember. But he knows the answer to all these things already: you go by [Name], you never left, there’s nothing for you to remember.
You, like Dan Heng, are not who you once were.
“Alright,” you reply, nodding. “I’m out of here.”
And there you go again, he thinks. Cruel.
Dan Heng remembers your silhouette; he remembers your tender, calloused hands cupping his face, enchanting lips parting to tell him you’ll be back soon. But you lied. Guiying lied. You are not who you once were; but you wear the face of his past life’s beloved.
You were never his. But once, long ago, Dan Feng was yours.
He loved you.
Dan Heng watches your departing form and he thinks, most cruelly, that you never changed.
We were in a field of flowers.
“You crack the shell like this,” Guiying says, pressing their thumbs into the brown case of the tamarind. “And you peel it, until only the soft part is left.”
“There’s a string,” Dan Feng mutters, furrowing his brows. Guiying laughs. Dan Feng looks up and he wonders if this is it—it must be, he thinks. His treasure.
“Just peel that, too.” Guiying raises the tamarind to his lips and he eats, wary of seeds, watching with adoration as they steal the fruit from his hands to peel for themself.
“You have to be careful with tamarinds,” Guiying says. “Some are incredibly sour.”
“And how exactly do you decipher which is which?”
Guiying just smiles. “You just have to try.”
Oh, Dan Feng thinks, fixated on the slight curve of their lips, the glimmer which crosses their eyes. With the saccharine taste of tamarind stinging his tongue, Dan Feng reaches forward, the power of water surging forth to produce the faintest of mists.
Water dips in between the ridges of their hand, kissing their skin; for a moment, he feels envious. But then he raises their index finger to his lips and he thinks that this must be the sweetest sensation of all.
The entire universe—to think all of it is right here.
Stop for a moment you could be the reason my daughters survive on December 1st.
They say the Rafah crossing may open on December 1st, and for the first time in months, I feel there is one single chance for us to escape this darkness.
I am a father of three little girls: Alma, Lama, and Lina.
Every night they cry from fear and cold, and I can’t protect them the way a father should.
The opening of the crossing is our only path to safety,
and we still need 3770 Euro to reach the amount required to leave. Please DONATE NOW
Your donation — no matter the amount — could change my daughters’ future.
Please help us before this chance disappears, and share so it may reach someone who can save their lives.
Hello, I am very sorry for the inconvenience. I kindly ask you to listen to me and not ignore my suffering. My children and I are innocent people who love life. I know you receive many posts from me — I am Diala from Gaza 🍉 — but I truly need your donation. Your donation will save my children’s lives from dying because of the cursed war on Gaza. I would be very grateful for your help, and I hope you are well. Please help me. We are now living in real cold and frost 🍉. There is no warmth and no real food, and our tent was torn apart due to repeated displacement and eviction 💔. It is as if we are sleeping on the street, and we have no real shelter. I cannot provide healthy food or warm clothing for myself and my children, nor can I protect us, because the aid that enters is very limited. I cannot provide our basic needs.
Please donate $25 to buy food 🙏, or $50 to buy medicine for my children 🙏, or $100 to buy a new tent 🙏. Please help me and do not ignore us — we are living in very harsh conditions 🌹🫂
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✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #715 )✅️
DAOOOOOOOOO i literally just logged in, on my dash first thing i SEE the theme change ITS SO CUTE AND I SEE A DAN HENG FIC?? brb i need to catch up NEOW
IM IN LOVE WAIT EEE IM EXCITED BRB
also if there’s a taglist ADD ME <3 miss you dao!!
VALEEEE!! THANK YOU SO MUCH OMGG HAHAHAHA THAT DAN HENG FIC WAS SUCH A SPUR OF THE MOMENT THING LIKE MY FTIEND SENT ME THE LINK TO SOME DAN HENG AMPHOREUS TRAILER AND OMG OMG THAT CHANGED MY LIFE I SWEAR!!
I WILL DEFINITELY ADD U ONTO THE TAGLIST HUHHHEEHEEH THANK YOUUUU HOW ARE U VALE ITS BEEN SO LONG
dude. oh my god it Was you. i am so serious when i say this but that genshin fic (together we are loved) is still in my downloads like. way before it got taken down off ao3 because it had SUCH an impact on me at the time that i read it. i want to tell you how grateful i am that you wrote it (this isn't a request for an update haha i've long understood your intentions as a writer so please don't feel obligated to do anytjing ab the fic lol) and im so glad i stumbled upon it during such a specific time of my life... i rlly was struggling, but the style of writing and the story, no matter how short it was, was brimming with soso so much Life!!! that it inspired me to view things with a better outlook,,, please please please believe me when i tell u that you are insanely talented at writing. never ever ever stop,,,, your work evoked so much out of me two years ago so what more if you continue and do the same for others :0 ok thats all hehe
ANON!!! Oh my goodness thank you so, so much for your kind words!!! I nvr thought that somebody wld remember together we are loved, especially not in such a way that has impacted them sm 🥹🥹❤️❤️
Im truly truly so so SO honored that tgt we are loved has meant so much to you!! That fic was so pivotal for me discovering my own style and it was so experimental!! Im so glad it could mean anything, something, to anybody!!!
I actually had sm planned for that fic muehehe ... one theme i wanted to explore was divergence and i wanted mc, kazu, and kuni to kind of split up once they grew older? Mc was going to meet albedo and they wouldve been an unlikely pair that... well.. paired up anyway!!!
Also albedo was supposed to be the endgame HAHAHA WHICH IS SO CRAZY CUZ HE NVR EVEN APPEARED But i really wanted to explore how much he couldve changed and affected mc despite not being there for as long as kazuha and kuni were!!!
ANYWAY SORRY FOR THAT RANDOM TANGENT BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND WORDS AGAIN 🥹❤️ IM TRULY SO SO GRATEFIL AND TOUCHED THANK YOU!!! THANK U FOR READING AND FOR BEING HERE AND FOR LEAVING SUCH A LOVLEY ASK ❤️❤️❤️❤️
