⸻⸻ ❝ Sunlight falls onto his eyes, but he don't stir or turn. ❞
➤ ARCHIVIST : Luna/Skits | 25 | she/they
. . . THIS IS AN INDIE, PRIVATE, SELECTIVE RP BLOG FOR DAN HENG* FROM HONKAI STAR RAIL. // oc, canon, multi friendly • portrayal will be flexible as more is revealed • please read rules carefully • spoilers and leaks will be tagged • est. may 8th 2023
*DAN FENG also available via request
Good morning! I finally finished the patch last night, still a fresh patch so my thoughts on it will be below the cut
As an aside, like I said in my previous post I'll hopefully be back into actual writing / dms next week. Just wanted to say thank you moots for your patience!
LIKE... WOW. WOW???? Definitely up there in my most favorite 4.x so far, next to 4.1 (for obvious reasons if you know me) I don't know how else to put it so here's my reactions immediately after finishing it
Blade and Asat Primad 100% carried this patch for me. Not that I didn't enjoy Graphia because I absolutely did, but seeing either of these guys on my screen got me way too pumped and excited. Asat Primad especially is very quickly becoming a favorite villain. Hoyo so far is not missing when it comes to their Lord Ravagers. Asat Primad is fucking terrifying, and I adore how much he can psychologically and emotionally mess with the cast because of the amount of faces and identities he's put on. And to find joy and amusement in it while getting closer to his own personal goals? Actually peak. Solving the mystery while playing as Ashveil has been the most locked in on a section in a minute. I immediately latched onto Enroute, I thought he was really odd, and then it happened. Not only was he Enroute, he was a previous navigator on our train. Not only was he our previous navigator, he was the painter in the Graphia story. Her own adopted father, he told us that himself when he pretended to be Graphia. NOT ONLY THAT, HE KILLED RYUSUKE AND TOOK HIS PLACE WHEN HIMEKO WAS SIX? Legitimately peak. Amazing writing. I have no notes, that was actually nuts to sit through and I enjoyed every minute of it. I love what they did with him and I hope he continues to be a terrifying threat in the next patch. I genuinely can't put into words how much I love his character and how much of a mind fucking experience he is. The moment Pearl mentioned Rysuke's odd behavior and patterns in other planets it was over for me. I joked he was Asat Primad but the way they wrote that plot twist fucking blew me dude
I wrote in another post that I think the way they wrote Blade's arc and his relationship with death is genuinely beautiful. I love that he still went out fighting like a shooting star, blazing through all his grievances and anger and taking it out on the creature that caused him so much pain. I love that he was able to pick up his crafting hand one more time to properly reforge his trauma and use Shuhu to create something that's just for him. Him not permanently dying was not seen as a huge loss, it became a genuine rebirth and a victory for Blade specifically. This is the ending he wanted and I'm glad he was able to get that. It's especially sweet for him to see how loved he is within the Stellaron family, and how much he loves them in return. It's always great to see a more properly gentle and soft side to him because that's just who he is as a character! He's broody, and grumpy, but by no means is he apathetic or using the SH for his own goals. He had feelings, he had a huge heart, and now he can actually move forward with them and keep being with his family without the weight of Shuhu and his sins tangled onto him
HIMEKO CYRENE'D HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT WAS REALLY COOL I'm really happy they went this route with her. It's emotionally devastating learning what actually happened, and it's a really good story for our Navigator that we spent our entire journey with. I was really worried about what they had planned in store for her but this whole revelation is making me love her a lot. Yeah I struggled a bit with her section (a complaint I'll get into later) but the build up to what was about to happen made me zone in hard. Asat Primad having such a horrifyingly close connection to her in a way I couldn't ever imagine made it all the more better. What a haunting narrative they put on Himeko
Nihilux continues to be amazing and I adore her. I will say I'm glad they made her appear more likeable and goofy this patch, because I'll admit the sections that centered her previously were... A bit of a drag and she's to get through. But she was really funny this time around, please Graphia go and talk to her properly
YOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Now for my.. smallest bit of complaints
The POV switches were REALLY jarring in this one. I would get really sunk and hooked onto Ashveil's portions and poof! Gone. I got really into Blade and invested in what he was doing and poof! Gone again. It made it really hard for me to shake off what just happened and get invested into the next thing. A bit of the beginning portions for Himeko especially was really hard, all I wanted to do was get back with Blade NDNWJS (and because I despised Ryusuke as a character, but the plot twist made everything worth it so it worked out). It just felt like the stopping points were really abrupt. And I'm sad that our time with Ashveil and Blade were minimal
Related to that I think Blade should've gotten like an extra hour. I really enjoyed what we got .... But when is the next time we're gonna be able to peer into his head and get his actual thoughts and emotions again? My very specific gripe with the way they write Blade as a character is that despite all they do for him, they don't allow his past to take the spotlight unless it was HCQ related. We got the smallest bit of it this patch which I really loved (especially his relationship with Ashveil... Ohhh how that hurt my heart) but it wasn't enough, I desired more! I loved him with Huiayan, I yearned for more of it. I think he also deserved some type of animation short, rather than just the short cutscene we got of what he did with Shuhu. It went by pretty quickly despite the build up to it. Idk, idk what specifically they could've added more of I just wanted more of it
I am... Going to do my best with keeping this specific complaint short, because it's not about them this patch. But despite my complaint just now about how Blade isn't shown enough outside of the HCQ... Nothing for Dan Feng? Nothing? His weapon was right there, it was originally built for Dan Feng, and we get literally nothing at all on his views towards him or why that weapon came to be? Blade and the weapons he forged were established as an important part to him and how he operates, but Dan Feng's doesn't get any meaningful reflection like the other ones? Like don't tell me their bond meant nothing when their bond is haunting the entire Xianzhou narrative. Dan Feng continues to be a mysterious little man we know nothing about. Jingliu too! Rip her, only popped up during Jing Yuan's related memories. I miss her so much
Also for this (again I'm going to keep it as short as I can because I worry about being annoying with it) I'm still a little bit miffed that Dan Heng's and Blade's relationship getting better was just brushed past. The development that came from "Seeing you makes me calmer" did not happen, and it looked rushed. I especially have been waiting for so long for Blade to say from his own mouth that Dan Heng isn't Dan Feng, and the anger towards DH specifically has subsided, and recognizes him for who he is and his real identity; a Nameless. And it's hidden in his voice lines. Such an extremely important part of their relationship after all they've gone through and I don't think they got a satisfying ending and beginning to their chapters. Especially because Blade's sections during this patch had extremely obvious parallels to Dan Heng's (the way they struggled in the water, the faces of their previous identities taunting them) like they wanted you to see how theyre connected. I'll end the rant here at this point this is me to speculate on until more is done and I'm excited for it still
That's all my gripes for it. It was short but a good short, im thriving in everything they revealed and I'm now dying for 4.4 for more Asat Primad and how the cast is going to deal with him. Solid 9/10
I have about an hour or two left of the patch I just wanted to cry over Blade, his whole arc involving his death and how he wants to go out is so well written. It isn't as simple as him just wanting to die, like sure that is what he wants, but his journey wasn't going to end with him lying down and waiting for that to happen. People forget that Yingxing was an angry and vengeful man, and Blade is an angry and vengeful man. All that anger was going to be directed towards Shuhu, all that pain that he went through and the "prices" he had to pay was going to culminate in one final fight with Shuhu. It's so beautiful how Blade wants to at least try to reforge everything into something of his own or die trying. He WILL die as that shooting star like he wanted
Morning! This week is proving to be pretty busy for me (work/friend hangouts/movies/eventually the HSR patch) so if I've been so gone that's why, just a small bit of an update from me! Writing might not continue until next week
@etherealguard said: The world around them has been lulled into a calm night, but he's still awake. His idea of soothing has been keeping a close watch on Moze's face, listening to his quiet breathing as he sleeps. Their talk was weeks ago, and yet he can't help but let it stir in his head on nights like this. Remembering their words to each other as his hand reaches out and very gently pushes a strand of hair behind his ear. This was real now. He near couldn't believe it, especially with how anxious he had been during their long separation. Really, he almost feels stupid for it. I should've just talked to him since the start.
That fear he had for such vulnerable talks.. it had died during his journey on Amphoreus. All the things left unsaid had haunted him for too long, became a weight as heavy as the world itself, and there was a relief in his heart knowing that there was reassurance that Moze felt the same. While they had managed to get a lot out, he was aware of another unsaid rule, a secret stitch in their tapestry that they can now freely hang on the wall.
No more holding back. Speak from the heart.
"I love you." He murmurs into the air. Words that came to him so easily now. His hand moves so he can stroke Moze's cheek with his thumb, a soft touch, only because he wanted it to be. "I know you're awake. You don't have to say it back, if you don't want to." Patience was a foundation that this relationship stood on, after all.
The world had changed and so had they. One of them more than the other, and together more than they would have ever thought just months prior. Would they have imagined, a year before, the blissful peace of a night spent side by side without the need for an excuse to do so; without the feeling that they are dangling on a tightrope that they alone would be responsible for breaking? Moze would have said no. Not a chance. That tightrope used to be everything they knew, everything that felt remotely familiar. To think that there would be anything more comfortable for them to step foot on, and embrace one another, would have been as inconceivable as a universe without Aeons. Then again. Life, as of late, had been full of unconceivable ideas that had forced them to reconsider a few things.
Thankfully, for the better.
A delicate touch on his forehead is all it takes to pull Moze from his slumber. Too many months without Dan Heng to share his night (or a few rogue hours of sleep, depending on their respective schedules) had brought him back to earlier days when sleep was light and his sense of alertness sharper than his daggers. He wakes up; but keeps his eyes closed, his breathing steady, and if his muscles had briefly tensed upon consciousness rousing again, they relax back into near slumber, heavy and limp, every barely awake shred of consciousness content to focus only on the fingertips dancing across his forehead. And on the voice, that he had looked for in voice messages from months ago in all this time Dan Heng had not been here, and that he had wondered whether he would ever get to hear again.
I love you, Dan Heng says - not for the first time, but Moze's heart skips a beat in his chest as if it were the first time all the same. He does not pretend to sleep for much longer; he opens his eyes, peers at his lover (whom he can call this now) through the darkness, exhales a short sigh of contentment through his nose as he leans into that touch against his cheek. Dan Heng's hands feel slightly different, since his return from that new world - and still, Moze would recognise them anywhere. Their gentleness remains entirely unchanged. Much had changed - they had changed, Dan Heng had certainly changed. But not this. Not that thing they had not had the courage to name, and that Dan Heng now embraces as if it were as natural as breathing.
" ... I want to." Moze's voice is little more than a murmur - if Dan Heng failed to hear him, he would be all but forgiven. But where his voice fails, as it so often does, Moze's hands do the talking in its stead: fingertips emerge from beneath the covers, find the contours of Dan Heng's face, draw every soft edge and end their course on his lips as though to touch the remnants of those words they are just learning to say to one another. They come out so quietly from his throat, brand new that they are, like a foreign language the subtleties of which he is still grappling with. But Dan Heng is right. If patience and waiting isn't a hallmark of their tapestry, Moze doesn't know what is. "I love you too." He articulates in that new language, that feels so foreign on his tongue still, yet as though it belongs there. He leaves his fingertips on Dan Heng's lips, amazed still that he can feel them again. That he has come back to him, after everything - an everything so immense it could have swallowed the universe. Moze doesn't want to think about it. "Say it again." He asks, quietly. Then, remembers he forgot something important. " ... please."
EVERYTHIG ASIDE Happy patch day! (Sunday edition), I'm absolutely not playing this anytime soon, there's other stuff happening and I'm probably going to be very late to the party in playing this. Just remember to tag spoilers and the like, I may or may not also be dodging dash for a bit
One of my favorite parts about Dan Heng is how loud his anger is. The same guy who usually has his emotions set at a quieter volume. He usually hides what bothers him, and (for a time in the beginning) his care towards others was more subtle. But he can't hide it when he's mad. He has thrown his weapon and raised it towards people he's gotten angry at. He's spiteful and snappy and rude. Doesn't matter if you're a Preceptor, or Zandar, or even one of the Xianzhou generals. He doesn't bury how violent he can get. Biggest reason for it being that 9/10 it's anger that comes from his protective nature. He really doesn't play with the safety of people he cares for, and especially the Astral Express members. One misstep is enough for him to take charge and remind you that he got recruited as a guard for a reason. Almost terrifying even, how much he channels it into the spear specifically when he makes a move. He fully knows how to use it and has impeccable aim even when he's running
"Oh, that's .." a happy laugh, her hair undone as she was brushing it between appointments, the healer noticed a little chimera sitting on Dan Hengs lap finally. " -- so adorable. Did you make a new friend, Danny? They seem to be really comfortable there." Reading and petting at the same time he looked like he was content, being nearby but not occupying the entire space. Company she was grateful for without both of them needing to constantly chatter, the silence not awkward in the slightest. Quite the opposite, if you'd ask either of them. Sometimes you just want to have company but not talk all the time. "Let me refill your water. Stay put."
━━━━━ Her voice draws his gaze away from the pages, lowering his book slightly when he confirmed it was actually her. "Oh, this one?" He hums, gently stroking the space between the chimera's ears to lull them back to sleep. Hyacine's arrival must have woken them up, but it was minor enough that their dreams were able to continue without missing a beat.
"They ran in here trying to hide from their friends, I think they got a little overwhelmed from all the playing and just wanted to rest. Moment they saw me they immediately jumped and settled themselves on my lap.." It gave Dan Heng the excuse to stay put, everyone won in this situation. Only reason he was hanging out here by himself to begin with was to wait for Hyacine. She seemed to have been caught up with appointments, and he wasn't about to move around trying to look for her.
There's brief dilation in his eyes as he watches her move forward, with his tail flat against the ground, there was a small glow beneath him. At once a sapling starts to sprout in front of her, playfully forcing her to stop in her tracks before she was able to leave the area completely. "Ah. You spent all morning taking care of others, there's no need to worry about me right now. Why not take a minute to sit and rest yourself?" With a flick of his tail, the seeding lowers itself back to the ground, now a proper sprout that's left behind.
He opens his book again to resume his reading, and he doesn't blink as he interrupts her inevitable attempt to insist. "Your hair looks nice like that."
Genuinely so excited for the new era of Dan Heng and Blade having a real proper bond and moving on from the hatred and fear that built the Dan Feng/Yingxing/Blade relationship that's been haunting them for so long. Yearning for them to separate themselves from what they once were
OH MY GOOOODDDD CBWBDHW I'm so stupidly emotional over this. The both of them going through some type of molting / rebirth and reaching a point with themselves and their own bodies where they're at their truest identities. Them being able to walk away from their respective traumas and able to move forward and solidify their proper places inside their respective families. Them both having suffered loneliness and pain and yet able to find people that they can love and people that love them back for who they are and what they'll be. Losing my MIND
