[Text; UN: DemonsandSugar]

[cultivatingsin]

Just for the hell of it...

Answer this.

What would you do if you suddenly woke up a decade older?

[He is keeping to himself, hiding up a tree while he...adjusts. The passage of time doesn't matter - like he cares if he is seventeen or twenty-seven - but what happened in that decade...

That rattles him. Amazes him. Confounds him.]

Comments

[song_princess]

[This question... Just why was he asking it? Especially since this was something she had experience with.]

Xue Yang? Are you okay?

[cultivatingsin]

[She isn't difficult for him to remember, but it feels like a lifetime since he last saw her.]

Seriously?

I don't know.

[Voice]

[song_princess]

[Okay, here comes a concerned mom voice.]

Where are you? And don't say you are fine or hide where you are.

[Voice]

[cultivatingsin]

[Don't do those things? Huh. Now he's cornered!]

I'm not sure you can help. I have a lot to think about.

[Such as...]

I died, but it didn't stick.

Voice; un: gentlebreeze

[bright_moon]

Xue Yang...

[ There are so many things he could say. But all the memories suddenly in his head...

'I'm cold', he wants to say, because he is. But when isn't he? He knows that answer too.

It's all in his voice as is. The confusion. The pain. The heartbreak. The soulbreak. But then he sighs quietly and love enters too. ]

I'm coming. We do not have to face this alone. We shouldn't. It's...too much.

Voice

[cultivatingsin]

[He's suffocating. He wants to run to him. He wants to run from him. Xiao Xingchen is alive! His heart sings, but then he remembers lying in the mud, his arm somewhere...else. The pain had been intense, but nothing compared to the agony of realization.

Xiao Xingchen is lost to him.

Duplicity passes in a blur, like a dream and he feels like he can't hold onto it. The arm Song Zichen cut from him feels numb - nonexistent - and he drags in a sharp breath, remembering each stab wound. The only time it doesn't hurt is when...

Is when...]

My daozhang... My A-Chen...

Are you coming? Truly?

Voice

[bright_moon]

[ A dream. A wonderful, horrible, strange dream. That's what Duplicity was. Xingchen remembers the betrayals he's encountered - Xue Yang's, his own, Huaisang's...all of it. He remembers dying.

He remembers waking back up. Able to see but too afraid and sore to want to look. He remembers the only time he felt like he wasn't about to shake apart...was with his A-Yang.

He shudders and Xiu burrows tighter around his neck, purring hard to try and help him. He takes a shaky breath as he pushes himself on. He doesn't need to ask where his A-Yang is - the path seems emblazed in his heart. Their connection. ]

Yours. We promised...forever. Remember?

Yes, A-Yang. I'm coming.

Voice

[cultivatingsin]

[The tree he climbed is just on the edge of the forest and it's the only place where he feels like he can breathe deep. He had fallen down when the memories hit and there is a bruise on his cheek from the impact with the floor. A day had passed... Then he awoke to Ying nuzzling and licking his face.

She's still trying to comfort him, poor girl. But he can't move. He feels like he is rooted to the tree and even the idea that Xingchen is coming to him makes him tremble.]

I promised. And I meant it. [How can a man like him mean it?] I feel like I'm in pieces.

text; un: nleclair

[localdeliveryboy]

Honestly, how would you know? I mean unless you go from 10 to 20, that's be pretty obvious, but if you're going from say 20 to 30, then I don't reckon there'd be much of a change.

text

[cultivatingsin]

You're forgetting memories. Those do help you keep track.

But I didn't specify that, did I.

Re: text

[localdeliveryboy]

Would it? I reckon it'd make things a bit easier if you suddenly woke up with 10 years worth of memories along with aging 10 more years, right? I mean it'd be surprising but wouldn't it kind of resolve itself? Unless I'm missing something else.

text

[cultivatingsin]

What if you experienced those ten years worth of memories in a day?

text; un: mitth'raw'nuruodo

[admiralchiss]

I would be quite alarmed.

I also think you wouldn't be asking this question without reason.

text

[cultivatingsin]

Yeah. That's probably why I fell over.

You think? Life used to be so simple!

[admiralchiss]

For some, life is rarely so simple.

If you went home and ten years passed, that would explain it. You not expecting it, however, it another matter.

[cultivatingsin]

I took it for granted ten years ago. I guess most people do.

It's not that I didn't expect it. A lot happened and then I woke up here again. I wasn't necessarily...home.

text / un; CL-55

[clevebro]

I guess I'd want to know why I'm suddenly feeling 10 years older?

Oh! Is this like a time travel thing? Those are usually huge headaches to deal with.

text

[cultivatingsin]

It's not just a feeling. I am ten years older.

Then I have a headache.

un: shiliu

[shiliu]

Delight, that I'd lived so long.

[cultivatingsin]

You know, you make a great point!

Damn, I did do something.

[shiliu]

Well, don’t leave me hanging. What did you accomplish?

[cultivatingsin]

I got married.

Text; un: smoking_bomb

[bakudan_bambino]

I’d go back to sleep

Text

[cultivatingsin]

I hit my face against the floor.

Re: Text

[bakudan_bambino]

What? Why?