eggnoddles

[eggnoddles]

Into the Chasm

For Chilumi Week 2022 - contains spoilers for Chasm main quest.

“Hey girlie, hold still.”

Rivalry

Let’s play a little game, just the two of us, shall we?

Lumine had snorted, but the game was on, and in the gloomy depths of the Chasm where the only source of light came from otherworldly structures and the lumenstone adjuvant secured at her hip, Childe glowed. Not in the way a distant star lit the sky, but in the way a predator’s eyes gleamed as they locked on to prey.

One, three, then five moldbeasts fell to his hydro blades.

At the other end of the cavernous space, Lumine took down her seventh floating mushroom creature.

“Seven,” she said in Childe’s general direction, letting her voice echo through the massive space.

A few seconds later, Childe replied with a breathy chuckle and a whisper of five.

Lumine continued deeper into the Chasm, trusting the Harbinger to follow.

An almost blind leap of faith later, they landed in the deepest area of the mine. Dark goo oozed over the ground every few steps, but other than that, there seemed to be no signs of life.

Lumine sidestepped the dark puddles one by one until she arrived at the base of the stone statue reminiscent of that in Dragonspine, hung suspended in the air and consumed by constellations.

“Whoever activates the most number of stone statues wins,” she murmured before setting off in a sprint towards the closest goo-covered statue and cleaning off the abyss mages that appeared out of nowhere.

Somewhere behind her, she heard Childe’s footsteps, still making his way to a statue even as the last abyss mage before her breathed its last.

Alone with Childe in the Chasm, Lumine had barely uttered a word, and unexpectedly, so had Childe. Something was buzzing in the atmosphere. Something intangible yet so obvious in the uneven pounding of her heart as she tore through creatures alongside him.

Childe hadn’t said anything, so neither would she.

It was only by the time that Lumine spun around to search for her third—and probably last—stone statue, that she realised her devastating oversight. The last statue sat at the very top of the cavern, the greatest distance possible from herself. Meanwhile, Childe was working on a statue near the top.

Cursing under her breath, Lumine began the long trek upward.

Up and up and up she climbed. If she’d despised Liyue’s countless cliffs, then Lumine hated the oversized, jutting rocks in the lowest depths of the Chasm with her entire soul, spirit and mind.

She glared at the offending sight that was Childe when she arrived at the last statue. Childe, who was grinning as if he’d just conquered the world, and then some.

Her glare darkened as he activated his third statue, the wisp of red that connected to the main statue morphing from red to blue. But it only lasted as long as it took for her to realise that they were met with one final, unfinished step to complete this mission.

Lumine was gone in a blink, gliders out and anemo blasting behind her as she made for the main statue. Childe had only just set foot in the jutting rock before the stone structure by the time Lumine plunged her sword into its core.

Victor.

She flicked her eyes to Childe to catch his gaze, wild with delight despite his loss.

A small leap had her back on the same rock as him, his hands catching hers to steady her landing. Lumine’s world trembled at his contact.

Her skin burned where it touched Childe’s, but the ground below them… It rumbled and quaked as a giant, mechanical worm crawled out of the earth to bare its ugly head.

Her Harbinger was gone before Lumine could say Childe, no or Childe, wait or Childe, stop.

He threw everything into his momentary solo against the worm—his whale, delusion, a crackle of foul legacy sneaking through the cracks of his self-control. Only a fool would surrender themselves to abyssal energy in a place already flooded by it.

While Childe was a clown sometimes, he was no fool.

Lumine stared as he moved, quick as lightning and fluid as water. Somehow, also hot like py-

She threw herself into the fray, summoning anemo and electro to synergise with hydro, turning their battle into a beautiful state of chaos.

Sometime during the fight, Lumine found herself back-to-back with Childe, felt his heavy breathing against her body as the mechanical worm wriggled underground. He was beyond overjoyed, that much was obvious.

Given all that they’d done to their enemy, it was a pleasant surprise that it wasn’t dead yet.

“Hah,” Childe laughed as the worm dared to emerge again, “watch me kill this pest, girlie.”

He slipped into her line of sight to shoot her a wink before he ran for the worm-

And stopped.

He whipped his head to the cavern’s entrance just as something flashed and the floating statue plummeted to the ground, skewering the worm.

It reared its head one last time before it collapsed, limp.

“What is it?” Lumine whispered, placing a hand on Childe’s arm. He already had an arrow nocked and aimed at the top of the cavern.

A few silent seconds later, he lowered his bow.

“I sensed hydro. Someone shot at the statue,” he nodded toward the giant stone that impaled the worm. “Whoever it was is gone now.”

He glared. “And they stole my fun.”

Dismissing his weapon, Childe walked to the fallen worm, inspecting its remains to confirm that it was indeed dead. “I guess this is no one’s win, then.”

His little sigh afterward told Lumine that he still had something up his sleeve.

“But I did win our last official challenge. And I shall claim my reward.”

Childe took his time to saunter up to her, blue eyes alight with mischief. With each step he took towards her, Lumine took a step back.

Step by step by step until her back met cool stone and Childe’s face hovered just a hair’s breadth away from hers.

He overwhelmed her with his presence, his scent, the gentle brush of his fingers against the back of her hand.

It was the same tension from before, but much, much stronger this time.

“You don’t have to do much,” he purred, and ran his fingers up to caress her cheek.

Lumine’s breath hitched as his eyes darkened.

“But unfortunately,” he whispered, his mouth beside her ear now, “I’m quite behind on the work I came here to do.”

Childe sighed and nuzzled against her neck instead. “Do you think I could get all the recruits out of here and write a report for Her Majesty in 15 minutes?”

Lumine brought a hand up to his chest and pushed lightly. “You better get started.”

Her words came out as a whisper. Any more, and she would have disintegrated. With her breathing still ragged, Lumine slipped past Childe and headed in a random direction—anything to escape the suffocating yet undeniably exciting tension.

“Hey.”

Lumine ignored him.

“Girlie.”

She quickened her pace.

“Hold still, would you?”

A large hand had encircled her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

Lumine kept her eyes on the ground as she awaited Childe’s explanation.

“How, my sweet starlight, would I be able to enjoy my prize if I can’t keep in touch with you, hmm?”

Lumine kept her mouth sealed, but dared a glance at Childe. He was already staring, and his piercing gaze made sure that she couldn’t look away.

He brought her hand up to chest level and brushed a thumb over her pulse point, gentler than any Harbinger had the right to be. Lumine had no doubt that her face was aflame now.

And her jaw dropped when Childe removed his thumb to reveal a small, familiar riptide over her left wrist, pulsing with life every few seconds.

It wasn’t until Childe brushed his lips over his mark that Lumine snapped out of her trance.

“What did you do?” She hissed, snatching her hand back and rubbing at the hydro. It wouldn’t come off.

Childe smiled like a cat. “A reminder,” he drawled, “of my victory… And also, a medium of communication.”

He turned and started in the direction of the cave’s entrance. “When you’re free, find something interesting, or just want me to bless you with my presence, give a shout.”

He paused before continuing. “I might come faster if you rub it somewhere special.”

Then he was gone.

And it took Lumine an entire minute to grasp his parting statement.

She left the cavern cursing at the riptide, dragging Childe’s name down to hell and stomping on it for good measure. If he could indeed hear her, Lumine would make sure to put this great opportunity to use.

As she trudged to higher ground, she paused to think. Glared at the riptide.

“There aren’t supposed to be any rewards for this whole competition, you dull seaweed.”

[eggnoddles]

"in focusing single mindedly on confronting the Heavenly Principles we neglected our original mission: the revival of the homeland."

DAY 2: ABYSS (PRINCESS AND HER HERALD)

[eggnoddles]

"Meet me in the woods at dusk"

"Why, girlie, can't you just tell me at home?"

"Just meet me there"

DAY 1 FIRST KISS

[eggnoddles]

no one asked but here’s my opinions on jameson vs grayson

i love grayson, he’s my best friend, but i don’t think he and avery would be a good romantic fit. he is so consumed by his need to rectify what he blames himself for with emily and he sees avery as a surrogate for that. if he can protect her and love her, it’ll fix everything that he believes happened. i think they’re better off as friends because grayson needs to process his trauma and separate avery from emily and understand that he doesn’t have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders

and avery (as seen at the end of book 2) needs to go through her own self discovery arc where she stops seeing herself as a tool and takes charge of her own choices. she’s been ridiculed and scared for her life and she’s at a point where she needs to step out from behind the boys and finish the game for herself and not for them

i think jameson saw her as a puzzle piece in the first book but now he’s gotten past himself and realized that avery is in the game just as much as he is and he sees her as a partner rather than someone to protect or use. he respects her and trusts her and cares about her enough to put her before the hunt even while she thinks he’s playing an angle and he’s the kind of person who could help avery process her own disbelief in love because he’s ready and capable of showing her an “encompassing love” like the kind she didn’t believe in

[eggnoddles]

Who really won though

[eggnoddles]

fuck it. chilumi time

[eggnoddles]

doodles 

[eggnoddles]

breaking free from the abyss

revisiting an old concept i drew almost a year ago,,