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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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In Search of Justice, Concerning Family

Part three of three: The artistry of found family, the science of deserve.

Warnings: Spoilers for Kaeya’s companionship stories, alcohol mention

[1], [2], [3]

Kaeya ignored the sound of his doorknob turning. “Why’d you put a rug in here?” Kaeya jumped at the sound of Diluc’s voice.

“I wanted to,” he said, recovering quickly. “Why? Did you want your old office back?” They stared at each other for a long minute. “I didn’t mean that,” Kaeya said suddenly.

“Of course not,” Diluc replied, stiff, awkward.

“Why are you here?”

Diluc’s eyes drifted to the bookshelf Kaeya had been staring at when he’d entered. “I…” he faltered. “I wanted to ask you something.”

Kaeya waved vaguely to the room. “Couch or the desk, whichever.” It took a long moment for Diluc to find the couch, which was buried under a small mountain of pillows and blankets. He remained standing. “What do you need?”

“Whose temple was that?”

Kaeya’s smile was wry. “Our time god,” he said. “She fell centuries ago with the rest of her kingdom. I have the story in here somewhere.” He gestured at the bookshelf. “I’ll… I guess I’ll translate it or something for you.”

Diluc swallowed the demand to tell him now. “You said...” he coughed to cover the hesitation. “You said, rather, you called it your last service to, you know.”

Kaeya paused, and for once, Diluc could see the gears turning in his head, the fiddly little mechanics clicking into place behind his clear blue eyes. “Do you know about Liyue’s exorcists?”

Diluc frowned. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Never mind. Khaenri’ah was a city of people that died a long time ago.”

“What, you think you’re some kind of exorcist?” slipped out before Diluc could stop it.

Kaeya laughed good-naturedly, the way he did over a drink at The Angel’s Share, practiced to perfection. “Not at all. I’m just what’s left of the ghosts.”

Diluc forced his “sorry” past the stubborn set of his jaw. “And Dainsleif?”

Kaeya shrugged with one shoulder. “He’ll figure something out. I doubt he’s going far.”

“Who is he?”

Kaeya’s eyes went distant as he considered that. “That’s up to him,” he said finally. “I only know who he was.”

“You’ve become awfully poetic from your stint in jail.”

Diluc didn’t expect the genuine smile that turned up Kaeya’s eyes. “You were always such a good boy,” he teased, “I wouldn’t expect you to know the first thing about jail.”

Diluc didn’t know what to say to that. “I’ll see you this evening?” he asked instead.

Kaeya shrugged, still smiling. “I’m out of solitary at sundown,” he agreed.

It was a strange day, the day that Diluc found Kaeya, Klee, and Albedo on the floor of Kaeya’s office surrounded by the blankets and pillows off Kaeya’s couch, and books in a foreign language lying half-read, scattered across the carpet. Klee was curled up in Albedo’s lap, wide eyes devouring the pages of the book in Kaeya’s hands. Kaeya was reading in a language Diluc didn’t understand, softly, in a voice Diluc almost didn’t recognize.

The conversation from a few days ago was still tender, sore. It felt like a bruise on Diluc’s pride. He stepped away from the door, but Kaeya called out to him. “Join us. It’s not like Klee knows what I’m reading either.”

Diluc sighed inwardly, but now that they knew he was there, he supposed there was no harm. “Nothing you wouldn’t read in our language I hope?”

Kaeya laughed. His voice was a bit dry from reading, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Of course not. These are just our old legends. Come sit with us.”

From her place in Albedo’s arms, Klee gave Diluc a baleful stare as he carefully picked his way over to the three of them. Albedo offered Diluc the faintest smile, before returning his attention to the book. “Do you want me to read the next chapter?”

“What’s the next chapter again?” Kaeya flipped a few pages. Diluc only caught a flash of something dark in Kaeya’s eyes. “Ah. Would you kindly?”

Diluc pushed the two or three blankets that remained folded on the couch aside and at beside Kaeya, who leaned to the side a little to rest his head against the side of Diluc’s knee as Albedo began to read. Diluc stiffened a little, but didn’t push him away. “Are those for me?” Kaeya asked quietly, mouth pulling up into a teasing smile, his visible eye cutting to the tall, slim, glass bottles Diluc set on the floor beside the couch.

Diluc scoffed a little. “Who else?”

“Just making sure you’re not teasing me.”

Diluc didn’t look down at him. “Between the two of us, who does more teasing?”

“Of course,” Kaeya said, eyes sliding shut.

They sat in mostly-comfortable silence while Albedo continued to read. Softly, slowly, Diluc lifted a hand and placed it on Kaeya’s head. Kaeya stiffed with a flash of blue, but allowed it.

Klee’s eyes felt like fireplace tongs fresh from turning logs, burning straight into the side of Diluc’s head.

Albedo’s reading faltered, breaking off into a sentence that ended in Klee. “Is something the matter, Klee?” he tried again after an awkward cough. “Is the Young Master bothering you?”

“No,” Klee replied, still glaring at Diluc.

Albedo’s eyes crinkled, turning up ever so slightly as he smiled. “Good. Because if he was-” his sentence broke off back into the foreign language. Diluc couldn’t understand the words, but he knew a threat when he heard one, and while no one would believe him, Albedo was much scarier than he let on.

Diluc couldn’t help but feel like an intruder on Kaeya’s life anymore.

Today, it seemed that Kaeya and Albedo had both shirked their duties to spend the day with Klee. Kaeya had an arm around Albedo’s shoulders, and Klee dangled between the two of them, laughing brightly. She had windwheel asters tucked into her hair, poking out from under her hat, drifting to the ground behind her.

Kaeya and Albedo were talking over her head, but Diluc couldn’t hear the words from this distance. Kaeya tilted his head, but Diluc didn’t need to see his face to know that was a signal that he’d been detected. With a sigh, Diluc approached them. “How do you always know?” he asked.

Kaeya only smiled.

Albedo took Klee, tucked her into his side, not bothering the hide their accusatory stares. “What do you want?” he asked.

Kaeya patted his shoulder. “There’s no need to be hostile.” For a moment, Diluc could only see the playful, coy smile Kaeya wore over a drink in the company of enemies. Albedo backed off, muttering under his breath. “Though I am curious,” Kaeya said. “You’re not in town often. Especially at this time of day. It’s a bit too early for the bar.”

Diluc scoffed a little. “The only reason you’re not in there yourself is because you’re taking care of a child.” The jab came out a bit more aggressive than he’d intended, but Kaeya didn’t seem to mind.

“What can I say? It’d be terribly irresponsible of me to be drinking in the company of children.”

Albedo beat Diluc to the response. “Do you really want to start an argument about irresponsible, Kaeya?”

Kaeya laughed, unrestrained, unconcerned. Naturally. “So mean,” he said. “As if I would do anything but help our precious Klee. I’d almost be hurt if I didn’t like the two of you getting along.”

“You’re not calling him ‘your Highness,’” Diluc observed, perhaps a bit late.

Albedo gave Diluc a threatening smile. “His kingdom is no longer, and he is no prince here.”

“Be nice,” Kaeya scolded, affectionate. “Really, both of you need to lighten up.”

“You need to be more reliable,” slipped out before Diluc could bite it back. Klee scowled.

Kaeya only made a face. “Why, you wound me. I’m much more reliable than I look.”

Albedo snorted. “Sure, when it suits your agenda.”

Kaeya only laughed again. “I’ll see you around, Diluc. Keep an eye out for a package.”

“I thought we were keeping that a secret.”

Kaeya smiled at Albedo. “Well, yes, but I made him a promise.”

A brown paper-wrapped package appeared on Diluc’s desk one morning. Heavy and square. Upon opening it, it was a book, exotic and foreign-looking, bound in dark leather and gold. Tales from a Long-Forgotten Time: Memories from the Corrupted Kingdom read the title in a looping script that seemed distantly familiar. Translated by Remnant, illustrated by Khemia.

Diluc flipped open the cover, where a translator’s note was printed.

“To our readers,

We had fallen long before we had died. Our goddess was corrupted long before our savior’s birth. Our Kingdom had died long before our last Prince destroyed it. Feel for us no pity, for our home has been among the stars for far longer than we have been there, our time on earth long past. All that remains, all that we would leave behind are our legends. Who we were matters not. All that’s left of us are stories.

- The Remnants”

Scrawled on the inside of the front cover, another handwritten note.

“My heart of the Abyss was always here.”

#In Search of Justice #kaeya #albedo #klee #diluc #genshin impact #genshin fic

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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Just a couple of thoughts on Diluc because I can’t write him for shit

Warnings: Some manga spoilers, spoilers for Kaeya and Diluc’s companionship stories, violence? Diluc’s just a really off-balance dude

Basically, me talking about Diluc. I will warn you, he’s not my favorite, but I tried to be nice

I was messing around with an unimportant oc of mine, making fun of Diluc for needing a hairbrush when I realized I actually don’t know how to write him.

My Dilucs are kind of dumb, which, I think, doesn’t do him justice as a character. He’s not dumb. Sure, he’s taciturn and disagreeable on most fronts, but he was born into a noble family and an extremely influential company. Manga Diluc seems a lot more flexible than in-game Diluc. He’s still the unfriendly, disagreeable Diluc we know and (sometimes) love, but he just seems to have a better head on his shoulders. He’s able to appease the Fatui, able to go so far as to worm Kaeya, an officer in the Knights, into what seems to be a private and unsanctioned meeting.

In-game Diluc seems a bit more unhinged, a bit less socially aware. Well, to me it seems like a lot less socially aware. Manga Diluc dislikes the Knights, but he doesn’t have an active goal of undermining the Knights. In-game Diluc actively creates problems for the already horrendously understaffed Ordo Favonius. And while the Abyss Order is a pain in everyone’s asses, he doesn’t think twice about torturing an Abyss Mage during his story quest.

I mean, okay I do have thoughts on how Mondstadt is a military dictatorship, and maybe I’ll post about that, but that’s a topic for another day.

Diluc just seems really nebulous. He’s really inexpressive, and tends to internalize things, instead of seeking support (Case in point: Crepus).

But something I’m not really sure how to incorporate is this element of self-centeredness he’s got. He’s really, really arrogant, even if he doesn’t express it explicitly, or the way you’d expect.

Concerning Crepus, he’s justified to a point. The Knights didn’t handle Crepus’ death well. At all. The Dawn Winery is crucial to Mondstadt’s economy, and his son is, yknow, an officer among the Knights? It’s true, they can’t be jumping on every merchant that gets attacked, but I think the head of the Ragnvindr family is a little important. It’s not till later that they can connect the crime to the Fatui, if I’m not mistaken, but I’m getting off-topic.

After Crepus died, Diluc did a complete 180. Kaeya is the only one that seems to talk about DIluc before he left the Knights, both in-game and in the manga. Basically, Diluc quit the Knights and became Batman.

I recommend therapy, but whatever floats your boat.

Bu back to the arrogance point- After Diluc returns from his stint looking for Delusions and decides the Knights are useless, he gets it into his head that it has to be him that protects Mondstadt. Which, compared to the rest of the self-loathing narrative his stories seem to tell, doesn’t quite make sense.

If it were me, it might have gone something like this: Crepus dies, the Knights’ responses is also inappropriate, Diluc falls into his pit of depression, per canon, but I couldn’t really see him stepping in to that hero/vigilante role. Not someone who either watched his father die or killed him with his own two hands. ((Side note, why on Earth would the Knights send Diluc as an escort for his own father? That’s like letting a detective investigate a crime committed against their own kid, okay, bad idea. In the case that he failed, at least he wouldn’t have to blame himself. It’s almost cruel.)) Diluc’s revenge quest makes sense to me, but not the Batman bullshit.

Concerning Kaeya: I have a few thoughts on their relationship, but I want to focus on their companionship stories. Both sets of companionship stories center around Crepus’ death, and what happened to them afterward. Kaeya’s stories progressively get darker and more personal, while Diluc’s are something of a side story ((and I think it’s really in character, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about)). Diluc’s stories don’t so much as mention Kaeya. I’m biased but it also just doesn't quite sit right with me that Diluc would abandon his brother like that.

[Angry ramblings about Kaeya’s vision story have been omitted]

tldr: Diluc is wack asf.

#genshin impact #diluc #genshin diluc #character analysis #does this count?#bruh yuki's dumb okay

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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HI THIS IS NOT ME ONLY NOW REALIZING THAT LANTERN RITE FESTIVAL IS PROBABLY DERIVED DIRECTLY FORM YUANXIAOJIE AKA THE LANTERN FESTIVAL THAT IS THE LAST OF FIFTEEN DAYS OF CHINESE NEW YEAR AND THE PATCH COMES OUT A WEEK BEFORE CHINESE NEW YEAR STARTS EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO DIE A FAILURE

#lantern ritte festival #xiao #genshin impact #1.3 #yuki reveals their communist sympathies #((not actually i promise it's jsut a funny tag from one of my other sideblogs i promise))

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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The way the Ragvindr family has such large control over Mondstadt’s economy and the way the Gunnhildrs have such influence over the military + church (with its roles being hereditary), really makes you wonder if Venti would once again return to a Mondstadtian aristocracy in a couple thousand years later

@cansume

Oh? Interesting. I didn’t realize Jean’ family had that much influence. Ehe, I may or may not have a fic in the works where the Military dictatorships has fallen into the Ragnvindr’s hands ehe ((keep an eye out for that))

Msc. Thoughts because Genshin worldbuilding is fantastic

Parts two and three of In Search Of Justice are in the works, I promise.

Not organized enough to be called theories, erm, but they’re not exactly headcanons.

Warnings: Spoilers, mostly. Also angst. I’m incapable of writing anything that isn’t angst sorry.

Sections: Species (Adepti, Xiao), The Knights (Diluc, the Knights, some speculation about corruption within the order), Religion (some random details that I thought were cool)

Keep reading

#reblogs #cansume #worldbuilding

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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In Search of Justice, Concerning Chivalry

Part two of three: Kaeya’s final act of service, and his final betrayal.

Warnings: Spoilers for Kaeya’s companionship stories, arson

[1], [2], [3]

“Are you sure?” Diluc asked for what seemed to be the millionth time.

“I’m not sure of what’s changed since I left,” Albedo replied, “but there’s a fair chance he’s still alive.”

Diluc scowled, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘why are we doing this again?’

Albedo frowned a bit. “The killing of innocents is unacceptable in Teyvat’s eyes. Do you not consider yourself to be the voice of true justice?”

Diluc’s scowl darkened, but he didn’t respond. Somehow, the prodding question felt like something Kaeya would say.

A few corners later, Albedo unceremoniously shoved Diluc into an alcove behind a statue, before leaning against the pedestal, arms crossed over his chest. It was comical, almost, unsubtle. Albedo was nowhere near large enough to physically hide Diluc with any measure of success. It seemed, though, as the conversation began, that that hadn’t been his intention.

“You,” came a venomous voice.

“Me,” Albedo agreed. “I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Your being here is trouble,” the unseen man said coldly.

“I’m not here to give you any more reason to want to kill me, that is,” Albedo amended, somehow sounding wholly unconcerned. “But if you’re anything like I remember, His Highness’ wellbeing is more important to you than this ruined country.” Diluc could only see a flash of a black cloak around Albedo’s foot. Albedo paused, feigning a thoughtful silence. “Unless all these years has changed you.”

Privately, Diluc thought that if Albedo ever got tired of alchemy, he ought to join a theatre troupe.

The unseen man muttered something that sounded like a curse in an unknown language. “What do you want?” he relented finally.

Albedo made a pleased noise, as if to say ‘still got it.’ “The keys to His Highness’ room.”

“So you’ve turned traitor too,” the stranger sighed. “Am I the only one left?”

Albedo snorted. “I know where your loyalties lie, Dainsleif. Don’t pretend you care for these ruins any more than His Highness or myself.”

Dainsleif scoffed, but the jingle of keys could be heard. “His Highness is in the third room from the end of the hall in the western guest wing,” he said. “He hangs at dawn if you fail. You’ll follow next.”

“Scary,” Albedo replied drily, righting himself as if to leave. “You were scarier the first time, though.”

“Wait.”

Albedo did.

“To think that two of our people have been recognized by gods that have scorned us,” Dainsleif said, more to himself than Albedo. “I do wish to speak with you on such matters at a different time, should we meet again.”

“I look forward to it,” Albedo said, dry and unconvincing. “I care little for the goings on of the gods, but I’d be delighted to share my research with you.”

“Oh, and your friend can come out now. You’d best get moving before the patrol gets to this corridor.”

“You talk too much,” Albedo grumbled, stepping away. “You heard the man, let’s get going. It’s not far, but we’ll likely have to fight our way out.”

Diluc only caught Dainsleif’s eyes widen before Albedo was walking away so quickly Diluc had to jog a bit to keep up with him.

Diluc didn’t really like how far ‘not far’ was to Albedo. Admittedly, Albedo spent most of his time in Dragonspine of all places, nearly a week’s trip from Mondstadt, but even so, it shouldn’t change Albedo’s perception of space that much.

“Where are you going?” Albedo asked, dragging Diluc out of his thoughts. “This is the room.”

Albedo leaned on the wall beside the door, twirling the key around a finger. Diluc couldn’t help but be distracted once or twice by the flash of the red palm of his glove. “It has to be you,” Albedo said. “You understand, don’t you?”

Diluc stared at the still-locked door. “Are you sure?”

“His Highness’s personal retainer, for all his dislike of me, would be quite lost in the world without him. Put simply, Dainsleif’s loyalties lie with His Highness. Not necessarily with Khaenri’ah.”

Diluc frowned. “How does that work?”

Albedo shrugged with one shoulder, held out the key. “Plausible deniability.”

As long as Khaenri’ah didn’t know that Kaeya had betrayed her, Dainsleif wouldn’t have to choose.

Albedo had joined the Knights after Diluc had left, so he’d never had a reason to know Albedo, but his blue eyes were piercing, cutting. Diluc wondered for a moment if everyone from this godless country had cold, cruel eyes like that.

Dainsleif’s, for the brief moment Diluc had seen them, had been hollow, deep, devoid of meaning, full of confusion, but they’d held no human warmth.

Albedo’s eyes felt like a scalpel cutting into Diluc’s very soul, cold, so sharp he couldn’t feel where they cut, only that he was bleeding.

Diluc’s heart twisted, just a little, to remember that Kaeya’s eyes had laughed far more than they’d cut. They’d danced much more than they’d hardened. Even if it had been a lie.

Diluc put the key in the lock.

“Back already?” Kaeya’s voice asked from inside, but it wasn’t Kaeya’s voice. Not really. It was tired and melancholy in a way that Diluc had only heard once or twice.

The same voice that had made a confession one night in the rain.

“I was left here to spy on Mondstadt. Khaenri’ah wants war. I don’t know what I want anymore. I know you’re in no place to help me, but I’m asking anyway.”

“You’ve come a long way,” Albedo said softly. “Young Master Ragnvindr.”

Diluc startled at how gentle the title sounded. Affectionate, almost.

It had been Albedo that appeared in the rain, eyes blazing. “They have him.”

“Who?”

“His Highness’ betrayal has finally caught up to him,” Albedo said coldly.

“Who?”

Albedo’s eyes, Diluc realized with a shudder, didn’t burn like fire. More like frostbite, or hypothermia. There was no passion, only a steely glint of the blade he’d use if he needed to. “Your brother,” Albedo spat. “And you’re coming with me to retrieve him.”

“No, I’m not,” Diluc replied. “If the Knights want him back, they can do it themselves.”

Albedo, despite his frame, managed to be more intimidating than anything Diluc had encountered up until now as he stepped forward, murder flashing in his eyes. Perhaps this is what it felt like to be one of Diluc’s unfortunate guilty, to stare up him standing over them with his flaming greatsword in their last moments. “You will come with me. You are going to right your wrongs or die trying.”

Albedo, Diluc noted, does not mince his words.

“What wrongs?” Diluc asked, briefly afraid for the answer.

“He’d lost everything but what little place here that the Knights could give him. Now come, while Klee’s occupied with the Outlander. I don’t need children interfering.”

“Why should I go with you?” Diluc challenged. “He was a spy.”

Albedo’s eyes, bright and blue as they were, felt like a sword through Diluc’s gut.

“The night he went to you was the same night His Highness betrayed Khaenri’ah.”

Diluc’s temper flared. “How do you know about that night?”

Albedo scoffed. “The young master Ragnvindr is a fool. There were two of you involved in that fight, no?”

The title cut more than the words did. “Why would he tell someone like you about that?” Diluc snarled.

“Never mind my relationship with him. This is about your relationship with him. I see you kept the vase. Do you want to keep him alive?”

“I want him to rot for a while,” Diluc hissed.

Albedo’s lip curled in disgust. “He has been. Perhaps you wouldn’t know it, but the only inescapable prison for one of our people is one’s own mind.”

“’Our’?” Diluc echoed. “Are you a traitor too?”

“Khaenri’ah never had any love for me,” Albedo said dismissively. “My craft stems from her, but I was never one of her subjects. My point is that he’s been rotting in a prison he couldn’t hope to escape.”

“Why can’t you help him on your own?” Diluc grumbled, still angry.

Albedo sighed, as if Diluc were some ignorant child. “Because he isn’t looking for my forgiveness.”

For a moment, one hand on the doorknob, Diluc doubted. Himself, Albedo, everything he’d done to get here. For a long moment, Diluc doubted the sky blue eyes that cut deeper than any blade ever would. He pushed that aside. If Kaeya wanted a rematch, Diluc supposed he’d brought it upon himself. Quietly as he could, Diluc opened the door and stepped inside.

“I guess not, then. So soon? I swear Dainsleif just left,” Kaeya sighed. “I was hoping for a sign from the Tsaritsa at least.”

Diluc couldn’t stop his mouth fast enough. “Are they your gods or not?”

Kaeya’s head snapped around at the sound of his voice.

“That’s not what I-”

“What are you doing here?” Kaeya was in his face in a heartbeat. “What are you doing here? Get out. Do you think they’ll let you live?” Kaeya’s eyes weren’t laughing, they weren’t dancing. They weren’t smug and calculating. They were hollow and intelligent, full of a resigned sort of despair.

“Come with us,” Diluc said, because somehow he couldn’t find something more meaningful to say.

Kaeya hesitated.

After a moment, Diluc realized how rare it was for Kaeya to hesitate. He always had some kind of plan, some kind of mischief. He always had something else going on.

“Someone’s coming,” Albedo hissed. “We can have a touching reunion after we’re out of this godforsaken city.”

“It would’ve been easier to get the four of you there together- ah. They’re still here.” Diluc whirled around at the sound of Dainsleif’s voice.

Dainsleif only inclined his head. “Young Master Ragnvindr.”

“I thought I told you to keep her away from here,” Albedo snarled, bloodlust in his voice.

The Outlander gave him a sheepish smile. “She wouldn’t stop insisting. She said you let her go to Dragonspine…” he trailed off, sort of bewildered. “What is this place?”

“Khaenri’ah,” Kaeya said, in an attempt to save Aether from any more of Albedo’s tongue-lashing than he needed to endure. “We really do need to get going.” He hesitated for a second time. “Will you stay behind?” Kaeya asked, seemingly to no one. “I don’t plan on returning again.”

“If that is the case,” Dainsleif said slowly, “Then I too have no place here.”

Diluc’s eyes found Klee, clinging to the Outlander’s leg, eyes wide, staring at Dainsleif and Kaeya. “Kaeya, who is this?” she asked.

Diluc could see Albedo’s shoulders relax a little, even if his scowl didn’t.

“Dainsleif, dear,” Kaeya said warmly, as if he hadn’t been awaiting his own execution five minutes ago. “He’s… a friend of mine.”

Dainsleif and Klee both paused, confused, but Albedo went over Aether and picked up Klee, eyes stormy, but relieved. “You’re a terrible babysitter,” Albedo sighed, to the Outlander, inspecting her for injuries.

Aether, appropriately contrite, looked down at his shoes. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Never mind that,” Albedo said. “Let’s just get going.”

Of course, it would never be that easy.

Bitterly, Diluc couldn’t help but laugh a bit at how his relationship with Kaeya would never be ‘easy.’

“I can hear the guards coming,” Dainsleif sighed. “I’ll meet you on the surface, yes?”

Kaeya smiled, a brittle, forced thing. “If you would kindly.”

In a foreign gesture of subservience, Dainsleif took Kaeya’s left hand in both of his own and knelt, pressing his Prince’s knuckles to his forehead. “If I fail, please don’t remember me in contempt.”

Kaeya’s sad little smile wavered. “Never. You are the only part of this place I wished for when I was away.”

Dainsleif nodded, as if satisfied with that answer, as he got to his feet. “Please excuse me, your Highness. I won’t be long.”

Kaeya didn’t wait to watch him go, taking off at a brisk clip, as if he still owned the place, a hard, well-practiced mask of determination already in place. Albedo was quick on his heels, despite carrying Klee. “We shouldn’t lose them,” Aether said, sounding nervous, tugging on Diluc’s sleeve. Diluc only hesitated a moment longer before following Aether’s anxious scamper.

As they approached the chamber Albedo had originally argued with Dainsleif in, the walls shuddered with a blast of biting cold.

“Tell Diluc to stop dragging his feet!” Albedo shouted over a shoulder. Diluc scowled a little bit, but picked up the pace. He faltered at the chamber.

Diluc blinked.

They were still underground, weren’t they?

A generous layer of snow covered the polished stone floor, and the walls of the great, round room were freshly decorated with a coating of ice several feet thick. Several humanoid guards were frozen in it.

“Come on,” Albedo barked, “or we’re collapsing the tunnel without you!”

Diluc shook off his shock and caught up.

Kaeya was leading Klee by the hand, pointing to seemingly random places in the floor, near the walls. Aether accompanied them, sword drawn. This hallway, Diluc noted, was peppered with small bombs. Albedo still looked tense, eyes flickering, scanning. “Keep moving!” he snapped. “We need to get out of here, and if anything happens to Klee, I’ll bring you lot back to life so I can kill you again with my own two hands.”

“Just a couple more, Albedo,” Kaeya said. “Then we run.”

Albedo opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it. “Make it quick.”

Diluc had been present for a few of Klee’s infamous escapades, but none of the ones he had or would experience would rattle him like this one did. The main entrance to the city was housed in a temple to a god Diluc had never heard of, and Klee, Kaeya, and Albedo were running around, placing explosives in no pattern Diluc could discern. Columns that didn’t seem to hold anything up, walls that seemed oddly placed, random patches of floor.

By the time they were done, Diluc could hear the boots on the stairs leading from underground.

Klee lobbed her specialty- a round, especially large, admittedly cute bomb- at the temple. “Run,” Albedo said, taking her hand. “Now!”

And they did. Diluc could feel the heat behind him, smell the burning grass.

Klee’s was a terrifying Vision. Diluc shuddered to think of the day where she’d be allowed to use such power unsupervised.

The blast had sent Albedo and Klee tumbling over each other, laughing good-naturedly, and launched Aether a few feet, but they seemed unhurt. Kaeya had stopped and turned back, staring at the pile of rubble that remained.

Diluc wanted, as he so often had when they were younger, to ask what was on his mind.

“My last service to my country,” Kaeya said softly as Diluc approached. “Fitting, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Diluc asked. He had no love for Khaenri’ah. “You could’ve destroyed it entirely.”

Kaeya’s smile was bitter and crooked. “The only thing left of my glorious kingdom were sinners. Her time was long over. You should know about holding onto things past their worth.”

Diluc found himself with questions, but didn’t get a chance to ask.

“Pardon me, your Highness, but might I ask what in heaven, on earth, or in the pits of the abyss was that?” Dainsleif’s voice asked.

Kaeya offered his best charming smile, eyes dancing with mischief. “That would be Sir Kaeya to you, Dainsleif.”

#genshin impact #kaeya #diluc #dainsleif #albedo #klee #In Search of Justice #genshin kaeya #more angst lol #it's okay

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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Msc. Thoughts because Genshin worldbuilding is fantastic

Parts two and three of In Search Of Justice are in the works, I promise.

Not organized enough to be called theories, erm, but they’re not exactly headcanons.

Warnings: Spoilers, mostly. Also angst. I’m incapable of writing anything that isn’t angst sorry.

Sections: Species (Adepti, Xiao), The Knights (Diluc, the Knights, some speculation about corruption within the order), Religion (some random details that I thought were cool)

Species, concerning Adepti, specifically my singular non-simping thought on Xiao.

“Adeptus” seems to be more of a trait than a species. Zhongli is a god, so presumably that should be his species. Ganyu is half-Adeptus by blood, which does complicate things by implying that Adeptus is a race, but how do you explain Xiao. I know the “painkillers” bit was a mistranslation, but HP drain. Something something adeptus energy is bad for humans, so what if Xiao is (or was, depending) human. Ganyu is half-human, which honestly I don’t want to get into, but she was born that way, so she’s either specially adapted to handle it, or she’s used to it. Small theory that Xiao became an Adeptus, and that the Adeptus trait is hard on his body, since he is/was human. Side note, Zhongli calls Xiao “that young Adeptus” which, admittedly doesn’t mean much because Zhongli is canonically the oldest of the Seven, but it also implies that Xiao is a fairly new addition (even though there’s a lot of fanwork of him interacting with Guizhong, I don’t know, man Xiao angst).

Diluc’s attitude about the Knights, combined with a thought on corruption in the Order

On the one hand, he’s justified, to a point. It pains me to admit it, but it’s the truth. They treated Crepus’ death like it was nothing. To his face. Admittedly, going rogue and actively undermining the Knights is overreacting, I think. But!! Here’s where the corruption bit comes in. Diluc was the youngest captain in the Ordo Favonius history. By the time he’d left at age eighteen, he’d been a captain for four years (which, hm. Really makes you wonder about the age restrictions on the Knights but okay I guess). One of Kaeya’s voicelines mentions there are ten captains total, which makes being one presumably an honor. I’m not sure how big the Ordo Favonius is, especially since Varka’s been away with many of them, so take that with a grain of salt (I’ll get back to Diluc in a sec, just wait a minute). But the Knights of Favonius serve as Mondstadt’s military, law enforcement, and their governing body (which, sidenote, makes Mondstadt a military dictatorship, depending on how exactly the Knights run the city) alongside the Church. However, based on Rosaria’s attitude, the Church doesn’t wield much political power. They’re influential by sheer virtue of being the Church. A military dictatorship opens a lot of opportunities for corruption. My thought was, while Crepus’ death, and the Knights’ reaction to it, was ultimately what drove Diluc out of the Knights, I think that maybe there was more to it than that. As something of a sidenote, Varka left Jean in charge. I’m not entirely sure if that’s because Jean’s rank out of what was left of the Knights in Mondstadt was optimal or because he trusted her personally. I just thought it was interesting how she, while very capable on her own, doesn’t seem to be any sort of second in command. She doesn’t hold any other titles (that I know of, correct me if I’m wrong) besides The Dandelion Knight and Acting Grandmaster. I might also be wrong. Dandelion Knight may actually be a position of power and title created in reference to Venessa.

Religion in Genshin

Kind of piggybacking off my thoughts on Mondstadt’s government, religion in the Genshin universe is interesting. Mondstadt is the only (known) region with a real religious structure among humans. It’s modeled (loosely) off of the Catholic Church, if I’m not mistaken. The Hilichurls also seem to have an organized religion completely independent from humans’. Shamanachurls (Shamanchurls?) can manipulate the elements without the aid of Visions, which is interesting. Liyue seems to regard religion (if their form of it can even be called that anymore) as more of a tradition than anything. The only significant ties they have with Rex Lapis outside his administrative duties seems to be the Rite of Descension, which locals don’t usually attend anyway. Not really sure where I was going with this but I thought it was cool.

#genshin impact #genshin #diluc #jean #wordbuilding #Yuki's brainrot #rex lapis #xiao #ganyu #i just have way too much genshin brainrot

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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I have been summoned ehe

@bilucs

No warnings

Kaeya’s office doesn’t seem to see much use. The carpet’s so thick, you could just sink into it, and the couch pushed against the wall is more of a storage spot for blankets and pillows than actual seating. No one really asks why. Kaeya’s eccentricity is a perfect cover, one that’s saved him from explaining many of the things he does. On the rare occasion that someone does speak up, he laughs it off with a wave of his hand, with a joke about how the Acting Grandmaster hasn’t seen her own home since last week.

That is, until about a week ago. The Calvary Captain doesn’t appear use his office much. Paperwork doesn’t seem to exist for him most days, despite the trouble he brings the Knights of Favonius. He’d been missing all morning, much to Jean’s distress, not to mention Timmie had appeared in the Cathedral, bawling to Sister Grace about Klee’s fish blasting.

When Jean finally managed to get down there, Klee was nowhere to be found.

It took hours of searching, but she finally found Klee, wrapped in a blanket, scowling up at her from just inside the doorway to Kaeya’s office. “Kaeya, have you seen-”

“He’s asleep,” Klee whisper-shouted, crossing her arms.

Indeed, Kaeya was passed out over a small pile of paperwork and half-written reports. Beside him on the desk sat what appeared at a glance, to be a bomb, but upon closer inspection was the small, round plushie Alice had given Klee before leaving. He had, Jean noticed belatedly, a blanket tossed haphazardly over his shoulders, as if Klee had tried to cover him up.

She smiled a little at that. “Did you two have a good day?” she asked, but the candy-blue tint to Klee’s teeth said it all.

I cannt write for shit but I just have the headcanon that kaeya's rlly good with kids like after klee's story quest I've just been thinking about Resident Babysitter Kaeya 🥺🥺

Imagine him, in his office late at night, carrying a sleeping Klee in his arms while reading reports <//3

And just,, he'd do the most to make sure kids feel safe and comfortable in his presence. Catch him carrying a sweet or two in his pocket every time he goes on patrol, or doing fun tricks with his vision when kids come up to him,,,

And like watching him interact with kids would be so precious too like this man hides behind 628383726 masks at all times and shows very little genuine emotion but put him in a room with kids and he's the complete opposite :< the most attentive and enthusiastic about what he's being told, is he hearing the same story for the 5th time? Doesnt matter to him he'll be just as concentrated as he was the first time

oh and kaeya doesn't cry a lot at least in front of other ppl right obviously but he definitely got teary eyed when a kid sought him out just to show off the eye patch he spent days making because he wanted to look like his role model :((

#Reblogs #kaeya #klee #jean #this one's nice i promise

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gladiators-intoxication · 3 years

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In Search of Justice, Part One: Concerning Betrayal

Part one of three: Kaeya awaits his execution in the company of old friends and ex-friends

Warnings: Spoilers for Kaeya’s companionship stories, imprisonment, manga spoilers (Diluc’s dad), attempted murder mention.

[1], [2], [3]

Khaenri’ah was cruel to her prisoners. Not even her crown prince was exempted from her cruelty. It just looked different for him. His cell, a heavily guarded room in the guest wing, recalled not his childhood here, but the one he’d shared with a brother that wasn’t truly his. One he hadn’t been allowed to keep. The guards that had hunted him down and dragged him away were two servants’ sons- brothers- that he’d played with when he wasn’t training.

For all the things Khaenri’ah had deprived him of during that time, friends hadn’t been one of them. She had mistakenly believed that they’d make him hesitate when he’d been forced to choose. The only person he’d ever had contact with was his old servant.

Dainsleif had always been tall. Two years older than Kaeya, even as a child he’d been cold, aloof from all the world but his prince.

When Dainsleif appeared with food, he found Kaeya sitting on his bed, knees tucked to his chest, staring at the wall where Diluc’s had been when they’d lived together. The dish Dainsleif brought had been Kaeya’s favorite. Even in Mondstadt, he’d missed it. It didn’t taste the same, though, he thought bitterly. Another attempt to make him love her again.

“Is there something wrong?” Dainsleif, ever attentive to the feelings Kaeya had been trained to seal up. The hard, inexpressive lines of his face warming into something like concern like they did for no one else.

“What will you do?” Kaeya asked, setting aside the plate. He leaned back and resumed staring at where he thought Diluc’s bed ought to be. Dainsleif picked up the food. If memory served, Kaeya would get a halfhearted scolding next meal over wasting food.

He remembered them well, Dainsleif standing over him with a plate and a smile tugging at his mouth while he sighed and reminded Kaeya not to waste food, and that he might not always be as well fed as he is here.

Dainsleif pondered the question, turning it over slowly, pulling it apart and inspecting its pieces. He alone among the servants had been taught how to speak with Kaeya. Kaeya, who they’d taught to speak in riddles and half-truths, knowing that it would tear away anything he could come to love in Mondstadt.

“I’ll do what I’ve always done,” Dainsleif decided finally. “I’ll wait for you.”

Kaeya felt his mouth pull into a sardonic grin. “How long?”

“Forever.” The reply was immediate. Instinctive, almost. Unlike the rest of Kaeya’s recent questions, he didn’t stop to think about it, to consider what Kaeya may be asking.

“Forever’s a long time.”

“Do you doubt me?” Dainsleif challenged.

“I was taught to doubt.”

Dainsleif frowned, thinking. “Did you ever not?”

Kaeya laughed, a bitter, forced sound. “Once. When Father died. Twice, when Diluc tried to kill me.”

Dainsleif tilted his head, intrigued. “So you call Crepus Ragnvindr father?”

This time, Kaeya slid his eyes to look at his old companion. “He was more father to me than my real father,” he replied. “My childhood was in Mondstadt.”

“He wasn’t happy about leaving you,” Dainsleif said, and Kaeya narrowed his eyes.

“That didn’t stop him. From any of it.” He scowled a little, as much as he could let himself. “Diluc was rotten, but he let me make my own decisions. He just didn’t stick around for them.”

Kaeya found himself wondering if anyone else ever noticed how Dainsleif’s face betrayed his feelings, as a pained expression flashed, almost fast enough for Kaeya to miss. Dainsleif’s expressions didn’t take up his whole face the way Diluc’s used to, but the set of his jaw or the crease of a brow was enough to express the whole feeling that shone in Dainsleif’s dark blue eyes.

Maybe they didn’t care.

“What are you thinking?” Dainsleif asked.

“Just thinking,” Kaeya told him, despite knowing he’d press.

“About what?”

“What kind of person I could’ve been,” he lied. “You should go now.”

Dainsleif only hesitated a moment before bowing and exiting, but Kaeya caught the question in his eyes. Are you sure?

But Kaeya had been taught to doubt.

#genshin impact #genshin kaeya #kaeya alberich #dainsleif #guys it's just angst #genshin fic #In Search of Justice

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