inejinn

[inejinn]

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Seriously, cat, go away

Or : The cat curse

Or: Venti and being bullied by a cat

tagging you because it's venti and I need your thoughts on my characterizationnn: @fryseem

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"No! Bad, bad kitty. Come on, stop that"

If he wasn't he-who-Mondstadt-pray to, Venti would have gladly prayed for the anemo archon's help/mercy. Unfortunately, the winds cannot bring his prayers to another god that might act upon them, and so he doesn't.

They only laugh at him, small and airy and not aiding him in any way whatsoever.

"Guys. Come on.", he distractedly throws at them. They keep swirling around him anyway, evidently pleased with the cat's mayhem.

The cat continues lapping away at his bowl and lunch of the day, unbothered.

Finally, it, raises its head from the bowl. There's no meat nor cream left, by then. Its eyes find Venti's own. It mews. Venti stares back.

It keeps staring back, slowly looks down, looks back up, and mews again, clearly demanding more.

This must be what the owner of Angel's share feels like whenever Venti keeps pestering him about getting more wine.

"This wasn't even your bowl", Venti protests, his pitch embarrassingly going high at the offence.

---

There's an outrageous lot of loud noises in the bar, wich is exactly where Venti's voice fits into, as he share the latest developments of his life.

"I swear. I've been getting bullied by the most annoying cat ever."

"Barsibitos might be real, there's apparently a sort of justice in this world.", Rosaria deadpans, slowly twirling the beverage in her glass around.

" To think our prayers have finally been answered", Kaeya jests.

"You've been praying for me to get bullied?", he playfully gasps, even as he's very aware no such words ever left his friend's mouths in a serious manner. Seeing them pretend that it is the case is pretty funny, and worth pretending to believe them.

"Every evening and morning", Rosaria states.

"Yup! As she said", Kaeya echoes, laugh light, throwing one arm around the nun.

She easily shrugs it off, face as deadpan as it was before.

"Karma finally came for you for how much you annoy others."

"If the cat's your demand, you've cursed me", he bemoans. "It eats all my lunches. I'll never get to taste the way Sara cooks her meat ever again."

Kaeya only laughs.

As Venti starts to talk about the cat possibly hiding in the shadows for the best occasion to steal from him, Rosaria soon join in making fun of his pain, in her own particular, silent laughing way.

----

It's been a handful of days since the last time he invented a song. Too much, consequently. Wich means he took his lyre and paper out again, scratching some words on paper whenever he got ideas. Paper that he did the mistake of leaving unattended on a rock while chatting with a passerby. Paper that is being all wrinkled up by a certain cat.

Said cat continues to graciously lay on the papers, unbothered by the consequence of its actions and unbothered by Venti trying to chase it away. "Come on, shoo!"

It stays content there, even as Venti keeps attempting to push it back.

It seems like the feline knows Venti can't really fight back against its deviousness without being overcome with a sneezing attack.

See, the thing is that if Venti intervenes with his two hands, he's going to get cat hair all over them and inevitably going to have an allergic reaction, aka sneeze his heart away.

And he can't possibly create too strong of a wind current! Sure, the cat is annoying, nevertheless, he doesn't want to harm it.

"Come on, paper can't possibly be more comfortable than grass", he tries to bargain. The cat keeps laying there, wholly uncaring.

Venti gives in to his urge to deeply sigh.

Guess he's going to have to write his ideas on either his cape or himself.

It's unlikely, but he swears the cat starts to purr at his begrudging acceptation of the situation.

------

"Traveler, I'm begging you, pleaseee help me"

The Traveler's only response is to raise up an eyebrow. That's equivalent to asking for clarification, and so here goes Venti, clarifying.

"Okay, so: there's this cat that keeps following me around, and I must say, as a bard, I normally enjoy the attention but-this is awful, really. I can't remember the last time I managed to eat all my food on my own."

The eyebrow of the Traveler only raises further. Bewilderment? Judgement?

Venti stares back. They each stare at each other. The Traveler snorts, shrugs, and goes leaves.

Hah. Apparently, the Traveler can do a lot of pointless small missions, but draws the line at helping Venti with his cat problem. Fair enough.

Still, he calls " For your information, I might ask you again if this keeps on going!" , because, come on, him and the cat are kind of like the Traveler and Paimon: a bigger creature, and a smaller one stealing the food of the first. Except Paimon can talk, and isn't such annoying company.

-------

The cat's there again. Somehow. It followed when he went outside the city again, and it followed when he travelled west. to the old capital.

"Seriously, cat, go away", he stops. It does as well, though it makes no move of, well, going away. Even as Venti keeps standing there for what is probably more than a few minutes. He's used to waiting for time to pass, in a way.

It seems the cat is as well, because it doesn't move, except to sit.

"You can't keep following me around like that kitty, you'll just end up hurt. Do you not know how many hilichurls there are outside?", and so he asks, sitting up in a tree.

The cat looks up at him. Its head is slightly tilted to the side. For the first time, he thinks that it kind of is adorable.

"Seriously. With such tiny legs, that's just not smart, really! Aren't you tired of following me around?"

The cat doesn't answer, obviously.

He gives a tiny sigh. "You're really persistent. I don't have food on me right now, you know?"

The cat doesn't answer, once again, but this time, Venti is pretty sure it really does start purring.

"Aw. Really? Do you feed off of annoying me?", he asks, feeling strangely endeared for the first time.

"You really are something. Is it that you want me to write a ballad about you , that you've been this persistent?", he jokes.

He might not go to the old capital anymore. It doesn't feel like reminiscing is that worth it, currently. Maybe later. Maybe another time.

The cat mews back at him.

-------

[inejinn]

Wdym there was a pic of baby Rumi in the movie when I wrote my fic with the idea that there were none💔

Please, Zoey wasn't written being that bad at staking people , let's just say this is an AU where Celine didn't let Rumi be known by the public until her debuts

(baby rumi was so adorable though, oh my god)

Shades and colours

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II) zoey centric, in which she wonders about hair colours while braiding rumi's and mira's hair

(takes place during the movie, a few days after the saja boys appeared!)

-------------------------------------------------

"Okay, hear me out. Mira's hair is pink. Rumi's is purple. The saja boys' are the color of the transgender and asexual flag. It's pride month. Does that-", such is the start of the, low-key conspiracy, tweet that sends Zoey down the rabbit hole.

Ever since she was a child, she's always been left in awe at seeing people with blue hair, with green hair, or split hair, or whatever cool design there can be.

But recently, she's been getting fascinated with people with colorful hair again, whether they had to dye their hair to get crazy cool design or not. It's not too common, but it's a fact: some people are born with blue hair. Or green. Or-

And while there's many more logical explanations to that, that being the tweet, like the hair colour gene of the saja boys being affected by their demon gene ( or something like that? she doesn't have a degree in demon biology), or just being some sort of shapeshifting spell..

For Mira, the logical explanation could be that she just dies her hair pink. But, well, her eyebrows are pink as well. Same with Rumi.

Uncommon hair colours are, well. Uncommon, but they exist: there might be a good 25% of the population who has hair of colours such as green, blue, red, or whatever else shade naturally.

Which is absolutely awesome? Hello? Her friends too, she's pretty sure, because never once has their roots been anything other than pink or purple. Or, maybe they touch them up literally every time they start showing but, come on. They'd have no reason to hide that from her unless it was some sort of a veryyy long term prank.

And she's been wondering: is it the hoonmoon and coming into contact with it that caused that for them? Caused wild, pretty shades to tint their hair, like reaching into the hoonmoon let them create their own magical weapons?

She thinks it could be, but none of its previous protectors had colored hair so..

So maybe not, maybe she's reaching, but it'd be so cool if that was the case. Because.

She has no clue whether her friend's hair are this way because of fate or because of their own doing . But the one thing she knows is that, that is absolutely unfair?? Like, come on! She has a very much common hair colour. She didn't get to have a fun one either at birth or afterwards. And, the cherry on top, is that she got the hair colour that's the hardest one to dye.

By that, she means that she'd have to bleach her hair, and absolutely damage it, unless she can settle with, maybe, simple black hair that'd sometimes glows red-dye in the light or something. Life's unfair.

It's not that she's frustrated or jealous, but she'll admit it, she is indeed kind of envious of her two best-friends, her besties that don't seem to realize how awesome their hair is, how pretty and ethereal it looks.

Wich might be why she kind of harass them with that fact. Wich, really, absolutely is why she bully them about their hair.

She figures, if they're not going to outright tell her if their shade is natural or not, she might as well have some fun while trying to figure it out.

She had tried finding childhood pictures of younger versions of her friends.

Usually, Zoey's good at that, at scrolling through medias and content to stalk someone's life. She loves being noisy, to look everywhere on the internet digging up informations, and that's an activity that's only made easier by their countless fanpages.

Except those fanpages only uses candids from any of their countless concerts (candid shots they somehow always manage to look absolutely flawless in, zoey's owns being a whole other question), pictures they've posted themselves on their socials, or official shoots. Her researches don't offer her much more. Mira's baby pictures seems to be as well hidden as the One piece, and Rumi's younger pictures as a whole seems to be an ancient legend you could doubt even existed.

But Zoey's everything but not persistent. She had thought she should outright ask them for baby pictures, for child-pictures, then. And so she had ! Asked, shared hers, shared some pictures of herself when she was still in highschool, aswell.

They had withdrawn. Mira's had lowered her head to conveniently clean her glasses, while Rumi had sooo awkwardly tried to avoid her gaze. So awkwardly Mira had raised up her head and changed the subject (, very much less subtly than Rumi was trying to be). So.

She hadn't insisted.

They're very close to each other, and they share a lot of moments, and they've been living in the same home for 2years now, but her girls keep their past close to their chests. And that isn't something she necessarily mind! There's things she doesn't tell them about what her life used to be like, as well.

But it's true she's more at ease expressing herself than they are, a little too much sometimes.

And yes, she wishes they wouldn't close off so suddenly; so drastically.

But, well.

She doesn't want them to feel uncomfy with her.

Wich is why instead of prodding at their past, she's currently proding at Rumi's hair. At a specific strand, specifically, one that's refusing to stick with the others.

Playing with her friend's hair is a way more effective way of investigating, the girl definitely more relaxed that way. She's actually kind of melting into the cushion, wich is both very endearing and also hilarious.

Zoey's not really doing this just to try and check for different colored roots or strands anymore. She's honestly doing it for the sheer joy doing so makes her feel. And also because seeing Rumi with her hair down is always an occasion to jump on.

Listen, she gets the appeal of having a signature hairstyle: she does have one, and Rumi's pretty characteristic, and it fits her well, but.

It's such a shamee, because if Rumi's braid fits her and accentuate the sharp features of her face, she looks like a downright goddess with her hair down. The way hair frames her face. Woah, to put it simply.

She doesn't even needs to make up an intricate or original design, really, so she's just making tiny braids there and there. It kind of looks like lavender, except the shade of rumi's hair is warmer than that. But, yes, that might still be a gooddesign idea anyway.

"Oh my god, that is genius, how did I never get this idea", she hears from the other side of the bed and under her, Rumi makes an enquiring grunt, or an agreeing one.. Wait. Pause. Uhhhhh? Did Mira just read her fucking mind?

"I've been saying, drag queens are genius walking among us mere humans."

Oh. Okay, yeah, Mira's answer explain everything. Drag show they've been watching. She's no mind-reader.

"What's the genius thing?", she asks, still focusing. Her fingers continue twisting hair strands around. She sticks her tongue out a little. If she wants to makes it seems like a sprig of lavender, she needs to focus so as to twist it just like that-..

"She did a sexy megamind costume and she made the ball cap work", Mira explains.

Which, yes, explains the amazement.

"Please don't get any ideas from her.", Rumi says, and she snorts.

"I'm sure you could rock a ball cap tho", she chimes in. Mira definitely would, at least. She rocked a sleeping bag and could probably rock a trash bag if she wanted to.

"Eh.. I'm not sure the fans would like it"

"They so would not.", Mira intervenes, solemny nodding, wich Zoey sees only from the corner of her vision, because she'd rather not mess up her idea, or, worse: mess up rumi's hair.

"I'm sure you could make it work! Somehow."

"I mean.. If you really want that, we could try incorporating bald caps into a choregraphy? Really not sure how tho.", Mira answers her. Still from the corner of her eyes, she sees her repositionning herself , half turning toward her and Rumi.

"Maybe making it into an epic hairstyle reveal? Like, ball cap for a quarter of the song then BOOM, epic braid.. or something.", Rumi starts brainstorming, and, oops.

She was kidding, but those two are really the greatest, seeing as they don't sound too dubious about her silly idea. (Or they're simply as crazy as her. That theory is as plausible, if not more likely, and this is probably why she likes them so much: they're never scared or following her in her crazy ideas, in her very much spontaneous and sometimes stupid decisions)

"Nooo, I was joking, don't hide your pretty hairfull heads"

"Hah, okay, phew. Because I was gonna say, we have no songs that would fit this, sooo", Mira says.

"Songs that'd fit what?", Rumi asks.

"Like, you know, hiding shit until the final dramatic reveal", Mira says. Zoey focusing back on her tiny braid. She's almost done, she can't mess up in the final moments, can she? She's almost to the point of just having to tie her masterpiece it with a small hair-tie.

"Yeah. Right.", Rumi says.

There's a blank, suddenly, a silence that's almost absolute except for the sounds from the show.

The previous pressure seems to be back, somehow, like Rumi is starting to stress again from nothing. Everything has been so tense, in between the release of golden, and those pricks of saja boys, and their songs fighting in the charts, and- Everything has been lowkey awful, even between them. She doesn't know why, but Rumi has been stand-offish, and it's affected Mira aswell, and her, too.

And, since they don't usually share those things, Zoey has been hesitating to speak up about it. Wich is why their hanging out session turning into an impromptu sleepover had been so much more nice than usual. A break from the tense (and too hushed) space settling between them.

"Right." Mira turns back towards the screen.

The silence keeps going, for a good minute. It's a different one than the one that sometimes come during their conversations and, yeah, no. Zoey's not a fan of confrontation, but she doesn't like letting things being tense, either. She doesnt think the girls are going to acknowledge the heart of the problem. And she doesn't know how to, but what she can do is..

She straightens up, and- "Tadaaaa! I'm done!"

"Oh?" Rumi slowly straighten up as well, stretching then twisting to see the braid. If she hadn't been wearing sweatpants and a long hoodie, Zoey would have most likely been able to see her stomach, seeing as Rumi is very flexible and currently very much extending herself to try and get a glimpse of what she's just done. "That's not a regular braid", she says, so carefully feeling it Zoey kinda want to guh about the gentleness of the action.

"Nope, I wanted to try something new"

"Zoey, that's gorgeous as fuck. You got the idea yourself?", Mira asks, and she can see that she's turned back around toward them.

"Yeah! I was trying to make it looks like lavender, or something like that", she grins.

"Can't believe you, you stole the idea from pinterest, not taking any other explanations", Mira jests.

"Excuuuse me, I'll let you know , I'm the aesthetic pinterest inspiration person", she jest back, smile clearly present on her face.

"You two are making me wants to get a mirror to see but I'm way too comfortable there to do it, stop ittt", Rumi says, still trying to break her spine to see the braid, which she.. cannot possibly do. Unless she were to break her spine.

She snorts. Rumi hears. "You had to do it right in the middle of my hair where I can't see", she says so grumpily that Mira immediately joins her in the laughing.

"Cruel, you two are cruel. I'm going to miss the next reveal and you're laughing.", she says, which is the absolute truth, which is reality as it stands.

"Yeah. We're evil and cruel.", Zoey answers while organising her hair stuff or rather putting every one of her hair ties together in a single box despite their various colour), attempting to stay serious, because that always is the best way to get Rumi to keep being dramatic, which is very much peak entertainment.

It works. "Nooooo, why would you do this to meee, I'll never get to see my glorious Youngrong Kim's design??", Rumi dramatically weeps, hand on her chest and the other down the side of the bed, like she's a drama heroine dying.

"oh my god you are such a drama queen ", Mira snorts. "It's not that hard, you can just go"

"You're next by the way", Zoey decides to announce right this moment.

The way Mira's face loses her smirk so drastically at this is absolutely hilarious. Drama queen, yeah, indeed.

"Nevermind, Rumi, don't you dare leave, she won't let me speak to her while she's focused, I won't be able to ramble"

"I thought it wasn't "that hard"?"

"I never said that. I definitely never said that. Rumi, have mercy on me"

Zoey snorts the antics of her friends. Boy is she glad to hear them back to their usual self. She'll deal with Mira's yapping if it means no more of the chilling silence, the loneliness, gladly. She knows very well it's in their nature not to speak about what bother them, but, really, it bothers her that they won't talk to her about it, and really, she'd rather be distracted than have to be sad about it.

"You know you can take a picture of the back of your head with your phone right?" , Mira's been adding, trying to convince Rumi to stay in Zoey's room (despite the fact Rumi is making no move to actually leave, apparently fine with sticking on the bed next to Zoey).

"Hmm, I don't knoww. . .", Rumi says.

"Rumi. Rumiiii- Don't leave me alone with her, she's going to spend hours brushing my hair"

Zoey snorts, again, dragging Mira to the middle of the bed, even if that means she can't really see much of the screen anymore with the tall girl in front of her .

Long, pink, soft hair, here she comes.

" I missed it, did Gvan reveal her outfit already?", she asks, gently dragging her fingers through Mira's hair, exactly like she had done with Rumi's earlier.

"Oh my god, you missed it? " Comes Rumi's answer, said girl taking her phone out and shifting even closer to them. "You've got to see, it wasn't the most original but, still, wow. Glorious."

And there they go, yapping away about the show and design decisions. It's fun. It's nice. It's the warmth Zoey feels when thinking about their relationship coming back again, this time metaphorically and quite literally, with the blankets of her bed and the shared warmth of Rumi's and her tights next to eachother, of Mira's shoulder she's leaned over to see Rumi's phone.

It's what makes her totally forget about her previous hair colour brainstorming, her questioning over the reasons why they hide things that seems so simple, temporaryly.

-------------------------------------------------

It's moments like this that she prefers over the sheer rush she feels when on stage.

I have this fun little head-canon that "unnatural" hair colour is actually natural, if not common in kpdh's universe, (because, for rumi, for example: I think it doesn't make much sense that she'd feel comfortable with her hair being purple and very obvious if that was something she inherited from her father's side, from being a demon, given how she's always been hiding her patterns. I think Celine would have made her that hide aswell if it had been a telltale sign of her being inhuman ?) so here's a fanfic that stemmed from this idea!

────── ──────🗡────── ──────

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continuation of Marks you shouldn't have to hide

[inejinn]

Shades and colours

────── ──────🗡────── ──────

II) zoey centric, in which she wonders about hair colours while braiding rumi's and mira's hair

(takes place during the movie, a few days after the saja boys appeared!)

-------------------------------------------------

"Okay, hear me out. Mira's hair is pink. Rumi's is purple. The saja boys' are the color of the transgender and asexual flag. It's pride month. Does that-", such is the start of the, low-key conspiracy, tweet that sends Zoey down the rabbit hole.

Ever since she was a child, she's always been left in awe at seeing people with blue hair, with green hair, or split hair, or whatever cool design there can be.

But recently, she's been getting fascinated with people with colorful hair again, whether they had to dye their hair to get crazy cool design or not. It's not too common, but it's a fact: some people are born with blue hair. Or green. Or-

And while there's many more logical explanations to that, that being the tweet, like the hair colour gene of the saja boys being affected by their demon gene ( or something like that? she doesn't have a degree in demon biology), or just being some sort of shapeshifting spell..

For Mira, the logical explanation could be that she just dies her hair pink. But, well, her eyebrows are pink as well. Same with Rumi.

Uncommon hair colours are, well. Uncommon, but they exist: there might be a good 25% of the population who has hair of colours such as green, blue, red, or whatever else shade naturally.

Which is absolutely awesome? Hello? Her friends too, she's pretty sure, because never once has their roots been anything other than pink or purple. Or, maybe they touch them up literally every time they start showing but, come on. They'd have no reason to hide that from her unless it was some sort of a veryyy long term prank.

And she's been wondering: is it the hoonmoon and coming into contact with it that caused that for them? Caused wild, pretty shades to tint their hair, like reaching into the hoonmoon let them create their own magical weapons?

She thinks it could be, but none of its previous protectors had colored hair so..

So maybe not, maybe she's reaching, but it'd be so cool if that was the case. Because.

She has no clue whether her friend's hair are this way because of fate or because of their own doing . But the one thing she knows is that, that is absolutely unfair?? Like, come on! She has a very much common hair colour. She didn't get to have a fun one either at birth or afterwards. And, the cherry on top, is that she got the hair colour that's the hardest one to dye.

By that, she means that she'd have to bleach her hair, and absolutely damage it, unless she can settle with, maybe, simple black hair that'd sometimes glows red-dye in the light or something. Life's unfair.

It's not that she's frustrated or jealous, but she'll admit it, she is indeed kind of envious of her two best-friends, her besties that don't seem to realize how awesome their hair is, how pretty and ethereal it looks.

Wich might be why she kind of harass them with that fact. Wich, really, absolutely is why she bully them about their hair.

She figures, if they're not going to outright tell her if their shade is natural or not, she might as well have some fun while trying to figure it out.

She had tried finding childhood pictures of younger versions of her friends.

Usually, Zoey's good at that, at scrolling through medias and content to stalk someone's life. She loves being noisy, to look everywhere on the internet digging up informations, and that's an activity that's only made easier by their countless fanpages.

Except those fanpages only uses candids from any of their countless concerts (candid shots they somehow always manage to look absolutely flawless in, zoey's owns being a whole other question), pictures they've posted themselves on their socials, or official shoots. Her researches don't offer her much more. Mira's baby pictures seems to be as well hidden as the One piece, and Rumi's younger pictures as a whole seems to be an ancient legend you could doubt even existed.

But Zoey's everything but not persistent. She had thought she should outright ask them for baby pictures, for child-pictures, then. And so she had ! Asked, shared hers, shared some pictures of herself when she was still in highschool, aswell.

They had withdrawn. Mira's had lowered her head to conveniently clean her glasses, while Rumi had sooo awkwardly tried to avoid her gaze. So awkwardly Mira had raised up her head and changed the subject (, very much less subtly than Rumi was trying to be). So.

She hadn't insisted.

They're very close to each other, and they share a lot of moments, and they've been living in the same home for 2years now, but her girls keep their past close to their chests. And that isn't something she necessarily mind! There's things she doesn't tell them about what her life used to be like, as well.

But it's true she's more at ease expressing herself than they are, a little too much sometimes.

And yes, she wishes they wouldn't close off so suddenly; so drastically.

But, well.

She doesn't want them to feel uncomfy with her.

Wich is why instead of prodding at their past, she's currently proding at Rumi's hair. At a specific strand, specifically, one that's refusing to stick with the others.

Playing with her friend's hair is a way more effective way of investigating, the girl definitely more relaxed that way. She's actually kind of melting into the cushion, wich is both very endearing and also hilarious.

Zoey's not really doing this just to try and check for different colored roots or strands anymore. She's honestly doing it for the sheer joy doing so makes her feel. And also because seeing Rumi with her hair down is always an occasion to jump on.

Listen, she gets the appeal of having a signature hairstyle: she does have one, and Rumi's pretty characteristic, and it fits her well, but.

It's such a shamee, because if Rumi's braid fits her and accentuate the sharp features of her face, she looks like a downright goddess with her hair down. The way hair frames her face. Woah, to put it simply.

She doesn't even needs to make up an intricate or original design, really, so she's just making tiny braids there and there. It kind of looks like lavender, except the shade of rumi's hair is warmer than that. But, yes, that might still be a gooddesign idea anyway.

"Oh my god, that is genius, how did I never get this idea", she hears from the other side of the bed and under her, Rumi makes an enquiring grunt, or an agreeing one.. Wait. Pause. Uhhhhh? Did Mira just read her fucking mind?

"I've been saying, drag queens are genius walking among us mere humans."

Oh. Okay, yeah, Mira's answer explain everything. Drag show they've been watching. She's no mind-reader.

"What's the genius thing?", she asks, still focusing. Her fingers continue twisting hair strands around. She sticks her tongue out a little. If she wants to makes it seems like a sprig of lavender, she needs to focus so as to twist it just like that-..

"She did a sexy megamind costume and she made the ball cap work", Mira explains.

Which, yes, explains the amazement.

"Please don't get any ideas from her.", Rumi says, and she snorts.

"I'm sure you could rock a ball cap tho", she chimes in. Mira definitely would, at least. She rocked a sleeping bag and could probably rock a trash bag if she wanted to.

"Eh.. I'm not sure the fans would like it"

"They so would not.", Mira intervenes, solemny nodding, wich Zoey sees only from the corner of her vision, because she'd rather not mess up her idea, or, worse: mess up rumi's hair.

"I'm sure you could make it work! Somehow."

"I mean.. If you really want that, we could try incorporating bald caps into a choregraphy? Really not sure how tho.", Mira answers her. Still from the corner of her eyes, she sees her repositionning herself , half turning toward her and Rumi.

"Maybe making it into an epic hairstyle reveal? Like, ball cap for a quarter of the song then BOOM, epic braid.. or something.", Rumi starts brainstorming, and, oops.

She was kidding, but those two are really the greatest, seeing as they don't sound too dubious about her silly idea. (Or they're simply as crazy as her. That theory is as plausible, if not more likely, and this is probably why she likes them so much: they're never scared or following her in her crazy ideas, in her very much spontaneous and sometimes stupid decisions)

"Nooo, I was joking, don't hide your pretty hairfull heads"

"Hah, okay, phew. Because I was gonna say, we have no songs that would fit this, sooo", Mira says.

"Songs that'd fit what?", Rumi asks.

"Like, you know, hiding shit until the final dramatic reveal", Mira says. Zoey focusing back on her tiny braid. She's almost done, she can't mess up in the final moments, can she? She's almost to the point of just having to tie her masterpiece it with a small hair-tie.

"Yeah. Right.", Rumi says.

There's a blank, suddenly, a silence that's almost absolute except for the sounds from the show.

The previous pressure seems to be back, somehow, like Rumi is starting to stress again from nothing. Everything has been so tense, in between the release of golden, and those pricks of saja boys, and their songs fighting in the charts, and- Everything has been lowkey awful, even between them. She doesn't know why, but Rumi has been stand-offish, and it's affected Mira aswell, and her, too.

And, since they don't usually share those things, Zoey has been hesitating to speak up about it. Wich is why their hanging out session turning into an impromptu sleepover had been so much more nice than usual. A break from the tense (and too hushed) space settling between them.

"Right." Mira turns back towards the screen.

The silence keeps going, for a good minute. It's a different one than the one that sometimes come during their conversations and, yeah, no. Zoey's not a fan of confrontation, but she doesn't like letting things being tense, either. She doesnt think the girls are going to acknowledge the heart of the problem. And she doesn't know how to, but what she can do is..

She straightens up, and- "Tadaaaa! I'm done!"

"Oh?" Rumi slowly straighten up as well, stretching then twisting to see the braid. If she hadn't been wearing sweatpants and a long hoodie, Zoey would have most likely been able to see her stomach, seeing as Rumi is very flexible and currently very much extending herself to try and get a glimpse of what she's just done. "That's not a regular braid", she says, so carefully feeling it Zoey kinda want to guh about the gentleness of the action.

"Nope, I wanted to try something new"

"Zoey, that's gorgeous as fuck. You got the idea yourself?", Mira asks, and she can see that she's turned back around toward them.

"Yeah! I was trying to make it looks like lavender, or something like that", she grins.

"Can't believe you, you stole the idea from pinterest, not taking any other explanations", Mira jests.

"Excuuuse me, I'll let you know , I'm the aesthetic pinterest inspiration person", she jest back, smile clearly present on her face.

"You two are making me wants to get a mirror to see but I'm way too comfortable there to do it, stop ittt", Rumi says, still trying to break her spine to see the braid, which she.. cannot possibly do. Unless she were to break her spine.

She snorts. Rumi hears. "You had to do it right in the middle of my hair where I can't see", she says so grumpily that Mira immediately joins her in the laughing.

"Cruel, you two are cruel. I'm going to miss the next reveal and you're laughing.", she says, which is the absolute truth, which is reality as it stands.

"Yeah. We're evil and cruel.", Zoey answers while organising her hair stuff or rather putting every one of her hair ties together in a single box despite their various colour), attempting to stay serious, because that always is the best way to get Rumi to keep being dramatic, which is very much peak entertainment.

It works. "Nooooo, why would you do this to meee, I'll never get to see my glorious Youngrong Kim's design??", Rumi dramatically weeps, hand on her chest and the other down the side of the bed, like she's a drama heroine dying.

"oh my god you are such a drama queen ", Mira snorts. "It's not that hard, you can just go"

"You're next by the way", Zoey decides to announce right this moment.

The way Mira's face loses her smirk so drastically at this is absolutely hilarious. Drama queen, yeah, indeed.

"Nevermind, Rumi, don't you dare leave, she won't let me speak to her while she's focused, I won't be able to ramble"

"I thought it wasn't "that hard"?"

"I never said that. I definitely never said that. Rumi, have mercy on me"

Zoey snorts the antics of her friends. Boy is she glad to hear them back to their usual self. She'll deal with Mira's yapping if it means no more of the chilling silence, the loneliness, gladly. She knows very well it's in their nature not to speak about what bother them, but, really, it bothers her that they won't talk to her about it, and really, she'd rather be distracted than have to be sad about it.

"You know you can take a picture of the back of your head with your phone right?" , Mira's been adding, trying to convince Rumi to stay in Zoey's room (despite the fact Rumi is making no move to actually leave, apparently fine with sticking on the bed next to Zoey).

"Hmm, I don't knoww. . .", Rumi says.

"Rumi. Rumiiii- Don't leave me alone with her, she's going to spend hours brushing my hair"

Zoey snorts, again, dragging Mira to the middle of the bed, even if that means she can't really see much of the screen anymore with the tall girl in front of her .

Long, pink, soft hair, here she comes.

" I missed it, did Gvan reveal her outfit already?", she asks, gently dragging her fingers through Mira's hair, exactly like she had done with Rumi's earlier.

"Oh my god, you missed it? " Comes Rumi's answer, said girl taking her phone out and shifting even closer to them. "You've got to see, it wasn't the most original but, still, wow. Glorious."

And there they go, yapping away about the show and design decisions. It's fun. It's nice. It's the warmth Zoey feels when thinking about their relationship coming back again, this time metaphorically and quite literally, with the blankets of her bed and the shared warmth of Rumi's and her tights next to eachother, of Mira's shoulder she's leaned over to see Rumi's phone.

It's what makes her totally forget about her previous hair colour brainstorming, her questioning over the reasons why they hide things that seems so simple, temporaryly.

-------------------------------------------------

It's moments like this that she prefers over the sheer rush she feels when on stage.

I have this fun little head-canon that "unnatural" hair colour is actually natural, if not common in kpdh's universe, (because, for rumi, for example: I think it doesn't make much sense that she'd feel comfortable with her hair being purple and very obvious if that was something she inherited from her father's side, from being a demon, given how she's always been hiding her patterns. I think Celine would have made her that hide aswell if it had been a telltale sign of her being inhuman ?) so here's a fanfic that stemmed from this idea!

────── ──────🗡────── ──────

-------------------------------------------------

continuation of Marks you shouldn't have to hide

[inejinn]

Marks you shouldn't have to hide

────── ──────🗡────── ──────

I) rumi centric: in wich hiding from your friends by covering yourself during a heatwave is not the brightest idea

(takes place before the events of the movie!)

-------------------------------------------------

It's so hot. The heat? Blazing. Blithering. She's dying. She's going to drown in her sweat.

Rumi has everything she could wish having. She's never had to endure being destitute: she's always had more money than the amount you need to have to live and not just survive.

She's strong-minded, her will more than firm.

Never has she been bullied, but now it's absolutely the opposite. People? They love her. They love her, so, so resolutely it can be a little scary sometimes.

She's not just speaking about her friends, who seems to appreciate her despite much, like that one time Zoey forgave her for breaking her favourite cup, when she had accidentally used too much pressure while holding the "precious" dinnerware.

While Rumi was fretting over the broken shards , trying to rebuild the ugly lizard that adorned the tea-cup, its owner had fretted over making sure she had been unhurt, assuring her "i don't care about it all that much, really! i can buy another one, i promise, are you sure you're really fine though?"

She's not just speaking about her friends, but she's also speaking about their fans, who seems to admire everything they make. To extents that are sometimes a little much. Downright scary some other times, yes, mayyybe. But, honestly, sasaengs, or papparazis, are not that much of a problem.

They somehow are not recognized when they're just wearing simple facemasks, so..

Rumi's life is great, really. It is. Perfect, almost.

It would be, if her face was the only thing she'd be hiding.

But, unfortunately, it very much isn't. She has things to hide. Not her face, sure, but still parts of herself.

Rumi has everything she could wish having, wich include a fancy appartment that really is more a penthouse, that she gets to live in with her best friends. Their appartment has AC.

She's still dying.

It feels like her second skin is stuck to her first skin, the fabric of her shirt wet with her sweat. Her leggings are doing pretty much the same. Ohhh my god this is awful.

"I'm dying", she says outloud to no-one in particular. No-one, because she's currently alone in the penthouse. Wich logically means that she could go around as unclothed as she'd want to, but the thing is that there isn't a world where that is something she would want.

Mira and Zoey could be back any minute now, back from the pool and its water that must feel so refreshing. Back from the pool, as in, the most effective way of fighting against the heat of the summer wave.

Unfortunately, she has to resort to spraying herself, as if she were some sort of wilting house-plant. The vaporized water feels nice, but. Not enough. Definitely not enough.

"arghhhh, i hate thisss"

She really, really does. Hate this. This being how she's currently feeling as she's laying on the couch and gross with sweat, of course.

Not how she's using the heat as an excuse not to see her own skin and what's on it. Not even the slightest bit, noo, never

She might just have to go lay on the floor instead. It has got to feel blissfully freezing, right? Taking a nap on the tiles sounds heavenly right about now. She'll move there once she'll have finished her daily internet-scrolling session, maybe.

But right now, chosing wich tweets she should answer to and wich to like and wich to simply secretly chuckle to is way more important. Doom-scrolling time is too important.

The only thing that might be allowed to disturb it are messages from Bobby, Celine or her friends: .. very much like the one she just got from Zoey.

"Be there in a minute! ", it goes, wich means they might be back in about , what, 10minutes, if they don't get too distracted. But given that a new coffee shop opened recently...

Her heart pangs a little. She hopes they won't take too long. Because, well, of course they can go to places without her, but a coffee place is somewhere she can easily go with them, and she loves sweet, tastful drinks. So. It'd be upsetting not going. She should ask them to some other day.

'See ya", she sends.

The floor sounds more and more enticing as she keeps scrolling. Specially given that her phone is becoming a little too hot for her comfort. The disadvantage of fast charging chargers is that they get hot very quickly. They get hot.

And the additional heat is pretty annoying, when her body's own is already very much too high. Is the AC broken? If not, then it is definitely not doing its job, the lazy-ass.

With a groan, Rumi unplugs her phone, reachs down to unplug the charger as well and..

Her fingers release their grip on her phone, and she smushes against a previously discarded pillow, and the feet of the table comes greet her and. Woah. Yeah, it is definitely a little cooler down there.

The "ow" that comes is muffled into the plush pillow. Well. Floor time it is, apparently.

Sometimes, things happen despite not having being planned and that's fine, she supposes. You can't fight back against fate. You have to make do with it, and try not to suffer because of its doing as much as you can.

There's things that cannot be escaped.

Ending up down there was apparently one of those things.

She's kind of lucky, really. The (plush as well, courtesy of that one time Mira bought too much fuzzy fabric for an outfit concept and insisted on using the left over) carpet is far away from her that she didn't land on it, which means she's in direct contact to the floor. And to the tiles. The cold, cold tiles. "Oh my god. that's, like, perfect."

She had been right. This is her paradise. She can almost ignore the buzzing of her head. Yeah, she's forgetting about it again. Definitely. She's more focused on getting rid of the pillow, once again chucking it further away, just to lay her cheek directly on the floor. "Wow." As Zoey always says: "yep, that's the stuff", though she usually uses that declaration for food-related affirmations.

She can almost ignore that she still feels very much too scorched underneath her sleeves and pants. She should have stayed in the confines of her room, where's she's able to expose more of herself, but the girls could be back any minutes now, and she promised she'd watch a movie with them. To make up for not going to the pool with them, or to the bathouse, or to the private beach they rented once, or- yeah. Basically any place where it's necessary to show off flawless skin.

Not going means not having to explain things, like why she's not wearing a swimsuit and, what, going in the water fully clothed while Mira and Zoey are swimming around in their own swimsuits that, really, really display way too much?

Yeahh. This is better for her lungs, anyway.

Here, in the relative coolness, her pulse and breathing pace can stay relatively normal, at least.

Even if it means she's stuck inside with an AC that is probably broken , and that actually might have turned into a radiator. Seriously, why is it so hot in there?

She should ask Bobby if the building has any insulation problem, or anything like that. Wich, well. She needs her phone to do that, and she has no idea where it landed. Fuck. Guess she has to sit up.

Nooooo.

With a deep sigh, she does sit up, away from the coolness. Her phone's tucked away, near the other couch, a little bellow it. The screen's light is highlighting the presence of dust bunnies.

She grimaces.

Standing up to go get it is not sounding too appealing right about now. Nope. Her legs are way too achy. Maybe she should just stay there. The looping song from the reel she had been watching isn't that annoying, if a little frustrating. Seriously, they just had to pick an extract ending just before the best part?

Or maybe she could just..

Clanking sounds comes from inside the home. She hurries up, almost stumbling right back to the ground as her head goes slightly tingly at the rush. Is this-

"WE'RE BACKK", comes from in between the entry and the kitchen.

Rumi relaxes, her shoulders lowering back down as she herself does aswell. Okay. Phew. Just her girls.

"Wow. You're looking so red, are you cosplaying a lobster?", she hears next. Next to her, or rather, above her. Mira.

She blinks. "You're back already?"

"Uh, yeah? I texted you some minutes ago, Zoey's phone died so she couldn't tell you" Mira's towering over her, looking down as she speaks, folded arms on the headrest of the couch.

"Hah, yeah, that makes sense. ", Rumi blinks again. Her friend's still wearing her pop-star like (not that she isn't a star) sunglasses, wich is quite a contrast compared to her flowy, angel-like t-shirt. It fits her oddly well.

"Sooo.. why didn't you answer? I thought you were having your internet-phone-couch time. .. No, actually, screw that. What are you doing down there? "

" Mira, it is so much cooler down there", she bemoans. " I feel like I can survive there" Her friend's eyebrows furrow. She leans down a little further.

"Uhm, have you considered trying logical solutions like tying up your hair? Wearing more adapted clothes? You could go around naked and we wouldn't mind to be fair, i'm 1 degree away from doing it myself"

That gets a snort out of Rumi's nose, because , yes, Mira might just do that.

Rolling up her sleeves sounds so easy, right now.

Suddenly, Rumi almost feels like she's younger, just having her first summer with her two newly encountered co-stars and having to subtly manage to state that sleevless costumes were out the question without raising actual questions.

"Nah, my braid was giving me such a headache,"she settles on saying (It really is better now that she lets her hair loose, in comparison) "I prefer having my Rapunzel moment"

"Sureee", Mira drawls, right before masterfully tumbling over the headrest to land on the couch, lowkey striking a pose, except Rumi knows very well it's probably not done consciously. "Hope you atleast drank."

Something in her expression is convincing Rumi that Mira is reconsidering things. Like not having dragged her along to the pool with them, for example.

Wich is exactly why she (hurriedly) gesture to the bottle she fully emptied some half an hour ago. "I was gonna go stand up at some point to grab some more"

"Welp, no need to anymore. We got-"

"Better water than the sink's water?", she asks. Rethorically. Mira is concerningly obsessed with trying out bottled water brands to find out wich is the best.

Her teasing tone is not lost on her.

"Excuse me, I'll let you know that volv-"

"Rumi, want ice-cream?! We bought watermelon flavour, you've got to try!", Zoey screams from the kitchen, making herself known again.

So that's what she's been doing. Probably struggling to find a place to store it in, what's with all the noodles currently in the freezer.

"Oh, no, thanks th-"

"Yes she does!", Mira interrupts her. " Come on, you've got to try it, it taste like nothing but at the same time like absolute shit."

Mira is still carefully scrutinizing her. They're almost face to face. This is actually kind of creepy, really; and definitely disturbing.

"Why would it still be in sale if it's really that bad?"

" Zoey will argue it's good, but do not believe her, her taste buds definitely suffered when she inhaled the chlorine"

"Okay, yeah, I'm intrigued now"

" Ice cream time it is then", Mira snaps upright- like it's not way too hot and like she still has plenty of energy after swimming during around 2hours- , offering a hand to drag Rumi along with her.

She barely stumbles when she gets up, this time.

"We got drinks too, you might finally get to get the strawberry flavour if Zoey didn't drink them all already"

"I did not! ", comes immediately from behind the door, from an offended Zoey. Like she hasn't been drinking all the bobba tea they've been getting, because, you know, it's supposedly cheaper and way better tasting than the ones in America. "I'm innocent, this is slander"

"Why does it sound like you were trying to drown her for this earlier in the pool?", Rumi asks , looking to the side at a Mira that definitely seems guilty of said crime.

"I was not." "She absolutely was."

"Okayy", she laughs "sure"

"I would never." , Mira assures, solemnly nodding, the hand that's not on Rumi's back placed on her heart like she's pledging her honest honesty, or something along the lines.

"Everybody in this building know you would, you innocent looking-demon.", Zoey deadpans. Her gaze has shifted to Rumi's neck . To her turtleneck? To what's underneath it? She almost freezes, except- "Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't notice, you let your hair down? That fits you so welllll" oh.

Yeah. This is her friends. The watermelon flavour waiting for her and the laughter that escapes Mira's throat makes that evident. They're okay with her habits, as odd as they can seem.

"Zoeyyy, do not murder her with your compliments before she's convinced you that ice-cream taste like fucking garbage."

"Excuse me? It does not, it's tastefully original"

"Yeah, usually that means something taste bad", she intervenes. She's still going to try that ice-cream out, but teasing her smaller friend is too nice of a thing to pass. They do the same to her, anyway.

‎‎‎ ‎

----------------------

continuation here ! :)

[inejinn]

I saw you reblogged the random ask post so here you go:

What are five of your favourite films?

What is your go to movie snack?

And what was your favourite film as a child, and why?

Don't feel pressured to answer if you don't want to :)

Omg thanks you so muchh, you're my first ask ever ☹️🫶

( I also had honestly forgotten about reblogging that, so that's reallyy an even more pleasant surprise)

I'd say my favourite ever are definitely the spiderverse movies (Atsv is my favourite but Itsv was so great too)

Everything everywhere all at once is also one of my favourite! (I both cried and laughed watching it) Definitely recommend it, it was hilarious. And also simultaneously made me have kind of an existential crisis

And then I'd say my favourite movies of the moment are most likely Thunderbolts and Kpop Demon Hunter? Very different vibes but. I love movies that are at least a little bit fantastical smm, give me all the magic there is

(Nimona was also very great but that makes six movies, so)

Andd, for my childhood favourite , I'd say the first Frozen ? It had such a grip on me (like it has and had on pretty much all children but)

Probably mostly because of the songs, singing along to them was so fun, but also because Elsa and her powers are so cool, but also because. Hurt/comfort trope. My addiction to it started early.

What about you?? Also, if you have recommandations , pleaseee share them, I'm on summer break and have all the time in the world to watch movies :D

[inejinn]

IWLOVE HIM, HE'S THE SILLIEST ARCHON AND AA

The urge to write about him is insaneee but I still have exams 😭 and I'm not sure anyone would even be interested arghhh

EVERYONE WAKE UP VENTI BDAY ART IS HERE !!!!!!!!!

[inejinn]

I lied, the lesbians will have to wait,

I have exams I have to study for so I'll get to update that fic later (and my others aswell)?

riverwalking:

Part One

Waking up with her hair slightly wet,

voice hoarse

Learning about missing cattles and past legends, thoughts of a river in mind

Yun Jin centric fic! Shenjin (though that'll come up in the next part), no visions AU

I DID NOT MEAN TO POST THAT YET PLEASE IGNORE IT

Dripping water is the thought Yun Jin wakes up to, although it quickly dissappear from her mind, just like the rest of her dream of the night did.

There's images of seaweed, and the sound of a river's stream, of red in the water and..

Before she can think of writing them down for perhaps inspiration, all memories of her dreams and nightly escapades are already gone.

She sits up among her pillows, rubbing at her eyes.

Her door has been left open and so there's a drift of wind passing into her room and out through the window. Oh. This is going to be bad for her throat. It's hoarse once again. Still.

That's unpleasant. Quite unpractical. She'll have to take a day off once again, if she wants to feel better soon enough.

First thing she does when she stands up is push the billowing curtains to the side, allowing more sunlight to iluminate her room, even if she is still in her nightgown and people might see. That isn't really is a risk, Liyueans are not of that sort.

As she has closed the window, she goes to close the door she doesn't remember having left open yesterday evening.

Once she's done that, she moves to her bathroom, where her clothes for the day are waiting for her.

Second thing she does is get ready.

She is likely going to have to dress up a little more warmly today. And that, despite the temperature being pleasant outside, courtesy of spring coming back.

Breathing doesn't exactly hurt, but speaking makes her throat achy, and she doesn't want to risk it. Being ill in this season? No, thanks you, that'd very much be a bother. Yunning would have her head.

She chuckles. And she must be coming down with something, because it's like inhaling air is worsening her condition. This is troublesome, as she needs to be able to sing sooner than later.

This confirms her choice of getting warmer clothes, then . She isn't going to risk it.

So she steps back out of her bathroom temporarily, taking the time of getting out pieces of her winter garnements before going back to change.

She should get herself something to sooth her voice, she thinks to herself as she puts some red pigments in the corner of her eyes. Maybe a honey baked bun?

She adds a little more pigment underneath her bottom eye-lid.

There. Casual enough, but still enhancing her eyes as she likes.

She probably is ready to leave now. She just has to.. grab her pouch, and. She really is ready now.

༻༉

"Oh! Should we whisper then? You can whisper, I won't mind", Xiangling says, lowering her voice as she does. She's looked up from what she's preparing, eyes wide, as eager to be nice as usual.

The intention's really sweet, but wholly unnecessary.

"Haha, that's really sweet, but no need to worry. You probably don't know, since it's not common knowledge, but whispering actually worsen one's strain on their vocal chords."

"So it's better to just speak then?", the girl asks.

"Exactly! But honey does help.", Yun-Jin smiles, nodding to the pastry Xiangling is currently making her.

"I could add cinnamon, as well! It'd mix very well with honey, and it'd even make it even more tasty"

"Oh, yes, sure, that sounds like a great idea."

"Great, because, you know.." -, and the girl goes on telling the woman about the latest sweet and salty dish she did.

Before the girl can lose herself into rambling on the wonder of mixing ingredients and textures away, Yun Jin politely cuts her off. It's not that it isn't interesting, but she still has more errands to do, and as such doesn't have as much time speaking with Xiangling as she usually does.

"Oops, right, sorry", she goes back to making the treat, effectively wrapping the dough around the mixed honey and cinnamon. "Will you want to eat it there?"

"Hmm, I think I'll come back later this evening to eat there, but as of right now, I'll take it with me, thank you! How much will it be?"

"The regular price, I'm not counting the addition of cinnamon. Enjoy!"

"Oh, are you certain? It's one additional ingredient, surely it'd cost something ", Yun Jin can't help but press. She doesn't usually get discounts, but it happens more than she'd like, and she always slightly feels like she is profiting off of her [singing].

"Pff, no, don't worry. It's really not a problem. And, it's one sir Zhongli gave me anyway. "

"aw, that's so sweet of both of you. Alright, well, thanks you then. I'll make sure to thanks him aswell.", she beams

"You're welcome!", the teenager tells her with, as always, the warmest smile on her face, passing her the cinnamon-honey-baked bun.

A few moments later, she's waving her goodbye, going "see you later!" from her house.

Yun Jin can't shout back, but she does wave back, hoping her smile is visible from where Xiangling stands.

༻༉

No longer than half an hour later, she already is nearing the tea parlour.

She has eaten her bun already, and she might get one more later on, its sweetness absolutely delightful. The mixture was nothing but an excellent idea. Although it doesn't seem like it has done anything to cure her throat, wich is why she is there, she supposes.

"Hello ?" Stepping into the shop, she lightly calls out, even as the ringing of the bell accompany her. It seems there is no one there yet, and she shouldn't strain her voice, and so she busy herself with letting her curiosity run free.

It's by the time that she's inspecting her fourth tea canister that someone finally arrive. Unsurprisingly, it is Zhongli, though he is on his own.

" Yun Jin, my apologies for my tardiness, I had matters to attend to in the back", the man excuses himself. "Interested in this blend?"

"That's fine! I'm in no rush at all. And, no, not really, it seems a bit too spicy for my taste. How is everything going?"

"Quite fine, quite fine. How about you? I hope your latest representation went as you wished it to."

"It did, I truly enjoyed myself, and I believe people did as well."

"Splendid. I wasn't there to see for myself, but I have no doubts that was the case.", the man says, and Yun Jin feels her cheeks warm up at the compliment from her eldest. As she usually does upon receiving compliments, although she should be used to them by now. "I trust you want the usual green tea?"

"Yes, please. Although- Do you perhaps have anything that would help relieve my throat as well?"

"Yes, yes, I do believe so. Though, if you are coming down with an illness, you would be more likely to find help going to the herbist."

" I will, if I'm not better in 4 days. But I think I should be well if I just rest my voice. I'd prefer leaving herbal medications to people who would need them more".

"Very valorous of you. Though, I'll insist, if you really are unwell, it'd be wise to do so", the man says, stepping around the counter to examinate the shelves of boxed teas.

"yes, yes, I know. Thanks you, Zhongli"

In the meantime, as he seemingly looks for tea-leaves that would fit her needs, she takes into consideration the quiet of the room, or rather the telltale chaotic element it lacks.

"is she not there?", Yun Jin asks, referring to the mischevious assistant that always seems to be following Zhongli around.

"Hah, no, she was needed at her grandfather's, I believe. I did not understand everything to her explanation, but it had something to do with the missing cattle."

"Oh, was it finally found?"

"Hm, yes, though not quite in the same shape as it used to be, if we trust her words and what I remember of them."

"Oh- oh that's.. Unfortunate. Is it alive ?", she asks, and the man nods. "That's a relief, but.. still, I hope we won't be needing to do any apotropaic rituals."

"If so, you shall probably be needed. I hope you'll be fine by then, if it comes to it", he smiles in a way that seems just a little grave at her.

As he hands her the textile wrapped around her tea leaves, he glances at her wrist again. She finds he is still staring at it when she gives him the necessary amount.

Puzzled, but more busy returning the additional amount to her purse, she finds she doesn't mind too much, specially given that when she looks back up to ask him about what Hu Tao has been up to recently, he goes right back to looking at her in the eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot- thanks you for the cinnamon you offered Xiangling! She used it for my breakfast, it made for a delicious bun", she remembers at the last moment, when she is already leaving, obviously.

The pleasantly surprised smile on the older man's face makes up for it.

"Why, well you're very welcome"

༻༉

Though she didn't get to inform Yunning yet, today was still quite good, she thinks.

She'll inform her of her circumstances later, if it is still necessary.

But she has hopes it won't come to it.

Her throat doesn't hurt anymore, for one.

She probably will be able to sing again after only another day of vocal rest, she reasons as she brushes her hair.

If so, she'll be able to keep preparing her newest song, or rather it's lyrical aspect.

But the other good thing is she'll be able to work on it anyway, regardless of her being able to sing or not. She should be able to find some more texts for inspiration tomorrow , if she so pleases.

She believes last time they were there, the travelers left some in the next village. The journey shouldn't be too long.

She thinks she'll do that, probably.

Bathing goes by in a pleasant blur.

She falls asleep more quickly than she intended to.

༻༉

When she woke up this morning, she found her sore throat had apparently nothing to do with the previous day's wind current, as it is still present today.

It's why she's wearing the same type of clothes she was wearing yesterday, which means she is wearing winter garments.

She doesn't quite mind. Her clothes are ones she likes regardless of the season they're meant to fit, and she is used to people staring at her, even if they are now doing so while she is out of costume.

And they are in no way being unpleasant, even as they approach her to address her choice of clothes or simply speak of recent news.

Kaiselin, the woman in front of her, is no exception.

"Oh, yes, I understand the struggle of the season. One moment it's cold, and the other it's as if the sun wants us to melt away. Just yesterday evening, I was sleeveless, and there was this newcomer- a woman, perhaps? none of us have been able to see their face, but she apparently spoke to someone-" Yun Jin hides a chuckle behind her hand at the curiosity-keepeer's rambling , which the woman seems to notice anyway.

"Anyway, my apologies. As I was saying, there was this woman wearing a hooded cape, while I was just wearing my usual summer type of clothing", she goes back to her original point.

"It is quite annoying, but, well. If we're lucky, the season will settle soon enough and we'll be able to be less indecisive", Yun Jin says with a airy laugh. "What was it about a newcomer? I wasn't aware there was a passenger around"

"Oh, it has only been some days, and we only catch glimpses of her during the evening or night. It's to the point where some believe she might be an apparition, given her elusiveness and the legends.", The woman

"Legends?" , Yun Jin looks up from the text she had been looking at, interest caught. Legends and myths are things she has been looking for, given how full of ideas for her spectacles they usually are. "Wich type exactly?"

"Mere folktales, mainly nothing to do with our divinities stories. You know, stories of faeries, wind spirits, water spirits.. Tales. "

" Would they be in those?", She gestures to the books Kaiselin is currently selling.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure, I haven't read them all. I only did read that one, about the little Qiqi- You know, there are a lot of folktales about mysterious women and nighttime, so people are quick to think about them whenever the occasion arise"

"Haha, yes, I can see why. Folktales truly are interesting, it's only fair they would stick to our mind. Do you think it would be possible for me to skim through all of those texts and see which one I'd like to keep for inspiration?"

"Sure, sure, I don't think anyone else this afternoon will be in a hurry to get them. Do so, as long as you do not damage them"

"I won't, I promise.", she says, already looking at the texts, inspired already. "Thank you"

"Are you looking only for legends? If so, I think those texts are mainly retelling true stories of the past of Liyue. Mainly folktales. I'm not quite sure,but it is what the Travelers said about these texts when they gave them to me."

"Both are perfect! Folktales would be even more impactful to make into a spectacle, I'd say."

༻༉

Once again, just like the one before that, her day starts like this:

Waking up with her hair slightly wet, voice hoarse, still.

Getting ready for the day, still slightly weary despite the sun being so high in the sky, and despite previously having gone to sleep well before eleven.

It seems, when she wakes up, any previous improvement for the hoarseness of her voice always seems to have dissolved into the night, and that slightly more and more so as the days go by. (Wich is illogical, really. Nighttime should be when she should be able to rest her voice the most, unless she's been singing or speaking in her sleep.)

And so she decides she needs to send a letter to tell Yunning she most likely won't be able to sing too soon, unfortunately.

Nothing to worry about, she thinks: it's only been a few days, after all.

And yes, her voice might be hoarse, but she is still able to speak without it hurting. This is not a cold she caught, this is most likely.. something else, smaller. Overexertion from having sung a little too passionately, maybe, not that it's something she believes is a possibility. Hopefully, obviously. Worst comes to worst, she'll go to Baizhu and she'll be better in no time.

In the meantime, she is going to get some more honey treats today, gets out her favourite winter scarf, and rest her voice.

She also has to go get herself a warm dish, something that would only help sooth her throat further.

She has to go and meet with Ninguang today, as well, given that, for once and at this specific date, both of them are available and free to see eachother. A miracle, really.

༻༉

"So? has everything been fine?", she asks Ninguang, dipping an almond biscuit in her cup.

"for them, yes, according to her letters. Their travels have been going greatly, and they've apparently even found strays to adopt into their party. For me? Oh, you know. I find myself missing the way she irritate me, for one."

"Oh, I'm sure you still find her 'irritating' enough in her letters.", Yun Jin chuckles with an implying smirk. "She does have a way of expressing herself distinct enough that it must apply to her written words"

"Yes, yes, that is true", the lady says with a sigh that, if Yun Jin was asked, seems to be pretty fond. "So there is that , and more people have also been wanting to own protection sigils recently."

"Yes, right, due to the cattles that keeps disappearing, right?"

" That and the legends. People are wary. Our fellow Liyueans aren't too greedy with things like those, but I'm still keeping an eye on how it will go. They're only being traded for now but.. To put it simply, it's only more additional work for me, I suppose."

"I keep forgetting you don't believe in those things. I don't really either but well, I get people wanting to protect themselves, you know?"

"isn't that what you've already been doing?", Ninguang asks her with a raised brow and an elusive gesture to the red bracelet she is wearing.

"oh, that? No, not quite. It's just.. a bracelet I was offered that I've been wearing since then?", she guesses. " It's.. it is.. nice looking, simply. It might have some protection properties but.." She blinks. Ah. That might not be the only point Ninguang is making.

"if you're referring to the protection rituals I sometimes participate in, yes, I do believe those help, but only at reassuring those that asks me to sing during them. I don't believe my simple voice is truly protecting anything, however."

"I'd say you're protecting people's peace of minds. You really should stop undermining yourself someday, Yun Jin. Weren't you telling me just now how Yunning was likely to be all over the place panicking about you being unable to sing when she would learn about it?"

"Well, yes, that is-"

༻༉

༻༉

In her sleep, she is yearning to be carried by the water, to lie in it and wait for the current to bring her to...

The water seems inviting. But- it is cold. Colder than what this body allows.

Yun Jin's blink. She is- outside. She is outside, and the sky is dark. She doesn't remember getting there.

Her feet are immersed in the water, and she almost falls as a rock rolls under her shoe, as she confusedly steps backwards.

She.. isn't supposed to be there. Definitely isn't. Last time her eyes were open, she was in her room and cozily falling asleep amongst her blankets.

She isn't supposed to be out there, amongst the trees, nowhere near her house but at the border of the village.

Heavily, she sits down.

Take a deep, frazzled breath.

She observes her surroundings. She thinks she recognize the place.

Okay. Alright. This is okay. That is fine. A bit weird , but alright. "I've just.. been sleepwalking, apparently. This happens", she says, and her voice trails off.

The stars are out, and she is able to see where she is. Not too far away from the village.

Sleepwalking has never been something she has done. And, well. Yet, she is there, sitting almost in the river, in a place she only has an indistinct memory of.

༻༉

Instead of writing a new draft like she had planned to, here Yun Jin is instead. Back at the parlour, fidgeting with the strings of her robe, then the ones of her accessories, on and off.

Sitting outside with the wind might not be the best idea, but she prefers it that way. The shop isn't open yet, and she doesn't want to hurry Zhongli if it is unnecessary.

And, well. Furthermore, she prefers waiting there than back at her house, where she would be tempted to go back to her bed.

She slept quite nicely last night, but she is still weary, as if she didn't sleep at all, which now that she thinks of it, might be explained by her sleep walking issues, and so here she is.

The last time she woke up with her hair wet had been the day she had went to Zhongli for her throat. She wonders..

The lights of the tea house turns on, something she somehow doesn't notice until the window next to the bench she is sitting on open.

"Yun Jin? What are you doing there so early ?"

Startling up, she bows hello to Zhongli, a little frazzled.

"Oh! Hello, I didn't see you, sorry. I was- simply waiting for you to open up the shop. Is it now? "

"Yes, yes, do come inside.", he says, and next thing she knows the door has been opened. "Is everything alright?"

Grateful, she steps inside, following the man next to the counter.

"Well.. No, not really. Not quite. I haven't really been sleeping too well.", she leans on the counter, once again fidgeting without really realising it.

"Well then I'm afraid what I gave you last time won't be enough. You would be better off going to Baizhu's"

"Oh, no, that's not it, my throat still hurts but - Do you have something that could prevent sleepwalking?"

"an infusion preventing sleep walking? I'm afraid I do not have that, no."

"Oh."

"Would you think an infusion inducing a deeper sleep perhaps do the trick?", he asks, deep eyes looking right into Yun Jin 's. She draws her gaze down to the counter.

"No, I believe it wouldn't. My sleep is very deep, but I keep.. wandering off during it, apparently. That's never happened to me before."

"Hmm. I see."

When she looks up, the older man is looking down aswell, seemingly at her sleeve.

"You do? If you have any remedy in mind, I'd love to hear about it"

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant. I was.. thinking of something else"

"Oh. What of?"

He is still looking at her wrist, and she absentmindedly hides her hand behind the counter.

Oddly enough, his gaze seems to follow the movement, before it settles back on her face. Her sleeves shouldn't be that striking: it is literally made of the same fabric as his, in a pattern that is quite similar, although the colour does differ from his.

"Nothing, nothing. It was merely.." he frowns, not elaborating, and suddenly stops halfway through his sentence. " Nothing. Though if I think about it, I do think I might have something that could help. I shall be back."

Her eyebrows furrows at the elusiveness, as he turns around and goes in the back of the store.

He's back quite quickly, something in his hand and still adorning a frown.

"This might be of help, if I'm not mistaken. It is supposed to enlighten your sleep, and should make it so you won't fall into too deep of a sleep that you'd be able to sleepwalk. Though, if it continues.. do came back to me, yes?"

The cannister he is holding seems to be a regular one, the only thing singular about it the old-looking etiquette that label it.

After placing it down on the counter, she pushes it towards her. ".. I will, thanks you", she says. "How much would it be for two spoons of it?"

"oh, no, it is.. quite old, I cannot possibly sell it to you. Take it all, will you?"

If the way Zhongli behaved before was odd, this is even more so. Still, she takes the cannister of tea in her hand, if only to inspect the label. Only a date is written there, one that is of about a few years ago.

When she looks back at the older adult for confirmation, she finds him resolutely staring at her. His gaze does not drift back to her wrist, nor to either her sleeve or her bracelet.

"I assure you, it is no problem. I'd even rather you have it all, really."

".. sure, then"

"Come back if your problems do not stop, alright?"

"sure", she goes once again.

༻༉

She has been starting to remember her dreams, when she wakes up.

Walking in the river, away from the village, following a path she seemingly knows.

Yet when she thinks back on it, she finds she doesn't have any clue where she is going.

And now, she is doubting those dreams are mere dreams any longer.

Whenever she wakes up, she finds water is clinging to her, be it droplets stuck in her hair, her nightclothes being stained, or sometimes more.

Her voice is still hoarse, as if she has been speaking when she shouldn't, and she now thinks that might be the case.

It seems Zhongli's blend of tea isn't being quite successful at preventing her from sleepwalking.

༻༉

Denial is something that she finds herself swimming in and out of.

It's not that she's pretending she isn't hearing people whisper their confusion at seeing her awake so late into the evening, when she usually goes to sleep early enough to be able to wake up early and have her whole day available.

She is, simply, avoiding thinking about what this implies.

Because she finds herself remembering about the missing cattles, the missing goats, her memory of red in the dark blue of the river..

She finds herself wondering what would happen if she were to get herself a sigil of protection. Because, surely, what she is thinking is crazy, isn't it?

She should get herself one, just to be sure.

༻༉

As that time in the river, Yun Jin slowly blink her eyes open to find herself standing in water.

Only this time, things are different.

Panic quite immediately takes possession of her heart, taking her chest in a vice grip.

There is a woman in front of her, immerged in the water, unnaturally pale, and she doesn't remember how she got there.

Usually, Liyueans do not have a skin so pale unless they are-

Inhuman. She isn't human.

A monster.

------------------------------------------------------------

hi! Sooo.. I meant to post that for mermay in a single part. Unfortunately, I only remembered about mermay a week ago, and only started writing 3 days ago. So this isn't done at all and I'm so sorry about this cliffhanger, I swear I'll be posting the second part either tomorrow or the day after that

[inejinn]

I'm 4 days late but HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!! 🫶🏳️‍🌈

[inejinn]

riverwalking:

Part One

Waking up with her hair slightly wet,

voice hoarse

Learning about missing cattles and past legends, thoughts of a river in mind

Yun Jin centric fic! Shenjin (though that'll come up in the next part), no visions AU

Dripping water is the thought Yun Jin wakes up to, although it quickly dissappear from her mind, just like the rest of her dream of the night did.

There's images of seaweed, and the sound of a river's stream, of red in the water and..

Before she can think of writing them down for perhaps inspiration, all memories of her dreams and nightly escapades are already gone.

Oh, well.

She sits up among her pillows, rubbing at her eyes.

Her door has been left open and so there's a drift of wind passing into her room and out through the window. Oh. This is going to be bad for her throat. It's hoarse once again. Still.

That's unpleasant. Quite unpractical. She'll have to take a day off once again, if she wants to feel better soon enough.

First thing she does when she stands up is push the billowing curtains to the side, allowing more sunlight to iluminate her room, even if she is still in her nightgown and people might see. That isn't really is a risk, Liyueans are not of that sort, she's sure.

As she has closed the window, she goes to close the door she doesn't remember having left open yesterday evening.

Once she's done that, she moves to her bathroom, where her clothes for the day are waiting for her.

Second thing she does is get ready.

She is likely going to have to dress up a little more warmly today. And that, despite the temperature being pleasant outside, courtesy of spring coming back.

Breathing doesn't exactly hurt, but speaking makes her throat achy, and she doesn't want to risk it. Being ill in this season? No, thanks you, that'd very much be a bother. Yunning would have her head, if she was unable to sing.

She chuckles. And she must be coming down with something, because it's like inhaling air is worsening her condition. This is troublesome, as she needs to be able to sing sooner than later.

This confirms her choice of getting warmer clothes, then . She isn't going to risk it.

So she steps back out of her bathroom temporarily, taking the time of getting out pieces of her winter garnements from the closet before going back to change.

She should get herself something to sooth her voice, she thinks to herself as she puts some red pigments in the corner of her eyes. Maybe a honey baked bun?

She adds a little more pigment underneath her bottom eye-lid.

There. Casual enough, but still enhancing her eyes as she likes.

She probably is ready to leave now. She just has to.. grab her pouch, and. She really is ready now.

Honey baked bun, it is.

༻༉

"Oh! Should we whisper then? You can whisper, I won't mind", Xiangling says, lowering her voice as she does. She's looked up from what she's preparing, eyes wide, as eager to be nice as usual.

The intention's really sweet, but wholly unnecessary.

"Haha, that's really sweet, but no need to worry. You probably don't know, since it's not common knowledge, but whispering actually worsen one's strain on their vocal chords."

"So it's better to just speak then?", the girl asks.

"Exactly! But honey does help.", Yun-Jin smiles, nodding to the pastry Xiangling is currently making her. It does help with her sweet tooth and its craving, as well.

"I could add cinnamon, as well! It'd mix very well with honey, and it'd even make it even more tasty"

"Oh, yes, sure, that sounds like a great idea."

"Great, because, you know.." -, and the girl goes on telling the woman about the latest sweet and salty dish she did.

Before the girl can lose herself into rambling on the wonder of mixing ingredients and textures away, Yun Jin politely cuts her off. It's not that it isn't interesting, but she still has more errands to do, and as such doesn't have as much time speaking with Xiangling as she usually does.

"Oops, right, sorry", she goes back to making the treat, effectively wrapping the dough around the mixed honey and cinnamon. "Will you want to eat it there?"

"Hmm, I think I'll come back later this evening to eat there, but as of right now, I'll take it with me, thank you! How much will it be?"

"The regular price, I'm not counting the addition of cinnamon. Enjoy!"

"Oh, are you certain? It's one additional ingredient, surely it'd cost something ", Yun Jin can't help but press. She doesn't usually get discounts, but it happens more than she'd like, and she always slightly feels like she is profiting off of her [singing].

"Pff, no, don't worry. It's really not a problem. And, it's one sir Zhongli gave me anyway. "

"aw, that's so sweet of both of you. Alright, well, thanks you then. I'll make sure to thanks him aswell.", she beams

"You're welcome!", the teenager tells her with, as always, the warmest smile on her face, passing her the cinnamon-honey-baked bun.

A few moments later, she's waving her goodbye, going "see you later!" from her house.

Yun Jin can't shout back, but she does wave back, hoping her smile is visible from where Xiangling stands.

༻༉

No longer than half an hour later, she already is nearing the tea parlour.

She has eaten her bun already, and she might get one more later on, its sweetness absolutely delightful. The mixture was nothing but an excellent idea. Although it doesn't seem like it has done anything to cure her throat, wich is why she is there, she supposes.

"Hello ?" Stepping into the shop, she lightly calls out, even as the ringing of the bell accompany her. It seems there is no one there yet, and she shouldn't strain her voice, and so she busy herself with letting her curiosity run free.

It's by the time that she's inspecting her fourth tea canister that someone finally arrive. Unsurprisingly, it is Zhongli, though he is on his own.

" Yun Jin, my apologies for my tardiness, I had matters to attend to in the back", the man excuses himself. "Interested in this blend?"

"That's fine! I'm in no rush at all. And, no, not really, it seems a bit too spicy for my taste. How is everything going?"

"Quite fine, quite fine. How about you? I hope your latest representation went as you wished it to."

"It did, I truly enjoyed myself, and I believe people did as well."

"Splendid. I wasn't there to see for myself, but I have no doubts that was the case.", the man says, and Yun Jin feels her cheeks warm up at the compliment from her eldest. As she usually does upon receiving compliments, although she should be used to them by now. "I trust you want the usual green tea?"

"Yes, please. Although- Do you perhaps have anything that would help relieve my throat as well?"

"Yes, yes, I do believe so. Though, if you are coming down with an illness, you would be more likely to find help going to the herbist."

" I will, if I'm not better in 4 days. But I think I should be well if I just rest my voice. I'd prefer leaving herbal medications to people who would need them more".

"Very valorous of you. Though, I'll insist, if you really are unwell, it'd be wise to do so", the man says, stepping around the counter to examinate the shelves of boxed teas.

"yes, yes, I know. Thanks you, Zhongli"

In the meantime, as he seemingly looks for tea-leaves that would fit her needs, she takes into consideration the quiet of the room, or rather the telltale chaotic element it lacks.

"is she not there?", Yun Jin asks, referring to the mischevious assistant that always seems to be following Zhongli around.

"Hah, no, she was needed at her grandfather's, I believe. I did not understand everything to her explanation, but it had something to do with the missing cattle."

"Oh, was it finally found?"

"Hm, yes, though not quite in the same shape as it used to be, if we trust her words and what I remember of them."

"Oh- oh that's.. Unfortunate. Is it alive ?", she asks, and the man nods. "That's a relief, but.. still, I hope we won't be needing to do any apotropaic rituals."

"If so, you shall probably be needed. I hope you'll be fine by then, if it comes to it", he smiles in a way that seems just a little grave at her.

As he hands her the textile wrapped around her tea leaves, he glances at her wrist again. She finds he is still staring at it when she gives him the necessary amount.

Puzzled, but more busy returning the additional amount to her purse, she finds she doesn't mind too much, specially given that when she looks back up to ask him about what Hu Tao has been up to recently, he goes right back to looking at her in the eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot- thanks you for the cinnamon you offered Xiangling! She used it for my breakfast, it made for a delicious bun", she remembers at the last moment, when she is already leaving, obviously.

The pleasantly surprised smile on the older man's face makes up for it.

"Why, well you're very welcome"

༻༉

Though she didn't get to inform Yunning yet, today was still quite good, she thinks.

She'll inform her of her circumstances later, if it is still necessary.

But she has hopes it won't come to it.

Her throat doesn't hurt anymore, for one.

She probably will be able to sing again after only another day of vocal rest, she reasons as she brushes her hair.

If so, she'll be able to keep preparing her newest song, or rather it's lyrical aspect.

But the other good thing is she'll be able to work on it anyway, regardless of her being able to sing or not. She should be able to find some more texts for inspiration for her next representation tomorrow , if she so pleases.

She believes last time they were there, the travelers left some in the next village. The journey shouldn't be too long.

She thinks she'll do that, probably.

Bathing goes by in a pleasant blur.

She falls asleep more quickly than she intended to, when she's finally in her bed.

༻༉

When she woke up this morning, she found her sore throat had apparently nothing to do with the previous day's wind-current, as said sore throat is back today.

It's why she's wearing the same type of clothes she was wearing yesterday, which means she is wearing winter garments. She looks slightly ridiculous.

She doesn't quite mind. Her clothes are ones she likes regardless of the season they're meant to fit, and she is used to people staring at her, even if they are now doing so while she is out of costume.

And they are in no way being unpleasant, even as they approach her to address her choice of clothes or simply, tchat about recent news.

Kaiselin, the woman in front of her, is no exception.

"Oh, yes, I understand the struggle of the season. One moment it's cold, and the other it's as if the sun wants us to melt away. Just yesterday evening, I was sleeveless, and there was this newcomer- a woman, perhaps? none of us have been able to see their face, but she apparently spoke to someone-" Yun Jin hides a chuckle behind her hand at the curiosity-keepeer's rambling , which the woman seems to notice anyway.

"Anyway, my apologies. As I was saying, there was this woman wearing a hooded cape, while I was just wearing my usual summer type of clothing", she goes back to her original point.

"It is quite annoying, but, well. If we're lucky, the season will settle soon enough and we'll be able to be less indecisive", Yun Jin says with a airy laugh. "What was it about a newcomer? I wasn't aware there was a passenger around"

"Oh, it has only been some days, and we only catch glimpses of her during the evening or night. It's to the point where some believe she might be an apparition, given her elusiveness and the legends.", The woman

"Legends?" , Yun Jin looks up from the text she had been looking at, interest caught. Legends and myths are things she has been looking for, given how full of ideas for her spectacles they usually are. "Wich type exactly?"

"Mere folktales, mainly nothing to do with our divinities stories. You know, stories of faeries, wind spirits, water spirits.. Tales. "

" Would they be in those?", She gestures to the books Kaiselin is currently selling.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure, I haven't read them all. I only did read that one, about the little Qiqi- You know, there are a lot of folktales about mysterious women and nighttime, so people are quick to think about them whenever the occasion arise"

"Haha, yes, I can see why. Folktales truly are interesting, it's only fair they would stick to our mind. Do you think it would be possible for me to skim through all of those texts and see which one I'd like to keep for inspiration?"

"Sure, sure, I don't think anyone else this afternoon will be in a hurry to get them. Do so, as long as you do not damage them"

"I won't, I promise.", she says, already looking at the texts, inspired already. "Thank you"

"Are you looking only for legends? If so, I think those texts are mainly retelling true stories of the past of Liyue. Mainly folktales. I'm not quite sure,but it is what the Travelers said about these texts when they gave them to me."

"Both are perfect! Folktales would be even more impactful to make into a spectacle, I'd say."

༻༉

Once again, just like the one before that, her day starts like this:

Waking up with her hair slightly wet, voice hoarse, still.

Getting ready for the day, still slightly weary despite the sun being so high in the sky, and despite previously having gone to sleep well before eleven.

It seems, when she wakes up, any previous improvement for the hoarseness of her voice always seems to have dissolved into the night, and that slightly more and more so as the days go by. (Wich is illogical, really. Nighttime should be when she should be able to rest her voice the most, unless she's been singing or speaking in her sleep.)

And so she decides she needs to send a letter to tell Yunning she most likely won't be able to sing too soon, unfortunately.

Nothing to worry about, she thinks: it's only been a few days, after all.

And yes, her voice might be hoarse, but she is still able to speak without it hurting. This is not a cold she caught, this is most likely.. something else, smaller. Overexertion from having sung a little too passionately, maybe, not that it's something she believes is a possibility. Hopefully, obviously. Worst comes to worst, she'll go to Baizhu and she'll be better in no time.

In the meantime, she is going to get some more honey treats today, gets out her favourite winter scarf, and rest her voice.

She also has to go get herself a warm dish, something that would only help sooth her throat further.

She has to go and meet with Ninguang today, as well, given that, for once and at this specific date, both of them are available and free to see eachother. A miracle, really.

༻༉

"So? has everything been fine?", she asks Ninguang, dipping an almond biscuit in her cup.

"for them, yes, according to her letters. Their travels have been going greatly, and they've apparently even found strays to adopt into their party. For me? Oh, you know. I find myself missing the way she irritate me, for one."

"Oh, I'm sure you still find her 'irritating' enough in her letters.", Yun Jin chuckles with an implying smirk. "She does have a way of expressing herself distinct enough that it must apply to her written words"

"Yes, yes, that is true", the lady says with a sigh that, if Yun Jin was asked, seems to be pretty fond. "So there is that , and more people have also been wanting to own protection sigils recently."

"Yes, right, due to the cattles that keeps disappearing, right?"

" That and the legends. People are wary. Our fellow Liyueans aren't too greedy with things like those, but I'm still keeping an eye on how it will go. They're only being traded for now but.. To put it simply, it's only more additional work for me, I suppose."

"I keep forgetting you don't believe in those things. I don't really either but well, I get people wanting to protect themselves, you know?"

"isn't that what you've already been doing?", Ninguang asks her with a raised brow and an elusive gesture to the red bracelet she is wearing.

"oh, that? No, not quite. It's just.. a bracelet I was offered that I've been wearing since then?", she guesses. " It's.. it is.. nice looking, simply. It might have some protection properties but.." She blinks. Ah. That might not be the only point Ninguang is making.

"if you're referring to the protection rituals I sometimes participate in, yes, I do believe those help, but only at reassuring those that asks me to sing during them. I don't believe my simple voice is truly protecting anything, however."

"I'd say you're protecting people's peace of minds. You really should stop undermining yourself someday, Yun Jin. Weren't you telling me just now how Yunning was likely to be all over the place panicking about you being unable to sing when she would learn about it?"

"Well, yes, that is-"

༻༉

༻༉

In her sleep, she is yearning to be carried by the water, to lie in it and wait for the current to bring her to...

The water seems inviting. But- it is cold. Colder than what this body allows.

Yun Jin's blink. She is- outside. She is outside, and the sky is dark. She doesn't remember getting there.

Her feet are immersed in the water, and she almost falls as a rock rolls under her shoe, as she confusedly steps backwards.

She.. isn't supposed to be there. Definitely isn't. Last time her eyes were open, she was in her room and cozily falling asleep amongst her blankets.

She isn't supposed to be out there, amongst the trees, nowhere near her house but at the border of the village.

Heavily, she sits down.

Take a deep, frazzled breath.

She observes her surroundings. She thinks she recognize the place.

Okay. Alright. This is okay. That is fine. A bit weird , but alright. "I've just.. been sleepwalking, apparently. This happens", she says, and her voice trails off.

The stars are out, and she is able to see where she is. Not too far away from the village.

Sleepwalking has never been something she has done. And, well. Yet, she is there, sitting almost in the river, in a place she only has an indistinct memory of.

༻༉

Instead of writing a new draft like she had planned to, here Yun Jin is instead. Back at the parlour, fidgeting with the strings of her robe, then the ones of her accessories, on and off.

Sitting outside with the wind might not be the best idea, but she prefers it that way. The shop isn't open yet, and she doesn't want to hurry Zhongli if it is unnecessary.

And, well. Furthermore, she prefers waiting there than back at her house, where she would be tempted to go back to her bed.

She slept quite nicely last night, but she is still weary, as if she didn't sleep at all, which now that she thinks of it, might be explained by her sleep walking issues, and so here she is.

The last time she woke up with her hair wet had been the day she had went to Zhongli for her throat. She wonders..

The lights of the tea house turns on, something she somehow doesn't notice until the window next to the bench she is sitting on open.

"Yun Jin? What are you doing there so early ?"

Startling up, she bows hello to Zhongli, a little frazzled.

"Oh! Hello, I didn't see you, sorry. I was- simply waiting for you to open up the shop. Is it now? "

"Yes, yes, do come inside.", he says, and next thing she knows the door has been opened. "Is everything alright?"

Grateful, she steps inside, following the man next to the counter.

"Well.. No, not really. Not quite. I haven't really been sleeping too well.", she leans on the counter, once again fidgeting without really realising it.

"Well then I'm afraid what I gave you last time won't be enough. You would be better off going to Baizhu's"

"Oh, no, that's not it, my throat still hurts but - Do you have something that could prevent sleepwalking?"

"an infusion preventing sleep walking? I'm afraid I do not have that, no."

"Oh."

"Would you think an infusion inducing a deeper sleep perhaps do the trick?", he asks, deep eyes looking right into Yun Jin 's. She draws her gaze down to the counter.

"No, I believe it wouldn't. My sleep is very deep, but I keep.. wandering off during it, apparently. That's never happened to me before."

"Hmm. I see."

When she looks up, the older man is looking down aswell, seemingly at her sleeve.

"You do? If you have any remedy in mind, I'd love to hear about it"

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant. I was.. thinking of something else"

"Oh. What of?"

He is still looking at her wrist, and she absentmindedly hides her hand behind the counter.

Oddly enough, his gaze seems to follow the movement, before it settles back on her face. Her sleeves shouldn't be that striking: it is literally made of the same fabric as his, in a pattern that is quite similar, although the colour does differ from his.

"Nothing, nothing. It was merely.." he frowns, not elaborating, and suddenly stops halfway through his sentence. " Nothing. Though if I think about it, I do think I might have something that could help. I shall be back."

Her eyebrows furrows at the elusiveness, as he turns around and goes in the back of the store.

He's back quite quickly, something in his hand and still adorning a frown.

"This might be of help, if I'm not mistaken. It is supposed to enlighten your sleep, and should make it so you won't fall into too deep of a sleep that you'd be able to sleepwalk. Though, if it continues.. do came back to me, yes?"

The cannister he is holding seems to be a regular one, the only thing singular about it the old-looking etiquette that label it.

After placing it down on the counter, she pushes it towards her. ".. I will, thanks you", she says. "How much would it be for two spoons of it?"

"oh, no, it is.. quite old, I cannot possibly sell it to you. Take it all, will you?"

If the way Zhongli behaved before was odd, this is even more so. Still, she takes the cannister of tea in her hand, if only to inspect the label. Only a date is written there, one that is of about a few years ago.

When she looks back at the older adult for confirmation, she finds him resolutely staring at her. His gaze does not drift back to her wrist, nor to either her sleeve or her bracelet.

"I assure you, it is no problem. I'd even rather you have it all, really."

".. sure, then"

"Come back if your problems do not stop, alright?"

"sure", she goes once again.

༻༉

She has been starting to remember her dreams, when she wakes up.

Walking in the river, away from the village, following a path she seemingly knows.

Yet when she thinks back on it, she finds she doesn't have any clue where she is going.

And now, she is doubting those dreams are mere dreams any longer.

Whenever she wakes up, she finds water is clinging to her, be it droplets stuck in her hair, her nightclothes being stained, or sometimes more.

Her voice is still hoarse, as if she has been speaking when she shouldn't, and she now thinks that might be the case.

It seems Zhongli's blend of tea isn't being quite successful at preventing her from sleepwalking.

༻༉

Denial is something that she finds herself swimming in and out of.

It's not that she's pretending she isn't hearing people whisper their confusion at seeing her awake so late into the evening, when she usually goes to sleep early enough to be able to wake up early and have her whole day available.

She is, simply, avoiding thinking about what this implies.

Because she finds herself remembering about the missing cattles, the missing goats, her memory of red in the dark blue of the river..

She finds herself wondering what would happen if she were to get herself a sigil of protection. Because, surely, what she is thinking is crazy, isn't it?

She should get herself one, just to be sure.

༻༉

As that time in the river, Yun Jin slowly blink her eyes open to find herself standing in water.

Only this time, things are different.

Panic quite immediately takes possession of her heart, taking her chest in a vice grip.

There is a woman in front of her, immerged in the water, unnaturally pale, and she doesn't remember how she got there.

Usually, Liyueans do not have a skin so pale unless they are-

Inhuman. She isn't human.

Instead of her reflection, it is a monster she's seeing in the water.

------------------------------------------------------------

hi! Sooo.. I meant to post that for mermay in a single part. Unfortunately, I only remembered about mermay a week ago, and only started writing 3 days ago. So this isn't done at all and I'm so sorry about this cliffhanger, I swear I'll be posting the second part either tomorrow or the day after that

[inejinn]

Sunrises

---------- ͙͘͡★

Ava centric oneshot ! In which multiple sunrises happen while she's awake, most of the time in the kitchen, sometimes in the presence of John or Bob, always following the events of the movie (though Antonia is alive)

take place in the same universe as this oneshot I did. Prompt coming from a dc server!

also I'm half asleep betareading that so if there's weird stuff that's why

Usually, they all wake up pretty early, sometimes before the sun can rise in the sky.

The only exception might be Bob, but that's assuming it's a night where he didn't get any nightmares. Those are pretty uncommon.

And so most of the time, they're awake to see the sun grace the earth with its first rays.

Awake and not as gracious as the sun itself.

Walker drops a cup of coffee near Ava's toast with a grunt that might be a hello. Or a " I don't know what the fuck you're doing awake but take this and leave me alone" grunt, who knows.

She answers with one as well.

Today's not a morning chit-chat day. It's more like a "drowning anyone who annoys me in my coffee" morning .

Walker settles at the opposite side of the kitchen, resolutely staring at anything but the other alive person there.

Definitely not a chit chat day, then. They end up staring at different things, him the sunrise, her the crumbs of her toast dissolving inside of the swirling liquid. Inside of the cup of hot beverage.

If she glares at it hard enough, she might will it not to go right through her hands after she's picked it up. Treating burns is no fun, and she really doesn't feel like asking Antonia for some aloe vera.

This isn't a bad pain day, she hasn't been feeling the familiar ache that goes with them, but this might be an on and off incorporeal day. She definitely spent too much time in the training room yesterday. It's not excruciating like it used to be, but, still.

If she's lucky, she'll only feel like the molecules inside of her bones are vibrating a little bit.

If she's not, then she'll have to go through missions, adding bruises-aches as well as her usual ones, or go through the day cooped up in her room.

If she really, really isn't lucky, worst come to worst, she could just bail out of there. Meets everyone's expectations of one of them giving up on this whole team idea: before they've even hit the one month mark.

They've been keeping score. Alexei's been tallying the days up on a whiteboard on the fridge, next to the list of chores they have to do (so Antonia won't forget, he says, but really, it's because three quarter of them are likely to forget to keep their space sanitary, including him).

3 weeks' already pretty much of a miracle, she'd say if she was asked.

It's, also, a miracle her and John haven't dissolved into pointless arguments or any further bickering yet.

When she stands up to grab cereals, she finds the sun is totally up now.

Same cups in front of them both. Different morning.

It's more early than last time : it's still dark outside. Wich means that there's only so many reasons for them to be up before the early lights of the day.

They don't talk about it. Don't even hint to it, as she just adds sugar cubes to her coffee and he just drinks his.

A car honk outside.

She waits for her sugar to melt. Takes a sip of her beverage.

It's a little while before John breaks the silence.

"The punching-bag holder's broken again"

That probably means his anger issues hit too hard on said punching bag again. Theoretically, she could be a little shit and teases him about it, but it's too early for that. This has nothing to do with the coffee he made.

"Yeah? I'm not going to be the one putting it back"

"I assumed ", he rolls his eyes so hard that must have gotten him a headache. "I don't feel like any of you are very enthusiastic about cleaning up"

Nevermind. It didn't, or he's just able to be snarky in spite of it.

It'd be unfair if it didn't.

The peace treaty has been broken once again. That man can not spend more than 5minutes being silent and agreeable.

"Says the man who's left his uncooked pasta in the fridge for 3days now", she mutters, rolling her eyes while turning towards the open living room.

"I didnt-", he starts, and she tunes his ass out immediately.

'There are three plates colonizing the space inside the fridge that are definitely full of pasta.', she's almost tempted to add, but.

The sun still hasn't fully rised, so this means she can just deal with social interactions later. Once it has risen. Fully. And then some. Her social batteries are even less replineshed than they usually are, wich means that they're at zero right now.

She hasn't slept in as long as Walker's pastas have been in the fridge, she's not going to bother keeping up with him.

No, she gazes at the far skyline instead. Huh. It'll almost be 7am soon already.

Usually, in the mornings, she has to ignore whatever's around her to focus on her body, the way it feels, what she'll get to do with it today. How she'll deal with the things around her.

Today, it's the opposite. As in, as she stands near the fridge, she's focusing on the sun on her skin and nothing else.

Nobody else in the tower is awake right now, or if they are, they're keeping to their room. Rare instance.

She's currently alone.

It's not an unwelcomed thing.

It means that she gets to sit on the couch with her shoes still on without Yelena or Alexei or John nabbing her about it. That she gets to sit without being annoyed or even stressed out.

Wich also means she's free to contemplate the fact it's been almost 5weeks since she hasn't taken an assignments. 32 days by now.

Except for Valentina's missions, obviously, but those are different now.

She's a different type of asset now. An asset that has teammates, for one.

And that gets to lounge around and enjoy her morning, for two.

That's free to take a nap there or wherever if she'd like to, catnapping under the newly regenerated sun beams.

"You know, I've never really enjoyed those", Bob says out of the blue, and she reconsider any thought about leaving to her room.

When Bob speaks out of the blue like that, you shut up and you listen, that's practically an untold rule of the Tower.

And so she shifts a little toward Bob, shutting up and only raising an eyebrow in acknowledgement.

"The sunrises, I mean. They're-- pretty great, right? I never used to consider them in a bad light, but, well. They're actually pretty nice when you pay attention to them.? "

Cluing in to the way he starts trailing off, she nods. "I get what you mean, I never really considered them before aswell. " It's not even a lie.

That seems to reassure him, even as he keeps fidgeting a little with his napkin.

She turns her gaze to the outside, and, yeah, the sunrise's actually pretty nice. There was a time when she didn't get to see them much, for reasons others than not being able to sleep.

"I mean, I'd prefer being able to sleep, but.. It's not that bad? This and the vibe and breakfast, I like it."

He's not mentioning being in other's company in those moments. She's not going to either, but she notices his body subtly move a little closer to her seat, and a tiny smile slips on her lips.

" I do too. Some of the others? They can be a pain in the ass when awake this early, but. They're not always too annoying"

She could mention that this is new to her aswell, but she doesn't, and since he doesn't ask her more about it, well.

It's not like she doesn't want to be honest, she usually doesn't care about being blunt, it's just. "Want to keep taking or just look at the sun? It is really nice." And, also: "I also don't feel all like talking about my childhood traumas this morning." Bobis fine, but being emotionally aware of herself and her feelings, this early in the morning no thanks you.

"Oh, no no, yeah, I understand! That's understandable. The tower's really great for that, looking at the sun and the sky. And the skyline. It's very nice."

" It *is* the best place for sightseeing. Did you ever try out the roof? It could force anyone into liking clouds or pastel blue."

"Oh no, please not you too.", he bemoans. For a second, she thinks he's being insulted on the behalf of the colour blue, but that quite obviously isn't the case.

There's got to be a story behind that. Seems like she has something to do for the few following minutes, then.

"What, don't like those? "

"No, no I don't, that's not the problem"-

[inejinn]

Yes so the prompt was sunrises and not sunset 😞 might rewrite it or something I don't knoww

Sunset

---------- ͙͘͡★

Drops of light are slowly painting the room orange. The tower's living room is the best place to see the shifts of the sky.

The rooftop? Even more so. There's no windows reflecting the inside of the tower there.

Yet here Yelena admire the way the sun is coloring the sky. On the couch. On her back, legs propped up on its backrest and head off of it, consequently upside down.

The reason? Because of Bob and roofs and low spirit reasons.

Last time he found her there, appreciating nature's spectacle, he joined: she got free with her words, like it naturally tends to come to with them both. She didn't think that'd be the temporary end of her sky session, but, well. Bob has his worry come easily

They used to be unaware what would happen if you were injured previously to stepping into the void: they do now.

Bob actually end up snitching on her to Bucky accidentally , too, and now they won't leave her alone about risk-taking, and sacrifices-pulling, and all of the flock of things like that. They already kind of were since she willingly walked into the void, but it's turned way more evident now. It's honestly annoying sometimes.

(She now usually avoids getting on rooftops on her own anyway. It helps keep Bob at ease, and it's not like the feeling of the wind in her hair is what she used to focus on)

It's actually pretty funny, because they've pretty much all been active walking kamikaze suicide threat at some point in their life, and yet here they are, all offering clumsy mental healthcare advice and not always applying them to themselves . Bunch of hypocrites.

Herself included. She's clunkily advising around like a baby learning how to walk as well.

"Hey, the sun's looking nice from upside down", she informs no one in particular.

Bucky barely looks up from the book in his hands. Mix of ignoring her and really being entranced by his lecture, judging by the way his shoulders are pretty much not tense with any frustration or anything else right now.

Apparently he picked up a new serie recently. This cover's definitely not the same type of design as the previous one was.

Maybe she should too. She wouldn't mind getting into one aswell.

She'll probably ask him later for reqs, if she still want to pick up a new thing to do then . But right now..

The sun's shining on Bucky now, decided on making him squint at the words on the pages before disappearing for the day. It makes his hair kind of golden, shining trhough, since he's turned away from the sunset.

"Ever thought about going ginger?", She asks the previously (until now) focused man.

"Is one of you ever going to explain your cucumber joke?"

What an odd change of subject. She can totally tell where it is leading the conversation.

"Uh, no?"

"There's your answer"

"Okayyy, I get it", she drawls. "I don't think it'd fit you anyway. You'd have to bleach your hair and it'd turn out.."

And just like that, she lost eye contact, because he's back to reading already.

Probbing, she goes "Do you think the void would bleach your hair? it did unbleach Bob's". She's still wondering how that happened and why the fuck that happened, by the way.

Bucky's eyebrows furrows. "The void isn't a hairdresser.", he answers, wich most definitely means he doesn't want his hair bleached. Or wants to keep reading his book. He must have reached an interesting moment, because he usually keeps the conversation going a little more than that.

Eh. That's fine, she'll get back to annoying him later then.

"I am absolutely okay being the best and only blonde team-member out there anyways", she wraps up the conversation.

And she goes back to giving the sunset her full attention, blood still rushing to her head. Just hanging out like she's a bat, gazing at the sun in Bucky's quiet company.

Except she doesn't mind looking at the sun, like a bat would. Just hanging down like a vampire, then.

That doesn't fit very well either, since vampires mind the sun aswell, but darkness will be there and stay there until the next day soon any minutes now, so it's not like her bad metaphors are that much of a problem.

The sky's still pink. It'll probably be a deep blue, soon, then she'll probably leave the room to go to her own. Or she'll stay hanging there a little more. Bucky's probably going to switch on the light to keep reading. Or she could stays in the dark aswell if he doesn't. She wouldn't mind.

Or, rather- Fuck, she can't. Someone would definitely mind.

She has her little baby Hammy to feed sometime this evening rather than this night, and to feed herself aswell . Wich means she's going to have to move to the kitchen table at some point soon. As soon as the sun will be down and the sunset done.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i need to add a pretty separator later but i just want to sleep right now okay)

Hi! For clarification: I don't headcanon Yelena as suicidal anymore, or as actively suicidal but I do believe she used to have passive suicidal thoughts, as in "well I possibly could die doing that but, hey, that's how life goes" . So the team here aren't actively running a suicide sensibilisation campaign, but they're not ignoring it either! ALSO: Hammy is what i decided to call her guinea's pig ! i'll most likely do a oneshot explaing its name someday :D

------ ͙͘͡★

Tagging/credits: @hurtspideyparker : ty for letting me use one of your headcanons! will definitely be doing it again (the one where yelena eats her meals with her guinnea pig at the table it's such a cute one)

------ ͙͘͡★

banners options I didn't end up choosing but really wanted to! Or: visuals

[inejinn]

stood up, walked, and I went soo spinny walking woa

[inejinn]

hey, guys.

would a vampire using blood as a lipstick like humans do with cherry juice be funny, kind of sexy or just straight up creepy?

[inejinn]

ant in my bed what does this mean

[inejinn]

Jason realising his body heat is unnaturally cold (or at least way colder than the one of the average person) with a mood ring.

You know, those rings that are supposed to change colours based to your emotions?

Who in reality change according to the heat, black being the coldest, allegedly the "default mood", in reality most of the time just the temperature of the room, when you haven't put it on yet.

Then it can change colors according to your body heat, going from blue to green, or to red..

At the very least, it's supposed to at least turn the slightest brownish black. Can't scam people with a supposedly empath ring if the ring doesn't change color at least once, you know.

It never changes even fucking once. Litteraly not once.

Maybe it's a ring a kid gifted to Red Hood , that he didn't have the heart to refuse (listen, kids can be strong willed sometimes. there's times when you just have to accept whatever small little gremlins wants to put you through)

Or maybe it's one he found back in his belongings, from before?

Either way, he knows the concept, and it's pretty idiotic, but, well.

The design is pretty cool: black ring. with some sorts of embellishments, or something?

Well, either ways, he puts it on some day.

Keep wearing it throughout the day, or during the following hour, long enough that he has the time to forget about its existence and remember it multiple time.

And the thing doesn't change colors even once, doesn't even pretend its hue is going to shift. He definitely remembers it's supposed to.

Maybe he spends some time looking at it a little while. Despite the staring , it stays the same exact black shade all the fucking time.

Or maybe at some point, he tries closing his knuckles around the ring and make an almost-attempt to crush it to death, see if it'll works then- it doesn't. The result is a round imprint in his palm and still the same black shade.

At some point, he could just shrugs and give it up: it's not like it matters much.

But I also think he'd keep trying , because there's some part of him that wants to know (because a Robin is supposed to be a tiny detective, technically, isn't it?)

So.. he can just drown the ring below the tap water's stream. Hot water.

That'll makes it changes to red immediately. Not broken.

Or just make someone else try it on.

It does.

And.

He knows he's been feeling frigid some nights ,but, seriously? His body heat is equal to the ambient temperature if not lower? He might to have body heat? That's vampire type of shit. What.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So this is a fic prompt/fic idea that I developed a little too much, oops. I might make it into an actual fic someday or use it for another character because I love it smm

[inejinn]

Sunset

---------- ͙͘͡★

Drops of light are slowly painting the room orange. The tower's living room is the best place to see the shifts of the sky.

The rooftop? Even more so. There's no windows reflecting the inside of the tower there.

Yet here Yelena admire the way the sun is coloring the sky. On the couch. On her back, legs propped up on its backrest and head off of it, consequently upside down.

The reason? Because of Bob and roofs and low spirit reasons.

Last time he found her there, appreciating nature's spectacle, he joined: she got free with her words, like it naturally tends to come to with them both. She didn't think that'd be the temporary end of her sky session, but, well. Bob has his worry come easily

They used to be unaware what would happen if you were injured previously to stepping into the void: they do now.

Bob actually end up snitching on her to Bucky accidentally , too, and now they won't leave her alone about risk-taking, and sacrifices-pulling, and all of the flock of things like that. They already kind of were since she willingly walked into the void, but it's turned way more evident now. It's honestly annoying sometimes.

(She now usually avoids getting on rooftops on her own anyway. It helps keep Bob at ease, and it's not like the feeling of the wind in her hair is what she used to focus on)

It's actually pretty funny, because they've pretty much all been active walking kamikaze suicide threat at some point in their life, and yet here they are, all offering clumsy mental healthcare advice and not always applying them to themselves . Bunch of hypocrites.

Herself included. She's clunkily advising around like a baby learning how to walk as well.

"Hey, the sun's looking nice from upside down", she informs no one in particular.

Bucky barely looks up from the book in his hands. Mix of ignoring her and really being entranced by his lecture, judging by the way his shoulders are pretty much not tense with any frustration or anything else right now.

Apparently he picked up a new serie recently. This cover's definitely not the same type of design as the previous one was.

Maybe she should too. She wouldn't mind getting into one aswell.

She'll probably ask him later for reqs, if she still want to pick up a new thing to do then . But right now..

The sun's shining on Bucky now, decided on making him squint at the words on the pages before disappearing for the day. It makes his hair kind of golden, shining trhough, since he's turned away from the sunset.

"Ever thought about going ginger?", She asks the previously (until now) focused man.

"Is one of you ever going to explain your cucumber joke?"

What an odd change of subject. She can totally tell where it is leading the conversation.

"Uh, no?"

"There's your answer"

"Okayyy, I get it", she drawls. "I don't think it'd fit you anyway. You'd have to bleach your hair and it'd turn out.."

And just like that, she lost eye contact, because he's back to reading already.

Probbing, she goes "Do you think the void would bleach your hair? it did unbleach Bob's". She's still wondering how that happened and why the fuck that happened, by the way.

Bucky's eyebrows furrows. "The void isn't a hairdresser.", he answers, wich most definitely means he doesn't want his hair bleached. Or wants to keep reading his book. He must have reached an interesting moment, because he usually keeps the conversation going a little more than that.

Eh. That's fine, she'll get back to annoying him later then.

"I am absolutely okay being the best and only blonde team-member out there anyways", she wraps up the conversation.

And she goes back to giving the sunset her full attention, blood still rushing to her head. Just hanging out like she's a bat, gazing at the sun in Bucky's quiet company.

Except she doesn't mind looking at the sun, like a bat would. Just hanging down like a vampire, then.

That doesn't fit very well either, since vampires mind the sun aswell, but darkness will be there and stay there until the next day soon any minutes now, so it's not like her bad metaphors are that much of a problem.

The sky's still pink. It'll probably be a deep blue, soon, then she'll probably leave the room to go to her own. Or she'll stay hanging there a little more. Bucky's probably going to switch on the light to keep reading. Or she could stays in the dark aswell if he doesn't. She wouldn't mind.

Or, rather- Fuck, she can't. Someone would definitely mind.

She has her little baby Hammy to feed sometime this evening rather than this night, and to feed herself aswell . Wich means she's going to have to move to the kitchen table at some point soon. As soon as the sun will be down and the sunset done.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i need to add a pretty separator later but i just want to sleep right now okay)

Hi! For clarification: I don't headcanon Yelena as suicidal anymore, or as actively suicidal but I do believe she used to have passive suicidal thoughts, as in "well I possibly could die doing that but, hey, that's how life goes" . So the team here aren't actively running a suicide sensibilisation campaign, but they're not ignoring it either! ALSO: Hammy is what i decided to call her guinea's pig ! i'll most likely do a oneshot explaing its name someday :D

------ ͙͘͡★

Tagging/credits: @hurtspideyparker : ty for letting me use one of your headcanons! will definitely be doing it again (the one where yelena eats her meals with her guinnea pig at the table it's such a cute one)

------ ͙͘͡★

banners options I didn't end up choosing but really wanted to! Or: visuals

[inejinn]

༉‧₊˚.

love is holding tree branches back ,

so they won't hit whoever's following you in the face