#and paimon i guess

[narcoticwriter]

Happy birthday to Arataki Itto and Arataki Itto only.

[tizeline]

I've saved up more than enough primos for this little gremlin and I'm tired of waiting, they should release him now >:(

[cor-lapis]

Fontaine is in remarkably good shape after getting completely submerged. Even Dvalin threw a few signs on roofs and whatnot

Kaveh and al-Haitham redesigns are mine (still WIP), while Nahida's is by fallencrowkarma

Masterpost of other quest sketches

[yaniennkk]

caribert

[m1d-45]

second chances

summary: baizhu knows he isn’t your favorite, but he still finds himself hoping for the impossible. maybe, with enough prayer, he’ll get it.

word count: ~2k

-> warnings: major spoilers for baizhu story quest + lore + liyue archon quest, based on me and my experience (vaguely disliked baizhu at first due to partial information, immediately changed my mind w his quest and now adores him, doesn’t have kirara)

-> gn reader (you/yours) and unspecified traveller (they/them)

taglist: @samarill || @thenyxsky || @valeriele3 || @shizunxie || @boba-is-a-soup || @yuus3n || @esthelily || @turningfrogsgay || @cupandtea24 || @genshin-impacts-me || @chaoticfivesworld || @raaawwwr

< masterlist >

baizhu knows he isn’t the most favored.

from the first moment the traveller set foot in his office, he knew. he wasn’t met with anything special, no big flair from his god when you first saw him. it was to be expected, with how much time he spent praying—could gods have regulars?

it was simple. a quick ‘oh, the snake talks?’ thrown his way, a comment or two about his choice of outfit or the jade pendant hanging off his vision, and that was that. mostly, you seemed preoccupied with qiqi and the funeral parlor’s consultant, something to be expected. he was a quick stop on your journey, a note in the margins about the doctor you met at the pharmacy. it made sense, of course, that you’d be occupied with the death of rex lapis during the failed rite of descension, and the return of osial and beisht surely took priority over him. he offered little, only a dialogue or two actually shared between him and the traveller when you were present. he’d gathered as much of his energy, saved it for your arrival to make a good impression, so… it made sense you’d fret over qiqi, constantly forgetful as she was.

it made sense. he’d… made his peace. he had more to worry about, surely, what with orders to fulfill and his own condition to manage. maybe not more important—never, not maybe, what was he thinking?—but certainly more.

when your attention on qiqi flared, spurred by some unknown whim, he delighted a bit in being close to her, even if your thoughts on him weren’t entirely positive.

it was fair. you liked qiqi, and were concerned. it made sense you didn’t know every detail of teyvat, and since he’s never had the chance to come to you and spell out his story directly, it made sense you’d make some assumptions.

“i guess that makes sense, but still… qiqi deserves better.”

she probably did, in truth, but hearing it from you…

he’s had his vision for years by this point. he’s hd it for as long as he’d had changsheng, to be exact, and she was always able to remind him of exactly how long that had been.

“ssseven yearsss, four monthsss, thirteen daysss, and counting…”

“ah… thank you, changsheng.”

he knew he wasn’t special. out of the thousands of vision wielders across teyvat, only a handful have started having their constellations appear in the sky. just under a hundred, by his approximation, but he tried not to count. if he sought out the proper numbers, tried to pin down a percentage of those with a vision that had a chance to hold their god’s attention, then he’d start trying to find patterns. he was a doctor, patterns and rhythms were his literal job, but he knew that wouldn’t end well.

(a librarian, an alchemist, a lawyer: did you perhaps favor more studious types? a bartender, an exorcist, a detective: or those with a drive in their lives? a nobody, a traveller, a wandering samurai: or those seeking one out for themselves?)

there wasn’t a pattern. it was random. and part of him hated it.

baizhu had had his vision for seven years, eight months, and thirteen (was it fourteen? the sky was growing dark) days, and had never once seen his stars in the sky.

he had one. he had a constellation, something he knew was rare among vision wielders, but it didn’t guarantee him a spot in the sky any time soon. kirara had hers long before she had her chance in the heavens—they’d spoken about that, both hesitant to show the other their divine gift, but willing to speak of its existence.

and now kirara’s turn had passed. though her vision didn’t shine any brighter, he could see the pride in her smile when she dropped off another delivery at the pharmacy. sign here, check these, make sure this is what you ordered, goodbye have a good day, pretend like yours doesn’t weigh more after seeing hers.

it wasn’t as if he was unremarkable. a perfectly healthy man who had thrown himself into illness to find the cure for all of them? surely that was interesting, wasn’t it? but it wasn’t his time, he was being impatient, slipping back to the same mindset he condemned his patients for.

“patience. medicine doesn’t work in an instant, and you’ll need to be taking this for the next week at minimum.”

“but it’s so bitter!”

“then tell me, what tastes worse: bile, or this pill? if you want to stop being sick, you need to take it.”

patience.

qiqi was blessed with a place in the stars near instantly after she’d gotten her vision, but she was not the norm. perhaps his expectations were weighted, then? or maybe you disliked his work entirely? he didn’t like entertaining what ifs, but when various aches kept him up, there was little else he could do while he waited for his medication to take effect. patience, he tried to remind himself, counting his breaths. be patient. wait, be calm, don’t agitate yourself. count in, count out, are your breaths getting shorter? just stay calm, be patient…

the first time he saw you, he knew you were coming. he’d saved as much energy as he could, doing his best to make a good impression. but now, with changsheng nudging him awake urgently, pushing him into his shoes and putting his glasses on for him, the first thing he’d expected was the millelith, maybe, or perhaps the ministry of civil affairs. maybe he was needed urgently, maybe something had happened to qiqi, maybe he was late for his medication and he’d get terrible headaches if he wasn’t quick- oh, but then why would she bother to coil around his shoulders?

and yet, out of all those possibilities, none were correct.

“hey! who’s talking about me behind my back?”

“changsheng, qiqi meant that as a compliment. there’s no need to be upset.”

it had been so long since he’d felt your light, far longer since he’d been properly healthy. he’d forgotten how it felt to walk without the dull ache in his joints, and yet here he was. standing by gui and a familiar looking child, speaking with your traveller. it was easy to say words he didn’t choose, his throat not getting dry despite the lack of his morning tea.

the quest was long, and by the end he should have been exhausted. between taking on jialiang’s sickness to turning him into a zombie, he should have been out of commission for the next few days. as it was he had a nasty cough, his breath coming shorter than typical… but that was it. he took his regular medication at the dinner with your traveller, the linger of your aura on them still seeming to dull his pains. how curious, that you could cure ailments even he couldn’t name anymore…

“baizhu, are you alright?” idly, he wondered if the traveller noticed the change in their voice when they were speaking for you. it always sounded a bit lighter, a bit of your emotions bleeding through… a pity he’d never know why. “today must have been taxing for you…”

all eyes were on him now, even qiqi’s. “i’m doing fine,” he said simply, taking another sip of his tea. “better than normal, if anything, which i have to owe to our guest.”

paimon still seemed nervous. “but what about when we leave? what if everything hits you all at once? normally you stay at the pharmacy, and using your power so much…”

a fair assessment. while he was no stranger to combat, to be thrown in the middle of a pack of such vicious hilichurls was a shock. still, he had made it through—even if, privately, he doubted it would have been so clean without you there. “i will be fine. even if my condition declines, i am well equipped to handle flare ups.”

it seemed the whole group was hesitant to let him go. changsheng insisted he stay up until three hours had past since the traveller left, when his limbs again felt heavy and his head began to hurt. something odd was stirring in his chest, and he was eager to get to bed before it sparked into anything more. it was reasonable, he knew, but there were only so many prescriptions to prepare before he had nothing left to do. gui had long since went to bed, leaving just him in the lobby of the pharmacy, quietly double checking his stock of herbs.

eventually, he stood from his seat, returning the sweet flowers to their proper place. he held up an hand to let changsheng climb up his arm, closing up the pharmacy. she curled around his shoulders twice, a familiar weight. the night was cool, a slight breeze bumping the chain of his glasses against his cheek. it had been a long few days, and he was happy that everything was settled. he’d done all he could for jialiang, and he and his family hopefully wouldn’t be coming back for quite some time. back to routine…

“…baizhu?”

he checked the lock with a quick tug, “yes? what is it?”

“the ssstarsss… they’re due, aren’t they?”

ah. the cycles of constellations, switching through the sky. if he thought about it.. yes, they were, weren’t they?

“by my memory, they are. why?”

her head was turned, looking off to the part of the sky not obscured by the roof of the pharmacy.

“…changsheng-“

“look.”

“it’s late.” his heart began to pick up, false hopes being raised. patience, he chided himself, but what follower did not wish for acknowledgment from their god? “we should go to sleep before we fall too far out of schedule.”

“baizhu! i know you have better sssenses than that.”

perhaps he did. his vision burned where it was clipped to his side, invisible vines creeping up toward his heart. “don’t be too hasty,” he said quietly, the words tasting as bitter as his pills.

don’t be too hasty. you could still be wrong. don’t get your hopes up. be patient.

one hand went to his hip, undoing the clasp of his vision, the other settling on the railing. a few clouds dotted the sky, but he lifted his vision anyway, searching for any stars tinted green.

everything happened at once. the terrace was replaced with an ocean of skies, the slight mumble of “i do have a guaranteed…” getting lost in the whirlwind around him. he was weightless, trapped in by an invisible box, only dimly aware of the fact that his pain had once again disappeared. he was floating, dressed in the attire he normally saved for formal events—dressed in what he’d put on when you’d first arrived—with no sight of the pharmacy below him. it was just him and changsheng, him and changsheng and the bright light that came from everywhere, lifting him from his unseen prison.

a laugh, a smile, a rush of power flooding through him, and when he next set foot in front of the pharmacy, he did so with a new gleam to his vision. he could hear a door open behind him—qiqi, if he had to guess, as why wouldn’t she be drawn to the power the adepti could only hope to imitate?—but couldn’t turn, breathless.

“welcome home, doc.. it’s good to see you.”

it had taken seven years, four months, and 25 days, but he was here. and it was more than he could have ever asked for.

[enden-k]

DID YOU WATCH THE GENSHIN 5.0 LIVESTREAM? LORD, THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED!!

yall.......i stopped posting gnshn stuff a while ago, i dont bother watching their stupid livestreams aaahhhhh if i could i would kidnap my faves out there and take them somewhere safe smh

anw no i did not watch it bc i dont keep up with gnshn. im out of the loop so idk what youre talking abt

[from-leviathans-coffin]

[kanonavi]

(Spoilers for 4.5 Potion event (just in case lol I know I'm late on this))

At this point, I'm really wondering if we're gonna end up getting some payoff in the future for much Paimon absolutely hates Venti for no discernible reason. Because he isn't the only person she's been kinda standoffish with over the years, but he's by far the most consistent. Like, when you consider the fact that Paimon even warmed up to Al-Haitham by the end of Sumeru, it kinda says a lot about her apparent grudge against Venti by comparison. (And I love Al-Haitham to death, but I'm not about to say he's a ray of sunshine compared to Venti.) (Event interaction-related stuff under the cut)

The contrast to how Paimon treated Diona versus how she treated Venti when they came to the potion shop together was like night and day. I've been going around to all of my friends today and describing Paimon's reaction to them as something like "Diona omg hi it's so good to see you it's been forever how have you been!!! .........And Tone-Deaf Bard." which is obviously a comedic exaggeration, but also not entirely off the mark. And all Venti did was... exist? Try to help Diona out with what she was trying to do? Yes, he's going to get free drinks out of it but he also went truly above and beyond to help Diona find a new ingredient all the way from the middle of nowhere in Dragonspine. If he didn't care about Diona's feelings and what she was trying to do, he wouldn't have done that. (But of course, Venti does care because he's a good Archon and a good person and I love him for that.)

There are genuinely very few things that make me believe in the theory that Paimon is some kind of agent from the Heavenly Principles than the fact that she hates Venti so steadfastly. There's so much evidence that connects Mondstadt and specifically Venti/the Thousand Winds to the old civilizations of Teyvat that the Heavenly Principles once destroyed. For Venti to still exist in the world and let his people make their own choices in the way that he does, of course they and by extension Paimon would hate him. Plus, even if her annoyance with him started with his tendency towards being cryptic, why would Paimon care so much about what he knows? Why does one of his voicelines imply that he doesn't want to tell the traveler things with Paimon around?? It's just so incredibly suspicious.

The scene is kinda funny though when you look at how good Venti is with kids (how helpful and kind he is to Diona despite her wanting to get rid of alcohol, which he loves) and yet one of the most childish characters in the entire game absolutely despises him. Every day I wake up and wonder what in the world Paimon's damage is and if we're going to get a justification for it, or if this is sincerely just what the writers think is funny.

[carrotshark]

ITS US AGAINST THE WORLD ‼️‼️

[narcoticwriter]

Not gonna lie, I only watched the epilogue of Lantern Rite to get a taste of character interactions and I'm happy with it, so there.

[notsosocialcat]

Has this been done yet?

[cor-lapis]

welcome back to the yearly 'clown on dainsleif (affectionate)' hour !!!

previous quest summaries

[99-devilz]

scarymouse's first day at school

[dandelion-wings]

Aether and Lumine? Paimon too.

Thank you for the ask! :> I am going to split this not on Aether/Lumine lines but on Traveler/Abyss Prince(ss) lines, because, well, canon did set it up that way, and while if absolutely pushed, Lumine is my Traveler, I mostly prefer to be agnostic in my meta and fic about who is who.

TRAVELER

How I feel about this character

Ah, yes, Traveler von Protagonist Disease.

The thing that complicates the Traveler for me is that I absolutely loathe the kind of semi-self-insert-but-semi-independent-character protagonist that seems to be getting popular in video games these days. Byleth in FE3H is another good example. I wish they didn't exist! I wish that it was either a full self-insert, character-builder and all, or that they gave us a protagonist with a personality in the style of Tales Of and Final Fantasy games in the first place. I really enjoy roleplaying a character as I play a video game, whether given to me as a fully-realized character or as one I made up myself, and this in-between kind of robs me of that because I can't go full "this OC of mine believes this" and I also can't try for accuracy to the character I'm presented on-screen.

That said, they have been getting better about this with the Traveler over the last few nations, and I like the increasing sense of actual, independent personality that we've gotten for them! Obviously a protagonist of this kind of game, where all the others have to like the player character to make the gacha appealing, is going to want to help others, so I actually particularly like the occasional thread we get where they're like "no, I don't actually care half as much for Teyvat as I do for my sibling, I don't not care but my main mission is still to get to them" because it's very refreshing to me.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Childe with the Lumine version, as two people who can and will absolutely fuck each other up in a play-battle, post-fight sex optional but fun. (Also I once read a Childe/Lumine AU fic where Childe was attempting to pursue The Greatest Game with Lumine and she turned the tables and pinned him down with knives through his hands, and it was incredibly hot.) Ayaka, as a one-sided crush on Ayaka's part. That's... really about it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Paimon! My bestest and beloved friend. :>

My unpopular opinion about this character

With a handful of exceptions, I... do not particularly enjoy Traveler-centered fic/art/meta. I don't know how unpopular that is but it's all I've got.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I know why Hoyo can't do this with their gacha game full of waifus and husbandos, but I wish we had at least one major/playable character who just did not get along with them. All their voicelines are along the lines of "you think I'm fucking telling you that?" I just want to see how it would play out.

THE ABYSS PRINCE(SS)

How I feel about this character

Honestly much more fascinating to me, in part because they've been a lot more allowed to have some kind of personality from the beginning! I want to know all about what's happened to them, why they hold the positions they do, why they give their twin so few crumbs, etc.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I mean. Dain. XD

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Aside from their twin, also Dain! Love their history.

My unpopular opinion about this character

This sort of overlaps with the second, but while I don't know how plausible or how unpopular it is, the mirror in the Caribert quest where the Traveler saw them in it combined with some minor previous stuff to unlock a Theory for me that the Traveler and the Abyss Prince(ss) aren't twins, but a single person with, for the Traveler, altered memories, whom the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles broke apart in order to nerf their power and/or for other reasons related to the whole "Fourth Descender broken up for parts" thing. Fascinating to me.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Related to the above: Hoyo, please give me this. For all the game's deliberate sibling analogies and their pleasing narrative resonance, this theory honestly has way more appeal to me overall.

PAIMON

How I feel about this character

My buddy! My bestest friend! :> I get mad when people are mean to her (in-game or people who choose those options in play). I get sad when she talks about being scared without us (@chrysoula has a theory that this is all foreshadowing a quest/arc where she's taken away and I think this is reasonably likely but I'm also dreading it). I refuse to believe the theories that she's evil, but I do love the theories that she's a reduced/de-powered version of Something/Someone in Teyvat's lore, that would be very fun. I want to give her so many hugs.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I do not. XD

My non-romantic OTP for this character

The Traveler, of course! :> I also love her rivalry with Itto. I love when characters treat her as a separate person from the Traveler and have their own relationships with her.

My unpopular opinion about this character

From what I've seen in the fandom... that I like her at all? XD;;

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Hoyo stop giving us options to be mean to her. She doesn't deserve it. >:( Appreciating and loving Paimon hours ONLY.

[pusangkambing]

Uuugghhh as much as i would absolutely love for ccs to come back to the qsmp, I dont think killing off or getting rid of the eggs will make a good solution for that. Like a majority of both in character motivation and cc interests is BECAUSE of the eggs. Killing them off to bring people back would just make the people currently, actively playing lose interest, both cc and character wise. The eggs are so intrinsically tied to the story that just getting rid of them so suddenly would literally suck.

I agree, people who try to force the ccs that left or are not as active as the current ones, are fucking awful and need to shut the fuck up forever and ever, but getting rid of the eggs completely and so abruptly is.not.the.solution.

[takethelx3]