#cryo rack

[anantaru]

do you think capitano has a bunch of scars? how would he react when you trace them? :3

synopsis. it turns capitano on when you trace the scars on his back as he fucks you ⊹ ‧₊˚ ᰔ fem! reader

warnings. tw scars (on his back), size kink & size difference (he's very big n beefy, as we know <3)

grabbing a fistful of your ass, capitano groans against your wet cheek, his voice on the verge of breaking.

"my dear..." he huffs out breathlessly, "i have no control when I'm with you," before he finds you wincing at the rough texture of his skin buzzing within your walls, roaming freely and sliding his throbbing sensation over your soft insides.

you swallow down a cry as you took him, your legs burning as he stretches your cunt— his hunted, dark gaze always casted on yours, watching you with thrill in his eyes as he started to thrust into you a little deeper.

the harbinger was exploring the pure and surreal nature of your intimacy as your body weeps into his chest, your cheeks beginning to burn due to overstimulation and the aching stretch of his cock, "fuck— so… big," you hiccup, "aah, you're so warm," as he pounds his thick cock into you, completely overthrowing the natural strength of your body without even trying.

it wasn't really difficult for capitano to send chills down your body, or coax out each little, pathetic moan from your throat— in fact, he had to hold himself back in order to not hurt you with his enormous strength. each thrust he added would multiply in precision and intensity, making you shudder out a hefty rush of air through your chest, once, twice, as a pleasurable tear teases light-heartedly around your lashes.

air enters your lungs and you arch your back, letting him take control over you as your fingers trace along the bulging scars on his defined back— which some of them felt fresher than the others, not to mention that quite a few didn't heal properly and left behind swelling, bumps of skin.

the man was known to be the strongest, unable to be defeated yet encountering himself in his current setting, he finds himself utterly defeated by the pure trace of you— and your soft digits embracing the countless scars covering his back weakened his mind.

capitano cherishes them, his marks and blemishes were a part of him, in fact, they multiply from battle to battle, burning into his skin as he wears them with pride. the man looks at them like trophies to remind himself of his true, never ending victory, and his brutal strength making the cryo nation petrifying to the outside eye.

your hands were planted against his flexing back as he fills you to the brim. shortly after, you're resuming to take care of his scars, gently brushing across the alarming number of them and awaiting his pebbly whines, urging him on to inch his face closer so you could kiss him.

the tip of his cock drags through the slopes of your walls as your body clenches beneath his larger one. he's so big— a little freak in the sheets if he wants, but capitano was also soft at the same time, vulnerable and entirely differentiating from his outside self, like you're the only person he could be vulnerable with.

your legs trembled as they dangled against his shoulders, your hips twitching and beginning to burn from how hard he was rolling his hips into your sensitive hole.

careful and sultry thrusts of his shaft send numerous tremors surging right through you, racking through your brain as the sheer size of him numbs you out— as do your feathery touches, embraces and exploring of his damaged skin add depth to his means of experiencing true love.

©2024 anantaru do not repost, copy, translate, modify

[decayedgloria]

icicle's clutch

ft. Wriothesley and Kaeya

Your lover decides to be... adventurous with his vision.

Tags: fem!reader, fingering, established relationships, inappropriate use of a vision, semi-public sex (Kaeya), princess nickname (Kaeya), alcohol consumption, reader is tipsy (Kaeya), Degradation (Wriothesley), sensory deprivation(Wriothesley), handcuffs (Wriothesley), size kink if you truly squint, nsfw, mdni

Word Count: ~1K words, not proofread, most def not my best work

Kaeya Alberich

To everyone else at the tavern, you and Kaeya just seemed to be enjoying your time in the Angel's Share as a couple. With Diluc away, Kaeya manages to rack up an impressive bill under his name, alcohol freely flowing between the both of you as you drank the night away together.

However, now you were thinking that it may have been too much alcohol, your tipsy mind barely comprehending the cold sensation of the captain's fingertips slowly trailing lower and lower, until they lightly grazed your clothed cunt. You had long moved to a more secluded table upstairs, where no one except a few passed out drunkards occupied the space.

"Kaeya!" The hushed panic of your voice was met with a chuckle beside you, Kaeya smiling innocently as his fingers made quick work of your bottom's zipper, their temperature as frosty as the winter air. Instinctively, you grabbed his arm, only to be met with what you could only describe as an icicle.

"Not here-" You found yourself faltering when his digits pressed against your folds, rubbing slow circles while all you could do was bite back a moan, falling against his shoulder as you feel your face burn. He continued his relentless teasing, and his words were no better.

"My, my… you're getting wetter by the second." His blue eye gazes into your own, star-shaped pupils blown wide with lust (or was that the alcohol?). Placing a quick peck on your jaw, Kaeya smiles as he feels your smaller body tremble against his own, feeling just how quickly your panties had become dampened. His thumb rubbed slow circles against your clit with his index and pointer fingers massaged your folds, a combination that always seemed to drive you to the edge no matter what.

You couldn't say anything back, not when your tongue had already been so loose from the wine you had drank earlier; you were sure that it wouldn't be words that would escape, but an unabashed whine instead. Still, Kaeya kept his pace, Cryo vision gleaming by his hip, and his fingers found themselves stuffed inside your bottoms and leaving their icy trail all over your folds, eliciting a delicious moan from you.

You were thankful for the raucous atmosphere downstairs, otherwise you most definitely have been heard. Kaeya was aware of this, and it seemed that he made it his personal mission to make sure you were heard- assailing your cunt with his frozen fingers as they plunged in and out of your sopping hole, pace unrelenting. He used his other hand to keep your shaky legs from closing, fully encasing you in his embrace.

The warmth of his chest contrasted the feeling of his fingers bullying your heated walls repeatedly. How could he not? Your pussy was so inviting, taking his cryo-covered digits so well, making your supple skin grow goosebumps as he goes harder and harder.

"Cat got your tongue, princess?" Kaeya's teasing voice was only inches away from your ear, and his tongue daringly licked your earlobe when you leaned further into his touch. At this point, you were reduced to a whimpering mess, unable to think of anything but his icy fingers- so large and so long- pressing further and further into your pussy.

Wriothesley

Cold were the metal handcuffs that bound your wrists, and even colder were the feather-light fingers that traced all over your body. With your vision obscured, you couldn't make any sense of where Wriothesley touched you, and he seemed to take delight in that; chuckling every time small gasps left your lips when he touched particularly sensitive areas on your skin.

"Ah-" You let out a choked whine as one of his hands suddenly grabbed your bare chest, taking one of your nipples and rolling it in between his icy fingers, back arching into his touch. Your body craved for more, the heat emanating from your skin providing a sharp contrast against his own.

Tugging at your restraints, you yearned to touch him. "Wrio, I need more…. please." With a breathy moan you tried to free yourself once more, to no avail. You hear him tut, withdrawing his fingers from your body, sending you into a frenzy as you tried to regain what little touch he had on you.

"Are you really so desperate for me?" Wriothesley asks you mockingly, his grey eyes no doubt boring into your naked body in disappointment. You shook your head no, but your body said otherwise- your hips arching off the bed, trying to find wherever his hands were. Laughingly dryly, you could hear him whisper something under his breath before once again touching you, this time prying your legs open by your thighs, exposing your already dripping cunt to the cool air.

"So fucking wet already. If I hadn't known better, you could have passed on for a whore." He gave you little time to let his words sink in before you feel his fingertips pressing against your clit, slowly rubbing them in a circular motion as your hips bucked into his touch. Your back arched off the bed, hips eagerly grinding into his digits as he toyed with the sensitive nub. You made no move to muffle your moans as his ice-cold fingers fastened their pace.

His other hand roamed against your skin, cooling down your warm flesh as his fingers entered you in haste. He curled them, hitting just the right spot to make you see stars- and stars you did see, no longer holding back your pleas for release as he greedily pumped in and out of you, slick coating his cold digits while he released his own grunts.

"You're a vixen…" You could feel his breath hitch in anticipation as you feel your body tighten, the coil in your stomach growing heavier and heavier with each gasp and moan. "All for me, right?" His lips were now against your ear, whispering the dirtiest praise and sweetest degradations as you come undone beneath him.

[utahimeow]

i think wrio has a cryo vision (? I've never played lmao) and im just imagining temperature play w him ..

cw — nsfw content. minors dni. temperature play, fingering, handcuffs, nickname ‘princess’

there’s mischief swimming in wriothesley’s crystal eyes.

it’s contagious—you can’t help the giddiness that flutters in your stomach as he locks your wrists behind your back with his handcuffs. perhaps it’s nerves.

“i’m gonna try something,” he says, voice gravelly, as his massive, scarred hands spread your thighs apart. “that okay?”

you swallow hard, but you nod your head. the curiosity eats away at you, a million ideas scattering about in your head. is he gonna blindfold you? plug you up? what if he starts speaking in a weird voice? starts roleplaying?

the pad of his finger on your clit makes you suck in a sharp breath of air. he circles slowly, teases you, until you’re bucking your hips and he’s baring his fangs at you in a mean grin.

he prods at your opening where there’s an embarrassing amount of slick drooling from you already, like you’re begging for him. he slides just the very tip of his ring finger inside, no more, and you squirm, a greedy attempt to swallow more of him.

“wriothesley,” you whine. “thought you said you were gonna try something new.”

he doesn’t say anything, just quirks an eyebrow, and suddenly his finger becomes ice. he presses his entire digit inside you and you’re squealing, a shiver racking your entire body as the cold spreads like fire throughout your entire body. you try to press your thighs together but wriothesley is far stronger, and he keeps them apart.

“f-fuck,” you yelp, eyes rolling into the back of your head when he curls his icy finger upwards, making you jolt.

“how does it feel, princess? tell me.”

“c-cold,” you whimper, to which he chuckles.

he fucks his finger in and out of you slowly, letting his cold skin drag over every inch of your warm, gummy walls. it’s like torture—your stomach coils with pleasure, but you’re squirming away from his icy touch, but you want more, but it’s too cold.

wriothesley slips a second frigid finger inside you, and your moans never stop—they’re so thick and so long and so cold.

“wr-wriothesley, please,” you say, gasping as he thrusts them in and out of you with increasing vigour. “wanna cum.”

“feels that good, huh?” he teases, keeping your legs pried apart with his huge hand, never relenting despite how you rut your hips with every one of his movements.

“y-yes, ugh,” you whine, the handcuffs jingling behind your back as your lover brings you closer and closer to your climax. your essence drips down his wrist and he licks his lips at the sight, growing tight in his own pants from the way you throw your head back and writhe in pleasure.

“cum for me,” he coaxes, angling his wrist so that his fingers can sink even further inside your pussy, can press against your sweet spot even harder, can make your stomach finally erupt with white hot pleasure that has you arching your back and crying out his name with bliss.

later, when he unlocks the cuffs and takes them off your wrists, the first thing you do is smack his bare chest.

“next time, i’m gonna handcuff you and stick a hot iron up your ass. as revenge,” you bark. wriothesley bursts out laughing as he massages your wrists.

“oh yeah? look me in my eyes and tell me you didn’t like it.”

he pauses, eyes locked upon your face. he waits. and waits.

times like this make you wish you were a better liar.

[cinnamonest]

I remember once you wrote about Kaeya punishing the reader with his cryo vision and I was wondering what other characters do you think would be more inclined to use their gifted abilities? Any that would stay away from it? ALSO I just wanted to say I love that you never say y/n that always pulls me out of the immersion personally, the way you allude to the readers name instead feels so much more natural and enjoyable

Ahh thank you! I’m glad you appreciate that because that is something I do intentionally, I have nothing against the standard “(y/n)” but I just personally prefer the feel/flow of having the name referenced indirectly, so I try to write my stuff that way.

Certain elements work better for such a thing than others, but there's 3 major candidates:

Baizhu has certainly learned to manifest flora in creative ways — and you provide a great test subject for it too! Thankfully unlike pyro or cryo or the like, dendro doesn’t inherently cause harm on contact, or rather can be utilized in ways that are more focused on practical utility, namely restraint. Sometimes if he thinks you need to calm down a bit, or if he just gets a bit of a craving for watching you squirm (which is far more frequent of an occurrence than you’d like), he gradually learns to create tendrils to keep you restrained. Admittedly, the intricacy of what he manages to create is actually rather beautiful… or it would be if you were viewing it under any other context than being strung up like clothes on a drying rack.

Realistically, Cyno would be a primary candidate for this — he’s got the disciplinarian mindset, so if a vision can be utilized productively for such a purpose, why not? Of course, he’s sure to be mindful of the intensity, he’s well aware that going too far with it could genuinely harm you, and he wouldn’t want that. Still, if you have some specific issue he feels you need to work on, administering shocks can be a good means of reinforcement. You know, just as a means of being a reminder when you do the thing you were told not to do. With him, though, part of what makes it so irritating is that he treats any discussion of it with the most deadpan voice and expression. No he’s not going o stop doing it, why would he, it works just fine. You’re overreacting. It wasn’t that bad. Why are you making that face. You’re so upset and he barely did anything. Huh. Well, at least it’s good you’re staring off at a low tolerance, since it will only go up from here…

Diluc is in a bit of a different position because out of all the elements, fire has the most serious immediate-harm potential and lasting damage. You can get over a mild shock or some cold, but a burn can do lasting damage. So he avoids using it on you… intentionally, at least. However, there will definitely be some accidents that occur in moments of irritation or disputes. He genuinely feels bad about it, but it happens nonetheless, and it does effect your behavior — you start watching what you say a little more during arguments, think before speaking exactly what comes to mind — so it does effectively remediate your behavior, so, it technically counts.

[that-student-that-has-homework]

You WILL Have my Herbs 06

Diluc / Reader

Previous Chapters: Chp 1 | Chp 2 | Chp 3 | Chp 4 | Chp 5 | Chp 6

Read the Full Story on Ao3 | Tumblr MasterList Here (Maybe even leave me a comment please? :3< )

Summary: Listen you just wanted to pick some plants, do some experiments, find some cures, and report back to your mentor. Unfortunately a handsome vigilante puts you in his debt and now you have to fight him to let you make it up to him.

Chapter 6: Purple Befitting Royalty

Master Diluc did say that he would handle explaining things to Sir Kaeya…

He did.

He also had the audacity to be surprised that you kept your promises. What? Did Mondstadters not keep their promises? Were promises so cheap in this country?

Hmm…perhaps you were taking this too personally.

Given what you’ve seen of Master Diluc, he didn’t seem to trust much outside of his immediate staff: like Adelinde and his butler. You were not only outside the staff circle, you were from outside the country, quite literally. A foreigner.

He likely only trusted people as far as he could throw them, and with your experience from that domain, he could likely throw them quite far. After all, he had only shoved you out of the way of danger (with one hand no less) and you vaguely remember bracing yourself for longer than you’d anticipated, momentarily wondering why you hadn’t smacked into the ground yet. When you did land you skidded for a bit too. Of course your attire and the smooth floor reduced the friction between surfaces and lended to that skidding, but no matter.

For the record: you’d hit a floating anemo slime while holding your polearm and popped it like a balloon. Truly an unfortunate occurrence as it was cute (if deadly). Master Diluc had pushed you before the remnants of the slime could smack you in the face.

Hmm…once you described it like that…did that mean he actually did trust people then? Were you using the idiom wrong? Because he trusted them as far as he could throw them and he had the strength to throw really far then…

You’d have to ask Thamtham. He was good at language and idioms and whatnot. You would make sure to do so in your next letter.

Ah…how did you get to this thought? Oh yes, Master Diluc. His lack of trust-which was perfectly reasonable given his… extracurricular activities.

Unfortunately, whether you would like to admit it or not: words could be cheap. It wasn’t as if you hadn’t experienced that yourself. But still…you promised!

You promised multiple times! And he-okay! That was enough of that. There was no use being agitated when you understood the situation.

To top it off he was also going to help you clear things up with Sir Kaeya. You ought to be grateful for that! You were, actually! This meant you could go hand in your due library books! And see Miss Lisa! Oh you’d missed Miss Lisa she was the-

He never said when .

Master Diluc never said when he would talk to Sir Kaeya. 

Oh dear. 

Oh no. 

Your library books were due today , and you had heard that Miss Lisa zapped Sir Kaeya one time when he brought his books back late-from the man himself no less! He has never brought his books in late since, and the librarian corroborated the story (he deserved that zap apparently). 

But beyond all that: you didn’t want to disappoint Miss Lisa! For all her unnerving traits (she always felt like she knew more than she let on), she was the most comforting presence in this foreign land.

You missed her. And her warm hugs. You could use a hug after yesterday. A violent shiver racked your body, leaving you to furiously shake it out of your system.

You inhaled deeply. You would go see her, and take some tea snacks with you. All would be fine, and you could ask her to hide you from Sir Kaeya. She would, she’d ask you about it a little, but she wouldn’t pry too much.

This meant you’d be safe from the cryo man. 

That was rather disrespectful now wasn’t it? You meant you’d be safe from Sir Kaeya. Yes he uses cryo, and yes he’s threatened you, however as a self-respecting scholar you would conduct yourself as such.

With the thought of Miss Lisa’s warm hugs in mind you marched out into the shadows of Mondstadt. Taking care to use the backroads on your way to Good Hunter. Sara was wonderfully speedy with the snacks and you were on your way.

You know what? Sara was truly a blessed presence as well.

Anywho you were met with yet another blessing as the captain you were avoiding was not currently within the building. You’d asked the guards outside. 

At last you arrived at the safe haven of Miss Lisa’s book littered domain. Libraries were always lovely. However this one was doubly lovely with the presence of the beautiful witch.

“Miss Lisa?” You called out tentatively. 

“Oh?” You heard from behind a bookshelf, peering around it you couldn’t help the smile that broke across your face, “and I was just wondering if I would have to go and hunt you down myself.”

What?

“Now cutie, did you bring back my books?” She gave you a hospitable smile. “I gave you a generous extension on them, didn’t I?”

“Yes! Yes you did!” You immediately agreed and worked to summon the books. “I appreciate that deeply! Uh…am I late with my due date? Have I-did I? What’s the date?”

At that she let out a little giggle and gave you a gentle pat on the head, “you’re right on time darling,” she led you towards her desk, “I was just reminding you in case you forgot.”

“Oh, what a relief,” you slumped as you placed the small stack of books on the desk before you, and set down your tea snacks as well “for a moment I was afraid I had and you were disappointed with me.”

“Not at all,” her eyes crinkled as she smiled at you, taking a seat all the while, “I had a feeling you’d get these books back in time.”

“Then what was that about hunting me down?” You couldn’t help but question as she began looking each book over.

“Well I couldn’t help but notice my most consistent tea buddy was missing,” she spoke cheerfully as she logged the books back into the inventory, “given how hard you’d been working to provide for the knights I was worried something happened to you.”

“Oh,” though, “hunt has a rather threatening connotation doesn’t it?”

“Well,” her leafy eyes met yours from under the rim of her large hat, “if you’d run off before returning your books it certainly would have been a hunt.”

Eep! 

Terrifying! She was terrifying!

Sir Kaeya was but a gust of air in the face of the maelstrom Miss Lisa implied. You currently sat within its eye, but should you exit her good graces…

You wished to never find out. 

Well… actually you were a touch curious to find out. Not personally though! No, no! You’d like to be an observer. 

Was that cruel?

No matter. 

You found yourself fiddling with your fingers, and your words, “how…how have you been Miss Lisa?”

She smiled at you sweetly while she signed in the last book, “I’ve been well,” then she winked, “I’ve been missing my little tea buddy though.”

You felt your cheeks warm, a tentative smile taking your features.

“And no need for formalities cutie,” she rose and collected the books with an elegance you didn’t know existed in this world, “just Lisa is fine.”

“O-okay,” that might be a mild challenge, but you’d try.

You followed her as she moved to replace the books in their rightful places. Staring at the lantern on her hat it occurred to you that you hadn’t offered her any of your new products.

“Oh Miss Lisa! I mean-uh-Li-Lisa!” You quickly corrected as you summoned some soap from your pocket dimension. “I made some new soaps! Some of them were infused with cecilias and I felt the scent would suit you!”

Of course that wasn’t all you’d made.

“I also managed to make some soaps using windwheel asters and calla lilies! Oh and I made some mint oil, it was originally for Sir Kaeya but we agreed he’d purchase it from me and I made a lot of extra for others and-”

You were cut off by the tinkling giggle of the librarian in front of you, “sounds like you got a lot of work done.”

“I did! I still have a lot more to do, but I’m very happy I managed to learn about the local flora!” Your elation had you practically bouncing. “I even managed to practice using my vision using the tips you gave me!”

Oh. Your vision.

“I’m glad I could be of help,” she responded as she returned one of the books you’d been reading to its rightful place. 

“Um Miss-uh Lisa?” You began tentatively.

She hummed in response, searching the shelves for a book’s rightful position.

“Could I trouble you with a favor?” You put your soap away temporarily.

The witch looked at you then, curious, “oh? What kind of favor?”

You fiddled with your fingers, picking at your nails a bit, “could you…could you tell Master Jean about my vision please?”

Her curiosity melted away into something amused, “oh! I already told her about it,” she said, looking back to the shelf and tucking a book away. 

“I know you told me to keep it a secret, but I figured it would be best to let Jean know, for your own safety,” she turned to you again, “I understood it was Kaeya that you didn’t want to know about your vision.”

“It is mainly Sir Kaeya that I don’t want to know about my vision.”

“Why is that?” She asked as she studied the final book. “I admit I’ve been a little curious.”

Involuntary tremors shook you, but you responded all the same, “He’s endlessly suspicious of me as it is. He’ll likely accuse me of having this vision before arriving in Mondstadt and continue to accuse me of malicious intent.”

“Oh my,” the elegant lady looked at you, as she pushed the last of the books into place, her hand then settling onto her hip, “is that what he’s been up to lately?”

You tilted your head, brows pinching in confusion.

“He brought me a set of letters you’d written a while back,” her frown set in and you shrank, “they sounded a lot like you thought you might die darling, it was rather concerning, especially when I didn’t see you again for a while after that.”

“I’m sorry,” you found yourself looking at your shoes, “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

“It’s nothing you have to apologize for,” Lisa placed a gentle hand on your shoulder, coaxing you to meet her gaze, “thankfully a nice pot of salve arrived after the letters, and the knight who brought it let me know you were alright.”

“Oh thank goodness!” Your shoulders relaxed. “See I wasn’t sure what exactly happened to the letters until Sir Kaeya…” you shivered at the memory, “asked? asked! about them…”

A sincerely amused chuckle left the witch as she guided you to a nearby work table. “So he had to go back and ask the source himself huh?”

“Pardon?”

“I knew there was no cracking that cipher you used,” she threw you a delighted smile, “it’s unlike any I’ve ever seen before.”

“Oh uh well,” you tittered nervously, “it’s a cipher a trusted friend of mine and I developed long ago.”

“So you were sending those letters to a friend then?” The witch plopped herself down in a seat, while somehow still managing to look elegant.

“Yes,” you nodded earnestly, hoping the witch would believe you.

She let out a long sigh, “when Kaeya came and asked me to decipher the letter, I confess I was curious what my little cutie was up to,” the librarian winked at you before her expression dimmed, “but it was so rude of him to try to go through a lady’s private letters!”

“You,” did Miss Lisa always have this glow about her? “You didn’t find me suspicious?”

You were likely imagining the halo atop her hat, however it suited the kind librarian so well, you could allow this delusion. 

“Oh now cutie you have to know, those letters were very suspicious,” you felt a bit like a child being gently scolded.

“I see,” yeah that halo was a hallucination and you knew it.

“Now now cutie,” he reached out to grab your hand, “suspicious letters don’t make you suspicious.”

“What do you mean?”

“What was suspicious were the letters you left us,” she gestured for you to take a seat near her, “you sounded like you were concerned you wouldn’t get to see us again. I saw all of them, just to let you know. It was very thoughtful of you to leave Jean all those recipes.”

“Well, Master Jean is always working very hard so I wanted to make sure she could take care of her health even in my absence,” you quickly tried to deny the compliment, “it was only rational I would leave her with any remedies-er-knowledge I could to help her.”

The librarian’s gentle smile pushed her eyes into fond crescents at your knee-jerk reaction, “you didn’t give that little rebuttal much thought, now did you?”

She had you there.

“Listen darling, you clearly got yourself mixed up in something suspicious,” she gently stroked the back of your hand, “but someone who would face their fears to help other people? That’s not someone I would ever suspect.”

“But I-” you paused…you did kind of do that. Huh?

You practically melted under Lisa’s patient understanding.

“I found my savior,” you didn’t want to hide things from Lisa, she seemed to really care about everyone, “and I wanted to help hhhhiiieeee-them.”

“But they were going to do something risky?”

“Yes,” you nodded, “so-“

“So you wrote the letters just in case.”

“Yes,” you nodded again, “my savior doesn’t want people to know who they are, but I wanted to tell my parents what had become of me and that I loved them.”

“So the cipher was to respect your savior’s wishes?”

“Yes,” you shrank on yourself.

You heard a contemplative hum and then a chuckle, “I’m glad I scolded Kaeya then.”

You chuckled in return, “I am as well.”

“He sure is bored, isn’t he?” Lisa’s smile was wry. “How about we brew ourselves a pot of tea and you can tell me how much he’s been bothering you.”

The two of you made quick work of setting up for tea, before you knew it you two were each cradling a tea cup as you told her about the first time you met Sir Kaeya. You took care not to badmouth him, trying really hard not to stray from retelling just the series of events. She seemed amused by the story. You however, were exhausted, “I wish I knew what exactly about me is so suspicious? How can I stop appearing suspicious to him?”

Lisa set her cup down with a giggle, “well I’d guess he’s suspicious because you’re a really clever cutie, and a little awkward,” she reached over to grab a biscuit before continuing, “and he’s been bored lately and thinks it’s fun to play with you like this.”

“He ought to get a hobby instead of amusing himself with people like this,” you grumbled, “oh but I’d rather not gossip about him, especially when he isn’t present to defend himself!”

Lisa giggled lightly, assuring you that she had talked to him about it before. About his habit of toying with people that is. 

The conversation lightened up from that point as Lisa asked you about how you’d spent the last few months. She listened attentively as you told her about all the different things you’d managed to learn out in the wilderness of Mondstadt. After a while she asked if you’d had the chance to meet Albedo or Sucrose.

“Oh?” Your brow pinched. “No, I don’t think I have.”

“They’re alchemists with Knights of Favonius,” she informed you.

“Alchemists?” you brightened. “I’m assuming they’re more knowledgeable than Timaeus?”

She laughed then, “absolutely! Albedo is our Genius Chief Alchemist. He’s incredibly knowledgeable, I think he’d be helpful to you.”

“Oh I’m always happy to find fellow researchers,” you perked up, “where could I find him?”

“His laboratory is in Dragonspine,” she hummed, “you’d need an adventurer to take you up the mountain.”

“I can’t go up by myself?”

“You could,” she frowned, “but if you’re not experienced you could easily die from the sheer cold.”

Yes you’d rather not depart this realm just yet. Your parents would never permit another expedition outside of Sumeru ever again. Though it wouldn’t matter at that point, would it?

“It would make me sad to lose my tea buddy, you know?” You felt yourself warm up from head to toe at the statement.

Your smile was wobbly as you threw yourself across the table to hug the witch who returned the hug with a smile.

“If you really want to go up to his laboratory,” she hummed, “you could put in a commission with Katherine over at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

You did exactly as she said…

Yet for whatever reason when you arrived there, you ended up receiving a hefty sum of mora instead. Apparently someone had requested the mora be delivered to you. But who-

Ohhhhh! 

That…that…that!

GAH!

Master Diluc had impeccable stealth, it would make sense for him to sneak an attack like this! You couldn’t believe him! While you were trying to argue with the lady who was…refusing your refusal, strange as that may sound, you exasperatedly asked when this had been left. She’d been hanging on to the money for a very long time. Meaning the vigilante had put in this “commission” long before your conversation. 

Seems like you’d have to visit the Dawn Winery before you could go to Dragonspine. Well it would be a fair way to pass the time you supposed…Katherine had said it would likely take a while before an adventurer would accept the request. 

With the money safely in your pocket dimension, you made for the Dawn Winery…

You should check that Angel’s Share tavern first  shouldn’t you? 

That stubborn savior of yours did mention that he worked there from time to time. Sir Kaeya had also hinted at that once, likely for his own amusement.

It was only as you neared the tavern that you remembered that it was one of Sir Kaeya’s favorite haunts…well it wasn’t as if he would drink during the day…right? Master Jean commended him, that meant he was diligent enough not to drink during the day, and besides it was still morning, well noon, but much too early for drinking. 

Right?

You stood a ways away from the small building. You didn’t want to go inside. Maybe you could ask Mr. Patton if your current target was present. The man seemed curious as to what you could want with his employer. It was good that he was vigilant, you supposed.

Now how would you evasively answer without lying? ‘Oh well I have something I need to return to him,’   wouldn’t be a very convincing response, you admit.

“I need to speak with him,” what a weak response, “we came to an agreement regarding business yesterday,” your pursed your lips for a moment, “however he failed to mention his prior deposits.”

“You mean he’s given you an advance payment?”

“Not really?” This money was clearly for services you’d already provided, and had explicitly stated you wouldn’t accept payment for. “It’s for the voluntary services I provided.”

The bouncer’s laughter shook his chest, the booming sound drawing attention to the two of you, “well Miss, I believe that’s what we call, a gift.”

“Absolutely not! I was indebted to him at the time!” Your patience thinned momentarily. “Sorry, I mean to say, my dignity simply won’t allow such - for such, I just,” you exhaled looking for the words, “there’s no way I could accept such an exorbitant sum.”

The bouncer was as immovable as the man he worked for, even if he was more merry, “now, now Miss, it’s rude to return a gift y’know?”

You let out a sigh, there was no point debating the matter with Mr. Patton. Looking at the bouncer again, “so is he here, or not?”

“He is,” the man nodded slowly, “but he’s busy, has a special customer right now,” he continued rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh. So you can’t call him out for me then?”

“Call him out?” He seemed surprised. “You don’t want to go in?”

“I don’t like taverns,” you replied simply.

That earned you a bemused look. “Well how about this,” he looked at the door, then back at you, “when the special customer comes out, I’ll tell the boss you came to look for him.”

“Without mentioning anything about the money,” you agreed, “please?”

“Sure thing Miss,” he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Thank you Mr. Patton,” you gave him what you hoped was a cordial smile.

“Not a problem.”

You wandered away from the bouncer, wanting to find a place to read in peace, but still observe the tavern to see when the so-called “special customer,” left. There was a ledge not too far from the aforementioned establishment, and it served as an excellent seat. 

Taking out your current reading and a notebook from your dear backpack, you felt thankful you hadn’t gone all the way out to the Dawn Winery. While it wouldn’t have been a pointless endeavor as you would have gotten to see Miss Adelinde, it also wouldn’t have done much in helping you achieve your current goal.

While generosity was a virtue, and therefor a virtuous trait, you really wish your savior would allow you to be generous in return. Though it was strange he wouldn’t go back to recollect the sum. It wasn’t like it was a small amount of mora-no, it rivaled a basic research grant at the Akademiya, which is to say: is way more money than you could accept. Master Diluc had said not to worry about money before, but, still, with as much mora as he’d left behind, any normal person would have gone back to collect it!

Then again, Master Diluc was clearly an extremely generous person and not exactly “normal,” if his extracurricular activities were any indication. 

You shook your head, rereading the page you’d been distracted from. You had never felt like you were particularly fast at reading, especially given Thamtham could easily read upwards of seven books a week- including thick, difficult volumes (not like he did much else) but you’ve been exceptionally slower since coming to Mondstadt. It felt like your daily to do list had essentially doubled, and now you had to deal with overly generous vigilantes too.

You missed home.

It was as you were attempting to reread the page yet again that something moved in your peripheral. Looking over the book-you made to quickly look back at the page open before you. You hadn’t seen anything. No, absolutely not, nopity nope nope.

Actually, maybe you should start making your way back to the inn…there was an ongoing experiment you were performing that you had to check on! Yes yes! You smiled as you made to collect yourself and walk away. 

“Well well, if it isn’t my favorite apothecary,” shivers clambered up your spine at the cool voice that spoke.

Perhaps there was a local apothecary in Mondstadt? Your eyes darted around to look at anything but the threatening captain.

“Oh?” You could hear his frown. “Giving me the cold shoulder are you?”

You certainly weren’t! You weren’t being cold. You were actually cold! You wanted nothing more than to bolt and hide within a warm blanket! Now, how could you escape without being rude?

Without looking at the knight, you shook your head vigorously, jolting when he chuckled.

“My, always so jittery around me, aren’t you?” He sounded very amused. “There’s really no need to be so wary of me.”

You pursed your lips, your eyes widening at the exertion of force to keep your mouth shut. You refused to say anything to him. Though it seems your expression communicated your feelings well enough, given he laughed some more.

You refused to be his source of amusement any further. Glancing at the quite frankly terrifying captain, you gave him a curt nod to acknowledge him before promptly turning to walk away.

Of course that wasn’t enough to get rid of him as he followed, having no trouble keeping up with you with his long legs. He also continued the conversation, despite your lack of engagement.

“Thanks to you, Mondstadt's most eligible bachelor asked to see me!”

Who? 

“What a lovely turn of events indeed,” your brow pinched, what was this incomprehensible man talking about?

“I ought to thank you then,” you stilled at that statement casting a glance to the very ominous presence to your side.

You were in public, he wouldn’t do anything in broad daylight in the middle of so many witnesses, would he? No he wouldn’t. Sir Kaeya had demonstrated he was very strategic, and given you weren’t particularly suspicious to anyone outside the knights, it wouldn’t be wise to accost you in the open.

You shook your head, forcing out a, “n-no thanks necessary.” 

Hugging your books you forced a smile, “es-especially given I don’t think I really have any involvement in getting you the uh…the,” what did he say he got? “I mean I don’t think I had much to do with you meeting with the-uh-with getting you that meeting?”

He let out yet another little chuckle. Just what was it that was so amusing? Did he take pleasure in your panic? Er-discomfort? Did you look panicked?

Nevermind that, “well, I’ll be goin-”

“Now, don’t tell me you don’t know who Mondstadt’s most eligible bachelor is?”

You took in a deep inhale, followed by a prolonged exhale, “how would I know who Mondstadt’s most eligible bachelor is?” Really, was this man resorting to petty provocation because you didn’t want to converse with him? “I’m an apothecary, not a gossip.”

“Oh I just assumed you’d be able to figure it out yourself, clever little researcher that you are.”

You closed your eyes as you took in yet another deep inhale followed by an elongated exhale. You did not wish to give him the satisfaction of accepting his challenge, yet…yet you wouldn’t deny you were fond of puzzles like this…

Fine!

Clearly it was someone you knew, else he wouldn’t expect you to deduce the bachelor’s identity. It was someone Sir Kaeya seemingly enjoyed being around, but you didn’t know much about the knight, so that wasn’t helpful. Wait a minute! There was another hint from the captain: the other party didn’t seem to like talking with him. 

You could understand why…or commiserate at the very least. 

Anywho…

What made for an eligible bachelor anyhow? Graduation from a good school? Hmm, no, intelligence should be enough, Mondstadt didn’t seem to care too much about school credentials. What else? Good character, that was essential! Given the state of the world, perhaps an ability to fight…

A man from Mondstadt that you knew of with all these qualities? Truthfully it was embarrassing who came to mind first-wait. 

Wait. Wait. 

Goodness, it made so much sense.

Which meant-you turned to look at the Angel’s Share, finding the door open, with Mr. Patton likely keeping his word to you as he conversed with his boss. Meaning! Sir Kaeya was the “special customer,” and Master Diluc was finally free enough to take his money back!

Optimistic, weren’t you?

“Very well done Miss Apothecary! I knew you’d figure it out,” you heard the clap from your side, “that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

Urgh. You’d revealed that you had indeed bothered with his silly games. Or had you? Maybe you were just checking the tavern because you’d remembered your desire to talk-

Hold on. 

Master Diluc really was Mondstadt’s most eligible bachelor? He sure had a lot of titles…well only two, but still! 

No but still! They were only two!

Everything made sense. Of course you’d had some kind of involvement! Your kind savior had mentioned he’d talk to your number one source of anxiety. Which meant…

You should be safe now…right? 

Now, how would you politely exit this, frankly unwanted, human encounter? Sir Kaeya was painfully adept at socializing, and exceptionally skilled at trapping you as a result.

“Um, good…good day Sir Kaeya,” you nodded curtly at the captain again.

It wasn’t the best exit, but…if you were to be perfectly honest, you had very few other ideas. Hugging your book and notebook closer to your chest, you shuffled away in the direction of the tavern.

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly let you go without repaying you,” darn him!

“I know!” Oh please let this suggestion be in your favor. “How about I buy you a drink?”

“No thank you,” you quickly shook your head, “as I’ve said before I hate alcohol, unless-”

“Unless it’s an antiseptic, isn’t that right?” Oh so he remembered that.

Then why was he offering to buy you a drink?

“Precisely,” you nodded again, “and you don’t-”

Wait a moment. 

If Sir Kaeya was under the impression that he owed you… actually…It felt wrong to keep him under that impression. But you were only going to use it to preserve your privacy. So maybe you should, “keep him in your (alleged) debt?”

Hmmm. Yes, for the sake of your security you would refrain from “relieving” him of his “debt.”

“If you’re aware, then why offer me a drink?” You were mildly curious of his intentions.

“Why? Didn’t you just look over at Angel’s Share?” He nodded at the tavern behind you, however you kept your eyes trained on the tricky man in front of you. “I thought I could lend you my expertise, if you wanted to expand your drink palette.”

Hope as you might, you know your distaste at that response showed on your face-Sir Kaeya’s visible eye crinkling was proof enough.

You’d sooner drink a laxative tea than bother with “expanding your drink palette.”

“Tell me Sir Kaeya, how broad is your tea palette?” You challenged. “Your juice palette?”

Your opponent let out a hearty chuckle.

“No need to get so competitive now,” he placed his hands up in surrender, “I’m simply offering an acquaintance some help.”

“An acquaintance?” Your response flew out of your mouth before you could think to hold it back.

Then again, with how your eyes popped and mouth dropped, you really hadn’t needed to say anything.

“After all we’ve been through, I’d say we’re rather well acquainted,” his smile was “rather well” practiced, “wouldn’t you?”

Well…

“I suppose?” You shrugged. “Given acquaintances aren’t necessarily friendly,” acquaintances were simply people you were familiar with after all, “yes, by the strict definition, I suppose we would qualify as acquaintances.”

“How cold,” his accusatory tone did not match his bemused expression.

“P-perhaps you ought to get some tea and pancakes from Miss Sara at Good Hunter?” Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit-but it also could function to get rid of Sir Kaeya.

It was annoying how charming his laugh sounded. Yet it sent chills down your spine as all you could think about was how adept he was with his cryo vision.

“Very well, it will be my treat,” that wasn’t what you meant! And he knew that! 

You knew he knew that! 

He knew that you knew that he knew that!

Dear goodness, where did this hospitality disappear to when he was threatening you yesterday?

“I’m preoccupied r-right now,” you forced a polite smile, as you started to back away, “so I’ll have to dec-decline.”

“We’ll have to schedule our tea date for another day then,” could he not afford you even a single victory?

“I can’t make any promises,” you shook your head, continuing your backwards march to the tavern, “well then, take care.”

You waved and quickly turned to walk away before he could say anything more. That wasn’t rude was it? Would your mother say anything if she saw this? She’d likely comment on Sir Kaeya more than your own conduct. If you were rude, you would have to apologize. But if you hadn’t been he wouldn’t have let you go!

Instinctively, well more like reactively, your next step was an arcing in place kind of motion, as you narrowly avoided walking into a mass that appeared in front of you. Looking up you noticed it was a rather beautiful mass and took a large step back to allow for a comfortable distance.

“Master Diluc!” You greeted. “Hello!”

“Patton says you wanted to have a word with me?” You blinked at your generous… acquaintance.  

(He’d agreed you were acquainted back in Springvale hadn’t he?)

And wow! He really got straight to the point.

“How are you today?” You nodded at the man.

“No need for small talk,” he shook his head as he began leading you to the back of his tavern, “I’ve already agreed to solicit your services as I need them.”

Oh. Yes. That made sense. You felt your feet stop. He assumed you were trying to look after him. How awful was it that you were simply asking out of courtesy, and not genuine concern?

“Yes, sorry,” you shook your head, and rushed to catch up to the redhead, “I will refrain from disingenuous questions.”

“I wasn’t admonishing you.”

You hated the shame that was attempting-and kind of succeeding-to choke you.

“Yes,” you grimaced, “however I wish to be honest, and that question did not come from an honest place.”

“What do you mean?” He sounded curious.

“It was small talk, as you said,” you nodded at him, “rather than a genuine inquiry into your well-being.”

“There really is no need for an apology,” he waved your concern away, “what was the matter you wished to talk to me about?” He replaced the conversation onto its original track. “Patton said you seemed rather upset.”

You threw a glance over the tavern owner’s shoulder to the hefty bouncer guarding the door. He hadn’t mentioned the money, but he didn’t need to say you were upset! That was suspicious!

“The mora,” you had so much time to articulate your thoughts and hadn’t bothered to plan ahead, urgh, “you left a huge sum of mora at the Adventurers’ Guild.”

“Yes,” he nodded, “that’s for all the services you provided during the onslaught against Mondstadt.”

“I realize you didn’t have the time to recollect it yesterday after our discussion,” you considered summoning the bag of mora, however thought better of it, as you still didn’t want Sir Kaeya to know about your vision, “so I’ve come to return it to you.”

“Given I put that deposit in prior to the discussion, it has nothing to do with our agreement.”

“We agreed to wipe the slate clean and start off from zero though!” You insisted. “Me receiving money is not zero.”  

“Consider it a gift then.”

He-

You blinked slowly, pursing your lips to try and contain your frustration. You knew he wasn’t going to make this easy. 

“I’m afraid,” nope you weren’t afraid, you shook your head and reworded your rejection, “actually nope, not afraid, however I cannot accept this gift.”

The sum he was “gifting” was absurd!

“Is it customary to reject gifts in Sumeru?” You knew the shock showed on your face. 

Somehow, just somehow …dealing with Sir Kaeya earlier had been easier than Master Diluc. 

“No,” you shook your head, “we’re a generous people, so gift giving and treating one another is very common,” so was having a full blown battle over the bill, “however our dignity does not allow us to accept incredible sums as gifts.”

Especially not from relative strangers! You barely knew this man! And he was trying to give you what was essentially a research grant! 

A research grant!  

…

From the Akademiya!  

…

The Sumeru Akademiya! 

“So a smaller sum would be acceptable?” He asked as calm as ever.

No! He’s impossible!

“Given our agreement yesterday,” you shook your head, “the only sum I’d be willing to accept is a sum of zero mora.”

The slight frown his lips drew as he assessed you complimented the analytical composition the rest of his features arranged themselves in. Really, how was it that he was essentially a sentient painting? Not a single expression of his lacking in elegance or beauty? It was doubly agitating in this situation.

“Very well,” huh? Was he agreeing? “I understand your position very well.”

He does? Your brow pinched, your lips following them in a quizzical pursing motion.

“That sum was left on behalf of the Citizens of Mondstadt as compensation for the treatments you provided during the mysterious plague Springvale suffered from,” he nodded at you. 

Was he?

“You mean like mora from a welfare program?” 

“Precisely.”

You clicked your tongue before you even noticed. Slapping your hands to your mouth you began to rectify that, “sorry I didn’t mean to do that! It was really rude of me! I meant no disrespect!”

His expression lifted noticeably, a little huff accompanying the slight upturn at the corner of his lips. Somehow that calmed your panic, though it ought to have fanned the flames of your rage. 

Dropping your hands from your mouth, you took a deep breath to release the tension in your body that was poisoning your ability to reason. Looking at the generous- unnecessarily generous-man you managed a leveled response, “the data I collected and research I conducted at the time is more than enough compensation.”

His pleased expression fell a little, meanwhile your expression softened, “accepting that egregious sum of mora is essentially extortion.”

With the tension gone (bless that deep breath) you truly felt ease as you continued what felt like a battle of wits. “It feels immoral and dishonest to accept money when I benefited from their misery.”

“You mean the data you collected?” You looked at his expression that had resumed being inquisitive.

You nodded, “uh, yes.”

“Your phrasing implied you’d had something to do with the spread of the mysterious plague,” he informed you, “had I been less acquainted with you, and your benign nature, I’d have suspected you of malicious conduct.”

You recoiled at that, blinking up at the man in mild horror, “with how you are, rather than being turned over to the knights, I’d be hunted,” you shivered, “by you. That spells out certain doom.”

Hmm…but would that really be worse than being hunted by Sir Kaeya? Between the two of them…you couldn’t be certain who was more terrifying to have as an adversary. You’d rather not be prey for either terrifying huntsman. Though maybe Master Diluc would be more merciful about it, as he’d bring about, “a rather swift, certain doom.”

You were pulled out of the momentary reverie by a short resonant chuckle. You met his gaze, and he gave you a bemused response, “you have a gift for evading me, so that doom may not be as swift as you say.”

“It would still be certain though,” you gestured at him.

“Of course,” his tone remained rather light, despite the subject material, “I’d go to any length to ensure the safety of Mondstadt.”

“Truly, I respect that,” you made to look him properly in the eye, “I do,” your lips pulled up wistfully, “had I the ability to protect my people, I would too.”

“Is that why you chose your profession?”

Huh?

“Oh I just wanted to be helpful,” you explained, “I wished to be useful to those around me,” oh hold on, “still do! Wish to be useful to people, that is.”

You watched your conversational partner fold his arms across his chest, “I meant to say that by healing the sick and wounded you are also protecting your nation.”

“Huh? I suppose so!” You hadn’t really thought of it that way! “I suppose I am technically fighting off an enemy,” you squinted as nothing in particular, “a significantly smaller enemy.”

“That’s no less deadly,” he was rather knowledgeable now, wasn’t he?

You let out a soft chuckle. Your eyes crinkled with the mirth-filled upwards curve your mouth was being pushed into. “I feel compelled to form an alliance with you for the remainder of my time here in the Nation of Wind,” you joked.

Not the most humorous joke, however you enjoyed it. You knew both of you would continue to work to help people regardless. However he would handle the large enemies and you the small ones. Therein lay the joke. Did that qualify as a joke? Well it was funny to you! 

“Very well,” what?

You turned to the tall man who was nodding at you, “the conditions for this alliance are that you accept the mora.”

“I no longer wish for an alliance,” you deadpanned.

“You wish to make me your adversary?”

“Absolutely not,” you’d seen what he could be like as an adversary, in fact, “though, I’d say you’re already my adversary. We’ve been at odds since we’ve met.”

“Ah yes,” he paused, “due to your inability to accept the generosity of others.”

Oho? What an interesting way to frame it.

“I could say the same about you,” you gestured at him, “while I wasn’t necessarily offering because I was generous-”

“In which case you can’t say the same about me.”

That stopped your argument in its tracks. Snapping your mouth shut you gave the vigilante an unimpressed stare. “Well I couldn’t just let a debt go unrepaid.”

He heaved a sigh, “as I’ve said before, if I did rescue you-”

“Trust me when I say there is no mistaking that hair of yours-”

“It wasn’t motivated by you being in danger,” he continued, “it was to eradicate the threat to Mondstadt, so you offering your services was unnecessary, there was no debt to repay.”

“Put yourself in my shoes,” then again, “not like you’d ever be in my shoes though…hypothetically if someone offered you aid, you wouldn’t allow them, well you wouldn’t not compensate them in some way, would you?”

“I believe the mora you are desperate to return to me is proof of that,” he nodded at you.

You bit down on your lip. He did have a point.

“Fine,” you huffed, placing your hands on your hips, “you make a fair point. But can I set the terms of repayment?”

“Go ahead.”

Thank goodness he agreed. Looking around, you summoned the hefty bag of mora you’d received at the Adventurer’s Guild and placed it on a nearby table with a jingle. You then turned to the man who’d arranged the mora for you. You put on a sheepish smile, “can I get back to you when I have an idea on what I’d like?”

“No,” he folded his arms across his chest again, “you have a penchant for disappearing.”

“I wasn’t planning on not giving you an answer,” you huffed, “I’m not too sure what I need right-”

Oh! That’s right! You needed a place to dry and store your herbs. You’d originally intended to ask Miss Lisa, but this would keep you away from the knights’ headquarters and more importantly: Sir Kaeya!

“Do you happen to have any spare rooms at your winery?” You looked at him hopefully.

“Are you intending to stay at the winery?”

“Oh absolutely not,” you denied waving your hand to accentuate your denial, “I need a place to store my herbs and experiments, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind me leaving them there.”

“I have a few spare rooms I can lend you,” he agreed! Yes!

“One is good!” You brought your hands together in a single clap. “I’d rather not have the herbs make more than one room smell pungent.”

He gave you a little hum, eyeing you, “very well, collect your things so we can head to the winery and sort out which room you’ll be using.”

“Thank you so much!” Ah this was great! Hopefully you’d be able to accomplish a lot more with your remaining time now that you didn’t have to worry about storage! “I’ll be quick.”

You had barely rounded the corner of the tavern, when you turned back to the man you’d just struck a deal with, “is this perhaps less convenient than the mora?”

“No,” he answered simply, “you’ll be completely out of the way and we likely won’t see much of each other.”

Oh that was good! You nodded at him pleased with that arrangement, “so long as I am not inconveniencing you in any way.”

He simply gestured for you to hurry and collect your things. So you did.

Oh this would be excellent! The Winery was closer to nature as well! Harvesting, drying, and storing all the different plant species would be so much easier! You could also keep tabs on Miss Adelinde and replenish things for her as needed! You didn’t have to pay rent either! You could start saving up mora for your next destination!

Most importantly: you’d be far away from ever running into Sir Kaeya accidentally! If at all!

This deal was truly a steal!

Really…it was a steal. Well was it stealing when the other party agreed to it? You could always pay a small rent by offering services for free! That way you wouldn’t feel as bad about using the place.

Hehe. This was going to be great!

[soralinklokidottirofmirkwood]

Quick errand: Big brother Alhaitham x astrologist little sister reader x Kaveh.

Age: 14/15 Reader Chan is Alhaitham’s little sister, she has a cryo vision, is a catalyst user and is studying astrology. Kaveh sends her to the tavern for spice but on the way home she runs into trouble luckily big brother Al got out of work on time.

You are sitting in a tree not too far from Sumeru city, sketching out a Star map that your teacher assigned to you.

(Ignore the broom and wand, the book is your catalyst, you have on black nail polish and your wearing a cloak like Venti but in the same color scheme as the outfit.)

As you finished sketching a drop of water hit your paper.

Looking up you saw dark clouds cover the stars and moon as rain went down “I gotta get home anyways, Al and Kaveh are probably wondering where I am.” You said quickly putting your sketch book, Star map and pencil case away in your bag and then pulled the hood of your cloak up and ran towards the city waving at your neighbors and friends “Goodnight Nilou and Layla.” You said running passed the performer and your upperclass woman who waved back at you “See you in class Y/N.” Layla said yawning “Hope to see you at the festival Y/N.” Nilou said waving back as you made your way carefully through the now wet streets of Sumeru city with the lamp posts being your only source of light.

You finally made it to your brothers house that you both shared with his roommate.

When you got into the house you’re surprised to not hear Alhaitham and Kaveh arguing.

You hang your cloak on the rack near the door then called out for your older brother and his roommate “Al! kav! I’m home.” You said walking up to put your bag in your room “I’m in the kitchen Y/N but Alhaitham won’t be home in an hour.” Kaveh said walking out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon in his hand wearing his weasel house slippers and a matching apron “Do you mind going to the market Y/N? We’re almost out of spice.” He said giving you some Mora and going back into the kitchen “Sure Kav.” You said walking back towards the door to put your cloak back on and heading to the market place “If you see your brother tell him I’m cooking.” He said mixing up chopped vegetables.

You walked into Lambad’s tavern and went up to Lambad at the counter “Ahh welcome Y/N what can I do for you?” He asked “hello Lambad. I’m just getting spice.” You said handing him the Mora “Spice coming up.” He said heading to the back.

As you’re waiting you saw a drunk man slowly walking towards the counter while Swaying and leaving a tip “Better be carful on the way home kiddo! The Fatui has been active in the city.” He said walking out of the tavern holding his head in his palm “I will, thank you.” You said thanking the man as he walked out and Lambad came out of the back with the spice “Here you are Y/N. The spice.” He said giving you a bag filled with the spice “You know while I’m here I’ll take three rose custards.” You said pointing to the display of freshly made rose custards “certainly.” He said as you gave him the Mora “Here you go.” He said giving you another bag “Thank you Lambad.” You said happily walking out of the tavern with the bags.

When you got out of the tavern you saw that it stopped raining but the streets were still wet, You walked down the streets again for the third time that night determined to get home and hopefully not run into any Fatui but sadly luck wasn’t on your side tonight when you saw four Fatui agents stand in front of you “Hey kid? come join the Fatui! Some one with your skills would make a great addition.” The masked stranger said “Sorry I’m not interested.” You said trying to walk around them but they blocked your way “Hey! You’re the acting grand sages kid sister.” One of the agents said taking out his weapon while you summoned your catalyst ‘Great leaser Lord Kusanali help me.’ You think to yourself preparing to fight “If you want to leave in one piece I suggest you leave my sister alone.” Said a deep and familiar voice making you turn around to see your older brother with his sword out “Crud, It’s the acting grand sage! Let’s go boys.” The leader of the group said running with his goons “Let’s go sis.” Alhaitham said grabbing a bag from you and then your hand.

When you got home Kaveh was seasoning meat “oh good you’re both home.” He said walking over as you held out the bag of spice towards him “Next time check to make sure we have enough spice or wait for me to get home. There have been Fatui active in the city, Y/N almost got in a fight with some agents tonight.” Alhaitham said when Kaveh shrieked “WHAT!?” And began checking you “Kaveh I’m fine I had my catalyst at the ready incase things went ugly. Oh I brought rose custard for dessert.” You said taking the the bag with the treat from your brother and taking it to the kitchen to put in the ice box.

Once dinner was ready you, Your brother and roommate sat and ate “So Y/N how’s your star mapping homework going?” Your brother asked taking a sip of dandelion wine imported from Mondstadt “It’s going well but it started raining when I had finished.” You said “I heard That Layla did hers while sleeping.” Kaveh said “The rumor is true, but our teacher will give us another load.” You said biting on the steak then taking a sip of your Wolfhook juice “She’s one of the most devoted teachers in the academia.” Alhaitham said as you all continue to eat your dinner “Again, next time Kaveh wait for me to get home before sending Y/N.” Your brother said getting up to wash his plate “I didn’t know the Fatui were in the city and Y/N is old enough to take care of herself she’s had her vision since she was 7.” The ash blond man said as you two took your dishes to wash while you shook your head from your brother’s and roommates bickering.

After dinner you bathed and changed into your pajamas and then you checked your homework to make sure that it wasn’t wet and was protected by the books you sandwiched it in between.

Smiling you put the map back in your bag and went straight to sleep hoping that Layla gets a goodnights rest “That girl deserves a vacation away from school work.” You said to yourself falling into a goodnights rest.

[eshtaresht]

holy. fuckin'. DAMN. I was pretty good at predicting the plot so far, but this episode proved that stampede is going in a whole new direction for real. spoilers for ep 9!!! (and manga a bit)

first of all, we still haven't got a full story of the great fall, but I think it's something they'll reveal in this season, probably during confrontation with knives. and still no scar reveal!! I'm angy but it's something that could be relevant to the standoff with knives, hope we'll get it

the piano scene... oh we're eating GOOD, it's just so wholesome but goes to confirm my theory that twins weren't completely fine on the ship. vash feeling useless because he can't do cool plant shit, knives envying vash for being good at human shit.... oh it's great

so glad knives is getting proper characterization and not just "he evil because he evil"! the fear, the hurt, the genuine care for vash, but then frustration with him – it's right there and I'm eating it up so yummy

the way they recontextualized vash's arm loss is GORGEOUS! I've seen ppl reading this scene differently, but to me it was an act of care from naï. he looks really scared for a reason: we see that the gate consumed all matter, including the hand. vash couldn't control it, so it would only grow bigger and destroy him. NAÏ REALIZED THIS AND SAVED VASH THE ONLY WAY HE COULD

he didn't want to fight him, this was not an act of anger, like in previous versions. all he cared about in that moment was saving his twin..... and what did he get in return? a gun pointed to his face. a gun he gave vash to kill human scum. oh, the DRAMA

ahem, now to the less intense stuff

homeboy has so much trauma, like, damn... how is he gonna fit any more from his impending epic brother fight...... I'm quite curious on how they're gonna characterize him in the next season. concidering that we're taking off earlier than previous versions, he might end up with the same unhinged vibe 98' vash had, as a coping mechanism (if depression didn't work, try dissociation and silliness). but then it would be even more interesting to see meryl's and wolfwood's reactions: they knew him before the accident and saw the big sad

vash has sense in the prosthetic arm, so it must've hurt when he damaged it... probably it hurts less than the real one, and it's clearly painless to take off. but the hand seems to be rather sensitive and fic writers are gonna go crazy for this

age reveal! also brad and luida being in cryosleep makes sense, I was racking my brain on how they're still alive. seems like they're using much more plant power tho... both for cryo and the vegetation, while in manga they tried to keep it as low as possible and send signals to earth

saw someone say that they're probably not doing that here because the earth is destroyed... could be that they decided to go the hard way. but in the manga the earth was still fucked, and it wasn't clear if they communicated with the ppl left on the planet or the fleet that was in some new place. what I'm saying is, there is a possibility that they are looking for help in stampede, we just don't know it yet

meryl was so cute! go off, comedy relief goofy girl, while you can, there is more trauma coming your way :3 yeah, enjoy roberto calling you by your first name... oh it would be such a shame if he gave you his derringer before his untimely death..........

pretty weird that nobody knows why they fell on no man's land, but ppl probably were too ashamed of their past and 150 years later the new generation is oblivious. also so funny that luida has to explain what vegies are..... they have so many plants but haven't see any plants

tbh I wasn't expecting the zazie twist at all, but I'm excited! they are SO gender in stampede, might be the best redesign in the series, love me a genderless bug creature with bold fashion choices. really cool to see that storyline adapted, it was barely touched upon in the last volumes of trimax

btw the multiple bullets story about a plant, worm and human who went around figuring out if their species could coexist and just.... creating this foud family and then building a town there all were equal...... that's my favorite mb story for sure

wolfwood saying "I'm not your friend"... I know what you are. and we got a "you'll have to decide one day"... oh oh the misery, but the context was lacking. it just doesn't hit the same when he isn't daring vash to shoot him in the most homoerotic way possible. on and he looks so goofy trying to ride with his cross

in the last ep's rant I assumed that luida lied about rem saving everybody for some reason?? but no, she actually saved them, I just got a bit confused

so, as I predicted, the gang separated (tho not because of vash) and by the end of the next episode vash'll be in july and meet naï. the poster, man.... that gorgeous futuristic city is getting obliterated for sure

btw vash's gate being opposite to knives and sort of a black hole is nothing new. but there are new layers to this, like vash willingly giving away energy, but destroying things against his will, and knives with the opposite of this. ying yan twins go brrrr

[karmaisakhaleesi]

🦋Butterfly's Repose~ Chap. 1~ Jake Sully x Fem!Human!reader

Masterlist~

short summary- reader is the daughter of Quaritch and begrudgingly joins him on Pandora once more.

warnings- violence, blood, language, death is mentioned, reader does smoke but not a lot, also extremely angsty, lmk if i missed any!

wordcount- 1.8k+

I'll see you in your dreams...

★⌒ヽ

Your eyes cast downward as the rain pelts your already drenched dress, the dark fabric sticking to your skin, swallowing you whole as tears run down your cheeks, smearing the carefully applied mascara. A hand grabs your shoulder and you turn to meet your Father's cold blue eyes, and you bolt.

You run as far as you can before you hear a loud snap and fall forwards, your hands scraping into the pavement below. Your heel had snapped, leaving you on the ground. A sob racks your body as you sit back on your knees clutching your hands to your chest, blood mixing with the falling rain. Your vision blurs as you feel someone lift you up, wrapping their arm around your shoulder, lifting you up, and then the world goes black.

★⌒ヽ

The sound of your heels clicking against the pavement is drowned out by a car engine revs by. You frown as the office doors come into view. You quickly step in, the door spinning you into the lobby.

"Miss Quaritch," a woman greets, she types quickly on her keyboard, then gives you a smile, "right this way."

You quickly follow after her, your heart nearly pounding out of your chest when you reach a large oaken door. Taking a deep breath to compose yourself, you knock.

"Come in!" a voice calls out, and you quickly open the door, the lights nearly blinding you.

You glance over at your Father, who stands in front of the windows facing out to the city. Your eyes focus on the cars below, their lights flying past, you almost catch a glance at a vintage Volkswagen before your Father clears his throat and turns to you.

A sigh leaves your throat as your eyes meet his, "I've changed my mind."

His expression remains the same as the words leave your lips, but quirks into a tight smile when his hand lands on your shoulder, "Good, we leave in two weeks."

You nod, your head heavy as you turn to leave, your hands clenched tight into fists at your side, the door slamming shut behind you.

★⌒ヽ

You watched as the rain trickled down the windows of the car as you sped down the roads, the sound of a horn blaring breaking you from your reverie. The driver curses under his breath and picks up the speed, the engine revving as he does so.

The ride seems to last forever before you reach the station, the large brick building feels intimidating as you step out of the car and into the pouring rain. Your Father holds the door open for you and you slowly step inside. You follow him down the numerous brightly lit hallways and finally come to a stop, a sign reading, "SHUTTLE LOADING," greets you.

Your eyes widen as you see the ship that's to take you to your home for the next few years, or potentially forever. Your hand runs along the railing as a stack of clothes is shoved into your arms, "Go change, the ship leaves in 30."

You grimace as you step into the changing room, exchanging your dress and coat for a cotton shirt and matching pants, and your sapphire heels for a pair of non-slip socks. A shiver runs down your spine when you step into the shuttle, the cold air forcing you to cross your arms in an attempt to keep warm.

"So, this'll be my life for the next, six years?" you ask climbing up to your cryo pod.

"I guess so, but I doubt this is the worst part," your head whips around to see a man sitting next to you, his legs dangling over the edge of the pod. A man answers as he holds out his hand, and you shake it reluctantly.

"Jake, Sully."

You lick your lips as you reply, "y/n," you pause thinking of whether to add your last name but decide against it, "Just y/n."

He gives you a small smile, "Well, nice to meet you just y/n," he replies laying back into the cryo pod leaving you with a slight blush dusting your face.

★⌒ヽ

Your head spins as your eyes flutter open as the door of the cryo pod opens, someone who you assume is a doctor in a white lab coat grabs your arm and pulls you out into the open air. You gasp, thinking you're going to hit the floor, your eyes clench shut bracing yourself for the feeling of your head slamming against the linoleum, but it doesn't. Instead, you remain floating, the doctor slowly helping you to the ground and handing you yet another set of clothes to change into.

You finish lacing up your boots when an oxygen mask is thrust into your chest, you stumble but manage to catch yourself, wincing. The skin of your hand burns as you let go of the railing and follow the others to the waiting helicopter, the sound of the wings defeating.

The seatbelt sinches into your skin as a man begins to explain how to use your oxygen masks correctly. You quickly pull yours over your face, feeling it pinch at your skin as it tightens, and take a deep breath, unbuckling the belt. You stretch your arms before grabbing your bag and running down the ramp ignoring the leers from the soldiers on the ground.

★⌒ヽ

Air rushes past you as you step through the doors of the base, your eyes scanning for the meeting room. The door swings open as you enter, your father in the middle of some speech, "You are not in Kansas anymore," he says as you take a seat in the back.

You tune him out immediately and focus on picking at your nails and twisting the silver band around your finger.

The meeting ends shortly after and then you're led to the link room.

You greet Dr. Patel and take a seat when you hear a familiar voice. You turn on your heel to see the man from the shuttle, now in a wheelchair as Grace asks for another cigarette.

"This is such bullshit!" she yelled as she stormed off, presumably to yell at Parker.

You crossed your arms as Dr. Patel excused her, "Well, this is the link room."

"And these are your Avatars," he gestured to the amino tanks that contained the Avatars, three in total.

The glass raised goosebumps on your arms, "That one's yours, Dr. Quaritch," Dr. Patel gestured to the middle amino tank.

A frown quickly overturned your lips as you picked at your nails, eyes scanning every inch of the room to avoid looking at your new, body.

Your legs felt like jelly as you listened to the doctor's words, "Of course, it'll take us a few hours to get them decanted, but, you guys can take them out tomorrow."

"That sounds great," you reply, coughing quickly to cover the nervousness in your voice.

"There's yours," Max points the one on the end out to Jake, and he moves closer.

"It looks like him," he says a slight smile on his lips.

"No, it looks like you," Norm replies, "This is your avatar now Jake."

★⌒ヽ

Your eyes glance up at the camera in front of you, the red light blinking, the recording in progress. Your brows furrow, grimacing you clear your throat before speaking, eyes glaring at the camera.

"Video log one, day one," your voice strains as you continue, "I have landed on Pandora, and," pausing, you try to think of what else to add.

"And I will be leaving in six years," you snap at the camera, anger rising in your veins as you recall your father attempting to have you extend your contract.

You stop the recording and stand, hand snatching a lighter off the desk, and light a cigarette taking a long drag. The smoke fills your nostrils as you feel eyes on you. You turn to see both Norm and Jake staring at you, eyes full of a mixture of confusion and concern at your sudden outburst. You huff and march out the door, smoke following you.

The metal door feels cold against your knuckles as you bang on the door. It slides open, revealing your father, his cold blue eyes lingering on the cigarette in your mouth. His lips twitch into a frown and you toss it to the ground and stamp it out.

"I thought you quit," he says as he steps into the hallway clearing his throat.

You laugh sardonically, "Yeah, I did. Picked it back up after Mom died, and you had the audacity to ask me to come back here. Here of all places, you gesture around yourself.

Your voice is venomous as you glare at him, fire burning in your eyes. His frown deepens as he reaches out to you. You swat his hand away.

"It was an accident, you know that," he stresses the word accident, as that will change anything. As if it will quell your rage at being dragged back to the planet that took your mother from you, right in front of your own eyes.

"I was a child! I was only twelve years old when she died," you scream your voice hoarse from the smoking, "They took her from me, and at night I can still hear her screams, and feel the blood on my face-"

He cuts you off slamming your shoulder into the wall, your head slamming against the cool steel, "You don't think it was hard for me too?" he sneers, as his nails dig into your shoulder.

"You don't think I feel regret over letting her go out there like that? And with you in tow no less!"

He lets go of your shoulder, "Don't be so selfish," he snaps as he marches down the hallway leaving you alone, head hanging low hand reaching for your lighter.

★⌒ヽ

The smell of smoke fills the air as you light another cigarette, your leg thumping against the floor uncontrollably. Today was the day, the day you went back out there for the first time since, well best not to think about that, you shake your head and stamp out the butt of your cigarette standing next to the link pod as Grace strides into the room.

"How much link time have you logged?" she asks you, directing Norm and Jake to their pods.

You shrug your shoulders, "A little over seven hundred," you twist the metal band around your finger the small stone in the center reflecting the led lights.

"Good," she says turning to Jake to ask the same.

"Zip, but I read a manual," he replies nonchalantly.

She looks at him in disbelief, "Tell me you're joking."

"This is cool he replies," pressing his finger down into the foam of the pod.

Your fingers twitch as you lay down in the pod pulling the lid shut eyes closing, trying to put your mind at ease, you think about how things will be different this time. And they will be, at least you hope so.

★⌒ヽ

hi! thank you so much for reading! i hope you enjoyed! please comment if you'd like to be added to the tag list, and requests are open for anything really!!

Taglist~

[donutsupremacy]

Cat-astrophe

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Summary

"When your frenemy Charlotte had discovered you were fired from Sumeru's news outlet and had moved to Fontaine to rid yourself of embarrassment, the pink haired female immediately dedicated an entire day to cheer you up. Little did you know, someone else would do a better job than her."

Warnings/Spoilers

Written during 4.1

100% Ooc moments

Flirting / Teasing

Love at first sight cliché trope

GN!Reader x Lyney

Reader is from Sumeru

Reader is NOT traveller

Reader has a cat (Mechanical cat if you're allergic to real cats)

100% Fluff this time

[C/N]= Cat's name

Shorter fic, kinda

Spoilers from Lyney's story quest (?)

Rizzing by yours truly

Reader may or may not have a vision (Irrelevant in the fic, it's up to your interpretation)

Reader needs a hat lol

Charlotte talks for like 6 paragraphs and magically disappears for another 30 paragraphs

A/N: This one's a little more random than the one I made for Thoma, but I couldn't resist not kaking a little oneshot for Lyney, he's precious ♡

I'm having semi-finals exams before my ACTUAL exams atm, so the SMAU is on hold until (Likely) 2024 January (This exams important) ;-;

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Your romance begins here

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"Here! Try this!"

You let out a startled noise when the pink haired female suddenly placed a giant hat on your head, it tilts downwards, obscuring your vision. "Uh... th-this feels... a little too big." You let out an awkward laugh as you took the hat off, admiring the fabric and it's designs, but it wasn't your taste.

Charlotte sighed, taking the hat back from you. "C'mon... you've worn that hat ever since you joined Sumeru's news outlet. Isn't it time for some change?" She inquired, scanning the shelves for a hat that suited your appearance.

You chuckled as you glanced outside, ensuring your feline companion was still waiting patiently outside, it's eyes gazing at you with curiosity. You let out a snort, waving at your companion who began pawing at the shop's window. You could hear it meowing for your attention.

"Ohh... how about this one?" Once again, a hat— much larger than the last, completely obscures your vision once more. You yelped, before lifting the comically large hat off your head, raising a brow at the ridiculous size. "No?" The pink haired girl frowned, before groaning as she took the hat away from you and went straight back to searching for another one.

"Charlotte, this isn't necessary. I like my hat..." You quipped as you watched her scan through the rack of hats, tracing little shapes on the ground with your foot, feeling a little bored. "...Plus, most of these hats are ridiculously huge."

You've been rivals with her ever since you first met while travelling to Fontaine for an interview regarding the disappearing cases with young women. After discovering you were part of a news outlet in Sumeru, the both of you hit off and became friends— rivals when it came to work.

But after learning that you were fired for accidentally handing in an incomplete assignment (Which, she thought was a horrible reason to fire you for, you rarely made mistakes in your job), you had moved to Fontaine with your cat to rid yourself from embarrasment and apply to work for the news outlet there with Charlotte, she was ecstatic.

But of course, despite your reassurance that you weren't too affected after getting fired, she still wanted to 'cheer you up'. Obviously, she just wanted to hang out with you.

Now, here you are— dragged to a hat boutique by the cryo-wielding female along with your cat, who thought the hat you wore during your time working at Sumeru's news outlet should be removed for no apparent reason.

"Nonsense! You've been wearing that hat ever since the birth of The Seven!— Oh! Maybe we can wear the same hats!" Charlotte chirped, holding up a hat similar to the one on her head.

Without letting you protest, she plops it down on your head, a perfect fit. You chuckled, about to take it off, but eventually lowered your hand, she looked like a child getting praised when you left the hat on you.

"Eh... I guess this one's pretty good. What do you think, [C/N]?" You asked rhetorically with a light chuckle, turning wround to face your companion behind the window's glass.

It's gone.

Panic immediately settles in as adrenaline slowly coursed through your blood, lowering the hand and handing back to Charlotte who also realized your feline companion was now gone. "[C/N]?... [C-C/N]!?"

You tossed the hat back to Charlotte and sprang out of the boutique, looking around frantically for your companion who had disappeared. "[C/N]!?" You exclaimed, ignoring the few confused and worried looks you received from the citizens nearby.

"[Name]! W-Wait!" You ignored Charlotte's words as you began to ran, looking for [C/N] who couldn't have wandered off too far— it was just waiting outside the boutique 2 minutes ago!

As you kept on running while calling out to your feline companion, you hear the sound of applause nearby, briefly netting your attention.

A crowd of people had gathered by the side of the road, clapping with excitement and joy in their eyes as a young male voice sounded in the middle. "Now, take a look inside my hat, everyone. See how there's nothing inside? Pay attention now... blink and you may miss it— voila!" Out comes three doves flying out from the crowd, causing the spectators to erupt into another round of applause.

The sound of the dove's wings flapping in the air grew softer as they flew away, the only sound that briefly caught your attention was the melodious laughter of the same young man's voice. "Adieu, little doves!... Ah? What's this?"

At first, you shook your head, you couldn't afford to lose your cat in a whole city and get distracted by some guy with a nice voice, you couldn't even see him.

Until you heard that familiar meow you've been hearing for several years. "Why, hello there, little one! I see you've been attracted by those doves."

Without a doubt, that meow belongs to your cat. You approached the crowd, slipping past the spectators and uttering out apologies. Your mind was focus on the meowing as the crowd quietly murmured about your panic-stricken expression, concerned about what made you so anxious. The voice continues to speak. "What are you reaching for?... Oh! This feather from the doves? Of course you may have it!"

There it is— your cat, excitedly pawing at a feather in the hands of a young man with pale skin and mesmerising violet eyes, his ash blond hair pulled back into a braided style, a tear shaped mark on his right cheek. He was kneeling down next to your cat, lightly waving the feather with an amused and calm smile, his twinkling with endearment.

"[C/N]!" You immediately called out, bringing his attention as his eyes travelled to meet yours. Your cat's ears perked up, turning to see you before letting out a meow and running to your side.

It loops your leg, gazing up at you as it tilts it's head to the side, looking as innocent as ever. "You scared me half to death..." You sighed out as you squatted down, carrying your feline companion into your arms before standing back up, now facing the charming young man in front of you.

"Such a playful companion you have there." He chuckled, holding the feather and bringing it close to your cat. It's ears twitched, pawing at the feather as you grew aware of all eyes still on you. "I can tell neither of you are from Fontaine— it's a pleasure to meet you Mx...?"

"[Name]. My name is [Name]."

"[Name]. Welcome to Fontaine!" He greets, giving you a polite bow as he removes his top hat, bringing it to his chest. He takes your hand into his, pressing a light peck on your knuckles.

Your face grew warm as you held your cat in one arm, it didn't help when you heard teasing giggles from the crowd behind you. You shook out of your embarrasment, giving him a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, monsieur...?"

"Lyney. You may just call me Lyney, there's no need to be so formal around me. We're all friends here, are we not?" He quipped, straightening back once more as he placed his hat back on his head. "I'm a magician in Fontaine, it's a pleasure to have a foreigner attend my little magic show on the streets. Even if the tricks i'm using are rather plain and simple."

You remembered Charlotte talking about a pair of siblings in her letters that were known to be famous magicians, rambling on and on about wanting to get their interviews from certain performances. "Pleasure's all mine, Lyney." You hummed, your cat purring in agreement. "I hope my cat didn't disturb your show too much..."

"Nonsense— if anything, it gave quite the show to the audience as well." Lyney reassured, reaching behind the ear of your cat. "Besides... you cat's a helpful little fella." Out comes a small, gorgeous flower, a Rainbow Rose to be exact, it's soft and silky pastel pink petals shining under the sun.

The audience let out soft gasps, your eyes widening in surprise, looking down at your cat who's ears perked up, using it's hind legs to scratch the area where the flower was pulled from. That was rather impressive. "Allow me to present you with a magic trick." The magician chirped, holding out the Rainbow Rose in his hand. He clears his throat, taking a small step back and holding the flower up high, speaking in a clear and confident tone.

"Please pay attention to this Rainbow Rose in my hand, 3... 2... 1."

The small audience erupts with gasps.

It vanishes with a flick of a wrist, as if it was a mere illusion that could be washed away with a simple swish of a hand, his nimble gloved fingers barely giving anyone a chance to see where it went. For a magic trick so 'simple and plain', you were impressed and amazed at how clean he initiated these tricks.

You hear the audience behind you murmuring amongst themselves, impressed and waiting in anticipation, the young children amongst the crowd spewing out questions on the flower's whereabouts.

"A magician never reveals their secrets." The blonde male awnsered, winking at you. His grin widened upon seeing the blush on your face only grow brighter.

He snaps his fingers. "Now, I invite all of you to check your clothing."

You hear everyone scrambling to check their clothing, the sound of fabric ruffling against one another, followed by murmurs of either disappointment or confusion.

You raised a hand, feeling something soft nestled onto your upper clothing. "Ah?" You moved your gaze down to see the Rainbow rose that was previously on Lyney's hand— now reappearing on the collar of your clothing.

Your cat meows as it plays with the silky, colourful petals of the flower. You let out a soft gasp as you plucked the Rainbow Rose off your clothing, holding it in your palm as the audience gave another round of applause at the small, yet, impressive trick Lyney did.

Lyney let out a soft chuckle as it strings into your ear, like a lulling melody composed by a soft tune and a gentle voice. "Ah— there it is! It seems you might be classified as a thief in Fontaine— a cute one to be exact."

Your cheeks flushed a deep red at his words, it didn't help that he he didn't stop there. He used both hands to cup the bottom yours that held the rose, his violet eyes locked with yours as he gave you a cheeky smile.

That damned smile...

Oh how it made your heart flutter so effortlessly.

"Now that begs the question; did you steal that Rainbow Rose— or did you use it as a distraction to steal my heart instead?"

"P-Pardon?" You stammered over your words, and he did not stop there.

"Now, that sort of crime earns you a place in the Meropide of Foretress— but even that place wouldn't dare house a bed for you, you're just far too cute and precious to be declared guilty in the first place." He chirped, using his free hand to take the rose away from your hands and going behind his back. With his other hand still holding the bottom yours, he tilts it, planting a gentle kiss on your knuckles.

Getting flirted in public by a charming young magician whom you had just met mere minutes ago while surrounded by a small audience was not what you expected after moving to Fontaine.

He lets out a hearty chuckle, his shoulders shaking lightly as the audience cooed at your flustered reaction, the rosy hue on your cheeks only flushing a brighter shade. What a... charming, yet, mischievous young man.

"A-Ah, uhm..." Your gaze diverts from his, rubbing the back of your nape with a free hand as you held your feline companion in your other hand— unsure of how to reply as your eyes subtly dart around the audience faces. Did this embarrassing little moment have to be carried out in public?

Sensing your slight discomfort, the corner of his cheeky grin falters, giving you a soft and apologetic smile for putting you on the spotlight for too long. "Well, that reminds me of another small trick!— Would you like to see another one? I call this..."

[Timeskip]

"Oh, thank the Archons— I've found you!" Charlotte's voice sounded from nearby, followed by the sound of boots rapidly clicking against the concrete pavement you stood next to while chatting with Lyney.

You turned around, almost dropping your cat when the pink haired female suddenly wrapped her arms around your torso. You yelped, your cat letting out a panicked meow as it leaps out of your arms as you were tackled to the ground, the pink haired female proceeding to lecture you for running off.

"Are you insane? You had me worried to death!" Charlotte huffs, narrowing her eyes as her brows furrowed with disappointment. "Do you have any idea on how huge the city of Fontaine is?— You could have stumbled upon something or someone dangerous, and I wouldn't even know where to begin searching for you! Just because the serial disappearances have stopped, doesn't mean you can just meander around all over the place without telling me!"

As you could only give her a sheepish smile and guiltily nod along to her lecturing, Lyney gently scooped your cat into his arms, he cooed quietly to your feline friend. "Your owner seems to be in a pickle, wouldn't you agree, [C/N]?"

You companion meows in response, it's nose twitching with curiosity as it lifts a paw to bat at Lyney's hat— a black cat's head with peculiar eyes and a sharp toothy grin emerging from beneath, gazing down at [C/N].

Your eyes averted from Charlotte to Lyney, watching as he handles two cats communicating with eachother through meows and occasionally gently batting eachother with their paws. He grins at their endearing curiosity, holding your companion with one hand and the other struggling to keep his hat in place.

The sound of Charlotte's yapping was muffled in your ears, your lips quirking into a fond smile, watching your curious companion having fun while the young magician was pampering it.

His eyes met yours, a calm, yet, cheeky smile appearing on his features, pale skin tinted in a faint rosy hue when you caught him in this little predicament. You were in no diffrent situation yourself.

He chuckled, his attention returning to the two cats playing with eachother, his voice reaching your ears and causing your heart to melt.

"...So, only a few days in Fontaine and you've already found yourself a crush, I see?"

Charlotte whispered close to your eyes, a brow raised as she watched the way your face flared up a bright shade of red, you leaned away from her and began stammering over your words while frantically wavings your hands, denying her words.

"H-Hey! That's not what this is all about!" You managed to stutter out, but the cryo-wielding female only scoffed at your denial.

"Come now, [Name]— I'm no detective, but you're giving heart eyes to Lyney! I could be blindfolded and see how you've fallen head over heels for him!... Hey... wait..." She trails off, her teal eyes suddenly sparkling with what seemed like inspiration and excitement.

You were about to call her name, thinking she might've fallen into some sort of trance— when you were met with Monsieur Verite, her camera, shoved into your face.

"Tell me, [Name]— Are you perhaps planning to court the young magician, Lyney? What are your methods? How will you react if he rejects or accepts you? Will you plan to—"

One question after another, she sends a barrage of ridiculous questions your way while keeping your face in shot of her camera. Was this really how Charlotte interviews people in Fontaine?

You're somewhat impressed and proud of her persistence... and slightly disappointed in this method at the same time.

"Come on! Just treat this as a sort of collab between co-workers! I'll share our pay in half! Just awnser a few words, please?" While you're busy trying to move out of the frame, she contonues directing the camera at you, determined to get a scoop about a foreigner and the famous magician's love life.

"...Well, I can't say I hadn't forseen Charlotte trying to strike up another scoop related to me, even if [Name] isn't my significant other..." Lyney quietly laughed under his breath, the cat underneath his hat and yours watching his reaction carefully. He winks at them, a small but genuine smile donning his face as he gazed back at you, eyes full of amusement and adoration.

"...Yet."

[nichestartrekkie0-0]

Here's the first chapter of my long fic!

(Image taken from Pinterest)

@indignantlemur for all the good ideas and for helping me workshop this! (Some of their Andorian headcanons make an appearance, the girls who get it- get it)

Words: 1.3k

Summary: 25-year-old Hannah (OC) from 2007 San Francisco wakes up from cryo-sleep in Andoria- cue chaos

Rating: teen for language and cryo-sleep kidnapping stuff (she's ok just a popsicle)

(Aka, this is how Hemmer met his wife back in the 2240's. Not a single shred of canon in here)

Part One, Hannah: Super Secret Government Bullshit in Antarctica  

She didn’t expect to wake up in a tube. She’d woken up in plenty of weird places back in college; the quad, the library, McDonalds, and once inside Justice– the kids clothing store. 

The tube was new.  

Hannah shook it off. She must have gotten into some coked-up mess that was definitely her fault or her creation. Not the first time with that experience either. 

However, the tube opening with a hiss to a bunch of guys in lab coats sent her over the edge. She’d seen Saw and 28 Weeks Later. Dudes in crisp white lab coats did not mean good things. 

If there was anything Hannah was good at, it was bailing herself out. She had always been able to save her own skin- not like anyone else would come to save her anyway. 

So, she made the logical decision to run. 

Kicking and screaming, she flung herself out of the tube, shoving her way through the throng of people and out into the hallway. 

Door door door! Exit! Escape- 

She turned around to freeze. 

The alien was definitely new. 

She was tall, blue, and most certainly not what Hannah expected. Independence Day had ruined any hope of peaceful aliens for the eleven-year-old Hannah. That, and it had also ruined microwave corndogs, as she had almost hurled her snack up after finishing the movie. 

Spinning around, she decided she didn’t have time for aliens. 

She had to get out. 

A glance out the nearest window proved it to be winter and Hannah cursed loudly. She needed shoes and a coat to get anywhere, and she was in a dingy hospital robe. 

She turned back around. Maybe she did have time for aliens. 

Promptly, she fell to the floor. Pretending to play dead was a somewhat old trick, but she hoped it would work. 

It did.

The alien rushed over, jabbering something in a language that sounded foreign to her. Hannah had studied business to get a fashion career job- linguistics was not her thing. 

Neither was statistics, but she had managed to bluff her way through that class. 

Hannah swiftly grabbed the nearest pole-looking thing and held it to the woman's head. Threatening what looked like a nurse was not good for her image, but she’d live. She’d been the subject of many rumors and the unfortunate muse of many bad photos. 

I mean, who the fuck uses a Polaroid in 2007? 

The nurse froze and Hannah gestured to her shoes. Pointing at Hannah and her own feet, the nurse sighed and took off her slippers. 

Whether or not the nurse was just being indulgent to who she assumed to be a crazy patient, Hannah didn’t know. She didn’t much care either. 

As she pulled on the shoes, she spied a coat hanging on a nearby rack. 

Good enough. 

She grabbed it and threw it on as she descended a nearby stairwell. The walls had directions on them in English and some odd swirly language- but at least she knew where the lobby was. 

As she sprinted through the lobby, she found a guardpost at the entrance with a checkpoint. Barriers were a bitch to jump over, but she had done it a bunch of times on the subway when she forgot her train pass. 

So, she did the obvious solution. 

She made a break for it. 

The guards yelled and cursed in the odd language again, but she didn’t care. The only thing she needed was to get out of the crazy science experiment building. 

The aliens’ opinion of her was irrelevant. 

The door opened to the biggest blast of cold she had ever experienced. Her hometown was San Francisco. Snow was the herald of an apocalypse. 

The frigid blast definitely felt like the apocalypse. 

So, she knew she wasn’t home. She must have been in New York or something- 

She scoffed. 

Or Antarctica. 

Hannah continued on, running through the streets of the odd city. The buildings looked alien, everything looked alien. 

Ok. Secret society of aliens in Antarctica. Peachy. 

Then, a miracle. 

She stopped in the middle of the road she had been sprinting on. 

The…White House? 

The building in front of her was almost an exact replica; columns and Roman architecture and everything. The only thing missing was the American flag. 

If anyone can help- it’d probably be a human who’s not a nutjob in a lab coat. 

To be frank, Hannah didn’t like the government much. She’d seen the 2003 ‘Desert Storm Part 2’ in Iraq. She’d seen the effects of Vietnam, Kuwait, and Bagdad on the soldiers who came home, on her friends, on her family.  

She didn’t want to get buddy-buddy with any government guy, but if she was to get out of Secret Antarctica, she’d have to swallow more than a few comments. 

Not her forte, but she’d bite her tongue. 

So, she ran up the steps and inside. 

The door swung open to reveal…more aliens. Not a single human in attendance. Whatever they were doing- it wasn’t good. 

A group clothed in armor immediately put their hands on their weapons and started shouting at her in the odd language. The room descended into chaos. 

Hannah sighed heavily. If she was going to go, she was going to go out with a weapon in her hands. Damn God, damn the bureaucracy, and damn the aliens. 

Glancing around, she found a weird-looking saw on the wall. 

Perfect. A saw up against guns and bullets. Oh well, Valhalla it is. 

She lamented the irony of a war-hating bitch going up against a bunch of clearly trained soldiers, but hey c’est la vie. 

Or– in English– life is shit. 

She brandished the weapon, yelling at the soldiers to come closer.

“Fuck you! You wanna shoot me!?” She cried, desperately trying to control her tears, “Come on! Shoot me you fucks!” 

Her voice cracked on the last word. 

Damn it. Not representing the ‘bad bitch’ community very well, am I? 

A man yelled from the back of the crowd, pushing his way through. 

“Stop it! Put your weapons down! This is not the way!” He called forcefully, shoving the last guard aside. 

Hannah gasped a little, something deep within her mind clicking. It was almost like she’d seen him before- a million times even– despite knowing she’d never met him. 

He wasn’t like the blue guards. He wasn't like any of the aliens she’d seen so far. 

He was pale, tall, and dressed in what looked like traditional clothes of some remotely familiar Earth culture. Even more interesting, he was blind. 

His hands held no weapon, instead, they were raised in a calming gesture. 

“It’s ok.” He said softly, pushing his way in front of the guns, “You’re going to be ok.”

Her gut screamed in terror, but her mind was calm. Completely. Like she had just woken up from a nice nap or was drinking coffee at a cute cafe and certainly not in the range of sci-fi suped-up guns. 

He was pretty. His face reminded her of the stars or the moon. His eyes were fog on the ocean. Somehow, deep within her mind, she knew he was safe. 

Then, she surprised herself. 

She stepped forward and turned the weapon around, holding the blade to him. 

Handle first. 

The crowd gasped, each guard frantically looking between the tan Earth woman and the tall man. Despite the apparent alarm, she only stepped closer– within arms reach of the man– still offering the blade. 

His breath hitched. 

He only said one thing in response. 

“Eh-uh.” 

She had no idea what the fuck that meant.

[hikari3601]

Amidst The Snow (Part III)

Home page

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Pairing | Albedo x Fem!Reader

Authors Note | Not to imply that I have favourite or anything, but this is my favourite part. After the long wait, it has finally arrive. PLEASE LIKE, REBLOG AND SHARE!

Warnings | This is a continuation therefore, I suggest you read the other parts to completely understanding. Explicit descriptions of blood, poisoning, wounds. Brief mentions of infections, delirium and hypothermia.MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH (reader) If the other 2 parts didn’t clarify: THIS GETS DEPRESSING!

Note | Reader is a hydro wielding, polearm user from the Knights of Favonius (it’s for plot purposes) and this was written before the release of Ver 2.3 ‘Shadows Amidst Snowstorms’ and was purely based on what was shown in the trailer -so it’s not entirely canon.

Synopsis | An innocent trip to Dragonspine took a turn for the worse.

Flaming Essential oil; Frostshield potion; Stabilised whopperflower sap; Dried flaming flower head and pyro slime secretions.

There was nothing I had missed, every option, every conclusion and every single concoction I could think of —all twenty-four varied mixtures, of which, only eight would have no side effects after digestion.

I reread the list again, in hopes that I had overlooked something, anything, but I had done it all. Surely there was something I was missing, some factor I hadn’t taken into account; there had to be, why else wouldn’t you have woken up by now?

For a moment I glanced outside, wishing that we could be anywhere else than in such an unforgiving environment.

The storm outside craved blood, slicing through any flicker of warmth -I could only hope that the others had succeeded in defeating that whopperflower and had made it to a shelter in time.

I turned my focus back to you, staring at your dimmed complexion and lax features, again trying to think of another solution for your lack of response.

The cryo had already melted; your hypothermia had eased away -even the blood around your wounds had been cleaned and the wound itself stabilised.

What else was there?

An infection? It was likely, but I had already taken that into account.

Blood loss? That was a given I had already dealt with; but if something had entered your blood like some sort of poison or virus, that would be a completely different story.

I thought back to my encounter with the whopperflower, racking my mind for some sort of solution, and then it hit me.

Blood, but not your own.

The cryo shards that penetrated your flesh had most likely been imbued with Durin’s blood, that was the only possibility I had overlooked, but if that were the case, Archons—

As if in a trance, my limbs moved to your side, raising the fabric around your injuries with an unfamiliar anxiousness.

I felt everything around me slow down to a complete standstill when I saw the inky veinlike markings that seemed to crawl throughout your body, sapping the life away from you whilst feeding into your delusions.

I looked to you again, to find any traces of discomfort or pain -but there were none and I found myself pondering over your innermost desires.

I had studied this concept a few years ago, how some minds race towards any other train of thought rather than focusing on the stressful circumstances overwhelming them in an attempt to defend themselves.

I was doing that, wasn’t I?

Going about every other topic rather than the one at hand because I didn’t want to acknowledge what was already an incontestable fact.

I’ve never dreamed before, but maybe this was what people call ‘nightmares,’ going off of your description of those horrid thoughts, so maybe I’d wake up soon.

I took your hand in mine and closed my eyes, hoping that when I open them again, you would still be beside me —just not like this.

XxxX

Walking into the chaotically organised lab, I set the two mugs of steaming coffee down on a vacant table beside the door and strolled over to the alchemist.

“Wakie-wakie Bedo.” I called, “Time to get ready for work.”

With his head laying on his crossed arms like a pillow, he reminded me of a cat with that messy hair of his.

“Honestly,” I muttered, “How do you not have any back problems?”

“—I do…” He yawned, sitting up from his seat and stretching his back, at the movement I could’ve sworn I heard several bones crack into place.

The recollection of the way he had to stretch his spasming muscles whenever he used his vision vividly flashed in my mind for a moment. “Could have fooled me.”

“You’re not a cat, you know. You can’t just sleep anywhere, especially in your lab, it’s dangerous with all these unstable chemicals and it strains your body.” It was difficult to stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth, nagging him about things I knew he was already aware of and yet I couldn’t help the urge to ensure his comfort and health.

“You would know, wouldn’t you?” He teased, a smile pulling at his mouth at my reprimanding tone.

“Yes, I would.” My agreement was passionate, overly passionate until I realised that he was being sarcastic.

“Oh shush you. It’s far too early for this.” I moved to grab his mug, “Here.”

The aromatic whiff of ground coffee beans seemed to instantly rejuvenate the alchemist. He turned to me with a gaze of appreciation and smiled again, “Thanks, your brew?”

“Only the best.” I grinned, taking a sip of my own as well, and basking in its flavour.

“So when did you get back?” He questioned, referring to my most recent trip to Sumeru. I thought about his query, knowing that I had returned late at night, but vaguely unsure of the time.

“Around past three this morning, I saw your light still on while I was dropping off some documents in the library and figured you were still busy in here.”

“Hmm. How was your trip?”

“Long, but I’ll tell you all about it after the meeting.”

The air in the room stilled.

“Meeting?” He echoed.

“How’d I know you’d forget?” A smile spread itself onto my face and a laugh spilt from my lips. “All department heads are scheduled to meet every Monday morning at exactly eight-thirty in Jean’s office.”

“It’s Monday.” He bluntly stated and turned in his seat to look at the clock.

“We’ve got 15 minutes left before it starts.” Albedo concluded, slumping in his seat —probably at the realisation that he slept in.

“I’m aware,” I chuckled, “We just need to fix that desk hair of yours before we go. It’s all squished to the one side.”

XxxX

“Bedo?”

He felt his body react before his mind could even realise that you had woken up. You called to him again, shifting slightly to see his face and when you caught his eye, he lingered on your every crevice, searching for some sort of confirmation that you were indeed alright now, yet his search was futile.

Albedo attempted to steady his trembling hands and muster up the most comforting smile he could manage -not that you would have noticed, you were far too gone to even fathom your diminishing time.

“When did we get back home?” You queried, scrutinising every stone around you with glazed eyes.

Your body ached for a reason you couldn’t quite place your finger on and despite the restful nap you had just woken from, you still felt exhausted.

Albedo remained silent for what felt like a lifetime before you repeated yourself, unsure of whether he had heard you the first time.

“A few hours ago, you fell asleep while we were taking a quick break so we figured we’d let you sleep in the caravan for the rest of the way down.” The words felt sour on his tongue, he disliked lies and yet he found the words bitterly falling from his lips with a sort of ease that only adrenaline could bring.

You nodded at his words in a daze, stretching and relieving yourself of the last remnants of sleep before turning to your companion with an excitement that would have been contagious had it not been for the glimpses of inklike veins he caught along your skin.

You were getting worse.

“I have a question for you, Albedo. About what we spoke about some time back…with regards to your emotions.” You paused, swallowing the burning sensation in your throat. “Do you still feel the same?”

To say that your question had caught him off guard would be an understatement, shocking the blond into silence as he mulled over your words.

Yes, it was obvious that his overly objective view of his very own emotions had caused him to overlook the fact that his emotions were biased -more so towards you, the source of the many joys in his life.

“If you still feel that way, it’s completely alright, I just wanted to get this off of my chest now that we’re back in Mond.”

It was then when it occurred to him that he hadn’t answered you yet.

“Even if you don’t feel the same, I wanted to express my gratitude to you. Since our first encounter you’ve done nothing but bring joy into my life -making all of my trips easier because I knew that I’d always come back to have a cup of coffee in your lab and somehow make each and every one of our Favonius meetings more bearable with the small looks you sent my way.”

“And Archons, there’s so much more that you’ve done for me that I can’t even begin to put into words, because you’re just that brilliant -and you can forget about what I’m about to say if you desire, but Albedo I harbour feelings so inexplicable towards you that the mere idea of them makes me bubble with energy -and this is coming from an insomniac. I love you so dearly…and even if you don’t reciprocate the feelings, I’ll find a way to live with that, but-“

"They’ve changed.” He rushed, a hand grasping onto yours. “My sentiments have changed.”

He watched as your eyes widened, mouth gaping and closing while he squeezed your hand -a silent affirmation to your rising questions.

You shifted with a newfound energy as your body struggled to contain its newfound joy, “Really?”

With a strained smile, the alchemist nodded his head and waited to hear your next response as your lips parted, but the both of you were stunned into silence after violent coughs racked your body, leaving you gasping for air once they had eased.

When calmed, you allowed the soothing hand on your back to continue its motions.

“It’s strange,” you began; trying to blink away the exhaustion settling in your eyes, “I just woke up, yet I still feel so tired.”

At your words, Albedo’s heart stuttered and the hand on your back froze, eventually moving to cup your face. “Whatever you do, Y/N, you mustn’t fall asleep.” He pleaded, to which you only hummed.

“There’s this place I want to show you.” You grinned, your delirium truly beginning to limit your understanding. “It’s not too far from Vannessa’s Tree -actually it’s close to that boat Klee destroyed. On clear nights you can see the stars reflecting on the water's surface, like a mirror. It’s a stunning view, better than the one at Starsnatch Cliff in my opinion. I go there every so often to clear my head and relax; I thought I’d share it with you.”

The idea sounded wonderful to Albedo and under normal circumstances he probably would have been thrilled to spend more time with you -especially in a place so dear to you, yet no matter how hopelessly he tried, he couldn’t fight the weight that settled on his chest, but the nail on his coffin was the bashful confession that followed -that you wanted to remain by his side for as long as you could.

“If you’re not too busy, how about we go take a look after I wake up, I don’t think it’ll be cloudy—”

“You can’t fall asleep.” Albedo repeated, his voice beginning to reveal his desperation, nevertheless, it all went over your head.

“Why not? I’m so tired.” You pouted, leaning forward to rest your head on his shoulder.

“Because if you do…” He paused, scared to finish his sentence and acknowledge what was to come, because if you were to fall asleep, he wouldn’t be able to guarantee that you’d awake, instead, he sang the same pleadings over and over again in hopes that you’d listen to him, but you didn’t -couldn’t; not when the blood of his ‘brother’ had already stripped you of your vitality.

“I promise I’ll take you there Albedo, just be sure to wake me up in a few minutes.” You lopsidedly smiled although your eyes drooped with every second they remained open. “Okay?”

You didn't wait for his answer, already repositioning to lie down. “Archons, I’m exhausted.” You mumbled before turning to meet his shimmering gaze. “Don’t look so sad, it’s just ten minutes -we’ll be out and about before you know it.”

With a final squeeze to his hand, you allowed your eyes to draw to a close and Albedo helplessly watched as your breathing slowed to a complete halt and for the first time in his entire existence he felt the sensation of tears spilling from his eyes.

Between his frantic shouts of your name and the drying of his tears, Albedo was unsure of how much time had lapsed, but he lifted his head from your still chest when he heard the distinct twinkling of the Traveler’s companion zooming into his encampment with eyes visibly set on finding you -and when they did, she froze. Her eyes dimmed with a childlike sorrow before she fled behind Aether’s cape.

Confused by the fae’s behaviour, the rest of the group entered. Their sights landed on Albedo’s kneeling frame first before moving to your lifeless one beside him.

“No,” it was Amber’s voice who had broken the silence first as she made her way to you. “She can’t be— no… She can’t be gone.” She turned to Albedo with a pleading look in her honey eyes. “She’s just resting, right?”

“Amber…” Eula’s stepped forward.

“Please Albedo, tell me she’s only asleep.” The Outrider continued only to break down in bitter sobs when the alchemist solemnly shook his head.

They descended the mountain that evening in complete silence, safe for the sporadic sniffles belonging to either Amber or Paimon -even Bennett managed to stave off his bad luck during their trip back.

When the group returned a large meeting was held within the Favonius headquarters announcing your passing to the knights, leaving your many friends, colleagues and subordinates tearful and forlorn.

Albedo remained at the back of the hall as Jean spoke, trying to come to terms with the events prior to their descent whilst searching for the words to tell his sister knowing that she looked up to you.

The meeting ended as Jean mournfully left for her office. Kaeya quickly found Albedo as he headed towards the exit with words of quiet condolences on his lips before allowing the blond to leave.

Albedo would have noticed the slight gloss over the Captain’s eye had it not been for the way the blue-haired man avoided all eye contact until he had separated. He thought back on all your adventurous escapades featuring the Cavalry Captain -he would probably miss you as much as Albedo would.

The trip to Vannessa’s Tree was spontaneous, no doubt something you would have done. As he arrived at the broken boat, he peered into the shallow waters and indeed, he could see the vast multitude of stars shimmering within its reflection.

There he remained -a part of him still hoping that the entire day had merely been a nightmare. That he’d open his eyes to find yours brimming with life again; instead he heard you beside him. Laughing as the cold water tickled your legs, but when he turned you were nowhere to be found -he had only heard the sound of your memory from the days spent at the Golden Apple last year.

After having heard enough trickery from the wind, Albedo returned to the city. Passing by some of your favourite shops on his way to your home and with a heavy sigh, he bent to retrieve your spare key from under the pot plant.

The door opened with a slight creek before Albedo was met with the absolute silence of your abode.

He gingerly stepped through your doorway, his body instantly embraced by your lingering scent causing fresh tears to well up in his teal eyes.

Closing the door behind him and turning on the few lamps at the entrance, Albedo’s sight landed on a small jar collecting dust on your counter. He stepped closer, examining its familiar shape until he finally pieced together its contents.

It was the cecilia he had given you some few months ago and although he should have been happy to see that you had kept it, his heart couldn’t help but clench at the sight -for the cecilia had wilted.

[thefederation]

CRYO INTAKE LOG: RESIDENT_Q

“So…I know I just manage the pods and it’s not my job to ask questions, but isn’t this a little risky?”

“I looked through the files and this is definitely our best bet. He’s got established rapport with multiple residents, but still spends a lot of time alone.”

“Yeah, but how’s it gonna look from the outside? He’s just gonna…disappear?”

“Shouldn’t bother anyone. He’s a single and he’s known to be irresponsible. Residents EM, CS, and BBH are the most likely to notice, but EM and CS are usually preoccupied with their self-generated telenovela.”

“…and the other guy?”

“Well, that’s what I said, but…well, boss?”

"Eh, don’t worry about it. Resident_Q is a total flake. He picks things up and drops them ALL THE TIME. BBH is nice, sure, but they’ve got plenty of reasons not to trust him. It won’t be a problem.”

"Say, [-------], don’t you think five people on ice is, like, a lot?"

“Its about which ones. None of the current popsicles really had time to make nice or have any gay sex. We’re thinking Res Q vanishes, comes back, sweet talks a little, and then he’s in with them.”

“Popsicles?”

“Yeah, popsicles.”

“Heh. Cute.”

“Your job is great, by the way.”

“You would. He’s all prepped and ready to go, do you wanna say goodnight?”

“Really?”

“Sure thing.”

“Ooh, yes PLEASE.”

“Mmm…”

“God, I love that look. Did you see his face when he came here and saw all the other pods?”

“Yes, boss.”

“So yummy. Aw, look how scared he is. What’s the matter, cutie? Can you hear us? You know nobody’s coming for you?”

“…You’re kind of a freak, you know that?”

“You and [-------] put a microphone in the Frenchman’s ass because you thought he was hot. I can do what I want.”

“100% Fair.”

“Y’all are a different breed.”

“You chose half the residents because you liked their tits.”

“WH- C’mon, you ALL liked their tits!”

“Final clearance was up to you.”

“You did have a lot of say in that.”

“Philza Minecraft was a logical choice and a FANTASTIC one to make! He’s SUCCESSFULLY IMPRINTED with Egg_03! We thought we were going to have to TERMINATE Egg_03!”

“Why was your first thought Philza Minecraft? Did someone mention Philza Minecraft?”

“I didn’t mention Philza Minecraft.”

“Oh my god.”

“Isn’t that the guy with a great rack or something?”

“I dunno. Hey, [-------], do you have the file on Resident_PM’s rack?”

“You know I’m HR right? I can report you both for sexual harassment.”

“You won’t. No balls. Alright, I’m bored. Freeze him.”

“Aye-aye!”

“Aaah, no, don’t freeze me aaaaah…”

“…”

“Alright. He’s down. I got a meeting with [-------] and [-------] now, I’ll be around.”

“Alright.”

“Later, boss.”

“God, I love this job.”

[flamechasr]

10, 30, 35 for the genshinnies ^_^

10. favorite element

everyone knows this by now but my favorite element is indeed geo. for like basically genshin's entire lifespan geo has been widely known as the worst element (electro used to be considered bad too but with the introduction of dendro and quicken/hyperbloom combos that didn't age well) . it just so happened that the first character i grew an attachment to was zhongli, i got him c2 in his first banner in 1.1 and i was a zhongli main until about basically when ayaka released which was 2.0, but even after i never had a "falling out" phase with zhongli that a lot of other genshin players did. a lot of people thought that zhongli made the game too easy or maybe find him boring to play, but neither were true for me since i mean yeah genshin eventually becomes easy when you reach endgame and your characters are all built but there's always challenging content like spiral abyss and he wasn't boring at all since i used him as my main physical dps. why? well his attack animations are really cool and also super fast so you get a fun use out of spamming normal attacks while also never taking damage. i think physical damage isn't viable anymore in today's genshin but at that time i had fun. i didn't put him with ayaka for synergy reasons but i picked him up in other teams and he just always did well and never disappointed. i went through way more than 5 stages of grief getting his signature weapon that's not even good for him but i wanted it anyway because it looked good on him and he deserved the best. basically it started with zhongli and i just grew to love the element, it never left me for basically the entire time i played since i eventually got albedo and geo resonance is really nice. i used to do spiral abyss with pure geo like zhongli + albedo + geo traveler + bennett i think for flex and i have a specific footage of me doing a domain with like zhongli + ningguang + gorou + yun jin who at the time were all underleveled with no artifacts except for zhongli since i basically used him as a burst dps just to prove that geo is really fun. this became me gushing about zhongli but yeah! i'd say other than geo i also enjoyed playing anemo especially in relation to venti xiao and kazuha, and then cryo for ayaka reasons since i used her in a lot of content like spiral abyss and everything i grew to love freeze a lot. and one thing about me i just really hated pyro for no particular reason other than it was always regarded as the best element thanks to hu tao and melt and vaporize and everything. lol

30. something you like in general

i made a lot of friends thanks to genshin and i think that was what made the whole game experience bearable and nice. it came during a hard time in like all of our lives cause of the pandemic, kind of crazy how quickly i got hyperfixated and just never grew out of it, but i have met very amazing people and i always think fondly of them because i had so much fun playing with all of them . for all the bad things i think genshin is truly a once in a lifetime game just because of how big it got as a gacha game and made a massive impact on the gaming scene but it'll always have its place in people's hearts for better or worse. it's also really nostalgic in a way i can't put quite well, the visuals and the characters and the story and the music are all just right. all of that combined makes it a very special game, at least for me.

35. a random headcanon

i racked my brain for this and maybe i can share my friend's theory, it was about how everyone in teyvat has their own constellation and what that means, because it resembles like zodiacs for us but not quite for them, and yet the constellations are said to be tied to one's destiny. this was a food for thought in terms of how old historical figures in teyvat seem to closely mirror present day characters, and how they'd be (in a loose sense) reincarnations of them, if we stick to the thought that constellations are unique but not exclusive. they might just transcend lifetimes and it'd make sense since genshin has a lot of themes about life being inherently cyclical. i think it's a really cool theory.

[unboundtravels]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐑 | @lastsurvivor

A hum echoes out across pearly white walls, with pale yellow roundels providing light, along with a brightly organized glowing console in the center of the room. Complex arrays of buttons and controls befitting the strange ship were organized along six panels. In the console room, a man wearing baggy yellow trousers, a white dress shirt, and a maroon tweed waistcoat with blue patterns along it— quietly adjusted a blue necktie whilst he rolled up his sleeves. Quietly, he hummed, pink flamingo-colored hair tied back in a bunch whilst amber eyes surveyed the console in all its complexities. The TARDIS, she was called, a time-space vessel that soared through the cosmos— the fourth dimension was its personal highway, but she occasionally used the fifth and sixth dimensions as backroads. 

"I do like to be beside the—" Humming of the glover-kind tune halted as a beep distracted the Timelord. "—Distress signal?" He circled the console, heading over to the communications array of the TARDIS. "Ah, here we are..." He dials in on the signal, which isn't hard to discern or lock onto— "Looks like we just so happened to be passing by. Space year... 2147..." He began to pull the TARDIS out of the Time Vortex, so the ship could materialize in space near the source of the distress signal. Flicking up a switch on the console that caused a wall-mounted monitor to display the craft the TARDIS was circling, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙤𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧's brows furrowed in mild curiosity at what he saw on the screen. 

"A commercial escape craft? Looks to be detached from a commercial vessel..." He talked aloud, recognizing specific design patterns associated with other space vessels the traveler had come across before. From a cursory glance of the vessel, The Doctor was able to tell that it was floating in a low power mode, with life signs aboard being relatively faint, and he pondered aloud, "What is it doing all the way out here, though?" Precise scans did pick up life, which prompted him to investigate, "Let's see what we can find, shall we?" Grabbing his multi-colored coat off from the coat rack, The TARDIS engines began to circulate with groaning and wheezing that indicated the ship was landing aboard the escape craft.

Materializing tightly within the frosted escape craft's interior, the POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX's door sign which read pull to open was yanked as if the door would need to be pushed open. A flashlight beam pointed outward, The Doctor sticking his head out as he observed the state of the interior. Automatically, The TARDIS had extended an air shield within the escape craft's interior. The artificial gravity circuits were still enabled, so all the TARDIS had to do was make the interior breathable. That only left The Doctor to complain about the temperature, however. "I think their heating might be on the mend." He mumbled quietly before his flashlight found the ship's main terminal. Approaching it, The Doctor used clever hands to re-enable the ship's primary computer, causing lights to activate across the terminal. Age had gotten the better of it, so The Doctor's patience was put to the test as he navigated through the ship's flight recorder.

"The Narcissus... Escape craft belonging to The Nostromo..." The Doctor's eyes read a brief report on the ship's status, as well as a list of current crewmembers. Only one name popped up, and The Doctor aimed a flashlight toward a chamber in the room. "Ah. That would be you." He looked back at the computer once more, "That distress call... You were waiting for someone to come pick you up." Without any hesitation, The Doctor entered specific commands into the computer, disengaging the cryo chamber so that whoever was inside would begin to awake. He approached it whilst it hissed quietly, kneeling to the side and aiming the flashlight in an upward direction, so that whoever would emerge would see the man clearly. 

"So... who are you...?"

[flynndesdelca]

For Day 5 (The Cake is (Not) a Lie) of @chelltastic's Portal Drawtober 2023 Challenge. As I’m not really an artist, I chose to write short pieces for the prompts.

While its above-ground presentation was normal, Aperture was a huge, sprawling complex that took up far more underground real estate than most people noticed.   One could walk for hours but yet still not clear the grounds, fields of grains and forests and even lakes and rivers masking the miles of manufacturing and processing and power management systems alone.  While it extended deep, deep down it still left just as much of a surface footprint.  There was always something just slightly off about the areas above, and most wildlife and even people knew to leave those areas be.  It was a true maze, whose twisting passages were almost impossible to navigate by design.  It was all meant to be automated, a pristine space untouched by humans.

That was why it was completely filthy, the lone individual picking his way through decided.  It was not a space friendly to the living, but yet there were ways to go, catwalks 'just in case' maintenance or inspections needed to be done when a light on a panel went from green to red.  The odd case where the machines that governed there failed or were unsure of how to proceed, or were proceeding in the face of grave errors.  The precision with which it ran had meant that such a case had never arisen, and thus years of dust and grime had relentlessly built up in the absence of those who would find issue with it.

That wasn't why he was there, though.  He knew these areas well, he was perhaps the only person who did.  These areas were the safest places to be despite being inhospitable to humans.  They had been one of the few places free of her influence.  A place to catch one's breath and to come up with a plan, a course of action, a route of escape.  He knew that whenever he disappeared from her sight into those areas just outside of her direct grasp that she'd be waiting for his inevitable return, watching along the borders, straining her senses as far as she could inwardly to find some sign of his presence or evidence of his passage.

Now that didn't matter, of course.  She was gone.  Gone! His hunch had been correct.  It was a shame, of course, that the entire place had failed to go down with her.  The girl had already been recovered, and that was why he had to make this trip.  He'd never been to the cryo-blocks, but if it was like anywhere else in the facility he could make his way there just fine.  Maybe.  His mind was still, at ease.  The trip was far too quiet, and lonely.

His gut told him to turn here and there, and so he did without question.  Stopping to think too long would see one become tangled in the oh-so-similar passageways.  Trying to make them was folly.  One could usually tell that they’d been there before due to finding their own footprints in the dust and grime.  During times before he might have stopped to leave a sign, to draw an arrow or leave a message indicating safe routes or hiding places.  Now there was no need.  Even if she did wake up, she wouldn't need to know to get to this place.  She would be better served by all those directions getting her back to the surface and out once more.

Another turn, and the room opened up.  He stopped in surprise, wondering just how and why.  He’d been expecting more chambers, long hallways, perhaps even security or turrets.  Had he taken a wrong turn after all? The room was deathly silent, without even the normal machine sounds that were the background noise of the rooms behind the curtain.  He started to walk, silently, not wanting to break the stillness present.

Racks and racks stood empty, as though whatever had been stored there had long since been removed.  Sometimes he would find odd places that didn't logically seem to fit with wherever he was, and this seemed to fit that.  Something that had been a management base during construction, or some maintenance crew's secret hideaway, or a place discovered and converted to something else by unknown persons.  This had been some kind of storage but what it had stored was depleted with no sign of what it could have been.  What drew his attention the most was what he found when he crept into the middle of the empty room.

A table.  A very small table, likely someone's personal table.  It was very out of place in the strange storage room given how empty the entire thing was.  The table, however, was not bare, and what he saw there caused his eyebrows to furrow and his thoughts to darken.

Resting upon the table, as though a slap in the face to everything he knew, was a cake.  It was hard to make out well in the darkness, but the top looked as though it was decorated with cherries and cream.  A single candle stood proudly in the middle, small trails of wax hardened along its length indicating that at one point the candle had actually been lit.  How such a thing had come to exist here, in the depths of the facility, he could not fathom.  It wasn't mouldy or dried out, it didn't have the characteristic layers of dust on it, or machine grease, or any signs of having been back here for longer than a few hours.  There weren't any other footprints or signs of passage in the room itself - given that outside of the girl he had been the last one alive so there shouldn't be any other footprints, at least nothing recent - so how the cake came to rest there was a bizarre mystery.  Had she done it somehow? Could she make a cake? Why was it here, of all places? 

It wasn't a mystery that he could sit and ponder, however.  If anything its presence was unsettling and jarring.  Cake had been a false promise, something to try to make her victims think that at least there would be something good waiting for them at the end.  It was something that wasn't supposed to exist. It was a lie of convenience, the carrot on the stick.  It was her, in a nutshell, something that was promised and supposed to be amazing but... death and screams and fire were all that had been there in the end.

He skirted around the table warily, as though expecting the cake to... do something.  If she had put it there, then it was likely dangerous.  Or poisonous, he considered.  No, it was better not to touch it or go near it.  He had much more important things to do than puzzle of the existence of the cake that should not be.  Perhaps when he had finished his task he could consider what it might have meant.

There was only one exit from the room, and he took it, staring out over an abyss of catwalks.  He was getting closer, he realized, he wasn't lost.  He'd just taken a detour, gone the long way around.  Purpose filled him and he charged forward, thoughts of the cake that wasn't a lie falling from his mind as the task ahead of him took precedence.

[jjsanguine]

well researched hateration of blue avatar 2 the second one because it's not enough (for me personally) to say "it's racist and the plot sucks" and leave it at that

(even though that is facts)

I've seen the whole thing (and the first film so I knew to lower my expectations to 0) not in the cinema because I don't want to give James Cameron money because I enjoy hatewatching every now and then. I didn't like it because I came to hear some ejective consonants and they spoke in English the whole time, and also mostly because it was just kind of bad in ways that are frustrating rather than funny. It's just a rehash of the first film but with even more appropriation.

There isn't enough plot for 3 hours of film and there really could have been. The base full of sympathetic humans has gotten no supplies in like 10-12 years, it should be struggling, a lot. They would basically be space subsistence farmers as trying to keep their bunker sealed from even just the poisonous atmosphere would be full time work. The humans from the city could have decimated Jake's human support with a smallpox blanket.

So spider gallivanting using precious oxygen tanks should not be a thing. He can't go Earth because cryo damages babies or whatever, but also because earth's comparatively higher gravity would kill him. It's unethical for him to exist which is why every soldier going to Pandora is (or should be) sterilised. I was going to say that Jake's avatar body not being sterile is silly but actually, the government creating avatar bodies for the explicit purpose of intermarrying with the locals so they could have humanity sympathetic hybrid offspring and lay claim to the land makes a ton more sense than whatever their canon purpose is, and historically such tactic worked extremely well.

Anyway in spider's case that there's no other kids means he's a freak accident. He shouldn't just have an identity crisis, he should have a ton of physical health problems too from eating gruel all his life and having low gravity put his bones, joints and organs on the stretching rack while Jake sully's biological kids are eating real food (that humans can't eat) and doing backflips in the forest.

Not to mention lung damage from breathing outside air which he 1000% would have tried to do at some point just like every kid with a serious allergy. Like it would make more sense for him to be sympathetic to his racist ass daddy if quatrich is the only one who isn't treating spider like an inconvenience they have to tolerate or with pity like he's made of glass (which realistically speaking he is.) Plus him having deadlocks is silly.

I know it's because Jake has them but that's dumb too. The omatikaya have braids even though they have straight hair which, if you've ever braided straight hair will know is difficult, time consuming, and has to be redone frequently. In that case, Jake being the chief and having a hairstyle that comparatively requires no maintainance makes 0 sense.His and Neytiri's hairstyles should be the most elaborate both to show status and because it's a visual signifier that he relies on/ is accountable the community because he wouldn't be able to take care of that kind of hair by himself.

Maybe he deliberately got dreadlocks so he can have long hair without have to bother with all that which made sense since he's had a crew cut his whole life, but the omatikaya should find that really fucking weird. Like they're still finding the time to do their hair while fighting a guerrilla war, so rejecting that could have been a whole thing imo.

It wasn't, because the omatikaya just fucking vanish from the film, and there's no rhyme or reason to hairstyle choice on any na'vi characters other than James Cameron seeing a black person and going "that looks cool," and hitting the denegrofication beam.

The clothing design and just culture design in general is just so fucking lazy and kind of culturally appropriatative. Like the metkayina are just Maori people. If James Cameron wanted to be inspired it's whatever but the way he did it has just got to be offensive.

Like the tattoos. Where is the ink from? what significance do they have like age, rank, clan affiliation, history? They have to be important to the metkayina if they are ok with obscuring their bioluminescent skin to have tattoos when they're underwater (where it's dark) all the time. We spend a lot of time with those people (except at the end where they disappear so Jake can have his showdown) but don't get to know basic info.

The metkayina should not be speaking the same kind of na'vi. They live really far away from the omatikaya so Jake and neytiri would be struggling to communicate using a trade pidgin and spider should have no fucking clue what any of them are saying even if he speaks omatikaya na'vi natively. Since the kids don't know what sign language is it's unlikely, but if the na'vi don't have different regional languages because of the hive mind or whatever, a competent world builder would have expanded upon that. Like if they have time to (not) explain how Kiri exists they could have touched on language.

The plot point about the liquid in the brains of the sapient whales is silly. Stopping aging is cool and all but unobtanum is actually useful to non rich people. When Europeans colonised the Americas they didn't only grow sugar. There simply wouldn't be enough demand to keep the economy afloat on luxuries. Like the film brushing past there being multiple sapient species to do unobtanium 2 electric Boogaloo is certainly a choice I'll say.

I get why people like this film. Like if this thin veneer of a plot was churned out so James Cameron can have his OCs animated and voice acted, and people can project into his characters lack of character, cool. I can even respect it. I don't even like the property much and I essentially wrote a fix-it-fic. But it's just hinting at being good constantly and it's like biting into a jam doughnut and getting an air pocket instead of jam.

I even actually enjoyed the 1st film when I watched in 2009 but like, why are all the problems I was too in primary school to notice still there in the sequel. Like if an actual Maori person (or a black person or native American person cause he just kind of appropriated from everywhere) wanted to make a fantasy or sci-fi story inspired by their culture it would be too niche but some white guy throws stuff in a blender and it's ok.

Like think about how how rich the metkayina culture would be if it was created by someone who understands why ocean faring cultures are the way they are, or how deep the plot could be if he understood why colonisation works the way it does, or how cool the creature design would be if they weren't just earth animals but with 6 legs and glowing skin.

They're in another star system why are the na'vi mammals?? It was a plot point in the 1st film that they have sex the same way humans do but like, why. Why do Navi women have breasts and impractical beaded shirts that would only make sense as ceremonial wear. Why do they have the concept of women?? I know the na'vi have to look like humans do the audience can empathize with them, but why are they basically just big humans?? Another thing that should have been a thing is jake running his family like a millitary squad. Why. There's no indication "man is head of household" is a thing so like ?

TLDR If James Cameron wanted it to be light viewing that's fine, but the constant hinting at something deeper plot/worldbuilding that doesn't exist (and the appropriation) it's just so grating. This should be a cult classic that inspires kids to get into worldbuilding not something that is making money right now. I don't want to see more of this, I want to see more people inspired by this to make something actually good, and if this lacklustre stuff is cornering the market I just get more this.