☆ de fontaine
{☆} characters furina
{☆} notes cult au, imposter au, drabble, gender neutral reader
{☆} warnings angst, suicidal thoughts, hurt / no comfort
{☆} word count 1.4k
This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair!
She thought, for one moment, she could put the mask down and breathe – for one moment of daydreaming, she thought she could just be Furina. She thought she would finally get to live the live she should've had in the first place, the life she threw away to play God to an audience who saw her as nothing but a circus animal, dancing to their whims. Furina just wanted to be selfish for one brief and fleeting moment..and it was gone before she could even grasp it in her hand. A comet soaring past far out of her reach.
She can barely keep her hands from violently shaking as she looks down at them – broken and bloody and more a corpse then a person – and she feels so numb she can't even feel the rain pelting against her back. None of this is fair, she wants to scream, why is it always me? But her voice is silent beneath the torrent of rain. She wonders if the ocean would take her if she sank into it's depths – just for a moment, she wonders how it would feel to finally be able to sleep at ease.
Furina is tired.
But Furina is nothing if not useful, isn't she?
So she forces her feet to move, dragging against the stone beneath her heels, and drags their bloodied body into the nearest empty building, letting the rain do the work of washing away the smeared blood following her path. The smell makes her feel sick, the feeling of it sticking to her hands and gloves makes her lightheaded, but she persists. Because Furina is useful, because Furina won't let them die out in the rain, because Furina won't stand by and just let them rot on the streets like some..pest.
Furina wants to go home. She wants to sleep and she isn't she if she wants to wake up, this time. But she keeps going anyway.
Because it's all she's ever done, and the habit sticks.
An Archon she may not be, not anymore, but the expectations of five hundred years still linger like eyes on the inside of her skull. They watch her, pry and prod at her thoughts, mocking laughter and judging eyes following her as she forces herself to dance to the song they weave with glee. Furina never stepped off that stage – she's still there, she thinks, watching the crowd stare at her in disdain as the curtain call looms above her like a guillotine. She still hears Neuvillette deliver her damnation and salvation with a trembling voice, still feels her hair stand on end when electro crackled like the crack of the whip, Clorinde's blade aimed at her like a loaded gun.
She's trapped on that stage and she never left, not really.
She hates it. She thinks she hates them, but it's not their fault. They didn't ask for this, didn't ask for everyone to turn against them, didn't ask for her to save them. Neither did she..yet here they are, she thinks.
She tries to tell herself she's in control this time, though. She can stop performing her part in this horrible, bloody play any time she wants. It makes her feel better, just for a little while, if she convinces herself she's still Furina, painfully human.
And Furina has always been good at lying.
It's the believing that's the hard part.
There isn't time for her to wallow in her own self pity, though. They're still bleeding out onto the dusty, creaky floorboards of some random, broken down house and she's just standing there as the blood stains the wood. She can fix it – she's good at fixing things. She's done nothing but fix things – try to, anyway – for five hundred years. She can fix a little wound, how hard could it be? Her hands are clenched so tight they ache as she kneels down, wincing at the creak of the floorboards beneath her heels– she hesitates just long enough to wonder if she's making a mistake before she peels away just enough of the outer layer of their clothes to see the deep, bloody gash across their chest. She tries not to think about it – it's deep, too deep, and she feels dizzy just looking at it, but she's handled worse, right?
Furina can fix it. That's what she's good at.
She doesn't feel so confident when she tries to wrack her brain for..something. Five hundred years, and a little wound stumps her? No, she had to have learned something, right? She's decidedly not trying to buy time because she's panicking, parsing through hundreds of years of memories like flipping through a book. Furina isn't made for this, not really – she's running on nothing but adrenaline and she's really not sure what she's doing, but she's trying. And just like before, it won't be enough, will it?
She'll fall short again – she'll be too late to fix it before she's alone again.
Furina was an Archon..used to be. What use would she have for that sort of knowledge? Which makes her predicament all the more harrowing and bleak. What was she supposed to do?
Furina had heard it first hand, that vitriol in Neuvillette's voice. She isn't sure she's ever heard him that..angry before. She's not sure he would listen to her if she tried, either. And that scares her more then anything. All of Fontaine was up in arms about this..imposter, yet here she was, staring down at them bleeding out in front of her, and she was trying to save them.
Why? Why is she throwing away her only chance at normalcy for a fraud? Why didn't she just turn them in?
They were dying – that should've been a good thing, shouldn't it? So why didn't it feel like it?
"Why you?" Her voice breaks as she speaks in harsh tones, grabbing the front of their shirt in trembling, bloodied hands. "Why now?" She wants to scream, to demand answers they can't give, to claw back the reprieve she was promised after five hundred years of agony..and all she can do is sob into their chest, pleading for an answer that will not come. "Why me?"
Silence is their answer, and it hangs heavy on her trembling shoulders as she cries.
Of course they don't, she thinks bitterly, no one has ever answered her pleas spoken in hushed sobs. Not her other self and certainly not them.
Furina has always been alone. Furina will always be alone.
Because Furina never left that stage, never left that moment when she looked at herself in the mirror and took up a mantle too heavy for her to bear. She always finds her way back eventually. There's no one on the other side anymore – she stands alone on a stage, waiting for an inevitable end she isn't sure will come.
"Please," She pleads through tears and choked sobs, clinging to them like they are all that keeps her from sinking. "Please don't leave me, too." The words burn on her tongue – how pathetic is she that she craves companionship from the bloodied body of the imposter? Perhaps she's truly lost her mind after all these years..perhaps she's finally gone mad. She must have.
But their presence is like the first feeling of gentle warmth upon her skin as the sun crests the horizon, like the gentle lap of tides along her heels, the sway of branches and leaves as the wind blows through them like an instrument all it's own. They are the soothing sound of rain against the window as she watches the dreary skies in fond longing, the first bloom of spring as color blooms upon the landscape like paint had been spilled across the hills and valleys.
They are like the faint spark she carefully nurtures and stokes, so fragile even the smallest wind could blow it out like a candle. She cradles it within her palms, pleads with whoever will listen – prays that someone finally listens, because if not for her, then for them.
She's failed to protect too much already, let too many people with so much trust in her fall between the cracks of her fingers like grains of sand. She won't let them go – she can't.
If nothing else, if she couldn't be saved when she begged for salvation from that five hundred year long agony, even if she never got that chance..
Furina will make sure they do.
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Familiarity in the Unfamiliar (Summer Festival Prompt - 2/2)
A/N: Based on Obon Festivals and Dances like this one here and here. Done in conjunction with @xianyoon and their summer festival prompt for EBG.
(Part 1)
Genre: Fluff
Summary: You take Lyney to a Summer Festival in Inazuma, and after introducing him to the festival, you propose a challenge to him.
Word Count: 1378
A Yagura.
That is how you introduced Lyney to the giant wooden tower erected in the center of the city. As you and Lyney sit down on the grass lawn and eat the Inazuman delicacies piled on your plates, you decide to take this time to explain more about the festival.
In between bites of piping hot Yakisoba noodles, you explain to Lyney that the Yagura is an important part of Obon festivals.
"It's like the main stage. People dance around it as a way to welcome their ancestors. From how my friends explained it me, they tell me that when they dance, it's like they feel their ancestors are right there with them."
Lyney ate another bite off of the Yakiniku skewer you held out to him. "Is it like a vision?"
"Not quite. Well, sorta. Those dances don't fill you with power per say, but you do feel something when you go out and dance. If I had to compare it to something, it's kinda like a prayer. That's how it feels to me."
You look at the people dancing around the Yagura. You quietly watch them as you hear the drums resound through the air.
Thump, Thump, Thump.
For those brief seconds, your heartbeat and the drums become one. Everyone dancing in the center of the Yagura seems to move in unison to the beat of the drum. In your head, you can count the beats of the song and remember its movements.
One, Two, Three, Four.
One, Two, Three, Four.
You thoughtfully look at Lyney as you take a bite of the Yakiniku skewer he holds out to you.
After you finish your bite, you smile. "Tell you what. When we're done here and after we rest, how about we try a song?"
Lyney's eyes widen. "Really? You won't even come on stage with me for any of my shows, but you'll dance here?"
You shoot Lyney a deadpan look. Both of you knew very well how stage shy you were when it came to public events with him. Unless he insisted on it, you preferred to spend your time watching his shows from the stage wings or from the audience. Despite how long you two have been dating, you immediately rejected him when he asked if you wanted to play a part in one of his tricks. You declined.
If you didn't have to stand in the spotlight, you wouldn't.
You shrugged. "I think it's because there's people to follow. And everyone here is doing the same dance, so as long as we follow along, we don't stick out."
"I see." Lyney takes a bite of the Yakisoba from your fork. "Do you remember the dances?"
"Not all, but there is one I want to do with you."
Lyney raised his eyebrow. "Which one?"
"It's called the Fukushima. It's a fast paced song that can sometimes last for fifteen minutes or more. They play it at Obon festivals, but the steps here are local. There's actually two variations here. I want you to do the fast version with me."
While you explained the Fukushima, Lyney listened intently. His eyes never left you. In the time it took for you to explain, he finished off his Yakiniku skewer. He washed his Yakiniku down with some water.
"So," Lyney said, a mischievous grin on his face, "what will you do if I can last? If I can do the dance for the fifteen plus minutes?"
"I'll buy you ice cream," you said.
"And?"
Now it was your turn to be confused. "And what?"
"And I want you to kiss me and tell me that you love me."
Your eyes widened. You told him about the Fukushima partly because you were excited, but also because you really wanted him to do it with you. But as past experience has taught you, you figured that if you and him tried going for the whole fifteen minutes, both of you wouldn't be able to move the next day.
You felt your cheeks heat up once more. "Maybe let's just do whoever can last the longest. No bets or things like that."
"Why? You made the offer. And it would be heartless of me if I didn't accept your offer to dance."
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"So you don't want to dance with me?"
"I do! But…"
"But?"
You looked towards the people dancing in the center. "But I want you to have a good time too."
Lyney winked at you. He pulled you into a hug. "Let's dance together then, okay?"
All you could do in his arms was nod.
After you finished eating, both of you sat and talked for an hour. Then, when you heard the telltale yells and drum beats coming from the Yagura, you and Lyney rushed over to the center like two excited children, hand in hand. You told Lyney that to do the fast Fukushima, you had to both stay in the center.
Surrounded by other people, neither of you could fully get a good look at the people in the center who were doing the steps correctly. As a result, the song began, it took a little while for both you and Lyney to get the steps down for the song. In your case, it had been years since you danced to it, so the quick steps got you twisted and messed up your timing. You ended up having to count the beats aloud so that your steps matched.
But both of you got the hang of it fairly quickly. Once you saw that Lyney got the steps, you decide him to show him another variation of one of the dance steps. Instead of clapping your hands together at the end, you would clap your hands with each other. The first time you did it, Lyney wasn't sure what you wanted to do. But after a couple of rounds of doing the steps, he understood. In the final step of the dance, he clapped your hands together with his, before doing it all over again.
As the song continued, you felt your legs, calves, and arms burning. It had been ages since you did something this strenuous. You looked over at Lyney and despite his perfect steps, you saw the sweat on his brow.
The song continued. It felt like you were doing these steps forever.
Then, suddenly, you heard the song start to speed up. Despite how tired you were, you perked up. You and Lyney were right there. It was the light at the end of the tunnel! If you and Lyney could last through the speed up, you will have succeeded.
Both of you pushed through, and finally, the song ended.
As people left the middle of the circle, it felt like you could finally breathe again. You didn't know how stressful it was trying to keep up with the steps of the dance, and your body felt like jelly. Everything was burning: your legs, your arms, and your lungs. You felt the heat radiating off you as the wind tried to wick away your sweat. You pinched the side of your waist as you tried to stand tall to catch your breath.
"So, we did it," said Lyney, smiling.
At first glance, it seemed like he wasn't as out of breath as you was. But when he got closer, you could see the exhaustion in his features. You could see the heavy sweat on his brow. You could see the tired look in his eyes. You could hear him panting.
Running on pure adrenaline, you held out your hand up for a high-five. Lyney obliged.
"We did," you smiled back. "We lasted for fifteen minutes! And you did really well for your first time too."
"It's a good thing we have a day off tomorrow too," Lyney said slowly.
"Yep." You nodded.
You gently place your hand under Lyney's chin and guide his gaze towards you. You leaned in and briefly placed a kiss on his lips. You hold his gaze, and look into his violet eyes, hoping that you can get your feelings across to him.
"Thank you for dancing with me and for bringing me to the festival tonight. I love you, Lyney. Now, let's go get some ice cream."
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imagine getting 3 whole wishes for anni,,,
what are your thoughts? i genuinely don't have any desire to return to genshin seeing the anni rewards, so what do you think?
😋 anon
I think haven't opened Genshin since I pulled Navia on the new year ngl. She's still not built. I'm sorry my daughter. I hope I get Stellar Reunion once I open the game on the new update ig HAHAHAHA
To be fair it's not really the anniversary since it's lantern rite, but I was under the impression that Hoyo prioritizes that more than the actual anniversary since it's a Chinese company. But the rewards are virtually no different from the previous years so I can't really complain too much.
However, it's the year of the DRAGON.
Rex Lapis, Archon of Liyue, has a DRAGON form.
I thought it would put more emphasis on him rather than Ganyu-Shenhe-Xingqiu skins haha. Is it weird I'm lowkey getting offended on Zhongli's behalf??? Probably. I just think he deserves so much more if we already set up that Yaoyao became playable since it was the year of the rabbit.
Gaming's cute tho. Maybe I just have an ENG VA bias since it's my boy Caleb but I'd try to play him. Other than that, I'm just not as excited. I waited for Cloud Retainer for so long but even though she's here now, I feel... virtually nothing. I seriously love Cloud and featured her having more screentime than Zhongli in a fic before. I wish there's something more that makes me want to continue playing but respectfully, none ;-;.
If you'd ask me which team of devs feel like they care for their players, it's the Honkai devs for both games no doubt. There are long intervals wherein I don't play the game yet I feel a lot more "welcome back"-ed, including the improved "resin" system. They just keep listening on how to enhance QoL and I appreciate them so much.
But take my opinions lightly. I like H:SR since I feel like it was a game tailor made for me. I have a preference for turn-based games (Persona, FE) and I enjoy H:SR's brand of humor, the latter especially.
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