#v01 ✦ conquest & chaos.

[torrentide-a]

hit ‘em where it hurts  ✦  @reqrator​  ✦  ❛ you mean nothing to me. ❜  

    "...Yeah?" He shut his mouth around a bottle of overpriced wine; a drink that clung to his lips and colored them in. Tartaglia knew from the start that every sweet nothing whispered behind closed doors were just that: nothing. And he would have laughed in Pantalone’s for face for insinuating he cared enough to think they weren’t...But all Childe could do was keep his head down, feeling his throat close so tight it hurt--

    “Would it kill you to lie to me tonight?” He forced out, unsure whether his face grew hot with hurt embarrassment or what was at the bottom of their shared bottle. Tartaglia knew Regrator liked to watch him squirm. He was good at it. And he liked the banker’s attention enough to make a habit of it if it meant having a bed to crawl into at night...He just doesn’t know when he stopped pretending the hands Pantalone put on him belonged to someone else--

    “...Please." Childe swallowed hard despite himself. “Lie to me.”

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @reqrator  ✦  " Oh my. What an... interesting accessory you have there, Tartaglia. "

   “Hm. Do you think so?” Tartaglia hummed, his wicked grin half-hidden by the back of his hand as he idly turned his...special accessory over in other; he watched how it gleamed, dazzling in the light--

    “I was hoping it might catch your eye the way it caught mine.”

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @bitbrumal  ✦  the weight of capitano's glove, heavy with exhaustion, fits itself to that scruffy ginger mane. ruins it some more with a good ruffle. the area they've picked for their spar is doing worse than they, at least. "you did great...   "—babygirl."

As a man who subconsciously longed for praise and affirmation--the Captain's compliment would have had Tartaglia absolutely brimming with unbridled glee...had its petname of choice not thrown him for such a loop; for a moment all he could do was merely gawp up at it, wide-eyed and frozen beneath its heavy hand.

    "B..babygirl?" A smile cracked otherwise unmoving features, transforming his shock into something more amused; Childe didn't know whether he should laugh or...well, laugh. What else could he do? "You're joking, right? This is a joke."

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @reqrator  ✦  " You know… " Cheshire grin, oh how the banker has waited for a chance to relay this. " I've heard a rumor lately--- Nothing more than silly palace gossip shared between our lessers, I'm sure but… I think I should advise you, Tartaglia, that you might benefit in first asking for payment upfront; before lending out your 'services'. "

If the look Regrator wore hadn't been enough to stop the Tsaritsa's 11th dead in his tracks--his implications were. Childe froze like a deer in the headlights, feeling his stomach drop the moment it struck him as he sputtered for some kind of response. But there was nothing he could say; nothing he could choke out around his heart stuck in his throat that could get him out of the corner Pantalone backed him into.

It was funny, in a sick kind of way--how all he could think about how the Captain might react to hearing word about them got out...Ah.

    "It--it's not like that--" he stammered, sharp blues angry and narrowed landing dead-center on the banker--but his face felt hot, as if he were blushing; he couldn't stand that look in Regrator's eye. That knowing...Maybe it was like that. What other way could it be--?

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @regalentlcss  ✦  Kaeya brushes Childe's hair to the side to place a kiss at the back of his neck. Smiling as he whispered "hey babygirl."

It wasn't so much Kaeya’s quiet approach that gave the Harbinger pause, but rather the surprise brush of his lips, soft and warm, against the back of his neck; a kiss Childe couldn’t help but meet with laughter.

    "Good morning to you too, Cavalry Captain...Or should I call you something else?"

[torrentide-a]

teeny tiny sc  ✦  @lumitris

He was silent for a time, still as he watched her; a rare commodity, in their company--this moment of reprieve. Tartaglia made his disapproval for La Signora no secret. Yet the longer he stood there looking at her, the more he felt a strange turning inside of him. She almost appeared soft, bathed in the silvery light of the moon...But he knew better. He knew better, and yet--

    "You look like you could use a change of scenery." Maybe he could play nice. For a night. "Care to take a walk with me?"

[torrentide-a]

the five senses prompts  ✦  @snowtombedstar​  ✦  [ 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐓 ] ― sender wraps a soft blanket around receiver’s shoulders  / but the gesture isn't exactly gentle.  " Wimp. "

Tem should count herself lucky Tartaglia only had half a mind to drag her under the covers with him. Only half. She would be spared the indignity...This time. 

    “Oh, Tem...” He resigned himself to laughter instead, bright and unfettered in spite of his shivery form; the contrast between her jabs and the plush blanket she less-than-carefully draped around him was most curious indeed. ”Your hospitality remains unmatched!” 

[torrentide-a]

hit ‘em where it hurts  ✦  @celcstialls  ✦  ❛ i told you not to fall in love with me. ❜ - Lumi ♥

With a steady intake of breath, he kept his eyes fixed on Lumine in spite of the sheepish smile he felt curling his lips; his fingers lingered where they lay against her cheek, gentle as they moved to tuck soft gold behind her ear.

    "I know," he said, quiet--like the onset of rain--as he bent to touch his forehead against hers. "...But I can’t help it. You make it so easy."

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @sungracd  ✦  boops his foul legacy’s nose and blushes. it’s almost kind of cute…

For a heretical combat technique borne of the Abyss...Yes! The Foul Legacy Transformation in all its looming, life-stealing glory was cute! But don't tell that to Tartaglia. He enjoyed that pretty flush of pink crawling up Adrian’s face more than the amused drag of his claw over the swell of their cheek let on. If he ever found out what they thought of it...Well.

[torrentide-a]

teeny tiny sc  ✦  @geotics

    "Mister Zhongli. You're a man brimming with knowledge..." His eyes flicked from the sea struck gold beyond the harbor to regard his companion with a gentle hum, inquisitive. It seemed the brilliant sunset view they shared inspired confidence in Tartaglia; certainty the Harbinger did little to mask as he felt it slowly curling the corners of his lips. 

    "I have a small favor to ask. If you say yes,” his face broke into a bigger, humored smile then, ”I promise to make it worth your while."

[torrentide-a]

teeny tiny sc  ✦  @sungracd

Tartaglia was silent where he stood, clutching a carefully wrapped package to his chest as he looked out at the downpour. It was unclear whether he had even heard his company's approach until he raised his head to acknowledge them with a smile, warm and humored in spite of the heavy droplets that dripped from the ends of his hair and clung stubbornly to his face.

    "You wouldn’t happen to have an umbrella on you, would you?”

[torrentide-a]

ask and you shall receive  ✦  @reqrator

With long, gloved fingers curled into his own, fierce blue turned upward to the face of his superior as the vanguard bent to him. Tartaglia was nothing if not reverent on his knees. And Pantalone, with all his precious, gleaming jewels, would be worshipped the only way a weapon knew how to: slow and deliberate--Childe covered the back of that slender hand and all the polished silver adorning it with the heat of his lips--alight and driven by greedy devotion.

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @viatrix-starlit​  ✦  Lumine just parks themself against his back, resting their chin on his shoulder and loosely wrapping their arms around his waist. "Hi."

    "Traveler." Tartaglia met them with heartfelt laughter, his gloved hands coming to eclipse theirs as he leaned back into their easy embrace. Though Lumine's approach never failed to put a smile on his face, there was something about their familiarity in this one that made him feel a little different; softer...warmer--something just shy of tender that inspired the courage in him to lay his head against theirs. "To what do I owe the pleasure?

    “...Did you miss me?"

[torrentide-a]

question prompts  ✦  @solasters  ✦  "you were going to leave without saying goodbye?"

    “What? No! Nothing like that.” Childe merely stuck out his lip and blew the hair off his forehead to bide his time. There wasn't much wiggle room for excuses when he'd been caught with one foot already out the door, so to speak...Yet he regarded Aether with a smile equal parts warm as it was sheepish all the same; even in the face of his failure to slink away unnoticed--Tartaglia can't help but laugh about it. “Alright. Maybe something like that. 

    “Care to see me out?"

[torrentide-a]

unprompted  ✦  @constellaris​  ✦  cue capitano, like some strange oversized cat, simply wandering up behind his beloved and propping his chin atop ajax's head. he is content like this for the moment.

And a strange oversized cat he may as well have been--with his quiet approach and roundabout ways of showing affection; Tartaglia shifted, just barely, beneath the weight of his partner settling into his hair--but he did not bend. Nor did he move much beyond leaning back against his most beloved Captain with a pleased little hum. Almost as if to say hello-- 

    “Long day?”

[torrentide-a]

teeny tiny sc  ✦  @alatusatlas

The night would have been a quiet one, were it not for thunderheads building on the horizon. Tartaglia watched their steady approach from the warmth of his campfire, his hands--busied by whetstone and steel--slowing to a standstill; it wasn’t the promise of rain that drew his eye so much as it was his looming shadow--

   "Are you looking for a place to rest,” he smiled, beckoning with his blade, “or something a little more...exciting?"