[takes place immediately after dottore's fight, 6.6 spoilers]
archon quest was so good... it really felt like a wonderful finale to everything especially the world quests and collei and wanderer's arcs. it took us 4 years and the wait was so worth it!! 🥹 more yapping about the comic and them two under the cut:
ever since simulanka, scara saying that durin just wanted people to accept him or accept his apology always stuck with me. it was obviously something scara wanted, but with everything he did in the past, he never allowed himself to be accepted or forgiven even after turning over a new leaf in the sumeru arc.
saying "i'm sorry" and "i forgive you" has such a verdict to it. scara knows nahida has forgiven him, kind deity she is, but if he never apologises, then he can continue to pretend that he's still a guilty rejected criminal here to do what he must to repent, right?
i've always felt that he still held himself at a distance even through the nod krai arc, like he doesn't deserve friendship or kindness or forgiveness. but with the recent developments... it feels like he's finally ready to move forward.
on the other hand, nahida has always been too quick to forgive. but of the people that have done her wrong, who has sincerely apologised to her and wanted for her forgiveness? the sages who abandoned her? the sages who tried to make a false god? dottore? perhaps a heartfelt apology would give her just the little bit of closure for that 500 years of injustice...
also!! scara calls nahida by her name instead of lesser lord kusanali for the first time in the end of 6.6 🥺 although it only happens in EN and not in CN/JP so we'll have to see in the future. i feel that nahida would only ask him to call her by her name after 6.6, because she knows he was always distancing himself before...
Irmo Lorien - Master of Dreams and Illusions.
Brother of Namo Mandos and Nienna.
I chose more whimsical and ethereal aesthetics for him, since it`s something I personally associate with dreams and spirits.
Silena, after watching Alison get shot by someone: You’re dead. You are very dead. When you are a corpse I will hack away at your flesh and eat you raw.
Alabaster: Silena, She's not dead yet.
Ethan: Let her have her moment of rage to avenge Alison.
Chris: Isn't that your job, Ethan?
Luke: I’d prefer it if you all didn’t let Alison die.
probably one of the most heartwrenching headcanons I have would be Kaeya and the Angel's Share. the way he still lingers around the corners, knows every bit of the wood, holding the tavern, every note of scents and every item in the wine catalogue.
and knows that he once felt so safe within these walls. so calm, so grounded, so peaceful. it's as if nothing could get through them.
four years of Diluc's absence shattered that peace completely, leaving him defenceless, vulnerable, open to the very world, scarred and burned. he doesn't feel safe anywhere. he feels dread at the every step of his, at every breath he takes. his mind is in shambles.
so, he carries himself to the tavern. so, he drinks. so, he notices others spilling their secrets and babbling about everything when the tip of the scales tolls to the side. so, he decides to take the risks and put aside his own safety for the sake of Mondstadt.
after all, he knows what drunk people can do.
every time he enters the tavern, his mind screeches at him, begging to leave. every time he smiles and adds one more glass of the patron to his tab, he's pushing it, terrified of what can follow next. the secrets he's seeking or the punches he's avoiding. there's also a chance of poison in his drink, he has to be alert all the time. there's also a chance of spiking his drink. he's a handsome bachelor, after all. he's terrified.
he ruins his mind by paranoia he can't keep at bay.
then, Diluc returns. then, Diluc takes the bartender position in the tavern. then, Diluc seems to catch his consealed nervousness and bubbling horror.
then, Diluc tips his drink to the side, apologises, takes the glass with himself, and Kaeya sees the patron grit his teeth, seething. oh. then, Diluc breaks the fight before it's about to start, dragging the adventurer out, and Kaeya, pinned to the wall by the very adventurer, slips to the floor and sits, the tavern suspiciously empty of other people. then, Diluc throws him a look and gets him a mug, full of Glühwein, and Kaeya, half-delirious from the fever and shivering from the cold, sips at the spiced wine long after the shift is over.
then, Diluc sits on the other side and shares a wine with him. it's the day of Crepus' death. Kaeya hides his face in his hands, dry sobs stacked into his lungs, the long forgotten feeling of safety washes over him, and he can try and believe it's not as lost as he has imagined.
i see so so so many people, as in kaeya fans, say that kaeya will clearly choose mondstadt over khaenri'ah and it kinda annoys me 🥲 like, no!! you're missing the point! and half of his main themes!!
yes, of course, he's loyal to mondstadt. that's his home, he loves it and it's people very much. of course.
that does not mean he doesn't care about khaenri'ah at all. like, come on, he has khaenri'ahn symbols all over his official captain uniform. his uniform in general is not unlike say, thrain's. and he designed it himself. do you think he did all that for shits and giggles?
there's also the vision on his sailwind shadow outfit which really summarizes my entire rationale on it's own.*
some people use kaeya's hang-out event "all the world's a stage" ending as an argument, because kaeya does not improvise the ending, and in the end qubad chooses not to return to his homeland. and i say, exactly! it's the canonical ending to the play, outside the improvisation. it's the script! qubad's fate!
kaeya's fate is that he'll be forced to choose someday. that it'll be either this or that. that's the fate he REJECTS, that he declares he will resist!
i believe that ultimately, kaeya's goal is to find a solution that saves both nations; so that he never has to choose at all.
to say that he will definitelly choose mondstadt when we don't even know his exact connection and relationship with khaenri'ah is just biased.
*elaboration on the vision thing: in his deafult outfit, kaeya has an unique vision casting, as we all know. it lacks one set of wings all other mond visions have, making it "incomplete", so to speak. meanwhile, his sailwind shadow outfit (created in the mirage that's meant to make wishes come true btw) not only has a "proper" mond vision, with three sets of wings, but it's attached to a metal plate in the shape of a 4-pointed star. like come on.
I mean that metaphorically and somewhat litterally because my dream/sleep god (including Hermes) kids are more closer to the oneroi than normal demigods and are made of dreams + my hekate kids are rocks/gems and magic.
But also that shit just happens with them and they dont care to tell anyone, like Will occasionally checks in with his cthonic friends and they just casually drop some wild side quest that theyve been dealing with.
—!——!—
Will: How are you?
Lou: I became a hero in the dream world after a week long siege against the goddess Melinoe and her nightmare demons. So thats rad.
Cecil: Last night I got eaten by a nightmare monster but dw my dad put me back together before sunrise (Related to Lou's thing).
Nico: I narrowly prevented all cthonic demigods having to move underground after like...4 weeks of targeted murders, so I really need to lie down.
Will: *has spent time with each of them in those time frames and hearing of this for the first time* WHEN WAS THIS?
kindly consider a situation where a rapidly rising crime syndicate decided to try their hands into infiltrating the mondstadt underground. on the surface, their knights and people seem to mostly be honorable and pacifist, and the illegal activity seems vanilla. they dont understand why other groups haven't done anything in the city just yet.
unfortunately for them, both diluc's and kaeya's respective intel networks caught wind of said plans.
diluc is immediately on high alert, while kaeya reports to varka asap.
varka, having known of this group from the curatorium, is immediately concerned. this particular group is known for awfully brutal crimes that had even seasoned adventurers fearing to venture alone. varka considers his next move. who does he assign to this issue?
kaeya flips a coin, catching varka's attention. the cavalry captain smirks at the grandmaster before casually saying " i heard that vice captain lohen has returned from his espionage mission."
varka raises an eyebrow at kaeya, knowing full well what he was trying to imply. it's not the first time kaeya and lohen have suggested it, but rarely does a mission require both of them.
"let us work together."
"I'd love to learn more from him."
"we'd make a wonderful team."
the thought of lohen and kaeya working together... it really brings the cold sweat out of him! but with no one else free to take this mission, and considering the success rate of these two when it comes to these missions...
still, isnt this a bit overboard?!
"... alright, I'll leave this to you two..." varka finally mutters with a sigh, still unsure if this was the right decision.
" perfect! then, if that is all, I'll head off to tell my partner of our new mission, grandmaster." kaeya cheerfully says, turning around quickly.
" ... wait!" varka exclaims, making kaeya pause in his step. he glances back at his grandmaster, waiting for the elder to speak up.
the grandmaster furrows his brows in worry, pondering what to say for a moment, before simply saying " don't overdo it."
kaeya smiles widely at that, and it doesn't really make varka feel any better with his decision. in fact, it makes him feel worse!
"don't worry, grandmaster varka" kaeya softly says, his visible eye glinting in mischief. varka worries even harder.
Actually, my therapist has told me this is a healthy way of processing things. Because you can get the trauma out of your head And you can write the ending you wish it had. The trusted person rescue, the catharsis of getting to kill the one who hurt you.
It's good for your brain. It's healthier than bottling it up. Fiction is where we go for emotional release. That can be true with trauma too.
Adding @dear-massacre's tags because they are so true:
#this is why it's important to remember that fictional characters are fake #they have no agency. they're made up #it hurts no one to make any character go through the horrors #it is healthy and cathartic
We know that Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was the god of Wisdom.
Do you think King Deshret held Dominion over Knowledge and Nabu Malikata Curiosity?
Like I know Deshret was the Lord of the Deserts and Nabu was the Goddess of Flowers but Nahida and Rukkhadevata both also hold dominion over Dreams so I feel like it's entirely possible for the others to have more than one thing they were considered a god of.
