pls don’t follow this blog unless we are already mutuals on my main ( mikashisus ), and pls only follow if u are genuinely interested in what i have to post here.
pls don’t tell anyone about this blog ! i want it to be lowkey to protect my peace. i find im more comfy sharing my selfships when im not being perceived by a large audience.
despite the above statement, rbs are ok ! if i dont want something rbed, i’ll turn them off myself.
questions / asks / comments about my selfships are very much welcomed ! just be aware i take awhile to answer TT
the thing abt arbor is that he very much was a mama’s boy. he primarily took after lowen in mannerisms, looks, and personality (for the most part), but he was extremely attached to catalina. despite spending most of his childhood under lowen’s care and learning from them, he always sought out catalina when he was feeling down. it’s not that lowen didn’t understand him or wasn’t a safe space for him, but more like lowen wasn’t always emotionally available. they cared just as much as catalina did, but they struggled too much with their own emotions that they often gently pushed away others who tried to seek them out for comfort.
so arbor naturally got more attached to catalina, and therefore sought her out whenever he was feeling down or having trouble with his emotions. she would sift through his memories to find the source of his troubles, and then give him advice on how to proceed. and also offer some words of comfort to make him feel better. i think the best visual i can give is a small child laying their head in their mother’s lap while she runs her fingers through their hair and hums a lullaby.
although arbor turned out the way he did - a vengeful son mourning the loss of both his parents and taking his grief out on someone he believed to be the cause of it (venti) - he was ultimately, at his core, a crying child still latched onto the memory of his gentle mother.
she remembers nothing from that day. moze and jiaoqiu do, though. they remember it. they remember everything.
it was meant to be a routine scouting.
“just monitoring this new camp,” feixiao says, pointing to a tiny spot on the map. “i’ll send four of you, just to see how much power we’ll need. shouldn’t be too hard.”
minnie instantly volunteers, already antsy after weeks of inactivity.
moze and jiaoqiu only smile fondly at her. had they known what would take place in the near future, they would have never let minnie go. they would have made her stay in the base, where she would be safe and unharmed and whole, like she should be. but this is not that story.
an hour after she leaves with the group, an unknown signal blinks on the radar, one kilometer from theirs. the unknown signal grows in size, doubling, tripling.
feixiao inhales sharply. “it’s-”
static cuts in at that moment, minnie’s voice tight with something horrible through the communication line. “jiejie, the camp is empty.”
jiaoqiu grabs moze’s hand shakily, icy dread creeping down his spine.
“it’s a trap, we need to evacuate them, now!” feixiao cries. all at once, the base explodes into chaos.
the ‘strike team’ assembles quickly, consisting of about half of the remaining troops, feixiao, moze, and jiaoqiu.
when they get to the location, it is just before the borisin ambush.
the forest is quickly permeated with the stench of blood and death. moze weaves in and out of the shadows, dispatching one borisin after another, leaving their limp bodies on the ground behind him in a trail of carnage. any borisin who dares attempt a sneak attack on moze is instantly immolated by jiaoqiu, who swiftly follows his lover.
suddenly, moze and jiaoqiu both feel a surging wave of horror as an all-too-familiar scent permeates the air, the cloying sweetness of flowers and decay spreading through the battlefield. they stare at each other for an agonizingly long moment, simultaneously moving towards that saccharine scent.
at the center of that scent, they find a horrible sight.
blood and borisin remains surround minnie as she desperately tries to heal a fellow soldier. ginkgo leaves sprout from the blood seeping from her wounds and the tears running down her cheeks. the scent grows stronger. almost as if in slow-motion, they see the fading lifeforce of minnie pass into the soldier.
snap. just like that, minnie crumples as the soldier rises and joins the battle. moze and jiaoqiu don’t see them though. all they see is minnie lying there, motionless on the floor.
from a distance, they could almost think she is sleeping peacefully. as they race to her limp body, the saccharine scent transforms, an underlying current of rot and decay seeping into the already sickly sweet smell.
moze and jiaoqiu cannot speak. they cannot even think. their minds are consumed with the image of minnie, ginkgo sprouting from her wounds and tears, curling around her still-warm corpse possessively. suddenly, her corpse is cocooned in vines and ginkgo leaves. the syrupy thickness of abundance surrounds them, and before they know it, the cocoon disappears, leaving her body intact and completely unscathed.
the rest of the ordeal passes in a blur. they rush her body back to the base. as soon as feixiao sees the looks on their faces, she knows the worst has happened, and she instantly contacts the garden of recollection (for everyone on the xianzhou knows that when an child of yaoshi is killed and resurrected, their memory of the resurrection must be obliterated, else it fester and turn into mara upon waking).
her memory of that moment is quickly removed and erased, but moze and jiaoqiu are not so lucky. for the first year after her ‘rebirth’, every time they look at her, they see her body, ginkgo leaves growing from her wounds and her tears, vines curling around her corpse as if to claim it.
time passes, and minnie heals slowly from a life-shattering event she does not remember. but she dreams sometimes: flashes of light, of pain, of THEIR voice, THEIR syrupy essence surrounding her. she never remembers when she wakes. in the back of her mind, a voice whispers to her about an emptiness, a missing memory. she ignores it.
fin.
~~~
explanation and farewell after this. cw for descriptions of depression.
this is my very final farewell to the tumblr yume community. if you want to contact me, my discord is shay.minnie (with the period there). don’t dm me here because i'm not going to log into this account. discord is the only way to contact me. tumblr but especially the yume community here has given me so much trauma that i’m still recovering from (i had a depressive episode about 5 months ago [thanks in part to tumblr] leading to an extremely impulsive and bad decision on my part in real life. i’m thankfully doing much better now). the experience of giving so much of myself to people and getting nothing in return has hurt me before in the past, and tumblr only worsened that pain. putting in weeks to months of work on fics only for them to not even get 10 notes is the best way to cancel a ship (speaking from experience: minlyn and mqm were both nearly shut down).
after everything, i honestly don’t expect any notes or interactions on this fic anymore. i’m only posting this here so i can save myself the effort of copying and pasting this in dms to my friends.
despite the north wind tavern existing in cairnfelle and then being moved to the main city following barbatos’ ascension, it actually does get rebuilt in dornman port when the descendants of the blair family switch their name to fröhlich. in a sense, it’s like they’re returning home to where their lineage began - bc present day dornman (some of it, at least) sits atop the flattened land that used to be the warm embrace of mountains in cairnfelle all those years ago.
also i like to think that there’s still an existing temple in the far far north, near the borders of snezhnaya. it hasnt been touched, just forgotten about. but the top half of it is gone due to barbatos’ terraforming process. and ive said this before bc it’ll be a main plotline for a fic, but the leylines in northeastern mondstadt r extremely unstable bc that’s where catalina died. and she was the god of memories, so it’s only natural her death caused the leylines (leylines r memories) to go haywire. that’s also why the cathedral is barren and untouched by civilization - bc no one wants to be “haunted” by a dead god king
lilith may be misguided, but deep down, the thing she loves most is her family and protecting her siblings. she is the way she is bc she was incredibly hard on herself and forced into a position she wasn’t ready for nor suited for. this is why her and artemis fight so much - bc artemis believes her to be an unsuitable caretaker, while she views herself as a loving one who has moved mountains for artemis and oskar
caramel macchiato : how do you comfort your partner? how do they comfort you? do you find that you tend to express your sadness first or do they already seem to understand your grief without any words exchanged?
hazelnut latte : in another life / au, do you think you and your partner would find each other again? how would it happen? are there any aspects of your relationship that would be drastically different or do you think ( mostly ) everything would be the same?
french vanilla cappuccino : in 3 - 5 words, how would you describe your dynamic / relationship with your partner?
╰ tea :
jasmine tea : how do you express adoration/care for your partner? how do they express it in return?
black royal milk tea : how do fights / disagreements happen between you and your partner? how do you resolve them? is there one person who typically apologizes first?
matcha latte : what is a defining moment in your relationship? what sentiment does it hold?
╰ sweets :
pistachio tiramisu : when push comes to shove, who is more protective of the other?
lemon lavender cookies : do you carry mementos / things that remind you of each other? if so, what is it?
red velvet cake : if you had to describe the way you view / love your partner in one song/quote/lyric, what would you pick? what would your partner pick for you?
she married into another aristocratic family in mondstadt purely for money, and then her husband got drafted (went with varka on the expedition) and then half a year later artemis showed up saying that lilith’s husband died on the expedition. and do yk what she did? she ripped up his will, forged his signature so it said she got all his money instead of his family, and then moved back into her family’s estate
artie is the captain of a privateering ship (name yet to be decided) and they are 27 in this au
dahlia is the first mate / second in command (he’s 25)
in this au, cairnfelle is still standing, but queen catalina has long since passed. lilith is the current regent
half of the crew is from cairnfelle and the other half are just lost souls that artie picked up / saved during their travels
this is like a bad alternative ending of my unscripted knight au, so this is what would’ve happened had artie run away from home and plotted revenge against lilith for everything she put them through (except venti is a siren in this au, not a god)
artie ran away from home at 14, stowed away on a cargo ship heading for nod krai, and was found and taken in by a kind old man who was the captain of a privateering ship
aforementioned old man taught them everything they needed to know about being on sea and what it means to lead
he gifted them their own ship when they turned 18 and since then, artie has never seen him again (but they still ask around in every port they’re in, and people always say he’s still alive)
artie met someone at age 20 and the two fell deeply in love and had a child together. however, when they revealed to be withchild, the person got cold feet, said they weren’t ready, and disappeared. since then, artie has struggled to trust anyone and swore off of love
their little boy’s name is kilian. he lives with the crew on the ship and stays with artie in the captain’s quarters. loves helping out on deck, in the galley, and shadowing some navigation meetings (he’s not allowed to sit in on other meetings though - nor Big Adult Talks™️). he’s 7 yrs old ! #everyone loves him and would protect him with their lives
venti and artie would meet while artie’s ship is traversing the dark sea. he attempts to lure them in, but realizes too late that HE was the one being lured/tricked. the crew intends on taking him back to nod krai and selling him for good money (bc sirens are highly valued and scales sell for thousands)
along the way, kilian gets increasingly curious and starts sneaking into the ship’s cells to chat with venti. he’s the one to bring venti meals and even sneaks him a blanket and pillow so he’ll be more comfortable. artie notices kilian doing all this but doesn’t say anything at first bc they’re still planning on selling venti off
after awhile, they notice kilian keeps rambling on about the siren and how cool he is and how he always makes sure not to hurt kilian with his claws. and artie panics when they hear this, threatening venti not to harm their child. he says he wouldn’t ever hurt a child, but obvi artie doesn’t trust easily so they don’t buy it. they ban kilian from going down there again, and instead send dahlia
dahlia’s the one to get artie to come to their senses and realize that venti rlly WONT harm anyone bc currently, the pirates are the predators here, not the 1 siren in the basement who’s chained to the wall. so they agree to let him walk freely among the ship so long as dahlia keeps an eye on him
EVENTUALLYYYYY and after seeing for themselves just how kind and gentle venti is with kilian, artie’s heart softens and the two spend more time together - later falling in love, and artie decides not to sell venti after all and instead lets him officially join the crew
THERES TONS MORE I CAN ADD LORE WISE BUT I DONT WANT THIS POST TO BE TOO LONG SO I’LL LEAVE IT HERE FOR NOW !!!
lilith was def very strict with artemis and oskar when they were growing up, and made sure they were always dressed up rlly nice for fancy events. she also held annual masquerade balls at the fröhlich estate. during that event, the entirety of the fröhlich family would attend. it kinda served as a family gathering ngl
cool fact for the lilith enjoyers: she has a scar over her lip that was a product of an enormous fight with artemis. it was entirely accidental, but artemis still feels extremely guilty abt it
catalina was lowen’s soulmate but lowen wasn’t catalina’s. and yet, lowen still devoted their entire being to the person they loved most. they still hope to return home to her, even though she’s gone.
adding on to this — the reason lowen has held up so well this entire time is bc they’ve fashioned the idea in their mind that they’ll be returning home to catalina once they find a way back to teyvat.
they’ve refused to acknowledge her death. they refuse to acknowledge that barbatos is the one “ruling” mondstadt now. they’re still stuck in the past, believing that when they return, their happy family will be waiting for them.
however, all that awaits them is bones. and an old friend accepting them back with open arms.
