allow me to bear witness to this miracle. @spidergourmet - Tumblr Blog

#SPIDERGOURMET: private albedo of genshin impact. written by sen, 25+, he/they, low activity. tumblr IM preferred for communication if we don't already have each other on discord. ✦ carrd / wip info. tumblr-accessible guidelines under the cut. + other blogs: lynette, [pending multi if i can clean up the list lmao]

#last updated 02 april 2026 #ooc /#pinned /#verses and other info tba

cryolilies

ANOTHER WAVE OF ANGER WASHES OVER KAEYA, and kaeya grits his teeth. a misunderstanding. for some, strange reason, he’s disappointed that albedo is speaking mondstadtian again. there’s a sinking feeling in his chest, losing hope like quicksand.

what do you want? he craves to scream. i know that alchemy. i know what it did to khaenri’ah. i’m not a fool. he clasps his hands to resist the urge to finally draw his sword, palms pressing together almost as if in prayer. there is no god that would answer them, anyway. not when the blood that runs through his veins is khaenri’ahn.

it’s clear that albedo won’t yield, and kaeya has already exposed too much of himself. he was far too eager to look someone in the eye who knows what it’s like.

he came back with empty hands. no one knows. he has always been on his own in this, their last hope, aloft and alone.

aunt alice. aunt alice. he’s so angry, and so afraid. is this how diluc felt? no wonder his first instinct was to draw his blade that night.

❛ mona megistus is hardly practicing the alchemy that wiped a nation off the map. ❜ he hisses, narrowing his eyes. ❛ don’t act as if you are innocent, kreideprinz. khemia destroyed khaenri’ah. ❜ his voice is a whisper, not daring to speak these words too loudly — he hasn’t uttered the name of his homeland in years. albedo clearly doesn’t feel any shame about what he’s doing.

kaeya shakes his head. ❛ nevermind. who am i kidding? you clearly couldn’t care less about that place, nor the people that died. just take your goddamn book. and stay the hell away from klee. ❜

spidergourmet

the pupil of a sinner was damned to inherit not only her work, but the deific transgression woven into it. how very human to blur these lines, and how tiresomely human to condemn him by association. emotional, irrational, unfactual—albedo saw it all of kaeya from an impersonal distance, from behind a pane of glass still miles thick between him and mondstadt. no one would be whittling it down anytime soon; most especially no one in this room, for the angrier of them could not even seem to read it.

albedo does not bother to refute these rebukes. it is not his fury to pacify, nor would he deem it more fruitful than cumbersome to correct kaeya now. he owed nothing to a grown man who would accuse him on no grounds of harming a child while shaking just like one, who would equip this child now to catalyze his own insecurities, who would rise to the position of cavalry captain with such little understanding of mondstadt's historical alliances. but maybe that history was simply lost on him, too.

khemia destroyed khaenri'ah. so this is his narrative? albedo does not know what stake kaeya alberich has in that lost land, but he recognizes when bias clouds truth. he could not be half the alchemist he was otherwise; gold would never have raised sloppy work. knowledge, forbidden and not, seemed to evade some more than others. perhaps that is why kaeya speaks so hushedly about the nation, as if taboo were being committed again.

kaeya is right about only one thing: albedo does not care. it had been before his time—not by all so much, but still. the cataclysm had nothing to do with him, desperate as kaeya seemed for a villain tonight, and everything to do with the chess pieces of its ex-royal court. five subjects. one tyrant. one outlander. a guard. it had only some parts to do with the art of khemia itself. if kaeya did not already infer that much, there was hopelessly little albedo could imagine learning from him. some immeasurable injustice must have scorned him beyond repair; albedo recognized it, and sympathized, but fundamentally could not empathize.

albedo voices none of this, though. he could not even be acting if he tried, but kaeya either wanted from him that which was not honest, or kaeya wanted too much from a bystander he had approached in entirely bad faith. neither were anything albedo could provide. if the bare truth was being received like this now, met with more poison, then nothing he said would be salve in the other's eye.

“that will prove difficult, considering that we share a house, but i suppose you do send her to solitary confinement more often than not.” so albedo turns back to his prior task, at last disinterested in kaeya's vitriol. not even for its indignation, but the subjectivity that disfigured it. his index finger runs along the eye-level row of spines until landing upon the next title from his list. another set of chivalric codes that was mandatory reading, no doubt. “good night, then. i will just stay behind to finish this.”

#cryolilies #thread: we have to haunt the house of history #feeling kind of nuts my bad this is like a book and then he just ended up saying 'k' LMFAO #straightforward albedo taking 'never mind' for what it is and disengaging if he doesn't see a discussion being productive haha

spidergourmet

*✦ ALBY NO! ✦*

( continued. ✦ albedo & gizmo )

spidergourmet

if someday, i were to lose control…

destroy mondstadt… destroy everything…

could i rely on you to stop me?

“ ALBY NO! ”

—THWACK!

“oh, come now.” how else to coerce a small child to eat supper? klee is not half as stubborn on a bad day. albedo nearly has it in him to tut. “i am aware that it’s no good hunter, but you’ll not find a more nutritious meal in these parts.”

nor at this hour, he is certain, unless bar food was to die for. (he remained blissfully unaware that any food at this hour would quite literally be to die for.) albedo’s pursuit is cut short when the spoon flies out of his hand, clattering across the ground alongside a haphazard sprinkle of broth. halted there, disarmed in both utensil and speech, he blinks at his empty palm, blinks at gizmo. blinks down at his stained indigo shirt. perhaps bewildered, defeated, or some mishmash of the two, the slope of his shoulders goes slack.

“midnight…?” echoes said brain made of rocks. spoon out of hand, he simply wags a gloved finger at the little one hiding behind that stack of books. stained now, too. but albedo does not take it unkindly. “is there a reason you can’t eat past that time?”

that was not yet even to address all of gizmo's other little shrieks. apocalypse? aerobics? the last he'd tried to take up the latter, no one had cared to join him. / @gggno

#when i say i fucking frerowed up . like sick to my tomach . do you even knwo #gggno #thread: ALBY NO!#the fucking ugliest guffaw of my life that i let out upon waking up in my bed and seeing that line #the fucking brain made of rocks too like im actually gonna freaking lose it #idk if you even wanted to turn this into a mini so dw ever if it's just a one-off but i just had to respond god help me #adding gizmo to my list of miis to make on my fuckass defective island stay tuned (iflysm)#deadass the way lynette fucking almost destroyed teyvat by feeding gizmo and now albedo too like what's wrong with my muses fr

" oh, i see. you found a new brother. cool. i mean it's cool, whatever. i never wanted to call you brother anyways. cool. cool. cool cool cool cool cool. " / zwei ugly crying in your askbox /j

after all of the chalk-dust has settled, here they are now—alive, together—and how far they’ve come indeed. he gives zwei the same owlish gaze he has come to adopt with him, that of a curious, mild-mannered sibling in some world where two roses or sunsettias had been raised together normally. a small smile curves his lips. it is one of those indiscernible ones that could have been absolutely nothing on others, but meant everything from albedo.

“and here i thought i was finally the younger brother,” he muses, nonchalant and just loud enough for the other to hear. languid amusement courses through the kindness of his gaze. is this what they call sulking? it is unique to see on his own likeness, but nothing wrong with that. how very human. still beautifully, imperfectly human.

“you didn’t think i had forgotten you, did you? that i…” he slows. replaced you, is the phrase that remains unspoken, heavy to both homunculi for all reasons gold. delicately, he maneuvers around it. “would stop addressing you as i have been.”

no. never. not even as zwei's sword had pointed at the star-branded throat, once upon a time. eyes fluttering closed, albedo gives a gentle shake of his head. that faint smile lingers. “or is it that you truly wish to pull away? i wouldn't stop you. but he is as kin to you as he is me, you know. however these strange branches may expand and converge, they're all part of the same tree.”

#asks /#gggno #kind of sick(positive) crying(humorous)#they're so fucking funny to me and always will be (ty for sending janjan i kissi)#brother.....durin is literally 15 minutes old #thought about how literally though he's the only one albedo can call an older brother because old durin is gone bro #no more didi now it's just dudu #but i love to chew on the unique warmth of their unconventional family they've come to settle into #(small aside really just for me tbh is how he even has the capacity for tact/empathy now as opposed to first arrival)#(it just means a lot to me even if i am just kind of yapping and reading my own stuff to myself LMAO)

spidergourmet

*᯽ we have to haunt the house of history. ✦

( continued. ✦ albedo & kaeya )

cryolilies

ALBEDO’S VOICE IS CALM AND MONOTONE, as he points out kaeya’s trembling and starts talking fucking science with him. kaeya’s eye widens with incredulity at the man’s audacity — though he reels himself back in.

albedo is trying to knock him off balance, distract from the accusations kaeya has leveled at him. what’s even more infuriating is the fact that it worked, if only for a moment. kaeya grits his teeth, and tries to still the racing of his heart. he has the upper hand here, surely. even so, he can’t shake off the feeling that he’s the one being cornered. the walls are only so thick, if someone were to listen…

no due cause. is that khemia not cause enough? let alone the way albedo has infiltrated the ordo’s ranks, and worst of all, klee’s family. rage threatens to bubble over as he thinks of the young girl put at risk, hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. ( just being khaenri’ahn was enough to damn him. and albedo thinks he’s safe. they are not safe, no matter how kindly this city receives them. there is no safe place on teyvat for them. )

for an instant, kaeya is tempted to agree to search albedo, if only to inconvenience him. but then—

i have no reason to lie. the khaenri’ahn sentence stops him in his tracks, the world tilts. briefly, he is a young child again, hearing his father whisper in his ear. for a moment, the language is not a dead one after all. it lives between the two of them.

his mouth opens and closes, hands shaking, eye fixed on albedo’s calm expression. he swallows. silence, for a moment, aside from the harsh cracks of thunder outside, and then he finally replies.

❛ then say what you want. why have you come here? ❜ his words are limited. kaeya hasn’t conversed in khaenri’ahn since he was a young child — his vocabulary is that of an eight year old’s, and his voice is hushed, archons forbid someone hear them speaking this language. he doesn’t have his sharpest blade here, his silver tongue. he purses his lips as he realizes this.

still, he can make it work. albedo will not harm his city. kaeya won’t give him the chance.

spidergourmet

the more kaeya trembles, and the more albedo studies it, it begins to occur to him that the man must be getting at something other than this late night errand, or the ragnvindrs’ old wounds. how tedious, this glacial waltz. it was not the first time he wished others would simply say what they meant—but fine.

“make no mistake: whatever you’ve assumed of me, i suspect it all to be a misunderstanding.” what reverie he might have dangled in front of kaeya alberich before is shattered. teal eyes stare on and the forsaken tongue does not wag back from albedo’s as a familiarity, or comfort. he had not meant for it to be comfort to begin with—not when he had no prior understanding of the concept.

because albedo had been eight, once, and he had lived just fine without any. not once had he found himself craving it. his predecessors’ tremors and tears were what had made them all predecessors, and he their ultimate successor. kaeya's hands are shaking like he imagines theirs had.

he can also only imagine what must be going on in that head of kaeya’s now, all while albedo untilts his own, maintaining his impassive gaze. why, asks the other. again with that ‘why’. albedo does not know how much longer he must beat this same horse before the cavalry captain himself. it disappoints. for when has albedo not spoken as he pleased? kaeya alberich does sport a silver tongue of his own, but gold needed not be silver at all.

finally, a light shrug. the lukewarm roll of one shoulder, as though his interest had begun to wane. measured still, the coolness of his voice sterilizes the office space. “i have repeated this several times now, but i was sent to mondstadt by my master to further my research. aunt alice can corroborate this information again, if you’d like to catch her.”

if kaeya could even catch her. if anyone could, really. that was another issue entirely. but albedo suppresses his quiet sigh, supposing, or at least hoping that alice might have left rhinedottir’s letter and whatever else with top brass. still—what did it change, or any of this, for that matter? he had no love from this land’s god, he inherited no love from his creator, and it grew clearer than ever that there was no one save the hexenzirkel who might have tolerated cretaceus’s existence now. it was abominable, by all religious doctrine he knew to ever be written, and he almost wondered if it would have been easier for gold to send her pupil to a less devout nation. almost.

because he knew when not to question her.

did nobody else?

“if i may add,” and he does anyway, because he is albedo, “miss megistus has the freedom to live here, does she not? i fail to see what sets us apart.”

#cryolilies #thread: we have to haunt the house of history #IT'S RANCIDDDDDDD (i'm guffawing)#albedo standing at this dusty ass shelf: 🧍 i just wanted bouk #sorry for ping ponging this like right back HAHAHA i'm kind of obsessed with unsocialized albedo (putting him in my petri dish)

spidergourmet

*✦ a new witch ‘A’ ✦*

( for allergies ✦ albedo & kazuha )

spidergourmet

‘A’, the culprit seemed to call herself, and aunt alice's lack of intervention told him all he needed to know.

for starters, the real ‘A’'s attention was just as capricious and lethal as that of ‘R’. (motherhood had softened her, the latter had offhandedly mentioned to him once, and albedo's gaze had only fallen to the floor.)

if this new witch's reach extended to teyvat’s borders, then surely there would be more fuss in his immediate vicinity—albedo’s, surely, of all the people to rope in. no; he supposed he would never hear the end of something like that.

and as such he had deemed there to be little cause for concern. allergies were an odd thing, for he had none upon creation and surmised he would never know any if the past four or five centuries were indicative enough. he differed from most lifeforms already; at the same time, it was lord barbatos, almighty god of anemo, who first came to mind when the topic was brought up. did this only mean venti's suffering had recently doubled, albedo wondered?

no matter. it was not among the most pressing of his duties, but albedo took it upon himself to at least look into the matter before alice herself rolled in to make life more chaotic. he almost shuddered at the thought.

the trail had not gone cold just yet, but he could feel its decline with each stop. time was worth its weight in gold to one such as albedo, however. two hours later, right as he was about to fold and leave the ordeal to the true mages, pandemonium be damned, his investigation had taken him to the riverside where he spotted a familiar style of clothing. when he had once spent ages painting a commission inspired by its likeness, how could he forget?

“now that’s a face i haven’t seen in some time.” with a quiet warmth albedo announces his presence, stepping forward to stand beside him at the water’s edge. “what brings you to mondstadt, kazuha?” / @naturesmessages

#naturesmessages #thread: a new witch 'A'#here you are aira!! 🫴 sorry it took me a bit hahaha april was mega crunchy as you know #tysm for the patience! most of this is exposition so no worries about length either :>#i kinda just threw out a random whiff of albedo starting to sleuth but nothing solid yet (we can definitely both build as we go)#and ik it was so long ago / there haven't been more xovers since but his familiarity with kazuha is referencing the irodori festival haha

spidergourmet

*᯽ we have to haunt the house of history. ✦

( continued. ✦ albedo & kaeya )

spidergourmet

here lies mondstadt, land of freedom, where all in the main city could sleep with their doors unlocked. while gold's child did not understand it on a personal level, he observed from the outside that the anemo archon's love for his children was nigh tangible. they were all free to let the wind carry their love for each other, and by extension, they were all just as free to shun that which they deemed suspicious. newly ordained chief alchemist albedo had been whisked and promoted into their lives with nothing save an absent mage's letter of recommendation. those who were not privy to the caliber of his work would have called it nepotism at its finest. those who were privy to even less might have called it, albeit drastically, the infiltration of ordo favonius—and soon enough mondstadt’s downfall.

given everything, kaeya alberich is hardly the first to suspect him, but he is in fact the first to confront albedo with such candor. in that small space, rolling thunder and rain beating the roof overhead, another set of eyes—or rather eye—glares at him with appears to be scorn. kaeya alberich glares at him with that absent sword in his hand. and in blinding contrast, albedo brandishes nothing but a stare that the entirety of mondstadt would call stone cold sober. it is a maddening absence of emotion in elegant features, it is perfectly still marble that its sculptor had chiseled in her very likeness. it is neither kind nor unkind. it continues to give away nothing. albedo does not know what he could possibly have to give these people beyond the fruits of his research, besides. for what more would they want? what else held intrinsic value?

but he scours the barracks of his mind for what he remembers hearing of the cavalry captain through the winery-grapevine and not. there was unkempt history in the office they stood in, and perhaps only more to be held if albedo did not find some swift way to pacify this man. i had no hand in diluc nor crepus ragnvindr's fall from grace, he nearly offers up. he did not know it then, and neither did kaeya, but it behooved him tremendously that the other had not afforded him that chance.

humanity continued to mystify him. it flashed red hot and ice cold at zero moment's notice. it was irrational, oft times unpredictable. it could not be easily quantified or summed into any reliable subset of results. it gave him the closest thing to a headache. because, what on earth does kaeya alberich want from him?

he finds himself loath to regurgitate sentiments he does not feel, loath to throw out what he could theorize human nature desired to hear. it would achieve nothing. the name crepus, to him, meant nothing. there is no logical sorrow to be had for a man he’s never met.

but then kaeya says the magic word. two words, to be precise: one in the mondstatian tongue that meant far too much, and one from a lost history that only meant anything on account of its roots.

khemia. albedo, who had not even dignified kaeya with a full glance from the bookshelf he had been perusing just prior, turns completely to the other knight now. for the first time since his arrival in mondstadt, something stirs within him. something has finally caught albedo's undivided attention. herein lies the million mora question: is it as dangerous as his mentor's?

talk. the second word, spat at him like the soil from which he was birthed—it is not a dialect he had ever expected to hear in this day. herein lies a vital second question: who are you, kaeya alberich?

lightning flashes outside the window once more, illuminating the shadows of his visage, unobscuring the four points on his throat. and albedo almost smiles.

“...you're trembling.” he observes, voice still level, well-mannered as can be. like he hasn't just been threatened two or three times over. a gloved thumb and forefinger lift to catch his own chin between them, a gesture that always preceded when albedo went into thought. “are you cold? how curious. it wouldn’t support any correlation between the possession of a cryo vision and heightened resistance to the temperature...or is this a sensitivity? i can't quite feel the cold myself, you see.”

talk? oh, he'll talk—how the chalk prince will talk for days on end, given the right subject—but is it the conversation the other man wants? and all things considered, perhaps this is already the most albedo has ever talked to someone else yet. kaeya ought to consider himself lucky—or not, depending.

“ah... but you don’t have any due cause to detain me, do you?” he tilts his head, blinking only once. “i’m simply here to move a list of volumes to my office.”

no, perhaps not.

“should it please you to search me, i have the letter from the acting grand master.” albedo allows his hand to fall back to his side. just as kaeya ogles his throat, albedo’s stare only pierces curiously into the cloth of an eyepatch.

none of it is a proper answer to kaeya’s real questions.

“i have no reason to lie.” but perhaps this much is. / @cryolilies

#can you imagine the astronomical ass beating he would have gotten had he indeed voiced his first response #cryolilies #thread: we have to haunt the house of history #(crushing an entire bowling ball to powder in my fist) EARLY MOND BEEF LET'S FUCKING GO #the length absolutely got away from me btw HAHAHA absolutely no worries about mirroring / there's just a lot of setup #i went kind of nuts too so dw! i hope this was alright #a while back i was waffling over switching from gold to his blue text but this opened my third eye (i can use it for khaenri'ahn LMAO)#bipoc in me felt your very last line and i said albedo idc. you are not gonna leave kaeya hanging or else

❛ thinking hard or zoning out, kreideprinz? ❜

that would only depend on who sought to judge him. it came to the surprise of absolutely nobody that albedo’s mind, sound and measured as it was, strayed adrift from the masses if not occupied by some conversation or task—and often even then. if society deemed the starving artist was just as eccentric as the mad scientist, then he was a culmination of these two types of strangeness: he pursued every color, every vivid vision the world presented him with a nearsighted appetite for answers, for every exhaustive reason behind the poetic rhyme.

albedo hears him before he sees him—a privilege only ever given at kaeya’s own behest. three faces come to mind, two brothers and a rose that walk into a bar; and there is no punchline, but albedo briefly fascinates himself with the stealth all three have in common. it is so particular. would it be that he could capture the concept with a palette on canvas. sadly he is without brush. the quill in his hand today, albedo lowers it from the pinned parchment of his clipboard and finally turns his gaze. “oh?”

the subtle budge of his lips holds something good-natured and prompting in the same curious curve. with the flutter of golden hair, his head cants just as faintly.

“neither, i suppose. i was simply about to sign off on this document.” an idle task that still required some discretion, given the sway of a captain’s signature. then, back at his fellow one: “does the cavalry captain have some business with me?”

#asks /#cryolilies #omg hello my fellow ordo favo🫴 tysm for sending! i'm already excited to start writing together hahaha i love mond sm

spidergourmet

*✦ mark number...? ✦*

( plantmaxxing ✦ albedo & sucrose )

spidergourmet

“another one?” albedo is both prompt and curious to ask, pushing the rest of his way through the entrance of their workshop. “i believe that makes six now, does it not?”

in the past month. the thrilling saga of mark seemed to have no end in sight, but he would not wish an anticlimactically swift one on sucrose for anything. it’s admirable to strive for the results you desire, he had concurred. this naturally applied to the propagation of sweet flower variants and all what else a researcher’s experimentation would demand. within reason was the unspoken factor that should have remained unsaid.

now, albedo had no room to lecture her—not here. never here. not with his similar passions, and not with his terrible tunnel vision. but for all things human he was and was not, for all of those philosophical limits he had surpassed in discovering the self, he had discovered plenty of her just as well in their years together. and the fact of the matter was this: a sleepless week for her body was as negligible to albedo’s as skipping a light meal, if that. they were not the same.

“sucrose…” his tone creeps into a warning once his eyes catch the bags beneath hers. careful to step over a slew of pulsating, fleshy roots, the soundless pace of his boots rounds the corner of her desk, all accompanied by a raised brow. “you didn't heed my advice while i was away.” it is not a question. / @alchemical-wonderland

#thread: mark number...?#alchemical-wonderland

literanis

@spidergourmet: SENDER gives RECEIVER their coat despite the cold. / @ eula!

Dragonspine isn't for the faint of heart. Though she visits frequently, often taken ice baths in the freezing pools, there's also a limit to what she can endure. She's still human, after all, even if her Vision is that of Cryo and afforded her some resistance. The trail of trouble had lead itself deep into the bowels of the forbidden mountainside. Being Captain of the Reconnaissance team meant recieving the most dangerous missions, by merit of being the division that had to seek out the danger first.

The winds were particularly harsh on this side, whipping and whirling, cold so sharp it threatened to cut even her large blade. It cut her range of vision to more than half all on its own. She didn't expect to meet Albedo around where she'd been lingering, but there he was all the same. And thank Barbatos for him, because even though she was dressed appropriately for this expedition, the unnatural cold still bit through thick hide and textile.

Upon reaching his alcove, the warmth from its maw embraced her, wide warmed and wrapping around her completely. The sigh of relief that escapes her is incredibly exhausted, and she all but flops onto a spare chair that he had lying around with her limbs slacking besides none too gracefully. Then, before she can see him close to her, she feels another weight upon her shoulders — a coat? But even if it's not as cold in here, it's still damn cold! Ah, but he was always a strange one, huh? Gratefully, she pulls the coat over herself more, still thawing out from the intense elements outside.

"Thank you, Captain Albedo," she says perhaps a touch too formally, maybe embarrassed by her situation. Nothing she'll admit. Now she's warm enough for a slight blush to touch the top of her cheeks. "I'll be out of your hair soon enough. Once the winds die down, I'll be on my way."

spidergourmet

while it was not five-star hospitality given these conditions, it was something. dragonspine, unforgiving to most, had been both birthplace and upbringing to albedo. it could already be said for any scheme of things that the most seasoned expedition unit would never have quite the same edge as a native, but the mountain was another beast entirely, subzero graveyard to mondstadt's most feared and fabled beast of all. (yes—ever beautiful and ever capricious dragonspine. it was not the burial site of more than one of his kin for nothing.)

and so: if eula had anything to say about the short sleeves of his coat and unflinching composure compared to her long hems and shivering, she had afforded him the courtesy of staying her tongue, whether it was by her own volition or by the means of it still needing to thaw with the rest of her. just as well, he said nothing of the formality, nor the soft rosiness of her cheeks.

still now with his shorter sleeves, deep indigo without their usual covering, albedo lowers to one knee as he feeds the campfire another log. it would not do to have her freeze any further.

“please, take your time. it isn't any trouble,” he says, low while above the soft crackle of embers. “if anything, it's best that you found me when you did. ever since the old durin's heart went dormant, dragonspine's temperatures have dropped significantly.”

it was a matter most curious. as such—and that was not even to mention this rare personal stake of his, in all things durin—it had been at the forefront of albedo’s mind. but sebas’s latest missive from gold had thrust most of his other engagements into indefinite suspension.

“goulash?” the offer comes just as placidly. he turns to a cast iron pot sitting on one table, meal prep interrupted by the looks of half-sliced vegetable stalks sitting beside it.

#literanis #thread: literanis 1

gggno

the molting process.

continued from here.

gggno

beating around the bush is a chore reserved for more sensitive cases. with albedo, rosaria has figured, direct questions are more effective. she picks up a random container just to keep her hands busy.

“ he survived it, so we know it's possible, ” she pauses, then starts again, “ but was he the only one known to have entered the ley lines and walked out alive? ”

whatever she is getting at, it isn't natural. she doubts albedo has all the answers she needs, but there is no other person who is closer to the mysteries of teyvat's invisible tapestry.

“ he entered in nod-krai and exited in mondstadt. does that mean ley lines can function as portals? ”

spidergourmet

the grand master is no ordinary man. few people in teyvat's leadership are, but even fewer whose stars cross paths with the hexenzirkel and live to tell that tale alone. his constitution was dissimilar to that such as albedo's, yet it deviated well enough from the status quo to raise brows. what sort of body outside of a cataclysmic curse's could house a second soul?

“it isn't impossible. however, i don't think it's something any person could do on a whim.” if varka's could achieve what the captain had done, even if only for some hours and on a far smaller scale, the idea that it could survive and travel through the ley lines was not unfounded. but it would err on the side of caution to deem it the exception before the norm.

“and if there are any similar accounts of someone entering and exiting the ley lines, the traveler may have more insight.” because that was unfortunately where albedo's ended. they are, after all, well-traveled.

he does scour the back of his mind for what he can still offer. “they may still be in the area. if you're truly curious, you might be able to catch them in dornman port before they set sail for snezhnaya.”

#gggno #thread: the molting process.#i need genshin to just address the teleport points already because they mentioned it like 1 time in prologue and never expanded again ig #la di da la di da da (shower singing noises) all i can think of rn sorry he doesn't have something smarter i can pull out of my ass

gggno

the molting process.

continued from here.

gggno

like a feral animal, rosaria's claws had never been clipped. not even varka — especially not varka. if anything, the grand master knew best how to handle prickly animals; you cannot gain their trust by taking away their only defense. he made a point not to overbear her assimilation too; she needed to learn to retract her hostility by herself.

and the rosaria here is the most well-adjusted version there could ever be, offering spiders to an alchemista homunculus. ( why the singular ‘ an ’ ? you can never be sure if albedo is the only artificial alchemist around. )

“ cardamom, huh? i'll remember that next time. ”

spiders aren't really part of her usual diet, but she is willing to make an effort for the sake of socialising. besides, they were easy to catch, and they come in various sizes. sometimes you are just too tired to skin a rabbit.

then, after a considerable amount of silence, she asks the question that has to cost more than just a handful of arachnids.

“ how much do you know about the ley lines? ”

spidergourmet

from cuisine to the ley lines. or in this case, should he say out of the frying pan and into the oven? either way rosaria does not beat around the bush.

albedo's fingers intertwine, settling onto his desk at level with his elbows. this time his expression does not budge one bit, though he does meet her question with a thoughtful pause. another beat of silence, shorter than the first but long enough to congeal between them.

“a bit.” he only says, impassive. “they remain an unsolved mystery to most.”

that is to say: it depends on what she wants to know. he has little to hide at this point, but not even albedo holds their world's every answer. tonight, she may find him to disappoint. “would this be about the grand master, by any chance?”

#gggno #thread: the molting process.#i can't be pulling out my last brain cell for him rn bro #another new business idea open a 6 flags in the ley lines

spidergourmet

*✦ where the story begins ✦*

( the girl in the meteorite ✦ albedo & march 7th )

mrch7th

at the beginning of time, an aeon dies. or it might be more apt, perhaps, to say this aeon does not yet exist. before there is fuli, there is their corpse. and from their corpse, there is a girl.

she is not unique in this. there are many others like her, all bearing a shared fate. at the end of time, only one will ascend. so they hunt her. they covet what should not be theirs. and, in turn, you hunt them down one by one, all those who dare to harm the peaceful existence of the girl who slumbers in a cradle of six different phases of ice. even if it means scorning the aeon from which she was born, it is your purpose. your sole obsession.

but you know they will hunt her to every end of the universe and down every stream of time. where can you run that those eyes will not inevitably find you? (there are no shining headlights in the distance to save you.) they will always be watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike.

no, you cannot do this forever. it cannot be her fate to slumber eternally, unable to see the world she was born for. and the only life you can gift her is one free from the burden of her destiny.

and so you close her eyes in a land where even their gaze has yet to fall. and the girl wakes.

she does so in fits and starts, all six phases of her cradle and cage shifting around her as though to accommodate. confusion melts away the first layers, with the restless shift of one only just returning to consciousness. as comprehension dawns, so too do the next bend to her will, eyes sluggishly blinking open as she comes to.

and fear, last but never the least, shatters what remains. with her first inhale of breath, she falls limply to the ground.

a pair of wide eyes can only stare up at the man, the same brilliant colors of the ice that had just held her. her hands raise slowly, wariness writ in the tension of her limbs, but she makes no other movement.

and if she notices the cold, it doesn’t seem to bother her. then again, the cold is all this girl has ever known.

spidergourmet

the girl stirs from her slumber only to fall once released. neither blinking nor moving, albedo stares right back. she does not speak, she hardly moves, and what he can analyze of the scene is too little for his liking. her physiology seemed just the same as his, human, but therein lies the irony.

in lieu of 'hello' or 'good morning', he says just as awkwardly:

“...you're awake.” and not shivering? he eyeballs her current state and rules out hypothermia.

adrenaline? well, he can only imagine the potential ways this must look to her. there is no one in sight but him, a complete stranger of a man, and dragonspine itself is already far from one of mondstadt’s more hospitable attractions.

“can you speak?” he tries then, slowly. careful and measured with his delivery, knowing tone and inflection were a fairly universal language. as universal as he could get here, at least—or was it? “well...”

his gaze flits to the corner of his desk.

“...perhaps it'd be easier just to show you what happened.” because if her reaction were all he had to go by, he would doubt even she knew. though a bit of her resilience seemed to carry outside of the ice, she was feeble enough as things stood. best not to overcomplicate things more than they were already.

albedo steps to his desk in an easy, discernible stride. with the same hand, he trades earlier’s missive for the sketchbook sitting there. the pages get flipped with a scholar’s lightness, as if he were perusing an idle topic, and not essentially diffusing a stalemate with a girl whose abilities and intentions were still as uncertain to him as his were to her. albedo does as he oft does, though, which would be to pirouette through it with enough grace for them all. and if not, geo always thrummed by his throat at the ready.

but after the mundane depictions of flowers and landscapes, he stops between two leaflets: a meteor shower, and her likeness. albedo’s thumb pinches its inner spine near the top and, returning his attention to her, he offers out this book. on the chance she'll understand him, he supplies a timeframe in addition.

“today marks march the seventh. from the time of your landing, you’ve remained in that ice for the better part of three weeks.”

#mrch7th #thread: where the story begins #ARURHGGHRGRAGG MISS EVERNIGHT PELASE ONE CHANCEPELA PELAPLEASE #this works perfectly though tysm WHEEEE very excited yipee whaohooey CHEWING ON DA QIUPROSE TOO #what a missed opportunity i should have waited 1 more day before starting us so that it really would have been march 7th /jjj

feliscus

🌢 like ... y’know. nyah.

feliscus

“is this the ‘next time’ i had been promised?” there’s an amused twinkle in lyney’s eye and a pleased hum in his voice to accompany it, gloved fingertips drumming gently against the underside of the hat he has cradled in an arm. “i hope you’ll forgive me if i’ve brought along a plus one. i’m afraid he’s quite partial to the hat, and i wouldn’t dare part them.”

the he in question, of course, can be no other than the magician’s smallest partner in crime: rosseland, who offers his owner a slow, cursory blink from where he is curled up quite contentedly atop the grin-malkin puppet but makes no move to show himself beyond the brim of his self-appointed home to present company. for all that rosseland enjoys the spotlight, they were both supposedly off the clock whilst in mondstadt—and he had promised his feline companion a vacation.

mondstadt, of course, is both everything he might’ve expected it to be from word of mouth and also nothing at all like the picture in his mind. such is how it goes. some things are best understood by being there yourself, and having a local’s knowledge at your disposal doesn’t hurt either. “well, won’t you surprise me once again, monsieur albedo? this is your city, after all.” his gaze turns back briefly to the expectant cat still lounging in his hat and he adds, “though if i can make a request: a cat-friendly surprise, maybe.” / @spidergourmet

spidergourmet

if asked what he all thought of their last meeting, mondstadt’s chief alchemist might answer with the softest clear of his throat, almost bashful into a gloved fist. dialing up the charm had been, after all, that war of attrition—and still might be, considering. he is uncertain of his ability to do it a second time, to be rewarded with another blush as lovely as the first. unlike the skilled magician before him, his bag of tricks was much smaller.

but albedo remembers rosseland well. he was just as endearing back then, too, although the feline might have been more assistant there than plus one. now neither trickster nor familiar were on the clock. there had been no red carpet to roll out in advance lest he pull out grander stops, but albedo gives them a small smile that he hopes is hospitable.

“your faith in me is kind, but misplaced. a magician of your caliber may think me to be a one-trick pony. still, if a full bouquet would please you this time around…” he ponders, catching his chin between gloved fingers, the ones on his other hand lightly tapping his hip. “i could steal you both away to the cliff where my favorite flowers blossom. it’s quite cozy under starlight, or so the local sweethearts say.”

if he realized the shape of his words, his expression gave too little away for it. the smile remains.

“but perhaps another time, hm? as soon as you said cat-friendly, a certain place came to mind.” and a certain cat. albedo gestures in the direction of a wooden sign not so far off. by the building’s entrance, a few of the four-legged regulars were already on the prowl, but none were the real star of the show.

“this tavern's namesake makes it popular among residents.” that and miss diona's mixology, no matter how many odd ingredients she seemed to throw into her trusty shaker. nothing short of a fine dessert menu could have hoped to attract albedo for the occasional card game, though. if he recalled correctly—and he did, perhaps too vividly—sweets had been his pitch for 'next time'. he strides a soundless step forward, tossing another glance to his guests. “there's far more to it than drinks, though. well, mr. lyney? would you care to see what i have in store there?”

#feliscus #thread: like ... y'know. nyah.#i fear we must beat him with hammers #YAYYY OUR LONG-ANTICIPATED KITTY PLAYDATE THOUGH YAYYY SWINGA YOU AROUND TOO WE WILL EXPLODE THE WORLD FOR THAT CAT #this is just once again embarrassingly long for what little it moved along but sir pouncelot is def in there HAHAHA pls feel free to #either drive da bus however you would like or lmk and i can tack it on here :crylaugh: (ready to explode albebe at any time too)

gggno

the molting process.

continued from here.

gggno

@spidergourmet

rosaria has learned from reading that spiders, like most insects, have exoskeletons; while humans wrap their bones in flesh, spiders wear them like armor.

" are mondstadt spiders different from liyue spiders? "

she asks out of sheer curiosity. after years of monitoring, she has come to the conclusion that albedo is no threat. she knows there is something fundamentally different between them, a gap much wider than mondstadt-liyue variations, but when it comes to their city, they share a common goal. plus, albedo is knowledgeable. whatever she cannot learn from books, she can always count on albedo.

well, nearly.

" don't cook them all at once, " rosaria suggests. " keep a few and let them molt. their shed makes a funny snack. not to mention the endless supply. "

a spider farm, she muses. this could become a new trend.

spidergourmet

“that’s quite the economical idea.” her business acumen (?) strikes again. there is an odd, but seemingly timeless trend of women squandering their potential with ordo favonius. albedo keeps this much to himself. he also does not say whether or not he will keep some, but all things considered, he would hardly have the time to attend to them, and he is nothing if not a man to give what he does his undivided attention. it did not take a prudent sister to observe that much.

no matter. perhaps in a future endeavor. he replies with a light shrug. “to answer your question, the differences are mostly negligible… well, depending on what you plan to do with them.”

observe, or taste? the notes of one are nuttier, more floral; the notes of the other tend to take after fruit. both bit the same, the venom just as harmless as any common crawler’s.

“i tell this to anyone who asks, but a little cardamom over an open roast does wonders. you’re welcome to try it yourself sometime.”

#gggno #thread: the molting process.#do you think that lord barbatos ever looks down upon his children of the wind and says what the fuck is going on anymore #anyway (ignoring his unreliable narration) YEAHH I AGREE and i feel you 1000% dw. genshin was a different time back then and i literally #rewatched his chapter the other day (rosaria model nerf rip) just to really appreciate how her/mond's perception of him/durin shifted #just like how his own perception and relationship with humanity is also shifting. he's not even in the homo(culus) closet anymore /jjj #im gonna answer zwei normally though cuz hes so fucking funny. it's ok in our own au/world he's still above ground and stealing my wife!!!#anyway YAYYY CRUNCHY YAYY MOLTYYYY smoocha you too

spidergourmet

*✦ all that glitters ✦*

( continued. ✦ albedo & flins )

spidergourmet

flins, still an enigmatic man to him and countless others, was far from the most eccentric of characters albedo had met. not when his own origins and horizons were already steeped in the abnormal, not when aunts like alice helmed the mystical hexenzirkel. still—though flins appeared young, there was an antiquated air about him both familiar and not; and just when albedo thought he could have put his finger on what made the lightkeeper tick, the blue flame blew out, immersing him and any of his theories back into the darkness. to a lesser man of research it might have been maddening. to a lesser man entirely, far more unsettling. but albedo was neither of the two; no, he was not afraid of the dark, and if he had heard one whisper through the grapevine about kyryll chudomirovich flins, it was that he fancied that which glimmered even if not necessarily gold—a truth that gold’s very child corroborated through today’s exchange.

“please, it’d see no use with me. consider it yours.” leaving the coin with flins had been his intention to start, if anything only remiss that he had not made this clearer. albedo met the lucrative offer with a smile just as subtle. polite as could be, ego left uninflated by the other man’s praise. never one to peacock, he also had the decency to omit that mora was objectively inconsequential to him.

“while tempting,” he answered, though he did not say who to, “i certainly wouldn’t take from the rest of your collection. but should the opportunity ever arise, might i read through the texts in your possession? there’s much i’ve yet to learn about nod-krai.”

though the cold was lost on a body like his, snezhnaya was never a nation he imagined the winds whisking him to for anything other than the northmost’s knight. the elysium that was nod-krai, however, held more of his interest after everything than albedo had expected it to. once upon a time, on a lone mountain, he had met with his own share of falsities, of shadows amidst snowstorms. the sky’s was on a scale infinitely grander than that. what other mysteries could the true moon’s light shine upon now? would flins ever be one of them?

“if my instincts are as you say, i imagine you must keep intriguing ones.” and for his very selective attentions, what kind of human would ignore this? / @aarnivalkie

#aarnivalkie #thread: all that glitters #i said mini and then got carried away but don't even worry about it :crylaugh:#(putting the coin under the michaelscope) it seems the man engraved in this coin was called abraham lincoln /jjjjj

spidergourmet

*✦ where the story begins ✦*

( the girl in the meteorite ✦ albedo & march 7th )

spidergourmet

the true tale of the mountain did not begin five hundred years ago. but long after the fall of sal vindagnyr, its children’s claim to the mountain lost to a deep snow-buried tale, a vagrant perched on its crags to witness her share of sin brought unto this world.

and sin it was. it answered the lost princess’s final curse upon the mountain, it calcified ‘humus’ out of dirt before ever birthing chalk. it fed white soil to this beast, over and over, until the perfect imperfection finally came into being. it was as golden as its master, and it was named her magnum opus.

the culmination of these sins entertained her fickle whims for a time. once she grew bored of even this too, the winds of time, death, space and life had whisked her to her next conquest. the perfect disciple, ‘cretaceus’, read her letter left to him in the snowed-in ribcage of his first brother’s skeleton. this was the one and only time he had ever felt the sheer cold of the mountain.

its subzero temperatures do not affect albedo even today. going about the motions with his insufferably rolled sleeves, waltzing about his timeless haunt that few others would dare (dragonspine, now, is their name for it), it is of course mondstadt’s chief alchemist who discovers her first.

the climate was harsh, but her ice was sturdier. phased in its sheet layers, unfazed in its makeup. still, he could not quite leave the anomaly unguarded; or rather, unknown. to stall the inevitable swarm of questions waiting for him in town—although timaeus had taken one glance into the ice before unwisely shooting his boss a scandalized look—albedo only sought the muscle of a few to help haul the meteorite to his camp further up.

he stayed there. mondstadt never questioned that much. notes piling by the day atop his desk, he ran his many tests both alchemical and elemental.

nothing. he pinched the bridge of his nose, midnight oil burning dutifully in his lamp. she continued to slumber, bathed in ethereal pink and blue. observing her, teal eyes in the night almost reflecting the ice’s gleam, albedo wondered what it would be like to sleep so peacefully himself before nudging aside his instruments and flipping open his sketchbook.

halfway into the third week, dragonspine’s midday sun did not seem to beat down upon the peaks any harder than it had weeks one and two. and yet, standing before one of his bulletin boards while poring over a missive, the first subtle shift of frost to him may as well have been deafening.

his head immediately snaps in its direction. / @mrch7th

#mrch7th #thread: where the story begins #oh my god sorry dont even worry about the length :lmaopeek: it's 95% setup/exposition on his end alone i swear #timaeus: sir...... there's a girl in here.....umm.....whhhat are you doing sir #albedo grabbing his mouth like that one twitter drawing meme: shut the fuck up #WHY DOES HE GET ALL THE FUCKING LUCK(BEATING HIM WITH HAMMERS) WHY DOES BEAUTIFUL GIRL GET TO JUST FALL IN HIS BACKYARD IM SICK OF HIM

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