send 🍺 to encounter my muse really drunk ( accepting )
Oh? What was this? It was rare to find the alchemist in town, away from the snowy tundra of Dragonspine. Approaching him from behind, though there was an unsteady sway to her steps, a small giggle, for no reason, escaped her. “ Oh! “ Hand clapping over her mouth, as if she could take back the sound, she stared wide-eyed at Albedo. “ Nooooooo, you weren’t s’pposed to notice me! “ A dramatic, and surely startling, whine escaped her before her arms folded over her chest, reddenned cheeks puffing out as she pouted at him. “ I was tryin’ to s’rprise you! “ Well, she certainly did, but not in the way she was hoping to.
Venti nods, “hey, no problem. I don’t think anyone would want to deal with an injury like this. Buuut... Uh. This might hurt a bit.”
He gets the crossbow bolt out of the other’s arm, a bit surprised at the other’s lack of a pain response. He’s dug out bolts before, and while this isn’t as deep it’s still a bit of a surprise that the most he got was a hiss of pain.
Huh. That’s kinda weird. He’s not gonna make a fuss about it though. Rex Lapis was thick skinned like this, so it’s not something he hasn’t seen before.
Maybe it’s just a Geo thing.
Venti holds a hand over the wound, and the wind blows in their direction as the colored tips of his hair glow and the false vision on his waist also glows. Once the wound is cleaned, the bard stops using his anemo powers and grabs some bandages to wrap around the injury.
“Aaaand there!”
He makes sure it isn’t too tight before letting go of the bandages. Venti grins, and looks back at Albedo’s face.
Childe knows how to be patient. To most, it may not seem like it, but he does. He knows how to lay in wait for an opening. He knows how to be alone with his thoughts, mulling over past battles. Stasis is not his preferred state of being, that much is true, but he can still appreciate the quiet moments when they come.
It's when the peace and quiet drags on too long that he starts to get restless. The lull between his last mission and the next is especially excruciating. It was the worst kind of victory- not a victory at all- just a stageplay for the general public to consume while the actors and scriptwriters cashed in on the ticket sales. It leaves him feeling restless and hollow, nothing substantial to sate his hunger until the next battle.
In the hollowness, loneliness creeps in to fill the spaces, a liquid chill that seeps into every nook and cranny of him. Liyue Harbor is warm and sunny, vibrant and full of color and life, and in all these ways it is not home. Yet he can't return home, not yet. All he can do is pen letters to his loved ones and tighten his bow strings, waiting, waiting, waiting to be set in motion again.
Perhaps a day trip is in order.
He's heard tales of a mountain nestled in the crux between Liyue and Mond. Brutally cold, forbidding slopes full of corrupt monsters, energized by some mysterious force. A cursed place of eternal winter, no matter the time of year.
In short: The perfect vacation spot.
Childe travels lightly as always, only taking his weapon and a new coat to brace against the anticipated cold. He's Snezhnayan, not an idiot. A boat or cart would have probably cut his commute in half, but he's in need of the exercise so he simply leaves early one morning and walks the entire way there. It really is that simple. No sudden rainstorms, no random ambushes from bandits. Just Childe and the sun, making their way from one end of Liyue to the other.
The sun is just starting to sink behind the mountain range when he sees it in the distance; a splash of red standing out against the stark white snow.
"Hmm?" A curious noise escapes him and he changes direction, making a beeline from the beaten path to investigate. It's blood, he thinks. He can't smell it in this weather, but he recognizes the shade and shape of it, the color perfectly preserved in the damp and cold. The crimson snow is caved in on itself in a strange way, like some impossibly large creature left a footprint.
...Or like something average sized fell from a very high height. When he reaches the edge of the crater he spies the bleeder, what can only be a crumpled corpse laying deep in the center. An unfortunate way to go; not in the throes of battle, but a simple slip, it would seem.
"Bad luck," Childe says out loud, to no one in particular. He doesn't particularly feel like carting around the dead body of a stranger, but he knows there's an Adventurer's Guild encampment at the base of the mountain. It's one that he'd been intending on making a pit stop at anyways, so he figures at the very least he can tell them about it and let them deal with it. All he needs is some sort of identification and he'll be on his way.
The bloody ice is a little slippery as he carefully makes his way down into the crater. The body looks even smaller up close like this, like they wouldn't have come to his eye level if they were standing upright. He squats down beside it to get a better look at the clothes, brushing off some fresh snowfall to look for some kind of insignia. Strange clothes for sure, even as torn up as they are, but nothing he recognizes as belonging to a Guild or organization.
"Who are you?" he mutters to himself.
Almost as if to answer him, the body twitches. He jolts slightly in surprise, taking his hand away. Perhaps it's... still fresh? Cautiously, he stands up again and takes a step back, summoning a Hydro spear to gently prod at the thing from a safe distance. It must be thirsty somehow, because the tip of his polearm gets absorbed into it.
"Woah." There's a strange tugging sensation in his Vision, yet it doesn't hurt, so he decides to wait and see what happens, watching in amazement as the mysterious corpse starts to reform. There really isn't a better word for it. Twisted limbs swivel and snap back into places with sickening crunches, like breaking in reverse. Half frozen, bloody slush starts creeping back to its source, disappearing into rapidly sealing cracks that Childe can only notice now that the mess is cleaning itself up.
Cracks?
"What are you...?" The better question to be asking, really. Despite how grotesquely inhuman the display is, he finds himself enthralled by the sight, thoughts of melancholy and ennui dissipating in the face of the strange and unknown. He feeds a little more of his elemental energy into his polearm, tapping into the Electro of his Delusion, just to see what will happen.
Sparks flicker and sink into stained porcelain. The body jerks with a gasp. The only phrase that comes to mind is honestly the miracle of life. Without a second thought, Childe crouches down in front of the ex-corpse, addressing them conversationally, "Well. I can safely say, I've never seen anything like you before! How are you feeling?"
“ What else should I be ? “ He replies, glancing up to the other with a raised eyebrow. He tightens the gauze, making sure the damage to the other’s arm was contained. Glancing around for something to cut off the excess, he fails and sighs. Gripping it with his teeth, the sharp sound escapes and fills the room.
@ablutiio asked: 🤗 + 🔁
➠ send 🤗 for your muse to hug mine, 🔁 for the reverse !
usually his footing was perfectly reliable, there was little to no slipping at all, and even the icy cold of dragonspine tended to see the traveller breezing through the snow and ice without so much as a hitch in his path. alas, it was nigh inevitable that he would, one day, ruin his own track record on the matter.
that day came when he went to visit albedo once, and found that the combination of an unseen root and an icy rock simply had him trip. with a light stumble, he ended up almost falling onto the other. arms came around the alchemist to steady himself, and his feet regained solid ground just enough to turn the act more into something of a swift embrace rather than an accidental tackle. aether cleared his throat once steadied, and retreated his arms with a faintly sheepish grin. ❝ hah, i knew that was bound to happen one day. sorry about that ! ❞
@ablutiio asked: “ how much do you really know about them ? ”
➠ meme !
a loaded question, surely, and he believed that he could answer rather simply; more than you. much remained concealed, and he knew the traveller to be far more than many thought them to be, yet a god had a different perspective, took into consideration things that escaped mortals-- not to mention that morax had knowledge of current events that most lacked. this, alas, excluded the reason for the other's inquiry. ever one to chase knowledge (at least, one to submit to curiosity), he thus decided to focus on receiving an answer. ❝ is there something troubling you about them ? i am confident that they would indulge you, should you have any questions, but it would be inappropriate for me to divulge any personal information in their stead, i am afraid. ❞
❝ Welllll-- I just thought how you’re always doing
something in the name of discovery so-- ❞
𝔾…. guinea pig ? The rest of the words which were coming out of Aether’s mouth suddenly knot up. The boy’s Adam’s apple bobs in his throat as he audibly gulps down. He wouldn’t put it past Albedo. As subtly as Aether can manage– he begins to scoot back in the slowest retreat imaginable.
But just as he’s about to make a whole foot of distance– Albedo is kind enough to ‘calm’ his fears. Wait, no– he didn’t. He wants a guinea pig that can talk. But Aether is too kind to outright retreat, he did come here seeking the other blond. To leave now would be rude.
❝ U-uhh...
What...kind of experiment are we talking about ? ❞
