Albedo would shut down if he were to ever overhear that you were any sort of model for an art class. And if it's nude modelling for an art class? He'd zone out while maintaining an absolutely blank expression, miss everything that's being said around him, walk backwards and away from jean and kaeya (who are trying to talk to him about work), and then quickly rush to sign up for said art classes. he wouldn't even be jealous or anything at the core of it all. He just likes that you're in a willing position to be painted, and he'll definitely leave each session with at least triple the amount of works that everyone else has. He likes memorizing mundane things like the number of moles, or scars, or stretch marks, or even hairs that you have on your body. No matter what you look like, he considers you his ideal of what 'humanity' would look like, and what it looks like to be real flesh and bone.
Although, if he were to be alone with you one on one while you're in some form of immodest clothing (if clothed at all) during a drawing session? Something in his hand would be twitching, though he wouldn't know the root cause. It's incredibly unsettling for himself to not know exactly what he's feeling and why and how to regulate it. He'd force himself through it and then have you leave. And then he'd probably lay down and stare at each individual dot on his ceiling for two or three days without moving, eating, or sleeping. It takes him a while to work the feeling out of him.
the funniest situation i could ever think of for a hsr related reader insert is where reader is divorced from dr. ratio. it's just such a vividly funny scenario in my head. yn and ratio who were colleagues and through an amicable enough friendship started dating, then simply followed what seemed like 'normal' timelines for it (moving in, engaged, married, etc) but it was all very methodical. even if you had a scrap of real attraction to him, it's not easy to say whether or not he felt in turn. it felt more like you both followed what was expected rather than what felt 'good' and it didn't take long for it to become a stale routine, leading to a mutual divorce.
but even better if you throw in someone like aventurine to tip the scales. someone who enjoys the company of ratio (and picking up on all his little pet peeves) and someone who enjoys spoiling you-- someone perfect to try to force you back into a more... spacious marriage situation (now with enough space for three, rather than two).
OR other course of action: an even worse situation wherein the person you're now pursuing (or pursuing you) is someone ratio would very much hate. like sampo koski.
Aglaea isn't sure why you keep coming to her as your first choice of company. At first she assumed you might just be another citizen infatuated with the idea of living legends and heroes who will save the future of the land, but just the briefest observation proved otherwise. What you seek is something much more dangerous.
Since you've caught her attention, she pays every free moment listening for you through her all-reaching connection of threads. How you long to see the world beyond the sky, to follow your endless imagination. She's listened in as you spin stories of other worlds, and beasts that soar through the sky, and how others become similarly enraptured by your voice. At first, she waved off the issue. While it may turn into something worse, few seemed to think more of your stories than as fiction. If she did not have her duties, if she did not have the weight of the world resting upon her shoulders, then perhaps she would be more willing to let herself be soothed by your ballads and poems of a far off world.
Then the travelers from afar came. Everything you ever dreamed of was waiting on the tongues of these strangers. Aglaea might be cruel, but not without reason. It starts as a simple initial prevention, to ensure your paths never cross. But fate soon proves that things are much less controllable than she hoped. If you learned the truth, you would need to be dealt with. You would be a threat to all your fellow citizens, to your family, to the fate of Amphoreus. She cannot allow that, and she cannot allow you to be in that position.
Even if she need lock you away, with or without your knowledge and permission, so be it. There is no future wherein she would allow fate to tear you from her sight.
Word Count: 4360 | Slight suggestive mentions | Below the Cut!!
Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?
There’s two versions of it: the affection he gives roughly eighty-four percent of the time he’s interacting with you, and the remaining percentage that’s reserved for private nights when he’s feeling wistful, sad, and perhaps a bit too inebriated.
Regarding the first, he’s just plain annoying. Toying with you for the sake of his own entertainment seems to be his favorite pastime and his favorite treat, though the exact form of it would depend on what uniquely manages to get under your skin. To him, bringing you to the point of yelling and trying to hit him is a form of affection– it’s him granting you his full and constant attention. What is almost always paired alongside his taunts and clever comebacks is some form of his body against yours, be it holding hands, holding waists, leaning into one another, simply standing ominously behind at an incredible close proximity, suggestive comments whispered into your ear– as long as he’s taking up your space in a way you find impossible to ignore, he’s satisfied. Although, innocent physical touch seems to still be a point in need of improvement. He finds your reaction funny when a hand slips a little too low down the back, or when he reaches over to grab something and ends up pinning you to a surface. He’s a nuisance.
The second form of it is a lot harder to understand. It’s a sight reserved only for the private, and preferably when he’s alone. When not in public together, he seems to relax on his physical affections. Almost the entirety of Kaeya’s being is made up of performance, but when he lacks an audience… he’s more serious, and much more brooding. When he gives you affection, if at all, it’s more careful. It feels riskier for him, as if he’s keenly aware that now it’s more for him and his wants rather than as a way to stake a claim on you in front of others. Some part about wanting something, especially something as vulnerable and heart-exposing as a partner, doesn’t sit well within him. He doesn’t kiss you, or hug you in this state. It’s fleeting bits of contact here and there.
Unless he’s both sad and drunk past his limits. Once again, he refuses to kiss you in this state, but as for hugging? It’s less quick hugs and more deep embraces, where he holds you suffocatingly tight without saying a single word the whole evening. It might be when his conscience is starting to get to him, or he’s thinking far too much about a childhood he’s sworn to never discuss.
Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?
Preferably, only if it’s absolutely necessary. In this case, that translates to only direct threats to your safety. As much as he’d enjoy going further than that, it’d take an awful lot of effort to clean up every disappearance and in-custody deaths if he operated on a much more lackadaisical policy. Sure, there’s some sort of delight in imagining himself as a villain luring you into his trap and cutting down those who dare to ‘save’ you, but in practical terms, it’s just much of a hassle. He much prefers letting nasty rumors through the grapevine do the work for him.
Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?
There’s two versions of this. In one scenario, you wouldn’t be ‘abducted’, but through various means, are roommates with Kaeya. Truthfully, that’s the closest I think he would ever come to ‘abduction’. If you didn’t move in totally willingly, then perhaps through some unfortunate circumstances like your current lease fell through and you were evicted, and he had plenty of space in his barely-used home in the city. He wouldn’t force you (perhaps light coercion and aligning the proper dominoes to fall… but not forcefully). If you really didn’t want to, he wouldn’t push it. There’s always alternative ways to subjugate you to enduring his company for hours at a time.
In the circumstance where you do live together, he wouldn’t be much overtly controlling either. He needs you to be compliant. A few suggestions here and there, comments off handedly that linger in your mind and bring you to a mindset where you’re more easily led around. Nothing like keeping the doors locked, the windows barred– none of that. He needs you to believe that he has no hand whatsoever in your autonomy and freedoms. You decide to come to him on your own conclusions when you need help. You decide to come to him on your terms when you need comfort. There’s no need to lock you in a room with him if he can lay a few thorns here and there, so you naturally need to come running in his direction.
Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?
Contrary to the persona he flaunts, Kaeya is sensitive to rejection. Why else does he refuse to show his true colors or wants? The last time he chose to be truthful, he lost the only family he had. Giving into his own wants and possibly angering you (or causing you immense fear) to a point of no return is the last thing he’d want to do. He lost his brother that way, and he refuses to lose you that way too. All in all, the answer would be no.
Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?
He’s frightened of just how vulnerable desire is when it comes from a place of genuine want and not easily ignorable lust. Like previously said, he also fears rejection that might stem from any honesty. As a result, he puts all his effort (twenty four hours, seven days a week) into maintaining the silver tongued mask that he uses on others, including you. Even if you managed to break down your own walls and ask for him to do the same while spilling your heart’s truest feelings and vulnerabilities, he’d refuse to waver. There’d be no hesitation on his part. He’d be the same as he always was, though internally delighted to have new leverage on you.
Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?
Depends on what severity. For the most part, he’d be hot and bothered. He likes when you argue back and get snippy with him. But if your little rebellion is causing genuine harm to yourself, or is just outright a hazard of its own? He’d shut it down promptly and harshly.
Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?
Nowadays, everything is a game to Kaeya. Politics, relationships, warfare– it’s all just a game that he likes to maneuver at his own leisure. Pursuing you? It’s both a game of cat and mouse, but there’s a little more at stake here than in other lesser circumstances due to his feelings. He enjoys watching you try your best to ignore him through your day to day, or to express your agitations to your friends and companions, and he enjoys swooping in at just the right moment to watch you adapt to the sudden surprise.
Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?
Should you ever try to defy Kaeya and end up in grave danger, be it at the wrath of a monster that prowls the wilderness surrounding Mondstadt or trying to trek up Dragonspine on your own just to test if he’ll really come and get you– he’ll be colder than ever. No response to jests or snide remarks. He’d deal with the threat with an alarming swiftness (a reminder of the true extent of his strength), throw you over his shoulder, and bring you back home to patch you up.
Every little thing would feel off about him. He’d set down the medical solutions too harshly. He wouldn’t speak. He’d try to touch you as little as possible. Any subsequent attempts to leave would quickly stop, and you’d find yourself lectured harshly about your own insecurities and flaws (an alarmingly detailed and accurate list reflecting just how well he knows you from his observations…). It’d pick at your own strength, your own autonomy, and everything from the truth of your outside relationships (secrets you weren’t supposed to know, like your best friend talks ill of you to others, or how you would have been fired from your job had Kaeya not intervened) to every flawed opinion you’ve ever held.
Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?
In his wildest dreams, you and him would be life partners spending your weekends sleeping in and fully enveloped in each other’s company. You’d cook together, you’d eat together, you’d sleep together, you’d be in every waking moment of his life so he’d never have to think about the most dreaded parts of himself ever again.
In practice, the closest to that he’ll get is you staying by his side, perhaps not without a little bit of coercion, but he’s willing to settle for it regardless. He cares about you, much more than he’s comfortable with. And holding onto that feeling with the hopes it’d fizzle out proved to be impossible. Now, all that’s left to do is keep driving you into his arms and hope that one day, you’ll find him an invaluable part of your daily routine. Even if you hated him in that future, he’d settle for watching you sleep in the early morning before work, and bringing you home food and gifts and taking you out to town and showing you off. He just needs you in his life.
Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?
He’s not a particularly jealous person at all. Should you have any interest in someone else? It’s easy enough to send that person running. Pay off a Treasure Hoarder to corner them on a street and threaten them, get them drunk and blabbing about secrets they shouldn’t have mentioned, spread a nasty rumour that they were caught doing condemn-able acts. Easy! And should anyone have any interest in you? Kaeya makes it clear enough every single day of his life that he fancies you, and is head over heels. The first thing he goes for on his breaks is you. The first thing he talks about is you. When he enters a room and you’re there, it takes only three seconds before some part of him is wrapped around you, and the citizens of Mondstadt know better than to challenge Kaeya’s claim on you.
Funnily enough, what makes him jealous are stupid things. When you won’t stop going on and on about something like a novel you read, and how infatuated with the protagonist you are, it has him tightening his jaw just a bit. It’s real people that Kaeya doesn’t care about. But fictional people? It has him just a bit upset that you don’t find him as alluring as the characters in books you happen to read.
Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?
Affectionate, but less like a smitten schoolboy and more like a devil you unwittingly made a pact with. On a good note, he listens to you (whether or not you want him to) and picks up all of your small habits, interests, and behaviors. On a worse note, he uses those against you frequently. Lures you in with a candle-lit dinner of your favored food (the bill? Already covered) and showers you in grand gestures fitted to both your preferences and as a statement to the general public (almost never does Kaeya resort to large flamboyant displays of affections in private). And of course, whenever he becomes irritatingly obtuse, that’s intentional. He likes to rile you up by knowing every part of you intricately (that way, he can poke here or twist there and watch your reactions mend to his entertainment).
Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?
He’s very forward with it. As soon as he realizes there’s an attraction to you, he feels it’d be a waste to not make it known. Whatever your reaction, he adapts. You push? He pulls. You lean into the flattery? He doubles it. Kaeya’s buying you drinks constantly, leaving flowers and romantic notes at your workplace, constantly trying to take you out to dinner or, ‘at the very least’, to get drinks.
Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?
Not especially. He’s guarded around everyone, and you are included in that. Kaeya’s ‘true colors’ are something you’ll never be privy to unless several years of dedicated effort go towards trying to have him break down his walls (something that can also be quickened by getting him wistful and drunk enough… especially on certain anniversaries and after arguments in passing with the owner of Angel’s Share).
Naughty: How would they punish their darling?
He becomes eerily quiet. At first, it appears he’s backing off from you. For a few days, you get the silent treatment and are coldly ignored both in public and in private. Observers would call it just a lover’s spat. This is the only short period wherein you can return to your life before Kaeya inserted himself in it, but it lasts only a few days before things begin to happen. Your belongings are stolen by thieves, your job begins to cut your hours, your rent is raised, monsters seem to throw themselves onto the paths you walk, and everyone in your life begs you to reconcile with Kaeya (the poor man seems so broken-hearted… everyone can tell you mean a lot to him… he’s just a shell of himself… why not kiss and make up?).
On his end, he’s still mad at you. Childishly upset, though he refuses to let that influence how he operates. All it takes it lining up a few events to have you crawling back to him and apologizing, and he’ll accept it. Paying off Treasure Hoarders to rob your house was well worth it when he has you back in his life, both of you now in foul brooding moods. With you at his side again, he’ll still take a few more days to warm up, but when he does, everything is back to normal as it was before. Chances are you wouldn’t even notice the tighter leash he’s keeping you on.
Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?
He doesn’t outright tell you what you can’t do. Kaeya enjoys giving suggestions and leaving implications as to what he prefers you do and don’t do. When you do something he doesn’t like, he tends to correct you like a dog. No, he doesn’t shame you or yell at you. Instead, he gives corrections. Leads your attention towards something else. Redirection can work just as well, if not better, than explicit dismissal.
He doesn’t want you leaving Mondstadt, for starters. Flirting with others? Not particularly something he minds. Sure, it’s irritating, but he knows you do it just to get under his skin and if he’s still on your mind, then that’s still a win. After all, when you go home, it’ll be with a dramatically disgruntled Kaeya who you have to appease (a scenario he quite enjoys when it comes to the salacious outcome after). Messing with illegal things is a 50/50 with him. If it’s Fatui, he’ll tug harder on the leash he keeps you on. If it’s the Treasure Hoarders or any other small-time ring of petty crime, he doesn’t care. In fact, he encourages it. It’ll give him better leverage over you at the end of the day. He’ll be the one keeping you out of jail.
Patience: How patient are they with their darling?
On a scale of 1-10, he’s somewhere between a six and an eight. It depends on the day, the circumstances, and your behavior. For most things, he’s willing to wait as long as he needs to until he gets his desired outcome. That includes many of his interactions with you. Although, that’s not to say he doesn’t get impatient from time to time. He’s only human. When he gets a bit antsy he has a habit of tapping his foot and/or drumming his fingers to both pass the time and to quell all rising irritations.
Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?
As flirtatious as Kaeya might be, he’s a one and done type of person. If you were to leave him and fully escape, he’d force himself to accept it. He wouldn’t pursue you across nation after nation like others would, or twist your arm to make you return. If you wanted to leave so badly, then it just solidifies one great fact about Kaeya: that he isn’t built for close personal relationships of any kind. If his father left, his brother left, and you left? He’s done with trying to pursue any type of serious committed relationship. The same would apply if you had died.
And while saying that, it is still true he’d be flirtatious and pursue others. But never seriously, only as occasional one night stands and other forms of quick intimacy that fill the itch in his skin for human contact while still being fleeting enough to avoid attachment.
Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?
He wouldn’t feel guilty in the slightest, nor would he let you go unless you managed to fully escape Mondstadt (i.e, his sphere of influence).
Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?
Insecurity mostly. Kaeya was a sweet and naive child as Adelinde liked to say, but he unfortunately grew into something much worse. Even still, buried deep within the flashy persona of the cool and suave Cavalry Captain, is that small child that wanted nothing more than to love others and to be loved in return. Most of his flirtations and previous drunken nights of intimacy have been a result of that want, just to feel the temporary high of someone’s skin on his without having to bear his whole heart and take down his walls. With you though, it’s a deeper craving for your affection. Something he can’t fully shake, and thus, needs to pursue the best he can. If it can’t go away on its own, he might as well take the risk and follow the way the current is taking him.
Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?
If it’s an intentional act of defiance, he doesn’t take it seriously. Silent treatment and crocodile tears don’t work with him. But genuine terror and sorrow?
Admittedly, that leaves him stumped. It feels… weird. Seeing you like that pulls a set of chords in him he never knew he had. It makes him feel helpless, and he can’t reach out in fear of making it worse. If it were anyone else, he’d be quicker to his feet. Unfortunately, the added complication is that commonly he would be the source of your fear, anger, and sadness– and how is he meant to comfort you if he’s the problem? And if he himself refuses to leave your side when you’re like this? That’s something even he hasn’t mastered quite yet.
Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?
Quite a bit. As previously said, he wouldn’t threaten family or friends to stay away from you, or kidnap you in the traditional sense. He likes to see you in your day to day life to maintain the illusion you’re there because you want to be (and that you want him). His actions are all dependent on his readings of you and your personality, behaviors, etc etc. Threatening and killing your family and friends wouldn’t be good for maintaining his reputation nor his golden image he tries to present to you. It’s all about appearances and politics.
Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?
Two things come to mind: start a family or coordinate with Diluc. Of the latter, it’d be a long time process due to Kaeya’s watchful eye. Because he lets you move around the city freely, it wouldn’t be too hard to catch Diluc during one of his shifts or simply out on the street running errands. What would be harder would be convincing him of Kaeya’s nefarious courting (regular courting he won’t interfere with… he’s simply too awkward to know what to do) and then figuring out what to do about it. Diluc is a busy man, but if he were fully convinced that Kaeya was masterminding your life for the worse of your health and happiness, he’d make the arrangements to get you out of Mondstadt and on your way to another nation. Why this wouldn’t work with other persons in Mondstadt is simple: everyone thinks too highly of Kaeya or otherwise wouldn’t believe he could be so malicious. And Diluc is the one person who you could collude with regularly and Kaeya wouldn’t immediately meddle with. At first, he likes that the two of you are communicating. It fulfils a desire of his to see you get along and soon, be the bridge for him to make idyllic amends with you as his spouse. In reality, however, he’d get suspicious of his brother. He knows him too well. He’d know if something was off.
As for the first one, ask to start a family or otherwise make it a repeated declaration. While Kaeya can admit he likes the idea of making a baby, and it gives him a jolt to think about watching the drip in the aftermath, he wouldn’t actually want a baby or any kind of family. There’s a mental block between the association of him and fatherhood, one that would take years to break down. It’d rattle him enough for you to slip away while he was distracted. And if a baby ever came to be, you’d have plenty of opportunities to run off while he spent the whole night staring over the crib, fully engulfed in his own muddled thoughts.
Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?
Not intentionally. If he were too rough, or accidentally knocked into you, or even let his control of his Vision waver enough, he’d panic. Him hurting you reminds him far too much of past experiences in childhood, ones that he’d rather not think about (his gaze always drifts unintentionally towards the direction of the winery when he does). Brute strength never was his style.
Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?
He’s in a weird place mentally. He’s a weird guy. He adores you, but doesn’t want to admit it as a genuine fact (though he will for the sake of flirtation or dirty talk). You’re so much better than him, and sweeter, and he often feels like he could hibernate for decades with his face buried in your neck. But a mental barrier simultaneously keeps him from indulging in fantasies of domesticity. Also known as, his weird thing about vulnerability.
And because he thinks so highly of you and has the insistent thought of loving you with his whole heart (something he tried to push away and drink away at first), it’s his plan to keep pursuing you until something changes. He knows you too well now, and isn’t it a waste to just let that expertise sit? When you pull away, he knows exactly how to chase without you snapping. It’s a dance to him, one he intends to finish with you in his arms.
Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?
Several months, at the least. Years at the most. He’s used to having a quick attraction to people, and usually going to bed with them does the trick. It’s easy intimacy and he doesn’t really feel anything deeper than surface level desire. There’s no want or need to learn their preferences. He doesn’t need to know the order they get dressed in the morning, or how they arrange their serveware, or the pitch in which they sneeze. But with you? When he starts to feel himself staring much longer than is superficial physical desire? He needs to take a walk.
It takes, at the very least, over a year for him to actually pursue you. He does everything to try and put it to rest. He ignores it, and finds excuses to avoid you but all it does is increase his longing and trick him into learning your schedule. Then, he drinks it away but ends up thinking about you as he’s deep in a random stranger at two in the morning. He’s a mess when it comes to you, while you’re none the wiser. Then, he decides he needs to find a way to you, just to see what will happen, and it spirals from there. Being in closer proximity to you is a drug he needs more and more of it, and soon he’s up to his chin in trivia about you.
Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?
Depends. He’d try not to by constantly dancing around you, switching your emotions and pushing your buttons, but with time it might happen anyway. Wear and tear happens naturally, and soon he’d one day be forced to realize that you barely react to anything anymore. Not your favorite things and not your most hated things. Even then, he’d stay by your side and lose his mind a bit trying to lighten your spirits before eventually settling into a quiet, morose routine with the shell of you that remains.
fascinated by amphoreus as it is now... very excited for the next stages of the main quest, but my first thoughts have gone to the possibility of a yn who is also a memokeeper, apprenticing under black swan... you go with your mentor with the astral express and decide to remain with them on their way to amphoreus, but you're there when the car goes down and crashes. traveling with them through this strange unknown world but you're a memokeeper-- you aren't bound by a physical body and you choose to separate momentarily from your nameless companions. only to end up accidentally ALSO breaking the rules of 'tell no one about the world beyond the sky'... because how can you not? you're not a physical body. you've pledged yourself to the memories of the universe. aglaea would need to see to it that you're kept in check... but maybe some others would be enticed by the stories of the universe, like phainon... perhaps something to do with your role as a record-taker of history, and phainon's current legend being in the making? could be interesting...
you know what would be really agonizing for albedo? finding out that rhinedottir took on an apprentice, similar to mona and her master. and if that apprentice came to mondstadt, and everything about them served as a glaring reminder that rhinedottir chose you, not him (for whatever reason he can't seem to fully grasp). and thus begins the period of his observations. what makes you a more ideal apprentice than him? what makes you tick? what hidden value is he not seeing that trumps his own as a functional homunculus? but of course, close observation of something can naturally induce some degree of fondness for it. except that fondness would be irreversibly intertwined with his own feelings of jealousy and inadequacy regarding his creator that he's yet to fully process on his own (much less when in regards to this new stranger he's enamored with for, of course, strictly professional and academic purposes. not anything else. of course.)
pros of having ruan mei as a partner: she'll test your dna for any genetic mutations, risk of disease, possible chronic conditions being carried, etc etc.
cons of having ruan mei as a partner: non-zero chance of her using your dna to then clone you and experiment with the clone by infecting it with various mutations and subjecting it to horrifying tests then showing you the end results
got lost on a crazy side quest, which is figuring out what the craziest combination of yandere cookie run x reader is and i realized: yn is a witch. which also begs a lot of questions. is it possible to have a character yearning obsessively for a reader who is their god and have it be enticing if they're COOKIES??? is there a market for that. would anyone read that
