Scholars’ Chit Chat Submission
Cyno x Reader (actually platonic, in a way I guess, study partners, but possibly romantic in the future)
*Lore dump warning; Spoilers for all the Archon Quests and speculations of Teyvat; Really it’s all serious talk
XXX
“Hey Cyno,”
The said male turned away from the book he was reading, and focused his attention on you instead.
“What’s the matter?”
“Do you believe in eternity?”
Surprised at your sudden question, the male went quiet for a few moments.
“You want my own opinion or an objective one?”
“As much as I would like to hear both, it’s almost lunch time. So I would like to hear your opinion first.”
Sighing at your carefree reply, Cyno closed the book he was reading shut.
“Well, I simply don’t. After all, all living things will come to an end, it is the law of the universe and the reason why they say time is money.”
“Well yeah, I mean, our former archon did die five hundred years ago...”
Puzzled at your deflated mood, Cyno realised that this question didn’t simply popped out of your mind, but rather something that you had been thinking hard about for quite some time.
“Why’d you ask, by the way? You worried about the future?”
“It’s normal to be worried or even sacred okay? This is the very reason why we seek knowledge in the first place. To survive is the natural instinct of humans, and curiosity stems out of it as we can predict the future with more known about the world...”
“And yet the world is so vast, and our lives are so short, but we can pass down our knowledge through our legacy... That is the most basic right of humanity...”
“Yet don’t you think that it is strange? The fact that it has been thousands are even more years that we humans had been existed, there isn’t much we know about the pre-archon war era?”
Cyno looked down as he realised what you said was true.
“Indeed, but there isn’t much we can do about it isn’t there?”
“That’s the problem!! Nobody questions about it and that’s what makes it fishy!”
You are... Quite the special type of student at Sumeru Academia, even though you do seek knowledge about the world you all reside in. Due to the lack of Mysticism studies you didn’t take part in, you were the type to question everything, even the principles that had been decided by the Academia for centuries.
But that’s what allows your breakthroughs in your findings in the past few years here. Rather than focusing on a particular study or field, you tackle anything that comes in your way. Becoming one of the people who had read the most books in this grand library of Sumeru Academia.
Cyno liked that part of you, new perspectives shed more light to the field and it never gets boring when you suddenly throw questions at him for no absolute reason.
“The part where you go ‘seeing is believing’ is the easiest way to deceive someone?” He guessed, letting out a small chuckle.
“Exactly!! ‘Show not tell’, because people believe in what they see so when they try to deceive someone they show what they want them to see.”
“Illusions, mirages... People get tricked so easily without asking their own rationality!”
“So what you’re trying to say is-“
“That we should question this world in the first place!”
‘Here we go again...’ Cyno thought, but he didn’t actually mind your rambling.
“First! Why do we have to trust the gods in the first place? *All we can do is observe the chess game that the gods are playing, we don’t know the rules of the game, but as soon as we speculate it long enough, we’ll be able to guess what the rules are.”
“But in the end, we won’t know if we understand all of the rules cause who can predict what happens in the future anyways?”
“But with Astrology-“
“Do. not. interrupt me.”
Ah, you were getting heated up.
“With enough information, anyone can predict the future, they say. But can we actually do it? We can’t! We’re human after all.”
“Which leads to the question of, why don’t the gods spill the beans if the really care about us so much? But they didn’t.”
“I know it’s hypocritical to judge gods through mortal standards, but I have evidence.”
“If the gods truly care for each single human being of Teyvat, then shouldn’t everyone have a Vision if they’re supposed to be the grace from the gods?”
“You’re saying that those without Visions are not important in the eyes of the gods?”
“Hah, as much as I prefer that they care for both, my instincts tell me that they don’t care for either of them for some reason...”
Cyno narrowed his eyes at your slightly hesitant answer.
“Is this about you not able to obtain a Vision for yourself?”
“Cyno, how many times have I told you? If I were to receive a Vision, I would have went all the way to the archon responsible and politely give it back to them.”
“Politely?”
“Alright, maybe throwing it in their faces before telling them off that I don’t need it.”
“Violent as always, my dear.”
“Elemental energy is not magic anyways, we all know that, and the Hexenzirkel doesn’t often share their findings about Irminsul either...”
“Your point is…?”
“What’s ’free’ is the most expensive, even hilichurls are a problem for normal humans, yet Vision holders see them as eyesores more than anything… Everything comes with a price, Cyno, and I believe that you understand that well.”
“Indeed,” he agreed with a sigh. “For knowledge, we sacrifice time and our energy for it. And the culmination of many scholars forms this very library we are in.”
“The crystallisation of human knowledge, or so I recalled,” you agreed with a huff “but what if that’s the gods want us to believe in? Away from their true purposes in order to keep humanity under the reigns?”
“…”
“You angry? Sorry, I know that it’s disrespectful to judge on people’s faith like this, but I just can’t help but worry about the future when something big is about to happen…”
“N-no, I don’t mind, it’s just-“
“Explaining is concealing and concealing is the truth, go on.”
Cyno realised something, despite you knowing he has a Vision himself, you had come up with theories about the secrets about Visions, mostly concerning ones actually. But he understands it is a way of you caring for him, there are rumours about those who have Visions would one day disappear from the world.
You were scared that one day he would go somewhere that you cannot follow.
But as your partner, he has no intentions of it until you finally seek the answers you had longed for.
“The Geo Archon’s passing, Mondstadt’s Knights of Favonius incapable of fully stopping the Fatui, the electro Archon Baal stopped giving out Electro Visions since last year… Not to mention the Fatui following the Tsarista’s orders by any method of sort…” Cyno listed out. “Yes… It is all quite alarming…”
“But that promise we made the day we met, I have no intention of breaking it.”he reminded with a soft smile on his face.
“I am, your partner in crime after all.”
…
“Here you are again, saying things like that so easily…” you huffed, trying to contain your happiness from his words.
“Until the day I make the gods confess their intentions, I’m not letting you go anywhere without me!”
Seeing you back in your normal mood, the male smiled in relief, all that’s left is to lift your spirits up a bit more.
“I’ll treat you something sweet for lunch, what do you want?”
“W-Wha?! Umm…”
Seeing you flustered at his sudden question, Cyno knows that he had succeeded as you mumble under your breath about what you should pick.
‘Don’t worry too much about the future, try focus on what we have right now, alright?’
‘We are raging treason against the very laws of this world after all, so please allow me to enjoy such little time with you, my dear.’
XXX
I don’t know what I’m writing… QAQ
Exiled, if you want I can make a few more short dribbles about this (well mostly about how they meet and other stuff they think about-)
-lies on ground-
-and dies out of embarrassment-
-snowdrop, out
ANY CYNO CONTENT IS GOOD CONTENT, BUT THAT LORE DUMP WAS NICE AND REFRESHING. YES SNOWDROP, I DO WANT EM GIMME