Gnaw (2)
(Warnings: same as the previous chapter, found here.)
One of the largest issues with going from a simulated Teyvat to an actualized Teyvat is the sheer size.
The bridge outside of Mondstadt, which takes the Traveler like fifteen seconds to cross in a sprint? That's a good two minutes of walking at the least.
The rest of Mondstadt is massive, too, of course, but it's absolutely gorgeous. Perfect grass, clear rivers and ponds, rather imposing cliffs...
Maybe the people are a little unfriendly, but hey! The land itself makes up for your now-in-the-negatives social life.
Besides, this much air and sunlight are probably a good thing. You aren't too hot, there isn't like half of a forest worth of pollen up your nose, the breeze is really nice, and nobody's come to try and maul you!
As far as sightseeing tours go, this ain't the best. But it'll do.
Plus, you're pretty sure that the theoretical tour guide probably wouldn't let you pull up all the dandelions you wanted and blow on them to make their seeds go everywhere.
There's a faint gnaw in the pit of your stomach. You've eaten some berries, a carrot you found in a crate, and another Sunsettia, but you just can't shake the feeling.
The best way your mind can think to describe it is that your teeth are dissatisfied. You didn't do enough with this meal. It just sorta happened.
Perhaps you're going insane.
(On a distant cliff, the wind brings your breathing to an Archon, who sets down his lyre and raises a bow.)
There is a faint whistle on the air, one you swear you've heard before. Then it hits you - the sound of an arrow!
By some instinct, you hurl yourself aside, slamming into the grass and dirt.
A brilliant arrow is lodged into the ground at an angle that would have firmly made itself at home in the back of your skull. Had you not just launched yourself aside, you would be dead.
And then you hear another whistle.
You scramble up onto your feet and take off in a dead sprint. Anemo-powered arrows narrowly miss you four times as you zig-zag and duck behind stones or trees.
...you think you know who this is, or at least have a damn good idea.
Venti. Barbatos. Tone-deaf bard. Alcoholic lyre dude. That one.
You curse him out under your breath. The arrows seem to be coming faster all of a sudden.
The next arrow doesn't come down with a whistle. It comes down with a scream. The Anemo-charged arrow, cloaked in a blade of wind, pierces your back and launches you through the woodlands with enough force to demolish trees like matchsticks.
You skid to a stop, a fine path of devastation and upturned soil behind you, and your head lolls up on a shattered neck to stare blankly into the sky as you slip away into darkness.
(Dendro hisses at the other elements, their vast roots curling in anger. "We should have kept them out until this was solved!"
The others say nothing. Talking will do little to protect you, and those who raise their hands against you must be punished.)
Barbatos has a nightmare that night, after killing the one who stole the face of the World-Shaper.
He has been torn from his false face, cast into the heart of a vast hurricane, the wind itself screaming in hatred and rage, every whisper now purely poisonous. Every failure mocked, every mistake repeatedly shoved into his face, and every sin accounted for.
The wind wails, slipstreams like claws raking across his elemental flesh, battering him as he's tossed from gust of wind to gust of wind.
(He is unaware that to any observer, it would look like he was a rather hated captive ball in the world's most esoteric pinball machine.)
A voice tears itself from the monstrous storm around him, echoing in the bone-shuddering blasts of thunder.
Vile little wisp! You would dare to raise a hand against the divine most holy, our maker?!
He doesn't understand, and any chance he'd have to think or speak is repeatedly knocked from his head as he crashes into walls of wind firm enough to be stone.
Immense pressure crushes down around him, stalling him in place as if grasped in the enormous hand of a titan, and he cries out at it squeezes.
He looks up as he tries in vain to wriggle and flee, and he sees. Every part of him freezes in horror.
I am Anemo. The embodiment of sky, of breath. I am the Taker of Voices.
He is brought closer to the core of light at the center of the apocalyptic current.
I had such hope for you. A God of Freedom, one who would see the oppressed liberated from their miseries! One who would cast the sadness and hatred from his people to the winds, where they would be forgotten!
One who would spread the laughter of the First Breath to all corners of this world.
One who would be their protector, hearing misfortune on the winds and striking down those who would spell disaster for us all with the wrath of a great storm.
But you have failed. You have taken up arms against the one you were made to cherish with hatred in your heart.
You have forgotten your own freedom. The freedom to think for yourself, to act without orders. To go against what is known down a new path.
He cries out as some kind of tether is cut from his body, ripped away into the vortex.
You are my Archon no more. I shall find one more suitable to the task.
Perhaps in time, the Maker will find you pitiable enough to reinstate you as my envoy to Teyvat.
Enjoy your freedom, Venti of Mondstadt.
He plummets, the wind abandoning him entirely. The ground opens, a ravenous maw, stones and bedrock ground down like sharp fangs, and he falls into a lightless darkness.
He wakes, screaming and sobbing in equal measure.
He cannot feel the wind. He cannot hear it.
At his side, the light of the false Vision gutters out, dimming until not even a spark of Anemo remains within.
(Within a frozen palace, the light of the Anemo Gnosis dulls, waiting for a host to be chosen anew.)
consciousness returns to you in bits and pieces, your entire body an immense ache. Your joints are so sore you can barely move them without feeling the urge to weep.
Your nose is filled with the scent of the ocean. You can hear waves, and ever so faintly, the calls of birds. You feel safer here, somehow, as though this place is devoid of other intelligent beings.
Your eyes close again, body exhausted and unable to resist the siren call of unconsciousness in a space without threats.
On your back is a new scar, a spiral of gold starting between your shoulderblades and reaching out towards your ribs.
(Gnaw Taglist:
@the-dumber-scaramouche @iruiji @itz-luna @itsredactedlove @thatdeadaquarius @ssak-i @imyme20 @crierofirony
Thank you all very much for your interest.)
