#sometimes i'm creative

[et-tenebrae-odium]

[redbeautyskimmonsftw]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I made myself busy tonight and fulfilled a prompt :)

Hope you all enjoyed it.. This definitely freed a little space in my brain..

Please comment and what not.. let me know what you think!

[isnt-it-pretty]

It's surprising to me how many fic authors headcanon Kaeya as a sickly kid but a super (physically) healthy adult.

A lot of people I know who spent a big chunk of their childhood sick turned out to have an underlining chronic illness, whether it was there all along or likely triggered by the constant illness is debated and not always clear cut.

I'm not saying people should headcanon one way or another, but I think it's interesting to see the disconnect. If it's because he couldn't become a knight with a chronic illness then I raise you to knowledge that most people don't even realize they have a chronic illness until young adulthood. By then, Kaeya would habe already been a knight for years, and with Crepus dead, Diluc gone, and Jean taking on more responsibility under Varka, who would notice?

Am I just saying this because I want more works with chronically ill Kaeya? Maybe. But it's still interesting to see.

[isnt-it-pretty]

I've made the executive decision that Kaveh is chronically ill, and that's why he's poor. He ignored his health and ran himself into the ground, trying to pretend he wasn't sick until he physically couldn't anymore.

It makes more sense than him somehow owing Dori money for the house he built for Dori. If he owes her money, it's because he borrowed it to cover living expenses expecting to be able to pay it back when he got better, but he never got better.

So now he lives with Alhaitham and tries his best to pretend his body isn't falling apart.

Alhaitham would be so pissed when he finds out because what do you mean Kaveh just never fucking told him-

(My other post about chronically ill Kaveh)

[isnt-it-pretty]

Alhaitham/Kaveh fake marriage fic concept:

Alhaitham doesn't get along with his parents. They have expectations for him that he doesn't care about, and he is exhausted by them. They're the stereo typical "our son is successful" type of parents and take credit for his accomplishments. They are also desperate to see Alhaitham settle down with a partner.

When they show up unannounced at his house with a list of "perfect" matches (men and women bc no homophobia in my fics), Alhaitham weighs the pros and cons of arguing with them and decides to introduce Kaveh as his husband because it takes less effort. Kaveh being Kaveh thinks this is hilarious and rolls with it. When Alhaitham's parents leave, they both assume it's the end of it.

It isn't.

Alhaitham's parents are devastated to have missed the wedding ("we eloped") and, upon figuring out Kaveh is famous, start bragging about their son-in-law. Things start spiralling but maintaining the lie is still less effort than telling the truth because if they find out Alhaitham lied, they will be even more intolerable. So Alhaitham dives head first into the most logically twisted scheme he can think of and drags Kaveh along for the ride-- all the avoid his parents' awkward matchmaking.

They're stuck doing stuff like forging a backdated marriage certificate that Alhaitham has to sneak into the archives to file. Kaveh has to convince Cyno to sign off on paperwork for something (Akademiya protocol for married couples?). Figuring out their meeting and first date stories, practicing holding hands and kissing because they can't look like they've never done it before. Staging photos of their relationship to show his parents.

Kaveh, in his third outfit swap for taking pictures: "Is this really less effort than just being honest?"

Alhaitham, halfway through setting up the Kamera: "Yes."

And, well, if you do something enough, it eventually becomes the truth. Kaveh catches feelings, unknowing that Alhaitham has been ignoring his own sentiments the entire time.

[isnt-it-pretty]

If Cyno lost a limb, Kaveh and Tighnari would team up to invent automail for him (the prosthetics used in Fullmetal Alchemist).

Kaveh spending days without sleep drafting and redrafting plans, getting Tighnari's help to map the nerve endings correctly. They talk about the possibilities of a prosthesis while Cyno sleeps beneath a healthy dose of morphine, the remainder of his limb swaddled in bandages.

He talks to matra and eremites to pin down what exactly it needs to do for Cyno to be able to fight. He troubleshoots which wires to use, how to power it, and how to keep it from getting too heavy. What can he do to keep the metal from scorching Cyno's skin in the desert? To keep it from rusting in the rainforest's humidity?

Tighnari sends letters back and forth and adjusts Kaveh's blueprints to be more anatomically correct. He points out problems Kaveh hadn't considered because biology was never his strong suits, and contacts surgeons to help develop ways to attach it since that part isn't one Tighnari can do himself.

They don't tell Cyno because they don't want him to get his hopes up, but they spend weeks trying to make it perfect.

When it's done, they show Cyno the prototype-- a metal limb that matches his aesethic with lines of purple and gold. Or maybe it matches his staff instead. It's still heavier than they'd like, and there are other problems they haven't been able to solve, but they think it will work. And Cyno? He was resigning himself to the knowledge that he could never do his work again. They gave him his life back.

When the traveller arrives in Sumeru a few years later, Cyno's limb is a few versions out from the original prototype. It doesn't slow him down much, although they never quite found a way to make it suitable for the desert-- it means he's grumpy and overheated in the sun, but he'll take that over not being there at all.

[isnt-it-pretty]

Imagine an AU where Cyno has Eleazar.

He wouldn't tell anybody-- not even Tighnari-- and he would destroy himself to not let it affect his work.

Just think of all the potential. Him hiding it by taking medication and pushing himself through the pain and exhaustion. Collapsing in his apartment, tremoring through agonizing flares before forcing himself up in a fevered haze to work. Walking along the knife's edge where half a step in either direction will be a disaster. Forcing his body beyond its limits over and over, knowing that it's only a matter of time before he can't. But who would care? Cyno's only worth is his ability.

Tighnari knowing something is wrong but not knowing what. He doesn't know how bad it is, either, since the rainforest eases symptoms of Eleazar. But Cyno is an asshole(affectionate) who would die before admitting weakness, and no matter how much Tighnari wants to know, he can't force Cyno to tell him anything.

Meeting Collei and deciding she can never know the truth. She needs strong adults in her life, and showing that he's just as sick as her wouldn't help.

But you can't hide these things forever.

The samsara making everything worse until Cyno can barely function. He continues forcing himself so far beyond his limits that his body gives out. Collapsing mid-fight and ending up in the hospital in Sumeru, horrifying all the doctors that he could still function while so sick.

Tighnari hearing rumours or being told about it and going to find out it's true-- that Cyno had one foot in the grave. Cyno is so exhausted he just sleeps, so weak he can barely move. Feverish, in pain, and barely lucid. Tighnari is willing to fight the sages to take Cyno back to Gandharva Ville in desperate hopes that it will help because his medicine works better.

There's just so much potential here.

Edit: it's done.

[isnt-it-pretty]

"There's a child trapped in the depths of the Akademiya, young and afraid-- cursed with a power that no child should hold. It's enough to draw Nahida's attention."

Hear me out. AU where Nahida meets little Cyno as he's experimented on by the Akademiya, similar to how Dunyarzad met her in her dreams.

She feels like a kindred spirit with Cyno. They're both trapped, but she's also so upset that she can't help him. The best she can do is shape his dreams to be more pleasant, taking him by the hand to draw him away from the horrors and toward places neither of them have ever been, but Nahida has seen (like we saw in 2.8 for GAA). Mondstadt, Liyue Harbor, The Grand Narukami Shine. She tells him stories of all these lands, like Venessa and the Four Winds of Mondstadt, or Kitsune Saguu. She spends the nights painting him the most colourful of dreams. She listens to his thoughts of hopelessness, of how she's his only friend-- the only kindness he's ever received.

Eventually, Cyno is taken in by Cyrus. The experiments stop, but so do his dreams. Nahida still checks in on his thoughts, though, just to make sure he's safe. He follows Cyrus to the Akademiya like a lost duckling, jumping at shadows and twisting the fabric of his clothes between anxious fingers. He's shy and quiet and perpetually vigilant, but he learns Lisa-- one of Cyrus' students-- is from Mondstadt. So he approaches her of his own accord to ask about stories. Lisa is surprised. As far as she knew, her professor's son didn't talk to anybody, but she likes children well enough. She tells him stories from her memory, Venessa being his favourite because she was trapped too.

Cyno believes he spoke to the dendro archon, but he doesn't talk about it. He asked Cyrus, once, why Lesser Lord Kusanali never leaves her sanctuary, but Cyrus had no good answer. He remembers the way Nahida understood him, and so he suspects the truth-- she can't leave. It doesn't stop his quiet devotion, even if he never speaks of it. He loves the Grand Bazaar for that.

When he's older, Cyno briefly considers Haravatat as his darshan, but Spantamad is where his interests lie. Besides, Haravatat won't focus on stories the way he'd like. He can't help but pick up a few classes, though.

Even as a matra, and eventually the General Mahamatra, he can't find any information about Lesser Lord Kusanali. In fact, the only one he ever speaks of it to is Tighnari.

It's quiet in Gandharva Ville, and Cyno asks in a tone of voice Tighnari has never heard, "what do you think of the gods?" Tighnari never put much thought into them at all. He says as much, and asks what Cyno thinks. And, well, how could Tighnari not love a god who gave his partner hope? (Years later, when the traveler comes looking, Tighnari directs them to the Grand Bazaar.)

The quest itself doesn't change much, but the first time Nahida and Cyno speak alone, he thanks her. He may have helped save her, but she saved him long before that.