So this is inspired by 💜-anon’s asks (Amazing work btw! Love the angst with TB-to-Illuga!MC and the crack with Himeko!MC) and a small bit from two fics I’ve recently come across.
So basically, Trailblazer!MC has almost the same life as TB-to-Illuga!MC, but instead of ending up in Teyvat they go back in time with the rest of the HSR world. Now, Amphoreus does go a little differently. Long story short, Amphoreus immediately picks up on how the Nameless treat Trailblazer!MC and they do not like it. At all.
Phainon picks up on the bad vibes the first time they met, as did Tribbie. Dan Heng wouldn’t let TB!MC talk or go anywhere without him, keeping a tight grip on their arm as he dragged them around. TB!MC’s silence and inaction was a red flag to the people of Amphoreus - even some of the refugee children picked up on it. (They were too used to others inaction and unwillingness to help. They were resigned to the hurt.)
Getting to Okhema, Dan Heng is… displeased that TB!MC could manipulate time, and quietly told them that they would talk later. The Tribbies saw that. Mydeimos picks up on Phainon’s unease about Dan Heng and TB!MC and did their roundabout way of talking/gesturing to try and find out what was going on. He’s the Kremnoan Prince, Mydeimos would need to know body language if he wanted to survive. Castorice would at first assume TB!MC’s twitchiness would be because of her presence, but quickly notices that they flinch whenever Dan Heng moves too abrubtly near them. (Like they’re expecting to be hit)
Aglaea figures out TB!MC is abused immediately, Phainon didn’t even need to indicate or say anything. Her Strings are her sight, and you can’t lie to her - the strings can tell the difference. So when she tries to separate Dan Heng and TB!MC to talk to them about being from beyond the sky, she knows Dan Heng lied when he said that TB!MC was a danger who needed to be under constant watch. Even if Dan Heng believed it, her strings could tell that TB!MC was nothing but a terrified victim of abuse. (It doesn’t matter if they are “a Stellaron pretending to be human”, they are a victim and Aglaea will not let that stand in her city.)
Aglaea does manage to talk to TB!MC alone - Phainon keeping an eye on Dan Heng (He noticed Aglaea becoming colder towards the “Trailblazer”, it confirms his suspicions. Luckily he’s a good enough actor to keep Dan Heng unknowing.) - but she was gentler (especially when seeing the scars hidden by TB!MC’s clothes - there’s a difference between scars acquired from fighting and protecting oneself) and understanding/disquieted when TB!MC said they can’t promise anything since DH wouldn’t listen to them. She tries to hint to TB!MC that if they’re being hurt she’d be willing to help, but TB!MC pretends not to notice the hints.
Aglaea makes sure that the two don’t share a room in the baths, using their ignorance of Okhema’s customs and a guard shift to make sure of it. Phainon has already mentally adopted TB!MC - that’s his baby sibling now.
After that, while Dan Heng and TB!MC are exploring the city, Aglaea has them tailed and does not like what she sees. Nor do the Chrysos Heirs she talks to, or the citizens of Okhema who see them exploring. The duo visit the Dromas stables and that’s when the citizens of Okhema (and beyond) definitively become distrustful and cold towards Dan Heng. The dromases lock in on the two as soon as they enter, with the Okhema herd leader stepping between the two to separate them. He picks up TB!MC by their collar and deposits them with the recently hatched dromases and then refuses to let Dan Heng close. The mothers also stand between him and TB!MC. Anyone who knows anything about dromases know what this means about a person. (The Heretic of the Grove has been known to kill people who set off dromases like this. They always deserve it.)
Hyacine is a doctor and psychologist (and a bunch of other things if I remember canon right), so she notices what’s up immediately and makes sure to have frequent check ups with TB!MC. Anaxagoras is Anaxagoras and the only reason he doesn’t kill Dan Heng immediately upon seeing how the dromases react to him is because he’s injured. And then in Okhema he’s busy with canon events. (Cerces encourages him to murder. She’s disappointed that they “die” before they can kill Dan Heng.) Cipher makes Dan Heng’s life harder in subtle ways, and Cyrene (and Mem) are cold towardds him from the get-go.
Basically, Amphoreus are the original HatersTM of the Express and Dan Heng and March 7th/Evernight are lucky they survived Amphoreus. Both the Chrysos Heirs and ordinary citizens were out for blood. Unfortunately Amphoreus still needed a little more time for it to become physical, so TB!MC was alone and once again surrounded by people only looking to hurt and control them. It’s what pushed them over the edge.
When TB!MC explodes their Stellaron and end up back in time, they remember the last timeline and manage to hide before the Nameless find them (Though there were a few close calls). In the chaos of the Antimatter Legion attack they manage to steal a ship and flee Herta Station. They still end up an emanator of Destruction when they get their Stellaron under control under their own will and power. (Nanook seems… softer this time. TB!MC doesn’t want to think about why.)
Their ship was (somewhat unsurprisingly) one of the newest models of research ship (courtesy of Asta), but still managed to be homely, the cat-cakes that snuck into the ship certainly helped. Trash-cake was there and alive, as well as (somehow) the Amphoreus cat-cakes and Akivimeow. All remembered the last timeline and refused to let TB!MC be hurt again.
Unsure of where to go, TB!MC travels aimlessly for a while, keeping an eye out for the Nameless and other people they “knew”. So it was quite the shock when Aha shows up in an explosion of glitter and confetti, calling them “little-Akivili”. THEY are rather rambunctious, but from what TB!MC can understand, THEY were keeping others from remembering and finding them. Aha also makes them an emanator (can’t decide if their mask should be styled after a raccoon or after Khaslana’s wings 🤔).
Shortly after that, Qlipoth shows up when Aha visits again, having sensed the remnants of their Paths from last timeline. THEY had gotten curious and remembered as soon as they saw TB!MC again. So now TB!MC is an emanator of the Preservation again - amber jewellery (earring?) showing Qlipoth’s favour. (The IPC know of another emanator, but can’t find them, no matter how hard they look. An Amber Stoneheart would be great PR, especially directly from Qlipoth THEMSELVES)
Xipe also appears and makes TB!MC THEIR emanator, before directing them to Amphoreus with a comment that they’d be happy there. (The Family also has issues finding the favoured by Xipe emanator of Harmony. Sunday is not helping them)
Amphoreus is… different when TB!MC arrives. The flight there would have been impossible had Fuli not shown up to carry them through the nebula and space debris (after making TB!MC their emanator again). All pathways to this area of space seemed to have disappeared from all systems (Memokeepers don’t usually get rid of information, but what their aeon wants, THEY get. They’re more confused why the Harmony and Destruction are helping. And why they hear the occasional, faint and overlapping with anothers, laughter.)
TB!MC breath catches as they see a Planet where the Scepter should be. They let out a sob when they see a winged black and gold figure flying towards them. Amphoreus remembered and welcomed them home.
After the reunions (Phainon is not letting his baby sibling go), TB!MC gets the full story of how Amphoreus was already real and tangible, with Lygus and Irontomb already dealt with.
From what they could tell, when TB!MC’s Stellaron exploded and turned back time, the energy output was so large that it impacted the Scepter, which with it’s time-looping function and the half-real state of Amphoreus meant that everybody native to the land remembered as soon as it happened. Everybody except Lygus, which made dealing with him much easier. The leftover energy from the Stellaron explosion/time travel was enough to speed up Amphoreus’ manifestation by a lot, and TB!MC arrived just as they were discussing how to get them away from the Express.
Onto the small bit inspired by two fics! The concept of them was that Phanes = Phainon, which I thought was cool. (There’s also a lot of videos about this theory but I haven’t watched those)
So my thought to incorporate that in this was the following:
Phanes is a fragment of Phainon pre-Trailblaze intervention
Phanes is the Phainon of another scepter who escaped Zandar’s bullshit by destroying his scepter
Phanes is Phainon from after TB!MC destroyed themselves and split off from Phainon in the time travel
Whichever idea it is, I thought we could have Teyvat try and find the Heavenly Principles weakness or whatever with a scrying spell and they instead open a portal/two way screen onto Amphoreus, where they see Phainon/Khaslana (burst form) with TB!MC. They come to the wrong(?) conclusion that Phanes is like that because his little sibling was hurt/killed.
Maybe TB!MC can see the scrying spell? Would be amusing to have Teyvat and Amphoreus connected. I think Sumeru having to deal with Anaxagoras would be amusing. Proud heretic who insults gods to their faces and who technically could be a deity but just refuses to be one. My blorbo. I want him to meet Saurians.
There’s also interesting parallels between Teyvat and Amphoreus (Tree/Grove of Knowledge, Draconic gods of Earth, Previous gods being killed by their successors (kinda), etc.
I'm living for protective Chrysos Heirs and just protective Amphoreus in general. They saw Trailblazer!MC, and the planet unanimously adopted the hurt bean.
I LOVED every single part of the Chrysos Heirs plus Amphoreus' population protecting Trailblazer!MC from Dan Heng/March 7th/Evernight. From the heirs, regular citizens, and even the Dromas!
Of course, it was sad when Trailblazer!MC had to leave cause Amphoreus wasn't real... yet, and then they just couldn't take it anymore, and you know what happened...
But at least now they had a second chance! They evaded the Nameless and even Herta's Space station detection! They were free!
And they even recollected all their powers from before as the Aeons also remembers them! Soft Nanook? Ah, they adore Trailblazer!MC too~
Ans Amphoreus! It's real! And everyone on the planet rememberd and welcomed Trailblazer!MC home! Ahhhhh! 😭
But sides that... the Genshin Impact Crossover idea. Ooohhh! Here we go! I say we do the 3rd path, cause this makes me think of several ideas why Phanes did what he did.
Cause imagine he remembers Dan Heng. Remembers that Dan Heng, his little sibling's abuser... was a dragon. And Nibelung and his Sovereigns were dragons.
You can see where I'm going with this.
Oh, and I would love to see what kind of interactions Teyvat and Amphoreus would have! Anaxagoros would be a hoot for Nahida and Sumeru to deal with like you said, but I can't help but imagine Nahida finding him funny.
...Oh, and I wonder if Teyvat happens to listen in on the whole issue with a group called the 'Nameless' and get the basic gist that they're bad people who caused Trailblazer!MC die originally... and that one of them was a dragon.
I need Neuvillette to put the puzzle together then on why Phanes acted as he did back when he arrived in Teyvat... ah, that makes sense... 😰
Also, yes, before I forget, Anaxa needs to see a Saurian. It's a must. And Trailblazer!MC needs to see on to! Hey, we can trade cute animal pics! Like see! We got Dromas and Chimeras, and even Cake Cats, can we see these Saurians, please? 🥺
Tagging: @platinumrosetail, @arn9tails, @bloodytea, @lovelyjane-stuff
