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cmo post
▼ pre!death scenarios ▼
➼ guizhong takes X to meet her people
when she's about to teach them something
➼ hurt/comfort after a fight
▼ death scenarios ▼
➼ seeing guizhong get corrupted
➼ last conversation
▼ post!death scenarios ▼
➼ guizhong visiting X as a spirit
➼ X meeting guizhong's reincarnation
(not ningguang though)
i don't mind at all!
[She hums soothingly to him, just as she had so long ago when they sat together in fields of glaze lilies. Back then, he had been so innocent. A warrior god, yes, and all too knowledgeable of all the horrors of battle, but so innocent in terms of how deep and complicated emotions can run. Now, over the course of thousands of years, he's run the full gambit of them— and as much as it pains her to see him suffering from it, as much as it's eroding away at him, Guizhong knows that this is part and parcel of what he's been searching for all this time. Experiencing all these things is precisely what needed to happen in order for him to understand and feel empathy for their people.
She shifts, and then she's right in front of him, watercolor blue eyes warm despite her ghostly form. Now that he's aware of her, she feels a little bit of strength coming to her, his Geo energy resonating with the traces of her spirit enough that she can answer him properly. If only she could do more than comfort him with words and barely-there touches. But if she's only allowed a brief return to this world, she wants to leave knowing that she's lightened his heart, even it's just a little. So Guizhong gently cups his face in her hands, sets her forehead to his.]
Liyue's current prosperity and strength is the answer to your uncertainties of our people's wellbeing. And as for forgiving you...there is nothing that I need to forgive, beloved. The things you've done and the choices you've made for our people...the very fact that you are questioning yourself after putting our people before your wants and needs for thousands of years. That is the mark of neither a god nor a ruler, but a good person.
[She smooths her thumbs over his skin and brushes back his bangs, hoping to ease the bitter tension in his expression as she speaks.]
All people are messy and full of contradictions...and they have moments where they fall outside of the laws and morals they've aligned with. But it is a good person who perseveres despite all of that, and strives to live with honor and kindness despite the mistakes he may make and the hesitation he feels.
Beloved...you are a good person. You've done so much for so long. Liyue and I could not ask for more from you.
<3
...Even if along with that comes the indescribable despair and loneliness of her last moments in his life. Zhongli wants to ask if she is afraid, if she is lonely, but he knows if anything of those things were confirmed to be true he wouldn't be able to keep himself living. It's hard enough now, so very hard to keep the conviction when he knows she's there just on the other side for him to be with again. It's so much easier to give in, to want to sink into darkness for eternity than open his eyes to a new day.
"You say the most beautiful things," he sighs, convinced that if it was any other person speaking the same words they would do nothing for him. There's a short pause before he speaks again. "I truly believe in our people to continue forward. Their power and resolution is greater than I could have hoped for." Seeing them send Osial back to the depths was heartening, but the matter of the Fatui and Tsaritsa's goals still loom, should become corrupted. Perhaps, more problematic than that, however, is the Abyss lurking in the shadows, where he had hardly heard of them for some time now. The Traveler, he knows their face, remembers their sibling all too well, and... what will that ultimately mean for Teyvat as they continue to seek out the remaining Seven?
"There are things, however, from 500 years ago, restless and opportunistic that even I cannot forsee the nature of. I wish to not bear witness to any more of my failures."
Losing Guizhong was enough, losing their people due to his overconfidence and desperation to let his life come to an end would be desolating to every piece of his existence.
"Have you been truly watching this entire time?"
had a con over the weekend but now i'm back for tagging~
[She is dust, after all. Dust, and dead. One speck, one hundred specks, even one thousand specks of dust amounts to nothing of substance, her sense of self flung out too far and wide to maintain without strong incentive or help. And to linger too long in the world of the living is dangerous in its own right, when thousands of malevolent spirits left over from the Archon Wars still haunt Liyue's peaks and vales. If she were seized by one of them— Archons forbid, if she were to become one! Her love for her people would turn to hatred, her consideration to deadly, deranged obsession. Nothing, save her beloved Zhongli or the silently dutiful Xiao, would be capable of stopping her, and she would sooner disappear for good than put them through that agony.
No, better to drift, as dust ought to. Better to be here but never be present, to exist but never live. Until such time that Zhongli can join her in the beyond, this is how things should be, a delicate balance maintained. And moments like this, when their worlds are allowed to twine closer than usual— they are to remain the rare, bittersweet exception, and she can only do her best to offer him what wisdom and affection she can, in the limited time she has.]
If our people wanted a seer, they would've made someone else their liege lord. Don't dwell on the unknown future, beloved. Enjoy what you have now, so that you'll fight all the harder to save it when the beast of the past rears its head. [She presses a finger to his lips to silence him, anticipating that he would compare the now to back then, when he couldn't save her. Though she was never a seer herself, the words seem a prophecy now as she says them, soft and low:] You will not fail. In your darkest hour, you will find guidance; in your most difficult struggle, clarity; and in your victory, redemption. With his people and allies at his side, the Lord of Geo will conquer the lands once again, for the sake of all of Teyvat.
[And then she tilts her head ever so slightly, gentle in her teasing.]
And I would rather hear about how you've spent your present days in Liyue, besides. Tell me, how was the Lantern Rite this year?