cmo post

[dustodust]

ꕥ suggestions ꕥ

▼ 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)

Comments

<3

[fortify]

Even without a physical form, Guizhong's touch is succour, her eyes wielding the only liquid able to quench the thirst of one long lost in the desert where there is not a drop water to be found. It's been so long since he's last felt her touch, that even at its weakest due to their forms it becomes a lifeline— if his memory is to erode to nothing along with his body in time, the last of his memories he wishes lose are all of her.

...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~

[dustodust]

When I am able.

[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?