( closed ) how do we breathe, how do we climb

[unalign]

WHO: Lumine + others
WHERE: Shadowlands, and then various places in Stygia
WHEN: December
WHAT: event shenanigans + notice board things
WARNINGS: blanket warning for event-related stuff, possible spoilers for the sumeru updates

[ ooc: closed starters will go here. if you want a custom starter, send me a PM or comment on my plotting post and let's hash things out. ]

Comments

[unalign]

[ archons help her.

lumine refuses to answer that question, nope, and quickly takes advantage of childe resuming his preoccupation, striding towards the further end of the hall to where the bookshelves have fallen over. that should keep the coin quiet for a long while as long as distance is maintained. she lifts one of them, pushing the structure back against the wall as carefully as she can to keep it from falling over her.

picking up the fallen books one by one, ] I did promise Teucer that we'll play again ...

[ when she gets to snezhnaya, that is. if the country even allows her entry, given her status and the atrocities she's so far committed again the fatui organization. she wouldn't be surprised if she turned out the same as diluc: a persona non grata. ]

So it's only inevitable that I'd meet them along with him.

[ she's not very good with kids, and teucer's antics in liyue shaved a few centuries off of her life as it did his brother's. but it isn't as if she hasn't dealt with them. if anything, she preferred playing with the liyuen kids as a commission over doing everyone else's chores. ]

[lackluster]

[ There are no Archons here to show her any mercy. It's just Childe and his ever-so-unpredictable whims. Luckily for her, it seems the topic of his siblings is enough to make him behave for the time being. Maybe it's because just talking about them is dragging out a gnawing feeling that he's been trying to ignore.

His Shadow cuts through the noise, asking him what makes him think they'd want him back even if he crawled his way out of here. He tries not to think about that.

Whatever good-natured humour he had earlier on withers a tiny bit. ]

Yeah? And you intend to keep that promise?

[ He tosses another broken piece of furniture into the pile, maybe a bit too forcefully. He acts like that didn't happen. ]

They'll like you, you know. I've been telling them all about you whenever I have the time to write them letters. Tonia is really eager to meet the strong girl who managed to take her big brother down.

[ He laughs, but there's no humour to it this time. It's almost helpless, even. (Hopeless.) ]

[unalign]

[ silence fills the room for one long moment as lumine goes through the different books in her arms, sorting them out into their respective places on the shelf before resuming to pick up those that had fallen some few feet away. ]

Not while I'm here, [ is her quiet response after a while, skimming through her copy of vera's melancholy and blinking when a bookmark falls out of it.

did she stop reading it, or was it someone else who did?

then again, she wonders idly, is there any point returning to teyvat now? it was her goal from the moment she woke up in this place, her fate laid out to her like a story she's hearing for the first time. she wanted to get her foothold back and resume her journey, this time to find an exit out of this world. but with aether's arrival in this place, her twin brother's presence the only reason why she's even lingered in teyvat, it changes everything.

stay. linger. who are these people but brief interludes in your journey, names and faces you'll eventually forget and move on from? ]

Are you worried that I won't?

[lackluster]

[ Promises are the one thing that Tartaglia tries very hard to keep. It's the same standard that he expects out of everyone he knows that has promised him something, but nowadays it's been getting just a little bit harder to believe that he can keep this up. Every single day that passes by where he's still stuck here just adds more fuel to the fire that his Shadow has started in his head.

He doesn't know what he'd do if he can't keep his promise to Teucer about coming home soon. ]

If we wanna believe what they've been telling us here, then you already broke one promise.

[ Technically. After all, he told the Traveler that she couldn't die until they could have their battle again — with his pride as a Harbinger on the line. ]

But you don't seem like the type to go back on your word. So no, I'm not worried.

[ And yet he looks like something is still bothering him. ]

What else needs to be cleared out?

[unalign]

[ you already broke another promise. what's another one to break?

lumine glances over her shoulder as she arranges another armful of books back on the shelf, wrinkling her nose at how empty this teapot is, her gaze landing on childe. and it isn't just her broken furniture, a heap of splintered wood, slashed fabric and disintegrated cushion in one corner. she's never truly realized how expansive this space is without the people from teyvat coming and going. ]

Just one of the studies left, but ... [ and she wrinkles her nose again in dismay. ] There's a mistletoe inside the room and I'd rather the sprite in there gets no acknowledgment from anyone.

[ seriously, it's the last thing she wants to deal with on top of all of this.

in any case, she resumes her preoccupation with the shelf, clearing the remaining books from the floor. a few moments of silence pass, pages being flicked through and cloth covers rustling against each other the only sound filling in the space between them, before she speaks up again. ]

... Do you want to talk about it or would you rather just stew on your own?

[lackluster]

What's there to talk about?

[ As far as he's concerned, there's nothing that can be fixed by having a simple conversation alone. It's true that the next-to-no chance that all of them could return back to Teyvat is bothering him like no other, but how is talking about that supposed to help? Tartaglia has always been the type to believe in actions more than words, and right now, there's nothing he can really do about it.

That's all he has to say about it unless Lumine insists.

He makes his way over to the shelf that she's currently working on, glancing towards one of the studies that they hadn't touched yet. ]

You've been ignoring the sprite in there? [ Colour him surprised. ] I didn't think you were the type to shy away from a challenge.

[ He's teasing. He knows dealing with a mistletoe is the farthest thing from a challenge, but it's hilarious to him that Lumine is showing such distaste for it. ]

[unalign]

SHE—

[ let it be said that the traveler's instincts are quick and her reflexes even more. the moment lumine hears the familiar grating voice of the coin, her hand slips into her pocket and takes it out, chucking the irritating piece of souvenir from krampus towards the one room that's the farthest away from them without any shift in her expression. that should shut it up for a bit while childe is around and hovering near her.

he's right, what's there to talk about. and she wants to yell at that coin that there's nothing, nothing at all that they need to talk about. ]

It's not a challenge when it's practically coercion. I either kiss someone or I get cursed.

[ frying pan or fire, she can't tell which is the lesser evil. she supposes getting cursed is the more evil consequence here, considering the number of curses it can somehow inflict on a person. but she can't really say that kissing a complete stranger is pleasant either.

yes, because you didn't enjoy kissing the others at all. lumine rolls her eyes, shoving a book into the shelf with more force than necessary. ]

I also don't want to indulge my own Shadow any more than it has already indulged.

[lackluster]

[ Quietly, the Harbinger watches Lumine chuck the talkative coin towards the furthest room away from them. Whatever it was about to say must be the real truth of the matter but he doesn't get to hear it now that there's a distance he has to cross. Man. Just when it was about to get juicy, too. ]

I guess it can be a problem if you're too worried about the whole kissing someone.

[ To him, it's just a kiss. Maybe years ago, when he'd been younger, he might see this as more trouble than it's worth, spouting things about how you should only kiss someone when you like them, but he isn't that little boy anymore. He can see the benefit of taking the path of least resistance sometimes.

Especially when the sprites' pranks were not fun. ]

And what's wrong with indulging it? [ Did she forget his offer from before? ] It wouldn't hurt to loosen up sometimes.

[ Before she can get a chance to ask him what he meant, he's just going to go ahead and walk across the room. He heads straight for where she'd tossed the coin so he can pick it up for her.

When he comes back, he's flipping the coin in his hand. He picks up the conversation where he'd left it off as if he didn't just do something ridiculous. ]

Unless you're scared of what you'd become if you do.

[unalign]

[ what is this existential conversation they're currently having in the middle of her living room? why is he playing the devil's advocate in the situation? why is he talking like dealing with shadows is the same as swapping clothes?

also, why is he walking towards the coin that she's clearly decided to get rid of? ]

I—

SHE DOESN'T WANT TO LOSE CONTROL IN FRONT OF YOU.

[ thank you for nothing, coin.

lumine closes her eyes as if making terrible peace with herself as she turns away from the harbinger and shoves another book onto the shelf, the other books rattling from the force. any harder, and she might just break the bookshelf in half. but what's one more broken piece of furniture to clean up after, right? if only she could break that thing instead.

then again, it's not like it's wrong per se; the "in front of you" part is just unnecessary. ]

... Are you telling me to treat kissing like fighting and don't hold back? [ well, isn't kissing a battle in itself? a fight against her shadow that keeps wanting to have its own holiday fun. ] Anyway, I'm not worried about kissing anyone. I just think it's pointless since it's still going to be there even if I kiss someone underneath.

[ and locking doors in this fake teapot has been impossible so far. ]

[lackluster]

Not in front of me, huh. Good to know.

[ Thanks for everything, coin. That's probably the most interesting thing it's said all day.

He doesn't bother addressing it for now. Instead, he heads for the door and chucks the coin as far away from Lumine's home as possible. Where it ends up is none of his concern anymore since he's satisfied with everything he's learned so far. That, and it feels like Lumine might strangle him if he keeps trying to tease her with it for much longer.

(Not a bad thing in his opinion, but you know.)

He makes his way over to stand by Lumine's side, helping her with putting the books on the shelf. ]

Maybe you just haven't kissed the right person.

[ He sure doesn't know if that's how it works. His Shadow is encouraging him to go and find out, but he isn't interested in listening to it. ]

Someone has to be worthy, considering who you are and what you can do.