threading_in_dreams | Entries tagged with kaeya

I can finally link to these here! Yay!

I'll go with the main event first, the "I'm just gonna write a quick hurt/comfort" fic that ended up being a 23k one-shot.
I've been meaning to write this ship forever. The 3 or 4 different outlines I got in my drafts folder attest to that. So, when I got the email with a request for Diluc/Kaeya, I literally squeed.
Then I blacked out and two weeks later I had this fic (fine, fine, I did not black out. I actually spent only a couple hours on it a day.) I'm pretty proud of how it came out, specially the investigation bits, but also the tiny soft moments. I wanted it to sting, I hope it did.

Like frost at first light (22998 words) by threading_in_dreams
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diluc/Kaeya (Genshin Impact)
Characters: Diluc (Genshin Impact), Kaeya (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: cameos by most of the Mondstadt gang, Diluc and Kaeya are Not Siblings (Genshin Impact), sworn brothers but in the danmei sense, Mutual Pining, the inevitable angst of a shared past, a bit of hurt/comfort, a dash of mystery, Quite a lot of angst actually, Diluc and Kaeya reconcilliation but make it gay

Summary:When Kaeya gets attacked by an unknown person and needs somewhere safe to recover, Diluc takes him in at the Winery. Though he tries to focus on investigating the attack, feelings they both tried to ignore surface once more.

***

Oh, and there was a small extra scene as well. Here it is:

The spark that sets the flame (524 words) by threading_in_dreams
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diluc/Kaeya (Genshin Impact)
Characters: Diluc (Genshin Impact), Kaeya (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: very much pre-canon, Diluc and Kaeya are Not Siblings (Genshin Impact), Fluff, Little bit of emotional hurt/comfort, First Kiss

Summary:
A small moment, a cherished memory.

***

Next there was the Wanderer/Lumine ficlet, written because I had this scene in my head for ages and was overjoyed to have a reason to put it into words. I just can't deal with the fact that he can fly. The moment I pulled this man I knew I'd have to write him (yes, there is a bigger WIP in my drafts).
Also, the giftee sounded so happy in the comment, it just made my day ^^

Sparks fly (352 words) by threading_in_dreams
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Scaramouche/Ying | Lumine (Genshin Impact)
Characters: Ying | Lumine (Genshin Impact), Scaramouche (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: Fluff, Romance, Scaramouche is Called Wanderer (Genshin Impact), gratuitous ficlet about flying

Summary:
A moment of color, then it's gone.

***

Third fic is a Xiao/Zhongli, which I admit is not a pairing I usually read. Rare pair, after all. But the request made a good case for the thousands of years of pining my boy Xiao could have going on and who am I to avoid writing some light angst?

Like soaring on golden wings (1785 words) by threading_in_dreams
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Xiao | Alatus/Zhongli (Genshin Impact)
Characters: Xiao | Alatus (Genshin Impact), Zhongli (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: Thousands of Years of Pining, feelings realization of a sort, introspective, Xiao | Alatus-centric (Genshin Impact), Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary:
After a couple thousand years, Xiao mused, time stopped being important.

Or rather, he stopped counting how long it took between the moments he had been called. Stopped waiting and started enjoying every second of his Lord's presence when the chance meetings came.

***

And that's it!
Except I came out of this experience with two extra WIPs.

A Childe/Diluc fic that is borderline crack (and which will be ready as soon as I manage to write the smutty bit *awkward ace smile*)

and...

A Childe/Zhongli. I just went and wrote 90% of a fic before I realized it would fold neatly as the last chapter of an older WIP, so now I have about 75% of a multi-chaptered angstfest about Childe finding out he's bad at moving on. Which also involves a fair share of Childe/Thoma, because that's how he tried to move on.
I took a look at what I had already written and most of it is the smut. Honest to god, I had no memory of ever writing M/M smut, yet there they are, two whole sex scenes.

So, yeah, I'll probably have to finish those and unleash them upon the world.
(writing is fun, y'all!)

Current Mood: excited

Of masks and dances
Chapter 20: The art of letter writing

Now that Lumine had explored every corner of Inazuma over and underground, she was left with no other choice than facing the thing weighting on her heart for so many months. She stared at a blank sheet of paper, the paper stared back.

There is very little explanation as to why it took me so long to write this, but if you want one example, catch me spending about 4 hours to come up with Diluc's verses. These here:

Maybe love's not fate but destination

At the crossroads, shelter, simple and stark

Does the star that cuts night knows of morning?

Is it closer, then, respite from the dark?

Pale starlight traces the road I follow

My heart, and only burden, bears your mark

I'm even happy with them, as they do what they were supposed to: sound a bit juvenile, express angst, have meter and rhyme, get a bit lost on imagery. Yes, yes, I know, it should have been easier to manage "not very good" when you're trying to write poetry, but it turned out being as hard as writing something I'd actually admit to calling my own.
Damn Diluc. If only his type of bad poetry lined up with mine, this would have taken all of five minutes.

Now, you might have noticed that I took a perfectly good Traveler and gave her PTSD. This came as a shock to me, because it just showed up while I was writing chapter 21, so I had to come back and edit 20 to include some signs (which is why I ended up redoing most of the chapter. I can't trust myself to "just add a quick scene").

It's weird, now that I think about it, how little Traveler angst re: Inazuma is there in this fandom. People are very happy to angst about We Will Be Reunited, people will comment how the Teppei questline absolutely wreaked their hearts, but no angst? Yeah, I'm on it chief.

This chapter is missing Kaeya's second letter, his response to Lumine's, which I thought would take away from the chapter flow. Maybe it goes into 21, maybe I'll decide to leave 21 all in the same night (it's mostly in the same night. Big night, much happening). If I do, then I might make some sort of bonus just to drop his answer. It's quite heartfelt, I liked writing it.

What else? Oh, our guest stars. We have the Kamisatos for today. I love the Kamisatos' dynamics. There's something soothing about writing siblings that love and support each other after so much time writing Diluc & Kaeya. Ayaka is sweet and pure (even too pure in my opinion) and Ayato? Do not get me started on Ayato. I really wish I had reason to write them supporting each other in a fight scene, that would be awesome (alas, I can't scrounge a plot for that right now).
The last part of the sweet family is Thoma, my lovely boy. I enjoy writing him far much more than I enjoy playing him (I did build Thoma. Do not recommend). I actually have a draft of this filthy smut fic that's mostly Childe/Thoma, not sure if it'll ever see the light of day, but that's how I learned Thoma is the best.
Will they show up again? Most probably no.

Current Mood: accomplished

Of masks and dances Chapter 18: The problem with unattended fires

Things that happen when you leave Diluc to his own devices, and their consequences.

My brain fizzled after I posted this chapter, so I forgot to drop the link.

Today's menu is angst and I hope you like it because, while there is a light on the end of the tunnel, there is a few thousand words before we get there.

At this point I guess I should come clean and say there's some Ragnvindr bros reconciliation going on in this fic.
That specific trope is not tagged because it was not exactly on my original plans. The thing is, the moment you start making explanations for the problems* Diluc and Kaeya have in their personal lives, it all boils down to a duel.

This chapter is me presenting a solution of sorts to the conflict they've been going through the whole fic. Of course nothing is settled, but they! come! to an agreement!

I'm very happy with it.
Also, I got to poke Diluc with the feelings stick a bit more, and that is the whole point of this exercise.

Songs and poetry
Some small god** might be able to explain why I took upon myself to add not one but two bits of original poetry inspired by songs in this chapter. Then I looked at it, thought it was too much and turned one into a simpler quote.
Still wrote two things of the sort I don't normally do.

Poem 1 is Kaeya's. I made it to fit a quote from a D. C. Fontaines song (the direct quote is the last two lines).

I'm wary of happy moments
butterfly winged joy,
spun-glass contentment
My hands are sword-calloused, you see
unfit for fragility
What good is happiness to me
if I have to wield it carefully?

I like this poem, it really gives me a Kaeya vibe.
Oh fuck, I just remembered I wrote THREE poems. Poem 2 is another Kaeya poem, the one he writes impromptu as a reaction, and refers to Diluc (in case it's not obvious by the subject matter):

Heart bright as lighthouse
but smoke will take you under
sure as any wave

Why am I under the impression Kaeya is a poet? Mainly because he was raised to be a Mondstadt gentleman, so not to put a bad light on Diluc, which means he was educated. Poetry is both art and rebellion, poets have always been transgressors, it fits him (as the fact that Diluc can't do it also fits him).

Poem 3 is an excerpt from "The Ballad of Dawnlight", a ballad written by an anonymous bard from Mondstadt's Late Aristocratic Period. Not Venti's work, though he knew the author.
I made it by playing around with the words to a song by Legião Urbana. I'm terribly sorry for anyone that recognizes the song and, thus, gets it stuck in their head. But, hey, it's been stuck in my head longer.

To be a captive with a smile
To have him kneel before you, your conqueror
To stay true to who would kill you
Ever so conflicted is this love

The context for this song is the story of Ragnvindr and the Dawnlight Swordswoman, which is a love story if I've ever seen one. A tragic one, as it ends with her death. Ragnvindr buries her sword "where the winds meet" and decides then and there that his loyalty doesn't belongs to his lord, but to his land and the freedom Dawnlight defended, calling himself Dawn Knight from then on (he later joins Venessa's rebellion, so his heart was truly changed).
So the point Jean is making here is that Diluc's loyalties are as painful to him as his ancestor's were. And perhaps she might also mean that the only solution for his problem would be to lay his loyalty on Mondstadt only. But that would be Jean, wouldn't it? For Mondstadt, as always.

* To quote Mother Mother, like the goth I am: "Not just the ones that are little".
** It's obviously all Venti's fault.

Current Mood: accomplished

Of masks and dances

Chapter 16: New verse, recurring theme

In which a much delayed conversation happens and Kaeya gets some needed respite.

I like writing scenes in which people confess feelings. I really do, even though you need a hella lot of running around before in order for it to feel important in the story. Have I landed it properly? No idea. What I do know is that next time it'll be easier.

It was very much a choice to put Albedo's confession in Kaeya's POV and then the actual sweet scene from Albedo's POV. Basically, I wanted to underline the fact that Kaeya was absolutely sure he had no shot there. The stupid misunderstanding (promptly solved because I am not THAT melodramatic) was just this, his own mind sabotaging him. So when I switched to Albedo it was so that the reader knew he was steadfast in there, he actually wanted it.

I hope I hit the sweet point instead of falling into corny with that last line of his, btw. Love is kinda corny.

Perception, manifestation, sublimation and exaltation

I went a bit into this on the end of chapter note, but I'll explain further here. Without going into any specific TTRPG's rules, what I have in mind when I say levels is this:

Perception: the first ability anyone needs to develop while working elemental magic is tapping into the ley lines and sensing the flow of the elements. Perception isn't necessarily visual, different people perceive in different manners. The player should be encouraged to define how their character perceives the elemental forces. Perception can be used to track, locate wards and magically sealed doors and identify magical items.
Manifestation: at this level the allogene is adept at actual energy manipulation, both gathering and expelling it. The effects are limited to aura range, which is touch plus the area of an arm's length around the individual. Manifestation can be used for simple attacks, infusing weapons, and a range of more practical uses (manifesting anemo under you as you near the ground in a fall, for an instance), such as healing. Also permits teleporting as long as it is within the waypoint network.
Sublimation: the allogene can harness the elemental energy, condensing it into a shape or moving it. The effect range doubles from the last level (listen here, you need to check this on the system you're using. Assume it's the range of Ganyu's elemental burst and calculate). It is now possible to manifest elemental shields (those made without a Geo reaction), infuse wards, create major constructs, create complex constructs (moving parts and the such. Think Albedo's elevator) and generally do more damage. I would also stick all wind tunnel applications in this level, as well as hydro weaponry and electro totems.
Exaltation: fine control of the elements both inside and outside the body. Group healing, group shields and elemental form applications (like Mona's sprint or Keqing's teleport) fall here.

These are allogene levels, of course, a god would have another step, an archon yet another. Immortals (adepti, yokai and the such) follow similar levels, though they might use additional magic from whatever is their origin. Remember, Genshin Impact has several magical systems and they all coexist very happily. If you need your kitsune to be extra spicy, just give her some onmiyoudou.

And now I seem to have exhausted my ability to think, so I'll go have a snack and play some videogames.

Current Mood: accomplished

Of masks and dances
chapter 13: What was lost

In which conversations are interrupted and everyone gets to fight.

This one is shock full of things I (and hopefully, someone else out there) enjoy: romance, fighting, badass battle duos, strange magics. It was a blast to write, even if it took me two whole weeks and change.

The thing is, my mind isn’t working in linear time anymore so I spent a whole week working on the chapter AFTER this one, then remembered I should kinda write this one because it goes first. The good side was that I knew exactly what needed to go into it, since we're so close to the end, the bad side was that I spent very long trawling my own fanfic to check for consistence and dropped plots.

But I did it! And writing this gave me much serotonin so thank whatever god that blessed me so.

My favorite bits on this chapter are the cute little scene in which Diluc and Kaeya fight side by side (because it’s lovely in a blood soaked way) and Diluc and Lumine's conversation on the meadow (because it's sweet).