#and ESPECIALLY the tsaritsa. lord i can't even imagine.

[alchemania]

Snow White Dove, Blood Stained Wings.

(Or, the Traveler has a harrowing encounter which leaves her reeling.)

There is a shivering blob of white amongst the snow of Dragonspine, and as Lumine draws closer, jet black hair accented by hot pink stands out in sharp contrast.

Oh. That's a body.

“Hello?” the blonde called, kneeling down and ignoring how the cold bit into her legs. “Can you hear me?” No answer, so she shook the smaller person a little roughly, causing a pair of snow white wings to pop up and flitter rapidly as they jolted awake. Lumine screamed and leaned back, trying to avoid getting walloped in the face, and watched as the other person hissed and grabbed their right wing- now that the Traveler looked closer, it was moving oddly …was it broken? “Here, let me help you up. There's a church down in the city,” and strong hands lift the other person out of the snow - now that she can see the face, it seems to be another young lady, and her cheeks and nose are rosy from the chill.

“..thank you,” the girl manages, leaning all her weight on the Traveler. “You are too kind..”

It doesn't take too long to get to the church, taking the teleporters. The petite young lady is tucked into a bed and told to rest, and after ensuring she'll be alright, Lumine makes way to go.

“..it seems the rumors were true, you really will help just about anyone.. I wonder if one day, that will be your downfall..”

Lumine stopped in her tracks, looking to the inhabitant in the bed in her peripheral vision. She looked so small, the blankets covering her up about to her chin, but the room suddenly felt very, veryyyyy cold.

“..what do you mean by that,” she hears herself say, by some miracle.

“Oh…don't pay me any attention,” the raven haired girl placated, waving a hand weakly. “Simply thinking aloud..”.

“..who are you,” Lumine demanded, turning fully around to face the bed as her expression hardened.

“Does that matter..? Would you have left me alone on that mountain to die if you didn't like the answer?”

Silence.

“.. I don't mean you any harm, Traveler, or the people of Mondstadt, if that's what you're worried about," was the quiet reply after a long moment. "I swear it. But I'm aware you do not like the people I work with very much, and so I deemed it best to keep my mouth shut until you offered me assistance.”

“The folks you work with,” Lumine repeated almost dumbly, looking more and more rattled by the moment.

“You got one of my coworkers killed back in Inazuma. Does that ring any bells???”

Lumine can't breathe.

“You're a Harbinger?”

Rapidly, she goes down the list in her mind. Signora was dead, and she'd already met Arlecchino, so this had to be either Sandrone or Columbina.

“Which one?” she barely manages.

“The Damsel,” the girl replies easily, eyes finally opening - they're a beautiful magenta, almost mesmerizing. “Nice to meet you, Traveler. You don't have to be afraid. Like I said, I have no desire to harm you, or anyone here. It's a little disheartening to think you may have simply abandoned me if you knew who I was beforehand….. but at least that's not what happened, no? I don't know why you're so flustered, Master Childe speaks so highly of you -”

“He's NOT my friend!”

There go the wings again, slightly.

“.. we're not all horrible people, you know. Not all of us had a choice in this.”

Lumine thinks of the twins, and Freminet.

Columbina looks sad now, genuinely so.

“...Why can't you understand that?”

“Well, sorry for being a little on edge, considering some of your coworkers have tried to KILL me -”

“But I'm not them. I already said I have no interest in harming you. Do you think that I'm lying?”

Silence, painful.

“Perhaps if you stopped looking at us through your black and white lens, you'll see that we, and you, are much closer to grey than you'd like to admit -”

The door slams, the sound resounding. Lumine is gone.

Columbina closes her eyes, sighing.

“...well. You can't fault a girl for trying.”

She steeples her hands over her chest then, expression thoughtful. “The heart that forever bleeds will one day cease to beat. . I wonder if she will realize that before it's too late. I surely hope so.”

And the Harbinger slept.

[fatuismooches]

I saw ur response about that arranged marriage au with Capitano and i can't stop myself from laughing just thinking about his soldier teaching him "How To Communicate with Your Lover 101" 😂

Like, imagine his soldiers asking him to demonstrate of how he usually express his love to reader 🤣 so, one of the fatui soldier decided to act as "his lover" and.. Oh boy, it went REALLY awkward bcs he just *STARES* at them like he is a monster staring into their prey's soul 😭

When they ask Capitano about it "..my lord, is that your way of expressing your affection towards your lover every single day?" and when he said yes, all of them just facepalm'd so hard and internally screaming "HOW THE HECC YOU EVEN THINK THAT AS 'SHOWING AFFECTION'-" 💀😭 Dear Tsaritsa, he has a long way to go.

I feel bad for the soldier tho, imagine u have to deal with so many things since u are a Fatui and then u have to help ur Captain with his love problems 😭

I'm sorry if this is messy but omg Smooches thank u for feeding me more Capitano brainrot bcs god... i REALLY want him so bad 😭😭 I hope u are doing well and have a great day! 💓🙏🛐

-🥝

RAHHHH I LOVE THIS!!! Fatui soldiers being the best wingmen for their boss. + If we think about it there's probably a book in Tevyat related to couples communication/advice 101, the soliders probably tell him that it might be more helpful than them (they're not sure how much longer they can last in this conversation) Capitano ends up purchasing multiple and now he reads them alone in his office and internally he thinks "damn couples actually do this? i messed up 😭 they hate me now 😭"

That poor soldier, being in the Captain's presence is already hard enough but having him standing in front of you, staring into the depths of your soul without a word?? They're not sleeping tonight. And now the soldiers have an amazing story to tell around the campfire at least, the time the 1st Harbinger demonstrated his ways of affection in front of them.

And he just keeps staring until one of the soldiers has the courage to interrupt and ask him if that's really how he shows affection and Capitano just... nods like it's normal. And now Capitano is not an idiot because he can still clearly see how his soldiers are scratching their heads awkwardly and sending each other strange looks, and he immediately knows that this was not a good demonstration in the slightest. He would just clear his throat and be like "ahem. apologies for wasting your time. back to training." And then the soldiers would honestly feel bad and throw him a little advice like "sir, maybe you should gift them something nice to show your appreciation for them." 🥺 "or perhaps lord capitano, maybe a letter would be nice!"

Though these good ideas he's still a bit lost, because 1. he doesn't know what you like very well, and he doesn't want to accidentally gift you something bad. But then he realizes he can just ask the attendants! Yes, this is going good. As for the letter... he wonders what he should ask you. Are you doing well? Normally these are questions you ask someone in person, especially since you two live in the same house... but you seem to be a bit on edge while he's around. Maybe writing it down will be easier for you too! Hopefully you'll respond.

No thank YOU for feeding me this omg you make me love Capitano 1000000x more ily 💖💖 I hope you're doing well too 🥝 anon mwah!