#anyway the jp voiceline improved translation canon lives on...

[qilyns]

@alatusatlas    said   ...   it’s  only  in  my  head , but  it’s  not  gonna  change.

there is no way around the simple truth that she hasn't been a particularly good friend to him in recent years ... but this recognition does very little to blunt the sharp sting of shame that she rightfully suffers in his company – beyond the mere startle that comes with having her senses attune to the miasma of karmic debt that swirls around him, unsettling and incorporeal. it's entirely unfair on her end, and yet ... when xiao is the one who reaches across the distance between them, with a passing remark or silent greeting when their paths cross, she can't help but to wonder if the centennial rift between them may yet be mended. a sliver of hope, perhaps equally unendurable.

the small – talk doesn't feel so small over such a vast distance. a simple are you alright and i hope you've been well to open the floodgates of familiarity.

" it's no small matter if it occupies your thoughts. " is a reminder xiao definitely doesn't need to hear, and certainly not from her – but years among humans have not made ganyu any more proficient at speaking with the directness necessary of such a troubling subject as each other's well – being. still, here in the marshes, far from the crowds in the city and under the protective shade of a great cuihua trees, there's no one around to impress. he must know she's trying, same as she knows the toll it takes for him to be in anyone's company – " while i understand that it might not ease your burdens to simply talk, if anything is troubling you ... i'd like to help, if there's anything i can do. "

meaning to listen, if not to talk. she owes him that much, at least.