alhaitham's breath hits your cheek with every rise and setting of his chest. he's fast asleep, arm wound tightly around your waist pulling you close to him—like this, you're unable to wriggle out of his grip. (not that you want to. not when it's one of the few times you're awake before he is.)
you lift a warm hand to his cheek, caress the soft skin there and lean forward to place a gentle kiss. he looks peaceful like this, your haithoomi. your hayi. it's different—how his face relaxes when he's asleep. it's not like your haitham is expressive but there is a difference. he is not concentrating right now, instead blissfully off to dreamland where he does not think; learn; or ruminate.
your thumb smooths over his left brow and gives him one last kiss on the cheek before waking him up. the birds have yet to begin their chirping and the streets have not started their bustling, but it is dawn.
"haitham," you call softly. when he does not rouse immediately, you cup his face and lean your head on his. "haithoomi."
then he wakes, lids fluttering and eyes bleary; his first sight you. in a voice deep with sleep, he says your name in turn.
"happy birthday."
his brows knit, then a hand is on your jaw; his thumb caresses the skin there. "...have you woken me up just to greet me?"
perhaps it's the way he's said it because you laugh.
your haitham says your name in a low tone, "we have all day later."
(right, oh, right. alhaitham's taken the day off to celebrate with you his first birthday since being with you.)
"i know," you say, voice warm. "but i wanted to get a headstart."
and your haitham breathes out a sigh. for moments there is silence. he continues to caress your jaw, bright green eyes boring into yours.
his staring is suffocating. it forces you to run your mouth, cheeky while saying, "i bet it's your first time being woken up to be greeted happy birthday, right?"
he makes a noncommittal noise; a hum. you chuckle, "i just want your firsts, hayi."
"do you now?" your comment brings him alive. your haithoomi looks awake.
"of course i do," you stress. your arms then wrap around him, pulling him close to your being. "every couple milestone should be celebrated."
your haitham moves forward and kisses your forehead. "there is plenty of time to celebrate it later," he says, "it's too early. go back to sleep, joonam."
so you do.
(you don't miss that he's not refused you wanting his firsts. it keeps you awake and causes you to feign sleep.
luckily for you, you don't know alhaitham does the same. just a small shift in position will let you know his heart is beating rapidly in his chest, as a small smile curls his lips.
i just want your firsts, hayi, it plays round and round in his mind. even when the sunlight cascades into the bedroom from the windows, it never once leaves him.
alhaitham finds himself wanting the same.)
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I giggled at this thought so have it as well
Sagau + legacy who tends to hijack Childe at his whims = playable abyss moth :D
oh goodness i was not in a good mood but this made me feel much better thank you
it's a glitch, it has to be a glitch, there's no other explanation for it! you've scoured the internet, watched countless videos, even uninstalled and reinstalled the game multiple times- but nothing could explain why, out of all characters, Foul Legacy had spontaneously become playable and was currently sitting in your party, exactly where your Childe should be. to his credit, he was INCREDIBLY strong, easily sweeping any bosses and enemies you met along the way, but the fact remains that he's not a playable character in the first place! you're worried that your game is being hacked in some way, but when nothing else happens for a few days, well... you can't deny that it was kind of fun to have a character no one else had, and you've always been fond of Childe's Foul Legacy form- you refuse to admit to spending at least half an hour just watching him on screen gushing about how cute he was (he even has his own idle animations!!)
on his end, in the digital world of Teyvat, Foul Legacy is absolutely thrilled that you haven't reacted too badly to his presence- he feared you would hate him for occasionally using Childe's place for himself- he always gives it back afterwards, he promises! Legacy works hard to destroy any enemies in your path, silently trilling in happiness whenever you compliment him. since he's not much in the way of words, he curls up into a comfy Abyss moth ball if you ever put him in your teapot instead of simply standing there, perking up and fluttering his wings when you approach him. and as he promised, he ALWAYS gives Childe back his body at the end of the day- the Harbinger's a little confused and disoriented, but you always greet him enthusiastically when you log in the next day, so he's not really complaining
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started thinking about "the pale princess and the six pygmies" again and realised the five unloyal pygmies match the sinners of khaenri'ah pretty well.
when the pale princess from the moonlight forest and the prince from the kingdom of light enter the kingdom of pygmies, one pygmy (deformed pygmy) asks her help to save his five brothers who were trapped under different circumstances in exchange for their loyalty to her. and so starts the journey of saving each of the five pygmies.
after saving all the pygmies, she took them to the kingdom of light as part of her people and the pygmies started serving both the princess and the prince. "but they were still heinous creatures from the land of night, and corruption flowed in their veins. as the days traveling to the kingdom of light grew long and dangerous, the root of evil would again blossom in their hearts". the pygmies then started plotting revenge and ended up poisoning the prince.
one of the pygmies though (deformed pygmy), was still loyal to the princess and felt guilty for the plan and so he spirited the prince's body away from his wicked brethren and took it to where the princess was staying. what he didn't know was that the night mother had already found the princess, who she emprisoned. before collapsing, transforming into a pile of sludge and worms, and leaving the pygmy to grieve, she proclaimed one prophecy: "in thousands of years time, my greatest foe will descend. he wields a sword that heralds the dawn and wears armor that can reflect the shining sunlight. he shall destroy my kingdom and bring the prince back to life. the princess will then be free from her eternal torment. until then, i fear not a single soul in the land of might, for nothing will bring an end to my kingdom except for the catastrophe foretold by the prophecy. as for you, the treacherous slave that poisoned his master… fate shall see that you get what you deserve". at last, the pygmy hid the body in a tree hole and walked off alone into the night, into a self-imposed exile.
what specifically caught my attention was the motives each of the five unloyal pygmies gave to betray the prince, which seem to mirror the five sinners of khaenri'ah. and i guess it's also relevant to add that alberich in "the ring of the nibelung" was, in fact, ruler of the dwarves. in this case, pygmies as an allegorical parallel could very well make sense to refer to the people of khaenri'ah.
to make a few of the connections i made between the sinners and the pygmies, i went into speculation and theory territory, so take what i'm saying with a grain of salt. but going into each of them:
hroptatyr means 'sage' in old norse and was one of the many names that odin went by. the one entity in khaenri'ah, who happens to parallel odin and a sage, simultaneously, and who also made use of power from beyond beyond the skies is non other than king irmin. he became "indisposed" during the cataclysm and didn't defend his kingdom, which led to anfortas taking his place as regent. this description of events very much matches what dainsleif told us about the sinners not fullfiling their role and being unable to protect the kingdom. it also adds some context as to why the only justification for why irmin wasn't able to rule at the time of the cataclysm was because he was "indisposed". king irmin is also known to only have one eye so his respective pygmy being "blind" is very fitting.
dain also refers to himself and the sinners as "the six of us". if the loyal pygmy from the book represents dain, this would make a lot of sense. i forgot to add before but the line about corruption flowing through the pygmies veins caught my eye as well as we know the sinners shared this sinful power between them and in "a drunkard's tale", wine is used as a metaphor for the abyss. the sinners are what led to the creation of the abyss order.
from the very little we know about vedrfolnir, he's able to foresee the future. the foolish pygmy envies the smart. pierro is one of theorised identities for "the visionary". besides his title being "the jester" which is pretty much another variation for fool, he has an interesting quote in the 'pale flame' set: "since my level of learning could not compare with the sages, i failed to earn the favor of the previous ruler". it implies he used to crave knowledge, like the pygmy, and it mentions irmin, who he served while he was still in khaenri'ah. pierro is also the one behind the fatui's plans, he seems to always plan ahead and all his goals end up being fullfiled even after many complications. he also possesses great historical knowledge, both abouth the future and past, as he seems to know about arlecchino's history despite being part of the later eclipse dynasty.
surtalogi "the foul" is the one behind "foul's legacy", a combat technique used by childe. he has ties to the abyss and much like childe's combat-hungry spirit, the timid pygmy desired to battle the prince.
the shrunken pygmy is the most straightforward one. rhinedottir is a practitioner of the art of khemia, probably the most proefficient one too. like the pygmy, her focus is on creating life through alchemy.
as for rerir's connection to the carefree pygmy, i placed him by process of elimination. we know nothing about them so i don't think it's possible to make a very factual connection but the pygmy's sentiment of wanting to avenge his situation seems silimar to the feeling behind title "avenger of solnari". despite solnari not having a very clear origin, it either stems from: 'solari', related to the sun; or 'solunar', pertaining to the rising and setting times of the sun and moon, phases of the moon, eclipses, etc. the princess and the prince in the book represent the moon and sun, respectively. and there's also the ties to the eclipse dynasty in khaenri'ah.
another parallel between the sinners is the primordial one and the four shades. but rather than representing each other, they work as counterparts: hroptatyr vs primordial one, vedrfolnir vs istaroth, rhinedottir vs the shade of life, rerir vs the shade of death (?) and surtalogi vs the shade of void (?).
not sure if there's a connection between each of the sumeru akademiya's cardinal sins and the pygmies since they're also six but they seem like sins commited by khaenri'ah either way:
"revering gods without acts of devotion" caught my attention because khaenri'ah is supposed to be a godless nation yet we see hilichurls around the thousand wind temple while also having banners with istaroth's symbol in their camps, as if they followed istaroth somehow. i have my thoughts about some of the other sins (like the human evolution one), istaroth being connected to khaenri'ah, her theorised identity as a moon sister and her possible ties to this book as the pale princess but i think i'll leave that to another day. i'm very sure other people made the connection between the pygmies and the sinners too, i am probably very late to the party but i just wanted to add my two cents on it and make a post with my current ideas on the identities of hroptatyr and vderfolnir. don't trust me, though!! the pygmy isn't the only fool, i'm just having fun thinking these possibilities. thanks for reading, if you did ahah
edit (23/08/24): i never came back to this post but i realised the identities can be easier to infer without speculation, since the names are clearly the opposite of their desires. the pygmy who wanted to see makes sense to be vedrfolnir, the visionary - blind pygmy. the foolish pygmy, the one who wanted to become smart is obviously hroptatyr (and here pierro makes a lot more sense, i know some people theorised pierro to be hroptatyr). the pygmy who wanted courage makes sense to be the timid pygmy, possibly rerir. rhinedottir is without doubt the shrunken pygmy which leaves us with surtalogi being the carefree pygmy. the carefree pygmy much like the deformed pygmy don't really have any desires, but the title "the foul" contrasts carefree really well. wanted to reiterate this since people keep relogging this post. i didn't really go to deep into the sinners either though i will leave here that the name khaenri'ah is possibly derived from an arabic phrase meaning "betrayer of winds" (خائن رياح) and the pygmies betrayed the pale princess and the light prince (represents the sun and gold - end goal of magnum opus) in the book. which leads us to istaroth, "the thousand winds of time". i said i wasn't going to go into it but i cannot stop myself from saying this because i wasn't clear earlier and i feel like this is cool. okay, bye!!
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