#i forgot to mention this but beel would also be constantly worried about what ik's eating

[journey-to-the-attic]

What if Ik was like Qiqi? Bad memory, rots if too hot, cryo vision, etc.? All the possible angst and fluff is beautiful. Lucifer would write down notes about all the brothers so that way she doesn't get confused in case she forgets, Levi letting her stay in his room to stay cool, Beel giving her ice cream, ugh in need this brainriot in my life-

i saw this ask early in the morning and i've been thinking about it ever since THIS IS SUCH A GOOD AU PREMISE

hang on i'll try to put my incoherent thoughts so far into words under the cut (heads up i ended up writing a LOT)

because i apparently love to make myself sad, the set up for zombie-ik is going to be really quite angsty

she arrives in the devildom as per the same ik-from-teyvat premise: just a kid from liyue harbour with a cryo vision who's kind of obsessed with seelies and studying them

and then everything would follow the basic outline of jtta, with the main differences being that teyvatian ik's generally more confident and assertive than jtta ik, and also she's able to defend herself more against the various attacks she comes under, so her right hand is intact

she's also just as bad at tech as simeon, because in teyvat the peak of technology is the kameras

then this au diverges at the Event Of Lesson 16

belphie catches ik off guard and incapacitates her vision somehow (he doesn't deactivate it entirely - like he doesn't shatter it or anything - so i guess he just yanks it away and throws it down the hall or something?)

maybe he doesn't prevent ik from accessing it entirely, and she does still have combat knowledge that doesn't require use of a vision, but either way belphie's still way bigger than her, plus he's got all those undefined demon powers, so ik doesn't have an opportunity to fight back

and in THIS deviation, ik does not come back. the others find belphie standing over her body and she does not move and will not wake up no matter what they try

they move her to her room while diavolo and barbatos try to do damage control, and all the while everyone's just kind of in shock

meanwhile, something very odd is happening with the dead child in the house

so it turns out that ik's always carrying a special adeptal talisman that was given to her by xiao a while ago

(alternatively it could have been zhongli, or maybe she somehow befriended mountain shaper/cloud retainer/moon carver after ending up in jueyun karst during so many seelie-studying expeditions, and that's where she got it from)

she didn't know what it did, but she was told to never let it out of her sight and always keep it on her person, because it would protect her in an emergency

what the talisman was MEANT to do was summon the adeptus that made it to her side, but unlike our wholesome xiao-appears-in-the-devildom-and-beats-the-shit-out-of-belphie-for-attacking-his-friend au, it doesn't work because teyvat and the devildom are two entirely different worlds, and adepts is magic isn't powerful enough to summon a being from one to the other

the adeptal power in the talisman did sense that ik was in danger and tried to come into effect, but obviously that didn't work... and it's being continuing to sense danger ever since ik actually died

in the end the adeptal power 'compromises' by imbuing itself into ik, therefore re-animating her into a zombie like qiqi

she wakes up in her room, memory very very fuzzy, feeling very stiff and odd

she finds her vision lying in the hallway when she ventures out, and then she hears a lot of shouting from nearby, so she follows the sound and walks in on mammon attempting to throttle belphie while the other brothers try (half heartedly) to stop him

cue the relief and crying and hugs, while belphie stands very far away and silently melts into a guilty and awkward goop

everyone's so relieved that they don't even notice how off ik's acting

a bunch of conversation happens, eventually they figure out that she's not so much alive again as undead (though, because the concept of adepts and talismans is lost on them, they don't know HOW it happened)

SKIPPING over all the family angst that happens as the other brothers try to figure out how they want to treat belphie now, because he's still their brother but also he literally murdered ik, but also ik's not dead anymore??

anyway, about ik and how different she is now that she's a zombie... (based heavily off of qiqi's lore in-game)

she's always cold to the touch, partially because she no longer has blood circulation, partially because she uses her cryo vision to cool herself to prevent decay

like qiqi, she has to do regular stretches to stop rigor mortis from setting in. she doesn't have great control over her reanimated muscles, so she moves very slowly - when she does move even moderately quickly, it's very jerky and imprecise, and she's liable to cause destruction

her face is basically always completely blank, because it's pretty difficult for her to school her facial muscles precisely enough to form an expression. it's not impossible, but she usually just doesn't think it's worth the effort, especially when she's practically unable to feel any strong emotions - so she just doesn't feel the need to do anything with her face

over time, though, the brothers are able to figure out that some things do get a genuine reaction out of her

for example, at some point levi asks tentatively if she'd like to talk about seelies (since, while she was living, she'd go on tangents about them for ages at a time), and ik just lights up. she gets the closest thing to a smile that he's seen on her since she died, her voice is a lot more animated, and she talks in much longer sentences

(normally she speaks in a very quiet monotone, often omitting any unnecessary words, and her sentences don't usually exceed five words)

(because she's so slow-talking and slow-moving, every now and then one of the others will lose their patience with her, and do something like snap at her or cut off the conversation that was originally happening. ik's face doesn't change much, but somehow something about her expression looks so infinitely hurt that it's like being stabbed in the chest)

or, another example: one day, on a shopping trip while ik stays with the purgatory hall folk, the brothers get this giant custom-made plushie based off of the drawings that ik's shown them of seelies in the past

they give it to her, and she stands there silently holding it for a really long time. then her face starts twisting a little, and they panic - but then ik finally figures out how to do it, and she just gives them the biggest, brightest smile they've seen for what feels like an eternity

CRITICAL HIT. everyone is crying

ik's memory is awful - if something doesn't reoccur within at least a week of its initial happening, or if she isn't reminded of someone's existence in her life regularly, she'll forget about them pretty much entirely

her memories from before her death are really fuzzy as well - so she doesn't actually remember being killed by belphie (though this is partially because it was traumatic enough for her brain to also block out the memory)

but, even if she doesn't fully remember the details (or even sometimes the names) of her devildom friends, subconsciously she still knows she likes them - even at the times when she doesn't really remember who they are

which includes belphie himself, because she did have some friendly encounters with him before the attack (we are skimming all the guilt and stuff that belphie himself goes through because i think we've got enough angst in this au already)

one time lucifer is away for about a fortnight on business for diavolo or something, and then, when he gets back and says hello to ik, she looks at him for a minute, then asks cluelessly, 'who are you?'

not gonna lie, lucifer tears up a little bit

in the end, he's able to jog ik's memory enough from her to recognise him as the same guy she knows and feels safe with, but the moment still really sticks with him

it'd be at this point that he decides to start helping ik keep that notebook of things to remember. he enlists satan for help and gets a nice pretty blue one with lots of pages, but small and light enough to be portable, along with a pen holder

they mark out all the sections and everything - each titled things like 'to do', 'where things are', 'what to do when...', etc.

most of these sections are left blank for ik to write in herself, with the exception is the first section, which satan and lucifer have already filled out

it's titled 'your friends' - and, as the name might give away, it's a record of ik's friends for her to refresh her memory from to make sure she doesn't forget them

for each friend, there's a nice clear picture of their face, their name, a short description of what they're like, and a little message to ik from the friend in question. there are spaces left for ik to add new friends, but so far she hasn't yet

they get solomon to do a funky magic thing where he connects ik's notebook to blank backup one, so that anything written in ik's notebook also appears in the backup - so that there's something to fall back on if ik loses the original, which her poor memory makes her liable to do

there's a tracking charm on it, but you never know, she'll find a way

lucifer is generally the one holding onto the backup and he doesn't look at it much, but he does have a flick through it regularly to check up on ik - just to make sure she's not been having any major troubles that she hasn't told anyone about, as well as to make sure she hasn't forgotten about the notebook entirely

as per a suggestion from asmo, ik starts highlighting the stuff in the notebook that she considers very important things to remember, and one day lucifer notices that she's highlighted all of the profiles in the 'your friends' section

he tears up a bit again

zombie ik mostly stays home at the house of lamentation at first - there's not much point in getting her to go to school when she's going to forget everything she's learnt if it's not constantly reinforced, plus ik herself shows precisely zero interest in it

but eventually the others figure it must be boring for her to just sit around at home on her own for ages - levi's home sometimes, but he's usually busy doing his online lessons - plus she always seems a little fuzzy on her memory of them when they get back home, and even though it keeps happening enough for them to be numb to it,

ik's not sure if she has a concept of boredom anymore, she just kind of... exists. and that's it. but it is nice when the others take her out for little day trips

sometimes she tags along to the r.a.d., sometimes barbatos uses his free time to take her out to town (since he doesn't attend classes), sometimes some of the brothers will use their lunch break to go visit her at the house

someone's always with her whenever she's out of the house because she gets lost really easily, and she'll very rapidly forget where she was supposed to be in the first place unless she wrote it in her notebook, which she often doesn't because, in moment, she doesn't think it's important enough. there's also a whole host of other stuff that means she needs to have an eye on her

for example, she needs help climbing stairs because, even with the exercises, her still somewhat stiff muscles make it pretty hard. before beel added a line in her notebook that told her to go get help whenever she needed to climb stairs, she'd literally spend ten minutes very slowly hauling herself up them at a time

also, sometimes she trips and falls, and she'll often just lie there on the floor for ages, wondering what she's supposed to do next

if you didn't realise til now, zombie ik is a little bit stupid

but it's alright! the brothers take excellent care of her

lucifer came up with the aforementioned notebook thing, and he's also extremely vigilant when it comes to keeping track of ik's activities. if there is even the slightest change in her usual routine, he WILL know about it. if there is a single problem that he even suspects she might not be able to solve, he WILL take care of it. if a demon at the r.a.d. even thinks about taking advantage of ik's kind of mindless state, he WILL smite them. you could call him overbearing, but in her zombie state, ik kind of needs it - and she's not really aware enough to realise his overprotectiveness in the first place

mammon is in misery for a good while because, even though the kid's walking and talking, she's just not the same, and every time he sees her he's reminded of the fact that he got there too late to stop her dying. for this reason, he's a bit distant for a while, but eventually he comes to terms with the fact that he can't change the past, and decides that he'll carry on taking care of his kid FOREVER. he's the one most commonly accompanying ik places, the one who keeps track of the rare things that get strong positive reactions from her, and also the one who knows best how to get those rare smiles out of her

levi's a good guy for ik to just chill with. he lets her play his games with him whenever she expresses interest, even though she's incredibly slow-learning, and her stiff fingers make it really hard to manipulate controllers, use keyboards/mice, or tap on a screen - but he doesn't mind that she's almost laughably bad at everything she tries, as long as she seems to be having fun. he also doesn't stop doing those rants about his own interests, because ik still listens attentatively every time - and that's the important part to him, not the fact that she'll likely forget what he told her soon. ik also likes it in levi's room because, subconsciously, the blue glow of the water reminds her of the blue glow of the seelies back home

satan lets her sit with him for as long as she likes, and will more often than not start quietly reading aloud to her when she does. sometimes she'll nestle up against him to listen to him read, and even though it's making him kind of chilly, he doesn't mind, so he lets it happen. she asks him a lot of questions, many of which get repeated because she forgot that he's already answered them, but he stays patient with her and explains things to her with as much detail as she likes. he also reminds ik about her notebook regularly, to make sure she doesn't forget to look at it

asmo doesn't treat her much different - he keeps doting on her, painting her nails and doing her hair as usual. this is part of the reason that ik confides in him a lot - his demeanour doesn't change like the others' do, even when she's telling him some TRULY gut wrenching stuff. of course, asmo is feeling the painful emotional stabby-stabby as much as the others, but he's really good at covering it up with his usual sunny smile, continuing to treat ik the same way he did when she was alive, and reassuring her that don't worry, we all still love you even though you can't smile for us much

beel is the second-most common companion for ik when she goes out, because he worries constantly about her mobility, especially when coupled with her size. he's the one who puts together a nice simple stretching routine for ik to keep up with, reminds her to do them at the same time every day, and always does them alongside her, never mind the fact that they don't really do anything for his own workouts. after some time, ik actually begins remembering to do her exercises on her own- she'll come to beel at the right time and ask if they can start - and it's basically his proudest achievement

and belphie...

he physically cannot make eye contact with ik for a good few months. the main difference between this and any other universe, where ik properly comes back, is that ik is unable to have a proper confrontation with him, and therefore he's unable to properly apologise for murdering her - because she doesn't even remember it happening. so there's never any closure.

skipping over all the actual drama this creates, belphie eventually resolves himself to move on - never forgiving himself, never forgetting it happened, but acknowledging that it's unfair to ik to keep lingering on it, as if he WANTS her to remember that extremely traumatic moment

so he becomes just as, if not more vigilant about her well-being than lucifer

because she has no need for it, ik doesn't usually sleep, and often she'll sidle into one of the brother's rooms late at night to seek company - she'll wander about for a bit, then chooses the room that she hears the most activity from, and just sit there with whichever brother she's chosen

and one day she chooses belphie, while he's staying up late looking at the stars

he feels so incredibly awkward, because even though he watches over her, he doesn't spent a lot of time with her directly. but then, maybe partially because of his influence as the avatar of sloth, she slowly curls up by his side and starts snoozing there

sure, there's a fountain in the observatory, but belphie's about to rival it with this fountain of tears

anyway - you know what? little jiangshi ik is in very good hands, so i think she'll be just fine