S.T.E.M. loving writer

Link to the fic on Ao3! Intro

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

You were part of the story now, weren’t you? No matter if the world your avatar was in was made from earth and sky or 1’s and 0’s, you were influencing it regardless. At this point, it’d probably be best to just go with the flow, but you had been thinking about what major event you would want to change, and you really hoped everything would stick to the script long enough to enable you to do that. Even if it meant you would end up upsetting people by hiding things from them.

The four of you hung around in the tavern for a bit just thinking, until Venti finally said to you, “Ah, [Y/N], it should be getting close to time now. Shall we get going?”

You looked at your phone to see the time. It was about 15 minutes past 6pm. It was time. “Oh- right, yeah, we should!”

“You two have somewhere to be? Since Kaeya and I have nothing more to talk about up here, I suppose I can go do other things. If you need me, I’ll be working the bar for a while.” Diluc said, crossing his arms.

“Everyone’s leaving already? Well then, I’ll be taking my leave as well.” Kaeya said, heading towards the stairwell.

He hung around for a second, seemingly expecting someone to say something, then left.

“Come on [Y/N], let’s go! Our prize is waiting for us!” Venti tried to make it sound like you weren’t about to try to steal a divine artifact, and become wanted criminals. 

Oh right, you were going to see Diluc again after this! You should probably give him a little hint on what’s going to happen.

“Alright, we’re going to go now.” You walked up to Diluc, and began whispering. “Hey Diluc,” He looked at you. “I promise it wasn’t us, it was the Fatui.”

He looked at you in confusion.

“You’ll get that later. Anyway, bye~” Your tone sounded a lot like Venti’s at the end there. You sighed internally when you thought about that.

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“Alright fortune-teller, what’s going to happen?” Venti asked, eager to get a response from you. For some reason, it almost seemed like he already knew, and was just asking you to see what you’d say.

“Well… We’re not going to get arrested, I can tell you that. At least, not if we do this right.” You didn’t want to tell him it wouldn’t work.

“Is that all you can tell me?” He whined. “Fine, let’s go in.” He pouted after saying that. “But you have to tell me more later! I want to see how much you know!”

You went back in the Cathedral with him, making sure to be quiet. He stayed behind while you snuck your way to the Holy Lyre. You made sure to be very careful there, assuming the guards were actual people, and not the dumbest A.I. you’ve ever seen in any modern game. You looked at their movements on your way in, and they… still seemed robotic. Were they still AI? They can’t be, right? You looked at the face of one of the guards, and while his face had a few more polygons than the NPC’s you saw in the regular game, he had a blank stare as he paced back and forth. That’s… something to think about later. You kept going through the basement, avoiding being seen.

During your attempt at burglary, you remembered your soundboard. You hadn’t used that in a bit, and you knew a good moment to use it again is coming up. You got that ready as you made your way through.

As you entered the room with the lyre, an Electro Cicin Mage steals it, and teleports out. Wow! What a surprise! Thankfully, you just got teleported out of the building too, because you weren’t sure you could go back through the basement without getting caught.

“We’re busted! Run!” You and Paimon said at the same time.

Venti looked a bit confused for a second before leaving with you to the tavern. You made sure your soundboard was ready.

*Benny Hill theme*

The goofy music was fitting, considering the wind tunnel things you assumed he made threw you into the huge statue in the middle of the plaza, as well as the roofs of several buildings. Your grand escape wasn’t very graceful, but you made it safely. As you busted into the tavern, Venti gave you a weird look.

Next thing you knew, you were talking with Diluc again. Right before you headed upstairs, you decided to remind him of what you’d said earlier about the Fatui. In the version you remembered, he trusted the Traveler enough to not turn them in, but you still wanted to make sure he didn’t turn you in here. You listened as two Knights rushed in.

“Ah, Master Diluc. Have you seen two thieves around?”

“...What happened?”

“Haven't you heard, Master Diluc? Two thieves were trying to steal the Holy Lyre!”

“Oh? How odd… any ideas on who the culprits could be? Fatui, perhaps?” He remembered. Yes!

“We don’t know, Master Diluc. One appeared young, was dark-haired, and dressed in a teal green, and the other was… blond. We’re putting up wanted posters now.” 

You still didn’t know how they got so much from Venti and yet couldn’t describe Aether as anything else as “blond”.

“I believe they headed that way.” Diluc said, pointing out the door.

You went downstairs to talk to him, Venti running ahead of you. Diluc already seemed tired of Venti’s attitude, assuming he stole something. Not the Holy Lyre der Himmel, but a bottle of alcohol.

You forgot the Traveler and Paimon hadn’t met Diluc yet. Sure, you have, but they weren’t you. Thankfully, Diluc understood enough to where a quick “Ooohhh, right, they haven’t met you yet!” was enough to get the point across. He continued as you remembered, sneaking in an expected bash at the Knights at the end.

Diluc really didn’t like the Knights, huh? You understood that he felt that way because of trauma and stuff, but you wished he had a more… positive attitude about things like that. There weren’t any therapists in Teyvat, were there? Oh! New idea! Become the therapist. Were you qualified? Probably not. But at this point, anyone for these people to talk to would help. You sat back and listened to Venti’s stunning performance again, this time without the fancy cutscene to go with it. Diluc looked awe-struck, probably the same way you did when you first heard it.

You agreed to meet after midnight, when the tavern was closed. Great! Another six hours to wait! …That rhymed, didn’t it.

“Alright, I don’t really have anything to do, so I’ll probably just eat something and take a nap. Bye, see you later!” You said to them, leaving the tavern. You found a corner to log off, and left your bedroom to go “take care” of yourself. 

Your eyes hurt a bit from looking at the screen for so long, and your stomach growled with hunger. You’d been online for a good 7 hours, and you only now realized just how much you needed a break. Well, time flies fast when you’re having fun! ‘Was all of that really fun though?’ You asked yourself, before immediately pushing that thought out of your mind to go eat a whole family-sized bag of potato chips. Self care!

You snacked before… gracefully falling asleep, yeah, that, on your couch for a nap that would end up lasting way longer than you anticipated. 

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As it turns out, falling asleep on an uncomfortable couch after binging on junk food isn't the best for the human body. You woke up on the floor, nauseous, and somehow even more tired than when you fell asleep, and you decided to go in the bathroom just in case. You checked the time on your phone, and it was already close to midnight. Thankfully, the nauseousness went away and you didn’t have to get worried about getting sick at the worst time possible. You washed your face, and headed to your bedroom to meet the others in the tavern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before [Y/N] had left with Venti, they said something that Diluc had no clue what it meant until those Knights came running in, looking for the thief who stole the Holy Lyre. He had chosen to believe [Y/N] when they said they could basically see the future, and this only proved it more. 

The question was no longer if they were telling the truth or not. It was how to proceed. He had some time to spare while they waited until the tavern closed. He needed to investigate this on his own. “It was the Fatui”, [Y/N] said. If that was so, then he should start where all the Fatui in the city seem to stay. He headed to the Goth Grand Hotel, preparing for a search for answers.

He hadn’t seen Kaeya at all. He was normally still out and about at this time. Did he actually wrap things up at a decent hour? Or was he up to something?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Kaeya left the third floor of the tavern, he was hit with a wave of exhaustion. He was planning to stay in the tavern for a bit, and possibly wait for [Y/N] and Venti to do whatever they needed to, but he desperately needed rest. He left the tavern, beginning to walk to his room in the Favonius Headquarters. Wait, couldn’t he use the waypoint there? [Y/N] had taught him how earlier that day.

It was at the highest point, wasn’t it? He just needed to visualize the area, imagine himself there. Just feel it, and…

And there he was. He almost fainted from the sensation paired with his exhaustion, but he made it. He glided down to the door on the roof, and entered the building. It had been a long day, hadn’t it? He entered his room, took off the bits of armor he was wearing, and promptly passed out on his bed.

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He woke up in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason. Everything told him that he wasn’t supposed to be up right now, but he didn’t feel like he could fall back asleep. He sat up, and realized how bad he felt. He was drenched in sweat, his hair was a mess, and his eyepatch had shifted, making his right eye visible. He quickly adjusted it. There wasn’t anyone else in the room, right? …Of course there wasn’t. 

After a quick shower, he changed into a clean uniform, minus most of the accessories. It wasn’t worth the time to put all of that on for the little he was planning to do. He figured he wouldn’t need it, since he could easily hold his own in a fight, should he get in one, but he decided to bring his Vision with him. 

He left the building, being careful not to make too much noise, and realized he had no destination in mind. Had the tavern closed yet? Ah, it probably had, it’s not worth it. Is it? Again, something told him to just forget stopping by, but it wouldn’t hurt to check, right? He planned to stop by the tavern to see if it was open, and if it was, to get a drink before leaving the city. After that? You know what they say in Mondstadt:

“Let the wind lead.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Venti couldn’t believe Master Diluc wouldn’t serve him any more alcohol, especially when he was going to be in the tavern, in a room filled with wine barrels for so long. He was alone now, so maybe he could sneak just one more sip without him noticing… But that wouldn’t prove he was trustworthy now, would it? And besides, he wasn’t that addicted to it to where he couldn’t go a few hours without it. For now, he just started to come up with his latest ballad to pass the time.

Or at least he was going to, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about [Y/N]. From the very beginning, they knew who he really was. At first he thought it was because they recognized his voice from when he helped them battle Dvalin, but they supposedly have knowledge of future events. He was wondering how much they knew, but they wouldn’t tell him much at all. It seemed like a weird way to phrase it, and they acted like they knew a lot more detail than he did, but if they really were telling the truth, were they too, aware of the s-

Venti heard Diluc open the door to the room on the third floor. He immediately looked around at the wine barrels, making sure they weren’t touched. Good thing he didn’t try anything!

“Ah, Master Diluc, you’re back! Any news on the Holy Lyre?” Venti perked up. He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to get the conversation started.

“It’s not where I thought it may be, in the Goth Grand Hotel, but I… persuaded some Fatui members to tell me where it is.” He adjusted his left glove.

“Well then, are we only waiting for [Y/N] and the tavern to close now?” Venti asked.

“That, and I was thinking of contacting one more person to help us. I know it’s late, but hopefully she’ll understand…” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diluc stopped by the tavern to close up and check on Venti, and quickly set out again to find some others who could help. It was getting close to time, but he should be able to get someone. Hopefully Jean wouldn’t be too preoccupied with her work…

He opened the door to leave the tavern, and saw Kaeya walking away. Had he not gone to rest? Kaeya turned around after hearing the door open, and looked at Diluc with that same smug expression as always.

“Diluc, you’re still here? And here I’d thought everyone left already… I came for a drink, but I won’t bother you if you’ve already closed up.” He started to turn back around to leave.

“Hold on. I haven’t put everything away, you can come in for a bit if you’d like.” He could help right? Even though Diluc didn’t exactly get along with him very well anymore, he couldn’t deny that he got things done when he needed to.

“Oh, where’s this hospitality coming from? Do you need something from me, is that what this is?"

“I think you’d be useful to us here. I’ll discuss it with you more inside.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Diluc said he was going to contact people to help them, but Venti didn’t expect him to be back with help this soon.

He heard two sets of footsteps coming up the stairs, and then there were three in the room. The help he had found was Kaeya, who sounded almost… shy, like he didn’t feel like he should be there. When questioned about it, he got a little nervous and insisted it was just insomnia. From the looks of it, he thought he could cover up his emotions with clean clothes and perfume. Venti played along with him, changing the subject to what they were going to do next.

“So Diluc, where exactly did you say the Holy Lyre was?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You turned on your console, opened the program, and watched the celestial pathway for a while. It had been sitting there for quite a bit now, huh?

Verifying file integrity…

Why was that taking so long? 

Almost as soon as you noticed it, it went back to its normal speed, and the doors appeared. It probably wasn’t anything to worry about, but it scared you at first. You thought your game finally realized something was wrong, and was just going to either fix itself, and sever your connection to this Teyvat, or ban your account.

If you remembered correctly, Venti, Diluc, and Jean should be waiting for you inside Angel’s Share. You knew Jean couldn’t hear you, but you wondered if she would notice your avatar’s robotic movements. Apparently, she didn’t back in the Knights headquarters, but who knows? Maybe she just wasn’t paying much attention.

You walked in to an empty tavern, but after a few seconds, Venti jumped down from the second floor, landing right in front of you. He looked around, and you made Aether jump a couple of times.

“The mysterious [Y/N] has finally returned! Ready to go? Master Diluc can tell you where we need to go. Or, perhaps you already know?” He said, smiling.

He wasn’t going to stop bringing that up until you told him every little detail, was he?

You sighed, and said “Yes, I know. It’s near Springvale, isn’t it?” 

You had basically just woken up, so your voice didn’t sound the best, but you hoped he wouldn’t notice. Diluc came down the stairs, followed by… Kaeya? Did he come instead of Jean? That wouldn’t drastically change anything, right? Wait, was that why it took so long to load? Because the story had changed? This wouldn’t drastically change anything yet, right? No. It can’t. Not yet.

Diluc looked at your avatar, and answered, “You’re right about the location. If we’re all ready to head off, we should get going.”

Venti turned to you, you, not your avatar, and questioned, “Everything alright, [Y/N]? Is there something bothering you?” Did you sound nervous when you answered him?

“Yeah, I just took a nap, and… I didn’t exactly sleep well. But that shouldn’t matter too much, let’s go.”

You briefly explained to Venti and Diluc how you were able to teleport, and that they should be able to do it too, and then you all were at Springvale in the blink of an eye. Venti acted like it was nothing new to him, while Diluc was… fascinated, to say the least. Kaeya had to explain to him that yes, that feeling of having your soul torn from your body was normal for this.

Diluc had quite a bit to say about it.

“Those waypoints are all over Teyvat… If the wrong people learned how to use them…” He looked in the direction of the hideout. “That could spell catastrophe worldwide.” 

At one point, you had noticed Kaeya had a different shirt on. Or was it the same one, just with less of the flamboyant stuff on top of it? It was nice seeing people in different outfits, instead of the exact same clothing 24/7.

As you all stood at the entrance, you thought about what was in this domain. This was the one where you had to ask a bunch of different Fatui agents where the key to a door was, right? …And it was the one with the Diluc trial, wasn’t it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Add another thing to the list of [Y/N]’s powers… Not only could they possess others at will, and suddenly make people stronger, and tell the future, but they could teleport anywhere in Teyvat they wanted to. And apparently, anyone could do that last thing. Diluc was surprised no one else had found out about this, and frankly, he was glad. There was also something else he didn’t know about yet. The other two kept looking at a spot a little above and behind [Y/N]’s avatar when they were talking to them. It felt like something was there, but he couldn’t see anything. He doubted it was a secret, since chances are, they wouldn’t be doing it in front of him if it was, but he hadn’t had a chance to ask anyone about it yet.

He was about to go in the hideout with everyone when [Y/N] gasped, and said they needed to tell him something.

“Hey,” they began. “I know I probably should have told you this earlier, but remember what my system did with Kaeya that one time? Or, I guess technically two times, but whatever- Just, that thing where it forces someone into my team?” They sounded very tired saying that. He knew they had just woken up, but he felt they were also just… annoyed by that happening.

“Yes. It happened less than a day ago. …Why are you bringing this up now?” 

“So- I- Look, there’s nothing I can do about it, at least, not now. Maybe I can eventually figure out how to fix this, but-”

He sighed. "...I’m about to be forced into your control, aren’t I? You don’t have to tip-toe around it, I guessed that as soon as you brought it up. If you can’t do anything about it, do you at least know how long this is going to take?”

He trusted them, right? As far as he was aware, they hadn’t lied to him yet, and they were warning him beforehand. Still, it felt like he barely knew them. Should he trust them with his body? Did he even have a choice?

“Give me a bit, and I can check, but it shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes.”

“You make it sound like you can check any little detail with the snap of your fingers.” 

This was a very specific event of the future they were talking about, but it would just take them a minute to check it? They’d done it before with that letter, but he had no clue how. Either that meant they were a very talented hydromancer, or they were getting their information from some other power or source.

“Oh, uh, I kind of can, except I have to do a little more than just snap my fingers. I type the thing I want into a device, I find the media I want, and then I have it. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to find said media, but I can pretty much find anything you could ever think of. Aaaand here’s the thing I was looking for! One more second…”

“You have a device that allows you to view information on anything you want? I guess that sounds about right if your world also has the technology to see the future of other worlds… I’m sure you already know of this, but we have something called astrology that allows people to see the future using the stars. Does your technology take advantage of that?”

“I’ll tell you more about the device later, but no, the technology my world has doesn’t use that. Astrology does exist here, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work the same as it does in Teyvat. People in my world use it to give people ideas of what may be yet to come in their lives, but here in Teyvat it’s like astrologers can see fate itself. …Anyway, I think we’re getting off track here. Going off of what I’ve seen, it’s going to take a little over 10 minutes, give or take. It might be a little longer because I’ll be focusing more on your safety than getting through it, or it might be a little shorter because I have others to help me now. Are you fine with that?”

So it’s not astrology… What is it, then? …Whatever. They’re right, they’re going off track. 10 minutes shouldn’t be too bad, especially with others watching over him to make sure [Y/N] doesn’t do anything harmful. It’s not like he had a choice, anyway.

“That’s… fine. Just try to get it over with quickly. It’s fine if I get a few scratches, just don’t kill me.”

“Alright, I guess we’re ready to head in. I’ll check to see if the guards in there can hear me. If not, great, but if so, I’m… gonna need to rethink things.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…How were you going to explain to them what a phone is, and what the internet does? That’s a question for another time, but it still made you think.

You’d let Diluc know what was about to happen to him, and you just needed to tell everyone your plan, at least for this first part.

“One more thing, as soon as we go in, there’s going to be a rotating bridge with those cylinder torches or whatever they’re called on one side, and a clear path on the other. Once the bridge flips to the clear side, there should be just enough time to get all the way to the other side if we run like hell.”

Venti thought for a second before responding with, “Wouldn’t it be better for me to just… make a wind current at the start? Then no one has to worry about spinning bridges and torches at all~”

Oh. Right. You had others to help you. He could make a wind current and you could just. Skip over it. 

“...Yeah, that might be better. I guess I’m so used to having to rely on my own skillset here that I don’t realize others can help. Also, I’m probably just... tired. Anyway, after that first room, there’s a… door with a guard who acts like he’s about to piss his pants, but after that, there’s a big room with a bunch of smaller rooms inside and we’re going to have to find a key to move on. My question here is, should we split up or stay together while we search?”

Diluc was the first to chime in this time. “Normally I’d suggest we split up, but under these circumstances, it’d be better to stick together in case something goes wrong.”

“Alright.” You said. “We’ve been standing here for a while, I think it’s finally time to go in.”

Diluc adjusted his gloves, and you all went in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again, Kaeya gets to witness [Y/N]’s powers of possession; except now, he isn’t the one experiencing it.

After everyone entered the hideout, Aether had vanished, and Diluc, now wearing a Fatui mask, stood in his place. Something about this whole situation seemed… familiar, for some reason. Nothing like this had happened before, right? …It’s probably just déjà vu. 

“Come on, let’s just get this over with.” [Y/N] said, nudging Diluc forward.

Now, Diluc had the same slightly-inhuman movement Aether had when [Y/N] was using him as their “avatar”. He was somewhat used to seeing it on Aether, but it was strange seeing Diluc move like that. When he was under their control, he could only move his eyes, and now, he couldn’t even see Diluc’s, as they were covered by the mask. 

Venti did as he said he would, and made a fairly large wind current to carry everyone over. He made it look incredibly easy. If it wasn’t for him hearing other Anemo Vision bearers talking about their experiences, he would have thought that was something anyone could do.

At first he thought [Y/N] had been hiding something from him, but he had a feeling they weren’t. Something was certainly… different about Venti. He couldn’t merely be just a wandering bard. Until Kaeya found out who he truly was, he figured he would stay on guard around him.

Diluc- No, [Y/N] walked into a small opening, thinking there might be something in the room it led into. There was a chest inside, guarded by 3 small Electro Slimes. They made quick work of them, unsurprisingly, but they weren’t paying attention to the fight, instead focused on something else.

They left the room and headed to a large door guarded by a very nervous-looking Agent, just as [Y/N] said. They went up alone to talk to him, and switched avatars to the Traveler, who was also wearing a Fatui mask. The Agent did not seem to notice the change.

“No, NO! Don’t eat me! Ah? You’re… You’re human? The entire floor’s defenses… have been broken. I thought it was the Abyss Order attacking…” 

[Y/N] said “Hey,” testing whether or not he could hear them. No response at all. They chuckled a bit, and he could swear Aether said something, though he couldn’t hear anything.

“AH- No, do- We hi- The place- I don’t kn-” 

“This guy-”

“Y-you- One of the Ele- Signora-”

The Agent pointed his sword at them in both fear and anger, still shaking, still not noticing the person he was speaking to change forms in front of him. So to get the key, they have to venture further in, also just like [Y/N] sai- Wait a minute, did he actually hear that guy say any of that? He definitely heard him say the floor’s defenses were broken… and then [Y/N] checked if he could hear them… and then they laughed for some reason… and then about 5 seconds later, the conversation was over. Something must have happened; there’s no way he could have said that much in that little time. He looked at where the man was again, only to see that… he was gone.

Kaeya turned to [Y/N], who now seemed nervous, and simply asked, “... Did you notice anything unusual there, by chance?”

“...Shit, you did notice. Uhhh, so remember when you first met Aether and you didn’t know his name until I told you because you didn’t hear it even though you knew what was said? I might have done the thing that does that again.” 

Which was what, exactly? They hadn’t explained it yet, but now wasn’t the time to get an explanation from them, so he reluctantly decided to move on from that.

They opened the door and though he couldn’t see her, Paimon decided now was the time to ask questions.

“Did he say Signora? What a strange name…”

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Kaeya had described to Diluc what it felt like, and although it did feel exactly as he described, he definitely wasn’t used to it. He felt something watching him that he didn’t feel before, but when he looked in its direction, there was nothing there. He didn’t think much of it, as Kaeya had mentioned something like this to him. It was likely where [Y/N] was looking at Teyvat from.

[Y/N] talked to a guard, and for that conversation, he was thrown out of his body, now watching the Traveler from a similar position [Y/N] was. Was this how they saw the world? Strange, but again, exactly what Kaeya described. 

Other than that, Diluc didn’t notice anything off with the conversation, but Kaeya apparently did. Diluc wasn’t the type of person to miss things, so he knew something weird was happening when [Y/N] responded to him in a way that practically confirmed something was off. He made a note to himself to ask them about that after this was over with.

He didn’t understand how that fairy thing- Paimon, was talking. Where was she?

“Number 8 of The Eleven. Goes by the name Signora. The fact the Fatui can run amok across the seven nations like they do is entirely because of The Eleven.”

That was his voice talking. Was that what he sounded like? …Whatever, it was just another thing Kaeya had told him about. He had been surprisingly reliable so far, but he still wondered if there was something important he was leaving out.

They entered a large hall, with a large door at the opposite end and two rooms on each side. There was a mechanism in the center that needed a key, and it presumably opened the large door. …If [Y/N]’s system hadn’t taken control of him, everyone could search one room on their own. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, so it was better they stayed together.

They first searched what seemed to be a storage room. No one was there, so they searched every nook and cranny without interruption. At least, until a few Pyro Slimes came out of nowhere, which his abilities couldn’t provide much help with. Sure, if everything was normal, he could use just his sword instead of his Vision, but…

Kaeya and Venti made quick work of the slimes, since Venti could make a massive wind vortex to suck all the slimes in. No key to be found in there. They moved on to the next room, which stood a single guard. He seemed to stop paying attention to anyone other than the Traveler once he started talking to him. The Traveler tried to convince the guy he was part of some alliance and wanted to “borrow” the Holy Lyre, but he obviously didn’t believe it, especially not when he offered a single apple in exchange for it.

A Cicin Mage appeared, and they fought. His Pyro abilities would actually do something here, but [Y/N] still wouldn’t engage in fear they would hurt him too, with how Pyro and Electro interact. It ticked him off a bit. Fight. He told them before they all went in, it was fine if he got a few scratches, just fight, don’t just run around like a headless chicken. Did this have anything to do with them being a pacifist? She’s already attacking you, just defend yourself. Fight. It’s an easy opponent, he could easily take care of her if he could just- fight. 

His body stopped for a second, then pulled out a sword he’d only seen in legend, sending off a fiery phoenix at her, setting the blade ablaze. Was he back in control?

[Y/N] screamed, before going completely silent. Diluc heard something fall to the ground with a clatter, and could feel someone watching him in fear. Was that the point Kaeya and Venti were looking at?

He still couldn’t do much. He was only able to mimic the same few repetitive motions, and even those were incredibly difficult. Every movement felt like breaking out of chains. But still, he pushed. How was he able to do this? Kaeya couldn’t escape it after hours, but he could do this after minutes? The mage was defeated, and [Y/N] finally spoke up again.

“I didn’t do any of that. …Diluc?”

He tried to move more freely, but he couldn’t do anything except that same moveset. How did he even do that? He looked around, trying to get the attention of someone, but he realized he was wearing a mask. He had no way to communicate with anyone. 

“I… I don’t know, maybe my controller just glitched? Let’s just keep going.”

…There goes any hope of being able to break out of it. He shouldn’t have thought it was that easy. Still, how was he able to control himself at all, even if it was just for a few moments?

They checked the last room that was downstairs, which had a chest with a few Cicins around it. Just like the other enemies here, they weren’t an issue at all. Thankfully, the key was in the chest, and the group managed to open the door. [Y/N] said there was one more fight, and then they could get the Holy Lyre, and this whole thing would be over.

“Hey, you wanna know the guy's name?” [Y/N] asked. They sounded more and more tired by the minute.

“You know his name?” Kaeya scoffed. “If you know that much, you might as well tell us what he says to us.” 

He was acting as if he didn’t believe they really could see such things, but he obviously believed it. He was just saying this to squeeze more information out of them, wasn’t he?

“Oh my god, fine, but I’m not going to be able to do stuff like this all the time. First of all, his name is, I hope I’m saying this right, Zamenhoff…? And as soon as we go in there, he says- wait should I do the voice? I’m doing the voice. ‘Where did you rats scurry out from… Signora is not going to tolerate this kind of interference in our affairs. So I'll be the one to take care of you - save her the trouble of having to deal with you herself.’ …I’m sorry. I think I need to go back to sleep.”

That was probably the least professional telling of the future he’s ever heard, but as they walked into the last room, it turned out to be accurate, just as everything else they’ve said has been. They were audibly exhausted, and he could only think of one time they’ve taken something completely seriously. Should he have let them take control of him? It hadn’t gone too horribly yet, and it was almost over, but he started to get a little nervous. 

They entered the fight, and once again, he tried to perform those repetitive moves. [Y/N] was actually fighting this time, but he wanted to contribute something as well. They didn’t seem to notice anything was off this time. The Agent was defeated, and finally, he was fully in control of his own body again. He immediately let out a large sigh. 

“Signora is going to end you. The songs bards sing of your demise will be so terrifying - the people of Mondstadt will never sleep again for the nightmares they give them.” Said the Agent, now escaping. [Y/N] mocked him while he was saying it, speaking at the same time as him, but in a far more dramatic tone. 

They mocked Paimon too, even trying to match her high-pitched voice. He will admit he found it a bit funny, but he kept a straight face, unlike the other two, who couldn’t help but chuckle. She shot them a look before vanishing again.

“You alright?” [Y/N] asked him.

“Well, I’m not dead, so that’s something.” That… definitely could have gone better.

“So… Back to the tavern now, right? Wait, Venti, aren’t you still wanted?”

“Ahh… That may be a problem… But can’t we just teleport back?” Venti sheepishly said.

“We can only teleport to waypoints, at least as far as I know, and the nearest waypoint is right next to the plaza with all of the shops. I know it’s literally the middle of the night, but I don’t think we can be sure there won’t be anyone out. I don’t want someone seeing people appear out of nowhere.” [Y/N] had a point. Doing that when someone was near may have consequences.

“So I suppose we’re walking, then? I’ll walk ahead, and make sure any Knights patrolling at this time are… looking the other way.” Kaeya said, already going ahead of everyone else.

No one said a word for a bit. Venti had a slightly worried expression on his face, as if he was hoping whatever plan he had would work. [Y/N]’s avatar had that same expressionless face as always, which was… creepy, sometimes, but they seemed like they weren’t paying attention to anything now. Normally Diluc wasn’t one to break the silence, but he had something to say now.

“That wasn’t an issue with your controller earlier, [Y/N].”

“...Hmm?” They replied. They sounded… completely out of it. “So you did that? How?”

“I don’t know. I hope you don’t take any offense to this, but your… pacifism doesn’t exactly suit the way I do things, so, I broke out of it, in a way. I wasn’t able to fully break it, but I managed to do something.”

“So the solution to breaking out of it… is to just break out of it. Wow…!” They sarcastically said, before walking their avatar into a tree.

“I don’t mean for it to sound like that. I’m guessing I had enough willpower to resist your system a little. Again, not all the way, but I think I was able to at least do what you could.”

“That’s so weird… I think I’m gonna have to set aside some time to take a closer look at my system and figure out what’s up sometime.” They yawned. “But definitely not tonight…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…God, you were tired. What the hell had happened in that domain? Somehow Diluc had managed to fight against your system, and do a bit on his own. How? No clue, but it was a nice surprise. 

You remembered that quest on that far-away island that you couldn’t finish the first day. After this, maybe you could beg Venti to take you there so you could finally finish it. There was still about… what? An hour and a half? before you were able to continue it. Yeah, never mind, screw that. There was no way you’d be able to stay awake that much longer. That nap just made you more tired. Guess that quest’ll stay unfinished…

The four of you finally got back to the tavern. Thankfully, Kaeya managed to keep any Knights from seeing you. You pulled up the Wiki again, and found your way to the page on the part of the quest you were at.

Sure, Kaeya was there instead of Jean, but everyone else’s lines were still the same. It looked like things would be on the right track. You repeated everyone’s lines as they said them, but only vocalizing Paimon’s, while just mouthing Diluc and Venti’s to not weird them out too much.

“From now on, you’ll be known as-” Oh, this part, where Paimon gives him a nickname and refuses to call him by his actual name ever again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tone-deaf bard!” said Paimon and [Y/N] simultaneously. The bard didn’t seem too bothered by his new nickname.

So not only could [Y/N] could just pull up a word-for-word script of the “story” they knew whenever they wanted, but said story was accurate, also down to the word? That’s… concerning.

It had been a very long day… Kaeya hoped he could finally get some sleep. Everyone bid their farewells after agreeing to continue in the morning, and he left. Venti was still wanted, right? That may cause some problems. He made a mental note to tell Jean that the Holy Lyre was in safe hands first thing in the morning.

Again, he teleported to the Knights Headquarters, but now, he remembered why they didn’t teleport back to the tavern. Was anyone watching? He looked around, and could see no one. As for the last time he did this… He didn’t check, did he? …Whatever, it should be fine. He made his way to his dorm, and, now feeling he had enough energy to do so, actually did his nighttime routine rather than just passing out. He stayed awake for quite a while, making notes and pacing around before he finally felt tired enough to be able to sleep through the night.

Those thoughts of [Y/N]’s “story” continued as he drifted to sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------

“But I shall not bow to the will of fate. I am no pawn in heaven's plan.”

…Here he was, acting in a play, as a character destined for tragedy. Seemed familiar. His character was supposed to simply accept it, yet “he” had decided to improv a section on defying fate. 

Despite this being “improv”, it was obvious all of this, scripted parts included, was supposed to reflect his own story. He’d noticed the similarities when he first heard of the story, though he didn’t fully remember when that was, but it seemed even more accurate now, looking at it from a different view.

The truth was, the improv was no less scripted than the rest of the play, nor anything else he’d experienced for that matter. This “play” began much before this street performance.

Even though it felt as if it had been years, he still remembered the beginning as clear as day.

When the Traveler first appeared in Mondstadt, he was unable to clearly remember anything prior to when they arrived. Hell, other than the most major events in his life, he couldn’t remember anything at all, and even those major events were fuzzy. He knew his interests, and his relationships with people, but it was like he had some strange form of amnesia. He’d wanted to tell someone about what he was going through, but every time he got a chance, he would black out, and wake up somewhere completely different.  

To him, it hadn’t even been that long since he’d first noticed, but already, days had gone by. He “woke up” again outside of Good Hunter, in the middle of a conversation with the Traveler about something he couldn’t recall thinking about. It had been days. The periods of time he was being knocked out for were getting longer. He had to say something as soon as possible, but he found he couldn’t control what he was saying.

He quickly realized that he was bound to some sort of script. Sure, “fate” served as a loose script, but this was word for word. He wondered whether this was happening to anyone else, but had no way to check, since he was either stuck to this script or unconscious.

It would sometimes be months at a time now he would be unconscious, almost like slipping into a coma. The Traveler was there with him wherever he was, so he assumed they must have something to do with it, but he hoped they didn’t know they did. Maybe then he could still tolerate them.

Over time, it seemed like the writer started to tease him more and more. It started with a few jokes from “him” hinting at it being some kind of story, and now it was a whole play.

He was an actor, playing a character, playing a character destined for tragedy. The only difference between this play and his experiences was that in reality, he was given no choice on whether to take the role.

This little improv session with Prince Qubad made the audience think he refused to accept the fate he was given, that he rejected it entirely, but the story still ended in the same way it was written.

As he looked at it now, he was no different from Prince Qubad in this story. Or at least, “Kaeya” wasn’t. He knew how Qubad’s story was similar to his, yes, but this improv session added something to it.

There were two layers to the scripting. One was fate itself. Destiny. Most people knew about this, and it could be seen fairly easily, only needing the help of some magic. This already seemed like enough restriction, as it was supposedly extremely difficult to change, but there was even more on top of that, at least for him.

It looked like in the future, “he” would have to make a very important decision, and end up choosing a secret third option. While this would be rejecting his fate in terms of what the people of Teyvat consider it to be, he would still be following the narrative this second, stricter script had for him.

…Oh, the irony. Just like the play, the character is written to refuse fate. Sure, the original script may not have included that, just as “his” original fate does not include what he’s likely to do.

He’d been wondering whether he should keep trying to break out of this. Obviously, doing so would grant him back autonomy, but it would also be following the whole “defying fate” path set for him by whatever scripted this. Either way, he was still playing right into its hands.

“Perhaps there's an inept god out there deciding everyone's fates... much like the Akademiya student drafting Darbil's scripts. Yep, "inept" is a good word for it. Honestly, it might even be a little too civil to describe a god who turns fathers against their sons and is bent on endless warmongering... don't you think?”

Either somehow, he had managed to change the script slightly with his thoughts, or the writers were mocking him.

…It was the latter, wasn’t it? “He” continued on about how someone doesn’t have to follow the script if they don’t like it, like it was just that easy. He’d made up his mind. He had to get out of this, no matter if that was what the writers wanted.

I find the whole "sky is fake" thing funny in this context. Imagine a player hearing that, and saying something like "oh shit, they know it's a game", and the character(s) who hear(s) that is just stunned because that was not??? what they were thinking????? at all?????? and then the Realization™ starts. The disembodied voice was right.

also I do find it kind of eerie because (yes, this is silly, 99% of the time it's just glitches, but I'm thinking about that person who sees Venti stalking them, they probably last posted about it like 6 months ago) it could be happening to you. They know you exist. They might not know what you are, or they could know very well, neither option is that good. Do they envy you? Do they despise you? What are you to them? I think other people have brought up the idea of the characters being stuck to the script, and if that's the case, you may never know...

You’d been doing some thinking since you last entered the mystical world of Teyvat. A lot had happened yesterday. For these past four months, you had been obsessed with everything related to the story of Genshin Impact. You could put together a full timeline of Teyvat’s history, and could probably guess what would happen in the future. You knew more about the world than most people of Teyvat knew. You thought it was just a game. 

Now, you knew it was much more than that. What were you going to do now, with all of this precious knowledge in your hands? Did you know too much? Should you cut yourself off from any Genshin media, stopping yourself from finding out any more than the too much you already know? Or should you continue on your endless pursuit of knowledge?

You didn’t tell them the whole truth. Probably because the ‘whole truth’ would have mentally shattered them, and you didn’t even know if it was the truth. You hated lying, but you knew you had to here. If they were ever close to finding out the real truth, would you let them? Or would you try your hardest to keep it from them?

And who even is them? Is it just the Ragnvindr brothers? Or were there more? If there were more, you would have to choose what to tell each person carefully. You may let someone you trust, like those two, know nearly everything, but you may keep nearly everything from, say, a Fatui member.

You still had so, so many questions that you just couldn’t answer quite yet. You were going to meet an archon soon. Should you let him know that you know he’s the archon? Regardless of what you end up deciding, you should probably see what he thinks of your situation and some of the questions you had. After a while of sitting on your bed, thinking and staring at your controller, you decide that it’s time to come back to Teyvat, and turn on your console.

The loading finishes after what feels like forever, revealing your avatar, Aether, standing just outside the walls of Mondstadt. Now, should you continue the story alone, sticking to the ‘script’, or have Kaeya and Diluc with you, and risk starting a major domino effect, if you hadn’t already? You checked your quests to see what you could do to hit AR 10. Secret Pirate Treasure - Pavo Ocellus Chapter: Act I

…Kaeya’s story quest? That’s strange to see after what happened yesterday. Maybe the whole confrontation didn’t have as much of an impact on the timeline you remember after all. Wait, does that mean he’s in the Knights HQ, waiting for you right now? You teleported to the building, not wanting to keep him waiting for much longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaeya was doubtful of [Y/N]’s strange… prophecy powers. He didn’t want to wait until the Stormterror crisis to see if any of their predictions were true. He decided to run an experiment of sorts. He was going to test them. He had a plan to tell them about the Arcadian Ruins, a domain here in Mondstadt that held an incredibly powerful sword. Just one thing, though; there’s no such thing as the Arcadian Ruins in Mondstadt. He had talked to some people and set a whole operation up. If they really could see the future, they’d know exactly what he was planning, and hopefully go along with it. If they couldn’t, he’d probably have a hard time convincing them that his story is true. As of now, he was standing in the lobby of the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, wondering how he was going to grab their attention in the first place.

Suddenly, he snapped back to reality, and somehow he just knew that [Y/N] had returned. Not long after, they walk in the headquarters, making a beeline towards him. Time to put his experiment into action.

“This is bad… Such a hassle… What am I going to do…” 

He pretended to not notice them in front of him. [Y/N] hadn’t said anything yet. Like they said, robotic movement meant it was them, so this wasn’t Aether coming to find him. However, now Paimon had appeared, and the Traveler’s movement became more fluid, meaning that now Aether was the one talking to him here, so he couldn’t start asking [Y/N] questions immediately.

‘You don’t usually lose your chill.’ Aether replied.

He had thought about what he would say for this next part.

“Oh, thank the Thousand Winds! Aether, your arrival must be the grace of the gods!  If I may ask – envoy sent by the Anemo God to save this mere mortal – could you spare a moment?” “Ewwww, cut it out!”

“Paimon, shush. Do you want treasure or not?” [Y/N] joked, finally speaking up. They said ‘treasure’, did they know what he was about to say, or was that just guesswork?

‘Tell me what happened.’

He continued with his mildly rehearsed spiel. “I cannot let my peers hear about this! I cannot seek help from anyone else but you. Please, let us move to somewhere more fit for such conversations… Let's talk in the courtyard just outside the headquarters. Come with me.” He began to leave the building, and heard Paimon being cut off by [Y/N].

“What’s wi-”

“Hey, woah woah woah, wait up! It’s just me now. Can we go into the library for a second? I need to talk to you for a second before we go outside, and I don’t want it to look like you’re talking to yourself in front of the other Knights.” [Y/N] said, almost whispering.

He almost replied to that, before taking the last part of what they said into consideration. He nodded, trying to make it seem like he remembered something, and headed into the library, [Y/N] soon following. 

“So,” [Y/N] began, “let me guess; you want to tell them about a powerful sword that was used by your pirate grandfather, located in the Arcadian Ruins, which ends up not even existing because you made it the fuck up to catch some Treasure Hoarders. Is that right?”

“It is indeed. It seems you really can see the future. I suppose I won’t have to tell you what the plan is then, correct?” They really knew a lot. They reminded him of a certain astrologer he saw from time to time, though they were a bit more… vulgar. She was able to tell the future using her Vision somehow. That got him thinking; is one’s fate set in stone from the moment they were born?

“Yep, I remember this pretty well. So the courtyard outside the headquarters, right? I’ll do my best to go along with this, and it should work out.” He snapped out of his slightly existential thoughts. They both left the building, and went to the agreed meeting spot.

He began to talk to Aether and Paimon, mentioning how his grandfather was a pirate, and how he recently found out that he left behind a treasure…

“Treasure!?” Paimon’s eyes lit up. He had her hooked already. He continued to speak.

“According to his notes, the treasure is buried in the ‘Lost Arcadian Ruins.’”

“Treasure…” This time, both Paimon and [Y/N] said that, in the exact same tone. Were they mocking her?

“But the location of the ruins is currently unknown. I've tried searching for clues…” He had a feeling he knew what would be said after that sentence.

“Treasure!” They both said, in the same tone, again. Was this how [Y/N] felt with everything?

He continued on, revealing that the treasure was a magic sword that fell from Celestia, and was used by his grandfather to slay very formidable enemies. For some reason, [Y/N] seemed to be holding back a laugh when he listed said enemies. What did they know here that he didn’t? He told them that he was afraid bandits would get to the sword before they did, and sent them on a mission to gather intel to help find it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You saw someone point out sometime that the enemies that Kaeya’s grandfather supposedly defeated just so happened to match up to the major enemies the Traveler faces. “Eight-headed hydra”? Osial. “Silver-haired banshee”? La Signora. (This one was a bit rude, but it kind of made sense.) “Wicked abyss dragon”? Dvalin. You knew that theory likely didn’t mean anything, but it still made you laugh when you thought about it. This story he’s telling is supposedly an obvious lie, right? Yet the theory-makers in the Genshin fandom were wondering if it actually had some truth to it. You thought about asking about it, but realized that there’s no way he would tell you.

As you talked to Cyrus, you wondered; in this version of events, did Kaeya set this up just to see if you could really see the future? It wouldn’t be too surprising if he did. Who would expect Kaeya, of all people, to try to stick to the script? Was this how his story was going to go in the “canon” version? Was he going to try to defy his pre-determined fate only to end up running straight into it? 

You stuck to the current plan, seeking Kaeya’s informant and looking for clues, starting with the chest on the windmill. (Though, you already knew where the dang ruins were…) The whole time, you were just thinking about how his story would go. Could you help him with your knowledge? Before you were thinking you knew too much, and maybe you do, but now, you felt like you were clueless. Even though Kaeya’s backstory was written in great detail, it still felt like it told you nothing. …That’s honestly not too out of character for him, isn’t it? You were worried about knowing too much about people, but now that you’re thinking about it, those stories you read about them aren’t too far off from things they may have told the Traveler themselves. 

It was too early for you to know such things about people, though. You decided that from now on, you would stay away from looking at things that reveal the backstories of people. Anything you’ve already seen, you decided to let yourself look at again, to jog your memory. You would still look at new Archon Quests and Story Quests, to an extent, too, to gain more information about what’s to happen in the future. But any other new content involving the pasts of people, you decided to stay away from. Maybe you should take every single form of content in the game and make a list on whether you’ll let yourself look at it or not.

You managed to find the windmill without getting a hint from Kaeya, and the next clue couldn’t be more obvious. It was a map leading to Springvale. You teleported there and began to climb the cliff, thankful of your avatar’s abilities to scale smooth vertical surfaces.

Cryo monuments. Great. How were you going to- Oh! Cryo slimes. That made things easier. You just needed to lure the slime to the monument, and… Wind Blade! You repeated that two more times, and you got through it like it was nothing. That made you think, the whole story could be completed using the Traveler, and you wouldn’t have to resort to potentially puppeteering someone again, right?

Finally, you made it to the ruins. You entered, walked past some Pyro hilichurls, weaved around Pyro torches, and defeated several Pyro slimes. The system really wanted you to use Kaeya here, huh? Well screw you, system! You can’t be forced to use anyone!

You could, in fact, be forced to use someone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He had been waiting for this. Finally, his plan was coming into action. They had found the “Arcadian Ruins” and successfully led a group of Treasure Hoarders there with them. He already had some of the Knights he brought with him to arrest most of the Treasure Hoarders, and now there was just one more, their leader, that he needed to take care of. As the group of Knights entered the “ruins”, Kaeya noticed that [Y/N] had seemingly just walked through it all, paying no mind to the enemies and the torches. The door to the last room was open, though, so they must have made it through.

The lone Treasure Hoarder made his way out of the shadows, confronting Aether and Paimon. It was time.

“I'm sorry to rain on your parade…” He says, walking into the large room. [Y/N] started cheering and clapping, telling him to “get his ass”. “But your gang won't be participating in your current plan. If you'd like to ask why, you can go see them... in Mondstadt Prison. Or perhaps you'd prefer to join them permanently?” 

He broke the news to the three that there was no treasure to be found in the first place. For some reason, Paimon seemed more irritated about that than the Treasure Hoarder. Paimon began to throw a temper tantrum while the Treasure Hoarder merely said, “Hah. You got me good. Didn't think the Knights would resort to such tactics.” 

A criminal had the gall to question the Knights on their strategies? “A thief has no right to criticize the methods of the Knights of Fav- Wait, what are you-!” He started running away, saying, “You're not gonna get me!” He made it to a door, which opened, revealing a Ruin Guard behind it. “Okay... Oh god... Wh—What is this? I didn't mean it!” Not so tough now, are you? Kaeya loved seeing the fear in his enemies eyes as they faced off against him, or in this case, a Ruin Guard. The Ruin Guard wasn’t exactly on his side, but it wasn’t on the side of the Treasure Hoarder either, so it might as well have been on his.

Alright, time to take care of this- He felt a strange chill down his spine. He couldn’t move. No. Not again. How could they? He was just standing still as the Ruin Guard walked towards him, preparing to attack. He had trusted them, he thought their apology was genuine! Was this their plan all along? Build his trust only so they could control him again? Were they going to have him killed at the mechanical hands of this Ruin Guard?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your screen faded to black, and now you were in a fight with the Ruin Guard, with Kaeya as your active character. Wait. Kaeya. As your active character. You let out a yelp. No. You looked to the right side of your screen, and saw the pink “Trial” tag over Kaeya’s icon. Why would the system have a trial for a character you already have?! 

You panicked, quickly sprinting away from the Ruin Guard as it slowly hobbled towards him. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why this is happening, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you cry, hoping that you won’t hurt him in this fight. You moved the camera to show his face. His single light blue eye darted around, before focusing right where the camera was. He knew where the camera was? He stared at you with a look of desperation and confusion on his face. It surprised you just how much emotion could be conveyed with just an eye. “I’m sorry,” you say again, ready to go back into the fight.

You stood far enough away from the Ruin Guard now to cause it to turn around and shoot tracking missiles at you. You tried to run, but at the last second, you realized you couldn’t, and switched to Aether to take the hit. You switched back to Kaeya and sprinted back to the machine. You used his Elemental Skill to apply Cryo to it, then switched to Aether to swirl that. The Ruin Guard stomps. You dodged to the right, then got a couple of hits in. Switch to Kaeya. The Ruin Guard punches at him, you dodged its arms. It jumped, you waited until it hit the ground, and hit it with Kaeya’s skill, which managed to hit its weak point. Switch to Aether, use his skill, swirl the Cryo. Rinse and repeat. You haven’t made a sound, being too focused on the fight to think of anything to say. The Ruin Guard starts spinning. You switched to Aether to take the hits as you tried to get away. 

“Maybe… I wasn’t meant for this world…”

Shit. Aether’s down, that leaves only Kaeya for you to use. No more punching bag to take the hits. Luckily, the Ruin Guard was almost down, so you just needed to get a couple more hits in. It jumped up in the air again, and when it came down, you hit its weak spot with Kaeya’s skill again. That weakness strike was just enough to finish it off.

“Take that you weird-looking farm equipment!” You yell in exhaustion. Wait, should you have said that? 

“How embarrassing... Having my life saved by a knight…” that Treasure Hoarder named Izzard said. Kaeya hesitated to respond, still looking a bit shaken from the fight. You decided to say something to him first.

“Hey, it’s over now, you’re alright.” You tried to comfort him a bit. We need to talk in a minute when it’s just you and me, but for now, just try to pretend like everything’s normal.”

And so he did, for the most part. He spoke slowly at first, but Paimon’s whining seemed to make him take his mind off of what had just happened. It almost made you forget, as well. You hated seeing people sad, but something about seeing Paimon crying about not getting treasure just made you crack up. He gave you the "Triumphant Harbinger of Dawn That Points Towards Victory". It was just an ordinary Harbinger of Dawn like the ones you already had, but with a long, fancy name. Still, you wanted to keep this one.

“What a wonderful day. Now, I have to go interrogate some people… Please excuse me. Do come speak to me when you have the chance.” The screen faded to black again, and you got a notification saying you’d reached AR 10. When you could see your surroundings, Kaeya wasn’t in your party anymore, and Aether had been revived.. It was just you two in the domain now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What’s happening? Kaeya thought [Y/N] had purposely taken control of him here, but with the way they were almost sobbing trying to apologize to him made him think. Were they not in control of who they were controlling? Just how deep was this? He looked around in a panic, and focused on a single point. There was nothing there, but he felt like he was making direct eye contact with something. 

“I’m sorry,” [Y/N] choked out, and didn’t say another word after that.

Not too long after, he was nearly struck by the missiles of the Ruin Guard. He’d almost forgotten it was there. [Y/N] fought it, quickly swapping between using him and Aether. Every time he came close to getting hit, they would make Aether take the hit. Until the very end, though. Aether collapsed into a pile of glowing ashes, much like Amber did on that first day. Again, he panicked, wondering what would happen now that [Y/N]’s main vessel was gone, but remembered that Amber had been revived right after, so Aether likely would be as well.

“Take that you weird-looking farm equipment!” [Y/N] said, the Ruin Guard collapsing to the ground. While the seemingly mindless avatar of Aether had fallen, Kaeya had remained untouched, thankfully. 

Wait.

What had they just called it?

He tried his best to carry on like normal, ignoring his heart pounding right out of his chest from the anxiety caused by the fight. It turns out that fights were a lot more terrifying when you lacked confidence. Aether was, in fact, still alive, and unless he was a master at pretending he hadn’t just died, he really wasn’t aware of what was happening to him. Paimon really wanted that treasure, huh? Well, too bad. Maybe next time he’ll make a real treasure hunt for them. He gave the two their prize, and prepared for an interrogation. With whom, though; that Treasure Hoarder, or [Y/N]?

That question was answered rather quickly, as everyone else but him and [Y/N]... disappeared from the domain completely. For a split second, he could swear he saw some weird, yellow, rectangular outline where he felt he was making eye contact earlier, but it immediately disappeared. Kaeya looked around in confusion for a moment before turning towards [Y/N].

They walked up to him before saying, “Are you alright? Seriously, again, I’m so sorry. The system must’ve forced you into my team, I- I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear.” 

“I’m fine.” He crossed his arms. “Now, the system, forced me into your team? How exactly does that happen?” They had explained what they meant when they said things like “team” or “party” in this context, but what they meant by that mildly confused him.

“I don’t really know. When I was going in, I noticed a lot of Pyro things. It felt like the system really wanted me to use you to get through it, and then next thing I know, there you were, as my avatar.”

“So even if you’re only intending to use Aether’s avatar, your system… can force people into your control?” How much control did they have over this?

“Yep. I know it happens to more people in the future, but I was not expecting it this time. See, normally, the system would do this to let me try out new abilities; new avatars. I thought that since I could already use your abilities whenever I wanted, or at least in theory, I could, that the system wouldn’t need to do the stupid ‘Trial’ thing. But, of course, it did.” 

This would happen to more people? This was something he needed to tell Diluc about. Who knows, maybe he would be next… “Interesting…” He began. “Do you mind if I… inform Diluc about this?”

“Please do, actually. I have some other things to do, so I’m not too sure when I’ll see him again.”

“‘Other things’? Like what?”

“Oh, uh, I guess continuing the story of the Traveler. The system says I have to return to Mondstadt now, and I’m pretty sure that means that Aether’s about to be given the title of Honorary Knight.” At this point, he shouldn’t be surprised they know about that. He had heard Jean discussing it with Lisa while he was planning this operation, so he already knew they were right.

“You’re going to the Knights Headquarters, then? Mind if I join you? Talking with Diluc can wait for a bit.” All that really mattered is that he told Diluc before [Y/N]’s system got to him, too.

“Sure, you can come with me. Though I was going to teleport there…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were glad he understood that you didn’t do that on purpose. You weren’t sure if he was comfortable with the idea of you being able to take control of him at any given moment, sometimes without even your intention to, but it seemed like he mostly forgave you. 

You needed to get to the outside of the Goth Grand Hotel to continue the story, and now you needed to bring Kaeya with you. Either you walk all the way from Falcon Coast to Mondstadt, or you find a way to teleport both of you.

But wait, you needed to ask him about how he looked at you in the ruins. Could he…

“Hey Kaeya?” He turned towards you. You moved your camera around a bit, and he looked at it. “Can you… can you see me?” You moved your camera a bit more, to see if he followed it. He mostly looked at your avatar, but he kept glancing at the camera.

“Is that what… this is?” He looked back at the camera. “I don’t see anything there, but I feel as if I’m being… watched from that point. You said you were viewing this world from your own, yes? Is this where you’re viewing it from?”

“Yes, actually, I’m surprised you can, uh, sense it or whatever.” What he said made so much, yet so little sense. From what he told you, it felt like that weird sixth sense that tells you when you’re being watched, but how could he tell, and why only now? “...And you didn’t notice anything before?”

“I believe I noticed something similar before, but only now do I know what it is. I’m afraid I don’t know why this is happening, all I know is that… it is.” So they could see your camera… Wait, could everyone? Or just Kaeya? Another question to find the answer to.

Anyway, now’s not the time to be wondering about things like that. You needed to figure out if he could use the Teleport Waypoints or not, so you could get to the city. “Have you noticed certain waypoints around Teyvat? The ones made of stone, that kind of look like a torch.” 

“I have, but I wasn’t aware they had any kind of actual function until you came along, and started using them to teleport from place to place. Is that one of your… powers, as well?” It looked like he had picked up on how you were using the waypoints. That’s good, you won’t have to do as much explaining.

“So you do know what they can be used for, that’s good. I’m not exactly sure if using them to teleport is specific to me, though. As far as I know, there isn’t anything stopping people from using them, but no one else seems to even acknowledge their existence. I don’t know if others can use them, and that’s why I brought this up.” 

To quote the Wiki: “The canonicity of Teleport Waypoints is unclear.” Maybe it was only you, the player. Maybe it was just the Traveler. Maybe it was just people who could manipulate elements. Whatever it was, you were about to find out if Kaeya could use them. 

“...Are you wanting me to try to teleport to one of these waypoints?”

“Yep.”

“How exactly am I going to go about doing this? I don’t have a map like you, where I can just… pick and choose right where I want to go.”

“I think I might have an idea. Do you have the surroundings of a particular waypoint memorized?” Hopefully this worked. If it didn’t you had another idea, but this would allow him to do it on his own, whenever he wanted to.

“…I recall there being one in the middle of the lake in Springvale. I know that area fairly well, so I suppose I’ve memorized the surroundings of that waypoint. Now, what exactly am I supposed to do with that?”

“Okay, good.” You began to speak slowly. “Just visualize that area, imagine that you’re there. Close your eyes if you need to.” Eyes? Eye? Whatever, you just needed him to try that.

“Alright…” He said. You saw him close his eye, take a deep breath, and- Gone. No fancy effects, just poof! Vanished! It actually worked. Now you just needed to go there yourself. You opened your map, selected the waypoint, and followed right after him. You startled him a bit when you suddenly appeared beside him again. It looked like even he was surprised by the lack of any over the top effects.

“So, how’d that feel?” You asked. Hopefully in the future he could get quicker at it, and be able to make a swift escape from something. 

“It felt… as if my soul was ripped from my body for a moment. But, it didn’t hurt or anything like that, just a little… out of body experience.” 

‘Oh my god,’ you thought. That sounded horrifying, but apparently he was okay with it. “Are you willing to do it more?” You asked, wanting to make sure that he was, in fact, okay with it.

“If this allows me to travel around Teyvat nearly instantly, then I suppose so. A little discomfort is no big deal.” Having your soul ripped from your body is “a little discomfort”, and “no big deal”. Okay.

“Alright, just let me know if you start feeling bad because of it. Let’s try to go to the waypoint on top of the Knights headquarters; it’s the closest one to where I need to go.” You had a feeling he would not let you know if it did something to him, but you felt you should still say it.

You two made it to the HQ, and Kaeya was planning to follow you, but as soon as he heard Jean was going to be involved, he wanted to stay behind. He wasn’t in the mood to answer questions from her, and for all she knew, he was still on patrol. You told him you would be at the Cathedral plaza after you talked with Jean, and he decided he was going to meet you there. 

After he left, things went just as you remembered them. Jean told you about the Fatui, you went to the HQ, showed her and Lisa the crystal, received the title of Honorary Knight, and began to follow Venti’s footsteps. Did you even have to do this? You knew where he was. You tried heading straight to the plaza, and lo and behold, there he was, along with Kaeya as an audience member.

You listened to his story, the Tale of Two Dragons. It was far more beautiful than the one you’d heard. The emotions his performance gave made you feel as if you were really there, witnessing the events being told. You saw, or rather, heard exactly why he’s the most popular bard in Mondstadt. You couldn’t help but clap afterwards. If he could hear you, you wanted to wait until you were alone with him at Windrise to reveal yourself, so you hoped he didn’t notice. You went on with the conversation as normal, not saying a word. You could see Kaeya in the background, listening, but none of them seemed to notice.

“Hey! Where are you running off to!?”

“To the ‘Symbol of Mondstadt’s Hero.’ Bye-bye~”

Aaaand he was gone. After the Traveler and the pixie were done talking to each other, you walked up to Kaeya, making sure there’s no one around to see him talking to himself. You were eager to see what he thought about all of that.

“I have to say, seeing people suddenly disappear like that is going to take some getting used to. Ignoring that for now, just what’s the deal with that crystal?” 

“I found it in the woods before I came to Mondstadt for the first time. It was red when I found it, and it’s been purified, so now it’s blue. It’s apparently a tear from Stormterror.”

“Oh? That sounds… interesting. Is there anything else I should know about from before you came to Mondstadt?”

“I mean, I can tell you what I know of the Traveler’s backstory another time, but now, I should probably go meet up with Venti. I guess this is bye for now, then.” You kind of wanted him to go with you, but you knew Venti probably wasn’t planning to see you, let alone you and a plus one.

“Already? Well, I suppose I do have things to do. I should probably talk to Diluc, and I can’t hide from Master Jean forever. I’ll see you around.”

“See you around!”

------------------------------------------------------------

And so you went to the massive tree, and approached Venti. Aether brought up the God of Anemo, and Venti began to talk about how the God of Anemo had been absent from Mondstadt for a very long time. You responded to that by simply saying, “Oh, really?” over and over again, and “It’s a shame I’ll never get to meet this Archon of the Wind,” in the most sarcastic tone you could muster.

After that last remark, he looked straight at the camera with a deadpan expression. To little surprise, he could hear you. He could also “see” the camera too? Aether looked in the direction of the camera for a second, probably wondering what Venti was looking at, but just looked back at him in confusion. You tried to stop yourself from laughing, but you couldn’t, bursting out into a cackle. Things are always ten times funnier when you’re not supposed to laugh.

And then you were fighting an Eye of the Storm using only Anemo Traveler. Great! You started calling out, “Venti help me!” repeatedly, and he started helping you. It wasn’t much, considering he too, was Anemo, but he was at least able to shoot it down when it flew up into the air. 

You finally defeated it, and Venti spoke up. “If there’s anyone else who would like to reveal themselves, now would be a good time!” He knew very well of your existence at this point. There was no point trying to hide, even if you didn’t want to let him know.

You simply said, “Hi.” He seemed to be trying to avoid talking directly to you. He might’ve noticed that the Traveler and Paimon seemed unaware of you. “You don’t have to worry about confusing the other two. At least, not until you see Paimon- or, the pixie, fairy thing again.” You forgot he (probably) didn’t know who Paimon was yet.

“Oh? And who might you be, then? I’ve never encountered anything like you. Perhaps one day you too, may be written into a bard’s tale.” 

“Call me [Y/N]. I want you to know now that I wasn’t put in this… situation by choice.” Venti looked a bit concerned. “I’ll explain later. We should get back to what we were talking about earlier, before we were… interrupted by that thing.”

“Alright [Y/N], if you say so… Seems the dragon wasn't the only thing affected by this change in the wind…” Your screen faded to black, and you were back in a cutscene. “Now then, you were saying someone had told you about the dragon?”

You stayed silent for most of the conversation, only reacting with:

“Oh.”

“Yay!”

“Woo-hoo!”

Next thing you knew, you were at the Cathedral, listening to Venti’s futile attempt to convince the nun to give him the Holy Lyre. 

“Shocked, aren't you? Don't you just want to cry out and rejoice? How does it feel to finally meet the god you've been serving?”

“If there's nothing else, I'll be going back to handle the Cathedral's paperwork now.”

“Wait-”

“I don’t think that worked.” You said, trying to show as little emotion as possible.

“Oh…” He sighed, pouting, glaring at the camera. “You're the hotshot of the Knights of Favonius, why don’t you give it a shot?” You just stared at him, hoping he could sense that.

And what do you know? It still didn’t work. What a surprise. Even when you said Paimon ate the papers, it didn’t work! You thought that would change things!

Venti commented on how it was unfair the best warrior did not receive the best sword; another tale fit for a ballad. You discussed stealing it, and now Aether was finally questioning Venti about what he had said.

“Your point being?” Venti seemed very nonchalant about his “secret identity” being revealed. Out of all of the archons so far, he was your favorite. 

You had a plan, and now you had to wait until “nightfall”, a.k.a. 6 in the evening! This was the part where you were meant to use the time skip feature you had been missing, right? You’d noticed the past two days that the time in Teyvat synced to your timezone, and there was no option to fast-forward. You didn’t have to wait a terribly long time, and thankfully, you had something to do to spend the time.

“Hey, wanna go to the Angel’s Share tavern for a bit? I think that I want to do some explaining there.” You asked Venti. You hoped Diluc was bartending, or at least in the building doing something.

“Ohoho, do I?” Oh no, what have you started? “I could never deny a visit to a tavern! The Dawn Winery’s wine truly is exquisite! Ah- wait, do you happen to have any Mora on you?”

You sighed. “I do, but I’m not going to be paying for alcohol. I have things to talk about, and I want you to remember them.”

“Oh, fine, fair enough. Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go! Hehe~” 

That laugh. That goddamn laugh.

Diluc wasn’t bartending, but you saw him come down from the third floor, unlocking the door to the stairwell so he could leave. You made your avatar jump up and down, saying “Hi!” to him. You hadn’t seen him since yesterday. He opened the door, and stopped at the base of the stairwell. Kaeya soon followed him, going down the stairs only to stop when he saw you. What were they doing up there?

“Ah. Hello.” Diluc looked around your avatar, probably checking for Paimon, and noticed Venti standing behind you. “Is there a reason why you’re here with this bard?”

“I do. I was hoping I’d find you here, and luckily, I did. I offered to take him here because I wanted to- you know what? Venti, you just tell them.”

“[Y/N] here said they wanted to do some explaining, right here in this most wonderful tavern, over a couple of drinks.” 

Kaeya and Diluc looked at you two for a moment, wide-eyed, surprised that Venti could hear you.

“Well, Diluc and I did just finish discussing things upstairs. I suppose we can go back up there to… fill your new friend here in.” Kaeya says, gesturing to the stairwell.

You tell him that sounds good, and the four of you headed upstairs, into a room full of wine barrels. It looked like it was their storage area.

Venti looked around in excitement, while you and the two brothers found a place to stand. “Don’t even think about touching anything. And don’t try to sneak a sip of anything without me knowing. All of these barrels are unopened, I’ll be able to tell if you’ve tampered with it.” Diluc definitely knew just how much Venti liked alcohol.

“So, what exactly are we talking about here? Everything we know, or shall we leave some details out?” Diluc asked.

“I at least want him to know who I am, and the very basics of what I’m doing, but yeah, everything. As much as possible.” You responded.

“Are you sure you trust him with this? You haven’t known him for very long, no? How can you be sure that he’s truly someone who should know this?” Kaeya seemed skeptical of Venti. Did he not want him to know for some reason?

“Yes, Kaeya, I trust him with this. Hey, come over here with me for a second.” You went to the corner of the room with him, and began to whisper to him. “Remember, I can see a bit of the future. I know who he is, and I trust him.” If anything, you trusted him more than Kaeya or Diluc. You thought the distrust some people had in the archons was reasonable, but you felt that you could trust Venti. You went back to the others. “Alright, where should we start?”

You discussed everything with them. It went very similarly to the conversation you had with just Kaeya and Diluc the other day, but this time, there was no panic, no anxiety. Everyone gave their thoughts about it, and any misunderstandings anyone had at this point were cleared up. You weren’t sure if they completely trusted you yet, especially considering what had happened with Kaeya earlier, but it seemed like they did trust you at least a little bit.

Now, as your avatar stood in the tavern, you were wondering;

Like the first level could be some NPC's, the second could be most playable characters, and the third would be archons and other extremely powerful beings.

Kaeya walked into Angel’s Share, seeing Diluc at the counter, bartending. He remembered that Diluc might have noticed that entity at the temple, and realized that this could be the perfect time to question him about it. He sits on a bar stool, making eye contact with Diluc. 

“What is it this time?” Diluc says, in a slightly annoyed tone.

“You were at the Temple of the Wolf earlier, no? Did you happen to notice anything out of the ordinary? ”

“Other than that… music, I can’t say I have.”

“So you could hear it!” Kaeya almost lunges forward in shock. He wasn’t the only one after all!

“What are you getting at? If you have no concerns other than whether I could hear some music, I’ll be going back to serving customers.” Diluc begins to turn back around to the taps.

“...It’s a long story. A story, however, that I need to tell you. You’re the only other one that could hear that entity , and I’m afraid it might have some cruel intentions. So could you please have Charles take over for a moment while I speak with you?”

“Entity? Is it that serious? I suppose I can get him to come back for a bit, he should understand I have something urgent.”

“Great. Once you have that taken care of, I’ll be waiting outside.” Kaeya gets up and walks towards the door.

After a few minutes, Diluc went outside with Kaeya, and he retold the events of earlier in the day.

“Some sort of entity… that’s possessed multiple people to use as its puppets… And you’re not sure if it has malicious intentions? It killed Amber, granted it did bring her back somehow, and nearly killed you.”

“I said nothing about them not being careless with their actions. They… did do those things, but I’m afraid I still don’t know their intentions. At first I thought they were doing it for their own amusement, but after a while, I noticed that they were refraining from entering fights. It wasn’t that they couldn’t fight; the few times they did get into a fight, they ended up winning with ease. They appeared to simply not want to bring harm to anything. If that’s the case, then why would they be knowingly possessing people?” 

“This is... interesting. It said it was going to be back tomorrow, right? It’s too late to be doing this now, but perhaps early tomorrow morning we can question the others possibly affected by this. If the entity comes back during this we can go straight to questioning it. If not, we can gather information beforehand and be better prepared for when it does come back.”

“Sounds good. Tomorrow morning, we’ll meet up here again and discuss things. If I run into anyone on the way, I’ll ask them myself. Now, I think it’s time for me to relax with a Death After Noon…”

--------------------------------------------------------

Kaeya woke up early the next morning, immediately got ready, and left his room in search of the others involved. He first checked the library for Lisa since it wasn’t too far out of his way, and asked Lisa about the events of the day before. He then left the headquarters, going to meet Diluc near the tavern. However, he luckily ran into both Noelle and Amber talking to each other not far outside the building. He questioned them for a bit, before letting them get back to what they were doing. 

Neither Amber, Noelle, nor Lisa had noticed anything strange about the traveler, nor did they notice anything strange happen to them. He had asked them what they were doing at the time that entity was there yesterday, and they gave clear, specific, answers. It was obvious that nothing had happened to them at all. This new information didn’t solve anything. It just made Kaeya even more confused. He rushed to the tavern to find Diluc already there, waiting.

“Oh, you’re here. Where do you think we should start to look for the others?”

“Thankfully, we won’t be needing to worry about that. I managed to run into Lisa, Amber, and Noelle on the way here. Now, we should go talk about this somewhere less… out in the open.”

The two go to the third floor of the tavern. The door to the stairwell is locked to the public, so they won’t be disturbed by anyone.

“The only other person that’s involved in this is the Traveler, and I have a feeling that they have a stronger connection to this than the others do. The entity seems to be directly attached to him, so I feel that we… won’t exactly be able to question him without the entity knowing.”

“The situation with the Traveler is definitely interesting. But anyway, that’s good news that you’ve already spoken with them. What did they have to say?”

Kaeya tells Diluc what they told him. None of them had noticed at all. (And now, Amber was slightly upset at him, thinking he was suspicious of the Traveler. Splendid.)

“Really? None of them noticed anything strange at all? I suppose that we might just have to wait for that entity to come back before we get any answers. All we have to do is just wait until it returns, and question it then. If it takes you under its hold again, then I’ll just have to do the questioning myself.”

“Alright, that sounds like a plan. We should try not to resort to violence. The entity may not be malevolent, and the Traveler may be in the same situation I was. Trying to harm the entity while the Traveler is being used as a vessel may just end up unnecessarily harming him while not doing anything to the entity. If worse comes to worse, however, we need to lure them out of their vessel before trying anything.”

“That might make it a little tough… But fine. All we have to do now is wait. I’ll keep working the bar so I’m nearby.”

Kaeya nodded his head, and they went their separate ways.

--------------------------------------------------------

They were back. Kaeya could feel it. He started to go to the tavern to tell Diluc, when he felt a chill down his spine, and started to feel his muscles relax out of nowhere. Not again. It stopped abruptly, and nothing happened, other than him tripping a bit due to the sudden spasms. Were they trying to take control but couldn’t for some reason? He continued towards the tavern, now walking quicker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*This character is busy.*

What the hell does that mean?

You found something on the internet for what that meant, but that was for quests, and as far as you knew, quests didn’t lock your ability to use characters like that. You tried to select him again, and it gave you the same message. ‘Weird’, you thought, ‘I should report that later’, and selected Lisa instead.

You pan your camera around, looking at your surroundings. This game’s graphics were really beauti- is that Kaeya and Diluc? Is this why Kaeya’s busy? Why don’t you remember this quest? Is it new? Kaeya’s hangout comes out on the 25th, which was still two days ago, so this couldn’t be that, right? 

Kaeya walks in front of Diluc. “Traveler, could you please follow us? We need to ask you some questions on some things. It's quite urgent.”

“Al...right…” You say to yourself, beginning to follow the two.

You soon realized that they were probably taking you to Dawn Winery, given that if something isn’t in the city, there’s a 99% chance it’s there. But why couldn’t they just put the quest objective there? Why did they make it so you had to follow them all the way there? It felt like it took forever. You debated putting another video essay on, but decided against it, opting for some lo-fi music instead. You went off-course at one point to unlock a statue. You realized that the brothers were helping you fight the Eye of the Storm, so you stopped fighting for a second to level up Kaeya a bit, hoping it would affect his damage despite him not being in your party. It did, thankfully. This was a nice little thing, having the characters assist you in battle, how come you’d never heard people talk about it before? Sure, you knew of NPC’s helping, but why had no one mentioned the playable characters?

When you finally got there, you noticed Diluc telling Adelinde something, and another maid greeting Kaeya with a “Hello, Master Kaeya. Is there anything I can do for you?”, followed by him shaking his head. They took you to… the basement!? What kinds of questions did they have? 

You went in, now following Kaeya, with Diluc behind you, locking the door with a key. There were various weapons and devices around the room. What. The hell. Wasn’t this game rated for teens? Why would they have a full-ass torture chamber? There was a singular chair in the center of the room. You sat your avatar down in it, curious and terrified of what was about to go down.

Diluc already seemed somewhat angry. He takes a breath in, preparing himself to speak, but Kaeya stops him, beginning to speak himself.

“Alright, let’s try to keep things peaceful here.” He says, looking back at Diluc for a moment before looking around the room, and finally focusing on your avatar. It looked like he glared at the camera for a moment, but it was kind of dark, so you couldn’t really tell.

“You’re not the Traveler, are you?”

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ You think, subconsciously going “Hmm?” in confusion.

Diluc walks up to your avatar, sternly saying, “Don’t bother to act confused. You know what this is all about.”

Kaeya quickly replies, “We can’t be sure they know, Diluc. Don’t do anything rash now.”

“Yeah Diluc!” You shout back. “You can’t be sur- wait hoLY SHIT CAN YOU HEAR ME!?” ...What was going on? Were you hallucinating? This couldn’t be real, right? There’s no way characters from a video game were talking to you right now. That’s impossible. You needed sleep, or water, or something.

“Told you so.” Kaeya tells Diluc.

“I don’t buy your confusion act. You were here for hours yesterday, interacted with several people, went so far as to possess them, and now you’re supposedly shocked that someone knows of your presence? You’d better quit it and start being honest, or face the consequences.” Diluc’s eyes were practically glowing red, and he began to adjust his glove, getting ready for a fight.

You were pretty sure he couldn’t hurt you through the screen, but still, your heart was pounding, and you began to hyperventilate. “Woah, woah, woah! Calm down! I swear I didn’t know what was going on! I still don’t! ” Was this how his victims felt when being interrogated? You were innocent though, you hadn’t done anything, right? What does he mean by any of this? “What the hell is any of this about!?”, you say, panicking.

Kaeya still seems to be trying to calm DIluc down as well. “Diluc-”

“Every single criminal I’ve interrogated. All of them. It’s always, ‘I don’t know!’, or, ‘I’ll never tell you!’. They all say that,” He lights a fire in his hand, and moves even closer to the Traveler. What was he going to do? “but they all seem to change their mind the second a little spark is brou-”

“Diluc!” Kaeya interjects. “It’s very clear here that your little ‘criminal’ has not the slightest clue on what’s happening. And besides, what did we say earlier about harming the Traveler? Would you just help me explain the situation to them?” 

That worked, surprisingly. You were glad the human lie detector trusted you, and Diluc seemed to calm down a bit. He still seemed a bit on-edge, but he wasn’t about to torture your avatar anymore. Now this; this is why Kaeya’s your favorite.

“Now, before I can really explain, I’m going to need to hear some things from you. You are not the Traveler; is that right?” Kaeya says, in an overly clear tone.

You didn’t know where this was heading, but you told the truth. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“And just who are you?”

“My name is [Y/N]. I- Uh, what else do you want to know about me? Am I pretty much just a disembodied voice to you?”

“Well, you have a body here, it’s just not yours… What exactly are you, and how are you using someone as a vessel?”

“Oh! Uh… how do I explain this…? So, I’m using this system that allows me to view another world through the perspective of my current avatar. I can move around the world freely, engage in combat, and directly interact with some things. Key word, some. There are still a lot of things that I can’t do. I control my avatar with a handheld controller. Actions are as simple as pressing a button.” You make the Traveler stand up. “However, a complex movement such as walking or swinging a weapon being controlled by a single input means that it’s going to be pretty… robotic.” You move around a bit, showing the “robotic” movement.

“Another world? You’re not even from Teyvat, then.” Diluc says, after listening to you and Kaeya talk for a bit.

It was safe telling them this, right? The only people you needed to hide being an outworlder from were the Fatui, right? And even then, you would only need to hide your identity, not Aether’s. Oh, right, you should probably tell them that Aether is an outworlder too, but that seems like a conversation for later. “Yep, I’m just a normal human being, peeking in from another world.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Was Kaeya right? Was this entity- or, was [Y/N] really well-intentioned? They didn’t mention anything about possessing people, just that they used an “avatar”, meaning they were either truly unaware of what they did, or they were completely desensitized to it. Diluc needed to find out which one it was.

“And how do you think your ‘avatars’ feel about you using them?” Weird question, but it should get the job done.

“Well, they’re just avatars, they shouldn’t ‘feel’ anything, it’s not like they’re… con…scious peo…ple- NO. No. Tell me I’m overthinking this. Tell me that you just asked that as some kind of joke and that someone didn’t come tell you that they were puppeteered by some… thing .” They began to speak faster. “That isn’t how this is supposed to work. Tha- no. Is that what’s happening?!” He wasn’t much of an empath, but he could feel their anxiety from their voice.

Kaeya responds before Diluc can. “You really didn’t know for all that time? I will say, though; as far as I’m aware, none of the others you’re using as… ‘avatars’, as you call them, know about what you’re doing. I assume your ‘system’ is working as intended for them, but as for me…” 

So [Y/N] really didn’t know. They really were clueless. It was no act. Kaeya was right. Diluc should have listened to him earlier when he told him not to get violent, but he didn’t. Sure, he wasn’t actually going to hurt the Traveler, he was just trying to intimidate them, scare them out of their vessel, but now, they sounded on the edge of a panic attack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me I’m overthinking this. Tell me that you just asked that as some kind of joke and that someone didn’t come tell you that they were puppeteered by some… thing. ” 

What have you done? No, it’s not over yet, what are you doing? That wasn’t how the character selection thingy canonically worked, right? You thought you were just using the character’s abilities, or having them join the Traveler on their adventure! You would have never thought that you, the player, you, puppeteered them around the world, which is bad enough, but not only that, they were still conscious while you were doing it, trapped in their own bodies! 

“You really didn’t know for all that time? I will say, though; as far as I’m aware, none of the others you’re using as… ‘avatars’, as you call them, know about what you’re doing. That being said, I haven’t been able to ask the Traveler… I assume your system is working as intended for them, but as for me…” 

…So it was just Kaeya who was affected by this? That was a bit of a relief. It definitely still wasn’t good, but the less affected, the better. …Wait, Kaeya? Wasn’t he the one that got hit with that arrow? Was that why it did so much damage? Did you almost kill him?

“Hey, so yesterday… the watchtower…”

Kaeya put his hand to his throat. That was where the arrow hit him? How did you not notice anything was wrong? That would have bled a lot, right? Then why didn’t you see anything?

“...I’m so sorry. I… I can’t imagine how you felt, that must have been horrible. Look, I swear on my life I didn’t know. I don’t know how I didn’t see anything wrong, but… I’m sorry. For all of this. The whole time, I was thinking that something completely different was happening. I sincerely apologize for any harm I’ve caused. I hope I can make it up to you somehow. I’m asking for forgiveness, but if you can’t forgive me, I don’t blame you at all.”

Again, Kaeya responds. “What exactly do you mean by ‘something completely different’?”

“It has- it has to do with some of the technology our world has.” Your voice was still a little shaky, but you were calming down. For the explanation, you were going to use one of Kaeya’s tactics against him. Half-truths. 

“We have devices here that can do a great number of things. One of those things is viewing the stories of other worlds via a program, like an extremely interactive storybook.” Computers didn’t really exist there yet, and “program” had other meanings, so you hoped they didn’t see through it.

 “People can decide on whether they can just read the story, or truly immerse themselves in the world by using this technology. Every world’s ‘stories’ are unique in how they act. The appeal of Teyvat is its elemental combat system. In the program, the user can create a team of up to 4 characters to use in exploration and combat. Now, here’s the thing. The programs are only made for viewing. The user can interact with the program version of the world, but the real world remains unchanged. I think something went horribly wrong with my system here.”

None of this was objectively wrong so far. For all you knew, you were actually right. If the Multiverse theory is true, there was a real Teyvat out there somewhere, but the question is, is this it?  

You continued. “The program is never supposed to interfere with the real world. But for some reason, mine did. Like I said earlier, some prefer to only read the story, which is what I did for months. But only recently did I decide to immerse myself. I know a lot about Teyvat, but I wasn’t aware of what the program was supposed to look like. Come to think of it, I noticed some weird things yesterday, but never in a million years would I have guessed that this is what was happening. …I know that’s a lot, if you have questions, let me know.”

Both of them just stand there in thought for a moment, before Kaeya speaks up. “So, you’re using technology from your world that allows you to view other worlds, but for some reason you aren’t simply viewing the world now. Is that right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“And you say you were aware of this world previous to your arrival here… Tell me, just how much do you know about Teyvat?”

“Oh, that actually reminds me of another thing! See, the program’s story goes up to the fourth nation of the Traveler’s journey, Sumeru, with the fifth, Fontaine, being released in a couple of weeks. But here, the Traveler is still in the first nation. I guess that means I can kind of see the future? But that’s only if nothing major changes, now that I’m involved in this.” 

That was a superpower. You could use this to your advantage, but only a couple of times before the plot becomes completely different from what you remember happening.

“Oh? Really? You can see the future? How does this whole ‘Stormterror’ crisis end, then?” Kaeya inquires. Was he testing you? Or was he genuinely curious?

“Okay, before I tell you that, I want you to know that this is a powerful ability I have, and straying from what I’ve seen happen will cause me to lose that ability. I’m sure we’ll have to do that at some point, but we need to pick a good point to do so. I can already say that anything here in Mondstadt around now does not need to be changed. There are bad things that will happen, but trying to stop them from happening will throw my power of insight away, which I really don’t want to do this early on.”

Diluc responds. “I agree. A power like that could be used for stopping something very major. Stormterror may seem ‘very major’ as of now, but I think we’ve got it under control.” He looks at your avatar.

“Fair enough. I won’t be trying to change the outcome. Not this time, at least. Now, how does this crisis end?” Kaeya asks again. You didn’t entirely believe him about not trying to change the outcome, but you proceeded.

“I have a feeling we’ve already changed things a bit, but it shouldn’t be too bad. To sum up, the Traveler teams up with Diluc, Jean, and a bard named Venti to cleanse Dvalin of Abyssal corruption, which is what is making him hostile. I also remember that you find out something pretty important about the Abyss Order.”

“Abyssal corruption? So the Abyss Order is behind this…?” Kaeya says.

“That’s only if what [Y/N] says is true, though. They could simply be making all of this up.” Diluc sounded… doubtful in your abilities.

“Hey, I understand if you doubt what I say. This is sudden to all of us. You’re just finding out about me, and I’m just finding out about you. You don’t have to trust me just yet. But, what can I say to help convince you?”

Diluc thought for a moment, before saying, “Your knowledge of this, you get it from some type of story, is that correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right…”

“Read me a few lines from it. Preferably from somewhere I have involvement in.”

Ooh, okay. You were planning to not tell them about things they were in to have a smaller chance of them defying it, but this little bit should be fine.

“Hold on, let me pull something up. Give me a minute…” You pulled up the wiki, went to his story quest, and found a spot to read from. 

“Here, this is a letter. Some parts are in some cipher that never gets translated, but… whatever.”

“‘To the ‘Darknight Hero’:

*mumbling* has endured too long your self-proclaimed …something and hypocrisy. We hereby mmmm you:

We shall …ciphers- march full-on onto Mondstadt's front gate at …words. If you wish to cling to your so-called justice, don't sit idly by …god this thing is full of those things, step up and accept …I hate reading this. Otherwise, Mondstadt's something shall take the fall in your stead.”

Diluc seemed to take note of it, while Kaeya just looked at him in dramatic surprise.

“To the Darknight Hero? Why would you read a letter addressed to this mysterious figure to someone else entirely? It’s not as if either of us have a connection to this Darknight Hero, is it Diluc?”

You rolled your eyes, as if they could see you.

“...I know you know, Kaeya.”

He just smirked. You expected a question on how, but he surprisingly didn’t ask.

You had zero clue whether you should even be telling anyone anything in the first place. Worst-case scenario, the Sustainer notices you, and that… actually could end very badly if this world was really more than a game.

“Alright, I'll keep that in mind for later. We'll see just how accurate your 'insight' is.” Diluc began, “Anyway, I believe we’ve determined that [Y/N] here isn’t a threat. There is no need for us to remain in this room any longer.”

“Agreed, I could really use some fresh air right about now.” Kaeya sounded exhausted all of a sudden. Drama queen. You didn’t know for sure what the room felt like since you weren’t actually there, but it had a very suffocating atmosphere.

You left the winery with the brothers. They were going to adventure with you for a while, since they didn’t have anything else to do, and you all had so many questions for each other. 

Kaeya wanted to know how exactly your system worked, since he had been affected by it.

“I’ll tell you what I know about how it’s supposed to work, but this isn’t really what I know a whole lot about. Like I said earlier, the appeal of this is the elemental combat system. The user can manipulate the seven elements through different characters, and use them to their advantage for things like combat, and puzzles. Since each character has a specific set of skills… I haven’t explained that yet, have I? By the way, I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s only three skills I can use for each character. A basic attack with the main weapon, an Elemental Skill, which usua-”

Kaeya interrupted. “A Normal Attack, an Elemental Skill, and… an Elemental Burst?”

“Yes…” How… did he know that?

“Reminds me of a certain card game I know. I think I’m starting to see how you were viewing this. Not only do you collect elements to use, but you collect ‘characters’ to fulfill different roles in your team?”

“...Yeah, that’s exactly it. What card game are you talking about? Maybe I can compare my system to it.” The only card game you knew of was that Invocation one or whatever, maybe it was that one? 

“I’m surprised you don’t know this, visionary, but it’s Genius Invokation TCG. It’s fairly popular here in Teyvat.

“I’ve heard of it. Alright, let me look that up… Genius Invokation…”

You looked at some footage of gameplay, and glanced over the rules, and it basically seemed like a TCG version of the game you thought you were playing.

“Yep, that’s pretty much spot on. Just, my team can have up to 4 characters instead of 3, there aren’t any dice involved, and it’s not turn based. Really, the only limit I have with this is cooldown times. Like Aether’s skill here,” You ran away a bit and used his skill. “-has a cooldown of 5 seconds.”

Both of them looked confused for a second, and Kaeya asked, “...Aether? Is that the name of this traveler?”

“Didn’t Amber introduce him to you? …Did she just call him “Traveler” or something?”

“All she said was, ‘travelers from afar’, and I believe you heard my thoughts in response to that…”

“Oh, that’s… interesting. But yeah, his name’s Aether.” 

“One more thing,” Kaeya responded. “Are you sure… Aether here, isn’t aware of what’s happening?”

“That’s… a good question.” You answered, nervously. 

Please no. What were you going to do if he was? You hadn’t noticed anything off about him, right? Hold on, you could see his thoughts, since he was the protagonist, right?

“I think I have an answer to it though. I can see his major thoughts, since he’s my main avatar. If he was experiencing anything weird, I would see it. I would know. Also, I should mention, you probably shouldn’t go up to him expecting to talk to me and only me. Like when you first met him, if you were to talk to me, he would probably respond in confusion.”

“So he is aware… but he isn’t?” Kaeya said, Diluc listening in.

“‘He’ basically only exists at certain times. It’s confusing, I know, I don’t know how it works. I can give you a kind of key to tell, though. If you see Paimon, the little fairy thing, with him, then yes, ‘he’ is fully there. If not, it’ll be a little harder to tell. How can you tell them apart… Oh! Look at the movement. See how stiff and robotic it is when I’m in control? When he actually looks like a human person moving around, chances are, that’s him.” 

“Interesting… I’ll keep this in mind for later.” Kaeya looked like he was struggling a bit to get all of this into his head, but you could tell he was trying.

While you were walking around, you came across a Fatui camp. You just wanted to ignore them as they were just doing whatever they were told to by whoever their boss was, but Diluc charged right into “interrogating” them the same way he did you, insisting they must be up to something. They didn’t go down without a fight. Diluc beat them, but it looked like he got hit pretty hard in the fight. You couldn’t see any injuries, though.

It turned out that they really were just resting, but they were serving La Signora. While Diluc was threatening the soldiers, Kaeya slipped in and stole some notes from their camp. The notes had information that was new to the brothers, but not really to you. To be fair, you didn’t know that they actually planned to coerce the Knights to kill Dvalin, but you remembered some lady tried to convince Jean at one point. There was no mention of the plan to draw the Anemo Archon out and steal his Gnosis, but you guessed it was likely because it was classified, and they didn’t want to tell lower-ranking members.

“Fatui… They’ve been causing problems in Mondstadt for ages, and the Knights act as if they’ve done nothing wrong. Why keep a friendly relationship with tyrants? First The Doctor causing trouble, now her? [Y/N], the Fatui don’t have any major involvement in this Stormterror situation, do they?” Diluc said, annoyed.

You could understand him, you didn’t like the Fatui either, but you thought about what they could really be planning with the Gnoses, and wondered if they had a good reason for doing what they were. That doesn’t explain the war crimes of some of the harbingers, though. The things Dottore had done… And it wasn’t just some words on a page anymore, he had actually done those things… Absolutely disgusting. Hey, most people didn’t know about the “segments”, right? That would be fun to tell them, but first, you needed to answer Diluc’s question.

Signora was directly involved, and the whole thing with the Holy Lyre happened, but you couldn’t just tell him that, right?

“...I’m not answering that. I can’t tell you everything, you know. Just… find out for yourself when the time comes. Also, you said Dottore was causing trouble before this, right? Which one?”

You knew which one.

Kaeya chuckled. “Which one? And, what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”

“I have seen evidence of there being clones of some kind. That would explain the drastic differences in his attitude.” So Diluc kind of knew?

“Yeah, there’s clones.” You said. “But, he calls them ‘segments’, because they’re basically segments of his life. Some segments are older than others, and act differently because of this. This is just me thinking, but that might be why he’s Number 2.”

“Nice to know there’s clones of one of the most despicable people alive.” Kaeya joked. “But may I ask how you know this? Does Aether encounter said ‘segments’ in the future?”

“Well, he doesn’t encounter the segments, and he’s kind of… unconscious at the time, but sometime in Sumeru, he encounters the main guy, the prime build, and he mentions it. I don’t know how many there are, but people have theorized that there’s probably somewhere a little over 10.”

“And these people, they’re the ‘users’ you’ve mentioned? It seems they’ve formed a bit of a community over this, no?” Kaeya asked.

How should you explain the community? Definitely don’t mention the sheer size of it. As far as they need to know, it was pretty small. It wasn’t like there were millions of players or anything, many of which were only there for collecting characters. 

“Yeah, there’s a community. It’s not too big, but there’s people who like doing pretty much anything. I was most interested in the theorizing part, but there’s people who do other things, like make art, or just talk about people they like. Or,” You started jokingly half-whispering, “-don’t tell anyone I said this, but some people spread leaks of what’s yet to come for the program, both story-wise and gamepl- uhh, sorry, system-wise.”

Both of them looked somewhat surprised that there was a community of people who knew so much about Teyvat that they didn’t even know existed.

You kept walking, and realized that you had some level-up papers to spare.

“Hey Kaeya, do you feel like you got any stronger earlier?” You asked, already preparing to use some more on him.

“I do, actually. Something happened during that fight near the statue, and I felt it yesterday as well. That was your doing, wasn’t it?”

You leveled him as far as you could. “By the way, how does that feel?”

“My body fills with energy, and it feels like all my injuries are healed. Not much different than having a good drink. By the way, is there any way you can heal someone you haven’t used as your avatar yet? Because it looks like Diluc here might be in need of that.”

“It’s just a few cuts.” Diluc said, before wiping his cheek with his glove.

“Wait, are you hurt?” You asked, walking up to him. You couldn’t see any cuts or scratches at all, but the way he turned away from you said that yes, he was. Made sense, considering the fight, but you just couldn’t see anything wrong.

He pulled out a napkin from a pocket in his coat, and held it to his face. It didn’t look like it got anything on it.

You turned to Kaeya. “Is he bleeding? I’m serious, I don’t see anything wrong. I don’t know if it’s my system censoring it or something, but…”

He looked at you, concerned. “Your system won’t let you see blood? Now that I think about it, that would explain some things…”

Okay, that was weird. Nice to know you wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was hurt unless their movements showed it.

After a while, you were about to reach Adventure Rank 10, the next requirement for the Archon Quests. You decided it was time to wrap it up, so tomorrow you could hit that Adventure Rank and continue on your journey.

The three of you made your way back to the city of Mondstadt. You said goodbye to them, told them you'd be back tomorrow, and you logged off. Only now did you realize how mentally exhausted you were. Time to open TikTok and forget that you exist!

“KAEYA HANGOUT LEAKS HE’S SO HGDSAHVADHA”  

Behind the caption was a picture of the Traveler holding Kaeya’s hand in the Cathedral plaza, with Venti behind them.