#;morax

two geo lords about to fuck things up

    ‘ My departed friend who held flowers and wine in hand and rode a boat with me...when will we meet again? ‘

    ‘ I wanted to buy flowers and bring some wine to appreciate Liyue’s scenery in a boat. But the old friend that once accompanied me is not here. When will my reunion with that ancient friend come true... ‘

commission by the wonderful @noteriezan1 based in part out of the earlier versions of zhongli’s japanese voiceline ! ties with my headcanon here 

The that light trickles in bit by bit is accompanied by the warmth that extends from their horns to the branches of their majestic tail. It’s been so long since they’ve last heard a voice so near; the time between bloodied screams and then terrifying silence outside of the hums of the Ley Lines becomes innumerable. They thought that the longing for companionship had since eroded into dust. And yet the flutterings like falling petals within a heart of stone is unmistakable. Perhaps ‘hope’ was still lingering inside the stone cage.

It's blinding and scorching all at once. It causes the mighty Earth Sovereign to flinch back but gentle words call to him. A calloused hand upon their maw draws them out into the light. Words die upon their tongue at the sight before them, bathed in light.

The brightest amber glistening in the golden glow. Stone reaches out and embraces the comforting light. They dare indulge oneself in a world that burns like gold, sinking into an everlasting gilded dream of the sun.

How beautiful…

As bright as a fallen plant, its brilliance is unparalleled. 

A beauty and splendor they did not know before. They oft marvel at how colorful this world had become since they last roamed the lands above. But no more did their comrades of old linger in this world. To be the last of their pact, gives a certain chilling emptiness that seems to permeate every part of this vessel.

A blind dragon who had long sought the warmth of the sun, they wonder if this is but a dream. Another sweet illusion with promises of another life without the weighty guilt upon bare shoulders. Retuo is unable to place himself in this new world at the Lord of Stone’s side. Everything has been foreign and isolating all at once. Yet a flicker of warmth fills their chest once more when alabaster and gold fill distant amber gaze again.

“Aren’t they lovely?” The sun asks with a hint of pride glimmering upon playful cadence. His straightforward feelings are warm, it’s almost as if they are basking in the sun.

“Yes,” the moon replies, but their eyes are not on the colorful meadows before them.

A star appears in the wild, a sun ascends as bright as jade.

A light boat, a pair of lazy oars. The misty rain descends upon Dihua Marsh. Songbirds lull the world into a state of ease. Slowly, the world stalls in painted indigo hues resembling the bleeding canvas left in a certain someone’s Domain. The waters reflect such shades, glimmering like that of a silken brocade coveted by traveling merchants from afar.

A light boat, a pair leaning against each other. A life drunk with happiness and honeyed wine. Shoulders brush as the white fabrics dance upon the breeze. Clawed fingers take up the ink-soaked brush. Horsehair glides across parchment, leaving behind trails of emotion and unspoken words kept tight between a dragon’s maw. If they had words to speak such a thing, they would have. But they are unable to find any that could contain swelling truth boiling in the pit of their chest. How could they express himself when the words died on their tongue, placing grave markers in their place for all that has been left unsaid.

And as if Morax had heard them between the brushstrokes and dark lines, he reached for their hand. The Dragon King needn’t look; his fingers were etched the Memory of Stone: slender, strong and quick and never wrong. “Retuo,” he said as though such a name had been wrapped delicately like spun fairyfloss from Mondstadt.

Morax has always been better with words.

A light boat, a moon half full. Amidst the quiet, only the soft sound of the wind can be heard. Time seems to transform into an invisible river, trickling away.

The grass is misty, The waters now silent; It is evening.

Moonlight falls on the branches as a dragon’s roar rises in Nantianmen.

Firelight dances accompanied by the zither and er hu in merriment and delight. A jovial song, faint lyrics lingering upon wine-kissed lips. The plains stretch on and the stars glimmer in the night sky. Voices echo in their ears and though they should feel at ease, Retuo could not help the choking anxiety that bubbles at their throat. Like a frog within a well jumping to escape its stony prison.

What is it? A feeling that has him on edge, fueled by lapses in their neatly etched memories and frequent blackouts.

“This one is not oneself. One’s thoughts are tangled in words that are not one’s own,” the Dragon King confesses discreetly between them, not wishing to disturb those celebrating.

Even rocks that have stood firm for time immemorial will eventually disintegrate over time, crumbling into dust and gravel. This has always been a universal truth. Life passes and returns to the Ley Lines, filling the world with memories of countless lives. Nothing lasts forever.

When Retuo thinks on the past, they remember that precious things slip so easily through their fingers. Each time, the weight of their sins bears down more heavily, and they become even more unable to live with themself. What he couldn’t save, what they were powerless to do…

A playful bump and a sweetness against their lips. Retuo is pulled up from the mire of their sinking thoughts. The osmanthus wine still fresh on their tongue, they turn to the Morax whose mirth dances behind the beloved aurous hues. A weight presses against Retuo’s shoulder and a sense of calm fills them. As though this light could illuminate all the dark spaces between their thoughts. Morax is something solid to lean against, something violent, fierce and unmoving. Retuo couldn’t recall what it felt like to have someone hold them up like this. It feels terrifying and liberating all at once. As if once this weight is gone, they would tumble into a long forgotten darkness.

The fire’s amber glow toys with his sight, giving the Lord of Geo’s gaze a more mesmerizing pull than before. It’s something akin to desire, a need to be anchored.

Everything returns to dust. It is the natural order, an unstoppable force.

A drop of sunlight may trickle in, but a heart of stone is not easily moved.A drop of sunlight may trickle in, but a heart of stone is not easily moved.

Sometimes they had the strangest feeling about it all. When Morax is as near as he is now. It feels as though they have a chain tied around their chest, tightly knotted to him in a similar fashion. And when Morax eventually goes, with that immeasurable distance between them, Retuo is afraid; afraid that this rusty chain shall shatter and leave them in pieces. 

They desperately want to speak his name. Want to form the letters, to shape them, to feel them leave their mouth, but they couldn’t. Not with the blistering hand grasped around their throat and the searing arrows igniting this vessel’s skin, tearing it like delicate tapestry. 

Still, they try. A crack forms and a buried voice seeps from within. 

“You are...beautiful.” They break. Their voice. Their back. Their legs. Their face. Retuo breaks. Crumbles. Were it not for the stone steles that pinned him to the wall, they wouldn’t be able to stand. Stand it. Retuo is unable to meet Morax’s eyes. His words were harsh and soft all at once, lingering with emotions the Dragon King had no name for. One that had been slowly gathering, forming in an entangled mass sewn into every fiber of their being.

Doomed by the Heavens. They were bound in an inescapable fate decreed by the Heavenly Principles, but it is that same sentence that had led them to one another. It feels as though they had been born in this world to meet him. Every moment had been precious, far more than any gemstone or ore could offer. That is why, if the fates see it fit, Retuo is willing to wait an eternity to be with him one more time. Waiting endlessly in the darkness again, for the light to caress their cheek once more.

A fleeting moment, a thousand years in the mortal world. The rocks feel it, and so too does the earth and the gods.

“Retuo.” Morax smiles and his face is like the sun.

Blinding.

the old ‘osmanthus wine’ lines that were previously recorded in the jp dub. ones i mentioned in a headcanon here and in my commission earlier. 

not me still crying in the club about sun and moon theme between these two dragons

not to mention the full poem the moonchase name card is quoting fits: "此时相望不相闻，愿逐月华流照君" ‘[I am not together with you,] but now, we are looking up at the same moon. I wish I could chase/follow the moonlight, so I may shine upon you.’