#xingqiu

Baizhu sighs as he and the other are led into another domain. Being your resident healer for all accounts and purposes, he's hyperaware of the fact that he likely will never see a free day in his life again

at least these memories of the events only surface when they join your party or teapot. and the 'day' never seems to drag on, time following your own world logic than their own.

"Doctor." He glances down to Xingqiu as he steps beside him with his back straight, a small sheepish smile on his face. "It's been some time."

"it has," he awnsers with tired resignation

"If my calculations are correct, it's been over a year since we last duelled this domain together. How has my leige been?"

"Bussssy." Baizhu lets out a tiny laugh at Changshengs comment. "They've completely changed their routine, why they chose ssscaramouche asss our enemy iss confussing."

"Cyno doesn't need new materials, does he?" The younger taps his chin in thought. "They could potentially upgrade us further now, correct? Do we have to battle our patrons' again. you know my leige does not enjoy battling the Lady of the Lake."

"No, its alot more complicated than that, but we may be able to make thing flow better now we have some acess to their abilities"

"Excellent. have they changed much since they became aware of us?" Xingqiu questions

"Slightly." he waves his hand. "A positive change, don't worry, they're more careful. and vocal, too. They talk to us even if we can't communicate too clearly with the other for the time being, but this system of ours is developing at a quick rate"

"A story for the ages" Xingqiu gushes, bringing out a pen and flipping open his notes "And a telltale sign of new adventures on the horizon!"

"Oh? well, I guess we can expect to frequent the mysterious alcoves around Teyvat mlre often now. " he looks over his shoulder as Kaeya joins them "C'mon, let's get moving. We're not frozen in place, after all."

he presses open the doors of the lower floor of the Akedemia, the almost baren area holding the man-made God within.

Scaramouche glares, tapping his foot impatiently

"Well, you're as friendly as last we met Scara'" Kaeya hollers "Ready for round 50?"

His face sours, and Baizhu swears the puppet seems just as fed up with the Calvary captain as he is with going on an 'adventure' every day

"Wait," Cyno holds up his hand and halts the team just before entering Scaramouches' territory, "Allow me a second to give a returning speech - a summoning ritual, if you will."

he clears his throat and poses, hand mimicing a claw and tilting his head down to let his hooded accessory dangle over his eyes to add to the mysterious [read. Stupid] apearance

You pull a face as the screen glitches, having all four of your original team on screen like an open Co-op hub connection when the camera [or your lovely piss coloured seelie that you discovered floated around in place of you yesterday] drags the view to a close up of Cynos face. a text screen popping up as it silently loaded up a string of-...

"Truthfully, we must ensure our 'strings remain untangled' during the 'shoking' revelation that this manifestation of karma reaches their 'archon.' We dont 'gnosis' what this enemy has in store for us, yet we must 'dendro' and 'cut him down' from his 'celestial throne', we shall 'Raidon our victory! and-"

Cynos face visually screws up comically as he dodges a swirl of elemental power coming from Changsheng, a charged attack of dendro pulsing from Baizhus palm just out of frame but based on the 'hyah!' that you can hear it's a little obvious what just happened

Kaeya laughs heartily at the onslaught of puns coming from the general Mahamatra, watching as he dodges another summoned attack from the snake

"wow..." Xingqiu breathes out. "He must have been keeping that one in for a while."

"Pathetic." Scaramouche spits, electro sparking from his joints

"I can't even... be mad at that. It was excelent prose - sure, a little scrambled." Xingqiu praises the effort displayed by the man "But that was bad."

"Super bad," Kaeya agrees

Scaramouche rolls his eyes and turns his attention to you, holding out his palm as the seelie approaches in a ditzy haze, the creature so minisule in comparison to his grandeur on the stage and settles with a chirp

"Hmn." his nose scrunches as he peers past the creatures facade and through to the screen. you're hunched over in front of what he assumes is the device that connects him to you, face buried in your hands shoulders shaking

he can't tell if you're laughing or crying.

"Can we hurry this up." He says boredly. turning back to your team of the day. "Let's make this easy for the both of us. Who's materials do you need me for, hmn?"

Kaeya rolls his eye [or attempts to make it look like he does, the eyepatch defeats much of his expressive tells]

"What's the hurry?" he shrugs. "We have no pressing matters."

Scaramouche scoffs, jutting his pointer at the man. "urk! you're the one - ohhhhh," he growls. "You are one of the most annoying accolytes the player has!"

"C6, Triple crowned." Kaeya taunts playfully, enjoying riling up the harbinger in his own 'home' "and still being guided - what does your counterpart have to say about that?"

"Why the player even chose you is completely unknown to me, Gods like us have no need for useless wastes of space like you!"

"says the boss who can't defeat either one of us in a solo battle." Xingqiu snorts at the dig.

"Fight me!" Scaramouche yells, pushing your seelie avatar away and climbing into his suit. He could already feel his systems overheating, steam chugging out through the gaps in his machinery

"Sounding a bit like your eleventh friend there-" Kaeyas grin turns mischievous as both he and Xingqiu draw their swords, Cyno raising his fist and summoning his signature and thrusting it out, pointed at the rising God

"Die!" he snarls, triggering the arena to collapse immediately under his hand, breaking the sequence entirely as he merges with the machine "You dare- To gaze upon me?!"

'I'll win this time.' Scaramouche laments in his head

'I'll win and prove to you that I'm much better than these four.'

The whole game breaks.

the sound of shattered glass echoing through your speaker, and it seems to freeze - like your game had just crashed, but no. it takes a few moments for the screen to clear of the snow like splinters coating it

yesterday was practice and today is the results of it

your inventory opens, and you pop an elemental resistance on each of them, the quick finger food buffs on hand in their MRE selected

your notebook log abandoned for the time being as Scaramouche, the balladeer commands your attention, raising his Godly forms' hand to you

"Prepare yourself for punishment."