A haphazard mess of Genshin One-shots

53- Misc: 4ggravate's conclusion

Cyno, Tighnari, Kaveh and Alhaitham always hang out every weekend, drinking a minor amount of alcohol while playing a famed card game called Genius Invocation TCG. Normally, Kaveh would either rage or get too drunk and Alhaitham would have to bring Kaveh home, leaving the forest ranger and general with a half-completed game, sitting awkwardly before Cyno decides to crack a joke. Tighnari's reaction to this is tugging his ears and leaving in a hurry-- it's quite humorous, actually.

But today, Cyno sits in the wooden chair he always claims for his own, the one with a city view—albeit not the best view—but Cyno likes to know if trouble may come their way, after all, he's the most powerful fighter of them all (a self-proclaimed statement) and will defend his friends the best he can. Tighnari always sits to his right, leaving Kaveh to his left, and Alhaitham is forced next to his roommate and Tighnari.

On the circular table, the normal flowers put on the table are removed, possibly because the group is playing a card game and need to reach over the table, or maybe because it is the season where Sumerian Roses start to welt, as the summers are too hot for the poor purple flower.

Cyno hums and views the scene beneath his gaze. Alhaitham has his deck of Keqing, Nahida and Sangonomiya Kokomi out, and he's shuffling his blue deck with perfect form. On the other hand, Tighnari is trying to decide to fight with his Electro Charge deck or with his Overload deck, all his green-backed cards are stacked uncharacteristically in a haphazard pile to his right, left untouched. Haha, get it? To his right, left untouched? When it was in Tighnari's right, I said left, but not the 'left or right' left, but the past tense of leaving, making the two antonyms right next to each other with no grammatical errors.

"Cyno you better have not made a joke already," The overly dramatic blonde says upon entry.

"Only one in my head, would you like to hear it?" Cyno asks absentmindedly, though he knows the answer.

"Hell no," Kaveh says flatly, taking out his deck in a single swoop, "I'm surprised you haven't set up your deck yet, you're normally the first one here."

"I appreciate the small talk, but your voice is annoying," Alhaitham states.

"Wow, how kind," Kaveh remarks sarcastically.

"How about I make small talk?" Tighnari offers, gently shuffling his deck, "Today Collei has passed the Forest Ranger Gliding Tests, the gliding coach was surprised to see Collei succeed so quickly– I've never seen her so happy."

"Woo! Go Collei! She deserves every bit of happiness she gets," Kaveh cheers.

"How did she get better at gliding? She was struggling with balance the last time I visited," Cyno points out.

"Ah, well, Collei's Mondstadt friend is one of the best gliders in Mondstadt, if not the entirety of Teyvat. They spent some time together as we visited Albedo and Sucrose training and having fun," Tighnari explains.

"I see," Cyno finally takes out his own deck, feeling a bit wary.

TCG hasn't felt the same. It's gotten a bit... repetitive. It's a repetition of roll, attack, switch characters, attack, heal, with little variety. Sure, there are many characters to choose from, and Kaveh had just given him the special card he got from winning that tournament two months ago. It's been extremely helpful in his playstyle (he's more of an 'attack attack before they can kill me', and forgets to heal) by a lot. The card kept him alive enough to beat Alhaitham for the first time in a while.

While he had been cheerful at such a feat, he felt like the happy, confident emotions were wearing down. Don't get him wrong, TCG is a lot better than Go Fischl, but it has gotten a bit... boring. The general is nervous to say that. What if the others didn't like that he's bored of the game? All of Cyno's good friends would know he doesn't like their favorite game, and he knows what that feels like (he tried to play with some lower rank associates, but they shot him down) so he'd rather not.