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chapter three;
a dance, emotions,
and a form.
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❝ when your heart is set on something, you get closer to your goal with each passing day. ❞
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Meeting all the Adepti in their illuminated beast forms (excluding the Yakshas... since the Archon War hadn't started, they weren't there just yet) was an experience to say the least. Although, they were a lot more tame than in the future, but still pertained the personality that was shown in game. Cloud Retainer was still Y/N's favourite by far, but Skybracer came a close second with funny (not really) jokes.
They just seemed like one big Adepti family, it was... refreshing, and nice to see.
Y/N was able to fit in quite easily, and the topic soon went onto them and their Adepti blood, they explained what happened during training. Guizhong just huffed, muttering about how she wanted to be there to see it, the h/c haired just smiled at her and told her she could be there for training.
Mooncarver had actually given some surprising advice. Due to the fact that most of the Adepti preferred to stay in their illuminated beast forms, the group of them would help Y/N try to learn how to transform into their form too.
After talking to whole evening, Guizhong dragged Y/N to her tent for some new clothes, considering they were still wearing the ragged clothes that they barely washed (it was hard to find a way to properly clean them in this world alright...) and was able to get Y/N freshened up, allowing them to wash their hair and body from dirt and grime. Once they had finished, Guizhong brought them some clothes, and it was fine, until Y/N couldn't tie up the shirt behind their back.
Calling Guizhong back to help them, she only giggled and nodded. Just as she was about to tie up the shirt, she paused.
"Y/N, you may have not noticed, but there is a golden blue glowing tattoo on your back." Guizhong spoke softly, gently tracing what Y/N assumed was the tattoo on their back, causing a shiver to run down their spine, a few goosebumps growing up on their arms. "It's a tattoo of a stag head and horns, I'll have to assume and say it's to do with your Adepti blood?"
Thinking back to Xiao's tattoo - the one on his arm. If it was something of the same, then Y/N could also safely assume it was as much.
"I think so, yes," Y/N finally replied, turning their head as far as they could towards Guizhong, "Perhaps it is just there to show that I am an Adeptus?"
Guizhong hummed, and tied up the shirt. Honestly, Y/N looked kind of like a pirate right now (sorry, Beidou) with a baggy cream coloured shirt tugged into some brown trousers that were a bit loose, but were comfortable nonetheless.
"I borrowed some of Rex's clothes, because I didn't know if you'd be comfortable with my clothes, I hope they're to your liking."
... He owned these types of clothes? That fact was funnier to them than it probably actually was.
"They're quite comfy, thank you Guizhong." Y/N smiled at her.
Guizhong's mouth formed an 'o' before she pulled out a pair of white gloves, "I don't know if you'd like them, but Rex Lapis sometimes likes to wear gloves to hide his hands from time to time, and I thought maybe you would like a pair too, just in case."
Y/N nearly teared up at the Goddess' kind actions, she was too good to be real. Taking the pair of gloves into their own hands, they smiled, "Thank you, I will treasure these!"
Putting the pair of white gloves on while Guizhong laughed, they began their walk back to the camp.
The rest of the day was full of laughter and smiles, Guizhong and Y/N getting closer and closer. The h/c haired was happy to have met Guizhong, not realising they needed someone like her in this world after everything that had happened to them.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
Years passed by for Y/N, feeling quicker than even the first few days they had first landed in Genshin Impact. It seemed to be going really well; they were practically best friends with Guizhong, Skybracer, Cloud Retainer and funnily enough, Madam Ping, or, as she was currently known as, Streetward Rambler.
Skybracer was easy to be friends with; his laid-back attitude, and not-really funny jokes allowed them to relax and feel as though Y/N was just a normal adult with a found family. Cloud Retainer on the other hand, whilst very sassy, and unintentionally funny at most times, was the calm to Skybracer's chaotic. At least once a week did Y/N and Cloud Retainer just sit down in a spot they claimed as theirs and drank tea, speaking on different topics that ranged from flowers, to food, and of course they talked about engineering - Cloud Retainer even taught them a lot about the intricacies of mechanics, and sometimes she would bring an invention she had yet to finish and allow Y/N to help her.
The way they became friends with Streetward Rambler was a little shitshow, but it was funny to look back on afterwards. It all started out as a prank that went out of control on Skybracer (as he was one of the only Adepti who could actually take a joke, and no, that's definitely not a call out) and Y/N had helped her try to hide from him. Y/N told Streetward Rambler to let them help with the pranks next time, and so every time she wanted to prank someone, she would go to Y/N, and they soon became known as the prankster duo.
Then Guizhong occasionally joined in, making them a trio. Rivals turned best friends. Y/N was glad to have a hand in making their friendship earlier than expected. It was also fun to see them fight over their own songs, claiming their own composition was better. The two always made Y/N try to judge both songs, but Rex Lapis was always there to guide them away from the two arguing.
Rex Lapis was a difficult one... in the first few months the two barely talked, even during training. Until Y/N was able to finally land a hit on him one time during training for the first time, and he was shocked, considering he had years of practice bordering on at least 2000 years on them at least, considering he was known to be at least 6000, whilst the Archon War happened around 2000 years before canon.
Y/N had figured out where they were in the timelime - at least 2000 years before the Archon War, at least. They didn't know how they knew, but once Guizhong had explained what time period they were in, it was easy to understand.
Among that, Y/N's skill in polearm rivalled that of an expert within a few months, five at most. After hitting Rex Lapis, he seemed to be more inclined to include them in things, and speak to them at the most random times. Often, he would even seek out Y/N and talk to them over a cup of tea, with being surrounded by tea-lovers, Y/N soon became one of them, their favourite being the same as Guizhong's - Oolong tea.
A few months after officially being friends with Rex Lapis (to which they had him confirmed it; "Yes, we are friends now, Y/N." he said with a sigh) they had finally met Marchosius, and Y/N definitely had to hold back from hugging the large bear. Rex Lapis had taken them to meet him, and even helped them learn how to figure out what he was saying.
Y/N was now a master of bear-talk... or more Marchosius-speak, but... details.
Around after a year had passed, Y/N kind of missed their old home. After that day, Guizhong had asked them to stay, and the h/c haired couldn't say no; so they left their old home and followed the camp.
Y/N talked to Rex Lapis about it, since he was the first one to find them that day when they felt a bit nostalgic, and a little bit homesick (which... was for their old life too, but Y/N didn't want to dwell on that fact), and he accompanied them to their old home... it was to "protect" them - his words, not theirs.
Rex Lapis was a rather... impassive person. A true 'fight first, ask questions later' type of brawn, and Guizhong was definitely the brains, but he was also a very protective friend, he always made sure to keep his friends, and the humans of Liyue safe. He didn't show much emotion, keeping a rather stoic face for most of the time they had known him, but his eyes definitely told a lot more than he let on, Y/N figured out.
They found out during the day he accompanied them to their old house. Y/N looked around with a small smile, the house was still in shape, but it was easy to tell that it was slowly rotting away from having no care.
"Oh, Rex, you don't mind if we visit the sea of flowers that we met in, do you?" Y/N asked after they had stepped out their old home, Rex was standing guard a few feet away from the door, arms crossed.
He nodded, "Of course not, but we should be back before nightfall."
Y/N hummed in agreement, grabbing his hand in their own and dragged him to the sea of flowers. It didn't take long, a few minutes at maximum, and it still looked as beautiful as when they had first see Guizhong in it. A sea of glaze lilies.
A bright smile graced Y/N's face, the ends of their eyes crinkling in joy, "It really is still a sight to behold." Turning to Rex who only looked at them with an indecipherable emotion in his eyes, they dragged him into the middle of the flowers. "Care for a dance?"
'Time to enact the one thing I've wanted to always do since reading Xiao's banner's description.'
Rex Lapis, the ever so immovable rock, the future Master of War, future Geo Archon, the God that many feared due to his ruthless nature, stood in front of them with a bashful expression, mouth slightly apart. Y/N chuckled at his expression, locking it into their head as a memory to not forget.
They were also glad Guizhong had taught them to dance in their free time, it wasn't anything professional, just a little pass time and it seems that it would come in handy.
What surprised them even more was Rex shoving his arm towards them, an awkward yet cute expression on his face, not one to do things like thing. His hands were made for killing... not gentle things like this.
Y/N exhaled through their nose in joy and took his hand.
The two dances around the sea of flowers slowly, every now and then twirling each other. Y/N even managed to twirl Rex around. They danced around the area, not leaving a space where they hadn't touched. Elegant, graceful and beautiful would be the words to describe them if any outsider saw them. It looked like they were gliding across the ground, soft laughs could be heard from Y/N, and Rex had a small soft smile as he looked at the Adeptus in front of him.
Hours passed, and neither got tired as they continued to glide through the sea of flowers like leaves in the wind. The sun beginning to slowly go down, casting a golden glow on the two. Eventually, the two stopped right in the middle, and stared at each other. Y/N could feel butterflies in their stomach, ones that made them feel like they were about to throw up, but they weren't unwelcome. Raising their left half-navy hands to his cheek, they smiled.
"You truly are beautiful, Rex."
The brown-haired God's lips quirked into a small grim, wide enough for the sharp glint of his fangs to be seen, a soft laugh escaping him as he brought his hand to Y/N's cheeks and stroke them with his thumbs. The moment stayed like that, as if time had stopped as they stared at each other with fond smiles and light hearts.
Peaceful, until a shout made them part away.
"Rex! Y/N! There you are!" Guizhong exclaimed, breathing heavily, "You left without telling anyone, we got worried!"
Y/N let their hands drop from his cheeks, just as they felt the warmth from their own leave. They were still a bit stunned from what had just happened, they definitely needed to sort out their feelings and emotions - they couldn't let it control them. Thankfully Rex replied for the two of them.
"Apologies, Y/N wanted to see their old home, and we decided to spend some time here afterwards to relax."
Guizhong 'hmph'ed, a glint in her stormy eyes that Y/N couldn't catch, and crossed her arms, "Tell us next time, please." She mumbled a few words after that, but shook her head and gestured for the two to follow her. "We must go, Streetward Rambler wants to talk to you, Y/N."
Y/N pouted, "But I wanted to sleep!"
"You can sleep after you talk to them, Y/N." Rex spoke, putting a hand on their back, standing beside them.
As soon as Y/N walked into the camp that was starting to get bigger, humans seeking refuge with the Gods and Adepti, a hand grabbed their arm and dragged them away from the two Gods. Looking back, Y/N could swear the two were glaring at each other.
Not having time to even think about that thought, Streetward Rambler - the one who had decided to drag them away with no prior warning. "I think I know what might help you be able to finally transform into your illuminated beast form."
'Always straight to the point...'
"Hmm, what is it?"
The Adeptus dragged them into her own tent and forced them to sit on the bed as she grabbed a book, her light blue hair swaying with each movement. 'I just wanted to sleep and forget about emotions for a while...'
Streetward Rambler grabbed a small book and sat next to Y/N, "This was the advice that helped me be able to change forms, and I figured it would help you... It took me years to perfect it, so don't be too discouraged if it doesn't happen anytime soon."
Y/N took the small book, flipping through it. Each page was full of details notes on Adepti blood and their forms, and some occasional song-writing notes. Y/N made a mental note to help her with some of her unfinished works... Being from a different universe helps a lot, able to give advice for songs from their old life so they could hear it from Guizhong and Streetward Rambler made them happy.
Looking up at the blue-haired Adeptus, "Thank you," Y/N smiled at her, to which she got a bright grin back.
The grin made Y/N think of how she became Madam Ping... and Guizhong. Could they save Guizhong?
Deciding to leave those thoughts until they were not in the company of anyone, Y/N stood up with the book in hand and said their farewells to Streetward Rambler. Making their way towards their own tent, one that in-between Rex and Guizhong, and sat on their own bed.
Making sure the notes were safely tucked in their trouser pockets (of which they had an abundance of now, thanks to Rex) and laid on the bed. Groaning, Y/N ran their hands down their face.
Feelings were fucking complicated.
Y/N was never one for feelings in their past life, most of it was dealt with in solitude. Friends were a luxury that they never invested much time in, other than their best friend. Other than that, Y/N never really tried to involve themselves in romance, too busy with trying to get a living so they could live comfortable. So yeah, they were pretty dense with romantic feelings.
Which is why Y/N decided to right it off as them being excited over being able to personally know their favourite characters, and becoming friends with them.
Nodding as if to agree with their own thoughts, Y/N fell asleep with a smile, mind full of flowers and dancing.
Years continued to go by after that day and Y/N was slowly getting the hang of turning into their stag form. At the start, they could only hold it for a couple of minutes at a time, then it turned into a few minutes, then a few hours, and soon, they could stay in their Adeptus form for days at a time without having to worry.
In total, it took them around thirty years to be able to get that far.
In the mean time, whilst Y/N was learning to do that, Streetward Rambler helped them be able to teleport. At first, the sensation was weird, like they were free-falling and every time they teleported, Y/N felt nauseous and nearly threw up every time, and they could only go short distances. But with a lot of patience and practice, Y/N could comfortably teleport halfway across Liyue without any worries, or sickness.
Other days, Rex continued to train them on using a polearm, and if Y/N had to say, they were pretty proud of themselves. The brown-haired God had even said that their mastery of a polearm was starting become at the level that nearly rivalled his own.
Yeah, pretty big accomplishment, Y/N slept that night like a baby, a wide smile on their face.
On their free days, the h/c haired liked to practice their powers. They hadn't been able to do much, as it was something they had to learn in their own time, and alone, due to the fact that none of the Adepti, nor Gods had seen a power like theirs before.
Every night, before they slept, Y/N played around with their power. What they were able to do consisted of being able to cover their fist in a black-and-blue colour, which was scarily similar to the Abyss' magic - Dainsleif's power, but it felt different. Y/N knew it wasn't going to hurt them, if anything, the power in their body thrummed like a safety net, like it was protecting them.
After mulling it over, and making sure the black-and-blue hue was safe to use, Y/N made their way to the small training area (which was actually very small, considering they moved camp a lot) one night and played around with it more, figuring out different styles with it while using their polearm.
In the end, none of them worked, which annoyed Y/N to no end, enough so that they punched the ground in anger.
That was how Y/N found out that the power that surrounded their fist increased their strength by a massive amount, adding onto their own raw strength (which had increased because of the training with Rex).
Y/N spent that night figuring everything out, and was able to use the power like they had been using it since they were born. Every night after that, Y/N went back to the training area and continued practicing in private. Months later, and Y/N was sure they had created what could have been their Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst; labelling them "Star's Astral Remnant" and "Moon's Wrath" respectively. After realising what they could do with their power, Y/N began training even more with it, learning new things every night.
After training for another few months, along with using their new teleportation skills, Y/N was able to perfect their fighting style, powers and all. (A side little note that the other Adepti and the Gods found rather amusing and cute, was that instead of a yellow-coloured teleportation, Y/N's was a dark midnight blue with little dots of whites and crescent moons, so they knew their friend was learning in secret, but decided to not say anything, letting Y/N learn at their own pace).
Around thirty years later, Y/N finally was able to transform from their Adeptus form and human form at will. Honestly, it was a day that Y/N would remember, and they weren't going to lie - their beast form was beautiful to say the least. The fur was a dark navy, with stripes of dark grey, their horns stayed the same colour - a creamy-type colour that was darker brown on the ends of their horns. There was a silver star-like shape on their forehead, with four golden lines coming out of it.
Immediately after Y/N was able to continuously transform between their beast form and human form, they ran to Guizhong who was talking with Rex in their beast form. Chomping on her dress, making sure it wasn't too harsh, so they didn't rip it and threw her onto their back. Guizhong let out a mix of a scream and laughter once she realised who had picked her up.
Y/N huffed and started running upwards into the sky once they knew Guizhong was holding on properly onto the their horns so she wouldn't fall off. A flash of gold and brown from the corner of their eye made they turn their head to see a dragon flying next to them.
'HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THAT DRAGON ZHONGLI OHMYGODFUCKINGGODHELPME.'
It was silence apart from the sounds of the wind that blew passed them as they flew, and the soft hums of Guizhong singing one of her newest songs.
"What will that one be called?" Y/N asked, something they always did when Guizhong wrote a new song.
"Perhaps something to do with a lullaby," Guizhong replied, a soft smile on her face, "It had the essence of nostalgia, sadness... but it's full of memories."
If Y/N couldn't hold their tears in, they knew they'd be sobbing; the song she was humming did sound familiar, but never did they think that that specific song she was humming would later be known as 'Guizhong's Lullaby'.
"It sounds beautiful," Y/N whispered, a sombre tone to their voice they couldn't stop, "Streetward would surely love it, you know how she gets with beautiful songs."
"Pfft," Guizhong giggled, "She would likely rant about the many songs she's making."
"You two are always fighting..." Rex's voice rumbled out, startling Y/N, "Strangers would start to think you are not even friends."
"That's just the way they are, Rex," Y/N turned their head to the current draconian God, "You get used to it after hearing them fight hours on end over which song is better. Hearing Guizhong and Cloud Retainer argue is just as bad, I don't know how you have the courage to pick which invention of theirs is better."
Rex let out a rough chuckle, which sounded weird coming from a dragon, "It took years of practice and patience."
"Rex is right!" Guizhong exclaimed, her voice full of disbelief, "This old blockhead always picked mine, because well, we're best friends! It was so bad I ramble on about how he needs to be fair to everyone, and not favour me because I'm his friend!"
If dragons could deadpan, Y/N was sure Rex would be deadpanning right now, "It wasn't just because you are my friend, rather, your inventions were better suited for our people and the time."
"Mhm, yes, I believe you, Rex." Guizhong said in a blank voice, making Y/N stifle a laugh.
The rest of the flight was just as relaxing, conversation flowing between the three. It was clear to any outsider just how close they had become during their years together, and while Y/N felt like the odd one out, with Guizhong and Rex knowing each other for longer, and also the fact that to Y/N, seeing these characters with their own eyes, rather than through a screen, made them subconsciously put some space between them and the two Gods.
It was something they were working on; every day they spent with the two, was making Y/N realise that right now, to them, they were real people. Real living beings, with their own thoughts and feelings. It's a slow process, but Y/N was beginning to appreciate every single second with them.
Guizhong and Rex Lapis were becoming close friends to Y/N.
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❝𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘, 𝐒𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓, 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒.❞