🍒 popdrop; inbox.

[childeishly]

—

CODE BY

"Not here, sorry, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I find the time."

Comments

Day 41 - Post arrival of the other Childe

[leaveofabsence]

Nian Gao 🔶: Cheri.
Nian Gao 🔶: I wish to speak to you if you have the presence for it.

Re: Day 41 - Post arrival of the other Childe

[childeishly]

[ a couple of hours of nothing and then it’s left on read for another few after that. finally, come evening he responds... ]

🍒; I can ooooooooooooonly imagine about what.

[leaveofabsence]

Nian Gao 🔶: Yes.
Nian Gao 🔶: I believe my intentions are very clear.
Nian Gao 🔶: May I come over?

[childeishly]

🍒; No.
🍒; I’m not home right now, but even if I were...
🍒; Why don’t you just say whatever you have to say here?

[leaveofabsence]

Nian Gao 🔶: Very well.
Nian Gao 🔶: I am concerned about you.
Nian Gao 🔶: And I wish to see you.

[childeishly]

[ there’s another stretch of no response... but it may only be about 20 or so minutes. ]

🍒; I’m fine.
🍒; I don’t need you worrying about me.
🍒; ...
🍒; I haven’t decided if I want to see you yet...

[leaveofabsence]

[ His reply also takes a good ten minutes to come through. ]

Nian Gao 🔶: I am well aware that you do not need worrying over. You are a very capable individual.
Nian Gao 🔶: But I shall do it all the same.
Nian Gao 🔶: And that reaction is very understandable from what I have deduced of the situation.
Nian Gao 🔶: I will wait until you are comfortable with the idea of seeing me then.
Nian Gao 🔶: Please take all the time that you need.

[childeishly]

[ he laughs until he’s hoarse... again, since he’s done it earlier while with five, though it’s not like zhongli can hear him losing his mind. he considers asking if he’d be willing to wait forever, but he decides against it and instead just slams his phone straight into the ground. ]

[ another couple of hours pass, zhongli’s messages all having been left on read... but eventually he just gets a pin dropped on the old, abandoned amusement park - no message attached. ]

[leaveofabsence]

[ Zhongli arrives there a few minutes later. Popdrop isn't that large, after all. ]

Cheri.

[childeishly]

[ it looks like shit. like... even more shit than it had before childe took his elemental blades to it. he keeps his back to zhongli, hydro blades still in hand and hanging at his sides as he huffs; catching his breath. ]

...what did you want to talk about?

[leaveofabsence]

Nothing, if you do not wish to. But I have prepared something if you feel like eating.

I assure you it is not sweet.

[childeishly]

[ ...this is bittersweet. he'd normally jump at the chance to try anything zhongli prepared, but he doesn't have the stomach to force something down his throat at the moment. ]

I'm not hungry. Maybe later. [ pivots, half facing him, front drenched in blood. ]

[leaveofabsence]

Then I will leave it with you for when you are feeling in the mood to eat.

[ And he tucks the cloth wrapped package under his arm as if he was expecting that. ]

Come.

Shall we go for a walk?

[childeishly]

I’m not interested in a walk. You can say whatever’s on your mind here.

[leaveofabsence]

I do not presume to know why the events of his world came to pass. So I cannot agree or disagree with the choices they have made.

Perhaps we are to view these tales as cautionary for being allowed a forbidden peek into what could have been.

However.

[ And he moves to set the package down at his feet, not moving closer to Childe. ]

Do not presume that a similar fate lies in store for you.

Or that it changes the bond between you and I.

[childeishly]

...if all of these different iterations of the same damn place exist, then how am I supposed to know, supposed to figure out, if we're from one in the same? And if any of this [ he makes looks away from zhongli and motions in between them. ] is going to matter when everything is said and done...

tch. [ clicks his tongue. ] His being here has already changed things. If he's anything like me, which he obviously is, then... [ he's going to want zhongli's attention too. he just starts walking toward something he had beaten up earlier, an electro blade appearing in his hand so he can beat on it some more. ]

[leaveofabsence]

Of course it matters, regardless of if we're from the same place or if we are not. Regardless of if we are able to return to the same place or not.

This time here together now matters.

[childeishly]

[ he doesn't want to have to start from square one if this isn't his zhongli. sure, the time spent here is important and great and all that, but having to retread the same steps... and then it might not even take... ]

[ a snap of lightning strikes the blade childe's holding to send a surge of electro energy out along the ground around him, scarring it. ]

If I had died in the Golden House... would you intervened? My taking things to the next level was all apart of the plan, no? so... [ his eyes are burning a bright purple as he turns, his clothing a touch singed, but he seems neither to mind nor care. ]

[leaveofabsence]

I cannot say what I would or would not have done in those circumstances. It is unfathomable to me how that could have happened considering the events that transpired as I remember.

The Traveler would not have killed you. They are not the kind of person even if you had been on opposing sides. So what then could have---

What I can tell you with certainty is that I do not wish for your to die. Even if that is just a selfish desire of mine.

[childeishly]

...

Foul Legacy. He said it got the best of him, or some such.

[ ... ]

Xiansheng...

[leaveofabsence]

Yes, Cheri?

[childeishly]

[ ugh, it’s just so hard to be and stay mad at him when he says things like that. ]

...come here?

[leaveofabsence]

[ Zhongli approaches Childe, brushing their shoulders together for a brief moment. ]

[childeishly]

[ he shifts to avoid further contact. ] ...if you can be selfish, then I can be selfish too.

1/2

[leaveofabsence]

[ Oh.

He takes a step back. ]

My apologies. I misunderstood.