A new series I'm making. Stories about our favourite characters from Genshin. Some will be lighthearted, others will be dark. Here we go.
There are some things that no (sane) man ever wants to wake up to. A house on fire. A ex-lover keen to test the sharpness of a sword on your manhood. An alarm clock.
Then again, as few as there were, there are amiable ways one could greet the morning sun.
The slow, gradual awakening that comes when the sun rises, slowly flooding the room with the light of a new day. The smell of foodstuffs, tea or coffee. Having ones name called by a loving family member, or even the street outside slowly greet the world. Birdsong, the rushing of waves; hell, even thunderstorms could be a nice thing to wake up to.
Unfortunately for Ajax, he's being hunted by shadows chasing him through the unlit city of Liyue, not a single soul to be found in the usually bustling streets. The only sounds to be heard are the echoes of his harried steps, shallow breaths and his own heartbeat beating like drums in his head. The shadows tear and consume everything they touch, leaving nothing in their silent wake.
The street lengthen into infinity as he puts on another burst of speed, somehow finding his second wind again.
But the shadows that chase him care not of the paltry laws that bound humanity to the ground. Physics are just another set of rules that they break at will. Not that the shadows have a will. They know only one thing, and that thing is to consume.
The shadows are nearly upon him. Ajax rolls-
-and he wakes, continuing to evade the nightmare that plagues him by falling off the couch, straight into a small of documents, folders, and discarded clothes.
Scrambling to his feet, slipping slightly as some papers slide from under the shift of his weight, his hand lunges to grab his knife hidden by the side of his leg. He peers around the barely lit room in panic when he finds himself unarmed. It took a few moments to realize that not only did he not have his weapon within reach, but that he did not need it.
Childe looked around and tried to remember how to breathe. It was difficult, especially when with a slightly whispery voice in the back of his head was heightening the sense of the oily, greasy food the Liyue food vendors served, the half-lit lanterns casting shadows that danced within his room.
On the rare days when sleep presents itself to him, they're accompanied with nightmares. Some nights, when he's lucky, he gets sweet nothings.
He's not lucky very often.
The abyss was a prison was a prison he'd never truly escaped- not when a single slip would drag him screaming back here every time.
He sometimes wondered how to other would react if he told them that the abyss spoke to him. Spoke in a way only a child could understand, in a voice smooth as song, but in its own way, worse than the monstrosity that is the void.
The abyss, where the air itself felt diseased, a world of which the laws of the universe were designed by a madman. Where time itself had no meaning, creatures that fed off despair roamed in hordes, and the shadows would come alive to feast.
He thinks these things and feels his mood start to darken, twisting and writhing beneath his facade, then there comes a knock at the door, yanking him back to reality. He looks to the sound, and the walls come back up, the dark thoughts shrinking and fading until they seem very small and very far away.
But they don't leave. They never do.
The door to his room opens hesitatingly, the light from the hallways slowly pouring into his messy abode. Outside, a Fatui agent stands at attention. Groggily, his mind conjures up her profile. E-thing, he thinks. Ekat-something.
"Are you alright?" Ekat-something asks, her pale eyes glancing over him. "I heard a noise."
It takes a moment to find his voice. "I'm fine."
It's less believable every time he says it.
His assistant doesn't look particularly convinced, but neither is she particularly invested in Childe's wellbeing. He turns his cool gaze away, back to the horizon. "It's nice," he says, "when it's like this. Alone, but not… empty."
Empty. Childe knows that feeling well. Thankfully, he's been increasingly less empty of late, though.
The Traveler.
Ekat- something doesn't seem to be waiting for a response, so Childe stays silent, controlling his breathing until he's certain his shaking has ceased entirely. Eventually, his assistant retreats back to her post with a murmured goodbye, likely to stay for an hour before the next shift.
Childe stays rooted in place, watching the sky melt into gold.
Not much good comes with the sun, he thinks.
Life blooms, as do its miseries.
I've seen so many Childe fics where he's happy go lucky, a loveable idiot or just heads over heels in love with Zhongli.
By all accounts, a child dropping into the darkest depts of Hell in the world of Teyvat should have been traumatized to no end. And to an extent, I see his lust for battle as a coping mechanism.
I want to make him suffer. :3
So heres this chapter.