The Door Stares At You. You Stare Back.

the door stares at you. you stare back.

while strange, materializing doors in forests is definitely a grounds for running the hell away, you are captivated by it instead. of course, you had always been drawn to strange things, so perhaps that should not have been surprising.

your eyes flicker down to the doorknob. in the early light of day, it almost seems to glow. you put a hand on it, the other gripping your backpack.

well, it isn’t like you’re going to be late to school. it wasn’t starting for another two hours, anyways. you can afford to take a detour. so, with one final look behind, you twist the handle and step forward.

only for your foot to land on nothing.

“HOLY SH—“

and then you are plummeting down.

your hand darts forwards to catch your fall. unfortunately, there is nothing to catch onto, and you are met with rushing, howling winds. are you screaming?  you aren’t sure. it’s getting increasingly difficult to breathe, and the tempest continues to rage against you. you squint. stormy skies blur. a mass of blue flashes across you vision and then—

“oomph—!”

you land with a muted thud, and it buckles slightly.

the wind is knocked out of you, and a roar erupts from the thing you landed on. you feel the reverberations ripple like an airplane engine. hands scramble to grab onto something, until they grasp onto rough fibers.

your vision is obscured by splashes of sky blue and teal. despite this, you press yourself closer to the...animal? creature? but it can’t be. you may not have remembered everything from physics class but common sense says that there is no way an animal this size should be able to fly, not to mention that it’s blue. this has to be a drea—

you yelp as the creature throws you off.

time slows just enough for you to see. glowing eyes and massive wings, and its horns fade into azure. you’re in awe. it’s a dragon. (it’s eerily familiar.)

but there’s still the issue of you plummeting to your death.

you screw your eyes tight. this is it. this is how you are going to die, and—

“careful!”

your peripheral catches yellow and porcelain white before a body crashes into your side and knocks the air out of you. black spots dance in your vision, and you’re so winded that you only realize you’ve stopped falling when your sneakers touch solid ground.

your knees buckle under you and you crumple onto stone and concrete. oh thank god, you’re not dead after all.

“hey! hey, are you okay?” a voice asks you frantically. “did she just—?”

“paimon saw her fall out of the sky!”

paimon…?

your head snaps up at the mention of the familiar name. paimon, the genshin guide fairy? she can’t actually exist, right? but crouched down in front of you is a girl clad in red and brown and oh, oh it’s amber.

you blink rapidly and shake your head. this can’t be real.

but the ground you are sitting on is too solid, the colors too vivid to be a dream. a hand is put on your shoulder, and you look up to see lumine and paimon, the latter of which hovers above. you look around and see mondstadt, exactly like how it had been shown in the game. it’s windy. you move to stand up, albeit shakily.

you take a breath. “where—“

“well, well. isn’t this interesting.”

“this feels familiar, doesn’t it?”

the splashes of color on the horizon, the stars rising, the moon shining. the snow blankets the ground and the park.

“yeah.”

he takes your hand in his, interlacing them. you look down at them. you’ve always marveled at how pretty kageyama’s hands were, strange as it sounds. most people who played volleyball had weathered hands, bruised arms, stiff fingers, but then again, kageyama wasn’t like most people.

“y’know, i’m glad i met you,” you confess, lifting your head from his shoulder. “and i’m glad that you stayed.”

kageyama sucks in a breath and looks down at you. you’re hit with a feeling of deja vu. the last time you had been in a situation like this, you had chickened out.

his eyes flicker down to your lips briefly.

“can i…?”

you don’t give him a verbal answer.

it’s warm.

Was feeling Xiao after that quest. Also made for Yokai Impact.

the lantern rite is absolutely stunning.

hundreds of glimmering lanterns dot the skies, hanging above liyue harbor and floating for miles on end. the moon, more alive than dead for once, hangs in the night. this year is particularly spectacular, likely because of the too-recent attack on the city.

despite the pointlessness of it all, it’s one of the things xiao allows himself to admire.

“it’s pretty, isn’t it?”

ah, you. the reason why he’s here in the first place, somehow.

perhaps it was your persistence, or the circumstances, or any number of other variables that could have led to this moment. begrudgingly, xiao admits to himself that he doesn’t regret coming here as much as he thought he would.

and then he looks over at you. you’re positively glowing, and his breath catches.

the lantern rite might be stunning, but you are nothing short of breathtaking.

you are a god.

you weave fate into constellations, threading tapestries of destinies. you breathe life into dying kingdoms, and let thriving ones burn. it has been this way for eons, unchanging, as most gods are. it does not matter what wars are waged, or which immortal dies, for the gods never change. perhaps that is why you take such pleasure in granting human wishes.

your crown is made of stars, each one a dream undreamed. when they fall, hundreds of wishes are granted, and yet only some would be worth anything. for the humans wish, and then they revolt against tyrants, against lords, against entities more than they could ever know. you watch on from above, amused.

change has always been a god’s undoing.