AU where xiao has no karmic bonds anymore and works in liyue’s food delivery services
idk wanmin restaurant is expanding its service and xiangling heard zhongli telling guoba (when zhongli visits the ex-stove god the conversation is really one-sided but zhongli doesn’t mind, he can ramble enough for the both of them) that xiao is looking for work, and yknow, xiangling’s seen the young adeptus here and there and he’s praised her cooking before, both she and her dad don’t expect running deliveries to be that much work (plus he can teleport, it won’t be that hard) and he’ll get paid decently, why not offer him a job? he can pilot the program for a bit and then they’ll see whether it turns out ok, the worst thing that could happen is getting 1 star reviews on sevenstars.tyv for “unapproachable and frightening demeanor of delivery guy” (sumeru scholars invented the internet a couple years back or something).
obviously zhongli says yes for xiao, because he thinks xiangling’s suggestion can do the young adeptus good—trusty old common wisdom states that food warms the heart and brings people together, and xiao (or any liyuen) is not an exception. and of course xiao agrees to zhongli’s proposal because when has he ever refused a request from his god and savior. never! zhongli and xiangling both assure him that he can refuse or resign at any point and neither will hold it against him, but of course xiao takes his job extremely seriously, and if yanwang di- no, if zhongli daren wants him to do it, of course he will.
xiao doesn’t have any feelings on the arrangements because it’s just another thing to keep him busy lol but he appreciates complimentary almond tofu, especially since he manages to persuade xiangling to make it the traditional way he likes it and save her new and improved tofu recipes for Other customers to try
xiangling sends xiao to more remote places at first to avoid crowds, which he appreciates, one time he goes to qingce village and ends up meeting little luo again, he doesn’t even remember her until she exclaims “you’re the adeptus who rescued my doll!!” with a giant smile on her face... were humans always so blindingly bright? he stiffly gives the family his greetings, and tries to smile a little bit at the girl (she’s extra pleased by this, maybe he’ll ask zhongli whether he has good smiles or whether they look like grimaces). little luo... was it? he should get xiangling to send her some candy next time.
he gets sent to the chasm one time bc the miners ordered hotpot as an end of season celebration, and he finds a small little memorial to the millelith who died in the chasm 500 years ago. after delivering the hotpot ingredients, xiao climbs to the top of the cliff to pick a qingxin and offer it to the memorial. the other yakshas were always pretty fond of humans, so it’s only natural.
when he gets a little more used to the city xiangling sends him to deliver stuff around liyue harbor itself—one time the delivery was for hu tao, xingqiu, and chongyun, hanging around wangsheng parlor. usually xiangling would join them herself, and the young opera director yun jin and their rockstar friend xinyan visit too, but the three were busy with their own plans that time and it fell to xiao to deliver their dinner: light translucent shrimp dumplings without carrots, a bowl of cooling soup, and filleted fish. he hears them playing a rowdy game of something (mahjong... with only three players? or maybe tcg.... but as a 2 v 1 game? he’s getting more and more confused by the second) before the door’s opened by hu tao; she seems really ecstatic to see him, except her smirk sobers up quickly once they hear chongyun shouting “hey! you stole my cards!!” regardless she thanks him for the food, and then tells him a joke that really shouldn’t be funny at all except the corners of his mouth quirk up against his will. of course hu tao notices this, she’s always been a mischievous child too clever for her own good, and she smiles even wider in return and tells him that he’s welcome any time in her house. if he brings a couple hilichurls along he’s even more welcome
and of course, a lighthearted scene where, surprisingly, zhongli also places an order, but it isn’t sent to wangsheng funeral parlor, xiao goes all the way to jueyun karst and delivers the order to cloud retainer, mountain shaper, and moon carver. they’re just chilling and zhongli is introducing them to take out. “so, what do you all think of wanmin’s handiwork?” xiao tries to leave before any of them can start droning on and on, but obviously he ends up spending the whole meal with them because nobody can escape the sheer force of zhongli and cloud retainer infodumps. the other adeptus ask after him and the meal is generally silly banter: there’s a digression on triangular cups,,,, some nagging for xiao to eat more, “look at my newest invention isn’t it wonderful”,,,,,, and other small and incredibly mundane nothings that keep the conversation flowing like the tea from their triangular cups. insignificant occurrences in more peaceful lives, and maybe xiao is learning how to fall into this new rhythm of things... maybe he even likes it, maybe it will bring him more smiles in the days to come
yknow yknow do you feel me
very aware that some of this might be super ooc especially the adepti thing at the end but hey they can be silly as a treat, cloud retainer and co deserve a bit of adeptal entertainment time
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scarvio in my fucking head. have i ever talked about the yukieran kerchief thing here. i do not believe i have. time for evil
okay. so during the festival of masks yuki wore a kerchief which he does on the occasion to kinda like. keep his head with the damn flowers partially covered without having the hat on + to keep his hair back. sometimes he wants to feel a little more free you know. to feel the breeze through his hair. the hat is partially there to cover up part of him that he wants hidden and i like the idea of it coming off during the festival and him sorta letting loose a little bc it's the most comfortable he's felt being. Himself. for a while....... But. he's still not fully baring himself. hence him still wearing smth but it's like. Less than the hat right.
but yuo see........ he left it in kitakami by accident. and who found it but one kieran yamashita. and who Kept it and wears it around his wrist under the sleeve as some sort of reminder (a reminder of exactly what you may ask ? Great question it's multiple things and it depends on the day). he Does not know that yuki's been sending him letters. he does not know that one of them contained a friendship bracelet as he likes to do with all of his friends when he learns their favorite colors
my point here is is that the kerchief represents kieran's obsession + the fact that he's holding onto the false idea of yuki that he has (keep in mind that symbolically it's literally something yuki wears to hide "the truth" about himself). and he eventually gives it back to yuki after ID. and then he finally opens those Fuck Ass letters post ID he gets the bracelet. something something trading the obsession/false image for proper equal-footing friendship
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Hi! I hope you’re having a good week! Once again here to ask you for more of my obsession (baby Jean!!!) 🤍🤍🤍 Thank you!!!
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Okay, so maybe the new book wasn't so bad. Jean enjoyed the sharp-tongued narrator and the characters he'd come across so far, and the way his grandmother read the story brought the words to life in his mind in a way that simply wasn't the same when he read on his own.
He mumbled his questions into his grandmother's shoulder, and she underlined the words he didn't recognize and wrote their definitions in the margins. Over time, however, his eyelids started to droop despite his best efforts to keep them open. For once he didn't want to stop, didn't wish for time to pass faster than normal, but he was fighting to stay awake and losing tremendously.
It wasn't because he found the story dull. Maybe it was because it was warm, being snuggled up against his grandmother. It didn't help that she still carried the scent of baked cookies on top of her normal, flowery perfume.
Regardless of the reason, Jean fell asleep.
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Making peace with the fact that there is no way I’m getting Raine done in time for the first Pride event I’m signed up for, which is this weekend (Theoretically plausible? Maybe. Will that kind of parade crunch also end up involving tears? Probably, and this is supposed to be fun. So I will be smart and take it slower and just be Raine for the other parade, at the end of the month, which is the bigger of the two anyways.)
Instead I think I am going to prioritize my updates to my Golden Guard outfit and figure out some ways to make it suit the occasion -- my first idea being to finally make the staff to go with Flapjack so I can use it to carry my big aromantic flag. I bet I can Pride it up some other ways too though without too much work, so it’s time for some extremely queer brainstorming.....
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