Chapter Text
"User N.A.R.W.H.A.L.E should open the guidebook from their storage. Chapters one through eight cover your Transmigration and instructions for starting. Please see chapter one, paragraph 4, line 3 for the name and species of your new identity.”
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What do you do with an identity you can't bring yourself to relate to? Not in any way that truly matters.
My mother is the type of person who makes a mess and swears she'll clean it, only to leave it there and yell about it later. Demanding to know why it hasn't been cleaned.
My mother is the type of person who will hover over your shoulder as you start cooking, asking questions about what you're making and commenting on how it's being made.
My mother is the type of person who will make remarks on how much you eat.
My mother is the type of person who will blame you for getting her sick soon as she starts to not feel well.
My mother is the type of person who would make excuses or shift the blame rather than say “I'm sorry”.
My mother is the type of person who makes you not want to come out of your room. She is the type of person who makes you want to leave a room as soon as she enters.
My mother is the type of person who claims that as long as you live under her roof, you must follow her rules.
My mother is the type of person who would threaten to kick you out for putting a piece of paper on your door simply asking family members to write anything they want when you're not home since you're quite busy.
My mother is the type of person who stole your diary and told you if you have anything to say, say it to her face.
My mother is the type of person who hates having her picture taken, and gets angry if you don't want your picture taken.
My mother is the type of person who raised you alongside the knowledge that you are fat and need to lose weight.
My mother is the type of person who will criticize others and put herself on a pedestal.
My mother is the type of person who did not believe in depression.
My mother is the type of person who always claimed to know more than any doctor, always second-guessing anything a doctor says or any prescriptions given.
My mother is the type of person to tell you to just breathe and stop overreacting if you begin to hyperventilate.
My mother is the type of person who says she loves family more than anything else yet acts the complete opposite.
It's because of all of that, that he doesn't mind the idea of living alone. He had thought up different ways to deal with it. Is it too quiet? Play something. Being alone was starting to give him the jitters? Go outside and people watch. Only— he didn't live long enough to experience living alone. This whole experience has been something out of a nightmare, and he's not sure how to feel about the fact that Ajax’s parents remind him a bit too much of his own parents. There are some differences so he's grateful for that. Not just in behavior but as a whole, his entire life has changed. For example, he has siblings now. Three older and three younger. He's not sure if that can really consider him a middle child since the oldest are never home, but he's now both an older sibling and a younger sibling. He doesn't know how siblings act with one another. By the time he woke up and finished the tutorial, his so-called siblings were more like strangers to him. His parents included. Which is why it was nice to realize he wasn't alone.
He knows more about the others than he does about his family here.
His name is Ajax. He has a mother and a father along with six siblings and he is not close with any of them. Ok, he can get away with pretending that they're close, especially with the younger siblings, he's great at masking. He's not an idiot, he knows exactly who his character is. Which is why it terrifies him knowing that he can't remember anything about the tutorial he went through. Every time he tries to think about what led him here, he can't even picture anything. Did he go into the abyss like his character should've? He had tried asking the system about it but they couldn't access the ‘memories’ either. He didn't mention it to Kaveh or Furina, but when he tried asking Venti if something similar happened to him, all he did was stare at Ajax before asking for a hug.
He knows that technically he did enter the abyss, otherwise he wouldn't have the abyssal taint within his soul. He can feel it within him, it's quite similar to the feeling of when you drink a crisp ice water and feel the cold rush through you.
He completed the tutorial the very night he was set to join the Fatui. He was meant to find and fight against Fatui members under Pulcinella’s division. The Rooster was not someone they could bring themselves to trust, he read all about the man and his influence in ‘Childe’ joining the Fatui. The thing is, once completing the tutorial he was given the right to choose his own decisions towards the life he was given. Even though the others had mentioned how they were not allowed to change certain events or how some things refuse to change outside of the tutorial, he didn't hesitate to try. Sure he still beat the shit out of a few particularly annoying Fatui members and met with Pulcinella, but Ajax refused to join the Fatui, calling it a survival instinct, and had set out to become his own brand of adventurer/vigilante. Coincidentally, most people had begun to think of him as a hired hand. He may have made a name for himself over the years sticking to the games titles for Ajax. When in costume, he went by Tartaglia, out in public he went by the name Childe, but with the other transmigraters and his family he answered to Ajax.
He still feels bad about not telling the others the truth but they don't talk to him about how their tutorial went so pretending that it lasted longer than it really did shouldn't matter. They think his tutorial ended as soon as he turned nineteen, which is wrong considering it actually ended years ago. The Tsaritsa had hired him as ‘Tartaglia’ to help out the Fatui with mundane tasks since he refused to join. Refusing a God was terrifying and yet the Tsaritsa did not demand compliance. She simply nodded and asked for assistance at times instead. It's why there are so many rumors throughout the nations of Tartaglia being the Tsaritsa’s hidden weapon. He often stayed at the Zapolyarny Palace, however he was not a member of the Fatui. He knew it and the Fatui members knew it as well. The Harbingers seemed annoyed with his presence but could not argue against the wishes of the Tsaritsa.
The Tsaritsa, who was kind and generous enough to pay him enough that he could live comfortably and have money to spend for years to come.
Something about her seems to change anytime they meet in person and talk. Sometimes when she looks at him, it's almost as though she's seeing someone else. Once, back when he first started working with her and it had been quite late into the night, he could have sworn she called him by another name yet he cannot remember what she said. She never demanded a lot of him, which was why he felt comfortable enough helping out when asked to. Plus she never made him step outside the boundaries he set for the times they were acting as employer and employee. He had quite a lot of freedom as a hired hand rather than a member of the Fatui.
It's why he felt comfortable with leaving Snezhnaya. He had time before the traveler was meant to arrive, so why not spend it familiarizing himself with other nations? Perhaps even try visiting the others.
Really, a part of him just wanted to go to Liyue and settle down, see if he can befriend the Geo Archon without any influence from the game.
Maybe even see about making a life for himself.
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Kaveh thinks he has a good hold on his emotions by now, but then he gets a notification from the system about Venti messaging the group chat. He may have wanted to hear from them, but he didn't think Venti would contact them so soon.
Venti ---> Group Chat
Venti: Okay, so turns out the traveler is Aether.
The fact that a mere message was enough to set him off twice now was annoying in itself. It didn't help that, like last time, Tighnari and Cyno were nearby. The only difference was that they were all at Alhaitham's house, literally minutes away from heading out to the tavern. He had stepped away to get ready. They all seem to think he's homeless, other than the days he reluctantly agreed to sleep at either of their homes. He's still not sure why they think that, (if he took a minute to think on it, then he would figure out that it was because his friends had caught him sleeping in odd places outdoors far too often. Mostly up in trees.) which is why he has a guest room at each of their homes with clothes and other bare necessities should he need them.
He's lucky none of them has tried interrogating him yet. He knows they wouldn't dare to try while out in public, either, so they must be waiting for him to let his guard down.
Sitting in the closet of Alhaitham's spare bedroom ruined any traps they might've been planning.
Aether's the twin they'll be meeting, meaning Lumine was with the Abyss order.
He never had a preference for which twin was played throughout the game; it didn't make much of a difference to him. Although he had to admit, the visuals felt more intimidating with Lumine on the other side… he was tempted to send a message and ask Venti how they were dealing with this situation. He knows the archon has been around longer than any of them and has had more time to consider how they want to portray their character. He also knows that Venti admitted multiple times now how devastating it was to know that Aether and Lumine were separated. None of them can say they can remain neutral regarding the traveler's journey; they all have their own opinions and feel strongly about other characters— people. Other people in this world. As a player of the game, Kaveh sympathized with the twins, but as collateral damage to their journey, he couldn't bring himself to be as willing to do whatever the traveler needed.
This world is his home now, and Kaveh has people he wants to protect.
That being said, he's not sure what to do next.
He knows he doesn't have to worry about the traveler arriving anytime soon, but that doesn't mean things aren't already in the works. hOW THE HELL IS HE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT AGAINST A PRE-WRITTEN CODE FOR THIS WORLD?!
Venti ---> Kaveh
Venti: Are you okay?! Do you need any help? The wind says you're panicking.
Of course, the wind told on him. Archons Damnit. How is the wind even able to pick up on him panicking when he was inside?
Kaveh ---> Venti
Kaveh: I'm fine! Nothing's wrong.
He needs to hurry up and get out of the closet before any of the others try seeing why he was taking so long and find him in there.
Venti ---> Kaveh
Venti: Listen to me, you are safe. Don't forget that I know how to teleport! I can and will ALWAYS come protect you whenever you need. It doesn't matter if you're actually unsafe or not, if you need someone there or need some sort of guard against others, I will be there. Even if it's just because you need a friend to lean on, you can always call for me.
…Damn it, why was Venti always so supportive? Even back when they first met, Venti was always reaching out to each of them and checking in. Kaveh has had to convince Venti multiple times in the past that they didn't need to come rushing to Sumeru anytime he was upset.
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Would it be safe to leave Monstadt right now? There was no big event to keep the traveler here, but Aether seemed to be enjoying his time in Monstadt. Getting along quite well with the others. Surely they didn't need to be here for the duration of the travelers stay? A quick pop over to check on Kaveh couldn't hurt… although, he should probably let someone know before he leaves. It's hard not to notice just how worried they seem to get any time they don't see him for days at a time. Of course, it's happened often enough since Venti has made it a personal mission to check in on Varka and his expedition as often as possible. Even using the winds to check in if they couldn't physically be there. Still, no matter how often it's happened, quite a few people have come up to him when he returns to share their concerns about not knowing where they were. They should try to check in on the others as well, they're worried about how the group chat had all read his message yet didn't respond. They're not sure how each of them are responding to finding out that the traveler is Aether.
They've tried talking about plans for how to act throughout the playthroughs of the game but it's much harder to put those plans into action once it becomes their reality.
They know Furina has shown a distant sort of annoyance towards the traveler in any of their talks, more so concerned with needing to fool Celestia and the Heavenly Principles. She stuck to the role of the games Furina with a ferocity that startled him. Venti knew that she cared tremendously for the people of Fontaine yet often distanced herself from them. Even from Neuvillette.
Ajax had been excited to talk about the traveler, wanting to meet them and see if he could join them on part of their journey. However Venti knows that Ajax has been trying to grow stronger over the years, their desperation to survive Genshin Impact has influenced them more than they seem willing to admit. Last they checked in on them, Ajax was living in what was essentially an apartment in Liyue as a rich tourist with a fascination for the nation's culture. Venti knows that they're doing well, having heard it from them and from Morax who often spoke of a “delightful acquaintance” that he met by chance near the port. Guihong would constantly rat out just how much Morax enjoyed his hangouts with Ajax. She told Venti all about how Morax smiled more these days, and seemed to look forward to those outings. She's been mentioning wanting to meet Ajax for months now.
Kaveh, on the other hand, had tried avoiding any discussion of the traveler, constantly changing any conversations about the future towards Nahida, the Fatui, his friend's, Collie, and the Wanderer. Even wanting to discuss Venti’s experiences from years ago rather than mention the traveler. Having the wind reach out and inform them about Kaveh truly freaking out had unsettled them.
They- they probably should have worded their message about the traveler more carefully.