Work Text:
Keqing awoke in a daze. She looked around in a room that was familiar, but at the same time, distant. Her eyes scanned over the familiar room that she had yet never seen before. There were 3 walls that were painted a yellow-white. Then, there was one painted a soft yellow across from the bed.
There was a melancholy blue desk sitting across from the bed, along with a desk accompanying it. On the desk sat a pitch of water filled to the middle, an open notebook filled with writing, and scattered knick-knacks. Next to the bed, on the right side, was an old-time radio from the west. On the left side next to the bed, there was a nightstand.
There was also a dresser backed against the left-most wall of the room, and a mini-library against the right-most wall. Both the dresser and the bookshelves were white with yellow accents. The floor was made of pine wood. Overall, the room seemed very aged and never-changing.
Keqing felt that change was necessary in human life, even change from the setting of ones room. However, she was not in the right mind to even be dissapointed at the old-looking room. She simply sat up in the bed, put her feet on the ground, and walked to the door. As she walked, the wood creaked with her movement.
When she put her hand on the door handle, it swung open without her even twisting the handle. She thought it as a bit strange, but nonetheless, went down the hallway. There were 3 doors on each side, all doors being closed. The hallway was the same yellow-white in the room Keqing had awoke in.
There was a stairway at the end of the hall that led to the ground floor. Aside stairs, there was a wooden table that held a vase with flowers. Withal, she wasn’t sure what type. She looked away from the table, and started to make her way down the stairs.
As she descended down the stairs, she saw an array of peculiar corporealities. There was a cat on the fifth stair that had eyes that changed colors. It went from red to blue to green to orange. Needless to say, Keqing was corybantic about the cat.
On the ninth stair, there was a turtle that dashed from left-most side of the stair to the right-most side. Keqing nearly tripped over it, and when she yelled at it in her agitated state, it disappeared. She would have clenched her fists and went back upstairs, but something in her mind told her to continue down.
On the landing, there was a giant fish. Initially, Keqing jumped at the sight of the fish. However, it did not flop around in need of air. Instead, it calmly side, and said “How can I help you?” Keqing screamed and ran down the stairs.
On the eleventh stair, there was a rabbit lecturing a duckling about fire. On the thirteenth stair, there was a leaf placing another leaf in a coffin. On the sixteenth stair, there was a catepillar reading fortunes to an unusually small raven. On the nineteenth stair, there was a swan playing chess with a woodpecker.
When Keqing finally reached the ground floor, there was a door, foreseeably leading to a room. Although out of breath, she quickly opened the door. She ran in, and slammed the door behind her and locked it. When she turned around to look at the room, she saw a girl sleeping in a chair.
She had horns and was dressed in traditional Liyue clothing. She was sleeping in a pale blue chair, surrounded by three other identical chairs around a wooden table. The wooden table was plain, and had loads of paperwork stacked on it, along with a few books, and a kettle.
She walked over to the sleeping girl, and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. The girl awoke in surprise, but quickly calmed down. She smiled at Keqing in a polite manner, and simply said, “Are you the girl from upstairs?” Keqing was shocked, and burst out “How do you know I came from upstairs?!”
The girl chuckled, but it was a soft and polite chuckle. “I know everyone who comes into this house. Some leave, and some don’t make it past the test. Ah, you’re welcome to sit.” Keqing still stood for a minute or two, but the girl simply kept staring at her with a polite expression. So, she took a seat.
The girl nodded, howbeit she wasn’t sure at what. “Would you like some tea?” Keqing didn’t answer for a few seconds, although as she continued to not give her an answer, she felt herself sink into the chair more and more. It was surely a strange phenomenon, and nothing else, she was sure. So, she agreed, with a simple “Yes, please”.
The girl got up from the chair and pulled out a drawer Keqing couldn’t see from her perspective. From the drawer, she pulled out nearly 20 or so packs of tea, all chai, and an entire tea set with 3 teacups. She looked at Keqing. “Which kind of tea would you like?”
Keqing knew her life was possibly on the line, but blurted out “The ninth pack, please.” When she realized she had said that without even thinking, she was a bit nervous, but still confident in herself. The girl once again nodded, and took the ninth pack of tea. She gave the pack to Keqing, and grabbed the tenth pack.
Keqing asked the girl, “Oh, are you having some yourself?” She nodded. “I am, however, this pack is for the others.” Keqing got a bit more nervous at this statement. Who were ‘the others’? Would Keqing become one of them?
The girl snapped her fingers, and a string came down with a hook attatched. She opened the pack of tea in her hands and disposited it into the third cup. Then, she grabbed the kettle and poured hot water into the tea. She then put 3 sugar cubes in the sugar and attached the handle of the cup to the hook.
The string went back into the ceiling, closing the hole it came from when it went back into the ceiling. The girl took her cup and did the exact same thing. Nobbut she didn’t attach the cup to a string when she was finished preparing it. Instead, she sat down and looked at Keqing before taking a sip.
“The set is yours to use.” She smiled and continued to drink the tea. Keqing felt a chill run down her spine. She distributed the tea into the cup, poured water in, and moreover didn’t situate any sugar cubes into the cup. She never put any sugar in her tea, and her current situation would not change how she fixed her tea.
The girl smiled a simple smile, and continued to sip down her tea. They both sat in silence. When the girl finished her tea, she sat the cup down, and looked at Keqing until she as well, finished hers. Keqing looked back at the girl. “So, are you going to tell me what I’m doing here?”
The girl smiled again. “You are here for a reason. So is everyone else who has come here. You must be tied to this reality in some form. Rather that be fate, or in a symbolic way.”
Keqing crossed her arms. “So, that means I passed ‘the test’, correct?” The girl smiled and nodded politely, though it seemed much more sincere. “I desire that you find the way you are tied to this place. Until then, goodbye.”