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The first time it happened, Lumine didn’t think much of it. The trio referred to as “The Boys” was occupying the patio table under the big maple tree: Xingqiu gesticulating wildly while narrating out of some silly Xianxia novel he picked up recently; Chongyun staring at him with a bamboo straw in his mouth as he sips some sort of tea that’s been transformed into slush; and Bennett leaning dangerously far back in his chair, snacking on something and occasionally asking about what happens next as if Xingqiu needs anyone to tell him to keep going. The “something” that Benny was snacking on as if it was an apple was, of all things, a pinecone.
Had it been anyone but Benny, this would have been a shock. He eats questionable things all the time despite the teapot manor’s fully-stocked kitchen and plenty of skilled residents who would gladly make something safe and palatable. The frequency with which that kid gets food poisoning and other assorted digestive upsets makes one wonder whether or how he gets sufficient nutrition, but he handles the issue with the same chipper dismissal as his usual cuts, burns, breaks, and bruises.
Conclusion: Either Benny was hungry and curious, or Xingqiu dared him to eat it.
The second time it happened, it was a little strange. When she saw Barbara pass by toting a basket of pinecones towards the fire pit, she figured that someone recently learned about the joys of tossing pinecones into a fire. The way they pop has always been a great source of summertime entertainment. Eager to relive some cherished memories, Lumine chased after Barbara only to see her pass the cones to Xiangling.
Seeing Xiangling accept the cones with great enthusiasm, Lumine could easily guess that they were the latest experimental ingredient for who-knows-what. Rather than stick around to see (and taste) whatever culinary masterpiece the pinecones were going to turn into, Lumine hurried off with the bitter taste of failed nostalgia on her tongue.
Later, she would hear tell of a new treat – melty cheese coated in some kind of mysterious pulverized crumbs of something and fried to have a delectable crisp shell that seems to attract Mondstadtians like catnip, to the extent that the cheese snack was deemed too powerful to be allowed to ever leave the teapot. For now, though, Lumine needed to find Klee and an armful of pinecones.
There’s no recovering from the third time it happens. In the twilight hours of the morning, “Night Team Red” typically returns. The “Team” is the teapot’s collective name for Rosaria and Diluc that its members share a mutual distaste for (“Look, they’re making the same face! That scowl is like the team uniform,” Paimon argued skillfully against their unanimous denouncement.). “Day Team Red” (Klee and Amber) is a lot less fussy about the whole squad name thing.
It so happens that Lumine wakes early and loiters at the top of the teapot mansion’s stairs for a while to watch who comes and goes, as she sometimes does.
At first she believes, with wavering confidence, that the object sticking out of Diluc’s mouth as he shoves the manor door open is a cigar. Lumine has never seen him smoke before, but the man has too many secrets to count. This one would actually be pretty normal. The illusion is shattered when he closes the door behind him and takes a bite out of the mystery item with an unforgettable crunching noise. It is, in fact, a pinecone – just like the others, but this time she can’t write it off as one of Xingqiu’s pranks or Xiangling’s experiments.
Naturally, someone as vigilant as Diluc can sense that he is being watched and his sharp eyes home in on Lumine at the top of the stairs. He nods at her in a vague “Good Morning” gesture as though he isn’t doing something terribly unusual.
“You’re eating a pinecone,” is all that Lumine can say.
Diluc swallows and answers with a flat “No.”
“It’s right there!”
“This is a spruce cone.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The texture is flakier and it’s easier on the stomach.”
Unreal. He doesn’t just eat pinecones, he’s a full-blown cone-oisseur.