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Il Dottore is waiting for him. In that cramped makeshift lab, with pieces parts and beating hearts scattered on tables like festive garnish. He's in that chair. That same chair that's been chewed up by moths and blades all the same. The steel sole of his boot scrapes the floor with every lackadaisical swing of his foot. He sits there like he has all the time in the world. Like the frustrations Kunikuzushi carries aren't gnawing at his wiring and leaving him frayed.
The Second is easy to hate. Shame he was kicked out of the Akademiya. He should've stayed there with the rest of Teyvat's most delusional scholars.
"I thought we arranged to meet in Sumeru, dear friend," the fake doctor says.
They arranged to meet, yes. But the Eighth died and the Cryo Archon called for a funeral.
The Balladeer reminds him, "We're not friends."
"You wound me. I praised you so highly to Sumeru's best. They're eager to meet their future god."
"They should be," Kunikuzushi says. "And they should be eager for you to leave as soon as you're done. They're pathetic. Taking wisdom from an enemy that plays with dolls and calls himself a doctor."
"Don't speak so poorly of yourself," Il Dottore says. "You're no mere doll."
"And you're no doctor."
"So you say."
"So says your lack of credentials–so impressive that you’re relegated to doing business in Snezhnaya."
"There's no need to argue semantics. You and I are on the same side, Balladeer."
"Only by title." The Balladeer digs his nails into his hips. "There are no sides. My associations are not your business."
"Don't you think you could do more than this, Balladeer?" Dottore asks. Razor teeth sharpen to a deadly smile. "Would you not agree you deserve more than the slop you've been fed?”
Of course he does. Of course he deserves more, deserves better. Existence is a sentence he committed no crime to earn. His limbs are chained together with iron forged of lies and betrayal. Metal wears slowly, so slowly, and days pass like years, years like decades. Centuries crawl and claw at his insides as time and pause only to ask when it will end.