Chapter Text
“Haha! Guys, that was sooo good!” Co-director, Xingqiu, shouted into his 8 year old megaphone. “The Sumeru arc is going to be so badass! People will love it! We can have a break now, see you in, I don’t know, whenever you all feel like it! Also, thanks Lumine again for wearing that green suit to make Paimon float!”
Lumine gave a thumbs up as she removed the green mask from her head.
“I have to get to go to a lecture, I’ll pick up some food for you all once I’m done.” Lumine told them as she headed out. The others thanked her and waved goodbye.
Xingqiu got up on a stool beside Ayato, who was handling all of the camera action for this arc. He showed the recorded footage to Xingqiu, who was shrieking in excitement. He was heard rambling about what effects to put in and the transitions scenes, and what they could replace the green screen with.
Cyno, the actor of “The General Mahamatra”, aka Cyno, was sitting with the other people he just acted with. Candace, Alhaitham, Dehya, and the one and only Traveler and Paimon. They were sitting at a table (dining table) that was kindly provided by the studio (Ninguang’s house) and the lovely studio owner (Ninguang) was nice enough to lend a very big floor in their studio where they could produce their web series (the basement).
“So many lines.” Dehya was flipping through each page of the script they were given. Each page was written by Xingqiu himself, but due to his very poor handwriting, the director, Albedo, had to rewrite some of the very unreadable lines to give mercy to the actors. “How am I supposed to say all of this- wha.”
“Damn, you should take a look at Aether’s, bro.” Cyno giggled as he pointed to Aether. “That dude’s got like, thousands of lines, 50 words for each sentence- haha!”
“Dude- I only do grunts, man.” Aether sighed in defeat. “See- my sigh could legit be a line in this.”
“You gotta let the viewers find their place in the story! Which is you, Aether!” Xingqiu shouted from afar, through the megaphone. “Besides! You got a line or two in every archon quest! And the people love it! Also Alhaitham- people think you’re hot! You have so many edits of you literally just staring into the distance!”
“Why do you have to announce it like that! You’re obsessed with that megaphone!” Alhaitham shouted back, laughing with the group. “Has he always been obsessed with that thing?”
“When he had found that old megaphone again, he brought that thing everywhere he went.” Paimon munched on her sandwich. “It’s crazy! We should get him a new one, because that thing is like, 10 years old.”
“I feel like he’s attached to it.” Candace assumed, making the group laugh. “Also, what’s the schedule for Monday? Cyno, you have the schedule on your tablet, right?”
Cyno brought out his tablet to check. He went to the pictures app and swiped to the folders called “mmm learn” and tapped on it. The album was filled with pictures of the professor’s board that he was too lazy to copy, math solutions and equations he needed to submit, pictures of projects and events. Dehya leaned in to check on the schedule.
“Oh, they’re offering morning classes on Monday and afternoon on Tuesday. I think we’re going to be having some fundraiser events again as well.” Dehya announced. “Welp, I’m going on Tuesday.”
Cyno received a text message from a relative.
“Oop.” Cyno tapped on the message to reply back.
“Wha happen?” Aether asked.
“I need to go, my aunt is asking me to come home or something.” Cyno placed his tablet in his messenger bag and got up, receiving some sad “awww’s” and “goodbye’s”. “XINGQIU I NEED TO GO, SORRY!”
“It’s okay!” Xingqiu shouted through the megaphone once again, making Ayato squint his eyes in pain. “You can go now! We’re just gonna do a scene without your character! Thanks again for coming!”
Cyno got into a storage room and changed his General Mahamatra outfit to his regular. He ran out of the storage room to go up the stairs and into the main room. When he got there, he saw Ningguang and Beidou, putting brownies in containers, probably for the rest of the people downstairs.
“Ah, Cyno! You’re going home already?” Beidou asked. “Ningguang and I got you some brownies, here! Take some, take some!”
They shoved a container of brownies into Cyno’s hands.
“Oh! Thank you so much!” Cyno said, awkwardly.
“Also, Cyno.” Cyno tensed as Ningguang called for him. People have always said that Ms. Ningguang has been kind of scary at times. “Please talk to Kazuha for me. I know that he’s on your, uh, little show, and he can be hard to talk to, but he’s just very shy.”
Oh, okay.
“Okay, Miss, I will try.” Cyno chuckled as he walked towards the door. “Thank you again for letting us film at your place!”
“Anytime.” Ningguang said as Cyno shut the door behind him.
Cyno looked at the sky, hmm, some clouds here and there but the sky was blue like always. He could just walk home with no problem, it’s not that far off. Just 20 minutes, that’s all. Cyno strolled along the sidewalk, whistling and what not. What a lovely Saturday, Cyno was sure everything is going to be just fine-
Cyno heard thunder. He then felt raindrops on his head.
“Dammit.” Cyno put his messenger bag over his head. He began running to the nearest shelter possible, which was an opened shop from across the street.
He looked to his left, then to his right. No vehicles in sight, surely, it wouldn’t hurt to cross this part of the road once, right? It’ll be just 5 seconds. When he was in the middle, lightning struck onto a tree nearby, causing it to burn up in place. This scared Cyno; he nearly fell to the ground.
Cyno felt like something had hit him in the back, everything went loud, he couldn’t hear the rain itself anymore. A burning sensation was felt all over his body for a split second.
He couldn’t see.
…………..
“I didn’t know that the almighty General Mahamatra would be visiting the forest today.” Tighnari continued writing in his notebook, not bothering to turn around to face the newcomer. “Collei has been doing very well lately, if you’re going to ask about that. She misses you.”
Cyno went over to Tighnari’s side. “Where is she then, if she is looking for me?”
“She’s currently on duty right now, but don’t worry, she’s strong enough to handle it on her own.” Tighnari closed his notebook and faced Cyno. “We’ll be able to sense something, or you will be able to sense it.”
Cyno nodded and looked over at Tighnari’s table. Lots of papers, potions, suspicious looking powder, and a bunch of incense.
“Not doing anything strange lately, are you?” Tighnari smiled slightly at the assumption from Cyno.
“Of course not, I got all of these naturally from the forest, don’t worry.” Cyno nodded from that response.
“Alright.”
“Would you like an explanation as to where I got all of these materials? Well, this powder was very interesting actually, I got it from-”
“No need, Tighnari, I believe you. I can always read behind people’s eyes to see the truth. And when I am with you, you are always honest and true to yourself.”
Tighnari smiled. He proceeded to add something to the beaker that was currently boiling above the fire.
“Except for the times where you say that my jokes were so called, hilarious. That’s the only lie I appreciate from anyone, you and Collei are very lucky.”
“In my humble defense, it’s the way you say it.”
“How else am I supposed to say it? I say it normally, like how everyone would say it, with a few ‘haha’s’ and ‘heehee’s’ here and there.”
Tighnari rolled his eyes and poured the last ingredient into the mixture. It turned into the color dark blue, like magic. After a few seconds, it had white spots floating around, like the stars in the night sky.
“I want to learn more about Teyvat.” Tighnari told Cyno. “Well, sorry, wrong choice of words. I want to learn more about the outside world of Teyvat. What is beyond our stars we see every night? Is it a wall, or an endless abyss? Did the gods put something out there for us to explore in the distant future? Or did they run out of time to put something out there?”
“And how is this potion supposed to help you with your theory and research?” The other asked him. The beaker continued to boil.
“I’m still figuring that out. Some incense has the ability for the human mind to travel into a new world, where the physical body can’t; so what if I just pushed it a bit. Maybe it could be strong enough to travel to different, what’s the word, ah yes, dimensions.”
“I won’t stop you on this project.” Cyno told Tighnari. “As long as you aren’t hurting anyone on purpose, or using them to fulfill your work, I trust you.”
Tighnari smiled at him. “Thank you, you can always count on me-”
The beaker boiled intensely.
“Oh dear, Cyno, you might want to leave-”
The liquid turned into dust, exploding. Cyno grabbed Tighnari and basically tossed him out of the door, leading outside. The general however, began coughing. He covered his nose and mouth instinctively and rushed towards the door. The outside world sounded muffled, but he still heard something heavy fall beside him, it was getting dark.
Then silence.
…………..
“Quiet, he’s waking up.”
Wha- What happened.
“Shhhh, we don’t know what the side effects are yet, let’s just keep our voices down for now.”
Side effects?
‘Cyno’ slowly opened his eyes. He felt something soft on his bed and back, he also felt lots of eyes on him. Cyno’s vision cleared, then he could fully see.
“Cyno?” Tighnari? “I’m sorry- I’m guessing you aren’t looking for an apology right now, I’ll fix you up and you’ll be better.”
Why did, Tighnari sound so formal, like his character in the web series? And why is he apologizing? Did Cyno get hit by a car? Was Tighnari the one driving?
“Cyno?”
“Oh- Sorry.” Cyno sat up shakily and cleared his throat. He observed a bit, looked like Aether was here, strange, he’s always with Lumine, and of course Paimon was- wait what.
“Paimon? How are you-” Paimon looked at him in confusion.
“How is Paimon what?” Paimon asked.
“How in the world are you floating? Are you- How are you- There’s literal sparkles coming out of you, what in the actual hell? I’m going crazy, aren’t I? Are these the side effects of getting hit by a car? Damn.” Cyno massaged his forehead, the others looked at him in confusion.
“Oh, it’s worse than I thought.” Tighnari went to the table and got some notes.
“What’s worse- Tighnari are you some sort of, I don’t know- doctor? And how are your ears so realistic- wait why are all wearing-”
“We came here as fast as we could!” Cyno looked at the entrance.
It was Dehya and Collei, with their full acting outfits on.
“Hold-on, where the hell are we?” Cyno asked in confusion.
“Oh, that thing must have really messed ya up to get you to show some actual emotions.” Dehya told Cyno, who began to be even more confused.
“What-”
“You’re in Master Tighnari’s place.” Collei told Cyno. Master? The hell, did he get his degree early or something? “You’re acting, unusual Cyno. Why not have a nap? Maybe the side effects are taking a toll-”
“Wait- just let me get my messenger bag- it’s on the table over there, let me just-” Cyno got off the bed and looked down. “Where the hell are my shoes-”
“What do you mean? Paimon never sees you wear shoes? Oh, and why is it called a messenger bag? Well, it is a fancy bag if you ask Paimon!” Cyno walked towards the table to get his messenger bag.
“You’ve been saying a lot of things you wouldn’t normally say, I think you should lay down.” Dehya told him.
Everyone stared at Cyno when they saw him bring out this mysterious looking device. Cyno was oblivious to this fact.
“I just need some time to process- oh damn it, there’s no wifi here.”
“Is that- some sort of Akasha device?” Tighnari asked Cyno, who looked at him like he was crazy.
“What- uh, no?” Cyno looked back at the tablet to try to text someone, anyone. “There’s no signal as well?” Cyno sighed and exited the app. He looked up. It was now that he noticed everyone was staring at him. “Uhm, you guys alright? You do know that I have a tablet, right?”
“Wait, okay alright.” Aether grabbed Cyno’s hand. “I’ll talk to Cyno for a moment, we’ll be right back.”
The three walked out of the house, and Cyno was amazed. The paintings and sketches Albedo painted for their setting of the Gandharva Ville. He was here, and it looked as amazing and beautiful as the paintings. Aether, Paimon and Cyno went to a more isolated and quieter place.
“Okay- Aether.” Cyno started. “What in the actual- in the actual hell is going on? Why are we all wearing outfits and-”
“This body you have here.” Aether explained. “Is not yours, your mind is. You're not from this universe, are you?”
That one question alone was enough to explain everything.