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it had been a long life scaramouche had lived. almost five hundred years - he used the cataclysm to mark his age, as he was “born” nearly two decades later. no, not born. he was created, had an everyday life of about three years, and then cast aside like a used tissue.
“the first three years of my life,” scaramouche had explained once to tartaglia, “i spent it all in tenshukaku, with my mother. i was a secret, hidden away from all of inazuma. the kitsune familiar insisted i should die, but the raiden shogun insisted on sheltering me, for the people would have realized we have the same eyes. back in those days… my biggest trouble was tying a kimono.” with a scoff, he turned away from tartaglia, immediately regretting not only letting his guard down to share his past, but remembering he had a past at all.
after spending a gruesomely boring amount of time with the traveler and paimon (the most fun he was allowed to have was beating up hilichurls as a morning warmup), scaramouche decided he’d spent enough time with the goody-goodies and left on his own. however, to his dismay, paimon had noticed and followed him a few hundred yards. “hey!! wanderer!!” she called in her annoying, nasally voice. “where are you going? you’re leaving? without… saying goodbye?”
“when have i ever owed you a goodbye?” scaramouche snarled, turning around and aiming a windblade at her, causing her to scream and dodge to the side.
“i thought we were friends now-” she started, but scaramouche grabbed her ankle and pulled her right out of her floating position. his grip on her was harsh and tight, so much so that she could not break free, no matter how badly she struggled.
“friends? a fatui harbinger does not make friends. have you forgotten who i am?” scaramouche’s voice was dangerous, as though it were laced with venom, and paimon was trembling in his hands. “don’t you dare let your guard down around tartaglia, either - that is my advice to you. him and i, all eleven of us, have one thing in common. you’ll be destroyed if you get in the way. and right now, you’re getting in the way of me leaving you, so if you want to continue being the traveler’s little pet , i advise you stop following me.” with that, he let go of paimon, who seemed to projectile launch herself backwards into the sky once more. she stayed a respectable distance away, tears welling in her eyes, as she watched scaramouche turn with a scowl and continue down the rolling green hills of sumeru towards port ormos. he didn’t look back again.
the boat ride to inazuma seemed like it lasted forever. scaramouche had stayed up endless nights, wondering where he’d go when he left, though the traveler snoring did not help whatsoever. he found himself avoiding the one conclusion he had - there was nowhere left for him to go but home. starting over, looking for the meaning in his life, the answer to all the whys. and what better way than to start with the first, largest why? why was he created, why was he alive at all, why else should he go on in this droll, meaningless existence he’d been living? so he had decided, as the sun was coming up and he was sneaking out of the traveler’s tent, he had to start at the beginning. at least, if it came to the worst, the raiden shogun would kill him, and he would suffer no more.
this was his thoughts precisely as scaramouche stepped off the boat onto the dock, taking in the humid ocean air and the bustling sounds of ritou. the maple trees were not quite in season this time of year, so ritou was looking a little less red - unless, you were scaramouche, because this damned bundle of islands made him see red every time.
as he started this dreadful walk, he said his kind hellos and sent his charming smiles to any passersby who greeted him, any merchant offering their products, swallowing his groans and blinking away the urge to roll his eyes at these mortals. these roaches, who worshipped his mother and not him. how dare they, when he was just divine as beelzebul, when she had no other heir, when all he’d ever done was exist for her?
oh, mother. scaramouche had thought to himself so many times over the past five hundred years. how i hate my relationship with you. you abandoned me. you denied me my strength. and yet, i adorned myself with symbolism of your ownership of me. i desire and crave your attention and validation… maybe that’s what attracted the fatui to me. what the tsaritsa saw in me as the 6th strongest fatuus. because i will do anything to please you, mother. i shouldn’t, but i do. it boils my blood like i’m laying in burning coals, but i desire for you to love me like a son. more than just creation and creator. it consumes all of my actions.
i will be a worthy son. lead me in the right direction, mother.
scaramouche’s only problem when he made it to the gates of tenshukaku were the tenryou guards. “damn.” he hissed to himself, his glaring eyes looking from the left to the right, trying to figure out a way to get inside. the anemo catalyst opted for swinging around, for he knew the back of the palace where the island met the shore was mostly unprotected. after he made it there in a quick jogging pace, thinking to himself i can’t believe i’m doing this , and lifted himself with his anemo delusion. why should an archon have unscalable walls, when they are more than capable of protecting themself from the consequences of their own stupid actions?
the most straightforward part was finding a window to break, kicking a corner in with his sandals and shivering pleasantly at the loud crash of shattering glass. it’s been a while since he had broken a window. scaramouche couldn’t relax, though, because the window breaking no doubt had caught a maiden’s attention. or, even her attention. at the thought of having the almighty narukami ogosho’s attention on him, scaramouche shivered again, opting just to swallow his hesitation down and climb inside.
he found himself in a ground floor bedroom, gasping softly to find that ei was actually in this room. humming to herself, she was undoing her braid, sitting at a vanity and looking into the mirror. scaramouche had to stop himself from coughing because of the euphoric smell of inazuman perfumes hanging in the air. it smelled so familiar and nostalgic, it made him sick. he was interrupted from his reminiscence by the voice cutting through his thoughts, “don’t think i can’t see you.”
ei glared at his reflection in the mirror, setting the dendrobium comb down and tapping her finger on the vanity. her eyes were sharp, like lightning slicing through clouds, and the eye contact they shared made the world shake like thunder. there she was, the object of his cruel adoration and affectionate hatred, none other than the person he called his mother. scaramouche stood up straight with a huff, tipping his hat almost in a gentlemanly fashion, and curtsied. “ei!” he exclaimed, in the most charming voice he could manage. “certainly, you haven’t forgotten about your prototype, right? i’m still alive.”
with a gasp, ei stood up hurriedly from her seat and took a few steps towards him, seeming to have instantaneously recognized him. she extended her arms, almost as though she wished to hug him, but quickly retracted them and just placed them at her side.
“kunikuzushi.” she cooed, staring at him as though he was the only thing in the room. he didn’t know whether to feel uncomfortable or egotistical, from the way her eyes had widened upon seeing how he looked now. this was the moment he’d waited nearly five hundred years for, and scaramouche braced himself for ei to be angry, disappointed, or worse, reject him and go on with her life as though he never existed. scaramouche didn’t want to be right about this - he loved being right about the secrets of the other harbingers, but please, he has begged the archons for years, just let him be wrong about this. in his trance, he almost didn’t realize ei softly say, “you came back home, even after all of these years.”
home. that word alone struck kunikuzushi like a bolt of lightning. here she was, his mother, the woman he both loved and loathed, referring to this iron tower they stood in as his home. emotions bubbled up in his throat like a chemistry student’s experiment, just the way he hated, latching on to his airway and choking him painfully. the only thing he could do in this moment was the same as all children who tried to be strong for too long - give in to the hurt, as soon as maternal affection was within reach.
with a heartbroken cry, scaramouche couldn’t help but leap forward into ei’s embrace, causing her to step back a bit to support both of them. holding on to the god of thunder as tightly as he could, as though she were a mirage in the deserts of sumeru, he wailed as loud as his puppet body allowed him to, staining his cheeks and her kimono in tears. he didn’t realize immediately, but his screams were accompanied by one repeated word - mama, mama, mama, mama.
immediately, ei began to soothe him, playing with his hair in her delicate fingers and humming softly to him. “it’s okay, my darling.” she whispered. “i am here. you don’t have to worry about things anymore, you are welcome in tenshukaku at any time.” scaramouche looked up at her, struggling to stare at her expression because of his hiccups, but he was shocked at how well this was going. he was welcome here ? he was wanted by the person he thought his whole life had abandoned him?
something like this was even better than his stupid dreams.
“wait, wait, i-i have to ask you.” he backed away, nearly pushing ei off of him, shaking his head and throwing his hands up in the air. “this makes no sense.” scaramouche retorted. “why the fuck did you abandon me, then? why do i suddenly mean something to you? is it because i had your gnosis, is it the delusion, is it because i survived on my own?” his voice was raising. “what the fuck is it, then? tell me! tell me !!”
ei’s expression was hurt, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes cloudy. “abandon you?” she repeated. “no, no, kunikuzushi - you have it all wrong, my dear.” she shook her head. “that was not my intention. let’s go upstairs to the outside dining room, on the third floor. it’s more comfortable up there, and i will have one of the maidens bring you something to eat.”
he had it wrong? scaramouche opened his mouth to snark at ei, but she gently took his hand and led him through the palace to a grand marble staircase. they ascended two floors, and the guards asked no questions to ei as they opened the doors to the outdoor dining room for her. scaramouche was in silent awe the entire way, his thoughts racing so fast he could hardly keep up. none of this felt real.
“kunikuzushi.” ei called softly when he’d been staring over the balcony with an all-seeing view of narukami for a bit too long. he looked over his shoulder at her, unsure of how to answer, but ei sighed gently and came over to put her hand on the crimson railing. “i was trying to create a lifelike puppet, in pursuit of my own longevity. archons are immortal…” she sighs, pain straining her voice - scaramouche realized something must have happened before his creation. “but bodies are not, so i was trying to solve that problem, since i nee- wanted to meditate in my own consciousness. i can’t maintain a body actively while i’m meditating, so, logically, i just wanted to ensure the form i was using would not die on me if i were ever to return.
“you were my prototype, but i sense you see yourself as a byproduct.” she pauses when she sees scaramouche’s gaze shoot to the floor. “you weren't supposed to be a clone of me, but i worked hard on you, even giving you a beautiful face, because i was practicing for the real thing. you already know your original purpose was to be a vessel that holds my gnosis, but that damn chess piece seems to have been more trouble than it is worth.”
“i had it-” scaramouche begins, but ei lifts a finger to his lips, gently shushing him.
“i heard about it. i met nahida for the first time, recently.” she coos once more. “but you are worth more than whether or not you have the gnosis, my little one.” her face softens when scaramouche - no, kunikuzushi - stares at her, his eyes nearly sparkling like the galaxies above them, through the false sky.
after a long silence of them staring at each other, ei giggles. “the sun is going down.” kunikuzushi shakes his head and blinks in confusion when he realizes the sky has turned peachy, rosy orange. “how about you tell me what you’ve been up to these past few centuries? i will hold you when you get scared, and you can tell me the honest truth. i sense we will have many conversations like this, little prince.”
prince. that’s right, he is inazuma’s only choice for the crown prince. smiling widely, not of malice, but rather indescribable glee, kunikuzushi nodded and followed his mother back inside. for once, he was looking forward to his future. finally, things were going to be how they should have been a long, long time ago.