Work Text:
Furina is intimately aware of the concept of loneliness. It is almost akin to her birthright, as a reincarnation of one of the Seven Sovereigns, albeit in a form that is both comfortable and terribly unfamiliar to her, contradictory sensations that she is only just getting used to.
If she reaches into the murky depths that is the well of her mind, she can make out the faintest memories of her kin, and a world that is untainted by the conflict brought upon by an outsider.
As it is now, however, she is alone in this unfamiliar realm, in a shape that she occasionally stumbles about after she stirs from her sleep, and with equally unfamiliar beings that now walk the land she once ruled over.
Fontaine, they call the land that was once her home. Governed by the impartial yet distant Hydro Archon, Vepares. She doesn't really know what to make of herself, other than the fact that she needs to know more about the world of the present, if possible.
Furina is something akin to water: adaptive, fluid, and gifted with an ability to take a variety of shapes. She takes to learning the native tongues of this world with ease. She learns how to dress and look familiar to the locals, even if she cannot quite belong just yet. These skills and talents that she needs to understand are challenging, in a way, but she is more than willing to learn, especially if she wishes to survive in this world.
She eventually finds herself poring over books and tales, and hears distant stories from miles away about how her kin — the vishaps — resent humanity and everything they represent.
Furina... is not quite sure if she returns such a sentiment. She's not sure what they would think of her, if she dares pay them a visit.
A Hydro Sovereign with the face of a human belongs to neither world, she can't help but think, one day. She suspects that her kin would be wary of her, while the humans seem unaware of her true nature, only passing her horns a curious glance or two.
Is it loneliness and her seeking out some form of companionship that leads her to take the life she wants? She's not certain, to be honest.
But she has steeled herself nonetheless and ventured further into the human world, looking into their culture and their bonds alike, their families and lives, and she finds herself enamoured.
Humans have their own particular brand of beauty, she can't help but think, listening to wandering bands and seeing artists trekking into the wilderness to paint, and she wants nothing more but to further understand them.
Furina may be a dragon in the vessel of a human, in a liminal form that doesn't quite fit in with the world of her past memories, and the world of the present, but she is willing to make an opportunity out of this event.
Alone as she may be now, she could be a bridge between the two worlds: a way to foster understanding between humans and vishaps, and a gateway into their coexistence, and she craves.
The Archon himself seeking an audience with her is, perhaps, one of the biggest surprises to grace her.
She is wary of him initially, of course: as much as she does not begrudge him for his subservience to the Usurper Above, he may view her as a threat.
Yet he offers no such thing. Instead, he proposes an arrangement, and who is she to refuse? An opportunity has presented itself before her, and she intends to adapt in response. She is not sure if she can call Fontaine a home just yet, but she is happy to accept some form of shelter.
There is a pervasive loneliness to the Hydro Archon, Furina finds, some time after she had accepted his offer and found herself in the adobe of the Palais Mermonia, in a way that she finds particularly odd.
She has grown intimately aware of the internal politics of Fontaine over the years, and her presence in the heart of it all only serves to make that gulf between the Archon and his people ever wider, especially when she finds herself deeper in the heart of the nation’s artistic culture, that sense of loneliness fading with the passage of time, replaced with belonging and love.
And maybe the thought of finally belonging somewhere causes peculiar weather patterns involving light rains throughout Fontaine, but Furina will not deny herself this newfound comfort, not at all!
But it serves to make that seeming gap between Neuvillette and the people of Fontaine clearer to her, and the urge to do something about it grows stronger with the passing of days.
She’s not entirely sure as to what first possesses her to pay him a visit to his office, even though she’s aware that he does not entertain audiences. Perhaps it’s the fact that she had nothing to do on that particular day, what with it being the holidays, but she opens the doors and settles herself on an empty spot on his table before beginning to talk, if only to chase away the silence and to provide him some much-needed company.
She takes care to pay him a visit in his office whenever she can from then on, and there is a sense of amusement when she finds that he has arranged for his staff to provide his office with such things as a couch and a small table for her to place her purchased pastries and cakes. When she finds her schedule too crammed to personally visit him, she finds herself penning letters to send to him. She sometimes includes tickets to her acts as an additional gesture, even if he has told her that he has no interest in the arts.
It is months later when she realises that he could’ve told her to go away, that first time. That he could’ve done the same for her next visits, yet he has never done such a thing, and the idea that he does appreciate her presence despite his unflappable expression brings a peculiar warmth to her that she can’t comprehend just yet, even with enough time to become used to human emotions.
But what she knows is the fact that she seeks to chase away that sense of loneliness that he carries like a weight. Perhaps there will come a day that he will understand that he can find companionship, and not only with her, but with the humans under his protection.
She hopes that he will realise that. For the meantime, she is content to enter his office, and to talk about her latest play. He may sigh and lower the papers that he is reading as she helps herself to a cupcake and crumbs of it end up on the floor and the couch, but she can see the faint curve of his lips, and she knows that he is glad to have someone to be around.