mooninthewater | Come Sail Away IC Inbox

Hm~ then in that case, I’m happy to share with you. Thank you. [ a mild catlike smile, he accepts the portion of cookie and nibbles at it with some amount of pleased satisfaction… that it came out pretty well! he won’t give up his day job (what job????) of being a busker for a baker any time soon, but maybe leveling up in baking to continue making nice things for mizuki or others would be nice. ]

Could I help as well? I’m not terribly strong but I can provide a pair of hands or if for instance you need any assistance in reaching someplace high…! [ though he supposes mizuki has tentacles but. he’s trying not to be useless here. ] Or I could offer background music while you work, at the very least!

[ Mizuki takes a small bite, really savoring the taste. It might not taste phenomenal or anything close to it, but… not to sound cheesy, but he really does adore the fact that he went through the effort to make him anything at all. So, maybe the giddy giggle is a little much for something like this, but… ]

I love it! Was this really all you, my dear??

And of course you’re welcome to help! Though, I’m not sure with what yet. I have to figure out what I’m even doing around here… I’m not sure if it should be themed more specifically than just “Halloween” or if it should just be generally spooky?

I was baking with a friend, but we only have a… ah… a rather small oven. [ a tiny ass easy bake oven. so. that’s why there’s only one lil cookie. the Quest for Cooking on the ship might yet continue. ] So I definitely can’t take credit and say it’s all me. I wonder actually whether we can… create a stove or oven, perhaps.

[ but it’s good that the buffet is still around at least. for now. ]

I’m not entirely sure what a Halloween is, but… back in Mondstadt, around this time we would have Weinlesefest, a festival of wine and homecoming and fecund blessings. I’m sure that’s quite far a concept from ‘spooky’ but I wonder if people might like a brighter or more cheerful image for a party. Quite a lot is happening lately.

[ to say the least, oh god. so much happens all the time. ]

Any oven works, really, no matter how small. Hell, so long as you have heat and an enclosed space, things can work out nicely.

But who knows? With the ghosts on strike, maybe fire is, uhh, legal, so to speak? We can do tons of cooking with fire alone~! Of course, we’re still missing meat, but… that new store has all sorts of candy that we can use to bake some stuff at least.

[ Mizuki can make French toast with bread and pudding mix if he’s desperate. He’ll make something work. ]

From what I know about it, it’s a day where you dress up in scary costumes and play tricks on people to appease ghosts.

[ Or something like that? He doesn’t know for sure. ]

Oh and kids get candy!!! So I guess Fio’s gonna get a lot of candy. But, uh… I think maybe the ghosts won’t be on strike anymore if we appease them with a spooky party?

[ kids get candy… ] Who~a, that does sound like quite the treat. [ . . . anyway. and, it sure would be more family friendly than getting drunk off their ass, not that he’s not going to do that. ] But if you lay out the logic like that, maybe trying to… appreciate the ghosts, as it were, really might coax them back. It’s odd to say, but I really do miss them even if they could occasionally be hostile. [ even still, they’d never exactly killed anyone. as much as that counts as a baseline of… decency.

the ship just seems a lot more lonely with them unresponsive. and it sure is taking on damage.

he finishes his cookie, looking thoughtful. ] If we really do try to construct an oven or something and we’re unsuccessful, I might try to enlist you for help. I wonder how well that camping stove might bake…?

… I think that… they’ve been through Hell, you know? Not only have they had to deal with things we’ve been through, but rather disappeared because of it, too.

[ His look is very thoughtful at the rest of his cookie. “I wish I could do more,” he thinks. “Wish they could stay away. Wish they didn’t have to deal with this. Wish they could be happy, too.” ]

And it’s kind of a shitty trade-off, isn’t it? I don’t want Friday to be run ragged, but I want the ghosts to be happy. I was thinking, when they’re back, I want to try doing nice things for them.

When they’re back, Venti, could you come with me to the library? I think I’d like to read some books to them, to start.

…

Lada- er… Gummy liked the library. If… if she’s… still on the ship, I know that would at least make her happy.

[ … ]

[ —Anyway, cooking!!! ]

If you ever want your adeptus stove back, you’re welcome to have it. I’m sure that would work for what you need, right?

[ … ] I don’t want the stove back. It’s yours. Perhaps I might ever ask to borrow it… but, I do mean to give it to you.

[ there’s a small weight in his pocket; he touches his fingers to it lightly, quieter momentarily. then goes and—well, it might be awkward to try to sit in the same beach chair as mizuki, but he’ll try to do that or… not exactly try to copy the whole lap mizuki habit, though he is very light, but just knowing well how he values touch and presence. ]

I sometimes sing to them. They’re quite the unresponsive audience even when they were around but regardless, there’s something soothing about performing to them. So, of course I’ll come with you and read tales from the library. I’ll tell them stories as well, from Teyvat and worlds and realities beyond that I’ve learned of.

… Could I offer you a story now, if you have time to listen?

[ Fortunately for Venti, Mizuki has no bones and is very easily just squished to the side. Beach chairs are usually pretty wide anyway?! Big enough for two twinks, at least. ]

Of course you can. I’ll always love to hear your stories.

Edited 2022-10-16 02:38 (UTC)

Then, how about…

Actually, this would be three stories about three people. Two, from my nation. One, a tale of a traveling wanderer, perhaps a little like you and I.

The first tale is about the family of aristocrats I’d told you about. Thousands of years ago, the clan was a cornerstone of Mondstadt, they upheld the virtues of freedom and bravery just as righteously as the other nobility and common folk who rebelled against the tyrant god. However after they’d been deposed from their own tyrannical rule… perhaps they expected vengeance from the oppressed, those they enslaved. Perhaps the wrath of the people should have come down upon them as you had suggested, death for those who had inflicted so much suffering.

Instead, their punishment was ostracism. Five hundred years later, some among the family remain proud and arrogant, wishing to return to their glory days of power and privilege. Meanwhile, the entire country barely tolerates their existence, loath to sell or provide them necessities or goods at market, families would tell their children to avoid. And yet one girl from that family would train and work tirelessly to become a knight of this country, to fight for the nation even when so many of her countrymen would rather she didn’t exist. She would swear vengeance on those who disgraced her, and yet in the same breath work thanklessly to protect the people who hate her and her clan.

Was the country wrong to spare this clan? Were they right not to forgive? She suffers the resentment of nearly the whole nation simply for being born to a hated family… what might you think?

Edited 2022-10-16 03:36 (UTC)

… Mmh. Well… ancestors to the Sarkaz had been held in a similarly horrible light. Their ancestors were too violent, too war-hungry, too powerful… they were shunned to an extent that even today, they are treated as lesser than all the other races. Like monsters.

But I don't think a child should be blamed for their parent's misdeeds. A parent might pass on their terrible ideals or horrible way of thinking to their kids, but that doesn't inherently mean that their kid is going to listen to them. So, yeah, I think that people should be judged based on their actions. I think that if a group of people need to be banished for their wrongdoings, or something similar to that, then that's what needs to happen. But if a generation passes and their children are running around, I don't believe we should judge any of them unless they do things wrong themselves.

It's how we treat each other at Rhodes Island, too. Or… most of us. [ Obviously, it's not perfect. Paradise like that doesn't exist, no matter how much one might argue for it. ] We're all just individuals — race and where we're from doesn't really mean nothin'.

…

'Cept for… seaborns, I guess. [ Which is another reason why Kal'tsit probably told Mizuki to keep his "true self" under wraps. Go figure. ] But even then, the medical team treated me the same as any other operator, even knowing what I am.

I… I guess it's hard to say that, when people are just so used to thinking that way. Thinking that people who do this thing or are from this place or are from this family do these horrible things. And it's easy to fall into that mindset. But I'd consider that person a hero. And… I don't think the clan was necessarily spared? Not from judgment entirely, anyway. They were still punished. [ Which, at the end of the day, is all Mizuki really cares about. It's not that death is the answer, it's that consequence is. The death and eating people thing is just a fun bonus.

After all, those pirates he hated most are still alive, right? Just, you know… a bit broken. ]

[ well. yes, if you put it that way. maybe punishment can be a fewww dials down from torture and breaking…??? not that he knows what mizuki is thinking, though. ]

As far as I’m concerned, if I even have any authority to say this myself, I consider her a hero too. Though she’s rather… idiosyncratic, let’s say, but I suppose a lifetime of being a pariah may do that to you.

That people hold a grudge against the family is understandable though you see that this amount of prejudice is unfounded, even undeserved. It’s that prejudice that keeps relations this strained, that might isolate that clan further so they stay so steeped in spite. Who can say why that girl chose to be a knight, rather than fight for her clan instead? Or whether any other member of her family, if some serendipity or kindness was shown to them, perhaps they could have seen another way… or, if that clan had been killed in the revolution, maybe the entire trouble with them would be gone entirely and modern Mondstadt would be minus a knight, however much difference she might make.

But I can’t help but be fond of her, of my knights, even of that wayward family. They were once nobles who understood the freedom of the wind, they were children of Mondstadt too. If ever I could bring you there, I’d like to introduce you to her and others, the nuns and bards, everyone… I hope for her story to continue with happiness and hope. And that of the Sarkaz, and your comrades in Rhodes Island.

Edited 2022-10-16 17:40 (UTC)

I do too. I hope that she can also someday show the other people of your country that an individual does not necessarily carry the sins of their ancestors.

[ And even Mizuki supposes that this could apply to him, in a sense? He's been slowly accepting that he's not inherently a monster, just because he's seaborn. He wonders if that's how he should see other seaborn, too? If maybe the evil lies within that god, rather than with its species? He doesn't ponder the thought too much now, but he files it away for later. ]

But, especially because she's one of your people, I'm sure she'll thrive.

[ what a thing to say to a deity who’d literally just admitted the slavery era of his country though he supposes he didn’t even mention the fact he’d nearly hibernated through it. w o w. his people sure can thrive.

… sometimes! ] Thanks for saying so. And what a responsibility she might hold on her shoulders. Such is the noble name and crest of that old clan. [ well… he rather intended the moral of the story to be a rose from concrete, virtue can sprout even from a difficult foundation kind of message, he could hope it comes across even a little as he shifts to sit more comfortably either alongside or on mizuki. ]

Shall I continue with the second story then?

Edited 2022-10-16 22:17 (UTC)

[ Hey, at least Venti didn't do the enslaving. Then Mizuki might have to give him a few harsh words about it. God or not, that shit don't fly with him. ]

Of course. Hit me with it.

This story is about a woman I think you may empathize with well.

She was born in the remote and distant mountains in a rural village that was raided by bandits. By chance or whim, they didn’t kill her but kidnapped her as a servant, a petty crook and thief, a lackey. Her childhood and much of her life was a cruel one where she had to steal and fight and lie to survive, whether it’s to that den of thieves, to the victims they robbed, perhaps even to her very self. Softness and kindness could be but a fairy tale to a child stolen from a kind life.

One harsh winter night when food grew terribly scarce and she was starving and desperate, she dared to try to run away from the thieves. But the leader, the old man who took her from her parents and taught her to kill, hunted her down… and tossed her a knife, telling her that running was a betrayal deserving death. In this winter duel only one of them could walk free… and she did, taking the life of that man who had taught her nothing but pain and suffering.

And yet in the end when she returned to the thieves as their new leader the revelation was there, with a god’s blessing manifest in her hand, that the man fell to her blade purposefully. That the monster who raised her held secret real fondness to her even through their blood soaked story.

…

[ Ah yes. A tale as old as time. Bandits killed your family and ~~attempted to~~ kidnap you. Mizuki highly doubts those pirates would be so kind as to actually care about him and raise him as their own if he didn't try to run away. Not with how brutally they sliced his neck open the moment he did.

Venti fails to mention if the girl's family died or not, but Mizuki just makes that assumption based on his own experience with bandits and the like. It's unlikely they would leave people alive at all, but…

He supposes there's some thoughtful insight he could add, or some parallels to be made, or something like that. However, he just calmly looks out the surface of the pool water. ]

… How did she feel about that?

[ rosaria is a child of mondstadt as well. not native, but mond welcomes all. varka had taken her in under his wing. so too does barbatos, even if she doesn’t believe. and so even barbatos could, so rarely, bless her with the truth of that old bandit’s voice, once in a blue moon as she observes dandelions on the wind.

and they drink together, too. ] Troubled, I’m sure. Conflicted. But her life was rough and simply trying to survive could be her priority, even if it meant mugging people, crime, violence, worse.

The wind did eventually bring her to Mondstadt and the knights there gave her a second chance to live as a nun at my church. [ a small smile; the fondness is there, he has faith in her even if she doesn’t in him. ] Funnily enough, she doesn’t worship me or even remember my name. If she knew the native god is her frequent friend at the bar, I wonder what she’d say.

But I know she’s a little more at peace with herself and her life now.

Edited 2022-10-17 00:12 (UTC)

[ Troubled and conflicted doesn't sound like the right feelings to Mizuki. In fact, he firmly believes that she was well within her rights to slaughter the rest of the bandits along with their ex-leader. To take a child from their home and put it through suffering? That, in and of itself, is just evil. It doesn't matter if you care for the child, if you make the child want to run away and hate its environment and show little in the way of external love, it's not worth it. That's how you fuck up a child, not make it stronger.

Maybe Mizuki doesn't have a lot of leg room to speak on the matter, though. His caretaker after his own family died had been so kind to him. He had been loved so openly and cared for so thoroughly sans that very night the pirates showed up, yet he would still probably say he's sufficiently "fucked up" based on what people seem to think about him. So maybe it's just trauma? Maybe he's a special case? Maybe being seaborn just skewed the results too much? He's not sure. But he's certain that in her shoes, he wouldn't have left any of them alive, no matter how much they "cared".

But he knows Venti won't be happy with that. ]

That's good. I'm glad you could provide her with some solace.

[ If only there were a god so benevolent back on Terra. Someone who understood humanity and nurtured it, instead of the mess of gods that are on Terra. What would Terra be like if one like that existed? ]

… [ 'Where are you going with this, Venti?' ] What's the last story?

[ the moral sure isn’t ‘bandits aren’t such bad people and that guy was an exemplary father’ at all, the story sure isn’t free of robbery and violence and murder even if he did try to downplay it somewhat. everyone was a criminal there, rosaria included. and the fact that she’s now a vigilante and assassin is. … hm, the parallels are really kind of there, aren’t they.

but he could hope to illustrate a few shades of gray more. ]

Once, in a faraway island nation, there was a young man born into a noble family that fell into ruin and disgrace. Despite poverty and homelessness, he took to the life of a wanderer with hope in his heart to travel the country. Admiring the sights of the nation, learning to read the weather and sail the seas, befriending the common folk and fellow wanderers.

He struck up a bond with a fellow ronin and they traveled companionably for a long while, departing fondly but hoping to meet again. However their next encounter would be full of strife: the nation fell into civil unrest as their goddess sought to confiscate her peoples’ Visions. [ which, actually, venti hasn’t worn his for months; seems he might have lost or given it away. ] This man’s friend challenged the goddess to a duel, both for the sake of his Vision and to witness her divine technique with her sword.

Which she deigned to show him—to take his life when he lost the duel, at the very moment the protagonist came to the arena to help his friend.

What do you imagine he did?

[ It's true, his vision had been missing. But he wouldn't have been surprised if he had given it to someone — Mizuki even now wears the cecilia that he'd gotten in his hat still. At this point, Mizuki finds it basically synonymous with his propensity of just giving everyone pieces of himself. ]

…Fought alongside him? [ ??? Why would there be another answer there— ]

Ah, perhaps I was unclear.

I mean that the young man arrived at the arena at the very moment that the goddess struck his friend down, fatally, in that duel.

… Fought her in his stead? [ Go big or go home. Also maybe his friend weakened her? Easy kill steal, gaming 101— ]

Would that be what you’d attempt? Recall, this person is an ordinary human… without let’s say, wind or tentacles or moons or whatever abilities we might have. His friend challenged a goddess to a legitimate duel to the death. Each knew the rules and consequences.

But this is indeed his dear friend… if you saw your friend fall to the blade before your eyes— [ … actually, let’s move on from that question. ] He took his friend’s Vision that fell from his hand, turned, and ran. Now a criminal who stole a Vision, an outlaw, he attempted to flee from his life and from his home country.

Edited 2022-10-17 15:28 (UTC)

Of course I would. This was my country that I had been traveling. That I wanted to travel and made many friends in doing so. If I knew there was something wrong happening to it’s people, I’d want to fight against it.

[ It’s not too unlike what he’s doing back home. Fighting for the rights of the Infected, that is. ]

But… I suppose it does make sense if he doesn’t have an combat ability to not take the risk. Still, I feel as though that option… the guilt would eat at me too much…

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