disdelusioned: (diluc103)
Diluc Ragnvindr ([personal profile] disdelusioned) wrote2021-11-05 06:55 pm

Songerein Inbox



"Diluc, of Mondstadt. Not interested in idle chit-chat.
If you have things you want to get done, let me know."
hearthwarming: (013)

end of august, after the noctstace-ness of everything

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-02 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It has been an incredibly long night.

Ori has departed rather hurriedly, accompanied by one of Eustace and Tifa's dogs who had frantically called out for her at their door. Like Diluc has seen before, her quiet strength steels her in the moment, bidding her to act in spite of the fears and uncertainties in her heart.

"Stay here, in case something starts happening in town. I'll be back soon," she tells Diluc before she takes the form of a giant owl and flies away into the night, towards a snowy peak in the distance around which a storm swirls relentlessly.

But it's a long, long while before she finally returns, the appearance of a circle of arcane light appearing in their living room the only signal before she appears along with Eustace, Tifa, and everyone else who had been spurred into action. The moments after seem to happen in a blur: Ori and others checking on everyone, Eustace declaring that he and Tifa can no longer marry, and the collective displeasure it earns from everyone who'd just risked their lives to help the two, because they all believe that the two deserve a chance at happiness here.

Before long, they all seem to disperse, eventually seeking solace and space in their own homes, needing to process everything they were made to experience tonight.

For her part, Oriphi feels... exhausted, perhaps more than she's anticipating given how accustomed she is to long journeys and arduous combat. There's a nagging pain at her side that she's pointedly ignoring; perhaps she simply twisted something, because she's already cast healing spells to take care of injuries... Still, it doesn't stop her from rummaging around in the house, trying to collect various ingredients for healing potions, even as her body is beginning to slow and shut down. ]


If I start now, I can have potions ready for everyone by the morning...
hearthwarming: (057)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-02 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
But—

[ Protest sits at the tip of her tongue... and is momentarily lost as she feels her body wanting to ease into Diluc's touch. She really is more tired than she thought she would be. Still— ]

It's fine. I don't need to rest, moonlight. I can cast more spells for that...

[ Never mind that she's already cast quite a few today. ]
hearthwarming: (077)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-03 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ Finally, her heart and soul and body seem to still at his words as she stands there and receives this reminder of how similar she and Diluc really can be, at times. She knows, as she listens to what he says, that she would be saying the same things to him, were their roles reversed. ]

I...

[ She's been on the receiving end of similar lectures from her friends in the past; they were right in the past, and in this moment Diluc is right, too. But...

I have to protect her... She can't leave me again.

The nightmarish sound of Eustace's voice when he was a Noctaere echoes in her head. Ori turns around to face Diluc, hands instinctively coming up to curl against his chest as she finally lets go of that last bit of energy keeping her going and keeping her composed through everything. ]


I'm really worried about Eustace and Tifa... What we saw in there, Diluc— It wasn't right... But I...

[ But she couldn't help but feel like she could understand why he did it. ]
hearthwarming: (005)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-07 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ She doesn’t know what she needs. She wants the answer to the ever-lingering question of how to prevent someone from turning. She wants to make sure her friends are okay, especially the youngest two who were with them tonight. She wants to make sure this never happens again, not to anyone and especially not to anyone she’s come to care about.

She wishes Thoma was still here.

But she doesn’t know what she needs. She only knows that she doesn’t want to Diluc to let go of her. She burrows her face into his chest, welcoming the warmth of his embrace after a long harrowing while in the bitter cold of those icy caverns, and the lids of her eyes fall heavily in exhaustion as she tries to find some semblance of comfort.

Only that, as soon as she closes her eyes, as soon as she sees darkness, the nightmares come back. The large, hulking lupine form enshrouded in darkness that Eustace became. The sharp fangs that bit into her without regard for who she was, like he didn't even know her. The glow of his eyes as he emerged from a pool of black, saturated in shadow. His eerie smile, the sickening and twisted tone of his voice as he declared, Tifa... Just wait there. I'll get rid of them all and take you home soon.

The moment when, for just a flash, she saw Diluc in that waking nightmare in place of Eustace.

Her hands grasp almost desperately against her moonlight and - as close as he’s holding her, as troubled as she is by what she’d seen tonight - a sharp, searing pain lances through her side and she chokes out her words. ]


D-Diluc— it hurts—

[ Why the hell does it hurt? She’d cast her healing magic, even tried to use dreamotion, and yet—

She pulls away just enough to look down at her side. There’s nothing to indicate that she had been wounded there. Surely, there are rips and cuts on other parts of her attire, but the skin beneath each tear has since been healed over by her druidic magic. And yet there’s clearly something wrong. The panic is plain on Ori’s face as she watches dark, inky wisps of nightmare energy begin to seep out of the seams of her corset. It feels almost as if she's drowning and gasping for air while echoes ring through her mind.

You try, and try, and try to protect and to heal, but all you do is hurt. You take. You are a burden. And you let everyone down each and every time you try. ]


H—Help…
hearthwarming: (077)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-07 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[ A pang of guilt quickly winds its way around Ori’s heart as Diluc looks her over. She knows that he must be panicking, despite his apparent collectedness, and she’s so sorry for it.

And yet, the moment that she hears his words - I’ve got you - she’s unable to deny even the smallest bit of comfort that it brings. When she looks back at this moment later, whenever it is that she might finally rest, perhaps she will realize that this is what she needs: the reassurance that Diluc has her. That he is here, hale and whole, full of fire and warmth. He isn’t what she saw in the cave crawling out of the icy lake.

She closes her eyes and winces as he does away with her corset and lifts the fabric of her blouse to inspect the wound. This pain at her side has been eating away at her ever since the confrontation with Eustace began, and as she opens her eyes to look at where Diluc presses his hand against her, the realization hits. Bite marks.

Ori has neither the words nor the energy to explain how confounding (and honestly, terrifying) it is that an injury she received while she was in the form of another creature has persisted on her body proper - but Diluc, not a moment to soon, begins to draw the infection of lingering nightmare energy out.

Her hand finds his, clutching at it in anguish as she lets out a shaky breath to keep herself from screaming. Much like when she and Thoma had flushed the nightmare energy out of his wound with their light, it hurts. It hurts in a way that she has never experienced, even from all of her years as a mercenary then as an adventurer. She lifts her head to look up at Diluc, but—

You couldn’t even protect your friends today. You’re so weak. And you will never be strong enough to find them in the waking world.

— the nightmare energy she’s been exposed to is just too much. It was in every crevice of the caverns, in the bite of the cold air, every spark of lightning that coursed through. Her knees buckle as her other hand grabs onto the fabric of his shirt. ]


I— I can’t…
hearthwarming: (046)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-08 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ The sound of his voice in itself is a precious lifeline; it’s strong and steadfast just as he is, and it beckons her back into reality slowly but surely. She can’t hear his words so clearly through the pain, but he makes her want to hear, to listen, and that will surely help her find her way.

It gets just a bit easier once they’re kneeling and warmth continues to flood through her, seemingly melting away the lingering, nightmarish frost she’s been unwittingly carrying with her all night. Her hand loosens and lets go of his shirt and instead pulls his hand away from her cheek— but only so she can lace their fingers together. She needs to feel anchored to him. She needs every reminder that he’s not going to let her go. He’s not going to leave her in the cold.

When he next speaks, she can hear him more clearly, and as soon as his words reach her, she realizes what he’s doing. The voice in your head is lying to you - it doesn’t escape her, how his words echo those of their beloved and dearly missed sunshine.

”I don’t know where that nasty little voice in your head that tells you that you’re not worthy came from, but I’m here to tell it that it’s wrong. We both are.”

He had said it first when Ori confided her feelings in them, telling them both that she didn’t feel like she deserved to be with them. And he’d said it, too, in that dark alleyway as they narrowly brought Diluc back from the brink.

”I don’t know what that nasty voice in your head is telling you, but I’m here to tell it that it’s wrong. We both are.”

Somehow, she manages to laugh fondly at the realization, so softly to the point that it’s barely audible; tears begin to stream down her face, but they don’t seem to be tears borne out of sorrow. Diluc’s firebird nuzzles her, and she lets herself feel relief. The pain of the healing process persists necessarily, but because of Diluc, because of her moonlight… It’s alright. She knows it’s going to be alright.

Clarity floods into her eyes as she’s able to really look at him again, amber finding a bright, brilliant red, and his warmth finds its way to her chest as long last. Each and every thing he says is a healing word that stamps out the insidious voices of her nightmares and she can feel herself getting closer and closer to the surface until she can finally breathe again.

”The sun and stars need their moon. How else will we find our way through the dark?”

She had remembered those words in the depths of Eustace’s waking nightmare earlier, too, and of course she remembers them now as Diluc beautifully recounts Thoma’s words in his own way. She is so lucky, she thinks. Her sun and her moon are always saving and protecting her, even when one of them is no longer here. Just as she is his precious starlight, he is her beloved moonlight. And the while the moon may wax and wane, it is always there even in the darkness, staunch and resolute and unyielding. Right now, as she listens to him, as his words fill her heart to bursting and her eyes with more joyous, grateful tears, he shines for her in this dark, cold and harrowing night. And with his words, he promises her the dawn. She falls in love with him all the more for it. ]


I… I won’t. I won’t drown…

[ She knows that he would never let her. Her moon would pull the tides and her along with them. His voice breaks - almost imperceptibly so - and it's that which pulls her back to shore, bids her to let go of his hands so that she can reach up to pull his face towards hers, pressing their foreheads together. She is grateful for him, certainly, but she is also so proud of him, knowing that his strengths aren't typically in healing, and that he has been faced with doing this without Thoma here to be their sun.

The last of the nightmare energy begins to dissipate into the air like ashes. ]


You’re doing wonderfully, my moonlight. Thank you...
Edited (nO I DIDN'T LIKE IT x3) 2022-09-14 18:07 (UTC)
hearthwarming: (088)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-14 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He pulls her in, and she wraps her arms around him in turn, angling her head slightly so that she can press a soft, reverent kiss to the corner of his eye.

He’s so warm, she thinks, and after having spent so long in those icy wastes this evening… It’s just what she needs. It’s perfect. He’s perfect. Ori nuzzles his hair, drawing in a deep breath as she tightens her arms around him like she never wants to let go. ]


I… I fell unconscious at one point. When I came back to, I was still hearing voices, but… I heard your voice, too, Diluc. You were welcoming me home. So I knew…

[ She buries her face into his shoulder, her voice coming out small and muffled against his shirt. ]

I knew I had to come back to you… Because you’re my home.
hearthwarming: (051)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-15 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Oriphi hums, fingers curling and tightening around fabric on his back at his words. Even before Thoma’s birthday, before they saw the worst of each other in their nightmares, before even the mistletoe gumdrops forced them closer together… She has always been drawn to him. She hadn’t known, when amber first met scarlet in an innocuous meeting over tea, that their paths would be irrevocably entwined from that moment on, that he would change her life so wholly. After all, she was simply meeting Diluc. Not Diluc of Mondstadt, or Diluc Ragnvindr of Dawn Winery, or the Darknight Hero. Just Diluc, a man who likes his tea plain sometimes, but quite sweet other times. Who likes birds of prey. Who stays up late and wakes up early. Who fights and fights and fights to protect. Who wants nothing more than to bear the darkness so that others may live in the light.

Who, in spite of that, became her moonlight, guiding her through the dark of the night so that she could see dawn.

She can’t help but think of what she had seen of Eustace and Tifa tonight. Their pledge to one another - though twisted it became in the waking nightmare - to always keep each other safe. And of Eustace’s dream…

There’s no small part of her who, in that moment, wants to look into Diluc’s eyes and find that same devotion. She knows she would, with all of her heart, and she would give him the same. And she would make the same pledge. She’s sure of it, now more than ever. Then, when they find Thoma again somehow, someway, he would, too— ]


Diluc…?

[ —but her moonlight forges on. Her eyes widen and although they cannot see each other’s faces positioned as they are, her gaze falls on each and every single reminder of their life together here in this home as he speaks. Their boots by the door, the scarves Thoma had made them hanging on a rack. Plants everywhere, flowers that remind him of Mondstadt growing in pots and kept in vases everywhere. His books and paperwork and her journals of pressed flowers on the table. Of course he has been thinking about how to protect all of this, and even beyond that— how to chase this dream even once they’ve woken up from it. Thinking of that eventuality twists at her heart and she exhales a quivering breath as she nuzzles into his shoulder again. ]

…Me, too. No matter what. We’ll find each other.

[ Which is to say, she has very much been drowning in her own thoughts on the matter, albeit differently. She has no concrete intentions to find or fight gods. But she does intend to grow stronger, however she can, so that she can harness the kind of magical energy that she knows would make what they both want possible. But if they are to have any hope of succeeding… ]

We have to figure it out together, okay…? Please don’t run off on your own. If something were to happen to you like last time, or like what happened to Eustace tonight… I don’t know if I would be strong enough, moonlight. I don’t want to see you in that much pain…
hearthwarming: (093)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-15 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I…

[ She’s honestly not sure if she’ll be able to sleep tonight. But for Diluc’s sake… She’d like to try. ]

Okay. I suppose the potions can wait until tomorrow morning…

[ A distinguished little bark erupts beside the two then - the source of it being Cadoc, the oldest of Eustace and Tifa’s corgis who seems to have elected to stay in this home in the aftermath of it all. Though Ori hasn’t cast her animal-speaking spell and is too tired to at this point, something about the corgi’s demeanor suggests that he’s of the same mind as Diluc. ]

Hah. I think Cadoc agrees with you, moonlight. And, um... Will you help me up, please?
hearthwarming: (064)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-16 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Sorry, Vespera, wherever you are.

Ori isn't startled in the least when Diluc sweeps her off of her feet and carries her into their room; even if she had been, she's simply too tired to react properly. She nuzzles his neck and hums against him while he carries her. ]


I'm glad you're always so warm. It was really cold where we were...

[ Once they reach the threshold into the bedroom, Cadoc picks a spot somewhere in the corner to lay down, his hind legs outstretched across the floor. Ori quietly gestures for Diluc to set her back onto her feet, if only so she can take off the rest of the gear she still has on; it wouldn't do to fall asleep with light armor on when she doesn't have to. When it comes to getting dressed, though, she lazily reaches for the first garment she sees: one of Diluc's shirts. With that accomplished, she softly pads her way over to wherever he is and simply presses in close however she can. Her voice comes out small and sleepy, though still tinged with some worry. ]

Diluc...?
hearthwarming: (046)

[personal profile] hearthwarming 2022-09-16 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
I love you. I'm so lucky to have you.

[ Her arms wrap around him in turn as she maneuvers them onto their bed. As she lays beside him, her hand finds its way into long locks of red hair, soothing both him and herself with the way she gently combs her fingers through. ]

Will you talk to me until I'm too tired to keep talking and fall asleep? I'm... Scared. That if I close my eyes, I'll keep seeing those nightmares. So... Please...?