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0v3rcast · 7 days

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Tidal Waves (2)

[Swimming with sharks.]

(Warnings: canon-typical violence, gore(?), graphic descriptions of the above, a character you like might die, religious themes, I'll probably look for more warnings after I finish writing)

Awareness and senses return sluggishly to you in waves.

First: hearing. The gentle hiss of meat on a pan and the crackle of fire. Waves are crashing into the beach. The calls of gulls. Low talk, one voice lower, the other higher - the language is beyond you at this state of wakefulness.

Secondly: touch. Cold, ever so vaguely damp stone beneath your left hand. Coarse but warm fabric across your shoulders, legs, and torso. A cool hand in your right, the tops of the fingers scaly.

The third you regain: sight, if limited. The world is soft and blurry, vague definitions instead of clear understanding. Blobs of color sit near you, orange light shining into your eyes. You murmur in discontentment at this bright bullshit. It's too early for this. Or you're too tired. You don't know what time it is, and this shit sucks.

Number four: smell. You're assaulted by the pleasant aroma of cooking fish, some kind of baked gluten beast, and... soup? You think that's soup. Behind those scents, the scent of smoke and the scent of the beach. Your stomach piteously mewls with hunger.

Fifth: taste. Your mouth tastes like mouth. It's awful. Must have had it open overnight. There's fucking sand in it, too. You spit that out as you groggily pull yourself into a sitting position.

A large, warm hand comes to rest on your back as the gentleman from last night gives you a grateful smile, eyes bright and fond. "Hello again, my maker." Osial rumbles, voice deep and smooth. Somehow, just hearing it makes you feel safe.

"Did you rest well?" He asks, prompting a murmur of assent from you, and that makes him smile wider, revealing fangs. "Wonderful."

"You certainly looked comfy between us when I woke~" a soothing, regal female voice teases from near the fire, where the woman who was embracing you is seated, tending to slices of meat and several fish on sticks, a flat slab of stone over the flames the resting place of small flatbread discs. "All cuddled up to my lovely king."

"My moon! Show a little class," Osial says, cheeks reddening. "I'm very sorry about Beisht, my maker. She likes to tease people and get reactions."

The look on Beisht's face - a grin that's more than little lustful as she practically undresses her husband with hungry eyes at that comment - says that conversations aren't the only place that's she's a tease to get reactions.

You get the feeling Osial's imprisonment at the bottom of the sea was far less of a burden on his sanity than his wife's shenanigans, but the smitten look on both their faces heavily implies they wouldn't have it any other way.

---TIDAL---

Osial is holding your hands as he slowly steps out onto the surface of the ocean, the water solid beneath his feet as though it was ground.

"Come now, my maker. You can do it. Just imagine the water beneath your feet to be more like thick glass. This is very simple. And if it doesn't work, that's okay. It's your first time doing this, and everything takes practice," he says, giving you an encouraging smile, slowly stepping back once more.

You very nervously follow his lead, feet bare - lest you ruin your socks and shoes with saltwater - and flinch at first when your sole touches the ocean.

To your confusion, it holds. Your foot doesn't just sink straight into the sea. It doesn't feel like water, too, and much more like a waterbed, which gives you the most bizarre mental disconnect. It's so wobbly!

"Very good! Just a little more for now, and then we can go back in for lunch." He encourages.

...lunch does sound nice. Beisht is a deceptively good cook for someone who wholeheartedly admits her preference to eating things raw, and Osial is no slouch himself. The two of them usually take turns cooking, but they enjoy the domesticity of making it a team effort.

(You've even helped once or twice, and though you're not as experienced in the craft as the duo of literally immortal magic hydras, they compliment your efforts all the same.)

You take your next step. And another. Osial beams at you, slowly moving away, and lets you take more wobbly steps, arms out to stabilize yourself.

With each step, the waterbed feeling becomes fainter and fainter, water taking on the traits of ground as you acclimate.

"That's how you do it! You're doing wonderfully, just a little more!" He encourages further. "Try and run."

You trust him, but it takes a bit to gather your courage all the same. Hesitant steps become confident, and you break into a sprint. He cheers, arms up, and you think you can hear Beisht applauding your progress from the mouth of the seaside cave as you run in circles.

The sun shines brightly overhead, letting you look down into the sea, where you can see brilliantly colored fish swirl in a ring around you.

In a fit of childlike wonder, you drop to your knees and reach down into the waves, dipping one hand into the ocean, letting fish rub against your fingertips.

A shark's rough skin. The almost-sliminess of fish scales. The odd, blobby ponderousness of a jellyfish, and none of the sting. The firm, ever so faintly wet suction of an octopus' tentacles against your arm.

There's a genuine smile on your face as dangerous predatory fish accept being treated like dogs and cats, letting you run your hands over their backs and pet their fins.

(You don't notice Osial sneak back towards the mouth of the cave, where his beloved waits for him. They have lost time to make up for, and you're caught up with this moment of genuine enjoyment - he'd feel terribly guilty to interrupt it.)

---WAVES---

You return to the cave around sunset, having lost track of time petting and inspecting the various marine life, including a whale. How cool is that?! You got to pet a whale, and not in the fucked up SeaWorld-type way!

You even got a pet! There's a little water bubble floating over your shoulder with a teensy shark inside, though it doesn't quite match any you know of from Earth. You don't know how you did it, but you wanted to keep one of them with you at all times, and then bam. Mini-shark in a magical water orb.

Osial and Beisht are cuddling. His hair is down, and his entire everything is kind of messy, too. Her clothes are just the teensiest bit disheveled, but otherwise, she looks as timelessly gorgeous and well-maintained as ever.

You get the feeling you shouldn't bring the way you've just found them up, and thusly don't bring it up at all, opting instead to share some fish on sticks with the tiny shark while your hosts rest.

---TIDALWAVES---

With the ability to walk on water under your metaphorical belt, the friendly natural disasters that have been feeding you are now suggesting they move further away from the mainland, revealing to you that they've laid claim to an island chain in the vast space between Liyue and Inazuma, which they'd like you to come to as their guest.

You don't particularly have anywhere else to go, so you accept the offer graciously and let them lead the way.

The pair take on more aquatic forms, not quite hydras and more akin to a singular head-turned-eel.

You're given the chance to ride on Beisht's head as though she is some kind of very cool fantasy game mount as the two of them playfully race, and holy fuck are they fast, a current left in their wake that you think might have just launched several fish into the sky.

All you can do is hold on tight.

Behind you, sea life begins to move. Following you.

--TDL WVS--

In two hours, they've taken you possibly hundreds of miles from the mainland. You arrive at an island, which can see most of from the back of your hostess, who stops and raises up to allow you a better look.

Sparse puffs of grass, wonky palm trees, a few rocks, and a well-built but small home made from what must have been most of the island's resources.

It's nice, actually. Compared to the constant danger that could be lurking behind every corner in the world at large, this tiny place you can see most of at ground level is a breath of fresh air.

Beisht lowers her head, letting you hop down onto the surface of the sea and walk up the rather rocky beach.

Where you step, the beach becomes finer. Softer. Coarse grains and little pebbles become powdery sand, easy to walk on instead of gritty and pokey beneath your feet.

As you pass a large rock, it falls into more sand, and the seemingly random occurrence starts to spread like tendrils, devouring the beaches surrounding the island's soil and leaving behind much softer, more pleasant material.

As you come up from the beach to the more rich earth in the center, life blooms all around you in swirls. Lush grass springs up in a wave, short and somehow immaculate.

Gnarled tree stumps and lightning-warped remnants creak and groan as they're revived, sturdy trunks exploding upwards and branching out into dense shade-giving canopies, their roots biting deep into the dirt and spreading, linking into each other, fusing, anchoring the soil.

Stones tear free of the earth, making a dense pit that swiftly fills with pure, fresh water, a waterfall feeding it from somewhere within.

All around the island for miles, jagged fingers of rock tear out of the seabed, hiding just beneath the water, maliciously lying in wait to split the bellies of the ships unwanted visitors bring and cast the helpless souls into the waves.

Around the shipgutting rocks, the crueler sealife that followed you lurk. Predatory, venomous, poisonous. Sucker-studded tentacles with bonecracking grip. The low hum of voltage in Electro-charged monsters. Vicious beaks to punch through skin and scales. Maws of nightmarish fangs, unblinking eyes, and a taste for the flesh of man and beast alike.

Dark tunnels burrow down into undersea caves where forgotten monsters rest.

Coral erupts into bloom in the northwest, followed rapidly by sponges and a plethora of underwater plants, giving your new sanctuary a large area of color and vibrant sea life. It's as though someone took their paintbrush and swept it across the seafloor, leaving brilliant streaks of color. Many of the other aquatic beings who followed you here take this place as their home.

Tidepools yawn open at the eastern side, a microcosmic battleground where unfamiliar creatures grow strong in combat against their kin and other bizarre species, evolving, adapting, before braving the darkness around the rocks, hiding beneath the waves, a merciless tide of hungry eyes and ravenous mouths ready to protect you with everything they are and everything they will ever be.

You feel... cold. Tired. As though you've been sapped. The exhaustion mounts further as your powers continue to work subconsciously.

The island itself expands outwards in a paradoxical way, the inside becoming larger and the outside following suit without disturbing the wildlife whatsoever.

Dendro energy brings more trees up, grows grass, and makes bushes ripe with berries. Geo-influenced soil vanishes from other parts of the world, appearing here to add to the landmass.

Your exhaustion turns to pain as you're drawn from further, and you try to cry out. All that comes free of your throat is a small whimper.

Your vision blurs.

The world spins around you.

Before you collapse, you can see Osial sprinting towards you, a look of worry on his face and fear in his eyes.

He catches you in his arms as the world fades to black.

--IA AE--

The strain of your abilities forces you into magical dormancy.

For two weeks, you know nothing but faint flickers of hallucinatory dreams and the flow of energy in your body.

With you asleep, your powers - and the subconscious you - have far more energy to work with.

A simple hut becomes an expansive palace as an island becomes a continent of its own, the world's geography warping to make space for divine creation, new plants and animals borne to fill the ecosystem, all of them bent and built to serve you.

Teyvat uses this time to punish your betrayers in exquisite fashion.

As tectonic plates shift and rearrange, mass earthquakes rip across Liyue. Geovishaps who once slept beneath the earth are awoken in blind rages by the constant vibrations and noise.

Azhdaha himself goes free of his ancient prison to rampage.

Tidal waves tear into Inazuma, smashing ships to splinters and flattening homes. Thunderblight creeps across the land, beelining for nearby cities and rest stops for travelers, sickening and killing the unprepared.

An endless rain falls on Fontaine, causing floods and mudslides that carry hundreds to their deaths in unforgiving waters or crush the breath from their lungs.

Howling winds whip into tornadoes that bombard Mondstadt, tearing trees from the earth and hurling them into the walls as if to besiege the city.

Withering zones spread across Sumeru like a plague, devouring more and more plant life. Sandstorms scream across the desert regions at speed enough to peel skin from flesh if it goes uncovered for too long.

Natlan's heat becomes unbearable, the sun shining mercilessly down upon its inhabitants and trying to bake them in their own clothes. Attempts to beat the heat by going for a swim only ends in maulings by the wildlife.

Snezhnaya knows cold so bitingly bitter that people who go out in the snow without a Pyro or Cryo Vision can be found frozen solid in mere hours. It's literally safer to go outside after setting themselves ablaze.

Animals, even trained, become violent, drawing blood or seeking to break bones for even the slightest provocation.

Crops cease to grow entirely or start to rot on the vine.

Medicinal plants that once were safe to eat now carry potent emetic and diarrheal properties.

Stored salves dry to powder overnight, and poultices are found infested with bugs.

Water teems with bacteria and parasites that will not kill, but instead cause much suffering before safely passing out of the body.

Hilichurl camps explode with never-before-seen numbers, their swelling ranks stronger than ever before.

An ancient factory of Ruin Guards rumbles to life, conveniently empowered by a previously-defunct crystal containing massive amounts of energy. Constructs fresh from the assembly lines walk the lands, searching for foes.

For two weeks, Teyvat is hell for humanity, and it revels in their pain.

Some worlds want to watch men burn.

And oh, how they burn.

Teyvat plans to roast marshmallows amongst their remains.

(Guess they got their apocalypse out of you after all.)

---TIDLWAVS---

The one who wears your face is running ragged these days.

Teyvat decided to shit the bed and metaphorically blow apart half of the planet in what they must assume is a temper tantrum of literally apocalyptic proportions.

They curl their lip up in a snarl. Ever since you came back, everything's been going to the fucking dogs. Monsters everywhere, crop yields down, and now this horseshit.

Worst of all? Their favorite places seem to be under attack.

Coffee place they liked in Fontaine? Whoops, it looks like the foundations were too weak, and the entire building slid into the nearest body of water, destroying the place completely, the owner eaten by turtles.

Favorite restaurant? Went up in flames, thanks to a freak lightning bolt that also coincidentally blew the head off of the owner.

So much as professed a previous like to something as inconsequential as a fucking food cart? The bitch who owned it is dead with three-foot icicles in her back, now the world's most frozen pincushion.

Everyone keeps showing up and whining and pissing and shitting about needing their divine miracles, and they grant what they can with the powers they've stolen over the years, but there's always another mewling wretch who needs their boo-boos kissed.

Being a God was supposed to be a break from all the work. Was supposed to be a chance to sit back, relax, and be pampered by a bunch of brainless slugs who wouldn't know a real God from a fake one.

Or that's at least what Celestia promised.

Hopefully, this nonsense ends soon. If another parent cradling a dead child comes in wailing like a banshee, they might just smite the fucker and reunite them with their kid the opposite way.

---A E---

You wake again, warm and comfy, surrounded by thick, fluffy blankets, the sound of the sea distant but no less soothing. A cool, gentle breeze brushes past your face through the open window.

You slowly sit up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes before letting out a jaw-popping yawn as you stretch out your arms.

Sunset, huh? You feel pretty good for someone who got a handful of hours as a nap.

This place is nice. Osial and Beisht must be fast builders to do all this in hours, not to mention crazy good at architecture.

A dresser full of changes of clothes stands next to the bed. You find quite a few of your favorite pieces of clothing, slipping them on with a little bit of a struggle (still being half-asleep does a number on your hand-eye coordination), and going out of your room to check it out.

The expansive hallways are odd to you. Stained glass windows depicting various legendary moments of Teyvat's past, including your creation of existence.

It's all sorts of fucked to think of yourself in such a way. Back home, religion was something people took comfort in, having hope in... or perhaps having an acceptable outlet for their grief through blame. Everyone was equally powerless compared to a god, and now?

Now you're that all-powerful being. Making the world change as you please. Adjusting the fabric of creation as though you were still playing a video game.

...can you still play Genshin here? You don't really have a phone. Or, well, any electronics for that matter.

You'll test that later. For now, the rest of this place needs exploring.

---a filthy world, unfit for your grace.---

Your exploration yields rewards! A fully stocked kitchen - complete with modern-age amenities - awaits you. An electric tea kettle beeps as you walk by, apparently having been ready to take from its heating element and put to use.

"Oh! My maker, good afternoon. Or, I suppose it is evening now, mm... did you have a good rest?" Beisht says, offering you a demure smile, her tail wagging twice in anticipation.

You agree. It was a good rest for the relatively few hours.

She grins(?). Or is it a baring of teeth? You can't tell either way. It's... mildly unsettling. Her entire expression screams 'I know things you don't and will lord that over you because it makes me happy'.

"Two weeks is really so little rest for you? I suppose that explains your absence from Teyvat, wǔ miàn shén." She teases.

Wait, what? Two weeks?!

She giggles at your flabbergasted expression. "Mhm. You slept through the changes you made to our home. Thank you for the renovations, by the way. I'd always wanted a palace, but neither I nor my star had any desire to put in the work for that. Guess good things do come to those who wait."

You sort of blink, confused. What is she talking about?

She blinks, smile dipping slightly as she realizes. "Oh. Right. You have no clue. Come on, I'll give you a tour."

You follow her out of the palace - which you still can't believe you made in your sleep, holy fuck - and out into the reforged island-country.

---wash it all away in a tidal wave.---

This place is gorgeous. Plants glow in the approaching night, bioluminescent and pleasantly scented. Animals eagerly allow your hands to run over their fur, scales, or skin, seeming to delight in your touch.

Speaking of the animals, all of them are so unique. There are little pangolin-dragons hunting squirrel-doves. Owls seemingly made from soul and circuitry swoop down and rip the electro crystals from geode-covered mice. Strange packs of fluffy, predatory mothcats wear down equally alien deer and slurp the blood from the cooling body of their prey with strawlike noodle-tongues they unroll from somewhere within their mouths.

The tidepools squirm and squelch with adorably ugly little freaks of nature locked in endless war, breeding and dying, consuming and being consumed, the choicest traits passed onto the victor. Centuries of bloody evolution are done in mere minutes with the aid of Darwinian slaughter, making an ever more deadly army of protectors for you.

Things you'd see in an analog horror depiction of Spore. Lovely pint-sized abominations straight out of science fiction books. Sweet, miniscule nightmares who trill and coo when you pet them - all vanish into the dark sea, lurking in lightless depths.

The coral reefs bloom with bright colors, bioluminescent neons crammed into pods attached to eerily motionless stalks of seaweed. Schools of fish swim by in glittering motion, their scales catching the dying light.

It's beautiful. You find yourself entranced, staring out at your creations with wonder. That you could make this in your sleep is fascinating and startling all at once - what could you do if you had mastery over these abilities in the waking world?

With renewed excitement, you continue the tour.

Ooh, is that flower your favorite color? How'd you manage to make the petals perfect triangles like that?

--- let the riptide tear them out of safe waters and drown them.---

The tour only ends up taking about three hours due to the teleport waypoints that have invited themselves to the expanded mass of land.

You've gotta give credit to yourself, you do good work when asleep! This place is great!

Osial joined the little expedition about an hour in and has since walked along with you two, his fingers laced with those of his better half as they adorably hold hands. You may fawn over them about it, making him blush and Beisht preen at the compliments.

On the distant horizon, several haphazard rafts with tattered sails drift towards your newfound place of rest.

--- let the seas boil! cast the traitors in and savor their pain!---

The arriving fleet of poorly constructed rafts is a cause for alarm at first, given their sudden appearance and number, but your fears are swiftly abandoned when you see the occupants.

A veritable armada of 'churls! Hilichurls, Lawachurls of all elemental variety, Mitachurls and Samachurls as well, all having crossed the sea well before any other humans could find this place.

You like them, given their kindness to you in the past, and are more than happy to welcome them to their new home and their place as your people.

Your presence seems to heal them or be changing them, you think. They look happier. Healthier. At the front of their congregation is the Unusual Hilichurl themselves, who decides to come up and excitedly shake your hand as they say something you can't quite parse.

Ah. Huh. Their rafts are made out of the huts you've seen them living in. They brought their own homes with them. That's handy.

Throughout the night, you spend time with the Hilichurls, watching and occasionally lending a hand with their construction.

You think this is what coming to Teyvat was supposed to be like - watching your creations flourish. Walking amongst them. Knowing them as they come to know you.

Being celebrated, not loathed. Loved. And loving in return.

Not being hunted and butchered like prey. Not being tormented, slaughtered, maimed. Not some plaything to break.

(The tiny bud of hate that grew in your chest as you were hunted has grown roots, now that you've seen what was supposed to be yours. It blooms, nourished with the awful realization of what you meant to the characters you'd grown to love so dearly.

You meant nothing to them if they could see someone with the face of their god and choose to draw a weapon. You were an object of convenience, just something useful to relieve stress by way of bloodshed.

No more.)

They had their chance and ruined it. You'll make your own happiness here instead.

And maybe, just maybe, one day, they'll come crawling back, dependent on your mercy.

Perhaps you'll show them some.

Perhaps you won't.

You don't care.

(Teyvat hears you. And it agrees with your judgement.)

<Burn. Drown. Strangle. Fry. Crush. Freeze. Shred. That is the fate all heretics deserve.>

[LET THEM BE LOST IN THE ENDLESS NIGHT. THE ABYSS HAS SUCH DELIGHTS TO SHOW THEM.]

---{let the light of the heavens burn all teyvat to cinders. the failure of a sustainer first of all.}---

The light of the sun sharpens over Mondstadt, over the first place that you died. Soil is replaced by unbreakable stone carved into perfect slabs.

A beam of pure energy screams down from above, slamming the Sustainer into the earth with such violent hatred that her bones snap and flesh is rent.

Shards of off-white skeleton pierce the flesh of her legs and arms like thorns on a stem, her blood bubbling from the gashes and punctures.

She gasps and gags around a broken jaw, coughing up blood as it floods into her lungs in the wake of broken ribs.

Her burned, split gut oozes intestines, ruptured stomach's acids already viciously attacking the surrounding tissue.

She can't remember the last time she ever felt so... powerless.

So... weak.

...so human.

Black creeps at the edges of her vision. She gazes up at the sun, one final time, and murmurs a question.

"Why?"

{failure. die. betrayer.} it hums back, beginning to sear holes into her vision.

Another beam of light comes down. A mistake is burned away, not even a soul left.

--- an endless kingdom comes tumbling down ---

Your imposter's body flickers as the glamour that once gave them your visage fades away, leaving them as they truly are. They can't quite tell that yet.

They do notice the totally deafening silence in the room. The looks of confusion on the faces of their minions. The dawning horror as dried crimson on ritual weapons specifically used to kill their impostor becomes flecks of brilliant gold.

"Did I tell you to stop?" They snap at the closest servant, who has dropped a bowl of fruit. The servant doesn't respond, eyes the size of dinner plates.

They realize the sudden strangeness of their voice.

They haven't heard that in... centuries, at the least. Whose voice is that? It wasn't theirs. They're still the Creator.

The doors slam open, and they look up to see several livid Allogenes, each carrying a blade flecked with the same gold.

"Well, fuck me." they hiss. It appears their vacation is over.

They stand, reaching for their powers, ready to empty the room of life... and find nothing.

Shock fades into dread.

The floor is quickly spattered with a very mortal, very human red.

--- may the waters recede and reveal truth in the wreckage. ---

You take a seat on the throne your Hilichurl followers have so lovingly crafted for you. Is it comfy? Not really.

Fancy? No.

But you think that would defeat the point of their efforts.

They've given you the choicest bits of what they brought with them - little trinkets, broken masks, bloodied arrowheads, rusted blades, and handfuls of old coins. Not the best the world has to offer, the best they can offer. That makes it so much more valuable.

The faith that feeds gods isn't in grand displays and luxury. It's in the quiet, simple, and unshaking belief that beats in their chests like a heart.

Perhaps, during your new reign, you will make mistakes. Things that shake their faith. People will become upset with you, as they do. But you can't help the feeling that, as long as you try your best and show your own faith in them, it will all work out in the end.

...But I suppose that's a story for another teller, mm?

#sagau cult au #sagau tidal wave #reader is given comfy #look out LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE #TIME TO DIE #mdni

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