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archonsbane · 7 months

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moot. the tags. your tags on the fatui harbinger found family post. they got my brain working. i am having thoughts and i think you might enjoy them. SORRY FOR RANTING IN YOUR INBOX BUT THE THOUGHTS....... they cannot be contained in the idea prison that is my brain

I AM HEARING YOU OUT. SO SO HARD. they are not like the bubu pharmacy found family, they are not like any of the mondstadt found families, they aren't even anything like nahida + wanderer's found family even though wanderer WAS a part of the fatui harbingers' found family at one point. they are not like any of those people. they are so much worse. because the fatui harbingers are so inextricably bound to one another by sin and anarchy to the point where even if they downright despise one another, there is nothing to be done about it, because they are the ONLY people on teyvat who understand one another on that grossly and uncomfortably personal level...... and they all probably hate it, but they also know it is 100% true. because there is literally nowhere for them to go, even if they wanted to leave (scara is the odd outlier; he paved his own way out i think) because there is not a single sane person on teyvat that would welcome them with open arms the way the tsaritsa and the other harbingers do. the fatui harbingers are so inextricably linked with sin and chaos that they can no longer separate themselves from that, especially the ones that seem a little less sane than the others (dottore pantalone signora arlecchino etc).

i think there are varying levels of dependency among the harbingers, like.... childe and pulcinella. it's one-sided, i think. childe relies on him but he does not rely on childe. pantalone and dottore, who make each other worse every day 🫶 i was talking about this with another moot and we agreed that they perpetually make one another more vile and awful. i think they consistently feed into each other's vices. pantalone funding dottore's experiments and dottore entertaining pantalone's heretical and conspiracist tendencies. and then scara and dottore. maybe sandrone and scara at one point. maybe arlecchino and signora before she died (i feel like they were close 🙏 women supporting women yk 🙏🙏). columbina and dottore! capitano, columbina, AND dottore. capitano and childe. there are a lot of dynamics to be explored.

but anyway.... teehee. i do think they have a dynamic of dependency, just with varying degrees depending on what pair you look at. the dependency can be discarded in some cases. i think childe could get over pulcinella if necessary. but in other cases, the harbingers are SO deeply intertwined that the dependency just cannot be dropped so easily.

tldr they are a genuinely dysfunctional found family in the most honest sense of the word 🙏🙏🙏 they destroy one another and they are all aware of that. and they may or may not be fine with that fact, depending on which harbinger you asked.

would they kill for each other? maybe. maybe not. would they die for each other? no LMFAO probably not, but they definitely have a twisted, messed up kind of affection for one another.

they know how to irritate one another. they know how to calm each other down. they know each other uncomfortably well and they cannot do anything about it 🫶🫶🫶

MOOT YOU'RE SO REAL FOR THIS. YOU GET IT. THEY'RE SO HORRIBLE WITH AND FOR EACH OTHER. THEY'RE DOING THEIR MESSY, CRUEL, AND (periodically) VIOLENT BEST. also oh my god no your thoughts are always welcome! i was actually delighted when i saw this HAHSHSHSH

also you're so absolutely correct on their dynamics. contrary to all the fanart i think childe and pulcinella have a sort of from-an-arm's-length relationship; it's implied that pulcinella is probably just showing affection to childe's family as a way to threaten/control him and childe — bless his heart — thinks he "seems genuine". keyword: seems. so while childe does display some level of trust he also doesn't completely take the plunge, y'know? i like to think that pulcinella is simultaneously looking out for childe but also trying to keep him on a leash. he is genuinely fond of childe but he also views him as the tsaritsa's attack dog. so yeah childe is kind of like. a pet LMFAO a really dangerous, potentially harmful pet that pulcinella can't help but be fond of but also knows that he has to keep him under snezhnaya's control.

you and the other moot are so correct on dottolone. i ADORE dottolone it's genuinely my favorite ship in genshin (notice how even in my x reader fic i couldn't help but include them LOL). toxic old men yaoi ftw. they're so fucking awful for one another and they do make each other worse but neither of them mind it. it is actively encouraged. with them it's a very twisted kind of love — the kind that consumes and devours until there's nothing left. the kind of love that requires you to give up all of you because there's no telling where one begins and the other ends. these bitches are married and thrice-divorced. they are on their way to another. they will become exes-with-benefits and then get married again.

also on the topic of dottore and scara. i'm not a big dottoscara person but i do admit that their relationship's got a little kick to it. not necessarily romantic but insanely co-dependent. both being rejects/outcasts?? longing for acceptance?? the amount of insane projecting?? tatarasuna in its entirety?? the give-and-take relationship during their time in the fatui?? what the hell was going on with them. ALSO 'you're still too naive if you think a few words will be enough to convince me to destroy the doctor' still boggles my mind. dottore was threatening haypasia, scara's first follower, someone scara shows a lot of possessiveness over (not to mention scara is already very antagonistic towards dottore even without knowing the truth. there is no love lost between them) and THAT'S his response??? bro.

i like to think there was a weird friendship between sandrone and scara. wanderer doesn't like her based on his voicelines but if he were forced to pick any harbinger to talk to it'd be her. still doesn't like her tho lol. i also hc arle and signora to be close! esp with how defensive arle was during her funeral. columbina and dottore are sadistic partners-in-crime. i'm not very big on dottobina but i do like them as a queerplatonic relationship. the top three (capitano, dottore, columbina) for me are like those kids in the honors class who've literally been stuck together repeatedly for years atp so there's a kind of strange camaraderie between them. they sit together at lunch. they (dottore and bina, i don't think capitano would) complain about how hard their jobs are but are the most efficient at it. i also think all of them are hundreds, perhaps even more, of years old (proud follower of biblically accurate angel columbina and abyssal monster capitano headcanons) so they've been stuck together for centuries. childe having a big fat crush on capitano is really funny and i love it. to add: pantalone going on tangents around childe like a particularly annoying uncle and childe just having to nod along is hilarious. i think there's a lot more to them than we know of? aside from that, childe is also heading debt collection which is adjacent to pantalone being in charge of snezhnaya's finances so. hm. the fatui women are all friends and have sunday brunch. i like chiscara too i think it's funny esp when psychological warfare and violence is used as flirting. arlebina is okay i don't really ship columbina w anyone bc she gives off aroace vibes. not even that really it's just that she's like a primordial being beyond things like romance AHDJEJDJWKA. pantalone and signora are two-faced friends who talk about each other behind their backs and (since they were married in the commedia) probably were fwbs at some point in time. scara showing the most miniscule concern for signora and warning her to not get herself killed was really interesting to me — and also how she so casually insulted him? hmm.

ALSO. GOD. they know each other's real names and each other's backgrounds. they are the only ones who do. i think it's fascinating that they canonically hit each other with the most brutal insults ("you're only number 6 because you can take more abuse than other humans" was so out of pocket like. SIGNORA. GIRL) and it's all brushed off without a care. i think in a way it's a comfort — what judgement could there possibly be from those exactly like them?

anyways. the fatui harbingers are a grotesque, co-dependent, and very toxic little found family and i adore them in their entirety. lord god i want to write a fic about them now 😭 i still have a bio midterm....

#— moots.#— rambles.#fatui harbingers

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