[ you only have one eye stop this. all of aquila's favorites currently only have one eye. what's up with that.
anyway. they let kaeya poke and prod as they like. clearly, aquila liked this shiny little trinket, so.
they tilt their head back a bit - there's just a wisp of their neck showing, light and pale, but it's gone as they return to look at kaeya. ]
Hmm. I think I've got a good one for you. Tell you a story about a performance I saw, once. Was watching it from the air - way, way up high, on an airship. It was the biggest, newest thing brought around for an end of the year celebration in this building with sets of platforms and a stage.
The lower viewing areas were for the common man. The higher up you got, the richer you were, more often than not - and on the stage at ground level, a man from another country was doing tricks with a trained tiger. It was impressive! Really impressive. But, when I was watching, I noticed something was all fucked.
[ they sound dramatic, there, clearly enjoying their storytelling a little. ]
The tiger was getting agitated, and I saw this flash of movement from one of the upper decks - and someone threw a bunch of gold coins down on the stage. 's not uncommon to throw gold leaf down for people to collect, especially performers, but coins are heavy, and they fell from a great height. It was enough to get the tiger into a frenzy - it broke free of its hold and attacked its handler. Blood, everywhere.
[ they gesture with their hand. the drama. ] Not only that, but a tiger, breaking free in the middle of an incredibly crowded event - the entire place broke into chaos. The poorer people along the ground couldn't tell anything was immediately wrong, because the crowd hid it. Instead, they started to go crazy with the gold that practically rained from the sky, trying to collect it. The richer folks, watching - they all began to scream and tried to escape. The tiger leapt into the crowd, bloodthirsty and to maim everyone in its sight.
I'd been drinking like a fish, up to this point, but I could've forgotten immediately in all the chaos. As soon as I saw what was happening, I left my post, and I picked up a bow. I nocked an arrow.
[ they mime doing so, around kaeya in their lap, like they're aiming over his shoulder. the storytelling slows for dramatic affect, like he's aiming. ] And from a thousand yards away, I saw it leap on a man in the crowd. So I took a breath, and I shot -
[ they mime releasing an arrow. ] And hit it. Right between the ears. Knocked it off the man it was attacking and left him unharmed.
i mean what. the story. right. kaeya does seem rather rapt with the story itself, a smile spreading over his lips. he takes a drink once during it and settles in further until he becomes apart of it as aquila draws their invisible arrow back. he laughs just a little bit as the story climaxes, and then—
he turns his head. there feels like an empty space, like there ought to be more. he looks aquila directly in the veil, as if searching for eyes. ]
... Then what?
[ his hand curls around the fabric of their uniform. more more. ]
[ you could almost imagine the sound of an arrow whistling by, huh. similarly - if kaeya really, really looks, everything is so, so shadows, but there's the faint glint of something that might be some kind of lens, that reflects back.
they seem to greatly enjoy telling this story, leaning forward a bit. ]
That wasn't all. Tiger was agitated, sure. Could've attacked, sure. But there was somethin' off about it - surely, it wouldn't have gone off if the coins didn't trigger it, right? I realized what was happening, so I turned a quarter inch from my spot on the bow. I nocked another arrow. I fired.
[ miming the same motions. turning a bit. loading the arrow. sending it flying in perfect posture. there's a brief pause, for drama. ] My arrow was sharp and true. A man wearing a hat had stood up on one of the middle decks, and I shot as he did so. I didn't hit him - rather, I aimed for his hat, so it was pinned into a pole on the pavilion behind him, right off the top of his head. He froze on the spot, stunned, and my - a buncha the guys I worked with came down and arrested him.
Turned out he was a terrorist. Plotting to harm people on purpose. Threw all the coins down to cause the riot, and now his ass's rotting in jail.
[ he's a sucker for a good story, mondstadt home to bards of all kinds, well-traveled, learning from their compatriots who sing and tell stories in tea houses in liyue. as the second arrow flies, kaeya leans back a bit, almost so he and aquila are now cheek to cheek as he listens. he glances towards the faint glimmering of a lens beneath the veil, then back towards the sun kissing the water on the horizon, the gloved hands that had drawn his arrows, struck them true.
kaeya lets out a low whistle, taking a swig from the bottle and humming. ]
All's well that ends well then... that's quite the heroic escapade... and on an airship no less... All from a thousand yards away. Nothing to sneeze at.
[ his arm slings behind their neck with ease, laughing. "my — a buncha the guys i worked with" he hums. ]
You're an impressive person, Aquila... I'll tell you a truth, to work with you so closely is such a delight. I'm sure your coworkers were rather delighted at your quick find... managing to save all of those people with but two arrows. I do hope you were suitably rewarded for your deeds.
[ this is patently not.... untrue... if a little ambiguous towards what it's referring to. aquila doesn't bother to explain - why would they? a face behind a veil lends itself to a wonderful amount of enigma, something they already seem to enjoy.
they let kaeya settle with his arm behind their neck, lifting their head a bit to make the space; their other one comes to rest on his lower back, steadying. ]
It's not really about the reward, sometimes. [ a little shrug under his arm; there's some twinkling mischief in their tone, a bird preening that their feathers have been stroked. ] Saved a lot of lives, like you said. The information the fuck spit up was a reward, too.
[ which he figures, kaeya might understand better than anyone else. ] I've always had decent coworkers. Well. Mostly. You're not so bad.
[ there's an expression that briefly flickers in his eye before it disappears. ]
Worth it all in the end, tigers, arrows, and eagles... and some pathetic guy with just the right information.
[ he does laugh a little at that. ]
Not so bad, am I? I hope any future coworkers can follow my impeccable example. Falling through holes in the floor and all. Though I don't know, do you put your fingers in the mouths of all your co-workers?
[ he chuckles, nosing into their cheek (face) through the veil, his eye closed. he doesn't move his hands, lets them stay where they are, accounted for and resting on aquila's chest and shoulder. ]
[ oh don't you start with that. aquila's face isn't visible, but kaeya can likely still hear his disapproval, and he pinches whatever body part is the closest. ] What you're thinking is a non sequitur.
[ he will pitch you into this ocean.
however, he will also gracefully take the subject change when it comes, letting kaeya nose up against his cheek, though - aquila freezes up a bit, and his hand comes up to tug on the veil, keeping it very firmly in place. affection week or otherwise. ]
... [ "do you put your fingers in the mouths of all your coworkers" though
makes him make a face that kaeya can probably feel at that distance like :nyeh: ]
[ all of him is close but it's all cursed regardless of where you pinch unless it's his arm or something. when he does get pinched, he squirms, clutching the bottle and laughing a bit. he perceives cat-no-banana face, though, and that is worth that pinch, okay.
he has no intentions of getting under the veil today. that'd be tacky, asking after it a third time and so soon. he's content with it there in fact, he's already attached enough, he doesn't need to be swayed any further. ]
So there's one in particular you can't stand? Is that what I'm picking up? [ he's behaving, a small smile on his lips as he finally offers the bottle back to them. more stories more. ]
[ wait until you see that aquila's hideous under there. no im kidding
they seem deeply pleased when he squirms like that, though, admittedly, kaeya is currently in his lap and he is just one bird. the hand on his back is steadying, making sure neither of them fall over, at least.
as for their coworkers... aquila takes the bottle, and gently boops him on the nose with it. ] Gossip. [ wow. ] Feels like that's too intimate, doesn't it?
[ wow a nose boop, he nudges the bottle away with the back of his hand playfully. ]
Does it?
[ he chuckles. ]
There's a reason you surround yourself with the people of your choosing... I'm curious. Maybe that's a bit intimate, but... I do like getting to know you more.
[ it's two fingers, skin to skin, slid into his glove to rest in the cool crook of aquila's palm. ]
Nothing untoward. I promise.
[ kaeya's own skin is not cold, not without his vision in any case. by contrast, he's warm, and gently bringing their heads together with a soft 'thunk', hat and all. ]
[ he mutters. please. he's still tense - allowing those fingers, but keeping their hand down, angled away from his line of sight.
... but, allows kaeya to bump their foreheads together if he'd like. the fabric of the veil is soft and gauzy, at least, and he can feel aquila inhale and then exhale through their nose. ]
[ kaeya is literally the "i do not see" meme, his eye isn't even open. he stays this way for a few moments. his own breathing is steady, soft, and his fingers twitch only once or twice, involuntary as he murmurs. ]
[ they don't say anything in response to that - just inhale a little when kaeya does that, and up close, he might hear a tiny huff of something that feels like a laugh.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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anyway. they let kaeya poke and prod as they like. clearly, aquila liked this shiny little trinket, so.
they tilt their head back a bit - there's just a wisp of their neck showing, light and pale, but it's gone as they return to look at kaeya. ]
Hmm. I think I've got a good one for you. Tell you a story about a performance I saw, once. Was watching it from the air - way, way up high, on an airship. It was the biggest, newest thing brought around for an end of the year celebration in this building with sets of platforms and a stage.
The lower viewing areas were for the common man. The higher up you got, the richer you were, more often than not - and on the stage at ground level, a man from another country was doing tricks with a trained tiger. It was impressive! Really impressive. But, when I was watching, I noticed something was all fucked.
[ they sound dramatic, there, clearly enjoying their storytelling a little. ]
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[ the little flash of throat is so incredibly appealing. he doesn't move towards it, just relishes in the fact that it's there and he can see it.
and then it's gone. he places a hand on their chest. ]
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anyway. ]
The tiger was getting agitated, and I saw this flash of movement from one of the upper decks - and someone threw a bunch of gold coins down on the stage. 's not uncommon to throw gold leaf down for people to collect, especially performers, but coins are heavy, and they fell from a great height. It was enough to get the tiger into a frenzy - it broke free of its hold and attacked its handler. Blood, everywhere.
[ they gesture with their hand. the drama. ] Not only that, but a tiger, breaking free in the middle of an incredibly crowded event - the entire place broke into chaos. The poorer people along the ground couldn't tell anything was immediately wrong, because the crowd hid it. Instead, they started to go crazy with the gold that practically rained from the sky, trying to collect it. The richer folks, watching - they all began to scream and tried to escape. The tiger leapt into the crowd, bloodthirsty and to maim everyone in its sight.
I'd been drinking like a fish, up to this point, but I could've forgotten immediately in all the chaos. As soon as I saw what was happening, I left my post, and I picked up a bow. I nocked an arrow.
[ they mime doing so, around kaeya in their lap, like they're aiming over his shoulder. the storytelling slows for dramatic affect, like he's aiming. ] And from a thousand yards away, I saw it leap on a man in the crowd. So I took a breath, and I shot -
[ they mime releasing an arrow. ] And hit it. Right between the ears. Knocked it off the man it was attacking and left him unharmed.
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i mean what. the story. right. kaeya does seem rather rapt with the story itself, a smile spreading over his lips. he takes a drink once during it and settles in further until he becomes apart of it as aquila draws their invisible arrow back. he laughs just a little bit as the story climaxes, and then—
he turns his head. there feels like an empty space, like there ought to be more. he looks aquila directly in the veil, as if searching for eyes. ]
... Then what?
[ his hand curls around the fabric of their uniform. more more. ]
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they seem to greatly enjoy telling this story, leaning forward a bit. ]
That wasn't all. Tiger was agitated, sure. Could've attacked, sure. But there was somethin' off about it - surely, it wouldn't have gone off if the coins didn't trigger it, right? I realized what was happening, so I turned a quarter inch from my spot on the bow. I nocked another arrow. I fired.
[ miming the same motions. turning a bit. loading the arrow. sending it flying in perfect posture. there's a brief pause, for drama. ] My arrow was sharp and true. A man wearing a hat had stood up on one of the middle decks, and I shot as he did so. I didn't hit him - rather, I aimed for his hat, so it was pinned into a pole on the pavilion behind him, right off the top of his head. He froze on the spot, stunned, and my - a buncha the guys I worked with came down and arrested him.
Turned out he was a terrorist. Plotting to harm people on purpose. Threw all the coins down to cause the riot, and now his ass's rotting in jail.
[ the end! ]
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kaeya lets out a low whistle, taking a swig from the bottle and humming. ]
All's well that ends well then... that's quite the heroic escapade... and on an airship no less... All from a thousand yards away. Nothing to sneeze at.
[ his arm slings behind their neck with ease, laughing. "my — a buncha the guys i worked with" he hums. ]
You're an impressive person, Aquila... I'll tell you a truth, to work with you so closely is such a delight. I'm sure your coworkers were rather delighted at your quick find... managing to save all of those people with but two arrows. I do hope you were suitably rewarded for your deeds.
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[ this is patently not.... untrue... if a little ambiguous towards what it's referring to. aquila doesn't bother to explain - why would they? a face behind a veil lends itself to a wonderful amount of enigma, something they already seem to enjoy.
they let kaeya settle with his arm behind their neck, lifting their head a bit to make the space; their other one comes to rest on his lower back, steadying. ]
It's not really about the reward, sometimes. [ a little shrug under his arm; there's some twinkling mischief in their tone, a bird preening that their feathers have been stroked. ] Saved a lot of lives, like you said. The information the fuck spit up was a reward, too.
[ which he figures, kaeya might understand better than anyone else. ] I've always had decent coworkers. Well. Mostly. You're not so bad.
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Worth it all in the end, tigers, arrows, and eagles... and some pathetic guy with just the right information.
[ he does laugh a little at that. ]
Not so bad, am I? I hope any future coworkers can follow my impeccable example. Falling through holes in the floor and all. Though I don't know, do you put your fingers in the mouths of all your co-workers?
[ he chuckles, nosing into their cheek (face) through the veil, his eye closed. he doesn't move his hands, lets them stay where they are, accounted for and resting on aquila's chest and shoulder. ]
Or just some?
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[ he will pitch you into this ocean.
however, he will also gracefully take the subject change when it comes, letting kaeya nose up against his cheek, though - aquila freezes up a bit, and his hand comes up to tug on the veil, keeping it very firmly in place. affection week or otherwise. ]
... [ "do you put your fingers in the mouths of all your coworkers" though
makes him make a face that kaeya can probably feel at that distance like :nyeh: ]
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he has no intentions of getting under the veil today. that'd be tacky, asking after it a third time and so soon. he's content with it there in fact, he's already attached enough, he doesn't need to be swayed any further. ]
So there's one in particular you can't stand? Is that what I'm picking up? [ he's behaving, a small smile on his lips as he finally offers the bottle back to them. more stories more. ]
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they seem deeply pleased when he squirms like that, though, admittedly, kaeya is currently in his lap and he is just one bird. the hand on his back is steadying, making sure neither of them fall over, at least.
as for their coworkers... aquila takes the bottle, and gently boops him on the nose with it. ] Gossip. [ wow. ] Feels like that's too intimate, doesn't it?
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Does it?
[ he chuckles. ]
There's a reason you surround yourself with the people of your choosing... I'm curious. Maybe that's a bit intimate, but... I do like getting to know you more.
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It's very intimate. [ at first. ] But, it's not as if a 'coworker' is much someone chosen, are they? You learn to work with each other.
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In time, sometimes a fondness grows, even for all the irritation, don't you think?
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You could say that.
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Close your eyes?
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Could you even tell if I did or not?
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[ taking one of their hands, fingers sliding slightly underneath the glove. ]
Trust me?
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Kaeya. [ quietly, a warning. don't push your luck too much. ]
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[ it's two fingers, skin to skin, slid into his glove to rest in the cool crook of aquila's palm. ]
Nothing untoward. I promise.
[ kaeya's own skin is not cold, not without his vision in any case. by contrast, he's warm, and gently bringing their heads together with a soft 'thunk', hat and all. ]
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[ he mutters. please. he's still tense - allowing those fingers, but keeping their hand down, angled away from his line of sight.
... but, allows kaeya to bump their foreheads together if he'd like. the fabric of the veil is soft and gauzy, at least, and he can feel aquila inhale and then exhale through their nose. ]
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Then what does worry you?
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[ well, nothing, but the loss of any of their coverage does seem to be part of it. they still, though.
...
and after a moment, they say, quietly: ] They're closed.
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Liar.
[ no venom, only affection. very softly, he brushes them nose to nose now, a brief little press. ]
Keep them closed...
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deja vu. ]
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