looncalls

hi hello hii

okay idk why rich text isn't working so lets just continue. i want to post my fanfiction off ao3 and while having a neocities is fun, a dreamwidth makes sense too?

without further ado, here is my most dense-with-html fic on ao3 rn (coincidentally also my most recent fic).

cyno and alhaitham think back on their childhood but the story format is a typical childhood adventure with footnotes shoved in by their older selves.

The desert region is harsh and unforgiving to the boy from Sumeru City. Alhaitham is already ten years old, but this is his first trip to Aaru Village with his Grandma and he’s mature enough to admit that he didn’t pack properly. Alhaitham observes the villagers walk past in their loose collars and wide sleeves and turns to ask his Grandma to buy him a new set of clothes. He’s about to ask when his Grandma turns with great interest towards a woman who has strutted over to disagree with her on wind erosion. Before long, it's an academic discussion between adults. (It’s also loud.) Alhaitham is ten years old so he knows what wind erosion is, obviously, but the other adult speaks in a dialect¹ his Grandma hasn’t taught him. If he could understand the woman she was talking to, he would be able to follow it.

It doesn’t matter. He’s not the only kid in Aaru Village, so he knows it won’t be hard to find someone to practice his language skills with. "Hey, kid. Do you understand what this means?" He repeats some of what the woman had said earlier.

"You sound weird," the kid says.² He stands up and crosses his arms.

He’s skinnier than Alhaitham, but their heights are the same. Alhaitham knows that children here are homeschooled like him; however, instead of reading books, they learn by watching their guardians and listening to their stories.³

"Do you speak her language or not?"

This kid clearly thinks Alhaitham isn’t worth his time. "I speak it.⁴ It's not my language, though."

Alhaitham frowns, "Who else speaks your language?" Maybe he can learn that one instead. Plus, even though Alhaitham's mind is still undisciplined, he’s not so desperate to learn that he would rely on a kid to teach him a language he wasn’t native in.

"You're boring. I'm going somewhere else." The kid dashes off just as he said he would, and Alhaitham rushes to follow—boots slipping in the sand.

"Hey, kid!" Alhaitham yells, "Stop running!" He falls several times and his hands sting and sand gets in his clothes—but he’s not going to give up!⁵

The kid keeps running away from him and Alhaitham feels cold with fear when he thinks about having only sick girls to play with here, too. He gets along fine with Dunyarzad, but even the sourest adults—the ones who recite articles word for word even when you tell them over and over that you’ve already read them yourself—think he does nothing except read. They don’t care at all about what Alhaitham has actually learned and they always let their children leave him out of games. Alhaitham doesn't even want to play games, but this trip is a great opportunity to acquire experience in playing with children his own age.⁶ Besides, eremite children don’t play as a break from learning, they play to learn things!⁷

With renewed determination, Alhaitham blinks back his tears and shakes the sand out of his clothes.⁸ Kids play tag! His Grandma tells him that the best scholars are capable of studying their discipline with their own eyes and hands—no matter how difficult getting it within sight, within reach would be. Even just trying to catch up with the boy will help him learn how to run in the desert—a skill he didn’t even know was a thing until today.

Alhaitham attempts to run again, more carefully this time. "Where did you go!?" He yells. I wish I was taller. I wish I was louder. I wish I was an adult. "Kid!! Wait for me!"

"Stop yelling."

Alhaitham falls down in surprise. The kid can't have come out of nowhere, but, looking around, Alhaitham can’t figure out how he managed to sneak up on him.⁹

The kid reaches down to pull Alhaitham up, and Alhaitham easily recognizes this as what kids do when they’re playing and someone gets angry. The kids in Sumeru City never help Alhaitham.¹⁰

"What's your name?" Alhaitham asks.

"Cyno. What's yours?"

"Alhaitham."

"Do you want to see my secret spot? I don't think you’re strong enough, but I can help you."

"Where is it?"

"You have to promise to be quiet so the adults don’t find out.¹¹" The kid, Cyno, isn't letting go of his hand; clearly there is no reason to as Alhaitham is terrible at hiking.

Alhaitham is bad at sneaking around, too, and Cyno drags him all over the place in order to avoid the adults. Alhaitham is tired but Cyno keeps backtracking and going on detours—only letting them stop for a real break once. "Look! We can see all of Aaru Village. It's the biggest village, even though Caravan Ribat has more people.”¹²

Almost out of breath, Alhaitham corrects him anyway. "Sumeru City is bigger and has more people."

Cyno shakes his head, "Nobody lives in Sumeru City. They all just work there."

You're wrong! Alhaitham wants to say, but his Grandma told him that rejecting a statement without first disproving it was unacademic. "I don't have those numbers.”¹³

"Come on, my favorite spot is really close."

"I thought it was your secret spot."

"But you're going to know about it."

Alhaitham approves of this change, but feels that it is too early. "But what if I don't make it?"

"I'll carry you!" Cyno flexes one skinny arm and Alhaitham is surprised to see real muscles appear.¹⁴ "I'm probably the strongest of all the kids in Aaru Village, Caravan Ribat, and Sumeru City."

"What about Dehya? Are you stronger than her?"

"Probably." Cyno answers with casual confidence. "I'll visit her one day and prove it."

"Okay, you can stay with me. Dehya only fights when my friend Dunyarzad is watching."

"Is Dunyarzad your best friend?" Cyno asks, dragging Alhaitham over to a cliff wall.

"No. My Grandma said my best friend should be someone who is different from me. Dunyarzad doesn't read books like me, but she stays inside all the time so it counts. Plus, she has Dehya."

"Okay. Once we get to my favorite spot, let's be best friends."

"That makes sense. Are we close?"

"It's up here." He pointed at the edge of the cliff, twice as high up as Alhaitham was tall.

"I can't do that."

"I'll help you. See those footholds? Use that one, then that one, and that one. And then you just have to use your arms to pull yourself up."

"Cyno..." In Alhaitham’s opinion, he thinks he learned enough today. He feels really tired. "Can we start being best friends tomorrow?"

"No way! You're going to be too tired tomorrow!”¹⁵ Cyno lets go of Alhaitham's hand for the first time in ages and pushes Alhaitham closer to the wall. "If you really can't do it, I'll show you how, and then we can try again.”¹⁶

Alhaitham, with great misgivings, decides to attempt the climb.

Cyno tells him exactly where to put his hands and feet, and how to climb using his legs instead of pulling himself up with his arms. When Alhaitham looks down to check his progress, he sees the top of Cyno's head is even with his shoulders. He had barely climbed at all!

The embarassment actually motivates him.

Alhaitham is further embarassed when Cyno moves his hands to his butt and helps him the climb the cliff by pushing him upwards.

Eventually, after a long time, Alhaitham calls out that his hands were on top of the cliff!

"I'll push you up!" Cyno calls up happily. He moves his hands to Alhaitham's feet and shoves upwards.¹⁷

With that little warning, Alhaitham scrambles to get his upper body on top of the cliff. His heart leaps into his throat when Cyno's hands disappear and all he feels is the cliff edge bruising his stomach as his legs dangle in the air.

Right before the tears and panic hit, Cyno was suddenly in front of him, grabbing him under his armpits and dragging him the rest of the way to safety.

Cyno is grinning, which makes Alhaitham grin back.

"My favorite spot is over here!"

Cyno pulls Alhaitham underneath an overhang and the two crouch low as they scamper over to a spot that gives them a view of what has to be the entire Hypostyle Desert. So much can be seen, it makes the world look small, because there can't possibly be more to it. It’s too big! The Great Tree must be a moon orbiting this place, and only this place is really Teyvat.

Cyno stays quiet while Alhaitham stares at the landscape surrounding them. His body is really tired, but his eyes aren't.¹⁸

Cyno sits next to him, keeping silent company until something makes him untie his pack. "Eat. You can have more than me."

The pack mostly contains ajilenakh nuts, and maybe half of them candied. They taste really good after their long trek. "Thanks."

"We have to stay here tonight," Cyno admits. Alhaitham stares at him in shock. "But eat as much as you want. I can find breakfast for us tomorrow." He punctuates his caregiving plan by shaking out the cloth that had formed his pack and wrapping it around their shoulders as a cloak. With their faces this close, Alhaitham couldn't hide that he was scared.¹⁹ "Don't worry. We're best friends so I have to protect you."

"Doesn't the desert get cold at night?"

Cyno grins, "I stay up here all the time.”²⁰ He casts off the cloak and goes around the other side of the overhang—taking a path only a handswidth-wide. Alhaitham worries that the other boy has ditched him, but Cyno comes back soon and with a bedroll in hand. "I've always wanted to have a sleepover up here!" Cyno tells him excitedly. “Let’s watch the sunset and then tell stories.”

Alhaitham observes Cyno cautiously, but finding no sane reason not to stay with the desert expert, agrees. “I don’t want to hear anything scary.”

“I got it, don’t worry.” Cyno smiles and holds the blankets open for him.

With his misgivings leaving with the oncoming chill, Alhaitham allows Cyno to bundle them together to watch the sun set on the desert.

footnotes

1. Upper Setekh. ^{[ ▲ ]}

2. Rudely. But I can understand how a small child rambling on about how the weather in Inazuma affects the wind direction in the Hypostyle Desert might have caused you alarm*.

   *You sounded silly. ^{[ ▲ ]}

3. Don’t say it. I know* I was a know-it-all.

   *Oh, he knows. Not to worry, Alhaitham. I found your serious play-style fun. ^{[ ▲ ]}

4. Cyno spoke 3 languages at the time. We shared two (yes, if I am generous towards my younger self), and spoke with each other mainly in the Aaru dialect. ^{[ ▲ ]}

5. Hard to tell who was being more difficult. Don’t roll your eyes at me. ^{[ ▲ ]}

6. Sigh. I just wanted another boy* to play with.

   *You could say… You wanted a boyfriend? Ow. ^{[ ▲ ]}

7. There are many fascinating studies on this*. It was a relatively new area of study at the time; however, along with educational reform, the number of articles in this field is growing exponentially.

   *You can just ask me if you want to go play outside together, Grandpa. ^{[ ▲ ]}

8. I hate getting sand in my shoes*.

   *A familiar sight… Why not wear sandals? ^{[ ▲ ]}

9. How did you sneak up on me*?

   *I’ll keep that a secret in case you go mad and try to run away from your punishment. ^{[ ▲ ]}

10. I wasn’t bullied. I simply wasn’t well-liked by my peers or their parents. Fragile people*.

    *You could say you easily shattered their expectations. Get it? You easily shattered their expectations because they were so fragile. Oh, you get it. As expected from my Alhaitham. ^{[ ▲ ]}

11. I can’t believe it was really a secret*.

    *Told you. ^{[ ▲ ]}

12. I will be generous and not start up this argument again*. I never said Sumeru City was classified as a village**.

    *Only because you’re sure your younger self made a mistake.

    **See? I don’t even need to pick it out myself. ^{[ ▲ ]}

13. Speaking of numbers, what are the odds that two grey-haired children* meet in Aaru Village**?

    *I thought you were an old man.

    **About as low as us meeting next a decade later. ^{[ ▲ ]}

14. I was genuinely impressed. You have always been very strong. ^{[ ▲ ]}

15. If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have recognized the trap* in that statement.

    *It’s not a trap if you didn’t fall for it. Funny? ^{[ ▲ ]}

16. If that sentence of yours had been recorded*, the educational studies I mentioned earlier would still be citing your words in their articles.

    *Hm? All my sentences are recorded now. …Enough with the jokes? Fine. ^{[ ▲ ]}

17. It would have been better to have Cyno help me obtain two footholds, or leave me to my climbing so I could then use those footholds to push myself upwards onto the cliff; however, at the time I lacked both strength and experience*. Therefore, him pushing me upwards by the bottom of my feet made perfect sense**.

    *You lacked flexibity and body awareness as well.

    **It was safer. Stop pouting, Alhaitham. ^{[ ▲ ]}

18. Aside from all the sand that was in my eyes*.

    *Stop pouting, Alhaitham. ^{[ ▲ ]}

19. Unbelievable that it took all the way until then for me to realise that you were an incredibly foolhardy child*.

    *You were fine! ^{[ ▲ ]}

20. Affection won’t make me forgive you*. You can keep trying all you want**. Stop laughing***.

    *I love you.

    **I love you.

    ***I love you. ^{[ ▲ ]}