[ one of the first lessons that pyro users ever learn: control.
flame destroys everything it touches, after all. friend or foe, living flesh or dead kindling, everything lights up in much the same manner. the scarcity of vision holers means that formal lessons are a rarity: you learn by painful experience. hold the flames away from skin and cloth, lest you wish to visit the mondstadt's healers on a daily basis. modulate the temperature of the flame as you call to it, cooler in the palm of your hand, hotter as it reaches a target. lest you set fire to the brand new hawking gloves that your father bought you for you for your eleventh birthday, or the extra hair ribbon you keep in your pocket just in case kaeya loses his.
the loss of inhibition burns everything else away. pyro, the element of passion, of fury, of destruction. his gloves burn away first, flames dancing over hands that don't feel the pain. scarred and patchy already, proof of a vision granted far too young.
diluc feels nothing but the roar of power in his ears, a thousand times more concentrated than he's ever known it to be. he could tear his vision off his belt and fling it to the stone and still the flame would rise within him, burning him from the inside out.
if there is awareness, it exists only in the animal way that diluc tracks kaeya's movements. stock-still, like a hunter waiting for its prey to tire before pouncing.
the fine hair on the back of his hands begins to smoke. the fire spreads to his fingers, catches at the hem of his coat. sweat pours down his brow; he tastes salt and silt at the back of his throat. ]
My - my Vision.
[ says this hoarse, charred version of mondstadt's uncrowned king, as he fights to swallow the blind rage that lingers in the periphery. it would be so easy to give in. he'd spent years wandering, letting his rage guide his steps: he'd come away from it a better man.
this is different. kaeya is a glaring blindness, a cool sanctuary against the heat that overwhelms, and diluc is ready to char flesh away from bone. everything is so much simpler when reduced to its base components. good and evil, that which must be protected, and those wicked things that must be torn apart lest mondstadt's freedom pay the price. kaeya's cold touch in the air gives him a few scarce seconds of lucidity, and he reaches for it like a dying man. good and evil, and kaeya.
he takes a slow step forward, the toe of his boot dragging against the ground. kaeya's powers mean nothing in the face of diluc's newfound rage. pyro sings through him; he loses track of what burns. his gloves, his hands, the hollows of his elbows. his throat. tendrils of his hair.
the air around him heats, combating kaeya's chill. the temperature differential creating a gust of wind that buffets them both. ]
Forget - forget the theatrics. Take it. Quickly, damn you.
[ it will take a brave man to approach him as he is, alight in fire, teeth bared like a ravening beast.
he has no idea if removing his vision will neutralize the threat. he doesn't know much about how elemental power differs from leyline to human host, from vision to vision. but it's his only option, when he knows moments from now it will be kaeya's skin set alight under his terrible focus. ]
no subject
flame destroys everything it touches, after all. friend or foe, living flesh or dead kindling, everything lights up in much the same manner. the scarcity of vision holers means that formal lessons are a rarity: you learn by painful experience. hold the flames away from skin and cloth, lest you wish to visit the mondstadt's healers on a daily basis. modulate the temperature of the flame as you call to it, cooler in the palm of your hand, hotter as it reaches a target. lest you set fire to the brand new hawking gloves that your father bought you for you for your eleventh birthday, or the extra hair ribbon you keep in your pocket just in case kaeya loses his.
the loss of inhibition burns everything else away. pyro, the element of passion, of fury, of destruction. his gloves burn away first, flames dancing over hands that don't feel the pain. scarred and patchy already, proof of a vision granted far too young.
diluc feels nothing but the roar of power in his ears, a thousand times more concentrated than he's ever known it to be. he could tear his vision off his belt and fling it to the stone and still the flame would rise within him, burning him from the inside out.
if there is awareness, it exists only in the animal way that diluc tracks kaeya's movements. stock-still, like a hunter waiting for its prey to tire before pouncing.
the fine hair on the back of his hands begins to smoke. the fire spreads to his fingers, catches at the hem of his coat. sweat pours down his brow; he tastes salt and silt at the back of his throat. ]
My - my Vision.
[ says this hoarse, charred version of mondstadt's uncrowned king, as he fights to swallow the blind rage that lingers in the periphery. it would be so easy to give in. he'd spent years wandering, letting his rage guide his steps: he'd come away from it a better man.
this is different. kaeya is a glaring blindness, a cool sanctuary against the heat that overwhelms, and diluc is ready to char flesh away from bone. everything is so much simpler when reduced to its base components. good and evil, that which must be protected, and those wicked things that must be torn apart lest mondstadt's freedom pay the price. kaeya's cold touch in the air gives him a few scarce seconds of lucidity, and he reaches for it like a dying man. good and evil, and kaeya.
he takes a slow step forward, the toe of his boot dragging against the ground. kaeya's powers mean nothing in the face of diluc's newfound rage. pyro sings through him; he loses track of what burns. his gloves, his hands, the hollows of his elbows. his throat. tendrils of his hair.
the air around him heats, combating kaeya's chill. the temperature differential creating a gust of wind that buffets them both. ]
Forget - forget the theatrics. Take it. Quickly, damn you.
[ it will take a brave man to approach him as he is, alight in fire, teeth bared like a ravening beast.
he has no idea if removing his vision will neutralize the threat. he doesn't know much about how elemental power differs from leyline to human host, from vision to vision. but it's his only option, when he knows moments from now it will be kaeya's skin set alight under his terrible focus. ]