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Their parents liked her more, but Barbara was easy to like. It was only ever Jean who could impress them.
Series
- Part 6 of March comes in like a lion
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,245
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 2
- Kudos:
- 22
- Bookmarks:
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Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
01 Apr 2025
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Diluc didn't particularly enjoy tending to the bar. It was apparent by the way that he treated customers, always on this side of coolly polite, even to someone like Jean: and he disliked the smell of alcohol, and the crowd, and the hustle and bustle, and he was impatient when dealing with unruly or impolite customers, high-handedly banning people from the premises as he'd liked: such a temper, Kaeya had said of Diluc once after his return, half-fond, half-unknown, as he'd leaned the side of his neck against the top of the high-backed chair next to Jean's in her office, and she'd only learned the day after that Diluc had told him to get out of his bar and go home that night. He didn't enjoy the rote memorization of the movements, the way that it barely required him to do anything else but move his hands here and there, and he disliked the wet, the clinging damp of the melting ice-frost against the glass against his gloves, the red of the wine when it spilled against his shirt, staining black blacker, and he didn't enjoy the way that people came to talk to him when he was there.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,455
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 6
- Kudos:
- 13
- Bookmarks:
- 2
- Hits:
- 125
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
01 Apr 2025
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She confesses, years later when he relays the story to Diluc trying to get a laugh out of him at her expense, that she hadn’t known where else to take him. The offices seemed like a bad idea, and none of the bars had been open, and the only restaurant she knew was in Springvale. It was the first place she could think of, Jean said, eyes clear and bright. Really, Jean said, honest.
Series
- Part 5 of March comes in like a lion
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
29 Mar 2025
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Back when they lived together — and on a few occasions after they stopped — Jean would be tasked on occasion to take Barbara to church instead of their father, who had a habit of overindulging when he was invited to partake in drink at this party or at that event. It was always expected for Jean to be in attendance at the service, which she always was, injury or sickness notwithstanding, and she would have accompanied her family there even if her father was less — afflicted, only she would be charged, these times, to take Barbara alone, which was a departure from their normal routine, but not a significant one.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,802
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 3
- Kudos:
- 18
- Bookmarks:
- 6
- Hits:
- 288
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
26 Mar 2025
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Her mother had no particular preferences for tea, although in Mondstadt the flavors tended to run mild. Tea was a child's drink, or a daytime drink, or a working drink, but the people would always prefer wine, when it came down to it — so it was made sweet for children, and made refreshing for working adults, something to cleanse the palate and take the edge out of hunger before lunch came. Certainly her mother never made it for herself to drink without some sort of prompting: so Jean would know, watching their maid bustle around the serving-room, beginning to take out the tea-trays and the delicate porcelain, that they were to have guests, and by counting the cups, she would know, roughly, who they were to expect. Crepus, Kaeya, and Diluc made five, Barbara and her father only four, her mother would sometimes receive Grand Master Varka in their estate, very rarely, with two twin teacups as proof.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 736
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 2
- Kudos:
- 13
- Bookmarks:
- 4
- Hits:
- 106
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
23 Mar 2025
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"What urgent business do you think the sender must have had, sending a letter to Master Jean's workplace, not even her estate?"
"Official affairs?" hazards Jean, scrawling her signature over the latest expense report from Albedo (which, while very large, can only be excused; Mondstadt's recent alchemical prowess is one of its few economic strengths). Kaeya looks at her, almost disappointed, too amused to be cutting; a test not deliberately designed for her to fail, but one where success is — not imminent by any measure. She's never been very good at this. Persevering: "Or — a letter from the Grand Master?"
"It looks like an invitation," Diluc says flatly. More thoughtful, now that he's pushed his chair back, giving up on paying attention to the records with only the requisite amount of scruple: "From the Lawrences?"
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,220
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 4
- Kudos:
- 18
- Bookmarks:
- 2
- Hits:
- 175
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
15 Mar 2025
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For a while, Kaeya doesn’t say anything. She looks up to see if he’s still there: and he is, standing a bit away from her desk — he has a habit of positioning himself so his covered eye is closer to her. It’s harder to read his face like that, but she thinks she’s gotten better at it, over the years, though there are times when she still can’t be certain what he’s thinking: what he wants to say.
Jean and Kaeya, Knights of Favonius.
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
14 Mar 2025
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Kaeya entered her office dripping wet, flicking droplets of rain off of his eyepatch with a sweep of his long fingers. The edge of his leather boots was still muddy, the cloak that he'd thrown over his shoulders haphazardly askew. They were the first indicators that something was wrong, clearer than the muffled, faintly ragged edge to his breathing, or the harried, urgent way he threw the door open without any of his characteristic grace.
"Acting Grandmaster," he said. His Vision was a searing blue, his leathered palms slick with water as he crossed the length of the room to meet her. "We have to leave."
In the aftermath of a Fatui conspiracy, an Acting Grandmaster vacates the walls of Mondstadt.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 5,063
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 9
- Kudos:
- 52
- Bookmarks:
- 14
- Hits:
- 517
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
14 Mar 2025
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After all, Jean knows that keeping is not equivalent to loving, and so, too, having is not equivalent to being — which was why her mother had kept her, and chosen her, even in the face of Barbara, her younger daughter; who was easier to love, Jean understands, in the simple way that she understands her own aptitudes and talents. What one has is not necessarily what one is suited to. What one wants to be, too, is not the same as what they are.
The days following Jean's conferment ceremony.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 2,313
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 4
- Kudos:
- 36
- Bookmarks:
- 3
- Hits:
- 325
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
13 Mar 2025
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Summary
One could not suspect a senior officer of the Ordo to be reading the personal letters of the City's residents. After all, such private matters are not within the purview of a public organisation.
Series
- Part 2 of March comes in like a lion
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,385
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 5
- Kudos:
- 18
- Bookmarks:
- 4
- Hits:
- 145
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
13 Mar 2025
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Summary
Lisa never spoke of her parents, though she’d constantly make reference to a friend or colleague she’d known at the Akademiya. Sometimes, if she was brewing a certain tea, she would mention her grandparents with fondness. Kaeya once told her that Crepus had loved Diluc more than anything, and that he would’ve minded it more, except, more than anything Diluc had loved Kaeya. Amber had joined the Ordo because she loved her grandfather, and Noelle, on each one of her applications, would mention that her mother had always dreamed of her becoming a knight. Mika, at the end of each month, would take his pay slip and then spend the afternoon visiting bars paying off his brother’s tab. Albedo spoke of Rhinedottir and Klee in the same fond tones, and Klee would often conflate Alice with Kaeya who she would mix up Jean, and then say it wasn’t that big of a difference at all, because they were all ‘pretty much the same!’. Eula very publicly and openly disdained her family and criticised them at every opportunity, yet whenever an invitation was extended to her, she would show up without fail. Jean, who did not know how to look at Barbara with the same open adoration that Barbara affected upon her, mostly tried not to look at Barbara.
Series
- Part 1 of March comes in like a lion
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 4,371
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 7
- Kudos:
- 26
- Bookmarks:
- 7
- Hits:
- 244
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
05 Mar 2025
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Summary
“What the hell were you thinking?” Diluc demands.
Kaeya gasps in mock affront. “Why, such language in the house of Barbatos?”
If Diluc hadn’t been frowning already, he would be now. “Spare me the sermon. What could possibly have possessed you to climb Dragonspine alone, without a Pyro wielder?”
Kaeya and Diluc have a short, revealing conversation in the infirmary.
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
27 Jan 2025
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Siffrin is your jailor. Your purpose. Your caretaker. Your better self, your now-unreachable future, your child all grown up. You—you are past the point of wanting to take their place. All you want now is a belonging of your own or another cessation, a complete one, because this? This fifth bedroom, this toothbrush, this windowsill overlooking their life? This you cannot take. And as much as every day you miss the people who are right there in front of you, you know they are not yours.
After the journey, in a five-bedroom house, Loop endures the fact that the Universe likes Siffrin more.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 14,839
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 83
- Kudos:
- 291
- Bookmarks:
- 97
- Hits:
- 2,300
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
17 Dec 2024
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Summary
Familiarity becomes a comfort; predictability, a ward against terror. No one is going home if he can help it.
A year is nothing—what's forever?
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
17 Dec 2024
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Summary
In the years after, Siffrin and Loop grow closer, sort of. More so, the distinction between them... liquefies.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 543
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 42
- Kudos:
- 203
- Bookmarks:
- 31
- Hits:
- 1,133
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
17 Dec 2024
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Summary
It's rare to see the seelie in the city. They love to linger in the wild places, to guide the lost home, to dance in the moonlight where few will ever see them.
It won't quite be real til morning. Until then, they can pretend it's easy.
[SoD - fall 24]
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 600
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 4
- Kudos:
- 20
- Bookmarks:
- 2
- Hits:
- 149
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
12 Dec 2024
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Summary
In Bambouche, Siffrin contemplates Bonnie: who they were during the journey, who they are now, and the dastardly, delicious fruit they're cutting up for a snack.
Siffrin thinks a lot about that fruit, actually. How easy it would be to just... eat it.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 2,739
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 100
- Kudos:
- 767
- Bookmarks:
- 175
- Hits:
- 3,915
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
06 Jun 2024
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Summary
You're the first one to notice.
(After the events of the game, red stayed in this world of black and white.)
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
28 May 2024
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None Forward & Two, Two, Two Steps Back by faedemon
Fandoms: In Stars And Time (Video Game)
14 Jun 2024
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Summary
In an alternate act five, Siffrin breaks in a different way than canon.
He and Loop go around and around and around. They both know what wish was made. They both know what traps them here. They both know what the condition is which, upon reaching the Head Housemaiden, so guttingly fails to be fulfilled. But Loop won't say it outright. And Siffrin won't look at it.
Until, eventually, there's nowhere left to look.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,196
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 174
- Kudos:
- 616
- Bookmarks:
- 159
- Hits:
- 5,663
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
21 May 2024
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Summary
"Yes, humans like to take enjoyment in small pleasures. It's beneficial to us."
Bookmarked by imaginarypasta
26 Mar 2024