m1d-45

i don’t think it would register the first 10 seconds or so. they might be
interested from the haunted whispers, or wonder how your device managed to capture
a choir. they would pause on ‘this saith the lord’ but would get over it quickly.
naturally, they would assume it was referring to you, and everything after carries
a bit more weight. what if it was a command of yours?

‘Since you refuse to free my people

All through the land of Egypt’
they’d be curious about where ‘egypt’ was, and whether or not you lived there. why
were the people captured? were they prisoners of war? they knew how deadly a fight
between gods could be- was your world in the midst of war?
‘I send a pestilence and plague
Into your house, into your bed
Into your streams, into your streets
Into your drink, into your bread’
all of a sudden very worried. they’re gonna assume the worst case scenario and
worry that you’re suffering through a plague. diluc’s making plans to offer more
food the next time he has dinner at the manor, and kaeya’s concerned you might get
sick from the poisoned food. they don’t have the most advanced medicine, and
certainly not medicine fit for a god.

‘Upon your cattle, on your sheep

Upon your oxen in your field
Into your dreams, into your sleep
Until you break, until you yield’
this will give them pause, if only until they think it over. cattle? ‘oxen’? how
could your world be so advanced as to have a device to peer into theirs and yet
rely on these animals? they quickly get ahold of it though, don’t worry: naturally,
your device was a holy item, only to be used by you, a god. it made sense that the
people you ruled over would rely on cows and sheep to live. but then.. was this
song one of warning? warning whoever the other party was of your divine
retribution?

it makes more sense to diluc than it does kaeya.

’I send the swarm, I send the horde

Thus saith the Lord’
this only cements in their minds that it’s a song of warning. your people there
must call you their lord—it made sense, perhaps they should adopt it?—and you were
threatening to send a swarm of… something. they hoped they would never have to
know. the haunting beauty of the chant is not something they’re keen on ever
experiencing.

‘Once I called you brother

Once I thought the chance to make you laugh
Was all I ever wanted’
this hurts.

badly.

horribly, an ache immediately burning their chests. the tired, saddened voice of
the brother will echo inside of kaeya’s head, likely long past whenever the song
ends, and diluc’s tripping—literally, if you’re mid-battle his model will freeze in
place for a few moments—over the realization that this is a hymn meant for
brothers.
they refuse to meet each others eyes, each focused on the task you’ve given them.
the other members of your party look away, giving them space even if they’re not
the type to usually do so. i ask that you leave the brothers off-field, as they’ll
surely be delayed in following your commands and will likely get hurt because of
it.

’I send the thunder from the sky

I send the fire raining down’
the eerie enactment of your voice suddenly carries so much more weight. in your
world, at some point, two brothers had fought over ‘egypt’, and you had sent down
plagues in punishment. surely you knew this, right? was this a warning to them?
were you angry with them?

’And even now I wish that god had chose another

Serving as your foe on his behalf
Is the last thing that I wanted’
you can’t see it due to the camera being permanently set behind the character—
provided he’s on the field—and diluc certainly can’t, since they’re facing away
from each other, but kaeya’s eyes are quickly turning glassy. it hurts, the weight
of his promise to khaenri’ah, to his father—to both of his fathers—manifesting as a
hollow ache in his chest. it’s getting harder to breathe through the block in his
throat, and he wonders if you’re intentionally playing this because of him. it
wouldn’t be so surprising; he knows he’s not the best or the most devoted, he knows
that you likely look down on his lying and secrecy, he knows, he does, but please
don’t remind him of it. it already haunts him when he tries to sleep.

‘I send a hail of burning ice

On every field, on every town’
diluc has a better handle on his expressions—read: he’s better at suppressing them—
but anybody who looked could see he was distressed. his jaw is tense, every muscle
in his body taught. he didn’t move an inch when he was off-field, and he relied
heavily on the binds of your device to move him on-field. he feels like a live
wire, buzzing with energy and yet no way to vent it. he can’t cope with these
feelings the same way he normally would, he can’t throw himself into paperwork or
into battle. he can’t stomp through mondstat’s plains, he can’t call flame to his
fingertips and burn out the pain. your presence, the heavy air of divinity around
him, barely does anything to soothe the ache. if anything, it only burns brighter.

‘This was my home

All this pain and devastation
How it tortures me inside
All the innocent who suffer
From your stubbornness and pride’
oh.
it’s like the words were handcrafted, bent into a hook and cast on a line that
swiftly caught kaeya’s soul. he tries to remind himself that it’s not about him,
it’s not about diluc and it’s not about khaenri’ah and it’s not about crepus, it’s
about some nation in your world called ‘egypt’-

he can’t. the words resonate with his very essence, the core of his being shaking
alongside the swelling music and tragic melodies. he feels like a glass in the hand
of an opera singer, quivering in place and unable to move an inch, just waiting for
the right frequency to make him shatter.

as he chokes on his own air, he wonders why you played this song specifically. did
you know how much it would rip him apart? did you realize how much it hurt, to see
himself reflected in its lyrics? did you know that it would send him back to his
youth, did you want him to relive that pain?

over the turmoil, he can hear your voice. “this seems too familiar..”

so you were aware.

he supposed he deserved it.

’I send the locusts on a wind

Such as the world has never seen
On every leaf, on every stalk
Until there's nothing left of green’
diluc also caught your little comment, and he might have laughed would it not have
come out watery. of course you knew. of course you chose this song specifically. of
course you put him on the team with your beloved, of course you made him work with
his brother, the one you’ve poured the most of your time and effort into. of
course. of course. this was all just a jab at him, wasn’t it? perhaps he was being
a touch self-centered in that assessment, but really, it wasn’t that far-fetched.
he knew his brother was your favorite. he knew that, despite his own feelings about
him, your opinion stood higher than any other. no matter how hard he tried, he
would always fall to second place.

it made sense that you wanted to remind him.

’I send my scourge, I send my sword

Thus saith the Lord
You who I called brother
Why must you call down another blow?’
cryo vision or not, kaeya’s skin is burning. his heart is thundering at twice the
pace it should, his skin flushed with both blood and embarrassment. he couldn’t
help but feel like you were directing this at him specifically, like you had picked
this song specifically to get under his skin. he didn’t doubt that diluc was
affected as well—time apart didn’t change either of their habits—but didn’t dare to
look over. surely, if he saw how disheveled mondstat’s cavalry captain had become
after a simple few verses, his words would once more line with fire and flame. he
knew his brother resented his position as the one in your favor, but now, with this
further context…

it feels like you only picked him to fix him.

‘I send my scourge, I send my sword

Let my people go
Thus saith the Lord
Thus saith the Lord’
dilucs mind is racing, trying to pick out the meaning behind the song. it’s a tale
of two brothers, that’s obvious enough, and it’s clear you mean for a parallel to
be found between those sung about and him and kaeya. maybe- maybe if he can find
it, if he can find the message you want them to learn, he can act on it and maybe
he could fix whatever you hated so much about their relationship. he wanted to,
desperately, because surely there was a reason you chose to play this with them on
your team. there had to be meaning in this, there had to be a reason you insisted
on placing him besides his brother even when you made it clear which you favored,
there had to be a way to fix whatever he did to anger you. he refused to believe
otherwise.

‘You who I called brother

How could you have come to hate me so?
Is this what you wanted?’
no, no, it wasn’t, kaeya never meant for this wedge between them to drive so deep,
the chasm that separated the two brothers was never meant to be deeper than his
pinky was long. he wanted to reconcile, he wanted to reconnect, this was never what
he wanted, he never meant to dissolve his relationship with his brother like this.
there were days he spent at the bar, bottle in hand and filled with regret over his
decisions, wishing for anything to fix it. he would never want this. but of course,
as always, your omnipotent presence dared to accuse what mortal men could never
speak.

‘I send the swarm, I send the horde

Then let my heart be hardened
And never mind how high the cost may grow
This will still be so’
diluc’s eyes close, his thoughts a swirling mix of the words he’s hearing and
memories of stormy nights. memories of blood on his hands and the glinting light of
a fatui insignia burn behind his eyes, the implications of your playing this song
knowing that it resonated with the two of them lost in the chaos. his mind echoes
words back at him, an apparition only there to eat at him. ‘never mind how high the
cost may grow,’ it spits, taunting, and he doesn’t have the energy to retaliate.
why would he? hes in no place to protest, not when it’s right.
’I will never let your people go
Thus saith the Lord
Thus saith the Lord
I will not-‘
they ask that you never play this song again.

‘Let your (my) people go’