The Untruth Beneath The Crescent...

The Untruth Beneath the Crescent...

Not beta read

Jiyan x Reader (ft. Geshu Lin)

Summary:

Jiyan's involvement in the battle at Northfall Barrens has been retold many times, and has become a beloved hero to the people of Jinzhou. All, expect for you.

Tags: Canon Divergent, unrequited (Jiyan), tw: angst, (Mild) Kuudere! Reader, romantic or platonic is up to your interpretation, reader is NOT Rover, a bit of cultural references.

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"Medicine can heal illnesses and broken bones, but never a broken heart..."

Jiyan looked down at the medicine carrier his mother gave him.

The offerings of wine and rice were placed neatly by the alter of the Knell Square. The tranquil sound of the waterfall acted as white noise that isolated the area from the rest of Jinzhou.

A fresh wisp of smoke from the incense burned, whipping up in the air. Normally, Jiyan would simply ring the bell, but for this occasion, the incense will be suffice to tell them, his fallen comrades, after many months he's home.

Jiyan stood in a respectful silence in front of the altar. The black marble plaques that bears all the names to those who had fallen.

Then he took a glance at you, who, was tending a certain black plaque. You wiped away at the accumulated dust with a piece of cloth, showing the engraved name painted in gold, Geshu Lin.

Jiyan slowly approached, he can already feel the tension building. You held, somewhat, a distained for him, for what, he doesn't truly understand.

It was after a few minutes, Jiyan decided to speak first, "... It's been quite a while, [Y/N], how is mentor doing? "

You snapped your head up when you heard your name.

Jiyan's gaze was soft. A contrast, to his usual scowl, and stern look at the battlefield. As least, that's how your father described Jiyan after he took over the Midnight rangers.

On that thought, your brows involuntarily furrowed.

"My father is fine," you simply said, and continued to clean the tombstone, "his rheumatism is getting better."

A look of relief plastered in Jiyan's face, "I am glad he has been doing well."

You simply nodded at Jiyan.

"... If I may, I would like to treat mentor to a meal sometime..." Jiyan asked, "and, I would like to catch up with you too."

You gave no immediate answer. You placed your offerings in front of the tombstone. Even though you often would get confused looks from other people, and that Geshu Lin's remains were not found, you still do it because you respect him so much.

"It's really not nesscary, General," you finally said, hiding the pain in your chest. The pain of losing someone you hold so close to your heart still hurts after three years. And, it hurts even more to know how the people of Jinzhou sees Geshu Lin as someone who is reckless and selfish, Havoc and demanding, even though the stories were told to keep biases at bay.

"I don't want to keep you away from your duties," You added with a hint of deattachment in your voice.

Jiyan pursed his lips. He knows that you are in pain. He can see it on your face, the way you would clutch at almost anything when you see him. The deattachment of your attitude pains him too.

"[Y/N], I..." he said but you cut him off.

"Don't-" you said, taking a step back to readjust yourself to keep your emotions at bay, "I don't need your sympathy."

Jiyan paused. Brows furrowed, out of frustration. He has tried many times to make you feel better, but nothing seems to be helping you move pass your grief.

He let out a sigh, with a subtle frustrated edge.

"I wasn't going to do that," Jiyan said.

He grabbed his medicine carrier and took out a small packet of herbal pills; wrapped in a yellowish textured paper and binded with a string to secure the opening.

"These are for you," he said and held it out.

"I know you still have difficulty in getting a good night's rest. I concocted these myself. My soldiers uses these to get better sleep at their camps, and I hope you could too."

Your skeptical facade fell, "How do you know that I have a hard time sleeping?" you were thoroughly surprised by Jiyan's gesture.

"Mentor mentioned it to me in a letter," he answered.

A sigh escaped your lips. Of course, your father was Jiyan's mentor back in the day. Pretty much, Jiyan would know a lot about your father's worries.

"Thanks," you said, your voice was still deattached, but it sounded a little less hostile, "I appreciate it."

Reaching out, you accepted the small packet from Jiyan's hand.

Jiyan's lips turned upwards, and his gaze softens. He was glad that, at least, you did not turn him down on everything.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the both of you.

"..." you stood there, feeling the awkwardness.

"I should get going. Goodnight, General," you said, keeping things polite.

Your body turned and began to walk back to the city centre. Watching you walk away, Jiyan looked at the tombstone with Geshu Lin's name on it. Then he looked up at starlit sky. The moon that was illumating the square was in full, and the memories of his interaction with the pervious general replayed in Jiyan's mind. His soft features harden on that thought.

He tried to brush off the memories, believing it could be muddled by his experience with retroactive rain clouding his judgment about General Geshu Lin.

All alone in the Knell Square, Jiyan place a hand on his chest to calm his beating heart. There is no use to ruminate on the past. What was done has been done.

A sign left his lips as he rubbed his temples, if only you can see the same way. If only you knew what had actually happened back then. But, at the same time, Jiyan knew if you were to know the truth, about what had happened on that day, your heart would break even more.

"There really is no way about this..." the general muttered to himself. He wish there could be a quick fix for this, like a pill that could take a fever away. Yet, the words of his mentor replayed in his mind, "Medicine can heal illnesses and broken bones, not broken hearts, Jiyan."

He remembered, back when he was a medic, he witness a lot of grief at camp base. Back then, he was naive enough to believe that a relief of physical symptoms of a heart break, it would subsequently heal the feelings of grief.

Now he understands, it doesn't work that way.

For now, he would play the bad person, for your sake. He knows you were hurting, but at least, him being the bad person would hurt you less.

To be continue... (?)

(C) Punishing Eden

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Author's notes:

>:3

I want to spice up some drama in Jiyan's life, because i think there isn't enough of it. Lol.

I personally think, Jiyan's feud with Geshu Lin is an interesting one, and I wish the story quest could explore it more, because, I feel like they didn't really explain what exactly the feud between the Retroactive! Geshu Lin and Jiyan. I mean, I can write a whole paragraph about this, but I don't want to clutter the notes up.

Like, the story quest could be from Jiyan's subjective point of view about the beef. But, I guess they are saving this when Geshu Lin comes out.

-Punishing Eden

"Sunday? He looks like a wet dog."

- My sister, commenting on Sunday's design, and cannot believe I want to roll for him.

Some friendly notes about CN names...

Tags: Long read

In the light of Wuthering waves, I want to make a few notes in regards to CN name pronunciation, because I have seen many people struggle with it, and the English voice over servely butchered it so bad.

So let's get into it.

First and for most, when it comes to Chinese, throw the English vowel phonetics out of the window.

Especially with names, we don't read them according to the romanization of the name, but rather the characters itself.

Jiyan, Ling Yang, Zhezhi, Yangyang. Etc

忌淡，凌陽，折枝，秧秧

I mean, obviously, lol. But, the reason I say this, is because I have seen quite a number of people make mistakes in pronuncing CN characters by using the romanji as a template to pronounce another word based on the similar spelling. While, the CN characters itself, has a different way of pronunciation.

[Note: CN names in Romanji don't mean anything to us, until we read the CN characters. Most of the time, we can make an educated guess on what the name is, given if the name is generic or easy i.e. Ga-ming, Zhongli, Hutao. In this context, Wuwa's names are a more unique, and harder to guess with just the Romanji.]

A great example of this is, Jiyan and Yangyang.

People always pronunce Jiyan's name incorrectly.

You might think I am being a little picky with this, because I am; for a good reason.

Most of the time, the "Yan" is pronunced incorrectly, and it's completely a far off pronunciation.

Ji (忌) Yan (淡)

Same goes for Yangyang.

Yang (秧) Yang (秧)

The "Yan" in Jiyan's name is the same character as the "Yan" in Genshin's character, Xinyan.

So the way Jiyan's "Yan" is pronunce is:

Y - ANN (as in the English name Ann-a without the 'a' at the end.)

For Yangyang, it's the "a" sound that people get wrong the most.

The "a" has like an "u" sound, like in the word, up. So pair it with "y", it almost makes a "ja" sound in German.

So essentially:

JA - NG JA - NG

Same goes for the "Yang" in Ling Yang's name, but do note that the "Yang"'s are not the same character, Yangyang (秧秧) & Ling Yang (凌陽).

So, if you want to get even more specific with the tones, then noted that Yangyang, and Ling Yang is pronunced in a different tone.

[Note: In Chinese there are a lot of instances where the CN character is different but the pronunciation is the same, or similar with tonal differences.]

Next, are the CN pinyin phonetic tips.

These aren't 100% fool prove, but, as mentioned before, one can't really know what CN characters is used until we see the actual character being use to then pronunce it correctly.

A good example is, Jinhsi.

Idk what and why the devs went with this Romanji, but I didn't really know how to pronunce it nor guess the word until I saw the CN character for it.

"Hsi" is (汐), which the pinyin/Romanji is "Xi"

Same with Baizhu from Genshin. Normally, the "Zhu" is pronunced as JU ( as in the English name, Ju-illie), but the character is actually pronunced as "Shou" (Sh-oo).

Anyway here are the tips:

"Zh" vs "J":

Zh- is pronunced with a "j" sound. Often times it's has an elongated sound. Ie. Zhong, Zhou, Zhi. Etc.

J- is also pronunced with a "j" sound, but the sound is often short. Ie. Jin, Jian, Jiang,

The "Q"

Q- is pronunced with a short "ch" sound.

The "e" and the "u"

I think the "e" and "u" sounds are the hardest for non CN speakers. Words like, Yu, yue, jue ke. Etc, are difficult because those type of sounds are not in the English language.

"u" is pronunced as "ü".

So, Qu (曲) is CH-Ü. Ganyu (甘雨) is G-uan Y-ü.

-ue, is a little tricky, it's pronounce as Ü-EH. "eh" as the anime expression of "Ehhh!". It would feel like a lip twister at the beginning but once you get the hang of it, you can put the sounds together.

Liyue is Li - yü-eh.

"e" is a little harder. The "e" by itself, without the "u", is prounced as "ugh" lmao. It's a short sound.

So, Keqing (亥晴) is K-ugh - ch-ing, Geshu Lin (歌舒 臨) is G-ugh - shü - Li-in.

There are probably loads more, but I am just going to do the ones where I see most in games like Genshin and Wuwa.

To top this all off, some (useless) CN name facts:

I don't really think spacing is a big deal in names. Sometimes it does help differentiate the surname and given name. But irl, when it comes to Romanji, the spacing and spelling is usually determined by the spelling on your birth certificate... So, if the nurse spelt your romanji name wrong... 😅😅😅

Sibling nameings are usually done in groups of brothers and sisters. So, let's take Artium Wing (lol) for example. His CN name is 左然 (Zuo Ran). So, if he has a younger brother, the parents would either keep the 左(Zuo), or the 然(Ran) for the next same sex sibling. So, Aritum (左然), and his younger brother, Alex (左右).

It is rare to have a compound surname in Han surnames. This includes, Ouyang (歐陽), Situ/Szeto (司徒), and of course Geshu (歌舒) (Geshu is a super rare name, and apparently the name is dead).

There are no standardised names in Chinese, like Joe, Sarah, Judy, Barbara, Matthew. Etc. There are similar names, and they might look the same when reading the Romanji, bit mostly are not the same.

That's it! I hope this helps, or at least explains a few things about CN names.

Hounds...

Impulsive writing, not beta read

Calcharo fanfic

Summary:

There is no job too hard for Calcharo, and he will get it done no matter what cost. However, this particular 'job' was placed upon him in an unexpected way. As he begrudgingly took the job, little did he know it would lead him back to where he has started it all.

Tags: Canon Divergent, Fanfic, lore inaccuracies, New federation head canons, Baby fic (in someway), not reader insert

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"We lost her! Damn it! Find her!"

She covered her lips with her hands. Her body trembled with fear and adrenaline. It's has been days since she last ate something nourishing. Just picking berries and pan-handling money off the road to purchase a snack or two.

Her body is weak, yet, in a time of crisis, such as this one, she pushed on and managed to run and hide. Pressing the baby close to her chest, she begged for it not to make a cry or a fuss.

The group of exiles went searched the area. The young maiden held her breath. Her heart pounded at her chest, as the leader of the group drew closer and closer to her hiding spot. She needed to do something quick.

With shaky hands, the girl took a small peddle and threw it to the side. The rock hit a gas tank, and alerted the group. Immediately, the exiles turned to their left and went over to investigate.

In this window of opportunity, the maiden made her escape. She quickly stood up and ran.

"Oi!" an exile yelled, "There she is!"

They immediately chased after her, two aimed their rifles at her and began to shoot. Bullets flew towards her direction, and one hit her in the shoulder.

"Urgh!" the maiden cried, but she held on to the baby and kept going. The adrenaline in her body made her push through her limit. Her legs did not stop.

She was able to run the exiles off her trail, coming to a lake nearby. Her steps began slow down.

Her dress was soaked in blood from the open wound on her shoulder. Her lips were paled, and her movements turned sluggish. The baby in her arms stirred and began to cry.

"oh," she said, her voice grew weak, "I don't have any food left."

Her knees buckled, slumping her body against a log nearby. The young maiden knew it she wouldn't be able to make it. She wondered, how did her life ended up like this, being caught in between a political affair among the New Federation nobles.

Tears spilled from her eyes. She felt vulnerable and scared. She's dying all alone, all for some business that she was neve part in.

"it's not fair!" she sobbed.

Her sobs could be heard from nearby. A set of footsteps was approaching her. The maiden thought it was one of the exiles that was after her. Yet, the man, who approached, stood in front of her, unmoving. His imposing figure towering over her.

Looking up, the young maiden met with Calcharo's gaze. "You are an exile to get my head, right?"

Calcharo didn't answer.

The maiden, in tears, spoke, "There is no need to take my life, I am done for!"

The baby wiggled and cried in her arms. She looked down at the bundle, and pushed it towards Calcharo's feet.

"Take him! Take him away!" she sobbed, " take him away from me! I want nothing to do with him!"

"Are you sure about that?" came Calcharo's deep voice.

"Yes! He has been nothing but trouble!" the maiden exclaimed, "Please, just take him away!"

"I don't take on jobs without pay," Calcharo said.

The maiden looked devasted. With her last ounce of strength, she went through her pocket and took out a shell credit.

Looking at it, her vision began to fade. Calcharo was taken back when the maiden dropped her head and closed her eyes. Calcharo kneeled down and shook the girl. He placed a finger under her nose to confirm is suspicion. The maiden is indeed dead.

Calcharo went silent. He looked at the shell credit in her palm. It was all she had left. Taking the pay, Calcharo took the babe into his arms and walked away from the caretaker.

In just a little while, the group of exiles managed to find the maiden, only to see her slumped on the log, dead.

"oh shucks," one exile said, "the nanny's dead, and the babe is gone. What should we do boss?"

The boss stratch his chin in thought, "Well, with that girl dead, that's half of the job done. That little brat is still out there."

The boss went to the corpse and took a piece of cloth that had fallen from the baby's bundle. "We will deploy the hounds, and find that babe in no time."

From a distance, Calcharo was watching from the tree top. He had placed the baby somewhere safe with his forte safe guarding the area.

He had knew there was more to the girl than it meets the eye. From the conversation he had eavesdropped, Calcharo has formed a theory as to what was going on.

However, he had no interest in intervening in the noble's affairs. That's for them to figure things out. His main goal now, is to fillful his job from his cilent. Which, in that note left a predicament.

The brief was too unclear how would he take care of the "cargo".

"Please, just take him away!"

The nanny's words repeated in his mind, with no further instructions or information for Calcharo to know the nature of his job. Should he get rid of the baby? That was his first thought.

Then, given, the nanny was travelling to Huangloong, away from New Federation; from what it seems. Looking at her appearance, she's must be from around the Huangloong region.

Maybe, she wanted to leave the child with someone waiting for her.

Calcharo pondered about it for a very long time. The babe, was sound asleep by the time he arrived to the safe spot.

He knew he couldn't bring the bundle back to the Ghost Hounds. This is a personal commission, and Calcharo knew it's not wise in optics; to display him as being vulnerable, and to spread baseless rumors about the baby.

As the baby slept, Calcharo ultimately made decesion.

He was able to purchase some milk from a wandering seller around the outskirts of Jinzhou.

The baby suckled greedily at the made shift bottle. After getting his fill, the infant soon fell asleep.

"hmph" was all Calcharo could mutter from watching.

Then, he placed the bundle by the shrubs nearby. Calcharo swiftly turned to leave.

The baby's soft coos did not stir the conscience of the exile. Instead, the man simply shut out the cries as he walked away.

He believes whatever happens to the baby, it was up for nature to decide. Whether the infant would noticed by a Tacet discord, or his cries would be heard by good hearted people.

Despite so, in the back of his mind, Calcharo wondered if their paths would cross again. However, he quickly shook that thought away.

***

The sunrises at the west of Huangloong. The the morning dew glisten from the leaves, trees, and the shrubs.

It was at the earliest hour that an infants cry of hunger broke the morning silence. With the hounds barking faintly at a distance, the cries attracted a passerby.

To be continue...

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Author's note:

This came to me in the most impulsive way. I was reading about Calcharo in his character profile, and I was suddenly hit with a "What if...".

It's been a long time since I wrote fics with chapters. Though, I am not planning to make this a very long story if it doesn't need to be, but it's good to feel the creative juices flowing again.

-Punishing Eden