TL;CR MEME

[probe]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Suffer as we have suffered over your CR.

Comments

[liuli]

[beeguns]

[toyska]

BEEGUNS BACK

honestly I feel like we kind of tl;cr'd at each other over the entire course of the game so between that and cr chart this is really just gonna be a rehash of what you already know and probably?? won't be that long??? I don't know anything don't look at me

ANYWAY

so, childe came into the game expecting a trap. but he was perfectly fine with the idea of walking into a trap, because what he really wanted out of the experience was just the opportunity to fight a bunch of really strong opponents he'd never met before! his wish was genuinely something he wanted, but he wasn't going to be heartbroken if he didn't get it. but on top of that he was fresh from dealing with the whole mess in liyue, having to scheme and plot and play nice only to find out he'd been tricked by a friend AND he didn't even get to fight god about it. TERRIBLE!! he was really looking forward to something much more simple and straightforward, because even if it was a trap it was probably just going to be "haha we lured you here to kill you all!" and then he'd get to fight even more people about it and it would be great.

like recognizes like, and it was immediately obvious to him that gu yun was a fighter--he was surprised that they kinda-sorta shared a language, but then they were both like "this is sus? this is sus", and gu yun proved he was intelligent as well. so right off the bat childe liked him, it was a very "oh heck yeah this is what I was looking forward to!" sort of attitude. the fatui isn't exactly the same as a typical military, but it's close enough that childe could recognize the Authority Vibe that automatically made him want to give gy a hard time HFJKSDHGJK this is how they are, we knew it would be like this and it was not at all surprising. he intentionally only gave gy one name as a start for their info network, partly because he just doesn't do anything for free until he really knows and likes you and partly because he wasn't about to give gy the satisfaction of him easily following orders.

but at first it was just vibing, getting along, waiting for the inevitable announcement that SURPRISE YOU'RE ALL HERE TO KILL EACH OTHER or whatever. and childe is a careful guy who'd been nerfed to a level he hadn't experienced since he was a kid, so he immediately started hoarding advantages wherever he could. whenever they became opponents (which was inevitable, he figured), gu yun was going to give him a run for his money, which was great!! he was looking forward to it, but he plays to win, so from the very beginning he only shared info that was mutually beneficial. lust told him it was possible to get his powers back, and also gave him non-sexy examples of ways to indulge in lust, and he didn't share either of those things. not necessarily because he didn't want gu yun to find them out (bc gy could just as easily go talk to lust or the other npcs himself and learn what he wanted) but again, because he wasn't going to hand over anything for free.

I do find it funny that they had such an unspoken agreement to keep their alliance quiet--like, I don't think they ever explicitly said "hey let's not tell people we get along and we're working together"?? they just sort of naturally did that. THEY REALLY WORK TOGETHER SO WELL and once their posturing settled into something more even (and once they started helping each other out with indulgences, god) it became easier for childe to share his plot info more freely. even so, he kept an eye on gu yun's relationships and the way he interacted with people, because he's used to having All The Info and he always wanted to stay a few steps ahead. if he was gonna get tossed into another plot full of schemes and deception, then he was going to be extra vigilant!!! gy didn't seem like the type who would plot around him, but childe wasn't taking any chances.

anyway, I mentioned this already, but it was the hk-47 execution that made it starkly clear to childe that for all their similarities, they were extremely different people at their cores. gy was angry that sqx was in the execution ring, and he was angry at hk-47, whereas childe was apathetic about both of those things. so seeing gu yun's reactions and speaking with him afterwards was like "oh god you're soft like the rest of them, you're just better at hiding it." he wasn't... disappointed, exactly? but there was a line drawn between them then, the start of a gap that only widened as time went on. he could see that gu yun was getting attached to people (and getting attached to wrath in particular, which he thought was EXTRAORDINARILY stupid), and that he had certain morals/values that childe thought were unsuitable for their situation. HE COULD SENSE THE HIDDEN PROTAG ENERGY and that automatically lowered childe's ability to trust him/trust that gy would understand his level of ambition.

he did try to feel him out after week 2's trial, just to be sure--gu yun gave him the perfect opening for it by mentioning that he thought people might come after him, and childe took the opportunity to suggest striking first, just to see what he'd say. but when gu yun said he'd rather kill in self-defense, childe believed him, and (incorrectly) assumed that meant he wasn't going to kill someone first, or kill just for ambition. he never really had any reason to doxx endorsi and mahito to gu yun in the first place, but after that it kind of solidified his resolve to keep quiet about any murders he was involved in rather than including gu yun as he otherwise might have.

instead, from w3 onward, gu yun kind of became his touchstone for getting information on what molly and harrow were up to without actually having to interact with them himself, which was very convenient!! childe's attitude shifted around this point, from the sort of baseline partnership they had going on to that + starting to use gu yun in more of a selfish way. when gy came to him to check his hands was really when he sort of established himself to be on the side of the people who wanted to catch murderers, so even if childe hadn't been covering for law that week, that would've once again widened the gap between them and made childe even more adamant about not telling him of any murders he was involved in. but because of their relationship + gy's particular relationships with molly and harrow, childe was able to question him about the trap without making himself look too suspicious. childe was also convinced from that point onward that gy would totally doxx him as a killer to harrow if he found out childe was one, no matter what he said about being willing to cover for him. he did kind of drop a hint, w3--when he said "I can't help but feel like we're getting distracted by all of this" what he meant was "I feel like we're getting too caught up in trying to catch murderers for literally no reason because 1. we're all here to win so why the fck do we care about this and 2. there is clearly a bigger picture to think about guys hello". but by that point he didn't really expect gy to pick up on the fact that he was thinking more about how the trial system was a huge, pointless waste of time.

uhhhh not much to say about w4 I don't think?? I already told you this but when he refused to disclose his power during the trial he was 50% giving gy a hard time because they had JUST talked about how it's sus to expect other people to share their powers and not share your own, which is what gu yun did, and 50% just genuinely wanting to keep it quiet because it was the item duplication power, which he figured would be useful if he got targeted. mostly because he was truly convinced he was going to be targeted sooner rather than later. gy telling him he was under suspicion for killing eleanor early w5 made that paranoia worse, because sometimes people just want to kill you a lot and that's how you live.

I NEED TO GO TO BED NOW I'LL FINISH THIS LATER

[toyska]

COMES BACK FINALLY okay where was I

OH YEAH WEEK 5. Or rather weekend 5. childe got his revival ability from lust on tuesday! she'd repeatedly asked him before if he was sure mahito wasn't going to betray him and asked him again at that point; he of course interpreted that as her asking if he thought mahito was going to try and kill him, so his answer was "I'm sure he will eventually but I don't think he's bored of me just yet so I'll be fine." lust was basically like "actually I am not confident you will be fine" and gave him the revival ability; she also warned him that saturday might be an issue, so he was like "oh maybe mahito's planning to doxx me?" and kind of made a mental note to prepare for that but otherwise didn't think about it too hard bc he didn't want to get too far ahead of himself.

Then he woke up on Friday to find out Mahito was FUCKING DEAD and he was like "oh fuck" because that automatically took out one of the guilty murderers, which upped his chances of getting caught! and THEN gu yun immediately asked him for a spar, which was partially suspicious bc that's how he'd covered up injuries post-murder before. but he didn't know how much gy cared about aoi or lenore so there was a chance he was just pissed about that. except then gy doxxed himself and childe was like "oh I'm FUCKED fucked, no wonder lust gave me that power". He was immediately certain that gy was lying about it being self-defense, because it didn't make any logical sense otherwise--he and mahito had been planning for weeks to target noncombatants bc they wanted to minimize injuries and not get caught + pride told them that the limit for killing was 1 person each + childe knew mahito was close(??? fucking curses) to/had planned to accomplice with ming yi and didn't think ming yi would approve of gy getting targeted bc fake china group? + mahito knew childe was familiar with gy and would have been able to give him info on the sort of fighter he was; basically even if mahito had decided to throw their plan away and target two people including a fighter, there was no reason he wouldn't have told childe first. on top of that, gy used his knife to do it knowing molly (with his useful item) would deflect away from gy however he could--though for that one he was kind of like "well okay that's kind of on me for assuming you'd actually only use it for self-defense" GOD. but on top of suddenly being at a huge risk for losing his own life, he was very irritated that gy lied to him instead of just saying "yeah I targeted mahito"; if he'd been honest about that, there's a good chance childe wouldn't have doxxed gy to anyone tbh, not even endorsi and medb. but he couldn't call gy out on it without revealing why he was so sure about it so he was just like "goddammit" lmfkjgh

though hilariously he did believe that mahito stole gy's glass bc that sounded like something he'd do LMFSKDJGH touches the ground. he really would've believed gy any other week BUT ALAS, he was too involved to buy the whole story week 5.

ANYWAY childe was pissed at him for lying so he tried to save himself and retaliate at the same time--he tipped off endorsi and medb (who both knew to varying degrees that he'd killed) but he was very aware that there probably wasn't much they'd be able to do to save him. they couldn't point fingers without drawing attention to themselves, which they weren't likely to do, and even if they did find a way to accuse gy openly, he had a claim of self-defense on his side, which was something childe couldn't use bc of molly's item. so it was kind of a case of "well I'm fucked but that doesn't mean I can't drag you down with me PBBBBT". at that point he didn't know for sure if the revival power would work during the execution, so he didn't have anything left to lose; it was like I mentioned to you before, either he'd be alive long enough to do damage control if he felt like it OR he'd be dead and gu yun got to have a big ol' headache trying to figure out and deal with what childe might've done to fuck him over before he died. either way, he didn't want to go down easily.

after he revived and healed up, he did briefly consider tapping up endorsi or medb or ming yi to take gu yun out, partly in retaliation and partly just because he loves kicking up chaos--but he only thought about it for a little bit before he decided it was pointless. it wouldn't serve to get him, personally, any kind of points or rewards, which was why he'd killed in the first place + he didn't dislike gu yun at all, especially since he got over his (unamused)ness at being lied to once gy was like YOU WERE WORKING WITH MAHITO YOU ASS and made it obvious he knew childe knew he'd been bullshitting lmf + he just isn't really an emotional/revenge kill type of guy. at that point he knew for sure that the longest he'd live was sunday, so all he really wanted was to get as much info as possible on plot stuff before he died, esp bc somewhere around then was when they revealed about getting messages from the dead and stuff. so he was genuinely happy to just sort of "/handshake, good game" and move on and continue working as plot info partners. he was fine with passing his scroll over to gy bc he knew gy would make good use of the info. he also knew that gy would take good care of his things, so he didn't mind giving him his weapons and he specifically asked mineo to give gy his chopsticks--he was honestly more worried that mineo would just destroy them instead of passing them on bc he really didn't think gy would fuck with his valuables lmf.

it was kind of like, after w5 execution and their talk, they'd made it back to a level of trust they had in the beginning--and then beyond that, actually, because they were much more open about the sorts of people they REALLY were. as far as childe knew, even with his soft squishy heart, gy was willing to lie and kill to achieve his goals (since he didn't know about the medicine and never really had a solid grasp on just how blind/deaf gy was and how it affected him), and childe was free to be as openly ruthless as he wanted. he didn't think gy was going to be the one to come kill him on thursday, and he told douman in the graveyard that gy lost the privilege of being on his "I would be fine if you killed me" list, but honestly if gy had shown up that night I don't think he really would've minded.

he still thought gy was an idiot for getting attached to people and an extra big idiot for getting attached to wrath though. rip. (he also thought he himself was an idiot for getting attached to iris and kind of royce so it's fine, we're all clowns here)

ANYWAY YEAH. I don't have a ton to say about endgame bc they were off doing separate things, and they reunited at the end to chat a little and not talk at all about their emotions because that is not the relationship they have. ZERO CHANCE OF EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY, BABY!!! but he left on the same positive....???? vibe that they had for most of the game. he wouldn't mind meeting up with gy again for drinks or sparring or whatever, anytime!! idk if he'd reach out first bc he knows they both have their own shit to deal with but honestly I think for him it's the sort of relationship where it's like. 3 months could pass with nothing and he could text out of nowhere like "look at this ugly vase lol" and they'd just pick up where they left off, y'know. they're both warriors and used to being away from people for a very long time so I don't think long stretches of silence would bother either of them.

FRIEND (DEROGATORY)