[ hanging out at the bar in his casual clothes, drinking a beer and looking at profiles!

he looks from diluc's name on his profile to him, then back to the profile, then to him again. this is too many consonants, where are you from. ]

Excuse me! Would you mind saying your name out loud so I know how to pronounce it? It'd be pretty embarrassing to say it wrong in front of everyone later, so I want to be sure to get it right from the start.

[ and he doesn't trust voice to text to know how handle this either. ]

[ he's so right and he should say it

diluc snorts quietly. (it's a sound of amusement.) ]

Understandable. [ it's kind of funny nobody recognizes his name here, but also refreshing... ]

Dee-luke Ra-gin-vin-der. May I ask the same in return?

I see! Thanks!

[ nods and notes this down for future reference... ]

Mm, it's pretty straightforward as far as pronunciation goes, but I guess it's kind of a lot of syllables — To-do-ma-tsu Ma-tsu-no!

[ similar to an inazuma name... ]

Thank you, and noted. Have you met most of the other passengers on this ship?

[ there are quite a number of them, and todomatsu seems like he's studying their profiles. (he can't see what's actually on his screen, but the way he'd looked to be cross-referencing diluc's visage before, it's an educated guess.) ]

[ taps his chin ]

Only about half so far, I think, but I'm working on it!

[ he's not working that hard, he's mostly just interested in looking for potential girlfriends tbh. his interest in anyone else is purely strategic. ]

[ tHIS IS THE FUNNIEST META THANK YOU. may todomatsu find love i space. ]

Half is no small number.

[ okay they're gonna play a dating sim together!!! diluc has no idea what computer games are, he probably accidentally clicked on the program and now they're committed.

he looks over at todomatsu. ]

...Should we have lunch in the cafeteria today, or on the rooftop?

[ there is... a pigeon on the screen? are you supposed to romance one of the pigeons...? ]

[ my hato-loving heart is full ]

Well, if he's a bird, he'll probably like the rooftop, right?

[ HEHE i was shown one route and knew what i had to do for this pc ]

The rooftop, it is.

[ alas they will miss another pigeon who was getting pudding in the cafeteria, but they can always do a second playthrough... ]

...I didn't think there would be an entire game about romancing... birds.

[ he asks the question everyone has at some point: these are? literal pigeons? ]

[ NU DID THIS!!!!!!! diluc has taken up post behind the bar just to keep himself busy—there isn't very much else they can do before trial.

thankfully his hair is all back to normal—save for how it looks like it's made of fire, flames curling around his face and shoulders.

he passes todomatsu a glass of whatever it is he requested. ]

Here.

[ NU SURE DID DO THIS!!!!

diluc looks like he's on fire around alcohol and todomatsu is completely in greyscale. this is all fine. ]

Thanks.

[ immediately takes a much bigger drink than he should really be doing this early in the day.

... ]

It's hard to believe, right?

[ HELP YOUR B&W

and it's okay they're both adults here and can make terrible adult decisions in the face of (yaywon voice) grief. (diluc is not drinking, however, for his own reasons.) ]

...He was the best of us.

Mm.

[ looks down into his glass. ]

That would have kind of pissed me off, normally. I always thought that was such an annoying character archetype.

[ diluc nods, not necessarily in agreement but in acknowledgement of subverted expectations. ]

It's difficult not to be drawn to his earnestness.

...I wish we knew the reason for any of this.

[ another week without definitive answers. another set of bodies on their hands. ]

Yeah. [ a more moderately sized sip... ] It's just... too many weird things with too regular of a pattern for there to not be a reason.

Yes. It's also inconceivable anyone would wish harm on Sidon.

[ or ashe, or the others before them. ]

...Whatever it is, it's thinning our numbers.

[ it's only w2 help us ]

[ the memory voids are hardly a shock anymore at this point, but todomatsu is wary and on edge every time they happen, because some of these have been a lot more personal than he's really comfortable with!!

thankfully he gets lucky this time and the only person this memory (13:38 - 20:55) is humiliating to is one of his brothers (who 100% brought this upon himself, so who cares).

he... has a lot of brothers, actually! all of whom look exactly identical to him, personality and fashion choices aside. did he never mention this? hm. ]

God, looking at that again is like reliving a nightmare.

[ HELP

THIS IS SO CHAOTIC

diluc just witnesses the memory play out (increasingly confused as more and more todomatsu-look-alikes arrive to the scene of the MURDER), and by the end of it he just.

clears his throat very obviously, trying to stifle a laugh. ]

...I didn't realize you had so many siblings.

[ every day must be so exhausting for him... ]

[ yeah, he has definitely not been very open about his family here!! ]

Yep. There's six of us... way too many, honestly.

You all seem... rather close.

[ close enough to throw each other under the bus and kick to the curb. ]

Do you miss them?

[ or maybe it's a relief to be on his own for once...? ]

Well, we've been stuck together since the day we were born, whether we wanted to be or not.

[ so it's hard not to be close. six of them in the same grade every year at school, six of them in the same futon every night.

he furrows his brow a little as he considers this. ]

It's... complicated, I guess.

[ he thought he'd love the break from them, but ever since dahut died, since he's been in a room by himself, he's missed them so much more than he ever thought he would. but fuck if he's going to admit to that. ]

[ SWEET TOTTY... ]

You don't really have a say in your family, do you.

[ he nods in acknowledgement. close bonds are sometimes the most difficult to navigate.

...unfortunately i only have overly-serious and melodramatic genshin memories to share, so:

the memory begins with rain, and a small, dark-haired child shivering near the fireplace of the manor. you turn to your father questioningly, and he tells you this boy is to stay with the ragnvindrs. your sworn brother.

the rain fades into a sunny picture of childhood, two young boys running between rows of grapevines, their laughter chiming bright. the same children camped on a sandy beach, hunting for seashells as the summer waves lap at their toes.

and then a little older, though not by much—diluc attempting to sneak into the wine cellar to steal some dandelion wine, dragging kaeya in tow and sending him to distract the head housemaid. it's a poorly-contrived attempt, diluc's head of fiery curls clearly peeking out from around the corner as he gestures fervently to his brother, to guide him through the ruse.

...they end up scrubbing down all the wine barrels in the cellar that night, for their innocent crimes.

more images: training together under the knights of favonius, expeditions to wolvendom and starfell valley. laughter and bruises, harvests at the winery, festivals and windblumes. the two of you are inseparable, to the delight and exasperation of many.

it all comes to an end when you turn 18.

the memory ends with rain and ice. blood spills down your brother's face from where you'd nearly taken out his eye. frost coats your lungs painfully and pries the claymore from your hands—the shock helps, too. the grass around you is burnt even in the downpour, the ashes of your fury mixing into mud.

traitor. liar. threat.

a cryo vision shines between you in the aftermath of the altercation. your brother coming into his own power, the very opposite of your own.

...the memory ends there. SORRY TODOMATSU!!!!!!!! ]

[ well. fitting for the conversation topic at hand, but damn.

he's not shaken by it so much as surprised by both how serious the tone was and how much time it spanned. like watching a whole movie, but with all the important plot points in the middle cut out. ]

Huh...? [ looks to diluc ] What happened?

[ totty one-shotting me by calling out his montage (he's so right for it)

diluc huffs softly. ]

...My father died earlier that night. And Kaeya took that opportunity to reveal something he'd been hiding from our family the entire time.

[ what are you so melodramatic for, genshin ]

Oh... [ winces. ] Sorry.

Did he have something to do with his death, or was it... something else, and it was just bad timing?

[ he shakes his head ]

It was something else. [ extremely. bad timing. ]

...But it's in the past now, for the most part.

[ echoing todomatsu's words just earlier, ]

It's complicated.

Ah... yeah.

[ a couple memories of his own come to mind here, though he isn't broadcasting any of them — of osomatsu being so fucking awful at choromatsu's goodbye dinner, and of the time they were afraid they were going to lose their father. if dad hadn't gotten better, and if osomatsu had gotten into one of those moods again over it, he can imagine he wouldn't have been able to just forgive him and move on in the next episode either. ]

Everyone's emotions are running high during times like that... It's easy for things to get ugly, I think.

...I wish it weren't so easy. But, I suppose it was a hard-learned lesson.

[ and he can't know what todomatsu is thinking of, but he imagines he's had more serious confrontations with his own siblings in the past.

(and diluc would rather talk about totty's family than his own... sorry he's like this.) ]

...At any rate, I'm sure your brothers are worried for you.