dijun | ᴛᴜʀʙᴏ ʜᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ ☁️ garrett hawke

[ zhongli is minding his own business at the train stop, with a to-go cup of what smells like coffee upon getting close enough. he's waiting for the train, having seen people get on it - but he glances over when he hears footseps coming this way.

seeing hawke reminds him of his insistence to learn more about dragons. ]

Ah, Mister Hawke. Good morning. It appears the rails have become active, now, if you would care to join me in finding out where they go.

[ honestly rng choosing beach is wildly appropriate. zhongli can be found with polearm in hand, point angled downwards but grip tight and ready rather than absently loose like it had been for most of the week so far. he's walking the length of the beach and scanning it with brow furrowed, expression severe, like he's just - looking. for anything. where charlie was, any signs of a scuffle or struggle or fight or anything, but coming up short the entire way.

approach? he hasn't immediately registered that someone else is there with him, to be honest. ]

[ that sure happened!! hawke just slides on over to him on their way out probably ]

Talk about a dramatic turn of events. Not even the drunkest of tavern dwellers would believe it.

[ i had perfect, prewritten starters for anybody that asked for them at the start of this week. they were wonderful!

and then a fucking cerbegoose happened.

zhongli is seated in the lobby when everything dies down, and hawke might brave exiting the safety of the interior of the mansion. he's as dressed down as it gets for him, still dragoned out - but the pointier ears that poke out of his hair twitch when he hears footsteps. so, he looks up from where he's pouring himself a drink of something amber colored in a clear wine bottle. at least it's not the ominous stomping of the goddamn goose. ]

... much too exciting for an end of the day. Did you get out of it unscathed?

[ well.

here zhongli comes, marching up the steps to where hawke is being kept. he's brought some osmanthus wine with him again, but with styrofoam cups he's gotten from the convenience store - something that he finds distasteful, but he would rather not give him anything that someone could try and use against him - as he makes his way over to the veritable cage.

his tail flicks behind him, his eyes far more draconic than they have been all week, and scales overtaking much of his visible skin, now. ]

Hello, Mister Hawke. Care for some wine, before tomorrow?

[ there is no real preamble to this one; zhongli snags hawke and drags him off to the dark gate. it's barren and there's very little to damage, here, depending on what happens. ]

I cannot take my adeptal form, still. But I thought you might take an interest in getting some of your pent up energy out, especially if it came to helping me test just how much of my power I have back.

[ you get to find zhongli at the always hotel, one ankle propped on the opposite knee as he sits at the bar counter. he's got a bottle of osmanthus wine at his elbow, a half-filled glass along with it, and is watching the living while also scrolling on his phone to follow their text conversations. in his other hand is the motivational pen, which he's tapping absently against the journal he has opened - he's taken down the morse code messages, as well as any important observations so far.

the emotions here are well-deep, instead of distantly down a hallway, but calm. steady as stone. there's a bit of a pensive undernote, but he's focused and no longer tense. ]

... care to join me? [ said once there's a blip of realization. hi hawke. ] It's been a long weekend.

[ hey guess who's in the bed next to these clowns in the medical room, covering his eyes from a massive headache of overstrain. squints at my own english but leaves it that way ]

I would kill again for an elfroot potion right about now.

[ howdy, hawke, you may find zhongli... in the chop & chill kitchen! his hair is tied back as always, but he's wearing a simple apron and has his sleeves rolled up to show off his arms as he works on... multiple projects, it seems like? his chao, kedou, is seated on the counter where it's flipping through one of the numerous cookbooks that have been stacked and collected for zhongli to reference. he's in the process of chopping a wide variety of vegetables at the moment, however, so he's not paying much mind to the cookbooks, putting each vegetable into its own large mixing bowl as he goes.

he's so absorbed in what he's doing that he hasn't noticed that hawke has joined him, thoughts sort of... faded out? like they're absent, background noise in his mind, but it seems he's running through different recipes that he needs the vegetables for. the various names of the recipes are a mix, things that sound similar to what's found in autumn alley, french dishes, western in general. it matches the books that are stacked up on the counter. ]

Edited 2025-03-25 01:14 (UTC)

[ well, once hawke's been wrapped up like a mummy by everyone doing triage for all of his FUCKING HOLES, zhongli arrives again to the health center with his jacket shed and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. the odd colored skin of his arms is just as bloodstained as his shirt and vest, but he doesn't pay it much mind as he approaches the bed that he deposited hawke into.

and then he just drops to sit a chair next to it, staring at him with a severe expression. ]

I have a healing item. And you are going to take it.

Well.

[ getting off the stop to see candy land sure isn't what he expected, after having watched from the other side for the past few weeks. zhongli takes one look at the destruction and waste, and summons his polearm from thin air to hold onto as he had before their powers were given back. especially with the sounds that he hears every now and then.

running into hawke, he inclines his head slightly in greeting before looking out at the streets. he immediately goes to fill in the space of hawke's blind spot, though.... ]

Certainly a change, here. Perhaps the most drastic, considering the other stops have, at least, still retained their general setting despite all of the destruction. Do you hear that, Hawke, or is it just me?

[ shambling, in the distance... ]

[ WADDLES AT FASTLY. he's got a wine bottle in one hand, whiskey in another. don't ask, maybe ]

So! Tell me more about this place you mentioned. How are they on mages and will I have to watch my mouth?

wk 0; monday

wk 0; friday

w0, post trial sat

wk 1; tuesday

wk 1; saturday

wk 4; monday

wk 4; sunday

w5, thurs

wk 6; monday

wk 6; thursday

wk 7; monday

w7, endgame