as much as i will die on the Hill of Zhongchi and also ship childe with neuvillette/scara/kaeya/lumine,, i think wriothesley's humanity and security in himself is what makes wriochi so special

because here's this middle aged guy who's been to hell and back and has now made a life for himself; a life where he feels no guilt or shame and firmly believes he deserves to be where he is. he's secure in his relationships with others, he remains sweet and rational despite the injustice he's been served, and he has no shame in taking little breaks from work when he feels like he needs one. in fact i feel like he's one of the few characters who doesn't view themselves as a commodity or has a need for martyrdom/a greater purpose, despite having one of the more violent and damaging backstories.

and then childe shows up, the youngest harbinger in history; who, like wriothesley, had his childhood stolen from him and was forced to grow up far sooner than he deserved. who thinks of himself as nothing more than a human weapon and loyal servant to the tsaritsa, who thirsts for blood and begs him for a fight, just one, and who is so far gone that, despite his cheery persona, his dead eyes only display bloodthirst or daring. who, for whatever reason - whatever happened in the abyss that he won't speak of, whatever granted him his vision - is dead set on conquering the entirety of teyvat. who would rather push his body to its breaking point with foul legacy and transform himself into a monster than succumb to the limits of fragile human mortality.

and though any other character may see this, zhongli and neuvillette are, after all, ancient dragons/archons who aren't entirely knowledgable on human emotions or mortality. while kaeya is human and scaramouche certainly possesses humanlike qualities, both are stuck in a sea of uncertainty where they grapple with their own fates and histories. lumine isn't only another species but an alien entirely, and doesn't seem to care all that much for his wellbeing given the events of fontaine.

and then there's wriothesley

who looks at childe after all that the harbinger has lived through. all that he has struggled for and against, all he continues to fight for and fight against, and who is the first to understand this seemingly never ending war the harbinger wages inside himself - a war childe may not even be aware of. who sees an untamed and neglected version of himself from long ago in childe. he not only sees through to tartaglia, but is the first to see ajax, no matter how deeply he's buried, how well he's hidden. wriothesley who's the first to think this kid needs a fucking break. who ignores all his pleas for a duel, and actually listens and cares when childe finally opens up about the confusing feelings of sadness plaguing him in fontaine - spikes of humanity piercing through the battle machine he has made himself into. who asks about his family and about his childhood before the abyss while they have tea together. who is more interested in the expertise of ice fishing and why childe wanted to be an adventurer when he grew up and if all of his many siblings have such shockingly red hair. he asks how he got into banking, rather than how he got through the abyss. he asks if he prefers liyue or fontaine instead of his delusion or vision. it takes childe a long time and many conversations steered away from violence to realise that wriothesley isn't interested in asking about how he got each scar, why he joined the fatui or became a harbinger, what's the most gruelling battle he's been in or weapon he has mastered more skilfully.

wriothesley who asks about ajax instead of tartaglia. wriothesley who treats him like a human with needs. a human with a history and a life and aches and pains, figuratively as well as physically. childe isn't just a savage fatui to him. he isn't a living weapon, despite the harbinger having long convinced himself otherwise. he's more than the people he has killed and the missions he's sent on, and wriothesley reaches deeper and deeper into the darkness inside of him, pulling ajax a little further back out of the grave that is his own body with each seemingly harmless question about traditional snezhnayan food, or what's the meaning behind the krsnik noc festival, and why do his homeland’s buildings look like cloves of garlic?

childe who doesn't understand why he feels so comfortable yet uncomfortable around him - who feels more raw and confused than he has since he was a teenager grappling to accept what had happened in the abyss, yet as though wriothesley has known him all his life. it sets him on edge in a way he can't explain or blame anybody for; ajax is only another mask, now. a mask he puts on around his family so they don't see who and what he has become. the real ajax is long gone, dead and buried even before he changed his name and dedicated his life to the tsaritsa.

yet when he's with wriothesley, no matter how mundane or boring the conversation is, he always leaves feeling as though he's been exposed. his delusion is still intact, his vision with the traveller, his red mask still secure; but even had he not checked he would know it was neither of these. because while he feels exposed, he doesn't necessarily feel stripped of anything; more so that there is something building up, deep within him, something unknown and threatening. it's not the kind of nakedness where his weak spots are an open target, but rather the kind where the bandages have already been wrapped around, stained crimson, then removed to reveal healed skin or a closed wound. it's the kind of lightness not where his weapon has been disarmed, but his winter coat has been shed for a cozy fireplace indoors. the kind of vulnerability he feels not when facing creatures of the abyss but akin to that he felt when he first joined the ranks of the fatui, when the path before him seemed full of endless possibilities.

just

wriochi <3333333 :3