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toomanyplotbunnies-sendhelp · 2 months

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Hello and welcome to Day 22 of "Let's Explore My Plot Bunnies"

Today, I am going to fry my brain trying to explain this mess of a plot bunny that, over time, turned into a full-blown series in my brain.

So I present to you:

"A Thousand Miles Journey begins with one step" - a Lout of the Count's Family and Genshin Impact crossover

Buckle up cause the synopsis is gonna be long:

(I will put a line break here because holy crap I was right - It IS LOOOOONG)

Cale Henituse (the original one here) is the oldest child of the Henituse family, a noble family from Mondstadt. His reputation, however, is not exactly stellar... which is exactly what Cale intended anyway.

After his mother suddenly died when he was 8 years old, his father remarried. As if that wasn't enough to cause a lot of rumors to appear from the other Noble families in Mondstadt, his new stepmother, Violan, already had a child. Wanting to protect the two (and his future new sibling), Cale diverted everyone’s attention to himself by destroying the picture of the perfect and well-mannered child he was. He acted out, slacked off, refused to continue his studies, and even started drinking alcohol early in his life. All to protect the new additions to his family who had no clue how damaging the words of the other noble families can be.

And Cale would have continued it if not for the illness that plagued him and the promise he made to his birth mother, Jour Thames.

"When you turn 16, you must leave Mondstadt, Cale. Promise me you will. You need to live."

Those words from his mother are still engraved in his mind, to the point where he can vividly remember even the tone of her voice when she said them.

Living with an illness that makes him cough up blood and that spikes whenever he is in emotional turmoil is not ideal. But Cale can, at least, be thankful that he is still alive. Something that was only possible because of the Anemo God's assistance in the first place. Barbatos - or as he so insist to be called, Venti - has helped him survive this strange illness ever since he was 10 years old. But even a god like him can't fully get rid of his pain for good.

Six years later, on the night of his 16th birthday, Cale makes good of his promise to his mother. With a simple message to the only friends he knows will not say anything and with a quick goodbye to Venti, Cale sets on his journey to Liyue, where he hopes to have an audience with Morax - the Geo Archon - during the upcoming Rite of Descension.

In order to avoid the Knights of Favonious who are patrolling the only safe way to Liyue, Cale chooses to go through Dragonspine, a mountain where the snow never melts and where living conditions for humans are nearly non-existent. It is a gamble, but Cale always believed in the gambles he took.

Unfortunately, during his traverse through the ice caves in the mountain, Cale encountered Abyss Mages, who seem to be searching for something in this icy cave. Everyone knows that the Abyss are deathly foes who wish to kill the people of Teyvat - the ones Cale meets are no exception.

The Abyss Mages' attacks make Cale fall through the ice into a pool of ice-cold water. Thinking that he is dead, the Abyss Mages leave, as empty-handed as they came to Dragonspine. What they don't know is that Cale found a little cavern below in the icy waters. Said cavern led to a chamber that has the symbol of the Thames Family on it - an oval object around which a snake is coiled, as if to embrace it.

Knowing that this has to do with his mother's family, Cale enters the chamber and is greeted by the sight of a Vision sitting in a pool of what can only be described as raw energy - the kind that hurts you if you try to touch it.

An inscribed stone tablet nearby states:

"Those of you whose blood is of this family

try your best to prevent calamity.

Your blood shall spill in rivers here,

but heed my words for they are sincere:

For you to claim what is yours by birth,

you must prove to me your worth."

Cale approaches the pool of raw energy where the Vision lies. The Vision is unlike any other in this world: a round gem, around which the long body of a dragon is coiled (not unlike the crest of the Thames family), and around the gem are tiny claw-like structures keeping the small gem within the golden casing. It really looks like none of Teyvat's Visions.

Taking the small knife he had on him, Cale slices his palm, letting his blood fall into the pool of raw energy. The pool emits some light before becoming somewhat close to a pool of water - not capable of injuring anyone that approaches anymore.

When Cale takes the Vision in his hands, it lights up with the power of Anemo, confirming that Cale is its master now. Cale is pleased by this, since his mother always said that "Thames children always get a Vision, one way or another and you will surely get one too." It seems another one of his mother's predictions has come true.

Finding his way out of the chamber is a lot easier, and once outside, Cale realizes he is very close to the region of Liyue.

Soon, he meets two hungry cats - or maybe they are foxes - on his way. One silver, the other a reddish color that resembles his own hair color. Cale gives them some food, thinking this would be the end of it, but the two creatures follow him around after that. Which is not that surprising, but Cale had hoped they would just take the food and leave him alone. (Hearing them talk is not that surprising either - they live in a world where a God can just enter a tavern and drink twice his own weight in alcohol, rare it is for Cale to be surprised by anything nowadays)

Due to a wrong turn, Cale and the creatures (Ohn and Hong, as they introduced themselves) end up going north towards Qingce Village instead of going south towards Liyue Harbor. And yet, this detour might be auspicious for a little black lizard(?) that Cale finds after somehow getting involved in a potential creature trafficking ring - trust me, if Cale knew this would be his life once he left Mondstadt, he would have prostated in front of his mother's grave and accepted a painful death from his illness.

(At the begging of Ohn and Hong) Cale takes the little black lizard (which apparently has wings so... Cale is at a loss about what this thing is) out of the traffickers hands and set it free... or it should have been that way had the little thing not decided to follow him as well. Ohn and Hong's smug little faces didn't make him feel better.

Finally, after a few more weeks of traveling , Cale and his three little followers (more like kids at this point, not that Cale would admit that) arrive in Liyue Harbor, right in time for the Rite of Descension - which turns out to be a disaster but Cale can deal with this, whether it is a Fatui Harbringer or an old angry God traying to stirr up troubles.

Once the problems die down (and after Cale wakes up from his illness-induced coma he fell into after the fight with Osial, Overlord of the Vortex) Cale is proposed by the Adepti - mainly Cloud Retainer - to train with them for a year in an attempt to learn how to fully control both the power of Anemo and his newly acquired Geo powers. Cale and the kids accept and spend 1 year with Cloud Retainer at her abode in Mt. Aocang - being visited by the other adepti, Xiao, and even Zhongli, who helped him with his training.

After his year of training, Cloud Retainer presents Cale with a hand-made Polearm as his reward for finishing his training. That will become the weapon Cale uses for the rest of his journey.

Cale noticed that the illness seemed to be affecting him less since he learned how to use the power of Geo. Going on a hunch, he decides that having a meeting and (hopefully) learning how to use the elements from the Archons of each region, and his next stop is Inazuma.

Inazuma becomes quite a dangerous place, what with the presence of the Fatui Harbingers, a civil war and also the Electro Archon seemingly vying for his head. (Cale isn't pleased that Raon - the little winged lizard, that Zhongli said is a dragon -, Ohn and Hong are put in danger because of his journey, but it's not like the kids listen to him when he tells them to stay back)

Once again, things take a turn for the worst for Cale, who, even though the civil war is pretty much over and the Fatui are out of Inazuma, nearly dies from a combination of his illness and the injuries sustained during his fights with the 8th Fatui Harbinger, La Seniora, and with the Electron Archon herself.

On the bright side, Cale acquires the power of Electro, and, as far as the Priestess Yae Miko can tell, his body has been cleansed of the miasma that was seemingly the cause of his illness. Still, Cale has many questions left unanswered after he goes into what people call Enkanomiya to help Sangonomiya Kokomi with a ritual. Most questions are about the Thames Family and, it appears that only Archons may be capable of answering his questions.

On the not so bright side, what he learns in Enkanomiya about Celestia, the place where Gods reside above humans, does not paint them in a good light to him. With each new day and each new book read, Cale feels like he understands more and more Kaeya's hesitance to believe and worship Gods.

Regardless of his personal thoughts, when Cale gets word that Mondstadt is in danger, he and the kids jump back to traveling and reach Mondstadt. On that same day, Cale discovers the reason his home is in danger - Dvalin, one of the Four Winds who fell prey to the Abyss's lies and was deceived.

Now, Cale must team up with old acquaintances and friends to put a stop to all this, while also trying to pay his debts to Venti for helping him in the past (if only Venti would let him help). Add to that seeing his family after 4 long years of being gone and, shortly after, meeting the mysterious Dainslief who seems to know way too much about everything that he did in the last regions he was in (which is not good and Cale is very weary, regardless if his gut tells him Dainslief can be trusted) and you get the headache of Cale's life.

Cale knew he should have just run away when he saw Amber again.

Details that I couldn't fit in the synopsis:

Cale is 16 when he leaves Mondstadt, and this happens like half a year before Crepus's death. So Kaeya is like one year older than Cale (so he is 17 when he leaves), and Diluc is around 1 year and a half older.

Cale's best friends are Kaeya and Albedo. Albedo came to Mondstadt when Cale was 15. Kaeya and Cale were in the same class as Knights-in-trainning, and Kaeya got curious about this "Oh so horrible child" and basically never left after.

Cale knows that Kaeya is from Khaenri'ah. Kaeya never said anything, Cale is just too observant and noticed some few little slips from Kaeya. Cale admitted he knew at one point to Kaeya and assured him he won't say anything since "it's not his secret to tell."

Kaeya, in turn, is the only one to (unknowingly) guess that Cale's bad behavior is both to protect his family and to distance himself from people because he is dying. Kaeya made a joke, really. He said: "Oh, come on, you can be a bit less mean sometimes can't you? It's not like you are dying from some illness, are you?" and upon seeing Cale's unimpressed face (which in reality was Cale panicking), Kaeya said: "Fine, fine. I won't make a joke like that again, so don't look at me like that." before going back to teasing Cale. So yeah, Kaeya hit the nail on the head with that one.

This is Og!Cale Henituse centric. So no Kim Rook Soo, as much as I love him. But we still have (some of) the other characters like: the Henituse Family, Raon, Ohn, Hong, Choi Han, Ron and Beacrox Molan, Rosalyn, Alberu and the Ancient Powers given human bodies. And I guess the White Star (read: Raddish) is there too. (I haven't decided on others that will appear)

Which brings me to where are the others in this world? Well, Choi Han is still the unlucky guy who was dragged into another world here. He appeared in Mondstadt during the years Cale was away and was taken in by the Henituse family. He became kinda like a bodyguard for them as thanks for helping him. When Cale comes back to Mondstadt, Deruth wants to have Choi Han with Cale cause he is worried. Unfortunately, rather than Choi Han protecting Cale, it is Cale that protects Choi Han. (They go through Razor's Story Quest together and it was literally Cale doing the fighting there)

I can't really explain Alberu and the Ancient Powers without giving a ton of spoilers for something, so all I can say is that: Alberu was born in Fontaine, is once again 5 years older than Cale (who is 20 when he returns to Mondstadt); the Ancient Powers met Cale through various means and will fight the Gods themselves for Cale's sake; Alberu appears during the Fontaine Archon Quest so we get some interesting things about his past and Cale's involvement there.

Cale basically takes the role of the Traveler but with no Paimon and without him being a star that crash-landed on Teyvat. Instead, he was born in Teyvat, but the Thames Family is very much intertwined with the lore of Teyvat. That goes for his "illness" too. Also, no, Ron and Beacrox didn't know about Cale being ill. Cale hid that from everyone. Kaeya just guessed it without even knowing/feeling anything is amiss.

Rosalyn will probably appear either during the Sumeru Archon Quest or during Natlan. Depends where I can put her so it makes more sense, probably Sumeru tho.

The White Raddish is, once again, creating problems, this time as the "Abyss Prince." And he still looks like Cale, which is really a red flag for our unlucky bastard. Also, he is kinda in his "Make Khaenri'ah Great Again" Era, which is heavily disapproved by Kaeya and Dainslief, btw.

The Abyss Mage that made Cale fall into the ice cold water in Dragonspine was reporting to Enjou and WS. Needless to say, Cale's meeting with Enjou in Enkanomiya ends badly for Enjou after this tidbit of information comes out.

"Adepti trained Cale, who uses a Spear as his main weapon despite being from Mondstadt," is probably my favorite Cale from all my fics that include him. Like holy shit, he is a noble from Mondstadt that just said "Fuck you nobility" and picked up a Polearm to fight with.

On that note, Genshin lore is IMPORTANT here. Any lore kinda fits in this story, be it because Cale learns about it, because I rewrite some of it to fit my narrative or because it's way too important to skip over. This means if I ever actually write this I am going over all Story Quests/World Quests/Events that have important lore in them. (This also includes Artifact Lore and some Weapon Lore too)

The Thames family is really important here, too. They have powers beyond what is normal, but all of them die young through mysterious means. Also, they have a motto: "A Thames should never fear the past or the future." This basically makes an allusion to the fact that they can see past and future events under special conditions. Because WS tried to get that power too (by killing most of the Thames left in the world) and only managed to damage the powers of the Thames family, Cale is not able to see the future, but he can see the past if he touches an object that is full of energy.

On the note of Cale's abilities, this Cale also has a perfect memory (similar to KRS's Record). So he has a lot of information and trauma stored in that head of his. It will be even more trauma after he gets to Sumeru and Fontaine's Archon Quests because omg, I fucking cried at them both and I was in shambles for days. Can't imagine LIVING through those.

The Thames family has also a bit of a thing that they do before they die. They infuse some object/place with their last remaining energy and leave a message for whoever (from their family) may find it: They introduce themselves, say where is their home and give some heads up about events they foresaw coming and want to prevent.

Because of this, Cale meets some of his ancestors from before Khaenri'ah fell actually. And in chronological order of meeting them, they are:

Wei Thames - his ancestor from Liyue. The message from him was found by Cale during the Quest "The Chi of Yore" after defeating that (accursed) timed trial.

Kannon Thames - his ancestor from Inazuma. Cale finds her remains and message during the Quest "Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual"; she was a good friend of Kitsune Saiguu and died during the Cataclysm 500 years ago.

Acacius Thames - ancestor from Enkanomiya. He lived in the time before Enkanomiya sank into the depths and Cale found his journal during his exploration of Enkanomiya. He had visions of the future catastrophe that will end with Enkanomiya in the depths. When he told the people that he was branded as a heretic and thrown into a prison cell where he met his death as Enkanomiya sank.

Elijah Thames - a wanderer that settled in Mondstadt during the reign of Decarabian and ended up helping with the revolution. Did not get along with Diluc's ancestor - which seems to be a theme between the 2 families. Also he was a dear friend to Venti who vouched for Venti to be the Anemo Archon since he will not abuse his power like Decarabian did. Cale meets him during the Mondstadt Archon Quest.

Isaiah Thames - ancestor from Sumeru. Cale meets him the first time when he connects with Irminsul and then again during the Subzerus Festival Samsara. Isaiah was Rukkhadevata's trusted helper who, feeling his death near, bound his remaining energy to the Irminsul so that he could attempt to help Rukkhadevata even after his death. He is very much disgusted and disappointed in the Academiya Sages and their treatment of Nahida - even states that he would "gladly bathe in their blood from head to the soles of his feet if he had a physical body".

Noah Thames - ancestor from Fonatine. Helped create the Fortress of Meropiede and left behind the papers that will be the foundation of "The Wingalet", Wriothesley's flying ship. Cale meets him first during "Cataclysm's Quickening" (aka Act IV of the Archon Quest) when he is staying in the Foretress of Meropiede and tries to find Childe. He feels his energy again while exploring the ruins that Arlechino pointed out to him and Navia during Act V and, once again and for the last time, after Cale battles the All-Devouring Narwal (basically Cale faints after the battle and speaks with Noah in a space made by his mind). Noah has his energy bound to the Primordial Sea and has been trying to keep it away from Fonatine for nearly 1000 years now.

Adam Thames - an orphan that wondered the Sumeru Desert for a long time. He stumbled upon Khaenri'ah and made a home for himself there. When the Cataclysm hit, he took Dainslief (his best friend) out of the way of destruction and returned to the Door (you know the door deep in the Tunigi Hollow) where, in order to contain the Abyss monsters, he sealed the door shut and left a message behind knowing he will not return. He perished in battle against the Abyss creatures. Cale finds the message and learns about Dainslief being his best friend when he finds the Door in "Khavarena of Good and Evil" Quest.

Another thing about the Thames is that names are very important to them. Their names spell their futures. You can see it in the naming scheme above: Wei means "to protect" which is what he did during his fight against the Chi; Kannon is the Japanese name for Guanyin, a Bodhisattva associated with compassion and is considered "The Goddess of Mercy" having saved a lot of people from extreme sufferings the same way Kannon does before she too falls during the Cataclysm; Acacius is another spelling for the word "Akakios" which translates from Greek to "innocent, not evil" which is want Acacius was really and this name was the name of some early saints who were martyred, which again is similar to Acacius from this story; Elijah is a Hebrew name and was a prophet in the Old Testament, who confronted the king and queen in the 9th Century BC over their idolatry of the Ba'al and other wicked deeds, which is pretty on point imo with the Revolution against Decarabian scenario; Isaiah is another Hebrew name and he was one of the 4 Major Prophets of the Old Testament and also (supposedly) the author of the Book of Isaiah, which has some paragraphs depicting trees on fire - aka just like the one Dottore looks at in the Winter Night's Lazzo; Noah is another Hebrew Name and I am pretty sure that everyone knows about Noah's Ark... only now, the boat was constructed 1000 years after he died; and, last but not least, Adam - another Hebrew name - the 1st human created by God, who, alongside Eve, ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil... here, this can translate to Adam (maybe) being too supportive of Khaenri'ah plans up until it blew up in everyone's face, and he had to run away to avoid death (aka he was casted out of the Garden of Eden) but returned later to stop the spreading of the Abyss monsters out of the Door to Khaenri'ah.

And because we (the travelers) give Scaramouche a new name, Cale here basically adopts Scara by giving him not only a new given name but also a family name (if he ever wishes to use it) alongside it. His name would be Cain Themes, again another Hebrew name but that makes sense since the story of Cain ends with him becoming a wanderer and becoming the founder of a city later, and Cale gives him this name while knowing the story of "Cain" from his mother and hoping that Scaramouche will avoid having another bad ending to his own story.

Cale's own name has a story, but, generally, children only hear the story of their name's from their Thames parents when they turn 10. Since Cale's mom died when he was 8 years old, he never found out the story of his own name - which is pretty common with most Thames children since they can live at maximum till 30 years old in the case of very lucky members of the family (mostly due to the illness they have).

The Thames family is also strongly tied to Dragons, something that was confirmed by Apep in Nahida's Second Story Quest, where Apep seems surprised that "the children of Nibelung still roam this land." Turns out, there were tribes of humans living with the Dragons before the First Who Came (Phanes?) appeared. The Thames family is the last remaining line of the so-called "Dragon Slayers" of old. They were mainly called Dragon Slayers because they could keep up or even slay other Dragons. As a result, Dragon King Nibelung was impressed and bestowed upon the Thames family, specifically, gifts of power (aka the old versions of Visions that looks similar to Cale's own Vision) and considered them his children. Most of those warriors perished in the fight against Phanes(?).

Because of his origins as a Dragon Slayer, it is not that unbelievable that Cale ends up taking care of a Dragon himself (Raon) since raising a small Dragon is like a Rite of Passage for the Dragon Slayers in this fic.

White Star, as stated before, killed most of the present time Thames in an attempt to get the power to see the future - an attempt that failed. He knows that Thames children don't live all that long, so he thinks that Cale's existence is insignificant and not a problem since he will die young too. (And he was not wrong technically - Cale was supposed to die before turning 20 if he never left on his journey and got better) This is mainly the reason why he let's Cale live after seeing him with Dainslief.

Since White Star is still in the body of a Thames, Cale can get some information from the things WS touches (kinda like how the Traveler has that flashback in the Chasm Quest with Dainslief).

And then there is the Caribert Quest where Cale basically takes the place of White Star in a memory from around 400 years ago when White Star was traveling with Dainslief and met Clothar and the whole Dark Crystal thing that calls itself a "Sinner".

Why was Dainslief traveling with White Star you ask? Because he was hurting from failing to protect Adam and wanted to, at least, try and protect his legacy - another member of his family Dainslief met by chance. Too bad he wasted his efforts on White Star. But he still got to know Cale and want to protect him so there is that.

Also, before I forget to mention, here Archons may be called "Gods" by humans but in reality they are more like "Protectors of a Land" who were gifted power by Gods after they won the Archon War - whether they were willing to accept the power or not. As such, when Khaenri'ah happened, most were given an ultimatum by the Gods in Celestia: "Either Khaenri'ah falls today or your regions fall." So, even if they were unwilling to help, they had to so they can avoid more human lives being lost. Pretty traumatic, don't you think? (Pretty sure that is what happened in the Genshin Impact canon too but we don't have explicit confirmation because all of them signed an NDA and Venti is still a little shit that has no part two to his Story Quest)

The Aranara call Cale "Crimson Nara", Raon "Blackie", Ohn and Hong "Kitties". Also, the Melusines see Cale in a very similar way to Neuvillette. In their eyes, both of them are large balls of energy (Cale's red; Neuvillette is blue) that have ribbons made of some other type of energy around them(both have gold colored ribbons). Because of these similarities, the Melusine are all "Monsieur Neuvillette will have a new friend" and "The two of them will get along well." Neuvillette likes Cale's (and his children's) company but he wishes he did not have to know the amount of problems they get into everyday.

Raon's first Growth Phase takes place during the Sumeru Archon Quest. It starts when Cale and Nahida run from the people ordered by Il Dottore to capture them (aka the scene where Khaterine is impaled) and it ends just before the battle with Mecha Scaramouche is over.

After Raon's 1st Growth Phase is over, he gets a new ability. As long as Raon remembers where said place is, he can teleport himself and others there. So basically, Raon = Automatic Teleport Point. Till then, they travel around like normal people would - which takes a while.

I can also say that Alberu has a Hydro Vision that he got in quite the hilarious way. Alberu had an argument with Cale over the fact that Cale constantly says he is not a good person (whether it is the original or KRS, they are both bad at admitting they can do good thing for people) and Alberu said: "If I have to make it my life's mission to make you see that you are a good person, then so be it." and a Hydro Vision appeared in front of him. Cale's response was: "Congratulations on your new Vision. My deepest condolences for the fact that you made an impossibility your life's mission." Alberu wanted to throw him out the window for that.

And for the last thing, I have a little project going on where I write voicelines for Cale (like characters have in Genshin). Currently, I am done with the Mondstadt ones (for the most part) and moving onto Liyue. Let me know if you are interested in seeing them.

And we are done. Holy hell this was longer than yesterday's post.

Well, it is very late for me (don't stay up late kids) so I have to end it here.

Hope you have a great day/night and take care!

See you tomorrow,

-TooManyPlotBunnies-Send Help

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