Note: Alternate title: us copy and pasting a rp ruisgreasyhair did with us becaaause it was sooo good and we don't wanna forget it.

. . .

Rp starter:

Alvar materializes in a flash of light after the light leap from Candleshade, ending up right in front of Y/C (your character), immediately shrinking back when he notices Y/C before lapsing into a coughing fit and muttering something under his breath.

. . .

"A- are you alright?" the boy asks, digging into his bag for any spare medicine.

Alvar looks like he might topple over as he reaches for his light leaping crystal again.
"Er, just, just forget...me.."
Alvar backs up, not quite sure what to do now. He didn't expect anyone to be here. He starts coughing again.

The boy inches closer, planting his hand on the ground creating a red field that emits a warming sensation, hoping it can heal him.

Alvar tenses, and some of the sick deathly look goes away but he's still not eaten in forever and is skin and bones.
"What...what did you just do?"
He starts to regain some of his composure.

"It's a little something I call "fantastic voyage". I'm surprised my Vision even works here. But you're not fully healed, we need to get a doctor... if I can find one..." the boy reaches out his hand.

Alvar steps back.
"No. No doctors. Youre not taking me anywhere."

The boy looked appalled. "Why not?" he asked, genuinely concerned at the hospitals in whatever he landed himself in.

Alvar laughs shortly. "Human doctors are horrible."

"Ah... are they abusive here? Or are your medications just different? I'm Bennett by the way." at this point, he tries to create another field using fantastic voyage.

Alvar shrugs. "Different, mostly."

"Ah, I see... aha!" he successfully creates another field.

Alvar looks at the portal uncertainly. "What exactly do you do?"

"I'm an adventurer from the Mondstadt branch of the guild. I was originally dispatched on an expedition but somehow winded up here through a series of unfortunate events, hehe. What about you? I never got your name."

"I'm Alvar," he flashes a smile that used to be a little more charming while he debates telling Bennett his past, eventually deciding that it might not be the best idea. "And I'm...well, I don't know."

"Mm... you hungry? I have some food to spare." Bennett takes out a portable stove and uses his Pyro magic to light it.

Alvar looks at the fire. "Are you a pyrokenetic?"

"What's a pyrokenetic? If you mean a Pyro Vision wielder, then yes." Bennett materializes a comically large bag of ingredients from thin air. "Let's see... I have meat, vegetables and some water. What do you want to eat?"

"Nevermind...meat? As in animals?"

"I mean... what else?"

Alvar tries not to look disgusted. "Vegetables should be good. If you don't mind, I don't mean to take your food after all."

Bennett nods and begins taking out various plants, some look as though they aren't from there. "What do you want to eat? Fried mints? A vegetarian abalone? Tofu soup? Radish veggie soup? Take a pick!" Bennett says with a determined face, flashing his signature thumbs up.

Alvar looks at the different plants. "Honestly, I'll try anything. I don't recognize any of those plants."

Bennett's smile drops a bit. "Oh- uh- I'll just make you some soup! It's easier to eat and you're in pretty bad shape, n-no offense!"

Alvar swallow back his pride for the millionth time. "Yeah, none taken. I know I look awful right now." Alvar glances down at his scarred, frail and battered body for a split second, a twinge of regret that he would NEVER admit to feeling pulsing through him. "I appreciate your kindness, though."

"Hey, it's no problem! It's part if adventurer's code: no man left behind!" Bennett gets cooking.

"So you're a human adventurer?" Alvar sits down to ease the pain in his legs a little bit.

"Yeah! Are you an adventurer too?" Bennett asks

"No, I'm, well, I was a emissary for the council."

"Ah, if you don't mind me askinf but what is the council?"

"Twelve elves who think they are all high-and-mighty and get to control everyone else, basically."

Bennett shivers as he thinks about his own world. "Are they really that bad?"

"Yes. They put on a show for the people but.." Alvar feels a TINY twinge of guilt remembering the slight mercy the council showed him while he had amnesia.

"If you don't wanna talk about it, you don't need to." Bennett shrugs as he stirs the boiling pot of stew.

"Do you really want to know?" Alvar asks hesitantly, figuring that if he tells Bennett the truth about what he's done, Bennett will finish what Fitz tried (aka killing Alvar)

"If you're willing to..."

"Okay...well, I'm a elf. My parents are Alden and Della Vacker, and us Vacker's are basically 'elven royalty.'" Alvar shares a little bit and waits to see Bennett's reaction.

Bennett listens intently, nodding in understandment

"A long time ago, my dad shattered a rebel for the Black Swan's mind, receiving a strand of DNA and the term "Project moonlark." He wanted to investigate project moonlark despite the council telling him not to, so he sent me into forbidden cites--or, human cities--to look for a elvin child that was supposed to be living among humans." Alvar shares a little more, testing Bennett's reactions before he gets to the really dark, gritty stuff.

Bennett feels the atmosphere get tense but ignores it, continuing to listen to Alvar, practically praying to Barbatos that nothing comes at then.

"One time, while i was searching in London, I was approached by a different rebel gang. They offered me information about a "Vacker family legacy" and the ability to expose it if I joined their group. I did. I worked for the Neverseen for...a long time. From that point on, I wasn't searching for the moonlark for my dad, but for the Neverseen. They wanted tk recruit the Black Swan's "secret weapon" to their group."

Bennett just nods.

"I actually did find the moonlark at one point...but I didn't realize it was her. Elves don't have brown eyes, but she does. Far in the future, when dad had replaced me with Fitz, my younger brother, and I was a emissary, Fitz was sent to make sure Sophie Foster wasn't a elf based on some new information he'd received. Fitz realized that she was when he figured out that she was a telepath. He brought her to the lost cities, like the Wonderboy that he is." Alvar tries and fails to keep bitterness at his younger brother out of his tone.

Bennett senses the bitterness in his voice and cringes at his own experiences but lets him continue, ladeling some soup into the bowl and quietly sliding it to Alvar.

Alvar pauses to recompose himself and reaches for the stew. "Thank you...are you sure you still want to hear about my past? It only gets worse.." he tries some of the stew, and maybe it'd the fact that he's not eaten in forever, or the only food he's had in a while has been disgusting, or the stew is actually really good--likely all of the above--but he finds that it might be the best he's had in his life.

Bennett contemplates. "If you're willing..." he says

"That's not what I asked.." Alvar points out, mostly because he has conflicting feelings whether to continue or not.

Bennett bites the bottom of his lip, his own mind conflicting. Though, he rathers someone talks to him, seeing as this person willing spoke to him while others would spit on his face and call him a curse, he almost laughs at how selfish he sounded. "Please... continue." he made up his decision.

Alvar nods. "Well... Sophie's arrival starts to uncover many secrets, and it is now more then rumors that the Black Swan exists. Soon, even the Neverseen is found to be a rebel group. No one knew that we existed before. We start to have struggles, but we still win the battles. My dad's mind ends up breaking at one point...I think that happened before the Neverseen was found out though. Remember how I mentioned that he broke a rebels mind? Well, if us elves feel guilty or greived over something, our minds can shatter themselves. He felt guilty because he didn't know if the Black Swan were actually good, and the man had a Son...I dunno. I don't really like my dad, but it was difficult for our whole family."

Bennety just keeps quiet as he listens, making sure to put the fire from the stove out

"Anyway...sometime after that we worked with the ogres to unleaah a gnomish plague to get the world under our control. Sophie tharted us, of course. Exposed it all. And a ex leader of the Neverseen, Fintan, exposed that I was working with the Neverseen by demanding my loyalty IN FRONT OF OUR ENEMY. Say what you want about Lady Gisela's leadership, but at least she has more common sense then THAT. And then since I obviously lost all honor in our world after that, even my FAMILY turned against me, I was punished for Fintan's error. That's what these," he motions to his full-body scars, "are."

Bennett grips his shorts at the description of what happened and bites his lip. But, he allows Alvar to continue, merely nodding.

Alvar notices and debates stopping there, but decides to ask. "Do you still want the whole story?"

Bennett thinks for a while. Then he realizes that he's heard of far more disturbing things during his adventures with the Traveler so he nods.

Alvar sighs. "Okay. Well, when I heard if be punished, I decided to make the best of it and came up with a plan that should allow us to finally reveal the Vacker family legacy. They would give me the scars, that was the punishment part. There was no changing it. Then they would erase all of my memories and ''leave me for dead'', but Sophie and gang would find me. I was also heavily sedated, but we knew they would find a way to wake me up. Of course, they did. And just like we knew they would, the council sent me back home, to Everglen. It's funny, the whole time I had amnesia, I wanted to change and actually thought I could.." Alvar shakes his head. "But then on the night the Neverseen were supposed to put into action the next part of the plan, I didn't have to do anything but MOVE AROUND and Fitz assaulted me. For no reason, because at that point I was still trying to be a better person."

Bennett flinches a bit, how could someone try to assault a person who genuinely seemed as though they were changing?

"Then when the Neverseen show up, they play this little game with Fitz's head after he binds me up and tries to hand me over to them at knifepoint. They are trying to get him to kill me, so they can "see if they recruited the wrong Vacker." After everything I'd left behind...anyway, when Fitz's friends talk him out of killing me, I get all my memories back."

Bennett looks at him with emphathetic eyes but keeps quiet, allowing him to continue.

"And then we open the gate that needed opened, revealing the illegal troll hive hidden at Everglen. Tam, one of Sophie's friends, damages Ruy's powers and the Neverseen get out of there, leaving their Shade, Umber, dead, and me to fend for myself. I end up being locked in a troll hive pod and Fitz fills it with orange goo, trying to kill me again. I manage to control my breathing and body heat until I can sneak away, but whatever was in the goo made me deathly sick...thank you for healing me, by the way. I really thought I was gonna die."

Bennett finally speaks up. "No problem, just doing my duty."

"You had no reason to...in fact everyone would probably have rathered you didn't. You've actually... probably been nicer to me then anyone else ever has been."

"It's probably just second nature for me. And besides, you're also probably nicer to me than anyone, well other than my friends and the Traveler of course."

Alvar slightly tilts his head. "Really? But...you're so kind."

Bennett rubs his head. "It's a long story. Let's just say people aren't as friendly as they appear, hehe..."

"Well...would you mind telling me your story? I just told you mine. Of course you don't have to, if you don't want to."

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure I can handle anything at this point, and I'm kind of curious about you."

Bennett thinks for a bit. It wouldn't hurt to say it, he guesses. "Just... promise not to hate me alright? I was born with horrible luck, then I got abandoned by my parents in what my dads could only describe as a windless land, maybe even the Mare Jivari." Bennett shrugs.

Alvar nods slowly. "And people hate you for that?"

"No. Growing up my bad luck did more bad than good. I never introduced myself properly, I'm actually the leader of, well what's left of, my own adventure team. And they all left because of my bad luck. Only Jack tolerates me now. I stay in a place where people are playing, it suddenly rains, I stay in a place where there are festivities, it all goes wrong and I'M always to blame" Bennett says it as though it's the most normal thing ever.

Alvar struggles to understand this because nothing has gone wrong for him since he met Bennett, in fact it's seemed to go the very opposite of bad. "I don't really understand. I mean, I get the idea, but I've not seen that at all."

Bennett rubs the back of his neck. "My bad luck happened when I got chased by rifthounds and ended up here. Anything bad that will happen will only take place if I actually want to do something. Like when I enter ruins to collect treasure, all that I would find are cabbages and useless weapons." Bennett rubs his Vision.

"Oh. So you can't do anything you want to do?"

"Kinda. I can still freely explore unharmed and use my Vision without starting a forest fire it's just that everything will inevitably go wrong when I'm around."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I've already lost everything." Alvar flashes a crooked, playful smile and feels a little anxious, not thinking about what he said first and hoping Bennett doesn't get offended.

Bennett looks down once he hears the last part. He can't say he understands, he still has his dads and friends, he still has a god to believe in, Alvar just seems like he was all alone.

Alvar's smile fades. "Sorry, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say."

Bennett's eyes widen and he flails his arms around. "No no no! It's uh-"

Alvar looks at him, kinda confused by the outburst. Didn't Bennett look upset when he looked down, because of Alvar's tease?

Bennett's mind made him think too much. "If I say I understand or don't worry would it undermine his experiences???" he thought.

Alvar doesn't know if he should say something or not.

Bennett slowly composes himself. "Sorry for the outburst uh..."

Alvar nods slowly, still confused. "It's alright." Alvar looks at the now empty bowl in his hand. "The soup was good. Thank you for making it for me."

Bennett nods, making the bowl disappear along with the stove. "No problem- ow" Bennette gets hit by a rouge stone but shakes it off. "If you need anything else, just tell me."

Alvar nods, though he doesn't feel like he has much of a right to anything. Plus a few shards of remaining pride andlies told throughout his childhood make him wonder if he can accept anything much from humans. "Okay." He also wonders what to do now. He'd thought that he'd come out here and waste to death, but his plans have been ruined, not that they were good plans anyway, but he doesn't exactly have somewhere to go.

Bennett stands up and starts grabbing leaves and sticks.

Alvar picks himself up as well. "So... what are you doing next?"

"Making a camp" Bennett says as he begins to create a makeshift tent.

"Is there a way for me to help?"

Bennett thinks for a bit. "Uh... you can try to gather some dry sticks to make a fire"

Alvar nods and sets about gathering dry sticks and bringing them back by where Bennett is. "Where do I set these?"

"Here." Bennett points to the ground next to the tent, but not too close to end up burning it down, he hopes.

Alvar sets the sticks down where Bennett pointed.

Bennett kneels down, channeling Pyro energy and creating a small campfire.

"So, you're not a pyrokinetic but you control fire?" Alvar asks, trying to learn about Bennett's special abilities. He didn't know humans had special abilities.

"It's with the help of this thing, it's called a Vision. According to legend, when a person's ambition reaches its peak, the gods will look down in their favor and grant them 1 out of the 7 elemental abilities, I got pyro while... uh nevermind," Bennett explains

"Oh...okay."

"Say, if you don't mind me asking, do you have any sort of ability like this?" Bennett asked

Alvar nods. "Yup. Well, not with fire, but I'm a Vanisher," he lets the light pass through his body, making him go invisible, "Plus I am skilled in all of the basic skills too that most OTHER elves ignore. Levitation, appetite supression, body heat regulation, breathing control, darkness vision, channelling...they've saved my life too many times." Alvar reappears after he finishes listing all of his skills.

"That's amazing!" Bennett has a glint of awe in his eyes

Alvar nods proudly, amazed by the fact that he made someone proud of him, despite being so weak and them knowing his backstory. He'd never made anyone proud, not even when he seemed to have it all put together. "Thanks. It's pretty cool you can control fire."

"I mean, it's still pretty hard to learn. You're not really born with Visions," Bennett cringes at the times he may have accidentally launched himself off of cliffs

"Oh. Brant struggled to control his pyrokenises. He ended up accidentally killing his fiance in a argument.." Alvar still feels bad for everything Brant had been through. Even though Brant was pretty mean to Alvar, they had been friends.

Bennett rubs his neck. "I see..."

"He probably would have done better if Fintan hadn't been the one to train him. Fintan was the reason pyrokenises got banned in the first place."

"Why? Did he abuse the power or was he just a genuinely bad teacher?" Bennett asked

"Fintan very much abuses the power. He taught Brant how to gain more power, but not how to control it. So when he started to loose control of his emotions.." Alvar pauses and shakes his head. "Brant never was the same after that."

"Ah, I see,"

Alvar shifts a little nervously. He's not used to talking so much. "But...you seem better at controlling the power, at least."

"Thanks. I have master Diluc to thank for that."

"Was master Diluc human too?" Alvar asks, curious. He wonders how many humans have special abilities.

Bennett nods. "Yeah. Vision wielders are usually human to an extent. Half humans or even mystical beasts with human forms are also capable of having Visions, take the adepti." Bennett explains

Alvar nods. "Oh, I see.."

"Although, Visions aren't given to EVERYONE. We're practically the minority."

"Really?" Alvar decides that that must be why he'd never heard of it before. Although, he had admittedly put most of his energy towards researching the Vacker Family legacy..

"Yeah. As much as a lot of people tend to want Visions, only those who the gods find "worthy" get them. Honestly, I was kinda surprised when I got one myself,"

"Why? Would bad luck stop you from being worthy, or something?"

"There are different factors, not just bad luck. It's just that my luck is so bad I never would've thought the gods would see me worthy of a Vision. Maybe they just took pity on me seeing as I was kinda dying when I got this," he says quite nonchalantly

"You were dying?" Alvar thought Bennett looked young, at least according to what he knows about humans. Though humans did tend to get sick more then elves, according to what little he knew.

Bennett did not realize that that part had slipped out of his lips. Might as well come clean. "I guess. I never really told you how I even recieved my Vision,"

Alvar shrugs, but stays quiet hoping Bennett will continue.

"... Do you want me to tell you?" Bennett asks

"Yes, please." He looks genuinely interested.

"Well, as an adventurer, it's not uncommon I get commissioned to domains. I got a commission to go to a certain domain and retrieve any treasure that was inside, the intel provided never gave any clear description as to what the treasure was."

Alvar nods, understanding him so far at least.

"Well, after that a series of unfortunate events happened and there were traps. Everywhere. You can probably guess what happened to me, blood was all over the place to make it simpler. And then when I got to the treasure, there was only garbage in there, nothing for me to retrieve and surrender to the guild. Then due to the blood loss, I kinds passed out on the spot. I really sure I was going to die!" Bennett scrunched his face at that.

Alvar frowns in empathy. He knows what it's like to be on the brink of death, and from what he can tell, Alvar knows he deserved it, But Bennett isn't a criminal. He didn't deserve death whatsoever from the sounds of it.

"Then after a bit, I felt a warm sensation in my body and found that my wounds healed and I saw the Vision in my hand. In all honesty, for me, the sign that the gods still look at me is more than enough treasure. That's also why I decided to learn how to heal people," Bennett concludes.

"That... That's a really powerful story.." Alvar mutters, not quite sure what to say but he wants to say something.

"How so?" Bennett wonders. There were far more powerful stories than his own, he was practically a wheel of misfortune waiting to happen

"I mean...every human dies, right? Some sooner rather then later? And it sounds like you have...well, worse luck then most other humans. But the gods let you live, then you use the gift to learn to heal other people who are hurt and might be dying too. I dunno, it just...it sounds really nice."

"Huh. I never thought of it that way..." Bennett says

"How long have you had powers?" Alvar asks, curious how long ago that happened.

"For about 3 years or so," Bennett tries to recall

Alvar nods. "Did you heal immediately after manifesting, or I guess being gifted the powers, or did it still take a little bit?"

Bennett thinks for a moment. "Yes, it healed immediately. When I woke up to the Vision in my hand, all my wounds were miraculously gone"

"That's really neat...and then you found a group of people with abilities like you?"

"Well, more so they found me. Normally people avoid me cause of my bad luck but the Traveler and his party approached me one day and now I accompant him on his journey"

"I see. And they are nice?"

"Surprisingly enough! They're like family, y'know." Bennett says

Alvar's face falls a little bit, though it's barely noticeable. "Oh, that must be nice."

Bennett notices this and feels slightly guilty. "Oh uh..."

There is a bit of a awkward pause before Alvar looks at the small camp. "Is there anything else that needs set up?"

Bennett thinks for a while. "No, not really. If you're tired, you can take a rest. I'll stand guard." Bennett shrugs

Alvar considers offering to stand guard, but he is tired.. "What would be the reason to stand guard for?"

"Oh, well you see where I come from, monsters lurk everywhere, especially at night. So, each of us take turns guarding the camps." Bennety explains

"You're sure you want to take the first watch?" Alvar asks, willing to hold off sleep for a few more hours. He didn't have food at Candleshade, but he had plenty of alone time and had tons of time to sleep, as well as search for dirt on Gisela for Cassius...really those were the only two things he'd done in awhile.

"Of course. You were the one I found *dying anyway, so don't take up the burden and take some rest." Bennett holds a thumbs up

Alvar nods slowly, content to sleep if Bennett really doesn't mind. "Okay. Thank you."

"No problem!"

Alvar lays down in the grass and drifts off to sleep after a few minutes.

Bennett sits in the dark. He entertains himself by playing Liyue Millenium. By himself.

After a couple hours, Alvar sits up and wipes away a cold sweat. He's glad that his nightmares never make him thrash in his sleep-that would've been embarrassing to scream over invisible horrors.

"Oh you're up. Hm?" Bennett noticed Alvar slightly sweating. "What's wrong? Can't handle the heat?"

"No, no. Um...body heat regulation, I'm fine." Alvar tries to compose himself.

"Oh, I see." Bennett nods, not wanting to press the situation as he organizes his game and puts it away

"Is it my turn to keep watch?"

. . .

And THERE. THAT'S ALL. THAT WE DID.
But ruisgreasyhair, if you wanna continue it with us we wouldn't mind-

Wow that's like 4350 words-
Kinda long-
Anyway. ANYONE WHO READ THIS. WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! 😁
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE