iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Hello! I've just posted the first chapter of this year's #zhongchili longfic. A time loop murder mystery featuring our beloved Ekaterina, and Childe's attempts to save her from the murderer set on ending her life. 🔶Timeloop 💧Murder Mystery 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link Below!

A golden chess piece sits in an outstretched hand. Not to Childe, but to fucking Signora of all people, who smirks and snatches it from her benefactor. And that benefactor isn’t the simple funeral parlour consultant Zhongli, it’s Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon, the snake in sheep’s clothing.

“No need for such a sour face now, Tartaglia,” Signora purrs. “I think we all got just what we want and deserve today.” She gives a sidewards glance and smirk to the Traveller who also stands alongside them, watching the exchange with an expression of surprise that mirrors Childe’s own. Good, let them feel it too. Serves them right for interfering in his perfectly laid plans. Well, they would have been perfect, had Zhongli not been leading him on this entire time.

But this is how a villain’s story is fated to end. Hated by all, betrayed by a friend of convenience, because that’s all there was between him and Zhongli—the exchange of mora and knowledge. It was always nothing more than that. The villain can never expect more than that.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

HELLO I present to you my new silly #zhongchili fic, in which assassin Zhongli is tasked with dealing with so-called "mob" boss, Ajax. 🔶Assassin Zhongli / Flashmob Boss Ajax 💧Crack / humour 🔶Maybe the real villain was the Housing Association we met along the way 💧Link Below!

As the crowd launched into their final, dramatic verse, a tuba booming and the melody slowing, Zhongli turned to Helen.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I do not wish to be presumptuous, but I was under the impression that the target of our operations was a singular operative of a criminal operation, rather than a theatre troupe?”

Helen stared at him blankly and blinked once. ”It is a singular man.” She pointed to the tap dancing fellow. “It’s him, he’s the one who started this. We haven’t had a day’s peace since he started all this nonsense. All over a new door colour painting policy. It’s ridiculous.”

“I see.” Zhongli did not see. There was supposed to be a mob, not a choir and dance ensemble. “Apologies for my presumptuousness, but did you not mention that this young man was also the ringleader of some manner of mob troubling your town?”

She squinted at him, and Zhongli had the strange sensation that he’d just said something she considered quite foolish. “That was the mob, sir.”

Outside the window, the troupe echoed with a final, rousing note, the red-head front and centre as his co-conspirators harmonised around him. “I have never seen a mob quite like it,” he said, taking the most diplomatic answer he could think of.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

The final chapter of Night Hunter is up! Your perfect #zhongchi read for government agent Childe tasked to slay a certain dragonlike target whom he may or may not fall for along the way. 👀 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Not-So-Human Zhongli 🔶48k words 💧Link Below!

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Chapter 10 of Night Hunter is up! A little mid-week teaser before Friday. 😉 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Not-So-Human Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

Childe runs.

Bullets ricochet off the filing cabinets as he ducks into the next row. He dodges left, sprints to the next opening, then right. He needs distance and angles to buy him time to make a plan.

Escaping is out of the question—the only way out is via the staircase, but Rybakov knows that too; if he tries to escape that way, he’s dead. But killing Rybakov outright is no better; the CCTV cameras aren’t angled in this direction, and he’ll have no way to prove he hasn’t murdered Rybakov in cold blood upon being discovered sneaking around the archive. The authorities won’t go easy on that.

It’s a death sentence either way.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Hello #ZhongChi #tartali and #zhongchili enjoyers! I am opening fic requests...with a twist! Think of the guy who takes the photoshop requests and messes with them in unexpected ways... but in fic form! Please drop requests below or in my DMs / Tumblr (teaandsconeswrites) asks.

Want a lovely fic, crafted specifically to your request, written by a diligent author who strives to keep your original vision in mind at all times?

If so, you’ve come to the wrong place!

Welcome to Tea’s Troll Requests, where you’ll get what you asked for, not necessarily what you want!

Guidelines: Submit requests as a simple sentence. You can include tropes, location, general ideas etc.
You can include a dynamic and I will adhere to it, although in the spirit of these requests, it might not be executed in the way you expect!

Won't write: Non-Con
Mpreg / Breeding Kink
Heavy feminisation
Other kinks to be reviewed as they come up

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Chapter 9 of Night Hunter is up! Childe is so close to finding all the answers... #Zhongchi 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Not-So-Human Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

The desk in the centre of the room has been completely upended, folders removed from the drawers and dumped on top. They’re spotlighted by the circle of light coming from the single, round window in the far corner, where a pigeon sits, cooing as it peers inside.

Without Alexei filling the space, it’s all too quiet, too uniform with every other room in this place, too lifeless.

“Competence is rewarded,” the Fatui always say. Yeah, right.

In the other corner sits an unopened safe that’s as high as Childe’s waist, and he approaches it, crouching by the lock. So far it appears undamaged, which means Rybakov hasn’t gotten his dirty hands on it yet. Childe twists the dial into the starting position, then enters the code Alexei gave him.

The mechanism clicks. It actually worked. This is what Alexei wanted him to find. Childe’s heart beats faster. What terrible secret has Alexei left for him to find?

Childe takes the handle, opening it.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Chapter 8 of Night Hunter is up! #Zhongchi 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Not-So-Human Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

Childe strides down the street, huddling in his jacket to stave off the biting wind. Zhongli’s sorrowful eyes haunt him with every step, and phantom arms wrap around his waist, teasing a now forbidden touch. If there were another way, he would take it, but with the situation as Zhongli described, and Rybakov as desperate—

His phone rings. Childe checks the caller ID.

Speak of the devil.

Heart jamming against his chest, he worries briefly that he’s left his location data on, that Rybakov has taken it upon himself to track him and has somehow found out that he’s bedded the zmeelyud he’s supposed to be destroying.

“Rybakov,” he answers carefully.

“Childe, our little prodigy. Or less so, lately, it would seem,” Rybakov drawls. “Got the wrong one, or so I hear.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Chapter 7 of Night Hunter is up! #Zhongchi 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Author (?) Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

Childe rolls over, which is more difficult than anticipated with Zhongli’s arms clamped around him, and there Zhongli is, face pressed against the pillow, a serene expression on his sleeping features. His hair flows free, rolling down over his shoulders, framing him like a painting of old, one of those candid portraits of maidens, captured eternally in the ethereal beauty of youth.

From beneath his hair curls a pair of golden antlers, about a forearm’s length each, rivers of gold flowing from the base, expanding towards the tips and coating them in shimmering pools. The light casts a flamelike glow over Zhongli’s face, like a Celestial angel of the ancient texts, as though one touch from Zhongli could cast him down into the Abyss, or raise him to Celestia’s gates.

He’s beautiful. He’s glorious. He’s otherworldly.

There’s only one other place Childe has seen anything like it, and that would be on the head of a…

No. No no no.

It can’t be. Zhongli can’t be.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Chapter 4 of Night Hunter is up! #Zhongchi 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Author Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

“Hey, Zhongli, check this out!” Childe drags Zhongli towards a glass display containing a triple pronged spear, the side blades and pole formed from a metal as dark as the ocean’s depths, while the central blade glimmers pale blue, like a moon suspended in the night sky. It’s a glorious piece of weaponry, and Childe presses his face against the glass, longing to feel it in his palm. “It’s said to be the spear of Ajax the Great!”

“Ajax…” says Zhongli, drawing out the sound, and it sounds so heavenly upon his lips that Childe can’t help the next words out of his mouth.

“That’s my name, you know—my real name, not my work name. Father named me after him.”

“Ajax,” Zhongli repeats, with finality this time. “A fine name. Would you like me to call you by that instead?”

Yes. Yes yes yes. Zhongli should call him that always. He should call it out as they meet, he should speak it as he touches Childe’s arm to pull his attention to an item that’s caught his interest, he should whisper it, late at night, behind closed doors, beneath the sheets—

Get. It. Together.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Chapter 3 of Night Hunter is up! #Zhongchi In which our favourite pair go on a nice restaurant date. 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Author Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

On the upside, the desserts are delicious.

On the downside, Zhongli still refuses to go home with him.

“Aww, I’m starting to think you don’t want me, Zhongli,” Childe grumbles, only half in exaggeration.

His comment catches Zhongli as he’s taking a sip of his tea, and Childe is sure that he catches him spitting half of it back into his cup.

“That could hardly be further from the truth.” Zhongli clears his throat, dabbing at his mouth with his napkin. “There are few desires that I have experienced which could equal such want.”

“Then I hope you can please me. I’m the sort of guy who likes to take all that you can give him, if you catch my meaning.”

After a quick glance around the restaurant, Zhongli yet again brings his cup to his lips, staring Childe through from over the rim, his pupils blown wide and dark. “As you wish.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

The next chapter of Night Hunter is up! #Zhongchi In which Childe meets a mysterious (and very attractive) man. 🔶Modern / Paranormal AU 💧Agent Childe / Author Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

As the door closes behind Childe, a gust catches it, slamming it behind him. Kiosk-Man startles, catching himself on the kiosk desk, and turns towards him.

“Sorry,” says Childe. “Wind caught it.”

“It is no trouble,” replies Kiosk-Man. His voice is smooth and even, with a soft Liyuen accent. He brings the back of his palm to his mouth, looks Childe up and down, examining him with the most stunning honey-coloured eyes Childe has ever seen, and lets out a quiet hum. “You are with the Fatui?”

“You got it. One of their best and strongest, in fact.” Childe preens, readying himself for the inevitable compliments and accolades.

“I see,” says Kiosk-Man. “Then perhaps you can assist me with a question that I have found myself most perplexed by.”

A question? No compliments? No recognition? From the times he’s been out in his uniform, that’s a first. He’d almost call it audacious.

Childe likes an audacious man.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

New fic for ZhongChi Week's paranormal prompt! #zhongchiweek2025 #Zhongchi Strange entities wearing the faces of humans lurk the streets, luring in and slaughtering unsuspecting civilians. Childe's job is to kill them. 🔶Modern AU 💧Agent Childe / Author Zhongli 🔶Link Below!

“Please! I don’t know what you want!” The woman yelps as Childe lifts her, her heels scraping against the waterlogged cobblestone.

“You know quite well what I need.” Sliding the knife free from within its coatsleeve compartment, he takes hold of it and brings the blade an inch from her neck. “Or would you like me to end this here and now?” He edges the blade closer. If she doesn’t reveal herself, he can’t take this further. But she doesn’t need to know that. “So, what’ll it be?”

As the edge of the blade kisses her neck, there’s a hiss, and she throws him back with sudden strength. Childe stumbles, catching himself on the opposite wall, brick grating the palm of his hand, as the woman growls and writhes before him. Her fingers elongate, nails transforming into scalpel-like claws, and from her head sprout twin horns, twisted and pointed.

“You do push your luck, little boy.” She raises her head, her voice deeper, huskier, and she smiles a wicked smile, baring twin fangs. A long, scaled tail taps against the stone as she steps towards him, the tip sharp enough to pierce his breastbone and sever his heart in two.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Just finished Ch3 of my fic for @zcweek2025.bsky.social 's paranormal prompt, featuring monster hunter Childe! Getting a nice backlog of chapters built up, and I'm really pleased with how it's going so far, so here's a little WIP from Ch1 to share! #zhongchi

The light from each end of the alleyway thins to equal pinpricks, signalling they’re about halfway in. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to go.

Childe’s companion stops, massaging her calf. “Sorry, but my heels are killing me. Can we stop for a moment?”

“Sure, take your time.”

Childe turns his back, lets her think that she’s safe. It’s always the same song and dance with her kind. But tonight, things will end the way they always do—with him walking out of here, alone.

“You know,” he says, “you’re pretty good.”

“Oh, thank you.” He can hear the flutter of her lashes in the tone of her voice.

“Right. Most people would be utterly fooled by your little act. But you were sloppy.” Childe pivots sharply and rushes towards her. Before she can react, he grabs the corner of her coat, driving her against the brick wall. “You don’t fool me, although I will admit, it was a fun little game of cat and mouse you led me on tonight. Ah, if you’d paid as much attention to your hair as you did to your mannerisms, you might have gotten away from me.”

“I… I don’t know what you mean,” she stammers, attempting to twist away from him, but Childe holds tight.

A little more desperate. The beast must reveal itself before he can finish this.

“Please! I don’t know what you want!” The woman yelps as Childe lifts her, her heels scraping against the waterlogged cobblestone.

“You know quite well what I need.” Sliding the knife free from within its coatsleeve compartment, he takes hold of it and brings the blade an inch from her neck. “Or would you like me to end this here and now?” He edges the blade closer. If she doesn’t reveal herself, he can’t take this further. But she doesn’t need to know that. “So, what’ll it be?”

As the edge of the blade kisses her neck, there’s a hiss, and she throws him back with sudden strength. Childe stumbles, catching himself on the opposite wall, brick grating the palm of his hand, as the woman growls and writhes before him. Her fingers elongate, nails transforming into scalpel-like claws, and from her head sprout twin horns, twisted and pointed.

“You do push your luck, little boy.” She raises her head, her voice deeper, huskier, and she smiles a wicked smile, baring twin fangs. A long, scaled tail taps against the stone as she steps towards him, the tip sharp enough to pierce his breastbone and sever his heart in two.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

I made a writer's questions sheet! 1 like for 1 answer, or request a specific question and I'll answer it :3 Please feel free to take and repost, just remember to add the alt text.

1. What is your favourite work that you’ve written and why?
2. What was your most difficult work?
3. Which work is the most important to you?
4. Talk about a standout scene that you wrote.
5. What is your favourite genre to write?
6. What are your favourite tropes to write?
7. If you weren’t writing for your current main ship(s), which ship would you want to write for?
8. Plans for future works?
9. Describe your creative process.
10. Do you particularly relate to any of the characters you currently write? If so, how?
11. What do you like to read? Does that ever help inspire you?
12. How do you get out of writer’s block?
13. What aspect of writing do you struggle with the most?
14. Do you listen to music or watch anything while you write?
15. What’s a writing “rule” that you like to break?
16. What motivates you to write?

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

COMPLETE! The final chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili The conclusion to the tale of a man, a god, and a journey to reconnect with one's humanity. 🔶Canonverse 💧Happy Ending 🔶96,000+ Wordcount 💧Link Below!

Birds sing softly outside, and the red glow of sunlight builds behind Ajax’s closed eyes. He turns his cheek, head falling against a pillow that’s not his own, a bed that’s not his own.

Shoot. If it’s already light, he’s late for training. His sergeant is going to ream him for this.

He bolts upright, swings his legs over the side of the bed and jumps to his feet. But the surface that meets him is not the cold, hard concrete of the recruits’ barracks, but a soft, woven rug, and his toes sink into the gentle give of the material. He wriggles them once, twice, and blinks a few times, looking around the room.

It’s decorated by simple, Liyuean-styled furniture, and the side of the bed he’s stepped from faces a broad, bright window, where a pale sun rises over a snow capped mountain, granting a realistic view of Jueyun Karst, despite the adobe residing in an adeptal sub-space.

Right. He’s in Liyue. Not Snezhnaya. Not in the barracks. Those days are long behind him.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

The twenty-fifth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili The grand conclusion to our tale awaits! 🔶Canonverse 💧Happy Ending 🔶Link below!

Darkness.

A man wanders in an endless darkness. He might be dead, or he might be lost. He doesn’t know. Or he can’t remember, anyway. It’s quiet, peaceful; for some reason it’s a foreign feeling, but not an unwelcome one, relaxing his consciousness like a long, releasing sigh. Looking down, he finds he has no body; all there is is an inky black of nothingness spanning beneath him, behind him, around him.

When will it end?

Maybe he is dead, after all.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

The twenty-third chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Childe is looking a little worse for wear... 🔶Canonverse 💧Happy Ending 🔶Link below!

“You did well, child,” says the Cryo Archon to the figure whose head rests upon her lap, obscured by her body. “Your name shall be sung from our nation's history books forever.”

There’s a muffled groan from the figure.

“Childe!” Zhongli kneels beside her. “Please I must…”

The words drain from him as he witnesses the state of Childe’s body. The armour of his Foul Legacy transformation has half melted away, leaving only scaled hands, clawed fingers, and a hint of red scaling along his jawbone. His chest leaks as though stabbed straight through, but it is not blood that pours from him, but a dark, corrosive ooze that hisses and foams as it bubbles from within him.

“Please, let me hold him.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The twenty-second chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧The final battle for Teyvat has arrived 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

The fall of Celestia shall come today.

This is Zhongli’s first thought as he wakes.

His second thought is that his chest is too light, the calming pressure that was there throughout the night now missing.

Childe. Where is Childe?

He doesn’t have to look far. Upon sitting up, he catches sight of Childe standing by the window, looking out over the morning sunrise, his arms folded across his chest. Caught in that candid moment, he bites his lip, rolling it between his teeth and sighs, resting his head against the window. There’s none of the usual fire that fills his eyes at the thought of battle, only dull resignation, and Zhongli peels the bedcovers back, preparing to go and offer him some form of comfort.

However, the sound catches Childe’s attention and he turns, offering a strained smile. “Morning! The sunrise sure is beautiful today, huh?”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

The twenty-first chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧The night before the battle against Celestia has come... 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Childe climbs into the bed beside Zhongli, and shifts to lie next to him, gazing at the ceiling. A carving of Her Majesty gazes down upon him, yet her eyes are ever cold, even for the man prepared to give everything for her plans, her nation.

He’d always taken some satisfaction in playing the part of her pawn; battle was fun, and not thinking about the hows and whys was easy. All he had to do was follow instructions, visit interesting places, and defeat foul beasts or rogue armies along the way. He didn’t care if she held any level of personal sentiment towards him, so long as he could impress her with his skill and do as he pleased.

But tomorrow he will die. And she will carry on without him. The whole world will. Some will marvel, others will cover their eyes in horror as another star makes its final journey, tumbling from the Heavens to find its grave within the blood-soaked mud of the battlefield.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

New #ZhongChili oneshot: The Emperor's Blade Zhongli is asked to forge the perfect weapon. And so, he forges Ajax. 🔶Blacksmith Zhongli / Human Weapon Childe 💧Dehumanisation 🔶Injury & Zhongli tending Childe's wounds 💧Link below

From the earth he forged a body, the form of a young man in his prime, blessed with both strength and agility imbued in strong, taut muscles. Into his creation’s chest Zhongli poured a little of the soul he imbued into every weapon, now amplified enough to sustain an independent spirit. From the earth he drew water, manifesting the power of Hydro in the young man’s heart, and with a quiet prayer and a promise to the stone, that heart began to beat.

When the Emperor commands that the blacksmith, Zhongli, craft him the finest weapon in all the land, Zhongli forges Ajax, a young man possessing mastery over all weapons. However, when the Emperor takes possession of Ajax, he names him Tartaglia, treating him as an unfeeling blade fit only for war.

As Zhongli's unease towards the treatment of his creation increases, so does the Emperor's ambition, leading the nation—and Ajax—into an ever greater risk of peril.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

COMPLETE - When The Stars Have Fallen #ZhongChili The final chapter is up! Zhongli's ordeal is finally over, and it's time to move forward with a new life. 💧Day 5 from ZCL Week: Captive 🔶Zhongli Whump 💧Link below!

Zhongli wakes to a strange pressure against his chest, a whisper of breath against his cheek, a presence curled over him. As he blinks awake, he inhales Childe’s scent, finding the man himself curled over him, palm flat over his heart and his ear to Zhongli’s face.

“Childe? What are you doing?”

His midnight visitor jumps back. “Ah, Zhongli! You’re… You’re awake.”

“Yes?” Zhongli props himself up on his elbows. “Is there a reason I should not be, given such disturbance?”

“No, no. I guess you’re right.”

“And may I ask what you were doing?”

“Well, you were sleeping so still and quiet that I couldn’t hear you breathe, and I just wanted to make sure you weren’t…” Childe takes a long breath, running his hand through his hair. “Never mind. The important thing is you’re fine.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Little preview of the Blacksmith Zhongli oneshot I'll be posting over the weekend. Hope you like injury hurt/comfort and Childe being dehumanised as a weapon. ✨ #zhongchili

By Ajax’s bedside Zhongli sat, changing his bandages, cleaning the puffy, red skin surrounding his wound. He wiped the sweat from Ajax’s brow with a cool, damp cloth, and took his hand when fever dreams disturbed his sleep, his moans of pain so subdued that Zhongli could believe Ajax were aiming to avoid inconveniencing him with his distress.

For seven days and seven nights Zhongli remained by Ajax’s side, eating only the little that was supplied to him by an infrequent messenger. However, on the eighth day, Ajax let out a groan that was a little longer than usual, and his grip tightened around Zhongli’s hand. Finally, his eyelashes flickered, and his eyes opened, then narrowed.

“Zhongli? What are you—?” His voice was raspy, and he broke off into a dry cough, slipping his hand away from Zhongli to grasp his chest.

“You were injured in the battle. Here, please drink.” Zhongli poured a glass of water from the jug beside the bed and propped the pillows behind Ajax’s head to allow him to drink. Holding the glass to Ajax’s lips, he tilted it so that a light trickle fed into his parched mouth. Ajax groaned as his injured side shifted, but he drank eagerly, gulping down every last droplet before allowing Zhongli to lower him back down.

As his head came to rest upon the waiting pillow, Ajax studied Zhongli, his gaze sharp and exposing, combing over every inch of Zhongli. The world narrowed, and there was no war, no lonely room at the back of the armoury, no bleak divide between weapon and human. There was only an injured warrior whose pain made Zhongli’s heart ache, and whose eyes made it beat impossibly faster.

“You’re here,” said Ajax.

“I am,” replied Zhongli.

“Why?”

Zhongli thought upon his answer. Technically he was there because the Emperor commanded that he be so; if the Emperor did not permit it, Zhongli would be cast far from these chambers to be left wondering upon Ajax’s condition. But had that occurred, Zhongli would have pled his case, begged to be allowed to remain, to tend to the brave warrior whose great strength saw no one else observing his own need for the tender care of a human hand.

“Because I wish to,” Zhongli said, wiping a cool cloth against Ajax’s forehead. “And because I shall always wish to.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

The twentieth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧Childe prepares himself to face the end 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Childe approaches slowly, pushing through the wind that whips and howls around him, arms folded tight across his chest, although they do nothing to stop the biting cold that snakes down his collar to nip at his neck.

He reaches the edge.

The chasm yawns, sucking down a torrent of wind that pushes and shoves at Childe’s back, fighting to fling itself into the waiting maw, urging him to do the same. Deep within him, a whispering instinct stirs, begging him to step away, to turn back, to not allow a wayward tug of wind to set him off balance and bring their war to an end before it’s begun. But he stands firm, taking in the sensation of death tugging him forward and the fate that would await him should he take only a step forward.

Good. Drink in this moment. Stare at death and let it stare back. He will not be intimidated. He is not afraid.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

The nineteenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧The Abyss-Celestia War draws closer... 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

He’s bored.

Without actively deciding to, Childe begins to pace. He hums, stretches his arms overhead, and visualises his role in the battle to come, running through every maneuver and strike. Past the wardrobe, past the bed, past the desk.

A crinkling sound behind him catches his attention and he turns just in time to see a single sheet of paper flutter to the ground. Oops. That’ll be a letter from Hu Tao or someone like that. He bends down to pick it up and return it to the desk, but as he does so, he catches a glimpse of the sender, as well as the contents of the page’s message.

Baizhu is writing to Zhongli. No, Baizhu is replying to Zhongli, and they’re talking about him.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Writing the NSFW part of Ch19 for PWSH and remembering how much I like writing power bot Childe into my ZC scenes 😌 #zhongchili

“It’s whatever you want today, Zhongli,” Childe hums in his ear. We’re here to make memories for you, so tell me what you want to remember.”

Everything. He wants to remember everything. And he will, every moment of his life etched into his eternal memories. He needs every part of Childe, every inch of him, to store for eternity, to retrieve on the nights when it is too quiet and he too alone.

“You,” he says. “I need only you.”

“Then you’ll have me.”

Then Childe’s lips are upon Zhongli’s once more, and he guides Zhongli’s hands to the clasps of his shirt, the fastenings of his pants, encouraging Zhongli to unhook them, to strip him bare, which Zhongli does gladly as Childe reciprocates, teasing each item of clothing from him—his shirt, his pants, even his hair tie—until they lie naked together. Skin brushes skin, each touch electric, the slow roll of their hips sending waves of want rolling through Zhongli.

When he can bear it no longer, he parts his legs, baring himself to his lover. He needs this, he needs Childe, needs to be one with him. But instead of taking him and completing their union, Childe sits back on his knees, an impish grin on his face.

“That eager for me, are you? Well, I’m not complaining, but I have an alternative proposition.”

“Oh?”

“Well, we’re supposed to be making new memories. I propose we try something else new today.” Leaning forward, Childe teases himself against the tip of Zhongli’s length in a manner that has to be deliberate as he whispers against his ear, “You’ll be a lucky man, Zhongli. I don’t let everyone have me like this.”

Zhongli suppresses a shiver. He’s certainly fantasised about it, but the reality of having Childe around him, willing for Zhongli to take him, siphoning pleasure from every rock of their hips, sends an avalanche of desire crashing through him.

“You would want this?” he asks, feeling his way down to Childe’s hips, over the tight curve of muscle behind.

“I don’t say things I’m not certain of, so if you want this…” A nip to Zhongli’s ear, a flash of heat pooling in his groin. “Top drawer, hurry up.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

The seventeenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili In which Zhongli is not good at dancing. 🔶Canonverse 💧The Abyss-Celestia War draws closer... 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Pulling open the door, Childe guides Zhongli forward. “We’re here to make memories, to do all the things we haven’t done yet. So tonight I thought I’d teach you—”

Zhongli steps into a vast ballroom. Glittering chandeliers. A smooth, wooden floor polished so well that the paintings of holy warriors on the ceiling reflect in its surface. A weathered gramophone in the corner.

Oh no.

Not this.

“—how to dance!” Childe concludes, bounding forward. “Every couple has to dance together once in their lives, Zhongli, so we’re going to have a little dance tonight.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The sixteenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧The Abyss-Celestia War draws closer... 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

The difficult thing about being dead is that no one else sees the slow erosion of a soul, the darkness that’s clung to those shattered fragments for a decade, gnawing at the broken remains of humanity binding it together.

The difficult thing about being dead is pretending to be alive, of playing and laughing along as though there’s a future to be had, acting as though the very thing he’s set to destroy won’t destroy him in turn, returning him to the darkness from whence he came.

The difficult thing about being dead is looking into the eyes of a man who wishes desperately that he were not, a man who will lose yet another soul he’s grown to care for, his features contorting in pain and desperation. A man Childe should have never let become so close. A man whose pain and suffering he’s now responsible for.

The difficult thing about being dead is the people who want you to live.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

The fifteenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

From within the darkness ahead, the whisperings of humanity call, and so Zhongli follows them, twisting through passageways where bones coat the floor and slime drips from the ceiling. But although the silken strands of humanity grow stronger the further he walks, another presence follows along with them. It’s indescribably alien, cold as the night sky, yet burning like the stars’ fire.

From just ahead, a woman’s voice.

“Io, Io, Pan. You, Ajax, who have been reborn unto the Abyss, life and soul forsaken for eternal will. You, Ajax, who bear the will to protect this world, to sustain it, to create it anew. You, Ajax, who have died before death, whose will shall eternally shape the stars. I bestow upon thee the will to resist thy fate of the cursed stars above, the strength to witness the path carved before you.”

Ajax—he’s here.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

The fourteenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

He falls as he fell a decade past, dark crystals blinking at him as he tumbles down. The last time, this ended with a bone crunching slam into the ground, but now he knows this place’s tricks. He catches himself on his own dark energy, lowering himself onto the dark ooze coating the ground. It squelches beneath his feet, lapping up the side of his boots, tasting its new visitor, feeling him out.

You have returned. You could not resist. Come, taste us, and revel in our power.

Not today. That power already nests within him, is a part of him, enough to grant him the strength he requires, yet little enough that his mind remains his own, for power with no one to wield it is no warrior, but a wild beast in need of putting down.

Come.

The other voice. The one he’s been following. Her voice.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

The thirteenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Zhongli knocks again. “Childe, are you awake?”

Still no answer.

Acting under the assumption that if Childe wished to keep him out, he would have locked the door, Zhongli turns the handle and pushes.

The door opens.

Everything is laid out as it was the night before, the bed crisp as though freshly made, and the window is cracked open, bringing in a sharp breeze that Zhongli can’t imagine sleeping comfortably through.

Childe is not here.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

The twelfth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Zhongli and Childe get acquainted with their quarters. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

They double back, and a few doors down the agent sweeps open another door, leading into a slightly smaller, but equally comfortable looking bedroom overlooking the palace gardens.

“Your room, Mister Zhongli.”

With the aura of a cat exploring a new environment, Zhongli takes a step inside. Childe imagines that if he had been in the form of his exuvia, his tail would have been held high above his head, his whiskers swaying as his nose twitched.

Clasping a hand on Zhongli’s shoulder, Childe lets out a long whistle. “Phew, not bad, huh?”

“It is most excellent,” says Zhongli, moving into the room to peer at a china ornament on the dresser. “I am honoured that such luxury was spared for a mere consultant such as myself.”

Childe rolls his eyes. Bastard.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

When The Stars Have Fallen #ZhongChili Chapter 6 is up! 💧Day 5 from ZCL Week: Captive 🔶Zhongli whump 💧Link below!

“Zhongli, stop.” Tartaglia holds him fast, his grip unyielding, clasping Zhongli tight against him. “Whatever it is, it’s gone now.”

Sneaky. False promises of safety. A ploy to make him more pliant to the Eleventh’s whims.

He tries again to reach for the forces of Geo that should answer him, but little more than a tremor responds, one that wracks his body, sending him trembling in Tartaglia’s lap.

Why? Why can he not use his power? Why does Tartaglia hold him here?

“Zhongli, please, calm down, all I need you to do is—”

“Leave me, monster.” At last, the words he’s longed to say fight their way past his lips. Leave him be, free him, send him back to his green fields and cool mountains and his friends who are waiting to greet him with a pot of tea.

Tartaglia freezes. His grip loosens, and Zhongli slumps in his lap.

“That’s really how you see it, huh?”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

The eleventh chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Childe says nothing, but his hands fall to his sides as he releases a heavy breath. Taking his chance, Zhongli taps his pinkie against Childe’s and Childe responds, looping them together.

“It would be an honour for me to have Harbinger Tartaglia walk by my side,” Zhongli continues. “Although many may fear that name, would you not find pleasure in the companionship of one who does not? While I treasured our time together in Liyue, it is undeniable that our time together now, seeing you here as Ajax, has only made my affection grow.”

“Ajax died in the Abyss. I’ve told you before.” Childe grinds his teeth, slipping his finger away.

"Did he truly? Do I not see him before me?"

“Don’t. You’re talking about things you don’t understand.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Little #zhongchili oneshot WIP featuring blacksmith Zhongli who, at the Emperor's request, forges a new weapon to defend their nation from any threat. Turns out, that weapon is a young man with blue eyes and ginger hair, and that man's name is Ajax.

For many years Zhongli worked with contentment, aging not a day, while the Emperor’s beard was soon dusted with white and his face worn the lines of the roads his legs once travelled. With his age, the Emperor grew anxious, for he had sired no heirs, and worried that an opportunistic foe might take their chance as his sunset years drew close.

One day, he summoned Zhongli to the palace, and when Zhongli knelt before his golden throne, the Emperor voiced these concerns to him.

“And so,” said the Emperor, “this is why I make my next request: You are to create a weapon that will see our nation able to defend itself from any danger, any enemy, any war. This weapon must be able to thwart both bow and blade, cavalry and soldier. It should leave no weakness exposed, and possess no defect that our foes might exploit. This is the task I entrust to you.”

Zhongli bowed his head. “Of course. It shall be done.”

But when he returned home that night and attempted to brew his usual pot of tea, he found every mouthful bitter, as though the leaves had been steeped for twice the ideal time, although he knew them to be perfectly brewed. He swirled his fingertip around the rim of his cup, the Emperor’s words resurfacing in his thoughts.

No weapon in the land existed that could best all foes. What one lacked in reach, another lacked in speed, and another lacked in weight. The spears that would tear down the cavalry would be broken by the greatsword, whose wielders in turn would be pierced by heart-seeking arrows.

But Zhongli was not exalted as the best blacksmith in the land without reason, and when the next morning came, he fired up his forge to begin his work. Sparks flew like fireworks, glittering in the pre-sunrise darkness, yet on this day Zhongli forged not metal, but life itself. From the earth he forged a body, the form of a young man in his prime, blessed with both strength and agility in those strong, taut muscles. Into his creation’s chest Zhongli poured a little of the soul he imbued into every weapon, now amplified enough to sustain an independent spirit. From the earth he drew water, manifesting the power of Hydro in the young man’s heart, and with a quiet prayer and a promise to the stone, that heart began to beat.

Blue eyes as deep as the midnight sky blinked back at him, and the sunrise caught on the man’s hair, turning it the burning orange of the sun’s flames. He wriggled his fingers, flexed his abdomen, and warily eyed the workshop in which he was born.

“Who are you?” he asked. Then, holding his hands up to inspect his palms, he added, “Who am I?”

Zhongli hadn’t given thought to the name his creation should bear, and so he cast his mind back through the tales the travelling bards would tell, hoping for a name that would bear the valour and skill and love for his craft that he hoped his creation would bear. Through all these tales, one came to mind, of a heroic warrior who fought against all odds to defend his nation from tyranny both above and below the earth, who loved both the people he fought for and the thrill of the battle itself.

“I am Zhongli,” he said. “And your name shall be Ajax, if it pleases you.”

“Ajax…” The young man flicked his tongue as he spoke, as though tasting the essence of the name bestowed upon him. “I like it. Then I am Ajax.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

The tenth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili A little calm before the storm. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

He hears them before he sees them. Cheerful shouts and squeals, the crunch of snow beneath boots, a low thud and a sharp squeak. He rounds the corner, catching sight of his siblings playing in the front garden, Tonia wiping the remains of a snowball from where it’s wedged itself into her collar, while Teucer and Anthon run around armed with ten more, flinging them at each other as they whoop and holler.

Zhongli is there, too, watching on with a slow shake of his head, his arms folded across his chest. A snowball sails through the air towards him, pancaking across his face, and Zhongli splutters, wiping snow from his eyes, nose and mouth, golden eyes blinking bemusedly through a mask of white.

Childe snorts and shakes his head, continuing his approach. He could come home to this every day and it wouldn’t become old, especially if Zhongli kept pulling such stunning faces as that.

But he can’t.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

When The Stars Have Fallen #ZhongChili Chapter 5 is up! In which Zhongli is haunted by some strange dreams. 💧Day 5 from ZCL Week: Captive 🔶Zhongli whump 💧Link below!

Opening his eyes, Zhongli finds himself back in his room. It’s night, as usual, but the fire flickers across the room, casting haunting, stalking shadows along the walls. A figure stands facing away from him at the end of his bed, and as Zhongli’s vision focuses, the figure’s ginger hair and the Hydro swirling in his palms reveals that it’s Tartaglia, his attention focused on something unseeable in the corner of the room.

Frozen in place, Zhongli waits to see what he will do. Why is he here? And why does he place his attention on the walls instead of Zhongli? Perhaps this is a good thing; another moment where Tartaglia is not looking at him is another moment safe from his skin being peeled or tainted food being forced down his throat.

“Stay away. Don’t you hear me? You shouldn’t be here.” Tartaglia speaks to the wall, his shoulders hunching and the Hydro in his palms elongating into twin blades.

“I’m afraid I cannot,” replies another voice. Zhongli’s voice. Stranger still, it’s Zhongli himself who morphs through the point in the wall that Tartaglia focuses on, a ghostlike apparition who walks straight through the chair beside the fireplace.

“If you don’t leave, you’re going to die,” Tartaglia growls, a step towards other-Zhongli. “Go. Go home to Liyue. That’s where you belong.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

The ninth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Childe and his father take an ice fishing trip. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

“I found your stool.” Father reaches back and produces the little three-legged wooden stool Childe would sit on whenever he and Father went fishing together. That was a time before all of this mess. “Still has your name on it. It’s not too worn.”

He should refuse. He should get out of here before his enemy finds his chance to dig his claws in any deeper. But Childe doesn’t turn away. He doesn’t step outside, slamming the door closed behind him. Instead, he heads up the stairs until he’s facing Father, several steps beneath him.

“You kept this old thing?” he asks, reaching for the stool.

“Course. It’s yours.” Father hands it over and Childe holds it in front of him, running his thumb over the crudely carved lines in the wood forming the name ‘Ajax’. He thought Father threw this out after he left. Either way, Father certainly didn’t invite him out to fish again after that.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

COMPLETE! The eighth and final chapter of my #tartali A/B/O fic, A Smell Just As Sweet, is up! Some sweetness, and some spice. 😊 💧 Non-Traditional A/B/O 🔶Alpha Childe / Beta Zhongli 💧Link below!

“Childe…” Zhongli presses closer, touching their foreheads together. “Do you want…?”

A hand rests upon Childe’s waist, Zhongli’s thumb brushing over his belt to tease at a slip of skin. A flare of heat. Of course he wants, he’s wanted so often, but every time they come close like this he backs off, memories flashing of how he shamelessly took Zhongli beneath him, how he came within inches of marking that unblemished neck.

If he loses control, does something he regrets, he’ll never forgive himself.

Tentatively, he reaches out to hold Zhongli’s waist, tight and built with just the right amount of muscle, firm beneath his palms. Without the strain of his rut it’s easier to keep control now, his wicked desires a haze of indistinguishable whispers at the back of his thoughts.

“If you don’t want…”

“I do.” He pulls Zhongli closer. “I do want. Of course I want you.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The eighth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili A couple of heart to hearts are had. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

“I even tried to take your advice,” says Childe. “Apologised, told him I’d pay for the damages, but all he cares about is being right. Guess the great Rex Lapis doesn’t have all the answers after all.”

“Never has he claimed to.”

“Thought you were supposed to be a god.”

“That does not mean that one knows the optimal solution to every situation, only that we are trusted with finding one.” Zhongli rests a hand on Childe’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly, and surprisingly Childe does not pull away. “However, the future is only as clear to me as it is to you or any other human.”

“Huh. Thought being a god would come with a bit more pizazz.”

“Alas, no.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

A little preview for Friday's chapter of PWSH. Zhongli is doing some meddling. 😌 #zhongchili

Childe returns home late, footsteps creaking up the stairs long after the rest of the family have gone to bed. It’s tempting to follow, to check in with him, but today it’s been Zhongli’s turn to plot and plan, and there’s too high a risk that Childe will catch onto his devious thoughts should they speak. So instead he remains in bed, his thoughts continuing to turn.

Childe’s relationship with his father clearly causes him distress, and although he doesn’t voice it, Yakiv must feel the same, or irritation would not linger in his every movement. But it is only too easy to become stuck in a repeating cycle of resentment and conflict, just as these two have, their course set and the wheels of their relationship racing down a never-ending decline.

What they require is a wayward stone to jam the wheels, a troublesome pebble to alter their course, and who better than the man of Geo himself? Guizhong always did tell him he had rocks for brains; if only she were here to watch this little rock go now.

Heh.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

The seventh chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Childe decides to go hunting. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

The trees begin to thin, brown trunks and bare foliage replaced with cold grey rocks and towering boulders, the mountain range’s embrace rising to cup the landscape within its palm. It’s not long before the trees thin entirely, only a scattering of lost individuals decorating the undulating, rocky plain.

It’s an area he’s well familiar with, one he returned to many a time over the years, hoping to find some evidence of the dark hole into which he once fell, but to no avail.

This is where the beast should be residing. Now it’s his job to eliminate it before it can strike again.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

The sixth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Childe and Zhongli have their spar, and gifts are given. 🥰 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

A blow to his chest. The ground trembles beneath his right foot. He’s too tired to adjust in time. The force flips him backwards. Flash of blue sky. The ground slams against his back, expelling the air from him. A pile of snow catches his head, cushioning his fall, but still he’s forced to lie there panting as he attempts to refill his lungs.

That was quick. Too quick. Too easy. He made a mistake, should’ve seen that one coming. If this were the real fight against the Heavens, he would have failed. If he fails, Snezhnaya fails. If Snezhnaya fails, then Her Majesty will be punished, her nation will be punished, his siblings will be punished.

He needs to get stronger. This isn’t good enough.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Ch 7 of my #tartali A/B/O fic, A Smell Just As Sweet, is up! We get some young Ajax lore this chapter (and lots of fluff) 💧 Non-Traditional A/B/O 🔶Alpha/Beta 💧Link below!

While most young alphas were rounded up and sent to alpha-only schools where they could participate in alpha-optimised activities such as running and wrestling, his parents sent him to the little local mixed school in Morepesok. They said that a ‘normal’ childhood would be best for him, so off he went, stumbling under the weight of his overstuffed backpack to mix with the omegas and betas of the village. Like all young boys, he’d carried with him the hope of making a few friends to take home for dinner on a Friday night.

Although there were some students who hadn’t taken The Test, he was the only known alpha in his class of a dozen, and because of that, it seemed as though not a single teacher knew what to do with him.

On the very first day of school, when he sat at his desk waiting to be handed his pen and paper, his teacher walked right by him, and once every other child had received their stationery, she opened the door, gesturing him out with a sweep of her arm.

“There you go, Ajax. You can run a few laps while the others learn their letters. Have fun now!”

Ajax stared at his empty desk, rubbing the wood with the rabbit eraser his Mother gave him as a starting school present. “Can’t I learn my letters too?”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

A preview for tomorrow's chapter! We get some young Ajax lore. 🥺 #tartali

On the very first day of school, when he sat at his desk waiting to be handed his pen and paper, his teacher walked right by him, and once every other child had received their stationery, she opened the door, gesturing him out with a sweep of her arm.

“There you go, Ajax. You can run a few laps while the others learn their letters. Have fun now!”

Ajax stared at his empty desk, rubbing the wood with the rabbit eraser his Mother gave him as a starting school present. “Can’t I learn my letters too?”

“Come on now, that’s not what young alphas need to be doing, is it? Don’t you want to work on something more important? This is a waste of time for you.”

“But I want to learn my letters so I can read my books as well as Father can.” He dug the eraser harder against the wood. It wasn’t fair. He came to school to do letters. He could do running at home.

One of the little rabbit’s ears snapped off. Ajax picked it up, touching it hopelessly back against the broken joint, blinking back the stinging behind his eyes. Alphas weren’t supposed to get sad. That’s what he read in a book once, or rather, a book that Father had read to him.

“Alright, alright, don’t make such a scene. Go and collect a pencil from the pot.” With a click of her tongue, she returned to the blackboard and began drawing a round character on it. “But I’ll keep the door open. If it’s too difficult for you, feel free to leave. Honestly, if I’d known having an alpha in class would be such a fuss…”

Ajax wiped his nose in an attempt to minimise his fuss, collected his pencil and paper, then returned to his desk. He didn’t leave to run laps. In fact, he quite enjoyed learning the different sounds, how to form the characters, the lead of his pencil pressing clumsily against the paper until he’d successfully filled his sheet alongside his classmates.

As the months passed, he continued to thrive, coming top of his class in some tests, and remaining solidly above average in the rest. Mother and Father told him how well he was doing, plastering the walls of their home with his work, and whenever Mother would meet Ajax’s classmates’ parents, she took any opportunity she could find to proclaim how “not like other alphas” her son was.

Then the Abyss happened, and so did the inevitable.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

The fifth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Zhongli and Childe actually talking maybe? 👀 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Zhongli follows, mirroring Childe’s stance as he stares into the flames. From the corner of his eye, he catches Childe’s gaze and smiles. Childe looks away to hide the way his own lips twist in response.

How funny. Since Zhongli showed up, he almost managed to forget about his Father-induced bad mood. Maybe the mighty Rex Lapis possesses more magic than he likes to let on.

Maybe he’s just a weak fool for Zhongli.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Ch 6 of my #tartali A/B/O fic, A Smell Just As Sweet, is up! Finally they talk 🥺 💧 Non-Traditional A/B/O 🔶Alpha/Beta 💧Link Below!

Sunlight needles against Childe’s eyelids as he wakes with a groan. Everything is stiff—his knees, his back, his neck—and his arms tingle with returning sensation as he shifts his chin from where it presses against his elbow. Despite these discomforts, one single, pleasant sensation stands out; careful fingers comb through his hair, massaging his scalp with the heavenly brush of blunted nails.

Childe groans again, this time out of pleasure, and opens his eyes. He’s kneeling in the exact position he fell asleep in—arms folded along the edge of Zhongli’s bed—but instead of his gaze falling upon a sleeping god, he meets a pair of golden eyes peering at him from over the top of a leather-bound book.

“Good morning, Childe,” says Zhongli, his fingers circling their divine touch down to Childe's nape. “I wasn’t expecting to wake to your presence this morning.”

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

The fourth chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Childe and Zhongli talk under the stars. 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Holding his robe carefully closed, Zhongli brushes clear the snow from the patch of decking to Childe’s left, then sits down beside him. “Thank you, Childe. Or, I have been meaning to ask, while we are here, would you prefer if I were to call you…?”

“Ajax died in the Abyss.” Childe shrugs. “But my siblings know Ajax, so that’s the name I use here. You can call me what you like, though.”

Names are meaningless. Ajax, Childe, Tartaglia, none of those matter. For three months he spent his days nameless, honing himself in preparation to meet the heights Master said he would someday reach. Strength, power, ambition—these are the things that matter, and it makes no difference what he’s called on the path to his destination.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

The third chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili Time to meet the family! 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below

“He has really long hair,” says Teucer. “It’s better than Tonia’s.”

“Hey!”

“Excuse me, you are tugging a little hard…”

Childe turns to find Teucer, Zhongli’s hair gripped in his fist, draping the tip of it across his face as a makeshift moustache. He’s in the midst of pulling faces at Tonia while Zhongli stands there frozen, looking at Childe with his eyes wide, giving the impression of a nervous, tethered racehorse.

Ha—a god he may be, but how even the mighty fall in the face of a few mischievous kids.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

When The Stars Have Fallen #ZhongChili Chapter 4 is up! Zhongli manages to escape his room, but how far will he get? 💧Day 5 from ZCL Week: Captive 🔶Zhongli whump 💧Link below!

Zhongli stands on the threshold, peering out into the hallway. One simple step and he will leave this prison, of his own volition this time, and be one step closer to freedom.

And then what shall he do?

He doesn’t have much of a plan in the case that he does successfully navigate this labyrinth of a palace, if he does make it off the grounds and into the city. He certainly doesn’t have the strength to shift form or space-step in order to get home, and he has not a mora coin upon him.

In fact, he must look more like an escaped hospital patient than the put-together scholar he usually presents himself as. What is there to stop a well-intended civilian from reporting him to the authorities, landing him back exactly where he started?

He can only imagine what Tartaglia might do to him then.

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💧🔶Tea&Scones🔶💧 @sconeswrites.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

The second chapter of Perfect Weapon, Silent Heart is up! #zhongchili A little storm causes Childe and Zhongli's ship to dock in Morepesok, meaning they—oh no—have to spend more time together! 🔶Canonverse 💧Zhongli and Childe in Snezhnaya 🔶Happy Ending 💧Link below!

Out of the corner of his eye, Childe catches Zhongli adjusting the sleeves of his coat. Or perhaps he is warming his hands on the inside of his coat. It’s difficult to tell. Is Zhongli cold? They’re walking fast enough that he shouldn’t be, but if Her Majesty hears that her vanguard was caught neglecting the care of one of her invited guests…

He better make sure.

With a sigh, Childe removes his cloak and sweeps it over Zhongli’s shoulders.

“Here,” he says. “Do it up. It’ll keep you warm.”

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