This is What You Are
is a fanfic by Special Relativity, and is a crossover between Genshin Impact and Warframe.
One day, while Lumine the Traveler is visiting Liyue, another descends from the sky aboard a ship of metal. They call themselves the Tenno, and they claim to be like family to the Traveler, and seek to bring them home. Unfortunately for Teyvat, though, the Star Child is not the only new arrival in this world...
This fic contains examples of:
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The end of Chapter 4 has Eula examining an Abyss Order base that the Operator attacked. The massive amounts of devastation and bodies in various states of dismemberment make it clear the battle was very one-sided.
- Death by Adaptation: Asmoday disappears from the plot of Genshin after starting the plot of the game. Here, Ayatan reveals that they killed her sometime after they first entered Teyvat.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: After Ayatan destroys an Abyss base that she was scouting, Eula tries to cow them into submission. She only stops after being run through by his sword, after which he reverses causality to heal her.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Man in the Wall is this to Teyvat - comments in chapter 3, which reveals that Teyvat is a Duviri-like realm within the Void, also imply that he is the entity behind the Abyss Order. Ayatan in particular is explicitly noted to smell of the Abyss, and said Tenno notes to feeling the Indifference's presence within Teyvat.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Naturally, everyone in Teyvat looks at Ayatan with suspicion and hostility due to him coming from the stars claiming to known Lumine personally, someone she hasn't mentioned before. While Ayatan truly means well, the natives of Teyvat have no proof that says otherwise and naturally have the right to be suspicious. Combined with the fact that Lumine is a dear friend to so many people in Teyvat...they also have the right to protective of her also.
- Killed Offscreen: Ayatan casually reveals that he killed off the Unknown God shortly after arriving in Teyvat, to the absolute shock of the Knights of Favonius.
- Nothing Is Scarier: When Eula is examining the aftermath of Ayatan's carnage, she notices several bodies belonging to creatures she can't recognize, and is unnerved by what they could have been.
Word of God confirmed that they belong to the Murmur, the new enemy faction introduced in Warframe's Whisper in the Walls update. Somewhat ironically, said update also showed that the Murmur crumble into dust when killed, meaning that their shouldn't be any remains for Eula to find. - Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Ayatan reveals that they killed off the Unknown God, Asmoday, shortly after arriving in Teyvat. The fight apparently lasted quite a while and saw the Tenno trapped in pocket dimensions before finally figuring out how to hurt the Goddess, much to the amazement of the Knights of Favonius.
- Outside-Context Problem: Ayatan is this to Teyvat - they wield powers and technology that are completely unlike anything in the world, and can do things that should be impossible, including killing one of the gods. The fact that they're close as family with the Traveler leaves them utterly flabbergasted.
- The Reveal: The final portion of Chapter 3 carries several a big one: the world of Teyvat is actually a space similar to Duviri, created by Aether and Lumine while in the Reservoir. More importantly, the Man in the Wall is starting to break into said world...
- Role Swap AU: Somewhat - while you can choose which character to play as, most advertising for Genshin indicates that Aether is the Traveler, while Lumine was the one who was separated from him by the Unknown God and eventually came to lead the Abyss Order. Here, Lumine is the Traveler and is still looking for her brother.
- Sanity Slippage: After an interaction with The Man in the Wall, Ganyu's sanity takes quite a blow, as she's shown screaming about a monster that wears her face.
- Stunned Silence: Jean has this reaction when she demands that Porthos tell her where Klee is, only for him to reveal she's standing at a nearby balcony. The reaction is both due to realizing that Klee isn't the one causing the explosions she is seeing and also the realization the the Operator is.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: After learning that the Tenno managed to kill the Unknown God, Jean sports one of these, realizing there's nothing she can do to oppose them and that she needs to tread very carefully around this new arrival.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 3 carries several major revelations - Teyvat is a world like Duviri, created by the thoughts of Lumine and Aether within the Void. There's a severe risk of it suffering massive damage if Aether and Lumine aren't woken up properly soon. Most importantly of all, though, is that the Abyss Order has some connection to the Man in the Wall, and he is starting to become more active in his efforts to invade said world.
- What Measure Is A Nonhuman: Ordis briefly asks the Operator why they refer to the people of Teyvat as Dream People, since they have a one-to-one correlation with 'normal' humans. Their response indicates that they just don't want to deal with the implications of that right now, especially with the Man in the Wall encroaching on Teyvat.
