Chapter Text
Baal does not know what to make of this "Dottore".
When he appeared, Scaramouche became tense and alert, like they were facing a threat. But she's observed him to be swift to attack actual enemies, and he makes no such move with Dottore. Instead he just stands there, closed-off and sneering, and lets the man take liberties. Scaramouche cuts Baal off when she tries to speak, only snaps back mildly at the mocking words, and-
Baal's eyes zero in on Dottore's hand on her brother's shoulder. As far as she knows, Scaramouche despises casual touch. The hug with her was, admittedly, an outlier, but his lip curls when he so much as brushes against somebody in a crowd. Maybe she can't say yet that she knows him well, but it's strange to watch him go so still, not reacting to the taunts or the touch or the-
It's when Dottore touches Scaramouche's face to tilt his chin, a bizarrely intimate gesture, that it clicks, and she thinks:
Ah. He reminds me of Yae Miko.
The overfamiliarity, the faux-friendliness, the needling remarks she had no option to refute and the frequent touch she simply tried to ignore.
It looks all too similar.
Baal dislikes this man, she thinks.
Yet when Scaramouche turns back to her, it is with a fervent gleam in his eyes that just a moment ago was fully extinguished.
"Baal," he says, "I'm going to Sumeru."
I, he says. Not 'we'. She takes a step forward and says forcefully, "I'm going with you."
She does not care what he does with the Gnosis. She does not care if he wants to become a god. She knows he does not need her, but whatever he chooses is fine as long as he has not decided to reject her.
"Baal, is it," Dottore muses. "We'll be delighted to have you."
She wasn't asking Dottore. She ignores him and stares stubbornly at Scaramouche.
"Just... don't get in my way," he answers- an implicit acceptance.
"So cold," says Dottore. "After she abandoned her place with your mother to be here?"
Scaramouche snaps, "Our mother wasn't doing her any good. Come on. There's no point dawdling any longer."
"Impatient as ever," Dottore remarks.
And so the odd trio makes their way down the mountain- Scaramouche stomping ahead with a grumble, Dottore ever at his shoulder, and Baal trudging along behind.
*
They retrace their path to Liyue and from there take a boat to Port Ormos.
No matter how she tries, Baal cannot quite make sense of Dottore, and Scaramouche does not seem to want to discuss him when he is within earshot. She watches them bicker, Scaramouche constantly displeased with him but never really pushing him away. She cannot fit the Doctor neatly into a category of acquaintance, ally, or adversary.
At first Dottore fills the air with idle prattle, undeterred by Baal's monosyllabic responses or Scaramouche's prickliness. When his prying questions fail to pull much information from Baal- who isn't nearly so charmed by him as she was by Venti- he switches primarily to discussing his plans in hushed tones with Scaramouche. He reminds her of a buzzing bee, always occupied by something. There must be something more to him, she thinks, or Scaramouche would not put up with it.
It only muddies the waters further when Scaramouche warns her soundly about him the first time they are alone together again. "Listen, Baal," he says. "Don't go anywhere with Dottore. Don't listen to anything he says- don't even talk to him if you can avoid it."
This will be a difficult request, since Dottore is usually right next to her brother, where Baal would also most often prefer to be. But she can try to follow the directive. What is more pressing to her at the moment is the confusing nature of his relationship to Scaramouche. "He is your... mechanic," she tries, though she sounds doubtful even as she says it.
It must at least be partially true. Dottore has been constantly referring to the work he has done on Scaramouche, as well as the work he intends to do- although Baal has only heard bits and pieces of the plans, as they have been putting their heads together as though Baal is not also there.
"What?" Scaramouche stares at her, his train of thought derailed completely. "He- sure, I guess you could think of him that way. He's the Second Fatui Harbinger, are you even aware of that?"
She was not, in fact. No one has mentioned it. That means he must be a fair bit more powerful than either of them, though he doesn't look it.
Scaramouche sighs and deigns to explain. "When I came to the Fatui, he unsealed the powers Beelzebul had stripped from me, and he's taken care of other upgrades and maintenance since then. In return, I participate in his experiments."
Baal mulls this over. The only person who's ever attended to her maintenance is her creator, and they had a simple relationship of reverence and submission, one so simple it could hardly be called a relationship at all. Misplaced or not- she's certain she was little more than a tool to her creator- the times Raiden Ei needed to fix her up were the times she felt the closest to her. Looking at it from any angle, allowing another access to your inner workings would require a high degree of trust. Yet Dottore and Scaramouche- their interactions frequently border on hostile. The way they speak indicates familiarity... but trust?
"He... isn't your friend," Baal states clumsily, another one of those prodding questions-but-not-questions. Her lack of vocabulary for the situation frustrates her. She was built for unfailing precision, but she cannot find a clear way to express the vague disquiet she's experiencing.
Scaramouche, not being a mind reader, does not follow all the subtleties she is pondering. He looks at her like she's grown a second head. "Holy shit, are you five? No, he's not my friend. I don't have friends. We're using each other. And if you let him, he'll use you too. So don't let him!"
Baal hesitates, but determines she is reluctantly satisfied with this explanation, accepting it with a nod. Viewing it all as a transaction explains much of Scaramouche's behavior around the man. Dottore gets what he wants (being obnoxious, and the ability to run his experiments), and Scaramouche also gets what he wants (damage repaired, and the ability to use the Gnosis). Baal is not so naive as to not understand that Dottore would like to run experiments on her as well. However, he does not have anything that she wants, so she is content to ignore him.
She does, perhaps, interpret Scaramouche's words a bit too literally.
After the three of them have boarded a boat to Sumeru, quarters are cramped and Dottore is nigh unavoidable. He sidles up to her on the deck and, for about the millionth time, starts expressing an interest in her specs. Baal was trying to enjoy the ocean view in peace and is not in the mood for this, so she says simply, "Nii-san told me not to talk to you."
Halfway across the deck, Scaramouche buries his head in his hands.
"Ohh-ho," Dottore tuts, pivoting his attention to him. "Just what have you been telling her, puppet mine? Slander is no way to repay me."
Scaramouche shoots a vicious glare at Baal before he stalks up to Dottore and flings a finger in his face. Dottore allows it, leaning back with an indulgent smile. "Listen, Dottore. I need you to focus," Scaramouche growls. "No distractions. You said it yourself- this is your grandest experiment."
"Jealous over my attention, are you? Scaramouche, you could've just said," Dottore drawls. He reaches to pat his fellow Harbinger on the head, but Scaramouche bats his hand away with a crackle of Electro, and the Doctor's smile crinkles coldly. "Careful, I'll get mixed signals," he says, insincere.
Grumbling, Scaramouche marches over and grabs Baal by the arm, dragging her unceremoniously to a private-ish area of the ship.
"You have the social graces of a rock," he tells her heatedly.
Baal finds it very unfair to be scolded by him for following instructions. Her lips downturn in a frown. "Yae Miko said so too."
You really do take after Ei. Like brick walls, the both of you! she'd muse. Due to the kitsune's remarks, Baal is well aware that she could be considered socially dense. But it was never a problem in her role as Shogun. Such things were simply outside her purview.
Scaramouche grits his teeth. Electro sparks off his fingers again, though it crackles harmlessly up her elbow. "The Fatui are a den of snakes, so you better wise up quickly," he warns. "And I don't know how many times I have to say it. Fine, you can call me nii-san when we're alone, whatever, but you better not make me lose face in front of- what are you smiling about?"
"Nothing," says Baal, immediately practicing her ability to lie.
She's not sure why it's such a hard habit to break, referring to him as nii-san. It shouldn't be a difficult directive to follow. But calling him by his Harbinger name just feels so impersonal. And this marks the first time he's expressed any tacit permission of her tendency to call him brother.
As they return to the deck, she finds her smile lingers.
*
When they arrive in Port Ormos, Baal discovers Sumeru to be a riot of color and noise. Fishmongers hawk their wares, and the smell of spices drifts from streetside stalls. Children run underfoot, a troop of mercenaries passes them by, and tropical birds croak loudly from the rooftops.
She can't help but feel impossibly privileged to be here. In just the little time since her desertion, she's visited half the other nations of Teyvat- quite a change from believing travel would be closed to her forever. She doesn't have much opportunity to marvel at the sights, however. The Harbingers' presence is top-secret in nature, and Baal is swiftly smuggled alongside them into a caravan which carries them to the heart of the nation.
From there, they wind their way through the nighttime streets of Sumeru City. She can't help but be reminded of Inazuma's Sacred Sakura when she sees the towering Divine Tree that houses the Akademiya. Although Yae usually came to visit her, not the other way around, Baal sometimes went to the shrine for ceremonial purposes. She wonders if Sumeru has any similar rites centered around their sacred tree.
Now, let it never be said that Baal is stupid. However, she is not used to thinking about the big picture. It is perhaps an intentional quirk of her design that makes her especially prone to tunnel vision. It is not until her thoughts wander down that path of Sumeru's religious practices that she suddenly thinks:
What about Buer?
She has come to Sumeru with Scaramouche, where he intends to become a god. Sumeru has a god already. This god is Buer, one of the Seven.
Baal finds this... troubling.
She scarcely pays attention to the Sages as they greet Dottore or to the Fatui and Akademiya posturing at one another. She is occupied with trying to reconcile these seemingly conflicting facts up until she and Scaramouche are shown to their room. (Rooms, but she simply follows him into his.)
It is when they are alone again and can speak freely that Baal blurts out, "What does Buer think of all this?"
Scaramouche pauses. Turns. He seizes her by the shoulders and looks deeply into her eyes as he says, "Baal. The Fatui are a heretical organization with the express purpose of seizing the Gnoses of all other gods in Teyvat. Buer's opinion does not factor in whatsoever. Tell me you understand this."
Irked, Baal says, "I do," even if she did not in fact know the Fatui's exact purpose as such. "Should we not be concerned about Buer's reprisal?"
"Oh." Scaramouche lets go of her, an odd little smirk twitching onto his face. "We don't have to worry about her. Turns out her people are so eager to get rid of her, they're willing to turn to an unknown like me. I hear she's been imprisoned in the Sanctuary of Surasthana for her entire tenure."
Baal's brows furrow. The first thought that crosses her mind is, How... lonely. "What will happen to her after you become a god, then?" she asks.
Scaramouche leans back, crossing his arms and pinning her with a glare. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts."
"No," says Baal, and this is true. She has an instinctual respect for the rest of the Seven, likely stemming from her creator's fond memories of them, and Buer's predicament does strike her as particularly pitiful. But between a god she has never met and her own brother, there is little competition in her mind. Scaramouche nods firmly, and that is that.
(It's only later that she realizes he never answered the question.)