I think we'll be ok (lumine centric)

Unwanted Declaration

Vega had spent most of the time before the Summer Rerankings training- with one week left, she gave it all she had. This was her chance to prove herself to the Fatui; and to maybe be less hated.

She had made no progress trying to figure out why her memories were foggy. But she knew that this is where she should be; holding a sword, playing a graceful dance with her opponent as she strikes from behind.

Vega had not yet figured out her Delusion; she knew that it was an artificial vision, but she felt none of the Fatigue that any other Harbinger felt. Her cryo vision wasn't unfamiliar, per say, but it was not the extension of her body that a vision should be. When she trained, she nearly never used elemental powers; she used brute force, and strategy. She would launch herself off a treetop before trying to use her Delusion.

Today, she was training against ruin machines. She had three ruin guards all at once- the evolved kind, that are much larger. Whoever built this ruin was very paranoid, it seems.

As two of the guards crouched to launch missiles, Vega dodged narrowly behind a crumbling wall. She felt the distant stomping coming towards her, shaking the ground. At the last moment, she hopped out from behind the wall, but instead of the ruin machines being in front of her, one was still behind her. Because of Vega's spectacular luck, the ruin guard behind her launched into a spinning move, swiping at the wall and breaking it. The sheer wind was whipping her hair in her face, and the absolute freezing temperatures were not helpful.

Vega had to think quickly. She was running from one ruin guard as it spun, and the other two were swiping and hopping to try and squash her. She could see a ruined stone tower in the distance; and sprinted at it full force. She pressed her foot against it, vaulting off of it and flipping onto the back of a ruin guard. Vega could feel the heat from the ruin core as it prepared to launch missiles.

She used her golden blade to pry the glass core out of its copper seal, effectively dislocating its program from its body. It crashed to the ground. Using the falling body as leverage, she launched herself, landing on the shoulders of another. She fumbled, nearly slipped, as she pried the core out of that one, too. She repeated this once more, before checking the small silver stopwatch in her pocket.

"Oh, 12.38 seconds. 2.23 seconds faster." She mused, smiling just barely. Perhaps this was weak for a Harbinger; but where Vega was from, killing one ruin machine within a few hours is crazy. At least, she thought so. She didn't actually remember.

In a cruel attempt to find why Vega couldn't remember much, she had gone to see a healer, but they had just shook their head and said, "Nerves, sorry, Lady Vega. Nothing we can do as of now.." or just ignored her all together.

Vega knew that was bullshit, but alas, the hell would she do about that?

Only a smoking pile remained as Vega sheathed her sword, walking away from one of the many ruin camps in Snezhnaya.
___

Upon arriving home, Vega needed to work on her mannerisms. Sure, she was powerful. But polite? Not always. Politeness is inefficient. Vega was not exactly happy to do this- practicing which fork to use at a fancy restaurant is not fun. At all. After about five minutes of trying to remember every single piece of silverware, and their corresponding uses, she gave up. In a moment of frustration, she paced around the room, managing to run into a wall.

Ah, truly shows how smart and deserving she is to be a harbinger.

As Vega re-gathered her bearings, she noticed a small box that was on a bookshelf next to her. It was about the size of her hand, and not very thick.

The box had not been there this morning.

Not even thinking, she opened the box, and immediately gasped.

Inside was an ornate hair clip. It was of two flowers, each petal still soft somehow. Each flower had one blue petal out of five. The white parts were dusted with pearl, the centers of the flowers shone with crystal, and yet somehow Vega knew that it was a real flower.

Something seemed oddly nostalgic about clipping it into her hair, checking and double checking in the mirror that it wouldn't fall out. After she was finally satisfied with the placement, she stepped back to admire it. Outside her "home," the sun had set, and the small amount of light from the moon was reflected off the snow on the ground. Eventually, Vega decided that training was ineffective when tired; thus, she curled into a tight ball, and fell asleep.

———

"Somehow planning a funeral for her is even harder than planning a funeral for one of our actual knights." Jean had her head down on her desk, speaking into her arms. Lisa pulled her into a hug.

"I know, funerals aren't anything fun. But we'll do it. You have my help, and Amber's, and everybody else's. Being the acting Grandmaster is no easy thing, and this isn't either. Don't beat yourself up." Lisa spoke steadily, meeting Jean's eyes and steadying her shaking body.

"Jean, when was the last time you slept?"

This caught Jean off guard. "Last night."

Lisa gave her a deadpan look. "Look, I love you, but you're a horrible liar. Nobody can operate on low energy, and especially not to plan something so.. So important. Go take a nap, I'll start making a to-do list, and fit it in around all of our field work."

Jean tried to protest, but the idea of a nap was very enticing. On top of the rest that's happening, Jean felt guilty for avoiding Barbara at the meeting, and it was tearing her up on the inside.

Lisa watched Jean lay down on the couch in her office. Satisfied, she spread a blanket over her, and gathered parchment in order to make a list.

What even goes into planning a funeral? Especially one where there's so little information known?

The first thing that Lisa scrawled down was "To-Do."

After about fifteen minutes, she had a list that looked like this:

To-Do
Choose who to invite
Gather flowers (Traditionally Windwheel Asters)
Choose a plot in the cemetery
Get headstone made
Choose date

Who would they even invite? Paimon is still missing, seemingly having retreated after the knights told her that Lumine would be declared dead. Plus, the traveler was so well-known that inviting everybody who knew her would be far too many people. But many people might insist on coming, which leaves them at a standstill. Lisa took out a new piece of parchment, preparing to scrawl down a list of people.

Jean stirred on the couch, pulling the blanket on tighter. After a moment, Lisa continued writing, smiling a little bit to herself at how easily the knights got tired (despite being trained so hard to resist exhaustion.)

The list of people included, but was not limited to, herself, Jean, Kaeya, Amber, Master Diluc, Albedo, Eula, and of course, Paimon. Already that was eight people. Lisa sighed, knowing that this was going to be a long night.