[ Childe loosens his grip to give Zhongli the ability to move back, not personally all that concerned about the Blight so long as he has the ability to take it from Zhongli and anyone else he cares about that needs the infection load to be lessened.
(not that he doesn't take it seriously, and he would never speak of it to Zhongli, but... it's easy enough to expel any accumulation of blight he has by simply finding some poor soul that's more than likely beyond help already. Childe sees nothing wrong with inflicting the blight onto a target that's already marked by death, especially if it's to protect those that he wants to protect.)
His grip will stutter at Zhongli's answer— first tightening and then letting go entirely as if he's not quite sure what he's touching suddenly.
Return to where? For a second he feels terribly cold, as if the entire house has frozen over with them in it. He needs to be with the Tribune? Childe doesn't sense the power of Meridian suddenly running through Zhongli, at least he's pretty sure it's not. He has no clue how the blight might affect that, but...?
... haha, what is Zhongli talking about, this 'not leaving him behind?'
Unable to bring himself to focus his question on that part, he goes straight to the more obvious thing he should respond to. His confusion is still obvious, but he doesn't seem to yet see this apparent behavior change as a threat as he doesn't back away or otherwise close off. Instead, he attempts to be as calm as possible, hoping that if he does so Zhongli will realize he's overreacting in needing to go anywhere, nevermind there. ]
Hey, wait. Calm down... why do you want to go there? Springstar is no better off, and the trek would expose us even more to the Blight, wouldn't it?
no subject
(not that he doesn't take it seriously, and he would never speak of it to Zhongli, but... it's easy enough to expel any accumulation of blight he has by simply finding some poor soul that's more than likely beyond help already. Childe sees nothing wrong with inflicting the blight onto a target that's already marked by death, especially if it's to protect those that he wants to protect.)
His grip will stutter at Zhongli's answer— first tightening and then letting go entirely as if he's not quite sure what he's touching suddenly.
Return to where? For a second he feels terribly cold, as if the entire house has frozen over with them in it. He needs to be with the Tribune? Childe doesn't sense the power of Meridian suddenly running through Zhongli, at least he's pretty sure it's not. He has no clue how the blight might affect that, but...?
... haha, what is Zhongli talking about, this 'not leaving him behind?'
Unable to bring himself to focus his question on that part, he goes straight to the more obvious thing he should respond to. His confusion is still obvious, but he doesn't seem to yet see this apparent behavior change as a threat as he doesn't back away or otherwise close off. Instead, he attempts to be as calm as possible, hoping that if he does so Zhongli will realize he's overreacting in needing to go anywhere, nevermind there. ]
Hey, wait. Calm down... why do you want to go there? Springstar is no better off, and the trek would expose us even more to the Blight, wouldn't it?