Shadows Amidst Snowstorms

-Dragonspine was a cold and unforgiving place, yet was also a haven of mystery and wonder that hid numerous possibilities within. Lumine had originally traveled here to visit Mondstat’s Chief Alchemist, Albedo, per Paimon’s request for a juicer but had be waylaid in their travels. First she had encountered and enrolled to help the adventurers guild, and after that Albedo ended up needing her help instead. After having some of his notes stolen, Albedo, Lumine, and a few other adventurers had learned that their was an imposter among them, and that they had the ability to shapeshift, particularly taking on the form of Albedo himself. After a day of speculation and theorizing, Lumine and Albedo called it a night and decided to meet up the following morning and reconvene on how to put an end to this new crisis.-

The cold air hit Lumine as she teleported onto the mountain. While the view itself was nearly as captivating as herself, the difference lay in that her outfit wasn’t designed for this weather while the scenery was. “Cold cold cold cold cold…” Lumine muttered as she hurried and glided across the chasm towards the hollow cavern that served as Albedo’s base camp and makeshift lab on the mountain. Landing gracefully, Lumine quickly hurried inside the passage and into the warmth of the numerous fires keeping the lair hospitable. Across the room Albedo looked up from the notes he had been pondering on his table. “Ah, welcome back. I see you made it in one piece.” Albedo noted as Lumine shivered by the fire in an attempt to warm up faster. “You could always wear a more…reasonable outfit when you come here you know.” He continued, looking back to his research. “I could-” Lumine acknowledged, “-but that would cost mora. And in terms of mora; we have no mora.” To make a point of this, Lumine stuck her hands in the small pockets in her dress and pulled them inside out to elaborate on the lack of money they currently had. Lumine walked over to the table and looked down at Albedo’s notes. Many sketches and graphs lay sprawled out with cryptic notes and messages scribbled in the corners, hand written so small she doubted any regular person could ever read whatever it was he had written. “Any ideas on how we catch this imposter?” Lumine asked looking up at Albedo. Albedo turned to her and rested his hands on his hips as he replied. “As a matter of fact I have. You see, since this imposter isn’t fully human, or rather should I say is more of a too perfect human, we have to narrow down our search and look for a perfection in an imperfection.” Lumine stated blankly at him until he explained it slightly better. “You see,” he began “someone like you or me, is likely an imperfect person. We have flaws and we are all naturally different. For example we can could catch this imposter if they removed noticeable flaws. For example:” Albedo grabbed his collar and unbuttoned his shirt slowly revealing more of his smooth pale skin and rigid collar bones. Lumine blushed slightly seeing his upper body, but was redirected when he pointed her attention up towards his neck. “It’s hard to see normally, but I have a birthmark here.” He explained, craning his neck back a little so she could see the extent of the diamond star on his body. “The imposter might see this as inhuman, and remove it in an attempt to be pure, so this is how we can catch them.” He buttoned up his shirt and met her gaze. “Do you have any marks that can identify you?” He asked quizzically, “I never did do a full analysis of you last time you visited me. Perhaps it’s time you fight 6 oceanids for me.” He chuckled as panic swept across her. “I don’t have any marks really, I’m pretty normal.” Lumine laughed nervously rubbing the back of her neck self consciously. “Oh really?” Albedo asked stepping closer. “So you’re not hiding anything? For example what if you were in fact the imposter and had a tell tale mark you couldn’t remove for example?” Lumine stood motionless, confused by his question, before she started to understand what the alchemist meant. “You- you don’t mean…” Lumine started. “I just want to check your neck to make sure you’re not a copy who copied me too well.” Albedo said simply reaching out to undo the dress collar from around her neck. “Wait wait wait I’m not I swear, I swear.” Lumine insisted and tried to step away, but his hand was already on the collar. Her neck getting caught, Lumine slipped and she fell backward, the collar untying, popping open, and falling forward to reveal and normal blank neck. Unfortunately for Lumine it didn’t only reveal that. The dress continued to fall forward, revealing further down that she had no bra under the backless travel dress, allowing her breasts to spill out unshackled into the torch light. Lumine slipped and struggled to stay upright, her face bursting into a heavy scarlet as her boobs swayed uncovered for the curious alchemist. Lumine’s arms windmilled, flying out in all directions in a vain attempt to stay upright. Her dress continued its descent to her hips where it stayed pooled around her, shimmying down ever so slightly as she swayed slipping on the cold floor. Lumine finally caught herself, and stood motionless to keep her balance, before quickly moving her arms across her chest, pinning her breasts back under manageable cover from the cold air. “Fascinating” Albedo murmured to himself, “this would make a magnificent landscape sketch.” Out of **** of habit he poked Lumine’s nipple from between the cross section of her arms causing the traveler to yelp and slip backwards onto the cold ground. “Ow, ow, ow.” Lumine sat up slowly and put her arm onto the table as a crutch to peel her half naked form off the ground. Her hand groped for the edge but over shot and pushed and glass vial off the counter side instead, the glass falling and shattering on the ground beside her. Lumine yelped and shot up as a thick green liquid seeped out of the shattered debris and soaked into her dress. The effected parts of the dress turned dark and quickly dissolved, letting the shredded tatters slip off her waist and land on the ground beside her. Lumine stood stunned, before quickly moving her hands over her precious chest again. “What was that?!?!” Lumine asked incredulously at the Alchemist, who in the last minute or so set up a canvas to seize the moment. “Just a simple slime compound, it’s no major loss, you need not worry about it.” He replied half way in thought as he worked on his sketch. “NEED NOT WORRY, MY DRESS IS GONE BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!” Lumine shrieked, looking down at her mostly nude form in the cave. The slime had thankfully missed her soft light pink panties she wore under her dress but her white shorts hadn’t been so lucky. Her shoes were in tact but didn’t do a whole lot for this weather. “I’m out of mora, what am I going to do…” Lumine moaned and slumped against the wall, throwing her hands into the snow.