#// this image needs Albedo though

[viatrixtravels-a]

// Every day I have to resist the urge to make this picture my header image lol.

I am a proud 'Lumine's smol boy harem' believer.

[lollybliz]

I have a really. I have. I have a really mean idea for a hurt/no comfort oneshot. And I can't work on it right now cus I swore i wouldn't write anything til my semester ended cus I k n o w I'll get distracted. But oh I have a really mean idea for a hurt/no comfort oneshot.

[akutasoda]

in the morning light [genshin ver]

synopsis - what it's like sharing a bed with them

includes - diluc, kaeya, albedo, beidou, baizhu, alhaitham, kaveh, neuvillette, wriothesley

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, still have no clue what im doing, might be ooc, wc - 2.2k

a/n: can you tell im bored? anyway how is everyone?

diluc ragnvindr ★↷

↪to absolutely nobody's suprise, he didn't actually get much sleep. most would assume that the reason for this would be running angels share or the dawnery and such, but it was mainly because he acted as the 'darknight hero'.

↪he always encouraged you to go to bed and not wait up for him because he never knew how long he would take. however, diluc couldn't get mad at you for staying up as he found it endearing that you were so insistent on doing so.

↪diluc does have a rather important public image to uphold and so he tries his best to maintain a night and morning routine, but sometimes the night one does go a miss. it's simple yet very effective for him - you know he gets the absolute worst bed hair known to man.

↪the neatest bed you've ever seen, it's always pristine whether he made it or not. has no issues compromising for what you'd like either, he'd even assist you in making the bed to your liking rather than his.

↪initially, he prefers to have his own side to the bed - mainly because he gets up early and goes to bed late so he doesn't want to disturb you. but over time he gets a tad bit too comfy and prefers to have you swamped in his embrace.

↪a light sleeper and not that much of a mover, he either stays completely still or occasionally shuffles around. although when he does shuffle, his hair can tickle you and accidentally wake you if you're a light sleeper yourself.

↪unfortunately, diluc sometimes can wake up rather abruptly due to some certain nightmares, but he always tries not too wake you.

↪human heater. most summers are spent with the bedding completey stripped away because he gives off a lot of body heat, so cuddles are rare unless you don't mind feeling like you're being cooked alive.

kaeya alberich ★↷

↪has the best routines you've ever seen, that is if he bothers to do them. he's very vigilant when doing his morning routine but sometimes he comes home from angels share a bit too tipsy to do his night routine.

↪as mentioned, he spends quite a few nights down at angels share and so he either comes home late, assisted by an annoyed diluc, or you have to go fetch him. admittedly he has gotten better since you've been around though.

↪most days he does get up fairly early, but on his day's off he's not budging. good luck getting up yourself because you're not leaving until he decides he wants to get up - which he will then proceed to wake you up.

↪the messiest bed, sure he makes it occasionally but sometimes he just can't be asked. uses way too many pillows and blankets but is very accommodating to your needs and wants.

↪a complete opposite to his brother, but he is practically a human freezer. unfortunately kaeya is quite cold to the touch so if winter comes around he always puts more blankets and duvets on the bed just so he can still cuddle you without you complaining that he's going to give you frostbite. he also can give you quite the wake up in the morning by how cold he is.

↪can be unconsciously really clingy in his sleep, im talking having some part of him touching you at any time - full on cuddles, holding hands, or even simply intertwining his legs with yours. he claims it helps him sleep better, especially when the nightmares come calling.

↪only downside, is that he can be extremely obnoxious. he moves around so much and unfortunately that can wake you aswell, especially when he ends up upside down and spread out across the bed and such. also can be quite the snorer if he allows himself to fully relax around you.

albedo ★↷

↪admittedly, he spends many nights up at camp in dragonspine and he understands that the freezing weather isn't for everyone - so he doesn't blame you for staying in mondstadt. but sometimes he knows you'd probably prefer for him to be back in mondstadt with you.

↪but if you choose to stay with him in dragonspine, he decides to upgrade the usual camp cot that he uses. he might not be able to feel the cold but you certainly would and the very last thing he'd want, is for you to catch a cold or worse. although there is a nice feeling of finally returning home to you.

↪albedo does have a simple nightly routine that he follows and same goes for his morning routine - although admittedly he can get a bit too carried away with his research and completely miss his routines or sleep in general.

↪he practically stays still entirely while he sleeps, it's almost scary as sometimes you forget he's there. he also doesn't really understand if you want to cuddle while you sleep but he'll indulge you.

beidou ★↷

↪she either goes to bed alongside you or later at night, normally she only comes to bed late if she stays up celebrating with the crew or is on some kind of voyage. most nights she does want to go to bed with you.

↪keeps any routine, morning or night, to a simple yet effective routine. yes she wants to keep up a good appearance but sometimes she just doesn't have the time and so she always goes for the same quick routine.

↪due to her bed being on her ship, she has the bare minimum as beidou doesn't really see a point in going all out. however, again, very willing to let you do whatever you want to the bed as you are sleeping in it aswell and she doesn't mind one bit.

↪can be somewhat clingy in her sleep, she loves holding you close and you can't exactly overpower her grip - it worsens when she does have a bit too much to drink when celebrating as she practically drapes her entire body over yours at all times.

↪a mix between a light sleeper and heavy, normally she's quite light but sometimes she gets a bit too tired.but either way beidou does shuffle around alot, most nights she ends up completely spread out across the entire bed.

baizhu ★↷

↪the doctor spends alot of time managing the pharmacy and other affairs and so even he would admit that he doesn't get as much sleep as he needs, especially when he can get easily fatigued. changsheng gets better sleep than he does.

↪normally by the time the day draws to a close, he's pretty exhausted and so he tries to go to sleep at a reasonable time after. he has somewhat of a nightly routine but it mainly focuses on managing his condition. same goes for the morning.

↪his bed is surprisingly really comfy, even changshengs is. he would prefer if you only messed with your side of the bed because he can be a bit particulate but if you really wanted to, he'd let you.

↪sometimes his condition can give him a rather uncomfortable night's sleep but he tries his best to not let it affect you. but otherwise he can become an extremely heavy sleeper because sleeping is one of the only times where he can truly rest.

↪very rarely his condition may get a bit too much and so he does have to isolate himself until it subsides. although now that you're in his life, he realises how lonely it can get without you.

↪he likes to keep contact to a minimum, perhaps holding hands or having your legs interwined. maybe further down the line, he'd be more inclined to indulge in cuddles if you preferred.

neuvillette ★↷

↪he wakes up quite early and never really wakes you, but if you need to get up he will get you up. however, on an extremely rare day off, he stays in bed with you a bit longer and subconsciously pulls you closer.

alhaitham ★↷

↪sometimes the scribe stays up late, sometimes he doesn't. staying up late could be due to akadeymia work or because he's busy reading up on his own interests. although he only really goes to bed early if you are.

↪his routines are basic but they cover the essentials, he spends more time on his nightly routine because he's normally more rushed in the morning.

↪his bed is rather basic, only really contains the essentials. he doesn't care what you do to make yourself comfortable, as long as you don't do anything stupid than he entertains you.

↪very prone to late night reading, most of the time he sits beside you completely emersed in his reading. alot of the time he does fall asleep in the middle of reading.

↪isn't one for physical contact but eventually might cave to your demands if you really want him to, although when he does you're convinced he enjoys it more than you do. although he does barely move in the night.

↪normally wakes up quite early, with some quite bad bed hair, but he normally leaves you to sleep unless he knows you have somewhere to be. although on his day's off, he indulges himself in your sleepy presence and he brings you closer and falls back asleep with you in his arms.

kaveh ★↷

↪it's no suprise that the architect can sometimes pull all nighters when he gets a well paid commission, much to your dismay. although most nights he does join you when you go to bed or earlier than you but he prefers you fi be there aswell.

↪his bed is extremely comfy and very well organised, most of the time. sometimes when he's pulled a few all nighters he can forget to sort his bed but most of the time he does.

↪his routines are also dependent on his sleep deprived state. if he's pulling all nighters, then his routine is very simple or virtually nonexistent, otherwise his routines can be quite extensive.

↪clingy. on purpose. he doesn't mind whether he's the big spoon or the small spoon, as long as he's cuddling you he's fine. in the morning when he's not fully awake, he can whine if you try and pry yourself away from him before he's ready to get up - he doesn't ever really need to get up super early.

↪a mix between a heavy sleeper and a light sleeper, can also shuffle around a tad but not much of an issue as long as you aren't an extremely light sleeper.

↪when you first stayed the night at neuvillette's, you wondered why on tevyat was his bed so big. it seemed almost comical for one person but you didn't exactly complain as it was extremely comfy.

↪however, further down the line, as he started to really trust you, you realised that it was because he preferred to sleep in somewhat of a dragon form as he claimed it was much more comfortable. and it certainly was for you, he was surprisingly comfy to sleep on.

↪if he has the time, he enjoys taking his time with a nightly routine and he enjoys doing it alongside you, should you also have one. again, same goes for his morning routine - although that one is always much shorter as he is needed quite early.

↪as mentioned, when he gets much more comfortable with you, he sleeps in a semi dragon form. however he's much more likely to fidget and shuffle around in such form, mainly his tail which sometimes wakes you up.

↪however, when he sleeps as is, he doesn't move at all. neuvillette does enjoy cuddling in both forms though, at first he didn't exactly understand why but he quickly grew accustomed to it and came to enjoy it much more than he thought.

wriothesley ★↷

↪alot of the time, he returns late at night. he doesn't exactly find spending the night at the fortress ideal, sometimes he does have to however, and so he doesn't mind traveling back late, although sometimes he wishes he could come back a tad bit earlier.

↪normally, he doesn't have an efficient amount of time to have an extensive night routine but he does in the morning if he wakes early enough. especially because he also falls victim to bed hair.

↪his bed is normally quite basic yet comfy. so he actually enjoyed it when you started changing things to your liking as it gave a bit of character.

↪clingy, on purpose. he always claims that he doesn't get to see you much since he's at the fortress all day and so he refuses to let you go. he always gathers you unti his embrace and when he knows you're safe in his arms, he can relax.

↪always extremely reluctant in the morning, he doesn't want to leave the comfort of the room and so when he has an extremely rare day off, he refuses to let you go and indulges in your presence much longer - all with a smug smile when you try and leave.

↪extremely light sleeper and sometimes does like to shuffle around, and of course you unfortunately will move around with him as his grip refuses to let up.

taglist - @little-miss-chaoss, @frankiesteinn

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

I apologize in advance, but the brainworms did a heckin screech and I felt the need to share the chaos.

Imagine, if you will, that our Creator let's it slip that they've interacted with other worlds before reaching Teyvat. (Played other video games) Imagine having to explain that in these other worlds, they may or may not have been interested in the denizens of those realms...sometimes in the romantic sense, which led to wedding bells and/or children.

Cue the uproar from the Genshin cast. The Creator, Blessed Maker of All...you have courted others? Have been married?? You have had children??? Their image of you being pure and untouchable, blown apart into tiny little pieces of confetti. 🎉

Though many loathe to admit it, they are curious...who are these people, what are they like? Is there a common factor in your selection of spouses? You would only pick the very best of a realm to choose as a potential partner, surely another being of creation...or perhaps a demigod?

It leads to the proverbial red string board getting made, the Archons trying to find out who is your most likely pick from their regions. It's all for your safety, your Benevolence! If you insist on having a partner, they must find the perfect match for you! You deserve only the best of the best, after all.

Bonus points if the Creator was a fan of games like the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory series. They're gonna need to make a list of all their partners, there are so many options to choose from. >>_>>

I'll admit I never played any of those games so I skimmed through the harvest moon wiki and chose one of the bachelors and chose some other game characters lol. Plus a game for all of you, guess the characters.

Though I do think that the reader having children before causes a bit of whiplash because it's totally unexpected, mostly because there were no records of you taking spouses or kids, even knowing you ‘have’ (play) other worlds is a surprise that causes a bit of a crisis. Either way here are some head cannons.

“I must admit, your grace is awfully attached to Qiqi” Zhongli hums as he blows on his white tea, a small cloud of steam leaving.

Qiqi doesn't pay him much mind, her head coddled under your chin like a little puppy, between her hands there is a small bird plushie “Well, I must admit she does kind of remind me of one of my little ones” Your hand softly pats her head, a few strands of hair moving as you do.

He stills as you spoke, eyes fixated on his cup “your… little ones?”

“Mhm?” Without looking up from the braid you were giving to the little girl you just nod “yep, she is quite soft spoken like Milenoe”

“... I wasn't aware your grace had sired children” there was never any mentions about holy spawns or spouses taken by you in any manuscript he got his hands on.

“Well, I never chose a couple from this world, so there wouldn't be any descendants” the comment slips airly from your lips as Qiqi slides off your lap towards baizhu who had finished checking the books from your bookshelf. “Do you want to see her? She started elementary school a few weeks ago” without waiting for an answer a screen appears displaying a tall man with black hair and horns standing regally behind you and a child with emerald eyes and horns.

“She looks rather shy”

You hum nodding “she is as shy as her father when he was her age. There aren't many children her age she can play with so she was pretty lonely her first 50 years”

“50 years?”

“her dad is a slow maturing species” so it should be 10 times the life expectancy than humans. Not that long for him but certainly longer than usual.

•°•°•

“It's a wonder to see how you manage to get Klee to change her mind about going fish blasting,” albedo scribbles some data half mindedly as he watches you hover next to Klee, who showed you a new drawings every few minutes “she is so stubborn even with Alice”

“Well I do have experience with headstrong children, Pardine is as focused on her goal as her father” one of your hands fall on her blonde hair, bright but still darker than Pardine’s almost champagne blonde and her red eyes polar opposite to her icy ones, a carbon copy to her dad. Even if your genetics rarely showed up on any of your kids it was uncanny how similar she looked to her dad and aunts “but I will admit she does annoy many guards asking to train her”

Albedo just laughs it off, listing the few loose characteristics of one of her spouses. Venti has been annoying him about his nation almost getting no information so he hopes a few spare tidbits and Klee’s rough drawing of a blond blue eyed man with a big shield works for whatever weird thing the archons have going on.

•°•°•

“Your Grace has married before?!” Ayaka gasps as you take a stroll around the nature surrounding her home. Her hand had swiftly unfolded her fan in front of her face.

“Mhm, I don't know why people get so surprised, after all it would be weirder if I spent so much time somewhere but took no lovers” you laugh at her slightly seeing her slightly flustered “it's almost a tradition at this point, to wed someone from each world. Want to see some family portraits?” She nods fervently looking at the tablet like thing that appeared on your hands, first a white haired cowboy like man is kneeling on the ground holding a baby by the armpits surrounded by three wolves ,seemingly playing with an older child, by the time the next imagine passes Ayaka is almost hanging by your shoulder, asking things about the siblings and begging to see more photos of your babies.

“And who did you take from teyvat?” Ayaka looks up sweetly at you, she has always held you in high regard and now that you are in Inazuma she can't help but get giddy thinking about how you decided to spend the stay in her state and most of your time with her.

Feigning surprise you tap your chin with your index finger “now that I think about it I didn't choose anyone yet... maybe it's about time”

“Then that means you could pick my brother!” She wraps her hand around your own, smiling as if she got the best idea ever “I could even call you older sibling!... If you wanted so of course”

“Big brother you remember how you told me you would find me a proper bachelor”

“If this is about wanting me to rush it won't work”

“It's not about it, I found you someone”

“Fine, as you please, need I remind you my standards are quite high”

“It's their grace!... Why are you choking on your tea!?”

•°•°•

“There isn't one damned coincidence…” Raiden slaps her head against the table with the rough drawings and some information about them “a king, a captain, a cowboy, a damned sorcerer…”

“Maybe there isn't supposed to be a coincidence” Nahida guesses “maybe they just look for someone who catches their eye”

“It doesn't help out as much as you think it does” the tsaritsa crosses her legs and leans against the back of the chair “if we are doing people with very clear characteristics maybe Ajax could fit nicely? Redheads aren't very common”

“Mhm, maybe but don't they have a liking for smart men? Then Alhaitham would be closer to their past couples”

“Well if we are going by that logic they should like the geo archon, as one of them has dragonic features” the tsaritsa side eyes Zhongli from the other side of the table.

Sighing deeply Furina, who came in place of Neuvillette, chimes in “It is their decision who they want to marry and even if they wanted to!”

"obviously you would be so calm, after all they are very close with your iudex. Don't get so cocky, I heard the commissioner Ayato is interested in the idea"

[merakiui]

PLEASE. please. if you would be so kind to give us some more stalker ex scara... the first time I saw it it just changed my brain chemistry, and I desperately need more </3

>:D thinking a lot about stalker ex Scara, but you get really drunk and he's the only one left to look after you......

(cw: yandere, nsfw, non-con, alcohol/intoxication, toxic ex scara, modern college au, connected to the previous stalker ex scara concept)

Just,,, the fact that he's been so good and sweet ever since he casually slid himself into your friend group and you're not sure if you can trust him, yet here you are being completely, utterly, stupidly vulnerable in front of your very unstable ex. orz

Kuni's not one for parties; in fact, he'd much rather spend his precious time doing quiet, comfortable things with you (cuddling is so much healthier than drinking, after all! <3). Unfortunately, you allow your foolish friends to talk you into attending these brain-rotting parties so you can get drunk off your ass, and he can't let you attend them by yourself because there are too many risks. If you got too comfortable with Venti or Kazuha or even Tighnari while drunk, Kuni would never forgive you. >:( he's worked too hard cultivating this friendly image for himself, and he isn't going to let you or anyone else ruin it.

But right now everyone else is too inebriated to do much of anything, and he hasn't touched the drinks ever since he arrived, instead choosing to anchor himself to some forgotten corner of the room. He sulks and broods in silence, a scowl plastered to his face. He's just barely tolerating it for your sake. It's because he loves you that he's doing any of this. Soon you won't even need any of these troublesome friends. Soon you'll just have him, and he's all you really need. It was like that when you were growing up, after all. Even though, as painful as it is, you don't seem so codependent, so swept up in romance... You're so independent now, no longer the shy, fearful thing from the final few months of your relationship with him. He'd be impressed if he wasn't trying so hard to isolate you from each of your friends. It's a challenge when he's trying to tiptoe around Heizou's sharp, witty perception or Venti's proclivity for knowing everything about everyone despite no one knowing much about him.

But he endures. He's gone years without you; this is nothing.

If you were smarter, you'd know not to trust a word he says. That kind, soft smile he's perfected for this act is not to be believed, especially not when he's using it to assure your friends that he'll bring you home safe and sound. Heizou has his doubts because it's late and you can hardly walk a straight line, but he's tipsy just like the others and it's hard to deliberate like this. Besides, when has Kuni ever let the group down? :)

He takes you back to his dorm instead because Albedo's not home and he has the entire room to himself. While you meander clumsily over to his bed, kicking your shoes off and shucking your jacket in the process, he watches. You have no idea how much he depends on you, how much he admires you, so much so that it surpasses love and lust entirely. Without you, he's nothing. Or that's what he thinks because for the majority of his life he's felt empty and sub-human and so alone. But now you're here, and you can fill those empty spaces in his heart and give him a reason to keep living.

You don't seem particularly fazed when the bed dips under his weight. Rather, you blink sleepily up at him when he leans over you, gingerly reaching to help you out of your sweater. You're too drunk to protest or struggle, and you feel so dizzy every time you open your eyes. It's difficult to remain fully conscious when sleep is tugging at your body, pulling you under. You don't even realize he's fit his mouth on yours until his tongue is pushing past your lips. You manage to place your hands against his chest, intending to push him away, but you're so exhausted and tired. They fall to your sides, useless.

Kuni sits up and smiles at you. He says something about you being dumb and cute... or something about how your friends are fools. You don't really catch all of his obsessive murmurings when your attention is waning. Clothes are torn off; he kisses you a lot. You're not sure if you're reciprocating, but it certainly sounds that way when you're whining beneath him, arching against sodden sheets, your breaths coming in pants and huffs each time he ruts into you.

He doesn't have to worry about anything. Right now, it's just you and him in a corner of the world, locked away from everyone who might try to take you away from him. It's not like you'll remember much come morning. You don't need to anyway. It's better if you're lost and bewildered. That way he'll be able to craft a story to suit his fancy. You'll believe it. You'll have no choice, and Kuni knows how to tell very believable tales.

[tanadrin]

This is a fun paper on the arXiv: Towards the Minimum Inner Edge Distance of the Habitable Zone. In other words, given a Sunlike star, how close can we possibly get a habitable planet while gerrymandering all the other variables in our favor? The answer is about 0.4 AU, which corresponds to around 600% the insolation that the Earth receives. Toasty! You need a very dry planet, though, not only to prevent water vapor acting as a greenhouse gas, but to prevent a runaway moist greenhouse scenario. They even explore very hot atmospheres (with high pressure, to keep what water there is liquid), but note that DNA and amino acids become unstable above about 500 K.

I would have thought you would need a very thin atmosphere to reduce heat retention, but apparently if the atmosphere is too thin (<0.1 bar), the planet loses all its water in about a billion years. If pressure is too high, on the other hand, you don't get a proper water cycle (heat is too evenly distributed for precipitation to occur). But the dominant variable affecting where the inner edge of the CHZ is is really the amount of water in the atmosphere. Humidity would have to be around 1% (Earth averages 70% at sea level), and the albedo would still have to be decently high so that a good portion of solar energy was reflected back out into space. Clouds would help with that--but by the time you got enough moisture in the atmosphere to form clouds, you'd be getting enough to significantly heat the planet from water vapor acting as a greenhouse gas.

They only look at the inner edge of the CHZ because, as they point out in the introduction, in principle the outer edge can extend to infinity--a planet with sufficient internal heating from, say, the decay of radioactive elements, or tidal heating from a gas giant primary, could remain habitable even in deep space, if it had a sufficiently thick hydrogen envelope. You don't get hydrogen atmospheres around Sunlike stars because near a star solar radiation is enough to cause hydrogen to escape the upper atmosphere--which is obviously not an issue for a rogue planet.

I think in practice the hard limit for smaller stars would be further out than this, because of the tidal locking issue--slow rotators seem to be a bad fit for this kind of extremal climate. Maybe if it was a really small star, so the inner edge of the CHZ had one of those single-digit-day orbits? I kind of like that mental image: an enormous blood red sun that occupies like six and a half degrees of sky, thirteen times the size of the Sun in our own. A totally cloudless atmosphere, water confined to small patches here and there, and mostly near the poles. Because there's not enough water to properly hydrate the upper mantle, you have drip-and-plume tectonics with enormous mountainous uplands surrounded by flat sandy plains. Or even massive Mars-like uplands and huge shield volcanoes, heavily weathered by the thicker atmosphere, but still towering over the landscape. Eventually the interior of the planet may get so cold the carbon-silicate cycle stops and the atmosphere slowly leaks away, driven by the stellar wind of the close parent star.

But there are other issues with the habitability of red dwarf systems, so maybe not.

[yzashaven]

✰ ━━━ how they show affection for you <3

FEATURING scaramouche, tartaglia, xiao, albedo, thoma, kazuha, alhaitham, cyno x gn!reader

WARNINGS some are prob ooc 😭

NOTE (omfg these images are so low quality LMAO) on my past blogs, i usually only write nsfw so this is like... a change of pace? sort of... anyways hope you enjoy, likes and rbs are ofc appreciated! also, referring to wanderer as scaramouche since his name is player dependant

okay so hear me out when i say he seems like the type to take you to places with the prettiest views (shout out to his birthday voiceline) whether it be views of the sunset, a flower field, an ocean or beach view... as long as it's a pretty site to see, he'll take you there! scaramouche loves the way the places give him a peaceful feeling, and the way that it's just the two of you there? he's in paradise and heaven combined.

a bit similar to scara, tartaglia would take you to places. and by places i mean his homeland, snezhnaya, for the snow and to see his family. his little brother, teucer is certainly very fond of you, and tartaglia loves to watch you spend time with his siblings. he's such a family oriented guy... another thing he'd do is cook delicious meals for you! ranging from simple snacks to your personal favorites, and definitely some snezhnayan delicacies~

xiao is sweet to his lover, no doubt. but that doesn't mean he'll ignore his duties as an adeptus and focus on them. he expresses his love by protecting you... and maybe sharing his almond tofu. need his help? call out for him and he'll be there in an instant. also this whole love thing is very new to xiao, soo he's not used to things like hugging and kissing, yk those kinda stuff but he'll get used to it eventually. he does really like your company though, brings a smile to his face.

we all know albedo is a very amazing alchemist, he can make basically anything within a few hours or even minutes. he'd use his skill and powers to give you sentimental itemsㅡ such as a bouquet of flowers that never wither or ones that glow in your favorite color. If you don't really like flowers, don't worry, he can make whatever it is that you want! oh you want a dragon? he'll try and will come back to you with a small, cute, non-hostile looking one that protects you <3

he is sometimes busy due to work for the kamisato clan and being the "fixer" in inazuma, but he never forgets to make time for you! his love language is definitely quality time as he loves to just relax and accompany you wherever. another way thoma shows affection is through doing errands and other things for you such as cooking, cleaning around in your teapot realm, curing for your wounds if you ever get hurt, and maybe doing a commission or two of yours!

kaedehara kazuha... he's such a romantic man when it comes to his lover. he'll write you a poem literally every single day and compliment you every minute. kazuha also likes to run his hands through your hair as he whispers sweet nothings in your ear while you watch the sun set together at the best vantage point in wherever it is you're traveling at. he also definitely introduced you to his mom(beidou) so he takes you with him on the crux for fun adventures together! or just taking naps as the boat sets sail.

as the akademiya's scribe, alhaitham is often busy attending to those missions along with his personal investigations and other matters. so to prevent any lost time, he takes you with him. you're quite the strong fighter yourself so there won't be any problems, right? and if something bad does happen, he's your savior. despite talking sharply at times about how you weren't being careful or being reckless, he still loves you and will be happy that you're safe. alhaitham would reassure you about that too. also you study together at the akademiya library sometimes, he really likes having you around :3

cyno is a man of few words but reassures you about how much he loves you and would quite literally tear apart, limb from limb anyone that tries to harm you. cyno keeps a close eye on you especially when he senses danger is near, he wouldn't even wish for anything bad to happen to you. as the general mahamatra, fighting is practically his specialty which is why he uses that fighting experience and knowledge to protect you even if you tell him that you can handle yourself, he insists as he doesn't want to risk losing you like that.

[artful-aries]

Genshin Men: How They Show Affection (Cyno, Thoma, Kaeya)

Mobile sucks so bad for trying to find gifs for some characters I said fuck it and used still images instead. Anyway, enjoy!

Cyno:

​​His affection primarily comes in the form of spending time with you. As the General Mahamatra, he doesn’t have a lot of spare time. It’s significant that what little free time he does have, he spends it with you without a second thought.

​​He doesn’t like going out too much; his job keeps him constantly moving, and being the General Mahamatra he always has a target on his back. Cyno likes to finally slow down when he’s with you. This isn’t to say he wouldn’t take you to get a nice dinner or anything, but he is at his happiest when it’s just you and him.

​​He will teach you how to play Genius Invocation TCG, but he will always go easy on you when you play, admiring how your face lights up when you win. He also wants an excuse to show off the card art he commissioned from Albedo

​​On the rare occasion that he has more downtime than usual and he’s feeling particularly affectionate, his favorite thing to do is just lie down and hold you for hours on end

​​This seems like a blessing; his warm, strong arms wrapped around you, the comforting rhythm of his heartbeat in your ear, his lips occasionally ghosting over your exposed skin….that is, until he breaks out his jokes

​​For Cyno, this is the perfect opportunity to try out some new material, and you’re his unwilling audience

​​Cyno: I have a joke that I would like to tell you, (Y/n). Waking up this morning was an eye-opening experience.

​​Y/N: …

​​Cyno: No? How about this one: Never discuss infinity with a mathematician, they can go on about it forever.

​​You have to kiss him as a distraction if you want him to stop, otherwise he will literally go on all day with his jokes

​​After the first couple of times, Cyno learned that telling jokes to you won him kisses. He totally doesn’t use this fact to his advantage

​​

​​Thoma:

​​This man is the walking definition of acts of service

​​Need help reaching something? Thoma is doing it before you even ask. Hungry? He’ll have a five course meal prepared for you with all of your favorite things. Tired from work? Don’t worry, he’ll have all your chores taken care of so that you can relax

​​He likes giving physical affection too, but in public it’ll just be a gentle squeeze of your hand or a kiss on the cheek. In private, he’s a bit more touchy; holding you by your waist, peppering kisses anywhere that you will allow, etc

​​Thoma’s work with the Yashiro Comission always comes first, but he’s very good about balancing his work and your relationship. He never makes you feel like a second choice

​​He’ll love being able to take you to his favorite spots in Inazuma (that is, if he can go a minute without someone asking him for a favor). He shows you all of the well known sights as well as the unknown ones as well. When he shows you special places that only he knows about is how you know that this man is so in love with you

Thoma will definitely take you to feed the stray animals of Inazuma City weekly. You really get to see his nurturing side come out then with the animals. It almost hurts to watch him, he’s just so sweet.

​​

​​Kaeya

​​Despite his flirtatious behavior, Kaeya is a little reserved in his affections with you. A lot of it stems from his own personal trust issues

​​Even so, in public he WILL have an arm around your shoulder or waist, and straight up pout if you won’t let him

​​In private he’s more carefree with his physical affection, but you can tell that some of it is just surface level actions, a force of habit as he is a natural flirt

​​It’s not until you manage to melt the icy wall around his heart that you see the real depth of his affection; his eyes linger on you, smoldering. He gives gentle caresses to your hair, and holds you against his chest as though he were scared of you disappearing if he let go

​​Despite is initial reserved nature, Kaeya always gives you words of affirmation, although they often come in the form of incessant teasing

​​Dates with him are actually pretty common. Being the Calvary Captain without calvary, his schedule is pretty flexible. This isn’t to say he doesn’t work hard, but his hard work is always done behind the scenes. He doesn’t want to give you a reason to worry about him anymore than he already does

​​His favorite thing to do with you is to go to the Angel’s Share and gossip. Yes, gossip, and you two are like old ladies together in the thrill of unravelling the drama around Mondstat, and there is a lot of it to go around.

​​You two never bring about any harm with this, but it’s fun for him to teach you ways on how to read people and collect information, and he gets to have both work and pleasure rolled into one as he listens into conversations for any intel he may need

[liquidcrystalsky]

Marina's Laptop, and

"Why does my model look bad?"

you might have opened one of the models i've ripped and it looked all weird, so here's a bit of a tutorial. scroll to the bottom to get the model

1. If there's an FBX included, use it. it likely has all of what i'm gonna talk about already, though it might need editing. I checked and everything's good with marina's laptop

2. use the other textures! When you import the dae file it will likely only have the colour or "albedo" texture applied only. it will look flat and uninteresting.

So there's many other textures, such as roughness(rgh), metalness(mtl), emission(emm for single colour, emi for multiple), alpha/opacity(opa) and my favourite of all time, normal(nrm). There might be more, but most of the time these are the ones that will get you 99% of the way there.

Blender itself has the "principled" node which already has slots where you can directly plug roughness to roughness, metalness to metalness, emission to emission(if it's a black and white texture, it goes into "strength", if theres colours, it goes into "color") etc. The normal texture requires an intermediary "normal map" node.

You also might note that i have the green in the emission section, and thats kinda the unfortunate thing about DAEs is that they're awful and dont export any info other than textures. or maybe they do, but switch toolbox doesnt do it. switch toolbox does often specify these though, and i usually (manually) include it in the fbx model when i can.

if you're ripping these models yourself with switch toolbox you can find these values here:

for example here's the node setup for the screen

3. Make sure you have all the textures (that arent the alb texture) especially the normal map, set to "non-color". Other software might not have this

Before and after

4. Make sure that the "blend modes" are all correct. If you're using the blender EEVEE renderer, or other software like unity it may set things to "alpha blend" when it shouldnt. It's a quick fix, just set everything that isnt see through or has an alpha component to "opaque"

if you dont, things might look transparent for no reason

First image is both logo and laptop set to alpha blend, and second image is the laptop set to opaque

These settings are in the material settings, only if the blender renderer is set to "EEVEE". If it's "Cycles", you don't have to worry about it, everything is automatically handled for you.

Conclusion: experiment!!!! see what works, google things, look up tutorials, none of this is unique to splatoon, theres tons of resources on how to texture things. :)

Oh! Here's the model: https://file.garden/ZRWmCDccGFWyKuzh/Marina's%20Laptop.zip

i said use the FBX, but yeah it doesnt work 100%, all you gotta do is make sure on the "logo" material opacity is connected through Color->Alpha. by default it thinks it's alpha to alpha.

[dumplingsfordays]

you're so pretty, you're so popular

albedo x gn!reader [university au]

genre - fluff

summary - albedo has a little (not really) crush on a semi-popular kid at his school.

cw!: jealousy, albedo's obsessed with you (in a good way I promise), professor ships you two

note - i used to simp for albedo so hard and then I stopped playing genshin... he's still pretty boy in my book though. feel like they did his hair dirty though, it's supposed to be so fluffy and they just massacred it :(

and as always, thank you for reading!

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Albedo was jealous of your friends. That was the one simple truth that he never wanted to admit to himself. He'd see you laughing along with them after you'd shown them a funny video and wish that he was the one that was holding you from falling backwards onto the grass as you shook from incessant, adorable giggles, that he was the one whose face hurt from smiling at your radiant expression everyday.

As much as he loved truth, he couldn't bring himself to face it.

And he'd sit on a bench in the shade of an oak tree during lunch, whose relatives sparingly dotted the small field on which you were talking with your friends, and in a sketchbook he would draw you and him on that same grass, blanketed in sunshine as you talked about anything you'd want to. After all, hearing your voice was enough for him to break an uncommon smile.

Albedo did this day after day, and luckily for him, you'd sit on that grass with your friends consistently from midday to 1:30. It was a nice break from the otherwise monotonous existence he led - study, eat, study, walk, draw, work, eat, sleep.

Oddly enough, almost every activity on that list somehow related back to you. The margins of his notes were occasionally occupied by studies of your eyes and hair; when he'd eat, his meals were inspired by what you ate for lunch; his walks were accompanied by music that you'd recommended to him some time ago; and when he slept, his brain would sometimes conjure up images of you hugging him, saying that he'd need to hold out just a little longer and maybe when he has the chance, he'll ask you out. Drawing brought him passion and he did use it as a side source of income, but lately they'd been plagued by splintered fragments of your soul.

He did it automatically, really - he'd add in a dash of your favorite color, draw a person in the background with the same hairstyle that you usually wore, and one time, when Albedo had been painting a portrait for his art midterm, he sketched out a scarily accurate representation of your countenance, usual accessories and all.

He immediately erased it, of course. You were in the same class as him and if he brought the canvas to the professor in front of you, there was no way that you wouldn't be weirded out by him. Who does that, anyway? He'd be better off painting his little cousin, Klee, who was a ray of sunshine and was bound to earn him a hundred.

The stars aligned in such an unpredictable way for him towards the end of the year after a particularly tiring lecture. You, in all your bright, angelical beauty, walked right up to him as he was about to leave and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, 'Bedo!" you smile as he whips his head around to face you. You don't know what you do to him when you call him by his nickname - he practically melts each time.

"Hey." He's panicking - it's obviously not a bad thing, you're smiling, you don't think he's creepy or annoying or anything, so everything's okay, as long as he plays it cool and-

"So, I've been thinking," you start, averting your eyes to look at the floor and then back to him. "We haven't really hung out in a bit. Do you want to grab a bite somewhere sometime? It's okay if you can't, I know you're super busy and all but I found this super nice place that just opened nearby and I thought that it'd be nice to try it out."

He swallows. "Y-yeah, that would be nice-"

"Great!" Albedo blinks at your rather loud interruption and you clear your throat awkwardly. "Um, I mean, um, yeah! So, I think you have my number, so just text me when you're free and and we'll figure it out."

You'd never tell it to anyone but you find his small, shy grin so endearing. He stutters a little when he replies but you think it's cute - he'd never know that unless you told him straight to his face though.

"Sounds- sounds good, yeah."

"So, we're set?"

He nods and grabs his bag, offering to walk with him. You accept with a smile, to which his face reddens, and as you walk out together the professor sighs.

"Young love," he chuckles. "Guess they'll be sitting together from now on."

[bunnyluvx]

genshin as teachers! ♡

featuring: albedo, yanfei, yun jin & zhongli!

summary: what would the genshin characters be like as teachers?

warnings: a little bit of angst on zhongli's part. nothing else!

tags: modern fantasy au | albedo and zhongli are still old men bc i said so | queer and autistic albedo | slice of life | fluff? fluff. | a whole bunch of cuties tbh

a/n: hi everyone!! happy halloween and happy samhain to anyone who is celebrating!! if not then i hope you have a wonderful day! have some headcanons <3

date started: 4:58PM, october 27th, 2024. date finished: 3:50PM, october 31st, 2024.

divider credit: @thecutestgrotto | wc: 2.2k | ao3

albedo ♡

you'd think that because albedo is an alchemist in the game, that i would put him down as a science teacher. not this time around he's not! i see albedo as an art teacher! even though it is only a hobby for him, i really like the image of him passing his admiration for art onto the kids he teaches. i think that his love for the subject would really show in his teaching and captivate his students. he would inspire them to be better artists and when they come to visit him years later, many would tell him that he was the reason why they wanted to be better at art. it always warms his heart to hear that he has influenced the next generation, and it makes him even happier seeing how much they have progressed throughout the years. he definitely keeps up with as many of his older students as he can, follows them on social media and scrolls through their work with pride.

i think that he would teach high school kids, specifically ages 14-16. when he was first getting started with teaching, he did grow a soft spot for grade school children, but with high schoolers, he's able to have conversations with people who have a more in-depth understanding of the world. when they all aren't busy, he likes to talk to them about things that are personal to everyone to understand their thoughts, opinions, feelings and ideas. this is one of many things that he loves about his job, learning more about his students. every individual that he teaches are so fascinating in their own way, and having the opportunity to get to know them all is something that he feels grateful for everyday.

i don't really see him having a special nickname for his students, probably just "students", "class", "kids", etc.

albedo isn't too strict of a teacher, he does have his rules and enforces them accordingly but he isn't uptight necessarily. he allows phones, food, drinks, earbuds/headphones etc in his class as long as they do not become a distraction, but if he notices that anyone isn't paying attention to the lesson because of these things, then he will ask for them to be put away.

a big pet peeve of albedo's is when students don't clean up after themselves. there is no reason for them not to, and he does not have the time to tidy their messes. it typically isn't much of an issue, as many of his kids are respectful of the space they take up and the time they have, but when it does happen, he cannot help but be annoyed.

albedo is very beloved by his pupils. he accommodates all of his students as best as he can, and he does his best to ensure that he is a safe space for his kiddos to come to him whenever they need anything. he is particularly adored by his fellow queer and neurodivergent folk, for they can relate to him at that level. he is happy that his efforts of creating a safe place for the young people that he teaches have paid off, especially for those who are like him. many have called him their favorite teacher because of his detailed teaching style and open-mindedness, and he humbly accepts the honor.

albedo never had an interest in social media until his students started to beg him to download some. he agreed begrudgingly and downloaded a few, and was very rarely active on them until those kids graduated. it was only not long after that he started to become more active. he never really posts, but he does interact with their content and keeps up with them to soak in the pride of their development.

yanfei ♡

yanfei being a government teacher makes the most sense to me. she is very passionate about law, so i feel like being able to pass on that knowledge as to how it all works is something that she would find really fulfilling and exciting.

once again, i see yanfei teaching high school kids, ages 14-16. maybe a little younger, but it's a strong maybe. i feel like she would get along really well with the kids and it would be really fun for her.

i can see yanfei calling her students "lovelies" or "lovely people". i think she really adores her students and wants to make them feel special, so that's how she refers to them outside of all of the basic stuff.

yanfei isn't much of a strict teacher either, she does allow phones, headphones/earbuds, snacks, drinks etc in her classroom as long as it is in moderation. she is a bit stricter than albedo, though, because when the students are working, they are working. no dilly-dallying or distractions, if she catches someone that is getting distracted or straight-up not doing their work, she will remind them to stay on task or to get on task if they aren't. she never sounds mean or anything, she just wants everyone to stay focused.

something that really grinds yanfei's gears is deliberate disobedience. when she asks a student to put something away, and they refuse or even start to speak to her disrespectfully, she will start to lose it. she's pretty good at keeping a level head, she won't yell or rarely fights with her students, but it really tips her over the edge when she asks one of her kiddos to do something kindly and they respond rudely. she didn't do anything to deserve that treatment, so why she receives it sometimes is something that she will never understand. it's something that she's learned to deal with as she has progressed in her career, and it doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it puts her very on-edge.

yanfei is very straightforward in her teaching style. once a lesson has started, it has started and it is uncommon for her to get distracted while she is teaching. a lot of her students like this because it means that they can get their work done swiftly and without any disturbances, and it fills her with pride to know that they are so dedicated to their studies.

just because yanfei likes for her and her kiddos to remain focused during their learning time doesn't mean that she is always so serious. she will converse with the students and laugh with them, and tries to surprise them with fun lessons so that they can stay engaged in what she's teaching them. she'll take selfies with them and follows them on social media, even make tiktoks with them when they are done with their work! while she does take her time on the clock seriously, that doesn't mean that she won't have any fun or bond with her students in the process.

yun jin ♡

music teacher yun jin. need i say more?

i feel like yun jin would teach grade school children. the thought of her singing with the kids and passing her love for music onto them just makes my heart feel all warm and happy eyfbuw.

yun jin calls her students "little ones", "lovelies", maybe other endearing terms. she uses "little ones" the most and it's adorable. her eyes show how much she loves and cares for her students whenever she looks at them.

yun jin is not a very strict teacher, some say that she spoils her students a little bit too much. she brings in snacks, candies, stickers, and makes her lessons as fun for the children as she can!!!! she believes that they deserve all of the rewards in the world for their accomplishments, and maybe she does overdo it sometimes, but that does not mean that she is a pushover. while she does find it difficult to tell her kids no, she knows that it is essential to the classroom environment, so she will be firm with her boundaries, much to the kids' dismay.

as much as she loves to let the kids have fun with all of the different instruments and wants them to be creative, she is still teaching grade school children who aren't always aware of their volume. they get excited, therefore they get loud, and while she is pretty used to it, sometimes all of the instruments being played at the same time with high-pitched screeching small people scratches the chalkboard of her brain. especially if she has asked them to quiet down multiple times, and they don't listen/get louder. her students respect her, so they do try to mind their volume when she asks, but there are days where they aren't as mindful of the noise they're making. there have been times where she has had to leave the room for a few minutes because of how overstimulating it could be, or told the kids to put the instruments away since they weren't adhering to her instruction.

yun jin is the type of teacher who is almost always smiling. she is cheerful around everyone in the workplace, especially around the little ones. doing what she does everyday makes her so happy that she cannot help herself! she adores the children that she teaches with everything that she is. they are all so unique, smart and kind, and she feels so lucky that she gets to help them expand their knowledge about something that is so important in the world.

sometimes, when she is alone in her classroom, she likes to blast rock and roll music. some of the staff have caught her jamming out to it, and to say that they were surprised is an understatement. yun jin is so well-known for enjoying opera that no one would expect her to enjoy rock and roll. i think it would be funnier if the students found out because they would be asking her all sorts of questions and she would just have to laugh it off.

zhongli ♡

this man is a history teacher. he has been alive for many years, therefore he is able to give an accurate, detailed description of history that he will be passing forward, and he can connect with younger generations to understand the modern world.

i don't have any specific ideas for what age group zhongli would teach, because honestly, i feel as though he would be happy teaching any age group. he is so interested to learn more about the world that has come to be that i feel as though it wouldn't matter much to him. no age group in particular really sticks out to me either.

zhongli wouldn't have any special nicknames for his students. just the normal stuff.

zhongli is similar to yanfei, but i imagine that he is a bit more strict than her. not to say that he's extremely hung-up on his rules, but he is very firm about them. he is never disrespectful when he is enforcing the boundaries within his classroom, but he does make it clear that he will not be so easily swayed. i imagine that he may be a bit more loose if he was teaching younger children, but he wouldn't tolerate any misbehavior.

this is a little sad and i don't know how much of a "pet peeve" it can be considered but i think that one of zhongli's pet peeves is when his class isn't listening to him. he knows that he has a tendency to go on long rambles that not everybody understands, but when he feels like his students are straight-up ignoring him, it makes him a little sad. he wants to be able to share his thoughts and stories with the younger people, but when he gets cast to the side like that, he can't help but feel a little down. he corrects himself and gets back to subject if he or any of the students can even remember what he was talking about to begin with, and he does apologize for it, but it still disheartens him.

zhongli is a very fun teacher, i think. he has been doing this for so long that he knows exactly how to keep the students engaged in what he teaches them, and he has also mentally noted every trick in the book that any student has ever used on him, so that if there is a repeat of an event, he knows what's going on and how to respond. he is always willing to try new things on behalf of his kiddos, and he is very open-minded. it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to listen to zhongli's stories, so many of his students tune in whenever he starts talking, for they are very interested in hearing about one of plenty tales that he has to tell. he is someone that everybody could learn from, if only to give him the chance.

if zhongli was teaching older children, they would be begging him to get a phone. he never had one before his students began to beg him, plus he figured that he would end up needing one anyways. he didn't use it much at first, but that changed with time. he soon got to using social media, and now does all sorts of fun things on there with his students. he finds it a bit difficult to keep up with the newer trends, but he does his best and his students love him for it.

@BUNNYLUVX ,, all rights reserved. do not copy/plagiarize any of my works or submit it into ai. any and all support is appreciated! <3

[berries-hcs]

Old Habits Die Hard (pt. 2/2)

Welcome to part one of my first fic for here, crossposted on my ao3 Bugga_blue https://archiveofourown.org/works/59123362/chapters/150748117 Summary:

Maybe he was coming down with something? His vision did give him an immune boost, making him more resistant to colds that would take over the city as soon as the weather turned, but he had always been a sickly child. It had driven Crepus mad seeing Kaeya come down with something new every other week until his immune system finally adapted after years of living in the city. There were no other symptoms though, his throat wasn't sore and he didn't feel feverish. His thoughts were clouded and heavy, but not in the way it would feel if he were ill, it almost was like-

Oh.

The realization took him by surprise, enough so that he stilled in the center of his room staring at the floor where the was a patterned decorational rug that had likely been there longer than he was alive. It wasn’t unexpected, per se, but he thought he’d have more time before it set in fully.

Or, where Kaeya regresses for the first time in a long time without crashing and has to fight off regressing while on duty Word Count: 5k

Kaeya wished he could say it had been a fluke, but that wouldn’t be true. 

After that first day of feeling fuzzy, it was as if the habit had returned with the intent to make up for lost time. He and Lisa never talked about that night, but if the book left on his desk told him anything, he was willing to bet she had understood what it meant. He hadn’t read it of course, but bringing it back would mean he had to acknowledge what happened for her to have thought to leave it there in the first place. 

Regressing was quickly becoming a weekly occurrence, and yet somehow still managing to catch the Captain off guard. There were still occasional nights where it came on due to feeling overwhelmed or needing an escape, but more often it would start during the day, growing into the afternoon until he couldn’t deny its presence. There weren’t any specific causes he could identify for it, once a crystalfly that had followed alone him on his patrol route, another by Jean’s gentle and sisterly care coming to check in on him in the Cathedral after he’d taken a bit of a beating from a few treasure hoarders, even Albedo speaking scientific jargon at him about the alchemists newest line of research and experiments. But the one he was finding to be the most recurring and troublesome was the Angel's Share. 

More specifically, nights where Diluc was the one serving drinks to him after a long day at work. 

Kaeya was always able to keep up with the banter and jabs at first, sitting at the bar while they had what small amount of time they could catch up with each other without feeling too forward or out of place. But, the longer the night would go on- and the more drinks his brother poured for him, the more Kaeya’s brain would be lulled back into that hazy fog. 

It had started reaching a point where partway through the night Diluc would cut him off, thinking Kaeya was already drunk! Oh and how he would pout, both for the sake of his image, and also because the alcohol helped remind him to keep up with acting like his older self would. 

Diluc never had a good explanation for cutting him off either which was really starting to grate on the younger's nerves. It hadn’t slipped past him that it only occurred on nights his brain had decided to feel more childish and fuzzy, but even if he wasn’t always exactly right Kaeya was confident in still being able to act like his normal self when small well enough that no one would find him suspicious unless they knew what to look for. 

Tonight just so happened to be one in the same, Kaeya sat at a barstool up towards the counter, chatting with Diluc between the other serving customers. During the gaps he’d watch his brother diligently make each drink, serving them with efficiency and ease. One after another patrons drinks were poured and sent out in record time.

When he wasn’t serving, Diluc took to food prep and washing glasses while he and Kaeya made small talk. He couldn’t have told you what they talked about even just five minutes before, easily getting lost people-watching while sitting in the other's presence instead. 

He was well aware that it was happening, already able to feel the fuzz coming on after he’d finished his first drink, but Kaeya thought he was slowly becoming okay with it being there again. It took adjusting to, but it was something he had used to find comforting, so welcoming it back wasn’t as hard as he thought it might be. 

With a last sip the cup in front of him was emptied, one that Diluc took while squinting at the younger accusatorially. He didn’t replace it, even when Kaeya tried to call him back over to get his attention, bringing the glass to the sink to quickly wash and dry. 

“Hellooo~ Diluc, can you hear me all the way over there? Are you not going to get me another drink?” Kaeya asked, voice taking on a low whine as he obnoxiously waved one of his hands over the bartop. 

Diluc spared him a glance before his eyes moved back to the glass he was wiping down. “I don’t think you need another drink Kaeya,” he spoke with an air of finality. Usually benign spoken to in such a way would have a simpler customer huffing and moving on to the next bar willing to serve them, but Kaeya was anything but a simple customer. 

“Wha- What do you mean? My mora says otherwise, that was only my first drink of the night.” With an elbow propped up on the counter, Kaeya leaned against his first petulantly. “I assumed you’d remember that, you are the one who served me after all.”

Diluc scoffed- scoffed! Kaeya let his eyebrows furrow, the more childish part of his brain getting huffy at the denial this early in the night when he truly hadn’t done anything wrong. “Well, can you at least give me a reason- a good one, for why you won’t serve your most valued customer?”

He watched while the other set the glass to the side, watching as the bartender reached for another to polish before looking up in disinterest. “Firstly, you are far from my most valued customer, don’t humor yourself. But if I must give a reason, you’re acting dumb enough already that I thought I’d spare you the drinks, it's obvious you don't need anymore.”

Kaeya let his jaw drop in offense, stumbling over his words as he tried to think of any good response but only managed a squeaky “That’s not true!” before Diluc had gone back to sorting his glasses. “What is it that I’ve done that you’ve deemed stupid? Not only is that not a good enough reason, but I’m hardly even tipsy. There isn’t anything I’ve done that you could pass off as me being drunk like you like to do so often.”

Something in his chest hurt, and Kaeya didn’t understand what he had done wrong. Even on his more annoying nights, Diluc had never stepped in so early, and truthfully Kaeya had just been sitting quietly and observing. There wasn’t a single thing he had done to cause a disturbance or rile up customers, things he had done before and only gotten off with a warning. The more upset he got the thicker the fuzz layered in his brain, though he tried his best to push it away. It wouldn’t do him any good to have his valid tantrum turn into something even more childish than he would have on a different day. 

And so he continues to pester, not relenting and even bringing other patrons to his side when Diluc didn’t seem to waiver in his stance. “Charles wouldn’t cut me off for good behavior, do you prefer me to be causing a scene? Is that it?” Kaeya asked, huffing and tapping his foot against the bottom of his stool. “You’ll only serve me when I’m filling the role of an unruly patron? Out of all the people, I would think you’d celebrate me wanting to sit quietly in your sight so I can’t cause an issue without your notice.”

Other customers eyed the pair with unease, most confused at the two’s dynamic or curious as to why the bartender would refuse service for seemingly no reason. 

With a sigh Diluc picked up a glass, seeming to realize how much attention they’d gathered, and quickly made Kaeya’s drink before sliding it to him over the countertop. He didn’t look at him, but Kaeya couldn’t help but stare at the other, not noticing how even once getting his way the pout remained as he sipped the drink. 

After the first time Diluc didn’t put up much of a fight when Kaeya asked for a new drink, which he was thankful for. It allowed Kaeya to fall back into the peaceful and somewhat hazy mood he was in before, soaking up the atmosphere and chatting with friendly customers while Diluc made their drinks for them. He thought that they worked great together as a pair, Kaeya keeping the customers distracted during rushes which gave Diluc more than enough time to make everyone's drink down to the last detail. 

If Diluc appreciated it he didn’t say, at least not with words. After the main evening rush had passed though, the older slid Kaeya a small plate of fruit and cheese. He spun around quickly after, but Kaeya was still able to catch the smile that had unwillingly curled on his brother's lips. Kaeya was finding that the fuzzy part of his brain quite liked this. It faded in and out a bit when he had to put on his persona chatting to customers for Diluc, but now it had come back full force with a pleasant buzz added from the drinks he had kept steadily coming. His feet swung back and forth on the tall stool, thumping against the footrest at the lower portion as he nibbled on his snack. 

Diluc began to chat with him again, telling stories about what different workers at the winery had been getting up to. Kaeya missed them badly, it had been so long since he had a chance to stop in for more than just official business, and even then any knights were scarcely allowed at the winery. At one time, when Diluc was busy fixing a large group’s drinks, Kaeya leaned down to let his head rest, using his arms as a makeshift pillow. The bar wasn’t slow by any means, but the main crowd had passed which left a nice hum of various conversations overlapping. The noise was soothing, and without conversation to distract him, Kaeya let his eye close. 

It had only felt like a few seconds before he was waking back up, arms stretching out in front of himself reminiscent of a cat from where he was still hunched over the bar counter. Something stood out to him however, the quiet. Kaeya looked around only to find the tavern nearly empty, nearly since the only person left was Diluc who stood to his side. 

The redhead said something, his own arms crossing with an unreadable expression on his face, but the words processed at a delay leaving the younger to blink up at him emptily, waiting for him to repeat himself. 

“Come on, I said let’s head out. Everything’s closed down, we need to get you home… unless you’d rather spend the rest of the night breaking your neck sleeping like that?”

Kaeya huffed, rubbing at his exposed eye as he sat up on the stool. There was something that fell behind him, but Diluc was quick to pick it up off the floor and wrap it back around Kaeya’s shoulders. It was… his jacket? But why was Diluc putting his own jacket over Kaeya, and why had it been there in the first place? 

“But…” Kaeya mumbled, looking once again behind Diluc to the empty room. “But it’s too early for you to close down. Where’d everyone go?”

It wasn’t making any sense, he’d only closed his eye for a moment. 

“They all left nearly half an hour ago, I’ve closed the rest of the bar and now it's time for us to leave as well.”

Something about Diluc was off but Kaeya couldn’t quite put his finger on it. His voice was softer, and while he’d gotten used to more than just grumpy looks coming from the other it almost looked like Diluc was amused or nostalgic, like he was remembering something pleasant. “Come on, it’s late. We should get you home now Kaeya.”

Kaeya got to his feet unsteadily, nearly tripping as his foot got caught on one of the bar stool legs before he could tuck it under the counter. Diluc steadied him, not even trying to hide the smirk that followed the uncharacteristically clumsy display. Before he could argue, Kaeya was being shuffled to the door, Diluc blowing out the few remaining candles as they passed them before walking them both out and locking the tavern up behind them. 

Looking down the cobbled pathway he was already bracing himself for the walk home. It wouldn’t be so far, but for some reason the trip felt much more daunting than it usually would, even compared to other nights leaving the tavern with his thoughts fuzzy from more than just being tipsy. He took a deep breath, bringing his hands up and lightly patting his cheeks, before taking his first step down the dimly lit street. Or, at least it would be his first step if Diluc’s hand hadn’t landed on his shoulder to stop him from taking off. 

The redhead shot him a confused look and a half-mumbled “Hang on a moment,” before tucking the keys for the Angel’s Share further into his bag with his free hand. “Let me walk you down, just need to attach them to the inner chain.”

Diluc was ready after that, straightening up and sending Kaeya a small smile as he moved to head down the same path Kaeya had been planning to take on alone. He even went so far as to look back after the first few steps when the other didn’t immediately follow. “Kaeya? Come on, let’s go.”

In lieu of a response Kaeya allowed himself a few confused blinks before moving to catch up, even more surprised when Diluc’s hand reached out to wrap around his wrist while they walked. Whether it was because he wanted to make sure Kaeya didn’t stop walking again, or just out of instinct Kaeya wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that it made him stumble on his feet enough to be glad for Diluc’s hand there to steady him with how quickly a wave of fog rushed to cloud his brain. It felt just like when he was seven or eight, Diluc tugging him along into the woods that lined the winery while their father worked to go play knights. Diluc had always been the one tugging him along, making sure he kept up so he wouldn’t get lost or hurt, not that Kaeya minded or wanted to be far from his newly found brother back then. 

By the time he blinked out of the onslaught of memories, they were already approaching his home. Personally, Kaeya couldn’t wait to be able to flop down in his bed. He was half tempted not to bother even changing out of his day clothes- even with fresh air hitting his face the sleepiness still weighed heavily with each step he took. 

Diluc was practically dragging him to his door, spinning to face him once they got there with an expectant look. 

“Where are your keys, we’ll need those to get in won’t we?” The elder’s voice took on a familiar tone. The same he used to use when they were both still in training and he thought Kaeya had done something amusing. Kaeya didn’t quite understand what about him needing to pull out his keys was so tease-worthy, but nonetheless reached to where he kept his side pouch to pull them out. 

Before he could reach in front of Diluc to put them in Diluc had plucked it right from his hand, unlocking it and pulling them both inside before flicking the lights on. 

It was bright, and Kaeya had to blink away spots from the sudden shift. Diluc didn’t seem nearly as phased, which Kaeya could admit made him pout. Instead, he was able to drop his hold on Kaeya’s wrist and move further into the house, leaving the knight standing off to the side of the entranceway rubbing at his one exposed eye.

After about another 30 seconds he was able to look around the room without squinting, finding Diluc carefully investigating the different corners of his house, even going so far as to wipe dust from a side table on his way to the kitchen. Without a word he was pilfering through Kaeya’s cabinets, pushing glasses out of the way as if looking for something specific. 

“What are you…” Kaeya trailed off, Diluc didn’t even turn to look at his half-mumbled and if he was being honest with himself, childishly sounding start. All he could do was restart and hope his brother really hadn’t heard. “‘Luc, what are you looking for? You got me home just, I just want to go to sleep now and you have a long walk back to the winery.”

“I’m looking for a suitable cup,” Diluc said, sending one of his well-known exasperated looks over his shoulder before turning and continuing to search through the top shelves of his kitchen. “I don’t trust you not to spill in the state you’re in now. I know you used to have one with- There it is! Finally, but, it's covered in dust Kaeya how long has it been since you…”

Kaeya watched the other pull a small cup out from where Kaeya had pushed it deep in the back of his cupboards. It was a pale blue, rather simple design outside of the few stickers that were faded and worn from years of use, then a lack of use in the more recent years, but what made this cup more ‘suitable’ as Diluc had put it compared to his other glasses was the lid. It was a children's cup that had a lid with a spout to stop it from spilling, and the sight of it alone brought heat to his cheeks after years of trying to forget it existed while being unable to make himself throw it away. 

That cup, he decided right then, was his newest enemy for the night. 

He tried to think of something to say, Diluc was looking at him expectantly, but his words were failing him as different excuses passed by his thoughts. 

“Um… That’s… not mine.” He mumbled, walking to the kitchen to try to stop Diluc from turning to wash it. Diluc scoffed and brushed off the attempt to grab the cup from his hands and turned the water on. 

“I don’t- Diluc I don’t do that anymore. I don’t need the cup just… just go home, you got me back here and-”

Ignoring him Diluc filled the cup up and twisted the lid on tightly. 

“You don’t do it anymore? Well to me it sure seems like you might. What was the nickname we used to use for you again?”

“Diluc you’re not- You’re not listening to me” Kaeya knew what name, of course he remembered, but if Diluc said it he might not be able to put on his act anymore, and he wasn’t sure how that would go for either of them. “I don’t do that anymore, I said. I’ve not for a long long time, I don’t need the cup.” 

Kaeya tried to pull the cup out of his hands, it felt much to dangerous and embarrassing to have Diluc holding it. Diluc wasn’t phased, just letting the younger try to wrestle it out of his grasp while bringing the other hand up to his chin in thought, as if Kaeya wasn’t trying to shake him to stop. “That’s it, Dewdrop, wasn’t it? Though I’m afraid Snowdrop might be a bit more fitting all things considered.”

If he wasn’t blushing before, Kaeya was sure his face must be bright red now. Not only was the fact Diluc remembered bad enough, he remembered enough specifics to know his nickname and make new one’s playing off of it. It was getting harder and harder to think, Kaeya knew realistically he was only slipping further into his headspace no matter how much he tried to fight it off. So much for thinking he was doing a good job at hiding it.

“I don't- that’s… That’s not me, you’re remembering wrong.”

Diluc tilted his head to the side, but the smirk on his face stayed. “Really? Could have fooled me, you said you didn’t do it anymore but you still can. You are right now, whether you admit it or not. You were always quite stubborn when you were-”

He moved from where he’d been holding onto Diluc’s arm, hands flying to cover his mouth instead. “No! I’m not- don’t. Don’t say it ‘Luc.”

Seeing how worked up Kaeya was getting Diluc softened, moving the hand off of his mouth and his voice shifting from that playful teasing tone into a caring one that made Kaeya feel like his brain was melting. “Why can’t I say it Kae? Why’d you stop regressing, it helped you a lot when we were younger. Can you try to explain it to me?”

Kaeya looked away. He didn’t want to have to explain it. 

Even still he let Diluc take his hand and listened when the other led him up the stairs and peeked at the different doorways until he found Kaeya’s bedroom. He let Diluc be the one to search his dresser to find pajamas and followed instructions when he was asked to change while Diluc left the room to get a drink of his own. 

But Kaeya couldn’t pull himself out of his thoughts, not that they had any direction at the moment. He was stuck in a circle, but Diluc was here, and Kaeya was quickly finding it harder and harder to put on any type of a front even to himself. It felt painfully familiar, Diluc used to know every way to pester, to tease, exactly what buttons to push in and out of Kaeya’s regression. Knowing how much Diluc knew and could use to get a reaction from him only made the fuzz stronger. 

He wanted it, he wanted Diluc. He wanted to not want it. 

That was the main issue, wasn’t it? He wanted to not want it, but he did want it. He felt better in the months of playing around and fighting it off like some kind of game than he did trying to ignore any urge until it nearly stopped entirely. 

He didn’t have time to dwell on that thought when Diluc knocked before slipping back into his room, his cup in hand that he was sipping from. 

Kaeya hadn’t managed to change, getting too lost in his own mind which Diluc sighed at. He set his cup down on the taller of Kaeya’s dressers before sitting on the bed next to Kaeya and undoing the laces at the back of his corset. 

He did try to squirm away, blushing again at the gentle attention, but Diluc weaseled his hand down the front of his corset and landed a few well-placed squeezes that had him flopping backward onto Diluc’s chest to get away. It didn’t do much good when the hand itself was trapped in his own corset but Diluc managed to get the corset undone between Kaeya’s kicking and squirming. By the time he got it fully off Kaeya curled into a ball against the older’s side, residual giggles escaping much to Diluc’s amusement. 

“I see that method still works then?”

Kaeya had a feeling his glare didn’t quite land how he wanted it to when he was still red in the face and giggly, but he tried nonetheless. 

Diluc easily brought Kaeya back up to a sitting position, though still leaned against his chest. He didn’t fight it this time, instead choosing to hide in Diluc’s shoulder and absorb the warmth he let off, though he didn’t seem against it. He used the opportunity to free Kaeya’s ponytail from his hair and lean over to grab the brush off of his nightstand. 

They didn’t talk while Diluc slowly worked the tangles out, starting at the bottom and working up until he had to lean the very nearly asleep Kaeya up from where he’d been using Diluc’s shoulder as a pillow, much to the bluenette's chagrin. 

The movement was met with a whine and pout, but after a bit of prompting Kaeya let Diluc sit him up to brush out his bangs. Before he was allowed to flop back down, which was the plan, he said something though Kaeya found himself staring blankly at the other as the words failed to register. 

Diluc tilted his head a bit to the side and frowned, grabbing onto Kaeya’s nightshirt before repeating himself. This time Kaeya knew to expect him to talk so made sure to listen carefully. 

“Let’s get you dressed before you fall asleep in your work clothes, you’ll smell tomorrow if you sleep like this.” 

Kaeya whined but didn’t cling when Diluc stood, or put up a fight when he brought Kaeya to stand after. Diluc mostly encouraged Kaeya to change on his own, minimally helping during the process outside of helping to get his shirt off when the chain got tangled in his hair. Diluc let Kaeya slide his pajamas on himself, thankfully not needing any help to get them on. Even if his half-asleep self wouldn’t have thought much of it or even was registering the assistance already given, he’s sure he would have died on the spot waking up tomorrow if he’d needed help dressing. Worse he wouldn’t be able to even face going to the tavern for weeks. 

Diluc motioned for him to lay back down in bed, which Kaeya was fast to follow, huddling under his blankets and preparing to curl up when he saw Diluc turning towards the door and straightening his sleeves. Before he realized what he was doing Kaeya gasped, grabbing onto Diluc’s wrist before the other could step too far away. 

Diluc turned to look at him, his gaze questioning but quiet. He was waiting for Kaeya to make the first move, but Kaeya was struggling to bring his eyes past where their hands were, instead turning to look down at his lap. 

He knew Diluc was waiting for him to say something, but the words evaporated in his mouth the moment he tried to conjure them up. 

Diluc took a step closer again, putting a hand in Kaeya’s hair and crouching down to put himself in Kaeya’s line of sight. “Oh… You’re very young aren’t you Kae? I… Would you- Should I stay?” 

Kaeya tugged on his arm again, scooting to try to pull the other back into the bed. He wasn’t sure what Diluc was really asking, but he knew the word stay and that would have to be enough. “Stay. ‘Luc stay?”

Diluc crumbled, his entire posture softening as he crouched back down to be at face level with Kaeya, the act itself making him feel impossibly smaller. Diluc didn’t fight back when Kaeya grabbed his hair with one hand, he was saying something but Kaeya couldn’t focus enough to listen. He could make out individual words, but when said all at once they got jumbled in his brain. Sometimes Common was harder to remember than it should have been, no matter how long it had been since he’d first started learning. 

None of that mattered though. He was so tired, why wasn’t DIluc lying down in bed? 

Diluc pried his hand out of his hair and straightened up. Kaeya was surprised to hear a soft whine from somewhere nearby, even more surprised when Diluc shushed him. That… was him? 

Both of Kaeya’s hands quickly flew to his mouth, doing their best to stop any more shocking sounds from sneaking out. 

Diluc chuckled at the dramatics, moving to Kaeya’s dresser again. He was confused, but it wasn’t long till Diluc began to pull clothes out and hold them up to himself. Then it clicked, of course Diluc was going to need pajamas if he was going to stay over, how did Kaeya forget? 

The younger padded out of bed to the small closet space where he kept some clothes that were out of season for him. There were a few which were oversized so if needed he could layer without complication. He had a tendency to run colder than others without noticing, so between Jean and others, they always made sure he remembered to bundle up. 

Diluc followed him over, peering in before taking out a larger shirt and quickly trading it for his own. He must have found some of Kaeya’s loose-fitting pants in the drawer which would work well enough for sleeping in. It was only a few moments before Diluc was ushering Kaeya back into bed, his own cup being sat down next to where Kaeya’s sippy cup was on the nightstand. 

The redhead lifted the blanket, letting Kaeya crawl back under before laying down and trapping Kaeya on the inside of the bed. It didn’t matter though, Kaeya was determined to worm his way on top of Diluc the moment the other was even starting to lay against the pillows. Diluc only laughed at the eagerness, wrapping one of his arms over Kaeya’s shoulders to hold him closer. 

Kaeya, in turn, clings to Diluc’s shirt as if to hold him in place- not that there is much of anywhere he could go like this. When Diluc speaks he feels more than hears Diluc talking, letting out a small hum of his own to match before huffing when his pillow begins shifting again. He didn’t go far this time, only stretching one arm out to grab something, bringing it back to the bed to hold with both hands. It was a rather odd position for Diluc, but apparently, there wasn’t much else choice if he were to keep his arm around Kaeya still. 

And he was talking again, only this time he didn’t stop. Kaeya could hear something shuffle over his head, almost like a page turning, but it was too much effort to peel his eye open to see what Diluc was up to. Quickly, Kaeya was being lulled to sleep from the rumbling of Diluc’s chest and the sound of his voice. 

Waking up in the morning Kaeya found himself clinging to a pillow in place of human warmth. It was a slow process, but memories began to slowly fade in and when it finally clicked his eyes shot open to look around his room. Surely it had to be some strange hyper realistic dream of sort because there was no way what he remembered could truly be what happened. At least, he wanted to believe that before he stretched, hand knocking into the blue sippy cup on the nightstand. 

He scooted to the edge of his bed, the cup itself enough confirmation as he needed to send heat to his face, but more interested in the note that seemed half hazardously written underneath. 

Dewdrop, I hope you slept well, and understand I had to leave earlier this morning to return to the winery and tend to a few early morning tasks. Do keep the cup from gathering dust, lest I need to come dig it out again… though I don’t mind bringing you home from the Angels Share since this is seeming to be a habit you fall into there. We can talk more another evening, perhaps when you aren’t a child.

Take care,

‘Luc

Well, Kaeya thought to himself. This was surely going to be an interesting development. He looked outside, able to see where those in the city were starting to go about their daily tasks, shops opening and townsfolk mulling through the cobble paths. Maybe this being a reality wouldn’t be the worst thing. 

[fanfoolishness]

Cal Kestis headcanons, apropos of nothing:

He crash-landed in the wastes of Bracca after Order 66. Dazed and wounded, his connection to the Force suddenly painful and frightening for the first time in his life, he tried to bury Master Topal — but he couldn’t lift his Lasat master from the escape pod, nor effectively use the Force to hide the pod with stones from the wastes. He was forced to abandon his master again, a guilt he carried with him for many years.

He found his way to the Mining Guild outpost more or less by luck. The Force guided him with a vision of sparks and metal, but he could not see it more clearly, relying more on a feeling than any sense of where he was going. On the outskirts he saw holos about the Jedi’s “betrayal” and cut his Padawan braid with Master Topal’s lightsaber, the last time he would ignite it for several years.

Prauf took one look at the shellshocked kid with muddy, scraggly robes and a fresh blaster wound to the face, and marched him straight to the guild outfitters for new clothes and a job. When the guild rep asked who the kid was Prauf told them he was a distant relative. Very distant. By marriage.

The Scrapper Guild tattoo was mandatory after a week on the job, when it was clear Cal probably wasn’t going to die immediately from the work, and was worth claiming as an worker. A droid stamped the image out onto his forearm in a matter of minutes. It hurt, but it was a distant, muted pain that barely registered. It startled him for weeks when he would catch sight of it. As an adult, the tattoo is an afterthought. He’s considered removing or embellishing it - plenty of backwater tattooists out here on the Rim - but he always winds up leaving it. He’s not ashamed of the time he put in on Bracca, nor the skills he learned there.

He didn’t realize he had a scar for weeks after the fall of the Albedo Brave. They didn’t keep mirrors in the scrappers’ quarters and there was nowhere else to go. He caught sight of his face in a shipside stretch of hammered durasteel on a rare sunny day, and the harsh red line rippling from his neck to his cheek shocked him. He stared at it until he got yelled at, and he got back to work, cheeks flushing with shame.

The scrapper uniform shop included heavy durable ponchos that stood up to the rain and repelled sparks and oil. When the outfitter droid plonked one over his head Cal didn’t argue, even though it was enormous on him. It was far enough from his robes that Cal felt safe and hidden, but close enough that he felt at home. He’s kept one in his wardrobe ever since, and wears them when memories press closer than he’d like.

Cal doesn’t sleep well, even into his twenties; shadowy dreams, sleep talking, night terrors. By the time of Survivor, it’s much better than it used to be: Cere taught him specific meditations he could use to help clear his mind, Greez kept the Mantis stocked with tea that helped him fall asleep faster, and Merrin used to sit up with him if he woke up in a panic. But it’s still his most vulnerable time, and when things are especially hard or emotional, he’s more likely to slip back into the fractured sleep he had throughout his teens.

As a new scrapper he once fell asleep while at a dangerous post, and the foreman screamed at him over it. (Not out of worries for his safety, but because it’d be annoying to find another worker as small and agile on short notice should he plummet to his death.) Prauf found him headphones and a little track player a few days later, told him to blast the music when he needed to stay awake. Every few weeks Prauf just happened to find another track to add to his collection.

[kavvueh]

Painting Flowers

by @kavvueh Chapter 18

Read it here! (A snippet from the chapter is below the cut after the images!)

“I have a job for you,” Varka announced.

Alice’s husband was a handsome man, though in the rugged sort of way outdoorsy types often were; broad in body and uncommonly tall, he left an imposing impression wherever he went. He was well-regarded by his colleagues as a natural-born leader with a sound head on his shoulders, and it was clear in his work as Mondstadt City’s Fire Chief that he was both capable in his career and savvy in politics. He always appeared bold and noble in the public eye.

Albedo, though, was one of the lucky few privy to the softer side of his personality. Varka had an equal passion for his work as he did for gentle sentimentalities. He was patient when Albedo was young and suspicious of everyone and everything. When he’d come around to accepting him, Varka had wasted no time taking Albedo under his wing and helping to instill important family values in him. He made constant efforts to bond with him: he taught him how to fish at Starfell Lake, and how to make bait from scratch; he attended every school event, no matter how large or small; and he took on projects around the home, enlisting Albedo’s aid to teach him practical skills.

Most of all, though, he shared one of his greatest loves with him: reading.

When Albedo had still been hesitant in the home, it was Varka who encouraged him quietly to take his time by leaving books at the table for him to find. When he was small, they were children’s stories; as he grew older and his preferences in literature became apparent, Varka left him fascinating non-fiction reads and scholarly journals. 

Eventually, Albedo became curious about Varka’s interests, and so he began to read classical literature: The Legend of Vennessa, Records of Jueyun, A Thousand Nights, and many others. He read them all, and continued to do so to this day. In fact, several shelves in the study were filled with works both Varka and Albedo had picked out to read together, two copies of each book placed next to each other to indicate they’d both finished it. They would spend every Saturday evening discussing those shared books, discussing character motivations and worldbuilding and many other manners of things. Sometimes they even spoke about things unrelated to the books, like Albedo’s friends at school or Varka’s exciting but dangerous work during the week.

Albedo, settled in at his desk, paused in his homework, and turned to face his adoptive father. At this point in his life - sophomore year of high school - Varka was Albedo’s role model, and he cared greatly about what he said and thought. So he immediately asked, “What is it?”

Varka grinned, a warm, toothy thing that made anyone else around want to smile back. “When you go off to college,” he said, “I’m going to want something to remember you by.” He made an exaggerated sigh. “Books can only fill the void so much.”

Albedo laughed lightly. “You make it sound as if I’m dying,” he said jokingly. “College isn’t for two more years.”

Varka’s smile dropped, and he regarded him very seriously. “And I need mementos,” he said somberly. Albedo knew his tone was overdone intentionally; this was part of Varka’s humor. He lifted a book he had in his hand. “And I just had an idea about that.”

“Well, do share,” Albedo said, gesturing in front of him for Varka to continue. Varka’s grin returned, and he eagerly shuffled forward to stand at the side of Albedo’s desk. He held the book out.

“Behold,” he said. “My idea!”

Albedo beheld the book. He took it from Varka’s hands. Then he looked up at his adoptive father and blinked.

“I don’t understand,” he admitted.

Varka threw his arms up, as if he had triumphed at his own idea. “The decorations on the spine! The gold leaf edges!” he cried. “Let’s paint all of our books to have them!”

Albedo laughed in surprise. “Gold leaf edges aren’t painted on,” he pointed out. Varka waved dismissively and pointed to the spine of the book. Albedo’s eyes followed his movements, and he took in the beautiful detailing along its edges.

“You’re the artist in the family,” Varka said. “You can make something much better than this. You’re very talented!”

Albedo shrugged. “I don’t think painting the spines of hardback covers helps their market value.”

“That matters very little to me,” Varke replied. He put his burly hands on Albedo’s shoulders and pat them twice. “I want to do one last project together before you go away.” He stepped back and pulled his best impression of puppy-dog eyes, which contrasted so drastically with the rest of his features that Albedo couldn’t help but snort in amusement. “Come now, my boy, surely you want something like that, too?”

Albedo looked into Varka’s eyes, which shone with mirth and joy, and knew in his heart, without a shadow of a doubt, that he did.

[homogrimoire]

My submission for David for DbD's cosmetic contest! I'm not much of an artist, but i wanted to show him some love. Plus, this man needs some more pink/red in his wardrobe. Here's the description I wrote up for it and some more fum facts if you'd like:

David King: King of Roses

Once prosperous, New Moon Roses are now but an image in a passing memory. Until now.

Head - Parasite

Near a death, the last remnant of original power took root in King, granting him elevated vitality and virility. Unfortunately, its power, even with a host, is not enough to defy the usurper. Or so it seems. The rose in his right eye and his memories will not disappear, even upon “revival.”

Torso - Rubedo

Roses also bloomed sparsely across his body and on his tattoo. Not painful, only itching sometimes. It hardly compares to the weight of remembrance, but knowing has changed him for the better. His clothing is from a lost world, one watched by the New Moon Rose.

Legs - Vox

In addition to elevated virility and vitality, his voice held a certain sway to it. It wasn't noticeable at first, subtle. Despite the many advantages it offers, King hates the control it can exert over his friends. David theorizes String Theory is at play, the sound waves of his voice affecting everything around him.

The headpeice being titled Parasite is a reference to Zero from Drakengard 3, who had The Flower parasite take root in her eye when she died, reviving her and granting her a great and terrible power

The body piece is titled Rubedo, Reddening in latin. It is the final step in the alchemical process to obtaining a philosopher's stone. represented by things such as a rose or a crowned king, and blood. [if i started this sooner, i would've given david a crown, since his last name is king, buuut i started this late and am also, once again, not much of an artist.] In psychology, rubedo is basically a unification of the self and the ego, creating a new personality, creating wholeness within a person, allowing them to see their true nature and resolve inner conflict.

The colors of the other roses also match the other alchemical processes in creating a philosopher's stone: the light creme for albedo, whitening, the darker deep red for nigredo, blackening, and the (yellowish) orange for citrinitas, yellowing.

The world refrenced in this part doesn't actually relate to any world in dbd canon. Though, i did base the design of the clothing and inspired the patters from the movie Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise because I wanted an otherworldly but still distinctly human look. Some inspiration is also taken from Keith Haring, a gay artist you may be familiar with.

Vox is latin for Voice. The legs aren't the best place for this title, but this is about lore more than anything lol. This is about refrence to Zero, the flower turning her into an Intoner, a "human", technically a zombie now, with powerful magic, and access to the most powerful form of magic, Song.

Lastly, since i love doing perk concepts, here's one for this outfit: Blood Tone

Blood Tone - Your gunts of pain are 100% louder. Pools of blood are brighter for you, and remain visible for an extra 3 seconds. For the next 45 seconds after you scream, or if your grunts of pain are audible, the following activates: Allies recover from negative effects 10% slower. Pools of blood within 24 meters of you grants 5% haste while not in chase, 5% for 5 seconds once every 30 seconds in chase, and recharge items by 5% for each second near a pool of blood.

[astronetwrk]

　　　　　 　　　welcome, one and all.

the fourteen of you been invited to play a game dissuading you from interacting with your beloveds... and the fourteen of you have chosen to take that step. welcome, welcome! take a look at how the game is played. the list of our beloved fourteen's biases for the week will be listed below as well.

EBG HOW-TO.

no mention of bias, excluding URL + preexisting caards, but including nicknames, codenames, theme, and content (both made and reblogged)

players must change their theme when ebg starts. if any player has not changed their theme within the first 24 hours of the EBG, they will be given a strike.

masterlists and extra links that contain images/references of their bias will not need to be changed. their entire navigation has to be reformed if it contains their original bias, though.

acknowledgment of original bias' existence will cost you a strike

three strikes and you're out

simping for your assigned bias earns 10 points (tag hosts to redeem, must be at least somewhat down bad to be valid)

brainrot of assigned bias, inclusive reblogs and posted content, earns 30 points

sabotage attempts earn 30 points

hosts must be tagged to redeem/use points or it will be invalid.

WELCOME TO THE POINTS SHOP.

simp pass: 1000 points for 12hrs use ( must tag host with duration + start time + time zone / one time use only )

first strike cancel: 150 points

second strike cancel: 300 points

gift a strike (cannot be used for final strike): 250 points

third strike cancel: 500 points

time bomb (recipient must be online): 200 points

Equivalent Exchange: half current points

PLAYER'S BIAS.

LETS PLAY.

@astranne | kaeya

og bias; kazuha, alhaitham, ayato, pierro, razor, ayaka, raiden

Strikes: | | |

Points: 40

@aimynx | cyrus

og bias; kaeya, alhaitham, ayato, tighnari, zhongli, yelan, yae miko

Strikes: | | |

Points: 140

@ezendoll | ningguang

og bias; albedo, venti, kaeya, kazuha, thoma

Strikes:

Points:

@ineshapanda | aether

og bias; albedo, kaeya, and kazuha

Strikes: | | |

Points: 80

@mixed-kester | teppei

og bias; kaeya, wanderer, heizou, kazuha, xiao

Strikes: | | |

Points: 360

@moonbyunniee | yunjin

og bias; venti, xiao, kazuha, ayato, albedo

Strikes: |

Points:

@raingoesboomboom | jean

og bias; alhaitham, heizou, kazuha

Strikes: | | |

Points:

@simplyxsinned | capitano

og bias; alhaitham, childe and dottore

Strikes: |

Points: 30

@snobwaffles | rana

og bias; albedo, mona, yelan, shenhe, dehya, beidou, tighnari, ayaka, ayato, itto, yoimiya, kazuha, rosaria, heizou, thoma, hu tao, dainsleif, enjou, arlecchino, capitano, kaveh

Strikes: | | |

Points: 20

@venusflwers | kujou sara

og bias; kokomi, albedo, xiao

Strikes: | | |

Points:

@versadies | pantalone

og bias; alhaitham, zhongli, capitano, diluc and ayato

Strikes: | |

Points: 100

@zhongrin | albedo

og bias; zhongli, al haitham

Strikes: | | |

Points: