#Also I forgot how much I like thinking about feral Diluc...

[kanonavi]

15, 12, and 22 for the ask game and specifically i am curious abt your thoughts on mistah diluc since 22 asks for hc or smth

Thanks for the ask!!

12 - I'm not really one for super crazy AU ideas (which I know you know, cuz it's why you're asking me this lol), I tend to have the most fun with ideas that could ostensibly happen in canon, since I like to find the little gaps that could be left open to interpretation and fill them in with my own ideas.

The closest answer that I can give to this (which you've already heard about in some detail) is that a few years ago I participated in a crossover rp with a group of friends which basically turned into an AU of my main blorbo at the time, Goro Akechi from Persona 5. He basically went through a (sadly unfinished) character arc of renouncing his former persona awakening before eventually reawakening as a better person, all of which took place in a magically shapeshifting city with all sorts of characters there, all the way from a sizable portion of the Mondstadt and Liyue casts of Genshin to like. actually just Kirby being there for a while if I remember right.

Maybe one day you'll influence me to get sillier with it but for now this is the best I have lol

15 - I don't go back and read my old work that often (out of fear lmao), so I'm not actually sure how much my style has changed. When it comes to my writing style itself, I don't really feel like it has? I know that when I look back at my older xiaoven writings, I can see that my opinions on little details I like with the ship have shifted with time, but my writing style seems pretty similar (aside from maybe lightening up on the italics a bit)

Some of my excesses with incorrect punctuation have begun to shift, mostly with your influence, and I've become aware of some of my more fanficcy habits on account of being in writing workshops for school, but those don't really affect my writer's voice a whole ton. When I work up the gall to read some of my older stuff, I'll tell you how I feel.

22 - A headcanon for Diluc! It's sadly been far too long since I thought about him in much depth (not since the aforementioned crossover rp in fact, since he was my other main muse by the end of it alongside Akechi) but I'll do my best.

Something that I remember thinking very strongly about Diluc is that he's much more proficient with his vision than the average person. This is on account of him having had his vision for over half of his life, considering that he got it when he was only 10 years old, but also on account of the fact that I like to think that he got very good at just, the absolute basest forms of combat when he was in his 4 year exile.

Maybe it's just the chiluc shipper in me who likes the eroticism of feral men, but Diluc to me is a person who is very well-trained in combat, but when the cards are down he'll bite and tear at someone like a wild animal if that's what it takes to survive. And where his vision proficiency ties into that (without going on an entire tangent of how I believe that elemental control works for Allogenes) is that he has such good elemental control that he can just straight up set himself on fire without burning himself.

To me, Diluc is at his most interesting when his Darknight Hero side is a greater contrast to his upstanding, uptight noble side. He's a righteous vigilante by technicality, yes, but also getting into a fight with him should be like getting into a fight with a pack of wild dogs... who also use a claymore? I lost track of the metaphor but you get the idea.

Fandom Ask Game

[theabysscomeshome]

For the meme: your boy Kaeya?

How I feel about this character: My darling sopping wet kitten who I rescued from the dumpster myself and then threw into an adjacent colony of feral cats to see what happens :) I love the hint of menace underneath his carefully worded friendliness (huge shoutout to the webcomic there), I love the messy relationships he has with Diluc and Crepus and the potential there is in his relationship with Jean and the knights and Mondstadt and he's just really fun, you know?

All the people I ship romantically with this character: .....Everyone. Next question.

More seriously: You have thoroughly converted me to all combinations of Kaeya/Jean/Lisa/Eula, so strong appreciation there. I've read a couple Kaeya/Childe and Kaeya/Albedo stuff that was pretty cute. I like certain interpretations of Kaeluc, though I think a lot of content for them is out of character to how I see them, as well as Diluc/Jean/Kaeya. Kaeya and Rosaria have a lot of potential for some very fun kink. But I like Kaeya enough that any interaction between him and another character that seems in-character and interesting is automatically going to get a second glance from me.

(Note: characters are listed in random order in ships that does not reflect who I think ~tops)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: All of them :) As per usual any ship I find interesting is also interesting platonically, precisely because in order for me to be interested in it it has to involve them bouncing off each other in ways that make sense for their character and aren't just a standard romcom script, and their characters are the same even if they aren't attracted to each other, you know? But special shoutout to the Kaeya, Diluc, Jean trio- I am 100% on board with the childhood friends theory and I think it's fantastic and has so much potential for how they all relate to each other as adults.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I've posted before that I tend to headcanon him as older than most of the fanon I've seen when he was left at the winery. Related to this, I think that there's a lot more flexibility in specifically how Kaeya views Crepus and Diluc in relation to his biofamily that he clearly remembers than most people are willing to entertain. And I think that's a shame mostly because exploring different possibilities is fun, and arguing about the Only Correct Canon is not fun at all.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish we actually got some backstory and concrete details about things. His life before Mondstadt, sure, I'll (grudgingly) buy that maybe they're waiting for some more reveals about Khaenriah before dropping that (though also maybe they just forgot). But? We know so little about his life in the winery. Give us details about how tiny Diluc and Kaeya got along! Give us Kaeya and Crepus interactions! Adelinde!!!! Please hoyo.....