#Anyways Lantern Rite has been fun! It's my first one

[exittotheartscape]

Embarrassed myself in front of the coolest people I know.

[symphonic-scream]

Sorry that I slipped back into Genshin brainrot but I finally finished the Fontaine Archon Quest (I know. I just didn't feel like doing it for a while) and Arlecchino's Story Quest and. God

For context, I've been playing Genshin off and on since 1.0, literally the beginning. I have all my areas at 100%, and I even do those world quests that are unvoiced and way too long

And. Let me just say, Fontaine is now my favourite nation. For so long it's been Liyue, and as someone who really hates the French (Canadian, I'm Canadian), man. Fontaine fucking rocks

Long post ahead.

Sumeru's Archon Quest was, tedious. I didn't connect to it at all so it was not exactly a chore, but if given the chance, I wouldn't replay it. The region was torture before the layered map existed. I kept getting lost. The skin tone thing is an entire other issue as well, but. This nation loses a lot of points for the racist genie bottle fuck that quest

Inazuma was almost too much for me, in a way. I wasn't a fan of the locked progression, and the enemies and puzzles were frustrating. This nation brought in needing commissions to get all the quests too, which I STILL HAVENT GOTTEN ITS BEEN TWO YEARS GOURMET SUPREMOS FUCK YOU. I did like the touch that while you were wanted, if a guard saw you in Inazuma City youd get removed that was fun. DONT GET ME STARTED ON ENKANOMIYA.

Liyue felt like the right step after Mondstadt. Getting to beat up Childe is an extra plus. The way it also led into Inazuma was great too, I hope they do something like that for Natlan. The story had a natural build up to me, and it flowed well. The Chasm, while frustrating, felt like a meaningful addition to the nation. And, I am swayed by Lantern Rite. Best event every year, hands down. And, I love Chenyu Vale!

Mondstadt was the perfect starting nation. I go back every now and then to test out builds in progress and team comps, but that's about it. The City is the highlight by far, but the Archon Quest was near perfect. Venti used to be my favourite Archon, too. I got him on his first banner, he's fun to play and I wish he'd finally get his Story Quest chapter 2 IVE BEEN WAITING YEARS FOR MORE VENTI

Anyways. So, let's talk Fontaine

It didn't hit me right away. I loved the first part of the quest. Meeting the twins at the port, Furina showing up and making her grand entrance in such a showy manner, it was perfect. It was hard to see how the second part really fit in, and I will say I am a little tired of Navia crying, but. By the time the Finale happened, I was satisfied. The Fortress part was excellent too, and. The Finale

The twist about Furina was perfectly executed to me. Especially since her erratic behaviour in the trial is used to show how seriously she took her assignment from Focalors. She *had* to make sure they kept believing in her, otherwise,

Didn't like that abrupt cut in the whale fight. That part didn't wrap up right to me, but oh well

And, this nation has had so many wonderful characters. There's not one that I hate, and that's huge. Everyone feels whole and interesting to me, just. Amazing

I love Arlecchino. The Hearth siblings. How dare this game make me care about the Fatui?? I was doing so well, I didn't like any of the other Harbingers or operatives so far and BAM. Hot lady dad and her three French kids. Stole my heart

Neuvillette plays perfectly as the "higher being that's become enamored by humans", and the way Sigewinne contrasts his emotional investment with her more "detached" (used loosely) fascination works so well. There's Wriothesley, and Navia and Clorinde, who both highlight the grey side of Justice, in different ways. Charlotte and Chevreuse are also there

And. Fucking Furina

I actually cried during the Archon Quest, in her little mind bit. I wasn't her biggest fan on launch, but. Now I'm obsessed. To me, this accomplished much more than what Scaramouche did, with a similar premise. I can't stand that twink, but Furina perfectly captured my attention and heart

All in all, Fontaine was so excellent. The water mechanics are some of my favourite in the game now, and all the new creatures and birds and enemies were perfect. The Bygone Sea was a perfect added area, and. I may be biased as a musician, but it really outclassed Chasm and Enkanomiya

There's only about two Fontaine updates left before Natlan. Hopefully I'll enjoy the region that will be the closest from repping my culture (native Canadian. Latin America is, close enough for me I guess), so. Here's hoping

This was all opinion. I felt like writing it all out, since I've had so many feelings about the game lately

[void-kissed]

oh i LOVED reading about how alectra would fit into the genshin plotline... if she were an NPC id be visiting her during every major plot beat to see what shes up to. she sounds like a very fun easter egg, kinda like those fatui guys who hang out near the mondstadt city waypoint

aaah thank you so much!!!! yeah I got way too attached to the concept of her foreshadowing stuff going wrong, ‘cause like - the first time you see her is during Ending Note, and you can only see her right at the start of that specific quest; she’s waiting outside the cathedral, looking up at the Barbatos statue, and she won’t give any dialogue when spoken to by the Traveller (or, if she did, it’d be something short, like.. “Isn’t there somewhere else you’re supposed to be going at the moment?”). However, her being there means she’s then right there to be in the cutscene where Signora first appears and then gets Venti’s Gnosis, so if you noticed her waiting outside beforehand, that’d clue you into who she was without actually telling you much of anything about her. But she only appears in a very short interval, so she’d be easy to miss.

The next time she could be spotted would be during the part of the Liyue archon quests where you’re going around buying things with Tartaglia’s money, and the idea is that she’s sitting high up on the rooftops, so that if you wanted to go to try and talk to her it’d be a massive hassle (and she’s not very easy to spot). If you actually went out of your way to do it though, she’d maybe say something like.. “Ah, so you actually managed to make it up here? I must say, you’ve quite the keen eye to have sighted me. Even so.. you’re still setting the stage at the moment. So, please, carry on as you were. I wonder how ready you think you should be for the show.” This is foreshadowing the upcoming (though not as immediately upcoming) boss fight with Tartaglia himself - he’s her brother, or as close as she has to one anyway, so it’s no wonder she’s keeping an eye on what he’s up to.

I don’t quite know if there’s an opportunity for her to show up again in the game itself here, but one thing that I do know happens is that she has a bit of a confrontation with Tartaglia some time after the boss fight, because she didn’t realise he wasn’t in on the same things that she was regarding everyone’s plans. She then also runs into Zhongli again after the cutscene where he gives up his Gnosis to Signora, and she manages to get a lot of comfort - and a hug - that she needed from that interaction (since.. well, I associate Zhongli quite strongly with my grandad. for some reason. so I wanted to have him and Alectra (and Lamia because she visits Liyue with Yoimiya during Lantern Rite) be close, even if it makes little to no sense, because of that.)

When it then comes to Inazuma, Alectra has the first act of her story quest - “Luscinia Cineris Chapter - Act I: To Be Fooled By A Familiar Face” - slotted in to try and space out the pacing of that nation’s archon quests somewhat. Her story quest revolves around the Traveller being mistaken for Alectra by some guards, and subsequently having to clear their name by figuring out what was really going on (since all they saw was someone “fairly short, wielding a sword, with blonde hair” wearing either “dark clothes” if playing as Aether or “a sleeveless dress” if playing as Lumine). In the process they would probably find out more about Alectra by overhearing some Fatui working for her or something. The section of this quest where you get to play as Alectra comes right at the end, when everyone goes “okay so we’ve established it definitely wasn’t the Traveller who’s been causing the problem. But then.. who was it?” and then you switch to Alectra successfully breaking into some official building or other, taking care of all the guards there, and stealing some important documents. Something, something, be gay do crime? =P

..oh crumbs I’ve been writing for nearly an hour. Help. This was supposed to be a quick reply. I hope it was alright ;w;

[rapifessor]

Dehya might not be looking so good right now, but one thing seeing the leaks about her has done is kept me motivated to play Genshin Impact.

I’m still really excited about what her kit could be, and she looks like so much fun to play that I’ll most likely build her anyway even if she stays garbage. The way things are going, I realize I’m taking near-lethal doses of hopium by thinking that way, but I’m preparing to wish for her all the same.

I’ve been keeping up with Daily Commissions and the Abyssal Spire in addition to my regular purchases of the Battle Pass and Blessing of the Welkin Moon to make that happen. And since I didn’t wish for Alhaitham, I’ve already got a huge buffer zone. I’ll have more than enough to guarantee that I get Dehya when she arrives.

I’m thinking I should compile a list of all the additional sources of Primogems I have available because I’ll very likely try wishing for a couple of Constellation levels on Dehya as well as her signature weapon. I’m under no illusion that’ll be enough though, so I’m prepared to buy Genesis Crystals if necessary.

Right now I’ve got a lot of things I can do for Primogems. I can play through this year’s Lantern Rite event, clean up a bunch of unfinished quests, farm some achievements, and finish exploring Sumeru’s desert. Don’t have the first clue how many are up for grabs and I’m not going to waste time calcing it.

The only issue is that I don’t have quite as much free time now as I used to. I’m spending a lot of time at school this semester and pretty much every day I don’t have school, I have work. So I’ll have to work on this stuff a little bit at a time.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

Less than usual today as I really haven't engaged in too much since last time.

- The S classes that I Raised (Webcomic) - Yup.

- Bucchigiri?! (Anime) - Turned this on in the background while watching my dogs as it's by the SK8 team and I thought it would be entertaining. It is certainly something I'll give it that. The character designs and extreme homo eroticism are fun, but the protagonists selfish incel energy is pretty annoying even if it is textually supposed to be a character flaw. I might watch more to see if they resolve that but eh, I'm not feeling it too much at this point.

- Delicious in Dungeon (Anime) - Yep yep.

- Choose Your Hero's Carefully (Webcomic) - Binge reading material this week was a ongoing webcomic that has the premise of "what if you were isekaid into Genshin Impact where the wish and level system were in Universe parts of the world and also you are a gay twink" which is. An interesting premise. I think the main characters have some chemistry so far though there's currently only 1 interesting side character to speak of. The art style is quite cute as well. Nothing spectacular so far but I'll come back for some updates.

- One Piece (Anime) - Got farther into One Piece and am finally getting to know this Law guy y'all are crazy over. And you know what you're right, I love him. He has a great dynamic with the Straw Hats in trying and failing to apply logic to them and his abilities and design are both very cool. I also like that he's a loser. Anyway Robin has been getting more screen time lately which is nice, and I'm liking the gag where Ceaser just keeps being their hostage even when they don't want to.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Lantern Rite was fun! It was nice seeing a lot of the characters again (or for the first time in some of the Fountain characters cases) and the dialogue was pretty fun. I need to get level up materials for all my new characters and I might try an aggravate team.

Listening To: No One Else Is Singing My Song and I Hate Everything But You from Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Rose Colored Boy by Paramore, Peace and Love from Steven Universe, Cruel Summer and Ivy by Taylor Swift, Runaway by Aurora, World's Smallest Violin by AJR, The Greatest Show by Panic! At The Disco, Almost by Hozier

[sylvirmist-s-cottage]

My First Lantern Rite in Genshin (2023)

SPOILERS AHEAD! (For people who weren't able to join yet)

I've only been playing since the start of this month but one of my favourite characters were included (my friend told me about the Venti, Zhongli interaction) so I had to push, and boy, I'm lucky my friend was kind enough to help me cause there is no way I would have reached AR32 without her.

Anyway, Paimon was hilarious, as usual.

Her trying to imitate Cloud Retainer was just-

We met Shenhe again too, yay!

Then, Cloud Retainer scolding Paimon.

The story was . . . Well, I almost cried multiple times.

She misses them :'c

I felt really sad but my friend said they aren't alone anymore. And she's right, they aren't. They all have each other now.

ALSO, the music, oh my gosh, the music, was AMAZING. The moment Madam Ping joined in, I got chills. Chills, man.

Lastly, the dinner scene. Zhongli and Venti being petty and Xiao, mc and Paimon being just awkward and nervous is just- so funny.

Hu Tao? Asks Xiao if Zhongli could be an adeptus in disguise and Xiao being like : I, err, I don't know much apart from fighting, yeah. (Not his exact words but you get the point.)

I also LOVE the fact they chose Paimon for the incense thing in the end. Paimon appreciation cause she deserves it <3

I had so much fun, and I love this sooo much!

Chose Guhua Geek for the 800 points invitation thingy. Who did you guys choose by the way?

By the way, was at the ship for Vigilance at Sea and look who I found!

(I wonder if we can find Zhongli somewhere too, can we? If you know, please tell me, I wanna know.)

Venti! Kazuha unfortunately said no, cause even he has to sit at the no alchol drinks table. Lmao.

Ok, my happy ranting's over. Happy Lantern Rite, everyone.

[gc-genshin]

Chapter Four: Epiphany

Epiphany (n.): a sudden insight or understanding of something.

Pairing: Various x female reader

Summary: You get an idea of what's going on… sort of.

Warnings: Explicit language.

Word count: 12.7k (holy shit my bad)

A/N: Uh… *taps mic* hello?? Is this book still relevant?? Did y'all miss me? Lmao, lot of shit happened the past months so I wasn't really able to focus on this story unfortunately. I hope this extra long chapter makes up for the wait! Plus this isn't proofread and I'll add the taglist later, I'm ready to post this chapter.

Happy reading!

Your first week of working at the Wangshu Inn was… uneventful, to say the least.

Other than being hectic trying to take care of guests because of Lantern Rite, nothing really surprising has happened. Which you suppose was a good thing.

After your little drinking incident that happened a few days ago…

—

“Perhaps…” Xiao started and you waited with a baited breath, nervous as to what he was going to say. “You are in need of some assistance, you imbecile.”

You looked at him with hazy and unfocused eyes. In your drunken stupor, you could only respond to him with an embarrassed laugh.

“Aha, yeah…” You trailed off awkwardly. Your eyes then began to droop dangerously low as a sudden wave of drowsiness had hit you. Xiao could only watch as you instantly passed out in his arms while letting out small snores. The adeptus let out an aggravated sigh as he picked up and carried you to your shared room, already regretting the decision of taking care of you.

—

It was safe to say you didn't see him for a day or two.

Today was Friday. One day before the Mingxiao Lantern was released. Goldet had decided to already pay you for your two weeks because of how hard you were working, which you tried to decline, but Goldet was as stubborn as you so you reluctantly accepted the money.

You were sweeping the reception area, bored out of your mind. You were done with all of your chores but you still wanted to work and be productive. You turn your head when you hear Goldet heave a sigh.

“Lantern Rite is nearly here, why don't we decorate the inn this year?” She asks you.

That line sounds familiar. You tilt your head, feigning confusion. “Lantern Rite? What's that?”

Goldet looks at you surprised. “Oh! Don't you know? On the first full moon of the first month each year, Liyue celebrates the Lantern Rite. It's a festival to commemorate the heroes from the past. After dark, the people release Xiao and Mingxiao Lanterns into the night sky.” She began explaining. “Ah... "May the flames of wisdom spread to all, and never be extinguished." This is the meaning of the lanterns. We believe they act as the beacons in the night, guiding bygone heroes back to their homeland.”

You gaze at her in wonder. “That sounds like a magnificent festival.” If I cried during the cutscene from the game, I wonder how much of a mess I would be if I was able to see it in person.

“Do you want to get involved in the Lantern Rite?” Goldet asks.

You nodded. “From the way you were talking about it, it sounds like a wonderful experience.”

Goldet clapped her hands excitedly. “That's great! The festive period leading up to the day itself is all part of the celebrations. If you're looking to take part, it's not too late.”

You thought for a moment. “Wait, so you're telling me that I don't have to work?” You asked Goldet.

She let out a small gasp as if she was shocked you would even suggest such a thing. “Oh Archons no! I would never ask you to work on a holiday such as Lantern Rite!” She exclaimed. You blink at her a few times, caught off guard by her slight outburst, and she laughed at your expression. “Haha... During this time, we pray to bring peace and ward off bad luck. Liyue locals call it "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new."

After hearing Goldet exclaim, Huai’an, her husband and the innkeeper, came to see what the commotion was. “Verr, are you alright? I heard you yell.” He asked with a concerned look.

Both you and Goldet turned to him. “I'm fine, dear. I was just explaining to [Name] the history behind Lantern Rite.” Goldet tells him. “Can you believe this will be her first time celebrating it?”

Huai’an gives you a look of surprise. “You've never experienced Lantern Rite?”

From the way they were talking about it, you almost felt embarrassed to say no. You hunch your shoulders and meekly shake your head at him.

Huai’an noticed your timid state. “Well isn't this exciting?” He quietly asked Goldet. He then turned to you. “Lantern Rite truly is a wonderful experience so I have no doubt that you'll enjoy it. Plus I can teach you how to make Xiao Lanterns!” He gives you an encouraging smile.

You give them both a wide eyed stare. “So… I'll be able to go to Lantern Rite? You don't need me for anything?”

Goldet shook her head while laughing. “No, you silly girl. Everybody will be in the city to release lanterns, so the inn won’t be very busy that night.” She gives you a soft smile. “Go and have fun.”

Shit I might just cry. You looked at Goldet teary eyed. “Boss!” You wept comically. “You're too kind, boss! Paying me in advance, giving me a roof over my head, letting me go to Lanter Rite! What did I ever do to have such a wonderful boss?” You cried out and glomped her into a hug. You were totally using your younger appearance as an advantage to act more childish because you would have never done this with any other boss.

Goldet laughed at you, reciprocating the hug. “And what did I do to deserve such a wonderful employee? You've been working so hard since you've started, it would be cruel of me not to let you go and enjoy the festival.” She tells you while swaying side to side. You've come to realize that Goldet was starting to become like the older sister you never had.

You both pull away from the hug. “Plus,” Goldet began, “I paid you early in advance so that you would be able to go shopping.” She gives you a cheeky smirk. “Can't have you wearing my clothes and your uniform the entire time you're here.”

You laugh at that. “You're right.” You grin at her and Huai'an. “Thank you both so much, for all that you've done for me.” You say sincerely.

“Of course [Name]. Now go have fun shopping.” She gestures to the balcony. “I think you've just about swept the floorboards down to splinters.”

You thank Goldet again and give her one last hug before running to your room to change. But as you were making your way up the stairs, Goldet called out to you. “Oh [Name]! Um… also,” she trailed off uncertainly.

You crinkle your eyebrows in confusion. “What's up?”

“If you're able to…” she cleared her throat. “... could you... try to convince Xiao to go with you?” She asked. She then let out a sigh. “We're not close, I wouldn't know how to ask him myself. But it seems that you've grown familiar with him.”

You look at her confused. You? Being close with Xiao? Yeah, the thought sounds nice but there's no way you have already ‘grown familiar’ with him in just a week. If anything he tolerates you at best since you've forcefully wormed your way into his life.

“Really?” You tilt your head. “Xiao doesn't seem to be one for crowds.” Sorry Aether, I might have to steal your idea. “I mean, I'll try and convince him but I can't make any promises.”

Goldet let out a resigned sigh. “I suppose you're right… Anyway! Just thought I'd mention it. You should get yourselves down to the harbor.”

She then shoos you off with a smile. “Get going! If you leave too late, the city will be crowded with people and you won't be able to make the most of it.”

You nod enthusiastically. “Yes ma’am! Happy Lantern Rite!” You wave to her and Huai'an.

They both wave back. “Happy Lantern Rite!”

—

You burst into your room, practically vibrating in excitement at the thought of having your own clothes. You hurriedly started to strip out of your uniform, unaware of the curious gaze that came from your current roommate.

Xiao was currently leaning against the railing on the balcony that accompanied the room and was wondering why you were in such a rush. As he turned to question you, he instantly turned back around upon seeing you reach behind yourself to start buttoning your dress, keeping his gaze on the scenery before him. Xiao let out a deep breath and rubbed his forehead in aggitaion. I just can't get used to her doing that.

However, when you start to undress, you notice Xiao quickly turn around out of the corner of your eyes. Halting your movements, you call out to the young adeptus as you buttoned your uniform back up. “Sorry Xiao! I didn't know you were there!” And you made your way to the bathroom.

Hearing you say his name made Xiao tense up in surprise and furrow his eyebrows. He was one hundred percent certain that you would have just kept undressing in the middle of the room, being the shameless mortal that you are, but you didn't. You instead moved to change in a different room. Huh… perhaps she does have some decency.

You quickly came out of the bathroom after that interaction, dressed in Goldet’s clothes for the last time. Seeing Xiao still out on the balcony, you walk up to his side while enjoying the warm breeze.

Xiao looked at you from the corner of his eyes, nearly seeing the excitement radiate off you. “Where are you going in such a rush?” He asked. You perk up when hearing his voice and swivel your head to him.

“Goldet is letting me go experience the festival!” You exclaimed excitedly. “Isn't that great?”

Xiao rolled his eyes and let out a scoff. “What's so great about releasing glowing trash into the sky only for it to return to the sea?”

You hummed. “Well, it's like any other tradition I suppose. It's not so much the actual festival or ritual that matters but more of the meaning behind it instead.” You shrug. “Plus it gives me an excuse to go shopping, you coming with?”

“No.”

You let out a groan and roll your eyes. Even though you were expecting it, you couldn't help but feel a little disheartened at his answer. “Why not?” You question. Although I already know why.

Xiao gave you a look. “I don't enjoy large crowds of people.”

You let out a sigh. “Fiiiiine,” you drawl out, “no means no so I guess I'll stop bothering you about it.”

Xiao raised an eyebrow. Really? She's going to quit just like that? He looked at you dubiously.

“For now.” You added mischievously with a smirk.

There it is. Xiao should have known better. He found out that you were too damn stubborn to give up easily pretty quickly. He shook his head at you. “Do you plan on leaving soon?” He changed the subject.

You nod. “I was going to leave as soon as I changed but then I saw you and just had to talk to you.”

That made Xiao scrunch his eyebrows. “You just had to talk to me? Why's that?”

You look towards him and give him a closed eyes smile. “Because I wanted too! Plus you're my friend and I enjoy your company.”

Xiao gave you a once over. A heavy feeling settled in his chest when you referred to him as a “friend”. That word left a bitter taste in his mouth. Everyone that he ever considered a friend had either died or left him in some way, and he never bothered to keep in contact with the current adepti, so the thought of you wanting to be in his company was worrying. Who knows how long it'll be until his karmic debt finally catches up to him…

And drags you along with him.

Xiao narrowed his eyes at you. You immediately took notice of his tense state and swallowed at the harsh glare he gave you. Uh oh. You let out an uncomfortable laugh. I don't think he liked that.

“What have I told you about getting close?” He asked harshly which caused you to curl in on yourself slightly.

“In the thousands of years that have passed, I have taken countless wraiths,” he began, “so if you want no trouble, it’s best you keep your distance from me.” After he finished scolding you he turned to leave, going to do who knows what. You watched as he seemingly stormed away. Slightly panicking that he was leaving because you had upset him, you steeled your nerves and asked the first thing that came to your head.

“But what if I want trouble?”

Your question made Xiao stop in his tracks. He turned to look at you confused. You wore an expression that was full of confidence that waived slightly.

“What if I don’t want to keep my distance away from you?” You continued. “You told me to “stay out of your way or all that awaits me is regret”, right?” You quickly stride over to him and jab a finger in his chest.

“Well guess what honey? That's a risk I'm willing to take.” You tell him fiercely. “I make my own choices and if I happen to make bad choices then I will deal with the consequences of those choices.” You place a hand on your chest and glare at him determinedly.

“You have no say in what I ultimately can and can't do, Xiao. Only. I. do.” You finally finish and place your hands on your hips defiantly.

Xiao looked at you blankly, trying to process what you had just said. When he finally did, he looked at you sternly. “Is that really what you want?”

“More than anything.” Your eyes bore deep into him, not wavering in the slightest in your decision. “You saved my life. The least I can do for you is offer you my company and assistance in any way for not letting me splatter all over the ground. Even if you don't want it.”

After a few heartbeats of silence, Xiao reluctantly gave in and sighed while crossing his arms. “You are the most troublesome human I've had the displeasure of knowing.”

You smiled triumphantly. “Glad we're on the same page!”

“Well I'll be heading off now. Do you need anything?” You ask as you start heading towards the door.

“Nothing in the city would be of use to an adeptus.” He responds. “Don't forget your blade.”

You promptly made a 180 turn and walked towards your nightstand where a little dagger laid. Since you weren't able to fully wield a bigger weapon and don't understand how they do the whole whooshy thing to make their weapons disappear, I think he called it “particulation” or something like that, Xiao insisted that you had some form of weapon to protect yourself with.

You grabbed the knife and clipped it parallel to your belt, allowing your shirt to conceal it. “I don't see the reason as to why I have to have this thing. Aren't the Millelith scattered along the road to Liyue?” You then turn to Xiao and tilt your head. “Plus I can just call you whenever I'm in trouble.” Though that would probably be a last resort for me.

“I don't trust those lousy soldiers.” Xiao huffed.

You raised your eyebrow and pursed your lips, nodding in agreement. “Yeah… I don't blame ya.”

“Anyways,” you shrug, “are you sure you don't want to come with me?”

Xiao only shook his head. “Best you go alone. There's no need for me to be there.”

You look at him with big doe eyes, trying to convince him to at least walk you to the harbor. “But the road from here to Liyue Harbor is long and full of dangers... I need someone to ensure my safety!” You exclaim, seemingly scared.

“That's why I gave you your blade.” The adeptus gave you a bored look upon his handsome face.

You then startled Xiao when you clapped your hands into a prayer position and brought them to your head. “O Vigilant Yaksha, please escort me safely to the city!” You cry out.

Xiao tensed at your sudden decloration. Normally, Xiao was used to other’s praying to him and hearing their wishes but when you did it, it made him feel… fidgety. You seemed to hold yourself in a high regard that you didn't let anyone have control over your actions, so it was odd to see you with your head bowed to him.

Xiao crossed his arms and looked away from you. “Quit that. There's no need for you to bow to me.”

You perked up, an excited gleam in your eyes. “So you'll come with me?”

“So be it. I won't be going into the city though.” He retorted.

You throw him a smile. “That's fine!” You straighten back up and open the door. “Come on, let's go!” You wave at him.

Xiao shook his head at your antics and began to follow you. And to think that she's a grown adult. “Wait.” He called out.

You stop in your tracks and look back at Xiao confused. “Huh? Why?”

Xiao walks up to your left side and grabs your bicep. You looked at him even more perplexed. What is he doing?

You then began to feel a strong gust of wind swirl around you and in an instant, darkness flooded your vision and a familiar feeling of nausea came over you. When you opened your eyes again, you saw the gates of Liyue below the hill you were on.

You put your hands on your knees, trying to keep from puking everywhere, as you begin to process that Xiao had just teleported you both to Liyue.

“Here we are.” Xiao released your arm.

“Would have been nice to know beforehand.” You groan. After feeling like you weren't going to empty your guts out, you look up and let out a small gasp.

In front of you stood an archway that led to the bridge that entered into the city. Looking beyond that, you could see the beautiful Chinese architecture of the buildings that filled Liyue Harbor with the magnificent decorations of Lantern Rite along the city. You gaped at the scene before you. Holy shit…

Xiao swiveled his head to give a hard stare. “Don't go and cause any trouble.” He warned you.

That caused you to let out a snort. “Yeah, yeah, sure. What are you, my dad?” You raised an eyebrow at him. “Why did we teleport?”

“So I wouldn't have to listen to talk my ear off all day.” He responded bluntly, causing you to let out an offended gasp. “And I told you,” he continued before you could tell him off. “so long as you are in Liyue, it is my duty to protect you and not let any harm come to you.” Xiao reiterated.

“Wow… you really are my dad. But that's a pretty big responsibility. You sure you can follow through with it?” You question.

“Are you questioning my abilities as an adeptus?” He asked gruffly. He then leaned in closer to your face. “I always take care of my duties.” Xiao finished while staring you straight in the eyes.

Your eyes widened in surprise at his declaration. The way he said that so firmly and confidently made your chest feel light before tightening, a familiar feeling of guilt settling in, causing you to look away and frown. Shit… not now.

Noticing the change in your demeanor, Xiao tilted his head confused. “What's wrong?”

Shaking your head to get rid of the self-deprecating thoughts that were forming, you look up at him with reassuring eyes. “It's nothing.” You tell him with a small smile.

Going back to your seemingly old self, you give Xiao a look. “Alrighty,” You turn towards him and hold out your pinkie, “pinky promise it then.”

He gave your pinky an inquisitive look. You furrow your eyebrows in confusion. “You have heard of a pinky promise before, right?”

Xiao squinted his eyes at you. “Is this another strange human gesture?”

“Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say it's strange. More endearing than anything.” You hold your dominant hand and make a “give it” gesture. “Give me your hand.”

Xiao hesitantly puts his hand in yours. You close it into a fist, only leaving out his pinky. You then bring your own pinky and lock it with his own. “Now say your promise again.” Xiao looked at you reluctantly. You let out a groan. “Come on dude, just do it please?” You say giving him your best puppy dog eyes.

Xiao sighed. “I promise, so long as you are in Liyue, that I will protect you and not let any harm come to you.” He looked at your still entwined pinkies. As he said this, a gentle breeze drifted between the two of as if it was sealing the promise between you and Xiao. Xiao watched as the wind suddenly made your hair flutter around you and the way the afternoon sun casted just the right amount of shadows on your features as you looked up at him. At the moment he didn't see the fifteen year old features that made up your current face but the mature, more sharper features that he saw from your most recent pictures and student ID.

“Now what?” Her hands are really warm.

You give him a smile. “That's it!” You then let go of his pinky, bringing your hand back to your side.

He looked at you confused. “That's it? Nothing special happens?”

“The special thing about pinky promises is that the person who broke the promise gets their pinky cut off by the other person who made the promise.” You say to him.

“That's quite gruesome for such a little act.” Humans confused him so much.

“I think it was more of a scare tactic for kiddos than anything really.” You shrug. You then started walking to the city. “I'll see you later Xiao!” You call out with a grin.

“Be careful.” He told you with a subtle nod, which made your smile somehow even brighter, before teleporting away. You then turned back around and practically skipped to Liyue.

—

You made your way down the hill and soon came upon the gate that led to the city. In front of it stood two guards, you couldn't bother to remember their names, who gave you a nice ‘welcome to Liyue Harbor’ as you walked past them. As you walked over the bridge you saw the Mingxiao Lantern standing tall in all its glory. Continuing on, you finally stepped foot in the city. With a look of amazement on your face, you spun around while trying to take in all of the decorations.

I can't believe I'm actually here… You let out a disbelieving laugh and began to feel your eyes become misty. Am I really tearing up right now? Oh my God I am. You shake your head trying to get your emotions in check. As you carry on walking further, the infamous somewhat creepy shipowner, Bolai spots you looking around like a lost puppy. Which you really weren't, you were just hypnotized by the decorations.

“Hello young lady!” He called out to you. You whipped your head towards him, slightly startled. When you realized who was talking, you made a small grimace. Oh… it's that really creepy guy that I don't like.

As he makes his way towards you, you put your guard up as you straighten your back. “Hello.”

Bolai raised an eyebrow as he stopped short of you. “What a strange accent. Are you perhaps foreign?” He questioned.

You furrow your eyebrows. I have an accent? “Something like that.” You reply with a shrug your shoulders nonchalantly and a ghost of a smile on your face. Ain't no way in hell are you talking about yourself to him.

Bolai narrowed his eyes at you suspiciously. How interesting. “Quite the mysterious one, you are. Tell me, young lady, where do you hail from? Fontaine? Sumeru?”

“Sure.” You tell him halfheartedly. Why the fuck is he grilling me so hard? I should probably give him some sort of answer so he'll leave me alone. “I traveled a lot so I never really had a distinctive place to call home.” You smoothly lied. Well… it wasn't entirely a lie.

Believing your little fib, Bolai’s face softens into a look of realization. A young girl like you didn't have a home growing up? Is that what you were hinting at?

Taking notice of the subtle pity look that crossed his gaze, you groan internally. Great, now he's going to think that I never had a home. Whoops!

“Well just know that you are always welcomed here in Liyue,” He reassured you, kinda. Your eyebrows raise slightly in surprise from that. “And if you ever need anything, and I mean anything, you can always come to me.” He finished ominously while giving you a smile that seemed a little too kind.

You leaned your torso away from the strange man and looked at him mildly creeped out, yet kept a polite smile on your face. “Duly noted… thanks.” Trailing off, you maneuvered your way around and sped walked away from Bolai. A fake shiver runs through your body. Ugh… just as creepy as I remember.

You continued further into the city. Your head was constantly moving from left to right, up and down, taking in the gorgeous decorations that littered the buildings and streets. Pulling out the Mora pouch that Goldet gave you, you recounted the money that you earned from your first week working. 60,500 Mora… that should be plenty right? You paused. Actually, isn't that a lot of money? This seems like a lot for just a week of work. After pondering a few moments, you shrug the thought off.

You made sure to visit almost all the food stalls that were on the harbor to experience Liyue’s cuisine authentically, as well as how to make Xiao lanterns. After doing all the activities you possibly could, you made your way up the gigantic steps that led to the main road of the city.

As you made it to the top, you put your hands on your knees trying to catch your breath. From being on your feet all day from working plus the training the Xiao puts you through, it's safe to say you were pretty damn tired. You're kidding me. I can not be this out of shape! You thought.

Heaving one last breath, you straighten back up. You looked out to see the streets bustling with people with a slight grimace on your face at the crowds of people. You absolutely hated crowds of people because being around them just completely drains your energy.

However, your curiosity and astonishment motivated you to move forward. As you walked through the city, you kept an eye out for any clothing shops because you needed your own clothes, since that's pretty much what you came here for.

Letting your gaze continue to search through the windows of various different shops, your eyes landed on an article of clothing that caught your attention. You quickly make your way to the store and opened the doors, causing a bell above the door to let out a little chime and alert the store owner and other shoppers of your presence.

“Welcome!” They called out. You give them a small wave in response as you make your way over to the outfit. Once you made it, you reached your hand out to feel the smooth silk of the fabric. It was a beautiful sleeveless, purple dress that reached the middle of your thighs. Around the skirt of the dress laid two longer pieces that were a darker purple and draped along the sides. The top of the dress was two different colors, the right being a dark purple that were the same color of the longer pieces while the left was a lighter purple that matched the skirt, and had a high collar and with an opening in the chest area. The dress also adorned what looked like a wide obi belt, but you weren't too sure. The whole dress was trimmed with gold accents and had gold swirls all along it. Next to the dress were a pair of low ankle boots that matched the color theme.

This was the one.

You yoink it off the rack and look around for the owner. When you found them, you asked if they had any dressing rooms to try on the dress to which they led you to one. You begin to strip as soon as the door closes behind you. I really hope it fits otherwise I'll be heart broken.

As you slipped the dress over your head you zipped up the side and fastened the button on the collar. When you turn around to face the mirror, your eyes widen in surprise. Holy shit… I've never had a dress fit me so well. The dress sat magnificently on you and accentuated your curves. However… You looked down at your chest to see that your bra from your universe was most definitely visible thanks to the opening that went from the collar of the dress to the belt. I'm gonna have to do something about that. Looking back in the mirror you took notice of your tattoos. Those as well. You thought for a moment. Plus I don't particularly like wearing dresses unless I have leggings or something underneath it.

You begin to take the dress off and put your other clothes back on. I wonder if they would have some kind of body suit or something… You put the dress back on the hanger but continue to hold on to it. Making your way back towards the racks of clothing you begin your search.

As you walk through the aisles of clothing, you notice a black full body suit hanging on one of the racks. Bingo! You thought with a smile. You made your way to the suit, but you failed to notice the other body that was backing up into you.

Feeling a sudden weight on your right side, you stumble a little due to the force. However, the person that ran into had lost their balance and started to fall to the ground. Eyes widening in surprise, you were quick to catch them by grabbing them under their arms. When you looked down to check on the person to see if they were okay, you felt your breath hitch.

Staring back at you startled are lavender colored eyes that were lined with dark, thick lashes that belong to the one and only Ganyu.

You begin to feel your cheeks grow warm as you look down at the gorgeous half-adeptus in your arms. Ohfuckohfuckohfu– “Are you okay?” You asked worriedly. When you looked up to see what could have caused her to trip, you were greeted with the sight of a man that looked a little too pleased with himself. As he looked away from Ganyu and up to you, you made sure to give him the coldest glare you could manage – which made the man’s smirk falter and back up just a little.

Fucker.

Ganyu blinked as she came back to her senses. “Y-yes! I'm alright.” She gives you an appreciative smile. “Thank you.”

You return her smile. “It's no problem.” As you help her upright, you lean closer to her ear. “Do you know this guy?” You whispered. She looks at you from the corner of her eye and subtly shakes her head no.

You looked up to the creep and gave him an ‘innocent’ smile. “Is everything alright here?”

Realizing the slight hostile undertone in your voice, the man gives you a strained look. “Y-yes, everything's fine!” He stuttered and gestured to Ganyu. “I just thought I'd give this young lady a little help.”

Your eyes flicker from her back to the man. “She looks to be just fine on her own. What does she need help with?”

The man’s opens then closes, trying to think of a good excuse. “I… uh… well, she-!” You cut the man off with a raised hand.

“I'm going to stop you there. You're making yourself look like a fool.” You chastise. “It's obvious what you're doing and you're clearly making her uncomfortable. I suggest you stop now before you keep digging your grave even deeper.”

Eyes blown open and mouth agape, the man stares at you in shock from your words. Was I really that obvious? The man thought. He felt himself cowering in on himself under the heavy gaze of the two girls.

“Well, whatever.” He scoffed while avoiding eye contact, seemingly trying to act tough. “It's not like she was actually attractive.” Yet he received no reaction from either of the girls, as they continued to stare. The man began to fidget from their silence, then quickly turned around and left the store.

Both you and Ganyu let out a sigh. “Thankfully, that's over.” You tilt your head at Ganyu. “Does that happen often?”

“No, that was the first time it has ever happened.” She reveals. She then bows toward you. “Thank you for helping me.” When Ganyu straightens back up, she places a hand on her chest while giving you a sweet smile. “My name is Ganyu, secretary of the Yuhai Pavilion.”

God, she's even more gorgeous in real life… You flush a little as you give her a small bow in return. “It's nice to meet you, Miss Ganyu. I'm [Name] [Last Name].”

“It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss [Last Name]. Again, I do apologize for bumping into you earlier.” She tells you.

You wave your hand dismissively. “Just call me [Name], please. Calling me by my last name makes me feel old.” You joke.

Ganyu tilts her head curiously at you. “If I may ask, how old are you?” She asks innocently.

You pause, processing her question. Damn it. “I'm fifteen.” You manage out. I really hate telling people that because then they'll treat me like a child…

“Really?” She wonders aloud. “You're quite mature for your age and you seemed to know exactly what to do in the situation that happened earlier…” She trailed off.

You freeze hearing that. Oh shit! Has she caught on already?! You let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah, mature…” You say while making a subtle face. Although Xiao would disagree otherwise.

“Anyways, thank you once again for helping me. Is there anything I can do for you in return?” Ganyu asks.

You bring a finger to your chin and hum in thought. “Actually there is.” While Ganyu waits patiently for your request, you give her a smile. “Would you know of any stores that would have a body suit?”

The beautiful half-adeptus perks up in response. “As a matter of fact, this store has the same ones that I wear. Let me show you.” She then beckons you to follow her.

You do so with a skip in your step.

—

You and Ganyu soon left the shop, with you now wearing your new outfit that screamed main character. Thankfully the body suit was able to cover all of your tattoos. As you continued through the city, making light conversations with Ganyu, you watched as two little boys, who looked to be around the age of ten, chased each other around the streets while laughing. You watched them with a small smile. While you didn't like kids, you didn't necessarily hate them either. Plus it was kind of your profession to be able to take care of them as well. But you definitely didn't want any kids. Well, right now at least.

You watched as they weaved through the legs of strangers, trying to avoid getting hit. However, as the one with light blue hair raised a hand out in order to tag the other little boy with darker blue hair and an asymmetrical cut, a man that wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him went to take a step and kneed the poor boy hard in the head. The pale blue haired boy went down in an instant.

You let out a snort and raised a hand to your mouth to hide that you were laughing. “That poor kid just ate shit.” You couldn't help but let out a few chuckles at the kids unfortunate situation. Ganyu looked at you confused from the corner of her eyes. I'm a horrible person.

“I'm so sorry, buddy! Are you okay?” The young man that hit the boy asked as he crouched down. He received no reply as the boy laid still. The man started to shake the boy, seemingly beginning to panic.

“Hey…” He called out once more. “Are you okay?” He shook the boy frantically. Still, he received no reply. “This isn't funny, kid. Wake up!”

You stopped laughing and straightened your posture as your ‘doctor mode’ kicked in. Now you were getting concerned. Thousands of scenarios ran through your mind as to why the kid wasn't getting up. Is he concussed? Is he faking it? What's going on?

The other little boy that was running away, turned around when he heard yelling. His orange eyes widened in fear. “Chongyun!” He cried out and began running back to his friend.

Realization dawned on you. Those kids were Xingqiu and Chongyun. Your feet moved before you even noticed it as you rushed towards Chongyun and the man. Ganyu jumped when you began running and raised a hand to stop you. “[Name], wait!” But you were too far away to hear her over the people walking around.

A crowd began to form around the two to see what was happening. This caused the young man to panic even more. He looked up to the crowd. “Is there a doctor here? Please, anyone!” He cried out desperately, yet no one made a move to help.

You shook your head at the crowd. I see that the Bystander Effect is still a thing here. Xingqiu made it to Chongyun before you did, then got to his knees as soon as he reached him and started tapping Chongyun on the shoulder. “Chongyun?” He asked. “Wake up ‘Yun!”

You finally made it to the crowd and started elbowing your way through. “Excuse me! I'm a doctor, please let me through!” You yell out to the pedestrians. They turned and looked at you skeptically. Your lip curled up into a sneer at the people's ignorance. I don't have time for this.

“I said MOVE!” You yell out startling them in the process and forcing them to move. “Thank you!” You say exasperatedly, not forgetting your manners apparently. You quickly made your way over to Chongyun and got to your knees behind his head, gently placing your hands on either of his cheeks in order to stabilize his neck, in case he had injured it. Xingqiu noticed you and looked at you with tears eyes, worried out of his mind for his friend.

You looked to the man who started this whole mess. “What's going on? What happened?” You asked hurriedly while you checked Chongyun’s pulse.

The man seemed to be in a daze as he answered. “This kid just came out of nowhere. I had accidentally hit him with my knee and now he's not waking up.” He explained shakily. “Then this other kid just now showed up.” He pointed to Xingqiu. He then looked at you confused. “Aren't you a little young to be a doctor?”

You look at the man and give him a glare. “I don't think that matters right now since I'm the only one who even bothered to step in and help the poor child.” You glared at the rest of the crowd when you finished which made them avoid eye contact with you. Murmurs started to float through the crowd. What was this girl doing? Who is she? She's clearly too young to be a doctor.

You ignore their not so quiet whispering and look over to Xingqiu, giving him a reassuring smile. “Hey buddy,” you started softly. “What's your name?”

The normally composed boy let out a sniffle. “Xingqiu.” He responded. “My friend, Chongyun, isn't opening his eyes! Can you help?” He asked pleadingly.

“Don't worry baby, I'm a doctor.” You tell him, the pet name subconsciously slipping out of habit from when you worked with kids. “I'm going to help him and make sure he's okay.” Seventy beats per minute. Normal heart rate. Nineteen breaths per minute. Normal respiratory rate. If he wakes up soon, it'll most likely be just a slight concussion. You mentally start going down the checklist for head trauma patients when Chongyun finally opens his eyes.

Quickly taking notice, you yell at the crowd. “Everyone back up please! The kid is waking up so give him some space!” The crowd immediately backs away. You look back down at the boy who was wincing from the sunlight.

“Hey honey,” You gently try to get his attention, “can you hear me?”

Chongyun opened his eyes fully and looked at you, confused before squinting from the sunlight. From his position on the ground and the way the sunlight was hitting his baby blue eyes, you were able to see that his pupils were equal in size. Good. No anisocoria, no serious brain damage.

“Wha…?” Chongyun groaned out. With your hands on his cheeks, you gently tapped them to shift his attention back to you.

“Hey honey, look at me.” You instructed. “What's your name?”

The boy paused for a moment. “Chongyun.” He answered.

Alright that's one question. “It's nice to meet you Chongyun.” You smile at him. “Chongyun, do you know how old you are?” You continued.

“I'm ten.” He responded a little quicker this time. You nodded your head at him. That's two.

“Do you know where you're at, Chongyun?” You made sure to keep saying his name so that he would focus on you.

After a moment of silence, he responded. “I'm in Liyue.” He then closed his eyes and let out another groan. “My head hurts.”

“I know, dear. One last question, okay?” You tell him. He nods. “Do you know what happened to you?”

He thought for a moment. “I was… I was chasing Xingqiu,” said boy perked up in response to his name, “we were playing tag. I almost caught him then it suddenly got dark.” He opened his eyes and looked at you. “Why did it go dark?”

You give him a look of reassurance. “Your noggin got hit pretty hard and you fell down. You were asleep for a few minutes but you'll be okay.” You tilt your head. That's the last question. A and O times 4. He's alert and aware. “Does your head still hurt?” You asked as you began to palpate his neck, feeling for any serious injuries. You removed your hands when you found none.

He nodded. “Do you feel pain anywhere else? How about your neck?” He shakes his head in response.

“Good. Do you feel like sitting up for me sweetie?” You ask. Chongyun slowly moves to sit upright with your help and you guide him to the curb to sit on so he was out of the road. Xingqiu crawled over to his friend to see how he was doing, with you reminding him to overwhelm Chongyun. As you look out towards the crowd, you see Ganyu, who was carrying a cup of what you assumed was water, make her way over to your little group. She hands you the cup, which you thank her profusely, and you give it to Chongyun.

“Drink it slowly.” You advise him. “I don't want you choking on me now that you're awake.” You tease gently while sending a subtle wink to Xingqiu, causing the young boy to giggle.

He gingerly takes the cup from your hand. “Thank you ma’am.”

“Thank you, ma’am!” Xingqiu tells you as well.

“It's not a problem.” You reassure both of them with a smile. As soon as they saw that Chongyun was okay, the crowd dispersed and continued what they were doing. However, not without whispering amongst themselves how seemingly a teenager knew exactly what to do when taking care of an injured child.

You continued to sit with the two boys to monitor Chongyun, in case something suddenly went awry. Ganyu stayed as well, astounded at the young girl before her.

“What you did was quite impressive Miss [Name]!” The half adeptus praised. “I didn't know you were so vast in medical knowledge, and at such a young age too.”

You let out a few chuckles. “Well you only just met me today Miss Ganyu.”

She then gives you a sheepish look. “I was surprised to see you help him so quickly,” she leans in closer to whisper to you, “given that you were laughing at him earlier.”

“Oh… yeah,” You let out an uncomfortable laugh. “As long as they're not seriously hurt or in any danger, kids getting hit or falling is hilarious to me.” You let out a wince. “Wow, that sounds awful.”

“Yet you didn't hesitate to help him as soon as you saw that something was wrong.” Ganyu pointed out.

You lifted your hand to pet Chongyun on the head. “Well I've always wanted to be able to put my life to good use and help people in some way, so what better way than this? Helping people in their times of need.” You give Ganyu a cheeky smirk. “I may act all tough but I'm actually a big softie.”

“I'm well aware of that now.” Ganyu chuckles.

As you visited with the half-adeptus and two young boys, you failed to notice a pair of red eyes gazing at you with a look of mischief.

—

After triple checking that Chongyun was okay and him constantly telling you that he was, you wave the boys goodbye who returned it in full. Ganyu then tells you that she should continue running errands for Lady Nigguang and you may or may not have freaked out a bit inside when you heard her name. Waving to the half adeptus as well, you continue to wander aimlessly through the city.

You soon found yourself at the Wanmin restaurant, chef Mao working swiftly in the kitchen. He soon brought out your order and after paying, you made your way to the south side wharf. As you make your way to the dock, you sit down on the edge and look out at the ocean before you while swinging your legs. You welcomed the smell of salt water and the ocean breeze that fluttered around you, yet it did nothing to quarrel your racing thoughts.

I can't believe I've already been in Teyvat for a week and still don't have a fucking clue as to how I got here in the first place. You slide your hands down your face and clasped them together in front of your mouth. And Xiao has been no help to me in that matter unfortunately. The guy still doesn't talk to me that much anyways. Plus training with him has been difficult as well. I've learned that he's a super strict teacher and I've only managed to construct only two Geo items with him this past week but that was only when I was extremely frustrated or upset, so I have no clue as to how I'm going to be able to properly control the element… or that ‘particulation’ thingy with the weapons as well.

You drop your head in your hands and let out a whine. This is all so confusing! I really wish someone or something just give me some fucking answers!

You then look up and run your hands through your hair. Turning your head to the left, you see the giant Mingxiao lantern that was ready to be released once it was dark enough. You let out a sigh and try to relax. I should probably start looking for a place to watch it when it releases tomorrow. You stand up and start walking back to Feiyan Slope. Soon you crossed over the little bridge that connects Chihu Rock and Feiyan Slope. You decided to stick closer to the buildings to try and stay away from the crowds.

However, as you were too preoccupied to not hit anybody, you didn't notice a hand reaching out from an alleyway until it was too late. You felt a harsh tug on your left arm which caused you to let out a yelp. You quickly caught your bearings and when you turned to slapped your assailant, you froze as you saw a pale face that looked to be thirteen years old inches from yours. Red eyes with strange, floral shaped pupils came with the face and was framed with dark hair that faded into red.

Holy… Hu Tao? You wondered. But she looks a lot younger? Younger than this “me” that's for sure.

You give her a confused smile. “Um… hello?” Am I just going to meet every character in Liyue today?

“You're the one Mr. Zhongli told me about!” She exclaims. “It's nice to meet you! My name is Hu Tao!”

You swore you felt your soul leave your body when you heard his name. ZHONGLI?! HE’S LOOKING FOR ME?! OH SHI-! You're cut from your thoughts when Hu Tao starts pulling you. “Hey! W-wait!”

“C’mon! Mr. Zhongli is waiting for you back at the funeral parlor. It seemed like he wasn't too happy with you so we shouldn't keep him waiting any longer!” She giggles.

Yup, I'm officially dead. Maybe now I can go back to my world and be normal again.

Soon the young girl brings you to the doors of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. You gnawed on your lower lip. Fuck… I'm more nervous now than I was when I was taking the MCAT. Maybe because I'm meeting a FUCKING GOD?! You begin to slightly hyperventilate, the reality of the situation finally sitting in. FUCKFUCKFUCKFU-

You are once again snapped out of your internal freak out by Hu Tao pulling on your arm. The girl pushes the doors open while bringing you with her. The inside is about what you expected from a funeral parlor with coffins lining along the walls along with different types of shrines. After a few twists and turns, you and Hu Tao reach a very intricate door with a plate on it that says “Consultant: Zhongli”. You clench your jaw as you could practically feel the intense aura that radiated from him even through the door.

Without even knocking, Hu Tao busts through his door. “Mr. Zhongli! I found her! This is the girl you were looking for right?”

The wind gets knocked out of you upon finally seeing him in person and your knees about damn near buckle from underneath when you make eye contact with him. If you thought Xiao’s eyes were intense, then you don't even know how to describe Zhongli’s.

The Geo Archon narrowed his eyes towards you. “Indeed it is, Hu Tao.” His deep voice rumbled throughout the entire room and shook you to your core. “You may take your leave now.”

The young girl pouted. “Aw… and I wanted to see you scold her.”

A quick glance from the corner of his eyes was enough to make Hu Tao take the hint and leave, however not without whining on her way out.

As soon as Hu Tao was gone, Zhongli stood up and took large strides towards you, causing you to start panicking. Hu Tao, why did you have to leave me alone with an Archon?! Soon the man towered over you, forcing you to look up at him. The shadows that casted over his being due to him blocking out the overhead light made his striking amber eyes all the more intimidating. You felt like you were about to be pounced on like a mouse cornered by a barn cat.

Then Zhongli lowered his face closer to yours. “So you're the outlander who took my vision without permission.” He accuses. You feel your breath hitch in your throat and your palms beginning to clam up. You had never been more intimidated in your life and you have fought against people twice your size no problem before!

“Oh…! Um, t-that was me?” You stutter out. Your eyes widen when you realize just how fucking stupid you sounded.

Zhongli coolly looked at you. “Of course it was you. I knew that you were not of this world the moment you arrived in Liyue.” He tells you firmly while staring straight into your soul. “Now, do inform me on how you were able to acquire this power without a Vision granted from me?”

The silence was deafening in the room. You thought you were just about to faint until your experience from working under pressure in the emergency room decided to kick in and not fail you as you quickly composed yourself.

“In my defense,” you raise your hands. “it was completely out of my control.”

Zhongli raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

You let out a sigh. “Here's what happened. A saw a Statue of Seven in Guili Plains, in all of its glory, and as soon as I was near it I felt a pulling sensation. Later that day I was extremely frustrated and all of a sudden a rock pillar just came out of the ground.”

Zhongli hummed in thought before finally standing back to his full height, allowing you to breathe again. He brought a hand to his chin and looked down in thought. “Interesting. I have not heard of such instances where that has ever happened, with me or any of the other Archons.” His eyes met yours again. “So what makes you special? So special that even the adeptus Xiao has decided to look after you?”

You couldn't help the exaggerated laugh that bubbled out of your throat. “Ha! I wish I knew, but your guess is as good as mine sweetheart.” You pause. “I also know that you're Morax too… if you haven't figured that out yet.” You finish meekly. WHAT THE FUCK AM I SAYING?!

The Geo Archon’s eyes widen at you. “How did you know that? Where exactly did you come from?” He interrogates.

You quickly explain to him the same thing that you told Xiao, that he was from a video game and that you were aware of what was to come in the future as well as how you somehow physically de-aged.

“Interesting.” Zhongli thought for a moment. “It appears that you come from a similar universe in which our’s exists but in a completely different manner.”

“How much of our universe do you know through this ''game”?” He questions.

“I know of some future events that will happen, but the lore of the story is still a complete mystery. We don't even know how long the main story of the game is.” You say.

Zhongli pondered. “I see. If you know what is to happen in the future, then it would be best to let things run their course and not intervene with it.”

“Yeah, the butterfly effect and shit like that.” Your eyebrows shoot up in surprise as you subconsciously swore. You quickly slap a hand over your mouth. “Sorry… it's a bad habit.” You apologize quietly.

Zhongli decided to ignore your mishap. “So you're aware of what could happen. And since you're already aware of my identity, I presume that you know that I go by Zhongli now?”

You nod your head. “Yes, I do.” You then realized that you haven't introduced yourself. You quickly bowed towards him. “My name is [Name] by the way! [Name] [Last Name].”

Zhongli nodded. “It's a pleasure to finally know the name of the outlander that took my Vision without consent.”

You make a face at his snarky comment. “Is it a pleasure though?” You muttered rhetorically.

“Let's continue with your situation.” Zhongli diverted the conversation back on track. He then looked towards you. “Perhaps if you tried to remember the events that happened to you before you came here, that may give us a better idea as to the reason why you're here.” He then gestures to one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Please have a seat. It will be easier for you to remember if you're comfortable.”

“I do remember being on a bridge but that's the only thing I know now.” Moving to sit down, you tuck your dress skirt underneath you and cross your legs, trying to look somewhat professional. You take a deep breath as you gather thoughts. What happened before coming here? What was I doing? You lean forward and rest your elbows on your knee while interlacing your hands, then put your forehead against them. You close your eyes and your eyebrow twitches into a furrow as you begin to concentrate. [e/c] eyes move rapidly behind eyelids as memories start to form.

“A hospital…” You began. “I was working a shift in the hospital.”

—

“Hi Miss Bradford!” You cheerily call out as you knock on the door. The old woman looked up from her magazine and smiled at you with dull blue eyes.

“Dr. [Last Name]. How are you doing sweetheart?” She asks softly. Miss Bradford was a quiet old lady in her seventies with salt and pepper hair and the brightest, most gorgeous blue eyes you had ever seen.

That was before she had started chemotherapy.

Miss Bradford was your most recent patient. You had treated her a few months ago when she came to your emergency room with intense chest pains. After taking multiple different CAT scans and MRIs, you and several other doctors had concluded her diagnosis as breast cancer. Although you admitted her to Oncology, she kept having complications when she had started chemotherapy; causing you to see her quite frequently.

Today was the day Miss Bradford would start her third round of chemo and you decided to bring her her favorite lunch before starting. Miss Bradford was hell bent on beating this cancer but after her most recent round she had started to lose her appetite. Which was never a good sign for a cancer patient.

“I'm doing well, thank you. And I thought I told you to call me [Name]?” You grab a chair and pull it up next to her bed.

She gives you a small smile. “But you worked so hard to earn the title of a doctor. I'm only giving you the respect you deserve.”

You shook your head playfully at the older woman. “How're you feeling today?”

She let out a sigh. “Tired, but better than yesterday. I'm ready to get this damn treatment over with.” She grumbled.

“That's good! Do you feel like eating today?” You ask.

She shook her head. “Not really but knowing you, you'll probably force me to eat anyways.” She looked at the plastic sack in your hand. “Whatcha got there?”

“Well hopefully this will bring your appetite back for today. It's your favorite!” You raise the bag higher and place it on her food tray. “Almond Tofu! I remember you telling me that it was your go to desert when you lived in Singapore, so I had one of my foreign exchange friends teach me how to make it.” You let out a dramatic sigh. “I can't tell you how many times I messed up baking this damn dessert.”

Miss Bradford looked at the sweet treat with tears in her eyes. “Oh, [Name]…” She let out a wet laugh. “You didn't have to do that.”

You smiled at the older woman. “I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to.”

She suddenly reaches over as quickly as all the tubes hooked up to her allowed her and brought you into a tight hug. You fretted over her before she cut you off.

“Thank you, [Name].” She whispered. You reciprocated her hug gently.

“You're welcome, Miss Bradford. Though I can't guarantee it'll be just like the real thing.” You playfully warned.

She let out a laugh as she pulled away from the hug. “I'm sure it will be wonderful.” She gives you a grateful smile. She then evenly separates the dessert and gives you half of it. You shook your hands no at the offer.

“No no, Miss Bradford, I made this for you so you don't have to share it with me.” You politely decline.

She glares at you but smiles. “I know I don't have to but I want to.” She quipped.

You gasp. “How dare you throw my own words back at me!”

“Just take the damn dessert, Dr. [Last Name].” She laughed out loud.

Letting out a sigh, you grab the plate from her and begin to eat with her. You both chatted for a couple of minutes after finishing before you were paged to be back down in the emergency room. You grabbed the plastic container the dessert was in and threw it away. As you moved the chair back to its proper place, you looked at Miss Bradford.

Reaching a hand out, you place it over her own. “Thank you for eating today, Miss Bradford.” You tell her sincerely. “I know it's getting hard but all of the nurses are telling me that you're doing great.”

“Just two more rounds and it will be over.” You encouraged her.

The older woman nods as she grasps your hand and gives it a tight squeeze. A nonverbal thank you.

“Do you need anything else before I leave?” You ask.

She shakes her head. “No, Dr. [Last Name]. I'm quite alright. Now go save some lives.” She lets go of your hand and shoos you off.

You roll your eyes teasingly. “I'll be back to check on you after your treatment. Try not to see me this time around!” You open the door and wave back at her. “Good luck! You got this!” You then swiftly leave the room and head back to your station.

As soon as you were gone, Miss Bradford’s smile dropped immediately. She laid her head back and lifelessly looked at the ceiling. Tears started to fall from her cobalt eyes as she thought about you and the gift you had made for her.

“I'm gonna miss you, [Name].” She whispered into the empty room.

—

After three days, you fortunately had the day off from working so you immediately went to go see Miss Bradford.

You soon made it to the familiar room. “Hi Miss Bradford! How do you feel-” You stop in your tracks upon seeing Miss Bradford lying in front of you. The older woman looked nothing like what you had seen three days prior. Her beautiful salt and pepper hair had begun to fall out and her skin looked like it was barely hanging onto her bones.

You quickly come back to reality. This is what chemo does. And elderly people tend to not survive the drug. You remind yourself.

You take a deep breath and walk towards the bed. “Miss Bradford?” You call out. “It's me, Dr. [Last Name].”

The woman slowly opened her eyes. Her bleary and glazed over eyes tiredly searched for the voice calling out to her before landing on your form. Her dull blue eyes light up in recognition.

“[Name].” She croaked out yet still gave you a smile.

You give a smile right back to her. “Hi Miss Bradford.” You greet softly. You squat down next to the bed so it was easier to make eye contact. “How're you feeling?”

She let out a tired sigh. “Like shit.”

You chuckled quietly before you both sat in silence for a few moments. You open your mouth to say something but the older woman beats you to it.

“I don't think I'm gonna make this round, sweetheart.”

You clench your jaw hearing her statement. “Don't say that.” You tell her firmly. “I thought you wanted to kick this cancer’s ass?”

The poor woman couldn't even manage a chuckle. “Don't all patients say that?” She asked. She looks past you and out the window. “I think it's my time. I can feel it.”

She then closed her eyes and gave you a grateful smile while reaching up to cup your cheek. “Thank you, [Name], for sticking by my side even when my own children didn't. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful doctor to take care of me.”

You held the hand that was on your cheek and gave the older woman a sad smile as if to say “I'm sorry for not doing enough”, yet she seemed to understand what your smile conveyed as she began to caress your cheek as a means to console you.

“Keep saving lives, Dr. [Last Name].”

The steady flat note of a heart rate monitor tells you that your patient has finally passed away.

Her hand that was on your cheek laid flaccid on your own. You closed your eyes and let out a shaky sigh. After a few minutes of sitting in silence with your deceased patient, you press the nurse’s call button. You then place her hand next to her on the bed. Shortly after several nurses come into the room and begin to console you while covering Miss Bradford’s body with the sheet. You watched them as they wheeled her out of the room.

She told you to keep saving lives and you plan on doing just fucking that.

—

It was dark out when you finally left the hospital after you said your last goodbyes to Miss Bradford. The temperature had dropped significantly causing a shiver to run down your spine and goosebumps form on your arms.

You're not going to lie. Even though she told you that she was ready and already accepted her death, you couldn't help but feel like you failed her; so you were feeling pretty depressed. Everybody was so determined to get her healthy again, to go back to a somewhat normal life again. But it was never that easy.

You passed several buildings as you continued home. Soon you were passing your current town's local park when you suddenly stopped, a sudden feeling of anxiety had come out of nowhere. It felt like there were eyes on you, watching your every move. Your face sets into a hard glare to try and look intimidating. You turn around in a circle trying to find any suspicious people, yet you only found yourself alone in the street which unsettled you even more.

A sudden rustling causes you to whip your head to the right. Your eyes immediately lock onto a bright pair of golden ones that look at you from the tree line. Neither one of you refused to blink or look away, seeing who would back down first.

Your eyes widen when the other set of eyes seem to just dissipate into thin air. After a few moments of trying to process what the hell just happened, you shake your head.

I must be going insane. You thought. When you turned around to continue home, your gaze caught sight of something on the sidewalk. On the sidewalk was what looked like gold flecks of dust hovering in front of you. Being the completely logical person you were, you tried to kick the dust away from you. However doing so only caused more gold flecks to appear and soon a trail of them started to manifest that led into the forest where you saw the pair of eyes. You looked at the trail bewildered. What the actual fuck is going on? You drop your head and let out a defeated sigh.

“Yeah, I'm over this.” You mumble out loud. You walk through the trail dead set on going home and sleeping for the entire day tomorrow. Now you weren't going to lie, yes you do get upset whenever one of your patients pass away, but normally not this upset because that was part of your job; it's bound to happen. But Miss Bradford’s death seemed to be taking a bigger toll on you than you thought.

However, as you tried to walk through the trail it forcefully turned your body to walk to the forest. Your eyes widen as your adrenaline spikes and your fight or flight kicks in as you start thrashing around, trying to release its invisible hold on you.

“Hey, wait! Stop!” You cry out. You whip your head in all directions, trying to look for someone to help you. “Help! Anyone, please!” Yet all you received was silence from the empty street. While the gold dust continued to push you toward, you still tried to fight against it though you quickly began to falter thanks to the mentally and physically taxing day you just went through.

As if it had sense you were giving up, the trail abruptly stopped pushing you. For a split second you thought about running off again but decided against it. You watched as the trail formed and led even deeper into the forest where the bushes and trees were so thick that not even the bright moon that was above could illuminate it. Your eyes flicker down to the trail before going back to the forest then back down to the trail. You grimace at the trail as if you were saying “do I really have to?” to it.

All of a sudden, your head whips up to the tree line as you hear music softly playing from it. From your limited musical knowledge, it sounded like it was a harp or some type of string instrument. You feel your muscles relax and your heart slows its frantic pace as the soft melody coursed around you, like a warm comforting blanket that had just come out of the dryer, and a sense of peace had washed over you.

The logical side of your brain was screaming at you to not listen to it. To not be a dumbass and see where it was coming from. To run away as fast as you could while screaming for help, yet you already knew that wasn't going to work. But the hypnotic song that the harp-like instrument was playing kicked that side of your brain to the curb as it lured you into the forest.

Your feet moved before you even realized it and soon you began to bush limbs away. After a few minutes of trying to follow where the music was coming from, it started to get louder and then light filtered through the trees. You quickened your pace and pushed away the last of the trees, but froze in your place as the music suddenly stopped and at what you walked upon.

In front of you was nothing but a vast and endless bright blue sky. From above where the sun continued to glow brightly but seemed to be twice the size of what it was before, to below you where you could see a single hint of land anywhere. Clouds rolled by thanks to the gentle breeze that blew past you and tall pillars were littered throughout the area, some were even floating!

You turn back to the forest behind you with a confused expression before looking back at the open sky. Wasn't it just night before? And why is this… oddly familiar? Where have I seen this before? You wondered.

You jumped nearly ten feet in the air when you heard a noise at your feet. You look down to see individual slabs of concrete form a bridge several feet out in front of you and the gold trail resumes onto the bridge.

You stare at the bridge processing what just occurred. You could practically hear the Jeopardy theme song playing in the background. You sharply inhale and your eyes widen when finally realized why this was all familiar.

Motherfucking Genshin Impact! I thought I recognized this loading screen!

You place a hesitant foot on the bridge, expecting it to crumble but it stood sturdy. You take another step, then another, and after four steps the bridge begins to form out again. You keep walking as the bridge does so. You do this for a few moments, giggling to yourself about what is actually transpiring.

“I really have gone insane.” You laughed. “Ah, and my future was so promising.”

A loud boom from below cuts you off from your self deprecating thoughts. What the hell? You get down on your knees and crawl over the edge of the bridge to see a huge black rip in the sky.

“Outlanders,” A voice boomed out. “your journey ends here.”

And out stepped the Unknown God.

Oh shit. You gasp quietly as your heart rate accelerates at the sight of her. She's hotter in person. You looked around for the twins and quickly spotted them on a platform just below the Unknown God.

“Who’re you?” The queen herself, Lumine, calls out.

“The sustainer of heavenly principles.” The Unknown God summons a black cube in her hand. “The arrogation of mankind ends here.” She then creates a cube below the twins, forcing them to jump out of the way. They spin in the air and summon their, much cooler than the ones in the game, wind gliders with swords in hand.

The Unknown God sends multiple horrifying trails of cubes after the twins, forcing them to fly and twirl out of the way of them while causing the whole sky to rumble somehow. Soon the twins fly towards the Unknown God and collide with her creating a huge explosion.

The explosion caused the bridge you were on to shake due to the force. You grabbed on tighter to the ledge in hopes of keeping your balance, but an aftershock made you slip off from the edge. You let out a terrified scream as you suddenly began to fall.

Your scream caught the trio's attention and made them look at you. The twin’s faces morph into a shocked and horrified expression as you fall while the Unknown God’s eyes narrow in recognition. “There you are.” And sent cubes after you, yet you are completely immune to what's happening around you thanks to the wind that was blowing in your ears.

Lumine quickly yelled to her brother. “Aether, catch her!” She diverted her attention back to the god. “I'll take care of this!”

Aether jumped into action and quickly flew to you. He willed his wind gliders to move faster than the cubes and was soon on you. He then flies underneath you and catches you bridal style. You let out a loud “oof” as you roughly collided with something and opened your eyes, which had subconsciously closed when you fell, to see Aether flying away with you in his arms and away from the cubes.

Aether looks down to your wind blown form. “Are you okay?” He asks gently. How you could hear him over the wind, you didn't know, but you could only stare at him in shock, not actually believing that he was real.

Taking in your silence as being in shock from the fall, he flies higher in the air and turns to the Unknown God to see his twin getting sucked into the god’s cubes.

“Lumine!” He cried out. He looked between you and his sister before ultimately throwing you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes while keeping a firm hold on your thighs. He zooms to the god at high speeds which catches you off guard.

“What the fuck?!” You screech. You were starting to get a little motion sickness from all of the sudden movements.

Aether dips behind the god and swings his sword at her which causes an even larger explosion than before. You let out a scream at the loud sound. You could feel Aether’s chest rising and falling rapidly under your legs due to him panting. You hear him gasp and you turn over his head to see what was happening, though you already knew.

However, the sight of the smoke from the explosion coming back and encasing Aether’s hand was more terrifying in real life than it was in the game.

“Hold on!” He orders then quickly readjusted you so that he had a hold of your waist. You wrap your arms around his shoulders and cover your face in his shoulder, bracing for any sort of pain. Soon your vision started to turn black, but before it covered it entirely you heard Aether scream out to the Unknown God.

“Wait, don't go! Give my sister back!”

—

A/N: Kazuha is now officially the ninth member of the harem. Also, y'all... Inazuma? Lord help me I want to add Gorou and Thoma to the harem as well.

Side note, for all of the male characters that have a "young adult" physique like Aether, Kazuha, Xiao, etc. they're taller than they are in the game, from 5'6"-5'8" (Xiao still being the shortest) while those with an "adult" are anywhere from 5'10-6'2", because I said so lol.

[bl00dgutsgl0ry]

I Don’t Lose.

Pairing - Tartaglia/Childe/Ajax x Reader

Warnings - VERY mild angst, so much so that I wasn’t even going to tag it at first.

Other Comments - I promise I am working on asks! I just kinda wanted to post this little drabble, since I was working on it before I went on hiatus! Anyway be prepared for my garabgo posts to come back up on your pages >:^))

      Childe’s work schedule was horrendous; and calling it a schedule is an overstatement if anything. Now (Y/n) knew that Childe’s time out for work was going to be long, but it seemed as though recently the guy just couldn’t catch a break. He’s been gone for about three months now, with the only contact being a couple of hastily written letters.

      (Y/n) and Childe were never officially dating each other, but they had gotten pretty close over the time that they’d known each other in Liyue. Though he’s not the only person the young traveler had gotten close to. (Y/n) was extremely sociable and charismatic, which is what drew Childe to them, but it also attracted a certain ex Geo Archon.

      Zhongli seemed to always be asking for (Y/n) to accompany him every where or vice versa, borderline addicted to their presence with him. He had grown used to it when they were trying to set up the Lantern Rite a couple months back. Childe was still in Liyue at that point in time so the Geo Archon knew to keep his distance, but now with the Harbinger out of the picture he didn’t have to worry about him anymore.

      Zhongli was aware of how Childe felt about (Y/n) even if Childe himself wasn’t fully aware of his feelings, and in addition to that he was also Childe’s friend too. So there was a small voice in the back of his mind telling him that it was wrong to try to steal (Y/n) while Childe was off on a mission. He couldn’t help but think though, that he would be a better match for the traveler. He wasn’t going to be gone in a different part of Teyvat for months at a time, and if they permitted him to he could even accompany them on THEIR travels; something Childe was unable to do.

      Everyday Zhongli made it his mission to get (Y/n) tea to help start of their day, and much to his ignorance the traveler had started to expect the small cup of professionally brewed tea at their doorstep with a soft smiling Zhongli gently holding it out to them, before being invited inside the small apartment in the middle of the busy harbor.

      And today was no different, at least not to Zhongli or (Y/n). The traveler smoothly opened their door, being greeted by the ex Archon before opening the door a little wider for him to walk in and set the cup down.

      On a completely different side of Teyvat, it was Childe’s last day in Inazuma for the mission he was sent on, yearning to see the young traveler who had captured his heart. He had sent out a letter to them about a week before to give it enough time to reach them, telling them that he was going to be Liyue for a while after this mission which he was excited for, before quickly jotting down the place he wanted to meet (Y/n) and the estimated time he would be getting there; 13:00 sharp.

      It was now 15:03 and (Y/n) and Zhongli had set out on a daily commission which he had offered to help them with. It was always fun when Zhongli came along with (Y/n) on their mission, as it got lonely traveling through this unknown place with no one but Paimon by their side; so the company and help was greatly appreciated.

      Childe on the other hand, was not having as great of a time, as he had waited around in the previously mentioned spot for about an hour before giving up and deciding to go straight to their apartment. There had to be a logical explanation as to why they never came, maybe they didn’t get the letter? Childe had a habit of letting himself into (Y/n)’s apartment and today was no exception. As he quickly picked the doors lock and let himself in, he once again was let down, as his expectations were not met and (Y/n) was no where to be found in their cramped apartment.

      He couldn’t help but search around their home, looking for the one thing that would have notified them of his arrival; half heartedly hoping that it wasn’t going to be their wanting them to have a good reason as to why they never came. But after a couple minutes of searching, he found the familiar envelope with his name written across the corner in fancy calligraphy. It was sat atop the small side table next to the young travelers bed; irritating Childe even more. Not only had (Y/n) not even bothered to open the envelope, but they went through the length of setting it next to their bed, giving them another chance to open it this morning.

      Meanwhile Zhongli and (Y/n) had just finished up the rest of the commissions they needed to get done, but (Y/n) couldn’t help but feel as though they were forgetting about something. Zhongli was in Heaven right now, he loves spending the entirety of his day with them, nothing brought him more joy than seeing the way (Y/n) would celebrate to themselves a little when finishing off a couple treasure hoarders, or an angry hoard of hillichurls. The day was coming to an end though, and it was starting to get dark so the idea of getting food then going home really resonated with the two.

      As usual once they got into the harbor again they went straight to Wanmin Restaurant, as much as they liked the other expensive restaurants that Liyue Harbor was full of, nothing could compare to to homestyle meals of Wanmin. As the pair was finishing up their meals, Zhongli had placed a large hand atop (Y/n)’s.

      “(Y/n) it has been a pleasure spending the day with you as always. I thoroughly enjoyed fighting the ruin guard with you, and I am disappointed that our day is coming to an end. I was wondering if you would let me accompany you again tomorrow?” Zhongli’s hand had began to gently hold (Y/n) and their face was dusted a light shade of rose. Zhongli sat their waiting for what felt like an eternity for their answer; he spent this time memorizing every detail on their face as to never forget it. 

      (Y/n) smiled shyly and nodded before giving Zhongli’s hand a subtle squeeze and finishing off their meal.  Zhongli could feel a sense of dread forming in his heart. He new Childe was back in Liyue, which he knew because he had spotted him staring at the back of (Y/n)’s back for the entirety of their meal; How the traveler didn’t notice this he would never know.

      (Y/n) noticed the small change in Zhongli’s demeanor and the way his eyes stayed fixated on something, causing (Y/n) to turn around and see what the ex Archon was staying at so intensely. When their eyes met with Childe’s cerulean ones, they gasped quickly getting up and rushing over to him. Zhongli sighed, before quickly footing the bill and going to follow (Y/n).

      “Childe I didn’t realize you were coming back today! When did you get here?” There was something odd in Childe’s eyes, as the way he was staring at Zhongli with such malice made (Y/n)’s blood chill a little.

      “Yeah, no wonder you didn’t know (Y/n). You disregarded my letter like trash. I got here a little after noon, and waited for you at Wangshu in for almost an hour.” Childe’s voice was serious and deep, something the traveler had rarely heard come from Childe. (Y/n) pulse was racing, the look in Childe’s eye was never a good thing. 

      “And you. I had a thought of you doing this but I brushed it off cause I never thought you would. Clearly I was wrong. But here’s something you don’t know Zhongli. I. Don’t. Lose. So your advances on (Y/n) aren’t going to do anything. I am willing to do anything to anyone who tried to take away my world, you are not an exception just because we’re friends.”

      Zhongli rolled his eyes before chuckling to himself, only further infuriating Childe; and before anyone could stop him the Harbinger pushed Zhongli to the ground, quickly materializing his hydro blades and pointing them at the ex Archons throat, his amber eyes widening with shock.

      “Like I said Rex. I don’t lose. Don’t ever touch what’s mine again, no matter how long I’m out of Liyue for.” Childe’s arm wrapped tightly around (Y/n)’s should, roughly pulling them against his side; before walking off and leaving Zhongli on the ground. The walk back to (Y/n)’s was filled with tense silence. Once they had gotten back into their home, Childe unloaded everything.

      “Why (Y/n)? Why would you not even try to open my letter? Have you gotten tired of me? I know my work is crazy and hectic but you have to be mine. I’ll go crazy if I see you with anyone else.” 

      “I never got a letter from you Ajax! Zhongli had been bringing my mail to me so I only ever saw what he had given me. I need you to trust me! Doing that to Zhongli in the middle of the harbor was uncalled for and you know it.” Childe’s eyes were staring into (Y/n).

      “Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll apologize to Zhongli later, but tonight it’s just gonna be you and me. I need to make up for all the time I’ve been gone. Who knows what Zhongli has done to you.” Childe’s signature smirk was back on his face, bringing (Y/n) an odd sense of comfort before nodding in agreement. (Y/n) giggled in response before lightly punching Childe’s arm.

      “So does this mean we’re official?” Childe barked out a laugh before pressing a soft kiss to (Y/n)’s lips.

      “What do you think?”

[pwnyta]

fave 10 characters from any media and why u like them?

From any media?! Thats tough... but the first character who came to mind was Zoro from One Piece.

Im a sucker for extreme loyalty in characters and although all the Mugis have that Zoros relationship with Luffy stands out to me. Honestly besides Sanji all the Mugis are very important to me and my love for Zoro of course is only possible through his relationship with them (besides Sanji).

2 is... Tiny Stonks.

Although I dont care about the MCU anymore Tony will live in my heart forever. He was fun and his story was amazing and surprisingly... I didnt mind his death which is a first for me when it comes to characters I love.

3- Toshi.

Although Horikoshi has really dropped the ball in BNHA in general All Mights story and implied story is tragic and lovely and I love his silly ass.

4- Zhongli!

While he hasnt replaced my top 3 Zhongli is really the only reason I play Genshin Impact and every new thing I learn about him makes me love him more. He was especially sweet during Lantern Rite this year!

5- Klaus!

Unfortunately I didnt get to have much time with Klaus since I watched the anime so late but there has never been a character more tailor made to my tastes than him. Hes just lovely. Bespoke Waifu.

6- Piccolo

Piccolo was probably the first anime boy I was obsessed with and I think hes sorta influenced my tastes from then on- tall, kinda-scary but ends up being soft, loyal...

7- Garnet!

My tastes in full force. Honestly I could have watched just slice of life episodes of Steven and garnet for the rest of my life and been happy!

8- Kotetsu!

I havent watched Tiger and Bunny in 3000 years and I havent gotten the opportunity to watch it and the new season again but when I was watching it Kotetsu was everything! Hes a goofy dweeb and is trying so hard to help... who could NOT love him?

9- Vesta...

I KNOW SHE HAS THE SAME PERSONALITY AS ALL THE OTHER NORMIES BUT SHE MEANS SO MUCH TO ME LEAVE ME ALONE!! ;;

10- Shiro

Shiro was just lovely... unfortunately he was in VLD but thats not his fault. Theres so much unexplored with his character but what we got of his story I was... somewhat satisfied and his relationships were lovely.

ANYWAYS.... I think all my favs have a similar vibe... Its very easy to figure out who my fav will be so I have a lot of nerve calling other people out on their obvious favs...

(This does not mean I will ever stop making fun of them however.)

[bluexiao]

- About morning: "The sun has risen. It is yet another start for a new day. Good morning, Traveler. Come, I've prepared breakfast."

- About afternoon: "The sunlight is the harshest during afternoon. But the shade under the tree in Windrise is also beautifully highlighted during this time. Would you like to join me on my way there?"

- About night: "Ah, nighttime. The wind is always the calmest when the whole world is asleep."

- When it rains: "The rain drops heavy against the ground today. Let's find shelter, it would be better to rest for now."

- When the rain stops: "Oh, the rain has stopped. Shall we find a spot to settle down? I will make some warm stew for you."

- When it snows: "The world always seems to fall silent when it snows. The cold air feels heavy however."

- About hobbies: "A hobby? It's something you do for... leisure, if I'm not wrong? I'm not sure... but I do enjoy cooking for others. Other than that, I'm afraid I might not have more. It might be the only thing I specialize in outside my battle prowess."

- Favorite food: "Favorite... food? It would be Apple Cider. I have found myself having this drink more than I expected during times I was making sure Venti... stay in line when we're at a bar. The drink can sober you up if you've one too many glasses of wine. Other than being commonly found at a bar, it's an invigorating drink to make on your travels as well. I can make some for you, if you'd like."

- Least Favorite Food: "I do not harbor any dislike towards any kinds of food. However, I despise seeing food that I try to cook turn out terrible. Food in such condition cannot be served for others."

- About Dandelion Wine: "I am partially uncertain on my opinion of Dandelion Wine. As this particular drink is the reason why Venti is always drunk and muttering senseless things in his stupor. Dandelion Wine is delectable but I personally prefer Apple Cider... so I can stay sober for the two of us."

- About Mondstadt: "Mondstadt... This city is everything to me. I was there when it crumbled apart, I was there when it flourished into the City of Freedom. Venti smiles upon Mondstadt, and so do I."

- About Liyue: "I do not have the chance to travel outside Mondstadt often... but I've been to Liyue several times. Liyue is quite the prosperous city indeed. The Lantern Rite Festival was exceptionally breathtaking."

- More About Aria - I: "You are curious as to how I handle Venti? Most of the time, I try to keep him in line in taverns such as preventing him from drinking more than our budget, not letting him fall off the chair, and... Oh, I'm rambling, aren't I? I apologize."

- More About Aria - II: "My favorite flower is Windwheel Asters. I adore how the wind passes through their petals, it gives off a pleasant feeling."

- More About Aria - III: "I do not have any talent for singing. My voice is not suited for such beautiful melodies. Listening to Venti's songs is more than enough for me."

- More About Aria - IV: "I do not have a family, nor do I have any othe relatives. Venti might be the only person closest to 'family' for me. Hmm, siblings have fun and do favors for each other, you say? Well, I tend to take care of his troublemaking yet 'having fun' habits, maybe that would count?"

- More About Aria - V: "People often tell me I look soulless. They are not wrong... but it makes me feel meek. My origins are not something easy to share. There may be times where I question the importance of my existence, but that is only a silly thought. At the very least, you know of my true self, Traveler. I am grateful."

- Something to Share: "I do not necessarily require sleep. A being such as myself is not bounded by fatigue and age. But I understand that people around me are different, so I am willing to wait for them to take their time. I suppose, this is why I always remind you to rest."

- Interesting Things: "Venti told me that apparently, I disappear out of sight whenever I feel too lulled by the breeze or a song. Do not panic, it is only because I morph back into my original form when I lose control of my human form. Call my name, I will still answer even when you cannot see me."

- Troubles: "You wish to know about my troubles? I am trying to keep my best from letting Venti consume too much Dandelion Wine per usual. But lately... I've been thinking about how I'd like to get to know certain people but I am uncertain on how to approach them without a proper reason. *sigh* It seems I am still a novice when it comes to interactions with others..."

- About Aria - Wind Whisperer: "The Wind Whisperer... It's been such a long time since I've been addressed by that title. Do I miss it? Oh, the name does hold precious memories for me. I am still the Wind Whisperer, but I am also Aria."

- About Aria - Vision: "My Vision was handed to me the very first time I opened my eyes. It was placed in my hands and at that moment, I was born as the Wind Whisperer."

- About Visions: "To me, having a Vision is a responsibility. A reminder that I am given these powers to protect those in need. Ever since I was born with this Vision, I know I exist to protect Mondstadt and its people. But to other Vision bearers, their purposes are solely theirs to decide."

- About the Archons: "The Archons each has the responsibility to rule over a part of Teyvat to keep it from falling apart. However along with this responsibility, the Archons carry with them great burden. All of them have secrets buried in their past that led them to be who they are. I live to respect that."

hello! so sorry this is late! i absolutely agree with how venti & aria seemed siblings of the sort^^ i feel like both of them have similarities too, now that i’ve realized. like venti, aria is born somewhat peculiarly, and she’s somewhat… alone, that’s what i sense with her character. she has this “purpose” that she values but what really does she like doing the most ?

anyway i just said my analysis on her hahah. good work on the voicelines nonnie!! i enjoyed reading more about aria^^

[chronologyx]

Lavender Autumn (Kazuqing) Notes

Author’s Notes:

Hiya, this will be a first for me because:

1. I never used tumblr and I feel like I am probably gonna regret it, but hey that is future me problem.

2. I normally draw but I hadn’t drawn anything lately, or even post my art online at all, since 2018 and I have been in a huge burnout since then. The burnout is slowly fading but I can still feel it in me so I am turning my creative output to writing it out. Gotta say, this will be really interesting to see how I’ll do with writing. Maybe one day when I feel more confident I can share some drawings I made back then or just link my deviantart page here.

3. This is a Kazuha x Keqing ship (Kazuqing) that I have hopelessly fallen in love with and want to see more of. I will probably explain why I ship these two particular characters in another post one day.

Anyways, before I get sidetracked and ramble on like Yoimiya, I would like to inform you on what you can expect from what is basically my first story.

This story involves a slow burn of affection between Kaedehara Kazuha and Keqing. If you don’t like the ship well nobody is forcing you to stay but if you find yourself interested, hope you enjoy!

Timeline wise, it takes place a year before the current story of our travelers traveling to Inazuma and approximately 1 or 2 months after the Vision Hunt Decree was established in Inazuma.

This will be fun but challenging for me since I basically have to come up with a few unique scenarios for Kazuha and Keqing, besides events like the Lantern Rite, the Crux Clash, etc. But hey, this is a future me problem.

Here are the characters that will appear in the story as well my headcanon ages & heights for them:

Kadehara Kazuha: 21 yrs old, 5′ 5″

Keqing: 21 yrs old, 5′ 3″

Beidou: 27 yrs old, 5′ 7″

Ningguang: 27 yrs old, 5′ 7″

Ganyu: Appears 21 yrs old, is over 3000+ yrs old, 5′ 2″

Zhongli: Appears 27 yrs old, is over 3000+ yrs old 6′ 2″

Xiao: Appears 21 yrs old, is over 3000+ yrs old, 5′ 3″

Xiangling: 16 yrs old, 5′ 2″

Xingqiu: 16 yrs old, 5′ 3″

Chongyun: 16 yrs old, 5′ 4″

Xinyan: 16 yrs old, 5′ 4″

Hu Tao: 16 yrs old, 5′ 2″

Yanfei: 16 - 18 yrs old, probably older like Ganyu & Xiao? 5′ 2″

Qiqi: Appears 10 yrs old, is over 3000+ yrs old, 3′ 2″

Dr. Baizhu: 28 yrs old, 6′ 2″

Yaoyao: 10 yrs old, 3′ 2″

Tartaglia: 24 yrs old, 5′ 11″

Mona: 21 yrs old, 5′ 3″

The Traveler: Appears 16 yrs old, is over 500+ yrs old, 5′ 4″

Since I stated the story will take a year before the current story in Genshin where our travelers goes to Inazuma, just subtract one to the ages stated. Why did I stated this many characters and why did I state their height & ages?

Simple, I got about a “years” worth of scenarios for Kazuha & Keqing, pretty sure they will interact with other characters before the Traveler arrives. I wanna add some interesting scenarios involving other characters and see how they will interact.

As for heights, especially for characters like Kazuha, Keqing, Ganyu, Yanfei and Mona there are people in real life who probably has the same build as them. Despite the fact that their character models are basically the same as Xiangling, Chongyun, and any other character who have the same model height as them. Even the new character, Sayu, is stated to be about the age of a teenager but has the height of a child.

I just feel some of them are actually older than some like Kazuha who stated that “Though some sake would be nice” Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage where legal drinking age there is 20 yrs old. In China, you can drink alcohol when you are 18 years old! So I just wanna age add ages & heights that just feel “right” in a way for each character during the story.

Welp, I have rambled on just like Yoimiya but I just wanna state these things first before I begin posting the stories. I am uncertain how many chapters I will be creating, let alone know how long it will take for me to create the next chapter. But I hope whoever comes across this story will enjoy reading this. Also, please provide any kind of constructive criticism and writings tips that you think can help improve my storytelling & writing.

Hope you all enjoy!

[sepiadice]

DiceJar Campaign 0.1: A Slippery Slope (2020/01/03)

So I return to the mighty throne of the GM Screen! To pull the strings, interpret the weavings of fate, mold the world to my whims and desires!

However, I’m going from a module, namely Crypt of the Everflame, made famous by Trix’s adventures. So I’m treading old ground, though with fewer players, and only one returning from that adventure. The better part of a decade has passed since I played it, so plenty of details should’ve left the veterans.

The reason I’m playing out of the module is as a sort of learning experience: Viewing box text and published adventure design so that it may help develop my original adventures. As for why I chose this one: I really like the opening premise. New young adventures thrown together deliberately for their origin story. Often players get focused on making an exciting backstory that they forget to make what happens at the table be the most interesting part of their life. I think it’s charming.

It’s an element/theme I want to incorporate in future campaigns.

Anyways, how will the tomb dive go without Team Pesto?

Cast

Mogui (IndigoDie): A Hedge Mage for a Lord Grey. Essentially a living lawn ornament. He helps take care of the Lord’s menagerie. Sole repeat player of the Module.

Bernard ‘Bean’ Dipp (NavyDie): Still just a child, but his father is (supposedly) suffering polio, so young Bean needs to become the man of the house. GM of the campaign I just finished. Revenge time?

Yot (LimeDie): A traveling mercenary slash adventurer nevertheless being pulled into things because some players struggle with direction. Player is a vetran of an Improv club Navy and I were also members of.

Delilah Dunford (VermilionDie): The unruly daughter of the local snobby nobles. Roguish interests and talents. Player is also from my high school days, but not the High School game group.

Game Master (SepiaDie/Me): Everyone and thing else. Nervous wreck caught in his own head. Attended a High School once and participated in a college Improv Club.

Session One

I failed to change any proper nouns like I wanted, but I also avoided needing to say anyone’s names, so there’s still time.

There’s an immense backstory I summarized, because it was too long for me to read out and I can’t trust players to read.[1] Kassen is a town that evolved out of a hold built by a guy named Kassen, a soldier turned adventurer. One day, he went to fight an evil band of… bad people. Kassen succeeded, but succumbed to injuries taken. He was entombed in a crypt, where an eternal flame was lit. Every year, the mayor rides out to bring back a lantern lit by the flame to bless the town to survive the winter. Every couple of years, town youths are sent instead as a rite of passage.

This is one of the rite of passage years.

The mayor first meets with Mogui, a lonely mage working for one of the town’s two noble families. The mayor awkwardly stumbles through his invitation, which Mogui gladly accepts.

Next, the Mayor finds Bean waiting in the market square. The mayor, again, stumbles through his invitation, which Bean seems rather confused by the semantics of, needing to be specifically told not to just wait in the town center for two days but to come back on the actual day of departure.

Yot is found in a tavern, and attempts to talk a big game as the Mayor asks him to join the adventuring party. I still need to force a firmer connection between Yot and the town of Kassen, as my original plan of Yot belonging to what once was Kassen’s band of mercenaries was sunk before I could work it in.

Delilah pops up from behind the Mayor as he’s on his way to her family’s manor, and she eagerly joins the quest.[2]

Thus is our party arranged!

Two days later, at the predetermined time, they walk into the market square and I gently prompt them to give physical descriptions of their characters. Delilah is described as having slightly asymmetrical dark hair, while the rest focused more on height and relative ages.[4]

Mogui arrives with some sort of bipedal creature. Indigo didn’t actually know what he intended the creature to be, so I’m going to assume it’s a chocobo until gently corrected.[5] Everyone promptly forgot about it, even though it supposedly was following them.

The four mingle for a bit as I lost focus trying to recenter myself and review the next step. I tend to let my players just fill time until they get bored of their scene. I probably should work on keeping a good pace with the plot, but I also don’t want to step on their fun. It’s a difficult balance, especially if there’s no NPC handy to gently snark at them to move forward.

The bells of the Church of Polyhymnia[6] ring in the noontime.

The townspeople, dressed in blacks and other dark clothing, start to form a crowd around our adventurers. The mayor emerges with an old pony pulling a cart of supplies. He distributes backpacks to the adventurers, gives a prepared speech,[8] and sends our young heroes on their way.

Mixed into their supplies is a fourth of a map that, at an actual table, is supposed to be a real piece of paper torn and distributed to the players. Since we’re not in the same room and split between two states, I instead alluded to the paper in their bag for them to ask about, while also prepared to gently drop the detail if the players don’t engage. Pivot and roll!

Initially the torn map pieces are overlooked, and the party walks south, into the Fangwoods, following a trail that starts well-worn, but progressively fades.

A few hours into their hike, they come upon a fallen tree. Three orcs emerge from behind it, and initiative is rolled.

I overlooked a mechanic I was supposed to employ, a problem I had throughout the session. The module imbedded vital instructions mid-paragraph in the description, which means I overlooked having the players roll to disbelieve when they land hits or are hit. I did read the module in advance, though, but it’s easy to forget the details, especially details hidden away like that.

I’m a terrible note taker. In school, if I was taking notes, then I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson because I was focused on writing. This also made me a terrible stage manager. Half the reason behind these write-ups is to get the information down and in circulation in my memory because I’m not able to mid-session.

What I should be doing is reading (or writing) the module, and making a bullet point list of the bare mechanics. I sometimes do similar when trying to learn new systems.[9]

Delilah climbs into a tree to shoot arrows at one of the three Orcs, the other three taking the ground battle.

The orcs are quickly defeated, their corpses fading away. What a curious event that I’m sure has no explanation to be uncovered in the future. An utter curiosity.

At this point, the party finally pauses to ask if they know where they’re going.

Ah, time for pay off.

At this point, I describe how they’d been following a shrinking trail, but soon they won’t have it to rely on.

I’m asked to post the list of supplies to the text chat for them to pour over. A careful edit of the description of the map is needed, and I do so.

The party discusses the supplies shortly, and someone looks at their part of the map. I tell them it appears to be a fourth of a map.

NavyDie shrewdly asks if they’re all the same fourth of a map. He likely learned from the time I gave my players descriptions of dreams then later threw some wood blocks at them not to take paper for granted.[10]

I confirm that they each have a different fourth of the same map. So they jigsaw puzzle it, and Mending is cast. Now they have a single map, and a burned spell slot![12]

They follow their map for the remainder of the day. The sun began to set, and the party needed to make camp.

When the opportunity arises, players will want to roll dice, because rolling dice feels good,. So everyone rolled for the survival check meant for one.

Bean, our ranger, was the only one who failed. I punished him by having him punch a hole in his tent. Everyone goes to bed, though Yot elects to take watch for a few hours, with no intention of waking anyone to take a shift after him. He chose enough time, and made the proper check, to spot a wolf investigating the border of the campsite before slinking off.

Yot decides to increase the length of his watch a little longer. So he was still awake when the wolf returned with three friends.

New combat! Yot shouts to rouse his allies, succeeding in waking Bean and Mogui, who come out of their tents to assist. No one thinks to go wake up Delilah, so she gets to sit out of this combat.

A few rounds occur, with the lead wolf eventually knocking Yot down and mauling him a tad. Mogui uses magic to scare off the other two, but lead wolf stays intent on his objective:[13] food.

The wolf makes his way into the camp, takes a mouthful of food, and skedaddles. I declare the end of combat. Bean buries the remainder of the food,[14] and everyone goes back to sleep.

With the morning arrival, and the completion of a long rest, the journey to Kassen’s Crypt continues.

The map leads them to the shore of a large lake on a misty morning, the grey skies and fog obscuring the horizon. A bandit lays dead on the beach. Our protagonists investigate the body, and find signs of an attack by a massive serpent. The body also has a sword and a wallet of gold on him, but they are left as the body is entombed into a shallow, sandy grave.

Travel continues, and they crest a small hill overlooking a serpentine valley, within which rests Kassen’s Tomb.

This then proceeds into my second big mistake: I overlooked the acrobatics check hidden with the descriptions and had my players roll directly on the failure table. Again, the table carefully set apart drew my eye. I’m learning! Poorly!

Still, someone ran into three different trees on the way down, so at least it was amusing, if unnecessarily punishing. I’ll quietly retcon away any damage taken in apology at start of next session.

Down the overly slippery hill, a small stable’s worth of dead mounts await: two horses and three ponies, the horses long dead, the ponies a little more recent. None the same day our party arrived, however.

A description of a fancy rune in the doorway’s keystone is given, and the session ends, exploration of the dungeon saved for the next session a fortnight later.

As usual, the session was characterized with me being stressed over keeping it running and attempting to follow the script of the module. The few times I’ve managed successive sessions has hinted that I’m able to settle in as things go on and the players figure out the table dynamic. I’m mostly confident I’ll figure it out.

While I am learning the value of boxtexts,[15] modules still invoke a sense of containment on me. A fear that if I, as a GM, stray too far, I’ll accidentally break something. I don’t enjoy scripts, that’s why I did improv. Scripts means you can make mistakes that need course correction.

But I’m playing with friends, we’re learning to be a cohesive performance troupe, and hopefully this will turn into a podcast. For the future.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] I’ll grant them the benefit of the doubt that they’re literate. [2] I’m seeing a combined Trix and the Sorceress[3] from her party. I’m going to have fun with that. [3] Indigo says her name was Makenna. [4] Which will make the process of creating sprite pawns for them slightly more difficult. I’ll ask them on the discord for physical appearances when I’m done writing this. [5] Were it not bipedal, I might’ve steered him into making it into a riding jackalope. They’re… kinda my pet fantastic beast. Usually ridden by mail carriers. [6] Originally the Church of a Pathfinder Deity, but I’m transplanting the module into D&D Fifth Edition anyways, so might as well sneak the details of my setting[7] into the margins. Helps everyone’s already just human. [7] Is this canon with the abandoned Genesys campaign? You decide! [8] When I have something to read, the mayor loses the stammering and uncertainty he has when I’m doing it off the cuff. This is because I’m not awkwardly trying to do things off the cuff. [9] I should have a file that’s basically Maid RPG Lite floating around due this same habit. [10] The one time I planned for my players to ‘cheat’ and show each other the notes I gave them, and the clowns kept the notes to themselves. You literally cannot rely on anyone to do anything like they should.[11] [11] I’d say you can trust players to make things harder for themselves, but return to footnote 10. [12] When I played through this module, I arrived after the mayor distributed the backpacks, and the party already had investigated their maps. So I don’t know how this puzzle was solved then. I also don’t remember the Orc encounter. [13] Behind the screen fun: while I rolled three times fairly, I applied the single success to who I wanted. For narrative reasons. I often play favorites in this manner. [14] Sure. [15] Along with listening to Dice Friends streams/podcast.

[blogging-phelddagrif]

EDH Deck Tech: Phelddagrif Group Hug

[you can see every deck tech here]

Hello & welcome to this weekly deck tech! This week we’re doing something very very special and very close to my heart, we’re talking about Phelddagrif! The commander that gives your opponents some life, some hippo tokens, and some card draw!

Over the past few years I’ve talked a lot about this card and the archetype Group Hug but I never actually wrote a deck tech about it so today this is going to change. For those who don’t know the archetype, Group Hug is all about helping everyone at the table through various methods. Now I don’t claim to be the Group Hug expert, but I’ve been playing this deck for many many years and got the chance to try about every possible card that could fit to know what works and what doesn’t, for example I think cards like Braids Conjurer Adept, Hypergenesis, Oath of Druids & Tempting Wurm (cards that let every player play some cards for free are not great ideas...from my experience instead of “helping” the players it usually gives a window for 1 of them to win the game, which makes things less fun for everyone else, so I avoid those kind of cards. If you like them though go ahead and play them, they are very Group Hug for sure! In any case, what follows is a deck tech of the version I’m playing at the moment and what I feel is the most fun version of the deck, I hope you guys enjoy it!

Ramping Up

Let’s start with something kind of boring: ramp. I see too many decks out there focused on strategy too much that they don’t include ramp or mana fixing, which often leads to clunky plays & unstable mana base. If you’re playing green you need to make some space for some ramp it really helps any deck. What I’m running is Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farseek, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach & Explosive Vegetation. Those cards really ensure you can accelerate your game plan and have a smooth curve.

Mana Rocks

Another good way to fix your mana and ramp up are mana rocks. In the same way as you should play ramp in green decks, in ANY decks you need to play some mana rocks, ALWAYS. I feel like the best ones to run are Chromatic Lantern, Azorius Signet, Selesnya Signet & Simic Signet. You could play more, but with these plus the ramp spells it feels like enough.

Recursion

I think this is a personal preference, but I feel that if you’re playing green decks you need some amount of graveyard recursion, and honestly it’s REALLY useful in this deck. Having ways of bringing back certain cards to reuse them can be massive, or at the very least, pretty useful. I’m running Reclaim, Eternal Witness, Skullwinder, Noxious Revival & Regrowth. I used to play more but it felt a bit like an overkill. Those cards are really good to bring back whatever card you had that was dealt with, or just to reuse something that might be useful.

Pillowfort

Now this is a very common theme you’ll see among Group Hug decks, one that I’ve neglected a little but still appreciate in the deck. The idea is that with these kind of effects people will avoid attacking you, which gives you more time to do your things. What I found was that the amount of help you’re providing to your opponents, a) they will instinctively not attack you because you benefit them, and b) often they’ll have enough mana to attack you anyways. I still feel like it’s important to run a few Pillowfort effects to protect yourself in the early game like Ghostly Prison, Propaganda & Collective Restraint. There are other options but I personally don’t run more.

Removal

Every deck needs some answers and playing Group Hug doesn’t change that; the difference is that here you can run removal that gives your opponent some compensation, so they’ll feel less bad about what happened. I honestly love those removal spells because they tend to be cheaper because of the drawback, and they give your opponents some neat stuff! I’m running Curse of the Swine, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshare, Condemn, Oblation, Beast Within, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization & Reality Shift. These cards let you prevent someone from taking too much advantage from your kindness, so that every player can have fun.

Other Answers

Not every game-breaking card is a permanent, so in cases where you need to stop a player from doing something un-fun before it resolves, you need some counterspells. Personally, I run Swan Song & Arcane Denial. You could run more, but from my experience you don’t need them often, so just a couple if often fine.

Mana For Everyone

NOW we’re getting to the heart of the deck, this is what it’s about! The deck wants everyone to have fun and play some magic; a good way to do that is ensuring everyone has access to lots of mana (though I avoid mana-doubling effect because I’ve come to realize it often breaks the game and lets a player win on the spot...). So I’m running Collective Voyage, Magus of the Vineyard, Veteran Explorer, Borderland Explorer, Jungle Wayfinder, Shizuko Caller of Autumn, New Frontiers, Pir’s Whim, Tempt With Discovery, Oah of Lieges & Eladamri’s Vineyard. With all these cards, everyone will have plenty of mana to do whatever they feel like and have a good time.

Cards For Everyone

Another big part of the deck is making sure everyone draws as many cards as possible, so that they always have something to play with all the mana they have. You can achieve that with burst of card draws, or through constant card drawing, via different cards/effects. In this deck I’m running Minds Aglow, Prosperity, Dakra Mystic, Kami of the Crescent Moon, Heartwood Storyteller, Walking Archive, Anvil of Bogardan, Howling Mine, Horn of Greed, Temple Bell, Font of Mythos, Ghirapur Orrery (granted the card draw isn’t often a possibility, but the extra land/turn is really helpful), Otherworld Atlas, Standstill, Dictate of Kruphix & Rites of Flourishing. With all those cards, your opponents will be drawing tons of cards and will be able to play whatever they want.

Life For Everyone

Something that really bothers me is that there not a lot of life-gain cards that affect everyone...like I really hope one day we get a card like Collective Voyage or Minds Aglow where everyone may pay mana and then every players gets twice the total of mana spent or something like that...anyways, we need to work with what we have so I’m playing Temporary Truce, Truce & Arbiter of Knollridge, plus I need to try out Reward the Faithful in the deck to see if it works well, since it seems situational. There isn’t much, but those little life gain spells can be pretty useful to help out your opponents stay alive.

Other Effects

There’s some other cards that are useful to the deck but have effects that don’t really fit in the other categories. Stuff like Alliance of Arms, which can give a huge amount of tokens to all your opponents; Constant Mists, which can keep people alive for a VERY LONG TIME; or Noble Benefactor, which lets everyone fetch for any card when it dies. Those cards are more than welcome in this deck and really makes for a fun time.

Mana Base

I don’t always talk about the mana base since it’s often up to the user, but since this is my deck I thought it’d be important to talk about it. First of all, Forbidden Orchard is a must, it gives your opponents some neat tokens which is always helpful! For the rest of the lands I play a few fetches like Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Bant Panorama, Myriad Landscape & Thawing Glaciers, to really smooth out my mana fixing and thin out the deck, plus a Reliquary Tower to prevent having to discard to hand size. Oh, and pretty important, I run 30 basic lands (10 of each); this might sound like a lot for a 3-colour deck, but trust me, with the amount of fetch/ramp the deck does, you WILL run out of basic lands VERY fast, and honestly even with 30 I still run out every now and then, I wouldn’t go under that amount.

Wrap-Up

That’s it for this deck tech! I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did, because this deck is very dear to me; I’ve been playing it for many years now and it’s always so much fun to play! You might have noticed that there isn’t really any win condition in the deck, and that’s normal; this deck is not made to win, it’s made to enhance the experience of other players, to use their deck to their full potential. If you really want to you can probably win via commander damage, or force a draw with a massive Prosperity, but the point of the deck is not to win by any stretch, just to sit back and have a good time with your friends. If I missed anything please let me know. I’ll see you guys next week for a pretty special deck tech!

[handstitchedcircuitboards]

There Are Terrible Things

Hanzo is ready to claim his birthright, and he embarks on the rite of passage every Shimada has attempted since time immemorial. But you, Sojiro, hadn’t prepared yourself for the outcome. 

Cross posted from AO3

                        Hanzo stands before you, at an almost military attention, awaiting your approval. He is dressed in his most formal clothes, not a single fold out of place. His hair is tied up neatly, and the faint dusting of adolescent beard is shaved away. He has attended to every detail with a fastidiousness far beyond his years. He stares ahead, serious and unflinching. He gets that look from your wife; her mouth would turn down at the corners in the exact same way. That familiar mix of old grief and love and pride twists at your heart. You pat Hanzo on the shoulder gently.

               “Well done, my son. You are ready.”

               He looks up at you and nods, and there’s a relief in his eyes if you know what to look for. He is so afraid of being found wanting, though he rarely is. He is still playing at confidence, not yet old enough to have found it for himself, but you will happily play along until he does.

               Your younger son is fidgeting at your side. He darts forward when you step back and then pauses with his arms splayed, unsure. He settles for taking his brothers hands, rather than risking rumpling his attire with a hug, and squeezes.

               “Tell me about it when you get back?” Genji asks.

               Hanzo looks up at you, silently asking for permission. You wink. Hanzo frowns at you, but then Genji shakes both their hands to get his brother’s attention back.

               “C’mon,” Genji wheedles.

               “I’ll tell you all the boring parts,” Hanzo says after a moment of consideration. He pulls one hand free and ruffles Genji’s hair. Genji ducks away and pouts.

               “Let your brother go, Genji, it’s time,” you say, gently tugging Genji to your side. “He’s going to make us proud.”

               Hanzo stands up to his full height, just shy of yours, and turns to face the Well. The cavern is a pitch black void in the earth in the fading daylight. Cool air drifts out like a breath, making the fine hair around your face dance and itch, a fierce contrast to the warm evening air in the rest of the garden. Hanzo walks into the dark without any hesitation or a backward glance. If your recollection holds, he won’t be gone for very long, but while he is gone he will be somewhere very far away. Time and distance are strange in the Well. You were happy to have only needed to venture into the depths once.

               The mouth of the cave sits hidden in a garden just inside the walls of the castle. It is usually barred with a heavy iron door, sealed tight until a Shimada begins to dream of dragon song. This is a very necessary precaution, because if someone outside of the bloodline were to wander in, they’d never come back out. In times past tribute would be sent in, thinking it would strengthen the dragons that live in those depths, but the practice was found to be as barbaric as it was ineffectual. The dragons need only a willing, strong host. Their power is limitless then.

               You lead Genji to a bench nearby. The evening is lovely and clear, and you’d like to be close when Hanzo returns. Besides, your presence will ensure no one wanders near. You’d hate to lose any of the staff, but if they interfere Hanzo could also be forfeit. Genji only stays at your side for a few minutes before the allure of the trees proves too much and he scampers off. He’s at the top of the nearest in a moment, and you can’t help but smile and envy his energy. He is like a little bird, flitting from branch to branch. Your baby sparrow.

               The wind picks up, stirring up the scent of the flowers and making the leaves of the other trees tremble in sympathy with the one Genji is clambering. It’s soothing, though it doesn’t absolve you of your worry. It’s been generations since a Shimada has failed to return from the Well, but there’s always a chance. The beasts in the Well are intolerant of weakness, devouring the unworthy and scouring them from the earth. You are confident Hanzo will earn their favor, despite being so young. He has a steel in his soul and a drive to match. He will be able to pay their price.

               Generations ago, your ancestors struck a deal with the dragon spirits, trading time for power. No one who has gone into the Well has lived into their seventies, and the most prolific assassins have perished before fifty. To be bonded as a host is to shorten your own life, but what a life it is. Trading a decade or two of decrepitude has always seemed a fair bargain to you. That had all been regarded as a kind of magic until the twentieth century, when medicine pulled back the veil. Exposure to the dragons causes cell damage, random errors in DNA, until runaway replication devours the host. The more philosophically inclined of your relatives have mused what it is the spirits actually gained from the bargain, but the benefit to the Shimadas has been obvious. So on it goes, your children venturing into the Well and coming out gods.

               “Dad! Watch!” Genji calls.

               “Genji,” you say sharply in warning. Genji laughs and you see him leap from one tree to another. Enough of that. You haul yourself up into the tree after Genji and grab him around his middle. He squeals, but you bring him down with you anyway.

               “You’re no fun, Dad,” he whines.

               “You won’t be any fun either if you break your neck. Be kind to an old man and sit with me,” you say, sitting back on the bench.

               “You’re not that old, Dad,” Genji replies, settling himself against your side.

               You tip your head and look for the few stars that can still be seen despite Hanamura’s light pollution. You think you should take your sons out to the country, so they can see them unobstructed. If you can make the time, you amend to yourself. You really ought to make the time.

               “When’s Hanzo going to be back?” Genji asks.

               “When he is finished.”

               “When do I get a turn?”

               “When you’re ready.” And may it be many years from now you think, not unselfishly. Hanzo is young to be taking the trip into the Well, not the youngest, but younger than normal. You were sixteen when you went. You would hope Genji would enjoy a little more time before that kind of responsibility claims him.

               When you finally hear Hanzo’s voice, the moon has already risen and the electric lanterns have come on to fight the dark. Genji dozed off some time ago, sliding down until his head rested on your leg. You nudge him awake and get to your feet. You force yourself to adopt a casual pace, despite your desire to see for yourself that your son is safe. He is standing at the mouth of the Well. His hair is a little disheveled, but he’s much less muddy that the cousin that ventured in ten months ago. The hem of his left sleeve is a bit singed. He’s already closed the Well behind him.

               “I did it, father!” he says breathlessly. He’s grinning widely, despite how exhausted he looks. You come closer to get a better look and assuage your worry. He is fine.

               “Let me see!” Genji squeals, practically vibrating at your side. You squeeze his hand a little tighter to keep him close. Hanzo widens his stance, holding out his left arm. Hanzo won’t have control, and though the dragons are adept at distinguishing friend from foe, a newly minted host is a fairly dangerous creature. You can’t blame him for wanting to show off, despite the danger. If worst comes to worst, you can subdue his dragon with your own. A blue glow begins to emanate from inside his sleeve, and then it begins to build and take a long, crackling, serpentine shape.

               Then it does something strange. The shape splits, forming two distinct creatures. They twist in opposite directions, encircling Hanzo in blue light. He is breathing hard from the effort, open mouthed and wide-eyed with awe.

               Your heart drops to your stomach. You have always known that Hanzo was strong, that the Shimada blood ran fiercely in him, but you never dreamed that two dragons would choose him. Twice the exposure, twice the risk. He’ll be lucky to see his fortieth birthday.   You might out live him if he is not careful. He is just fourteen, barely out of boyhood, and now death is already bearing down on him.

               “Hanzo, stop,” you snap. The dragons’ forms begin to dissipate as Hanzo’s concentration falters, then the light winks out altogether.

               “Father?” he says, hurt and confused. You watch the glimmer of shame warp his expression before he can pack it away under a mask of neutrality. You’re instantly seized by regret. It isn’t his fault.

               You walk forward, pull Hanzo into your arms. He’s thin, wiry, still a child in so many ways. You can remember vividly your wife holding him just after his birth, a tiny newborn so fragile and precious. It seems like the time from then to now passed too quickly.

               “Come, you should rest. You should both rest,” you say. You pull back but you keep one arm around Hanzo’s shoulders. You hold out your other hand, and Genji comes to take it. The night suddenly seems so much colder.

               Hanzo’s shoulders are stiff, expecting censure. You relax you grip a little, wondering if you’d been hurting him. Genji is subdued on your other side. You wished you’d made him stay behind. You wish he wasn’t your son. What if the same thing happens to him? You don’t think you could bear it if you buried them both.

               You walk Genji to his room first, watch him lay down to sleep (knowing full well he’ll be up again when he thinks he can get away with it), and then take Hanzo to his. He’s holding his head up high and proud, but you can still tell he’s scared. You know your son, know he’s examined every moment since you sent him into the Well for his error. He might have found something to chastise himself over, because from the moment you snapped at him he will have assumed there must be something to chastise. That you were afraid would never enter his calculus.

               You slide back the door to his room and wave him through ahead of you. The staff have already laid out his bedding and his sleeping clothes. You see Hanzo glance at them, maybe a little longingly, and feel a pang of sympathy. He must be so tired.

               “I’m sorry, Father,” he says, bowing low. No excuse, no whining. It normally makes you proud, but now it just makes you hurt.

               “You have nothing to apologize for,” you say. He snaps his head to look up at you, confused. “Sit, Hanzo.”

               He drops to the floor so quickly it makes your knees hurt. You sit as well, and take a moment to look at him, really look. He’s losing that roundness in his face, and it turns that solemnity that was so endearing on a little child into something far too adult. His nose is just like your wife’s, as is the set of his mouth. You used to tease her about it, a matched set, the two of you frowning at me. Sometimes it would even coax out one of her rare smiles. Then he already has more sense than his father, so you are a lucky man. You loved your wife dearly, but she was wrong. You are many things, but lucky has never been one of them.

               “It has been a long, long time since anyone was strong enough to bear two dragons,” you say. It’s true, and high praise, and Hanzo deserves to hear it. You want to tell him so many other things, and you want to shield him from the knowledge of what will happen. But there’s nothing you can do to protect him now, and you owe it to him to make him understand. “But it is a heavy burden. The dragons are dangerous to us, and with two you are in more danger than anyone else.”

               “I’m not afraid, Father,” he says, and he’s telling the truth. He’s too young to really understand, he won’t know what he should have feared until it’s far too late.

               “No, no, you’re not. Will you promise me something, Hanzo?”

               “Of course,” he says, without hesitation.

               “Do not rely on this power you’ve gained unless you must. You more than anyone else will have to pick your moments wisely, and do not let anyone goad you into action unnecessarily. You are strong enough without them.”

               Hanzo nods, serious. Always such a serious boy. You reach out and draw him into your arms again. This time he reaches back. It’s been too long since you held him like this, and you only have yourself to blame. He yawns into your chest.

               “That’s enough talk for now. Go to sleep, you’ve earned it.”

               “Yes, Father,” he mumbles. You get up and leave him to his nightly routine. As you walk down the halls to your room, you hear the sound of footsteps on the porch outside, light and quick. That’ll be Genji, heading to pester his brother. You hope he doesn’t keep Hanzo up for very long, for both their sakes.

               You left your phone on your desk in your suite. You pick it up. You have messages from your siblings, aunts, and uncles, all wanting to know the result. A short while ago you were looking forward to telling them Hanzo had claimed his birthright, was truly the heir apparent, but now the thought fills you with dread.

               They’ll be ecstatic at the news. To have a weapon like your son at their disposal is more than any of you have ever thought to hope for. Hanzo is well suited to leadership and you know the clan would be well kept in his hands, but you wonder if the others will begin to think otherwise. If they will begin to look to Genji to take up your mantel, and consider sending Hanzo to obliterate their enemies. It will be the death of him, but it could transform your family’s fortunes, and in the end that’s all that will matter.

               The thought makes you angry—Hanzo wasting away before he must, Genji with nothing but three urns for confidants. You have never loathed your lot, never wanted to shirk your duty, but now you’re more heartsick and miserable than you’ve been since you interred your wife’s ashes. There’s a part of you, bitter and rebellious, that wants to curse whoever was foolish enough to treat with the things in the cave.

               You turn the phone off, and flip it onto its face for good measure. Then you pull open a drawer and take out the bottle sitting in the back. All alone, you drink and finally let yourself weep for your son.

[neingel]

Complete review of Aether Revolt cards for Commander!

Well as the spoiler season ends as a new set prepares to be released. Aether Revolt does look to me one of the most exciting sets Wizards have made in a long while. Many new toys for Standard as well as minor tweaks for various decks in Modern to enjoy. However I myself am a Commander player and today I’ll be looking as well as handpicking a group of cards. Yes but not only any ordinary group of cards, but more specifically cards to a format I call home, yes that’s right! It’s time for a good breakdown of the potential cards in Aether Revolt that could see play in Commander!

Starting off, it’s no surprise that with every new set, everyone is excited with what new Legendary Creatures are in the set as they could make strong generals in the Future. I must say among the 5 all of them are very unique and have strong abilities. Sram falls perfectly into decks that already run Equipment, Auras and even recently printed Vehicles (Yes I’m looking at you Depala), while Baral features a Goblin Electromancer v2.0 with extra cycling effects, though not as good as a general but very promising in the 99. Yaheeni does seem to me my favorite pick for this entire lot, she’s low costed,able to protect herself and fits perfectly with popular graveyard strategies in EDH . Kari Zev does admittedly look the weakest among the 5 but who knows what build she might fit in. Last but not the least Rishkar can either be an excellent General fr a new build or give decks that play around with +1/+1 counters a unique “Cryptolith Rite”-like ability. Overall, I feel that the Legendary Creatures in this set has been of great success!

Again, a new set comes with a new cycle of special spells to play with. Not only are these spells pretty flavorful when it comes to the storyline, but they are all very powerful for what they do at their cost, getting a sweet effect and being able to cast a card for free from your hand is always nice. As for Commander I’m generally in favor of both Yaheeni’s and Rishkar’s Expertise, reason being Yaheeni’s is a mini board wipe early game which would result you in placing a reasonable 3 drop afterwards, while Rishkar allows you to draw a lot of cards and being able to not worry about mana and place a 5 drop from what you’ve drawn. However what I like most about them is despite each having the same “free cast” effect, each of them are still very unique in their own way and would definitely find a home in many decks.

WHITE  

Do note, I might include the previously mentioned Expertises and Legendaries in these lists. Well in no order or ranking whatsoever, we shall start off the 5 best cards for each color in Commander!. 

Consulate Crackdown

Now Consulate Crackdown is an interesting card that caught my attention when it first got spoiled, it was not only expected to be quite strong in Standard but also in EDH. White has gotten a unique way to get rid of pesky, troublesome artifacts (yes Darksteel Forge is definitely something this loves looking at) without actually having trouble blowing them up, resulting in all artifacts being reanimated through something like Scrap Mastery. Also this card works insanely well with Myconsynth Lattice, serving as another combo piece for the artifact that is well dreaded in Commander, this neat little trick causes you to exile each and every one of your opponent’s permanents, leaving them with nothing but your board in play. Insane boardwipe for artifact themed decks and it also serves as a powerful artifact removal for others.

Exquisite Archangel

Well about this card..yes it isn’t very good on paper as they are more reliable cards that prevent you from losing the game, cards like Platinium Angel and Phyrexian Unlife are both excellent in Commander. However do keep in mind, this card is just another one of those ways to prevent you from losing the game. Especially when it’s a long game, everyone has either ran out of answers or resources. Your opponents would most likely not want to see this being played. Also, this could fit in some neat Angel Tribal theme or some deck that aims to recur it’s creatures for their powerful effects.

Call for Unity

Ah yes..a White Coat of Arms! Being in White has never been better when you can run 2 Coat of Arms! Call for Unity does stand out a little bit from Coat of Arms though, it does not require a tribe to be played and it’s an enchantment. White in Commander is well known for some of it’s aggressive synergies, in particular creatures and their enchantments. This card’s strength is no stranger to many players. However, with it’s Revolt ability, a lot and I mean a lot of decks that play around flickering their own creatures/permanents will adore this card. It will be interesting to see how players will build around this card and how it might grow to be the next Coat of Arms.

Sram, Senior Edificer 

Sram is a very interesting card. He could play effectively as a general but I feel he would be much better being in the 99 for decks playing Auras and Equipments, and boy there are a lot of generals that would love him in their deck! Zur, Kemba, Bruna Light of Alabaster, Krond, Aurelia, Jor Kadeen...the list just goes on! He is perfectly costed and acts as a very powerful draw engine for these decks.

Sram’s Expertise

Ah..token decks players are probably rubbing their hands in glee. Sram’s Expertise is literally a 4 for 1. Netting 3 tokens which make excellent blockers or simply piling them up to your already growing token army. The free cast for a ≤ 3 cmc card from your hand is just icing on the cake. Many token decks like Trostani, Rhys the Redeemed, Teysa Orzhov Scion and many more would have this auto-included.

BLUE

Mechanized Production

For players outside of Commander, seeing this Mythic might leave them a bad taste in their mouth. It does look quite horrible at times but Commander’s specialty is turning bulk rares into rock stars. This is just one of those fun cards Wizards prints once in awhile, Mechanized Production does remind me of Biovisionary but somehow easier to pull off due to it’s synergy with artifacts. You don’t necessarily need to copy a big fatty, but what you could do is to place it on “artifact tokens”. Thopters, Myrs, Golems...the list is endless, this card has quite the chance to shine in most artifact decks being a cheap and reliable copy generator or just simply a win-con in decks that produce a lot of tokens!

Whir of Invention

I clearly remembered when this got spoiled, I just started sharing with my friends about this “artifact chord”. While Improvise is slightly worse than chord, it does give artifact decks a strong instant speed tutor for any artifact in their deck. Also cmc isn’t really an issue with the amount of mana rocks artifact decks run, they can just improvise away~. Overall, solid card, not too over or under powered.

Disallow

As a control player and someone who adores counterspells...FINALLY! Like..it’s hard to put it but Disallow is literally the blue Voidslime. Heck, it’s an even better Voidslime for the ability to splash with colors outside of Green. It’s the same mana as Cancel but strictly, no I mean really - many blue players have wanted a Voidslime outside of Simic colors, and we finally got one! *Fist pumps like crazy* 

Trophy Mage

Is that you Trinket Mage? Oh no? Oh but you do have better stats! Yes, it is Trophy Mage whom supposedly is the cousin of Trinket Mage except she is from Kaladesh. Anyways, Trophy Mage is just like Trinket Mage except she searches for only cmc of 3. But in Commander, cmc 3 often means Chromatic Lantern, Static Orb, Phyrexian Altar, Thousand-Year Elxir....the list is endless and you can see why this card makes it to this list.

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Well well well, I spy with my little eye a new addition to my Melek spellslingers deck as well as a potential powerful general. Yes, Baral is probably the card Goblin Electromancer should be. He is just strictly better than Electromancer, they both have the same effect, but he has looting and he’s not restricted to Izzet colors. I see him being a powerful addition to any spellslingers deck and he would make a good rival to the next mono-blue spellslingers general: Talrand.

Black

Herald of Anguish

This is probably one of the best demons I’ve seen printed in a Standard set in a long time, don’t get me wrong, Demon of the Dark Schemes back in Kaladesh was an all round solid card. But Herald of Anguish is a really powerful card. Improvise makes this potentially an unexpected early drop for your opponents, the discard ability is very relevant in black and it also has reliable removal that require some artifact synergy. I would love to see how artifact decks play around this card as it simply is a value-bomb.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Yahenni is pretty much what everyone is hyping about right now. She works too well with reanimation/sacrifice synergies in Commander. The fact she is almost a nightmare to deal with when combined with Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos, she can buff herself and she can make herself immune to boardwipes is ridiculous. She is pretty solid in the 99 but I feel even more powerful as a Voltron general. Overall the best legendary in this set so far!

Yahenni’s Expertise

One of my personal favorite cards in this set that i expect to see Modern play, Yahenni’s Expertise is still quite strong in Commander. It does set itself up as an early boardwipe in Black following up with a creature or..Demonic Tutor :P it also gets rid of pesky, small hexproof/indestructible creatures. And for it’s cost, it’s normally alot of creatures and a free spell for 1. 

Gonti’s Machinations

This is actually a very unique card in a unique spot. For just 1 mana, Gonti’s Machinations can be quite the trouble for opponents from the very moment it’s been cast. Black does have ways to lose life easily, 2 simple examples include Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence. Also it is easy to regain back the life lost since Commander is a multiplayer format, a simple activation of this in a 4 player game means you gaining back 9 life with just this cheap and simple enchantment. Overall, its a very unique and cool card I want to see being played.

Battle at the Bridge

I honestly wasn’t really excited for this card when it was spoiled, but then again I realized that again artifact decks in EDH can simply pay 1 Black to kill a fatty if they had enough artifacts. Sure it’s a sorcery but the life gain here is quite the bonus. Imagine over-tapping your artifacts to help cast this card help you stay in the game. This card is pretty underlooked but I’m sure it’ll have a few decks running it.

RED

Indomitable Creativity

Now, it is not the first time seeing a red “poly-morph” effect but this card can be used to yourself. You could basically set your deck up with Selective Memory/Doomsday, this card could basically be a card to set up the win with lesser mana than required. It could also mean a “Chaos Warp”-ish boardwipe for your opponent. Overall Vandalblast would be better but this is here for it’s combo potential.

Release the Gremlins

Despite it’s funny name, this card is actually pretty funny when played against your opponents. It is especially more hilarious when you already have some form of infinite mana combo together with Myconsyth Lattice and you basically wipe out your opponent’s board and leaving you a massive amount of Gremlins. +1 for flavor and name!

Pia’s Revolution

Now again for all the artifact lovers, I can imagine this card being in a mono-red artifact deck like...Daretti of all generals. Where he doesn’t really cares where the cards go to and opponents would definitely not want certain artifacts to be in the graveyard, in this case they would normally take the 3 damage. Another one worth mentioning is when Breya starts activating her ability for damage, this might actually push 4 damage to 10 out of nowhere.

Freejam Regent

Again, another solid bomb for artifact decks imo, a less than 6 cmc for 4/4 with flying and fire-breathing makes it a solid finisher. Other than that, this card is quite the value it speaks err as it breathes I suppose. Although many might disagree this card getting this spot as it is competing with other red dragons such as Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Hellkite Igniter and the biggest daddy of them all Hellkite Tyrant. But I still feel this card has a certain place for some decks in Commander.

Lightning Runner

A potential combo breaking card that could basically mean the win for you. Lightning runner does require a steep energy cost, but this might be the card that could break energy into Commander. 8 energy might be slightly hard to pull off whenever this attacks but some builds have started to show up building around generating massive/infinite energy. We will have to wait and see how strong energy will perform now with the addition of this sweet thing.

Green

Aetherwind Basker

And now as you can see, Elfball decks have a new toy to meddle around with. Aetherwind Basker can be quite a terrifying creature to drop earlier than usual due to ramp in Green. This gigantic lizard is a close mimic to other big finishers such as Craterhoof Behemoth as well as Decimator of Provinces, though not as powerful as the latter two,Basker does work terrifyingly well when either is cast. Basker does reward players when casting him on a board full of your creatures. Add in a Lightning Greaves/Concordant Crossroads and he is guaranteed to get in there for a lot of damage.

Rishkar’s Expertise 

Rishkar’s Expertise does feel a lot like Soul’s Majesty, Momentous Fall or Regal Force. However, almost any green card with the ability like this all suffer the same weakness. Which is the case after you draw, you would normally not have the mana to play almost anything you drawn. Rishkar’s Expertise however allows you to play a reasonably “big” card at 5 cmc! And while you compare Rishkar’s Expertise to other Green cards that draw a massive amount of cards, Rishka Expertise is probably the best for it’s cost. That free cast for a cmc 5 card is just too good. I personally feel this has a slight edge over my other favorite Expertise, Yahenni’s.

Heroic Intervention

Everything about this card is awesome, the art, the fact Ajani is in it, the cost and most importantly the ability to basically counter a boardwipe/mass targeted removal. More importantly for 2 cmc and at instant speed? That is just absolutely bonkers when you think about it. Definitely will see play with the high amount of threats to permanents in Commander.

 Rishkar, Peema Renegade

Rishkar is rounding out the last of the best Legendary Creatures in the set (Sorry Kari Zev :/). Rishkar does bring an interesting inclusion to generals playing around the +1/+1 counters mechanic. He does come in helping out 2 other creaures, for a 3 cmc 2/2, that is already quite good. But the real fun begins when most of your creatures with counters get to produce mana on their own. He is a great boost to many existing builds but also quite independent and strong on his own as a general.

Lifecrafter’s Bestiary

Now I know this isn’t an entirely Mono-Green card but we’re still in Mono Green and all of the cards mentioned here are still splashable in Gx colored decks. Anyways Lifecrafter’s Bestiary does look like a card many creature based decks would want to put in. A low costed artifact with a free scry every upkeep does sound interesting, but it acts as a earlier game Zendikar Resurgent that requires 1 green mana per draw activation. Overall, it’s low costed, packed full with value. Solid card just for Commander play.

Multicolored

Ajani Unyielding

Though Ajani has received some criticism around his speed and playability, I personally feel that he is actually good enough for Commander. He has the ability to get multiple cards into your hand fast, get rid of annoying creatures and his ultimate if you do get to a stage to use it, is literally a steroid pump to both your creatures and planeswalkers. All round very solid and I feel his abilities go very well along with his colors. Especially for the super-friends builds like Atraxa.

Tezzeret, Master of Metal and Tezzeret the Schemer

Now, I actually had a hard time choosing which of these 2 were going to take this spot, but I figured out that both were very powerful. Even if they aren’t as good as the original Agent of Bolas, both are still very solid in Commander. Let’s start off with the “heavy metal” version of Tezzeret, it does have a strong digging ability which is quite relevant in Commander, his 2nd skill can act as a way to ward off opponents or host a major lethal damage threat late game. Whereas his ultimate is very devastating, being able to take someone’s best creatures and artifacts is no laughing matter at all. Now onwards to the “scheming” version of Tezzeret, he does not provide any form of digging but he does produce an extra artifact that acts like a Lotus Petal. He has strong, solid and reliable creature removal while his ultimate though not as terrifying as the heavy metal version, does quicken your clock fast by turning any artifact you control during combat on your turn into a 5/5 creature. A time bomb ticking for your opponents if you will, sweet effect nonetheless. Tezzeret does have a thing for turning artifacts into 5/5s...why doesn’t he just make them slightly bigger?

Dark Imitations

A tuned-down version of Cruel-Ultimatum that targets each opponent, but does come with the added ability of returning either a creature or Planeswalker from your graveyard to your hand. What’s interesting is the synergy with the “Bolas” Planeswalker spell, this not only helps decks that already run the Nicol Bolas Planeswalker card but it also does give clues to the next set Amonkhet, the home plane of Nicol Bolas whom might have recruited other Planewalkers for his evil plans. All these hinting at more Planeswalkers printed with the “Bolas” keyword in their Planeswalker type. Overall, this card might be bound to seeing more improvements and playability.

Oath of Ajani

Well if Wizards was trying to push Planeswalkers in Standard, they forgotten that Atraxa Super-friends IS a very powerful deck in Commander. But outside of that particular topic, Oath of Ajani is the dream card for many Super-friends decks. It’s low costed, gives early buffs to a few creatures, reasonable when played mid-game. Again another solid card in this set overall.

Winding Constrictor

If you thought the invasion of cards having synergy with counters wasn’t enough in Aether Revolt, this little angry noodle does stand out a slight bit from it’s other counterparts in the set. The fact that it does give extra counters on both creatures and artifacts alike is very unique, it also has a 2nd ability which allows you as the controller to receive an extra counter of any type. I can certainly see this being placed in a very wide variety of decks. From +1/+1 counters to charge counters and loyalty points on Planeswalkers. This danger noodle will be guaranteed to be seen in decks far and wide.

Colorless

Metallic Mimic

Ah finally! I have no idea how long it has been where Wizards finally print a form of global tribe support. Metallic Mimic does seem to to be the new kid on the block, matching Adaptive Automaton’s popularity. Mimic does have a few differences from Automaton, it cost 1 less than its fellow robotic cousin and it also buffs your chosen creature type with counters. This means even if your Mimic dies, your creatures are sure to remain buffed with a counter.

Crackdown Construct

Ah.every once in a while a new awesome combo piece Wizards prints comes out of literally nowhere. While this awesome robot won’t be seeing much play in Standard. It will see immense amount of play in Commander. If you were wondering why this card is so hyped up for do take note. The equip rule states you can use an equipment to equip to the same creature as many times as possible so long as you can pay it’s equip cost. This means if u equip Lightning Greaves to Crackdown Construct, and naming an infinite amount of times equipping to it, you’ll have an infinite power and toughness robot flying at your opponent.

Inspiring Statuary 

Well another interesting and potentially powerful piece of artifact that could bust Commander. Inspiring Statuary basically makes artifact decks have the confidence to run a bit more non-artifact cards. Simply because it would be much easier casting them with this card on the field with full of artifacts. It’s reasonably costed and I can see this card enjoying a good amount of play in Commander.

Paradox Engine

Probably the most ground-breaking, nerve-wrecking card in the entire set *hands down*, many are already comparing this to staples in Commander like Doubling Season, Seedborn Muse and somewhat a close resemblance to Prophet of Kruphix. I can guarantee almost any decks playing a untap/tap synergy such as Phenax,Ezuri Elves and Azami would go bonkers with this card. Sitting at 5 cmc which I feel is very low for a card with such a high power level. This card will change Commander as a whole, it’s effect is really too significant to ignore and when I mean too significant. When this hits the table...

Like literally man!

Land

As for lands goes, unfortunately only one card makes this list and that’s the new rainbow land in the entire set 

Spire of Industry 

Another card for artifact decks yet again! They finally have a City of Brass/Mana Confluence just for themselves. Spire does remind many of a less harsh Glimmervoid. But even though there are many rainbow lands available for artifact synergies in Commander. This is one good inclusion for many of them alike.

Conclusion

Aether Revolt is one of the most exciting sets we’ve stumbled across in a very long time! With powerful and unique “build-around-me” cards popping up, it is no surprise quite a number have made it into this list. The power level of Commander is certain to be on the rise as the player-base brews new strategies for each individual card in different decks or will we see a new archetype coming out on it’s own? It is still unknown but just look at the set so far! Despite the overwhelming amount of Artifact/Planes-walker/Counters support, many cards have been printed in good measure to bring new toys for a wide variety to play with.

If so, that’s all of the time I have for you today, be sure to follow the blog for more updates and such. And stay tuned for the next article as well, I’m hoping to see you there!

[analogscum]

SCUM IN THE AISLES #1 (Vacation of Terror 2: Diabolical Birthday)

Sometimes, in order to seek out the weirdest discarded slices of celluloid trash that cinema has to offer, one must leave the confines of their crappy apartment, and go to an actual movie theater. This is a column recounting my excursions into the b-movie wilds. This is Scum in the Aisles!

I walk out the front door of my building in scenic Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and within less than 45 minutes, I am in cinephile nirvana: the Alamo Drafthouse. Located on the top floor of a shiny new shopping center and dining hall that sits conveniently atop the DeKalb Ave. R stop, the Drafthouse has become a sanctuary for freaks like me since it opened two Halloweens ago. Has it spoiled moviegoing for me forever? You bet it has. Once you have a theater experience where the tickets and food are reasonably priced (for New York City, that is), the seats are comfy and offer impeccable views wherever you sit, the movie choices range from the newest tentpole blockbusters to the most obscure arthouse and genre faire imaginable, and most of all, your fellow audience members respect the sacred rites of moviegoing just as much as you do and don’t goddamn fucking talk through the entire movie or goddamn fucking stare at their goddamn fucking smart phones through the entire movie, then you can never go back to the Regal Bowtie Halliburton Googleplex with the rest of the riffraff who bring screaming three-year-olds to R-rated movies or yell “OH I DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS IN THIS” at every name during the opening credits, or conduct mid-movie Skype conference calls with the home office (I’m not joking, I’ve actually seen someone do this, props to the asshole who ruined the first half hour of The Witch for me!)

Point is, I’m at the Drafthouse whenever time and money allows. So, on this particular Monday night, I found myself in a packed little theater for this month’s installment of Video Vortex, the series that shows the films that are too bizarre to be shown anywhere else, and that includes Weird Wednesday, a series that literally has the word “Weird” in it. I was especially excited because this month’s installment was presented by Annie Choi of Bleeding Skull. To say that Bleeding Skull has been a huge inspiration and influence on ANALOG SCUM would be the understatement of the century. Simply put, without the thoughtful, scholarly, clever writing done by Annie, Joseph Ziemba, and Zach Carlson for that site, ANALOG SCUM would not exist. Perish the thought!

On the menu for the evening was a ridonkulously bonkers Mexican horror chiller with the incredible title Vacation of Terror 2: Diabolical Birthday. Don’t worry, as Annie helpfully explained, this was a Troll/Troll 2 situation, as in the sequel has nothing to do with the original Vacation of Terror. Hell, there isn’t even a vacation in this movie, although true to form, the birthday does become mighty diabolical. The only returning character from the otherwise totally unrelated first installment is Julio, a sassy antique store owner. He flirts with a customer who turns out to be Mexican teen pop sensation Mayra, played by real life Mexican teen pop sensation Tatiana. He gives her some crappy looking vase that’s supposedly worth 60,000 pesos for free, which he figures will buy a trip to la zone de bone, but instead she just invites him to her little sister’s birthday party the following evening. How do you say “friend zoned” in Spanish? Oh, you don’t, because the concept of the friend zone is patriarchal bullshit that implies that men are entitled to sex for being nice to women and that their friendship is somehow some sort of punishment and we need to smash that way of thinking forever? Ok cool, moving on!

So as it turns out, Mayra’s sister, lil’ Tania, has this creepy doll. It looks like if they made a Cabbage Patch Kid based on Bob Dylan’s stage getup from the Rolling Thunder Review tour. You know it’s no good because suddenly this old dude barges in to Julio’s store and starts smashing everything in site while ranting nonsensically about the evil doll. Then he runs out into the street, where he is promptly hit by a car and dies. We then see Julio head over to the trusty public library, where he looks up some books on demonology. Now it’s time to par-tay! Mayra and Tania’s dad, Don Roberto, is a famous movie director. In fact, he’s planning on using Tania’s spooky-ass doll for his next movie. Tania’s birthday party is being held on the backlot of his movie studio, and it’s a Halloween-themed birthday party, even though it’s not Halloween, but who cares, because who WOULDN’T want a Halloween-themed birthday party?! Orrin Hatch, I bet.

Anyway, the party provides a perfect excuse for Mayra to take the stage and sing her latest smash hit single, “Chicos, Chicos, Chicos.” That’s “Boys, Boys, Boys” for those of you who don’t hablo Español. Guys, we need to talk about this song. First of all, it is catchier than influenza, or affluenza, for that matter. I’ve included the clip from the movie below, but just know that by smashing that PLAY button, you are going to have this thing running through your head for at least the next week, if not longer.

Now, I couldn’t find a version with subtitles, but the VHS tape (yup!) that was screened for us was subtitled, and these lyrics…holy mackerel. It’s been awhile since I took high school Spanish, but I’m not sure if these translations are accurate, or if they’re like the equivalent of BabelFish or something equally lazy. Anyway, here is the first verse of the song as it was translated for us:

Boys!

Monday, a snack

All the way

Bands and running

Clouds

Speed

Step on the gas

This is war

Great attention

Traffic jam downtown

Nervousness

Danger of rebellion

Boys, boys, boys

Clumsy and aggressive

Poor boys

Neurotics, all lost

Super guys

Surprised by Sunday crisis

See, I told you! Just have Kim Gordon whisper those words over some droning guitar feedback, and ta da, you’ve got a Sonic Youth song that nobody likes!

So what better way to follow up hearing your new favorite song than to have some birthday cake? Don Roberto wheels this puppy out, and it is spectacular! First of all, it is bigger than most tables, and it sports a sugary tableau of Halloween fun: a haunted house, a cemetery, a witch, etc. But for some reason, Don Roberto decides that it’s totally acceptable to hand a seven-year-old a giant sharp knife and let her cut the cake herself. Guess what, Tania slices her finger open, and gets blood all over that fondant witch. Then things take a turn: seems as though that creepy doll is actually alive. Whoops. It steals the bloody fondant witch, eats it, and promptly turns into a murderous demon.

Luckily, Julio shows up. He’s wearing a black trench coat and his power mullet is pulled back into a ponytail, because he’s a demonologist now. After one night of breezing through a book from the library. From here, we’re treated to all sorts of madness involving some silver coins, a laughing jack-o-lantern, Don Roberto sporting a shotgun whilst wearing a Canadian tuxedo, and a incongruous poster for the movie Cocktail. Now, it’s not all great. There are some really slow scenes. There are surprisingly few deaths, and they often happen offscreen. Worst of all, the filmmakers blatantly break the “keep your monster hidden” rule; this demon is all over the place, to the extent that he stops being threatening after like three scenes. Of course, it also doesn’t help that the demon just slowly waddles around and makes noises that are supposed to be spooky, but instead sound like sleep apnea. But only a chump would deny that this movie is one of a kind bizarro fun. How fun is it? Guys, the movie ends with not one, but TWO triumphant freeze frames!

Props to Annie Choi, Bleeding Skull, and the fine folks who make the Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn the best place to watch a movie in the whole darn city. I’ll see you in the aisles, Scumbags!