#I'M SKIPPING ACHERON FOR YOU

[iwasthewind]

Spoilers for the 2.1 main story quest <3

I really don't have it in me to properly verbalize it rn because I'm still processing everything and we only have bits and pieces of the whole story as well as how Aventurine is as a person but. What really gets me is how Aventurine is someone who hasn't had any stability or promise of safety in his life whatsoever. He's faced loss after loss, was bought as a slave, had to fight for his life multiple times. He's told he's the lucky one, the one chosen by Gaiathra Triclops. He saw his community and family nearly be wiped out and as the future him says- he lies to himself nonstop to try and curb the fear of losing more. "You put on a mask of confidence and lie to convince even yourself, but under the table you hang on to your chips for dear life."

Aventurine has to do all that he has to do because he simply has no choice. Either he acts or he dies. He's forced to weave a web of connections and half truths- even outright lies- and balance delicately upon it. He's forced to always be three steps ahead of his enemy. He tries to treat it as a game- all or nothing- when in truth he lives in terror of losing it all. He smiles and smiles when he's trying to run from his grief and fear. How far can he run? What choice does he have? Does he even have any choices to begin with?

So the fact that he serves Qlipoth, the Preservation, and the fact that his gameplay is ridiculously plain- you use his skill, not even his ult, just his skill- to put a shield on you and your entire party. It's that easy, to have that option- to preserve what you have. It's not a gamble, not even close. That shield has a guarantee to it, it's constant- as long as you use his skill, he will protect your entire party. It really gets to me in a way I can't verbalize right now. That that's what he really wants- permanence, safety. A guarantee

[another-goblin]

I've seen a lot of interesting opinions about Dr. Ratio. Some of them I disagree with. So I decided to compile a little list of why I disagree with them. The first part will be about things that seem factually incorrect, and the second part is about things that are rather a matter of interpretation and context.

As always, I might be wrong, so feel free to correct me.

1. Things that seem factually incorrect. 

"Ratio is an egoist and does everything for attention and recognition" - I don't remember him ever saying or doing anything that would indicate that. He saved these researchers secretly and made our TB take all the credit. He later even calls himself a "supporting character". He gets angry if we ask him for an autograph.

"He doesn't care about people" - yes, if you skipped his passionate speech to Screwllum about how much he cares about people. But also, everything he does in the game is helping people (saving these researchers on Herta station, offering us his help later in the express dialogues and messages - offering us to enroll in university, participate in devates, turn the express into a weapon, later helping Aventurine with his plan, helping him to find information, and so on).

"He hasn't achieved anything in science" - the list of his scientific achievements is easily available, I wouldn't say it's nothing. But I'll also leave this here:

Even his dedicated hater disagrees with this.

"Ratio's note did nothing to convince Aventurine to stay alive, it was all Acheron" - from how I see it, he was fully determined to end his life up until he read that note. Otherwise, why would they introduce the note at all? Why did Acheron feel the need to remind him of it?

"He never wanted to draw the gaze of Nous" and "He still wants it" - we can deduce that it isn't true from different parts of the game (he actually wanted it in the past but doesn't anymore), but that is a direct confirmation:

(I trust Screwllum's opinion.)

"Everybody hates him in-universe" - this is interesting because I even heard this from his fans. And it might sort of feel intuitive, but I don't remember any evidence of that. He literally has an in-universe fan club. People who knew him closely talk about him warmly in his character stories. The only person I remember ever expressing any negativity towards him was some shcolar in the Simulatred Universe, but I don't think it counts. I'll talk more about his students in particular later, but short version: I don't think they hate him either.

"I hate it when he tells me 'Zero points, get out' and throws chalk at me, that's mean" - that's so weirdly specific, but I've seen it a dozen times already. And, like, why??? He tells it to his enemies, not to us. I mean, nobody's angry at Serval for electrocuting her fans with her guitar just because that's what she does in her fighting animation.

Speaking of combat voice lines, if we wait too long, most characters get irritated and try to hurry us up. Meanwhile Ratio:

'That's okay, take your time, it's a turn-based game after all.'

"He's physically abusive to his students, he throws chalk at them" - similar to the previous point. I don't remember any mention of him doing that. The only case of him using physical force against a (potential) student was when, as a TA, he threw away a rich asshole who tried to buy a degree. And yes, in the boring real world, I wouldn't approve of that, but in the world of the game - well done, good ridance!

"He doesn't tolerate people disagreeing with him, he thinks he's always right"

"He's responsible for the crisis at Herta Station" - how though? I saw this opinion several times, and I'm really curious what people mean by that. Did he himself endanger these researchers by teleporting them who knows where, then faked the video from Duke Inferno, and so on? But why stop here while we're at it , maybe he also impersonated Ruan Mei, left the bug on the station, abandoned the poor cat-creatrures and drugged us with a cake?…

"He's worse than Dottore from Genshin" - technically it's a matter of opinion, but I think nobody will mind if I put it in the 'just wrong' category. But yeah, that's an opinion I've heard. I've got no idea what they meant, but it made me think, how many people did he help and save, both in the game and in his past? Probably more than most of the characters we've met so far. And he doesn't seem to discriminate, it's not 'I'll save my people'. He cured that disease for everybody's benefit, he saved Herta's researchers, he helped TB unravel the events on the station and then proceeded to pester them offering his help, he cosideres some troubled IPC executive 'his responsibility' and so on.

"He actually betrayed Aventurine" - no comments. Come on, play the game, read the dialogues.

1.5. A little intermission.

The thing that's hard to deny is that he definitely doesn't mince his words. Whether you see it as him being a rude asshole, being justifiably angry, brutally honest, sarcastic, or snarky, or showing tough love, or just being incapable of expressing himself in an adequate and socially acceptable way, it's up to you. I can understand how some people might be uncomfortable with that. I personally find it an interesting character trait. (I mean, he isn't even capable of expressing positive feelings in a normal way, what did you expect of him?):

There is also a very interesting (but rather confusing) thing that can be missed if you are unwilling to see further than the initial shallow impression, but it is impossible to unsee once you've noticed it. He sees himself as a teacher in two very different ways. It can be missed at first because both ways are described in very similar words. These ways are: 

a teacher in a traditional sense (let's call it 'academic teacher'); 

and as something akin to a 'life coach', just helping people and making them realize that they shloud (and can) rely on themselves.

The thing is, we never see him in his 'academic teacher' role. As far as we know, he only acts this way with his university students. We never see him teaching anybody any scientific stuff, or berating people for their lack of knowledge and education. Yet he says that he considers everybody his students. But what does he mean if it's not about knowledge? He means it in the second 'life coach' meaning. Therefore, he sees literally everybody as worthy of his help and support.

BTW, I feel like his main problem as a character is that people tend to settle on the first impression they get of him and are unwilling to see further than that. Meanwhile, the game continues to explore his personality, revealing that most things about him are actually the opposite of what they might seem at first. That's why so many people think that he calls everybody idiots for being less smart than him, that he's egoistic and unfeeling, that he values knowledge above all, and so on. So if you actually have interest in him as a character, I'd encourage you to look at him more closely.

2. Now to the things that are more open to interpretation.

"He uses mean words" -to be honest, I'm not a big fan of writers making him use these words (idiots, fools, stupidity, and so on) because, first, they are usually used as just empty insults. (I'm curious whether he uses similar words in Chinese or something more nuanced). So I can understand how it can put some people off. And the second problem is that it feels like he means different things every time he uses these words. It's quite confusing. Here is a post where people helped me find different cases of him using these words; you can check it out yourself.

Let's look closer at some of these cases: 

-'While geniuses wander among the stars, the ordinary can't even trace their footsteps. Those less gifted have no choice but to walk alone, enduring a lifetime of tumbles and triumphs. But even a life marked by failure is a life worth living — it is only in moments of solitude and despair, when help is absent, that fools grasp how to pick themselves up' He seems to contrast geniuses with fools here, so fools are everybody who's not a genius. So if you are inclined to see him this way, if you squint, you can technically see it as him insulting people based on their intellectual abilities, right?… Except, he includes himself among these fools, so no:

So it's basically 'all who are not geniuses are fools, including me'. Which is an interesting way to put it, but it definitely doesn't mean ''you are all fools for not being as smart as me''.

But he mostly uses these words when he talks about his fellow scholars:

-'First, with the headpiece on, isolated from my five senses, I can think without interference. And second, I don't have to set eyes on stupid people' - we only see him wearing the plaster head on Herta's Station, a place full of the most brilliant minds in the universe. We never see him using it again with normal people, so the word 'stupid' here can't be about people's intelligence.

There is also an interesting little detail:

He admires her intelligence (although in a sarcastic manner) in his 'about Herta' voiceline. He doesn't wear his 'anti-stupid' mask when he's with TB or Aventurine, but he always wears it with Herta. Which is very telling, and indicates again what he means by 'stupid'.

Some other examples:

-'(…)the fools from the Guild with ambitions beyond stars should be banished from my sight and thereby mind' -'Don't invert priorities like these dolts from the guild' -'I cannot stand fools, idiots, or imbeciles. Seeing them fills me with dread. Regrettably, this space station is just like the Intelligentsia Guild — devoid of geniuses and filled with mediocrity' -'Ah, the Technology Department. Charming little place, isn't it? Madam Yabuli does possess some semblance of competence, but her subordinates? Oh, they're a riot — brimming with enthusiasm yet utterly devoid of intellect. It's as if evolution halted prematurely for them'

He is absolutely RUTHLESS when he talks about scientists, because he expects a lot from them.

So no, I don't think he'd call you an idiot for not being an A student, or having learning difficulties, or just lacking an interest in learning. He absolutely would though if you were a brilliant scientist, priveledged with great education, resources, and a personal lab, squandering your talents and funds on a useless vanity project, or hoarding potentially life-saving knowledge for yourself, to use as a commodity.

"But he does call people idiots!" - I've noticed that most of the time he uses these 'insults' he talks about some groups of people.

I could only think of 3 times when he called an individual an idiot. He calls Aventurine an idiot because he 'lost' the stones (but it doesn't count because he plays a role and pretends that he hates Aven). A scholar in an event in SU complains of Ratio calling him an idiot (I'm not sure it actually happened, it's just a story in SU).

But there is one case of him calling somebody an idiot and actually meaning it. And who is this poor victim of his terrible verbal abuse? It's himself. Whoops. (speaking of how he's supposedly full of himself and thinks that he's better than the others.)

"He would call me an idiot because of my supposed lack of knowledge/education/intelligence" - I showed in the previous point why I think he wouldn't (he never seems to use these words to mean that).

But also consider this. During his interactions with Aventurine on Penacony Ratio mostly plays a role for Sunday, pretending that he despises Aventurine. That's why we can't draw any conclusions about his personality from most of their dialogues. But the moments when he breaks the role are extremely telling.

Let's look at one of them from the beginning. They argue; Ratio calls Aventurine an idiot for 'ruining their plan'. And then Aventurine mentions that he didn't go to school and lacks formal education. If there ever was a good time to call someone an idiot for being uneducated, that's it! That's what Sunday expects to hear (because his plan hinges on Ratio valuing knowledge above all else).

And what does he do? He fucking apologizes! Even for the role and for the sake of their plan, he can't bring himself to insult someone for being uneducated.

"He's mean to TB" - it's a matter of interpretation, but his behavior with us didn't strike me as mean or demeaning. He was just being sarcastic and snarky as always (and I understand that it's not everybody's cup of tea).

The situation was time-sensitive and precarious. We don't know how much control he had over it. He tried to make us realize what's going on as fast as possible, pretending that he himself is clueless. Because his goal was to show the recearchers that despite the presence of 2-3 geniuses on board, none of them were able to save them. If he just publicly saved everybody, it would be just another genius appearing out of nowhere and saving the day, which would go against his goals and his philosophy.

And later, our TB seems to regard him with a mix of respect and amusement (calling him Professor, asking for an autograph), no resentment here. So TB didn't think he was mean either.

"He values knowledge above all, he's obsessed with teaching people stuff, and he doesn't understand/accept that other people might have other priorities" - I'd argue that literally the opposite is true. He doesn't impose his knowledge on anybody against their will, and we never see him berate anybody for their lack of knowledge or education.

Sunday isn't the first person to misunderstand him that badly, and he's not having it. Even though at this point in the story, his and Aventurine's plan hinges on Sunday's misunderstanding. But I think his position is very clear: pursuit of knowledge above all is a matter of petty pride.

He says it when we ask him why he doesn't nag us about getting our act together, before a party. So basically "if learning makes you feel bad (doesn't enhance your living) then you are doing it wrong, go and have fun".

This probably isn't considered canon, but it illustrates how he sees knowledge. Here is an analogy. If I had an apple orchard, and I thought my apples were awesome and they'd make a great gift, and you should feel free to ask me if you want some. It doesn't mean that I shove my apples into people's mouths against their will and then call them idiots and spit on them when they don't like it.

"He's a bad person because he didn't help us fight the big bug" - he knew who we are. It's not in his habit to directly involve himself where he's not needed, it would go against his philosophy ('you should count on yourself; you can do it'). It's not like he left us to die; he must have known how capable our TB is. BTW, he was still looking after us, seemingly ready to come to our help:

Besides, currently nothing indicates that (outside of the turn-based gameplay) he's anything more than a normal human being. He would be a hindrance in a fight. 

"He's a bad teacher" - (first, here is an interesting post about this from the point of view of an actual teacher)

So yeah, it's about the 3% passing rate. Yes, it can mean that only 3% of his students end up learning something. It's possible that he's such a bumbling idiot of a teacher that he doesn't even understand how bad he is. It's possible that he's somehow still allowed to teach despite being THAT bad.

But I think it's much more possible (and consistent with his philosophy) that he just has very high standards. A 3% rate doesn't mean that only 3% know anything. Students might benefit enormously from his classes, even without passing. They still have all their valuable skills and knowledge.

But also, let's not forget that he doesn't teach children. He teaches at the university. And I don't think it's some 101 basics; it's likely something related to his research and discoveries, some extremely advanced cutting-edge stuff. So his students are already extremely well educated adults, who want to achieve more. He would probably see lowering his standards as a betrayal of his students.

"His students hate him" - I didn't get that impression. On the contrary, they seem quite interested in him (some times in really creepy ways):

The only indication that they might have something against him is this:

It's either a literal roll-call of actual adults who shed literal tears during his classes, or it's just students being their normal cheeky selves, being overdramatic about a strict teacher. 

An example that came to mind: I can whine about how ruthless my gym trainer is and how I couldn't walk for a week after the last leg day. And his other clients would agree. But everybody understands that it's an expression of approval, not contempt. And maybe a bit of a humble brag.

Besides, if we decide to take that post at face value, then we'll have to take this literally too, meaning that his students consider him an actual God. And I don't think it's true:

-------------------

There are still a lot of hot takes I disagree with that I haven't mentioned, but I'm too tired. This took WAY too long. Other cases are mostly quote-mining and deliberatly taking what he says out of context, which isn't very interesting to argue against (just read the full dialogue and consider the context). And also different variations on 'he's an asshole, he hates people, he thinks he's better than others, he'd call you an idiot for this or that, he's elitist, he only values knowledge and intelligence' and so on, but I think I addressed it sufficiently.

So yeah, that was my little character research. This wasn't written for his haters (I dislike some characters myself, and I wouldn't probably read 3K words about how I should change my mind). It was rather for the people who kind of like him, but who feel sad thinking how he'd probably call them idiots or something. I hope I was able to help you see him in a different way. He wouldn't call you an idiot, he'd support you.

[anantaru]

so guys 🙋🏻‍♀️🌸 i have finished the entire new quest at last and omg 👼🏼 like this was outstanding!! you see, what i really enjoy about star rail is that it gives me similar vibes to hi3 in terms of the darkness in the plot, since hi3 is my favorite hoyo game i always love seeing stuff from it or just similar instances. SO YOU KNOW FOR A FACT I WAS SO HYPED WHEN ACHERON SHOWED UP 🤺 especially with the hi3 story with kiana as the mc being over and although i still love hi3 the most, kiana, mei and bronya, that trio, they were all the best characters together AAAARGHHH I SWEAR AND JUST THE ENTIRE STORY LINE WAS SOOO GOOD, I miss them all together as a trio and especially kiana, the best hoyo MC FOR LIFE. 🙋🏻‍♀️🩷

also 🤠 ^^ that frame with sunday and dr ratio like 😙😙 WAS SO FUNNY I HAD TO SS IT. 🤺

the amount of cutscenes we got to see again was so fun, it felt like watching a movie slowly unfold while you got to be a part of it 🩷 you can tell that hoyoverse gets better and better with each update on whatever game and that the cutscenes are always so well done (i always liked them but the constant upgrades ??? insane) 🙏🏻

+ the acheron one shotting aventurine lmao 🧎🏻‍♀️ it was my favorite though ngl HAHA 🙋🏻‍♀️🩷 no matter how much i like aventurine as a character, MEI OMG MEEEIIIIII 👹🩷 SHE WILL FOREVER BE MY LOVE LIKE I KNOW ITS ACHERON BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN !!!!! 🙇🏻‍♀️ LIKE THE CUTSCENE WITH HER HORNS OH MY GOOOD THE NOSTALGIA LIKE YES GO OFF SHOW THEM

also guys, idk but aventurine's boss fight, 🤠 i personally expected more like it was so easy to beat ?! I THOUGHT I WOULD STRUGGLE BUT HE DIED PRETTY QUICKLY BUT ITS FINE, I STILL LIKE HIS CHARACTER 🌸🙋🏻‍♀️. + i was happy hoyoverse showed us his backstory and took their time to flash it out and not gloss over it in idk one/two scenes, but they really took their time with it which was amazing 🩷

also jade looks so cool as well! the design is very pretty and i can't wait to see diamond too, or the rest of the ten stonehearts but they're hyping diamond up so much like another emanator?? yes please, i'm all in🧎🏻‍♀️🩷

this entire quest gave me movie vibes, you were on edge the entire time and even during side quests you had to take, it was still very intense. it actually took me quite a bit to finish it of course since i'm someone who doesn't skip dialog, but it was so worth it and the best way to relax after a long day of moving my body 🩷 just laying in bed, playing while drinking tea!!

what i wanted to say too, guys honestly sunday is not okay HAHAHAHAHAHAH 🌝 I MEAN LIKE you guys🧎🏻‍♀️, that shiver in his voice at times and you can tell he low-key doesn't even know how to handle all of that either, of course, for one he looks like everything is accounted for while in the other, he sounds like he's losing his mind and can we blame him ???? when he went "why did you kill her" and lowkey cussed gallagher out i was like damn 🤠 okay 😏 HAHA + i'm somebody that doesn't think too much about theories, instead i love eagerly waiting for the next patch!! so i'm excited for what's coming 🩷 + robin's song slaps.

last but not least 🤺 you see, gallagher wasn't really somebody i was very interested in, but damn the second he turned dangerous and spicy i went oh my oh hey what's up ?? 😏 giggles HAHA LIKE WHAT IS IT ABOUT MEN WHO ARE JUST SUDDENLY EVIL AND IDK MAYBE HE ISNT COMPLETELY RIGHT AAAAAA OOOOO UUUU WWWWW AAAAA but anyways, 🌸 the last cutscene low-key hurt me like what do you mean sunday gets off screened while i was saving up for him for what? 👹 ever since fuxuan like how can you do this to me + no way they're dead dead 🤠because the last conversation aventurine had with acheron was very important to the next patch i'm pretty sure! 🩷

all in all guys!! 🩷 this quest was beautifully done, it had a lot of hard, dark stuff and it reminded me a lot of hi3, that's why i give it a 10/10, very well done. 🌸🩷

[themessonhonkai]

Question time I guess? Anyone can chime in and answer any question and as many or few as they like, please and thank you!

How does one start in the Honkai fandom?

Is it necessary to play all the games to understand the lore properly?

Do you start with 1 and work up? Or is there a separate order?

If I don't play the other games will it affect my understanding of star rails lore and its characters? & if I DO play the other games will it affect my understanding of the star rail lore and its characters?

Can I/should I skip any of the games?

How are Aeons created? (I skipped some bits sorry)

Do the playable characters paths match with the lore or should playable paths be ignored for lore reason? (eg, argenti playable as destruction but lore argenti following the beauty)

What is up with Blade and Dan Heng? (I didn't skip this I'm just confused... okay maybe I skipped a little bit.)

What is Acheron?

Who is Loucha?

What is Loucha?

What does Loucha have in that coffin?

How is Loucha relevant to the quest at all? (Besides keeping my team alive (yay for story characters!))

Is the Xianzouh (the ship itself and everyone on it) on the path of the hunt? And to kill an aeon? (The Abundance)

Blade and the high cloud quintet

Might keep adding to this and come back to reference later.

[hungnitan]

Penacony TB 2.2 Impression

A bit story summary, here I am after 2.1 having wild imagination what if Churin become AE temporary members but it change into Boothill and made Danheng traumatized and Black Swan (in the end it's just a dream lol).

Unexpectedly we found Argenti in Penacony and then again making us suprise with sudden battling him ! But wow I think hoyo needs another arc/event story to explain Argenti power scale, just how stonk he is can entered nihility and get out alive...

After finish 2.2 I kinda get the reasons we still not getting any info regarding playable Sunday. Additionaly, it explain the reasons why Robin interview with Owlbert came out weeks faster... Now I wondering why Robin gameplay focused on FuA support

Honorable mention scene :

We have three different answer of "why we sleep ?" question and it's really mirroring their personality. Tired of living version from Churin, tired with reality from Sunday and have a hope of humanity from Trailblazer.

Here we are, Welt having a homesick and mention warriors (valkryie) from his home, btw S rank tier is basically their best groupie (lol)

As we expected, SAM is initial and sounds near gundam (lol) but I didn't expect even Firefly isn't a real name...

Remember a male voicing the story summary at finishing part ? It sounds like a boy (if I delulu it's near Heizou voice so yeah boy lol) so maybe it's him... I kinda want to know his VA~

Edit : in the end, it's Lyney (Hiro Shimono) not Heizou, I'm pretty near I guess 🤣

Jade Churin convo talking about his fate as stonehearts, the conclusion could between cut or promotion. But from my finding about Diamond personality so far, I think he's very leniant to "worth to invest" people. From Churin character story, he sounds so sure Churin gonna make profits later. Even Topaz big failure only get her one rank down because he saw she gonna make contribution in next project (Penacony). If somehow he get a cut too I don't think Churin screentime finish only at Penacony arc~ the reason mostly like if you're a screenwriter there's no way you gonna throw all the times for world building you made so meticilous for one person easily...

Overall not the best but it's pretty good, a big twist made me "HUH !?" once or twice (lol) and good change of pace too after 2.1 with Churin's dark past aside the fact some problem still not finish like what's happens with Penacony stellaron, the main antagonist basically running away and throw all blame to Sunday, Boothill searching for Oswaldo (eh moreless around his past I'm sure) and question from 2.1 that still unanswered in this version, IPC move on Penacony. Well with the epilogue finished like that I'm really sure IPC will make their move in TB next version.

From my personal opinion TB 2.2 isn't that interesting, maybe I read too many speculation before but most of them are right like Ena deep rooted on Penacony, Acheron real name eh is this even hidden lol, old man from Acheron convo means her reasons coming to Penacony (it's predictable after read halfway).

In the end, what's the problem with button Sparkle keep distributing ?

Additionaly we have "another date" with Firefly and she's just dying again this time off screen lol... and she said she's got one more dying later ? hmmm... well yeah she's cute but it's just too absurd, I can't even make any reaction about it, the things I spout after heard she dying again is just "oh she dying again huh...? Oh well she's gonna revive later anyway". Not lowering reader expectation on Firefly but isn't she just too streotype anime tragic cutie girl ? If not because of stellaron hunter + SAM too proper voice I could skip her banner easily. But she should have another chance in next version, let's see if she can turn around all my low expectation on her...

If I gonna be honest she will leave a big impression if she's dying for real at 2.3 plus I heard something like Sunday as stellaron member on future but...let's see~

So yeah I'm more eager with next version TB !

But you know what, with Penacony TB more into nameless and we all know Oswaldo is one of them... can I hope for IPC arc ? To tell the truth, I'm very curious with him and Diamond !

[jxst-m4kiii]

α тαιηтє∂ ƒℓσωєя

Acheron x gn!reader

↳Genre: Angst??

↳Warning: Doesn't make sense.

↳Format: One-shot

↳Word-count: 434

↳A/n: Writing for Acheron while having Isabel LaRosa in the background is so satisfying. Also- Sorry it doesn't really make sense, I'm still trying to get my imagination working.

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴: 16 candles by Isabel LaRosa

Drip

"Where are you?"

Drip

"MOM-!"

Drip

"You bring nothing but death."

Drip

"You didn't save us... You let us die."

Gasp

...

You wake up, eyes opening wide as you sit up in bed with urgency. Clutching your chest and feeling your rapidly beating heart.

'A nightmare... Again.'

You thought, looking to the side. Locating the clock on your nightstand, it reading 3:47 am. It was the third night in a row that you got woken up because of a nightmare. It was always the same one, too.

You sighed, taking a moment before standing up and walking to the bathroom. Turning on lights as you walked past the switches. Once you reached the bathroom, you leaned on the sink, looking at yourself in the mirror. You were a mess, hair disheveled, and clothes wrinkled. You couldn't help but think back at the nightmare. Was it really a nightmare if it was more so based on memories? You didn't know, but you'd call it one anyway. It's been years since you've had a dream, let alone a nightmare. It's also almost been a decade since that happened. The reason for your nightmares and deep-buried hate.

Oh, wait- Penacony... You were in said planet already, right? Right, the Charmony festival is around the corner... you almost forgot. You sighed, splashing cold water on your face as you then walked out of the bathroom. Finally realizing you were in your hotel room, how embarrassing. You decided that you were going out for a walk. Despite the always-busy streets of the Golden Hour, you couldn't bring yourself to complain about the noise. It was rather appreciated right now.

As you walked mindlessly, you came across a woman. She was tall, of fair skin and deep purple hair. She had a red umbrella with herself, despite the fact that the dreamscape had no weather. There was... something off about that woman. It was almost as if she brought you memories, memories that didn't seem to be yours.

Before you even had time to process it, you found yourself walking towards her, tapping her shoulder gently once close enough.

"Excuse me...?"

Your voice seemed to snap her out of her thoughts, or at least you could assume it did, given how she turned around. She didn't speak, simply tilting her head slightly as she scanned your features, almost analyzing you.

Suddenly, she speaks, and you feel your knees going weak. How was she so familiar yet still a stranger to you?

"Have we met before?"

Your heart almost skipped a beat, her voice. That voice.. Her voice.

"Acheron...?"

Made by: @jxst-m4kiii. Please do not repost or claim as your own. All credits for the pictures & dividers to their respective owners.

[roseapov]

Honkai Star Rail definitely plans on making me spend money, I mean-

2.2 Acheron, Luocha, Jingliu, Aventurine, Gallagher

^This version is gonna be a relatively easy skip, but we'll see about Jingliu, and I'm sorry Acheron💔 I don't have a team for you

2.3 ROBIN and Boothill and no 4*?

^ROBIIIN😭😭 it's gonna be painful to skip her, and if they're gonna put Fu Xuan to this version? I'm gonna cry and probably wish, cause I need her💔 Depends on the phase, but maybe I'll wish for Robin too? Depends also heavily on Sundays release🥹 Boothill sounds like an easy skip for now (Arlecchinos and Sampos kid +Blades cousin)

AND NOT ONLY NOT A SINGLE MENTION OF SUNDAY YET, BUT ALSO SPECTACULATIONS OF FU XUAN HAVING A RERUN SOON?!?? either in 2.3 or later on...

Looks like, I'll need to max out the game soon... And hopefully spend nothing

[parsapuff]

can i ask when you plan on releasing who’ll be in the next batch? i’m very excited ^^

Well I can show the next batch rn 🙏💖 I was basically just trying to figure out the order. I'm skipping HI3 sets for this batch but they'll be back after! (I'll probably be making the HI3 mini sets tho.) The order might still change a little bit but I'll definitely be starting with Acheron 💖💖 I'll be making an actual post for this later when I get the next vote up

[zhongrin]

Halo! Indonesian follower here :D I was just thinking to start Honkai Star Rail because you have been posting it these days. I hear a lot of positive things about it but I was wondering if you have any opinion about the game? Especially what you don't like about the game? I recently start to play Genshin but became overwhelmed. So I want to know the opinion of someone who don't start playing the game from first day... Terima kasih~

!!!!! halo nonnie!!! ahhhh more indonesians hello hello yes please sit down and make yourself comfortable!!! because this got absurdly long omg

also i tried my best to avoid spoilers that would be important to the lore, but i do touch on some names.... and i tried equating some stuff to genshin terms so i hope you understand what i mean shdfkljsd

disclaimer: keep in mind that these are my opinions and my intention is not to offend/pick fight with anyone; i'm just externalising my gripes about the game because the opportunity presented itself. heck, i'm sure this'll just fall into the void and not get any sort of attention anyway. if you don't agree, that's cool, we can just agree to disagree.

to be blunt, i'm not sure exactly which part overwhelmed you, but i think if genshin overwhelmed you because of the amount of content, then you would face the same issue (if not worse) with hsr.

speaking as a new (started at 2.2 iirc) player, the game threw EVERYTHING at me (especially after finishing belobog), and i find it super difficult to navigate and understand which quests and events i should do first. googling it risks spoiling myself, so i didn't want to do that, and i didn't get what/how to use fate's atlas until after xianzhou. plus, quests would get triggered randomly on some areas, so if you don't know beforehand, you will get pulled into it unwillingly just like i did.

my experience personally was such a mess; i played ruan mei and ratio's quest early and literally didn't get what the fuck was happening, especially because they were both located at the first map you unlock, and it just triggered when i went to that area. my timeline about what happened in hsr is already so fucked up since the start. i've seen streamers who get into the game after penacony face the same issue, so i don't think i'm alone in this. but they at least have their chat to guide them, while i don't. perhaps in hindsight i should have consulted some friends, but 1) i didn't want to be a bother and 2) if i HAD to do that it feels like that's a bad game design.

i really wish they had 1) touched on fate's atlas more and drilled its importance for new players, and 2) lock out players from starting new quests. for example, instead of triggering when player get close to an area, make it an unlockable thing, or make players specifically interact with someone/something to start the quest. all games which are already out more than a year/has hit 2.x should have these precautions implemented, if the game was not designed this way from the start.

also, just like a majority of people, i do dislike how the main story's 'closure'/tying up loose ends of xiaozhou's storyline happens on a companion quest (in genshin terms, it equates to story quests). in the same vein, danshu's quest really should have been a main quest. but the worst thing is, the devs really took this criticism from the players too far, which i'll revisit again below.

something about penacony which i particularly dislike is how they throw character stories in the main story. for people who plays hi3 or likes the characters, i'm sure they're having a field day, but tbh i could not care less about aventurine/acheron/sunday/misha at that point of time, so i end up just skipping nearly everything. i would have preferred them doing it genshin/zzz-style, with character stories or tribal quests that would COMPLEMENT the main story. they utterly failed to strike a balance in this aspect after the luofu criticisms of putting main story elements into the side quests (danhu quest, jingliu quest, my point above). wrapping aventurine's story in a neat companion quest for us to play AFTER so we can understand why he did what he did would have been more preferable to me. the dove thing with sunday was so repetitive i feel like they just inserted it to add in more gameplay hours, when it could have just been inserted to a companion quest of sunday's. it just felt like they were stalling for time and they just don't want to/know how to incorporate into their existing gameplay, telling us these backstories in a main quest. i can understand misha's backstory being put in there, but the others can be separated out and framed differently. i personally think if you want players to understand and eventually like a character, you need to make them interesting to us first. rather than cutting the flow of the story with their backstories, why couldn't they show us their decisions first, then their past? why did they have to mix them up into an overflowing cocktail in what should have been a story about caelus/stelle and the nameless? there's already so much information, they're just adding more and more and more ー it just got very overwhelming to me.

also, i think the pov changes are cool, the separate quests with dan heng pov in xianzhou was great, but when you use it too much (hi again, penacony) it just becomes obnoxious.

and i've said this before, but penacony in particular is just too philosophical, it feels pretentious to me. if you compare the dialogues of penacony vs belobog or xianzhou, the evolution hits you in the face. everything can be interpreted in a thousand different ways and while it is good to have ambiguity occasionally, i personally find it off-putting when literally EVERYTHING is like that. it's tiring to see characters speaking in riddles 24/7. yes mystery if great, but if you expect your players to read every single lore pieces (which is also what they did with xianzhou but at least the people there don't speak like philosophers) and scrutinize every single word that comes out of everyone's mouth JUST to understand what's going on in the HOURS-LONG main story, then you're making the message clear that this game isn't meant for casual players. in which case, if amphoreus follows this style, then frankly speaking i think i won't bother staying because then it means this game isn't made for my specific style of storytelling enjoyment. but if you like this kind of storytelling, then you'll love penacony; i seem to belong in the minority for thinking penacony is overrated anyway, so maybe you don't need to worry too much for this aspect.

also, i don't think you have experienced farming in genshin, but as someone who has experienced it across the 3 hoyo games, hsr is easily the worst (and zzz the best because you can dismantle artifacts and get back some resources to level up AND craft new artifacts). perhaps it's just that my account has bad luck.... but i think a culmination of factors like:

1) more available stats therefore more chances for rng to fuck you up, 2) limited (or most times none at all) choice when it comes to 'offset' artifacts due to the nature of how they design the system (i.e. 2 separate 'sets' of artifacts), 3) which also means you have separate farming for planars (i.e. second 'set' of artifacts),

among others, still makes it a literal nightmare to farm relics and planars (i.e. artifacts in genshin terms). sure, the auto-battle is nice, but am i wrong for feeling frustrated when i have over 40 inert salsotto planars (probably over 200+ if i hadn't salvaged them, since i farmed it for like my first 2 months of taking my brother's account) but only 3 has lighting damage (with shit substats btw)? oh, and 2 of them were made by synthesis and self-modeling resin in the end? yeah. fuck farming in this game lol

also, if you're going f2p, prepare to miss out on some jades (primogems in genshin) because there is no way you're clearing end-game contents to the max. or maybe you can, if you just pull for characters which are the 'current meta'. but even then the powercreeping is a very real issue in my opinion, because they release new characters faaaaar too fast. to compare, minus the main character (cause you get them for free), currently genshin is 4 years old (sep 2020) and it has 46 5-stars characters. hsr is around 1.5 years old (apr 2023) and it has 35 5-stars characters. if that's not blatant powercreeping, i don't know what is... at least hoyo's pity system is better than other gacha games, i guess.

don't get me wrong, i do like certain aspects of the game; penacony's plot twist was presented nicely (though it was predictable), as a working adult i love the auto-battle, and the worldbuilding in the game is great, among others. i'm just not expanding on it here because that's not the nature of your question, and i think you've probably done your research and seen all the positive reviews possible, judging from the ask.

again, other hsr players can agree to disagree if you will. you can tell me i'm wrong but enjoyment is subjective in the first place ✨

[bunbitti]

Me when I finally E2S1 my Aventurine from E1S0 (idk the difference besides more debuffs and extra defense (extra 40% is wild) but at least I got to free up one of my relics for crit rate for inert salsotto)

Anyway uhh I used up that guarantee I had for E2, so uhh hopefully I win that 50/50 for Sunday

Been farming relics for Sunday, fortunately got a bunch of crit damage when leveling (I've been farming since the sacerdos set came out beginning of 2.6) but also people keep doing speed stuff and I really haven't prioritized that for most of my other characters so I guess Sunday might just be a fast boi but I'll see what I can do to fix the others' speed and maybe I'll manage to do better in end-game content

Anyway I heard about the new remembrance path and that trailblazer's gonna be ice remembrance with summon (iirc, but my memory is dogsht), so at the very least Sunday's specialty can be used on them lmao

I do want to get Jiaoqiu's eidolons and lightcone in the future, I currently have plenty of ehr on him and getting more dot on him would be awesome

Getting an Acheron is somewhat tempting but I'm still saving for Sunday and also I'm sure my Acheron build won't be nearly as good as a lot of people's out there since I don't have the funds to E2 her or anything

I still need to finish building that Gallagher I randomly got from one of the banners for another sustain, better to put him with Boothill and not keep spamming Luocha bc Luocha is my only other limited sustain rn

Meanwhile in zzz I got Lycaon after I lost 50/50 on Burnice who I got later but didn't get the signature w-engine for, and I've been leveling their butts off (do you know how slow it is to build 2 characters who need different kits) because I might get Lighter if I enjoy his gameplay (already have Koleda for fire/stun which is pretty manageable) but also I'm tempted to just continue having all of the men in zzz

Lycaon is doing pretty well, so is Burnice; I spent idk what in-game currency to get Lycaon's signature w-engine but haven't built Burnice's non-signature w-engine yet

Anyway getting a fire dps like soldier 11 would be cool, also need an ice dps (maybe I should've pulled for Ellen) and I gotta build my electric characters a bit more, especially bc Qingyi now sucks now that I'm allowed to get characters to level 60 and Qingyi hasn't gotten there yet (aka she only sucks rn bc underleveled, not that she's actually bad) and I only have Anton as a dps and he's so damn energy-reliant that I have to watch the bar really closely to make sure it doesn't deplete all the way before I can switch out and let it build up again

Also I've just been avoiding doing anything about ether bc there's currently what, two characters total who are on ether and I only have Nicole

I've been slapping Jane/Seth on most things and it works decently even when it's not the ideal element, pulling them was the best decision I have made in this game

I like it when all of my characters have decent personal damage (me when c6 seth does a lot of damage when you parry and switch to him, then do the shielding basic atk before going back to jane)

Also free Harumasa??? Need him bruh

Skipping Yanagi, I don't got the pulls to get both her and maybe Lighter even though I kinda need the dps but I'm sure things will work out at some point

[rewuyuu]

I can't wait for gambly man to drop. I'm skipping Black Swan and probably Acheron for him and his lightcone. You draw him so pretty too qwq I'm also on my knees for your art of him

same here, anon... can't wait to finally get him and then give him the finest selection of crit rate relics i manage to find

(thank you very much, i'm glad you like my art!!!)

[lonestarss]

acheron for ask game

of course that's who you picked to ask me about. of course (affectionate)

my first impression

my first true impression of her was with the rondo animation because i hadn't gotten to penacony yet (was penacony even out then? my mental timeline is messy). i was immediately invested because if there's two things i love it's fucked up women and fucked up lesbians.

my impression now

SHE MAKES ME SO SICKKKK. i love her so bad. they managed to make a type of character i'm usually not into (the mysterious super powerful one) into something really fun.

favorite thing about that character

i love when her amnesia/forgetfulness slips away for a moment to reveal something much darker. and i love how she's mostly unaware/unknowing of these moments.

least favorite thing

if i'm being fully honest it's her design...... i just don't fuck with it, it could've been so much better. burn the booty shorts and give them to gallagher i mean what

favorite line/scene

when she sends aventurine into the black hole of nihility OUGHHHHH like sorry to be basic but IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD HER DYNAMIC WITH AVENTURINE MAKES ME SICK. also the twisted fucking sickle path portions of the rondo trailer purely based on their aesthetics. they're so well animated i'm still obsessed with them.

favorite interaction that character has with another

as seen above, her conversation with aventurine in the black hole of nihility fucks me UP. her being this avatar of nihilism telling him that there's more to life than just waiting to die AUGHH

a character that I wish that character would interact with more

acheron should've talked more with gallagher imo. idk why, i just think they'd bounce off each other well.

another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

uhhh no one in particular comes to mind?

a headcanon about that character

she'll often mindlessly dig her nails into things, causing them to tear or break. it's an unconscious urge.

a song that reminds of that character

skip, i have no idea as of rn, but i'd be happy to get suggestions.

an unpopular opinion about that character

people should stop giving exclusively ratio credit for helping save aventurine when acheron was just as involved if not more so.

favorite picture

this emote is so goddamn cute.

[melodic-haze]

Seeing how you have a total of 130 Jades with 3 pity. I think a skip in queue is fine. You need all the help you can get at this point. If not, the only other options is probably sacrificing something or someone to the rng gods. Swiping too, but that's lame.

Also speaking of queue here's my somewhat daily ask for you. How many requests are you planning on doing right now? I know you're a very busy person, so I hope the amount doesn't overwhelm you.

I also hope you're feeling a lot better and as always. May your day be great and have Jade come to be your sugar mom soon.

-🍎

The realist in me says that you're right. UNFORTUNATELY I'm also a hopeless lesbian who desperately needs to touch grass instead of a keyboard so there's no way in HELL am I giving up. I got E1R1 Acheron from No Pity and lost 50/50 once and I'll fucking Do It Again

Anyway it's less ab how many I plan on doing and more how many I end up doing HAHA cuz I have like. Five demos to do. But then I also have quite a few other asks which is like fine I just need to get to answering them to clear my inbox before opening up proper reqs again. If you're on about like how many reqs I receive before I close my inbox? About like 10-15? Maybe 20, depends 🤷‍♀️

I am Not feeling better but thank you either way 💪💪💪💪💪 my ass is losing money from the entire week of me being ill so that's not fun 😞

[rodolfoparras]

Making my oc is literally the first thing I do for every new piece of media because my first instinct is always "What would I do in this situation?" and "How do I make fanfic out of this?"

As for bg3, I am glad I get to try out all of my d&d characters I made over the years because I'm either DM or I can never get a group of people to play properly. Also!! I was able to change Acheron into shadow magic sorcerer after all, it just took some fiddling around 😭

Essentially you can change your main/first class in game which discouraged me a little since sorcerer was my secondary class AND I wanted to keep warlock as my main class (especially since it's my favourite class). But I figured I can just change my class to something else then change it back to warlock and multiclass with shadow sorcerer. And drows are dark elves and they're my absolute favourite race to play. I rarely ever play anything else tbh.

And I do encourage you to try and make ocs because it's super fun and immersive and actually a good way to break writer's block! And sorry if I'm yapping about this and bg3 too much but now that I'm actually able to play 😭 I could just talk about Acheron and the game for ages!

-🔮

I genuinely admire that you make your own ocs and give them a backstory and work on their appearance and create certain relationship with each character in the story

I mean in a way I make ocs too but in my head and I am the character I just skip the backstory and all the different relationships to the characters and jump straight into daydreaming about different type of scenarios 🏃🏻‍♂️

Also as someone who has never actually played bg3 this is a whole other language to me but I’m happy you got your character just the way you wanted to and I hope you’re having sm fun with the game 🫶🏻

Also pls don’t worry about it sugar! I genuinely do love listening to the recent games yall play or the movies/ shows you watched and discussing it!

[krawlernyannyan]

While the 2.0 livestream didn't mention the banner four-stars for the new patch, they did post them afterwards, so here's the current timeline of banner four-stars updated to the new patch!

Points of interest:

Tingyun officially has the record for shortest gap between banner appearances, showing up in Ruan Mei's banner, skipping Doctor Ratio, then coming right back in Black Swan's banner.

Yukong currently holds the record for longest time since appearing in a banner. When v2.1 rolls around she'll have been out of the picture for 9 banners, though this is mitigated somewhat by her appearing as a claimable reward a couple times (including in the new patch). Pela's not far behind her.

Character that have yet to be rerun more than once: Dan Heng, Yukong, Arlan, Luka, and Lynx (you could count Guinaifen and Hanya but they just got their banner so I'm not).

Personal predictions on the v2.1 banners:

Pela to go with Acheron since they're both Nihility.

Yukong to pair with Aventurine since they're both Imaginary.

Arlan or Serval for Acheron's banner as fellow Lightning characters.

Luka on the Aventurine banner.

Maybe Xueyi on Acheron's banner too.

[hungnitan]

PROJECT SEKAI ANTHOLOGY (DNA) VOL 2 CHAPTER 14

I gonna talk differently here so just skip it (lol) :

Anyone already watch Firefly anime video ? SO MANY SAMS THANK YOU VERY MUCH It's pretty sad, on par with Acheron which is good rather than dating with TB isn't. But then again I'm even more sure now, hoyo gonna kill that girl in next version !

The reasons why she need to die for real ? First and foremost, if not two dating scene with TB aren't make sense ! She's too friendly with TB for my liking which means TB and Firefly already meet as Stellaron Hunter (it's 99% sure, 1% just don't have any real scene lol) and it definitely sure TB is the one who tell her outside world. So if Firefly didn't die in bang especially without saving TB from danger, then all TB x Firefly hidden scene (lol) and her reasoning to die as human will be gone.

After finish watch the anime version, I had feeling "I still have one last role" vibe from it. She even wondering the same as Churin "why people live only to die later" question, so if hoyo decide her dead scene after saving Trailblazer and finally had an answer for that question, she's really complete as a character

And as I said in previous talk, there's must be a reason Welt came in Firefly interview. If it's about SAM (robot), then Silver Wolf should be sufficient. If from my side, I think AE members already acknowledge her as their partner.

IF after next version hoyo decide not to kill her (like making her in coma or something), then it's just means there's bigger power played behind the scenes (I mean whaler screams and money lol). And IF hoyo makes Firefly dying there, I gonna pull for her and abandon Jiao Qiu as my highest compliment on hoyo storywriter !

This chapter focused on Leo/Need again. Not disheartening anyone but L/N and additionally MMJ isn't that interesting to me which is the main reason my mood isn't doing good for this and stopped the translation (lol)

Like always, english and japanese aren't my things so bear with me~