#anyways i like ruan mei but i think she does the same thing that a certain other scientist does for me

[elegyofthemoon]

listen i know that the star rail girls suffer from "same character design" but i got mildly obsessed with a bit of ruan mei's design because of one particular detail and that is:

it's this particular bit where the DNA strands are joined together by the plum blossom she's named after.

in order for DNA to be replicated, it has to be unwound by a protein called helicase which then allows for the reading of the DNA to create the new strands. I felt like it was fitting that like the plum blossom unraveling the DNA in her design, she's also trying to unravel the truths of the world and get to its essence.

[lcd1602]

So the move is to continue with the argenthill stuff once i draw another still and then read their story lore to expand upon my thinking, but in the meantime, heres a little rarepair that i've kept in my vault because ive never been vocal with my ships before.

but to answer some things:

why not yingxing and dan feng?:

those guys are cool, but blade isnt ying anymore, maybe in soul, but not in spirit. jing liu broke that and put a bandaid on it before leaving for milk.

why not renheng?:

im on the side of shippers to think that ship is toxic as hell. im aware some of those like toxic ships, i can't see the appeal, the story shows that dan heng is afraid of blade, and half the time blade hardly remembers dan hengs face except for when hes bozo crazy OUT OF FIVE THREE MUST PAY A PRICE, YOU ARE ONE OF THEM GWAHAHAHAHAHAHA LET ME KILL YOUR ASS.

but anyway, BLADEMEI :DDDDDD

I'm in the same situation with blademei as i am with argenhill/gunsnroses because i haven't tied down why this probably situationship would fall into their storylines, but here is how i put it.

blade makes his way onto the space station, elio gave him a smaller script to play out there, but it mentioned a 'death'. and of course blade is like "death? you know me so well elio" and heads out immediately. he ends up in ruan meis area, and notices the lack of personnel, but dismisses it.

eventually he winds up in a room and gets jailed in there for some reason i havent expanded on yet. and ruan mei pulls up out of nowhere and runs a body scan on him, because she can tell something is off.

and the scans show a LOT.

how blade is WAY over the human species life expectancy, but is a human. how his blood shows traces of an aeon (does shuhus gift tie in to yaoshi? probably yeah cause shuhus an emanator) of abundance.

abundance? ruan mei is studying the origin of life. thats close enough.

she keeps him jailed up and studies him until he asks why.

she does her idle thingwhere she pulls out a DNA strand and tells him what he already knows. he's lived way too long. (thanks for the xian zhou level exposition ruan mei very much appreciated)

blade reveals he's been seeking death. and here is where he will get it.

so ruan mei stares at him and asks him to stay. because if she can study an aeons power so close and personal, the least she could do is grant him death.

[catamaurrr-star]

putting genshin characters in hsr part 1 - xingqiu

first of all, types. there is no water type in hsr so we gotta think of something else. the other 2 characters in hsr that do water things but arent water are bailu and dhil, but we can probably go farther than just lightning or imaginary for xq. for this i will be turning xq into an ice character

now onto the path. at first you would probably think harmony cause hes a support. and that would make sense. if he was harmony i think he would have some sort of robin thing going on with additional damage. but i think his water swords would be better suited as follow up attacks, and well. harmony characters typically arent meant to do damage themselves (robin is a weird exception). also he's mostly a support cause he can provide good hydro application for elemental reactions and we dont have that in hsr so i propose a different path. either hunt or nihility. but not really a dot nihility

now, whether he's hunt or nihility, the basic attack is the same as most other characters. just some okay ice damage to a single target

the skill is where it gets interesting though. in genshin he does some hydro dmg and puts some rain swords around your character, applying hydro to nearby enemies, reduces dmg taken and increases resistance to interruption, and with one of his ascension buffs, heals your character a little bit when one of them shatters or its duration expires. i think i will turn this into a slightly more powerful ice single target skill that can remove 1 buff on an enemy. kinda like pela. if he's hunt then it would do more damage. and as for the healing it can do i'll address that later

as for the burst/ult! in genshin he summons a bunch of rain swords that do hydro dmg when one of your characters does a normal attack. im turning this into an enhance ult for hunt xq that, whenever one of your other characters is hitting an enemy that is weak to xingqiu's element with a basic attack, he will do a follow up attack to that enemy. this can only be triggered 6 times which feels like a lot but considering the weakness requirement i think its fineee

for nihility xqs ult it would also be an enhance ult that whenever one of your characters hits an enemy with a basic attack, he does a little bit of additional dmg and either applies some sort of vulnerability/def down debuff that cant stack or reduces enemy toughness by a little bit regardless of the enemies actual weaknesses. debuff lasts for 3 turns and the ult itself would last 2 turns, based on xq's actions like ruan mei

for major traces for hunt xq, his 2nd ascension one would just be a 10-20% ice dmg boost like his a4 passive. his 4th ascension one would be that hitting enemies with ice weakness heals xq by like 5-10% of his hp. 6th ascension gets a little tricky because there is no 6th ascension passive in genshin so we gotta think about this one. i think im just gonna steal his c6 and make every 3rd follow up attack do a bit more damage and regenerate like 5 energy for xq

nihility xqs traces get a little different. 2nd ascension would be like a 10% ice dmg bonus i guess. 4th ascension would heal the current character if his ult is up and theyre hitting an enemy with ice weakness by like 3-5% i dont wanna make it too op. 6th ascension would be stolen from his c2 and his ults additional dmg attacks would reduce enemy ice res by like 10% in addition to the other debuff they put on but this one would last 2 turns only

for synergies: i think hunt xq would work well with sw for the weakness implant and maybe topaz as well due to his ults fuas. nihility xq would work well with harmony tb/ruan mei for quick weakness breaks/super breaks or acheron for letting any support put on debuffs even though acheron cant really make use of the ice res reduction cause shes lightning

anyways yippeeeee ^_^ thats it

[yingren]

❛ oh, don't be cute. ❜ / ruan mei

&. 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐬 (𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬?)

“ excuse me ? ” ren rarely aims to come off as cute, nor does he go out of his way to act that way for anyone else’s sake. occasionally, an offhand remark might be interpreted as such, but it’s never intentional. in fact, he’d argue against it. there's nothing particularly cute about him—at least not most of the time. he understands the appeal people have in twisting things to fit their own idea of sweetness or affection, but it’s not something he enjoys. yet it happens to him far too often, usually from one of the other hunters, especially kafka or firefly.

then again, ruan mei is an odd one. she’s undeniably brilliant, and ren knows she’s well aware of the meaning of the word "cute." he doubts she would misuse it when its definition is so clear. maybe it was pure sarcasm, something to provoke him into a reaction—but that doesn’t quite fit her character either. if she chose to call him cute, something must have prompted it, probably the unfinished sketch he’d shown her. hairpins—for himself, if he manages to craft them without messing up. it won’t be easy, and he know that he doesn’t possess the same dexterity as his former self, but he’ll still give it his best shot. most likely though, she was referring to his enthusiasm when explaining the intricate details he plans to incorporate into the design. either way, he’ll chalk up her comment as directed more toward the project than himself.

“ anyway, i am a bit rusty, it might take me some time. ” it most certainly will and ren knows that there is no pressure for him to finish up what he is working on. patience is something he’s been short on at times, but also something he's learned to practice more in recent years. he folds the paper in his hands and tucks it into the inner pocket of his jacket, then places his hands on the table between them. the scattered items around the room aren’t his; as usual, they’re meeting on her turf, a space she seems to frequent more than he could ever guess. he’d call it a lab, but he knows that’s not quite right—maybe an office? something along those lines. it doesn’t matter much now, as this has become the most convenient place for them to meet.

“ i don’t think i have ever heard you call anything cute before. have you hit your head since i last saw you or is this some kind of weird side effect from genius sleep deprivation ? ” 

[a-la-campanella]

More thoughts, this time from the trailer directly:

Herta begins by telling us most of the Genius Society members are gone due to Member 4, Polka Kakamond. We're told she killed many of them (said by Herta when interacting with her portrait in Herta's office). Herta then expresses a faux(?) joy at a meeting with who I assume is Ruan Mei? I think it's sarcastic, mostly because of how she says "Oh? Look who's here."

We haven't met a lot of Genius Society members, but it's rather telling that many of them don't have close relationships to each other with Herta herself said to be "very sociable compared to the other odd hermits of the Genius Society" (via Data Bank -> Herta (Character)). I wouldn't be surprised if there was friction between Herta and Ruan Mei; between the two of them, Herta has little interest in anything beyond the scope of what she wants to research, and Ruan Mei seems entirely devoted to her own research. They've come together to collaborate on the Simulated Universe, but people work together on projects all the time and can still have distain for their coworkers.

Although it is also very possible Herta is talking about someone or something else.

When Ruan Mei shows up, she says "It's crucial to mask your expression until you've ascertained the situation. If not... you'll be full of weaknesses that others can see through." With the last line, she seems to smile and then turn her head away, the camera angle cropping out her eyes. Of course Ruan Mei hides herself behind a mask. I don't think she does it maliciously, rather it's a way to help distance herself further from everyone else. She seems a bit out of touch with everything in the Myriad Celestia trailer. Likely, she grew up feeling lonely, and sought her own self-isolation as a way to further her goals.

Dr. Ratio's line, "Do try to think for yourself." He's so annoying, and I love that. I think he's someone who asks a lot of questions to help lead you to in the direction of the right answers, rather than outright telling you what the answer is... he must be fun at parties. I'd expect he's pretty good with young kids though I really can't think of many circumstances where he'll go out of his way to interact with children.

Augh. I'm so happy with Dr. Ratio and Ruan Mei being in the same patch posing as counters between the Genius Society and Intelligentsia Guild. What's the point of being a genius if you work in a vacuum? The Intelligentsia Guild values the sharing of knowledge across the cosmos, and without that mindset, how could the universe band together at all? Of course information is important. So how do you feel about who gets to have it?

There's value in more people being able to contribute to the wealth of knowledge by building on each other's research, and isn't that the spirit of research itself? So many things would be impossible without collaboration. But how do people, like Herta, directly benefit from sharing their research, when their time could be spent on more personally valuable tasks? And besides, many things could go wrong by making the "wrong" information publicly available when there are always people working in bad faith. All kinds of questions arise when you compare the two factions. I think people should come to their own answers about them, and decide why they prefer one over the other.

Anyways, story stuff! "The gods of the starry skies have abandoned the world. Only the wounded savior can bathe the world in the firelight of Destruction. No matter the distance, Annihilation will find you!" Let's break this down.

Gods of the starry skies would be Aeons, the closest entities we know of that would be considered divine.

Rather than abandoning the world, it's be more accurate to say they exist in a dimension of space that's separate from the rest of the universe. They doesn't seem to exist on the same plane as everyone in the rest of the game.

It seems like Asta's been possessed? Girl is going through it.

The wounded savior... unless we're being introduced to some other Destruction-aligned character, I'm going to guess the speaker is referring to the Trailblazer.

"Only" is a curious word to use here. Is there nobody else to sow destruction across all of the cosmos? Maybe this is another factor in "fate's" design.

Whoever is speaking might be from the Annihilation Gang. I'm literally just connecting the dots from "Annihilation" being capitalized in the subtitles and the Annihilation Gang as a faction following the Path of Destruction.

The image of Nous at the end... Nous is searching for the answers to everything in the universe. In a more contextual sense, Nous would be an Aeon said to "abandon the world" upon their ascension, having left the world altogether.

A lot of lore gets dropped in Simulated Universe. Since we're going back in time with SU to a time focusing on the circumstances of Emperor Rubert I, I suppose we're getting parallels to Nous (both being supercomputers) and, what I'm more interested in, the circumstances that allowed Nanook to ascend as an Aeon. The timeline comes together more cleanly when you begin to piece all the history between the Aeons and when things happened relative to each other.

Since the 1.6 update is approaching us, here are my thoughts from the latest livestream!

Huge fan of the recent livestreams featuring the characters (rather than the voice actors) bringing us the news. It makes everything feel so much more immersive and highlights the whole "This program is brought to you by the Interastral Peace Corporation" thing.

As for the upcoming update... Critter Pick looks like it'll be a fun event! It'll be a good way to explore the new areas of Herta Space Station, too. I wish we could keep them as permanent pets; if the Trailblazer unlocks their own room on the Astral Express one day, we could keep the critters as an event memento.

Looking forward to new additions to the Simulated Universe as well. I haven't finished everything about the Swarm yet (mostly because of how time-consuming it is to grind through SU), but having more things to do in-game will make sure I'm never out of options for things to do, I suppose.

I don't particularly care about the new optimizations to Forgotten Hall. My RNG on artifacts is trash, so it's not like the optimizations really help me out. They're more so for players who play by the meta and actually clear all the stages.

The most exciting part of the special program would probably be Sunday as our final special guest. I'm hyped for Penacony! For a number of reasons, but mainly because of the various factions we'll get to see interact with each other. Stories (whether they're events or permanent content) that feature characters from different regions and/or factions crossing roads are always fun! I hope it's like the Genshin events where characters from all kinds of different nations got together in the same scenes, like Hues of the Violet Garden (the Inazuma poetry event from 2.6), the Perilous Trail Archon Quest (ft. the Chasm), Summertime Odyssey (on the islands in 2.8), Windblume's Breath (revisiting Mondstadt's Windblume, 3.5)... you get the idea.

Conceptually, Penacony and The Family sound pretty noteworthy. It's giving cult-like vibes, and something about Sunday feels inherently suspicious, especially in the way he speaks and presents himself.

Penacony/The Reverie as a place "where one may travel freely between reality and Dreamscape"... well, Penacony is the Land of Dreams. It's a place that only exists as a dream, "where time forever stands still" (Data Bank -> Relics; Penacony, Land of Dreams). There's an underlying cruelty to being such a place where everything is in a sense stagnant like that, and I hope the game embraces that wholeheartedly. I'm curious to see how they'll try to approach the themes of "dreams" and "time".

Key players from Penacony are the are five great families and The Reviere - it's possible we won't get to see representatives from all of the families, similar to how we stuck to the Xianzhou Luofu while visiting the Xianzhou Alliance. The representatives we'll definitely see are, according to the livestream:

Sunday (?)

Robin (possibly from the same family as Sunday; hard to say, as she could be referred to as "sister" to keep up the notion of being a Family or as a sign of affection/a close relationship, though she also has wings like Sunday so who knows)

Misha (from The Reviere)

Firefly (from the Iris Family)

Gallagher (from the Bloodhound Family)

From the guestlist, some speculations:

Duke Inferno is going to be someone to pay attention to. The Annihilation Gang isn't the Antimatter Legion, but it does follow Nanook, and anything involving Nanook is going to demand our attention. Besides, he's probably going to be involved in the source of our upcoming conflict what with planning on wrecking chaos in Penacony - so he thinks, "Penacony will just be another pitstop along the way [on the pilgrimage to Destruction]" (Data Bank -> Relics; The Ashblazing Grand Duke). Probably not playable.

Likewise, Stellaron Hunter Sam has to be important... I wonder how much his IPC bounty is. Elio probably told him to go to Penacony, but I wonder why Sam instead of anyone else.

Adventurine? My. IPC representation is always fun. I hope he interacts with the Trailblazers, and that we get more information about Qilpoth from him (though that's rather unlikely). During the cutscene where we fought Cocolia, we obtained Alisa Rand's lance while Qilpoth drew their hammer and seemed to draw their gaze at us. It's possible the Trailblazer is an emanator, but you could argue otherwise too. I'm looking forward to seeing what the IPC thinks about that, if the Trailblazer really is an emanator of Preservation, or Destruction, or anything at all.

Not much to say on Dr. Ratio. He'll be there.

Garden of Recollection memokeeper Black Swan... hey, I wonder if we'll get a reference to the Messenger on the Astral Express, since she's from the same organization.

Sparkle, representing the Masked Fools... I love the Masked Fools, they're so goofy. She's probably here to have a good time, shake up chaos, and be on her way.

Acheron from the Galaxy Rangers? We'll get to see more from another side of Lan's followers.

A bunch of the upcoming characters look interesting. I'm not invested in most of the characters, mainly because their fits look... super uncomfortable. That's a me thing, I don't care about most characters unless their lore piques my interest or I vibe with their outfits. Characters I am interested in, however, and expect to be playable:

I'm partial to Ruan Mei, she seems promising! I do wish that she wore a lab coat, she would absolutely pull it off and it would bring out the scientist part of her character more. (Nobody in this universe seems to care about lab safety with how much skin some of these characters show.)

Sunday for sure. His personality is serving... something. I don't know, I like his voice though. And the wings!

Aventurine looks cute... that's about it. His interaction with Topaz strike me as kinda funny. I want to see more from IPC coworkers, especially when Diamond gets introduced in more depth.

Sam, because mechas go hard, and I want to collect all the Stellaron Hunters.

For the same reason, I'm going to grab Elio (and Kafka on her rerun; skipped for Blade and I already had Jing Yuan to fill the same meta-niche).

Screwllum is a maybe. He's a mecha, but his personality is kinda ehhh for me.

Dr. Ratio! I'm glad he's going to be free. I'm not a fan of the right side of his outfit or his animations and wouldn't feel very happy pulling for him even though I want him. They picked an odd place to show skin and it doesn't really mesh well with the rest of his design. His attack animations are funny but rather boring and there's not much going on. As a character, I genuinely love how obnoxious he sounds. Judging by the 1.6 livestream he and Herta have Beef(TM) for sure... or that might be a Genius Society vs Intelligentsia Guild thing. Either way, it's bound to be interesting.

Misha's cute. His hair looks cute. I hope his personality will be cute, too.

Maybe Robin, if her dress doesn't look too plain. She's a superstar and she'll be singing for us at the festival! Perhaps we'll get a dedicated cut scene, music video, and song sung by her.

They're mostly guys. That's within my expectations. I don't have much investment in a lot of the female characters so far, to be honest. I like March (it's hard not to care about her), the Stellaron Hunter girls, Sushang and Bailu, and everyone else is fine. They're there, they help flesh out the world, but I'm not particularly attached to any of them. I guess you could say the same thing about a substantial portion of the cast in general...

Anyways, these are my thoughts. Looking forward to version 1.6 and hope everyone wins their 50/50s!