#but I am really scratching my head over how to format this and how to make it make sense

[scribblingface]

figuring out what kind of bg3 fic I want to write is so difficult because normally there's a shared understanding of what the canon events are and what the emotionally pivotal moments are so you can build on those in a fic without having to rehash the original moments, which is one of the fun and interesting things about fanfic. but in bg3 there are many branching options and the pivotal moments for your durge/tav and their relationships with the other characters are going to be different. and when it comes to my durge, stringing together a compelling narrative would involve both canon scenes and ones that I've made up, and it would feel weird and pointless to rewrite scenes from the game but I can't imagine making an emotionally coherent narrative without including how those scenes went for my durge and his group specifically so like. idk

[wirewitchviolet]

How a Computer Works - Part 1 (Components)

I am about to teach you on a real fundamental, connecting up electronic components level, how a computer actually works. Before I get into the meat of this though (you can just skip down below the fold if you don't care), here's the reasons I'm sitting doing so in this format:

Like a decade or two ago, companies Facebook pushed this whole "pivot to video" idea on the whole internet with some completely faked data, convincing everyone that everything had to be a video, and we need to start pushing back against that. Especially for stuff like complex explanations of things or instructions, it's much more efficient to just explain things clearly in text, maybe with some visual aids, so people can easily search, scan, and skip around between sections. It's also a hell of a lot easier to host things long term, and you can even print out a text based explainer and not need a computer to read it, keep it on a desk, highlight it, etc.

People are so clueless about how computers actually work that they start really thinking like it's all magical. Even programmers. Aside from how proper knowledge lets you get more out of them, this leads to people spouting off total nonsense about "teaching sand to think" or "everything is just 1s and 0s" or "this 'AI' a con artist who was trying to sell me NFTs a month ago probably really is an amazing creative thinking machine that can do everything he says!"

We used to have this cultural value going where it was expected that if you owned something and used it day to day, you'd have enough basic knowledge of how it worked that if it stopped working you could open it up, see what was wrong, and maybe fix it on your own, or maybe even put one together again from scratch, and that's obviously worth bringing back.

I'm personally working on a totally bonkers DIY project and I'd like to hype up like-minded people for when it gets farther along.

So all that said, have a standard reminder that I am completely reliant on Patreon donations to survive, keep updating this blog, and ideally start getting some PCBs and chips and a nice oscilloscope to get that mystery project off the ground.

Electricity probably doesn't work like how you were taught (and my explanation shouldn't be trusted too far either).

I remember, growing up, hearing all sorts of things about electricity having this sort of magical ability to always find the shortest possible path to where it needs to get, flowing like water, and a bunch of other things that are kind of useful for explaining how a Faraday cage or a lightning rod works, and not conflicting with how simple electronics will have a battery and then a single line of wire going through like a switch and a light bulb or whatever back to the other end of the battery.

If you had this idea drilled into your head hard enough, you might end up thinking that if we have a wire hooked to the negative end of a battery stretching off to the east, and another wire stretching off to the east from the positive end, and we bridge between the two in several places with an LED or something soldered to both ends, only the westernmost one is going to light up, because hey, the shortest path is the one that turns off as quickly as possible to connect to the other side, right? Well turns out no, all three are going to light up, because that "shortest path" thing is a total misunderstanding.

Here's how it actually works, roughly. If you took basic high school chemistry, you learned about how the periodic table is set up, right? A given atom, normally, has whatever number of protons in the core, and the same number of electrons, whipping all over around it, being attracted to those protons but repelled by each other, and there's particular counts of electrons which are super chill with that arrangement so we put those elements in the same column as each other, and then as you count up from those, you get the elements between those either have some electrons that don't fit all tight packed in the tight orbit and just kinda hang out all wide and lonely and "want to" buddy up with another atom that has more room, up to the half full column that can kinda go either way, then as we approach the next happy number they "want to" have a little more company to get right to that cozy tight packed number, and when you have "extra" electrons and "missing" electrons other atoms kinda cozy up and share so they hit those good noble gas counts.

I'm sure real experts want to scream at me for both that and this, but this is basically how electricity works. You have a big pile of something at the "positive" end that's "missing electrons" (for the above reason or maybe actually ionized so they really aren't there), and a "negative" end that's got spares. Then you make wires out of stuff from those middle of the road elements that have awkward electron counts and don't mind buddying up (and also high melting points and some other handy qualities) and you hook those in there. And the electron clouds on all the atoms in the wire get kinda pulled towards the positive side because there's more room over there, but if they full on leave their nucleus needs more electron pals, so yeah neighbors get pulled over, and the whole wire connected to the positive bit ends up with a positive charge to it, and the whole wire on the negative bit is negatively charged, and so yeah, anywhere you bridge the gap between the two, the electrons are pretty stoked about balancing out these two big awkward compromises and they'll start conga lining over to balance things out, and while they're at it they'll light up lights or shake speakers or spin motors or activate electromagnets or whatever other rad things you've worked out how to make happen with a live electric current.

Insulators, Resistors, Waves, and Capacitors

Oh and we typically surround these wires made of things that are super happy about sharing electrons around with materials that are very much "I'm good, thanks," but this isn't an all or nothing system and there's stuff you can connect between the positive and negative ends of things that still pass the current along, but only so much so fast. We use those to make resistors, and those are handy because sometimes you don't want to put all the juice you have through something because it would damage it, and having a resistor anywhere along a path you're putting current through puts a cap on that flow, and also sometimes you might want a wire connected to positive or negative with a really strong resistor so it'll have SOME sort of default charge, but if we get a free(r) flowing connection attached to that wire somewhere else that opens sometimes, screw that little trickle going one way, we're leaning everyone the other way for now.

The other thing with electricity is is that the flow here isn't a basic yes/no thing. How enthusiastically those electrons are getting pulled depends on the difference in charge at the positive and negative ends, and also if you're running super long wires then even if they conduct real good, having all that space to spread along is going to kinda slow things to a trickle, AND the whole thing is kinda going to have some inherent bounciness to it both because we're dealing with electrons whipping and spinning all over and because, since it's a property that's actually useful for a lot of things we do with electricity, the power coming out of the wall has this intentional wobbly nature because we've actually got this ridiculous spinny thing going on that's constantly flip flopping which prong of the socket is positive and which is negative and point is we get these sine waves of strength by default, and they kinda flop over if we're going really far.

Of course there's also a lot of times when you really want to not have your current flow flickering on and off all the time, but hey fortunately one of the first neat little electronic components we ever worked out are capacitors... and look, I'm going to be straight with you. I don't really get capacitors, but the basic idea is you've got two wires that go to big wide plates, and between those you have something that doesn't conduct the electricity normally, but they're so close the electromagnetic fields are like vibing, and then if you disconnect them from the flow they were almost conducting and/or they get charged to their limit, they just can't deal with being so charged up and they'll bridge their own gap and let it out. So basically you give them electricity to hold onto for a bit then pass along, and various sizes of them are super handy if you want to have a delay between throwing a switch and having things start doing their thing, or keeping stuff going after you break a connection, or you make a little branching path where one branch connects all regular and the other goes through a capacitor, and the electricity which is coming in in little pulses effectively comes out as a relatively steady stream because every time it'd cut out the capacity lets its charge go.

We don't just have switches, we have potentiometers.

OK, so... all of the above is just sort of about having a current and maybe worrying about how strong it is, but other than explaining how you can just kinda have main power rails running all over, and just hook stuff across them all willy-nilly rather than being forced to put everything in one big line, but still, all you can do with that is turn the whole thing on and off by breaking the circuit. Incidentally, switches, buttons, keys, and anything else you use to control the behavior of any electronic device really are just physically touching loose wires together or pulling them apart... well wait no, not all, this is a good bit to know.

None of this is actually pass/fail, really, there's wave amplitudes and how big a difference we have between the all. So when you have like, a volume knob, that's a potentiometer, which is a simple little thing where you've got your wire, it's going through a resistor, and then we have another wire we're scraping back and forth along the resistor, using a knob, usually, and the idea is the current only has to go through X percent of the resistor to get to the wire you're moving, which proportionately reduces the resistance. So you have like a 20 volt current, you've got a resistor that'll drop that down to 5 or so, but then you move this other wire down along and you've got this whole dynamic range and you can fine tune it to 15 or 10 or whatever coming down that wire. And what's nice about this again, what's actually coming down the wire is this wobbily wave of current, it's not really just "on" or "off, and as you add resistance, the wobble stays the same, it's just the peaks and valleys get closer to being just flat. Which is great if you're making, say, a knob to control volume, or brightness, or anything you want variable intensity in really.

Hey hey, it's a relay!

Again, a lot of the earliest stuff people did with electronics was really dependent on that analog wobbly waveform angle. Particularly for reproducing sound, and particularly the signals of a telegraph. Those had to travel down wires for absurd distances, and as previously stated, when you do that the signal is going to eventually decay to nothing. But then someone came up with this really basic idea where every so often along those super long wires, you set something up that takes the old signal and uses it to start a new one. They called them relays, because you know, it's like a relay race.

If you know how an electromagnet works (something about the field generated when you coil a bunch of copper wire around an iron core and run an electric current through it), a relay is super simple. You've got an electromagnet in the first circuit you're running, presumably right by where it's going to hit the big charged endpoint, and that magnetically pulls a tab of metal that's acting as a switch on a new circuit. As long as you've got enough juice left to activate the magnet, you slam that switch and voom you've got all the voltage you can generate on the new line.

Relays don't get used too much in other stuff, being unpopular at the time for not being all analog and wobbily (slamming that switch back and forth IS going to be a very binary on or off sorta thing), and they make this loud clacking noise that's actually just super cool to hear in devices that do use them (pinball machines are one of the main surviving use cases I believe) but could be annoying in some cases. What's also neat is that they're a logical AND gate. That is, if you have current flowing into the magnet, AND you have current flowing into the new wire up to the switch, you have it flowing out through the far side of the switch, but if either of those isn't true, nothing happens. Logic gates, to get ahead of myself a bit, are kinda the whole thing with computers, but we still need the rest of them. So for these purposes, relays re only neat if it's the most power and space efficient AND gate you have access to.

Oh and come to think of it, there's no reason we need to have that magnet closing the circuit when it's doing its thing. We could have it closed by default and yank it open by the magnet. Hey, now we're inverting whatever we're getting on the first wire! Neat!

Relay computers clack too loud! Gimme vacuum tubes!

So... let's take a look at the other main thing people used electricity for before coming up with the whole computer thing, our old friend the light bulb! Now I already touched a bit on the whole wacky alternating current thing, and I think this is actually one of the cases that eventually lead to it being adopted so widely, but the earliest light bulbs tended to just use normal direct current, where again, you've got the positive end and the negative end, and we just take a little filament of whatever we have handy that glows when you run enough of a current through it, and we put that in a big glass bulb and pump out all the air we can, because if we don't, the oxygen in there is probably going to change that from glowing a bit to straight up catching on fire and burning immediately.

But, we have a new weird little problem, because of the physics behind that glowing. Making something hot, on a molecular level, is just kinda adding energy to the system so everything jitters around more violently, and if you get something hot enough that it glows, you're getting it all twitchy enough for tinier particles to just fly the hell off it. Specifically photons, that's the light bit, but also hey, remember, electrons are just kinda free moving and whipping all over looking for their naked proton pals... and hey, inside this big glass bulb, we've got that other end of the wire with the more positive charge to it. Why bother wandering up this whole coily filament when we're in a vacuum and there's nothing to get in the way if we just leap straight over that gap? So... they do that, and they're coming in fast and on elliptical approaches and all, so a bunch of electrons overshoot and smack into the glass on the far side, and now one side of every light bulb is getting all gross and burnt from that and turning all brown and we can't have that.

So again, part of the fix is we switched to alternating current so it's at least splitting those wild jumps up to either side, but before that, someone tried to solve this by just... kinda putting a backboard in there. Stick a big metal plate on the end of another wire in the bulb connected to a positive charge, and now OK, all those maverick electrons smack into here and aren't messing up the glass, but also hey, this is a neat little thing. Those electrons are making that hop because they're all hot and bothered. If we're not heating up the plate they're jumping to, and there's no real reason we'd want to, then if we had a negative signal over on that side... nothing would happen. Electrons aren't getting all antsy and jumping back.

So now we have a diode! The name comes because we have two (di-) electrodes (-ode) we care about in the bulb (we're just kind of ignoring the negative one), and it's a one way street for our circuit. That's useful for a lot of stuff, like not having electricity flow backwards through complex systems and mess things up, converting AC to DC (when it flips, current won't flow through the diode so we lop off the bottom of the wave, and hey, we can do that thing with capacitors to release their current during those cutoffs, and if we're clever we can get a pretty steady high).

More electrodes! More electrodes!

So a bit after someone worked out this whole vacuum tube diode thing, someone went hey, what if it was a triode? So, let's stick another electrode in there, and this one just kinda curves around in the middle, just kinda making a grate or a mesh grid, between our hot always flowing filament and that catch plate we're keeping positively charged when it's doing stuff. Well this works in a neat way. If there's a negative charge on it, it's going to be pushing back on those electrons jumping over, and if there's a positive charge on it, it's going to help pull those electrons over (it's all thin, so they're going to shoot right past it, especially if there's way more of a positive charge over on the plate... and here's the super cool part- This is an analog thing. If we have a relatively big negative charge, it's going to repel everything, if it's a relatively big positive, it's going to pull a ton across, if it's right in the middle, it's like it wasn't even in there, and you can have tiny charges for all the gradients in between.

We don't need a huge charge for any of this though, because we're just helping or hindering the big jump from the high voltage stuff, and huh, weren't we doing this whole weak current controlling a strong current thing before with the relay? We were! And this is doing the same thing! Except now we're doing it all analog style, not slapping switch with a magnet, and we can make those wavy currents peak higher or lower and cool, now we can have phone lines boost over long distances too, and make volume knobs, and all that good stuff.

The relay version of this had that cool trick though where you could flip the output. Can we still flip the output? We sure can, we just need some other toys in the mix. See we keep talking about positive charges and negative charges at the ends of our circuits, but these are relative things. I mentioned way back when how you can use resistors to throttle how much of a current we've got, so you can run two wires to that grid in the triode. One connects to a negative charge and the other positive, with resistors on both those lines, and a switch that can break the connection on the positive end. If the positive is disconnected, we've got a negative charge on the grid, since it's all we've got, but if we connect it, and the resistor to the negative end really limits flow, we're positive in the section the grid's in. And over on the side with the collecting plate, we branch off with another resistor setup so the negative charge on that side is normally the only viable connection for a positive, but when we flip the grid to positive, we're jumping across the gap in the vacuum tube, and that's a big open flow so we'll just take those electrons instead of the ones that have to squeeze through a tight resistor to get there.

That explanation is probably a bit hard to follow because I'm over here trying to explain it based on how the electrons are actually getting pulled around. In the world of electronics everyone decided to just pretend the flow is going the other way because it makes stuff easier to follow. So pretend we have magical positrons that go the other way and if they have nothing better to do they go down the path where we have all the fun stuff further down the circuit lighting lights and all that even though it's a tight squeeze through a resistor, because there's a yucky double negative in the triode and that's worse, but we have the switch rigged up to make that a nice positive go signal to the resistance free promised land with a bonus booster to cut across, so we're just gonna go that way when the grid signal's connected.

Oh and you can make other sorts of logic circuits or double up on them in a single tube if you add more grids and such, which we did for a while, but not really relevant these days.

Cool history lesson but I know there's no relays or vacuum tubes in my computer.

Right, so the above things are how we used to make computers, but they were super bulky, and you'd have to deal with how relays are super loud and kinda slow, and vacuum tubes need a big power draw and get hot. What we use instead of either of those these days are transistors. See after spending a good number of years working out all this circuit flow stuff with vacuum tubes we eventually focused on how the real important thing in all of this is how with the right materials you can make a little juncture where current flows between a positive and negative charge if a third wire going in there is also positively charged, but if it's negatively charged we're pulling over. And turns out there is a WAY more efficient way of doing that if you take a chunk of good ol' middle of the electron road silicon, and just kinda lightly paint the side of it with just the tiniest amount of positive leaning and negative leaning elements on the sides.

Really transistors don't require understanding anything new past the large number of topics already covered here, they're just more compact about it. Positive leaning bit, negative leaning bit, wildcard in the middle, like a vacuum tube. Based on the concepts of pulling electrons around from chemistry, like a circuit in general. The control wire in the middle kinda works in just a pass-fail sort of way, like a relay. They're just really nice compared to the older alternatives because they don't make noise or have moving parts to wear down, you don't have to run enough current through them for metal to start glowing and the whole room to heat up, and you can make them small. Absurdly small. Like... need an electron microscope to see them small.

And of course you can also make an inverter super tiny like that, and a diode (while you're at it you can use special materials or phosphors to make them light emitting, go LEDs!) and resistors can get pretty damn small if you just use less of a more resistant material, capacitors I think have a limit to how tiny you can get, practically, but yeah, you now know enough of the basic fundamentals of how computers work to throw some logic gates together. We've covered how a relay, triode, or transistor function as an AND gate. An OR gate is super easy, you just stick diodes on two wires so you don't have messy backflow then connect them together and lead off there. If you can get your head around wiring up an inverter (AKA NOT), hey, stick one after an AND to get a NAND, or an OR to get a NOR. You can work out XOR and XNOR from there right? Just build 4 NANDs, pass input A into gates 1 and 2, B into 2 and 3, 2's output into 1 and 3, 1 and 3's output into 4 for a XOR, use NORs instead for a XNOR. That's all of them right? So now just build a ton of those and arrange them into a computer. It's all logic and math from there.

Oh right. It's... an absurd amount of logic and math, and I can only fit so many words in a blog post. So we'll have to go all...

CONTINUED IN PART 2!

Meanwhile, again, if you can spare some cash I'd really appreciate it.

[joaofelix70]

69 WITH JOÃO FÉLIX | a concept.

author's note: first of all, thank you for reading this and my first story that was boycotted by his ex's fans, lmao (i know joão's flopping here, actually) 💀

many people are not writing for him anymore and that's why i'm doing justice to him, so you're welcome, lol. please, tell me what you think about this work, polite feedbacks are VERY appreciated. i get inspired in the morning and wrote it kinda quickly. really random, but i need to say how obsessed i am with joão being religious, like this gif shows. the way he's crossing himself, kissing his hand and pointing to the sky 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

I'M CRYING, SOBBING ON MY KNEES AND BEGGING HIM TO HAVE A RELIGIOUS FAMILY WITH ME. also, my requests are open. i'm waiting for you to talk to me there <3

warnings: self-explanatory sex position. +18 content. smut, nsfw without context. plus, he's also fingering you here (our dream 😭).

words: 461.

"holy shit, what a good pussy. i missed it, princesa (princess). i missed you!" his fingerprints wrap in your midst of the hot, overflowing fountain: causing an insatiable thirst, to which no other substance would be able to succumb.

"i always need you so badly, gatinho (handsome). i fucking belong to you!" your whimpers exude despair in the name of pleasure, making joão laugh and his ego to inflate.

"of course you do! all this shit, all this is only mine. fuck, i'm such a lucky guy." your walls tighten and compress his beautiful bones, sending sinful sensations to his area of hardness and dampness. then, you're empty. his tongue curls around his fingers, appetizing you.

"so fucking delicious!" wet kisses are deposited on your neck and boobs: delighting his face on each, vehemently sucking and biting them.

"use my body to show it, joão. i'm yours!" your hands involve around the structure of his cock, lips swallowing the resplendent pre-cum from the head and witnessing it run down your chin. stroking and tasting the testicles, you lift your mouth and enter every inch of it into your throat, scratching his toned tights. your hair is pulled by félix and your head guided to have him deeper, completely.

"yeah! just like that! be the good and grateful girl that you are. i'm so proud of you, princesa." joão's destabilized, moaning in portuguese, echoing your name with his beautiful accent, while eyes are closed. however, he doesn't stop. his saliva spread throughout the shape of your torso, hickeys pigmenting the place below where you're most begging to be touched. his mouth explores your intimacy, painting formats and drawings, like you're his work of art: his nose rubbing your clit and offering continual instigations, the tip of his tongue persistently granting the beg leave in the entrance. so he persists, controlling your greedy movements against his face: firm pressure on your waist.

"let me know when you're close, ok? wanna take care of you!" félix grabs your ass, flattening and reddening your skin. tears are shed over your flushed face, your voice weakened after so many verbal liberations. you hold his dilating dick and slap it on your cheek, teasing it through licks and your light, sensitive touch.

"tell me how much you love me, gatinho. i deserve this for being your good girl who is about to cum on your face." you testify his acts getting intensified: ecstasy, along with sexual spasms, protruding from joão. his head goes back and, at this point, he's worshiping you. you're his religion.

"i fucking love you, y/n. gonna cum in your precious mouth and throat!"

"that's my man who i fucking love! please, come for me and i'll do the same for you!"

[sundrop-writes]

Please send in Teen Wolf requests!!

I was just going through some of my older fics, and I realized that writing requests for Teen Wolf was some of the most fun I have ever had writing fics all year. So if you have any requests for these characters, please send them in. Lately I have been feeling so lost creatively and I really need something to reset my brain and get me really excited about working on fics again, so even if I only pick one or two requests to work on and it jumpstarts my creativity again, that would be amazing. (Especially because over the past month or so, writing fics for me has felt like banging my head into a wall and I hate it.)

The characters I write for: Stiles Stilinski, Erica Reyes, Allison Argent (I would love to write more for her omg please), Lydia Martin, Isaac Lahey (please send in requests for him, my baby, my love), Derek Hale, (maybe) Scott McCall, and (maybe) Jackson Whittemore. (I would also be open to writing about Peter Hale or Mommy Melissa if the idea is right.)

I would love to have some requests for MLTs, Headcanons, Reactions, and other shorter fics, but I would also love some ideas for longer fics to play off of. Please read my Rules page before requesting - but I am gonna copy/paste some stuff from my Rules page here, because I have a feeling that a lot of people don't actually read it before they send in a request. Ooop.

I do write for GN reader characters (where no gender is described), male reader characters, but I mostly write for fem reader characters - especially if the gender is not specified in the request. I write smut, angst, any dark topics, but I don't write fluff all that often. (I do like writing hurt/comfort - because I love writing angst.)

In case you don't know what MLT means, to clarify:

MLTS - ‘Most Likely To’s aka a short description explaining which character of the group (or two, or three characters) would be ‘most likely’ to do something or enjoy something. This could be exploring their potential enjoyment of a kink or how they would behave on a date, how they would be as a romantic partner. It can be anything you want, get creative. 

Reactions - 'how would they react to…’ aka a short description explaining how the characters (two or three, you can choose) would react to a certain situation. (If you want this format done with the whole group at once, it will likely be much shorter.) 

Headcanons - a collection of bullet points that creates a shorter, quicker, more efficient style of fic by taking the reader through a tour of ideas, the character’s reactions and thoughts in a shorter format. (These are like full fics, but can usually be done faster.) 

(If you need some inspiration, there are examples of prompts on my rules page, linked above.) 

Here is a list of dialogue prompts that I would love to use for longer fics:

“Who did this to you?” 

“You died. You should be dead.” (Bonus: “Well, I’m not.”)

“Can you run that by me again?” 

“You know, if you weren’t so annoying, you might actually be hot.” 

“Could you please just listen to me for once?” 

“Why are you doing this?” 

“Oh, fuck.” 

“Hey, hey. It’s gonna be okay.” 

“Oh. Oh.” 

“Is that blood?” (Bonus: “It’s not mine.”) 

“No, shut up. Stop talking like that. You’re gonna be fine.” 

“Shut up and kiss me already.” 

“Why would you do something that stupid?” “Because I’m in love with you.” 

“I think I might be pregnant.”

“Oh, great. It’s you again.” 

“Is that a bite?”

“Oh my god. You’re here.”

“I’ll never forgive you for this.” 

“Why don’t you just let me help you?” 

“I am done waiting for you.” 

“I’m in love with you, dumbass.” 

“Please, just let me take care of you.” 

“What are you gonna do about it?”

“I’ll kill all of them.” 

“I can keep you safe.” 

“You’re lucky it was just a scratch.” 

“So you aren’t heartless after all?” 

“I had it under control. You didn’t need to do that.” 

“Can’t sleep?” 

“I thought I lost you.”

“You’re being really nice.” (Bonus: “Yeah, are you surprised?”) 

“I’m not afraid of you.” 

“You know, I was wrong about you.” 

“How about a goodnight kiss?”

[dreamscapesofimagination]

A/n: there is no love here yet for Jiro and i need to fix that bc mans is my top fav. We love a tall, sciencey man w hot girl tummy problems over here.

Formatted weird bc I am on mobile!

TW: Fluff! Jiro is a bit insecure. He is also head over heels. Ending kinda sucks bc i couldn't think of how to end it lol

Synopsis: Jiro thought he knew a lot about you- average blood pressure, enzyme values, how your lungs sounded beneath the stethoscope- turns out you are also a talented artist.

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

The floorboards creaked as Jiro stepped inside, thankful Yuri had been awake this morning to give him his medication before he had to come do this health check.

Without his meds, he knew he would have to scurry away quickly, and his condition would prevent him from sharing a small breakfast with you.

He didn't quite understand his feelings for you- sure, he knew how endorphins rushed through his system around you and triggered the increase of his heart rate.

He knew the scientific reasons behind his attraction- he just didn't know how to react to it. The two of you had been in limbo- not quite together but closer than just friends.

He knew you reacted the same to him- could see it in the way your heart rate would be erratic on the EKG when he would do it (Yuri had banned him from being around when your heart rate or blood pressure were monitered, and today Jiro was just to draw blood and ensure you appeared well) , or the way your cheeks would warm up when his fingers brushed your skin.

His eyes scanned the church, taking in the homey feeling you had created since moving in.

Plants littered some of the pews, and you had cushions placed around for the cats.

He could hear the shower running, and assumed you were in there. While he waited, he wandered across the old room to set his bag on the desk.

He began pulling out his supplies, before sighing when he realized he had forgotten his pen.

Surely you had one in one of the drawers?

He slid the top one open, eyes widening at what he saw.

A drawing.

Of him.

He carefully pulled out the sketchbook, unable to take his eyes from the drawing as his heart hammered in his chest.

He looked focused in the drawing, and he imagined you had drawn him from one of the times he had helped you study.

Flipping to another page, he felt as if he couldn't breath.

Him again, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

You had talent, and you used it to draw him, a chronically ill ghoul who struggled to hold conversations even with people he liked.

"Jiro?" the sound of your voice caused him to whirl around, guilty he had been snooping.

His breath caught at the sight of you standing there, in a tanktop and pair of shorts, toweling off your hair.

"I-uh- I was just waiting for you to finish, Yuri sent me to take some blood samples and make sure you are well,"

He winced internally at his stumbling words, feeling his stomach turn at his increased anxiety.

"I don't mind you looking at them, you're just so pretty and I wanted to draw you," a blush coated your cheeks at your admission.

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, feeling his own cheeks burn.

You thought he was pretty? Half the time his already pale complexion was sickly due to his condition (and lack of sleep), circles that nearly matched his hair rimmed his eyes- not to mention his frequent bouts of nausea.

He jumped when your hand waved infront of his face, so lost in his own thoughts that your closeness had gone unnoticed.

"Ji, you okay? I'm sorry if I weirded you out." your voice was sheepish and oh so sweet, round cheeks burning with embarrassment.

He quickly shook his head, "no, you just surprised me. I've never really had someone be interested in me."

Jiro's voice was matter-of-fact, and clearly he was not searching for sympathy.

He had accepted his differences, and his schedule didn't exactly leave room for romance- nor did Yuri think such frivoloties were necessary. It wasn't until he met you that the consideration that he may be missing out had even entered his thoughts.

Yuri had even noticed, urging Jiro to just ask you out if only to stop distracting him with his 'mournful, pathetic expression and moony-eyed stares.'

Jiro had never really noticed nor cared about the captains absence of bed-side manner, though that comment had made him very aware of it.

"Well, now you do. I know you're very busy, but maybe one of the times you're free you'd like to do something?" you chewed your lip as you asked, n action he had long since learned you did when you were unsure of yourself.

An action that caused all his attention to fall to your lips, wondering what they would feel like.

"I think that would be enjoyable," his words came out softer than he intended, and your bright smile after his words caused his already hammering heart to nearly stop.

He wasn't sure he'd survive a date with you, but he would need to be incapacitated to not accept the offer.

[69misato69]

Moonage Daydream (Tartaglia | Childe - Foul Legacy Transformation x Zhongli) // 2k, smut

archive of our own ✦ twitter

masterlist pinned on my profile !

zhongli REALLY wants to try out foul legacy

cw: monsterfucking, overstimulation, ejaculation, penetration (tentacles, tongue, penis), blood

enjoy !

Top Tartaglia | Childe x Bottom Zhongli

writer's note: explicit +18 content, please view at your own risk. thank you, have fun !

“But, you have seen me as a dragon. Isn’t this a bit unfair?” Zhongli sipped his tea, hiding the sly provocation in his tone skilfully. Childe chuckled, “You’ve seen mine too!” It was true, Zhongli had witnessed Foul Legacy in its full glory many times during battle, but with Zhongli’s form they had also taken up some more interesting activities that strayed away from ‘combat’.

Zhongli hummed, “Yes, though I meant… up close.”

“Well I don’t think you’d enjoy it like that.”

“Why not?”

Childe scratched his head, trying to find a way to phrase it as delicately as possible, “Mine isn’t as adjustable as yours, it wouldn’t be so pleasant for you.” Given that Foul Legacy wasn’t a natural form like Zhongli’s, Childe had a harder time adapting the functions and sizes of each part whereas Zhongli was a master at manipulating harsh aspects of the body he had lived in for centuries. 

“So you’re saying I can’t take it?” Zhongli smirked, he got up from his seat and placed his palms on the table, leaning over to Childe. Night was falling, the lively atmosphere of the mountains faded away minute by minute, trading the joyful serenity for a sinister domain, still calm but oddly mysterious. 

“You shouldn’t tempt me on matters like this, Xiansheng.” 

Zhongli’s amber pupils flashed through the darkness, “And what if I do?”

Childe fixed his posture to raise on his seat slightly, moving his face closer to Zhongli’s, “I can’t promise that you won’t get hurt.”  

Zhongli wasn’t bothered by the drawback, he pressed his lips onto the harbinger’s, noticing how much he missed his warmth even in the few hours they had been sitting and chatting. Childe’s head tilted back, his lips inviting and comforting as they always were for his lover. 

Zhongli pulled away, a thin string of saliva kept their lips in contact, “Ajax…” he pleaded, “ Please… ”  

Childe involuntarily held his breath, attempting to ignore his pants tightening, a spark between his legs that begged to be fed and built into bright flames. Zhongli looked down on him, tracing his lips gently with his thumb. Childe struggled to speak, it was as if a reptile had him in a tight hold, evoking the unholiest of thoughts from deep within.  

After a moment of consideration, Childe stood up and made his way over to the other side of the table, pulling Zhongli close by the waist. Zhongli’s tongue made its way inside his mouth once again, dipping out occasionally as Childe rid him of his clothes. 

The layers pooled around their ankles, falling off one by one with a gentle thud. Childe nibbled on his neck, leaving a trail of kisses and bitemarks that turned the archon harder and harder on his thigh. “Are you absolutely sure about this?” he asked for the final time.

Zhongli petted his cheek gently, “I am. Go ahead.” 

Childe nodded as he stepped away on the open field, floating off from the ground right before Zhongli’s eyes, his iridescent cape, claws and armor took formation as the mask pinned on his hair grew to replace the front part of his head. 

Zhongli watched him in awe, though Foul Legacy was a killing machine, he could still see the faint form of Childe inside whenever he transformed. He waited in excitement as Childe slowly approached him and lifted him up with the ease of a teacup. One claw was enough to fully grab Zhongli by the waist like a doll. 

Childe leaned back, gravity was no longer a concern for him, so he sat comfortably on an invisible seat and brought Zhongli’s naked body to his eye-level. Zhongli examined him, stunned and mesmerized by the beautiful sight as he sat inside Childe’s palm, legs hanging off from in between his thick fingers. 

Zhongli always assumed Childe’s physical senses were more dulled in Foul Legacy, given that logically, it should be more durable to pain. But Childe could feel everything , the heat emitting from Zhongli’s body, his hardened cock rubbing down as precum already spilled off from the tip, even the way his hole quivered in excitement for Childe’s touch. 

Zhongli leaned forward, slightly raising his hips before realizing that the claws would probably rip his insides apart in a matter of seconds. “Right.” he sighed, reaching back to stretch himself out on his own.

But the next thing he heard was a splash, accompanied by waves of water swirling in the air before two, thick ropes wrapped around his wrists. “Hey, what are you—” before he could realize what was happening, his arms were fixed to the sides in a strong grip. The limbs were clear, reflecting the moonlight, but they didn’t feel inanimate. Zhongli could feel slight movement in them, as if they were alive . 

“It would be a shame if you were to fall over.” Childe explained, his distorted voice was awfully sinister. Zhongli had never seen him manipulate his elements into anything but weapons, he struggled experimentally, curious to find out how strong they would be, but it seemed impossible to escape their hold. 

“How am I going to—Ah!” Zhongli was too invested in the sensation to notice a thicker and denser one creeping up against his hole. The cooling effect on his wrists was enhanced as the limb entered him with no warning and no mercy, reaching all the way inside and making Zhongli choke out. 

Childe chuckled in delight, “This is simply a measure of safety, Xiansheng. Why does it excite you so much?” 

Zhongli’s precum was pooling up into a small puddle as his pupils rolled back, it was a sudden intrusion that his mind couldn’t comprehend, yet his body was inevitably reacting to the waves of pleasure engulfing him. 

Zhongli always associated intimacy with warmth, but now, a slimy, cold and reckless entity that he wouldn’t even go near under normal circumstances was filling him up in all the right ways, pushing into his prostate as its tip thinned out and thickened intermittently. He struggled to hold himself back, it felt beneath him to release under a ghost of water. The Geo Archon having the best orgasm of his life with the help of a Hydro tentacle, utterly shameful. 

But Childe was as persistent as he was, altering the rhythm and pressure as he pleased, eliciting needy cries from Zhongli’s lips. “Don’t resist.” it sounded less like an order and more like a suggestion. Zhongli glared at him, enraged, “Then fuck me yourself.” he growled. Childe wasn’t fazed by his anger in the slightest, “Not yet.” 

The bright glow disappeared from Zhongli’s eyes and reignited again in unorganized cycles, lacking stability and control as he struggled to stand his ground. “You’re gonna make me drag it out?” Childe quipped, another tentacle had already wrapped itself around Zhongli’s cock, it was actually a soothing sensation that helped him cool off momentarily before it started pumping him up and down.

Zhongli shrieked, failing to fight any longer as cum spurted out of his tip, with every spasm of his hips his eyes shut tightly, chest heaving with the immense climax still rippling through his body. 

Zhongli collapsed over the harbinger’s palm the second his wrists went unbound, Childe’s claws wrapped around him while his index brushed through Zhongli’s disheveled hair. The archon clung onto his thumb weakly, arms sore from being suspended high up for so long. 

Childe brought him closer to his groin and Zhongli was quick to latch on the fabric and the armor, exposing the ‘skin’ underneath with his slender fingers. Though the human flesh was mostly disguised, Zhongli could identify faint sights of Childe’s skin color, now concealed by dark blue and purple veins traveling along his length. 

His eyes widened with excitement and slight worry, Childe couldn’t help but chuckle at his state, “It’s okay, I don’t expect you to take all of it.” 

Zhongli held his cock in between his thighs, gasping lightly as the tip brushed against his hole. He squeezed his legs together, feeling every vein and curve press into the sensitive skin of his inner-thighs. 

“I will.” Zhongli breathed out, he felt infatuated and intoxicated, beginning to slide forward and back over the shaft almost involuntarily, “I…” a whimper escaped his lips, “...want all of you, Ajax.” 

Childe was more than satisfied with the answer, his fingers wrapped around the archon, lining him on his tip and pushing him down slowly. Tears pooled around Zhongli’s eyes with the stretch, then began to stream down his face as Childe impaled him on his cock viciously. 

He stopped halfway, giving Zhongli a moment to breathe while adjusting his grip. The archon was panting, digging his nails into Childe’s finger in an attempt to ease the strain, though it wasn’t doing much to alleviate his agony. 

Childe began to slide him down once again, Zhongli had never felt more stretched out in his life, it felt like his hip bones were about to shatter, like his insides were being torn apart with every inch. Golden-brown markings painted over his arms and his chest as he fought to remain in his human form. 

Childe noticed the growing fangs through Zhongli’s open-mouthed moans, the golden stripes starting to glow as well as his pupils. “A mortal body is terribly fragile, don’t you think?” he teased the archon, “It would be much easier if you transformed.”

Zhongli spat out the saliva building up on his throat, “Don’t—want to.” he exhaled sharply through his nose. Surely, he could give in to his body’s command, it was only trying to help Zhongli survive, but he refused to give up the extraordinary feeling, being at the mercy of a ferocious beast that satisfied him to such an extent that Zhongli cried, squirmed and whimpered for more. 

No, he definitely wouldn’t trade it for the biological accommodations his body was trying to undergo. 

Childe hissed as he lifted Zhongli all the way up and slammed him down again, reveling in the warmth of his walls hugging him. Zhongli screamed with every thrust, overwhelmed by the lust and rapture that ate away at his mind.  

Through the eyes of Foul Legacy, Childe no longer had friends or foes, everything within his sight was merely prey . Zhongli, however, was embedded into Childe’s brain so deeply that no matter how many layers of his consciousness were peeled away, he would always be there. 

A being that Childe must protect, cherish and worship until his very last breath. A monster like him, only cut from a different cloth. 

His claws hugged the weakened, frail body of the archon even tighter than before in order to maintain his position. The sharp tips scraped along his skin as thin streams of blood ran along, painting the ground below crimson red. Zhongli’s legs and arms gave out fully as his mind steered through the same fate as his flesh, merely hanging by a thread. 

He was starting to have a hard time pinpointing where one orgasm ended and another one began, instead it felt like being milked, drained out until there was nothing left. As if Childe wanted all of it spilling out for himself and no one else. 

Zhongli couldn’t even lift his neck to look at him, the harbinger used the knuckle of his other hand to lift it up for him, gazing into the sparkling pupils that exuded exhaustion. “You’re doing exceptionally well today, Xiansheng, way beyond my expectations.” he praised, “Maybe I should reward you, hm?” 

Zhongli nodded frantically as he slobbered like a dog, unable to utter even a single syllable. Childe was amused watching how pathetic and miserable Zhongli was for him. He parted his lips, letting out his tongue, Zhongli didn’t even know he had one in Foul Legacy, though it was a lot different than a human tongue, much longer and frolic. 

It reached all the way to Zhongli’s lips with ease, mimicking the ludic movements of a snake as it slithered inside. Though the tip of it was slim, the more Childe pushed it down Zhongli’s throat, the harder it became to breathe for the archon. 

It penetrated him deep, dripping saliva all the way down and blocking his airway with steady thrusts. Zhongli’s moans were muffled, vibrating all over Childe’s tongue as the harbinger explored further. It wasn’t so much of a kiss as it was Childe quite literally fucking his throat. 

Zhongli struggled to breathe through his nose, the harbinger’s movements were growing sloppy, his tongue remained stuffed inside Zhongli as he jacked him up and down a few more times before releasing with a growl. 

It was a terrifying amount, not only filling Zhongli up but also splattering all over his body and even leaking down to the ground. Childe’s body contracted and released, squeezing Zhongli at the same pace along with it until he was finally all out. 

He retracted his tongue and slid the archon off, laying him down on the grass carefully. Zhongli couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, he pressed his palms down on the grass, eventually feeling footsteps approach him. 

Childe knelt by his side, running his fingers along the archon’s hair coated by cum, blood, sweat and saliva. Zhongli could only open his eyes halfway, but the familiar sight of his Ajax was comforting enough to form a weak smile over his lips. 

Childe smiled down on him, pressing kisses all over his face and hands, showering his beloved with affection and gratitude. 

i hope you enjoyed ! this is also posted at my ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/44134281 - feel free to say hi here, at my inbox or on twitter @/tarudocd i wish you a great rest of your week :)

[jaybuilds]

I'd like to know your opinion about what exactly one needs to add to a model to give it a Trans am system? Like if I wanted to put it into something from the WFM line and combine it with the Gund Format, how much do you think I would need to modify the model itself?

Considered I’ve dabbled in this sort of integration at times, I’ll just give my general thoughts on it and hopefully you can understand a little better. So let’s begin, shall we?

My earlier projects straight-up just attached GN Drives to the back, and left it as-is. While this certainly has more of a Build-universe vibe to it, and it’s not too out of line from what you can see in 00 with Graham’s Flag that just hastily taped one to his machine as well. It doesn’t look elegant because it lacks what really makes the 00 aesthetic.

For latter works of mine, I felt the need to make these look more authentic; these feature round sphere-like bits on joints/the chest/etc, in a manner similar to that of the Exia itself. The purpose of these is that it alludes to how a proper GN machine would have regulators throughout its body to have a more faithful implementation of such a thing, and actually look more in-line with the 00 universe itself.

But then there’s my Exia Repair….

This frankenstein monstrosity was meant to be as unapologetically defiant to this design as I could think of, while still keeping a mental note that it would have to look functional. It’s got the Drive, it’s got the regulators, but the difference here is that I decided to play around with the aesthetics of IBO as well, which is why all the exposed bits on it look like they have the same sort of energy running through them, that’s also coming from the GN tech.

With all of that said, and if you want a better answer, I have to respond with a follow up question myself: Do you intend to combine Trans-AM with Permit Scores? Or is this merely just including it as its own/secondary power source? Because the system itself has its own sort of interactions to keep you scratching your head over.

[i-actually-post-stuff]

Day 6 of @mcspirkevents Mcspirk week! 

Decided to mix it up. 

I've never publicly posted my writing before so feedback is appreciated!

All right now, how do I format this? 😂

I've decided to work with the "Only One Bed" prompt, to do more with this piece! 

Warnings

Nothing serious! Just some descriptions of bodily harm via boobytraps.

AO3 link

Spock was sitting, legs criss-cross, on the floor. Probably meditating while the painkiller sets in, Leonard thought.

It'd been one hell of a week. From breaking out of a downright stupid castle dungeon to trudging through the trap populated forest on the way to the closest city- hell- even finding someone with a kind enough heart to lend some medical supplies and a bathroom was a nightmare. “What's a warp capable planet doing pretendin’ t’ be medieval anyway..” He grumbled, disinfecting the cut on his upper jaw in the bathroom mirror.

“As you are aware, Doctor, we were informed by the preliminary survey team that the Earloric people seemed to be strictly loyal to tradition. Clearly, the survey team was accurate; the technological advancements of Caruca Prime had little impact on their social structure and traditional practices.” Spock spoke quietly, with an obvious irritation, and minimal movement.

“Or on their medical technology. I really am working with beads and rattles t’night.” McCoy added with a hint of humor.

“I find your work to be quite unchanged. Perhaps you're better suited for the work of an ancient plague doctor.” Spock prodded. McCoy's pout turned to a frown.

“N’ you're suited to be one of those demons from the paintings hung in the church hall. That's why they wouldn't let us in.” He knew Spock’s bitchyness was the result of being interrupted out of his meditation. With the week they'd been having, he couldn't blame him. “Now go on n’ rest. I won't interrupt again.”

“See that you don't, Doctor.”

Narrowly escaping execution by the king was one thing. As usual, Spock had a particularly rough time of it; He'd been shot via arrow through his left arm during their escape while attempting to shield Jim, luckily having it pass straight through, only taking off a chunk of skin (still, nothing to sneeze at). Scraped and scratched by just about everything in the forest. Caught in a barbed wire trap that bound him up by the wrists, which could have been worse, if he hadn't been getting the both of them out of the way; it was intended for the head. Hit by the first energy weapon trap they found, simply by being caught off guard by it. Downright bodied by one of those cartoonish swinging log traps after having pushed him out of the way. And just earlier that morning getting his leg caught in a bear trap. He was lucky he didn't lose it.

McCoy himself had been a lot luckier; the only real trap that'd gotten him was a rope trap the day before. It tugged tight around his ankle as it whipped him upside down, and in the process it friction-burned off a layer or two of his skin, which didn't hesitate to bleed.

Now Jim was out looking for a hospitable house, or a church, or even an inn that would take the promise of compensation arriving with The Enterprise as payment. Leonard didn't think much of their chances. At least he felt a bit better now that he’d fixed himself up.

He looked over at Spock. Despite his impeccable work at patching him up and cleaning him off, he looked like a mess. His unbrushed hair certainly being the worst offender.

Leonard grabbed a hair brush from the sink, rinsing it off, and hoping that rinsing it after he used it too would be enough to avoid disturbing the already delicate hospitality that had been extended to them. He approached Spock, kneeling in front of him. The Vulcan’s normally perfect, helmet-like hair had gone wavy, tousled and dirty. His face tired, with deepened creases, the sunkenness of minor dehydration and certainly lack of nutrition, little pigmentation- say for his under eyes. He was certain he looked worse. Blasted Vulcan constitution.

Still, seeing him hurt was never fun. It put that uneasy feeling in his core, the one that would bring his hand up to clutch at his shirt over his stomach instinctively. It was that impressive Vulcan physique of his that made it all the more troubling when something was wrong.

“Doctor.”

Leonard flinched. Spock hadn't even opened his eyes.

“Your unease is palpable from this distance.”

“I'm worried about Jim, out there all alone with a bounty on him..” Not a lie, necessarily. “Now I'm gonna brush out your hair, you're a mess.”

Spock opened his eyes drearily. “You intend to take out your anxieties on me?” He scolded.

“Hush up and take it.” McCoy huffed, taking the brush to Spock’s bangs. He found after a few strokes that it went through shockingly easily, kind of like brushing a cat.

“I also have,, reasonable concern for the Captain's safety.”

McCoy briefly looked to his eyes before continuing. There was a level of authenticity in them, slipping through the exhaustion.

“Yea?”

“You were not incorrect in your reasoning for wanting Jim to stay..”

“Thanks for your support..” He remarked sarcastically. Spock hadn't said a word to support his concerns before Jim had decided to go out on his own.

“I did not say that I agreed entirely with your opinion, simply your reasoning.”

“T’mato t’mato, Spock.”

“Incorrect. In the region of earth of your origin it is t’mata.”

McCoy chose not to yank out a clump of his hair out of spite. “I mean it's the same thing! The difference is,, inconsequential. You should’a agreed with me if you agreed with my reasoning.”

Spock seemed to hesitate, likely deciding against shaking his head. “His decision was still the best option available to us.”

McCoy sighed. Spock was right. You win this round. At least the squabbling soothed his stomachache. “And when Jim knows he's right, trying to change his mind is like,, tryn’a keep a bull from chargin’ red.”

“Correct again, Doctor.” Now was Spock trying to settle him? He could have sworn he saw a little quirk up at the corner of Spock's mouth. How cute.

~~~

Another success for Captain James T. Kirk. A kind inn owner who would trade his hospitality for some manual labor on Jim's part, and then material compensation after arrival of The Enterprise. It was a great deal. The inn owner himself was not a fan of the king, having a large family that he found it troublesome to provide for. He seemed to be good-natured enough, having at least the humor to find amusement and non-judgmental intrigue in Jim's lack of hooves. Jim had also agreed that if it took longer than expected for The Enterprise to arrive, Spock and Bones would pitch in with their help. Really, there was only one downside to the arrangement (apart from having to make it in the first place).

There was only one room left, and that was one room with one bed. Now, breaking that to those two is a whole new challenge. It was easy for him to sleep next to Spock, it was an absolute pleasure. Sleeping next to Bones was even less of an issue; if he did something silly he'd get loving teasing instead of an unreadable raised eyebrow. Both of them seemed to be quite skilled at falling asleep and being rendered entirely unshakably unconscious. Sleeping like a rock, they say. But to his knowledge, Bones and Spock had never shared a bed.

Not that he hadn't encouraged it. Despite their bickering he knew the two of them made quite the team. He would venture to call them a power couple if he didn't know uttering the words aloud in front of them would make both of them leave the room in disgust, or at least feigned disgust. Those two needed a lesson in relaxation. You're one to talk, Kirk. He shook the thought from his head. Good news. We have a nice place to stay. He started formulating what to say. It's a, beautiful, inn.

He ducked into the alley, having sworn he heard the clattering of a knight's armor. It was right before his turn anyway; he'd find his way just as easily taking a left as he would a right.

He opened the bathroom door. Spock looked a lot better, with his perfect hair and pretty eyes. He looked up at him from where he sat on the edge of the tub. “Jim.” He greeted, relieved, Kirk knew.

Bones would have also greeted him if he hadn't had an apple in his mouth. The Doctor was sitting on the sink clearly enjoying what may or may not have been stolen from the kitchen. That being thought, Spock looked better too with respect to nourishment. So maybe the hosts were a bit more gracious than he'd assumed. Instead of a greeting from his mouth, Bones just slightly smiled at him and tilted his hand in a single wave.

“And here, I thought apples and doctors didn't get along.” Kirk joked. Bones rolled his eyes and swallowed.

“What's the news, Jim?”

“Well,, good news.” Jim started. “I found this, beautiful, inn, and the owner sympathizes with our issue. He's more than willing to put us up in exchange for some supplies at a later date, and,, some help around the inn while we stay. He understands, you two got the worst of it in those woods, so I'll be helping out for the most part.”

“And the bad news?” Bones could obviously see right through the easy solution to their problems. When is he gonna stop reading me like a book?

“Well hold on now, Bones,, I wouldn't call it bad news,, he just only has the one room for us,,, with one bed.” He shrugged defensively. “I've, been assured it's a very nice bed. Plenty of room for three adults. Polyamory is apparently, quite popular, on Caruca.”

Bones and Spock had instantly looked at each other, it was something Jim was choosing to ignore, play clueless and let them sort it out.

“I'll take the floor, thanks, Jim.“ Bones started as he looked back at him.

“Illogical, Doctor, Vulcans do not require soft surfaces to sleep on as Humans do. I will take the floor.”

“With your injuries- Spock- I'm not letting you walk on your own, and I'm certainly not lettin’ you sleep on the floor!”

“The choice is not yours, Doctor.”

“I'd say it is-”

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Kirk motioned for them to soothe themselves. “save the debate for after we've seen the room.”

Bones huffed and passed the remainder of his apple to Jim, who accepted it happily; he'd been a bit caught up with hotel hunting. As always, Spock seemed to decide that such a silly disagreement was no reason to decline the good doctor's help. Bones hoisted him up and acted as a crutch for him, being the more suitable of the two of them due to his height. Jim suppressed his urge to volunteer himself. He'd restrain himself to opening doors.

~~~

A walk is easy under normal circumstances. When you're carrying someone who's twice as dense as you are, or you've got your leg recently caught in a bear trap, it's a whole lot harder. McCoy reasoned that's why getting to that nice little room on the second floor was grounds enough for Spock to withdraw his claim to the floor. It seemed that the Vulcan had non-verbally opted to simply collapse onto the bed. Although he certainly tried to make it look like a decisive choice to lay down.

Leonard wasn't doing that well either. Finding the nearest chair to slump into and almost as instantly passing out himself. But Jim picked him up. That irritating bastard clearly intended to put him in bed.

“Jim, you’re gonna put’me’right back down this’instant.” He managed getting the words out, squirming mildly- just enough to protest, not enough to actually do anything- he didn't want to be dropped, obviously. He wasn't a fool.

“Bones, you need some good sleep, I'm laying you down next to Spock and you're getting that sleep. That's an order.”

He laid Leonard right down on the bed next to Spock. They were touching, seeing that Spock took the middle of the bed accidentally. His skin was warm to the touch despite the chill on the Autumn air outside that had certainly nearly chilled McCoy to chattering teeth. Even Jim wasn't quite so warm. Hell, he couldn't even be classified as luke-warm. He was a bit too tired to theorize on whether or not Spock had a fever. It would be like that birdbrain to get one with his amalgamated biology. Poor thing.

“He's not gonna be a fan of me cuddlin’up’on’him all night, Jim, you know that.”

“I think the two of you will sleep together just fine, Bones. In fact, I'll wake you up before he's even close to waking up. So you don't get embarrassed.”

Well at least now his cheeks felt warm. “You hush..” He couldn't really argue.

The three of them were safe.

Spock was at least reasonably dressed for sleep, in his handsome black undershirt, and his work pants that never quite seemed to get in the way of sleeping in spite of their intended purpose.

He would sleep just fine in his uniform pants, and the blood on the back of his shirt had certainly dried by now.

And Jim would do just fine finding something better to sleep in than the ever so often torn up top of his and his own uniform pants.

So he closed his eyes, and he kicked off his boots and his socks. And after listening to Jim shuffle around a bit- clearly taking off Spock’s shoes, then leaving the room- he got just a bit closer to Spock. Being tucked against him warmed up his core. Hearing his heartbeat pump the blood through his arteries in overtime to fix him up soothed him; at least he knew everything was working right in there. And as he drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few minutes he recognized when Jim came back in and carefully tucked himself beside the two of them, clearly quite intentionally reaching his foot over to touch him. Probably trying to let his subconscious know that he was there.

That was good enough for him.

Who needs to have blankets on top of you when you sleep anyway?

[g1itchtree]

Divulgence- Part 1

Next

Okay quick authors note cause! Why not!

This is a new lukadrinette series. Honestly I love this ship so much it needs more stuff so. Here I am! It’ll be a bit canon divergent, idk how much but Chat and Ladybug actually have proper communication so that’s fun.

Updates will be pretty sporadic, basically whenever the writing mood strikes me. I wrote this in only like a few hours but then l’ll go weeks without writing lmao

Also I really have no idea how to use tumblr and I’m on my phone so if these are formatted weird please let me know

That’s it I guess? Enjoy!

———

“Miraculous ladybug!” Ladybug shouted as she tossed the spotted Dino Huggie in the air. As always, the magic ladybugs swirled around the city, fixing any damage the akuma had caused.

There was one thing that couldn’t be reversed, however.

As Marinette- no, Ladybug. As Ladybug gave Alec his charm and the trio of heroes brought him back to his TV crew, Luka couldn’t help but dread the consequences of what he had learned today. Two of his close friends (if that could even describe what he felt for each of them) were Paris’s superheroes. The sheer fact that they risked their lives every day and still managed to make time for average civilian life was astounding.

He was beginnning to understand why Marinette was always running off.

After they were done with Alec, he and Ladybug zipped off toward an empty alleyway. As soon as the coast was clear he took off his Miraculous and handed it over.

“Thank you, Luka,” Ladybug smiled at him, tucking the bracelet back in her yo-yo. And yeah, he could totally see it now that he knew. He knew quantum masking was powerful and all, but they had the same exact smile, same sparkle in her eyes after a job well done. How could he have missed that?

“Thanks to you, our secret identities were preserved and no one discovered who Chat Noir and I really are.”

Oh, she was still talking. Luka should probably stop staring.

It didn’t seem to matter too much though, because she turned to leave right after. Except she stopped right before tossing her yo-yo, that nervous smile that was just a bit too tight and her eyes a bit too wide to be genuine on her face. “Not even you, right?”

“Not even me,” He confirmed, though he could feel his nerves bubbling up. “Luckily Wishmaker never hit you or Chat Noir.”

Ladybug narrowed her eyes at him, and he knew she could see right through him. Like he could hear her inner song, she seemed to be able to know his deepest thoughts, no matter how much he tried to play it cool. Sure, that was part of the reason he fell for her. She was always the first to comfort him whenever things got a bit much. But damn, if it wasn’t inconvenient right now.

With a look outside the alley to make sure no one was near, she let out a deep sigh, her shoulders slumped as she leant against the wall. “Tikki, spots off.”

With a pink glow, the suit slipped away, leaving only Marinette and her kwami behind, looking stressed to all hell.

“Sorry,” Luka muttered, mostly on reflex.

“It’s not your fault, I knew this was a possibility when I asked for your help,” She assured, fishing a macaron out of her bag and giving it to Tikki. “Is it just me, or Chat Noir too?”

“Both,” He admitted, tugging at the bottom of his hoodie with discomfort. “…you looked really cute as the knitting fairy?”

She looked at him with that adorable expression she had whenever she was disgruntled or surprised, nose scrunched and lips pursed slightly. She then let out a laugh, shaking her head and pressing her hands to her face. “Fuuuck, that’s embarrassing.”

“Not at all,” He waved it off, grinning just a bit despite the circumstances.

“What was Chat Noir’s?” She asked, then seemed to realize her mistake. “Wait, maybe you shouldn’t tell me that, scratch it-”

“He just wanted to please his parents,” Luka shrugged, figuring that wasn’t too bad. Lots of people wanted to do that. “Make them proud, do whatever they said.”

Marinette furrowed her brows ever so slightly, nodding after a moment. “Yeah, that makes sense. I know his dad is overbearing, but he still loves him.”

The two sat in silence as Tikki finished her snack, unsure of where to go from there. Eventually though, the tiny god wiped her face and gave Luka a smile, diving into Marinette’s bag.

“We should head back and find Adrien,” She said after that, pushing herself off the wall. “Can you come back to my place after? We… need to talk.”

“Of course,” He agreed, but really he was dreading that conversation. Many possibilities ran through his head, each worse than the last. Would she not let him be Viperion again? Would she tell him they couldn’t be seen together anymore? Would he have to leave the country just so Shadow Moth couldn’t get to him?

The endless downward spiral screeched to a stop as Marinette took his hand, giving him that tiny smile that said everything would be fine. “It’ll be okay. Let’s just head back for now.”

And so they went.

———

As soon as they reached her bedroom after talking with her parents, Marinette immediately started freaking out.

She paced back and forth, hands tugging at her hair as she started to plan. “Okay so obviously it’s bad that you know who both of us are. If it was just one that might be okay- hell I already told someone, and I let Chat know that he could do the same. But both is a recipe for disaster! If Shadow Moth finds out, then you or your family could get hurt, and if you’re akumatized? I don’t even- that can’t happen! I could load you up on charms, sure, but what if you lose them? Or they break? Wait, can they even break? What if-“

“Marinette,” Luka interrupted, making her stop in her tracks. “You’re going to burn a hole in your floor if you keep going like this.”

She let out a sheepish laugh, her eyes dropping to her feet. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Come on, sit down,” He offered, patting the spot next to him on the chaise. “Let’s work through this one problem at a time, without catastrophizing.”

“Right, okay,” She agreed, plopping down and taking a deep breath. “How about… do you have any questions for me?”

“You mentioned others know?” He started with, figuring that was easiest.

“Oh yeah, that’s a pretty recent development,” She admitted, looking down at her hands. “I told Alya, after the Gang of Secrets mess she figured something big was up. I… I was really struggling balancing my superhero and civilian life, and it kind of just came out.”

“That’s perfectly reasonable,” Luka said, giving her his patient smile that honestly made it super hard not to cry. “I’m sure being Ladybug is stressful enough, and after you became Guardian? I’m not sure I would’ve been able to handle it myself.”

She bit her tongue, holding back from saying that she wholeheartedly believed anyone could do better than her, and she was sure Luka would do utterly amazing. She instead continued her answer, picking at her nails a bit. “I told Chat Noir who Carapace was, cause it was a bit unfair that I got someone and he didn’t, and obviously Carapace isn’t me so there was no risk of him accidentally telling me his identity. And the two are around the same age, and I know Carapace can keep a secret if it really matters. I’m not sure if Chat ever approached him though.”

Luka nodded, silent for a while before asking his next question. “Will… will I get to be Viperion again after this?”

Marinette sighed, dragging her hands over her face as she thought about it. “I don’t know… in all honesty, I really shouldn’t. But… you know how this all works already, and you’re really good at it too! Finding someone else I can trust to wield that power will be a lot of trouble. It’s easy to abuse it or not really know how to utilize it. And… I know Sass likes you a lot, too.”

That made Luka smile, a low chuckle escaping him. “Well, I like Sass too. I’d miss the little guy.”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile back, glancing to where the Miracle Box was hidden. “I guess… well, I won’t call on you unless it’s really needed. But… so long as no one ever finds out you know, then it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“I can keep a secret, there’s no need to worry about that,” Luka assured, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She glanced up at him, the familiar butterflies returning once more. It wasn’t fair that he was just so… so charming! And comforting! And someone she could just be herself around without any fear! Not to mention absolutely gorgeous? Honestly, it’s like the universe was trying to make her suffer.

“Marinette?” He all but whispered, drawing her attention back to reality. His brows were pulled together ever so slightly and he was biting the inside of his cheek, sure signs that something was on his mind.

“What’s wrong?” She immediately asked, starting to panic. Did he think this was too much? Did he not want to be seen with her anymore? This was the first time they’ve really spoken after the breakup, and honestly, she didn’t know if she could watch him leave again. Even if it was for the better.

“I… the whole reason we broke it off was because you’re Ladybug, right?” Luka asked, immediately filling her with dread. “Because you had to keep leaving, and I couldn’t know why.”

She winced at that, turning gaze back down to her hands. “Yes, that’s most of it… and I’m so sorry for that, Luka. I just couldn’t tell you. If I hadn’t broken down, I wouldn’t have even told Alya! I just didn’t want to put you in danger, but I still-”

“No, I get it,” He immediately assured, moving the hand on her shoulder to her own hand. “Now I do, at least. I’ve never had any hard feelings about it, I knew you had your reasons. I still loved you, even though I couldn’t be the one who you open your heart to. I still do, even now.”

“You… you still…?” Marinette whispered, looking to him with wide eyes. Great, now she felt even worse for dumping all this on him. He now knew why it was totally unable to work at all, not with the utter mess that was her life.

“I do, and now that I know you’re Ladybug…” He trailed off, looking down to where his hand laid on hers, slowly interlacing their fingers. “I really wanted us to work, y’know? Is there… any chance we still might?”

“Wait, you-” She immediately moved back, pulling her hand away. “Are you serious? You- after all I did, you still-”

“Sorry, that was probably too much,” He immediately backpedaled at her reaction, hiding his obvious hurt behind a smile. She could see it though, and it made her feel all the worse. “I just wanted you to know I care about you. I get why you wouldn’t want to, though.”

“Hold on, I didn’t say that,” It was her turn to interrupt as she held her hand out, cutting him off. “Just… give me a minute. I honestly wasn’t expecting that.”

Luka softened at her flushed cheeks and how she bit her lip, his affection for her evident in the look he gave. “Of course, take all the time you need.”

She visibly relaxed at that, leaning against the back of the chaise as she contemplated it. She glanced up at him every so often, then at her picture board, and a few times towards the box.

“I… I wouldn’t be able to dedicate enough time to you,” Marinette started with. “I would always have to run off, leave you behind again.”

“And I’m okay with that,” He said. “I was just worried that something was wrong with you before, that you were in danger. Or that I did something wrong. But I know why now, and I can help you escape if it’s needed.”

She let out a sigh, knowing he had a point. “If Shadow Moth ever finds out who I am…”

“He won’t,” Luka immediately cut in, that passionate fire blazing in his eyes. God, she loved that look. “You’re always so careful. That’s why I was there today, right? To ensure Shadow Moth wouldn’t find you. And that was a good call. There’s no way he’ll find out who you are.”

He really wasn’t making this any easier, was he?

“Dammit, Luka…” She muttered, uncurling herself and moving back next to him. “I really lo…like you, too…” She winced at the stutter, cursing herself for being unable to really express her feelings. “You make me feel so… comfortable? I don’t know if that’s the right word. I can just relax around you, not worry about every little thing. I hated breaking it off. I do want to be with you, really. But… I still don’t think it’s a good idea. I still… I lik-”

“Is it Adrien?”

Marinette turned to him with wide eyes, sputtering at that. “I- wha- nooo, of course not! Why would I ever… was I that obvious?”

“I think the only one who doesn’t know is him,” Luka joked, bumping their shoulders together. “I don’t blame you. Honestly, I’ve got the hots for him too.”

“You do??” She almost shouted, mouth agape. “But- you just-”

“You can love more than one person, Marinette,” He started, taking her hand in his again. “It doesn’t have to be this exclusive thing. I mean, it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally have no problem with you pursuing a relationship with Adrien while you’re with me.”

She looked from their hands to his eyes, utterly confused at this point. “I- I’m not sure I understand.”

He laughed at that, tucking a loose hair behind her ear. “That’s alright. I can try to explain.”

He turned away, a little smile on his face as he walked her through it. “Love isn’t something that’s limited. Some people choose to only love one person with their whole being, and that’s perfectly fine. But others prefer to have more than just one partner. They spread their love evenly and wholly. And you, Marinette, have more love to give than anyone I’ve met. I’d honestly feel bad keeping you to myself.”

She was silent, processing his words. “So… you, me, and Adrien would all be a couple?”

“That depends. I’m not sure if Adrien’s into me. But we don’t all need to date each other for it to work,” He explained. “As long as there’s communication and clear boundaries, then I see no reason why you can’t date who you want. The only question is, are you comfortable with that?”

Marinette thought about it, coming up short with a perfect answer, as was the pattern with her feelings. But… it sounded nice. “I don’t know. It… I guess I wouldn’t mind trying? I haven’t even considered that.”

“Most people don’t,” Luka smiled, turning back to face her. “It’s fine if you don’t want to. Just follow your heart.”

My heart really wants to kiss you.

The thought turned her bright red, but she was unable to deny its validity. Could you blame her? The way he looked at her, with endless compassion and devotion, made her absolutely melt. Now that she had this new perspective, she honestly couldn’t bear letting him go again.

It seemed he felt the same. He was slowly leaning in, bringing a hand to her face. Not pulling, just caressing her gently. His eyes flicked down to her lips then back up, a new glint of desire in them.

Fuck it.

She grabbed him by his hoodie and pulled him down to her before she could second guess herself. He jumped a bit in surprise but adjusted quickly, tilting his head ever so slightly as he reciprocated it.

It was quite honestly the best thing she’s ever done. His lips were soft and warm, and they fit against hers perfectly. His hands were rough from years of playing guitar, and the feeling of them on her was too good to ignore. The one holding her hand moved to her waist, drawing tiny shapes there.

They pulled apart after a few moments, both breathless at the exchange. Marinette immediately panicked once it was over, which should honestly be expected. “Oh my god, we just- wait I am so sorry I didn’t even ask that was so awful of me! I can’t believe I did that, I’m so-”

“Mari, it’s okay,” Luka interrupted with a laugh, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “I wanted it too, no worries. You can ask next time if it bothers you that much.”

She looked up at him with amazement, smiling nervously. “How do you always manage to calm me down?”

“I know you,” He murmured, sending her heart into overdrive.

She hesitated for just a second, a bit shy but really wanting to continue. “Can I… can I kiss you? Again?”

He huffed in amusement, dipping his head down to capture her lips in his. She immediately melted against him, a little content hum escaping her. She brought a hand to his hair, threading her fingers through it and pulling him closer.

She really had no idea what she was doing, but Luka made everything so easy. He slowly backed her up so she was against the back of the chaise, moving the hand on her cheek to the back of her neck. His tongue glided over her lips carefully before retreating, giving her the chance to back away if she needed to.

Yeah, like hell.

Instead, she gave an experimental poke of her, surprised to be met with his. She let him guide her, following his movements and slowly making bolder moves of her own. She tightened her grip on his hair, not quite pulling but definitely firm. A low groan escaped him and he kissed her with more fervor, clearly affected by her actions.

Marinette herself was thrilled with this course of action, giving a few more slight tugs as she wrapped her legs around him. Before they could get too into it however, she felt someone watching them. Many someones.

With a groan, she reluctantly pulled away, glaring over at the kwamis. Most of them had their heads poked out, including Tikki, the traitor.

Luka sat back with a laugh, giving a small wave to the creatures. Daizzi rushed forward first, flying around his head with excitement. “Are you the Guardian’s new partner? That’s so amazing! She’s been really upset, honestly. Staring at those photos of you all day, that glum look on her face.”

“That’s enough!” Marinette squeaked out, grabbing Daizzi and covering her mouth. “Another word and I won’t be sneaking you any choquettes!”

“We’re just happy for you, that’s all!” Xuppu cheered, the rest of the kwamis flying out. “And it sounds like you can still be with Adrien! It’s a win-win!”

“Please don’t take our choquettes!” Mullo whimpered, giving Marinette her puppy dog eyes.

“Ugh, fine, just don’t peak next time we make out…” She sighs, letting Daizzi go.

Luka perks up at that, shooting her a smirk. “Next time?”

Marinette turned red, waving her arms around awkwardly. “What? Did I say that? Pfft, how silly would that be? Unless you want there to be a next time, then I’d be more then happy cause honestly that was really hot and I wanted to keep going but! I get if you don’t want to cause I wasn’t really expecting to either, not to say it was amazing, it totally was, and please just shut me up already…”

He laughed at the last bit, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “I’m totally down for more. But maybe another time… I’m sure we’ll get some privacy next time?”

He looked to the kwamis, and each instantly nodded their agreement, giggling and looking between the two of them.

“See?” Luka gestures to them, that easy smile stretched across his face. “No trouble.”

“I should probably feed them now, anyways,” Marinette sighed, slowly standing up. “Do you want to grab something too?”

He grinned up at her, grabbing her hand and pulling the hatch down open. “Lead the way.”

[bitwynn]

Something worth more than this

A SAGAU Impostor AU Songfic

Song used: Peace and Love on the Planet Earth

So I'm not sure if you can tell but this is the songfic request i alluded to in the Not A Fan "Author End Notes". I'm planning to make this a two-parter considering the fact that my... i guess sort of "format(?)" , calls for me to only have one song per fic lol-- also because i, as i was mulling this over in my brain during the few days i couldnt write due to Life Circumstances, got a TONNNNN of ideas and have already made a bit of a whole perfect two parter story AHAHAH-- literally, the only part i fucked up in was which song to use first because i had two versions in my head. one that used Peace and Love first and another that used Mother Tongue first. I kinda just-- gave up on figuring out which song to use first and just looked at the request for the placement of the song lollll. I am still very sick as i write this so thats gonna be. Fun.

@jjovin321 this ones for you bud (no shit you requested it AHAHA--)

Blue for Barbara, Yellow/Gold for Zhongli, Green for Wanderer, Red for Diluc, Italics is Reader/General, Bold is Xiao, Combined is Everyone. Colors and effects only used for song parts mostly. Sometimes Italics will be used for emphasis and the like. Some lines will be altered slightly to better fit the story. Please read with this in mind.

---

"Hey, uhm... Li?" The man turns to you, a questioning look in his amber eyes. "Yes?"

Sheepish, you scratch your head. "This might be a weird ask but uhm..." What were you supposed to say to him? What can you even say to him?

You and your group were deep in the stone pillars and mountains that dotted Minlin, at risk from the Adepti that take residence in the area, but safe thanks to the fear and respect the people have thanks to these Adepti. You had suggested going through Huaguang Stone Forest thanks to its treacherous terrain that even your once-Vessels have trouble navigating, but Zhongli had pointed out the Adepti problem that you'd completely forgotten about.

You had tried to find a safer, and more Adepti-less route, but you all knew that the Millelith and the other Vessels would be crawling over every spot in Liyue they could cover. With that, you were forced to go to the belly of the beast.

Meaning, that because you were in such a highly dangerous area with not only the area itself being the problem, but also the beings residing in it, you shouldn't make these such... selfish requests. Hell, you were currently figuring out a way to go through Huaguang without gliding all over the place or swimming through the lakes that the stone pillars emerge from. Cloud Retainer or Mountain Shaper could just effortlessly pluck you out of the sky, and Ganyu could just freeze you to death underwater. You couldn't waste brainpower on such frivolous things.

But fuck-- you can't just tell them that 'oh hey guys, I'm really homesick and I constantly just wanna curl up into a ball and die! I miss everyone back home so much, please help me, it hurts so much!'

You had to stay strong. For you, and for them.

No-- no, you are strong. What you're trying to do is to just look strong and, god isn't that fucking hilarious? What use would looking strong be to these people? Wanderer watched you have a breakdown the first time you met because you ate his food, Barbara has seen you half dead way too many times for anyone to see anyone be half dead, Zhongli constantly throws you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes everytime you start getting chased, and Diluc was the one to teach you basic self defense which resulted in an ass beating everytime you spar.

These people, they've all seen you and each other at their lowest and weakest points. And they've never condemned any of you for being this way. It is, quite literally, just you and them against the world. So why feel ashamed to ask them of this one thing?

"Can you teach me how to use my powers?"

Their love and care and your complete and utter trust in them still won't stop you from trying to save at least a little bit of face though.

Zhongli takes a moment, cocking his head in thought. "Seeing as we're currently out of ideas on how to cross Huaguang without risk, or at least as little risk as we can afford... alright." He smiles a little to himself, old memories that you've never seen shining in his eyes. "Who knows, we may even find a way to cross safely as I teach you."

Your little group is currently situated in one of the hanging huts-- really, it was more of a little alcove that Zhongli carved out of one of the pillars. You still remember his pleased look as you watched him press his hand against the rock, and you gawked as the stone began to mold to his will. And now, that's what you're trying to recreate.

"Wait, wait, wait-- can you tell me that again one more time? I've been trying but, I'm not sure if I get it?"

Zhongli, as patient as a sage, nods and explains to you once again. "What I do when I mold and shape the earth is to connect with the Geo energy within it. As the earth is just Geo in a different form, I merely begin to impose my will upon it after the connection. It's--"

"Yes, yes, 'it's very similar to your own abilities to possess us as Vessels so maybe try to think of it more like that', we get it!" The Wanderer groans as he lounges at the lip of your alcove, disguised by a low hanging Sandbearer tree. His leg sways back and forth off the lip as he goes on. "At this point, I'm the one who's learning how to become the 'new Geo Archon' with how many times you ask him to repeat that."

"Bitch, the Avatar took 3 fucking seasons to learn fire bending! I have like-- 3 extra elements to learn here and I am literally just starting!"

The Wanderer merely gives you a side eye. "How long was the three seasons?"

"Like... 2 to 3 years? Maybe 4-ish?"

"How long have you been here?"

"...Couple months or so?"

He smiles.

"And how long did this 'Avatar' take to master each element?"

You feel yourself shrink. "Like... uh... couple months at most, I think."

His grin widens and he nods his head. "I rest my case."

"Hey, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

"Now, calm down y/n," Zhongli starts, gripping your shoulder. "With enough time and guidance, you'll be able to handle Geo with the same ease as I do-- maybe more, considering your... special circumstances."

He brings your attention back to the rock you've been trying to bend for what feels like hours. "Maybe we should start with you. Because to me, it feels like you already understand the instructions and are capable of doing it. But, your way of going about it might be what's holding you back." He tilts his head. "What were you trying to do, y/n?"

You feel your face heat as you begin to squirm under his gaze. You take a breath, and sigh. "I... I wanted to make a guitar."

You had turned your eyes downwards to the rock, drawing spirals with your finger. "It's... It'd be nice to have something I can actually play." To have something of home. Even if its just a pale imitation of the one back there.

You feel his gaze soften as he comes closer. "Now... I think I see the problem here." Your own gaze doesn't lift, still staring at your twiddling fingers. "You sure?"

He hums. "Just a hunch, I suppose." He takes your hands and places them back on the rock. "I believe that... you were trying to meld the rock into a guitar but, were trying to do it all in one go."

You lift your head, Zhongli sounding like he had said these next few words millions of times before. "The shape you were conjuring is much too complex for someone of your skill level. But, that doesn't mean we can't make this."

He gestures back to the rock. "First off, simplify the shape of the item you're conjuring. Focus on the large main shapes. If I were trying to make a sculpture of a bird, then I would simplify it first into a small circle for the head, and then an oblong for the body."

You look back to the rock, connecting with its naturally occurring Geo energy. You take a calming breath and close your eyes to focus. "Then... if I were to simplify a guitar... it would be..."

You think back, way back to before you appeared here. Back to your normal life, with your friends and family. You think back on those afternoon jamming sessions with your friends as you'd sing and mess around and teach each other your instruments. You think back to the stories your father had told you, about wooing your mother with a serenade as he'd teach you one of the many songs he'd sing for you and for her.

You remember how you would tap, tap, tap on the guitar-- a makeshift drum as you jammed with friends. You remember the sting and the bite of the hard metal strings as your father taught you how to play a few songs. You remember playing the most basic of meme songs to troll your friends; loved ones leaving their own special marks on you and their guitars.

You smile as you think back to those happy memories way back then. "It would be... that weird sort of number 8 shape for the body..." You remember signing your name on the body of your friend's sticker covered guitar, and how you always gushed over how cool it looked. "...and the long-ass neck for the strings." You remember your father as he was stringing his guitar, how he always warned you to be careful with the E string as it was so thin and prone to snapping if tuned too tight.

You couldn't see it but Zhongli nods with a smile, watching you work. "Second, you add the larger details by redistributing the Geo around your structure. You could add more Geo by using the earth around you but, that's a lesson for another day. Now just focus on moving the Geo around. Back to my 'bird sculpture', I'd take some Geo energy from the main oblong body and move it to the head-- giving it eyes and a beak. I'd also slim the oblong body and make it more bird-like as I do so, moving the other extra Geo down to make feet."

You nod, trance-like as you dig deep in your memories.

The body would need to be hollowed of course, the extra Geo serving to fatten the neck a little and provide some detail to the head. Details like pegs, and tuners, and the little raised platform where the strings rested so they weren't completely flat on the fingerboard. And you can't forget about the frets, it wouldn't sound or feel right if you didn't have them.

You hum a little, the memories of old bringing a smile to your face. The pick guard needs to be a little below the soundhole-- afterall, that's where your hand'll hit when you start strumming. Speaking of strumming, the strings need a bridge to hold them down. Can't just have them attached to only the pegs or they'd be useless.

Zhongli chuckles, causing you to open your eyes. His smile is wide as he regards you with the softest expression, the corners of his eyes crinkling with pride. "Well... I was supposed to coach you on how to do some of the finer detail work but, it seems that I don't need to y/n." He nods at you, the rock in your hand feeling a little less like a rock.

You look down at it, and... "Oh my god. Oh, oh my god... Oh my god, Zhongli... I..."

There it was. An almost perfect copy of your friend's and family's guitar right in your hands. Actually, it would be more accurate to describe it as a fusion of the two instruments-- this guitar taking bits and pieces of the ones in your memories and bringing them to life here in Teyvat.

"Li... Li, I-- I'm so--" you take a deep, wet, shuddering breath. "I..." He merely brings you into a hug, you melting into his arms. "You did good. You did wonderfully, y/n."

You stay there together for a few moments, as you quietly fell apart in his arms. And with one final, shuddering breath, you pull away, looking up at him with a teary-eyed smile. "Thank... thank you, Li. I-- I wouldn't have done this without you." He huffs. "Only because I have an exceptional student."

You blush with praise as he inspects the guitar in your hands. You watch his eyes sparkle and widen, clearly impressed. "May I? Thank you." He lifts the guitar with your, admittedly, reluctant permission, careful fingers flitting about and checking over it. "I imagine that you want this to be a playable structure, yes? Because other than that, this is an impressive guitar structure."

He runs a finger across the strings, rock hard and immovable. "Honestly, the only thing you need to do is to change the composition of some of the material and it would be perfect! Of course, you'd most likely make adjustments to the thinness and thickness of the rock once you start hearing the sound, but overall-- this guitar is of exquisite make, y/n."

Zhongli hands you back your guitar. "I'm quite proud." You take it back, the blush slowly dying down on your face. "...Thanks."

Muscle memory overtakes your fingers as you press chords into the stone strings. The sting of your uncalloused fingers bringing bittersweet memories of your old life. "So... when will I learn to actually, ykno-- turn this into something playable?" "Oh, thats much too advanced for someone of your level, y/n."

The Wanderer bursts out laughing as you squawk in indignation. "WHAT THE FUCK?! That's directed to both of you by the way, but-- what the fuck?" "I'm merely saying that your control over Geo is impressive for someone who has, quite frankly, never done such a thing before. Even those with Visions could not have had that same sort of mastery at your level. But converting Geo into its other forms is a different beast than sculpting. You have to fundamentally change what form the Geo is currently taking-- much more different than moving it around with precision."

You hiss at Wanderer, who blows you a raspberry, as he keeps watch by the opening. Zhongli continues. "I as well, needed much time and practice to refine my control and ability over Geo and its many forms. I could adjust it for you but," He glances over to your silently fuming face, earlier so melancholic in its reminiscence. "I'm assuming you'd want to do it yourself. The next best thing if you want it now is to use the practice of alchemy to convert the sandstone into other materials. Alas, this is one of the few things I am not as knowledgeable on."

He glances to the rest of the team for help, who were peacefully just resting their tired arms and legs on a soft pile of leaves. Diluc speaks up from where he'd been using his folded coat as a pillow. "I've worked with the chief alchemist before on occasion and still remember those few moments where y/n used me to make 'character ascension' materials." He frowns in contemplation as he thinks back to those times.

"I remember that you'd be able to use the 'Dust of Azoth' to convert different kinds of pure, crystallized elemental energy into other elemental energy but, I'm not so sure if you'd be able to use it on... sandstone, you said?" Zhongli nods. "Yeah, there's a high likelihood of that not being able to happen. Dream Solvent is also a risky option, since it only works on 'boss drops' as y/n calls it."

"Well, they're dropped by bosses-- what else am I gonna call them?"

Barbara pipes up, chuckling at your remark. "The only other option I can think of is magic, but the only ones I know are mainly focused on Hydro and healing. But..." She trails off, twiddling her fingers from where she's using Diluc as a pillow. "If you're this proficient in just-- sculpting Geo, then maybe you'd also be that proficient in conversion too!" She suddenly turns sheepish as she scratches her head. "I mean... you are Overseer of Teyvat. There's no reason it wouldn't come easily to you."

"Yeah, its literally the entire reason we're wanted fugitives in every single corner of Teyvat." The entire mood of the alcove shifted as the Wanderer spoke, tone perfectly level as he sits on the edge; his back ramrod straight and legs still in the slowly blowing breeze. His voice is perfectly neutral, none of the usual snark or confidence or playful sass.

Something's wrong.

You kept your posture perfectly casual, fingers still playing with the stone strings of your guitar while in your head, you were scrolling through your weapons options to at least try and defend yourself from-- whatever it is that's alerted him. Everyone's doing something mostly the same, Barbara flipping through the pages of her Mappa Mare like it was just a regular atlas and not a weapon of mass destruction. Wanderer's fingers rapped on his bell, the movement making its clapper sway, its twinkling sounds deafeningly loud in your silence.

He kept his gaze forward, to the stones of Huaguang. Watching. Waiting.

Diluc casually laid a hand on his hip, as if it wasn't the perfect setup for a slash, and Zhongli merely poured himself a cup of tea, trusting in his power as Archon of the land.

Wanderer turns his head to the side and you see his eyes, casually taking in the beautiful scenery as if he wasn't looking for something. He begins to speak. "You know, it's rather pathetic for them to be chasing us down. Rather-- I think that its perfectly in character for them to do so. I mean," He shrugs with a scoff, cocky and insufferable. "are they that stupid as to not realize the differences between you and their 'Divine Excellency'?"

He's taunting them out.

You play along, the role of the 'Divine Deceiver' coming unnervingly easily to you. "Oh, please. They wouldn't recognize Lord Barbatos even if he descended with his godly form in their face. Oh wait--" The laugh that bursts out of your mouth is more of a cackle, the perfect lure.

And finally, the finishing blow-- "I... really didn't know, y/n. I'm sorry..."

Barbara, the perfect image of a confused girl who's lost her way.

"Oh, its alright Barbara," you coo, the whiplash from scheming cruelty to innocent dove almost certainly driving the hit home. "He was merely shirking his duties as the God of Mondstat! And for what? To get wasted every night at Angel's Share?" You scoot closer to her, Zhongli softly blowing on his steaming cup. "So, he's both a liar and an irresponsible god! But don't you worry Barbara, your Divine Overseer is here now." You let her take your hand and kiss it, the very image of reverence and worship.

Barbara nuzzles up to your hand, the tension almost palpable in the air as you all wait for the shoe to drop. Zhongli must've sensed your growing panic, speaking up into the silence. His eyes are soft as he talks. "Yes... thank you for your descent here to Teyvat, your grace." His face sombers, setting down his tea. "I've grown weak in my thousands of years of living, and have had to shirk my duties to my people just like that drunken fool."

He's done well to ease your panic, but it's only replaced by growing dread as he continues to talk. "I... I cannot thank you enough for forgiving me for my incompetence as Overseer of Liyue. I can only hope that my servitude to you will make up for that." Zhongli, whenever he plays his role, never quite lays it on this thick.

Though he's felt remorse and doubts when he stepped down from being the god of Liyue, he has never seen himself as incompetent or weak. He is, afterall, Morax the Warrior God and God of Contracts. Everything he does, he completes to absolute perfection. This self deprecation can only mean one thing.

Oh.

Oh, no.

It's Xiao.

A burst of black and green light-- Anemo energy, blinds almost everyone inside, Diluc and Wanderer still safe thanks to their positions. "Slander!" Xiao hisses. "This is slander and lies, Morax!" You claw at his arms as he grips you in a chokehold. "Do not listen to a single word that leaves this-- this charlatan's mouth!" Zhongli, if he wasn't already, sits straight up and his voice booms with a level of power and authority that none of you have ever heard before.

"Stand down, Xiao." This, this is Morax, the God of War himself speaking.

He summons his blade, the Primordial Jade Spear, and points the edge to your neck. Wanderer stands by the entrance, orbs of black Anemo in his palms and at the ready. Diluc is standing, the blinded Barbara behind him and Wolf's Gravestone at the ready. "Take it back."

You could almost feel the cool jade against your neck with how close its getting to you. "Take it all back Morax-- they're just lies that this vermin," Xiao practically spits the insult out like phlegm. "has wormed into your head." Morax's eyes narrow as he rises, his height making him tower over the Vigilant Yaksha.

"I will not repeat myself again. Stand down, General Alatus."

Xiao bristles, tightening his hold on both you and his spear. You choke as the already agitated yaksha fumes, blade and hand mere moments away from taking your life. He stands his ground against the sheer authority rolling off Morax in waves. "No. No, I will not stand down. I will not stand down, Grand Marshal!"

Morax's eyes narrow as he summons his own spear, the Vortex Vanquisher. "No. No, what I will do, Grand Marshal, is to take this impostor," he speaks the insult with such venom. "before the Divine Overseer's throne not because I want whatever reward they're offering-- no. I am doing this because this faker has clearly poisoned your mind, Morax!" He turns to the rest of the tiny cave. "They've poisoned all of your minds with their lies!"

"I am doing this for the good of Liyue, Rex. For the good of Teyvat!"

And for a moment, his rage ebbs into something like desperation. "Please, understand-- I am doing this for you, I am doing this because of my contract and my duty to protect and serve you and Liyue and the people. Please..."

His eyes soften with sorrow, Morax melting away back into Zhongli as you choke and gasp for air in Xiao's grip. "I am afraid that there are many things you do not yet understand, Alatus."

And Xiao's rage returns, climaxing into a roaring burst of Anemo energy.

"Disappear!" And he left just as he came, with a burst of black and green Anemo energy, Diluc and Wanderer stumbling as they had lunged after you to no avail.

-

You're currently high in the air above the stone pillars of Huaguang Stone Forest, Xiao having shed part of his human form to free the more beastial parts of his Adepti form-- A large and beautiful pair of dark green wings, shimmering golden in the sunlight. The sight of his wings would've been a wonder to look at as you flew through the sky, if you weren't currently hanging by his talons with his spear still pressed to your neck. The threat of death does certainly ruin the whole experience.

The pressure of the blade to your neck is light as you squirm. "Let me go, Xiao!" He tsks. "Believe me, I'd love to just let go of you and watch as you splatter against the rocks and erase your feeble mortal existence from this world. But, I'm going to present you, you impostor, to the Divine Overseer so that they may properly judge you for your blasphemy against them."

You squawk in fear and indignation. "I MEAN'T LIKE-- PUT ME DOWN SAFELY AND LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Another tsk. "Just keep your mouth shut lest I change my mind." You gasp in indignation. "You wouldn't dare!" You cling onto his talons anyways.

It seems like it was the correct decision, seeing as his grip loosened greatly. Xiao chuckles as you cling to him, fingers practically digging into his feet. "Normally, the suffering of the people is something I greatly despise. But, this does bring a smile to my face."

You squeak, the panic and fear festering in your heart finally fully showing itself. "Please-- please can't we just talk this out or something?!" He scoffs. "Like I'll listen to you and your saccharine lies and silver tongue." His grip tightens, enough to draw blood. You shout in pain as he continues. "I don't know what magicks you did or what words you said to them that-- that turned them all this way, but know this, deceiver."

It stings; the way he says your undeserved title, and the talons digging into your flesh. "It will stop now. You, and your lying, and scheming, and blaspheming-- It will all be paid for. With your life, with your blood-- with whatever the Divine Overseer sees fit. And when you are gone from this world, I will make sure that everything you've done-- everyone's minds you've poisoned, everyone that you've harmed-- I will be sure to make it all right again. Do you understand, you fake?!"

Yeah, okay-- you had to agree. The whole playing into your roles thing is really hurting all your reputations. But that's something to be worried about later, the intensity of the situation having reached its peak for you.

You're heaving-- gulping as much air into your lungs as you shake; trembling in his grip. Your heart's pounding, a rabbit-like pace, as you claw at his talons, babbling and begging. "Please-- please, let me go-- you, you don't understand Xiao, please! I can explain everything, please, god, don't kill me! Please, please, please!"

The floodgates break, tears and snot streaming down your face. "God-- fuck! I never even wanted to be here-- I never even to be like this! Fuck-- fuck! Xiao, please-- please, I just want to go home!"

Something changed inside him, with only the barest off-beat wing flap indicating the seed of doubt planted in his heart. He growls, deep and guttural and angry. "I won't listen to your lies. Not now, not ever."

But with the way you begged for your life... it didn't feel like a lie.

Unfortunately, the beginnings of his inner turmoil go unnoticed to you, the panic and fear reaching its climax. You needed to get away, you didn't want to die yet. You needed to go somewhere else-- anywhere else as long as you were safe and alive and away from him. Your mind instinctively goes to the nearest Waypoint, but the realization hits you as you were about to teleport away.

The Vessels know how the Waypoints work now. Thanks to you, those "strange, four pronged landmarks" became a source of fast-travel for the Vision-holders. The Vision-holders that were currently hunting you. Vision-holders that would be watching and waiting at those same Waypoints, waiting for you or any of your party to appear in a golden flash of light.

You would die if you teleport yourself away, the Vision-holders and the militia camping at those structures.

You would die if you resist Xiao's grip, falling to your death or slamming into one of the stone pillars that dot Huaguang.

You would die if you give up, your doppelganger most definitely looking to make you suffer as you breathe your last breaths.

All roads lead to your demise.

But-- no-- no, it cant be. You can't die just yet-- you can't just leave them behind like that. You can't just betray Wanderer, you can't hurt Barbara again, you can't let Diluc lose another loved one again, you can't let Zhongli lose the few remaining dredges of family he has left. And even though Teyvat would never, ever let you die-- not truly at least, dying hurts. Dying always hurt so much.

You have to live.

For you, your newfound family and friends, at least until you can find someway to-- to fix this. To fix everything.

You can't run away from this. Even if you wanted to.

You force yourself to calm down, slowing your breath and heart, but your mind still roiling with fear and anxiety. This is a do or die situation. What can you do? What can you do in this moment, with your feeble strength and abilities that won't end up in Xiao lobbing your head off, or falling to your death, or some other horrible ending to your fate?

You can surprise him-- Diluc and Zhongli had trained you with a sword when they could, Diluc's old Favonius Sword somehow both heavy and light in your hands in your short training sessions. But as soon as you'd bring out the blade, Xiao would probably slit your throat or drop you to force you to drop the sword.

Teleporting is out of the question, with each Waypoint practically swarming with bloodthirsty soldiers. What else, what else?!

You frantically look around Huaguang for something-- anything that could get you out of this. It's such a shame for Zhongli, he only wanted some peace and rest-- to live out the rest of his retirement in peace. But, unfortunately ever since you dropped into this world, he's not only hated and lambasted by his people, but also exposed as a god-- forever tarnishing him in their memory.

A touch of sorrow fills your heart, as Xiao flies you off. And to think-- he'd spent thousands and thousands of years protecting his people with his powers and spears, only for them to turn those same things against him. You still remember the sting as those spears and arrows rained down upon you and the group. And to think, he used to do the same to his enemies during the Archon War, just to protect Liyue and his people. You chuckle. How the tables have turned.

Wait... Spears... Archon War... Zhongli...

You have an idea.

Trusting Xiao to not let you go, you release your almost vice-like grip on his feet, looking out onto the stone pillars before you. You take a calming breath, calling onto Zhongli's teachings. The shiver that goes up your body is so much more different than the tremblings of fear you felt earlier, having connected with the pure Geo energy present within the pillars. You groan, this power filling and rushing within you overwhelming your senses. Is this what it feels like to be Zhongli?

Thinking back to earlier, when you had so effortlessly sculpted a stone guitar, you call out to the Geo energy in those pillars surrounding you-- each one of them answering in turn. You shiver, still unused to the surge of power inside you, Teyvat itself so willing and eager to answer your call. You impose your will onto the world around you, your wish deeply ingrained into each stone, each drop of water, and each blade of grass.

Save me.

Xiao, abruptly yanked out of his thoughts, stops mid-air as the pillars rumble and shake. "You dirty witch! What did you do?!" He flaps around frantically as the pillars begin to crumble and fall atop you. You gulp as you hang on to his claws, the two of you beginning to fall mid-air. "A trust exercise!"

-

Earlier...

"Dammit!" Wanderer shouts, as regains his balance. "Shit-- that damn adepti took them and just-- vanished!" He paces, grumbling as he tries toget his thoughts together. "Fuck-- Barbara, where's the nearest Waypoint? We might still be able to rush the soldiers if we get there now." "No, there's no need for that." Zhongli places a hand on Barbara's shoulder, who had frantically began paging her Mappa Mare.

"What do you mean there's no need for that-- He quite literally vanished! There's no other explanation for it than him going to a Waypoint!" He sighs, recalling his old memories. "Alatus, better known as the Adeptus Xiao, was once the mere hound of a god who had captured him. He was forced to do many horrible acts in that god's name, and was even made to eat the dreams of his victims."

The Wanderer crossed his arms. "And? What does his sob story have to do with y/n getting fucking kidnapped?" He ignored his rise, Zhongli continuing on. "Before I had freed him from his old master, before I bestowed upon him the name 'Xiao', he went by a different name. Alatus. This was because of what he was as an Illuminated Beast. Before he was Xiao, known as the Conquerer of Demons, efore he was Alatus, known as the Devourer of Dreams, he was known as Alatus, the Great Golden Winged. He was known for the beauty of his wings, and swiftness like no other."

"...Meaning that he used some sort of ancient adeptal magic to 'teleport' out of here?" Zhongli nodded at Diluc, who had regained his bearing. "Yes. There can be no other explanation." Wanderer speaks up. "And how are you so sure of that?" The once-Archon hummed as his eyes shone with Geo energy. Elemental Sight.

"There is a difference between Waypoint Teleportation and Xiao's Adeptal Teleportation. Whenever we use a Waypoint, we leave little to no elemental energy behind. On the off chance we do, the energy we leave behind is Null energy-- pure, unadulterated elemental energy that hasn't turned into one of the seven elements yet. It usually dissipates into whatever element is nearest to it, in most abundance, or most prominent. And the traces of Null energy are so miniscule that you'd miss it even if you're actively looking for it." Zhongli blinks away his elemental sight, gesturing to where Xiao and their Overseer once stood.

"This small area is condensed with Anemo energy, with trace amounts of Xiao's accumulated karma. He, therefore, cannot have used a Waypoint." Wanderer tch-ed, as everyone's eye's faded back into their regular shades. "Touché old man, touché."

"That's... fascinating but," Barbara had her Mappa Mare cracked open to the lands of Liyue, Minlin. "how are we supposed to track Xiao? We know that he's obviously taking them to the fake, and that y/n would do all they can to stop or at least delay him, but what path would he take?" She rubs her hands in worry. "Oh, we're surrounded by all sides with adepti! I'd know what paths and what distractions y/n would make but-- but what about Xiao? Would he fall for y/n's baiting and tricks? From earlier, it doesn't seem like he would and that any attempt y/n would make to slow him down wouldn't work..."

Diluc grumbles as he looks down onto the atlas. He sighs. "You know him best Li, we'll follow your lead." A nod.

"Alright. Wanderer, you have an Anemo Vision and you're the fastest out of all of us. Is there any chance you can use the residual Anemo energy to try and pin point his location? If not, do a close and general sweep of the area to try and figure out what direction he went. From there, you'll be our 'eye in the sky' as y/n would put it. You'll be the one guiding us to their location." He nods as he rushes where Xiao was, cupping his hands and filling them with Anemo.

"Barbara, seeing as you've spent the most time with y/n and have the added benefit of 'level 10 friendship', you'll be my advisor to whatever other variables and probabilities that they'd do or make for us. Like if they manage to somehow talk Xiao into putting them down, or if they shift into one of us to try to fight their way out." Another nod as she takes her place at his side.

Zhongli turns to the last of their group. "Diluc--" "Muscle?" A nod. "Apologies, old friend." He brushes it off. "It's alright. There's not much I can do here anyways." They exchange a nod as Zhongli kneels, pressing a hand into the rock. "I'll try to find them by communicating with the pillars or by the Geo signature of their stone guitar. They'd also unwittingly resonated with Geo earlier so this may be a little easier..."

Zhongli feels the Geo energy rush within him. He soaks it all in, feeling it fill up every part of him-- from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. He is positively thrumming with Geo, but no matter how much he takes in, it will never fill up the gaping hole left behind by the Gnosis. He pushes past that old ache, setting his eyes back on his objective.

When he speaks, every rock, every pebble, every boulder, every stone-- no matter how big or small or insignificant, all raise themselves in attention.

"Where is my god?"

The pebbles tumble and cry-- as the wind and waters move us to and fro, we do not know, oh, Lord of Geo.

The boulders rumble in their places-- as rain and time wear us down, we do not know, oh, Lord of Geo.

The grains of sand swirl and churn-- as the tides and the fish guide us 'round Teyvat, we do not know, oh, Lord of Geo.

The crystals gleam and shine-- as both adventurers and miners pick, pick, pick away at us, we do not know, oh, Lord of Geo.

Zhongli frowns, digging deeper and deeper within his connection with the earth. Deeper and deeper still, until he can find each speck of dust and soot by name. Until he can see his allies by the Geo energy emitted by the imperceptible dusting of earth on their bodies.

He speaks once more, urging the stones to sense their surrounding not just by the seismic sense that the natural world has on their forms but to open their eyes-- to see how their once-god saw the world around himself.

"Where is my god?"

The dirt in the breeze dances and twirls-- god, my god, rejoice! We have been graced by our Divine Overseer's touch!

The pure Geo energy shaped curiously like a person roils and churns-- god, my god, rejoice! We have been graced by our Divine Overseer's call!

The pillars shake with glee-- god, my god, rejoice! We have been graced by our Divine Overseer's will!

In the distance, Zhongli could both hear and feel the crumbling and collapsing of multiple of Huaguang's pillars. No-- rather, he himself were the crumbling pillars, stone stelai kneeling before their almighty god. He surfaces, weakening his connection and clearing his mind from the pure and unadulterated Geo that had overtaken him. Shaking away the desire to kowtow that he presumes is from the stone pillars (though he wouldn't be surprised if it came from deep buried instincts), Zhongli rouses to the image of the group waiting for him at the lip of their alcove.

Wanderer plays with a dark and karma tinted thread of Anemo. "I have a slight feeling I know exactly where y/n is."

-

You groan, having landed in a tangled feathery heap. You cough, waving away at the dust in the air as you try to take in your surroundings. Key word here being try, as you come to realize that the pillars had collapsed on top of you to perfectly form a small and yet sizable cavern. A cavern, mind you, with no light source.

You blindly grope around and wave your hands in the air. "Man, it'd sure be nice if I could see." And would you look at that? The next few random rocks you wildly flailed around at were bright, glowing ores of Cor Lapis, covered so heavily in dust and soot that you couldn't see their light. Perk of being god, you suppose.

After using the weak lights of the ores to find others to light up your tiny enclosure, you finally drink in your surroundings. It wasn't much really-- just some rocks, rocks, more rocks, Xiao laying bloody and bruised on the floor, couple more rocks...

"Oh shit-- Xiao!"

You rush to his side, cradling his head in your hands as he groaned in pain. You sucked in a breath, examining the rest of his body. It wasn't anything too major, thank goodness, but it was clear that when you landed, he took the brunt of the damage. You take a few breaths to calm down the rising panic in your chest. He might've wanted to skin you alive and turn you into a nice fur coat for that face-stealing copycat, but he doesn't have to die for it.

You dab away at the blood and dust beginning to cake his many wounds, Barbara's teachings echoing in the back of your mind.

He doesn't have to die. He doesn't know the truth.

You empty the small bottle of water into your now dirty cloth, wiping and cleaning away at the blood and grime on his body. A small frown forms as you stare at the heavily bleeding cut on his head. You know from Barbara's many lectures and the times you got really deep into Wikipedia articles at 3 am, that head wounds bleed heavily. When your head gets damaged, it bleeds much more compared to any other body part and that's normal. That's fine and okay.

But knowledge of things doesn't usually help irrational fears, as you turn his head to try and treat it. But you don't get much further than turning it to face you, as you are immediately met with the cold sting of metal on your neck. Xiao glares at you, gaze fierce but taut. "I don't know what you're playing at, but I assure you I won't fall for it."

You immediately freeze like a deer in headlights. "I wasn't trying to do anything!-- I mean I was, but it's nothing bad! I promise!" You and your hands are frozen still on the sides of his face as you watch his expression go through dozens of emotions you can't quite place. You'd love to look away, but the gentle pressure of the small dagger at your neck is quick to dissuade that idea.

After what feels like an eternity, he finally settles on a sort of neutral but piercing glare. "What were you trying to do then." Your gaze drops from his face, a red heat rising to your face. "There's a cut on your head. It's bleeding a lot and... and I got worried. I know head wounds do that, bleed a lot, but... but still. I got worried."

You could feel his gaze searching your slowly heating face. But you didn't care about that, eyes slowly drifting towards the blood and the wounds on his body. Fuck, couldn't you do anything right? If you took a different route like Nantianmen, or hadn't nagged the group for a break, or played into your rumors to tease him out or something, none of this would've ever happened. You wouldn't have gotten so close to dying multiple times, you wouldn't have almost killed Xiao when you begged Teyvat for help, you wouldn't have to complicate Zhongli's feelings with Xiao and the adepti and--

You take a breath, wet and slow.

And you wouldn't have your old guitar back. And you wouldn't have learned to at least control a tiny bit of your abilities. Wouldn't have given them the rest they so rightfully deserved and needed. Wouldn't have bantered or brought a smile to your friends faces.

In the end, there's no use to wondering and worrying about "what if"s and "could've been"s. The only thing you can do now is to make the best of what you've got.

A sharp hiss takes you out of your silent musing, Xiao attempting to sit up and failing. You barely register the lack of cold metal on your neck as you help him up, leaning him against the cavern wall. "Are, are you okay? I mean, you're obviously not-- you're fucking covered in blood, and bruises, and shit, but like-- you get what I mean yeah? Oh, speaking of!" You summon the first healing food that came to mind. Chicken Mushroom Skewers and a Sweet Madame. "I don't really have medical supplies but..."

You trail off, unsure if food having medicinal and magical healing properties is a normal thing. "...But I've found that having a full stomach helps?" Good save.

Xiao, whose mind has been roiling with confusion and contradictions and conflicting information this whole time, blinks at you in pained befuddlement. He clears his mind, or at least clears it as much as he can with a slight shake of his head. "It's... It's fine. Its just some mild bruising and minor injuries." Xiao stretches his wings in mild discomfort.

On a second thought, maybe those minor injuries weren't as minor as he thought, flinching hard at the pain that shot up his wing. Both of his wings. "Oh, shit! Are you okay?" "Don't touch me!" He slaps your hands away from where they were reaching out for his wings. Xiao scoots away from you, palming his dagger and glaring.

"Why are you suddenly acting like this?!" His Jade spear gleams in the soft light of the Cor Lapis, pointed at your neck. "Don't think your pretty words and silver tongue will worm its way into mind head and poison me like you did with Morax and the rest you've encountered!" The emotional whiplash and building conflict within him reached its breaking point. "Who-- What-- What is your plan here? Helping me and keeping me alive will only bring you more problems in the future! You have had ample opportunity to remove a potential-- not even potential, actual problem in, in whatever grand scheme or plan you have!"

He's heaving now, the roiling emotions in his chest taking over. "Unless you plan to have all of Teyvat in the palm of your hand, having us all grovel and cower like a dog at a table, begging for scraps. But-- but what was that?! Rex La-- Morax-- Zhongli would never topple the pillars of Huaguang like that! And seeing how precious you are to him, he'd never risk it at the chance of ending you."

He'd dismissed his weapon in the middle of his rant, burying his hands in his hair; the confusion and doubt clashing with the conflicting thoughts and emotions within him.

"But earlier-- no sane person would fall for the show you displayed earlier, so clearly scheming and conniving with your little group. So it was-- so it was a trap, bait for me to get in and--and... it was, it was bait-- a trap. A--A trap for me, I--"

It hurt. It hurt so much. He's so lost, so confused. Rex-- No, Zhongli. Zhongli was right. What was their goal here? What does he not understand?

He pulls at his hair, roaring in frustration.

Archons, he wants to understand. He wants to know what mysteries and truths are hidden from him yet. He wants to understand why he follows them, why those... supposedly brainwashed people were so eager to lay down their lives, why his Almighty Overseer had ordered this manhunt so easily and readily at the first rumor that this lookalike existed? Why his body aches and screams with pain as the seed of doubt begins to bloom in his chest?

It hurts. It hurts so much.

It's not supposed to hurt.

He clutches at his chest, the rising tide of emotions within him having empowered his age-old karmic debt. It claws and roils deep within his skin, the corruption reaching for his very being. He chokes, something burning, and inky, and tar-like deep in his throat, the feeling of drowning not far behind. Distantly, he hears himself screaming.

He claws at himself-- at his drowning neck, at his arms and legs bound in ancient burning rage and agony, at the many small wounds leaking both blood and a searing ancient hate. He claws at his back, at his wings-- wishing to tear them off so that their shining beauty and wonder may not be tainted by his eons of sins crawling up his spine. He can feel the karma reaching for them, a tiny and pure and clean part of himself that he had hidden from it so thoroughly until now.

"My-- My wings!--" He chokes, on air or karma or blood, he doesn't know. "Not-- not my wings!"

He feels gentle hands in his hair, pulling his head to rest on something warm and soft. Tears and spit covered his face. It had never hurt this bad before.

Your hands were shaking with panic as you brushed your fingers into his hair, having at least laid his head on a bit of folded fabric. "Sh, sh, sh," you cooed into his ear. "Just-- just breathe. Listen to my voice. Focus on my voice." Your voice cracked. "Please."

Xiao's head turns slightly to you, as he shook and writhed on the floor. He was delirious enough to listen to you. You gulp.

As you brush his hair and whisper sweet nothings into his tear and spit streaked face, you wracked your mind for-- for something-- anything that could help. You take a breath. Another. Panicking won't solve anything. But its hard not to. You feel him clutch your hand like a life line.

You remember... you remember an old voiceline-- Zhongli telling the traveler to deliver some painkillers to him. But-- no, that won't help right now. Zhongli isn't here, and you don't have the painkillers. Hell, you didn't even know how to make those painkillers. What else, what else...

Your eyes scanned the cavern, trying to find something that would spark an idea-- something that could help. Xiao whimpers in your arms. "Please... hurts... so much..." "I'm trying Xiao, just-- just hang on a little longer and you'll be okay, I promise." Come on, come on-- isn't there a character story or piece of lore that could help? Character story... lore...

You know what to do. You just weren't sure if it'd work.

You let go of him, resting his head back on the scrap of cloth you laid out for him. He whines in pain, reaching out for you but you let go of him nonetheless. "Sh, sh, sh... I'm here, I'm here, shhh... you'll be okay, it won't hurt anymore I promise."

You bring out your guitar, still more like a stone statuette than an actual guitar. You still weren't sure this was going to work, but it has to. It needs to. Its going to.

You take a breath, close your eyes, and call upon the Geo within you. Right now, this is just you and your guitar and your captive audience. No life-threatening dangers and prejudices, just you, and your music, and your avid listener.

You strum your hands across the strings.

"Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do,"

The notes ring out inside the cavern, the Cor Lapis almost pulsing with the sound.

"Do-mi-so-do,"

Despite the grim situation, you couldn't help the smile that creeps onto your face. You brush your hands onto the strings once more.

"Isn't it pretty?"

The ores seem to shine brighter in response. Your voice changes to match the next line.

"...how exceedingly simple."

Memories of an old but beloved show fill your mind.

"Do-mi-so-ti,"

Xiao's labored breathing slows.

"We're making music!"

Another strum.

"What is the point?"

You couldn't help the sudden beaming smile on your worn and worried face at his words. His breathing is still heavy, curling up into himself in pain.

"You're not-- making anything."

You could almost see it, back on your couch watching the show as this not so exact scene plays out on screen.

"Well, if it isn't anything, then why does it sound so good?"

He breathes, long, and hard, and deep; the pain is slowly subsiding from his body.

"I suppose its just interest,"

He ignores the tiny voice in his head, reminding him of the first time a god had calmed the karma within him.

"Do-mi-so-do,"

You keep playing the simple tune, memories of acting out certain scenes and songs with friends rising from the depths of your mind.

"Devoid of substance or purpose, a hypothetical pattern,"

Xiao lays there, still curled up on the floor.

"Do-mi-so-ti,"

He lays a wing over himself.

"For the satisfaction of bringing it to completion."

Xiao blinks. The weight of the karma on his chest is gone.

"Sure."

You try to remember the rest of the chords to the song, playing a little with the fingering.

"Do-mi-so-ti."

He tightens his curled position.

"Interest without meaning?"

Even the small pains from his scratches and bruises have faded.

"Solutions without problems?"

Despite the turmoil building up once again within him, you keep strumming at your guitar.

"And then you just add words!"

The words flow from your mouth easily, having sung this song thousands of times in a different life.

"Here's what I've been working on."

Xiao watches as your fingers skillfully fly on the guitar as you take a breath to sing.

"Life and death and love and birth,"

Oddly enough...

"And peace and war on the planet Earth."

Despite all the turmoil and confusion...

"Is there anything that's worth more,"

And his Overseer's warning to not fall for this impostor's trickery...

"Than peace and love on the planet Earth? Ooh-woah,"

He feels at ease with you.

"Come on and sing it with me!"

You were genuinely offering, despite it being the actual lyrics.

"Sing?"

Xiao raises an eyebrow, choosing to sort out... everything later.

"The words relate to the key,"

You smile, both to him and to yourself. No wonder your first Vessel was the Traveler.

"Key?"

You lean back, fingers still strumming on the strings of your guitar.

"If its a pattern, if its a pattern, then just repeat after me!"

You were just so full of love and wonder for this world. Steadfast, and strong-willed, and even willing to break bread, or in this case share a song, with a sworn enemy.

-

Life and death and love and birth,

Zhongli couldn't help but break into a small grin, the rocks and stones singing to him in your voice. With a small nudge to the Geo around him, they sung louder, loud enough for the group to hear.

Life and death and love and birth,

"Is that guy... singing along?!" Diluc huffed from where he was being carried by the Wanderer. "...yeah, okay, at this point I probably shouldn't be surprised anymore."

Now you sing mi-fa-mi-mi-fa-mi-ti-la,

Barbara cradled a singing rock in her hands from where she sat upon Zhongli's dust cloud. "...I think it's selfish of me to want to hoard them all to ourselves and just travel Teyvat like this."

And peace and war on the planet Earth!

Zhongli watches as his Memory of Dust endlessly locked and unlocked itself, using it to pilot the dust cloud they're to their destination. He stares ahead as she continues her musing. "...And I think y/n feels the same way too."

-

You clap with glee as he sings along.

"Yes, yes, that's it!"

Xiao scoffs, tentatively sitting up. He shoots you a look when he sees the flash of worry on your face.

"That's so easy."

You focus back on your playing, glad that it helped. You can already tell that you're gonna have a crazy freakout session after... all of this.

"Yeah, but that's what's fun about it,"

Your fingers flowed with ease on the strings, a perfect replica of the ones you have back home where they were once just stone. You have a feeling you're gonna go ballistic about this too.

"You should write something, you should write a song!"

Just like earlier, despite the suggestion being literally lyrics the in the song, you're genuinely asking.

"About what?"

You couldn't help but giggle to yourself at the curious but eager lilt in his voice.

"Whatever your thinking!"

You watch as a look takes over his face for a moment. He steels himself and sighs. Singing always helps release some pent-up emotions in your experience, so for someone with a special relationship with them like Xiao, it must be a huge relief.

He opens his mouth to sing.

-

I guess we're already here,

Zhongli watches as the Wanderer and Diluc finally reach them, a perfectly shaped dome in the middle of all this rubble and destruction.

I guess we already know,

Backing up to gain some momentum, Wanderer suddenly zooms forward and throws Diluc at the geode they're about to crack open.

We've all got something to fear,

Speeding like a bullet, he throws back his claymore and with a mighty scream and a mighty heft, he is set alight by Dawn. "Your verdict is--!"

We've all got nowhere to go,

The geode is sliced open, Dawn dancing and rising up into the sky. Zhongli waves his hand, his Memory pulsing with light, and the cut-off lid is caught by almost spiderweb-like threads of pure Geo.

There was nothing Xiao could do as the two of them were rushed by a sudden burst of Hydro and Anemo energy, the resulting Swirl preventing him from doing anything.

I think you're all insane,

You're whisked off into the Wanderer's arms, both of you zipping up high into the sky where the rest of your ragtag team is waiting upon Zhongli's dust cloud.

But I guess I am too,

Wanderer nods at him but before anything happens, you raise your hand. "Its fine. You don't have to do anything." The four of them share a look. "I have a feeling he won't follow us outta here."

Anybody would be if they were stuck in Teyvat with you.

After a beat of silence, they relent. The dust cloud churns as Zhongli takes you and the gang far and away from here. "Your 'feelings' have never failed us before." The Wanderer groans as he tilts his head back in annoyance. "And it shouldn't fuckin' start now, asshole. Do you even have any idea the hassle we have to do just to get you every time you get kidnapped?!"

You chuckle, fluent in the Wanderer's special type of emotionally constipated way of speaking. "Thank you for caring Wanderer. And I'm sorry for worrying you." You turn to the rest of the group. "All of you. I... I really am." The Wanderer merely scoffs and looks away. Diluc nods and says, "It's alright. Just... do try to not worry us too much next time yeah?" You smile. Despite it all, you smile.

"Ahahaha, yeah!"

Barbara tackles you in a tight hug. You eagerly reciprocate.

Life and death and love and birth and,

"I hadn't realized until now-- are the rocks singing?!" Zhongli, having sat down with his legs crossed, hands you a pebble. "It was the fastest way we confirmed you're alright."

Life and death and love and birth and,

"I know I should be used to it at this point with all the wacky-ass shit we encounter, but I'm still not over you making the 'Guardian Yaksha' sing!" Wanderer exclaims. You giggle, a memory popping up as fresh as day. "Well, it didn't take me much you get you to sing. And on our first meeting too!"

Life and death and love and birth and,

The two of you bicker as Barbara tries to mediate and Zhongli focuses back on whisking you all away. Diluc looks down at the destruction they caused in Huaguang, the cut open cavern of your geode like a glittering clamshell in the afternoon sun. He could barely make out Xiao's silhouette amidst all the Cor Lapis and Crystal Ore.

Peace and war on the planet Earth.

Satisfied that he wouldn't and/or couldn't follow them, Diluc turns back to the rest of you, the bickering having turned into friendly playfighting and banter. He looks at you and notices something amiss. He chuckles, getting everyones attention. "We went through all of that for your guitar, and you didn't even manage to save it." "Oh, no no no, I have it right here!" With a flash of light, you summon your guitar. It's looking awfully like the zither you bought at Liyue. "...Goddammit."

Is there anything that's worth more?

Xiao would like to say that you'd all left him in a daze when you ambushed him, but really... He'd been caught up in your words. Your song. Too caught up in the things that happened to him during your song.

Is there anything that's worth more?

Still in disbelief of his now unblemished and uninjured form, he goes over to your... stringed instrument. A guitar, his mind supplies, having remembered watching that fiery one's "rock and roll" concert after realizing that the strange activity he saw was just her and her people setting up a small venue.

Is there anything that's worth more?

He runs his finger across the strings, simple notes coming up to greet his ears. He shouldn't be surprised, songs are merely the beautiful weavings of simple notes coming together. Not unlike his once-Grand Marshal's battle tactics coming to fruition. Not unlike your schemes that his Divine Overseer claims you have.

Xiao turns his gaze to the skies, the cloud of dust you all so quickly arrived in now long gone.

Than peace and love on the planet Earth?

He does not follow.

---

AAAAAAAAND DONE! oh my fucking god this took forever to write IKLRHeSTgHEKRGJK-- literally took me a year or so to finish AHJAHAHA Honestly the real struggle here was finding the time to write since like-- i already had the whole story in my head, i just needed to translate it into words.

Well... not really? It was more like i had a guideline for how i wanted this to go, its just that when i started writing thats when i put in the details lol

also there's some parts there that i think like... drag a little aka the part where y/n is panicking and trying to think of a solution for the problem-- i wanted it to take a while and for y/n to form a thought process that ended in the natural conclusion of figuring out a solution to their problem. Id LIKE to think i did p well at that part but like im not too sureeeeeeeee

also-- THE AMOUNT OF SET UP JUST TO GET TO THE SONG PART-- THE SONG IS BARELY EVEN PART OF THE STORY AHAHAHHAHAHAHA-- now that, im COMPLETELY UNAPOLOGETIC FOR AHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

oh yeah-- i already said this before but there is gonna be a rough-ish timeline for the Playlist so if i ever write a fic where y/n cant do this but in the other fic can do it-- just trust me theres a timeline, its probably before the event that made y/n able to do it lol

id add more a/ns but like-- my brain is mush and i can finally publish this so im gonna stop here. oh right-- i did mention this is gonna be a two parter, so the next part in this will be the immediate aftermath, exploring Xiao's POV of the situation and his thoughts. I wanna say that itll be short but uh. Considering my track record, thats not gonna happen. thanks for reading yall :))

[chipped-chimera]

WIP WEDNESDAY - 21/06/23

(I mean it’s technically Friday now between timezones and spoons but have this otherwise I’ll keep forgetting) My first WIP Wednesday! Thanks @theviridianbunny​ for the tag! I’ve been really getting stuck into modding - as well as falling into my usual mod habit of ‘start like six project at once and end up with a million WIP files' but I guess I’ll talk about the major ones.

Graphic design is my passion ...

(Long) rambling about mods I'm making + things I've learned below the cut~

My V’s tatt project is still ongoing, and I’ve (somewhat begrudgingly) been trying out Substance Painter to work on bits of it, mainly polishing seams between UV maps. It’s definitely got a lot of benefits, especially for graphic placement in really tricky areas (like anywhere in the entire head mesh region for example) but I still think a lot of the heavy work will still be done in Photoshop so I’ll probably be writing up both experiences with them when I do that tutorial I keep hinting at for complex tatt work. I’ve started drafting a tumblr tutorial but I wonder if that’s the best format, maybe a PDF? Google doc? Github wikis look cool? (tho I think I need to pay for that) - if y’all got suggestions for tutorial formats pls let me know!

As for the other arguably overly-ambitious-project-where-I-bit-off-more-than-I-could-chew ...

H A I R.

Hair has been the bane of my existence for about the past week( ... weeks? Maybe two?), most of it involving cursing, a lot of reverse-engineering game meshes and smashing my head against blender. But if not already evident from my monowire post - I am a stubborn bitch with too much time on my hands so even though there were at least two moments where I wanted to curl up on the floor under my desk and just stay there - we got there.

This all started because my favourite hair mod which I cannot split from my V’s identity was acting funky and the shape of it had been altered since a physics update. It wasn’t her anymore. So I needed new hair. I tried editing the existing hair. I tried importing the old hair mesh. I tried so many things and they didn’t work out one way or they threw a million errors or there were an obnoxious amount of verts.

I even tried looking for replacement mod hair. None of them fit, all of them felt too ‘clean’ for my V. So I just concluded: FINE. I’ll make my own damn hair. From scratch. At least then I’ll actually KNOW what’s going on with the mesh, right?

Problem with hair is tutorials are very limited in respect to Cyberpunk, so I had to learn a lot of this by myself and looking at other processes used for building game hair. I’ve had a previous stint in game design at uni but it was very introductory and more broad-strokes concepts not specific stuff like what ‘real time hair’ is and how you actually go about placing hair-cards (there’s a million different ways btw) but after another 3 days smashing my head against blender I finally got shit to work to a satisfactory level using hair tools for blender and the particle hair grooming system (not the 3.5 blender system, maybe more on that at some point).

Putting together the hair cards I was 120% convinced this was going to blow up in my face, primarily through vert count. But this hair tool plugin? Alarmingly efficient. I was frequently checking my work against Alt's hair mesh (one I was planning on rigging to) and here's the final-ish stats -

This is with only Alt's hair mesh selected (no cap) and then only my mesh(s - lots of layering to build it up), and by comparison I felt I'd built up the density of a chinchilla. This is not a brag, this is mostly genuine confusion over how efficient this plugin is, all I did was smack around hair curves. It did all the UV mapping junk on the fly.

Although structurally complete, I still consider this a WIP (yes I know there's a reeeeal fun vert funkiness in that second render, it's been fixed) since I'm having to go back and fine-tune some of the UV's the plugins mapped that I'm not happy with and generally figuring out my density problem because if anything, after putting it in-game it felt too dense.

Because yes, somehow I got it in game.

WITH. PHYSICS.

This may have driven me absolutely up the wall between having to learn blender from scratch then what the heck real time hair is and how that works etc. etc. but ... god, seeing her move back from the mirror and just feeling that instant catharsis of 'IT'S HER!' made it so. Damn. Worth it.

It looks too thick - this might be because I chucked in the 'doubled' feature Wolvenkit comes with because I hadn't spent any time doing backfaces. But it also might be because it's black? That's going to need investigating.

The physics need a lot of work too, I did a pretty rushed weight painting job last night on a merged version of the mesh because I was worried whether it was even viable and I'd already dumped an insane amount of hours into this between trying to salvage the old hair and building a new one (with some more bells and whistles. Mainly - curly). That wasn't without it's issues -

This almost fucking cracked me, given this was one of the issues I was experiencing before trying to fix an existing mesh mod. Turns out I was just being dumb and forgetting to export the armature, which I'd thought I wasn't supposed to do after having blender throw a bunch of errors on other hair attempts. I gave it a try after one last shot and boom. Worked. (I dunno what those errors were about man but now I know armature? very important).

Will I release this hair? no damn clue, depends on if I can get it to a level I feel is 'releasable'. I already know what I'm calling it though - Venatrix her side-handle I've decided on.

I look forward to adapting it into maybe a comb-back version, as well as a tied up version, so I can show off both her undercut + have the option of NOT hiding every damn tatt I've obsessed over placing on her neck haha.

In other news -

My much-needed wacom tablet replacement arrived (as well as other things I was looking forward to 👀) meaning my Wacom Cintiq, workhorse of ten years can finally enjoy her retirement. Her controls were getting funky, she had a few dead pixels but man. I'm convinced they won't make them like her ever again. Either way she's done unfortunately - upgrading my monitor to 2k made this painfully obvious. I don't think it's even running in full HD, it's that old. And with Phantom Liberty coming out this year? I'm probably going to need a new videocard and DVI compatibility isn't really a thing anymore.

So for future I think I'll just stick to the basic tablet set up, invest in screens. Also now I FINALLY know what her hair is gonna look like and with the tablet here, I can get back to work on the tattoo bodysuit.

Anyways, that's it for now! (Jesus Christ did you really read all of this? If you did you're a fucking trooper). Sorry for the extended ramble but MAN I did a lot, I needed to yell.

Till next time Chooms! Thanks again @theviridianbunny for the tag~ <3

Oh shit wait, have the blender renders before I forget because hahah I figured out how to do that too lol -

[a-v-j]

Akills and Hryxy rp-turn-to-short fic

Content warning:

Swearing, not really a polished fic so format can be a bit wonky, mentions of sex, a bit of 4th wall break, existential crisis

Written by @nyxus-nyx and me

Enjoy~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4: Youre the first

Akills: italic

Hyryx: bold

Akills waved it off and went to stare somewhere else, scoffing at the idea that sex could be as sacred as a SOUL bond.

"Welp, good to know we have difference views and principles when it comes to that...for us, skeletons, SOUL bond is what we consider a big deal. Any skeleton unfortunate enough to be sexual just do it for shits and giggles or basic intimacy" He rambled

”I dont get it.. for halfbreeds.. we use intercorse as the moment we.. soul bond.. its.. just how we Roll..” he holds his own hand to his chest where his soul is.

“Skeletons just do it for fun hm..? Stupid..”

"your kind soul bond thru sex? Well, that's doing two things at once"

"Doesn't mean we dont do that too, sex and a bond can happen when passion peaks high enough. We can just do either just sex or bond, or both. Some skeletons dont have parts for sex so that's why the bond is the main go-to" He continues on, ignoring that slight comment.

”Mm..”

He sighs.

“What does it even feel like.?” He scratches at his chest again.

"heh"

He tilt his head down as he quietly chuckled.

"Ya gotta be specific, buddy"

”Soul bond.. I never did it to my wife.. she never deserved it but stil..”

He clenches his fist.

“Told it felt nice..”

Akills expression softens a bit as he's able to recollect what a soul bond felt like, he stares blankly for a moment as fond memories softly flashed back to him, then he got a faint image of who he was doing it with and made his mood sour. His expression changes but went on to describe it to Hryxy anyway.

"It's more than nice...it felt like a connection...overwhelming, rush-inducing, feeling of completeness, we can actually feel what we feel for each other... it's like you're able to see what's exactly inside. You'll feel a lot of emotions there, some that are even hidden from both of you. It's more than nice, it's feeling fulfilled "

Hryxy looked at Akills and chuckled.

“Sounds like you have a bit of venom in those words..”

He turns to face Akills once more.

"..heh...one of the many things robbed away from me..."

He looks back to Hryxy, his sockets void of his eyelight and expression unreadable. But his vibe indicate it was a big deal for him

”Hm.. did you ever.. find that one person who robbed you of it..?”

He crosses his arms.

"theyre watching us right now"

Hryxy twitches.

“Oh..?”

"theyre the one playing god and making me, me...i never ask to be, to be honest"

"But boy they sure do like exploring possibilities"

He stopped his leaning position and went sitting cross legged, head down, making his face hidden in the shadows.

”Well. Mine is trying to make me, sentimental.. and feel things..”

He grumbles as he grits his teeth.

“Stupid.”

)HEY-)

"its funny how we are aware of it and still play the stories set for us as if it's a real thing...kinda depressing when you think about it..."

Akills started fiddling with his fingers, not looking at anything but still under the darkness of his hood

Hryxy looks at Akills.

“We have to.. or we’ll end up being scrap.. well.. atleast me..”

Hryxy reaches over and pats Akills head.

Akills stiffens at the touch but lets it be

"Heh, id rather be scrapped, left, forgotten. And i don't mean killing myself, it's more like wishing there were never a trace of me ever. It suck to be who i am"

"Pretty sure you feel the same...being thrown in unnecessary angst for the sake of a "what-if"..."

”Yeah. That atleast my whole life.. hated it.. but gotta live through it.. well for me to die through it and grow rotten..”

He laughs a lil rubbing his hooded skull.

“But bud, im not good with.. ‘comfort’ but atleast.. use that anger or hopelessness on thing that drive you.. well.. crazy.. that works for some of us atleast..”

Akills laughs bitterly

"What do you think im doing. Im killing myself off frame by frame. I know it's hopeless. But...

It gives me a sense of purpose.

Even if it's a fake one.

I know for sure i wont be scrapped like those fortunate enough to be uninteresting, might as well take some of what's coming for me"

"Cant exactly fight god, they could let me but it'll never be real. Dont exactly have a choice but play by their rules, pretend i mean what i am and forget all this is just play...

Heh

Sorry, it's getting existentially heavy" 

Hryxy sighs and grabs Akills and pulls him into a bear hug. “Dont say shit.. just fuckin calm down.. not the end of our worlds yet..”

He grits his teeth wanting to scratch his chest but he protests it.

“Not everyday meetin someone.. who wanted to ring you of your spine then get sentimental.. huh?”

Perhaps forgetting the heavy things is therapeutic, he always been doin it and it felt more better to be in character than feel like shit for being aware of being a character.

Akills would usually kill for the unwanted hug but this one felt right. Felt like a kind that actually gets where his coming from and that it indeed appropriate for the situation. He accepts it

"Heh, nope, youre the first"

(End rp?)

"God, fckn finally"

(Or ya wanna add Hryxy's response?)

"Oh ffs"

(we can end it buddy.)

“Lol.”

The end :D

[literaticat]

I know we are only on the cusp of the battle with A.I. in publishing. My question is for agents, AI can help write summaries and pitches. So if agents decide to use AI to help with SOME functions of their jobs, is that ethical? Is that something every agent should disclose to clients?

There already ARE ways that we "use AI to help with some functions of our jobs" -- because there's AI all over the place in computer programs, etc. For example, when I record my podcast, the program I use can generate a transcript for me, and Zoom can create a written transcript of meetings. (I don't happen to use those features, but they do exist!) My email will suggest responses and "grammarly" will correct my grammar on the fly. There are computer-generated reminders one can set up that can be activated when certain payments haven't come in. Amazon's "customers like you bought XYZ" feature can be helpful when trying to create a list of similar titles. Basically a lot of the shit we use every day, from Gmail picking the garbáge out of our emails to Siri finding a playlist for me, to Spotify MAKING a playlist for me, to somebody's smart fridge telling them they are out of milk and adding it to the grocery list -- all involve AI in some fashion, right? So I would imagine that for things like database management / organizational type situations, it could be useful in some way.

(Again, I'm a dope who does everything in notebooks and am not really hip to HOW, but I'm sure that there are things it already does or will be able to do that could be helpful for work situations or life situations or whatever.)

That said -- I'm talking here about workflow, databases, and the like. I'm not talking about the *creative* part. I might be naive, but I don't really think it CAN be used to properly write a good pitch or a summary of an unpublished book in manuscript form unless you feed it all the information (which, no, and also, it still would probably be wrong and not that good so you'd have to edit it, and also if you're going to all that bother, why not just write the dang thing yourself?)

I've just noodled around with ChatGPT a little to understand what it even is, and I'm sure I barely scratched the surface, but like -- the info it gives is not factual, and there is no nuance, and it's just *vague as hell* for the most part? I asked it to "brainstorm a list of titles for an enemies-to-lovers romance about rival figure skaters" and the titles were SO CHEESY and bad, it was basically pointless. ("Struck by Cupid's Skate Blade" is at least memorable, but not in a good way!) I asked it to write an agent bio of ME and it just made random shit up -- like it all SOUNDED right and was formatted well and if you didn't know anything about me, you'd be like "seems great!" -- but actually it was insane. Not to brag on myself or anything, but I'm a MUCH BETTER WRITER than it is. The only thing it was just as good as writing as I am was a rejection letter, because those are vague and full of platitudes on purpose.

So - yeah, idk, I don't really foresee a time when I would let a robot take over ANY real part of my job, let alone a creative part. But like -- IN THEORY? IF there was an AI that somehow actually knew how to write a killer pitch full of singular hooky details etc and a random agent who isn't me wanted to utilize that? I guess my feelings about the ethicalness depends: If the agent has to somehow "feed" the client's work into the AI thingie to make it spit out the correct info, that'd be wild and weird, and something they should not only disclose to their client, but also GET PERMISSION from their client to do, IMO. If, though, the agent is using some kind of AI program as a helpful tool to improve their own work and it DOESN'T involve giving a robot your intellectual property, I don't really see any problem.

I mean -- if gmail auto-suggests I answer an email "sounds great, thanks for the heads up!", and that's what I was probably going to say anyway, and so I click that button rather than spend twenty seconds typing it out -- I don't put an addendum saying, just so you know, AI suggested that response. :-)

[linaket]

Weekly Writing Update (3/13/2023)

It has certainly been... over a week since I did one of these. But in my defense, I posted monthly goals between my missed updates, and things have been heckin' frantic in my life these last few weeks. They are beginning to settle a bit now, though I am still in severe need of a rest day (haven't technically had a day where I was able to just recharge in... three?-ish weeks.)

But... down to the business...

10/15 chapters complete

word count: 23k

Excerpt:

“That was taken from a chieftain in Attarabi,” Salinae said, his lips close enough to Vahn’s neck that he could feel the words forming on them. “His tribe was one of the last to surrender, but he surrendered nonetheless.”

Vahn didn’t need a lesson in warfare. He’d fought in Atarrabi himself, with Kanna, on the front. He didn’t want to remember the betrayal in the myriad jewel-eyes when they recognized the spark in his, didn’t want to think about how long it had been since then that he’d seen eyes like his that belonged to the living. What Vahn needed was touch, teeth, the hard press of another until the fire in his bones slaked itself and Vahn didn’t have to think of war anymore.

🎵 Music: All Ours by Talos

Our temples are coming in godless Hide when it's wild in the snow I'll leave when the gardens are darkest I'll heed in the warnings of war

Thoughts:

I've been concerned about my pacing in TS. There's this nagging thing in my head that the story isn't balancing out right. Even though I know that I won't be able to tell this until it's finished with drafting, I can't help but chew on that concern and turn it over and over, stressing about if it is then how can I fix it and how much time will it take to fix it since I'm hoping to have TS at least ebook ready by August.

I think that stress still comes from the demand of serial writing. Shadow's Prey Act 3 will finish posting in early April, and I got nothing after that. I'm just... not used to not releasing things, I've been going steady on SP for I think over three years now? Though TS isn't formatted for serial and wasn't intended to be, and neither will the next thing I'm writing be, but it's... like this strange ache in my teeth that I can't scratch or shake.

In better news: the scenes I'm currently working on are moving quicker than my usual slow crawl, thanks I think to my zero-draft. I've hit the spot of writing that I'm most comfortable in, which is that time when all the set up starts converging and rolling to the finale. This means I get to be a lot less careful with my repeated motifs because they are supposed to be noticed now, blaring in the readers' mind and recalling earlier instances instead of just subtly hanging out.

Still hoping to try and get this finished before April 1st. I really think that just a few solid writing sessions should get me through enough to get there, it's just finding time to get those sessions in...

[previous update.]

Taglist: @lynnedwardswrites [ask to be added!]

[kdonsetproduction]

Exercise 1 : HOLLYWOOD BABYLON: Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF helps Damien Chazelle capture an industry’s bawdy beginnings

This article brilliantly articulates Linus Sandgren's choices towards shooting Babylon. I was always fascinated with this movie and its use of color hence I chose to read this specific article. However, upon reading it, I was totally blown away by how detailed Sandgren was in his choice of cameras, lenses, and different codecs to get the look he wanted. The film was shot on 35 mm film, in an anamorphic format. It has been a while since I watched the film but it was done so brilliantly that I did not notice the anamorphic format. Sandgren later explained that the lenses were specially tweaked to maintain the focus, especially at the edges. Sandgrens explained he did this with the help of, Forrest Schultz who tweaked the lenses by hand-polishing certain elements to give them a slightly scratched surface that would also spread the highlights. In the article they went in depth about how Forrest Schultz did this however, I did not understand a word. I would need to research more about how lenses are actually made to understand the science behind the explanation.

Linus Sandgren explained a lot of scenes and the choices he made for them. The most exciting one for me was the party shot. He explained that the director wanted that scene and the camera to have a certain amount of “Absurdity” moving around the events that were happening. Sandgren aimed for a look that was contrasty and harsher to fit the theme of the scene. Further, he states that the movement of the camera was kept “curious”. This was achieved by basically not cutting the camera and letting the camera explore the environment through panning and racking. Very interestingly this scene did not have a lot of blocking. Another challenge for Sandgren was with the location. The location was beautiful as ever, however, it was a really tight space to shoot. He further explains, that to tackle these problems they had to choose different ways of getting the shots. The crew shot those scenes with a spider cam, then shifted to Sedicam, and instead of a dolly they used Chapman Miniscope 7 (I had to search what that was).

This article had a lot more explanations on other scenes, however, I would like to write about something that I did not understand and had to Google my way through. There were two topics that went over my head. One was the different formats they digitalized in. Linus Sandgren says, “We did a 4K scan and a digital intermediate with a full variety of theatrical release formats, including 35mm anamorphic film prints and 70mm spherical film prints, as well as digital formats in Imax, Dolby Vision, and 4K DCP.” I am still very confused about how can you manage to change the film print if it was shot in 35mm to 70mm. I would need to understand this in depth through YouTube videos now but I am super confused. Second was, not much of a confusion but something I found fascinating on how to achieve it. Sandgren said for a couple of black-and-white shots the camera was connected to a remote control unit which helped Sandgren mimic a hand-cranked look by manually moving the FPS between 18 and 22. I found this mind-blowing, and I am super interested in learning how he could actually do this.  

I really found out some super fascinating techniques of shooting. This article made me realize there is so much you can explore with the camera and there is so much you can achieve on set instead of Davinci. I think the film was shot brilliantly and after reading the article I can imagine the work that went into it.    

[darkspace7]

Somehow, combining a few of my favourite tropes (throwing randos into situations way over their head and found family formation via feral vigilante youths and their reluctant but just as chaotic guardians) have somehow resulted in the following: the vicarious need for a phantom thief spiderman.

And who am I to ignore my gremlin-brain impulses?

Enter: Pitch Warker "The Glass Arachnia"

• So this spidey wasn't "bitten" in the traditional sense but was instead pricked by a cursed bejewled spider-broach thing. (Think something along the lines of that shitty mask from JoJo part 1.) Maybe this happens when they go on an errand to, idk, deliver lunch to their Uncle Mais -who works as a security guard at the "New Londattan Gallery of Art"- at the bequest of their Aunt Benita (who are local Aunt May/Uncle Ben variants but cisswaped/roleswaped for some reason?)

•Okay and so while on this normally easy errand somehow the two of them get caught up in a jewel heist with some mook trying to get at the "Glass Spider" (a polished silver & garnet broach with a diamond decal so clear that it looks like glass) and that's what gets this ball rolling.

•The spider jewel apperantly has some legendary curse associated with it. Something about how "the blood shed in the darkened night shall beholden to whims of the fanged court albeit at the cost of forever being ensnared upon their shadowy throne." And so during the scuffle our little wannabe hero tries wrestling back the jewel from the thief but gets scratched in the process. Getting blood on the diamond activates the curse (which for...plot reasons...can only have one bearer at a time?) In the confusion the crook tries takes aim at our hero only to be pulled back by Mais. The weapon misfires hitting the man in the process.

•As expected, Uncle Mais kicks it while the mook takes the opportunity to abscond with the now useless gem leaving a traumatized kid behind for the cops to (not) deal with. (Also because this is New Londhatten, where the only cure for bereavement to either lock yourself away in mourning clothes and drown yourself in absinthe & gin or find a sketchy religion) Aunt Benita kind of dips off for a while to (not) deal with being newly widowed, and so our newly cursed spiderling takes it upon themself to find out why this happened and (hopefully) avenge his relative's death. And what better way to catch a thief is to become a thief yourself and find a way lure out the other? Not the healthiest of coping methods but whatever, it's not like the police are gonna believe some kid coming up to them and spouting on about 'cursed gems' and magic abilities' right?

•I'm thinking of a fancy victorian gentleman thief/steampunk-themed "spider" suit. Something distictly regal and vaugely unearthly to fit with the more magical aspect of the origin as opposed to the usual techno-organic radioactive superhero sthick. Maybe a nice white suit with an gossimer capelett and attached hood. Coupled with an interwoven reddish-silver spiderlace design as the (bulletproof) vest. A spider-shaped broach (perhaps modeled after the "missing" Glass Spider?) Pinned to the neck, a dashing caravat matches sticky-palmed gloves (that somehow never manage to leave a smudge.) They compliment the ruby-tinted lenses of goggles set in that strange porciline mask. Oh and of course what gentleman is without his multi-purpose utility cane (now with retractable grappling hook!) Really, stark white clothes and clacky heels don't mean a thing when you can become the shadows themselves.~

•After not only attracting the attention of the New Londhatten police but managing to snag the attention of other interesting characters as well. Like: Lady Jamie Joan Jameson, a gossip reporter desperate for the next breaking scoop on that 'dastardly snitch-thief Glass Arachnia' with a fondness for that queer little bookbinder who always seem to have their head stuck in some little tinkering thing this or sewing project that. Or Mikelangleo "Mike" Jones, the lovestruck youth with a massive pining for the bespecticaled little bookbinder, whose dry (and often unintentional) sense of humour and keen intellect continuously sends his heart a-flutter. (Such a shame that said bookbinder is completly uninterested in Mike's advances & any and all attempts at disuading the other have -through a continuing comedy of errors only sought to bolster the himbo's impression of the other. A misunderstanding like this would probably easily be solved if there was just a moment of direct communication but when has a phantom thief been direct about anything?) Luckily Gunther Stetson, current owner of Bugel's Books, resident "guy-behind-the-curtain" (Pitch's words -not his-), and the only (self proclaimed) sane man, runs interference.

•And after a while of doing this thieving gig the cursed spiderling hits paydirt. It turns out the mook who stole the Glass Spider was actually part of a larger scheme by this shifty organization to steal away cursed gems and use their powers to do horrific and unspeakable things. Also, something about getting enough of them and it equal immortality. Somehow? I mean what kind of name is Sinistrum Orichalcium, anyway?

•Gunther: "So yeah, that's bad and someone reasonable and totally equiped for this should probably go stop them? Right? Right?? [Of course it has to be them, damn it all Pitch...This is only going to end poorly.] (He was right. Oh mercy, he was right. The youth watched as the body of his ((only)) friend slipped off the crystiline horn of the rhinocerous-beetle-that-was-once-a-man. A lunge forward, torn glove outstreched as the hand r e a c h e d o u t. Metalline claws dug in ((burning agony it hurt)) and rapidly drug his form up and away. He writhed against the restraint, razor blades that drew him back again and again as solid steel scales absorbed the blows. ((Let me go let me go please I can't reach!)) Cackling as groping fingers wriggled under the dirtied white of his mask and ripped it away ((his shield, his safety nonono!)) Recognition. "So this is what you really are little spider. Even now you try to bear your milkteeth." A derisive snort as a gnarled tendril cupped his face an mockery of care. "Poor little Pitch, who would've expected the simple bookboy to have such a storied life?" Everything he had worked for, all that he had sacrificed was now crumbling around him as the other went on, "Feh, you are as brittle as the pages of tomes you peddle and as fragile as the Glass you come from." A contemplative look and the porcaline shattered. "Now look at your ruins and weep.")

• When it rains it pours. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Sinisturm Orichalcum, the New Londhattan Task Force, and Lady Jameson, our hero is now not only wanted for numerous accounts of thievery, breaking & entry, and other assorted stuff related to his vigilantism but now Pitch Warker aka the Glass Arachnia is (erroneously but not that they'd take his word for it) on the list for no less than three counts of battery, assault, & murder. The Sinistrum and their allies basically have been given free access to all of the remaining gems that they need to complete their plan and the city itself. Oh and Mike hates him now. So he fine. He can totally handle this solo. Not like he's the reason his close loved ones are dead and a bunch of villains are going to become supervillains that he still somehow has to stop despite being public enemy number one. Yep. Totally.

•(Spoiler: He is not fine. The spiderling is very stressed and needs a break. Not his supposed villain origin story. Let our adhd boi rest.)