#but holy shit this is such a brilliant casting you're a genius

[undergoing-mitosis]

can we talk about the fact that the icons, the memes, the tumblr sexymen who broke history, reigen arataka and sans undertale, are both some of the most exceptionally written and executed characters i have ever had the pleasure of stumbling across? please can we talk about that?

[touchmycoat]

For HX/LQG, a modern!Au might work best, if only because the canons are so hard to mesh. Your B99 casting already seems like a plot. But if you don't want to write a cop AU, maybe a Leverage!AU - HX is out to ruin the person who destroyed his life, LQG is the hitter, HC is the grifter, HX is the mastermind, SY is the hacker, and LBH is the thief. XL is another victim of SWD and the client. No one on the team knows HX's also gunning for SWD for personal reasons.

EJLAKJSDNLFKJANSLDKF FUCKING HELL ANON YOU'RE GENIUS???

HX's been screwed out of everything by this invisible capitalistic force. He's not trying to be, but he's a little down in the dumps. He's a force of nature, but that doesn't change the fact that he's running through the shitty back alleys of the world getting into trouble and half on the prowl for vengeance, half hoping something would come down and kill him already.

XL's another entity running the same circles, though with a lot more ethics. HX has mixed feelings about the guy, but they interact sometimes. They do each other quiet little favors. They come to understand each other as good men, except XL's bottom line always holds and HX has a bottom line that he'll rip out with his bare and bloody hands the moment he figures out who's to blame for the death of his entire family.

One day, XL brings HX a contact—Nie Huaisang. Says the kid just lost his older brother and is apparently getting completely screwed out of the family business. XL would help, but he has a prior obligation out of town, in Banyue, and so maybe HX can look into it? NHS has money, he can pay.

HX takes the case since he has nothing better to do (also, it was the anniversary of his little sister's death, and nobody would call him a soft touch but on occasion, his immense anger can lead to good deeds). NHS is sniffling and useless but the one lead he does have is an acquaintance, a friend even, who runs in the socialite circles, named Shi Qingxuan.

HX follows the lead, a.k.a. stalks SQX for a solid month. He realizes two things. 1) SQX knows way too many people, but among the hundreds he interacts with there's a solid handful of Bad Dudes, and 2) SQX almost definitely does not know it, the little fool. Why would a 2nd gen rich kid cross paths with the likes of Xue Yang? Jin Guangyao? The Palace?

So HX traces all the money back to one name: Shi Wudu.

In the process, he also finds the slaughter of his own family. Investments in bad pharma (killed HX's parents), willful negligence of workplace safety (poisoned and killed HX's sister), Ivy League schemes (stole HX's entire academic future), and of course the classic, being chairman for the insurance company that let HX's fiancee die. Like, you name it, SWD's done it. It was like SWD woke up, chose to play god one day, and said "screw this guy in particular."

And now it's fucking personal. HX heads out and collects the best people he knows for each job (it wasn't like he could clone himself, as much as he'd like to). They were all lone wolves, but that's fine, so is HX. He'd pay them an exorbitant fee for a one-time job and they could all be on their way.

The easiest one to get hold of was Shen Yuan, with the real shit internet alias that HX would never say, thank you very much. SY almost doesn't take the job the moment he hears it's a group effort (too much potential to exposure! people who do his line of work ought to stay anonymous as much as possible!), but HX simply tells him LBH, most famous thief of the criminal underworld, was coming. SY agrees.

HX reaches out to LBH after that and says hey, your favorite little partner on the digital front is taking my job. you want in? LBH immediately says yes.

For the hitter, HX's initial plan was FX or MQ, whoever responded first (and if he told each of them the other was thinking about it, they'd both respond within the hour), but SY goes "nah dude, just use my guy. You heard of Baizhan?" and everybody's heard of what went down at Baizhan so HX agrees. LQG is hired on, frowny and punchy and quiet, which was perfectly fine by HX.

That leaves their grifter. HX thinks about it, and tells the team they were going after one of. SWD's subsidiaries's subsidiaries. The guy in charge is called Pei Su. HX outlines something that looks like it will very much work, but at the very last moment, calls LQG in private, hands him a check with a ton of zeroes on it, and tells LQG to drop the ball in his leg of the mission. They were going to intentionally fail this job—the idea is, once XL gets word that they'd fucked up (and HX probably has to get injured a little), he'd feel bad enough to send his San Lang to their aid, and Hua Cheng's the best grifter HX knows, including himself.

But LQG just scowls and throws the check away, saying this is exactly why he doesn't take group jobs, all this bullshit underhandedness, take your nonsense somewhere else, he's pulling out (and probably convincing SY, and thus LBH by their web of causality, to go with him).

His dismissive attitude pings HX in just the wrong way. For a moment he understands that LQG is looking at himself the same way he looks at people like JGY and SWD—manipulative and full of political nonsense. He's so goddamn angry that he snaps about it.

LQG also tells HX that he, along with bingyuan, also already know that he's gunning for something else here. Why would fucking Black Water pull out all the stops for one tiny job? So until HX tells them what's actually going on, LQG is fucking gone.

HX tackles him to the ground. A brawling match ensues.

LQG may be a hitter, but HX is also very, very good. They kind of beat each other to a pulp, and LQG seems weirdly pleased by the end of it. "More honest than the shit you've been spewing," he scoffs.

As they sit there in the rented apartment-HQ, nursing their wounds, HX ends up telling LQG about his family. Not in an extended or pitiful way, just the facts.

"Was that so damn hard?" LQG complains. "So SWD must die. I'll throw the fight."

HX wasn't trying to be grateful here, but. But he can appreciate a staunch and straight-shooting man.

LQG throws the fight (but tells SY about the plan ahead of time), and they've almost "failed" the job successfully—when this dude in red suddenly appears. Speaks to the security in charge, drops a few important pieces of evidence. Resolves the entire situation with fake lawyer credentials. Pei Su is arrested. The man in red disappears.

HX takes the team back to HQ with gritted teeth, and is not surprised at all to find Hua Cheng waiting for them.

"If your plan was to emotionally blackmail Dianxia," HC says smoothly, "then think again. Black Water, you just made the biggest mistake of your life."

LQG is about to take point, but HX pulls him back.

"And what mistake is that?" HX monotones. HC just smirks and cocks his head to one side.

"You hired me."

[anemoarchonhoe]

Ok so for sagau imagine reader knows comics liek a lot and when they get transported to genshin they get the power of Magneto but the comic version so imagine the acolytes reaction to reader making them stand still by controlling the iron in their blood

MAGNETO POWERS HOLY SHIT.

Anon. Anon. You're brilliant. A genius. Let me kiss your curly brain full of lovely ideas- Ehem.

They'd be terrified as hell. They couldn't move a muscle. It's like they're locked in place, like something from within them is keeping them still. If they weren't looking at you, whose hand was outstretched towards them to control their bodies, they'd think that it's some sort of vile witchcraft casted on them. A really strong one, too, since even gods are powerless against it.

How could it be? A mere impostor shouldn't ever be this strong. Just who is this person?