#got two of her polearm too!!!

[blindfoldcd]

ooc. father has come home to the hearth.

[cornelianlute]

.

[siennaditbot]

Sethos x Reader: Sun & Moon

Hehe, look at me actually finishing it lol. Been ages since I've written x Reader stuff but I hope yall like it. Sethos needs more love <3

Female reader but I hope yall can still enjoy it lol :>

Sethos was a people person. He could talk to everyone and make them forget that they hadn't just met him, seamlessly integrating into any group he wished.

He had a good facial memory, so he could strike up a familiar conversation with most of the citizens.

But there was someone in Sumeru City that he had never properly caught for a chat. A humble cleaner girl, who seemed to hate him for some reason.

Whenever he tried to start a casual conversation with her, she focused on anything but him, her body language telling him she did not want to talk. Her replies were curt and he had to try hard to keep the conversation from dying.

He was pushy, yeah, but he knew not to push his luck. She was practically holding a weapon she could smack him with, after all. An everyman’s polearm - a broom.

So, he stopped approaching her. They just coexisted, him passing by her sweeping the streets sometimes, offering a polite wave as he jogged past her.

Then, on one rainy day, Sethos was caught enjoying the shower between his errands. He stood in the middle of the empty street, eyes closed and face lifted skyward as if to hug the rainfall.

But the rain suddenly stopped.

He opened his eyes in surprise and briefly met hers, before she handed her umbrella to him and dashed off. He was left there, staring at her disappearing form and the splatters of water as she ran.

He was confused, but shrugged the absurd encounter off with an amused smile.

“Heh, guess she doesn't hate me, after all. Interesting.”

Sethos loved being in the city. It was full of fascinating people, especially within the Akademiya. He loved learning about them, their stories, ideas and passions.

And now the curt sweeper girl had caught his interest.

He still politely greeted her when he passed by, and her responses were curt as ever, usually simply nodding and letting him pass. But now he read her behavior as shy and awkward instead of hateful.

His polite smile became a bit more genuine when he understood.

He kept noticing her in other places after that, too. She was often found sitting in random spots, holding a notebook she was very focused on, not paying attention to anyone who wondered what her deal was.

Sethos was one of them. He curiously eyed her every time he saw her, but she never lifted her face from her notebook.

One day she was sitting on a box behind Lambad’s Tavern, hand going wild as she worked on the notebook in her lap. Sethos noticed her, and decided to approach her for once.

She jumped when his voice cut through her concentration, having broken into her bubble.

“Soo. What’cha working on there?”

She immediately shut the notebook and looked away, clutching it to her chest.

“Heh, you were really into it. Sorry for spooking you.”

She didn't reply, no idea what to say, so she literally waved it off. He got the message, leaning against the railing next to her.

“You're a funny one, you know. I can never expect where you'll be sitting with that secret tome of yours. I’ve heard people call you a local cryptid because of it.”

That made her snort, and she immediately threw a hand up to cover her mouth.

His smile widened, proud of drawing a new reaction out of her.

“It's true, though. I've seen you on several branches of the Divine Tree, on a roof or two, and I swear I caught you behind a bush once. What's up with that?”

She scratched her cheek shyly, not expecting anyone to pay attention to her.

“...Inspiration”, she finally managed.

“Inspiration, eh? What's so inspiring about sitting behind a bush?”

She chuckled lightly in response.

“I just like switching spots. Different angles.”

"Riight, right, that makes sense. What do you need that inspiration for, then? Writing, drawing, homework?”

She turned the cover of the notebook towards him. It had ‘sketchbook’ written on it in fancy letters.

“Ohhh, an artist, I see. That's cool. You got the whole ‘vibe’ down too, now that I think about it.”

She drew the sketchbook back to herself again, shrugging with a small, amused hum.

“Quiet and mysterious. Who knows what's going on inside those covers”, he explained with a playful grin.

She was still curt, but her small smile gave him confirmation that she definitely didn't hate him.

“I’ll let you continue, then. Can't stop an artist when inspiration hits, after all.”

After seeing her nod and timidly wave at him, he stood back up with a satisfied smile. He waved in response and walked off, arms stretched behind his head as he went to continue on with his day.

From there on, he stopped to bother her for a moment or two whenever and wherever he caught her. She didn't seem willing to talk about art or her secret sketchbook, so he kept the conversation alive, talking about whatever. She was still curt and shy, but her snorts and amused huffs became a more common occurrence as days passed.

One day, after he was done telling one of his stories, she seemed particularly thoughtful.

“What's up? Remind you of something? Oh, oh, did I give you inspiration?” he grinned excitedly, pointing at her.

She took a moment to formulate her reply.

“..How do you always have something to talk about?”

He didn't expect that. She didn't seem annoyed, though..

“Heh, I’ve just seen and heard many interesting things. I like sharing mine, and learning more from the people I meet.”

“That simple?”

He shrugged casually.

“I’m a people person. I like talking and listening.”

Her face formed a strained smile as she looked away.

“My brain always goes blank when there's people around. It's like there's not a single thought in there.”

That seemed to confirm his assumption of her treatment of him before. She was just shy. Or socially anxious.

“Ah. More of an introvert, then?”

“...No, I want to be around people. I just… short circuit. Not very interesting company.”

“I think you're plenty interesting”, he stated matter-of-factly, “you've got me curious.”

That surprised her, and she turned to look in the general direction of his face, but still not meeting his eyes.

“You’re curious? About me?”

“Sure am. There's the sitting in random spots thing, your mystery book, how you're so focused you don't react to people gawking and talking about you right next to you…”

He counted with his fingers, amused but genuine.

“There's obviously a lot going on in there. I’m curious about what sorts of ideas you have. Art isn't exactly the biggest thing around the city, after all.”

She had to take a moment to take in his words.

“It's nothing special, really. Just stories, imaginary situations and encounters.”

“A bit of fantasy added to the ordinary, eh? That's fun. Care to give me an example?”

A bit nosy, maybe, but he was interested.

She looked away for a moment, not sure if she should or whether she even could produce an example for him. He seemed genuinely curious though, so she tried, and inspiration hit when she gazed down at the docks.

“Um, like, a long-awaited reunion happening down there. A tearful embrace…”

She suddenly felt very embarrassed.

“..That's dumb, isn't it? I can-”

“No, no, no, don't worry. I can see it. A bit of a romantic, aren't you?”

She blushed a little, but shrugged with a noncommittal chuckle.

“Comes with the whole art thing, I think.”

“Heh, makes sense. I like it.”

A moment of silence. It was comfortable to him, but she felt the need to fill it.

“U-um, thanks, for, you know, always talking to me.”

He wasn't expecting that, either, and hummed in question, grinning curiously.

“...I like talking to people. It's just..difficult”, she continued, wanting her thanks to reach him properly.

“Well, I’m always down for a chat. I'll keep stopping by to bother you, then?”

“You aren't bothering me. But yeah. I'd like that. Maybe I’ll learn some tips and tricks from the master of social skills”, she joked with a soft smile.

“Sounds like a plan.”

And so they continued their occasional chats. He often ended up stopping people to talk with them, anyway, but it was nice to have confirmation that he actually wasn't bothering her.

His company gradually helped her relax and learn to imitate some of his social techniques, like asking questions and using more open body language.

Eye contact was still an issue for her, though. And to Sethos’ surprise, it bugged him a little.

He was straightforward and social, so eye contact came naturally to him. Not everyone he talked with looked back into his, so he knew it wasn't easy for everyone. And, to be fair, his eyes were kind of intense, which was a blessing and a curse sometimes.

Yet, somehow, he couldn't shake the thought of wanting to meet her eyes. She was always looking somewhere else when they talked. Usually her sketchbook.

Still, he didn't want to make her uncomfortable, so he did his best so she could relax when they chatted. He wouldn't push her, make her feel like she had to do it.

He had only met her eyes once, by accident that time she handed him her umbrella. They were bright and curious, almost striking in the muddiness of the downpour.

He remembered them clearly.

So, instead, he focused on learning more about her and her ideas and visions, and loved telling her his stories since they seemed to inspire her to some extent.

He learned to pick up on the change in her expression when she moved from listening to him to formulating an idea.

It was cute.

He thought positively about people, appreciated their qualities, both inside and out, but it wasn't often that he considered a person cute.

That thought lingered in his mind, too.

Her reactions made her even more cute to him. She blushed at times, yes, but she was playful in return, smacking him with her pencil or broom or rolling her eyes with that amused smile of hers. And she gladly showed him her work now.

He didn't think it affected how he interacted with her, but he unconsciously became a bit more friendly, almost flirty at times. He often grinned when they talked, initiated playful physical contact - like poking or gently kicking her - and couldn't help but give her tons of honest compliments, especially on her art.

One time after their brief chat when she was working, he was left with a single thought in his mind:

“Heh, shucks. I like her.”

It wasn't a world changing revelation, just made him connect the dots and realize how much his way of interacting with her had changed.

…And he was pretty sure she liked him too.

He kept interacting with her like usual, honestly just enjoying what they had. A comfortable friendship with banter, intrigue and plenty of laughter.

But it would be a lie to say that he wasn't also gauging more on what she could be feeling.

He picked his best stories, told them with a bit more flair, and gave her more casual compliments.

And, well, if their knees happened to touch when they were talking, or his playful pokes lingered on her skin a moment too long to be read as platonic, he didn't make a big deal out of it.

One day Sethos caught her sketching on a sturdy branch of the Divine Tree, easily accessible but not immediately visible to the townsfolk.

He chuckled and approached her, nimbly making his way to her in the tree.

“You're an enigma, you know that?” he grinned as he sat down next to her.

“It’s simple, really. The view is great from here. So many people to see, so much inspiration to gather.”

He looked down. The citizens were enjoying their evening activities; entering and exiting the tavern, boats docking, adventurers returning to get their rewards for their daily commissions.

It was interesting. He preferred to be mingling down there with them, but stepping back and watching the hustle and bustle from a different angle made him appreciate it in a new way.

He might not have lived in the city for long, but watching all those people do their thing made him realize how lucky he was to be around so many people nowadays. He grew up in the desert, with only the people of the temple as his company, after all.

He was gazing down with a gentle and slightly solemn expression, happy to be where he was now. He had friends, connections, and now… her, too.

He turned to look at her, about to share his appreciation for the view too, but to his surprise, he met her eyes. She had been watching him, curious about how quiet he went and what he was thinking of.

Her eyes held a hint of worry, but enough affection to make him stumble with his words. This time it was Sethos who broke eye contact, turning to look back down.

“Y-yeah. I get it. All those people have their own lives and stories to tell.”

“Exactly!” she chuckled and pointed the end of her pencil at him. “A gold mine of inspiration and ideas.”

They both loved getting ideas from people, huh? Their ways were different, sure, but maybe they were pretty similar, after all.

Stories, curiosity, ideas and inspiration. They worked well together.

That train of thought suddenly made him feel the need to communicate his feelings to her. Like his soul was calling out, wanting to connect with this girl whose company he had been enjoying more and more.

“You know, you remind me of the Moon sometimes”, he started, fittingly artistic for what he was about to do.

“Sounds fun and poetic. Care to elaborate?”

“You're always present, I just gotta know where to look. Mysterious, but mesmerizing.”

“Hehe, thank you.”

She smiled, but didn't seem to catch the full meaning of his words, so he continued.

“What I’m trying to say is, I like you. You draw my attention in a way no one else does.”

Well that definitely caught her attention.

Their eyes met again, and he nodded, not ashamed or embarrassed, but ever so slightly nervous.

“You do?”

She cleared her throat to answer him.

“...I always thought you were like the Sun. You're warm, fun, and easily draw people to you.”

She wasn't as calm as he was, but hoped her indirect poetic message reached him too.

“Does that mean what I think it does?” he couldn't help but ask, a hopeful grin on his face.

She moved her gaze down and nodded.

“I-I like you too. I feel like I can relax around you.”

Both sat in silence, soft and giddy grins on their faces, taking in the big words hanging in the air.

They turned to look back down at the citizens buzzing around the streets, the shy mood eventually becoming comfortable again, and moved on into imagining what kinds of adventures the people below them had experienced today.

Their fingers soon found each other and intertwined slightly as they sat together.

[willowedwisteria]

⁂~The Ends of Time~⁂

Summary -> Convincing the archons to take a break is so hard, they definitely like working.

Note -> I've definitely written about this... YEAH, I DEFINITELY HAVE. Just consider this an updated/different version. Variety is good

IF YOU HAVE BEEN TAGGED IN MY TAGLIST: I mixed up the taglist for my "the system" series and my other works, please send me an ask to specify if you're okay with being tagged in my other works or if you want to be tagged specifically for my series

Featuring -> Zhongli, Baal, Venti

Genre -> fluff

Around a year has passed since you first arrived in Teyvat. From simply that, you've noticed how people have guarded you with such vigilance. Security is always a must when you go out, returning with a single scratch causes chaos, and these people really care for you.

They know so much. About baking your favorite cake - which you happened to have a debate with your friend about before you got suddenly transported. There's also the time they noticed how much wood you collected when you were still in-game using characters as if they've been watching how much time you used up to decorate the teapot.

However, you're sure they have to be tired or bored after being so loyal, for so long.

"Say," You stir around your tea lightly, "What's the point of staying by my side for so long? Morax and Barbatos - well, Zhongli and Venti now - you have already retired, have you not?"

You watch Zhongli frowns and Venti holds back his laughter.

"I can slightly understand why Ei insists on staying by my side. Even so, what's the purpose of all of this? Really, you all are just troubling yourself."

Ei purses her lips in response to your questions. Your words sink deeper into her mind, taking their time to fully soak in.

"How about this," The three of them turn their gaze back to face you, all waiting expectantly for you to retract your last statements, "You all go on a break.

Unlike the two panicking archons next to him, when Venti hears of a break, he feels not the slightest bit of panic. While yes, he'll definitely be disappointed - he won't be by your side after all! Who will he share all of his favorite apples with? Plus, you've always loved coming to the tavern with him! A moment without you feels like boredom.

He nods in respect to you, allowing you to catch it from the corner of your eye whilst both Ei and Zhongli are in denial. You give him a thumbs-up, smiling assuringly in his direction.

Venti turns away quickly, cheeks flushing up. it's a shame he won't be able to see that euphoric smile of yours for a while. The more he looks at it, the more he'll miss it dearly.

With that, he follows the trail of the wind, disappearing from your sight. You shout goodbye to him, and it might have been your imagination, but you're pretty sure the wind became much more gentle.

"That bard..." Zhongli and Baal are practically seething. How could he just escape like that and accept it so easily? Zhongli shakes his head, sighing to regain his composure in front of you. Baal, however, seems to be clutching her polearm... a little too tight.

"I suppose since he's already left, that means he agrees to your suggestion." Zhongli stares off in the direction of Mondstadt, "I... do not doubt your grace's ability to defend yourself, but it's impossible not to worry."

Zhongli's eyes furrow, visibly concerned.

You take a small sip of the recently brewed tea, "I can see that from how both of you are so insistent on staying by my side, but you both don't need to worry. I'm just saying to take a break from being by me, you can visit me once in a while."

Before relief can be dropped onto Zhongli and Baal, you continue.

"No taking up jobs to guard me."

It feels like an invisible blade strikes them.

"No more than 24-hour visits."

A huge rock is suddenly thrown onto their backs.

"And you have to wait for another 2 days before visiting me again."

Woah, when did they become so lifeless? They've practically grown wrinkles already! Jeez.

Zhongli bears it, gritting his teeth, "...Yes, your grace. I will see you... as soon as possible. However, I will be forced to disobey your orders if you are in any sort of danger."

You nod, "That's fine with me. As long as you have a valid reason."

With that, the geo archon turns his back to you and leaves silently. You hear a few boulders being smashed after he leaves, and you wonder if he had run into any trouble. Well, he's the geo archon, he's more capable than anyone you know. You're sure he's fine.

And now, to convince the last one.

Ei quietly bites her lip, not willing to look you in the eye. Just from her shaking fist, you could tell she was against this. "Ei, are you upset with me?"

Her head jerks up, opening her mouth to disagree. Her polearm fades from her grasp, both of Ei's hands interlocking in front of her as she tries to piece together her sentence.

"Your grace, not being here with you, not being able to protect you when you're in danger is... risky." Ei can't even begin to imagine how much despair will eat her from the inside out if you ever get hurt, "I will be there for you, forever."

You lean on the table next to you, already finished with your cup of tea, the bittersweet taste left on your tongue. "You've already been there for me, for so long already. As grateful as I can, taking a break is necessary."

Sighing, already missing the presence of both the geo and anemo archon, "You wouldn't want me to worry about you being overworked, would you? I'll allow Raiden Shogun, that puppet of yours to accompany me if you really are so anxious."

You laugh to yourself, already imagining the complaints from both of them when they see that you let "Ei" stay by you.

"You can start by going to see Venti and telling him about my rules for visiting. If you want to know where I'll be staying, I'm going off to Sneznhaya for a week. The next week, I'll be in Mondstadt."

You wave lightly to her, watching her pout. Switching from denial to acceptance, she bows to you and heads off to Mondstadt.

Ei

The electro archon throws herself into her work, trying to distract herself from thinking about you. Unluckily for her, she's surrounded by everything, and everything reminds her of you.

"Oh, those flowers, their grace would look good in that shade."

"My, the scenery, it's just as breathtaking as their grace."

"The hairclip... I wonder if their grace still has the other piece."

She can't help but miss you. She dreams of you, being by you, basking in your presence, ensuring you're always safe. Your words of gratefulness shove her onto her knees and she can't help but adore how you could be so... so... enchanting.

Ei misses you so much.

She had sent over her puppet and wondered if her son Scaramouche would be there for you. Though, it doesn't stop the back of her head from generating scenarios of you being in trouble without her.

Once she can visit you, she's practically been revived, upbeat as ever. Her usual unexpressive self around others switches, you could see that sincere grin from ear to ear on her face when she's with you.

You could practically read her thoughts and emotions, delivering her a box of desserts from outside of Inazuma and a note to comfort her.

Ei will insist that Yae travels over to ensure that you're okay and guard you. However, Yae spends that time gossiping with you, exaggerating jokingly about how much of a miserable state Ei is in currently.

Venti

He's been quite leisurely enjoying his holiday. Venti had nothing else to do now since he's put his trust in the people of Mondstadt to handle their own issues.

He spends his day exploring the woods, enjoying life, and spending his time at the tavern.

Venti knows that you know what you're doing, he won't be wasting his time off working overtime. He'll visit you the least out of the three, but you coincidentally see him more since you visit the tavern quite a bit as well - admittedly, he's drunk 99.9% of the time you happen to stop by.

Diluc mentioned to you when you drop by about Venti being more relaxed. "His tab is piling up and at a remarkable speed too."

You laugh, "I would pay it for him, but you wouldn't let me."

"I'm not letting you pay so much for someone who isn't even awake right now."

Dvalin also had a small chat with you! Saying about how Venti went through all 5 stages of grief in a day. No matter how laidback he seemed to be, when Venti's drunk, his emotions get amplified.

Denial was a rollercoaster, anger and bargaining were just a bunch of complaining, depression was just pouting angrily in the corner, and acceptance was Venti falling asleep.

"...How did he become an archon again?"

Zhongli

Zhongli does worry about you, but he uses his break as an opportunity to prepare something special for you. A gift perhaps? Celebrations? Who knows? He just wants it to be for you.

He found a bit of a loophole since you didn't mention anything about letters too. You didn't really notice or mind since it was thrown into the mountain of letters that other acolytes had sent to you when they wanted to check up on you. It would take a while before you finally reached his letter.

He'll leave Childe in your care, aware of his abilities when it comes to fighting. Perhaps the traveler will happen to be around as well. He's sure that the shield he left on you will protect you as well.

He spends most of his time with Hu Tao when he's in Liyue. He can't just make Mora appear again like he used to after all.

While Zhongli absolutely loathes with his whole soul how he can't be there for you and serve you, he feels a bit more fulfilled once he visits you. Oh boy, life without Zhongli handling things was chaotic though and he noticed that during his visits.

Things are a mess without our dear Geo archon around. Usually, orders are given by him from you. He covers up mistakes and his presence alone is reassuring enough for the maids and butlers to carry out their job without worries.

Without him, maids and butlers have to speak with you directly and receive orders from you. Some have been so astounded and entranced by you, so much so that they miss your orders or hear them wrongly.

Others have been so scared about making a mistake in your food or your orders that they can't even stand up. The maids and butlers have described Zhongli as an efficient leader, whilst they've described your company as powerful and captivating - so much so that they can't focus.

In other words, things are VERY messy. You'll allow him to return by your side soon.

(Riku is probably fine, he's slowly taking control of the situation at his own desired pace [Riku is my OC])

Tag list -> Taglist -> @under-a-starry-night, @yourfaveisblack, @bardisipatos, @callmemeelah, @kithewanderingme, @pale-value, @bamboowritess/@bamboowritess, @uchihaeirin, @karmawonders, @lunavixia, @anfre109, @ly-archives, @zuyoo, @pimacolada-lulu, @bimboing, @gallantys, @swaggyb0ke, @borbsbirbs, @shizunxie, @tiffthescales, @genshin-impacts-me, @keithsaccount, @mkaella, @mentallyunpresent, @alicehasdrowned, @franc-1-s, @no-regrets-just-confusion, @christmaspickl, @lunalily19

Special tags -> @is-very-sad, @chocoenvy, @raidengaile/@ly-archives/@simplygaile, @saigomo, @gunterdon, @emilemovhi, @lovelyy-moraxx, @demon-bane, @i-put-the-yan-in-polyandry, @xiaophilia/@ayayaxia, @thewindstale, @creation-magician, @my-white-canvas/@pale-value, @yuzuricebun, @ventivity, @sweetstrawberrybabe, @euthym1as, @lotterymology, @mx-kamisato, @matsutake-san

[allwormdiet]

Gestation 1.6

Took like an hour and a half nap after work, hell. Time for the good guys to make an appearance

Yeah I'll fucking bet she's exhausted. Girl's out in the middle of the night and coming down from a near-death experience where she mauled people with insect swarms and got cornered on a roof by, what, the strongest cape in the city? It's incredible she has enough space left to even think.

Here we get more lore on the big dogs I was thinking about previously, and of course the local big dog himself. I wonder if he would be galled at Taylor's narration describing him as one of the wing members in the V formation, feel like a lot of capes would have an ego thing

Thank you Armsmaster, now I get to holler about my stance on polearms. Polearm are the best melee weapon in most scenarios, simple as anything. Tight quarters and CQB, sure, not so much, but that's what sidearms are for. Swords, axes, hammers, whatever, that's for people trying to be cool. Polearms are for people trying to fucking win. I dunno if Armsmaster is good people but he has reasonable taste in primary arms so that's points in his favor.

On the one hand, poor Taylor, she's gonna be dealing with that first impression for a long time, but on the other hand lol and also lmao. I told you that costume design was gonna come back around as being too scary.

Armsmaster underwear is like, so distracting as a concept, actually. Honestly any underwear that's got real people on it. What a fucking weird product to sell, like I get Spider-Man undies but Spider-Man isn't real, y'know? Does Taylor get underwear made about her down the line? Does owning Taylor's merch after a certain point in the timeline get you weird looks?

This kind of thing must be such a pain in the ass, I've mucked around with my own original superhero setting and names were such a fucking dilemma with so many characters. Having to deal with that but like, as your own self? You're the super? And you gotta worry if taking a name is gonna get you sued or assassinated by someone who already has that name? Fuck that noise.

Couple things here, take it one at a time.

This is legitimately a huge moment of vulnerability for Taylor. She can't tell anyone about the night she's had, there's nobody in her life that she can trust with this massive weight on her entire soul. She almost died, and she knows how it would've happened, and she knows that it wasn't even her own play that saved her life in that final moment of the confrontation. A sympathetic moment from someone else who's lived this life and faced this danger could be such a balm for her right now.

So obviously what Armsmaster does is softball a recruitment pitch. "That's rough buddy" would have actually been way more tactful at this point, for real. I don't know if this is who Armsmaster is as a person or if this is the kind of party line you're supposed to hold as a Protectorate member, nudging scared teenaged capes into the Wards so they stop running around unsupervised, but either way it's such a bad read.

And then yeah, of course Taylor doesn't want to be a Ward, it's just being a high schooler but even worse because now the other hormone-addled teenagers you're locked in with have trauma and superpowers. Not only no, not only hell no, but fuck no. Especially knowing about Shadow Stalker, like Christ.

These two lines are a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, but girl you almost died, nobody in their right minds would blame you for being in a bit of a mood

God the Undersiders are so cool. Like yeah they're criminals but they're criminals with an underdog flair. Good on them for managing to come out on top when they're outgunned, I know that like Bitch is basically the only one with an offensive power so the fact that they've won fights is impressive as hell.

The vulnerabilities that get shown by these characters feel so critical. Taylor, the Undersiders, and Armsmaster all show their underbellies over the last two chapters in conversation, admitting to fears and failures. Like even setting aside the masks and the bravado, that's the real stuff.

Also that costume thing is gonna haunt Taylor for at least as long as she has it, and maybe longer.

In a fight, righ*gunshots*

Jokes aside, good on Taylor for understanding some of her limits. Enough to realize antagonizing the Undersiders was a bad call (although that's assuming she would even think to do so with how shaken she'd been in the immediate aftermath of the fight with Lung), but she still went and picked a fight with fucking Lung so partial credit.

Beyond that, didn't expect the "flip the negative" trick to come back up from Armsmaster of all characters. Might have expected it from Taylor's dad maybe, I dunno. And of course Taylor immediately envies his ability to do that better than she can, because that's just kinda where she's at.

Taylor finally gets praise from a hero for doing hero shit, and of course there's strings attached. Fucked up. Let's see where this goes.

Don't know why I thought the ABB were restricted to operating in the Bay, but I guess it makes sense that they have connections and operations outside.

Anyway, this and everything we learn about Bakuda being a bomb Tinker makes me think that someone at the Protectorate isn't doing their fucking job. I think if there's someone in your city whose specialty is fucking super bombs, you maybe put out like some public service announcements? TV, radio, fucking posters up on a wall? "If you see this woman fucking leg it and call the cops" kinda stuff, what are we doing where a Brockton native doesn't know there's a bomber in the city.

Armsmaster rolls up to the aftermath of a cape fight to find an unconscious Lung and a shivering, exhausted teenaged hero who almost died taking down one of the beefiest villains in the whole town, and he has the nerve to ask "are you gonna finish that?"

Joking aside, this sucks. And I get it, and Taylor gets it too obviously, and I'm certain that Armsmaster is legitimately concerned about an indie hero getting blown to fucking pieces by a vengeful ABB, but Armsmaster getting credit is at least partly a factor. Maybe 60% concern 40% opportunism, I dunno, it's hard to gauge just meeting the guy.

...Actually knowing that he's angling for the credit on Lung I'm more willing to bet that "in the wings of the V formation" line earlier would have gotten under his skin.

Taylor is walking away from tonight with favors owed from a minor villain team and the Protectorate's local honcho. All it took was throwing down with the leader of a major gang and staring death in the burning metal face. Good job, kid, now go fucking sleep.

Current Thoughts

It strikes me as very deliberate that Taylor's first non-hostile interaction with villains and heroes are back to back with notable contrast. The Undersiders, who know full well that Lung wants to kill them all, find out that some random cape decided to take the fight to Lung for them and immediately jump in for the assist, expressing their gratitude as they go. Armsmaster rolls up after the dust has already settled and congratulates Taylor for a job well done, saying he owes her a favor even, but only after securing the credit for himself in the doing, and being just that much less delicate with an obviously shaken rookie.

This isn't to say "villains good heroes bad" because I don't think that's true, I'm absolutely certain the Undersiders have hurt people and will hurt more people down the road, and Armsmaster is operating within what I guess is a pretty inflexible organization. This isn't The Boys, where every alleged hero is a huge piece of shit and all their good will is propaganda consumed by mindless sheeple (I haven't actually watched The Boys but I don't enjoy the vibes and am not really in a rush to see it for myself). Capes are people here, warts and all, and sometimes the career criminals are easier to get along with than the career law enforcement officer.

Was kinda shocked this little arc is already over, but I guess it's interlude time. Get a glimpse into the head of someone who isn't Taylor.

[i23kazu]

𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒

these are all my ocs !!! do be nice :-) i've worked hard on them hehehe and i'm glad they get to come out of the basement now, please click on the picrews for better quality ! ! !! | post best viewed in light mode

𝓵𝓾𝓬𝓲𝓮𝓷

he/him | 24 y.o. | modern au genshin !!! | ✦✦✦✦

fontainian intern at tianquan co ( a government agency dealing with policies ) !

lucien is originally from the court of fontaine but studied in liyue for law (ex-classmates with yanfei heheeee) and is now working as an intern ( because the government companies in liyue won't let him full time :") )

he hopes to create a stronger support group for foreigners in liyue to connect them with job opportunities & resource broking heh – he and yanfei work together to try and find loopholes but liyue law is TIGHTT

wishes he could do more though ngl poor bebs

hydro polearm :3 !!!!

it was his flex for a while that he got the same element as the one from his homeland mwahaha

love language : words of affirmation

𝓴𝓪𝓲𝓵𝓪𝓱

she/her | 20 y.o. | slight modern au genshin !!! | ✦✦✦✦

LIYUEAN SOCIAL WORKER !!!! <333 she's my representation /cope

masc girl ever

works in liyue's youth sector for the ministry of social affairs !! covers up her tattoo when she goes to work (everyone always asks her why she's wearing a turtleneck in office)

has a wolfcut - mullet - thingy ?? ?? ?

super boisterious like this girl is loud. she's one of beidou's friends & is close to shuying ( my self-insert oc !!! )

yongjia's twin !!! younger than him by 4 mins

does boxing in her spare time

u'll find her organising peaceful protests when she can btw #advocate

pyro claymore !!!

love language : physical touch

𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓳𝓲𝓪

he/him | 20 y.o. | slight modern au genshin | ✦✦✦✦

communications manager for a supply company that works with the restaurants of liyue!

kailah's twin !!!! older by 4 minutes

the more reserved sibling – but certain people definitely bring out certain parts of himself

dyed his hair bc he went through the phase of not wanting to look like kailah ..

ask him out with drinks after work, why don't you?

this man has really good memory ... remembers the little things about everybody + analytical ass brain

the brain of the twins, while kailah is the heart

well liked by the aunties of liyue what can i say

geo sword !!!

love language : quality time

𝓼𝓱𝓾𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰

she/ her | 18 y.o. | slight modern au genshin | ✦✦✦✦

studying social work!!! kailah is her mentor & is one of her good friends

she wants to work with little kids in the future!!

is baizhu’s daughter :3

absolutely adores the twins, they’re like the older siblings she never had

has tried to pick up crocheting. never again. her hands were shaking the entire time and she couldn’t do anything

loves giving gifts!!!

tbh shuying is my self insert soooo. if i continue any longer it’ll just be “hey isnt this just ying”

dendro polearm !!!!

love language : physical touch

𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷

he/him | 25 y.o. | modern au genshin | ✦✦✦✦

a librarian at the house of daena :3

loves making friends honestly!! he's down if you're down.. except that some over-excited students take him a bit too seriously and get their hearts crushed

local sweetheart i'm ngl. good with old ladies and good with children. very sweet

family man! will introduce his family one day

heuheuehuue i love him so much,,, this sweetheart,,,

also his name was inspired from a typo btw. just saying

anemo catalyst !!!!

love language : acts of service

picrew one | picrew two

[makipedia]

reflections; maki x reader

:the office

:masterlist

"Naoya!" a man, in his 70's, sped over to the door to Naoya's room and slid it open, catching him in his bed. Naoya looked at the old men, squinting his eyes at his silhouette standing in the sunlight that just so happened to be shining into his room.

"It's been two weeks, boy. When's that Hatake coming back?" the old man grunted as he stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him and crossing his arms with a huff. Naoya rolled his eyes and leaned back against his headboard. "I dunno, I didn't exactly give them a deadline."

"They need to be back soon, I need to get some news of that useless girl found dead somewhere," the old man shouts then quickly turns around to slide the door back open, walking out and leaving it open for the whole estate to see him still in his pajamas. Naoya frowned, getting out of bed walking to the door, sliding it shut before running a hand through his messy hair with a sigh. When he turned back around, he glanced at his phone sitting on his nightstand, then he remembered that you don't have one, so how were the two of you supposed to stay in contact? He wasn't gonna sneak onto campus, there's too high of a risk of getting caught for that- between Gojo's presence and all those barriers placed around the school, it's too risky.

On said campus, you were busy getting your ass handed to by Maki, getting beaten up by her every day in training. It was boring, for sure, leaving your room in the mornings and coming back in the evenings with a bunch of bruises on your body (that Shoko treated) and repeating the same process for over a week and a half. Your body was aching by the time the next Thursday rolled around, and Thursday was typically the day of the week when Maki would spend all day training (only taking half an hour to eat lunch in the middle of it). The first time you spent Thursday with her, which was last week, you had Yuta put packs of cold food all over your body before going to sleep to help with the aching.

"You're making progress," Maki comments, swaying her head to the side and bringing her hand up to grab your arm, twisting it and throwing you on the ground. Your back hit the ground, earning a grunt from you as your eyes squeezed shut, waiting for Maki to poke you in the forehead with her polearm. Nothing happened; instead, she simply leaned over you, placing her hands on either side of your head and stared at you.

"You focus entirely on your arms instead of your hips," she comments again as she continues staring at your warm face. You open your eyes again, frowning as you find her staring down at you, then quickly scramble to get up. She's watching you scramble to sit criss-cross with sharp eyes, taking note of how nervous you got when you found her staring. No, she wasn't staring at you cuz she thinks you're pretty (she does but she'd never say it out loud), she was simply making sure you didn't pass out.

For sure.

"Gee, thanks," you grumble, looking away as your cheeks begin to heat up even more in the 60 degree weather right now. Maki hums as she gets up, holding her polearm while she waits on you to get up right after her, crawling to stand up as you yawn. "Don't fall asleep, dummy. I've still gotta teach ya how to punch correctly."

"And instead you've been beating me up this whole time!" you argue, throwing your arms wide open as Maki drops her polearm, finally staying still with a single bounce before laying perfectly on the grass. She pops her knuckles, even her knees and her elbows, then looks at you. "Do you remember that fighting stance I showed you earlier?" she asks, sending you a knowing look. You nod in response, then proceed to get into that pose. Maki hummed in satisfaction, "Alright, now I want you to throw a punch."

You stood there, seeming dumbfounded at her question. "Like- throw a punch at you?"

"Who else?" Maki scoffed, rolling her eyes when you shook your head. "Alright, alright," you huffed, balling up your fist and dashing towards her, raising your arm to punch her square in the jaw. Yeah, that didn't work, cuz she caught your fist just before your knuckles reached her face.

"You swing too slow," she commented, tightening her grip on your fist. You frown as you try ripping it away, but nothing happens, and you're left standing there in front of her, how embarrassing.

"Shut up," you grunt as she lets go of your fist. You huff, stepping back a bit and shaking the pain away from your aching hand. "Stop focusing on your arms. I know that's the whole point of a punch, but focusing on your hips is the way to go," she explains, twisting her body around to show an example. Her torso twists, her hips moving in the same direction as her arm retracts slightly, then is released like a bow is released from an arrow and her arm flies straight towards your face, her fist stops just inches away from your nose as your eyes squeeze shut.

"That's how you punch," she retracts her arm again, letting it fall to her side as you open up one eye. You frown, watching her smug and triumphant expression, seeming that she was hoping to intimidate you- if that's what her goal was, it worked, though you'd never admit that.

"You're annoying, you know that?" you say as you watch Maki begin to step back, a small grin beginning to plaster itself on her face. She chuckles, watching you get into the fighting pose from earlier. She watches as you lift up your dominant arm, your torso twisting as you throw it at her, your fist barely missing her cheek as her head sways to the side, her hand coming up to catch your knuckles and gripping them tightly.

"You're making progress," she comments. "Barely, anyways."

"Shut up, Naoya never taught me how to fight," you complain as you throw another punch. She dodges, and instead of almost breaking your hand again, she keeps dodging, letting you throw as many punches as you want.

"Are you not getting bored yet?" you ask, panting as you throw yet another punch. Maki shakes her head and effortlessly dodges another one. "I like training you, it's more fun than training with Panda or Yuta," she answers, warmth spreading across your cheeks as you throw one last punch then decide to give up.

"You're impossible, you let me throw punches for as long as I want then don't ever do anything except dodge," you grumble, letting your arm fall to your side as Maki simply stands there. She lifts a brow, "Well did you think I was gonna let you punch me clean in the face?" she crosses her arms as her expression turns to incredulity. You purse your lips as you stay silent, your tongue in your cheek.

"It's the least you could do, I bet my punches won't hurt one bit," you mutter, looking down at the grass and finding a rock showing itself underneath all the little green blades. You kick it, barely sending it rolling out from the dirt and tumbling onto a new spot. Maki doesn't pay attention (only for a moment), but then she notices you're now walking past her, kicking the rock again, and she shoots her head down to the ground in an attempt to find your source of better entertainment. When her hazel eyes find the gray rock sitting on some patch of dirt, she scoffs as she watches you kick it again.

"I'm gonna assume you're getting bored," she comments, clearly disappointed in your unwillingness to train. "A rock is worth more of your time than me?"

"This rock isn't boring me half to death, so technically, yes," you didn't hesitate, though the sarcasm is still present in your voice, and you can practically hear the eye roll she gives you when you kick the rock for probably the 20th time.

"That's mean,"

"I didn't think you had any feelings for me to hurt."

"That's even worse," she grins, walking over and stomping on the rock as if she'd ever break it with just her shoe (you wouldn't be surprised if she could do something like that). You avert your eyes from the spot that's now covered with her shoe and look up at her, making eye contact with pursed lips and hooded lids. "Move your shoe."

"No,"

You frown into her eyes, lifting your foot to kick her own away from the poor rock. Maki narrows her eyes as she watches you go back to kicking the rock.

"I think I'm gonna name this," you lean down to pick it up. Maki lifts a disappointed brow as she parts her lips, her face is equally disapproving as her following reply, "You're gonna name a rock?"

"You've never done that before?" you question as you look back at her, getting a good look at her disappointed expression. She shakes her head, cringing as she watches you toss it in your hand.

"Never had a reason to," she answers, eyes following the object of nature getting tossed up into the air. For a moment, you seem more focused on that than talking to her, if that wasn't clear enough, let alone training. Then you glance at her with a grin, "I'm gonna name it rocky."

"That's a dumb name," any name for a rock would be dumb in her opinion, because why would anyone name a rock unless they've got nothing better to do? It's not like you don't have anyone to talk to here; you've got Maki herself, Shoko, Gojo, Yuta and the other peasants that go here. You shouldn't be bored, not really, anyways, or that's what she thinks.

"You're just mad cuz this rock's gonna be my best friend and not you," you stick your tongue out, blowing a raspberry at her as she stares right back at you with a deadpan expression.

"Would the rock ever respond to you?"

"In my head, it would."

"You're delusional," she shakes her head as she chuckles. You frown, raising your arm to flip her off then go back to tossing the rock.

After training with Maki, which was around the time you would be getting ready for lunch in the cafeteria, you skipped that and went to Shoko's office instead because hanging out with Maki seemed to require a bit of work after the whole rock situation, hanging out with Yuta seemed almost pointless since you both had almost nothing in common aside from being special grade sorcerers, and hanging out with Toge and Panda- well, those two were chaotic enough from the beginning, you've determined they're both pieces of work.

Like Gojo's last visit when he was talking to Shoko about your family name, she was in the middle of playing tetris when you walked in unannounced. She was used to it, since she's friends with Gojo, so that stuff happens a lot, but she totally expected it to be Gojo and not some first year girl who's much smaller than him.

"Oh- hello, Y/n," she greets you, looking up from her computer screen with a grin. You muster up a grin in response, taking a spot in the chair sitting in front of her desk. She goes back to her screen, totally concentrating on the game.

"It's lunchtime, shouldn't you be in the cafeteria?" she comments, looking up from the edge of her screen when she loses, watching you slouch in the chair. You shrug, "I should, but everyone else is in there, and they're tiring as hell."

"I get that, it's that way with Gojo, too," she hums as she leans back in her office chair. "So what brings you in here, someone getcha hurt while training, boredom?"

"The latter, training with Maki proved to be a real piece of work since she only taught me how to punch today," you cringe as you look down at your hands sitting in your lap, fidgeting with them. Shoko nods in response before placing her shoe on the side of her desk, slightly pushing herself away from it and rolling back in the chair. You look up at her to find her reaching for something on one of the counters, and she pulls out some sort of cube. She tosses it, hoping it would land in your lap.

"What's this?"

"A rubix cube, it helps with boredom," she emphasizes on her statement when she sees you looking all around it. When you're done observing it, you make the first twist, and the gears in your unnoticed few-turned-up- notched brain start working. The cube sometimes freezes while you're in the middle of solving it, and your nose would crinkle every time only for a moment before going back to twisting and turning it. Shoko simply watched as the colors were beginning to match up.

You cringe at the fully-solved rubix cube sitting in your lap and look up at her. You shrug, "Isn't that entertaining," you admit dryly, mindlessly fidgeting with it while Shoko stares, her lips are parted and her eyes do the rarity of widening. You're a mastermind, no doubt about that, you solved a rubix cube in under three minutes, that's not an everyday thing she sees. Even she, who's had that cube for years, wasn't able to solve it. At one point she'd gotten frustrated enough to let Gojo attempt it many years ago (after many hours of begging), though she thinks he only made it worse when he did try it. Yet you, a 15 year old first year who just enrolled at Jujutsu Tech, solved it in just a few minutes.

"Well that's a shocker," she comments, huffing as she leans back in her chair, crossing her legs and leaning back. "You can keep that, I don't want it."

"Hm, ok," you shrug and mix up the cube. She watches one more time, completely in awe that you can mix it up and solve it without getting frustrated for even a second. She thinks that's a privilege that most aren't afforded, especially not her and Gojo (or even Maki if she ever brought it up).

"So Gojo tells me you have this cursed technique that nobody else has," a quote from Gojo when he recently visited last week. "That's a pretty big responsibility you've got goin' on there, you sure you don't want personal lessons from Gojo?" Shoko asks, lifting a brow as she watches you solve the cube for the second time in a row. You roll your eyes before lifting your head back up to look at her; she's twirling her hair, resting her elbow on the counter and watching you with a concentrated expression.

"It sounds like a big deal, but someone from the Zenin clan taught me how to use it," you answer blankly. Shoko barely narrows her eyes as her lips part for a moment. "Are they a special grade?"

"First-special grade...or something like that, I don't remember what he told me," you shrugged right after. Shoko huffs in disappointment at your lack of knowledge. If you've lived at the Zenin estate for, like, 9 years, then you'd think that Naoya would've at least made it clear about his sorcerer grade, right?

"And he taught you how to use your cursed technique, right?" you nodded in response. "To the very best of its ability?"

"Well...probably not, he wasn't the best mentor to deal with, but I did learn a few things," you cringed at her disappointed expression. Her eyes remained hooded as she watched you, pondering if she should tell Gojo or not.

"Alright, do you want me to ask Gojo if he could give you some lessons on it?" She asked, finally changing her expression, another rarity. You shrug, "I probably should get some, but I don't really think I want to."

"It might help you fully utilize your technique,"

"That's true, but I didn't really come here to make use of my technique," you admit, leaning back in your chair. You'd almost forgotten about why you really came here- to kill Maki; why in Naoya's right mind would he ask you to do it? He knows the two of you were friends, that's such a shitty thing to do. Shoko lifts a brow as she leans forward onto the counter, resting her elbows on it. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, I just came here so I could get away from the Zenin estate, I was starting to feel a bit unsafe there," not that you ever were in the first place, the stares that you'd often get from those creepy old men were more and more reocurring as you got older. One day you were doing some chore, you can't remember which one, but you caught an old guy staring at you with creepy bedroom eyes that you shouldn't have been getting in the first place- he even did that whistle thing that guys do when they see a pretty girl (though you were sure that guy was just desperate).

Both of Shoko's eyebrows shot up briefly as she grabbed some mason jar sitting on the other side of the counter. Her finger circled the rim of the glass, her fingertip not missing a single curve on the top. "That totally doesn't sound like you were being human-trafficked," she commented, the only thing that didn't set you off was the thick sarcasm in her voice.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that's actually what happened." you shrugged. Shoko simply hummed before leaving the mason jar alone, you were starting to feel bad for it, the way she was caressing it, though you guessed that she was doing that absentmindedly.

Shoko glanced at the analog clock sitting on the wall above the door, the clock hands read 12:44, which meant you should probably be getting back to the training field. Reading an analog clock was what Gojo considered to be a flex, though Shoko didn't really think much of it. You're just looking where the minute hand is and the hour hand is pretty self explanatory, she just doesn't understand how people have a hard time reading it. But, even if she didn't really care about it a whole lot, it means she's better than Gojo at something: being able to tell time on an analog clock, if not usage of cursed techniques.

"You've got about a quarter till, you should probably head back to the training field," she glances back at you, pursing her lips when she finds you looking down at the rubix cube sitting in your lap. You click your tongue, disappointed that you have to leave already. If things worked the way you thought they should, then you wouldn't be forced to go back to that field just to get beaten up every time that hour hand hits one o'clock.

"I guess I should, see ya later," you said before getting up from the chair, walking towards the door and waving as you shut it. Shoko lets out a sharp sigh as the door finally closes, and she's free to think for once in the near hour you've been in there.

"So, why dontcha want us asking questions about Y/n's technique, huh?" Panda asks, a grin on his face as he and Toge sit on the other side of the table from Maki. She rolls her eyes, stabbing her food with her fork then looks up at them. "That's none of your business."

"It is when there's other people here! You and Y/n aren't the only two people at this school, pal," Panda argues, and an irk appears on Maki's face as she goes back to mindlessly playing with her food. Panda watches for a moment, seeing the irk on her face and the viciousness behind the way she stabs her food before it finally dawns on him that it's a personal matter.

"And why is it none of my business?" Panda tries again, a shit-eating grin on his face as he and Toge lean closer towards her. Maki's knuckles are white from how hard she's gripping the plastic, Panda thought if she gripped it any harder then the lame excuse of a fork would snap in half. "Because it's my business, get your own."

"My business involves being interested in what you and Y/n have going on, so technically, it's my business as well as yours."

"I can't have a single day without any pestering from you, can't I?" Maki mumbles to herself as she finally quits playing with her food and brings it up to her mouth. It's mushed up, almost like baby food, but the food used to be so chunky that she couldn't get it to her mouth without it falling off the fork before she even brought it to her lips.

"Do you fancy Y/n?" Panda leaned even closer, almost completely in her face to the point he can count every single crinkle on her pretty face from frowning so much. Maki froze for a moment, her arm stuck in between her and the table as she glared at him and Toge staring right at her. "Do I fancy Y/n? What are you, twelve? No, I don't fancy Y/n!"

"You smell that, Toge?" Panda glances at the boy next to him as he nods. "Smells like bullshit to me,"

"That's probably your own stench, I can smell the manure you've been rolling around in since the ass crack of dawn."

"That doesn't say a whole lot coming from the girl who smelled like sweat an hour ago," you finally comment, and the three of them look up to find you standing at the end of the table. They were so consumed in their argument that they didn't even notice you walked in the room, along with Yuta who you found walking around the halls. "I would've carried a stick of deodorant if I were you."

"I didn't see any on you when we were training!"

"Training is a bold word considering you only taught me how to punch."

"It was on the training field, so it counts as training!"

"We could've done that here and 'training' would still be a bold word."

Maki frowned, clenching her jaw as you were starting to get on her nerves, too. The person she'd least expect it from is irritating her beyond what Panda and Toge were doing just a few minutes ago. Now her expectations from you lowered just a bit, not that you'd care even if she told you.

"Anyways, Shoko kicked me out of her office cuz it's almost one o'clock, now I'm bored as hell and don't wanna go back to doing a punch-practice for two more hours," you got down, sitting on your knees as your arms folded along the width of the table, resting your hand on one of your forearms. "And frankly, I don't wanna go to any classes tomorrow either," you shrug, looking at everyone at the table as Yuta finally sat down next to Maki.

"Are you implying something, friend Y/n?" Panda glances at you with a grin on his face- the same one that he gave Maki when he was pestering her earlier. Your eyebrows shot up as you and him kept making eye contact.

"Not really, I've got no idea what to do."

"We could sneak into Gojo's office," Panda smirked.

"That guy has his own office?"

"Yeah! We could sneak in there to look for something!"

"That is a terrible idea, no."

"Don't be such a party pooper, Maki. C'mon, have some fun in your life," you stood up from the table in front of everyone. She glanced at you, giving you the stink eye. "Not like you ever had any fun either."

"Yes but the difference between us two is that I actually want to have fun, you're just a workaholic."

"Shut up," she groans, but eventually follows after the others when they get up from the table; even Yuta who's still looking anxious from when you first saw him. This whole thing sounded like a bad idea, not just to her, but Yuta, too- that's one thing they could agree on. Sneaking into Gojo's office sounds dumb enough, even more so when he's still on campus. There is an incredibly high chance the five of you could get caught, and if anyone else had brought it up, she would've never participated. Curse her secret soft spot for you, because only you could make her do something as dumb as sneaking into the strongest sorcerer's office.

The idea sounded a lot easier when it was just sneaking into Gojo's office- finding it was hard enough, the five of you had to look every which way for it, getting lost a few times and almost starting a blood war. Splitting up was a terrible idea, because how would the rest of you know if one person found it? What, would they yell it out for the whole campus to hear, possibly even Gojo? Panda didn't think of that one when he brought up the idea of splitting up.

"Jeez, you'd think it'd be the same as looking for your classroom," you comment exasperatedly as you lean down, looking at the doorknob. "Why the hell does Gojo have 5 different locks?"

"He's a secretive man, believe it or not," that's true, even as loud as he can be, he's still pretty secretive about most things, like why he keeps those bandages over his eyes or why he can't keep a girl for more than two days.

"Whatever, who can break all five of those locks in one hit?" you ask, getting up and turning to face the four of them standing behind you, watching as the boys all looked at Maki. She rolled her eyes, stepping in front of you and lifting up her leg, kicking open the door. Beyond that, was a basic office- one you would see in the police station if you yourself would've ever been there- with a bunch of books piled behind it and a simple office chair sitting behind it, then an old monitor.

"A computer! Let's go through it," Panda suggests, earning a nod from you as you walk in confidently, striding in and stepping behind his desk which wasn't a long walk from the door. You glance down at the black computer screen, indicating that it's off.

"Tuna tuna," Toge commented as the four of them watched you sit in Gojo's chair. You peeked beyond the edge of the computer, lifting a brow as you glanced at Toge. "What's he saying?"

"He said he wonders if Gojo watches porn," Panda explained sheepishly, earning a cringe from everybody. You shake your head, then move the mouse around a little bit on the pad. The screen blinks on, a basic windows background glowing from the screen as your eyes dash across it, and onto each folder on the computer. You drag the mouse to one of them, clicking on it and opening it up to find a bunch of files sitting there. You click on one of the many sitting in that folder, opening that up to find something you shouldn't have.

"Yup, we're done here," you close that out and leap up from Gojo's chair, sighing sharply as you shake your head. "That was traumatizing."

"What'd you find?"

"I'd rather not talk about that," you shrug as you step back from Gojo's desk.

"Oh please, by all means," a voice said from behind the four of them. All of you looked around to find Gojo standing right behind the rest of them at the doorway.

Gojo didn't seem very happy, coming back to his office to find his students going through his computer.

"Do tell us."

[ghostlynighty]

Pairings : Raiden Shogun/Raiden Ei x Female Reader

Warning(s) : inazuma archon quest spoilers, treating a god as a friend

A/N : I hope this is okay huhu

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

When the shogun abolished both of the decrees, the people of Inazuma saw a change not only in the nation, but also with the shogun herself. She started to appear in public, started to talk to the common folks and she seems to finally have emotions? Though, it is random. Sometimes she would be full of emotions, even when just walking and sometimes she would be still as a rock.

All of Teyvat, specially Inazuma, knows how intimidating the shogun is, specially when the decrees were still in place. At that time, people saw how ruthless the shogun was, she didn't even have any emotions and don't usually show herself to the public.

Even with all these sudden changes to the shogun's emotions, she is still the same intimidating and powerful archon. People still don't dare to disrespect her, even with what she had done to the nation before.

But...there is this one individual, a women, a mortal who somehow forgets that the shogun is an archon, a god.

Even before, this mortal seems to always forget that the shogun can kill her with literally one slash.

People were really curious and concern about you, they still are. How can you be so careless and treat the shogun like she was just a friends of yours, a mortal being? Do you not value your life that much? Did you want the shogun to end you? Those are just some of the questions they asked and you just smile and shrug your shoulders in return.

When you first met the shogun, it was during a festival. She made a public appearance for a short while. At that time, you didn't know that the archon who was present isn't really the true archon, it was the vessel she created to rule over Inazuma. You were intimidated by her at first and you respect her fully, yes but unlike others, you have a different way of showing it.

You were helping your family manage the food stall they set up during that festival, when the shogun past through your stall, you did something that not all merchants can do. Sell your products to the shogun herself, you're parents and the people around you were understandably shocked. The shogun herself too, but she indulged you.

You told her everything your family's stall had to offer. The shogun just stared at you, listening while her guards were glaring at you, their hand wrapped tightly around their polearms.

The shogun just nodded at you, told her guards to buy some from your stall then walked away.

You've learned so many things about the shogun- or for you, Ei and what really happened after the decrees were abolished. You first got closer with the puppet, not really minding her way with words back then like some other people and now that you've found out the truth, it made sense to you. Meeting Ei for the first time after the puppet told you things about her was really nerve wracking and it was awkward at first. Since she looked liked the shogun that you know, but is actually a completely different person.

You and her got closer after that.

----------

When Ei found out about the puppet hanging out with a mortal, she got annoyed at the puppet and herself, thinking that she may have missed some mistakes with the puppet. She programed the puppet to only interact with mortals when it was needed, not befriend them. That all change when she met you though, she understands now why the puppet hangs out with you.

The Shogun was okay with you, she does find you annoying at times but she cares about you. Ei however, was more than okay with you. With you, Ei doesn't feel like an archon, she feels like she's just Ei. You respect her, you still respect her as your archon but at the same time, she feels like the two of you are equal with the way you're treating her. She only gets that with Miko and even though you can't treat her the same as Miko does, she appreciates it. Ei hopes that your relationship with each other would help the way the people of Inazuma treats her. She feels upset that her people are very scared and intimidated when she's around, she understands why, but she hopes to atleast talk to them without their body trembling in fear.

[herrscherrofyatta]

Let you break my heart again

Tighnari x reader x Albedo

angst, no gender/pronouns are used to describe reader (if there is one I probably missed it during editing!!) reader is described to have medium ish hair along with an earring, Cyno my beloved

summary: Cyno is caught off guard as he sees you block his blade with yours, Collei seems to agree to go back with you to Mondstadt for a few weeks

Without hesitation, you summon your polearm in time to block Cyno's attack as Albedo is pushed away from the shock wave, hitting the back of his head on a pile of stones that were randomly there.

He grunt in pain, vision blur as he blinks slowly and only taking in your blurry form in front of him.

Electro spark in the air from the impact of his electro with your hydro as you two stood in a battle stance as you held your weapon, ready for any of his attacks.

Cyno gives you a stern look as you sweat under the pressure of not knowing his next move.

"Cyno?" You say in confusion and disbelief.

His eyes narrow at you, not saying a word and neither of you say a single thing as Albedo struggles to clear his view.

It's all serious between you and the white haired male until your face visibly brightens up, a big smile on your face as you rush over to him. Arms wrapping around his shoulders.

"You came! I didn't think you would!" You say happily as he pats your back slowly as you look at him.

Now, Albedo is confused before seeing Cyno's gaze on him as you two separated.

"I knew it was you following me, I didn't expect you to make such an entrance!" You say all happily, Cyno was one of your closest friends from your Akademiya days and he would always play TCG with you in his free time.

Neither of you notice Albedo losing consciousness, losing time while talking until you realize that Albedo was quiet. He wanted to get to know Cyno and now he sat unconscious, leaning against a rock as you two rushed over.

"Let's get him inside," Cyno suggests as you pick him up, carefully making your way down the branches.

You two don't encounter any trouble as you get inside and lay down Albedo, checking if his head was alright. Cyno sat in one of the chairs as Albedo's head laid on your lap, "he should be fine, he'll wake up in the morning." You say, Cyno notices a spark in your eyes as you let the blonde's head down to rest on the pillow.

Taking a seat on the spare chair you had, sighing happily as you cross your arms over your chest.

He eyes the Anemo vision that peeks out from underneath the cloak you're wearing. "Assuming that you're finally using your vision in combat, you want to take my offer in sparing?"

Your face immediately lights up at this, Cyno had always encouraged you into picking up a weapon and training yourself but Tighnari would tell him to stop encouraging you from doing anything dangerous.

"Of course! Albedo's training is good but I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you!" You grin at him, Cyno glances at your face as a tiny smile grew on his lips.

"Good, we'll schedule a day to spare in an open field." He says.

—

Tighnari was not happy, he watched as the blonde had taken away all your time as he wanted to explore the forest. He immediately turned down that idea saying no one had time to watch you Incase you two got lost and you object saying you knew the forest and what to avoid.

He used the excuse that you were no longer a ranger, just a regular civilian and it was dangerous.

To his annoyance, Cyno stepped up and offered to watch over you and Albedo.

So now, he watched as you three prepared to leave for the day, Collei was stuck in her room in the mean time.

"Oh! There's this place I want to show you, I found it while on a patrol!" You happily tell Albedo who listens to you as you wait for Cyno to finish talking to Tighnari.

He couldn't even focus on what the white haired male was saying to him as his ear twitched with annoyance at the sight of Albedo being near you. Too close for comfort.

The days go by pretty quick, you don't remember having this much fun being in the forest, as you laugh with Albedo about something he said.

Neither of you really brought up the kiss you shared but the way he would play his hand on yours or place his hand on your back, your heart would do flips.

Tighnari would make you feel those feelings early on when you figured out you liked him but as the years went by, all you had was fear and the heart aches at his harsh words that you knew he didn't mean but nevertheless it stung real bad.

But this, your face flushes red as you were currently laying your head on Albedo's shoulder while listening to him. This felt nice, you think as you close your eyes, allowing yourself to relax. Being back here made you be on your toes but being next Albedo erased those thoughts and feelings.

"...how about I take you out on a date?" He says as you glance up at him, smiling, "okay, I look forward to it."

He smiles back, squeezing your hand gently, "Mondstadt is having the festival soon, I'll take you there."

You think about it, you never really went to events in the city even while being a student, "hm, do you think we should leave already? Collei should be feeling better now, she seems more eager to get out of bed."

The two of you decide to leave early in the morning but when the time comes, you are stopped by Tighnari once again.

You had a feeling he didn't want you to leave again but, "I'm sorry, I know I promised to stay here but I need to go back with Albedo."

He stood there, arms crossed as you narrowed his eyes at you while Albedo stood next to you, both of you were ready to go.

"It's not about me, Collei still needs to rest some more and you can't exactly take her just yet."

Your brows furrow in worry, you didn't want to overwhelm Collei on the way to Mondstadt but the festival was set to start tomorrow and you knew Albedo couldn't stay since he was needed over there.

Puzzled on what to do, Albedo spoke up, "it's alright, I'll head back first while you stay here with the girl. After she recovers, you two can head over, you know the way there."

You ponder before sighing, not wanting to let him go back alone but there was no other way.

"Alright, I'll stay for a couple more days."

Saying your goodbyes to the blonde, you went back to your old room feeling sad that he had to leave first but not without checking up on Collei first.

Sitting down on a stool next to her bed, she smiles at you, the two of you talk for a while until Tighnari walks in to do a check up on her. The conversation between you two shifts to Albedo.

"You said he's also a knight and he's normally that straightforward?" She says, remembering what you wrote in your letter about him.

Resting your face on your hands, you nod, "yup, he also has this adorable little sister, Klee, who is just the sweetest thing." Collei giggles at this, "can you believe she's also a knight?"

She gasps at this, "no way!"

You nod, giggling, you had the same reaction when you found out. "Yes! And she's said to be the strongest knight alongside the dark knight hero but those are just rumors."

"So you really are a knight?" She asks, nodding your head you sigh.

"Yes, I'm Albedo's assistant so I'm under his command you could say." Tighnari's grip on the spoon he was holding tightens at this only for his ear to twitch at your next words.

Whispering to the girl, you feel your face heat up, "um...I have a date with him during the festival, would it be okay if we leave you with Amber for a couple hours?"

Collei's eyes go wide at this, a giant smile on her face as she grabs your hands, holding them in hers, "of course!! Don't worry about me and focus on your date!" She exclaims, your face flush even more at her outburst but you smile at her.

"Thank you."

The next day comes rather fast, fixing your hair that was tangled in your sleep and your hand reaches for the piece of earring on the table next to the bed but you hesitate.

Looking at it, you sigh and retract your hand and stand up, grabbing your coat, walking out of the room. Your ear feels lighter without your earring, it belonged as a matching set you brought Tighnari years ago, he wore the other half.

"No, if I'm going to move on, I need to let things go." You tell yourself, "this is for the best, I gave it my best until the end."

Arriving at Collei's room, you see her packing her things for the trip as you knock, she looks back to see you waving to her.

"Oh! (Y/n)! Come in, I'm ready to go now! I just need Master Tighnari to let me go and we can leave!" She seemed really excited to leave for Mondstadt as she sits down in her bed.

"... actually, I was thinking about it all last night but there's something I want to tell you." Taking a seat beside her, you listen quietly to her words as your lips part slightly.

"...I see..." You say after she was done. "I never would have thought...that he.." covering your face with your hand, you let out a trembling sigh, trying to take in what the girl told you.

a/n; sorry for the long wait on this part

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

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[sealrock]

the result of researching stories about japanese mythology, fox-wives, and binge-watching inuyasha for the 99th time in a row:

takami and tomoko, twin auspices who take on humanoid forms. my lore on them is very bare bones and subject to change but here's what I got thus far:

'takami' and 'tomoko' are just aliases. they're true names are 'raikou' and 'futen', they are the twin lords of chaos and the scourge of the east

while they appear human, the twins have pointed ears and 'birthmarks' along their faces

despite their appearances, takami is known to be a dense, wisecracking trickster who eats his weight in his favorite foods. tomoko is the mature one of the two; if takami gets too brash or if he intentionally annoys her, she'll yank at his hair to shut him up. despite her no-nonsense attitude, tomoko has a love of fashion and theater

they hail from the eastern region of koshu and are said to have been born near daitenzan mountain nearly two thousand years prior

their original forms were of raccoon dogs born with silver and black fur. because of their unique coloring, various lords and poachers of the region wished to hunt them for their body parts as they believed they would bring them good fortune. the will to survive allowed them to live beyond their natural lifespans and gain sentience and immense spiritual power

they can take on the forms of silver raccoon dogs at will to hide out or escape trouble. while under the effects of aramitama, they can transform into terrifying creatures and wreak total destruction on the lands

takami and tomoko are formidable foes in battle as they harness the powers of lightning and wind. while their ages may differ, they could rival the four lords in brute strength alone

the twins can be seen flying by at times: tomoko rides on a cloud while takami's mode of transportation are floating wheels of fire beneath his feet

tomoko has been called 'the wind sorceress' for her ability to harness deadly gusts, gales, and twisters with her fans; they're sharp enough to behead a man if he's not careful. she's also agile, swift on her feet, and can create clones of herself out of air

takami wields a naginata called 'raiden'. it is rumored to be cursed with demonic energy. besides being a polearm, takami uses his naginata as a lightning rod to channel thunder and lightning for ranged attacks

the twins operated as mercenaries during the age of blood; they served various clans on both sides of the war throughout the centuries for coin. they gained infamy for their peculiar magicks and penchant for mayhem. while awe-inspiring, the warlords at the time grew fearful of the twins' power as auspices and elected to band together in order to slaughter them. takami and tomoko narrowly escaped certain death by fleeing to onokoro in order to hide in the looming tower heaven-on-high. they took advantage of the mortals' superstitions of the island and laid low for the next few centuries

they became unofficial guardians of the ruby sea and the locals of onokoro believe that the heavy gales and severe thunderstorms, sometimes deadly, are caused by raikou and futen. they offer prayer and worship to quell the twin fury of the auspices

at some point in time, takami fell in love with a mortal named tauvane, a rare occurrence amongst their kind. this would eventually lead to his downfall and tomoko's loss of spiritual power, it was stolen by tauvane who now harnesses chaotic wind powers (wip)

takami unknowingly sired a son known as achille who inherited his father's power over the destructive element of lightning. tomoko is achille's aunt and achille can descend into a primal rage as a result of being part-auspice

[birgittesilverbae]

sneak peek - teach me to love, as you have loved me

Happy New Year! Here's a sneak peek of a pre-canon fic I've been working on for a while now

----

The training area Shannon leads her to is one Beatrice had noticed in passing, but never ventured a closer look at. Shannon unlocks the shed at the head of the field, and as Beatrice rounds the corner of it she slows to a halt, eyes wide.

Before her is an array of polearms, bamboo hafts and wooden, capped with hooks and blades and spikes. Shannon doesn't grab any of them, though, instead selecting two training staves from deeper in the shed and tossing one to Beatrice.

She catches it easily. She's worked with the bō since prepubescence, almost, and it feels like an extension of her body.

Shannon juts her chin towards the packed earth of the training field. "Let's see what you've got, Beatrice."

It's clear from early on that Beatrice is more than a match for Shannon. She lands strikes to thigh, arm, side, once even to the head in a blow that sends Shannon staggering and ice down Beatrice's spine. When Shannon rights herself, there's a long welt across her right cheek, but she grins and beckons Beatrice towards her anew.

Shannon's patterns shift, then. From the strikes and blocks of competitive sport to something fiercer, more relentless. Shannon's grin turns predatory. Beatrice finds herself on her back foot, despite her skill, finds herself dodging and bracing against attacks that aim for centre mass, for the groin, the heart, the throat, the head. The end of Shannon's staff pushes and seeks, hungry for blood.

Finally, Shannon sweeps Beatrice's legs out from under her and she ends up on her back, Shannon's staff at her throat.

Shannon taps the butt of her staff against Beatrice's chin and winks, then pulls it back so she can hold a hand out to Beatrice. Her palm is calloused but still soft, and warm against Beatrice's, her grip firm. She throws an arm around Beatrice's shoulders and steers her back towards the shed.

"What changed about my attacks?" Shannon asks, after they've returned their staves to the shed and sat down on the grassy slope alongside the field.

Beatrice ponders the question, the last moments of the fight. "The purpose," she says finally. "Those strikes were meant to inflict damage."

"And if my staff had had a blade on it?" Shannon prompts.

Oh. "Those strikes were meant to kill."

Shannon nods sharply. "There's a difference between fighting for a championship and fighting for your life, Beatrice," she says. Her voice is level, but her eyes have grown distant. "When blades are live and blood is hot, you can't lose focus for even a moment." She raises a hand when Beatrice opens her mouth. "I know that isn't a problem for you," she continues dryly, "I and everyone else has seen you go through your forms. But even a moment's hesitation, a moment's doubt as to what your next action should be, can be the difference between you coming home alive and us holding a vigil for you, too."

[enden-k]

I haven't watched the Livestream (don't thave the brain capacity right now) but there was smth about inadzuma characters making an appearance? what's that about? is event going to be somehow connected to them?

mostly asking about ayaka because she's cute and I like seeing her (reminds me of a friend tbh so I have a lot of warm feelings for her by association). feel free to ignore this if you haven't watched the stream yourself and stuff, obv, theres probably somewhere else I can look this up as well I'm just not braining good right now

i like ayaka too <3 and ayato, the kamisato siblings have a special place in my heart fr

ill jsut use this ask to briefly sum up the livestream. did skip through it just now

WIFE NAMEDROPPED i thought he was dead

anyway:

main event is the fontinalia film festival set in fontaine featuring navia, furina, chiori (new inazuma character), chevreuse (new fontaine character), kamisato siblings, yoimiya, ofc our buddy xavier from inazuma. basically, we (and furina) are making a commercial for chioris boutique

banners: 1st half navia (5star geo claymore ousia aligned) + ayaka rerun 2nd half raiden shogun rerun + yoimiya rerun + chevreuse (4star pyro polearm ousia aligned)

quests: navia story quest

events: -well the main event in fontaine which gives us a free 4star claymore and several mini games all around film making -ittos beetle battle event returns, this time in liyue bc shinobu (and itto and the lil kid he fought last time) join....plus some liyue character is gonna join but wasnt named -the lost riches (pet seelie) event returns!!! also set in fontaine. the newest color this time is light blue-ish?

-some combat event. also set in fontaine. -marvelous merchandise - liben is back <3

other: -2 new artifact sets. no info on them tho -fontaine realm will be added to the teapot -fontaine card challenges and fontaine designs will be unlocked in tcg -new tcg character/monster cards: lyney, lynette, layla, signora, azhdaha, dvalin, some eremites, 💕💕al-haitham💕💕

cant wait to fucking beat him up in a card game idc about

system optimizations: -we will be able to view recommended sets in the artifacts menu -artifact filter system where you can automatically lock specific artifacts when farming and they get added to inventory -increased the amount of stuff u can put in for artifact enhancement similar how it is with weapons -removed the pop up windows when you level characters/weapons -refining weapons now allows you to add several mats and not one by one -when farming domains, when repeating the challenge we will now be teleported right to the center and not at the beginning to save us all the walking -the chasm archon quest ("in the depths, an unexpected reunion") is no longer locked behind two other world quests now. new players can now directly start -we can now claim all expedition rewards with one click and dispatch all of them without the pain of picking character and time again. its gonna be similar to honkai star rail now -processed ingredients can also be now claimed with one click

thats all i got, was honestly just skipping through the stream so no more details on the mini games or stuff as i usually did. just the important things ig

also, in under an hour the codes will expire so quickly claim them if u can:

RS99D5LVTM6V

UBRQC4MCT4PZ

8BQ9CMMVS5PM

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 7 thoughts (I probably should have done this as two posts but I didn't):

WOLFSPIDER WOLFSPIDER WOLFSPIDER WOLFSPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, look at how my wonderful daughter takes the steps to communicate with Rachel in the way that works for Rachel.

And then look at how Rachel reaches back to do the same thing!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!

Taylor needs to take a longer rest and should not be sparing Brian the morning after the gala attack, but she quickly loses the opportunity to take a rest so whatever I guess.

Alec backstory! His father is fucking horrible oh my god. Kill him with fire.

WOLFSPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god the fucking suit made of bugs I was screaming. And then having it keep shape while crouching to make it seem like you turned into bugs? Having the bugs all make noise while you talked to make it sound super weird?! I'm in fucking love, look at how amazing my little girl is!

Taylor stabbed a Nazi. And later she stabbed another Nazi! I'm so proud.

The E88 list. Oh my god Coil, way to not think things through. (I mean, he probably thought it through and was ok with the outcome, but given that he wants the Undersiders on his team it doesn't seem like the best action to take.)

And the fucking drugged 12 year old Coil keeps in his bunker to run probability numbers for him? I wasn't expecting him to be good but god damn he turned really fucking evil really quickly.

Grue kneecapped a Nazi and I'm so proud of him. Remember, every time you kneecap a Nazi an angel gets its wings.

Lots of interesting powers on E88 (Night, Hookwolf). Too bad they chose to be Nazis instead of something cool. I hope Hookwolf get's melted down to slag. (Stormtiger's power, costume, and name feels directly out of 80's comics and I'm here for it.)

Did I mention the wolfspider moments? Taylor got her lunch! And then Rachel gave Taylor the good fetch toy so she could play fetch the the doggos. And the worked together to save the one dogs life! WOLFSPIDER!

Shit got awkward with Brian.

I hope Sophia gets hit by a bus that crashes into another bus. In a volcano.

If Angelica doesn't recover I'm burning down at least 5 Nazis. I think that's fair.

I'm sad that babies are fighting even though I get why Taylor is doing what she is. Being a villain is hard.

And we end with an Endbringer showing up which kinda makes everything else seem small fries.

Interlude thoughts - I like getting to see Miss Militia's backstory. I wish she wasn't "Guns and America the hero" because I actually think her personality and the way her powers work beyond the making guns part is pretty neat. Also she remembers what getting her powers was like which is super cool. Everyone gets a god piece I guess. I'm sure I'll learn more eventually.

More interlude thoughts - I love Dragon I wish they didn't run a prison so I could love them more. I love that she basically got through Poley the Polearm Man's "heavy security" in like negative 5 seconds. Anything to make him look bad. I will never like him, I refuse.

[primalsouls]

Inner Visions

i'll protect you from

all the things i've seen

tighnari x gn!reader

themes: general (for now)

warnings: mention of death, description of a death (poison mushrooms), ooc Tighnari (heavy possibility), let me know of any warning...

summary: Tighnari saw his life flashed before his eyes, once again, but it wasn't from the newly growing poison mushroom he had almost taken a bite out of.

notes: written after the Archon Quests. but im so forgetful 😭 i also did finished his story quest... but probably forgot about that, too lmao so ill definitely look into all that haha also tried to do a little layout thingy for this fic lmao

⌑ reblogs & feedback are appreciated here! ⌑

✿ some reader info ✿

has a third eye - uses to see future visions when activated, atm the third eye is a ◉ᵕ◉.... third eye is closed one haha...

a "deity"

third eye makes them lose energy

wields a polearm mainly but can use more than one weapon - hand-to-hand combat mostly preferred

more will be added once i remember haha

(divider (c) firefly-graphics)

A new series of poisonous mushrooms began to invade one of the cave systems in the Avidya Forest. As one of the Forest Rangers in the sea of grand trees, Tighnari took it upon himself to seek these new species out and pray to the Dendro Archon for the empty-headed adventurers to heed his warnings and lectures about these fungi once he got his hands on them and study them before anyone else come across them. 

"Master Tighnari, are you sure you could handle this on your own?" Collei asked, worry laced within her tone as she watched the fennec fox-hybrid ranger prepare himself a travel bag with all the necessary equipment he needed. Tighnari nodded his head towards the question, not sparing the green-haired girl a look as he dug through some cabinets for empty jars.

"Of course I can, Collei. These new specimens are a true hazard for anyone less experienced than me." Tighnari answered, stuffing the empty jars he found in one of his cabinets carefully into a new travel bag. Collei pouted. Brown-green eyes finally spare a single look towards her, a soft sigh leaving his lips as he slowed his movements. "I promise I won't try anything rash." He added, turning his body to face her completely. "And if I do need any help, I'll let Iraj know as he is near the cavern, afterall." Tighnari reassured the young girl before returning back to his preparations. 

Despite the reassurance she received from the forest watcher, Collei's mind was still not at ease. There was a deep feeling inside her chest, urging her to stop the other vision user from going to investigate the mysterious mushrooms. Though, part of her believed Tighnari would be fine. He was the forest watcher after all, having to study the forest and its ecosystem. There was no reason to doubt him. "Alright… Please be careful, Master." Collei said quietly, bowing her head before leaving the hut of the fox-hybrid. 

Tighnari let out a deep sigh. He appreciated Collei's concerns. She wasn't the only one worried about his sudden decision to investigate the growing problem within the Gandha Hill cavern. Aether and Paimon were the first to come across the fungi when they entered the cave for some lousy treasure. They were thankful Tighnari caught sight of them before they ventured further into the cave. 

It was the horrendous smell that caught Tighnari's attention when he first entered the cavern after spotting the traveler and his small flying companion head in. Just from the sight of it above the cliff looking over the ground of the cavern was enough to tell it was a new species of poison mushrooms along with the nauseating aroma.

"Hopefully this scarf could keep the smell away." Tighnari muttered as he picked up the two travel bags he prepared, pulling the scarf over his head, careful with his long ears, and pulling it over his nose. 

"Tighnari! There you are! Collei said you planned to go investigate the weird fungi we found. Do you need help? Aether here can come along!" Paimon exclaimed as she floated over to the forest watcher with the traveler walking up behind her, an apologetic look on his face. Tighnari winced at the loud voice of Paimon, his ears twitching down in displeasure. 

Shaking his head, he waved the duo off. "No, no, it's fine. Like I told Collei, this is a mission for me rather than those inexperienced. We don't know what the mushrooms and their effects do, which is why I have to be the one to check on them. Please, I appreciate your concerns but I would rather you guys stay safe here than follow me through with this investigation of mine." Tighnari stated firmly, giving the pair a small smile. "Just stay here with Collei, I promise I'll come back before the night falls." With those words out, Tighnari didn't wait any second longer and headed down the path leading towards the entrance of the Gandha Hill cavern. 

"Alright, Iraj, if anything happens in Gandharva Ville, please come get me." Tighnari said, looking over his shoulder towards the forest ranger who gave a firm nod. "And if anything happens to me, keep an ear out." 

"Yes, Master Tighnari! I'll do my best." Iraj declared with another firm nod.

Tighnari gave him a quick nod before turning to the entrance of the cavern. "Here goes nothing…" He muttered under his breath. 

The path leading to the ground of the cavern was shorter than he thought it would be. Tighnari peeked over the cliff. There they were. The new set of poison mushrooms huddled together in the small pool of water in front of the cliff. With careful steps, Tighnari made his way down to the ground level of the large cave. He looked around for any other potential threats in the area, his long ears seeking out for any small sound. Determined there was no other danger, Tighnari set a camp a few yards away from the pool of water. The equipment he had brought was set out nicely on top of a blanket beside the notebook and pen he brought to document any behavior from the fungi. 

With a huff, Tighnari sat on the rug he set up. He wanted to take the scarf off but he doubted he would be able to handle the stench of the fungus. Despite the short travel between the cave under Gandha Hill, it still exhausted the fox-hybrid out. It didn't take him long to rest well, either. Tighnari stood up from the ground and walked over to the starting crowd of the fungi after picking up his pen and notebook. "Hm… Aside from the horrible stench, it stands out with a rosy pink cap and a lilac stem. It seems to be covered with moss as well." Tighnari told no one, his eyes shifting between the notebook and the mushroom as he scribbled down his observations. 

"I wonder…" His words trailed off as Tighnari placed his pen and notebook down beside him. A gloved hand reached down and plugged one of the mushrooms out of the ground. Pulling the scarf down to his mouth, Tighnari grimaced at the aroma of the fungi invading his personal space, trying his damndest not to gag. "C'mon, Tighnari, tough it o-out…" He said through gritted teeth. His tail swung to get rid of somewhat of the stench as his hand neared the mushroom towards his slightly parted lips. His eyes were squinted. The top of the fungus looked weirdly spiraled. 

A flash pierced against his vision. Tighnari let out a yelp as he dropped the mushroom and quickly got back on his feet after backing away hurriedly from the small group of fungi. His eyes were widen with alert, his body tensed as he held his bow out to defend himself. He panted, his heart ready to jump out of his throat as it raced against his chest. 

"Wha—what…" Tighnari swallowed dryly as he glanced down at the mushroom he took out. There was no bite on it, so why did he see his life flashed before his eyes. Did the terrible smell finally get to his head!? Was he hallucinating from it? Tighnari was confused but upon closer observation he noticed the mushroom was pierced by a sharp… point of a trident… What?

Tighnari tensed his body once more. Where did the trident came from? There was no one here but himself. His fingers tightened around his bow. His ears were high alert for any sound.

"My, that was a close one, wasn't it?" An unfamiliar voice said above him coolly. Tighnari whipped his head around, his wide brown-green eyes landed on a figure who sat on the edge of the cliff. A frown creased his features. The forest watcher kept his weapon, taking a step back away from the new intruder. 

"Who are you!? In fact, what are you doing here!? This area is off limits at the moment." Tighnari stated, his eyes narrowed towards the figure. 

"What a strange way to say thank you…" The new face said as they raised a hand and snapped their fingers. Tighnari blinked as he glanced at their hand and towards the silver trident, which was no longer stabbing the mushroom he had in his hands moments before. "You should be lucky I was around the area to stop you from eating that deadly fungus." They added, hopping off the cliff and huffed when they landed a few feet away from Tighnari. Confusion swimmed in the forest watcher's eyes towards their words.

"What are you talking about? Were you the one who attacked me with that weapon?" 

"Attacking is a strong word… I like the word helping more."

Tighnari scoffed, not a single trace of his weapon being lower down. 

"Once again, who are you? Why did you atta—"

"Helped."

"Whatever! Why did you do that!?" Tighnari was growing frustrated. The figure tilted their head to one side, their disinterested eyes staring at Tighnari unnerving. 

"You were about to eat a deadly mushroom. I've saved you from meeting your end too soon." They stated with a shrug, a bored look on their face. Tighnari frowned. 

"How do you know they're deadly? What if it would just upset my stomach?" Tighnari retorted, his weapon faltering a bit.

"I've seen it… Your body wouldn't be discovered until further into the nighttime. By the time they find you, you'll be nothing but a wide eyed, purple lifeless body with moss growing out of your mouth." They said, their eyes glancing down at the mushroom which had slowly died out, withering away. Tighnari stared at them with a disturbed expression on his face. 

The forest watcher couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was no way any of that could happen. Letting out a laughable scoff, Tighnari put his weapon down. "Hah! Ye-yeah right… There's no way that would happen. What, did you—did you try it yourself and come back to life?" He mused, not believing a single word that came out of their mouth. The other stared at Tighnari, leaving him feeling uneasy. 

"No, I'm not stupid like you." Their words caught Tighnari off guard, his perplexed frown increasing further. "I figured you won't believe me… I've planned to just save you from your early fate and create a diversion to throw you off but I decided to stay and let you know what happened instead… I regret it now." They added, looking over at his small campsite. "By the way, Tighnari, do you always go around eating strange mushrooms?" Hearing his name rolled out their tongue made Tighnari freeze on the spot once more. 

"How do you know my name? I've never told you…" Tighnari said quietly, raising his bow once more. 

"Ah, how rude of me…" Ignoring his question, the figure crossed their arms over their chest. "I'm (Name)." They said with a small grin, . "And I can see your future." 

[running-with-the-feels]

Golden years!Au: Some Headcanons about the Kombat kids own kids

* Vera did inherit her father’s telepathy but not the telekinesis(Its fairly week but is amplified with Sento) in the sense that is able to communicate with people and read minds, but hers developed into a unique ability to essentially replicate and absorbed the knowledge and skills of others minds she reads long enough.

* She uses the rope and weapon style similar to that of Mk1 Scorpion minus the fire powers obs. However it’s more like a cowboy lasso style because Grandpa Jax showed her a fuck ton of westerns when he babysat her.

* She is basically a ninja cowgirl because of this

* She has one of the weird horned green zebras foals from Outworld that Kuai Liang and Hanzo gave to her as a birthday gift. Jaquci is pretty sure they stole it from the Royal stables or something but never asked because Vera was so happy.

* She named that damm Horse princess Murderhooves

* Kenshi is fucking scared of it

* She ends up being about 5’11 when she is older

* She and Murderhooves have matching cowboy hats

* Ro and Lance are twins, Lance is the oldest.

* Both inherited both the green glow and cyromancy but at different rates, Ro has the more powerful cyromancy but the green glow is weaker and vice versa with Lance.

* Ro uses posions and other concoctions she uses in battle that she grows in a garden in her room at the Lin Kuei temple. She uses a bladed polearm as well made from her cyromancy primarily.

* She is great at skating, ends up using cybernetic rollerblades on her feet to get around fast in battle

* Lance for the most part uses throwing spikes made from his cyromancy as it’s not as strong but can land in vital areas easier

* He is more of a physical brawler with a fighting style similar to Kuai Liang and Johnny in a sense, more flexible kicking amplified by the green glow.

* The two would fight over Johnny’s movies and rather if they good or not, Lance hated them and Ro loved any cheesy action movie

* Lance is the shorter twin tho because Ro’s last growth spurt got her to 6 foot while he got stuck at 5’9

okay, gotta say, I love your ocs, and if I may add on?

The one kinda awkward thing for the kombat kids' kids (might need a name for that group?) is that Bi-Han, Sareena, and Johnny have two kids who are around their age, Jiahao and Lian (named after Bi-Han's father and sister)

Jiahao uses a bow and doesn't carry any arrows, instead using his cryomancy

Lian uses daggers and takes after her mother in having a demonic form.

Both have the green glow which Cassie pretends to be annoyed by.

Vera and Lian get along like a house on fire

Jiahao spends a lot of time chasing after the twins to try and keep them out of trouble.

Hanzo is also reminded of his own youngers siblings, Hana and Ryuji, who were twins, whenever he sees Ro and Lance

anyway, I love your headcanons, pls keep em coming (only if you want too tho)

[bluewaltz]

🐋 — [ Tartaglia. ] 👤 — [ gender neutral reader. ] 🏷️ — [ enemies to lovers, good ending, fluff. ] 📜 — [ fic. ]

You had a mission. Kill the Eleventh Harbinger, through any means necessary.

You had heard the tales. He's a monster, a killing machine that brought with him devastation and ruin. The Vanguard of the Tsaritsa, and someone who crawled out of the Abyss.

It was insanity. Your higher ups must have known that sending one person to kill Tartaglia was a death sentence. But you would carry it out, regardless.

You didn't know what you expected, but it certainly wasn't this lanky, awkward young man, talking with the confidence of a Harbinger. Your organisation had managed to sneak you into the Fatui as a new recruit, and you had been posted to Liyue, which was apparently under his jurisdiction.

"I wish you all glory; glory to the Tsaritsa, glory to our motherland, and glory to yourselves. Dismissed. Your captains will tell you what you will be doing, and Y/N? A word, please?"

You pushed past the crowds, uncaring of how all eyes were on you. Tartaglia was waiting for you, a small smile on his lips. Again, you wondered how he could seem so young.

"You weren't listening at all, were you? Did I bore you?" Tartaglia leaned forward, his tone one of mild curiosity.

You fought the urge to reach for your weapon, instead focusing on keeping your breathing even.

"No sir. Sorry sir, it won't happen again." You replied crisply.

To your surprise, Tartaglia threw his head back and laughed like he'd heard the joke of the century.

"Sir? Why so formal, recruit? Call me Childe; everyone here calls me that." Tar- Childe said, his eyes dancing with mirth.

"Understood, Lord Childe." You said carefully, testing the word out on your tongue.

Childe clicked his tongue, looking pleased. "Okay, that's a start. I know exactly where you'll be working. Katya!"

A Fatuus hurried over, turning to Childe.

He turned to you with a conspiratorial grin and whispered loudly, "Ekaterina here takes care of the shady side of things at the bank, so I can go out and play Harbinger without the metaphorical blood on my hands."

"Need I remind you of the times you appeared in the bank with blood all over you, sir?" Ekaterina replied drily, and you noticed that she didn't seem to use that reverent tone of respect most recruits did.

"It's just blood, and it wasn't mine."

"Blood doesn't wash out of carpets easily, and you're lucky it was closing time then." She turns to you, and despite how her face was obscured by the mask, you got the feeling that she was sizing you up.

"Is this who you want, sir?"

"Give them an office at the bank, okay? I'll be going now, I just came back from Inazuma!"

The two of you watched Childe hurry away, his figure shrinking into the distance.

"Good luck."

"What?"

Ekaterina turned to you, her voice dripping with pity.

"Childe isn't an easy boss. Come with me."

-

Your days at the bank were long and dreary. It wasn't so bad, but there was a lot of work to be done. Mostly it was just the Qixing nitpicking some small detail or other, and your days were filled with passive aggressive letters insisting that the other party was far too kind, and that you would remember this.

All well and fine, until Childe crashed into your office like a dust devil.

"Y/N, can you fight?"

Your first thought was that the bank was under attack. Your second thought was that your cover had been blown, and your hand twitched towards the polearm that always remained just out of arm's reach.

"A little. I'm not too good at it, though." Technically not a lie, since you specialized more in subterfuge and assassination.

Childe seemed appeased by this response, gesturing for you to follow him.

He left the bank at an easy pace, exchanging greetings and words with people on the street. Vendors seemed particularly enthused to see him, and some even asked him where their "source of income was", whatever that meant.

He always replied with a sunny smile, and more than a few times you had to remind yourself that this was a bloodthirsty creature you were dealing with.

He brought you to a wide, empty field, and you suddenly remembered something.

Being the secretary of the Eleventh Harbinger, you heard things.

Things like how he would wheedle his way into spars with recruits, and he would always leave the field looking refreshed while the recruits all looked haggard.

To be picked for a spar with Childe was to have all the flaws of your technique pointed out with a smile. But it was also a good way to see how he fought.

So you let him tug you into position, and you watched as he pulled his bow into existence, seemingly giving you the first move. Not one to let go of an opportunity, you dashed forward, drawing your sword and aiming for his chest.

You longed for your polearm, but it was unwise to show your hand so early. The sword was shorter than what you were used to, but it would be fine.

Childe sidestepped, using his bow to send quick flickers of water at you, throwing you off. All the while, he was watching you intently.

You kept attacking, and he kept dodging. This frustrating game kept up until his face lit up. Then, with a casual gesture, your sword went flying out of your hands.

"You've got a strange style," Childe commented, catching your sword and inspecting it. "I think you would be more suited to a polearm, not a sword. Or, you were trained with a polearm, anyway."

"You barely fought me." You gritted out, glaring at Childe.

He shrugged and passed your sword back. "I didn't have to."

-

And just like that, another event was added to your repetitive routine. Paperwork, think of a way to murder Childe, and occasionally, indulge him with a spar.

When you took out your polearm and fell into a familiar stance, Childe's eyes lit up, and he actually did trade blows with you this time, though you could tell he was barely using his strength. But he disarmed you easily enough, which put an end to your plans of facing him in head on combat.

You wondered if he checked his food for poison, but then you dismissed it. Too risky, and if he didn't die, he would know who you were, and the mission would be ruined.

As you plotted in circles, you became aware of Childe's tells. How he lied, how he smiled when he never meant it. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and you wondered how anyone could fail to kill this bumbling man.

Childe's behaviour was becoming erratic and strange. Some days, he would be cheerful and bubbly, always chatting incessantly and overly generous. Those were his most common moods.

But recently, he had been moodier of late. More volatile, easier to provoke. He lost more of his spars like that, but he didn't seem to really mind. In fact, he seemed happier after those defeats, often treating you to a meal.

It happened during lunch. The two of you were at Wanmin, and Childe was regaling you with a particularly tall tale about a sea snake and a fishing rod when suddenly, his hand shot out.

Your head was snapped down, and Childe let out a hiss of pain. You scrambled out of your seat, looking down at the neat round hole burned into his arm and the smoking bullet bobbing in your soup.

Childe stood up, ignoring how his arm hung limply. His eyes were cold and dead now, scanning the rooftops and balconies.

"Lord Harbinger-"

"There." Childe hummed, and in the blink of an eye, something zipped past you. You only survived because he wasn't focused on you, but you felt the touch of electro-charged water against your cheek.

Electro? But how did he…

"Y/N, we have to go."

This was your chance. He was injured and distracted, you could easily plunge a fork or your knife into his chest and shock his heart to a standstill.

You grabbed his bleeding arm, ignoring the startled hiss. Of course he'd forgotten about the wound.

"Lord Harbinger, you're injured. Perhaps you should recuperate before tracking them down." You murmured. "People are looking."

"Fine." He snarled, summoning some Hydro to wipe up the blood and pick up the bullet.

He didn't let you touch him all throughout the walk back to the bank, and when he reached the bank, his murderous expression kept people from asking after his arm.

You retreated to your office to get a medical kit and returned to Childe surveying the bullet, turning it this way and that in its watery prison.

"Interesting build." Childe's voice was conversational, and you pulled up a chair to him and started working on the wound.

"What is, sir?"

Childe made a dismissive noise. "Just call me Childe. And I was talking about this bullet. It has been imbued with pyro energy, so touching it would burn very badly."

You tried to school your expression. That sounded like the work of your organisation. Bullets that cauterized the wound as it went, with a dense knot of pyro energy that would dissipate after a while.

But why would they steal your kill? You were promised Tartaglia. This didn't make any sense, so you just made an affirmative hum and continued to bandage his arm.

-

"Is that all you got?" Even pinned under your weapon, Childe still had that cocky light in his eyes, and he pressed his throat closer to the tip of your spear. A spar. that was all it was supposed to be, until he let slip that he knew your intentions and all of a sudden, it had become far more dangerous.

"Come on," he cooed. "You can kill me right here, right now. Unless you like seeing me helpless like this?"

"Shut up, Harbinger."

Childe sighed heavily, sounding very put upon. "I thought we were getting along swimmingly. What's with the sudden change in attitude?"

"Don't play dumb."

Childe snickered. "But it makes you so mad."

"You're not scared?"

"Why would I be afraid of you?" He cocked his head, sounding genuinely confused. "You were a spy sent by an organisation to do an impossible task. But you still tried anyway. Isn't that enough?"

"I-"

"There's no use arguing." Childe pushed your spear away from his throat and sat up. "I did my research; the organisation simply wanted an easy way to get rid of you."

You gritted your teeth. You had long suspected it, but hearing it laid out so simply… it stung. Discarded like an old tool in order to make way for others.

"So? Are you going to kill me now?" You asked.

Childe burst out laughing. "Ha! I'm not letting myself get used like some attack dog for an enemy organisation. My loyalty belongs to the Tsaritsa alone. Of course I'm not going to kill you."

"What?" You were baffled. Was he really going to let an enemy live like that? But Childe didn't seem to sense your disbelief, his brow scrunched in an adorable furrow.

"I don't see why I need to kill you. Ekaterina already spent so much time training you to be my secretary, and it'd be a shame to put all her hard work to waste."

"I…"

Childe grinned. "Of course, you can still try to kill me. But I will try my best to continue thwarting your efforts."

Well. Who were you to look a gift horse in the mouth?