#i was unfamiliar with his character

[little-pondhead]

Happy Lantern Rite!

[click image for better quality]

-lore rant under cut-

HOLY FUCK I HATE SHADING

Okay if you haven’t guessed by now or just don’t care, these three are the aged-up versions of the little pirate gang in Liyue Harbor. Little Fei(left), Little Lulu(middle), and Little Meng(right). (From the Pirates! Argh! achievement)

This is obviously years later when they’re young adults. The trio are still best friends, but their new occupations make it so they can’t meet up often. However, they will always be together during one of Liyue’s most important events: The Lantern Rite. These three will find a way to spend the festival together no matter what. Their favorite tradition is to walk around the harbor eating fried lotus root and fish smothered in Xiangling’s favorite Jueyun chili sauce while looking at the lanterns.

Here’s some extra stuff about the outfits because I can’t shut up about anything

Lulu is a fairly levelheaded girl. She has a good grasp on her people skills and knew from a young age what she likes and dislikes. When Ying’er eventually quit the Scent of Spring and opens her own perfumery, Lulu immediately lands herself an apprenticeship working there. Not only is she an excellent sales employee and negotiator, but Lulu is also invaluable when perfecting Ying’er’s more ambitious recipes. She has a delicate nose that is perfect for creating unusual and rare fragrances and a sharp mind that’s constantly churning out ideas on improving business.

She markets herself well and connects to new clients easily so they get the most out of their shopping experience. Ying'er is delighted to teach her the tricks of the trade and is quick to send Lulu on home visits to their wealthier clientele when she feels Lulu is ready. Lulu becomes well-versed in high society because of this. She had worked with Yanfei and Keqing on more than one occasion when their shop was hired to prepare self-care gifts for important guests who frequent Yujing Terrace. Lulu stayed in Liyue, but despite that, she could welcome any diplomat from any nation with no issue. Who knew that becoming a perfumer would lead to her joining the cutthroat world of socialites?

The thing is, Lulu draws on past experiences as inspiration for creating new recipes. She journals about interesting experiences or strange materials so she can look back through her notes when she needs them later. This is reflected in her design, which is the least complicated and changes very little from her original design in the game. Lulu keeps a strong hold on her childhood memories, which affects how she dresses and presents herself. Some socialites scoff at her simple dress and willingness to get her hands dirty, but Lulu has never minded a word they say. She works at a perfume shop, but she doesn't own one. Yet. How can they expect her to stay perfectly neat and tidy all the time? And prettier dresses would just get ruined.

Meng is actually the most stubborn one in the group. If Lulu knew how to read people, and Fei was the quieter one, Meng was the one who was bullheaded and stuck in his own world. This is obvious in the game when the two boys get into a fight about who got to be captain for their pirate play. It was mentioned Meng got to be captain a lot, while Fei never got a chance. Of course, he didn't mean any harm; they were kids, after all. But Meng finally got the chance to grow out of this phase when his father was approached with a business proposal. With it came the opportunity to go to Sumeru!

Still fairly young at this point, Meng's friends help him prepare for his journey. They're upset but promise to stay in touch until Meng returns, whenever possible. He researches endlessly so they're prepared for anything, and discovers a love for learning on the trip. He and his father meet Tighnari in Gandharva Ville, and the Forest Watcher guides them through the Avidya Forest. Tighnari quickly becomes Meng's new role model, and from this point onward, he was determined to help people just like the archer did. He absorbs things like a sponge, buying books from every stop they make and mailing them back to himself in Liyue Harbor. His father's work with mushrooms and other materials led him to take an interest in nature. The stop in Qingyang village was just the nail in the coffin.

Meng learns about people's steps to produce the high-quality teas his father loves so much. It's an interesting process, but the workers always have cracked and damaged hands. There isn't enough healing salve to go around, they explain. It's too expensive, and we can't make our own since the ingredients are rare. When Meng returns to Liyue Harbor, he studies up for the entrance exams and wins a scholarship to the Akademiya. Throughout his time at the school, he frequently takes up research projects that let him visit home. His experiments focus on providing affordable medications that can be bought or made no matter which region you were in. This mix of Liyue and Sumeru's Akademiya is reflected in his design. It's an intense mix of both the merchants of Liyue and the professors of Sumeru. He mostly travels in between those two nations, so his outfit is only influenced by those two nations. He's very put together and neat, wearing pants and minimizing accessories so he can work at the drop of a hat.

Fei always wanted to go to sea. Liyue is a nation of gold and history. Every rock and flower has a story to tell, and he felt like there were endless things to discover. The sea was just as mysterious, and he wanted to travel across those blue depths. In the game, it's obvious he looks up to Captain Beidou and wants to be a pirate captain like her. As the trio hits puberty, Fei's confidence grows, and he focuses his attention on learning how to be a sailor. Manager Xiao takes him under his wing (after some begging), and Fei flourishes in the dockyard. He teaches Fei about the finer points of dockyard maintenance and how to complete the paperwork for certain orders. Wrench Wang and Hammer Li show him the physical side of the job, like repairing leaks quickly when you're taking on water or how to align a keel the right way.

Eventually, Manager Xiao dies, so he's out of the job. Fei bounces around from ship to ship, eager to make himself useful. He learns to haul in crabs and fish for Uncle Gao and Uncle Sun, how to tar ropes and prepare sails from Captain Wei, how to preserve large batches of food from Chef Mao, manage resources even when he's at sea from Gou San'er and Ms. Yu, file the right permits for foreign merchants like Ivanovich, and Shitou and Bolai hire him to import precious goods. Uncle Tian shares his secret tricks for fishing, although Jiawei argues the advice is all wrong. Fei even helps Reekwind find his missing spear, which is a miracle in itself. Fei makes himself invaluable to his fellow seamen and traveling merchants, just like his two friends have done in their chosen professions.

His ability to work at any station on a ship has taken Fei all over Teyvat. He earns himself an electro vision like his idol, Captain Beidou, and becomes one of the youngest pirate captains in Liyue history. All this is reflected in his design. Fei wears bits and pieces from all the (currently available) nations of Teyvat. He's hung out with the Eremites, learned Inazuman fishing techniques, imported dandelion wines from Mondstadt, and still finds time to visit home regularly to see his friends. He's adorned himself with gold and small jewels-he is a pirate-and makes a pretty penny delivering extremely fresh produce. (Well, that's what it says on the legal documents. Sometimes the Qixing hire him to...dispose of other pirates or Fatui boats.)

In the end, the little pirate gang, who used to play around the ships all day, grows up to be some of the most influential people in the world of merchants. Lulu inherits Ying'er's store and spearheads a new line of beauty products shipped across Teyvat (at an affordable price, of course.) Ningguang recommends them personally, which definitely helped the process.

Meng graduates from the Akademiya with top marks and becomes famous for his research and humanitarian efforts. He revisits well-known medicinal formulas and recipes to improve their effectiveness, makes new compounds using common materials such as sweet flowers or mushrooms so they're available to everyone, and establishes both disaster relief and learning programs in multiple cities. (Because as long as the Traveler is around, Teyvat will need both programs to guarantee a good future.)

Fei never reaches the same heights of public infamy that Beidou does, but instead establishes a small fleet of new transport ships that are faster than a swordfish. Only the Waveriders, which are not made for long-distance travel, can compare. Fei holds a monopoly over several parts of the underground markets, which would get him arrested or captured if he didn't have extensive information about every shady merchant he ever worked with. :) If the other unsavory types wanted to land his ass in jail, he was taking them with him. Due to this iron grip and vast reach, Fei had no issue delivering materials to his friends or taking care of the dirty sides of their businesses. Whether they actually knew about that last part or not didn't matter.

All three leave behind a vast legacy that is continued for generations to come, benefitting Teyvat as a whole. The Traveler just wished they could play 'pirates' with the group one last time, but sometimes life gets in the way. All the Traveler could do was visit their graves, leaving blooming lotus blossoms behind as an apology.

Sometimes immortality was a curse.

[venduri]

Only you could accomplish such art, Celebrimbor

Assad Zaman as Celebrimbor from JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales

[h0l1d4yh0rr0r]

I still don't understand how Disney wants me to believe these are all the same guy

[willyhoos]

simultaneously wanting to cry out "HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME HERE" and "NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN"

aka what happens if you combine prime!sonic (sweetest boy) and fof!tails (most traumatized boy)

bonus: HE DOESN'T KNOW

[aroaceleovaldez]

what do you think about the charters (Nico, Percy and others) using mobility aids? (Especially after all the wars, fights, and other general injures they've probably got over the years)

I may be biased as someone who uses mobility aids, but I definitely think more demigods should have mobility aids in general. Nico in particular definitely could use it with how often he collapses and with how he generally exhibits some symptoms of low blood pressure at the very least if not POTS or EDS. I'm particularly biased to drawing him with my own crutches, lol (they have knee rests!!!!).

Also I always love seeing Grover with crutches. He was introduced as having a muscular disease - i know that's implied to be just cause he's actually a satyr, but also he's the only satyr to be described as "walking like every step hurt." So give him crutches!!!! He needs them!!!

I dont have any particularly strong opinions for other characters, except maybe usually giving Leo a prosthetic leg so he can thematically match his dad and sometimes crutches alongside that, and my friends and I have talked about Jason using a rollator before, particularly in Jason Lives!AUs. But regardless I always love discussing comorbidity between various other conditions and disabilities with ADHD and dyslexia and a not insignificant number of those comorbidities may require mobility aids. Functionally demigods are kind of more like intensive athletes with magic healthcare, and very few are on the level of like Nico where they've been through the wringer so much that it has lasting effects on them - actually very few in general seem to get a lot of physical damage that doesn't get healed quickly (i think in part cause most campers don't actually go on quests). mostly just psychological damage - so i don't think every demigod would need mobility aids, but like statistically there should probably be more just given the comorbidity stuff to begin with. Everybody who's come back from the dead should probably have more going on with them though imo.

[hoofpeet]

I'd probably have to read the printed version and web version back to back at some point to note all the differences but... ough

[jovialturtleface]

Rosemoth's mothtastic new look!

[laugtherhyena]

Compilation of Beni's normal looking sprites

[demigod-of-the-agni]

was asked by a friend to draw kalki wearing fish earrings; i obliged. don't worry he actually does like the earrings. he's just being mean about it

goofy goldfish snack ass earrings

[missingn000]

[saints-who-never-existed]

Look, I know this is very random but thinking about Manson and his Shetland origins brought me back to this video concerning Shetlandic/Shetland dialect, and I thought perhaps others might be interested to see it too.

It features Christine De Luca, who not only has an incredibly lovely, mellifluous voice but is also a celebrated poet who was made Edinburgh's Makar in 2014 and has long been an advocate for Shetlandic.

[protect-namine]

you know, I think neji would enjoy playing dnd. getting to write stories and play characters with no limitations, and having to improv with the other players because he would never have full control of where the story was headed? it would be a dream come true, and also therapeutic. neji would of course be the dm who would "yes and" anything his players want to do. the story would be something everyone has input on and would help shape. an adventure that neji himself couldn't predict or write on his own. also, just imagine him describing his setting and doing all his character voices, he'd love that so much

I think it would be a good exercise for quartz too, because they'd have to make their own characters and backstories and roleplay in character without a script to direct them. especially to kisa "transparent vessel" tachibana, who can act out any character but is afraid of letting herself be seen through them. similarly, kai as well, since he'd be in charge of his own character instead of propping someone else up

on the flip side, fumi would get to enjoy playing a character but not having the pressure to be the lead/spotlight of a story. he's there to play, not perform

sou would also LOVE dnd. I think he'd be really into the character creation and lore, and is probably the next person I can think of who can try being the dm when neji is sick/tired/wants to be a player. he's the player who takes down notes and remembers one small detail neji mentioned four sessions ago that becomes relevant to the current session. neji loves him because sou is the one who appreciates his world building the most

suzu and fumi would instigate so much in the adventure, which neji would love. suzu makes a character everyone loves (like hachipochi) and always brings snacks to the table

fumi has read all of the player handbook, and mitsuki has read maybe a quarter of it (only the relevant parts to his character and how some dice rolls and combat work). mitsuki is also the one who doesn't put much effort into his character's backstory but unexpectedly gets big character development during the adventure, surprising everyone in the table including both the dm and himself

otori is very good at both roleplaying and combat, has created a compelling character, and tries to go on solo adventures but eventually gets roped into the party because he can't adventure alone in neji's setting

[keirametzbrassknuckles]

Stale, self-critical, and needlessly bitchy take BUT AUs are no good unless they preserve the aspects of the characters that made the pairing so compelling in the first place. Otherwise literally go and write a piece of original fiction and spare me having to scroll past it. It's not even a case of "he would not fucking say that" at that point and more of a "who the fuck even is that?" and it's annoying

[edettethegreat]

10/10 manga for pulling a “we’ll defeat you with the power of friendship!!” “That’s… incredibly ignorant of you. I’m significantly more powerful, whether or not you have friends won’t impact this fight”

[treeshrine]

you know what. something ELSE about the last herald-mage adaptation that may or may not ever happen is that I wouldn't mind if they didn't actually adapt the books word for word. Not in a "they follow the loose story of the books but change things around for x reason" way, but in a "we're exploring different avenues or facets of Vanyels' life we never got to see in the books" way. like if they made a series filling in the gaps between the three books and covering those huge time skips that expands on the world, and gives us developments on the part of Vanyel's character that we never got to see, I think I would be satisfied with that as long as it's well done. Also, big opportunity for world development when possible, since places outside Valdemar like Karse didn't really get any genuine attention until much later on in the overarching Valdemar series.

There's so much of his story that we never saw because of the time skips! And I feel like there's plenty of room to do something original that way (because of course they're going to want to do something original) while ALSO staying more or less true to the source material without eviscerating it, especially since there's so much in the original books that I think will be very hard to adapt well or even respectfully. I feel like this is something that can totally be done without alienating people who aren't familiar with the original books, while also creating something new and interesting that can stand on its own.