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icysnails · 9 months ago

Note

Hello sorry if I'm bothering you but I wanted to share one of my ideas with you. So what if the reader appeared on the Loufu and it caused a small tremor along with a large energy fluctuation so Jing Yuan went to investigate with Fu Xuan going with him and they came across an unconscious person who was not only confused when they awoke but completely exhausted, hungry and with strange markings on some parts of their body and when they got examined by a doctor it was discovered that they had an extremely large amount of strange energy within their body. (This was inspired by the first episode of Aphmau Diaries rebirth, here's the link if you don't know what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/1Vzq1QZVtuk?si=kyIxOyJTSnTjNaMG) (if you don't want to write this that's completely alright and I wish you a good morning/afternoon or goodnight☺️)

An Unexpected Guest

A/n: Hello anon!! I’m so sorry for the late response- thank you so much for your patience! I really like this idea- I’ve heard a lot about the Aphmau series but I’ve never gotten the chance to actually watch it (^o^) I hope you have a fabulous day!!

Warnings: mentions of severe injuries/wounds + infections + unconsciousness, slight refernces to Honkai Impact 3rd (reader’s markings are implied to be honkai infections + mentions of reader fighting archangels from Hi3)

Genre: fluff

Pairing: Jing Yuan x gn!reader (PLATONIC), Fu Xuan x gn!reader (PLATONIC)

Word Count: 1.9k

All was peaceful on the Xianzhou Luofu. Beams of sunlight illuminated the vibrant blue sky, tinting everything in a warm shade of gold. Shops operated on every street, the sharp ping of bells and the shouts of shopkeepers echoed out through the streets, attracting clamoring swells of civilians in record time. Children happily played among the crowds, swept up in the rare, shopping-induced excitement of the adults. For a change, there was little distress anywhere on the ship. There was no word of the Stellaron Hunters, no new reports of people being Mara struck, and even no reports of petty crimes. The workload wasn’t too terrible for those in command of the Luofu either- Jing Yuan was able to take a long nap, and Fu Xuan was able to take a break and have some tea for the first time in weeks. Yangqing managed to squeeze in some training time too. All was well. All was normal.

But of course, in a universe as vast and random as this one, the fates wouldn’t let it stay this peaceful for long. And of course, as a general, Jing Yuan must be prepared for anything. It is one of his most basic duties to stay alert and be ready at all times. Even so, the sleeping general couldn’t help but flinch in surprise as an ear-shattering boom echoed throughout the whole ship, followed by an earthquake that managed to toss even him out of bed. Meanwhile, just as Fu Xuan was about to swallow her first sip of tea, the vigorous shaking of the floor managed to knock the teacup out of her hands. Not only did she have to watch as her favorite cup shattered to bits, but she choked on her tea as well, leaving her in a wheezing heap on the floor.

Thankfully both parties quickly recovered and ran to the windows of their respective offices to see what happened. A pillar of light shone from the Starskiff docks, along with a plume of dust that undoubtedly came from an explosion. Only a few minutes after this discovery, Fu Xuan was given orders from Jing Yuan to go inspect the crisis with him. So much for a peaceful day.

As the disoriented pair cautiously approached the docks, they saw the silhouette of a crumpled body lying in the center of the dissipating light. Jing Yuan was the first to kneel down and inspect the injured figure. After checking your pulse, it became clear that you were still alive. But just barely. You were covered in deep, razor-fine cuts, and sizeable bruises littered your legs and arms. Jing Yuan didn’t know what had happened to you, but it was clear that what went down wasn’t good. The dark circles under your eyes suggested that you had been fighting for a long time, with no rest or nutrition. Taking a step back, the general’s features morphed into an expression of deep concern. He sighed and turned to his diviner companion, who was practically bursting to comment on the situation.

“Fu Xuan… I imagine you saw this coming?”

“I, in fact… did not. For once, my divinations couldn’t pick up on… well, anything of note happening today.”

“Hm… how interesting.”

Jing Yuan cast his gaze down to you once more, trying to decide what to do next. Fu Xuan merely suffered in silence at his side, completely unsure of what to do as well. After a few moments of heavy silence, the general scooped up your beaten body in his arms and began walking back to the Exalting Sanctum. Fu Xuan stared at him for a few moments before jogging after him, urgently asking him what he was doing. Jing Yuan calmly explained that, given the strange nature of the situation, you would need to be brought in for questioning and given heavy medical attention. The diviner huffed, quietly grumbling something about incompetence before following in his wake.

Once they returned to the Exanting Sanctum, Jing Yuan called upon his tiny friend Bailu to help heal you. Having called upon her for anti-sleeping medicine many times before, Jing Yuan practically had her on speed dial in case any new problems arose. Hours upon hours passed before you were well enough to awaken, but Bailu’s work certainly did not disappoint. The gashes on your body had faded into nothingness, save for a few scars, and the herbs she used helped you recover after losing so much blood. According to Bailu, you needed much more time to rest, but by tomorrow you would be alright. However, one odd trait resisted her treatment: the glowing lines left on your stomach.

Bailu was the only one who had seen them so far. The markings were hidden by cloth and blood when you were found, so it slipped past the awareness of the general and diviner. She worriedly called them in, asking if they knew what those marks were, but she was given no answers. Perhaps the truth would reveal itself when you woke up, but for now, it was hopeless. Jing Yuan gratefully bid the exhausted healer goodbye, taking a seat by your bed afterward. Meanwhile, Fu Xuan further examined your markings. They were long, branch-like streaks of bright purple that extended towards your chest, almost like an infection. However, they didn’t seem to be getting worse, and they didn’t behave the way a bad infection would. Feeling a bit frustrated, she gave up and resorted to waiting alongside the general.

While Jing Yuan fell asleep in no time, the poor diviner was left awake and antsy. The room was dead quiet, but the anxious tapping of her foot repeatedly broke the silence. She could see the future, for god's sake! How could she have ended up so clueless in this situation?! She was so used to knowing everything, planning ahead, and having things run as they should. But now, she was at a complete loss. She didn’t know anything about those marks, or about you. And she if there was one thing she hated, it was not knowing things. In order to save her sanity from crashing and burning, she hurried out of your room to browse the Luofu’s databases for information. And oh boy, did she find what she was looking for.

The amount of information locked away in the Luofu’s archives was enough to have anyone floored- even Fu Xuan. As her gaze flickered over each document she found about body markings, she became even more astounded at what she found. The markings you had signified great power, but were also a promise of anguish and ruin. The only other person to have these marks crashed onto the ship centuries ago, in the same way you did. No one knew who they were, or why they appeared. Even after contacting other planets, it became clear that they had never been seen before. Those markings were a mystery, as well as their identity. All anyone knew was that they possessed powers akin to a god, and were classified as a severe threat.

Borderline sprinting, Fu Xuan hauled herself back to your room to tell Jing Yuan everything she found. You could bring ruin to everyone on the Luofu if what she read was true. Not to mention the fact that you were immune to her divinations– you already had an advantage against her. Maybe this was all part of your plan, maybe you had already begun to–

As she opened the door to your room, her spiral immediately stopped. To her surprise, you were awake and pleasantly chatting away with the general. You seemed… polite. Friendly, even. Once you noticed her presence, you kindly greeted her and asked how she was. Fu Xuan short-circuited at this, staring at you in sheer bewilderment. What happened to the flames and destruction she read about? What exactly was going on?! She was still very wary of you, but she mustered up the courage to respond with a terse “Hello. I'm fine”. The way you greeted her showed that you weren’t an immediate threat, so maybe she could entertain small talk with you. For now, at least.

After Fu Xuan discreetly briefed Jing Yuan on what she found, they began to question you. It was like something out of a good cop/bad cop show. The general was authoritative yet calm, and the diviner was like a defensive chihuahua. You revealed that you had been fighting off a swarm of white, bug-like creatures when you lost consciousness. All you could remember was getting hit in the stomach by one of them before blacking out. Jing Yuan gave his companion a knowing side-eye. Where you got hit was undoubtedly connected to those markings. They’d have to have Bailu examine them again once you were settled in, and testing would be necessary if you were cooperative enough.

But what were they meant to do now? They obviously couldn’t let you roam around the universe to fend for yourself, especially if those lines meant that you were uncontrollably powerful. They couldn’t keep you in captivity either though- it was inhumane, and would only make everything worse. If they wanted to give you freedom while keeping the universe safe, they would have to let you stay on the ship until they confirmed you weren’t a threat. Jing Yuan was intrigued by you- not just because you were an enigma, but because of your personality. You were kind, even in such jarring circumstances. you showed a rare kind of strength, one that pushed him to converse with you more. Besides, with the power you supposedly held, you could prove to be a useful force against the mara.

“I’m assuming you don't have anywhere to go, yes?”

“Jing Yuan, just what are you thinkin–”

“We would be happy to house you on the Xianzhou Luofu for a while. There’s more we would like to ask you about… and, I have a feeling you’ve got a myriad of interesting stories to tell.”

After a moment of contemplation, you wearily accepted. The offer was very generous- besides, what other options did you have? You had no recorded identity in this world and no way of knowing what dangers awaited you. Heading out on your own was a death wish. Besides, your conversation with the general had been nice, and his pink-haired friend was entertaining. Here, you didn’t feel threatened. Jing Yuan seemed like a kind man, and it had been a while since someone had listened to you so attentively. You couldn’t help but be drawn to the diviner beside him as well. She might have been openly suspicious of you, but you couldn’t blame her. Her grumpy, yet determined way of going about things was amusing, and you could tell that there was a softer side to her behind her defensiveness. It was admirable how well she held herself together despite the chaotic nature of your arrival.

It would take a lot of time to process all that had happened to you in the last 24 hours (along with a lot of therapy), but at least you had two allies to fall back on now. It was probably a poor choice to trust them so quickly, but the energy they exuded was welcoming– you could tell they were good people. Maybe the universe brought you to them for a reason. It was far-fetched, but if you were going to end up in a completely foreign world, who better to take you in than two of the ship’s leaders? As you fell asleep that night, long after the two of them had left, you attempted to prepare yourself for the next few weeks. The rest of your journey might end up being hell, but you had a feeling that will the help of the general and diviner, everything might just turn out okay.

#honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader #fluff #honkai star rail #jing yuan x reader #fu xuan x reader #jing yuan fluff #fu xuan fluff #hsr x reader fluff #honkai star rail x reader fluff #platonic #reader insert

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genshinluvr · 2 years ago

Text

Beyond the Stars

Pairings: Various Genshin Men x Isekai'd!Reader x Various HSR Men [a Genshin Impact x Honkai Star Rail crossover]

Summary: You were having a relaxing day at Yaoguang Shoal all alone, decompressing from the grueling week that is finals week at the Akademiya. Just when you thought you'll be able to relax and unwind, eight outlanders decided to ruin that all because they were searching for you.

Note: No tags for the Honkai Star Rail men since I don't have any space to put the tags anyway 🥲 To be really honest, I didn't think I would make a crossover between Genshin and HSR, but here I am! I know the HSR men are a tad bit out of character, but it's mainly because I'm not as familiar with them as I am with the Genshin men. So, hopefully, the more I play HSR, the more I'll get a perfect grasp of their personalities. Of course, not all of the HSR male characters are in it; only about eight of them are in this crossover fic. I don't post anywhere else but on Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and on AO3 (Aaliah_exo).

Warnings: Bad portrayal of HSR men's personalities because I am not as familiar with the characters as I am with the Genshin men [hopefully it'll improve in the future]

Word Count: 8.5k

You’re sitting on a beach chair off the coast of Yaoguang Shoal, sitting under the shade while reading a book Al Haitham let you borrow. This is the first time you’re in Teyvat alone without your boyfriends accompanying you. You made sure to stay at least five feet from the Serenitea Pot in case anything happened. While reading the book Al Haitham has lent you, you hear someone approaching where you’re sitting.

“Gumdrops? Is that you?” An unfamiliar voice breaks the silence.

You look up from your book and at the small group of unfamiliar men approaching you. They all wear clothes and armor you have never seen before. You have explored many regions in Teyvat with your boyfriends. Yet, you never come across anyone wearing something like that. You blink and look around, searching to see if this strange man is talking to someone else. But alas, it’s just you and those men on the beach of Yaoguang Shoal. You close your book (technically, the book belongs to Al Haitham) and place it in front of you on the beach chair.

“I’m sorry, I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” you say, adjusting your sun hat and pushing your sunglasses up on the bridge of your nose.

The black-haired man looks at you with shock. “Do you not remember us?” He whispers.

You press your lips into a thin line and shake your head. “I’ve never met any of you before. How could I remember someone I never met?” You ask, taking your sunglasses and sun hat off.

The silver-haired man runs his hands through his hair and lets out a sharp breath. “Yeah, it seems like they don’t remember us at all. This is a problem,” he mutters, propping his hands on his hips.

The temperature suddenly drops, making you shiver. The blond man in armor looks away and sighs, shaking his head while chewing on the inside of his cheek. You have never seen these men before, and quite frankly, they look like outlanders themselves. Handsome outlanders, but that doesn’t matter right now! What matters is they, supposedly, know who you are, and yet you have no recollection of who these men are.

The man with glasses exhales sharply through his nostrils, pushing his glasses up. “This is worse than we thought. We traveled through many universes to search for them, only to find them, and they have no recollection of who we are.”

Huh. So you’re correct. They’re not from Teyvat. They’re outlanders like Lumine, Aether, and yourself.

The blond man walks toward you, stopping in front of your beach bench. He stares at you with his icy-blue eyes. Even though it’s nice and warm at Yaoguang Shoal, the look he’s giving you sends chills down your spine, making goosebumps appear on your body and the hairs on your arm stand up.

“Are you messing with us? You’re joking, right?” The armored blond man demands, crossing his arms over his chest.

Dear Archons, this man looks like he’s getting ready to go into battle. He’s wearing an armored suit. It makes him almost as intimidating as the man with long dark hair and red eyes. With the way he’s looking at you, you’re surprised you’re still alive. If looks can kill…. The man with long blond hair looks at the man with red eyes and nudges him.

“You’re going to scare them off if you continue to look at them like that,” he whispers.

The man with long, dark hair and red eyes huffs and looks away. You look at the armored blond man before you and give him a wary smile while he continues to stare you down, waiting for you to reply to his question.

You clear your throat and scratch the back of your neck. “I’m not joking. If I knew who all of you were, I wouldn’t be acting like how I am right now, would I?”

“They have a point.” The man with long silver hair says, brushing his fringe away from his eyes.

The man with long, dark hair lets out another huff of breath like a petulant child. You tilt your head to the side and give the other men a questioning look. They all shrug their shoulders in response while the man continues not to make eye contact with you. Which, you’re kind of glad because the way he was looking at you was giving you the heebie-jeebies.

“Do you have something to say, sir?” You ask, raising your eyebrows at the moody dark-haired man.

His red eyes land on you, making you visibly flinch when the two of you make eye contact. He narrows his eyes at you and slowly makes his way in your direction. The way he is walking to you reminds you of a predator stalking toward its prey, ready to strike at any moment. You would run, but judging by his and the other’s appearance, they’re most likely faster than you are. You can’t outrun them even if the Serenitea pot is close by.

“You running away is the most careless thing you could do, [Y/N]. We finally found you after searching for you, and here you are, relaxing on the beach in another universe, pretending you don’t know us?!” The long dark-haired man demands.

You do a double take and look at him with wide eyes, dumbstruck. “How do you know my name when I don’t know any of you!?�� You demand, getting up from the bench and backing away from them.

The brown-haired man sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Great, you scared them, Blade.”

The man with short silver hair puts his hands in front of him as if he’s trying to console you. “Please don’t freak out! We’re not here to hurt you. We promise! We’ve been searching for you for so long, ever since you fled the Astral Express after your argument with Blade,” said the silver-haired man.

You shake your head, taking another step back. “I don’t know who you people are, nor do I know what the Astral Express is. Please, leave me alone,” you plead.

Before any man could say anything, an arrow flew past the armored blond man’s head. Everyone looks in the direction where the arrow had come from, only to see twenty-five men approaching where you’re standing. A massive wave of relief washes over you. Childe glares at the eight men before you, drawing another arrow.

“I would back away if I were you. Unless you want to be a target practice of mine,” Childe says nonchalantly.

Zhongli runs over to where you stand and wraps his arms around you, standing between you and the strange men. “Are you alright, dearest? You’re not hurt, are you?” Zhongli asks, cupping your face in his hands while examining you from head to toe for any injury.

You shake your head. “I’m okay, Zhongli. I’m just glad you’re all here,” you breathed, wrapping your arms around Zhongli’s waist.

Zhongli wraps his arms around your shoulder and walks you over to where the other twenty-four men are standing. Every man has their weapons drawn out. Once you and Zhongli are with the others, Pantalone and Baizhu stand in front of you, glaring at the eight outlanders.

“We’re not going to harm them. Relax. We’re only here to take them back to the Astral Express with us.” says the black-haired man.

“Take them back? They have never been to the Astral Express before.” Xiao glowers, tightening his grip on his polearm.

Pierro chuckles darkly and shakes his head. “What makes you think we’ll let you take [Y/N] back to the Astral Express? Like the Yaksha said, they’ve never been to the Astral Express, and last time I checked, they’re not from your world.”

The tension between the men continues to rise, causing you to shrink in Zhongli’s arms. Sure, you may have the “power” to stop this… tension between the men, but you don’t think the eight outlanders would go down without a fight. The blond in armor looks fired up; his weapon is drawn out. Speaking of his weapon, that is the strangest weapon you’ve ever seen.

You point at the man. “His weapon looks like a cello case,” you whisper to Zhongli, looking up at the former Geo Archon.

Zhongli cracks a smile and pulls you to his chest, kissing the top of your head. “Indeed, it does.”

Baizhu clears his throat and gives the eight strange men a smile. “How about we talk about this back at the abode? I have a feeling a fight isn’t going to settle this down until one of us gets to keep [Y/N],” Baizhu says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

You roll your eyes and tilt your head back against Zhongli’s chest. “Can we not treat me like I’m an object? If any of you view me as an object or anything that isn’t human, I will not hesitate to whack any of you,” you threaten.

“Yeah! Why not have a conversation about this? Quite frankly, I’m tired of needless battles,” Venti sighs dramatically, draping his arms around your shoulders and smacking Zhongli away from you.

Zhongli rolls his eyes and unwraps his arms around you, standing beside you, while the Anemo Archon keeps his arms around your shoulders. The eight men look at each other before huddling in a circle, whispering to one another. You and your twenty-five boyfriends look at each other from the corner of your eyes, unsure of what to say.

The man with long, silver hair looks at your group and nods. “We accept your offer. And I agree with the short one standing beside [Y/N]. There’s no need for needless battles over [Y/N]... even though they belong to us, but let’s have a civil conversation about this,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You sneer and look away, steam practically coming out from your ears. “Don’t act like I can’t hear any of you! Maybe this is one of the reasons why the other me ran away from all of you and the Astral Express.” You grumble, grabbing onto the nearest person and dragging them to the Serenitea pot. You and Thoma disappear into the Serenitea pot, making the eight men visibly do a double-take.

“Before entering the Serenitea pot, please make sure not to touch things you don’t know of unless you want to lose a finger,” Aether says nonchalantly, walking toward the floating teapot.

Diluc interjects, “And please do not lay a hand on [Y/N] or get close within five feet of them. It’s not like we don’t want you to— well, it is, but [Y/N]’s not comfortable with strangers getting near them.” Diluc crosses his arms over his chest.

The indigo-haired man makes a face and crosses his arms over his chest. “We’re not strangers to them! They know us!” He huffs, glaring at the redhead tycoon.

Dainsleif rolls his eyes and walks to the Serenitea pot. “Let’s go to the Serenitea pot and continue the conversation there. Time is being wasted,” Dainsleif states.

Everyone soon enters the Serenitea pot, keeping their distance from each other. The eight men are between the twenty-four men. Twelve men are standing in front of the eight outlanders, and the other twelve men are standing behind them. Standing at the entrance of the estate is you and Thoma, distracted by the conversation and not noticing the group walking up to where you and Thoma are standing.

“If they’re hungry, I can make something for them to eat! But, uh, to be honest, I think they’re more focused on bringing you back to this ‘Astral Express’ than their hunger,” Thoma shrugs his shoulders while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, whatever it is, I still don’t know who they are. There’s no sense of familiarity when I see them.” You sigh.

“Which is why we need to have a chat with them about their relationship with you. Well, that’s if there are any connections and relationships between you and the visitors,” Al Haitham says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You and the rest of the men enter the estate. You can’t help but feel very tense now that there are eight strangers in the abode. They can roam aimlessly around the estate and perhaps destroy things in their paths. Seeing them analyze their surroundings makes you feel nervous. They’re strangers to you, and yet you worry about what their thoughts are on the abode and the interior design of the estate.

“Now that we’re in the abode, let’s start introducing ourselves, shall we?” Kaveh says, turning to look at the visitors with an expectant look on his face.

You purse your lips. “This is going to take a while,” you mutter.

You quickly excused yourself and walked to the kitchen to grab drinks for the guests. Even though you’re a little bit anxious to be around the guests, you don’t want to be seen as rude and not get them any drink while they’re visiting the abode. You begin filling the glass cup with cold water from the pitcher you pulled out from the refrigerator, placing the cups on the tray, and mentally preparing yourself to return to where the others are.

Dear Archons, you’re going to be in one room with thirty-three men! Thirty-three! That is more than what a classroom has! Heck, you think that’s more than the number of students in your lab class at the Akademiya. You put the pitcher back in the refrigerator, grab the tray of water and take a deep breath.

“I can do this.” You whisper, gnawing on your lower lip before walking back to the living area where the other men are.

“Okay! So, now that we have introduced ourselves to each other, please state your business.” Heizou says, giving them a polite yet fake smile.

Cyno holds his hand up, stopping the others before they can speak. “They may have introduced themselves to us, but they haven’t introduced themselves to [Y/N],” Cyno says, propping his hands on his hips.

You stop in your tracks and look at the men like a startled desert fox— eyes wide and frozen to the spot where you’re standing. The men turn toward your direction, their eyes locking in on your frozen form. You give them an awkward smile and clear your throat before continuing to make your way further into the living area.

Albedo smiles and crosses his arms over his chest. “Oh? It looks like [Y/N] brought drinks for our guests. How nice of you,” Albedo says, nodding his head.

You give Albedo a fake smile and put the tray on the coffee table. “I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something.” You muttered, furrowing your eyebrows while trying to remember what it was.

“Why don’t the eight of you introduce yourselves to [Y/N]? You may know who they are, but they don’t know any of your names.” Kazuha says.

Each man starts to introduce themselves to you. Some smiled at you, while others did not. The tension is so thick you want to hole yourself in your bedroom. Your sweet, sweet bedroom. Your bedroom is your sanctuary, and not being able to be in your room makes you feel almost naked.

“Now that we got the introductions out of the way, let’s continue where we left off,” Tighnari says, gesturing for the eight guests to have a seat.

Dottore crosses his arms over his chest and stares at the eight visitors behind his mask. “Please explain to us how you all know [Y/N]. They have never traveled anywhere outside of Teyvat on their own, nor are they from your world.”

Gepard, the blond man in armor, raises his eyebrows at Dottore. “We know they’re not from our world. They’re not from your world either, so I don’t understand why you’re acting like they belong to your world too.”

“If you know that [Y/N] isn’t from your world, why are you all so adamant about bringing them back to the Astral Express?” Scaramouche demands, taking a step forward.

Blade, the man with long, dark hair, narrows his eyes at Scaramouche. “If you know they’re not from your world, then why are you all so adamant about keeping them in your world?” Blade hisses.

You can almost hear Capitano roll his eyes under his helmet. “Just answer the question.”

Luocha, the man with long, blond hair, explains to everyone why they wanted to bring you back to the Astral Express. Apparently, a while back, you somehow mysteriously ended up on the Astral Express with no recollection of your memories. You spent months at the Astral Express with them, exploring the universe with them and other people they passively mention.

Before your disappearance, you and Blade have gotten into an argument that led to you storming out of the Astral Express, telling them not to follow you. That was the last time they heard from you, and it has been months since your sudden disappearance. The eight men have tried searching the universe for you, only to come to a dead end.

After Luocha’s explanation, you and the men sit there in silence. The supposed argument happened a few months ago, but you have never left Teyvat. It was impossible for you to physically leave Teyvat because there aren’t any spaceships or portals that allow you to teleport from planet to planet.

“It’s not that we don’t believe you all, but it’s hard to believe because [Y/N] has never traveled outside of Teyvat. Even if they wanted to, there’s no way for them to do it because there aren’t any portals or waypoints that let them do that.” Ayato says.

You nod. “Plus, I’ve been in Teyvat for, I believe, a year now. I have not stepped foot outside of Teyvat, ever. Before I arrived at their,” you gestured to your twenty-five boyfriends, “universe, I was in my universe. It’s unlikely that I was in your universe. Plus, as I’ve said previously, I don’t know who you guys are. Even when all of you have introduced yourselves to me, none of your names clicked in my head.” You sigh, shrugging your shoulders.

Itto wraps his arms around you and nuzzles his face into your neck. “My onikabuto booboo bear would never travel to another universe without telling us! Let alone a universe where there are monsters roaming around,” Itto huffs, planting a big kiss on the side of your head.

Gorou laughs nervously and clears his throat. “There are monsters roaming around Teyvat too, Itto,” Gorou whispers to the Oni.

Sampo snickers and leans in his seat with his legs crossed. “Onikabuto booboo bear? That’s the most ridiculous nickname I’ve ever heard. It’s nowhere as cute as gumdrop,” Sampo comments, flicking his fringe from his face.

Kaeya looks at the eight men with interest. “Gumdrop, you say? What are your relations with our precious [Y/N]? Giving them an endearing nickname is something friends don’t do, from what I’m assuming,” Kaeya says, sipping on his cup of wine.

When did he get that wine, and how did you not see him wander off to pour himself a glass of wine? Hearing Kaeya’s comment made Pantalone want to burst out laughing. How does one have relations with a person without ever meeting them? Pantalone crosses his arms over his chest and looks over at you, who’s busy being smothered by Itto’s affections.

“Yes, what are your relations with [Y/N]? We’re curious,” Pantalone says, the corners of his lips twitching.

Dan Heng stares at Pantalone, his eyes flickering over in your direction. Dan Heng clenches and unclenches his jaws. “They’re my significant other. Need me to say more?” Dan Heng asks, raising an eyebrow at the men.

Caelus looks at Dan Heng in disbelief. “Your significant other? The last time I checked, all of us collectively agreed to share them,” Caelus says, leaning in his seat.

“Significant other? All of you are dating our significant other?!” Aether exclaims, looking at the eight outlanders with wide eyes.

You stare at them blankly and slowly remove Itto’s arms from around you. You pursed your lips and debated whether you should make a run for it or not. Then again, even if you were to make a run for it, you don’t want it to be a “repeat” of what happened in the other eight men’s universe. That would be awkward and make things even worse than it already is.

Pierro sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose while Pantalone gives the visitors a fake smile.

“This is taking an interesting turn,” Pierro mutters.

Pantalone hums in agreement. “Indeed it is, Pierro.”

Childe runs up to you, looking at you with an over-exaggerated pout. “Snookums! Please tell me it’s not true that you have other lovers from another universe!” Childe pleads, cupping your face in his hands.

Before you can respond, Childe pulls you to his chest, pressing your face up against his chest while swaying you side to side. You grumble and continue to let Childe suffocate you against his chest while mumbling and pleading for you to disprove the eight Outlanders’ claims. You push Childe off you and lightly whack him in the chest with a huff of breath. Childe pouts and sniffles dramatically before grabbing your hand.

Dainsleif looks at the eight men before him and narrows his eyes. “How can they be your significant other when they never met any of you?” Dainsleif demands.

A realization suddenly hits you like a sumpter beast. You gasp and smack your forehead, startling everyone in the room. Oh, fuck. You look at Al Haitham and make a face while he stares at you quizzically.

“What’s wrong?” Al Haitham asks, approaching where you stand.

You make a face again and press your forehead against Al Haitham’s chest when he stands in front of you. “I left your book back at Yaoguang Shoal,” you reply, looking up at Al Haitham with despair. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to Yaoguang Shoal and look for Al Haitham’s book that I borrowed.”

You walk over to the door and begin putting your shoes on to return to Yaoguang Shoal before anyone can stop you. When you return to the area where you were sitting at the shoreline, you didn’t find the beach chair or Al Haitham’s book. It was nowhere in sight. Damn, do you have to search along the shorelines to find it? You’re sure you’re in the right spot because you see the mark left by the beach chair, but the chair isn’t there, nor is Al Haitham’s book.

“Huh. That’s strange. I thought it was here,” you said, propping your hands on your hip. “Al Haitham is going to kill me.” You run your fingers through your hair with a shaky breath.

“That’s because someone brought it back to the abode already,” Diluc comments, startling you.

You turn to see Diluc, Kaveh, Xiao, and Albedo walk toward you. You press your hand against your chest and let out a deep sigh. Archons, did they follow you out to Yaoguang Shoal the entire time? Wait, why are you asking the obvious? You smack your forehead again and close your eyes.

Xiao grabs your hand and looks at you worriedly, rubbing your stinging forehead with his gloved thumb. “Don’t hurt yourself. This is the second time you’ve done it today,” Xiao mutters, giving you a disapproving look.

Kaveh huffs loudly, scanning the surroundings of Yaoguang Shoal with his arms crossed over his chest. Today would’ve been a nice day if those eight outlanders didn’t show up to ruin everything. You were supposed to have a nice day for yourself at the beach to decompress from finals week, but that had to be ruined by the eight outlanders who claimed to be your boyfriends in their universe. The audacity for them to step on Teyvat and want to take you to the Astral Express or whatever the heck it is.

“What’s on your mind, Kaveh?” You murmur.

Kaveh looks at you and clears his throat, waddling over to you with a pout. Kaveh wraps his arms around your shoulders and closes his eyes, resting his chin on your shoulders. “I don’t like how they claim you’re their significant other. You’re ours. You’ve always been ours, and you were never theirs.” Kaveh grouses, burying his face into the crook of your neck.

“Do you want to continue to hang out at the beach a little longer, or do you want to return to the adobe?” Albedo asks, digging his feet into the warm sand.

“Let’s return to the abode. As much as I would love to stay on the beach, it’s best we return before everyone starts searching for us,” you say.

The day comes to an end way quicker than you think it would. When you, Xiao, Diluc, Kaveh, and Albedo returned to the abode, everyone was sitting at the dining table with food sitting in the center for everyone to help themself with.

“Oh, I didn’t know we were having guests for dinner,” you say, taking your shoes off at the entrance.

“Oh? Did you not want us to stay?” Blade asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

Your eyes widen, and you shake your head. “No, no, it’s just that I didn’t know you guys were going to stay for this long. I assumed you all would leave after I went to Yaoguang Shoal.”

“Speaking of Yaoguang Shoal, did you find the book?” Heizou asks, turning around in his seat to look in your direction.

You press your lips into a thin line and shake your head. “No, it’s not there. Diluc told me someone brought the book and beach chair back to the abode,” you sigh, collapsing on the nearest chair. You look at Al Haitham and wave to get his attention. “Whoever brought the book back, did they at least return it to you?”

Tighnari points at the shelf behind you before waving you over. “The book is over on the shelf. Now, sit down and get something to eat. It’s been a long day today, and I bet you’re hungry,” says Tighnari.

You stretch in your seat before getting up, raising your index finger. “I will, but let me take a shower really quickly because, you know, I was at Yaoguang Shoal today, and I smell like the ocean,” you said.

You run upstairs and to your bedroom to take a quick shower. As much as you would love to take a long shower like usual, since there are guests who claim to be your boyfriends, you don’t think it’s a good idea to be gone for long with your twenty-five boyfriends and eight guests in one room.

While you’re in the shower, the dining area is consumed by silence. The sounds of cutlery clinking against the plates fill the silence. No one was talking to each other. They only eat and look at every person sitting at the dining table, waiting for you to return from your shower.

“Do you think [Y/N] is going to go with them?” Venti mutters to Baizhu, reaching for his cup of wine and sipping from it without taking his eyes off the other men’s faces.

Baizhu chuckles and shakes his head. “They won’t leave with them. [Y/N] doesn’t know the eight of the Outlanders. It’s very unlikely they’ll board the Astral Express,” Baizhu replies.

Thoma scoots his seat closer to Venti and Baizhu before leaning toward Baizhu and Venti, his eyes focusing on the plate in front of him. “Even if [Y/N] doesn’t go with them, do you think they will leave Teyvat without [Y/N]? That’s their only ‘mission’ on Teyvat, and that is to return to the Astral Express with [Y/N].”

“What are you three whispering over there?” Jing Yuan asks, breaking the silence in the dining room.

Thoma, Venti, and Baizhu freeze in their seats before looking at the long, silver-haired man sitting across from them. The four exchange looks with one another for a moment before Jing Yuan breaks eye contact.

“I have a question,” Cyno speaks up, propping his arms on the table, “after today, will the eight of you return to the Astral Express without [Y/N]?”

The corner of Luocha’s lips quirks up, forming an amused smirk. “What makes you think we’ll return without them? If we have to stay on Teyvat a little longer, we will do that. We won’t return to the Astral Express until [Y/N] agrees to go with us,” Luocha replies, leaning back in his seat with his arms over his chest.

Kaeya chuckles, tapping his index finger against his cheek. “How bold of you to assume we would allow you to step out of the estate with [Y/N],” Kaeya mutters, the smile slipping off his face.

Scaramouche rolls his eyes and leans forward on the table, making sure to lock eyes with the eight Outlanders. “If you need a reminder, there are twenty-five of us and eight of you. You’re outnumbered. The chances of you being successful are low. Therefore, I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I were you.”

Gepard glares at Scaramouche and clenches his jaws. Gepard opens his mouth to retort, but your footsteps coming down the stairs silences him. You enter the dining room wearing your pajamas, a rabbit headband, your face dewy and glowing from your moisturizer, and undereye patches.

You hold up a bottle of foaming cleanser. “Who does this belong to? Someone left this in my bathroom,” you said, looking at the men at the dining table.

Itto raises his hand. “Oh! That’s mine, but you can keep it in there because I want to do skin care with you,” Itto says, getting up from his seat and walking toward you.

You look at Itto with surprise. “Oh! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I’m about to be finished with my skincare routine,” you sigh in defeat, letting your hand fall at your side.

“I forgot,” Itto laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, “but hey! We can start the night routine tomorrow!”

You nod and begin to walk back up the stairs, but Itto grabs you by your biceps and turns you around. You look at Itto with a questioning gaze before he presses his lips against your forehead and steps back with a big smile. You smile and peck his cheek before walking back to your room. Itto and the other men in the room watch you leave. Itto turns to the others with a smug smirk on his face before returning to his seat with a pep in his walk.

“Oh, would you look at that! Isn’t it sweet how Itto and [Y/N] are going to start doing night routines with each other?” Ayato asks, sipping on his tea nonchalantly while smirking behind his cup.

Kazuha chuckles. “It seems like a subtle way to let you all know that they’re not leaving any time soon.” Kazuha comments.

Gorou turns to look at the men, specifically Blade, with curiosity. “Let’s say that it’s true [Y/N] did spend time at the Astral Express with the eight of you and the people you have mentioned,” Gorou begins, clasping his hands together.

“Why are you saying it like it's a theory when it’s true?” Welt interrupts, glaring at Gorou with a deep frown on his face.

Capitano shrugs his shoulders. “It may be true for the rest of you, but for us, it’s a theory that has yet to be proven true,” Capitano retorts.

Gorou rolls his eyes, “Anyway! As I was saying, what did the two of you get into an argument about? It wouldn’t be a small argument if it caused [Y/N] to storm off the Astral Express and disappear without a trace.”

Blade stares at Gorou before continuing to eat his food without responding to Gorou’s question. Gorou frowns and lets out a huff, grabbing his cup and gulping down the water. The men continue to eat in silence, the sound of the cutlery clinking against the plates and bowls filling the tense silence between the thirty-three of them.

A few minutes later, you enter the dining room and sit between Xiao and Blade. You cursed to yourself about the seating arrangements. Why did you have to sit between Xiao and Blade? You don’t mind sitting beside Xiao! However, what you do mind is sitting beside Blade since you supposedly had this argument with the dark, long-haired man on the Astral Express before disappearing without a trace.

You tried your best to act natural— as if nothing strange had happened or been revealed. You subconsciously scoot closer to Xiao to the point where your biceps are brushing against Xiao’s biceps. Xiao didn’t make a comment about your strange behavior and continued to eat his food in silence.

Dottore clears his throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. “We didn’t get to ask you, but how was the beach today? Were you able to relax like you wanted?” Dottore asks.

You make a so-so gesture with your hand. “Kind of! The weather was nice, and the waters were surprisingly warm. It’s nice to have a break after a grueling week of finals,” You reply, tucking your hair behind your ears.

Welt perks up at your response. “You’re going to school right now?” Welt asks, looking at you curiously.

You shrug your shoulders. “I’ve always been going to school. Before I arrived at Teyvat, I was a university student in my world. Technically, I still am, but since I’m not physically there right now, I might as well continue my education at the Akademiya.”

Kaveh smiles and rests his elbow on the table. “[Y/N] is an excellent student; we’re incredibly proud of them. They’re at the top of their classes, and their GPA is over 4.0. They’re involved in many research papers with the Akademiya, and they’ve been granted many scholarships,” Kaveh boasts, his eyes forming into crescents when he smiles in your direction.

“Hehe, it’s, uh, no big deal, really,” you say, rubbing the back of your neck, “plus, the Akademiya is a prestigious institute. I must put my all into my schoolwork for the Akademiya, or else it’ll be a waste.”

Sampo visibly deflates and rests his chin on the palm of his hand. “I’m assuming you’re not going to return to the Astral Express with us, Gumdrop?” Sampo asks, smiling at you sadly.

You shake your head in response. The eight men sigh, and trade looks with each other without saying a word. It’s like they’re communicating with each other telepathically. As much as you want to know what’s going on in their heads, you know it has something to do with you.

After all, they’re only in Teyvat because of you. It’s strange how you supposedly have a life outside your main universe and your twenty-five boyfriends’ universe. There are so many questions that are left unanswered, and you don’t think anyone can answer them because everyone is probably just as clueless as you are about this stuff. Heck, not even someone as refined as Welt, Albedo, Dottore, and Dainsleif would know the answers.

Caelus leans to Jing Yuan, whispering, “Nanook isn’t going to be happy when he hears about this.”

“As long as he doesn’t find out, we’ll be okay,” Jing Yuan replies.

Zhongli raises his eyebrows at Caelus and Jing Yuan. “Who is this Nanook you speak of? And why would he be unhappy when he hears about this?” Zhongli asks, sipping his tea.

Dan Heng sighs and looks away. “Just someone who holds [Y/N] near and dear close to his heart. Then again, we all hold [Y/N] near and dear to our hearts as well,” Dan Heng murmurs, looking over at you from the corner of his eyes.

You and Dan Heng’s eyes meet from across the table. Heat rushes to your face and down your neck, causing you to clear your throat and reach for the cup of water in front of you. You break eye contact and gulp down the water, hoping it’ll extinguish the heat rushing to your face and the tip of your ears. The way Dan Heng looks at you reminds you of how your boyfriends would look at you— you can’t help but feel shy, almost awkward in a way.

“We’ll be staying here for a while. We won’t be leaving until [Y/N] agrees to return to the Astral Express with us,” Blade states, his red eyes flickering in your direction.

You nearly choke on your water and look away, ducking your head while trying to hold back your cough. Xiao glares at Blade and pats your back, moving closer to you. You clear your throat and lean into Xiao’s touch, ignoring the looks the other men are giving you and Xiao.

Scaramouche rolls his eyes. “Might as well make yourselves a home here because we’re not letting them leave with any of you any time soon.”

Scaramouche was being sarcastic at first, but that is what the eight outlanders ended up doing. They made a home at the abode and decided to learn and adapt to a new environment. At first, they wanted to live under the same roof as you and the other men, but of course, the others opposed it and offered to make a small temporary house for the eight visitors.

Everyone is doing their own thing in the estate. Some are sparring with each other, others are having tea, reading books, playing TCG, and many more. From a distance, you’re giving an extensive detailed tour of the estate so the eight visitors can be familiar with their new environment rather than the main island the estates are sitting on.

“And the abode keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Ayato chuckles, sipping his tea on the pavilion, looking out at the view of the abode.

Zhongli chuckles and nods. “Soon enough, every land in the abode will be occupied by many estates.” Zhongli comments, blowing on the hot cup of tea in his hands.

Al Haitham sighs and keeps his eyes on his book. “You would think they would give up and leave already, but instead, they’ve been treating this place like their second home,” Al Haitham mutters, looking at the eight men from a distance.

“Scaramouche did tell them they can make themselves a home at the abode because we refuse to hand [Y/N] over to them,” Cyno mutters, placing the TCG card down on the table.

Itto groans and slams his head on the table. “Dammit, Cyno! This is the third time you beat me!” Itto grumbles, lifting his head to glare at the Mahamatra.

Cyno smirks at Itto before looking at the cards in his hands. Meanwhile, you stand in front of the eight men with your hands propping on your hips while tapping your feet on the ground. The eight men before you looked like anxious puppies. It was adorable, but what they did was not something you’re going to be tolerating. Especially since it keeps happening.

“It’s not nice to poke Tubby and Chubby! I get they’re cute, and all of you have never seen something like Tubby and Chubby before, but please refrain from poking them,” you sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose. “You guys don’t see me stepping foot on the Astral Express and snatching Pom-Pom up and throwing them around, now, do you?” You raise your eyebrows.

The eight men shake their heads in response, their heads hanging down while Welt has his eyes closed, his glasses in one hand while rubbing his temples with the other. Childe and Diluc stroll up to the nine of you, covered in dirt and sweat from their spar.

“Did those hooligans disobey you, snookums?” Childe asks, placing his hand on your waist and pulling you toward his chest.

Your face pinches up with disgust, and you take a step back. “Childe, as much as I love being in your arms, now is not a good time because you’re sweaty and covered in dirt.”

Gepard looks at Diluc and Childe, his arms over his chest, his eyebrows furrowing with concentration and curiosity. “How often do all of you spar? Is it a routine?” Gepard asks, his icy-blue eyes remaining on Childe and Diluc’s faces.

Diluc sighs and takes the hair tie out before retying his long red hair into a high ponytail. “It’s not routine for us to spar, but when we do, we do it on our own time. Either alone or with someone that volunteers to help,” Diluc replies.

“You wouldn’t mind us joining on, would you?” Sampo asks, adjusting his gloves while smirking at Diluc and Childe.

You look at the men, chewing on the inside of your cheek. You don’t think it’s a good idea for your men to spar with the eight outlanders. Knowing Childe and Gepard, there will be a competition of some sort. Technically, Childe will make it a competition with all of the outlanders, and you don’t want to see how it turns out.

Before Childe and Diluc can respond, you shake your head. “No, no! No sparring! I don’t think it’s a good idea because you guys will turn it into a competition and hurt each other. No.” You deadpan.

“Then how are we supposed to entertain ourselves and bond? I think knowing each other’s skills in combat is a great way of bonding!” Aether says, propping his arm on your shoulders from behind.

You brush off Aether’s question. “There’s plenty of ways to entertain yourselves and bond without having to draw weapons!” You reply.

“And what are you suggesting other than sparring?” Heizou asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

You smile at the men innocently. Before any of them know it, you’re all at Yaoguang Shoal wearing sun hats and sunglasses. You turn to look at your boyfriends and your guests from beyond the stars with a big smile while bouncing on the balls of your feet with excitement.

“The beach? Weren’t you at Yaoguang Shoal not too long ago?” Thoma asks, slathering sunscreen on his arms.

You nod. “Yes, but my moment of relaxation was ruined when our guests from beyond the stars popped up in front of me!” You say, propping your hands on your hips. “Now! You all can go and chase each other around the beach, and I am going to continue where I left off with my reading!”

Al Haitham hands you the book you borrowed from him not long ago before placing a beach chair down. Everyone scatters around the beach, staying within the vicinity. While you’re reading Al Haitham’s book under the shade, someone sits beside you on the sand. You look away from your book to see Blade sitting beside you, refusing to make eye contact with you. Ever since your first encounter with the long, dark-haired man, you have been keeping your distance from him mainly because he looks intimidating. You have a small feeling that he was still upset with “you” after the argument you two didn’t have.

“So! Are you going to finally tell me what the argument was about?” You ask, putting the book face down and pulling your knees to your chest.

Blade doesn’t answer. Instead, he didn’t even look in your direction. You mumble to yourself and turn to the side, getting up from the beach chair and dusting the sand off your legs.

“Alright, you don’t have to answer me. I’m sure the other [Y/N] would’ve done something else to get you to respond to them, but I’m not them.” You say before walking away from where Blade is sitting.

You quickly stopped in your tracks and turned around to grab Al Haitham’s book you were reading before continuing your walk to where Kaeya and Venti were hanging out. Venti and Kaeya wave at you the closer you get before patting the space between them for you to sit. You plop down between Kaeya and Venti, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“What’s with the exasperated sigh? You were so excited to go to the beach!” Venti says, sipping his drink.

Kaeya turns his head to look over where you were sitting previously, locking eyes with Blade. Blade quickly looks away with a deep frown. Kaeya chuckles under his breath and looks at you while you dig your feet into the sand, feeling the warm sand between your toes.

Kaeya points at Blade with his thumb. “I’m assuming it has something to do with him,” Kaeya comments, leaning back on one hand.

Your expression sours. “When is it not Blade? He’s refusing to tell me what the argument was! It’s like he expects me to know what it is when I was never there to experience it!” You groused. “I hope the other me is doing okay. Given the fact that they’re supposedly dating Blade and the other seven, or was it nine, men.” You stroke your chin.

Footsteps approach where you, Kaeya, and Venti are sitting. “Oh, I’m doing okay! Other than having to traverse many universes to find my way back to the Astral Express, only to find this universe and run into the other me surrounded by a lot of men.”

Your, Kaeya, and Venti’s head snaps toward where the voice comes from, only to see another version of yourself standing there. Everyone around you stops what they’re doing and looks at you and the other you with eyes the size of saucers. You scramble to your feet and point at your other self, trying to find the words to say while they stare at you with a sheepish smile on their face.

“These men weren’t causing you any trouble, were they?” They ask, looking at the eight outlanders that are approaching you and the other you.

You glare at the other you, propping your hands on your hips. “Where were you!? You made your eight boyfriends worried to the point where they have to travel beyond the stars to search for you!”

The other you laugh sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. “To be fair, I got lost after I stormed out of the Astral Express, and I couldn’t find my way back.” The other you sigh in defeat, letting their head hang low.

Tighnari raises his eyebrows at the other you. “Have you tried asking for directions?” Tighnari asks.

“Gumdrop is a great fighter but terrible with directions.” Sampo snorts before skipping happily to the other you, wrapping his arms around their waist and snuggling against them.

You watch Blade approach the other you, his arms crossed over his chest. The other you give Blade a fake smile before looking away from the long, dark-haired man. You clear your throat and look away. Man, this somehow got awkward.

“You two have some talking to do! I’m not sure if you,” you look at your other self, “remember the argument the two of you had before your disappearance. Still, please talk it out because I somehow got caught in between!”

Your other self drags out a sigh, resting their head on Sampo’s shoulders. “Ah, right! How could I forget about that? I was so busy trying to find my way back that I completely forgot about the argument Blade and I had before storming out,” your other self says.

“I didn’t think there would be another [Y/N], but here we are,” Dainsleif murmurs, trying to find the difference between you and the other you.

Appearance-wise, the other you are wearing clothes from Jing Yuan’s world. The other you have streaks of red and purple in your hair, and you look a little rougher around the edges. Sampo presses a sloppy kiss on your clone’s cheek— yes, that is what you will be calling them from now on. Your clone snuggles up against Sampo’s chest and holds your (their?) hands out to the other eight outlanders.

“Now that the other [Y/N] have found the eight of you, will you all return to the Astral Express now?” Gorou asks, gazing at the nine people curiously.

Your clone nods their head in response. “Yes, we will be heading back to the Astral Express now. That means Blade, and I will need to speak about what happened before my disappearance,” your clone sighs, looking at Blade.

Blade gives your clone a weak smile and grabs your clone’s hand, gently squeezing them. Your clone smiles at Blade and pulls him close to them. Blade and Sampo give each other a small glare while clinging to your clone’s side while the other six men stand around the three of them.

You squint your eyes at your clone, tilting your head to the side. “How do you handle dating nine men?” You ask.

Your clone snorts and rolls their eyes. “I can ask you the same thing, [Y/N]. Really, [Y/N]? Twenty-five men? That’s more than what I have,” They raise their eyebrows at you, the corners of their lips twitching.

“You know what, fair enough,” you mutter, looking away from your clone with a sour look.

As much as you would love to talk to your clone about the other universe, you didn’t want to deal with them matching the sassiness with you. That and because they do have to return to the Astral Express soon to patch things up. You and your twenty-five boyfriends watch your clone and their boyfriends walk far before disappearing into small orbs of light, ascending to the stars.

“I did not think that there was another [Y/N] out there,” Kazuha comments.

You sigh in relief and lean on Venti. “Me neither! But I’m glad they showed up because I don’t think I can handle Blade’s attitude any longer! The man acts like I remember this so-called argument!” You sigh, running your hands through your hair.

“On the bright side, you won’t have to deal with any more men entering the relationship,” Baizhu says, clapping his hands once.

Albedo chuckles, shaking his head. “You’d never know. There may be twenty-five of us today, but there can be forty tomorrow,” Albedo comments.

Xiao rolls his eyes, sighing. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, shall we?” Xiao mutters.

Pantalone snorts. “What makes you think we’ll share [Y/N] with more people? I believe twenty-five people is enough,” Pantalone says nonchalantly.

Kaeya drapes his arms around your shoulders, leans down, and kisses your cheek. You wrap your arms around Kaeya’s slim waist and kiss his cheek in return. Albedo isn’t wrong, though. There might be more people in the next few days or maybe even weeks. All you know is that you’re glad you’re not in your clone’s spot because what is up with Blade and his attitude? He intimidates you, and you don’t know what your clone sees in that man other than his looks.

Note: Midterms week starts on Monday, and I am not looking forward to it. If next week's fic is short, it's because I have been occupied with my studies and haven't been able to type out as much as I would hope ;v; This week has been a long week for me, but it will definitely not be as long as midterm week and finals week (which is coming in hot). To my new and/or returning readers, please keep in mind that I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

Taglist for my Isekai'd!Reader one-shot series and my overall taglist: @xyji, @chirikoheina, @yoru-trash, @kaoyamamegami, @kwelibeeery, @deartoru, @luminarymoonlight, @toobytub, @ins4nebish, @bokuto-kinnie, @exhaustedcommunist, @jadedist, @mompt2, @chalksdreams, @thelost-in-time, @ventisweetheart, @hispasian-otaku, @juuuuuj101010, @samarill, @testsubject0012, @irisxiel, @kazuhaprnt, @lunarapple, @emilymikado, @vinnie-w, @n8mareee, @bajifairyy, @heyimkay, @eliciana, @blesstosuisen, @goldeneclipsedragon, @jjvr4yxc, @sovermike-21-blog, @vox34, @skyyyyackerman, @undecidingfate, @nightlysunn, @faeryminnyx, @simpcreator, @lucifarts-boxers, @thelovebuggs, @urlocalheizousimp, @sunlightstarr (Accounts that I was unable to tag have been removed. Those who don't want to be tagged in certain stories are not tagged in this particular post. Remember to check your settings if you're allowing people to mention you/tag you in posts or not)

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parsnipiscool · 7 months ago

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#genshin impact #genshin #honkai star rail #honaki star rail #honkaimpact3rd #honkai posting #star rail #hsr #hi3 #hi3rd #honkai impact #tears of themis #mihoyo #hoyoverse

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worldstarz · 3 months ago

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opening requests — ♡

(aka i’m in dire need of motivation to write)

will do:

> romantic canon x reader

> platonic canon x reader

> familial canon x reader

> fluff, headcanons, oneshots, angst

will not do:

> nsfw (suggestive for 18+ canon characters is okay)

> illegal age gaps

> incest

> sh + eds

> abuse/proshipping

notes:

> open to anyone! following is not required :)

> my writing motivation fluctuates a lot (#adhd) but i will try to get through them as quick as possible

> obvious child characters will only be platonic/familial

> edit: responses will be slow!! i’m a full-time student so pls be patient

please do not send any spoilers!

persona 3 (NOT FINISHED)

> shinjiro aragaki

> akihiko sanada

> yukari takeba

> ken amada (platonic/famiial only)

genshin impact

> characters from before fontaine (have not played past sumeru)

> i especially enjoy writing for kaeya, xiao, mona, and diluc

honkai star rail

> characters from belobog and before (i luv hsr i just never have free time)

my hero academia

> all characters!

oshi no ko

> all characters!

chainsaw man (NOT FINISHED)

> all characters!

> except makima! i like a challenge in writing but i cannot do her character justice

> please be aware i am not caught up with part two! i am at chapter 136

attack on titan

> all characters!

jjk x reader (NOT FINISHED)

> characters adapted in the anime

> except geto bc i cannot decipher his homoerotic ass. and also except nanami i haven’t recovered from accidentally reading a nanami vore fic

project sekai

> all characters!

+more!

this list is based off of media i’ve enjoyed that i know has a large fanfiction scene! if there is someone you would like not on this list, feel free to recommend me their source and i’ll try to check it out :)

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mothswritingeye · 16 days ago

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So I have prophetic dreams. The way they go is I have a dream as a little kid and think nothing of it, and then have that same dream years later and realize “wait, that dream that I first had several years ago references a thing that only came out recently”. The dreams are mostly nonsense, but they do reference characters/locations/people that I only learned about recently.

Three examples of said dreams to prove that I’m not just making stuff up:

1: I end up in a copy of my old middle school that has a game like super smash bros ultimate, and I have to fight master hand (although the game is wrongly referred to as super smash bros brawl). I first had this dream before I went to middle school, before I met a teacher featured in the dream, before I knew the super smash bros franchise existed, before I knew of characters featured in that game (hero and master hand), before super smash bros was even revealed, and possibly before super smash bros brawl came out, although I’m not sure on that last part as I’ve never played that game before.

2: The five dragonets from the wings of fire series discovering a different continent and meeting a dragon named Rappa. I first had this dream before I knew about the wings of fire series, before they decided to introduce a second then-unknown continent, and before a character from an unrelated video game Honkai star rail was revealed named Rappa. Honkai star rail also didn’t exist back then, maybe not even Honkai impact third, and I didn’t know about Mihoyo or their other games.

3: I have to go to an alternate dimension to occupy members of the president’s security’s bodies to get him to a specific location. When I first had this dream, Obama was president, and I thought my brain had just made up a president. The president featured in my dream was Joe Biden, who I didn’t know existed when I first had this dream. We have to go through a high school in the quest to occupy the security’s bodies, and two students look significantly like Janis and Damien from the original mean girls movie, which I’ve never watched and didn’t know existed until recently. After a certain point, the president and a non-descript friend that’s helping me with this plot is depicted as a stick figure, specifically the one from animator v animation, which is a series I have never watched and have only seen one screenshot of very recently. When we first start occupying the security’s bodies, I’m holding a water for elephants plushie that was only produced for the recent musical, that only debuted earlier this year, that I saw less then two weeks ago and that I brought. (Proof I brought the plushie below). I also didn’t know about the book or movie until I saw the musical very recently. The members of the security team whose bodies me and the friend inhabit are also characters from dragon ball, an anime/manga that I didn’t know about until a few years ago, after I had the dream, and I’ve never watched or read dragon ball. (I think the characters are vegeta and goku, but I really wouldn’t know).

Proof I have the water for elephants plushie:

So you might be wondering, why exactly am I telling you this? Well, recently I had a dream about Angel and Husk from Hazbin hotel that I first had several years ago, and there was a specific shot that I believe may end up in a song in season two, as well as being confirmation (we could guess this, but still) that Husk is getting a love song with Angel.

(The text says:

they fall from reality

Husk is singing

He rows right

Note: Body swapping hijinks?)

(I would also like to advise you to take the body swapping stuff with an ENTIRE PITCHER of salt. I think that has a less then one percent chance of actually getting in the show)

I’m aware that only I have tangible proof that these dreams are prophetic, but I want to post this now so if the shot ends up in the actual episode I can say ‘I told you so’ and hopefully use this post as proof I have prophetic dreams.

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remimibanana · 4 months ago

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A bit about Shattered!

I wrote a story about Robin and Sunday!

It's about what may have happened during their past, their present and what the reality during and after the never ending dream held for them.

You can find it here!

I wanted to write a bit about my thought process behind writing this, since I have a lot to say and it might interest some people! I also didn’t want to make my notes section way too long and make it hard to leave a comment or kudos.

All under the cut!

Conception

I started writing this story after 2.2 released, but I didn’t finish it until now. It took me so long but it’s finally here! 30k wasn't the amount I expecting but I am all for it.

It originally was meant to be a love letter to 2.2, but it soon became a love letter to Penacony as a whole since there’s spoilers for everything. I had to rewatch the quests often to make sure I didn’t mess up the lore.

I remember I spent a whole day on the 2.2 quest, a Thursday where I sat down on my phone reading through the dialogue and playing the game while wondering when it was going to actually end at one point.

It was way longer than I expected, but I cried by the end of it all while pacing around the kitchen like a crazy person. Seeing Robin jump for Sunday as he fell, I couldn’t help but tear up. It made me love Robin and Sunday way more than I did before!

It was an incredible quest. It was worth all the hours I poured into it, thanking everything that no one was home when I let out noises and screams like a maniac in the kitchen out of all places. I'm a very expressive person.

I also jumped like a maniac when Acheron said Mei, or Yayi since I play with the CN dub! I love Honkai Impact 3rd a lot, if you didn’t know. I mean, everyone knew beforehand but it felt super validating for it to be explicitly said.

I knew immediately that I had to write something for this wonderful story. I’m always inspired to write after a quest, especially one like this. Shaoji cooked with Penacony and he needs to come back and write more for Star Rail.

I had to write Robin and Sunday, because there was so much I could write regarding these two doomed siblings. I did alternating point of views with both of them, as I wanted to tell both their stories.

I also knew that I wanted angst to the max, especially after hearing what the heck Robin went through and the fact that the game barely touched on anything in her point of view. This is the same case with Sunday.

I’m sorry for the pain I have inflicted on you all! I will write a happy story at some point, I promise you. Then again, I've said this before and I still manage to write angst…

There wasn’t much planning for this, aside from a few things from the quest that I wanted to write into it and use…and yet it looks like I’ve meticulously planned it all out doesn’t it?

I amaze myself sometimes. I quite literally surprised myself actually at times, I made stuff connect and I didn’t mean to really. Is this what they call being a genius?

Let’s take it from the top!

The Past

The first thing I knew I wanted to write was how Robin was shot in the neck.

That sounds terrible, damn. I don’t know how else to word it, I’m sorry!

It was mentioned by Sunday so briefly, and then never brought up again by anyone which is insane to me like what do you mean that Robin was shot in the neck in a war she went into?!

We got to see how he was informed by the Dreammaster about it after showing Robin’s letter and how he was going to pack his bags immediately for Kasbelina-VIII but that was honestly it. This gave me the perfect base to write my rendition of how it all happened.

I structured this part by writing out two letters, the one that Robin sent to Sunday and one that Sunday would have written back if he received it first. I then wrote the actual happenings underneath each paragraph that contradict the letters.

My goal was to make this as interesting as I could since it’s the first thing you read in my story. I needed to hook you all in, and keep you wanting to read on until the end.

There is a lot of story building here, describing the conditions of Kasbelina-VIII and some of the messed up stuff that is happening there. It’s rather realistic, because I wanted it to be. If I was going to talk about a war, I would do so properly without downplaying anything.

I first found it strange that Sunday didn’t know about the war at all. I figured, wouldn’t a war be at least broadcasted by the largest government body, the IPC themselves?

That’s when the idea that the IPC was intentionally covering it all up came to me. It seemed like the most logical explanation, and a very interesting one that I could build upon.

Despite Robin’s letter being in her point of view, we see another being shown. The soldiers who she was staying with this whole time, their thoughts regarding the war and Robin herself.

I had to make a reason as to why she would be shot, because she had to be right in the middle of the battlefield for that to happen. If the IPC was covering everything up, they would also stop supporting the poor planet.

These poor soldiers she’s staying with had no new supplies delivered to for weeks, and yet they still gave what they had left to her, showing that there is still kindness in such a horrific situation.

Based of what I could see, Robin wouldn’t let them suffer like this when she learnt about the supply issue by what I assume was on accident generally. I wanted to give the soldiers some character, so I made them lie to her for her sake about how long they didn’t have supplies for.

We have a lot of lying mentioned in this story, since it’s the main premise for both Sunday and Robin. They both lied to each other for the other’s sake, thinking that it was the right thing to do. Lies after lies pile up, and we see what happened when they all came falling down.

I've never been shot before (god forbid) but I tried to imagine how it might have felt for Robin, the way it would make her feel. It did hurt to write this part, the way she still tried to deliver those supplies...the way she belittled herself for lying...

I wanted to make you all suffer, pretty much. That also sounds terrible.

Now, we go into Xipe and THEIR role. The Dreammaster mentioned how Harmony had blessed her by missing her vital arteries, so I made THEM interfere despite the fact THEY usually only observe and watch everything unfold.

THEY said that the bullet was not meant to hit her, but it still did for some reason that eluded them. This was such a major foreshadowing point that doesn't make much sense until later on, I am such a genius for this!

The same case when it is mentioned that someone could try to calculate their reasonings by forsaking their humanity, I was intentionally foreshadowing what Sunday does later on when he tried to.

You seriously would think I planned all this but it sort of came out this way.

Sunday's letter on the other hand, is much more of a character study of himself if anything. I wanted to explore how he would feel about all this, the way he would handle such a situation of his beloved sister being shot.

We know that Sunday uses puppets, but it's never stated why or how he had them in the first place. We can also see how he can manipulate them, making them act out scenes and characters during the time when we are stuck running through those Memory Zones before his boss fight, which I took and built upon the idea.

Sunday is a very complex character, so I made him a little mentally unstable when concerning his sister. The way he lashed out at his puppets, destroying them all over and over while making up scenarios of her shooting in order to cope. He even thinks that a puppet is Robin for a second.

If this is out of character or not, I don’t know. I wanted to give him more character than we see in the actual story, and naturally my thoughts went to this. It is mentioned how much he loves Robin (as a sister obviously), and so I wanted to see how far he would go for his only family left.

I took the concept of Harmony and expanded on it. We can see that Harmony can alter the mind's state, so why not make it so they can control others by altering their thoughts? I often like adding additional powers for the plot that still make sense in the realm of the game.

For Robin, it was mostly subconsciously done. For Sunday, he does it intentionally for his own reasons. Both use Harmony to alter minds without asking if the intended victim wanted it, making them both in the wrong.

We have these whispers present, the choir above that Sunday can hear because of how attuned he is to Harmony, alongside Robin that he rejects often. I don't think this is a thing in game, but I thought it would make everything so much more intriguing!

His distrust in Harmony grows and the rejection started from the first seed of doubt planted by Mr Gopher Wood. I imagine that his manipulation started young, slowly introducing the disharmony into Sunday's ideals.

This whole section quite literally foreshadows the rest of the story, it's great.

The Present

The major part of this story is when Robin is in Sunday's consciousness.

We have no idea what happened to her there, only that they were “put” to sleep. In Ena’s Dream, apparently it is called Tuning that she went through alongside Welt Yang by Sunday, who mentioned that nothing too bad happened to him there.

Then again, apparently it was Jing Yuan who saved Welt from Sunday’s subconscious???? I don’t really know how that works but point is, I had a lot of playing ground for what happens to Robin in there.

Here, we are introduced to the idea of Memory Zones (every time I read this, I think of Mystery Zones from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum), areas of Sunday’s subconscious that he made to house his manifestations.

The first zone that Robin enters is incomplete. I imagine that Sunday never prepared for the possibility that Robin would ever enter his mind, so she was thrown into a zone that was quickly conjured up to keep her.

Since Robin too is attuned to Harmony, she can affect the Memory Zone to an extent. The colours you see on the ground is from her own power, as you can tell by the fact it originally came from her every single time it is mentioned.

As to why this is happening, I think it’s more of a subconscious thing once again. Robin doesn’t truly mean to use Harmony here while stuck in a random zone.

She can also hear the whispers, although they are trying to help her unlike Sunday’s ones. This is clearly a major foreshadowing point that you realise later on that these aren’t the same whispers.

We see the Charmony Dove from their childhood flying around and giving Robin a bit of trouble. This was definitely Sunday’s doing, who finally decided what he would do with her.

I wanted Robin to sing here because I thought that it was the best way to calm down the little bird, and symbolize how important her singing is to her and the world around her.

As she keeps saying, it’s the only thing she is good for at the end.

It was Sunday who made the bird fly away like a puppet with feathers, and Robin ran after it. I feel like she’s very selfless, to the point that she would run into a trap knowingly.

A zone just for her.

I knew I wanted to use that story with the Charmony Dove since it’s pretty prominent in 2.2. The Memory Zone she runs into is a replica of the bedroom the siblings stayed in, with the Charmony Dove now in the cage they kept it in.

This bird isn’t the same one as before as you can tell, since this whole zone is Sunday’s memory of how he released the small bird to its death. Robin helps it to fly, but it only shattered its wings when it fell as Sunday explained.

That’s when she learnt that this was all her fault, and we learn why that bullet that wasn’t meant to hit her did back then.

It was karma. They do say that karma’s a bitch, and for Robin, it took form with that bullet. It sounds like I’m quoting Jojo Siwa but I’m not, I swear ;;

Point is, I AM A GENIUS FOR THIS.

I didn’t intent for it but I wrote down that sentence “Perhaps, Robin was shot in the neck because of what she did” and my brain connected the dots immediately with what I wrote with Xipe earlier.

Sunday finally makes an appearance in person. This whole sequence is interesting because we have him hurting Robin, as if she was one of his puppets. I intentionally made it this strange, with Sunday mentioning after that the zone fell out of his control later on.

I described how his arms were out like an overseer, that’s a very obvious reference to Otto Apocalypse from Honkai Impact 3rd.

The lullaby part is from 2.3, where Robin mentioned how Sunday used to sing a lullaby to her when she was restless at night. I thought it would the perfect final blow.

It isn’t Robin in that zone. But it is at the same time. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Would it be too farfetched to say that it was Robin's consciousness who transferred into that puppet? Who knows.

Robin “wakes up” from that Memory Zone, completely nauseous and disoriented from the sheer amount of Harmony, or Order she was subjected to. We saw this with that doctor earlier with only a small amount of it used.

It was too much for her to handle. It was only when Sunday appears again to cut through it all, does she snap out of it out of his sheer grace. What a kind person he is.

We learn that Robin is in a cage. This is the same cage we see in her splash art! I like to try to integrate them into my stories, like I did for one of my previous stories with Black Swan’s one!

The two siblings share a conversation that doesn’t end well, with him leaving her. It was the only logical outcome for our doomed siblings here. I feel bad for them.

The cage breaking and Robin singing is also based on her splash art, as I needed a way for her to escape the cage that made sense to her and the story. I think it signifies how important her singing is to her and how Harmony interacts when she does.

We see Robin running around all the various Memory Zones Sunday has, noting how there are many puppets in them. I was alluding to when we go through those Memory Zones in the Grand Theater where Sunday tells us some stories using his puppets.

In one of them…we find her companion that was forced to sleep alongside her.

WELT YANG IS HERE.

I just wanted to write him since he is one of my favourite characters and I had my chance to finally in a story!

You can probably tell how much I enjoyed writing him based on how long his part is. If you have played Honkai Impact 3rd, or know Welt’s backstory, this is my little treat for you. If Hoyo won't make him do things, I WILL.

I made Welt finally use his powers. He’s the Herrscher of Reason, he has the freaking Star of Eden (the 9th Divine Key itself), AND HE BARELY DOES ANYTHING PLEASE DO SOMETHING I WANT TO SEE—

Ahem.

Making a bench is child’s play for Welt. I thought it would be kind of funny if he did.

Welt is more childish here since he wanted to cheer Robin up, who looked clearly sad. I think he probably used to do something similar with his adoptive son Joey when he was upset. He couldn't help but do so for his companion.

The idea for him making himself have wings like hers is from this one comic I saw on Twitter that lives rent free in my mind. I thought it would be a great way to cheer her up while also using his power more!

(It took me so long to find this, it wasn't funny how much I scrolled)

His wings smack right onto his face rather comedically and I took that from the official emojis where you can see Robin hiding her face. I imagine that younger Halovians struggle with their wings moving around and his wings are practically akin to newborn ones.

The power of Reason.

This is where I had to make things painful. Welt talks about his experience, the memory that Sunday chose to use against him. I was thinking about what would be the best memory, and of course I went for the jugular for that pain factor.

This is where Welt Joyce, the former Herrscher of Reason died in the city he was protecting. This was where Joachim Nokianvirtanen, who we now know as Welt Yang received the Core of Reason, the name Welt and a mission from Welt Joyce, before passing away.

It’s a very important memory to Welt, and one I would see Sunday exploiting. Only those who know of Welt Yang’s story would know that the man he mentioned was Welt Joyce since I intentionally didn't mention his name.

For Welt recreating half of the town, I was spitballing about the energy part. I don’t know if Memoria would be a good substitute for Honkai energy but I’m just rolling with it. Don't quote me on that.

The main role of Welt here is to reassure Robin, give her the will and inspiration to keep going despite everything. She even tells him all about her experiences, a connection between the two already facilitated by simple communication.

I feel like Welt is such a father figure. If only we all had him in our lives.

Reality

Sunday has now merged with Dominicus and has fallen to those whispers above, as the never ending dream is taking form.

The Dreammaster, Mr Gopher Wood himself makes an appearance as his former form. In 2.2, all his ravens die and he is never seen again, making it pretty clear that he's dead. However, I assume that he joined the Dreamscape and is now an entity that can oversee everything.

Dead only physically, as you will.

The Embryo of Philosophy is named by the Dreammaster here, since I was wondering how Sunday was named that during his boss fight, although it could have been from the whispers THEMSELVES. I also made Mr Gopher Wood show his true colours, to show that manipulative side.

There was a reason for this. He didn't want his son to start rebelling or second guessing his choice, so he used Robin as a way to keep him ensnared in his deception. Evil, isn't he?

I honestly think that Sunday knew that he would ascend to Aeonhood, as smart as he is. At least, he would have had an inkling of Gopher Wood’s true intentions.

Those whispers were Ena this whole time inside of Xipe as we learn. If Xipe absorbed Ena, wouldn’t Ena still be there? I think Mr Gopher Wood and Ena were in cahoots, scheming together. Perhaps even more than that (gets hit).

How…how dare he?

How dare he glimpse Heaven’s will? How dare he change people’s fate?

How dare he decide the life and death of other beings?

How dare he represent the will of all beings? How dare he control the greatest secrets and riches of the world itself?

How dare he…hold the fate of the entire world in his hands?

These lines are from HI3, particularly from Chapter 3 of Part 2 but slightly edited. This is what Baiji thinks of his actions to save everyone, and I feel like it also applies to Sunday.

We have many HI3 references here. I couldn’t help myself.

We now go back to Robin's point of view. This is after she awakens from Ena’s dream.

I don’t know if any other people woke up aside from the Astral Express + Acheron, Boothill and Black Swan, but for plots sake, there was. Just some random people we don’t care about.

We have Acheron! I wanted to write her since she played a huge part in Penacony and it would be a shame not to after I read this:

The bloody sacrifice becomes the sweet dreamland. The real world will lose meaning for them, while the eternal dream will become their only reality. They will no longer think with time. Their dreams will be connected, which will create a true miracle that transcends finality.

This is also a treat for the HI3 players. The words here are the words that Raven tells Mei before Project Stigma takes place. I was playing through that chapter at one point and thought that the words fit perfectly for this story.

I rewrote Acheron’s part because I disliked what I had initially. I was writing about Finality and how it was the same as transcending Order but it didn’t fit well so I changed it. I wanted to say how Finality governs time and how it can change reality if you had the authority...but perhaps another time.

As we know, Acheron was the only survivor who defeated End, referring to Kevin Kaslana all by herself without her companions unlike in HI3. I had to mention this and highlight the difference between their cases.

She doesn't show up again in the story, but she also impacts Robin in a way.

Miss Firefly takes the stage!

We have a bit of Robifly because I do ship them and I couldn’t help myself when I had a chance to write an interaction between Robin and Firefly. I wanted something a bit more lighthearted to break between all the angst and pain.

I saw how Firefly mentioned that she can't dream, and so I just wanted Robin to tell her otherwise to cheer her up. She’s following Welt’s lead, being that kind and inspirational person!

I’m sorry for making you the third wheel…

Speaking of him, we have Welt again appear! I couldn’t help myself, I just wanted to write more of him and I felt like Robin would try to seek him out first.

Did you know that it was called a Dream Pool, that bed in the Reverie? I had to rewatch 2.0’s quest because I didn’t remember the name for the life of me.

This time, we have Welt suffering yet again…I'm sorry that I only write you like this. He mentions in 2.3 that he dreamt about returning to his homeland and seeing all his old friends. This poor man, imagine waking up to find that it was all a lie.

The yelling mention was obviously a nod to Tesla who I would imagine yell at him for taking this long to return without a single word.

I hope Welt does get to connect with his homeland eventually, I want to see them or hear them!

We then go into the battle against Sunday! I purposely chose Sunday's point of view here, since we never receive it in the game.

I was rewatching the fight, and noted how sudden the switch from the question Sunday asked to mentioning how it was their final talk felt like it wasn’t him talking anymore, which I made the case here since we have my wonderful whispers.

We learn more about how Sunday felt during this, and what may have happened after their fall. Robin mentioned how she woke up by herself, which could only mean that Sunday left her there.

I think he genuinely was upset by the failure, but most of all…failing Robin. The feather falling down is a reference from how there were feathers flying around when Robin appeared and how the Trailblazer took it into their hands.

It clearly has the power of Harmony, and that’s what Sunday can feel when he holds it tightly. I imagine that he would keep that feather with him, as a reminder of what he lost.

The ending is based off 2.3, where we learn that Sunday is captured and will face trial. I didn’t go into much detail since we really don’t know much about how he was caught.

It won’t be the end.

It will be the end of all the suffering.

I will realise my dreams.

I will make my dreams come true.

I won’t fail again.

I will never fail.

The poison to Penacony still lingers.

I am a traitor.

These are Robin and Sunday's thoughts respectfully. As you can see, they are both the same fundamentally. That goes to show how they are both traitors in a way, aren't they?

We have a little ending about the siblings, alongside a story with a snake.

The snake is Miss Jade herself, where Robin went to her to make her greatest desire come true...to let Sunday go free. I wanted to reference the end of 2.3 where we see Jade talking to Sunday, how he was free but he refused her.

I repeated the words Acheron spoke for the very end to tie it all together. The perfect words to end a story filled with so much!

End

Thank you for reading all this! I’ve spent way too long on this story and I’m glad it’s finally out there for everyone to read!

I feel like in terms of storytelling, this is my best story so far! I'm proud of all the elements I was able to merge into this!

- Miku

#Robin #Sunday #robin hsr #sunday hsr #honkai star rail #honkai star rail fanfiction #I finished itttttttt #yayyyyy

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bobbile-blog · 1 year ago

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Okay so my addition to the extensive list of “Tiny world building things that Arknights consistently gets really right” is not having binary, two-sided conflicts.

Like, yeah, okay. Everyone knows that having a multi-sided conflict is generally more realistic and makes for a better allegory and helps motives seem more real or whatever, sure. But that’s haaaard, and it takes forever to world-build and set up stuff that you’ll probably never use again anyway, and do we really need hyper-realism for this one character’s side plot anyway? It’s fine if we don’t have that here, right? This sort of world-building, while good, is usually not worth the effort you put into it because not all conflicts are important enough to justify that level of detail.

To pull an example from another mobile game, Honkai Impact does this in a perfectly serviceable way. While the story as a whole has a number of factions that interact with each other, there’s usually only one faction in the role of “major antagonist” and which faction it is shifts over the course of the story. You’ll sometimes get more than two groups at play, but that’s usually only used to set up the next major antagonist and they’re rarely on even footing and given equal focus. And that comes out fine! It works great for the pacing of the story and serves its purpose perfectly well.

With Arknights, however, they have consistently refused to write stories that are just a two-sided A versus B conflict. From way back in Grani and the Knight’s Treasure up to the political clusterfuck of the more recent story chapters, Hypergryph just doesn’t write stories that are black-and-white protagonist-antagonist. Off the top of my head, the closest we get to that is in stories like Lingering Echoes and Guide Ahead where a single character disrupts a protagonist-antagonist plot. The two stories share a lot in common, actually - there’s a two-sided protagonist-antagonist story that is disrupted by a protagonist-aligned figure, Czerny in the former and Fiametta in the latter, that refuses to be bound by the said simple conflict. Both stories are also complicated by B-plots that don’t have nearly as simple resolutions, which are tied closely enough into the A-plot to make it more complicated.

All of the events are like this - as I write this I’m looking back through the event records for something I’ve missed because there’s no way they’ve been that consistent with this, right? But they have, and it’s staggering how consistent they are with it. There are all sorts of factions lying around that just get picked up again on the whims of the writers (like AUS or the Browntails), and it does wonders for making the world feel more complex and more alive.

#arknights #arknights thoughts #worldbuilding

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onceuponalegendbg · 8 months ago

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Ok so…. I don’t even go here.

I don’t play Honkai Star Rail. I’ve never played any Honkai/Genshin and do not plan to (I did watch a lot of Honkai Impact animations though cuz why not).

However, I have to say…

The idea of someone obsessed with seeing and collecting memories being friends (or more…) with someone who doesn’t know their past and/or forgets things so easily is….

Like that’s some of my favorite stuff. Like putting in a relationship someone with abandonment issues and someone who always leaves but chooses to stay.

That kind of dynamic is… gold.

So… Black Swan and Acheron.

More of that please.

#spoilers #I guess?#honkai star rail #honkai impact #hsr #acheswan #acheron #hsr black swan

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instantbreplay · 7 months ago

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HELLO!

I HAVE A THEORY! And this is a theory regarding the newest character of Honkai: Star Rail, the rootin’ tootin’, flamboyant, brash, and trigger happy space cowboy of the Galaxy Rangers—Boothill! This will be posted on both Tumblr and AO3 for those who do not have either or for easier access! By the way, this theory contains mentions of leaks and in-game content, so if you don't want to get any spoilers, I advise not to read this theory at all.

For starters, I will admit that I haven’t played Honkai: Star Rail in a while due to…whatever reason I had, and one of those reasons was because of Twisted Wonderland! I was playing that for a while—still am—I was having a blast insulting Ace and having aneurysms over the students’ antics and methods of breaking people out (I’m lookin’ at you, Rook). It was great! Then, Star Rail showcases two new characters on their Twitter page for their newest planet known as Penacony, one of them being Boothill who a lot of people were upset with due to them wanting the characters, Sam and/or Firefly who unfortunately met her demise in the newest update, and…well, I fell head over heels for him and started saving for him (122 PULLS WITH 20 PITY BABY BUT HE’S MY FIRST FEATURED CHARACTER SO PRAY FOR ME). I kept up with leaks because I could care less about gameplay, stat kit, and character lore leaks since that’s the interesting part and helps me figure out if I want the newest character…like my Al-Haitham theory which did not age well, this theory about Boothill does stem from exhaustion from not sleeping, but I feel like this is a more coherent and sound theory than the last, and I have to say that I have to take this with a grain of salt—and I advise the same for you—because it’s merely a theory. I can be wrong on certain things, but without ado, I’ll start with what really feels like the backbone of this theory, and that is Boothill’s name: Boothill.

The Name

So, just to give a little context, prominently in Asian media—most notably Japanese and Chinese entertainment from what I’ve seen as I played HoYo games and watched a lot of anime—characters tend to have name pun which correspond with their personality, physical design, talents, etc., to give people a little laugh and be like, “Ooooh! I get what they mean!” For example, Zhongli, in HoYoverse’s most popular game, Genshin Impact, written as 钟离 in simplified Chinese, is a pun of his departure—his retirement—as Rex Lapis: 钟 Zhōng being a homophone for the word for “clock” as it’s spelled exactly the same, while 离 Lí is a common word for “leaving” or “away”. Putting it together, it can be taken as “time of departure/leaving” or “off the clock” which foreshadowed Zhongli stepping down as Archon of Liyue.

With that knowledge in mind, I looked at Boothill's name and decided to Google it because I knew it was a pun of some sort! My only thought was that his name could have been a reference to a western (cowboy) film I never heard of which, to me, made sense as Boothill is modeled after stereotypical cowboys, and HoYo loves pop culture references with the Genius Invokation TCG which is a reference to the ever-so-popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, and how March 7th and Caelus made a reference to the movie, Fight Club, when the Moles were talking about the first rule of Fight Club…never talk about Fight Club! So, I thought Boothill was a nod to an old movie!

…No! A lot of people have already Googled it, but for those who probably don’t know, Boothill’s name comes from a burial grounds for gunfighters—with headstones engraved with the gunfighter’s name or “unknown” if the identity of the person has not been found—in the Old American West called a Boot Hill, and that name derives from the phrase “those who died with their boots on”, meaning that the gunfighter died rather violently. I did see someone say that the phrase could also mean that they were hanged, and that part is correct as the context of the expression changed in the early 19th century. However, I don’t believe that Boothill was hanged—although it is a possibility that I will keep in mind! Again, I have to take this theory with a grain of salt so I don’t die on that hill again, but seeing Boothill’s situation that he’s metal and wires from the chin down, he most likely died in a very extreme battle in the past since the only thing human about him…is his head!

His body must have been blasted to oblivion to where it was beyond saving, beheading him from the impact of whatever and whoever killed him. Now, some people may think that they probably just beheaded him or he was shot multiple times in the chest: other possibilities I will keep in mind, but that would mean he could have resulted as some kind of Frankenstein instead because if the body was still there, the Interastral Peace Corporation or IPC (the people who rebuilt Boothill) would use that since he has things to salvage like a heart or liver, etc., yet if we look at another Star Rail character named Luka who hails from the Underworld, he is missing an arm which is replaced with a mechanical one. That is because Luka saved a child in a fire involving a monster possibly from the Fragmentum, and his arm was chopped off by the ax the monster wielded, giving him the prosthetic he has today. So, if we compare Luka to Boothill in terms of how bad the conflict in Boothill’s past was, Boothill lost too much of his body from the chin down for the IPC to even save, leaving him with a full body prosthetic.

The Light Cone

Now, the question that we have…why was Boothill killed? Who could’ve had such a grudge against him that they killed him off so violently? Well, that is where his Light Cone description comes in. Let’s focus on the middle of the description where it states:

“Some cruel memories resurfaced as the unforgettable hatred turned into a weak light in the darkness.”

The Light Cone entirely describes when Boothill was regaining consciousness and how he felt while briefly in a limbo before being greeted by a doctor in the IPC. What sticks out are these “cruel memories” and this “unforgettable hatred” that he has which calls back to what happened before he died. I’ll lead into this with another point I have to make this make sense a little bit: Boothill is a bounty hunter. Why do I think this? Well, we get a glimpse of this in-game in the newest update of Star Rail where Black Swan answers the phone to a mysterious Pathstrider of the Hunt who is part of the Galaxy Rangers (a gang who “swore to punish the wretched by any and all means”) who is tracking down Acheron, ready to kill her for reasons unknown as of right now: that was Boothill who has been confirmed to be a Pathstrider of the Hunt along with him being a Galaxy Ranger as he calls Acheron an “imposter” who is also a Galaxy Ranger, most likely hinting that Acheron is going undercover and infiltrating the group. We also know it is him from his line, “My bullets will find you”, since he is a gunslinger with a bullet motif on his hat and actual bullets around his waist and one hanging from his left ear.

Going back to the point I made, he’s obviously smart with pinpointing someone’s location such as Acheron’s and having at least some information on her like her being an Emanator. His Path, the Hunt, is said to “admire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behavior”, which fits Boothill’s Light Cone description as well as his possible reason for his alliance with the Galaxy Rangers and why his finger is ready to shoot Black Swan if she was an ally of Acheron stating to “get [her] forehead clean…and wait for [him]”. A bounty hunter would have to be ruthless with their target, showing little to no emotion as they are the person they are after, the person who wronged their client or the bounty hunter themselves, and it is obvious that Boothill is determined to gather any info from Black Swan to continue his hunt with Acheron.

Now, with that in mind…Boothill had to have been a bounty hunter in the past who was wronged as he had “cruel memories” returning to his mind, and he had anger in his heart that was weakening but helped him return to the living world. If I were to guess, he may have had a loved one who died at the hands of someone else and gained the skills to become a bounty hunter in his previous life to hunt that person down because he had “unforgettable hatred”, and that had to be at a level where he couldn’t let go especially if he had “cruel memories”, and those could probably be that he watched that same loved one get brutally tortured and/or murdered in front of him. As to who the loved one of Boothill could have been, it could have been anyone: his father, his mother, a sister, brother, a best friend—Unfortunately, we do not have the information to determine that for sure, but I truly believe that it could be someone he was very close to that was tortured and/or killed for, again, reasons unknown.

The IPC

From what we gathered in the leaks and what HoYo has already established, it was the IPC that brought Boothill back with unknown intentions, but to me for this theory, it’s because of his skills as a bounty hunter since he must have been the best hunter wherever he came from. However, Boothill has a new grudge against the IPC as the his reveal information stated that, “His flamboyant and brash actions were all to draw the attention of the Interastral Peace Corporation — the target of his revenge.” The man is very flamboyant as we can holler back to his Ultimate, his skill…the freaking JoJo poses—

—(somebody in HoYo is a JoJo fan—IT'S BECOME INCREDIBLY CLEAR NOW) so I can see him causing havoc and being flashy to purposely attract their attention so he can properly get his revenge on them due to them making him into a cyborg which he isn’t happy about.

However…if I go back to the Light Cone description…at the very end, it said that Boothill “would no longer live for himself.” Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Here he is greeted by the doctor that saved him, and he’s clenching his new iron fists (literally speaking) because he knows what the IPC’s intentions are. If he’s no longer living for himself, that doctor would most likely have a sadistic tone when he welcomed him back because they experimented on him, testing him and his new body and using him for unspeakable things against his will, and why do I believe this?

Think back to Boothill’s gameplay and the leak of his gun’s range. That could be a reason, and a way I can describe it is by using Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in the MARVEL franchise. In the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was believed to be killed during a fall off a hijacked train in WWII in an attack against HYDRA, a sub-Nazi group led by the Red Skull, Steve becoming devastated by his best friend’s death. However, in Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Bucky was actually brainwashed, gaining a prosthetic arm (like Luka), and became a Super Soldier under HYDRA as they experimented to revive Dr. Erskine’s research for the original Super Soldier serum. Plus, HYDRA knew of his friendship with Steven Rogers and that Steve was alive but was going to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. for their lies, making him a threat. So, they trained and used Bucky as their line of defense since he was the only successful experiment that remotely compares to Captain America in strength and combat.

Because of Boothill’s skills in gunslinging, the IPC possibly saw this as an opportunity to have an effective line of defense in case something were to happen in their facility or if there was someone they needed to eliminate; they would have Boothill who had those qualifications to be their guard dog, but hearing how Boothill talks in-game for the first time, you could hear a hint of insanity in him as he keeps insisting that he will kill Acheron and Black Swan with lines such as “My bullets will find you”, “you best find a casket store on Penacony, and ask the owner to reserve a good quality casket for you”, “I’ll leave a round for you, so get that forehead clean and wait for me”, and “Are you askin’ me to write your will?” He wants to kill anybody who hurts him, still having that anger. That must have been how he felt when he was trapped in the IPC facility, going through experiment after experiment that broke him to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore as he is still human; he still has emotions and a mind of his own despite being 90% iron and wires.

Boothill knew, from the sound of that doctor’s tone, that he would be seen as their Super Soldier, a little toy they could dispose of if he was deemed useless; he was nothing but a heartless, soulless object to them which most likely broke him. Boothill has calmed down since his possible escape from an IPC facility and killing people in order to have a successful breakout, but he still has that pain inside his heart because of the possible abuse he faced that he’s trying to protect himself from being betrayed or used again which is why he’s so expressive and flamboyant.

He wants to live for himself and show the IPC just how human he was. However, he’s still showing off how strong he is as a warning to others of what he can do to them if they ever crossed him.

Now, I cannot stress enough that this is just a theory (A GAAAAAME THEORY), and I have to take this with a grain of salt because there is still a lot we don't know about Boothill regarding his past or his relationship with the IPC. Heck, a friend of mine and I believe that Boothill may not actually be his real name, but there's no evidence of his real name to even prove that point. This is all speculation, and what I gathered and thought about using any resources I have at my disposal to produce this, so please—for the love of the QUEEN OF HEARTS HERSELF—do not take this as actual, confirmed, or leaked information on Boothill's backstory since there are many unanswered questions. For now, I'll stick to what I got until Boothill is finally released!

And hopefully not die on that hill like I did with Al-Haitham...

#boothill #honkai star rail #theory #gaming #boothill hsr #pre-release #hsr spoilers

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