#this game loves to hide lore in every little corner

[alitheakorogane]

Just a Normal Genshin Impact Game Time... Is it?

This SAGAU fanfic was actually created like a year ago (March 15, 2023), but decided to redo this again. This was created during the time I was still Venti-less, so this one was like a story of me trying to cope at that time.

And yes, my latest fanart coincidentally fits this story too! I just stumbled on this back when I tried to scroll on my drafts while waiting for the fanart to be posted.

CW: blood, violence, and murder. Be warned.

You were just playing Genshin Impact on your computer like any other day, just doing the usual stuff you always do every time you login like doing the daily commissions and farming domains to build your characters.

One day, after doing your usual Genshin dallies for the day, you decided to take some scenic pictures with your current team on board and explore Teyvat to look for random chests and hidden quests you may miss. You know, to pass the time and possibly scrounge for primogems to farm for your favorite character.

But as you try to explore the place while trying to find a good spot to take pictures, you couldn't shake the feeling that something is wrong, that something or someone was watching you.

You were confused at first, on why you are feeling like that. But you just shrugged, as you may think you just had too much coffee. After all, you love coffee to the bone.

As you took Kokomi to a scenic place somewhere in Mondstadt, you had noticed something strange that was hidden by a canopy of trees, few meters behind the current character. You squinted a little bit, your eyes still trying to figure out the culprit of your distraction.

There was a figure hidden behind the trees.

------

At first, you mistook it as a rock or something inanimate but you then noticed that it was actually a person when it moved. It was not an NPC or random animal, but an actual playable character. After all, you could recognize that outfit even from afar, as Genshin Impact characters had some unique styles that were fit for their personalities and status.

It was Venti, hiding in a tree from far away, with eyes glaring at you.

Your heart nearly burst out of your chest when you saw him as you quickly exit the camera mode, trying to find some explanation of why he was there, to begin with. Maybe there's an event that he had been with?

You checked the quest menu to check for any Mondstadt-related events that you probably never finished, but to your horror, there was nothing. You looked at some guides online, some clues onto why he was there, that there may be an event from other nations that had him as a guest, but to no avail. You remembered that you already did his story quest and the quests that he was actually involved in-game. Maybe it's a glitch?

With a shaky grip, you closed the quest menu and stared at the same spot again. Venti was still there behind the tree, watching you with soulless eyes.

You were shaking in fear as you were also staring at him.

As you were still frozen on your seat, trying to make sense of everything, the figure dressed as Venti suddenly pointing something at your Kokomi, his soulless eyes still looking at your terrified ones, like he was a rabid dog vying for attention.

You suddenly recognized what he was trying to do. He was pointing out his former signature weapon, the iconic Skyward Harp, at you.

"Wait, isn't the Elegy of the End his new signature weapon?" You muttered out as your mind had tried to remember about Venti. You were a fan of him, so it would be in your forte to remember every single detail about him.

You remember that even his weapon was already changed to Elegy of the End during his consecutive reruns due to the new bow fits his kit than Skyward Harp, the latter was still his signature weapon in lore.

In the corner of your eye, you noticed something weird once again, this time on the map.

Apparently, the map shows you that there is a second player on the map, and that player was near your vicinity. You widened your eyes as you remembered that you didn't do any co-op with a Venti main recently and you don't even have a Venti. And to your horror, even your co-op mode wasn't even turned on!

------

You had remembered that you always wanted Venti, but due to your impatient nature, you had decided to build pity and accidentally won Kokomi twice on the last day of her banner. You got C1 Kokomi instead.

Unfortunately, Venti's banner was next and you regretted that he never came home. You had lost your 50/50 to your very first Qiqi at 75 pulls... At the end of his rerun banner.

...this is weird and unsettling, so you decided to quit the game, but to your horror, you can't even access the damned menu, soft locking you out.

As you saw Venti's creepy smile while he was sadistically hitting your main team with his anemo-infused arrows, you were horrified at what happened next.

You watched your entire team being stabbed by his arrows, blood splattering on the screen like a grotesque painting, and your current team crying for mercy and help as they were hit by the arrows the Anemo Archon in disguise had been aiming at them and they were frozen in spot because of some twisted form of code that the game had, instead of them doing their usual lines while being on low HP or fallen down. And you couldn't even make them run by pressing the buttons to move the character you currently have because you're frozen in fear as you saw the character pleading for you to make them run away from the crazed fellow using your keyboard and mouse but you didn't. You didn't even help them survive.

You remembered that characters that had fallen down were supposed to turn into glowing white dust instead of this... bloody mess you were witnessing.

This isn't right!

It was like you were playing a horror game rather than a simple open-world RPG game.

Then while the carnage was happening, there is an in-game text that was showing up while this is happening, of Venti still happily singing his ballads while doing the unthinkable. As if he was gleefully watching you squirm.

You couldn't help but close the game in a blink of an eye after you witnessed the scene by trying to turn off the computer and decided to never touch the game again. Thankfully, your computer turned off, but it had left you traumatized.

You decided to uninstall the game after rebooting the computer. The usual uninstall window had appeared with a picture of a chibified Amber crying showed up and a message about asking if you were really uninstalling the app, as if beckoning you not to delete the game, but you insisted and still pressed the uninstall button.

You decided to leave your room while leaving the computer to do its duty to uninstall the cursed stuff, but after you went outside for some fresh air, the uninstall window that was supposed to show a chibified Klee signifying the game had been uninstalled, glitched for a second.

Venti's creepy smile was seen in a split second on the entirety of the computer screen instead of the window with Klee, with some words written in glitchy Teyvatian language then in glitchy English that was flickering in the screen before it turns normal once again.

Y̸̩͂̆̇̌̾͑͂̄́͠o̴̢̧̫̖̫̥̗̞̖͘ͅṳ̸̢̨̽͆͑̀̔̍̃́̐̄̚ͅ ̸̡̥͙̞̎͗̔͋̔̄ẘ̷̽̃̒͑͑́̔̏͜i̶̳̺͔̼̺̘̙̙̭͑̒͑̉̕l̵̨̛̗̟̟͔̆̅̓͛̅̔l̸̢̹̠͋̊̔́͠ͅ ̷̛͎̮̯̬͇͔͉̗̪́̌͌̄͒̃͘ͅn̸̫̺̼͎̺͓͈͊̿́̔̀̔̈́̈̋̄e̵̬͎̳͊́͂̓̍͂̈́̏͜͝v̸͇̥̩̲̫̪̐̀̌͛̾͛ͅe̴̤̲̺̜̱̫̭̪̝̠͗̓̍̍͜r̶̻͉̳̩̈̑ ̴̨̛̬͉̜̮̰̬͖͕̩̬̑̈́́ẽ̶̡͎̱̰̩̖̫͚̈͋̆̄s̵̺̹͎͍͖̠̥̮̾̊͊̅́͜c̴̛̟͂̾̉̑̑̕ḁ̴̡̛̗̍̏̓̂̍̌̋ṕ̵̬̗̜͓͍̬̍̂͘ȩ̵̧̖̞͕̭̘̭̥̈́̕ͅ ̷̺̣͙̇̀̓͝T̴͇̥̠̦̹̼͇̼͓̘̍̿̎͛̎̽̍͛e̷͕͕̼̟͖̾y̸͖̠̰͖͚̺͆͒̋͐̓v̷̢̛̘͈̹͍̱͚a̴͍̦̠̮̱͌͒̉͋͂͘͘͝͠ͅt̷̢̡̹̍͗͗ ̷̧̛̠̫̘̮͔͍̰̻̙͎̃͋͌̀͛n̸̹̪̦̪̼͔̝̦̠͚̿́̌̋̀͋̒o̶̧̡͉͕̹̠͈̰̰̦̓̌̎̈́̌̈̏͗̕̚͝t̵̖̝̫̩̖̼̯̟͑͠ ̴̟̙̑̀̔͒͝ͅm̸̛̤͇͙̰̬͌̒͑̒̉̈́͐̑̉͘͜ͅ��̳̩̥ė̸̢̺̟̜̓̂̑̊,̸̗̠̯̀͋̋̂̚͜ ̸͓̬̗͙̘͓̫̖͖̇̎͌̍̉̓̇͊̕̚͘m̸̤̦͖̟̪̓y̴̨̪̦̘̖̘͔̻͈̮̋̃̈́͐ͅ ̴̠̠͓̜͇̮̰̈̅͊̉̾̂̀̊͝d̸̛̝̋̌͌̑͛͂̉͋̌͝e̵̘̖͇̥͙̊̀̈͛̎͋̈͗́͊͘ͅa̷̭̹̘̖̗̫̱̮͛̐͝ͅŗ̶̬̻͕̓ę̴̻̱̥̄̈̈́̏s̸̮̉̓͂̐̈̀̅̈́̕t̸̢̢̰͙̪̥͔̘͉͙̋̈̃̀̈́̅ ̸͇̹̘̺̫͓̲͔̣͑̉W̶̝͙̱͇͉̥̬͇̽̔̉ì̷̢̨͈͓̟̮͖̞̪̠̹̅̈́̂̒̀̕n̶̢̨̬͚͕̟̻͙͙̾̂̊̍̇̉̎͛̿̕d̸̼̮̮̮̳̜̾͛́̽̇b̴̮̎̽̆̄͛́̽l̴̛͓̓͌̉́͝͝ŭ̴̓̓͗̒́̈́̈̂͜m̶̛̛̛͔̯͔͎̣͕̩̙̊̉̈̊̕͜͝e̶̼̰͙͚̗̪̙̮̓̑̀͒̎̂̑̿̚ͅ,̵̲̭̘̬̟̻͇̊̏̀̇͒́̎͌ ̵̛̟͍̮͉̮͒̅̃͗̓̕̚͝͝n̷͍̲͉͉̤͔̥̮̞̼͐͐͜͝ò̵̝̂̐̎̐̚ ̵̧̢̮̹̣͈̦͉̻͘m̵̡̧͚̟̗̯̗̩̥̫̦̈́̍̃a̷͎̪͎̬͕͔̜̮̠̒͌̆͐̏̌̈́̄͜͝͝t̵̡͚̬̰͓͍͈̱͋̅́͌̊̌́͝ť̵̨͈̹͈̦͕̬̽̈̿̋̃̍̊̉̃ê̴̢̛̟̺̰̈́͂̈̽̍͐̓̆͘r̴̢̲̝̀̈̀͝ ̵̢̥̗̹͍͔̘̙͔̀w̴̤̻̣̅̐̈̀͊͋́͐͘͝ͅh̶̘̥̟̖͎̦͖̬͛̎̐̎͛a̵̛̲͎̬̼̫̳͑̆̆͝t̶̨̛̘̗̪͔̭̥̀̐.̶̼̗̓̎̽̇̑̆͛͠

[scribe-cas]

Writeblr intro!

Okay, so, I've been here for forever, but if I made an intro post, I definitely don't remember it. So.

Info under the cut!

Welcome to my blog. Enjoy your stay!

"Who are you?" Great question!

Hi folks, my name is Cas, and I'm an amateur writer with a love for all things words.

I use He/they/she pronouns,, but neos are fun. I don't have chosen ones, I prefer to let other people use what they think is apt to depict me. :> but to keep it simple, he/they/she! Use whatever pronouns are in your heart for me!

I'm a slave to the whims of my whimsy. If what you're writing makes me feel things, whether they're dark and unsettling or soft and lighter than air, I'm there. A few of my interests are cryptozoology, psychology, horror, fantasy, music and dance, and just anything I can search for. My favorite game is pattern recognition and completion, which makes things like escape rooms and scavenger hunts, whether for treasure or lore (same thing) a huge treat for me. I love being able to search, so if you like hiding obscure lore, let me at it like a pack of hounds.

I write horror, fantasy, mystery, comedy. My current WIP is a slasher comedy with a side of childish whimsy served up on a silver platter with some slice of life and sex jokes for seasoning. Loosely similar energy to Gravity falls is basically everything I make. What can I say, it's what I like.

I'm 18+, work two jobs and have the retensive memory of a soggy goldfish cracker. My schedule is hectic. If you see me reblogging posts, but I've neglected to answer you or respond to something you send, it's not you! I just have the memory of a wet rag.

Most of my work has at least some suggestive elements to it, because sex is a joke to me (/voice of someone who is very, very aroace). But literally every work does if you peek hard enough. Literally just heed my 18+ warnings on this page and you won't run into anything too gross.

I love weird things! Weird things galore! The more fucked up and absurd, the more I cheer! If you think an idea is stupid, send it to me!! I'd love to discuss it with you. Those little one off facts you've come up with for a character? That Au that stemmed from a joke? That cringe thing you're fixated on? Hit me with it! As a man with questionable morals once said, "Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram!" And therefore, we should have as much fun as we can!

If you ask me about Couteau, I will literally pledge my life to you. I swear. Or if you comment on any of my writing with him in it. Anything.

My WIPs!

"Well, what stuff are you working on?" LET ME ANSWER THAT!

"Sweeter Than Silence" (Project status: Active; In Progress For: 7+ years)

This, my magnum opus, that I've been fiddling at and fucking with the concept of on and off for approximately 11 years, but have been writing for about 7-

Is my LGBT, slice of life healing and depression infused comedy about a woman who goes home to find that everything she's been looking for in a fulfilling life is already there. "Everything", being a murder mystery in her haunted town that she knows wouldn't hurt a fly without good reason, a ragtag gay friend group, and the local hot bartender who is so outlandish it's like he's not even human. (spoiler alert! There might be a reason for that-)

Goofing aside, this story is stuffed to the brim with just the most absurd concepts I could think of. A media about embracing the purest form of self, and learning to love that part of you that finds beauty in the weirdest corners of the world, even if it was killed very young, to embrace your curiosity, and to indulge in suspension of belief. A low stakes, supernatural slasher comedy between a girl who's been told her whole life she's too much and a man who only wants her to get freakier.

This story is: - One of three parts! - T4T! Both main characters are trans, and they have a romance. - Stupid. /pos - Full of the stuff that would make a 13 year old go wild - A Composed Character Breaking Down And Losing It (TM) - Morally grey murder - A bunch of other stuff

"Rose Colored Glasses" (Project status: In Stasis, no longer currently active)

A fanfic i started y e e e a r s ago, when the Hazbin fandom was starved for content. A multi-chapter reader perspective fic, where, after falling into hell, they help an overcompensating Overlord Valentino cease his abusive ways. It's a fix it fic. It's me fixing him. Mostly just an excuse for me to dissect and make a dissertation on Valentino's possibly horrifically fractured and bruised psyche. I like the version of him I made up in my head, but I also like him canon, because he's horrific but he's also just. Iconic. Let's be real. Motivation for this passed on when Hazbin itself shattered my theories, but I still keep it around for fun.

The fanfic:

I also have personal notes that I won't be linking, but if you wanna know more about my theories, please ask! Even non canon, I love talking about my AU Valentino.

"You're Free" (Project status: Finished! Just for fun)

A fanfic I busted out in like an hour and a half once for a video game that gripped me by the neck. (Cryptid Coffeehouse, I love you.)

Not much to explain on this one, it was a self indulgent little scribble I did once, although if you haven't played CC, I highly recommend it.

The fanfic:

Books two and three of BISTS (the overarching series that Sweeter Than SIlence starts!) I know what happens in them, I just have to write it out. Wish me luck

Miscellaneous smut fics that I've done as spin offs of my own series just for fun and to explore different power dynamics. If I ever post any of them, they'll go on a pseud specifically for schrodingers fics (both canon and not, it depends on how I feel) under forgotten_scripture (AO3 account)

Miscellaneous Info!

My blog is sorted into tags!

castalk - Me saying words! bists/blood is sweeter than silence - All of my WIP info on Sweeter Than Silence and it's series. couteau my beloved go back into your box - The tag I specificslly use for anything and everything about my antagonist/first book series love interest. I highly recommend checking out this tag if for no other reason so that you have to look at him. coudoodles - Art I've done of. my antagonist. castalk - Me saying words! bists/blood is sweeter than silence - All of my WIP info on Sweeter Than Silence and it's series. couteau my beloved go back into your box - The tag I specificslly use for anything and everything about my antagonist/first book series love interest. I highly recommend checking out this tag if for no other reason so that you have to look at him. coudoodles - Art I've done of. my antagonist.

Use these to navigate your way around here! I'll add more as needed.

I have a huge fixation on the antagonist of Sweeter Than SIlence. I mentioned him earlier, but, his name is Couteau, he's my stupid 6'4 redhead who wears 2 inch heels to make himself taller, he's a moron, he's immortal, and he's my beloved baby. I lose my shit over this man on a daily basis. Genuinely, bring him up to me and I will talk for hours. I do not regret it. I'm haunted by visions.

I love awful memes. 200% permission if we've never interacted to just send me a bad meme. I want one

And or, I spend a lot of time stuck in spots where I need music recommendations. Throw a song at me!

My inbox is always open. My DMs are always open. I love talking. Do not fear me. Come tell me about your favorite things.

Hey long haired redheaded trans men!

Having a shitty day?

Feeling dysphoric?

Need a mood boost?

Send your selfies to my inbox and watch me go absolutely incoherent about the fact that you look like my OC! For the small price of one existence, I will hype you up to unspeakable levels because you deserve it!! Watch a stranger on the internet rave about how unspeakably fantastic you are!

(mostly kidding about this, but if it would make you feel better, go right ahead, I'm always happy when my obsessions spread love /gen)

Aaaaaand, on that note-

I think that's it!

If you read all of this, wow, look at you!! You did fantastic!!! I can't wait to ask you about your projects, and am waiting with bated breath for you to ask me about mine. HAHAHA

Anyways! Welcome to my blog!

Enjoy your stay!

~ Cas. <3

[awingedllama]

replies about my save file (loooong post ahead)

It works for trees too! Be sure you're replacing the debug tree and not the Lot tree (i made this mistake initially too lol). There's a checkbox near the search bar in S4S to filter debug items. The tree names you're looking for are "treeGD_cherry_01" and "treeGD_cherry_02"

Some objects are tricky though. I still can't for the life of me find the concrete posts next to the canal where Eliza and Bob live 😭 if someone knows where they're hiding pls lmk

As for the placement of items, it isn't exclusive to CAW at all! The CAW mod right now just adds new features (like a preset tool), hidden debug items, and a much more intuitive interface (you can move objects around the world with WASD instead of clicking, for example). But everything I'm doing can definitely be achieved with TOOL! In fact I was planning on using TOOL only until the CAW mod was updated recently to work in existing save files.

The only problem you encounter with TOOL is that some areas in the world, like roads, aren't clickable, which means you end up fiddling around with XY coordinates and struggling to see past your current lot. To solve this I made a little mod to expand the clickable area. It's not my idea, a creator named Alexcroft came up with it, but his version no longer worked (and was only for Brindleton Bay and Sulani I believe) so I edited the BG files myself

I'll be uploading the mod with my save file of course (so off-lot areas will still be clickable/completely accessible) but if you want it now just send me another ask! (I don't want it buried in this long post lol) The only problem I've noticed so far is sims route a lot more 'freely', meaning they'll stray from the sidewalk and walk/bike in the middle of roads. I haven't gotten any glitches or last exceptions yet though, so I'm willing to share!

Definitely! TwistedMexi is amazing, there's going to be an exporter for completed worlds as well as an official exchange to download them. You can read all about CAW here. As of now Crest Harbor is only a save file and not a proper custom world, but I'll be exporting it the instant CAW is finished.

This is so sweet 🥹 That is exactly my intention, to have gameplay and functionality in every corner of the world!

I have been thinking about the townies/lore, and I've decided to go for a very small town, quiet drama, everyone-knows-everyone-else's-business vibe. It's one of the things I love about the insular worlds of TS3. For one of the big expensive Victorians I'm going to build, I've decided to make a 'perfect' and very wealthy family. except the kids are rebellious kleptomaniacs, the politician dad is actually in the criminal career with a basement bunker and listening device, and the serial romantic, yoga instructor soccer mom is having a torrid affair with half the people in her class

Of course not every family will be like this lol, but you get the idea. I know people like to have their own sims (rightly so!) but I do want a lively backdrop for them to live against :)

(your english is perfect by the way!!!)

I know! I've figured out how to change the icon itself, I just can't figure out how to make the files reference *only* my copied world instead of Willow Creek too. They have identical icons right now and it's kind of jarring. Probably something I'm missing. If all else fails I'll probably just replace Willow Creek altogether. She's had 9 years anyway her time is up

very pleased i've got you a t a l k i n' :) The CAW is in alpha right now, but lot editing is coming! TwistedMexi has a proof of concept showing that it's possible, he just hasn't implemented it yet. The difficulty I think is in making it user-friendly. All the lots in my save file are the same size as Willow Creek's though, since it's just a copy of that world. You can *technically* edit lot sizes by editing the game files but it's glitchy and I know I'd just break my game messing around with it

yep, good eye! it's foundry cove on the Garden Essence lot. i did add a bunch of objects in the neighbourhood though

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Baizhu’s Room

(note: this was written without any leaked spoilers or lore in mind)

Genshin 3.6 finally gave us access to the back room in Bubu Pharmacy, in anticipation of Baizhu’s upcoming release and story quest. And I have to give all the praise to the designers and developers here, because this small room has some of the best environmental storytelling I’ve seen in a game in a while, with only a few simple details. Today is Baizhu’s birthday, so I wanted to talk about it a little 💚🐍🌿

Nothing in this room is neatly in its place. The chairs aren’t in position, everything on the desk is messy and strewn about, and some of the drawers are left open. There’s a pillow on the desk, as well. Baizhu is quite frail and sickly, so this all paints a picture of him constantly looking for things and working, both as a doctor and frantically on his research into immortality, without having the energy or care to keep everything neat, and probably often falling asleep at his desk out of exhaustion (hence the pillow, though admittedly it could be for Changsheng, but I kind of doubt it).

There’s medicine on the bedside tables, which is probably just as much for Baizhu as it (and all the other medicine in the room) is for his patients. The bedside chair indicates he likely sits with patients there a lot so as to be as comforting as possible, but again, it’s also likely for people like Gui and Qiqi, when Baizhu is the one in bed. The sole small washtub thing stuck in the corner behind the screen... just makes me sad. I don’t know why in particular... it just does.

All of this, combined with the lighting, and the new, unique song, creates a room that manages to feel both warm and welcoming during the day, but solemn, lonely, almost suffocating, and unbearably sad at night, completely befitting the person who practically lives here, and the two very different sides he has. I say “practically”, but we have no indication so far that Baizhu actually does live anywhere else -- with his low energy and poor health, and all those damn steps leading up to the pharmacy, I’m fully convinced now that he does live here full-time, after seeing the state of it, which is... heartbreaking. He puts on a smile for everyone around him who are relying on him to care for them (and he loves his job, he truly does!), but his tiny, cramped patient room seemingly doubles as his living space, and even though Baizhu may lie and try to hide his own suffering... this room itself does not lie, and said suffering is bleeding from every corner here. The music is elegant, gentle, comforting, and soothing, but also delicate, weak, mournful, and again unimaginably lonely...... just like Baizhu. 💔

If you haven’t been here yet in the game, I highly recommend you visit it at least once; the atmosphere is simply unmatched. I can’t wait to see what happens here in Baizhu’s story quest, and how it will wreck our hearts even more 💚💔

[yorshie]

on the tmnt ask game thingy: gimme a 12 for uh. reasons……. and then a 24 bc i Gotta see the roast

Ooooo thank you for the ask! I was a little confused on the first one because I took it to mean either one turtle that you like every iteration or go down the line iteration by iteration….. I went with the second because I like to ramble, but I’ve only really watched the 90s movies, 2003, bayverse and rise enough to form an opinion or care. No hate on the others just. Shrug. Not my jam right now.

Funnily enough, when I watched 2003 as a kid (8-9 year old) Raph was my favorite. I was a…. Um…. Opinionated, angry kid, shall we say, and I liked that he had a motorcycle and could kick shell, as he often put it. I was a late bloomer in turns of puberty and thinking boys were anything other than cooty filled jerks, so I’m pretty sure my interest in him was platonic at that point (also I got like, hella good at hiding my favorites because I often got picked on for liking things/people growing up)

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I watched the other versions. 90s was definitely Donnie, the amount of chaotic energy there alone made him my favorite. I loved the intro fight in the second movie where he just straight up pretending to be an inflatable turtle.

Bayverse is my main jammy jam, the one that I consistently like to play with. I like all four of the turtles equally in this one *stares straight ahead with a poker face* there is definitely no favoritism going on at all *sweats* - lol. Well, maybe there is, but I go through spurts where I want to delve into different aspects of each of them at different times. There’s definitely an even number of WIPs featuring each on my computer

Rise is. Well. Rise is awesome, but I kinda stand outside the fence and peer over at that fandom. I’m sure everyone is aware that my favorites are the disaster twins in that iteration, but a lot of the fandom lore going around isn’t actually…. Canon? Which is wonderful, but I’m old, and I can’t quite keep up with it all, so there’s just a few people that let me sit in their circle and listen to the stories and then I go back to my corner of the internet.

And for 24. Oh goodness. I’m not a good roaster, but I’ll take Bayverse Leo (still not admitting he’s my favorite bay turtle) to task cuz boy. He runs to his daddy crying an awful lot to fix his problems. He got his personality from an old spaghetti western……. He’s definitely listens to Jpop and pretends to know every word they spit out at the speed of light. Doesn’t know SuJu is, in fact, not j pop nor speaking Japanese.

IF you wanna see a pro roast the bay boys though, I’ve got a few links for you. Snackugaki should probably be paid for the sick burns delivered in these comics. The second one is a four parter so I linked the one that has access to the others

[calvatier]

Eloryn, idk if I've ever introduced him but he's Nydha's late lover 😭😭 gone too soon

I have a bg3 run of him w my friend and oh my god, he literally dies at every corner, it's almost like the game KNOWS this mf should not be alive and running around ☠️ I've crafted like 22 healing potions just to keep him standing

(,,,I rly suck at side profiles,,,gotta work on them more yewouch)

Ramble lore:

Ouhh idk what's it with me and making good and wholesome love disappear but Eloryn and Nydha were sweethearts during their schooling years. They both went to a prestigious school, they became school besties and did everything together then eventually they got together and were going pretty strong. I'd say if Eloryn didn't pass, Nydha and him would've grown old together. Eloryn was clumsy and reckless with his magic, p much everybody thought he got in through his parents' money. He tried his best with magic and even tho his spells were potent, they often lacked control. Nydha, on the other hand, was skilled in magic but only cus of years and years of hard work. He got into the school through merit and allat.

ANYWAYS, I think I've mentioned bfr that Nydha was still being hunted by his drow house because he escaped when he was still a youth and had been pretty successful at hiding from the people that hunted him,,,Nydha wanted to hone his magic and the ambitions of becoming a great wizard so that's why he escaped,,,when he enrolled into this school, he was pretty much at one spot all the time so he was eventually found. His hunters stalked him for days to find a way to make him come back and discovered that he had a relationship with Eloryn, so they killed him in an effort to warn and scare Nydha into coming home,,,but Nydha didn't want to,,,and especially not after they killed the person he loved so deeply,, ohh poor guy,,,he grieved so hard and he knew he wasnt safe, so with the little time he had, Nydha brought Eloryn's body to Umbryss' temple and there he said his final goodbyes before sending Eloryn off,,,but his grief was so consuming that he wouldnt leave the temple even after Eloryn was long gone,,,so he cried in the temple for days but the keepers of the temple never shooed him away because they understood his grief,,,however Nydha's grief was so extreme that they had to step in because it was clear that some part of him wanted to give up. so they took pity on him and taught him their ways of dealing with grief and even offered a sanctuary from his hunters. And yababababa that's how he eventually got into being a cleric and turning into a loyal prophet of Umbryss

[cog-go-boom]

[INTRO POST]

sup y'all gamers alike - i'm FROSTBITE THE BAT and this is my blog!! thought i'd make one to spare some time n all LOL. you can ask me things, and i KNOW you want to !! (can't help but want to, considering my sheer amount of swag)

so ask away, i will happily answer. fair warning though: if you're annoying i will bite you, if you're mollymawk i will bite you, if you're graham i will bite you. brian DNI i know where you live

to the LESS INFORMED about who I AM lemme introduce myself real quick. SO, AGAIN, i'm FROSTBITE THE BAT but you my friends can call me the creature that haunts the corner of your eyes. I LOVE EXPLOSIVES. COG GO BOOM. COG GO BOOM. COG GO B

you may see me around sellbot hq. i chill there with cathal and spam usually - but to the cooler ones of you, you might've seen me on high roller's high roller. like the WHOLE ASS co-host. i'm cool like that. and to the LAST group of people who may recognize me - i'm the guy behind the desk at pace place. always working hard so deserving of a raise (wink wink nudge nudge pace please i want a raise) (playing flash games takes energy dude give me a raise i will explode)

[[OOC:]] Hi! This is the ask / RP blog for Frostbite The Bat, my TTCC sona! If you want to talk to me, and not the character, speak to me at my Toontown blog (@cathalbravecog) or my main, (@frostbite-the-bat).

Frostbite will reblog art from me and fanart from others, and other things they may like and want to reblog - so you may see some of that! This is not only an askblog for them - this is THEIR blog.

Also, Frostbite will not go out of their way to interact with somebody unless I know the person behind it personally. You always must interact with them first! This is because, as stated on my Toon blog, I don't go out of my way to interact with people first in general. So you won't see them initiating conversations with other ask/RP blogs.

While staying close to canon - Frostbite still has their own "canon" tied to my and my friend's lores and other silly things around our Toons. Other people's Toons and THEIR relationships with other Toons and the Cogs will be mentioned, so that's a heads-up in-case Frostbite ever mentions, for example, Mole's relationship with Graham and Flint.

ALSO!!! Toontown is kid friendly, however this blog is not! Frostbite WILL swear A LOT and crude-ish jokes are not completely off the table. And btw, yes, Frostbite IS a cog. They're not the most consistent with if they want to hide that on this blog or not.

Rules are a subject to change!

Sillyness is encouraged! But please try and be respectful, don't bring personal things and discourse into this - RP stuff is okay! Frost has beef with other characters, some that goes deeper than it seems. But also keep in mind Frostbite can be a rather rude character.

Frost will reply with just text, reaction images, doodles, re-used pieces of art, and brand new pieces of art from time to time! Please do not ask them things in hopes of getting your response drawn. It depends on what I think is funny to reply with and if I'm in the mood to draw.

If I don't answer your ask, please don't spam it to me again. I either ignored it for a good reason - or I am working on a more detailed response!

Again, be respectful and mindful of boundaries I or Frostbite may set. As long as I don't make a statement, though, feel free to annoy them a little bit, it's funny. If a line's crossed I'll let 'ya know!

NEW RULE!! After some thought, magic anons are no longer allowed! You can still give things and throw pianos at Frost, but changes for a certain amount of asks are not allowed anymore - for my own well-being since this is for fun, and having M!A's makes me want to draw for every ask received, even when not needed.

ART REFS!!!

Regular outfit

HR Show fit (Anytime this is used, I'll use the [HR Show Fit] tag!

[gaygamesstarringmary]

Atomic Wasteland, Sentient Forest, Alien Ocean

‘Fuck You’ Graffitied Across the Wall

My first M-rated game was Fallout 3. I cried when I finished that game. Not because the game was particularly sad, but because I knew I could never go back and play that game again. 

After years of begging for a PS4, my parents got me a PS3. I wanted Fallout 4 but it wasn’t compatible with the PS3, so I settled for Fallout 3. The graphics sucked, even for 2016.

And my mom. She wasn’t sure how graphic this game was, so she watched me play it. Of course, she watched the worst part. My player character entered a building I knew was filled with raiders- post-apocalyptic baddies. But I didn’t know they had littered the floor with mines.

My character exploded into a million little pieces. The camera focused on one piece in particular as the chunk rolled down the stairs. There, at the bottom of the stars, written in blood: FUCK YOU.

My mother was shocked. Never had she been so repulsed in her entire life. And just as she’d given me the game, she took it away.

I begged. And begged. And pleaded. After a few days of my nonstop pleading, and my verbal promise that I would never actually kill anyone in real life (I’m the type of person to spare the scariest of spiders), my mom returned the game to me, albeit begrudgingly.

I recently played Fallout: New Vegas, and I never learn. Never look at the floor. I never even think that mines might be on my path. Now, though, my mom watches me play with glee. She is horrified, yes, but only because I’m so goddamn bad.

2. The Sun Sets; I’m Completely Fucked

The setting sun casts its orange light on the forest. Soon this crooked forest will consume everything. Already, it’s taken highways and villages for its own. In these villages, infected humans lay dying. Some infected humans keep their sanity, but not their human image. And some still lose both mind and body to the forest. The player character, a human who has managed to keep his sanity and his self despite the forest’s universal plague, sprints home. There, he pulls a dresser in front of one of the doors, starts the generator, and hides in a corner gripping tightly his rifle. 

When the sun sets, the infected come. First, they knock on doors. They peep through windows. Then they grow more violent. They tear down barricades and search the homes for the man inside.

Darkwood is a hit-or-miss game for most. I love it through and through. The infected forest is beautiful. The infected people, not so much, but I enjoy screaming and running from them as fast as my poor player character can.

I fell in love with this game during the first night I played. A knocking at my door startled me, but I continued hiding in my corner, and, eventually, whoever was knocking roamed away. The lore of the game is wonderful, as I discovered when I met the Wolf Man. The plague touched him so that he transformed into a bipedal wolf, with the appetite to boot. 

The monsters are horrifying. Knowing that they are- or were- people is worse. Chompers were the bane of my existence while I played this game, and I ran every time I saw one. They are infected people who split down the middle to their chests. This made room for a large mouth of teeth.

I have days worth of time invested into this game. 

But I cannot finish it.

I don’t want a repeat of Fallout 3 ever again, so I never finish games I really love. When I feel Darkwood’s end drawing near, I delete my save file and start anew.

3. Discovering I Have Thallassophobia

I love games, but I am not good at them. I have to play most shooters on easy because I have the aim of a drunk Stormtrooper. Subnautica is no different.

I love the ocean. Before Batman came along, it and mythology had been my hyper-fixations. I still know way too much about yeti crabs and other deep-sea life. While no longer a hyper fixation, the deep oceans are still fixations.

I want to live at the bottom of the ocean. I dream not of whale song, but of bone worms swaying in the current. Before I get started on the real oceans, though, let me introduce Subnatuica.

Subnautica is a first-person adventure game set on an alien planet made completely of water. Your goal is to get off the planet while avoiding being eaten by an apex predator along the way, or being picked off by those annoying little crabs. It focuses on adventure and base building, but I didn’t care about either of those.

I wanted to see the creatures. Specifically, the creatures in the deep dark. So, as soon as I had the necessary resources, I vowed, I would travel to the abyss and gather information on every lifeform there.

That never happened. Again, I’m awful at games. 

Worse, it wasn’t even an apex predator that kept killing me- or even those crabs. It was dehydration. Water was all around me, but not the drinkable kind. And I had no idea how to get water so I kept dying.

I gave up sooner rather than later and watched every Youtuber play Subnautica  I could. Despite having never been to the abyss myself, I have seen through others the creatures that live there, and they are just as strange and fascinating as the deep-sea animals in real life. 

Biolumenisent predators. Long-legged crabs. And sapient creatures that, unlike dolphins (who I fully believe to be as intelligent as humans, unfortunately) aren’t completely fucked up in the head.

And, again, watching the ending of this game, I cried.

[franki-lew-yo]

The Romantic (2009, R, Gothic Fantasy/Horror), aka the most forgotten animated film in the world

What if I told you there was a movie under serious threat of becoming lost media with no clear reason as to WHY it's been lost other than no one has apparently watched it besides me and a few people on Reddit? What if I told you that movie wasn't half bad and would no doubt have some interest peeked if anyone DID know about it?

The name of that movie is The Romantic.

It was released in 2009 and it's Rated R for nudity and sex scenes [insert Robbie Rotten meme here], though none of it too graphic. It was a pet project created by animator Michael P. Heneghan, originally starting as a flash project for his animation class before he expanded it into a feature film. The film was inspired by movies such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, but what I see every time I look at it is a touch of Jhonen Vasquez, Tim Burton, and Roman Dirge- the guy behind Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl. It's flash animation especially remind me of the puppet-rigged toons of the 2000s (again like Salad Fingers or Lenore). It's not bad, it's just not inherently 'feature film' quality flash, nor is it exceptionally artistic like Sita Sings the Blues in it's simplicity. Like, really, if you happen to find this thing it's not the worst animated project at all it's just amateur for a professional production. I've seen worse flash movies. Heck, if The Romantic were released in separate parts on youtube or Newgrounds as a series (ala Homestuck) I'm sure it would have been really successful and totally in it's element. But it wasn't.

Because next to no one has seen it and I'm lucky to have not only ever seen it when it was available for free but have also found it recently (hush hush, I ain't telling you how) I'm going to actually give you all a plot synopsis under the cut. There will be some details I leave out and I think I've spelled some characters names wrong. It's a bit of a surrealist film as well, so you might need some things explained.

Spoilers ahead:

The Romantic is set in an autumnal, surrealist world inhabited by humans and monsters and ruled by three gods; Po the goddess of love; Pik the god of Hate; and Pjorrc the god of time though Pjorrc was made to live inside a pumpkin moon as everything he touched rabidly aged and died.

((Tapestry art featuring the main three gods of the film.))

A young man (called “Romance” or “The Romantic” by the other characters) performs a bull sacrifice in order to summon Abbledepopa, the unseen creator of the other gods and ‘storyteller’ of the world. The sacrifice does not conjure Abbledepopa but, when Romance spares a monster that was ready to eat him, the monster tells him of a profit named Patience. Patience is a foul-mouthed dwarf living alone with an army of babies who points Romance in the direction of Po.

((Romance outside of Patience's house.))

Romance wants the god’s help because he has fallen out of love with his girlfriend. Po grants him his desire and restores his love only for Romance to return home and find his girlfriend with another man. Blinded by heartache and rage, Romance kills her. He then swears vengeance on the gods for ‘making’ him do it. In the midst of this vow, a corrupt prophet called Fat Daddy kills the queen of Vauxhaul (Romance's home) and her guards, and forges a new body for his newborn son with their bodies. Fat Daddy rallies the townsfolk behind him in supposedly finding the Queen’s murder into follow a new religion called "The Poetic End".

((Romance (right) besides the monster he spared at the beginning of the movie.))

Patience accompanies Romance on his quest and tells him to take Po’s mask, which hides her true face, once he kills her. Romance buys Po’s trust by weaving her a tapestry that tells her story: in the dawn of time Po and Pjorrc were in love. However, Pjorrc gradually became distant and Po became resentful when their daughter, Love, earned Po's original title as the god of romance and love.

In the present day, Romance sleeps with Po for over a year before finally killing her and taking her mask. He and Patience return to his home of Vauxhul only to be chased out by Fat Daddy’s personal army. They flee to Marshallton, the town nearest to the god Pik.

((Romance's hometown of Vauxhul. ))

The king of Marshallton, King Crookie, tells Romance of a prophecy he, Patience, Fat Daddy and all the gods are a part of and that the world is soon to change. Romance then fights and successfully kills Pik when he shows the god of hate his reflection in a mirror King Crookie gave him, but not before losing his hand to Pik.

When Romance comes down the mountain he learns from Patience that nine years have passed since his fight with Pik began. Patience reveals to Romance what Pik saw in the mirror that allowed Romance to take the killing blow; after Love had grown up and married, Po asked Pik to tell her where her husband was always running off to. Pik reluctantly revealed Pjorrc was disguising himself as a human and married a mortal woman. Po found Pjorrc and his pregnant second wife, forcing Pjorrc to leave his human family behind, but not before asking his wife to name their son “Patience”. In retaliation for his treachery, Po proceeded to sleep with fifty men and produce the fifty bastard children in Patience’s house.

((Fat Daddy, the main villain.))

Marshallton and the entire rest of the world has fallen to the rule of Fat Daddy, who captures Romance and Patience. Fat Daddy tortures Patience into telling him how to get to Pjorrc but is unable to convince Romance to take part in his ‘new world’ or give him Po’s mask. Romance and Patience escape and leave the village to be torn apart by the fifty babies Po had, now transformed into veracious monsters after Patience didn’t feed them for the past ten years. Romance confronts Patience when he realizes the latter is Pjorrc’s son. Patience calls Romance out on his mantra of vengeance and points out that all his decisions are his own, not the gods, and instructs him to seek Love herself in Po’s basement. Patience then attempts to confront Pjorrc but is cornered and killed by Fat Daddy before he can do so.

In Po’s basement, Romance finds Love nailed to a wall, her face torn off and half eaten by her deformed husband. Love tells Romance that Po ripped off her daughter’s face in rage over Pjorrc’s infidelity and Pjorrc did not intervene fast enough. Po then threw Love into her basement, turned Love’s husband into a monster, and wore her daughter’s face as a mask - which Romance had broken into pieces moments ago after Patience had shown him his face in King Crookie’s mirror. Romance then finds Pjorrc hanging himself. As he dies, Pjorrc tells Romance to take the hand Fat Daddy had cut off and sew it onto himself, which will in turn help Romance defeat Abbledepopa.

Romance traverses the wasteland and does not find Abbledepopa, but instead a golden loom. Having seen all the destruction he and others had caused, Romance sits upon the loom and accepts his fate as the new ‘storyteller’ of the world, as he begins weaving a new one...

---

I mentioned before the animation quality of the film and why maybe that caused people to overlook it. The only other thing I could complain about on a technical level with The Romantic is it's sound design. Some of the voices and music is a little too quiet and so all these key details I had to go through the film a few times to really piece together. But that leads me to the thing I like about this movie and I'm sure others would to: the lore.

It's very hard to create a new fantasy world w it's own customs, religions, history and rules out of the blue as any YA Harry Potter/Hunger Games ripoff book could tell you. The Romantic is so unique in how it handles the pantheon and culture of these three gods and their kin; really only four or five characters throughout the entire story aren't connected to the gods or prophecy in some way, as there's the main three gods, Abbeldepappa, and the prophets Patience, Love and Fat Daddy, who make up your main cast besides Romance. There's a lot that's intentionally left unexplained and other info that must be explained, like Pjorrc and Po's marriage and Romance's feelings towards the gods, if we want to understand the former. The movie is paced pretty well and knows when to follow up on what, it's just that again some of those animation and editting shortcomings might make it hard to understand...but I don't think THAT hard. Look, if someone can enjoy Starchaser: The Legend of Orin or even better surrealist world-building films ((Fantastic Planet comes to mind)), then I say there's no reason The Romantic wouldn't have a following. There's no other way I can articulate why and what doesn't work about the story except just to recommend you watch it yourselves, but before I get into that I want to talk themes...because I love the themes and tone of The Romantic.

I revisited The Romantic a week before I made myself watch Centaurworld and The Owl House for the first time...and what a week that was~! The Romantic has the vibe of those kinds of shows along with Adventure Time and Infinity Train ((so I hear, I haven't watched the latter)). It's surreal and you'll only marvel at 'woooah wut an acid trip' for so long before you get into the vibe of the universe. It also reminded me substantially of the Broadway musical Hadestown and not just because this movie is also a self-contained, somewhat self aware fable about the relationships between humans and gods - it's very raw in how the characters talk. It's very emotional and blunt in how kind and how cruel they can be, and it doesn't make excuses or really worships any one of them. Romance himself is the world's most likable Incel: he murders a woman he thought he needed to love and blames his emotions on the gods of those passions...except the gods AREN'T the manifestations of love, time, and hate - they simply dictate and oversee it in the lives of men. It's a dynamic I really like in religious works where Gods are powerful but not all knowing or puppet masters to everyone's design- they have morality too and there is only so much you can blame and get from them.

"You made your gods into excuses and your excuses into gods!"

-Patience. This here is a cool quote. I like this quote.

No matter what, The Romantic is not gonna be a film for everyone. We all have our tastes - I think I'm drawn to it and accepting because I've come to love these kind of worlds that used to keep me up at night - these trippy 70s inspired fantasy landscapes given a whole Avatar: The Last Airbender degree of worldbuilding and character worth. It also doesn't feel exploitive in it's violence, it's sexuality, it's grimmness - it doesn't feel like it's trying to hard or going over the top because it happens to be an adult animated film, something that I love in movies like 9 or Hair High but really turns me off in stuff like Sausage Party or Wizards. Whatever go watch The Romantic...

if you can.

-----

When I first saw this film in 2016 it was actually very accessible and was even uploaded to youtube by the creator himself. I don't know WHAT happened to Michael P. Heneghan, but simply put, the man's disappeared...like...REALLY disappeared.

Lookit his IMDB. He has The Romantic and a wapping two other projects to his name. His Twitter isn't very helpful either. He last updated in early 2020 and he says next to nothing about The Romantic. It's so odd that he would one day be happy with the film enough to host it on Vimeo and Youtube but then just cop out.

According to a Reddit user: "On Valentines Day 2011, Heneghan released the film for free online through all kinds of platforms including direct download, bittorrent, Vimeo, and even directly through Archive.org. He even joked about releasing a 300 gig uncompressed version.

I know I watched it on Vimeo probably as recently as 2016. Now I can't find it anywhere. The website is dead, the Vimeo video went private, even the archive.org version has been taken down. It really looks like he wanted to wipe it off the face of the internet. His newer website mentions it, but again, the Vimeo link is dead and even that website is closed for business."

It's weeeird. What happened Michael?

And yes, obviously, other people worked on the movie.

No - I can't find out anything about them either.

I'm betting on three theories at the moment: 1) this film is an SCP or some Candle Cove weirdness with only me and a handful of people ANYWHERE remembering it, 2) something weird is going on w Michael Heneghan and it involves too something about this film. It was a scam or a scheme or a hidden agenda weirdness, 3) Heneghan's doing okay he just doesn't like this film anymore and wants it hidden while he takes a break.

Look, I get it Michael! What was once our life's worth can become cringe as you improve as an artist - you're not the person making the stuff you were ten years ago...but you should still have the film kept alive somehow. Someway.

I'm seriously the only person to have ever made fan art of this movie on the internet. That just doesn't happen, and I don't think I like being in a fandom of one. The Romantic is a testament to the power of design and storytelling > animation quality itself. Too often I see people equate good animation with smooth animation, with a budget with squash and stretch. These animations are good but art is diverse and there's so many kinds of films out there, the value of the medium can't just be in one style/form. There's a lot of honestly wonderful pieces of art out there if you know where to look and you're willing to see where it leads you.

Don't let The Romantic be the most forgotten movie of all time. Reblog this post. Show it to your friends. PM the animation community reviewer people like Saberspark and someone who isn't Saberspark and smuggle them a copy.

Keep telling the story...

[ajaxwrites]

GENSHIN IMPACT FANFIC REC LIST II

(previous: part i)

Seaglass by Aevas

There was more to the contract than a gnosis and test of Liyue. It seemed like a simple deal five hundred years ago: so long as Morax never had a soulmate, the Tsaritsa would never harm Liyue and she would not get his gnosis. But the moment he gained a soulmate, all that belonged to him was forfeit. He thought the deal left Liyue safe—he'd lived thousands of years without a soulmate. The Tsaritsa would be dead and gone by the time she'd have a chance to collect.

Five hundred years later, Childe appears in Liyue, Zhongli gains a soulmate mark, and everything falls apart.

(The obligatory soulmate AU, featuring a Zhongli with PTSD, an oblivious Childe, and demon-worshipping cultists.)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: I CANNOT BELIEVE I SLEPT ON THIS FIC FOR SO LONG. Read it and I mean it! I admitted initially steered clear of this fic because I wasn’t comforted with a soulmate tartali fic pre-Osial but this fic is actually post-Ostial *facepalm* The writing is phenomenal and Aevas does some beautiful worldbuilding that you typically don’t see in Genshin Impact fics. I love the dynamic between Childe and Zhongli here and the angst is real. The author writes the two as very human characters who makes mistakes, etc. and notably Zhongli struggles with the concept of Childe as his soulmate (who understandably is upset by the rejection when he realizes). They get better though. Also very plotty. A+ writing.

it's a hard rock life for us by reptilianraven

“Ah, no need to worry about that,” Azhdaha waves a dismissive hand. “There is no real Kun Jun. He’s dead.”

A leaf blows past and plaps onto Aether’s face.

“You killed him???” Paimon screeches.

“No,” Azhdaha scrunches his eyebrows. “He was dead when I found him.”

“And you just decided to wear his corpse?” Aether says, leaf still on his face.

He shrugs. “It was free real estate.”

“Azhdaha...” Morax says, sounding vaguely pained.

-

Or the one where Historia Antiqua Chapter II: No Mere Stone goes a little bit different and Azhdaha gets more time.

He ultimately uses that time to bully Morax into confronting his immortal neuroses, to make Aether and Paimon suffer, and to figure out how to get that ginger boy Morax has his eye on to make a move already.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe, Past Azhdaha/Zhongli

Notes: Very lighthearted, humor-filled fic. Love how Azhdaha is so flippant. Interactions with Zhongli and Childe are pure gold.

if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes by moonlight_mist

Childe has a Weapon problem- specifically, that he can't keep one.

He's too reckless, too wild, and too keen on pushing his Weapon partners past their limits. He's just about ready to give up when he meets Zhongli, a Weapon who just might be the solution- so long as Childe can manage to keep his dick in his pants.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a Soul Eater AU with some college/university AU vibes (?) but you don’t really need to know much about the anime. It’s a cute AU and I love the premise. Light angst but otherwise, it’s a pretty semi-plotty fic. Easter egg Kaeya and Diluc though.

To Kill A God by IlluminanceinTales

In Snezhnaya, they call them sansis—lost souls that have no guidance but themselves. It’s an apt description, given that most of the time, wannabe-Archons have to go through dozens of tests with nothing as their reference, relying solely on their wit and strength and hoping it would be enough. At least, until they survive the end of the whole game—and they might not have to undergo a painful reincarnation which feels like a hundred bones being stitched together again.

On his seventh game, Childe Tartaglia reincarnates this time in the body of a young man.

Damn, he thinks, looking down at his thin body, his slightly calloused fingers. This won’t be good when facing the other Hydro Decisions.

In a world where an Archon's position is not chosen but fought for in games, Childe Tartaglia is a Hydro Decision who's poised to become the next Hydro Archon. Of course, that's only if he survives his seventh reincarnation. All would be so much easier if it weren't for a certain Geo Archon interfering with every possible chance he gets.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Think Hunger Games meet Political Intrigue meet Genshin Impact. Love the premise and world building that’s done. Features overprotective Zhongli and lots of Childe whump. Has one or two supplementary OCs that aren’t really important outside of plot device reasons. Warning for character death tho lmao.

Three's a Family by IlluminanceinTales

Childe finds a kid that looks just like him.

Of course Zhongli wants to keep him.

Or: How a harbinger and an archon accidentally become fathers. The kid is their wingman

Ships: Childe/Zhongli (?)

Notes: Your everyday cute AF kid fic. Fluffy as hell and super cute. Zhongli and Childe get domestic pretty quickly. Xiao gets dubbed a grandfather and begrudgingly plays along. Super wholesome.

in pitch dark i go walking in your landscape by snowbrigade

He glanced down at him, at the silvery scars peeking out from beneath his robe, and at his eyes, properly now. They were the bright blue of high quality noctilucous jade, but he could see it, an underlying darkness.

Zhongli wondered what his eyes betrayed about himself. --

Rex Lapis is dead. Zhongli, formerly known as triad leader Rex Lapis, is a detective investigating his own "death." Childe, also known as Tartaglia of the Fatui mafia, is undercover as an escort looking to kill Rex Lapis- until someone beats him to it, and he wants to know who. Goals intersecting, they form a partnership of ulterior motives.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: There’s like one scene that skews NSFW but otherwise surprisingly not explicit. Really fun AU. Like how the author addresses Childe’s reaction to being stuck with the undercover escort stuff and how the dynamic between the two develops. Pretty plotty so far.

Phantom Lines by iskendaris

“It’s a measure of one’s self, Mr Zhongli.” Childe says. “Maybe you don’t understand it since you work as a consultant, but as an ambassador from the Tsaritsa, as one who fights in her name— this is how I learn to know the measure of myself.” “I understand,” Zhongli says thoughtfully. “It is a warrior’s way, to test one’s strength against the incomparable. To find where one falls short. To find where one has risen to the challenge.”

In which Childe has insomnia, vandalizes public property and runs into a mysterious funeral consultant on his first night in Liyue.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: THE FEELS. I can only describe this as the fic where Zhongli pays Best Boyfriend Ever only to FUCK UP big time (via Gnosis deception). Poor, poor Childe. Look, he gave the boy feelings and then broke him. You can really feel Childe fall in love in this love. He also does mental swooning a lot lmao. 

adventitious by Anonymous

It's said the Ley Lines remember all things that happen in this world, from the surface down to the deepest depths... But in the hidden corners where the Gods' gaze does not fall, there are those who dream of dreaming.

There's a dormant bud where Kaeya's eye once was. One day, it will bloom. (Never forget: memory is untrustworthy.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: I don’t even know where to start. This is very headcanony and lore-focused. Very much concentrated on Khaenri'ah. The implications of this story is grotesque to say the least (according to this fic, Visions are the literal eyes of the people of Khaenri'ah). Warnings for eye and body horror.

Without Those Dark Memories by StrangeDiamond

Diluc awakens in Stormterror’s Lair with no memories of the past five years. Kaeya is on the trail of a rogue alchemist, with a habit of testing his chemicals on unwilling human subjects. Now, in addition to capturing the criminal, Kaeya has to shake him down for an antidote . . . and deal with an amnesiac Diluc who acts exactly like he did before their brotherhood fell apart. (Standalone Fic.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: This is sort of a classic amnesia fic. I particularly really liked the way that Kaeya was written in this. I feel like the author did a really good job nailing his character and they have a way of capturing the subtle things.

Through the warmth, through the cold by strikedawn

“It’s you!” Paimon shouted with a twirl in mid-air.

“…Excuse me?"

They were drunk. Were they drunk? Was he drunk? Because Kaeya had the feeling his guests had been talking to him for a while now, but none of their words had made any sense whatsoever.

That was, until Venti stepped firmly in front of Kaeya’s desk and set his hands on the top, the better to lean over towards Kaeya and say: “For the end of the Windblume festival, Sir Kaeya Alberich, we’re going to auction a date with you.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Shortword, Kaeya gets auctioned off. Diluc makes impulsive (but good) decisions and scores himself a Date but displays an inability to do Date Planning. Venti deserves a pat on the back. Very sweet.

Hide and Seek by Kiri_Kaitou_Clover

Childe did not expect regaining his memories would bring him such frustration.

He makes the best of the situation by messing with one amber eyed consultant in anyway he can.

A reincarnated storm god wades through life in Liyue, all while screaming about one dragon god's incompetency at being human.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Features Childe as Osial’s very exasperated reincarnation, who gets the joy of discovering that his rival/enemy Morax is not only an idiot but also broke AF. He still falls in love anyway. Contains this golden line: 

"Did... did that complete blockhead really use my money in order to get me a gift that basically says that he is proposing to me?!"

(Osial was screaming. When had the other god become like this?! Had he always been like this?!)

Getting that Bread by tzitzimeme

Concubine AU where Zhongli is Emperor, Xiao is an assassin sent to kill him while disguised as a woman in his imperial harem, and the only reason he doesn't actually do it is because he pities Zhongli for being so catastrophically stupid (also Xiao falls in love).

Ships: Zhongli/Xiao

Notes: Like Xiao says, Zhongli is an idiot. Fluff and humor filled. Xiao spends a good 95% of this exasperated by Zhongli’s bullshit. 

prayers for a boy by Recluse

The only way to reconciliation is fierce combat!

Hm... Come to think of it, there will be a lot of interesting news to be heard the next time we gather for drinks. Filling in the blanks.

Ships: N/A

Notes: I...don’t really know where to begin with this? It’s exactly what the summary implies...but more? I was tempted to describe this as the fic where Zhongli puts his foot in his mouth but...that’s not exactly write? I feel like this was more of a character study. It explores the aftermath of the Osial Incident and how Zhongli and Childe reconnect. Platonically...though I guess it can be read romantically. 

one kind of longing, two places of sorrow by lady_peony

Zhongli's hands rest behind his back, both gloved hands clasping one another. His fingers tighten around one another for the merest moment, before he relaxes his grip.

"There is a tradition in Liyue," Zhongli says, his back still to Childe standing behind him, "of inviting out a companion to a last meal before a farewell."

A pause.

"A tradition?" Childe echoes.

"Yes."

"With a companion?"

"Yes."

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The fic where neither of the two communicate about jackshit but go on a quiet, sad not-date before Childe leaves for Snezhnaya. Childe pulls (? on accident or on purpose, I can not tell) the equivalent of leaving the jacket in the car post-date to get date to call for the second date. Also, the author has a gift for like...writing angst...without writing angst? Like the whole fic is like brimming with everything that the characters aren’t saying but the thoughts aren’t necessarily written out BUT YOU KNOW THOSE DUMBFUCKS ARE JUST LIKE. BRIMMING WITH FEELS? 

The People of Liyue by queer_occurrences

But Zhongli whispers, his low voice rooted in the back of Childe’s mind. “Changsun, the merchant, who is never too Mora-enthralled to turn away a needy child. There’s Tiantian—she will allow anyone to join the Adventurer’s Guild—she knows what it is to be desperate.”

Childe ducks away from them and hurries out over the bridge. It’s a warm, sunny day, the kind he would have complained about, whining about his delicate Snezhnayan skin. “It’ll burn, or worse, freckle. Would you still like me if I was freckled?”

Then Zhongli would say, “The people of Liyue will remember your sacrifice.” And he would wrinkle his nose.

Or: after it all goes down, Childe takes a walk.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The author has a way with perfectly balancing angst with humor in a way that makes you cackle. There’s a lot of feels in this one. Zhongli tries communicating--Childe runs away a lot. There’s a lot of love for Liyue in this one.

cold blooded, warm blooded, hearts all the same by reptilianraven

Teyvat Petting Zoo @tyvtpettingzoo

Well would you look at that! Zhongli, our resident spinytail iguana, has gotten quite cozy with Childe, our new (and very feisty) ginger ferret! Aren’t they adorable all cuddled together like this? 😍😍😍

[Attached image shows a brown spinytail iguana curled up against a ginger ferret. The iguana’s head is nuzzled under the snout of the ferret.]

-

At the Teyvat Petting Zoo, Zhongli and Childe fall in love.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: ...I promise I’m not weird. This is just super cute. Cross-species love affair? Childe the ferret is very besotted. The internet is confused and the zoo keepers are just done.

a geo archon's guide to the modern era by Erina

“Morax,” Xiao says after Zhongli finishes his retelling of the incident. “He thinks you’re a weirdo.”

“No, don’t say that,” Barbatos snickers. “You’ll give him hope that this is salvageable.” He lowers his voice. “Morax, he thinks you’re a boomer.”

(In which Zhongli hibernates for centuries and wakes up in the modern world)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This took me, I shit you not, FIVE SEPARATE ATTEMPTS to read. Not because it was bad but BECAUSE THE SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT WAS REAL. Like, omg, just reading about Zhongli’s introduction to modernity made me want to dig a hole and die. Super funny though. Do not read in public or you will look like a lunatic. Has a...parallel (?) fic in the same series called  buy two get one archon free where Zhongli gets reversed isekai’d into an anime convention.

time flies like an arrow by Erina

He’s tired, tired of the unbreakable loop of watching his loved ones pass on, tired of getting attached only for the connection to be violently ripped away from him. He wonders if the real victors during the Archon War were those who perished, who died long before their godhood turned into a curse that chained them to the land that they were fighting for.

But that is not a problem for Childe to worry about. That is Zhongli’s burden to bear, delivered to him in a pretty package years ago in the form of a gnosis.

His very first contract.

(Zhongli and Childe, across many lifetimes)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a quiet fic. It’s this kind of slice-of-life fic colored by this overpowering sense of love and loss as Zhongli remains immortal and Childe dies and lives and dies and lives for hundreds of lifetimes, but always finds his way back to his geo archon. It’s so lovely but also unbearably sad.

Tartaglia’s Favorite Professor by GreyLiliy

The famed hitman Tartaglia of the Fatui Syndicate spends his days as the charming college student Childe. The two lives remain as separate as possible in order to maintain a flawless cover to keep the authorities off his back and to better serve the Tsaritsa.

However, new intel about a rival syndicate intersects his two lives in a way he could never have predicted.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Mafia AU meet College AU. Childe is somehow both a horny AF college student and murderous hitman. Zhongli gives off major DILF vibes. GreyLily somehow makes this work while also avoiding cringe. Highly recommended!

like a handprint on my heart by fallingintodivinity

“Strictly off-the-record,” Jean says, with a small smile, “I’m really happy to see you and Captain Kaeya getting along again, Master Diluc.”

“We’re not – we’re not getting along,” Diluc tells her, indignant. “We’re working together. Unwillingly, I might add.”

“Yes – oh, yes, of course.”

Diluc stares at Jean suspiciously. “Are you laughing at me?”

Jean clears her throat primly. “I would never.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Super, super cute! Sort of reads like a first date fic except genshin impact style? Writing style is very refreshing!

[dholwrites]

Okay. I have to ask. AHow would the boys act streaming horror games like Monstrum? Who would be the panicker and who would just be immune to jump scares?

Note: I don’t play horror games, I can watch people play them and that is as close as I will get.

I have a hard time imagining Hien and Haurchefant playing horror games. 

Ao3

Aymeric

Clock tower

Corpse Party

Ao Oni

You can see when he starts to internally panic and stress out; his eyes growing wide and darting around the screen as he tries to move on. He would still read and talk to his viewers in his calm and soothing voice, but his words would trail out at any odd creek or subtle movement on the screen. Aymeric would let out a long and drawn-out sigh when he gets caught and dies, but jump scares rarely get to him. At least until someone comes up and tries to stick a fake knife in his side.

Estinien

Resident Evil

Ao Oni

Outlast

Estinien is entirely immune to jump scares, neither sudden sounds nor monsters running at the screen can make him flinch. He doesn’t make comments on what is happening in the game, not even the things he sees or hears. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t scared. A keen-eyed viewer could start to pick up the small cues and tells of the panic inside his mind. Perhaps he starts to move faster or he fumbles a bit with a lock or puzzle that nearly causes a ‘Game Over’. Estinien would never stop playing when he hits a bad ending, but he becomes more and more desperate to complete the game. 

Thancred

Outlast

Evil Within

Resident Evil

Thancred is quite at home in this genre with a strong preference for survival horror. He enjoys managing his resources, learning about the enemies, and doing everything he can to accomplish his mission. What gets him is when he gets lulled into a false sense of security. His ammo is fully stocked, health packs are ready and within reach, and triple-checked. All it takes is an unsuspecting zombie to show up around a corner or grab at his feet, and he ends up fumbling to put most of his bullets into its brain. Once he finally has time to collect himself, he would pretend as if that didn’t get his heart racing. 

G’raha Tia

FNAF

Until Dawn

Angels of Death

He’s a bit jumpy whenever there is a sudden sound in the midst of pure silence or the background music slowly getting louder and louder. His ears are quite sensitive, so it’s common to see him suddenly stop mid-game to look around for noise that only he hears. It has saved his tail more than a few times, but it doesn’t help when he is so focused on the task at hand. G’raha enjoys the puzzles within the game, even if it causes him to come face first with a monster. He can become obsessed with saving and helping every NPC along his path that he ends up replaying old saves until he manages to trial and error his way through the game. 

Cid

SOMA

Doki Doki Lit Club

Prey

He loves it when horror games get creative with their story and game style, especially those that add a fresh spin onto something that has been done a million times. He has more interest in the sci-fi horror genre. Cid is delighted, albeit a little worried, when he discovers that some games require you to mess around with the game files on your computer to progress through the game. He isn’t a screamer, the gross and disturbing details of a game don’t bother him. The jumpscares will startle him and cause him to take a few minutes to take his breath before he continues on, often with him grumbling about how it has to be a glitch that it caught up to him so quickly. 

Alphinaud

Fran Bow

Spooky’s jumpscare mansion

Tattletail

Alphinaud is a huge scaredy cat with horror games and he does everything he can to avoid playing them. However, he still ends up playing them when Alisaie tricks him into trying out cutesy-named games with ambiguous designs. The young elezen panics at sudden noises, and movements would always cause him to squeak and scream, even when it’s just the sound of his character moving around. Pure silence unsettles him to the point of stalling, but having a little too much noise causes him to duck into the first shelter. It has happened often enough for Alisaie to compile an hour-long complication of him just screaming. 

Alisaie

Resident Evil

Emily wants to play

Deadspace

She has a love-hate relationship with horror games. Alisae gets angry enough to scream and yell when she gets caught and blames the game for cheating to find her hiding spot. That doesn’t stop her from booting up the last save and push forward until she makes it to the ending. Alisaie cracks up at the cliches and bad animations in bad horror games, but she will take the time after she finishes a game to give genuine praise and sound advice for the games she finds herself enjoying. She garners a lot of attention from developers and writers for her feedback as she does not hold back any punches when it comes to criticism. 

Ryne & Gaia

FNAF

Little Nightmares

These two share the channel as they usually play multiplayer games together, horror games included. For single-player games, the girls would alternate between who is controlling the main character and who sits back and watches. Ryne is a complete scaredy-cat, you can see her physically shaking in her chair and hear it in her voice as the music starts to grow more ominous. Gaia enjoys making her scream by poking her sides when the moment feels just right. Gaia herself behaves as if nothing scares her, she charges into rooms without even checking. Her actions cause her to run into even more jump scares than Ryne. The second something rushes to her face, she lets out a short scream before dropping some very unladylike words that need to be bleeped out down the road.

Urianger

Call of Cthulhu

Amnesia

Silent Hill

SOMA

Urianger has a habit of forgetting that he is actually playing a horror game.; the elezen would immerse himself in the numerous books and notes. Any in-game lore captivates him, especially if the story is something that you would have to piece together to figure out what is happening. He would follow a plot to the end even if it’s nothing more than a side story that players aren’t meant to pay a lot of attention to. Because of his tunnel vision to find the answer, Urianger easily gets caught by bosses and monsters that lurk around the corner. A sudden grab or attack can induce a paralyzing effect on him, leaving him staring at the death animation and end screen with wide eyes for long moments.

Sidurgu & Rielle

Fatal Frame

Mad Father

At Dead of Night

The Xaela looks as if he lives and breathes horror; from the dark clothes and decor to his interest in music. It is a surprise to find out that he is secretly a scaredy-cat, who struggles to even attempt to progress the story out of fear. Rielle has to egg him into playing horror games, even ones that most people don’t even consider scary. Sid would take a few steps, stop, and force his character to face a wall so he doesn’t catch a glimpse of something that would haunt his nightmares. Only to let out a high hiss when an arm phases through the wall to grab him. Rielle has gotten so used to it that she barely moves when the screen flashes red and Sid gets a shot of pure adrenaline to get away from the monitor as fast as he can.

[willddheartt]

24 Days | Wilbur Soot

30 days to fall in love with someone? Sounds easy right? It would be if that person wasn’t so unbelievably annoying in almost every sense.

You’re not sure how you found yourself in this situation, but you were positive there was no backing out now…

Series Warnings: Mostly fluff and angst, and a very poorly constructed enemies to lovers plot.

Word Count: 1685

Masterlist Series Masterlist

24 Days

It was Friday, you were in the middle of doing your two-hour-long stream that you did every Friday. Since you took weekends off from your own streams you did a long one every week. It worked out, you seemed to get a lot more views on Friday anyways.  All the donos seemed to ask about you and Wilbur, you forced a smile to tell everyone you guys were well and that you’re very happy together. The viewers seemed to be happy with your responses and didn't catch you falter.  You were on the DreamSMP cleaning up things and repairing things from any creeper explosions, as having holes in the walkways annoyed you to no end because it didn't look pleasing to the eye. Many ties you were passed by Fundy, Tubbo, and even Tommy.  The in-game chat stated to be spammed by Tommy, VC 2 VC 2 VC 2 over and over again. 

“Well chat, let’s see what Tommy wants,” You giggled and switched to discord.  “Hello Tommy,” You smiled, wondering what type of shenanigans he was up to today, you noticed he was also streaming so you knew it was something that was going to be very entertaining to the stream.  “Y/N!” He yelled  “Tommy!” You yelled back, matching his energy.  “How do you do?” His sudden calm tone almost made you burst into a fit of laughter.  “I do well, Thomas. What are you up to tonight?” You asked, smiling to yourself when using his full name.  “Well, you see, Y/N. See here’s the thing. I am out of supplies, I don’t even have iron to my name Y/N-” “Do you want me to help you get some?” You offered, cutting him off  “Well, actually I was hoping you could just give me some.”  “Tommy,” You laughed, “That’s- unfortunately, that not how it works my friend.” You paused, taking a sip of your water, “I am more than willing to help you go mining, I know a pretty good spot actually, but I’m not going to just give you stuff for nothing.”  “C’mon Y/N you could write it off your taxes as a charity donation,”  You had to give it to him, although Tommy could be annoying at times he was so effortlessly funny, you were almost certain that he didn't even have to try. 

“Ah yes, hang on let me see what I have to give to Tommy’s charity fund,” You laughed, looking through your inventory, pondering for a few moments, making it look like you were going to give him half your stack of iron only our stream before clicking to the three seeds you’d picked up some time ago and throwing them at his feet. His character's head went from looking at you to the seeds, then back to you and back to the seeds again, you pulled up his stream on your other monitor so you could see his face, trying so hard to not burst out into laughter when you saw his unamused look. 

Feeling bad you pulled up a donation, giving Tommy Five bucks so the text-to-speech would work, “Tommy Charity Fund.” You sent and waited for it to go through.  He paused, hearing the dono tts voice, before looking back up at you in the game.  “Fuck you,” He said running away. You couldn't suppress your laughter any longer and it all fell out at once, chat exploded into laughter and emotes, everyone found it hilarious.

A few seconds after you were still in the voice chat with Tommy, he had ventured off to go mining, I guess stealing from people wasn't going well. Since the last war, nobody has really been gathering supplies, taking a break from the lore to just get things done around the server. Tommy still bringing up the ‘charity fund’ you found it hilarious. 

“You’re a bitch you know that,” He mumbled, you knew he was only joking, with Tommy you never took anything to heart, if he had a true problem with you, you know he would message you privately.  “Tommy,” Wilbur's voice came over discord, making you jump slightly.  “Hi Wilbur,” He said, sounding like a little kid when their mom gets them in trouble.  “Apologize to Y/N.'' Wilbur's voice was playful, yet stern, sounding exactly like the older brother who was put in charge of his younger siblings. 

After a second, you could see Tommy bow his head on his stream that was still pulled up on your other monitor.  “Sorry, Y/N. You’re not a bitch.” He said  “It’s okay Tommy,” You chuckled  “Thank you.” Spoke Wilbur before leaving the voice chat. 

You and Tommy stayed on call until his stream ended. You were left alone, talking to your chat. Without anyone else there to keep a consistent conversation you started to daze off, forgetting you were on stream, yawning and leaning forward onto your desk. Your back hurt from how long you’d been sat in front of the monitor. 

Your discord made a noise again, but this time you didn’t bother tabbing out to see who had joined.  “Hey, Y/N,” Wilburs soft voice came across your headphones  “Will,” You smiled, sitting up  “You look tired, how long have you been up?” He asked 

You looked at the clock, it was only 11 PM but you could have sworn it was later.  “Since one,”  “AM or PM?” Will asked  You looked down, “AM,” You mumbled. “You should go to bed,” He said You sighed, knowing he could break you eventually, as your eyelids were drooping shut and your eyes were burning. “Its not even that long, Wil, I’m fine.” You argued 

“How long have you been streaming?” Wilbur asked  “I’m almost at my five hour mark, I’m like forty-five minutes away,”  “End your stream early and get ready for bed than we can chat,” His voice was soft and warm speaking over your stream, your chat exploded, loving Wilbur and you together.  “But I’m so close, just a few more minutes,” You sighed, tabbing out of your game and switching the stream to a full face cam. “I’m sure they wont mind if you end a little early, you've been streaming for a while, love.” He continued, slowly wearing you down. “I can even entertain your chat for a bit while you go get ready for bed, or even make yourself a cup of tea, then when you come back, it will be close enough that you can end the stream, how does that sound?”  You sighed, knowing he had won. You looked at chat and back to the timer of how long you've been on stream, “Okay.” You nodded. 

“Alright Chat, I’m sorry for ending early but you heard the man. Next week will be extra long to make up for this, I promise.” You said, looking at the chat, everyone was spamming ‘goodnight’ and ‘goodbye’  “It was nice spending this fine evening with you all, but I must go now, I will see everyone Monday. Bye!” You ended stream 

“Hi, Wilbur,” You smiled to yourself after ending stream  “I’m going to call your number now, and you can go get ready for bed, okay?” He said  “Alright, Wil,” you nodded, closing all the windows you had open on your pc. 

After shutting everything off you grabbed what you needed and went to the bathroom. Wilbur called you halfway through taking your makeup off, you had eyeliner smudged all around your eyes when you answered his facetime.  When his face popped up on your screen, he was wearing his glasses and a big smile, his hair was a mess and he was already in bed. 

“Getting ready for bed?” He asked, as if he didn't already know.  “Of course,” You shook your head, leaning closer to the mirror making sure you had all the bits of makeup taken off before washing your face with warm water  Picking up your phone you held up a peace sign, making Wil laugh and attempt to take a sneaky screenshot.  “Hey, no, delete that, I look terrible.” You quickly argued after hearing the noise.  “You do not.” He was fast to respond. “You look refreshed, you're glowing.” you shook your head at him as you walked back to your room through the dark house. 

Your roommate had already gone to bed, close to an hour ago. You were always the last person up, being an internet person with many American friends who are in a different time zone and a night owl at heart. You flopped down into your soft pillows, pulling your duvet over yourself and propping your phone up on your laptop so you could still see Wilbur and he could see you. You pulled the corner of the blanket up to hide your face. 

“Don't do that, I want to see your face,” Wilbur frowned.  “No you don’t,” You shook your head  “Yes,” He spoke, “I do.” You moved the blanket so it wasn't all the way covering your face but it was still pulled up enough that your shoulders were covered.  “You realize next week you’ll be here for your stream?” Wilbur said.  “I do now,” You pinched the bridge of your nose, “I’m sorry, I didn't think of that,”  “Its okay, you can stream from my computer,” He smiled. “It will surprise chat,”  “Oh my god, can you imagine, they're going to go crazy,” You chuckled  “They will,”

Wilbur continued to tell you about how he was truly getting excited to have you meet him in person, but his soft voice had been lulling you to sleep, your eyelids struggling to stay open and your warm bed weighing you down. Eventually you were out. Wilbur didn't notice until he asked you a question and did not respond. Your laptop screen was still shining light on you, and he saw you were asleep against the black screen, smiling at you. He snuck another screenshot, making sure the sound was off this time. 

“Goodnight, Y/N.” He said sweetly before getting comfortable in bed himself and slowly drifting off. 

[shima-draws]

Tell us abt the story, Shima. I would D I E for your stories (also, an ATS game would make my entire LIFE I would be so broke on it)

[[Anonymous said: hey- hey shima.... what;s ur new story about?]]

uwu

So this is based off of Arthurian lore and has some elements of it but it’s mostly (?) original!

It starts out in a normal high school setting, centered around these two kids named Elin and Niro. Niro’s had a life of total misfortune—his parents died when he was little and there was nobody else to take him in, so he was forced into foster care, and has switched schools so often that he never really got to make any permanent friendships. He’s a quiet guy, sort of weighed down by all of the loss he’s experienced, so that sort of makes him a mysterious and attractive sort of person, which gains him immediate popularity as the school’s handsome new kid. (He’s in his senior year, now, and has been at this school for almost the full year.) Despite his withdrawn personality Niro actually gets along well with his peers, but mostly because he’s a very agreeable sort of person that just goes along with what he’s told to do to fit in. He’s just going through the motions at this point, trying to survive and figure out what he wants to do in life. It isn’t really working out too well because Niro has major depression so every day is a struggle, but his current “guardian” at the foster home he’s staying in helps a lot with that, and Niro views her as sort of a mother figure to him, and it’s soft :’)

Elin, on the other hand, is the school’s laughingstock, and gets picked on a LOT by his classmates. He never fights back and tries to stay out of everybody’s way, so people think him even weirder because of it. He rarely talks and is always found with his nose stuck in a book, which has also labeled him as a major geek, so you can bet he gets targeted a lot because of this;;

Unfortunately, the kids that Niro’s friends with are the group that picks on Elin the most, and it always makes Niro uncomfortable but he’s too hesitant to really speak up about it, especially since Elin just. Sort of takes it and never outwardly complains. It’s basically just Niro making excuses to himself, and whenever he DOES try to talk his buddies out of it they’re like come on man we’re just joking around it’s not a big deal. So that sucks. One day when Niro’s walking to school he notices he’s being followed by a weirdly dressed girl. Eventually she corners him and she’s like “Merlin’s been taking too long to find you so I took things into my own hands since we’re running out of time” and Niro’s like ???? Excuse me? But she doesn’t explain and literally yanks him into a portal and that’s that. LMAO

When they emerge, the girl introduces herself as Lunete, and reveals that she’s taken Niro to the world of Avilion, in the kingdom of starlight called Inlustria. Niro’s still processing that he’s been pulled into another world entirely when Lunete begins to escort him to the castle, and pretty much dumps the world’s lore and his Destiny™️ on him on the way.

Rest is under the cut to save space because it is loooong lol

Lunete explains that there have always been two central figures in Inlustria, for many centuries across many generations. Those figures are Merlin, the wizard, and Arthur, the king meant to wield the holy sword and unify the five kingdoms on the continent together. Currently there are two Merlins, with the second being younger and newer to the position, still in training. However, she adds that this particular Merlin is the most powerful they’ve ever seen in the long history of Merlins to exist, and that he’s basically a child prodigy. It is Merlin’s task to watch over, guide and protect Arthur, so that peace can remain and the cycle can continue anew. The current Arthur is sadly old and very ill, practically on his deathbed, so the process of choosing a new Arthur to replace him had to be rushed.

Lunete then tells Niro that the Arthurs are chosen by fate before birth and are always humans from the other world. Arthurs are always loyal, confident and kindhearted, so there’s never a chance of an Arthur going astray (unless their Merlin purposefully leads them down that path). Niro’s like why are you telling me all this and Lunete goes well isn’t it obvious? Why else would I be telling you. And then Niro realizes that he has been chosen as the new Arthur, and immediately goes into panic mode. Lunete apologizes for the abrupt introduction and Avilion crash course lol but she says that usually it’s the Merlin’s job to remain in the human world, scout out the new Arthur, and bring them to Avilion, since they’re naturally drawn to them by their magic. But this Merlin is particularly stubborn and wants nothing to do with Arthur or his born duty to essentially serve the king, so he’s been stalling on locating him out of sheer spite.

Lunete and Niro arrive at the castle and she leads him into the grand library, where Merlins usually spend most of their time. Niro is shocked to find out that Elin is Merlin, and Elin immediately goes “You have GOT to be kidding me” when he realizes that the new Arthur—who he has to spend the rest of his life with btw—is Niro.

Niro’s even more shocked to find out that Elin is a completely different person than how he is at school. Elin is witty, arrogant and very sassy, and constantly throws shade at Niro for doing nothing while he was being bullied. (Niro then accuses Elin for not standing up for himself when he’s CLEARLY capable of it with both his silver tongue and his knack for magic, but Elin explains that it’s a rule for Merlins not to make a big presence of themselves in the human world. Then Niro feels very guilty.) Elin swears off of accepting Niro as the new Arthur and says he can protect the kingdom all on his own.

Naturally Niro is very reluctant to take on the position of Arthur and become the ruler of an entire kingdom, but Lunete tells him he doesn’t really have a choice, and that all Arthurs fall into the role eventually, so it will be something he’ll automatically adapt to because he’s The Chosen One and it’s meant to be. Niro continuously tries to reach out to Merlin, but he’s notoriously stubborn and refuses to acknowledge Niro.

Eventually Lunete lets slip that Merlin had a complicated history with another human in his childhood that ended...not so well (and no it’s not Esca lol), hence his general distaste towards the other world and humans in general. Ofc that’s not all Merlin is hiding, there’s another enormous secret he doesn’t want coming into the light. And you bet Niro’s going to discover them all ;)

So yeah there’s obviously a lot more that goes on after that—Niro trains to fit into the Arthur role (with a lot of sexy swordfighting training montages), Merlin eventually accepts him and they grow closer (yes. In that way ;D), Merlin shows off how skilled he is with his magic and Niro goes oh no I think I might be in love with him, there’s trouble with the northern kingdom they’re trying to deal with involving a new villain that’s popped up, Niro gets to meet a king from the southern kingdom who sort of becomes his father figure/mentor so that’s cool? Niro finds out exactly what sins Merlin committed in the past, and that past sadly catches up with him and nearly ruins everything so that’s fun. Niro finds out some shit and almost abandons his role as Arthur but eventually returns to Inlustria and obtains Excalibur to save Merlin’s ass, etc. etc. I think after the “main” story ends I’m going to send them out to sea so they can go on an epic magic pirate adventure, because when Niro was a kid he was super into pirates and treasure hunting and the ocean, he was never really a “magic and kingdoms” type of guy which is super ironic. Merlin’s excited about traveling but it turns out he’s really seasick and it’s hilarious. Somewhere down the line they’ll probably find out why there’s always been a “Merlin” and “Arthur” role in their kingdom as well. So LOTS of fun stuff is in store! And my brain hasn’t been shutting up about lore and worldbuilding for this story ever since I came up with it >;)

[blastoisemonster]

Pokèmon World Magazine: Porygon Net (Various Issues)

We’ve had a very long streak of Photoset posts lately, didn’t we? Let’s have a little break from anime and tie-in games and let’s go back to oldschool Pokèmon and my favourite childhood magazine, Pokèmon World!

This summer I'm working on my own portfolio site: it's getting built from scratch and, due to the kind of art it's going to showcase, I'm designing its layout to look like one of those old personal pages a lot of Internet users used to have back in the first 2000s. This choice was also influenced by one of my childhood dreams, which was, infact, owning a corner of the Net all for myself; without the right equipment or spare money to purchase a domain, though, the idea of having my page online was only hypotetical, so all I could do was designing some cute layouts on Microsoft Frontpage and admiring what others were doing. Of course, as Pokèmon was my main interest at the time, I found the Porygon Net section of Pokèmon World mag to be extra inspirational.

Porygon Net was a very small section with just a double page: every month, the magazine's staff would choose and review an italian site dedicated to everyone's favourite monsters. These online corners were, most of the times, built by fellow readers and fans who sometimes even wrote back either by mailing the staff or boasting about it on their site's news section, thanking for the feature and the subsequent wave of new visitors. As these places were built by teens or even kids (I may have seen some online pages managed by 10 year olds at the time o.o), their quality varied greatly depending on their web-making skills: some were very simplistic, other more orderly and neat, and some... showed potential, but needed more work. Pokèmon World's staff, though, never mocked these attempts, and instead also published suggestions to make certain parts of the site more functional and pleasing to the eye. I found this very encouraging, and I wonder if many of these people have continued with a career in the online world.

I went and browsed among my mag issues to find some sites to showcase: I mostly picked the ones that stuck in my mind since reading about them, or that I actually used to visit back in the day. Wayback Machine may have not been kind to the italian community, and I fear the majority of these sites are now lost; however, I'll post links if, surprisingly, I find them still alive!

Issue 4: Pokemon Mania

The pictures have been displayed in chronological order, but I still would've chosen to display this site first as I used to actually visit it before it was featured on Pokèmon World. Due to its easy and straightforward name, Pokèmon Mania was one of the first fansites to show up on the search engine if you ever looked for more Pokèmon content. It was managed by a guy with the alias of Professor Kao, and the whole feeling of the site was that of a Pokemon lab at the start of your monster journey. Though it wasn't exactly a marvel in terms of layout esthetic, the site aimed to amaze with content: it had simple browser fangames, a section dedicated to drawing tutorials (with pictures taken from japanese sources- which at the time were very scarce and hard to get!), many sections dedicated to the Cardgame (apparently, the main focus of Kao's Pokèmon interests) and its live tournaments, and one centered on the monsters' trivia. One very interactive section even proposed quizzes given by the webmaster himself that visitors could answer via mail: Kao would then contact winners and even send out special official merch like Pokèmon Center plushies or other branded toys. Generous! This site has been preserved in the Wayback Machine with a lot of snapshots, though unfortunately without many graphics. We can still navigate and read most of the sections!

Issue 20: Pokemon Museum

My second site of choice striked me with its very homely layout: even looking at the snapshot in its article feels like I'm viewing a cozy corner of the Net, in which the webmaster poured its personal thoughts and passions more than providing a service like PokèmonMania did. The issue is number 20 and quite some months have passed: online trends regarding these kind of pages had changed a bit and now people preferred to offer their own content instead of copy-pasting what Nintendo produced. Pokèmon Museum's graphics have all been drawn by the owner, Kabutops: the background texture, banner, and a lot of the graphics all around the sections! Kudos for being to prolific and precise during a period in which digital art still hadn't reached its peak popularity, and drawing tablets were only restricted to professionals. Going past the many sections dedicated to the anime, games and lore, one interesting aspect was the beginning of affiliates: fellow webmasters were starting communicating with eachother and sharing their visits by dedicating a little button to other sites. I loved the affiliates section because, once finished looking through a site, I could click on the cute little rectangle banners and find myself in another home without passing from Google searches! But webmasters wouldn't affiliate with everyone, and for the purpose of only interacting with other best Pokèsites, awards had become popular as well: graphics that people would exchange after rating a site and feeling impressed with their content, presentation, or popularity. Pokèmon Museum's magazine review focused on its affiliates and the awards, inviting fellow readers to have their site reviewed by Kabutops. Unfortunately, the site is not present on Wayback Machine. I'll never know if Kabutops came back updating its museum after summer vacations :(

Issue 35: TBPS

Let's have another jump of several months; issue 35 featured a page under the bigger domain Pokevalley and named itself The Best Pokèmon Page, rather narcissistic! This was one of those rare times Pokèmon World featured an english-speaking site. The layout doesn't impress me too much, yet the fact that the header reads "Crystal Water Version" conveys that the webmaster(s) used to periodically change aspect and palette of their site, an activity that proved to be very prolific for many page owners at the time: sites were often in construction, and people were experimenting with different colours or HTML code tricks to impress viewers and reviewers, have as many affiliates as possible and collect positive awards from other sites. Such was popularity, back in the day! The site has a long menu with many sections dedicated to the main games and movies; although, none of those pages were catching anyone’s attention anymore as everyone had the same copypasted guides and info; instead, what’s interesting is the hefty section dedicated to browser games, the big menu with pages concerning the site and staff themselves, and the oekaki board! Oekakis were very popular in that period, as it allowed fellow aspiring artists to meet eachother and show off their own skills by drawing live! If a site hosted one, they could quickly become a melting pot of creativity. Wayback Machine, sadly, doesn’t have anything concerning this site as well.

Issue 36: Arcywof

We’re back on italian sites with a page that definitely impressed even Pokèmon World’s staff for its pleasing graphics. When I first saw this among the magazine’s pages... my eyes lit up! I can’t hide that after seeing its beautiful palette, checkered background and condensed menu, teen me adopted Arcy & The Fire Pkmn as design guru: many of my subsequent mockup pages had exactly this layout, or variations of it. It’s too bad, though, that aside from the beautiful presentation, the site’s contents aren’t exactly interesting: the Pokèmon images are ripped straight from Nintendo’s official archives, and most sections are concerning the anime’s characters, episode plots, and broadcasting dates. However, Arcywof also offers a forum and a live chat, which definitely helped the staff build an interactive and affectionate community around it. Among all reviewed here, I’m most bitter that Wayback Machine hasn’t archived this site, because seriously, it’s a little jewel ;w; its pastel colours and checkered texture remind me of candy shops!

Issue 38: Pokemon Super Site

I wanted to finish this little jump in the past with a positive note and show at least one more saved address from Wayback Machine. Although not in its updated version originally featured in Pokèmon World Issue 38, Pokèmon Super Site has been archived and it’s more or less complete to explore. It’s too bad a lot of the graphics haven’t survived but hey it’s something! It’s 2003, and the trend has changed once again: forums are as popular as ever and considered one of the most successful ways to build a solid audience for one’s own page, which are now treated more like portals or an extension to the forum itself. Super Site’s sections are centered on game guides, nothing too special, but I do love the grey and white grid background on menus and header, as if we’re viewing a notebook page; reminds me of school days. I also really like the gifs section as featured in the review, all those old graphics bring back so much memories of scouting the net to save them all on hard drive!

If you stumble upon one of these sites in Wayback Machine, chances are the ever present affiliates buttons will still be working, allowing you to visit even more fansites. It’s a true trip to the past, and a never ending source of inspiration for me!

[fandom-thingies]

This is an unfinished draft of a long, in depth analysis I’m planning of everything we know about Silksong. The final draft will have detailed analysis of enemies, areas, names, and many, many attempts to draw parallels with Hollow Knight. Without further ado, here’s the draft!

Will Hornet have her memories? Or will the winds of the Wastes have swept them away?

Prequel or sequel? (I’m thinking sequel, based on the implied presence of weavers in the trailer)

Lace fights Hornet (at least) twice, doesn’t call her by name, and knows things. IS SHE A HORNET PARALLEL AND HOW MUCH

What awful thing is going to happen to the flea-collecting village? Will they all die, or will they turn out to be evil? (My money’s on the latter)

Is the bell cult good, bad, or something else?

Who is the main villain?

Is Lace an antagonist or a Hornet parallel?

Lesbians???

Everything in Silksong seems much more vibrant than Hallownest. Instead of muted colors and effectively blank backgrounds, all of the areas we’ve been shown seem to be very saturated, and the design feels like everything is there for a reason. It’s a stark contrast to Hollow Knight’s busy backgrounds and dour themes, and is it possible the story reflects/is intended to reflect this?

Why does that one enemy look so much like steel soul Jinn?

Is Lace void??

Seriously though, she covers almost all of her body and her face is very similar to that of a shade’s. The existence of the shade trap room in the Colosseum of Fools implies the existence of other void creatures, though of course it could simply have been built for THK. We know void creatures are capable of having voices, as evidenced by the Collector, so IS LACE VOID???

That one area has a lovely juxtaposition between the white roses carpeting the ground and the industrial style pipes in the background, and knowing team Cherry, there’s definitely a reason for this.

Who kidnapped a Hornet and why?

Who sent the butterfly that breaks the seal of binding on her cage? Lace knows about Hornet’s imprisonment- could it have been her? Though she admittedly doesn’t seem to have much motivation to keep Hornet alive...

In Hollow Knight, the name of the game is also the name of the final boss. Could this also be true to an extent for Silksong? I doubt the boss would be named that explicitly, but perhaps someone who holds an association to both?

Multiple endings?

Will the final boss actually be the final boss? In Hollow Knight, the Radiance acts as a sort of hidden boss. Will this also be true in Silksong?

Will there be godseekers or the Grimm Troupe?

Will Ghost or THK be mentioned?

Will this focus more on expanding Hallownest’s lore or introducing Pharloom’s?

Points of interest:

1. Hornet appears to be performing a move similar to a great slash or dash slash here, which the enemy appears to be attempting (succeeding?) to deflect with their scissors

2. 2. In Hollow Knight, almost every fence or wall in Hallownest had the repeated motif of the king’s seal. This design looks a lot like a godseeker’s mask, as well as some of the enemies that have been revealed so far.

3. These appear to be at least four massive spools of silk. We know for a fact that there are weavers in Pharloom, and the sheer amount of silk here is more than we ever see in one place in Hallownest. Could it be possible that weaversilk is being farmed somehow?

4. It’s difficult to see, but this appears to be a massive control wheel, like you’d see on a valve. It’s much bigger than any standard bug could take advantage of, but we already know that Silksong is going to have some massive enemies, so it’s possible one of these also acts or acted as an overseer for this area.

5. This wall design heavily reminds me of both the walls in the Resting Grounds and the Birthplace. Are these corpses, or simply made to look like them? Either way, there’s definitely lore attached.

As well as all that, note how thin the support struts are, and how they appear wooden and cobbled together. I propose that what Hornet is climbing on here is the scaffolding around a massive silk related machine of some sort. Maybe an automatic loom?

Points of interest:

1. You’ll note that the enemy is holding a gilded pin, which is the same weapon Lace uses and is described as “the traditional weapon of Pharloom” by Team Cherry. I take this to mean that this bug has probably been in this place for a while.

2. This isn’t big or anything, but it’s very interesting to me that both Hallownest and Pharloom use lumafly lanterns for light. This implies some interesting things either about Hallownest and Pharloom’s proximity or the ubiquity of lumaflies.

3. This is clearly a graveyard. I find it very interesting that the stones seem to be entirely plain of embellishment or text except for the bell symbol. Also, I wonder if the graveyard being here means that we’re close to the Citadel?

4. This appears to be a fallen elevator. I’m not sure what else I could draw from it, but it definitely adds to the dilapidated and abandoned feel of this area.

5. This enemy has three golden straight pins. It’s very possible that you gain the ability to throw three at once after vanquishing one of these enemies. Another interesting thing to note is that the enemy isn’t holding these pins. If you look closely, their hand is at their side. The pins are instead seemingly fastened to their head somehow.

6. This is difficult to see properly, but the design on the fence here appears to be similar to the shape of the fallen elevator. It could also be read as a representation of the Citadel.

A few other things to note are that the colors here are almost identical to those of the resting grounds, including the enemies. This is unusual as far as Silksong goes, as most of the areas are far more intensely saturated.

These enemies appear to be wearing cloaks. It’s difficult to tell whether it’s the shadow of the hood that’s hiding their faces or whether that’s simply what they look like.

Also, Greymoor is a very interesting name and I’d like to explore what precisely a “moor” is, because I think this may give more clues as to the nature of the area.

Moors are defined as highland areas with acidic soil and low vegetation. The fact that moors are specifically highland areas makes me suspect even more that Greymoor connects directly to the Citadel, as Silksong appears to be a game mostly focused on going up, so where better to transition from the ground to the Citadel than highland?

1. We know from the Resting Grounds that this is how Ari draws mummified corpses. The fact that this corpse is walking around definitely implies some shenanigans. It brings to mind the description of Greymoor as “haunted”.

2. The fact that this corpse is lying on the ground makes me wonder if most of these mummified bugs will lie still on the ground until they notice Hornet, which would be an interesting enemy mechanic.

3. This lumafly lantern is tinted green, which I’m pretty sure we never saw in Hollow Knight. (Correct me if I’m wrong) It makes me wonder if something special was done to the lantern to achieve this.

4. Team Cherry has said that Hornet’s silk and soul are “inseparably intertwined”. It’s a very nice design touch to see that healing creates both kinds of particle.

5. See those motes in the air? They look very similar to the spores of the Fungal Wastes, and I suspect they may be the reason moss covers everything here.

What I lined in dark blue is the visible boning beneath the moss, and what I lined in cyan is the places where the moss grows too regularly, implying yet more boning just beneath.

I’m not sure whether this is deliberate or whether the moss grew over already existing structures to cause this, but another thing to note is that the way this moss grows is very reminiscent of moss balls, or marimo balls, an aquatic plant that grows in freshwater lakes.

The reason this interests me isn’t because I think these *are* moss balls, but rather because of how natural grottos form.

Most natural grottos are formed by water eroding soft rock like limestone into large caves. It’s common for them to either be flooded or to flood at high tide, which when combined with the aquatic vegetation in this area, could imply that it will be flooded for part of the game or at intervals. It’s possible Team Cherry would use this to echo the way that the Forgotten Crossroads turn into the Infected Crossroads, or it could be a way of gating the first area behind you until you get more movement capabilities similar to the Howling Cliffs.

Lastly, one of the root words for Grotto is the Latin word for “crypt”. Combined with the mummified corpses here, it makes me wonder.

Points of interest:

1. Confirmation that Hornet can look up! I don’t think anyone was worried about it, but it’s good to know we’ll still be able to do that.

2. You’ll note, first of all, that this is unusually bare for Ari’s backgrounds. The designs are smooth with little shading and there are massive dark areas. This leads me to believe that this isn’t the finished background, nor the one we’ll see in game.

3. The two strange objects at the corners of the screen are difficult to identify. Personally, I think they look like plugs of some sort, though I have no idea what they might be plugging. Maybe magma?

4. What is it with Team Cherry and throwing dead bodies everywhere? That’s litter, it’s illegal. Anyway, what might have killed these bugs?

5. You’ll note the massive misshapen mountain of bones in the background. Where did all of these come from? Also, the fact that they are bones means that this is probably Bonebottom. I’d like to call your attention to the fact that bugs don’t actually have bones, just exoskeletons, which makes the source of these even more dubious.

6. There are several ember particle effects, which I take to mean that there’s a whole bunch of magma nearby.

7. There are a few links of chain attached to each plug. Likely this is to allow them to be dragged open. I’m very curious whether this is just a design detail or whether opening these plugs will be used as a mechanic somehow.

Circled in blue are the (brass?) rings on Shakra’s arms as well as a similar ring on the ground. I’m not sure why one of her arm rings would be on the ground, but maybe it’s similar to Cornifer’s pages?

[splendidlyimperfect]

Ooooo if you’re still doing the sentence starter thing can I request: “ i can’t believe that asshole said that to you .  it’s not true, you know.” And “you want me to punch him in the face ??” Please??? With Natsu comforting Gray???

this took a while, i can’t remember how long ago this was submitted, time is fake, i’m sorry <3 i hope you enjoy it! 

read my lips

rating: teen and up pairing: gray/natsu tags: modern au, established relationship, covid fic, coffee shops, hard of hearing character, sign language, ableism, audism, emotional hurt/comfort, me projecting on gray as usual

**tw for ablelism/audism (ableism targeted at Deaf/HoH folks) and an instance of the r-slur

-----

“I don’t care what Lucas says, Han shot first.”  

Natsu emphasized his point with his sewing needle, shooing away Happy when he tried to bat at the thread.

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” Sting insisted from the other end of the video call. “I’m just saying that he did kind of invent Star Wars.”  

Natsu rolled his eyes at his cousin as he nudged Happy away from the laptop. “Yeah, and he suggested Darth Icky as a Sith name to the game devs for ‘The Force Unleashed’, so it’s probably time for him to just, y’know, not be involved anymore.”  

Continue reading on AO3

Sting snorted, shaking his head as he tied off a knot on the back of his embroidery and flipped it over to study the design. He sighed, holding it up to the camera so Natsu could see the uneven stitches.  

“I don’t think I’m ever gonna get this,” Sting complained. “Yours looks so much better.”  

“I’ve also been doing it for years,” Natsu pointed out. He was about to say something else when the front door slammed open, bringing with it a red-faced Gray who looked like he was on the verge of tears. He kicked off his shoes, tossing his mask into the laundry basket at the door and throwing his bag on the floor.  

“Hey, love,” Natsu said, waving his hand to get Gray’s attention. Gray shook his head, refusing to look at Natsu and storming into the kitchen. Natsu frowned. Gray had been in a good mood when he’d left that morning, and he’d texted Natsu only an hour ago – on my way home, gonna pick up coffee, love you <3 

“Everything okay?” Sting asked.  

“No, I gotta go,” Natsu said, setting his embroidery down and giving Sting a concerned look. “I’ll text you later, ‘kay?”  

Sting nodded. “Hope everything’s okay. Love you.”  

“Love you, too.”  

Natsu nudged Happy off his lap, then headed to the kitchen, where Gray was aggressively washing his hands. Eventually he turned off the water but stayed where he was, head down and fingers gripping the edge of the sink.  

“Gray?”

He didn’t answer, so Natsu reached around the corner and flicked the lights a couple times. Gray sighed, grabbing the towel and finally turning around to face Natsu.  

What’s wrong? Natsu signed. Gray’s cheeks were still flushed, and he refused to meet Natsu’s gaze. 

I can’t fucking understand anyone, he signed eventually, looking like he was going to cry. Natsu frowned and Gray added, With masks on. I can’t read anyone’s lips and I feel so stupid.  

Natsu’s heart ached at the defeated look on Gray’s face. He stepped forward and reached out for Gray’s hand, which was balled into a tight fist. It took a few seconds, but eventually Gray sighed, letting Natsu slip their fingers together.  

“I just wanted a coffee,” he said out loud. His voice was tight and on the edge of tears. “The barista kept asking me something and I couldn’t hear her, there was too much background noise. It’s all just… sound. I didn’t understand. She had to write it down and people were staring, and I felt like an idiot, so I just left.” 

Natsu ran his fingers over Gray’s, bringing his hand to his lips and kissing it.  

“It’s so frustrating,” Gray said quietly. “Everyone thought I was stupid.”  

“I’m sure nobody thought—”  

“They did.” Gray’s jaw tensed. “The guy behind me thought I couldn’t hear at all, but he was so fucking loud. I heard him laughing, telling his friend I was…” Gray’s voice broke and he quickly rubbed at his face with the back of his hand.  

“C’mere, sweetheart,” Natsu said gently, pulling Gray close and wrapping both arms around his shoulders. Gray leaned into the embrace and pressed his forehead to Natsu’s shoulder.  

“He said I was retarded.”  

Natsu froze at the words that were muffled by his shirt. “What?” he tried to pull back to look at Gray again, but Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu’s waist and kept him close. He was trying his best to hold it in, but he was definitely crying now.

Natsu held Gray tighter, protective anger filling his chest as he ran his hand up and down Gray’s back. “I’m so sorry,” he said against Gray’s ear. “I can’t believe he said that to you, that’s horrible.”

Gray didn’t say anything. Natsu could see him biting his lip to keep back the tears and the soft sounds that came with them. He sighed, holding Gray as close as possible and pressing his cheek to the top of Gray’s head.

“I love you,” he murmured as he ran his fingers through Gray’s hair. They stood like that for a while, and eventually Gray’s shoulders stopped shaking. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“Hey,” Natsu said gently, pulling back and making sure Gray could see his lips. “You know what he said isn’t true, right?”

“I…” Gray swallowed and looked back down at the floor. “It’s just so frustrating. I get so embarrassed and I feel so stupid.”

Natsu shook his head, nudging Gray’s arm and switching to sign.

First of all, that guy is an idiot and a terrible human being, and if I ever see him, I’m gonna punch him in the face. Secondly, you’re not stupid. You’re one of the smartest people I know. You know four languages, you can build computers from scratch, and you can code faster than humanly possible. You know every single piece of lore from World of Warcraft – which is ridiculous, by the way, but adorable.

Gray’s lip quirked up in a tiny smile.

There’s nothing wrong with you, Natsu continued. No matter what. Doesn’t matter if you want to wear your hearing aids or not, if you want to talk or sign, or if you need extra time understanding people.

Gray sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “I know. It just sucks.” He exhaled loudly, then looked up at Natsu. “I’m sor—”

“Don’t you dare apologize.”

“But—”

“Look, I know we’re Canadian, but apologizing for someone else being an ass and calling you a slur isn’t allowed.”

Gray laughed and the sound relieved the anger and frustration in Natsu’s chest. He studied Gray’s face for a moment – the deep blue of his eyes, the tiny scar on his forehead, the barely noticeable dimple on his left cheek.

“What?” Gray frowned at him.

“You’re pretty,” Natsu said simply, leaning in and kissing Gray’s nose as a pink flush spread across his cheeks. “And I love you.” Before Gray could attempt to deflect the compliment, Natsu added, “Do you still wanna get a coffee?”

Gray’s expression shifted into something uncertain. “I can just make it here.” He gestured to their coffee machine, but Natsu shook his head.

“That’s not what I asked. Do you want to go out and get coffee?” Gray gave Natsu a suspicious look and he laughed. “I have an idea,” he said, gesturing to the door. “C’mon, let’s go for a drive.”

~

Natsu made Gray drive. He gave directions that lead away from the house, across the freeway, and into the neighboring suburb. The roads were unfamiliar but Natsu navigated them from his phone, clearly looking for something specific.

“Where are we going?” Gray asked again. He glanced over at Natsu, who just grinned at him and pointed out the window. A Starbucks sat in the middle of the shopping complex on the right side of the road.

“Do the drive through.”

“There’s tons of Starbucks back in New West,” Gray said, frowning as he flicked on the signal and pulled into the parking lot. “Why’d we come all the way out here?”

Natsu didn’t answer, just gestured to the menu screen as Gray pulled up to it. He looked at Natsu, ready for him to interpret whatever the barista said, but was surprised when the screen lit up instead. Someone with long, dark hair appeared on the screen, dressed in a green apron and giving them a warm smile.

Welcome to Starbucks, how are you doing today?

Gray’s eyes widened as he watched them sign, and it took him a moment to realize that they could see him.

Good, he replied quickly, hoping he didn’t look too confused. Um. You?

I’m great! What would you like to order?

Gray stared blankly at the menu for a second, then remembered he always got the same thing. Doubleshot on ice, please? he replied. Grande? Natsu poked him and he batted his hand away. And a Java Chip Frappuccino.

Awesome, see you at the window! The barista smiled and waved at him before the video switched off and the screen returned to normal.

Gray managed to hold in his tears until they had their drinks and were parked in the lot. He quickly wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, trying to hide his face from Natsu.

“That was Rogue,” Natsu said gently, reaching over and pulling Gray’s hands away from his face. “Sting’s new partner.”

Gray swallowed, trying to push down the lump that blocked his throat. “They can… they know sign.”

“Yeah.” Natsu brushed Gray’s hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ear. “Sting was telling me about them earlier – their little sister is Deaf so they’re pretty close to fluent in ASL.”

“Oh.” Gray stared down at Natsu’s hand in his, trying to figure out how to explain the complicated sensation in his chest. The frustration and embarrassment from earlier were gone, replaced with a deep sense of relief.

Natsu nudged Gray as he let go of his hand, and Gray looked over at him.

You’re not stupid, Natsu signed, balancing his drink on his lap. You’re smart and funny and gorgeous, and I love you so, so much.

Gray stared him – wild hair and bright eyes and the wide smile that Gray had fallen in love with so many years ago. “How do you do that?” Gray asked softly. Natsu raised an eyebrow. “You always know how to make things better.”

“Making you happy is my superpower,” Natsu said, grinning as he took a sip of his drink. “Now, y’know what you can do with lips besides read them?”

Gray raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Kiss them.”

“You’re such a dork,” Gray said, shaking his head and laughing.

“You love me, though.”

“I do.”

Gray leaned over the console and pulled Natsu in for a long, slow kiss. Natsu’s hand brushed through his hair and he leaned into the touch – into the way that Natsu always felt like home.

“Mm.” Natsu hummed happily as he pulled back and pressed their foreheads together. “See, this is why I make you feel better – I get kisses when you’re happy.”

“So you’re not just being altruistic?”

“Not entirely. I may or may not have ulterior motives.”

“And do those ulterior motives happen to involve clothing?”

“That’s entirely up to you.”

Gray laughed and brushed his nose against Natsu’s, then pulled him in for another kiss. He tugged lightly on Natsu’s hair, biting gently on his lower lip and tasting chocolate on his tongue. Then he pulled back and smiled, setting his coffee in the cup holder and putting the car into drive.

“Let’s go home and find out.”