#this himeko i assume no less

[turnedpalefromlackofsun]

I can't wait to fill 128 GB with just them

[slowd1ving]

[OUT ON A LIMB] SNIPPET ゜・DAN HENG

snippet of the PREQUELLLL to the roommate au + an introduction to the ASTRAL INSTITUTEEEE

HONKAI STAR RAIL MASTERLIST

MASTERLIST ・゜・NAVIGATION

Your guide through the long-winded halls pauses, blood-red hair swaying to a cascading halt as she points to her right. “This is your practice room for today. Make sure to read the rules before you begin, alright?” 

She’s friendly, introducing herself as Himeko with a dazzling smile. She’s one of the managers in the music club—veering into engineering territory. Compared to her, you’re just some guy with his guitar; you look away from her cheerful expression, gazing at the rules emblazoned in a red less vibrant than her locks. 

No intercourse. No hot food. No unauthorised persons. Scrawled beneath in messy purple pen is a blinding neon post-it: get the fuck out if you’re not using the room properly, you bums. 

“Wow,” you cough out in surprise, breaking your laconic pattern of responses. “I assume those have some crazy stories behind them.”

That elicits a small laugh from her, and finally it feels like you’ve done something right. 

“You have no idea,” she bemoans exasperatedly, ushering you into the room. It’s nothing too large—small enough to feel cosy rather than make you self-conscious, but big enough so sound carries well. “Right, if you need help setting up, just let the admin at the end of the corridor know.”

She leaves in a whirl of crimson and gilt gold, and you’re left standing bemusedly in the doorway. 

It’s not like you do need the help: hands deftly unravelling and plugging in cords and tuning the pegs with the ease only muscle memory evokes. How long has it been? With your mountainous studies, it’s little wonder that your hobbies were pushed to the bottom of the priority list. 

Your breathing turns rhythmic as you warm-up: chord after chord gently brought into existence with the fretboard and a copper penny as an impromptu pick. Though it’s been a few years, your hands fly across the strings.

A little bit of Bauhaus. Improvisation for The Cure. A brief snippet of Fields of Nephilim.

“I was cold as I mouthed the words, and crawled across the mirror,” you sing along with the backing track, embellishing the sombre baseline—chords ringing out clean in the daylight. It’s been so long that your mouth tastes sweet: letting the tones sweep you away in its ebb. The melody and harmonies blur together—as do your eyes. They flutter shut, focused only on replicating the feeling. “I wait, await the next breath.”

The notes fall apart and distort in the empty room: jarring and incomplete, yet harrowingly beautiful. 

“Your name like ice, into my heart.”

Your voice is hoarse: fingers raw and voice scraped tender from just these meagre hours of practice. 

“Everything is as cold as life—can no one save you?”

It’s not enough, but as the sound of song dies out and is replaced by the buzz of alternating current and low whir of air conditioning, you realise there’s someone in the doorway. 

Fingers drum on the lacquered body of the guitar as you look at him, and he looks back at you. He’s roughly your age: wavy black hair cut messy round his head; silvery chains decorating his neck and pale wrists; red liner accentuating sharp, lucid eyes that bear directly into you. 

“Can I help you?” you frown, scanning his face and realising you’ve never seen him around before: be it at a lecture, the library or any of the small stores dotted around campus. At least, you hope you’ve never seen him around—it’s awkward enough knowing he heard you, let alone that you might’ve come across him and forgotten his name. 

“Ah, I’m sorry,” he murmurs. His voice is pleasant: slightly melodious and clear even with his lowered volume. “The other rooms are all full—I was wondering if we could share?”

Wow, you blink. He’s so damn polite.

[rosecolorednerd]

I made a Gallawelt chart based on my headcanons 😔🩷💛

I know Gallagher’s age isn’t confirmed and that the 13 is to represent Death in the Arcana but I also like the theory that Gallagher is 13 in dog years.

Gallagher is usually the bigger spoon because even though Welt is taller Gallagher he’s bigger figure wise. However since Welt is taller I could also see him being the bigger spoon sometimes

Lends clothes and borrows clothes is heavy on the lending because Gallagher loves seeing Welt in his clothes, but Welt prefers wearing his own clothes because he can’t stand Gallagher’s ‘gaudy’ colors XD plus none of Welt’s clothes would even fit Gallagher

Gallagher calls Welt ‘hero’ at first just to tease him and make Welt flustered but after awhile it kinda grows on him. I could also just see them calling each other the standard ones like baby, dear, dearest.

I considered putting Gallagher as an extrovert but I think because of what Siobhan said about him not opening up to people he has more introverted tendencies. He likes socializing with people at work but afterwards he gets tired and kinda drained so he recharges with Welt. Welt on the other hand I think he’s a little more extroverted because he used to be a teacher and he clearly loves looking after March, Dan Heng and the trailblazer so his social battery is much higher than Gallagher’s.

Gallagher’s love language is taking Welt on dates, making him drinks and just spending time with him whereas Welt expresses his love more through words of affirmation, poems, letters, and ofc drawings but that’s more of an action thing

Confessions first, I think Gallagher just wouldn’t be able to help himself. The moment he meets Welt at the bar he’d start flirting with him. As actual confessions go Gallagher fell first but Welt fell harder, so Welt says “I love you” first

The bug one is so silly bc I think Gallagher would scream about the bug and Welt would rush in to defend him only for Gallagher to find the bug really adorable XD

It’s canon that Himeko cannot cook so l feel like Welt would do most of the cooking before Dan Heng showed up. I think Gallagher would be a decent cook but he specializes in drinks.

Gallagher is very cuddly with Welt when he allows it but Welt is more reserved. Actually I feel like they’d both be more private with their affection but if anyone were to initiate pda it would be Gallagher.

I think Gallagher being the overprotective one is kind of on the nose so I thought it would be really cute if Welt was actually the overprotective one especially after the Penacony quest but I won’t give spoilers. Basically because of what happened to Gallagher and also just people flirting with him at the bar he’d naturally get more protective and jealous. Gallagher however doesn’t really care because has a lot of faith in Welt but if someone got a little too close he’d probably wrap an arm around Welt’s waist or interrupt the conversation.

I really don’t see Gallagher dating a lot of people while he was thinking about his plan and I know Welt has some romantic history with Tesla and they look after Joey together but beyond that I think Welt assumed he liked Tesla because it was expected of him but going out into the galaxy he realizes he never really liked girls. That being said I don’t intend on playing Honkai Impact 3rd so I could be wrong but this is just my headcanon fight me /j from what I’ve seen I don’t really like Tesla I’m sorry she’s kinda annoying—

Himeko herself said that Welt talks less and less about going home so really I think he’s just accepted the express as his new home as much as he probably still cares about Joey and the others

My headcanons about their sexualities are less solid tho. I really could see it either way with Gallagher being gay and Welt being bisexual or anything else.

I hope you guys enjoyed listening to me ramble about these old men and if you have your own headcanons feel free to share them <3

Also the template is not mine, the artwork is mine.

I found it on Pinterest and the original creators are Gibslythe and Teaskull.

[spirit-lanterns]

Hi angey! I've had a really rough past couple days that included getting my hopes up over a girl only to realize she has a bf 😭 I wanted to thank you for creating such a safe space for hopeless lesbians such as myself. It's always wonderful to know that there is a place I can be my crazy horny self. I was the anon that submitted the Himeko kitty kisses, the anti-heat suppressant rant, and the recent one that was literally just me going feral over obsidian. Thank you for that last one btw, it had me biting my knuckle and giggling (among other, less discussible things 😉) I know it's a bit kinky, but is 🐕‍🦺 anon taken?

Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m glad to know you guys find my blogs safe places to talk about fictional women and thirst about them! It’s one of my favorite things to do about honestly 💕

Yes, you can be 🐕‍🦺 anon! I am assuming it’s for being a loyal pet to Obsidian. I’m sure she highly appreciates it 😅

[thermopause]

SPOILER for obvious reasons. reminder for anyone who started HSR without getting into HI3 and APHO (a post-honkai odyssey) lore, honkai star rail occurs after the year 2029 CE (in HI3 there's a previous era which ended after the Herrcher of the End/Finality destroyed almost all of humankind, so this is 2029 years after), meaning that Welt is 80+ years old.

Yes, same Welt, he's referred to as the "Anti-Entropy Soverign, he's not an expy like Himeko is. (fun fact- there are 4 Himekos in all of Hoyoverse, and Star Rail Himeko was actually already shown way before Star Rail in alien space manga, but i digress.)

Link to the manga for some context about the second eruption and first herrscher of the void. Read at your own risk and only if you don't mind spoiling HI3 lore.

He is in surprisingly good shape and looks young for 80 because had to reconstruct his body using the Herrscher of Reason's power of creation after his physical form was destroyed during the second honkai eruption, leaving only his consciousness alive inside the herrscher core. His second "fake" body was a replica of him before he was blown up at age 53, and since this body doesn't have the same properties as a regular human (i assume he copied the physical form and not all of the functions) he's gonna look 53 forever.

The second reason is that he would be less marketable if they actually made him look 80.

[e17omm]

The value of the Threat of Death. A Songque example.

This will be a long post covering what I like about the Threat of Death, and why I think that Hoyo has completely and utterly destroyed that threat while continuing trying to use that to less and less success over and over again.

This will cover what I like, dont like, and regarding if a story even needs the Threat of Death or not.

Some spoilers for: Honkai Impact 3rd. Genshin Impact. Honkai Star Rail. That time I got reincarnated as a Slime. Code Geass. Lord of the Rings. The Incredibles.

Lets start with what I consider as "the Threat of Death"

The Threat of Death is when I feel tension and fear that I character can die. This is the strongest when another important character has already died prematurely to the completion of their arc (aka, "I lived my entire life. My whole purpose is to die at this moment" isnt a "Threat of Death" moment.)

For example: Himeko (HI3). After Himeko's death, Kiana putting a loaded gun to her own head with the intention to shoot has made everyone I've seen (including myself) hold their breath. Because the Threat of Death is real and fresh and Kiana might actually just shoot herself.

Another good example is Songque (in isolation). When she thinks she is ready to sacrifice herself, only to start panicing and realising that she could still have a long life ahead of herself. There is so much she still hasnt done! The Threat of Death is strong. Songque is possibly mere moments away from having her life taken away and she herself is realising more and more how much living means to her.

That is good examples that strengthens the Threat of Death, because it feels like that character might be moments away from their certain, early, death.

What are bad examples?

A character previously not in a scene suddenly appearing and saving a character. Genshin Impact does this the worst.

Xiao in the Chasm sacrifices himself in order to push everyone else back into reality. Letting himself be grabbed by the strange space they were in. But suddenly! Zhongli was in the area and he uses his powers to bring Xiao back into real space. Now, while its reasonable to understand that Zhongli could do that, in isolation to just that scene, Zhongli is a Deus Ex Machina that comes out of nowhere to save Xiao.

Another example is Navia in pretty much the same exact situation. The bridge collapses beneath her feet and she plummets into the Primordial Sea and is being absorbed by it. But suddenly! Neuvillette appears and pulls her out. And again, he was not previously in the scene. And again, it is reasonable to assume that Neuvillette could save someone from the Primordial Sea. But in isolation he comes out of nowhere to save Navia.

Then we have Firefly, who is depicted as if she is impaled and in great pain and we are left to assume that she died for an entire patch. Unlike the other two bad examples, this one is a cliffhanger. And the solution? Ah no, the thing that stabs, impales, and kills people - that's actually just how it transports people to another area.

All of these examples diminish the Threat of Death by showing characters in situations that should result in their death, and then just saying that they didnt actually die.

A character can just come out of nowhere to save the day, or the "death" is not actually a death, even if it is 100% depicted as killing off a character.

Songque is also an example that diminishes the Threat of Death, but I'll get back to that later.

Making the Threat of Death feel real isnt even necessarily moments that kills of characters, but rather the moment right before a possible death.

Diminishing the Threat of Death usually involves characters in situations where they would have realistically died, or someone inexplicably comes out of nowhere to save them, or their death is straight up undone.

Now;

Does a story need the Threat of Death to have stakes?

I would say "No."

Lets look at That time I got reincarnated as a Slime. Its a pretty chill anime. Basically the entirety of the first season is just Rimuru building up a little town of his friends. He is incredibly overpowered and he can make all his friends more powerful as well. When facing the Orc Lord, the only tension is if Rimuru and co' can get there in time before the orcs destroys a bunch of stuff.

In season 2 however... Like 300 monsters dies. They get slaughtered. They were weakened stripping them of how powerful they had become to where normal humans can run them down.

Aaand almost right away, as soon as we and Rimuru learns of the massacre, we get a story of how someone else was able to bring back the ones closest to her back to life. And the story immediately goes to working towards reviving everyone that died.

But while we get low chances of success, the story never paints it as an uncertainty. They only have 3.14% chance to succeed, but everyone is optimistic about making it work. So we aren't really worried as viewers either if they are going to be revived or not.

Lets look at something else. The Incredibles.

I would not say The Incredibles has much in terms of the Threat of Death. Sure we hear about a bunch of people dying, and we even see some corpses. But did anyone ever believe the family of superheroes would die? I didnt and I dont think the movie is meant to make it feel that way.

Yet the finale isnt boring even if we dont doubt that they'll find a way to stop the big bad robot.

Because they are unsure how to do it and if they are even strong enough to stop it. The tension comes from how they will stop it, rather than if they will stop it.

I want to look at the Lord of the Rings next.

Gandalf dies and its a big emotional moment that last for SEVERAL minutes, and Gandalf remains missing until the next movie with no hint of being alive until he comes out of nowhere and reintroduces himself.

This actually harms his "death" scene. Quite a lot actually. It doesnt make it that impactful on rewatches. But this doesnt really hurt the Threat of Death either. Why? Because its Gandalf the Gray. And now he wears white and is Gandalf the White.

Who else is a wizard that wears white? Sauroman. And they are the only wizards in the story. This does 2 things for the Threat of Death. 1; it might be that wizards can only "die" once. They go from Gray to White wizards. Maybe White wizards cant come back to life after dying. We dont know that. And 2; no other person that dies comes back to life. Its only Gandalf, who also insinuates that Sauroman has also died once by association of them both wearing white.

Gandalf's death and revival is possibly a one-time exception specific to wizards.

Onto Code Geass next: its a futuristic war anime. It has a lot of death. But did anyone really fear for Lelouch's life, like, ever? Or Suzaku's or Kallen's lives after the first like 2 or 3 episodes?

And yet it doesnt feel like they are immortal. They get shocked, lose their shit, a lot of people close to them die, they get injured and someone could just come up and stab them and I'd believe they would die from that.

Because the story doesnt constantly throw them into situations where they are in mortal danger (outside of being combatants in a war). No one gets shot in the heart and then comes back a few episodes later. Suzaku doesnt die and Lelouch grieves for his lost friend. No one dies or is depicted to die only to show up half a season later.

Except Jeremiah Gottwald. He's just built different.

But he starts off as a side-character that gets turned into a joke character and then turns into a side antagonist and then into a supporting protagonist through the repeated augmentations he goes through.

And he never explicitly dies. He just collapses and is then off-screen for half a season.

But for the main cast, over 50 episodes, they are rarely put in sitations where they would die. Code Geass keeps the Threat of Death by not constantly putting the main characters into situations where they realistically would die.

But finally, we can go back to Hoyo.

What is so bad with Hoyo not killing characters any more?

The way they do it. And I have a little Songque here to perfectly show what I mean.

So, Songque defeats Perception and is then completely missing, and the only assumption anyone can have is that Songque died when she threw the Sun at Perception. That is reasonable.

We have 15+ minutes of characters missing Songque and mourning her death. Its all great.

And then she returns. She just woke up and is alive and happy.

Now, the argument for why this is fine: Its a perfect ending meant for Entropy/Dreamseeker to "beat the level" and get the best possible ending while that ending wasnt real.

My counterargument: Then why was Songque dead at all? Why was she missing at all?

What would have changed if Songque was alive and happy from the get-go after defeating Perception?

Story wise? Not a lot. We could still meet everyone now after the shadow calamity has been solved and Songque could be there by our side from the get-go. And then have the twist that it was actually all fake.

The big difference is the Threat of Death would remain. By not killing Songque and thus not bringing her back from the dead, the Threat of Death is actually strengthened. Or at the very least maintained.

By not killing at all, you can strengthen or at least maintain the Threat of Death.

Instead of having Zhongli come out of nowhere, have Zhongli at the start of the quest investigating the Chasm from the surface. That way we know he is around.

Instead of having Neuvillette come out of nowhere, just have him with our group. That way we know he is around.

Instead of having Firefly die in our face, just imply it. Have us follow her signal and make it disappear right as we turn around a corner and have Dormancy float away from where Firefly last was at.

Instead of acting like Misteln will be dead for a long time, just... just dont. Or dont bring her back so soon. She really wasnt needed for the fight against Sa they could have easily just had Hua fight it.

Instead of killing off Songque... just dont? Those 15 minutes of "Songque is dead" didnt do anything for the story. Its not long enough to have a lasting impact and how all the characters would feel about her death is undone because she is back to life.

"But it was all a simulation!!" that just adds to my points:

Why wasn't Songque just, alive? What did bringing her back to life add?

What did it add, but another moment where a character overcomes death, thus diminishing the Threat of Death.

A story does not need death to be tense. It does not need death to have the Threat of Death.

But if you constantly put characters into serious situations and into situations where they are depicted to die or just straight up "dies", with the purpose of making me feel bad or sorry or mourn them or wish they wont die.

If you keep showing characters not dying, then all those moments of "oooh no! this character is about to die!" will stop having meaning.

You can write a story without death in it. But then dont put characters into situations where it looks like they are about to die.

Songque's scene where she realises how much she still has to live for - that is an excellent scene with a strong sense of the impeding Threat of Death. In isolation.

Because I was not surprised at all when Baiji didnt go through with it and killed her. I did not react (except for a sigh) when Songque returned from the dead because that has become the norm.

Because Hoyo has destroyed the Threat of Death by repeatedly and consistently having characters surpass Death in their Honkaiverse games.

Yet they keep having those moments.

They keep writing scenes that would be incredible strong with the Threat of Death, but by repeatedly not acting on those scenes, it diminishes the Threat of Death for the next one.

You can have Xiao be saved by Zhongli coming out of nowhere in the Chasm, but then dont do the same for Navia.

If that Kiana scene happened today, after what is it, 6 years of Hoyo doing "this character is about to die!" and not acting on it. If Kiana put a loaded gun to her own head, a tear rolling down her cheek as she tightens the finger on the trigger - if that happened today, I would not believe for a single moment that she would pull the trigger.

When I saw that scene for the first time, I though, "No. She wouldnt." in disbelief. Was she really about to pull the trigger? It wouldnt be pointless, she would take out the Herrscher of the Void as well as herself. Has she reached that desperate point where shooting herself seems like the only option forward to safeguard the rest of the world from the Herrscher of the Void?

But if I saw that scene now, I'd raise my eyebrows and then move on as Fu Hua shows up 3 seconds later.

Because Hoyo has overused the Threat of Death for 6 years without acting on it.

Keep the Threat of Death passive by not constantly having characters overcome it, or dont have the Threat of Death at all.

That time I got reincarnated as a Slime doesnt have the Threat of Death at all any more and I'd say its better because of it. All the characters are overpowered and its more about how they live their lives and the trouble that comes their way rather than if they will survive or not.

Hoyo keeps asking "are they going to survive or not?" and the answer for six years has always been "yes they will" and by now I want them to stop asking it. Or for the answer to be "no, they wont survive."

[aeryssickfics]

Prompts to Come

Putting these out there for the curious! But also because if anyone has prompts/suggestions/etc I'm willing to hear them! I have. A Good Chance of coming up with ideas for prompts as I go or even realizing I can combine things together but y'know this is where I am

I have completed the Genshin Impact main story. So that's a thing. Also willing to take Honkai Impact 3rd and Star Rail Prompts. Other fandoms I may be willing to entertain are ff7, ffx, yoi, rwby, and atla. I make no promises for anything in the 'may be willing to entertain' section tho)

~~~

Professionalism Failure: STRONGLY considering Alhaitham getting sick during a meeting bc he thought he could keep himself under control. ... not sure if reluctant Cyno dealing with him or Kaveh. Stay tuned!

free day: Kiana tried say something, she really did. But Himeko didn't really believe her since she had a habit of trying to get out of class. Fast forward to that evening when Himeko finds her in the bathroom dazed with a fever, etc.

Sick in More Ways than One: trailblazer! probably stelle! leaning into the stelleron doing weird shit! Thinkin she picks up something from the crew just in general but it's not Bad:tm: and then she also goes to help herta with SU stuff and things go... south due to a weird interaction in the SU!

sleepy sickie: Shortly after they're reunited in the Chasm, Lumine realizes something is wrong with Xiao-more than his exhaustion, though it certainly plays a factor in everything. He's tired, all the wants to do is sleep. But he's injured and fevered and it gets worse, before it gets better.

head pain/injury/ache: Fu Xuan has a migraine, and perhaps should be resting instead of working, but Jing Yuan has not returned to full duty and someone must hold down the Luofu, after all. (Jing Yuan is not particularly amused)

(this list is teaching me I might use too much plot in my sickfics but im not really sorry about it)

Not Novemetober related To Write

(assuming I don't manage to squish these into a prompt somewhere)

Alternate Abyss Corrupted Kaeya sickfic

Cyno sick on a mission (this post)

Eventually want to do something with Crepus actually alive (this post)

Also the Kaeya and Diluc at the Gravesite Fic ft: Jean accidentally ruining Dilucs life (bottom of this post)

The Morning After Scene from Long, Sick Nights

Also the mentioned kaeya-saved-diluc injury+poisoning scene

Couple of these aren't sickfic (or are at least Drastically Less sickfic but wanted to note them here bc they've been mentioned and I don't want to lose them lol)

[canonical-transformation]

Let's just assume that v5.2 is giving us a highly desirable 5★ Pyro character who is at least Raiden levels of versatile, and maybe Furina or Nahida levels of "changes what teams are viable". (I'll be using female pronouns but let's also assume it's not a Himeko expy. Expectation management etc.) Let's also assume no new reactions / buffs, etc. Worst of all, let's assume the "Pyro is passion damage" truism holds.

4 potential Pyro kits that I hope we don't get (and 2 I'm okay with)

1: On-field Pyro DPS

(Why I don't like it: power creep.)

You know the drill. Big numbers, Pyro infusion, low enough ICD (or fast enough attacks) for reasonable XQ+YL reverse vape setups.

Less shield-dependent than HT+Arle, less poise-dependent than Yoimiya and Lyney, faster than Yanfei and Diluc, and, idk, stupidly high multipliers. ATK buff that scales on ATK because why not.

Example:

Press E to enter the Fiery Fire state, gaining a Pyro infusion increasing ATK by 50% of her current ATK.

Talent: after dealing a certain amount of DMG, deal a blast of AoE DMG.

Talent: when in the party in the overworld, if playing on mobile, all enemies move at 50% speed

2: Off-field Pyro DPS

(Why I don't like it: power creep.)

Example:

Press E to summon a Pyronado (20s duration 10s cooldown).

Press Q for a few hits of burst damage (Miko but 2× speed and homing), which simultaneously count as NA CA Skill and Burst DMG.

Talent: Elegy of the End

Talent: Alley Hunter

No ICD on anything.

When crafting Character Talent Materials, 50% chance to receive double the

3: fast weak off-field Pyro application

(Why I don't like it:) Burgeon is a niche, Thoma. I love and respect you but it's a very specific niche.

Example:

Press E to summon the Salon Des Dragons[...], which deals frequent Pyro damage and also coordinated attacks.

Talent: Burning can stack up to 3× damage and remains even after the Pyro or Dendro aura leaves. The Salon's attacks do not deplete Hydro aura. Overloaded pulls enemies in.

When crafting Character Ascension Gemstones, 50% chance to refund a portion of the materials used.

4: ATK buffer

(I.e. power creep)

You know, Pyro!Bennett. Less circle impact and more Navia's deal (or a Nahida sized circle). Swap the healing for damage prevention, perhaps, or follow Furina's footsteps and throw in some all-Element DMG% or Crit DMG% buff.

Green eyes optional.

5: Debuff (Pyro!Mona, Pyro!Lisa)

If Pyro is the "more damage" element and we don't want a Bennett 2.0, how about shredding RES better that Zhongli, or a less front-loaded Mona, or... all of the above?

Apply a debuff however we see fit. Nahida (E), Arlecchino (E), Mona (Q), Hu Tao (Q or E+CA), all have reasonable debuff triggers, as is a passive off-field effect. For wave clearing specifically(*), Yoimiya's target-jumping burst aura would also be pretty reasonable.

(*) after 4.1 (Peaks and Troughs) and 4.4 (Triumphant Frenzy) I think an endurance wave-clearing mode might be a viable endgame mode direction, RIP Nahida.

As for the debuffs, RES shred and/or DEF shred seem fine (the former being a nice boon for transformative reactions). Status curse that lowers enemy level if you want to be fancy :P

6: Off-field chip damage support

Consider our favourite leyline disorders, Smoldering Flames and Tracking Fire Ball, I guess this would... work? Arle+HT already do a little bit in the "DoT" niche but that's not their main deal.

E: Grant party a Curtain of Smolder. While under this effect, gain a Morning Star every 0.8s. If there are 4+ Morning Stars, consume them and launch a fireball at a nearby enemy (prioritising high HP) for stupid amounts of AoE damage. Whenever a party member under the Curtain of Smolder uses a Burst, gain a Morning Star. Whenever a party member deals DMG (max once per character per 1s), gain a Morning Star.

Q: oh yeah also all the enemies are taking ATK scaling Pyro DoT. Yeah it ignores defence. Yeah not removable.

Talent: While in the Curtain of Smolder state, the active character's attacks deal additional poise damage if they're not a Claymore user, additional fixed DMG if they're not a Bow/Catalyst User, and have increased ATK SPD if they're not a Sword/Polearm user.

When forging Mystic Enhancement Ore, 50% chance to receive 1 Primogem

[almea]

No one cares, but I cannot shut up about things I've been thinking about for Star Rail for months.

I think it's so funny that the idea of travelling through space on a train should be a little silly, but I just. Immediately bought into the idea of it being the most romantic thing ever. That loading screen of the Astral Express against a starry sky with that magical music playing really did a lot of heavy lifting lmao.

I'm so fascinated by the flashes of the future Stelle gets. Is it related to the Stellaron? Is it related to her artificial body? Is it related to the Aeon that blessed her? I just don't know and I am waiting for the day they get into it.

I really love Stelle's design. Her being the tallest female character is one of my favourite things. I assume it's because it makes things easier for cutscenes if she's not significantly shorter than Caelus (honestly they should have just made them the same height, even if it's just "the same height if we include Stelle's heels", and I could have been even happier) but god it's so cute and funny that the female characters who have so much more tall energy than her, like Kafka, Himeko and Acheron, are all shorter than her. Her hair being so fluffy and looking a little messy makes her look SO cute. I really love the art for her fourth Eidolon because her hair looks extra fluffy in it.

AND GOD HER VOICE. It's a tragedy that Stelle doesn't speak more because I love her voice so much. The fact that it's that low… I loved… Stelle getting possessed in 1.5's Trailblaze Continuance just to get to hear her voice… I know there's some speculation about whether or not the receptacle that wasn't chosen is going to be a character further down the line, and if it happens I'm going to be so sad because the people who didn't choose Stelle would probably get to hear her voice more than I do lmao.

I kind of wish we didn't get to name the Trailblazers because when Aventurine calls her "Miss Stellaron" in 2.0, for a brief second I lived in a world where the voice lines could call Stelle by her name instead of "you" or whatever other placeholder they used and it was so good. Ever since I played Three Houses, I've gone more and more in the direction of "the more voice acting there is in a game and the less you can customize the main character, the more pointless it is to let you name them."

There is nothing I love more than characters appearing in another character's splash art. Silver Wolf and Blade being in Kafka's splash art fucking took me out. There is genuinely nothing that can convince me that they're not Important to her. It's a tragedy that Sam isn't also on it too. I gasped out loud the first time I used Preservation Stelle's ultimate and saw Bronya, Seele, Serval, and Gepard in the splash art. It's SO cute, I'm going to be so sad if they don't do the same thing for all the other paths too. The Astral Express being in Destruction Stelle's splash art is a similar situation because it's where her journey started and to me it represents her bond with the rest of the crew. Baby Tingyun on Yukong's. The much more subtle case of Lynx having a picture of her with her siblings in her tent.

I just really love the platonic and familial relationships in this game. The Astral Express crew and the Stellaron Hunters both have me in a choke hold. Looking at each group on its own is already A Lot (Listen, I almost cried when I heard Himeko's voice line about how she asked Dan Heng to be the Express's guard because she felt he wouldn't have stayed if he was gonna be a freeloader), but comparing both groups and seeing how they contrast but they ultimately have their own bonds with each other... And Stelle travelled with both of them at one point.

The fact that the whole Astral Express crew has those express pass pins is such an amazing detail. I almost cried when I realized they're all matching!!!! I wish they had made a separate model for Stelle and Caelus where they don't have their pin yet and then had a scene of them being given the pin after they joined... It could have been so cute...

I read through Kafka's companion mission again the other day and oh my god, I can't believe I forgot that she plays the truth and lies game with Silver Wolf all the time. I need to go lie down on the ground over these two constantly playing a game that kind of inevitably leads to getting to know each other better.

I also love her mentioning that if she and Blade had been thrown into prison, Sam and Silver Wolf would have broken them out. Please, I'm in shambles. Yes, they would have broken them out just because they needed to, but also. I really do believe there's this deep trust they all have for each other. If I think about it, I don't know if I would say the Stellaron Hunters love each other, I certainly don't think any of them would say it except maybe Kafka in a teasing way, but I do think they all care about each other in their own way.

There is Something that really gets me about the fact that all the Stellaron Hunters, including presumably Elio, went to go pick up Silver Wolf from Punklorde. Like, Kafka and Sam both going to get Blade makes sense logistically because they needed Sam to restrain him and Kafka to calm him down, but Silver Wolf? Who Kafka specifically said wasn't chosen for being good at fieldwork? Why did they all go to get her? I don't know, it just makes me really emotional for some reason.

The Landaus have such a fun dynamic between the three of them. It's so cute how Serval and Gepard both worry about Lynx, Gepard more so than Serval, and it annoys her but she also loves them both. For most of Serval's companion mission I was just like "🥺 Gepard just doesn't want his big sister to leave." The light cone???? Of Serval and Gepard when they were kids??? Serval defending her brother because she knew he didn't do anything wrong???? Also, something about how it's a Preservation light cone, but Gepard, the Preservation character, is the one being defended. Gepard's idle animation where he's humming Serval's song????

The inherent tragedy of Jing Yuan's relationship with Yanqing because he's raising him to be strong enough to kill him one day…

Dan Heng's interactions with Bailu in his companion mission were sooooo good and I hope they expand on it more in the future. It was really sweet that Dan Heng was so concerned about Bailu and now he has a new little sister. I love that they have this bond with each other because they're the only ones who can even remotely understand the weight of the expectations everyone puts on them because of Dan Feng. The CG in that companion mission was Everything to me. Dan Heng's speculation that he inherited Dan Feng's destructive powers and Bailu inherited his healing powers is so interesting if it's true. When I read Bailu's character stories and it said they were waiting until her coming of age ceremony before giving her the title of Imbibitor Lunae, it really hit me like a truck. I'm so curious about whether years down the line, as the story on the Xianzhou continues, we'll eventually get a Bailu Inhibitor Lunae. I just think it would be so cute if Bailu and Dan Heng had units with matching titles…

I had zero thoughts about Sunday, good or bad, besides being like "excuse me?" about the shit he said at the end of 2.0, but they showed the light cone with baby Sunday and Robin in the 2.1 stream and I was just like, oh noooooo, it's so cute, he loves his little sister so much.

I'm obsessed with the "Elio is the cat" theory. Is the leader of the Stellaron Hunters being a cat absolutely ridiculous? Yes, but I love the idea of the leader of this group of space criminals being a cute black cat too much. Even if the cat (tragically) isn't Elio, I still think it's like, connected to him or meant to represent him whenever it shows up. Release more light cones so Silver Wolf and Blade also have art with the cat.

I love the text message system so much. It's such a fun way to give characters some extra characterization and make them feel more alive. The peak example of that will always be the fact that Blade's text messages are all sent by the other Stellaron Hunters. Blade not sending messages would have already been like. Yes, this lines up with his character, but the fact that not only does he not send messages, but literally everyone except Elio (and honestly if every character had four daily messages instead of three I would bet Elio would have sent one too) uses his phone to send messages gives a little extra insight into the dynamics between the Stellaron Hunters.

[yezielmoore]

11. Surrogate

I love teasing Alphinaud, he makes it so easy.

*.*.*

“That was a good thing you did.”

“Wha-” Alphinaud was so startled by the voice that spoke literally at his back that he almost tripped on his own feet trying to turn around. After a beat of staring uncomprehendingly at the nice metalwork of the Warrior’s chestplate, he craned his neck to look her in the eye.

A second passed, then another. Somehow, in that brief span of time, Alphinaud went from flushed in embarrassment to rolandberry red in utter mortification. 

“Hi-Himeko!” Even after all this time her name refused to roll naturally off his tongue, that’s why he stuttered, no other reason! Oh, and now even the tip of his ears were bright red. Just great. He cleared his throat. “I- I didn’t expect- I mean… what was it that you said? I didn’t quite catch it.”

Watching the usually composed Alphinaud struggle to form a single sentence was always a treat and Himeko had to fight to keep a straight face through it all. If being a teacher to superpowered teen girls had taught Himeko anything, it’s that you don��t laugh at embarrassed teenagers unless you want to stop any and all cooperation from happening forevermore.

Alphinaud may not be a girl, but he was most assuredly a teenager, no matter what he had to say about that. 

“I said you did a good thing, facilitating Minfilia’s reunion with F’lhaminn.”

He seemed to mull over her words, like there was something in that simple truth that bothered him. 

“We need to leave Vesper Bay. It was simply the most expedient way to get Minfilia to take action.” Alphinaud said with conviction. He really believed that. 

And fine, he wasn’t wrong, per se, but…

Himeko hummed, tapping one finger to her lips. Alphinaud focused on the movement for a moment, then looked away, face red once more. 

Heh. Teenagers.

For lack of pockets, she hooked her thumbs on her belt, assuming a relaxed posture. 

“The most expedient, perhaps,” Himeko agreed, because that much was true. “If it succeeded. It was also the path with least chances of success and you know that.” She poked a hole in his reasoning. “F’lhaminn is a person of interest, yet she managed to hide in plain sight for years with no one the wiser. And you said it yourself, she knew where Minfilia was and never contacted her, so the chances of rejection were even higher.” Poke! There goes another hole. “So why bother going on a wild goose chase, for uncertain returns, when all you had to do was convince the rest of the inner circle? Minfilia is sentimental, not stupid, she’d have seen reason.”

Alphinaud crossed his arms and pursed his lips. He was silent for a while, seemingly taking her question seriously.

“…This way creates less friction within the group,” he resolved at last. It was as much a statement as it was a question. 

“That’s true,” Himeko conceded, but before Alphinaud’s ego could begin to inflate itself again she poked it. “But since when do you care about that, mm? Or have you forgotten most of our meetings? Our first meeting in particular…” 

Himeko trailed off purposefully and had the pleasure of seeing another example of teenage mortification: being confronted with their own cringe behavior. 

Teaching was hard, but nobody said it was without rewards. 

Alphinaud groaned and covered his face with his hands. 

“Must you always bring that up?” He asked in his definitely-not-a-whine voice.

“Always!” Himeko sang with an evil smirk that wouldn’t have been out of place in Garuda’s face. 

Soon the amusement faded from Himeko’s face. She took a moment to observe the boy closely. Alphinaud was a young man (by this world’s standards if not her own) full of promise and the youthful urge to chase and attain his goals now now now. He was running full tilt ahead towards his lofty vision with nary a glance to where he positioned his feet.

…or who he trampled on the way. 

That had been Himeko’s first impression of the boy and his sister, and for a while every subsequent meeting with him only served to reinforce that.

This sequence of events was different. 

“Just one last thing,” Himeko rested her hands on his thin shoulders. So fragile next to her (un)natural strength. She could snap him in half so easily, before he even knew to react. He knew this (at least to some extent), and yet all he did was look up, serious and utterly trusting. It made her nauseous. “You did a good thing here, Alphinaud. Yes, you positioned the pieces to achieve your main goal, but you didn’t stop there, even when it would’ve been easier. You helped reunite a family and made a friend incredibly happy.” She patted his shoulders and retreated. “For people of your intellect, getting what you want is the easy part. Doing it in a way that won’t drive your friends and loved ones away… that’s the hard part. So remember this moment when you achieved both.”

“...I will.” He said at last. “Thank you, Himeko, for all the help.”

She ruffled his hair, ignoring his indignant Hey! and futile attempts to dislodge her. 

“Anytime brat.”

[secondsovereign]

META: On the Star of Eden and the Core

(I hadn't expected to release this specific braincell yet but oops)

I do want to touch on a slightly inconsistent point with the lore of whatever is going on with the core for a moment. Welt has a rather vague statement about the lack of Honkai being the reason he can't use the core. HOWEVER, if you freeze-frame his ultimate animation at just the right moment you can actually see his eyes glow, which has been a common and familiar sign that he's actually begun to tap into the authority of reason.

Furthermore, his cane is the actual Star of Eden, something that shouldn't be functioning to the level it does without a stable and consistent flow of Honkai to its internals. Especially after being damaged in the distant past. BUT there's also something fascinating in the dialogue between Acheron and Welt on Penacony in that Acheron can not only recognise but see the nature of what was inside his cane, DESPITE several members of the harmony failing to realise that it was a quite literal black hole.

This implies it's still drawing honkai into itself, DESPITE the fact that the Honkai Energy Intertidal Zone is stopping anything but the barest droplets from seeping outside Sol after Kiana assumes the Authority of Finality. However, this is where it gets interesting as to Welt's PASSIVE abilities as a herrscher. Alien Space shows him at 65% of his power to be able to have enhanced senses, the ability to hack devices by merely holding them and mimicry to the strength of having enough power to wipe out one of the Sky People/Ones above's vanguard stone which they have been sending all across the UNIVERSE in search of planets with sufficient honkai levels.

Void Archives mentions that the Himeko of HSR is in a parallel universe, however we later learn from Vita that it's less of a parallel universe and more of a space that exists beyond the Honkai Energy Intertidal Zone that stops human interstellar travel, for example Project Ark.

However, I'm led to believe it's less that Welt's powers are affected by the lack of Honkai and more his emotional state. In Alien Space, his anger over Dr. Murata destroying one of the sugars and harming Himeko leads him to create a much more vivid weapon than his mimicries that SHOULD require a consensus to make in such vivid detail. Even at a fraction of the power he had before fighting Sirin, he was still able to project multiple large scale imaginary barriers without exhaustion.

And in the first hour or so of HSR we see him seal the Stelleron which should not be possible without utilising the core of reason to a greater extent than he admits to. Which has led me to believe that Welt has been telling white lies as to the nature of just what abilities and authorities he's been using as a nameless, rather than admit to being at a greater level of power as expected as a Herrscher, he's been obtuse in revealing it except for minor blink, and you miss it moments such as threatening complete gravitonic annihilation against Acheron with the confidence of someone able to carry it out.

-> In conclusion, Welt remains just as manipulative as he was as the Sovereign of Anti-entropy, willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid drawing the gaze of the Sky People who he knows wish to hunt and consume all traces of Honkai. This gives him the illusion of claiming to be a weaker character, when the game's own narrative describes him as someone who has the ability to make everything obey his will if he wishes for it to. "He suppresses his enemies with gravity, even creating a kind of mini-black hole — what he considered his everyday powers" - Powers that are inherently NOT things he was able to use at 65% of his full power as the Herrscher of Reason.

[inominati]

starter for @apocryphis

There's nothing on the plan today, at least until their next emergency hits and Caelus would lie if he said he doesn't welcome the break. Penacony drained his energy in multiple ways and while he physically feels like a million credits, it's nice to spend a day without the existential dread of navigating a universe threatening to collapse in on itself looming over their heads.

It's a little strange to have Aventurine as their new travel companion, even though Caelus doesn't have an issue with him. Considering the strangeness of the circumstances of his own joining the Express crew, he'd be a hypocrite to hold what happened against Aventurine. Nobody's expecting to be best friends over night, but up until their battle against him he was nice enough - although back then Caelus operated under the assumption that most of that was a tactic to butter them up so he could push whatever agenda of the IPC he represented. No one hands out credits and niceties without a motive. Now that he's here and their companion by his own choice (more or less), however, it's time to pick apart the sincere sentiments from the strategist's tools.

With his arms full of snacks he still had stored in his room after their visit to the Luofu, Caelus drops down on the bench of the Parlor Car next to Aventurine, leaving just enough space to put the bags and boxes of sweets between them. Food has a way of bringing people together, plus it's an easy conversation starter - not that it's actually difficult to get Aventurine to talk. There are plenty of questions Caelus would like to ask but the moment doesn't seem right for them. The former agent just escaped death (presumably) and the claws of the IPC and while Caelus is more than curious to know how he feels about that being a threat hovering over him wherever he goes, he figures a moment of peace is in order.

"Have you been to a lot of different worlds?" he asks instead, reaching into a bag of candied fruit after tearing it open, wondering how tumultuous Aventurine's life as one of the Stonehearts has been before their meeting in Penacony. The IPC seems hellbent on establishing their influence on every notable planet so it's reasonable to assume that they send their agents all over the place. Involuntarily Caelus pulls a face when the sweet top layer of the fruit melts on his tongue and releases a taste so sour underneath that it feels criminal. "Eugh.." he mumbles, putting the bag aside and, without a better option, swallows the fruit whole. Maybe Himeko will enjoy these.

"I want to go somewhere with lakes and rivers - nothing frozen or creepy. That'd be nice." Except, can he even swim? Huh, time to find out.

[a-little-lostmoon]

ok so like, does anyone understand how the ppl in honkai star rail have their elemental powers? or am I just really stupid abt it cus like…

trailblazer. easy. gets theirs from the aeons

march 7th, another easy. has her six phase ice powers

dan heng, difficult? never do they mention wind elemental powers — march mentions that his “powers” are super secret backstory and he clearly knows cloud knight spearmanship (quote, smwhere from sushang talking about it) but are those wind powers canon? if so, where do they come from? why are they there?

welt, easy. he’s from the original honkai universe so his powers stem from there

himeko, tentative? she uses her sawblade and satellite that produce fire, not far fetched to think she managed to create something like that but also not confirmed either

natasha… ?? she’s physical — but i don’t know if that’s because of her literal giant… gun (idk the specific term) or unrelated and she can heal but is that basic first aid stuff or actual healing abilities/magic medicinal things. I’d assume it was just first aid bc she’d probably have less trouble if she could use magic but, idk

seele, i have no idea. she’s clearly magic but wwhere does it come from??? how did she learn to utilize a scythe and teleportation when fighting — i don’t know? there’s gotta b a canonical reason, i just don’t know what it is

and so on.

I have no idea what’s “canon” and what’s not — it’s clear that the powers ARE canon bc they’re used in cutscenes and as plot devices but it’s not… explained?? nor is everyone’s individual powers origins are and it’s driving me insane trying to piece together a concrete, coherent answer.

so please, if anyone else knows what the magic logistics of this universe are please tell me, i need to know. the writer in me and the hyperfixationed part of me NEEDS TO KNOW.

[bnhaobservation]

Ramblings about BNHA chap 382

So we’ve quietly reached chap 382…

…and… hum… has this turned into All for One and Hawks’ private battle? Because the balloons focus on how they are the one who noticed the situation wasn’t as optimal/disastrous as it could be, as if no one else has caught up on it yet… when it’ll actually turn out they had.

Okay, okay, it itself I like the contrast between All for One and Hawks in the page, but it just feels as if there’s too much focus on them, as if Hawks had become All for One’s sole rival.

But maybe it’s just me.

Why the situation isn’t as optimal/disastrous as it could be?

I’ve to say I appreciated how the manga finally addressed how it would have been useful to clone people like Tomura, Touya and All for One… because here we see that Himiko actually did it. Only… their Quirk don’t work. But now come some odd things.

Hawks, remembering how All for One claimed he gave Himiko the tools to bring ruin to everyone, seeing Tomura and Co can’t use their Quirk calls him a liar… when this might be not necessarily the case. All for One never said he would send against them a Tomura’s Sad man’s parade. He might have thought either Himiko would manage to make their Quirks work or they could still win without them.

Anyway, Tsuyu too has noticed the situation isn’t as bad as it could be but… I’m a bit confuse about what she’s saying. In fact Tsuyu says the situation would have been bad if Himiko has FIRST transformed into All for One or Dabi and THEN made doubles of them… but actually Himiko had to transform in Twice, because it’s when she’s transformed in Twice that she can make doubles using his Quirk.

So by this logic she should have FIRST transformed in Twice and make closes of Twice who can make more clone THAN use such clones to also clone All for One and Co… which is what Himiko did… so I’m a bit lost here.

Tsuyu goes on pointing how Twice’s Quirk could create doubles who could use their Quirks, and how Himiko can use only the Quirk of the person in whom she transforms, solely if she loves them. Tsuyu assumes that condition carries over in her transformation of Twice, so she goes and claim she might not love Shigaraki and the others.

And… okay for All for One, I honestly don’t think Himiko loves him, but Tsuyu doesn’t know Himiko at all so assuming Himiko loves Ochako, whom she barely know and is more like crushing about and not Shigaraki and Co with whom she has lived, fought and shared ideals and moments… feels just as a speculation that’s not even particularly nice.

It’s common knowledge that a crush isn’t that deep of a love, and Tsuyu knows Himiko hardly knows Ochako, so the fact that Himiko would feel even less love for the members of the league, paints them as even less than comrades who care for each other. Note that Tsuyu is just offering a theory, not a fact, so it’s possible her theory is wrong, in fact, in a while Himeko will confirm she loves Tomura and Touya as well.

Tsuyu then points out something which I instead think will be relevant, how in an extreme situation like this, a single emotion can change things at any second. I like to think this sentence can also foreshadow things to come, and not necessarily just in regards to Himiko. We know one of the points the story made is that changing emotions can change things, for example, Shouto forgetting his father and focusing on his wish to become a hero helped him to use his fire during the fight with Midoriya… and, even more relevant, in the very first chapter, Midoriya overcome his fear due to his wish to help Bakugo, or Jin went so far as to overcome his trauma due to his wish to help the league.

Still, fearing Himiko will overcome whatever stops her from using Tomura or Touya’s Quirk, Tsuyu believe they must rush to track Himiko.

And here Ochako tries to do something interesting because she tries to think what might cause Himiko to reveal herself in that sea of clones. Why this is good? Because she might be trying to put herself in Himiko’s shoes, which is the first step to start understanding her.

So we move to Himiko’s point of view and how she’s actually desperate because, although she loves Tomura and Touya, she can’t use their Quirks, differently by how she could do it of Jin and Ochako. This is not something that happened just now, she tested if she would be able to use their powers before the battle and couldn’t, and so, even though all the Himiko transformed in Jin clones keep on repeating ‘All heroes must die’ we can see she’s actually crying inside because she can’t ‘become Jin’ who could make clones of Touya and Tomura whose Quirk would work.

I’ve already shared my two cents on why she might not be able to do so in details here so I recommend reading this meta if you’re curious, for the extreme summed up version, I’ll say it might be because, Jin’s Quirk need info to clone others but, differently from Jin, she might have thought to get the info about the people she wanted to clone by their blood, but if All for One, Tomura and Touya have Quirks that aren’t their own, she might not be able to find info of them in their blood. Again, really, more details about it here.

The story goes back to Ochako and how she loves seeing happy people, and therefore this causes her to immediately spot the Twice who’s actually crying instead, the implication being this allows her to recognize Himiko. It’s worth to point out in the past Ochako was surprised to see Himiko so very sad and crying and this pushed her to think at her and consider trying to understand her, so this might be a call back to that, and might help Ochako to get close to her. At least I hope so.

If Ochako were to reach for Himiko without attacking her but just by connecting with her she could stop the Sad Man’s parade a lot better than by fighting Himiko. But, we’ll see.

Meanwhile Hawks is encouraging Tuskiyomi to fight, thinking although All for One is invincible, they still might be at advantage because Endeavor managed trashing him once and All for One is in a hurry to reach Tomura and even admitted it. Now… okay, Kudos to Endeavor for trashing All for One once but that didn’t really do much as All for One rewinded back to his youth, undamaged self and making him lose some precious time as far as Hawks know (it might have done more actually but he shouldn’t know yet). So his ‘thanks to Endeavor’ only works to remind me he’s an Endeavor’s fanboy.

Anyway the group decides to support Tsukuyomi by trying to block the light to fuel his darkness, which pushes Camie to make night sky with her Quirk, while Kamuy Wood, holding a wounded Komori, claims they’ve to stop Toga from making more clones, which is Inasa’s job.

All for One causes a huge blast of light or an explosion of some sort to deal with Dark Shadow as he evidently figured light is its weakness, complaining they’re trying to impose their will with brute force (because he isn’t? I mean, I get he might complain what the heroes are doing isn’t noble but he’s the last who can talk about heroism).

Turn out though he’s now even younger. Evidently the rewinding bullet can’t be stopped and might keep on having him rewind until he’s just a fecundated egg. Unsurprisingly he’s good looking. He sees to have dark shadows under his eyes though so he’s not really feeling so hot and tries to escape, shased by Dark Shadow and Inasa who tries to boost him.

Again, the narrative focuses on All for One and Hawks as if they were meant to become the ultimate pairing… no, okay, I’m joking but it seems as if they’re the only one noticing/realizing things, as if they were mind connected because, again, they came to a realization in the same time, that the situation is perfectly optimal.

In fact Machia just showed up and All for One, thinking Machia is in full control, orders him to flatten his enemies. Only Machia is under Shinsou’s mental control so he tries to flatten All for One by tossing at him a mountain… okay, maybe not but it’s big. Japan’s geography is being rearranged by this battle.

There’s apparently 3 to 4 people on Machia (one seems to have Compress hat but I doubt that’s the case). We’re shown two of the people on top of Machia are Kirishima and Shinsou who, as I said before, has likely brainwashed Machia and forcing him to go against his beloved master.

Which yeah, technically gives them a lot of power but dehumanize Machia, turning him into a weapon the heroes toss in the fight without a care of how he actually loves All for One… but I wrote my thoughts in more details about this here.

To sum it up, what Shinsou’s doing isn’t really heroic and, since he hated the idea his Quirk could be seen as a Villain Quirk, I wonder if this will be discussed. I like to hope it will. Shinsou himself is depicted frowning a little so he might be not comfortable… unless it’s just for him is hard to keep control of Machia. We’ll see.

That’s all though.

There was no trace of Touya and Endeavor so yes, it’s entirely possible Endeavor escaped because he was just trying to move Touya out of the heroes’ way, so that his flames wouldn’t be a problem to them. I hope we’ll go back to him soon but I’m afraid Horikoshi might be saving him for later. Oh well, we’ll see.

[opticor]

partial PE honkai eruption timeline aka i can’t believe HUA became MANTIS at 17

[image id: four collages of screenshots from honkai impact and supplementary comics, acting as citations and references for the timeline below]

roughly a year before PE 3E, KEVIN moves to Nagazora in the Far East (what we call Japan) where he meets MEI [Divine Key manga: Judgment of Shamash chapter]; that summer, six months before the eruption, she goes to an academic symposium on the MU continent where dr. MOBIUS spots her as an excellent candidate for a career in the MOTH evil scientist department [game chapter 17 act 2, ER Recollections: Good News, DK: Shamash]

the manga kinda makes it sound like KEVIN transferred 3 months before the eruption, but that doesn’t work with their bench conversation in chapter 17, unless MEI was scouted the year before they met; but as she already has a crush on someone when she meets MOBIUS, and allegedly wasn’t interested in that stuff before she met KEVIN, i think it’s simpler to assume she only went to the one the summer after KEVIN transferred to Nagazora

meanwhile, HUA begins her freshman year in Sapphire (a city in the east of Asia); she spends 6 months there, during which time she makes many friends, obtains many fashionable clothes, and celebrates her 15th birthday; the third eruption occurs on the day she is due to go back home [all game chapter 20]; HUA survives the initial eruption, is saved by HIMEKO, and eventually joins MOTH as some sort of regular soldier [game chapter 20, DK: Wings of Origin chapter]

MEI’s symposium in the summer 6 months before 3E + HUA’s birthday on february 9th place the eruption somewhere between february 10th and 28th, depending on how strictly we count HUA’s 6-month-long first semester at school (which likely started in september). personally, i think february 14th is the perfect date for a honkai eruption but either way it seems to at least add up to the same month as CE 3E [per the Azure Waters extras] which is neat because hi3 is a story about endless cycles etc.

3 years later, KEVIN kills the 6th herrscher [DK: Shamash]; within the next year, the 7th and 8th herrschers are also defeated [game chapter 20; also per the Second Key manga, Su joins MOTH about half a year after KEVIN killed HIMEKO, and the 8th herrscher manifests soon after]

a small discrepancy in the timelines: 2nd Key manga says it’s been 5 years since 3E while Shamash+ch20 add up to less than that; Recollections: It attempts to fix this (i think) by placing SU’s admission to MOTH at 5 years after SU and KEVIN last met instead (likely the time they saw EDEN in concert [Recollections: Chat History] which is some time before the eruption, possibly even before the bench scene) and yes this means that SU got his medical degree in just 4 years, probably because he’s very smart and motivated, but maybe also because they were already in dire need of medical personnel? i’d also assume this means that KEVIN, MEI, and SU were all in their final year of high school (i’m actually not sure if it was mentioned that they’re in the same year?) since at the very least SU, who lived away from the epicenter, would’ve graduated normally. if PE schools in the “Far East” were the same as schools in Japan now, perhaps disaster struck a mere month before MEI and KEVIN were to graduate :(

there’s no specific timeframe for 9E [mentioned in ELF manga chapter 2 and DK: Blankness chapter both of which are on the CN website but sadly only available as fan translation on mangadex], but the 10th ends 10 months after it [DK: Blankness] and HUA becomes a MANTIS 6 months after that [DK: Wings of Origin]

that’s at least 22 months between HIMEKO’s death and HUA’s procedure (but likely quite a bit longer if we assume between the 6th and 11th they were spaced about 6 months apart), which i don’t think anyone would round down to a year but even then it’s at least 5 years after 3E so to say HUA was 17 at the time would only work if she'd been a middle-school freshman, rather than high-school one

the birthday picture seems like a deliberate touch, and so does making her unnamed best friend Carole-shaped (Carole is 16 in APHO -- someone like the Olenyeva twins would work better as a middle-schooler classmate, or even Sora/Kuu-chan) so perhaps HUA was supposed to have been 12 at 3E when they wrote the manga, but they’d changed their mind about it by the time they got to chapter 20 in the game? now the one thing i really can’t explain to myself is why they made it a point that HUA changes from her school uniform (VA’s blue outfit) to the clothes “Carole” gave her (the Spring Traveler outfit) when she was going home, when the image of her cowering on the ground in VA’s outfit when HIMEKO saves her has been referenced in so many places!! what’s the point

“but if you can’t believe HUA was 17 how can you believe that she became MANTIS 6 months after 10E ended, these things are literally on the same page” idk beats me, one of these is just more compelling considering how scared mihoyo is of letting women be over the age of 18

i could believe Pardo was 16 or so when they MANTIS-ed her though, and Kosma was even younger probably. they of course didn’t need SWARA because when miho came up with it, Pardo and Kosma didn’t exist yet but! if you wanna have fun reconciling all the lores, we could perhaps assume that MEI gave HUA the SWARA treatment for some other reason than the one stated in Blade of the Empyrean :)

tl;dr of this is i think HUA was at least 20 when she became a MANTIS, probably 21; this doesn’t change anything about how effed up her story is, she still saw the horrors of honkai at a very young age, just, you know, mihoyo’s own timelines reveal the lies :^

[mxthtea]

honkai impact masterlist

main masterlist

fics are ordered from oldest - newest assume each fic has gn!reader unless specified (i write gn, male, or nonbinary) please mind the tw before each fic.

(platonic) = platonic x reader fic, no romance. (not an x reader) = only includes the character, or mention of others, in that fic. i don’t right ship fics. (drabble) = fic with less than 200 words. (fic) = fic this more than 200 words (hc) = headcanons, bulleted points used

req status = closed for everything! request info

———————

bronya (platonic only)

(platonic) snake's betrayal (fic)

———————

durandal

reuniting (fic)

betrayal of your most trusted (fic) (tw: blood, violence)

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einstein

general relationship hc ! (hc)

affection (hc)

telepathic communication?? (fic)

(not an x reader) snake? (fic)

princess and her knight (fic)

enemies of science, lovers of ... each other ?!? (fic) | pt 2 |

domestic (hc)

snowy cuddles (drabble)

———————

fu hua

finally meeting again (fic)

first holiday (fic)

relationship reveal (fic)

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murata himeko

with shy!reader (fic)

overprotective (hc)

remembrance (fic)

date (hc)

beach day lover (fic)

(platonic) snake's betrayal (fic)

cuddles ! (hc)

———————

kallen kaslana

best people to wake up with (short fic)

should we kiss beneath the mistletoe? (fic)

"watch your back, otto." (fic) (tw: threats, mentions of murder, slight yandere)

the death of my beloved will be the death of me (fic) (tw: death, blood, injury, swords)

———————

kevin kaslana

mantis! reader (hc)

red doesn't suit you. (drabble) (tw: death, slight gore/blood, violence)

———————

kiana kaslana

herrscher of freedom (fic) | pt 2 (fic) |

kiamei sandwich filling (hc)

your damaged hand in mine (fic) (tw: blood, injury, near death, guns)

popular and lovely (fic)

(platonic) snake's betrayal (fic)

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mobius

(not an x reader) snake? (fic)

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raiden mei

kiamei sandwich filling (hc)

childish scientist (fic)

childish scientist pt 2 (fic) (tw: food, syringes)

(platonic) snake's betrayal (fic)

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seele (platonic only)

friendship hc (hc)

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tesla

(not an x reader) snake? (fic)

overworked (fic) tw: overworking + sleep deprivation

———————

veliona (seele) (platonic only)

friendship hc (hc)

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sirin (herrscher of the void)

first date..? (fic)

your damaged hand in mine (fic) (tw: blood, injury, near death, guns)

popular and lovely (fic)

the shogun and the ronin (fic) (tw: violence, blood, injury)

the sibling she never had

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theresa

(platonic) snake's betrayal (fic)

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yae sakura

best people to wake up with (short fic)

fox berries (fic)

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