#voicelines are fun to make since they could literally be anything

[blokkedbonanza]

Eden | Voicelines

Introduction

Hello - Welcome to the Angel’s Share. What would you like? Oh? Not a drinker? Not to worry, there’s food options as well if you need to get your fill, just browse the menu and call me over when you’re ready. …Not here to eat either? My name? Oh, I’m Eden. What service do you need from me? …I see. I’ll be off in a bit then, I’ll accompany you shortly. 

Idles

Chat: Supplies - Charles said that the next shipment should arrive about evening, I hope he can sort that out while I’m gone…

Chat: Adventuring - It’s been a while since I last left the city walls like this; let’s hope I still know my stuff. 

Chat: Care - I think it’d be nice to just admire the view for a bit like this, wouldn’t you agree?

Weather

When It Rains: Cover - Do you need cover? Oh, don’t worry about me, I can just blow it off when the rain lets up. 

When It Rains: Let Up - Sigh, how long will this rain last? It’s a bit hard for me to hold my barrier up for too long… 

After the Rain - Brrr! Hah, sorry, don’t mean to shake like a wet dog. This is easier than having to lug around an umbrella everywhere. 

When It Snows - Ice is beautiful, yet delicate. It’s hard to preserve when dawn finally arrives… Sorry, where to next? 

When the Sun Is Out - …Sorry, you were saying? The sun is so warm I nearly fell asleep, I should stop taking night shifts…

When the Wind Is Blowing - I hope the flowers at Windrise are growing well, I should stop by there soon.

Timed Greetings

Good Morning - Good morning, you’re here at the tavern early. What’ll it be on the menu today? Apple cider, or adventure? 

Good Afternoon - Let’s eat at Good Hunter, my treat. Hm? Oh, don’t worry about paying me back, Master Diluc pays me plenty enough. Come on, take your pick.

Good Evening - Sigh, it’s usually around this hour where customers start pouring in… Thank you for pulling me out of my shift today, the drunkards last night were more than I could handle, haha!

Good Night - You're free to take my room above if you’d like. It’s no problem, I usually sleep under the bar anyway. It’s a lot comfier than you’d think, haha. 

About Eden

About Eden: Intel - Although working at the Angel’s Share is nice, I tend to hear things through the grapevine that I don’t know what to do with. I understand a tavern is where exchanges occur, but I wish I didn’t have to listen to it all. Sigh…

About Eden: The Guild - I’m very grateful for what Master Diluc has done for me, but I do wish I had a bit more free time to take up commissions at the Adventurer’s Guild. It’s a bit redundant for me to do so since I get paid an ample amount, but I do miss adventuring Mondstadt after what happened…

About Us: Anemo - It’s incredible how you can wield the powers of the wind without a vision. If we’re both free, would you like to show me a few skills? I’d like to hone my abilities a bit more.

About Us: Stormterror - So Master Diluc wasn’t kidding, you really did satiate the dragon. He was under the influence of the abyss order? …I see. The winds disperse with time, and the feelings I harbor towards the East of the Four Winds will fade with it. Soon I’ll find it in my heart to forgive him for what happened. 

About the Vision: Sharp Winds - Sometimes when the world grows quiet and all to be heard is the breeze, I still see that day and hear those cries… This gift from the Gods serves as a reminder of my failure.

About the Vision: Gentle Gale - I have to grow stronger, for his sake. Even though I couldn’t use it back then to save him, I’ll make sure to protect those who are dear to me now, including you. 

Something to Share/Interesting Things

Something to Share - It’s so frustrating when a patron at the tavern points out the windwheel aster spinning in my hair. Don’t people know that it’s supposed to do that? …Why is it spinning rapidly now? That’s- That’s nothing, don’t mind it. 

Interesting Things - I’m sorry for when my barrier comes out randomly, I can’t exactly control that nature. I don’t know why it happens, I guess even the winds can’t be commanded by an Anemo user… Definitely no other reason…

About Others

About Diluc: Caretaker - Master Diluc took me in after the incident in Stormterror’s Lair. He’s actually quite kind when you get to know him, I suppose he just has a soft spot for younger people. 

About Diluc: Dusk - I don’t usually spend my nights at the Dawn Winery, but whenever I do I can’t seem to find Master Diluc. Ms. Adelinde says he’s usually busy, but what sort of matters does he have to settle at such a late hour? I guess it’s none of my business.

About Venti - That bard always performs at the tavern late at night, and it’s hard for me to get much sleep. He’s much more tolerable in the daytime, yet even then you’ll find that he’s already halfway through a bottle of dandelion wine. …Where did he get that bottle anyway? 

About Lisa: Visits - She always lets me stay late at the library whenever I visit to find a book to sit with. Though I’m usually busy at work, she always welcomes me with the book I was last reading already at her desk.  

 About Lisa: Teachings - Ms. Lisa is the one who taught me how to wield my vision, actually. Though Electro doesn’t exactly translate that well to Anemo, she taught me the basics of how to channel the element. She also gave me a book on how wind compression works, hopefully my bullets can get stronger as I learn.

About Bennett: Fondness - Bennett? He’s a very sweet guy. He’s very thoughtful and visits me at the tavern when I’m on my shift sometimes, and always asks me to join him on his adventures … Hm? My windwheel aster? How’d you know- Oh, it’s spinning again. Haha, sorry…

About Bennett: Windwheels - Bennett actually gave me this windwheel in my hair. A condolence gift, after the incident. It hasn’t wilted since. I do hope he… nevermind, it’s not important. 

About Kaeya - Around the Dawn Winery mansion you’ll find Sir Kaeya’s name in a few small places. I’m not sure why I’ve never seen him around the vineyard before if his name is inside the mansion walls, but I suppose that isn’t of my concern either. 

About Jean - The Acting Grandmaster is still wary of my firearm, but for the right reason. Anemo is a tricky element to wield, so I understand why she’s so apprehensive about me using my firearm to amplify that. She has mentioned taking up a sword before… 

About Fischl - Fischl is a lot of fun to speak to. I don’t exactly understand what she says most of the time, but it’s a bit similar to how Master Diluc talks, so I can decipher quite a bit of it. Though I’m not sure where she heard the title “Princess of Mondstadt” from, who calls me that anyway? 

About Razor - Oh, Razor! Him and I get along well, we- well, I used to explore Wolvendom and he would accompany me, and the spirits like him a lot, haha. I visit him from time to time to share my supplies if he needs, and just to talk to him every once in a while. I also see him when Ms. Lisa teaches the both of us how to use our visions.

About Klee - She’s a very bright child, though I wish that she’d be a bit more careful with her explosives. My wind barrier can only do so much, and even then it makes the fire even bigger. I hope Ms. Lisa won’t be too upset with us…

About Xingqiu - Are you visiting Liyue anytime soon? Let me accompany you! I have a friend I visit to chat about the books we’ve read and I have to tell him about what just happened in this one! He’s never gonna believe the main character just sacrificed herself for her partner like that, turning into a dragon?! Oh, what people will do for love!

More About Eden

More About Eden: I - Do you find it weird that I work at the tavern? Most people are usually a bit apprehensive when they stop by the bar for a drink, but it’s not like I’m drinking the alcohol as I serve it to them… Hm? The Cat’s Tail? Oh right, little Diona from Springvale. That’s true, though it doesn’t really make me stand out any less, that just makes the two of us oddballs, haha.

More About Eden: II - What do I do at the Angel’s Share? Well, other than serving the patrons, I usually restock whatever is needed behind the bar, as well as wipe down the tables and collect the pay. I usually take the night shift, since that’s when the bar is the most lively and fun, but it really does take a toll on my sleep schedule when Venti decides “another round on the house!” for the 4th time in the evening… 

More About Eden: III - H-huh? Bennett? What about him? …Sigh, I guess there’s no point in keeping it a secret, what with my windwheel giving it away. Please, don’t tell him, I like it better this way. I don’t… know if I’m ready to be so close to someone after all this time. 

More About Eden: IV - My friend was cold and stern, but was still kind to me and many others. I see a bit of him in you, traveler. Please, promise me you will remain diligent as you face your journey. I can’t always be present to protect you. 

More About Eden: V - Wherever the wind may take you, I will always hold you dear to my heart. The spirit of the Anemo God will guide you through your journey, but please know that there will always be a seat for you at the Angel’s Share, traveler. I’m always ready at a moment’s notice. 

Misc. 2

Eden’s Hobbies - It’s been quite a while since I’ve visited Ms. Lisa to read a good book. I’ve read nearly everything the library has to offer, minus the restricted area. Maybe I could take another trip to Liyue to get that one series I was looking for. 

Eden’s Troubles - The only troublesome thing about Mondstadt is how freely drunk everyone gets. It isn’t exactly my responsibility, but someone has to take care of the folks who are too drunk to leave the tavern. Don’t even get me started on that bard, goodness.

Favorite Food - Anything with meat is a good meal in my book. Sweet Madames, Mondstadt Grilled Fish, have you ever had Master Diluc’s specialty? You’d never think of him as the type to cook for others, but his food is to die for. Maybe one day I can convince him to cook for the two of us? 

Least Favorite Food - Onions are awful. Who likes onions? You cry when they’re cut and they burn your tongue when you bite into it. Who thought this stuff was meant for eating? 

Birthday - Happy birthday, traveler. Come by the tavern later today when you’re free! Anything you want, on the house, my treat. Though I don’t know if I’ll be able to give you any liquor… Hopefully Charles doesn’t mind. 

Feelings About Ascension

Feelings About Ascension: Intro - Hah, I haven’t felt this lively in quite some time. I could get used to this.

Feelings About Ascension: Building Up - Whoops! Sorry, traveler, trigger finger. My bullets don’t usually go that fast, hm… Maybe I am improving?

Feelings About Ascension: Climax - I hope this’ll be enough to protect everyone… No, keep going, it’ll never be enough until you see results, Eden.

Feelings About Ascension: Conclusion - Traveler, I truly am thankful to you. As the Honorary Knight, I was a bit apprehensive about meeting you, though that would be from Master Diluc’s bias. But you truly have been so much help for not just me, but everyone in Mondstadt. Don’t worry about where your journey takes you, I’ll be sure to take care of Mondstadt while you’re away. I’m capable, now that I’m strong enough. 

Action Dialogue

Elemental Skill: I - Hah!

Elemental Skill: II - Woo!

Elemental Skill: III - Get behind me.

Elemental Skill: IV - Away with you!

Elemental Skill: V - Disperse!

Elemental Burst: I - Rise forth from the gale!

Elemental Burst: II - Take back this fight!

Elemental Burst: III - Once more from the winds!

Elemental Burst: IV - Return from the breeze!

Sprint Start: I - Keep up! 

Deploying Glider: I - Fly away!

Opening Treasure Chest: I - Hah, look! Money!

Opening Treasure Chest: II - Hm, this looks like something from the Dawn Winery, haha!

Opening Treasure Chest: III - Woah, so many treasures! You can keep them all, hehe!

Low HP: I - Hah, not looking good.

Low HP: II - Keep going…!

Low HP: III - This won’t be how it ends!

Ally at Low HP: I - What did I say about getting behind me?!

Ally at Low HP: II - Sit back, I’m here.

Fallen: I - Carry me back home…

Fallen: II - Hey, old friend…

Fallen: III - Scattered by the winds…

Light Hit Taken: I - Ow, hey!

Heavy Hit Taken: I - This next round’s for you!

Teapot/Party Menu

Receiving a Gift: I - This is wonderful! Come, I can’t enjoy this all by myself! 

Receiving a Gift: II - Thank you, I’ll savor this.

Receiving a Gift: III - Uhm, it’s okay, Adelinde is preparing dinner tonight. 

Joining the Party: I - What’s on the menu today?

Joining the Party: II - Hah, fresh air!

Joining the Party: III - Just like old times, haha!

BONUS: Other characters' voicelines about Eden

Diluc - If you ever need refuge in Mondstadt, the Angel’s Share will always take you in. If you need shelter late at night, however, please be cautious when entering the tavern. Hm? Booby traps? No, Eden sleeps beneath the bar oftentimes, if you’re too loud you’ll wake her and she’ll hit her head.

Lisa - Hm? Our dear flower has finally decided to blossom before your eyes, I hear? Don’t underestimate her capability, Traveler, that young girl has a resilience that rivals her fa- ahem, her master’s. Just make sure she isn’t tiring herself out at the tavern, would you?

Venti - A new bartender at the Angel’s Share? Oh! You must mean Eden! Don’t be weary, Traveler, my poetic way with words will allow us to acquire whatever we please, because Eden is a sweetheart! …huh? She already told you to keep an eye on me? Hmph, seems like Diluc has already given her a warning… No matter! The wind always finds a way, does it not?

Kaeya - Eden? Oho, it seems you’ve finally come across the little bud in Mondstadt’s garden, haven’t you? She still has a long way to go to becoming a great bartender, but I think most of us can see that’s not the path she wishes for herself, don’t you agree?

Jean - Eden shows quite the potential for being a capable knight, her prowess in defending her comrades is something worth mentioning. Her… weapon of choice, on the other hand, makes me uneasy… I trust Master Diluc to ensure she knows how to work that thing.

Razor - When I hear bang, I know Eden is near. Bang scares Lupical, but Eden is nice, makes sure that Lupical are safe. I feel safe, too.

Fischl - Ah, the Princess of Mondstadt, heir to the throne of Dawn. As one of royal blood myself, it is no surprise that the Prinzessin der Verurteilung is in close ties with such prestige in this fallen world! Soon we shall both ascend into our rightful thrones and become as powerful as the threads of fate have rightfully claimed! Oz - Eden is a dear friend of mein Fräulein, and adoptive daughter of Sir Diluc of the Dawn Winery.

Bennett: Tales - That was an incredible adventure we just went on! Oh, I’m so excited to tell Eden all about it! Come, let’s head to the Angel’s Share right now!

Bennett: Red - Eden? Oh, man, she’s amazing. She’s so quick on her feet and she can manage the entire tavern by herself, she’s so nice too! And when she’s out on an adventure, she’s unstoppable! One time, she totally saved my butt from these monsters late at night, and she looked so pretty- pretty, uh, cool…! And, and then after that I… uhm, my face? Red? Haha, maybe I ate a poisonous berry while we were out, I should go get that checked up! See you!

Xingqiu - Though I only see her every so often, Eden is a delight to have as company. We share a common interest in novels, but our tastes tend to differ; her stories center around romance and discovery, whereas mine lean towards mystery and adventure. One thing we do share in common, however, is the aptitude for gossip. The things I’ve learned about people in Mondstadt I could write my own novel on…

Previous/Next Post: Kit and Talents/Ship Chart

[chocolatestrawberrymilk]

could you do anemo boys hcs for your bday?

A/N: since there's five of them, i made each a bit short :( sorry, i hope that's ok! trying out formatting too hehe >:)

Characters: Heizou, Kazuha, Scara, Venti, Xiao

Warnings: None!

Heizou

In his birthday voiceline to the traveler, he mentions wanting to take them to some sort of locked room!

So I think he'd take you two to an escape room (do they have those in teyvat?...)

If you can solve the puzzles, he'd secretly find that really attractive.

Who am I kidding, "secretly"? He'd tell you about how cool you were the entire way home.

If you can't, he tries to drop subtle hints, enough to set you in the right direction but not enough to make you feel like you weren't doing anything.

When you finally got it he would be so proud!!!

He'd probably tease you for taking so long, tho

If you tell him to stop he will, but if you find it funny too, he won't stop with it until... well.... who knows, honestly.

He just wants the two of you to have fun :)))

Kazuha

ugh literally SO SWEET

DIABETES MATERIAL

Probably brings you breakfast, and does whatever tasks you have on the Alcor so you can sleep in longer!

Wakes you with a super sweet poem :)

His gift, honestly, is probably an entire notebook of poems written just for you!

When the Alcor gets docked and you guys get to go on land, he takes you to a bakery - in his voiceline with the traveler, he mentions wanting to get them cake for their birthday.

Makes you his specialty dish at the end of the day and you fall asleep together <3

Scaramouche/Wanderer

I know I keep mentioning their birthday voicelines but Scara's is literally so cute!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6fxFXU7w64&ab_channel=Michi <---This is it

So like in his voiceline he takes you somewhere pretty. Maybe he doesn't exactly know how to act or what to do on your birthday but if 500 years of existence doesn't give a puppet a catalogue of the most beautiful places in Teyvat I don't know what will.

Let's just say he takes you to Mawtimiya Forest!

Since it's in Sumeru he'd try to avoid Nahida, purely because he thought she'd embarrass him in typical older-sister/mother figure fashion.

She'd find you two anyways... she's the Goddess of Wisdom, after all!

Nahida would share some embarrassing stories of his hopeless pining while you three had a picnic on top of one of those weird blue mushroom thingies.

Eventually she'd leave you two to it, and you just decided to camp on said weird blue mushroom thingie and fall asleep under the stars!

Venti

Brings you to the Angel's Share!

Prepare for a nonstop onslaught of embarrassingly sappy ballads, especially when he gets drunk, lmao.

It's cute though, and most people come over at some point to wish you a happy birthday, whether you know them or not :p

If you somehow feed him enough food and water to get him back to a semi-sober state, at night, he'll take you up to the hands of the statue of him in front of the cathedral.

He'd somehow get EVEN SAPPIER, and now that he's regained some of his faculties, he's very poetic.

Idc HOW good you are at keeping your emotions hidden, he WILL make you blush at some point.

You two talk up there until you fall asleep and then he flies you back over to your house, leaving some dandelions in an empty vase in your room.

Xiao

Kind of like Scara, he takes you out to nature, but instead of there being a specific destination, the two of you just kinda go for a walk.

He's freaking out the entire time, because he's worried you're going to get hurt by his karmic debt.

In fact, you probably had to ask him to go on a walk with you, and he agreed only after he had cleared out the entire forest of hilichurls.

Catches some crystalflies for you, makes you some food using fresh ingredients, is overall really sweet (as much as he can be)… but you can tell that he's hiding something.

Eventually (guess what... I'm referencing the birthday lines again...) you ask him what's up and he finally shows you.

He made an adepti amulet to protect you, but was embarrassed to give it to you!

He tries to run away after that, so if you make him stay, you two can go into Liyue Harbor and get some food (something he hardly ever does, so you're special!)

Honestly, you keep him sane, so he's happy that he could give you at least one good day.

And that's it! Tysm for requesting! Future note tho I probably won't be doing requests with more than three or four characters, just so that I can make sure the writing is okay!

[revserrayyu]

Real quick Wardance thoughts [part 1]

**SPOILERS** for the majority of the event up until the winner is decided. That sounds like a whole lot to cover all at once but I’m not gonna delve too deep into anything like I have a habit of doing during main story quests. I thought the event was good and there were many moments I enjoyed, but I’ll admit that I skimmed through the bulk of it, so just take this as a quick speed run of random thoughts I had while finishing the whole thing last week.

So please tell me I’m not the only one who noticed that they finally fixed Oleg’s mouth now when he speaks?? No longer can I tease him about being a telepath. He had actual mouth movement this time!

Geppie is such a good boy. I sorta figured we would be facing a losing battle against him as Luka since he’s the literal definition of a tank, but it was of sweet of him to give us a chance to travel to the Xianzhou regardless of how this fight ended. Yeah it makes sense he can’t really put his Captain duties on hold just to travel to a whole other world, but the nice gesture is still appreciated.

I’m so happy that parts of this mission were voiced as it allows us to hear some of our old Belobogian friends again, such as Natasha, Bronya, Lynx, etc. (It’s just my luck that Serval nor Seele, who are no doubt my two favorites from this place, get not one single line throughout the entire story.. but I digress.)

I gotta survive off crumbs of just mere mentions of these favorites instead. It was fun hearing Bronya trying to intimidate Seele’s speech though.

They teased us with Owlbert appearing in the main 2.5 story by Hoolay suddenly stirring up chaos, but it’s nice to actually hear our reliable host in game, even if only from a puppet. Perhaps we can see the real bird one day. Playable Owlbert when, Hoyo?

Now.. how exactly does our boy Luka know what Cocolia looked like? He’s been in the Underground his whole life and madam had (unfortunately) ceased to exist by the time he had the chance to visit the Overworld. Heck, Luka wasn’t even around during the main Belobog story, since he was doing Wildfire work somewhere else. I can imagine that maybe Seele or others told Luka about her (for whatever reason, I dunno), or perhaps he caught sight of a portrait in the museum, though he’s not too keen on visiting the Overworld in the first place, if his voiceline about the place is anything to go by. Oh well, it was just a real accurate and powerful hallucination anyways.

Poor Owlbert. Can’t even be spared from an angry, defeated Topaz despite her love of animals.

Actually Topaz, the term is “going all in,” as Aventurine likes to say. Haha, I tease, but it makes sense that our gambler went total boss mode in Penacony then.

Luka and Sushang are the same kind of silly and stupid. It’s delightful.

I am holding every tiny fact about Seele carefully in my hands and cherishing it fondly. And if Luka knows this, does that mean was he around when it happened? Surely he had teased her about it. Dude is lucky he’s still alive and well.

First we spoke a *Nameless profanity* in Penacony, and now there’s a *Xianzhou profanity.* I love it. Where’s the one for Belobog? And can we please hear Seele say it? If we could get someone to just say "fuck" once, it better come from her.

Ah.. a lack of censorship would make Boothill more enjoyable for me too, but I understand why we have it. At least the anger towards Owlbert is on brand.

Boothill certainly wasn’t messing around during this match huh. The loss really put Luka’s head in a bad place though. I forget exactly how his arm was repaired, either IPC assistance or something else, but dang, wouldn’t this have been a wonderful opportunity to bring in our lovable mechanic Serval into the story to fix his arm instead? Huh, Hoyo? (shh, I’m just missing her. leave me be.)

There was this on random npc standing on the railing overlooking the arena who had an abundance of confidence that I just found humorous, especially with us mentioning Acheron’s habit of getting lost.

The whole scene with Margie inside Luka’s mind was so rough. His companion quest was sad enough already, did we really need to experience heartbreak again??

Luka, please.. no. Who taught you about rizz?? Was it Argenti? That dude can charm almost everyone, even plants.

Tee-hee, hiiii Yukong~ Wonderful to see you again, madam. I know I’m skipping on so many other things, but this mission was longer than I had expected, so it’s safe to say that I haven’t any clear memories what was happening right now. Something about a disguised borisin with a robot partaking in the tournament. But our favorite pilot is also here now. So that’s all I cared about, clearly.

I know it was sweet of Hook to come along on trip and support her fellow Mole member in the tournament but it is so odd not seeing Clara at Svarog’s side. Surely our friendly robot could’ve watched over two kids as once. (it’s fine though because I did a random ten pull on the standard banner while completing this mission and got myself E1 Clara. so at least she’s safe.)

Rappa mention! I can’t wait til we learn more abut her. (Saw quick leaks of her combat already and it’s quite a sight. They keep upping the ult animations for sure.)

While I was completely fine with the idea of us taking out all of Yanqing’s 99 barriers during the fight, I was surprised to see the cutscene switch up and have the two finalists really partake in hand to hand combat instead.

At first I thought, “yeah, fire. That makes sense for Luka,” until I remembered this dude is a physical character and fire is only part of his design. I assume he can still use flames with his mechanical arm, but he’s just using his regular one at the moment, not the big red one he wields during actual combat. I dunno how this man’s arm works exactly, but it was still a cool shot and an expert dodge by Yanqing.

Speaking of our young man, he did so well during this cutscene! Was not expecting him to be so skilled with throwing hands either, so to be evenly matched with Luka, who mainly uses his fists for fighting, is impressive nonetheless. Yanqing did of course give the victory to Luka though, which is fine.

Aawwhh.. and what if we all cried?

That’s all for now. There is gonna be a second part only because the Yaoqing trio shows up at the very end and I have many feelings about them but overall, this was some good stuff for Luka. Maybe he’ll show up in the main story one day aside from all this optional stuff.

[ping-ski]

Hewwo!!! :3 I hope you are having an amazing day, here is a whole plate of cupcakes! Would it be possible for you to share a few lore details about your Eclipsed By You AU story? I keep looking at the designs and I am so curious about what will be happening, I would wish to nibble on tiny lore crumbs, pretty please?

ama!! hihi! ! i meant to answer your ask much sooner! anyways, since you asked so nicely (and because i am pathetically weak to any sweets </3) prepare for some SERIOUS yappage under that cut

✦ AuDHD demands that I explain EBY origins before any details but you can totally skip this if you want! (Scroll till you see blue text! :3) So... Eclipsed By You was intended to be au/fic just for myself after work when I first got into DCA. I literally was pantsing a self-insert fic from just gameplay, voicelines, and a collection of scenarios I wrote in my notes app before I actually interacted with the DCA fandom lol. I was already in the process of writing it to be a proper fic and planned to make an AO3 acc to post it! I took some time away from it tho cause I got busy irl. During my break I did start to interact more the fandom! The first proper DCA fic I read was 'Solar Lunacy' by BamSara a few months back as a recommendation from a mutual I had from another fandom. I had told them about my fic idea and they suggested I read the fic as my fic had reminded them of SL. After reading through, I was kind of bummed initially because I really didn't think I had anything unique to offer with my own fic that I was hoping to share. I stopped writing it cause damn comparison truly is the thief of joy. SL and EBY had similar ideas going on and I just didn't feel like it was worth posting my fic cause it didn't feel "special" to me anymore. It was easy to give up since writing is really not my strong suit at all, so then I fell back to just drawing! I only came back to it despite the 19 other DCA aus I have lined up rn cause honestly I remembered that wrote it for my own enjoyment! Why did that have to change? Albeit, I did scrap lots of what I initially wrote and started fresh cause my interpretation of DCA changed. Regardless, EBY was always going to be a self-indulgent DCA/Reader fic taking place at the Pizza Plex. Sure not anything original, but that's just a fact of being a creative in general tbh. I felt silly when I realized that haha. I'm having fun and they make me smile, so who cares if its been done before lol. I still enjoy Solar Lunacy and still am a fan of BamSara! (the cotl content has been fueling me lmao)

✦ Some bits on Eclipsed By You- The main part of your ask lol! ✿ On the au/fic name: I actually stole it from another au (of the many) I have. No particular reason for it! I was writing EBY and that au around the same time and alternated working on the two throughout the day. That au is now nameless (actually it's nicknamed "Messiah" as I type) cause EBY grew onto me for what it is now! ✿ On DCA's designs: This might be kind of disappointing lol but- there isn't much of a lore/plot reason for their designs? They just look that way cause... why not :3 It's also part of just how I interpret DCA into my artstyle. Otherwise, they can be interpreted as the canon designs early on! Atleast until some future upgrades! ✿ When in SB are we? Everywhere /hj. EBY will have some pre-virus and post-virus stuff just for funsies! I'm dying to yap but if I say anymore I will get carried away 100%. ✿ On EBY!Eclipse: For this au, Eclipse is his own "person" you could say. With his own AI and personality chip to pair! Carefully built to be a dedicated host and theater bot. He is, including Sun and Moon, the entertainment <3. They are a singular animatronic in this fic! (like those 3 in 1 soaps except it's DCA /j) ✿ On EBY!Y/N: (EBY is a reader-insert, but intended to be written as gender neutral and an adult.) Y/N gets their own bit of lore and issues that may or may not be the stress/frustration from my 2 irl jobs thinly veiled lmao. They work part-time at the Plex as a general theater staff member! Each week, their tasks rotating between concessions, being an usher, and working along side the theater bots! (Kind of like a theater tech.) This is a part-time job just to keep them afloat while they work on their last bit of certifications and training to be a caretaker! They are pretty passionate about helping those in need. A sweetheart honestly. Though, if you don't like kids, maybe look away. Wholesome moments with the littles and DCA + Y/N is pretty decent with kids themselves. (Lots of projection from my own experiences working with children and elderly, as a caregiver turned caretaker. I kind of want to highlight some of my experiences with Y/N.) ✿ On EBY!Sun and Moon: These two are goofballs alongside Eclipse through and through. They all get to be sweet, soft, and doting I promise. Originally, before scrapping a good chunk of the og writing, EBY had a beloved sweetheart anxous Sun and aggressive Moon who was kind of an asshole(Before the rewrite, EBY felt so different. Like everyone was just tolerating eachother and fragments being held together with glitter glue n' dreams. I am very very glad it's different now lol.) Eclipse stayed fairly consistent though. Sweet house husband that he is. Now, Sun is just as unhinged as Moon (making him just as much as a threat!), but we will persevere with the power of friendship <3 We're gonna have some aloof Sun moments. He takes his job pretty seriously! Some goofy Moon bits who's giggles are light and airy. He is very unserious I fear. They're both trying their best, in their own ways. There's not much I can say rn without spoiling haha. It's hard to stay vague hrm. Or atleast I can't think of anything specific to add right now. (I may be able to answer some specific questions if you have any, my brain is just foggy rn) ✿ I'm simplifying it down to your "typical pizza plex fic" with pre-virus and post-fire shenanigans. I'm sorry if none of that is telling I can't think of anything specific cause I'm pretty sleepy rn so maybe it's a little boring sounding but I love it anyways haha Expect some canon-typical violence and non-sexual intimacy! I have intentions on writing the relationship between Y/N and DCA ambiguous so it can be seen as queerplatonic or romantic. (But this could very easily changed, I'm a shameless robokisser sigh.)

[stvaltiel]

14, 20, 30 (i’m guessing you’d choose tlt, but if not, i want to hear your lol x tlt crossover skinline idea either way hehehe) also if someone has already asked you one of these questions, jump to the next number on the list!

hiiiii cali 🤠🫶🏽

i can't actually think of anything for 14 so im skipping to

15.) fave league fanfics

literally anything by calchexxis but honorable mention goes to heart on ripped sleeves

technically you could argue this is an arcane fic but league characters are there too so whatever run at the cup is a fucking banger

not enough people write briar so whistle in the dark is naturally one of my faves

20.) If you got to add voicelines to a character of your choosing, what voicelines would you add?

oh man there's so many i could choose for this but i would definitely give katarina and lux some lines referencing their interaction in the comic where she thinks that lux would make a good noxian

i would give rell and briar some lines too since they're both just like. roaming noxus and figuring out how to be people lol. i think they'd have a very fun dynamic

30- Crossover time! You get to make a crossover skinline with a non-League media of your choosing. What media are you picking, and what characters from both medias would be in it?

LMAO my initial reaction was pokemon bc i think it'd be fun to make different champs gym leaders and trainers (i have given this an insane amount of thought actually) BUT sure let's do tlt!

i would take pyrrha + gideon the first and put them in the demacian military bc they're both big on duty and loyalty. they'd totally defect during the mage rebellion tho. pyrrha leaves first and gideon follows her

gideon nav + harrowhark would be shadow isles wraiths. gideon is forever hunting down and killing anything she feels would be a threat to harrow while harrow is forever searching for gideon. their paths are doomed to never cross

camilla + palamedes would be from piltover, pal went into the academy for a medical degree and cam goes wherever he goes so she's studying data collection and analysis

if i had to flip it and put champs in tlt universe:

rell would be the second house necromancer with darius as her cavalier. nobody is happy about this arrangement but they thug it out anyways

sivir and azir represent the third house, he's got a lot of opinions about how the empire should be run and sivir doesn't totally agree but she's a cavalier and she's like. 10th in line for the throne so there's not much she can do about it

riven, sylas, and diana are blood of eden which is like a militaristic rebel group hellbent on tearing down the empire. riven and diana defected while sylas is fleeing imprisonment

[araneitela]

[ META ] + killing

Prompt: [ Meta ] plus a word, equals a HC. // @chasersglow

Sometimes I wish I could say anything other than 'it's not that simple', but I really can't seem to say that... ever. As much as Kafka seems to take to killing and chaos relatively easily when the need for it arises, I don't particularly get the impression that she bears any sort of craving for it. She's rather exemplary at it from what we can see in her trailer, her combat calling back to a sort of... 'John Wick'-like style (but since you ask specifically about 'killing', I'll leave combat for another meta request I got), we can see there's an emotional distance between her and when she's actively engaging in taking lives, as if it is quite literally a means to an end, a necessity that she doesn't quite feel anything specific in regards to. There's no excitement in her, there's no proper smile, no laughter, nothing that seems to inherently indicate that anything is really 'tickling her'. And outside of her trailer, there is also her voiceline about Sam that goes as follows:

"Oh, Sam isn't nearly as picky about his prey as I am... you might consider it a lucky break running into me."

There's an element of her being a little particular as to her engagement with this, which makes quite a bit of sense to me if you see how its really kind of drawn across the board for her character that while she can do things out of necessity, Kafka is one to pursue things when something piques her interest in one way or another. She doesn't do much without some sort of engagement and/or motivation to it, which I don't attach to an overall lack of emotion, as I don't draw a direct correlation between the two. No no, to me, it's simply the concept of 'quality over quantity'; the reality of having specific preferences and standards that guide the choices that she makes. Remember her words to the Trailblazer? She doesn't say it without reason, it's also a glimpse into her own motivation(s) in life when it comes to what she wants to do, rather than what she does when she needs to do them:

"When you have the chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret."

Any way, I got a little distracted here (though only a little). All of this plays into the motivator that Kafka isn't a fully ruthless killer in the sense that this is some pastime that she seeks to engage in simply because 'it's fun', or anything. Does that mean that she's opposed to killing? Absolutely not (obviously). Does this mean that she is good at it, and even finds likely enjoyment in the realization of the latter? Certainly. But there's still a discrepancy between that and enjoying it enough to actively seek it out for that purpose. Besides, let me add to it, that Kafka's list of offenses across numerous wanted posters that have her bounty up so high that she's wanted 'Dead or Alive' (cue Bon Jovi), don't technically list deaths/murders, outside of the 'lethal crimes' noted noted by the Devils on Pteruges-V (where to be 'fair', she was a Devil Hunter of said 'Devils', but her motivation behind it actually has you questioning morality quite heavily).

So in essence, I think the answer isn't as simple as a clear-cut 'yes, she loves it' or 'no, she hates it'; I think there's a level of indifference, but not quite what one might tie to someone who veers close to the path of a sociopath, for example. This is definitely a topic that I want to revisit, but for now, this'll have to do!

[thrilling-oneway]

I'd give you 5$ if you post that draft

you didn't even need to bribe. it's not actually in the drafts of this blog so i'll write a better version

i've said it a billion times before: tsukasa is the comedic relief weirdguy, the devs basically will do anything with him so long as it's funny.

so starting with that valentine's day vlive in 2021. during the MC part of that he gets jealous that rui has been getting chocolates and tries to brag that he got lots of chocolates too but then immediately reveals that he got friendzoned by multiple girls. his voiceline that year is something about how he catches everyone's attention on vday and year round bc he's a star or something like that but anyway that whole interaction there seems to suggest he's straight lol.

however.

he's REALLY oblivious. played for comedy ofc but i see a lot of people interpret this as him being somewhere on the aro spectrum (probably not what the writers intended but fair instance of accidentally coding a character as smth). examples include: not understanding why Akito doesn't want to be seen at PXL alone with Toya in an Akito's initial 3* (second story), literally says "thank you" when Asahi basically confesses to him and completely misses the point (he actually did seem to nearly get this one for a second), and he doesn't understand why Rui's friends are impressed that he's friends the incredibly attractive Shizuku (Tsukasa is the only not-gay-coded male character who isn't attracted to Shizuku, probably because they're childhood friends. or if you want to view him as being aspec, then that works too). also when he mentions that he's friends with guys in his class who are cool and popular and good with women, Hibiki says that he was in a class with one of those guys in 1st year and is amazed that tsukasa is in that crowd now, emphasis on the "tsukasa's friends are good with women part". tsukasa's just confused about that because of course they talk to girls a lot they're in the same class.

also he usually rewrites a lot of romance plays to remove the romance. he rewrote R&J to just make it focused on the action (which is probably because he likes playing action heroes more than anything else), and he got rid of the romance plot in little mermaid because he didn't felt it was needed (this one is justified in-universe as they do fun shows for small children and don't really need the tragic romance, and also from production standpoint like you don't do that because fandom). so yeah that could again be read as him being aspec if you want but i don't think the writers intended it to be read that way, especially the R&J one that was purely for comedy.

all that said, this is an idol game, which generally run on the rule of thumb that every character is some flavour of queer, even if it's just for fanservice (i don't play enstars but from what i do know of it it falls a bit on that last point). anyway you can probably tell where this is going but he gets ship tease with rui sometimes. vast majority of this is from Rui's side but there are things like Oki ni Mesu mama

Tsukasa: Waiting for the "1, 2…" signal, holding hands with you is an act of courage for me

or that one part in pandemonium where he drops his persona for a brief second when he's impressed by rui's plan that was very much put there on purpose, or that Tsukasa and Airi's cheerful carnival team name from that event is "swayed by their partners (相方, aikata)" and when you consider that Shizuku and Airi are heavily implied to like each other, and have canonically been on a "date", that was also a Choice.

idk whether to count KING because justified by them being actors and the fang motif in the song... vampires kinda homoerotic it makes sense that the dance routine was that. also i'm not sure if the connect lives are even canon, especially the wxs one since tokishun broke character and the 4th wall.

yeah i dunno. the writers kinda just do whatever they want with him. interpret any of this how you will i'm just recounting shit from the game.

oh hey it's longer than 300 words now

[valsshadow]

Ok so by the request of @j2lx, a 500 word essay on any topic thats related to the people i simp for. And hence, i proudly present,

WHY CHROMES ARCLIGHT FRAME BEATS GLORY AND DESERVES BETTER

Here are my criterias. (Disclaimer everything here is purely my own opinion and my love for chrome)

1. Voicelines and poses

2. Coatings (yes i know theres a vampire skin but im in global and even then why that when abs)

3. Fight animations

4. The dorm chibis

5. Affection story

(And now before i go any further, yes i play all my games with chinese dub if they have it, but yes, i also call the commandant shikikan)

Voicelines and poses

I could go on a whole day about this but look arclight needs more lines. In comparison to the newer character frames, he has so few poses. BUT HIS LINES AND LITTLE GESTURES MAKE ME GO INSANE.

Like look at him going all shy and there are what, 5 of them?? Just imagine if we had more, how cute they would be. CHROME BEING SHY IS SO GODDAMN ADORABLE.

More examples^^ of his voicelines

And then we have the glory frame

These are literally the only 2 that make me feel anything but even then. IT DOESNT COMPARE TO ARCLIGHTS VOICELINES. Its almost as of he's grown a little more distant from shikikan after the new frame :(

Next Coatings

So since we have the standard ultima looks above, lets go with those first. So i wont deny that the glory frame looks better. (it's what made me get chrome after all) But i love the little ear decives chromes arclight frame has. Theyre jsut so cute but overall, in terms to standard frames, glory wins.

Now onto the frames you can buy

^glorys

Its cool and a little better than a similar one arclight has

^^im talking about this one

BUT

QLDHLQHWKGWLWYWUSUQGHWHFJWVWJX

You can see why. I dont need to say it. (Also, yes, i do have that camu skin. iykyk)

And therefore. My final conclusion is that arclights frame win this. I havent bought that skin yet but I'll probably get it soon.

Ok update: Halfway through writing this i decided yknow what, im pretty sure i have a lot of coating blueprints. Its only 49??? Such a steal. I still have soooo many coating sketches that i havent exchanged yet.

Can you hear me screaming? HES SO HOT GODDAMN SKJDKHDKAJSJK. NO REGRETS.

And.... onto fight animations

Ignore the terrible gameplay and the fact. its incredibly fast and the fact that im lagging a bit. I have absolutely no control over my dodges i know, im working on it.

(i wanted to add another short vid of arclight as the starter because he just looks so pretty but alas, tumblr wont let me so imma just gonna fangirl over that in another post)

Very honestly speaking, glorys animations and effects are better. Especially when the game ends and if youre caught in the midst of his signature or some attack. Although I'll admit that sometimes we get really strange angles

I cant really decide but I'll pick glory on this one. Simply because its really fun to just randomly ping an orb towards the end and hopefully get a cooler looking pose right before they play the battle end animation.

(theres gonna be a pt. 2 for this. i have so many photos and tumblr isnt letting me put more than 10 so-)

[icharchivist]

What was that Zack scene originally about?

Yes, I'm giving you carte blanche to rant about Zack if you want -

that's so sweet anon. you really shouldn't have said that, but that's so sweet!!

and the original scene was how he met Cloud!!!!

(sorry i am NOT linking the remaster, you suffer through the 2007 graphisms with me but i genuinely can't take Zack's new VA sorry--)

Gongaga is the name of Zack's hometown, they were genuinely just talking about their hometown and messing around

talking more about it (you're enabling me) + more spoilers

I find this scene just genuinely sweet. The fact Zack, at this point, is a pretty accomplished Soldier First Class, he's one of the most respect men of his order, and yet he takes the time just joking around with this new infantry guy, the guys people like Zack never really take the time to care about. He's genuinely thrilled he can talk and have fun with him like that.

meanwhile for Cloud it's just. Out of context it might not be anything, but in context, do you know how rare it is for Cloud to smile this brightly. do you know how Cloud's usual mood, especially in the past, is "being a jerk". Cloud isn't the friendly type, he appears also in Before Crisis which happens at the same time as Crisis Core, and Cloud is literally a bitch with everyone, he rarely manages to connect with people, he's moody and he feels like he can't blend in with anyone.

And Cloud admires the Soldier First Class a lot, because he had a fascination about Sephiroth since he's a kid, and Zack is just that as well -- and then Zack just. Jokes around with him. Genuinely finds him fun to be around.

Zack also grounds Cloud's dreams that way. Sephiroth is a child soldier who was made in a lab, even without knowing this second part, it makes him a sort of unachievable ideal. Cloud is just a country boy who can only hope to be on the level of someone that powerful. But Zack is currently on the same level as Sephiroth - Sephiroth's friend, even - and yet he comes from the same background as Cloud. He's basically a realistic ideal for someone like Cloud.

It's how their friendship starts, and because they had fun like that Cloud actually opens up to Zack about how he wishes he could be as strong as him, and Zack immediately offers to mentor him, that he believes in him, that he'll make sure to help Cloud forward. Everytime Cloud helps out during Zack's mission, Zack takes the time to praise him, being genuinely thankful and earnest about this.

and then Zack goes through a horrible grief, and when he comes back from it.... he still singles Cloud out in an army of infantry fighters like him to tell him he believes in him.

And it's like. The kinship of it all. The moment they could bond about being so similar in term of goal and background, with Cloud's insecurities being eased by Zack's boundless optimism.

Zack is called a puppy a lot in Crisis Core because he genuinely has this excited mind of wanting to cheer up on people like this. It's really sweet and this scene really does a good job at showing how those two did become close.

And it's especially something that's touching because when Zack does die in Cloud's arms, this is what Cloud flashback to.

and the remaster makes it less clear, but you need to understand that the 2007 has graphisms ^ like this at all time except on the opening and closing cutscene, and the closing cutscene is Zack's death, and Cloud has a flashback to it.

3:32 for the timecode, else here a gif:

and fans have talked for decades about "Cloud's shojo filter" on the way he remembers Zack. Because ultimately CC is on Zack's perspective, so the first scene is just a silly thing, he's not thinking hard about it -- but for Cloud it's not even just the words that matters as much as seeing Zack being so joyful about spending time with him.

The "Me? Gongaga" meme was especially started by putting the voiceline of the original scene onto the more "dream filter like" Zack appearance from the ending, to really show just how Cloud is romanticizing and idealizing the person Zack is in his mind while Zack was just being silly.

But then it just got out of context and out of hands and people just laugh at Zack for being the "me? gongaga" guy because it sounds like he's a himbo caveman type, but he's not!!! he's just a guy who was everything Cloud could hope to be, and who took one look at Cloud, and decided right there that of course he would die for him. that's all he can do now. And all of that knowing that this is the last Cloud will remember of Zack for a long while after that. This is the last time he rewinds all of his memories of Zack. And then his brain goes completely haywire and gives him amnesia to cope with the loss while also still idealizing Zack so much in his own head that this is what ends up indicating the way he talks moving forward.

so yeah i just have. lots of feelings about it, the way it became such a huge meme while i'm the person *crying* in both of these scenes just gets me like. what do you mean it is funny. what do you mean your heart isn't breaking in your chest right now. What are you d--

so yeah. yeah. Many opinions about all of this basically,,

[omiscurls]

I love your writing and how much you’re able to bring out the true personalities of each character!! I was wondering if you could do Kaeya, Xiao, Diluc, Zhongli, and Childe celebrating y/n’s bday. (My birthday was a couple of days ago but I didn’t receive any greetings from my genshin team for some reason... 😔)

happy birthday

a/n: SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! as for your problem, have you tried looking in character>voiceover>voicelines? the wishes should appear there, i dont know what happened if they don't

plot: celebrating the reader's birthday

contains: kaeya, diluc, tartaglia, xiao, zhongli

warnings: brief mentions of alcohol, otherwise pure fluff

kaeya

a surprise party

to be completely honest, kaeya barely cares about his own birthday enough to even remember the date

and obviously he does remember yours, how could he not, but- he's just not used to celebrating, you know?

so watch him know very well your birthday is coming up, with a mindset like: "okay, you've got time, you'll figure something great out, it's gonna be amazing"

and the day or two before he realizes, he indeed wants to do something great and amazing, but he completely ran out of time

fortunately, who cares about reservations when your brother's a bar owner, right?

he figures out that if he waits till sunset with the party he still has an entire day he can spend of preparing everything he needs

so as you sleep peacefully, he sneaks out of the room at the break of dawn, ready to work his ass off

he doesn't want you feeling bad, after all, right?

the thing is, you do start to feel a bit bad, as an entire morning goes by, and not only is kaeya nowhere in sight, literally nobody is! you walk through the streets of mondstadt, looking for any familiar face to spend the time with, but the city seems awfully empty of your friends. you end up having fun at diona's cat's tail, her complaining about everyone, and you, surprisingly, joining in, but it still doesn't replace the companion of your friends.

you go over your day as per usual, and decide to bake yourself a cake, since you think that'll cheer you up. you run out of flour, though, so it's necessary to go over to the store and stock up on some. right as you cross the city's main square, you run into diluc.

"oh, sorry, haven't seen you" you say, not even lifting up your face to look at who's chest did you bump on, until he grabs your wrist, stopping you in your tracks.

"someone looks dejected" he says, and you almost want to punch him for not realizing why. instead of doing that, however pleasing it sounds, you just shrug your shoulders. "come on, you look like you could use a special drink of mine"

and with that, he pulls you towards angel's share, letting you complain about your day, though you don't explicitly say it's your birthday, still mad he didn't remember that on his own.

"so he completely ditched you without a word?" he acts surprised and offended "that's so awful-" he continues, opening the door before you.

just as he opens it, and you hear the word "awful" you see the bar as if for the first time. flowery garlands are up beneath the ceiling, the tables are arranged differently and covered with colorful, pastel table cloths, music is playing. the backdoor is opened and you see the outside of the building decorated in a similar manner, candles and fairy lights spread all over the place.

the sun is slowly setting over the buildings visible through the back door, and the atmosphere inside borders on magical, but to top that all off-

"happy birthday!" you hear a lot of voices shout, and your eyes widen at the sight of all those who you hold dear present. you can't help but smile, seeing all of them cheer, grinning from ear to ear.

"i-" you look over at diluc "how'd you pull this off?"

you swear you saw him crack a soft smile before admitting that he in fact, didn't. you're about to ask who did, then, but you're interrupted by a silvery voice, coming from behind you.

"i did" the voice says, a hand moving to cover your eyes "wanna guess who?" you hear a whisper inches away from your ear, shaking from surprise.

affection swells in your chest as you quietly say "kaeya", your smile growing fondler, knowing that aside from all your friends, he's here too, and as a mastermind, at that.

"hope you don't hold leaving you by yourself for a couple of hours against me" he continues, arms sneaking around your waist, chin rested on your shoulder "d'ya like it?"

emotion gets the better of you, and you don't know what to say, so choose only to nod eagerly.

"a lot" you finally whisper, much to kaeya's satisfaction.

"happy birthday, then" he says, suddenly pulling away from you, as to exclaim loudly "attention everyone!!" he takes a fork to ring on his glass "i hereby declare, that the next round's on me!"

cheers fill the room, along with one "yea right" and another "like we'd believe that" before the owner of the bar speaks up as well.

"as much as i'd like to see that" diluc settles "today's drinks are on the house."

diluc

a magical evening

so he’s a fan of planning

not a diehard fan, but a fan nonetheless 

it’s just, he would rather have things planned ahead than wake up a day before and not know what to do (like a kaeya) like an idiot.

so you bet he has already calculated how much time he has left the moment you told him the date of your birthday.

unlike kaeya, he prefers to be working alone, but also likes to keep his plans a surprise. he himself hates surprises, but has to admit, doing one for someone else is quite the fun 

he stays quiet about your birthday coming up until the very last moment, and if you want to ask him if he wants to do anything with you that day, he says he already has something in mind, you know, nonchalantly. as if he hadn’t been thinking about it for archons know how long 

he’ll wake up before you just to wish you a happy birthday the moment you wake up, and he might be unusually affectionate for a bit, but don’t even bother asking what he has planned out - he won’t tell, not even if you beg. 

diluc wanted to kick you out of the house all day. “oh, there’s shopping to be done” “oh, this lady wanted to talk to you”, or “you know, come to think of it, didn’t jean say she had something she’d wanted to show you for your birthday?” every lame excuse in the book, he has used it. 

you decide to finally grant him what he so obviously wanted, and leave, choosing to walk all around the city, and even outside the gates, you make it quite a trip, not knowing when to come back. 

you smile upon thinking about how secretive he tried to be, but how even he, the mighty descendant of one of the noble families of mondstadt, a man as collected and stoic as can be, couldn’t contain his excitement. you saw all his little side smiles and the way he bit his lip a little after settling today’s rough plans with you, he was so happy, you’re satisfied just by seeing that, sometimes forgetting the real reason for why he was actively plotting something. 

you walk and walk, and then walk some more, but your legs start to hurt, and you’re growing hungry, so you decide to finally get back home. 

when you approach the winery, you can see the lights in the ballroom are lit up from a mile away. your heart can’t help but flip with excitement, since diluc hates using the room, hates throwing parties, and would much rather just forget it exists. 

it’s a beautiful venue though, looks like something out of a fairytale, and you always tell him how much you love it. it’s no surprised he decided to use it, but you can’t wait to see it anyway. 

as you get closer to the building, it becomes more and more apparent that the ballroom isn’t the only place that got upgraded to a five star level for one night and one night only. the building looks amazing, and the gates are open all the way, as if there was a party to be thrown and guests to arrive any time soon. 

but as you’re welcomed into the mansion, there’s no one else in the hall, other than a dressed up diluc, his hair in a high pony, just how you always said you liked it, wearing a suit you hadn’t seen on him since... well, you don’t even recall. 

“well, if it isn’t my honorary guest” he announces with an official tone, almost making you a bit flustered. 

“what’s all this? am i not, i don’t know, underdressed?” you giggle nervously, and he approaches you, a tiny little black box in his hand. 

“you could wear a potato sack and shine brighter than all the stars together” he says softly, showing you the little box. “and as tradition orders, happy birthday.”

you carefully open the box, a simple, silver necklace resting on the little cushion inside. you take it out, and watch the ornament, but can’t for the life of you figure out what it is. 

“you see” diluc provides an explanation “it’s a common thing to do to gift someone jewellery as a gift, and almost as common to have necklaces with your star constellation. that is, the allignment the stars were in the moment you were born. but i decided, that i wanted to give you one with the alignment that shone on the sky on the happiest day of my life. well, according to mona it did.” 

you stay silent for a second, astonished with the present, before asking 

“and that is?”

“the day we met.”

tartaglia

how to surprise your lover 101

when i tell you this boy knew EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING from the moment he first thought of it

now. he loves celebrating, anything, really, the atmosphere of a party is almost magnetic to him

he grew up thinking every person deserves to have an amazing day once a year, only about themselves, so it’s very obvious to him that he IS doing something, and it needs to be huge

now, in a family as big as his, it was hard to keep things a secret, so he developed a whole plan on how to avoid having you finding out what he was planning

and that is: by having you know

it’s really getting annoying, how everybody keeps walking up to you, for a good week now, and asking if you’re excited for the big party childe’s throwing. the first time you hear it, you almost immediately run to confront him about it, since you explicitly said that a party, a big one, at that, is the last thing you want.

he obviously says that it’s nothing, and you needn’t worry about that. not that you trust his words, obviously, but you let it go, partly because you know how attached he is to the idea of a huge celebration, and partly because arguing with someone as stubborn can really be tiring.

so you settle, and fake a smile for every conversation with the alleged “guests” for your alleged party, thinking you’ll just suffer through it and then just do something with your childe the next day, having yourself plan it.

the wait is stressful, and when you finally see tartaglia walk through your bedroom door, dressed up really nicely, with a soft ribbon to tie on your eyes, so you wouldn’t see anything before it’s “time”, you almost want to ditch him, but that would be too rude.

complying begrudgingly, you let him guide you through the city, feeling the cold evening air hit your skin, wondering where did he set up this party of his, since you don’t hear anything.

oh god, is everyone gonna jump out of hiding yelling “happy birthday”? please, not that, at least not that.

when he finally unties the material covering your eyes, you see nothing but a wooden platform at the end of the harbor, with a blanket set up, some really nice-smelling food and what appears to be champagne laying on it. the sun is setting slowly behind the mountains in the distance, the only sound you hear being waves crushing on the rocks.

you can’t help but gasp.

“but” you turn around to face childe with a questioning look “what about the party?”

“what party?” he looks surprised “i never said anything about any party” he adds with a knowing smirk.

as you analyze your surroundings, he watches you with a soft smile.

“come on, don’t be so shocked now” he finally says “i know you better than to plan you something you’d hate. i’m not THAT much of an asshole”

his giggle sounds almost too good in the beautiful scenery around you, and you can’t help but let your eyes water for a little while, before rapidly blinking the tears back.

“is this more similar to what you’ve dreamed of?” he asks.

“yeah” you whisper “yes, it is”

“well, that’s the only thing that matters. shall we?” his hand points to the blanket, and you nod, smiling.

this may or may not be inspired by that one episode of Brooklyn 9-9

xiao

trying something new

birthdays? what’s that

you mean to tell him he has lived two thousand years of his life without realizing the day it was brought to him should be celebrated?

yup, no, you can explain it all you want, he still doesn’t get the idea. he just finds it to be way too trivial, okay?

what gets to him, though, is that there’s a custom of doing something meaningful for the person celebrating their birthday, to make them feel important

well, you should’ve led with that, that he can do!

he would never just go and straight up ask for help if he needed any. so don’t be surprised if you hear yet more new stories about the yaksha that allegedly lives near wangshu inn sneaking into the kitchen, or watching through the glass.

he spends HOURS waiting for the chef to finally prepare the dish he hopes for, and once he does, he follows every step very carefully. and then again. and again. and one more time, up until he feels he can do it himself.

when he finally gets to enter said kitchen, it’s already way past midnight, and everything is dark, barely visible. he manages to find his way around, though, preparing all the ingredients, and starting to mix them the same way the chef did.

turns out it’s not as easy as it looks, for example, he didn’t measure how long this thing is supposed to be cooked, or on what temperature, so the process gets a little messy at one point. he might even have to start over. like, twice, tops.

it’s already nearing dusk when he finishes, taking the fruit of his works with him.

as per usual, you wait for him on the roof, and as per usual you don’t realize he’s right behind you until he speaks up.

“happy birthday” he says out of the blue, causing you to jump up in shock.

“oh my, xiao, you scared me! again!” you laugh.

“it’s today, isn’t it?” he continues, as if he didn’t hear you. when he sees you nod, he awkwardly shows you the package he held behind his back, watching closely as you open it with a questioning look.

inside, there’s a carefully wrapped serving of almond tofu, it could use a little bit of touch ups, but it still looks and smells delicious nonetheless.

“did you do this yourself?” you turn around to face him, smiling in disbelief

“mhm” he gets a little flustered, and decides not to tell you about his little kitchen adventure. “is it… is it good?” he asks, and you smile even more fondly.

“why don’t you come over here and taste it with me?”

zhongli

one can never go wrong with a classic

zhongli knows every single tradition there is to know.

literally.

so you don’t have to even tell him anything - he knows. he might not know what to do with his knowledge, but he does know what would make you happy

this man is a gentleman who believes that some moves to make someone swoon never get old

he even got a free day from work just for the occasion, or he may just think he told hu tao that he wants it? either way, he’s not there. not like his boss isn’t used to it.

right as the clock strikes 5 pm, you hear a knocking on your door. checking how you look one last time, you smile to the reflection in the mirror, and walk over to answer.

as you open said door, you find yourself dumbfounded at the sight of a completely soaked zhongli, rain pouring heavily behind his back. his hair sticks to his face, and all the layers of his suit seem drenched to their very core, but a smile you see so rarely paints his face, as he presents you with a bouquet of flowers.

and my oh my, just how huge is it! he barely even manages to hold it in hand, and the flower crowns hide his entire chest and half his face when he places them in front of you.

“i believe this is for you” he says gently “are you ready to go?”

you can’t even find the right words, as you size the bouquet up, taking it from him with a quiet “thank you so much” before taking it back to the house, already in search of the right vase to put them in.

“may i come in and dry myself up a bit?” he asks, still from the doorstep, and you laugh before granting him the permission.

when the both of you are ready to go, you meet in the hallway, both smiling softly at the other, a bit awkwardly, as the beginning of every meeting is.

“you look even better than usually” he finally says, pride rising in his chest at how your grin widens.

“same goes for you, mr zhongli” you answer just as cheekily, waiting for what he’s gonna say next.

“well, thank you, but i don’t think today’s about me now, is it?” he counters with a bit of a side eye. “shall we go?” he points to the open door, and the both of you leave, you grabbing his arm to fit under one umbrella.

“may i ask where’re we going?”

you can’t miss the way his smile turns prideful and confident as he says:

“i” he accentuates “am taking you out to dinner”

he might feel a bit offended by how sarcastically you gasp at the revelation, but it’s okay. as long as he gets to see you laugh, it’s okay.

daily reminder that requests are open [here]

[mewberii]

Streamer!Scaramouche [2]

thanks for all the support in the first part! i wrote a second part where scaramouche plays genshin + the reader comes in (i tried to make it as gender neutral as possible, so let me know if there’s something off!). you’re a close friend of scaramouche and also a voice actor!

i had been planning this since i wrote the first part, but because i was busy and uninspired i couldn’t finish it. but here it is and it’s actually pretty long (over 5k words...)! i hope you guys will like this!! obviously he’s a little nicer than he is in game but,,, for the sake of the plot + it being a modern au, it had to be done sjnfdskjf

He was selected to play the beta for genshin because of his popularity and tbh he really wanted to play it

The game hadn’t really caught his eye all that much when he first heard about it but he saw how everyone online went crazy over it (plus other streamers who also were selected to play it in early access kept talking about it) and he became more curious to know what it would be like and if it’d live to everyone’s expectations

However he couldn’t really play it until it was officially released because he had a very busy schedule, and when he saw other streams of people playing it he was,,, lowkey jealous because it did look fun

When it was finally released and the game finished downloading and installing, he went live right away

And since so many people were looking forward to seeing him play plus the game was getting so popular so fast, that stream of when he first played hit his biggest milestone of live viewers ever

ANYWAYS skip forward to further into the game

when it comes to the gacha,,,

we’ve established that this boy is loaded. he won’t hesitate to throw some big amounts of money at the game to get every single character and weapon he wants and get their constellations to the max

i feel like he’d make little bets (and it works as a way to thank the chat for the support) like “if i get (insert newest character) in the first 50 pulls, i will gift 50 subs”

he’d be SOOOOOOO LUCKY it’d make everyone who doesn’t play think that it must be very easy to get the 5 stars or that the drop rate must be very high,,,

so in the end he’d have to gift the subs and it’d be funny to see the chat go absolutely crazy because everyone is commenting at the same time trying to see if they got lucky too and got the sub

but the chat goes so fast that they can’t even see their own comment after they send it sNDJGDJSK 

he’d end up turning subs mode on for a while because it goes crazy

and that’s when he’d see people going “I GOT THE SUB-” all excited and he can’t help but chuckle and congratulate them for being one of the lucky ones

probably another game he can use to play with some subs once in a while! they could play co-op and when he’s a very high level he’d go to the worlds of some of his subs with lower level to help them with whatever they need

SO, LITTLE SKIP HERE

this is where i want the reader to slide into the picture

you’d be a voice actor, and also you have been a friend of his for a very long time

he met you even before he started streaming and you were always so supportive of him, as he was of every and each of your dreams

in fact, he would have invited you over more than once to stream with him

people don’t say anything bc they’re afraid of scaramouche banning them (it’s happened before) + they understand it can be disrespectful... but…

some people lowkey ship you two a little bit,,,,,, you didn’t hear it from me. scaramouche don’t ban me----

so one day he’s making another livestream playing genshin (sponsored by mihoyo to promote the newest update and event) and they’re going to release a new character 

AND he has told everyone that you are the voice actor of the new character, who will be introduced in the event and is also getting their own banner

so everyone is very curious of what they’ll be like, if scaramouche will try to get them (obviously he will, he has every single character…. the amount of money he has put into the game…. just thinking of it gives me the heebie-jeebies) 

could he even,,, main them,,,,

spoiler: he won’t because he’ll stay honest till the end (and no hard feelings) but there are other characters that he has built up to the max just like them and still work better with the way he plays but he’ll still find a chance to use them often

he didn’t know anything of what the character you voiced would be like because you wanted to keep it a surprise and he knew his audience would enjoy seeing his first reactions

I think the character you voice in the game would have the role that Scaramouche has in the actual game, and their design would be fairly similar (maybe similar color palette) to the design fans made for him as a genshin character (the one i mentioned that he uses for popup notifs of subscriptions and all!)

needless to say he’d absolutely love their personality and the charisma you showed in their lines

of course when he finally gets them he shows everything about them including all their voice lines and he compliments y/n’s voice acting… that was the first time people suspected that....

mayhaps… scaramouche….

has feelings for you....

it’s in the soft gaze in his eyes,,, the gentle smile on his lips,,, his soft voice when saying “I think this one is my favorite line of theirs”

and just how BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL his laugh sounds when someone comments he should invite you and ask you to do that voiceline live for him and everyone else

he’d jokingly reach for his phone and be like “should i call them? i could” 

(but he wouldn’t because he doesn’t want to disturb you, you may be busy, considering you still hadn’t replied to the messages he sent to you before he started the stream a few hours ago)

if anyone dares be mean to you saying you got the chance to voice act for genshin just bc of scaramouche

or implies that he did something to get you there he’ll get quite mad even tho he won’t speak up about it (he might if enough people say it) 

people can see something shift in his gaze,,,, and he bans them permanently right away

it’d be kinda funny when he does those “reading unban requests” streams and he goes past immediately rejecting people who said those kind of stuff, not even reading the apologies JSNKJFNDSJKGNSDK

some people say he’s too strict about it but literally his stream his rules. people who don’t like him should just not watch him

and people who like him should NOT speak badly about you or doubt your talent and effort, which is what brought you that opportunity in the first place

one day he’d be streaming playing the game, he had been using your character and gathering materials to get their last ascension

and at one point he’d grab his phone and look at the screen for a second before putting it back down and saying he had planned something else for tonight besides playing genshin for a while

then, the doorbell would ring (before he could even close the game-) and it’d be heard from his setup room so people in the chat heard it and they���re all like???

it’s definitely not takeout because scaramouche never orders takeout when he’s on his own, he usually cooks for himself and just orders it when he’s with friends and they all feel like eating something different

actually, offtopic, but i have a feeling he’d be very responsible when it comes to food and like he’d cook himself proper meals all perfectly balanced and all- he could afford having someone cook for him but his house = his privacy and personal space so he’d rather do it himself

it’s like, past 10pm, so no way it would be a package or mail at that time

and then he says “we have a visitor tonight”

and then the chat goes crazy saying “CHILDE” “HARBINGERS” but mostly “Y/N!??!?/PLEASE LET IT BE Y/N”

AND IT WAS YOU!!!!

and omg you brought takeout--------

it had been a while since they had seen you in scaramouche’s stream and you didn’t have your own channel (even though there were many people who encouraged you to open one)

SO everyone was very excited

i feel like scaramouche wouldn’t be the biggest fan of eating on camera so you guys would put the food away so that you can eat it later on your own without an audience

and you two would just spend a while talking to the chat, watching videos

AND reviewing fanart and fanmade content together!! it’d be so cute especially fanarts of the two of you together, little animatics or comics of funny clips or memes from his streams of you two,,,

someone made a little felt plushie of the genshin character you voiced and the way you COOED because it was SO cute

only those who were truly paying attention were able to notice the soft smile on scaramouche’s lips and the way he looked at you as you gushed over how cute the little plushie is and how talented the person who made it is!!

also you’d tell him you saw signora make a stream where she talked to some of her fans on discord individually to give them advice on their life/problems (nothing too serious) and it was very funny and you wanted to do that with him someday

and he’s like “that… could be a huge mess. people could say some crazy stuff” and you’re like “NO but i talked to her about it and she said she got her mods to talk to them first and approve them before they moved them up to the channel where she was to talk to her”

and he’s like “still…….. what if people lie and then when they get to talk to us they say something-”

and you’re like “BOY!!!! DO YOU NOT TRUST YOUR FANS *GASP*” and everyone in the chat is also going “GASP” “HE DOESN’T TRUST US…” “IS THIS YOUR IDOL…..?” “SAY SORRY” (all good fun, obviously he’d love to talk to everyone if he could make sure there won’t be anything disrespectful said)

SO!!!!! you two say you’ll plan to do something like that soon and everyone is very excited, they can already tell it’ll be both super cute and hilarious

before he ends the stream, you two watch some videos together

some are about some upcoming videogames and he talks about them and what he knows and explaining things to you... he is.. so knowledgeable…

the way you look at him as he goes into a little rant about it… cinematic parallels with the way he looked at you before

ONCE AGAIN, people aren’t blind. they notice. but they keep it to themselves bc scary scara (the way i had to resist overusing this one joke with his name-)

so the stream ends and you two walk out of the setup room to go to his living room and eat the takeout you brought while watching something on tv

he apologises because the food is cold now, but you brush it off saying it’s ok, you had missed being on his streams and you two can just heat up the food again

he doesn’t look at you in the eyes as he mutters that you know you can join his streams whenever, and instead just says it as he makes his way to the kitchen to heat the food

you join him in the kitchen soon after and tell him you also bought something for dessert and put it in the fridge already before

and honestly he didn’t know how much he wanted to eat that dessert until it was in his fridge, so he can’t stop himself from sighing and saying “god, i love you”

there’s silence for a second, right as the microwave beeps as it finished heating the food

it feels eternal to him, but you immediately started laughing and said jokingly “of course you do! you’re welcome!” 

he’s happy you took it as a joke because that’s not how he planned to confess (he didn’t plan to confess anytime soon in the first place) but at the same time ?? he’s lowkey offended inside because? you took it as a joke?? is it so unrealistic that you wouldn’t even think that he meant it romantically?

it’s at that moment that he realises that if he didn’t want to confess before, now he does.

he wouldn’t want anyone to know about how he let that slip because he’s sure no one in you two’s friend group even knows he likes you

but you,,, actually,,,,, were actually caught off guard too because scaramouche wasn’t precisely one for words of affection and he showed his care for everyone with his actions

in fact, you had never heard him say those words before but well- it was kinda nice- if only he meant it as you feel it- but he couldn’t, right? who’d confess their feelings so casually while looking at a dessert in the fridge with desire-------

that night, it gets pretty late and to be honest he’s a little too tired to drive you home as he usually would, so he asks if you’d like to sleep over

it wouldn’t be your first time doing so, not even the first time you stayed unplanned, and he had a couple guest rooms that you could use so you accepted

also, staying for longer meant you could keep watching some more of that series with him without worrying about it getting late

or,,,

“actually” you said in a low voice, almost a whisper, since it was getting late and you two had been in complete silence while watching the series “i lowkey still wanted to stream some more”

he scoffs but then lets out a short chuckle, replying in the same volume

“it’s past 2am, who’s going to watch me stream now?”

“i would” have mercy for his poor heart- “but i’d be the streamer too this time so it doesn’t count” 

“what even would we do”

“can we play that co-op game you played with childe? it was so much fun” 

had you not brought it up, he wouldn’t have offered that ever because? if he had recently played it with childe he didn’t want to stream it again and make it feel repetitive for his audience 

(jokes on him because when genshin came out they put up with it being the only thing he streamed for over a week. they’d rewatch any game if it’s you two playing it)

but to be honest, he didn’t really want to stream anymore that day and just wanted to be with you, just you and no one else

he got up from the couch and walked towards the hallway, making you look up to him in confusion for a second, but then started getting excited knowing this meant he was going to let you play it with him

“i don’t really feel like streaming anymore today, but we can still play it. let’s go”

the next day, you two wake up around the same time and make breakfast together

scaramouche i feel is not very talkative in the mornings 

in fact, i feel like he’s just not the most talkative in general. he’s more the type to listen, but it’s different during his streams because he’s doing what he loves and talking about what he loves

and when it comes to you and he talks more it’s because he’s talking to who he loves----

before you’re going to leave and you’re standing at the door about to say goodbye to him, he suddenly speaks up before you can

“do you want to go somewhere tomorrow?”

you raise your eyebrows in curiosity from the sudden request, but then smile at him and nod

“yeah sure! what do you have in min-”

“it’s a date” he said, interrupting you, which was weird enough of him (since he would never interrupt you), but his words were even weirder-

“h-huh?” you felt the heat rising to your cheeks, and scaramouche just repeated his words

on the outside, he looked so casual and just, confident- bUT INSIDE he was actually panicking a little bit 

but just a little bit.

After a moment, you smiled at him again, this time somewhat more shily but also excited for your date!

“I look forward to it”

Just with that, you two knew you had made the first step

You weren’t just friends anymore

You two had hung out on your own many times before, in fact and as it was mentioned before, you two had even slept over at his house or yours many times before

but it had all always been purely platonic, and you guys had never even questioned that aspect of it even after realising you had romantic feelings for each other

he’d spend the rest of the day thinking of what you could do the next day, as if he hadn’t been brainstorming for ideas all night either

i feel like he hasn’t gone in many (if not any--) dates before

solely because he has never been interested in romance plus he had never liked someone or at least, not as much as he liked you

and even when he found out he felt something for you, he just always told himself he was okay with how things were, because he’d never experienced anything beyond friendship and didn’t feel the need to try and maybe ruin the friendship

SO he didn’t have many ideas of what a good date could be

he definitely didn’t want a cliché corny date, but he really didn’t have any idea of what was good enough for a date

(and if for future dates you want something he’d consider a “”cliché corny date”” he’d do it for you and actually enjoy it)

the last thing he wanted was to have to ask you what you could do for your date

1- because he didn’t want to show you any side of him that didn’t look like he always has everything under control and he’s always composed (as if you wouldn’t want to see every side of him, even his most vulnerable sides- you’d have to work on that with him when you two become official)

2- he… kind of wanted to surprise you…..

but it really got to the point where he really didn’t know what you’d like the most (or what he’d like the most too) and what he wanted most over anything else is to not disappoint you in you two’s first date

SO he finally texted you asking if there was anything special you wanted to do (and therefore indirectly admitting he……….. just really wanted to ask you out. so much he did it without thinking of what he’d do if you said yes--)

you didn’t seem to mind, and in fact you were happy he asked for your opinion 

overall, scaramouche was very independent so he wasn’t one to ask others for advice, opinions or anything, much less for help regarding anything

“how long has it been since we last went to the arcade? we could go there! i heard from childe that they added new games!”

and he’s like !?!?!?? THAT…. is…….. the perfect idea

“that actually sounds perfect” he admitted, and the message brought a big smile to your face 

“just don’t get mad at me when you lose at all of them” he sent right after, teasing you, and you couldn’t help but let out a laugh out loud

“the last time i won in your favorite game” you reminded him, and even after he read your message, he took a little bit to reply

(he needed a second to put the pieces of his pride together SJNFKJDS)

“don’t get used to it, it won’t happen again”

“we will see about that” the more you two joked like this, the more excited you got thinking about tomorrow

scaramouche was sure now that it’d be a great first date that you’d both remember forever

the next day, it was almost the time for the date and scaramouche was going to pick you up at your house

i feel like scaramouche would be very fashionable and even in his style he doesn’t try to hide that he’s loaded…

not that he cares about buying cheap clothes, literally he’d say if he likes it and it’s good (aka it’s not cheap because it’s made of something that won’t make it last longer than 3 weeks) he’ll get it

but it just so happens that many times… the clothes he likes most are from famous brands…

AND THIS DAY!!!!!! he’s putting together one of his favorite outfits because it’s a special day

it almost hurts me just how nonchalant he’d look on the outside, making it a little hard to know exactly just how much this date meant to him (because as i said he’s not one to be very vocal about his feelings or even his thoughts)

BUT i trust that you… since you know him well…. can see past all that and you know that this is not just anything casual to him. this is special.

STILL!!!! he’d try his best to not let the blush rise to his cheeks and show, as well as to not let his voice shake when he complimented that you looked very good

ANYWAYS i think i think Scaramouche wouldn’t be one for big pda

the most he’d do where anyone can see is hold your hand or put his arm around your waist

WHICH IS WHY he’d try to be all smooth (and he would manage) reaching for your hand and lacing his fingers with yours

he wouldn’t make eye contact because then he’s sure it’ll show on his face that he’s getting somewhat flustered, but he’d still ask if you’re okay with it, to which you said yes

the area where the arcade was is always somewhat crowded so when you two were getting there, scaramouche would tighten the grip on your hand a little bit to make sure you wouldn’t let go and you’d be pulled apart by people trying to walk past however they can

you know that if you two got serious about your relationship, he would want to be the first person to share the news with his fans

BUT since he was so popular now, you two lived in a pretty big city and now were at a popular area (+ scaramouche wouldn’t be the type to try and hide his identity because he’s never had people make a fuss when they recognise him)

you were a little worried someone would see you two and maybe take a picture and post it online and it’d go viral before he can admit it himself

because of that, you end up throwing back to him the question he had asked when he held your hand 

“are you sure this is okay?”

your question confused him because he didn’t know what you mean, so he finally looked you in the eyes and waited for you to explain further

“it’s just- what if somebody sees us and recognises you?”

he looked away from you and back at where he was going, taking a few seconds to answer before he just shrugged

“i don’t care”

you softly let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding as you waited for him to say something, and almost missed the way he whispered

“as long as it doesn’t affect you”

for someone who seemed and actually tried to seem to self-sufficient, who appreciated his friends but was also okay on his own because he was absolutely comfortable with himself, he was actually…

more selfless than people would ever know, especially when it came to you

you two would have SO much fun in the arcade, trying every single game many times

this time though, scaramouche won in his favorite game so he lived up to his words

you two won so many tickets you literally didn’t even know what to do with them once you got the couple prizes you were interested in

you bumped into a couple fans of his, so you talked for a while

once again, you were met with suggestions of opening your own streaming channel, and even scaramouche said “i’ve told them that many times too, but they always say they think their streams won’t be fun enough”

and the fans are like “NO!! literally everyone thinks you’re super nice and fun!! of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we’d love it!!”

one of the fans (exaggerating a little as a joke) said “i’ll be your number 1 fan i swear” and the three of you laughed, except scaramouche who just scoffed and smirked 

“i am ALREADY their number one fan. but good try” <- scaramouche in his head. say it outloud u coward.

but at the same time it was a joke scaramouche chill pretty much everyone knows you’re their number one fan……. even though you think you’re so smooth………. they just don’t say anything 

they were very nice and fun to talk to and you knew scaramouche and you didn’t really want anything else from the prizes, so you offered you two’s tickets to them

“we don’t really need these anymore so maybe you’ll have more use for them!!”

they got SO excited, the way their eyes lit up :( scaramouche is convinced you’re an angel but he’s also very happy to see how joyful his fans got because those were more than enough for the prize they really wanted-

so after that cute little interaction and having used up your energy for competition, you two leave and think of buying some ice cream or a milkshake or something to end the date nicely and to enjoy while you walk back home

the arcade was not exactly very close to where you two lived (it was far from your house, but even farther from his-) so he asked if you were okay with walking back or if you two should get an uber or something, to which you said you were okay

walking back with him meant!! a little more time you could spend with him

and he was happy you said that because he was feeling the same way and still didn’t want the day to end

we’ll see more about the kind of things he likes and dislikes if he’s released as a playing character BUT FOR NOW i really get this vibe that he’d LOVE boba tea

i even think he’d?? enjoy tea in general??? classy boy…

SO you two would end up going to get some boba 

it was very touching how, when reading the flavors they had that day, he suddenly and casually went “oh, they have your favorite” and you looked at the one he was pointing at and !!! indeed it was your favorite!!!!!!!

he remembers this kind of details very well

you take the chance to talk some more as you’re walking home

scaramouche asks about your job with voice acting and you tell him that you actually have been recording some new lines for your genshin character lately because in the next update there’ll be an event involving them

he’s looking forward to it but he teases you a little asking if it’s okay for you to spoil him with such information

but it’s okay because it’s not like he’d tell anyone, especially knowing it could get you in trouble

when he drops you off at your house, he has a hard time saying goodbye

literally you’re standing at your door and he’s in front of you, a couple steps away, looking away from you

you don’t say goodbye either, mainly because you know scaramouche is working the courage to say something, and you can also sort of guess what he wants to say

you think of saying it first, but then think that it would make scaramouche proud to be honest about his feelings and confess first

“i’ve liked you for a long time”

you can’t help the smile that makes its way onto your face, unconsciously reaching a hand up to slightly cover it

“i feel the same way” you replied to him in a soft voice

he took a deep breath and exhaled it softly, finally lifting up his gaze and making eye contact with you

it was already dark outside, so you couldn’t appreciate the faint rosy blush on his cheeks well

“can i kiss you?”

your eyes widened for a second, not expecting him to ask and if anything, thinking he’d just step forward and do it

so you were a little embarrassed and caught off-guard to reply properly, so you just nodded and put your hand down as he took the last couple steps and his face was right in front of yours

he’d cup your cheek in one of his hands, feeling the warmth of your skin

you closed your eyes, and he looked at you for a second longer before he finally leaned in and closed the short distance that separated your lips

at that moment you both knew that you had been missing on so much more when you two just settled and were content with your friendship

but!! that was about to change now, so it was all worth it

after that, scaramouche would make clear that this would be the first day of your relationship!! and even if he didn’t say it with words, you could just feel his happiness!!

so!! after that, because of work you two got a little busy the next couple months so dates weren’t very frequent 

or at least, they weren’t dates like the one you first had

but still whenever you two were free he’d go over to your house, or you’d come over to his to play, stream together, or literally just spend time together doing anything

he wouldn’t let people know you two had started dating straight away (if anything, only his other streamer friends -aka you two’s friends in common- knew)

but the day he said it, he wanted you to be there

SO one day you two were streaming and you were currently reacting to one fanart of you two together

so he looked at you and you made eye contact and it was like you two spoke with your eyes like

“do we tell them now”

“let’s tell them.”

so scaramouche would clear his throat and without closing the fanart, he’d say he has something he wanted to announce

everyone was excited thinking it’d be some new project, maybe involving you

maybe some merch??? and the fanarts had reminded him of it???????

BUT THEN he straightforwardly said

“y/n and i are dating”

and everyone goes aBSOLUTELY CRAZY

amidst the chaos, you two catch a comment saying “will you unban the people who shipped you two” and you laugh

and you look at each other like “did you read that one?” “yeah”

and scaramouche is like “yeah, i guess i will have to unban some people”

and when some get unbanned they’re like “fREEDOM!!!!”

and jokingly they’re all like “APOLOGISE!!!!!!!! SAY SORRY!!!” so he just laughs and you join them being like “!!! apologise!!! you banned them for it and!! look at you now!!”

so he ends up trying to hold in another laugh as he mutters a halfassed ‘sorry’ and everyone starts commenting claps and hearts and celebrating that he apologised. now justice has been made.

the rest of that stream suddenly feels livelier and brighter!! you two are laughing a lot and so is everyone in the chat!! 

and also the new genshin event would’ve already just been released that same day so you can talk about some of your experiences with recording or what you thought of it

and scaramouche would let you play it yourself!! (he still hadn’t played it) and it was also the first time you played genshin live!! you’d show people the characters you have and everything and tell them some anecdotes

people would be SHOCKED because you!? don’t have the character you voiced!? D:

and you’re like “yeah… i pulled for them and used up all my primogems and… didn’t get them”

and your banner is back because of the event, so scaramouche won’t let this slide!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL GET YOUR CHARACTER.

your luck is terrible compared to his so at one point you’ll literally feel bad for how much he’s spending for you to get it

but he doesn’t mind at all and everyone is having fun so!!

and once you finally get them you’re sO HAPPY and everyone in the chat is celebrating

and you think it’s over but scaramouche is like ???? what are you doing?? open the wish page again. you’re going to get them c6.

and you’re like oh my gOD PLEASE NO DON’T SPEND MORE MONEY ON ME FOR THIS

but he won’t listen and he’ll do it

so!!! he’ll always do his best to be the best boyfriend he can be for you!! so you better give him your heart!!!!

[caelestis-composition]

killshot anon! YEAH i totally agree w/ your view on kaeya. it's so weird to me that people will blame him for his role in a situation he was forced into as a child through no choice of his own. that itself had to be traumatic, not to mention everything that happened later. i hate when people say he's untrustworthy - like yeah, he's lied, so has everyone? it's clear he does it mostly to protect himself. not to mention that (& sadism) can be symptoms of trauma. kaeya deserves nothing but happiness

take a seat folks it’s time for a “brynn should’ve been an english major” lesson! today we’re gonna learn some literary theory; specifically, we’re gonna apply psychoanalytical trauma theory to kaeya’s backstory and current character. killshot anon i bet you never thought this would result in a whole ass essay.

disclaimer one! you are allowed to dislike kaeya! i am not saying you need to like him or his character, you’re entitled to your opinion and i’m not here to change your mind.

disclaimer two! i am in no way an expert and this is all for fun! this is just my silly little analysis of one of my favorite characters as someone who’s studied literary theory and rhetoric and can also apply personal experience. seriously analysis is like a hobby to me and this is just an excuse for me to ramble about kaeya.

disclaimer three! this contains lots of spoilers! basically for everything we know in-game, general knowledge as well as stuff from his voicelines and character story. don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers.

since this is going to be filled with spoilers and is about to get really long, everything will be under a cut. for those who wanna read my dumb super informal essay: enjoy!

final note: yeah this is over 2000 words long can you tell i like analysis

⭒

let’s start by getting a quick rundown of trauma theory out of the way. to begin, what is “trauma?” in this case, trauma is going to refer to an experience that greatly affects and changes one’s life; attitudes, memories, behaviors, mental state, etc. while not all changes may be bad, per se, the overall effect of trauma is generally a negative one, which is why it’s so significant. literary trauma theory, then, explores these changes and the impact of trauma in literature. it analyzes the psychological and social effects of trauma, explaining what those effects are and why they happen. in the context of a specific character, trauma theory breaks down said character’s behaviors, feelings, and general mentality in relation to their past experiences; trauma theory hopes to explain to others the reasons for why a character may act or feel the way they do, all based upon the character’s experiences, particularly traumatic ones. our character today is the lovely kaeya alberich, with the “literature” being genshin impact. i’ll be referencing kaeya’s wiki page to ensure i get all details correct for his character story and voicelines.

it would be good to review kaeya’s backstory before delving into the actual analysis. though we don’t know much about his life before living in mondstadt, we’re told he was sent as an agent of khaenri’ah. and by “sent,” i mean his biological father abandoned him in a completely unfamiliar land to serve khaenri’ah’s interests and fullfil his mission—what this entirely entails hasn’t been revealed. mondstadt, however, welcomed kaeya “with open arms when they found him.” crepus ragnvindr took him in as his adopted son, with diluc as his adopted brother. kaeya and diluc were “almost like twins,” so close they “[knew] each other’s thoughts and intentions without a word.” he’d began a new life in mondstadt, one surrounded by friends and family that loved him; one that was completely shattered by crepus’s death. kaeya arrived at the scene of the disaster, and was led to believe diluc was the one who killed their father to “set his father free” from the effects of his delusion. there’d always been one big question in kaeya’s life: if it came down to it, who would he support? the nation that abandoned him, but he still felt loyal to, or the nation and family that took him in and really loved him? overrun with guilt, kaeya confessed his purpose to diluc, sparking a fight between the two brothers. in this fight, kaeya receives his cryo vision. though both brothers stepped away alive, they’ve never been able to make peace with one another. now, kaeya is the eccentric and charming cavalry captain of the knights of favonius; a man who gets his way by using any means necessary, regardless of whether or not it seems right.

kaeya’s not evil; he’s morally ambiguous, and that stems from what appears to be a general distrust of others. his life is one shrouded in secrecy. from the moment he stepped foot into mondstadt, he was surrounded by secrets. even now, he doesn’t talk about a lot of things, namely his past, vision, and feelings. though he’s always willing to get information out of others, kaeya never reveals anything about himself. he repeatedly tells the player they can confide in him, but whenever you try and pry into his life, he deflects your questions with some sort of witty comment or flirty remark. anything he does reveal is vague, or spoken in some sort of “code.” for example, his “interesting things” voiceline. he tells us about the owl of dragonspine, how it “seems to look right through you, while letting go of none of its own secrets,” and then tacks on a “quite fascinating, don’t you think?” it seems like an awfully accurate parallel to himself; kaeya does all he can to get information from others, but never gives anything about himself. now, this whole thing—his relationship with diluc falling apart and his need for secrecy—could have probably been avoided if he had just come clean about his mission years ago. so why didn’t he? to start, kaeya was a literal child. not only are children unable to properly tell the difference between right and wrong, but they’ll also typically follow their parents’ orders blindly. kaeya had just been abandoned, and he wouldn’t want to risk being cast out by mondstadt as well if he came clean right away. you see, there’s this thing about trauma, something that trauma theory states. traumatized people feel a sort of shame or guilt regarding their traumatic experience; they’ll keep quiet because they don’t want to cause problems or bother others with their issues. of course kaeya wouldn’t tell the truth about his past, he doesn’t want to destroy the genuinely loving relationships he’d built in mondstadt. his fight with diluc only proves what he was afraid of: if he’s honest, he’ll be abandoned again. and if kaeya’s used to all the lies, why should he bother changing?

another thing, if he’s not going to tell the truth, then why would he have initially gone along with his father’s plans? again, he was a child. he really had no choice, and was forced into a very wrong and cruel situation. there’s a good explanation for this, too, which is also stated in trauma theory; traumatized people will still do their best to please their abusers. especially if said abuser is a parent, that will drive traumatized people to work even harder to please them. although his father hurt him by ruthlessly abandoning him, kaeya still sought to make him and his homeland proud. he was willing to be used as a tool for their gain; that is, until he found people who actually cared about him. he was an impressionable child, of course he’s going to obey orders. but as he gets older, he feels torn. does he serve those who abandoned him, or those that took him in? his father—and arguably, khaenri’ah as a whole—hurt him, sure, but he still feels some loyalty and connection to his former home. instead of revealing anything, he lets the situation play out. that way, he can’t be blamed when things fall apart.

the thing about claiming he’s untrustworthy is that hardly anyone in-game believes that. he’s adored by the older folks in mondstadt, and foes and allies alike find him easy to talk to. despite seeming lazy and uninterested in work, kaeya takes his job very seriously. in fact, his story states that crepus’s death was the “first and only time kaeya failed in his duty.” the “only time” is especially important, because it signifies kaeya still fulfills his duties successfully. he’s had a total of one slip-up, and hasn’t failed since. no, kaeya is not untrustworthy. rather, kaeya finds everyone else untrustworthy. it’s not unlikely that this is a direct consequence of being abandoned as a child. although it’s been established that kaeya and diluc were very close as children, when crepus dies, kaeya assumes diluc is the one that killed him. in order to jump to such an extreme conclusion against someone he was so close to, there had to be some underlying sense of distrust. furthermore, kaeya expresses feeling as though he doesn’t belong anywhere. he was abandoned by khaenri’ah, and then worried he wouldn’t be accepted by mondstadt. he is, but there’s still that worry. if you place him in your teapot as a companion, he tells you that your home feels like someplace he belongs, following it up with a “heh, who’d have thought…” kaeya still feels as though he doesn’t belong in mondstadt; despite the fact that he’s a high-ranking knight of favonius and rather popular, he still feels like an outsider. he doesn’t trust that anyone actually wants him around, and he finds joy in testing peoples’ trustworthiness. it’s noted in his story and through his voicelines that the beloved cavalry captain has a rather sadistic nature. he likes putting people into difficult situations, to see what decisions they will make. he does this to both opponents and allies, testing to see who’s going to back out and who’ll keep fighting; in the sake of allies, who can he trust? or who will turn tail and abandon their teammates at the slightest hint of danger? i mentioned it previously, but kaeya doesn’t care what measures he has to take so long as his job gets done and he gets the answers he wants. it’s a sort of self-preserving mindset, putting himself above the safety of others. kaeya’s trying to protect himself, which makes sense with all he’s been through. he doesn’t want to be hurt, and instead finds pleasure in threatening harm upon others. it’s twisted, sure, but it’s because he can only trust himself in a world that he believes is out to get him. he’s got as many enemies—if not more—as he does allies; of course kaeya focuses on protecting himself first, whether physically or through keeping his secrets, well, secret.

his most obvious traumatic effect is definitely his alcoholism. but he uses it as a distraction, not just to wallow in self-pity. this is seen again in his story, particularly in story 3. it’s found that when his favorite drink, death after noon, is out of season, mondstadt’s crime rate is decreased drastically. at face value, this just means kaeya spends more time working when death after noon is low in supply. but kaeya doesn’t skip work to go to taverns; it’s already been established he takes his job very seriously, so this means he actually patrols and tracks down threats while off work when he can’t indulge in his favorite alcoholic drink. he doesn’t get drunk simply because he’s depressed. if he did, there wouldn’t be a drop in incidents when death after noon is out of season. no, kaeya uses both the alcohol and fighting to distract himself. after all, it’s a little hard to think about feeling sad when you’re either drunk out of your mind or fighting for your life.

despite being so secretive, kaeya gives us glimpses of his true emotions from time to time. as previously mentioned, his flirty attitude is nothing more than a mask to hide how he really feels; and kaeya is terribly, terribly lonely. that may be why he seems so extroverted. constantly being around people should, logically, drive away that feeling, but it doesn’t work like that. when he talks with the player, he frequently expresses disappointment when you have to leave. each time, though, he dampens the weight of his words with playful or flirty language. he’s lonely, but doesn’t want you to know that, like he’s afraid of asking you to stay. he takes the seriousness of his feelings, and basically bends it into some sort of lighthearted joke. kaeya hides his true feelings—negative feelings, to be exact—so that he doesn’t bother anyone. which is, again, something that happens with traumatized people. he displays that hesitance to reveal his true feelings, because there’s a shame or guilt that comes with his past. he doesn’t want to bother others or hold them back, so he puts on a smile and amps up the charisma. one other very important thing—but very small detail—i would like to note is his feelings toward family. his fell apart not even once, but twice, and kaeya still holds familial relationships in high regard. we know he doesn’t exactly care how he goes about getting his work done. he doesn’t pay attention to what’s “right” or “wrong,” so long as he gets what he needs. but one of his informants, vile, notes that the cavalry captain has one exception: he won’t work with those who threaten others’ families. in fact, kaeya claims those who do should be hunted down and destroyed. even though his own families have caused him so much pain—and he ended up estranged from both—he still understands the importance of having people who love you in your life. because he didn’t get that.

kaeya’s not evil. ultimately, as a knight of favonius, his goal is to protect others, because no one was there to protect him. and because no one was there to protect him, because he’s been hurt time and time again by people who were supposed to love him, kaeya has taken to protecting himself. he hides any and all negative feelings with a charismatic, friendly façade, because he thinks it’ll drive away his persistent loneliness. any “bad” actions of his were hardly his fault; he was forced into a life of secrecy and lies, and then abandoned by the first people who truly loved him. kaeya’s a multi-faceted, tragic character, one that toes the line between good and evil, and that’s what makes him so interesting.

[archived-kin]

obey me cast + their genshin mains

i woke up at like three in the morning and scribbled this all down

not a formal writing piece so i haven’t formatted it like one, but i thought this was a fun idea!!

lucifer: diluc

they both have Fatherly Issues (in very different ways though)

probably inwardly makes fun of diluc for not liking wine

doesn’t really have any emotional attachment??? he just keeps diluc because he does a lot of damage and helps kill enemies quick

he actually has pretty good luck with getting 5 stars before he’s even hit pity, but he has awful luck on the event banners in terms of getting the featured 5 star - he’s never once won the 50/50 when he actually reaches it

gets really good artifact and weapon drops though so all of his levelled-up characters have super overpowered kits

he’s never actually looked up any recommended character builds, he’s just smart enough to figure out what all the stats mean and build his characters accordingly

has not touched his serenitea pot since he got it

not actually great with battle strategy and elemental reaction, he just tries to hit as hard as he can at all times

all of his characters are built dps because he doesn’t know how to build supports or healers

never teleports anywhere (he still hasn’t even unlocked half the waypoints)

didn’t realise the statues of seven healed until really late into the game

doesn’t bother with the reputation quests/bounties

all of his characters are still on that black glider that amber first gives you

it took him ages to finish the archon quest in mondstadt because he didn’t want to go into the cathedral

mammon: zhongli

accidentally got zhongli on like his very first event wish and has mained him ever since

he thinks it’s really funny that zhongli never has money (even though he also often has no money)

apart from that he likes the idea of playing the character that literally makes all the mora in teyvat

was actually considering switching after he finished the liyue archon quests because he absolutely hated how zhongli handled the whole thing but he didn’t want to give up that big pp damage

still doesn’t know that you can climb up onto dvalin in the stormterror battle

mixes and matches artifacts, but the ones he does use have really good stats and sub stats though so the lack of a set bonus doesn’t make much difference

didn’t realise you could increase talent levels until ar 50

loves doing the blossoms of wealth and hasn’t let his mora drop below 100k ever since he accidentally used it all up levelling his team to lv60

immediately does a wish as soon as he gets enough primos, unless it’s an event banner for a character he doesn’t like

he also ignores the story and hangout quests for the characters he doesn’t like

dabbles in the serenitea pot but doesn’t have the patience to really commit to it

forgets to do his commissions until the very last minute and lets his resin fill up to 160 before remembering that he’s not supposed to let it get full

is terrified of spiral abyss on a molecular level

levi: barbara

he loves idols so of course barbara is his favourite

has her built dps and does more vaporise damage with her charged attacks than some people’s 5 star bursts

ended up building lisa as a dps too because she makes fighting the oceanid for the cleansing hearts much easier

somehow still gets barbara to heal enormous chunks of hp as well??

has all three of her talents crowned, she’s lv90 and so is her 5 star weapon, plus all of her artifacts are +20

he likes getting the event 5 stars even if he’s never going to build them, they just make him feel superior in his luck

has really bad artifact drops which makes him really frustrated because he knows exactly how to build his characters with the perfect stats, he just can’t get the right artifacts!!!!!

keeps getting crit dmg, crit rate and atk% sub stats on defence circlets and it makes him die a little more on the inside each time

he despises jean because of how she makes barbara feel and desperately wants mihoyo to make a moment where jean tries to fight something but fails and barbara then steps in and takes it down immediately

never gets barbara’s constellations with makes him very upset because he wants c6 so BAD

nearly cried when he got barbara’s happy birthday voiceline

somehow got his serenitea pot to adeptal energy 20k within like two weeks but it doesn’t look good?? it’s just a whole bunch of 4 star furnishings shoved wherever there’s room

is pretty much always online at any given time

has nearly every single achievement in the game (goddammit just GIVE HIM THE RELIABLE HELPER COMMISSION)

satan: diona

this is not up for debate

he saw her in the character archive and immediately decided that if he didn’t get her he was quitting the game

luckily for him it was xiao’s banner around this time and he managed to get c3 diona from that alone

much like levi with barbara, he managed to build her so that she does enormous amounts of damage but still performs her shielding/healing really well

he prioritises her over everyone else but because of this diona is still his only fully-built character

all talents crowned, all artifacts +20, etc

hates draff with all his heart and refuses to buy anything from him

will murder you if you refer to diona as a loli in front of him

i’m aware keqing also sort of looks like she has cat ears but as far as i know that’s just her hair???

if anything i feel like satan wouldn’t like her because he’s offended that people think those chunk of hair look remotely like a cat’s cute lil ears

chose all his other team members based solely on whether or not their skill set would benefit diona

refuses to use any of the characters lucifer uses and got legitimately angry when he found out lucifer had started building diona to help with spiral abyss

spends like five minutes at a time making diona jump into water because he thinks the cannon ball animation is the cutest thing in the world

if a boss he’s fighting manages to kill diona, he gets so angry that he pretty much obliterates it immediately after

asmo: lisa

partially because she’s pretty and her personality is right up his alley, and partially out of pettiness because he sees so many people slandering her

doesn’t know how to build anyone, he’s only got a good lisa build out of sheer luck

none of his other characters have remotely good builds. like, maiden’s beloved on tartaglia?? really, asmo???

squealed when lisa called traveller a cutie

talks to her while he’s running about doing quests or battles

plays pretty sparingly so his ar is relatively low and he barely has any characters outside the starters

usually gets levi to one shot the bosses for him when he needs to ascend/upgrade the talents of his characters

(levi agrees because it gives him a pretty big power trip)

he also likes kaeya and has him in his team but lisa’s magic is just so pretty to him

spends all his primos on the standard banner trying to get lisa constellations but he still only has c4

all of the solo boss battles he’s won were only won out of sheer luck

adores the concept of the serenitea pot, but he doesn’t like a lot of the furnishings available

desperately wants a character customisation function

died seven times trying to do the stormterror fight and had to have levi do it for him in the end

still doesn’t done any of the story quests that you need a key for

spends most of his free time finding some pretty landscapes, changing the time, and taking pictures of lisa doing one of her idles against the sunset

beel: xiangling

decided he liked her as soon as he did her story quest

he’s only gotten up to floor 4 of spiral abyss because he only did floor 3 to get her

still only has c2 :((((

always has to have snacks with him while he’s gaming because xiangling’s voice lines remind him of how hungry he is

desperately wishes she was real because he wants to taste how good her food is for himself

likes cooking a bunch of dishes in-game, but he also gets frustrated because they all look so GOOD and he can’t eat them

doesn’t really know how building works but he does vaguely know what stats are good and how set bonuses work

doesn’t like hu tao because she’s mean to xiangling >:( plus belphie despises her and beel rarely likes anything his twin dislikes

is low-key upset that xiangling’s story quest was so early in the game because he didn’t appreciate it enough at the time and he hasn’t seeb her in-game for ages

still doesn’t have any 5 stars apart from the traveller, but he does have literally every 4 star in the game

is the type to bring xiangling to pyro domains but luckily she does some pretty good physical dmg as well so his teammates don’t get as mad

takes some time out of every day to find every food/ingredient vendor in the game and buy out their entire stock

still has never run out of mora somehow????

belphie: qiqi

i made this choice partially because of that one halloween belphie ur where he’s dressed up in a jiangshi costume

aside from that i feel like she just sends his big brother instincts haywire

he cried a little bit when he read her backstory, not gonna lie

like satan, he will kill you if you call qiqi a loli

somehow managed to build her as a physical dps that does like 5000 per hit?????

(he has unholy artifact luck and all of qiqi’s artis have atk, crit dmg and crit rate as their stats and sub-stats, plus aquila favonia)

he started out building her as an all-around dps but then he realised that her burst and skill couldn’t do much in terms of damage since they’re healing-oriented, so he decided to build her physical since that the only type of dmg she can constantly apply

and qiqi still heals reliably because her healing is scaled off her attack, which is like monstrously high???

qiqi hates hu tao so of course belphie does too

he still refuses to do her story quest and didn’t touch her banner or character trial

really really wants a qiqi banner for constellations but is aware that that is incredibly unlikely

doesn’t trust baizhu and wants zhongli to adopt qiqi since he seems like a much more reliable dad

heard the theory that xiao is the adeptus that killed qiqi and therefore also despises him even though it hasn’t even been concerned or anything

diavolo: eula

don’t get me wrong diavolo definitely gives me pyro vibes but i feel like he’d just feel so bad for how the mondstadters misunderstand and mistreat eula in her story quest that he’d immediately go to spend all his primos on wishing for her

he’s got r2 broken pines and a full pale flame artifact set with some pretty decent stats and substats on her so she does pretty enormous damage

it’s lucky that eula’s move set doesn’t require anything too strategic because all diavolo does is button mash

all of his characters are physical damage dealers because he doesn’t really know how to do elemental reactions

(because of this though he’s awful at fighting a lot of the bosses, especially the oceanid)

his favourite boss battle is the weekly golden house trounce domain because he can always smack childe down really quickly

he’s stinking rich so he can afford to spend just about as much money as he wants to get any character he wants

like he got all the way to pity on eula’s banner and lost the 50/50 to mona but he just bought more primos and got all the way to pity again to get eula

on the other hand he got broken pines twice in two ten rolls on the weapon banner and he wasn’t anywhere near pity for that

he joined levi along with satan and asmo to have a go at doing the golden house fight in co-op and he managed to pretty much oneshot a lv90 childe in phase 1 and phase 3 with just eula’s burst

(he spent phase 2 recharging it)

barbatos: venti

this is at least 70% because venti is also called barbatos

he somehow knows pretty much everything there is to know about building characters well and he’s built venti with both attack and elemental mastery

got venti on his first banner and managed to get to c4 on his rerun

doesn’t appreciate how much venti drinks and actively buys the non-alcoholic juices from angel’s share to give him as if that’ll help????

is terrified of fighting the wolf because it’s immune to anemo

(don’t ask how he managed to get the hurricane seeds for ascending venti)

can pretty much fire off venti’s burst as soon as it’s over because his energy recharge is somehow also insane

diligently collects all the recipes and masters every single one of them

his serenitea pot is literally so perfect looking????? i don’t know how to describe it everything just fits together flawlessly

diavolo offers to buy him primos because he’s got more than enough money but barbatos doesn’t wish a whole lot so he usually refuses

(diavolo knew he mained venti and liked him though so he bought him a bunch for the rerun anyway)

he still doesn’t have any five star weapons but stringless works really well on venti anyway so he doesn’t mind

doesn’t really like co-op, prefers to just wander around in his own world

simeon: yanfei

simeon definitely gives me hydro vibes and he probably mained a hydro before yanfei, but i feel like he happened to get her on zhongli’s banner and decided he really liked her as soon as he started trying her out

he adores her little ‘boom boom!’

she also works really well doing big damage with vaporise which is good because simeon plays a lot with luke, who mains barbara

he low key identifies with how yanfei doesn’t want to focus on her identity as an immortal half-adeptus because simeon himself often wants to forget the fact that he’s a divine being and just live peacefully

often forgets that yanfei gets a lot of her dmg from charged attacks and just keeps doing normal attack combos until he registers the scarlet seals and realises he needs to hold the button down

nearly all of his characters were basically backseat-built by levi and solomon

even though his team is pretty powerful he still dies a bunch because his battle strategy is just ‘stand there and keep hitting the attack button until it dies’

keeps running off of cliffs and forgetting to plunge/glide and just dying to fall damage

back when he was like ar20 he accidentally wandered into liyue early and immediately got killed by a treasure hoarder

spent like ten minutes of his first stormterror fight just running off the end of his platform before someone told him he was meant to glide

luke: barbara as well

if you’ve seen my post about barbara and luke being siblings you’ll understand why i’ve made this choice

aside from that luke just likes barbara because she’s one of the nicest characters in the game

plus she’s a deaconess in a church and he’s an angel so

unlike levi he’s got her built purely as a healer, but she heals so MUCH

luke’s entire team is just support characters?? but their support is so good that they kind of make each other dpses in their own right??

his strategy is to keep his whole team at full hp and deal relatively small but very steady increments of damage

unfortunately this means he isn’t great at the artifact and weapon/character enhancement domains because they’ve got time limits

wants to have a pretty serenitea pot but he just can’t get it to look how he wants it to

like levi, he doesn’t like jean because of how she makes barbara feel (and also how jean just refuses to take any sort of older sister role for her)

got her to c6 on a single event banner because she just kept coming home (he wasn’t complaining though)

is contemplating building her dps because he thinks it’d be cool if she did a bunch of damage like levi’s barbara

likes to just sit and wait for her to do her dancing idle because he thinks it’s cute (will immediately make her move and cut off the other one though because it’s about jean and he doesn’t like her)

solomon: albedo

they both look sensible but they’re both just mad scientists on the inside

doesn’t really know how albedo’s burst and skill work, just keeps tapping buttons whenever they’re available

if he didn’t have albedo he’d probably main a catalyst but he relates to how curious albedo is about just about everything

(plus he does like his design)

always gets the limited time 5 star on his first ten pull on the event banners????? is he using his magic somehow??????

and also somehow gets really good weapons and artifacts????

he knows enough about artifacts to know what to put on who so all of his characters are really well built

he’s the type with eight lv90 5-stars with lv90 5-star weapons and fully upgraded artifact sets in his character showcase

his signature is ‘hack me i dare you’

constantly getting friend requests from fellow players who want an op friend to help them in domains and against bosses

but unfortunately even if solomon has a bunch of overpowered characters he is very bad at using them

gets all the elemental reactions wrong, uses the wrong element against the wrong enemy, forgets to do things like putting albedo’s skill down before his ult, and he can’t aim with any of the archers

like i said he just taps buttons and hopes for the best

because of this he’s still at floor 6 in spiral abyss

[2ofswords]

003 lara

How I feel about this character:  I love Lara! (Okay, yeah maybe I’m repeating myself, but I love a lot of these characters, okay?) She is one of my favorites and just the entire atmosphere of the shelter is so amazing and she is such an interesting character and so cool and strict at the same time and her sorrow is so tangible and her whole endeavor to help so sympathetic and compelling and urgh! I love my girl!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:  Oh dear… A lot of people. Lara/Eva: This one is just super cute and I think the both could really help each other! They’re both searching for their role in live and I think the other persons perspective could be really interesting for them. Also they both deserve a caring partner. Lara/Rubin: They both have a very aggressive way of caring, which could be super cute as well as hilarious. They are both so hard working and I could see them both having a lot of respect for this attitude and this “no words, no bullshit, only good deeds” thing. Sure as hell a power couple. Bi rights, everyone! Lara/Aspity: Okay, that one would obviously need for Lara to work through her racism bullshit, but I believe in her. And I think this pairing has a lot of potential. They’re literally so far apart from each other (both in the town’s placement as well as what this placement represents) but share a lot of beliefs with each other. They both have a shelter for people who need it and show compassion for those the rest of the town doesn’t think of. They also both (again) have the attitude of deeds over words (they even are the only ones with the “words without deeds fill a garden with naught but weeds” voiceline) and I think they would be a very interesting fit. Lara/Yulia: Troubled exes, baby! Okay, I just love two headstrong people bickering over their worldview. And Yulia as well as Lara obviously care and respect each other but have so different ways of thinking. (And the statement of Lara, that she thinks she’s cool but just hates the way she thinks and thinks she would be so amazing otherwise… gold.) I just love a good clash of ideology and there’s much to gain here! Lara/Artemy: More bi people. This is a milder one, but I think they’re cute together. They definitely care about each other and Lara can give Artemy the help and calm he needs. They also do understand each other’s sorrows. They’re very cute platonically as well, but even as my other ships with both of them are stronger, I think this one works either well without losing anything.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:  I will be honest, I would love to just put Lara+Artemy here, since I still love it platonically a bit more. The question above just told me to list all my ships and not only the one, I was specifically excited about… But I would be a fool, if I would not mention Grief, the last apple basket member, who I do not ship with Lara romantically but who should definitely be mentioned as a friend. I love his chaotic but good natured energy in contrast to Lara’s strict but caring attitude and I can see them as kids, where Grief would propose something stupid that Lara would sass but still get along with.

My unpopular opinion about this character:  It’s probably not an “unpopular opinion” but it’s a hot take about something I’ve seen. I really don’t think Lara is only the “token female” in the apple basket group and criticising her for being in it at all seems kind of sketchy to me, especially if the people magically only ship Rubin/Grief for the gang and Artemy with Daniil (or someone else not in the friend-group), so that there is no room for her in the interaction. Like… you do you and shipping them is fun and stuff, that’s not my problem at all. But maybe the reason you feel like she doesn’t have a place in the group and adds nothing is not because of the game at this point. Please don’t act like you can just abandon Lara and call her a “bad fit” to the group, she is her own character with her own agency and her own plot and her own reason to be in the apple basket gang as well as her own influence on the group dynamic. She is the one to tell Rubin off when he blames Artemy and he actually thinks that she was the one to gather everyone. She is the one actually reconciling with Grief and standing next to him in the post Diurnal end, while Rubin is keeping his distance. She is the one trying to protect everyone from taking the blame when she tries to shoot Block. She is the one, whose reflection reminisces of their old childhood friendship and reminds you of your bonds and how the group is connected through letting actions guide them. If you don’t like her, sure. People can like or not like whatever they want and there are other reasons to not want to engage with her. But it might not be the best look to use her being female specifically to defy her being a valid member of the gang. She isn’t just a token female character, because she’s so much more than that just by her agency in the narrative alone! She clearly adds to the group dynamic and the plot, so she the argument just doesn’t hold up. Yeah having only one female in the friend group is a bit cliche (especially when gay table seems to suffer from the same problem) but criticizing that female character for it – especially if she actually adds to the dynamic – is not the solution! You can engage with her, I believe in you!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: As with all parts of the apple basket gang, addressing her racism properly and at least giving like one of them the chance to realize the shittyness of it would have been great and actually necessary. There isn’t even a chance to address it properly and that’s a real problem. I also miss the female aristocrats gang and their mischief, especially through the whole Block assassination questline. Maybe we’ll get more of that in another route though, that would be great!

My OTP: Lara/Rubin. Without a doubt. I think they’re a great fit for each other ^^

My OT3: Hm… I don’t have a set one. If we’re talking Patho1, I could see Lara/Yulia/Anna. Lady aristocrats are for each other (Sorry, I’m not over this term, thanks Yulia!) I’m trying to think of something with Lara and Eva, since I think Eva would be so open for a threesome. Maybe Lara/Eva/Yulia could be fun, but holy, Eva would have to mediate! “I love my two girlfriends” she said while said girlfriends had an aggressive make-out over some stupid debate.

[raionmimi]

How does Medb and Cu's relationship in Fate interact with the lore of Cu's death being largely at the hands of Medb?

This is gonna be a long post, so rip to everyone that didn’t ask for this on their dash! Sorry! I’ll try to do a tl;dr at the bottom

I keep forgetting to finish Proto Cú’s (or any of the Cú’s) interlude, but it IS set during the time around the war with Medb iirc. His voicelines also mentions that he’s on good terms with his uncle Conchobar, Medb’s abusive ex-husband who sexually assaulted her and basically fucked up for the rest of her life. As far as I remember, there’s not a lot of info saying whether Cú didn’t actually know how his Uncle treated Medb; ignored it/denied it; or if he just considered it normal for a man to do shit like that given that it was the first century or so (and some stories revolving him would be the latter tbh). We do know that Proto Cú was summoned by Misaya becuase of Medb since she specifically wanted a servant that was killed by a woman “That way he would know how scary a woman can be.” Although Medb was not the one to strike him down, but the Grail sees it as her win because of the conditions set

In Caster Cú’s voicelines, his dislikes are Morrigan and Medb because he doesn’t have good memories of either one, and obviously in a war, there wouldnt really be any real winners if you count the losses that will happen on both sides. Coincidentally, Medb Rider is effective against him, so it’s kinda funny to me

In Lancer Cú’s voicelines, he mentions her, along with the other women in his life, and says he wasn’t able to keep their promises to all of them and wanting to be more dependable to them. We actually have no idea what he promised Medb at all, but obviously they’d have to have interacted with each other to have made one in the first place. I always talk about them being childhood friends as a self indulgent fun thing, but…??? They really may have known each other at some point beforehand, and just imagine how furious Medb would be seeing him fight for Conchobar of all people. That would’ve been an ultimate betrayal if we go by my ideas, and I love tragic shit like that. Also note that that Cú fought and killed people that he cared about that were fighting on Medb’s side in the war, but he never fought Medb even when they came across each other on multiple occasions. It always made me wonder why besides his excuse of “I dont like killing women” despite literally killing her handmaiden who was standing near her once. Like was it really sexism and/or was it because of a prior relationship with her?? It honestly could be either but a bitch (me) is curious!!!!

Alter gets annoyed when Medb has her facade, but he’s fine with her when she’s honest and acting like her normal self in America. I’ve mentioned before that he has a strange amount of free will and even makes opinions different than her, but she doesn’t mind. I sometimes feel like he really could’ve just up and walked away if he really wanted to becuase Medb wasn’t really that concerned about his backtalk whatsoever

I talk about this a lot but Summer Medb acting more formal with the presumably Lancer Cú shows that she’s calmer and actually does respect him when she’s face to face with him because she usually acts silly when she’s just talking about him to the player or other characters. Of course, we don’t know his response but given that she just asks “Do you have something to say to me?” it’s probably going to be him being indifferent or chatting casually with her.

Cú doesn’t really hate Medb because it’s not really like either one specifically said “I’m gonna start/partake in a war, just to ruin this person’s day.” He just hates that a lot of people he loved and cared about ended up dying in the war, but honestly, that could’ve happened at ANY point in time because wars happened more often back in those times for political power and glory. It’s just by chance that they were on opposite sides of a war, and really, the war was pretty useless since A: Medb was supposed to get the ox in the first place, and B: Medb DID succeed in getting the ox in the end, but it literally picked a fight with her husband’s ox (which was initially hers but it insisted on being owned by a man instead of a woman, or something strange like that) and died. But Celtic mythology has a lot “And then suddenly weird, somewhat darkly comical death/outcome!!!!” Also not to mention that becuase dudes were fighting in battles and wars all the time, they were often just “today’s enemies are tomorrow’s allies.”

Medb being a ruler, rather than a soldier, would take more offense at him taking down her army because that affects her kingdom and future political decisions she has to make directly. Also, the fact that Conchobar was the one who had control over a weapon of mass destruction is probably the biggest threat Medb could ever feel in her life. So, she smartly chose to lure him into a one-on-one agreement that he’d just fight one of her soldiers a day, and it went on for several months, but sometimes she was just “Yeah let’s just cheat???? This is a war?????” and sent multiple people. This is how she’s technically killed him, but was not the actual one who did it. It makes a lot of sense why she’d target him more than anyone. Not only is he a huge liability to everyone in his warp spasm, but say the words, and Conchobar could’ve probably had him do pretty much whatever. That’s frightening because Cú doesn’t see anything personal about what he does! He will kill anyone if he has to, even though it seems like he purposely avoided contact with Medb.

Overall it’s a little complex because if you put Cú on the Connacht side of the war, now neither of them are put in circumstances where they’re at odds. He doesn’t hate her, but he doesn’t seem to care for her new fakey fake persona because he KNOWS her. He just doesn’t seem to call her out on it though, he just plays along with it. Medb already has her own various factors that affect how she feels about herself, love as a concept, and him specifically. Her hate comes more from a ruler standpoint, but also imagine a hero who could supposedly save everyone, but he wasn’t there to save you when you needed it? Medb, imo, seems to have repressed anger and fear from her trauma because a lot of her choices stem from proving herself as being worthy as a woman and human being, or pushing people she actually likes away because she has insecurities that she doesn’t want to show. She has some trust that she starts putting in the player, but she has a very roundabout way of showing it. She’s always reminded me of how rabbits (or a stoat!!) hide in thickets and briar patches. It’s a good self-defense mechanism, but she can still hurt herself if she’s not careful.

tl;dr: No one is innocent in a war, and Medb and Cú are both morally gray characters in both lore and Nasuverse, even if Cú is generally portrayed as a bro who does nothing wrong. Fate does give bits and pieces on their intertwined history, but you can’t really say one side was wrong or right imo. Being summoned at Chaldea does give them the opportunity to move past any issues they may have with each other though, and character growth is my fucking jam so that’s why I really like the intricacies of their relationship.

[wailord]

D.Va & Mercy: I am SO Bitter

They took my two mains and have made them both completely and utterly useless. I was hopeful when I heard about these changes, but now I am fuming. And it doesn’t seem like the devs are listening to anybody who shares my opinions. Despite being a console player, I HAVE played them both for a couple of hours on the PTR. I’m going to put my full points (I’m trying to be more rational than rant-y but I’m still incredibly bitter lol) under a cut, so that I don’t crowd people’s dashboards, but because of that, I’ll give a tl;dr right here. - D.Va has been nerfed so hard that she is in the same position now as Roadhog and doesn’t have a defined role in the game, nor will she be viable in upcoming seasons. - Mercy has been put into a spot where she can no longer fulfill her role adequately when compared to other supports or even characters with a blended role, making her worse even than Sombra, a DPS, and Orisa, a tank. Picking her is ultimately almost pointless. - OW is becoming a game catered solely to DPS characters, and protecting your team is a thing of the past. FEEL FREE to reblog, post your thoughts, message me privately, send me asks, etc. I don’t have many followers, but I encourage it.

I’ll start with D.Va. DM uptime reduced by 50% - Now, for every 10 seconds (plus a delay in recharge), I can protect my team for 2 seconds instead of 4. D.Va can no longer counter the brunt of any ult, nor can she successfully protect herself or her healers, which was something she excelled at. Without having her cooldown, critbox, or delay reduced, and without having her HP altered or increased, D.Va now becomes, like Hog, a walking ult battery for the other team. Her mech can be destroyed in quite literally a second if focused down and you will spend more time out of mech and dying than you will doing anything useful. Short of Zen’s Transcendence, if the enemy team is any good, you’re fucked. In addition, the only decent protection your backline healers had from Tracer and Genji have been removed. IN PAINFUL ADDITION, know who can protect from damage, ults, and even redirect them? Fucking Genji. And now he can do it better and longer than D.Va can. On a shorter cooldown!! That’s fucking right, folks. A DPS character is now better at protection than a goddamn tank. Let that sink in. Added Missile Attack that can be fired every 8 seconds. - D.Va ca now use a missile attack that deals a total of 200, no, 160 (lol they nerfed it too) damage in total, with very minimal splash. - These missiles can be shot while boosting. - These missiles can be shot while firing her regular cannons. Cool, missiles! Not really. Contrary to her cannons, these missiles are projectiles, and require good leading skills rather than the tracking skills her cannons require. Because of this, firing them together is clunky and awkward. You cannot lead and track at the same time. Because of how the missiles are fired (a few on each side in a line, rather than in a burst like Pharah’s ult), any player who is good at straffing can take potentially little to no damage. Firing them while boosting is risky; if you’re too close to the enemy D.Va damages herself, making her mech melt even faster. On the last patch, they actually nerfed her damage, solidifying her role as a protector tank. Why give her something clunky and potentially self-damaging when they could have just upped her regular damage and gotten rid of some of the fall-off? If they wanted to give her another ability, it should have been a utility - that way she wouldn’t have had to rely on DM so much (since apparently it’s a problem). Can now shoot while flying. This is self-explanatory. Despite having learned to use the fire button to cancel flight, this is actually a welcomed quality of life change. Of course, it doesn’t nearly make up for how hard they’ve killed her. Let’s move on to Mercy. I won’t put this in point form since it’s just a doozy. I’m more bitter about this than D.Va, surprisingly. Her rez has been moved to an ability on a 30 second cooldown, which averages more rezzes per game than having it as an ult. In THEORY, this is really cool. In THEORY, this will end the “hide and rez” Mercy tactic the DPS players whine about (isn’t backing off when you hear a teamwipe coming common sense???). However, it completely falls apart when you take a good hard look at her ult. Also her new rez voiceline really just sounds like she doesn’t even care. It’s watered down and uninspired. VALKYRIE, the name of the suit and the reason we’re all here. They have removed what made this character iconic, and given her a bit fat nothing in return. While ulting, for 20 seconds, Mercy can fly, shoot with infinite ammo (because they removed the firerate as it was too strong), move slightly faster, and her beams can chain amongst her team. In addition, her rez is reset, and cooldown while ulting is down from 30 seconds to 10. Yes this sounds super cool! But it’s not. Despite her beams chaining, they do not get buffed. Mercy still heals 60hp/second, and still damage boosts for 30%. If we’re comparing ults, Zen heals for 300hp/s over 6 seconds and is completely invulnerable. Orisa’s ult boosts all your nearby teammate’s damage by 50%. If we’re looking at numbers, Mercy can potentially heal 1200 hp over 20 seconds for each teammate. Zen, while invincible, heals 1800 hp over 6 seconds for each teammate. He can save his team from all high-damage ults that aren’t instakill (Junk and DVa, both of which are easily avoidable). Mercy, while ulting, cannot even outheal anything except a non-ulting Winston. She cannot protect her team from ults. Take 10 damage. A 50% boost puts it at 15, and a 30% boost puts it at 13. Orisa, over the period of her ult can boost 220 damage. Mercy, in 20s, can boost 260 damage. Only more because of the duration; more impact yeah, but over way more time.  With the added firerate of her blaster removed, she no longer has the same DPS addition to her ult (which isn’t really her character’s purpose to begin with anyway so to me this is negligible). But KENDRA! Her rez resets and the cooldown is lowered! Yes, very true! However, what good will this do in a team wipe? You rez once, ult, then rez again. But then you gotta wait 10 seconds. By this time, the other dead souls have respawned and you and 2 teammates are standing there, acting as further ult charge for your enemies. But she can fly and escape! This becomes irrelevant when you have to literally be on top of the soul you want to rez (and you no longer have invincibility frames! This is true even without ult. Rezzing a teammate will literally get you killed unless no enemy is around). The restricted distance is a meager 5m. And despite being able to fly and having your regen be uninterruptable, you still only regen 20hp/s. While for Huge Rez you were invincible, during this ult, any 76, McCree, or Widow worth their salt will still demolish you, especially if the first two ult, making any impact you WERE going to have null and void. LITERALLY, taking all this into consideration, the only thing Mercy is good for anymore is healing outside of her ult and damage boost. And if you thought people yelled at you for not rezzing before, be prepared to be yelled at by every player you choose NOT to rez (or can’t rez because of the cooldown). This leads me to my conclusion; that Overwatch as a game is being changed to cater solely to DPS players. “It’s not fun to be oneshot by Hog.” Nerf. “It’s not fun to have my ult eaten by DM” Nerf. “It’s not fun to have my teamwipe reversed.” Nerf. It’s a disturbing trend that any type of character that can oppose and counter a DPS hero will get nerfed if enough people complain about things being not fun. However, Scatter Arow has yet to be nerfed (”he needs a way to defend himself!” so did D.Va). Symm’s melting capabilities have yet to be nerfed (”she wasn’t strong enough before in a fight!”). Pharah, Reaper, Soldier, McCree, and any ults in combination with Grav or Blizzard can all gain team wipes (”ults are meant to be gamechanging!” mercy’s no longer is tho). Someone on the forums worded it nicely: Overwatch is meant to be a Rock-Paper-Scissors game.You’re supposed to switch it up on the reg to counter your opponents. But because paper beats rock, rock complains and paper gets removed. Rock will now always beat Scissors, and so a new meta is born whether you like it or not, and you have everyone picking rock. This is how the game becomes stale. With D.Va’s new rework (cough, nerf), there is no longer any way to protect your healers from backline harrassers like Tracer, Genji, Pharah, or Reaper. Short of Zarya’s bubble (which only lasts a second under heavy damage), Rein staying back to beside the healer (ill-advised), or Winston’s dome (which can be walked into), anyone getting harrassed will be killed unless another DPS (or a charged Zarya) saves them by killing the enemy first. Hog can no longer punish harrassers completely, and the most Orisa can do is briefly mini-gravi them away (and that’s only if she isn’t paying attention to the frontlines, where she should be). Honestly at this point, the best protector is Mei, who can freeze and secure a kill (except against a really mobile Tracer or Genji, and except Pharah who’s in the sky), but then has to remain with the healers. Very rarely have I seen a DPS player who stays back and helps protect the healer (but yes I know you guys are out there). DVa can no longer counter (despite the amount of characters who can ignore her DM), and Mercy can no longer reverse the tides of battle.  The majority of the roster is meant to secure kills. With the new deathmatch mode being introduced, and characters being reworked to fit a mold, I fear this will only increase. A diverse game that I loved is slowly being changed to accomodate esports and pro-players, and it’s incredibly disheartening.