#over here on tumblr if you want something in a similar vibe

[poppyseedsorpoppy]

His hands were covered in it. Red, thin, but rich on his tongue. Thicker than wine. Thicker than water. Dark as anger, as vengeance, as grief. He hadn’t known what he was doing. How could he? No one had ever died before. They were the first—the first children, the first progeny, linked forever by birth. Scorned forever by order. How was Cain supposed to know better? When God had split them, made two bodies filled by one soul, he hadn’t been even about it. He hadn’t been kind, judicious in dividing their halves. Abel was loved. Cain was what was left once that love had found a shape to inhabit. A box of corks, the wax rinds from cheeses, scraps of paper and the dull pits of plums. Neither whole without the other, a gleaming carapace and the organs beneath. Cain was wrath, violence, the hand dragging you down to the ground. Abel was the grass beneath bare feet, bread clean of dust, fruit ripened on the vine. Sometimes, Cain wondered if Abel wanted to die— if an awareness of it was given to him, which Cain found himself lacking. Cain hadn’t known what death was, you see. Not until he’d already killed. The scent of the deed stuck to him. Murder. Hunger. Blood. His hands were covered in it.

#hey so #we’re having thoughts #Cain #Abel #is this Bible fanfiction #idk #it’s been years since I looked at this scene in canon so pardon any inaccuracies #someone just said Cain to me and my brain goblin started running on the wheel #blood #murder #deathprose #I sought out some other Cain stuff after I finished this because I had a NEED #so also read #nathanielorion #over here on tumblr if you want something in a similar vibe #their work is really great

[fuckyeahrevresbo]

I find it kind of interesting how the way certain people talk about things that they (presumably) find impressive make it so I never engage with it.

I have no idea who this “chocolate guy” is, I think he makes some kind of sculptures out of chocolate based on a couple of text posts that have been across my dash, but whenever one of his videos come up, the comments I see underneath are all some variation of “It’s the fucking chocolate guy again.” I presume, again, that this is just disbelief about the wild things he’s doing, but seeing it phrased like that makes me immediately keep scrolling. I have never seen one of these videos, and literally the entire reason is on every one that gets passed around, there’s always at least one “this fucker” on there.

#I dunno #I've said the stop it how dare you thing before #usually to actually good pianists #but seeing that particular brand of comment on some kind of chocolate thing makes me actively avoid it #hard to say why #also maybe it's the circles I'm in but it's also interesting that literally every video of his that comes across my dash #always has one if not multiple comments in that vein #every one #I get that it's probably a tumblr bit but unlike a lot of bits on here it's one that keeps me away from it #on an only tangentially related note there's a similar vibe with how I've seen Homestuck discussed and so I have also stayed away from that #and when I see something innocuous that someone has appended that Homestuck police image to I never reblog #because something about how it's discussed means I don't want to have any engagement with it #and as it's often innocuous things where I have literally no idea if there is a deliberate homestuck reference #it gets me sometimes concerned that people will put it on stuff of mine or stuff I reblog #and I don't even like being accidentally associated with it #anyways the chocolate guy is probably an awesome creator and I'm going to continue actively avoiding any of his content #not sure if there's a point to this message #I don't expect anyone to change how they talk about stuff over it and I'm not sure it's better if they do #But it's interesting to me to reflect on the fact that these trends cause active avoidance from me

[novaandmali]

ARTISTS WANTED! 

We’re making a new book filled with pulpy sci-fi illustrations based on classic artworks (pre-1800), and, as always, LGBT and POC inclusive <3

Applications open March 25th at noon - the application will NOT be available before that time and will be removed after apps close. HUGE shout out to @ Nukeillustrate for this absolutely stunning piece, lovingly borrowed from “And They Were Monsters.”

The application will NOT be available until that date - we will post it here, instagram (nova_mali), bluesky, and tumblr (novaandmali). The application will be open for five days (March 29th) or until we hit 1000 applications. Please be sure to set an alarm and get your application in ASAP - we will not be able to take any applications through email, dms, or after they close.

A tentative schedule:

Results emailed by April 3rd - everyone will get an email! Sketch due May 15 Final work due June 15 Kickstarter runs July 1-31

We are looking for 50-60 artists (who MUST be 18+ years old by April 3) to join us to create a piece of digital art and/or merch. Traditional art is also accepted if scanned/photographed at a professional level.

We're looking specifically to increase the diversity of our artists, both in regards to race and gender - we want to be including all kinds of voices. Same thing with our art - we're looking to increase the variety of cultures, body types, and disabilities represented.

This is a PAID job. We’ve paid in the range of 200-300 for similar projects in the past, based on a set contract amount plus anything left over after production and shipping, split between everyone. Example: $150 in the contract and $100 extra per artist share. The additional amount will depend on how successful the Kickstarter campaign is.

I’ll post more later this week but first and foremost, get ready to go looking for interesting classical art to re-do into pulpy sci-fi! Your app will ask you what you’re thinking about creating. This is not a final answer but we want to know what vibe, what era, etc what you’re thinking about. 

We’re asking for art pieces that are pre-1800. I want you to really get digging and find some epic cool old stuff, particularly from more women artists and artists of color. Non-Western art is very very much included in our scope of work - we can’t wait to see your ideas!

I know older art tends to have weird people or weird perspectives - that doesn't need to translate to your final art. Just get funky with where you're finding inspiration! We will discuss this in more detail once we’ve hired everyone.

We really want to play with the idea of taking something very very old and make it very very futuristic - it should be funky and fun, and of course full of delightfully gay art <3

I’ll post exactly what questions the app will entail later this week.

The application will include things like: a link to your portfolio (instagram and twitter are NOT accepted as a portfolio) and an idea of what art pieces you’re thinking about and how to transform them.

We also ask for a short artist bio, like twitter style - short and sweet. Please don’t talk down about yourself or your skills - talk yourself up! Make me excited to see your art!!

About us: we’re two non-binary lesbians who really love cats and gay art. We’ve enjoyed our work as a queer publishing house and can’t wait to do more! Some of our previous works include classics but make it gay, And They Were Monsters, and Cover Me Queer.

Check out our work at www.novaandmali.com . 

#scifiart #scifiedit #art history #lgbtq books #lgbt art

[wildemaven]

Okay, so I guess this sits in the realm of Confessions.

I'm thinking about leaving tumblr. I'm not sure what I did or didn't do to cause this, but the people I thought of as my friends or at least closest moots hardly interact with me anymore. My posts, my fics, my reblogs, my comments to them... They are around, I see them on my dash, but...

It all sounds so middle school, but it hurts nonetheless, and I'm pretty sure anything that feels like middle school (even actual middle school) can't be good for anyone.

The thing is, I really love everyone, and I don't want to give up. But going around to literally dozens of peoples DMs to ask, "Do you like me?" "Are we still friends?" "Are you mad at me?" Is again a kind of painful kid trauma thing I just can't quite bring myself to do.

I feel like my time here is just sort of over. I started with little expectation, and to my surprise, I found community, felt well liked and valued, and then, it just sort of went away.

There was a time when I was really happy about my place here, and just that makes me so sad.

You don't have to answer or anything. I think it just feels kind of cathartic to write it down where if nothing else someone else will read it.

Anyway... I guess that's it.

Held on to this for a little bit because my heart aches for you and I want to wrap you in the biggest hug 💕 I felt I could have written something so similar, as so many are relating to this right now.

It’s so hard to not feel like you’re feeling when you see people you’ve connected with slowly pull away from you. It hurts even more when they’re still active but actively avoiding you. That fucking hurts deep.

There was a time when this space felt very welcoming and fun. And while I do still have fun, sometimes it doesn’t feel as welcoming— and I know I’m not the only one feeling this.

Cliques branch off, popularity fuels some to feel like they’re too good to interact with others, the vibe isn’t vibing like it use to. And like you mentioned, it can all make you feel like you’re being thrown back in middle schools wondering why you’re not good enough? What did you do to cause this? What’s the point of even being here in this space any longer?

I’m so sorry this has become your reality. I wish it was a simple fix or there was a perfect solution to make things better. I support whatever decision you make, your wellbeing and mental health matter most— just know this community will be a little less bright without you in it!!

You said I didn’t have to post this, but I want others who might be feeling the same to know they’re not alone at all. There’s a lot of us floating around with the same exact thoughts and feeling like we just no longer belong in this space.

You’re more than welcome to jump in my DMs or continue sending anonymous messages to my inbox if that helps you in any way 💕

Coffee Shop Asks

#you’re not alone and I’m here for you!! #sweet sweet anon #asks answered #coffee shop asks

[one-squash-one-end]

I wrote a giant Raven Cycle analysis

Hi! Over the last year or so I've been working on a sort of essay about various themes in the raven cycle series, and I finally finished it a few weeks ago.

It is titled: "Why I love The Raven Cycle - An excessive analysis of the themes of friendship, queerness and growing up".

And since tumblr loves its meta (and bc I love peer validation) I've decided to start uploading it bit by bit here, making this the masterpost (if I can figure out the logistics of the linking lmao, bear with me)

(beware of spoilers up to greywaren starting at like 3b!)

Introduction

What even is the Raven Cycle?

Trust me, the characters are queer as fuck and I can prove it a) Blue Sargent b) Gansey c) Adam Parrish d) Ronan Lynch e) Noah f) Henry Cheng g) Honorary mentions

The Gangsey is a polycule

Analyzing the reoccurring themes a) Friendship b) Being a teen/growing up c) (Found) Family d) Magic (as a metaphor) e) Further themes I appreciate

Drawing a conclusion

Click here to start with the introductory parts!

1. Introduction

So here’s the thing: I love fiction almost as much as I love my friends. There’s something deeply comforting about the escapism, even if the book actually makes me want to scream and throw it on the floor (only one book has been thrown so far, I promise!).  Fiction is a healthy thing to occupy my thoughts with: headcanons! Quotes being on loop in my brain! Just fandoms!

And for me, if I am hooked on a book (series), it does not even need a good plot where a lot of things happen. In fact, I would say that my enjoyment of a book is made up of 30% plot and about 70% characters and vibes. If the characters are bland, if they do not make me feel much emotion, it likely won’t be more than 4 stars (additional info: I am way too nice rating books!). I really, really need to love the characters, to be able to relate to some aspects of them, or it just won’t become an obsession.

Since I have already started explaining that a bit, let’s look at this question: What is important to make a book special to me? 1. I need to cry reading it. 2. I have to think about it often, even weeks to months after having read it. 3. Obviously, I need to love the characters. 4. I need to be in the fandom! This can be hard with some books, but the internet is a whimsical space allowing you to find at least a small number of people who are obsessed with a work of fiction to a similar extent as you are.

Now, why am I elaborating on this so much? It’s because The Raven Cycle did all that for me. It is my favorite comfort book series at the moment, for all those aspects mentioned, but of course I cannot just leave it at that. No, I wrote a whole-ass analysis on headcanons and some of its themes. You’re welcome.

2. What even is The Raven Cycle?

The Raven Cycle is all I adore and live for (next to my friends). So, naturally, it’s a book series, specifically a four book young adult contemporary fantasy series by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The books in question are: The Raven Boys (2012), The Dream Thieves (2013), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) and The Raven King (2016), and yes I will admit that the publishing dates are a bit of a red flag. There is also the very relevant follow-up series called The Dreamer Trilogy (Call Down The Hawk, Mister Impossible, Greywaren), but it’s a lot less easy to get into that here as I do not know these entire books by heart, so I’ll stick to the original tetralogy here.

To stick to red flags, the books are set in the fictional Henrietta, a rural town in non-fictional Virginia, US, in the 2010s. However, that doesn’t really say *that* much about the plot, so let me summarize that really quick, because I can do better than the official synopsis! (Or let’s pretend I can.)

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, yet she does not have any powers of her own. Even worse, she is a bit of an amplifier for the others, meaning she is always somehow but never directly involved in the business. As if that isn’t enough for an identity crisis, every psychic she has ever met has told her that her kiss would kill her true love. Yikes.

But because she is that amplifier, she comes to a church watch on St. Mark’s Eve, where psychics see the spirits of those to die within the following year. It’s important business, but to her it’s really just staring into the dark. Until she does actually see a spirit: That of Gansey. Of course this is not a coincidence. No, to add to this teen’s mount of problems, there are only two reasons why a non-seer would see someone’s spirit: They are their true love, or they killed them. Or, in Blue’s case, maybe both.

The aforementioned Gansey is Henrietta’s Golden Boy, the son of politicians (read: he’s fucking loaded). He does not run with the Republicans though, he runs with dead Welsh kings, meaning he has been searching for the probably dead, presumably sleeping Welsh king Glendower (*1350; †1416; yikes) for the past like seven years. Why the fuck would he do that? Well, legend says that he will grant a wish to whoever wakes him, and our favorite PTSD-ridden guy really wants that favor.

Aiding him are fellow Aglionby students Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Noah Czerny, plus Henry Cheng, though only a lot later in the series, but I really did not want to leave out that menace (affectionately) here. The paths of Blue and the boys cross because of Gansey’s search for Glendower, plus the fact that Blue works at a popular pizza place, but that’s a lot less whimsical. And, well, there’s the implication that Gansey might also be her true love, but perhaps she just kills him because of his bad fashion sense, it would be justified. Anyway, in true Famous Five fashion (Ronan is the dog; I won’t elaborate, the girls that get it, get it) they are of course not the only ones searching for the king, so it’s not completely a wholesome friend bonding activity all the way through.

Be prepared for: friendship and growing up, lots of treasure hunting, family mysteries, magical forests, illegal and slightly distasteful activities (our favorite of course), but most of all, heavily queer-coded (or even canonically queer) characters. Be Gay, Do Crime.

#y'all better like this it took a while #trc #the raven cycle #gansey #blue sargent #ronan lynch #adam parrish #noah czerny #henry cheng #the raven king #the raven boys #blue lily lily blue #the dream thieves #let's hope i don't forget about this after the first part #please talk to me about your thoughts

[bengiyo]

Why Do I Tag So Many Creators in My Posts? It’s About Respect

Earlier today I was talking with @sophsloveskpop in the notes of a post, and was asked about all of the interaction between blogs in the posts and essays about the shows. I’ve noticed an uptick in new names interacting with posts (and making great posts of their own!) and wanted to talk about why I do it and why I like fandom on Tumblr.

Fundamentally, I think it’s generally good courtesy to acknowledge when someone else has expressed a similar idea to your, or an idea that intrigues you. I think it’s best to tag that person and link to their post so that others can also experience it. It also opens you up to a dialogue with them and others.

People Like Getting Their Flowers

If someone posts an analysis or even a quirky idea that I felt the need to think about, I will mention them in my posts. None of the great content we get on here is necessarily quick to make. I absolutely love all of the gifmakers who fight against Photoshop, Tumblr, and God Himself to post snippets of shows on here for us. I wouldn’t be able to flesh out some of my posts, illustrates points, or otherwise breakup walls of text without @liyazaki, @wanderlust-in-my-soul, @pharawee, or @gabrielokun. Whenever I can’t find the gif I’m looking for through Tumblr’s terrible gif search, I reach out to one of them for permission to use their gifs directly.

Also, many of us just like being acknowledged that someone we wrote meant something to someone else. Every time I get tagged by someone in an essay I’m like:

It’s a Conversation

I don’t think fandom is about being the smartest person or the most correct person. My basic framework I’m writing from is Black Gay Nerd Who Watches a Lot of Stuff. It’s what I’m most familiar with personally, and I find that people have really responded to that.

I’ve been around for a very long time, and have been seeing folks like @so-much-yet-to-learn around the entire time, who often has more specific information about fandom life during the airing of shows. @absolutebl and @heretherebedork have watched more BL than I have, and I’ve seen at least 250 productions. ABL has some of the most comprehensive posts collecting some of the history.

I made so many friends after diving into @shortpplfedup DMs to talk about sustainable urbanism and bonding over our shared geography. Now we run @the-conversation-pod together. Through them I befriended so many others, like @elnotwoods and @kyr-kun-chan.

I’m not a color theory expert, and so I love reading posts from @respectthepetty and others (I think @sliceduplife writes about color too).

We wouldn't even have my favorite show without @isaksbestpillow.

I know what shows are coming because of @clairificusrex.

I don’t know much about music theory, but @iguessitsjustme write some great stuff about the music in these shows.

I don’t always read the body language of hands as closely as someone like @wen-kexing-apologist might.

I am not Asian, and so I like reading from @waitmyturtles, @telomeke-bbs, and @neuroticbookworm. I know that @recentadultburnout and @airenyah offer useful perspective on Thai language.

Sometimes folks are going to narrow down on specific shows and consistently write about them for years on side blogs like @miscellar.

Some people have studied so much and bring specific academic lenses to the genre that I find compelling, like @emotionallychargedtowel.

In many cases, I just vibe with them really hard, like @ginnymoonbeam.

I actually didn’t always post as much as I do, but I try to keep up my Stray Thoughts project so that people can keep track of what I’m watching. I used to write less meta, but then I befriended @waitmyturtles and @lurkingshan. Any time I say anything remotely thoughtful Shan is like:

Also, though, this is Tumblr! It’s easy to tag each other and link to each other’s posts! This is what makes us different from every

Isn’t It Just More Fun?

I don’t enjoy shows passively. I grew up in a family that watched things together. My mom, dad, sister, and I all have differing tastes from each other, but we watched a lot of different things together. My friends and I discussed the things we watched at school.

I’m a big fan of the water cooler approach to TV show distribution, which basically says you want your show to be the show people are talking about on their breaks at work. I always like Film Crit Hulk’s theory that movies (and our dramas) are the proverbial campfires around which we gather to share ourselves with each other.

This is all supposed to be fun, and I have more fun when we interact. I get tagged daily by @blmpff about updates from sets, or when we all need to rush to IG to make sure Fluke Pongsakorn doesn’t cut his hair. When @bl-bam-beyond makes a new set or post they let me know, and they recently rewatched Noah’s Arc! I made friends with @gillianthecat in the last year or so, and it’s been fun seeing her make her way through fandom. I always get excited with @troubled-mind pings me in a post because I know it’s going to give me something to chew on. I didn’t have a genuine appreciation for kink culture until I watched along with @lutawolf. If something funny is happening in fandom I know @benkaaoi is going to tag me. I still get excited when @heukheuk pops up in my mentions.

I know I’ve probably forgotten so many people alone the way here, and I’m sorry if I didn’t mention you.

Tag Because It’s the Right Thing to Do

So seriously, tag people and link to their posts. Try to use the giffmakers specific tags when you’re using the search feature. Fandom is better when we all interact respectfully and enthusiastically with each other. Tumblr is special because it lets us create goofy little essays like this and tag dozens of people just to get their attention.

If you have a cool thought about a show I’m watching, tag me. If you see something funny, tag me in the comments. If you wanna hash out an idea before posting it, DM me. This is Tumblr. Don’t be shy with your thoughts. It’s okay to be wrong on the internet. It’s actually fun to be wrong on the internet about show predictions!

Thank you as always for coming to my post.

#Ben writes #fandom life #tumblr life

[unhelpfulfemme]

More random Captive Prince thoughts, because I feel like being a sadist to all of my mutuals these books are living rent-free in my head right now. These ones are more about the plot and the worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding-wise, I loved the attention to detail, because as far as I could tell all the little details of how a medieval-ish army functions and how you would run it and what you would do with the horses and the supplies and the roads etc. etc. were pretty accurate. I mean, these books are by no means a treatise on warfare (in fact they can be delightfully pulpy, which I liked - I grew up on The Three Musketeers and the Scarlet Pimpernell and similar swashbuckling novels, and I got some of the same feelings here!), but there were details in there that most other authors don't bother to put in or inadvertently fuck up (I love ASOIAF to death but historically accurate it is not), and most of the military stuff seemed plausible enough as well, though again not described in too much detail so you can fill it in with your own assumptions or skim over if it's not something that particularly interests you. And I also loved the architectural details and could imagine everything quite well, but again, as I said previously, this may be because the author spent some time living near where I live so we've seen a lot of the same stuff probably.

Actually when I was first reading it and thinking it was going to be bad I was reading it exclusively for the architectural details lol, I was like yeah, yeah, they're all sucking each other off, but Damen please tell me again how you feel about the tiling?

What I also particularly liked is how the... scale of the conflict I guess? was refreshingly accurate for the "historical period".

The worldbuilding is a mashup of Ancient Greece and medieval France, but what it really felt like to me is a world where the Roman Empire never really consolidated to the extent that it did in our world and Italy went on into the middle ages (because these are decidedly feudal systems) with Cisalpine Gaul having the, well, Gallic culture, while the South had a Greek one. I may be thinking this because I live in Italy and so everything reminds me of Italy, but once I thought of it I couldn't unsee it.

I guess I gotta put in a cut somewhere and now's as good of a time as any?

But anyway, back to the scale of the conflict, the actual middle ages were filled with small and mid-sized countries, and petty local conflicts with family members turning onto each other over succession and stuff, and random small territories going back and forth (well, that's just Europe in general, always, TBH), and this is how it all felt like to me. Actual medieval history has a guy who started a rebellion because his brothers threw a pisspot at him and his father did nothing about it and he felt humiliated, and the war was secretly funded by his mother, so the combination of the small scale with a random local conflict that probably literally nobody cares about outside of the region we are in + everything being so intensely driven by interpersonal drama between insane people felt really authentic to me, like the kind of weird historical moment that would get turned into a funny Tumblr post. And of course the royals did a lot more sneaking around than was probably smart, but I can forgive that for the swashbuckling vibes and also because if Cleopatra could sneak into a palace in a carpet these guys can do whatever they want in my book.

Speaking of the petty interpersonal drama, I also liked the emphasis on how in this system personal reputation and the performance of kingship are king. Usually when you have a heavily political story it's much more based on the quid-pro-quo, "rational actor" kind of politics, but medieval politics also had a lot more going on in the cultural sense (and so do modern politics actually but at least pretending to be a "rational actor" IS the modern performance of leadership), and here you had people dealing political blows through meticulous management of their own and others' political reputations, which was fun to see, especially in combination with so many manipulative bastard characters. Like, how Laurent is manipulated into going to the border just because looking like a coward will lose him more political points than he can afford, and Damen's continued wearing of the slave cuff and instistence on not being served by slaves initially deals massive blows to his reputation, because these are cultures that value heroism, of one sort or another.

(And speaking of heroism, the emphasis on the physical activity-related activities that are the centerpiece of noble life in both countries were wonderful, especially since because both Ancient Greece and the European Middle Ages were really into that in their respective ways and it makes the mashup feel really well-done and coherent in how she tied it together.)

What's notable is a lack of any kind of religion, which felt particularly glaring during the whole Kingsmeet thing - in the real world there would likely be a belief in some kinda curse from the Gods or something similar to discourage the drawing of weapons, but since I'm not really religious and tend not to personally care about religion (while ofc recognizing its anthropological importance) I really didn't care and it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the series.

Still, I do have to say that the ending of the last book felt reeeeaally rushed, and that felt really glaring exactly because the rest of the series had such amazing detail work and excellent pacing and very gradual plot development.

I didn't get the part with the doctor and the letter (why didn't he say anything earlier? how would they verify the authenticity of the letter? Did anyone even have the time to READ the thing?) but I'm gonna be honest with you here, I read book 3 under a heavy fever and it was like 2 AM when I got to that part, so I'm not sure that I haven't missed something that makes it make more sense.

BUT even if that part makes sense, I feel like the Regent was dealt with far too quickly. Like in one paragraph he is in control of everything, in the next they've already beheaded him and that's it. I can imagine in my head that a lot of the nobles were probably already sick of him and took little convincing, that they were disapproving both of his meddling in foreign politics and of his likely grave breach of cultural rules via taking an aristo kid as a pet, or that he initially rationally seemed a better choice over Laurent until Laurent proved himself to be more competent and with a more competent ally, or they already had some hints about what happened that the audience didn't and the evidence confirmed what was inconclusive before.

But I feel like in a series that spends so much time detailing the shifting alliances between the characters and the public's opinion on everyone that matters? I really needed to be sold on it a bit more. Like I really needed some discussion over what to do with the Regent, I needed them to keep him in a cell for a while as they decided whether to kill him (and have the leads scared that the Regent will turn them over as Laurent often does to people), I needed them to consider the evidence just a little bit more, I needed some post mortem with the council members where they explain what was happening on their side of the things. It needed to be MUCH longer and more detailed.

Another thing I wondered at was why the Regent was so insistent to paint Laurent's collaborations with the Akielons as a bad thing when he was... also collaborating with the Akielons? Like he is foaming at the mouth calling them barbarians and accusing Laurent of sleeping with the prince-killer but it feels more like setup for Damen's big declaration of love than an actual political strategy because my brother in Christ, you are literally in the Akielon royal palace, in the middle of Akielos to which you ran after your nephew started a rebellion, with the Akielon king sitting next to you as your equal. Why do you think that you can convince your people that YOUR Vere-Akielos alliance is somehow more morally pure than Laurent's? This was also the right moment to pull out all the patricide allegations that seemed to be going around for Damen, but IIRC he didn't use that as much as he could if at all.

Since there were some Akielons in the room as well, I was also wondering WTF was Kastor doing as the Regent was shitting on his country and calling them barbarians and making it like allying with them is a grave transgression? Why was HE allowing this humiliation? It felt like a very unpolitical thing to do from a character whose strength was in his political acumen (obviously meaning the Regent, not Kastor) and the plot just let it slide by.

I feel like a lot of this is due to this being the first time that the story had to fit within the constraints of a traditional book? So it needed a decisive traditional climax and perhaps it was getting too long for a traditional format, or the author got a bit tired of it and wanted to wind it up now that she wasn't getting regular feedback as you do with serialized publishing, or she prioritized emotional impact over plot logic.

I don't know. I still think they're great books, and the conclusion was emotionally satisfying in the sense that the psychological and interpersonal threads were wrapped up impeccably, I just wanted more detail on the political side. It's still grabbed me like nothing else did for a long time, I can take a mid ending, half of my favourite series will never have one at all because the author wrote themselves into a corner and then died lol.

#captive prince #this one's a plot and worldbuilding analysis #I just have so many things to say I'm sorry ._. #they really scratched an itch #RIP to everyone who followed me for anything else (so basically everyone)

[nitewrighter]

Since we have an influx of people coming in from twitter and discussing the whole culture of retweets vs. reblogs between the two sites, I'm going to take a moment here for some

Queue Propaganda

First off, what is the queue?

It's a posting mechanic that you can customize for yourself so that rather than immediately reblogging something, you can arrange for it to be posted at a later time. Your queue on tumblr can fit up to 1000 posts! Wow!

Why would I want to do something like that?

There are lots of reasons! For me, I like the idea of having something that consistently posts throughout the day for my followers in different time zones. I also like to support artists by reblogging, but I don't want to spam their notifications all at once and create an impenetrable wall of reblogs from the same artist on my dashboard, and the queue allows me to distribute those reblogs over a longer period of time, basically giving said art a more extended period of circulation. The queue also has a 'shuffle' function, so if you have a whole bunch of reblogs from one person, you can 'shuffle' it with other items in your queue so your dash has a bit more variety. If you're an artist, you can also set up your blog to reblog your own works so that they can show up on feeds at a later time. It can also be useful if you're reuploading a bunch of your art from twitter onto here and maybe don't want to dump it all at once.

Do we have to have a queue?

You do not! You can come online and spam reblog a bunch of jackshit or whatever suits you! I just think it's a nice feature!

Is there queue etiquette?

Nothing heavily enforced, but a lot of people will use a queue tag (often something quirky and specific to their blog) to indicate when their blog is posting from their queue, which also doubles as a 'hey just because I'm posting doesn't mean I'm online' sort of message. Some people will have a silly queue-specific pun for their queue tag, and others will just tag their queue with 'q,' it's really up to personal taste. You can schedule as many or as few queue posts a day to suit your tastes.

What's up with the post scheduling? Is that the same thing?

It's in a similar category, but it's more specific. When you schedule a post, that's basically set at the time you set it to post at, regardless of what's in your queue. The post is visible in your queue, but it stays fixed at the date you scheduled for it, regardless of what you add to your queue or how many times you shuffle it. This is very useful if you have content or reblogs meant for specific events and holidays!

Okay but what is the general vibe around queues? Do people like or dislike when you queue their posts as opposed to immediately reblogging them?

A queue *is* a reblog. There is a bit of a joke with queue users on this site where it's like "I'll see if they like my post within 6-8 business days" but it really is a useful form of posting because it extends the sort of... digital shelf life of content. No one is insulted if they see you reblogged your post with a queue tag. A reblog is a reblog, regardless of what time it pops up on the dash. No pressure.

[gender-trash]

you know the tumblr aesthetic houses/aesthetic interiors blogs? the ones that post exclusively unsourced images usually ganked from instagram or pinterest?

ai image generation has taken over that entire corner of tumblr like a parasite, and because i content tag for ai generated images i need to zoom in and squint every fucking time -- but i follow a lot of blogs who talk a big game about being anti-"AI art" and seem to, like. not realize? when they are in fact reblogging ai generated images (i suspect because they look more like photos than like digital paintings or w/e).

anyway here's my set of tips for recognizing ai generated aesthetic house photos on tumblr. we're gonna use this post as an example:

check the source: on posts by this species of aesthetic photo aggregation blog, there may be some kind of text that purports to be "a source" (in days of yore, sometimes if you googled this you would find some kind of instagram page that itself aggregated stolen image content; occasionally it was even the actual photographer). in our example post the text is "Thierrynuchanant", which might be a street name or a photographer's mononym or an instagram or all manner of other things, but the entire first page of google results was exclusively this tumblr post or reblogs of it, so i feel pretty confident in assuming it's completely made-up.

(this by itself is a weak signal that the image is also completely made-up, but, like... if it ISN'T, it's still a blatantly stolen unsourced photo. but if you're active in this corner of Aesthetic Tumblr i guess you've already made your peace with that.)

inspect the architecture: this particular house makes it tricky because it's purposefully artsy and asymmetric, and how the hell do i know the architect didn't make all the window frames different on purpose? so instead of asymmetry, keep an eye out for misalignments, things that don't make physical sense, or things that are mismatched but look similar from a distance (typically if you are doing something purposefully mismatched, you want to draw attention to the contrast -- so, an all-black outfit with one black sock and one bright green sock is purposeful, but an all-black outfit with one black sock and one dark gray sock looks like you made some sort of laundry error).

what the fuck is this pointy archway thing that's only on one half of the window? where does it attach?

these lit-up yellow windows look like really fancy and decorative leaded glass (i mean, i *think*; the image is blurry enough that it's hard to tell), so it's weird that they look similar in color but the left one has a diamond-ish pattern and the right one has vaguely gothic arching tracery that is replicated NOWHERE else in the house

the windowsill looks lumpy and, uh, irradiated, and the planterboxes are at two different heights. also come to mention it how are the planterboxes even attached to the thick stone sill?

why are there two slightly different styles of lamp thing at two different heights

windowpanes crooked??? also if you squint the stonework on the window frame doesn't actually make sense or depict anything

this mostly-hidden rectangular architectural mass seems to switch from modern with rectangular windowpanes on the left to elaborate tracery on the right, and the angles don't quite match up either. (i also spent a while squinting at that inverted nipple thing to the right of the round window but like, i don't know a hell of a lot about french art nouveau vernacular architecture, maybe it's... a disused utility hookup???)

plants that aren't in pots: this is the dead giveaway. ai generated images LOVE to have non-climbing plants just vibing on the side of a building.

this is not a fucking epiphyte it needs DIRT SOMEWHERE

okay now i gotta hunt down another example image so i can provide examples of mangled text and maybe mismatched architectural details in other styles. brb

#the trashcan speaks #ai generated images

[andypantsx3]

copying this into its own orig post & deleting the other so i can turn off reblogs to be safe

it's time to whip this bad boy back out.

apologies for momentarily disrupting the funsies vibes i like to maintain on this blog. i will ask that no one reblog this because i don't want to get into anything big and idk how this take will go over. but i am feeling slightly disillusioned with some of the x reader writer culture on tumblr as of late!!

i understand we are all playing in the same sandbox and it's inevitable that we're going to want to play with the same ideas, and we absolutely should be able to because that's how tropes become known and loved and spread and that's just like, how culture works overall.

but one thing that is really getting to me is the growing number of plagiarism & "paraplagiarist" incidents i'm seeing. (fyi i'm not talking about me here, luckily nothing has happened to me personally as of late).

like flagrant plagiarism is bad enough and i hate how often we are seeing it these days. but what i think of as "paraplagiarism" also really grinds my gears. it's where people take the same ideas and don't just put their own spin on it with a nod to the original author, but like, replicate most or all of the fic with minor rephrasings such that it is technically different but eerily similar. and then don't even credit the original author!!

(and i don't just mean like one or two lines or whatever because i know we all get inspired at the line-level as well. but when it's prevalent in large, obvious chunks or interspersed consistently throughout the fic idk it just feels different, you know??)

i think that goes beyond just being "inspired" by something and really toes the line into behavior that i'm uncomfy with.

idk if it's just like, well-intentioned people who are unfamiliar with the appropriate boundaries of storytelling or if it's some sort of deliberate behavior. but either way i hate seeing how discouraging it is to the fic authors i know and love who worked hard on their stuff.

and i don't understand how or why it is satisfying for the people who do it because they must know on some level that's not their work. not at the piece's core, anyway.

i just wonder why it's so prevalent and why people do it!! and idk if anyone else is as fussed by this as i am but it really makes me wanna slink off and disappear out of the community sometimes.

i just wish we as a community would be more intentional about crediting the people who helped or inspired us. because it literally costs nothing, not even your pride. and i wish we would be more intentional about telling our own stories in our own voice instead of trying to replicate what other people are doing.

idk!! just feeling some type of way today i guess!! please ignore me if this doesn't resonate with your own experience, i just needed to vent!! inevitably any opinion will ruffle feathers but i'm not trying to invite discourse onto the blog. just trying to work out my feelings, i guess!

#i have no idea if this an oversensitive take or what #but i feel like some ppl have had this experience too #idk #idk guys!!!!

[shepherds-of-haven]

which characters are cat people and which ones are dog people? (pls forgive me if this has already been asked bc tumblr’s search function is ass sjxnss)

and in a similar vein, are anyone of them early birds or night owls?

Hi there, I'd honestly be surprised if I haven't answered this before, but since I can't find it either, here goes LOL:

Blade: he likes and treats cats and dogs pretty much equally, but is slightly more likely to own a (hunting) dog if he were to ever get a pet. I wouldn't label him as either a cat person or a dog person, though; I could see a hawk being more likely for him as well!

Trouble: dog person. He does like cats and has an amicable relationship to them, but is pretty allergic to them, so typically doesn't have much contact with them

Tallys: she likes both and treats both equally, but I would call her a cat person, and she would be much more likely to own a cat than a dog

Shery: cat person if it's a choice between the two (she's a bit afraid of dogs), but given the choice, I'm guessing she would be more of a tiny adorable rodent person (of the hamster/chinchilla/rabbit variety) than either a cat or dog person

Riel: neither. animal dander is a nightmare

Chase: cat person. He's fine with dogs too but he vibes with cats better; it's never like he gets really amped up to interact with a dog like Trouble might

Red: cat person. Pretty much the same as Chase in that he likes dogs too, but cats fit more with his personality and lifestyle, and he grew up with a family cat

Ayla: she has a cordial relationship with both, and is unlikely to own either. She'd probably be a hawk/bird person over a cat or dog person!

Briony: personality-wise, I'd label her a dog person, although she actually adores both equally and gets super excited to interact with either a cat or a dog. The only problem is, cats sense her desperate need to be liked and high energy and tend to avoid/snub her, so it's doomed to be an unequal dynamic that always leaves her like 🥹 'I just want to pet you so bad...' as the cat walks away. I could sort of see her with a small dog in a modern AU, but not in Blest, if that makes any sense? I feel like she'd be more likely to have some sort of quirky weird animal companion, like a monkey or a fox or a taito or something lol

Lavinet: cat person, though I don't think she'd mind having a little toy lapdog if one was gifted to her or she was tasked with looking after one. She doesn't tend to gravitate towards most dogs she encounters, though, and prefers admiring cats from afar! Like Riel, I don't think she's much of an animal person in general, though! (Oh, JK, she's 100% already a horse person lol. Duh! 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Halek: he likes both pretty much equally! It's tempting to label him as a cat person for his lazy and chill personality, but I actually think he'd be more likely to own a dog and actually adore it, so I guess technically dog person?

Prihine: cat person

Caine: dog person, though he likes cats too, he just tends to annoy them

As for the morning bird/night owl question, it's been answered here and here! :)

#Shepherds of Haven #morning person #night person #morning bird #night owl #redirect #dog person #cat person #pets #dog #cat #all characters

[genshinluvr]

The Soul Puppet

Pairings: Various Genshin Men x Isekai'd!Reader

Summary: You and the men were spending time together at the Mid-Autumn Festival at Liyue Harbor when a merchant called you over to show off a necklace that might interest you. After seeing how much the necklace cost, you refused to buy it. The merchant demands that you take the necklace, and you reluctantly take it in the end. Who knew that things would go downhill from there that cost your life?

Note: I have finally decided to type out this request because I have been trying to plan out this story ever since I first got the request! This is angst; there is no comfort (mainly because I didn't get any comfort vibes from the request). Please don't pop into my inbox to ask if there's comfort or not; read the request, and you'll know whether there's comfort or not. Or, skip to the ending to see if there's a happy ending or not (I do that with every angst I come across). Some angst doesn't need happy endings. To my new and/or returning readers, I post on AO3 as well, so if you have an AO3 and see a work similar to this, it's me (Aaliah_exo on AO3). I don't post anywhere else but on Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and on AO3 (Aaliah_exo).

Warnings: Stabbing, exorcism by using adeptal magic, lots and lots of blood, mentions of death, coughing and vomiting up blood

Word Count: 13.7k

Read Part 2 of the Soul Puppet [HERE].

The sound of the bustling crowd fills your ears as you walk around Liyue Harbor at eight o’clock at night. You were holding onto Zhongli and Xiao’s hands tightly as they guide you through the large crowd with the other men following behind you three. You looked at your surroundings in awe of the decorations all over Liyue Harbor. Lanterns hung on buildings, and children ran by with their lanterns while their parents and guardians chased after them to make sure they didn’t get into trouble.

“I knew that there would be many people celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, but I didn’t think the entirety of Liyue would be in Liyue Harbor to celebrate it.” You commented, gripping Xiao and Zhongli’s hands tightly as you and your boyfriends pushed through the crowd.

Zhongli chuckles, “It’s one of the most important festivals to the people of Liyue.” You let out a soft “oh” while nodding your head in acknowledgment. Once Zhongli and Xiao were able to guide you and the rest of the men out from the vast crowd, you three released your grips on each other’s hands before scanning around the harbor.

Thoma looks at Zhongli and Xiao before asking, “What should we do first?” His green eyes shone with wonder when he caught a glimpse of lanterns floating in the air.

“You know, I heard that drinking osmanthus wine is one of the traditions of the Mid-Autumn Festival! Maybe we should do that.” You said, nudging Zhongli lightly with a smile on your face. Zhongli smiles down at you and rubs the top of your head affectionately; Zhongli is about to open his mouth to say something, only to hear someone say, “yahoo!” Everyone turned towards where the holler came from, only to see a buzzed Venti strutting up to the group with a bright smile on his face.

“I’m already ahead of you, Windblume!” Venti says, waving a cup full of osmanthus wine in his hands in the air near his head, his cheeks flushed pink as he takes a huge gulp from the cup.

You giggled, “Venti! You’re drunk already!” the anemo archon walked up to you with a cute dopey smile on his face before taking another sip of his osmanthus wine.

“Care to try some, Windblume?” Venti asks, gesturing towards the stall where the food and drinks are held— Ah, so that’s where he got his cup of osmanthus wine. At first, you thought Venti smuggled osmanthus wine into the festival, but alas, you were wrong.

You shook your head before giving him a faint smile, “No, thank you, Venti! I don’t want to drink anything alcoholic at the beginning of the festival. Maybe I’ll have a taste of osmanthus wine later.” You said, tucking your hands in the pockets of your shorts.

Diluc leans down to you before murmuring into your ears, “Good choice, but I recommend for you not to drink at all.”

You whisper back to Diluc, “Is it because I get drunk easily?” Diluc cracks a smile and bobs his head to your question. You pursed your lips and looked away from Diluc, flustered at the thought of you not being able to drink more than one glass cup of alcohol without getting drunk. It wasn’t your fault that you weren’t much of an alcohol type of person, plus you weren’t fond of the taste or smell of alcohol. It makes your nose hairs want to burn just by taking a whiff of any type of alcohol. 

“Uh, where’s Itto?” You hear Gorou ask nervously, his eyes scanning the crowd to search for the tall oni, who somehow managed to get lost.

“Hey, guys! Over here!” Itto hollers, waving his hand in the air with a big grin on his face before holding up a bowl of food to show you and the others.

“Ooh! Maybe we should eat something before we explore!” Aether says, his eyes lit up. Paimon appears out of thin air, her mouth watering at the smell of Liyuen cuisines lingering in the air. Paimon nods her head excitedly before flying off to one of the nearby food stands with Aether chasing after Paimon to make sure she doesn’t get lost in the crowd.

You were about to run after them when someone called out to you, “You over there, young one!” You looked around in confusion to look for where the voice was coming from. “Over here! You in the black shorts!” You made eye contact with the merchant, who waved you over to where he was standing.

You turned to look for your boyfriends, only to see some at the food stalls, the game stalls, and the storyteller’s stall. Since your boyfriends weren’t too far from where the merchant was located, you slowly walked towards the older gentleman, who gave you a broad smile as you approached closer to where he stood. The closer you came to the man’s stall, the more you noticed that the merchant’s stall wasn’t just any stall, but he was selling jewelry, expensive yet beautiful jewelry. 

“I couldn’t help but notice you with your friend group and think to myself, ‘I think this beautiful necklace would suit them!’” Said the merchant, who then held out a flat velvet box in front of you before opening the velvet box, revealing an extravagant antique necklace.

“Oh, wow! This necklace is very stunning, boss!” You gasped at the jewelry in front of you, eyes scanning the gorgeous orange cor lapis stone in the center of the necklace.

The merchant smiles pridefully before explaining to you the background and history of the necklace in his hands. According to the merchant, the necklace was once owned by a deity, a beautiful one, at that. It was given to her by her lover, who was also a deity, but she lost her lover during the archon war. The god was so heartbroken over the loss of her lover that she couldn’t bear to keep the necklace that her lover gifted her. So, she ended up grabbing it by the pendant, ripping it off her neck, and throwing it into the ocean, where it was swept away by the ocean waves.

“I believe that is how the story goes. But I’m not too sure; it was quite vague when I read about it.” The merchant shrugged his shoulders, examining you closely as you continued to stare at the necklace in awe. While the necklace is beautiful, you couldn’t help but get a strange feeling from the pendant. Your eyes fell on the price tag on the velvet box, and your eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 

“While the necklace is beautiful, it is certainly not for me!” You said, letting out soft nervous laughter while scratching your arms. Why in the world did this merchant think that you could afford something that was over one million mora? Did he think you were loaded or something? Wait, was it because you were with Childe and Pantalone? Speaking of Childe and Pantalone, where are they?

The merchant’s smile slips off his face, “O-Oh, well, I can give it to you for free!” He exclaims, shoving the velvet box into your face. You backed away and held your hands up in front of you, laughing nervously.

“No, no! It’s alright, boss! While the necklace is beautiful, it certainly does not fit my taste.” You said, giving the man a polite smile. 

You weren’t sure why this merchant was so insistent with wanting to gift you the necklace without having to pay the price. The necklace was beautiful, but it was very expensive, and you did not want to parade around in jewelry that had a tragic backstory to it. It would be very disrespectful of you to do so, and it would make you look bad if you did wear it around and show off the necklace that used to belong to an archon that was now deceased. Not only that but there was something off about the necklace. Yes, it is beautiful, but your gut was telling you not to touch the necklace or go anywhere near it. It was telling you to run.

The merchant frowns at you, his eyebrows furrowing with frustration, “But I want you to be the only one that wears this necklace! I believe that you are the only person who can pull off this antique jewelry! Only you and no one else!” He exclaims, shoving the necklace into your face. “Just take it already!” The merchant growls, his eyes almost glowing with anger.

You let out a frustrated sigh, “Alright, alright, I’ll take it!” You held your hand out nervously, waiting for the merchant to drop the necklace into your grasp. The merchant gives you a satisfied smile before taking the necklace from the velvet box, gently placing the necklace into the palm of your hands.

You huffed, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a festival to enjoy with my boyfriends.” You said, pocketing the necklace in your pocket before walking off. “What a rude merchant. No wonder he barely has any customers at his stall! I find it strange that he would pick me to be his first customer, of all people at the festival.” You grumbled.

You approached where the men had gathered, you and Heizou made eye contact, and his eyes lit up before pointing over at where you were. The men turned to look at you as you approached closer to them, giving them a fake smile.

“There you are! We were looking for you!” Heizou says, linking his arms around yours.

Ayato sips the osmanthus wine before asking, “Where were you? It was hard to look for you with the number of people in the crowd.” 

You debated for a moment on whether you should tell your boyfriends about the merchant being persistent with you taking the necklace or not. You ended up choosing not to mention it to them because you didn’t want it to ruin their joy of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, nor did you want them to get into a massive argument with the merchant. You couldn’t get the encounter with the merchant out of your head. It was strange how the merchant was so desperate with wanting to give you the necklace, even though it was being sold for over one million mora. The necklace is beautiful, but there was something weird about the jewelry, but you couldn’t put your finger on the issue.

“I was distracted by many stalls and wanted to get a look at each stall before coming over!” You lied, giving Ayato a small smile as Baizhu handed you a mooncake. 

Your eyes lit up, and you gratefully took the mooncake from Baizhu’s hands before taking a bite out of it. The taste of red bean paste bursts in your mouth, making you hum in delight. It’s been a while since you’ve had mooncake, especially in your world, whenever you celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with your friends and loved ones back in your world. You examined the mooncake, nostalgia hitting you like a mitachurl.

“Wow, I haven’t had mooncake in ages.” You commented, blushing when you feel Baizhu wipe the corner of your lips with the tip of his thumb.

Baizhu hums happily, “Oh! So you’ve had mooncake before, I presume?” Baizhu asks, gazing down at you curiously before handing you something to drink. Since you weren’t a big fan of alcohol, Baizhu got you coconut milk to drink instead. 

“Yes, back in my world, I’ve had mooncake on special occasions and celebrations.” You said, finishing up the last bits of your mooncake. “It brings back a lot of memories, and I’m glad that I’m sort of reliving these memories with the men I love.” You feel your face becoming hot from the number of stares you are receiving. 

“Snookums!!! You’re too precious, my love!” Childe whines softly, placing his wine down before walking over to you with his arms wide open. He pulls you into his arms and hugs you tightly, kissing the top of your head with a big pout on his face. Childe leans over and presses a kiss on your cheek while lightly pinching your cheeks.

“Shall we go to the next stall?” Albedo asks, tossing his trash into the trash bin before turning towards everyone.

Kazuha strokes his chin before letting his hands fall to his side, “What stall should we go to next? There are many stalls to check out.” Kazuha says, his red eyes scanning his surroundings. Kaeya’s eye(s) landed on the last stall you were at and was about to point it out, but you pointed at a game stall that had many plushies hung up as prizes. 

“How about we go to the game stall that has a lot of plushies?” You ask, hoping that they’d agree to it and not go anywhere near the jewelry stall you were at moments ago. “I do need a new plushie to be added to my collection.” You sang, clinging onto Kaeya’s arm while Childe clung to you.

Kaeya chuckles and presses a kiss on your head, ignoring the glare that Childe gave him for kissing your head. “Then perhaps we should visit the game stall then!” Kaeya rips you from Childe’s grasp before guiding you toward the game stall that you’ve been eyeing. 

Dainsleif stood beside you, scanning the prizes that the stall was offering for the winners before looking down at you, “Are there any prizes that you have in mind?” You scrunched your nose while scanning each plushie that was hanging on the racks.

“What if I want one of each?” You muttered to yourself, staring at each adorable stuffed creature in front of you. You knew that you could only get one plush, but boy, you wanted one of each plushie on display.

“Then we will get you one of each,” Scaramouche speaks up, propping his arms on your head while examining each plush on display. While they’re all cute, the one that caught Scaramouche’s eyes the most was a cute purple bunny with a hat. That was the plush that Scaramouche is determined to get for you; he will get it for you one way or another.

“I can get you all of those plushies without lifting a finger,” Pantalone says, biting on his bottom lip, eyeing the most oversized plush of all.

Pierro sighs, “You cannot buy them all, Pantalone.” He crossed his arms over his chest while Pantalone laughed to himself.

“Aw, and why is that? I would love to see children cry from the lack of prizes.” Dottore says, crossing his arms over his chest with a big smile on his face.

Capitano clears his throat, “Aside from taking all of the stuffed animals for [Y/N], you do realize that if we were to take most of the plushes, we would have issues with bringing them all back to the abode.” 

“Hmph! Who cares? If it’s for [Y/N]’s happiness, then I’m willing to carry it all back just for them.” Xiao grunts, walking over to the game stall vendor before tossing a few mora at the vendor.

Childe perks up, his eyes lit up with interest, “Do I hear a challenge?” He asks, strutting over to where Xiao stood, who glared at him in return.

“Oh, I’m going to win this challenge! Watch me win all of these prizes for my precious onikabuto booboo bear!” Itto says, flexing his biceps before pushing through the men to get to the front of the booth. The men glared at Itto before rushing to the vendor, tossing their mora out on the booth counter while telling the vendor what prizes they wanted to get for you, despite not even starting the game yet. You stood behind the men and watched them toss a kernel-filled sack at a bunch of mini hilichurls. 

The night ended with the men having to carry over fifteen plushies back to the abode, with you holding three tiny plushies in your arms. The festival ended on a good note, and you ended up forgetting about the necklace tucked away in your pocket. Since it was late and the men didn’t have time to construct a new shelf to store your new plushy collection, they all decided to stack the plushes on top of each other in front of your already full shelf.

“We’ll start making you a new shelf for your plushies tomorrow! It’s getting a bit late, and we all need to get some sleep.” Gorou says, kissing your cheeks before bidding you goodnight.

“Alright! Goodnight, everyone!” You said, hugging each man before placing kisses on their cheeks as each man started to leave your bedroom one by one. 

Once your bedroom door closed after the last person left, you walked over to your closet to pick out your pajamas to change into after your shower. You took your shorts off and heard a loud clang when your shorts met the wooden floor of your bedroom. You paused for a moment and slowly knelt down to grab your shorts and dug your hands into the pockets, pulling out the necklace the merchant had demanded for you to take. You stared at the pendant for a moment before hiding it underneath your pillow and grabbing your clothes to take a shower. 

After your almost forty-minute shower, you walked back into your room and got into your bed. You lay your head on your pillow, pulling out the pendant that was shoved in your face by the merchant. You examined the necklace closely and couldn’t help but admire its beauty and craftsmanship. You brushed off your worries to the side and unhooked the necklace before wearing it around your neck. You closed the clasp around the chain before laying back down on your bed. You pull your blanket up to your chin and close your eyes, feeling yourself gradually doze off. 

The next day, when you woke up to get ready for the day, you felt a bit off. You went to your bathroom to brush your teeth, and when you looked in the mirror, your eyes turned black for a brief moment, scaring the absolute shit out of you. You choked on the toothpaste, coughing and spitting the toothpaste out of your mouth and into the sink. You looked back up at your reflection, and you looked like your usual self, minus the fear in your eyes. You shook your head and rubbed your eyes, letting your toothbrush rest on the counter of the bathroom sink before patting your cheeks with both of your hands.

“It’s nothing; it was nothing at all. I’m probably hallucinating.” You whisper to yourself, grabbing the cup of water to rinse out your mouth. “It’s all in your head, [Y/N].” You said to yourself, rinsing out the toothbrush before putting it in the toothbrush holder. What you didn’t realize in the moment of your panic, there was a black mist coming from the pendant before disappearing when you looked back at your reflection in the mirror.

While you were getting ready for the day in your bedroom, the rest of the men were downstairs, waiting for you to come down from your bedroom to have some breakfast. Everyone was lounging around in the living room; some were drinking coffee, and others were drinking tea. It was still early in the morning, but everyone had gotten up early to get ready for the day. You trotted down the stairs, fully dressed and prepared for the day.

You look at your boyfriends nervously, “Can I go to Stormterror’s Lair?” Everyone’s head snaps in your direction after the question leaves your mouth. Why in the world would you want to go to Stormterror’s Lair all of a sudden? Especially since that area is teeming with slimes, hilichurls, samachurls, the eye of the storm, ruin guards, abyss mages, and mitachurls. While the site isn’t as dangerous as it was when Dvalin was taken by the abyss mages, it’s still dangerous for you to go and explore. After all, you knew the dangers of Stormterror’s Lair.

“Stormterror’s Lair? Why would you want to go somewhere that is abandoned?” Aether asks, looking at you in confusion before giving looks to the others in the living area.

You hummed before rocking back and forth on your heels, “Well, I have seen it through a screen, but I would like to explore and see Stormterror’s Lair in person with my own eyes!” You said happily.

Heizou blinks at you curiously, “You’re not going to go all alone, are you?” Heizou asks slowly, getting up from where he is sitting before approaching you.

“Well, I can go alone if you’re all busy! But if not, then we can all go exploring together!” You said happily. “Plus, I have been to almost every region except for Snezhnaya, Dragonspine, the Chasm, Stormterror’s Lair, Natlan, Fontaine, and Sumeru.” You said.

“You technically didn’t go to every region, my love.” Dainsleif snorted, wrapping his arms around your waist before resting his chin on your shoulders. 

You huffed, “Alright, alright! I’ve been to three regions except for the ones I’ve listed!” You said, pressing the side of your head against Dainsleif’s head with a tiny pout on your face. “So? Can I go to Stormterror’s Lair?!” You ask, clasping your hands together with puppy dog eyes.

Diluc sighs softly, “You can go to Stormterror’s Lair, but we will be accompanying you there! We don’t want you to get lost or get hurt.” Diluc stated. You squealed loudly and cheered, jumping up in the air in Dainsleif’s grasp. Dainsleif laughs to himself before patting the top of your head; even if Dainsleif were to kiss the top of your head, with you bouncing, you might headbutt him on the lips. 

“Finally! I can finally see Stormterror’s Lair in person with my own eyes and not through a screen!” You clapped your hands.

Xiao sighs, “We can go to Stormterror’s Lair after you have breakfast. You shouldn’t be exploring on an empty stomach.” Xiao says, walking over to you before grabbing onto your wrist and pulling you to the kitchen to grab something for you to eat before going to Stormterror’s Lair. You adjusted the collar of your shirt to make sure that the necklace you wore around your neck wouldn’t be noticeable. It wasn’t like you didn’t want to show it to your boyfriends; you weren’t sure if the strange occurrence that had happened to you this morning was all in your head or not. 

Plus, you weren’t sure if you should tell the men that a strange man demanded that you keep the necklace even though you didn’t want the jewelry. They’ll insist that you should throw it away, but for some odd reason, you felt very drawn to the necklace. There was something weird but also intriguing about the pendant itself. It was almost like you were meant to find the necklace or the necklace was meant to find you.

After eating the breakfast that Xiao had made for you, you and your twenty-one boyfriends find yourselves at the entrance of Stormterror’s Lair. It was a little bit windy, but the breeze felt nice against your hot skin under the sun. While Venti was talking about Old Mondstadt, you slowly drifted away from the group and walked towards the broken lair. There weren’t any enemies around since some of the men had set out to get rid of the hilichurls, mitachurls, samachurls, abyss mages, slimes, and the eye of the storms before everyone stepped foot into the ancient ruins. When you stepped into the lair, you began to feel strange. Aside from the sound of the wind blowing, the den was eerily quiet. Your footsteps echos the lair while you scan your surroundings in awe. You’ve always wanted to see what the ancient ruins looked like before what it was now. While you were surveying the area, something caught your attention from the corner of your eyes.

You turn your head towards the direction of the item before walking over to where it lay. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion when you stopped in front of something rusted buried in the grass. You squatted down in front of the rusted item and grabbed it from the ground. You lifted up the item and examined it. The object in your hands was an old, rusted sword.

You turned the sword around, continuing to examine the object. “What’s a sword doing in a place like this?” You whisper, eyebrows furrowing while continuing to take in every detail of the sword in your grasp. Like the necklace, the same black mist oozes from the sword. You dropped the rusty sword in haste, backing away from the sword with a wary look on your face. 

“What was that?” The black mist continues to come out from the sword; you stare at the enormous black cloud, eyes wide with fear and confusion. 

The fog got closer each time you took a step back from it. The mysterious black fog suddenly shot towards you and flew into your body; you ended up running straight into the stone pillar while trying to escape from it. Your heart clenches painfully in your chest, your ears are ringing, and your head feels like there was a stone lawachurl stomping on your head repeatedly. Your eyesight grew blurry as you collapsed to the ground, clutching your head while letting out labored breaths. Your eyes roll to the back of your head before your vision suddenly turns black.

“[Y/N]! [Y/N]!” Someone was calling out to you, but they sounded so far away.

“Dammit, [Y/N], wake up!” Someone growls, patting your cheeks to bring you out of your unconscious state.

“Wake up!” A jolt of electricity shoots up your body, waking you up. You jolted awake, eyes wide and confused. You looked around you, only to see your boyfriends staring down at you with worry and fear.

“Scaramouche! Why’d you shock them!?” Thoma exclaims, glaring at the electro-vision holder, who shrugged at him in return without giving him a reply.

You winced when another wave of headache hit you, you clutch your head with your right hand, your face pinching up from the pain. “What happened?” You rasped, clearing your throat. Did you suddenly fall asleep at Stormterror’s Lair? What was that black mist? Was it all in your head? You feel weird. Someone was holding onto you tightly while a gloved hand was pressed against your forehead. You winced and looked at the person that was holding onto you; Al Haitham gazed down at you worriedly while Tighnari was eyeing you closely.

“Al Haitham? Tighnari? What are you two doing here? I didn’t remember seeing you two follow along with us to Stormterror’s Lair.” You said, rubbing your eyes tiredly.

“That isn’t important right now. What’s important is your well-being.” Al Haitham stated, tensing up when you moved around to adjust yourself where you were sitting.

“Al Haitham is correct! Our sudden arrival isn’t as important when you were found unconscious all alone.” Tighnari says, frowning at you before removing his hand from your forehead. Tighnari hums while propping both of his hands on his hips, “You don’t have a fever, but you don’t look too well.” He murmurs, getting up before looking over at the men who examined you worriedly.

“What happened? What happened was that you strayed away from the group and ended up here, unconscious!” Ayato says, frowning down at you.

“Oh, I apologize for straying away from all of you. I wanted to see more areas of the lair. I should’ve informed you all about it before walking away.” You said, your eyes downcast.

Albedo knelt in front of you, “[Y/N], did something happen?” You stared at Albedo in confusion before attempting to get up from the ground. Your knees buckle beneath you, and you fall back to the ground. You pressed the palm of your hand against your head, your head was pounding, and you felt strangely exhausted.

“Remain seated; you could have some possible injuries.” Al Haitham sighs, shaking his head while giving you a look. You frowned and nodded your head slowly, staying in Al Haitham’s arms while trying to survey the area around you. The sword was nowhere to be found, and it wasn’t where you’d dropped it.

Baizhu steps forward, “I believe that we should head back to the abode now. We need to get [Y/N] checked up to make sure there aren’t any injuries.” Baizhu says, holding his hand out for you to take. You nod your head slowly and get up from the ground with the help of Al Haitham and Tighnari. You grabbed onto Baizhu’s hands and let him walk you out of Stormterror’s Lair with your back pressed against his chest while the other men followed close behind. Upon arriving back at the abode, Tighnari, Baizhu, and Albedo immediately whisked you off to the medical area of the estate to get you checked up. 

“The tests came back, and you’re healthy, and there aren’t any injuries,” Albedo says, sitting across from you. 

You sighed and rubbed your temples tiredly, “Then why does my head hurt so much? It feels like something is stomping on my head over and over again.” You said, closing your eyes. Albedo doesn’t say anything and starts to rub your temples lightly; you lean into his touch, letting out a relieved sigh. While your headache was still present, Albedo massaging your temples helped ease the pain a bit.

“The important thing is that you’re safe, healthy, and uninjured.” Said Kaeya, leaning against the doorframe while watching Albedo massage your temples. You cracked your eyes open and looked over at where Kaeya stood; he gave you a small smile before walking into the room.

You laugh weakly, “Yeah, as long as I’m safe, healthy, and uninjured, that’s all that matters.” You said, resting your head on Albedo’s chest before closing your eyes. “Aside from the head-splitting headache I currently have, I’m feeling exhausted.” You murmured.

You hear footsteps coming from the hallway. You cracked your eyes open and saw Zhongli appearing by the doorway, looking at you intently. You gestured for Zhongli to enter the infirmary while continuing to rest your head against Albedo’s chest, listening to his heart beating against his chest.

Zhongli stood in front of you and Albedo while he eyed you from head to toe before speaking, “Did you see anything strange at Stormterror’s Lair while you were alone?” He asks. You blinked at Zhongli in surprise before thinking back to the memory of what had happened before you lost consciousness.

You answered, “Before I blacked out, I remembered seeing an old rusted sword on the ground in Stormterror’s Lair. I picked it up to examine it with my own eyes, but then black mist began to come out of it. Terrified, I dropped the sword, and it got close to me each time I tried to back away from it. The black fog flew at me, causing me to run into the stone pillar while trying to escape from it. My head started hurting, as did my chest, and my ears were ringing. That was the last thing I remembered before losing consciousness.” You answered. 

“How intriguing….” Baizhu hums softly, leaning against the desk behind him while stroking his chin.

Albedo pulls from you, both of his hands on your shoulders before looking at you right into your eyes, “You said the black mist flew at you. Did it disappear when it flew at you, or did it disappear inside of you?” 

If you were to tell them that the mist flew into your body, how would they react? Surely they can’t do anything about the fog being inside of your body, right? So far, it hasn’t caused any harm to you yet. Aside from the headache, heart pain, ringing ears, and feeling exhausted, the black mist that has disappeared inside of you hasn’t done anything to you. Even if you wanted to hide it from them, it’s no use in doing so when they can all read you like an open book.

You let out a sharp exhale before saying, “It flew inside of me.” Everyone in the room felt their breaths get caught in their throats after hearing your responses. If the black mist flew inside of you, the only way to know whether it’s inside of you or not is by using adeptal magic. “Do any of you know what flew into me by any chance?” You ask nervously.

Albedo sighed and shook his head, “Unfortunately, there isn’t a way for us to know what flew into your body. The only thing we can do for now is to monitor you and check if there are any signs.” Albedo concludes, giving you a sad smile.

Your shoulders slump before letting out a defeated sigh. “I see. Well, I hope we’ll be able to find out what it is.” You gave everyone a weak smile.

Kaeya approached you and held his hand out for you to take, “Let me take you back to your bedroom. You said you’re feeling fatigued; I will take you back to your room.” Kaeya offers. You grabbed onto Kaeya’s hands and got up from the examination table, bidding Zhongli, Baizhu, Albedo, and Tighnari goodbyes before walking to your room with Kaeya by your side.

“A black mist flew into [Y/N]’s body. How strange.” Tighnari murmurs, scratching his ears while reviewing the notes he took during your checkup. 

Over the next few days, the men were tasked to keep their eyes on you and your condition. While you weren’t showing any concerning symptoms, your boyfriends continued to check up on you. For safety measures, Tighnari, Albedo, and Baizhu would ensure that you were taking medication if you were getting a headache or strange chest pains. As for ringing in your ears, they couldn’t do much about it, so the trio had come up with the idea that they would conduct some occasional hearing checkups along with eye checkups.

One early morning, the men were residing in the dining and living room, waiting for you to wake up while their coffees were brewing and their teas were boiling. Diluc enters the dining and living area, combing his fingers through his fiery red hair with his hair tie between his lips. Diluc held his ponytail up with his left hand while grabbing the hair tie from his mouth with his right hand.

Diluc leans against the counter while tying his hair up into a high ponytail, “It seems like [Y/N]’s not showing any concerning symptoms other than a headache.”

Childe lets out a thoughtful hum while tapping on his chin, “I wonder what could be the cause of [Y/N] getting a headache.” He rests his chin on the palm of his hands, his head propped up on his hands as he flips through the photobook resting on his lap. After a few seconds of not finding what he was searching for, Childe closes the photo album before getting up from his seat to place the photo album back on the shelf in the living room.

Dainsleif lets out a small chuckle, “Well, not getting enough sleep at night can be the cause of headaches, and [Y/N] has always been the type to stay up past their bedtime.” 

Kazuha exits the kitchen with a plate of food in his hands before placing it down on the table, “Do you think [Y/N]’s still asleep? They’ve been getting up much earlier nowadays, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re awake right now or not.” Kazuha says, sitting down in his seat.

Venti looks at Kazuha curiously, “Do you want us to check up on them to see if they’re awake or asleep?” Venti asks, plopping down on the stool with his lyre resting on his lap.

Aether shakes his head, “I think we should let them sleep in. After all, the Stormterror’s Lair incident most likely drained their energy, so we should let them sleep in.” Aether says, smacking Heizou on the back of his head after beating him in another round of rock paper scissors.

Heizou hissed and glared at Aether while rubbing the back of his head, “Bastard.” Heizou grumbles under his breath.

Thoma gets up from the love seat, dusting his clothes off, “Well, while we’re waiting for [Y/N] to wake up, I’ll make us some breakfast if anyone wants something to eat.” Thoma offers, strutting towards the kitchen.

Meanwhile, in your bedroom, you woke up to excruciating pain in your chest area. You kicked your blankets off your body and pulled your shirt collar down, only to see really irritated skin where the necklace sat. You went to your bathroom to get a better look at it in the mirror. You stood in front of your bathroom mirror before pulling the collar of your shirt down again. You let out a choked gasp, having a hard time taking in the sight in front of you. The necklace that you got from the merchant at the Mid-Autumn Festival was buried into your skin; the pendant looked like it somehow melted and fused into your skin. The skin around the charm was bright red and irritated. 

“What the fuck is happening?!” You whisper, gingerly touching the charm before wincing and hissing from the contact. “Don’t panic, don’t panic. You’ll figure out how to get the necklace out from your body somehow.” You whisper, leaning towards the mirror. 

You backed away from the mirror, burying your hands in your hair with a nervous exhale. You tried to go on with your routine as if nothing was happening, but your mind kept drifting off to the thought of the necklace fused to your skin. You brushed your teeth and combed your hair; each time you looked in the mirror, your head would start to hurt, or your vision would blur. You placed your comb back down on the counter, and when you were about to check your appearance one last time before heading downstairs, navy blue stripes began to appear on your arms. You gasped and looked down at your body; more navy blue stripes were wrapped around your torso and legs.

You looked in the mirror, and your eyes were pitch black. You blinked rapidly and shook your head, hands cupping your cheeks. “What’s wrong with me?” You whisper, looking back up at your reflection, and your eyes are back to normal. 

However, the navy blue stripes that wrapped around your arms, torso, and legs were still present. You suddenly feel a sharp pain in your head and your eyes, causing you to double over in pain, biting down on your lips to prevent yourself from screaming out in pain. Once the pain subsided, you noticed that you were kneeling on the floor with your head pressed against the cool tile of the bathroom floor. You weakly got up from the ground and propped yourself up on the bathroom sink; your head ducked down while taking deep breaths. You felt something drip from your eyes and your nose. You cracked your eyes opened and saw droplets of blood on the white porcelain sink. You lifted your hands up and touched your nose, your head slowly turning up to look in the mirror. Your eyes and nose were bleeding, and the blood looked a bit darker than the usual crimson red.

You suddenly hear a deep masculine voice, “Hand it over to me, now.”

You jerked up and looked around your bathroom to search for where the voice was coming from, but no one else was around.

“Back off! Their body is mine!” Another voice growls; you winced and clutched your head. The second voice you heard was shrill and feminine. You felt something inside of you stir; the pain in your head increased, and you felt like your skull was about to crack into two. 

“Who are you?” You whimpered; tears blurred your vision before sliding down your cheeks. “Who are you, and what do you want from me?” You cried.

“What do we want from you?” The masculine voice mocks you before breaking out into a burst of maniacal laughter. “It’s obvious what we want from you!” 

The feminine voice scoffs, “We? Who is we? I was here first, Decarabian! Go find another vessel, you parasite!”

You could feel Decarabian roll his eyes before responding, “As if you’re not a parasite yourself, Hua Yue!” Decarabian growls. Decarabian. Where did you hear that name from again? Without thinking twice, you ran out of your bathroom and slammed your bedroom door open before running down the stairs. 

Al Haitham sits up fast and looks toward the direction of the stairs before looking at the others, alarmed, “What was that?” 

You stumbled down the stairs and lost your footing, causing you to trip and fly down the stairs. Itto ran as fast as he could and caught you in his arms, your face buried against his chest, terrified of seeing their reactions to the marks on your body.

“[Y/N]! What’s wrong?!” Ayato asks, running up to where you and Itto are standing.

Itto looks at you in confusion before looking over at the others, “When did you have these marks on your body?” He turns around to have your figure face the other men. 

Xiao, Venti, and Zhongli froze at the sight, slowly getting up from their seats with their weapons materializing in their hands. Ever since the Mid-Autumn Festival and the mishap at Stormterror’s Lair, Xiao, Venti, and Zhongli couldn’t help but feel that something was off with you. They didn’t voice their concerns with you. But instead, they would have private conversations about it away from you and the others.

Gorou approaches you cautiously, “What are these marks? They didn’t have these marks on their bodies until today.” Nervous to reach out to place a reassuring hand on you. Alarms were flashing in Gorou’s head, telling him that something was wrong.

Scaramouche goes over to where you and Itto stand, “[Y/N], are you okay? What are these marks on your body?” Scaramouche asks, ready to place his hand on your shoulders when Xiao grabs Scaramouche by the shoulders to stop him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Xiao stated, shaking his head at the electro user. Scaramouche looks at Xiao quizzically before slowly looking over in your and Itto’s direction. Itto looked pale as a ghost, his face white, his pupils shrunk, and he slowly backed away from you.

You slowly turned towards the other men in the abode, blood bushing from your eyes, your nose, and your mouth. The sight of you in that state sent chills down their spines; everyone stood in front of you cautiously, their hands shaking.

“[Y/N], what’s going on?” Pantalone asks, prepared to walk over to you but was held back by Dottore and Pierro.

“I don’t know! I woke up feeling pain in my chest, only to see this necklace seared into my skin.” You cried, yanking down the collar of your shirt; the skin around the pendant was a deep red, almost bleeding.

Zhongli eyes the necklace, and Xiao and Venti glance over at the former archon nervously; their weapons are drawn. “Dearest, where did you get that necklace?” Zhongli asks, his eyes zeroed in on the pendant around your neck, now fused into your skin. You didn’t want to tell them about the necklace so soon, but it seems like you have no other choice but to come clean to all of them.

“A strange merchant demanded me to take the necklace, saying something that he wanted me and only me to be the one to wear it because it’s meant for me. I didn’t want it at all, but he shoved the necklace in my face, telling me to take it.” You cried, itching to claw at the charm around your neck. It hurts so much, and you just want to scratch it off your body already.

“Did he tell you the origins of this necklace?” Xiao demanded, tightening his grip around his polearm, ready to strike.

You nod your head, “He said something about the necklace that was once owned by a deity. It was given to her by her lover, who was also an archon. But he died in the archon war; she was so upset over his death that she threw the necklace into the ocean, and it got swept away by the ocean waves.” You breathed, your body beginning to get hot.

Zhongli shakes his head, “The merchant lied to you. The necklace was owned by a vengeful archon who lost her lover in the archon war. While she did lose her lover, she wore that necklace until her last breath before possessing the charm itself.” Zhongli says.

You felt your heart clench painfully in your chest; you doubled over in pain, tiny strained whimpers emitting from you. Tears and blood roll down your cheeks. You suddenly lose consciousness. The men around you froze when you suddenly stood still. The sounds of your quiet cries and whimpers were gone entirely.

“[Y/N]?” Gorou asks nervously, his hands trembling at his sides.

‘You’ slowly looked up; ‘your’ eyes pitch black. “If it weren’t for you, my boyfriend wouldn’t have been dead! He’s dead because of you! You killed him!” ‘You’ screamed, pointing at Zhongli and Xiao. Blood continues to cascade down your cheeks. You jerked forward once again. You looked around at the men frantically, almost back to normal, aside from the navy blue stripes wrapped around your body and the blood that continued to ooze from your eyes, nose, and mouth. 

“Archons, who was that speaking? Their voice is feminine and very shrill; just the sound of their voice makes my ears want to bleed.” Tighnari questions, covering his ears with the look of discomfort on his face.

“Please, please help me. I don’t know what’s going on.” You cried. “They won’t stop. They won’t stop screaming in my head.” You held your head in your hands, clawing at your scalp. 

Thoma’s eyes widened, “They? Are you saying there’s more than one entity using your body as a vessel?” He looks around at the other men fearfully. By now, everyone had their weapons drawn, preparing for the worst. Everyone except for one person had their weapons out and ready while Gorou hesitated; Dottore nudges Gorou, who reluctantly lets his weapon materializes in his grasp.

“They keep screaming at each other, at me! Please make it stop.” You cried; your head was hurting so much, and your chest was hurting from the necklace that was fused to your skin. You looked at the men in front of you sadly after seeing that they were ready to injure you if your body were to be taken over by Decarabian or Hua Yue. You let out a bittersweet laugh, “I see all of you are ready to injure me without questioning it.” You said, your lips trembling before fresh tears rolled down your cheeks.

Aether shakes his head, “We’re not going to hurt you, [Y/N]. We have to be careful because we don’t know how powerful or dangerous the two entities in your body are.” 

Al Haitham nods his head, “Aether is correct. We don’t intend on harming you, but we don’t know if the spirits inside of you will hurt us or not.” His sword is held in front of his person, and his grip tightens on the hilt of the sword.

You suddenly began to cackle, “Oh, glad to know that you’re all ready for a battle.” A deep masculine voice fills the tense atmosphere. “Once I’m done with all of you, I’m taking back Mondstadt as mine.” ‘You’ said, smirking right at Venti.

Ayato furrows his eyebrows, eyeing ‘you’ quizzically before muttering to himself, “Take back Mondstadt?” 

Venti felt his breath get caught in his throat before choking out, “Decarabian.” Venti stares at ‘you’ in horror. ‘You’—well, Decarabian— looked over at Venti from the corner of your (his?) eyes, a Cheshire smile stretching across ‘your’ face.

Decarabian chuckles and slowly approaches the bard with ‘your’ arms crossed over ‘your’ chest. “We meet again, Barbatos.”

“Listen, I don’t know who you are and your affiliation with Mondstadt. You need to leave [Y/N]’s body immediately, or else we’ll make you leave their body!” Itto says, his grip tightens around the handle of his claymore.

‘You’ look at Itto with a smirk, “Oh? You’ll make me leave their body? A small threat like yours is adorable, comical even.” ‘You laughed. “Since you all wanted a fight so much, let’s make that happen, shall we?”

Everyone starts lunging at ‘you,’ attempting to take ‘you’ down and restrain ‘your’ movements. But ‘you’ were quick on ‘your’ feet, a familiar sword materializing in ‘your’ hands. The sword in ‘your’ grip was once a rusty sword that was used to slay Decarabian. No matter how many people were lunging at ‘you’ while trying to immobilize ‘you,’ ‘you’ were able to escape from their grasp and attacks easily. You weren’t a skilled fighter. In fact, you don’t fight at all, and yet Decarabian possessing your body and making you his puppet made you an even more challenging target to attack.

Scaramouche growls, “How come we can’t land a hit on them!?” Trying to lunge at ‘you,’ but ‘you’ slipped through his fingers every time he tried to grab hold of ‘your’ biceps. ‘You’ look over at him with a triumphant smile on ‘your’ face.

“It’s because you’re all too soft on them.” Pierro states gruffly, appearing from behind ‘you’ before hitting the back of ‘your’ head with a sword, causing ‘you’ to stumble and fall to the ground; the sword that was once held in ‘your’ hands clattered to the ground loudly. Heizou and Aether ran to the sword, picked it up, and stood beside Venti with unfamiliar emotions on their faces. Before ‘you’ could get up, Capitano placed his right foot on ‘your’ back, pinning ‘you’ to the ground while Dottore held a sword up to ‘your’ neck. ‘You’ growled and began thrashing underneath Capitano’s foot, clawing at his legs to let ‘you’ go.

“How do we get rid of Decarabian? Do we get rid of him with the same sword that was used to kill him?” Heizou asks.

Dainsleif nods his head hesitantly, “It seems to be the only way we can get rid of him.” 

“But how?” Kazuha asks, looking at the sword hesitantly.

Albedo says slowly, “Perhaps the same way he was slain years ago.”

“You have to stab [Y/N] in the chest with that sword.” Capitano interjects, putting pressure on ‘your’ back while ‘you’ were growling and flailing around beneath Capitano’s foot.

Diluc takes a step forward, glaring at the Harbinger that was pinning ‘you’ to the ground. “No! Absolutely not; we’re not going to stab [Y/N] in the chest with the same sword that killed Decarabian.” 

Dottore sighs, “As much as I would hate to see [Y/N] in pain, if we do not get rid of Decarabian, then he will remain inside of [Y/N], holding them hostage as his vessel.” 

Childe scoffs loudly, “You do realize that Decarabian isn’t the only dead archon that has taken [Y/N]’s soul and body hostage, correct? Did you forget about Hua Yue?” He crossed his arms over his chest with a deep frown on his face.

“The only way we can get rid of Decarabian is by stabbing [Y/N] with the same sword that took Decarabian’s life. As for Hua Yue, we’ll need adeptal magic to lure her out from [Y/N]’s body.” Baizhu frowns. Zhongli looks over at Xiao, and the two of them nod at one another before Xiao disappears into a cloud of smoke.

Kaeya strokes his chin, “The real question is: who’s going to be the one that stabs [Y/N]?” He raised an eyebrow, looking over at everyone else in the room skeptically. Everyone fell silent and looked over at each other, unsure of who was going to do the most painful part. You finally regained your consciousness and held your hands out.

“Me! I’ll do it!” You screamed, reaching for the sword. “Anything to get rid of Decarabian, please.” You begged, beads of sweat rolling down your face.

“No! We’re not letting you stab yourself, nor are we going to stab you!” Diluc says, shaking his head stubbornly.

You panted, “Just do it! Do you want me to suffer?” You screamed, pounding your fist onto the wooden floor of the abode. “Get him out of my body! I don’t want to be his stupid puppet; I would rather die than be their vessel!” You cried.

“Let’s get it over with then,” Pantalone says, snatching the sword from Heizou’s grasp. He knelt in front of you and caressed your face in his hands, giving you an apologetic smile, “I apologize, my precious kitten. But it needs to be done.” He presses a kiss on your head before flipping you over on your side, plunging the sword into your chest, the blade impaling you. 

You let out a choked gasp and scream, blood pouring out from your mouth and chest. You gripped onto Pantalone’s wrists tightly, your nails digging into his wrist. Pantalone winced and drove the sword further into your breast, you screamed, and tears poured down your cheeks like a waterfall.

“That’s enough!” Al Haitham screams, grabbing Pantalone by the shoulders and jerking him away from you. The sword ripped from your chest, and you pressed your bloodied hands over the gaping hole in your chest, heaving and sobbing from the pain.

Your eyes briefly turned black before looking over at where the anemo archon stood. A weak and bitter chuckle resonates in the abode, “Just like how you stabbed me in the chest to kill me, you’re all going to do the same thing and stab them to death.” Blood drips down your face from the corner of your lips. “How does it feel, Barbatos? How does it feel to lose your dear friend to me, but now also your lover?” Venti’s face turns white, staring at you in horror. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head before your eyes returned to what it originally was. The black mist that was once residing in your body slowly flows out of your body and into the bloodied sword on the wooden floor as if it was being vacuumed back to where it originally came from. 

“One vengeful spirit down, one more to go,” Venti swallows the formin lump in his throat, eyeing the bloodied sword nervously. The final words that were spoken by Decarabian hit Venti harder than he had expected. Venti shook his head to try to brush the last words from his head. No, Decarabian was wrong. He was only saying that to hurt Venti even more, right? There’s no way that Decarabian was right.

Tighnari pushes through the crowd of men and rushes to your side, “We need to get [Y/N] to the infirmary, stat!” He lifts you up from the pool of blood before sprinting to the infirmary in the abode, with Albedo and Baizhu following after him.

Heizou frowns at the Harbinger, “You were a little too eager to plunge that sword into [Y/N]’s chest.” Heizou crossed his arms over his stomach, giving Pantalone a disapproving look.

“He had to do it,” Pierro says, stepping up towards Heizou and the other men that stood behind Heizou. “After all, you were all too hesitant on getting rid of Decarabian. It’s almost like you all wanted [Y/N] to be the puppet of Decarabian.” 

Aether bares his teeth at the first Harbinger, “We don’t want [Y/N] to be Decarabian or Hua Yue’s puppet! We didn’t want to stab them!” Aether scowls at the older Harbinger, his hands clenching in tight fists.

Dottore rolls his eyes, “And you all think we want our precious [Y/N] to be the puppet?” Dottore huffs, shaking his head. “Pantalone had to do what he needed to do in order to get Decarabian out of [Y/N]’s body, and you were all too scared to do so.” 

Capitano speaks up, “If it weren’t for Pantalone, Decarabian would still be inside of [Y/N]’s body, slowly killing them while using them as a temporary host.” Capitano glares at the men in front of him behind his helmet, “You should all be thanking Pantalone for saving [Y/N] and for driving Decarabian out of [Y/N]’s body.”

Thoma looks at the sword, then at the puddle of blood that is slowly drying up. The smell of copper lingers in the air, making Thoma feel sick to his stomach. “What do we do with the sword now?” Thoma asks, nudging the bloody sword with his feet.

“We bury it where it was originally founded. It needs to be buried deep where no one can find it or reach it.” Pantalone says, wiping your blood off his hands with a napkin. 

“Since the four of you didn’t have an issue with stabbing [Y/N] so easily, you four should go and bury that sword for us,” Itto says, clapping his hands. 

Dottore chuckles, “Fine, fine. We will do it if it eases your minds a bit.” Dottore waves his hands around. Dottore walks over to the sword and picks it up by the hilt before gesturing for the other three Harbingers to follow after him. Just when Dottore was about to walk out of the abode, Dainsleif grabbed Dottore by the arms, saying, “You better not do anything funny. Bury the sword and bring your asses back to the abode.” 

Capitano grabs Dainsleif by the shoulders and pushes him away from Dottore, “Relax, Boughkeeper. We’ll be back when the sword is buried where it was originally located.” He glares at Dainsleif before walking out of the abode with the other Harbingers following after him. After the Harbingers had left the estate, the men looked at one another anxiously. 

Childe breaks the silence, “Should we go check up on [Y/N], Tighnari, Baizhu, and Albedo?”

“I’m really worried about [Y/N]. Pantalone impaled [Y/N] with that sword. He didn’t simply stab [Y/N]! He impaled them with the very sword that was used to kill Decarabian.” Kazuha says, rubbing his temples with a stressed sigh.

Kaeya nods his head, “He was a little too eager to stab [Y/N] with that sword.”

Gorou’s bow vanishes in the air, “We should go check up on them. I’m really worried about [Y/N] and their well-being.” The men nod their heads at Gorou’s suggestion before sprinting to the infirmary where you, Albedo, Baizhu, and Tighnari are located. Upon arriving at the infirmary, the men saw you lying on the bed in the clinic of the estate, unconscious, chest wrapped with gauze and bandages. Albedo, Tighnari, and Baizhu were hovering above you, eyeing the necklace that had sunk into your skin.

“How are we going to remove this without hurting [Y/N] any further?” Albedo murmurs, his fingers lightly tracing the pendant. You whimpered in your unconscious state, face pinching up when you felt the skin around the pendant burn.

Tighnari lightly smears medicine paste on your chest, massaging it into your skin. “I do not know how long this will numb the pain, but it should ease their pain,” Tighnari says, looking up at your face while rubbing the medicine paste into your skin, examining your reaction very closely.

“Shall we wait for Xiao to come back to the abode, or do you want us to take the pendant out from [Y/N]’s chest?” Baizhu asks, putting on his gloves.

“We should wait for that Adeptus to come back. After all, you did say that adeptal magic will need to be used in order to lure Hua Yue out from [Y/N]’s body.” Scaramouche replies, slowly approaching the bed where you lay.

Ayato interjects, “Well, I personally believe that we should remove the necklace out from [Y/N]’s chest before it continues to melt even more into [Y/N]’s skin. After that, the adeptis can continue to lure Hua Yue out from [Y/N]’s body with adeptal magic.”

Tighnari nods his head, “It seems like we have no other choice but to remove it.”

Venti’s eyebrows furrow, “How are we going to remove it? It’s very deep in their skin and will scar once it's removed.” Venti says, eyeing the pendant warily.

“Baizhu said that Hua Yue can only be lured out from [Y/N]’s body with adeptal magic. Maybe it’s the same with the necklace that is fused to [Y/N]’s skin.” Aether says slowly.

Heizou hums, “Well, other than Xiao, who is an adepti?” Everyone slowly turns to Zhongli, giving him a look.

Zhongli hesitates for a moment before letting out a slow deep breath, “Please step to the side and give [Y/N] and me some space.” Zhongli instructs, approaching the bed. 

The men backed up two steps from the bed while Zhongli got closer to the bed in the infirmary. Zhongli takes his gloves off and rolls up the sleeves of his coat. Zhongli’s right-hand hovers above the necklace that was embedded in your chest, he places his hands on the pendant, and his hands begin to glow gold. Zhongli feels the charm starting to move little by little. You scrunched your face up when you felt the necklace being slowly removed from your chest. 

Thoma’s eyes lit up, “Oh! It’s starting to come out!” He moves around to get a closer look at the charm being removed from your upper chest. 

Just when Zhongli was about to remove the pendant from your chest successfully, your eyes snapped open, eyes pitch black. ‘You’ grabbed ahold of Zhongli’s wrist and tackled him to the ground, glaring down at the former archon. Zhongli rips his wrist from ‘your’ grasp before grabbing hold of ‘your’ wrist, flipping ‘you’ over to the ground. 

“Did you really think you could get rid of me so easily, Morax?” ‘You’ growled, thrashing around in Zhongli’s grasp. ‘You’ elbowed Zhongli in the stomach before flipping him back on the ground, pinning him to the ground with a smirk on ‘your’ face. “Prime of Adepti, my ass.” ‘You’ spat; ‘your’ hands slid up to Zhongli’s neck, ‘your’ fingers wrapping around his neck before squeezing his neck.

Zhongli didn’t want to kick you back, fearing that he would hurt you if he were to do so. He knows that Hua Yue has taken over your body as a vessel to avenge her dead lover, but regardless of Hua Yue possessing your body, he did not want to hurt you in any kind of way.

“What is going on here?!” A voice bellows, ‘you’ were immediately snatched away from Zhongli by Diluc, Dainsleif, and Childe. 

‘You’ growled and gnashed your teeth at the men while trying to get out of Diluc, Childe, and Dainsleif’s iron grips. Dainsleif grabs ‘you’ by ‘your’ waist and tosses you over his shoulders before walking over to the bed and placing ‘you’ down on the bed. ‘You’ looked up and made eye contact with Cloud Retainer, Moon Carver, Mountain Shaper, Madame Ping, and Ganyu.

“Oh, it’s unfortunate to see you all again after two thousand years.” ‘You’ said, glaring at the three men that were restraining your arms and legs against the bed. 

Ganyu looks at ‘you’ nervously, “Hua Yue, I see that you have chosen to use [Y/N]’s body as your vessel to communicate with all of us.”

“Release the mortal now, Hua Yue. You’re playing a dangerous game of using a mortal as your puppet.” Moon Carver demands, taking a step forward toward where ‘you’ were restrained.

‘You’ pouted at Moon Carver mockingly, “Aw! But using this foolish mortal as my vessel is so fun! Especially when they mean so much to the archon that killed my lover two thousand years ago!” ‘You’ looked over at Zhongli from the corner of ‘your’ eyes. “It would be a shame if they died as well.” ‘You’ batted ‘your’ eyelashes at the former archon.

Xiao growls as his polearm materializes in his hands before pointing the tip of the polearm blade at ‘your’ neck, “If you hurt them, I will kill you.” Xiao glares down at ‘you.’

‘You’ giggled, “Oh, Alatus, you do realize that if you ‘kill’ me, your cute little lover will be dead too, right?” ‘You’ quirked ‘your’ eyebrow at the yaksha. “Although it does sound like a win-win because if I can’t be with my lover, then none of you deserve to be with your lover either.”

Scaramouche glares over at ‘you’ with his arms over his chest, “You do realize that you can be with your dead lover too, right? In the afterlife!” 

‘You’ let out a shrill cackle, “You silly little thing, you really think that’s how it all works?!” ‘You’ scowled, glaring at the electro user from across the infirmary with a heated glare while trying to free ‘yourself’ from the restraints, only to be unsuccessful.

“Restrain their limbs and make sure that they do not escape. If they do, we will not be able to get Hua Yue out of [Y/N]’s body.” Madame Ping instructs. Diluc, Dainsleif, Childe, and Itto grab hold of ‘your’ hands and ankles, immobilizing ‘you.’

“We must warn all of you that luring a dead archon out from a mortal’s body will not be easy. Especially one that is vengeful like Hua Yue herself.” Cloud Retainer says, walking over to where ‘you’ were restrained. 

The other adeptis surrounded the infirmary bed, and they all began to glow while chanting under their breath. Zhongli walks over to where Diluc stood and reaches out to the necklace that was implanted into your skin. Zhongli’s hands began to glow. Your body starts to heat up, and the area where the charm was embedded into your skin is beginning to burn. ‘Your’ eyes widened as ‘you’ began to let out a blood-curdling scream, trying to pull ‘your’ arms and legs out of Diluc, Dainsleif, Childe, and Itto’s grasp.

“Don’t let her escape your grasp! We will not be able to get Hua Yue out of [Y/N]’s body if they manage to disrupt the process.” Mountain Shaper instructs over the sound of ‘your’ screams and wails. 

Tears and blood rolled down ‘your’ cheeks from ‘your’ eyes, your chest was burning, and you were in pain. Everything hurts; your head, your eyes, your chest, everywhere. The men around you winced and looked away, not able to witness the sight in front of them. You are in so much pain, and they cannot do anything about it. Whatever the adeptis were doing to you, it was for your own good, and they hoped that the outcome wouldn’t be detrimental to you and your well-being. You wouldn’t stop screaming, and it was hard to tell whether it was you that was shrieking or if it was Hua Yue that was screaming bloody murder while trying to free your arms and legs from Diluc, Dainsleif, Itto, and Childe’s grasp.

The ritual went on for what felt like hours to everyone involved. The four Harbingers stood by the door and watched the scene unfold in front of them, their backs pressed against the wall while analyzing what was going on and what the adeptis were doing to you. You— well, Hua Yue, put up a lot of fight. While she was no longer in her archon body and was using your body (a mortal) as a vessel, she wasn’t able to break out of the restraints. Something had finally happened after a few hours of constant adeptal magic being used upon you to drive out the vengeful dead archon’s spirit out of your body. Zhongli was able to remove the necklace from your neck entirely. Blood trickled down your neck and chest, staining the gauze and bandages crimson red.

“Look! Something’s happening!” Gorou gasps, pointing at the strange red mist began to leave your body and enter the bloody necklace slowly.

Itto’s eyes widen, looking at the others, alarmed, “Did it work!? Did we do it!? Is Hua Yue finally out of [Y/N]’s body!?” 

“We? It’s the adeptis that did all of the work of luring Hua Yue out of [Y/N]’s body.” Scaramouche gives Itto a look before looking over at where the others gathered around you. 

“You may have won again and have gotten rid of me, but I can tell you that after all of these hours of cleansing would have gotten rid of your precious [Y/N] too!” Your eyes flicker from pitch black to your normal eye color. “How do all of you feel after knowing you tortured your lover to death!?” ‘You’ wailed; the men around ‘you’ tensed up and looked away from where you lay. 

The red mist was now gone from your system and had returned to the necklace. The screaming soon came to a stop, and so did the thrashing. You collapsed into the bed, limp, barely breathing, and covered in your blood, sweat, and tears. Baizhu, Tighnari, and Albedo were immediately at your side, treating your wounds and cleaning up your blood.

Baizhu frowns, pulling out the gauze and bandage from the first-aid kit that was lying out in the open. “[Y/N] doesn’t look well. The magic and Hua Yue using their body and soul as a puppet and life source has completely drained their energy.” He pressed his hand against your forehead; your skin felt so cold and clammy. It was alarming. 

Zhongli handed the tainted necklace over to Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper. While Zhongli wasn’t sure where the two adeptis were planning on hiding the pendant, he had high hopes that the two adeptis would hide the charm from those who went searching for the item. The men thanked the adeptis before they all left the abode.

“Thank archons. This is all finally over.” Childe sighs, collapsing in a chair nearby, running his hands through his hair with a puff of breath.

“It felt like it had gone on for days, but it’s been going on for, I believe, almost thirteen hours,” Ayato says, letting his shoulders relax.

“I would hate to be that person, but it feels like it won’t be ending here,” Kazuha interjects, his eyes trained on your unconscious body. You were limp, barely responding to any noise that the men made. You didn’t flinch or wake up when Baizhu, Tighnari, and Albedo were treating your wounds. 

“We don’t know how [Y/N] will be feeling when they wake up, but their wounds have been cleaned and patched up. They should get plenty of rest. After all, two dead archons did take [Y/N]’s body as their vessel.” Albedo says, taking the rubber gloves off his hands before tossing them into a trash bin.

“Is there a way for us to know when they’ll wake up from their slumber?” Kaeya asks, brushing your hair from your sweaty forehead. You let out a soft sigh and strained whimper, eyebrows furrowing with pain. Kaeya frowns and brushes the stray tear that made its way down your cheeks. Even though Decarabian and Hua Yue were extracted from your body, you’re still in pain because of what they have put you and your body through.

Diluc sighs, “Those two are lucky they’re dead already.” He glares at the ground before kneeling beside your bed, grabbing onto your hands. Diluc glares at your hands, letting out a hum before taking his glove off to hold your hand without the gloves on. 

“What is it?” Dainsleif takes a step forward, gazing at Diluc worriedly. Diluc motions for Dainsleif to come closer while holding your hand up in the air for Dainsleif to touch. Dainsleif slips his glove off before feeling your hand with his bare hands. Al Haitham walks over to where the two stood and lightly brushes his fingers against the back of your hand.

“Their hands are cold.” Al Haitham states, looking up at the other men in the room. 

Zhongli hovered above you and pressed his ears against your slowly rising and falling chest. The ex-archon closed his eyes and listened closely; your heart was beating, but it was very faint. Zhongli lets out a slow sigh before slowly standing up and turning to the others; his expression is grim.

“Their heartbeat is very faint, and it’s weak.” He looks down at your unconscious figure, his eyes downcasted. 

“What are we going to do?!” Gorou asks worriedly, his hands trembling with fear while eyeing your unconscious body.

Tighnari frowns, “The only thing we can do now is to monitor them. For now, we can’t do anything else further.”

“And what if something happens to them in the middle of the night?” Pierro asks, staring at Tighnari, Albedo, and Baizhu closely.

“We will be watching over [Y/N] as they rest. Each of us will be taking turns doing so.” Albedo says, caressing your face in his hands. Albedo wasn’t surprised that your body would react this way; you did have two dead archons possessing your body, using your life source as a way for them to communicate and wreak havoc on the entire abode. The only thing they can all hope for is for you to have a smooth recovery, but looking at your current condition, it doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.

Throughout the night, each man would take turns monitoring you as you slept in the infirmary. You hardly moved in the bed; your chest was rising and falling very slowly, and the men could barely feel any air coming from your nostrils as you slept. Heck, you didn’t even wake up to drink water like how you would usually do. The next day, everyone woke up to alarming screams coming from the infirmary.

“What’s going on!?” Al Haitham demands, bursting into the infirmary with the other men behind him. 

Gorou and Albedo moved to the side for the other men to see what the commotion was about. There you lay on the bed, barely moving an inch. You looked like a corpse, and your skin barely had any color to it; you were gray. Aether and Xiao rushed up to the bed, their hands pressing against your skin. You were cold. Your skin was ice cold; there was barely any blood circulation. Aether presses his ears against your chest, his heart racing.

“There’s still a faint heartbeat; they’re still alive,” Aether says, turning towards the others.

Tears blur Heizou’s vision, ducking his head. “What is going on with [Y/N]? Why are they dying?” Heizou demands, warm tears cascading down his flushed cheeks.

“They’re not dying, don’t be foolish!” Diluc says, glaring at the anemo user. 

Diluc sits at the edge of your bed and brushes your hair from your face. Diluc looks at you closely for a moment, only to realize that you are shivering. Diluc gingerly lifts you up and cradles you in his arms, hoping he is warming you up.

“[Y/N]? Can you hear us?” Ayato asks softly, sitting down beside Diluc. Ayato reached over and rubbed the apples of your cheeks with the pad of his thumb. You cracked your eyes opened and looked around at everyone with bleary eyes. Your eyes are glazed over; there are dark circles underneath your eyes, and your lips lack color.

“Oh, thank archons, you’re awake!” Venti gasped, his lips trembling as he collapsed in front of you. Venti grabbed onto your hands and pressed his forehead against the back of your hand, tears rolling down his cheeks; his body shook with quiet sobs.

Thoma stood above your head, looking down at you, “How are you feeling, [Y/N]?” He knelt behind your head and stroked your hair.

“I don’t feel so good.” You croaked, wincing at the sound of your voice. After responding to Thoma’s question, you finally realized that your throat was hurting a lot; it was very sore and very dry. It was definitely from all of the screaming that had happened the day before.

“The important thing is that you’re awake,” Xiao says. “I apologize for not being able to save you or be able to detect the issues before the issues arose.” Xiao knelt and bowed his head to you.

You shook your head, “No, Xiao. Don’t blame yourself; no one is to blame except for me.” You said, letting out a dry cough.

Itto shakes his head, “Don’t blame yourself either, [Y/N]! You didn’t want the necklace in the first place, but the strange merchant forced you to take the necklace! If it weren’t for that merchant, you wouldn’t be in this position!” Itto exclaims.

Kazuha nods his head, “Agreed. It’s not your fault at all, my dove. The problem began because of that merchant.” 

You frowned, “But I wandered off in the Stormterror’s Lair and touched the sword that slain Decarabian.” You let yourself go limp in Diluc’s arms, your head tucked beneath Diluc’s neck.

Kaeya sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “It’s still not your fault. It’s no one’s fault.” Kaeya stated.

“I’m going to track down that merchant and kill him for what he had done to you,” Childe stated, clenching his jaws while balling his hands into tight fists.

Before you could respond to Childe’s statement, you felt a sharp pain in your chest, causing you to curl up in a fetal position, your hands clutching onto your chest. You whimpered, feeling something rise up in your throat while the inside of your throat began to itch.

Dainsleif gasps, “[Y/N]!” His eyes widened in fear when he saw your hands fly up to your mouth, covering your mouth with both of your hands.

“Are you okay!? What’s going on!?” Zhongli asks, pushing through the crowd of men surrounding you. 

You whimpered and shook your head, a bead of sweat forming on your forehead. The itch at the back of your throat was so intense that you couldn’t hold yourself back from coughing any longer. You began coughing into your hands while slowly getting out of Diluc’s grasp. You coughed so hard that tears were pooling in your eyes, and your throat and chest hurt each time you coughed. You began to taste something coppery in your mouth, and before you knew it, you were not only coughing up blood, but you began vomiting up blood.

You have never felt so weak before; your legs gave out beneath you. Dottore was quick to catch you before you could collapse into the pile of bloody puke. Dottore carried you back to the bed and placed you on the bed; you were going in and out of consciousness, your eyes glazed over. Baizhu and Tighnari scrambled around the infirmary in search of medication for you to take temporarily before they were able to deduce what was happening to you and your body.

Albedo puts on latex gloves before squatting in front of the bloody vomit, examining the biohazard before touching it with his gloved hand. Albedo lifted his hands up and looked at it closely, his eyebrows furrowing.

“[Y/N] vomited blood; there isn’t any half-digested food in the vomit,” Albedo says, getting up before grabbing a cotton swab and test tubes. 

“Do we know what is exactly causing [Y/N] to be in this condition?” Childe asks, sitting at the edge of your bed while holding onto your cold, clammy hands.

Zhongli hums, “Because [Y/N] was forced to be a puppet for two dead archons, their body cannot handle the amount of power the two deceased archons held. Not only did it drain [Y/N]’s life source, but their body was having a hard time healing from the traumatic experience.” Zhongli says, looking over at where you were lying.

“What are you implying?” Pantalone asks, raising his eyebrows at Zhongli.

“[Y/N] is dying, and we do not know whether they will heal from the entire ordeal or if they will ultimately die in the end.” Said Al Haitham, standing next to Zhongli with his arms over his chest. The men around Al Haitham and Zhongli looked at the two in shock and horror. The clinic was silent, but the only thing they could hear were your faint whimpers and weak coughs.

“Is there a way to save them?” Gorou whispers, refusing to take his eyes off of you.

Zhongli shakes his head, “I do not know if there is a cure for such a thing. A dead archon possessing a mortal’s body to use as a puppet is infrequent.”

Scaramouche threw his hands up in the air out of frustration, “Great, so there’s no cure, is what I’m hearing.” 

“We can’t lose hope! [Y/N] will be okay! They’ll make it through!” Venti says.

“How can we not lose hope when [Y/N] is bedridden, coughing and vomiting up blood, and how it’s rare for a deceased archon to use a mortal’s body as a vessel!?” Aether asks weakly.

“Believe in [Y/N]. Believe in them that they will make it out alive.” Thoma whispers, kneeling by the foot of your bed while holding onto your other hand.

How does one hold onto the last bit of hope that you will survive? Not only did one deceased archon take over your body, it was two that used you as a vessel, draining your life source and energy for their selfish needs. Is it worth holding onto that last bit of hope when the signs are clear that you wouldn’t make it? All the men could do was stare at your unconscious body, your chest slowly rising and falling.

Note: Whew, I think this is officially my longest Isekai'd!Reader fic and longest request ever! I don't know about you guys, but I didn't really feel the angst. I think it's maybe because I typed it out, but I'm not sure how any of you interpret this fic. One of my closest friend and mod read it for me to see if it's angst, and she said it's definitely angst! I hope you all enjoy this fic! Anyway! For those who are new or returning readers, please keep in mind that I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

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[lanaevyssmoved]

how do you feel about people getting astarion’s scars as tattoos because when i saw it i was like uh….

so i was thinking about how to answer this question for a bit and i've come to the conclusion that my struggles because i am completely gobsmacked that in 2023 we still have issues like this

i am 29 years old, which i think is very important to bring up. i've been on tumblr for over a decade, i remember when people were actually doxxed over kinning a character who did a murder once. i remember when lives were destroyed over how people chose to love a video game character. i remember when an ask like this would cause a witch hunt that ended in someone being genuinely unsafe. i think asks like this can still be dangerous, and i can't post this without making that clear. while i'd like to think this wouldn't happen anymore, i can't say for sure, i think we need to have the self awareness of what can come, when our history, as in tumblrs history, is full of things like this being actually deadly. sorry if that's a little too serious for the vibe you're putting out, but that shit was fucking traumatising and i'm not gonna pretend it wasn't, so this ask was a little scary to receive and my upcoming honesty? i'm scared to put it out there on gut instinct alone haha (insert comment about astarion kinnies here)

astarion is a video game character with intent to make you feel things, good or bad. he is designed to tell a story and attach you to that story. he is designed to make your little brain juices sizzle when he says a funny or makes you sad. i'm sure this is obvious, but your concern for what people do with these feelings makes me think it might not be.

the scars are fucking cool design. they were made to be fucking cool. you're meant to look at them the first time you do and go WHOA.... it is very easy to appreciate the work and effort that went into them by whomever designed them, they have a lot to be proud about. if someone wants the scars as a tattoo because they think it's cool, more power to them. that's a fucking expensive tattoo, it would take a long ass time to be finished and heal, it would never be an easy decision for these facts alone.. and adults can do whatever they like with their money. he doesn't exist, he isn't real, he can't be offended by this, and you shouldn't be either.

and now i have to get sensitive with it because astarions story, whether you want to think of this or not, can, and will, resonate with abused people. many kinds of people of course, but most especially abuse victims. as a victim myself, parts of his story hit just a little too close to home and hurt. now think of someone who might have it hit closer to home than it did for me, someone who finds more connection with what astarion went through and what they went through. now imagine how important astarion is to that person, his reclaiming of autonomy, his reclaiming of agency, etc. i can see someone wanting the scars as tattoos because then in their mind they can be astarion and do what astarion did. they can be closer to astarion and use that strength to survive and push through. they can feel what he felt and survive (obviously it's not the same, but it's the symbolism). unfortunately you cannot dismiss that some people may be doing it out of a place of trauma and using astarion to help them heal. i'm not arguing whether or not this is healthy, i've certainly done similar in my youth when it comes to relating to characters who have been abused, we all find our ways to cope, and we all find our places of strength.

astarion doesn't exist, he was created in a game studio with intent to make you feel shit, as established already, including intent to make you feel so strongly you want to put pieces of him on your skin forever, like, that's a compliment when it comes to making characters. if afhiri had something on her skin that signified trauma, and someone wanted to permanently put that on their skin? wow, she means that much to you? you liked her that much? that's a gods damn compliment. and i cannot see those who worked closely with astarions creation seeing it any other way.

what i can say is that when i was younger, 20-23ish, i probably would have given it an 'uh...' too, but as i grew older i realised that life is draining, it is hard, and there is no room to healthily view video game characters as any more than some code and 3d model that exist exclusively to make you feel something strong enough that you might want them with you forever, because that's the end goal, to make you feel that strongly, and if you wanna spend that hard earned money you make on putting the cool scars on your back, or the scars that make you feel so emotional that you cry on your back, do it. let the character whose made this rough existence a little easier or mean a little more do that for you, and if you wanna express it through a tattoo, do that, it's your body, your flesh.

i'm rambling on because i am so passionate in that life is too short to judge others via this. our lives are too hard already, life sucks enough as it is. the video game character doesn't give a shit if his scars are a tattoo because he's not real. who cares? why do you care? no, seriously, why do you care? does this help you? is it good for you? is judging someone else's decisions an act that brings you actual, real joy? is that how you want to spend your time? where you want to put your free thoughts? you don't know them, their reasoning, what they're going through, and it shouldn't matter. because their body has absolutely nothing to do with you, and i find it weird and uncomfortable that you cared enough about what someone else does with their body that you'd send me an anon about it.

i don't know whether you were looking for validation, or me to generally think about this critically, but i cannot encourage the mindset of caring about this more than "wow, i hope it looks good because that shit gonna be expeeeensive!!!" i cannot encourage sending people anon asks about it, it is strange to do that. this was strange! it was a strange experience and i don't like it. but i couldn't ignore it.

astarion might matter to you, personally, but he himself as a video game character, doesn't, because he isn't real, he has no feelings, he cannot be hurt or offended. but the person getting the tattoo? they're real. they're a real life person with feelings. they can be hurt, you can hurt them. you can judge them and bring them down and make them feel guilty for their choices. deciding whether you are the kind of person who'd do that to a living breathing person over a video game character is something you need to do. do you want to be that person? i know i certainly don't

#ask #Anonymous #sorry for putting this massive ask on everyones dash this morning this just really hit me in the gut #i cried writing this lol dgkdfgd #please don't send people asks like this #don't invite others to be judgemental and unkind #don't encourage that.. not ever #please do better #sorry if theres typos or smth doesnt make sense #this became very hard to look at

[tame-a-messenger]

I hope I don’t sound crazy but the way Angela says Damien’s name reminds of of how Shayne says Courtney’s. Idk how to explain it but there’s a little softness to their voice and I love it. I’m not trying to say it means anything necessarily it’s just something I’ve noticed. (Examples: anytime Courtney is on Reddit stories and Shayne’s introduces her in the intro compared to any clip of Angela saying Damien)

Someone over here on Tumblr said Damien and Angela have a similar vibe as early Shayne and Courtney, so you aren't crazy, others have noticed some similarities aswell.

IMO Angela has always had a thing for saying Damien's name. Back in the first appearance of them in a Smosh video it's TNTL and Angela calls Kimmy's character Damien, for no real reason I can see? other then she was trying to make fun of him or just wanted to?

But yeah, I also noticed the softness when she says his name and the AMOUNT she says his name. She almost never just refers to him as "him" or "he" and just says his name most of the time. Even though she says "he/him she/her they/them" most of the time with other cast mates.

#damien haas #Angela Giarratana #smosh #damngela dynamic enjoyer #smosh games #smosh pit #damangela #damien and angela #damien x angela #damngela #damien/angela #smoshblr #shayne and courtney #shourtney #shayne topp #courtney miller

[allyaloe]

LOVE COLLECTIVE READING - DISNEY LIVE-ACTION COUPLE EDITION <3

Hi. This is an exclusive reading just for Tumblr. This is for the collective, so use discernment. Also thank you so much to those who have booked readings with me or followed me in any capacity, it is so greatly appreciated!

Now, scroll down and pick a couple from any of the Disney live action reboots to get a message!

Cinderella and Kit (Prince Charming)

You may be a hopeless dreamer or romantic who has their head in the clouds more than their feet on the ground. Spirit says to “play it cool” with your crush and don’t overthink it! This person is kind, perceptive and adaptable, and could have Scorpio placements. You may meet in a work setting when you least expect it. I got this sense of feminine energy coming through, so maybe you believe in Divine Feminine/Divine Masculine if you’re spiritual yourself, and there could be a twin flame connection in this group. Take it how it resonates! Don’t be afraid to take the first step towards your happiness and always remember to be yourself. The letter L could be significant for someone, too, and Marcy/Marzipan (?).

Ariel and Prince Eric 

Don’t bow to the pressures of conformity and embrace what makes you different! Perhaps you are destined for a love that brings out your adventurous spirits and tames your fears around relationships. You may connect with a like-minded soul or individual, the same way Ariel and Eric bonded over collecting things. For some, you could be in a serious commitment that is headed towards marriage. This person truly is a dream for you guys! The letter G could also resonate for at least one of you, and fire signs (Aries, Leo and Sag.) I’m just getting the cutest vibes and it makes me so happy. There is a genuine, pure and unfaltering love in this group and for some of you, you may already know who this person is. You may also have spent many past lifetimes together, and Akashic Records could be significant, as well as a watch or giving other gifts that have sentimental value.

Belle and Beast

You may have been involved in relationships that were toxic and hard to get rid of, and now you’re defining what you want in a relationship and out of life. It’s truly commendable how you’ve put up with so much, and still you are optimistic about your future, and learning and healing from your past. It’s important not to get too emotionally involved with the first person who shows you kindness, and instead, set strong and healthy boundaries that will aid you in your next serious relationship and help it stand the test of time. Libra placements could be significant (Libra rising, Gemini Venus) and the letters S, K, and A. “Don’t be afraid to love” is the main message to take away for you, but also don’t suffer fools gladly. Someone needs to block that person on Snapchat too, could have a letter H. 

Aurora and Philip

You may just be quite lucky when it comes to love, and you may have a feeling that the next person you’re in a relationship with is someone you’ve met or known in a previous life. It’s as if you manifested or prayed for this person. Similar to the second group, it really is filling me with such a sweetness and zest for life. “Once Upon a Dream” is definitely stuck in my head now so strongly! You could resonate with the letters K and D and Virgo placements for one or either of you. Snakes could be an important symbol or mean something to you. It’s important not to hold on to the past too strongly and know that you’re safe. “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” could be a significant song, and whoever you end up with if you’re single could use music to express their emotions. I get this restless Aries/Sag energy, so that could stand out here, too. Please don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. This person could have been hurt in the past, but with you they see a fresh start. For someone, there is a person on a platform like Discord who is majorly crushing on you and you on them. Don’t wait! Make the first mood. Getting a message from you brightens their day; they could have Taurus placements, too. Take it as it resonates for you!

Thank you so much for checking out this reading! If you would like to support me, you can find my links HERE.

With all that said, I hope you enjoyed and I will catch you again soon!

- Ally :)

#Spiritual Guidance #intuitive readings #witchblr #pick a picture #pick a card reading #pick a card #PICK A GROUP #love reading #spirit guides #future spouse reading #disney #disney couples

[mysteryman-17]

* MUSTACHE GIRL EX ATK 180 DEF 280 * Guess she did have a breaking point, after all. * ...There must be a way to get through to her.

Time’s End is an AHIT/Undertale crossover AU of sorts, taking place in the aftermath of a timeline where you lose the final boss fight against Mustache Girl. You can find the write-up here! In addition, you can find the write-ups for the Neutral Endings and TimeWarp Route Requirements on Google Drive! The logo for Time's End was designed by @bittybattybunny. She's an incredible artist, be sure to check out their work here on Tumblr and over on Twitter!! Like holy FUCK, I can not stress enough how awesome they are to work with. They're amazing!!

Motifs:

Mustache Girl EX

Main Theme/Title Screen

Reflections Past

Judge, Jury and Executioner

You can also listen to this track in high quality on the AU’s SoundCloud here! The rest of the description is underneath the Read More.

Mustache Girl takes on a hybrid Asgore and Asriel role. Already feeling trapped and conflicted, her emotions are finally pushed over the edge when an incredibly large group of people -- though it feels more like the entire world with how suffocating the crowd is -- barge into her throne room and hurl insults her way, telling her to "get lost!" among other things …and (almost) all in the name of Bow Kid, mirroring what happened years ago to a disturbing degree. Finally overwhelmed by all her painful thoughts and emotions bubbling back to the surface, she snaps and violently shatters a Time Piece in a fit of rage. And thus history is made to repeat itself once more. But this time, something's different.

BABY'S FIRST HOPES AND DREAMS REPLACEMENT FOR THE WIN :D Also Happy belated New Year to all my peeps here on Tumblr lmao But ye, this is actually happening! Aside from using similar instruments (and a somewhat loose idea for the very beginning of my track,) this is very deliberately unfaithful to the typical H&D structure. Knew right away that I wanted to use Mustache Girl EX as the base for this track, and that sticking too rigidly to the structure of any other H&D would do a disservice to the feel I wanted to go for: that same kick-you-in-the-dick level of power from Mu EX, but with a LOT more of a melancholy vibe underlying all that fury. Plus, bit of a fun fact: adjustments have been made since obviously, but the first "complete" mixing draft of this track was finished on New Year's Eve 2023! (This kind of constant revising is why the His Theme track is still not done on my part btw lmaooooo.) Also… I'll fully admit something here. For the first time on a track I've done, the drumbeat's backbone is comprised of loops I got when I bought Mixcraft 10 (especially with some of the things they were offering during the first week of its launch,) and the only supplemental VST I used was Abbey Road 80's Drummer for the left panned hi-hats. I know that EDM-type stuff similar to the actual Mu EX track is completely out of my wheelhouse, and I didn't want to royally screw up the drum pattern with this different metal-ish take on it, seeing as those are something I have a TON of trouble with. All things considered, drumline came out ok! And ye on the whole, I'm incredibly happy with this track, and it's easily the most ambitious arrangement I've done to date (and the most difficult too in some aspects.) Hope you all enjoy! :)

#a hat in time au #ahit au #ahit mustache girl #mustache girl #deltarune #undertale #undertale au #ahit time's end au #time's end au #AHIT:TE!AU #a hat in time music #ahit music #music #audio #Hopes and Dreams