#∘Alchemy Stars

[pseudomonacarriea]

That feeling when Soroz wakes up for a moment, but then he goes back to unconscious. And you have to venture far to get something for him. It’s worth it, but is there no rest?

[thestarsarebrightertonight]

the alchemy // mattheo riddle x fem gryffindor reader

playlist: the alchemy - taylor swift

"who are we to fight the alchemy?"

summary: mattheo riddle hasnt left you alone with his relentless flirting since third year , youre sick of it! or are you?...

gryffindor reader , y/n used , fluff, minor swearing, short

masterlist

"yknow youre the most beautiful girl in all of hogwarts." mattheo stated from besides you , staring at you with his head in his hand.

"as you tell me everyday mattheo , i appreciate it but i think our potions project would appreciate your attention and care much more than me." you stated with a sigh looking up at him and tapping on his empty parchment.

"isnt it just so lucky we got partnered together?" he said dreamily as you scoffed.

"yes, soo very lucky." you muttered with sarcasm.

"so what do we have left to do princess?" he asked.

"are you being serious? im not sure who we is but based on the fact youve done nothing this whole session- its me that has work left." you scoffed and ranted at him with annoyance , only to recieve a bright smile from him.

"i cant help but be distracted besides you." he shrugged and draped an arm across the back of your chair.

you sighed in pure frustration before angrily packing all of your things into a bag and standing up , ignoring the confused and saddened boy besides you.

"where are you going?" he asked with disappointment.

"carry on acting cute riddle , it wont work. unlike you, some of us need grades to get a job in the future, not all of us have devilishly good looks that get us everything."

"you think i have devishily good looks?" he asked both teasingly and happily.

"sadly , i do," he smirked at this before you leaned down to him , your faces practically touching making his smug attitude drop into shyness, "doesnt mean im going to date you , dont even bother asking."

he quickly regained his composure and moved his face slightly so he could whisper into your ear , lips hitting your skin with every word , "youll come around eventually and when you do..im right here baby."

you blushed brightly before pretending to be digusted by his words , pulling away and crossing your arms with a scowl, "maybe in your dreams riddle but dont let delusion alter your reality too much. and your reality is that we're doing a project together that needs to be in by friday , so get to work baby."

he shifted his gaze as his face turned bright red and he began to heat up at your words , or more specfically the nickname.

"k but seriously , get to work or ill be beyond pissed. goodbye riddle" you said seriously , walking away and leaving the flustered boy to drown in his thoughts at the library table.

----

"gorgeous!" mattheo riddle shouted down the corridore as you rolled your eyes , this was either directed at you or one of his hook ups. and upon feeling an arm wrap around your waist , you assumed it was you, "i finished our project just as you requested your majesty."

you didnt bother looking up at the boy and simply continued to walk down the hall , mattheo clinging onto you ,"well done riddle you actually worked for once. at dinner hand me the papers you wrote and ill review it and finish our conclusion. thanks for actually doing it i didnt think you would."

"anything for my girl" he brightly smiled , enjoying your subtle praise greatly.

"not your girl but sure." you rolled your eyes.

"maybe not now , but very soon" he stated confidentaly , giving your waist a quick squeeze before letting go , "as much as id love to walk you to class , i have to attend to skipping herbology! later beautiful."

"bye" you said quietly , giving him a small smile that brightened his whole afternoon.

-----

"here you go my love!" mattheo announced as he sat himself down on the bench besides you and placed some paper besides your empty plate.

you threw the papers a quick glance ,seeing they infact had writing and grabbed them , shoving them into your bag, "thank you riddle. ill help you finish later."

suprisingly the boy sat in silence , in confusion you turned to look at him, only to be given a teasing smirk and wiggling eyebrows.

"what?" you asked in confusion before releasing and smacking his arm lightly , biting back a laugh, "dont be so childish mattheo!"

his expression soon dropped completely , staring at you stunned.

"whats wrong?" you again asked in confusion and sudden anxiety.

"you.....you called me mattheo." he stuttered , face red.

"well yeah thats your name is it not? or is it mathew?-"

"no its just.....you never call me by my first name."

you soon realised , looking away to hide the pink tint that stained your cheeks.

"whatever it just slipped out!" you tried to hide your shyness.

"dont ever call me riddle again.. just mattheo , hell you can call me anything but riddle. id love it if you called me yours though." he flirted again, losing any hint of fluster.

"not happening!" you let out a genuine laugh because of the boy, for the first time in years.

mattheo couldnt help but watch in awe, admiring as you laughed with him.

"come to my quidditch match tomorrow , you can wear my jersey if you want," he winked.

"ill pass on the jersey but sure ill be there , supporting gryffindor." you teased as the boys pouted.

"cheer for me atleast?" he asked softly , staring into your eyes.

"until i lose my voice," you smiled back at him, a wide smile youd never given him before. it felt like a blessing to the boy.

he had no idea why youd become so open to him , you didnt either , but you did know that the boy had definetly flirted his way into your thoughts after years of determination.

-----

"welcome to the third match of the year, slytherin and gryffindor! buzzing to see the new cheats slytherin pull this time around!-" lees commentation was cut off by mcgonagall clearing her throat , "sorry professor."

"anyways back to the match! a pretty decent line up today , the usual team for gryffindor. slytherin having brought 3rd year joseph off the bench for the first time. hopefully we see some of his skills in this match! but i must say the most interesting player of slytherins team this match , has to be riddle. not only did he perform well last season but he seems to have his eyes on his own trophy , as per usual , y/n y/l/n! whats most interesting is the slytherin jersey shes wearing , i mean the girls in gryffindor , where is the house pride!!-" lees rant was cut off by mcgonagall throwing him a sharp glare. you cringed from the crowd as your house threw you dirty looks , the only look you focused on being the smirk and wink mattheo gave you from his broom.

"anyways , the captians are now deciding who starts the match. by the determenation on all of payers faces, this match will be anything but clean and fair , tough luck madame hooch!" lee laughed as the teams decided who started, all of the players taking their positions as the whistle blows, "and the match begins!".

----

all of your house members threw you distasteful looks as you sheepishly walked down the stands and towards the pitch , where the slytherin players had gathered.

you had hardly stepped onto the grass when an arm around you swept you off your feet and spun you around.

"did you see, love? we won!" mattheo who was currently holding you tightly , exclaimed in excitement.

"yes , yeah i saw!" you grinned at him , looking into his eyes as he finally rested you on the ground, his arms around you and yours resting around the back of his neck.

"you were my good luck charm," he said softly , his eyes tracing your body, "i see you decided to wear my jersey".

"like i had a choice! you bribed the twins to not let me out the common room until i wore it!" you both laughed.

"it suits you , no other number or name suits you better , " he smirked , pulling you in closer as you giggled.

"hm i dont know y/n potter sounds quite good." you teased as his eyes hardened.

"no." he stated darkly as you laughed at his seriousness,

" dont worry riddle , you could say im yours."

he grinned widely , "oh yeah, what changed?"

"i stopped trying to resist the mattheo charm." you teased with a bright smile.

he didnt waste a second in pulling you into a passionate kiss , one he had held back for years. after about a minute he chased your lips once you pulled away.

"i love you , since first year" he whispered.

"thats a lie, i thought it was third year!" you gasped in fake suprise.

he chuckled , looking at you in lovesickness ,"i loved you before i even met you."

"thats not possible matt," you laughed.

"it is when we're soulmates," he stated.

"soulmates? wow you really do love me huh, riddle?!" you teased.

"more than youll ever know."

[cuties-in-codices]

various stars

in an astrological-alchemical manuscript, germany, late 14th century

source: Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 2372, fol. 62r-75r

[illustratus]

[shanks]

AGOTO

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[noctilin]

i'm gathering data for merch to make! so if you're interested in buying something from me, i encourage you to fill up this form 🫶 i have a hectic weekend + week ahead so i'll probs leave this open for the entirety of it

FORM LINK

[cravingsfromatwistedone]

master kink with batman- i mean diluc??? i know everyones heard about this but..

imagine… you teasing diluc at the tavern, its nightime and close to closing time. people are filing out the door until it’s just you left. you are still sitting in front of him, teasing him about how he likes grape juice. and in your drunk haze you don’t have control over what your saying, you end up asking him if he has a master kink. diluc doesn’t know what’s gotten over him but he quickly replies with, “wanna find out?” and regrets it until he sees you looking away. the night ends with you bent over the table.

no one knows what happened to you that night, or why you exited the tavern with a perverted smirk on your face while looking so disheveled.

rip donna, also i sincerely apologize this sucks

-🌧️ anon

DRUNK DAZED [ DRABBLE / NSFW ]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: OH, IT'S ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL MY DARLING!~ I JUST LOVE THE BUILD UP OF THE SCENES AND DON'T APOLOGIZE OVER IT! HOPEFULLY, MY WRITING SATIATES YOUR DESIRE AND ANY FEEDBACK IS MUCH APPRECIATED! TW: DUBCON (READER IS HALF DRUNK), USAGE OF PETNAMES (MEINE LIEBE), IMPROPER USE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE (THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR ME TO INCORPERATE GERMAN I SWEAR!!) DILUC RAGNIVINDR X FEM!READER

"Master♡!" You cried out

Never in a million years would you have thought that while being a drunken state, you were getting yourself fucked silly by the sole owner of the Dawn Winery, Diluc Ragnivindr himself as he bent your half exposed figure over one of the tables of his tavern; his cock repeatedly pumping in and out of your sopping wet cunt. The red-haired male let out a low hiss of pleasure as he feels the walls of your insides clenching on him, his gloved hands gripping your hips in bruising grip before opting to lift one of your legs up which gave him a much needed space to snap his hips back into yours with even more ferocity.

"God, you're all spread out prettily on my cock…Who's your master, meine Liebe?" Diluc whispers huskily into your ear, his lips pressing hard against the shell of your ear. "Y-You-Ah♡!-You're my Master♡!" You moaned, your words coming out all slurred from the intensifying pleasure that had taken root in your brain. You could hear an audible groan coming from Diluc's throat as his pace quickened, your answer being the source of his hastiness of reaching his release "Genau das, was ich hören wollte, meine Liebe…" He whispers gently before continuing to fuck you senseless

TRANSLATION NOTES:

1. 'Meine Liebe' - my love

2. 'Genau das, was ich hören wollte, meine Liebe…' - Just what I wanted to hear, my love...

[onlyoriguu]

Yoo Michael

soo its my first time drawing characters like that (complex design) so im glad i didnt gave up🥹

[aestheticallypleasinganimeboys]

Minos - Alchemy Stars

[pseudomonacarriea]

Not him sneaking out of the practice room yet again. Dodododoo.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Moon in the Day has super angst, murdery, tragic enemies to lovers.

Sh**ting Stars has has bickering, spiteful, ridiculous enemies to lovers.

Alchemy of Souls has bickering, murdery, asshole enemies to lovers.

Doom at Your Service has supernatural, competitive, sacrificial enemies to lovers...

They are like vintages of fine wine, all delicious, but different notes of flavour.

[akakris10]

my favourite girl who eats rocks

[zeravmeta]

something i massively respect about alchemy stars' writing in regards to illumina is that it would be So SO easy for them to fall into a "military is good/bootlicking is necessary" trap considering they arent fighting other people but literal nightmare monsters, many popular characters including the main heroine of the game are from that military faction and our protag multiple times works with and depends on them, but INSTEAD it's even more critical of militarized structure and armed forces as a concept because of it.

rather than just going "our soldiers are brave for fighting monsters" they go "actually in such a brutal struggle it becomes frighteningly easy to throw out morals in the name of survival, meaning that we can mold people into living weapons all for the sake of said survival" and "so long as the greater humanity survives the powers that be have no issue tossing out as many lives as it takes while they continue to push propaganda of heroism as grand to continue adding more bodies to the front line" and ALL OF THIS IS RIGHTFULLY PRESENTED AS BAD EVEN WHEN SAID ENEMIES ARE NOT OTHER PEOPLE BUT LITERAL NIGHTMARE MONSTERS. even in reinhardt and bartons backstories where we see their rise to glory as some of the biggest players in illumina they are constantly criticizing the system they've been put into and choose to break said rules if it mean saving more lives. and what really makes alchemy stars' war narrative so compelling is that even some of the old guard soldiers in command who constantly argue with them all once held the same kind of hope they did and do, they're just so embittered and numb to watching so many people die that they Had to become cold and calculating about lives on the battlefield in order to ensure the greater survival of aurorians. and in current canon we have reinhardt flat out say that she hates how she understands her old commanders, that shes become the same type of person she once criticized because like them shes had to make unfair decisions that cost people their lives. but EVEN with all that, the actions of the committee and the war crimes perpetuated by them in the name of survival are still fully framed as being wrong.

it could have been so easy to just handwave this war aspect of alchemy stars' plot but they actually explore it in a surprisingly nuanced way i fucking love it

[inspiredrawaw]

“He was so passionate about magic I couldn’t take away such a light from the world”

Drakken and Universe his warlock patron. After a terrifying incident the Universe goddess of alchemy appoints herself as Drakkens patron to keep his body stable

Also featuring what I call the Alchemy Tree that shows both what different alchemy elements belong to which category but also a history of the universe itself.

[shanks]

山桂贰