#also also I think it's important to also point out that Xiao also seems like the type to ice skate so IT ALL WORKS OUT

[accio-victuuri]

THE MOON REPRESENTS MY HEART 🌙 + Friday Madness

i just think that me freaking about gg singing this song and leaving after that is not right. this song deserves it’s own post and the importance of the Moon’s symbolism between them should be repeated. personally, i was surprised cause i cpn’d about a possible interpretation of showing off moon photos when they do it, then i thought of this song. now you have gege performing it. the universe has clowned me once again. and you have him as performer #8. Bo. are you kidding me? yes, this is a CCP signed-off event. the song must have been an approved piece to perform live but that doesn’t mean GG did not have a say in picking this track. as for him being the 8th one, a coincidence. destiny can’t help but relate them to each other. lol.

you can say that it’s perfect for the theme of mid-autumn festival and it’s a well loved song — yes, that’s right. but we’re all cpfs here who have a long history with 🌖 and GG finally singing it now seems like a “sign”.

this song’s relevance started with a fake rumor:

I would like to add that the moon should be the one that Wang laoshi watched a video of. After watching it, he said, "Do you believe me, I can also dance this for you?" The background music was "The Moon Represents My Heart" I think it should be posted by Xiao laoshi, but this happened a long time ago on the stage, but it should be related. I don’t know about choreography. I was busy with other things at that time. This is what I know.

THIS HITS DIFFERENT NOW. imagine yibo dancing to this. i will lose it. 🤯🤯🤯

and it doesn’t help that xz had a teaser video released by BRTV today:

send the moon to you // "I want to take a picture of the moon for you but it never comes out”

this is why we love fake rumors, one way or another, the similarities come up or parts of it come true.

then the matching photoshoot prop. also their studios posting 5 minutes apart. yes it makes sense for them to post in the same time span cause the content released around the same time too. but xzs is 20:40. 8:40. 8= Bo and 40 on the clock points to 8.

Seriously, XZ. come here. i just wanna talk. you are being so loud today sir. 🤡🤡🤡🤡

AS FOR THE PERFORMANCE ITSELF.

Outstanding. As expected of GG. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

There is something so soft and shy in the way he performed it. As if he is confessing to the person he loves how much he feels. This person knows — but not this way. Not this deep. This is him finally saying what his love is like.

He is also happy. This love makes him whole. It’s so nice to see him this way!

@rainbowsky already mentioned the way we are excited and crying because of it’s connection to Leslie Cheung which is the main thing in conversations. is this xz’s way of dedicating the song to the love of his life in public?

and the lyrics need no further interpretation, it’s such a sweet and simple song about one’s devotion.

so it’s not just xz singing this love song and us clowning. it’s years of clues and references — which now feels like a lead up to this “confession”. 💕

P.S: my main boxiao and moon post is obviously not updated for some time. so just search for “moon” on this blog for other references but y’all know tumblr will still not show everything.

P.P.S: i wanna bring back the moon landing watch. one of the strongest moon cpn out there that honestly feels like an urban legend now the way we never saw it again. lol. it was too loud they probably decided that wyb shouldn’t wear it again in public 😅😅😅😅

END.

[yorutsuki]

「 ✦ Isekaied Reversed Pt. 2✦ 」

↳ Started with pulling some single pulls on Xiao's banner, however things hadn't gone as expected as he really did come home...literally. First impressions? Long gone.

Tags: @itztaki @wolfishartist13

{Hopefully I did that right}

──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──────

“Move, and I’ll purge you where you sit, Demon.”

You froze, feeling like you recognized that voice somewhere...Of coarse!

With your chest a little lighter, you obliged instructions. Either way you wished to not be cut into a bloody spray paint bottle. But also realizing the situation, beads of sweat rolled down your face as you tried leveling your breathing.

“H-hey now, w-we can talk about this-“ You eyes drew back to the deathly weapon, the one centimeters away from your carotid artery. “-right?..haha…ha…”

You felt the blade finally press to your skin firmly, instantly shutting you up, seeing as the yaksha bare no mood for jokes.

I guess that’s what happens when you see your whole family lose their sanity before slaughtering each other-

“How did you manage to conjure me here." He demanded, his hold on his spear never faltering as he glared towards you, waiting for an answer. You, on the other hand, your words couldn't even be conjured up. Why? Because you were thinking the same thing; How did he even get here?

Mere moments passed by as the adeptus was getting impatient by the second. With a sigh, you finally spoke, "Look..I—OH MY GOSH IS THAT REX LAPIS!" You shouted, pointing towards your room's window.

With his spear faltering slightly, you took this opportunity and ran—ran like the wind, like your life depended on it and truly, it did. At least after that stunt. But hey! On the bright side, in your afterlife you could proudly gloat about how you managed to not only summon the mighty vigilante yaksha, Xiao, but as well as juke him!

You were almost free as your fingers brushed against the doorknob—you could practically feel freedom in its wake..but unfortunately, it was cut short as you felt a hand grab your wrist before quickly slamming you against the door.

You honestly would've thought that it wasn't so bad. But only If the same threatening jade spear wasn't jabbed into the wood of the door only a few centimeters from your head.

"How idiotic must one be to pull a stunt such as that!" You heard the man snap. You chuckled with nervousness, "gotcha good eh?-" "I'll give you to the count of five. How did you manage to conjure me here."

"one."

"two."

"three."

"four-"

"I don't know! I don't know how you ended up here. When I heard a loud thud from behind me, you were suddenly there!"

The yaksha did not express anything, his motions still.

Is this the end of me? All I wanted to do was for Xiao to come home..BUT NOT LITERALLY!

The man sighed, "If you can conjure me here, you can send me back." Huh- "I have important matters back in my universe."

The pressure behind you disappeared as you felt a heavy weight lifting off your chest. You huffed out a sigh of relief..."Wait. Did you just say different universe?" You recapped. Surely your ears were playing tricks on you.

The yaksha stared blankly at you before nodding. You could feel a annoyed aura radiating from him. "But how did yo-" "I cannot disclose that to you, but if you'd look around the place, it looks nothing like what you've just witness, thus, you can figure it out on your own." He interrupted.

You mentally rolled your eyes. How could you forget; This guy was ruthless, blunt-depression itself; next to wanderer of coarse.

"Alright. Well then-" Xiao proceeded to ignore you as he opened your bedroom window, about to jump. "Uh, where are you going?" You questioned. The yaksha huffed, "I'm going to see if I can send myself back as it seems you haven't a clue whats happening. That will only slow me down on returning." He stated bluntly. Ouch..

Although you couldn't argue with the man about parts of his statement, you couldn't help but feel a bit sad—even a tad jealous but most importantly, irritated. He had threatened you multiple occasions, man handled you and even broke your door and now he has the audacity to make you pay for the damages? Scoff

"Xiao."

The adeptus turned his head with a shocked expression, his brows furrowed. "How do you kno-"

"I cannot disclose that to you." You smirked, but quickly cleared your throat. "The important thing here is for you to realize that going outside in a different universe in those clothings and a large-jade—which, in this world, is a hella rare mineral, is off putting. Yea, to add on, you don't have currency-" Xiao then rolled his eyes before going to take mora from his inventory. "-and no—mora doesn't work here. So technically you'd be homeless because honestly, nobody here is willing to give crap for free." You sighed, "Trust me, this world is a lot more diabolical than what it shows from the exterior." You mumbled mockingly.

The adeptus looked down in thought for a moment before sighing and ascending down from the window sill. You mentally high fived yourself at your bad-ass arguementive speaking skills.

A moment of silenced washed over the two of you as you awkwardly stared at eachother. With each second passing, it somehow kept getting quieter.

You cleared your throat, "uhm, sir."

Xiao looked towards you with a questioning look. You only pointed to your new splintered and broken door. "You. You caused that."

The adeptus only closed his eyes as he crossed his arms. What for? Maybe in thought? You didn't know. Your main focuses were to get the door fixed and to figure out what happens next as it seemed like the adeptus had Isekaied but reversed.

How long this day was becoming...

...

{This isn't proof-read, so in advanced i apologize if everything is all over the place as this is my first reversed isekaied story. If theres any suggestions for the next part please write them down! I love reading the comments ^^}

> Part 1

..........

[ Masterlist ]

[bestworstcase]

option 1: tai’s guarding the crown of choice.

pros:

a legitimately important task that recontextualizes his ongoing decision to remain on patch as a personal sacrifice he makes for the greater good.

ozpin would pick the guy named for the god of light to be the gatekeeper of choice, huh.

if any parent in this story is meant to die, it’s him, and narratively this is the most intuitive way to do it.

cons:

realistically, what can tai do to prevent salem / cinder / summer from accessing the vault if they find it? if he’s the gatekeeper, staying on patch alone after everyone else evacuates achieves nothing except, ah, signaling to the enemy that the real vault is under signal academy. bad plan.

it means oz is breaking his promise to be honest and forthcoming, undermining his character growth for the sake of ‘surprising’ the audience with the most obvious answer.

means qrow has either been kept in the dark (see prev point) or he’s also deliberately hiding this information from his nieces after they asked him outright if he knew where tai is; this is so far afield for his character as to border on character assassination, and likewise undermines his positive growth since v7.

honestly makes both yang and ruby seem kind of stupid. they know the crown is hidden somewhere near beacon, that ozpin did something to protect it differently from the others, and that their father hasn’t left patch. ruby was sharp enough to guess that long memory might be a relic hidden in plain sight; yang is just as smart, and she knows tai had “some things” to look after on patch. are we expected to believe that “hey, is dad guarding the relic?” somehow hasn’t occurred to either of them?

tai harbors a whole lot of resentment toward ozpin, and based on qrow kicking him out of ruby’s bedroom to drip-feed her hints on where to go next, he seems to have been on the outer perimeter of the inner circle. why would oz entrust him with the relic’s safety?

glynda—ozpin’s scrupulously loyal second-in-command whose emblem is a crown and whose semblance puts her on par with a maiden—is a far more narratively plausible vault-guardian than tai, and the “sun dragon” makes a damn good red herring.

if he’s guarding the vault, he dies. sorry. but the point of putting the father of 2/4 protagonists in between the two main villains and the thing they want most (choice) is so they can kill him to get it, increasing tension and raising the emotional stakes of negotiating peace. to be clear, rwby is willing to Go There, but i think it’s an unsatisfactory way to close out the rose xiao long family arc.

option 2: survivors trapped under mountain glenn, and tai is taking point.

pros:

a genuinely important, worthwhile thing for him to be doing—even more so than guarding the crown. likely sets up a resolution for him in the vein of “you can be a good huntsman or a good father, and tai picked being a huntsman,” which is an elegant way to balance his contradictions.

gives him meaningful stuff to do in v10; for example, one stealthy huntsman with a bullhead could slip in and out of mountain glenn to get a few dozen people out at a time, and/or run supplies and messages between the kingdoms.

we get to see zwei back in action around mountain glenn :)

introduces a natural segue from playing defense in vacuo to mounting a counteroffensive against beacon as tai’s work clarifies the situation in vale.

easily the most 'heroic' direction for him without contorting the story to arbitrarily lionize tai: he’s a scout preparing the stage for the heroes to take the fight to salem, making him the good counterpart to watts.

cons:

makes no sense to keep it a secret. the emotional beats of B4 can still happen if the girls know this is what tai’s doing: instead of “do you… wonder why he’s not here? i know qrow said he’s on assignment, but what’s more important than here?” yang says “do you… wish he were here? with us? i know qrow said he’s looking for survivors, but how many of them can there really be by now? we need all the help we can get,” and ruby says “maybe we don’t have the full picture” as in maybe dad knows something we don’t and that’s why he hasn’t given up yet. the emotion is the same, and the big "they’re hiding in mountain glenn" reveal is hinted without spoiling.

leaves hanging the narrative thread of what tai has been doing since the fall of beacon, because the “some things” he was dealing with in v4 obviously wasn’t this.

option 3: tai is dead.

pros:

explains the apparent secrecy; qrow knows tai was away “on assignment” (i.e., had taken a huntsman contract that brought him out of the kingdom) at the time salem attacked vale, so he is missing but not yet presumed dead.

might reopen the mystery box of summer’s last mission through the real-deal “left on a mission and never came back” echo.

cons:

raven would know.

it’s a cheap, narratively unsatisfying twist that fails to deliver on the bread crumbs set up in v2-3 (tai starts going on missions again) and v4 (“some things”), and also undermines any serious emotional resolution with regard to yang and ruby’s complex relationships with tai.

option 4: summer’s working with salem, and tai is trying to convince her to come back.

pros:

“some things” being his presumed-dead wife who left him to join the enemy and with whom tai is now having an affair or otherwise hoping to coax back to the heroic side through the power of love whilst also keeping his mouth shut about her being a) still alive and b) a traitor is OBJECTIVELY the funniest answer.

brings forward and interrogates the way tai’s romantic grief informs the choices he makes as a parent: from hiding raven and then refusing to talk about her with yang, to shutting down when he lost summer and letting his five-year-old pick up the pieces, to discovering and then keeping summer’s secrets for the sake of some faint hope that she might finally come back to him.

cogent with the Dead (Absent) Mother / Neglectful Father / Evil Stepmother fairytale paradigm rwby deconstructs with raven, tai, and summer; the father chooses the stepmother over his children.

raises the emotional stakes of the war for summer through direct confrontation with the life she left behind, creating narrative opportunities to develop her character (is she still in love with tai? how does she feel about being his first priority, over their children? does she resent that he has her on this pedestal even now?) and apply pressure to her relationships with salem and cinder (do they know? is summer keeping her communication with him a secret, too? or is he an “asset” she’s using for salem’s benefit?).

consequently, raises the momentum of the narrative toward negotiation with salem; tai still has the coalition’s trust, however strained his personal relationships may be. summer is the obvious ambassador for salem’s side of the war, but she’s also the traitor who needs someone to vouch for her good intentions.

the secrecy needs no explanation: just as summer’s last mission was a summer secret, tai’s "assignment" is a taiyang secret and the girls know everything that oz and qrow do, because all of them have been left in the dark. raven might know, and she has the means to find if she doesn’t, but tai’s whereabouts are entangled with what raven knows about summer, so she can’t explain where tai is or why until she reveals her deep dark secrets about what happened between her and summer that night.

foreshadowing is solid: tai starts to go on "missions" again in v2, after the inner circle becomes aware that salem has infiltrated beacon and just before the breach downtown. when ruby visits summer’s grave in v3, she says "[dad] told me he’s going to be on some mission soon! i think he misses adventuring with you." he’s got to "look after some things" (but he isn’t talking about yang, because he stays home after she leaves). and then with B4 we have ruby echoing what the blacksmith taught her about summer in relation to tai, "maybe we don’t have the full picture?"

juicy

cons:

???

dependent on the unconfirmed theory that summer is working for salem as herself, not some unrecognizable enslaved monster, but i am as confident in that as i was about salem going to vale next and we all know how that turned out :)

taking their mom was not enough salem had to go for the full set APPARENTLY

option 5: secret fifth thing

pros:

???

cons:

???

[deadbeatbirdmom]

I think I've recovered enough from watching the episode to actually say something about it, or at least more than I managed right afterwards.

I loved it.

It's great to see chibi-ish!Ruby used for comedic effect again, for the first time since Volume 1 I think. First acting playfully mad with Yang, and then in her excitement at the boba.

On that note, it's great to see and hear Ruby excited again. It's impressive how high her voice can go without breaking, especially considering Ruby's VA's normal voice seems to be lower pitched than Yang's voice.

I'm not surprised Ruby's uncomfortable with the cult that has sprung up around her message to Remnant. She always wanted to be a normal girl, if one who became a huntress, which is a fairly normal thing in Remnant. Especially for someone born to a family of them.

It's good to see that refugees from Patch can set up their business in Vacuo, and even better that it lets Yang and Ruby carry on the tradition they had before Beacon. That it was something they did with Tai also ended up revealing why he isn't there with them: he's on assignment, according to Qrow. What is more important than being in Vacuo, where the majority of Remnant's population is gathered? And more important than being with his daughters, who he might have heard were presumed dead and miraculously reappeared.

I've seen the suggestion that Tai's guarding the Crown aka Relic of Choice, but I've also seen the great point that if that's the case and Salem finds him, there's not much he can do to stop her, no matter what his Semblance is. Although I guess Raven might feel that he's in danger and open a portal for him to escape through. It's not confirmed that's how her Semblance works, but it explains how she knew when Yang needed saving in Volume 2.

Anyway, back to Yang and Ruby! I love that Yang brought up what happened in the Ever After. That she's understands, or at least understands enough after what Yang herself has been through, and the important thing she gets across to Ruby is that she's not alone. That she's not going to carry the weight of leading them alone. Not anymore.

It's also important that they've figured out a code word to signal that Ruby needs help, because she doesn't always know how to reach out. I figure that they will tell Blake and Weiss about that, or it could confuse them:

Ruby: "Boba!"

Weiss: ...

Blake: :3 ???

Yang: Hugs Ruby. "I'm here for you."

Weiss: "Is. Is this another weird Xiao Long-Rose thing?"

What I particularly appreciate about it is that Yang acknowledged her mistake but didn't actually apologise for it, and Ruby didn't mind that. Because the important thing isn't saying sorry, it's changing things so that Ruby never feels that alone again. Actions speak louder than words.

It's also equally important that Ruby recognised she still has issues saying when she needs help. They're a team and they need to work together.

It just reinforces RWBY's message of hope, and to keep moving forward, and that no one is perfect but that they learn from their mistakes.

Asjhgsdkjghfdkshjkakjhdhlsj FEELS AUGH

Also that last line kinda hints that Ruby likes to go shopping with Yang, but they haven't got around to it. Shopping for new outfits, perhaps?

[mira-likes]

The thing about Fan Xian at the very start of the show is—he’s not taking any of this seriously.

The plotting, the scheming, the treasury, the emperor’s marriage edict, society’s norms—he’s treating all of this like it’s optional for him. He breaks the accepted rules of behaviour because to him they're not important. He’s fearless before the princes because he sincerely doesn’t want any part in the struggle they’re embroiled in. It’s not that he acts like he’s above it all—more like he’s outside it, as he once tells Wan'er; like he doesn't really belong in this world. For him, it’s as simple as living by his own rules and assuring everyone: “I don’t want this treasury, I don’t want this marriage, I’ll leave you all to these plots and go off and be happy.” Once he and Wan'er affirm their love for each other, his plans are still to return to Danzhou with her and Ruoruo, be neighbours with Teng Zijing, and distance himself from all the expectations and power struggles of the capital.

He doesn’t yet realise how little choice he actually has, or how deep his ties in this world run. There never was a way out of this for him.

Teng Zijing’s death makes the seriousness hit home, and that’s when Fan Xian first grimly says to Ruoruo that they're not returning to Danzhou after all. But at this point he still sees his involvement as a choice; others have thrown down the gauntlet to him, and he's ready to pick it up and make them pay for Teng Zijing's death. He's still fearless and flippant in many ways, most clearly so when he doesn't kneel to the emperor and speaks irreverently while within the palace. He still sees himself as someone who isn't playing the same game everyone else is. It doesn’t register how inescapably bogged down he is in the political quagmire until Xiao En reveals the truth to him. Hearing how long of a con against Xiao En he's been unwittingly part of, discovering who his real father is, and learning how the lies and manipulations have spanned his entire lifetime—all this puts things into sharp relief for Fan Xian. It makes him scared, and it makes him angry. And it makes him see that his clean exit from this entire struggle only ever existed in his head.

From then on, Fan Xian is different. He even says it himself: he has a goal now. He wants to know what happened to his mother—not just with curiosity, but with a bloodthirsty glint in his eye. He wants to live well, and for that he needs to take down or outmanoeuvre some very powerful people. Upon his return to Qing, gone are the carefree air and the impression that he's separate from concerns that occupy everyone else. Sure, there are lighthearted moments, but when he deals with various plots he’s also furious, and upset, and up to his ears in everything that’s going on, with no hope of surfacing. He qi deviates, even, at a moment of great emotional upheaval and when it momentarily seems like there's truly no one he can trust.

He never again loses sight of the reality of his situation. The closer he deals with the emperor, the clearer it becomes why the Second Prince made that half-incredulous, half-bitter face when Fan Xian blithely told him, during their first ever meeting, that he was going to reject the emperor’s edict and choose his own path. The Second Prince had been living with this all his life; he knew what it meant to have the emperor steer you into a position you never wanted. So Fan Xian does strategically kneel before the emperor, now. He understands the weight of the emperor's edicts—even when they're seemingly nonsensical, even when they're undeniably cruel. He still pushes, and acts cheeky and unconventional, and retains his free-thinking spirit; but he also puts on a mask to protect himself and hide his real thoughts (and his rage). Ruoruo suggests they run away to Danzhou after all; Fan Xian, mouth twisted like the Second Prince’s once was, knows that escape in this form was never really an option. He’s playing for the ultimate stakes, at this point; his back is as much to the wall as the two feuding princes’ (and his smiles at his adversaries are now as full of knives as theirs).

[mysumeow]

☆◞ YOU TELL THEM YOU WANT TO CUDDLE

—What's their reaction?

warnings: not proofread. established relationship. sfw. gender neutral pronouns.

very short drabble featuring: scaramouche (fatui era), wanderer, xiao, lyney, kazuha, tighnari.

a/n: yall. ive been trying to post this since monday. when i clicked save as draft, that shi was thrown into the void by tumblr. no joke. i refreshed the page and that draft NEVER appeared. then i tried to submit it on wednesday (cant believe i had to check with google if i was writing that right. i was writing it as wensday. moving on-) and also i tried to post it yesterday but different stuff happened that if i explain it this a/n will end up being longer than the drabble.....

› MASTERLIST ‹

—SCARAMOUCHE

"Can't you see I'm busy? You've been here with me the whole day, and yet you fail to notice I'm caught up in more important matters to attend to?" he scoffed, putting down the pile of papers he was skimming through. "If you wait and sit patiently, I might humor you. No guarantees, though. And don't look so happy about it,"

Lacks notion of how tight he's holding you, it's like he's trying to squeeze the air out of you. 

—WANDERER

"Cuddling is yet another one of those senseless stuff humans do, right? What makes you think I want to engage in it," he uncrossed his arms when he saw you turning around to leave. "Wait right there. I didn't say I wouldn't do it. You're more annoying when you don't have your way,"

He avoids cuddling for more than 10 minutes. He gets so relaxed and comfortable to the point he falls asleep if the cuddling session goes beyond the limit. Terribly embarrassed about it. 

—XIAO

"No. You know I do this for your sake. I don't think a mortal should be sticking to a potential death risk. Yes, I'm aware that we've kissed, but...If you think making that expression will work, you're wrong." 

Cue cuddling session with Xiao, albeit hesitantly because he's afraid it'll hurt you. 

—LYNEY

"Is my lovely dove desperate for my attention? My, I wouldn't have imagined you'd be the clingy type," he slid his finger along your jawline, prompting you to face him. "But who am I to deny my lover when they make such heartfelt requests,"

It’s ironic he acts like you’re the clingy one, when he’s worse in that regard. He tends to slide his hands under your top and rest them on your tummy.

—KAZUHA

"My love, it seems as if not only our destinies are interlaced, but also our minds," he smiled gently, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.

Somehow, Kazuha always smells comforting, like ocean breeze, or lavender.

—TIGHNARI

"Alright, but only if you promise not to drool on my tail again," he teased. "Let me just finish writing this letter and I'll be there. You can go ahead and wait for me,"

Tighnari wraps his tail around your thigh whenever you two cuddle. He'll also allow you to use it as a pillow if you want to; it's like resting your head on a fluffy cloud.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 38 part one

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)  

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!  

OK But Why?

This tale-within-a-tale is excruciating, yeah? So let's start off by considering why it even exists. Yi City feels like, if not a fully separate story, a pretty complete arc that can play as its own little movie. And it's incredibly sad, in every direction. While it may have begun life, in its originally-written form, as a different story exploring some of the same themes, MXTX placed it in the novel deliberately, and the producers of CQL included it deliberately. Why? Other than the, you know, catharsis of a well-wrought tragedy?

I think the answer is that it tells a set of parallel stories, alternate versions of the stories our main characters inhabit, with different outcomes driven by the character's choices. There's an obvious parallel between Lan Wangji's grief and Song Lan's, and another clear one between Wei Wuxian's core donation and Xiao Xingchen's eyeball donation. 

And there's an important comparison to be made between Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian, two demonic cultivators. They share some formative experiences, but have followed radically different paths, shaped, at a key moment, by another person's choice. 

Overall, the Yi City story illustrates how choices made in a moment affect not just an individual life, but ripple outward into other lives. So be prepared for me to point out parallels even more than usual, as we go through these episodes.

Empathy

We start off learning about Empathy and how it’s sooper dangerous, which means of course Wei Wuxian is totally down for it and probably invented it.  He gathers the kids around and assigns Jin Ling to be the person in charge of supervising and deciding when to pull him out of the matrix link. 

Jin Ling is surprised and reluctant so teacher’s pet Sizhui jumps forward and volunteers. 

Wei Wuxian asks Jin Ling for his Jiang clarity bell, which is on a tassel that used to be Jiang Yanli’s. 

(more behind the cut!)

Once the bell/tassel is out of Jin Ling’s hand, however, he changes his mind and snatches it, and the responsibility, back. 

It seems like Sizhui might recognize this tassel? 

It’s like the one Jiang Yanli gave Wei Wuxian when they met up before her wedding, which means Wei Wuxian would have had it with him during their year in the burial mounds. 

Jingyi disapproves of Jin Ling’s mind-changing, which is a little unfair since JL didn’t actually say “no” prior to Sizhui putting in his oar. (Sizhui is entirely loveable, but he is also a pushy brown-noser just like Lan Wangji was at his age. He just does it so sweetly that nobody minds.)

Sizhui, also like his Lan dad, has made it his life’s mission to manage a loudmouth hothead’s temper for him. 

Heading into empathy with A-Qing, we get flashes of bits of the story that we're about to see in depth. Then we jump to "ten years ago" which, given the way this series does math, probably means seven years ago.

Side note: A-Qing has managed to keep her hair looking pretty cute despite being 90% dead. 

Splish Splash

This particular section of the Wuxia River of Sadness is reserved for people who are contemplating the total mess they have made of their lives (gifset here), but A-Qing didn't get that memo, so she's having a nice time splashing joyfully without a care in the world.

A-Qing isn't about drama or being depressed, even when things are pretty difficult. She has found a big rock to sit on and is having a nice day hanging out on it.  

Then she goes skipping along singing "la la la la" (which is the same sound in Chinese as we make in English when we're singing and don't know the words, incidentally). Ok, show, we get it, she's happy and carefree. I sure hope she doesn't get involved in any weird relationships.

Grifting

She sees a couple of women walking on the path and she starts pretending to be blind. In the book, this pretense was facilitated by her having completely white eyes, but in the show she has normal brown eyes, until she actually is blinded by Xue Yang. So her entire pretense of being blind is to unfocus her eyes a bit and wave her hands around...

...with frequent intervals where she thinks no-one is watching her, and she acts 100% like she can see. Somehow she is almost never busted for this. 

The ladies give her a steamed bun and whisper loudly to each other about how pitiful she is. 

Then she heads into town for a little grifting, picking a wealthy douchebag as a mark. She bumps into him and steals his money bag, which he doesn't notice because he's too busy creeping on her. 

She's annoyed and disappointed that he doesn't have a lot of money.

Hey Pretty, Don’t You Want To Take a Ride With Me

Next she bumps into (and robs) Xiao Xingchen, who is actually blind, so he doesn’t notice her noticing how extremely pretty he is. 

He does notice that she has robbed him, however. 

Did you know if you have your eyes removed or even just damaged so you can't see any more, your eye sockets and/or tear ducts will bleed pretty much forever? Yeah, me neither. 

Xiao Xingchen immediately takes charge of A-Qing, telling her to walk more slowly and then telling her - kindly - to return his money purse. Before she can answer him, the rich douchebag comes back to yell at her and try to hit her. Xiao Xingchen stops him and smooths over the situation, and then lectures Ah Qing about stealing and how it's bad. But he tells her to keep his money, so - mixed messages, bro. 

She calls him gege and says that since he's blind and she's blind, she's going to follow him forever. He’s like, okey dokey, and they walk off together. Is she really the first person (since Song Lan) who’s had this idea about him? He is *very* pretty, after all.

It's unclear to me if she's calling him gege in the sense of “orphan girl who wants a family,” or in the sense of “mostly-grown-up woman who would like to Hit That.” Xiao Xingchen appears to take it as the former; he is too gay virtuous for the other option.

Two seconds after they decide to stay together, they encounter Xue Yang lying injured by the side of the road. A-Qing pretends she didn’t see him, and almost successfully wangles a piggyback ride out of Xiao Xingchen. 

But then he hears Xue Yang and immediately decides to rescue him, like the do-gooder Xue Yang despises him for being.

Xue Yang gets the romance-tropey piggyback ride that A-Qing was hoping for. Girl, the time to stop trying to seduce your gay male friend is 5 minutes before you started, ok?  

So...why was Xue Yang lying by the side of the road with a stab wound? Who gave it to him? If Jin Guangyao was sick of him, he would have stabbed him 100% fatally, and he wouldn't have let him hang on to Tiger Seal 2.0. And presumably Xue Yang wouldn’t think of him as a friend any more. It’s a mystery.

The new throuple decide to go to the creepiest abandoned walled city that has ever existed, and head past all the regular houses to set up camp in the morgue, for some reason. Not even inside one of the buildings; just out in the courtyard with a bunch of possibly-occupied coffins. Xiao Xingchen is so fucking weird. 

Each Unhappy Family is Unhappy in its Own Way

Xiao Xingchen gets to work patching Xue Yang up, and Xue Yang wakes up and recognizes him. A-Qing explains that they are blind and tells him not to be rude about it.

Xue Yang takes a second to process the situation, and then decided he’s going to hide his identity and make nice with Xiao Xingchen. Proving that found family can also have hideous toxic dynamics.

Xue Yang is very careful to keep XXC from touching his hand, since that would give away his identity. He has a...prosthetic finger? He wears a black glove and keeps his pinky finger straight so we know it's a replacement, or injured, or something. 

I think this is a concession to Wang Haoxuan having ten functional fingers and the show having a limited CGI budget. In a real sword-based society, missing a finger is probably not particularly uncommon, and he would probably just rock the nine-fingered look without having a special glove.

At this point, the complex interactions of the trio get rolling. Xiao Xingchen is honestly kind, Xue Yang is fake-kind, A-Qing is fake-unaware with Xue Yang and is unable to make Xiao Xingchen understand the problem, and Xiao Xingchen is genuinely unaware of everything. 

We spend a fairly large amount of time with Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen playing happy families. As part of his false persona, Xue Yang adopts a coy and whiny tone when talking to his pet white-clad cultivator, remarkably like another demonic cultivator we know.

I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian has never managed to cop a feel while his sweetie climbs up a ladder, however. 

Then again, neither Lan Wangji nor Wei Wuxian has ever needed a ladder to get onto a roof, so maybe it’s just a lack of opportunity. 

This relationship, on the surface, is cute and sweet, which just makes the reality of it more disturbing. It’s super uncomfortable to watch, but there’s more than manipulation happening in these interactions. As Xue Yang flits around doing domestic tasks like patching the roof of the crappy outdoor shelter that they absolutely do not need to be using, he tells Xiao Xingchen various true things about his early life, and we begin to see what shaped him. 

Xue Yang (like OP) is obsessed with candy. In Xue Yang’s case, he was a hungry street kid who loved candy but couldn’t usually have it because of poverty. We learn that he has skills in patching up inadequate housing because he did it growing up. 

And we learn that he was beaten a lot. 

So he and Wei Wuxian have these things in common - except now Wei Wuxian gets his sugar from alcohol, not from candy. And Wei Wuxian’s handyman skills are used to make a home for his former enemies in the burial grounds, while Xue Yang’s are used - also in a cemetery, of sorts - to manipulate and trap his enemy. 

I Want Candy

In classic predator form, Xue Yang uses candy to lure A-Qing into coming within stabbing range, because he thinks she’s faking her blindness and wants to test her.  

I find him super attractive right here in spite of his evilness. I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s offering candy. (OP goes and gets a jolly rancher out of her purse). 

After calling her over, he draws his sword with a super-loud "sshshk" noise that she inexplicably doesn't notice, and she bravely walks up to, and nearly on to, the point of the sword. 

This shocks him and convinces him that she's really blind. He sits her down with apparently sincere gentleness, and gives her candy, while quizzing her about her hot gege.

A-Qing tries to warn Xiao Xingchen about Xue Yang being a bad guy, pointing out that he's a cultivator and won't tell them his name. (She can’t say “also he tried to stab me” because she’d have to come clean about being able to see.) Xiao Xingchen, because he is a condescending prick--albeit a very sweet one--pats her on the fucking head and laughs off her extremely useful warning. 

Xiao Xingchen came out into the wider world with a set of ideals that he lives by, apparently without examining them. He’s humble, kind, frugal, and wants to eradicate evil. He also believes that the majority of people are good like him, and that detecting evil is simple--as simple as following his sword toward it. He doesn’t allow A-Qing, who is experienced in the wider world, to teach him anything, preferring to keep his ideals untarnished.

Contrast this with Lan Wangji, who also starts his journey into the wider world with a set of ideals (codified as rules), but does not make the mistake of assuming that other people shares his beliefs. Once he’s away from the Cloud Recesses, he follows Wei Wuxian’s lead when dealing with new people, rather than insisting on doing things the way he did back home. In general, he is open to having his beliefs challenged, even when it makes him upset or uncomfortable. As a result, he grows into a righteous man, not a naïve one, and he’s fully capable of identifying enemies even when they appear to be friends.

Bonus: 

In this brief long-distance shot we learn that A-Qing sleeps in a coffin, which is some next level goth girl shit. 

Soundtrack: 1. Hey Pretty by Poe 2. I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow 3. Cheap Thrills by Sia

[muninnhuginn]

I think we have enough pieces to speculate when Lu Guang first leapt from/to. So, the hard limit is obvious enough. S2e1 we get Lu Guang flashing back to Cheng Xiaoshi's death. He must have already jumped by then and that seems pretty straightforward.

The soft limit comes more down to the Cheng Xiaoshi-Lu Guang dynamic as well as the remarks about Lu Guang being "mature". Lu Guang being mentioned as mature/beyond his years seems a big indicator that he already jumped. Now, I can't remember the first time the "mature" comment was made beyond it being sometime in s1, but literally the first episode of the series has Lu Guang instructing Cheng Xiaoshi through the rules as Cheng Xiaoshi takes a somewhat exasperated approach. He also provides knowledge about diving that Cheng Xiaoshi himself seems to be lacking multiple times in s1, the most notable being his explanation of death nodes in the earthquake arc.

In other words, everything we have seen "present day" of the time trio has been *after* Lu Guang's dive. Given this, I find two options most likely for when he leapt *to*, just from a storytelling perspective. It's either the overseas trip or Lu Guang's first meeting with Cheng Xiaoshi.

Where Lu Guang landed after leaping back

The first mention of the overseas trip was back in s1 during the Doudou case and we have a timeframe for it as around three years ago as a result. (For context, I think Lu Guang first met Cheng Xiaoshi around six or so years ago, they went through uni together, and then at some point after the trip they started the photo studio together) I haven't looked into this too deeply because I prefer to speculate from what's in the show itself, but it sounds like various out-of-universe sources have confirmed that this trip is when shiguang first obtained their powers and we're set to get some flashbacks to it in s3. Basically, whilst there isn't much in-universe beyond the conspicuous mention in s1 pointing towards this as being the missing period, everything out-of-universe seems to blaring huge alarms about it being important. Regardless of if it ends up being Lu Guang's actual leaping point, it *is* important to the story.

We also have Liu Xiao "studying overseas" for several years which may or may not be related, but is curious.

The main thing preventing me from putting the overseas trip down as a higher probability is the way that Lu Guang slotted into Cheng Xiaoshi's and Qiao Ling's lives. It reads as very coincidental and sure, it could literally be so, but Cheng Xiaoshi even remarked when reminiscing about how easily Lu Guang slotted into their lives. Which would make sense if he already knew them. This would also explain how Cheng Xiaoshi or Qiao Ling didn't notice some huge shift in Lu Guang's personality (as has been implied by the "mature" remarks) because as far as they knew, he'd been like that as long as they'd known him. And Lu Guang *did* say he was "returning to the beginning". (Though the "beginning" could just as easily refer to the beginning of when they got their powers--)

Where Lu Guang leapt from

In terms of where he leapt *from*, if he leapt *to* the overseas trip, then most likely he leapt back within the trip itself to fix things or from before the introduction of the twins in some alternate version of s1 which went wrong. If the first meeting idea is correct then the time range goes back further technically, but given they only gained their powers in the overseas trip it seems unlikely he leapt from a time before then.

I agree from others' observations about shiguang's clothes (namely, that they seem to be wearing their s1 clothes in his flashback) and the comment about "things seem to be changing" in s2e1 (as well as the way that Lu Guang clearly didn't know the twins' backstories or he wouldn't have let Cheng Xiaoshi dive into Tianxi's photo) that the timeline diverged before s2 either way.

We know from his watch that the original Cheng Xiaoshi died mid-September, which is... less helpful than you'd expect. You can't use it to remove s1 alternate (as that happened around April to Octoberish iirc) or overseas trip (as mid-September is still summerish). But it leaves three dates over the course of three years for Lu Guang to have leapt from.

He could have even leapt back from the overseas trip to the first meeting, which would account for sources being so cagey around Lu Guang's age without neglecting the importance of the overseas trip or Cheng Xiaoshi's comments about how easily Lu Guang slotted in.

Tldr;

The Lu Guang we have known since s1 has always been post-dive. He most likely leapt either to the overseas trip or to his first meeting with Cheng Xiaoshi. He leapt from a time period during/after the overseas trip (as no powers before then) but couldn't have leapt from any later than end of s1 (as in his previous timeline/s, he was never stabbed and never learnt about the twins so he never "reached" a s2 equivalent). Regardless of when he leapt to/from, the overseas trip is important.

[emailsquid]

fuck it genshin brainrot time.

so at the end of the chasm interlude quest, when yelan and xiao use the fantastic compass, yelan has an interesting little incantation type thing.

specifically, "pneuma surge" caught my attention. the compass seems to be powered by pneuma energy like is found in fontaine, and i have a decent amount of speculative justification for it.

so to quickly sum up the history of the compass, it was created by an unknown person at some point before the cataclysm and given to the adeptus sea gazer. he in turn, gave it to a thaumaturge in qiaoying village and it was used to seal abyss creatures in the chasm during the cataclysm. yelan mentions that it's similar to catalysts created by her clan (who are from qiaoying village), implying they studied the compass at some point.

the important part is that sea carver recieved the compass from an unknown individual. i have no idea who it was but i believe they were from fontaine, given the mention of pneuma. in addition, qiaoying is close to fontaine in proximity, hydro phantasms appear near the area and it's being added in the fontaine update cycle. also the adeptus who recieved the compass wzas sea gazer, who presumably would've been gazing at the sea, making him the most likely to meet any fontainians out of the adepti.

so here's my guess at the history of the compass: after the archon war, some kind of thaumaturge from fontaine met sea gazer, and developed the fantastic compass with him in order to seal some kind of monster that was created in the wake of the archon war. this could be elynas but i doubt it, i imagine itll be something revealed in 4.4 if anything. they used pneuma energy to create it, meaning they likely were a genshin, since the fontaine characters with visions have access to the pneumousia energy.

ok but like what are pneuma and ousia. they mean essence and substance, which i kinda interpret as body and soul. i think pneuma and ousia energy is created from the primoridal sea, as all creatures able to use it have some kind of relation to it (except the traveller maybe. that one's complicated. you only have it while using hydro which could imply the power is coming from the primordial sea if im right), either being fontainians, neuvillette or melusines (which are made from elynas' body who was born in the primordial sea i believe). since they all have that association, they get to use some excess power to channel ousia and pneuma.

the power of the primordial sea is used to amplify energy here, which makes sense. the primordial sea is a strong source of energy, as shown by the all-devouring narwhal also draining power from the primordial sea. if tainted hydro phantasms can be found in chenyu vale, it seems plausible that the people of qiaoying village might be using small amounts of primordial seawater in their catalysts.

yelan also says that only her people know how to use their catalysts. perhaps only they know how to draw pneuma energy out of their catalysts.

jesus fucking christ im extrapolating all of this from literally 3 lines of dialogue, some geography. if im right im a genius btw

[mybelde]

19: just act normal ♤

Your POV

6 February, Sunday 4.29pm

Location: Windrise park

The day seemed to be perfect. The weather was nice, it wasn't too hot, and it wasn't that windy. But that wasn't important. The important thing was that you were going to go to a carnival with your best friend and her brother.

But for some reason, you found yourself putting in more effort into your look than usual that day.

Why?

Was it to impress a certain blond?

Your mind was saying no, but deep down your heart was saying yes.

Now, you were hand in hand with Lumine and were heading to windrise park.

Once you guys reached windrise park, your eyes widened in shock. You could barely recognise the place. The park was adorned with red, white, and pink decorations, signifying the fact that valentine's day was coming. The park was also now packed with lots of people who had come there for the booths and carnival.

Amongst the crowd, you searched for Aether, whom you finally spotted hanging around the side entrance of the park with a dark-haired dude. You squinted your eyes to get a better look.

Oh. It was Xiao, Aether's best friend. You didn't expect him to show up.

"To be fair though, I did say he could invite anyone else to come with us," You thought to yourself.

You dragged Lumine, who was dying to enter the park, over to the side of the entrance towards the two guys.

In almost an instance, her expression changed vividly, from excitement to irk.

"Why are these two here? Don't tell me you invited them."

"Oh come on Lumine! Wouldn't it be more fun to have more people join us?" You said as you squeezed her arm.

"But you didn't think to tell me because...?"

"Well, he is your brother. But I didn't know he was going to invite Xiao though," You replied, your eyes glancing towards the dark haired boy.

"Xiao LOVES to go to places like these, that's why I invited him!" Aether said, as he put an arm around Xiao's shoulder.

"H-Hey wait what do you me-"

"Right, Xiao?" (Please help me out here Xiao 🤲)

".......yeah yeah. (Fine, you owe me one.)

You and Lumine just stared in confusion over the weird conversation between the guys.

What was that all about?

You cleared your throat before you spoke up again.

"Well, now that we're all here, can we finally go in?? I've been dying to check this place out!"

.

.

.

6 February, Sunday 5.04pm

Maybe coming to the carnival was a mistake. Because all you saw were couples walking hand in hand, acting all lovey-dovey with each other. There were some groups of friends and family at the carnival as well, which made coming to the park a little more tolerable, but nontheless it made you cringe at the sight of couples pda-ing. They reminded you of how single you were.

The four of you had already visited some booths and got some goodies and were now just walking around to see if there are anymore interesting booths. Lumine was walking beside you on your right, while Aether was on your left, and Xiao was on his left. But for some reason, there was an odd tension between you guys. Lumine was being oddly quiet while Aether and Xiao seemed distant.

"Shit, why is everyone so awkward? Is Lumine mad because I invited Aether and Xiao without informing her first? I hope not," you thought.

While you guys continued walking in silence, a certain booth caught your attention. It was a shooting game booth. And it turns out that one of the prizes was a huge sanrio doll.

"Oh my god, guys let's try out that booth! I want to try winning the sanrio plush!" You said, and ran towards the booth, the other three following you behind. The four of you reached the booth to see an old man running it.

"Young lady, would you like to try out to win the big prize?" he pointed out to the sanrio doll sitting at the back of the booth, waiting to find an owner. You nodded vigorously. You made up your mind to win the doll no matter what.

.

.

.

"Tough luck, young lady. Looks like you couldn't shoot out all the targets down in time again. Feel free to try again if you'd like!"

It was your eleventh try and you still weren't able to shoot all of the targets in the stipulated time.

"Damn it, why was it so hard to shoot off all the targets in time??" You thought to yourself.

You rummaged through your pockets to see if you had any more cash to spare to try again, but it looks like you ran out.

"Damn it! I really wanted the plushie but oh well. Let's just go guys." You said, as you got ready to leave, but Aether spoke up.

"Wait! YN, if you really want the plushie, I'll try to win it for you." You turned around at his statement, your eyes widening in shock.

"Wait, really?? Aether you don't have to do that-"

"But I want to, since it seems like you really want it a lot."

You were touched by the blond boy's words and was about to thank him. But someone decided to say something first.

"Sorry brother, but if anyone were to get yn a plushie she wanted, it would be ME. Her BESTEST, most WONDERFUL, most AMAZING best friend of them ALL. Not someone like YOU."

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN??"

"I mean, I always beat you in shooting games like these. What makes you think you can beat me this time?"

"So, what? You want to challenge me to see who can win the plushie first?"

"Exactly."

"Fine, you're on!"

The twins then grabbed the fake guns from the old man running the booth and started battling against each other to see who would win the plushie for you. Meanwhile, you and Xiao stood at the side of the booth, watching the twins battle it out.

Seriously? You didn't expect this to happen at all .

As you watched the twins shooting one target after another, the dark haired guy next to you asked you something you never thought he would ask.

"So...... are you interested in anybody at the moment?"

You turned to face him and gave him a confused look.

"What a way to start a conversation..." You replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Ok my bad, I didn't know what else to say."

"......"

"......"

"Why'd you ask that anyways? Don't tell me you're interested in me or something."

"First of all, absolutely not."

"Ouch."

"Second of all, it's for.... a friend."

You quirked an eyebrow at the statement.

"Shockers, I didn't know you had friends."

"Just shut up for once will you?" You chuckled at his response.

"Ok fine, but to answer your question, no i'm not interested in anyone at the moment. Tell that to your precious friend"

Xiao gave you an unamused look before continuing.

"Okay...... then what do you think about Aether?"

"What about him?"

"Do you like him?"

What? Why was Xiao asking questions like this all of a sudden?

"I mean, yeah I like him. He's a nice guy to be friends with."

Xiao sighed exasperately at your answer and you gave him a questioning look.

"What??"

"Well, what do you like about him?"

You paused for a while after hearing his question.

What you like about Aether?

"......."

"Well?" Xiao gave you a knowing look as he waited for your answer.

".... Well.... He's nice and friendly. He always seems ready to help anyone whenever he can. He's also really thoughtful for some reason. Like, really really thoughtful. It's scary how he always seems to know whenever I want my coffee, and he manages to bring me them in the moments I least expect it, ahahah..."

"Oh."

"Oh? What do you mean by 'Oh.' What else were you expecting me to say??"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

You were about to retaliate when you realised the twins were finally done, and were walking to the both of you, surprise surprise, with the sanrio plushie in their arms.

"LOOK AT WHAT I GOT FOR YOU YN!" Lumine exclaimed as she rushed to you with the plushie in her arms.

"You mean what WE got for her. Don't take all of the credit sis."

"Ya da ya da ya da, who cares, as long as yn finally got the plushie she spent so much money to get."

You glared at Lumine at the comment she made but shrugged it off a few seconds later.

"Anyways, thanks you guys! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to get it."

Even though you were giving your thanks to the both of them, your eyes were just locked with Aether's, and he looked back at you, not breaking any eye contact.

Lumine, who was oblivious to the moment happening bwtween the both of you, grabbed your arm and said, "Enough of standing around here, let's go explore more before it's late. We have classes tomorrow remember."

"Right, let's go explore the rest of the carnival."

.

.

.

6 February, Monday, 5.49pm

How did this happen? One minute, you were arm in arm with Lumine while walking around the park with Aether and Xiao, and the next thing you know, she's gone? Xiao was gone as well, so now it was just you and Aether. You tried calling Lumine but she wasn't picking up her phone.

"Shit, I can't believe I lost her in the crowd, she's not even answering her phone!" You said, worried that something might have happened to the blond girl. You sat down on a bench nearby, still clutching onto the plushie. You exhausted from walking around the whole time, and now, your best friend was somewhere in the crowd, lost and not answering her phone. (and Xiao, we can't forget him of course)

"I just texted Xiao, he said he's with Lumine and that they lost us in the crowd. He told us to just continue exploring the carnival and that they'll meet us at the entrance at 6.45." Aether said, taking a seat next to you.

"Oh, so it's us two now?"

"Yeah I suppose it is.."

Oh.

<- Previous | Masterlist | Next ->

Sorry for not updating in a while 😭 I will get back to my daily updates once my trip is over (internet connection sucks here 💀) but for now, i hope you like this update

Anyways, we love to see Xiao being a wingman 🤭 lololol I'm excited for what's gonna happen in the next chapter

+ i tried different colours on the dialogues for each person to differentiate each other, looks nice in my opinion lol (I hope it shows up on your screens as well, if not the colour coding would have been a waste of time 💀) sorry to anyone who's using light mode 😬

tag list - open |•| @bobaducky @belovedxiao @mangobee @kokxm1 @crueldinasty @c-sunflower01 @xiaosoneandonly @denisemyg @shinjume @droopygh0st @yae-raidenmyloves @goodnight-haley @cocaine-milkshake-666 @bubiblossom @hollowedtime @blurr3db3rry @redactedhimbo @scaramouche-slut @skimm0nzz @n3r0-1417 @obsessed4aether @xiaoyksa @flor3s-de-j4zmin3 @opchara @shirmxie @lxry-chxn @justonemoreroz @lordbugs @dazaisfavgf @hichi842 @duckyyyx @iwishitwas @angryhope @mochicurls21 @cutiekuni @meigalaxy @baera @doppoluvbot @itsactuallylina @kkazuyass @supersexypapichulo @moonbunny-fl

if your name is in red, it means its not letting me tag you from some reason :(

send an ask if you want to be added to the taglist

[feng-huli]

What are your thoughts on the Eunuchs in Dashing Youth?

Thanks for the ask! 😺 I have many, many thoughts about how the eunuchs were handled. Though I’ll get into the show’s shortcomings regarding the Five Eunuchs, I will say that Zhuo Qing was the greatest highlight of Dashing Youth for me (especially regarding the captivating conflict centered around Zhuo Qing, Li Changsheng, Emperor Tai’an, and Baili Luochen).

More often than it should have, Dashing Youth had poor structuring and ill-timed dips in tension. However, the plotline involving those aforementioned four characters was carefully built up, well-paced, and high-stakes—with significant payoff. The thing is, Dashing Youth has something of an antagonist problem, where most of them are either killed off very quickly or cease to be antagonistic. Zhuo Qing and Emperor Tai’an stand as excellent exceptions to this dulling trend in the writing. For a show like this, antagonistic forces are incredibly important. While the “bloody youths” were the heart of the show and very entertaining on their own, the “dashing youths” could be better described as the center of the drama—and good drama needs compelling antagonists. Because of this, Zhuo Qing steals the show.

Zhuo Qing

His relationship with Emperor Tai’an is so fascinating. With their multilayered power dynamic and their decades of companionship, there is a palpable tension between Zhuo Qing’s careful, calculated submissiveness and the sharp edges underlying Emperor Tai’an’s familiarity. The actors have great chemistry and the camera loves both of them—especially their beautiful hands with gorgeous complementary thumb-rings.

Just as riveting is Zhuo Qing’s rivalry with the Immortal Li Changsheng. So many emotions churn under the surface, threatening to spill over with every interaction. Pride, fear, anger, respect—no one can get such a rise out of Zhuo Qing as he.

Overall, Zhuo Qing is a complex, entertaining, and formidable villain with strong motivations. As mentioned previously, the plotline focused on him has excellent pacing and intense stakes. His voice is incredibly calming and his actor is highly adept. Zhuo Qing was the character I was most excited to see, and that particular anticipation was satisfied in full.

Jin Xuan (positives)

I do have one significant positive thing to say about how Dashing Youth handled Jin Xuan. He makes for an amazing foil to Baili Dongjun and I appreciate how the show positioned him in that respect. It helped me think of some fascinating ways the two characters could also be considered foils of each other in the Blood of Youth and its novel.

Jin Xian

I love how his first scene with Zhuo Qing highlights both the kindness Zhuo Qing can show and the terror he can inspire. An intriguing duality, which Jin Xian mirrors in how he carries peaceful prayer beads in his left hand and a sword of violence in his right. Speaking of which, the significance of his Blizzard Sword is so fascinating to think about—even more so than before. Also, I love the way he protects Jin Xuan at one point, especially since Jin Xuan is wearing TBoY Jin Yan’s clothes—the visual makes my Jin Xian/Jin Yan shipping brain happy.

Jin Xuan (negatives)

There was a crucial moment in Zhuo Qing’s story which truly seemed like Jin Xuan should have been present for. Sweet as it was seeing Jin Xian supporting his shifu, it really seems like it would have been far more impactful to Jin Xuan’s psychology for him to witness it instead.

Overall, his character feels really off. There are moments that feel more like him, especially in the times he interacts with Yi Wenjun, but otherwise, for the most part, he feels like an entirely different character. Him wearing TBoY Jin Yan’s robes probably isn’t helping me in trying to find him recognizable, but, most importantly, I really find it hard to believe that Jin Xuan would ever involve himself in an affair with a prince other than Xiao Ruojin in this period of time, even if it is a part of Zhuo Qing’s plan.

Zhuo Xin, Zhuo Sen, Zhuo Luo

Of the same generation of the Five Eunuchs as Zhuo Qing, it really seems like these three should have been in the show, especially during Xiao Ruofeng’s destruction of the Dragon Seal Scroll—they were more or less implied to be present for it in Jin Xuan’s dialogue to Jin Xian in TBoY Episode 34. At this point, I’m wondering if the live-action universe is an AU where Zhuo Sen and Zhuo Luo died very early, forgotten by time and unmentioned forevermore.

Eunuch Li and Eunuch Cheng

These two were pretty interesting. They weren’t in the show a lot, but it definitely feels like there’s layers to them and their relationships with other characters. I would like seeing more of either eunuch, though I’m satisfied with what we got—I can use my imagination for how Jin Yan ended up incorporating Eunuch Li’s official robe into his casual outfit in The Blood of Youth and the implications thereof 😼

Jin Yu, Jin Yan, Jin Wei

I would say “last but not least,” but Dashing Youth essentially reduced these three to background characters, especially Jin Yan, who doesn’t have a single line of dialogue. I would have liked to see more of them in the finale, and really feel like we got shorted. Given how much more attention and focus the Five Eunuchs got in the Blood of Youth’s novel compared the live-action, I’m guessing that Dashing Youth’s lack is something of a departure from the source material. I really do get the vibe from the author that the Five Eunuchs are some of his favorite characters to write about—I don’t believe he would shortchange these three to this degree.

There is also notably the matter of the baffling clothing situation (Jin Xuan and Jin Yan switched official attire in the time between Dashing Youth and The Blood of Youth. DY Jin Wei wears TBoY Jin Yu’s. Jin Yu has a different outfit entirely). I’m hoping the live-action Dark River show that comes next will either clear up the confusion or increase the intrigue.

As for the sword situation… I can understand Jin Yan possibly wanting to have a sword if Jin Xuan does, though I don’t think Jin Xuan would have a sword in the first place. Jin Xian and Jin Wei are the swordsmen among the Five Eunuchs. Jin Xuan, Jin Yu, and Jin Yan all practice palm techniques—why would they be carrying swords? It also seems strange that the sword Jin Wei is carrying does not appear to be the Abyssal Eye Sword. I mean, the live-action version of the sword (a Bichen prop from The Untamed, seriously? Cool easter egg, but the Abyssal Eye is far too important not to have its own design) isn’t as imposing or ghostly or evil as the novel’s or the donghua’s, but it makes no sense for Jin Wei to not bring it along for the climax of the story, instead carrying an even less interestingly-designed sword.

As a side note, my theory about The Blood of Youth’s Jin Wei wielding a Bichen lookalike is that it was likely originally planned to be the Blizzard Sword. The novel describes Jin Xian as having worn white to travel the Martial Arts World, so Bichen’s design would have matched (and would possibly encourage the audience to see the mild similarities between Jin Xian and the owner of Bichen, particularly in the context of Jin Xian helping out Jin Yan when the world was against him). Live-action Jin Xian ended up having a costume design more similar to the donghua, however, and Bichen’s design would no longer match him so well. But, of course, the people making the show might still have wanted to use the prop—so they looked to the next sword-wielding eunuch: Jin Wei.

Overall, Dashing Youth was incredibly favorable for Zhuo Qing, and somewhat lackluster in its use of the rest of the eunuchs, except perhaps Jin Xian, Eunuch Li, and Eunuch Cheng. Despite Dashing Youth’s writing problems, Zhuo Qing and Emperor Tai’an bring enough to the table that I found it worthwhile. Some other characters I liked were Qi Tianchen, Sikong Changfeng, Lei Mengsha, all of Baili Dongjun’s family, Wu Fa and Wu Tian, Qixuan and Yuji, Li Hanyi, Ye Xiaoying, Xiao Ruofeng, Needle Granny, and Yan Bietian. My feelings about Li Changsheng are complicated, but he certainly does interest me.

[idv-harmonic-melody]

❛ Killernight Disco❜ - The first discovery

"August X, 1988 Time: i think 5am? They don't have a clock here. Mood: i'm looking at two bodies, you probably know how i'm feeling.

Great, the ink of the pen is almost dried out. I swear if i knew i was gonna have to investigate a double murder, i would have gotten a better one before leaving my house. (tip for myself: go to a shop and buy a new pen if you survive)

Anyways, this is not important, what is important is that, just like i said at the start of this, there are currently two bodies in front of me, and just so i don't accidentaly forget anything important, i will just write what happened (also this might help me not freak out): i came to this club at around 10pm, had a rough day and decided to stay here until it closed at 6am. When i noticed most people had left, i was about to leave when i heard someone screaming, and this scream came from one of the bathrooms. I then decided to go see what it was, and when i came in, i saw a woman in a purple shirt looking at the corpses.

She seemed really nervous, so i told her to leave and go talk to one of the workers that i saw near the bar, which she did. I tried investigating the corpses, but again, i am not a forensic doctor - i'm a detective, and the best i have ever investigated was just someone's fiancee when they thought they were cheating. (ok, time to focus again on the most important part.)

From the ids i found in the purse near one of the corpses, the name of the victims are Xiao and Beth Anastazja. Beth was stabbed with something sharp and thin near her stomatch, and Xiao seems to have been killed by the same weapon, and that's it. I told you (myself?) that i didn't knew how to investigate this type of thing.

I should probably come out of this bathroom and talk with that guy i saw earlier, tell him "hey there are two corpses in the bathroom of your workplace" or maybe not, this would make me suspicious. (also that girl from before might have already told him that?)

Ok, i'm going out of here, i think my mind is clear enough."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"August X, 1988 Time: what Mood: what.

Hello again notebook, it is i, your owner, to tell you that i think i will die, what does that mean for you? Well. You might get covered in blood soon enough, and that pen i was thinking about earlier will not be bought. Ok, Orpheus, concentrate, no more jokes.

But i wasn't kidding when i said i think i'm about to die. Well, let's start: i actually came out of the bathroom some minutes after thinking, but, when i went to tell the bartender about it, i discovered two things: one was that the woman from before had told him about the corpses (great, no one will be pointings fingers at me.) and the second thing was actually more than one thing: the phone connection has been cut, and all doors or other escape routes of this place have been closed. If this club was not that big i would say i'm feeling quite claustrophobic.

Well, so, to revise all information i have gotten in this last minutes when i was not freaking out: there are nine people here (including me), one of us is most probably a murderer, we are trapped and don't know what is going on. What a way to spend my Friday. At least i'm not the only one freaking out, a girl with white hair was also really nervous when she got the news. Actually why am i wasting ink writing this?

Ok, so now before i do anything, let me write some stuff i need to do, maybe this will help me actually focus on what's important:

Maybe map this club, they have two floors in here and one of the areas is designed for vips only. (and i am not one of them.)

Talk with the rest of the people in here, maybe someone knows what is going on.

Try to find a way to escape or at least contact the police

Either way, i will see what i can do. I hope ideas come to me again to see what i can do next, until next time."

(OOC) And here we start the event! Welcome everyone to the essence event! I will explain how the event works down below! If you guys have any questions, please feel free to ask me in the dms or in the askbox!

In this event, you guys will be able to go into the askbox and ask each of the people trapped in the club different questions. How does this work in-universe?...I don't know, you guys will have to forgive me on this one, imagine you guys are like voices in their heads or smth/j if you guys don't remember each character, they are all listed here!

Every 2-3 days, a new murder will happen. I am putting this time so i am able to finish each of the drawings to post without having to rush and then give you guys something poorly made.

If you guys want to make questions not related to the murders or the investigation, please feel free to do so!

And that's it i think...If i have not forgotten anything else, these are all the things i had to say! All other info is in the essence main post!

Hope y'all have fun! Also as a lil bonus, here are the first sketches i made of both skins!

[sweetestdumpling]

{ I know I can't speak for anyone else, or characters in general, but thinking about Xiaoyu's connections with the Mishima family (primarily Heihachi and Jin) and what she may think/feel about them (especially considering the T8 story).

I've always thought that Xiaoyu had a soft spot for Heihachi, simply because he was the one that gave her Panda, allowed her to stay in his estate, go to his school, and even in turn meet Jin and Miharu for that. I truly think that she believed Heihachi was kind and she appreciated him for that. She didn't know about how bad of a person he was until T4, and it's stated she started distrusting him and the Mishima Zaibatsu.

What I've always done, at least in my own personal headcanon, is that despite this, Xiaoyu felt conflicted about the man. She knew he had done terrible things, hurt people closest to her and even his own family, yet he oddly looked out for her. She could have thoughts that maybe it was just for his own benefit, to he cared for her for some unknown reason. Xiaoyu still didn't trust him, not anymore, but those thoughts of him when she was 16 and having fun at his school where she met her closest friends can't be suddenly erased in her head.

It's kind of why I thought she would feel a bit sad hearing about him dying, even if she also thinks that it was only a matter of time. The whole entire cycle of violence could also be a reason why she feels sad about his death as well (or even knowing Wang's connection to the Mishima family before her). But even with these feelings, I don't think she will end up giving his actions a pass either, and this easily goes into Jin too.

Now, I totally understand some people's "concerns" about how T8 seemed to give Jin's actions back in T6 a pass. He started an entire war and caused so much pain and suffering to people around the world due to it all. But also, T6 was insane the more I look back at it and I have my own gripes with the story in that game (mainly about Xiao's portrayal) but that's not important right now lololol.

Anyway, point is, I get it. However, I wasn't actually mad about how they went about the story in T8. I don't think they were making it out to be that suddenly people would forgive Jin, ESPECIALLY those directly affected by the war (like Miguel. 1000000000% certain he won't ever forgive Jin and that's fair). I don't think the world will just suddenly forgive him, so even if some people in the story have, I don't think it's suddenly broadcasting that EVERYONE will forgive him. Some people seem to think that's the case but I digress.

Moving on, this brings me to Xiaoyu and her feelings for Jin. Now she knew him back in school, before everything went down. They spent time together and became friends, and I think she's seen a side of him that the world has never been able to see since everything got worse after T3.

So with everything that's happened after that, Xiaoyu mainly knew that side of Jin, not the one that created a whole entire world war. It could be considered her judgment being clouded (honestly wouldn't be surprised if people said this to her, or even things like "you never truly knew him, this was probably in him the entire time"), but she still stuck to her guns.

However, I'm also certain she had her doubts too, wondering if she was wrong about Jin or was this another instance of making wrong judgements about people, just like how Heihachi was. Even with Xiaoyu being reassured that Jin was still the same person she knew and loved deep down, she also couldn't just ignore the war and everything that came from it. She states it in T8 anyway, saying she was scared over the years that Jin wasn't the person she actually knew and had to find out the truth for herself.

I personally don't see her excusing the impact it had on people and the world, including herself. Love would not cloud her feelings of judgment either, but I do think that she would be by his side in an attempt to help him along his struggles after everything that's happened. She also won't blame anyone, or make excuses, for getting mad at his actions either.

I believe Xiaoyu is loyal to people she cares about, but she's not stupid. Again, maybe it could be considered a weakness of hers and she still wonders about the choices she makes, but she also chooses to stick with her gut feeling unless something proves her wrong otherwise.

It reminds me of her trusting Claudio, and even when he admitted his plan of intending to use her, she clearly accepted his apology and still showed care to the man and appreciated his help.

The TDLR is; people/situations are complicated but Xiaoyu wants to open up and trust the good in people regardless and help if she's able to.

[xenajen]

Qiao Ling and thoughts with flower symbolism, spoilers for both seasons

(take a shot every time I say parallel and symbolism)

with so many visuals of Qiao Ling shown with red eyes, it really makes me think that she'll be taken advantage of in s2. Whether it’s being possessed again, or a death plot device, I hate to say it, but she is the boys' strongest and weakest link 

-she knows them extremely well (that Red Eyes took advantage of as we already saw in s2ep1 with the lie) 

-she knows the ins and outs of the case, being around capt. xiao from the start 

-she could very well best Cheng Xiaoshi in a fight or at least evenly match. When they were first taught, she seemed to have a better grasp than CXS (in the special eps!) 

-proximity, she's always close to them 

-the visuals in the op are too much for me to NOT raise an eyebrow. the last frame looks as if she turns her back on cxs falling.  In a sense for betrayal, it seems unlikely that there's a second layer to Qiao Ling at this point-- we know she’s trustworthy, but I think the plot has more to come for her. She’s playing more of a role this season and I always get suspicious when characters are suddenly given more spotlight. the visuals in question:

This also brings meee to another point! The moment I saw her flower was the Hyacinth I was like "oh, okay," but then the s1 finale hit and I was like "Oh... ohhh. Ohhhhh.... oh no..."

If you're not familiar with the legend of Hyacinth from Greek mythology.. the parallels will start paralelling. TLDR;

-apollo fell in love with a mortal, hyacinth, who dies tragically. there are two endings to the story:

-one where apollo kills hyacinth on accident, when they were passing a discus to eachother. hyacinth thinks he can catch it, but fails to estimate apollo's strength, and dies of a head injury

-and another where zephyrus, god of the west wind, is jealous of apollo because he fancied hyacinth, so he pushes the discus with the wind into hyacinth, killing him.

-apollo tries everything, anything he can do to bring hyacinth back to life. in the end, apollo turns hyacinth’s soul into flowers (or, hyacinths), refusing to give him to death. 

-BOTH of these endings reminded me all too much of our current situation and what we know right now.

-the former: not saying lg/cxs represent one or the other of apollo/hyacinth specifically, but how their situation now is made from a series of missteps and overzealousness even, by cxs and possibly lg’s past actions if the timetravelling!lg theory is true; a series of accidents that lead to tragedy when hyacinth oversteps

-the latter; where the two are with eachother, but someone has to come and fuck it up. see: the li siblings; the red eyes is fascinated w/ cxs. i think it's important that Zephyrus kills hyacinth because he couldn't have him. Almost like red eyes going crazy for cxs, obsessed w his power and shit

-ugh here’s the kicker though, hyacinths also symbolize rebirth. Apollo refused to give Hyacinth’s soul to Hades, just like how LG has (possibly) refused to give up and see CXS die in an alternate timeline, deciding to restart(?). 

Back to my part one including Qiao Ling: overall, hyacinths possess a wide array of meanings, and can be color dependent, ranging from “forgive me, i’m sorry”, to jealousy, to sincerity, joy, and rebirth

The question is; why is this QL’s flower? Maybe it’s symbolism of the situation as a whole, maybe an indicator of something more underneath. 

Specifically, red hyacinths represent play, or a more playful kind of love. On a surface level for her character, it can represent her joyful demeanor and dedication, especially to her 2 closest friends. At the same time, mixed with the other meanings of the hyacinth, this can even parallel to the person who possessed her- enamored with CXS to no end, twistedly playful and possessive. 

Perhaps it’s symbolism for forgiveness- for what has already happened, or maybe even for what is to come, if she falls into possession again. We have yet to see Qiao Ling’s inner thoughts on the matter, and how she feels about being used to nearly kill LG.

still yet, stay tuned link clickers! anyway's here's cxs doing the fortnite dance to lift your spirits.

end notes

-Apologies if this was dreadfully obvious or smth but I just wanted to put this out there

-how many of you were familiar with the story of hyacinth and apollo?

[10holmes]

Trick or treat? 😊

Have a little treat because your latest comment on NTISY about SL finding XY in XXCs clothes got me thinking about a scene I already wrote (but for muuuuch later in the fic), which goes a bit differently but it might as well fit your splendid idea:

“A-Qing! What have I told you? Stop picking up random strangers and bringing them here... We don't have any more spare rooms left, after you insisted on keeping Haozang around...”

Haozang, the little black rascal, was currently sunbathing on the steps leading into the coffin house. Looking as content as can be and like he owned the place...

(As far as one could assign such a facial expression and demeanour to a cat…)

Chéngměi had been opposed to keeping it in the beginning. Firstly, because it was another mouth to feed while they already struggled to feed themselves. Secondly, it had turned out to be a touch-starved, way too adorable and canny little thing and, thus, another competitor in the quarrel for the Dàozhǎng’s attention and affection.

But that was beside the point now...

More important was the arrival of the stranger, who Chéngměi took a close look at now.

(And what a coincidence! The man was also dressed completely in black. And he also looked a little lost. But hopefully he was not a newly acquired pet...)

Chéngměi didn't quite know why, but the stranger, next to seeming a little familiar, gave him an uneasy feeling. He just wanted him to leave as soon as whatever business had brought him here was dealt with...

“He's not a random stranger, “ A-Qing told him defensively, “He says he knows the Dàozhǎng. He has been searching for him.”

Well, this was not necessarily odd.

Of what he had gathered from the things Xiao XIngchen had by now revealed to him of his past, he used to be a somewhat famous or at least well-known figure in the cultivation world once. Thus, someone looking for him was, if also a new occurrence, not weird.

What was weird, however, was that the stranger, on hearing his approach, had immediately snapped his head around to face him, his eyes now intently trained on Chéngměi, and with what had been a neutral if not wondrous expression at taking in their coffin home, instantly turning into fury, eyes blazing and nostrils flared.

“You!?” the stranger suddenly seethed, through clenched teeth.

Chéngměi's eyes widened in shock at the stranger's palpable hatred directed towards him and, helplessly, looked to A-Qing, who appeared just as confused at the sudden change in atmosphere.

Who was this man? How did he know him? And just what had he done to make the man instantly so furiously mad at him?

(Well, at least it explained why the man seemed somewhat familiar... Chéngměi must have scammed him once or something…)

Still, Chéngměi didn't get the chance to rack his brain further for any non-existing memory of when the two could have possibly met, because the black-robed man had already drawn his sword and was advancing on him!

“What are you doing here? Where is Xīngchén? (And why are you wearing his sword and robes?!?)” the stranger growled, prowling toward Chéngměi.

And that's it :D Hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek! :)

[welcometoteyvat]

i am very curious (and i'm asking this not with any malicious intent) but what ages do you see the genshin characters! i personally see them (most of them) as adults, even collei. even if they were teenagers, time passes in-game (i.e. lantern rite happens every year and we already had 2 lantern rites in-game) so they'll eventually grow to be adults.

tldr: I have schrodinger's age headcanons

long answer: if they're in a ship with a ""clearly"" adult character, I'll assume they're young adults; idk I feel like there's some blurring of age and what growth stage you're in when people are around 17 to 20 (from my experience) so I think it's vague-ish enough that you could probably do what you want.

If they're not in a ship I see some of them as adults and some as still teens/underage. as a general rule of thumb a character's age is solely dependent on what I want at the moment, although I do think the way some characters are written (ie character arcs, character stories and general personality) pushes me to view them as underage (will explain more but the character I'm thinking about most w this is Xingqiu). Some of them read to me as clear adults, and then there are some in-betweens where I just have "vaguely young looking" in my hcs LOL

you bring up a good point that time is passing in game although we don't see it reflected in the character models—everyone points out that Xiao opens up a bit more every lantern rite, but fandom (and genshin devs too ig 💀) definitely forgets that all the other characters are also growing/changing. w/ 4.1 around the corner my personal wish is for hu tao, xingqiu, and chongyun's relationships to each other get developed more so that their relationships (as described through their voicelines abt each other) don't feel so flat,,,,,, it would also help with the sense of "time is passing in game for ALL characters", since we almost never get this kind of evolving relationship portrayed between 4*s/non endgame important charas.

I have too much time on my hands so I'll also just run through all the teen/short models there are for each region and list whether my personal headcanons are adult or minor (at least their ages when we "meet" them in canon):

liyue (mortal/mortal adjacent characters): yanfei, chongyun, xingqiu, hu tao, xiangling, xinyan, yun jin, keqing

yanfei and keqing are solidly adults to me, yanfei's a lawyer and keqing's also in a govt job so both of them feel around like 25-27 to me. Definitely somewhere around their mid-20s, although I can also see them as younger, especially Keqing, because of her overall attitude/perspective on life and the gods. iirc her character stories show how her worldview's grown/broadened to be not as naive/black and white, so I feel like she's still in the process of maturing. If you told me Yanfei was like 23 (appearance wise) I guess I'd believe you too, since she's a very peppy person who seems to be running all over the place all the time, doing errands for madame ping, checking on her clients, taking new cases etc. I feel like it gives her youthful energy, so I can see it if people hc her on the younger side of her 20s (in human years I forgot how her half-adeptal blood works).

I see the other 6 as a friend group (liyue 6ang let's go) so they're either all teens or all adults depending on the portrayal. You can obviously view them as adults all the time, but I don't get those vibes. Xinyan and Yun Jin might be like 18-19, but if that's the case, I can't see the other 4 being any younger than 17, just because I think they're all almost the same age or 1-2 years apart maximum. For some reason so many people view Hu Tao and Yun Jin as adults but at the same time think the others are minors? Idk about that.. genshin has shown that Xiangling, Xinyan, and Yun Jin are pretty close friends, and then always put Xingqiu and Chongyun together for the ship bait, so maybe that's the root of fanon's age hcs. However, I think if some of them are young adults, then all of them are. There's a max 2 year age gap between all 6 of them idk idk I really can't see it otherwise.

To me, Xingqiu's arc reads like a 16 year old finding his footing in the world. Hiding martial arts novels under his bed, tired of playing dutiful 2nd son and sneaking out to live out his idealized wuxia dreams, his multiple voicelines where he's implied to be super worried about us giving away his involvings in the Guhua sect, they all read like he's still trying to figure out his role in his family (what he wants it to be, and what his parents want it to be). He's also very naive about the world, but learning. He just feels a lot like how (chinese) teenagers grow up and like. growing into or out of the paths given to us by our parents. ... or i could just be projecting! Anyways, in my no ships world, he's a 16-17 yr old. Chongyun's clan and family play a not-insignificant role in his backstory, so I think he's the same age as Xingqiu, just older by a month for the flex. Lowkey I don't have as much reason for him as the others, but I think they're in the same age range by association; probably almost 18 at most. Hu Tao's character stories explicitly state she's 13 when her grandfather passed away, and I think she becomes Director not long after this, so I would say she's also around 16-17 when the game starts. @.acatoner who draws quite possibly my favorite interpretations of the gang(TM) once mentioned they see her with spoiled younger sister energy and honestly yeah. she's an only child but has the strongest solidarity with Xingqiu (they're the bratty younger siblings of the friendgroup). Out of all of them, Xiangling is the one with the most plausible job if she was like, young: being a chef apprentice with her dad to continue the family business is pretty reasonable. Middle child energy, probably 17. We did meet her when she was in Mondstadt foraging ingredients, so I'd say she's not very young, but still young enough for her dad to chew her out during moonchase for being like messy or clumsy or smth? Xinyan and Yun Jin.... I think Yun Jin is at least almost 18—running a well acclaimed opera troupe is a pretty big undertaking imo, even if her parents are there to like guide her and whatnot. Same with Xinyan, 17-18 range, although she def started playing rock publicly when she was way younger.

inazuma: shinobu, heizou, kazuha, kirara, gorou, kokomi, ayaka, yoimiya

Disclaimer I have not read the Lore and don't know whether actual ages are given for Ayaka and Ayato (specifically pointing them out because iirc their and Thoma's character stories are the most specific ones wrt the timeline).

I see basically all of them as adults, ayaka might be an exception but she's like 17 minimum in my head. That's pretty interesting considering I labeled almost all the liyue short models as teens. From what I can remember of their character stories, the Inazuman characters seem to be portrayed as having their formative struggles set In the Past (probably a couple years before we meet them) so perhaps that's why I see them as solidly young adults. Additionally, Inazuma's arc and its war pushes me to see all of them as adults, even if they're still obscenely young to be generals and strategicians. The exceptions I can see to this are only Yoimiya (smaller role in archon quest and not related to the government), and Shinobu + Heizou, who were released later. Yoimiya's maturity really stands out to me—from the way her neighbors and old people converse with her, and her overall character arc + second story quest, I cannot see her as below like 19 at least. Shinobu manages an entire unofficial gang and has countless certifications under her belt plus ex-shrine maiden stint—she probably isn't less than 23. It would be cute if she were the same age as Yanfei but just started law school later, so Yanfei's still her senior. I think there's not much to say on Heizou either, he's friends with Kazuha and has a real job, so I can't read him below 20-21. I don't know anything about Kirara (don't have her, haven't read her stories) but I also just get the vibes of like 20-something errand girl SDFDSSKDFJS in a modern au she'd deliver to teyvat/inazuma's college campus for sure

mondstadt (humans): barbara, razor, bennett, fischl, mika, amber, noelle, sucrose

this is a mix again, for Barbara Razor Bennett and Fischl they give me kid vibes, like little adventure gang things. Reddit apparently cites Mona called Fischl an adult in the 2.8 Midsummer Fantasia GAA event, so I mean. I guess she's 18 there—might've been 16 when we met in game the first time (1.2?? scaramouche fake stars event or something?) Idk really. Their group collectively gives me 16 year old vibes, at least when we start the game. I can see it if all of them have aged to 18 now—it just makes sense in my head lol. Mika feels like an 18 year old; mostly because of his relationship with Huffman. Amber seems vaguely adult-ish, I'd say 19 or so, maybe 20 during shadows amidst snowstorms in 2.3. there's some logic behind this that ties into her search for her grandfather but it's like vague and hazy in my head. I haven't given much thought to Noelle and Sucrose— Sucrose also gives "vaguely adult" vibes, idk if her character story about wanting to make a wonderland to meet her past friends in has any relevance to timeline estimation. I'd say Noelle also falls into the vague adult age range, but to me she's a puzzle, because her personality seems incongruent to how I thought she might act if she's like 23 or so.

anyways, anon if you read all this i will declare my love for you. thanks for giving me an excuse to genuinely think on this and then dump my thoughts out for the internet. you can clearly see none of my braincells really go towards Mondstadt headcanons but I hope you're happy w my response ehe