#on the other. no himeko……

[softboiled-egg]

Sunday’s first day on the astral express!

[b1adie]

[voidwelt]

mr yang is pregnant

[lesbian-navia]

so i’ve been playing hsr lately

[kay-selfships]

[hydrachea]

I love the Astral Express crew - the exiled High Elder of the Xianzhou Luofu's Vidyadhara, a girl found in ice whose past is so dangerous it was sealed by Fuli themself, a test tube baby hosting a Stellaron, a Herrscher from another universe whose body was destroyed on two separate occasions, an aborted Aeon on the run, and a woman who managed to repair Akivili's stranded train all by herself.

[feroluce]

For me, as much as I adore the theme of travel companions, henghill is more of a "someday" thing in that regard. I love Boothill being a weird loner Galaxy Ranger rather than a Nameless- man is undomesticated and belongs sleeping in the cargo holds of supply ships, threatening silence out of anyone that tries to report him. Let him be wild and free!!

I would LOVE it if Boothill just hitched a short ride off Asdana to whatever the Express' next destination is, though!

Like maybe the Express decides to stick around Penacony for a while, the same way they do other destinations, and Boothill is there anyway to investigate Oswaldo Schneider. It's rare to find a planet where the IPC is present, but doesn't actually have a lot of power; he can't pass this opportunity up!

And in that time, he sees a lot of Dan Heng.

Boothill gets text messages asking him to the quieter parts of the Dreamscape (he threatened and made a scene - it's called standing up for your rights, Dan Heng was given a room with a Dreampool by The Family for helping root out The Order) or mostly to the Express, where Dan Heng curiously asks him about Paths, about aeons and Emanators, The Rangers, all the worlds he's seen and places he's been.

Boothill isn't really surprised the first time they spend an entire night talking and discussing- after all, they'd chattered a lot that first day they met at the bar in the Reverie! But in talking so much, of course the topic of home comes up.

Dan Heng asks about Boothill’s homeworld.

Boothill tells Dan Heng it's gone now, and changes the subject.

Boothill asks about Dan Heng's past, before the Astral Express and the Nameless.

Dan Heng freezes up and closes off, and changes the subject.

In yet another moment of tacit understanding, neither of them ask again.

But this continues, all throughout their stint in Penacony, finding each other and seeking the other out for no reason other than good company. Dan Heng adds ridiculous amounts of data to the archives that Boothill dictates to him. They both know he could get that information elsewhere if he really wanted. Boothill finds he's kinda happy he doesn't.

And Boothill is someone who's hard to keep up with. He knows he is, and he has no problem with it. It's part of what makes him excel as a Galaxy Ranger. But there's something fun about how Dan Heng just rolls with it, and so effortlessly! Boothill finds something shady going on, grabs a guy who was preying on people, and has this dude held up by the collar with his feet swinging while he cackles right in his face, when Dan Heng shows up.

Boothill says they're just having a friendly chat. He makes zero effort to hide what he's actually doing. Boothill's new friend pleads for Dan Heng to help him, please! This guy's crazy!

Dan Heng materializes his spear.

The guy apologizes even harder, tells them he won't do anything shady ever again, promise, promise! Boothill's jabbers at him and shakes him around some more before Dan Heng taps the pole of his spear against the covered metal of Boothill's leg and tells him come on, he's already scared the man witless, they have a date to keep. Boothill drops the guy and watches him scurry off like a cockroach.

"So, now it's a date, huh?"

"...Come on, let's go."

They go to the Dreamflux Reef after that, because Boothill just so happened to totally by coincidence find that shady guy's wallet (read: robbed him blind) and he wants that money to go back to the native Penaconians before anyone else. Dan Heng follows, and stuffs all of the man's credits into the tip jar of the bar they go to.

And even when the Express embarks anew from Asdana (with Boothill hidden away in some corner or compartment, because the IPC finally got pissed enough to start looking for him under The Family's noses skzikske) this continues. The next planet is difficult to get to because of Stellaron activity; so they have to fly manually part of the way instead of warping. Boothill doesn't get his own room since he's only hitching a ride, but Pom-Pom graciously allows him to sleep on a couch-

("Thank ya, Fluffy. No hard feelings about before, right?" "You're lucky my other passengers like you. And no shoes on the couches!!")

-in one of the cars. And it becomes normal commonplace to find Boothill telling stories, and Dan Heng rapidly writing them all down, at obscene hours in the parlor car while Himeko and Welt ask if either of them even slept.

Boothill teaches Dan Heng all about his favorite drinks and liquor in general, how to aim and shoot a gun, how to hunt and track prey. Dan Heng teaches Boothill about a lot of the teachings of Lan and The Hunt from the Xianzhou, what it's like there, some of the culture, some of the fables and old tales.

Boothill still leaves when it's time to go. He's still got things to do and people to kill, after all.

But it never feels like he's very far. The archives are full of him, even if he's never mentioned by name. The article on the Galaxy Rangers is several times longer than it was before. There's new data on multiple planets and worlds.

There's one that's still just a header and title. Boothill doesn't know about it yet. Dan Heng hopes he can fill the page on Aeragan-Epharshel someday and show it to him.

And even if he doesn't stay, he does return. Boothill breaks in stops by any time he happens to be nearby. He's used to traveling without much rest, and only takes what he can easily carry on him- nothing that can slow him down or hinder him. He can't put a bullet between Oswaldo Schneider's eyes if he gets himself killed over something as stupid as being weighed down in a fight, after all.

Dan Heng is similarly sparse. He still sleeps in the archives, with nothing but his futon and old suitcase to mark the space as his.

But there's an old wooden guitar carefully propped in the corner, just waiting for its owner's return.

[guujikaroko]

I do have a question, actually! Is there any sense in the JP translations that the main characters' relationships with the Trailblazer are changing over time? The Astral Express and the Stellaron Hunters, do they grow more casual or informal with the Trailblazer? Do their language patterns indicate anything unique about their relationship to TB?

Thanks so much!

It does, sometimes! Depending on how the story goes, a character can change the way they talk to the Trailblazer. But generally, it stays the same as it is on their profile voice lines, so the changes usually happen before or at the same time of their implementation. Therefore, neither the Astral Express crew nor the Stellaron Hunters changed their ways of speaking, as they were featured on launch.

[Just a warning: I play with Stelle as Trailblazer and things do change a little depending on gender from time to time, so this post doesn't take said changes regarding Caelus on account.]

The Astral Express crew all talk to each other on a very casual and familiar basis (except for Sunday, who can't be casual to save his life). The main denominator is that they all consider the Trailblazer to be the "family baby", so they all get a little more fond/playful while interacting with them. Going on a case-by-case basis:

- March treats the Trailblazer the way a high-school girl would treat their best friend, as her speech in general is very girly and informal;

- Dan Heng gets both more protective and more prone to cracking jokes around the Trailblazer. Since he can't say her name for obvious reasons, the voice-over gets around by making him call Stelle 彼女/kanojo (she/her), which just makes him sound dramatic as hell for no reason;

- Welt and Himeko are essentially just a dad and a mom for the Trailblazer, lmao.

A cute trait is that the Express crew women tend to address Stelle by この子/あの子 (kono ko/ano ko), which means "this girl/that girl". The important thing about 子 (ko), though, is that it's somewhat a term of endearment you can use with women, children, animals and even stuffed toys; essentially cute things.

As for the Stellaron Hunters, they all talk casually to the Trailblazer (except for Blade, aurafarmer that he is), which is supposed to be seen as a little jarring and weirdly nostalgic since Trailblazer forgot about them. Kafka and Firefly in specific speak like they know the Trailblazer for a long time already, while Silver Wolf is like someone they hang out with regularly.

[greatsweet98]

3am current thoughts: I love stelle, dan heng, march 7th and all 3 of them as a trio together so much😭😭 it's like everytime I look at fanart and fanfics containing starch, danstelle, danmarch and/or ot3, I cry so much about their dynamic genuinely I really wish the best for them a lot, *sniffs* omg I'm legit crying so much about this thought, so bare with me please

LIKE PLS LET THEM AT LEAST KISS AND DATE EACH OTHER😭😭🥺🥺

[buqbite]

"keeps his cards close to his chest" my brother in christ he has locked his cards in the closet

[endlesslytired]

[bakawitch]

Posting now cause I do not have have the energy to finish this right now XD

Introducing the Astral Brothel- I mean Express Crew for the au!

From left to right it's:

Bellamy Laframboise (my oc) as Dan Ji/Dan Heng

Élodie Desrosiers ( @s4tvrnsays oc ) as June 6th/March 7th

Claudia Perreault ( @wisteriasymphony oc) as Sirius/Stelle

Adrien Agreste as Ariel/Sunday

Roxanne Verona ( @yukii0nna oc ) as Hikari/Himeko

Welt Yang as Himself/Welt Yang

Official Hoyo art it was based on below cut:

I didn't wanna outright trace the thing so I just tried to get it as close as possible while referencing it

[another-goblin]

Let's look at Erudition characters and how smart they are.

Himeko, a scientist and a mechanic who was able to repair the express by herself. Jing Yuan, The Divine Foresight, so smart that he was able to prevent most of the disasters threatening the Luofu instead of having to deal with them. Herta, a scientist, a member of Genius Society, has the highest IQ, co-creator of Simulated Universe. Serval, a mechanic who used to be a scientist and a researcher. Qingque, probably the smartest of them, for being able to hold down a cushy job without doing anything useful

Question. WHAT IS ARGENTI DOING HERE? I mean, I don't mind, I find it hilarious actually. But did he charm his way into Erudition or something? Most people who like him admit that he's not the smartest cookie. I like him too and I don't disagree. I know that belonging to a certain Path is not a conscious choice people make, but I like to think that he just decided that the most beautiful people are in Erudition, so that is what he wants to join.

[spooky-activity]

I saw people putting their blorbos in small boxes and needed in on that action

and then

*edit: i added more

[mlady-magnolia]

Vices

[herrscherofmagic]

Fun fact! If Sirin survived the Second Eruption, then by the start of the game she would've been old enough to be Kiana's teacher at St. Freya :)

so I was thinking about what it might've been like if only Sirin survived the Second Eruption & was adopted by Cecilia and Siegfried, right?

and usually that scenario is depicted in fanart/fanfic as being Second Eruption Sirin alongside Kiana and/or Bianka and/or HoV, and the rest of the cast as we see them later in the story.

Plus Captianverse Sirin is shown alongside Definitely-Not-Bronya and Definitely-Not-Seele and about the same age as them. So I imagine this is the mental image most people have of Sirin when they think "Sirin with the Kaslana family".

Here's the thing, though! Second Eruption takes place in the year 2000, right?

Sirin was still a kid, my guess is ~12 years old but could be a bit younger or older than that.

But Mei and Kiana were really small children and Bronya hadn't even been born yet!

So if Sirin DID survive the Second Eruption in the real world... she'd be roughly 10 years older than Kiana, give or take a couple years. By 2015, Sirin would be in her early-to-mid-20s!

What's more: Himeko was a high school graduate in 2005, that means she'd only be like 5-6 years older than Sirin (assuming she's 17 or 18 at graduation). Plus according to a Honkai wiki, Rita was 11 years old in 2007. Meaning... Sirin would be only a few years younger than Himeko and she'd even be a few years older than Rita.

By the Kiana would've been old enough to go to St. Freya...

Sirin could've gone to St. Freya, GRADUATED, gotten experience as a Valkyrie, and then returned to be a teacher at St. Freya!

Rita would've been old enough to have been a recent graduate (assuming she ever would've gone to St. Freya in such a world), and Himeko would've already been a teacher for a few years at that point.

So if Sirin survived the Second Eruption, Himeko & Sirin could both have been teachers at St. Freya, alongside Theresa and Principal Cecilia- making Sirin both the adoptive sister of Kiana AND a teacher to her, Mei, Bronya, and Fu Hua. and why not Seele too, just for funsies?

just some food for thought~ ^.^