Whatever Crosses My Mind

Lygus: Dan Heng can you call Phainon on your phone? I think he blocked me 0(

Dan Heng: Phainon can you help me??

Khaslana: All I know is suffering as the memories recede like the tide and everyone dies

Phainon (30 minutes late): Sorry! The depression woke up first! What do you need? Giant Laser? Got it!

Behind the scenes

The working title for this fic is Group Therapy but I found it a little vague for the proper title

The first notes I have for this are from December 2022! I was struck by the idea on a road trip and fervently typed it out.

The initial initial idea came from a joke. I was thinking about doctor who for some reason (I was really into it in like middle school (not super who lock just Doctor Who) and was like aha if the doctor landed in Teyvat he’d have some problems introducing himself as the doctor! Collei and Scaramouche would hunt him down! Haha.. wait. Hmmmm.

Every in game location they visit I would open up the game and take notes on the environment, shifting a few things around like the bridge to Collei’s hut is collapsed in game but in the fic it’s newly repaired. I’d then repurpose the notes into the prose.

This was initially gonna stay a one shot even though I had a ton of ideas (obviously) but everyone was so nice in the comments I decided to write more and more and well here we are!

The hardest parts to write were the Chasm arc - balancing the monotony of slogging through a cave without being uninteresting, and the fight scenes. In my other fic I fought Childe and referenced online play throughs and took notes on it to write the big battle. As of writing Dottore has no boss battle so I had to improvise.

Unused content!

There was originally going to be a segment alpha, the original Dottore hooked to life support and barely alive, 500 years is too long for a human to live. He was going to beg to die. I found this too upsetting and cut it for time… sorry if that sounds cool!

Originally they were going to storm Zapolyarny Palace but I didn’t want to conceive of it. Obviously it would be at odds with canon so why try? I decided to shift the arc to a secret lab instead. I pulled heavily from Honkai Impact for the scenery inside the lab.

There was a version of this fic where all the friends they made came with to kill the final Dottore but it was too crowded and took away from Collei and Wanderer as the center so I scrapped it.

On the Dottore Segments:

The Dottore’s have a verity of different delusions and preferred weapons:

The first one to die, Beta, was Hydro. He prefers unarmed “boxing” esq maneuvers. Or more ripping things apart with his bare hands. He was an opportunistic type with no qualms over screwing himselves over but was rather lazy. If something unfortunate happened to the others he would swoop in like a vulture and steal all their stuff, but wouldn’t act to cause the situation out side of a little nudge here and there. Was killed on his way to Mondstadt in the worlds first car. He wears the in game mask

Number two, Psi, was Geo and elegantly used a catalyst to hold his papers and important documents. He had a big superiority complex and loved the sound of his own voice. Most Dottore’s ignore their staff at best, but Psi loves to talk so much that he’ll monologue at them for hours. Was killed by being kicked into the chasm. He wears the mask from the manga

Number three, Nu. Ironically the one killed by Gandharva Ville had a Dendro delusion. He preferred a light set of knives over a sword or other blade. He was the iteration before the segment with the greatest infiltration expertise who was deleted because he was a direct threat to Omega. Nu was a bit self conscious and jealous over this. Just a bit. Ok a lot. But he kept this feeling in! He wears the mask from the manga

Lambda was Electro and used his delusion to mess with electronics, he favorite pass time. He was one of the weaker Dottore’s and was constantly on edge about his right to exist, fighting and clawing for any respect and failing. He Hates biology but was unfortunately very adept at it, he loved mechanics but unfortunately wasn’t the greatest at it. He existed in a weird place in the original Dottore’s life when he was unsure of his place in the world for about two weeks after getting burned out on biological testing before getting really good at mechanics. Segments from later in life are equally fond of biology and mechanics often combining the two. This heightened his inferiority complex to an atypical degree but he was too blinded to realize abandoning Iota would lead to death even if it seems obvious on the outside. He was expendable after all. He wears the mask from the manga

Epsilon was Cryo and had a claymore (obviously from the battle scene lol) he’s older than Omega in both the point of the originals life he’s based on and in the order they were created. He’s mellowed a bit with age but if highly judgmental of Omega in only the way you can be towards your past self. Wake up at 2 am and cringe over the things you did type stuff. He wears the mask from in game

Omega, I’m not confirming his delusion or weapon because he’s probably going to pop back up in canon

Here are my initial notes when I was coming up with the ideas for each Dottore:

Alpha: Not a segment but the original Dottore, extremely old and hooked to life support. Not shown. CUT FOR TIME

Beta: Attempting to access storm terrors domain. Is killed by Collei using a Hilichurl arrow after a horde of slimes and Hilichurls are summoned by Diluc’s slime attractor and Kaeya talking to the hilichurls. Diluc gets to keep the body

Epsilon: attempt to salvage any C. M. D. Was stationed in Inazuma but retreats to Snezhnaya

Omega: the one to negotiate with Kusanali: is stabbed to death by Scaramouche and is the last to die. Stabbed and left to die

Iota: A literal infant

Lambda: retreats to Snezhnaya and is killed by Omega in revenge for leaving Iota behind

Nu: lured to Gandharva Ville and killed by the residents

Psi: thrown into the chasm

The translated Dottore Dossier (annotated by Wanderer)

Beta:

- Mission: Investigate Stormterror, Durin, corruption as substitute for C. M. [Note: likely crystal marrow ]

- Time Span: N/A [Note: is traveling to Mondstadt from Liyue soon no mission time limit]

- Location: Stormterror’s Domain and Dragonspine, Mondstadt

[Note: Beta is particularly disliked for taking the other segments ideas and passing them off as his own. It’s hilarious]

(killed enroute from Mondstadt to Liyue via Hilichurl attack)

Episilon:

- Mission: Attempt to salvage C. M. D. Research. (Use remaining samples sparingly -P.) [Note: this message was attached to the original document.]

- Time Frame: N/A

- Location: Inazuma

Iota:

- Mission: Remain connected to machine [note: that’s all it says.]

- Time Frame: N/A

- Location: Sumeru [Note: Somewhere in the desert south west of Aaru, will circle possible locations on Map]

Lambda:

- Mission: Monitor Iota

- Time Frame: N/A

- Location: Sumeru [Note: same as Iota obviously]

Nu

- Mission: Salvage any data on Tatarigami delusions (Use remaining C. M. Samples wisely, we cannot acquire more -P.)

- Time Frame: N/A

- Location: [Note: It seems he is in Inazuma but there is no location, he may be elsewhere though. Tartaglia sucks at information gathering.]

Omega

- Mission: Continue as is

- Time Frame: N/A [Note: why is this guy given infinite time]

- Location: Zapolyarny Palace, Snezhnaya

Psi:

- Mission: Investigate complaint by Harbinger Tartaglia via. ruin guard facility in Lingju Pass, Lisha, Liyue. Access Chasm with Qixing permission (do Not cause another international incident- P.) Aquire “Nail” in the Chasm. [Note: The additional note by “P” was attached to the original document. Likely either Pantalone or Pierro. Probably Pierro.]

- Time Frame: Expected 5-12 months

- Location: Chasm, Liyue

Nu (update)

- [New Mission]: Investigate involvement of ex-subject “Collei” in relation to Psi’s death.

{This update was never seen by Collei or Wanderer}

So in game each character has a Path they follow as a gameplay mechanic. However this is often not the Path they follow in lore. As a fun memory exercise I listed each Path and each character known to follow or at least be associated with that Path. Spoilers up to Version 2.0

I’m prefacing this by saying I don’t hate this game. It is Not A Bad Game. I love a lot of aspects!

The translation into 3D mechanics, the general story beats, building up the base area, I even like that (spoilers) your character can jump between home and the pokemon world after the end. It’s a bit useless as a mechanic as it just removes a playable character, but it makes me happy that they can return home whenever they wish.

However. The glacier setting for the ‘goal’ never appealed to me. Everyone was going on and on about how they want to explore the great glacier! How it’s their dream! But I was just like. Meh. Idk maybe cause I’m from a warm climate that much ice is more scary than tantalizing.

Torrential rain falls

Mother is having bad day

Her salad blew away

Somehow the movie was better. Like. A lot better.

The gameplay, aside from walking around, is primarily quick time events that have no real penalty to failure. Rather than feeling like I was playing a game it was more like a really weirdly made visual novel or a Dora the Explorer episode. “Can you show me where the clue is?” But no matter what you shout at the screen Dora will figure it out eventually so why bother? Even if I fail every quick time event or tap every wrong answer, the game will continue along the set track. The only time I ever felt like I had any input was at the auction and you don’t even really get to keep the items you win and they’re mostly just cosmetic.

I’m not saying this is a bad game despite my words. I just think that this game is meant for a Much younger audience than me and unlike most other pokemon games there’s not really much appeal to older kids or adults which is a bummer. I’d like to have seen more puzzles or something like solving a mystery idk.