So if I'm getting this right, Phainon and Mydei encompass:
Red and blue
Sun and moon
Cat and dog
Rivals to lovers
(Potentially) rivals to lovers to enemies
Perfectly matched rivals
They're idiots, your honor
My rival knows me best
The grumpy one is (sometimes) soft for the sunshine one
Only my rival gets to kill me
In fact, I'm counting on him for it
See you in another life
I am almost certainly forgetting some obvious tropes, and this is without taking into account the dramatic personality changes Phainon is almost certainly going to undergo and any relationship and trope dynamic shifts as a result.
The friendship! The rivalry! The trust! The tragedy! Truly Hoyo engineered these men in a lab to murder us.
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At long last, complete Season 2 mastery! Thank you so much to @karl-heisenbergs-limp-wrist and @thelittlestnorn for going on that adventure together with me and making it possible!
Been cooking up an Anon/Phainon -> Myphai treat for the Problematic Big Bang! If Phainon's awful self-esteem and terrible coping methods are up your alley, this fic probably will be too :3
My partner @boys-wonder is providing beautiful art to accompany. See my last reblog for a preview!
We’re nearly to the end of another creative year! Tell us about some of the favourite fics you’ve written this year and why :3 likewise, do you have any fics you really enjoyed reading and following this year? 🐾
Favorite fics I wrote in 2024
I didn't write a ton this year, but I'll pick my favorite I did for each fandom! (And that's a highlightable factoid while we're here - my first two Star Rail fics were published this year! Thank you Sunday for the inspiration, even if you bled me dry for E2S1. You were worth it, king.)
Fave Genshin fic I wrote this year was One Size Fits All - Wriothesley/Clorinde/Neuvillette kink exploration and friends with benefits (the benefits are fisting). I was happy with the laid-back, casual voice I developed for Wrio and I really love the visual of Clorinde methodically wrecking him while he clutches desperately onto Neuvillette, half-incoherent with overstimulation. (Which was the thought that inspired the fic in the first place.)
My favorite Star Rail fic of the two I've written is don't tell me it's wrong - Sunrobin with heavy religious imagery, Sunday smothering under his guilt, and Robin as his light in the dark, keeping him off the misguided path he takes in canon. It's not for everybody but it's certainly for me, and I think people can tell when you write something self-indulgent with your whole pussy, because I've gotten a surprising amount of love for it despite the darker topics and taboo nature. I've thought about and analyzed Sunday enough that I sink into his headspace terrifyingly easily at this point, and I feel like that translated into a very good Sunday voice and characterization. I was happier with this fic than I've been with a fic in years, probably, because despite the fact that it has so much porn in it I feel like it's also one hell of a character study.
2024 Fic Recs!
I'd be remiss not to include some of your fics and I think my faves this year were late night snack (Azhdaha/Xiao/Zhongli) which was itself a delightful sweet new year's snack of its own involving three characters I love and had never seen as a trio, and but first, coffee, which is a feast of delightful Kaveh and Alhaitham interaction. Alhaitham is such an asshole sometimes and Kaveh is so stubborn and such a good man and you write that so well ♥️
Lately I'm really enjoying the WIP (falling) feels like flying by notavodkashot, featuring ballet instructor Zhongli and caretaker-of-many-siblings Childe growing closer and entering a very sexy D/s relationship. Guizhong is also there with her very delightful polycule, forming a delightfully snarky peanut gallery.
A rare completely SFW pick is A Snail is "A Foot" by Lee_Outis, which is about Kaveh being chased by a very slow snail that can kill instantly on contact. It is very much worth the read even if you usually go for spicy fic.
An ongoing longer fic that I'm still reading and enjoying as it comes out is testing, testing by Lithopus. Kaveh finds Alhaitham reading a book about kinks and, in a fluster, Kaveh offers to help Alhaitham try various kinks. It's at 4/12 planned chapters and over 100k already, and absolutely packed with delightful dynamics, snark, relationship development, and blisteringly hot sex already.
Eggs? Eggs. I know everybody expects me to put an egg fic on the rec list. And this one doesn't technically have eggs, but it is heavily egg-centered regardless: a good servant shall lay eggs by cutieterrarium, featuring Ajaw fattening Kinich up in order to lay eggs in him (wait don't go! *drags you back*) Ajaw doesn't get to use his pixel dick and there are no actual eggs in the fic, but it did the impossible and made me view Ajaw as sexy which. Good fucking job. Plus I'm not usually into feederism but the way it was pulled off here as dragon courtship behavior was really fun and, dare I say it, even a bit cute.
The other Star Rail standouts that I can recall off the top of my head this year were all by DFP:
- trick of the light, a Feixiao/Moze/Jiaoqiu OT3 fic where Feiqiu are established and they're feeling their way through adding Moze into the relationship in a way that keeps him comfortable. Fantastic Moze PoV.
- All three Argenti/Boothill fics, which are absolute must-reads if you enjoy robofucking, wireplay, and miscellaneous other mechanical shenanigans.
- The winner of my 'still re-reading' award, old fashioned lover boy, which was published last year but won't leave my mind. Caelus tries to seduce Welt, and poor Welt wallows in guilt, feeling like a dirty old man about it, before Himeko takes mercy on him and tells him he's allowed to just go for it if he wants to since they're both consenting adults. Caelus is the epitome of being horny about that old man, and grandpa gets ridden into the mattress as he deserves. Absolute peak.
There were lots of other fantastic fics I've read this year of course, but these are the first that came to mind.
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Last thing you wrote down in your notes app?
I don't use an app for notes often but it was literally just 'my heart a fortress, overrun' which was the title for my most recent fic. Was looking for a better title than what I had previously and that, of course, occurred to me right after I shut my PC off and headed to bed, so I dumped it in the notes app on my phone.
As for Scrivener, where my notes usually go, my most recent note/snippet is an unrefined line for a fic that won't be coming for a while b/c I have so much else to write first: “Of all of them, my dear Mydeimos, you will shine as the clearest memory in the new world.”
An unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character.
I don't actually know if she's popular or not but I think she is: I'm torn on Citlali because, while I understand they mean to write her and Ororon's relationship as comic relief, it comes off uncomfortably close to actual abuse to me and makes me :/ about her despite liking her design. She definitely doesn't intend it as abuse, but as someone that went through an emotionally abusive childhood myself (also perpetrated mostly by an alcoholic), it's easy for me to interpret Ororon's appeasement behavior, frequent worries that Citlali is coming to check up on him/will ruin his plans, and possibly even the easy willingness to defect to the Fatui as signs that his relationship with Citlali has resulted in some mental trauma.
I don't hate her! But it makes it hard to love her. Because it's very possible to traumatize or abuse someone without intending to, especially if you have your own undealt-with issues like her shame, self-imposed mostly-isolation, and alcoholism. I think it would be possible for them to work through their issues especially after the Archon quest, but Genshin is never going to give that to us; they will continue to use the dynamic for comedic effect, and I'll just have to keep making faces at it when they do.
Name three good things about a character you hate.
I don't really hate a lot of characters - I don't think there's a single Genshin character I can say I hate, and for HSR I can think of maybe two playables/prominent NPCs thus far that I could say I actively dislike, so I'll pick one of them - Sparkle. Not going into why I dislike her here since that's not the point of this question.
First off, she's gorgeous. I love her design, and was initially hoping to get her based on that and her kit before I met her and changed my mind. Second, her kit: I know it's common to talk about how she's fallen off nowadays, but man, I WOULD love to have her for my DHIL, nobody skill points like she skill points. And third: she's basically the goose from untitled goose game. It's extremely hilarious in a fucked up way that she just strutted around in the Dreamscape causing problems on purpose. And I'm legally obligated to support women's rights and women's wrongs, but especially when they're funny.
Personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on
If you're microwaving a product with bread in it - stuff like pizza counts - put a glass or bowl of water in there with it. It steams and helps rehydrate the bread so it's not overly tough. Also, if you're not gluten-averse and have a dutch oven or an all-metal frying pan you don't mind putting in the oven, you can make absolutely godly artisan cheese bread with this recipe in about 2.5 hours (1h rise ~30m cook, 1h cool), using only five ingredients (bread flour, salt, yeast, water, cheese). Cheese optional, I'm just a slut for it so I shared the cheesy version.
Weirdest topic I've researched for a writing project
I'm not actually sure what the weirdest research subject is but I once made my husband sit fully clothed in a chair for like fifteen minutes while I climbed around on him in various also-fully-clothed positions to make sure things I was writing would actually work irl. And I'm sure that was weird for him.
How did I get into writing fic?
My first fics were either the Legend of Korra fics or the Guild Wars 2 character blurbs I wrote before the game came out, but I think those were around the same time. I'd read fic since webring days including a lot of Squall/Seifer and Cloud/Sephiroth and Flik/Viktor (from Suikoden) on ff.net when I was like 13 lmao and I guess I just had to wait for the right inspiration to start dipping my toe in on the writing end. Homestuck was where it really took off though, and still remains my most-written fandom! I am easily swayed by alien junk.
I'm throwing some big bold Fontaine/4.x predictions out so I can reference this in a year and find out just how right or wrong I was. Under a cut because it's a wall of text and b/c it involves obscure lore not everybody's read.
(No leaks involved. If you've seen leaks that confirm or contradict any of this, please don't send them to me or discuss them in replies. As you can see, the lore theorycrafting is half of the fun for me!)
Yes, this is the tip of the iceberg on my lore theories. No, this is not a comprehensive prediction of the entire Fontaine plot, just bits of it I feel are foreshadowed. Yes, I'm citing a lot of shit so that when I go back through this a year from now I can see why I thought what I thought.
I think about Genshin lore too much, this truly is live footage of me every time a single new crumb of information is divulged.
Massive wall of text incoming b/c I can't stop rambling once you start me up on Genshin lore.
The theories:
Fontaine fucks up and Celestia gets involved
My big pet theory that I've been nursing for over a year now, ever since we started hearing from bit NPCs in minor events about Fontaine's energy problems, is that I think Celestia is either going to drop a nail on Fontaine or at the very least finally become relevant to the main plot in a big way by sending someone to intervene with Fontaine's technology and the mockery Focalors is making of the judicial process. (They might not care enough to intervene in the average judicial process, but she's literally the capital-letters God of Justice, and it's supposed to be her ideal. If she's abandoned it, they might not be happy.) They're also hovering over what we can assume to be the location of Fontaine, which is not a good sign.
This theory was strengthened when reading Rene's Investigation Notes in the Khvarena of Good and Evil questline, which indicate that Fontaine has done research on Khaenri'ah's use of abyssal power as an energy source, which was warned against by some of Khaenri'ah's own people but ignored (to disastrous outcome). There are a lot of parallels being set up between Khaenri'ah and Fontaine in those notes and with all the mention of sinners in the Final Feast trailer narration, and I'm not sure they bode well for Fontaine.
It's possible that the energy generator machine that Persikov and the other Fatui were working on as far back as 2.8's Golden Apple Archipelago were meant to help them gain a foothold in Fontaine; after all, solve the desperate nation's energy problems, and you suddenly hold a lot of power in the nation and can even hold their energy source ransom until your demands are met. I wouldn't be surprised if "the Fatui control Fontaine's energy future and use it as leverage" is a plot point.
(Although back in the day I thought it would be Pantalone behind that plot, not Arlecchino, because economic and political manipulation seemed his style and we hadn't heard anything much about Arlecchino yet. Hell, Arlecchino had been mentioned like once in-game then, in Inazuma's "The Very Special Fortune Slip" hidden questline, and was still referred to as male at that point.)
2. Neuvillette is unjustly imprisoned by Furina; Charlotte figures it out
I think Neuvillette is going to be imprisoned by Furina (who's pretty obviously the hydro archon Focalors), foreshadowed by the bars going over his face but not Clorinde's when they're walking in the sewers in the trailer. This will likely be either Furina framing him for something (foreshadowed by her burning what seems to be evidence while complaining about the lack of plot twists and entertainment, while he's literally 'framed' by the burning photo) OR a political imprisonment because they have an ideological clash.
Neuvillette seems to actually want justice, Furina seems to want a show. She seems very pouty and childish; if he tries to discipline her or remind her of the true meaning of justice, she could very well order him arrested and turn it into a grand trial to feed her lust for entertainment. And it could certainly be a combination framing/political imprisonment as well. Very French Reign of Terror style.
Charlotte may figure this whole situation out; in the trailer she's investigating photos with a puzzled look on her face as if she sees something wrong with them, and in the TCG event she offered to let us take out an ad in the paper if we ever needed it, in exchange for our assistance during the event. Now, the pictures were of Navia, not Neuvillette, so this may be an unrelated plot, but surely she's going to help us sleuth up the truth of something with foreshadowing like that.
Neuvillette is also...something. His eyes resemble Khaenri'ahn eyes, he's got the Kleelike pointy ears, and his cool blue hair streaks are certainly interesting. Oceanids can mimic other creatures so he could be an Oceanid (and given that they were spies of the previous archon that would set him up nicely for opposition to Furina). He could be Klee's species. He could be a Khaenri'ahn.
Whatever he is, he's NOT standard modern Teyvat human, and he's NOT the previous hydro archon despite the hair streaks because we know from the Khvarena of Good and Evil questline and Vourukasha's Glow artifact set that the previous archon died and was anchored beneath the Harvisptokm in the form of the giant Gaokerena lotus to purify abyssal influence in the region.
Neuvillette, I've got my eye on you. (Both eyes. While twirling my hair and kicking my feet.)
1b+2b. Neuvillette replaces Furina as hydro archon
I fully understand this is an unlikely scenario so it's not as firmly a prediction as much as a "this would be interesting," but if Celestia brings judgment on Fontaine it is possible that the hydro archon slot opens up, either because they repossess Furina's gnosis and find a new archon, or because they straight-up kill her (can you fucking imagine the shock from the community if they kill an archon off? but they'd still get to sell two separate units as archons, it'd be a win/win for them).
If this happens the logical choice for a replacement would be Chief Justice Neuvillette, especially if he was in opposition to the behavior that put her on Celestia's shitlist. I can see it now: Celestia repossesses the gnosis, gives it to him, he says thank you, the Celestians fuck off to be mysterious again, and he turns right around and hands it to the Fatui in exchange for getting the hell out of Fontaine. (Or for some other reason.)
I highly doubt they'll go this route, but I would love to see it. Not only would it even out the archon gender ratio a bit, but it would answer the question of how a change of archonhood takes place, which we still haven't seen since Morax hasn't been replaced as geo archon yet. And I think it's a question we deserve to have answered before the end of the game. If not here, then perhaps in Natlan (see point 7 below).
3. Lyney, Lynette, Freminet, and Arlecchino
This is a pretty common/obvious theory but I agree that the siblings are all likely working for Arlecchino, likely unwillingly. She runs the House of the Hearth which takes in (and sometimes causes) orphans and trains them for the Fatui; we've seen several NPCs that came from them before and many of them consider each other brothers and sisters.
I don't think Lyney and Lynette are related to Freminet by blood; I think they consider him a sibling due to being raised together. The resemblance between Lyney and Lynette is clearer, especially with the twin names, but names can be changed, so I don't even treat it as confirmed that those two are blood related until proven otherwise, especially since Lynette has cat features and Lyney doesn't.
Both Lynette and Freminet seem to have robotic features, and we know that Fontaine has robots and Snezhnaya has the technology for segments, plus we've seen Albedo as a homunculus and Scara as a puppet, so artificial humans are very much within the realm of possibility for Teyvat. Lynette is said to have rather mechanical behavior, and Freminet's constellation is literally 'Automaton.' So I think it's likely enough that one or both of them aren't flesh and blood humans.
To take that a step further, I think it's possible that Lynette died at some point, and the current Lynette is a mechanical replacement OR a robotic body being inhabited by her soul (Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist style). Lyney may have had to pledge loyalty to Arlecchino and the Fatui in order to rescue or recreate his sister through these means, OR it's possible they were already in the House of the Hearth and Dottore or somebody else damaged the original Lynette while experimenting with her.
Dark. And quite the fun twist if it's true, tbh.
4. Navia and Clorinde
Navia gives off a 'gentleman thief' vibe to me but lady version, and Clorinde shoots directly at her in the trailer, indicating she's playing the role of the detective or law enforcement officer tracking her down. I don't have coherent thoughts here on a lore front really, I'm just really excited for the possibility of gentlewoman thief rivals to lovers/enemies with benefits lesbians.
Clorinde's outfit looks a bit historical Navy inspired to me, so maybe she's a member of the Navy, but I'm not really sure why she'd be chasing criminals if that's the case.
5. Wriothesley, Sigewinne, and the Tower of London
I don't have a solid opinion on whether Wriothesley is blind or not as possibly hinted at by his fumbling for the cup, but I think it'd be cool if he was! People point to him looking at papers or at Sigewinne as evidence that he's not, but 'blind' as a term does not always mean complete lack of sight, for one, and if we assume he's a vision user as a seemingly playable character then there could be alternative methods he reads things with, such as using elemental sight to read ink with crushed-up elemental rocks in it or something.
He seems rather military, and Fontaine seems to have a strong military presence in general with some of the Melusine giving off a British bobby (police) vibe visually. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a structure reminiscent of the Tower of London, potentially where Wriothesley works and Neuvillette gets held when imprisoned.
No solid thoughts about Sigewinne yet other than I'm guessing she's going to be a healer or support, since she's little and cute and taking care of someone in the trailer. I assume she's a Melusine.
6. Chenyu Vale and Qiaoying Village (and Yilong Port?)
They're coming. I can feel it in my bones that at last we will go to the long-awaited Baizhu homeland. Why? There have been multiple sources indicating that they're placed between Liyue and Fontaine, likely between Fontaine and Qingce Village. I think 4.4 should be Lantern Rite judging from the usual calendar, and that would be a prime time for it to pop up - the main Fontaine story should be over at that point, and we'll be back in Liyue anyways. It will also be the Year of the Dragon, which might mean time for some juicy Zhongli or Liyue lore. Though they might move Chenyu Vale elsewhere in the 4.x schedule if needed.
This region will likely utilize Fontaine's diving mechanics. Legends about the region in weapon and artifact lore discuss powerful sunken jade artifacts in the rivers and lakes of the region, which would make a storyline revolving around finding them the perfect excuse to introduce the diving mechanics to a non-Fontaine region. Given the name and the lore, it's very possible that Baizhu's signature weapon Jadefall's Splendor is one of those pieces of jade, reclaimed.
For that and multiple other reasons, I believe Baizhu will be relevant to the main storyline here. Not only does he have a personal vested interest in finding interesting and powerful old artifacts or knowledge that might aid in his search for immortality, but Changsheng is intimately connected to the region lorewise. The Echoes of an Offering artifact set doesn't mention Changsheng by name, but it does discuss an adeptus named "Herblord" in Chenyu Vale and tell her story, and Changsheng is referred to as an "Herblord" in Baizhu's story cutscene. There's no reason to refer to them both with such a specific unusual term unless they're one and the same.
(I also have a theory that the other woman in the artifact lore is Madame Ping. The other woman is referred to as a fish adeptus, and Madame Ping's younger self in cutscenes has fish motifs and a fishtail silhouette, so I believe she's likely a koi as her adeptus form. I am highly tempted to write a Changsheng/Madame Ping fic because y'all there is something incredibly wlw happening in that artifact lore. I am also not going to be surprised if Madame Ping's younger form becomes playable in conjunction with Chenyu Vale story.)
7. Natlan
As a final far future prediction: In Natlan, Capitano will likely challenge the pyro archon for her gnosis and possibly even replace her. We know he's headed to Natlan and also "has the courage to challenge gods as an ordinary mortal" from Varka's Weinlesefest letter, and if Pierro is simply the "Director" of the Fatui as labeled in the Winter Night's Lazzo description and not a numbered harbinger, Capitano may occupy slot #1, which would be in line with his name as the Captain. We've been told by Nahida that the top three harbingers rival gods in terms of power, and I feel like if any god would answer a martial challenge with their gnosis on the line it would be the God of War, especially if the challenger was backed by another archon. I TRULY hope we see a fight between them.
(I also wanna see someone guillotined in Fontaine to fit the vibe but I highly doubt that will happen in Genshin. I think Signora was the most violent death we'll get onscreen.)
Anyways I hope someone found this titillating or educational and we can all look back at this and laugh at how wrong I was a year from now, but occasionally my farfetched theories do work out, such as when I looked a the Echoes of an Offering set lore on its release a full YEAR before Baizhu's release and excitedly vibrated to a friend about how it HAD to be related to him or Changsheng.
(I have theories past this point in the game too but they mostly rely on esoteric Gnostic text parallels more than in-game foreshadowing/content so I'm less confident in them.)
