#beingatoaster

Jean

How I feel about her: I don't brainrot over her for her own sake, but as my de facto main in co-op, the permanent healer in my overworld team, and one of Mondstadt's most important characters I'm very fond of her. She deserves more breaks. So so much.

Her design fascinates me too; if you use the alt version of her default outfit it looks very modest and like everything's covered when she's standing still, only for more skin to be exposed on her upper torso when you run or otherwise move around. It feels like a visual reflection of how she hides/suppresses the more human, emotional parts of herself to perform her role.

Romantic ships: I'm not actively into any but Jean/Lisa just makes sense to me. Lisa is such a fun character to bounce off her. You've got me intrigued about Jean/Eula and Jean/Kaeya as well, and I should look into Jean/Diluc too.

I s2g her voice lines make her sound like she's starting to have a crush on Traveller too. That could be really wholesome; they could periodically show up in Mond, speedrun solving a ton of citizens' problems, and whisk her off to beautiful corners of Teyvat she'd never dream of having time to visit otherwise. And they both have sibling issues... I'm selling myself on this as I type it, dear lord.

Platonic OTPs: All of the above are also wonderful platonically. Also Jean and Venti!! God!!! I neeeed more interactions between them; it's a massive shame the game never showed us Jean or Diluc processing the Venti-Barbatos reveal and the religious crisis that would definitely cause. Especially for Jean! I wish this oneshot was a longer multichapter so badly.

I'm fascinated by the idea of them having a lot in common under the surface, especially if we compare Jean to how Venti may have been in Mond's cultivation period. Even their outfits have a lot of design elements in common!

Additionally, considering her parallels with/idolisation of Vennessa, I love the idea of Venti having unresolved guilt/unprocessed trauma about whatever happened to Vennessa in the end + maybe her overworking herself for Mondstadt until her death, and him screaming internally watching Jean go down the same path. I can't get enough of fics where he helps her relax for once. The two of them should go on some long field trip where they coax each other into acknowledging they're people that feel things.

Unpopular opinion: Not sure I have any! I'm not familiar with general fandom opinions about her but I'd be surprised if I saw someone severely mischaracterising her, tbh. She doesn't feel like a difficult character to grasp. Maybe my perception's skewed since I tend to obsess over human dumpster fires, though.

Something I wish would happen: mainly (gestures at the platonic section), but seconding you that we need her to make progress with Barbara too. I'd love to see her be dragged into more shenanigans with Diluc as well, though I'm biased as a combined-Diluc-and-Jean main.

Venti

How I feel about him: I probably need help with the amount I think about this goddamn character. I didn't truly understand the term 'comfort character' until I started obsessing over him. I project onto him a bit too much and I want to emotionally smash him to bits and scrape him together again.

Even without the brainrot, he's just fascinating; he's clearly a significant character that will almost certainly be tied to massive lore drops later on, and the vague hints about him having time powers mean that even the way he fundamentally experiences reality can be theorised about with wildly different ideas being equally valid.

He has me freezing up at every damn mention of wind and/or time and/or music in this god-forsaken game. And there are a lot of them.

Romantic ships: as I said, he's the fandom bicycle for me. Everyone gets a ride. I especially love zhongven in multiple permutations, and their longevity means fanworks for other Venti ships can easily slot in past zhongven as well. Otherwise I really like kaeven, I used to be more into diluven but kaeven has completely eclipsed it for me, and I'm really intrigued about the potential of furiven as well (though I usually approach that platonically).

Non-romantic OTPs: any of the above if not being done romantically, plus Venti+Jean and Venti+Vennessa (see Jean's section lmao) and Venti+everyone in old mond- especially NB and RHW. And I really really want to see him interact with Furina. There are so many people he either has a fascinating relationship with already or has potential to.

While it's not a ship, I find the idea that he's slept with the Tsaritsa at least once pre-fallout very funny.

Edit: Venti having a non-reciprocated crush on Vennessa is interesting as well.

Unpopular opinions: I'm not sure I have any in a tumblr fandom context? Maybe that any ships between him and a mortal who's grown up worshipping him (like diluc/venti, jean/venti, etc) would be a lot more of an emotional minefield for both parties than people tend to explore, with the mortal having to go through a religious crisis while Venti clearly just wants to be treated like a person + could be paranoid as hell about whether their consent to anything is genuine.

That's not a criticism of those ships, though! The opposite, actually. I'd love to see a long fic that really digs into that.

Something I wish would happen: ...there are so many things I could put here. The main ones are a) a Venti-is-Barbatos reveal (and maybe a reveal of his darker secrets, like any abyss ties) to all of Mondstadt, forcing him to stop avoiding his problems for once, and b) for Venti to be pushed into a corner and/or go apeshit and reveal just how much he was lying about his power level.

15 (Fluff) - “I’m right here.”

Vialussi jolted awake at the heat of Charlotte’s hand against her cheek. Her hair was matted with sweat, although that could just have easily been from the godawful humidity as from whatever nightmare had prompted Lussi’s unconscious whimpering. She clutched instinctively at Charlotte’s hand, trying to steady her breathing.

“She’s... getting impatient,” Lussi whispered before letting out a shuddering breath and forcing herself into the facsimile of calm that had been drilled into her since childhood. “I think. Why else would she be appearing more often?”

A small, reassuring smile made its way onto Charlotte’s lips as she gave Lussi’s fingers a squeeze. “Who’s to say? Maybe you’re surprising her with how resilient you can be. Especially when you’re surrounded by friends.” In spite of how quietly the two were speaking, several feet away, Phal’s hood twitched slightly. Secrets are hard to keep between two people when not one, but two of your coworkers don’t sleep.

Lussi allowed a small sigh of relief to escape, pressing her cheek against Charlotte’s hand.

38 (Angst) - “You broke me.”

Ferosi yanked her mask away so the hobgoblin could see her face amidst the dancing flames and smoke. One mask exchanged for another, the previous one a matter of practicality when working with toxic fumes, this one twisted with grief and hate, the intervening years having turned the heat of her anger into a cold and insistent need for revenge.

And, for all that emotion, Corgus looked impassively at the elf, hand hovering near the bandolier of brightly-colored vials hanging over a charred and dented breastplate as if deciding which was the most relevant in the given situation. “Apologies, but I have no idea who you are.”

“You destroyed our laboratory! You killed everyone else who worked there! You stole our research!” Her voice grew more shrill with each accusation, and with the last, she raised the barrel of her firearm, taking aim.

“Do you have any idea how little that narrows things down?” Furry brows raised slightly, and the slightest of amused smirks worked its way across his face.

“You took Mirri from me!” she shrieked, and then the world shook. It melted around her, until the burning village was replaced with the darkness of stone overhead.

“Are you alright? They were using poisoned bolts. You dropped like a stack of books.”

Ferosi squinted up at her for a moment, then sighed and let her head rest back on the cavern floor. “How long was I out?”

“Wellllll, I didn’t have any restoration spells prepared today, and just shaking you wasn’t doing anything, so...” the cleric grinned sheepishly. “A couple hours. 'til I remembered I had an antitoxin in my bag.”