#mayu writes

lumine being the embodiment of freedom and simultaneously being protected by those associated with it (aka anemo users) near the end of each archon arc is just,, *chef’s kiss* poetic cinema

xiao saves lumine from falling to her doom in liyue. narratively speaking, this absolutely makes no sense to me LMAO xiao isn’t the warmest character and lumine had friendlier relations w the other adepti, but xiao jumps directly to lumine in this scene and i swoon every day thinking about the little hand holding afterwards.

we get the lantern rite event too, which is just a date?? but also xiao exploring what freedom for him (and his nation) means outside of his contract with rex lapis. which is very interesting to me, because it follows the question from mondstadt’s quest (venti’s infamous “what does freedom really mean, when demanded of you by a god?”)

and then kazuha re-awakens his friends’ electro vision to save lumine from the raiden’s musou no hitotachi. this is the only known instance we have that someone can wield two different visions simultaneously (the traveller of course doesn’t count bc they don’t even HAVE a vision in the first place lmao), even if it only happens for barely a second. kazuha’s trigger is a desire to protect the ones he cares for, and eventually finding the courage to stand up to raiden shogun.

the funny thing about this is that the line kazuha hears (“there will always be those who dare to brave the lightning’s glow”) reminds me oddly of venti’s friend, the nameless bard, standing up against the tyranny of decarabian.

and though this happens first, i truly believe venti is going to be to blame for lumine’s personal anemo protection squad so i put him last LOL this is a fairly popular (??) reading for venti’s actions facing off with la signora, so i’ll just link it here. but generally, i do believe that venti prioritizes protecting lumine over his own safety against la signora.

but don’t you find it interesting that both xiao and kazuha, both having canonically protected lumine during the archon quests, still somehow link back to the ideals of the archon who gave them their vision?

which brings me to my roundabout point that thematically speaking, i love that venti is always looking out for lumine, even if it isn’t necessarily him there to protect her. there’s a reason why the traveller resonates w anemo and finds venti first. venti’s always going to be the closest archon to lumine, and it shows when the next time they meet, she doesn’t even press what happened to khaenri’ah when she confronted zhong li right after his quest and asked yae when they’re wrapping up the inazuma arc.

just my fantasy of having soft parents. not too strict, just tough love.

Pairing: Guizhong x daughter!reader x Zhongli Genre: Angst/Fluff TW: Self harm, verbal abuse, OOC Guizhong

Based on what happened last night.  The rest of the story is under the cut.

~~~~~~~

You were just laying down on your bed, resting after a long day of teaching kids at the nearby neighborhood. You looked around your room, seeing how messy it is.

‘I’ll clean it up after a nap.’ You thought.

so two things that we should have flagged as contradictions:

1. out of the seven archons who won some 2000 years ago in the archon war, only two remain of the original seven

2. for inazumans, their archon has always been the raiden shogun. the god of eternity, baal.

the first point made a lot of people doubt that the baal we meet was the “first” electro archon so to speak, with many thinking it might have been yae since she spoke casually w morax and was “an old friend.” and funnily enough, they were half right! ei isn’t the original archon, but she did win the archon war with her twin, makoto. technically she does qualify, much like andrius. and like andrius, she rejects the status of archon and worked in the shadows.

ei inherits the role of electro archon when makoto dies. beelzebub becomes baal. the electro archon remains eternal.

now this is interesting because it ties up to another question i’ve been pondering about: the role of the gnosis in “archon-hood.” yae reveals one very crucial thing: the gnosis wasn’t with ei at all. when ei sought eternity in the plane of euthymia, she gave the gnosis to yae for safe keeping. this implies two things:

1. the gnosis need not be on (or? inside? that was kind of implied when la signora stole venti’s gnosis lmao) the archon’s person to work

2. the loss of a gnosis doesn’t really mean the loss of an archon

the second point is doubly interesting to me bc it implies morax would have still been the geo archon without it. he needed a public spectacle (i.e. faking his own death) to officially renounce his title and live alongside his people as the funeral parlour consultant zhongli. the same thing with venti, actually. barbatos is still the anemo archon, whether or not he has it or has even been seen in mondstadt lmao.

all the archons have kind of implied the gnosis is generally useless to them. they are still capable of using their elemental powers to an extent without it. arguably, they’re still some of the most powerful beings in teyvat (zhongli has enough power in him to defeat azdhaha, after all). we’re not sure if this means that they can’t grant new visions anymore, though.

which brings me to my next question: what does the tsaritsa want with the gnosis? it’s not to incapacitate them, as they’re still powerful enough as is. and stealing it certainly isn’t to kill them. the gnosis acted as a sort of direct line to celestia once upon a dream, but venti makes it clear that may not be the case now.

an archon does not necessarily mean that they are a god, as evidenced by both liyue’s (guizhong, havria) and mondstadt’s (andrius). being a god doesn’t mean that they are immortal, as the “gods of old” have been buried in the guyun stone forest (liyue) or otherwise roam the mortal realm as a spirit instead (andrius)

ganyu explains that the archon war ended roughly two thousand years prior - the war itself i think should be an important time reference for a lot of things but i’m not yet sure for what. the war with khaenri’ah and the archons was 500 years before present time, the year where the twins were separated by the unknown god.

the original seven refers to the seven gods who have survived the archon war, not necessarily the first archons in teyvat (note: lore suggests decarabian was the anemo archon prior to barbatos). ganyu also calls them the “first iteration of the seven” which suggests that prior to this, the archons may not have been a united front? morax has been noted to be the oldest archon so we can kind of assume that he may have been the original geo archon too. out of the seven, only barbatos and morax have survived ‘til present day; it is unknown what happened to the other five but we can assume that they have retired (morax), were defeated (decarabian), or are simply no longer among the living.

this makes an interesting point though: the archons are not immortal. though azhdada still suggests that zhongli will live a longer life than most mortals, even without his gnosis, it doesn’t change the fact that an archon can fall. we just aren’t sure yet just what it would take to kill a god. venti is the prime example of having his gnosis forcibly removed from him, but still survive and retain some semblance of his elemental powers - so where do we draw the line?

venti explains that visions are granted to those who are essentially candidates to godhood, and therefore may possibly ascend to celestia. it’s unknown if a vision (and the actual ascension to celestia???) is required in order to become the next archon - in fact, we don’t actually Know what the process of becoming an archon is?? we know it’s passed on as there were mentions of a previous hydro archon as well as ganyu explaining that the five other archons are different from the original iteration. fun fact, the dendro god is the youngest at 500 years old lol.

losing your gnosis means losing your status as an archon. technically speaking, zhongli and venti are both no longer archons. although ganyu says only barbatos remains as the last “original” archon, that’s because the incident with la signora isn’t common knowledge for the people. barbatos has always been an “absent deity” so though the people of mondstadt still look to him as their anemo archon, it might not be a reach to say that there will be a new one to take his place soon. this means that among the seven, two archon seats are up for grabs - but again, we aren’t sure how the promotion process occurs or how fast it’s done lol

xiao is diagnosed with a terminal illness and he’s oddly at peace with it. he isn’t sure if it’s the kind of calm before the truth sinks in or the acceptance of the inevitability of death, but he generally just zones out while baizhu explains his treatment plan and nods along without really listening.

“great, i’m glad you agree. you really shouldn’t go through this alone.” “yea- huh?”

turns out xiao just agreed to enlist the assistance of a live-in nurse who specializes in palliative care. baizhu assures him that she only looks young and indifferent (“it’s not uhh, what do the kids call it, a resting bitch face, per se. the dead fish eyed staring happens when she’s distracted.”) but is one of the best in the trade.

and yes, xiao has every bit of intention to just refuse her at the door when she knocks. though baizhu should have also warned him that she wasn’t at all a gentle spring breeze but a full out hurricane of a woman standing tall even when she barely reaches his eyes. at least he would have steeled himself better.

“my name is lumine. i’ll be in your care.” she says, and the choice of words confuses him enough for her to shoulder her way in his dingy little apartment.

xiao and lumine are both awfully stubborn but come to the conclusion that they are both growing awfully fond of each other in between yelling to take his meds or for her to actually sleep. the catalyst is a particularly bad episode where the pain is too much for xiao to handle and they end up in a heap of tears on his bedroom floor, physically and emotionally exhausted but clinging to each other’s hand.

i said this is xiaovenlumi so where’s venti u may ask

venti is xiao’s ex boyfriend who he never really got to find closure with that ends up hearing from a mutual friend (see: zhongli) that xiao maybe, without exaggeration, dying.

of course he bursts in xiao’s apartment unannounced, absolutely flabbergasted at the stranger who opens the door. lumine lets him in and ends up facing xiao’s anger for the first time in a long while at having done something she shouldn’t have.

i have no clue what happens to resolve that, venti and xiao likely end up talking it out and venti volunteers to help take care of him. lumine is wary but xiao seems to be in a better mood with venti around so she sees no point in arguing otherwise. venti also helps xiao reconcile with lumine after seeing them move awkwardly around each other.

the venlumi aspect ofc comes from the kind of camaraderie you build taking care of a person you like who will inevitably leave the both of you behind.

click here for the general headcanon list LOL i’m running on adrenaline what up

NATSUGUMI

Tenma // 4th year // GRYFFINDOR AND HE’S PROUD OF IT // pureblood

yuki jokes he should be in slytherin for his gargantuan amount of pride ( he doesn’t mean it. yuki would rather cut off his own dress robes than be housemates with tenma merlin help him ) bUT also constantly makes fun of the fact he fits so well in the house of lions bc he’s so obnoxious ST O P 

tenma is actually really proud of his house bc both his parents were also gryffindors. he comes from a family line of pureblood aurors. he’d want nothing more than to follow in their footsteps but --

he’s absolute shite at DADA practicals. it’s simultaneously his best and worst. he’s got theories down to a pat, the natural athletic reflexes needed to be potentially great at it, but he Freezes any time chikage sensei tells them its time for “experiential learning” and sets them loose in the forbidden forest

GRYFFINDOR CHASER!!! racks up points like it’s nobody’s business and honestly good enough for tasuku to notice.

Yuki // 2nd year // sly!! the!!! rin!!!!!! // halfblood

keeps his involvement with chikage a secret bc there’s a lot of resentment kept within the confines of a boy barely 165 cm.

he hates quidditch with a passion. he just doesn’t get what’s so fun about chasing a golden ball around and potentially falling to your death when you overreach right? that being said he makes sure to attend Every gryffindor game to cheer muku on.

gryffindor vs slytherin? no problem. he’d root for muku in a heartbeat. 

“Yukki, you do know it’s our team they’re against right??”

*sends off a mini fireworks charm that spells out “GO GRYFFINDOR KICK THEIR ASS” “what about it?” 

itaru would consider him a charms Genius actually and chikage is (secretly) proud whenever itaru brags about it. that being said yuki makes it a point to do barely average on DADA, but his actual weakness is herbology LOL just,, no dirt,, tsumugi sensei pls..,,

Muku // 2nd year // gRYFFINDOR // halfblood

SLAMS MY FIST ON TABLE. Gryffindor’s star seeker!! Tasuku Insisted he try out when he saw how fast but comfortable muku was on a broom!! he almost puked during tryouts but he’s a natural on a broom. really smart player too and eludes a lot of the other house seekers.

was a hatstall but only bc muku thought he couldn’t possibly be a gryff LOL he and the hat had a debate for over five minutes. muku insisted he be placed in hufflepuff w juchan and kyuchan but the hat was just very NO. YOU ARE A GRYFFINDOR AND U WILL LIKE IT!!

muku is actually a really good student overall but he always asks for help in transfigurations bc it’s a little too technical for him. he’s one of the only ones who actually like history of magic LOL also probably really good at divination?? The overactive imagination really helps

Misumi // 7th year // RAVENCLAW // pureblood

bc while he does value loyalty, misumi is also extremely curious w the world!! pls just imagine misumi clinging onto tsuzuru and asking him about So Many Things

Doesn’t talk about his family even though the ikarugas are pretty famous for being rather conservative. madoka is also a ravenclaw and in his 4th year. they’re awkward but they love each other.

tsuzuru is acting captain bc their actual captain is seeker misumi. LOL he’s really good but terrible w responsibilities. sorry tsuzuru, but you can’t complain when he catches the golden snitch and brings the house to victory.

not v good w potions bc he dislikes the rules set by it (and often makes things go boom) but is a surprising natural at transfigurations? some say he’s an unregistered animagus ( this is True ) but no one but kazu knows what he turns into

Kazunari // 7th year // SLYTHERIN // muggle born

he exchanges house scarves w misumi on a regular and actually fits really well w the ravenclaw crowd lmao tsuzuru is even More tired when the two team up.

kazu gets along w everybody? He’s the gryffindors favourite slytherin. he has homies in every house and in every year. he was in the running for head boy actually but turned it down LOL

likes to act a little dumb so people won’t expect much of him but is a dude who’s expected to ace his NEWTs??  does well in potions!! is,, kind of bad with flying tho,, LOL it’s why he doesn’t do quidditch

SO MANY THINGS about slytherin kazu but i feel like i will take up one more post if i do.

Kumon // 3rd year // hufflepuff // halfblood

READY TO THROW HANDS with a certain slytherin seeker. unfortunately, he cannot keep his trash talk strictly in the quidditch field lmao. 

Everyone loves kumon they’re so confused how he’s related to juza honestly but they understand him being related to muku.

1/2 of hufflepuff’s hyodo brothers beater duo!! He’s so proud this is legitimately his greatest achievement. 

i’m cackling sorry this just got ridiculously long. click here for the general headcanon list lmao

HARUGUMI

Sakuya // 5th year // hufflepuff // muggle born

was a hat stall bc the hat was debating over putting him in gryffindor or hufflepuff. sakuya just sat there bc he had No Idea what this magical hat was saying

the day he got his letter he was so excited to show it to his foster mom/aunt who eventually replied with a sneer “ha, knew there was something wrong with you.”

( i didn’t mean to make this angsty but if li/ber doesn’t give me some proper sakuya angst i’ll have to make it myself )

he’s a mess at potions bc he’s so clumsy!! but izumi forgives him he’s just so earnest. his favourite subject is history of magic bc he’s absolutely fascinated w the magical world! i can also see him being really good with magical creatures

Masumi // 4th year // hufflepuff // muggle born (i put him in slytherin originally but after Some Thought, i realize that i was wrong)

was also a hatstall but not for the same reason. he was just very bored and nonchalant about things that the hat struggled to place him anywhere

the hat was eventually right though. it told him right before it placed him that “someday, soon, you’ll come to understand just how loyal you could be, child.” and he thinks he understands when izumi takes the role of potions master, but really it was The Friends He Made Along The Way

comes form a very well-off muggle family. literally nothing that money can’t buy. rob him first if u don’t mind jp yen instead of wizarding world galleons and shite

excels in so much, but especially DADA and potions (just for Izumi). he purposefully does bad in arithmancy to spite sakyo and he’s so fed up. why the fuck did this kid even enroll here it’s not a required course outside of third year damn.

Tsuzuru // 6th year // ravenclaw // pureblood

so fucking tired. about everything. how could he not be when he’s preparing for NEWTs and acting captain/chaser for their house quidditch team. he just has a Lot on his plate pls let him rest

comes from an old pureblood family. ala weasley with one brother working as a curse breaker (tadoru) and the other in the ministry (meguru). the rest of his siblings can be found in multiple other year levels and houses. kaoru is a 4th year hufflepuff, twins noboru and suberu are both 2nd year gryffindors and tsuzuru really hopes that tooru’s gonna be in ravenclaw with him next year.

tsuzuru is a pretty average student actually. Does well in charms and ancient runes ( actually ADORES ancient runes ), but struggles with transfiguration ( it doesn’t help that their professor is Horrid at teaching )

Citron // Transfiguration professor who is Not Actually Horrid at teaching // pureblood

foreign wizard who is absolutely FASCINATED with muggle things!! esp jp muggle things!!! he often hangs out at homare’s office because of this. they bond!!

now it’s only a matter of knowing IF the puns he makes are accidental or a conscious decision because as a bonafide transfigurations genius, he actually can make it so to emphasize his point.

that being said, citron is a really good teacher actually. he does well in other classes but likes to make fun of his ravenclaw kids (as head of house!!! YOU HEARD ME) by making transfiguration classes w majority of ravenclaws the most topsy turvy thing ever.

casts a lot of nonverbals pretty easily though??

Itaru // Unwilling charms teacher // halfblood

Citron teases that he should have been the transfiguration teacher bc wow!!! the absolute speed in which he does a 180 after classes are out is so funny and downright amazing!

worked in the wizengamot before this and it was So Tiring but chikage dragged him back along to hogwarts ( which is Weird bc chikage doesn’t work until a year after itaru starts and he thinks his senpai might have been messing with him )

halfblood who’s attached to muggle gadgets. his contract specifically states that he’s allowed to bring his charmed gadgets or the deal is off. he follows a strict 9 to 5 schedule and it’s why he isn’t offered any sort of position outside of his usual teaching duties.

chikage tells him that’s Why he’s perfect for the job lmao all the shit he does and charms he comes up with is to make life more convenient is that so bad

Chikage // Defense against the dark arts ( H A!!! ) // halfblood

a former auror, he says this is the reason why most of his spells are rather practical. 

this is an absolute lie, he worked at the department of mysteries and was a former unspeakable. funnily enough, he worked in the chamber of truth ( L O L ) but worked Very Closely with enough departments and divisions that he can lie through his teeth about experiences as an auror. yes, he did lie on his resume what of it.

Yuki and he are brothers but their parents are divorced. the father was the magical one. bc of the really large age gap, he feels very awkward with yuki but tries to make amends but it’s So Hard when the instinct to constantly start a pissing contest with your baby brother is second nature 

click here for the general headcanon list LOL WHAT’S UPP I’M BACK adakshda god i just powered through a paper and i’m so fucking sorry to my groupmates i’m a WRE C K. anyway, here’s another group who’s just as bad as me aka akigumi let’s gooooOOooO

AKIGUMI

Banri // 5th year // Slytherin // Pureblood

the sorting hat didn’t even Need to be put on his head. it just hovered in the general vicinity and screamed “SLYTHERIN!!!” which was absolutely hilarious to banri

bc yeah sure, maybe when he was in first year or smth he could see it. all ambition and cunning and pride but then... everything was just... so boring. nothing challenged him. he thought magic would have been more interesting than this but it’s just,, not,,

but then

then he meets hyodo from hufflepuff who is comparatively bad at everything about magic. hyodo who can’t transfigure for shit. hyodo who burns all of his potions. hyodo who sucks at all thing EXCEPT 

except DADA. except he beats banri in a duel w/o breaking a sweat in third year. he beats banri settsu, pureblood prince practically wizarding royalty, who acts like he swallows a bottle of felix felicis for breakfast,, was beaten??? In a duel??? LMAO it’s all he needs to reignite that cunning and ambition. 

there’s unfortunately nothing he’s not good at, only things he chooses not to be. which is why he took over as slytherin starting seeker when he heard hyodo would (finally) be joining the quidditch team

Juza // 5th year // Hufflepuff // Halfblood

he’s so protective over the people he cares he’s willing to distance himself from them doN’T TOUCH ME

Delinquent face with a heart of gold. the hufflepuffs are also equally protective of him after they realize he’s not all that bad. which was bc he challenged banri settsu to a duel during third year when the slytherin was harassing a muggleborn hufflepuff (it’s sakuya.) 

(banri has since learned to take all that blood purity shite and shove it down the drain. he grows. very slowly. don’t worry)

So yeah it takes a couple of years, but his housemates make sure they give back tenfold by spoiling him rotten with sweets from the kitchens. 

after the banri incident, he finally gets enough courage to try out for the quidditch team with his little brother. he’s a FANTASTIC beater!! he finds immense satisfaction over whacking a bludger to settsu’s ugly face

very clumsy with spells, especially transfiguration (citron finds it SO ENDEARING and also very funny), but a natural at DADA! 

Taichi // 3rd year // Slytherin // Halfblood

kind of like kazu in the sense he’s not crazy about showing why he’s in slytherin (he’s heard rumours, knows this is “the bad house”) but,,, oh god but he’s so ambitious. tell me a mankai member more willing to do Literally Anything to get the things he wants.

unfortunately, ambition and insecurities are not a pretty combo LMAO

he’s the unfortunate former starting seeker that was kicked to the curb/becomes a chaser instead because slytherin prince banri suddenly decides he wants to try out quidditch.

i can’t wait for all the ugly insecurities popping out bc he’s friends w tenten AND banchan, arguably two of the most well known students in hogwarts. ahahaha alR I GHT

he’s very good with transfigurations and dyes his own hair with spells! that being said, he’s not doing too hot with arithmancy and ancient runes... no one told him it would be this hard... why did he even enlist in these classes...

Omi // Recent grad! Works in the Three Broomsticks at Hogsmeade // muggle born

Former quidditch captain, head boy, hufflepuff golden boy. Everyone thought he’d go pro, Tasuku even offered to hook him up with his old team if he wanted, buuuut

he’d much rather work as muscle and a chef for madam rosmerta. he likes it in hogsmeade, very quaint!

he was scratched by a werewolf in their human form!! Which means... lupine tendencies LOL anyway i just really like wolf-ish omi and u can thank OCAM for that

was good in DADA and had recommendations actually to go though the auror program. He’s still thinking bout it!! considers the year he’s working in the Three Broomsticks as sort of a gap year.

Sakyo // Arithmancy professor // muggle born

he’s a former cursebreaker! tsuzuru’s older brother has heard some really cool stuff about Cursebreaker Furuichi who had no qualms arguing with and demanding the goblins for proper compensation. a big reason why the cursebreakers earn more these days is because of him!

izumi once asked him why he didn’t teach DADA since he’s really proficient with it? he just shrugged. actually, he just really likes numbers and think that these are basic skills any kid should learn.

he and azuma but heads a lot after he claimed that arithmancy was superior to divination in its predictive ability. THEY’RE GOOD FRIENDS THO omi always sees them in the three broom sticks about once a month downing firewhiskey after firewhiskey

head of slytherin and wishes his paycheck were fatter... god between having both settsu AND rurikawa ( i just think banyuki is a force to be reckoned with ) in his house and izumi completely oblivious to all his efforts to ask her out on a hogsmeade date,, yes, he absolutely is not getting paid enough

Azami // 1st year // gryffindor // pureblood

HA he was so relieved that he wasn’t put in Sakyo’s house he actually laughed out loud when the sorting hat said gryffindor. 

he’s also a little sad bc he didn’t get to go to hufflepuff with sakoda :----( 

there are rumours that his dad is some big shot in the wizarding black market. azami will neither confirm nor deny, but a Lot of the treasures they have in the manor is due to sakyo’s cursebreaking gig. in fact, Azami was put under sakyo’s care for the longest time, even tho he was off doing curse-breaker work.

the gryffindor team is kind of scouting him already. they think he’d be a pretty good chaser... tasuku confirms this during their flying classes