Just wanted to share my absolute insanity by presenting my top 2% Diluc
I currently run him on a team with Fischl, Chevreuse and Nicole and have him on Varka’s sig to make use of the Hexerei bonus and atk spd, it’s a super fun team to play! Nicole can be switched out for Durin but rn he’s not very well built so I’m gonna stick to my queen as a support. I’m still working on improving Diluc’s build as well as his talents but when you’re Zhongli levels of mora-less it’s a bit difficult 😔
I swear with Diluc you either hate him or love him to the point of it consuming your entire being and you pour your entire heart and soul into building him and loving him, there’s no in between
The 10 year old girl bandaged a splint onto the edge of a pigeon’s injured wing. She picked up the small bird and carefully lifted it in the air, allowing it to return to flight once more. A sudden cacophony rang out around the yard, as the bell beckoned the children back to the House. The little girl scrunched into a ball and covered her ears as she started crying at the disturbing noise. Mother had to drag her inside by the ears herself, as per usual.
She zoned out as the children gathered in a circle around Mother, anxiously preparing for their names in a roll call.
“Bonnie. And… little Peruere!” She read out from a piece of paper pulled out of a jar.
The two girls’ eyes snapped open, locking on to each other, bringing Bonnie back to reality.
“But I don’t wanna fight! She’s bigger than me, she’ll beat me!”
It was futile. In this house, it was a game of survival. It was a miracle she’d even made it this long in the first place. She had no backbone, being defencelessly beat up by the bigger kids in the yard much to Mother’s entertainment. Until it got old, since every outcome was the same. It wasn’t the kids fault, they were just trying to survive. They knew what happened to the weak ones, so they tried proving themselves to avoid a cruel fate. Unfortunately, Bonnie happened to be the perfect target, as she would be too afraid to retaliate. Some speculated that Mother couldn’t wait to get rid of this weakling, so in a cruel twist of fate, she was pitted against the top dualist of the House.
It didn’t take much for her to fall, as Mother called out the winner while Bonnie slumped onto the floor in a pile of tears. A distant clap was heard from the back of the audience; it appeared that they had a guest over to watch.
“Marvellous. An excellent performance. Now, I suppose it’s time for the little one to have a doctor’s visit…”
Story 2
Bonnie wiped the sweat from her brow. She was heaving in pain, with a spear driven halfway through her midriff. No time to stop, though, as waves of hilichurls were surrounding her quickly. The Doctor observed her from his shielded safe haven, itching for something to happen already. Though, the poor girl was too injured to think clearly. A sharp jolt of pain struck her violently, spiking her fury. She had enough. As the pain coursed through her body, she could feel burning lightning spark around her, though it wasn’t normal lightning. It was like an explosion of fire and dark alchemy, eating her up from the inside out. She tore the spear from her body with an agonising battle cry, lighting exploding in a massive radius around her as her eyes flashed a bright crimson red. The hilichurls had been fried, and the Doctor marvelled at the sight.
“Fascinating.”
She stood there for a moment, processing what she had just done. Thanks to her new powers “kindly” given to her by The Doctor through infusing God Remains into her body, she had decimated the entire horde within seconds. Her wound quickly caught up with her though, as she shortly collapsed to the ground, drawing one final breath.
*Gasp*
Her eyes flashed red once more and she shot back up, something shocking her back to the living realm. Her Delusion, bound to her soul by The Doctor’s unholy experiments and currently residing in his command, had completely resurrected her. With every flash came an excruciating shock, keeping her just alive enough to barely function. The madman really did it. The Fatui’s own controllable living weapon; one that never had to worry about death ever again… thanks to that fateful little glass trinket.
Story 3
Bonnie stood as stiff as a stick in the deep blue hall of Zapolyarny Palace. The Doctor firmly placed two hands on her shoulders as he stood behind her, Bonnie feeling the heavy pressure weigh her down. He gathered an audience with all nine Harbingers at the time; the Tsaritsa herself seated directly opposite the room under a dark cast shadow. He prattled on about his experiments and achievements, showing Bonnie off like she was a horse at an auction. The showcase ended with a demonstration of her powers, which seemed to marvel the audience. All but one; the very newly-appointed Knave.
It was a shock to Bonnie, hearing that Crucabina had been killed by none other than Peruere. It was even more of a shock to see her own killer replacing her, unreprimanded. While the rest of the harbingers discussed Bonnie’s potential, she had the opportunity to talk to her old housemate. It was a little awkward, but Arlecchino marvelled at the fact that the girl was still alive. She looked miserable. Her gaze softened ever so slightly and she propped the girl’s chin up with her cold finger, her dead eyes piercing her soul.
“Don’t fret. I shall take you in just as Mother did. No need to worry, you won’t suffer such a cruel fate as before. I will make sure of it.”
Before long, the Harbingers reconvened once more. After reviewing her powers and potential, they had decided to come to a conclusion. Given that someone would wield her delusion at all times, she would have the privilege of calling herself one of them. The Doctor’s lips spread into a wide sharp grin. His efforts were successful, having made a brand new artificial Harbinger; a human weapon, fully controllable and able to do as they demand. At the age of just 14, the 10th Harbinger was born.
“Welcome aboard, Brighella.”
Story 4
During her time as the 10th Harbinger, Bonnie soon gained a reputation, although not a particularly pleasant one. She became known as the cruelest, coldest, least forgiving Harbinger - where mistakes of any gravity were met with punishment on the most severe levels. The truth was, she had no empathy for her comrades. In her eyes, they were all the same. Deserving of death for even being part of the organisation, despite their say in the matter. Her cruel attitude, along with her many increasingly rebellious instances and tendency to leave trails of blood behind her, earned her the nickname of the Crimson Outlaw. Seemingly, the only person - well, “thing”, that she didn’t display any form of disdain to was her own horse whom she loved very much. Fang, she called him, after a little malformation of canines that he had on his upper jaw. He was all that she had and she was never seen without him. Arlecchino often complained about her brining him to the House of the Hearth where he would always make a mess outside. Still, she had enough heart to let her keep him there, at least.
By Bonnie’s 20th birthday, the cracks in the glass expanded to worrying levels. The person in charge of what she does with her powers, her delusion holder - Captain Lesnik - had grown increasingly fed up with her refusals to do what they ask, resorting to him taking control of her actions for her. This only soured things further, though, as she grew angrier and more destructive towards her commanders in return. Someone had to teach her a lesson. So, Lesnik took it upon himself to do so. On that fateful night, Bonnie returned to the stables to collect her heart horse. But to her absolute horror, there he was; lying face-down in the snow in a pool of his own blood, next to a small note from Lesnik reading something that she didn’t even care to remember. With tears in her eyes, she clenched her fists and mechanically marched towards Zapolyarny Palace where Lesnik had taken refuge for the night. With a deafening crash, the doors swung wide open, startling the Regrator’s financial meeting. Bonnie yelled from the top of her lungs.
“Lesnik!!”
The Regrator and the Rooster stood up from their chairs, only to be thrown across the room by her fiery lightning. She paced to a different room before they even had the time to react. Now in an enraged frenzy and with nothing left to lose, Bonnie rampaged across the palace explosively. Shattering glass and destroying furniture, the bodies of her former comrades left a trail behind her. Lesnik had no time to react. As a defensive reaction, he shielded himself to stop her from ripping him to shreds, mistakenly dropping the delusion. It was now or never; she rushed to grab it, Lesnik losing the one thing that could control her. The other Harbingers were already on their way over, forcing Bonnie to flee with her life finally in her own hands. Erratically, she zoomed out of the palace and across the frozen land, destroying encampments and killing Fatui soldiers in a blind fit of rage.
In the meantime, an angry hunter was conducting his own rampage across Snezhnayan lands. As he carried out his last raid for the night, he shockingly found himself face to face with a Harbinger at this small encampment. This wasn’t in his plan. But he did not hesitate - it was life or death. Blade against claw, the fiery figures clashed with one another in a dance of death. As they knocked each other back behind flame, they paused to catch their breaths. Her eyes darted around the floor, noticing the trails of Fatui bodies strewn across the snow. He was an ally. His big ruby eyes glistened behind his owl mask as he observed. Those bodies behind her, blood on her hands and ash on the snow… she had killed her own people. He knew of the cruelty presented by the Crimson Outlaw, but this was extreme. Something bigger was going on. A little smirk appeared across her face as she looked up to him with no light in her eyes. She let her guard down. Walking up to the increasingly weary hunter, she simply patted him on the arm and walked away. He nearly dropped his claymore in shock while he stood there, bewildered. Did he just witness a Harbinger rebel against her own people?
Story 5
Countless tales of pointless bar fights, leaving trails of dead monsters and Fatui everywhere along with strings of serial lovers wherever she went, Bonnie took her newfound freedom to the extreme. Anything that she couldn’t do before, she had to try now. From scandalous love affairs, dancing with strangers, screaming at the top of her lungs at the peaks of mountains… to simply eating whatever she chose and speaking her mind. These things were foreign concepts to Bonnie. Every new opportunity, she would take it mindless of any consequences.
About two years into her new life, Bonnie was plagued by a wave of uncertainty. What was she doing with her life? Destroying Fatui strongholds, shooting lowlife criminals, and throwing herself at everything and everyone… yet she remained alone. Just her and her new horse, Winnie, that she drunkenly stole from some poor bloke in Nod Krai. Aimlessly wandering around Teyvat, she found herself in Fontaine once more. Perhaps she missed some part of her old life… the part where someone cared about her. Before long, she came face to face with the one whom she called Father. They were both shocked to see each other, but each passing moment made Bonnie start to break down. Without saying a word, she rushed to hug her Father, who remained stiff.
“Say something, anything!” Bonnie called out, breaking away from the one-sided hug.
Arlecchino closed her eyes and sighed.
“Father… am I a bad person?” Bonnie asked.
“I think you had every right to react the way that you did.” Arlecchino truthfully replied.
Her response was surprising to Bonnie, but she felt some reassurance in the statement.
“Do you hate me?”
“No.”
Bonnie stood to think for a moment.
“Why do you still stick around them? After everything that they did - you know what they did! They’re not good people! And these kids… you raise them to become their soldiers! You don’t even like these people, you don’t even like her!”
“Things are a lot more complicated than that. It’s transactional, it’s…”
She trailed off before finishing her sentence. Looking at Bonnie, she firmly placed a hand on her shoulder.
“This is your life now, do something worthwhile with it. Should you choose a path of vengeance… know that I will support your decision.”
With those final words in her mind, Bonnie nodded and Arlecchino turned to leave. And so, Bonnie was standing alone once more. Grabbing the reins of her horse’s bridle, she set off on a trek back to Snezhnaya. Along the way, she met a familiar Sumerian woman who claimed to be part of an underground network in the North. Trading valuable information on the Fatui, the two became affiliated with one another and formed a professional relationship, Bonnie becoming one of her most valuable secret informants as she gathered intel during her vengeance excursions. With that, she became an accomplished bounty hunter and chose to settle in Nod Krai... until the breeze of the City of Wind called her name. Perhaps it was time for another fresh start.
Ik Brighella is probably the most popular name for Harbinger ocs and I’m also jumping on that train bc I feel like the translation of “brawly” fits her very well. She’s very vindictive and cruel to those beneath her within the Fatui (bc she hates the Fatui and that’s the only freedom of action she rlly has lmao), and she also will take every opportunity to screw over her superiors, much like the Commedia character himself. So I chose to stick to that, not that it matters much bc she leaves anyway 💀
Hope you enjoyed reading, I had tons of fun with this :D
Gave my Diluc redesign a proper attempt + ramble at the end bc I love him 🦉
Version 1 is to make him a little closer to his manga design and 2 is to make him closer to how he looks in official art (but with freckles too bc he deserves them!!!)
I’ve kept his original eye size and facial feature placement, but just changed the shape of his eyes and brows and added more detail. Ik ppl don’t generally like Diluc redesigns but I really wanted to give it a go without reducing any of his features while also giving him a more updated look
Bit of a ramble abt his design, character and mischaracterisations (buckle up its a long one)
When I say that I really, really want him to get a redesign, it’s coming from a place of only love because I absolutely adore this man and have for the past 5 years. I love his manga design and his big round eyes, I think it does a very good job at giving him a very owlish look, especially with his small pupils and that little ring in his iris. It does such a good job at portraying his youthfulness and babyface but with a bit of uneasiness bc of his owl eyes.
My biggest problem with Diluc’s in game model isn’t his babyface or how big his eyes are and where they are on his face, it’s the execution of it that I’m talking about. Don’t get me wrong, he’s absolutely adorable and I love his goofy big bug eyes, but to me it feels like they’ve changed his eye shape and stripped away loads of his features; his little eyelashes at the bottom of his eyes, his thin red eyebrows, his eye colour being too dark to see his small pupil (which is supposed to give him that owlish look) and the biggest crime of all which is his SUPER fluffy wavyish hair that’s now flat and just there. Yes, it’s an early game model, but then you also look at Kaeya who arguably is one of the best executed models out there. He has his little eyelashes, he’s got loads of detail in his eye and even his hair is pretty well done for early game standards.
The thing that makes me the most sad about the model is that there’s such a lack of detail. I love his eyelashes, they’re also much longer in official art and manga, which makes him look more feminine, and his eyebrows being super thin too. I love love love that Diluc is supposed to be a very feminine man, I love the way that all the official art gives him a dainty and careful look, because he kind of is. Yes he’s strong and an insane fighter, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not soft and caring. I don’t mind that much when ppl give him a little extra muscle on his arms bc claymore user and what not, honestly something that really irks me is when femininity is constantly attributed to skinniness and needing to look frail. Femininity shouldn’t equal not having any muscle or masculine features, it’s a whole massive spectrum. I absolutely hate it especially when buff fem women get drawn as masculine and tomboys but in reality that character would wear a dress and be dolled up despite their body shape eg Scorpia from She Ra.
That’s not to say that I don’t hate it when ppl make Diluc Varka 2.0 though, because at that point you’re not making him buff for the sake of logic, it’s also usually accompanied by reducing all of his other features and completely changing his character’s personality. While I don’t mind ppl giving him maybe bigger arms and just a smidge of stockiness in comparison to Kaeya, but keeping in mind though that Diluc is also supposed to be quite lean because he’s agile and stealthy. I absolutely despise it when ppl turn him into mini Varka bc they get rid of his soft round features and make them really sharp. Something else that really irks me is in fics when they turn him into this overconfident dom kinda guy that’s super bossy and cold, only caring about what he wants. There is a damn good reason that I can only read fluff and even just skimming past stuff that turns him into that hurts me sm 😭 This man is an absolute sweetheart who would take every single step to make sure that you are okay in any type of scenario. He’s very caring and it really doesn’t take long to see that side of him. Just go to his voice lines! His tcg card description is literally “his heart is his biggest enemy”.
That’s not to say that mischaracterisation can’t go the other way too though, bc I’ve also seen ppl turning him into a completely innocent bbygirl that can’t do anything wrong and is only sweet and shy, forgetting that this guy committed mass murder in his past and still sees nothing wrong with it (yes they were bad ppl but they were just that: people). He’s also a vigilante that can and will kill if needed, he has a shady network of ppl with Nefer at the top who has also done questionable things, and he’s also the richest guy in Mondstadt. He’s morally grey, and I love that. He’s young, thinks that he’s matured now but is actually trying to run away from his past by putting on big guy clothes and a mask. You can see his immaturity shine through with both his physical appearance and his behaviour, being very sarcastic and sassy as well as a bit of a drama queen. He can get petty and mischievous and is incredibly easily rage-baitable lmao. I love how much that contrasts against his generally stoic but calm demeanour, it makes him human. You can tell he’s a 22 year old trying to act older than he is, and as a 22 year old myself I can say that him and Kaeya act realistic to their age more than most characters in the game. I genuinely think that Diluc is one of the best written characters in Genshin and he has soooo much potential. Heck, I main him and he even does nearly as much damage as my Varka, just a bit slower. I just wish that they made his design more accurate to what he should actually look like and that maybe one day we’ll get get a redesign, who knows.
Anyways sorry about the MASSIVE ramble, I just love him so much and wanted to get all that out. If you stuck through it all, congrats here’s a gold star ⭐
I’ve been cooking up a Genshin oc, her name is Bonnie and her horse is called Winnie (very creative ik)
She’s a sort of self-insert, but not completely. Anyway shes sassy, scary, but very sweet once you get past her hard exterior. Looks formal and composed but it doesn’t take long to see the cracks and that she’s unhinged and a bit of a girlfail. She’s a bounty hunter now and spends most of her time hunting down Fatui ever since she rebelled against them. She’s incredibly morally grey but her heart is in the right place, since she gravitates towards protecting the innocent and loves animals with her whole heart to the point of choosing them over humans. She often goes on revenge missions and she’s a former House of the Hearth kid. Her biggest flaw is her tendency to put herself in the worst possible situations for an adrenaline kick, and she gets herself into a LOT of bar fights because of her short temper.
Character description:
The “Crimson Outlaw” is a name that brings fear the moment that it’s uttered. Long gone are the days of the 10th Harbinger, but the scars she left on the land remain. A blanket of blood and ash covered the snowy hills and strongholds of Snezhnaya that one fateful night; the night she turned against her own. It was a night to never forget… or forgive.
The Knave pondered away. What was she to do, when her own daughter was the one to blame for such a cataclysm, especially when there was already some other lunatic terrorising the nation in the meantime? The other Harbingers were pressuring her to do something about the insolent girl.
“All because of a stupid dead horse!” The Marionette yelled across the table.
But The Knave knew that was only the last straw. She had known for a long time that one day, little Bonnie would snap. And she just let it happen.
Design variants:
I already have her full 5-part character story written down so I will share that soon too
Since we still don’t know anything about the 10th Harbinger, I’ll keep her in the role as the former 10th and if they suddenly lore drop something I might change it to her being Childe’s predecessor 🕺
I couldn't miss an opportunity to make epic geological phenotypes for eridians:D them rocks will look fly as hell on my watch!
Nerding out under the cut:)
For those interested, the igneous phenotype is inspired by granitic pegmatites, with hexagonal beryl crystals growing from it (of the aquamarine variety)
The sedimentary fella is a BIF, or a banded iron formation - a type of chemical sedimentary rock recording the years following the Great Oxygenation Event, with alternating bands of red jasper and magnetite/iron oxides:)
And the metamorphic eridian is inspired by an amphibolite, containing garnet gem porphyroblasts:)
I disappeared for 2 months bc of uni and had an epiphany so I completely redesigned my oc Robin who is now a vampire lesbian and scrapped my entire plot on a random Wednesday 💅
been wanting to draw this for aaaaages. Blaze doesn’t have a metal opposite like sonic! Think this is a little over designed but I’m happy where it’s headed
Shadow doesn't need to eat or sleep like regular mobians due to his Black Arms DNA and immortality:
understandable conclusion, but kind of boring imo
Vs
Shadow actually needs to eat and sleep more than regular mobians due to his Black Arms DNA, his chaos energy, and the fact that he's a teenager (but doesn't):
I’ve been pretty busy again but since it was my birthday yesterday and my boi Robin’s birthday today here’s an updated portrait reference I did for him again ✨
