A/N: This is Kaeya with the Disco Elysium skill system, because I miss him and I think it fits him really well. It's a scene from his hangout, the Liyue part, where—if you don't remember or criminally didn’t play it—Kaeya and the Traveler go to Liyue, meet a guy Kaeya saved from bandits a couple of times (but didn’t remember at first), and who is now being swindled by the local scammers. Kaeya already explained to him that he's being scammed, but didn't offer to help, instead advising him to reach out to local authorities. The Traveler then tries to convince Kaeya to help by telling him they think he's a good person, and he denies it, but agrees to help anyway. I always thought this would be fascinating to explore from his internal monologue POV, because his answers are so self-contradicting.
All dialogue is canon, I only wrote internal monologue.
Warnings: mentions of alcohol addiction and suicide ideation
Characters: Kaeya, Lumine
________
YOU - You walk away, but the traveler doesn't follow. You stop a few paces away and watch the traveler talk to the idiot who got scammed and his friends.
Aunt Zhang: That con-artist is human scum!
Guangzhi: Don't worry, Wu. We'll come with you to the Ministry to report the case.
Captain Wu: Surely I'll be able to get my Mora back... probably... hopefully...
PERCEPTION: The Traveler stays silent—she’s never been one for unnecessary words, and with her chatty fairy absent today, the quiet feels heavier than usual. Yet the faint crease in her brow betrays her resolve, as she turns to walk up to you with a look of determination.
CHESSMASTER [Trivial: Success]: Authorities? A tedious solution. She’s already decided—you’re the better choice, and she won’t leave without your agreement.
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): She stops before you, arms crossed, golden eyes sharp and unyielding. The silence stretches. Damn that absent pixie; at least Paimon’s whining would’ve given you an opening to deflect.
Crumble immediately.
2.[Composure - Legendary] Say nothing, stare her down.
3. [Chessmaster- Easy] Tell her there will be a price for your help, and she will be the one to owe you.
>4. Surely you can think up of ways to deflect even without the Celestia's baloon?
SILVER TONGUE - Use that 'martial arts hero' bit from earlier. Remind her how you teased her about secret vigilante work, play it off like she's taking this too seriously.
LOGIC - She IS a hero. Why pretend that it's a joke?
SILVER TONGUE - Precisely. By calling her a 'martial arts hero' — linking it to that dour Darknight persona, you make heroics sound absurd. Even she’d hesitate to embrace the comparison. Who willingly becomes another Diluc?"
ANGEL'S SHARE - She's friends with Diluc.
SILVER TONGUE - She's friends with everyone. She's friends with Paimon, but 'Emergency food' wasn’t coined for no reason.
Crumble immediately.
2.[Composure - Legendary] Say nothing, stare her down.
3. [Chessmaster- Easy] Tell her there will be a price for your help, and she will be the one to owe you.
>4. [Silver Tongue - Medium] Use that 'martial arts hero' jab again. Frame it as playful teasing - make her insistence on helping seem almost childish. The more she leans into heroics, the more ridiculous she'll sound.
SILVER TONGUE [Medium: Success] - "I am quite curious. How does our chivalrous martial arts hero intend to come to Captain Wu's rescue here?"
CHESSMASTER - What a delightfully naive question. She's not here with a plan - she's here to draft you as her personal strategist. Might as well invoice her for your help.
THE FOOL - I thought we agreed she's one of the people we will try to keep out of being transactional with? Also she did a lot for us in the past anyway.
THE LIST - Favors Count is 5 to 7 to her advantage, but she did try to screw us over with that hereditory sword.
YOU - The sword. That entire week you spent waiting for her to decide. The way she played along until the last moment. The way you almost believed she wouldn't do it.
She failed your test. That doesn't balance out. It outweighs everything.
ANGEL'S SHARE - This is exhausting, and you haven’t even had a drink today. Just walk away. Find a bottle. Forget this.
DRAMA - Just say that you don't know how to solve it anyway, so asking you is pointless.
KING IRMIN'S TRIAL [Trivial: Success] VERDICT: NOT A LIE.
The solution remains unconsidered, therefore unknown. No lie has been spoken. Your vision doesn't blur. The chains don't tighten. The old laws still shield you.
THE FOOL - But you could devise a plan if you tried. This technical truth might satisfy the law, but when did you start hiding behind loopholes with HER? She deserves better than that, try to reason with her...
CHESSMASTER - She deserves nothing.
Reasoning with people is a luxury you can't afford. That scar above your eye burns at the memory. You reasoned with Diluc too. You remember how that ended.
1.Give up and crumble.
2.[Silver Tongue - Easy] Amplify the 'vigilante hero' mockery. If she wants to play champion, paint her as naive - a wide-eyed storybook hero chasing windmills. The more absurd you make altruism sound, the less she'll press.
3.[Chessmaster- Easy] State your terms coldly. She wants your skills? She buys them.
4.[Drama - Easy] Let your voice go hollow. 'I don't know how to help' isn't a lie if you refuse to consider solutions. The chains won't tighten.
>5.Try to reason with her.
6. Say fuck it and leave to get a drink.
YOU - "There are countless victims of injustice in the world. We can't try to help each and every one of them, can we?"
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): She tilts her heard, as if she's heard something that doesn't quite make sense, and then says firmly, with no hesitation "But you're a good person, Kaeya."
SILVER TONGUE - What?
CHESSMASTER - WHAT???
LOGIC - She can't be serious. This *has* to be a joke.
DRAMA [Easy: Success]: She looks at your earnestly, no hint of sarcasm or dishonesty in her golden eyes. She means what she's said.
LOGIC [Legendary: Failure] - You've let her see the cracks in the mask. Even her little useless fairy caught on by now. You've manipulated *her* directly and admitted it on several occasions, why would she still be thinking of you as a good person?
CHESSMASTER [Impossible: Failure] Unless... unless this is her gambit. Not manipulation—absolution. The one move you can't counter. She was the bigger master liar all along!
THE FOOL - No, that's ridiculous, she's not. But she had traveled Teyvat. She's stood against the abyss and the archons. Seen through Signora's deceit, Childe's bravado, even Zhongli's contracts.
And when she looks at you—
Why does her voice sound like truth?
LOGIC - ....
CHESSMASTER - ...
ANGEL'S SHARE - No. You are a filthy sinner.
LOGIC - Yes. This correlates with the all known data.
ANGEL'S SHARE - Because you were always a dirty liar.
DRAMA - Even back then, under the rain, crying, you lied to Crepus.
ANGEL'S SHARE - You lied to them all. All that time. And for what? You failed to do anything.
ORDO FAVONIUS - You failed your duty.
KING IRMIN'S TRIAL - You failed your duty.
THE FOOL - But...
ANGEL'S SHARE - You failed everyone. The world would be better without you.
1. Say fuck it and leave to get a drink.
2.Say fuck it, leave to get a drink and kill yourself.
>3.DRAMA [Easy: Success] Don't do that in front of her, that would be horribly uncool.
YOU - What are you supposed to do then?
SILVER TONGUE - Play it cool. Pretend to be surprised, but condescendingly and sarcastically.
1. Say fuck it and leave to get a drink.
2.Say fuck it, leave to get a drink and kill yourself.
>3 [Silver Tongue - Medium] Cooly and sarcastically tell her you're surprised she thinks you're a good person.
SILVER TONGUE [Medium: Success] - "Oho, I'm surprised. I didn't know you thought of me as someone who helps other people unconditionally."
CHESSMASTER - Wait. Play along. Having the Descender believe in your goodness could be useful.
KING IRMIN'S TRIAL [Challenging: Failure] VERDICT: A LIE. It contradicts every known fact. Chains tremble at your throat.
DRAMA [Medium: Success]: You don't have to say it directly. Stay vague. Let her assumptions do the work.
KING IRMIN'S TRIAL [Challenging: Success]: Verdict shifts: NOT A LIE. You merely expressed surprise. The chains loosen.
THE FOOL - But she was the one who knew the bad parts and shady moves and still wanted to be your friend. If you don't contradict her now, wouldn't it be hollow after this?
CHESSMASTER - "Hollow". This is about the big picture, not your ridiculous feelings.
2.Say fuck it, leave to get a drink and then kill yourself.
3 [Drama - Medium] Say something evasive. Let her believe what she wants. The chains won’t tighten if you never quite agree.
4.[Silver Tongue - Legendary] Map the exit before she speaks—flatter her righteousness, then pivot to how exhausting virtue must be.
5.Crumble.
>6. Tell her you're not a good person.
YOU - "I'm genuinely flattered, but we both know that I'm not that kind of person really."
LOGIC: A half-measure. You didn’t deny it outright—just implied she’s mistaken. Coward’s truth.
CHESSMASTER: Smart. Now she’ll argue for your goodness, listing your virtues like a defense attorney. Let her convince herself.
ANGEL’S SHARE: Lies taste better with honey. Too bad you’ll drown them in wine later anyway.
THE FOOL: We both know.
But do you? Really?
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): She rolls her eyes, but with a fond smirk. Then, she starts counting on her fingers.
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): "You didn't want others to laugh at Captain Wu's woes." She bends down one finger. "You helped Captain Wu just because you were there, and you didn't even remember it." A second finger folds. "You even helped him think through where we can find the con-artist." Her third finger curls in.
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): She smiles confidently, a sure truimph written all over her face. "And that's why I believe you'd be willing to help."
SILVER TONGUE: Clever. Turning your own actions into evidence against you. She’s learning.
LOGIC: Three points. All factual. No obvious counterarguments.
ANGEL’S SHARE: Or she’s just stating the obvious. Even a drunk could see you’re softer than you pretend.
DRAMA [Easy: Success]: Her smirk says she knows she’s won. The worst part? She’s right.
THE FOOL: …She’s counting your good deeds. When did anyone ever noti—
CHESSMASTER: She's wrong. You forgot Captain Wu's debt entirely. If you truly cared, it would've lingered in your mind like wine stains on ledgers. But it didn't. That's the truth she's missing—you're not kind. You're indifferent.
THE LIST: Captain Wu: No strategic value. No political ties. No outstanding skills. Of course he slipped your mind. Useless people don't get remembered.
SILVER TONGUE: You only suggested where to find that con artist so Wu would stop whining. Basic crowd control, not compassion.
ANGEL'S SHARE: Ah. So you're worse than even you thought. Not just a liar—a liar who abandons the weak. How very... you.
THE FOOL: But... wouldn't you want to be the person she sees? Even if she's wrong about you now... couldn't you become that?
1.Crumble.
2.[CHESSMASTER - Medium] - Bargain for price.
3.[Silver Tongue - Medium] Keep deflecting! Pivot to her "naive heroics" again. If she wants to play this game, make her justify every rule.
>4.[Composure - Challenging] Crumble with dignity. Sound amused, but not shaken—a king conceding a chess move, but not the match. Let the laugh in your voice mask how her words linger.
Composure[Challenging: Success] - "Your logic is very straightforward… and quite endearing in its simplicity."
LOGIC - Deny now and you'll have to explain why. Admitting this means exposing the ledger in your mind where every kindness has a price.
CHESSMASTER: Checkmate. At least barter for favorable terms. If you're going down, make sure she pays for the privilege.
ANGEL'S SHARE: Or just drink until this conversation blurs into something less... revealing. First round's already poured.
THE FOOL: She's smiling at you. Not the smug grin of victory, but something warmer. Like she's seeing something you've long since buried.
DRAMA [Easy: Success]: The chains don't tighten. That's the worst part. This isn't a lie.
Run. Now. Before her words sink in any deeper—before that fragile hope in her eyes becomes something you might actually want to protect.
2. [Chessmaster- Easy] Betray her cleanly. One sharp cut. Report her next illegal action to Jean, "accidentally" leak her plans to the Fatui, let the consequences teach her what you won’t. Better she learns now.
3.[Chessmaster- Challenging] Betray her slowly, with consequences actually harsh. Become exactly what she thinks you’re not. She deserves better than a man who prices every kindness.
>4.Agree to help, but drown it in enough sarcasm to poison the sincerity.
5. [Silver Tongue - Legendary] Deflect desperately. Deploy every weapon in your arsenal - flash that signarure smile, spin a joke about knights in shining delusions, offer to buy her a treat. Anything to shatter this moment before it cracks you open.
YOU - "But I like how you think. So I'll indulge your martial arts hero aspirations for now."
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): Her smile widens, still confident, like she didn't doubt you even for a second.
THE FOOL: ...Isn't it worth it?
CHESSMASTER: Silence. The chessboard lies abandoned.
SILVER TONGUE: Silence. For once, your tongue turns to lead.
ANGEL'S SHARE: Silence. The old script whispers its tired line: Let them leave first. Yet your feet stay rooted.
LUMINE (THE GOLDEN TRAVELER): Of course she grabs you. Of course her hands are furnace-warm. Of course that infuriating smile never wavers as your traitorous pulse leaps before your brain can hiss "abort mission."
"It was the first time Wriothesley would meet the Chief Justice in his official capacity as Administrator of Meropide. Technically, they'd met once before—at his trial, where said Chief Justice had sentenced him as a mass murderer. So that was a promising start. Given the choice, Wriothesley would have preferred dealing with literally anyone else. It was absurd that there was no intermediary bureaucrat handling Meropide affairs, that everything went straight to the highest judicial authority in Fontaine. Some mid-level functionary would have been far easier to manipulate—to study their weaknesses, learn what made them tick, and carefully position himself as an indispensable ally. But no, he had to charm the one man in Fontaine supposedly immune to charm."
This is slowburn years long exploration of paranoid traumatized manipulator Wriothesley learning to trust and then falling for Neuvillette, the journey from when he first becomes the Warden to the canon time.
Genre: Devil Wears Prada if protagonist was playing 5d chess powerplays in her head and her boss was just there like :|
Characters: Neuvillette\Wriothesley, Sigewinne
Warnings: sfw, but mentions of dissociation, blood, violence and Rizzler's backstory.
He hates not having your full attention on him. he starts acting so annoying, so teasing to get your eyes back at him, even if you look irritated.
He climbs all over you, pretends that he doesn't care, which is doubly maddening, because he's so obvious about being needy, yet he denies it so vehemently.
You throw him down, roughly, grab his hands to tie his wrists and pin his arms over his head. He struggles and curses under you, but only for show, he doesn’t say the safeword or put any real strength into fight, and when you yank his pants down, his cunt is already wet for you.
You grin, slap his ass, and his skin is so tender, it colors pink immediately, and he yelps, shudders after every hit. You start slipping your hand to touch his cunt in-between the hits, alternating between the slaps and caressing his pussy, until the pain and pleasure blend together, you strike the soft flesh of his ass just as you stroke his clit. And he can’t help it, moans and bucks his hips, spreads himself wider for you. You tease his hole, his pink folds swollen and slick, and spank him at the same time, he whines, arches his back, his entrance pulses needily, leaking clear wetness, but you just circle it, do not enter
“Look who is such a fucking slut slut for me...”
“Fuck you…” he whispers, hiding his face in a pillow.
“I won’t, until you ask nicely,” you tease him, stroking his clit until he can't can't take it anymore
“Please….”
“Good boy,” you slip two fingers at once into his pussy, he’s so slick, that it goes easily. You fingerfuck him, while continuing to spank his red, achingly tender ass, and it makes such obscenely wet sounds, that he wiggles under you, bites on his lips to stifle the moans, tries to hide his blushing face in the pillows in humiliation. It doesn’t help, and very soon he comes, squirting, humping into your hand with high-pitched screams.
You let him ride the orgasm out and then turn him over onto his back, he’s soft and pliant in your hands, turns his head to the side, blushing, but obediently lets you spread his thighs. He’s sweet and pink all over under you, heated cheeks, tender peaks of nipples, reddened ass and thighs, swollen, glistening pussy. You nuzzle the head of your strap\cock at his hungrily pulsing entrance, and he can’t help it, thrusts up his hips with a needy whine.
“You want to be fucked so bad, don’t you?” you ask, smiling, sliding the length of your cock in between his puffy, trembling folds, hitting up his clit.
“Yes…” he mutters into the pillow, his head turned to the side in shame.
“Despite all that attitude, you’re just my little whore, aren’t you?” you lean down, whisper in his ear, your hand stroking his clit.
His legs spread a little more for you, and helplessly, he breathes out “Yes…”
You finally thrust into him and he gasps, arches under you.
“Say it,” you tell him softly, catching his chin to force him to look at you, buried deep inside him. “Beg me.”
“Please,” he whimpers, eyes sparkling from tears, chest raising high and fast. “Oh pleeease, fuck me, I’m your good little whore, just, please, fuck me…”
You cover his gaping mouth with a kiss and thrust into him hard, and he comes, moaning against your lips, squirting on your cock, his legs flailing in the air. You keep fucking him, and he’s incoherent under you, thrashing and begging, tears glistening in his eyes, red eyeliner running, to pleeeease fuck him, please use his cunt, he’ll be such a good obedient slut for you, just for you, you wont need anyone else, he’ll do anything, but please fuck him.
His pussy makes such obscenely wet sounds when you fuck it, he can’t even talk properly, just whines and writhes, absolutely helpless, open, squirts again and again.
When you finally slide out of him, he’s a mess, his cunt is swollen and sore, his thighs trembling and covered in his wetness. You untie his hands and he takes quick, hiccupping breaths, squeezes his eyes shut and bites his lips, turning away from you.
“Hey baby,” you whisper to him quietly, pulling him close. “You’ve been so good.”
He whines and finally throws his arms over your shoulders, presses himself against you desperately. You hold him close, stroke the sharp knobs on his spine, his shoulders, his arched neck, his thighs, still open for you, promise him that he’s such a good boy, until he relaxes, his fingers stop digging into you so harshly.
After, he’s shivering, pressing himself against you tightly.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, baby,” you whisper softly into his ear, but he tenses up.
“Don’t let me go,” he says so quietly you can barely hear it, despite him being so close. “No matter what, *please*, don’t let me go…”
You stroke the dimples on his back, and with your other hand, the nape of his neck where his awkwardly cropped up uneven hair ends, kiss his temples, side of his face, corner of his eye where his long eyelashes flutter in a desperate attempt to hide his tears.
“It’s okay,” you press your mouth against the corner of his bitten worried lips, until he turns his face to you, opens up. “I will be there.”
"It was the first time Wriothesley would meet the Chief Justice in his official capacity as Administrator of Meropide. Technically, they'd met once before—at his trial, where said Chief Justice had sentenced him as a mass murderer. So that was a promising start. Given the choice, Wriothesley would have preferred dealing with literally anyone else. It was absurd that there was no intermediary bureaucrat handling Meropide affairs, that everything went straight to the highest judicial authority in Fontaine. Some mid-level functionary would have been far easier to manipulate—to study their weaknesses, learn what made them tick, and carefully position himself as an indispensable ally. But no, he had to charm the one man in Fontaine supposedly immune to charm."
This is slowburn years long exploration of paranoid traumatized manipulator Wriothesley learning to trust and then falling for Neuvillette, the journey from when he first becomes the Warden to the canon time.
Genre: Devil Wears Prada if protagonist was playing 5d chess powerplays in her head and her boss was just there like :|
Characters: Neuvillette\Wriothesley, Sigewinne
Warnings: sfw, but mentions of dissociation, blood, violence and Rizzler's backstory.
The sea speaks more honestly to those willing to drown
There are some things you never want to hear your secret years-long crush saying, such as “I’m getting married,” “I think we should stay friends” or “I’m the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity.” Wriothesley’s very bad, no good day of trying to unravel conspiracy theories, fumbling a tea party with Chief Justice and learning Teyvat’s ancient history and vishap lore from the leading expert lector.
Characters: Tighnari, Venti, Heizou x Kazuha, Thoma x Diluc
Warnings: nsfw, oral obviously, gagging, rough sex, bondage, spanking, slight degradation, vibrators. well, threesomes, if that wasn’t obvious.
Wordcount: 1,5k
Tighnari
Tighnari sucks your cock like it's a work assignment. He's serious and focused, there's no hesitation or shyness in him, despite him sitting naked on his knees in front of you, only a slight frown of concentration and ears attentively tilted forward, like he's figuring out the best solution to a problem. He doesn't start slowly, instead, immediately takes you in deep, starts bobbing his head up and down fast and diligent. As with everything he does, he's very good and he knows it.
But his seriousness also makes him very fun to provoke, so you turn on the vibrator up his ass and his entire body jolts up in surprise. He gives you a glare, disapproving from being distracted, but with his mouth full of your dick, it looks adorable instead of menacing. He keeps working on you with the same steady rhythm, but as you increase power of the vibrator, he starts gradually giving in into arousal, blush spreading over his cheeks and eyes lidding over. In a little time, his composure starts breaking, he loses the hard pace, his own cock leaking and knees spreading involuntarily on the floor. When you put your hand on his head and bury your fingers in his soft hair, he melts under your touch completely, his ears tremble and flatten back, tail twitching. You fuck his slack and drooling mouth while he moans quietly and needily around your cock, his eyelashes fluttering, eyes hazy from pleasure. He comes with a shudder when you tell him how well he's doing, what a good little pet he is and how much you like fucking his mouth.
After, you pull him into your lap and tell him he's done a good job. His ears perk up, but he says with almost insulted peevishness, despite still leaning against you, sweet and weak after orgasm "I know, and I wish you'd stop interrupting me." You chuckle and kiss his blushing cheek. "You should let go sometimes and just enjoy yourself, baby."
Venti
Venti is wearing his favorite lacy lingerie, with high stockings that leave his thigh tattoo on display, and you internally debate whether to take his panties off or not before spanking him, but in the end decide to leave them on. In a few minutes, you're glad you did, the intricate white lace looks delicious on his reddened tender flesh. and he moans sweetly when you slide your fingers under it to grope his sensitive ass. You turn him over, and he immediately spreads and lifts his legs, offering himself up, his bright eyes meeting yours, open and shameless.
You crawl on top of him until you’re sitting on his chest, and when you lean forward to tie up his hands, he giggles, completely unfazed, lifts his head to lick hungrily at the side of your cock. When you look down, he gleefully presents his open mouth to you. You slide your fingers into his hair, your knees around his head, and ram your cock deep inside his throat. Venti’s form was made by his own will and functions as he desires, and he has been a whore for several hundred years, so he doesn’t have a gag reflex at this point at all (unless you want him to gag. Which you do, sometimes. But not today)
You fuck his mouth brutally, hitting the back of his throat at every thrust, and he screams around your dick, writhes in ecstasy under you, his own cock bulging in his panties, pretty pink head peaking from under the lacy band. For a moment, you slow down, look down at him and he meets your eyes, his own green and sparkling with tears under the fluttering eyelashes. You gently run your fingers through his disheveled bangs, your other hand reaching to stroke him between his open legs.
“You’re such a fucking slut, aren’t you,” you say quietly, not really a question, and he grins around your cock, shamelessly raises his hips to rut against your palm. You grip his hair harshly and bury yourself in his throat and he comes with a moan when you grope his dick. You come over his face and he opens his mouth wide, his pink tongue sticking out, trying to catch as much as he can.
After, he curls against you, lets you clean and hold him. He created his own body, so he can control it, make it resistant to weakness like this, but he likes it, feeling raw and tender after being used, he always liked bringing others joy, at least for a few moments, be it from his songs or his body. And when you whisper sweet praises for him, stroke his hair and back, hold him close, and just for now, it feels like even as he truly is, weak and sinful, not living up to the visage of the Nameless Bard, he can be good enough.
Kazuha x Heizou
They are kneeling in front of you, naked and flushed, both of their mouths on your cock. Heizou throws you a mischievous glance, draws a long teasing lick from the base to the tip, and almost climbs on top of Kazuha’s lap, both of them already hard and pressed against each other. Kazuha doesn’t answer a provocation, focused on pleasuring you, his sweet mouth working on your tip. Heizou reaches the tip and leans into Kazuha aggressively. They kiss around your cock, whimpers muffled with their mouths full.
You slide your hand into Heizou’s bangs and he follows your lead, lets Kazuha go, giving you his mouth with a string of saliva breaking between them. You fuck him, reaching deep in his throat, while Kazuha holds him, their arms intertwined. You then turn to Kazuha, fill him in until he chokes, his fingers digging into Heizou’s shoulders, who watches excitedly.
You start changing between them, slide through the swollen tender lips, their mouths open readily for you, cheeks pressed against each other, pink tongues sticking out sweetly, waiting for you to fuck them. They writhe against each other, Heizou is unashamedly humping Kazuha’s thigh, and even the usually collected samurai rutting against detective’s leg.
Diluc x Thoma
Diluc watches you fuck Thoma’s mouth, intensely focused, frowning so that he looks almost severe. He lost his youth to trauma and hunting darkness, and now he feels insecure and inexperienced. He’s used to holding himself to the highest standards and not being perfect at something makes him feel worthless, no matter how many times you tell him otherwise. He is not jealous or bitter towards Thoma, though, he’s grateful to have his support and guidance, an example to follow instead of feeling completely lost. He wraps his arms around the blonde and studies hungrily how easily and deeply Thoma can take you into his mouth, how good he can work your cock, expertly twisting his head while bobbing up and down.
When you turn to him and ask if you’d like to be next, he looks down, blushing, clears his throat and says in a controlled, flat voice that he’s sure you’ll have better time without him.
You catch his chin and tilt it upward until he reluctantly meets your eyes.
“That’s bullshit. You’re doing so good for me. I want you, beautiful.”
He blushes harder, Diluc can blush in such a brilliant scarlet like no one else you’ve ever seen, and slowly, timidly opens his lips for you. You tell him “good boy” and slowly, carefully slide inside his mouth. Thoma holds the redheads’ hand and wraps another one around him, kisses the corner of his mouth, whispering reassurance. You thrust softly, gently, but Diluc frowns, stubbornly moves to take you in deeper himself and almost chokes at the attempt. You stop, let him get his bearings, while Thoma strokes his back, presses himself against him, tells him to relax. With some time and patience, you move again, deeper and deeper every time until you hit the back of his throat. He gags a little, but it passes quickly and both you and Thoma cover him in praises. You gently run your fingers down the side of his face, press your palm against his cheek, stretched with your cock buried inside his mouth, and meeting your eyes watching him in adoring hunger, in that moment he believes that he’s wanted, and doesn’t have to prove himself worthy and that he’ll be wanted even if he “fails” by his own expectations. He moans quietly, leans into you so trustingly as you’re not used from his ever guarded nature, and you can’t help it, slide out of him and lean down to kiss his swollen smiling lips. He coughs briefly, but then laughs, a choked, unfamiliar sound from him. Melting in embrace from you and Thoma, his bright red hair mixing with Thoma’s russet gold, he finally believes that he might be okay in the end.
A\N: I guess technically it’s hurt\comfort. sigh. I don’t like to center my writing of trans characters on negative emotions, if you’ve read my previous stuff, you know when I write afab! male characters it’s like. Just guys, who happen to have pussies, having sex. And that’s how I initially started to write Scara’s afab first time prompt, but his canon storyline is so overtly about struggle of dysphoria, anxiety and self-hatred that it felt wrong to not incorporate it into my explicitly trans fic. So I had to rewrite it completely and I’m taking his part out of the compilation so ppl who want to avoid heavy topics and just have a good time reading smut can skip it. Otherwise, give it a try if you like complicated brats, I think it’s one of my good pieces and it has a happy ending.
Warnings: not sfw. graphic descriptions of dysphoria, anxiety attack, dissociation, angst, self-hatred, allusion to self-harm. Fingering, edging, overstim, spanking, oral (character receiving), vaginal sex. Cock stands for strap too, as usual.
Wordcount: 2k
You try to start slow and gentle with him, but he huffs mockingly.
“How long are you going to be wasting my time?”
“This is literally your first time, you little git.”
“Maybe you mortals need to be coddled, but I’m not a weakling.”
But despite his bravado, he’s tense when you kiss him, he doesn’t know how to properly kiss you back and what to do with his hands, so they just limply hang down. When you start opening his clothes to reveal his chest, he’s becoming more and more wooden. You try kissing him, his cheek, his neck, but it doesn’t relax him and he refuses to meet your eyes, still painfully clenched up, jaw locked tightly, like he’s preparing for something bad that he needs to just get through. He is not out publicly yet, still clinging to the belief that if he conforms to her expectations well enough, his mother will accept him. He’s so critical of himself all the time, especially of his body, which is just horrible and wrong, he hates seeing it himself and hates even more the thought of someone else seeing him naked.
“Hey, are you okay?” you ask quietly. “We can stop.”
“No!” he snaps. “I’m great. I don’t need to stop, are you stupid?!”
He wants you, is the thing. He wanted you for some time, got butterflies in his stomach, fantasized about you at nights. He wanted you more than anyone else in his life. So if he can’t bear even for you to see him, to have sex with him, then obviously something is deeply, fundamentally broken in him, no hope for him at all.
So desperately, he tries to find a roundabout solution. He’s still wearing a skirt, which he normally hates, but now it’s convenient, you could fuck him without taking it off.
“We don’t have to take off my clothes. There’s nothing good to see anyway. ”
He sounds frantic and frustrated, eyes alight with anger, and this does not look like a good situation to continue to you.
“It’s not a big deal, we can do it some other time when…”
“It’s just a cunt, you don’t need to see it!” He finally meets your eyes and you realize the brightness in them is not from anger, it’s from held back tears, because he believes you are rejecting him no matter what you say, “Why wouldn’t you just fuck it?!”
He hates his body and he doesn’t even want to have a pussy, but somehow subconsciously he feels like the one he has is also wrong, not even good enough for fucking, that whoever sees it will also recoil in disgust, as he does when he sees himself in the mirror. It’s ridiculous and he knows it, but he can’t help feeling like this, and he hates himself even more for this idiotic, nonsensical weakness, so this spirals into this vicious, unending cycle of self-disgust that he can’t see a way out of. What the fuck is so wrong with him that he can have a person he wants so much touching him and still be petrified, when it’s so easy for everyone else, and when…
You scoop him into your arms, turn him around so he doesn’t have to face you and hug him close to your chest. When he gasps and tries to protest, you clasp your hand over his mouth, kiss his ear.
“Don’t worry baby, I won’t look. But you need to calm the fuck down.”
He wants to struggle, but he’s so touch starved that when you embrace him, your warm breath on his skin makes him melt, especially combined with the wave of relief from your promise. He stops fighting you, curls up into a little ball in your arms, hiding his blushing face in a pillow, humiliated by how good it feels to be held, how little it takes.
“You don’t want me,” he says, miserable, but stubbornly proud, when you let go of his mouth. “You just pity me. I don’t want you to be here just because you feel bad for me.”
“I want you. I just wouldn’t want to fuck someone while they’re having a nervous breakdown. You or anyone else, for that matter.”
“It’s fine,” he says firmly. “I’m fine. I will be fine. Just do what you want to me, ignore my reactions, and soon I won’t even feel anything. It’s okay. I’m a puppet.”
It’s the conviction in his voice, the absolute certainty that there’s no better option that breaks your heart a little.
“Fucking hell, do you even hear yourself?”
“Why?” he says, face pressed against pillow, but calm, limp in your arms, a puppet with cut strings, and you hate it. ”It’s true, I am not like normal humans. You don’t have to treat me as one. It’ll be easier for the both of us, in the end.”
Maybe I just want you to feel good, baby.”
“Pffft,” he snorts like it’s ridiculous, like you’re naive and this option is not even on the agenda, and also so stupid he doesn’t even want to argue about it. “Even for humans, first time is supposed to be painful.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“No, everyone knows it, and…”
You clasp your hand over his mouth again and he starts squirming, noises muffled by your palm, but his protests die down as soon as your other hand starts siding down his body.
“You’re so bossy for a little brat, aren’t you?”
You flip up his skirt and slap his ass, and he jolts up in your arms, gasps against your skin. You stroke the affected skin first gently, then with more and more pressure, until groping it, fingers digging into his tender flesh. “Maybe be a good doll and let me handle this for you.”
He didn’t know it could feel like this, not even when he came thinking of you before, so good, like he’s safe, being taken care of, but also so sweetly helpless, unable to resist. His head is light and dizzy with desire when you caress his thighs, nervously and instinctively clenched up, and he can’t remember his millions of concerns when you whisper “Open up for me, baby.”
He lets your hand between his legs, you slide into his panties and find him already wet, but when you stroke his clit and quietly tell him “Good boy,” it runs through him like lightning, eyes opening wide, moan escaping from his lips, his entire body arching up against you.
“Yeah, that’s right, baby,” you keep caressing his clit, and he writhes more and more against you. “Doesn’t it feel good?”
His hand grips abruptly at your wrist, his slender fingers digging deep, and for a moment you think he’ll try to tear you off him, but then you realize that instead, he presses you closer to himself. You smile against his neck, the hand that kept at his mouth slides down, stroking his throat and down to his chest. At the same time, you slide your other hand deeper in between his legs, find his wet, pulsing entrance. You push two fingers into him, and he shudders against you, his fingers clenching at your wrist, but his cunt is wet and ready for you, stretching sweetly and leaking, his hips bucking against you. His breath is quick and frantic, heart beating rapidly, and then his fingers find your hand that isn’t buried inside of his pussy, leads it down his chest and then under the clothes, under the bra, to find and caress his small tits, and he whines sweetly, arches up, hard nipples poking at your palm. But when you take your fingers out of his pussy and press the head of your cock against his entrance, he tenses up again, his muscles spasming.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! Just do it! It’s supposed to feel good for you when it's tight, isn’t it? So just fuck it, I can take it!”
He shuts up with a tiny gasp when you press your teeth into the side of his neck, which lets you keep groping his tits.
“I’ve never met someone, for whom a ballgag is so obviously needed for survival before. It’s going to be okay, baby, relax.”
You stroke his clit and massage his breasts, cutting his protests short, his hands clutching helplessly at yours, not trying to stop you, but just trying to be grounded.
“What if it’s not going to be okay?” he asks quietly, his face buried in a pillow. “What if I’m just built wrong, if it’s just always going to hurt when you try to fuck me?”
“Then we’ll figure out something to do that doesn’t involve penetrating your pussy. It’s not that hard, baby.”
“You would do that for me?”
“Of course, don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to leave you just because I can’t fuck your cunt.”
“Really?” he asks, choked, trying for sarcasm, but failing badly, a raw edge in his voice.
you would just switch to eating him out, but he seems pretty hung up on the inability to take you in, but from how easy it was to fit your fingers into him, how he seemed to enjoy it, you’re pretty sure the issue is psychological. So you stroke his clit, squeeze his breasts and kiss at the side of his jaw. You can feel his entrance involuntarily pulsing open and you push the head of your cock into him, feeling him stretching wider. He turns his head to you in alarm, but you catch his mouth in a kiss, keep caressing his body and slowly moving deeper into him. His fingers move from your wrists to intertwine with your hands, and when you squeeze back, he comes so quickly in your arms, before your cock is even fully sheathed inside of him.
You hold him through the orgasm, then slide out of him, but then he turns in your arms, until he’s under you, he’s looking up at you, instead of being held.
“I want more,” he breathes out, hot and heavy, and before you can think of the answer, he pulls his clothes open, opening his bra and revealing his chest, and then tugs his skirt and soaked panties down. He lies under you, both trembling and determined, his breath fast and nervous for exposing himself to you after trusting you won’t be disgusted with him, that you’’ll *want him*.
“You’re so beautiful,” you run your eyes over him and kiss him, hard, and he presses himself against you, kisses you back with desperate abandon, but still when you break away from each other, he asks, his voice small. “Really?”
In response, you pepper him with hungry kisses, from the neck down the chest, ribs, stomach until you cover his swollen pink pussy with your mouth, while he’s leaking sweetly under your lips. When he comes, and he comes quickly, moaning loudly, you pull him close and kiss his lips with the taste of his own arousal.
“Really,” you tell him softly, while he’s blushing, soft and squirming against you. He shoots you a wry little look that you already came to associate with trouble coming, and says, trying to sound superior, but failing because of mischievous little smiles breaking his act
“So you like this body? That’s so degenerate of you, who would even like something so ugly and…”
He yelps and shuts up when you forcefully turn him over to lay on his stomach and slap his ass, but he looks pleased afterwards.
“There are much better ways to get spanked, you little brat.”
He arches his back, popping up his ass and spreading his thighs to show off his wet flushed pussy, entrance pulsing up open for you. Then he looks at you over the shoulder, eyes glinting in excitement, and sticks out his pink little tongue at you.
This is bullet points rewrite for Inazuma general plot structure, bc I think it had so much potential, but was horrifically scuffed in game. If I keep something from canon unchanged, I’ll just say so without retelling the entire thing to keep the length down, bc it’s gonna be A LOT already.
Some disclaimers: I’m not trying to fix every single problem, just what I see as major structural failures. I will reference my problems, but you can read my explanations on them more in depth in my “inazuma ranting” tag.
This is also not envisioned as free for all fanfic where I can write whatever I want, but aimed to be actually feasible to see in game, bc it’d be unfair and I want to show that Inazuma could be improved in the same constraints that hoyo writers had. So please don’t ask why I didn’t do wildly inconsistent thing that would be cool, but genshin would never actually do.
I’m aiming to retain all relevant lore and achieve basically same worldstate in the end, including character arcs, for the most part, because I presume them to be integral to the larger strategic plotline of the game. Which means I can’t drastically change characterization and major plot beats like the decrees, rebellion, Raiden has to be a sympathetic ally in the end, etc. I’m also trying to keep genshin’s general tone and modus operandi, bc like, target audience includes 13 yolds and I can’t just “make Inazuma good” by turning it into like, a gruesome and complex power struggle of political factions like Fallout New Vegas.
List of main issues I want to address: pacing in general, rebellion pacing especially, lack of impact and continuity of effects of vision loss on people, lack of setup for the stasis vs transience aka ei vs makoto conflict, character arcs: raiden, ayaka, kazuha, kokomi, yoimiya, kujou sara. And more!
Initially I wanted to make a single post, but it’s already 3k and I’m only up to Raiden’s first duel and I plan to cover post-archon quest content too, like Raiden and Yoi story quests, so I decided to split it up instead of posting like 20k monstrosity. So remember, this is for now mostly a setup.
EDIT: Part 2
Raiden’s motivations\Reasons for vision hunt
Ok, so one of the biggest principal changes is that vision hunt and sakoku decree are active Raiden’s decisions, instead of Fatui’s plot that she’s just passively allowing to happen. Raiden closed the country, but she’s ok with Fatui starting a civil war and selling delusions, bc it doesn’t “affect eternity”, like??? I honestly think that the current plot of her people dying in a civil war meant nothing to her is much worse than her starting vision hunt decree out of misguided plan to ultimately do better for people.
I mean ok, we have to have closed borders to reference Japan’s history, sure, but like, the whole point of isolationist policies like this is to prevent the outsiders’ influence on the country. So she should not be ok with Fatui schemes at any point.
I mean, if it was fallout new vegas AU, I’d keep it to show that dictator doesn’t not care about foreign powers exploiting it’s people as long as it profits the empire and helps to keep people subjugated, but like. Then raiden can’t be uwu waifu. So we gonna give her good intentions and integrity, but misunderstanding of humanity due to closing herself off instead.
Now to why would she close the country and institute sakoku decree. I want to tie this in with another plotline that is just. Kinda floating at sidelines at the moment, but I think could work nicely in tandem. The Scaramouche destroying Raiden Gokaden, the five schools of weapon smithing, which were canonically highly valued by Raiden.
I’m not gonna recount Scara’s entire plotline, but basically he went on a misguided crusade against Raiden Gokaden and managed to cause fall of 4 out of 5 weapon-smith schools.
Game says that he like, tampered with the schools and covertly led to their ruin, which like?? They never found anyone guilty, like the most prized weapon art smiths of your country fall apart and you’re like oh well, I guess Yashiro commission is just bad at it’s job?
There is a plot point in this story where Isshin weapon smiths, unable to replicate a faulty design that was Raiden’s commission tampered by Scara, were scared of Raiden’s wrath and decided to flee to Snezhnaya. I want to change it to be that there is an event, where ALL weapon schools receive same commission at the same time, and Scara tampers with it.
Just as in canon, scared smiths, but now from 4 schools, not one, are manipulated by Fatui to flee to Snezhnaya, But we add a new NPC, the most talented blade smith who had a vision. Fatui frame him as the ring leader, as if they were running not to save their lives because of the tampered design, impossible to fulfil, but that this was a betrayal because of his ambitions.
After this, Raiden has legitimate cause to feel like her eternity is threatened. She sees weapon art schools, one of the most prized country’s traditions being ruined in a moment because of what she thinks is ambitious hubris of one vision holder, who colluded with outsiders. So she closes Inazuma and declares a vision hunt, to prevent this from ever happening again.
But ironically, in truth it was the fault of not just Fatui, but specifically a puppet without a vision that she herself created and failed to supervise. This brings the main idea of the plotline from “Fatui evil, Raiden passive” to “Solipsist goddess who doesn’t understand humanity tries to protect her people by locking them in stasis and taking their ambitions, but the real case of tragedy was her negligence and lack of empathy all along, and this is what needs to be changed.”
Interlude and plot setup
We start with similar plotline. Traveler tries to go to Inazuma, learns that it’s closed, talks to Inazuman NPC to learn more. Here we’re introduced to the general idea that Inazuma was closed off due to one traitor blade smith with a vision who sold off Raiden Gokaden to Fatui.
We go to Beidou’s tournament, which goes basically the same, we meet Kazuha and watch a beautiful cutscene about his dead friend who challenged Raiden to a duel, and now Kazuha tries to find someone who can reignite his vision. I will actually add changes to Kazuha’s storyline, but it be will later.
then we arrive to Inazuma, go through the same bureaucracy loops with Thoma on Ritou, to show the barriers to outsiders and also to illustrate how Thoma is the best fixer when he manages to drop a fee from 1 mil to like 10 gold by promising to have a dinner with government official.
But we’re cutting the second part of Ritou, with the boring plot about like merchant from Mond scamming people with the local police and then Traveler delivering love letter or whatever. I mean, we can keep this as an optional side quest, if like hoyo thinks the lore about love letter is essential for the Ayato’s quest or smth, but not as an Archon quest.
Instead, we put a part of Yoimiya’s quest there. I think Yoi’s quest is relevant enough to stay in the Archon quest, unlike Ayaka’s, but it’s slapped into a place where it ruins pacing. So instead, we’re cutting it up in parts and inserting it into main storyline.
On Ritou, while doing bureaucracy bullshit, we meet Yoimiya, and play the part of her quest about her helping a guy with a vision to escape from his former best friend, who is now a guard hunting him. It helps to show the rift that vision hunt brings not only with the outsiders, but with inside of the country as well.
Ghost of Makoto\Transience setup
another key point that I think is integral to fixing Inazuma is planting seeds for Makoto’s reveal from the start. I really like the Stasis vs Transience conflict from raiden’s second story quest, where raiden believed in eternity as lack of change, a perfect state maintained until the rest of time, while her twin Makoto believed in eternity as never-ending change, where people’s dreams constantly evolve, nature of them chasing these dreams never changes.
but it feels like it came out of nowhere and raiden just speedruns character development in like an hour, so a lot of people ended up feeling like it was just about Raiden mourning her sister, instead of raiden coming to understand makoto’s belief system and through that unlocking makoto’s final connection and then being able to let go.
so we need to first of all, introduce makoto’s ideas of transience from the start, and also empathize the conflict of them with raiden’s stasis.
and it doesn’t mean we’ll spoil the reveal about the second raiden shogun! we don’t have to ever use makoto’s name, just her title as a raiden and sprinkle her ideas throughout the land. We know hoyo area designers can do that stuff really well (guizhong’s relics being scattered all over liyue, rukkhadevata’s shadow in the aranara quest).
like, it’s strange that Makoto primarily ruled and shaped country by herself while Ei was just a warrior, yet we do not have Makoto’s influence visible. We need to add ideas of transience into fundamentals of Inazuma,
“Transience is the dream of the nation of thunder. We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish, and enjoy the unexpected silence of the dim lamp-lit nights.” - Guide to Transience talent book.
add these ideas all over the place, esp near sakura. And let’s draw player’s attention a couple of times specifically to the internal contradiction of these ideas of transience being integral to inazuma and raiden’s current hatred of change.
like, we need even 13 yolds and twitch streamers to remember this, so lets make paimon say like
“Huh, this shrine to raiden shogun says that eternity is the pursuit of fleeting dreams, but doesn’t raiden shogun fucking hates dreams?? I wonder, what made her change her mind about them to the total opposite!“
this and more subtle puzzles\locations with focus on transience for people who pay more attention will add the much needed setup for makoto’s reveal
Kamisato siblings
ok, first things first, Ayato being absent without any explanation while his little sister is plotting treason and his malewife Thoma is about to be executed on the streets is unacceptable.
like I know it’s marketing or whatever and he’s not being released but we need his model, hoyo. If we 200% CAN’T have his model, we need to come up with solid excuse why he’s not here. Like idk, he’s helping the war refugees or smth
And we need hints at his presence\influence throughout the story. Like oh, here’s group of refugees who were helped by Yashiro commissioner, they are relocating to new homes, I guess Ayato is really busy. Oh, here is Fatui’s camp where everyone is slaughtered and boba tea cups are littered around, I wonder what is up with that.
and also, Ayaka is organizing resistance behind his back, and we never meet him bc Ayaka actively tries to hide traveler from him.
bc like, Ayaka doesn’t have a development arc in archon quest. She’s just kind of there, being perfect. Like in her story quest that hoyo makes you do at gun point, you like, go on a date, learn that she’s lonely and has trouble connecting with people due to the pressure of having to project an image of perfection and societal distance, do an investigation to uncover her late mother’s fox fursona roleplay diary which she used to cope her with own societal pressure. Which like. Ok, sure, but but this wet socks quest is not an archon quest material. It should be just a normal story quest.
no, Ayaka’s real conflict is wanting to prove herself to her brother, bring real difference to the world. This is her ambition, she literally gained her vision while fighting Ayato in a training, she wanted to show him that she’s strong enough to handle responsibility, he named her Shirasagi Himegimi after she won that fight
but during a civil war, watching people suffer, her role as a cultural figurehead is not enough. She wants to help, but she’s afraid to act, because this will undermine Yashiro Commission and her brother worked so hard to build it back up after Raiden Gokaden fall. so she organizes resistance behind her brother’s back in secret, to help, but without compromising Kamisato name
this basically tracks with what happens in game, but we spell it out and expand on this later.
Getting Traveler to help
next, let’s throw out the weird edging introduction where traveler is not allowed to see Ayaka the first time. like??? bro, we’re friends with 2 archons and heads of their governments, you’re not that important. and it can’t be to protect her identity, bc like. You go to Kamisato estate! You’re told who she is! If you wanted to betray her, that would be enough already.
another awkward thing is that Traveler, who agrees to do every stupid quest they meet, suddenly refuses to help the resistance.
I think we should reframe their convo a little, like Traveler says hey I’d love to help, but my primary goal is to get info about my sibling from an Archon, so I don’t want to go against her.
To which Ayaka says oh, I totally get you, you see, I am myself a culture figurehead and a nominal princess and I can’t speak up against the decree, bc that will hurt Yashiro Commission. But I’m not asking you to fight Raiden Shogun in a duel or smth, I’m just asking you to help people with the resistance, which we do totally in secret. No one will know! Also, how are you going to see Raiden? She’s locked up and doesn’t appear in public. But my big brother is a head of the Commission, if anyone can get you an audience, it’s him. So help me help people and I will ask him to help you see Shogun!
she secretly believes that after traveler sees ppl suffering, they will change their mind and help willingly, same as in canon, but she’s more subtle about it
Rebellion connection
my other problem with vision hunt is that the 3 quests they force you to do about meeting people who lost their visions are like. not good. The concept is interesting, but they are just kinda boring and meandering. They lack dramatic impact. They could do better. So we’re not doing these 3 quests rn, but don’t worry about it, we will get to the effects of vision loss
Instead, ayaka sends us to help Yoimiya and we do the same quest we do in archon quest - help her to free someone from prison dungeon. It goes the same, we get to the dude being mistreated by cops, Kujou Sara steps up and lets us go
But then it’s like, we need to get this dude out of Inazuma city. Cops know he escaped! They will just come for him again! There is only one place that will take him and it’s the watatsumi rebels.
Common complaint about Inazuma is that other countries feel like found families and Inazuma doesn’t, bc characters from resistance and rebellion basically don’t interact, and it’s true. And like, we can get them together! Thoma knows Kazuha, Kazuha knows Gorou, Gorou in canon went to recoinsanse missions to Narukami island.
So, Gorou visits the tea house to pick up the Vision Dude, and the gang has the hotpot meet up. Everyone is there (except Kokomi bc ok hoyo, we’re saving up for dramatic battle reveal, and i think her reveal would fuck up banner schedule). Ayaka, Thoma, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Gorou. and Teppei! Who is here bc he was recruited by Gorou. He’s actually from Narukami island, not Watatsumi, and he had nothing to do with visions, but he’s an idealist, he believes in freedom, so he joined rebellion. fun times are had, Ayaka tries to play srs bsns lady host, but breaks into giggling at The Shenanigans, Gorou is overly polite but adorable and apologizes to Ayaka about The Shenanigans in which everyone but him participates, Yoi is a life of party and the Shenanigans and later has to be bodily stopped by Kazuha from organizing fireworks right here, right now, Thoma and Teppei both get sick from eating Ayaka’s nasty cakes that she threw into soup, bc Thoma is just into oral stuff and Teppei is so earnest and eager to prove himself and impress ppl, haha comic relief, look how sweet and funny this guy is and all characters get along so great with him
bc like, I think Teppei has a problem of a) not having enough screen time b)not having any interesting characterization moments to make him stand out 3)not having other playable and already likeable characters interact with him
so this scene can serve not only to bring that “unlikely bunch of people becoming friends and working together” connection to life, but also to endear Teppei to the players
Vision Loss Effects\ Yoimiya and Thoma
ok, next Ayaka asks Traveler to do that one quest about martial arts master losing their vision. I think it’s the one quest from 3 about vision loss with most drama, but the real reason is that it introduces Yae Miko and we need to do this before leaving for the rebellion. Like, in theory, it could be switched to another, better quest that lets us meet Yae Miko, but honestly, this is not one of Inazuma archon quest problems so I can’t be arsed. Feel free to imagine a cooler intro instead.
when we go back to tea house, we learn that Yoimya’s vision has been taken away. She has been recognized in that last prison raid and the guards came for her later, and she didn’t fight bc there were kids and her old father around.
She’s completely changed. Her innate optimism, her belief in people and their dreams has been drained from her like a sunshine from a dark cellar. But she’s still Yoimiya!! She came here to warn you bc she still cares even if she had her own joy taken from her. She tries to smile and reassure you that it’s ok, she’s fine, but her smile is visibly strained, she’s never had to fake it before so she doesn’t know how. She wears a vision, but it’s a fake one, because her pops said that maybe having it here would help and she agreed, tried to pretend for him that it does help, bu. It very obviously doesn’t.
Ayaka is horrified. She apologizes to Yoimiya, tries to think of ways to help her, but Yoi just laughs humorlessly. “It won’t ever touch you, princess.”
She’s immediately disgusted at herself and apologizes, tries to take it back, this isn’t her, she would never say this, and not to her friend! But also, it’s so hard to care now and she can’t remember why it’s so important to care at all.
Ayaka is shaken. Bc it’s true! She is a privileged noble, vision hunt will not come for her! She is playing at the resistance from the safety of anonymity, while people like Yoimiya actually risk themselves and pay the price!
And this is when the news that Thoma was arrested and about to be 100th vision taken at the feet of the statue comes. Tenryou commission truly strikes back.
Ayaka is in uproar. She’s ready to go herself and fight for Thoma, especially after Yoi’s words. She’s sick and tired of being a perfect princess, she can’t allow any more of her friends, her family come to harm because they don’t have her protection. Clearly Thoma being a theatrical execution is a blow specifically against Yashiro commission and Kamisato family in particular, and if Shogun has beef with her, well, she can settle it with HER instead of going after her friends!
Traveler stops her. This is what they want. If Ayaka openly moves against the Shogun, the entire Yashiro commission falls. Even if Ayaka is in the right! No, it’s the Traveler who will go to save Thoma
But traveler needs raiden’s good will for the info, they can’t confront raiden openly, it was the deal from the start!
But at this point traveler has seen too much, the divide in the country, the change and suffering of their own friends, and they can’t allow all of Yashiro commission take the fall.
This is when the Traveler decides to take a stand.
