100% Agree On Vani Being A Catalyst. My Own HC's For Him Are:

100% agree on Vani being a catalyst. My own HC's for him are:

he's a physician from Fontaine

he wields a cryo vision

he hurls icicles like knives

he scales with HP

his skill increases his cryo DMG & converts DMG to himself into healing for his party members for a set duration based on his max HP

his burst massively heals the party and increases everyone's skill & burst DMG based on his max HP

his signature weapon is of course the Book of Vanitas but is replaced by Frostbearer when he's an event trial character

his utility passive is the same as Barbara's

his 1st ascension passive gives your own party a 15% healing bonus that doesn't stack with similar passive bonuses

his specialty dish is tarte Tatin

his constellation is related to the moon

his b-day letter is an invitation for dinner "but only because Noé insists" and contains a slew of restorative foods.

I was not to sure were to put Roland

The Looming Autumn Gloom

ScaraKazu + Electro Archon!Scara, yokai!Kazuha, alternate timeline, canon divergence

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Raiden Muu often asked himself,

What use is there in a God of Eternity when eternity doesn't exist?

His path between his ascension as Electro Archon to the present day has been fraught with losses. One by one, he had less companions walking by side until only one remained: Kazuha, Patron Deity of Higi Village, the Raiden Shogun's Divine Emissary.

As the sole survivors of a distant time, Muu fretted over the minor god's mortality. Kazuha was undoubtedly strong, having survived the Archon War and millennia thereafter, but he wasn't invincible. Muu would be delusional to entertain such a notion, having experienced what he had. Then, the Cataclysm knocked on Inazuma's doorstep.

While the Raiden Shogun fought in Khaenri'ah on Celestia's behalf, his Divine Emissary contended with a darkness that threatened Land of Eternity. Both emerged victorious from their campaigns, but Kazuha was tainted by the filth the darkness brought. He deteriorated day-by-day before his archon's very eyes. He would vanish and leave nothing behind except a husk.

In the centuries that followed, his desperation mounting, Muu sought every method that would save Kazuha.

Everything failed.

Ultimately, the archon watched in abject horror as his beloved warped and contorted into something eldritch: an arborescent wretch with barely a humanoid shape. Only its cadaverous face, empty eyes, and dingy mane of once-shining hair reminded him of Kazuha, and the looming shadow of his death threatened to drive him insane. (Perhaps he already was after Kazuha lost the last of his wits and never spoke another word again.)

Just when he finally resolved to grant him the mercy of death, the Fatui harbinger, Dottore, appeared to him before the throne. With a wide grin, the Doctor offered him a solution to his dilemma as long as he turned a blind eye to their activities. Muu accepted his terms.

That was how he became part their project in Sumeru, helping them revitalize Kazuha as a new god.

A Tomozuha Folktale

Inspired by: Erutan's "The Willow Maid"

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In the years Raiden Makoto still breathed, her sister and kagemusha, Raiden Ei, heard the singing of a young man as she patrolled Yashiori. A mortal, Tomo, sat beneath a uniquely-shaped maple that loomed over the rest on the island, and she found herself charmed. With a face that befitted his voice, she decided then that she would have him. She was gently refused, however, and he replied that he couldn't leave this ancient maple ("Kazuha," he called it) to which he was married. If Ei had sensed its spirit or taken note of its semblance to a mortal, she didn't show it and simply left.

She would return two more times to beckon Tomo to leave with her, but his stance was firm. He reasserted his place at Kazuha's side, and as emphasis, a boyish beauty emerged from the maple's base, clinging to his arm. Unfortunately, his presence did not faze her.

On Raiden Ei's third and final visit, she brandished her lightning and struck Kazuha down, declaring Tomo hers now that his "so-called wife" was slain. She forced him away from the blackened, smoking husk, triumph on her face until he collapsed after a mere few steps. A soulmate following his other half, Tomo took his dying breath before his form faded into a singular lycoris. It bloomed on that night and that night only. Thus, Ei returned to Narukami alone.

Tea shop owners!Zuko and Iroh are basically the Cabbage Man if the Cabbage Man was actually an important character. Like, Zuko abandoned his so-called "mission" once he came to the realization that his father is just hateful and all that jazz.

The ship is where they live still, but they acquire or build a transportable stall they take into (mostly port) towns to sell Iroh's magnificent blends. They eventually settle on something like "the Popup Tea Shop" as a name. (Hehehe. It rhymes.) True to their canon forms, they introduce themselves as Li and Mushi versus Zuko and Iroh to anyone who asks.

The Gaang's first encounter with them happens while the uncle-nephew duo are in search of a rare plant for a new summer special they've been concocting that can only be found in the South Pole. There's a conflict, of course, between the parties, but there's no time for it when the Southern Raiders appear to investigate the big-ass beam of light that lit up the sky. Everybody works together to defeat the Raiders, mutual understanding is reached, and they go their separate ways. Unfortunately, news of the Avatar's return escapes into the world still.

The Jasmine Dragon appears after the Siege of the North Pole; Zuko's ship is destroyed by Zhao because Zuko remains the Blue Spirit who frees Aang from Pohuai Stronghold. The pair can't just show their faces anywhere they want now and build a new life in Ba Sing Se until that investor gives them the opportunity to run a new shop of their own. Then, Azula ruins everything by infiltrating the city, and Zuko joins the Gaang officially in the Crystal Catacombs.

VaniJeanne omegaverse where Jeanne (A) takes Vanitas (O) on another date, but this time, her intent's to prove herself as a worthy mate. She convinces Noé to wrastle him into an ensemble more typical for omegas—that's a gown—and has a suit for herself chosen by Domi.

This is to further highlight her stance as a courting alpha. Her earnest throws her target for a loop, and he finds himself helpless against her. Wearing exquisite (but unfamiliar) clothes and being pampered by another just makes him abjectly flustered.

Many years ago, I read a fic where Claude was Sebastian’s child with William. I still subscribe to that fic idea to this very day, and I came up with—what I believe to be—the greatest line,

“So, the child wants to eat from his mother’s plate instead of his own, does he?”

for when Sebastian’s talking about Claude’s intent to steal Ciel’s soul from him. Claude’s response,

“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard that there’s nothing quite like a loving mother’s home-cooked meal.”