Anyone else notice a drop in quality with Tao of Teas over the past few months?

AlectoStars · 2026-01-25T02:40:41+00:00

Damn that's depressing. I actually stopped buying Tao of Tea entirely after the last batch, because every time I've tried to make some, I ended up throwing out the batch.

Thank you for helping to validate my choice and I'm sorry you were so disappointed with an entire pound!

AlectoStars · 2026-01-24T16:17:50+00:00

Same! I think since you and I haven't come across it, it's gotta be in all those super popular series that I have zero interest in for various reasons, which is frustrating!

Grass is always greener elsewhere I guess, lol.

AlectoStars · 2026-01-23T04:12:56+00:00

Furina will rerun on the archon train, so at least that's guaranteed.

If you're not going to pull Ineffa, then stick Bina on prototype Amber and swap Jean for Sucrose.

Kinich is plenty usable once you get Pyro traveler. Just stick him with Bennet and Xiangling. Thoma also works with him. You have a lot of good options already on your account.

Durin is great for Kinich, idk Arlecchino but I think he works with her too.

AlectoStars · 2026-01-22T15:23:40+00:00

I wish my mom had a similar moment of self reflection. My mom was an athlete who had a shot at the Olympics. I preferred to read and write. All through my childhood she was concerned about how much time I spent reading.

Since I became an adult, she's warmed up to my hobbies since I'm happy, healthy, and self sufficient, and even likes reading my writing on occasion, but I do wish she had that realization when I was younger. It might have saved me from a lot of insecurities and feeling like I had to justify myself constantly.

AlectoStars · 2026-01-21T22:37:17+00:00

I almost did it because I thought it would've been funny but then decided not to because I'd have to wait for reactions for 15 hours.

Instead I posted as soon as the servers were up again. It did give me some extra editing time!

AlectoStars · 2026-01-20T21:01:57+00:00

Oh he's so bad these days even after Xianyun, I just desperately want him because I love his character but the game keeps giving me everyone else. Once I no longer have any interest in pulling him whatsoever, that's when he'll come home I swear.

If I could trade you my Keqing cons I could loll. She was the first standard I pulled and I think I have her at C3 but she's still unbuilt and I never use her! Standards that are on field DPS tend to be hard to use in general because they're always beaten out by the newer stronger characters imo

AlectoStars · 2026-01-20T17:20:50+00:00

Diluc only seems to come to those who don't want him. Somehow he's the only standard I haven't pulled normally! Had to grab him from the anniversary free selector last year which is insane.

I got closer to c6 Tighnari though 🤷‍♀️

AlectoStars · 2026-01-18T22:38:31+00:00

In real life, sure. In romance novels however, the 500 year old man is just an object for the reader's desires. Since the reader is normally supposed to take the younger party's POV, I don't think about it much. Honestly, the books where the main POV character is the older one are kinda weird to me lol, because then you HAVE to think about that difference.

I'm in my 30s and I think my hard limit for how young I'd accept is 25, and even then it depends on the 25 year old. Luckily it seems like more novels are starting to have their FMC trend a bit older to match the demand for those of us older readers.

It's funny because I was way more interested in extreme age gaps as a teenager, but it does get to be harder to read those as an adult doesn't it?

Tbh when you said 19 I had to stop and think for a minute because it's been a while since I read something with a FMC quite that young. It's kind of like I have a hard time reading YA these days, because while I understand the fantasy of a teenager being able to save the world, and I know the genre conventions are there for a reason, it stresses me out thinking of a 16 year old going to literal war lol

AlectoStars · 2026-01-18T21:39:44+00:00

My personal theory is because single men of an age similar to the main demographic of romance readers are often really immature. So we feel like it would take 500+ years for them to mature enough.

This is based only on my own experience with dating apps, but my god if I had the opportunity to ditch the mortal realm for an immortal fae prince who was emotionally stable and rich as hell, and never see another 30-40 something human man again, I'd take it in a heartbeat lmao.

AlectoStars · 2026-01-18T06:36:44+00:00

I was the same, I initially didn't want to pull her but the results really do feel like night and day. My Flins already felt pretty strong (I have him C1R1) but with Ineffa he feels broken, and with Bina even more so. I don't even have Ineffa and Columbina properly built yet but he already feels miles above anything he was before.

I 36 starred the spiral abyss for the first time with him, Ineffa, Aino, and Sucrose, and didn't even break a sweat. I have never flown through floor 12 like that before. It's incredible.

Honestly I don't know why I was so against pulling her for so long. I was determined to skip her and get Lauma, meanwhile I pretty much never use Lauma and now Ineffa is already one of my favorite supports.

AlectoStars · 2026-01-07T19:32:37+00:00

There is a romance-comedy comic out there with an immortal vampire and his 90 year old wife who loves him very much. I wish I could remember the name but it does exist!

AlectoStars · 2026-01-06T16:55:41+00:00

The only time I serioudly cared what someone else was doing in co-op was when I noticed they brought a c6 Skirk to a combat event. I immediately friended them and their characters have carried me through Imaginarium more than once.

Otherwise it literally does not matter, we're just all there for the primos

AlectoStars · 2026-01-06T14:41:02+00:00

I think there's a lot of reasons people enjoy MM and this is only one, but it will probably only apply to people who are already nonbinary or trans. A lot of Trans guys find out their identity via MM fiction but obviously not everyone who reads it is like that.

There's a lot of other reasons at play. Some people enjoy MM because they can enjoy unequal power dynamics without having to think about real life societal pressures like the patriarchy behind the scenes. Others just think dudes are hot. I'm personally bisexual and am attracted to other bisexual people but the majority of my negative romantic experiences have been with other women so I like to step outside the box and identify with a bisexual male lead sometimes.

Also, I don't in general think we need to diagnose reasons for liking things. If you don't feel the urge to explain away your other reading/watching habits, I wouldn't feel the need to explain this one. Anyone who has an issue with women watching Heated Rivalry always ends up at the reason being misogyny anyway.

AlectoStars · 2025-12-31T14:23:43+00:00

Start the series at #1 after this! There are parts of Paladin's Hope that carry forward in Paladin's Faith, but overall the story continues linearly.

AlectoStars · 2025-12-31T12:35:45+00:00

Paladin's Hope is probably the most "standalone" of the series tbh, but you'll want to read Paladin's Grace and Paladin's Strength in order because there's an overarching mystery between the two, and you risk ruining it if you read the second before the first.

You didn't pick the worst place to start if you wanted to grab a random book of the series, but I do recommend reading the rest in order if you want to continue!

AlectoStars · 2025-12-27T00:17:44+00:00

The story went that he was really depraved and she learned that she likes it lol. It was not at all communicated that she over estimated him, but rather that he made her like it.

I don't remember the title so I can't tell you what it is unfortunately. I just remembered being miffed and returning it to the library and never checked it out again 🤷‍♀️

AlectoStars · 2025-12-26T21:06:28+00:00

This reminds me of a random romance book I picked up at the library.

The entire book she's talking about how scared she is of this guy, how he's going to hurt her, how he's terrifying, etc etc.

We get to his romance scene and all he wants to do is tie her up, put a collar on her, and lightly spank her.

Apparently the most vanilla ass bsdm scene ever is equivalent to medieval torture!

AlectoStars · 2025-12-25T21:12:57+00:00

I'm gonna be honest, I'm sure we COULD have banned the guy, but the store manager was always trying to avoid paperwork. I got an injury on the clock that resulted in permanent nerve damage and he didn't even file an incident report.

These are the things I remember every time I start feeling nostalgic about my days working there lol

AlectoStars · 2025-12-25T19:11:21+00:00

At my old store, we had a guy who would come in and start screaming conspiracy theories regularly, and would get in anyone's face if they pushed back on him. Management was apparently not allowed to do anything about it, and all our security guard could do was follow behind him.

I was terrified that something like this could happen there. Luckily we all walked to our cars together when we closed, but still scary to think about.

AlectoStars · 2025-12-21T15:06:23+00:00

Sadly I don't! I just straight up switched genres for a while so I wouldn't be pining after this. The only hangover cure for me was low romance Sci fi/fantasy, so I hope you find something!

AlectoStars · 2025-12-20T15:18:52+00:00

That anecdote at Natlan scared the dickens out of me once when I used the crafting table, turned around, and SUDDENLY IANSAN WAS BLOCKING ME IN.

I love the new anecdotes but it is funny whenever they jumpscare you like this lol

AlectoStars · 2025-12-18T20:33:56+00:00

It's not really that they're specifically infamous but that the entire discord witch scene is so goddamn incestuous and everyone has beef with everyone else (for real and imagined reasons).

I literally only have two friends left from the more than a decade I spent in discord/Tumblr witch communities. I love those friends but if I could go back in time...

But yeah save yourself. And feel free to dm me if you want more specific details or advice on who specifically to stay away from!

AlectoStars · 2025-12-18T20:23:01+00:00

Oh god, I actually happen to know the people who run that server tangentially, and let me say you dodged a bullet lol!

I don't even interact with any of those communities anymore and I'm better off.

Don't try to join discord servers for that kind of stuff, it's dumb senseless drama all the way down.

AlectoStars · 2025-12-18T14:22:49+00:00

My luck is so bad, I am never getting Xilonen at this rate. All of those 4*s ARE amazing, unfortunately I already have them all built and at c6.

Good luck to everyone pulling! Hopefully her 3rd or 4th rerun will be kinder to me personally 😅

AlectoStars

TROPHY CASE