#sheng says stuff

[renshengs]

convinced that no one who calls tim drake normal has ever read the original comics leading up to him becoming robin. a 13 yr old runs to titans tower to look for dick and then hears he’s gone to visit haley’s circus and proceeds to LOCATE DICK and when he finds him dick is like. you’re like 12 where are ur parents. and tim’s like that’s not important listen BATMAN NEEDS HELP and dick brings him back to the manor and when alfred asks he’s like Look idk either. later tim wears the robin costume and goes out to help batman and nightwing himself. and Later he has like. straight up stress+guilt-induced hallucinations of robin!dick and robin!jason. this is only the tip of the glacier. no one who thinks he's boring should ever speak to me actually

#saw some fanon tim bullshit again and got mad mb #me when i've never read the comics and am under the impression that tim is just some quiet caffeine-addled normie #like FUCK OFFFFFFFF #tim drake #sheng says stuff #dc

[wazzuppy]

i love abu allsaintsstreet. literally all he does is go wah wah wah wah wah wah and scare his friends by accident what a funny little guy

#tara says stuff #all saints street #wan sheng jie #abu #when will he get more screen time. hes only done stuff in like three of the episodes come on man #(it feels especially sus to me considering hes the only character with significantly darker skin) #(and all his much much paler friends get way more to do) #(hm hm hm.)

[whirlwind-armor]

Not me missing Dynasty Warriors even after what 9 did 🙃

#I did really like xu sheng tho #otherwise if 10 isn’t at least decent ima have to drop the series for good I can’t keep getting hurt like that #dustin has stuff to say #dynasty warriors

[dangermousie]

Tantai Jin is a damn good ruler, not just because he has good policies but because when he asks for opinions, he actually listens and does something about it even if they are not ones he likes - and by that I don’t mean chopping off official’s heads but fixing stuff.

Susu’s brother has a spine, because I am pretty sure Sheng Emperor would chop his head off.

When TTJ calls for Nian Bayou you can see the general brace, wondering if he’s gonna order the man to behead him. But instead:

I love this!

Because TTJ says this and both the general and NB freeze because they (or the viewer) don’t know if it’s an actual order or what.

General has a bit of a bro crush. You can tell him feel a little better every time he realizes he didn’t choose wrong.

God, I love TTJ so much!

I was literally cackling. He really IS very good at persuading people.

#cdrama #luo yunxi #till the end of the moon

[ryin-silverfish]

So, male Chinese fox spirits tend to be more scholars, good at medicine (but this also applies to females) and tend to be the ones to possess human girls the most. Can we say that they are more problematic than the female ones? I wanted to ask if there are other characteristics that separate them as well. Maybe male Chinese fox spirits tend to be more malicious?

Hmmm...not really. Foxes of both genders get the "seducer" reputation equally, even tho the "scholarly fox" and "sorcerer fox" archetypes are more commonly male, and just like there are lovely fox girls, there are plenty of male foxes who are good bros.

There is one Qing legend I can't remember the name or source of, where a guy was friend with a male fox spirit, and he tried to get the fox to use his magical arts to help him steal stuff, only to be rightfully rebuked first and tricked into humiliating himself later.

Like, here, the fox had higher moral standards than his asshole friend.

In Liaozhai, there are also some pretty wholesome male friendship between foxes and humans, like Che Sheng's story. Basically, he loved drinking, became best friend with the fox who snuck onto his bed and stole his wine, and the fox repaid him by leading him to buried treasures and using his divination talents to guide Che Sheng into buying and storing crops prior to a drought.

The fox bros in those stories tended to be tricksters too, but in a way that benefited their friends. They don't get involved in human-fox love stories nearly as often, and in Qing legends specifically, they were often depicted as the worst homosexual stereotypes.

But, to quote one of my previous posts: there are good and bad ones among fox-kind, just like humans. Just bc the writers were imposing the gender norms and prejudices of their times onto non-human characters don't mean you, as a reader, have to buy into them, and besides, there are plenty of counter-examples too.

#chinese folklore #fox spirit #huli jing #foxes

[akihatohnoofficial]

What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.

- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

this is the kind of stuff Noelle says I think

#ask #anonymous

[pacific-coast-hockey]

San Jose Sharks/San Jose Barracuda media resources!

HELLO everyone, I keep seeing more and more new faces in the notes of Sharks prospects posts, which is BANANAS because who even cares about the Sharks, but also, welcome, I am so glad you are here!! Being a fan of the San Jose Barracuda is easier when there are people who are suffering with you so I'm glad for every new person who sees a picture of some prospect and goes 🤨. Our prospect pipeline is full of delightful and charming young men who are varying degrees of incredibly boneheaded and development camp is always such a special, stupid, joy.

I thought it might be nice to do a round up of media resources for the teams, since there seem to be some new eyes on the players and interest in learning more! Luckily, San Jose is not Toronto, so the media landscape is much easier to navigate.

Note: this is not an exhaustive list, it's just media sources that I tend to hit up the most often and trust more than other sites. But again, we also don't have that much lol.

SITES:

San Jose Hockey Now: They have good access to the team and do a lot of prospect stuff. They also read like People magazine. It's incredibly entertaining. Most of their prospect interviews are locked behind a paywall but it's literally $3.49 a month* to subscribe so PLEASE consider signing up

Fear the Fin: They did decent stuff when they were part of SB Nation, however they were part of the cuts of SB Nation, so they're still getting back on their feet as an independent site. Their photographer is fantastic.

The Hockey News' San Jose Sharks vertical: Max Miller is fighting for his life in the trenches, but sometimes has interesting soundbites.

Again it's San Jose so we don't have like. very much. Also normally I'd recommend checking out local newspapers for their beats, but the Mercury News' Sharks beat reporter is not that great and you get so much further with SJHN or Corey Masisak.

TWITTER (and Instagram)

The state of our social media teams is such that they are absolutely horrific experiences to perceive, which is, to be clear, so reflective of living in San Jose generally.

San Jose Sharks on twitter // on instagram

San Jose Barracuda on twitter // on instagram

There are also player instagrams which you can look up on your own because I feel weird linking personal instagrams lol.

Media people worth following:

Sheng Peng: Editor in Chief of SJHN who gets some of the most charming soundbites out of the guys. Also some of the most ??? soundbites. And then, I cannot stress this enough, frames the conversations like a pulp magazine.

Corey Masisak: formerly of the Athletic, thankfully now one of the Sharks staff writers. He's quite a talented writer and has a good touch with the teams and has gotten some charming human interest stories out of the Sharks. We love him and hate Kevin Kurz. Follow him on Twitter for direct links to articles -- the NHL.com website is mostly press releases and hell to navigate.

Lizz Child: the Barracuda's staff writer, also their smm. Great interviews with the players, she's good at getting honest answers out of them. Also has an incredible wealth of knowledge about players coming out of the WHL.

Max Miller: the kid holding the Sharks beat for the Hockey News together, I don't have a strong opinion on him but he does come up with good stuff sometimes

PODCASTS:

What baffles me about San Jose Sharks podcasting landscape is that we have SO MANY FAN PODCASTS and yet somehow they're all garbage?? Where is our YCDT, our Tunnel Talk. I'd start one but I have no friends and nothing interesting to say and absolutely no one needs hear another man run his mouth off about hockey. Also I would jump off a bridge if the org perceives me again.

All links go to Spotify.

Locked on Sharks: JD Young is like my pet hamster. He is SO BAD at interviewing, however he is also a huge hype man of the prospects and gets interviews with some of the guys who don't get quite as much attention or who are not big names yet. (He's getting better at interviewing, but it's taking him. years.)

The Undercurrent with Tara Slone: One of the Sharks official podcasts, everyday I wake up and go how the fuck did we get Tara Slone on our payroll. It's a newer podcast, but she's already had some great conversations with prospects.

Cuda Confidential: NICK NOLLENBERGER, BELOVED. Nolly is the Cuda's play by play announcer for AHLTV and I think also the Cuda's head of PR. Generally very charming, he does good interviews, especially with the older guys. I also really like his game recaps for Cuda games, they're short and he does a good job of running through everything that happened

Sharks Hockey Digest: I have never listened to this because I think it's mostly PR conferences, but apparently they started to doing off season interviews so I guess I gotta. 🫠

ON TUMBLR

There are 4.5 fans in the cudablr fan community. Join us.

@18minutemajor is THE artist of our time

@tofumilanesa is giffin those Cuda games and Sharks games when their special dudes are involved and also has a great eye for when the players are doing some incredibly stupid shit on ice

@whoredeleau is grabbing the tweets and instagram photos and videos

@bunnymcfoo occasionally posts game day photos

me, who is mostly grabbing photos of old guys from the Cuda's flickr and very occasionally from Instagram, and posting live updates from the Cuda games that include such critical information for the broader fan community as "Coach Jmac got a haircut I think" and "Pat Sieloff looked tenderly at another old man today" and "Nick Cicek is riled up at the refs and it's giving 'my son asked for no pickles'" and "I just found out the arena sells cookies."

and for AO3 lmao.....hit me up on my main (@moregraceful) - I try to keep it lowkey on this blog ever since the fucking org found me.

Anyway, hope literally any of that is helpful!! I love when people get interested in this cringefail franchise. I'll be at the scrimmage tonight and hopefully have something interesting to report. Any questions feel free to ask!!

#*or just dm me #kaspershark.txt #san jose sharks #san jose barracuda

[hollowfaith]

1 from basics, 2 from OCs !

Questions for the mun

When did you first start writing?

the earliest english diary i have was a birthday gift for my 7 year old birthday. i wrote stuff like "today was fun" and "i played with X today" like. super basic subject - verb - noun sentences haha.

before that i used to write letters to my great grandmother in china after i moved to the States. i was 4-5 and would tell her about what i did all day, and she wrote back!

as the years went on my writing got smaller and hers got bigger (the size of the characters i mean) because her eyesight was getting worse...i really treasured our letters even if i had to wrack my brain for what to say sometimes haha

Who was your first OC?

i'm going by tumblr OC for this one and it was a magical daoist cultivator dude with immortality and cool spell talismans based on this guy but bishounen ofc (i think i've talked about him in another ask but it was on another muse)

he was very fun and i got to dig into chinese mythology for his lore but he was also very static so there wasn't much room to develop him and i gave up and dropped him after a while

i still remember his URL which was a pun on his name: anqient for anqi sheng + b/c he was old as dirt yeyyyyyyyy

Who is your favorite OC?

i really like mary sue! but she's a very high-energy, attention-demanding muse so i really need a lot of headspace and time to write her properly like the way she deserves

she'll be back someday, she's a very easy muse to pick up and drop into the thick of things

#darkenforcer #𝔔𝔲𝔢𝔯𝔶 ࿐ answered #𝔒𝔱𝔦𝔲𝔪 𓄖 ooc

[688199]

hello legend.

writing a wholesome mlb fanfic but trying to make it very meticulous in terms of details. do you think it’s appropriate that i ask for small things that i could include to highlight marinette’s connection to chinese culture.

things like certain clothes/phrases/names her parents would authentically call her/little things around her room /small habits/comfort foods/stories her mom told her growing up/thoughts on confucianism, taosim, buddhism/if she includes traditional chinese fashion in her designs/etc

i really hope this doesn’t come off as ignorant/offensive! i’ve been researching chinese culture but there’s a difference between reading about the “text-book” examples and actually being part of a culture where you just wouldn’t understand things unless you were surrounded by it and a part of it and grew up with it. and i don’t want to play into stereotyping, you know? i want these things to be specific to chinese culture AND to marinette & her moms side of the family.

any answer would be helpful because i read that you are chinese yourself and you are so well versed in the creation of marinette’s character that if you think she would do/say/keep/etc certain things i would love to hear your thoughts!

oh sure! note that i’m singaporean chinese, so there might be a little bit of difference in culture. but having been to china (and attended chinese culture heavy schools) before, i’ll do my best!

- nicknames: baobao/ bao bei, meaning “precious”. first one is babyish, second one usually used by couples but parents also use it to call their kids. also, easy and common nickname is just repeating their name. for example, if marinette’s mandarin name was “ma li” (though i don’t think any parent would want to name their child that), the nickname used by family, relatives and friends would be “lili”

- small things around her room: chinese literature books on shelves, maybe a blue-white porcelain vase to put flowers in? and maybe a maobi (calligraphy brush) sticking out of her pencil holder.

- small habits: switching to chinese when surprised/ stressed. oh and def using chopsticks eating (only use for asian dishes tho). make sure she doesn’t stick it upright into the food though, cause of some superstition, and general etiquette. she could get slightly stressed when she sees people use chopsticks incorrectly, i know i do lol.

- comfort foods: congee and you tiao (fried dough). she could eat it when she feels under the weather. also, an alternative to the classic dumplings is pan fried pork dumplings (sheng jian bao) which i personally love to death. oml. its also a cuisine pretty unique to shanghai iirc. here’s how it looks

- bonus: one nostalgic food could be tanghulu, or candied hawthorns. munching on a self made version using strawberries and other small fruits with hardened candy syrup while working. although it’s more of a northern snack rather than a southern snack… (shanghai is south)

- stories mom told: as in… children’s stories? or mom’s personal stories? for children stories, or common folk tales, chang e, the legend of nian, the cowherd and the weaver girl, the twelve zodiac animals, etc. personal mom stories not sure lol.

- thoughts on religious stuff: hmmm…. tough cause i’m personally not much of a religious person myself, though i’m familiar with taoism and buddhism. it’s not necessary to include those inside. oh yea just random thing i was reminded of, one small detail you can add is burning incense. for example, use of joss sticks to pray is common in taoist and buddhist religion. there’s also incense burning as an art form. personally my mom does that whenever i have major exams coming lmao.

- design: i think it’s cool if marinette learnt the art of embroidery, like shown below. it’s pretty commonly seen on qipaos, with different patterns but most commonly flowers. it’s a dying art form. having marinette use embroidery to make images on her outfits rather than have them printed on will be a neat detail.

hope this helps! good luck on the fic too, if there’s any more questions feel free to dm

(oh and though i find the movie mid, turning red has accurate representation so you can check it out)

#miraculous ladybug #asks

[dreamingsushi]

Till the End of the Moon - Episode 25

Last episode we started running towards a huge wall of miscommunication and misunderstanding, especially because Susu is meddling with stuff she shouldn’t. Of course, Ye Bingchang is part of the problem, but if Susu wasn’t trying to go behind Tantai Jin’s back all the time, we would avoid much of the upcoming crisis.

Tantai Jin asks Ye Xiwu if she made this porridge especially for him. He asks her to feed it to him. But before she puts the spoon to his mouth, she faints? Falls asleep? I’m not so sure what happened and we’re already moving on to something else. Okay so I think this review is going to be somewhat complicated. Susu seems to only come back to herself while riding a horse and she seems surprised that she managed to escape with Xiao Lin. Tantai Jin had Nian Baiyu check the porridge and they found a deadly poison from Sheng, without any cure. Now I’m scared for Granny. I have a bad feeling. Anyways, Tantai Jin thinks she wanted to kill him. So he uses the water of Ruo river to control her and he sends her to do what she wants. She admits to poisoning the porridge, because she did with something else, which creates more misunderstandings since she never intended to kill Tantai Jin, but of course her hypnotized self won’t explain anything. He still lets her go and tells Nian Baiyu to let her achieve her goal, then he goes crazy from the hurt I guess, destroying everything. Then he does something to a puppet, but I don’t understand.

Susu doesn’t remember how they escaped and Xiao Lin says she seems to have a fever, probably from the fright of the night. He thinks it’s a little suspicious that everything is going so well and that no one is following them. She remembers a little bit. Xiao Lin wants Susu to come along with him since Tantai Jin will be angry at her, but she won’t follow him to the South, she needs to stay by his side and obviously Tantai Jin only thinks she wants to go with Xiao Lin.

Tantai Jin hears news that something happened at the Ye family residence. I hope that when he hearst hat granny was hurt because Ye Xiwu made porridge for her he’ll figure out that something is wrong. Ye Xiwu would never try to harm even less kill her granny. Ye Bingchang is actually very surprised to see Tantai Jin come around and alive. Please slip up. Tantai Jin don’t fall for her dirty lies. Also why is Nian Baiyu there? Wasn’t he supposed to follow Ye Xiwu? Granny gains consciousness seeing Tantai Jin and asks about Xiwu. She dies relieved after Tantai Jin promises to her that he’ll take good care of Ye Xiwu. Please do the maths Tantai Jin, you are smart. Tantai Jin allows Ye Bingchang to stay at home. Ye Qingyu tells Tantai Jin that granny was poisoned. Ye Bingchang says that granny must have taken the porridge by accident since Ye Xiwu would never hurt her. Then he says it was to hurt him. I’m so upset. all of this only to save Xiao Lin from prison. Really not worth it. I hope they find the sleepy powder in the other bowl of porridge, but they probably won’t. And Ye Bingchang gets what she wanted. Unless Tantai Jin has a plan. He’s usually two steps ahead.

I thought Xiwu wasn’t going to follow Xiao Lin? They arrived at the meeting point where master Pang waited for him even though he was late for four days. Tantai Jin takes control of Ye Xiwu’s body and has her stab Xiao Lin. They really can’t communicate like normal people instead of going behind each other’s back, right? This is exactly why I was against this ship to begin with. They can’t trust each other. Really bad special effects on the bleeding. She comes back to her senses, unaware of what happened. Nian Baiyu asks Tantai Jin why he made her do that when he knew all along her goal and he wants her to be hated by everyone so she’ll have nowhere to go but to him. If this isn’t a BIG BIG BIG red flag mister Tantai Jin? What a twisted plan. That’s not a way to ear someone’s love. However something isn’t going according to plan. Xiao Lin wants to protect Ye Xiwu. He comforts her, the wound isn’t fatal. He says that he was hurt by the Jing soldiers and not Ye Xiwu, even though they all witnessed it. Master Pang freed Ye Xiwu from the spell, however Xiao Lin is going to die from the wound because it is no ordinary wound. Master Pang wants Xiao Lin to keep bed ridden until he finds a solution, but Xiao Lin wants to carve the sharp stabbing out of his body, because he’s sure there’s a reason for Tantai Jin letting him live when he could have killed him. Xiao Lin sends Ye Xiwu away but she wants to stay. He tells her her granny passed away. He also lets her think that Tantai Jin killed her? WTF? I try to watch my words, but what the hell is happening right now? Dudes, stop using Ye Xiwu in your fights, she has something more important to accomplish and has no time to play being your tool. Once she’s all excited with hatred towards Tantai Jin, Xiao Lin knocks her out. When she wakes up, she’s tied up in a carriage and manages to escape thanks to her spiritual weapon.

Tantai Jin’s plan didn’t work as Xiao Lin carved the weapon out of his body. They even defeated the other army and saved all the prisoners. Xiao Lin left a letter to tell Tantai Jin that he’s leaving his country in his care while the others will escape to the South. He even offers him the dragon scale to protect him.

Susu makes it back to the camp, but it’s too late: Xiao Lin is dead. He asked in his last will that Tantai Jin takes care of Ye Bingchang, since she’s a nice girl and now she won’t have a husband anymore to care for her. Master Pang is going to leave the mortal realm and go back to cultivate, he’s dejected from being here, now that Sheng is gone and Xiao Lin too.

Tantai Jin refuses Nian Baiyu’s comforting words. He knows that Ye Xiwu is never going to come back because he forced her to stab the man she loved all this time. He’s very sad. Well your plan was dumb. You’re usually smarter than that. However, while on an outing, she’s right there, saying she’s come back. She tells him they should start over again, that she forgives him and asks him if he forgives her. He nods yes. She’s finally back on track, she told Master Pang she needs to finish her mission this time. I mean... you kind of spoiled it yourself by doing useless stuff. BUT OH WELL. Then she faints.

It’s kind of a little bit frustrating how he forgives her so easily when he readily believed Ye Bingchang that Ye Xiwu poisoned the porridge. It doesn’t make much sense to me that he agrees not to ask anymore about what happened. Susu is confusing me at this point, I’m not sure I understand what she wants from him. It’s a mess. But it’s a drama, so it should be a mess.

#till the end of the moon #luo yunxi #bai lu #deng wei #chen duling #xianxia #xianxia drama #costume drama #cdrama #c-drama #chinese drama #drama review #drama recap #drama reaction

[angieloveshua]

Jiang Tian's gaze travelled over him. "You wear it then."

Upon seeing that he was about to stuff in his earpiece again, Sheng Wang grabbed his wrist, saying, "It's too embarrassing if I wear it alone."

Jiang Tian's expression screamed "I fucking knew it", and numbly said, "I'm not wearing that."

"With a close of your eyes and a kick of your legs, put it on you and tada, it's all over," Sheng Wang said.

"No."

"Just one day."

"No."

"Ge."

"..."

Ge is the magic word. 💖

#mou mou #mu su li #某某 #木苏里

[renshengs]

my ass will see a cunning older man with the kind of heartrending trauma that could burn down cities and a younger man who holds a devotion toward him that could tear apart whole landscapes and it's instantly over for me

#gay people with an age difference are SO IMPORTANT TO ME! #this could be about so many guys. here are some: #mysterious lotus casebook #beyond evil #sha po lang #da ge #this is about a lot of danmei actually... #sheng says stuff

[jsvjbmh]

Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil

Gonna be honest, not sure what I wanna talk about with this one XD. I don't know how to describe it and what my feelings are. I am kinda neutral about it?

The story is about Zhou Yun Sheng. Prior to the novel, Sheng was forced to play a villain between different kinds of worlds. But stuff happend and now he's someone who hops between different worlds, just to fck up the story that the Lord God had planned out.

In each world, he has a different name (in the first world he had his own name tho) and (spoiler) the soul of the ML is in each world the same, but there is no memory (yet?). There are small hints and coincidences in each world tho. Let me explain:

I'm currently at the start of the 4th world... Each world is a long chapter that's divided into different parts. Currently I'm at 4.3. So, I don't know to much about that one.

Anyways, World 1: Sheng was the eldest son of three and ML was a Mafia boss kinda thing(?), who started as a butler(?) at Sheng's family. (There is more behind it, but I don't wanna explain xd). But, Sheng would say that ML had to put out his sigaret. ML would do it and put his hands up in defeat. I like this world the most so far (but since there are 15(?) worlds, and I only finished 3, it may change).

World 2: Sheng is an autistic painter called Wei Xi Yan, who was adopted and lives with their son called Ning Si Nian (again, I'm not gonna explain to much). There is a part where Sheng said that he had to put out his sigaret, cuz he didn't like the smoke. ML listened and did the same thing as ML from world 1, both were shocked from this little interaction.

World 3: Sheng is the brother of the concubine of the 7th prince. Sheng is called Shen Yi Bin and the ML is the crown prince. A bit later in the story and they introduce themselves with their courtesy name. ML says that Shen can call him Si Nian and MC took Yun Sheng as his courtesy name, which ML reacts with: "That sounds familiar.."

Can't say what's gonna happen in World 4.... MC and ML haven't met each other yet ^^, but MC is called Lin Cheng Ze and I believe the ML is going to be Cao Mo Kun?

#QWTFOTD

[josephrivera-jojoocblog]

6 months ago, Speedwagon foundation HQ, Dallas Texas

Joseph: OK, so, thank you all for meeting me here on short notice...as we all know, the previous reigning leader of the JP Speedwagon foundation, Foundation King Fuyumi Narukami succumbed to her battle with pneumonia and passed away at 87 recently and we'd been searching for an interim replacement for some time...

King Shelly, AUS/NZ Division King: yeah...helluva shock she's gone...she's been here since I think before any of us.

King Douglas, Southwest America Division king: you said it...then again Age comes for us all you know? Just the other day my kid and I compared heights...wouldn't you know it they're already at my neck...could have sworn just yesterday they were trying to cook spaghetti in the toaster...

Joseph: that was yesterday. Jamie needs proper cooking lessons before you can worry about them outgrowing you doug

Douglas: right right...anyway where's everyone else if we're electing a replacement?...

Joseph: well...due to the state of narukami-san's will, she had a successor lined up already. One that shows a Lotta promise.

Shelly: oh yeah? Like who?

Joseph: her second in command, Sheng Okada, he handled the pacific Islands and Hong Kong under a smaller branch of the Foundation.

Sheng would then enter, taking a seat at the roundtable

Sheng: Mister Rivera briefed me on what I'll be taking over for the foundation...if you'll excuse my lateness, I've been busy transferring my things to the morioh office.

Joseph: Right. Well, I called this minor moot to see if anyone had any problems with this turn of events, three way vote, and we go with the majority.

Doug: hmm...I've heard stuff about you Sheng, how your foundations areas have managed to reduce gang crime and stand user crime by 40%...I think that'd be good for a place like morioh...I say go for it.

Shelly: hey, if he had narukami's approval I say we get this man a kings patch, aye, I'll approve it.

Joseph: good, then I'll handle getting Mr. Okada settled into his new office...meeting adjourned!

[wuxiaphoenix]

TV Series Review: Fox in the Screen

Don’t mind me, I’m just here for Yu Yan.

Ahem. I’m giving Fox in the Screen (aka 屏里狐, Ping Li Hu, The Screen Foxes) about 3 out of 5 stars. Because this is a stunning example of having a neat concept and potentially interesting characters and not being able to tell a coherent story.

The concept: Young lady painter Zheng Xuejing wakes up with a hangover and three strange handsome men in her house. The hangover is totally explainable. Last night her long-time fiancé broke it off because he’s marrying her best friend Qionghua instead, there apparently being a child on the way. On top of that her landlord demanded the rent (which she didn’t have ‘cause another screen shop’s been deliberately ruining her business) and said if it wasn’t paid in full by the end of the month, she’d be out on her ear with nothing - she wasn’t a “real” relative, just a daughter of someone’s concubine, after all.

So. Drinking ensued. And in the process of said drinking she apparently stumbled into a yao contest for a magical screen and paintbrush. And won it, because she is a painter. She painted three foxes, Red (Yu Yan), White (Bai Sheng), and Black (Xiao Hei) - all of whom happened to be huli jing trapped in the screen, now bound to her by contract for ten years. The screen apparently is a yaoguai trap, and there’s all kinds of “people” who want it for the spirits trapped inside.

On top of that while Bai Sheng and Xiao Hei are just relieved to be out, even if it means serving a human, Yu Yan is a full demon lord, had been in the screen almost a hundred years, and apparently was one day away from being set free by the limits of the screen’s own power when... suddenly ten-year contract to a mere human. He is beyond ticked off. The only reason he doesn’t kill Xuejing for the insult is he’d still be in servitude to whoever ended up with the screen next. And at least a human painter isn’t an evil Daoist or Japanese mage out to drain yao energy to fuel his own spells.

(Yes, both of those show up later.)

Me after the first ep: “Oh, awesome! We’ll get a slice-of-life of an ancient Chinese painter building her business up to success, interspersed with magical mishaps, yaoguai attacks, and Yu Yan and Xuejing working out how to work together without killing each other. Sounds cool!” In short, I was hoping for something along the lines of Chef Hua, only with painting and fox spirits.

That is... not what happened.

I’m three-quarters of the way through and just to cover some of the wild tangents so far, Xuejing’s been in a painting contest with magical cheating, been poisoned, effectively died, was brought back by a magical flower that was itself poisoned and rescued by magic, took in the girl who poisoned her (yes, the former best friend - turned out not pregnant, and has made at least one more attempt on her life so far), suddenly declared she had a vow to find out why her father died, ended up insulting the emperor by saying her father had been sentenced unjustly, was sentenced to be executed if she didn’t clear her father’s name... and found out she was actually adopted, her birth mother being killed by some eunuchs literally minutes before she could meet and talk to her. (I won’t spoil you on who her actual parents were in case you want to be surprised; I will say the plot twist was overdone and unnecessary.)

There is almost no painting, and definitely no “this is how a screen shop works and becomes successful in this time”. After Chef Hua and My Heroic Husband? I am incredibly disappointed. I was hoping to see painting stuff!

At this point I’m just watching it to take mental notes of “okay, interesting bit to possibly salvage for other stories” and “Oh dear how did they go off on that tangent?” It’s like the writers were incoherent mangaka trying to cobble together each next episode on a few scraps of the last three scripts, ideas discarded from palace dramas, and sooooo much caffeine it isn’t funny.

I honestly think the actors are doing an excellent job with what they have to work with. The costuming department is on their game, and whoever chose the look for the three foxes deserves all the thumbs-up. Instead of giving them more obvious inhuman traits, each fox has streaks of their color in their hair. (Black has purple streaks.) It’s subtle and very pretty. Also the gradient of red to black in Yu Yan’s outfit is classy. As far as characters go, Yu Yan is the Honorable Demon/Defrosting Ice Prince, Bai Sheng is the gentle homemaker with a dark past, and Xiao Hei is... a puppy. So much a puppy. (It’s explained early on that he’s still barely more than a kid, and while his mother was a proper huli jing his father was actually a dog martial god. Which may explain why his approach to problems like “must win contest!” is “kidnap contest judge and threaten him for the right result”.)

I think this series is a cautionary tale about writing too much by the seat of your pants. If you don’t have a clear image of where your story starts and where you want it to end up, you end up throwing in things at random just to keep the plot going. And I hope Luo Yun Xi (Yu Yan) gets more roles with... better plotting. Because he’s a definite bright spot. And he can sing!

This is the guy who plays Yu Yan, and yes, he does sing the end theme himself.

#fox in the screen #screen foxes #yu yan #tv review

[40sandfabulousaf]

大家好! Sooo... an entire post dedicated to what I got up to during Chinese New Year. Well, N and I 'eloped' and went to Batam! It's been 6 years since I set foot on this beautiful island and I was really glad to revisit, make new memories and rediscover the place. Before our ferry, we had a 2-for-1 lunch, chicken parmesan, salad and fries, plus a Guinness and beer each.

So much time has passed, the ferry now boasts new seats! The first night, the crowds at the food centre were so bad, we ended up packing dinner and having it in the hotel. We ordered pork rendang, mutton satay, oyster omelette and pork belly. No photos because we were so hungry, we ate everything and had beers. On the second day, we had breakfast at the hotel and tried local grub for lunch - he had beehoon soto ayam (chicken rice vermicelli soup) and I had ayam bakar, a spicy grilled chicken leg with tofu and a salad.

N didn't follow me to the gym in the morning but we enjoyed a swim for about an hour in the afternoon, with brief rests between laps. The exercise made us hungry, so we went in search of dinner and ended up at a street food stall where I got attacked by sandflies and now have 9 itchy bites on the back of my right thigh. No regrets though, the chicken and veggies with ikan bilis (anchovies) were so good, we finished everything. After that, we strolled and browsed through the shops a little before making our way back to the hotel where our chilled beers were waiting. I actually lost weight during this getaway, probably because of extra exercise.

Stuff N introduced me to: black coffee and buah salak, a type of fruit native to both Malaysia and Indonesia. N brought his coffee grinder and press and made strong brews for us. At first I was apprehensive because black coffee tastes like drain water at most coffee outlets including Starbucks but N's brew was pretty good! Buah salak is a crunchy, not very juicy fruit that is difficult to describe. It's an acquired taste but it isn't unpleasant and hey, life is more fun if I try everything once.

On departure day, we had lunch before leaving for the ferry terminal. We actually shared an additional main besides having 1 main each but I forgot to take photos. What happened after that was a nightmare - hordes of people were leaving at the same time and we were stuck at the ferry terminal for hours. N and I reached our respective homes after 11pm! That was on Monday; thankfully this week is a short work week.

This weekend, Grace and Douglas return from Ipoh and we'll catch up over Chinese New Year lunch. They'll cook some dishes, I'll buy the yu sheng (lo hei) and we'll celebrate the best time of the year in earnest. As we feast, I'll pray that the sheer devastation the Palestinians face will end soon. They've seen much blood and gore in recent months, it's heart-wrenching to even think about what they've gone through. 下次见！

#Youtube