#Dreamer;;Xue

[veliseraptor]

your headcanons about yi city squad's sleeping habits? are they early birds or night owls? do they sleep lightly? insomnia? do they dream a lot? do they remember their dreams? idk what else, just whatever thoughts you have

I love when people ask me a very specific headcanon question and I go "oooh yes I actually do have pretty well defined headcanons on this subject!" which really happens more than it probably should.

but since you asked.

I definitely think that Xue Yang specifically has...weird sleeping habits. he can fall asleep anywhere and very quickly, but he's also a very light sleeper who can wake up fast and be alert almost immediately. on the other hand I think he is far more likely to deal with insomnia than any of the other Yi City folks, on a fairly regular basis. and during those periods of time he will be awake for sometimes days straight before he finally crashes, and it is an absolute nightmare for everybody else because when Xue Yang is not sleeping he is inevitably not just lying there tossing and turning but up and doing things, bouncing off the walls, desperately in need of attention and stimulation.

Xue Yang says he gets his best work done when he can't sleep. it's not actually true but he certainly does get some of his weirdest work done when he can't sleep. I like to think about Jin Guangyao showing up and Xue Yang, awake for going on 48 hours, going "WANT TO SEE SOMETHING COOL" and showing him, like, some kind of grotesque monstrosity he put together in the middle of the night.

when it comes to dreams, I don't think Xue Yang tends to remember his. he has them, and sometimes he wakes up with leftover feelings from them, but he doesn't remember what they were.

Xiao Xingchen, on the other hand, I think has very vivid, very weird dreams and almost always remembers them. I think he also likes to share them, at least with close friends; definitely he always used to tell Song Lan about his dreams and whether or not they were actually interesting to hear Song Lan would always listen to him share them because Xiao Xingchen seems to enjoy it; Xue Yang will listen but interrupt to speculate wildly and absurdly on their meaning trying to make Xiao Xingchen laugh.

another sleep headcanon I have about Xiao Xingchen is that he loves to nap. if he does not have pressing duties he will just find a nice spot and go to sleep. it's one of his few self-indulgences that he really embraces. and he's very good at it! power-napper extraordinaire. find him lying in unexpected places fast asleep. he also tends to sleep cold, so if there are heat sources (sun, another person) he'll seek those out.

like Xue Yang, a-Qing can fall asleep anywhere and very quickly, and wake up fast, and it is (of course) for the same reason - she has to be able to rest when she gets the chance but also alert for dangers and able to respond quickly if they show up. she's a little less likely to just do it wherever, though; for Xue Yang it's almost flaunting how he doesn't have to worry about it anymore but a-Qing wants to have a nest. I feel like a-Qing's blankets never stay neat for long and if she was sharing a bed with someone she would end up with all the blankets securely wrapped around her to create a little a-Qing burrito.

I don't think she's much of a napper (and I think Xiao Xingchen's napping sometimes is a little bit of an 'ugh but now I'm bored' for her), and in general more of a night owl than a morning person. as far as dreams go, I think she also doesn't remember them most of the time but is also a very active dreamer, and every so often she'll remember truly wild ones - the kind of dreams that actually are fun to listen to and make you go "what the fuck is going on there" a little bit.

I think I talked at one point before how I think Song Lan when it comes to sleeping is someone for whom routine is very important. if he's going to sleep then he will have a set bed time and a set wake up time and he will keep those consistent. I don't think he tends to like to take naps; it makes him feel sluggy and kinda gross. I also think he'll do fine if he doesn't sleep for a while and it's worse for him if he sleeps off schedule.

as far as dreaming goes I'm going to curse him with my problem which is very vivid and very realistic dreams. they aren't interesting, they're spectacularly mundane, but they feel very real in the moment. I bet Song Lan has awful stress dreams. I just have a feeling. he is a little jealous of Xiao Xingchen's dreams. they sound like fun.

I think he does also have some trouble with insomnia now and again, but for him it is more just...vague restlessness/anxiety that keeps him up. he meditates through it but it does throw him off more than he'd like because, again, of the importance of routine.

like Xue Yang, a-Qing can fall asleep anywhere and very quickly, and wake up fast, and it is (of course) for the same reason - she has to be able to rest when she gets the chance but also alert for dangers and able to respond quickly if they show up. she's a little less likely to just do it wherever, though; for Xue Yang it's almost flaunting how he doesn't have to worry about it anymore but a-Qing wants to have a nest. I feel like a-Qing's blankets never stay neat for long and if she was sharing a bed with someone she would end up with all the blankets securely wrapped around her to create a little a-Qing burrito.

I don't think she's much of a napper (and I think Xiao Xingchen's napping sometimes is a little bit of an 'ugh but now I'm bored' for her), and in general more of a night owl than a morning person. as far as dreams go, I think she also doesn't remember them most of the time but is also a very active dreamer, and every so often she'll remember truly wild ones - the kind of dreams that actually are fun to listen to and make you go "what the fuck is going on there" a little bit.

I feel like I probably could keep going but perhaps this is enough yi city sleep headcanons to be going on with for now

#conversating #blackteaaddict #aggressively headcanons #xue yang #a qing #song lan #xiao xingchen #the sad queer cultivators show

[twstrhythm]

“Dreams are strange, you never know what will happen in them.”

Technical Information:

Name: Haoyu Yang Nicknames: Little Sea Dragon (Floyd); Roi du Tour (Rook); Trickster (Sebastien); Liar (Sterling); Little Cousin (Xue); Baby Xue (Jianyu) Voice Actor: Reiji Kawashima (Patrick, Shadows House)

Biological Information:

Gender: Male Pronouns: He/Him Age: 233 Birthday: September 15 Star Sign: Virgo Height: 168 cm Hair color: White Eye color: Black Homeland: Xianglong Zhigong Family: See Here

Professional Status:

School: Night Raven College Dorm: Diasomnia School Year: First Class: 1-B Student Number: 15 Occupation: Student Club: Cooking Club Best Subject: Astrology

Fun facts:

Dominant hand: Right Favorite Food: Salt and Pepper Tofu Least Favorite Food: Mayonnaise Dislikes: Getting hugged without permission Hobbies: People watching; Playing games Talents: Always lands on his feet

Appearance:

Haoyu has short light pink hair that has some streaks of darker pink in it, and he has some longer segments of hair that fall over his shoulders. He has some black hair clips in his hair and wears a black headband. He has black colored eyes. He wears the standard school uniform for Night Raven College.

Personality:

Haoyu appears to be a quiet and shy person. However, that is just a front to disguise his mischievous nature. He loves playing games and poking people's buttons. Despite that, he cares deeply for his friends and family members. He has a tendency to be a bit overprotective.

Background:

Haoyu grew up in Xianglong Zhigong. He was trained to become a guardian like the rest of his family, but he found the training to be boring. He wanted to do his own thing, but he did not know what it was that he wanted to do. He spent most of his time trying to figure out what he wanted to do in life until he spoke with his cousin, Xue Yang.

The talk had been enough to inspire him into wanting to see the world. But to do that, he needed to find a way to be allowed to see the world. When he was given the opportunity, he enrolled for a magic school.

Skills and Abilities:

Intelligence: Haoyu is highly intelligent, and he is very capable of thinking his way through different situations.

Quick Thinker: He is a quick thinker and can come up with plans on the spot.

Magical Skill: He is skilled in magic, particularly flora magic. He has great control over his magic, and he is able to minimize damage done to his surroundings.

Dragon Transformation: Haoyu is capable of transforming into a dragon.

Enhanced Speed: He has enhanced speed and is capable of keeping up with a fast moving car in his dragon form.

Enhanced Strength: He has enhanced strength in dragon form.

Extra Flexible: He is extra flexible in his dragon form.

Flight: He is capable of flying despite having no wings in dragon form.

Imaginative Thinker: As his Unique Magic requires, he has a good imagination.

Unique Magic:

Haoyu’s Unique Magic is called Into The Land of Dreams. It allows Haoyu to enter dreams. However, he can only enter the dream if he touches the person's hand. Once in the dream, he is able to manipulate it slightly. This comes at the cost of a great amount of magic. He can be kicked out of the dream if the person is aware he is there and chooses to kick him out. Unfortunately, he cannot leave on his own. He requires the dreamer to kick him out to be able to leave, or someone else can wake him up physically.

Chant: "Quiet whispers, peaceful thoughts. Close your eyes, and fall Into The Land of Dreams."

Trivia:

Haoyu likes wearing hair bands.

He wishes to have a pet one day.

He has a fascination with birds.

He likes to eat salt and pepper tofu because it reminds him of home.

Xianglong Zhigong (翔龙之宫) literally meaning Kingdom/palace of flying dragons.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #male twst oc #twst male oc #oc: haoyu yang

[porcupine-girl]

Our Song 我们的歌 S3 results & song lists

I had to go through the episodes individually to grab these, because I couldn't find any sources online that had the full list in one place , so I'm putting it here so that maybe anyone else looking for this info will find it.

This contains lists of all songs performed, along with short notes about the structure of each episode and results. Song lists, including performer names, are just copied and pasted from the YT episode descriptions; I might not use the same names in my explanations of episodes.

Under a cut for spoilers:

Episode 1

Five juniors, four seniors. Four junior/senior pairs make it through, one junior gets sent home. Plus, there is a one-time-use button that a junior can use while another jr/sr pair are singing in order to also get a chance with that senior, and the senior chooses between the two.

Song List 《云与海/Cloud and Sea》Fox Xia 《偏偏喜欢你/You Are My Destiny》Miriam Yeung /Fox Xia 《落叶归根/Back to Home》Eric 《追梦人/Dreamer》Joker Xue /Eric Jiahe Ji hits the challenge button to get a turn with Joker Xue. 《征服/Overcome》Joker Xue /Jiahe Ji 《寂寞的季节/Lonely Summer 》Diamond 《你不适合两个人/You Are Better When Alone》sunnee 《爱与哀愁/Love and Sadness》Chyi Chin /Diamond 《凭着爱/With Love》George Lam /sunnee

Final Team A pairs: Hu Xia/George Lam, Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji, Eric Chou/Miriam Yeung, Chyi Chin/Diamond. Sunnee goes home.

Episode 2

The structure of this episode is so bad. They all go and the audience votes, plus the other 3 pairs assign each one a point value - 5, 10, or 15. The problem is, they can only use each one once, and they have to assign the points right after each song. So by the time they're rating their 3rd performance they don't have any choice in how to rate them, so it makes no sense whatsoever.

Anyhow, after all four go in the first round, the top two vote-getters do a second song to determine who is in first place.

Song List📀 《数字人生/Life of Numbers》George Lam/Fox Xia 《真的汉子/Real Man》George Lam/Fox Xia 《处处吻/Kisses Everywhere》Miriam Yeung/Eric 《违背的青春/Against Youth》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《狼/Wolf》Chyi Chin/Diamond 《无情的雨无情的你/Relentless Rain and Ruthless You》Chyi Chin/Diamond

Results: Chyi Chin/Diamond and George Lam/Hu Xia do final battle. George/Hu Xia take 1st.

Episode 3

Same structure as Episode 1, but with Team B.

Song List📀 《情歌 /Love Song》Silence 《蚂蚁蚂蚁 /Ant Ant》 WoWkie Da/Silence 《If only…》Yichun Shan 《自由/Freedom》BiBi Zhou/Yichun Shan Huiyuan Meng hits the challenge button to get a turn with Bibi Zhou 《相思河畔/Acacia River》BiBi Zhou/Huiyuan Meng 《对爱渴望 /Love Temptation 》Bill Zhai 《听说爱情回来过 /Heard That Love Had Come Back 》Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai 《啊默契 /Last Consensus 》 Yuning Liu 《夜夜夜夜 /Night After Night 》 Penny Tai/Yuning Liu

Final Team B Pairs: Da Zhangwei/Wang Sulong, Penny Tai/Liu Yuning, Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai, Bibi Zhou/Yichun Shan. Huiyuan Meng goes home.

Then they all (except Penny because she's from Malaysia, not China), sing 《那么爱你 /Love You So Much》 about how much they love China because it's close to National Day.

Episode 4

They fixed the weird 5/10/15 point thing so that this episode doesn't go as stupidly as Episode 2 went. They rank all their competitors at the same time after all performances are done instead of assigning each one a point value after each song.

《弯弯的月亮 /The Crescent Moon》Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai 《梦醒时分 /Dream To Awakening》 WoWkie Da/Silence Wang 《福尔摩斯 /Holmes》 BiBi Zhou/Yichun Shan 《野蔷薇 /Wild Rose 》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu 《让我坠入爱的漩涡 /Stuck In The Whirlpool of Love》 WoWkie Da/Silence 《街角的祝福 /The Blessing Of The Corner》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu

Results: Da Zhangwei/Wang Sulong and Penny Tai/Liu Yuning do final battle. Penny Tai/Liu Yuning take 1st.

Episode 5

Bottom 3 from Episode 2 compete, top one goes up against George/Hu Xia

Winner chooses their partners for Episode 7

Song List📀 《Interstellar》Jam Hsiao/Diamond 《I've Waited Till Flowers Withered Away》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《Melody》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《Unbreakable Love》Eric/Miriam Yeung 《Those Bygone Years》George Lam/Fox Xia

Results: Joker/Lisa go up against George/Hu Xia. George/Hu Xia win, choose Joker/Lisa as their partners.

Episode 6

Bottom 3 from Episode 4 compete, top one goes up against Penny Tai/Liu Yuning. Winner chooses partners for Episode 8.

Song List📀 《你给我听好 /Listen Up》Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai 《喂 /Oh Well》Zhou/Yichun Shan 《那一年 /That Year》WoWkie Da/Silence 《我是来揍你的 /Beat You Up》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu 《我悄悄蒙上你的眼睛 /I Cover Your Eyes Up》 WoWkie Da/Silence

Results: Da Zhangwei/Wang Sulong go up against Penny Tai/Liu Yuning. Penny Tai/Liu Yuning win, choose Bibi Zhou/Shan Yichun as their partners.

(My personal theory: Some of Penny & LYN's discussion about who to choose definitely implied that LYN was using his experience in S1 to strategize. I think he was assuming that, like in S1, the two top teams would go up against each other and one of the four pairs would be voted out, and wanted to choose a weaker pair so they had a better chance of staying. But that didn't happen! I don't think they tell the contestants the structure beforehand; in fact, given the changes from Episode 2 to 4, I'm not sure how much the producers really know what they're going to do beforehand.)

Episode 7

Team A: Bichen/Jam and Miriam/Eric Team B: LYN/Penny and Bibi/Shan Yichun

(So the bottom pairs from Team A against the top pair & chosen partner from Team B - not what LYN was expecting from S1! Luckily, nobody's getting booted yet.)

Song List📀 《拥抱阳光 /Embracing The Sun》Miriam Yeung/Jam Hsiao/Diamond/Eric 《雨一直下 /Rain Keeps Falling》Penny Tai/ BiBi Zhou/Yuning Liu 《女儿国 /Kingdom Of Women》Yuning Liu/Yichun Shan 《两个人不等于我们 /Two People Don’t Equal Us》Diamond/Eric 《Stand by me》Penny Tai/ BiBi Zhou/Yichun Shan 《Superwoman》Miriam Yeung/Jam Hsiao/Diamond

Results: Team B wins

Episode 8:

Team A: George/Hu Xia and Joker/Lisa Team B: DZW/WSL and Josh/Bill

(Top pairs for Team A vs 2nd place & partners from Team B.)

Song List📀 《敢爱敢做 /Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now》George Lam/Fox Xia/Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《Endless Love》George Lam/Jiahe Ji 《夜深了 /Late Night》Joker Xue/Fox Xia 《满怀可爱所向披靡！ /Super Super Cute》Josh Lui Fong/WoWkie Da/Silence/Bill Zhai 《耶利亚女郎 /Yeliyah》Josh Lui Fong/WoWkie Da/Silence/Bill Zhai 《给所有知道我名字的人 /For All Of You》Josh Lui Fong/WoWkie Da/Silence/Bill Zhai

Results: Team A wins.

Episode 9:

Bottom teams from team episodes (7/8), so Bichen/Jam, Miriam/Eric, DZW/WSL, and Josh/Bill

All four sing, top vote-getter is safe, other three go again, audience votes to save one.

Song List📀 《野孩子 /Wild Child》Miriam Yeung/Eric 《我们都有一个家 /The Grand China 》WoWkie Da/Silence 《剑魂 /Soul of The Sword》WoWkie Da/Silence 《一眼瞬间 /A Moment》Jam Hsiao/Diamond 《亲密爱人 /Intimate Lover》Miriam Yeung 《朋友别哭 /Don't Cry My Friend 》Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai 《假如爱有天意 /If love had God's will》Josh Lui Fong/Bill Zhai

It's revealed that Miriam & Eric are leaving the show for unrelated reasons, so only one of the other two groups will get eliminated. Eric gets to sing his own song: 《你不属于我/You Don't Belong To Me》Eric Zhou

Results: Josh/Bill are voted off, along with Miriam/Eric leaving. Jam/Diamond and Da Zhangwei/Wang Sulong go to final round. (Note that they don't actually announce who got cut besides Miriam/Eric until Episode 11.)

Episode 10:

Top teams from team episodes (7/8), so LYN/Penny, Bibi/Shan Yichun, George/Hu Xia, and Joker/Lisa.

All four perform, top pair is in. Bottom 3 sing again, one gets booted.

Song List📀 《初恋 /First Love》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu 《成吉思汗 /Dschinghis Khan》George Lam/Fox Xia 《惧高症 /Acrophobia》BiBi Zhou/Yichun Shan 《陪你去流浪 /I Can Accompany You To Wander》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《怎样 /What If We Still Stay Together?》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu 《选择 /The Choice》George Lam/Fox Xia 《影帝 /Award-winning Actor》BiBi Zhou/Yichun Shan

Results: Now LYN’s strategy pays off! Bibi/Shan Yichun are voted off, the other three advance to the finals. (Again, you don't actually find this out until Episode 11.)

Episode 11:

All five will perform one song, and there's a vote at the end, but the vote doesn't actually affect anything.

Song List📀 《我爱洗澡 /I Love To Take A Bath》WoWkie Da/Silence 《爱人错过/Somewhere In Time》Jam Hsiao/Diamond 《火柴天堂 /Match Heaven》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《决定 /Decision》George Lam/Fox Xia 《矜持 /Restrained》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu

Results: George/Hu Xia take 1st, Diamond/Jam 2nd, DZW/WSL 3rd. Again, this doesn't actually affect anything.

Epsiode 12:

All five perform one song again, final vote determines overall winner of the show!

《大娱乐家的深情就是个笑话 /Greatest Showman》WoWkie Da/Silence 《你 /You》Jam Hsiao/Diamond 《病态 /Morbidity》Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji 《男儿当自强 /A Man Should Better Himself》George Lam/Fox Xia 《潇洒走一回 /Walk Gracefully Once》Penny Tai/Yuning Liu After winner is announced they all sing one more song together: 《有没有一首歌会让你想起我 /Any Song Reminds You Of Me?》George Lam/Fox Xia/Jam Hsiao/Diamond/Joker Xue/Jiahe Ji/George Lam/Fox Xia/Penny Tai/Yuning Liu

Results: George Lam/Hu Xia are the final winners!

#our song #our song s3 #our song season 3 #我们的歌 #i made stuff

[morkofday]

🎶✨when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publicly. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)🎶 . hugs very tight hugs to you vish💕💕💕

thank you gei ♥ am one of your faves, that's so sweet 🥺

I. Dreamer - Kim Feel II. 心動 - Liu Yuning III. 洛城 - Joker Xue (wanted you to see the video!) IV. Into The Deep - Emmit Fenn V. Gladstone - Blair Lee

here you go ^^ i hope you're having a wonderful day!! and am sending you hugs back ♥

#sorry this took a bit!! #also i hope you like the songs ^^

[silvysartfulness]

Chapter XVI - Dreamers of Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It is up! :D  (and whooo, look, I managed to finish the illustration! What sleep?)

Song Lan sat still in the dark, eyes closed but senses awake. Xingchen was a warm presence resting up against him, and by now it was hard to remember a time that he wouldn't – he'd lie down at an entirely appropriate distance, and then slumping up against him, curling into him as soon as he was asleep.

In the dark, he felt his lips twitch into a smile.

A sense of wonder, still sending head and heart spinning, remembering the touch against those lips only hours earlier.

Xingchen had come back downstairs after being gone only a few moments, a deeply thoughtful look on his face, and his own instant reaction had been vast relief. He had been deeply adverse to the idea of him going to face a murderous Xue Yang alone, but was forced to admit that coming along probably wouldn't help settle any ruffled feathers. Reluctantly trusting Xingchen's judgment in this.

Xingchen sat down, still pensive, and Song Lan poured him a cup of tea, then one for himself.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes. It's fine. I think.”

“You shouldn't have had to apologize,” he couldn't help but state, disapproving - not of the gesture but the mere idea that it was demanded in the first place. “You did nothing wrong.”

Xingchen smiled sadly and accepted his cup, taking a sip.

“Sometimes you hurt people even when you don't mean to. It doesn't make the hurt less real. I was thoughtless and inadvertently tore at an old pain, shared in confidence. Of course I should apologize for that.”

Song Lan remembered dark haze half lifting as one of the nails in his skull was ripped out, watching Xue Yang - wearing Xingchen's face - play the wounded victim to perfection. Easily gaining the trust and sympathy of Wei Wuxian and the young masters of the various clans, knowing exactly how to play his act to get right to their hearts. Up against any performance like that, a soft, vulnerable heart like Xingchen's never stood a chance.

He chose not to speak his thoughts out loud, however, knowing it would only upset him. Only doubled down for the hundredth time on his own silent wow to keep wary vigil for them both.

---------

A dash of angst, sure, but we’ve got some real sweetness in this one! ♥

This is also a head’s up that I’m posting chapters faster than I’m writing them atm (because they’re constantly ending up longer than planned wtf ;_;) so I may not be able to update quite as frequently up ahead. Be sure to subscribe on ao3 or follow me so you don’t miss any updates!

(You know what helps me write faster? You’ll never guess. Comments, questions, reblogs with fun tags! All those things delivering good chemicals straight to the writer-brain. ♥)

#the untamed #mdzs #xue yang #xiao xingchen #song lan #xue yang fanart #xiao xingchen fanart #song lan fanart #xue yang fanfic #xiao xingchen fanfic #song lan fanfic #untamed artfulness #silvydrawstheuntamed #silvywritestheuntamed #the happy songxuexiao roadtrip story #xiao xingchen has two hands

[spockandawe]

OH RIGHT, I also have to follow up on The Healer Demands Payment!

Because oh my god, you guys

This is the most fun I’ve had with a cnovel in EONS (by eons, I mean like. a week. I'm an impatient binch). I was just poking idly around on novelupdates, and I tripped across an absolute GEM, and I need to scream about it. Which I already did once before, so I’ll try not to rehash things too-too badly, but I hit the end of the translation and blew through into MTL, because how was I supposed to stop? I’m still not caught up with MTL (not that it matters, since the story is ongoing), but I trust this author to take me good places, and I’m about 99% positive the author is deliberately playing with genre-based storytelling conventions, if a little more subtly than svsss. 

I’m going to get into more spoilers as I go along than I did last time, all things revealed fairly early, but if you’d rather read it cold (a++, do recommend, but not critical for reading pleasure), hit up that post instead of this one. But these first couple paragraphs aren’t super revealing.

The premise!! Meng Qi is a healer. Her first time living her life, she tried to charitably do good and heal the people around her in need. However, like every time she tried to treat a guy, circumstances were such that everyone thought she looked suspicious, credit was given to her shijie, Lu Qingran, and then all the guys went off to moon over Lu Qingran. Meng Qi does her own thing for a while, and even picks up a shizun who she adores, and who is her research partner developing all kinds of revolutionary new medical techniques. When she eventually died (I still don’t know how, but it definitely looks like Lu Qingran was swooning into the arms of the man who did it), Meng Qi was told that Lu Qingran was beloved by the heavens. Then... Meng Qi woke up, age 17 or 18, just as she entered her sect, but with all the theoretical knowledge that she accumulated in her past life.

When our story begins, the first of Lu Qingran’s love interests has just entered the scene. He staggers back to the sect, carrying Lu Qingran, badly poisoned after encountering a magic beast in the woods. Meng Qi knows how to treat him. But she’s also aware that yeah, after she did this last time, she slaved away from a week, and passed out in exhaustion, just in time for Lu Qingran to wake up and say she saw ~someone~ in their sect’s uniform in the forest just before the beast attacked. Meng Qi is all set to be locked in jail for three months until someone gets around, finally, to clearing her name. Meanwhile, clown prime, Chu Fengtian, is busy mooning over Lu Qingran and ignoring all the work she did to save him.

Yeah! She’s not super interested!!!!!!!!!

So she thinks about this for a little while, and decides that the best way to extract herself from any kind of karmic entanglements is to make sure any work she does is just a pure, simple exchange of goods. So... she says she can treat him, and she charges him money. A lot of money.

He’s angry and embarrassed and has to sign an official IOU, her sect is upset with her, but her sect also knows that treating this poison is beyond their capabilities, so they’re like ‘yeah, whatever, humiliate yourself, i guess!’ She doesn’t, because she is a good and clever girl, and as Chu Fengtian’s humiliation fades, he seems to.... gradually realize that Lu Qingran shouldn’t be the object he orbits. Meng Qi charges him money for everything she does for him, all the different pills and such, and he’s, uh. He’s starting to get into it, and I am living.

I won’t lie, whenever I talk about this book I’ve been framing it as accidental findom harem acquisition, and I’m not wrong.

Now, at this point, Meng Qi kind of has a grasp on what Events ought to be transpiring, and is managing along. That gradually fades as the plot progresses, but it’s an early element. She acquires an injured baby tiger she wants to heal, who, uh, is definitely actually a member of a royal demon clan trapped in beast mode (and baby mode). To treat this tiger, she needs expensive-ass medicine. And now, our girl has additional motivation to extort the men around her (mostly) for everything they have. She also accidentally runs into another of Lu Qingran’s eventual love interests, Qin Xiumo, recovering from the aftermath of a failed heavenly tribulation, and in a really bad way. She... can treat him. If he pays :3c

(Lu Qingran almost steals credit for Meng Qi’s work, again, and this is the point where I start to wonder if there’s some kind of.... legit gravitational field around her that’s altering people’s perceptions, because this is a terribly consistent pattern. The Dreamer In The Spring Boudoir had a toxic white lotus of its own, but what she was able to do isn’t the same as Lu Qingran, and the way people eventually break free of orbit around Lu Qingran and realize that things are Strange is fascinating)

And now here is where I was like OHHHHHHH.

Because the moment Chu Fengtian gets Qin Xiumo alone, he’s like ‘right, you and me, we both remember our last lives, right? we remember how lu qingran got us killed? and how meng qi got caught up in that all trying to help us and died too? let’s NOT do that again’

MULTIPLE REINCARNATORS WITH MEMORIES OF THEIR LIVES

And here, I have to copy over this one bit again, because it made me go yeeeee out loud

“Meng Qi.” Qin Xiumo smiled. “You should always remember one thing.” He turned to look at Meng Qi. “If someone betrays and wrongs you in the future, don’t try to talk reason, just kill them.” He paused for a moment, then slowly said, “I know you can do it. As long as you don’t feel soft-hearted.

Qin Xiumo took a step towards Meng Qi. The mountain wind stirred his black robe, but he kept staring at her eyes. With a low whisper, he softly spoke every word. “Including me…if one day I betray you, bring you harm, just kill me without hesitation.”

Okay now

So

Here’s the funny thing

Because Meng Qi was not treated well by any of these love interests before, she’s totally willing to be pleasant with them, but like........... respect? what respect? the two boys out themselves to each other immediately, but they have no clue that meng qi remembers anything, and it’s hilarious. Also they start immediately getting into baby slapfights over who she’s charging more for certain services. Is it that she doesn’t care about you and only wants to talk money with you, or is it that hey, why did she charge you ten times as much for the same service??? The answer is yes. Also, Qin Xiumo offers to repay her with his body almost right away and she’s like No Thank You, and the moment their financial obligations are repaid, she’s like OKAY BYE, and it’s great.

Virtually every major character who’s been added to the party or exists on the outskirts of the party has won me over. Xue Junwen? A treasure. Su Junmo? A++++ gossipy fox bastard, would die for him. Sikong Xing? WONDERFUL fox lesbian, also a treasure, deserves the best girlfriend in the world. Pei Mufeng? BEST BOY, needs to tell me ALL his secrets!!!! Ji Wujiong? Absolute Bastard, my favorite lad, absolute treasure of a terrible man. I love him. And Meng Qi’s mysterious once-shizun is also floating around now, and is WILDLY jealous of who this ““shizun”” that she respects from her past could be.

The story has this balance I really, really like, where all of the major women who have shown up have either been absolutely delightful creatures or fascinating I-can’t-tell-if-they-know-they’re-toxic antagonists, and all the men have been SOME variety of clown. It’s so good.

And I’m speculating so hard about everything that’s happening!!! Why do three human lads appear to remember a past with Meng Qi, while at least two demons who were very involved with her definitely don’t? Meng Qi is getting SUPER good at arrays, but the narrative makes a point about how a ton of knowledge about arrays was lost in both the human and demon realms. So........ tell me more about the devil realm? Why have you told me so little about the devil realm, I’m getting suspicious! What the FUCK did all that internal damage to both Ji Wujiong and Yun Qingyan?? Are those wounds on Ji Wujiong’s face perhaps........... tiger claws? Do they have anything to do with a baby tiger’s injured paw that wouldn’t close until Meng Qi saved up for a ton of medicines? HOW MUCH DOES PEI MUFENG REMEMBER, and did he promise to go to the starfallen sea because of his PAST LIFE remembrances of meng qi? Why is he immune to propaganda lu qingran?

And also, last time I posted, I mentioned the strict stages of cultivation as my biggest downside in the novel. That’s still probably the case, but now, I’m invested. The conceit that Meng Qi’s theoretical knowledge far outstrips her cultivation is a fascinating one, and the story leans into it real, real good. Especially once Ji Wujiong got involved and started teaching her about arrays, and she wasn’t just leaning on rote lessons from the past to get by, it got so interesting. And some of the cultivation trappings that never really clicked for me are much more interesting in the context of a medical cultivation novel, like, I have never once cared what a spiritual sea is, but once it turns out that Ji Wujiong’s internal damage involves damage to his spiritual sea? Yes?? Tell me more?????

I’m genuinely shocked and delighted that I’m so invested in this book, because I only expected it to be a light, casual read from the start. I was looking for something to kill the time, not something to distract me while I’m supposed to be working, but I love it so much. I’m in the middle of wrapping up a story arc and pausing for air before I press on through the mtl, but I’m already planning to loop back to the beginning and read again and look for hints as soon as I finish. This is so GOOD. It was such a surprise how fun it was, but I love it so much!!

#the healer demands payment #cnovel rec #should be a tag i start using #let's see if i remember to go back and apply it #long post/

[wangxianpromptsgenerator]

Prompt 1: ATLA AU

Avatar The Last Airbender AU where Madam Yu ascendeds as the new Fire Lord, after the Wen dynasty ended.

Jiang Cheng is the hot tempered Firebender that yearns for his father's love.

Jiang Yanli is the composed, lovely non bender daughter, that is mostly ignored by her mother despite an acute mind for politics.

And Wei WuXian is a prodigious Bloodbender, that loves his adoptive family even if their relationship is complicated.

They do their best to rebuild their country after the 100 Years War almost eradicated them all, and against the powerful Earth King that has views on their territories despite a lack of allies.

________________________________________

Jin GuangShan, the Earth King, has a lot of aspirations. He's also not against spreading rumours and hunting what remains of the 'Wen remnants' (aka, Firebenders) if it means strengthening his power.

Jin GuangYao the favoured Son, recently legitimatised, has been eyeing for the throne and is not above dirtying his hands.

Jin ZiXuan the heir is a dreamer. He's a honourable man, a talented Earthbender, and a gullible son that has been kept away from politics.

His love for Lady Jiang will make him question most of what he used to believe.

________________________________________

The Air Monks believed that the War could have been avoided if most people respected their teachings. They adopted a more rigid stance against 'deviant' practices.

Qingheng Jun has had enough, and entered in seclusion far, far from any worldly affairs.

So it's up to a young and inexperienced Lan XiChen to uphold his duties such as keeping cordial relationships with other nations. Fortunately, he can count on his 'good friend' Jin GuangYao.

As for Lan WangJi, the rumours of a talented Bloodbender lead him to the doors of the Fire Palace. He'll reform him even if it's the last thing he'll ever do. But he didn't expect to get attached and get involved in a world wide conspiracy.

________________________________________

The Metalbenders of the Nie Sect have always been historically close to the earth kingdom until Nie MingJue died.

They were left leaderless in a half-ravaged country. It's not surprising that most of them left for more advantageous prospects of the Earth court.

Still, Nie HuaiSang believed that the circumstances of his brother's death were... fishy. So he starts to investigate.

________________________________________

What of water benders then? Rogue cultivators for the most of them, and smaller clans that try to lay low and benefit from the Earth Kingdom trade business. That would gladly follow the one people start to call 'Chief Bender'.

Except for a couple like BaoShan SanRen’s disciples that follow Xue Yang’s trail of blood.

#prompt #ATLA AU #Wangxian #no Avatar AU #Just politics #Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation prompt #Did it inspire you? #DO share you drabbles snippets and short stories

[hamliet]

MXTX: Enneagram

I did this in the past for all of these novels, but that was before TGCF and SVSSS’s translations were finished, so I wanted to update. I also want to reexamine some of my MDZS classifications. This is purely for fun and enjoyment.

Scum Villain:

Shen Qingqiu: 5w6 “The Problem Solver”

Luo Binghe: 3w2 “The Charmer”

Liu Qingge: 3w4 “The Professional”

Shen Jiu: 3w4 “The Professional”

Yue Qingyuan: 2w3 “The Host”

Shang Qinghua: 4w3 “The Aristocrat”

Mobei-Jun: 8w9 “The Bear”

Liu Mingyan: 4w5(?) “The Bohemian”

Ning Yingying: 6w7 “The Buddy”

Sha Hualing: 8w7 “The Maverick”

Qin Wanyue: 9w1? “The Dreamer”

Zhuzhi-Lang: 6w5 “The Defender”

Tianlang-Jun: 5w4 “The Iconoclast”

Mo Dao Zu Shi:

Wei Wuxian: 7w6 “The Entertainer”

Lan Wangji: 1w9 “The Idealist”

Jiang Cheng: 3w4 “The Professional”

Jin Guangyao: 3w2 “The Charmer”

Lan Xichen: 9w1 “The Dreamer”

Nie Mingjue: 8w9 “The Bear”

Nie Huaisang: 6w7 or 6w5

Wen Qing: 5w6 “The Problem Solver”

Wen Ning: 6w5 “The Defender”

Su She: 3w4 “The Professional”

Jin Zixun: 7w6 “The Entertainer”

Jiang Yanli: 9w8 “The Referee”

Jin Zixuan: 3w4(?) “The Professional”

Jin Ling: 3w4 “The Professional”

Lan Sizhui: 9w1 “The Dreamer”

Lan Jingyi: 6w7(?) “The Buddy”

Xue Yang: 7w8 “The Realist”

Xiao Xingcheng: 2w1 “Servant”

Song Lan: 1w2 “The Advocate”

A-Qing: 6w7 “The Buddy”

Lan Qiren: 1w9 “The Idealist”

Sisi: 8w9(?) “The Bear”

Mianmian: 9w8 “The Referee”

Qin Su: 6w7 “The Buddy”

Wen Chao: 3w4 “The Professional”

TGCF:

Xie Lian: 2w3 “The Host”

Hua Cheng: 8w9 “The Bear”

Feng Xin: 1w2 “The Advocate”

Mu Qing: 4w3 “The Aristocrat”

Lang Qianqiu: 1w2 “The Advocate”

Shi Qingxuan: 7w6 “The Entertainer”

He Xuan: 8w9 “The Bear”

Shi Wudu: 8w9 “The Bear”

Ling Wen: 5w6 “The Problem Solver”

Bai Jing: 6w7(?) “The Buddy”

Pei Ming: 7w8 “The Realist”

Yushi Huang: 9w1 “The Dreamer”

Pei Su: 3w2 “The Charmer”

Ban Yue: 2w1 “Servant”

Quan Yizhen: 6w7 “The Buddy”

Yin Yu: 4w3 “The Aristocrat”

Jian Lan: 8w9 “The Bear”

Qi Rong: 8w7 “The Maverick”

Jun Wu: 3w2 “The Charmer”

Mei Nianqing: 1w9 “The Idealist”

Xuan Ji: 8w7 “The Maverick”

Little Ying: 2w3 “The Hostess”

#mxtx #enneagram #tgcf #mdzs #svsss #the scum villain's self-saving system #mo dao su zhi #tian guan ci fu #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #heaven official's blessing #wangxian #hualian #bingqiu

[strawbcrrywine]

THE DREAMER'S ELEGY

genre: urban fantasy

tags: autistic mc, asian mcs, found family, tragic hero, betrayal, coming-of-age (not really), shenanigans™, gratuitous angst, so much symbolism it hurts

setting: in the kingdom of alsaea, a loosely governed group of warring states. each state is home to people with different elemental powers, some with strong powers, most barely existent. the most powerful bloodlines rule alsaea, while the government is just for show. most don't know this, however.

when arden walsh, water elemental, wins a scholarship to the most prestigious school in the kingdom of alsaea, she doesn't expect to unravel an ancient conspiracy. but before her term can start, a civil war's already rocking alsaea, interrupting her studies and crossing her paths with metal elemental emrys takara, the son of a military general, and eira xue, a mysterious young wood elemental with bone-white hair.

together, they're thrown into a race against time to track down the truth about the invasion of a rural town, the corruption running rampant in the government, and a type of magic, hidden for years, that might just be the key to restoring unity amongst the elementals. and when a friend seems to be turning against them, and queen caeda herself is tracking them down, who can arden really trust?

characters

arden: brilliant, optimistic, and sick of being underestimated, arden wants to be a member of the high council of alsaea.

emrys: romantic, poised, and endlessly idealistic, emrys will do anything to be loved by his father and mentor.

eira: lonely, mercurial, and terrifyingly protective, eira is seeking revenge for the massacre of her hometown.

#writblr #current wip #wip intro #writeblr intro #writeblr wip #writeblr graphics #writeblr #writeblr wip boost #tde

[sinetheta]

Since the previous year Joe had been envisioning a magnificent plan: to reread all the novels and stories he'd ever read in his life, so that the stories would be connected together. That way, he could simply pick up any book and move without interruption from one story to another. And he himself would be drawn into it, until the outer world wouldn't be able to disturb him.

Can Xue. The Last Lover. Translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen. Yale University Press: 2014.

Chinese avant-garde writer Can Xue (Deng Xiaohua), whose pseudonym translates to “both the dirty snow that refuses to melt and the purest snow at the top of a high mountain”, was born in 1953 in Changsha, Hunan Province. During the Cultural Revolution, Can Xue’s family was labeled as Rightist and suffered severe persecution. Challenging both the preoccupation with China and the predominant mode of realism in modern Chinese literature, Can Xue’s vivid and experimental writing focuses instead on crafting stories that weave between fiction and reality. In fact, Can Xue does not revise her work at all, believing instead that the act of writing itself is a “performance”, a “dance”, a bodily process. 

In her novel The Last Lover, Can Xue presents an assemblage of characters, among them Joe, a sales manager at a Western clothing company, his wife Maria, who has a mysterious relationship with her cats and plants, Joe’s customer Reagan, who is embroiled in an affair, and the clothing company owner Vincent, who is in pursuit of an elusive “woman in black”. Dizzying and imaginative, The Last Lover reads like a puzzle that cannot be put together, like a revisiting dream that startles the dreamer awake every time.

Six of Can Xue’s works have currently been translated into English. A fervent reader of Western literature, Can Xue has also published literary criticisms of the works of Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Franz Kafka.

#can xue #the last lover #annelise finegan wasmoen #chinese literature #chinese writers #modern chinese literature #week 31

[reaverdrawssometimes]

uhhhhh take a homestuck AU for some ocs bc i was incapable of resisting OTL

#idk what to even tag this as lmao #oc tag #i want;;;; to draw the lands they would have too;;;;; #xue #clarin #ira #avery #or i guess if i like Half Attempted at some kind of troll name for xue it would be like #xaelun #or somethin #i should have known rereading HS would make me do stuff like this #HS is one of the only things that makes me really pumped about like. drawing/making art for some reason???? #even back when i first read it when act 6 was just coming out i used to draw for it all the time #nice to know its still got that weird ability to motivate me after all this time #i dont even know Why HS specifically does it lmao #but it always feels nice to draw #and knowing that i want to draw More is good #i didnt feel like drawing it but xue/clarin are prospit dreamers while ira/avery are derse dreamers #that + the classpects were taken from quizzes so i didnt put That Much thought into them but honestly???? fits pretty well anyway #bard of hope caught me by surprise tho like damn

[anincantationofstories]

OnBeing “In a Family, We Raise Each Other”

One of the most humbling and precious experiences of my life has been taking care of my younger siblings. When I look at Xue, I don’t see him as he is now, a young man still confused, looking for life and love, a big watch on his wrist, a big chain on his neck. I see a little boy holding a bottle of grasshoppers looking up at me, his own eyes bright with happiness and joy, happily loved. 

When I look at Hlub I don’t see her as she is now, a young woman with sad eyes and white teeth; I see a little girl with teeth too big for her mouth, her bangs cut straight across her face, her eyes so brown and bottomless I could drown in their dreamy depths. 

When I look at Shell I don’t see her as she is now, a shower of black hair falling heavily around her shoulders, head cocked to the side, face tired, continually questioning, critiquing, passionately engaging with a bigger discourse. I see a little girl standing in a summer dress, shoe-less, in a gray photograph, her mouth folded in a gentle smile, unafraid of the poverty around her, standing in hope and endless possibilities. 

When I see Taye, I don’t see the bigness that is her now, her head and her heart exploding in collision and care, a solid figure against all the ills of a bigger world, a sound defender of justice and equity, of race and diversity, this fount of feminism and fervor. I see instead, a little baby crawling along the floor, looking for paint chips, sucking at wet fingers, her hair connecting between her eyes in a soft V. 

Max, sweet Max, who came so long after all of us, who is still now just beginning to respond to the wonder of a world beyond us, still within my reach, reaching for me. Long before I became a parent, even as I have become a parent, helping my mother and father and Dawb, my older sister, raise my younger siblings has been one of the most important tasks of my life.

It is a job that is long from finished, I hope. I hope that I get to see them beyond their first broken hearts, that I get to see them when those hearts are mended and stronger than ever. I hope that I get to see them beyond their first real jobs, fully embarked on the work of their lifetimes. I hope I get to see them in the glory of their brightest days — still to come. I’m a dreamer, but I dream of the possible things, so I do not hope for a dream of a life in which I’m no longer taking care of them — even as they have shown me, again and again, that as I take care of them, they have taken care of each other, and me.

My journey as a big sister has taught me more about life’s possibilities and the different pathways that people can take into the road of tomorrow than any other thing I’ve been part of. While we do not live each other’s lives, my work as a big sister, my identity as their big sister has me feeling so very keenly their triumphs and tragedies.

In the home that I will die in, I hope to be surrounded by them, the younger ones I’ve cared for, and to feel the strength of their lives pulsing like a heartbeat…continuing long after mine has ceased. I hope to die knowing that they will be fine without me, without us, their elder siblings, their parents, their caretakers, that they have learned the important lessons of caring for those who are still coming along well and lived it deep.

#onbeing #articles #siblings #love #this is so.... much. i feel this very much #personal

[spockandawe]

1, 2, 3!

Ooh, let’s see!

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Okay, so I have tabs open for several likely wips where inspiration might strike at any time, but my big focus right now is in the fic I refer to interchangeably as ‘diet bingge’ or ‘bingge lite’. I hit a wall for a little while, but I’m trying to get back into it. This is (one of) my svsss feynite-inspired aus of aus situations. And it’s basically here, because I love all the svsss characters a LOT, and it is remarkably hard to keep them all alive and happy, not in the least because one of my biggest faves (shen jiu) technically dies before he ever appears. Also, I multiship like whoa, and the scope of a jianghu setting intimidates me, so the iwywmh dreamer-in-the-spring-boudoir-based harem setting.... it is a good fit for me.

So! My initial impulse. In the iwywmh “canon” setting, shen qingqiu gets killed by luo binghe, kinda... accidentally. An ‘I didn’t realize my own strength’ situation, after they’ve had a horrible falling out and shen qingqiu’s marriage has been effectively destroyed. My initial impulse was ‘but what if he.... didn’t die, though’

It opens up a really interesting story is what happens!!!

Because, okay. I’m not going to rehash all of the original story’s backstory, because it’s So Much, feynite’s fics and comments are packed full of solid gold. But in this situation, Shen Qingqiu has watched his marriage dissolve out from under him, and he’s heartbroken and furious, and just got framed (partly by binghe) for the death of his husband’s baby-in-progress (with another man). He’s lost everything he valued most. He no longer has a will to live. Binghe, on the other hand, is kinda horrified at what he just almost did, because he hates his shizun, definitely, but also.... shizun is the most important person to him. So with that tweak, I’ve saddled him with a Shen Qingqiu who he just almost killed, who has no will of his own to keep going, and he’s trying to make his way in the world.

Also liu qingge is there, and also shen sha yuan eventually, and they’re all important, but the shen jiu + binghe dynamic is the core of this story for me. Because what happens is that they kind of despise each other, but also.... Shen Jiu accidentally makes Binghe a much, much better person. He’s not nearly as soft as the Binghe of the original fic, but he’s not the Bingge of the original fic either, not by a long shot. And the emotional balance is fraught for some time, and is slow to get more healthy, but my boy gets there! And it’s kind of a situation like the last svsss verse I posted, where I was like ‘wow, I have no idea who will be willing to take this trip with me, but I tripped into a concept I find fascinating, and I hope people will join me’

This is the first story I’ve written in a long time where I’m letting myself diverge sharply from a flowing narrative with the minimum number of povs. I actually have to take like 20k of wip out of second person, because I’ve got like four major povs I need to bounce between constantly (binghe, shen jiu, liu qingge, shen yuan) and one or two side povs I need to flush out other bits of story (shang qinghua and maybe mobei-jun) (outside chance of liu mingyan too, goddd). I just made the decision a few days ago to split this into chapters, so I’d be able to post something soonish, but I did stall out for a while, because the scope is pretty overwhelming. And in the end, I’m not even sure it will work as A Narrative, because I don’t even know how it concludes, but I’m working on making my peace with that XD I’ve got close to 30k in a document, and still ages to go, so I badly want to pull it into a shape I can share, but.... it’s so much story, hahaha XDD

(my document with working notes for this is ‘SHIZUN GET BACK HERE AND GRADE MY FINAL PROJECT’, which also lives in my head rent-free as a working fic title. actually titling this fic is going to be a bear)

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Oh, hmm. I think... If I’m sticking to projects where I actually can picture the scenes in question, I think I’ll have to go with the xuexiao wip that I’m going to return to any day, I swear, where I get into the actual dialog of the humiliation kink. It’s going to be a really interesting emotional balance, which is part of why I’ve been putting it off (I need to be in just the right mood, y’know?), but I’ll be in Xue Yang’s head, and I want to roll around in the way he gets to let loose with his crueler impulses, and the satisfaction that comes with it... plus a side serving of emotional self-harm, because he’s got extremely mixed feelings about making Xiao Xingchen hurt, and this is showing him all the ways he could dig the knife in deeper, which is theoretically what Xiao Xingchen agreed to, but is Xue Yang even enjoying this anymore??? Anyways, I love a good excuse to write top drop. Some of the top drop is written so far, but I’ll have to edit it based on how the scene itself plays out

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Oh my god, I want to write the whole peak lord liu mingyan au, but it’s another one where I don’t have a narrative so much as a whole bunch of sequential moments in a story. But I am COMPLETELY committed to giving Shen Jiu a happier life, and if that means flipping the liu siblings around so that Liu Qingge is Luo Binghe’s peer (and drags him up the hill to Bai Zhan Peak instead of Qing Jing), and they are both shamelessly corrupting Shen Qingqiu’s favorite disciple, Shen Yuan, then... I’ll....... try to do it. Eventually :X If I had to pick a single scene, it would probablyyyy be the aftermath of this version of the abyss (the focus is the shen jiu + liu mingyan frenemyship, but the background is bingliushen)

But also, I want to write the canon version, where people accuse Shen Jiu of creeping on women for violently unfair reasons, and where he’s unfairly blamed for Peak Lord Liu Mingyan’s death in the Lingxi Caves, but now there’s an additional flavor of ‘well I bet she rejected him, and he took his anger out on her’ and he very bitterly doesn’t even try to defend himself, because nobody will believe him anyways. And I want to write the fic itself, where her natural big sister energies are exactly what he needs and can never never never admit out loud, and where she’s a comforting presence that he would never admit to needing. 

I have no idea what this fic would even look like, physically! None at all I want it to just Exist, but it’s looking like I have to write it, which means I need to figure out how to write it, and none of this is fair :’)

#ask memes #spock replies #long post/ #svsss #veliseraptor

[spockandawe]

I think I want.... to talk about Luo Binghe.

Because I never ever get tired of talking about Luo Binghe, honestly. And I’m trying to mentally prod at my bingliushen au, so talking about any of those three dorks (or about 79) counts as being productive, right? XD

Anyways, I think one of my favorite things with Luo Binghe is how insecure he is, but not in the more common ways I see insecurity done in fiction. He’s skilled as SHIT, and he’s confident in his skills. He’s smart as hell too, and a dedicated learner. Shen Qingqiu even has a spot in the book where Binghe is like ‘oh, where did shizun learn this?’ and it’s from reading the novel, but Shen Qingqiu bullshits like ‘uhhh it’s from a secret book back at the sect’, and immediately is like SHIT and Binghe is like ‘hmm it must be a very, very secret book if this disciple never read it.’

And in the canon-verse, he’s got a magnetic, charming personality. He collects this MASSIVE harem of pretty ladies, he manages to charm political figures, etc., etc. He’s plenty strong as a fighter, but it sounds like he doesn’t often have to bring that to bear, because he naturally manages people well. He winds up comfortably ensconced in a position of power and with no serious threats facing him.

However, comma, he’s still massively insecure on the level of like... basic interpersonal relationships. Which sounds silly, considering the size of the canonverse harem. But even in the novel extras where canonverse bing-ge hops over to the svsss universe and talks to sy!sqq, he still craves shizun’s approval. Even though he, uh, dismembered his own shizun, and had some dream-ish encounters with this version of shizun where he popped off a couple limbs (though it didn’t stick). He finds out shizun and this luo binghe are happy together and shizun takes care of binghe, and he’s like what the FUCK, WHY DOES HE GET THIS, WHY DON’T I GET IT, I WANT IT I WANT IT THIS ISN’T FAIR--

I love that, that he has literally hundreds of women ready to dote on him in all kinds of ways, but it sincerely throws him that his old shizun, who rejected him, is willing to treat another version of him so well.

And like, in the actual novel itself, Binghe being insecure is a straight-up plot point, which is delicious. It’s such a nice build of the pieces of his backstory, starting with the way his mom gave birth to him and immediately tossed him into an icy river (it was more complicated than that, but that is the sequence of events he is aware of). And in the canonverse and novelverse, it’s a hugely formative moment when his shizun is like ‘oh, you’re half-demon? lemme just yeet you off into the abyss and tell everybody you died’

Plus in the novel, that feeling of rejection only builds and builds once he comes back, which is SO EXTRA TASTY because the rejection is actually shen qingqiu being terrified of binghe, not because he hates him. But from luo binghe’s perspective, shizun is his most important person, and shizun loathes him THIS. MUCH. it was one of my FAVORITE moments, even experienced indirectly, where luo binghe is like ‘wow, shizun would literally rather die than stay with me’ (and refuses to accept that dafghsgdj)

And!!! It’s not resolved by shizun visibly softening up to binghe either!! Even after he softens, even though it’s already a MASSIVE concession in terms of his typical reserve, that isn’t enough. He holds Binghe a little too far at arm’s length, and Binghe melts down because he concludes that it’s been made clear to him now, nobody will ever choose to stay by his side, nobody ever has chosen to stay by his side, and if anyone he cares about is offered a choice, they will choose to leave him.

Which, honestly, is also probably one of the things that draws me SUPER hard to svsss fic. Even though the story has a pretty emphatic romantic conclusion, and the extras go hard on the romance too (the marriage extra was PRECIOUS), that is some fertile-ass ground for fic to prod at in more depth. That’s the kind of emotional chasm that a novel has to bridge and move past, but maybe i want to go wallow at the bottom for a year or ten. 

It’s a relationship that carries the codependency to slightly worrying extremes, but has the story behind it to OWN that codependency. In the 100 questions extra, binghe’s most precious wish it to stay by shizun’s side for three whole days. Shen qingqiu is like ‘what, only three days?’ and binghe is like ‘but after three days, surely shizun will be tired of this disciple’ and sqq is like ‘Nope.’ It’s not as much of like... a lazy, relaxed codependency as cygate, it’s a coiled spring filled with potential energy. Which means, of course, that i also love the fics where their relationship has lasted long enough that binghe is able to relax his grip a little without feeling like he’s going to lose everything. And oh my goddddd, i love bingliushen, and seeing binghe able to relax his grip enough to let someone else in? GOD!!!! DELICIOUS! 

(and, if we’re talking about my personal fanfic ventures, having a triad introduces all kinds of new and delicious tension to the mix. as well as silly, silly things like ‘leave room for jesus’ memes, except it’s ‘leave room for binghe’)

But this kind of emotionally-driven insecurity is EXACTLY my favorite kind of flavor for a character. Like... tbh, binghe is probably the premier mxtx example of insecurity, but it’s a LOT of what draws me to jin guangyao as well, and to xue yang once he realizes Oh No, These Are Emotions. My favorite angle on hua cheng deals with this a lot too. And with jin guangyao and hua cheng especially, they are INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL in their personal lives, and have a good measure of their own skills, but if you ask them to evaluate themselves on an emotional level, things get much more Complicated.

I don’t really have an end point to this essay, but it’s really interesting to me just how STRONGLY svsss and luo binghe especially grabbed ahold of my heart. I hadn’t really been expecting it, and I finished the story pleased and ready to move on. But then... I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I read tgcf and erha and am working on dreamer in the spring boudoir, and still can’t stop thinking about svsss. I love fannish navel-gazing, so here we are, yet again, haha :P

#svsss #long post/

[hamliet]

MDZS and the Enneagram

Brought to you by discussions with IRL friends about which Enneagram types we are. 

The Enneagram classifies people based on their motivations and their fears into nine basic “types,” and each type also comes with a “wing” to an adjacent type (in other words, someone who is Type 1 can have a 2 wing or a 9 wing, etc.) Each type also has “arrows” meant to depict that as they grow, they grow in the direction of another type, and as they grow more stressed, they disintegrate towards yet another type. There are also “levels” of health within each type (Basic descriptions are taken from the Enneagram Institute.) I’m also not doing everyone I did for the MBTI because Enneagram is based a lot on internal desires, which is harder when you know very little about a character. I couldn’t even feel confident to do Lan JingYi (I’d venture 7w8 but *shrugs*). :/

Wei WuXian: Type 7, “The Enthusiast”

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

I don’t think this is really questionable lol. I would actually specify that I think he’s a 7w6, “The Entertainer.” I put him as having a 6 wing because 6 is “The Loyalist” and its description of wanting security and being frightened of being alone seems to fit Wei WuXian and his sacrificial nature towards the Jiangs. 

Lan WangJi: Type 1, “The Reformer”

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective

Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

I’d put Lan WangJi as 1w2 “The Advocate,” because he does repeatedly learn to break the rules for people he loves, and puts helping people above preserving the peace (a 9 would do the opposite). 

Jiang Cheng: Type 3 “The Achiever” 

Basic Fear: Of being worthless

Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile

Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.

This sounds very Jiang Cheng. I think he’s a 3w4 “The Professional.” A 4 is “The Individualist” and their basic fear is that they have no identity or personal significance, and basic desire is to find themselves and their significance (to create an identity).

Lan XiChen: Type 9 “The Peacemaker”

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation

Basic Desire: To have inner stability "peace of mind"

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

XiChen repeatedly plays the peacemaker and is rather unflappable, even to a fault sometimes. I’d say he’s a 9w1, “The Dreamer.”

Jin GuangYao: Type 3, “The Achiever” 

Basic Fear: Of being worthless

Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile

Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.

Like Jiang Cheng, he’s a 3, but unlike Jiang Cheng, he’s got a 2 wing. A 3w2 is known as “The Charmer” which... definitely fits Jin GuangYao. There’s a description of 2s later, but 2s have the basic desire for love, which again is very Jin GuangYao. 

Nie MingJue: Type 8, “The Challenger”

Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others

Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life and destiny)

Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.

I’d say Nie MingJue, for all his focus on morality, is more driven by the desire for control than is Lan WangJi, who seems more worried about morality for fear of being bad (Nie MingJue, for example, doesn’t evaluate his actions critically). I’d says he’s a 8w9 “The Bear,” as he seems very much not at all a 7, and peace of mind seems to be his goal but... the lack of peace ultimately kills him. 

Nie HuaiSang: Type 4 “The Individual”

Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance

Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity)

Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a "rescuer."

It’s not impossible for him to be another type, but I think he’s a 4w5, “The Bohemian.” A 5 is “The Investigator” and their basic fear is being useless, helpless, or incapable, and their basic desire is to be capable and confident. HuaiSang is more focused on his art, but he’s still got those 5 traits in him. 

Wen Ning: Type 5, “The Investigator”

Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable 

Basic Desire: To be capable and competent

Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.

I’d classify Wen Ning as a 5 with a 4 wing, “The Iconoclast.” Like 5s, who grow when moving towards becoming more confident and forging their own paths like 8s, that’s exactly the arc Wen Ning has in the story: overcoming his insecurity to take his own destiny in his hands. 

Jiang YanLi: Type 9, “The Paacemaker”

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation

Basic Desire: To have inner stability "peace of mind"

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

I think YanLi is a 9, focusing on peace. Like XiChen and another character below, I think she’s a 9w1, “The Dreamer.” 

Jin Ling: Type 3, “The Achiever” 

Basic Fear: Of being worthless

Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile

Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.

Like his uncles, he’s a 3, and like Jiang Cheng, he’s a 3w4, “The Professional.” 

Lan SiZhui: Type 9, “The Peacemaker”

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation

Basic Desire: To have inner stability "peace of mind"

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

Like Lan XiChen, he’s a 9w1, “The Dreamer.” His fears and desires are interesting because of how he has blocked out his traumatic childhood, and how hesitant WangJi and Wen Ning are to tell him. 

Xue Yang: Type 7 “The Enthusiast”

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

I’d say Xue Yang is a 7w6, “The Entertainer.” Like 6s, he fears a loss of security and loneliness. 

Xiao XingChen: Type 2, “The Helper”

Basic Fear: Of being unwanted, unworthy of being loved

Basic Desire: To feel loved

Key Motivations: Want to be loved, to express their feelings for others, to be needed and appreciated, to get others to respond to them, to vindicate their claims about themselves.

Xiao XingChen is a very much a 2w1 “Servant,” (that moral code). Xue Yang even calls him out on his need to vindicate himself. 

Song Lan: Type 1, “The Reformer”

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective

Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

There isn’t a ton to work with, but we know he is extremely motivated by morality and wants to help his friend Xiao XingChen, so I’d say he’s most likely a 1w2, “The Advocate.” 

A-Qing: Type 6, “The Loyalist”

Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance

Basic Desire: To have security and support

Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.

She is a 6w7, “The Buddy.” This is literally her role in the story, but it’s also true that as much as she looks for fun and simple pleasures, she looks for security even more. 

#mdzs meta #enneagram #wei wuxian lan wangji #jiang cheng #jin ling #lan sizhui #jiang yanli #a-qing #xue yang #xiao xingchen #song lan #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #lan xichen #jin guangyao