#song lan layout

[smittenskitten]

tagged by @cytharat @fangrui thank you 💗💗

this is so hard 😅😅

10 Characters, 10 Fandoms, 10 Tags

Chu Wanning (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun) - I am amazed at just how much I love this character. 

Tian (Atots) -  Did my baby make bad choices regarding his health? Yes.

Porsche (KinnPorsche) - He is a baby and I miss him

Adachi (Cherry Magic) - It was like looking at myself and I cried the entire time.

Wen Kexing (Word of Honor) -  He is my poor little mewow mewow

Nozue (Old Fashion Cupcake) - how do I explain! Nozue-san, you deserve everything.

General Choi Yeong (Faith) - he was a real life person however the drama was fictional. And he melted my heart everytime he called Eun Soo Imja so yeah.

Kyoko (Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku) - My girl resets every time she goes to sleep. It was relief coated angst and I wish there were more.

Dongfang Qingcang (Cang Lan Jue) - Sometime the villain is the hero and I am so thankful that I got to see it.

Baek Nakyum (Painter of The Night) - 3 seasons of pain and suffering and it never gets easy. He deserves to be happy. 

put your top 9 favourite characters!

Kwak Hyun (Hospital Ship) - this man said she can do what she wants, my feelings about who she meets is absolutely unnecessary. So yeah the male lead saying this almost 5/6 years ago in kdrama was very rare

Kurosawa (Cherry Magic) - he saw Adachi

Eun Soo (Faith)- Kudos to Eun Soo for navigating her Goreyo era time travel experience with greed and history knowledge to survive. And also cause she bagged one of the most decorated general in that era.

Bai Qian (Ten Miles of Peach Blossom) - while I do take issue with Susu, Bai Qian kicked everyone and their mother's ass. So she definitely deserves this

Dong Yi (Dong Yi) - She was real life person from history and the character in the drama was great

Kinn (KinnPorsche) - he is out, loud and proud. Anyone that questions him gets a bullet to their head. What’s not to love?

Mo Ran (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun) - Dress him up however you want, TXZ or Mo Ran. I want him for CWN.

Phupa (ATOTS) - this forest ranger said gay dudes also live in the wilderness but can they communicate? Nooooo

Zhou Zishu (Word of Honor) - He was ready to yeet himself from existence but then he met a dude.

people you want to get to know better

Last Song: Mean x Jeff Satur's new song

Currently Watching: so many dramas!

Currently Reading: SVSSS

Last series: Natsuzora. I love my daily jdramas a lot and they are so addictive!

Last movie: Alienoid

Favourite food: how do I categorize! I love food!

Favourite color: soft tones of all colors, idk how to describe it however my closet is filled with really bright colors 🤣🤣

Song stuck in my head: Over the Moon (The Eclipse OST)

Last thing you googled: Back pain exercise. ouchie

Time: 1 am

Dream trip: there is literally so many places!! But I would like a trip where I have plenty of time so I can actually see things or lazy about and do nothing instead of just whooshing through.

Last thing you read: The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

Last book you enjoyed reading: ☝️

Last book you hated reading: I rather not say

Favourite thing to cook/bake: the food!! I don't like all the cleaning after but I am an excellent cook and a better baker. I like the food I make most of the time lol

Favourite craft to do in your free time: drawing, gif making, 

Most niche dislike: replying to email 

Opinion on circuses: meh

Do you have any sense of direction? : Yes? At least I think I do. 

content creator appreciation! list five favourite sets you’ve made and send this ask to five other content creators

I like trying new styles every now and then. I tried a new layout style recently.

This one is a fade effect, takes forever! I tried with 4x4 but my favorite ones are 3x3

This comic book overlay is another one. Maybe I will try this style again.

I am scared of color overlays, but this one turned out okay.

Ooooo this was cool effect overlay I tried.

Tagging a few people and anyone who would like to join @billlkin @moonlightchicken @vegastheerapanyakul @guzhu-furen @machikeita (feel free to ignore)

#tag game

[rkivepoems]

𓂃 𓈒 Song Jiyang Layout

pls ♥︎𓈒 if u save/use like pra reblog ✰

#li bowen #Li Bowen icons #Li Bowen header #Li Bowen Layout #song lan #song lan icons #song lan header #song lan layout #the untamed #t.u.b.s #cpop idols #cpop packs

[ruanbaijie]

发如雪 (周杰伦) || Hair Like Snow (Jay Chou) [MV (please dm for link the MV's gorgeous)]

你发如雪 纷飞了眼泪 your hair is like snow, tears fluttering away

我等待苍老了谁 who has grown old because of my waiting?

红尘醉 微醺的岁月 the drunken world of mortals, the intoxicated days

我用无悔 刻永世爱你的碑 without regret, I carve a memorial of eternal love in my heart

Fa Ru Xue is one of Jay Chou’s most iconic “Chinese-style (中国风 zhōng guó fēng)” songs. The lyrics, written by Vincent Fang (Jay Chou collaborates very often with him and his lyrics are GOD TIER), tell the story of a pair of lovers who are forced to leave one another, whether in their past or present lives. With self-created words like 发如雪 (fà rú xuě) “hair like snow” and 狼牙月 (láng yá yuè) “moon in the shape of a wolf’s tooth", as well as by invoking other imageries such as red dust, an invitation to the moon, and the bronze mirror, the lyrics of the song read like an ancient love poem. The use of the guzheng (a type of zither, commonly known as the Chinese harp) also helps to invoke a sense of sorrow in the melody.

#mdzsnet #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #fytheuntamed #another song introduced to me because of my mother's karaokeing lmao #the text layout for this gave me a major headache ugh #chen qing ling #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wang yibo #xiao zhan #*gfx #mdzs quote #*i

[ofkilljoysandslytherins]

"My child is fine". Your child is constantly projecting their unresolved trauma onto tragic fictional characters

#flower of evil #lee joon gi #omg #books #mdzs #mao dao zu shi #The untamed #the founder of diabolism #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #wei wuixan #wei ying #wen ning #Wen Qing #Jiang Cheng #Jin ling #xiao xingchen #song layouts #lan xichen #meng yao

[ifsbunny]

TUBS layout

fav or reblog if you save

follow me on my twitter (@/i4JAEGR) 💞

#Zheng Fanxing #Song Jiyang #Ji Li #TUBS #icons #headers #layout #the untamed #the untamed boys #the untamed cast #Lan Sizhui #Xiao Xingchen #Nie Huaisang

[fu-yao]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you so much for tagging me @lan-xichens​, I’ll try my best to explain how I made this set from start to finish hehe ♡ and also a big thank you to @suibianjie​ @highwarlockkareena​ @nyx4​ @aheartfullofjolllly​ and you as well Kris for putting this all together! Content creators get a lot less recognition than they deserve for all the time they put into their content, so getting everyone to see the (sometimes excessive) process we all go through to put our content in our blog, I hope it creates a positive change!! 💖

1. Planning

The set in question was actually requested by someone so they could celebrate their friend’s birthday! At first I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to finish it on time (college is very hectic right now) but I was able to finish it three days before the deadline which was may 1st! ^-^

The first thing I did was decide what characters I wanted to use in the set, I first reached out to the person who requested the set if there were certain characters they wanted me to use but they said they didn’t know enough to really give me any directives outside of the quote. I decided, since the quote is applicable to the entirety of the show, that I would try to put in as many characters as possible.

Thus, of course, came the hunting for scenes. Those of you in the net discord surely know I came into the content help channel a few times to ask for certain scenes here and there, and eventually I had to download an additional 10 episodes to the back then 20 or so episodes I had in my CQL episodes folder.

As you can see I have 30 random episodes of CQL downloaded (slowly but surely getting to the point where I have all 50 episodes downloaded) and I think I ended up using scenes out of at least 20 of those episodes.

I planned out beforehand what characters I would use per gif. I knew obviously I would start out with Wangxian, them being the main characters of the show, and then would work my way down the list. The second gif consists of Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning. They’re all family pairings, two being siblings and one being a married couple. The next gifset consists of the Yi City characters, then the fourth gif consists of the juniors, and the final gif has Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen in it.

I have to admit though that when I had made the first four gifs I’d forgotten who I would put in the last gif and the when I thought about it the first time around I could only think of Lan Qiren and the very cursed Yaoyang ship 😭 it was only at dinner time that same day that I remembered I hadn’t put Jiang Cheng in my gifset yet and that’s when I thought of the other characters as well.

I had already made my first two gifs when I went to check Hanyi’s blog for layout inspo and eventually I decided I wanted to try a triangle-ish layout, which I doodled below. I eventually ended up changing the layout of the last gif in the final design. It was also the first time I would work with a triangle-ish layout so I was a bit nervous as I was scared it wasn’t going to work out...

2. Creating

I use Avisynth 2.5 and Adobe Photoshop 2021 (the paid version, unfortunately, I need it for school except I didn’t need it this year but I wanted it so I paid for it with my own money ouch) to make my gifsets! I always start out with trimming down all the scenes I’m going to use into three to five second videos and putting them through Avisynth. This time around I did it separately for each gif I made, simply because I needed so many scenes. I would include a screenshot of my “gif vids” and “temp” folders but I’ve already deleted all the videos, which is what I usually do immediately after a set is posted.

I’ll try my best explaining this gif by gif since each one had a different layout!

2.1 Wangxian

I think I had up to five different designs of this gif 😭 it started out with the gif on the left originally being more centered and the quote right smack in the center but somehow it felt a bit too... empty? I changed up the design and pulled the gif over to the right and put the two closeups on the left, the exact opposite of the gif I eventually ended up with. I switched things around one more time and saved the gif as you can see it right now, except I didn’t include the lines yet. It was only as I finished up my fourth gif that I decided this gif needed lines as well so I added them ^-^

2.2 Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning

I got the inspiration for the font layout on this gif from this Wenzhou post! I hadn’t tried it before and when I did for this gif I was very happy with the way it turned out :D I wanted to portray that life is a pile of good and bad things, as the quote says, in CQL by mirroring these happy scenes side by side with the sad scenes

2.3 Yi CIty

My first time working with the triangle layout!! Putting in the lines and making sure they would line up with the second gif took me the longest of all actually  😭 I think once I got the line on the left in I just copy pasted it and flipped it horizontally so I didn’t have to fiddle around with angling it anymore :’) my original idea was to get a happy Song Lan scene and a sad A-Qing scene, but when I stumbled upon this A-Qing scene in ep38 I just had to put it in there because her smile is so precious 🥺 Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen in the center are also supposed to be mirrored, with Xue Yang embodying the “bad things” and Xiao Xingchen the “good things” ! I also think the Yi City characters fit this part of the quote very well!!

2.4 The Juniors

Ah yes, the junior quartet!! :D I had this planned out from the very beginning, that I would include happy versus sad juniors in the “vice versa” part of the quote, and I think it worked out quite well! My first idea was to put the “vice versa” completely in the special font and have it typed out over the gifs like I did with the “vice” but as I typed out the “versa” I realized it had one letter too much to be able to do that 😭😭 it took me a while to come up with how I would position the “but” and “versa” and after some moving around I decided to just place them the way I did in the final gif! For the font, I duplicated the “vice” and added a stroke to the duplicate, then I changed the fill setting to 0% so I could slightly drag the duplicate away from the original layer to create the effect that’s in the gif — also, finding a scene in which Jin Ling smiles is really difficult.... he barely even smiles in the scene I ended up using :(

2.5 Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen

The final gif!! I feel like this might come a little across as “I promise I didn’t forget these characters” because they’re a very odd quadruplet to put together, but they were the most important characters left to put in the set! I was thinking of putting Nie Mingjue in here together with Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, but I did feel he fit more with his brother up in the second gif. Mei @mylastbraincql​ cheered me on making this gif for which I was very grateful :D <3 the layout came to be after I googled “how to evenly split a rectangle in four” because I didn’t want a repeat layout in the set  (*/∇＼*)

2.6 Coloring

For the coloring I pretty much did all of the tweaking on the first gif and then copy pasted all of it onto the second, third, fourth, and fifth gif. This is usually the way I go about my coloring, I will always edit certain gifs if necessary but I don’t think I had to change the coloring much on any of these gifs? Maybe I added in a curve layer here and there, but nothing major! This is really one of my preferred coloring styles, even though I try to step outside of my comfort zones with other sets ^-^

3. Posting

I will always upload sets into my drafts and edit the caption in there as well, clicking on “preview post” a couple times to check everything looks good on my blog as well, before I post a set. However, this time, since there was a deadline and I finished before the deadline, I put this set in the queue so it would automatically post on the 1st of may! Knowing myself, I would’ve forgotten to do so </3

Whew that was... a lot 😭 did it make any sense? Probably not, but it was fun to ramble （ ´∀｀）

I’ll tag

@blinkplnk​ with this set !

@wuxien​ with this set !

@wendashanren​ with this set !

@wanyinxichen​ with this set !

@yibobibo​ with this set !

@mylastbraincql​ with this set !

@sugarbabywenkexing​ with this set !

@yiling-recesses​ with this set !

@jiancheng​ with this set !

Please feel totally free to ignore this if you’ve already been tagged and don’t want to do it again!! <3

#showyourprocess #tag game #this got so long i'm sorry ;-; #very curious to see everyone else's processes!! #thank you for the tag kris <3

[qinghe-s]

you talked in your tags on a post about jiang cheng antis about not liking characters but liking them in the story. (or something like that) What do you mean? doesn't that mean you like the character?

oh boy okay. this is the post in question i think

so it may not come as a huge surprise that jin guang/yao isn't my favourite because [gestures at my whole nie brothers thing] and the years of lying and manipulative behaviour & the way he deflects blame in the final showdown reminds me of a past abuser, but that's whatever because his part in the story is so good. i'm not talking about cql here because the way cql handled him, the storyline, and the 3/zun relationship made some unfortunate narrative changes. but:

in the novel, as others have pointed out (i can't find the particular meta i'm thinking of in my likes, i will edit this when/if i do) we're led to think jgy kind of sucks early on, but as time passes there are more and more glimpses of him as a sympathetic character. it's very effective because the reader and the characters all question their perception of him in the end — the more things unravel the more we have to doubt our initial image of him. and i love that! i love the way mxtx uses a final empathy scene with one of the dead sex workers to show jgy as a child, abused and trying to protect his mother, in the middle of all his darkest secrets being brought to life. it's absolutely genius in the way it shows how a person is never just one thing which is one of the major themes in this story, 12/10 adore everything about it even if i wouldn’t give him the time of day as a person but that's my stance and i'm not interested in telling people who are more sympathetic towards him that they're wrong. we just think differently, it's fine, i still really enjoy his part in the narrative.

-

i also think su s/he is worth bringing up because no one likes him but man, he's a fascinating character. i've spent a fair amount of time thinking about his relationship to jgy and the level of devotion he displays. the lengths he’s willing to go to for someone who initially just showed him basic kindness. what could he have done, who could he have been in the story if lwj had paid him any attention? what is up with his intense green-tinted hate-following of lwj even years after the last time they were in the same place probably? the brand loyalty...

and he gets to hang out with xy! he’s familiar enough with the layout of yi city and a good enough fighter that he can hold his own against lan wang/ji? tell me more!! how much did he hang out with jgy’s little demonic cultivation club. did he and mxy interact. how much did he know about all the secrets. if he wasn’t such a little slimeball of a man i might talk myself into actually liking him but things are the way they are and i will instead use way too much brainpower on wanting to know what his Deal is.

again, absolutely not cql-based because the second flautist thing is very meh, i like a wwx who loses control over his corpse pal and su she is... dare i say it... cool? enough as a character without that bit.

-

lastly the yi/city gang doesn’t really do anything for me but i also spend a normal amount of time thinking about nmj & song/xiao sharing ideals and goals wrt xy, and also xy somehow just getting to hang out in jinlintai and do fucked up experiments and live his best deranged life? it’d be so easy for mxtx to just make him a bad guy but no!

her thoughtful attention to characterisation and detail is just chef kiss, is my point. it’s incredible. she’s a genius.

#ask #i hope the slashes keeps this out of character tags bc people are allowed to like things without me coming in to say i don't #sorry to my mutuals who are jgy fans though i hope you know i still think you're valid! we can like different things #& like i said i still think he's a good character #meta #my meta #is it true that the first 20 tags are searchable now... i hope not #because. organisation: #jgy #ss #xy #mdzs #sorry this took like a week anon i've been so tired </3

[anxious-witch]

Xiao Xingchen has no memory prior to last year. The only person he recognizes and trusts is Xue Yang. And Xue Yang tells him they are on the run.

Xingchen knows he is a thief. The way he instantly finds all the ins and outs, and has a memories of layouts from which things got stolen is proof enough. So why is guilt eating him from inside out? Why does he feel like something, no someone is missing?

He dreams of a man in black that he'd follow anywhere. The man always seems to tall in his dreams, which can't be right. Xue Yang isn't tall, but it has to be him.

Xingchen's doubts increase when he gets caught giving Xue Yang the chance to escape. Song Lan talks like he knows him and while Xingchen knows he shouldn't talk, everything in him aches to. Is there more to him than he realized?

#the untamed #xiao xingchen #song lan #xue yang #songxiao #aesthetic #mai has too many ideas

[bloody-bee-tea]

A good night’s rest

When Lan Xichen wakes up, he is confused. It’s still night out, that much is clear, but the sleep still tugging at him tells Lan Xichen that it is long before his usual time.

He lays in bed for a few seconds. He hopes to maybe just fall asleep again, though it is highly unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night like this. At first he attributes it to the fact that he’s in an unfamiliar place; he’s not used to the constant soft noise the water makes in the background, but he got used to that rather quickly.

Lan Xichen has been in Lotus Pier for the last week at least, after Jiang Cheng has invited him to his newly rebuild sect. Lan Xichen has agreed more than happily, completely in awe of the things Jiang Cheng has accomplished in a relatively short time.

It’s more than clear that Jiang Cheng is still in all kinds of pain over the loss of his sect, and more recently his sister and brother not to mention that he suddenly has to look after his baby nephew, but he’s doing the best he can for his people anyway and Lan Xichen has nothing but respect for that kind of pure stubbornness. Not even to mention the willingness to put his own needs back for the sake of his people.

Lan Xichen always suspected that Jiang Cheng would make a great Sect Leader one day, no matter what his mother and father always seemed to think, but to see him flourish like that and overcome every single hurdle that was thrown his way like this; that’s a surprise even to Lan Xichen.

Lan Xichen is brought out of his musings when a soft voice reaches him; just a distant murmur in the air. It’s not the water, that much is clear because it is too melodious, but Lan Xichen can’t quite make out the words.

He suddenly remembers every tale of sirens he has ever read and wonders if maybe here, in Lotus Pier, some sirens have settled down.

They are rumoured to take to the sea, but Lan Xichen wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that Lotus Pier managed to attract a few ones as well.

Lan Xichen thinks it might be rather stupid to believe in tales like that, but still, he gets out of bed and throws his outer robe over his sleeping clothes. He’s awake anyway. It doesn’t hurt to check it out. Maybe he’ll get lucky and catch a glimpse of one.

It would certainly make for quite the tale to tell, Lan Xichen thinks.

He silently leaves his room, and slowly walks out towards the piers. Lan Xichen is not quite familiar with the layout of Lotus Pier yet, not how he is with the hallways in Jinlingtai or Qinghe, but he’s steadily making progress in that.

He’s confident that one day he’ll be able to walk around here without hesitation as well.

When he reaches the piers, he follows the soft voice that is still ringing out over the water, but when he rounds another corner he is entirely unprepared for the sight that greets him.

Jiang Cheng is standing at the end of the pier, clad in simple sleeping robes, and he’s walking up and down, bouncing a sniffling Jin Ling on his arm. And he is singing to the boy, his voice soft and low, but clear enough to ring out over the water and carry.

Lan Xichen stops dead in his tracks and keeps still, not wanting to disturb Jiang Cheng or upset Jin Ling again. The boy is clearly fighting sleep, but the steady movement of Jiang Cheng and his lullaby are doing wonders in dragging him to sleep anyway.

It’s not long before Jin Ling settles in Jiang Cheng’s arms, but still he doesn’t stop; he keeps walking up and down, gently bouncing Jin Ling but his voice tapers off, falling to nothing more than a soft whisper, before eventually that stops as well.

Jiang Cheng seems to hold his breath for a few seconds, but Jin Ling doesn’t wake up again and Jiang Cheng presses a relieved kiss to his head before he turns around only to freeze in surprise when he sees Lan Xichen.

Jiang Cheng seems tired, Lan Xichen notices, and where he was soft and unguarded just a few seconds again, he quickly wraps his Sect Leader aura back around him. Lan Xichen immediately misses the softer version.

“I’m sorry I woke you up,” Jiang Cheng mutters, voice pitched low so he doesn’t upset Jin Ling again, but Lan Xichen shakes his head.

“It’s fine,” he gives back just as softly. “I didn’t know you could sing.”

“I can’t,” Jiang Cheng tells him as he passes him, and Lan Xichen takes it as invitation to follow him. “It’s not a skill I have.”

“I would beg to differ,” Lan Xichen says because the sweet singing voice has been enough to make him believe a siren was calling out for him.

Not that he’s going to tell that to Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng scoffs at that, which makes Jin Ling squirm in his arms and Jiang Cheng throws a scathing glance at Lan Xichen, who immediately presses his lips together. Still, Jiang Cheng doesn’t tell him to go away, so Lan Xichen continues to follow him until they reach his room.

Lan Xichen isn’t quite daring enough to follow Jiang Cheng into his private quarters, but he hovers at the doorstep and watches as Jiang Cheng puts down Jin Ling, who continues to sleep for now. Jiang Cheng hesitates a few moments, before he joins Lan Xichen back outside.

He doesn’t pull the door close all the way and then simply sits down on the ground opposite of his room.

“Would you sit down already, I’m going to get a crick in my neck, staring up at you,” he mutters with his eyes closed and Lan Xichen quickly settles down beside him.

“You’re doing a wonderful job, caring for him,” Lan Xichen tells him.

Jiang Cheng eyes him like he’s waiting for the punchline of that statement but Lan Xichen simply holds his gaze.

“If you say so,” Jiang Cheng finally says and Lan Xichen smiles at him, even though Jiang Cheng turns his head away from him.

They sit in silence for some time, before Jiang Cheng sighs.

“I’m just waiting for the day where he gets tired of the lullaby I sing him. I only know the one,” he admits and he stares down at his hands.

“We have some collections of lullabies in the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Xichen tells him. “If you want, I can bring them here and play them for you, so you know the melody,” he offers.

He is entirely unprepared for the surprised look this gets him.

“You would do that?” Jiang Cheng asks, and he seems to wait for the other shoe to drop, or for Lan Xichen to laugh at him.

It makes Lan Xichen wonder when Jiang Cheng last got any help from anyone else. It’s not a very pleasant thought.

“Of course I would,” Lan Xichen honestly tells him. “And if you need help with anything else you just have to ask.”

Jiang Cheng scrutinizes him for a few moments before he finally nods.

“Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” Lan Xichen replies and then, because now that Jiang Cheng is all relaxed and the dark shadows under his eyes stand out even more, he adds “We also have some calming songs, if you should ever need some.”

“I don’t think I’m receptible to those,” Jiang Cheng gives back with a clearly suspicious look on his face but Lan Xichen simply shakes his head.

“I don’t mean you any harm. They are calming and nothing else. They work really well on fussy babies.”

“Jin Ling has every right to be fussy,” Jiang Cheng says and it’s clear he’s daring Lan Xichen to say anything else.

“He has,” Lan Xichen admits. “But you have a right to sleep, too. If you don’t want me to play them for him, I can send someone else, if you would like to.” Lan Xichen hesitates for a second and then decides to just be honest. “You seem exhausted. You deserve some rest, too.”

“I don’t think I even remember what rest is,” Jiang Cheng mutters under his breath and Lan Xichen’s heart goes out to him.

“Would you like me to hum something for you?” he asks and he counts it as a victory that Jiang Cheng doesn’t immediately gear for a fight again.

“I can’t sleep. Jin Ling—,” he starts but Lan Xichen doesn’t let him finish.

“Is asleep right now. And I will be here. I will wake you if he starts to wake up,” he promises Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng clenches his jaw and Lan Xichen is sure he’s going to refuse the offer, when all the fight goes out of him.

“Please,” he mumbles so softly Lan Xichen only hears it because he’s been waiting for it and Lan Xichen immediately starts humming one of the many songs he knows.

He doesn’t use any spiritual energy because it’s clear that Jiang Cheng is ready to fall asleep where he sits and it really doesn’t take long for him to go soft with exhaustion. Lan Xichen doesn’t stop his humming, but he does adjust his position, and slightly nudges Jiang Cheng so he falls more heavily against him.

“I shouldn’t,” Jiang Cheng mutters, more asleep than awake at that point and Lan Xichen carefully nudges him again.

“You should,” he tells him and Jiang Cheng stills against him before he seems to make a resolution.

“This is your fault,” he says and it sounds more like a warning than anything else.

Before Lan Xichen can ask what exactly his fault is, Jiang Cheng slides down completely and rests his head in Lan Xichen’s lap, body stretched out in a lazy sprawl.

Lan Xichen freezes for a moment, before he settles one hand on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder and gently cups his head with the other one.

“Sleep,” he tells him and starts his humming again.

Jiang Cheng goes heavy and boneless in his lap and it’s not long at all before he is deeply asleep.

Lan Xichen doesn’t quite know how he’s supposed to explain this to anyone if a disciple should find them like this, but he also doesn’t intent do wake Jiang Cheng up before the sun rises or before Jin Ling wakes up, whatever comes first.

Jiang Cheng deserves at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep and Lan Xichen will make sure he gets them.

#bt writes #the untamed #mdzs #xicheng #soft and good #pre-relationship #jc deserves some rest #and lxc will make sure he gets it

[enbyleighlines]

Wangji Week

Day 5: Bearer of Light

—

The news said there would be a huge thunderstorm headed their way. But Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both underestimated it, it seems.

The cracks of thunder and howling winds are keeping A-Yuan awake. He flat out refuses to go to bed, to separate from his Xian-gege and Ji-gege. And so, with all his infinite wisdom, Wei Wuxian had built a large fort in the living room with couch cushions and blankets.

It’s somewhat of a tight fit, for two grown men and a four-year-old. And Cabbage and Carrot, the family bunny rabbits, are in there with them, too.

But there are no complaints. A-Yuan is sitting in the center of it all, playing out a scene with his various plastic toys. He loves making them talk to each other. The toys are currently putting on a little play. Their stage is Cabbage’s fluffy rounded back.

After a year of sharing the same roof, the rabbit is well acclimated to the toddler’s shenanigans. Cabbage remains still, aside from the occasional twitch of the nose.

Carrot, on the other hand, is utilizing whatever little free space there is to hop around in circles.

Wei Wuxian is tucked under Lan Wangji’s arm, and despite the tight quarters, they have found a position that is comfortable for the both of them. They watch the impromptu performance of A-Yuan’s toys in respectful silence.

“We can’t go to the park,” one of A-Yuan’s toys says to another, “It’s night out.”

It’s amusing, really, to see how much A-Yuan soaks up from his surroundings. Lan Wangji smiles, but does not laugh. He has learned that A-Yuan takes it personally when people laugh at him.

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, has to muffle his snicker into Lan Wangji’s neck. His warm breath tickles.

“But you said we could!” A-Yuan’s other toy protests in an identical voice.

“Oh, fine. We can go.”

The toys walk up Cabbage’s neck. Presumably, Cabbage’s forehead is the park.

“Here we are! Let’s play!”

Wei Wuxian giggles some more. “I can’t,” he whispers into Lan Wangji’s ear, “I can’t handle this.”

“Don’t laugh,” Lan Wangji tells him.

That, of course, only makes Wei Wuxian laugh all the harder. He curls up, holding his stomach with one hand, and muffling himself with the other.

A-Yuan looks up at them. His face is all scrunched up. It’s unclear to Lan Wangji if this means he’s angry or confused.

Just to play it safe, Lan Wangji apologizes. “We’re sorry. Go on.”

But A-Yuan tosses his hands into the air with dramatic exasperation. “You’re supposed to clap,” he tells them, in a dead serious tone.

“Oh? Is the play over?” Lan Wangji asks.

But Wei Wuxian doesn’t wait for an answer. He pulls himself together and begins to applaud, loudly.

A-Yuan smiles.

And then all the lights go out.

For just a moment, the world is still. Frozen in time. Devoid of light or sound.

But then A-Yuan shrieks.

Everything erupts into chaos. Lan Wangji gets entangled with Wei Wuxian’s flailing limbs as they both instinctively move to comfort A-Yuan. Both rabbits take off in opposing directions, uncaring of who they step over to make their escape. The shriek has morphed into wet sobs and garbled gibberish.

Lan Wangji tries to reorient himself. He finds A-Yuan in the darkness, and pulls the child into his lap. Wei Wuxian, who grabbed A-Yuan at the same time, ends up being pulled along with him.

“It’s okay,” both of them are saying, “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

Their touch seems to soothe A-Yuan’s anxiety. His crying quiets, and he ends up just trembling in their awkward mutual embrace. His breaths are still sniffly, but they’re evening out.

“The power just went out,” Lan Wangji explains, once he feels like A-Yuan has recovered enough to hear it.

“Must be the storm,” Wei Wuxian says, “Do you have a flashlight?”

“Mn.”

But Lan Wangji is reluctant to leave his boyfriend and foster child alone, even if it’s only for a minute. Now that the initial shock has worn off, there’s something comforting about being bundled up together in the dark. Lan Wangji wants to savor the feeling.

Wei Wuxian doesn’t rush him. Instead, he just fumbles around until he can take Lan Wangji’s hand.

It’s A-Yuan who loses patience. “Ji-gege, flashlight?” He asks.

“Of course.” Lan Wangji blinks, trying to make out the outline of A-Yuan’s head. But it’s not use. Everything is the same shade of black. So he makes his best estimate, and presses a tender kiss to where he assumes A-Yuan’s forehead would be. He misses and kisses hair. Close enough.

Then Lan Wangji detangles himself from the comfy family huddle, and heads off to find the flashlight.

It’s a little easier to see outside the fort, though the windows don’t cast much light. The rain is so thick, it completely obscures the sky.

Lan Wangji remembers the layout of his apartment well, though. He navigates around the furniture without much of an issue, and makes his way to the kitchen, where the flashlight lies.

Finding the flashlight is easy, but it’s only half of the battle. When Lan Wangji flips the switch, nothing happens. The batteries are dead.

And so Lan Wangji has to shift around his drawers for replacement batteries. This is a far more arduous task, because he has to find the right size, based on what he thinks will fit in the flashlight. Then he has to insert them all both ways, not knowing which side is positive and which is negative.

As Lan Wangji fiddles with the batteries, he can hear Wei Wuxian’s voice in the other room.

Wei Wuxian is singing a silly little song to A-Yuan. It doesn’t rhyme, and the melody isn’t particularly consistent, either. Which means Wei Wuxian is making it up as he goes, which is even more endearing, somehow.

After a minute, A-Yuan starts chiming in during the chorus, which thankfully stays the same each time.

Lan Wangji’s heart clenches. Wei Wuxian and Wen Yuan— he loves them with a depth that is unfathomable, even to himself. But that’s fine. To try to describe it would flatten it. He just wants to ruminate in it, relish the heavy weight of it in his heart.

It takes some time, but finally Lan Wangji solves the flashlight puzzle. This time, when he flips the switch, it immediately emits a powerful beam of light that momentarily hurts to look at.

Triumphant, Lan Wangji returns. He shines the light on the blanket wall of the fort. Wei Wuxian and A-Yuan’s shadows dance and rejoice.

“There he is! Lan Zhan, bringer of light!”

A-Yuan bursts out of the fort and rushes to cling to Lan Wangji’s legs.

Laughing, Wei Wuxian follows after. He doesn’t quite tackle Lan Wangji with the same enthusiasm as A-Yuan, but then again, that would knock them all to the floor. But he does join the group hug.

“I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Wei Wuxian says, between gifting Lan Wangji with light kisses up the side of his jaw.

“Had to change the batteries.”

“Ahhh.” Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji a few more playful pecks. “That must have been a pain, in the dark.”

Lan Wangji shrugs.

Wei Wuxian laughs. “Always so modest, my Lan Zhan. Too modest, if you ask me. If it were me who managed to change batteries in a pitch black room, I’d be gloating so much.”

Lan Wangji can’t help but smile at the thought. Wei Wuxian is right. He would have gloated. And Lan Wangji would have happily praised him.

“Oh!” Wei Wuxian takes the flashlight from Lan Wangji. “You know what we should do, now that we have a flashlight?” He positions the light underneath his chin, to make spooky shadows grow across his face. “Ghost stories!”

“No!” A-Yuan screeches, and buries his face into Lan Wangji’s pant leg.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says.

Wei Wuxian lowers the flashlight. “Ahh, okay, no ghost stories. Then... how about shadow puppets? A-Yuan, I can show you how to make a bunny rabbit!”

That gets A-Yuan’s attention. He glances up at Wei Wuxian. “How?”

“Let me show you!” Wei Wuxian takes A-Yuan’s hand in his, though he has to walk with his back slightly bent to do so. “Lan Zhan, you can hold the flashlight for us.”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji follows, with a smile on his face and a pleasant fullness in his chest.

#wangjiweek2020 #drabbles #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #leigh’s writing

[noldorinsherlock]

Hey, @thepineapplering, it’s your anon here, you inspired me to type up my essay. So I’ve been thinking a lot about the structure of The Untamed because at first glance it can seem a little all over the place narratively, which didn’t make sense because it is actually a masterful work of narrative. But then I noticed that the rain scene was at almost the exact midpoint of the series, and I started thinking about narrative turning points and 5 act structure a la John Yorke, and a lot of things started slotting together. Disclaimer: I haven’t actually read John Yorke’s book, I only know it through TJLC meta, so there may be errors in my understanding and I welcome feedback. So! Here’s what I noticed

While I do think The Untamed fits into five acts, they’re not evenly sized - Act 5 takes up the entire last third of the show, while Act 4 is like two episodes. However, they still fit the correct narrative roles. Here are the acts as I see them:

Act 1 - Study abroad year in Cloud Recesses, ending with the inciting action of Lan Yi giving Wangxian the Yin Iron and the two of them setting out their quest - down the rabbit hole, so to speak, but. hilariously literally.

Act 2 - Everything from the Yin Iron quest to Wen Ruohan’s downfall at Wei Wuxian’s hands. I dithered over this a lot because a lot happens in this segment but I still like the placement of the first battle at Nightless City in act 2 scene 3, so there we have it.

Act 3 - From the end of Wen Ruohan’s defeat to Jin Ling’s birth. I think this works well both in terms of Wangxian’s changing/developing relationship and the everything-else plot of realizing that Wen Ruohan wasn’t the only evil in the world, and that many of the “good guys” are complicit in horrific war crimes. The Rain Scene acts as both a turning point in Wangxian’s relationship and the moral thesis of the show - “is this the promise we made together? who is strong and who is weak?” and appropriately ends up being in act 3 scene 2

Act 4 - the shortest act, from the conflict at Qiongqi Path that results in Jin Zixuan’s death to Wei Wuxian’s suicide by cliff. The darkest point, where it seems that tragedy will prevail. The synthesis of the antithesis - Wei Wuxian couldn’t control it, he’s the Yiling Patriarch who drags everyone down with him in his destruction.

Act 5 - everything after the return to the present. Wangxian have (mostly) sorted themselves out and are brought back together. Wei Wuxian is largely exonerated, the real villains of the story (resentment, rumor, and thirst for power) are defeated for the time being.

So where does this leave us? This structure gives us a really interesting thesis-antithesis-synthesis layout. I see the initial thesis as young Wei Wuxian in the Cloud Recesses, carefree but mischievous, good-hearted but with hints at his interest in forbidden magic. The antithesis is the Yiling Patriarch, or at least the myth of him - deep in dangerous magic and resentful energy, “cruel and heartless” according to popular opinion, “resentful energy will harm your body, and your temperament more”. It’s the wrong answer to the question, because we know that’s not who Wei Wuxian is, but Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli’s deaths seem at first to give it truth. The synthesis, the correct answer, is Wei Wuxian returned to life - more or less settled, in control, and regretful not of what he was trying to do (protect the weak and stand with justice), but of the way he hurt people he cares about along the way. He’s not the teenager he used to be, and he’s not the Yiling Patriarch, he’s simultaneously both of them and a better version of himself than either of them.

I think this also explains Yi City’s placement in the final act. It’s act 5 scene 2, or, as I understand it, the antithesis of the synthesis. Songxiao has been a mirror for Wangxian since the beginning, but where it was once a hopeful one, it ends in tragedy. Lan Wangji’s obvious empathy and pain when speaking to Song Lan makes it clear that that could so easily have been them - one dead by his own hand, the other wandering forever in grief - but Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian got a second chance, a chance to set things right.

We also get symmetry between the two times Lan Wangji drinks: the first time, it’s at roughly the midpoint of act 1, the second time, it’s at roughly the midpoint of act 5. While the first instance ended badly, with both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian being beaten for it, the second time gives us the delightful rooster scene. For bonus points, consider the other interaction between Lan Wangji and alcohol - when Wei Wuxian drank the very rudely offered toast for him. That takes place in act 3 scene 2, which means that the two times Lan Wangji actually drinks are symmetrical around it.

Other highlights: the Staircase Scene, the reveal of the story behind Lan Wangji’s scars, and the reveal of Wei Wuxian’s loss of his golden core, all take place in act 5 scene 3, which gives me a lot of emotions. And while this one is probably pure coincidence, I think it’s very funny that the Wen clan’s dungeon dog makes its appearance in act 2 scene 2, in the same position as THOB.

#the reason I didn't write this before is because I was formulating it for a non-tjlc audience and it was so much harder #if I'm writing for you all you'll know what I'm talking about better than I do anyway #I did put a fair bit of thought into dividing up what would go in each third of each act but I left the details out of this #wasn't sure if anyone would be interested

[songxiaolin]

moonlight

rest prompts

moonlight: trying to stay up until a loved one comes back home.

The cold silence of the winter night made it hard to stay awake. Sleep lay heavily on Lin Ming’s eyelids like the frost that was clinging to the world outside. Every so often her head would dip, chin sliding off her hand and she would jerk upright, shaking her head as if that would keep her tiredness at bay. 

There was no reason for her to stay up; they would be back, would always come back, and that was as certain as the sunrise in the morning. They had done this before. When it was only her and Xiao Xingchen, he had left and her trust was still fragile, believing that he wouldn’t return. He had, over and over.

It’s silly, she thought as she stretched her legs out, stifling a yawn. But something about how quiet the house was without Xiao Xingchen’s laughter or Song Lan’s soft voice felt wrong. Less like a home and more like the abandoned house it had been when they first came here, as if ‘home’ wasn’t a place but the love she had for them.

Perhaps it wasn’t a silly thought after all. 

Lin Ming stood, half hopping, half pacing for a moment, before she shivered. Without the blanket, without them, the night was even colder. She returned to the bed and pulled the blanket around her and wiggled her toes. She sighed.

At some point, she must have dozed off once more. The sound of the door sliding open woke her and she blinked, straightening her shoulders. Song Lan stepped in first, holding the door for Xiao Xingchen. He looked towards the bed, eyes widening slightly. 

“Lin Ming, you’re still awake,” he said. 

As if on cue, she yawned, nodding. 

“Is she?” 

Xiao Xingchen gave a light laugh before he moved to the bed - he knew the layout well, they made sure to keep all the furniture in the same place - and knelt next to her. Reaching out, he touched her cheek, first with one hand and then the other, cupping her face. She shivered again.

“My hands are cold, I know,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “Were you waiting up for us?”

She nodded again, watching out of the corner of her eye as Song Lan sat next to her. 

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Taking Xiao Xingchen’s hand, she rubbed it between hers before she turned it over and wrote against his palm. 

I couldn’t sleep without you.

“You couldn’t sleep without us?” he repeated, mostly for Song Lan’s benefit, but there was a fond smile on his face. “Ah, Lin Ming.”

Song Lan pulled the blanket up and covered her shoulders.

“You’re tired. You can barely keep your eyes open,” he said, kissing the side of her head. “Go to sleep, we’re here now.”

She didn’t argue as she curled up in the bed that suddenly felt less empty with Song Lan sitting on the edge, didn’t try to fight to stay awake because the sound of Xiao Xingchen whispering soothed her. Once again, the small farmstead tucked in the mountains felt like home now that her heart had returned.

#drabbles #songxiaolin #it's been a rough couple days so i needed to write a soft thing #justastoryteller #|✉| I have answers

[local-void-creature-izzy]

Bios: Rogue Couple

Cloud Recess’ Wrath

This is my AU Fic I am planning out but before I start writing it, I’m going to give you the character bio’s first and then the world setup/layout so you have a better understanding of some things that will go down in this fic. Character Bio #1:

-Xue Yang-

Birth Name: Xue Yang Courtesy Name: Xue Chengmei Age: 22 Sub Gender Status: Omega Relationship status: Mated,2 alphas Likes: Sweets, messing with people Dislikes: Ex, Step family, backward thinking Alphas Occupation: Unknown Nickname: A-Yang Title: The Psychotic Omega

Bio: He was brought into the world only to lose his parents in a car accident at barely 3 years old, because he was conceived outside of marriage no one from his birth parents families wanted him. So he was placed into foster care for 2 years before getting adopted by his step family. They raised him well until he presented way too early at the age of 11 and presented as an omega. His step family were all alphas and betas and had a backwards way of thinking so they abused and tormented him because they believed omegas were weak and pathetic. School life was not better but not worse. He was a loner until late high school where he met his best friend Wei Wuxian and one of his mated alphas, Xiao Xingchen. They became close and graduated together and were planning to go to college together. But his step family refused to pay for his college simply because of his sub gender, the abuse only got worse and worse to the point he permanently lost a finger and almost committed suicide. He then met his Ex, Wen Chao, who was not any better than his step family but at that point his mind was broken and was convinced that was love. Wen Chao did horrid things to him and would’ve continued if Xiao Xingchen hadn’t killed him. Xingchen hid him away in his college dorm that he shared with his friend, Song Lan, and it stayed like that until they graduated and they moved him from the door to their apartment above their place of work, Cloud Recess Mafia. Over time both undid the damage on his mind and he’s a lot better now especially since they are his mates. But god help you if you piss him off, because he learned to challenge all that insanity into power and strength so if you make an enemy out of him, I wish you luck because if he doesn’t kill you his mates certainly will. Current Info: He lives in his mates penthouse apartment and its rare you see him leave the building, simply because he doesn’t trust the outside. Has 3 friends. He hates alphas that are like his Ex or step family and will not hesitate to end them. Is very bratty and childish at times. Will not hesitate to sick his mates on you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Bio #2:

-Xiao Xingchen-

Birth Name: Unknown Courtesy Name: Xiao Xingchen Age: 25 Sub Gender Status: Alpha Relationship Status: Mated, 1 omega and 1 alpha Likes: Helping others, his mates, and gardening Dislikes: Ignorant People, Wen Chao, and Liars Occupation: Mafia Branch Leader Nickname: XingXing Title: Gentle Blade

Bio: Was taken in by Cloud Recess Mafia at a young age after Wen Ruohan killed his family. At first he was hesitant to learn the ways of the mafia and feared getting his hands dirty but became a natural when he found the people he wanted to protect with his life. During high school he became very attached to a loner delinquent Omega named Xue Yang and made it his mission to become his friend which was easier said than done. He lost contact with Xue Yang when they graduated and flew into blind rage when he found out why and mercilessly killed Wen Chao for hurting his omega. He has kept his rage in check since then because he hated how terrified Xue was of him that day. He runs one of the larger branches of Cloud Recess mafia and is surprisingly easy to piss off if you push the right buttons. Just don’t touch his mates and you’ll live. Current Info: He’s staying on the down low as the cops have been more active in his area of business but is collecting info of every person that hurt his Xue Yang. So basically he’s on vacation atm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Bio #3:

-Song Lan-

Birth Name: Unknown Courtesy Name: Song Lan Age: 27 Sub Gender Status: Alpha Relationship Status: Mated, 1 omega and 1 alpha Likes: His mates, reading, and training Dislikes: Wrongdoers, Liars, and Stupid people Occupation: Bodyguard Nickname: None Title: The Ice Hand Bio: Little info is documented of him. He seemed to have a pretty normal life until College where Xingchen brought home a severely injured omega. He didn’t trust said omega at first because the omega always snapped at him, he kept losing his temper until Xingchen pulled him aside and told him about Xue’s history. After that his emotions were conflicted and avoided the omega like crazy, even more so when Xue confessed his feelings to both him and Xingchen. He’s not good with his emotions and took one of his friends to knock some sense into him. He’s very possessive over the omega and doesn’t bother hiding it Current info: Bodyguard of Xue Yang as well as his mate. Still hard to read

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Couple I do will be WangXian and XiCheng 

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #xue yang #song lan #xiao xingchen #au #omegaverse #au fic #mdzs fanfiction

[pawsnread]

Another of the writing prompts @antiquecompass gave me, still SongXiao but this time Journeys verse. A smidgen spoilery for the end of the series and occurring sometime after this scene. (And again, written right off the top of my head during a break at work.)

He had paid the price willingly, but it hadn’t been easy adjusting to his new circumstances. Xiao Xingchen was thankful that he was well acquainted with the layout of Cloud Recesses; adjusting to his new reality might have proven difficult otherwise.

As he walked the corridors, pearl white and unfocused eyes trained ahead of him, Xingchen was aware of his other senses becoming more acute. With each passing day, his hearing became sharper, his touch more sensitive. Even his magic - diminished as it had become with the price - seem to feel more amplified, tingling just beneath his skin and ever at the ready.

Still, it wasn’t easy without his vision. As the toe of his boot caught on the slightest of loose floorboards, Xingchen reached out to steady himself. A warm hand caught his wrist, another arm sliding against his waist. A small smile curved his lips at the familiar scent of pine.

“Zichen,” Xingchen murmured quietly. The arm at his waist tightened, pulling him against a familiar body. He sighed softly at the brush of lips against his cheek.

“I’ve got you,” Song Lan whispered against his ear. He squeezed Xingchen’s wrist in a comforting manner as he buried his face against dark hair. Xingchen leaned into him, relishing the solid feel of him after so long.

“If I fall, you’ll be there, won’t you? You’ll catch me, right?”

“Always.”

#writing prompts #fanfic #the untamed fic #the untamed fanfic #the untamed au #cql fic #cql fanfic #cql au fic #songxiao #songxiao au #song lan #xiao xingchen #song lan x xiao xingchen #journeys verse #writing

[fu-yao]

tagged by @leonzhng​ thanks for making me dig through my most embarrassing crushes 😭✋

i’ll tag @highwarlockkareena​ @yibobibo​ @lan-xichens​ @purplexedhuman​ @aheartfullofjolllly​ @lanzhansmiles​ @nyx4​ i feel like i tag you guys in everything i am so sorry please ignore this if u don’t wanna do it !!

putting this under a read more for reasons

MEN 2010 – 2016

literally nothing more embarrassing than falling on the same type of white man over and over again (with the exception of minho from shinee bless his heart)

tommy joe ratliff → he was the bass player for adam lambert during his glamnation era (think of songs like for your entertainment and if i had you) idk why exactly i liked him so much but i just did.... however i searched him up again quite recently and found out he’s one of those republicans that says the dumbest shit on twitter so Big Yikes

harry styles → “baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, and when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell...” and BOOM 13-year-old me was sold for well over two years

louis tomlinson → basically i liked harry most until around 2013 when for some reason i started to like him a little less, and i got more focused on louis tomlinson, and although i didn’t like one direction anymore louis tomlinson always had a special place in my heart

ashton irwin → so ashton is 5sos’ drummer, i discovered 5sos through one direction & i stanned them until late 2014

harries twins → the harries twins (jack & finn) are basically the reason i started spending a lot of time on youtube, they were funny and pretty and they just had good videos in general, so for almost two years i’d watch their content regularly

choi minho → my first steps into kpop happened bc i was watching videos on youtube (most probably the harries twins) and suddenly i saw the sherlock mv in my recommended videos so i clicked on it and then 14-year-old me proceeded to fall for minho like an idiot

brooks twins → still youtubers, the brooks twins were 3/5 of the janoskians (jai & luke brooks, beau brooks, daniel sahyounie, & james yammouni), an australian youtube comedy group that was active from 2011-2018 though i was only around from 2012-2014 (when jai brooks was dating ariana grande)

jc caylen → surprise! another youtuber! jc caylen was part of o2l (our2ndlife) a youtube collaboration channel on which each of the 6 members posted videos on a certain day in the week (mondays with connor, tuesdays with ricky, wednesdays with sam, thursdays with jc, fridays with trevi (my 2nd favorite member bc she participated on the x factor), saturdays with ricardo, and then they had surprise sundays every week) and i remember how much joy jc & the others always brought me with their silly videos

misha collins → up next, you might know him as the gay angel that was sent to superhell after confessing his love to the homophobic hunter on supernatural, it’s misha collins! basically misha was a huge source of comfort for me, and i even went around calling myself emmisha for almost two full years (cringe)

henrik holm → he played even bech naesheim in skam and my crush on him reached that level of ridiculousness where i actually tried my hand at learning norwegian (i can only remember how to introduce myself and some curse words i would make a great first impression on him)

MEN 2016 – 2021

min yoongi → okay so my baby steps into kpop happened through shinee’s sherlock, but i only got really invested when yoongi dropped agust d 1 because Holy Fuck y’know??

kim namjoon → oh man i remember thinking namjoon was cute and a very good leader and then BAM he dressed like THAT at the 2016 mma’s and i fell in love. hard

park seojoon → i started liking park seojoon whilst i was watching hwarang (you guessed it, i watched it bc of taehyung), although he wasn’t my favorite character by far, but he was very silly off camera & i liked that (i’m not that into him anymore tho </3)

kim seokjin → OH BOY LET ME TELL U i liked seokjin from the very beginning (i got to know bts in late 2014) and i always liked seeing him perform and be himself and god once i realized i had a crush on him it just hit me like a mf truck, and he’s still one of my favorite people to this day

jung hoseok → god fake love era hoseok really hits different.... also yes i know i have all of bts’ hyung line on my list BUT bts was a really big part of my life for almost 6 years soooo honestly they deserve it i still think they’re great guys

choi san → when ateez made their debut in 2018 i immediately fell in love with san, he was such an amazing dancer and he captivated me right from the very beginning, to this day he’s still my bias in ateez uwu

xiao zhan → AND THEN, OCTOBER OF 2019 HAPPENS AND I WATCH CQL AND... i fall in love with xiao zhan, something i’d never expected would happen bc when i watched cql for the first time i wasn’t as invested in the story, but i really really really liked xiao zhan and one thing led to another and now here i am as a xfx

wang yibo → the thing is, i’ve known yibo since eoeo except i didn’t know cql yibo was uniq yibo (bc i’d forgotten his name) and when i looked it up i can tell you my jaw dropped to the floor bc holy shit????? also he is very silly and i love him loads ok

lee minho → ah, the man who has been my skz bias since 2018, not only is minho my bias i also kin him (there’s a lot of aspects of myself that i see in minho and vice versa) and he’s very comforting to me

bang chan → honestly, it was only a matter of time before i’d fall for bang chan, i knew the moment i got into skz again that i’d start biasing him and, well, here i am, double biasing chan & minho

WOMEN

this list is shorter bc i’ve in general always had less crushes on women than on men??? blame society forcing me into thinking i was straight for a LONG time

ariana grande → remember the 2011 layout of twitter?? where u could not only have an icon and a header, but also a background and ur twitter page was smack in the center of ur screen with the big ugly menu bar at the top??? yeah ariana grande was always my background for my l*rr* st*l*n*s*n layouts

perrie edwards → this was right around the time she was dating zayn & little mix was breaking out into the spotlight, yeah i just really loved her

andrea russett → okay so remember o2l?? andrea russett was kian’s girlfriend for a pretty long time and they always did videos together and i always thought she was super pretty

lily collins → maybe i don’t like clary in tmi all that much but i sure liked the way lily collins looked

alona tal → MY BISEXUAL AWAKENING, it’s only when i saw alona tal in spn that i realized, fuck i might be gay

park jihyo → i discovered twice (my 2nd jype group after day6) through the like ooh-ahh mv and red-haired jihyo really did something to my heart (i just rewatched it and god zombie bang chan is so mf cute)

kim jisoo → when bp made their square two comeback i was immediately smitten for red-haired jisoo in playing with fire, it’s also when i realized she was my bias out of the four members

shin ryujin → the reason that i have blue hair is partially bc of ryujin and her amazing intro in wannabe :D

xuan lu → her portrayal of jiang yanli was SO ON POINT and she’s just such a kindhearted wonderful person wow i want her hand in marriage

lee yoobin → god i’ve known dreamcatcher from back when they were still called minx and ever since i’ve always looked at dami that bit more than the rest, i was also able to see dreamcatcher live in october of 2019 and the whole experience was just so amazing !!

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

there’s a whole lot more than just these 10 but i wanted to fit the evolution into one (1) slide as best as i could lmao

peter pan → this movie came out in 2003 (?) and he’s honestly the first fictional character i remember ever having a crush on

legolas → i was really doubting between placing haldir or legolas here but i only really got a vague haldir obsession when i was like 14

zuko → LOOK. ZUKO IN ATLA? HOT. ZUKO IN LOK? HOT EVEN IF HE’S AN OLD MAN.

will turner → man was annoying sometimes but i really liked him and his relationship with elizabeth was cute

jo harvelle → gosh i can’t believe she’s the only female character in here???? yeah she was one of my two spn faves and i’ll never forgive the screenwriters for the way they killed her off

castiel → does your fave ever get sent to super hell for being gay? no? well. mine did

kili → fili and kili’s storyline tore my heart out, spit on it, and then laughed straight in my face, KILI WAS LITERALLY MY FAVORITE DWARF

howl → i only watched this movie for the first time in 2020 so i kinda fucked up the tl cause i watched cql in 2019 but shh, anyways howl with his blonde hair was good looking but howl with his black hair just hits differently. i want a howl

lan jingyi → MY BABY BOY, TINIE LITTLE BABIE WHOMST I MUST PROTECT ok no but seriously this kid. i love him a lot

mu qing → BARK BARK. that’s all (that’s not all i love him a whole lot and it hurts me to see so many people misunderstand his character and only see the bad parts of him when they can forgive others for fucking up (eg. xie lian himself & feng xin) but bc mu qing doesn’t deal well with emotions suddenly he’s the bad guy??? i s2g if ppl are gonna do to him what they did to jiang cheng in the tgcf la i will RIOT)

#thanks for the tag hanyi my hands hurt now </3 #tag game

[merinnan]

Nevermore - Part 11

AO3  |  Nevermore Masterlist

The mess hall was quiet at this time of the day, something that Lan Xichen was quite grateful for. It meant that he could sit in peace with Wen Qionglin, taking some time to relax and calm his mind after today’s series of surprises before the tour of the Shatterdome continued.

“You look like you’re feeling better now, Lan-xiansheng,” Wen Qionglin said as they finished their tea. At Lan Xichen’s questioning look, he added, “a couple of times today you’ve looked a little pale, but you don’t anymore.”

Lan Xichen nodded. “Thank you. It was nothing to worry about, really. It’s just that coming back is a lot to adjust to. But I’m feeling more settled already.” He smiled, putting his cup to one side. “Science labs next, didn’t you say?” There, at least, he was reasonably sure that he wouldn’t come across any more unpleasant reminders.

After clearing their table, the pair left the mess hall, taking a right turn exactly where Lan Xichen expected that they would.

“Down there is…”

“…the infirmary, right?” Lan Xichen smiled at the look of surprise. “That’s where it is in Hong Kong and Tokyo, too. Probably every other Shatterdome as well.”

“Ah….oh…yes.” Wen Qionglin gave him an awkward smile in return. “You, um, probably don’t even need me to show you around, do you? Well, uh, apart from introducing you to everyone, I guess….”

“That I definitely need you for,” Lan Xichen assured him. “And even if the layout here is like the other Shatterdomes that I’m familiar with, it’s much nicer to re-familiarise myself with the layouts in company, rather than alone.”

Wen Qionglin nodded, pausing in front of the science lab doors, which opened right as he was about to reply. Loud shouting could be heard as a young man hurried out, pushing the door closed behind him while juggling an armful of files. As the top files started to slide off towards the floor, Lan Xichen reached out to grab them and to steady the pile as the man shifted from foot to foot, biting his lip as he looked at them both. Something about him struck Lan Xichen as incredibly familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“Oh…uh…Wen-xiong! And, uh…” He blinked at Lan Xichen, then noticed him sliding the files back into place. “Oh! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Lan Xichen gave him a small bow. “I’m Lan Xichen.”

“Mo Xuanyu,” he responded, starting to return the bow, then stopping to grab his files from making another escape to the floor.

“Mo Xuanyu is part of the science team,” Wen Qionglin said. “Xuanyu, Lan Xichen is Purple Lightning’s pilot. He just arrived today.” He gestured to the door, which wasn’t quite dampening out the angry voices beyond. “Is there a problem.”

“No, not really.” Mo Xuanyu pulled a face. “It’s just Gottlieb-xiansheng and Geiszler-xiansheng again.”

Gottlieb and Geiszler? Now those were two more names that Lan Xichen knew.

“What is it this time?”

“Uh…Gottlieb-xiansheng didn’t like Geiszler-xiansheng’s music…” Mo Xuanyu trailed off and flinched at a particularly loud shout, the words of which were still indistinct. “I’ve…uh…got to get these files to Sang-ge and Su-jie. It was nice meeting you, Lan-xiansheng! Welcome to Shanghai!”

With that, he turned and almost fled down the corridor away from the science labs. Wen Qionglin gave a small sigh, shaking his head. “Mo Xuanyu hasn’t done well with people being angry ever since he had a bad Drift experience,” he explained. “Which is a shame. He’s really quite nice.”

“He was a ranger?” Lan Xichen asked. Maybe that was where the sense of familiarity came from, if the young man had been a recent addition before his…injury.

“A cadet. It was towards the end of his training, and on paper Eagleton-yishi thought it was a good match for Drift compatibility, but…”

“…but in practice, they weren’t compatible at all?” Lan Xichen finished. Wen Qionglin nodded.

“They were compatible enough to initiate a successful neural handshake, but it broke soon afterwards. The prospective partner had some…anger issues…and Mo Xuanyu found the experience of sharing minds with him traumatising enough that he left the program and joined K-science rather than try Drifting again.”

Lan Xichen winced at that. That was a rather severe mismatch, and he found himself hoping that he wouldn’t have any similar unfortunate incidents in his own process of getting a new co-pilot.

“He’s an excellent scientist,” Wen Qionglin continues. “He and Nie Huaisang work quite closely together. Unfortunately, some of the other scientists – well, two in particular – are a bit, um, volatile.”

“I know Geiszler-xiansheng and Gottlieb-xiansheng,” Lan Xichen said. “I’ve never known them to get along.”

“Mn.” Wen Qionglin looked at the door, then at Lan Xichen. “Uh…unless you really want to look through the labs, why don’t we leave them to it and move on?”

“I’m happy to leave the science to the scientists,” Lan Xichen agreed. “I know where to find them if I need them.”

~~~

LOCCENT Mission Control looked exactly as Lan Xichen remembered from Hong Kong, a bustling nerve centre of screens and terminals overlooking the main room. He gave polite greetings to various technicians before Wen Qionglin introduced him to Shanghai’s Mission Controller, a quiet and charming woman named Qin Su. Like Mo Xuanyu not that long before, something about Qin Su struck Lan Xichen as familiar, although not quite to the same extent.

He mentioned this to Wen Qionglin once they’d left and were on their way to the Academy’s section of the Shatterdome. “But I’m sure I’ve never met her before,” he added at the end.

“Ah, well…she’s Mo Xuanyu’s half-sister,” the other man replied. “You must have just noticed some similarities between them.”

“Perhaps…but why did Mo Xuanyu seem familiar to me?”

Wen Qionglin hmms thoughtfully for a moment. “Do you know Jin Zixuan? The head of Jin Enterprises?”

“Know of. I’ve seen him on TV. He was all over the news last year when he married the head of Jiang Corporation. And then again when his father died and he took over Jin Enterprises.”

A nod. “He’s half-brother to both Qin Su and Mo Xuanyu.”

“Hmmm.” Lan Xichen frowned. “I suppose that might explain it…”

“Or maybe you’ve previously met one of them in passing?” Wen Qionglin suggested. “Oh, good, jiejie is in!” He stopped in front of a door with the name ‘Wen Qing’ on the nameplate, light sneaking out under the crack. Before Lan Xichen could say anything, Wen Qionglin had opening the door and stepped inside, gesturing for Lan Xichen to follow him.

“…to me again?” a man’s voice was saying from within. Lan Xichen stepped inside, pausing when he saw a woman in a black suit with her back to the door. In her hands she held a violet ribbon, and was combing her fingers through the hair of someone sitting on the sofa in front of her – likely the man who’d just spoken.

“Because you love me,” the woman said as dark hair ran through her fingers. Lan Xichen felt his ears starting to go red, and he shot Wen Qionglin a pleading look for them to leave before they were noticed, as they’d evidently walked in on a private moment between this couple. Wen Qionglin, however, didn’t seem to notice.

“Qing-jie?” he said instead. The woman froze for a moment, then pushed the ribbon towards the man on the sofa, and turned to face Wen Qionglin and Lan Xichen.

“A-Ning!” She gave the young man a gentle smile, which turned to a more assessing look as she turned to Lan Xichen. “And this would be Lan Xichen.”

She didn’t seem outwardly annoyed at being interrupted, for which Lan Xichen breathed a small sigh of relief. He stepped forward to introduce himself properly, only to be interrupted by a loud thump. He gave a startled look at the source of the noise, being the – now empty? – sofa. The woman, whom he presumed was Wen Qing, looked over the edge of the sofa and just shook her head.

“You…did you fall off the sofa?”

“No,” came a grumpy voice from somewhere on the floor in front of the sofa. “…maybe.”

A few moments of shuffling sounds later, the man got to his feet, pushing long hair out of his face – a very attractive face, Lan Xichen had to admit, for all that it was both bright red and bore an impressive scowl. He found himself sympathising with the man’s obvious embarrassment – not only had his girlfriend’s brother and a complete stranger intruded without warning, he’d also somehow fallen off of the sofa in front of them. He gave the man a bright, reassuring smile, which only served to cause both blush and scowl to deepen.

“Are…are you alright, Jiang-xiong?” Wen Qionglin asked.

“I’m fine,” the man responded, his voice sounding just as pleased as his expression looked. As he pulled his hair back and tied it with the ribbon in his hand, Lan Xichen belatedly realised where he’d seen that violet ribbon and this nicely muscled build before – this was the man from the lecture earlier, the one who’d been shouting. A moment after that, he realised that he was not only checking out a man who already had a partner, but doing so in front of her. With a small cough of embarrassment, he tore his eyes away to look back at Wen Qing, giving her a small bow.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Yes, I’m Lan Xichen.”

“We’ve been expecting you,” she said. “I’m Wen Qing, the psych analyst here in Shanghai.”

“Jiang Wanyin,” said the man beside her. “The fightmaster.”

Lan Xichen smiled again. “I’ve heard of you, Jiang-xiansheng,” he said. Jiang Wanyin immediately tensed up. “Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen spoke highly of you when I met them.” At that, the tension eased somewhat.

“They’re good people,” Jiang Wanyin said.

“Jiang Cheng and I are sorting out the candidate lists for your co-pilot,” Wen Qing said. Jiang Cheng. Lan Xichen filed that away. “I know I would like you to come in and speak with me so that I can get to know you better as a person rather than as a file before I finalise my recommendations, and I’m sure Jiang Cheng would like something similar.”

The man in question nodded, folding his arms in front of him and looking Lan Xichen over. “I want to see how you fight for myself. You’ve been out of the field for four years, after all, with major rehabilitation during that time.”

“The physiotherapists…”

“I know what the physio reports said. I said I want to see for myself. And see how you work with others during training.” He nods to the smaller woman beside him. “Like Wen Qing said, I’d rather see how the man operates, not the file.”

“Of course.” Lan Xichen gave him another easy smile. “Until the Marshal says otherwise, I’m at your disposal. Both of you.”

Jiang Wanyin just grunts at that. “Good. Come to the combat room tomorrow at 8am. I’m sure Wen Ning will show you where it is.”

“Of course,” Wen Qionglin replied.

“It’s a date,” Lan Xichen said, then mentally kicked himself as Jiang Wanyin flushed again, then gave another scowl before stooping to grab some files from the table in front of the sofa.

“I should get going,” he said to Wen Qing. “See you tomorrow. You as well. 8am,” he added to Lan Xichen, then strode out the door.

#pacific rim #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #mdzs #cql #nevermore #fanfic #xicheng #jiang cheng #lan xichen