#And frankly ?

[proshippers-against-censorship]

Local adult proshipper infamously hates badly behaved children.

More at 12.

[shelfthe-reader]

I think this pretty much sums it up

[peppermintquartz]

On the other hand, the gay singles of WeHo are dancing around and singing like they're in a musical episode and they don't even know why

[beatlevania]

has anyone else been a bigger fan of earlier stuff the further interested they get? I love the big, impressive albums and I still have rankings that lead with later, genius content but I just love those early harmonies. jamming to all my loving right now and it’s just the greatest of the great.

[tiptapricot]

If I had a nickel for every time I got into a piece of superhero media with Yuri Lowenthal voicing a reddish themed main character who had a so-close-to-canonic-it-like-basically-or-actually-is-a-thing-thing with his greenish themed boy best friend I would have three nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened three times

[zombubble]

From In Memory; In Truth Chapter 13:

“It’s my job to help make running the sect easier, right?” Mo Xuanyu asks. “Not your job, anymore,” Jin Guangyao says, “but a favor that Gege would appreciate greatly. Do you think you can keep a secret for me?” A jolt of something in Mo Xuanyu’s core, the words familiar in all the wrong ways. Oh, he feels sick. Really fucking sick. “Of course,” he says, closing his eyes. Breathing. “A-Yu? Have I upset you?” Jin Guangyao stops him, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Gege is sorry, he didn’t mean—” “I’m just… seeing things,” Mo Xuanyu says. “Sorry, I—I didn’t want to appear weak, but I…” “Oh. That’s… It’s okay. Gege doesn’t think less of you. Why don’t you rest? I’ll come see you later about everything; there’s no rush.” Nodding, Mo Xuanyu bows his thanks to his brother. Lets a-Zhen lead him away. Tries not to get sick while they walk because his mind is reeling and everything is cold and hot and he doesn’t—doesn’t know what—why—when this happened but something happened. Something that started with words much like those. Not for the first time, he fears the full, unknown extent of what he’s gotten himself into. Not for the last time, he tells himself to stay strong, that he needs to help, that he can do this.

Got this snippet in the post in time, but then I realized this was the perfect moment to go into how Mo Xuanyu is characterized/portrayed in this fic, and it ended up taking me some time to write that up.

Given how little we know of Mo Xuanyu's particular brand of neurodivergence in MDZS, I've decided to put him on the schizophrenia spectrum, he has psychotic episodes, but does not have paranoia, (and believe me, I'm doing literally everything in my power to do this with respect to schizophrenic and psychotic buds out there, I don't want to do any of you dirty with this, you deserve better). He does have auditory, olfactory, and visual hallucinations throughout the fic, which get worse over time as he is under more and more stress.

In this scene, however, he's also lying to his brother and playing it up so Jin Guangyao underestimates him for his own reasons.

CW for nonspecific mentions of sanism, ableism, and various forms of abuse and discussions of consent following this, as I am going into a little bit of detail about how I've chosen to portray Mo Xuanyu, so people know what to expect from this fic with him being such a major character.

The tl;dr is Mo Xuanyu is treated with dignity and respect by those working alongside him, and is given adult levels of agency throughout the fic's present timeline. His mental illness is acknowledged and described, but not made fun of within or by the narrative. It is not considered a character flaw, but a disability, and I've tried to portray it respectfully. While some characters are sanist/ableist both to and about him, they are not major characters, nor are they in control of him. There are mentions of past abuse, but he gets good medical care throughout the fic. He is an important character with major positive contributions, could not be removed or switched out for another without drastic changes, and gets the happy ending he deserves (without a magic cure).

More on how I'm handling Mo Xuanyu after the cut (a little spoilery, but I've kept it as vague as possible. See above content warnings):

I don't want to spoil the plot too much in public, though I'm happy to answer questions privately via message or ask, but I will say up front that Mo Xuanyu is, very intentionally on my part, given adult levels of agency throughout the fic in decisions both big and small.

There are (brief) mentions of him being treated badly in the past, including not giving consent (informed or otherwise) to medicine/medical procedures and other instances of abuse similar to canon, including being relocated and restrained against his will, but within the present timeline of the fic he is under the purview of the Nie Sect and working with a doctor with whom he has a good, mutually respectful relationship.

He makes his own decisions (and has established plans for what he wants done when he's unable to do so safely), gives informed consent to all instances of medication and relocation that happen during the present timeline of the fic itself, and is treated respectfully by the people he's working with. Like Jin Guangyao above, some people make ableist (and sanist) assumptions (and commentary) both to and about him, and he does personally lean into those assumptions for the purposes of making people underestimate him.

Those who are working with him and care about him only play up his mental illness with his prior input, consent and at his behest, and these instances are few, far between, for the purposes of the mission they're on, and never used as the butt of a joke, or done in a mocking way.

Mo Xuanyu has a solid, well-developed personality outside of his mental illness, though does talk casually and frankly about the symptoms he experiences, including hallucinations and his disconnect from reality. He doesn't enjoy having symptoms, but he does not have a self-pitying or self-loathing inner monologue. Though sometimes he tries to hide his symptoms from others (and, at times, fails), he does not make a habit of minimizing them (or exaggerating them) when he's describing them seriously.

When he does speak lightly of them, it's not mocking, and I intentionally avoided anything that sounded like it might come across as "LoL so random omg!" types of humor. Overall, though, he typically refuses to go into details with others, though his inner narration in his pov does, on occasion, describe what he's seeing, hearing, or smelling, without lingering too long on the descriptions.

His visual hallucinations edge more towards abject horror (monsters, things moving that shouldn't be moving in the ways they're moving, people looking dead/like ghosts with unnatural features (pure black, bleeding eyes, far too many sharp, non-human teeth, as a few examples)) instead of utilizing potentially-real facial/muscular/skeletal differences or movement disorders for shock value.

I do not portray him as someone bloodthirsty or irrational when it comes to killing. He wanted his family dead for the abuse they caused, he wants his brother dead (and wishes he didn't) for various shitty actions at various times. With everyone else, he's kind of just trying to keep to himself (or, when he can, be helpful to the people he gets along well with) and not get involved with any more conflict than he has to. He does not kill anyone in the course of the fic.

Jin Ling has a bit of trouble understanding at first, but does make efforts to be respectful and he improves over time. They end up growing close, and Jin Ling is not distrustful of Mo Xuanyu by the end of the story. The other juniors are similarly respectful.

The help Mo Xuanyu offers everyone is a) help only he could give, utilizing his skills and/or achievements specifically (e.g. making arrays/talismans a certain way, other forms of espionage that rely on his ability to lie and/or memorize information) and b) crucial to many of the successes they have. He is an essential member of the core cast of this fic, and it would be markedly changed if I were to remove him or switch him for someone else.

Mo Xuanyu does not die, nor does he get cured at the end of the fic. He ends up in a loving, mutually respectful relationship where his agency is respected, with a man who understands full well that loving Mo Xuanyu includes accepting his schizophrenia, psychosis, and the symptoms thereof. While Mo Xuanyu is doing better at the end than he was just before the end, it's because he's in a stable home and being treated by medical staff, rather than a magical cure.

[chairofchaos]

Accidentally just said "Wait, no, Death is already here" with no context in front of my parents and uh... the Look that that earned me should have sent me straight to Monopoly jail

[driftwoodskeleton]

been playing Far Cry: New Dawn lately (fuck you Ubisoft) and essentially my playthrough atm looks something like this:

random npc: my friend survived Prosperity because of you

The Captain, grief-stricken: mine didn't

The Judge: *loud, exasperated sigh*

[kiwisandpearls]

i’m probably swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest for saying this but I genuinely hope jaiden doesn’t get too much shit for her new video

[quotidian-oblivion]

Ramadan Mubarak everyone 💖 Hope to see y'all again sometime after April 11th

[minnov]

New game+ is really a double edged sword bc I’m playing through heavensward again and every cutscene starring my man just has me grinning like a fool until I remember he gets largely relegated to Government Official in His Inaccessible Office for most of the rest of the expansions

[starheirxero]

guys i'm so tempted to make a lunar-centric blog like i did for cross when i was into utmv

[edelgarfield]

idk if this is a hot take or not, but when it comes to fantasy worlds where gods are a real physical presence that you can talk to & draw power from, imo the presence of the divine is in itself a corruptive force. no matter how benevolent a god thinks they're being, they're unavoidably directing the path of whatever society they're interacting with, which is wrong & oppressive. the one exception is when there are evil forces that the Good Gods are protecting mortals from, but even then, the protection offered by the divine often becomes a crutch that those societies rely on & it inadvertently hampers the development & growth of that civilization. even the best gods ask for worship & call upon champions to fight their battles. what gives them the right to ask for complete & total devotion from a person with a life & agency? when the gods go to war, it's mortals that always pay the price. imo the most benevolent thing a god can do is recognize when they're no longer needed & step back so that the people they supposedly love can grow. we recognize that a parent that keeps their adult child on a leash & refuses to let them go is smothering a human being, how is it any different for a god? if you can only love something by controlling it, do you actually love it?

[assmaster-8000]

coming out of an artblock of 3 years is so funny. haha this is my oc. original character. in the title baby. ive also never had a single thought about them. do not ask me anything ever or i will burn in a fire. a big one.

[tired-angry-recluse]

“ what i expected, “

“ well i personally really like art — do you like art? “

"I could go either way, honestly."

[dogboysora]

I'm gonna be really sad if any of my friends talking about moving abroad actually follow through. I can't blame them, but like. Idk. If your reaction to current events in the U.S. is to flee the country, I feel like you haven't really done a great cost-benefit analysis of the situation. Emigrating is hard, and Canada or the UK or Germany or Sweden or whatever other country isn't necessarily going to treat you all that much better than the U.S., if at all. I just really don't think it's a good idea for us to get too caught up in romanticizing the idea of fleeing the country, guys. Also, if you wanna leave the U.S., you're probably the kind of person I'd like to see stay here and vote and maybe even get involved in some community organizing. We've got a base to build, and it helps a lot if that base actually sticks around.