#Darling Li

[sketchquill]

They’re all just concerned for you neighbour (´ ▽｀)

[funyiipp]

Guess who got their drawing tablet pen (finally) Y'ALLLL.

This is a kinda old thing I never finished until now, lol.

For reference, here's the two together. Tell me how much it improves

[radiumjuice]

I can’t believe they killed five at the end of season three

[bird-inacage]

The Heart Killers EP7: The Boat Scene 'Do you want to jump or do you want to fall?'

So yep, joke's on me. I was so wrong about how this scene may unfold and the episode in general. Credit to Jojo for keeping me on my toes. I wanted to dedicate a post to this, both for the fantastic performances but also the great character beats here.

BISON'S RESOLVE FOR REVENGE

I kept wondering just how resolute Bison would be. I thought that if he saw how upset Kant was about him getting hurt, he may waver. But it actually seemed to have the opposite effect.

Bison is understandably livid at Kant. I think a portion of that rage is intensified because it's with himself. The betrayal cuts deeper due to his own negligence. He should have known better, and Fadel warned him as such. As the confrontation unfolds, Bison's steely resolve veers towards agitation and restlessness. A twitch. An itch beneath the skin. An almost defiant urgency to squash any margin for hesitancy or doubt - that the sooner this is over with, the less risk there is for him to have second thoughts. Khao does a wonderful job of trickling out only the tiniest of hairline cracks in that resolve, to keep us guessing.

Forcing Kant to jump could also be a test for remorse. 'If I tell you to jump, will you do it or will you fight back or even beg for mercy?' If Bison wanted Kant dead, he could have done it already. We see him consider all the brutal ways he could do so. And yet the one he chooses is actually the least hands on. Watching Kant enact his own demise seems to be a testament to something Bison wants an answer to: a confession perhaps. 'Are you sorry for what you did? Do you regret it? Do you feel bad for me? Was it worth it?' and most importantly 'Do you love me? Did you ever love me?' When someone hurts us, we often want them to admit to their wrongdoing. To take responsibility for the damage they've caused as it gives validation to our pain.

Kant is debilitated by fear, but he's also resigned to his guilt. It's been chasing him this entire time. So he doesn't deny or rebuff what Bison's saying. Doesn't try to deflect or swerve like he's done before now. Neither does he put up a fight for his life. He displays a bedded in helplessness, an acceptance that something you saw coming has finally caught up to you.

When Kant does jump, it seems to take Bison a second to register what's happened. The fact that Kant doesn't come back up. The realisation that Kant may actually drown and die. And he panics.

KANT LAID BARE

(This is my cue to gush about First's acting). I loved his choice of line delivery in this scene. How quietly he speaks. How small, tired, broken and subdued this makes Kant appear. It's such an unexpected but phenomenal choice. It provides a complete 180 to Kant's usual brand of flirty showmanship. That's isn't to say that version of Kant is entirely false but he's definitely been playing up the 'perfect boyfriend' bit. To be as smooth and charming as possible, and to say all the right things to win Bison's heart. This is the first time Bison is seeing Kant stripped of all that bravado. And what's left underneath? Just a man whose desperately afraid.

The sheer terror that First portrays here is so layered and visceral. He doesn't just capture that primal fear of death, but there's so much more you can read into outside of the little he does say. Underlying all that physical and mental torment is trauma, a childlike desperation that renders him completely at a loss.

He didn't have a choice when Chris threatened him to become a pawn. He didn't have a choice when it came to choosing between his brother or Bison. He didn't have a choice to walk away. And now he doesn't have a choice in how Bison wants his revenge. I've talked about the loss of control and agency with these two characters quite a bit, but this is the epitome of having your autonomy entirely stripped from you. Kant is both paralysed by his fear of drowning, but also by his guilt and knowing that he brought this on himself - having sealed his fate when he agreed to the job in the first place.

"I promise when you wake up, the version of me you'll see is the real me." What happens when you strip a person of all their defences? You get down to their rawest form. And now we're seeing it.

Thank god the pair reconcile next week, because this was absolutely agonising to sit through. Firstkhao have done it again, but did we really expect any less?

You can keep tabs on bird-inacage’s BL meta directory for my other long-form posts around The Heart Killers, which I’ll be updating in real time as the show airs.

[a-mongooose]

A dump of things I drew since the last post! i am so normal about them. I AM SO NORMAL   ABOUT THEM . totally not making cosplays of julie and sally . it is not true  ! if u want to use as pfps, feel free to! just pls credit me :p alsooo if you have any requests for the silly goofies, my asks should be open, go crazy in there 

[bevioletskies]

gemini & fourth (in every universe) ↳ gun falling into tinn's arms vs. atom falling into kongthap's arms

“Would you be interested in dancing with me to a song?”

[greenesmyfavcolor]

I find it interesting how in the last two scenes of the entire show, Ned and Lily share very similar lines of dialogue that are each said to their respective loved ones, Chuck and Vivian. (obviously don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers for the ending!)

Ned says to Chuck, "I try to put your happiness before my own,” and Lily says to Vivian, "I did what I have done since the day you were born, chose your happiness over mine."

They’re very much parallels of each other, wanting to protect the people they love from potential harm, but not executing it in the way they should. Ned prevented Chuck from ever letting her aunts know she was alive again not only to protect themselves, but because Ned feared that if he let Chuck see her aunts again, she would choose them over him and leave him. Lily never told Vivian that she slept with her fiancé not only to protect Vivian from getting hurt, but because she feared Vivian would hate her afterwards and leave her.

The key difference between them being that Ned eventually realized that he wasn’t actually putting Chuck’s happiness over his own because if he did, he would have let her see her aunts again. When he finally realizes this, he states, "I'm finally putting your happiness before my own,” and allows her to see them again.

Meanwhile, Lily never truly put Vivian’s happiness over her own, even if she thought she did, because if she did, she would have told her the truth about her affair and stopped lying to her or better yet, she wouldn’t have stolen her fiancé in the first place. Vivian even knows this was never 100% true as she rejects Lily’s defense saying, “you don’t have to anymore.”

For Lily, it was all about protecting herself similar to what Ned was doing, but unlike Lily, Ned actually realized his faults. He finally put Chuck’s happiness over his own, all while knowing there was a possibility that Chuck might leave him, but she ended up not leaving him after all (at least I would assume based on the comics and the scrapped season 3 concept). Lily however never truly put Vivian’s happiness over her own so her worst fears ended up coming to life with Vivian kicking her out and presumably never wanting to speak with her again.

[chungledown-bimothy]

I'm gonna get so much (affectionate) shit when he sees Jeremy's in both of them 😂

[jas-the-shrimp]

🦇

Ones without the text,

Inspired by this I found , someone take me out I hate it here

[snickerdoodlles]

its so weird seeing posts that mock uncle jim for worrying about li ming's queerness as though his dead boyfriend's parents (legally) stealing his entire life savings and leaving him to manage a restaurant business specifically because gay couples aren't legally recognized as couples wasn't what put him in a cycle of crushing debt and endless poverty in the first place

[periodcostumefantasylover]

The Darling + quotes

Book VS Show

The moment his lips met mine, the connection between us opened and i felt his power flood through me. I could feel how much he wanted me - but behind that desire, i could feel something else, something that felt like anger. I drew back startled. You don't want to be doing this. This is the only thing i want to be doing, he growled and i could hear the bitterness and desire all tangled up in his voice.

The key to the shadow fold is finaly within our grasp, and right now i should be in the war room hearing their report. I should be planning our trip north. But I'm not am i?

Am I? he repeated and he nipped at my neck. I gasphed and shook my head, unable to think. He had me pushed up against the door now, his hips hard against mine."The problem with wanting", he whispered his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, is "that it makes us weak".

[wendyius666]

Pink Haired Characters #3

[weebsinstash]

targeting system online. new poor little meow meow acquired

you see, I like my broken men to have range, and with this bad boy right here we can have

The physically weak but curious inventor wanting to do good

The healed messiah who becomes a savior wanting to lift up the fallen (but is he really?)

and the version that completely loses his mind to the arcane and lowkey becomes a fucking god (who is also hot in a scary way)

oh yeah... I've got some ideas for this one...

[ofhousenyx]

Currently reading

First January read (now that I'm finally done with my exams): Iron Widow

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

I started this while I was getting my second tattoo done, so it would distract me from the pain and boy I was hooked so fast. I'm only like 40% through with the book, but I honestly can't wait to finish it. I knew it was gonna be for me when Zetian heard the term Iron Widow for the first time and immediately pieced together what it meant. It was such a simple moment but it set the tone for the book, in the sense that it shows that while Zetian is being kept in the dark about everything, she is definitely not clueless.

Also look at them??????

How was I supposed to not fall in love with them???

Art by @spacerou on twitter ( https://x.com/spacerou )

[ranticore]

almost nothing needs to change for pascal & nico's entire Thing to be moved to a new setting - none of the art, barely any of the writing i had done for the second draft, etc. there's something to be said for the Kill Your Darlings school of thought but I think sometimes it's not even as Darling as you thought it was. if almost nothing has to chance for it to be killed and reborn somewhere else, then i can safely say that 1. Inver was not enriched by the addition of this story and 2. this story was not enriched by the addition of Inver.

when i was younger working on my first book series over a decade ago i got so attached to the setting of the FIRST book i ever wrote ('book' as in this is a novel from 2008 nanowrimo and i was like 13 and i made a setting for it and so on) that i used it for the entirety of my creative work until 2015! i was in university by then! but you know clinging onto that stuff was to the detriment of the original setting and also the new stuff i was trying in it. it's not so much an unwillingness to let go as it is an unwillingness to go somewhere unfamiliar and try again from scratch

[michyeosseo]

I want to become stronger sooner to help Master wipe out the miasma from the Immortal Realm to free the people from oppression.