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gloriousmonsters · 4 years

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filed under ‘fics that i don’t know if i’ll write because i don’t know where it would GO but the idea is just really funny to me’: scenario where xue yang was basically supposed to leave out the front door and come back in thru the back when jgy publicly disowned him, and he got attacked by unrelated/not In the Know people which is how he wound up in that ditch, so jgy’s just been sitting in jinlintai like ‘...is he dead? no, he’s too mean to die. where is he doesn’t he know we have a work contract’ (xy doesn’t think work contracts are real. if he likes you very very much he will consider complying with it, but it’s like. a suggestion)

and in the second-ish year of xy living in Yi City sends su she to look for him like Could You Please Remind Him That As Per My Last Email He Was Supposed To Check In :) Thank You anyway sms manages to successfully hunt him up and is treated to the EXTREMELY fucking baffling sight of xy shopping for groceries. with a blind priest. and an extremely foulmouthed teen girl. xy is making frantic shushing motions at him. is this some kind of elaborate prank

(under the cut bc it got a bit long lol)

of course sms winds up invited to dinner because xxc is like ‘oh, a friend of... my friend! please join us!’ and sms is silently mouthing is that xiao fucking xingchen at xy and a-qing is losing her shit internally over New Suspicious Guy but can’t do anything about it and xy really doesn’t want sms to come to dinner because he’s out of that life now!! he’s gotta think of the family and he doesn’t want to come back for one last job! but he can’t say that without (a) being suspicious and (b) looking uncool so. dinner it is

but like, it’s FINE despite everything being super awkward until a-qing swears at the table and xxc apologizes and sms, without thinking, is like ‘it’s fine. some of my disciples come off the streets, i know what it’s like’

xxc suddenly gets interested and also lights up like--my friend, your friend is a sect leader? one who takes in children from the streets? sms, mildly panicked, is like uhhh yes, i started my sect pretty recently, have my default little speech about how i think inner/outer disciple separations and too much value placed on blood relation are both bad ideas. xxc is vehemently like i absolutely agree and this is about the time xue yang remembers right, he and song lan wanted to start a sect that was all equal and unaffiliated and shit, and his stomach drops. he tries to inject sarcastic commentary but it’s too late. sms and xxc are talking enthusiastically now

It Gets Worse because then sms has to bring up the watchtowers and xxc is like ‘....there’s a chief cultivator who implemented something like that? wow maybe things aren’t as bad as I thought’ which is just an open invitation for sms to wax fucking POETIC about jin guangyao, and xy is on the verge of stabbing him and taking what may come after when sms gets the utterly terrifying look of having had an Idea and says ‘actually, your friend and I met while working for him’

(xy is mouthing both what are you doing and i am going to fucking gut you across the table. sms ignores him, which is annoying. clearly two years have given him an unforgivable amount of confidence)

xxc is like ???! but quickly states that he didn’t want to talk about the past if his friend didn’t (thank you, daozhang) but sms is like ‘of course, we’ve just been quite worried about him--he did important work and then he vanished...’ significant pause ‘around the time jin-zongzhu came into the position and began to try and change things, so we thought...’ and xy is staring at him like. are you trying to imply I wound up in a ditch because someone attacked me due to working for an unpopular humanitarian leader. that’s the stupidest shit I ever--glances to the side, finds out that xxc is clearly coming to that conclusion too, and he looks fucking enchanted. he is clearly forming a whole possible narrative in his head where xy worked to improve the world and was just too humble to mention it or something

at this point xy starts trying to do some calculation in his head for a minute like ‘i mean did my corpse research indirectly contribute to all the front-facing nice shit a-yao does? i guess i killed a fair few political opponents and etc for him’ and doesn’t answer ‘he’s talking shit’ with quite enough conviction when xxc asks ‘my friend, is that true?’. it’s done for. xxc is convinced he had a Secret Noble Past now

and of course this is about the time sms swings into his ‘why don’t all of you come back to koi tower’ pitch with all the subtlety of someone trying to sell them on a pyramid scheme

xy’s pissed but also conflicted like... he did like working with a-yao, and more importantly he guesses that saying no would make things a lot less friendly between them, and xxc is clearly torn between not wanting to get involved in the world again but... if you have important work you could be doing, my friend... and a-qing could go to a Good School... and neither of you want to just. leave me behind (the one thing a-qing and xy are vehemently agreeing on) maybe... maybe we should think about it? a-qing is against it until sms, who’s managed to sink a few skill points into convincing kids that being a cultivator would be cool, actually, suggests that if she learned some cultivational skills she could hit people with her stick way more effectively, and then she’s conflicted too. although this whole thing seems super suspicious

at one point sms accidentally (’accidentally’) calls xy ‘chengmei’ and xxc is just quietly having a Moment over ‘oh my god his name relates to gentlemanly and helpful behavior that’s amazing...’ while xy fumes

this is point where i like. have no idea where it would really Go and a number of the places would be pretty dark, but in some other respects it could be a.... fix-it? fix-some-things-and-make-others-worse? but obv i have spent a While thinking about the first part so hopefully it can be exorcised from my brain now

#xue yang #su she #fic rambling #mainly i just find the idea of xxc getting a Completely inaccurate idea of xy's past very funny #gay necromancy: the show

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bloody-bee-tea · 5 years

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Marry us

Don’t even ask me why this is modern au but they still send in marriage proposals and Lan Xichen wears his forehead ribbon. I’m not good with actual plotting. And I will go down with @nikudons headcanon that LXC is one horny boy.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when he is about to knock at his father’s study, he can hear his mother’s voice from inside, and he’s not about to walk into a fight. It never ends well for him.

So he leans close to the door instead, and tries to decide if it’s safe to go inside, or if he should come back later.

“A marriage proposal?” Yu Ziyuan asks and Jiang Cheng can hear some paper rustling. “By Lan Wangji?” she asks next and her voice is even more incredulous than the first time.

Jiang Cheng can’t help the small smile, because everyone has just waited for Lan Wangji to propose at this point, really, but Jiang Cheng is still happy for his brother.

“Of course,” Jiang Feng and the pride is audible in his voice. “The Second Jade is a wonderful match for Wei Ying.”

Jiang Cheng can hear his mother scoff at that, and then she must toss the papers back onto the table, because there’s a thudding noise.

“So Wei Wuxian will be married off, and Yanli is already married off,” Yi Ziyuan says, and Jiang Cheng tenses at her tone.

“Jiang Cheng will get a proposal eventually,” Jiang Fengmian says, though he doesn’t sound as sure as he would probably like and Jiang Cheng’s stomach turns over.

“I doubt it, with how you have been coddling our son in favour of pushing Wei Wuxian to the front,” Yu Ziyuan hisses at Jiang Fengmian.

There is a noise like he pushed his chair back and Jiang Cheng can just imagine how he stood up, trying to meet his wife in height, though it never aids him in these fights.

“It doesn’t help that he has your temper and looks,” he gives back, just as cutting, and Jiang Cheng’s heart stops in his chest. “Who would want to spend the rest of their lives with someone like that.”

It’s not easy to hear yet again that his parents’ marriage is a loveless one, but to hear his father criticise him like this stings more than Jiang Cheng wants to admit.

“Though he did manage to at least get himself two boyfriends, and from good families, too,” Jiang Fengmian says and Yu Ziyuan laughs at that.

“Oh, please,” she says between giggles and Jiang Cheng goes cold all over. “As if that is a real relationship. Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen need something to spice up their own relationship, and Jiang Cheng is convenient, that’s it,” she goes on and Jiang Cheng clenches his jaw.

He can take it if his parents speak badly about him—they have done it all his life after all—but he can hardly stomach them talking about his boyfriends like that.

Jiang Fengmian must have made a questioning face, because Yu Ziyuan scoffs again.

“You really think that Lan boy is anything but vanilla in bed? Nie Mingjue certainly needs more than the occasional, boring fuck and that’s where your Jiang Cheng comes in.”

Jiang Cheng can feel his blood boil at those words, because how dare his mother make assumptions about his sex life like this. And besides; it’s always Lan Xichen who starts something. The guy is insatiable.

“He’s your son as well,” Jiang Fengmian reminds her.

“Not when he stays in a loveless relationship like that,” Yu Ziyuan bites back and Jiang Cheng closes his eyes, because he knows what’s coming.

For all that his mother has the temper in this relationship, his father sure knows where to hit so it hurts.

“No,” he agrees, but his tone is deceptively calm. “That’s just all you, isn’t it?” he then sweetly asks and Jiang Cheng scrambles away from the door, because he knows his mother will storm out any second now.

He barely made it around the corner when the door to his father’s study is flung open and Yu Ziyuan rushes out in a hurry.

Jiang Cheng presses himself to the wall and hopes that she will leave in the other direction, so he doesn’t have to come up with a lie, but for once he’s lucky.

Though it does nothing to appease the whirling thoughts in his mind.

~*~*~

When Jiang Cheng comes home, Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue are lounging on the couch. Nie Mingjue has a book propped up on Lan Xichen’s legs, who is scrolling through his phone as it seems.

They both look up when he enters, and he must have a really bad poker face, because both immediately turn their whole attention to him.

“What happened?” Nie Mingjue asks and Lan Xichen sits up, making space in the middle for Jiang Cheng.

Space Jiang Cheng gladly takes up.

“You would marry me if you could, right?” he asks, as he presses his hands to his eyes, not wanting to see their faces at the question, but he doesn’t have to wait for an answer long.

“Of course we would,” Lan Xichen immediately says and Nie Mingjue gently pries his hands away from his face.

“What’s going on, my heart?” he gently asks and Jiang Cheng sighs.

“Lan Wangji sent a proposal to my parents,” he tells them and he has to smile at that again.

Wei Wuxian will lose his shit when he hears about that.

“That’s clearly not upsetting you,” Nie Mingjue observes and Jiang Cheng shakes his head.

“I was eavesdropping,” he admits, “and my parents got talking.”

“About you,” Lan Xichen guesses and Jiang Cheng nods.

“They said all kinds of stuff. About how you—about how this relationship isn’t real, and that no one could ever want me enough to marry me,” he tells them and Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen each take one of his hands.

“They talked about how we don’t love you,” Nie Mingjue fills in the gap and Jiang Cheng nods.

“And I’m not worried about that, I know you love me, I know that, it’s not even a question,” he reassures them before he goes on. “But the marriage stuff—I don’t know, it got to me, I think,” he finishes, and winces at his almost lie.

It more than got to him if he’s being honest, and so he sighs.

“It just made me wonder if there’s a grain of truth in their words. That you are fine with this, but wouldn’t want any permanent commitment with me. That I’m too much for you to want forever with me.”

Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue share a look over Jiang Cheng and then Lan Xichen takes his hands back. Jiang Cheng watches him with worry, but his eyes go big when Lan Xichen reaches for his forehead ribbon and undoes it.

Jiang Cheng watches without blinking how Lan Xichen wraps it around his hand, again and again, until it’s covering most of Jiang Cheng’s hand.

Jiang Cheng looks up at him, eyes already swimming in tears but then Nie Mingjue presses his father’s ring into his forehead ribbon covered hand and Jiang Cheng is definitely losing against the tears.

“When we said we would marry you in an instant a few months ago, that wasn’t a joke,” Lan Xichen seriously tells him and Jiang Cheng takes a shaky breath, because he hasn’t been sure about that.

“We mean it. We want to marry you,” Nie Mingjue adds.

“You really want to spend your life with me?” Jiang Cheng asks, voice wobbling horribly and Lan Xichen presses a lingering kiss to his temple.

“This one, and every life that comes after it,” Nie Mingjue says with conviction, as if he has no doubt that they will spend several lifetimes together.

That they will still want him, several lives from now.

“I love you,” Jiang Cheng sobs out but Lan Xichen shakes his head.

“That’s wonderful, but it’s not the right answer to a marriage proposal,” he says and Jiang Cheng laughs wetly at that.

“You haven’t actually asked me, though,” Jiang Cheng says, brushing the tears away and then looking at them expectantly.

Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue share another look and then they speak at the same time, as if they have practiced this before.

“Our heart, do you want to marry us?”

Jiang Cheng laughs, bright and happy, and he tugs them both close.

“Yes. Yes, I do,” he tells them and let’s out a relieved and content sigh when Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue start to pepper his face with kisses.

He knows he should never have doubted them and their love for him in the first place, but with this outcome he can’t even be mad at himself for it.

~*~*~

Jiang Cheng sighs when he sees that his mother is calling him, and it alerts Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue, who send him a curious look.

“My mother,” he tells them as he rolls his eyes, but he’s not prepared for the expectant air around them all of a sudden.

He narrows his eyes at them, because they have that look that tells him they did something, but he still picks up the call anyway.

It’s best not to let his mother wait for too long.

“Mother,” he greets her.

“What is the meaning of this?” Yu Ziyuan demands to know and Jiang Cheng frowns.

“I have no idea what it even is, so I don’t know what to tell you,” he tells her and he hears her angry snort so he braces himself for the worst.

“Why the hell do I have a marriage proposal for you here?” she presses out and Jiang Cheng freezes in surprise. “From both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue?” she goes on and Jiang Cheng turns towards his boyfriends.

Well, fiancés now.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Cheng gives back, but then he can’t help himself. “Maybe because they love me for more than just my abilities in bed,” he coldly tells her and then just hangs up on her.

He will probably pay for that later, but right now he really couldn’t care less.

“You sent an official marriage proposal to my parents?” he asks, voice incredulous and Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue both shrug.

“We wanted to do this right,” Lan Xichen says.

“You didn’t have to.”

“No, but we wanted to,” Nie Mingjue gives back. “We want you to know that we mean this.”

“I do know that,” Jiang Cheng says and looks down at his hand; white forehead ribbon still wrapped around his wrist and the Nie family heirloom ring on his finger, where both things have rested for several days now. “How could I ever forget it,” Jiang Cheng goes on and walks over to give both of them a sweet, lingering kiss.

“We just wanted to make sure,” Lan Xichen says with a wicked smile and then simply picks Jiang Cheng up. “And I think marriage proposals are usually celebrated by lots and lots of sex.”

“We already celebrated the actual proposal,” Jiang Cheng says with a sigh, but he does lean in when Lan Xichen kisses him.

“Looks like sending the marriage proposal to the parents demands for more celebration,” Nie Mingjue adds and then breaks up their kiss to pull Jiang Cheng into one of his own.

“Okay, fine,” Jiang Cheng says once they part. “There are worse things that could happen to me,” he decides and Lan Xichen nuzzles his face as Nie Mingjue surely leads them to the bedroom.

If this is how his life is going to be from now on, Jiang Cheng surely couldn’t hope for more.

#bt writes #the untamed #mingxicheng #mdzs #established relationship #jfm and yzy's a+ parenting #marriage proposals #fluff #hurt/comfort

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

#movies #mortalkombat #demonslayer #weekendwarrior #reviews #sisters with transistors #togethertogether #mitchellsvsmachines #streaming

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i-got-these-words · 5 years

Text

Okay, so this isn’t the first time that Tumblr has eaten up a post of mine and I’m seriously considering taking my business elsewhere (especially since the Tumblr Management Community seem more baffled than me about this).

Rant over.

Thank you, anon. This was fun to draft.

And, guys, lemme know your thoughts - either about Tumblr’s disappearing posts issue or the ZhanYi fic below ;)

A/N: There is a brief glossary of terms at the end of this post.

~~~

The vertiginous passage of spectral city lights, vivid and voracious. The near-silent hum of a hybrid vehicle as it navigated through three am traffic. The taste of victory at the back of his mouth like the inside of a sports cup at halftime.

Brooding and unblinking, his cell phone was a polished brick in his palm. Holding its breath for a text that was never going to come. But holding anyway. Hoping.

Zheng Xi repressed a sigh, feeling spent and sore. Nailing his first Stanley Cup did nothing to cushion his come-down from a post-win high – a come-down that was more a crash-down, and a high that made him question the quality of what he was shooting up with. Except, if he was being honest with himself, Zheng Xi knew it wasn’t about quality; there was nothing more raw or unadulterated than being the youngest NHL team in the division and defying all odds to reign as this season’s champions.

But raw did not compare to piquant purity, and unadulterated had nothing on divine defilement; the kind of drug that had Zheng Xi tripping at first sight, and intoxicated at first taste.

“Third building on the left,” he intoned as the Prius steered towards a bank of high-rise apartment complexes.

The Uber driver caught Zheng Xi’s gaze in the review mirror. A question in his close-set eyes. A trace of recognition. They’d barely exchanged two words during the ninety-minute drive, plenty of time and opportunity for the driver to study his sullen profile, the wide-set of his shoulders, the square of his jaw – unmistakeable even through the carbon shell of a wire-caged helmet.

As the car slowed to a stop, Zheng Xi snagged a crisp fifty out of his wallet.

“Congratulations on the Championship,” the driver hedged, hesitant. Likely because the dejected customer in the back seat was nothing like the fierce D-man in the rink, or the fervent player at the postgame conference a few hours ago. “My son is a huge fan.”

Quelling the urge to wince at being recognised, Zheng Xi mumbled a thanks. Realised what a dick he was being. Slipped another fifty out of his wallet. “Do you have a pen?”

With a nod and a fumbled affirmative, the driver pulled a ballpoint out of the breast pocket of his lined shirt. Zheng Xi uncapped the pen and scrawled the Chinese characters that corresponded to his name onto one of the bills.

Handing the tip and the autographed fifty-dollar note to the other man, Zheng Xi thrust the car door open. “Have a good one.”

“Thanks, man,” the driver beamed. “And, uh,” – a pointed glance at the tall building to their left – “good luck with everything.”

Zheng Xi flinched. If only. But all the luck in the world wasn’t going to smooth this over.

He let the door slam shut behind him, teetering slightly because, after a game, his feet were more accustomed to balancing on a set of blades than swaying in an unfamiliar pair of Futurecraft 4Ds. As the Prius rolled away, he swiped a thumb across his phone screen. Hit the last number he’d dialled.

“This phone is currently switched off. Please try –” He hung up, swallowing jagged-edged knots of despair and disappointment down his dry throat.

Strides sluggish, he made his way towards the black glass of the front door, his reflection looming and growing larger with each step he took, his sense of self-worth growing smaller. He let his fingers hover over the metallochromic buttons of the intercom mounted on the wall, debating for a minute. And then thumbed through his phone for the app with the electronic passkey – the one that was issued to him back when the flat on the fifteenth floor was like a second home to him, when the man who lived in it was more than just home.

Zheng Xi flashed his phone over the digital reader and a musical little ding announced an approval. As he pushed through the unlocked door, his cell jolted in his grip with an incoming call. Zheng Xi’s throat constricted and cut off a breath mid-exhalation.

But it wasn’t him.

The name illuminating his screen reminded him of the late hour. Of how it was way past curfew. Of how, right now, he should’ve been tucked in a hotel bed, trying and failing to get some shuteye, because tomorrow was another long bus ride back to the capital, a champions’ ceremony, a team interview, a fans’ meet. All the things that had once meant something. But he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what.

Slinking past the elevator, he pocketed his phone – Coach could chew him out later – and took the stairs two-by-two, the drumbeat of his heart dissonant and deafening. When he finally reached that familiar door on the fifteenth floor, he was a little winded, not from exertion or exhaustion, but expectation. The expectation that this was all going to go to shit.

But I gotta know for sure.

Zheng Xi took a deep, steadying breath before gently rapping his knuckles against the smooth wood. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d knocked like a guest. A stranger. Maybe at the very beginning, once or twice, before he was spending more time here than at his own bachelor pad in the next city over.

A long moment of silence followed his knock. And, so, he rapped again, harder this time. More urgent. Desperate.

A muffled thump indicated movement in the apartment and Zheng Xi stepped back, panicking because the speech he’d prepared on the journey here now sounded ponderous and pathetic. He wet his lips as the door handle rattled slightly. And cursed the way his own hands rattled even more.

The door opened just enough for the man on the other side to peek through the gap.

“Zheng Xi?” Jian Yi’s voice was a seraphic solo made sweeter by the sleep underscoring his cadence. “What… What are you doing here?”

What was he doing there?

“Hey,” Zheng Xi croaked. Cleared his throat. Crammed his hands into the pockets of his flight jacket. “You weren’t at the press conference.”

A puzzled purse of strawberry-pink lips. “I don’t… I cover baseball now.”

Yeah. Don’t I fucking know it.

A soft squeak as the door swung wide open. A sibilant shuffle as slim, bare feet brushed a little closer. An audible swallow as Zheng Xi took in the sight before him.

Jian Yi in nothing but a creased, oversized nightshirt, his compact toes painted a frosty-periwinkle, his mussed hair sleep-curled and longer than had it been when Zheng Xi last ran his fingers through it six months ago.

“Why are you here, Zheng Xi?” The little wrinkle between fair brows made Zheng Xi want to reach out and smooth it down with his fingers. With his mouth.

I fucked up.

“You know I’m not… good with words,” Zheng Xi began, the weight in his chest growing heavier with every passing second.

Jian Yi tilted his head, perplexed but patient.

“Maybe we could talk inside?” Zheng Xi asked, daring to hope.

Stiffening, Jian Yi looked away. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Zheng Xi nodded like he understood, but all he really understood was how big a mistake this was. He knew it then; Jian Yi was going to say no. And the rejection was going to kill him.

“It was all for nothing,” he confessed, because, at this point, he didn’t have much left to lose. “Week after week of drills til we were dead on our feet, skating til we couldn’t stand straight, playing til we passed out.” The vile taste of victory was back in his mouth again, and Zheng Xi’s stomach heaved. “NHL Champions but I’ve never felt less like a winner.”

A small, sad smile on those pink, pearly lips. “I watched the game. It was solid, D-man. You deserve the title.”

I don’t fucking want it.

“It doesn’t mean anything.” Beseeching, broken, he scanned Jian Yi’s bright gaze. “Not without you.”

A flutter of motion as Jian Yi hugged himself. A flutter of pale lashes fanning downcast eyes. A flutter of Zheng Xi’s battered heart as it braced itself.

“Jian Yi. Please.”

Shaking his head, Jian Yi staggered back. “No. I’m done being your dirty little secret.”

The words kronwalled into Zheng Xi, and the weight in his chest bottomed out.

That’s how he made Jian Yi feel?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t –”

“You don’t need to apologise, Zheng Xi,” Jian Yi softly interjected. “I know how much hockey means to you – so much that you can’t even be seen out in public with me, an openly queer sports journalist.” He shrugged or shuddered; Zheng Xi couldn’t tell. “I respect that you don’t feel ready to come out, and I would never ask you to do that for me. But all the lies and the secrets and the sneaking around… made me feel like a bad habit. Not a boyfriend.”

A prickling wetness pecked at the corners of Zheng Xi eyes. With a sharp nod, he turned on his heel. But Jian Yi closed the distance between them before he could walk away. Run away. Hide.

Tugging him down by the front of his jacket, Jian Yi wrapped his arms around Zheng Xi, the embrace tight and tender all at once. “Own it, Xixi. All of it,” he whispered.

It was over before it began, Jian Yi pulling back before Zheng Xi could snuffle those layered locks one last time.

A glint and a twinkle in a gold-flecked eye. “That’s different. After a win, you usually smell like a bar,” Jian Yi tittered. “Or eau de puck bunny. Tonight you just… smell like you.”

Zheng Xi’s lips lifted with a loose smile at that teasing tone. And fell again as Jian Yi waved a farewell and sidled back into his apartment, the resounding snick of the latch loud and lasting.

As he stumbled back down fifteen flights, Zheng Xi tapped away at his phone, searching for nearby Uber cabs. He ignored the searing sting behind his eyes, just like he ignored the missed calls and the multiple notification icons at the top of his screen; he wasn’t ready to deal with the aftermath of posting the Instagram video he had recorded at the back of the Prius. All the inevitable the ‘D’ in D-man jokes. Not yet.

But, as he huddled outside the building waiting for his ride, he thought back to how the Uber driver had treated him despite overhearing him come out to the world.

Just another pro athlete his son looked up to.

A sportsman. Not a sexuality.

And the crash-down slowed down to a free-fall til it almost felt like he was floating.

Knowing the PR team was already going to ream him out come morning, Zheng Xi hit the Twitter app on his homescreen and typed out: ‘Lacing up my rainbow skates. See you on the ice. #NHL #LGBTQAthlete #OwningIt.’

~~~

Glossary ~

Stanley Cup: The NHL championship trophy.

D-man: Defenceman; blueliner.

Kronwalled: A signature back-pedalling hit made famous by pro hockey D-man Niklas Kronwall.

#19 days #19 days fic #19 days fanfic #zhanyi #fanfic #fanfiction #drabble #ask-box

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honghuas · 5 years

Text

thoughts on 211-216 . it’s a super long post because i was pretty behind !

“Wait!” Shi Qing Xuan called out, “Hua Chengzhu says you tell those usel… those martial gods to hide themselves and heal on their own; you’d be seeking your own deaths if you try to break out under Jun Wu’s hands.”

ADGSG SQX ALMOST SAYING VERBATIM ‘USELESS GODS’ oh HC you really hate them hahahahaha

Shi Qing Xuan replied, “Uuhh, umm, that San Lang of yours looks really scary right now…

h- i’m slightly spooked that xl is crawling in this underground tunnel and notices he’s not alone no wonder hc is reaaaally concerned fdhhdh

No wonder RuoYe couldn’t fight back; it was scared of being tied into a dead knot the most. In the past, before it wised up it liked to wrap itself around mindlessly to play, and as it played it’d pile itself into a mess of dead knots, and it was Xie Lian who’d exasperatedly untie him every time. Later, it learned to be good, smarter, and had never knotted itself dead again.

oh..... 😔 haha when ur suici.de cloth is afraid of deathknots....i’m emo

Jun Wu continued, “You’ve come from a renowned household, an orthodox clan that never traversed the path of evil, raised and grew up in the sect, and was influenced since young that to ascend was the ultimate goal in life. A pursuit such as this is very difficult to give up. To fall to the ghost realm could only said to be a forced situation, an act borne of helplessness. Of course you’re not able to say you’re satisfied with the current position in the ghost realm, because it wasn’t what you wanted in the first place.”

Indeed Yin Yu didn’t have enough confidence, and said weakly, “Chengzhu has shown me grace, he saved me…”

“I know.” Jun Wu said, “He even helped you pacify and send off the resentful spirit of Jian Yu who died during banishment, am I right?”

“...Yes.” Yin Yu said, “So whether I’m satisfied with the current position, it’s all…”

aaaaaaaaaa the lore but yy bbaby don’t be tricked !!!!

Then, Yin Yu continued, “...BUT… But I only… I only wanted to just hate him, it doesn’t mean I have to hurt him. What’s that “should’ve been mine”? Other than natural talent, there is nothing that belonged to anyone from birth. OTHER PEOPLE’S POSSESSIONS, I DON’T WANT THEM!!”

Xie Lian’s eyes lit up and shouted, “WELL SAID!”

Yin Yu continued, “I do want to return to the heavens, I do want to be ranked in the top ten! BUT! If I didn’t manage all that on my own then it’s completely meaningless! I’m unlucky, I accept it! If I’m not as powerful as him, then at the very least I can admit I’m not as powerful as him!”

“ADMITTING THAT I CAN’T COMPARE IS NOT THAT HARD!”

oh god yy we don’t deserve you and you don’t deserve this 😔😔😔😔😔

“But… in the end, I… still think… it’s so unfair.” Yin Yu sobbed, “If I was already destined to be no one remarkable, then at the very least, I… wanted to be a kind and perfect person. But… I couldn’t even do that. It’s really… so unfair. And truth to be told, even in this moment, just thinking that I’m dying for Yi Zhen, this little dummy, I still can’t get over it. I can’t even let go and die with a heart with no resentment and no regrets, what is that.”

Xie Lian comforted softly, “Your highness, you’ve already worked really hard. And, you’ve done very well. You’re already much, much better than most people.”

Yin Yu finally gave a small chuckle arduously, “Better than most people, huh?”

After he stopped, he sighed, and the sound of his last regret passed along with his soul as he mumbled, “But, I wanted to be a god…”

Xie Lian bowed his head deeply, “But, your highness Yin Yu, there is actually no god in this world…”

that shit hit different ,,,

He was gasping harshly, subconsciously covering his own neck and feeling that cursed shackle. A touch, and other than the cursed shackle, Xie Lian also felt something else.

It was a very thin, silver chain. It used to be cold, but because he’s worn it for so long, his body had already warmed it through. Hanging on the silver chain was a crystal clear ring.

After having felt it, Xie Lian’s shoulders immediately stiffened, and he gripped that ring tight. For some reason, his heart was pounding faster and faster, as if he had learned an incredible secret.

oh no did he figure out those are hc’s ashes ??? and right in front of the villain, what a dangerous situation... 😔

After two incense time later, before the Great Martial Hall, several figures finally appeared. They saw a lady cultivator in verdant robes riding a burly black ox, a sacred sword hanging on her waist, approaching languidly with several farmers following behind, each varying in sizes.

It was actually the Rain Master who had come!

MY QUEEN! SHE’S HERE! SHE’S HERE!

Hua Cheng hadn’t even walked over before Xie Lian had already forcefully glomped over.

This was a powerful glomp, and Hua Cheng actually wasn’t pushed back for a few steps by the force, not even a wobble. He only placed his hands on Xie Lian’s back, chuckling lightly without speaking.

DBFGMHM !? GLOMPED ????? ARE YOU FIVE ??? ;;; he’s just happy to see his mans after all this shit !

As they went, Hua Cheng’s vambraces shimmered silver, transforming into silver butterflies, and they gradually lost colour, hiding into the air. There were probably hundreds of thousands of wraith butterflies by now that were dispersed throughout the Heavenly Capital. Along the way, they’d suddenly go up or go down, abruptly hide or appear, perfectly dodging every patrolling guard.

ugh. kingue. perfection. you. UGH.

A short while later, Xie Lian dropped onto the edge of an eave and abruptly stopped, looking back at Hua Cheng seeming to be pensive. Seeing him stilled, Hua Cheng also stopped, “What is it? Have you noticed something?”

Xie Lian frowned slightly and nodded, and said pensively, “No. It’s just, it feels like this scene had played somewhere else before…”

oh my god. omh ym god mohmyohdojsohgs. HE FELT IT WAS FAMILIAR BECAUSE HE DOESN’T REALIZE HC IS WUMING AND THEY DID THE SAME THING ONCE IN YONG AN AAAAAAaaaaAAAAaaa

“Okay, you can now give me an order.”

Hua Cheng’s right hand was holding his left elbow while his left hand supported his chin, and he looked at Xie Lian, seeming to be thinking very seriously for a moment before he said, “Then, ge ge, my order is--”

A moment later came the anticipated command. Hua Cheng smiled happily, “--Let’s borrow some spiritual powers.”

Of course Xie Lian understood what he meant by “Borrow spiritual powers” and his head almost smoked. He quickly took off the robe and said, “It’s, it’s not this one!”

“Ah, what a shame. It’s not this one.” Hua Cheng lamented.

Xie Lian schooled his expression, “San Lang, you… this isn’t right. You have to be more serious, don’t give orders like these.”

LKHSAKJAJFSA I can’t believe hc is using the brocade immortal to get his dose of kisses out of xl LMAOOOOO

Then, he handed Xie Lian another set of robes. Xie Lian swiftly put it on and looked up again at Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng watched him for a moment, “Ge ge…”

A short moment later, he smiled widely, “Don’t borrow spiritual powers from me.”

“...”

He’s been careless! How could Hua Cheng do this!

Xie Lian hastily removed that robe, “OKAY! It’s not this one eith…” But Hua Cheng stopped him, “Wait, ge ge, who says it’s not this one? You haven’t proven it yet.”

“Don’t borrow spiritual powers from me” was Hua Cheng’s order. If Xie Lian was to prove the robe he was wearing right now wasn’t the Brocade Immortal then he must not obey Hua Cheng’s order. Which meant, he had to do the opposite thing -- “Borrow spiritual powers from Hua Cheng”.

Going around in circles and they came back to the same starting point! Xie Lian was shaken while staring at Hua Cheng’s serious face, “...That’s, you’re too cunning, you can’t do that.”

DALHJAKFGHSGKFKA ??!? WHA T A BRAT SHGSJGKS hc really, you’re in a hostile situation and trying to get attention--

Xie Lian didn’t know what to say to retaliate at all, and he raised his finger to point at him for a moment, “You... you, ah, I can’t win with you, stop playing around!” Then without any delay, he rushed up and “chu”-ed. Even though he knew there was clearly no one around, but after he’d done the deed he still looked around, as if cautious of anyone who might be peeping.

-ah!!! xl is so easily won over GOD SGSGSdfs soooo cute tho

Jun Wu could establish a ward within the Heavenly Capital, isolating everyone within the ward from the outside world, then naturally Hua Cheng could also create an even smaller ward, sealing the spiritual powers of those within and prevent them from communicating spiritually. A small ward within a larger war, in this moment, this side chamber had become a chest within a chest.

a dream, with a dream, within a -

“You had a chance to remove those cursed shackles.” Hua Cheng said, “Why did you keep those things to bind you?”

Xie Lian hadn’t expected he’d ask that question and was taken aback, “Maybe… it was to remind myself of some things.” He then said, “San Lang, don’t… don’t change the subject. What kind of bad habit is this? The situation just now, it’d be fine if you’d just hold me own, why did you have to take the blow yourself?”

However, Hua Cheng replied, “Ge ge, you knew this is a bad habit too? When it comes to taking a beating, you have no right to lecture me, you know.”

oh goodness this scene , though playful ,really hurts knowing hc is referencing all the shit xl went through in book 4 including being stabbed 100 times but xl thinks he’s referring to something more recent and purely theoretical 😔😔 xl really has no clue he is wuming....

whew, that was a LOT to get through and i’m terribly depressed now but at least there was some cute moments with hualian being stronger together and sillier too 😔😔😔

#yo whaddup demons it’s me ya boi — ( ooc )#spoilers //

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mestizo-efp · 6 years

Text

Behind each other skin

TianShan Fic, body swap

Chapter 2/2

Ao3

To: Mom

I went to school earlier, to study some more for the test.

“Yeah... right” thought GuanShan, no one's gonna believe that, especially his mother. Not that he had another choice. He sent the message, sighing heavily.

He looked at his side, watching his body walking beside him...man it was weird.

He Tian, who apparently wasn't affected at all, was looking at his phone, one hand deep inside his pocket.

“I don't know” said GuanShan “What if someone calls me?”

“Just close the call and send a message”

“But…”

“What? You would rather let me answer to your mother?”

GuanShan grimaced “Fuck no”

“Then shut up and keep your cellphone, if you need something text me. Like...the name of a teacher of something like that, I’ll do same. And straight your back, you're hunching too much”

GuanShan raised his head, looking forward and straightening his back “It's not my fault, I’m not used to…” he bit his tongue, like hell he was going to admit that he was too tall.

He Tian grinned, showing again that smile that looked so wrong in his face “What?”

“Tch, forget it”

Suddenly someone whispered behind them “Look! It's him! Let's say hi!”

“He Tian! Good morning~”

“Good morning~”

GuanShan rolled his eyes, it was the third time, and they weren't even near the school. He refused to look back, ignoring them. Unfortunately, the girls kept bugging him till He Tian bumped his side with his elbow, raising his chin towards the girls, grinning.

GuanShan grunted, looking back at He Tian's fangirls “What?” he said, annoyed.

The girls yelped, embracing each other “N-nothing!”

Said one of them, running away “Maybe he is in a bad mood” whispered the other.

“Ahhh~” sighed He Tian “I get that you're jealous little Mo”

“YOU WISH!!”

“But you need to smile, or they are going to annoy you even more at school”

GuanShan clicked his tongue “This is bullshit!” he kicked a pebble, startling two other guys who just walked beside them.

He Tian smirked, lowering his head and then tilting it towards him “You think you can handle it?”

“Like you care!”

“Of course I do. You're inside my body now, this implies responsibilities on your part”

GuanShan hissed, he was so freaking annoyed, everything was always about He Tian! Damn this situation! And the worst part was that they didn't have the slightest idea of what they could do to turn things right. They didn't have the time. That reminded him of his test, and suddenly he regretted all the time he wasted and that he could've use for actually studying a little more. And not for himself, he was used to his bad grades, but fucking He Tian was always at the top list. He didn't want to be responsible for him, what the fuck!

“What are you worrying about?” suddenly said He Tian.

GuanShan snapped at him “What?”

“You're making that face when you think too much, which...is the same no matter what face you're wearing, interesting”

GuanShan felt his face heating up, but just before he could open his mouth, a group of at least fifteen girls surrounded him, somehow they had reached the school entrance without noticing.

They all started talking at the same time, asking all kind of questions, he didn't even know where to look at, he was about to shout them away, when with the corner of his eye he saw He Tian, looking at him and raising both his forefingers at each side of his mouth, gesturing a smile and then walking away.

GuanShan bitted the inside of his cheek, so much that he could taste blood on his tongue.

It was going to be such a long fucking day.

Walking and at the same time being followed by a group of adoring girls seemed to be an harder task then he thought. And after seeing that their precious He Tian seemed kind of “sad” and “possibly ill” GuanShan opted for He Tian's solution. He took a long breath, concentrating, and trying to recall to his mind the way He Tian smiled. He felt his lips rising as like his eyebrows, it was... awkward.

So much awkward that all the girls stopped talking at the same time, looking at his face blankly. His face must've looked ridiculous.

'WHAT NOW??’ thought GuanShan, looking at them while they were whispering to one another.

Despite that, after some minutes and a lot of “let me walk you to the nurse office He Tian~!!” declined, obviously, GuanShan was somehow able to reach He Tian's classroom.

As usual, a lot of girls greeted him, but...not many of the guys. To be honest, they clearly ignored him.

It wasn't hard to get the reason: having in class a guy who constantly get the attention of every fucking girl on an entire school isn't that funny.

“Tch” thought GuanShan “What a bunch of losers”

“Hey!” he said to one of his fan “Which is my desk?”

“H-huh?”

The first two hours passed fairly good, with nothing much happening. Aside from the girls not many people paid too much attention to him, that also thanks the tests, who kept everyone concentrating on their task. GuanShan, despite everything, tried his very best with the test, but math was his weak point and he practically left the paper with nothing written on it. History and English went slightly better than usual.

He was looking at a textbook, getting ready for the next test, when he felt his phone vibrating. He looked around, unlocking the screen: a message from He Tian.

He opened it, and looked at picture of one of his classmates...who clearly looked uncomfortable; under it, a text from He Tian:

From: He Tian

Who is this guy?

From: GuanShan

Gao Peng, a classmate. Why? What happened?

From: He Tian

Are you guys friends?

From: GuanShan

Not really, why??

From: He Tian

He greeted me

From: GuanShan

THAT'S IT? Just say “hi” then! Or fucking ignore him! What are you stupid??

From: He Tian

I don't like him, he's too friendly

From: GuanShan

You're sick! Stop taking photos of my classmates!

A photo of himself, grimacing, was sent right after that. That asshole was having fun, wasn't he?

From: He Tian

I think I mastered your grumpy expression, looks like I know you pretty well uh? What about you?

From: GuanShan

Fuck you!! Don’t you dare taking any weird photo! Also it's a fucking nightmare!! How do you even survive?? Getting so much attention every freaking minutes! What the fuck!!

From: He Tian

Aww~ are you worried? (And, that's a great idea you're giving me here, I should go to the bathroom as soon I can)

From: GuanShan

Fuck no! This sucks! I’ll kill you if you try that!

From: He Tian

What about the test? I’m doing great here

From: GuanShan

I’m failing all of them

Suddenly he felt something poking at his back, he turned around, looking at a girl sitting behind him.

“What?” he said

“Umm...sorry He Tian, I called you a few times but you didn't answer me”

“Oh” he said, of course he wasn't used of being called with that asshole’s name, he tried to look relaxed, resting his harm on the backrest “Umm... sorry about that, I guess”

Ugh, he felt so dirty.

The girl smiled, shaking his head “I was just wondering if we could eat lunch together”

GuanShan's phone vibrated, and after looking at it he looked back at the girl.

“I...uhh, I need to do something so-”

“Oh, that's fine”

He nodded turning the other way.

From: He Tian

Sure. Don't worry too much about that. My grades are fine. See you at lunch.

At lunchtime GuanShan find himself starving, damn He Tian and his abnormal body. What was he some kind of monster who constantly need energy? On his way to the snack shop, a lot of girls kept asking to eat lunch with him, of course he turned all of them down.

And just when he was about to reach the shop, another pair stopped him. It was never ending.

He turned them down with a slightly better smile than the one he made that morning, but after walking away he heard them whispering

“You think he's meeting again with that delinquent?”

“The red haired one?”

“Um”

“Maybe, I mean what for? He’s so unpleasant, such a such a waste of time”

Suddenly he didn't feel that hungry anymore, or more precisely, He Tian's body was starving, but his mind felt... exhausted.

In the end he thought that it wasn't up to him to decide if he could eat or not, so he forced himself and went to the shop. He took his wallet, but as he noticed, it wasn't his, but He Tian's.

He opened it and his mouth went ajar: no wonder it felt so heavy. What did he need all that money for?

He stared at it for a long time, gripping it harder and harder. He sighed, taking the amount necessary for the cheapest sandwich.

“This suck”

When GuanShan reached the rooftop He Tian was already there, sitting on the floor and... taking photos of himself, or photos of his face, smiling.

“Stop that!” he said, sitting in front of him “That's sick”

He Tian chuckled, resting his face on his hand “I beg to differ, this is a chance to take. Go for it, you can take as much photo as you like of me”

“Why would I like a photo of some piece of shit uh? Shut up and let me eat”

He Tian sighed, lying down and putting his arms under his head “You're no fun”

“This is not funny! I want things to go back to normal” he opened his sandwich, taking a big bite. It tasted like nothing, so lame. Something is definitely wrong with He Tian for not liking sandwiches.

“Also, your fucking fan girls are so-”

“Hey” interrupted He Tian “Is that your lunch? That's it?”

“What if it is?”

“You think that's enough for my body? What about all my money?”

GuanShan gritted his teeth “I knew it! You exchange our wallets, didn't you?”

He Tian shrugged “I just figured that you’d had to eat a lot more than usual”

“And what? That I couldn't afford it?”

He Tian narrowed his eyes, looking annoyed “Why would I let you spend money for me uh? My body is my responsibility”

“THAT'S-!!”

At that moment the rooftop's doors opened with a loud bang, revealing none other than Jian Yi, and Zhang Zheng Xi. Jian Yi arm was resting around Zheng Xi shoulders, dragging him around. As soon as Jian Yi saw them, his face lighted up.

“Found them!!” he shouted “Hey hey!!”

“Stop dragging me!”

GuanShan gulped, looking at He Tian, who sat up.

That wasn't good. They agreed to meet at the rooftop in order to avoid as many people as possible, but of course Jian Yi was able to find them like nothing. That guy was some kind of freaky alien.

The two sat down in front of them, Jian Yi happily smiling

“We were looking for you guys, what were you up to?”

GuanShan looked away “Nothing”

“Wah, He Tian! Your face looks like GuanShan's right now! That's awesome!”

GuanShan clenched his jaw, fuck! He even heard He Tian chuckling behind him.

He tried his best to raise his lips into a smile “Ha ha” he laughed.

Jian Yi and Zheng Xi looked at him horrified

“What’s that?” said Jian Yi “Gross”

GuanShan felt his brain's veins pulsing with rage, but thankfully He Tian came to the rescue.

“Why are you here anyway?” he was so much better than him at acting. Though he just looked indifferent more than annoyed.

“Oh, right!” said Jian Yi “We were thinking”

“You were thinking” corrected him Zheng Xi

“To go somewhere today, after school! To celebrate the end of the tests you know! Like... karaoke!”

“Fuck no!” said GuanShan

“Let's go!” said He Tian.

Jian Yi and Zheng Xi looked at them, at total loss.

“Are you guys playing some kind of weird game?”

‘We fucked up’ thought GuanShan.

At that moment the first bell announcing the closing end of lunchtime rang. Jian Yi snapped out of his trance, looking at his phone “Crap! XiXi! I forgot to eat my lunch!”

“I told you to just send them a text!”

They stood up running towards the door “See you later guys! We're going to celebrate! Right XiXi?”

“Stop shouting!”

GuanShan sighed in relief as soon as the door closed. That was a close call.

He Tian was humming “Can't wait for after school uh?”

“Hell no! Are you insane? I don't want to!”

“Relax. It's just karaoke. Say, how are you at singing?”

GuanShan stood up, showing his teeth, raging

“There's no fucking way that I’m going to karaoke or freaking anywhere else looking like this!”

He Tian shrugged, scratching his head “Alright, alright. Whatever you say”

GuanShan frowned, that was... unexpectedly easy.

At that moment the second bell rang, GuanShan got up, sighing. The thought of going back to He Tian's classroom sounded extremely exhausting, but he didn't have a choice, at least it was just a matter of few hours then they could go home. As they walked down the stairs, GuanShan found himself walking some feet away from his body. Looking at himself, walking alone was... revealing. He was aware of how everyone avoided his eyes, or how indifferent they looked at him, what he didn't know, was what happened as soon as he walked away.

The hate, the disgust, the whispering.

He stopped walking, spectator of himself.

And his back suddenly looked so small, too small for all that weight.

On the other side, He Tian's body was welcomed with smiles, maybe not by everyone, but it sure felt like the other side of a mirror. For a moment he wondered if He Tian could notice all that difference between them, or maybe he just didn't care.

Suddenly he felt nauseated, and something burning in his stomach felt like flowing out of his mouth.

Without He Tian noticing, he took another corridor, going back to his class.

He felt like locking himself into his room, at his house.

Instead he locked himself inside of He Tian's body, and somehow it felt safe.

The remaining hours passed in a haze, and every test done.

It wasn't easy, but he was pretty sure that it was the best he had ever done.

It took him ten minutes to get out of school, avoiding He Tian's fangirls was an impossible task.

He stood at the entrance, waiting for He Tian.

After half an hour, still no sight of him.

“Where the hell is that fucker??” he hissed, taking out his phone.

He was about to call him, when a video call reached him: from He Tian.

A shiver...went through all his spine.

He answered, and the first thing that he saw, was his face.

“Hey” said He Tian “Where are you? You're late”

“He Tia-” he bit his tongue “GuanShan, where are you?”

“Uh? What do you mean?” he changed the position of the camera, recording Jian Yi, singing with all his might, posing like a professional singer.

Then, back to his face “What? You said you wanted to come here? You made me come here for nothing?”

GuanShan widened his eyes, taking the phone one inch away from his nose “You... little...wha- don't-!”

“Ah, sorry. Jian Yi’s song it’s almost over” He Tian looked behind him, making sure that the other two guys weren't looking at him, then he smiled “My turn next” he winked, just before closing the call.

GuanShan stared at the screen, boiling from head to toe, until a text reached him: it was the address of the karaoke.

“YOU... PIECE OF SHIT!!!”

GuanShan already knew that He Tian's strength and stamina were something else, but seeing how a run from school, towards the karaoke, did nothing to his body made it feels like something completely inhuman.

He entered the place, looking for those idiots, and after asking to some waitress, he finally find them.

He opened the door, sweating...and what he saw, was worse than his worst nightmare.

First, he saw Jian Yi: crying while laughing his ass off, cheeks red, smashing his hand on a small couch. Then Zheng Xi, on the other side of the room, a phone in his hand while clearly recording. He was holding back a laugh, amazed by the show who was ultimately showing He Tian, while using his body: singing, at the top of his lungs, one feet over the table, some kind of shitty love song.

GuanShan never felt so mad and embarrassed in all his life. It felt so overwhelming that he found himself unable to move.

At that moment, He Tian noticed him, and while grinning he took the microphone closer to his lips, singing towards him.

“Babe~!!” he shouted “One night with you…~”

The sound of his voice singing pierced his heart like a poisoned arrow.

Jian Yi fell on the ground.

“What the fuck…” said Zheng Xi, while taking on hand over his mouth, trying his best to repress a laugh.

Even Jian Yi finally noticed him “He Tian!!! You need to see this!!! Redhead-”

“BABE~!!” shouted He Tian, and Jian Yi fell face down, unable to finish his sentence.

That was enough.

He didn't care what those two idiots might think, he took He Tian by his wrist, tossing the microphone towards Jian Yi’s head (hitting him)

and rushed towards the exit.

“Hey!!” said He Tian “I was about to sing the best part”

“SHUT UP!!”

“Don't get mad~. You have an amazing voice, so sweet. You need to put the right use to it”

“I said shut up! That's it, you're dead! I’m going to chop your dick off! And after that, I’m going to smash your head inside a toilet, cause it's full of shit!”

He Tian hummed, looking at the street and at the people around them “And in which part you let go of me?”

GuanShan looked back, lowering his eyes to his hand, who was still holding He Tian wrist with a tight grip.

“Fuck you!” he said, snapping his hand away

“Why you had to humiliate me like that? Why can't you focus more on this fucking problem? You think this is a game? You think this is fun? It sucks!”

He Tian shrugged “You're taking it too seriously”

GuanShan gritted his teeth “You just don't care! And to think that I-!”

He stopped, he didn't want to say how much he tried to make He Tian look like normal during all day, making him seems all smiles and kind and not like... himself.

'Ah’ he thought, before looking at himself, and feeling that nauseating heat inside his stomach. Now he get it.

He took a step back, looking at the other side of the road.

“We’re going to your apartment” he said, his voice low “And we are going to fix this, I don't care how”

He didn't wait for He Tian's answer, he turned back starting walking.

He heard He Tian clicking his tongue, before he started following him.

He didn't say a word during the entire walk, and even after that, after they had reached the apartment.

He walked towards the couch, sitting down.

He Tian followed him, taking a chair and sitting in front of him.

“So” he said “What did you have in mind?”

GuanShan pouted, lowering his head and intertwining his fingers “I don't know”

He Tian sighed, raising his head and looking at the ceiling “Maybe…we should try to hold our hands or something?”

“That's dumb...”

He Tian crossed his legs, arching an eyebrow.

GuanShan grunted, getting up “...but I guess we could try, fuck”

They stood up, and He Tian offered his hands, looking as much serious as he could.

GuanShan twisted his lips, technically he was just going to hold his own hands, so that wasn't going to be as embarrassing as he thought.

He stretched out his hands, and while gripping his own, he avoided eye contact, looking outside.

And they stood there, holding hands, for long minutes... without anything happening.

Finally GuanShan looked at their hands, but he didn't feel anything.

“It's not working” said GuanShan

“No shit” answered He Tian, releasing GuanShan's hands “Maybe a hug?”

“Ugh!”

He Tian raised his hands “I’m just saying, you know I don't like to hug myself either”

GuanShan snorted “Hard to believe that, you narcissistic fuck”

“Whatever” he said “I don't know what you expect. It's not like one of those things you can figure out by looking on the internet”

GuanShan eyes widened, pointing at He Tian “That's it!!” he said, taking his phone.

He Tian approached him, confused “What? What you looking at?” he looked at the screen “Are those...manwhua?”

“Shut up and bring me a pen and paper, I’m going to write a list”

He Tian shrugged, again, following GuanShan's orders anyway. After some minutes of long research, GuanShan had a long list of things to try in order to turn things back. If it was some shitty cliché manwhua situation that brought this to them, then maybe it was going to bring them out.

However, one and an unfortunate half hour later, nothing seemed to work.

They had tried everything, from staring into each other's eyes, to bump each other head, to fall into one another... everything. Even hugging, to GuanShan displeasure.

Nothing.

And here they were, sitting on the floor, massaging their heads, swelling on the forehead.

“Fuck, fuck all of this” hissed GuanShan “This is bullshit!”

“You know” said He Tian, resting his elbows on his knee, and his chin on his hand “We could try to kis-”

“FUCK NO! GROSS!”

“Alright, alright” he got up, going towards the fridge and unpacking GuanShan's leftovers “Maybe... it's something more spiritual, like feelings or something”

If that was the case, then they were doomed.

GuanShan massaged his temples, at least things couldn't get worse, right?

His cellphone rang.

He looked at it.

“Fuck” he hissed

“What?” said He Tian, getting closer after putting his place on the kitchen island “Who is it?”

GuanShan bitted his lips “My mom, I already texted her, but she hasn't seen me all day, she's worried…” he looked at the screen, and just when he was about to close the call, He Tian reached out his hand.

“I’ll deal with it”

“Pff, yeah right-”

“Hey” He Tian was looking at him so seriously at that moment, that he found himself unable to add anything else. He gulped, looking at his phone and back to He Tian.

Finally he gave his phone to He Tian, who nodded, answering the call.

“Mom” he said “Yeah sorry, I’m at a friend's house and I couldn't answer, we were playing videogames”

GuanShan heard the muffling voice of his mother on the other side

“The tests? Yeah I did them, I think I did a pretty good job today”

GuanShan bit his lips, unfortunately he couldn't say the same about He Tian's.

Suddenly He Tian was smiling, it was a warm, affectionate smiles, that somehow reached his voice too “Thanks” he said “I think it's going to take a while here, don't wait for me. I’ll call you tomorrow” he nodded “Ok bye”.

He closed the call, handling GuanShan's phone back.

“Here”

GuanShan took it back, of course he did it perfectly, what else did he expects?

“You're good at everything, aren't you?” he said, suddenly

He Tian looked at him, seriously.

And GuanShan grinned, bitterly “No matter what you do. At school it was fucking exhausting. Everyone, expecting me to smile at every minute, at every second. Being polite with everyone...it felt so disgusting. But you just can do it, and do what everyone expect from a rich and perfect human being. 'Cause that's how is supposed to be. And you do it so damn good. I... could never...even if I wanted to-”

“It's fake” said He Tian, interrupting him “All that is fake”

GuanShan snorted “Yeah but-”

“I started acting like that before I could even remember. Doing what ‘everyone expect me to do’, never being able to turn back. But you...are different. I noticed you know, how everyone treat you”

“That's-”

“At first I thought, well...this is the kind of mask that he use, it's fake, like me...but as soon as I looked closely, I noticed that... it's actually so different. For whatever reason, you act like this for anyone but yourself, and you're so faithful to that way of doing. Maybe you have something different, inside, that you keep to yourself because you have to do it for something greater. It's something that I couldn't do even if I wanted to. Me?” he chuckled, shaking his head “I don't even know. All the good act, all the good grades? I don't even care. But I do it anyway. It's fake” he gestured to his body, from head to toe, then pointing his forefingers to his heart, towards GuanShan body's chest “Everything”.

GuanShan found himself puzzling, everything that he had thought during the day, He Tian had thought about it too...on a completely opposite way like...some kind of mirror.

He cleared his throat, how did things turn out so sentimental? He needed to change the subject.

“You act different towards me though” he regretted his words immediately, even more after seeing He Tian's smug expression.

“Do I now? How's that, I wonder”

“L-like I fucking care! Stop looking at me like that!”

He Tian grinned “Why? Is my body reacting?”

“Uh?”

“You know, I was thinking about it earlier, if our sense of taste makes our food taste different...what about things that, excite us?”

“Stop it”

He Tian pushed GuanShan on the couch, looking at him from above “There's always been some parts of you…” he raised his hands, slowly “...that I really, really like”

“I said stop you think that-”

“Like” he interrupted “Your neck…” he traced the skin, softly, with the tips of his fingers “... specially the crook, and the side”

GuanShan knew that it was sick, but his body felt paralyzed, his eyes fixed on He Tian's fingers, tracing his skin so carefully.

“And...here, between your clavicle”

GuanShan gulped, no way...no fucking way.

His fingers went up, to his lips pressing his thumb into his lower lip, from right to left “And this...so so much” he whispered.

“What kind of fucked up mind you think I have uh? Like I could...by looking at myself”

He Tian smirked, lowering his eyes.

GuanShan followed, looking at himself, and at the erection pressing inside his pants.

He went pale as a ghost “W-what the” he looked back at GuanShan “You're such a sick son of a bitch!!” he got up, running towards the bathroom, locking the door.

He was surrounded by girls all day long, and nothing happened, now he just had to look at himself for a few seconds and He Tian's body reacted like that.

How?? And most of all...why?

He felt himself throbbing inside his boxers, and he knew he was blushing like crazy. Someone knocked at the door

“May I suggest” said He Tian “A cold shower? I heard it usually works”

“SHUT UP!! I’m going to make you pay for this!”

He heard him chuckling “Be my guest, I can't wait to know what you feel like”

“ARGH!”

He Tian's dick was something else, he even though of stroking himself a couple of time, but he just couldn't do it. So, it took a looooooong cold shower to bring things to a decent state.

When he finally got out of the bathroom, He Tian was sitting on a stool, munching at some snacks.

He greeted him with an innocent smile, GuanShan looked at him disgusted.

“Don't eat shitty food with my body”

“Too hungry”

GuanShan shaked his head, walking towards the kitchen while rolling up his sleeves.

It wasn't a bad way to end the day, actually it felt pretty reassuring. Cooking and eating, trying to forget how things got all mixed up, seeing things in such a different way; and even though he was living by He Tian's point of view, somehow he was able to learn more about himself than He Tian. Sure, he thought, he learned a lot of unexpected things about that asshole too. Not that he cared, of course.

Before going to bed they tried a few other things, like saying each other name or some other magic spells that He Tian found on the internet.

Of course they didn't work.

“We tried everything but kissing, you sure you don't want to try?”

“Of course I am! Not even dead! Shut up!”

He got close to the bed, wondering if he should sleep in the couch, when suddenly he was brutally tackled over it, smashed by his body weight over his. Has he always been that heavy?

“The fuck are you doing?”

“Let's sleep together”

“Fuck no!”

“Why? Your body temperature is so low at night, and maybe it could work as a cure”

GuanShan was about to scream, but he was just so, so freaking tired. He pushed GuanShan away from him, putting a pillow between them.

“Don't touch me, just sleep. And tomorrow we’re going to some shrine”

“What you think we're cursed or something?”

“It totally looks like a curse to me”

He Tian shrugged, tugging himself under the sheets “I don't know about that”

“Tch, whatever” said GuanShan, rolling on the other side, before turning off the lights.

He closed his eyes, yearning for some good rest, unfortunately it didn't last long.

“Hey” said He Tian, beside him, poking at his back

“What?”

Some seconds passed, and when GuanShan didn't heard anything he turned around, did that fucker had fallen asleep?

Instead he saw He Tian, his eyes fixed on his.

They didn't say a word, until He Tian spoke, whispering:

“Maybe you don't care or something, but for what it matters....I’ve never faked with you. Never”

GuanShan eyes went wide, and his heart seems like it has skipped a beat.

He bit his lips, lowering his eyes. When he looked back at He Tian's, they were shining and warmed the same way he had while he talked to his mother.

He closed his eyes 'I must be out of my mind’ the next thing he knew was that his hand had somehow reached He Tian's shirt, and that their lips were pressing against each other.

It was brief, shorter than a breath and frankly pretty weird.

After that second, he pushed back, looking at his eyes

“See” he said “Told you it wouldn't work”

After that, he turned his back to He Tian, earing his heart beat going louder and louder.

“Guess not” laughed He Tian.

The next morning, GuanShan stretched out his harms nicely, welcomed by the warm light of the morning sun and a weight, gripping at his side... wait, what?

He lowered his eyes, looking at a black haired head resting on his stomach. He opened his mouth, punching that head right away

“WHAT THE FUCK LET GO!!”

“Ouch” cried He Tian.

“I said let go!” shouted GuanShan, raising his fist...then he stopped.

He looked at his harm, at his legs, he touched his face and his hair.

He went back, he was finally in his body again.

He looked up ready to tell He Tian, but before he could speak, the boy was already over him, smashing his entire body over him.

“GAHH!! Stop! Gross!!!!”

He Tian pressed his hands on GuanShan's cheeks, smiling at him.

“Whad yod looging ad?” spluttered GuanShan.

He Tian smiled fondly, enjoying the feeling of their heat behind each other skin, clashing as one.

“Yeah” he said, before lowering himself and kissing him lightly “This is the right way”.

“FUCK OFF!!”

Such a long day awaited them.

Please let me know your though, thanks for reading!

#19 days #tianshan #old xian #he tian #mo guanshan #mo guan shan #behind each other skin #chapter 2 #my fic #fanfiction

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esseastri · 7 years

Text

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 8)

AAAAANND WE’RE BACK!

Hello, fronds, apologies for the brief hiatus, but I had to pause the reading/liveblogging because I was busy finishing my novel. YEP, I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK, WHOOO! And then it was December, and there was Christmas, and traveling, and retail job at Christmas, and Star Wars, and what little time I had to myself I spent chilling because I was exhausted, but ANYWAY, I’M BACK, FRONDS, LET’S GET ON WITH THIS.

Part 8 encompasses pages 557-666 (previous parts)

whooooops where did I leave off, OKAY INTERLUDES

Why...why are we doing anything near Aimia? Listen: Axies the Collector is cool, but two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat was waaayyy too far over the horror line for me. I do not want more of this.

So...there’s a third storm? But this one is stationary and around Aimia?

MORE REASON NOT TO GO THERE

Whoa, that sure is a side effect of Soulcasting... #yikes

Or is it not soulcasting? Is it something Radiant?

Oh fuck. Fine. This is fine. You know, the previous Stormlight books didn’t have this much body horror in them.

Ahh, shit, wasn’t there an Oathgate on Akinah? I don’t want a direct line to two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat.

“the creatures that accompanied the spren” So...like......their Cognitive shadows? the versions of them still in the Cognitive Realm even as bits of them manifest visibly in the physical? Or...something else?

I’m sorry, did they just...die?

What the

What even is Aimia, really?

Mmmkay, actually, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know the secret of Aimia, I am not interested in being EATEN by two-thousand-cremlings-in-a-trench-coat.

Genuis!Taravangian is an asshole. I’m not surprised, I’m just. Stating a fact.

!!!! Are his secretary and the Dustbringer a thing? Are they together? Get it, girls!

I still don’t trust the Dustbringer.

Aslo “the most likely to accept their cause” Why? Is the “cause” like...destroying the world? I don’t remember if we know the Diagram’s endgoals.

...There’s a danger line for the “too smart” end of the sliding scale? Smart.

Also his name is Vargo? Vargo Taravangian? hehehehehe

IT’S NOT ABOUT DESERVE.

I think I hate him.

Dumb question: if Taravangian wants to take over Alethkar--presumably so he can take over the world--then aren’t he and Dalinar working toward the same goal? They both want a unified Roshar. So why kill Dalinar instead of working with him? The logical solution is to work with him, since he’s more charismatic and has a higher chance of actually succeeding, and then kill him off after he’s succeeded in laying the groundwork, and take over from there?

Not that I’m encouraging this, I’m just saying: Taravangian needs to sort out his priorities.

“kill those children” seriously, fuck this asshole, what a douchecanoe.

Also Renarin the wild card HECK YES.

The farming question can be easily answered: Progression.

Not all the Radiants’ powers were battle powers.

“the part of the world that mattered” OH FUCK YOU. That’s not how it works. It’s not about deserve. It’s about having the ability to help, which gives you the responsibility to help. If you can, then you should. No exceptions. No “matters”. Everyone matters. Everything matters. Everyone deserves to be saved.

Except maybe Kylo Ren, but that’s a different story.

Buddy. Odium already made a deal. He wants out of it now. Also he’s not a spren or a god, so why should your pathetic rules hold him?

Oh. Duh. Somehow I didn’t connect Listeners and gemhearts? But of course they do. How else would they bind spren? They infuse their hearts.

Oooohhhhh snap, they done got possessed.

Aw, Venli...things not going your way anymore?

Idk, I should feel bad for her, but I don’t? She brought this on herself. And on her friends. And on her sister, who is still dead. This is her fault.

“The listener gods were not completely sane.” I mean, idk what you expected.

Though, neither are our gods, so I guess we can’t talk.

Seriously, what did Alethkar do to them?

Oh. Wait. Where was Jezrien from? King of the Heralds, right? Prooobably his idea to make the OAthpact? His fault they were bound? That’s probably what Alethkar did to them...

Oooh, the new epigraphs are from the library at Urithiru! Heck ye, Radiant archives!

Though Taln and the Stonewards need to take a chill pill on the self-sacrificing front, apparently.

(Eks would be a Stoneward, pass it on)

Wait, no, hold on--the whole of part three with no Moash pov? But I’m WORRIED about MY BOY.

I’m unnecessarily suspicious of literally every guard that’s not Bridge Four. But particularly of this Rial guy. What is he, Bridge Thirteen? I don’t trust him. At all. He’s too...glib? with Dalinar to be a proper bridgeman. Around other bridgemen, fine, but with Dalinar? I don’t trust it.

I’m with Navani. “The greasy man is...unfitting.”

ooohh, Dalinar...... he “reminds him of friends from the old days.” Tho, bud, how many of those died, betrayed you, or left to become ardents?

Dalinar should know by now to just...not trust people implicitly. Always question.

I really, genuinely can’t imagine how awkward Kaladin and Shallan’s excursion to Theylan City was. Didn’t they fly? Shallan was probably all SCIENCE!! about it and Kaladin was definitely grumpy “let me fly in peace” boy. Nerds.

Sorry, hold on--you’re counting on Kaladin “Impulsive” Stormblessed and Adolin “Disaster Bi” Kholin to make sure Elhokar doesn’t do anything stupid? That’s like asking two kittens to babysit the new puppy.

“I can’t afford to lose you.” AAaaahhh

omg, no, don’t give Kaladin land. What will he do with it? Turn it into the Land of Misfit Bridgecrews?

Five times...so what’s it been, 50 days? Not even? That’s so little time!!

“Or is someone else receiving [the prayers] instead?” ...Isn’t that just the most chilling thought.

There has to be an explanation beyond “The Heralds are nuts” for Shalash to be erasing herself from visual records.

I’m sorry, rockbuds blossom? and have fragrance? Stop and smell the rockbuds?

“I am a diplomat.” Yeah, and I’m a rockbud.

How is Taravangian such a good actor? Or is he really this emotional on days when he’s not a raging asshole of a genius?

Aw yis, non-hereditary monarchy! I love!

“Does it involve punching someone?” It’s Dalinar, so, what do you think?

“Stone-sinew, Herald of Soldiers.” But...Taln’s focus is bone? Ishar is sinew?

I suppose “Stone-bone, Herald of Soldiers” would be a little too ridiculous-sounding...

brb, changing my url to “stone-bone-herald-of-soldiers”

“It was as if Odium had a grudge against this one in particular.” SAD ABOUT TALN FOREVER: THE MEGAN STORY

I s2g Dalinar is the most Extra son of a bitch in all of Roshar.

HOw do I prove I’m not trying to take over your country? I know! I’ll let you stab me through the chest! This is the BEST IDEA.

oooooooo Tension, maybe?

TENSION!! THIS SHIT IS SO COOL OMG

Also his special power--resonance? right?--is listening and that’s delightful. Or...I’m guessing that’s what it is.

Heck ye, Renarin!

“Strength and passion, the Vorin way.” In other words...Honor and Odium....hmm

So it’s Kaladin, Elhokar, Shallan, Adolin, Skar, Drehey, and...who? Some other bridgemen? It’s gonna be a fun roadtrip, tbh.

Buddy, Shallan ignoring her problems IS a problem! Don’t support this impulse! Don’t encourage this!

omg of COURSE Adolin hates flying. Nerd.

“No wisecracks about missing boots?” No, because that wasn’t funny.

“First assess the area for danger, get the lay of the land. Then gawk.” I LOVE MY SON SO MUCH, WHAT A TRAVEL NERD, BUT ALSO #SAME BRO

...we knew that Elhokar had a kid, but every time I’m reminded of it, I get really weirded out. He’s not old enough to be a dad.

PLease meet up with Moash. Please. I’m dying. My crops are failing. My skin is dry. Help me.

the advantage of living through Bridge Four is that you can sleep well anywhere? Well, I mean. I GUESS That’s an advantage. Sort of.

OH of COURSE it’s an Unmade. We do have eight more of those to encounter and deal with.

Whose is this though? Kaladin’s? Or are Elhokar or Adolin finally going to manifest?

(This is assuming that my theory about there being one Unmade for each order of Radiants to defeat is sound.)

Elhokar is trying so hard to be good.

Also Shallan is mean to Kaladin again, news at nine. *rolls eyes*

So, it’s going to be Kaladin’s Unmade then.

Elhokar, you know that the more you tell yourself you’re going to fail, the more likely you will? Stop it. Have confidence.

“Adolin made you want to laugh with him.” Yeah, he doesn’t punch down.

Also, the Kadolin is REAL, and I’m living.

Kaladin really is too good for this world.

I’m sorry, the fancy lighteyes’ gated villas have guards to keep the refugees off their perfectly manicured lawns? Fuck that. Fuck them.

“I needed someone I’d trust with my life, or more. So I brought us to my tailor.” THIS CHILD IS A DISASTER AND I LOVE HIM

Oh snap! we’ve made it halfway through the book!

“Even his voice was adorable.” HONESTLY, people who don’t ship Shadolin: how? It’s so pure and good and supportive and wonderful!

How did Aesudan know the parshmen were voidbringers? And why did she order them killed only to desert the city?

I suppose fabrials do trap and use spren, right? So it makes sense that the yellowgold...voidspren? would be offended by that sort of...I guess, spren enslavement? Sort of? But why are they so concentrated here? Which Unmade is it and what does it do other than corrupt other spren? and influence people.

How To Corrupt Spren and Influence People, a new bestseller by Odium, found in stores near you!

“I am the only one here who has confronted one of the Unmade directly.” Yeah, you, the Kholin bros, and most of Bridge Four who protected you while you did your thing. But sure.

Kaladin, when will you stop seeing your brands as part of yourself and let yourself heal?

Aw, I’m proud of her, admitted Veil is--oh. “They are both equally fake.” Hon, no... please. Talk to someone about this.

Aharietiam, or as I like to call it, “that other stupidly long and impossible-to-pronunce “A”-word.”

Sorry, but the fact that Shallan takes pleasure in pissing Kaladin off-- “he glared at you in the most satisfying of ways” --is really....gross. Uncomfortable. I’m not here for it.

Like, yeah, teasing is fine, but like... if it strays over from teasing into Actively Pushing Someone’s Buttons Just to Make Them Angry, then it’s BAD, okay? It’s really bad. I can say from experience: it’s very bad.

Well, I mean, that explains why no one’s come back from the palace.

“As a connoisseur of things that have killed me...” honestly. what are we up to now? Poison bread. Shipwreck and drowning. Run through with a sword. Dear god, child, you need to be more careful.

Kaladin making bad puns and smiling is giving me life though. Petition for more.

So, the Skybreakers and the Windrunners did not get along? Justice vs. Honor, I suppose...not unexpected. Especially is one is corrupted.

Isn’t Ishar...Bondsmiths? Herald of Luck? Are you sure?

“He is now as mad as the rest. More, perhaps.” Yeah, I got that vibe from Edgedancer.

Shit. Of course he set himself up as a god-king.

(He and the Lord-Ruler should make t-shirts.)

Dangit, Ishar founded the Oathpact, so bang goes that theory about Jezrien and Alethkar and the listeners.

“The Stormfather hated to be misquoted.” Pppfffft.

HECK YE, Bridge Four got a sword!!

Also omg Navani invented alarm clocks. Bless her.

She packed him lunch! BLESS THESE ADORABLE NERDS. God, they are ridiculous.

Dalinar hitching a ride to Azir with Jasnah and her just going, “Byyyeeeeee” and leaving him alone is HILARIOUS to me.

I wonder if the color of the gemstones in the epigraphs correspond to the radiant orders. Like, if the Windruners recorded in sapphire, and the Lightweavers recorded in garnet, etc.

Okay, I went back and checked, and that seems legit. I’m going to guess that’s been #confirmed by people who finished this book earlier than me, but listen.

“covered by a magnificent bronze dome” Lift voice: “boobies” Me: snrk

SPIRITUAL ADHESION!? WTF THIS IS SO COOL

OMG, he brought them an essay, that’s magnificent. Especially because they all had to write essays to apply to be king. Or.. Prime? WHATEVER THAT’S HILARIOUS AND I LOVE AZIR SO MUCH

hello, I love Jasnah, this is news to no one, but girl wrote an essay in rhythmic meter and *melts*

...the Azish parshmen negotiating for pay is...very Azish of them. And the Alethi parshmen gathering for war is very Alethi. And the Theylan parshmen sailing off into the sunset is very Theylan of them.

HA, Dalinar just said the same thing in the next paragraph, go me.

LIFT ATE HIS LUNCH, I LOVE HER, HELLO BBY I’VE MISSED YOU

“The crazy spren who lives in the forest.” 1. I love Lift a lot. 2. uuhhh...we know the Heralds are crazy, and I assumed Odium was crazy, but Cultivation, too?? Is ANYONE here sane anymore?

oh wow they agreed.

didn’t...see that coming. Not with so much book left.

OOOHHH SNAP HE REMEMBERS. HERE WE GO HERE WE GO AAHHHH

Every time I’m reminded that Adolin is only, like, 24yo, I have to tell myself that I was about that old when WoR came out and he’s not actually a child.

Anyway, 12yo Adolin is a gift. “Neat!” this kiddo aahhh

“It was gratifying to see how much one could accomplish in both politics and trade by liberally murdering the other fellow’s soldiers.” PUNK!DALINAR NEEDS TO LOOK AT HIS LIFE AND HIS CHOICES AND RECONSIDER HIS WORD CHOICE AT THE VERY LEAST

hugs are un-Alethi. this is why they have so many issues. they are emotionally constipated from lack of hugs.

“The other son” fuck you, punk!Dalinar

also “she’d never be a great scribe” yeah, that’s ‘cause she’s left-handed, you Vorin jerks

haaaa, he has a point. That even if he and Gavilar know that he wouldn’t ever betray Gavilar for the throne, Gavilar’s advisors aren’t stupid and will find reasons for Dalinar to be...elsewhere.

“Storms, I don’t deserve her, do I?” NO YOU FREAKING DON’T

tbh, I’m not even sure present-day Dalinar deserves her. Like, he’s better now, but he’s still... a soldier. He’s still a strategist. And Evi deserves a soft, gentle person who loves her.

Evi deserves the world, tbh, and I’m Upset because she’s going to die and I’m going to be Sad.

#op #Megan reads OB #Oathbringer spoilers #Stormlight Archive #Oathbringer #Brandon Sanderson #I'm back y'all #hopefully I will finish this book by New Year's...we'll see if I manage it but that's the goal #thanks for your patience everyone!

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surfacolyte · 7 years

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Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LXIII

Dear Diary,

I'm sorry I've been quiet for such a while. A lot of things have happened and I really haven't had the time to write anything. First of all. Thank you, holy God-Emperor for saving us and letting us be victorious. It is in your light that we are thankful to be fighting.

First things first, I'm so sorry guys that you don't get to read this, for I am still alive. Well, I'm not sorry that I am alive, that's for sure, but I may never be able to say out loud such beautiful and horrible things I've written in this book. I am so happy that all of you made it too, though Cai, Arman and Yi... You were this close to getting your ass kicked by me.

Cai, pretty one, be glad it was only your leg. Or actually foot. Also thank the Emperor it was tied up when we ended up in that fertilizer tank.

Arman, when you were impaled by James I was infuriated. You didn't see it but me and Arzali killed the fucker. I blasted the bastard with many bolts and even more lasers and lil' bro finished him. Thank the Emperor you survived.

Yi, you...you little fucker... When you flew back when James went out with a bang I was sure you were dead. You didn't move, didn't make a sound... But you stayed alive. I can't express in words how happy I am right now to know that you survived. I've grown to love you as a brother and I'd really hate to see you go. Besides, as you would have read in the letter for you if I were to die, there is someone waiting for you somewhere. It would be very rude of you not to go find that lady.

So, what happened during the fight... My hunch was right: I ended up kicking Arzali's ass, literally. He went in through the air ventilation system and when he said he couldn't fit, I kicked him down there. You need to know that Arzali, like his brother, is a slender man, though taller, so it wasn't like I was going to fit a skull through a straw. He went in stealthily, while the rest of us and our men stormed in killing hundreds of cultists.

When we reached the elevator shafts we got a report from Arzali. Apparently he was in the room below and the cultists and knights were expecting us. Yi had given Arman the permission to lead us, since he would most likely have been chopping of some witch heads. Arman asked Arzali to do a diversion and that he did... by blowing up the whole room to smithereens. When we got down everyone was dead and except for lil' bro. He had grown vertically though in this time for a quite a bit and he looked like he had received a second growth spurt and taken all his mass and elongated it with the body distributing it in all places. Even Qiang isn't this thin! Reminds me of Rhaban... in the sense that Arzali decided to go in completely other direction with his mutation.

After getting up, Arzali told us that the heck of a lotta psychers that were supposed to be there had gone to the lower levels of the building. They were indeed there having a coven... or doing some magic mumbo jumbo in a circle in the middle of highly warp sensitive and dangerous crystals. You know, the kind if you damage them, all hell breaks loose. We started to fight them but then the little ceiling crawling with came flying to us. Yes, he had grown some wings and was cackling all the way and doing his magic. Multiple sets of them infact and he burned me. Luckily Kûrush had lend me his melta riffle so I answered fire with fire and as his skull fell to the ground, still laughing, I was happy to know he was dead. As we fought the psychers we managed not to hit the crystals but the gravity did fail us and decided to move it's centre point somewhere on the wall. Arman fell to the newly established ground and shouted me to throw a psyk-out grenade into a rift in the middle of the now ex-circle. There were psychers flying all around because of the gravity shift as I threw the grenade in the rift.

Fun fact: when the warp and anti-warp collide, it's not pretty.

Eventually the freaking rift closed and the gravity returned. Mind you, even if one is hanging on a crystal when gravity goes haywire, it might not help when the floor returns to where it used to be. Plus that doesn't really help when the self-destruction protocol is activated. Most of the people evacuated but we and eight brave soldiers decided to pursue the enemy. They had one of the relics at their disposal and we weren't going to let them leave with it. After all that was what we came after.

By the way, never use warp based portals. We ended up travelling for two days and ended up on a space ship near Theia's orbit. To be more precise we ended up in that fertilizer tank. Well, a pool actually. Cai had gotten his leg cut off during the battle before entering through the portal and, well, the rest I already explained. We were apparently in the middle of a fire fight, on an enemy ship, most definitely a cruiser. Long story short: we fought people and a daemon and opened the door to the invading Astartes. Bronze Dragons, you are amazing!

After that some inquisitorial forces from Hereticus and Xenos arrived. Emperor, I cannot thank you enough that Nalini was one of the people raiding the ship. She said that she shouldn't have been surprised to see us there. We tried to find the artifact, The Eye of Unbreakable Will, and found it, as well as the hologram of the witch bitch. She said that we would be free to take it for she had no use for it anymore. Yi, I'm afraid that your fancy trick with the shovel and holding the artifact was rather unnecessary in that sense but it was very good of you to be careful.

After that James showed up with some enemy astartes. We beat the crap out of them and Yi was constantly being shot by James. I'm pretty sure he didn't hit him all the time but Yi took some damage still. Arman got impaled by James as I already told and James Bures is now very, very dead, thank you Arzali for that. We set explosives to the ships munitorum and got out of there as fast as we could. The only ones still standing from our team were me and Kûrush. Arman impaled, Yi burnt because of an explosion, Arzali fainted because he tried to regenerate himself, and Cai had a missing leg. He got a spare one but a quick prosthesis isn't the best quality one. Nalini instructed us on sending messages and getting the heck out of there. She came with us but the bronze dragons said they would stay there right into the very end. They went to the Emperor and prevented a weapon made out of those crystals from doing harm to Theia. Go with peace, good men, He will gladly receive you.

After we came back on Theia we sent a message to the whole sector about the xenosrace the witch bitch represents, Nedassi, that according to the Inquisitor were coming back to the sector. They had been waiting somewhere in Revadi's Nebula and for instance Nalini had been fighting them all along. I understand the secrecy of it all, those creatures are highly dangerous and if word got out of their existence, a massive panic would ensue throughout the sector. We have enough to do with the Brakani and other shit in here so not everyone needs to know of the horrors of space.

After I got some shut eye, I met Qiang. Thank the Emperor he was alright! The juniors had been kicking up the reserves for battle ships. I need to remember to thank Nanami for that decision. A very safe place to be during a time like this. You should have seen all the kisses I gave on his face, even on his ears. Qiang, I'm overjoyed that you are alive and well! And, well, long story short: I'm engaged now. I wish I could tell mother and father but there is still much work to be done and I'm not sure if it would be safe for them. I would have never believed if someone would have told me two years ago that I was going to marry a smuggler from another planet... and not technically a planet but a space station.

I'm not sure if I should write anymore. It's bad enough if one of the boys finds this, blessed be they for their being alive, but I've said some things in here I've never told them face to face. I don't remember if I ever made a proper list of the people that have gone away so I'd like to write something about them as well.

Angus, you warrior, you psycher, you lost three of your limbs and died when we fell down on the little ship. I lost my arm, you lost your life. You were always the brash one.

Omar, our cynical doctor. You were cut in half by Rhaban and Arzali's uncle Hubert. You were so full of hate and I still can't imagine you without your bear face. You deserved better.

Rhaban, my rat brother. You didn't die, Emperor bless you, but you almost lost yourself. I know your mind has gone weird but still you are there. You were the sweet talker of the group and still are our anchor on Uzan.

Deynor, my lord. Even an upper class person can be too hasty. I'll never forget how you shot a bolt through the archeotech device. That was just stupid. But then you went to command your special troops. I hope you've found happiness with them.

James, my brother from Yiken, the traitor. I used to want to save you but now I'm only glad that you're gone. There's no room for you in my heart, hasn't been for a long time. Your death makes both your family and mine much more safe.

Chiro, you eccentric little creature. I wanted to understand you. I wanted to get to the bottom of what you thought of the world. I'm sorry I never could. Then you idiot ran away and eventually got your head chopped off by some bounty hunters. I'm glad though that you stayed true to the Mechanicus to the very end.

To these words I'll end my diary. There is still a lot of work to be done on the sector but we will rebuild. It has been an honour to serve the Inquisition and it will be in the future as well. This is Norelle Rhia, acolyte of Ordo Xenos, the last original one of the team and may the Emperor bless you wherever you are.

For our Imperium.

For our families.

For our love.

- Norelle

#warhammer 40k #Dark Heresy #rpg #point of view #diary #Norelle's Diary

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gwynne-fics · 7 years

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wei50-blog replied to your post “Becoming Royals elopement fallout She quickly discovered that if she...”

Love that R is the one who is so eager! Sex is brand new, fun, and she wants as much as YD will give her! Imagine that maids will continue to be shocked and flustered! Yes, do alternate rooms to give the maids a chance to get each room ready for the next round! Love seeing little intimate moments! Enjoy this time now… before the burden to get pregnant intensifies and sex isn’t all about fun anymore…. If only getting pregnant were as easy as just wanting to!

It’s going to be so hard when it becomes a duty and not a pleasurable activity. Enjoy it now is right ;_;

At least one of our cute pair remembered that they had to handle the fall out from Bo-Na’s elopement! Neat that their first action together as a married couple is to help their friend both directly and also behind the scenes. Again, Young-Do will step out for someone he loves, in this case, Bo-Na. Young-Do actually orders them to leave Bo-Na alone! But wisely also provides a way to gracefully accept her elopement.

This is an important growing moment for Young-Do. It isn’t exactly to thwart the king but it does, very quietly, tell the king where Young-Do stands on the subject of Bo-Na. Young-Do also feels very responsible for what the king said to Bo-Na when they came to him to beg not to be married. It was horrible and cruel and Young-Do couldn’t stop it then.

Young-Do doesn’t often remind people that he has the power to order them around. He only does it when he feels it cannot be done another way. Protecting Bo-Na couldn’t be done without his help so that’s why he gives the order.

Watching the two of them work together! Rachel actually speaks more and Young-Do values her input. Rachel not mincing words! Does she realize Bo-Na’s importance because of the General? Rachel very much not a typical noblewoman of the time in how she acts and how she is fulfilling her role! Glad that Young-Do lets Rachel do what she can and doesn’t diminish her or her efforts! Good but can be dangerous to show that they are not like the king…

Young-Do is definitely seeding the garden that will be his reign by how he treats Rachel. He values her and will insist that the country and court treat her with respect. The General sees the value in their relationship.

As for Rachel, it is actually very simple for her--she loves Bo-Na. Bo-Na is her first genuine friend in the palace. Bo-Na protected her from the king without causing a scandal the way Hyo-Shin would’ve. She wants her to be happy.

G putting HJ in his place! The brother was in favor of the king’s match for BN? See some of his motives… HJ wants to advance in standing, he’s jealous of BN’s excellence, wants to take over for his father, wants to maintain mainstream gender roles. HJ wants his father’s favor at the expense of BN as an inherited right, not on his own merit. HJ doesn’t know who CH is, right? Not sure if it would make a difference. In fact, they would be same status level?

HJ is following what is standard. Too bad for him the General is unusual in what he is doing and actually cares about competence over gender. Better for the kingdom that way! Get the sense that General is still willing to give HJ a chance… but he has to prove himself. The General really does love BN and want her happiness. He understands wanting to just be with the person you love! General will be loyal to YD and now also to R, for their love for BN.

Hyun-Jin feels very emasculated by Bo-Na. A lot of warrior culture can get pretty toxic, yet here is this woman, doing it all better than all of the men. He’s wrong to feel this way. I think he loves Bo-Na in his own way, but he was glad for the opportunity to put her back into women’s spaces and out of the sight of their father. Hyun-Jin isn’t a bad warrior or even a bad leader. He only looks mediocre standing next to Bo-Na.

He doesn’t know who Chan-Young is. The General doesn’t trust his ambition or his loyalty to their family, so he hasn’t told anyone except to confirm it to the crown prince and princess.

Chan-Young would actually have a higher status if his father wasn’t a traitor. He is from a long, noble, military bloodline. But no one can know that.

General Lee would probably give a very similar answer to Chan-Young when asked for his loyalty--to his family, to his country, and to the crown prince.

Glad General will be someone who will work for and with them in the future! Very certain he is not the only official to realize the king is on his way out. Also sure that not everyone wants Young-Do to become king because he will not be easily controlled. Will someone want to use Myung-Soo to keep their own power and position? Rachel’s insight that he could be like the king, for those who like the status quo, Myung-Soo could be a choice.

So many shifty eyes for this >.>

Huh, so MS is only ‘asking’ for consent out of love for his mothers? Without their wishes, he would not even ask? This is what causes conflict with Young-Do? What kind of feelings does MS really have for YS? We see that he wants her and is taken by her. Does he love her? What kind of love? Hm, ‘good enough’ MS description… a ‘good enough’ lover, also ‘good enough’ to just adhere to the queens teaching on consent without the conviction.

Unfortunately, Myung-Soo is a prince of his time. He’s not horrible but he’s not very necessarily giving all of the time. His mothers have tried very hard to get him to take consent to heart the way Young-Do has, but in a way, Myung-Soo doesn’t get it. He asks because he wants to be good, not because he understand why he needs to ask. He respects a refusal and doesn’t throw a tantrum, but he doesn’t necessarily understand why he’s being refused. And most women don’t refuse him, so he doesn’t see what the big deal is. He very much feels that he’s nothing like the king and he finds the casual rape of the king to be abhorrent. He just doesn’t see the connection.

(I got a couple of requests for him and Ye-Sol so I won’t talk about his feelings just yet.)

Get to see more of Myung-Soo’s views! Things still uneasy between Rachel and Myung-Soo, definitely from Rachel’s side, but also still from Myung-Soo too? Has his views of her changed at all in the time he has spent working with her? He can’t doubt her feelings for Young-Do now? He does seem to want her approval, though. Still afraid for Young-Do because he knows his brother’s love for Rachel will be something others can exploit?

I think it’s important to note that Myung-Soo is the Spy Master. He has spent a long time cultivating a certain persona. Rachel threatens the story he’s carefully built around him and his brother to protect them in a hostile court. He understands Rachel’s motives and trusts in her love for Young-Do.

He just doesn’t have the luxury of love and will put Young-Do’s safety on the throne before anything else. He’s not necessarily wrong but Rachel scares the shit out of him, a lot like the ways his mothers scare the shit out of him, because of what they are willing the sacrifice.

Kyung-Ran is right that Rachel is Young-Do’s biggest weakness. In the same way, Rachel’s weakness will be Young-Do. See the little reminders that the real world is still out there, (glad she is practicing with different hair pins) and this little interlude will not last much longer. Tangent, wouldn’t it be easier to marry Hyun-Shin, to gain entry into the Generals family? Also, is Lord Ma related to Queen Jae-Kyung?

The King is trying to separate Bo-Na from her family as a punishment for rejecting Young-Do and for not behaving like a proper woman. Marrying Hyun-Jin is probably smarter and more politically savvy but remember, these noblewomen have found Hyun-Jin lacking and lot of them have pretty decent fathers most of the time.

Lord Ma is the brother that helped Jae-Kyung and Chang-Yi get together! He has two sons and a daughter. He’s remained close to Jae-Kyung and is considered one of the protections she has in place to protect her from an execution.

#wei50-blog #gwynne replies #royals answers

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saviormysticmeme · 8 years

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Can I request a hc rfa +v & saeranwhere mc is very very intelligent and introverted and people always tell her she's boring since she doesn't like talking much. I'm so sick of it, it happens to me all the time :( Your blog is so awesome & I love it^^

1. Omg thank you ^‿^2.If people don’t respect the fact that you’re introverted drop them! Trust me, you’ll find people along the way that can understand that introvert doesn’t equate to boring whatsoever!3. Personally I’m pretty extroverted, so I’m basing MC off the traits of my introverted friends and what I think I know about it, but if it’s not quite what you were looking for just let me know~!

Sidenote: When people hear the word ‘Intelligent’ a lot of them think of the traditional “Good at school, well read in this and that subject, yada ya” and I just want to remind everyone that there is different types of intelligence. And I’m not saying that to be all “Don’t feel bad uwu you’re special too” I’m saying it because it’s a fact. Some people are good at standard education, some are amazing in the STEM field, some are masters of reading social behaviour, some humans are talented artists, etc. For the sake of writing I’m going to write MC as a very Literary Based ‘intelligent’ (because that’s one I’m personally familiar with) I just want to make sure everyone knows that ‘Intelligent’ isn’t defined by the books you read or anything of the sort. Ok rant over.

Yoosung

At first he thinks you don’t like him, that once you met him you weren’t as infatuated with him because he seemed cooler in the chat

Don’t worry Yoosung no one thought you were cooler in the chat

Eventually though he realizes you’re just introverted! Even at RFA parties you stand by him and quietly sip your drink and listen to everyone talk rather than take the attention for yourself.

He originally questions why you don’t want to greet the guests yourself, but then comes to understand that you’re just more of a wallflower. But that doesn’t make you any less great!

But one party he notices you being extra standoffish. Everyone in the RFA is standing and chatting with each other and you’re not there.

He finds you off to the side of the room pretending to be distracted by something on your phone

“MC? Why are you over here?”

“Oh, hey Yoosung. I was just uh, checking in on…uh”

“Come on MC just tell me what’s wrong” He pleaded

You decided not to lie, it’d feel good to get off your chest anyways “I just feel like I’m so…boring. Everyone else in the RFA is super chatty and have fun stories to tell and all my life people told me I was boring cause I didn’t talk…I felt like I was bringing down the mood.”

“What!?” YandereYoosung: Activated “Who ever said that to you?? That’s so dumb!! They’re dumb!!!1!”

You had to calm Yoosung down from his mini rage before too many people looked at you guys. You go to grab his arms but he ends up grabbing your shoulders and looking deep into your eyes

“MC just because you’re quiet doesn’t make you boring! You are so great, and so smart, and so..so everything good! How much you talk doesn’t matter!”

You just kind of stared at him for a second with a blank face. No one had ever been so adamant about assuring you that your ‘flaws’ weren’t flaws.

A smile fell upon your lips and you quickly brushed a tear away, which snapped Yoosung back into his normal flustered boy mode.

“Uh sorry for grabbing you” He pulled his arms away immediately and blushed

You shook your head and chuckled.

Then you grabbed his hand, making him confused and ever more blushy uwu

“You’re right. Let’s go stand with the others” You had the biggest smile on your face as you led him back to the group.

Jaehee

Jaehee didn’t mind introvert MC at all

And as a fellow intelligent introvert, you two got along just fine.

You could have very interesting conversations when you felt chatty while making coffee together

Or you could appreciate each other’s company when you both felt just like being silent while doing your own activities.

‘Boring’ would never cross Jaehee’s mind when thinking of MC, MC was her lover Best Friend! You are always putting a smile on her face and she puts one on yours.

She’s also been called ‘boring’ before so she’s always conscience to remind you how much she enjoys your time together, and how not everyone has the same idea of what ‘fun’ is.

You two are quite the pair, silent, but deadly

Goddammit that just sounds like a fart joke

You two are some of the quietest when it comes to the RFA members, but you’re basically running the scenes from behind the curtain.

And you’re both perfectly happy with that. You two organize the party and deal with the guests who are also more introverted, and the rest of the RFA can handle the other guests and public relations. It’s a good setup

And you never think about being ‘boring’ again, because how can you feel boring when you’re surrounded by friends and a lover and doing what you love?

Zen

You being introverted never really bothered him…because he never really noticed.

Zen has such a big persona it fills the room for both of you. Everyone is too wrapped up in Zen’s stories that they don’t even notice your silence or occasional escape to the less crowded areas of the room

He’s the perfect cover. He’s so obsessed with the idea of taking care of you and being the ‘provider’ of sorts even though it can be too a fault, it works well for you because he even starts speaking on your behalf by accident.

“Oh how are the two of you?” Someone will be looking at you but Zen takes it as open opportunity to answer for both of you

Even questions more aimed towards you “Oh, MC, what are you doing these days in your spare time?” You stammer out a couple words, which Zen mistakes for you being humble rather than shy, and he begins praising you and going into detail for you “MC doesn’t give themselves enough credit!” He’ll cry out, then he goes on to list everything you’ve been up to and just how awesome a job you’re doing. You recognize how someone could find it annoying, but it works for you personally since it saves you the nerves of having to talk with strangers for long periods of time.

Even when it’s just the two of you it’s nice because Zen always has something to say, always has a compliment to give or a story to tell. He could talk for hours and you’re happy listening. And when you do want to talk he shuts right up and gives you all his attention.

One flaw is he doesn’t always see you getting tired after hours of social interaction. He could float around a crowd chit chatting with anyone and everyone for hours, meanwhile you get a little antsy to leave. But usually with some hint dropping you make it clear you’re ready to go and Zen ushers you out like the Knight he is.

It’s because you two work so well he doesn’t understand when his coworker calls you boring

“Excuse me?” Zen scoffs

“Yeah” His fellow actor laughs as he puts his costume on “I always imagined you’d end up with another social butterfly, not someone so..quiet. And when she does talk it’s like..I don’t know all really boring stuff that I haven’t heard about since my school days.”

Zen gives him the biggest scowl. “Just cause MC doesn’t blabber on and on about random shit the way you do doesn’t make them boring. In fact it makes them pretty interesting, because obviously if MC doesn’t talk much, they must have something pretty great to say if they decide to open their mouths in front of douche bags like me or you.”

His coworker was silent

Zen can’t wait to go home and tell you all about how he schooled his dickbag scene partner

Jumin

Like Yoosung at first he’s worried your silence is a sign of distaste

He can’t help but worry so much that he makes a call to V, looking for advice

V laughs

“Jumin, are you telling me you’ve met someone whose introverted? Someone who doesn’t verbally open up much? Gee, where have I met someone like that before? Oh! I should introduce you to my friend, he’s the exact same way.”

What friend V who do you hang out with besides me

It takes him a while, but finally Jumin gets the joke and realizes you two are the same.

He starts paying attention to your body language more, realizing more and more that you are comfortable with him and just don’t verbalize it all that much

Besides it’s not like you guys don’t ever talk, you’re just not as chatty as you are on messenger. Probably because that’s just typing from behind a screen, so it makes you less anxious. He can understand that.

One day he comes home to find you on the couch reading Shakespeare

MC you like Shakespeare?

Turns out you like literature in general, something Jumin also has a taste for in his rare bouts of free time.

You two begin chatting about older pieces and genres, ranging anywhere from fictional masters like William Shakespeare to poetry writers like Yi Sang.

It’s actually one of your longer talk sessions, ranging a few hours of just straight talking. Once it’s over though, you two are happy to cuddle up to one another and just throw a movie on.

Jumin is often called boring himself, and he never pays any mind to it. But when you two are talking one day and you mention how much it irks you that people call people like the two of you boring he just

“So let them. Their opinions will never affect either of us, especially since we both know the value of our own words and have each other to share them with.”

A grin crawled on your face. You loved how graceful he made the phrase “Fuck those guys” sound.

Defender of Justice

“Wow, I never thought you’d end up with someone so … normal.” Vanderwood mused while looking at a picture of you and 707 sitting on his desk.

“I wouldn’t call MC normal” Seven chuckled as he tapped away at his computer.

“Really?” Vanderwood cocked an eyebrow at the back of Seven’s head as he placed the picture down. “Maybe they were just quiet that time I met them..”

“No.” tap tap tap “MC’s always quiet.”

Vanderwood squinted at Seven now, assuming the red head had cameras set up so he’d see the look on Vandy’s face at some point. “So she is boring?”

Seven sighed a dramatic sigh, Vanderwood could tell immediately whatever the hacker was about to say was well rehearsed. The fucker always trapped him into weird conversations with some strange moral lession.

“Vanderwood, vanderwood, vanderwood. You’ve called MC quiet, normal, and boring….none of those words have anything to do with each other~” Cue 707 going on a playfully long and annoying rant explaining why you were quiet but by no means boring. Normal was up for debate.

Seven had always understood you.

He put on quite the exuberant and extroverted exterior, but on the inside, Saeyoung was also an introvert.

You were never boring to him because he knew you had so much going on in your brain despite your few words explaining the thoughts running around up there

And you knew this because the two of you were constantly analyzing each other

And you both knew it

It became some weird sort of game, picking up on subtle cues and few words you guys would exchange, and figuring out the other’s intention

It got so intense the other members of the RFA swore you guys were telepathic or had made some weird secret language between each other

He grew up with Jumin so he understands

He is quiet as well, but he doesn’t mind being the conversation driver at all, or just sitting in silence together while you read or play games or do whatever your heart desires

He is just happy to be near you.

Given his eyesight is a bit weak, so sounds make it easier to figure out whats going on in your head, so he just learns to listen to the things you do. Your footsteps, your breath, pages turning, pencils on paper, computer keys clicking.

He understands you so well without words, but when you do speak he’s in love because everything you say is so thought out.

Or you just….”Sneep”

“What MC?”

“I don’t know. I was just thinking and…I thought of the word ‘Sneep’ I don’t know it’s just one of those things that’s fun to say aloud….Sneeeeeep” And you started giggling “it’s just so weird”

Jihyun laughed.

Ok so not everything was some profound rhetoric, but he enjoyed anything that comes out of your mouth.

“Try it!” You egged him on

He paused for a minute, and prepped a really funny deep voice and just “Sneeeeeeeeeep”

You both had a hard time controlling your laughter.

He knew he’d never have a boring moment with you

Saeran

At first he was worried you were constantly mad at him

Saeyoung is loud when he’s in a good mood…so shouldn’t you also be loud when you’re happy?

He hasn’t had much healthy human interaction to judge so he’s confused and worried

But you two manage to nip the problem in the bud before it becomes serious

One way or another you realized he was feeling this way and sat him down to talk, saying you were never mad you just…were quiet. You said you’d start being more vocal if he’d feel better..

“No…I…I trust you.” Saeran trusted that you meant it when you said your silence was nothing bad, he wanted to always trust and believe with you so despite his own anxiety he was going to. You were touched.

You figured a good compromise for the two of you, you were quiet, but that didn’t mean you weren’t physical. If you two were close you’d always take his hand in yours and give him reassuring squeezes. It became so common he started grabbing your hand first.

Constant smiles from you when one of you would walk into the same room as the other

Attached at the hip when sitting anywhere.

Much like with Seven, you two communicated a lot through action, and Saeran wasn’t very keen on anything academic aside from a bit of coding, but even then he didn’t have much to say about it

But he loved to listen to you talk about. He’d feign interest in classic novels and evolution theories just to hear you talk about them and tell him about them. You’d get so passionate about them, he’d hope that one day you’d get the same starry eyed look on your face when talking about him that you do when talking about Multiverse theory.

He never found you boring, even if he didn’t actually have an interest in the subjects you were talking about, he was in love with how you talked about them. The passion you had. There is nothing boring about passion

And so what if you’re quiet?

Quiet is important for sneaking up on the enemy and obliterating them from this plane of existen-

Quiet has it’s perks.

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infobeanie · 8 years

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CROW CILLERS S04E01: THE THIN BLUE JOSLYN

Season 4 opens with some pixelated flames. I don’t know what that’s about.

Season 3 opened with the introduction of Final Bloodmaster Alpha, who set the tone for the hypersaturated media overload that tied the various threads of that season together, while simultaneously threatening to uproot them entirely. But Final Bloodmaster Alpha got cancelled, and Lord Marrow, who took control after she got cancelled, got eaten by Lisa Simpson. So there is no overriding voice left, by this point, to give this season any proper sort of introduction. Just some pixelated flames.

The presentation here follows in the vein of the In-a-Dress gang’s commentary on “Fanfic of Horror II”, one of the last pieces created for s3. In the absence of authority, every voice is equal, and begins to speak with a sinister authority of its own. The voices, which started to become dislodged from their characters in the commentary for s3, are now the voice of the comic itself. We need no FBA-style commentator to guide us as we fall again into the screen, like the camera falling into the bed at the start of Mulholland Drive.

In this year’s credit sequence, we get glimpses of characters in their zones. In each zone - by which I mean an area of domestic energy, a space of one’s own - there is something both comforting and sinister: the unseen potentials of a boxed-up warehouse; a private moment in an empty mall’s food court; a self-imposed artistic exile; an absurdly lavish summer home; a room with some things in it. Everyone was looking ahead in last year’s credits, anticipating the next big thing; the momentum of upheaval generated during that season pushed each group of characters to a very different place. Hopefully with this season, we will have a chance to catch our breath, to take a step back and look inward, to see what these changes have brought.

The interstitial credits are pixelated. I don’t know what that’s about.

We’ve been here before. It seemed a lot more ominous last time.

There was also a lot more talking last time. Now, those voices have gone into hiding underground, except for the one that got eaten by the thing that is now hanging out at the mall with That Other Kid, whom we find is called Paisley. The situation is largely the same - girls taking advantage of an untapped subconscious wellspring of psychic energy in order to sneak into the mall after-hours - but everything is chill this time. There are no enemies to fight, no threats to respond to. There is time now to explore those shuttered storefronts. (For a direct ancestor to this scene in vibe and content, cf. “97″ of Wurtz’s ‘90s’ series, which I believe is in one of the Assorted Garbages.)

Meanwhile...

Suddenly we get the feeling we’re being surrounded by horses. Joslyn, still riding a high after her breakout performance as the Oracle, turns out to be a horse lord. In focusing on her backstory, a new narrative force begins to emerge, a balanced and accordant force to the unceasing voice of the media that agitated season 3 to a frenzy: the silent, creeping hand of the market. Not Adam Smith’s invisible hand, per se - something less humanistic, perhaps less human. Really it’s just another manifestation of what we saw at play last season, like a new Ynce Iche puppet formed out of the same raw psy-energy. The media is supposed to tell us what we want to hear. The market is supposed to sell us what we want to buy. That’s what they’re there for; that’s what we made them for. We’re supposed to be able to control it. But if there has been one consistent message in Crow Cillers throughout its entire run, it’s that control is a complex thing. The silent hand has a mind of its own. As do other, less silent hands.

More comparisons: Sour Gummy is the Psy Squad of this season. Psy Squad came out of left field at the beginning of s3 as a campy teen superhero show, and the season followed suit by adapting a pulp format for its overarching plot. The result was the most “comics”-style comic Cate Wurtz had ever written, a good-guy/bad-guy (or rather good-girl/bad-girl) conflict replete with origin stories and a dramatic final battle. The stylistic shift pushed Crow Cillers to its limits, but it was what was needed to properly process the new ideas that were going into it. Without the presence of Psy Squad to familiarize the reader with the language of fantasy/sci-fi tropes, it’s hard to imagine the Matrix episode (which marks the true, heartbreakingly hopeful conclusion of season 3) having the impact that it does. The question, then, is what influence Sour Gummy will have on Crow Cillers.

The Sour Gummy girls feel nothing like anything else in this series; they live in a world on a different axle. Their struggle is not against the Crow, or against a supervillain ex-friend, but against their own icky insides, formed by the incoherent, grasping hands of nuclear family values and the deep web. This world is both less restrictive and much darker than the one inhabited by the Crow Cillers; they are able to roam freely, and make jokes about fucking Brecken, because the rules are different when you carry your enemy around with you in your head, or in your hand. The Order of the Crow dwindles in significance when you’re already invested in destroying yourself, or your lover, or there’s something inside you that wants to destroy the rest of you, or your lover, or you want to destroy that thing inside you, or have your lover destroy it, but it’s secretly the real you, or you’re worried that it is, or you’re in love with someone who’s into that sort of shit, but secretly you’re into it too, or some part of you is.

(Wait a minute - lesbians who eat each other? Used as a metaphor for partially internalized social darwinism?)

(???!)

(!!!!!!!!!!)

Actually, what Sour Gummy reminds me of most is COSM, intersecting as it does the realms of horror and pornography. And while the fact that COSM is an unfinished comic concerning a group of characters’ inevitable descent into utter devastation is somewhat disconcerting in what it implies about Wurtz’s approach to the subject material, I remain cautiously optimistic about CC’s ability to assimilate COSM’s vibe without being totally consumed by it. The Crow Cillers have been through a lot; by this point, they should be able to fearlessly face the burden of lowkey (or highkey) terror and shame that comes with intimacy. Right?

Because they are doing ok, is the thing. In a very real sense, the Crow Cillers are back, and they’re better than ever. We get a full page of purely gratuitous happiness, as ThreeFourOne have their first real reunion since Pistachio fled the Crow in the pilot episode. Their network is large enough to be genuinely self-sustaining now, unlike the tenuous support they were getting from Jill’s brother’s boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend at the start of s3. Emma’s even got a spiffy new outfit! After the tumult of the past year, there is finally time to change one’s clothes, to chill out, and explore all those secret rooms and passages.

Ok, so maybe the situation is not so perfect. The kids are having fun exploring, but I have to wonder whether it would be worse if they found something dangerous, or if they found nothing at all - if they were truly alone in that labyrinth that could be their home; if the only voices left were their own, echoing off cold metal. They are there together, yes, but the place feels big enough to fill you with its emptiness. Wandering there feels like wandering inside yourself. There are doors that let you in and out, but never open. And there are trapdoors that you can’t come back from.

But if existential terror is beginning to set in, it’s doing so against a backdrop of action which has continued unimpeded since s3. The helpless hell-dress creature that followed Gretchen and Doris back from Ynce Iche is still there, and, enjoying it or not, they’re rearing it as one of their own. Vein has made significant progress on his developments, building on what must be very unstable soil. Marcus is going to get involved again, as is Elaine Jr. X, and presumably Vince, Elayne, and whatever squad they’ve mustered together. Surely Mr. Nail will be asking about that pool he was supposed to get at some point. All those plot threads from s3 are still there, now woven into a larger emotional tapestry. If the new thread that emerged with the Sour Gummy aesthetic can be controlled, if it can be reconciled with the Crow Cillers universe and used to make it stronger, than season 5 will truly be a force to contend with. We just have to survive this season first.

QUESTIONS:

- I hope I’m not alone in feeling that the Harlyn/Psy Squad battle didn’t seem to signify a full-scale resolution of the PS arc. What is it that Harlyn saw in the Pit? How did it lead to her ascending? Why did she want to return there? What will happen to Jamie and Emma if they find any of this out for themselves?

- Is Elaine Jr. X more a part of Elaine Sr. or of Ynce Iche itself now? How does she feel about the colonization of YI? Where did she get her horn-accommodating hoodie?

- Where is Elaine Sr.?

- Is Brecken friends with Gaige?

#crow cillers #cate wurtz #lamezone #drop out comic

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surfacolyte · 7 years

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Diary of Norelle Rhia, part XXXVI

Dear Diary,

I've started the lady lessons. For some reason this reminds me of a holovid I once saw as a kid. But this is way more difficult than I ever though. I've learned diction, how to hold my pose... even how one should walk in high heels! Cai is a very good teacher, a patient one. Then again he really needs to be. What I've dreaded the most are the dance lessons. There are so many to remember and all of them so...stuck up. I mean, they are fancy alright, and make me feel a bit princessy at times but...they really are nothing compared to the dances at home. I especially miss all the fast twirling... I'm quite good a dancer or at least Cai said that. Then again, might be that he just says it to boost my confidence.

Another thing I'm a bit worried about is that...well... I know my purpose on this mission. I'll be the plus one of Sir Yi Dragonrend. Yes, he's going to go there with his own name, representing his own family. I'll be the avec of the Knight of Grudge (if I remember the term right...Yi, please, if you ever find this, don't be mad if I get it wrong), an untouchable noble man. I know that I can be charming. I am definitely the more charming one of us two. But I am also not accustomed to this whole thing. I'm supposed to be the surprisingly well mannered breath of fresh country air when we get to the party. Kûrush is going to be Yi's squire... Kûrush...a squire... I'm not that well acquainted with Nimir and its customs but...oh well, what do I know. Maybe they all have big frank men as squires! Chiro is teching around, as usual... we actually forbade him from talking also to the Mechanicus unless he gets a special permission... Cai will be arriving with us but I guess he'll hang around as far away from us as possible. Arzali on the other hand is going to be a court jester... I've actually never seen one in person but this can only amount to interesting some interesting shit.

Me and Cai went today to a tailor today...Actually, I knew whom to recommend. My coat is from that shop...a shop Qiang showed me... A funny little story that one: I went and got him out of his cell just to make him show me where the tailor's shop was. I got my coat, offered him a meal to thank him fo his assistance and to persuade him to stop the smuggling business. He too was very persuasive and...well...the hotel room was pretty and so was he...

Anyway, we bought a dress for me, with all the garments, jewelry, stuff like that. I even got me flat shoes, thank the Emperor! So basically I learned to walk on the heels for nothing! Emperor damnit, Cai! The whole thing is in the colours of House Dragonrend: orange and black. It is even styled a bit like the evening gowns on Nimir from what I've heard. We got some additional outfits as well. I remembered that Qiang had his measurements there under a false name, as do I... I left him some money under that name. Not too much but, you know, enough for a new coat. I myself had to buy a new one for the old one has seen bad days. I sincerely hope that he'll come back one day and find the little gift I left for him.

I can be glad of at least one thing: Kûrush's power armour is not anymore in the colours of Ordo Xenos. It's mostly purple now...with golden skulls as decorations. We made him paint it. Well, actually, we made Arnav paint it. I am so happy. We even made a deal with the mechanic that he and his friends may update the gear of Pink Slippers as well.

I want to take a picture of us all in our party gear. I want to remember these people. I want to remember how I, no, how we returned to Khomor.

- Norelle

#warhammer 40k #Dark Heresy #rpg #point of view #diary #Norelle's Diary

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surfacolyte · 8 years

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Diary on Norelle Rhia, part XXIII

Dear Diary,

I remember when I was little and me and my brother Murali snuck to get some of mother's sweet seaweed bread. We used to know every creaking corner of the house and step lighter than a pond skater. I hoisted the him on to the counter and he'd get the goods. Mother was always puzzled by the dwindling pile of sweet things and me and Mur-Mur were never caught.

Now imagine that with a three-metre-tall war machine that jingles and shakes the earth as he walks. Also, he's wearing all sorts of lights and blingblings to attract as much attention as he can.

Do you get that sweet bread?

No you don't.

That is exactly how I feel like when stealthing with Kûrush. I mean, he's a nice person but honest to Emperor how the hell are we going to conduct any research with a massive advertisement of Ordo Xenos walking about? I'm seriously thinking about getting that can of paint and just doing something about that power armour... I guess Nalini would understand if I explained to her the situation... then again she's an Inquisitor, she could do whatever she wanted with me for damaging the property of the Inquisition. Perhaps I'll hold on and wait until someone snaps...for example me... and paints the blasted thing. I wonder if Harlon could do something about it. That techpriest seems to have a knack for modifying armour and weaponry.

I kinda miss mother's seaweed sweet bread. Or actually I miss missing it. I don't think I could eat another bite of it...ever...

Anyway, we did our ambush of a thing. Oh, right, add to the walking disaster of stealth that he does it in the sewer. Then again, it's better that we were underground. Imagine the disorder that sight would have caused in the people if we had been on the streets. Anyway, we stormed the place and the guards were...dead. Why? Oh, no particular reason. There was this person, not sure if anyone knows him...her...whatever... called and IVORY FUCKING MASK! A person from the most dangerous criminal organization on this fucking sector! We've encountered some of them before and have never been able to beat them.

And the first and natural thing James does, because he was the first person in there with Arzali, was to shoot at the person. The rocket jams in his light rocket launcher and explodes. By the time the others, including me, run in James is on his back, badly wounded, and Arzali is fighting the Ivory Mask. Well, we storm in and notice that the Ivory Mask has his...her... their own guards with them. Well, we fight, and Arzali, that son of a... I can't say bitch, he's like a little brother to me. I feel like I'm insulting my own mother... anyway, he manages to almost kill that masked fucker and they flee with some sort of gadget thingie. They went all see-through and slid through the floor. Just like one other guy we had met before... I need to write about Galal Sherazi at some point.

So, that was the most bad-ass thing I've ever seen done to an Ivory Mask. Lovin' the way you murder, lil' bro. We fought the guards, some of them escaped, but we didn't honestly give a damn, we had to get to the portal. And we did. Then out of it came eleven xenos. They wielded the same kind of weapons we had bought off the shady traders. So, naturally, we attack them. We were hoping to get at least one of them as a prisoner but, well, knowing us... They attacked us, pretty hard. I tried to stun them with my Nebula but it didn't seem to help. I mean, my two darling pistols didn't seem to do much damage at all... I should give them another upgrade with Harlon.

Well, Yi, Arzali and Kûrush started fighting them with swords, blades and fists and me, Chiro, and James stayed a little behind, blasting away. Both of my pistols ran out of batteries and I was feeling there were people coming. People with eight horned stars on their robes.

Fucking Chaos cults.

In storm people who try to do some magic shit and they bind Chiro and James with some sorcerer chains with warp oozing out of them. And at that point I saw how Yi was on the ground, beaten quite badly, and this xeno hovering over him, ready to strike with his spear. I couldn't just leave him to die, so for the first time since... well, possibly over half a year, I drew my power sword and charged at the bastard. The xeno's head came clean off and Yi was able to get away. I remember my heart pumping so fast but I wasn't scared. I was filled with holy rage. No-one messes with my family. No-one.

Yi ordered us to get the fuck out but I had come in this battle to get myself a prisoner. And if I wasn't getting one, I was going to take atleast some evidence. So I picked up a corpse that still had its head on and ran. Kûrush ran too, but Arzali stayed. I guess it was because he was on some sort of...drugs? His body produces them for him, from what I understand. Anyway, I take this corpse and start running and this heretic witch does some magic spell and me, Arzali and the xenos fly up in the ceiling and drop back. Thank the Emperor I have a concept of how one should fall and I was unharmed. Which reminds me, thank you Emperor that my shield worked so well today. And thank you Harlon as well.

So, James carries Chiro, who is in a kink, and I carry a xeno-corpse. Kûrush runs and Yi looks like he's in hellofalotta pain. And Arzali is still there, fighting... until he runs towards us and tries to hit Yi. Thank the emperor the man parried his hit, I'm sure he couldn't have taken the frenzy ridden strikes of an expert assassin. Chiro was kind enough to throw some smoke bombs to hinder our pursuers, mainly the cultists, from getting to us. But what do you think lil' bro does? He goes back to kill some more of the bad guys. I presume that the xenos were all dead and he just murdered some other people.

I need to write about that a bit later, my head is getting woozy of tiredness at the moment.

Anyway, long story short, we got out, including Arzali, and got away with the corpse. Yi and James will survive but both of them gave me quite a scare. I don't want to lose them. And I don't want to lose Arzali either.

And the reason I'm tired? I've taken care of these bastards here, seeing to their eating and drinking, that they are mentally stabile, and, well, written a report for Inquisitor Chaitnik Boulus... Honestly, fuck you, Hereticus.

I'm going to bed now. Perhaps I'll continue on the subject of Arzali Zerge later. I hope that Chiro has gone to sleep as well, he seems to be a bit... unhinged...

- Norelle

#warhammer 40k #Dark Heresy #rpg #point of view #diary #Norelle's Diary

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