#affair webnovel

[top-pleng]

"Upon hearing a single note, I could immediately identify the song. And that familiar voice... there was only one person it could belong to." 😭😭😭

[anon-apple]

Hot Soup and Soft Bread 13

Table of Contents and Synopsis <- Chapter 12 Read on WordPress

Chapter 13: Soymilk and Fried Dough I

T/N: New chapter title! One of my favorite breakfast combos~[1]

The next morning, Zhou Cunqu woke up before Zhong Qiuyan. He dug himself out of Qiuyan’s arms and took a deep breath. With one finger, he grazed Qiuyan’s face, then he rubbed his ear, and then he leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. Qiuyan, still half-asleep, laughed and said: “Some people act like a pervert first thing in the morning.”

Cunqu said: “The alarm’s about to go off.”

Qiuyan opened his eyes, looked at the clock, and sat up. Then he lay back down, drew Cunqu into his arms, and started messily kissing him. The alarm then really went off.

Qiuyan got up once again. He stood amid the piles of books and stretched. Cunqu suddenly stretched out his leg and lightly pressed his foot against his underwear. Qiuyan almost fell on top of the books. Cunqu started chuckling.

Recently, Da Yu did actually go to study hairdressing at a trade school. He spent the money to buy a fake head; he heard that from long hair to short hair you could cut it 300 different times. When he was on break, he went to find Qiuyan at the bus station to get lunch together. Qiuyan sat under the shade of a tree deep in thought. Da Yu hit him and asked: “What are you thinking about?”

Qiuyan bluntly replied, “About things that happen in a bed.” He asked if Da Yu had any experience. The latter rebuked, “How could I have experience on what it’s like between two men.”

Qiuyan grumbled, “I knew I couldn’t depend on you.”

After a bit, Da Yu cleared his throat and asked a bit awkwardly: “How far have you two gotten?”

Qiuyan also cleared his throat. He replied with a red face, “Not telling.”

A couple of days ago, when Qiuyan stayed over, he and Cunqu were kissing against his bed. And he got hard from the kissing. Cunqu laughed as he said, “Really impressive.”

Ever since they started dating, Qiuyan had only gone as far as feeling around underneath Cunqu’s pajamas. That day he pressed Cunqu beneath him, bit the side of his neck, and grinded against him. Cunqu slid his hand under his underwear. Qiuyan immediately stopped moving; he didn’t even dare to breathe. Cunqu stroked him, his head pressed against Qiuyan’s chest. Qiuyan couldn’t last for long. Cunqu pressed his lips against his ear and said: “Little virgin.”

Reminiscing to this point, he suddenly said to Da Yu: “It was oddly exciting.”

Da Yu yelled: “Who asked!”

After meeting up with Zhou Pianyan, Qiuyan asked Cunqu if they wanted to move the time of their walk to earlier and try to go outside when it’s still day. Liu Xiaoying had a calligraphy class at the school for the elderly in the afternoons twice a week. One of those days was coincidentally Qiuyan’s day off from work. They had lunch together. Xiaoying went back to her room for a midday nap and then headed out right after. Qiuyan had recently bought two new outfits for Cunqu that fit better. He hugged Cunqu’s waist and said, “Our family's kid needs to eat more. And be less picky. Or he’ll get beat.”

Cunqu laughed. Nowadays even if he didn’t have an appetite he would force himself to eat something.

Qiuyan tugged Cunqu’s hand and said: “It’s really hot outside in the afternoon. Just listen to those cicadas.” He stuck a small fan in Cunqu’s hand. And so Cunqu held that pink mini fan and walked slowly downstairs with Qiuyan. The new resident on the fourth floor was a family of three. The child was a chubby little kid around four or five years old who was attending a kindergarten nearby. 

That day, teacher Zhuang’s place on the third floor had its door open. A few people were talking inside. Cunqu was a little nervous. Qiuyan squeezed his hand and said, “Look at me, don’t look over there.”

They walked down to the first floor. Perhaps because it was too hot out, the Go table of the “Double Yolk Egg” grandpas was there, but they were not. Qiuyan and Cunqu sat down at their chairs. They didn’t speak for a while, and instead blankly stared at the garden in front of them. A few dragonflies flew by in the garden. It was an incredibly ordinary scene, but Cunqu suddenly felt like he was in a dream. A dream where he didn't shut himself up for two years. A dream where this was just any other summer day of the 29th year of his life.

Qiuyan spoke up from the side, telling him that the city’s art museum had a large glass lotus pond. These few days were the last days of their flowering season, and a bunch of people were there to take photos. He asked Cunqu if he wanted to take a look.

Cunqu was still watching the dragonfly in front of him. He lightly said, “That was designed by our team.” Qiuyan turned to look at him. He leaned against his chair and said with his head lowered, “It was designed by me…”

--

Teacher Zhuang passed away. When one did the math, she was even younger than Liu Xiaoying by two years. Xiaoying went to attend her funeral at noon. Cunqu sat at the dining table eating a set meal that Qiuyan had ordered for him. When Qiuyan called him, a lot of noise and bustle came from the other end of the call. He asked, “Are you eating?”

Cunqu replied: “I’m eating right now.”

It sounded like Qiuyan ran to somewhere more quiet, and he continued to ask: “Does it suit your taste?”

Cunqu said: “It’s not bad.” He made an effort to finish the majority of his bowl of rice. Right now, he didn’t just want to persist for Xiaoying’s birthday celebration. He also wanted to try his best to become a lover worthy of Zhong Qiuyan. 

After Qiuyan heard Cunqu say that, he suddenly flicked Cunqu’s forehead, saying: “‘Obsessive try-hard disorder’, get away from my ge’s body. Ge is already the most perfect person in this world.”

Cunqu held his forehead and laughed.

When Xiaoying returned back home, she was visibly fatigued. She sat down on the couch and massaged her own leg. Qiuyan eagerly ran over and helped her massage her shoulders. Xiaoying rambled on about her and Teacher Zhuang’s revolutionary friendship. The two of them both started off as teachers in a small rural town. Then they were transferred to the city’s First Elementary School. After that, the school was renamed Experimental Elementary School. One became the academic administration director, the other the vice principal, all the way until retirement. 

Teacher Zhuang had a loud voice. She was very serious and didn’t date until pretty late. Her husband was the younger cousin of  Qi Wenxian, Xiaoying’s husband. The two men passed away one after the other. Teacher Zhuang and Xiaoying had joked that they had “returned to the single life.”

The first year that Cunqu isolated himself, Xiaoying headed over to Teacher Zhuang’s place to cry every time she felt down, then she would return to her place and make food for Cunqu with a smile. When Teacher Zhuang was diagnosed with dementia and was sent to a care facility, Xiaoying stood outside the building and watched her old friend get taken away by the facility’s vehicle. In mental confusion, Teacher Zhuang kept crying. She reached out a hand towards Xiaoying and asked through her tears: “Didn’t mom say it was time for dinner? Where are they taking me? Go tell my mom that I’m being taken away.”

Xiaoying had held her hand with red-rimmed eyes.

Xiaoying came back to her senses after losing herself for a bit in the memories and suddenly said to Qiuyan: “After people get old, they turn into useless baggage.”

Qiuyan said: “Who said that? Liu Xiaoying you are a very useful, very extraordinary lady.”

Xiaoying started laughing and placed her hands on her hips: “Of course.”

She turned her head and saw Cunqu standing at the door watching her. She smiled and said: “Grandma is fine.” She stood up and slowly walked to Cunqu and hugged him, repeating: “Grandma is fine.”

-> Chapter 14

Footnotes

[1] There is no agreed-upon translation for 油条 (Yóutiáo) (wikipedia). I’ve seen “fried dough”, “fried dough stick”, “oil stick,” “fried chinese donut”. Essentially, it’s a large stick of airy dough that’s deep fried. It’s oily, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside from the gluten. It’s an extremely common and popular breakfast food especially in combination with (and dipped into) soy milk or congee. [2] Qiuyan jokingly referring to Cunqu as the “kid” here. Qiuyan has this habit of tacking on “our family’s” (我们家) when he’s talking about Cunqu. Rather than its literal meaning, it’s an affectionate descriptor which conveys a little bit of possessiveness too. And it’s not odd to address in third-person someone you are directly talking to in Chinese. [3] Cicadas are louder when it’s hotter. Not sure why or if it’s actually scientifically true, just something people including me have observed lol

T/N: Is grandma fine though...is grandma fine?? Reading this, I cried. Translating this, I think I cried again. Editing this, I'm about to cry the third time! Something about the thought that Teacher Zhuang and Xiaoying had been friends ever since they were girls, young women, working together in the same place for decades, marrying men who were cousins, settling down and living just one floor away from each other, being close friends, confidantes, practically sisters...and then Xiaoying having to watch her lose herself to the inevitability of dementia, brought away because she couldn't take care of herself, and then eventually passing away. Like, just, fuck. Maybe that's just something that people get used to at this age, but just as a reader I feel so much pain, but also so much fear, because it's not just that you're losing someone so near and dear to you, you're also seeing a version of how you might end up in a few years, a few months.

[starfieldcanvas]

i know there have got to be a million people thinking about how hard an svsss severance AU would go.

shen jiu is such a huge asshole he was actually only able to keep his job because his husband, who is also his boss, always smooths things over for him. then qi-ge dies in a car accident and shen jiu is predictably fired; he's in denial about how much his grief is making him even worse, but he can't deny that apparently he can't hold down a job anymore without having emotional meltdowns and tearing people's heads off. so as a last resort he gets severed.

su binghe is (as far as he knows) the son of the old palace master, the current CEO of the lumon corporation; his mother died in childbirth. part of the old palace master's plan to promote severance to his shareholders involves sending his beloved son to the severed floor.

shang yang is a struggling writer whose diet of ramen and chips is not fuelling his creative endeavors. he would rather have a normal office job where he could keep writing while pretending to work, but he'll take having time to write after a normal 9-5 as long as he can eat some real food for dinner. he'll do anything if the perks are good!

knowing what he knows about the old palace master, wu chen is investigating lumon's work with the severed floor and gets severed himself in the hope of getting his innie to investigate a mysterious basement elevator.

also featuring: qiu jianluo as the head of the severed floor! ming fan as his somewhat conflicted enforcer! liu qingge as petey, with liu mingyan replacing petey's daughter at his funeral. mu qingfang as dr reghabi! qi qingqi as devon, madame meiyin as her extremely dramatic, self-interested wife you can't figure out why she married. wei qingwei as the guy who makes stuff in optics and design, there for wu chen to have an affair with.

mobei-jun as the guy they bring in to keep shang qinghua in line in the second season. they're not actually married on the outside, shang yang has no friends or family for lumon to bargain with, so they just hire a guy who looks a lot like an obvious author's favorite from one of shang yang's longest-running webnovels. shang qinghua is so impressed that his outie somehow managed to bag mobei-jun that mobei-jun is charmed in spite of himself and goes and starts dating shang yang on the outside.

but the meat of the story is, of course, the shen jiu/yue qi + shen yuan/luo bingmei + shen yuan/luo bingge mess. can you just IMAGINE bingge seething at the security footage of shen yuan kissing bingmei!!!

[vanisagi27]

The double standards in Manhwas are absolutely crazy

These days I saw ppl liking the Villainess' half siblings from a Manhwha just because when they first met her, a maid's affair child with the Emperor, they acted disgusted towards, this is from Into The Light Again and yes it's about Marianne, okay I know Marianne isn't exactly the best girl ever and she's honestly really good at being a villain and a bitch in general

I don't think it's okay that Marianne was treated like that by the fans, the circumstances on whether or not Marianne actually saw her more legitimate siblings got disgusted with her or that was just her being an unreliable narrator, but I would take it as face value since well after Marianne did the whole face switched thing with the FL, Aisha's appearance but not their birth facts, Marianne is still a maid child and Aisha was the Empress' child, so yeah the excuse that they were brainwashed by Marianne was clearly bullshit to me if they really love Aisha that much, honestly this brainwashed trope can go so good or so bad, also the Manhwa and Webnovel adaptations have many differences so it was muddied (Apparently in the novel, the legitimate siblings were very welcoming and think how to greet the new child, Marianne, so yeah I have no idea where to go)

I don't even read this Manhwa and I have no big issues with it, even though it has some really questionable stuff like the 1000+ age gaps, I'm not buying the immortal x mortal ship with this

My problem is the fandom, everyone hates Marianne for just existing, I don't think this mindset is good at all cuz now they're using that to attack other fans cuz they're in love with Marianne for whatever reasons, I kept seeing comments about demeaning Marianne as a character, saying that she's a stupid maid child who doesn't know her place, outright stating that she's a worthless dirty child just because of her bloodline, yeah she's basically hated by everyone cuz she didn't come out of a royal womb. It's the classist toxic culture I hated, I used to do that and honestly it was draining more than exhilarating, mindless hatred is a waste of my time, that's why I really hate that attitude too

So, I took the time to read 40 chapters, I think, of the manwha as well as reading some spoilers myself, to be able to have a proper opinion on the matter.

(Spoilers if you haven’t read it)

I’m not sure if it’s my bad memory, but I’m pretty much sure that Marianne’s origin as a maid’s child wasn’t brought up in the first chapter. But we do see how Marianne is manipulative and how she orchestrated Alyssa’s execution, which I think does validate any feeling of disgust towards her.

From what I found, Marianne’s half-siblings were welcoming of their new sister into the family. All the other children were practically ignored by their parents, and were supportive of this new sister regardless of her parentage and “status” as an affair child.

After the brainwashing, Marianne was loved despite her previously mentioned parentage, so I don’t think she needed to change it if she already got what she wanted. And, I might be wrong since I’ve not read the novel, so I don’t know the full story, but Marianne doesn’t strike me as trying to clean her origins or improve her “legitimacy.” Maybe if she were after the crown and was planning on eliminating the other direct heirs, it would have made more sense if she had also switched her parentage with Alyssa. 

I don’t think the brainwashing was BS if they loved Alyssa so much, as you put it. Since we are not talking about a brainwashing done by human hands, with their horrific implications. We have the supernatural factor of it having occurred by demonic magic. I’m not a big fan of magic systems (I liked SVTFOE, and even then, I had many questions on how the magic was supposed to work), so I didn’t pay much attention to the scenes where they talked about spirits and demons. But I’m aware that demonic magic is very powerful. 

From Marianne’s few scenes (Like, seriously, when I was reading, I was hoping for her to appear, but she had so few appearances. Why?), we can say that she’s a villain with no remorse for her actions and, even if she was given a chance to redeem herself, she wouldn’t take it. 

So, on that hand, I can understand the hate she might get from readers who vouch for the protagonist. However, one completely different thing is hating her for something she had no control over as how she came to be and who her parents are. As you put it, it’s classist and toxic. 

 Similarly to how Rashta was often referred to by some fans of TRE as “A lowly slave who doesn’t know her place”, and that mentality angers me so much. 

Hate her, or love her, or both, as much as you want, but I don’t think it’s justified to hate someone (a character in this case) just because of their origin, as I said, it’s something nobody has control over and shouldn’t be held against them like a crime they voluntarily commited.

If I was wrong in anything I said about Marianne, please feel free to correct me.

[outlook-hater]

so I read the webnovel... (MAJOR spoilers so posting under read more, open at your own discretion)

1. up until ep 4 the plot has more or less followed the webnovel but judging by the preview with a white truck of doom (?) it looks like the plot will diverge.

2. Now I think I know what the SML saw when he was playing with the neighborhood rich boy. In the novel the ML isn't the actual Baek Sa-Eon but the illegitimate son of the grandfather who is taken in after the real Sa-eon dies, so the "terrible" thing the SML refers must have been the death?

3. the explicit scenes were a bit much innit (well I'm ace). To me it felt more like filler with the implication that FL thinks ML is capable of having an affair with a woman. Given that the show is progressing at breakneck speed, I don't expect to see this and also, it's a cable TV show lol.

4. The plot gets a whole lot more makjang and over the top towards the end... wdym he fakes his death/is taken hostage in another country and she goes there to save him 😭 feels a bit too ridiculous and I hope they tone this down

5. ML's idea of consent is iffy. The way the hospital kiss scene happened was sooo uncomfortable and made me gag ngl.

(might edit if I have more thoughts later)

[felikatze]

reading a webnovel and it's a big melancholic moment where the protag reflects on the nature of life and death except i'm taken wholesale out of the moment because the banger line of "To die, it seems, is always a lonely affair." as he contemplates the pristine corpse of a hero dead before his time is followed up with "People are born alone and die alone."

at which i am instantly reminded of like, a tumblr post or whatever it was, saying "You were born alone??? Your mother wasn't there???"

[dragonji]

guys i do have to be real for a moment I kindof hate the ml of this webnovel im trying to read and its ruining the whole affair a bit tbh

[myreputatioooon]

i love pretty pictures and visuals that do all the imagination for me but given how many webnovels that are out there and how often manhwa manga and manhua are adaptions of webnovels which are much further into completion I may considering having an affair on webcomics with webnovels

sans isekai union of course, nobody could ever make me leave girlie

[lotusflowerbreakingthesurface]

Let's Talk About PingXie: Part 2

PingXie "Super Group"

If we talk about Chinese fandom, you may already know various platforms, such as: Weibo, Lofter (lof/老福特), 哔哩哔哩 (Bilibili/B站), etc. On Weibo, just like any other topics of discussion, PingXie has its own Super Group/Super Topic/Super Talk "超话" (chāo huà/ch). Super Group is a feature of Weibo which allows us to interact with fellow fans and talk about a topic of interest. To put it simply, it's like a fan group or a fan community. If you have a Weibo account, don't forget to follow "PingXie Super Group". I think it's rather easy to create an account on Weibo than other platforms. Although it's not a must, it's pretty convenient to have it.

There are so many super groups related to Daomu Biji; the major super group 盗墓笔记, the sub super group of the characters, the ships, the series, the events, the landmines, the merchs, etc. Since this is a PingXie blog, let's talk about PingXie Super Group “瓶邪话题” (mtl: PingXie Topic).

©Divider by @anitalenia

In 瓶邪话题, you can find many PingXie fanworks, some meta(s), and discussions as well. It was also my starting point where I began to explore the PingXie Super Group looking for some food :D But, please note that there are rules that you need to know and abide by before you dive in even more further. Aside from the general rules, some rules may sound strict because of the differences in our fandom cultures.

Let's take a look at those rules:

1️⃣ 瓶邪不拆不逆 (PingXie is not breaking up and not switching position)

Explanation:

PingXie is not breaking up/not dismantling. It means that PingXie should be the only one for each other, only have each other as lovers as well as s*xual partners, only love each other, and none of them has other relationships/love affairs (which also means no cheating/no multishipping/cannot pair them up with someone else).

PingXie is not switching. It means exactly what it said. PingXie don't switch their positions. They emphasize the position of Top (Zhang Qiling)/Bottom (Wu Xie). It doesn't matter whether it's NSFW or SFW. Sometimes it can be seen from the atmosphere, the vibe, or the plot that unconsciously implied the matter of the position even without making it as NSFW. To them, PingXie has always been its own ship and pretty much clear there that “瓶邪” (PingXie) and “邪瓶” (Xie||Ping) are two different ships. Thus, PingXie “瓶邪” is not representative of other ship/cp, especially the reversed version. For instance, when you saw a PingXie fanart (usually it's with the ship tag), you thought it was a good fanart, so you wanted to repost/reblog it. Since you thought there was no difference, you tagged Xie||Ping as well so that more people would know about it. However, that is not a good thing to do in Chinese fandom space. They care about Top/Bottom dynamic of the ship so much that for some people it's very important. So, please be aware of it and respect their preferences, at least when you are there.

In conclusion, it's prohibited to post or comment which has the intention of breaking them up or switching position of top and bottom.

2️⃣ 禁止梦 (banned dream-girls-comment and the like)

Explanation:

The word "梦" (dream) here refers to "梦女" (dream girl), that is the fangirl who likes to treat either Zhang Qiling or Wu Xie as her husband. It's a ship/couple super group after all. Thus, it's prohibited to post any contents or comments with this kind of attitude.

3️⃣ No drama discussion

Explanation:

It's prohibited to mention and discuss all derivative films and TV shows. Well, 瓶邪话题 is a ship/cp super group for two-dimensional characters in the book only.

You can see the rest of the rules there.

Those are some rules in "PingXie Super Group". There is also a bot for PingXie on Weibo, you can search “瓶邪bot” directly. It is where you can read PingXie's excerpts from the webnovel, the physical book, interviews, official games, and it also includes the artworks from the official manhua(s), except for dramas though.

If you are interested, you can also follow Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie's account lol. Yeah, they have accounts there, as well as the others (maybe someone made it, not sure who's behind it). As for the other characters, you can search for it directly, it's easy to find them.

In fact, PingXie fan base in China is quite fond of “洁癖” (mtl: cleanliness/mysophobia). The word "洁癖" has the same meaning of "only" in “瓶邪洁癖”, which is similar to “PingXie Only”. It is basically the same as “瓶邪不拆不逆” that I've mentioned before in PingXie Super Group rules, but “瓶邪洁癖” can be stricter or more extreme. Some of them can't accept that either Wu Xie or Zhang Qiling has ex-lovers (women or men) with any emotional and physical experiences in fanworks, especially since the canon implies that they have never engaged in a relationship with anyone else before. They also refuse to see any fanworks by authors with opposing preferences, and many more depend on each individual. It sounds strict, right? But judging by the fandom space itself, it's actually understandable. Their fandom space and culture are completely different from those here in the first place.

Even though not all of Daomu Biji fans (稻米) are into this, the number of PingXie "only" shippers is still abundant. PingXie itself is the most popular ship and has a significant influence on its fandom. I noticed that many DMBJ fan artists and writers are also into this. It may just be a preference, but the impact on the fandom itself is quite big. I don't know much about the details of its history though... it's just that, compared to other fandoms, PingXie Only in China is highly conspicuous, which is really impressive!

It's truly phenomenal!! ✨ヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞ • *✰✨

At the end of the day, I hope everyone will respect each other's preferences. Thank you ^^

Supplementary link for 瓶邪洁癖，不拆不逆

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[obstinaterixatrix]

so there’s the obvious angle of bl as primarily a genre directed to an audience of straight women and the imposition of heterosexist schemas/narratives as a natural consequence of that context (possibly consciously but mostly subconsciously), but another angle I’ve been toying around with is the idea of some of the standard semi-miserable dynamics/tropes as—on a metanarrative level—some shade of psychosexual revenge fantasy. I’m going to sound insane for a second

caveat that this language is gonna be very binary because I’m going by really broad categories and also I’m gonna basically be talking about porn so like, nsfw text. also this is specifically about manga, romance novels/webnovels are its own category and I don’t know shit about videos.

anyway, something that’s kind of interesting is the broad dynamics of straight smut for straight men have a somewhat equal level of pleasure for male and female characters (excluding subtypes that are explicitly dub/noncon-focused). meanwhile, straight smut for straight women has a significant emphasis on sex being more pleasurable for the ‘top’ and more taxing for the ‘bottom’; there’s a split between the romantic fantasy of ‘being prioritized and everything feeling amazing’ vs ‘wild passionate affair that tends to lean into dubcon dynamics’ (because of the complicated relationship a vast majority of women have with sexuality and therefore part of the romantic fantasy involves some kind of force involved) (yknow bodice rippers etc). I feel like the split is still pretty heavily skewed towards the latter rather than the former. anyway, other than the ‘romantic fantasy’ element, it’s somewhat interesting to consider the broad dynamics of m/f smut for straight men vs straight women in terms of: yeah there’s a lot of women that talk about unsatisfying sexual encounters with men and not having a partner that was aware of her needs. so on a different level, these two different romantic fantasies for these two different audiences kind of mirror the… collective cultural experience, to some extent.

to go into pretty baseless psychoanalytical speculation, that’s why I think one element of bl dynamics is some subconscious/subtextual revenge by having a male character in the ‘bottom’ role—this has him play out the role of a ‘woman’. (not in a specifically homophobic way, although a heterosexist society is inherently homophobic). like I think readers get some kind of satisfaction seeing sex suck for men in a way it sucks for women (narratively and culturally). I don’t think it’s necessarily the main reason, but I feel like it contextualizes some audience engagement. and it’s been really interesting to see the shift in genre over the years, as society has become… marginally less homophobic, and there has been an increase of bl written to be more mindful/complex about incorporating ‘Gay People Exist In The Real World And Not Just As A Narrative Proxy’ (the yaoi -> bl transition, though it’s impossible to fully separate them as distinct categories). actually that reminds me, akiko mizoguchi has a thesis in english I’ve been meaning to read—there was an actual for real museum exhibit in japan about BL that was really thorough and I think mizoguchi wrote a full ass book but it’s only in japanese 😔 I think there was data from someone who’s been cataloguing statistic on every ship that shows up in doujin events or something crazy like that? goddamn. anyway this also doesn’t incorporate bl as a genre that initially had primarily queer women as creators but that’s out of scope and actually I forgot where I was going with this and I wanna go do something else now bye

[top-pleng]

another little tidbit from the novel. you know the bra that Pleng bought Wan? she used the prize money that she won from that music contest in order buy it. the first thing in her life that she ever bought using money she actually earned and wasn't just given by her parents... and it was for Wan.

[jb1writes]

Tiffany and Becky find themselves entangled in a love affair that tests their own desires and those around them in this gripping tale. As their passionate, connection grows, they soon realize that their relationship has its own consequences.

When friends and family members learn about their secret romance, they must confront their own prejudices and biases. There are those who are supportive, while others are driven to do the unthinkable in an effort to tear the two women apart.

[tentytarts]

he sought comfort from the flowers

[hanreisoundshenry]

New story at Choices. You are for your job interview as Nanny, for a CMO of a large biotech company, you enter her office and see your future boss sitting like this?

And you think you'd ever think of anything rated PG?

This effing scene screams Evil Mayor Regina Mills mixed with Evily sexy Lena Luthor whose name is SAM (Hot CFO Sam Arias). The writer of this new choices story (for the girl LI) must be a fan of swanqueen, supercorp AU fanfiction because it feels that way! Loool

[olderthannetfic]

Do you have any thoughts about how monetization of fandom has affected Japan? With the longstanding establishment of doujins and Comiket, but also how authors are more encouraged to do serial-numbers-filed-off web novels. And paradoxically, with Japan having no Fair Use exception.

--

An interesting question. I think the focus on physical products makes for a very different situation. In both Japan and oldschool Media Fandom zine-focused spaces, it's quite obvious why the buyer needs to cover the printer's bill. A few top people are making actual money off of their fanworks, but a lot of the exchange of money is about the thing you're acquiring being a physical item that inherently costs cash to produce. Not the creator's labor: cash.

How much I personally like the space tends to depend on how many lower tiers of talent have a seat at the table. Is it possible to do baby's first doujin/zine? With the doujin printing prices in Japan, I'd argue yes. With people sometimes swapping their products, I'd again argue yes. Same for many parts of oldschool media fandom. Much less true for people drumming up patreon supporters or for recent zines I've seen.

When you look at recent zine efforts by English speakers on tumblr/twitter, they tend to be these ultra glossy affairs with an expectation that everything is pro-level already. Japan is overall much clearer that while some doujin artists are pros, it's also a place new talent develops, and not every single person is A++++ right out of the gate.

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I'm not as familiar with webnovels in Japan. Honestly, I don't know if that's so terribly different from the West except that the dominant market here is for short novels published in one go rather than for fully serialized stories. (Series-oriented genres like urban fantasy or mystery are, however, are a big seller.)

I am speaking, of course, of the "m/m romance" genre and other indie romance and related fields, especially stuff sold via Kindle Unlimited. The het stuff is fandomy enough, but look at the m/m, and you'll hardly find an author who didn't get their start via fic. They usually don't connect their pseuds to their fandom activities, but I went to the industry conference, GRL, a couple of years ago, and an author there told me she feels like a total outsider for not coming from fandom.

Honestly, I wish the people trying to make rent with their writing would look into this way of monetizing writing. The US has a BL industry. It's just in its infancy. A lot of fandom doesn't seem to have noticed (or less charitably, doesn't think they can compete) and thus "has" to sell fic if they want to monetize writing.

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I think DIY vibes and people acting like fellow fans and not treating everyone as potential subscribers rather than potential friends can mix with money. It just depends if there's some space for new people starting out and if the money is more tied to things like covering a printer's bill rather than being more like a bookstore or like patreon. A low barrier to entry is very important. This could mean everyone being on the same webnovel site but only the better people making money or it could mean cheap printing options an average person could save up for without preorders.

Anybody have thoughts? I'm reasonably familiar with things in Japan, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert by a long shot.

[top-pleng]

I kind of don't want to compare Wan to Ek cause Wan's love for Pleng is actual love vs. Ek's "love" for Wan being just pure possessive obsession. He doesn't care for Wan in the same way that Wan does for Pleng, but I do feel like both of them have similar levels of obsessive love for their targets of affection and I think in a lot of ways the novel kind of has Ek serve as a foil to Wan.

More spoilery novel thoughts below the cut.

When Ek threatened Wan and Pleng with a gun, Wan was extremely nonchalant about the whole thing ... like disturbingly chill in how she stood against him and did not seem afraid of the gun at all. And that was because that Wan argued that she knew without a doubt that because Ek loved her, that he'd never hurt her like that.

Ek's "love" for Wan is monstrously evil and possessive—he married Wan despite knowing that she didn't love him and he raped her when she wouldn't have sex with him—but Wan seems to understand him and his feelings well enough to know that he wouldn't actually kill her. And that instead, he would try to kill himself to hurt her and her relationship in another way.

That's utterly deranged thinking, but it's thinking that Wan understood immediately, which was why she reacted quickly and was able to change the trajectory of the bullet when she intervened.

I really hate to say it, but Wan and Ek are actually extremely similar in a lot of ways. As fucking deranged it is to marry a man in the hopes of seeing your true love who you haven't seen in over ten years at the wedding ... it is also fucking deranged to marry a woman you supposedly love when you know her sole reason for marrying you is so that she can see the person she really loves. I wonder if part of the reason that Wan remained by Ek's side for so long wasn't only because Pleng had picked him, but because a part of her felt a little bit understood by him.

He does constantly dismiss Wan and Pleng's feelings towards each other and their relationship with one another, of course. He is still, after all, a homophobic violent misogynist who views the lesbian relationship between the two as "non-threatening" up until the end of the novel when he realizes that Wan was genuinely incapable of ever loving him.

But he was also probably the only person in Wan's life who could even begin to understand the pain that Wan was going through. In the special chapters, Wan mentions that he offered her comfort and hope about the idea of Pleng returning. He dismisses the relationship because they're both women, but simultaneously, he understands the depth and intensity of it.

And I think Wan was partly able to tolerate his feelings towards her for so long, because she felt understood by him in a sense and because she might have felt she understood him.

She loved Pleng enough to want to remain only a friend for the rest of their lives. She only became emboldened in her feelings and flirting when she realized that Pleng felt the same way towards her. I think maybe, initially, she thought that Ek's feelings towards her were the same. That he loved her enough to be satisfied with a friendship. That he loved her enough to want to care and protect her, but of course that wasn't the case.

Because the similarities between Ek and Wan are fairly surface level when it comes down to it, because while both are obsessive, possessive, and ultimately toxic, Ek cares more about having Wan than he does about Wan's safety and well-being.

Ek tried to kill himself in order to hurt Wan. Which directly contrasts against Pleng and Wan. In the novel, Pleng mentions contemplating suicide in the past but she doesn't act on it for fear that Wan would learn of it and it would hurt her, lead to her own death. And at the end of the novel when it seems like Wan is on the verge of killing herself—as implied in a note that she left for Pleng to spitefully hurt her (Wan's love is more "pure" than Ek's, but both still have malicious streaks)—but while she considers it, she ultimately decides to not kill herself because she wouldn't want to hurt Pleng like that.

Ek's love for Wan foils Wan's love for Pleng in this sense, because it demonstrates that while Wan is selfish, obsessive, possessive, and deranged that she is still a caring and loving partner and that ultimately her love for Pleng is fueled by a genuine love for all of Pleng whereas Ek only loved Wan as a possession to be owned and only loved the parts of her that were palpable to him.