#archery is usually. skill issue. so i assumed it was me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years ago

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for @oneiriad, who wanted WN/WWX/LWJ - happy birthday! (also on ao3)

Following the war, Wen Qing had had something of a revelation.

Namely, that the vast majority of problems in her life were due to the fact that she was surrounded by a bunch of idiots.

The first she noticed of it was on the day Wei Wuxian brought back a bow and some arrows to the Burial Mounds.

Her first thought had been to begin to worry, as it always was. Why would Wei Wuxian think that they needed a weapon of war? Were the countless arrays and traps with which he had surrounded their home not sufficient? The corpses he had raided graveyards and battlefield for all set at key position points, the talismans that they had painstakingly drawn in seemingly infinite number, the physical barriers they had erected, were those not enough? What threat did he foresee having arisen that required more than that?

And also – why had he only brought back one?

The answer, it turned out, was that Wei Wuxian, terminal idiot, had not thought of war at all. He hadn’t even thought about hunting, as Wen Qing’s fourth uncle had tentatively suggested, not that there was anything to hunt on the Burial Mounds, dead as it was.

No, Wei Wuxian had seen it being sold at a dirt-cheap price and bought it simply because he thought it’d be fun.

Wen Qing huffed at Wei Wuxian’s extravagance – you could tell he was raised rich, no matter what stories he told; they could have used that money for something practical – but in the end he was their benefactor, and, well, the bow and arrows were pretty fun. Wei Wuxian had been among the most skillful of his generation in archery, and although he was somewhat rusty he had retained the majority of his skill. A-Yuan had been particularly charmed, cheering wildly at every trick shot that Wei Wuxian had pulled out of his repertoire, and he hadn’t been the only one.

Towards the end of the day, when Granny had carted A-Yuan back inside over his protests, reminding him that good little boys who’d been standing in the mud all day needed to wash up before dinner, Wei Wuxian had even drawn Wen Ning into his game.

“- have to try it,” he said coaxingly, even as her brother shifted from side to side in embarrassment, wringing his hands. “As soon as I saw it, I thought of you! Do you remember when we first met?”

“The archery competition,” her brother murmured.

“You were practicing,” Wei Wuxian said with a laugh. “You had it almost right back then – you have no idea how much I wanted to come over to help you fix your stance.”

“It – probably wouldn’t have helped.”

“No, no, it would have! You’d be amazed at how much having the right stance will help – here, let me show you.”

“Wei-gongzi –”

“I insist!”

There was some rearranging, and the next time Wen Qing looked over, Wei Wuxian was standing right beside her brother, one hand on his hip and the other on his arm, gently guiding him into position. The laughter had fallen off his tongue, and he looked intent upon what he was doing.

“You were as skittish and shy as a rabbit back then,” he said. His voice was low, lower than normal – if Wen Qing could see his eyes, she would wager that they were darker than usual, too. His hand did not need to linger at her brother’s hip, but did. “I couldn’t come close or else you’d bolt…but things are different now, aren’t they?”

Her brother shivered as if an usually cold gust of wind had gone by – a gust of wind that, as a fierce corpse, he would not feel.

So that’s how it is, Wen Qing thought to herself. Wen Ning’s infatuation with their benefactor had been obvious from the beginning, when he’d begged so earnestly for her to help with Jiang Cheng; his eyes had been so bright and hopeful that she hadn’t had the heart to remind him that it was pointless to hope. And for his part, Wei Wuxian had tried very hard to revive her brother, far more than bare handful of meetings and a favor done would merit.

Perhaps those long-buried feelings of her brother’s hadn’t been so pointless after all.

Wen Qing forcefully quashed the part of her that wanted to march over and demand that Wei Wuxian make his intentions clear at once (she would accept marriage or nothing for Wen Ning, fierce corpse or not). For one thing, Wei Wuxian was their benefactor – she was in no position to be making demands or threats – and for another, it seemed unnecessary.

They seemed to be doing perfectly fine on their own.

Lan Wangji had come to visit again.

“Is the Lan sect bored of rebuilding, do you think?” she asked Granny, rolling her eyes – it was at least the fifth visit, and Lan Wangji stayed longer every time. “You’d think their second young master would have more work to do; it’s not like Yiling is next door.”

“I don’t think that’s why he’s come to visit,” Granny said. They were doing laundry together, one of the unavoidable daily chores - normally, Granny would be watching a-Yuan, but today he was out for a walk with Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning trailing behind like the faithful shadow he sometimes seemed to wish to become.

Wei Wuxian had very proudly explained in the morning that they were taking A-Yuan on his very first “night-hunt”, never mind that it was the middle of the afternoon, with the sun still high in the sky, or that A-Yuan’s only weapon was a stick he had taken to waving around whenever Lan Wangji practiced his sword forms in the morning and night.

(Wei Wuxian watched as well, hunger in his eyes, and Wen Qing turned away, a bitter taste on her tongue. She would not begrudge Wei Wuxian the grief of his sacrifice, but she sometimes wished he’d acknowledge a little bit more that he was not the only one who had given things up that day.)

“What’s the reason, then?” Wen Qing asked, mind mostly elsewhere – calculating what the other members of the clan would be able to earn today at the market and what would be the best thing to spend it on. They needed new clothing, and A-Yuan new shoes, but they might be able to convince his ‘rich gege’ to cover the shoes and the clothing could be mended a few more times before it truly needed replacing. That would free up enough money for other necessities. “I don’t think he’s still suspicious of Wei-gongzi.”

Granny laughed. “Suspicious isn’t the word I’d use, no. Madly in love? Maybe.”

Wen Qing’s brain returned back to the present conversation so quickly she almost imagined that she could feel her brain hitting her skull from the whiplash.

“What?” she asked, voice sharp. “Hanguang-jun likes – Wei-gongzi?”

“Hadn’t you noticed?”

“But Wei-gongzi…” Wen Qing trailed off, reviewing past events in her mind. The way Wei Wuxian’s eyes lit up whenever Lan Wangji arrived, shouting Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan! – an incredible intimacy, now that she thought about it, about equal to the way with which he addressed Jiang Cheng – and the way they spent time together, walking or talking or just staring into each other’s eyes. The way Lan Wangji paid for everything Wei Wuxian might want (in other words, nothing practical). The way Wei Wuxian would talk about him even when he wasn’t there.

The way the two of them sometimes duetted at night, guqin and dizi matching each other perfectly in the moonlight.

(Wen Ning played a little, too, but the Wen sect hadn’t bothered with anything more than the most perfunctory lessons – no private tutors or anything like that – and he was only all right, not great. Certainly not good enough to keep up with either of those two masters.)

Wen Qing frowned thunderously.

After the “hunting party” returned, she went to find Wen Ning.

“I know you’re grateful to him,” she said plainly the second they were alone. “I am, too. But that doesn’t mean you should let him walk all over you.”

Wen Ning blinked at her. “Walk…what?”

“If Wei-gongzi is two-timing you with Hanguang-jun –”

“Jiejie!” Wen Ning hissed, his hands flying up to cover his face as if he could still blush. “It’s not like that!”

“Isn’t it? Because that’s not what Granny says. She says Hanguang-jun is in love.”

“He is,” Wen Ning said.

Wen Qing frowned, confused. “Wei-gongzi is leading him on, then? I would have thought better of him.”

“You apparently thought he was two-timing me, so clearly your view of him isn’t that good,” Wen Ning said, sounding injured on Wei Wuxian's behalf, because of course he was. “He’s not like that. He’s not – we’re not – it’s not like that. Between us.”

“It isn’t? But he likes you, and I know you like him.” Wen Qing hesitated. “Is it – the fierce corpse thing? We’ve been making a lot of progress on restoring your bodily functions over the past few months. If you’ve been having performance issues, we could prioritize –”

“I have not been having performance issues.” Wen Ning looked like he wanted to die, which was not an uncommon look on his face for their private conversations. For someone who helped out with her surgeries on a regular basis, he was still so very shy sometimes. “It hasn’t come up.”

Wen Qing quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Not what I meant, jiejie. It’s just…Wei-gongzi doesn’t…he’s not very good at understanding his own emotions.”

Wen Qing thought about Jiang Cheng and made a sour face. “No, he’s not.”

“Unless it’s pointed out to him, he won’t even notice that he likes someone,” Wen Ning continued. “Or that – someone likes him.”

“All right,” Wen Qing said, because that did fit her understanding of Wei Wuxian a lot better than either two-timing or leading someone on did. “Fine, then. I assume Hanguang-jun hasn’t said anything, even if only because he’s made of stone, so you’d better be the one to point it out to him.”

“I did. Early today, when we were out.”

“Good,” Wen Qing said. “So where is he?”

“With Hanguang-jun,” Wen Ning said.

“With –” Wen Qing stopped. “A-Ning. What did you point out to Wei-gongzi?”

He shrugged and ducked his head.

“A-Ning! Why? You like him so much…”

“He could have Hanguang-jun,” he pointed out, soft and sad the way her brother too often was. The way he often wasn’t, when Wei Wuxian was smiling at him. “Why would he want me?”

“Mistress Wen,” Lan Wangji said, standing at the door to the cave she was using as a makeshift clinic.

Wen Qing wasn’t sure of what to make of his presence - he’d more or less moved in ever since he and Wei Wuxian had gotten together, but he didn’t often seek out the company of anyone but Wei Wuxian. Least of all her, but then again, she hadn’t been the most welcoming, angry as she still was over Wen Ning’s quiet and unnoticed heartbreak.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, and wasn’t surprised when he shook his head. “Then what can I do for you?”

“Advice,” he said.

Wen Qing mentally sighed, but nodded and gestured for him to come sit down. She’d have to get used to treating him like he was one of the family sometime - he was part of life at the Burial Mounds now, part of Wei Wuxian’s life, and there wasn’t any revisiting that decision.

Also, A-Yuan loved him.

“What’s the problem?” she asked, practical as always.

Lan Wangji didn’t quite meet her eyes, which for him was practically a confession of nervousness. Possibly even embarrassment – was that a hint of pink in his ears?

“Just spit it out,” Wen Qing said with a sigh, outwardly this time. “I’m a doctor. There’s very little I haven’t dealt with before, whether it’s a matter of the human body, the human heart, or the human mind.”

Lan Wangji nodded slowly. “You may know that I cannot currently return to the Cloud Recesses.”

Wen Qing had gathered that certain parts of his family had not been taking his decision to get together with Wei Wuxian especially well, although she’d heard that his brother was fully supportive. Since said brother was the sect leader, he ought to carry the day in the end, but she could definitely understand how the job of convincing the sect that the relationship was acceptable was probably best done with Lan Wangji conveniently elsewhere.

“I understand the awkwardness that this might cause,” he said. “And I have been – trying, recently, to find time to leave the Burial Mounds on my own. Taking night-hunts when I know Wei Ying is busy, or finding an excuse to go into town for the evening…and yet, the last time I went, I discovered that Wei Ying had sent Wen Qionglin to guard my inn for the night.”

“He does that,” Wen Qing agreed, a little mystified. She’d thought Lan Wangji liked to stick to Wei Wuxian like burnt rice to the pot. “Since A-Ning doesn’t need sleep…are you getting bored of Wei-gongzi or something?”

“Certainly not,” Lan Wangji said, sounding a little offended. “It was only that I had gone specifically in order to leave Wei Ying and Wen Qionglin time to be – alone.”

“…why?”

Lan Wangji blinked at her. His ears were definitely red now. “I had not presumed –” He stopped, coughed a little. “I am very grateful that Wei Ying has agreed to be with me, but I would never seek to deprive him of joy by causing trouble in his existing relationship.”

“Existing relationship,” Wen Qing said faintly. “With – A-Ning.”

Lan Wangji nodded. He appeared relieved that they were on the same page.

“Have you…mentioned this goal of yours?” she asked, trying to suppress a hysterical set of giggles. “To Wei-gongzi? Or did you just drop hints? He’s not – I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but he’s not great with hints.”

Lan Wangji looked a little long-suffering, something Wen Qing could generally relate to. “I tried to make my position clear earlier today,” he said. “I told him that I knew of the esteem he had for Wen Qionglin, the clear affection between them – the longing with which Wen Qionglin looks at him, the way Wei Ying’s eyes linger on him in return. I told him that I did not have any expectations that he would yield up Wen Qionglin simply for my sake, that I had already accustomed myself to the notion that I would be sharing him…that I truly didn’t mind if he would like to spend some nights in his bed, rather than my own.”

A-Ning doesn’t even have a proper bed, Wen Qing thought, rather irrelevantly. He’d refused to let them waste time building him one when he didn’t really need sleep, anyway; he’d said they could use the time on more necessary tasks.

“And how did he react?” she asked instead.

“Strangely,” Lan Wangji said. “He turned bright red and sought to deny it, but I assured him once again that it was not an issue – if anything, I am grateful to Wen Qionglin for his graciousness in allowing Wei Ying to open his heart to me as well – and for some reason he spluttered a great deal and then ran away. I came to you to see if you could shed some light on…Mistress Wen?”

Wen Qing was clutching onto her face and rocking back and forth, trying to breathe through the intense desire to laugh.

“Lan-er-gongzi,” she choked out. “You are both insightful and wise – wiser than either of them.”

“…Mistress Wen?”

“You’re not wrong,” Wen Qing said. “Wei-gongzi likes my brother rather a lot, and my brother’s been half in love with him since forever. But they’re not actually together.”

Lan Wangji gaped at her.

“I know,” she said. “My brother decided that between him and you, you were more suitable, so he confessed on your behalf instead of his own. I don’t think the notion of sharing ever came up.”

“Oh.”

“And Wei-gongzi is so thick when it comes to matters of emotion that it’s unlikely he even realized what he was missing – at least until you brought it to his attention,” she added dryly. “I hope you meant what you said about being all right with it.”

Wei Wuxian might be slow when it came to figuring out his feelings, but he wasn’t slow when it came to asserting them. He was probably accosting her brother right now, and –

And she wasn’t going to think about that. That’s her baby brother, damnit.

“I am,” Lan Wangji said. “I do not lie. They have a way between them…it would make Wei Ying happy. I want Wei Ying to be happy.”

All right, fine. Wen Qing would reluctantly agree to like Hanguang-jun, him being so reasonable and all.

“Maybe arrange for a selection of different nights?” she suggested. “You can come here and do research with me on the nights when your bed is occupied…A-Ning refused to let us get him one, since he doesn’t sleep. He said it’d be a waste of money.”

Lan Wangji looked appropriately off-put by that. “I could obtain one, if that would be helpful..?”

“Immensely,” Wen Qing assured him. “He has no idea how to turn down gifts – it’d be perfect.”

She paused, considering Lan Wangji. She hadn’t asked before, since it had seemed almost presumptuous, but if he really was going to be staying…

“How much do you know about radishes?”

“Wen Qing! I need help!”

“At least you admit it, Wei-gongzi,” Wen Qing said peacefully. The radish garden was doing so well now that she’d put Lan Wangji to work, she could positively cry. And maybe open up a new field for potatoes the way Wei Wuxian had wanted.

“Admit – hey!” Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes at her. “I come to you for help and you make fun of me?”

“Every time,” she agreed. “What do you want, anyway?”

“I want help, obviously,” he said, and sat down next to her. “I want to convince Lan Zhan and Wen Ning to get together.”

Wen Qing stopped what she was doing, reached up to scrub her ears, and said, “I’m sorry, you want to what?”

“I want to get Lan Zhan and Wen Ning together,” he said, which was what she’d thought he said, except for the fact that it was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. Surely he didn’t mean – “You know. Romantically.”

Nope. He meant it.

“Not sexually?” she asked, even though that by itself would be a stretch. Lan Wangji and Wen Ning tolerated each other for Wei Wuxian; left to their own devices, they did not spend any time together.

“Well, I mean, sexually would be fun, too,” Wei Wuxian said, his eyes getting all misty like he wasn’t talking about her brother. “They’d be gorgeous together…but no. More than that. I’m tired of this whole bed-hopping, time-sharing thing. I want us all to be together!”

“That’s – a nice thought,” Wen Qing managed to say. “You realize they have nothing in common except you, right?”

“They have plenty in common!” Wei Wuxian argued. “They’re both intelligent and cultured, with a good education – they were both in the Sunshot Campaign –”

On opposite sides. Remember?

“– and, really, Wen Ning’s a whole lot better than I ever was when it comes to rules of all sorts. I bet they could have all sorts of fun discussions about that.”

Sure. Rules. Why not?

Wei Wuxian exhaled gustily and put his chin in his hands. “Nothing I’ve been doing seems to have worked, though,” he complained. “I’ve tried everything…today I even called them both over under the premise of there being an emergency and then left them to solve it themselves.”

“You did what?”

“I wanted them to spend some time together!”

Wei Wuxian was, it was sad to say, a total idiot.

On the other hand, she thought as she looked over his shoulder as two rather irritated looking men stalking their way up the path to the Burial Mounds, both sets of eyes fixed on Wei Wuxian’s back, he had also always been a very lucky idiot.

“Well, maybe they found something to talk about,” she said comfortingly, omitting to mention that the subject of the conversation that seemed most likely was going to be how they would punish Wei Wuxian for his nonsense when they returned.

“You think so?” Wei Wuxian asked, looking hopeful. “It’d be so much nicer if they could just let down their reservations, put down their guards, and just relax –”

“Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian twisted so fast that Wen Qing was momentarily concerned that he’d pulled something.

“Lan Zhan! Wen Ning!” he said, beaming widely. “How nice to –”

His lips zipped shut.

The infamous Lan sect silencing spell, Wen Qing presumed.

Wen Ning nodded at her in greeting as he came over and picked Wei Wuxian up as if he weighed less than a bag of their radishes, tossing him over his shoulder as if – well, like bag of radishes again.

“Lead the way,” he said to Lan Wangji, who also nodded at Wen Qing, and then the three of them – Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, and a struggling-but-not-really-struggling Wei Wuxian – walked off to the Demon-Slaughtering Cave.

Where, no doubt, they would sit and have tea. With all their clothing firmly on, while maintaining an appropriate distance from each other.

An older sister could only hope.

Wen Qing sighed.

Wei Wuxian was only going to get even more intolerably smug when this was all over.

Really, though. So many problems – entirely because people just couldn’t stop being stupid.

Maybe she could fix the Jiang Cheng situation too, while she was at it.

#mdzs #wen qing #wen ning #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my fic #my fics

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onlytbz · 6 years ago

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A Strange Memory (Hwall)

Occasionally, you’ve had flashbacks of your life before it became busy, but you can’t figure out who you were always with in those flashbacks. That is, until something clicked in your head.

words: 1616

A/N: sorry for the major inactivity!! I haven’t been in the mood to write, or to do anything in general really. I appreciate anyone who doesn’t mind it! i’ve been giffing more too but that’s not related this isn’t my best, i’m sorry for that

It’s been years since you and your family has moved out of your childhood home and into an apartment. Nothing much has happened, except you were working while trying to catch up on your education. That had led you to be stuck in your room for the majority of the day, only to leave for basic needs or to go to work.

Sometimes, your parents worry about you, but you’ve completely adapted your lifestyle and got completely used to your busy schedule, they don’t interfere with it. Occasionally, they would drop by to make sure you’re not overworking yourself and stressing yourself out. They also make sure you actually sleep, as you have the tendency to lose track of time.

Little did you know that your working schedule had made your give up on your dream. Your parents had warned you about it too, but you took the risk. You didn’t care as long as you were able to help your family in any way possible.

As you leaned your back against your chair, staring at your homework that was due in a couple hours, you suddenly had a flashback of your old home. There were many children playing in the playground, including your little self. You didn’t react much to the memory, because it was just you playing in the playground. You saw your little self turning their head to find a shy boy hiding by his mother. They waved at him, and made their way towards him. You can’t hear what was going on, but you knew your little self was inviting him to play with you. Once he had accepted, they both made their way to the playground set. Then the memory ended there.

You didn’t know who that boy was, or many you forgot. Either way, nothing had clicked in your brain. You checked the time and it was 2 in the morning. You normally wouldn’t space out for that long, but it just kind of happened. You let out a heavy sigh as you removed your back from the chair and continued to work.

The next morning, you woke up with a headache. But you weren’t listening to any music, or anything at all really. Your parents are still asleep as you got up from your bed and did your morning routine. Your parents already know that you were getting ready for school and work, yet you still continue to get ready silently to not disturb their slumber. Once you finished, you made your way to school.

Your friend, Changmin, was going to scare you, but as you bend down to tie your shoes, he jumped over you instead. You were confused, then saw your blonde friend pouting at you. “Dang it! I wanted to scare you!” he complained.

You rolled your eyes, “Even if you tried, you would probably failed anyways. You didn’t need to jump over me, you know.”

“I had to in order to not crash into you!”

“Dude, you could have stopped beside me.”

“I was running too fast!”

You rolled your eyes again, “as always.”

You both made your way to class as you constantly listened to him talk about his day yesterday, or any other day. You didn’t mind, but most of the time, his words when in from one ear and out the other. You don’t hate him, he just talks too much for your brain to handle.

While class was going on, you were paying attention as usual, and finished your work fast as usual. You were chilling in your seat, doing other work that your teacher has given you, aka the homework, especially since the homework the teacher gives takes forever for the students to do.

As always, you took a pause in doing the work, just staring the worksheets as usual. More memories have taken over your head, and you’re still not sure why this is happening. It’s the second time it has happened, so it hasn’t become an issue yet.

This time, the memory is years later when you were in middle school. You remember that you were obsessed with archery, and still love it to this day. You were practicing your skills alone in the gym with targets, occasionally hitting the bullseye. Even if you didn’t hit the center, even if you had missed, you didn’t pay attention to it. You just kept on practicing and picking up the arrows once you were out. Then, someone walked into the gym as you were pulling the string. When the door slammed shut, that startled you and made the string hit your arm.

This time, you heard the boy laugh at your younger self’s startled expression.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.” He said.

“Yeah, right. you probably heard someone mention about a student practicing archery in the gym.” you answered, completely ignoring your pain caused by the bow’s string.

He laughed, “You caught me. You know, I happen to be interested in it. Give it to me.”

He took the bow from you and took an arrow from the floor. He got into his position and aimed carefully. He shot the arrow and it ended up right in the center, leaving you surprised.

Then the memory ended there.

From what you gathered, you and that boy seem to be really good friends. He did look like the child that was in the previous memory, assuming that was when you first met him.

As you were thinking, there was a hand waving in front of your face. “Hello? y/n? are you good?” Changmin asked.

“Yes I am, why?” you casually replied.

“You’ve been spacing out for much longer than usual. But anyways, are you free this weekend?”

You checked your work schedule on your phone. You were expecting to work all day, but when you checked, it said it was your day off. You were quite surprised. Changmin immediately knew from your expression that you were free this time. “Hey, since you’re actually free this weekend, how about we go do archery?”

You gave him a confused expression, “Why?”

“For fun! I know how much you love archery, but you barely have any time to have fun! Plus, I know someone who works there and you may know him too.”

You knew you didn’t have a choice anyways, since your parents would also like for you to have some fun once in awhile. You sigh in defeat, “Fine.”

When you got home, you told your parents about your plans with Changmin. As you expected, they were extremely happy. It was weird for you to finally have a break, since you were so used to being so busy every day, even on the weekends. You even questioned your archery skills since you had no time to even practice anymore.

And the weekend came, you were ready to go to the place. You probably never heard of this place before, since you never heard of an archery place in the city at all. You and Changmin talked about where you guys were gonna meet, and that’s where you stood. It’s been almost an hour and he still hasn’t shown up. You were ready to go home until he popped up behind your back, still failing to scare you.

“Wow, you really have a cold face huh?” He said.

“You can say that. Anyway, you almost made me wait here for an hour.”

“Sorry! I had to deal with some things! Now let’s go!” He said and began to drag you to the place.

Luckily you managed to keep up with his fast pace. You scanned the area around you while making sure you don’t trip over anything. When you two finally got to the place, it was huge.

You weren’t even expecting it to be this large, especially for just archery?? Huh..

You both entered the place, seeing it filled with people of different age groups. One person caught your eye though, not in a crush way, but a different way. The person that caught your eye seemed really familiar to you. You stared at him until you were dragged my Changmin again to go to a target.

“Sorry to interrupt, but who were you staring at?” Changmin asked as he got ready to shoot an arrow.

“Nobody in particular. I just saw someone who seems familiar and I was trying to figure out who they are, that’s all.”

“Is that so?” He began to aim, “Why not talk to him? Maybe you’ll figure it out.”

You began setting up your equipment, “I’m fine, it’s nothing important.”

As you began to aim, someone popped up behind you, “Need any help?” he said, startling you as made you miss.

You sigh in anger, “No, I don’t need help.” you say as you turn around, only to see it was the dude you were staring at earlier.

“Hey, Hyunjoon! Long time no see!” Changmin waves to him.

He laughed, “Long time no see. What brings you here?”

As they were chatting away, you were trying to think of who he was. Then you saw him take Changmin’s bow and shot an arrow in the same position as you saw in your flashback, even having the arrow hit the center of the target in one try.

“Hey! You were the one that scared me in middle school!” You realized.

Hyunjoon looked at you and laughed, “You remember that? I apologized you know.”

“I know, I just remembered it, that’s all.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t forget about me, I heard those who move away from their old homes tend to forget their old friends.”

“Yeah… I totally didn’t…”

#the boyz scenarios #the boyz #the boyz imagines #heo hyunjoon #c; hwall #c; mine #c; general au #c; narrative

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artyrogue · 3 years ago

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Blind Date Gaming: Smurfs Travel the World

Ever play a competitive match in a game against someone who looked super-underleveled, but still lost horribly due to raw skill or better game knowledge? Yes, I'm talking about 'smurf accounts', a plague on multiplayer games pretty much everywhere. Well, it ends up PRANG, my Pseudo-Random Number Generator hookup bot, heard me complaining about smurf accounts so much, it dredged up a date about the 90's cartoon the term 'smurf' came from. So here we are, reviewing my night with Smurfs Travel the World. Let's see if these smurfs are worth cursing out too!

Not sure if 'smurf the world' is rude or cute. I never got the whole 'replace every verb with “smurf”’ thing. Are they always being humongous jerks or...?

So the game starts with a pretty arbitrary cutscene about some crystal shattering into pieces, forcing a shard fetch-quest on both token girl Smurfette and...Inquisitive Smurf? Was that actually even a character? Meh, just go with 'Generic Smurf' instead. Or better yet, don't go with him at all! I can only assume there's no difference between the two. And I mean like legit no difference, I mean if there was, then how can one female birth every similarly-aged male in the Smurf Village? It's like reverse Gerudo Valley, replacing the super-hard horse archery course with inbreeding.

You know, the magic crystal that's the main power source in Smurf lore. I'm sure you're all aware of it, right? Definitely not made up outta nowhere as a MacGuffin.

You start your globe-trotting platforming adventure through miscellaneous obligatory terrain, like jungles, ice, deserts, Australia, etc. You need to scour each of the levels for 7 crystal shards, and they're not always simple to get! Some are held by enemies, some are at the end of high-up platforming challenges, and you may need to go backwards through a level to find others. Along the way, you collect what I assume to be trash people left places, because we're conscientious of that messaging to sell this game to worried moms or something? Not sure why collecting trash gets you extra lives, but grab a dumpster and start harvesting life force, cos the game is kinda rough.

Is this the only map the Smurfs have? Can't they like photocopy Library Smurf's atlas?

I'm not sure if this was a Game Boy port of an SNES title or not, but the game suffers from typical Game Boy issues of not being very clear on what's a platform versus what's background. 4-color limited palettes will do that to you. I found myself dying due to passing through what I thought were obstacles or touching static water tiles, thinking it was just flooring. The enemies were sometimes pretty annoying as well, shooting at you the second they pop on-screen, giving little time to dodge. At least the variety was okay, though most looked like what you'd get if you could do one of those google translate back-and-forth things but with cartoon characters instead. Pretty much end up hokey and unsettling lookin'.

Definitely crappy design here, as there's only one thing I can assume these monkeys are throwin' at you.

That said, the platforming was okay outside of the few terribad enemies. The game devs actually tried to come up with some interesting obstacles, to my surprise! It had kind of standard rope stuff and bouncy junk, but it also had me flying kites up to higher areas, grabbing birds to soar horizontally (assuming you could tell good birds from bad [protip: you can't]), and vine-like swinging kind of like Donkey Kong Country. You had a lame kick attack that was usually useless but could be used to deflect some enemy attacks, so that was neat in the few instances it was useful, too. There were even swimming levels as a change in pace. Though that thoroughly confused me since water killed me before? Whatever, toss on that bikini and go do some polar bear plunges.

No really, how freaking big was that crystal explosion to launch shards all the way to Greenland?

There's not much else to talk about. Though I would be remiss to mention the one sidescrolling level with...I assume it’s Azrael, the evil cat from the Smurfs? I guess so, but it looks like someone dismembered the thing and put its parts on some death robot off-screen, with a random paw super low appearing now and then and a soulless expression on the bobbing head. Definite horror movie vibes happening here.

I hear this thing still roams the landscapes of Texas. Maybe that's why Texans are all crazy about packing all the time?

In the end, you bag crystal shards, take down O2, free Dream Land, and...I guess just kinda go home? Or teleport? I don't know, how are these blue things even traveling? Do they bum rides on planes? Is there a frequent flyer program? The game disappoints and never goes into these details. Maybe it was in the manual. Or on some wiki lore page somewhere, because you just know that would exist.

Looks like y'all picked up some radiation along the way. You may want to get a cancer screening....

Alright, so at the end of the night, I bid the Smurfs adieu and walked on home. I'll confess that I ended up kinda enjoying this one. Sure, it has it's problems, but it wasn't really that bad for a licensed game. I supposed I'd date it again sometime for funsies, or at least refer it to a friend who looking for a game date. It's not perfect, but who is? I mean, besides Vanity Smurf. That guy is unflappable. Speaking of being flappable, take this Sprite of Passage! It's quite literally a sprite of passage, as it deals with passage through the air via bird taxi. Hope Smurfette remembers not to tip the driver.

both bird and smurf aren't sure exactly wtf is going on here, and it's okay because I wasn't either

#blinddategaming #gameboy #smurfs

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thegoddamnfangirl · 8 years ago

Text

Artemis

Pairings- Clint Barton x Reader

Requested by anon- Could you please write a Clint Barton x reader where the reader is a new avenger and archer like clint and doesn't talk to the Avengers and keeps to themselves and clint finds them shooting arrows and they grow close xx

Bear with me, I haven’t ever written Clint before. Plus this GIF is adorable. And also the one with the cat. The cat one is not relevant at all to the story. I just like that GIF.

The carnage was spreading. Clint still had no idea exactly what those creatures attacking the city were, but he dismissed them as alien shits and kept shooting without asking any questions.

Until.....

“Crap!,” he yelled, reaching into his quiver to find that it was empty.

This was certainly a rare occurrence- he was never out of arrows, he actually had a half full quiver at the end of the Battle of New York.

“Here,” said a new voice from beside him, tossing him five fresh, specialized arrows.

He looked up to see a girl, wearing tight leather and holding a bow similar, though not as high-tech, as his, with a quiver on her back.

She gave him a critical look as she shot down some more aliens with practiced ease.

“Don’t use them all in one place,” she told him, jerking her head towards the arrows, before sprinting off, shooting down more aliens in the way.

“(y/n) (l/n), or, as I should call you now, Artemis,” said Steve proudly, “welcome to the Avengers.”

There was applause from the team.

Clint was watching her carefully as she smiled at the team. Nat caught his expression, and wondered if he was jealous. Another skilled archer on the team? She wondered how Clint was taking it.

She had previously seen him trying to talk to her, after the battle and before her initiation into the Avengers, but he didn’t seem to be having much success.

As Nat was about to find out, nobody would have much success talking to her.

“So, (y/n), now that that has been done,” said Steve, a smile on his face, “how would you like to join all of us for dinner tonight? The whole team. It’s one of those things we do to, you know, bond.”

(y/n) looked at Steve and hesitated for a small moment.

“Um, sure, okay,” she said, and Clint had a strong feeling that she was just being polite. She’d rather not attend.

Steve hadn’t caught on. Beaming at her, he told her he looked forward to seeing her, gave her a pat on the back which by her expressions wasn’t cordially received, and left.

She arrived punctually for dinner, dressed casual, as Steve had told her. Clint’s eyes were on her as soon as she entered and they weren’t off of her for even a moment during the entire evening. The only one to notice this was (y/n) herself, and she ignored the fellow archer’s curious gaze.

Thor tried to make conversation with her- he failed to engage her but didn’t realize it, he kept on talking to her about random, happy things,like how unicorns existed on Asgard and the one his brother owned, something which all the Avengers found oddly endearing about Thor.

(y/n) listened politely and only replied where it was necessary for propriety.

“Hey, bird-brain,” said Tony, elbowing his side a little bit. “You don’t seem like your usual chirpy self.”

“What-? I-sorry, I’m a bit, distracted,” said Clint, tearing away his gaze for a few seconds.

“May I be excused?” she said, standing up.

“Sure,” replied Steve with the usual smile, while Clint wanted to yell stuff like’no! stay! no excusing!”. There was a fluttery feeling in his stomach as he watched her walk away, swinging her hips ever so slightly.

The dinner was the first of many team events that (y/n) attended, but never actively participated in.

The Superbowl! Almost everyone in the tower was looking forward to settling down in the living room the way they did, all cosy and with lots of food. Even Thor, who didn’t completely understand football yet.

(y/n) was there as usual, curled up on an armchair. She would speak to everyone yet she wouldn’t talk to anyone, and the team had given up on anything more than polite small talk from her.

Clint was more curious than ever about her.

Someway through the game, Tony was yelling, Steve was watching with a very serious expression, Thor was asleep, Nat was being cuddled by sleeping Thor, Clint was looking around and (y/n) was gone.

As much as he didn’t want to miss the game, Clint snuck quietly out of the room.

He followed the sound of a twanging bowstring to the target practice room, and found (y/n) there, shooting arrows as fast as she could, aiming at different and specific parts of the target each time.

“You’re quite an archer, I’ll give you that,” he said, realizing how stupid he sounded as soon as the words left his mouth.

“Thank you, Clint,” she replied without stopping on turning to look at him.

“So....” Clint had absolutely nothing else to say, but he wanted to be there with her, so he picked up a bow, too.

They practiced side by side, and gradually, found themselves vying with each other. Clint would shoot an arrow, and (y/n) would shoot an arrow at the exact same place on her own target. (y/n) would speed up, and Clint would increase his own speed to match hers.

“You’re amazing,” she said, quite suddenly.

The abrupt comment made Clint all flustered- his arrow missed the point he was targeting by a whole centimeter.

“Urm, thank you,” he said, grinning at her.

She was red in the face, and looking as if she regretted blurting the compliment out.

Something about it made Clint feel strangely closer to her.

“Artemis? Could I ask you something?” he asked hopefully.

“Go ahead,” she said. They had both stopped shooting; Clint’s bow hung limply in his hand by his side, and hers went from being poised to shoot to lowered.

“Why don’t you talk to the team much?” he inquired. “I mean, it’s okay if you’re just quiet, but, well, I get the feeling that you don’t like us very much....don’t you like me?”

The last question was tinged with hurt, which (y/n) caught.

“No, of course I like you!” she said. “In fact- you’re the reason-” she stopped, biting her lip.

“I’m the reason...what?” he asked.

“Nothing, just... you... you kind of inspired me to put my archery skills into real use out in the real world, okay? Hawkeye was my inspiration to become Artemis.”

Clint was pretty sure his heart had traveled up to his throat to beat there.

“Wow....(y/n)...that’s so..flattering...” he said, after a moment of stunned silence in which his face had become quite red. “Geez, look at me, I’m blushing like a little girl...”

(y/n) giggled- probably the most genuine laugh Clint had heard from her.

“And as for the rest of the team...” she trailed off.

“Look, I don’t want them to feel as if I don’t like them- I do, a lot! But the last team I was a part of...it did not end well. I don’t want to begin fancying that my team is my family...”

She stopped, being aware that she was revealing too much about herself. She assumed a stoic expression and lifted her bow up again.

“(y/n),” said Clint gently, moving forward and pressing down her arm. “You don’t have to be afraid of trusting us...I mean, we’re all completely screwed, the whole team. We’re a bunch of dysfunctional, screwed up people with all kinds of issues. And I know it might not come easy, but becoming a part of the Avengers family..see, we are a proper family. Steve is the dad. Nat is the mom. Tony is the disobedient child, Bruce is the nerdy one, I’m pain-in-the-ass toddler and Thor is the four year old that asks too many questions. And...I speak for everyone when I say I’d love it if you truly became a part of us.”

(y/n) was silent. Then she gulped.

“Thanks, Clint,” she said, finally. His hand brushed against hers- they were standing pretty close. “I think I’m going to try and be more...friendly, I guess? Not so cold, anyway.”

Clint smiled at her warmly, and she returned the smile with equal warmth. Then he moved forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re missing the game.” With that, he led her back to the living room.

#clint barton x reader #hawkeye x reader #clint barton x you #hawkeye x you #hawkeye x archer #clint barton x archer #hawkeye marvel #jeremy renner #hawkeye fanfiction #avengers x reader #avenger reader #clinton francis barton x reader #avengers x you

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years ago

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If you write more for the NM/LW/WWX fic I would lose my entire mind

part 1, part 2

“You know that I was joking, right?” Nie Mingjue asked his younger brother, feeling a little bemused.

He’d only meant to tease a little: it hadn’t taken much time in Wei Wuxian’s presence to realize that the man was inclined towards physical contact with others that often blurred (or simply ignored) the line of propriety, so finding him having clambered into Lan Wangji’s lap to win an argument hadn’t been really a surprise – and neither was Lan Wangji’s reaction, which was to act as though Nie Mingjue had walked in on the two of them engaged in adultery.

Ah, the Lan sect and their rules.

Nie Mingjue was very bad at teasing, actually, a fact Nie Huaisang never failed to mock him over; he had very early on in life perfected an expression that revealed nothing and had somewhere along the line forgotten how to do anything else with his face, and so people invariably took him to have no sense of humor at all when that wasn’t the case at all.

He wasn’t sure if this counted as another instance of that.

Wei Wuxian was so enthusiastic about the idea, too – talking about how convenient it would be (for what?), the political benefits they would derive (never specified), and how it solved all the problems (there had been problems?) – and Lan Wangji was just bright red all the time, stealing glances underneath his lashes, and –

To be perfectly honest, Nie Mingjue had no idea how this had all happened.

Oh, the beginning had been clear enough. Nie Mingjue had never actually seriously considered the question of marriage, having always planned to leave the sect to his younger brother – no matter how Nie Huaisang protested, Nie Mingjue was determined that it would go to him in time, and to his children thereafter, and perhaps at last his ancestor’s line would no longer be afflicted with their hereditary rage which was only in part due to their cultivation style.

Since he didn’t intend to have children, he didn’t intend to marry – his choices were his own, and not something he would impose on a woman – and that had been that, at least until Jiang Cheng had burst in through his door with an ancient contract in hand.

A cutsleeve marriage hadn’t ever occurred to him as an option, but Jiang Cheng had been desperate, all but throwing himself down on his knees to ask that Nie Mingjue consider the proposal as the only means to save his shixiong and his sect, plus a political bargain besides.

It had seemed as decent an option as any. The love match between the Jin heir and the Jiang daughter was extremely convenient for the Jin sect; this would be a good way to balance things out, and keep the inexperienced and still healing Jiang sect from becoming mere weapons in the hands of Lanling Jin.

After thinking it over, Nie Mingjue had expressed his consent, agreed to handle all the arrangements, and then gone to tell Nie Huaisang about it.

“Are you sure about this?” Nie Huaisang had asked, oddly solemn and intense. “What about – the other parts of marriage?”

“Sex, you mean?” he’d replied. He’d faced up years ago to the fact that Nie Huaisang was an unusually avid collector (and a purveyor, at this point) of erotic art, and who even knew where he’d gotten the taste for it; it was easier to just be blunt and straightforward about this sort of thing than try to dance around the subject. “I’m willing to follow his lead. Sect Leader Jiang said he was agreeable, but that could be just to the political aspect; if he prefers not to be in my bed, I can find relief elsewhere.”

“And if he does want to be in your bed?”

“Then I’ll bed him,” Nie Mingjue had said, not really seeing the issue. His tastes had always been as straightforward as he was, without discrimination by gender or even overly much by appearance; if they liked him, and he liked them, it was good enough for him – why bother thinking it over any more than that? “He seemed lively enough.”

Nie Huaisang had sighed. “Yes, he’s lively all right; more importantly, he’s competent, and that’s been your thing since forever. But that’s not – a marriage isn’t just sex. I know what you’re like, da-ge, better than anyone: when you’re sincere, you’re sincere, and nothing can be done about it. I’d even assumed, once, that you would end up marrying – well, never mind. The question remains: even if you’re indifferent now, what happens if you fall in love?”

“Then I’d be in love with my husband?” Nie Mingjue had hazarded. “That doesn’t seem like a problem?”

Nie Huaisang had groaned, declared Nie Mingjue ‘a useless good-for-nothing when it comes to romance’, and agreed to handle all aspects of the marriage going forward.

And now –

“Oh, yes, I know you were joking when you said that,” Nie Huaisang said, tapping his fan to his lips the way he did when he was scheming something. It was usually something stupid (how to get out of responsibilities, how to get something he wanted, how to pull a truly amazing prank on someone he disliked) but in all actuality Nie Mingjue’s brother was incredibly smart, endlessly stubborn, and highly capable, no matter how he tried to hide his light under a bushel. There was a reason Nie Mingjue wanted their sect to go to him. “But the question is – are you?”

Nie Mingjue stared at him. “What?”

“You don’t have to be joking,” Nie Huaisang said. “You could marry them both. It’s not as if our treasury couldn’t afford the dowries, especially after all our victories in the war.”

“But there isn’t any reason for it. We already have a connection to the Lan sect – I’m sworn brothers with their sect leader!”

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang said patiently. “There is no political benefit to it whatsoever. You could still do it.”

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth, then closed it, and then finally shot Nie Huaisang a look that asked him to explain.

“Wei-xiong and Lan-er-gongzi are both extremely desirable,” Nie Huaisang said. “They’re brilliant cultivators, incredibly smart, incredibly powerful, highly principled – Wei-xiong had the integrity to stand up for the Wen remnants even against the entire cultivation world, Lan-er-gongzi has always acted for the greater good without any doubt or reservation. There’s a reason they’re ranked so highly in the list of young masters.”

He leaned back in his seat, shifting over and starting to idly fan himself.

“Take Lan-er-gongzi: he’s one of the most technically skilled cultivators of my generation, whether in music, sword, archery, or otherwise; there’s isn’t one of the six arts in which he’s lacking, and he’s already known for always being where the chaos is, no matter how little fame it may bring him. Wei-xiong, in turn, is among the most creative cultivators alive, inventing not only an entire new path of cultivation but a myriad of inventions that have proven helpful to all– the spirit attraction flag, the compass of evil, just to name two – and he’s shared them openly, without the slightest inclination to keep them back for his own sect over others. In short, both of them have qualities you greatly admire in people.”

Nie Mingjue nodded. There was nothing wrong with Nie Huaisang’s analysis, excepting only his omission that they had both been fierce advocates of his war against the Wens, both having made significant contributions both on their own merits and through their advocacy – without the two of them, the war might not yet have been won.

For Nie Mingjue, whose filial duty to his father demanded Wen blood, that was a strong mark in their favor.

“Based on what you’re telling me,” Nie Huaisang continued, “for whatever reason, both of them seem to be interested in you. You’re one of the few people who can reliably read Lan expressions: if you tell me Lan Wangji isn’t opposed to the idea, it’s all but saying that he’s fiercely in favor of it. Wei Wuxian hasn’t been even remotely shy about how much he likes the concept. So that brings me to my question: do you want them?”

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth, only to find a fan on his lips, silencing him.

“I want you to think about this seriously, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said. “If you’re really determined for me to be the next Sect Leader Nie, you’ll eventually have to listen to me, so start now. For once in your life, don’t think about the sect. Don’t think about me. Don’t think about anything. No considerations, no benefits and disadvantages, nothing at all. Just close your eyes, think about the two of them, think about the fact that you can have them if you want them, and then tell me – do you want them?”

#mdzs #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #my fic #my fics #pasttime with good company #wangxian #nie mingjue/wei wuxian/lan wangji #there are a few more prompts for this one as well #frogoclock

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