#barely.... sorry my boy

[welcometoteyvat]

Xiao stops by Qingce Village from time to time on his nightly patrols, for the restless spirit of the old chi is not easily quietened. He can feel it sometimes—a sickening heat in the air, agitated whispers in the earth beneath his feet, an oppressive heaviness gathering around the edges of his vision. When the thrumming of violence starts ringing louder and louder in his ears—here, here, come here—he must chase it to its source, slay it, devour it whole—

Xiao inhales sharply. He forces the karmic binds to subside.

Qingce is a quiet little place, and it does not deserve to be tainted by an old god’s hatred.

Tonight, it is peaceful. Crickets chirp in the terraced fields, accompanied by the murmur of water from the slowly turning mill. A half-moon hangs in the sky, bathing the terraced fields in its soft, blue-white glow. Everything is as it should be. And yet…

It feels different— strangely lighter, almost, but Xiao knows that is impossible. It must be something else.

There’s a disturbance by one of the small houses near the outskirts of the village—the chi’s doing? Xiao teleports into a tree on the hill leading down to the fields, makes sure that he is hidden, and listens. There’s a muffled thump from inside the house, and he makes out the movement of shadowy figures against the light of a lantern.

“A-yun? Chongyun, can you hear us?”

“He’s passed out.”

Someone sighs. “His yang energy… what are we going to do, Zitian?” Wait. His… yang energy? Is that why—

“We can discuss that in the morning. Let him rest for now; I’ll get some water for him to drink when he wakes.”

Scuffling noises, and then footsteps growing fainter. A small figure is settled into the bed by the window. It is apparent that nothing dangerous is present—no spirits, no chi—but Xiao is distracted by something else. Because it is unmistakable now; he does feel lighter—freer. The constricting heaviness that weighs on him has lifted, as though a thousand years of karmic debt have been wiped cleanly away. In its place is the gentle night breeze, summer’s touch on the bare patch of skin on his back, the faint fragrance of qingxin in the air.

(He could, perhaps, grow used to this impossible feeling.)

He looks back at the house. There is a blue-haired boy lying in the bed, cheeks slightly flushed, his otherwise pale face illuminated by the soft white moonlight. One skinny leg sticks out from underneath a light blanket as he sleeps, dreamlessly.

So, this is the mortal whose overflowing yang energy must have temporarily rid Xiao of his karmic debt. He looks incredibly unassuming. Xiao cannot remember another human with such an imbalance of yang, even after many centuries of serving Liyue. The condition is rare, and his involvements with mortals rarer still—he may never have met the few other bearers of this peculiar gift. It is impressive, he supposes, that someone so young could have such an effect on curses so old. It is also unlikely, he knows, that he will ever see this boy again. That would be best for both of them; even a unique constitution is far from enough to withstand the nature of Xiao’s karma, and for Xiao, this brief respite has already been enough.

If it is fated, they will meet again.

He slips away before the moon is halfway across the star-speckled sky.

---

author's notes time! a) I have a headcanon that chongyun's family owns some kind of small house in Qingce that's convenient when they're on long trips. b) Zitian is a random name I chose for Chongyun's dad—there's no deeper meaning, I just thought it sounded nice. the 2 ppl talking are Chongyun's parents. c) this scenario wouldn't happen in my head actually LOL. I think if cy were to take a trip out when he's young, he would get sent with an older cousin or two, his parents would probably stay in their mt tianheng residence (wherever it is). idt you need a full set of parents to just bring a kid to tag along on some spirit exorcising d) rather unsatisfied with this ngl but it took me 1 week and I want to be Done with it so here you go. e) probably made up some lore in this take things with a grain of salt f) the most important thing to know about me is that i fucking love writing descriptions and inner monologues and I hate coming up with plot

ok thanks for reading !! <3

also on ao3

[lightgamble]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN | 1.01, 1.02 & 1.03

I'm not him anymore. And, I won't let myself be.

[croquettish]

This is making me feel insane. This interaction only comes up if you keep clicking on Hans after you run into him at the wedding (the first time), but it gives us literally perfect insight into Hans' mental state during the divorce arc.

Like... Hans, baby girl. You left Henry. He literally was ready to push all your insults aside and move on, ready to keep going together, and you pushed him away.

No wonder he did that. No wonder he tried to push that inadequacy onto Henry. It's all at home in deep-rooted, deep-seated insecurity: I'm not good enough for Henry. I'm holding him back. I landed us in the pillory. We only ended up here because I had to run my big mouth, just like he said. I need to do this myself because if not I am only a dead weight to Henry.

I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't running through his head the whole night they spent in the pillory together.

[tobisiksi]

I have this headcanon where ku has moles that forms constellations

like imagine him just changing for gym class and aren sees the Ursa major on his back

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.

[inameating]

ok they…. put the dogs away.

[akqrus]

Does anyone else think of how Adrien would react after knowing about Chat Blanc and the damage he had caused?

Like how disgusted he would be with himself, how ashamed he'd be, how he can't look at his reflection in the mirror anymore because he's a monster that hurt his lady, how he would stare at his hands wanting to burn them for even daring to touch her, how he'd feel lightweight and vomit from how nauseating the fact that he was capable of such sins was, how he'd abandon Ladybug in the name of protecting her, how he can't view the world the same anymore, the same world he single-handedly corrupted.

How terrified he would be to ever confront her, look in her eyes, and dare to touch her...

No...

Not with his lethal hands, never...

[doomed2repeat]

You ever make yourself sad realizing that every woman who’s ever told Colin she loves him has been exposed to him as a liar?

And that even at his flirtiest, Colin maintains the honesty that Marina recognized him for back in S1 when she said he doesn’t play games, by telling the debutantes up front that he did not come back to London to look for a wife and never dancing with any of them or singling any one girl out from the packs to give his attention to?

Or how about realizing that after believing his best friend abandoned him for no reason other than his own unlikeability he goes to brothels where everything is transactional- he pays a fee (in advance even!) gets attention for however long the encounter lasts, with no promises or lies- and that just makes him feel even more empty that’s not the kind of honest connection he’s craving?

Or that Colin’s own body can’t lie once he knows what that honest connection feels like?

Or that when he realizes the woman he loves most in the world lies and keeps secrets, he’s willing to make himself lie to his family just to be with her and keep her secret safe?

[the-meme-monarch]

i barely know charmy bee but if you hate charmy bee we can't be friends

[thestamp3d3]

SOUL PUNK BABYYYYYYYY *vibrates*

[jajatoc]

Mesque's fleet of world enders, black like a pot, appears on the horizon of Revachol. In the fashion capital. They're [...] asking, what' that ominous chimney smoke over the ocean, like storm clouds?

In the leather-seat-scented rustle of the radio, they talk about an atomic weapon that was dropped on Revachol three hours ago. The female announcers voice is calm and beautiful.

Hi I just finished Sacred and Terrible Air and it did irreparable damage to my brain + In '72, year of the nuking of Revachol (if i remember correctly), Kim would have been 64, Harry 65 and I will never recover from this knowledge

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

One day

One day I hope people realize that Kitsunami already "broke through his programming" back by issue #56 of Idw Sonic

He had an entire mini arc where he dealt with being without Surge for the first time, and in the real world. He met Sonic and his friends directly, tried to work out what his purpose would be without Surge in his life (gave it a shot trying to devote himself to Sonic, seeing him as the next best thing after Surge). And when it was all said and done, he decided after experiencing more that at Surge's side is where he wanted to be.

As of the recent IDW issues, Kit isn't sticking with Surge "because of programming" and "because he just needs for other characters to friend him and turn him into a better person". He is at her side because he wants to be. He protects her and aids her because he cares about her, not just because he's serving the strongest guy in the room. And he's not interacting with others because he's decided not to give a shit about anyone else other than Surge (because from his pov, even the "good guys" are fake. From his pov, everyone is someone trying to lie and manipulate their way into pulling him and Surge to their side)

Kit already has decided what he wants to do with his life. And he decided it on his own. Not because of anyone else's wants or wishes. That's the whole point of his speech at the end of #56.

He's burying whatever his and Surge's past is and moving forward with his conviction to be with Surge because it's what he wants.

[krownjester]

updated (AND SUPER FUCKING RUSHED) reference pages for my characters from my show idea, the golden boys! and some misc. sketches i've made recently. i really wanted to be able to have better references for artfight 2024. i love them a lot, gonna try and post art more. i know i became super inactive here, but i wanna come back <3

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

Is this canon? Technically no.

Is it even In character? Absolutely not!

Do I care? Not really!

Locus is my blorbo and i can put him in annoying situations, like having a small squad of annoying but just-good-enough-to-not-kill-them Feds, if i want to

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Outdrawn

f/f contemporary romance

two cartoonist who’ve been rivals since uni, and now have competing webcomics online, have to work together on the relaunch of a cult classic at the comic press they both work at

they both struggle with art-related physical and mental health issues, and complicated families

[skibasyndrome]

.