#chinese incel

[gacha-incels]

I’ve been looking to find a translation/overview of this article for some time as a more expansive look into East Asian (specifically Chinese in this case) male gacha consumers views on female and male characters in these games and what they represent. this was touched upon a bit in this post from January and also in the “gacha design” post. I think there is still some confusion with westerners playing these games thinking the female characters are specifically designed for women and the male characters for men, because with more western games (and media) you will typically get the grizzled male protag look and anything with a female MC is ridiculed by male gamers as pandering/“woke”/“SJW”/etc, take your pick bc this shit all means the same thing. but typically in gacha an all-female cast has been made to appeal to male consumers, and an all male cast will pander to women. Just look at something like NIKKE (all female cast) VS Ensemble Stars (all male). when there is a male character who is extremely popular with female players and has obviously been designed for that demographic, this is when you will see the explosive violent anger from misogynist male fans like what happened with the Genshin Impact character Wanderer. This happened with the Korean incels and the character Lyney, the Honkai Star Rail male characters who have boob windows like Aventurine also catch their ire for being sexualized in a similar way to the female designs. they hate any male character that appeals to women and/or “looks gay”, you can find plenty of western players speaking about the Genshin male characters like this as well. these groups tend to be extremely misogynistic and homophobic (we saw this with their comments during their disastrous “blimp protest”) but no surprise there I’m sure. because Genshin is a very popular mixed sex gacha that consistently tops charts, it’s believed by these men to be the reason why newer gacha games have both male and female characters instead of solely female, and they go so far as to call this effect (among other things) the “genshinification” of gacha games. I think this is important to learn about if you want to understand why a particular demographic of men play these games and why they react in certain ways to specific characters.

this article looks into the male Chinese gacha player phenomenon essentially called something like “Don’t play if there are men”, referring to mixed sex gacha games. It begins by explaining how the “movement” really started speaking out aggressively when Genshin Impact had back to back to back limited male 5-star releases for multiple patches in a row.

you can trudge along with a clunky MTL of the entire thing (I’ve just posted the beginning here) but I’ve found 2 comments in english that speak about this article-

[piedbirb]

i was gonna pull for lyney anyways because cute boy in a corset and stockings and garterbelt is peak 👌👌👌 but knowing his design is pissing off all the incels in the korean side of the fanbase is making me need him even more lmao

[pinkautist]

looking at what chinese male fans are doing to chinese games and going, "hm! that's Not Great!"

[justaboutsnapped]

Why you shouldn’t support the upcoming game Black Myth: Wukong

Simply put, the creators behind Black Myth: Wukong are raging misogynists.

Founders and creatives of the studio have:

Joked about former female employees hypothetically doing prostitution

Used suggestive/objectifying/derogatory imagery & phrasing in their hiring flyers (under the cut), e.g. “In addition to hookup buddies, we promise to provide more thoughtful services” , “fatties fuck off”, etc.

Written entire think pieces on how video games don’t need female players or developers, how women are biologically inclined towards “softer” modes of gaming than men (there’s also a bit of homophobia mixed in through language such as “fuck sissies”), how some things should just be made for men, etc. “Fuck sissies, fuck tragic love stories, fuck moon-lit peach blossoms and flute-playing scholars! You don't need the reverse motivation of female players, you don't need to take care of those worms who just want to date chicks. Some things are just for men, their depression, their anger, their pain...”

Made numerous sexually explicit (& honestly incel-like) comments including ones about a female character in Black Myth: Wukong, e.g. “once you get used to this [character design] you can jerk off to it”, etc.

Boasted about how they’re losing followers, who must be women

To no one’s surprise, when people criticise the studio online, they’re met with vitriol about how they’re hypersensitive feminists, too politically correct, etc.

Chinese women have been YELLING non-stop on social media about how bad it is so it’s pretty depressing to see that a lot of non-Chinese gamers, even after reading an IGN article covering the situation, are apathetic. I get that a lot of people are excited about the novelty of a soulslike game based on Chinese mythology, but do you really want to support a studio that actively contributes towards and benefits from misogynistic gaming culture?

Talking about separating the artist from their art is bullshit if you're financially supporting them. Boycott! Pirate!

Here are some sources if you want to see detailed translations, learn more about the situation as well as the misogynistic gaming culture at large China:

[squishymagee]

2

Cracks knuckles....stretch shoulders, strokes thick beard...thinking about other ways to provide readers a notion that I'm about to get my thought process in order and put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard.

I could start by using a comma.

So 2022 has been fun. We had two years of a global pandemic and then we collectively thought we are done with combatting this viral inconvenience. It's not like the Herman Cain awards have stopped .

Meh, that's too depressing a subject. Let's talk about politics.

Nope, that doesn't work either.

Self reflection. Yes, let's talk about within the meta itself, fourth wall breaking, extremely uncomfortable subject: self reflection. A quarter of the year into the new millennium, things are statistically looking different. Fertility rates are down, fascism is becoming more popular, the general distrust between sexes is on the rise. "Queens", "Kings", Incels, Femcels and political polarization abound! Don't worry, we can change this timeline by simply pushing the red button for nuclear war. It's always fun when senior citizens with dementia have the power to ensure mutually assured destruction. Good times my friends.

More to come? Not sure, gotta go pick up that chinese take out I ordered.

[h47ing]

INCEL

erm actually these are JAPANESE not chinese!

[jade-len]

so today i tricked my very straight male friend into reading svsss.

okay look, i wasn't planning to at first and it's not like it was completely my fault. he wanted to read it!

i was showing him how badly they fucked up mu qingfang in the donghua by comparing it to the english novel design (he said that mu qingfang went from looking like a soft dilf to a predator registered on the epstein island list). and then, i showed him how different some of the other character designs were like gongyi xiao's ("he looks like he'd be a genshin character" -friend, to eng novel design) and luo binghe's ("lowkey, he kinda gives airbender vibes" -friend, to bunhe eng novel design)

so that was all i was gonna show him, nothing else. but after seeing them, he goes, "these designs actually look hella cool. what's the book called?"

now, do i:

A. tell him the name, eventually revealing that it's a danmei when he looks it up?

B. just straight up tell him that it's a danmei?

C: don't tell him the name just yet, spill the summary, get him interested, and tell him to not search anything up about it because there's heavy spoilers and it will reveal them the moment he types it up on the search bar

i go with C, obviously.

me: so, basically, some guy named shen yuan transmigrates into an incel harem male power fantasy novel where the protagonist, luo binghe, has hundreds of wives. thing is though, the guy pretty much took over the body of binghe's teacher he had when he was a teenager, who turns out to be a really scummy dude. and now he has to be nice to him so that the protagonist doesn't rip off his limbs and put him into a pickle pot in the future to suffer for eternity.

friend: that sounds hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

me: yes it is, and you should read it. it's like. my favorite novel at the moment. but don't search up anything about it because people spoil that shit. i'll let you borrow my novel

friend: nah don't worry, i'll just pirate it

friend: wait. does it have pictures?

me, my plan coming together: yeah, it has pictures. buuut, when you pirate it, it doesn't. trust me dude, i tried and was severely disappointed. plus, the physical copy is so much better

friend: fuck yeah ok thanks

me: hold on though. i'll text you later to see if my friend who's borrowing it rn is done reading it

he's hyped. he's excited. he craves a good book and a good transmigration interpretation. he's especially happy about the fact that it takes place in a chinese setting with cool powers and an actual good main character. "this sounds so good, god i wanna read it so bad."

i tell him that binghe is actually adorable, too. that it's pretty much found family! my friend then asks if shen yuan adopts him and becomes a father figure or something.

and i said "yes". you know, like a liar. (the father figure part probably isn't a lie though)

now i'm gonna give him the novel tomorrow! of course, i'm gonna cover the chapter 2 bunhe sexual awakening scene with washi tape and say that my baby cousin (sorry baby cousin, you would never <\3) scribbled all over that paragraph with her markers, and since i'm a neat book freak, i put washi tape and just wrote the scene! i don't know if that's really all too believable, but he didn't seem to care that much. just a simple "if my baby cousin did that to my book i would punt them into the sun"

i think what'll be more hilarious is the fact that you can't really tell that svsss is a BL. especially not volume 1. there's like, only a few lines indicating, but if you remove the baby binghe sexual awakening scene then you probably won't be able to know (...if you don't really read romance or anything. idk he's kinda dense anyways). so let's hope he gets attached and has a slow descent into the homo before i drop svsss vol 2 on him!

ok anyways i'll update you guys later with a reblog. maybe in about two or three days lol

(also don't worry, we already fuck around with each other on a daily basis like this. he's already tricked me into reading some manga i was unprepared for, and i thought that it'd be funny to mess around with him using svsss this time lol)

[punkeropercyjackson]

Let's be real and say the reason Aang having a crush on Katara is considered 'predatory' and Katara liking him back is considered 'an incel fantasy' is because of racism.Lil boys of color being accused of forcing themselves on girls their age with no basis is nothing new and neither is the idea that lesser known kinds of asian men are inherently less attractive than easian men as pretty much every asian culture that's not japanese,korean or chinese is seen as lesser and not good enough to be an aesthetic by westerners due to orientalism and it extends to how they treat and view asian folks and we see this in the Atla fandom nonstop with the demonization of the Air Nomads and the glamroization of the Fire Nation.The title of the show is literally about how the FN did a genocide on the AN but somehow 'they keep retconning things to make the Air Nomads look better and the Fire Nation look worse' is a direct quote from 2024 of all years,in the middle of multiple irl genocides and Aang as a tibetan person being a survivor of one is something that actually happened irl as China did an etchnic cleansing on Tibet.Aang hate in the name of shipping Zutara cannot be seperated from racism because that's entierly what fuels it,including the fetishization and infantilization of Zuko as a japanese person and the sanitization and agency removal of Katara as a brown native punk girl.Zutara is racist towards Zuko because it turns him palpable for westerners and he deserves better just like Aang and Katara do.Zuko is not white-adjacent but he's viewed as such by Zutradras and that's where his 'appeal to women' comes from to them and it's extremely obvious by how he is talked of,written and even drawn by them-Rip Zuko's beautiful monolids and goth-y japanese drips in favor of making him dress like a white altie.Katara is not digestable for normie women and this is where the rage at her canon writing originates,that she's for misfit women and they consider her threatning and 'wrong' and 'no girl would choose Aang over Zuko' because they've been taught the kinds of girls who'd choose Aang over Zuko are 'doing girlhood wrong' and should be alienated and isolated and punished for it-See the mass hostility towards trans/neurodivergence headcanons and rampant misogynoir/black female erasure in Zutara circles despite the interracial rep claims.Hating Kataang with the justification that 'Aang dosen't appeal to women'(a white take)and 'Zutara is empowering to Katara'(also a white take)is racist and this includes if you're a poc yourself as Aang is a very unpapable to americanized/whitewashed experiences take on an asian mc and Zuko is too.Period

[max1461]

Thought for a moment in the 2010s that we were entering a new serious era (e.g. 1920s, 30s, 40s), but it seems that we're instead in an increasingly tacky era (50s, 60s, 70s). Like look at the change in YouTube. Well you all are textheads you don't do video, I know that. But like. In 2017 there was ContraPoints. Agree or disagree with her opinions, what she was doing was conceptually and aesthetically serious. Even her early, low-production-value stuff. She was talking about incels and other internet shit, but the internet is part of the real world, that's fine. In fact that's what gave me hope for another serious era, people were finally talking about internet stuff the way 1920s German intellectuals or whatever talked about the cultural trends of their day. Maybe because Contra has half a philosophy PhD and was explicitly influenced by those German intellectuals.

Another example from a totally disjoint cultural niche was Digi a.k.a. Trixie a.k.a. Ygg Studios or whatever they go by now. Drunk, smelly, and unkempt—yes. Or at least so went the persona. Talking seriously about anime—also yes. When they claimed they were the only good anime reviewer on the internet it made a lot of people mad. But they were right!

There were thinkers, we had thinkers. My generation, or roughly my generation, had thinkers. To be clear, when I include Contra here I'm not including all of her ilk, I'm not including the leftist-theory-regurgitators and so on. But Contra herself was a thinker! Digi was a thinker! We had thinkers.

But that era is over now, on YouTube at least. I go on there and it's all algorithmic drivel. I look for anime content and as I've explained it's all about #hype and #epic and how the new season of whatever #hits different and other empty meaningless bullshit. No analysis, no thought, fundementally unserious bullshit. Tacky! It's tacky! The the YouTube thumbnail O-face is fucking 70s-ass fake wood paneling tacky bullshit!

MrBeast. I've never seen a MrBeast video but I hate him for what he represents. I used to watch this channel called Wranglerstar, he made videos about different types of axes and forest fire fighting equipment and various other stuff. "Modern homesteading" I believe was the tagline. And it was always evident that he was a far-right guy but who gives a shit, his videos where good. Serious videos about interesting topics, that a fucking normal guy might watch. Well around 2020 he basically started flooding his channel with covid conspiracy bullshit and "the Chinese are going to attack us any day!" bullshit and other unserious crap. And I had to stop watching. How could I find any of that compelling? It's vapid nonsense.

And I don't know if it's a shift in the algorithm or people becoming more savvy to the algorithm or what, but all of YouTube is like this now. Vapid clickbait empty meaningless bullshit for another tacky commercialized bullshit era.

And you know, I felt like it might just be localized to YouTube for a while, but I started to look around, and it just feels like everything is like this. Backsliding to the tacky times. God I hate tackiness. I hate unseriousness. I'm having a little meltdown. At least SMW kaizo hacks are having a renaissance. People are doing serious shit in that space, serious shit that is also not anachronistic, you know, it's kept up with the modern world. It addresses modern concerns (fun to play hard Mario). But it's serious. People are serious. One of the few serious things happening in my orbit.

Even in science it feels like people aren't serious anymore. You know, standard Sabine Hossenfelder complaint about particle physics. But I don't really know enough about that to say. Get the vibe that biology is still serious these days.

To be clear, everything I'm saying here is pure vibes. I'm just saying shit. I'm just saying shit that I feel. But I'll be deeply disappointed if I have to live my youth in another tacky era, god damn it. Even the 80s seem like they were better than this.

[idiasalterpacking]

(Almost) Stereotypical Incel Weeb Alter

~ Name(s) : Felix (masc) / Trigger (Enby)

~ Pronouns : He/They/Nym/Vos/Zaer/Fayr

~ Age : 23

~ Birthday : November 13th

~ Genders : Trans masc boyflux

~ Sexuality : Biromantic Heterosexual

~ Paraphilias : 🗺

~ CisIDs : CisIncel, Cis🗺, CisHarmful (based on societal beliefs), CisProblematic, CisNullEmpathy, CisYandere, CisSmoker, CisScary, CisWeirdo / CisFreak, CisAtheist, CisNPD, CisBPD, CisAntiSocial, CisWeeb, CisAnimeLover, CisFetish, CisRaceFetish, CisAutistic

~ TransIDs : Transgender, TransLoliGirlfriend, TransAsianGirlfriend, PermaWeeb, TransNEET, TransDisgusting, NullShowers, NullHygeine, Trans4chanUser, TransDiscordMod, TransRedditUser, TransSatanist, TransFat, TransTwitterUser, TransSexist, TransMisogynistic

~ Likes : Anime, Lolis/Shotas, Japanese/Chinese/Korean women, American foods (burgers, hotdogs, fried food, etc), Reddit, Shipping (Comshipping), Ai chatbots, body pillows

~ Dislikes : Showering/Hygiene, watching anything but anime/any shows that aren't anime, going outside, talking to irl people (only if he knew them online first)

~ Roles : No Specific Name Known but will help the host or body avoid the outdoors or other people when overwhelmed by social interaction

[wolf-tail]

Even if Rowling wasn't completely off the holocaust denying deep-end, the way she wrote those wizard books kind of pisses me off now that i'm older because they have so much potential to be better than they actually were.

Like, middle school me was eating that shit up for a reason, you don't become one of the most popular authors in the world who created one of the most well-known pieces of literature in the world off of dumb luck. There were things she did right. Unfortunately , now that i'm older I can see everything she did wrong. And my writer's brain mixed with my ego is telling me that I could make it better.

Implant a heavier theme of the wizarding world's patronizing bullshit and entitlement. Like seriously, the complete unwarranted superiority complex that these chuckle fucks have is obnoxious beyond belief. Even middle school me knew that there was no good reason to keep magic away from the people they made up a slur for. Maybe that should have been the main theme of the books.

Seriously, it ties in so well with the evil wizard supremacy sublot. The solution to systemic discrimination is not to get rid of bigoted people. It's to tear down those systems entirely. The wizarding world seriously needs a status quo shake up.

Revamp the house elves or just cut them out entirely. Just don't fucking justify slavery. IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!

Maybe this is lefist brain talking but do not make Harry grow up to be a fucking magic cop. In fact, I would have had made the Aurors be unbelievably awful and corrupt, just like a real cops!

Give the characters of color less racist names.

Stop describing your female villains as "mannish"

The greedy goblin banker theme is one of the most disgustingly antisemetic things i've ever had the displeasure of putting up with. What the fuck is wrong with you Joanne!? I would just cut that shit out.

The violent fatphobia grosses me out so much. When I was little I wanted Dudley to get a PROPER redemption arc so bad and not be abused for his weight. In fact , if I were Rowling, I would have added in a sublot about Dudley discovering his own magic to and having to unlearn the shit his parents taught him, as well as deal with their painful rejection of him. That would've been really cool.

Apparently lycanthropy was supposed to be a metaphor for HIV??? Ew, Joanne. No. It's like she never talked to a gay man in her life.

The "love" potions piss me off SO BAD. Voldemort's mother was not in love. She was a rapist. I would change that up entirely.

Snape is not a hero. He was an incel in a hate group. Acknowledge him as such and don't have Harry name his fucking kid after him.

Hey, quick question, why does the school have a blood supremacist house???? Why was this allowed??? Why did she write Slytherin to just be openly discriminatory towards mixed blood kids????

Whatever the dad Weasely's name is, I would have played off his whole "weeb for nonmagical people" thing as more patronizing and accidentally insensitive than endearing. He reminds me of white moms who say konichiwa to the waiter at Chinese restaurants and think they're "cultured".

For the love of god, treat the female characters other than Hermione with an OUNCE of respect.

Now that I know more about animal welfare and the exotic pet industry, Hagrid kinda gets on my nerves. I would add a sublot about him learning to respect the boundaries of wild animals.

I can't think of anything else that ticks me off about the books right now but I will come back to this if I do.

[gacha-incels]

If you’re wondering, Korean incels are unhappy with the female characters from the newest Genshin Impact region lol they think these women are designed for female players instead of male. I think in their own tantrum the Chinese incels were also complaining about this. They compare the newest female character added to the gacha, Navia, to blonde characters from blatant male-oriented titty and pedo-pandering gacha games like Blue Archive and Nikke. Their conclusion is that blonde characters from those games are made for men, whereas the blonde Navia’s design looks like a female protagonist from a romantic fantasy which appeals to women. Also they don’t like her wearing sunglasses because in media women with high self esteem wear them. They mention some conversations in a recent event sound like writing from a romance drama for women.

From other posts of theirs I’ve seen, they believe the game was “for” only them (male gacha fans) originally but has pivoted the past year to being “for” women only. I think that’s why they won’t just quit if they don’t like it, they want the game to change completely to pander to them only and will pay $11,000 to pathetically try and turn the tide. It’s the same type of “gamer” male that wants games to remain a “boys only” media, especially gachas which now and for the past decade have been known primarily for having highly sexualized, skimpily dressed female characters and entirely female casts. That’s why here and in other posts they keep asking “who are their customers?” implying it’s women instead of men. These posts they make are a strange look into their minds where we can try to understand more specifically why they’re going SO hard in their “attacks” against Genshin and their witch hunts against any Korean woman working in media.

[sharp-silver4795]

Liu Woods Headcannons

The people have spoken! On a poll that I made, I asked if yall wanted me to post my own stuff and…. Oh god- I set it for a week cuz I thought no one would see it- 40 FUCKING PEOPLE RESPONDED-

So, I hear you! I’m gonna start with just random head cannons cuz… yeah…

TW!!!

Suicide, Murder (duh), abusive families, definitely not the Liu most ppl know.

I will put a warning before each group of bullets.

Least Sensitive >> Mildly Sensitive >> Most Sensitive

The first two aren’t head cannons-

I pronounce it like “Lee-oh” (Leo). I made a post about it earlier. However, I’ve said it like “Loo” for a long time- I’m tryna break that habit

He is my favorite. I remember seeing a post that was judging ppl based on their fav creepypasta…. No I won’t shut up about him.

HEAD CANNON TIME

General

He’s Chinese. Jeff is his half brother on their mom’s end. There is no fucking way an American kid would have a Chinese name.

So, Liu moved from China when he was 5 and his mom married Peter. Jeff was born when he was 7.

When Liu was young he didn’t have many friends cuz his English sucked and his little brother wasn’t even a year old.

He likes brownies and cinnamon rolls like their made of gold

Man can cook 🧑‍🍳 🤌

Has a bunch of plants that he forgets exist and cries when they die

Boy is tough. A lot of ppl see him as a teeny bean, hell nah!

Wears combat boots, skinny jeans, and sweaters consistently.

The scarf is to cover scars.

He’s about 6’5 (nearly 200cm).

Murder, Gore, Blood

Mainly uses a crowbar to beat his victims to death.

Remember how I said he wears combat boots? Well those things have heels and he tends to “stun” kill people by jumping up and stomping down on the side of the person’s head. 240lbs in a surface area the size of a US quarter is definitely gonna break your skull.

In the mansion his job doesn’t really revolve around murder as much as it’s about torture. He’s fucking good at it too.

Sexuality, Gender, and Such

He’s gay. You can’t change my mind.

I see him as being Agender and not caring about the pronouns you use for him. (Note: I usually switch up the pronouns but since this is the first HC post I’m making for them, I wanted this to be said first)

Married to EJ. If you don’t like the ship, I’m sorry!

⚠️ SA, CSA, Abuse, Suicide, SH, Grooming ⚠️

DID usually forms before 9yo and I can’t believe him getting DID at 19.

So, he hung himself when he was 19. This is what set Jeff off, because he was the one who found Liu’s body.

So, Keith is about 11 years older than Liu, and, when he was looking for friends, Keith took advantage of them. This lead to Liu basically being groomed until he was 12. I HC that Randy had a lil “crush” on Jeff and Keith kept Liu “out of the way” by consistently r—ping him.

Things at home weren’t great for him either. Peter was under the impression that his mom was a virgin with no kids (incell vibes), and when he found out Liu existed Peter decided to take it out on him. He would be locked in a dark closet of the basement for days on end. If he “misbehaved” too much, Peter would put him in the clothes dryer (also in the basement) for however long he deemed necessary.

Eventually Liu couldn’t take it and he hung himself.

Liu’s Alters and System

⚠️ similar themes from before, drugs/alcohol abuse, religious trauma ⚠️

Hannah: gatekeeper, what Liu “would have been” like if nothing happened.

Jinx: Sexual protector, the response to Keith’s abuse

Sully: Physical protector, response to Peter’s abuse

Jessie: Mental persecutor, encouraged Liu to kill himself.

Leviathan: Trauma holder, response to constant guilt from religious trauma

Vex: persecutor, response to alcohol and drug addiction.

Nigh: Trauma holder, response to all those lonely years

So, about Jeff…

Liu has zero issues with Jeff.

Jeff didn’t kill him, he had to make his way back to life (I will post more abt this another day).

Jeff mispronounced his name, but Liu was too nervous to correct him (bc trauma)

He is about 6yrs older than Jeff.

I probably have other HCs that i forgot, but anyway- that’s all the energy I have rn….

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

Mistranslated Weibo tweets from the devs of Black Myth Wukong is enough for these braindead westerners to boycott this and be extremely racist to the Chinese fans who rightfully are looking forward to our first AAA game screams racism lmao.

The same people on here saying that they aren’t going to play BMW because the devs are incel pos are the same ones hyping up COD releases and Overwatch despite everything their company has done.

You don’t want to play it because of some mistranslated Weibo, and because you don’t understand Chinese internet slangs, fine. Whatever. But when you call my culture and those in my country who is excited because this is one of the only times westerners get a taste of our rich history and culture bots, and brainwashed shills I wish you death by a thousand cuts.

Racism and white people go hand in hand lol. You’re not better because you try to justify your racism by claiming the devs are incels and that all Chinese people are brainwashed shills. Fuck you very much.

[crushedgraham]

D.va x Insecure gf please? Maybe im not doing well 💀

D.va x Insecure Gf

i didn't save it on accident and it got deleted so this is my second time writing this :,) also i didnt know if you wanted hc's or a fic so i did a little of both

being with one of the most adored celebrities in korea can be hard.

even the idea of Hana having a partner sent her fanbase into a craze

so much pressure is on you to look and act like the perfect partner

and when people catch you two on a date and you don't look like how they'd imagined?

suddenly her streams are being flooded with hate comments about your relationship

"D.va could do so much better than that"

"how did they pull her..."

"she's not worthy of Hana"

you tried so hard not to give into their words but you could only take so much

eventually you were cancelling weekly dates and refusing to go out with her to replenish her snacks

you just didnt want anymore comments that validated all of your insecurities

and slowly you found yourself slipping, spiraling into a pool of self-hatred and insecurity

hana noticed, of course she did

she noticed your heavy gaze whenever you looked into the mirror

the dark circles around your eyes

how your skin was paler

how you started skipping meals

it broke her heart.

The dim light from your phone illuminated the dark room. Hana cracked open the door, letting the hallway light stream in. Her brows furrow as she looks at your form underneath the thick duvet. You've been rotting in that bed for weeks, only ever coming out to use the bathroom or shower every few days.

"Jagi? I brought dinner..."

Hana holds a tray of some food that she ordered from a random Chinese restaurant as she enters the dim room. She kicks the door closed with her foot and places the tray on the nightstand. The small click of your phone and the darkness that encompasses are the only response she gets from you.

She walks a practiced path to the bed and sits on the edge.

"I'm worried about you, Y/N....Just..Talk to me, please. I'm always here for you."

Her voice sounds so...Heartbroken. Guilt floods your body and it feels cruel to just ignore her. You roll over and you reach out your hand to the shadow of her body - you come in contact with her wrist and you stroke it softly with her thumb. Hana's pulse soothes your nerves and you scooch a little closer to her.

"Can I turn the light on?"

Your head nods against her knee and she reaches over to flick on the warm light of the lamp. Hana's eyes soften as she looks at your poor state.

"Oh Jagi...Let me take care of you"

Hana leads you to the attached bathroom, she turns the faucet of the bath on to let the water warm up and - filling it with scented oils and soap. She helps you undress from the old pajamas and you take your place in the warm bath. Hana strips out of her own and settles onto your lap, cupping her hands, she pours some water onto your hair to get it ready for the shampoo. She dribbles the shampoo into her hands and works it through your hair, making sure to gently massage your scalp.

Little kisses are pressed against your cheek and jaw - usually it's you praising Hana but it feels nice to be the one being pampered.

Once she washes the shampoo out, she rubs some more of that scented oil into her hands and starts massaging your tense shoulders. You can feel the tension melting away and you lean your head back with a groan.

"I don't deserve you, bunny"

"Hey don't say that"

She stops and when you open your eyes, you're met with a pouting Hana. Her small hands cup your face as she stares into your eyes. This is the most serious you've seen her.

"You deserve all of me. Don't listen to those incels on social media, they're just jealous that you have me all to yourself."

You chuckle at her choice of words and her heart flutters seeing you smile for the first time in a while.

"You're my player two. And no one will ever beat me at mario kart like you do. You're irreplaceable"

You roll your eyes with a big grin at her unromantic words. Impulse takes over Hana and she lunges at you, smothering your face with kisses as she wraps her arms around your neck.

"I missed you so much Jagi!"

The water sloshes from both your squirming and you two burst out into a flurry of kisses and giggles.

"Hey Hana?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you"

"I love you too Y/N"

[rarepears]

I can totally see Shenyuan copying some of the other famous paintings as well, like the mona lisa, girl with a pearl earring, maybe a few of Shen Jiu as Hera with her peacocks etc.

Regal paintings of him walking in the garden with light shining upon his features, paintings of him resting after a good meal, him smiling, him greeting guests with grace, him holding a cup, petting their cat-(originally, Shenyuan wanted a dog, but Shen Jiu did NOT. One (1!) Puppy in human form was enough.) Whose name is King Yama since he's a literal hellraising conqueror who WILL chase away any whom dare touch what is HIS. (And what Shen Jiu commands, he's a DIVA, not a PICKY-EATER! Gosh, time to go bite another would be seducer.) And of him playing music, him writing, him painting and so many more things.

(Shenyuan is creating enough artwork to make a huge-ass MUSEUM. With MINIMUM FIVE STORIES HIGH! HE'S THE MAKER OF WETDREAMS FOR ARCHEOLOGISTS, HISTORIANS AND PAINTING ENTHUSIASTS ALONG WITH A FEW OTHER CATEGORIES.)

As a Modern Man who's analytical and kind of an incel aka he's Not Great about understanding other people's viewpoints and assumes his own POV is representative of everyone else's, Shenyuan doesn't Get That Chinese Calligraphy Painting style.

Aka he thinks that renaissance oil and hyperrealism are the best style and those are the painting/drawing styles that he's trying to emulate here in Ancient China. He might also be stubbornly sticking to it since his understanding of ink painting is shit and he's still struggling to get it.

(Good thing he's a prince - he's kickstarting a whole new art trend by all the bootlicking nobles who want to curry favor and thus push their kids to also "appreciate" the new style of art.)

Meanwhile there's just Shen Jiu who's like, "yeah I know you think I'm pretty. That's why you picked me to be your concubine - what's new?" Beauty, to Shen Jiu, is not a blessing; it's dangerous if you aren't rich or powerful and Shen Jiu is neither. Beauty fades and the ways to profit off of beauty is dangerous - prostitution and concubinage often led to abuse for the beautiful person is usually never the one who comes out on top.

So that's why Shen Jiu is most struck by the paintings that Shenyuan does that shows Shen Jiu doing ordinary things - a painting of Shen Jiu with his brows scrunched up while he's reading, a painting of Shen Jiu holding a cup of tea in mid laugh (cough the Leo DiCaprio memes), and more. It's not focused on Shen Jiu's beauty but rather him as a person and the emotions of the event. Shen Jiu is embarrassed by the not particularly beautiful depiction of himself in some of them - what would people think seeing how foolish he looks playing with his cat like that! - but he also can see his husband's appreciation of him as a person and not him as a beautiful doll.

[More in the #Shen Jiu time travels and decides to hide from cang qiong by becoming a concubine AU]