#i think it’s cute to imagine lovestruck jade

[merakiui]

I’ve been thinking a lot how Jade would become fascinated by the human body. His darling can just be minding their business (or napping :0) and he takes their hand and studies it intently. Humans are so weird and so… interesting?? Soft noncon with Jade orz ^^

Also your tags on pregnancy with Floyd oml — imagine being his assistant as he’s a crime lord who has been with him through thick and thin. You’re essentially a glorified secretary and maid for him but the pay and security is good so you can’t complain too much. Being with him for years has allowed him to develop an unhealthy obsession with you. Even more so when he starts viewing your body as something enticing. And he’s a greedy, spoiled eel who always gets what he wants :)))

:0 omg Little Mermaid concept where you’re caught in a terrible storm and Jade saves you and brings you to shore, but you’re just such an interesting sight. He’s never seen a human this closely before (at least a human who’s alive and breathing and isn’t decaying deep within the sea…), so naturally he’s overwhelmed with curiosity. Your hands are so small and soft, and they don’t have any webbing or claws! Your teeth are far more blunt than his sharpened, needle-pointed ones.

And of course the strangest part of all is your legs. He pokes and prods at them while you’re unconscious, his head tilted the entire time he tries to work out what these things are used for. Your feet don’t seem as strong as his tail fin, but then maybe they aren’t used for swimming? Maybe, since you’re a terrestrial creature, it’s for walking. That sounds reasonable! He couldn’t ever imagine walking himself! That feels impossible, but if he ever got the chance he’d try with sheer determination. >:) in the end, Jade’s so curious he ends up sticking a few fingers in your hole, spreading it wide to look inside. Curiosity is a nasty vise, but the way you squeeze his cock when he pushes in so gently is even tighter. He’s gone before you can wake up, hiding amongst rock formations, invigorated with a feeling he’s never felt before. He’s fallen in love.

And crime boss Floyd with his cute, powerless assistant!!!! He adores you, even if you’re so focused on finishing your work as quickly as possible so he won’t find fault and get upset with you. But Floyd could never be angry at his favorite secretary. He loves teasing you. After you’ve cleaned up the blood from a previous…disagreement he’s had, he makes you service him. Give him a kiss or give him head. >:) your technique may be sloppy or inexperienced, but Floyd loves it. He’ll give Shrimpy lots of praise and compliments—and the occasional teasing, degrading remark—but he means well. And since you’re so obedient for him, bound to him via a contract Floyd could care less about, you’ll spread your legs like a good secretary and let him cum inside, right? You’ll come to his room every night so he can fuck you until you’re finally pregnant, right? You don’t have much say either way, and if a loaded gun or a knife is pointed at you… Obviously the only answer is to listen to what he tells you. <3

[zachandalextime]

Review: Young Royals S1

*** Some Spoilers ***

With just six episodes, this recent Netflix entry is possibly the most purified injection of “young gay love” crack into the veins I have ever seen. Simon and Wille aren’t just some side ship, they are *the show*. There’s virtually no filler to cut it with; the side stories are fascinating too, but exist to revolve in supportive orbit around the central infatuation between the lovestruck prince and his lower-class beau. 

Contrast this to, oh I don’t know, the appalling queer-baiting called Zalex (that 13rw decided to splash around in, under the shadow of more ambitious plots, and then cancel, and now they live in my head rent-free), it was refreshing to see an unapologetic queer-centric plot. There’s a certain satisfaction in recognizing that YR appropriates a classic hetero trope that’s old as time (wealthy privileged but lonely prince falls for poor commoner girl), and somehow manages to refresh it anew. 

Yes yes, one’s jaded skeptical side wants to tut-tut the romance with thoughts like “you two are too young to sacrifice for love, or be so certain of your feelings.” And then somehow, witnessing the combination of acting and cinematography in the love scenes between Simon and Wille handily melted me into a fawning starry-eyed puddle, exclaiming out loud, “but they are sooooooo freaking cute together!!”

Simon, the embodiment of the plucky underdog, is adorable in virtually everything he is and does. He’s the aspiration in all of us to have a better life, find happiness, work hard, put our difficult past behind us, beat the odds, and love without regrets. ��Defiant Simon” is someone you can’t help but cheer for. We suffer with him in each injustice he experiences, from the small social slights to the larger betrayals. Yet throughout it all he’s also the confident initiator, never deterred in his attraction or courtship by the fact that the object of his affection is a prince. Did I mention he’s trilingual(+) in Spanish, Swedish, and some English?

And yes, much like Zalex, one of the things I adore about Simon x Wilhelm is that they are an interracial ship. This helps enhance the dynamics and issues of the plot, but more than that: <3 <3 representation <3 <3 :)

The acting is really good, and the casting was really good. (The supporting cast is roughly what I’d imagine an aristocratic, patriarchal, slightly inbred, private school population to be). The set and the shooting locations are good enough. 

Beyond the romance at the core of the show, it simultaneously layers and tackles some interesting and important themes. Young Royals is especially adept in its commentary on income and class inequality (e.g. Simon/Wille; Felice/Sara), but it also raises some ideas of race (Felice, Simon), body image (Felice; August), meritocracy vs. plutocracy (August; Wille), carrying the family tradition (Felice, August, Wille), and addiction/drug abuse (Simon’s dad, August)

Love/hate award: August is a nicely nuanced, three-dimensional villain antagonist to Simon, and frenemy to Wille. His mercurial motivations are constantly disguised which help keep the viewer guessing at his next move, making it hard for viewers to pinpoint a fixed attitude toward him.

Unsung hero award: Ayub. Based on his casting, it might initially seem like he’s intended as comic relief, but as one of Simon’s two BFF’s, he’s remarkably wise, perceptive, supportive and usually has the right take. 

Watching in original Swedish with subtitles, or dubbed over in English/native language: I tried both and I personally liked Swedish with subtitles. The dub voiceover acting is a little bit hammy and doesn’t fully capture the original actors’ skill level. 

Stumbles: The show deserves some props for portraying mental health issues, especially those of Simon’s sister Sara, but the writing and portrayal of a the mental health issues are not terribly well represented. She has (I think) an assortment of issues that include ADHD and autism spectrum, but it’s primarily the latter that is manifested, and not very consistently. There are also some times when I wish that Simon and Wille could have a shared interest or experience beyond “we’re both cute and go to school together and it’s us against the world.” I guess that’s what S2 (fingers crossed there is one) will be for? 

Verdict: With so much packed into just 6 episodes, it’s a must-watch. The show modernizes a well-worn tale for a queer audience, against an intriguing setting, and the cast makes the most of it. 

[razberryyum]

The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 5 (spoilers for everything)

[covers MDZS chaps 14 – 17, and kinda 117, aka bonus chap Incense Burner Part 1, lmfao]

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other…more than one 🐰 can be given based on the level of WangXian-ness in a scene)

Of course I loved every single moment of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s time in the library pavilion, but I wanted to give a little love to their waterbourne abyss adventure first, in particular the moment above, which always makes me laugh, especially since everyone around them was within earshot to hear what Wei Ying was saying. What made the scene even funnier was Jiang Cheng’s exasperated interjection—the guy was probably sick of Wei Ying’s flirting by now—followed by Wei Ying’s snappy response. I just loved the way he said shut up, which served as yet another reminder of the great voice performance provided by Liu Zhixing-laozi, who always makes Wei Ying sound completely adorable because of the way he delivers his lines.

I wish the show had a bigger budget to handle that Caiyi night hunt since it could have been so much better, as exemplified by the way their water adventure was depicted in the donghua. I thought the water ghouls had an interesting design; as CGI effect goes, they were actually one of the better ones in the show, but then everything else kind of fell short. After watching the donghua’s version of these scenes, I found the action portion of the water ghouls hunt even more lacking; I especially missed seeing Wei Ying’s awesome sword surfing.  Still, what it lacked in fight choreography and CGI efficiency, it made up for in WangXian-ness (with a touch of ChengQing to boot)—Big Bro Xichen was probably quite proud of himself for pulling off yet another match-making scheme successfully—so ultimately, I found the whole hunt pretty enjoyable.

The Library Pavilion

I can’t imagine anyone who ships WangXian would dislike anything that took place in the Library Pavilion, so I’m no different.  I loved every second of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s interactions in that room, I really don’t have anything more I can say that hasn’t already been mentioned and repeated by everyone else, so I’ll just keep it simple and say bless the production team for sneaking in gay porn…

…and also for keeping in what was most likely a blooper of Xiao Zhan tripping on his way out as if it was something Wei Ying meant to do in the scene:

By the way, after reading the novel, I can’t help but think about that super smutty Incense Burner chapter now every time I watch this scene and then I would giggle uncontrollably like a stupid crazy person. 

ChengQing? YES please

This episode gave us the birth of a new ship—Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing, or ChengQing—and I could not be more happy about it. This development was not from the novel, and just seeing how freaking adorable a lovestruck Jiang Cheng was made me absolutely grateful that Team CQL decided to add it into the show. Every moment between Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing was cuteness to me, especially how bashful he would be within her vicinity. When she tried to examine his wound on the boat, his blushing virgin reaction was just too precious for words. I loved seeing this shy, innocent and boyish side of Jiang Cheng: it made me love his character even more. Although now, considering what has happened, seeing him buy that comb, which is supposed to be a gift representing yearning, only makes my heart hurt like crazy for the poor guy, while also making me wish the show had followed through even more with their romance so that the two of them could have at least enjoyed some happiness before everything was all over.  

There was also a time in the beginning, when I first watched this episode, that I actually worried that the writers of The Untamed were trying to develop a love triangle between Wei Ying/Wen Qing/Jiang Cheng, which would’ve been really stupid and unnecessary; thank goodness that didn’t end up to be the case. As if Jiang Cheng really needed another reason to be bitter or resentful about Wei Ying…that kind of trope would’ve just been pointless noise so I’m relieved the show didn’t choose that dull path.

Wei Ying Continues to Burrow His Way Into Lan Zhan’s Psyche

Exhibit A:

They were only in the Library Pavilion for a few days (even though in the book it was at least a month) but already Lan Zhan had gotten used to Wei Wuxian’s non-stop chatter so when he was actually quiet, he couldn’t help but take a peek his way to see why he was acting so uncharacteristically.

Exhibit B:

The mention of Emperor’s Smile obviously reminded Lan Zhan of their little sword ballet under the moonlight, which will eventually give way to just reminding him of Wei Ying in general.

Random Bits of Randomness

I thought this little moment where Wei Ying fixes Lan Zhan’s sleeve was just adorable, and I have feeling that was probably an improvisation by Xiao Zhan since the opportunity presented itself.

Little did Wei Ying know at the time that he would be the first one for a lot of things when it came to Lan Zhan.

Obviously the folks in the middle—Wei Ying, Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng, and the Wen siblings—did NOT want to share their boats with some lowly Gusu Lan disciples. Seeing the group of them all crowded on that one boat at the end always gives me a good chuckle. At least Lan Xichen was nice enough to share his boat with his fellow sect brothers.

Questions I still have

The Inn situation: even now I still do not understand why they had to stay at an inn overnight. Big Bro Xichen said that they would set up for Caiyi Town in the morning, and since that place is only like 5 hours away from Cloud Recesses (a fact mentioned in the third episode when Wei Ying had to run back to town to retrieve their invitation), that means they got to town by midday at the latest. So why did they have to rent a room? Couldn’t they head straight for the lake? And it’s not like they were resting at the inn for a couple of hours until night fall so that they could actually do a night hunt in the evening for once, since they didn’t go to the lake until the next day and actually hunted the water ghouls during the day. Hell, some poor villager died during the night while they were hanging out at their inns, waiting for daytime. Then there’s the rooming situation: as much as I loved the arrangement and I hate that I am essentially looking a gift horse in the mouth, but serioulsy, why WAS Wei Ying and Lan Zhan rooming together? It would’ve made more sense for the Yunmeng bros to be roommates and then the Twin Jades to share another room. Yet, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan ended up together, not only in the same room, but in a completely different inn than the others since, according to the innkeeper, the two of them are the first customers he’s had in a while. Not the entire group, only the two of them. I couldn’t help wondering, did the others book up all the rooms in one hotel, so Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had no choice but to go to another hotel instead? Most importantly, was this yet another one of Big Bro Xichen’s clever schemes to further push his little brother together with Wei Ying???

Finally, my other question from this episode is: why doesn’t Su She have a head ribbon on? Is it because he’s married already? Does that mean that all the Gusu Lan disciples who still have their head ribbons on are unmarried or maybe even still virgins, including dear Uncle Lan Qiren, since I’m sure there’s probably a sect rule prohibiting premarital sex.  I will probably never get an answer to this since I’m pretty sure nothing of the sort was mentioned about Su She in the novel, but it’s just so weird to me that they made that choice for the drama.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

[merakiui]

Omg Mera ur Lovestruck Jade ramblings are so cute😭<3

Just him being all fluffy and flustered around darling

has me in a chokehold-

I genuinely was not expecting anyone to enjoy it nearly as much, so thank you for saying so omg!!!! T^T <3 Jade is just too cute. While it’s fun to imagine him with endless, immaculate rizz, I like to think he’s actually quite awkward at navigating love and that he is prone to becoming flustered more than Floyd is. He’s just too adorable when he’s lovestruck. >_< writing The Most Dangerous Game has made me appreciate him even more, even if he’s wholeheartedly obsessed with you.

I’ll share two more previews because he’s just so !!!!!! His dynamic with Reader is my favorite part about writing this particular story.