#it’ll probably make sense one day when I actually get the fic out haha

[waywardstation]

Looking around through Pokémon wikis and I realized that Volo was not the first guy in the Pokemon universe to wear a haircut that covers one eye and dress up like the legendary Pokémon he’s obsessively trying to get power from

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Uncle snuffy and cousin Lorenzo >>>> but YAY glad you’re enjoying writing we all know that means you’re cooking o7 Very curious to see your take on kiyora I bet it’ll mirror the next epinagi ch (which is kinda soon I think??)

No same I think it was just out in there for comedic effect…? Not to actually be taken like he was groping them because I mean he specializes in muscle growth and body strengthening…..like he kinda needs to know like the composition of their bodies and their builds so he can create a plan catered to their development…?? Like yeah if anything Reo and chigiri just looked shocked LMAO I sometimes find his personality a little overbearing (him holding a grudge against Isagi is funny but also ridiculous at the same time) but I’ve never taken that first moment of him assessing the boys in a creepy way….

Ok no because wait a Reo Isagi team up?? I even seen some of their little duo interactions but imagine them duoing in soccer plays lowk they would probably do so well?? I also kinda loved their little interactions give us more?? Where Reo isn’t hating Isagi ofc but NAGI HIORI TEAM UP I’m adding this to the manifestation list….i know their stage actors for the recent stage play posted pictures together in character of them gaming together LMAO I would love to see them as a duo both in a soccer setting and in gaming someday…would go hard fr…NAGI AND KAISER OR NOA LMAOO I think this all just proves that pairing nagi and Reo with other people really helps bring out some of their personalities and sides of them we don’t see when they’re together…

OOOO yes I think that’s a good estimate…not super star 20+ but definitely a few…I agree I can’t see him getting absolutely 0 LOL

Waittt I lowk did not think of all of these parallels between Rin and Nagi?? Shit your so right LMAO I esp love the lazy vs hardworking genius difference and their differing soccer motives…Nagi losing motivation after he beats Isagi but we see rin working his ass off to crush sae….Im laughing Rin aggressively roasting players and Nagi passive aggressively roasting players…I wanna see those interactions with Nagi and hiori and others if Rin ever de-emos LMAOO that lowk reminds me of Hiori being the only one to help him up after Shidou busted up his nose I always laugh because wdym Reo and Bachira are standing right next to him just watching

OOOOOOOH IM EXCITED also based off the info I gathered kiyora doesn’t seem as aggressive in some interactions as I’d originally thought! He definitely still is feisty but when he’s talking about his interests I guess or isn’t provoked it’s kinda cute LMAO either way Kiyora tidbits even if it doesn’t do much for the fic (I’m sure you’re probably spot on anyways LOL) It’s kinda sorta long so I’ll leave a separate ask for it (my formatting skills are also kinda shit so if something doesn’t make sense lmk)

ALL GOOD go touch that grass!! LMAO dw about needing to respond all that fast as long as you aren’t dying that’s all that matters o7 On busy days I’ll usually only check tumblr after I’m settled anyways too so I might also be slow sometimes

PAUSE NAGI KIJA??? Wait a minute….ive def seen that art but didn’t connect the dots you’re so right??? With all the yotd we’ve been talking about lately maybe we’ll manifest a reboot into existence

- Karasu anon

AHHHH i hope it’s good!! i’ll elaborate more on your ask w the kiyora notes but i think for the most part i got him pretty well?? he’s a little more aggressive/violent in my version but it’s also an au where it makes sense for him to be like that + the reader doesn’t rlly know him that well so i think (hope?? 😟) it’s okay 😰

HAHA no you’re so real he’s honestly very ridiculous to me but he also kinda serves cunt i just feel like he would be so funny to talk to plus i kinda love him and yukimiya as a duo…handsome tall muscular soccer player model adopting handsome tall muscular soccer player model is so 🤩 also the parallel of chris being obsessed w physical perfection vs yukimiya’s struggles w his body (specifically his eyes) like wow…idk crazy potential there for a really cool fic maybe that’ll be part of yuki’s chapter in the oaeu?? since i don’t really have any other ideas for him yet 🤔 we will see i suppose 😭 and agreed it just felt silly goofy random to me i didn’t even realize other people took it seriously 😰

NO BECAUSE AN ISAGI REO TEAM UP WOULD BE CRAZY GOOD isagi’s adaptability + reo’s ability to copy literally anyone would mesh soooo well together because no matter the situation reo can come up with some ability to get out of it and then isagi can adapt to whatever reo throws at him so it forces both of them to think on their feet (reo also has meta vision and he’s physically peak so he can def keep up w isagi unlike kurona in bm vs ubers) and react to what’s going on as it happens…plus i think reo being forced to get along w isagi on field would be mega development for him (they were so cute in the shibuya chapter when reo asks him and bachira if they want to do karaoke they def have bestie potential) honestly the more i think abt it the more i’m like MISSED OPPORTUNITY 😩 plus it would make nagi and isagi’s rivalry more unpredictable because now nagi has to figure out how to match the reosagi combo (and maybe that’s what awakens hiori?? like damn if THIS loser can put in effort then maybe i should too) and like a hiori nagi combo would also be sooo fun 😭 THE THOUGHT KAISER AND NAGI IS GENUINELY CRACKING ME UP kaiser’s like “you’re a baby chick 😒” thinking he rlly cooked w that one and nagi is just like “L + ratio + ugly ass haircut + blue washes you out + your mom” (the last one hits kaiser hard even though nagi doesn’t even mean it like that fr) meanwhile nagi w noel noa is just like “ok coach what do we do isagi is beating us” and noel noa is like “bruh idk figure it out” and then nagi just pulls off one of his insane unrealistic goals which draws a little 🙂 out of noel noa LMAOAOAO and you cannot tell me that chris prince wouldn’t LOVE isagi if he was his coach…like this kid is so dedicated to breaking down his body and becoming the best version of himself to play soccer that’s exactly chris’s brand!!

LMAOO reo sensed rin’s insanity very early on he was staying five feet away i have to respect it…no because rin and nagi give such mean girl energy like they would be that duo that constantly side eyes each other when other people are talking tbh 😭 hiori’s the only nice one between the three of them but then he goes all super sadist and somehow ends up worse?? because w rin and nagi at least you’re expecting it so it’s not that deep but when sweetheart hiori starts spitting insults at you it’s like damn what did i do 😰

HAHA my tumblr schedule is so awk and also if i’m trying to finish a fic i hold off on asks so i don’t get distracted hehe (i was working on the kiyora req hence the long wait time) but hoping to post that soon and then i’ll be back to my speedy self i think!!

NO BECAUSE IT’S UNCANNY HELLO??? i was like WTF…but in a good way 😜 like close enough welcome back kija whitedragon 🤩 no because karasu as hak nagi as kija reo as jaeha bachira as zeno hiori as shinah…walk w me here…LMAOAOAOA omg if there’s a yotd reboot that’s all i’ll post abt for literal weeks like i’ll actually pass away

[alltooreid]

I Think He Knows

Y/N has a huge crush on Spencer Reid, so huge she embarrasses herself every time she tries to talk to him. She is convinced he is aware to all her pathetic attempts at flirting and just chooses to ignore it, but turns out Spencer may be a little more clueless than she thought.

A/N: Hope yall enjoy this cute fluffy fic! I’ve been having a rough couple of days so writing a fun fluff like this was really comforting :) yes it is inspired by the t swift song, but you don’t need to know the song to read and enjoy! also my requests are open so let me know what you want to see! (also sorry if this is kind of short, but i’ve been super busy and wanted to put something out :)))

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Type: a cute pining fluff fic

Word Count: 2.3K

Content Warnings: mentions of alcohol, otherwise none.

“He got that boyish look that I like in a man I am an architect, I'm drawing up the plans It's like I'm seventeen, nobody understands No one understands”

“He has to know Penelope, I’m not exactly subtle.”

You and Penelope spent the majority of your lunch breaks in her office, discussing anything and everything. Recently however, the point of contention had been a certain young genius. One who you had a huge crush on.

“Spencer Reid may be a genius, and one of the best profilers I have ever seen but he most certainly does not know,” she said, as she drizzled more dressing on her salad.

“He has to, it feels like everyone knows. . . Do you think everyone knows?”

She shrugged, “They might, I know my Chocolate Thunder hasn’t picked up on it yet.”

“You haven’t told him? It’s already been a week since I’ve told you! How did you keep it a secret for so long?”

“You asked me very nicely not to tell anyone! Plus this one seems really important to you. I don’t want to go around telling people and for Reid to hear it in office gossip.”

You smiled, “Well you Penelope Garcia are the best, best friend ever.”

“You know it, now I know you desperately want to repay me for my services, and you can by giving me those exact ranch packets you have in your bag,” she said.

“They’re all yours, now let’s discuss something other than my pathetic schoolgirl crush. Like how stupid Kevin’s sweater was today.”

“Kevin? The other internal affairs technical analyst? Yeah what the heck was he wearing?”

“You know, I’m tired of having to carry the weight of the brains, looks and fashion sense out of the two of us,” you said. “Though, that is a good way to gather attention . . . I wonder if Spencer would actually hold a conversation with me if I wore something as ugly as that.”

She laughed, “You know I think that might send you backwards.”

You stabbed your lettuce, “At this point I’ll try anything.”

Before Penelope could respond, someone interrupted your lunch, your only other friend on the BAU team, Emily Prentiss.

“Oh hi Y/N! How are you!”

“I’m good Emily, what kind of gross things are you here to deliver today?” you and Emily joined the FBI at around the same time, and found comfort in the fact that you were both total try-hards. Emily was going to eat lunch with you and your fast friend Penelope, at least on days when she was in the office for lunch, but you and her both agreed that she should eat lunch with the team so that they can get used to having her around.

“Just some paperwork, no cases yet, knock on wood. Also I just wanted to say hello! What are you guys eating?” she asked, pulling up a chair.

“Some salads from that takeout veggie place PG is always talking about. I told you I was going vegetarian right?” “You did not! That’s great Y/N! We need to talk more, like we used to when we first started here,” she sighed, then perked up, “We should have girls night! Remember how fun it was that night at the bar? With Brad the real FBI agent?”

“Yes! We should! You know, Gideon’s replacement comes tomorrow, we should celebrate!” Garcia said.

“You know, I don’t know if the best way to celebrate a new agent is by drinking without them, but I’m down. We’ll toast our girls night to agent Rossi. Someone ask JJ if she’s busy.”

JJ was not busy, but when you and Emily asked, Morgan overheard.

“So am I not invited to the party?”

“Well it was supposed to be girls night . . . but I think PG would throw a fit if I turned down her 2nd favorite person in this building, so I guess you can come,” you teased. “You should come too Spencer!”

“I don’t know, that’s not really my thing . . “

“Oh come on! I know I would love to see you there,” you then realized that you were embarrassing yourself being so forward. “And I’m sure everyone else would too!”

“Alright, I’ll come, but I’m not drinking.” he said firmly. 

Before you could respond, Penelope magically appeared. “Good, you can be completely sober when Y/N gets wasted and embarrasses herself,” she said.

“PENELOPE! I’m not the light weight here! you’ll see Spencer, she’s actually awful. Two shots in and she’ll be on the floor,” this was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Spencer grimaced. “But it’ll be so much fun! You have to be there! You already said yes!”

“I just don’t know if seeing all of my coworkers get drunk while I watch is my idea of a fun evening. . .”

“Trust me! I’ll even stay sober with you, so we can judge them together. It’ll be a blast.”

“Ok, I’ll be there . . . but for now I need more coffee,” he pulled his chair out and walked towards the office kitchen. You silently cheered, forgetting how people were still standing around you.

“Well,” you awkwardly laughed, “um, I guess I better be getting back to my neck of the woods. I’m not a hot shot profiler like the rest of you guys . . . so see you all later!” You tried to escape before anyone interrogated you about your conversation with Spencer. However, a certain profiler followed quickly behind you. 

“So. . . you and pretty boy huh?”

“Shut it Morgan.”

{⋅. ♪ .⋅}

You stayed true to your word that night, Spencer stuck to water and you enjoyed a diet soda. The bartender, who you had grown fairly used to seeing on your many nights out, was shocked to hear you didn’t want any alcohol in it. 

It’s probably a good thing that you didn’t drink, you already embarrassed yourself enough in front of Spencer fully sober.

“So Spencer, you know that new bookstore you said you were going to go to after work a couple weeks ago?”

“New bookstore . . .? Oh yeah! What about it?”

“Well after I heard you talking about it I decided to check it out . . . It’s really nice there! I go like every other night now! We should totally go together sometime.” Luckily, you were sober enough to keep a secret: the fact you were only going so much in the hopes of running into him.

“Oh really? If I’m being honest I wasn’t super impressed with their selection, it was mostly contemporary fiction. And all in English . . . Not really my thing,” when he saw the way your face dropped he quickly changed his tone, “but it’s great if that’s your thing!”

This. Is. Humiliating. The amount of times you had gone and bought books from the bookstore, you were there almost every night hoping to run into him after work and start a conversation. You felt stupid, of course he wouldn’t want to go on a book store date with you. If Spencer Reid didn’t like you so much that he wouldn’t even go to a bookstore with you, there’s no chance at a relationship.

“Oh haha, yeah you’re right it’s totally lame. . .”

“Didn’t you just say you went there all the time?”

“No! When did I say that? You must be drinking Dr. Reid,” you said, quickly hopping off your bar stool, and running towards Morgan and Garcia, not turning around to see how confused Spencer was, but only being able to imagine him as relieved. Relieved he didn’t have to make conversation with you anymore.

“I’m blowing this PG, he totally hates me.”

Morgan laughed, “Y/N, you’re acting silly, this isn’t high school, we aren’t seventeen, stop dancing around it and just go ask him out.”

“Morgan, he doesn’t want to go to a bookstore with me, no way he’s agreeing to a date.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, maybe he’s just not in the mood to go?”

“You go ask him then, 20 bucks he says yes.”

“You’re on Y/N/N.”

7 minutes later Morgan returned and without a word pulled a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and deposited it into your hand. “Sorry, Y/N.”

Penelope then piped up, “I’m telling you Y/N, he just doesn’t know. That boy is clueless.”

You scoffed, “I think he knows Penelope. I’ve made it pretty clear.”

“Have you told him?”

You were thrown off, “Um, no but-”

“Well then you haven’t made it clear enough, have you sugar?”

You almost said something, but you couldn’t really think of a good rebuttal for the argument. So instead, you downed Penelope’s half dranken frozen margarita, and headed back over to Spencer.

“Hey!” he said as you made your way back over, “I was wondering where you went, after you left Derek came over and asked to go to that bookstore with me, isn’t that extraordinary. . .”

“Do you wanna go on a date with me?” you blurted out.

“What?”

You sighed, “I’ve had a crush on you since like, forever, and I keep planning all these ways to ask you subtly but it’s just not working so I’m asking now. Do you want to go on a date with me?”

“You like me? I didn’t know that . . .”

“You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not, I thought you were just being nice. You’re nice to everyone and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

You smirked, “Get your hopes up? Does that mean you’re obsessed with me too Dr. Reid?”

He laughed in response, “Yeah, you could definitely say that.”

You dug through your purse and pulled out your keys, “Ok, then let’s get out of here.”

He paled, “And do what?”

“We’re going on our first date.”

He smiled, and you both got up off your bar stools and headed out the door, ignoring Morgan’s snide remarks as you passed. 

{⋅. ♪ .⋅}

You couldn’t help but smile as you drove. Every couple of seconds you couldn’t help but look over at Spencer, getting lost in his brownish hazel eyes, which looked indigo in the night. He would smile, the kind of smile people write silly little romance songs about and spend verses to describe, and tell you to pay attention to the road before you run off of it. You would laugh, tell him to calm down. Although originally you had an idea of where you were going, now you just wanted to drive in circles, to bask in this memory. 

“So where are we going?” he asked.

“Think about it Doctor Reid . . .” you replied, teasing him in the way you’ve imagined since you met him. 

You pulled up to that little bookstore on 16th avenue, the one you couldn’t stop going to out of the sheer chance Spencer might be there, the one that was obviously closed this late at night, but was too perfect not to spend your first date at. 

“Although this is beautifully symbolic, it’s almost 2 in the morning, this place closes at 8. We’re 5 hours, 49 minutes and 17 seconds late.”

You smiled and pulled out your ring of keys, “You know, when I spent hours a night hanging around here after work, hoping that you would happen to come shop for books and see me here too, the woman who owns this store got pretty curious. So I told her why I was here, and after she got done laughing at me she offered me a key, so that if I ever had the guts to ask you out, I could take you here no matter what.” You turned the key and swung the door open, gesturing him inside and locking the door behind you, “but we have to keep the lights off, so no one comes by and tries to get in.”

You and Spencer sit in the non-fiction section, and enjoy the silence for a few seconds before you have an idea, “Read me something Reid.”

He reached up, pulling a book off of the shelf without looking, “Are you sure, A Brief History of 1491: Life in America Before Columbus, is first date material?”

“Although that book is anything but brief, anything you read to me will sound stunning coming from your pretty mouth.”

So he begins to read, attempting to slow down to a reasonable pace but still going abnormally fast. You didn’t care though, more than you listened to the history of the late fifteenth century you watched Spencer’s hands. They’re really nice hands.

His right followed the words as he read aloud and his left helped hold the book. He wiggled the fingers on his left hand unconsciously as he spoke, getting into the words of the book. 

After about 25 pages he glanced over at you, and you could almost hear the gears turning in his head. After a second he went back to the page, and continued reading. You didn’t think anything of it until a couple minutes later, when his hand made its way to your left thigh.

He held it and you leaned into him, and you both stayed like that until you fell asleep hours later, with his head resting on top of yours. 

At 8:30 Mrs. Betts, the owner of the bookstore, found you and Spencer, arms around each other, the book thrown aside. She smiled, glad to know you had taken her up on her offer. She went to go wake you up but glanced at her watch. She didn’t have to officially open until 10. 

She could definitely spare a couple of minutes. 

“I want you, bless my soul I ain't gotta tell him I think he knows”

- Thank you for reading! Please reblog and let me know what you think :))

ATR’s tiny taglist: @reidingmelodies​

[farmerlan]

A guide to commonly used honorifics in 魔道祖师/The Untamed

OK - so, I’ve actually seen some confusion floating around on specific honorifics commonly used in 魔道祖师 and I figured I will put a post up to address some of this - especially the situations when they get used. Hopefully it’ll be helpful for fic writers or whoever else out there that’s getting turned around by the various translations.

As with most of Chinese vernacular, there’s a TON of similar, but different situations in which it may be permissible to use certain titles/honorifics, so bear in mind this is not an exhaustive guide. Also, I don’t have a PhD in Chinese honorifics or anything, I’m just a Chinese person that watches/reads a fair amount of historical dramas. So if I missed anything/if there was anything that was kind of unclear in the novel or drama, feel free to let me know!

公子 / gongzi/ master

Let’s start with the hardest so I can get this out of the way. You will see this translated in a variety of different ways - master, young master, sir...and they are all correct! Congratulations, you’ve hit the jackpot - depending on the situation, gongzi can be a whole hodgepodge of things.

Master: The most commonly used version in MDZS. This is a separate meaning of master from some of the honorifics discussed below - it is specifically used to address either:

Your literal master if you are a servant in the household

A somebody from a distinguished household in a polite way

General honorific: Gongzi can also be used between strangers/acquaintances as a respectful term. Gongzi is, in some ways, an indicator of respect of the other person’s status. So oftentimes you’ll find two young masters from different sects referring to each other as gongzi politely, but you wouldn’t find two beggars on the street calling each other that. and it’s usually used to address someone younger or a similar age as you. If you‘re talking to someone who is clearly your senior, use 前辈 or 先生.

Because it has the connotation of youth and aristocracy associated with it, oftentimes innkeepers/sellers may use gongzi to address male customers  (particularly youthful men) because it’s a bit more flattering. Kind of like how the modern day shopkeeper calls you ‘美女’ (beauty) or even ‘亲爱的’（my dear - IDK when this started becoming a thing but if you do any online shopping on Taobao you know what I’m talking about) in China. They don’t actually think you’re beautiful/feel affection for you, it’s just a way of addressing the customer to make you feel good about yourself HA. It’s nice to be called gongzi even if you’re not actually a noble.

There’s variants of this - 小公子/ xiaogongzi is typically young master, although I think some translations just directly use the young master for gongzi. It can also mean the younger master if there is an older sibling in question here (e.g. Wen Chao was referred to as 温小公子 as he was the younger son), although you can also use 二公子 （second master), as many do when referring to Lan Wangji. It sounds a little less juvenile.

This term is used for guys - I would say the female equivalent could be 千金/ qianjin or 小姐 /xiaojie.

宗主 / zongzhu/ sect leader

This can only refer to the sect leader - it is a title, and it is passed down. There is typically only one sect leader at any one time, and his eldest male heir will be the successive leader of the sect. I’m going to take this chance to clear up some misconceptions:

Unless Lan Xichen bears no male heirs before his death, Lan Wangji will not succeed him. Lan Sizhui, given that he is not a Lan by birth, will likely never be the Lan sect leader. Yes yes, we all know he’s the adoptive son, but adoptive means literally nothing in the progenical world of Chinese history. Plus, he’s not even the adoptive son of Lan Xichen, so he is a long, long way down from ever being sect leader unless he forms his own, which he would likely never because that’s kind of like betraying your family.

On that same topic, Nie Huaisang succeeded Nie Mingjue because Nie Mingjue died without an heir and Nie Huaisang was the closest blood relative.

For the Jin sect, the succession would have been Jin Guangshan -> Jin Zixuan -> Jin Ling. (y’all I wrote here that it was Jin Zixun first in line but I totally blanked that he was actually a cousin and NOT the son of JGS so ignore that LOL) Since Jin Zixuan died, it became Jin Guangyao - Jin Ling is next in line as he is of the next generation and too young at that time to rule. Honestly, if Jin Ling was older at the time of Jin Zixuan’s death and if this was a Chinese historical palace drama, there would probably be some serious internal political intrigue going on as Jin Guangyao’s claim over the seat would arguably be weaker than Jin Ling’s since he is illegitimate.

For the Jiang sect, Jiang Cheng is the heir even though Jiang Yanli is older because he is male. The question of who will inherit his seat (a very valid question given his luck with dating, although I am sure someone somewhere will eventually warm the prickly cockles of his heart) remains open. IMO there is a less than zero chance that Jin Ling succeeds him unless Jiang Cheng specifically demands for it, but he likely wouldn’t because he is all about decorum and also it would put Jin Ling in an incredibly difficult situation, which is the last thing he would want for his nephew. If he doesn’t end up producing heirs, the seat will likely go to whomever he names as successor, even if non-blood related - maybe the current head disciple.

With that said, although there were generally established rules for succession, actual Chinese history (like all of history) often played out very differently (e.g. Emperor Kangxi stripped crown prince Yinreng of his right to succeed and appointed Yinzhen (Yongzheng), who was the fourth surviving prince, as his successor) so really, even if you were to base sect succession off imperial succession traditions, you could still make the argument that anything goes as long as you have the right people in your corner. HA.

老祖/ laozu/ grandmaster/forefather

I mean, I think grandmaster is probably a fair translation of laozu, which, to be honest, is a harder honorific to translate. It’s definitely influenced by Taoism and not very common at all, but it’s likely derived from Hongjun Laozu (鸿钧老祖), who was a deity and teacher. It does NOT only stand for a senior teacher/master however, because 祖 itself has ancestral connotations, so I think I would personally translate this as forefather. IMO, it’s really only fair to use this on Wei Wuxian and/or originators of a certain branch of study in the MDZS universe - I would consider laozu as the term of respect afforded to people who were pioneers in their fields/sects.

In that sense, Lan Qiren is NOT the grandmaster of the Lan sect. He is an elder - a very respected elder that was basically interim sect leader, but in terms of official title, technically, Lan Xichen could pull rank on him, but he likely wouldn’t unless pressed to because he is also Lan Xichen’s elder.

前辈 / qianbei/ senior/elder

This is kind of an in-between term to politely refer to someone who is your senior, but with whom you really have no formal affiliation with. Unlike 先生, it’s also unisex. A related term is 长辈 /zhangbei, but that is used for people whom you have familial/closer ties with - like an uncle, or someone within your own sect.

师父/师尊/ shifu/shizun / master

Your teacher/master, but not in the servant-master context. Someone who mentors you for years - in the xianxia/wuxia culture, this is a pretty special term because most disciples will only ever belong to one sect and will only ever have one master, and everyone else is a qianbei. The disciple has to ‘拜师’ (to formally request this relationship) and the master also has to ‘收徒’ (to formally accept disciples). So a lot of people went to Yiling in an attempt to 拜师, but Wei Wuxian never did 收徒.

In the wuxia/xianxia context, shifu is technically unisex even though 父 in itself is a male-centric term, although female masters might be more commonly referred to by the gender-neutral shizun instead.

Now that I think about it, shifu doesn’t actually appear in MDZS. Lan Wangji calls Lan Qiren 叔父 /shufu, which is completely different. It means uncle (father’s younger brother, to be exact lol), since that is their relationship.

老头/ laotou/ old man

Wei Wuxian uses this to address Lan Qiren behind his back. It literally just means old man, haha. It’s informal but not a term you would use to refer to someone who is close to you/whom you like, but not exactly a term that is insulting or derogatory, although in Lan Qiren’s case, it is irreverent because it is ill-fitting for the relationship that Wei Wuxian and Lan Qiren have. Meant to be used on men, usually for women it would be 老婆婆/ laopopo (NOT THE SAME as 老婆/ laopo, which means wife. Welcome to the weird wonderful world of the Chinese language!)

师弟/哥/兄/姐/妹/ shi di/ge/xiong/jie/mei/ younger brother/ older brother/ another variant of older brother/ older sister/ younger sister

NOT TO BE USED FOR YOUR ACTUAL FAMILY. This is in the context of the sect only. Your fellow disciples, but with varying levels of seniority. Familial honorifics are a whole different thing.

In the context of the sect, who you call your shidi/ge etc. is usually NOT based on age - it is based on someone’s seniority within the sect. If you have been in the sect/under your master’s tutelage for longer, you are the senior, even if you are younger in age.

With that, I think the novel states that both Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are similar in age, so it is actually incredibly hard to determine if the author deliberately went against this convention and Wei Wuxian calls Jiang Cheng shidi because he is genuinely younger than Wei Wuxian, or if it is simply because Wei Wuxian is the head disciple of the sect (and therefore, technically, everyone is his shidi). I actually think it might be the former because he refers to Jiang Yanli as shijie, although now that I think about it, it might be the latter...as a reflection of the level of admiration Wei Wuxian has for Jiang Yanli WOAH.

(Fun fact: there’s a scene in the novel in Yi city where Wei Wuxian was silently weirded out that Xiao Xingchen referred to him as ‘qianbei’ - because Xiao Xingchen is his mother’s shidi, which makes him Wei Wuxian’s senior, but then he quickly realizes it’s because he’s talking to Xue Yang and not Xiao Xingchen.)

先生 /xiansheng/ mister/sir/teacher

In present day, this is literally the most vanilla term you can use to politely address a guy. Can be a stranger, or an acquaintance you want to politely address. Usually older than you, although if you’re both similar in age and you’re not really familiar with each other, you might still use it just to err on the side of caution. In xianxia/ancient China, this is usually used more like ‘teacher/sir’ to address an elder. It’s more scholastic in its implication and less generic than qianbei.

In the Lan sect, by crowd definition, 先生 refers to Lan Qiren unless otherwise stated, which makes sense and shows the amount of respect he is afforded in the sect.

夫人 / furen/ wife/madam

A term of respect for typically older women, or can also be used to refer to one’s wife.

Lastly, let me just add that this is just something that’s meant to be helpful for people as they work through the series - at the end of the day, it’s all fictional/xianxia itself as a genre is fantasy so if you need to subvert any one of the generally held succession traditions or whatnot in order to make your fic work, go!!! Do it!!!

[emiefaunwrites]

I know this isn’t really related to Ishileon, but I wonder who Byakuya’s crush is... (unless you’ve already said it somewhere before and it just flew over my head haha) 😂

Heyyy!

Haha don't worry! It's in their AU so I'm happy to indulge.

Juuuuust before I do though, I must clarify that it's my opinion. A lot of people may not agree, but after reading some fics in the past I kinda fell in love with this rare pair. It'll make more sense when I get into it, but this is wholely above board.

Sorry for the disclaimer. But a few people MAY have issues with it. Hopefully the content will put people at ease.

So yeah. Here we go. MY opinion on Byakuya Togami's crush. Hope it's okay!

************************

• Byakuya Togami does NOT do crushes.

• What's the point in them anyway? They're distracting, they can get messy and most of the time it ends in heartache.

• And besides, he'll likely be forced into an arranged marriage at some point anyway. No point wasting time if his future is already decided.

• That's what he keeps telling himself anyway.

• Especially when HE keeps making his cold heart beat just a little faster every time he laughs.

• Ugh, why on earth has he fallen for Yasuhiro Hagakure?!

• The man is an idiot. A grade A IDIOT.

• He's the lowest grading in the whole class, believes in aliens and ridiculous conspiricy theories.

• Not to mention he's 4 years their senior and treats them all like brothers and sisters.

• And even if he wasn't so much older than them, he wouldn't think of Byakuya like that. He's quite clearly straight, right?

• And even if he WASN'T straight, he'd probably want someone more like Kuwata or something, wouldn't he?

• Whenever the cretin isn't leeching off his Moral Compass boyfriend, he's in Hiro's company, laughinh and joking about the most absurd things that Byakuya could NEVER understand.

• So he MUSTN'T indulge in the petty fluttering of his heart when he smiles at him. Shove it all down and act just like he does to everyone else.

• Keep your distance, Byakuya. Harden your heart and just get on with it.

• That's how he spends the three years in Hope's Peak - pining bitterly from afar.

• He thinks it'll be over once they leave - but his godforsaken class INSIST on having an annual renunion.

• And he is OBVIOUSLY the only one that will be able to host an acceptable event.

• So no matter how hard he works to forget, everytime he spots him and he flashes a grateful grin his way he just falls right back down again with a thud.

• How irritating.

• He finally ends up confessing to Taka, a few months after they'd started talking again.

• Taka has somehow learned to read body language (a skill he must have picked up from Leon since he was utterly useless at it back in school) so noticed at one of their renunions that something was off.

• And Byakuya, who'd had a little to drink by now, was fed up of holding it in and decided why not tell the man who's changing the country.

• Needless to say, Taka is surprised - Byakuya Togami in love with Yasuhiro Hagakure? An unlikely pairing to say the least.

• Then again, didn't everyone think the same of him and Leon?

• With that, he's determined to help - but naturally, Byakuya says no.

• It's too embarrassing, there's no point. And besides, Hiro's straight so...

• Well Taka knows that's not strictly true.

• Yes, Hiro has dated women. But he's also dated men. And has no interest in gender whatsoever. He likes who he likes with no second thoughts.

• But if he's perfectly honest, Hiro's never once mentioned any attraction to the Affluent Prodigy.

• This might be harder than he thought.

• It takes a few more years of slow progress before anything happens.

• Kei is staying at a friend's house so the boys invite some of their own around for a few drinks.

• And Hiro, who's had a few too many, starts babbling about the reunion that happened the month before.

• 'Togami-chi's looking good these days, huh?'

• 'Sorry?'

• 'I mean, he was a REEEEEAL dick in school. Looked like he was constantly smelling shit wherever he went. But as he's got older, he's not so mean anymore. And he's got a pretty nice smile, dontcha think?'

• THIS IS IT! The opening Taka was waiting for!

• He has to slam his hand over Leon's mouth, who about to burst out laughing, and keep Hiro talking.

• And yup. Turns out Hiro has FINALLY stopped thinking of them all as little brothers and sisters (considering a 32 year old is fine to date a 36 year old) and has started noticing Byakuya in a more romantic light.

• Leon thinks the whole thing is hilarious, cackling to himself when everyone has left.

• 'Hiro and TOGAMI?! Ha! Like that'll ever happen! He may be less of a dick now, but Togami would NEVER...'

• 'He does.'

• Leon spits out his drink at that, utter disbelief as Taka tells him everything.

• 'Well holy shit! We've got some matchmaking to do!'

• It's actually easier than they thought.

• They arrange a dinner between the four of them, getting Mondo to call about twenty minutes in to say Kei was ill and they needed to come home.

• Leaving Hiro and Byakuya alone to finish dinner alone.

• Byakuya is internally freaking out - he has NEVER spent any time alone with Hiro and has no idea how to talk to him...

• But Hiro has NO PROBLEM chatting away - cracking jokes and making silly remarks that Byakuya can't help but laugh at.

• And when they finish, Hiro smoothly asks for his number, saying they should hang out again sometime.

• So the cold hearted Byakuya Togami is slowly but surely mellowed by his beloved idiot, Yasuhiro Hagakure.

• And at the next annual reunion, everyone squeals in delight when Hiro scoops him up bridal style (to his embarrassment) and smooches him RIGHT on the lips.

• He acts all annoyed and scolds the older man that's grinning cheekily at him with hearts in his eyes.

• But Leon catches them making out in the courtyard later on, giving Byakuya (who spots him) the thumbs up before heading back inside.

[vaguely-concerned]

Any tips for a TF POV fic? I want to write one because I too went through a time in my life when I let feelings bounce off cuz that was easier, but I feel like that's not quite on point for him 🤔

God I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about this and they’re all so wordless and frustratingly evasive to me yet (I am in the process of writing a looooooong T.F. POV fic and it gives me much more trouble than Graves POV, probably because as a person I’m quite a lot more like the T.F. Type in real life lol). But yes, here we go, let me try to express some of what I personally try to have as my hm ‘anchor points’ for his perspective. (Heavy disclaimer that these are just my personal & disorganized little musings and by no means the only or ‘correct’ way to read the character!)

- First of all I agree, the image of ‘bouncing off’ doesn’t feel quiteright -- it’s in the right neighbourhood but the wrong address sort of thing, but it’s really hard to come up with a way to explain how I feel the nuance here.

*insert three hours later spongebob meme here* Okay, so the metaphor I came up with is: T.F.’s relationship to emotions is a direct parallel to his relationship to water/the ocean: it’s scary down there, it’s dark, it’s dangerous, and if he should ever be dumb enough to try to go in too deep it’ll kill him dead because boy oh boy on so many levels this man just did not learn how to swim. As far as he’s concerned any sensible person would simply bob along on the surface in a sturdily built boat and try not to think too much about the weird shit that lives down there in the depths. (In this metaphor the layer of artifice and performance so habitual it’s basically integrated into the fabric of his soul is the boat. Y’know, the part that’s Twisted Fate and not just plain ol’ Tobias. I’ll hasten to add that I think both parts of his identity are equally ‘real’ and equally him, but the Twisted Fate part is like… protecting the Tobias part. Keeping him from drowning, as it were. I’m not sure he’d think of it like that himself for the longest time, though, I suspect he has more of a ‘that man is dead’ attitude towards the Tobias part after Graves is gone)

I think what I’m trying to get at is the idea that to him, raw emotion is as hostile and unknowable and unnavigable an ‘environment’ as the deep ocean. (And the only time we see him willingly go there, physically and otherwise, is for Graves, so you know let’s jot that down first of all lol.)

- He seems to genuinely quite like and be interested in people – how they think, what moves and motivates them, their secrets and foibles. So I tend to try to keep the uh ‘detail work’ in his POV focused in that direction. Priority going like 1) people 2) people’s valuables 3) the relative availability of people’s valuables at this moment if you have clever hands and a very charming smile haha

- One of my favourite things about T.F. is that he seems, I don’t know… quite genuinely good-natured beneath it all? If you back him into a corner some sharp and dangerous things peek out (he has survived in his line of heh ‘business’ for like thirty years, and a lot of it on his own), but for the most part and when unthreatened he has a sort of mildly amused and intrigued live-and-let-live attitude to the world even as he’s conning it that I find deeply charming. Which to me ties in with:

- T.F.’s first instinctive reaction to danger (perceived or real) the majority of the time seems to be ‘Flight’. Confrontation and violence are basically his ‘when literally everything else has failed’ options. (As seen prominently in Burning Tides, where he just keeps running and running and the only time he actually starts throwing punches is when he has to because Graves is in immediate danger and they’re backed into a corner. Which feels like it means something huh lol, I often think about what could actually make T.F. angry enough that he would openly express it and that seems to be the most likely angle for it in my eyes.)

- My take on one of the fundamental differences between Graves and T.F. is that Graves has A LOT of feelings but doesn’t quite know it (or more like can’t quite conceptualize it I should say) – he has a hard time identifying or finding vocabulary for feelings that aren’t some shade of anger. Meanwhile T.F. KNOWS he has feelings, he just doesn’t like it, ardently wishes he didn’t, and will do pretty much anything to run away and not have to engage with them haha.

Another important difference: when brought out of equilibrium Graves gets angry, and T.F. gets scared. I have the feeling that beneath it all he’s scared a lot, and it’s why his persona is so oriented towards gaining control in ways where people don’t realize it enough to even think try to take that control away from him until he’s already long gone. Misdirection as a way of life babEY

- This might be too deep in the ‘my WIP/process specific’ territory to really count as general analysis, but I think it’s there in canon too – there’s almost a feeling that he implicitly feels like he has to make up for some fundamental flaw or lack he has at the core? (Not a weird thing for him to end up feeling, considering what happened to him as a kid.) All the rest of him, all the cleverness and style and charm, is there to ‘make up’ for how at the end of the day he’s… wrong somehow. As Graves, who knows him better than anyone, focuses right in on, a coward. And that is CERTAINLY not the whole truth and even Graves in a full rage relents when he sees the effect the accusation has on him and once he gets the actual facts of what happened. But I think that sense of deep unworthiness is what’s stuck with him emotionally. His people left him because there’s something fundamentally lacking and immoral about him. He lost Graves because he’s not good enough, because he’s a coward who leaves people behind. He deserves to be alone. Mix in a ton of survivor’s guilt to taste, and I think you have the like… core emotional wound he’s constructed around.

There’s also something here about fear of profound powerlessness specifically in situations where words, generally his strongest card that’s not a literal card (har har har oh we do have fun here), simply don’t work right at the moment when he needs them to the most – he tried to beg for his people not to leave him behind, he tried to convince Graves to get the hell out with the rest of the crew… and it didn’t work. (In Burning Tides you see he’s given up even trying to explain himself, he just wants Out in whatever way leaves both him and Graves tolerably in one piece, even if he won’t be understood or heard or less alone afterwards. It takes him until like half way through the entire chase to even THINK about just telling Graves the truth. In all fairness to T.F. it probably wouldn’t have worked at that moment, but it does vaguely crack me up that he didn’t even consider it until all of Bilgewater harbor was already burning merrily behind them fhsajkfa)

- He has a little bit of a (perfectly justified considering his background honestly) chip on his shoulder, especially when it comes to powerful or arrogant people. There seems to be a special satisfaction in outsmarting and robbing specifically rich assholes (which would also be the people who have the most to steal, so y’know good times all round). From his short stories and few places in his bio you almost get the feeling that he has a funny sort of Robin Hood-esque sense of lopsided justice about it. (Robin Hood-esque only so far as to define ‘the poor’ as the eternally hard-strapped ‘T.F. & Graves Waistcoats and Cigars Fund’, of course lol)

I think T.F. both has a mind that tends more towards analyzing the big picture and also has more direct experience with like… structural/systemic powerlessness and oppression. So the cons they pull are probably partly how he channels the emotions that arise out of that (and the rest he just represses, like the relatable guy he is haha)

- Graves being back would cause some IMMENSE internal conflict in him, I feel – of course all the feelings of relief and attachment and love, but also… so much of who he is now came about specifically to find a way to deal with Graves being gone, with seemingly just shutting down the entirety of his need for real human companionship or closeness for like a decade, things that are suddenly starting to be brought online again and must be tremendously stressful to deal with when you’ve had it completely suppressed and deadened for so long. He’s put so much into trying to be fundamentally unattached to anything, anywhere, anyone (and there are some things here about perpetually being an outsider his whole life that I can’t quite put into words, but that’s a dimension too.) That sort of psychological self defense mechanism doesn’t just contentedly nod its head and go away just because something good happened one time haha. Probably a work in progress there huh (at least he’s not alone in it now <3)

PLUS some bonus Graves POV observations because man. I love writing him, he’s just a marvel of a man

- I know I call him a dumbass all the time, but in a street smart way I think he’s actually quite clever haha, he just has a bad tendency to get hung up on an idea and get tunnel sight. (I’ve based this a lot on the short stories but see also more recently his Sentinel skin voice lines for good examples: he’s incredibly straightforward in that ‘well obviously if it doesn’t affect me personally I ain’t gonna give it that much thought’ way, but you also have glimpses of surprising insight/shrewdness and… I don’t quite know how to put it, but something like an ability to get to the bottom line of something without getting caught up in the details. (I suspect T.F. does find himself lost in the details quite frequently, he’s much more attached to the decorative curlicues of the world.) Graves clearly & frequently has no idea what’s going on, but he strips things down to the essentials very quick: Lucian’s story as a direct thematic mirror to Viego’s, Is There A Sun Lady – Oh, I See, all of this is weird and creepy and needs shooting, and maybe most crucial of all: Isolde doesn’t want to be with her husband anymore so what he’s doing is just like. Extra shitty. He gets what he needs to get and then just barges ahead heedlessly with that. Icon.)

- He’s actually pretty darn eloquent in a gruff sort of way and uses some quite sophisticated vocabulary! And the way this is contrasted with the tendency to slip into blunter coarser language just as readily -- like when he takes the time to describe the monster that takes down the Prince’s ship in such poetic terms as ‘gargantuan’ and ‘the behemoth’s immense, distended jaw’ and it having ‘pallid dead eyes the size of the moon’, and meanwhile during his swim at the beginning of the story we get bastard cold and bastard dark and full of bastard jellyfish and crabs – brings me such immense and unending delight

- He’s more eloquent in his internal voice than he is when speaking (especially noticeable in Destiny and Fate; he does have a tendency to fumble his words when talking lol), and he gets quite easily lost in his own meandering reflective musings in a way I find incredibly endearing. I’d almost call it whimsical at times, honestly, hilarious as that is? Like when he’s literally so absorbed in a line of thought he forgets which way they’re rowing and T.F. has to remind him. (I think T.F. generally has more of a grip of what’s going on around them than Graves does lol)

- There’s an important distinction to be made that Graves actually does, by and large, read T.F: very closely and seemingly also pretty damn accurately. He’s good at (and clearly very interested in) reading his moods, spotting what tactics he’s using interpersonally, when he’s being genuine and when he’s being dissembling.

What Graves is actually bad at is understanding his own emotions, and to not bleed those emotions into other people’s motivations and behavior, especially when he’s upset or in heightened states of feeling, like he is all the way through Burning Tides. He can only name his own feelings in a vocabulary of anger, when it’s pretty clear from the subtext that there’s a whole bunch of other stuff going on there, and he has incredible trouble divorcing those feelings from what other people’s got going on with them right then. He feels hurt, betrayed, and undone by everything that’s happened to him, so the intention to hurt, betray and undo must live in the other person who he feels caused it. In less drastic cases you see him do this a bit when he feels like T.F. is being evasive with him – taking it as a form of rejection rather than realizing T.F. is just lost in his own thoughts, sort of thing. There’s a real improvement in this one between Burning Tides and Destiny and Fate, though, so maybe he’ll have an easier time of it with some time and practice.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this and that it’s a bit of a rambling mess, words have been real hard recently. Or rather I have too many words, all the time, left and right, I just can’t put them into the right orders to make any sense hahaha, I hope there’s some useful point in this somewhere for you at least!

[justiceraffles]

Fanfic Day meme ask: Q5 (What’s your favorite headcanon you use in fics?) or Q11 (What’s a fanfic idea you haven’t done yet?) please! ><

Eyeyey!! :DD

What’s your favorite headcanon you use in fics?

Hmmm, I don’t feel like I have used a lot of very specific headcanons in my fics so far. I have some headcanons about Hakuba’s backstory I might include in later stories 🤔

Does me writing Hakuba as a bit detective lit nerd count as a headcanon? I mean, he is canonically a Holmes enthusiast for sure, haha but I like sneaking different references and quotes through him

What’s a fanfic idea you haven’t done yet?

...I have a massive ongoing list of these 🤦‍♂️ My writing stamina is very low so the likelihood of me finishing these within the next century isn’t very likely so here’s a couple

Kaito taking care of an injured Hakuba

Also known as Raffles projecting their misfortune into Hakukai thoughts, the fic ™️

So, I got injured during the last week of 2020 and I had to keep my eyes mostly closed and covered for a couple of weeks while they were healing up. My close friends read Hakukai fics to me out loud to help me pass the time so I ended up going...Wow, what if I put Hakuba in this situation! Wouldn’t that be real fun! 

It’s basically about Hakuba getting hurt when a glass ceiling shatters over him at a heist and it takes some time to recover. Kaito feels guilty about him getting hurt and doesn’t want to leave him alone but being them as himself would look to suspicious (and it’d be embarrassing!) so he keeps visiting Hakuba using different disguises (Aoko, Akako, Keiko so on...) and just sticking around to keep company (talk to him, read to him, listen to stuff with him) But because Hakuba can’t actually see he starts getting lazy and stops using the disguises and only mimics their voices...

I have a full outline for this but the resolution involves a kiss scene and writing those is embarrassing for me so uh...maybe it’ll continue living rent free in my WIP doc?

Ekoda Play

This is just an excuse for Ekoda shenanigans!!! I love Ekoda shenanigans!!! I love their single braincell!!! It’s Hakukai and Aokako with Kaito & Aoko solidarity + Hakuba & Akako developing friendship. 

So 2B is putting up a play and Akako and Hakuba get nominated to play the leads because they’re so popular and well liked. They’re charming and good looking so it’s widely agreed that a play starring them is bound to go great.

Akako thrives on the attention and Hakuba figures it’s not a bad idea to get a bit more involved with school life every now and again (it could be enjoyable!) so they agree to do it and practice together and whatnot.

Kaito and Aoko are not jealous, what are you talking about, they would NEVER. (They most certainly are) and proceed to cause trouble behind the scenes.

Keiko is here to witness chaos unfold.

It’s another story about the four of them running around because I love thinking about them in scenarios where they do just that. 

Lettuce Heist

Lettuce Heist!!! There’s a real gem...or well, more like a jeweled object with a history I find to be really interesting and think would be really fun to include in a KID heist. I don’t want to say what it is exactly so I’m referring to it as the Lettuce (this makes sense in context, I swear)

This is more of a gen fic than a shippy fic (So far in my outline, at least) but it follows Hakuba’s thought process as he breaks down KID’s methods and trick for the heist. I wrote one with Kaito watching Hakuba scheme during a heist so I feel  like I should opposite as well, haha. An excuse for me to write small mysteries because I love writing those!

There’s a bunch more but I should probably stop rambling aaaaaaaAAAA Thanks for the ask!!! <333

Ask me things, maybe, possibly, if you’d like...

[pebblysand]

20 Questions: Writer's Edition!

I haven't been tagged in this but I saw it on @femellerklem's blog and as I'm on holidays with nothing to do, here it is for everyone's enjoyment, haha.

How many works do you have on AO3?

19

What’s your total AO3 word count?

302,756 words. As I was telling @whizzfizz the other day, I need to get a life.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

The Good Wife, HP, Spooks, Silk, House M.D., Peaky Blinders and Without a Trace. So, seven. Like Horcruxes, lol.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

That's an interesting question, let me check.

one: castles (hp) ; two: the wolf's just a puppy (and the door's double locked) (hp) ; three: truth (peaky blinders) ; four: slipped (and sad something sort of like your name) (hp) ; five: the things that will likes (the good wife)

I can't say I'm shocked that the Potter stuff is so high up, it's the most popular fandom I've ever written for so it makes sense, just in terms of a larger readership pool. I'm always however pleasantly surprised that Truth is up there. It's the only PB fic I've ever written (although I have plans for another one) and not a particularly popular ship, so it's always nice to get recognition for it. IIRC, it wasn't a hit when I put it out but it's been growing steadily ever since! It was also the first fic I wrote after a three-year writing slump, which makes me oddly proud of it. It's not perfect by any means and has obviously been contradicted by canon since then, but I like it.

Please, however, stop dropping kudos on the things that will likes. It's really not great. I do hope my writing has gotten better since 2012 and don't understand why people like this. I've considered deleting it so many times but it's got so many kudos, it make me feel bad for the people who do enjoy it.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Always on AO3, never on ff.net. I just find the PM-ing system clunky on ff. I'm not always as prompt answering as I'd like to be anymore, but I do make a commitment to always answer eventually. It's just that, if you've ever looked at it, you'll know that my comment section is something to behold. I tend to get a lot of "long" comments on my stuff, so I also leave very long responses in return, which take a while to get to/write. This being said, I love debating/chatting/commiserating with my readers and have made some fantastic friends through my AO3 comment section. I basically live for people's long comments lol. I just wish I had more time to get to them quicker haha.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't know, maybe my most recent one, I suppose? Or horses made of sticks? I tend to get very dark and angsty throughout my works, but always end on a brighter note. Those two are about death/loss though and there's a permanency to it that you can't really avoid.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I mean, that fic's a 143-thousand-words journey but probably children. I like where it ends. It's a good place.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Never have. I might one day but it just sounds like a lot of effort.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Everyone has I think. The best one though was someone on castles who wrote "first learn when spring season starts and ends before writing a story about it. what a joke." I'm still baffled by it cause, like, May's in spring, isn't it?

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes and no. I have written sex, yes, aspects of it at least. There are two sort-of explicit sex scenes in children, and one very explicit one. This being said, I mostly concentrate on one specific detail while writing sex, and blur out the rest. A bit like the scene in which Harry pulls off the condom after having sex with Mia in castles. The latest chapter of castles is also obviously very explicit, but it's not really writing "sex" as such. I write smut when it shows something, when it has a point. I don't write smut for the sake of smut but if explicit sex has a place/point in a story then I do write it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Not that I have ever checked either though, lol.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. I'd love to though!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I've beta-ed but not co-written.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

It's funny cause I definitely write romance, but I don't consider myself a "shippy" person. I fluctuate, I'm mostly interested in storylines/characters, rather than ships themselves. A bit like sex, I think romance is an element of life. But, if I had to choose one and because I've written 143k words about them, I think I'll say Martha/Clive on silk.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The TGW Will-lives AU. There's 20k words of it somewhere on my hard drive but honestly, doubt I'll ever write it.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm very character-based, whatever that means. I've been told I'm good with dialogue. Very "vivid". I honestly don't know but if there's something you really like about my style, by all means, tell me haha.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I could edit myself into the ground. I have to limit the number of editing runs I do on things or else after a while I start obsessing over each and every word and the quality actually goes down. I've been known to delete a lot of things and regret it afterwards. I think if I ever wrote a book you'd find me in bookshops picking it up and correcting the copies after it's been published haha.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Very tricky. I did it a bit in ce ne sont que des cailloux but only in a language I actually speak.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Without a Trace. A 2000s procedural lol.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

My fave is always my latest one so far lol. Which is a good thing I suppose 'cause it means I'm enjoying what I'm writing and getting better? So, right this minute, it's listening for that angel choir, but it'll be something else soon haha.

Tagging @copper-dust and @whizzfizz if you haven't done this yet - not sure!

[thebsunit]

                                    Potential by @thebsunit

                                   A Teen! Reader x bau team fic

     After spending some time with your Zio Rossi, you see Morgan and JJ sparring and ask for a two on one training with them

A/n

Hey! So this is my first fic, and I'm really excited to share this with yall! This idea came up when @stxrryspencer posted and was like “what teen!reader x bau fic should I write?” And I commented a million times and this was one of those comments! So check there's out too! I’m not sure when it’ll be out but soooo much of their writing is good! We had the same basic idea but wrote it differently :) so that's cool! There are a few words that aren't in English (Italian) so I'll add a little translation index and author's notes at the end. 

Potential by @thebsunit

Word count:  3132

“I'm nervous,”

“Don't be,” Spencer told you “besides-”

“Okay but what if Morgan beats the absolute crap out of me,” you interrupted “I asked for a sparring session! He's strong,” 

“Don't be nervous, Y/n,” Emily consoled over a sip of coffee “Morgan probably won't go easy on you. And neither will JJ. But there's a difference between beating somebody up and being pushed past your limits so you'll be able to grow,”

“And besides,” Spencer continued, “In the not at all likely possibility that Morgan beats the absolute crap out of you. Rossi will definitely kill him,”

That much was true, and you pondered over it as Emily gave you pointers. Which flew right over your head. 

You, Spencer, and Emily were spending some quality time together while your Zio Rossi was in a meeting with Hotch. It wasn't a secret that JJ and Morgan were the most athletically inclined out of the team, you knew that after watching a take down (albeit from the safety of the polie cruiser) and seeing Morgan pin the unsub to the ground while JJ pulled out a pair of handcuffs. It was impressive, and you wondered if they had somehow managed to chase the unsub to where you were so you could see everything up close and personal. Later that night, you had asked your Zio Rossi if a training session with the two of them would be a possibility. He said yes, and texted the two of them. Who had enthusiastically agreed. 

Now you were having a coffee with Emily and Spencer. Telling them you had a training session with them the next day, followed by a sparring session that the team was invited to watch. 

“So if there's JJ and Morgan, then you..” Spencer pondered aloud “Who are you fighting with? Surely it's not going to be a two on one battle, that wouldn't be fair at all,”

“Oh! No no, not at all,” Emily and Spencer both looked relieved “What JJ said is that she'll be my personal coach during the spar, not fight. So like.. she'll yell out encouragement and tips and stuff,”

“So it is like a two on one battle!” Emily said

You snorted into your coffee “Yea, I guess. Just not in Morgan's favor,”

“Serves him right! Hey, y/n, just for me, make sure to give him a nice sucker punch in the-”

“Reid!” Emily yelled while you shouted “Spencer!” at the same time

“Kidding, kidding! I’m kidding!” Spencer said as you pelted empty sugar packets at him. 

——

“Are you nervous?” 

Penny was driving you to the boxing gym that your “personal trainers” frequented often. There was a boxing ring, too, and you had briefly wondered if you should have borrowed a pair of gloves. 

“Not really. At least not in the sense that you think I would be. I have the training, and then I’m gonna spar with Morgan. I’m more nervous I’m gonna make a fool of myself in front of people I look up to,” you explained, tightening your ponytail. Which was a nervous habit you had adopted “ask me again in three hours when I'll actually box with Morgan,”

She laughed and glanced over at you before blowing a kiss to the pair of pink fuzzy dice hanging on her rear view mirror “There! A bit of luck for you, darling” 

“Thanks, Penny,” 

You looked down at your knuckles and at the roll of athletic tape that JJ told you to bring. You felt the car come to a stop and looked up to see a bright red fitness center sign. 

“You’re here, sweet cheeks! Wanna text Morgan and JJ you’re here? I think they’re inside warming up a bit. Maybe pulling a few strings to get the place cleared out for fight night!” Penny sensed your nervousness and bought you a few seconds to put it off before you walked in 

“Yea, I’ll text them right now,” you said and pulled out your phone. Texting the groupchat with you, JJ, and Morgan that has been dubbed “the number one rule of fight club..” 

The number one rule of fight club...

Y/n: Hey, I’m here!

JJ: Awesome! Come on in, Morgan got us a private room by flexing at the receptionist 

Morgan: Hey! With guns like these, I can’t just let them go without use. 

Y/n: Hahaha. Okay, I’m coming in right now. I’m in a blue tank top and leggings if you see me before I see you 

JJ: Great, if you get lost ask the receptionist for directions 

Morgan: And don’t hesitate to name drop me, you never know what perks you’ll get if she knows you’re with a god like me ;)

You laughed and grabbed your bag, letting Penny read the thread while you got yourself together. 

“Okay! Let’s go. I’m going, I’m gone!” You yelled over your shoulder at Penny once she passed your phone back to you. 

“Okay, love you!” She responded, blasting Eye of the Tiger from her car window as she drove away. 

You squared your shoulders and walked in. The smell of sweat overpowering your senses. Almost immediately you didn’t know where you were going. So, begrudgingly, you went up to the blonde receptionist who looked way too energetic. 

“Um, hi. Do you know where the private rooms are?”

“Hi, gorgeous! I’m Abby, which room number are you going in to?” She practically yelled at you

“Aw crap. I don’t know which room number it is,” You internally panicked

Then you remembered that Morgan said you could name drop. He probably didn’t give you the number just for that reason

“Sly, dog..” you thought

“Um.. I’m not sure but I’m here with Morgan? Derek Morgan,” you corrected yourself then saw Abby start blushing and leaned over to you

“Oh, Derek, what a handsome young man! Of course, you’re in 2B. Can I get you a water? They’re usually a buck, but if you’re with Derek I’ll let a few ‘go lukewarm’” She whispered the last part and winked at you. 

You smiled. Morgan sure did have something different that got all the ladies to swoon. 

“Yes, please, that would be wonderful. I’ll tell Morgan, that you gave us some,” You collected the water. Condensation pooling on your fingertips and yelled over your shoulder “Thank you, Abby!” 

She winked at you again and pointed you in the direction. 

“Hi guys,” you smiled nervously and held out the waters “Abby gave us waters, I may have name dropped you, Morgan,”

“Haha, nice!” Morgan walked over and gave you a high five “Thank you, Abby,”

“Hi, y/n, want me to wrap your hands for you?” JJ asked

“Yes, please,”

You sat down on a bench and held out your hands, unsure whether to put your palms up or down and trying to ignore the obvious tremor in them. 

Apparently palms up was the correct placement as JJ gently, but securely, wove the tape through your fingers. “So what we're gonna do today is just teach you some of the basics in boxing. That’s what Morgan and I have been properly trained in, and what I think is the most fun-“

She was cut off by Morgan

“Hey, doll face, are you shaking?” He grabbed one of your hands in his own “Don’t be nervous, y/n. We're gonna teach you first. We wouldn't just throw you to the wolves. And even when we do box it out,” he mimed a duck and upper cut “with JJ giving you pointers I’m sure you’re gonna do fine. Even if you don’t manage to beat me,”

“Yea, Y/n. You’re gonna do great, I promise,” She finished taping up your hands and stood up “Okay. We’re gonna teach you the basics in boxing, and then some cardio to get your blood pumping. After we have the ring to ourselves! I'm friends with the owner, so James said we could stay late,” JJ whispered the last part to you

“Learning, cardio, practice, go, got it,” you looked up eagerly at JJ and bounced on your toes “which moves first?”

——-

You genuinely had no idea how Morgan still seemed to be full of so much energy. He was bouncing on his toes and had a look of fire in his eyes as he danced around in front of the mirror. You looked over at JJ who was on her phone. 

“Y/n?” She called to you 

“Mhm?”

“Spencer and Emily want to know if they could come watch us. Garcia said she'll be here in spirit but she loves you and Morgan too much to see either of you at each other,” 

You laughed at Garcia's reasoning “What about Hotch? And Zio Rossi?”

JJ frowned “They really wanted to come, they swear, but Strauss called them in for a last minute meeting. Something about paperwork. They say they're so sorry, but if you let Spencer and Emily come they want them to film it?”

You tried not to let the relief show on your face. It was your dream to work in the FBI and if Hotch, someone with an incredible amount of power (at least to you), saw you get absolutely clobbered you weren't sure if you could ever go back. At least with your pride. 

“That's okay!” You said “Tell Spencer and Emily to come! If Abby's still working ask if they can bring some more waters down, I'm worried I might need the coldness for a makeshift ice pack,”

You didn't want Morgan to hear how nervous you were. It worried you that he might go easy on you when you needed him to push your limits. 

“Got it! I'll text them right now,” JJ turned back to her phone and you watched Morgan hype himself up “Rossi said we can have dinner with everyone at his place, and Spencer and Emily are 10 minutes away,”

“Awesome sauce, thanks JJ,”

“Anytime,”

You unwound your tape, JJ said it would be good to stretch your hands, and you flexed your fingers. Yelling over your shoulder that you were going to the bathroom. 

“One last nervous pee, I got this,” you whispered to yourself

It was about a half hour or so after closing, but the bathrooms were still open. You looked yourself up and down in the mirror and took a breath to steady your nerves. While you were studying your posture JJ walked in. 

“Hey, Morgans already in the ring. Emily and Spencer are there too. I'm gonna give you some pointers, okay?”

You nodded. Splashing your face with cool water and watching JJ through the mirror reflection. 

“Okay. I think this goes without saying but no hits below the belt, no matter how much Reid paid you off,” you laughed out loud and nodded your head “Alright. I'm gonna be telling you pointers but really you're the one in the ring. You're the one that gets final say, does that make sense Y/n?” You nodded your head “Great. So if you want to do something I didn't tell you to, that's totally okay. And I'm not going to be choreographing your entire fight. This isn't a dance routine. Just tips, does that make sense?”

“Mhm, yea. Keep going,”

“Excellent. This is a one round kinda thing, just whoever taps out first loses. I've never really hosted my own boxing match so we're all learning today!”

You nodded. Getting hyped up. 

“Alright. I'm gonna walk you out, you got this. I believe in you. Kick some sweet sweet Morgan Ass,”

“Deal,” You responded. 

You walked out of the bathroom and into the ring, seeing Morgan taping up his fingers, and you mirrored his actions. Once your fingers were taped up you flexed them, and pulled on your boxing gloves. 

“Ready?”

You looked over at JJ and winked “Ready as I'll ever be,”

You climbed into the ring, and into the corner across from Morgan who winked at you. You smiled smugly back and looked over at Spencer and Emily, blowing them a kissy face and a smile. 

JJ called to start the match and you went over to Morgan, keeping your fists up and close to your face. You let Morgan take the first hit and you dodged it, going for a jab on his torso. You hit him and heard your “fans” cheering for you. You fought the urge to look over but in your distraction, Morgan got a cross punch on your torso. You felt the hit but with your adrenaline pumping, if anything, it got you more fired up. Morgan paired his cross punch with a jab. JJ kept yelling encouragement so you wouldn't let go but combined with her yelling, your fan club, and the blood rushing through your ears it all went in one ear and out the other 

“An effective 1-2...” Flitted briefly in your mind. And your eyes went to his. Open face.. “Rookie mistake!”

He left his face unprepared for just a second too long and you took the hit. You threw a hook across his face and Morgan went down. Obviously not seeing just how vulnerable he left himself. 

“Oh shit!” Emily yelled and you dropped your stance immediately. 

“Morgan! Oh crap, Morgan Morgan Morgan!” You held your hands up to your face. Not to shield yourself, but out of shock (and maybe a little bit of pride) at your hit. “Morgan Morgan, Morgan I am so sorry! Oh my god are you okay?” You looked over at JJ who looked incredibly impressed and then over at Spencer and Emily. Who had definitely just passed a ten dollar bill between them. 

“Doll face,” Your eyes snapped to Morgan “Y/n, I'm okay. That was a good hit, I didn't realize how good you were at boxing! And you swear you've never taken classes?”

You smiled. Glad that he was okay “I haven't-” a thought crossed your mind “Holy smokes did I win!”

A playful groan passed Morgan's lips. And JJ stepped into the ring to announce Morgan's defeat. 

“Holy crap I won! I beat Derek Morgan SSA of the FBI in a boxing match!” You laughed out loud and JJ held up your hand in a proper victory stance. “Spencer! Emily! I won!”

Emily and Spencer both laughed and gave you a high five. You glanced over and saw Morgan pressing a still cool water bottle to the side of his face. 

Morgan walked his way over to you and that was really when you felt bone dog tired. “Good job, kid,” He smiled and put his arm around your shoulder taking a look at the group “Can't believe a teenager rocked my shit..” he almost mumbled to himself. 

-----

“Oh my chocolate thunder..!” You heard Penny yell. Once she saw Morgan’s face her shock was well written “Does it hurt?” 

Penny went to fetch him a fresh bag of frozen peas, when you popped up. Already holding a steadily defrosting bag of frozen veggies. 

“I actually think his ego is a lot more bruised than his eye. Hi penny. I hope you aren't too upset that I hurt Morgan..” you trailed off. Now worried that you were going to make her upset. 

“Oh not at all, my little boxing champion! This nice tall glass of water can take a hit, I'm proud of you, y/n/n, really,” Penny smiled at you and took a reach for your veggies

You gave them to her with a smile and waved goodbye. Off to see how your Zio was doing. 

“Passerotto!” Your Zio Rossi spotted you before you did and engulfed you in a hug. He pressed a kiss on to your forehead and smoothed a bit of your hair back against your head “I saw what you did to Morgan! I asked Emily if they got a video but they said they were so wrapped up in the atmosphere they weren't able to. But I think you can elaborate enough for us, no?”

You smile and shook your head “In all honesty, I barely even remember. I guess the adrenaline in it all really got a way from me,” What actually happened was you were way too embarrassed to go into detail about you clocking one of Hotch’s finest co workers in front of him “I bet Spencer could help you fill in the blanks!”

“You know, Y/n..” Hotch said “I didn't know you were able to pack such a punch. If it would be okay with your parents and Uncle here, I have a friend that runs a self defense clinic at the Academy if you'd like some more work. I think you'd be a nice fit,”

With Hotch being a man of few words (and even fewer emotions) his slight compliment filled you with pride. “Thank you, Hotch” you smiled at him “I didn't know I had it in me either! I'll ask my parents about the clinic, but I doubt I'd stay long enough here to be a valuable member. Maybe as a summer program!” You added

Zio Rossi's oven’s beeping cut you off short. He went to tend to his lasagna, your favorite, and waved you all to seat yourselves at the table. You found yourself sandwiched between Spencer and Emily at the circular dining table. Out of all the dining areas in your Zio Rossi's mansion, this was your favorite for family meals. You were able to really look at one another. With your company next to you, you felt a little short and maneuvered yourself so you were sitting on your legs. Giving yourself an extra few inches of height that made you look a lot more sophisticated if you do say so yourself (which you did). Spencer glanced at your wiggling and wrote you a note in the little journal he always kept with him. 

“I used to do the same thing,” it read and you looked at him and smiled as he winked. 

Almost like magic Zio Rossi appeared holding a very large dish with a gorgeous lasagna in it. You were passed the salad bowl and filled your plate with it. Careful not to let it touch with your other side dishes. You took a sip of lemonade from your wine glass that matched Spencer's. Spencer didn't drink and neither did you. (Although often you would steal a sip of your Zio’s glass “as long as you don't tell your parents,”)

“So Morgan..” your Zio Rossi started once everyone's food was dished out “How does it feel to get.. pardon me if I phrase this wrong, but, absolutely served by my nipote?”  

The table erupted with laughter and you found yourself again beaming with pride. 

“Hey I gotta say, the kids got potential.” Morgan smiled and held out his glass to you “To Y/n!”

“To Y/n!” The rest of the table cheered. 

-----

Translation Index and Author's Note

Hey! Thank you soooo much for reading! I'm really proud of this, and I hope you guys like it! Always open for requests and critiques!

Zio - Uncle

Since the reader was probably brought up with some Italian, they refer to Rossi, their uncle, as Zio. Which is Italian for Uncle. While the rest of the team just calls him “your uncle Rossi” they understand Zio but never really fit right with them. It's yours and your Zio Rossi's little thing

Nipote - Niece/Nephew

Nipote is a gender neutral term for niece or nephew. It can be distinguished with further describing words (Ex. “Mia Bella nipote”, my beautiful niece or “Mio nipote” my nephew) it's like Spanish! 

Passeretto - Little Sparrow

Passeretto is a name used by someone's “Guardian” when their younger influence is growing up and “spreading their wings” (like a Sparrow). I used this as Zio Rossi's affectionate nickname because the reader is learning/learned how to properly box. 

Again, thank you so much for reading. It really means a lot! ¡Besitos! 

~Romeo

[hamaon]

JGY or WWX?

I feel like a fair disclaimer to give before getting to Wei Wuxian is that I watched the Untamed despite, not because of, wangxian! I originally checked out the beginning of the animated series because someone I followed was getting into it, but I already had an inkling that the main romantic relationship in this romance wouldn’t be my cup of tea. The Untamed followed, more than half a year later, really only because I had hit the gorgeous soundtrack on youtube.

How I feel about this character Part of the reason I presumed I wouldn’t be into wangxian was because neither of the main players really spoke to me, and on this account I am happy to have been proven wrong! When I finished the show, Wei Wuxian was probably my favorite character. There's something very satisfying about a surface-level heroic main character hitting his absolute lowest points and starting to be actively harmful to himself and others. “This is all I’ve ever wanted for the class clown type of character”, I think I said at some point. Let it all burn.

I go back and forth on whether I find the flightier parts of his personality charming or annoying, but it’s a spectrum. The Untamed version is my favorite, character-wise.

All the people I ship romantically with this character Nie Huaisang, in the sense that, what with their roles in the plot, it would be fascinating to see how things would play out if this was the main romance, instead. Especially because romance would not be Nie Huaisang’s priority. What would the relationship trajectory even be, teenage sweethearts, ending with a definitive breakup by the finale? I've never sat down with the idea long enough to do anything with it, but sometimes it comes back to me. The main reason I'm into it is because hey, it's the main character & the main driving force behind the story! this is an intellectual puzzle to work out!, but they also had nice, easy chemistry when they were young and seemed to enjoy each other's company, which was something that was... not present in the actual main ship as far as I could see, and apparently my only kink is obvious mutual interest and stability in a relationship. I don't think they really had romantic/sexual chemistry in particular, but hey.

Wen Ning. I just think ningxian is cute. Also has lots of potential for difficult and uncomfortable exploration re: consent and autonomy.

But I think at the end of the day, the only relationship he has that just by the actual shape of it would be something I'd be interested in seeing turn into a romantic and/or sexual relationship is with Wen Qing, which, uh. Yeah. The fond push-and-pull, the two leaders, it’s good stuff. Just a physical relationship during their hunkering together time would be fun, too.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Jiang Cheng. I remember originally being pretty peeved about the fact that the romance (censored or not) is treated as the main focus when the Yunmeng duo is, to me, the real heart of the story. Let Lan Wangji be a supporting character.

I'm not sure if I really want a reconciliation between them, personally, but I want to note that it’s not because I think it would be fundamentally impossible, or because one or both of the characters is genuinely better off without the other. I think it would be very good for them if they managed some sort of genuine healing together!

I don’t want a reconciliation because thinking about their complete and total failure to communicate and consequently never making up makes me experience genuine agony in a very satisfying way. I have in the past gone into people's tags for the two of them and managed to work myself into a sobbing mess within five minutes. It is extremely cathartic.

My unpopular opinion about this character That time when he walks into a Jin party and starts throwing threats 3-2-1, part of me is going “fuck yeah” and part of me is looking at all the collateral damage servants trying to stay out of the way in the background, who never asked to be terrorized by this very powerful man. It’s not something that makes me dislike the character in any way or form, as stated before if anything it just makes him more interesting to me, I just don’t think that it was an uncomplicatedly ‘cool’ moment.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon The man should be actually responsible for his own misdeeds. I’ve heard people say that this was a censorship thing, but I have no sources on that.

And A-Yao gets to go under a read more.

How I feel about this character Continuing down the nostalgia lane, my initial reactions were “this man smiles very deliberately” and, towards the end, “man, fuck the gentry, you should get to win”.

I, hm. It feels sometimes like there are two kinds of opinions that fans have, and I don’t connect with either of them! There’s the “this character is an unrepentant asshole and I’m proud of that, you don’t need to make up sympathetic motivations for villains” which, while I agree that he can justify a lot to himself, just doesn’t ring true to me. I think that many of his actions were either forced by the circumstances, or understandable, or sympathetic and made with decent intentions, or not particularly bad compared to shit that other characters and their society as a whole gets to.

Obviously there are all these breakdowns about the specific acts of altruism that he does that in-universe are rare from someone that high up in power, and those are great, but even without all of that, he was a stable, peaceful, competent ruler who wasn’t doing any large-scale nasty shit after a series of complete nightmares on the throne, and upsetting that long-standing balance should bring about repercussions for several social classes that does more harm than anything he was individually doing at any point.

As for the other take, there’s the “oh no he’s so small and so cute and should be pampered so much” which I don’t... get, emotionally, and additionally it is reaaal hard for me to see the character as someone who either wants or would even particularly enjoy being the one being taken care of. Usually my response is-

There’s that part during Nie Mingjue’s capture in Empathy where he’s just, running the whole show? Like, on one hand it is very important that he’s probably the weakest person in the room, and might lose in a direct confrontation against even the random soldiers standing to the sides, and if he plays his cards wrong or even sub-optimally one of the two big strong cultivators in his vicinity is going to pulverize him, and also aware of all of this at all times and living in low-key terror. But also -- he pulled it off.

If I’m working myself toward some emotional response with “A-Yao small” it doesn’t end with “someone should hold him 🥺” but with “and doesn’t that just make it all the sweeter that he sat on that throne”. (I have two kinks, and the other one is power reversal.)

All the people I ship romantically with this character Only Lan Xichen, really, but there are some tentative side paths to take!

Qin Su, in that the initial attraction would be fun to explore, and then it becomes less about the relationship dynamic and more about the underlying horror.

Nie Huaisang, in a not-particularly-serious, one-sided, never-happened-and-now-it-never-will kind of way. The ideal would be Jin Guangyao thinking of Nie Huaisang as a tiring but cute little brother figure (he doesn't have those, all of his family relationships sans mom take a weird turn at some point! this one sure is about to!), while Nie Huaisang has a lil crush, and then it goes all the way to hell. ...And I know that I set “won’t happen” as a precondition, but I guess if there was a character who keeps the (fierce or not) corpse of the late Chief Cultivator close in an effort to feel alive post-canon, Nie Huaisang is the one I’d want for that role.

Jiang Cheng, because that family unit is so under-explored in canon, and because out of a handful of favorite characters these two are usually my number one, so watching them interact with each other can be fun just because of that. But in my heart of hearts I want Jiang Cheng to stay forever single by choice, and really I'm just here for platonic family shenanigans with Jin Ling. (I've written some of this, but out of everything it's probably the least likely to ever see the light of day.)

But really only Lan Xichen. When I was watching the early episodes and didn't remember the characters well and in my head these two were only “the disturbingly handsome older brother” and “a bit part soldier (lol) from some other sect” I really imprinted on that goodbye scene, like damn, look at these characters who are friendly with each other and showing obvious interest. It's only the circumstances that are getting in the way! If I were to ever read fic from this show, it would be these two. (This was all a counter-reaction to early wangxian haha.) But increasingly it goes to show that what I'm really into is people having mutual and mutually recognized affection for each other, the negotiated part in the relationship being less about whether it'll happen and more about how to go about it. More romances that start with getting together instead of ending there.

I am laughing at my past self here though, after actually finishing the show my thoughts on xiyao were that it was nice that it was both there and stable (until, you know) and unknowable, whatever the shape of their relationship in private they are aware of it and have made their peace with it, and that's all I need to know, and now I'm sitting here with several WIPs, wondering if this is what finally pushes me to start publishing fanfiction.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Lan Xichen. No, I’m not interested in a non-romantic* read on their relationship, yes, I just want him here, too.

Also, the only other relationships of note here are with Meng Shi, Jin Ling and Qin Su, and using ‘non-romantic OTP’ for any of those feels off to me. Meng Shi and Jin Ling are at too much of an uneven level, Qin Su doesn’t reach OTP levels even if the romantic filter is off. Su Minshan and Xue Yang might be a better fit, but again, OTP level is too high. Early-canon Nie Huaisang... maybe.

*non-sexual is fine. never officially getting together w/mutual acknowledgement is fine.

My unpopular opinion about this character I think I already went off, so. The hat is fine, and the hate sounds performative and weirdly ignorant at times. I don't love the Untamed version, but it’s fine and the ones in other adaptations are fantastic, even. The warm yellow-brown combination looks really nice. More of the characters should wear hats, actually! Which I realize is an opinion influenced by historical Japanese and Korean dramas, which are of a different genre altogether (also not Chinese, but hats in official settings are a constant in all of these cultures). Nevertheless.

I wish it was used only post-timeskip in the Untamed, too, though, for more variety in costuming and to further differentiate the pre- and post-timeskip versions of the character.

...................................and a specific xiyao pet peeve also: I am becoming increasingly wary of the... either super common or I just happen to keep finding these, take where he’s some sort of unwilling/particularly hesitant participant in this relationship. Like I went back to watch parts of episode 4 (to figure out why it was that I was so sure Meng Yao would be swinging a sword around in future episodes and my conclusion is: because everyone else was swinging theirs) and even the initial interactions in the goodbye scene are like-

Meng Yao literally runs up to a guy waaay out of his league like “Hello I am bringing myself Forth because I have the audacity to assume you might Personally Want to Know that I am leaving and here are some pretty personal reasons why (gosh you really are lovely)”

Reactions I’ve seen to this: look at the little dude running away from his emotions

Me: w h a t

And then the natural conclusion here is that Lan Xichen is there to love him (with his dick and/or sunny personality) until he’s forced to accept it [serene face emoji] and it makes me. Not enjoy it much.

Ofc this doesn’t include normal human hesitations one might have about... anything and everything in life, really, but when it’s treated like this automatic character/relationship hurdle I’m just hhhh

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon I'm pretty satisfied with things as they stand? Just like the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian makes me feel cathartic agony, Jin Guangyao's fate makes me feel cathartic rage. Look at the low-born bastard child go down the stairs of life, one last time!

......Sometimes I have my weak moments and do wish he had gotten away in the end, though.

[illegiblewords]

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Tagging: @nilim, @azwoodbomb, @wouldyouliketoseemymask, @parvus-pica, @peregrineroad, @spiral-seeker, @frostmantle, @autumnslance, @strangefellows, @redbud-tree, @maccaroni-eh, @entropytea, @prettyparadoxes, @ivalane, @kunstpause, @fogfens

Name: Illegible or Illegiblewords lately. I’ve switched it in the past a few times.

Fandoms: I’ve been in Final Fantasy XIV for the past couple of years now. Passively I might be in Pathologic fandom and Dragon Age fandom? Maybe others too on and off. I was in comic fandoms for a long time but honestly that spiraled into a hot mess of epic proportions so I’ve mostly peaced out of there. Still love stories, characters, and buddies from there though.

Most Popular Oneshot: Ironically it’s Ideation for Bladerunner 2049 haha. I did exactly one fic there right after seeing the movie and didn’t go back, but I thought it was very good and I had a specific story I wanted to tell. It’s one of my most popular fics, and given it’s gen too I’m actually kind of happy about that.

Most Popular Multichapter: The Immortal Wound for FFXIV fandom! I had only just started writing for the fandom, and the series leading up to this fic was my first time writing NPC shipping in FFXIV. I was seriously, SERIOUSLY nervous at first! I wrote the first fic, Posturing, as a personal challenge to do an ambiguous protagonist/NPC since I saw other people doing that and wanted to see if I could pull it off. Posted it at around 4 in the morning then deleted within a few minutes out of anxiety lol. A week went by before I read it again, realized I still liked it, and put it back up for good. That being well-received helped encourage me to keep trying, and by The Immortal Wound it was getting solid attention. The experience really meant a lot to me!

Actual Worst Part of Writing: Probably chapter maps within the outlining process for me. It’s needed for how I approach things, but shit is anxiety-inducing and stressful af lol. I basically plan each event out in high detail before actually writing the fic, so when the time comes for me to legit write I’m more or less following a plan I can trust. Making that plan is the tough part.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: Often titles are the last things I figure out before starting the fic itself. I know I like punchy stuff if I can manage. Sometimes it’ll be one word, sometimes it’ll be a quote or song lyric, sometimes it’ll be a saying, sometimes it’ll be a phrase that feels fitting. I go fast and loose usually, and tbh I’ve tried to tell myself not to overthink it too hard. I do try title related works in ways that have some thematic link when I can.

Do You Outline: HahahahahaHAHAHAHAhaha yeah. Straight up my outlines are eldritch terrors for their detail, length, and complexity. I don’t mean that as a brag at all, seriously--I tend to get frozen a bit if I don’t have an outline by and large because it’s hard for me to keep track of what’s in my head and plan accordingly. Just end up with too many moving parts + revision and pacing get wonky otherwise.

Depending on the project I might have sections tied to setting, characters, magic systems, religions, etc. at the top. Fanfic this is less likely but does crop up sometimes.

To give an example of the first bullet of the first chapter of an ongoing fic:

Post-Shinryu, the Warrior of Light lingers in the Royal Menagerie alone at his own insistence to search for the Eye of Nidhogg. In the process he remembers the fight against Zenos and Shinryu. Note he was overcome by an almost feral rage at Zenos’ assumption that he was the target of anything resembling lust. Those attentions (“bite down upon my jugular”) belong to another, but note similarities of two pale-eyed, long-haired blondes. Seeing Shinryu, the Warrior had no idea whether Lahabrea survived within. The fusion was horrifying to see and as he fought he didn’t hold back because besides obvious dangers, he was also ready to mercy kill if needed. Also note Warrior wanted to intervene against Thordan for Lahabrea but wasn’t fast enough, questions a little privately how far he’d have gone against him. It might not have mattered even if he’d managed since he knows Lahabrea was going crazy and unable to listen. Locating and examining the Eye, he recognizes how drained it is. Certainly not enough to threaten him when dealing with post-battle exhaustion. So he reaches inside with his own aether, relentless in pushing aside every foreign element—Nidhogg, Thordan, the corrupted Rhalgr, the places Zenos caged them all under his own will. Zodiark’s tempering is what helps him ultimately find Lahabrea, who is barely alive. Zodiark’s tempering has preserved what it could but has a much more tenuous grip in consequence. When the Warrior finds him Lahabrea isn’t even aware, functionally unconscious. The tempering flares against him defensively and this time the Warrior focuses on it. This is all that has allowed Lahabrea to stay alive. He could force himself closer but there is no vessel. Besides, the process of separating a fragile soul so deficient in aether is too great a risk. So he keeps the Eye.

It’s not the only bullet of comparable size for that chapter. The overall piece has at least 40 total chapters, but probably more.

Ideas I Probably Won’t Get Around To, But Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Tbh probably some of the earlier WIPs I have that aren’t finished already. Not just FFXIV (Dead Language, With Good Intentions) but other fandoms. I could end up circling back in the future one day but who knows.

Callouts @ Me: “NO MORE WIPS HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE OVER 20″, “RELEARN HOW TO DO DRABBLES”, “GET UR PRESENTS DONE”, “REVIEW OTHERS MORE THE STAGE FRIGHT IS RIDICULOUS”.

Best Writing Traits: I try to write any character as the hero of their own story/with the capacity to be someone’s favorite. I do my research and prioritize telling a good story first and foremost. I can change my writing style according to need and am good at capturing the cadence and word choices of different characters.

Spicy Tangential Opinion: If no transaction has been made (esp. monetary), no one owes you shit online. Not reviews, not hits, not praise, not agreement, not content of any sort. It sucks to feel like you’re creating to a void. It sucks to be passionately in love with a rarepair when other ships are drowning in art and stories.

People still don’t owe you.

If you don’t like someone else’s content, create something exploring what you do like... or even why you don’t like that content. Tell a story. Create art. Make photosets and playlists and analyses. If it is not a literal crime (as opposed to portraying fictional crime), don’t discourage other creators no matter how awful you might find their stuff. Lend your own voice to an alternative as convincingly as you can. And if that doesn’t persuade others, you need to keep honing your own skills.

If you want more of something to exist, spread inspiration. Again this can be in storytelling, art, photosets, playlists, analysis, you name it. Give form to your passion. And if others disagree or don’t respond, keep working at it. This is a skill too, and it takes practice.

I’ve found it shows when work is created out of a sense of guilt, fear, or obligation. The quality is much lower and no one latches on to keep building in-turn. And IMO it is essential to build up rather than tearing down.

[seijorhi]

asks :)

hhhh y’all got me cryin over here over your The Final Girl responses 😭 💕

holy shit so i. so i have notifs on and i usually save them all for night so i can go through them and have all my fics to read at night, right? everytime you post i drop whatever i’m doing and immediately start reading and you NEVER disappoint. that slasher fic is AMAZING. your writing style is so suspenseful and it really gets you into what you’re reading and i’m always so excited with your work. amazing job as always !!

sdfgyhgfghjk it was my first time trying to write like proper horror and i was so scared that it was just gonna fall flat or just not be that tense?? so thank you!! i’m really glad you liked it :)

RHI BBY!! PHENOMENAL work as always. the chase? the build up? the faint sense of hope the reader feels for a successful escape only for her to be quite literally shoved back into the devil’s grasp (also the fact that she’s going to give birth to a killer’s child bdishsjsh its a hopeless situation really), and let’s not get started on that closing line. my GOD i got absolute chills. this genre was literally MADE for you holy shit, thank you for sharing your talent ❤️🐦

🥺 bby I’ve missed you!! i spent a long time debating about whether i’d add the pregnancy thing or not, but i’m so glad i did, because it just adds to the awfulness of it all i think, and the reader’s desperation. but thank you sm!! i’ve decided that writing violent psychopaths with soft spots for their darlings is now my fave thing haha

OH MY GOD THE FINAL GIRL IS INCREDIBLE RHI!! I have to ask, did they stumble upon her at the campsite by chance? or was it their goal from the beginning to get her, her poor friends just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time (i think the latter was implied but just wondering!!) also, who’s the baby daddy 👀👀

oh, they definitely knew that the reader and her friends were camping in their hunting grounds, and probably spent a day or so just watching from a distance, waiting - that’s how they knew that the reader was hiding after they’d killed the others. it just so happened to be bad luck that the reader made an distinct impression on the three in that time, and kind of sealed her own fate without even realising it.

as far as the baby daddy goes - i haven’t decided. it’s a one in three chance i suppose, pick your favourite it’s not like it really matters, they’re just gonna keep breeding you until you give ‘em each what they want 👀

hi!! i think the pregnancy aspect of your story is super fascinating bc it’s sort of a double edged sword. on one end, the pregnancy ties her to them, but on the other, the reader could use it to her advantage. threaten to kill or hurt the baby inside of her if they try to do something, maybe that’s why she was protective over it. not that they won’t just a fuck another one into her

this!! very much this!! the reader’s actually kinda torn over the baby - on the one hand she knows it’s innocent, it didn’t ask to be born and for better or worse it is her child - but it’s also theirs, and she’s terrified of what they’ll do - and you’re right, even if she lost/got rid of that one, they have absolutely no issues in knocking her up again, regardless of what she wants

will they be nice to the baby once they’re born 😰

define ‘nice’👀

haha, i’m kidding. they’re not gonna outright hurt it, they kinda have the whole ‘family’ fantasy thing going on, with the reader being barefoot and pregnant, keeping them happy and sated, and when the kids are old enough they’ll get to out hunting with their dads and it’ll be a real fucked up family bonding.

I was thinking abt yandere pairs in Haikyuu and I know there are the more canon-ish pairs like Bokuaka or Iwaoi but I was wondering what your opinion would be on Osamu & Suna sharing a darling?

ooh - I could definitely get behind a Suna/Osamu x reader pairing! 

Omg I loved the slasher fic it was absolutely amazing! Like I’ve read it 3 times already lol. The fear and anticipation and the utter craziness are phenomenal. Question! Akaashi says abt Bo and Kuroo not minding if they get started w/o them. Does this mean they planned from the beginning to abduct the reader? before they killed everyone else? Or did Akaashi just decide? Like how long they knew about the reader before things went down, and if the friends would’ve been spared if she wasn’t there?

so i kinda touched on it above, but they were watching the reader and her friends for a few days and the plan was always (or at least after she caught their attention in all the wrong ways) to leave her alive while killing the others. her friends were always going to die - that much was set in stone the moment they decided to make camp in the woods. but ahhh thank you so much!! you’re very sweet, bby!

RHI! Final Girl? Amazing. Exquisite. 10000/10 👌😫 I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! There’s something about the way you write that just makes me feel the story, ya’ know? God, feral killer Bokuto and teasing, merciless Kuroo were TERRIFYING but cold, calculated Akaashi made my heart level elevate 😰 (all in a very good way I assure you) But can I ask if the trio had been planning that for awhile? Did they see you somewhere and develop a crush? (How did Kuroo and Bokuto react when they came back and saw Akaashi and reader “getting started” without them? 🥵) Thanks for making my Halloween! 🧡

💕💕💕 thank you!!! you guys are being so nice about this fic!!

but it’s kind of funny, because akaashi definitely knew that kuroo and bokuto would both be pissed off to come back and see him and the reader having ‘fun’ without them, but they’re not there to stop him and akaashi low key enjoys winding them up. plus, he wants to be the first to taste her, and he knows bo and kuroo are both selfish and possessive, so he’ll take any opportunity/head start he can get haha. 

RHIIII OML ASDFGHJKL I THINK I MIGHT DIE. That was insanely beautiful! Terrifying but beautiful. *incoherent screaming* YOU'RE DOING GREAAAAT!! YOU'RE ONE AMAZING PERSON!! HERE TAKE ALL MY LOVEEE 💕💕💕💕💕

SDFGHJKHGHJK BBY THANK YOUUUUUU!! you’re gonna make me melt if y’all keep being so damn sweet 😭 ily!!

BRO IN FINAL GIRL WHEN YOU PUT THAT PLOT TWIST I WAS SHAKING ITS SO GOOD

i am a huge sucker for plot twists, i’m glad you liked this one haha

Hi Rhi, just dropping by. Hope you're doing great 😊 Ilysm and take care of yourself 💕💕💕

ily2 bby!! i hope you’re having a good day!

Lol I am shamelessly obsessed with your blog. I saw someone send you an ask saying to not feel self conscious about your smut writing and I agree!! Your stories, no matter how soon the smut starts, are absolutely incredible without the smut carrying it like some other writers on tumblr. However when you do add the actual smut it never disappoints. It’s literally like grade A stuff ya know lol. I feel like I’m reading a mini novel when I read your writing and I love it.

💕 PLS COME GET UR KISSES ANON!! no but seriously thank you, smut is always one of the areas i feel most self conscious about writing and i’m nervous to post it when i do write it, but i’m glad you guys like it (and want more?? maybe??) 💕

[pynkhues]

17 for the fanfic asks, but tell like three because you obvs have like a million!

(Sorry it took me so long to get to this one!)

17. Describe a fic that is still in the ‘ideas’ stage.

Three! Okay, okay, okay, SO, I still have just under 100 C&C prompts sitting in my inbox, haha, and I have them in a spreadsheet now so that I can sort of merge the ones that I think work well together and build a story in my head to hopefully one day write. It’s why most of the C&C prompt fills these days involve a lot of different prompts so that hopefully I can scratch an itch for a whole lot of people at once (Stupid Cupid filled six prompts! Animalia eight!) 

Plus going through them and seeing how certain ones fit makes for an extremely fun puzzle when I’m procrastinating actually writing, haha. 

SO! Here are three C&C prompts I’ve started to slot together, but am yet to write a single word of / exist exclusively in my head: 

a. Emma’s first boyfriend (7 prompts so far).

What’s shaping up in my head right now is a v Beth-centric installment. People expect Rio to be the overprotective one, but much to everyone’s surprise, it ends up being Beth who struggles with the reality of Emma starting to date. In no small part, because Beth’s first boyfriend was Dean, and Annie’s first boyfriend resulted in Ben. There are many shenanigans overall, but it’s really an extension of the anxiety Beth started to feel in Stupid Cupid, not just of Emma growing up, but Beth not being able to protect her all the time anymore. There’s also a lot of Beth and Rio together and apart having to actually talk about Beth’s childhood, and a lot of Beth trying to make sense of her choices at the age Emma is now (14). It’ll be angsty but also hopefully pretty fun? Beth will definitely threaten to murder the boyfriend. I’m sure there will be brio porn, hahaha. 

b. C&C Prequel Fic (3 prompts so far). 

I’ve had a couple of different requests for a prequel fic set before Beth and Rio move in together at the start of C&C. One that particularly spoke to me was the moment Beth’s kids realise that Rio might be a permanent fixture in their lives. This’ll be the first (maybe only?) installment of C&C not told from Beth or Rio’s POV, but from each of the kids’ instead! Maybe a five things fic? I haven’t decided yet, haha.

c. Career’s Day at School (3 prompts so far). 

This is actually really heavily based on one prompt where Dean’s supposed to show up on Career’s Day for Jane, but cancels at the last minute, and Rio, who’s already there for Marcus, ends up standing in for Jane too. That’s basically the prompt, haha, which I love, but I’m currently teasing out a few other dynamics in it. I’ve got a couple of prompts for Dean realising that the kids are starting to form a family unit with Rio, and so I think what this is going to look like is that it’s still relatively early in the relationships, and Dean’s not going to show up because he gets held up at work / in traffic, not because he doesn’t want to be there, but misses it anyway, and I think it might force A Talk between Dean and Rio about the shifting dynamics of the family. In the meantime though, there will be quality RIo, Marcus and Jane content.

I have plenty more too, but these are three I think I’m probably actually going to write at some point! 

Ask me about fanfic!

[wexhappyxfew]

SHANNON!! HELLO MY FRIEND ☺️☺️ hope you're having a lovely day!! Okay you know I absolutely your character Death, so whatever you want to talk about with him :)

KRYSTAAAA hello my friend! I hope you are having a great day yourself! You sent this yesterday but I wanted to take my time with this as discuss one of my *FAVORITE* things about Death in this post - appearance and reasons WHY he appears this way. I know we don’t see actual images, but I try to work with the description in Landslide to give Death, in my personified way, an appearance - because in my mind he has an appearance, quite similarly to a man - LET ME STOP MYSELF WE’LL GET INTO IT BELOW HAHA!!! AW THANKS!! :,) I’m so glad you enjoy it truly, that means so much and I’ve worked to really develop Him and His character all together along with His role with Natia because it is one of the most important connections Natia holds with someone in Landslide - even though they can’t ever speak - AGH I LOVE IT!! Let’s get into it!

SO -- we are going to work with 4 general images that I’ve always envisioned Death as and I’ll really talk about WHY I have Him as such because there are reasons why these pictures are the way they are and why I decided on these pictures for Him!

Let’s solidify two things first!

(1) When I created Death in general, I wanted to make Him a male, just because I saw Death as male in my mind and for the dynamic of the story it would work best. But for a spin-off from Landslide (there may be a few!) I’ve thought about digging into another aspect which is - in this sort of fic, Death is seen in the way the seer wishes to see Death, which I think is pretty cool! There’s a reason though Natia sees Death as male....ahem...Agent Mortem I’m looking at you.

(2) The two important things to touch on with the Death I’ve created - cloaks and wings - cloaks (+hood) have been broguht up a various amount of times already for Death n the 26 chapters of posted Landslide chapters and content BUT we have yet to discuss wings. I can’t jump TOO into that yet exactly, but that is the second most important aspect of Death I’ve crafted together! Keep that in mind!

OKAY...now that we have all of that put together, let’s jump into it - 4 pictures, 4 ideas - WE LOVE TO SEE IT!! There may also be a cut somewhere below - idk where, but it’ll be there! Enjoy! 

AND AS A SIDE NOTE - THESE IMAGES ARE FROM PINTEREST SO NONE OF THESE IMAGES ARE ACTUALLY MINE OR CREATED BY ME!!! 

FIRST IMAGE: This is probably the best, accurate description and image of Death in my eyes at least - I’m sure the readers have envisioned Him differently (just imagine He has a cloak on and it’s covering His head LOL!) - but in many ways this is my portrayal of how I envision Death. Almost looking as if he is a regular man - dark tousled hair, a grey coat, dark boots - the works! But he’s quite sad, this wandering person, aimlessly moving about and he’s quite grief-filled. And so, that’s a reason I particularly love this photo because we get the head focused downward to convey this portrayal of grief and how consuming it is. I really wasn’t out to make Death this emotionless person who just takes and takes - I wanted in my portrayal to show how much pain he holds - and how he is protecting Natia with all His might from someone like Himself because He can’t bare to do His duty that He has for eternity on Natia. 

AND THE WINGS!! Okay, wings - we get more into the wings at the end of part 3 and extremely expanded in part 4 - but wings are extremely important. They are in fact black and feathered - I begin to reference him at the end of Part 3 as if he were a ‘Father of Ravens’ in a sense because of what a raven represents and for Death’s character I feel that is very true to his character specifically His role He takes in with Natia. You might even see him int he form of ravens as we come particularly out of Bastogne and the weather gets warmer - it will be very prominent. 

I would say this is my absolute favorite - if you ever need a reference - this is image is 100% what I would have crafted for Death if he were portrayed in a picture! 

SECOND IMAGE: Here is an absolute FAVORITE!!! (1) We know Natia sees Death essentially as male (for various reasons regarding Agent Mortem who literally is Agent Death or Agent of Death if we want - but that’s for another ask!) and so this I would say is a very good representation of the wings + ravens + eyes + profile of Death. The narrow-eye expression of his facial features if very prominent - Natia does much of the same - and let’s just say Death has picked that up as well. He sees the world really in blacks, whites and greys - similar to how Natia views the world because of Agent Mortem ( a morally grey character) and so I really took all of that and worked with it in this way! Natia, Death and Mortem are the mains in my mind and so they all see the world in grey - but who will break from that? They’re all connected with one another in many ways - who will break that?

But yes, in this picture, I go off the fact that in Landslide, Death will take the form of a raven as his best chance to get closer to Natia, to even try and interact with her and that is very prominent at the end of Part 3 and all of Part 4 and even some postwar! 

THIRD IMAGE: OKAY - so here is where we get into more of the ‘cloaked figure’ that encompasses Death and this image of his cloaked figure. The cloak hides quite a lot of things and one of those things are his wings - which don’t really make an appearance until the end of Part 3 for various reasons! Which I can’t say just yet :) But it also hides his face - his expressions - why might you ask does he want to particularly hide that? 

Let’s reference the most recent chapter update - Chapter 26, entitled Weapons Don’t Weep. (1) Natia is in fact a weapon, not only crafted by War, who makes his somewhat annual appearance, but also my Agent Mortem - who’s to say Death might’ve also crafted her? (2) Death and Natia have a unique connection - they can’t communicate through words, they can’t really communicate through much if you think about it - just feelings, emotions, thoughts. SO - this just adds onto evidence of how Death actually can control her a bit. The chaos that ensued at the end of Chapter 26 was a precursor to that - he can control her chaos, she can’t control his. The closing of his eyes - he uses a cloak to hide that he is abusing his power of control on her - and letting chaos warp her. NOW THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING - A MERE PRECURSOR AS STATED. We’ll get into it much later on and why, but the cloak covers wings + facial expressions for good reasoning.

AND THE HORSE YOU MAY ASK? Well...I did call Natia a dark horse right? The definition of a dark horse is “a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.” Not only is Natia a lone wolf BUT she is very much a dark horse - you don’t know much but she manages to win her battles - she may not win the war, but she will wage a battle and win what she must to survive, that’s the name of the game currently. Plenty of times in discussion - it’s like Death and Natia at a game of poker, in a black room (as described by a friend!!) and that’s very real almost every chapter that is written and published - a tension continually building, awaiting to see what will happen next, and just a constant build off of that over and over again. She takes on the persona of a dark horse more often than not - she’s underestimated, never entirely trusted, yet she survives?! People start to take that into consideration, especially in Bastogne - BUT THAT IS FOR ANOTHER TIME!!!! :D

FOURTH IMAGE: OKAY NOW -- this is sort of the expected image - Death with his cloak, a cane, dark gloves, shadowed face that you can’t see. This is the image I imagine when I am writing and Death is sort of watching Natia from afar - purposely I place him in those scenarios for various reasons depending on what is happening in that time during the story. And this is the image he sort of takes on. I don’t have many notes particularly for this image, only simply the fact that this is what masks what is portrayed in the first image - it covers the wings, the facial expressions, the man that is evidently underneath and simply that a man - yet a being forever wandering aimlessly, doing his duty given for all of eternity. But I really think this is what most will remember the Death I chose to personify him by! :D

OKAY SO THIS WAS SERIOUSLY JUST SO FUN OMG!!! This is the first time I’ve used pictures to really dig into what I’m getting at with characters - especially handling a character to the capacity in which Death withholds - there’s a lot to unpack with Him! But I truly hope you enjoyed this - I’m always happy to do more of these for any of my characters - especially even War, or Natia, or Agent Mortem - I might even just do it for fun who knows - OF COURSE WHEN I HAVE TIME HAHA!!! But I really enjoyed this so thank you for indulging and enabling Krysta!!! This was super fun to give my in-depth take on someone like Death and how I decided to craft and personify him! 

[dear-yandere]

—ask collection!

a collection of mostly very old chats and sweet asks that i never got around to answering! thanks for the patience and love!! 

beware, fairly long post... woops....

chat asks.

darling: Eu-jin is best boy. Change my mind.

vanya: i am physically incapable of fulfilling that request, how dare you do that to me... i’m biased since he’s my own oc, but i would die for my (very best) boy eu-jin... who can resist such a gentle yandere that loves you so whole-heartedly?

that reminds me! he’s actually based off of kuroyuki and gekkamaru from the otome nightshade, so if you want similar characters by any chance, do check them and the game out ♡

darling: I was watching the dub for Part 5 of JoJo's Bizarre adventure yesterday...Mista called himself Daddy and I like- sdfghjfgsdhnhnmj!! My heart can't take this--

vanya: WAIT HE DID???? i’m not even big on daddy kink and reading that made me go 😳 this is vital information to know... what episode was this??? for research purposes, of course. gotta perfect my yan! mista, after all~...

darling: for yandere songs, have you heard of the major to minor covers by chase holfelder :O? the way he delivers the lyrics in some songs (betty, all i want for christmas), added with the key changes to minor, is really fantastic, and gives a stalker-ish vibe imo! and he's a really good singer in general

vanya: i have!! a good chunk of them are actually on my personal yandere playlist, so i end up hearing them frequently when i’m writing!! i haven’t been keeping up with his uploads recently, so ‘betty’ is completely new to me and just, wow???????????? this man is an absolute god send for us “romantic” horror fans... ♡

this ask gave me such a lovely idea, though, darling: assigning yandere types/mbti based off each of chase’s minor key covers. i think i’ll do that just for you. ♡

darling @blossomiich​: I reread some of your old character interaction asks and saw the one with Jotaro hugging his Darling after a panic attack and the elephant seal plush reminded me of the iconic C H O N K Y ringed seal plushie that was kinda trending and I can totally imagine Jotaro having one of those >w< that's so adorable!

vanya: i honestly don’t remember that interaction, but then again i don’t remember most things hmghng so i looked it up and

j...just imagine star plat hogging it and not letting joot cuddle with it 🥺 the duality of man...thank you for this cute image...

darling: Umm, sorry for asking this. I'm just curious because of your bio language in your header. Are you Chinese too, perhaps?

vanya: no worries!! i’m mixed guyanese (indian, chinese, & possibly black and/or portuguese), but my family only celebrates (or rather, acknowledges?) our indian descent, since the majority of our family is predominantly east indian. 

my header is actually a quote from a danmei novel (and one of my all-time favorite fandoms), tiān guān cì fú (heaven’s official blessing)!

darling genki stan anon: Omg you're writing for free now, i didn't expect that one lol. It's a cute show innit? Not a nagi stan but I feel like nagisa has that kinda unsnapped personality that would make him peak delusional yandere material lolol like oikawa but less threatening and without his head being up his own ass 😂. Hope you're doing well!! -gsa

Gdjsjs im such a fool, i think my last ask said something about not thinking you'd write for free when i literally just pointed out kisumi on your sideblog LMAO my bad 😅 😂 also ill hold back on the gen chan requests because ive already asked so many in the past! Thank you though 🥺. Also feel free not to post this, it can just dip into my onesided chats with my lil flower 💐 so long as you receive them im fine 😌 -genki stan anon

vanya: nagisa isn’t my favorite (kisumi is), but gods if he wouldn’t make a great yandere. honestly, out of the iwatobi boys, nagi is probably the most unhinged. i wouldn’t peg him as delusional, at least not at first; i think he’s very lucid and knows exactly what he wants and how to manipulate people in order to get it!!! kisumi is fairly similar now that i think about it... i might... have a type...

please feel free to send in gen-chan requests whenever you want!!!! i’m kinda super asocial, so it’ll take me a while to answer, but i love getting asks from you since you’re so sweet and excitable!!! your little flower reads and cherishes them all!! 🥺

also darling genki stan anon: Sorry for spamming you with asks hdjkdks, u dont even need to reply im just kinda brain empty venting here whether you recieve them or not 😂 i just needed to confess that while yes i am #1 gen simp, and he is undoubtedly my fave oc of yours but that Ilya tentacle smut had me very much so highkey kinda 👀, had to re read the genki oral style drabble to bring my head back. He dont even need to worry about luca bc that man a thot. I think therin is a thot too but like lowkey, a classy thót -gsa

vanya: omg i’ve kept this one for forever mnmghngh i might’ve even answered at some other point, now that i think about it... but i just 🥺 gosh i hope i find my muse soon, because i really wanna write you a genki fic 🥺 hhhh

the ilya tentacle smut was so in character for that boy... i have no clue how to write monsters, much less tentacles, but i’d honestly do anything for him 🙏 kinky russian boy...

therin is definitely a classy thot, the kind that only bangs the finest concubines then turns around and slut shames you for banging the very same prostitutes gbfmngnfg rules don’t apply to him, in his kingdom...wish that were me tbh ✊😔

sweet asks.

darling one: i've read almost all of your dazai and chuuya fics and i love them so much!! your formatting is also super aesthetic just a question, i saw on your kofi that you also draw so i was wondering if you drew all the header arts?? bc they're all super pretty :) have a great day!

darling two: Just wanted to say love the writing and the way your format your posts is so aesthetically pleasing. One day I hope my posts looks half as good as yours because I legit can't get over how pretty and organized it looks.

vanya: omg thank you so much!!!! one of my bffs, yue, is to thank for the formatting and aesthetic choices, really! if you wanna see more of her aesthetic formats and posts, she actually runs a few blogs! you may know her as @milkscafe​, formally @milkaaton! i adore her and her aes choices so much 🥺

as for the headers, i don’t draw 99.98% of them! i have drawn a couple, but they’re so few and far in between since i almost never finish my art wips haha... my older posts are lacking proper credits because i’m an absolute idiot, but i’m slowly working my way backwards to credit them all where possible! they’re all indeed super pretty!!!

have a great day yourself, my love!!

darling: THEY’RE NOT BAD CONTENT, I LOVE THEM ALL

vanya: this was in response to a now-deleted lil blurb but i kept it in my inbox because i wanted to say i love u very much and seeing this ask each time i open my inbox makes my heart skip a beat ♡

darling: Listen I love your writing, you inspired me to start it myself! I've always loved to write, and read of course but your style and concepts just stick with me. If you where to write something besides Yandere content/fandom content and started your own series? I would read the shit, out of it. I'm always nervous to interact with my favorite writers because you know, I'm afraid of the impression I'd leave but I just wanted to say this anyway! 💞💞💞🔫😳

vanya: wowowow fgfnmgnfmngfg that’s such a high compliment my brain just gmfnbgmnf go boom fogjfngnfg and thank you for the interaction, us writers truly appreciate it no matter how awkward or nervous you think you may be / come off!!!

darling one: As a writer, your post struck a nerve with me. I don’t send feedback to writers I like nearly as much as I should (and certainly not as much as I’d like in return as a writer). So, as such, I’m going to start doing that when I can, starting with you.

You are an incredible writer. You were one of the first yandere writing blogs I found and you’re still one I check in on regularly to see what you have been working on. You can portray a sense of suspense and intrigue in a natural way that many other writers - published ones included - struggle with. You delve into the darkness without it feeling forced, and you have an amazing grasp on the psyches of the characters you write for (which is a quality I adore in writing and strive toward myself).

I’m not great at ending these things so I guess.. you keep doing you? Because the you is great and I appreciate it.

darling two:  hey. i'm here to tell you that from the bottom of my heart i love you and your writings. i really admire your writing skills. you inspire me. one of your posts once saved me from a nervous breakdown. thank you for everything you do. you're a wonderful person. good luck!

darling three: I wanted to tell you that thank you for writing such wonderful beautiful writings and that you take time to edit and write I hope you are taking care of yourself 💖❤

darling four: Thanks. I was having a hard time and deleted all my apps, but as soon as i opened my phone my first instinct was to look at your blog and i got my motivation back. Thanks (:

darling five: Hi ! I just wanted to say I really enjoy the stories you write and how they are detailed so well ! Stay safe and I hope you have a good day/night ! ლ(╹���╹ლ)

vanya: ahhhh, these are very old asks mostly dating back to my “tumblr writing community is dying” post, and i’ve kept them this entire time because i’m just so starstruck. i have no clue how to reply to compliments, so i’m not sure what else to say besides that these asks made me very happy and got me through a few insecure moments!!! i’ve actually been feeling a little down about my writing recently, mostly because of lack of motivation / inspiration, so revisiting these really warmed my heart, so thank you truly ♡ i’m certainly keeping the originals in my inbox until the end of time!!

darling @monstrously-obsessed: psst, this local cryptic mom thing send all of their love for you 💕

vanya: your local herbo says she loves you very much momster 🥺 mwah

also, to the anon worried about my safety:

thank you so much for pointing that out!!! it hadn’t even crossed my mind when i made those ocs, so i appreciate your concern! i was contemplating revamping those two as is, so this is a great place to start! thank you again!!

[dulce-pjm]

tag game !

tagged by @jtrbluv !! ty love, i’ve seen this one going around and it looked fun !!

1. what fandoms have you written for (but do not currently)?

i only started writing fanfiction this year, so bts is the one and only lol 

2. what fandoms are you currently writing for?

bts !! i think i’ll be sticking to just bts x reader fics during my time here :) (but i am def a big fan of other groups and post about them sometimes !! my other interests can be found through the navi and i’m down to chat/fangirl anytime)

3. how long have you been writing?

like five or six years? i used to write original stories on wattpad in middle school but i have unfortunately forgotten both the username and password to that account and just realized those monstrosities might still be floating around on there oof 

4. on which platforms do you post your stories?

just tumblr !! i’m the process of making an ao3 in case something happens to my account, but i probably won’t crosspost unless i have to, just kinda depends

5. what is your favourite genre to write?

def fluff and comedy !!! i enjoy angst but i’m a bit of a method actor in that i deeply feel whatever i’m writing so i normally don’t make it far writing angst lol but i will try one day !!

6. are you a pantser or a planner?

planner for sure !! i have def written fics that weren’t planned, but i tend to feel way better about the ones that i plan out. they flow better when i plan them and when you know where your story is going it’s easier to foreshadow and actually build tension towards the climax and ending !!!

7. one shot or multi-chapter?

it really just depends on the story !!! it’s all in how i envision it tbh. if i see the scenes more as episodic and almost separately working towards the ending, then it’ll probably end up fitting into chapters. but if the scenes and arcs all really rely on each other and flow as a group, then yeah it’s a big one shot !! as a reader, i tend to binge anyway so it doesn’t matter to me lol

8. what is the perfect chapter length in your opinion?

lol again it depends on what suits the story !! and i think it’s fun sometimes for there to be a variety of chapter lengths 

9. what is your longest published story? is it complete?

stepsisters and squires at 11.0k, and yes it’s complete !! although my current biggest project is probably going to end up around 15k and if i had to guess, part two will probably be a bit shorter than that 

10. which story did you enjoy working on the most?

hmmmm for sure @alpacaparkaseok’s request case closed!! i was being very silly writing it and had a grand time, but takes two to tango is a close second behind !!!

11. favourite request you've have written and why (if any?)

oh well there we go it’s case closed !!! i love some good silly ridiculous romance and i feel like i did an okay job achieving that lol

12. are there reoccurring themes in your stories?

awkward people finding love ???? LOL and lots of overthinking only to realize things aren’t quite as big as they first appeared wait omg yeah that’s it that’s the one lmao. scrolled through my masterlist and it seems that the central conflict is always the main character versus their own mind which is basically my day-to-day life so makes sense i guess 

also i’ve accidentally written people talking over each other and then said something like “timing’s funny” right after in two separate fics and needless to say i’m disappointed in myself LOL how did i do that ??? tsk tsk 

13. current number of wips?

ahhh i’m not really sure how to count them but i’m like actively writing around four or five, i tend to bounce around and then suddenly binge write an entire one

14. three things you have noticed about your own writing?

hmmm well 1) we’ve learned my characters are too caught up in their own heads (like me muhahaha), 2) i tend to write pretty colloquially even though i have the vocabulary to be more descriptive lol, and 3) even when i don’t mean to i tend to end up writing based off of things i’ve experienced before

15. a quote you like from a published story

lol this isn’t particularly well written or anything i just think it’s funny and i really enjoyed writing this scene. it’s from stepsisters and squires !

“Maybe you can trick the witch!” You suggest, words muffled by the dessert you’re chewing on as you blatantly talk with your mouth open. All manners have been abandoned as Taehyung is eating two eclairs at once, equally focused on the matter at hand. “Well, no, maybe trying to trick a magical scary lady is a bad idea.”

i’m very attached to tae’s character despite him making a very minor appearance and i love his and the oc’s chaotic energy together haha !! i’d like to write him his own spin-off sometime based on their interaction 

16. a quote from an unpublished story

hehe imma keep teasing the tae twoshot in the hopes that it makes me ACTUALLY FINISH IT FJKDLSHGLSDKJF anyway ~~~

“Your singing, on the other hand, is just fantastic,” he adds, smirking as he side-eyes you. He suppresses a laugh when he sees your mortified expression. You’re quick to cover it, crossing your arms and feigning pride.

“I know. You guys are lucky I’m not participating in the battle of the bands. I’d crush you.” Taehyung full on giggles then and you don’t hate it all that much. It’s a little squeaky though. But then his eyes light up and he’s grabbing you by the shoulders, a desperate look in his eye.

“Wait, would you wanna join? Because we could really use a mezzo voice, it’d completely change the sound—”

hopefully an official teaser will be dropped soon we’ll see !!!

17. space for you to say something to your readers

thank you guys for being so patient and supportive :( i know i’ve been very sporadic about posting and really haven’t posted at all in like a month and a half. it was very much my intention to write a bunch and then release things on a schedule (and it still is!!) but things have been difficult recently and prevented that from happening. to get to the point, you guys are so great and every piece of feedback and every like and every follow absolutely makes my heart soar. you guys remind me that i’m still capable of writing even when i really don’t feel like it and i appreciate you !! much love <333

tagging @softbobamilktae and @hyungieyoongi my go-to’s lol (sorry if you’ve already done it !!!)