#jc was the one who worked hard to make sure there was a space for jl to be able to have fun

[dionte-goethe]

I was inspired by that one scene in "more than anything" from Hazbin Hotel. Just thinking about the way Jiang Cheng had to face these sect leaders with a destroyed sect, no alliances (until Yanli married and even then...), and the fallout of Wei Wuxian's actions. He just doesn't want Jin Ling to have to deal with all the terrible things he had to deal with as a young sect leader, he's tried to protect him from all that, when JL wants him to step back because JC could tear himself apart protecting JL...

[nickgerlich]

A Really Big Deal

The industrial age brought about a great deal of change for the US. It marked the slow but steady transition from rural and agrarian economy to one that is more urban with a burgeoning retail environment. We didn’t need to make or grow everything we consumed, because we could just buy it.

So we did, patronizing newly minted department stores starting with Macy’s in 1858, followed by Montgomery Ward in 1872 and Sears in 1893. But there was still plenty of opportunity and unmet need, which motivated James Cash Penney to open his namesake store in 1902 in Kemmerer Wyoming. It was an eyebrow-raising move, because whereas his predecessors were based in New York City and Chicago, his was in a very remote part of a very remote state. I had an opportunity to photograph that original store a few years ago.

But that did not stop JC Penney from being successful. He added stores quickly, and in 1916 ventured east of the Mississippi into the territory held by those predecessors. By the 1920s, JC Penney was nationwide with 120 stores.

Skipping forward to the modern era, JC Penney found itself less and less in small towns, and more and more in suburban shopping malls, where they have been a mainstay now for decades. The company has hit some potholes and speed bumps this century, though, with a failed attempt at Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) that turned off their bargain-hunting customers, and then a bankruptcy filing in 2020. They were scooped up in a partnership of two shopping mall developers, Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management.

With that ownership came access to much-needed capital to try to revive their stores and the brand itself. It’s part of a billion-dollar plan to turn a very important corner, and it finds JC Penney doubling down on Christmas with an ad campaign airing on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football. The plan is also heavy on the in-store experience and partnerships with high-visibility celebs. Online is still part of the equation, but since its owners run the malls in which JC Penney resides, it is understandable they want to push the brick-and-mortar aspect.

The partnerships include notables like Martha Stewart, the octogenarian who is synonymous with domestic life, and Shaquille O’Neal, the retired NBA star turned entrepreneur. This gives us a hint at their target market, meaning Gen-X and older.

But I will be honest. JC Penney is going to have to work hard to convince me to shop there. The Amarillo store has been allowed to slide into retail hell, with poor merchandising, stockouts, and the like. I have walked out frustrated more than once, and in fact, probably for the last time.

As for their current pricing strategy, which is an endless onslaught of online promos and special codes, I feel like there is never any reason to pay the supposed list price, because if it’s not on sale this week again, it will be soon. The whole idea of promos is to convey urgency, but I feel that nothing is urgent there. Just skip the list prices, please.

Yet early results show that JC Penney’s efforts are paying off, with sales being 50% higher than forecast. At least some people are buying into the campaign.Yet I see something else happening here that really caught my attention.

Amazon, which paid $11 billion to broadcast Thursday Night Football for 11 seasons, is selling ad slots to its competitor!I have to wonder about the thinking behind this move. Are ad sales not what they expected they would be? Could Amazon be earning more by directing customers to its own website as opposed to selling those ads? Or are they just being nice guys and sharing the customer base?

Good questions. I am not sure what it is going to take for JC Penney to get me back in their store again. I have lingering memories of empty retail space, but with merch still strewn haphazardly across whatever racks they still had. It was a retail wasteland. It is hard to un-see something like that.

The fact that the company is wagering a billion dollars, though, says that maybe—just maybe—they might be able to make that turn. Hey, at least they’re still alive. Two of those three predecessors are dead or nearly dead, and the other is shuttering stores faster than leaves falling in autumn.

Dr “Keep Trying” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[askforimagineoroneshot]

I just need you to rest (Kian Lawley x Reader)

Anon: Hi I love your work and I want to request something If I can please. I love that you do youtube imagines. If I understand you like Sam and Colby, Brennen and so. If I can ask for Kian Lawley If you do stuff like this, please? Something really cute and fluff with his girl. Maybe after boys filmed Merch Wars? Thank you. Love you

Hi, I loved this. It turned out to be so cute. I really hope you like it.

Feel free to send your requests but just be patient. I am not a business woman :D so it can take some time for me to get through all of them.

Imagine is mine! Gifs are not. You can not repost my work! Be respectful!

MASTERLIST

Reader's point of view

As proud as I am feeling right now I am also stressed about Kian. He is working so hard to reach his dreams. It can be difficult sometimes. Sure, that's why he does it but he also doesn't respect his sleep schedule. He needs to rest in order to be productive. But when I tell him that it's like talking to the wall. We don't fight about it. But it makes me feel like I am gonna have to use force to get him to rest.

Right now I am at the shot for his big project. He is not the only one that is working on it. Kian and Jc are teaming up for a Merch Wars against Sam and Colby. They are not really at war with it. They are having fun and making content they didn't before. And what's more they are doing it for charity.

I am never gonna stop being amazed by them and their kind hearts. I love Kian for who he is and his passion. Not for what sme trolls on the internet say. But we don´t care. Well at least I try to not read those comments.

A noise makes me look up from my phone and I start paying attention to what is happening around me. I am not the only girlfriend here. Kat is here to support Sam as well. I don't think I would be here if I was the only girl here. Not that I am that nervous or shy but I would hate to distract Kian from his work or make him feel like he always has to be around me.

“Hi, what are you up to?” I hear a female voice next to me. It is a Kat with her beautiful pink hair.

“Hi, sorry, my head just travels sometimes.” I smile at her and motion for her to sit down with me.

We are at the shoot in one of the famous LA houses. Boys are outside right now. It is nice today but I just felt like I needed some space inside with a nice coffee. Not that I am hiding from anyone or that I am mad at Kat for coming to me. It is just a lot of cameras outside and it can get overwhelming.

“I am taking on your taktik of hiding from all the noise.”  she laughs with me as she sits close.

“Well, I am not as used to cameras as you at least so. I took a coffee break.” I feel so good in her company. I am really glad that I am such a good friend with Kian social group. I can not imagine what I would do if they didn't like me.

“You are getting a lot better at it.” Kat gets my confidence up. “I remember when Kian introduced us to you. We were all so worried to not scare you away. After all the things Kian told us about you and how much you mean to him we were on a mission to make sure not to take any cameras to that pizza party.”

This makes me go back to the trip in my memories. “ I remember that evening. I was so nervous wich maked Kian nervous about everything. I was scared I would not fit in with such great people. Our relationship was so fresh and young but Kian already meant too much to me for me to lose him because I am socially awkward. But everyone was just so great and welcoming.”

“Aww babe.” Kat cuddles into my side. “You are amazing. And your relationship is built on such a great foundation. We already knew at that time that Kian wants to be with you for you and that it is serious.”

“Enough about me.” I joke, getting a little nervous.

“Okay.” It worked and made Kat laugh. “Now about me and my relationship. I am mad at Sam for editing almost all night.” she sat up properly.

“Well, we have the same relationship problems then. I need to find a way to make Kian rest.” I started an honest conversation with her.

“What relationship problems?! Hej! That's gossiping!” I get scared by Sams´ yell.

“You know what we are talking about.” Kat responds to him with a smile.

When I looked behind Sam I saw the rest of the boys coming inside. And there is my Kian coming to me for a hug.

“We are done for today so I guess we can all just go home.” Colby said exited.

“You ended sooner that I expected.” I say when I look at my watch. “That's great.” I kiss Kian´s cheek but I can feel that he is not okay. Something in his body movement is off. I really hope it is not his back again. My poor baby.

We all get our stuff in the car and get ready to leave this beautiful place. Colby with Sam and Kat took an uber while me, Kian and Jc were here with Jc´s car.

“Are you okay, baby?” I ask Kian before I get to the car. Jc is already in so he can not hear us. He just nods, not even answering my question. He opens the door for me and I just silently get in the car. He doesn't want to talk about it now so I will wait for him to tell me.

“Thank you for the ride.” I tell Jc when he stops in front of my apartment building. Kian says his goodbye and takes my hand. We walk in as I unlock the door.

Kian spends most of his time here with me or I am at his place. But we haven't talked about living together yet. The conversation just didn't come up. But we technically live with each other.

“I am gonna shower and then make us dinner, okay?” I ask when I close and lock my apartment door.

“Or we can order something and watch Netflix. You know, spend some time together.” he cuddles into me standing. Now I am really worried about what is happening. I hope he is not in pain or that tired. I hate to see him this sad.

“Bubba, are you okay?” I ask him again with my arms around him. I held him as strong as I could yet I still wanted to be closer to him.

“I am just tired, that's all. Hop into the shower and we will order food.” I get a kiss from him as I watch him go to the kitchen.

I hopped into the shower with my hair high in a bun. I didn't need to wash my hair and I am trying to be as fast as I can. I need to find out what is happening with my angel. When I get out I don't even put a lotion on before I put some clothes on. I almost ran out of the bathroom to see where Kian was.

“That was fast.” I hear him in the living room. I go to sit next to him. He is on his phone looking to order some food.

“I wanted to know what is bothering you.” I tell him honestly. I am looking in his eyes and I can see he wants to avoid this conversation but I am ready to not let it go. “What is it?” I ask again.

“Nothing really.” he tried to play it off for another time again. But this time I was not having it.

“Tell me. Tell me now.” I get a little more bossy.

“Or you could tell me.” that came out of nowhere. “You tell me what relationship problems we have.'' He sat up straight to look me in the eyes.

“What?” I got so confused and nervous at the same time. What is he talking about?

“I heard Kat today. You think we have the same relationship problems as Sam and her. I didn't know that but our relationship is stronger than ever. So tell me what that is about.” I could tell he was nervous and sad at the same time. He had the cutest pount on his face.

“About you not resting enough? About me getting worried that you are overworking yourself? About my plan to make you stay in bed with me for a whole day tomorrow?” I smile at him. I love him so much words can't describe it.

“Oh.” that is all he does before he cuddles into me again.”I got really worried.” he complains to me. I lay down on the coach with him on top of me.

“Now you know how I feel. I am really worried about you too bubba.” I whisper into his hair.

I feel him smile on my neck. I run my fingers through his hair to make him relax more. “We can spend all day together in bed tomorrow. We can rest and cuddle.”

“Promise?” I smile at my victory.

“Promise.”

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 24 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Arguing

After enjoying a tense  afternoon with Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian comes home to enjoy a tense evening with Jiang Cheng. He pauses in the doorway as he takes in Jiang Cheng’s mood and decides which metaphorical mask he will put on to interact with his shidi. As someone who grew up with explosive people, I find this routine very familiar. 

Wei Wuxian is always carefully playing a role as he interacts with the people in his life. Clearly he has read the classic sociology text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and is using it as a how-to guide. We see him do this same calculation over and over, in which he reacts internally to a situation, comes to a decision about what persona to inhabit, and then dons that persona. It’s a typical abuse survival tactic and...it is exhausting. 

This is why I think his leaving to be alone for a while in Episode 50 is a good thing. Being alone isn’t better than being with someone else, usually, but for Wei Wuxian, who is (by Episode 50) assured of love but not sure where he belongs in his own life, being by himself for a while is going to be the best thing for him. He can learn how to just be a person, instead of constantly trying to mold himself to fit everyone around him. 

For the current tense situation, Jiang Cheng is polishing his sword, which, incidentally, is slang (in English, not necessarily in Chinese) for masturbating. Which makes their conversation about how frequently it needs doing kind of a hoot. “One time a month should do,” per Wei Wuxian. 

Jiang Cheng yells at Wei Wuxian--fairly, really--for being drunk all the time and not working on clan tasks. Then he responds to a hug attempt by shoving Wei Wuxian and knocking him down. JC asks WW if he’s too drunk to manage his spiritual power. Now, we know that he doesn’t have any spiritual power to manage, and that’s the main point of this interaction. But it also shows us something else about their dynamic. 

This was just a quick hit, and when it takes WWX out, JC asks why he isn’t responding with spiritual power.  Which means that apparently *every* time Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian a shove or a shoulder check, or strikes him--like he’s been doing constantly since Episode 3--he’s putting spiritual power behind it. That’s...really harsh. 

Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to fight back, and Wei Wuxian can’t; this is a big part of why their relationship breaks down. Casual blows loaded with spiritual power are part of their vocabulary, and Wei Wuxian can’t speak that language any more, even for basic defense. He’s literally not safe having simple interactions with Jiang Cheng now, because he’s secretly disabled, and Jiang Cheng is casually injuring him whenever he gets too close. 

(more after the cut!)

This time Wei Wuxian has had enough, and raises Chenqing to Jiang Cheng, who immediately backs off. Jiang Cheng has seen that thing in action, not just on the battlefield, but in a small room full of whatever remained of Wen Chao when they were done with him. He takes this as a serious threat, and backs off, disturbed and puzzled and hurt.

Jiang Cheng thinks the change in Wei Wuxian is coming from apathy, not from disability, and so he misunderstands it over and over.  Think of a friend saying “whatever, I’m sick of arguing with you, do what you want.”  Jiang Cheng is very ready to feel rejected, and not at all ready to look at Wei Wuxian’s behavior and try to actually understand it. 

Crying Over You

Wei Wuxian bails and goes to see Jiang Yanli in the ancestral hall, where she is polishing a name plaque. I turned the gamma way up to see whose it is and...I dunno. This character might be 江 (Jiang), I guess?

Jiang Yanli is the only one of the trio who knows how to mourn properly, in that she is taking some time to sit and be sad. Mourning the dead--both ritually and just in the emotional sense--is as important a part of reclaiming Lotus Pier as the training of disciples and having good times on the lake.

She asks him about his fight with Jiang Cheng and he says he’s used to fighting with him. Jiang Yanli asks him if he’s tired of living there, and Wei Wuxian deflects and deflects, saying “it’s my home, where else would I go?” and that if Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted him he would still be begging in the streets. He says “no matter what happens, I won’t leave Lotus Pier,” which is not an answer to her question.

It’s also not true. Like so many of his promises, it’s an expression of his wishes, with no space for the surprises real life is made of. He promises her that he won’t be reckless again, and asks her not to be mad at him. She says she can’t be mad at him, and then they share a flashback about Jiang Fengmian finding him on the street. This is a story, not a memory; Wei Wuxian can’t remember but he remembers her telling him about it. Jiang Yanli wasn’t there, in the moment. So this is her telling the story as it was told to her, probably by Jiang Fengmian. 

Flashback Time

In the flashback, picky salad-hating Wei Ying is out on the street, looking for food in a cartload of pretty okay scraps. I mean, yeah, skip the tomatoes, but most of the greens look fine.  

He’s found and fed by Jiang Fengmian, who recognizes him and decides to take him in. 

Within a couple of episodes, we will see Wei Wuxian paying this favor forward, saving someone he finds starving on the street. Just like Jiang Fengmian, he's going to upset and disrupt his family in order to help someone for whom he feels a deep connection.

During this flashback we get a look at Jiang Fengmian’s sword, and it is a beauty. 

What is Love

As the flashback ends, Wei Wuxian is smiling, hearing Jiang Yanli tell this touching story of starvation and orphanhood. She tells him he was born with a smiling face, and that he never minds much about sorrowful things; no matter how bad the situation is, he is always happy. Way to reinforce that metaphorical mask he’s wearing over his deep, deep despair, sis!

They talk a bit about Jiang Cheng’s bad temper.  Then Jiang Yanli says now that her parents are gone, they three are the closest in the world, and he responds by putting his head down on her knee and theatrically saying he’s hungry. But he’s crying for real, and so is she.

Then he decides to ask her why people fall in love, basically, and claims that he does not have anyone in his heart. He says there’s no need to like a person that much, that it’s like “haltering your own neck,” according to Netflix. Let’s have a look at that figurative language for a second, and what’s missing from the Neflix translation. 

What he says is (as near as my qhanzi.com skills can make out) “這不就是自己給自己��子上套犁拴韁吗” which Google tells me means "Isn't this just putting a plow on my neck with a rein?" The part of the image that’s missing from Netflix subs is the plow, and the hard labor and animal servitude involved in pulling a plow. This isn’t a pro-romance image.

He’s clearly thinking about Lan Wangji when he lies about having no-one in his heart, but right now the yoke that he wants to escape has nothing to do with Lan Wangji. The person he’s harnessed to in a team, the person who he labors with, the person he wants to escape, is Jiang Cheng.  What’s chafing his neck is the promise he made, to stay and serve as one half of a pair, when he can no longer pull his weight. 

Busted

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he is hanging around outside the shrine, listening to the conversation. Wei Wuxian busts him, pointing out not that eavesdropping is bad, but that it’s bad for grownups. Jiang Cheng points out that he’s the master of Lotus Pier so he’s allowed to go anywhere he wants.

(I love how he looks framed by this giant lotus behind him)

We Wuxian has another of those moments where he assesses the best approach to Jiang Cheng before responding. 

Then he picks a fake fight with him about soup.  Yanli comes out and tells them both to grow up, saying that JC is losing his demeanor as clan leader. He jokingly fixes his already-perfect robe ad they all have a chuckle.

Then Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian of his promise for the millionth time, and Jiang Yanli goes to make soup for the millionth time. As soon as the boys see that she’s gone, the smiles drop right off of their faces. They’re both performing their typical relationship dynamic for Jiang Yanli.

Being Reasonable

The brothers repair to the main hall, and stand behind the lotus throne looking out of this complicated wall/doorway thingy, while they talk about Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. 

Jiang Cheng is being mature and sensible here, trying to give Jiang Yanli what she wants and also explaining very, very basic political stuff to Wei Wuxian, who is too caught up in his hate boner for JZX to want to think about the bigger picture. He also thinks that Jin Guangyao is a nicer person, but Jiang Cheng says that nice doesn’t matter.  

Wei Wuxian is getting a full head of steam going about what a jerk JZX is, when Jiang Cheng makes him actually stop and think, by pointing out that it’s not for them to forgive or not forgive Jin Zixuan’s past behavior; it’s up to Yanli.

Wei Wuxian sees the reasoning in this, and starts to say he can’t understand why Yanli chose to like this person, but then he stops himself and goes through a rapid series of thoughtful, uncomfortable expressions. 

Perhaps he’s realizing that he himself has chosen to like an infamously stuck-up, fancy cultivator, albeit one with no soup-related character deficits.

Library Time

The stuck-up cultivator in question is currently in the Cloud Recesses library, where he has snuck into the forbidden books room, against his uncle’s express command, for the purpose of helping Wei Wuxian. The forbidden books room is an entire basement floor of the library; it probably has more books than the not-forbidden part of the library, since the main floor needs space for the restrooms, circulation desk, and copy machines.

(Did OP photoshop the Wangxian-in-the-Library porn picture onto Lan Wangjis’ book? She did.)

A couple of other Lans come along and see the main door unlocked. The lock is a big fish that probably uses magic for locking; it definitely doesn’t use a key. One of them steps in the doorway, glances back and forth without walking through, and does not check the secret door to the forbidden vault. Gosh, how did Su She and/or Jin Guangyao  ever manage to steal secrets from this highly secure location, wow.

Lan Wangji hears the Lan disciple on guard duty say “don’t tell Hanguang Jun about this!’ and has a series of microexpressions that might indicate some kind of feeling about simultaneously being a rule breaker and a rule enforcer.  

Boat Time

We end with an idyllic scene on the lake in Lotus pier, where a new batch of disciples is harvesting lotuses and learning the opposite of boat safety. 

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are having a good time, and seem utterly carefree; both of them are good at living in the moment, or faking it. 

Wei Wuxian thinks, in voiceover, that it seems that it’s not so hard to go back to the old days. Uh...ok.

Except he’s hiding a massive secret and these replacement kids are not the same juniors he used to hang out with, and he can’t actually teach them cultivation, since he has no socially-acceptable magic power, and everything is about to go to shit in the next episode. But you gotta take your joy where you can, I guess. 

Note: There are a lot of questionable effects in The Untamed, but there are also beautiful scenes like this one, which looks like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Compare with the BTS below and you can see what a good job the VFX team did in bringing this lake to life. 

[corpse-of-bandersnatch]

That's the whole interview with Jeff by Nicole Iskra, in which they also talked about him shaving of his chest hair. It was published in the Moviestar 05/2001 (the interview, not the chest hair).

I won't translate everything word for word, but if you wish a closer translation of a special topic/question, let me know and I try my best. (Also I apologize for the bad quality of the middle part of the scanned magazine).

PARALLAX – Madness from the Internet

„I was the Incarnation of their worst nightmare!��� - An interview with Jeffrey Combs

Before the interview starts, they introduce the latest movie Jeff was in back then, which is Parallax aka FearDotCom (almost the complete first column describes the Plot). Parts of it where shot in Luxembourg, which is also the Place where the interviewer meets Mr. Combs.

They meet in front of the Inter-Continental Hotel. Mr. Combs is PISSED, because the breakfast in the Hotel was awful (slimy fried egg) and the staff was rude (someone came in his room without knocking or apologizing, while he was sitting on his bed, only wearing a T-Shirt and Shorts).

They walk into the City of Luxembourg and Jeff's wondering about the many colourful life-sized cow sculptures, that you can find everywhere in town (quote: „Is this supposed to be art?!“).

He's searching for a souvenir for his wife, but in in his opinion, all of the dresses are outdated and their colours terrible. The interviewer teaches him the very important rule „Grün und Blau schmückt die Sau“.

They decide to eat in a Burger Restaurant called „Maybe not Bob's“, where he orders chicken wings with french fries and a coke (quote: „like a real American“).

Jeff speaks about the results of his genealogical research: Originally, his family came from Devon in England, but settled 1619 in Jamestown (Virginia) to work for Virginian Tobacco Co.

1. Question: The first question is about the renaming of FearDotCom to Parallax (reason being uncertainty about who owns the name). It follows more describing of the movie’s plot, this time from Mr. Combs himself.

His friend Bill Malone directed Parallax/FDC and offered Jeff the role, because they already worked together in Haunted Hill and Perversions of Science.

2. Question: You got along so well with Peter Jackson while filming The Frighteners. Will you at least get a Cameo in Lord of the Rings, even if it's only as Orc Nr. 260?

JC: That's the one Orc, that survived, right? (laughs). Nah seriously, I didn't get a role, unfortunately. I auditioned, , but the problem was the british accent. I can imitate it, but when you're surrounded by actors like Ian McKellen and Ian Holm, it's really not hard to tell who's a „real  Briton“ and who's not.

3. Question: Did your latest movie before Parallax/FDT – The Attic Expeditions –  had it's premiere in America yet?

JC: No, not yet. The world premiere was a couple of weeks ago here in Luxembourg and it was also shown on Festivals in Edinburgh and Amsterdam. Sadly, they didn't show it on the film festival in Brussel.

I'm really enthused by The attic Expeditions, because it's interesting, not linear, not logical, with few horror elements, but the horror is mostly psychological. It's like a dream in a nightmare on a trip. The longer you watch the movie, the less you know, what's real, it's a really complex movie, especially by american standards.

4. Question: In retrospect, would you call your role as Herbert West a curse?

JC: (sighs) Somehow, it's a curse and a blessing at the same time. Thanks to the role, I was branded as „Horror actor“ in Hollywood. After Deep Space Nine I was branded as „Horror- and Sci Fi- actor“. Movie people love to categorize you. On the other hand, the role of Herbert West opened up a lot of possibilities for me.

5. Question: 10 Years ago you told a funny story at a convention in New York, about sth. that happened while filming From Beyond. Could you maybe tell it again for the Moviestar readers?

JC: You mean the one with the children?

MS: Exactly!

JC: (grins) Well, we were already filming for a month – so I've been in this horrible make-up for 30 days already, with this awful head piece that looked like a red dog dick. I looked worse than Quasimodo! That's why I ate mostly in my dressing room. One day, they shot a commercial with a bunch of 4-year-old children in mushroom costumes on the same soundstage. We met in the hallway and as soon as those poor, innocent children saw me, all hell has broken loose. I was the incarnation of their worst nightmare, they screamed and ran to their mothers, who wanted to lynch me on the spot. So now it was me, who ran away.

But that's how it is, when you have a lot to do with make-up and masks and stuff like this. Not long ago, I was strapped to a cross made out of tubes, my throat was „cut“, there was blood all over me. And sometimes, when you're hanging there long enough, the crew just forgets that you're there, because for them, you just turned into a part of the set. Until you give a signal: „Umm sorry, guys, could you..maybe..“ - „Oh yeah sure, sorry Jeff, sorry..“

6. Question: (you might already know this one from this post): After that scene in From Beyond, in which you get eaten by this worm, your chest is as smooth as that of a baby – did they shave off your chest fur?

Jeff: Yes! (laughs)

MS: Did you do it yourself?

Jeff: Yes and I learnt something very important: Never use a normal razor blade, an electric razor is way better and safer and it doesn’t itch as badly, when the hair grows back. I had to shave my chest for a theater role once as well. I was 26 or so and played an 18-year-old.

7. Question: Do you still play in theatres regulary?

JC: No, not in the past couple of years, though theatre is very dear to my heart. Back in the days, I loved to play in theatres – living like a gypsy, 8 weeks in San Diego, and somewhere else afterwards. But that's not how I want to live today, now that I have a family. I don't like to leave my two little girls for several weeks, plus an engagement in a theatre isn't really helpful financially. I earn the same money in 1 week of shooting a movie as I do in 4-5 months of theatre work.

8. Question: I read that Woody Allen pays every actor 5.000 Dollar, because in his opinion, no one is worth 20 Million Dollar, neither beginner nor Superstar. What do you think about the explosive growth of fees nowadays?

JC: I do think that you should take the money, that the market offers you. But somebody, who earns 20 Millions per movie should share at least a million with their not so lucky co-actors.  No, seriously, it's not that easy to make a living. A friend of mine got a job, where he plays the brother of Kevin Costner. When I asked him, if he gets payed well, he shook his head and said, that he only gets tariff plus 10%. Tariff is the lowest wage possible, that was defined by union. My friend had the choice to either work with Costner or don't. And as an actor you always hope that a movie like this becomes a success and maybe improves your chances in Hollywood.

MS: Thank you for making so much time for us!

[haledamage]

Prompt: “I didn't mean it like that.”

Riykas/Zenith, very pre-relationship, during JC Story Act 2. Sometimes you just get blindsided by a ship and have no choice but to write it down 😅

---

It had been a long day, but a successful one, though Riykas wouldn’t be sad to say goodbye to Quesh. She and her companions made their way onto the ship, movements slowed by exhaustion. She took a moment to look each of them over in turn as they moved past her and up the stairs. 

Nadia was in high spirits, her excitement at being able to help infectious even to those who couldn’t hear the trill of it in the Force. Qyzen was still in the middle of his shko-yagu, and the pain he radiated seemed to be from that rather than from any external injury. Theran had already forgotten about the rest of them, mumbling equations to himself as his attention returned to whatever project he was currently working on. Zenith carried himself stiffly, which wasn’t altogether unusual when around large groups of people, but he held his left arm tightly against his side. Every time he moved it sent a sour note of pain through his aura. 

He was injured and trying to hide it. From her, from the others, or from the Rift Alliance? Maybe it was just habit for him now.

She touched his uninjured arm lightly before he could get too far. “You’re hurt,” she said, quietly enough that it wouldn’t carry to anyone else, though they were the only ones left at the airlock door now. “Will you let me help you?”

He studied what he could see of her face, looking for any sign of duplicity, then gave a short nod. “Fine,” he said reluctantly. “But not here. Your quarters?”

“Sure. If that’ll make you more comfortable.” The rumor mill was going to have a field day with that. Even though they were functionally alone, nothing stayed secret on this ship for long. Not with so many politicians, and especially not with Holiday.

If that thought bothered Zenith, or even occurred to him, he didn’t show it. He just led the way through the ship towards her quarters.

He scanned the room, looking for enemies or anywhere they might hide, sharp eyes searching every shadowed corner and alcove as if they might contain Imperials. Only when he was satisfied that the room held nothing more than a bed, a dresser, and a pile of cushions for meditation did he step aside to let her in, following closely behind.

Zenith didn’t so much drop his guard when the door closed as deliberately set it down. He kept it within arms reach in case he needed it, but it was still the closest to relaxed Riykas had ever seen him.

In an attempt to extend him the same courtesy, she took off her veil, leaving herself only with the slender mask she wore to cover the empty space a human's eyes would be. She ran a hand over her now-exposed hair, tidying up her braid reflexively while she waited for him to feel enough at ease in the unfamiliar surroundings that he wouldn't flinch when she approached.

Her caution was thrown to the wind when he unlatched the seals on his patchwork armor and started trying to remove his chestplate one-handed. “You don't need to take your armor off,” she assured him in a rush, holding up her hands as if that would stop him. “You just need to let me touch you.”

He paused, but his disbelief was obvious. "How can you heal it if you can't see it?" 

“With the Force?” Riykas thought that much was obvious, considering… well, considering literally everything about her, really.

He gave her the least impressed look she'd ever seen in her life and went back to carefully removing his armor. With a sigh she couldn’t quite stifle, she reached out to help him. She didn’t know much about how armor worked, but it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, right?

As she reached to unclasp the vambrace from his left arm, another shrill spike of pain lit the Force around him, though it never showed on his face. She finished removing it more carefully. “I think your arm is broken, Zenith.”

“Just fractured,” he said matter-of-factly, like it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s the ribs that are broken.”

Riykas didn’t bother to suppress her worried frown. “How long have you been hiding this?”

“Wasn’t hiding. It wasn’t serious, so it could wait.” With her help, he peeled off the top of his under-armor bodysuit, letting it hang loose over his belt and leaving his upper body bare. “I���ve had worse.”

“I can see that.” His torso was covered in scars, clearly visible even in her limited Sight. Proof of a life hard lived, and of his continued survival despite the Empire’s attempts to change that. And they’d come very close to doing so on more than one occasion, she noticed, frown growing deeper as she brushed her fingers over what looked to be an old blaster bolt scar below his clavicle. It must have barely missed his heart.

He pushed her hand away with more force than she expected. “Don’t need your pity, Jedi.”

“It isn’t pity, it’s compassion.” He clearly considered them to be the same thing, but the distinction mattered to her. Still, she knew better than to push the subject. “Do you have any other injuries I should know about?”

“Bruises. Mild burns.” He shrugged, unconcerned. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” He didn’t argue, and she took that for permission to continue.

Riykas let silence fall, knowing it was Zenith’s preferred state of being, and concentrated on her work. She drew on the Force, using it to search for places that lit up with injury. He had a frighteningly high tolerance for pain; even his ribs were only a dull twinge in his aura until he moved wrong. It was going to make this… complicated.

She started with his wrist, gently willing the crack in the bone to mend under her fingers. Then moved on to a burn on the end of one of his lekku, followed by a bruise on his bicep. How had this happened? She thought of herself as a fairly observant woman, and was disappointed in herself that he’d gotten so hurt without her noticing. She would watch him more closely from now on.

“I’ve been watching you,” he said suddenly, as if he'd heard what she was just thinking.

“You have?” she asked carefully. She’d heard that line before, on more than one occasion. Usually from Theran when he wanted something from her. She wouldn’t have expected it from Zenith.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” It was a lie, or at least not a whole truth. Riykas could feel it behind his words, like a brief, too-sharp note. “Do all Jedi fight like you?”

“Oh.” Right. Of course. It made sense that someone so accustomed to war would have noticed how out of her depths she was in battle. “No. I’m not a knight, combat wasn’t a focus of my training.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

She shook her head and said lightly, “As you say, the battlefield is the best teacher.”

“Guess it is.” She could feel his eyes on her as she pressed her hand to his side, knitting his broken ribs back together and mending the bruised and broken skin above them. “It's beautiful. The way you fight. Like you're dancing. Never seen anything like it.”

Heat rose in her face, and there was no doubt he could see it with how closely he was studying her. “You flatter me.” At least her voice was steady, showing none of her inner turmoil.

“Not trying to flatter. I'm trying to pay you a compliment.” Riykas had always considered them to be the same thing, but Zenith clearly didn’t. “I'm out of practice.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled, unsure how else to respond. She missed her veil and how easy it was to hide her face under it.

“They don't teach you how to take a compliment at Jedi school?” There was a surprising amount of amusement in his voice.

“No, they really don't. And I don't think anyone's ever given me one before. Not a real one, at least.” The final injury that required her attention was a shallow cut on his cheek; it disappeared with a swipe of her thumb. “There, good as new.”

His gaze lingered on her hands as she pulled away, aura bright with a strange mix of relief and disappointment. “Thank you. I mean it.”

Riykas mustered a small, shy smile. “Anytime.”

It was much easier to put his armor back on than it had been to take it off, and it was only a matter of minutes before he was all put back together. Zenith picked up his rifle last, clipping it onto his back, and as he did his mental shields dropped back in place too. “Should go debrief Grell. Don’t want him to come looking for us.”

“I imagine Nadia’s already told him everything,” she mused as she slipped her veil back on, taking a few extra moments to tuck her braid underneath it, “but you’re right. He should hear it from us too.”

Zenith checked that the hallway was safe before stepping aside to let Riykas lead the way.

[babybluebanshee]

Things I’ve Had to Deal With as a City Librarian: This Again

The library continues to be a vexing place, and so I continue to chronicle the madness. This is my burden. My curse.

- A teenage girl (probably at least 14) kept coming in and checking things out on her mother’s card. The card expires, and we tell the girl she can’t use it until the mother comes in to renew it. Our director received a call a few days later from the very angry mother, telling him she would, under no circumstances enter our library to renew the card. She would do it over the phone, but she refused to come in. The director thought it was due to covid concerns (valid), but before he can say a word, the mother, completely unprompted, went into a tirade about how she hates libraries and books and thinks that ours should burn to the ground because it was a waste of space and money. The only reason she got a library card at all was because her daughter begged her to, and she refused to let the daughter get her own, because “children don’t need library cards”. Finally, the director let her renew the card over the phone, simply to get her to shut up. Tellingly, we haven’t seen the daughter in about two months now.

- A woman came in to print something from our computers, and asked for help because she wasn’t very computer savvy. Not too out of the ordinary, except for one thing - this poor woman had a horrible ear infection and could barely hear a word. I managed to help her get what she needed in a relatively short amount of time, despite having to practically scream at her to be able to hear me. 

- A woman with a 23-page fax came in. It was front and back, so I had to do it manually on the glass of the copier. Right as I finished the last page, she got a phone call from the people she was sending it to. After she hung up, she told me that I could go ahead and cancel the fax, they’d rather she send it via e-fax, and she had a scanner at home, so she could do it there. She didn’t even apologize for making me do all that work. 

- An elderly lady came in asking if someone could help her set up an email account. Since I had nothing to do, I decided I could help her out. I ended up spending about an hour helping her because she knew nothing about computers. She didn’t know how to type, how to use a mouse, or what an address bar or browser or password was. I had to help her through every single solitary step to finally produce a useable gmail. When I finally had her ready to go, she revealed the reason she wanted to get an email account - an old flame from when she was young had come back into her life, but he lived in Florida. So they wanted to keep in touch. They probably exchanged emails for about a month after she first set it up. Then she came in one day, slid a candy bar into my hand, and told me she was leaving to go down to Florida to be closer to him. I hope they’re happy.

- An elderly couple came in with a tree branch they’d found on their property, and asked if we had any books about identifying Missouri trees because they’d never seen one like the one they had before. Most of the ones we did have had been checked out, so I decided to google it for them. They were very impressed by this, and were even more impressed when I found a picture that looked exactly like the branch they’d brought in. Turns out it was a persimmon tree. We spend about half an hour after that talking about persimmon trees and how messy they could be and how the husband and his friends used to steal persimmons from their mean teacher’s yard. It was utterly adorable. 

- A little girl and her dad came in, both equally excited about getting library cards after recently moving to the area. The chattered about all the books they were going to get, even more so after I told them they could have up to ten at a time. When they were done, the daughter sheepishly asked if we had any books about ancient Egypt. So not only did I make sure to load her up with books and show her how to use the card catalogue, but I also discovered she didn’t know anything about King Tut, so we had a long discussion about mummies and archeology. Her dad clearly wasn’t as into it as her, but he tried his hardest to be enthusiastic, and actually said, “Yeah! Mummies! Woo!” at one point. I had to go in the back after they left because I was so overwhelmed by how cute they were. 

- We check our phone messages every morning. It’s usually just people who forgot to renew their books before we close, but occasionally we’ll get weird ones. Like the guy who left us a long, rambling message about how his oven wasn’t working, so he tried calling city electric, and they gave him this number, but this was the number for the library, so why had they given him that one? And why weren’t we open? “Doesn’t anyone in this town work?” It went on for twenty minutes like that. My coworker Rachel initially listened to it and pulled me over to listen to it too because she was laughing so hard. We hope that guy eventually got his oven fixed, and that he realized he called us on a Sunday. 

- Rachel was out policing and a man came in with a bag from McDonald’s. He sat at one of our computers and proceeded to burst into tears. I wasn’t there for this, so I don’t know what happened after, but Rachel did say she felt so bad for him she didn’t even tell him he couldn’t have food at the computers.

- A woman asked me to make some copies for her, and I had walked a bit away before I realized I hadn’t asked her how many she needed. She didn’t hear me at first, and proceeded to pull down her mask and lean her ear in to hear me better. I still puzzle over the logic there.

- One night, near closing, Lori went to check the men’s bathroom and found clothes strewn everywhere. Pants, shirts, a few pairs of underwear, and even a belt were hanging from the stalls, the sinks, and even the urinals. A JC Penney’s bag was in the corner, which was presumably what the clothes had been in. No one who was still in the library claimed the clothes. I have no idea what the director decided to do with them. 

- My coworker Rayne was helping a lady print off some tax forms. The woman was older, and told Rayne this would be her first time doing her taxes on her own since her husband died. Rayne expressed her sympathy, and the woman decided that was an invitation to tell her about finding her husband’s bloody corpse in their shed, and how it had gotten everywhere and stained her shoes a bit. She didn’t tell Rayne exactly why he was bloody before she paid for her copies and left, wishing Rayne a nice day. Rayne needed a good sit-down after that.

- I was cleaning our study rooms, and when I walked into the last one, I immediately gagged because it smelled like someone walked in, farted like a machine gun for an hour, then walked out. It was vile. I had to grab a bottle of air freshener and just blast it for a solid minute to cut through the smell. 

[wangjiplayingwangji]

Can I have please, a bit of Xicheng in which Jiang cheng is being defended by his disciples first, and he doesn't belive he deserves it. Only for Xichen to later do the same to him and defend him in front of other cultivators and Lan Wangji and even Wei Wuxian?

As we know JC deserves all the love and I think his sect and Xichen are more than willing to give it to him.

Thbak you so much for writing if you are interested, and if not I still wish you have a great day!!

Hello! THank you for your request!! I did write you a lil something but I hope you don’t mind that it’s just the disciples defending Jiang Cheng.

Not that I don't love two protective cultivator husbands that defend each other's honor but I just couldn’t think of an instance where Xichen would have to defend JC in front of the cultivation world, and especially wangxian.

I just don't feel like they'd push that too far to the point LXC feels like he needs to step in and vice versa that JC couldn’t clap back. So I wrote the first bit I hope that’s alright and that it’s still a good read! If you have any other xicheng ideas feel free to throw them my way and I hope you enjoy!

-----------------------------

The first time it happened was not long after the burning of Lotus Pier, culling of the Wens, and the arduous and slow task of rebuilding a Sect from the ground up. 

So much had happened in what felt like just a moment and Jiang Cheng once a boy had suddenly found himself needing to be a man.

Still, one does not grow without time and still, a boy at heart Jiang Cheng finds that sleep eludes him in favor of nightmares and he ends up wandering the footways of Jinlintai in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning.

Lotus Pier had begun taking shape under the Yunmeng Jiang’s siblings dedicated care, but it was the first time in as many months that Jiang Cheng felt the Sect was stable enough to do without him. And through careful planning and with a handful of capable disciples, Jiang Cheng left Lotus Pier in the capable hands of his sister.

Wei Wuxian had been hard-pressed to avoid the conference at all costs, so much so that even the Lan contingent containing the Youngest Jade of Lan hadn’t been enough to convince him. As such he had also remained behind, instructed to teach the remaining disciples in their Sect Leaders stead, though Jiang Cheng couldn’t see Wei Wuxian teaching them any more than troublemaking. Still, with no more excuses and nothing left to be done, Jiang Cheng left to attend his first discussion conference as a Sect Leader.

The days’ events were bland and tackless, Jin Guangshan sat on his throne of pilfered gold and sought to discuss the splicing of the territory they’d left ransacked rather than what should be done with refugees and prisoners of war. Those gathered also seemed more or less complacent to avoid such unpleasant topics and instead licked the boots of the man who’d sacrificed the least to win over tyranny.

Jiang Cheng made his displeasure at the proceedings known and attempted to steer the conversation somewhere productive a variety of times but received no more than what could be seen as patting the head of a particularly disorderly child from his fellows. Jiang Cheng seethed silently at his place setting, speaking only when spoken to with terse and snappish answers under the meetings had finished.

He had no sooner waited for the announcement for the ending of the days’ discussions before he left with a snap of his cloak, not bothering with the custom pleasantries after what is meant to be a “hard days work.”

He retired to his rooms for the night, his only company the visions of his father’s disappointed gaze for how he acted that evening. 

And so he ended up here, a ghost along the walkways of the Jin’s estate, unable to sleep away his woes or the visions of his parents. 

He rounded a corner into the gardens stopping for a moment when the loud tones of fighting reached his ears. He considered going back, not privy to embarrassing himself further by instigating something with his presence, but something made him creep into the shadow of a pillar nearby and wait. 

Peering around the trunk of a tree not far from him Jiang Cheng could make out the signature gold of Jin Sect cultivators as well as the voices and dark robes of his own disciples amongst the bushes.

“-is no more than an insubordinate child!” One of the Jin Cultivators was spitting. “Your so-called Sect Leader is no older than I am! He’s merely a boy playing with his parent’s toys!”

Jiang Cheng flinched where he stood in the dark, he was no fool, he knew what the other Sect’s thought of him, but to hear it so plainly spoken with such disdain would send anyone reeling. And his actions earlier in the day certainly wouldn’t help this reputation either.

“What do you know!” A voice shot back, one that Jiang Cheng recognized as Jiang Huang, an orphan after the siege but determined to follow in his parents’ footsteps as a Jiang disciple. “To your Sect Leader, you are the toys! Disposable, replaceable, and eventually not worth his time! Does your benevolent ruler even know your name? Or the many names of his children?” 

“You-!” 

“Sect Leader Jiang can call all his members by name and treats everyone with respect! Something you Jin’s know nothing about. Sect Leader Jiang was never disrespectful in his suggestions at the conference, your Sect Leader just can’t stand hearing any voice other than his own!” 

“That’s right, that’s right!” Jiang Zhou spoke up. “Discussion conferences aren’t mean for the spoils of war, many things need to be decided while everyone’s together for only a few days yet Jin Guangshan refuses any topic with serious implications!”

“Sure, Sure!” Jiang Ai called out after her shixiong. “Jin-gongzi, you say our Sect Leader is no much older than yourself, but tell me, what have you done that’s comparable to losing your family only to return stronger and proceed to wage war, earn a space at the Sect Leader’s table and rebuild your sect from the ground up? I’m very interested gongzi, surely you must have amassed a great many accomplishments to seem so sure of yourself?” 

“You- You- Hmph! What will I gain wasting time explaining my exploits to you? You’re lucky those of us in Jinlintai are more than gracious! I won’t be so forgiving next time!” 

The Jin boys ran off after being so sorely defeated and after a moment the remaining Jiang’s dissolved into giggles and quiet excited chatter, exceedingly pleased with themselves.

Jiang Cheng remained where he was long after everyone left, wondering what his disciples saw in him that was worth such fervent defending. The Jing Cultivator was right, he did nothing but make a scene and embarrass himself and his legacy, those following in his footfalls are right to be shamed by his actions and yet- 

And yet- 

I will work harder. Jiang Cheng decided, staring up at the same watchful moon his parents had surely both stared at in their lifetimes. I will work harder, and one day I will be a Sect Leader worth defending. I will be worthy of those who follow me.

Kofi

[fixielixie]

I know lot of jc apologist come from cql but honestly I watched cql long before reading mdzs and it still didn't make me very sympathetic to him? I liked how complicated he was and his entitlement made him interesting to psychoanalyze buuuuut that's about it. Didn't he literally set a dog on wwx after capturing him? Among other things? In a way that was really fucking parallel to the one with wen chao? I know fairy is no cgi hellhound but it didn't make a difference to wwx and jc must have been at least aware? He's basically just madame yu w/ a dick and more power. Novel him even more so. I decently read a take about op being mad so many reconciliation fics have jc do all the work when wwx should actually grovel first and I had to do a tripple take. Still not convinced it wasn't actual jiang cheng writing that post

i think a lot of the sympathy comes from just how hard cql pushed wei wuxians connection to lotus pier, they made him really sentimental over it and you see him constantly being haunted by his time there and his 'lost family'. while in the novel, wwx was used to jumping around and making a space for himself anywhere. he spent about ten years in lotus pier, and at least a few of those were in a time of war. i have no doubt he was fond of him earlier years in lotus pier, mostly because he was mostly free to act as the child he was. but cql puts a high emphasis on both wwx and jcs relationship and the trio sibling dynamic in general. so i think that no only humanises jiang cheng in particular, but also makes it more likely for people to feel sorry for him, especially when it comes to wwx deflecting. in the untamed they paint it as this huge tragedy, and essentially a mistake on wwxs part, emphasised more by the fact that the timeline is more janky in cql so it kinda seems like the second wwx deflects from the jiang sect everything goes wrong for him. meanwhile in the novel wwx peacefully lives in the burial mounds for over two years after he leaves the jiang sect.

wei wuxian never really makes it out that he misses being a part of the jiang sect, im sure he thinks about how much more simple his life would have been if he could have continued to be their head disciple, but he made his choices and doesnt resent the life he chose. its why he makes no move to grovel to jiang cheng once he comes to life, he doesn't see himself as part of the jiangs anymore and hes happy with that, its not like he was ever alone. wei wuxian is like the personification of chosen family, and he actively chose not to have jiang cheng as part of that family anymore. i know a lot of people defend jiang chengs actions against wwx after he came back as him "being desperate to make sure it was wwx bc he just wanted his brother back uwu", they do the same with the fact that he kept chenqing (even tho in the extras we see that jc actually only kept the flute because he thought that out of everything wwx would go looking for the first, and then he would be able to take him down, falsely assuming that wwx would care enough about his fluet to put himself at risk but thats a different post). and i think people who watch cql do this bc idk the actor for jc looking at wwx sadly sometimes and cries more. jiang cheng sympathisers assume that jiang cheng is owed everything by everyone because he had a 'rough time' and is 'all alone' like the fact that his ending ends with him being alone isnt entirely his own doing.

[biwenqing]

Congrats on the milestone 🎉🎉🎉 if you're talking prompts, could you write either 6 or 27 as a post sunshot fic jc wants wwx safe so he arranges a political marriage, for him and whoever it is (lwj) would have to marry into the jiang sect.

Thank you so so much for sending this! I really adore this idea for an AU and I hope I did it justice. Sorry for the delay in getting it up, I hope you enjoy it! Prompt: “No one’s going to hurt you.”

Jiang Cheng kept his eyes focused on Lan Xichen. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to handle Lan Wangji's reaction to what he had to say. "He'll agree to the match because he believes he is taking our sister's place."

"He is very selfless." Lan Wangji was the one who spoke, and Jiang Cheng had to look at him. He liked to think they are friends, of a sort, having spent those three months together searching for Wei Wuxian together. "But you want this for his safety?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng said. "I don't like what I have heard the other sect leaders say about him. Besides you, of course." And here he nodded to Lan Xichen, who gave him a pleasant smile. "I believe if he is married to someone well thought of, it will not only bring our sects closer but bring to ease some of the other's minds."

"I know many songs that may help him, and I can learn additional ones." Lan Wangji leaned forward a bit, almost seeming eager to prove himself. To prove that he could keep Wei Wuxian safe.

Lan Xichen lifted his hand to signal they both should stop for a moment. "You’re asking my brother to move to Lotus Pier, are you not?"

Jiang Cheng opened his mouth to say, yes of course but saw something in Lan Xichen's eyes that caused him to pause. He swallowed some shame for not thinking of it sooner. Here Jiang Cheng was trying to save his brother and rebuild while asking Lan Xichen to give up his brother when the Cloud Recesses were in just as much need as Lotus Pier.

He took a deep breath, and straightened, giving his words the proper attention they were due. "Yes, I am."

Lan Xichen nodded, eyes already strangely sad, before looking towards Lan Wangji. "Lan Zhan, would this be acceptable to you?"

"Yes." Lan Wangji didn't take the same time to think this over.

Ah. Lan Xichen knew that his brother would agree, no matter what was asked of him. "Would it be acceptable for Lan Wangji to travel to Lotus Pier in three months' time?" Lan Xichen asked next.

Jiang Cheng nodded. "More time can be taken, if needed for both sects to rebuild and prepare."

"Three months," Lan Wangji said, rather forcefully.

"I will need to talk to Wei Wuxian as well," Jiang Cheng said.

Lan Wangji frowned ever so slightly, "You had not already?"

"In a general concept, yes," Jiang Cheng sighed. It had been an easy conversation when he had framed it as either Jiang Yanli would need to marry or Wei Wuxian would. 

Lan Wangji was always hard to read, and now it seemed he had purposefully closed himself off. He cleared his throat though, and Lan Xichen was watching his brother in a way to signal Lan Wangji wanted to speak. Jiang Cheng wouldn't interrupt him. 

"May I be the one to tell Wei Ying?"

Jiang Cheng blinked. He was personally not looking forward to that conversation, not with how distant and strange his brother had been since his return. "Yes, that is fine with me."

Lan Wangji nodded and stood, bowed to Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng, before slipping out of the rooms.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Lan Xichen said softly once his brother was gone.

"He's in love with Wei Wuxian," Jiang Cheng stated, fiddling with his teacup.

"Yes." Lan Xichen brushed his hand against the table, just as absent. "I don't want to see my brother hurt any more than you do yours."

Jiang Cheng sighed. "I believe his feelings are returned. Or at least they were. Wei Wuxian wouldn't shut up when we were studying in Gusu. Everything was "Lan Zhan this, Lan Zhan that"." Jiang Cheng had a small laugh at a memory.

Lan Xichen gave a laugh as well. "It was the same from this side. Maybe they are rather well matched. I guess now only time will tell."

(...)

Since Wei Wuxian had woken up, he had a lot to deal with. There was a darkness lurking in this victory that it didn't have anything to do with his cultivation. He watched as the Jin seemed to pick up from where the Wen left off, stepping in like cruelly was a set of robes that fit them nicely.

He had no interest in pandering to them the way that Jiang Cheng was. Removing himself from affairs was probably the best course of action. Wei Wuxian would need to find an excuse to do the same once they returned to Lotus Pier.

There was no room for him to be the first disciple. His family was safe for now. Wei Wuxian had done what he needed to do, best to fade into the background. Too bad his mouth hadn't seemed to catch on to this logic. He couldn’t stand by what was wrong.

And then Jiang Cheng had come and presented Wei Wuxian with an issue. In their weakened state, the Jiang sect needed allies. The best way to achieve this was to marry off one of his siblings. What that now meant for Wei Wuxian, it seemed best not to think about it until he had to.

Lurking in the shadows outside of the main paths, trying to mind his own business, Wei Wuxian was surprised when he heard his name being called.

"Lan Zhan, how'd you find me?" Wei Wuxian offered the smile that felt like a mask at this point. He couldn't remember the last time he had smiled for real.

"Wei Ying is predictable." The answer was flat, but Wei Wuxian thought he might still know Lan Wangji enough to say he was joking with him.

"Ha, so mean to me, Lan Zhan." Wei Wuxian rested his hands casually on chenqing. Lan Wangji didn't seem to fear it, or him, the ways the other did.

"I come with information," Lan Wangji said instead of acknowledging Wei Wuxian's teasing.

Wei Wuxian straightened. "What is it?"

Lan Wangji seemed to weigh his next words with extra caution. "Your brother approached mine to discuss building stronger alliances."

Wei Wuxian felt as if those words didn't make sense, even if the meaning was perfectly clear. But that would mean...

Lan Wangji shifted nervously, a tick he would normally be able to hide. "You and I are to be betrothed," he clarified to Wei Wuxian’s silence

"Oh," Wei Wuxian managed. He had thought he had forgotten what it was to feel, but suddenly he had a lot of emotions to shift through. "Oh." He took a step towards Lan Wangji, taking his wrist. Lan Wangji was watching him closely, almost leaning into his space. "Lan Zhan, they can't force you to do that."

Lan Wangji showed more expression in the next moment than Wei Wuxian had ever been able to get out of him before, even in their student days. "Want to."

Wei Wuxian let out a breath. "What?"

"Not forcing me, I want to," Lan Wangji’s stare was so heavy, Wei Wuxian thought he could feel it brushing against him.

"W-what?" Wei Wuxian couldn't have heard him right. Maybe once it could have been possible, but now...

Lan Wangji turned the arm that Wei Wuxian was holding onto his wrist loosely, turning it until his hand was holding Wei Wuxian. "Want to."

"Once I thought of you as my soulmate in this life..." Wei Wuxian admitted, knowing his cheeks were hot but feeling he had to say something into the silence that followed. Even if he was a coward and couldn't meet Lan Wangji's eyes.

Lan Wangji reached out, resting a hand on Wei Wuxian's chin to tilt it back up. "I still am," Lan Wangji said the words so surely that Wei Wuxian almost believed him. But Lan Wangji didn't know what Wei Wuxian now was...

"When are we to be married?" Wei Wuxian asked as Lan Wangji took his hand away. He wouldn’t hold Wei Wuxian in place even as Wei Wuxian longed for that warmth but didn't chase it. He kept his eyes on Lan Wangji's now.

"Unsure, but I will move to Lotus Pier in three months' time."

"Aiyah.” Too soon. “We can extend that if you want."

Lan Wangji's frown grew deeper. "No. Three months. Wei Ying... Does this make you unhappy?"

"Lan Zhan, I'm not good enough for you," Wei Wuxian stepped away. "I don't want you to make this mistake."

"It is not a mistake unless it will not make Wei Ying happy."

"Lan Zhan, you are too good," Wei Wuxian turned back for a moment.

"It is Wei Ying who is this," Lan Wangji said, before bowing slightly. "I will leave you to talk to your brother. But I hope you will decide..."

The words ‘to be with me’ hung in the air between them as they parted.

[...]

It was Jiang Yanli who Wei Wuxian sought first. He didn't know what he would do if he tried to talk to Jiang Cheng right now. She listened to him as he explained all that had just happened, nodding here and there. There was a little smile that came to her face towards the end as Wei Wuxian found he had run out of words. He didn't know what else to say and didn't like the feeling. 

Jiang Yanli reached out and patted his head as if he were still little. "A-Xien, how long have you been in love with Lan Wangji?" she said, her tone almost teasing.

Wei Wuxian felt his eyes go wide.

"I know you," Jiang Yanli murmured. "Why are you so scared, a-Xien?"

"I don't want to hurt him," Wei Wuxian admitted. "Or you. Or Jiang Cheng."

"We don't want you to be hurt." Jiang Yanli took his hands in her own. She always looked so small compared to him now, and it was jarring from when they were kids. He felt like he would always be looking up to his shijie. "I believe Lan Wangji wants to help you."

"He wants to fix me," Wei Wuxian huffed. That hurt more than he wanted to say.

"No, I think he wants to help you," Jiang Yanli said as if she were coaxing him to eat the food he didn't want to as a kid. "He just doesn't have a very obvious way of showing it."

"Like Jiang Cheng."

Jiang Yanli laughed at that. "Yes, though a-Cheng likes to... express his feelings loudly."

Wei Wuxian managed a single laugh at that. “He does. I think he’s doing what’s best.”

“I think he’s certainly trying,” Jiang Yanli said. “Let people help you, a-Xien.”

[...]

Rebuilding was hard work that ate up day after day.

Before Wei Wuxian knew it, the time came to expect Lan Wangji at Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian had spent his days doing what he could to help, often going in the fields where no one would ask him to cultivate. He spent a lot less of his free time drinking than he had originally planned.

He needed to make sure everything was set up for Lan Wangji. The private rooms he had been granted were bigger than the ones he used to have. Jiang Cheng was insistent of Wei Wuxian's place on Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian should be made happy by this, but all he could feel was a hole and the ache of inadequacy.

And yet Lan Wangji wanted to marry him anyway. He had received several letters from his betrothed. The most recent one he carried with him since it had arrived:

[Wei Ying,

In five days I will follow this message to you. I bring with me some of my possessions but also a gladness in my heart to see you once again. I know you still might not believe it or even feel the same way, but I do wish to remind you.

I look forward to observing the lotuses and to spending more time with you and your family. But mostly I look forward to seeing you and I hold hope you feel the same.

Your soulmate,

Lan Zhan]

That was how he always signed.

Wei Wuxian read the words in spare moments, trying to believe them. Because there was a part of him that was excited to see Lan Wangji, that longed to see him. But the other part, the one that never wanted others to be hurt, told him to hide.

To which Jiang Yanli had told him, "You'll hurt him for sure if you hide your feelings." She was his true conscience, the only person he still felt he knew where he stood.

Wei Wuxian knew there wasn't much else he could do. If Lan Wangji was going to be taken from his home, to be stuck here with Wei Wuxian, then he needed to make sure everything was as perfect as possible. He made sure the rooms they were to share were well organized, a mix of pale purples and whites. There was a nice writing desk, open windows onto the lotuses. He wanted it to feel enough like home that Lan Wangji wouldn't resent it.

Wouldn’t grow to resent him.

[...]

"It is beautiful, Wei Ying," Lan Wangji said, as they sat across from each other. "Thank you for showing me around."

Wei Wuxian offered a smile that was almost real. It hadn't taken long for him to relax around Lan Wangji, to fall into familiar patterns of teasing and talking. "I'm glad you like it."

"Mn," Lan Wangji looked out the window. The sun was setting, making the water around the lotuses look the color of fire.

"It's my favorite time of day," Wei Wuxian murmured, looking at the way Lan Wangji's face glowed with warmth in the light. 

"Maybe there is a song to be written," Lan Wangji mused.

"I’ve never thought of that," Wei Wuxian glanced over at where chenqing rested. He knew it was more than just a weapon, but he wasn't sure anyone else did.

He was startled from his thoughts by Lan Wangji's hand on his own. It brushed against his skin, not just the clothing around his wrist. “No one’s going to hurt you.”

Wei Wuxian knew there was a change here, a change in who they were to each other. So much had changed already that it was frightening, even if it was something he expected. Yet he had always expected it would be a fracturing, going down two different paths. As he looked from their hands to Lan Wangji's eyes, he knew that he felt that change too.

He didn't pull away, didn’t listen to the part of him that begged him to. It knew that if he let Lan Wangji in, being rejected by him for the cultivation Wei Wuxian had to use, for his coreless body, would hurt that much more. But maybe... maybe... 

If Lan Wangji said he wasn't going to hurt him, he was telling the truth.

"I trust you," Wei Wuxian whispered. "But I need you to trust me."

Lan Wangji's hand tightened slightly. "I trust and will help Wei Ying."

"But I get to say when I need help," Wei Wuxian said, holding up a finger.

"Indeed," and then Lan Wangji smiled ever so slightly, and Wei Wuxian knew he had never seen anything more beautiful. "Unless your sister tells me otherwise."

"Ah!" Wei Wuxian pointed with his free hand. "Lan Zhan! You’re laughing at me!"

"No," Lan Wangji said, his eyes twinkling way too much for that to be the case. "Just finding the logical conclusion."

Wei Wuxian huffed but nodded. "Fine. But only shijie gets to overrule me! Don't listen to a thing Jiang Cheng says."

"Mn. Never have."

Wei Wuxian found himself doubling over with laughter. It was the kind of laughter that filled him where he had only felt empty for so long. A warmth pushing back the cold.

[rosethornewrites]

NR, E, and M fics I read this weekend!

All MDZS/The Untamed fics. I’m going to start posting this daily.

Finished:

Not Rated:

JYL takes JC and WWX away, by nirejseki

Prompt: yanli takes wwx and jc on a "training mission" at some point and then forgets to come back, she still gives updates to her senior sect siblings when she sees them, but refuses to return to loctus pier.

JZX wants to be a good big brother, by nirejseki

Prompt: JZX is more politically aware, but mostly lonely. When he learns that JGY is his younger brother he's determined to be a good dage. His only examples however, are LXC, who hes not sure is human, WWX who- just- NO, and NMJ, who despite being his sworn brother seems to HATE JGY? So hes on his own. It can't be that hard right?

The light that disappeared, by KawaiiKittyCat

"Lan Zhan!"

At the call he startled. It’s weird. He doesn’t remember falling asleep.

"Lan Zhan!"

Lan Wangji raised his gaze to look at the person on the other side of a table. There, in familiar black-red robes, sat Wei Wuxian with a playful smirk.

Yiling Laozu's Drunk Jokes, by chiyukimei

Wei Wuxian manages to go to Jin Ling's one month celebration but he gets very drunk throughout the event and spills the secrets he doesn't want to while joking about them.

Rated E:

Speechless, by SuiteJayne

Bored with transcribing the Lan Clan's Collection of Righteousness, Wei Wuxian again decides to provoke a reaction out of Lan Wangji. He gets a different one than he expected.

Adventures In The Air, by coffeepie

Wei Wuxian has never had Lan Wangji at his mercy before and takes advantage of the situation.

Even if they are miles in the air in broad daylight.

bellflowers, by hauntedotamatone

During the brief break in their schedule, Lan Zhan takes some time to explore Wei Ying.

liberties untaken, by northofallmusic (tofsla)

There are things that Lan Wangji remembers. The tap of a hand fastening a talisman to his anger-taut shoulder. The snap of fingers. The evening turning syrupy and amber, honey-drowned. The messy room, the fragrance of wine, a laughing mocking face. The slow-flowing stream of his thoughts. Fingers on his sleeve making a suggestive gesture. Fury. Longing.

He thinks about that night. He thinks about it when things are bad.

-

OR: Things Wei Wuxian Never Did to Lan Wangji.

Rated M:

if you know love, by yuer (vintageblueskies)

Wei Wuxian is strangled before his husband's eyes.

Parental advisory: explicit content, by arcsinx

Sect Leader Yao had been to Cloud Recesses a couple times. Not many, as Gusu Lan was a fairly reserved sect. Today marks his fourth visit to Cloud Recesses ever and he’d been informed that both Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren were otherwise occupied at the moment, but in case the matter was urgent Lan Wangji could attend to him.

Sect Leader Yao had agreed on the spot. Lan Wangji was famous for his orthodox ways, his powerful cultivation, and lately, which was a very confusing matter to Sect Leader Yao, for bonding with the Yiling Patriarch himself, Wei Wuxian. Back from the dead. Oh well. They’d had a child, apparently, and it didn’t scape Sect Leader Yao that this would be a good opportunity to sate his curiosity on the child and Lan Wangji himself after giving birth.

Apparently he'd wrongly expected the new family to be more discreet on their domesticity.

in loving memory, by quillifer (wbtrashking)

The Yiling Patriarch dies—for good.

Unfinished:

Rated E:

Setting fire to our insides, by StarsAlignNomore

Lan Wangji dies after the thirty-third strike. Lan Xichen does not handle it well.

*fleabag voice* This is a fix it.

Time Travel Diary, by adrian_kres (second in a series)

Journal entries depicting the life of one Lan Wangji as he moves through the twenty years in between when he meets Wei Ying and their thirteenth wedding anniversary. (The lost time between chapters 5 and 6 of To Spend Eternity with You).

Rated M:

Live Again, Love Anew, by kkanime5555

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian finally speaks up.

“Mn.” Lan Zhan hums to show he’s listening.

“I think we traveled back in time.”

...

“I’ll go, Lan Zhan. I’ll come to Gusu with you.”

-----

Or,

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are soulmates and, upon Wei Ying's death, they are sent back to when they first met as kids on the streets of Yiling. From there, they both are taken to Gusu, where they are raised together, gradually learning of their shared feelings and finding out the mystery of who sent them back in time and why, all while planning how to save the world, preferably with all their loved ones left alive.

Kiss My Wounds, Bless My Scars, by Pegunicent

When he is sixteen, Lan Wangji makes a choice. He becomes Wei Ying's bride.

hear those bells ring deep in your soul, by Cendiar

Lan Wangji hears an unfamiliar flute when the Wen siblings are brought to Koi Tower, and he immediately goes to the Yiling Barrows to find Wei Wuxian. In that moment, Lan Wangji knows that he will do whatever he must in order to stand by Wei Wuxian's side, keep him safe, and be worthy him. It is not the first time he has bound them together to do so. The two of them do their best to protect each other in a trembling world and, in time, they heal together.

Shared Space, by hoarder_of_stories

Lan Wangji hears that Wei Wuxian is going to be evicted from his apartment, and offers him a place to stay. Wei Wuxian has recently started doing online sex work, and worries that this will make things awkward. (He’s right! It does! They’ll figure it out, though.)

Idiot Shixiong, by Jazz_Reenn

Jin Ling decided to host his birthday banquet at Yumeng Jiang with his uncle’s permission. Jiang Cheng reluctantly agreed till he realized who Jin Ling invited.

Wei Wuxian.

It was too late for him to go back on his word now. He has to face his former Shixiong.

[bettydice]

I didn’t expect you to be lonely (too)

Xicheng, Modern AU, JC&WWX reconciliation, E-Rated 

[Read on AO3] 

Chapter 6

Jiang Cheng frowns at the sky, blinking furiously as the rain hits his face. Maybe if he scowls hard enough, the rain will retreat like everyone else that gets close to him.

Next to him, Lan Xichen politely clears his throat. “I have an umbrella. In my bag.”

That works, too.

Since Lan Xichen is taller than him, it’s a bit awkward to hold the umbrella over both of them while still holding on to his hand. But they manage to cross the road and enter the park without getting soaked. There’s a little pavillon not too far from the park entrance and they sit down on the bench.

Once they’re settled down, Lan Xichen closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths and he tightens his grip on Jiang Cheng’s hand, seemingly unconsciously. Jiang Cheng notices with relief the colour returning to his face.

“I’m sorry.” Lan Xichen eventually says.

Jiang Cheng’s heart painfully tightens, when he hears how miserable Lan Xichen sounds. “No apology needed. Do you feel better now?”

“I’m fine. Well… better.” Lan Xichen’s smile is still tense around the edges. He averts his eyes. Jiang Cheng waits for him to say something else, but he doesn’t.

“You should have told me,” Jiang Cheng blurts out, much more gruffly sounding than intended. Fuck. “I mean… Tell me, next time. It’s okay.”

“Mhm?”

“When you get overwhelmed. Tell me, when you need to leave or something. Better, tell me where you’d feel comfortable going. Only if you want to do this again, of course. I don’t want to assume…” Jiang Cheng looks down at their linked hands, then back at Lan Xichen, who finally meets his eyes again.

“Of course I want to.” Lan Xichen opens his mouth to say something,closes it again, then repeats the process until he finally sighs, incredibly frustrated. “I think… we should talk. About… what just happened.”

“Is it… uhm… ago-… some kind of phobia? Or social anxiety, something like that?” Jiang Cheng squeezes his hand, hoping it’ll assure Lan Xichen it’s fine to tell him these things. He’s worried his face and voice aren’t reassuring enough.

“Ah… well, the latter, I suppose. I’ve been doing much better recently. I thought… if I just wanted it enough, it would be fine.” Lan Xichen lowers his gaze again and adds quietly, a little embarrassed: “My therapist warned me this morning, about putting too much pressure on myself. But I really just wanted… a normal date with you. Without all of… all of this.” He holds out his free hand, which is still shaking a little, then balls it into a fist.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what to say to that. He keeps holding Lan Xichen’s hand, even though it doesn’t feel like enough. He should say something. Or… or hug him. Or would that be too much?

“I’d hoped this kind of talk could wait… but I suppose there is no upside to waiting.” Lan Xichen sighs again, defeated, then turns his head so he can look at Jiang Cheng. “My last - only - relationship ended badly. Painfully. He was… He only showed me a carefully constructed version of himself and… I’ll spare us both the agony of going into details, but after it ended, I… well, I didn’t really leave my apartment anymore.” He studies Jiang Cheng’s face for a second and Jiang Cheng is terrified. What if he’s reacting wrong? What if he sees something hurtful? But Lan Xichen laughs. Weakly, but he laughs. “And I bought a lot of plants.”

“Well, they’re very pretty plants.” That’s what he says? After Lan Xichen has bared his heart, this is what Jiang Cheng has to say? He’s such a fucking idiot!

“Thank you.” Lan Xichen’s smile is genuine. He really is… too good. Then his face turns serious again, he levels Jiang Cheng with an intense look. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever be… interested in... I‘m not sure that’s the right word. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say: I wasn’t sure I’d be willing to risk getting hurt? I didn’t trust my ability to read people correctly. Which is why it took me by surprise, to have such feelings for you. I think a part of me thought I would not be able to…“

Fuck. He wants to hug him. Do anything that would chase away the sadness in his eyes. Beat up his ex-boyfriend, definitely. He needs to say something, though. Lan Xichen seems to be anxiously waiting for his reaction and…

Only one thought crystallizes itself in his brain and before he knows it, or can think better of it, it has left his mouth. “You shouldn’t do this with me.”

Lan Xichen looks hurt. But he catches himself instantly, and gives Jiang Cheng a weak smile. “Oh. Of course, it’s too much, it’s too… I’m sorry.”

Fuck! He’s such a fucking idiot! Lan Xichen lets go of Jiang Cheng’s hand, but before he can take it back, Jiang Cheng grasps it again, with both of his hands this time. “No! Fuck, that’s not what I meant! It’s not too much! You’re not… it’s that I’m not enough.”

Lan Xichen opens his mouth to say something and Jiang Cheng keeps talking, desperate to explain, to make Lan Xichen understand that Jiang Cheng is the fucked up one. The one who will inevitably fuck this up, if they were to keep doing this. “I always say the wrong thing, as you can clearly see. I say things I don’t actually mean, things that hurt other people. And I’m so bad at dating, I never even made it into a relationship. I… I had a breakdown on your massage table, because I realised I have no meaningful human interactions anymore other than with people who have to, because they’re related to me, and even then… You should do this with someone who is kind and who is not…” Not me.

“But I like you.”

The words are sweet and simple. But they have the same effect on Jiang Cheng as Lan Xichen’s gentle massage: He wants to cry. ”But.. It’s… it’s only a matter of time before I fuck it up! Before I say something to hurt you.”

“You’ve only been kind to me.”

"I… What?" Jiang Cheng is not kind. He’s not nice to people. Only in secret, only under four layers of anger and annoyance. Why would Lan Xichen… Jiang Cheng is not kind.

Lan Xichen simply laughs instead of trying to explain why he would say such things. “So, I would like to keep ‘doing’ this. With you.”

Jiang Cheng wants to protest again, feels like he should, but Lan Xichen quickly keeps talking before he can do so. "However, I don't think I'm good with the uncertainty and… Hm… casualness that comes with dating. Which is probably why it got to me so much today. Not so much the environment, it was a lovely cafe. But I put pressure on myself to not show certain parts. To keep them hidden until... some arbitrary later part of the relationship, I suppose. Dating, to me, involves projecting a very specific version of yourself that doesn’t feel truthful or like it won’t withstand further scrutiny. It’s very… exhausting.”

“Honestly… I fucking hate dating.” Jiang Cheng mentally kicks himself. What a fucking excellent thing to say while on a fucking date. But Lan Xichen only looks amused.

“That’s a relief.” “Is it?”

“As I said - I like you. I like spending time with you. I like sharing dinner with you.”

“I also like that.”

“Holding hands is also nice.”

Jiang Cheng looks down at their hands. He feels flushed and a little shaky - he’s really not used to being so vulnerable, but it’s been like this with Lan Xichen from the beginning, hasn’t it? He didn’t even get a chance to pretend otherwise after all those tears he shed. There’s no point in taking it all back now. Not when Lan Xichen is being so open in return. So he intertwines their fingers, then lifts his eyes again. “I like it, too.”

Lan Xichen’s smile is small, unassuming, but it lights up his eyes and warms Jiang Cheng’s heart. Jiang Cheng… would like to be able to make sure this man can keep smiling like this.

“So… can we just continue doing that?”

“Holding hands?”

“That, too. I meant… having dinner, spending time together… And…” A hint of nervousness flashes across Lan Xichen’s face again. It sparks nervousness in JC, too. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself and rushing into anything is the last thing I want to do… but I don’t do well with uncertainty. So… I’m sorry, this is probably too much, too soon, but… I want to do this slowly, but I don’t want to do it casually.”

“Oh. Okay.” Lan Xichen still looks worried, so Jiang Cheng rushes to clarify: “I’m okay with that. I’d also like that. To do this. Slowly. But… whatever the opposite of casual is.”

Jiang Cheng cringes slightly, but Lan Xichen laughs, relief softening his features. Then Lan Xichen lets out a deep breath, relaxes his shoulders and smiles brightly. “I feel much better now.” He pulls Jiang Cheng’s hand over, so it’s resting in his lap.

Lan Xichen turns his head slightly and their eyes meet. Jiang Cheng suddenly has trouble breathing. It’s not just because Lan Xichen is incredibly attractive. It’s not just because of Lan Xichen’s beautiful smile or because he’s holding his hand and Jiang Cheng’s hand is touching his thigh. It’s because of those things but… Lan Xichen looks at him. He sees him and still wants to… It’s overwhelming. A part of Jiang Cheng wants to get up and run away, which is clearly not an option, so he does the next best thing he can think of to disrupt the terrifying intimacy of the moment.

“Your muffin.” Jiang Cheng gets the muffin from Lan Xichen’s bag and offers it to him. Lan Xichen tilts his head, slightly confused, but takes it with an appreciative hum.

They sit like this for a while, even after Lan Xichen finished eating his muffin, just enjoying their little dry space while the rain still comes pouring down around them. Jiang Cheng has calmed down, too. Now, he’s just… content to be here. After a while, he begins feeling chilly - he really needs to get out his winter coat soon - but he doesn’t want to disturb the peacefulness. His hand is warm and safe with Lan Xichen, that’s enough.

But he can’t suppress a shiver, when a cold breeze hits his neck. Lan Xichen turns his head and, before Jiang Cheng can laugh it off or something, he lets go of Jiang Cheng’s hand, unwraps his scarf and, ignoring Jiang Cheng’s protesting noises, gently wraps it around his neck.

He wants to protest more, return the scarf, but Lan Xichen’s warm gaze lingers on his face and his hands linger on the scarf, knuckles resting on Jiang Cheng’s chest. He can’t think of anything to say. Lan Xichen doesn’t say anything either, but he strokes his cheek, the other hand still holding on to the scarf.

Jiang Cheng would like to… He’d really like to…

Lan Xichen runs his thumb over Jiang Cheng’s lower lip. Jiang Cheng opens his lips, leans a little closer, as if under a spell. He wants to…

With a soft gasp Lan Xichen widens his eyes, then pulls back his hand. “Sorry, I didn’t-”

“No, please…” Jiang Cheng - boldly, foolishly - wraps his fingers around Lan Xichen’s hand, draws him back towards him. He wants…

Lan Xichen follows his pull until their linked hands are trapped between their chests. He looks down at him, looks at his lips. He smiles. Jiang Cheng closes his eyes, leans even closer, yearns to be enveloped by this warmth.

Lan Xichen kisses him carefully and gently. His lips are as soft as his smile, and he lets go of the scarf to tenderly cradle the back of Jiang Cheng’s head.

Somehow, it’s the easiest thing in the world to just… Let go. To let himself be kissed. To return the kiss, return the gentleness.

When they part, Lan Xichen laughs softly, cheeks flushed. But before Jiang Cheng gets distracted by his beauty, Lan Xichen hugs him. Wraps his arms around him and holds him close. Hides his head in the crook of Jiang Cheng’s neck.

“Are you okay?” Jiang Cheng hesitantly strokes Lan Xichen’s back, worried that maybe the kiss was too much for him, or it made him sad or-

“Mhm. I’m just… grateful.” Lan Xichen lifts his head to press a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s cheek, tightens his arms around him, before letting go and sitting upright again.

Jiang Cheng slowly lowers his arms, a little stunned by those words. “Why? There’s no need... “

“Because kissing you was easy.” Lan Xichen’s mouth twists, as though he’s regretting his words. “I’m sorry, that probably sounds - “

“No, I understand exactly what you mean.” Jiang Cheng understands it too well and it pains him that Lan Xichen feels this way. But he’s also happy, because maybe he can now understand a little why Lan Xichen likes him, why he feels comfortable around him. “I understand it well. I’m also grateful.”

“Ah… I’m glad.” Lan Xichen takes his hand again and Jiang Cheng immediately intertwines their fingers. Lan Xichen’s warm gaze rests gently on his face and playful smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. “Can I kiss you again?”

Jiang Cheng doesn’t bother with words, he simply pulls him closer until their lips meet again.

This kiss, as well as the ones that follow, are just as easy.

[trensu]

Episode 25: The One where They Frolic in the Forest but like, Sad This Time

Okay folks, buckle up bc this one has a lot of Hetero Drama and Stupid Plot Things

But look!! I’ve made it to the halfway point of the show!! I’m so proud of myself

We’re gonna skip as much of that as possible

BUT this one has some EPIC moments to make up for it

We start at Lotus Pier

Stuff’s happening that we’re not interested in 

except for how our resident Disaster Het jzx comes by to invite the jiang clan to the jin clan’s awesome sleepover with sweet sweet party games

Plot plot plot

WE’RE AT AN ARCHERY COMPETITION!!

I guess that’s how they open sleepovers in Ancient Fantasy China?

LWJ AND WWX ARE STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER

OUR BOYS ARE SHARING SCREEN TIME!! WITHOUT HURTING US!!!

Blegh, jgy is talking

And here the jin clan bring out their wen prisoners bc they think it’s fun to place them in front of the targets??? anD THEY GET AWAY WITH IT??

THEY DID THIS IN FRONT OF BASICALLY THE ENTIRE CULTIVATION WORLD AND NOBODY SAID ANYTHING!!

I WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS

WTF IS WRONG WITH THEM

Wwx at least tried to protest but jc shut him down, bc their clan really isn’t strong enough to stir up trouble rn 

BUT THERE WERE PLENTY OF PEOPLE IN MORE SECURE, POWERFUL POSITIONS THAT COULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING

I’M LOOKING AT YOU, LXC. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LAN CLAN MOTTO, HUH?? WHAT HAPPENED TO RIGHTEOUSNESS???

*takes a deep breath*

Okay, okay

I’m calm, i’m cool

So that happened

Jzx tries to show off by shooting an arrow and getting a bullseye without hitting any of the prisoners

And wwx sees this and is like, hmmmm, i can humiliate jzx AND discreetly protect the wen prisoners!!! (and give the audience a bite of wangxiantics)

Wwx: lan zhan, do me a favor

Lwj: what’s the matter?

Wwx: can i borrow your forehead ribbon?

CAN I BORROW YOUR FOREHEAD RIBBON

THE SPECIAL ONE THAT NO ONE BUT FAMILY AND SPOUSES CAN TOUCH

I JUST WANT TO BORROW IT IN PUBLIC WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE. NBD

Lwj just stares at him in response and wwx sulks but doesn’t push it

(lol, jc sees that go down and is just completely exasperated, like, one day, can we get one day when you don’t OVERTLY FLIRT WITH LWJ in front of EVERYONE??)

(the answer is no. no, he cannot do that, jc)

(he’s not allowed to not flirt with lwj)

Since he couldn’t get the super special forehead ribbon, he uses one of his own wrist ribbon things to blindfold himself

Please take a moment to appreciate the fact thAT HE WAS GONNA USE THE SACRED FOREHEAD RIBBON TO BLINDFOLD HIMSELF, THE KINKY BASTARD

Wwx: nbd nbd, imma just shoot 5 arrows whilst blindfolded and hit every bullseye there is WITHOUT harming any of these innocent war victims.

It’s all in the twirl, baby

He does a Dramatic Twirl, Smirks™ and then releases those arrows like nothing

And afterwards he has this proud little grin on his face bc hell yeah, he just owned jzx’s smug ass AND prevented any harm from falling on innocent people

Also, LOL, NMJ’S REACTION TO THIS WAS GREAT

He sees wwx be a badass with a bow and arrow and immediately turns to lxc next to him with an expression like HOLY FUCKING SHIT, DID YOU SEE THAT, THAT WAS AWESOME and starts clapping like a madman

For future reference, this is the correct response to wwx all the time, I’M SO PROUD OF YOU BB

After all that, wwx struts back to stand next to lwj and gives him a proud little smile. It’s so cute, so cute.

Jgy is talking again BLEGH

Now we’re in the forest!! For hunting reasons!!

Wwx makes himself comfy by a tree and plays Magic Music on his demon flute and is all pretty while doing it and supposedly gets all this prey to jump into Jiang nets

we never actually see this happen but everyone says it happened and who am i to argue?

(actually i like to argue one-sidedly at the screen a lot but this was not important enough so whatever)

Also, side note, jc is KILLIN IT with his fashion choices in this ep. LOOKIN GOOD BRO

But we don’t care about any of this 

We care that WWX SUDDENLY SPOTS LWJ WALKING ALL ALONE IN THE FOREST AND HIS WHOLE ENTIRE FACE LIGHTS UP LIKE THE FREAKING SUN BC HE’S SO HAPPY TO SEE HIS SOULMATE

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL

And then it gets sad. Sad times in the forest :(

Wwx was totally making a move to get lwj’s attention but he stops himself

Bc he remembers the conversation he had with lxc about how the ones he cares about can be hurt by his decisions

Thank goodness lwj notices him back

Wwx looks so surprised but also pleased the lwj sees him

And ofc lwj does not hesitate to go to wwx

BC THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND ARE SOULMATES

Wwx: hey lan zhan, i heard you got tired of writing out the Lan Fam Rules~!

He’s happily engaging him in conversation!! He’s trying to tease him again!

Too bad lwj does not go along with it

This whole “let’s ruin wwx’s attempts for pleasant conversation by bringing up sad things” is getting really old lwj, stop that

Lwj: i made some progress in composing the music score and i’d like to share it with you to see if it works

eXCuSe mE??

HE’S BEEN WRITING MAGIC MUSIC FOR WWX??

HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THIS BEFORE??

I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST LEARNING FORBIDDEN MAGIC MUSIC, NOT CREATING MAGIC MUSIC FROM SCRATCH SPECIFICALLY FOR WWX

HE LOVES HIM SO MUCHHHH

Wwx: lan wangji, lan wangji

Noooo he’s reverted to calling him formally!!

And his tone went all flat!!

DON’T DO THAT

Wwx: who do you take me for? Why can’t you leave me alone?

DON’T SAY THAT

WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT

YOU DON’T WANT HIM TO LEAVE YOU ALONE

STOP HURTING ME LWJ LIKE THIS

The minute wwx asks him that, lwj lowers his gaze when previously he had his eyes glued to wwx’s face the whole time

Bc WWX JUST STABBED HIM IN THE HEART WITH HIS WORDS

Lwj: who do you take me for?

He says all somberly, STILL NOT LOOKING AT WWX

Oh god, their faces are breaking my heart

After lwj says that, wwx stares at him for a long moment before canting his eyes to the side AND THEY LOOK KIND OF TEARY??

I THINK??

THAT MAY JUST BE MY TEARS

SOMEWHERE, TEARS ARE INVOLVED

Wwx: i once treated you as my lifelong confidant (AKA SOULMATE)

Lwj: i still am

*SOBBING*

~THEIR SONG~ IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND

THEY’RE STARING AT EACH OTHER WITH SO MUCH FEELING

I WANT TO TEAR MY FACE OFF

Aaaaand the moment’s interrupted bc of stupid jzx and his Hetero Drama

Wwx hears someone approaching and he grabs lwj by the arm and drags him to a hiding spot where they can spy on jzx who just appeared with jyl

You know, i love how whenever wwx grabs lwj to drag him somewhere we get a bit of slo-mo stuff to, i guess, emphasize wwx is touching lwj or something

Not that we need the emphasis

It’s not like we’re not already hyper-aware of their EVERY INTERACTION

So now we get to watch wwx and lwj spy jzx and jyl

Lol, i wonder what lwj is thinking

Does he watch this and sympathize? Does he get secondhand embarrassment bc he knows he doesn’t do any better expressing his feelings to his soulmate??

I can’t imagine he has any actual interest in spying on Disaster Het jzx

Lwj is a Disaster Gay 

There can only be so much Disaster at a time, y’know?

or maybe he’s just thinking OMG WWX TOUCHED ME OMG WWX IS SO CLOSE

yeah, that’s probably it

Okay, there’s Hetero Drama going down 

Blah blah blah

BUT WAIT, jzx just made jyl tear up AGAIN

Wwx is all ready to tear jzx a new one but lwj holds him back before he could give away their location

Like, if asked, i’m sure lwj would say “oh, i stopped him to avoid an inter-clan incident” or whatever

But his REAL reason for holding him back was bc he was enjoying have wwx so physically close to him again

While secluded in a hidden spot

I mean, there’s less than a foot of space between them

I wouldn’t be so eager to give that up if i had wwx that close to me either

But lwj can’t hold him back for long bc jzx does another douchebaggy thing and wwx has had Enough

Wwx goes to defend his sister BC NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MAKE JYL SAD, OKAY?

Wwx and jzx argue and then jzx draws his sword and takes a swing at wwx!!

SO OFC LWJ SWOOPS IN AND PARRIES THE BLOW

Lol jzx is so confused as to why lwj is there suddenly

You just tried attacking his soulmate, bro

what did you think was gonna happen

Ugh more Hetero Drama

Gotta say, i do enjoy watching jzx get scolded by his mother

Asshole cousin starts stirring up trouble and throwing a hissy fit about how wwx used his demon flute to catch 30% of the prey and how it’s Dishonorable and Cheating behavior

Lwj turns to wwx for a moment here and is like “30%??” idk if he’s impressed or concerned here.

Maybe both

Lwj gets a lot of Feelings around wwx, okay?

Lol, while asshole cousin is ranting, wwx turns his back on him to look at lwj

Wwx: oh, lan zhan, i didn’t thank you earlier for blocking that attack for me! Thank you~!

WHAT A POWER MOVE

HE GETS TO INSULT ASSHOLE COUSIN AND STARE AT HIS SOULMATE’S BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL FACE

WIN-WIN

Wwx is holding it together until asshole cousin accuses the jiang clan of having a corrupt or weak family or smth?

Then he starts getting all twitchy the way he does when Resentment kicks in

Asshole cousin continues to goad him and wwx starts to reach for his demon flute

Lwj flies to his side and grabs his arm!

Lwj: wei ying, concentrate. Wei ying, concentrate.

(wwx has a knack for making lwj repeat himself)

Jyl joins him to help wwx calm down

And now we take a break from wangxiantics for BADASS JYL TIME

Jyl goes and apologizes all sweetly to everyone for wwx’s supposedly rude behavior or whatever

And then turns to asshole cousin

Jyl: i might not know much about hunts, but i know there’s never been a rule about catching too much prey

DAAAAMN, GIRL

Jyl: it’s not his fault you can’t hunt prey. He used a different method that he worked hard to learn

Jyl: FURTHERMORE, you called him the son of a servant when he is my dear little brother

Jyl: so i would like for you to apologize to wwx

JYL IS THE GREATEST SISTER IN THE WORLD

Madam jin is like, ah, it’s not that big of a deal, let the boys squabble 

And jyl shuts that down by telling her that wwx is family, an insult to him is not a trivial matter for her

GOD I LOVE HER SO MUCH

Blah blah plot blah blah jzx is a Disaster Het in front of Witnesses blah blah 

Gross, sect leader yao goes off on a rant

We’re gonna ignore him

We cut to wwx downing a jar of wine in the middle of town 

*sigh* i don’t even know why i bother telling him off at this point, he’s obviously not worried at all about alcoholism

Ooooh, and now we’re getting Lan Bro time. Very wangxiantic lan bro time

Lxc: lwj, i can tell you’re worried about something. What is it?

Lwj: …

Lwj: lxc, i..i want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses

(guys, the ellipses here actually happened. We actually hear lwj do a start-stop on his sentence)

(THIS FROM A GUY WHO DOESN’T SPEAK MUCH BUT WHEN HE DOES SPEAK, SOUNDS LIKE A PRINCE)

(Our boy is Overcome with Feeling rn)

Lxc: bring a man back to Cloud Recesses?

Lwj: bring him back…and hide him there.

Lxc: hide him?

Lwj: …

Lxc: he may be unwilling to go, right?

LXC KNOWS WHATS UP BC THERE’S ONLY ONE MAN WHO HAS EVER AFFECTED HIS LITTLE BROTHER THIS WAY

Lwj stays silent here, and the lan bros manfully stare off to the distance

(I like to pretend that here lxc starts coming up with elaborate kidnapping plots bc he wants his lil bro to be happy and that’s only happening if he drags wwx back to their home)

(i mean, locking up your soulmate against their will is a Lan family tradition, isn’t it??)

AND THAT’S WHERE IT ENDS

THIS SHOW DOESN’T PULL ITS PUNCHES, DOES IT?

This forest frolic was not nearly as fun as the last one :(

Return to Masterpost

[reblogthiscrapkay]

Persephone in “Jasper In Deadland”

Thanks to a random comment from a friend on a Tumblr post, I only just remembered that there’s another musical with Persephone that lies somewhere in between “Hadestown” and “Mythic”: “Jasper In Deadland.” I saw it back in 2014 and I thankfully have an audio recording of the show (there was an official recording made in 2016 and they’re quite similar but it doesn’t have the dialogue bits). It’s functionally a modern teen-audience retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth but the Underworld has been replaced with Deadland, a land that is a ultimately a mixture of different mythological underworlds.

When Jasper is in Deadland searching for his dead friend Agnes, he encounters a bunch of people and places from myths in the six-layered combo-Underworld:

There’s a boatman named Lester, not Charon. The river they’re on is the River Lethe from Greek mythology (the first layer) and serves the same function. There is a Mr. Lethe, as opposed to a goddess of the river as there was to the Greeks. 

Mr. Lethe is the story antagonist (of the evil capitalist factory owner variety; think an evil Hadestown!Hades and the closest thing to Satan) and Mr. Lethe’s goons who follow Jasper around are Loki and Hel of Norse mythology.

A three headed dog (who isn’t referred to as Cerberus in my 2014 recording but is referred to by name in the 2016 recording) guards the second layer.

Osiris, the king of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology, is a club DJ in the city layer, the third layer.

The club is called Helheim, the domain of Hel in Norse mythology and obviously where Hell comes from.

At one point Lester appears again and mentions that the only living souls in the Underworld are Orpheus, Lazarus, JC (I think it’s easy to guess who that is), and Jasper thus bringing in Christian mythology. The comparisons between Jasper and Orpheus are mentioned frequently throughout the show from this point.

Ammit of Egyptian mythology guards the fourth layer and weighs hearts along with “Blind Justice” (it’s been too long for me to remember what that means).

The fourth layer is some sort of gulf, but I’m not sure if that comes from any myth.

In the gulf, they meet Beatrix from The Divine Comedy who in this is part of the Elysium transit authority who drives a vehicle called Purgatorio.

They are brought to Mr. Lethe’s factory, which seems to be most like the Christian Hell or Tartarus, and there are Sisyphus, the Danaids, Brutus, and the fallen angel Luke, who’s the foreman.

They get to Elysium from there, and Jasper meets Eurydice in a fever dream.

In this musical Pluto and Persephone dwell in Elysium, the sixth layer and it’s implied that they rule that layer (I couldn't find an image of them from the show I saw but they were both wearing traditional Greek garb possibly in pink and burgundy or light green and black or something). It’s a little unclear what their relationship is to Mr. Lethe but it seems like everyone in the musical more or less runs their own specific domain without really stepping on anyone else’s space. It drives me nuts that they use those names since Pluto is the Roman name and Persephone is the Greek name (of unknown origin truthfully) so I’m just gonna call him Hades. At the beginning of their introduction Persephone is saying goodbye to Hades and he is begging her to stay longer and calling her snowflake. Lester comes in as her attorney to makes Hades sign their annual divorce contact. Persephone tells him that the year was “almost bearable” (and calls him Plutes, which sounds kind of gross to me but okay). It’s unclear whether she is messing with him or being honest but their relationship comes off as very unbalanced. Hades is very clearly in love with her and her feelings towards him are less clear. While I kind of like the idea of Persephone being so powerful because of how it recalls very old earth goddess/male consort ideas, it reads as kind of sad. There’s no mention of the origin of their relationship, which could have at least made it seem a bit more like maybe Hades was still repenting for kidnapping her or something but nope. She’s just kind of weirdly ambivalent to him while he worships her.

When Jasper and Agnes show up Hades is kind of annoyed to see him since he’s been causing such a ruckus but Persephone is amused by his presence. I support both aspects of this characterization. However, they are in agreement that Jasper needs to go back to the world of the living but that Agnes can’t. Jasper says he wants to trade his life for Agnes’ and Hades says he will allow it. An interesting change from the 2014 show to the album recording is that “Lifesong”, a song originally by Jasper about him giving up his life for Agnes, is now a Persephone song and then partially repeated by Jasper in the following song “The Trade/The Swim”. The ideas in the song about bringing life and the end of life vibe very well with her purpose so I understand the change and always support the idea of Persephone getting more screen time.

After Jasper’s declaration, Persephone steps in to say that maybe an exception can be made because she sees herself in them in how she too wants a “meaningful life.” This “meaningful life” line is actually not on the album so I wonder if they cut it because it feels completely random without the characterization to back up what she means by that. It could hint at the idea that maybe part of her ambivalence to being underground has to do with her not having as much work to do as she would on earth, but this is purely speculation.

Persephone offers to stay one more day with Hades if they are allowed to both go back and Hades is comically pumped. She makes a comment about how it’s hard for the first few millennia but you get used to it (seemingly she means she’s used to Hades or possibly his enthusiasm?). This may have also been cut from the show by 2016 because it’s not on the album but I don’t know. It is kind of startling that after millennia, this is still the dynamic between them. I can’t say I’m a fan.

Persephone gives them instructions to get out and later when they get above ground Jasper attributes the snow in spring to “an act of goddess.”

Overall, I like how powerful Persephone is in this interpretation but I can’t say I like sitcom!husband and sitcom!wife as a choice for her relationship with Hades.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

who knows maybe ismelda’s sister isn’t as bad her parents but it doesn’t sound like she’s trying super hard to get along with her if she changes her puffskein pink. i mean surely she’d know that it’d irritate ismelda? idk maybe jc will make it turn out that she’s not as bad as she sounds like they did with ethan but i’m not a fan of her so far ngl. 😕

If I’m being completely blunt about Ethan...the Season 2 House Cup really didn’t warm him up to me that much. Sure, it more or less confirmed that he’s not intentionally abusing his daughter...but that’s still a low bar to set. I hope Skye’s relationship with him will continue to improve in the years to come, but we see from all of his scenes that it’s not just Skye he mistreats. Orion takes it in stride, but I think most people would be justifiably angered by Ethan’s actions? Not to mention that he took all the credit for a move that his whole team participated in (The Lockhart parallels are becoming almost shocking) but he didn’t actually cheat, so that’s just okay I guess? Ugh. 

What I’m driving at is that Jam City could very well introduce Ismelda’s sister and they really should, to develop Ismelda one way or the other...but they’ve got their work cut out for them if they want to “redeem” her. Particularly if this is how she’s going to be characterized. All that really happened with Ethan was they had him apologize when called out. And if Ismelda’s sister does that too, great...but it doesn’t get to the heart of why she mistreats her sister in the first place. Why does she do that? Honestly, unless they depict her realizing that she imbibed the abusive behavior from her parents, showing remorse, and making a conscious effort to unlearn those behaviors and make it up to Ismelda (Or giving her space, whatever it is she wants) I...feel like I won’t like her very much. 

[lettersinscarlet]

Weak (Colby Brock Imagine)

This was request by someone else on a different fan page, but the person said they didn’t want to write it so I gave it a shot. Here goes nothing.

——————————————————————————

Your POV

The ONLY reason you signed up for this stupid challenge was to prove to Colby that you could last longer than he and Sam did. Colby’s whole excuse was that Sam chose him to eat the hot sauce and if he hadn’t, Colby would’ve still survived. Every time, you roll your eyes and tell him that you would do better. Now, you actually got your chance to prove it.

Colby was sitting next to Jake and he waved at you as Kian and JC herded the girls, including you, into the box. It was a tight squeeze and you were already sweaty. You had been able to get a spot near the corner and when you turned, Colby came up to you.

“I’m so gonna beat you,” you taunted Colby with a smug look on your face.

“Whatever you say, doll face,” he responded and he stuck his tongue out at you. You stuck yours back out at him. He then walked up and put his lips next to the air hole and you did, too. You shared a quick kiss and then Colby sat back down.

To pass the time, you looked at your other competitors and tried to come up with scenarios about how they would be eliminated. You didn’t know anybody too well, except for Tara, so it was kind of hard to figure if your scenarios were right. It was pretty fun.

Already, the first hour had passed. Kian and JC had come out with their new “obstacle” to help encourage the game to go faster. When it came to your turn to guess, you guessed the number two. It had always seemed to be your lucky number, and it didn’t fail you this time around. You were glad that you weren’t stuck with a sweatshirt and you were relieved when you weren’t chosen to wear the second sweatshirt. You knew that if you had to, you would’ve left, because it was already getting too hot in the box for you.

“(Y/N)!” you heard Colby call. You turned to look at him and he already had a smirk on his face. “Getting uncomfortable yet?”

“Please, Brock. I’m so comfy, i could last for days,” you reply and attempt to put your hand on your hip. There isn’t much room and it’s a pathetic attempt, but it still has its effect anyway.

“Okay, baby. Just wanted to make sure that you weren’t ready to quit yet. I know how hard it is.”

“Hard? This is a piece of cake. If only you were as tough as I am,” you tease him and wink. He rolls his eyes at you and goes to sit back down. Your eyes follow him and you wish you had that much space right now, but you were determined to keep going.

You decided to try and start a game with the other girls because you were all extremely bored. You all had decided to play 20 questions. By the time the second hour had rolled around, you were all busting up laughing and creating a whole lot of heat in the box. You already felt like you were sweating more than most girls, even the ones with sweatshirts on. You felt a little weak, but maybe you just needed some water.

You skated by without having to have either of the helmets either. You had requested your water after that little challenge was over and you gulped it down pretty quickly. You regretted that decision as you held the empty water bottle in your hands.

“Is the queen of the box already longing to be out?” you heard a mocking voice ask from behind you. You turned around and saw Colby in a stance that mimicked your own previously. You sighed as you looked at your boyfriend.

“Just a little hot. But I’m still going to beat you,” you added as you leaned against the box. It was hot, but you needed something to lean on. You were feeling just a little weak and the leaning helped.

“Sure you will, (Y/N). Sure you will.”

Colby turned away from you and you turned so your back was on the glass. You started humming some random tunes and some people started to join in. One of the crowd favorites was “Sk8ter Boy” and even the guys were singing along outside. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good, but everyone was laughing.

You saw the two evil masterminds coming around the corner and you knew it wasn’t good. You heard them talking about how “they did the same thing to the boys” and how “there were still cracks so it was okay”. Your eyes got wide as you saw they were covering the air holes on the side of the box.

“Is this even legal?” you screamed at them as they covered the hole right above you. You turned and watched as all the holes were covered by duct tape. You kept looking around at the holes and you began to panic. You knew that there were cracks you could get air from, but you still felt like you were suffocating. You tried taking silent deep breaths, but you still felt trapped. Suddenly, they felt your legs give out and the world went black.

—————————————————————

Colby’s POV

I was on my phone when I heard all the screams. I looked up and I didn’t see (Y/N). That’s when I heard all the screams were about her. I launched up from my seat and bolted over and pressed my face against the glass and there I saw her. She was laying in the ground, passed out, and no matter how loud people yelled, she wasn’t waking up.

I ran over and grabbed Kian by the shirt and lifted him up.

“Get her out,” I threatened with an edge to my voice.

Kian ran and got the drill. When he finally got to the door, I was already there, banging on the side of the glass, hoping that if I hit it hard enough, I could shatter it.

“Hurry!” I yelled impatiently as he worked on opening all the screws.

The door finally swung open and I pushed my way to get to her. When I got through, I knelt down and felt for a pulse. It was still there and I sighed in relief. I scooped her up in my arms and took her back outside. Kian closed the box behind me and I turned to talk to him.

“I’m taking her to the hospital,” I stated as I turned to get to my car. I knew I shouldn’t of let her sign up for this, but she was so determined to beat me.

“But what about the con-“

“I SAID I’m taking her NOW!”

I walked to my car and I laid her in the backseat. I went to the front and sped over to the hospital, praying the whole way that she would be okay.

—————————————————————

Your POV

You woke up to blinding lights in your face and someone calling your name.

“(Y/N)? (Y/N)?” the voice asked, searching for you.

You groaned as you looked around the room. Your eyes found your boyfriend and you smiled. Instantly, he whispered his greetings and tightly gripped your hand in both of his.

“Look who’s finally up, sleepyhead,” he said with a smile on his face. You looked at him with your brow furrowed and your nose scrunched up.

“What do you mean?”

Colby looked at you with sad eyes as he explained. “You passed out from the heat in the box and I rushed you over here,” he explained as he rubbed the back of your hand. He put a kiss on your forehead and it made you smile. “Don’t scare me like that. I was worried.”

“Dang it,” you muttered under your breath.

“What? Does something hurt? What’s wrong?” Colby asked you, frantically looking and almost pressing the nurse call button.

“I still didn’t beat you,” you sighed in defeat and he shot you a look of utter disbelief.

“You pass out from the heat and instead of being concerned about your health, you obsessing over the fact that you didn’t beat me at a stupid contest?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

Colby looked at you and rolled his eyes. “I should’ve left you in that box.” You look at him and give him a kiss. He smiles at you and then rest his forehead against your intertwined hands.

“Your weak, Brock.”

“Me? Weak? I’m not the one who passed out from a little heat.”

“At least I didn’t have to leave because I couldn’t handle a little hot sauce. I bet it wasn’t even that hot.”

“Oh, is that a bet?” he asked with raised eyebrows. You shoot him a signature look and smile.

“It’s a bet,” you say and yawn.

“You need your rest. It’s time for you to sleep.”

“Only if you’re next to me,” you order him with big, pleading eyes.

“And why is that?”

“Because, I already spent over three hours separated from you by glass and unconsciousness. Now I want you to get right next to me so I can fall asleep.”

“If you insist,” he says lazily, but smiles as he hops into the bed next to you. He wraps his arms around you and puts his head on your neck.

Right before you drift off, you feel Colby lean over to whisper something in your ear.

“Weak,” he says and you feel him kiss your ear. You nudge him and crane your neck to see him.

“You know you needed this just as bad as I did, you just wouldn’t admit it.”

And with that, you close your eyes and drift off to sleep.