#me reading that like ''the evil has been vanquished''

[revvethasmythh]

I do think it's funny seeing people talk about the romances in datv and how you have to make an effort and actually connect with your intended romance partner for it to work when, for me, my biggest criticism of romancing Cullen in inquisition was that it literally didn't matter what I did or the kind of person that i was. I could just press the button and start a romance with him whenever, without even an approval system to marginally limit things. In fact, I STILL have the option to start up a romance with him in my current playthrough despite being fully locked in a romance with someone else. Incidentally, the opposite of this is perhaps what made me like the Fenris romance the most--it took effort and intentionality on my part for that to happen, which made the pay-off so much better. So, tbh, i'm glad it sounds like we won't be in a situation like with the advisors again where you can romance then regardless of anything. I want that effort and intentionality and care put into a relationship, if one is going to happen

[adarkrainbow]

Hello there. First of all thank you for all the analysis and in depth look into fairy tales.

I stumbled upon a take that was utterly surprising to me about how fairy tales validate women through submissive beauty while the men are portrayed as active and violent and how fairy tales are tools to reinforce gender roles and patriarchy.

And I wonder how did we end up here? I seem to remember you talking about how a lot of fairy tales authors were women, but even in the Grimm brothers fairy tales the women are active, it's not only the men who go through trials.

Anyway I was wondering if you had any thoughts on this?

A most interesting, complex and yet simple question!

Do not be surprised by this take: it has been THE dominating take on fairytales until very recently. It was the big 20th century idea about fairytales - and in fact, it was one of the ideas heralded and massively shared by Jack Zipes in his famous book. This is also partially thanks to him that most Americans share this exact same view. Now we know, thanks to today's research, that this is not as true as people like to think and that this only applies to some fairytales - but the idea that fairytales can actually be subversive, can actually challenge an established society's codes, structure or hierarchy, is in truth fairly recent - or rather has only been accepted fairly recently.

A part of this is definitively Disney. There is no denying that the "Disney fairytale" marked forever popular culture's view of fairytales AND that as a result it inclined a lot of people to look at traditional fairytales under a certain angle. Remember - to make a Disney princess an active character, with the likes or their Rapunzel or Tiana, was seen during the movies' releases as a MASSIVE breakthrough for Disney.

That being said, to well answer this, I think a look at the French literary fairytales can be interesting. (Especially since... it is much more of my domain than the Grimm fairytales for example Xp)

Now Jack Zipes expressed this very theory by talking of Charles Perrault fairytales. In his book he clearly said that, through his stories, Perrault taught girls to be passive damsels waiting to be saved ; and boys to be active heroes. The typical "prince saving the damsel in distress ; knight rescuing the princess in the tower". And on a first, superficial, quick glance... Zipes is right - and many, MANY people read Perrault's fairytales as such.

Indeed, female protagonists of Perrault share a distinct passiveness and earn their happy ending through patience, pleasing people and looking good. Cinderella endures abuse without talking back, only has to look pretty for a prince thanks to an outside interference, and her marriage is what saves her - before she even forgives her wicked stepsisters! Sleeping Beauty spends half of her story sleeping before being saved by the arrival of a prince ; and then the second half she is the helpess victim of the ogress and only is helped by either the butler or the prince. The wife of Bluebeard cannot save herself, it is her brothers that save the day, while in Diamond and Toads the good girl is rewarded for just being nice and helping a poor woman, and it is again through a wedding she gains happiness. Many people also like to invoke the semi-fairytale Griselidis which is... a whole another topic to go into.

Meanwhile the male protagonists are "active", industrious heroes and vanquishers of evil. Puss in Boots is a trickster who hunts animals, actively runs around, and devours an ogre. Little Thumbling also puts together all sorts of plans, actively changes the crowns and nightcaps, steals away the ogre's boots, and once again runs around... The brothers of Bluebeard's protagonists are the big heroes that come in the end to murder the persecutor.

So far, it all seems right... And somewhat, yes, it is true. Because of the context, because of the society, culture and time these stories were written into. In 17th century upper-class France, women were only valuable if they were pretty, if they didn't cause trouble, if they could be good wives or good mothers ; men on the contrary were expected to be sportsmen, warriors, active members of their community or of the government... But as usual with Perrault, nothing is as simple as it is, since there is joke and satire hidden in his texts that many fail to see, and when we look a bit closer at all this, we see hidden behind the apparent dichotomy the traces of a more nuanced take.

Yes, Puss in Boots is an active male character... But the marquis de Carabas is just as passive as another Cinderella or Donkeyskin, as he literaly does NOTHING but look good, obey the cat and follow everybody around. "Puss in Boots" is Cinderella told through the eyes of the supernatural helper - the talking cat is the fairy godmother, who is the one that brings beautiful clothes and meeting with the royals and the seeds of a romance to his passive, useless master. In fact, the "morals" of both stories are eerily similar: Perrault jokes at the end of Cinderella that anything is possible as long as you have a powerful or well-placed godparent ; and Puss in Boots moral is also about how "If you can find the way, you can trick the system, and become a prince when you shouldn't AT ALL". Both stories aren't in the end about someone being rewarded for being pretty or enduring suffering - but simply about having enough hidden resources and trickery to use the very flaws of the system used upon you.

Again, let us take Cinderella. She endures her suffering, according to people, she does nothing for herself, the fairy godmother does everything, and her salvation comes from a prince marrying her... She is pointed out to be so naive she chats with her stepsisters as if everything was normal when she is at the ball. She proves to be the ultimate goody-two-shoes when she forgives her persecutors at the end... And yet, what does the moral point out? That openly forgiving your enemies is the best way to put them in your pocket... because as such they'll be indebted to you, and you forced them into depending on your kindness. The idea of a sly and more cunning Cinderella is also highlighted by the ambiguity of when Cinderella loses her shoe. Perrault writes it so that it is unclear if she loses the shoe by accident... or if she deliberatly drops it. Same cunning with Donkeyskin - she does have on her own the idea of dropping a ring into the cake for the prince, ensuring her marriage with him...

So while the female protagonists of Perrault are definitively NOT active, it does not mean they are dumb or just pretty faces or that they are just rewarded for being "nice". They are intelligent, they know how to go around, there is a certain celebration of the "feminine cunning" if you will. Diamonds and Toads' moral isn't about actually being nice ; it is about learning when to be polite and when to do flattery when needed. Perrault's fairytales truly are about glorifying inventivity, intelligence and tricks. And the "passive character only good at being beautiful and married" does not exclusively apply to women. The marquis de Carabas is a good example, but what about the prince of Sleeping Beauty? All he does is literally... come in. Arrive. And that's it. How does he save Sleeping Beauty from her sleep? He just enters the castle, and suddenly she wakes up, not even a kiss. How does he save his wife from the ogress? He comes in and asks what's going, and everything is solved immediately. The actual heroic force of the tale is the butler, who is the one that saves the day - but again, not by using power, but by using tricks, deceiving the ogress that he cannot possibly fight (ogres embodying brutality and violence). In fact you have no monster-killer or dragon-slayers in Perrault's fairytales - the closest of a monster killer is Puss in Boots, but only because he tricks the ogre into turning into a mouse. Little Thumbling does not defeat the ogre by strength or violence - again it is all tricks and deception... and theft.

Because this is the other side of the "active male character". Yes, male heroes in Perrault's tale are more active than their female counterpart. But are they moral or "deserving" because of it? Certainly not. Puss in Boots lies to a king, threatens poor peasants so they say lies, usurps the castle of its legitimate lord and deceives the king into marrying the princess well under her rank. Similarly, Little Thumbling tricks an ogre into committing an infanticide, steals his boots from him (but so far it is all excused because the victims are the worst kind of ogres) - and then he scams a grieving mother into giving away all her fortune, before becoming a personal messenger for adulterers... And the narrator himself points out the immorality of those actions. Once again, it isn't because the male characters are more active that they are supposed to be praised for it... Perrault's tales are ultimately, deep down, hidden under a fake veneer of politeness and romance and galant things, trickster tales.

But to get that, you need to read carefully the stories and place them back into their proper context, and many people failed to do it in the 19th century, wrote a lot of misinformed texts that influence the people of the 20th century, and Disney was yet another relay of this misconception, and from generation to generation it all piled up... Claiming that Perrault was SUBVERSIVE in the second half of the 20th century was something seen as a genius and fresh take - when in fact it is just... just a truth people had failed to see.

However we can't reduce everything to Perrault. I mean the 19th and 20th centuries did reduce everything to Perrault, but let's see at the mother of the French fairytale, madame d'Aulnoy. Each of the female authors of fairytales had their own take and twist on gender norms and gender stereotypes, but given the scope and influence of madame d'Aulnoy (still felt in the 19th century), we will focus on her.

Madame d'Aulnoy's fairytales ARE the ones from which the idea that a fairytale is a "knight saving a damsel in a tower from a dragon" comes from. And, again, from a quick glance, madame d'Aulnoy seems to perfectly embody the dichotomy of "A heroine has to be patient and pretty and saved and pleasant and passive ; a hero has to be an active, vigorous, strong savior and monster-slayer". Graceful and Percinet? (Also known as Graciosa and Percinet). It is Psyche's myth told all over again. The Yellow Dwarf? A king keeps searching for his missing fiancee trapped away, and confronts all sorts of obstacles in-between. The Benevolent Frog? A prince kills the dragon that wants to eat his future wife, who literaly does nothing throughout the tale. The Doe in the Woods? The princess spends her time locked away, turned into an animal or fleeing, while the prince is a warrior and hunter who actively keeps going around.

And yet, once again, this just a watered-down, simplified, 19th century-glasses on vision of madame d'Aulnoy's fairytales. She had a wild, WILD life that led her to understand being an obedient good girl and passive meant NOTHING (in fact I do plan on making a series of posts about the craziness of these female French fairytale authors) - she conspired to have her abusive husband killed, she had to flee the country to escape authorities, she knew more than anyone that women had to be active to save their skin in life. And all throughout her stories, she kept having strong, active, female characters that broke the "passive mold", and on the contrary men that failed to be the "active ideal". All of it wrapped into the craziness, madness and exhuberant firework of animalistic fairies, enormous giants, multi-headed dragons and other clownish looking wizards, so that it looked less obvious at first glance. The princess of the Yellow Dwarf spends her time attacked by the titular dwarf and locked within his domain waiting for a rescue, but the story begins when she decides on her own to undergo a dangerous and perillous travel to find out what her mother suffers from, while the prince is shown to be quite helpless against the magic of the Fairy of the Desert and needs the magic of the mermaid to escape. In the Benevolent Frog, the prince kills the dragon... But at the very end, after being given all sorts of magical artefacts and an impossible horse, and they do the trick instead of him (similar to the prince's so-called "victory" against Maleficent in Disey's Sleeping Beauty, where it was truly the fairies that did the work) ; meanwhile the princess' father, the king, also proved utterly useless at saving his wife and daughter spending several years just... sitting by the side of a lake ; all the while his wife and daughter had to become amazonian huntresses, and the fairy-frog is shown doing all the behind-the-scenes work of saving everybody, using a lot of resources, and performing hard feats such as going at the top of a long staricase made for giants WITH THE BODY OF A TINY FROG, which is why she spends years doing so.

And many more are the tales breaking the mold! Cunning Cinders? The girl literaly CHOPS OFF an ogress' head with an axe, right after pushing an ogre into the oven - and it was no small feat given the ogre was also a giant. In the Pigeon and the Dove, the first time the giant imprisons the princess, putting her in his bag, she gets out by herself, without anybody's help. The Orange-Tree and the Bee? The princess does all the work - saves the prince, hides him, feeds him, nurse him, takes him away ; while also doing all the heroic and clever feats, tricking the ogres, stealing their magic wand, performing magical transformations. No wonder the final transformation is passive for the prince (the orange-tree) and active for the princess (the bee that stings anybody getting too close to the tree). In fact, the fairytale "La princesse Printanière", (Princess Mayblossom in English), seems to be an explicit and literal deconstruction of the passive-active model: the titular princess acts like a typical "good princess" (following her heart's impulses without thinking about it too much ; giving kindly all her food to her lover on a deserted island), only to be met by the harshest of realities (following an unknown pretty boy around is not good, and her lover is a selfish and brutal jerk). She only can escape the bad situation she created for herself by STABBING HER EVIL LOVER IN THE EYE, and then she is greeted by the positive sight of her fairy godmother in a war attire, beating the crap out of the wicked fairy of the story in a celestial duel. In fact, this tale contains a double message about women being active to change their life, because before her "passive episode" on the Island of Squirrels that gives her all sorts of misery, she is active, oh yes. She forces the random boy she just met to follow him, and she plans a whole escape at night - because, like an active character, she wants to determine her life, she wants to just do as she pleases, she show who's in charge... But this is proven bad because as it turns out acting impulsively and harshly without prudence or thought - taking away the hand of the first pretty boy that passes, fleeing rashly at night on a whim without preparing any substantial thing - only leads to disaster and misery (being stuck on a deserted island with an abusive companion). And this is opposed to the good "activity" in the end, one thought about and that is a just reaction to the situation, or well-equiped for handling its problem - the princess killing her would-be-murderer ; the good fairy getting a chariot, weapons and an armor to destroy the old, wicked, rusty Carabosse.

This all comes very clearly and strongly in d'Aulnoy's fairytales - if Perrault wasn't so much about gender as he was about tricks, cunning and cheating the system with well-placed connections ; madame d'Aulnoy clearly had some ideas of how women should learn to be active queens, great warriors, trained travellers, well-equiped survivors and, if need there is, monster slayers. Is it then a wonder that when the authorities and minds of the 19th century took a good look at fairytales, they decided that madame d'Aulnoy should be erased in favor of Perrault, where the ideal female models are a girl sleeping a thousand year, another girl that gets hit without answering back, a princess that becomes a cleaning-girl and a cook good ; or even a nice girl with big diamonds?

What happened? In the case of French fairytales: this. First all the openly subversive authors were pushed aside and buried in oblivion ; then the more subtle ones had their tales oversimplified or read the wrong way until it entered a mold they were not supposed to fit. Madame d'Aulnoy was forgotten, and people took Perrault's jokes seriously.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Akira Cunningham: 9th Grade Kitsune

Alriiighttt, my lovelies, I figured I might as well try and make a comeback to the fandom by once more talking about my beloved future au "Akira Cunningham: 9th Grade Kitsune" for RC9GN.

I'm going to break this down into different sections, so it's a little easier but first - I wanted to thank my RC9GN mutuals, followers, and anyone just seeing my content every now and again for supporting me. It's been a trying journey, and yes, I'm also the world's biggest loser for how much I vent - and well, with the amount of I dedicated sharing my posts. Thank you for everything, and what's left in store... well, it's going to be an adventure, isn't it?

To start, here's a brief synopsis of the plot; Akira Cunningham - Randy's daughter - is selected to be Norrisville's next hero, only this time she's not the Ninja. This time, Akira is the Kitsune... because something is brewing, and it's going to take everything by storm. As Randy has long since retired the mantle of the Ninja, everything lies on Akira. Where one evil ended, another began. For evil can never be vanquished forever.

Read below the cut for more information!

The Cunningham (Extended) Family

Akira Cunningham is biologically the daughter of Randy Cunningham and Theresa Fowler. The late couple had been planning this for a while, deciding they wanted to have a kid and well, Akira was born

However - the other known fact of the extended Cunningham family, Randy doesn't have just one partner. During his late high school years, he got together with Howard as Randy's (bi) awakening led him to realize he had a thing for men. What blossomed from that, well, you're about to find out

Randy had been crushing on both Howard and Theresa, having decided to date them but then there was Debbie Kang. I'll get into the full schematics of their relationship later: the point is Randy, Howard, Debbie, and Theresa are in a polyamorous relationship

Having Akira was a decision made by everyone, and one thing led to another and she came into existence. Like, surrogacy but I am not a doctor so don't quote me on this

The (now) retired members of the new Norisu 9 all stay in touch which make them honorary members of the family

At the beginning of the story, Akira is meant to be young for reasons I won't be able to disclose just yet. Though, in the present timeline - she will be in high school, much like her dad Randy had been in once. She gets her mantle

As for everyone's jobs, Randy is a martial arts instructor as he earned enough inheritance to get by, Howard is a lawyer, Debbie's an investigative journalist, and Theresa happens to be in competitive sports (still has to do with baton twirling because why not-).

Arc One

Since the Ninja is a retired mantle as Randy- I mean the Ninja, took down the Sorcerer and closed the gateway into the Nine Realms, well, things were looking up. At least... in the beginning. For almost thirty years, the barrier between realms remained closed - without much use - and while certain nonhuman populations had begun living in Norrisville, danger remained at an all-time low. Unexpectedly however, the gates reopened (and strangely, without much explanation) and the yokai district began to flood onto Norrisville. Not all were of the friendly sort, but people didn't seem too concerned... then again no one expected what came next.

No one considered the possibility of gangs running amok within the city; let alone the fact that certain yokai had formed the literal yakuza, but what were they supposed to do? No one had seen the Ninja in such a long time - it would be near impossible to fight back, but there had been another mantle - lying dormant in hidden sight: The Kitsune. Only a yokai could take on other yokai. A cunning trickster. A nine-tailed fox.

Akira Cunningham was chosen to wield it, but apart from the yakuza - apart from yokai rampantly existing on the streets - there had to be someone pulling the strings. Surely... they weren't just wandering around for the heck of it.

Akira Cunningham

Akira does deserve her own post, without the added lore thrown in but then again - she's every way her dad's daughter. She has a good heart, even if some part of her wants to feel something greater - bigger - than herself. Akira's high, rambunctious, and spunky attitude, it's hard to nail her down as someone who displays interest in good deeds. Do not let this fool you, as she's also known for rushing in to protect her friends; even if she's also a little spiteful.

She has Howard's short temper and sometimes becomes frustrated, but I won't be able to dive much into this to keep spoilers from spilling. Akira dreamed of being a heroine when she was young, pretending to be the Ninja - acting like a young, hyper child wanting to be like Superman though who ever would've thought it'd become real?

Though... the journey is not hers alone. There is much more happening, and she can't do it all by herself. And that, my dear readers, is where I end this. More to come soon!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Alexei  navalny did not like tragedies. He preferred Hollywood films and fables in which heroes vanquish villains and good triumphs over evil. He had the looks and talent to be one of those heroes, but he was born in Russia and lived in dark times, spending his last days in a penal colony in the Arctic permafrost. A fan of “Star Wars”, he described his ordeal in lyrical terms. “Prison [exists] in one’s mind,” he wrote from his cell in 2021. “And if you think carefully, I am not in prison but on a space voyage…to a wonderful new world.” That voyage ended on February 16th.

Mr Navalny’s death was blamed by Russian prison authorities on a blood clot—though his doctor said he suffered from no condition which made that likely. Whatever ends up on his death certificate, he was killed by Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president locked him up; in his name Mr Navalny was subjected to a regime of forced labour and solitary confinement. Mr Navalny will be celebrated as a man of remarkable courage. His life will be remembered for what it says about Mr Putin, what it portends for Russia and what it demands of the world.

A man of formidable intelligence, Mr Navalny identified the two foundations on which Mr Putin has built his power: fear and greed. In Mr Putin’s world everyone can be bribed or threatened. Not only did Mr Navalny understand those impulses, he struck at them in devastating ways.

His insight was that corruption was not just a side hustle but the moral rot at the heart of Mr Putin’s state. His anti-corruption crusade formed a new genre of immaculately documented and thriller-like films that displayed the yachts, villas and planes of Russia’s rulers. These videos, posted on YouTube, culminated in an exposé of Mr Putin’s billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea coast that has been watched 130m times. Despite the palace’s iron gates, adorned with a two-headed imperial eagle, Mr Navalny portrayed its owner not as a tsar so much as a tasteless mafia boss.

Mr Navalny also understood fear and how to defeat it. Mr Putin’s first attempt to kill him was in 2020, when he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok smeared inside his underwear. By sheer good luck Mr Navalny survived, regained his strength in Germany and less than a year later flew back to Moscow to defy Mr Putin in a blast of publicity.

He returned in the full knowledge that he would probably be arrested. On the way back to confront the evil ruler who had tried to poison him he did not read Hamlet. He watched Rick and Morty, an American cartoon. By mocking Mr Putin, he diminished him. “I’ve mortally offended him by surviving,” he said from the dock during his trial in 2021. “He will enter history as a poisoner. We had Yaroslav the Wise and Alexander the Liberator. And now we will have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.”

Mr Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in jail on extremism charges. He turned his sentence into an act of cheerful defiance. Every time he appeared in court hearings via video link from prison, his smile cut through the walls of his cell and beamed across Russia’s 11 time zones. On February 15th, on the eve of his death, he was in court again. Dressed in dark-grey prison uniform he laughed in the face of Mr Putin’s judges, suggesting they should put some money into his account as he was running short. In the end there was only one way Mr Putin could wipe the smile off his face.

In his essay “Live Not by Lies”, in 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel-prize-winning Soviet novelist, wrote that “when violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ‘I am violence. Run away, make way for me—I will crush you’.” Mr Navalny understood, but instead of running he held his ground.

His great strength was to understand Mr Putin’s fear of other people’s courage. In one of his early communications from jail he wrote that: “it is not honest people who frighten the authorities…but those who are not afraid, or, to be more precise: those who may be afraid, but overcome their fear.”

That is why his death portends a deepening of repression inside Russia. Mr Navalny’s murder was not the first and it will not be the last. The next targets could be Ilya Yashin, a brave politician who followed Mr Navalny to prison, or Vladimir Kara-Murza, a historian, journalist and politician who has been sentenced to 25 years on treason charges for speaking against the war. The lawyers and activists who continue to defend these dissidents are also in danger. Since Mr Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, the number of prisoners has increased 15 times. Even as the remnants of Stalin’s gulag fill with political prisoners, professional criminals are being recruited and released to fight in Ukraine.

Mr Navalny’s death also casts a shadow over ordinary Russians. In Moscow and across Russia, people flooded the streets at the news. Before the police started to arrest them, they covered memorials for previous victims of political repression in flowers. Yet that repression is intensifying. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, 1,305 men and women have been prosecuted for speaking out against it. A wave of repression is also swallowing up people who never before engaged in politics. The president will shoot into the crowds if he must.

For the West, Mr Navalny’s death contains a call to action. Mr Putin considers its leaders too weak and too decadent to resist him. And for many years Western politicians and businessmen did much to prove that fear and greed work in the West, too. When Mr Putin first bombed and shelled Chechnya in the early 2000s, Western politicians turned a blind eye and continued to do business with his cronies. When he murdered his opponents in Moscow and annexed Crimea in 2014, they slapped his wrist. Even after he had invaded Ukraine in 2022, they hesitated to provide enough weapons for Russia to be defeated. Every time the West stepped back, Mr Putin took a step forward. Every time Western politicians expressed their “grave concern”, he smirked.

The West needs to find the strength and courage that Mr Navalny showed. It should understand that Mr Navalny’s murder, the soaring number of political prisoners, the torture and beating of people across Russia, the assassination of Mr Putin’s opponents in Europe and the shelling of Ukrainian cities are all part of the same war. Without resolve, the West’s military and economic superiority will count for nothing.

Western governments should start by treating people like Mr Kara-Murza as prisoners of Mr Putin’s war who need to be exchanged with Russian prisoners in the West or prisoners of war in Ukraine. They should not stigmatise ordinary Russians living under a paranoid dictator and his goons, or put the onus on ordinary people to overthrow the dictator who is repressing them.

The best retort to Mr Putin is by arming Ukraine. Every time America’s Congress votes down aid, Russia takes comfort. The leaders assembled at the Munich Security Conference, who heard Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia, speak of justice for her husband’s death, need to stiffen their resolve to see through the war. For their part Ukrainian politicians must see that standing up for Russian activists and prisoners is also a way of helping their own country—just as Mr Navalny called for peace, for rebuilding Ukraine and the prosecution of Russian war crimes. Liberating Ukraine would be the best way to liberate Russia, too.

The voyage ends

After he had been poisoned, Mr Navalny returned home because he believed that history was on his side and that Russia was freeing itself from the deadly grip of its own imperial past. “Putin is the last chord of the ussr,” he told The Economist a few months before he took that last fateful journey. “People in the Kremlin know there is a historic current that is moving against them.” Mr Putin invaded Ukraine to reverse that current. Now he has killed Mr Navalny.

Mr Navalny would not want Mr Putin’s message to prevail. “[If I get killed] the obvious thing is: don’t give up,” he once told American film-makers. “All it takes for evil to triumph is the inaction of good people. There’s no need for inaction.”

Mr Navalny’s death has seemed imminent for months. And yet there is something crushing about it. He was not alone in believing that good triumphs over evil, and that heroes vanquish villains. His courage was an inspiration. To see that moral order so brutally overturned is a terrible affront. ■

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

let me in your atmosphere [1/3]

In which Xingqiu concocts a brilliant scheme to win the approval of his boyfriend best friend's auntie

Xingqiu prides himself in being many different things to many different people.

To most of Liyue, he's the esteemed son of the Feiyun's Commerce Guild, quiet and dignified, never wavering in his sense of duty.

To those closest to him, he's adventurous and gregarious, impish in his ways, yet possessing a strong moral compass.

But a trait that had previously remained indefatigable across all opinions(-at least, Xingqiu muses to himself, those that matter, anyway) of him thus far was likable.

...until now.

Xingqiu prides himself in being observant, in being able to discern things others did not.

He remembers how, only a year prior, he'd been able to work out that his father's newest 'business parter' had been scamming him.

The man had claimed to be an Inazuman merchant that found himself stuck in Liyue as he, rather unluckily, had been there during a business venture, when the Vision Hunt Decree was set in motion.

He'd asserted that he was carrying several boxes of exotic goods from his nation and that he believed the Feiyun Commerce Guild would make sufficient distributers.

Xingqiu's father had just been about to sign a contract with the man when he'd gotten to his feet, revealing what he'd deduced.

The man was not, in fact, a merchant- nor was he Inazuman.

He'd claimed to have been displaced four months ago when the Vision Hunt Decree had only been enacted three months ago. He had also described the fabrics which the supposed traditional Inazuman garments were woven with- fabrics which were not Inazuman at all.

Spluttering and red-faced, the man hadn't even attempted to refute his accusations, bolting out the door before Xingqiu's father could even utter a word.

Truly, one of his finest moments.

Yes, Xingqiu is certainly observant. There's no denying that.

Definitely observant enough to realize when his best friend(and maybe something more)'s auntie, despises him.

"She doesn't hate you," Chongyun tells him, his arms cross and one eyebrow raised.

Xingqiu adores Chongyun. He adores the way his face scrunches up in determination when training; adores the way his eyes light up at the thought of vanquishing evil spirits; adores the way he can never seem to remember the last line of an exorcism verse(for the record, it's 'world be saved'), and he's well aware of it too.

So are his friends, family, and probably the the entirety of Liyue Harbor at this point.

In fact, Xingqiu would readily bet all his mora on Chongyun, himself, being the sole person who's yet to realize it.

In spite of all the adoration he has for the boy, Xingqiu can't say that he finds Chongyun's words particularly reassuring, given his history with picking up on hints...

Chongyun matters(a lot) to Xingqiu which unfortunately means that the things that matter to Chongyun matter to him.

Ugh. Why does Chongyun of all people have to be Shenhe's nephew? Surely, the universe could've picked some other young exorcist for the role. It'd save Xingqiu a lot of time for more important things like being chivalrous and reading.

He's never been one to speak ill of others, preferring to deal with any and all issues privately- and it isn't as if Xingqiu has any inherent dislike for the whitehaired exorcist.

On the contrary, he finds her quite enthralling and interesting. Yet, Xingqiu cannot help but feel frustrated with her.

She seems to dislike him most vigorously, shooting him dirty glances every time they happened to come across one another and rebuffing any attempts at a pleasant conversation.

Normally, if someone acts as though Xingqiu's wronged them, he'll apologize with a lengthy but beautifully written speech.

However, as regrettable as it may be, Xingqiu doubts it'd work on Miss Shenhe.

What is, perhaps, the most maddening aspect of the situation is that he doesn't recall having done anything to offend her. He's been nothing but polite since they'd first been introduced.

For the life of him, Xingqiu cannot place his finger on the reason as to why the ropes that restrain her murderous urges don't seem to work around him.

Xingqiu decides that he's actually quite good at planning. In less than half an hour, he's managed to concoct a scheme that is almost guaranteed to result in him winning Shenhe's favor.

He's based his plan off 'how to get people to like you: a foolproof guide!', a book which Xingqiu's never needed before, but one that's he's read nonetheless.

For brevity's sake, he's summarised the book into five simple steps:

Compliment them

Discuss their interests

Aid them in the most meager of tasks

Encourage all of their pursuits

Buy them gifts

Hah, surely there's no way this can go wrong!

i made this at like 3AM 🥹

[inominati]

I've thought this before but I am re-reading Argenti's character stories rn and they give me a creepy feeling, every time. There's something about the way they're written that makes it sound like something's not as it should be, something's wrong, like a rotten apple covered in gold foil, so you don't see its black core.

Over time, the melodic strains faded into the recesses of his memory, becoming a mysterious and elusive moment. 

He vanquished nightmarish monsters, and with the arrival of spring, rabbits frolicked once again in the woods.

This is so.. taken out of a picture book fairytale. It feels unreal.

The profane words of the Triple Demons resembled fragmented ravings, morphing into manifestations of human desires.

When he finally encountered his former comrade, he found a knight who had become a fanatic, lost in a blind pursuit of power. The former hero who had wielded a legendary weapon and vanquished the sky devourer had degenerated into a beast. His armor transformed into the scaly hide of the behemoth he had slain, his weapon into unyielding claws and fangs, and his blood into a viscous and restless flame. His eyes, once filled with wisdom, now burned with untamed wildness. The voice that had once addressed him as "my dear friend" had dwindled to a hissing cry.

..but has he really degenerated into a beast, or is that just how Argenti suddenly saw him? Because of his actions, his attitudes..? How literal am I to take these descriptions if we don't see them on screen? If Argenti can see Beauty in the inner world of a creature others consider a monster because they fear it, can he not also see darkness and evil in the inner world of a beautiful person? So much so that they become a monster in his eyes?

I think I best describe it as his story gives me the same vibes as Pan's Labyrinth. I've always subscribed to the theory that in that film the fantasy elements we see are Ophelia's way of coping with the terrible reality she is trapped in (the civil war, her mother, etc). Her mind produces these insane, wondrous but also partly truly terrifying creatures and places - such as the monster representing the punishment she fears (or her guilt?) for eating / stealing food after she's been denied food in "the real world". (If you haven't seen this film, I strongly recommend it - but be aware there are brutal civil war scenes and it's not a happy film).

Of course we could say this is just Argenti's warped view of the cosmos - he is poetic, he sees Beauty in strange things, he also focuses on Beauty in all things. The way he talks is certainly unusual. But in the same breath we could argue that perhaps his mind is blocking things and turning them into something absurd, almost, because he cannot cope otherwise. He grew up in war, he's suffered loss and loneliness, everywhere he goes he sees evil and he seems to have an inherent and very strong moral code of what is acceptable to be and do and what constitutes sin and failure and ugliness.

He seems very stable and independent, albeit odd, but I think there is a possibility that something terrible lurks inside him that's been locked away in an ugly little box, covered in thorns and sunken to the bottom of a well. It cannot be let out, so instead his mind sees the world in terms of Evil and Beauty, both grotesquely exaggerated at times.

Will he, himself... succumb to the clutches of the Omen of Evil?

More importantly - is the Omen of Evil an external force or is it his own failure to withstand these things the Knights seem to arbitrarily consider evil, ugly and repugnant (as their approaches differ from one another)?

[diogenescynic2288]

Sunday Sermon 2: On Laws

Happy Sunday to all again. I am once again writing to you as Pope Orion Orangutan Omnibenevolence Kosmos Yes or POOKY.

So, the last sermon I delivered might have seemed to offer instruction, advice, or command in regards to chilling and maybe being nice. That was not my intent. It was at most, a suggestion. I am not an Enlightened One. I'm not more in touch with the Divine than anyone else.

While I'm writing these, I do invoke my Discordian Pope title. That does not make me an authority. I took the expensive route to Discordian Papacy: I bought a ten dollar used copy of the Steve Jackson Games printing of the Principia Discordia and then made a fifteen cent photocopy at FedEx Kinkos of the page with the Be Your Own Pope card. That does not elevate me above anyone else. All who decide to join the Golden Apple Corps of Eris are equally in the Discordian Papacy.

I'll own up to a thing: back when I was in late high school or my year of college, I came to identify with the label of anarchism or libertarianism coming to it from left-leaning reasons. For instance, at that time, gay marriage was a controversial issue and not yet legal across the United States of America, and I had a simple stupid solution: marriage is no longer a legal status for anyone straight or gay, the government just doesn't do marriage anymore. Marriage equality achieved.

Anyway, as a budding anarchist, attempting to have a consistent moral philosophy of life, I started thinking about Christianity, particularly the church my parents had been raising me in. If top down authority and distinctions of station are evils when talking about the world of human politics, are they any less so when applied to religion? Long story short, maybe God exists, but he's a tyrant and All Clergy Are Bastards.

Today's reading is from The Gospel of Mary Magdalene I'm drawing my wording from The Essential Gnostic Gospels translated by Alan Jacobs published by Watkins 2009:

Then Jesus greeted them saying, “Peace be with you all.

Take my peace into your Selves; be watchful so nobody leads

you astray claiming “Look there, look here for the son of man.”

I tell you that the son of man is within you all!

Seek him inside; those who search diligently

and earnestly shall surely find him.

Then leave and preach the truth of the Kingdom

to those with ears to hear;

don't invent rules beyond those I've given.

Don't make laws like law-makers do

or else you'll be held back.”

After he had said this he left.

[I'm skipping a bit to get to the next part I want to quote]

Mary answered, “What's concealed from you I'll tell;

I saw him in a vision and I told him.

He said, “Blessed are you that your strength

wasn't shaken by my appearance,

for where the heart is lies buried treasure.”

[another skip still Mary talking]

When my soul had conquered ignorance it rose up

and saw the fourth power, which assumes seven forms.

The first is darkness, the second desire, then ignorance,

fear of death, power of the flesh, foolish reason,

and self-righteous pedantry.

These are the powers of anger and doubt; they ask,

“From where did you come, killer of men;

where are you heading, slayer of space?”

My soul replied, “What bound me is dead,

what enveloped me has been vanquished;

my desires are over and ignorance is no more.

In this life I was freed from the world

and the chains of forgetfulness.

From now on I will rest in the eternal now;

for this age, this aeon, and in stillness.”

So today's lesson from POOKY is: Yeshua and Miriam also say no laws, free yourself from ignorance and pedantry.

Good Day of the Sun unto you all.

[enderlovescake]

Darkness. An endless puddle of water that is a struggle to free yourself from. Freezing and compressive. Unseeing and deafening.

Light. Unending sky's. Warmth and bright rays of sun. Anything good.

Demons and Angels

Evil and good

Balance, a gray area. A mixing pot of Darkness and light.

Reapers

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.

The cries of a child go unheard into the night as death surrounds them. Warm yet cold. Light yet dark. A shield to keep out the worst of the biting weather.

Petunia gave an aggravated sigh as she braced her palms against the counter. Her nephew stared up at her through to large glasses. Eyes wide and body trembling. She takes a deep breath and smiles at the frail boy.

“Come on Harry. Let's get you something to eat before that spell comes back.” Petunia gives the, too small for his age, child a smile. It was tight. Harry nods quickly. Hoping not to catch the ire of her anger that wasn't directed at him. Ever since he was placed on her doorstep several years ago, she had been compelled to treat him like the scum of the earth. It broke her heart every time she got a hold of herself. The meager amount of magic Petunia possessed wasn't enough to shake the charm off completely. She had about two hours to feed and bathe the boy before the charm took effect again. The small child nods and lets his Aunt herd him upstairs. Petunia got out some chicken noodle soup and a pot to quickly make the canned soup while Harry bathed. Tears welled up in her eyes as she walked backwards into the panty door. She holds a hand to her mouth as a sob threatens to break from her throat. Petunia had to get this child out of here or he might end up dead before his letter came. Lilly is never going to forgive her.

In a split second decision she rushes to the attic. Vernon wasn't allowed up here. It was her space. She browsed the shelves quickly and pulled an ancient looking book from the shelf.

“May god forgive me for what I'm about to do.” Petunia mutters under her breath as she starts flipping through the tome. She was a hedge witch. A weak magic user who couldn't do spells. Brewing was the only thing her kind could do well. Not enough magic to wield a wand. Petunia stops on a magic circle. It was passed down from the “mortal” side of her family and a smirk graced her face. Petunia may not be able to get rid of her charm by herself, but the family's dog could. She nibbles at her lip for a moment and takes the book with her as she heads down stairs. A plan forming in her mind for after Harry eats.

Petunia gives Harry a soft smile while the boy eats the soup she had made him. The tome open on the table before them.

“I have an idea, but you will need to trust me on this.” She says softly. Harry flinches and ducks his head. Petunia's heart squeezes painfully. Harry nods and looks back up at her with wide eyes. “Our family for generations has had magic. As long back as we can track we've been saturated in magic. It's manifested in different forms. Your mother and now you, hold the strongest type of magic our family has ever had the pleasure of using since Merlin's reign. You have a fully functioning core.” Harry stares up at her in wonder. Petunia places a hand on the tome. She takes a deep breath and smiles reassuringly at her nephew. “Our family is powerful. Commanding man forces of nature and spirits. Our blood has a demonic and angelic tint.” She pushes the tome towards Harry. “This is yours now. I want you to summon this spirit when you have read over everything about this summon. It is powerful and will not always listen to you, but it will protect you when commanded.” Petunia stands up and takes the bowl from the small boy. “Go to your room and read over it. I'll call you to make dinner later tonight.” She turns to see Harry had already left with the book. The swift locking of the cupboard made Petunia breath out angrily. She's never going to be forgiven for her sins.

Harry stares at the cover of the book. A crest was guilded to the front in gold. Power and Rule were written in latin at the bottom of the shield. Harry opens the book to the first page and starts reading. He got through three fourths of the book before Aunt Petunia was banging on his cupboard. Harry winces at the anger and disgust that rolled off the woman.

“Get out freak and start on Dinner. You can go back to the dusty old thing once I deem the dinner perfect.” Harry scrambled to mark his place and leave the small space. Ideas about dinner running through his mind. Despite his situation, making food was one of the things he loved doing.

Petunia sneered at the food but nodded her head.

“Get going. Tuck yourself away.” She growls. Harry nods quickly and goes back to his cupboard. Petunia swiftly locks the door behind him and Harry picks the book back up. He's able to finish the book and thinks. The summon his Aunt wanted him to summon was a Raven. A wise being. The circle was simple enough along with the sacrifice. Harry thumbed at the edge of the page for the raven summon. He'll have to sneak out tonight.

[lovedabishiga]

MHA417 Thoughts

Cw: Discussion of spoilers, please be warned.

Everything about it is just chef's kiss. From the title that's just a name yet ominous; what we see in Tomura's world.

The appearance of Dark Deku, Stain, Re-Destro, and Overhaul blocking Deku is so important, imo.

All of them (yes, including Dark Deku) are from Tomura's memories, so in a way, I believe they're Tomura's last remaining safeguards trying to prevent Deku from seeing his heart/inner child.

Dark Deku tries to tell Deku that there is no point of doing this because he is a "hero" who is here to vanquish the "villain" (Tomura)

Re-Destro/Stain presses on to asks Deku why he is doing this of all things

Overhaul points out that Deku has no plan, only that he is moving forward and nothing concrete to do afterward

Kind of reminds me of the ghosts from the Christmas carol lol

And what's so interesting, and just makes my heart ache, is when Deku opens the door and we see the picture of Kotaro and Nana. It's almost as if Tomura is trying to tell Deku that "nothing went wrong, I'm just an evil villain, there is nothing wrong about me." And I'm glad that Deku pushed on, with Nana, because now begins unveiling layers of generational trauma inflicted on Tenko.

Not just from Nana, which all starts from Nana abandoning Kotaro, but also from All For One losing his brother and taking Tomura in as some kind of substitute for Yoichi.

(Note: If I read those speech bubbles correctly, Nana insisted that Kotaro was not 'abandoned.' And yes, I get it, Nana was forced to put Kotaro away for his own safety. But regardless of the intention, that is really what Nana did. And, despite her intentions, it cost problems to Kotaro and his family)

(Also note: I know that AFO's intention of taking Tomura was not really to take him as a substitute for Yoichi. He is, in many ways, a pragmatic villain: Tomura was the next him, or rather, his next body. And if Tomura failed, he had back-up plans in line. But, AFO is also, in many ways, a sentimental villain. I really think the way he raised Tomura -- the way Tomura dressed, spent his free time with games, dressed, looked like -- was heavily influenced with the way he raised Yoichi. And there's that weird name of Tomura (弔）being a few radicals away from 'younger brother' (弟) )

Chapter 417 is now an introduction to the Shimura family past. I hope we now see more of Tenko's past (mayperhaps name the next chapter as "Tenko"? So chaps 417 and 418 titles can be read as "Shimura Tenko")

I think that's important, especially for Deku. He is now beginning to understand the Shimura family pain and how it affected Tenko. But I also want to see Deku see Tenko lose control and kill his family. Because if not, Tenko/Tomura would've been an easy villain to empathize, wouldn't he?

More importantly, I want to see Deku see Tenko spend days trying to get help before AFO arrived, just to drive the point of Tomura's hatred for current hero society. Why didn't no one reached out and helped him? Why were the people around him, knowing and seeing that he needed help, deferred the responsibility to the heroes of helping him when they clearly could, in some shape or form? Sure, the destruction of hero society was something that was influenced by AFO, as the only solution to the problem that Tomura faced.

Now, it's up to Deku to see this problem, acknowledge this problem, and as a hero, find another way to move forward with Tomura.

(Additionally I want to see more LoV moments in Tomura's memories lol. I feel like Tomura's memories will be a rollercoaster for Deku - he'll see things where Deku would empathize and want to protect Tenko from; then he'll see fucked up shit that will make him question his empathy to Tenko; then he'll see moments humanizing Tomura; then moments that would make Deku see Tomura's capabilities as a villain. And throughout this time, Tomura will be adamant not wanting to be viewed as anything else than the Symbol of Fear that he is, and so justifying that he must be killed he hates himself there is no way he hates everything without hating himself)

[lordisitmine]

TTNBD BLOG: PART ONE

I'm doing something different with this story. I always have much to say in the notes of my fanfiction and I'm usually bursting to talk about behind the scenes/commentary stuff, so I've decided to do blog posts to correspond with the updates of this story. I don't know if I'll do one for every single chapter, some of them may be grouped, but I hope people will find them interesting just the same! This post is to cover the first update, that being the prologue and the first chapter. Obviously, spoilers for those if you haven't read them yet.

INTRODUCTION

My writing process for a fic usually starts with the nagging vision of a single scene. It might be an ending, a beginning or a middle, but if it burns in my mind long enough that I have to write it down, that usually means that it will continue to stick around until I've done something about it.

Such was the case with To the End of Everything. In the late summer of 2014 (August I believe), I was on the bus, going to work, day dreaming (I can't read or watch videos in a moving vehicle, I'm very prone to motion sickness). I had recently been re-reading the first few arcs of the Kuroshitsuji manga and had finally gotten around to season two of the anime. Seeing Ciel as a demon gave me about six hundred thousand emotions, and so it was on my mind at the time.

Suddenly, a scene started to play out in my brain, and it was genuinely like watching a movie. I could see it all clear as day. It was Sebastian and Ciel, both demons, in twenty-first century London, standing at the grave of Ciel himself, on Ciel's one-hundredth-and-something birthday. Sebastian was holding a giant bouquet of roses and Ciel was rolling his eyes and pretending not to be totally charmed by the gesture.

This, of course, is the epilogue of TTEOE. That one scene dug its claws into me so completely that I spent the next four years writing an entire novel to explain how it was that the two of them ended up in that situation in the first place.

Fast-forward to the fall of 2018. It's almost Halloween, and I'm finally, finally, putting the finishing touches on the final chapter of TTEOE. Ciel and Sebastian are standing in the ruins of Phantomhive manor, which has been destroyed (again). The man who killed Ciel's parents has been defeated. The great evil has been vanquished. The contract between Ciel and Sebastian has come to fruition, but instead of Sebastian consuming Ciel's soul, he has transformed it. Ciel has been transformed into a demon, and he and Sebastian are even more irrevocably bonded than they already were (more on that later).

There were, however, still a few loose ends. No ending is ever truly clean, not in real life. And sure, this was fiction, but I like to leave room for my readers to imagine what might happen next for themselves, and also give myself a little bit of breathing room as an author, in case I ever do decide to write a sequel. But when I wrote the lines about Sir Arthur's followers still being out there, I didn't have any concrete plans to do anything about it.

Until about ten months later.

August, 2019. What is it with me and August? Well, whatever it was, it got me again. The same cemetery, the same grave. Only this time, it wasn't the twenty-first century. Ciel's death was still fairly recent in the grand scheme of things. And instead of Ciel standing in front of his own tombstone on his own birthday, it was Lizzy, bundled up in the cold, carrying out her grieving ritual, even still, visiting Ciel in order to wish him a happy birthday and to tell him she hoped he was in a better place.

And then an immediate hard cut to Ciel and Sebastian in Paris having wild sex. Here, let me quote my own outline document, which is the first thing I write for any fic, the place where I messily scribble down everything I want to happen in order to then break it down into scenes and fully write it later. I wrote this back in 2019.

"Lizzy visits Ciel’s grave. She tells him about her latest life update, how med school is going, how her friend Sybil has invited her to go to Paris for the holiday, and how excited she is that her parents said yes, on the condition that she take the servants with her to keep her safe. They've become super extra protective ever since the business of Ciel’s death and all that. Lizzy seems to be doing better, as the last time she visited Ciel’s grave was months ago, and we are led to believe she used to come here all the time. She ends the visit by telling Ciel that she might not be back for some time, and that she truly hopes he’s in a better place.

Cut to Ciel, who is indeed in a much better place- namely Paris, in some ridiculously lavish bed in a ridiculously lavish apartment, getting his ass eaten and his back blown out. It’s his birthday after all, and Sebastian won’t let him forget it, even if Ciel thinks birthdays are a foolish thing for demons to celebrate. It’s also their anniversary though, of the day they made the Bond, and Ciel doesn’t mind celebrating that one so much."

So, yes. I've been sitting on this sequel for some time.

The problem this time, unlike with TTEOE, was that I had no idea what to do with these two scenes. They were obviously the beginning of something, but the beginning of what, I had no idea. With TTEOE, I had elements from canon to draw upon, and an obvious goal- tell the story of how Ciel got his revenge and became a demon.

But here, any conclusion I might have was more vague. The cult was still out there, so maybe something happens that brings Ciel and Sebastian back to London? But to what end? Ciel is supposed to be dead, so it's not like he can just re-enter his old life.

I knew for sure I wanted the story to focus on Lizzy as well, to give her a narrative arc of her own, and maybe a romance (a sapphic one, obviously, because that's how we do things in my house). Would she know Ciel was still alive? Would she be a victim? And who would be the villain? Who had taken over in Sir Arthur's stead, and what was their even worse, even bigger plan that the gang would have to foil?

Obviously, I now have answers to all of these questions. But of course, those answers are for me to know, and for you to find out.

So, over the course of the last few years, I've been coming back to this story, adding random pieces in by bursts of inspiration, building a Frankenstein's monster of sorts. Trying to create life. And then a year ago in December of 2022, I decided I was ready to flip the switch, summon the lightning, and actually sit down and write this son of a bitch.

I really did intend to have it done a lot sooner than this. I was, in retrospect, a bit premature in announcing my intentions. However, one of an author's biggest motivations is their audience, so I think it was good that I knew people were waiting for me to do it, even if it did cause me to stress myself out more than a few times. But that;s completely on me, not on you, the reader.

I won't get too much into my personal life, but a number of things happened this that contributed to creative drought and periods of business that prevented me from writing. But I had encouragement from you guys, and I'll always be grateful for that, because it got us all here!

PROLOGUE: COUP DE FOUDRE

TTEOE had an epilogue; TTNBD has a prologue. There are several through-lines in this story (and oh boy has that been a BITCH to plot out, I hope it will be worth it) and a couple of those through-lines start years and years before the rest of the story, so I sectioned them off like this. Also, having a prologue makes me feel a little fancy.

Original characters are a touchy subject in fanficiton for some people. I personally don't read a lot of fic with OCs, which is wild because I'm currently writing one. But whenn they're executed well, some of the best fics I've read have had OCs play a major role. Of course, self-insert OCs are their own sub-genre, but that's not what is happening here. There were holes in the story I wanted to tell that needed characters to fill them, and none of the existing characters could reasonably be stretched to fill those holes. So original characters it was!

There are three original characters in this story; Sybil, who plays the most major role, who you met as a baby in this chapter and who you'll see as an adult in the next one. Then there's her father Simeon, who you've met as well, and another character who I won't mention by name yet because they're going to be introduced in next week's instalment! Both Simeon and this other person play lesser parts in the story, but they're important. I will be doing drawings of them this week, so you'll get to see what I picture them like alongside their descriptions.

EDIT: December 19/2023. I realised a couple more things I forgot to mention when I was chatting with my translaor van_Dort, for whose work I could not be more grateful! Simeon's name comes from the Bible, specifically the Simeon spoken about in the New Testament book of Luke, in Chapter 2, during the story of the birth of Jesus.

In Luke CH.2, Simeon was an old man living in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus's birth; he had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. When Jesus was brought as a baby to the Temple in Jerusalem to be blessed, Simeon got to hold him, thus fulfilling his life's purpose.

The parallels between this Simeon and mine aren't meant to be super direct, but in TTNBD, Simeon's purpose was to father Sybil, and in holding her when she's born, he sees that purpose fulfilled. Also, as Van_Dort said, having a demon with a biblical name is just pretty cheeky and fun :>

Alois and Claude are here too! Season two of the anime is so juicy, with so many good elements to it, I just couldn't resist bringing these characters out to play. I can't wait to get into Alois's absolutely busted head and his wicked toxic dynamic with Claude. I feel like their relationship is a great foil for Ciel and Sebastian's, especially in this fic with the tone I'm going to take. I'm excited for you to see my representation of some of the events of the anime's second season.

CHAPTER ONE: A FAR, FAR BETTER REST

Ten or more years ago, when I was very, very involved in this fandom, much more than I am now (I'm like, here lurking but I wouldn't call myself active) I came across a piece of fanart of an older Ciel and Sebastian, and Ciel had this long hair, and it was so beautiful, and it changed my brain chemistry forever. I've never forgotten it, but I've also never been able to find it again, much to my chagrin. Maybe I'll try to recreate it now that I have the will and the skill to do so.

NEVERMIND! I just took a break from writing this to go search for it one more time and I actually found it! This is a repost on DeviantArt, The notes on the post say it was taken from 4chan but I can't seem to find the original source which sucks but I found it! I've been thinking about this picture for years!

So yes, this specific picture is 99% of the reason why Ciel has long hair in TTNBD. If anyone by some miracle knows the original source, please do share. That and growing out one's hair is symbolic of starting over or time passing or whatever thing you learned in your high school language studies/literature class. Also I think it looks pretty. This is exactly how I imagine him, I've been trying to capture this hairstyle in my drawings, I need to tweak his bangs a little I think.

Also, kudos to those of you who noticed that Ciel's fake name- Gespenst- is German for phantom! I couldn't resist the fun little reference, both to the name Phantomhive and to the fact that Ciel, for all intents and purposes, is a dead man. Also it sounds cool! Bonus!

ANYHOW, onto other stuff. Namely, let's talk about the telepathy thing.

My guilty pleasure is those middling to badly written romance fantasy novels where a nineteen or twenty year old girl gets taken away into a fae realm and falls in love with some hot strapped fae prince or whatever and then finds out that he's her Mate *gasp* and they're *bonded*. If you're reading this and thinking about A Court of Thorns and Roses, then you're thinking of the exact series I was obsessed with when I was writing the end of TTEOE.

In ACOTAR, Feyre and Rhysand have a mating bond that includes a telepathic link. I already knew I wanted the ritual that turned Ciel into a demon to form a tangible bond of some kind between him and Sebastian, and I was reading those books at the time and it just struck me upside the head. Mating bond! Duh! It plays perfectly with the possessiveness that's already inherent in their relationship and the fact that they're supernatural beings with supernatural abilities- and I also happen think it's pretty ~hot~ oop.

To be fair, it's not just ACOTAR's fault: I've been big into Star Trek since I was a teenager and if you know what T'hy'la means and the absolutely legendary fandom mythology that surrounds it, you know where all of my obsession with mates and bonds and stuff really comes from.

I hope I've done a good job of laying out sort of how it works between Ciel and Sebastian, but just to be clear- I don't see it as being like, the ability to read/hear every single one of each other's thoughts. it's more like a link that they can use to sort of "speak" directly to each other, or if one of them is thinking about something very intensely, they can pick up on it.

To me, the vibe of these two has always been "power couple in a crowded room at a party, having a silent conversation with their eyes about how they're better and prettier than everyone else here" and I guess I wanted to make that a reality.

Also it's a great trick to be able to use during sex scenes.

Which brings me to my next point: as you will see, there are a lot more sex scenes in this fic than there were in TTEOE! And they're a lot more... how do I put this... graphic? That's Partially because Ciel and Sebastian's relationship is established, and they're demons, so they're just horny most of the time- and partially because it's been so many years since I wrote TTEOE! I'm just more comfortable with this stuff now and I know my way around it better from a writing perspective.

I wasn't even twenty years old yet in 2014 and now I'm staring down the barrel at thirty, so I've just grown up a lot and developed more as a person, as well as a writer. I feel like I've gotten better at writing in a lot of ways and one of those is definitely my ability to write porn. Not to brag or anything. I know it's a weird skill to be proud of, but in fandom it's a skill that's kind of worth its weight in gold.

Speaking of writing improvement, the honest-to-God biggest challenge for me this time around has been matching the cadence and tone of the writing in TTEOE. Having taken such a long break, and my writing voice having shifted like it has, I have to be deliberate about keeping it all coherent. I hope I'm doing an okay job.

Last but not least, Abberline's back! It's everyone's (my) favourite oblivious detective! I love outsider POVs and so I had a hoot and a half writing him in TTEOE, so of course he's back to investigate crimes and always be about one or two steps behind until the truth turns around and backhands him in the face! What will he do, where will he go, who will he see? Who knows! It's always an adventure!

Like Lizzy, Abberline has had his own response to what happened to Ciel. He's changed in his own ways and his place in life has changed as well. You'll be seeing more of him soon, along with everyone else.

Okay! I think that's all for now! Thanks for reading this... very long post! Feel free to ask questions, I'll be camping out near my inbox, and I'll see you again next week!

-lord_is_it_mine

[doctorstrangereview]

0046: Strange Tales #152

Cover Date: January 1967 On-Sale Date: October 11, 1966

Doc vs. Umar starts in earnest this installment. It's also the final story drawn by Bill Everett. Namor's creator did a serviceable job as Doc's artist. His clean lines made story visuals easy to follow. I imagine his drawing table was piles with rulers, compasses and French curves. Everything is very precise. The story itself is series of battles between Doc and Umar's functionaries and then he faces Umar herself for the first time.

Doc has been kidnapped, plucked from his reality and plopped into the Dark Dimension. Unlike Ditko's vision of this otherworld which was overlit like an 80s episode of Doctor Who, under Everett, the Dark Dimension is actually dark. Ditko's great use of negative space is replaced by, well, space. It's black with stars. Except for a couple of weird floaty things, this could be the milky way.

We're getting dialogue by Stan Lee again so everyone's language is flowery and overly complicated. I wonder if Stan read Dracula and said to himself, that's how people should talk?

Doc walks along a Ditkoesque path and is confronted by a group of meanies. One looks vaguely Ditko-like. The others are just kind of blobby. Also, Doc grows round frilly things around his ankles. What's up with that?

Doc appears to have lots to say to creatures that probably don't understand a word. Without Wong to berate he's gotta get his frustrations out somehow. Doc vanquishes his foes and then we find out his All-Purpose Amulet tingles when there's danger present. Spidey-Sense, hold my beer!

Doc forges ahead through a series of glowing green and yellow rings and is so distracted he doesn't notice that his road has come to an abrupt end. Fortunately, the tingly amulet has got his back.

Doc is the repeatedly and relentlessly attacked. Kind of like how Henry Rollins describes a Ramones concert. "Not another one!"

Somehow, Doc senses his opponent is a female. Yeah, the 60s were pretty sexist.

Turning Umar on camera two, we learn that Umar is testing Doc and using what she learns to defeat Doc. She still doesn't face Doc directly but rather conjures a pair of smoke cyclopes.

Doc initially attempts to defend himself and defeat his smoggy foes, but eventually goes "the heck with it, not worth the effort, I'll just let them take me to their leader."

Doc finally meets Umar, who is sort of nice to him. The scheming female claims she was only kidnapping him (again) for his own good. She's so clever!

Doc doesn't know who she is just yet. She reveals she knows his name. When Doc asks how, she says her brother taught it to her. Was Dormie communicating with his sister while she was imprisoned? If not, she shouldn't know this. She does claim he imprisoned her because she opposed his evil deeds. This one is slick indeed! And she ain't done yet. Now she claims Clea has been captured by the Mindless Ones. Umar has cast a spell of believability that keeps Doc from figuring out that the Mindless Ones don't capture anything. They pulverize everything. Our lovestruck and slightly bamboozled hero jumps at the chance to rescue his silver-tressed temptress. Umar is about to send Doc... somewhere, but a tinge of awareness makes him refuse. "I'll do it myself." Umar realizes her feminine wiles haven't completely overcome the mustachioed magician.

Umar attempts to capture him. Instead of fighting back, he frees himself and runs off to find and free Clea. And we are left with Doc behind the barrier with some very poorly rendered Mindless Ones. The next installment awaits.

This was a bit of letdown. And after a story that was half a clip show, that's saying something. Everett's vision of the Dark Dimension and its inhabitants are less imaginative. It's only been six months and Ditko is sorely missed. We get Marie Severin on art chores next month so we'll see where that leads.

[chemicalarospec]

hold up guys I am being plagued with visions of Magical Girl L

okay so everyone's heard of talking cat Ryuk, but now get ready for: talking cat Watari

he's actually a wizard who's been trapped in this form and there's a whole arc about breaking that spell

but at the end he decides he likes being a cat better (to the great exasperation of L) so he only turns back into an old man when L needs him to

he's got his Wizard Realm Tower (of books and knowledge)

yeah Prince of Darkness Light Yagami is cool and all but personally I feel like high-concept AUs that cast Light as an Open Villain miss the whole point of him being a liar in plain sight

so you know have most Magical Girls have a team of friends? L has NO FRIENDS

also idk what like his powers are. Magical Girl is just a category of its own, right? I'm between a girl outfit and a prince outfit (like one in a fic I read) tho.

well, he has no friends... until he meets Light!

and they start vanquishing The Forces of Evil or whatever it is Magical Girls do together

until Light gains a black Book of Forbidden Knowledge

yes that's right I'm creating a new plot of Magical Girl (I think) and there's gonna be BETRAYAL.

Ryuk is NOT a cat btw. I think it's really funny if the scary shinigami are just there in this magical girl aesthetic. they're probably the Evil being fought

it's not the Death Note btw it like teaches him Black Magic and Ryuk tries to convince him to come over to the Dark Side and stuff

oh maybe Misa and Matsuda can also be Magical Girls. I haven't really thought about the other characters.

anyways from here we have two choices: he's just evil and they fight and stuff or

Light CORRUPTION ARC and we return to a more typical Magical Girl plot by having L save him from the corruption of the Evil Black Magic and stuff.

Light gets an evil throne in the anime checkboard dimension

also I think Light's Magical Girl costume should become increasingly black during this arc and when L asks why he's like. "I spilled a pen on it."

it's important to note that in Show Form we see Light's POV as this happens but if I were to write a fic (which. so sad! I don't think I'll be able to) it would only follow L's POV -- one would only have hints of what was going on with Light up until the Big Reveal

maybe a flashback then? I like a big villain monologue though while L sits there thinking "damn! my one friend!"

but yeah speaking of turning this to prose... still working on my last big fic project, so not gonna happen on my own. It'd be cool to work together with someone on it but if you want to do something with this idea just make sure to send it to/tag me! (& credit, but only as much as I have here that's original -- I'm kinda hoping if I search there's already a fic of Magical Girl L because it seems like an easy idea to have lol)

oh update-edit: had the wild messed-up idea that after Light turns to the Dark Side once, L and the gang pull the most effed up move that would never be in a Magical Girl show, and erase his memory.

[des-no9]

Just finished reading In The Rain, and when I tell you I weeped... 💙 That absolutely fucking gorgeous, heart breaking, heart soothing, hilarious (I swear, I love your sense of humor) signature writing of yours still has my very house trembling from how loud I reacted on the journey. It's like I was actually playing BG3, you get the canon characters and their many flavors, and your original ones know how to establish theirs with such confidence. I devoured these 10,500 words, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. There is no ache like reaching the end of a good piece of writing, even when you know all good things have a pause, an end, and this one was most satisfying. It's not just skin and leather this fight and fuck shed, it was lies, masks, and that kind of symbolism has me weak. Your writing is overflowing with characterization, and I don't just mean this snappy, so fucking real dialogue that makes me feel a part of the scenery, I mean I found myself thinking like Vanquish through pacing itself. When she accidentally revealed Emp, my brain somehow brushed over the word "illithid" because of the urgency, the speed at which she blurts it out. I basically made the same mistake as she did. I wouldn't have it any other way, it made the escalation even more powerful and harsh. There is so much to comment on and quote I could praise for hours, so I'll focus on the second thing that really had me, and it's how they connect over Caiphon, the link to Voss' sword. It's something so intimate, a moment where two become one through a curiosity driven conversation alone. It really seals their relationship beyond just something physical (though physical relationships are beautiful, do not get it twisted), almost feels like they were always meant to be. I just... Fuck they make me so ill (positive statement). No such a thing as enough Van/Voss in this world. They make me feel so many things, but I think the consensus is they make me damn happy. Thank you as always for sharing your blood and tears (writing haha) with us. 💙

I swear I've read this just....so many times I can't count. Thank you so much love. I can't even begin to express how much it means to me how much this fic and Vanquish and Voss' relationship connects with you and how much you enjoy it.

I was especially touched when you said you enjoy my humour because I always think I'm not funny at all dkjdfj and that I struggle with humour. So I'm really glad my attempts at it come across well.

And I long realised when I started writing seriously that I wasn't like....much of a long form plot writer, but more of a character writer. Short form, moments, character study, emotion. I'm really, just so really happy you enjoy it augh. And the dialogue!!! That is also something I've struggled with a LOT and I've put a lot of work into. It's been really nice to see improvement honestly <33 and feel the characters come through more in the dialogue.

OKay okay so I'm going to ramble some more about Vanquish, Voss, his Silver Sword and Caiphon under the cut a bit sldkfjsdf

AHHH THANK YOU LOVE I'm SO HAPPY you liked that. Like....when I've been reading up on lore about Caiphon, the Far Realms, Silver Swords, the Living Gate and then I was like......fuck they're all kind of connected in a way aren't they? And I just....ran with it LOL

I took what little there was and just expanded. Voss and the githyanki are connected in ways to the illithid and their past in negative ways, but ways that push them forward away from it too. To become something else that shape them into their own people their own voice and power (while re-creating that cycle of violence...anyway LOL)

And for Vanquish, she is so devastatingly (from her past etc) connected to Caiphon and Y'chak in several ways, but also makes it into something that is useful and good (to her) and powerful and hers, where the lines blur for her that she essentially carries a piece of the Far Realms and these Elder Evils within her flesh and blood until she's dead.

I wanted to kind of reflect how thye're both connected to things in pain and the veins of it kind of lead to the same destination (all roads lead to Rome kinda thing idk idk), but for this connection between them now, it is positive, mostly.

New things, anyway. They are both moving forward. Changing. That, is the important thing. Growth and connection together, through chaos and pain.

Maybe they were always meant to be :3 (they also make me SICK HAHA SICKKJDHFSDF)

thank you again so much my love <333 thank you

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: May 2023

If you notice I haven’t read as much this month, it’s because I got the new Zelda game. But between my vanquishing of evil I still managed to fit in some other media! Here’s how I spent the month of May.

……….FILM……….

BlackBerry (2023) Having grown up in Waterloo Region I didn’t have any interest in seeing a retelling of the story I mostly knew but this was really great! Surprisingly funny and frenetic and a truly unhinged (in the best way) performance from Glenn Howerton. Good stuff.

John Mulaney: Baby J (2023) I naively thought “I wonder how much this’ll touch on the drug stuff?”... turns out it’s all about the drug stuff. Cool that he was talking about it so openly, and made it so funny, but I wonder if there was more material that got cut? He briefly mentions a trip with his son and I would’ve loved to hear more about that. Anyway as a comedy special it’s really great.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) You know I haven’t been interested in the last few Marvel movies but this one felt like it was going to be different..and it was! So many moving parts but I never had trouble keeping track of character motivations or story beats and the whole thing was really beautiful. I mean even the really gross stuff was fun to watch. Keen to go back and watch this as a trilogy down the road.

The Suicide Squad (2021) I was excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy so at the start of the month I rewatched this. Still impressed at how this can be equal parts a gross out dick joke movie and also built on a foundation of community and family. Builds well, nothing feels repetitive, and the finale doesn’t overstay its welcome. Really great stuff.

……….TELEVISION……….

The Bear (Episode 1.01 to 1.03) Never have I felt so stressed watching television. Really captivating episodes and I’m very excited to watch more.

Ted Lasso (Episode 3.08 to 3.10) Maybe it’s the time away from season 1 and 2, or maybe something happened behind the scenes, but season 3 feels different. Some eps really hit, and even some moments within those other episodes, but it all feels rather unfocused. Maybe it’ll stick the landing but my confidence has been shaken.

The Most Hated Man on the Internet (Episode 1.01 to 1.03) Perfectly paced. Just enough detail to get invested but after 3 eps it felt like I experienced the full journey. Really interested to see the public’s perception of revenge porn shift over time and I can only assume this website (and its founder) played a part in that.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Down the Off-Grid Rabbit Hole... by Maggie Mae Fish Love simultaneously learning about a corner of the internet and also how it’s exploiting others. Just wild. VIDEO

Why so many people need glasses now by Vox Turns out kids need to spend more time outside for legit biological reasons? Who knew. VIDEO

How Nintendo Solved Zelda's Open World Problem by Game Maker’s Toolkit Hey maybe you’ve been playing the new Zelda and if you have, you’ll find this interesting. I sure did. VIDEO

……….READING……….

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (Page 165 of 500) The first time I read this, it really helped me understand the perspective some folks take on divisive topics. There was a sort of comfort to finally seeing what they’re seeing. In rereading this, I find myself getting angered while reading. The book is over 10 years old and while still relevant, it often feels quaint when talking about the widening gap between political parties. Its neutrality feels almost naive to me? Maybe I’ve forgotten a key chapter that helps.

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (It doesn’t have page numbers...maybe 1/3 of the way through) Murder in old hollywood is just so cool. I’m really digging this so far and the art, characters, and pacing feel thoroughly natural. Every reveal is just so casual cause to these characters, it’s just their lives, and I love that. Big fan so far.

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 8 by by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, and more (Complete) I always liked the smaller stories in this volume that focused on Peter’s personal life...like break-ups and dating other superheroes and stuff. But for some reason the Jean DeWolff/Kingpin/Moon Knight stuff always just felt kinda rushed? I dunno maybe I like everything to be a little more fantastical or suuuuuuper mundane. None of this in-between shenanigans. Give me highschool or give me death.

……….GAMING……….

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) So good. I walked past a house that was redoing their driveway and had a bunch of construction stuff covered in a tarp and I immediately thought “hmm I wonder what I could build” and that...is the sign that I’ve played this game too much. Big fan 10/10 change nothing.

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 Crew did some downtime planning ahead of a heist/attack combo that worked out pretty well! We played out events in weeks instead of in real time (for both the players and their enemies) and it worked pretty well!

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The group is still navigating a rival adventuring party on the island and seeing what happens now that they’ve let their star-collecting duties slip. Big trouble. You can read about it here.

Anyway that’s it. See you in June!

[random-jot]

The Land Of Faerie: A Musical

A - ***potential**** - musical by yours truly. I was inspired by StarKid to have a crack at writing my own comedy musical a few years ago, and the recent release of NPMD has once more inspired me to blow off the dust and recommence work on this project.

The Land Of Faerie is Quest-Fantasy Comedy set in the magical land of Faerie, where everything is perfectly fine... or is it?

It's not finished yet, but just for shits and gigs I thought it'd be fun to share what I currently have for the prologue/opening number!

Without further ado, here it is!

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

PROLOGUE

Lights start low and gradually get brighter. A MAN from the Kingdom of Faerie begins to sing over soft music as a spotlight slowly brings him into view.

SONG – IN THE LAND OF FAERIE

MAN: Have you heard of a land called Faerie?

If you haven’t then won’t you hear me out?

I’ll tell you what it’s about

(MAN moves upstage as lights now begin to fill out the stage, revealing the set. The music steadily grows more upbeat and jaunty. An ELF, a DWARF and an ORC enter the scene.)

If you’ve heard of a land

So wondrous and grand

Where every race is living hand in hand

So merry

ELF, DWARF AND ORC: Then you’ve heard of the land called Faerie

(We hear the sound of a ship docking and a large group of people enter the stage, a mixture of humans, elves, dwarves and Orcs. MAN greets them with glee)

MAN: Ho there! Welcome to Faerie

Watch your step as you get off the ferry

Can I take your case? (He takes a backpack off a weary traveller.)

As you enter the place

Where every race is getting along

ELF AND DWARF: Every Elf and Dwarf

MAN AND ORC: Every Man and Orc are

CHORUS: Singing the same song!

There are no wars between our people

And our lands are always peaceful

There’s no underlying evil

Anywhere, see

In the land of Faerie

ELF: You might think because I’m an Elf

And he’s a Dwarf; he'd wanna to bring harm to me

DWARF: It ain’t so, in the land of Faerie

In fact he’s my bro!

DWARF AND ELF: And we live in harmony

MAN: You might think because I’m a Man

And she’s an Orc she’s gonna start harming me

ORC: It ain’t the case in this place

ORC AND MAN: 'Cause we’re mates, we live in harmony

CHORUS: Yeah, we all live in harmony!

There are no wars between our people

And our lands are always peaceful

There’s no underlying evil

Anywhere, see

So come on down to Faerie (MAN steps forward and the lights focus in on him, the music slowing to a gentler pace.)

MAN: I daren’t take it for granted

You know, we didn’t always have this

There used to be

A Dark Lord, you see

But don’t worry; the Dark Lord’s been vanquished (he reassuringly addresses the audience)

(Spoken) Yeah, we won’t be seeing anymore of that guy, he is long gone

ORC: When he was here we were divided (Singing again, ORC steps forward)

DWARF: To take him down we were united (DWARF steps forward)

ELF: And in a way I think that’s why we’re (ELF steps forward, the four of them forming a line)

CHORUS: Singing the same song!

We’re all just getting along!

There are no wars between our people

And our lands are always peaceful

There’s no underlying evil

Anywhere

There are no wars between our people

And our lands are always peaceful

There’s no underlying evil

Anywhere, see

MAN: So come on down to the land

Oh so wondrous and grand

Where every race is living hand in hand

CHORUS: In the land of Faerie

In the land of Faerie

MAN: So come on down to Faerie

Lights down.

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

Thank you to anyone who stayed and read the full thing!

This song serves really as in introduction to the world as opposed to any of the main characters. I want it to almost have the quality of a song that might play in a 'come to DisneyWorld' commercial; fun, upbeat, and inviting. It's not the funniest song in the musical, but I do like the bit of characters reassuring the audience that there's "no underlying evil." Spoiler alert: There is in fact underlying evil. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Hopefully I'll get to actually finish this and be able to share the full thing one day - and hope beyond hope actually get the damn thing produced, but that's a problem for later.

Still, hope folks have enjoyed this little extract!

[dreamingsushi]

The Longest Promise - Episode 11

Well hello and welcome back to this drama. We have already been through a quarter of all of this story, so I guess it's about time things start moving right? Hopefully, it won't go too bad from now on, but I expect still a lot of drama. After all, this is a Chinese one, it's bound to happen sometime.

Zhu Yan uses her wish to brush Shi Ying's hair. While doing so, she plucks a strand of his, to fulfill her promise to Qing Gang. Obviously, Shi Ying noticed and tells her to hand back the hair. However, for once, she's rather smart and tricks him into giving back a different comb than the one she used to brush his hair, so it's probably a strand of hers. Then Qing Gang comes to ask for the hair and she gives it to him. And THEN she realizes that a dude unfamiliar with poison, asking for a strand of hair to increase his power is definitely sus. Was kind of about time you doubted him. She sneaks upon him and notices that he's comparing the hair with a paint brush, meant for calligraphy. She confronts him for using her and takes the brush away to tell Shi Ying. Upon learning that she was acting like this only to get his hair for Qing Gang, Shi Ying gets mad. He almost slips and let her know that he cares for her, but smoothly passes it as since it's his first becoming a master, he wants to do well and cares for all of his disciples. He reassures her that this won't harm him. Yeah no. It's too late. The Qing will know he's still alive.

Shi Ying confronts Qing Gang and they fight. He's definitely not a match for him though and is defeated. Then we learn that he bears the bad poison from the Qing clan and if he doesn't fulfill his mission to transfer it to Shi Ying, he'll die. Shi Ying takes it on himself willfully. He pretends that he's fine and can suppress the poison with his cultivation. Qing Gang thanks him for his mercy and promise not to leak away his real identity.

However, Shi Ying isn't faring well. Zhu Yan comes back and sees how bad of a state he's in. Shi Ying lies that Qing Gang didn't have any ill intentions and that he took the poison from him, but he's not aware that he's not doing well. Zhu Yan has an idea to suppress the poison and save Shi Ying. She has him grab onto the lamp like she did a while ago and the butterflies attacking solve the problem. And I see you, Xuelu, lurking around. This is going to be again the tragic story of a too ambitious lady. She reminds me of Zuo Qingluan in Dance of the Phoenix.

Xuelu manages to figure out Shi Ying's real identity and she reports to Da Siming that everything's alright with Qing Gang now and that Shi Ying vanquished the poison. She doesn't mention that Zhu Yan was there to help. I don't know if she wants to help her or not... I don't think she's evil, it's more that she's not the official daughter so she might have had a lot of resentment.

In class, they have to make bracelets with some spiritual flowers. The next day, Shi Ying will elect which one's the best, to give them a reward. He decides to go along with Zhu Yan's one, because even though he was so cold and mean towards her, she still kept believing in him. Chongming fears she has too much power over him, even though he says he won't keep her in Jiuyi mountain once the month is over. So he feeds him a fruit that is supposed to prevent him to be attracted to women. There was a warning on the spell, but I couldn't completely read it, it went too fast. I guess we'll know soon enough. The next morning, everybody is extremely shocked to see that Shi Ying's wearing Zhu Yan's bracelet.

And that completes this episode. I guess the main lead is slowly getting a little smarter. She's still dumb, but it's better. I can't believe how naive she is though. Hopefully the trope of the naive female lead is going to die someday soon.