#origin of symmetry era

[cherrylng]

Muse [CROSSBEAT SPECIAL EDITION (July 2010)]

Photographer: Unknown

[forged-in-kaoss]

🎉[Muse :: Rock Im Park :: Nuremberg :: 2002] 🎉

+ bonus that one guy that got on stage to breakdance during Bliss

[theworkofjar]

Mr. Dom Howard with Muse | Will of The People Tour '23

Photo by Johann Ramos-Arteaga (@theworkofjar-blog)

[sunburnacoustic]

I'd forgotten Chris had a red era too,

[killedbythegroove]

Origin of Symmetry Era

anyway he looks so good here

[cherrylng]

Roses bloom on the microphone stand and confetti scatters, which Matt makes rain down on himself. For some reason, Matt is angry the whole time. The constant, sweaty moshing and diving. The world of confusion is beautifully woven together by Origin of Symmetry - a complete report from the final two days of the UK tour, including a backstage sneak peek!

Text: Erika Yamashita, Kenichiro Yanagi Photography: Yoshika Horita

the intertwined flowers in the microphone on most of the gigs from the origin of symmetry era

[cherrylng]

Matt Bellamy - Muse [ROCKIN'ON (June 2001)]

Photographer: Masakazu Yoshiba

[forged-in-kaoss]

[Feeling Good :: Muse :: Rock Im Park :: Nuremberg :: 2002]

[supermassiveart]

[mcmansionhell]

the motel room, or: on datedness

I.

Often I find myself nostalgic for things that haven't disappeared yet. This feeling is enhanced by the strange conviction that once I stop looking at these things, I will never see them again, that I am living in the last moment of looking. This is sense is strongest for me in the interiors of buildings perhaps because, like items of clothing, they are of a fashionable nature, in other words, more impermanent than they probably should be.

As I get older, to stumble on something truly dated, once a drag, is now a gift. After over a decade of real estate aggregation and the havoc it's wreaked on how we as a society perceive and decorate houses, if you're going to Zillow to search for the dated (which used to be like shooting fish in a barrel), you'll be searching aimlessly, for hours, to increasingly no avail, even with all the filters engaged. (The only way to get around this is locational knowledge of datedness gleaned from the real world.) If you try to find images of the dated elsewhere on the internet, you will find that the search is not intuitive. In this day and age, you cannot simply Google "80s hotel room" anymore, what with the disintegration of the search engine ecosystem and the AI generated nonsense and the algorithmic preference for something popular (the same specific images collected over and over again on social media), recent, and usually a derivative of the original search query (in this case, finding material along the lines of r/nostalgia or the Backrooms.)

To find what one is looking for online, one must game the search engine with filters that only show content predating 2021, or, even better, use existing resources (or those previously discovered) both online and in print. In the physical world of interiors, to find what one is looking for one must also now lurk around obscure places, and often outside the realm of the domestic which is so beholden to and cursed by the churn of fashion and the logic of speculation. Our open world is rapidly closing, while, paradoxically, remaining ostensibly open. It's true, I can open Zillow. I can still search. In the curated, aggregated realm, it is becoming harder and harder to find, and ultimately, to look.

But what if, despite all these changes, datedness was never really searchable? This is a strange symmetry, one could say an obscurity, between interiors and online. It is perhaps unintentional, and it lurks in the places where searching doesn't work, one because no one is searching there, or two, because an aesthetic, for all our cataloguing, curation, aggregation, hoarding, is not inherently indexable and even if it was, there are vasts swaths of the internet and the world that are not categorized via certain - or any - parameters. The internet curator's job is to find them and aggregate them, but it becomes harder and harder to do. They can only be stumbled upon or known in an outside, offline, historical or situational way. If to index, to aggregate, is, or at least was for the last 30 years, to profit (whether monetarily or in likes), then to be dated, in many respects, is the aesthetic manifestation of barely breaking even. Of not starting, preserving, or reinventing but just doing a job.

We see this online as well. While the old-web Geocities look and later Blingee MySpace-era swag have become aestheticized and fetishized, a kind of naive art for a naive time, a great many old websites have not received the same treatment. These are no less naive but they are harder to repackage or commodify because they are simple and boring. They are not "core" enough.

As with interiors, web datedness can be found in part or as a whole. For example, sites like Imgur or Reddit are not in and of themselves dated but they are full of remnants, of 15-year old posts and their "you, sir, have won the internet" vernacular that certainly are. Other websites are dated because they were made a long time ago by and for a clientele that doesn't have a need or the skill to update (we see this often with Web 2.0 e-commerce sites that figured out how to do a basic mobile page and reckoned it was enough). The next language of datedness, like the all-white landlord-special interior, is the default, clean Squarespace restaurant page, a landing space that's the digital equivalent of a flyer, rarely gleaned unless someone needs a menu, has a food allergy or if information about the place is not available immediately from Google Maps. I say this only to maintain that there is a continuity in practices between the on- and off-line world beyond what we would immediately assume, and that we cannot blame everything on algorithms.

But now you may ask, what is, exactly, datedness? Having spent two days in a distinctly dated hotel room, I've decided to sit in utter boredom with the numinous past and try and pin it down.

II.

I am in an obscure place. I am in Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada, on assignment. I am staying at a specific motel, the Voyageur. By my estimation the hotel was originally built in the late seventies and I'd be shocked if it was older than 1989. The hotel exterior was remodeled sometime in the 2000s with EIFS cladding and beige paint. Above is a picture of my room, which, forgive me, is in the process of being inhabited. American (and to a lesser extent Canadian) hotel rooms are some of the most churned through, renovated spaces in the world, and it's pretty rare, unless you're staying in either very small towns or are forced by economic necessity to stay at real holes in the wall, to find ones from this era. The last real hitter for me was a 90s Day's Inn in the meme-famous Breezewood, PA during the pandemic.

At first my reaction to seeing the room was cautionary. It was the last room in town, and certainly compared to other options, probably not the world's first choice. However, after staying in real, genuine European shitholes covering professional cycling I've become a class-A connoisseur of bad rooms. This one was definitively three stars. A mutter of "okay time to do a quick look through." But upon further inspection (post-bedbug paranoia) I came to the realization that maybe the always-new brainrot I'd been so critical of had seeped a teeny bit into my own subconscious and here I was snubbing my nose at a blessing in disguise. The room is not a bad room, nor is it unclean. It's just old. It's dated. We are sentimental about interiors like this now because they are disappearing, but they are for my parents what 2005 beige-core is for me and what 2010s greige will become for the generation after. When I'm writing about datedness, I'm writing in general using a previous era's examples because datedness, by its very nature, is a transitional status. Its end state is the mixed emotion of seeing things for what they are yet still appreciating them, expressed here.

Datedness is the period between vintage and contemporary. It is the sentiment between quotidian and subpar. It is uncurated and preserved only by way of inertia, not initiative. It gives us a specific feeling we don't necessarily like, one that is deliberately evoked in the media subcultures surrounding so-called "liminal" spaces: the fuguelike feeling of being spatially trapped in a time while our real time is passing. Datedness in the real world is not a curated experience, it is only what was. It is different from nostalgia because it is not deliberately remembered, yearned for or attached to sweetness. Instead, it is somehow annoying. It is like stumbling into the world of adults as a child, but now you're the adult and the child in you is disappointed. (The real child-you forgot a dull hotel room the moment something more interesting came along.) An image of my father puts his car keys on the table, looks around and says, "It'll do." We have an intolerance for datedness because it is the realization of what sufficed. Sufficiency in many ways implies lack.

However, for all its datedness, many, if not all, of the things in this room will never be seen again if the room is renovated. They will become unpurchaseable and extinct. Things like the bizarrely-patterned linoleum tile in the shower, the hose connecting to the specific faucet of the once-luxurious (or at least middling) jacuzzi tub whose jets haven't been exercised since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wide berth of the tank on the toilet. There is nothing, really, worth saving about these things. Even the most sentimental among us wouldn't dare argue that the items and finishes in this room are particularly important from a design or historical standpoint. Not everything old has a patina. They're too cheaply made to salvage. Plastic tile. Bowed plywood. The image-artifacts of these rooms, gussied up for Booking dot com, will also, inevitably disappear, relegated to the dustheap of web caches and comments that say "it was ok kinda expensive but close to twon (sic)." You wouldn't be able to find them anyway unless you were looking for a room.

One does, of course, recognize a little bit of design in what's here. Signifiers of an era. The wood-veneer of the late 70s giving way to the pastel overtones of the 80s. Perhaps even a slow 90s. The all-in-one vanity floating above the floor, a modernist basement bathroom hallmark. White walls as a sign of cleanliness. Gestures, in the curved lines of the nightstands, towards postmodernity. Metallic lamp bases with wide-brimmed shades, a whisper of glamor. A kind of scalloped aura to the club chairs. The color teal mediated through hundreds if not thousands of shoes. Yellowing plastic, including the strips of "molding" that visually tie floor to wall. These are remnants (or are they intuitions?) of so many movements and micromovements, none of them definite enough to point to the influence of a single designer, hell, even of a single decade, just strands of past-ness accumulated into one thread, which is cheapness. Continuity exists in the materials only because everything was purchased as a set from a wholesale catalog.

In some way a hotel is supposed to be placeless. Anonymous. Everything tries to be that way now, even houses. Perhaps because we don't like the way we spy on ourselves and lease our images out to the world so we crave the specificity of hotel anonymity, of someplace we move through on our way to bigger, better or at least different things. The hotel was designed to be frictionless but because it is in a little town, it sees little use and because it sees little use, there are elements that can last far longer than they were intended and which inadvertently cause friction. (The janky door unlocks with a key. The shower hose keeps coming out of the faucet. It's deeply annoying.)

Lack of wear and lack of funds only keep them that way. Not even the paper goods of the eighties have been exhausted yet. Datedness is not a choice but an inevitability. Because it is not a choice, it is not advertised except in a utilitarian sense. It is kept subtle on the hotel websites, out of shame. Because it does not subscribe to an advertiser's economy of the now, of the curated type rather than the "here is my service" type, it disappears into the folds of the earth and cannot be searched for in the way "design" can. It can only be discovered by accident.

When I look at all of these objects and things, I do so knowing I will never see them again, at least not all here together like this, as a cohesive whole assembled for a specific purpose. I don't think I'll ever have reason to come back to this town or this place, which has given me an unexpected experience of being peevish in my father's time. Whenever I end up in a place like this, where all is as it was, I get the sense that it will take a very long time for others to experience this sensation again with the things my generation has made. The machinations of fashion work rapaciously to make sure that nothing is ever old, not people, not rooms, not items, not furniture, not fabrics, not even design, that old matron who loves to wax poetic about futurity and timelessness. The plastic-veneered particleboard used here is now the bedrock of countless landfills. Eventually it will become the chemical-laced soil upon which we build our condos. It is possible that we are standing now at the very last frontier of our prior datedness. The next one has not yet elided. It's a special place. Spend a night. Take pictures.

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[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

~*~

1. Hii! This is my first time asking for a fic, well cause usually other fans ask the same thing.

Any fic with JC/Jiang Sect bashing in the canon era.

Thanks a lot! I love all the work you guys do! @ffaddictsrn

🧡 All will be well when the day is done by abCEE (T, 76k, wangxian, time travel, canon divergence, fix it, not YZY friendly, not Jiang friendly, butterfly effect, no sunshot, madam lan lives, lan WWX)

A Matter of Time series by mrcformoso (E, 84k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, graphic depictions of violence, underage, LWJ pov, JC pov, dark LWJ, manipulation, grooming, teen body adult mind for LWJ, happy ending for wangxian, problematic consensual underage sex, blood & violence, insane LWJ, manic LWJ) lwj is BRUTAL to jc

💖 Return to Sender by Thesaurus_with_no_words (M, 73k, wangxian, not JC friendly, Canon Divergence, BAMF WWX, Wangxian Get a Happy Ending, YLLZ WWX, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Not Everyone Dies AU, Temporary Amnesia, Partial Memory Loss, Literal Emotional Manipulation, Unreliable Narrator WWX, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon typical horror and gore, Slow Burn, WIP)

🔒💖 Resilience. by Vrishchika (T, 7k, wangxian, time travel, not JC friendly, golden core transfer fix-it)

🔒💖 After Truth Lies the Honest Path by Vrishchika (M, 10k, wangxian, WIP, Canon Divergence, Truth Serum, Angry WWX, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Mild Angst, Wangxian Get a Happy Ending, Everyone Lives AU, Getting Together)

🧡 Never Again by Hauntcats (T, 67k, WangXian, WWX & WQ & WN, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Angst, Not JC Friendly, BAMF WWX)

The Core Issue by Hauntcats (T, 21k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Not JC Friendly, Canon Divergence)

Go Hiking With a Blindfold On by Hauntcats (M, 12k, wangxian, JC & WWX, WQ & WWX, not JC friendly, Time Travel Fix-It, No Golden Core Transfer)

Lay my body down by tawaen (M, 48k, WQ & WWX, WN & WWX, wangxian, JYL & WWX, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Eventual Wangxian, No Golden Core Transfer, Not Cultivation World Friendly, Canon-Typical Violence, Not JC Friendly, Tagged just in case because there is no redemption arc here, What if WWX saw the first siege of the burial mounds and said Nope to the war, Original Character(s), OC point-of-view for one chapter for plot reasons)

Symmetry by Vir_Abelasan (M, 13k, WangXian, LSZ & WWX, One-Sided ChengXian, One-Sided ChengZhui, Canon Divergence, LSZ is raised by wwx, Wwx still dies sorry, Revenge, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Dark LSZ, Manipulation, Power Imbalance, Torture, Not JC Friendly, JC’s Canonical 13 Years Murder Spree, BAMF LSZ, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, LSZ Gets to Go Apeshit)

🔒 The Second Hand Unwinds by trulywicked (E, 30k, wangxian, WIP, Time Travel Fix-It, Not JC friendly, Not Yúnmèng Jiāng Sect Friendly, Not Jiāng Family Friendly, Not YZY Friendly, Time Travelling LWJ, Protective LWJ, Fluff, Minor Angst, Minor Character Death, JGS is his own warning, ,Wooing, LWJ is romantic af, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective Gūsū Lán Sect Supportive LXC, Good Uncle LQR, WWX Protection Squad) Has both JC being a little shit & the Lans finding out about WWX's treatment during CRSA

🔒 Instead by apathyinreverie (T, 27k, wangxian, fix-it, darker gusu lan, manipulative elders, but in a good way?, golden core transfer fix-it of sorts, not Jiang friendly, or anyone friendly, except wangxian, cultivation world critical, fluff, sunshot, politics, courting rituals, genius WWX, no demonic cultivation, talismans, possessive LWJ, protective LWJ, WIP)

Get it right (mdzs time travel) Series by AmiraAlzilu (M, 85k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Suicidal Thoughts, Canonical Character Death, Temporary Character Death, Fluff, Not JC Friendly, Unreliable Narrator, Unreliable Narrator WWX, Getting Together, Time Travel Fix-It, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Not Jiang Clan Friendly, Jiāng Family Bashing, Character Death Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Grieving LXC, Grieving LQR, LQR Is So Done, Dead LWJ, Dead WWX) (link in #2)

~*~

2. heyyy thanks for all your hard work! itmf for fics that the lan clan finds out about wwx abuse from the jiang sect. thanks in advance!

🧡 All will be well when the day is done by abCEE (T, 76k, wangxian, time travel, canon divergence, fix it, not YZY friendly, not Jiang friendly, butterfly effect, no sunshot, madam lan lives, lan WWX) link in #1

🔒🧡 rain falls and soaks into the earth series by RoseThorne (T, 53k, WangXian, WIP, Near Death Experience, Attempt Drowning, Madam Yu Bashing, Recovery, No war AU)

🔒 The Second Hand Unwinds by trulywicked (E, 30k, wangxian, WIP, Time Travel Fix-It, Not JC friendly, Not Yúnmèng Jiāng Sect Friendly, Not Jiāng Family Friendly, Not YZY Friendly, Time Travelling LWJ, Protective LWJ, Fluff, Minor Angst, Minor Character Death, JGS is his own warning, ,Wooing, LWJ is romantic af, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective Gūsū Lán Sect Supportive LXC, Good Uncle LQR, WWX Protection Squad) link in #1 Has both JC being a little shit & the Lans finding out about WWX's treatment during CRSA

🔒 Instead by apathyinreverie (T, 27k, wangxian, fix-it, darker gusu lan, manipulative elders, but in a good way?, golden core transfer fix-it of sorts, not Jiang friendly, or anyone friendly, except wangxian, cultivation world critical, fluff, sunshot, politics, courting rituals, genius WWX, no demonic cultivation, talismans, possessive LWJ, protective LWJ, WIP) link in #1

🧡 Company by WithBroomBefore (T, 29k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Pre-Relationship, Getting Together, POV LWJ, Fix-It, Pre-Canon, at least to start, WWX goes to Cloud Recesses, But Not In The Usual Way, fear of character death, Everybody Lives, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Light Angst, good teacher LQR, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, brief discussion of past minor character suicide, Kitten, Not YZY Friendly)

Get it right (mdzs time travel) Series by AmiraAlzilu (M, 85k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Suicidal Thoughts, Canonical Character Death, Temporary Character Death, Fluff, Not JC Friendly, Unreliable Narrator, Unreliable Narrator WWX, Getting Together, Time Travel Fix-It, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Not Jiang Clan Friendly, Jiāng Family Bashing, Character Death Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Grieving LXC, Grieving LQR, LQR Is So Done, Dead LWJ, Dead WWX)

~*~

3. Hello!! Itmf/does anyone know of any canon-compliant fics where when WWX comes back to life it is like no time has passed for him so he still feels and acts like a teenager/young adult? Where he gets along better with the juniors rather than his generation because he still is young at heart? Thank you!

~*~

4. heeyy mods, hope youre enjoying the holidays!!

this is for itmf

A) I recently read audience of one which is basically being XiCheng being sweet babies, so I would really love if someone could rec good XiCheng fics

B) are there any good modern wangxian detectives au!!?? @mercurygirlwt28

4B)

🧡 CSI: Gusu Edition Series by Stratisphyre (M, 39k, WangXian, WWX & LQR, Modern with Magic AU, College AU, Golden Core Reveal, Single parent WWX, Good Uncle LQR, Hospitalization, Allusions to violence and murder)

Moonlight as My Guide by BromeliadDreams (M, 32k, WangXian , Case Fic, Body Horror, Modern with Magic, Academia, (book) canon-typical desecration of the dead, actually far more soft domesticity than the previous tags imply, background/implied xiyao, grey-ace wwx)

~*~

5. hii, tje next Itmf can I ask for fics which feel the song. "dark red" by Steve Lacy.

thank you!!

~*~

6. Hola! for the next itmf, I have two requests please, they are kind of similar.

A) pls rec the good modern aus!! the fluffy, tje ones w angst, anything.

B) modern aus which also deal w depression.

6A)

🔒 Wangxian Tax Universe series by adrian_kres, RoseThorne (T, 5k, wangxian, modern, Getting Together, Americana, Family Dinners, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Announcements, Therapy, POV Third Person, POV WWX, Crack, Fluff)

Extracts from the diaries of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, relating to the case of Lan Zetian (Nov. 4 to Nov. 27) by Accidental_Child (T, 6k, wangxian, modern cultivation, Case Fic, Epistolaryish, Diary/Journal, WWX-centric, LWJ-centric, Slow Burn, (academic), Enemies to Lovers, academic rivals i guess?, Rivals to Lovers, Mentions of Murder, mentions of abuse, mentions of assult)

🔒 Standing By by Prince_kun (T, <;1k, wangxian, WIP, Modern, Mutual Pining, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, Strangers to Lovers, Past WWX/Other(s), Airports, Airports can be romantic and not just meant for the dramatic breakup scene, Rich LWJ, CEO LWJ, Bisexual Disaster WWX, WWX is LSZ's Parent, Fluff, Light Angst, Everyone Lives AU, Developing Relationship)

Lessons in Belonging by Nyatci (M, 12k, wangxian, Modern, Childhood Friends to Lovers, POV LWJ, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Canonical Child Abuse, Bad Parents JFM & YZY, Not Jiāng Family Friendly, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Homophobia, Good Uncle LQR, background 3zun, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assumed Asexuality, but it’s just an assumption, some mild non-overly-explicit smut, LWJ really wants to put a ring on it, so he does, Domestic Fluff, wangxian adopt a-yuan, 5+1 Things, softer than how the tags make it sound)

The extravagant wedding, the gorgeous brother, and other reasons you should listen to your uncle by deliciousblizzardshark (T, 5k, wangxian, Modern, Kid Fic, Soft Wangxian, Good Uncle LQR, Matchmaking, Fluff and Humor, shark week)

The Art of Communication by mrcformoso (G, 4k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Meet-Cute, Engineering Student WWX, Music Student LWJ, Swimmer WWX, Martial Artist LWJ, POV Outsider, POV WWX, POV LWJ, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Communication Issues, But Wanxian Makes it Work, LWJ has limited words, WWX has too many words, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Love Languages, Requited Love)

Just Ask Me To Stay by mrcformoso (M, 20k, WangXian, Modern AU, Former JZ/WWX, Minor NieLan, Minor XuanLi, No Powers, Dancer WWX, Musician LWJ, Roommates, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Recovery, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, Sex as Self Worth Reaffirmation, Fluff, Light Angst, Anal Se,x Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Domestic Fluff, LWJ Has a Big Dick, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Size Queen WWX, Belly Bulge, Porn With Plot, WWX Has Friends, LWJ Has Friends, Hurt/Comfort, A lot of comfort, Romantic Comedy, Cuter story than the summary makes it out to be, Feel-good)

🧡 Hello, IT. Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again? By overmountainandmeadow (T, 65k, WangXian, Modern AU, Office, Modern office AU, IT Director! LWJ, Graphic Designer! WWX, Father!LWJ, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Juniors as interns, Light Angst, Mistaken Identity, Identity Porn, Rabbits, Cloud Recesses as a company, Happy Ending, Single Parent LWJ)

🧡 Yiling Salon: Hair, Nails and Piercing by TriviasFolly (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, Hairstylist AU, Hairstylist WWX, 5+1 Things, Fluff, Experimental style)

leave all your love and your longing behind by ScarlettStorm (E, 143k, wangxian, modern, Meet-Ugly, Panic Attacks, autistic LWJ, neurodivergent WWX, the neighborhood asshole dog, if you've met one then you know, Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, Happy Ending, for everyone including the asshole dog, setting out to make the neighborhood safer for your crush and accidentally building community, Eventual Smut, switch rights, Sex Toys, horny yearning, Masturbation, the chef's assortment of partnered sex acts) (link in #17)

🔒some things go forward by everythingispoetry (T, 73k, WangXian, Modern AU, Hospitals, Teenage Drama, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Happy Ending)

oh brother by lanzhans_rbf (skzinger) (G, 5k, LXC & LWJ, WangXian, Modern AU, POV Outsider, Twin Jades of Lán Dynamics, Twin Jades of Lán Feels)

A Soft Storm by AvoOwO (Not rated, 47k, wangxian, modern, hurt WWX, LWJ pov, protective LWJ, not SS friendly, car accidents, hurt/comfort, heavy angst w happy ending, sexual harrasment, stalking, crying, blood & injury & gore, major character injury, college, slut shaming, insults)

Coincidence is Another Man's Fate by TriviasFolly (M, 164k, wangxian, rape/non-con, modern, ABO, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, Sexual Harassment, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, WangXian play the long game, UNTIL THEY DON'T, Getting Together, fated pairs, Eventual Attempted Sexual Assult and Recovery, Office au, Mpreg)

I know what my heart wants by yakuso5u (Not Rated, 28k, WangXian, Modern AU, Single Father LWJ, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Accidental Child Acquisition, Domestic, Slice of Life, Christmas references)

flight of the birch tree by bleuett (T, 2k, WangXian, Modern AU, liminal spaces, Subways, dreamy vibes, Meet-Cute, kind of)

i know who i want to take me home by ScarlettStorm (E, 16k, wangxian, modern, bartender WWX, drunk LWJ, caretaking, meet-cute, fluff, comedy, smut, minor angst, major shenanigans)

spoke like we meant it by BlackWiresOnHerHead (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, 5+1, Fluff, oh my god they were roommates, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Pining, Cuddling, Accidental Confession, Humor, Abandonment Issues, Light Angst)

Keep Track of Losing Days by giraffeter (T, 74k, WangXian, Modern AU, Case Fic, Police, Missing Persons, Mystery, Getting Together, Flashbacks, Rooftop Conversations, Detective LWJ, antifa WWX, Endgame NieLan, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, First Kiss, First Meetings, Seattle, Mutual Pining, nonfatal car accident, mafia wens, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers)

6B)

🔒 moonlight falls series by RoseThorne (M, 15k, wangxian, SL/XXC, JC & WWX, WQ & WWX, NHS & WWX, Found Family, Modern, Corporate Espionage, Bunnies, Adoption, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, References to Depression, Anxiety, Blind Character, POV Third Person, POV WWX, Confrontations, Bad Parent LQR, Pre-JC & WWX Reconciliation, Dissociation, Mental Health Issues, Anniversary, Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Emotional Constipation, Communication Failure, JC is Bad at Feelings, JC is Trying, WWX Needs a Hug, Implied/Referenced Sex, Food Sex, Friendship, Reconciliation, Psychological Trauma)

Welcome to the Family series by jiejieaini (E, 231k, wangxian, LXC/NMJ, JYL/JZX, modern, Wangixian Get a Happy Ending, LWJ is best dad, Bunnies, London, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Adopted WWX, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Reunions, Hand Jobs, Tears, Gay Sex, Consensual Non-Consent, Dom/sub Undertones, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Christmas, Praise Kink, Rough Sex, Rough Kissing, WWX & LWJ Have a Breeding Kink, First Time, Public Blow Jobs, High School, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Falling In Love, Love, Love Confessions, Birthdays, Blowjobs, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Drowning, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Dubious Consent, Rimming, Panic Attacks, Anxiety, A-Yuan is adorable, Marriage Proposal, Weddings, Nightmares, Adoption, Pregnancy)

Lessons in Belonging by Nyatci (M, 12k, wangxian, Modern, Childhood Friends to Lovers, POV LWJ, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Canonical Child Abuse, Bad Parents JFM & YZY, Not Jiāng Family Friendly, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Homophobia, Good Uncle LQR, background 3zun, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assumed Asexuality, but it’s just an assumption, some mild non-overly-explicit smut, LWJ really wants to put a ring on it, so he does, Domestic Fluff, wangxian adopt a-yuan, 5+1 Things, softer than how the tags make it sound) link in #6A

12 Hours In Hell and Paradise (Or: Lan Zhan’s Distinguished Guide to Seasonal Depression) by demonicsalad (T, 4k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, Modern, Friends to Lovers, Developing Relationship, Mental Health Issues, Neurodiversity, Love Confessions, POV LWJ)

Just Ask Me To Stay by mrcformoso (M, 20k, WangXian, Modern AU, Former JZ/WWX, Minor NieLan, Minor XuanLi, No Powers, Dancer WWX, Musician LWJ, Roommates, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Recovery, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, Sex as Self Worth Reaffirmation, Fluff, Light Angst, Anal Se,x Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Domestic Fluff, LWJ Has a Big Dick, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Size Queen WWX, Belly Bulge, Porn With Plot, WWX Has Friends, LWJ Has Friends, Hurt/Comfort, A lot of comfort, Romantic Comedy, Cuter story than the summary makes it out to be, Feel-good) (Iink in 6A)

💖 you are safe / loved / worthy / enough by everythingispoetry (T, 150k, wangxian, modern, College/University au, Social Media, Mental Health Issues, Healing, self-care, Anxiety, Hurt/Comfort, the mortifying ordeal of self-acceptance, Falling In Love, Depression, Slow Burn)

KILF (Knits I'd Like To Fuck in) by ScarlettStorm (E, 168k, wangxian, modern, sex work, fiber arts, 2nd in series)

Many happy returns. by orange_crushed (E, 25k, WangXian, Modern AU, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Parent(s), Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Suicide of a Parent, References to Depression, Anxiety, Therapy, References to Anti-Depressant Medications, Escort Service, Loneliness, Everybody’s Abandonment Issues, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Moving In Together, Oral Sex, Penetrative Sex, Hopeful Ending, Recovery, References to Escorting/Sex Work but No Actual Escorting/Sex Work)

~*~

7. Itmf some fics that are just plain funny! Rec me any fics that made you lol please @peebls

Lan Wangji Gets Harassed by a Pack of Children by hyacinth4maria (G, 9k, wangxian, CSSR & WWX & WCZ, CSSR/WCZ, Madam Lan & LWJ, LWJ meets the Wei family, the Wei family consists of OCs and strays, Modern, High School, Young Love, Fluff and Crack)

rerun from the outside by Eicas (T, 2k, wangxian, JC & WWX, Time Travel, POV Outsider, JC POV, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, WWX has timetravelled! unbeknownst to him so has LWJ!, JC gets to be there for the glorious moment when the penny drops, Mojo's post)

❤️ Wangxian’s Time-Travelling Shenanigans series by pupeez4eva (G, 18k, wangxian, time travel, love confessions, humor, Mojo's post)

The Twelve Days of Christmas, OR, How to Drive Your Brother-in-Law Insane by Following One Traditional Carol by Hobbsy3 (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, Fluff, Crack Treated Seriously, Twelve Days Of Christmas, sending someone six geese and seven swans is definitely not an act of love, OR IS IT, Christmas Fluff, JC is So Done, LWJ is a Little Shit) link in #16

Deep Dive by MimiSpearmint (E, 24k, wangxian, JC & WWX, modern, therapy au, twin prides of yunmeng feels, angst w/ happy ending, career ending injuries, counsellor LWJ, eventual smut, crack, discussion of domestic abuse)

Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association Series by Ariaste (M/T, 119k, WIP, XiYao, WangXian, Modern AU, Established Relationship, xiyao and wangxian are both already married, Family Feels, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Slice of Life, Discussions of Past Trauma, wwx's canonical kinks, HOAverse) there's a reason it's recced all the time!

To Woo a Yao by Iamnotawriter (G, 8k, WangXian, Some Humor, Investigations, Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, Secret Letters, Mystery, Crack)

WeHateDogs by trippednfell (T, 3k, WangXian, Modern AU, Inspired by Twitter, Social Media AU, WWX is a professional dog hater, Fluff and Crack)

our own kind of magic. by scarletwanlian (T, 18k, WangXian, 5+1 Things, Fluff, Humor, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, Magic, Magical Realism, College/University, Slice of Life!, Witch!WWX, Banter)

~*~

8. Uhm hi. I’m looking for a fic where instead of Jiang Fengmian, Yu Ziyuan was thought to be Wei Ying’s parent. Or where yu ziyuan adopts Wei ying

Hope series by RoseThorne (T, 57k, wangxian, WWX & YZY, WWX & JFM, WWX & JYL, YZY/JFM, JC & WWX, LQR & WWX, LXC & JYL, Madam Jin & YZY, LQR & JFM, LXC & LWJ, Transmigration, Time Travel Fix-It, Illnesses, Family, Scars, Memory Loss, Angst, Crying, Music, Nosebleed, Fear, Recovery, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed, Flirting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Good Parent YZY, Referenced Sexual Slavery, Blood and Gore, Monsters, Sexual Tension, betrothal, Arranged Marriage, Grief, Adoption, POV Third Person, POV Alternating, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Good Parent LQR, Clairvoyance, Butterfly Effect, Kid Fic, Epistolary, Food, Secrets, Resentful Energy, Cultivation Sect Politics, Character Death)

~*~

9. Hi! Do you have rec fics where Wwx has a sibling/sister? (This part added to FF) Thank youu!! @gideonmorningstar

We Meet at the Thousandth Step by Admiranda, Rynne (T, 163k, wangxian, CSSR/WCZ, WIP, Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign, CSSR & WCX Live, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Different First Meeting, Night Hunts, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Plot, Romance, Drama, Fluff, Strangers to married, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Everyone LivesAU, Developing Relationship, Minor Violence, Case Fic, Mystery, Flirting, WWX's Canon-Typical Flower Flirting, Arson, There Was Only One Bed, Getting Together, First Kiss, Meeting the Parents, Resolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Romantic Tension, WWX Is a Good Big Brother, New Relationship Bliss)

Lan Wangji Gets Harassed by a Pack of Children by hyacinth4maria (G, 9k, wangxian, CSSR & WWX & WCZ, CSSR/WCZ, Madam Lan & LWJ, LWJ meets the Wei family, the Wei family consists of OCs and strays, Modern, High School, Young Love, Fluff and Crack) link in #7

~*~

10. ITMF fics that changed your minds about tropes/settings/characters you had previously disliked? I am trying to try new things but I tend not to pick things for myself outside of plain plain status quo. TY!

mating rituals by detectorist (E, 16k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern AU, College/University, Humour, Pining, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, The Rituals Are Intricate) Never cared about jzx until I read this fic

Coincidence is Another Man's Fate by TriviasFolly (M, 164k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Omegaverse, Alpha LWJ, Omega wwx, Sexual Harassment, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Getting Together, fated pairs, Eventual Attempted Sexual Assult and Recovery, Modern Setting - Office, Mpreg) This is the abo fic for anyone who’s never liked abo

symmetry by bleuett (M, 44k, WangXian, Space, Science Fiction, Happy Ending, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Holding Hands, Blow Jobs, Hand Feeding, Cultivation in Space, Yearning, Reunions, Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Injuries, Grief/Mourning, Unconventional Time Travel, Burial Mounds) Never liked fics set in space but this one was so good

Twin Demons of Mò by XiaoFeiFei (ArfBarkWoof) (M, 358k, MXY & WWX, wangxian, JL & MXY, XY & MXY, JGY & MXY, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury, Abuse, Death, Twin Demons of Mo, MXY Lives, Major Character Injury, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Minor Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Minor Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Torture, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Canon Divergence, Self-Harm, Found Family, Sexual Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, POV Alternating) Twin Demons of Mo was my first foray into the super heavy angst that can pop up in the fandom, and since I'm very empathetic, heavy angst tends to be difficult for me to read, but TDOM was beautiful and now I can handle fics like Concord with more ease

TAKOYAKI by ariskamalt (E, 3k, wangxian, modern, Established Relationship, PWP, Tentacles, Tentacle Sex, First Time, Semi-Sentient Tentacles, Anal Sex, tentaclejobs?, Podfic Available) please don't let the tentacles scare you😆

~*~

11. hello! i just finished this fic on ao3 called 'like speaking to my heart' by SnowshadowAO3.

it has suibian and bichen as daemons and i've really enjoyed reading it.

i wanted to ask if it's possible to find more fic's where suibian and bichen play a major role either in their sword forms or are like these aus where they take a different form.

(not really necessary but are there any fics where suibian and bichen share a really close bond with lwj and wwx, respectively, too?)

thank you so much!

🧡 Song of Suibian and Bichen: Or, the Greatest (And Only) Furby Master of Demonic Cultivation by moonwaif (T, 64k, WangXian, Fix-It of Sorts, canon adjacent, The spiritual weapons are furbies, Angst with a Happy Ending, The parent trap but make it WangXian with furbies, Mutual Pining, Taking my favorite parts of every adaptation and smashing them together)

~*~

12. hi hi! i'm in the mood for fics where lwj feels insecure over his "bland and stiff" personality and wwx reassures him

~*~

13. Could you suggest some multi-chapter fics of genre Fox Wei Wuxian and Dragon Lan Wangji. @lostsoul234

(Dreaming of) Being Human by Harleydoll (M, 109k, JC & WWX, NHS & WWX, LXC & WWX, LXC & LWJ, wangxian, JYL & WWX, Soft Wangxian, Pining, POV LWJ, Protective LWJ, Oblivious WWX, YLLZ WWX, Fox WWX, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Huli Jing, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, Gūsū Lán Forehead Ribbon, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, , Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Cuddling & Snuggling, Sleepy Cuddles, Literal Sleeping Together, Sharing a Bed, Nudity, WWX is a Lán, WWX is Loved, Gremlin WWX, Shapeshifting, POV WWX, Qíshān Wēn Indoctrination, Not Lánlíng Jīn Sect Friendly, Burning of the Cloud Recesses, Post-Burning of the Cloud Recesses, Explicit Sexual Content, Oral Sex, First Time, First Kiss, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Sunshot Campaign, Fox Spirit WWX, Canon Temporary Character Death, Not Really Character Death)

🔒Due Process by Kytrin, Mslead (E, 279k, WangXian, XiChengSang, Poly Junior Quartet, Modern AU, Foxxian, dragonji, Genderfluid WWX, WWX identifies as male, Organized Crime, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, mentions of child abuse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Found Family, Reincarnation)

To lurk, to lie in wait by trippednfell (M, 124k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Huli Jing, strangers to co-parents to lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Kid Fic, teenage juniors, background NieLan, Angst with a Happy Ending, Case Fic, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Fox Spirit WWX, Dragon LWJ, Blood and Injury)

The early bird gets the worm, the early fox gets the bird. But the dragon wakes the earliest of them all. by sekhmetpaws (E, 52k, WangXian, XiYao, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Royalty, Prince LWJ, dragon lwj, fox wwx, dragonji, Arranged Marriage, but not really, Mistaken Identity, Omega WWX, Alpha LWJ, Foxxian, slowish burn)

~*~

14. ITMF a fic where wangxian bond over both being Chinese / having similar experiences?. It can just be a small moment in a bigger story or it can be whole story @zerokogane

Ticket to Ride Series by mistresscurvy (E, 21k, wangxian, modern, online dating, road trips, service top, phone sex, dick pics, wedding banquet, shower sex) Also it has a killer meet cute

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15. Hey!! I’m fairly new to the fandom and I’m still trying to navigate through your blog so idk if you’ve already done this ask but can you recommend a fic that follows the junior quad as they accidentally give travel back to Wangxian at cloud recess??

Thank you so muchhh

~*~

16. Hey any Christmas wangxian fics that are not too smutty and just wholesome and pure @veryfoxyfulwuji

The Twelve Days of Christmas, OR, How to Drive Your Brother-in-Law Insane by Following One Traditional Carol by Hobbsy3 (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, Fluff, Crack Treated Seriously, Twelve Days Of Christmas, sending someone six geese and seven swans is definitely not an act of love, OR IS IT, Christmas Fluff, JC is So Done, LWJ is a Little Shit)

Ornaments Under the Stars by trippednfell (M, 57k, wangxian, Modern, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, the wangxian Hallmark Movie AU no one asked for, plot and title were randomly generated, Kidfic, Disabled Character, debilitating injury as substitute for missing golden core, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst with a Happy Ending, Guest starring LWJ's sky blue coat, The Coat deserves its own tag, disordered eating habits)

We Wish You A Logical Christmas by little_ogre (M, 9k, wangxian, Star Trek AU, Mutual Pining, Happy Ending, Going to Vulcan for Christmas, WWX is Vulcan, LWJ is human, what could go wrong, Pon Farr)

Christmas Eve at Number 16 by liulans (T, 9k, wangxian, Christmas Fluff, Modern, Getting Together, Mistletoe as an icebreaker, Fluff, neighbors to lovers, Friends to Lovers, Christmas Eve, snowstorm date)

~*~

17. Hi! I recently saw a DIY where they printed out their favorite fanfic and they (did book binding, sorry, I don’t what the English word for this is) so I wanted to ask if anyone could recommend fanfictions wich are 1. long enough (so it makes sense to bind it into a book) and 2. good/awesome/ wholesome,etc enough ( so I will actually want to bind it).

To keep it short, please recommend your favourite long fics. Thank you so much!

An addition to my ask because my dumbass accidentally send it before adding detail.

If anyone knows a fanfiction with a great plot, good writing or one you think deserves to be a book (because some of them honestly feel more professional than most real books do) I would be super thankful to them <;3 @desperation-is-my-middle-name

Twin Demons of Mò by XiaoFeiFei (ArfBarkWoof) (M, 358k, MXY & WWX, wangxian, JL & MXY, XY & MXY, JGY & MXY, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury, Abuse, Death, Twin Demons of Mo, MXY Lives, Major Character Injury, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Minor Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Minor Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Torture, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Canon Divergence, Self-Harm, Found Family, Sexual Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, POV Alternating)

leave all your love and your longing behind by ScarlettStorm (E, 143k, wangxian, modern, Meet-Ugly, Panic Attacks, autistic LWJ, neurodivergent WWX, the neighborhood asshole dog, if you've met one then you know, Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, Happy Ending, for everyone including the asshole dog, setting out to make the neighborhood safer for your crush and accidentally building community, Eventual Smut, switch rights, Sex Toys, horny yearning, Masturbation, the chef's assortment of partnered sex acts)

💖 Magical Marriage Ribbons series by starandrea (M, 1M, wangxian, animal transformations, weddings)

Fallen series by Jaywalker_Holmes (M, 150k, wangxian, major character death, underage, time travel)

💖 love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k, wangxian, immortal WWX, slow burn, pining, arranged marriages)

The Scarlet Lotusby rainbowninja167 (M, 137k, WangXian, Marriage of Convenience, Secret Identity, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical war crimes, Yunmeng Bros, the mortifying ordeal of getting seduced by your own husband, nonlinear chronology we die like cql, just kidding nobody dies in this fic, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Miscommunication)

Twelve Moons and a Fortnight by stiltonbasket (M, 290k, WangXian, Humor, Slow Burn, Post-Canon Fix-It, Long-Distance Relationship, Epistolary, Love Letters, Family Feels, a-qing lives, teenage romance, Adoption, Romantic Comedy, Happy Ending, Weddings, Case Fic, Parenthood, Politics)

how to be a heartbreaker by sweetlolixo (E, 122k, wangxian, Sugar Daddy AU, Modern, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Sugar Baby WWX, Dark WWX, Dark LWJ, Pining LWJ, Possessive LWJ, Crossdressing WWX, Seductress WWX, Eventual Happy Ending, Dirty Talking LWJ, They Do Fall In Love and there’s Fluff, Dark Wangxian Power Couple, Off the Charts Sexual Tension, Size Kink, Daddy Kink, degradation kink)

🔒 Silver & Gold  by beeswaxing  (E, 162k, wangxian, post-canon, de-aging, fluff & angst, happy ending, fix-it of sorts, family bonding, established   relationship, non-sexual intimacy, BAMF WWX, pining, protective WWX)

A Matter of Time series by mrcformoso (E, 84k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, graphic depictions of violence, underage, LWJ pov, JC pov, dark LWJ, manipulation, grooming, teen body adult mind for LWJ, happy ending for wangxian, problematic consensual underage sex, blood & violence, insane LWJ, manic LWJ) link in #1

Meet Me Friday At Seven by craftyTrickster (luoxiaobai) (E, 128k, wangxian, modern, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Friends to Lovers, Blind Date, lots of texting, almost a chat fic, WC and WLJ aren’t evil but they are annoying, Kissing, Masturbation, Anal Sex, romantic sex, Bi WWX, bi nhs, Single Parent WWX, Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator)

how to fall in love with a catfish: a guide by wei wuxian (disaster rat) by bwyn, Yuisaki (T, 54k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Actors, Multimedia, Online Friendship, Drunken Shenanigans, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Underage Drinking, Drinking Games, Families of Choice, Ensemble Cast, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Catfish AU)

finally safe (for me to fall) by sassybluee (E, 77k, wangxian, modern, sugar daddy au, age difference, sex work, rich WWX, older WWX, service top WWX, poor LWJ, single parent LWJ, sugar baby LWJ, family issues, hurt/comfort, angst w happy ending, slow burn, cockblocking, anal sex, blowjobs, no lube & lube, addiction, compulsory heterosexuality, implied/referenced abuse, wangxian + others)

it rains, it pours by jublis (Not Rated, 130k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Case Fic, Established Relationship, Angst with a Happy Ending, Soft WangXian, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, The Junior Ensemble Love WWX, Protective LWJ, Protective WWX, WWX Needs a Hug, YLLZ WWX, Rogue Cultivator LQY, LQY & WWX Friendship, BAMF LQY, Horror, Friendship/Love, Junior Quartet Dynamics, Ambiguous/Open Ending, for the mystery, Our boys are fine) is dripping with atmosphere, and being able to hold a physical book and read it by the fire on a stormy night would enhance that so well

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[alphynix]

Strange Symmetries #03: Eerie Early Echinoderms

Represented today by starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and crinoids, the echinoderms have a characteristic five-way radial symmetry that makes them barely even recognizable as bilaterians. Their true ancestry is only revealed by their genetics and their larvae, which still retain bilateral symmetry – and the way they metamorphose into adults is bizarre, essentially growing a whole new radial body from within the left side of their larval body.

(Sea cucumbers and sand dollars are superficially bilateral as adults, but evolved this secondarily on top of their existing radial symmetry. And some adult echinoderms like starfish also seem to retain a little bit of "behavioral bilaterism", generally preferring to move with a specific arm always acting as their "front" end.)

The first known echinoderms appeared in the fossil record during the early Cambrian, about 525 million years ago, but the common ancestor of the whole group probably actually originated a few tens of millions of years earlier in the mid-to-late Ediacaran. Early echinoderms seem to have started off as flattened animals that sat on the seafloor filter-feeding, and with this largely immobile way of life their bodies started to shift into asymmetry, no longer constrained by the locomotory advantages of being bilaterally symmetric.

In fact, for these early sedentary filter-feeders being radial was actually much more advantageous, able to distribute sense organs all around their bodies and grab food from any direction without having to reposition themselves, converging on the lifestyle of non-bilaterian cnidarian polyps. The evolutionary transition from bilateral to asymmetrical to pentaradial seems to have happened incredibly quickly during the Cambrian Explosion, and all modern echinoderms probably evolved from a group called the edrioasteroids, maintaining their new base body plan even when they later began taking up more mobile lifestyles again.

But during the process of all that some very alien-looking lineages split off at various stages of anatomical weirdness.

Stylophorans had asymmetrical bodies with a single feeding arm at the front, and varied from irregular boot-like shapes to almost bilateral heart shapes depending on their specific ecologies. The highly asymmetrical forms were probably spreading their weight out over soft soupy mud in quiet waters, while the more bilateral forms may have been more streamlined to deal with stronger water currents.

Sokkaejaecystis serrata was a stylophoran that lived during the late Cambrian, about 501-488 million years ago, in what is now South Korea. It was tiny, only about 1cm long (~0.4"), and its boot-shaped body was surrounded by spines and flanges that spread out its surface area and probably also made it much more awkward for small predators to attempt to eat.

———

Meanwhile the solutes started off as immobile animals living attached to the seafloor via a stalk-like appendage. But fairly early in their evolution they switched to a more active mode of life, modifying their stems into tail-like "steles" that were used to push themselves along.

Maennilia estonica lived in what is now Estonia during the late Ordovician, about 450 million years ago. It was quite large for a solute at about 12cm long (~4.7"), with a sort of vaguely-trapezoidal body, a short feeding arm, and a long thin stele.

Both of these strange early echinoderm lineages were surprisingly successful, surviving for a good chunk of the Paleozoic Era alongside their more familiar radial relatives. The solutes lasted until the early Devonian about 400 million years ago, and the stylophorans continued all the way into the late Carboniferous about 310 million years ago.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Twitter | Patreon

[oliveroctavius]

I got this ask on main but thought I'd pick it up here, my comics history/fashion ramble blog. I'd been wondering this exact same thing recently, and Google initially wasn't much help—Rocketeer replica jackets describe themselves only as "Rocketeer jackets" and the one Lobster Johnson cosplay thread just suggested ordering one of those.

The most curious part is the double seam and horizonal row of buttons that mark out the entire front as possibly being an unbuttonable "bib", like a plastron front. (Please don't ask how late in the game I worked out that "plastron" is the right word for that.)

The closest genuine Golden Age example of a plastron jacket I found was the military tunic style uniform of Blackhawk, created in 1941.

(Pics from the '52 movie serial (right) really show how awkward it is to combine open lapels + plastron. On a double breasted coat, that chest panel IS the bottom lapel, folded shut.)

Here's the thing: This outfit mirrors that of the Nazi ace pilot he fights in the origin issue, von Tepp (middle). And compare further to the far right: real life WWI flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, AKA the Red Baron, in imperial German Uhlan (lance cavalry) uniform.

"The Germans had designed such great costumes, we decided to use them ourselves," co-creator Cuidera is quoted as saying in Steranko's History of Comics, which (more dubiously, in my opinion) compares the look to the Gestapo or SS. Breeches or jodhpurs weren't strictly a Nazi thing at the time, but they do add to the overall effect.

Compare two other military tunic themed costumes from 1940, on Captain Marvel and Bucky Barnes. These are asymmetrically buttoned, and switch to a more classic circus strongman look below the waist.

But somewhere around 1975, with the Invaders book, Bucky gets a buttoned bib! There's something infectious about it—the symmetry, maybe. (Even re: the characters we started with; Mignola didn't draw Lobster Johnson with buttons down the right side, but every artist after does. And Spider-Noir wore a sweater under his coat until Shattered Dimensions introduced the double-breasted vest.)

If it didn't reach his belt, Barnes' button-on front + shirt collar combo would resemble a bib-front western shirt, like the one that became the Rawhide Kid's signature look in '56. (Or Texas Twister's in '76.)

This shirt entered the old-West-obsessed public imagination in the 1940s/50s largely because John Wayne wore it in several cowboy movies. In reality it was rare among cowboys, more common with firefighters and civil war era militia.

Military tunics, Western shirts, alright, but does anything match the style and material and era, or are these jackets a total anachronism? I tried looking into 1930s leather flight jackets and was surprised when the closest-looking results were marked as Luftwaffe.

It took me a bit to work out why: USAF and RAF issued standard flight jackets with a center closure. The Luftwaffe instead let their pilots buy non-standardized ones. The 'weird' double-breasted black German flight jackets were in fact fairly normal (but repurposed) motorcycle racing jackets.

Far left is an English biker's jacket that dates back to the 1920s. Even without the bib, this may be as close as you'll get to an authentic Rocketeer. The jodhpurs were pretty common to complete the look. (What was an early motorcycle anyways, if not a weird metal horse?) The first biker jacket with the now iconic off-center diagonal zip was designed in America in 1928 and yet as far as I can tell, not a single actual pre-war pulp hero wore one.

The greatest weakness of this post is that I haven't been able to find any of these artists' notes on how, exactly, they arrived at similar versions of this iconic Pulp Front Panel Jacket. I'm sure I've missed some things. But as far as I can tell, this jacket is an odd bit of convergent stylistic evolution from the above influences that's picked up enough momentum to now be self-perpetuating.

The problem with pulp heroes is that for the most part, they just wore clothes. The appeal of this jacket is actually very similar to what the 1940s thought the appeal of the bib-front shirt in westerns was: It's alien enough to feel "old". It looks like something invented before zippers or synthetic fabrics. It looks formal and militant but also renegade, rebellious. It also looks a little mad-sciencey*. It's a costume, but you can nearly fool yourself into thinking the past was weird enough that you could find something this cool on the rack.

If I wanted to end on some grand point, I could try to argue that there's a thematic throughline between fascist fashion, John Wayne movies, and throwback pulp. A manufactured aesthetic valorizing the violence of a fictional golden age... but I think the noir stylings of the post-Rocketeer comics in this lineup mean that, at least on some level, they know the "good guys" didn't dress like this.

*If I had another couple weeks of time to burn, I'd try to trace the visual history of the Howie coat in popular culture and investigate its possible connections to this. Alas, I do actually have a life.

[talonabraxas]

The Flower of Life

There really is some deep rooted symbolism behind this captivating image. Some say it’s representative of the union of the sacred Masculine and the Divine Feminine, the connectedness of all living things, and others see it as the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Let’s explore the depths of the topic.

Origins & Symbolism The origins of the Flower of Life trace back to the dawn of civilisation, where it is believed to have emerged as a symbol of cosmic order and divine harmony. Its precise origins are shrouded in mystery, with some attributing its creation to ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, where it was found in the temple of Osiris and said to contain a ‘secret code’ (underpinning the basic building blocks of the universe), and also the Sumerians, and the Greeks.

At its core, the Flower of Life is composed of multiple evenly-spaced, overlapping circles, forming a mesmerising geometric pattern reminiscent of a flower in full bloom. Within this pattern lies a myriad of geometric shapes, including triangles, hexagons, and pentagons, each imbued with its own symbolic significance.

The Flower of Life is often associated with sacred geometry, a branch of mathematics concerned with the study of geometric forms and their spiritual, philosophical, and symbolic meanings. It is believed to represent the interconnectedness of all living beings, the fundamental unity of existence, and the underlying order of the universe.

Spiritual Significance In spiritual traditions around the world, the Flower of Life holds profound significance as a symbol of creation and interconnectedness. It is often regarded as a visual representation of the divine blueprint of the cosmos, with each circle representing a stage in the process of creation.

Within the Flower of Life, one can find various sacred symbols, including the Seed of Life, the Tree of Life, all 7 Chakra systems, and the Metatron's Cube, each carrying its own symbolic meaning and spiritual power. These symbols are believed to hold the keys to unlocking higher states of consciousness, facilitating spiritual growth, and connecting with the universal source of energy and wisdom.

Healing & Transformation Beyond its spiritual significance, the Flower of Life is also associated with healing and transformation. It is believed that meditating upon the pattern of the Flower of Life can help to harmonise the mind, body, and spirit, promoting health, balance, and inner peace.

In recent years, the Flower of Life has experienced a resurgence in popularity, with many people incorporating its imagery into their spiritual practices, artwork, and jewellery. Its intricate beauty and profound symbolism continue to inspire awe and fascination, serving as a potent reminder of the interconnectedness of all things and the infinite possibilities that lie within the universe.

Modern Interpretations In the modern era, scientists, mathematicians, and artists have continued to explore the mysteries of the Flower of Life, uncovering new insights into its geometric properties and mathematical significance. Through computer simulations and mathematical algorithms, researchers have gained a deeper understanding of the complex patterns and symmetries inherent in the Flower of Life, shedding light on its underlying principles of order and harmony.

Furthermore, the Flower of Life has found its way into various fields beyond spirituality and art, including architecture, design, and technology. Its geometric principles have been applied in the construction of sacred buildings, the development of advanced engineering techniques, and the design of innovative products and structures.

The Flower of Life: Mysteries of Sacred Geometry:

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Matt Bellamy - Muse [ROCKIN'ON (June 2001)]

Photographer: Masakazu Yoshiba

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(via fuckyesmuse)