#so yeah help pls

[moodyvamp]

people with confusing hair texture like me how do I avoid frizz without straightening my hair

[dizzybizz]

mostly jrwi riptide but also @bardace's oc forts is here

[lilypetalzz]

my mental state as of now (I'm sure many of you can relate)

[moth-flowers]

moth-flowers #21

[ff3nrisulfr]

WHEN I TELL YOU IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO GET THE RIB CAGE RIGHT BRUH—ISTG

BUT NOW IM PROUD WITH HOW THIS IS COMING OUT SO FAR THO

[beatleswings]

LINDA and STELLA McCARTNEY. Jamaica. 1995. Photo taken by PAUL McCARTNEY. (x)

[betterthanbatman1]

Can anyone tell me where this is from?? pls pls

[pup-pee]

he is the dirt under my fingernails

[anastoza]

I'm in progress of making something really silly and all that can stop me is my inability to finish things MAYBE THIS PICTURE WILL GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT IT WILL BE

[dusty-siltstrider]

Surely this is a safe place to say this

Random thought while struggling to find references for this fucking outfit THIS ACT 2/3 ACADEMY(?) UNIFORM IS FUGLY I'M GONNA SAY IT

The fuck is this mess. What is it. Why does it have like 5 layers. wtf is his tie tucked into. The color scheme. Vertical stripes. Tf are those weird strappy buckles for. What are the reflective bits. Is it a reflective vest. For all the forklifts driving around ofc. The only saving grace of this outfit is that it exists on Viktor's body and that elevates it from a 1/10 to a 2/10.

Is this specifically Viktor's wardrobe or is it an Academy uniform cuz it's a lot different from what he and Jayce wear in Act 1 (and they're not really involved with the academy in later acts iirc I guess but I'm in no logical state here)

Look at that. Comfy. Practical. Scholarly. A dress shirt and a thin vest. The kinda shit you can wear while hunched over at a desk for 15 hours straight. Easy to cosplay. Shit I wear this on the regular already.

Why'd they give him a goddamn sleeveless silver surfer ass parka later on. I hate the vest. Why it look like that. Is so fucking bulky. That shit looks heavy. My boy gonna melt in any decent summer. I worked up a sweat and a sore neck just looking at it. Spent 20 minutes trying to figure out the fucking act 2/3 fit for cosplay and drawing purposes and I'm like 90% sure he's wearing three separate tops not including the vest. Viktor if this is your own style and not like obligatory businesswear then this ain't it (you're still stunning ofc)

(im very sorry im rather drunk and have been spending too much time thinking about this)

[ryllen]

[heximinimalsartstuff]

NICK JOHNSMITH!!! YEAHHHHH

finally after,sf. 2 maybe 3days i actually completed this one life got so in the way i'm so glad i'm done. :>

[twistedappletree]

Can I just scream about these two for a minute??

Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are so capable, so strong, so fluid and in harmony together as cultivators. Even Wei Wuxian himself is impressed by how skilled they are at such a young age.

And really, who would expect any less from Lan Clan disciples who’ve learned from the Twin Jades of Lan? But these two go so far beyond that. They are, in every sense of the phrase, core disciples. Trusted enough to handle situations like Mo Manor on their own, skilled enough to subdue something as resentful as the arm—something they’ve probably never come across in their short years of training, and determined enough to not give up even when the situation becomes dire and seems impossible.

You can give most of the credit to their seniors if you want but their level of cultivation wouldn’t be this high if they themselves didn’t put in the work, dedication and self-discipline to supersede all expectations and harness their full potential.

My boys deserve some goddamn respect on their names and that’s final. ⚔️

{ Footage from S1/EP1 of the MDZS Donghua }

[cables-and-wires]

help my family not go into medical debt

hey so my mom is on blood thinners and a couple weeks ago she was accidentally given way too much by her new nurse and it caused her to get horrible bruises and bleeding that warranted a trip to the ER.

she's fine now but the intense scare of having my mom in the ER distracted us from paying off some of our bills from the beginning of the month.

and now we found out that her insurance only covers like 90% of the hospital bill and it's still a bit too high

so im asking anyone to help don/ate on pay/pal to help my mom and i get back on our feet and potentially get legal help for what happened

pay/pal link: @/scrump444 (its in my moms name)

thank you for reading and please rb!!!

sorry for the image of dongrang its an accident but i dont feel like removing him

pay/pal: @/scrump444

0/300 raised

[lepidjester]

i wasn’t super sold on royalteeth/kingleader/kingmaster until i discovered my partner kins kinger and i kin caine. therefore, i had to draw them being dumb gay old men

they r holding handz <3

[muninnhuginn]

In Defence of Qiao Ling

I've been musing on several threads relating to Qiao Ling in the last few weeks and have seen a few posts going around that have pushed me to actually try and put all my Qiao Ling thoughts into words and in one place.

Despite the title, I don't fully agree with the show's handling of Qiao Ling, but I do think she has been provided with a clear ongoing arc and so that's what I'm going to be focusing on here.

This got quite long so most of it is under the cut, but shout-out to @lizzieonka and @oceaniche for their previous posts on Qiao Ling, which definitely ended up inspiring some parts of this.

So, let's start with: what do we actually know about Qiao Ling?

Qiao Ling's Background

She's first introduced as the "landlady", for all it quickly becomes apparent that her relationship with Cheng Xiaoshi isn't quite that simple. Her family "took Cheng Xiaoshi in" but there's always been some distance and that's reinforced by the whole "rent" deal. (The fact that Cheng Xiaoshi is still adamant his parents will return likely also factors in to this.) Still, Qiao Ling herself clearly sees Cheng Xiaoshi as her younger brother and is willing to stake her claim on him as family to near-strangers (we've seen it both when she met Lu Guang and Li Tianxi).

Qiao Ling's social life is clearly contrasted with that of Cheng Xiaoshi. Where Cheng Xiaoshi's first "proper" friend was Lu Guang, Qiao Ling has her own circle of friends and is fairly sociable in general (she literally found a client by befriending a stranger when she came to learn martial arts). Xu Shanshan, for instance, is very much Qiao Ling's friend despite hanging out with the collective group at uni. Qiao Ling also spoke of Cheng Xiaoshi's childhood as something that happened to him specifically, implying that she herself was spared the bullying (which makes sense considering the fact that she wasn't the one with missing parents) and so had a more "normal" upbringing. Whether she spoke up back then or stayed quiet isn't fully clarified (not speaking up against adults is one thing but what about classmates?), but Cheng Xiaoshi doesn't seem to hold it against her either way.

Nowadays, Qiao Ling's role in managing the photo shop's side-business has her interacting directly with most clients. She's the most customer-facing of the three, relaying information between clients and shiguang. This is despite her not actually knowing the full details behind shiguang's diving process until season two, which in retrospect makes it more impressive. Qiao Ling taking on the managerial role (and what is also implied to be social media advertising) also has the (unintended?) effect of obscuring shiguang's roles in the business from the public, as it's Qiao Ling who earns the nickname of "witch". It took until Xiao Li saw Cheng Xiaoshi in the CCTV footage during the Doudou case for anyone to see through this.

Key Character Moments

In terms of Qiao Ling's key moments, we have four main ones.

In Doudou arc, Qiao Ling admits she saw Doudou being taken three years ago;

In season two, at the hospital, Qiao Ling asks for some trust and to not be shut out anymore;

Qiao Ling bonding with Li Tianxi and using their shared aspects to bring her out of her shell so she would help the investigation;

The revelation that Qiao Ling did, in fact, receive some form of Lu Guang's memories from Tianxi and her dismissal of their implications.

The main thread behind all of these scenes is that they are about information and what you choose to do with it.

My thoughts are two-fold here. First, how these scenes connect with Qiao Ling's arc specifically, and secondly, how they connect with the broader themes of the series.

Qiao Ling's Arc

Doudou

Let's begin with Doudou arc. In this arc, Qiao Ling reveals that she saw the kidnapping of a child several years ago. She hadn't told anyone about this for three years and likely would have continued to have kept it to herself if not for Doudou's father approaching the photo studio. In this arc, there is the following exchange:

Qiao Ling's main regret is that she didn't do something or say something as she saw Doudou being taken away. That her inaction may have ensured that Doudou's kidnapper was able to get away with him. And she specifically says "I didn't even have the courage to step forward and provide any information." (Tangent: Funnily enough, Lu Guang is the "star of courage" in the Star Warriors later in the episode, not Qiao Ling. Qiao Ling is "star of wisdom" who is meant to "light the way". Still fitting, but in a less straightforward way.)

Now, to me, this is clearly setting up an arc, not resolving one. Qiao Ling wouldn't have offered the information if not for the circumstances. And it tells us that for all Qiao Ling has friends and is sociable, she still holds certain cards close to her chest. She doesn't want to confront the past so instead she will hold her guilt tight and not say a word. Though, as this exchange shows, she does want to have that courage. And I'll get onto this later, but this ties in very clearly with the information she later holds regarding Lu Guang.

Hospital confrontation

Throughout this entire scene, even before it becomes a "confrontation" Qiao Ling is clearly feeling guilty. She runs after Cheng Xiaoshi when he tries to leave to help the police so that she can *do something*, make up for it the best she can. Guilt and avoidance are key traits for her and they both manifest here. They're still holding her back.

And, of course, there's her statement to Cheng Xiaoshi: "You're always trying to protect me. I really appreciate it. But what I need more is your trust." Qiao Ling knows what it's like to be locked out of the loop. She didn't know the specifics of diving for months (possibly years?) and it didn't really seem to bother her (or at least she didn't give the impression it bothered her when "Xu Shanshan" asked her about it). But she has her limits. And being locked out when the situation is actively dangerous? That's clearly past those limits.

Li Tianxi

Grouping together the final two scenes, because the first Li Tianxi scene is more a demonstration of character traits as well as digging in those sibling parallels between LTC-LTX and CXS-QL. Anyway, the first scene adds more evidence to the idea that Qiao Ling is more sociable and a people person. That she could could get Li Tianxi to open up by taking a more understanding approach and showing that she gets it to some extent. She's in the same boat.

Which means when we get to the final scene, this is what ties it all together. Qiao Ling has inherited the memories Li Tianxi saw from Lu Guang. She has seen Cheng Xiaoshi's "death". She has information now. But her first instinct is to dismiss it. To avoid it and refuse to confront it because the implications are too much.

But, see, she's been in this situation before with Doudou. She's had information and done nothing with it and regretted. She wanted to have the courage to do better. This is her goal.

And the implications of these memories? Do they mean Cheng Xiaoshi is in danger? Wasn't danger her red line in the sand? Didn't she tell him that "protecting" people and "trusting" them aren't mutually exclusive?

And finally, Lu Guang isn't Li Tianxi, but isn't the scenario here at least somewhat similar? Isn't Qiao Ling in the same boat as him here, wanting to keep Cheng Xiaoshi safe? Hasn't Qiao Ling shown she can connect with people through their shared experiences?

Qiao Ling isn't a confrontational character. She's avoidant. She will wallow in her guilt and not let on until it gets too much. But she wants to do better and isn't this her chance to do something? Say something? To not just be a passive observer and be left with regrets? I don't think it will be immediate by any means, but I think for her arc to conclude properly, she will have to conclude for herself that she needs to be open with the information she has and share it. If she's pushed into it, then it's just Doudou again. But if she chooses to share the information, then that's the pay-off set up back in season one.

Broader Themes in the Show

Broader themes regarding information and withholding of it. We see time and again in this series, that characters withhold information from others.

Liu Xiao and Lu Guang with Li Tianchen and Cheng Xiaoshi respectively, both holding more information than their "partner". Refusing to share it so that they can control them. Their reasons may differ, but the dynamics mirror each other in that respect. Unhealthy dynamic number one.

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi, never addressing what Li Tianchen is doing with their powers. It allows Li Tianchen to pretend to himself that he is protecting Li Tianxi and carrying out justice. Li Tianxi is heavily implied in her telling of their backstory to know more than she lets on with regards to Li Tianchen's actions. But the refusal of both siblings to broach the topic eventually leads to Li Tianchen going where Li Tianxi cannot follow in his pursuit of vengeance and puts Li Tianxi in the very danger Li Tianchen wanted to avoid. Unhealthy dynamic number two. (There are more than this but I'm just sticking to these to keep this from getting any longer)

To go back to the hospital confrontation, when Qiao Ling says: "You're always trying to protect me. I really appreciate it. But what I need more is your trust." When she says this? It's a direct hit against the idea that protection should involve keeping people out. And in this case, Cheng Xiaoshi does start to let her in. They do manage to have healthy communication here now that Qiao Ling has been let in on the dives and is allowed to do something to help. She doesn't want to be passive.

She knows what it's like to be locked out, to be "protected" without having her own agency respected. But now, as of end of season two, she's on the other side. She has the information and Cheng Xiaoshi is locked out.

When Qiao Ling was assigned as the "Star of Wisdom, to light the way" in the Doudou arc, that's because it's her role in the show overall. Lu Guang certainly isn't going to push forward with healthy communication; he's too committed to his path for that. Cheng Xiaoshi meanwhile doesn't have the information needed to even start a confrontation. Qiao Ling is the only one in the position to lead the way with her knowledge. To provide the route to healthy communication once more.

She is the catalyst.