#why did I render the watermelon and nothing else

[wh01sstanl3y]

Ooooo I love watermelon sooo good here’s Martin enjoying some watermelon

[zensakira]

So I wrote some notes while I was watching the miraculous movie. (I didn't intend to watch it today, I was looking for something to watch and was pleasantly surprised to see it popped up on Netflix.)

With absolutely no further context, here are my notes.

================================

That is not marinettes singing voice

Doesn't fit her

Animation is beautiful

There's no chemistry between marinette and adrien

Adriens singing voice fits better

How did fu know hawkmoth's name is hawkmoth

HE GETS A SONG????

THE MIME GUY IS NOW A CRIMINAL??

MULTIPLE AKUMAS AT ONCE?

Tom is gonna embarrass her

NO SAD TOM IS SAD ME

DID THEY JUST USE A SCREAM MEME SOUND EFFECT

Ain't no way they just said they have style

THEY INCLUDED THE VOLKSWAGEN

Where did the ice cream go

I don't see the annoyance bit

THEY DID THE KOREAN THING

WHAT

Now that is chemistry

Is ladybug flirting back what happened to I'm so annoyed

ANd yOu nEeD a piAnO foR tHat??

"you've revealed a whole new world to me

And its all thanks to you"?????

IT'S BECAUSE OF PLAGG ENTIRELY

YOU SAVE THE WORLD EVERYDAY BEHIND A MASK BUT THE GIRL BEHIND THE MASK SAVED MY HEART

UGHHHGHHB CHEESE

Hang on so canonically she likes them both at the same time and recognizes that

Adrien talking back to Gabriel,???????

Sir that someone else can't go to the ball anyway besides the ball doesn't equal a date nor does it mean you want to be together in a relationship

Is it another song

It is

Lyrics need workshopping

STOP IT ADRIEN JUST GO

Hmm a lucky charm would be nice

Does he have super speed as well

Don't worry the Eiffel tower always falls

Just lucky charm it

So what exactly is the super power he gave himself

WHAT IS THIS

THE FORCE??

I will myself to be a jedi ig

Gabriel is a star wars nerd confirmed

That scratch is the only retailiation that son will ever have over father

NOT THIS CHEESY LINE AGAIN

How did she jump so high without super powers

That jump was for nothing I guess

And.... Indestructible suits??

Oh. That's why they made his eyes white at first

  where's the lucky charm coming

Hang on is this movie almost over it felt like nothing happened

Where did all the backdrop butterflies come from

SHE'S MASSIVE

DAMN GABRIEL YOU MARRIED A GIANT

Marinette it was obviously him

CHLOE SPOTTED HELPING SABRINA UP?

Hang on I'M SORRY? Construction workers have no job I guess and also what if she missed a spot, does she only reconstruct what her eyes can see???

Wait what's the point in gardening

Creation = growth? Can you help babies grow too?

Dupin? DUPIN??? IT'S DUPAINNNNNNN

Oh it's December

Wow hawkmoth gets defeated in less than half a year instead of 8 years wait no it's only been one school year in the show as well darn

Ok Chloe has a pretty dress

It's a black mask girl what point was that gonna prove

Why he crying

How did they know to meet each other outside

Wow they don't even kiss

What is the new movie after finna be about the peacock or what

Oh it's about Emilie except she's literally dead and there's no preserving pod or anything

That's it????

================================

Some final thoughts. The animation is stunning. As an animator myself I found myself admiring the beauty of the rendering very often. So the movie did this fantastically well.

But the script overall is lacking. Watermelon is a fun joke. Flea bag is a funny new nickname. But none of their interactions sound endearing or even natural. The delivery was so flat.

I understand that there are troubles in condensing a five season show into a movie. But similar to how they adapted the lightning thief into a movie, my thoughts are the same: if you're not going to do it justice don't do it at all.

There are many bits of the movie that I love, thematically, aesthetically; tHE KOREAN MOVE that playfulness was the only thing that made me feel they had chemistry. I liked their initial meeting, stumbling into each other; but every interaction after that made ladybug- marinette (oops spoilers jk) feel like a wishy washy character who can't decide between being annoyed or insecure. And even the annoyance is just so terribly expressed, its hard to tell what's genuine and what's playful. Every eye roll is accompanied with a smirk or a smile, so it feels like she doesn't mean what she says when she tells him to stop.

Also, when chat noir first falls in love with ladybug.... It doesn't feel that impactful. Like that scene of being in awe.. What are you in awe of? Vs the show scene where he witnesses her be impossibly brave, purifying like a billion butterflies at once and then essentially declaring war on hawkmoth and pledging herself to be the hero of Paris... Like that's awe inspiring. Speaking of, what happened to the gargoyle unpurified ladybug??

I've waited so many years for this movie and the aesthetics are stunning but. The delivery is just.. The script.. Aiii. And also Fu is portrayed as this more ominious crazy old man when he's supposed to be a kind old man! Though I do like that plagg and tikki are the ones who pick their holders.

Anyways. If you're reading my live notes from the movie just know that its in chronological order. Feel free to guess exactly which moment is referring to which part of the movie.

[zaptap]

ive made a few of these bingo sheets and theyre fun so i decided to make one not just for e3 but also JUST for splatoon 3 (not just for e3 but for like the whole lifetime of the game). also heres my updated list of characters id like to see in smash, ordered generally by which id like more and/or think are the most realistic

since min min got in i took out helix, and since i couldnt decide whether to add in waluigi or madeline i added another row (realistically i dont think any indies are getting in but i threw some in anyway). also i was like “oh yeah maybe theyd put in a gen viii pokemon” so i threw in hatterene since thats one of my favorites.

also as for waluigi (and shovel knight for that matter) i think it would be nice to see an assist trophy get in just to break that rule. also i remember being super surprised he wasnt in brawl (back then i thought he and wario were equally important) and even though that was based on a wrong impression ive still felt like he should be in there ever since

notes about the bingos under the cut

really is about time for those n64 games, especially now that mario is dead so theyre free to release sm64 on it. game boy games would be nice sometime too

would also make sense to include banjo-kazooie in that, nintendos had a good relationship with microsoft lately and the total absence of anything banjo-kazooie on the switch is odd since it’s a dlc character (every other one has a game on switch they can use for cross-marketing, even if joker’s took a while) and i think the best explanation for that would be that theyre holding off for the nso n64 app (this is easiest from a technical standpoint because all they have to do is make a deal to use the roms)

when are they putting octolings in mk8d

xenoblade chronicles x is one of the only wii u games left that they could port (aside from ones that wouldnt make much sense like splatoon and ssb4) so i guess that might as well happen sometime. also monolith soft might be doing something else besides helping with splatoon 3

im not ready for metroid prime 4 (im over halfway through mp2 and therefore the trilogy as a whole) but it’s been a while, they might show it and it could even come out this year

hal apparently recently hinted at a new kirby game or something

the upgraded switch is obviously going to be called the Nintendo Switch ͥ  since they already did the ds lite so theyre clearly naming everything in the family after the ds family, theres absolutely no flaw in this logic. idk if theyre showing it, but unlike 2019 they didnt say they werent showing new hardware (just that they were showing software, which could be taken as denying rumors, but they sometimes specify when certain things arent being shown)

metroid prime trilogy also might come this year. would make sense to release it before mp4 since not everyone is going to buy a wii u to get it (and at this point that doesnt get nintendo any money since they stopped making them)

where is detective pikachu 2. i hope it has the blue pikachu from that first tease they gave us in like 2014 (2013? that was a loooong time ago idk)

they said this was MOSTLY 2021 so i am absolutely getting my hopes up for splatoon 2

the two sinnoh games could likely be there

would be super cool if oddity came to switch. and almost as ironic as megalovania getting into smash

we havent seen the botw sequel for a couple years so we’re kind of due for an update on that

it’s ace attorney’s 20th anniversary this year so maybe theyre doing something. theyre already porting those games though so idk. maybe he’s getting in smash

whats with that watermelon mario render

i held off on watching a playthrough for ndrv3 on the off chance it came to switch and i could play a dangan ronpa game for real for once but it’s now been 4 years and we just passed the 10th anniversary of the series (albeit during a pandemic when i wouldnt expect them to have done anything) so it would be cool to see the series come to switch. i think if it still doesnt after this though i’ll just watch the playthrough, 4 years is long enough. amazed ive avoided spoilers this long, i still know next to nothing about the game

im about done with acnh but im still waiting on those splatoon items. and i ran out of storage in february so i need more of that too

nintendo did stuff for zelda’s 30th anniversary so i doubt theyre forgetting the 35th. maybe wwhd/tphd ports, idk

been a couple years since fire emblem, intelligent systems is probably up to something besides planning yet another paper mario spinoff

miyamoto forgot pikmin 4 in the oven 6 years ago and it got burnt to a crisp and thats why it hasnt come out yet because he had to start over

and splatoon

the inklings scared daft punk into quitting so now that theres no competition in the robot musician scene they should have a daft punk style group

i waited and waited and neither of my top two splatoon stages (flounder and d’alfonsino) came back in splatoon 2 so i hope just because splatoon 3 isnt in inkopolis doesnt mean they still wont return

would be sick as hell if there was a real hide and seek mode instead of just sticking to your own rules in private battles. havent played that since 2015 but it was super fun

show us the effects of the chaos world

i wanted mc craig to have a song in octo expansion and they didnt deliver. heres another chance

splatnet 3 baby

cant wait for nogami to do a funny 3 pose

abxy came back for splatoon 2.... am i gonna be that lucky again...?

salmon run doesnt make sense if youre friends with a smallfry but they could either change the story context (you just fight “evil” salmonids?) or replace it with an equally fun co-op mode

amiibo!!! i think i said this before but they should label them by weapons if these cephalopods dont have genders, would make more sense (the gendered ones had different weapons anyway)

returning characters!!!! would like to see everyone have a role of some kind

maybe #GearForAll wasnt successful in getting the emperor/spy/mecha gear, but perhaps theyll at least consider not making that stuff exclusive this time around

squid girl gear should be back. and they should call it a dress instead of a tunic because its a dress. and theres no gender now anyway

as ive said before... TRIPLIES!! you hold one in each hand and another in your mouth. and you can spin around like the tasmanian devil

remove splatfest tee annoyances: you should have a prompt at the end of a splatfest to pay to scrub your tee (to make sure you get the chunks) also it should be on a neutral brand so you dont end up with an overabundance of ink resistance up (or whatever else)

better online and cloud saves would certainly justify having a second splatoon game on the same console, as much as im loving that it exists

hopefully theres a global testfire again

sooner or later the workers will rise up and kill mr grizz

remember in splatoon 1 where if you had squid beatz (via the amiibo) you could “play” it in the lobby and change the music? then you were stuck listening to only bubble bath in splatoon 2? why did they take that option away they should bring it back

looking at those apartment buildings in the trailer i think it would be cool if you had your own room and could decorate it

an octavio redemption arc would be fun to see. in the manga he stole the zapfish because the octarians had an energy crisis, and in the end they worked out a deal to share the electricity

[legobiwan]

Just got home from The Rise of Skywalker. No pithy intro, I’m just going to jump right in and it’s going to be a LONG rant here so buckle up, my friends, and be sure to read below the cut. SPOILERS AHOY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Okay, so yes, the first third of the movie went at a blistering, nearly nonsensical pace. JJ  really had to cram a whole watermelon’s worth of exposition into a...well, you know, there was a lot to take in. This movie had to do so much telling instead of showing because it was such a departure (and middle finger to TLJ) from what came before. 

The thing was, the first third was also the most interesting part of the movie. I actually wish the whole trilogy had started with all of the Sith nonsense. (Actually, I wish they had started with Kylo absolutely wrecking shit like he did and then the Palpatine scene. People would have made all the wrong assumptions and it would have been glorious to unravel it over three films.) There is a strong history of Sith artifacts in both Nu-Canon and Legends, and it wouldn’t have been out of place, considering what we know now, to have made Rey, Poe, and Finn’s quest for these artifacts the start of the new trilogy, and then told the rest of the story in a non-linear timeline. Probably too experimental for a Star Wars reboot, but it would have grabbed attention and everyone like creepy Sith shit. 

Frankly, I would have dropped zombie-robot Palpatine at the very start of the trilogy, as well. It’s bonkers but I don’t hate the Rey Palpatine thing and they could have spent the rest fo the movies explaining this weird-ass lineage and how it relates to Kylo, Snoke, etc. and then have built back to the final confrontaion on Exegol. 

Leia. Trained. Rey. I so so so so so wished we had been able to get more of this. This, in my mind, is what it should have been all along. I liked TLJ (okay, so shoot me) but Master Leia is a whole other level of awesome. If I had to rewrite Luke and Leia’s roles, it would have went something like this:

Luke was searching for Sith artifacts. Luke was becoming disillusioned by what he was learning of the Jedi through “The Sacred Texts.” WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE? Hmmmm, I wonder....

Could you imagine Luke started to go a little Dooku in this respect, and so instead of fucking off the Ach-To because he had a feeling that was more “gravy than of grave” about Ben Solo’s dark sidedness, he fucked off to Ach-To - or even better - gave up training in order to keep himself from going down a darker path. 

And so instead, Leia is getting involved with training (and probably also governing at the same time because she would be an overachiever like that.)

Enter Ben Solo, who is Force sensitive, strong, being trained by his mother and occasionally his uncle, who is not totally plugged into the light side at the moment, which can rub off on Ben. Meanwhile, Han is maybe not the best father (he wants to be, he tries, but it all comes out wrong. I’ve been watching a lot of Psych lately, so I’m thinking of a dynamic similar to Henry and Shawn, but a little more dramatic.)

Of course, Palpatine is seeing all of this behind the scenes, he’s fostering ill will and discontent through the scattered remains of the Empire, sending Snoke clones out to be almost pseudo-religious/cult figures in the wake of the economic and social devastation left by the Empire’s fall and the floundering new government. Extremism, in pockets, rises. Extremism which preys on discontent, which preys of the desire for family, for belonging. 

Enter again Ben Solo, who has been pitted against the other strongest trainee, Rey (insert whatever last name you want. She knows it’s not her real name, she knows she was an orphan on Jakku, but she was brought by Luke to be trained). Ben is pissed how she and Leia bond, has been talking to his uncle, and perhaps encountered a Snoke clone on the way. 

Rey, on the other hand, is no one but wants to be someone, and that manifests in weird ways during her training. Perhaps she leaves at some point, perhaps not. But the seeds of her being Palpatine’s bloodline are laid within her. She wants to seek that belonging Ben has.

Okay, but getting away from my personal rewrites of the sequels, Star Wars is about family and lineage, both blood and found. There was so much potential to play on this throughout the trilogy with the Skywalkers, with Rey’s relation to Palps that if they had just planned the damn thing, it could have been brilliant. 

Moving ...(for now)

I felt so bad for Oscar Isaac. I felt like I watched his soul slowly depart his body over almost 3 hours. That man was not a happy camper and it came out in his performance. 

Power levels. Here’s the thing, guys. Magic needs to have consequences. Sure, you can cast a spell, but what does that take from you? You can use the Force, but to what degree? How much? Even Anakin exhausted himself at some points, and he was (allegedly, according to one Qui-gon Jinn), the Chosen One. It’s the first law of thermodynamics - energy can neither be created nor destroyed - and the Force is literally the energy of every life thing in the galaxy. You take the energy, use it towards something else, it has to drain from somewhere. This is what bugged the hell out of me with Rey’s Force Healing abilities (an ability that doesn’t thrill me to begin with as it’s so easy to overuse). Kylo keels from resurrecting the dead (and yeah, he was pretty beat up already), but Rey barely seems to breathe a beat harder. Once you start ignoring the consequences for magic, you end up like a shitty video game, and one of the criticisms I’ve leveled at the movie is that it feels like a montage of Battlefront and I can’t say that’s totally off point.

JEDI HUNTERS. Ochi. I will bet my right liver we’re going to hear something about this on The Mandalorian. 

So I know a lot of people wanted to see Rey Kenobi, but there was one piece of glaring evidence in the film why that would never be. (Aside from Kylo just announcing it to Rey.) She has a lightsaber, but she still ends up using a blaster. So uncivilized.

Speaking of The Mandalorian - Stormtroopers with Mando jetpacks. Hmmm.....

I loved techno-Sheev hooked up to all the equipment just floating. That was creepy as hell and played with the whole cloning and extension of life that was such a large part of the Darth Plagueis novel (which I still consider to be canon, higher powers be damned). Also, Palpy’s glowup with the wardrobe was hilarious. 

Dark!Rey was hot. There, I said it.

Let’s talk about romance. Or the lack thereof. Or the shoehorned thereof.

Poor Rose got shafted in this film with no explanation. I didn’t buy that whole thing in TLJ, but god damn anyway. (Finn also got shafted, for different reasons, which I will talk about later.)

If they were going to romance, just let it have been Finn and Poe, Finn and Rey, or fuck it, even a trio. 

I mean, I could have bought Reylo if it had been presented better. (With context. Adam Driver is an amazing actor, another thing I’ll talk about later.)

The Reylo kiss though - my theater laughed. No joke.

Of course, this was the same theater that thought Lando was trying to mack on Jannah at the end, so who knows what we were all thinking in there. (On that note, Lando was hilarious because no matter what, he was just having a grand ‘ol time in the movie. I like to think he got a medical spice card in his retirement years and was just enjoying anything that came his way, be it Wookiees, Jedi, starships, wars, whatever.)

While the Reylo kiss didn’t hit the mark the space lesbian background kiss got cheers, so there was some hope for my fellow theater-goers.

Did anyone pick up on Threepio saying the Senate made the bill that would render him incapable of translating the Sith language? No doubt that was a Palpatine move from TCW era. 

What is up with these movies and desert/jungle planets? Ugh. Thank everyone for Kijimi, at least that was interesting. 

New characters I loved: Babu Frik and DO. 

Finn’s Force sensitivity. Yes, I totally buy it. I wanted more. I wanted more fucking context of a Stormtrooper who would have known nothing of the Jedi getting these feelings and then bailing from the First Order (or, if I were writing the movies, bailing from the remnants of the Empire/Snokes weird military cults.) Totally underutilized character development. 

We. Were. Robbed. of Good!Ben. Adam Driver is so phenomenal. Form the little we saw of redeemed Ben, he is the perfect mix of his parents, from the “Ow” to the eyebrow wagging, the swagger, the smirks...I LOVED good!Ben. I wanted so much more good!Ben. What a transformation.

Speaking of which - the scene between Kylo/Ben and Han was terrific. I wish we had had more context for why everything went south, but it was so good and the type of family dynamic we really needed more of. 

The Knights of Ren looked awesome in this film? They needed to be like the Black Order of Star Wars, and they were getting to it, but not quite there. Gods, they could have been the enforcers of Snoke’s cults (Palpy’s puppet cults) that could terrorize far more than a normal, brainwashed Stormtrooper, who was only useful as cannon fodder (I mean, if we look at the history of the clone army to the Stormtroopers, it would be terribly fitting.)

That ship tug-of-war was DUMB. (See my rant about magic and consequences). But, if Rey was going to shoot lightening Palpy-style and blow up a ship, Chewie should have died. I’m sorry, that’s terrible, I love him, but there needed to be consequences for actions and throughout the film, there were either no consequences or random consequences that were a narrative convenience rather than developed into the plot/characterization/worldbuilding. 

Here’s the thing with the ST - there is so much potential. There are some awesome ideas. But they wanted to play if safe with JJ by rebooting the OT, Rian was too far out for them, there was no cohesive storytelling, and so we get these little glimpses into what could have been amidst a shitstorm of trailers for Battlefront 17. 

we could have had it allll....

Final rating: 4/10

[mxystan]

Extra: Lotus Pods 2

and here’s lotus pods 2, b-side with lan wangji!

featuring: twin jades, bunnies, and lan wangji’s first field trip

Chapter 126, Extra 6: Lotus Pods 1 (gdocs mirror)

Chapter 127, Extra 6: Lotus Pods 2 (gdocs mirror)

The Cloud Recesses.

Everywhere else, the sun scorched down mercilessly in the height of summer. Deep within the mountains, however, laid another world, a sanctuary of cool serenity.

Outside of the Lanshi, two white-clothed figures stood in the hallway. The wind rustled their robes, but they did not move.

Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji were standing.

Standing upside down, on one hand.

The two of them did not say a word, as though sunk deep within their own thoughts. The stream bubbled, the birds chirped. That was the only sound that existed within this space.

Some time passed, and then Lan Wangji interrupted the silence. “Brother.”

Slowly extricating himself from his thoughts, Lan Xichen did not turn his head when he replied. “What is it?”

A pause. “Have you ever picked lotus pods?”

Lan Xichen finally turned, and said, “…no.”

After all, if a disciple of Gusu Lan wanted to eat from lotus pods, there would be no need for him to pick them himself.

Lan Wangji nodded in acknowledgement. 

Then he spoke. “Brother, did you know?”

“What?”

“Lotus pods with stems taste better than lotus pods without.”

“Oh?” responded Lan Xichen. “I did not know that. Is there a reason why you mentioned this?”

“No reason,” said Lan Wangji. “Time’s up. Switch hands.”

The two of them transferred their weight from their right arms to their left in perfect unison and in perfect silence.

Lan Xichen decided further questioning could wait until later. He turned his head back to their task, but then broke out into a smile. 

“Wangji, you have a visitor.”

On the edge of the hallway, a fluffy white rabbit slowly hopped over to Lan Wangji’s left, twitching its nose.

“How did it get here?” Lan Xichen wondered.

Lan Wangji gave the rabbit a stern look. “Return.”

The rabbit didn’t listen. Instead, it took one end of Lan Wangji’s forehead ribbon in its mouth and tugged firmly, as though it thought that it could drag him away if it tried hard enough.

“I think it wants you to go with it,” said Lan Xichen with a completely straight face.

After tugging for a while, the rabbit finally gave up on its efforts and circled around the two in frustration. 

“This is the lively one, isn’t it?” Lan Xichen asked, amused.

“Too lively.”

“It is no matter,” Lan Xichen said. “After all, I think it’s cute. Though, I believe there were two of them. They’re usually inseparable, so why is there only one here? Is the other too shy to come over?”

“It will come,” Lan Wangji replied.

As though on cue, another small white head appeared at the edge of the hallway in search of its friend. The two balls of fluff chased each other for a while until they finally settled down next to Lan Wangji’s left arm, curled up next to each other.

Seeing the two of them play together so affectionately, even from an upside-down perspective, Lan Xichen couldn’t help but think it cute. “What are their names?”

Lan Wangji only shook his head. Either they did not have names, or he would not say them.

Lan Xichen decided to push the issue. “I remember hearing you call for them last time.”

“…”

He smiled sincerely. “They’re good names.”

Abruptly, Lan Wangji switched hands.

“Time’s not up yet,” Lan Xichen reminded him.

…Without further argument, Lan Wangji switched his hands back.

–

There they remained until the incense stick burned down to its last cinders, and then time was up. The two of them stood back up, and returned to the Yashi.

A servant had sent over a plate of fruit, cool and refreshing. The watermelons have had their skins removed, and the fruit inside had been chopped and lined up in neat rows on a jade platter. Red and succulent, they really did look nice. The brothers sat down at the table, exchanging thoughts on yesterday’s studies, and began to eat.

Lan Xichen reached for a slice of watermelon, but paused as his eyes landed on his brother, gaze focused intently on the plate.

As he expected, Lan Wangji did have something to say. “Brother.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever eaten watermelon skin?”

…

“Can you eat them?” Lan Xichen asked.

A moment of silence. “I heard you can fry them,” Lan Wangji responded.

“Maybe so.”

“I heard it tastes remarkable.”

“I haven’t tried.”

“Neither have I.”

Um…

“…do you want someone to fry some for you?”

Lan Wangji thought for a bit, then shook his head.

Lan Xichen let out the breath he had been holding.

There was no need to ask where exactly his brother had heard of this. For some reason, he believed he probably already knew the answer.

–

The next day, Lan Wangji descended from the mountain, alone.

He was not unused to going down. However, he was not used to coming down on his own, and certainly not to such a lively place.

The marketplace buzzed with activity. Whether it was within the sect, or on the hunting grounds, Lan Wangji had never gotten used to seeing so many people gathered in one place. Even in the comparatively noisy conferences, there was still a certain order to be maintained. 

The marketplace, on the other hand, was chaotic in its crowdedness. If one were to step on another’s feet, or to bump into someone else’s cart, that should’ve only be expected.

Never having enjoyed physical contact, Lan Wangji hesitated upon seeing this, but did not turn back. Instead, he decided to ask for directions.

But, after walking around for a while, he still hadn’t found someone he could ask.

At this point, Lan Wangji realized that it wasn’t just him who found the crowd unapproachable. They didn’t know how to approach him either.

Against the backdrop of the bustling marketplace, he cut a solitary figure, his clothes and the sword upon his back shining and pristine. The vendors, farmers, and loiterers, unused to seeing a cultivator amongst them, avoided him without a single thought. After all, if this fellow turned out to be a troublesome sort, nothing good could come out of offending him. 

Plus, there was the issue of his face, features constantly frozen in a stern and cold expression. Even his brother had teased him for it in the past, saying that his expression could freeze everything around him in a six-meter radius, sparing not even a single blade of grass.

Only the village girls had been brave enough to spare him a glance, staring hesitantly at him from the corners of their eyes, though they immediately lowered their heads when he walked past, busying themselves with whatever’s in their hands. It was only when he walked away that they relaxed, and flocked together to titter and giggle behind his back.

Lan Wangji continued walking for a while until he found an old woman sweeping the dust from her porch.

“Excuse me,” he asked. “Where is the nearest lotus pond?”

The old woman squinted at him, bad vision further blurred by the dust in her eyes, and said, “Go on for another eight or nine li in that direction. I think there’s a family that owns some acres of lotus.”

Lan Wangji nodded. “Thank you.”

“Young master,” the woman continued, “the pond doesn’t allow visitors after dark. If you want to play, you’ve got to hurry while the sun’s still out.”

Lan Wangji nodded again. “Thank you.”

As he turned around to leave, he noticed the old woman struggling to remove an old branch stuck underneath the eaves. Taking out his sword, he struck the branch so that it fell down neatly, and then took his leave.

Eight or nine li was not too far by his own standards. Following the direction the woman pointed out, Lan Wangji continued on his way.

–

One li later, and he had left the marketplace behind. Two li later, and the crowds began to thin out. Four li later, and only the mountains and the fields, greenery thick and lush, surround him. It took a while before he finally passed by something different, a crudely-built hut from which rose a meandering wisp of smoke. In the fields around it, a few children played, their hair sticking straight up as they ran around and threw mud at each other, laughing the entire time.

A little fascinated by this scene, Lan Wangji observed them until he was noticed. The children scattered. Seeing this, he returned to his path and continued to walk.

–

Five li later, Lan Wangji felt a coolness on his face. It was a drop of rain, blown towards him by a soft gust of wind.

He looked up. Sure enough, a dark front of grey clouds pressed forward, the rain intensifying as it did so.

And then, he saw five or six people gathered in one of the fields ahead.

The rain fell in sheets, but these people did not take out an umbrella, nor did they take cover. Instead, they seemed to be gathered around something, and were too focused on whatever it was to pay attention to anything else. Lan Wangji walked closer, and saw that what worried them was a farmer lying on the ground, howling in pain.

Listening in on their conversation, he began to understand what had transpired. While this farmer was working, another family’s cow bumped into him, and hurt his hip or his legs, rendering him unable to get back up. The cow had been sent far to the outskirts of the field as punishment, and it stayed away, head turned to the side and its tail waving, afraid to get any closer. Its owner had left to find a doctor, leaving these people to look over him at a distance, too afraid of agitating the state of his injury to do much else. 

But, things didn’t always go according to plan, and it had started to rain. They could bear it when it was only a drizzle, but once the rain had intensified, they were left at a loss.

They had sent one of their number back to fetch an umbrella, but his house was far from here, and he had still not returned after five hours. Growing increasingly worried, the rest could only huddle over the injured farmer, giving whatever shelter they could provide, but that was still not an adequate solution. And even if they did get their hands on an umbrella, there wouldn’t be enough for all of them. 

One person cursed under his breath. “Shit. This kind of rain, it really just comes out of nowhere.”

“Let’s see if we can set up that shed,” said another. “We’ll take whatever shelter we can get.”

Not far from them was an abandoned shed, held up by four pillars. But one of them had been knocked over and another was already rotted with age and wear, and so the roof had fallen.

One of them spoke up, hesitant. “We shouldn’t move him, should we?”

“A… a few paces should be alright.”

The group carefully picked up the injured farmer and sent two of their number to hold up the shed. But, even with their combined efforts, they couldn’t even move one corner of the roof. Their faces were red with effort as they exerted their entire strength, but even with that, they could not get it to budge. Another two farmers were sent over. Still, the roof remained unmoved.

This shed was made of sturdy wood and covered with a layer of grime and dust, so it couldn’t have been light. Still, it shouldn’t be so heavy as to defeat four healthy farmers.

Lan Wangji did not need to observe any longer to understand the situation. He walked to the shed, bent over, took a corner of the roof, and lifted.

The farmers stared at him in awe.

This roof, heavy enough to defeat four of their number, was lifted up by a bare-faced youth with only one hand!

Shaking himself out of his surprise, one of them turned to say something to the others, and they sprung back into motion. The injured farmer was carried over. When they entered the shed, they could only stare at Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji did not look back.

Once they settled the injured man down, two of them approached him. “Young… master. You’ve done enough, let us take over.”

Lan Wangji shook his head.

“You’re too young,” the two insisted. “You wouldn’t be able to maintain this amount of effort.”

As they said this, they lifted their own hands and placed them next to Lan Wangji’s, wishing to help him with the weight. Lan Wangji stared at them, and without a word, relaxed his arm by a few degrees. The two farmers immediately balked.

Lan Wangji looked away and straightened his arm again. The two farmers slinked back to their friends.

The roof was heavier than they’d thought. Without the youth’s strength, the two of them really could not support its weight for even a second.

After a while, another person shivered. “That’s strange. Why did it get colder when we came in?”

What they didn’t see, at that moment, was the figure in ragged clothes hanging from the center pillar, hair splintered and long tongue lolling from its mouth.

Outside, the wind howled. In the shed, the figure swayed, moved by its own eerie wind.

It was this spirit that weighed the roof down so that no normal person could lift it up.

Lan Wangji hadn’t thought to bring his cultivation tools when he left home earlier, but even if he did, this spirit had no malicious intent. He couldn’t just exorcise it, but it seemed that it wouldn’t listen to reason either. If it wouldn’t let itself down from where it was hanging, he could only hold the roof up for now, and send for assistance later. 

The spirit swayed behind him, blown about by the winds. “It’s so cold….”

“…”

It looked around, then pressed against one of the farmers, seeking to leech some warmth off of him. The farmer shuddered against the sudden cold and swore.

Lan Wangji slightly inclined his head, giving the spirit his coldest glare.

Reluctantly, the spirit peeled itself off the farmer and returned to its original spot. Still, it stuck out its tongue and continued to complain. “The rain, the rain is so strong, it’s unbearable…. really, it’s so cold…”

“…”

In the time it took for the doctor to arrive, none of the farmers had managed to gather up the courage to talk to Lan Wangji. When the rain finally abated and they’ve moved the injured out of the shed, Lan Wangji had already put down the roof, and left without a word.

–

When he finally arrived at the lotus pond, the sun had already set. 

Just when he was about to step into the pond, a small boat approached, and the middle-aged woman atop yelled. 

“Hey hey hey! What are you doing?”

“Picking lotus pods,” said Lan Wangji.

“The sun’s set!” the woman said. “We don’t let people in after dark, come back another day!”

“I won’t stay long. I’ll leave right after.”

The woman sighed. “Rules are rules! I don’t make them! If you insist, go talk to the owner!”

“Where is the owner.”

“He’s left! Don’t ask me either! If I let you in, the owner wouldn’t be happy, don’t make this hard for me!”

At this, Lan Wangji decided not to push further. He nodded. “Apologies.”

Though his expression was calm, he couldn’t hide his slight disappointment.

The woman looked over his white clothes, soaked and muddied, and softened her tone. “You were late today, so come by earlier tomorrow. Where did you come from? Young man, did you walk all the way here in that rain? Why didn’t you bring an umbrella? How far away do you live?”

Lan Wangji answered truthfully. “Thirty-four li.”

The woman let out a shocked gasp. “That far? Then you must have spent a long time getting here. If you wanted to eat lotus seeds that badly, you could’ve gotten some off any vendor in the street.”

Lan Wangji was already preparing to leave, but hearing this, he paused. “The pods they sell don’t carry stems.”

“You insist on getting them with the stem?” the woman said, incredulous. “But they don’t taste any different.”

“They do.”

“They don’t!”

“They do,” Lan Wangji insisted. “Someone told me they did.”

The woman stared, and laughed. “Who told you this? To think they’d have such a hold over this stubborn young master!”

Lan Wangji did not reply. It was about time he left. 

Seeing him turn away, the woman raised her voice. “Is your house really that far?”

“Mn.”

“Do you... have to go back? You can find someplace to stay nearby, and come back tomorrow?”

“There’s a curfew. I have class tomorrow.”

The woman rubbed the back of her head, thought for a while, and finally conceded. 

“…alright, I’ll let you in. But only for a bit! If you still want to pick some, then hurry. If anyone sees you, I’ll get scolded! And I’m far too old to be scolded!”

–

The rain washed over the mountains in the Cloud Recesses.

The orchids were made more beautiful after the shower, their delicate petals refreshed. Lan Xichen looked upon them fondly, took out a sheet of paper, and began to sketch.

From the other side of the window, a white-clothed figure approached. Lan Xichen did not let his brush stop to greet him. 

“Wangji.”

From the other side of the window, Lan Wangji nodded. “Brother.”

“You said you wanted lotus pods yesterday,” Lan Xichen said. “It just so happens that Uncle has asked people to bring some back today. Do you want some?”

“I’ve already had some.”

A little puzzled, Lan Xichen asked, “You did?”

“Mn.”

After exchanging a few more words, Lan Wangji returned to the Jingshi.

Having finished his drawing, Lan Xichen admired his work, filed it away, and took out Liebing, ready to practice his calming songs.

In front of the Gentian building, the lilac flowers shone with dewdrops. Lan Xichen walked in with soft steps, lifted his head, and stopped.

A slender vase stood in the middle, holding a few lotus pods within, their stems long and proud and beautiful.

Lan Xichen put away Liebing, walked towards the vase, and cocked his head, pondering.

In the end, he decided not to sneak one away to see if lotus seeds did taste better coming off the stem.

After all, judging by the happiness on Wangji’s face, they must have been delicious.