#why is ml doing the most when i also have to be doing the most(graduating)

[local-magpie]

this is one of the best examples why machine learning is so fascinating from a research perspective (and why i get so irritable when people conflate AI as a field with chatgpt and midjourney clones). HUMANS can tell the marines are humans, and trivally so. the machine was trained on humans, and has no idea they're humans. what can we learn about human cognition from this?

the thing about AI/ML, which makes fears of robot takeovers or AI sentience ridiculous to me & has me convinced the "AI fad" will blow over relatively fast, is that while we don't understand exactly how human cognition works, we DO know that it has to do with layers on layers on layers of heuristics (including heuristics to decide on a heuristic to use). what's a heuristic? well... it's what everyone above used in the exercise. the AI learned what a person walking looks like, and probably what "a person" looks like in common poses - but the AI didn't learn "humans somersaulting" or "humans camoflauged" or "what is a box and how is it supposed to act." AI have to be specifically trained and typically can only use very few heuristics at once, especially because we don't know how to mimic the way humans switch between them & the AI will easily get confused if you try to train it too broadly.

humans on the other hand are constantly learning and constantly determining new ways to apply that knowledge. if you'd never seen a somersault, you probably wouldn't know what the somersaulting marine was doing, but you'd know it was something coming at you and quite probably that it was a human, based off many other cues your brain learned over time and is able to mix together to figure things out. you know what a person looks like, and how they can move and bend in different ways, and then can extrapolate to a degree - you also likely know that virtually no other creature is bipedal AND moves in ways humans are capable of ("familiar" movement styles), and depending on your usual proximity to bipedal mammals your brain also likely filters out the probability of a hairless monkey in clothing coming at you to settle on "gotta be a person." the human brain is also capable of recognizing that that's A Thing and it is Coming At You, and probably also at speed, all of which is A Potential Concern - all of these are things machine learning struggles with and/or needs to be specifically trained to notice.

the contrast and having something to even try comparing to that we know the functionality of is what's so fascinating. we can compare cognition across different species, but the brain is a kind of fleshy black box we really haven't cracked in that way - the AI we have built and know the basic functionality and how it learns, even if what it learns and the specific way it will apply it is usually another black box. because we know the mechanisms of learning we're applying, we can use it to compare to our own mechanisms of learning and start to figure out where and how it falls short & try to seek a better mimicry method. i don't think all machine learning is doing this, to be clear, but it is absolutely the kind of research i find most interesting so obviously thats the only kind that matters

This screams clones to me

[fiftysevenacademics]

LSL: “You did it on purpose!”

SGH: “Let me put it this way. She might have considered you yesterday, but now, because of our relationship, I don’t think so.”

I love how the Waning River Crescent guys think they’re in a wuxia BL while FL thinks she’s in a historical romance, and the show never contradicts either side completely. One the one hand, Li Shiliu is obviously down bad for Song Yimeng, so bad that he flies up to her, drunk and crying on the roof, and FINALLY kisses her. But then, almost immediately after, has what can only be compared to a marital spat with jealous Shangguan He.

It’s almost like, when he’s Chief Li Shiliu in the jianghu, he’s following a BL script, and when he’s Seventh Prince Nan Heng in the imperial palace, he’s following a historical romance or palace intrigue script.

But the show we’re watching, A Dream Within A Dream, doesn’t completely take sides. At least, not yet, and I am loving it. In fact, we see that neither Nan Heng nor his alter ego Li Shiliu have ever shown much interest in women. He seems closest to Shangguan He and most comfortable in the homosocial, even downright gay, environment of the Waning River Crescent. Everyone in the world knew he had never kissed a woman, and it was front page news when he finally did.

We know that he rescued Shangguan He from a celestial prison*, but so far, we don’t know why. Maybe there was a romantic element to this rescue? I don’t think it really matters. The intimacy of their relationship is conveyed by the hilarious detail of Shangguan He’s hair constantly getting stuck in Li Shiliu’s armor, their petty bickering, and the way he lets Shangguan He act like the special-est little princess around him. If whatever is going on between them isn’t a sexual relationship, it’s not entirely heterosexual, either.

Then Song Yimeng walks into his life, and his primary script begins to change from a wuxia BL to a (heterosexual) historical romance. In Episode 16, the two genres come into direct conflict, but instead of downplaying the BL side of it in favor of the straight romance, it kind of doubles down on the BL with the scene that ends with Shangguan He accusing him of being a tepid lover who can’t handle hot-blooded partners: “You never spice it up. No wonder you can’t even handle Song Yimeng.” (You can't handle me, of course you can't handle her.)

In the end, I imagine he’ll end up with the woman (or try to and come to a tragic end), but I do hope that they keep allowing the BL genre to ride right alongside the more normative one like they’ve been doing. It’s smart because it gives us viewers a lot more to ship if we want (which is just a good business move on their part) but also, seems like a pretty clever commentary on the way queer-coded dramas have to be produced in China– you can get away with the the gay stuff if you constantly gaslight people, “No, that’s not really what this is about. These martial arts heroes live in a homosocial world– they’re all just bros together! Look at the sizzling relationship between the ML and FL!”

I love Li Shiliu/Nan Heng and Song Yimeng together and want to see them live happily ever after, but I also don’t want to see the flaming queerness of the Waning River Crescent negated or abandoned entirely by the male lead. I want to be left with the sense that he has two wives: Shangguan He and Song Yimeng.

*On that note, is Shangguan He a demon, fairy, or some other kind of immortal? There’s been a couple references to the Celestial Prison, and there was that scene where Li Shiliu suggested making Shangguan He test food for poison. At that point, we were still supposed to think it was because he was callous and cruel, but now we know he is not and it could have been because he knew that poison can’t truly hurt Shangguan He.

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

hesphael makes me so gngnggnghhhh because on the surface ephael is the stupid and boisterous one, and hestio is the sullen and serious guy with common sense and who keeps ephael in line. And then you peel them back a little and you realise that actually they're both fun-loving little guys - both hestio and ephael will gang up on their nearest victim (tesilid/ash) with lots of cheer. And then you peel back them even more and you realise that actually, much more than Hestio putting up with Ephael's careless attitude, Hestio is the super prissy fussy princess and everyone around him are the ones who are indulging him. And at the same time, Ephael is actually generally very level-headed and calm, and there's been multiple instances of him holding Hestio back. And that in a world where aura users are quite rare, Ephael is a advanced aura user while Hestio is a weak fragile supporter who yells "Hey Ephael!!! Take better care of your delicate supporter!!" with zero shame. Ephael may be the one who's always getting scolded and snarked at by Hestio, but he's definitely the one who's in charge of making sure Hestio doesn't accidentally kill himself. Do you get it do you get it.

[ittybittyfanblog]

Error 404: (Self-Aware!AU, Sylus Edition)

Summary: A LADS self-aware!AU featuring Sylus (+ maybe the other MLs!) and an oblivious player. That’s it, that’s the plot. Tags: player!reader x sylus, fem!reader x sylus, reader x lads, maybe some suggestive language?? will add more tags as the story progresses A/N: This is gonna be a multi-chapter fic! I’m still not sure whether to do the boys in rotation, or just focus on one ML per series. Don’t take my word for it atp tho – I’m not even sure if I can actually finish a series lol.  Also, I’ve had the creative liberty of changing stuff from the actual gameplay here and there. (Except for the self-awareness. That’s most definitely real.) Hope you enjoy~!

Pt. 1 - Pt. 2 - Pt. 3 - Pt. 4 - Pt. 5 - Pt. 6 - Pt. 7 - Pt. 8 - Pt. 9 - Pt. 10 - Epilogue (for the spin-off: click here!)

It’s a quarter past eight and you’re still on your desk working overtime on a Friday night. 

You let out a big sigh, leaning back on your office chair after an unhealthy duration of bad posture from hours of slouching down in front of your computer. There’s nothing ergonomic about the way this job is killing you, and the ache in your lower back can attest to that. 

An irate orange tabby plops himself in front of you, blocking your view of the glaring screen and you figure that it’s time for a break. 

“Me-oow.”

“I know, I know,” You answer tiredly, standing up to dodge a stray paw clawing your way and you hear cracks in three different places that are honestly unbecoming of a woman your age. You haven’t even reached thirty yet, for god’s sake. “I’m a bad mother. But mom also had to skip dinner to make it to the seven PM meeting, so cut me some slack, okay?” 

A high-pitched “meooowr!” is the only response you get; it seems like there’s no excusing late dinner time this time around. 

As much as you’d like to hem and haw and complain, the main reason why you’re still keeping this job is because you can work remotely. If it weren’t for the fact that you’re stuck most days at home working hours past your regular nine to five, having to be on-call around the clock at all times, and that you’ve consumed more sodium than a nitrite victim with the way you live off cup ramen, then, really, it beats working in an office where you’d physically have to clock in and out from exactly nine to five. 

Your right eye twitches. No, I have not fallen in love with the system that exploits me, thank you very much. 

“Here is your Fancy Feast, your highness,” you tell the hungry feline who’s already ignoring the hand that feeds for the bowl full of white fish paté. He eats healthier than you, sure, but you work like this for him to eat like this. The life of a single mom is an uphill battle, but extremely rewarding. 

You raise your hand to pat your son’s head lovingly, aborting the gesture halfway when you hear a warning growl. Alright, tough crowd. 

After nuking a half-eaten takeout box in the microwave and grabbing a cold Bundaberg from the fridge, you hunker down on the “chaise lounge” (see: an old wingback and a rattan ottoman you’ve refurbished as a makeshift seat a few weeks back when you had guests over) for a late meal. 

You barely register the taste of lukewarm rice on your tongue, mouth moving mechanically while your mind runs on autopilot about everything and nothing at the same time. 

Maybe it’s time to check Jobstreet again

Is there like a laundromat near the area that’s open twenty four seven

Eugh, I hate cold peas

What do we feel about Chromakopia? 

I will… die alone

I really need to stock on some fresh produce this weekend—

Ping! 

A notification from your phone pulls you out of your thoughts—and like a well-trained dog pavlov’d into responding, you visibly perk up at the sight of your lock screen lighting up and the familiar banner you’ve already memorized by heart. 

Your Galaxy Explorer rewards are here. Did you put my hotel’s address as the shipping address? 

Ah, just like clockwork. 

You press on it with a quiet, bubbling anticipation, chewing on the plastic spork as you wait impatiently for the silly mobile game that’s been your short respite at intervals—for more than you’d care to admit—to boot up. 

Offhandedly, you wish that the devs would add more variations to the game’s push notifications; more random, personalized stuff like maybe a reminder to drink water, or a fun update about their day. What you’d give–pay–for a: "Less on the overtime, kitten. I miss you,” dialogue from a certain character, but you digress. 

Oh, well. Probably better this way, lest you dig yourself deeper into delusion. 

The game greets you with the usual picturesque view of a silver-haired man sitting cross-legged on a chair, looking all the bit at ease in his signature crimson and white button up. The warm ambience of the Destiny Café at night draws you in, already pulling your attention away from the never-ending stream of thoughts in your brain. 

“Before seeing you, I thought today would be another dull day,“ Sylus comments airily. The way he drawls out the words in that deep timbre of his voice never fails to make your heart flutter – just a teeeensy bit.

“Ever the charmer,” you sigh happily in return, situating yourself more comfortably on the sofa, almost horizontal from how far you’re leaning back on the cushion. “You’re looking awfully normal tonight. What, no pineapple glasses for your favorite girl?” 

Having bypassed the initial cringe of talking to yourself after literal months of gameplay, it almost comes off natural, the banter. You’ve already accepted the fact that you’re crazy about a fictional, pixelated man—what’s pretending to have actual conversations with him gonna do? It’s not as if he actually hears you yap your nonsense; there are worse things in the world than a parasocial attachment to an otome game character. 

Your little jab at the sometimes random addition to his choice of attire earns you a laugh from the man himself—or at least it looks as though it does, making you blink momentarily in surprise. Happy coincidence, I guess.

You shake your head, cracking a smile, then proceed to do the routine of completing the daily agenda and then some. 

It’s tedious business, sure. You’ve dedicated hours upon hours on this game and you’re honestly starting to feel pretty bored with some of the gameplay elements, but you *do* like the ritualistic nature of ticking off the tasks one by one. It’s almost ironic— the way you dutifully do one thing after the other in this game, just to avoid the pile of work that’s waiting for you in real life. 

It’s not as if anything, or anyone’s relying on you to do your daily log-ins, so you suppose it’s due to that lack of pressure as well. 

Pulling yourself away from the five-star Xavier memory card you’ve grinded to level seventy, you stare despondently at the sad little 2 on your remaining energy. The embarrassing amount of materials you lack to ascend the card seem to mock you, even as you exit the Memories window. Another goal for another day, perhaps.

All tasks on the daily agenda are complete, except for one that you’ve always saved for last.

You’re met with a standing Sylus on the game’s home screen, arms crossed and wearing an expression you’d almost describe as impatient, if you didn’t know any better. The sight makes you grin. 

Cheekily, you poke his crotch.

You’re looking forward to getting a playful remark, or if you’re lucky, a blush along with an embarrassed retort about your shamelessness. 

 What you get, however, is a resounding scoff. Your eyes snap back to his face – from, ahem, your prolonged staring at the area below his waist – and you do see the familiar tinge of pink on his cheeks, but what he says in response catches you off-guard.

“You spend that much resource for a card that isn’t mine?” Sylus tsks, both his voice and expression coming across as… affronted? “Kitten, I’m actually hurt.” 

Huh?

You haven’t heard that line from him before. Was there a recent update you weren’t aware of? The man in question then appears to look amused, from the way you’ve been rendered speechless by the unexpected dialogue. 

All at once, you gasp when you realize what the new response means. 

“That’s so smart,” you say giddily. You see Sylus cock his head to the side, synchronously quirking an eyebrow—expectant. “They actually added a feature that lets them know which memory I’ve upgraded last, and make you react to it. Oh, that’s so cool!” 

If you weren’t too busy being excited over what you think is a new update from the game,  you’d see the chagrined look on Sylus’ face. But when you glance back at him, all trace of the emotion is gone before you could notice anything different. 

“Don’t worry, Crow Man. You’re still my favorite,” you assure him, making his mouth tick upwards in a semblance of a smile. He looks pleased all of the sudden, his demeanor shifting into something more relaxed.

Then a pout forms on your face. You crinkle your nose in frustration as you complain, “It’s just really hard to level your cards up at this point. It takes ages and a shit ton of energy just to level you up past seventy five.” Sighing, you add, kind of bitterly, “And I’m too broke to be spending money on growth packs.” 

Checking the time on your phone, you see that you’ve already spent more than an hour on your self-imposed break time and you know that you ought to get back to work soon. With a groan, you pull yourself to sit upright, savoring the last few minutes of free time before you slave off for the rest of the night. 

You’re about to clean up what’s left of dinner when you notice the oddly thoughtful look on Sylus’ face. 

There’s a deep furrow in his brows as he brings a hand up to cover his mouth. He closes his eyes shut for a few seconds. He's never done that gesture before... Ugh, he looks really hot–

Suddenly, you see a flicker—then a weird, sort of graphic distortion happening in the background. Uh, what??

A beat; then a glitch on the screen. “Ah, shit.” 

The game crashes.

You exhale loudly as the game’s interface goes back to the loading screen, tapping your thumb impatiently as the bar slowly loads to 15%... 50%..... 81%....... 

“Maybe make sure to patch up first before releasing an update next time, jeez—huh?” 

For a quick second, nothing seems to be amiss. But then the first thing you see on the home screen is Sylus’ figure standing before you, wearing an expression one could only describe as a cat that ate the proverbial canary. 

He speaks— and it’s another intro you haven’t heard him say, ever. 

“You should’ve told me sooner, sweetie,” he almost coos the words out, making your eyes bug out in shock. 

“Now, why don’t you go check your–” he pauses, and his mouth moves as if he’s rolling the word out, testing it. “Inventory?” 

Sylus slides his gaze towards the upper left corner of the screen, a coy smirk still ever-present on his face. 

There, you see something you haven’t noticed earlier: two notification badges. One on your mailbox, and another on the Hunter’s Info tab. Bewildered, you press on the mail icon first, despite the insistence for you to start with the latter. 

You see a new message: [For You]

A small gift, to bridge our worlds closer. – S 

Nothing is attached to it. You read it twice, perplexed.  

“You’re quite the contradictorian, aren’t you?” Sylus tuts as soon as you return back to the home screen, his gaze boring into you even when he tilts his head sideways in mock exasperation. “Mmm, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Take all the time you need, sweetheart.” 

Helplessly, you open your inventory next. 

Your jaw drops. 

“What. The fuck,” You whisper to yourself, voice wavering in disbelief at what you’re seeing, and the sheer amount of what you’re seeing. “This—this can’t be real.” 

You see that all the materials you own, from the bottle of wishes to the ascension crystal boxes, have been multiplied a hundred times over.

And on top of that–

Ninety nine thousand red dias????

You cannot believe how this—this recent… update (or is it a bug? Infold sure isn’t this generous) didn't make the news. Even as someone as uninvolved as you are with the community and the game’s latest releases, something like this for sure would’ve made headlines on Twitter (X), at least. But you haven’t heard anything. Nada. 

Holy shit. 

You feel a little light-headed, both from incredulity and excitement. Needing a moment to calm yourself down, you exit the Inventory tab in a daze.

You stare at Sylus. He stares back at you with what looks to be mirth in his eyes. 

Skeptically, you mutter, “did–did I get hacked or something?” 

Anticipating another unexpected dialogue to prompt up, you wait for a full minute without saying anything else. And for a moment, the man in front of you looks indecisive, contemplative. 

There’s something very odd, very… human in the way he’s looking at you. He looks as if– as if he’s—

His face falls back into a neutral expression. Not unlike how his idle animation usually looks. 

..

…

….. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to initiate a conversation any time soon, so you hesitantly poke him on the nose. 

“Even in the worst-case scenario, there’s no need to panic.”

You’ve heard that one before.

So he’s back to normal now. You temper the small disappointment that blooms in your gut. 

Shaking your head slowly, you try to make sense of all the stuff that just happened, but a sharp bite on your ankle pulls you out of your reverie. 

“Ow–!” The sight of your cat flopping near your feet reminds you of the time. More importantly, the backlogs waiting for you at your desk. 

“Wait, shit– I gotta get back to work.” This… unbelievable stroke of good luck (?) is gonna have to take a backseat for now.

You grab the carton box and the half-empty bottle of sparkling peach as you stand up. Making quick work of throwing the container in the trash and gulping down the rest of your drink, you rush into your room and back in front of your PC. 

Cracking your knuckles, you gingerly set your phone against the monitor. Setting the timer to one hour in Quality Time, knowing fully-well that you’re going to have to keep extending it until the wee hours of the morning—or until your battery dies, whichever comes first—you give Sylus one last look, letting out a long exhale before locking in.

“Just keep me company for the night, alright? I’ll figure out what’s going on once my shift’s over.” 

-

It could just be your overactive imagination, but you swear you hear a quiet chuckle from the man polishing his gun in your peripheral.

[dangermousie]

First Half of 2025 Year In Review - cdrama edition...

I normally do these at the end of the year, but I have watched so many cdramas this year, I am going to have to split this in some way. This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2025 so far; if I watched it but it was made in a different year, it’s not on the list. As always, very subjective.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

(46) Serendipity - if boils were a drama, this would be it.

(45) A Prime Minister’s Disguise - it's stupid, it's cheap, it's a waste of anyone's time.

(44) Everlasting Longing - more like evelasting boring with some truly terrible acting and nonsense writing (at least they did us a mercy and put two equally wooden actors opposite each other.)

(43) The Seized Destiny - at one point a man wears cat ears. That's it, that's the highlight.

(42) Love Beyond the Curse - dumb even for a vampire mini and that's a low standard indeed.

(41) Destiny and Saving - sounds like a bank branch, would probably be more fun if it was.

(40) I am nobody 2 - I loved the first season but this just didn't click for me.

(39) Filter - I love you, Tan Jianci but not even for you. At one point, FL is a llama.

(38) Destiny of Love: and snoring.

(37) Phoenix's Gambit: Love or Crown - just like its name, couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be.

(36) Love and Sword - Gao Weiguang is hot. Unfortunately not hot enough to melt one's brain which is what you'd need to enjoy this dumb mess.

(35) Les Belles - More like La Bete. Because it's la bete of a drama.

(34) Eat Run Love - tried to go for Lighter and Princess, Walmart edition, failed at even that.

(33) Love Never Fails - until it does.

(32) Youthful Glory - cute and harmless. So is a bunny and that's at least nice to pet.

(31) Dominion and Devotion - a mini tried to be a proper palace drama which is I suppose praiseworthy but not what I watch minis for.

(30) Si Jin - A girlbossing story that made me decide I'd rather watch a drama with not a single woman than this type of female centric story and also that Jing Tian is a beautiful woman who doesn't click for me and Zhang Wanyi really needs to stop playing the same role over and over.

(29) The Best Thing - fluffy and plotless but oddly soothing.

(28) Blazing Elegance - this is like the trashiest 1980s romance novel imaginable but set in 1930s China. I had so much fun but did I respect myself in the morning? Hmmm.

(27) Guardians of the Dafeng - too goofy for my liking for most of its run but that ending!!!!!!

(26) Flourished Peony - solidly acted but alas the narrative did not grab me and ML really made no sense as a period character.

(25) Moonlight Mystique - main story pointless, the palette vomit inducing but oh the secondary OTP stole the show and my heart.

(24) Bound by Sin - softcore with submissive ML and domme FL. Wild for most of its run until it tries to acquire respectability late in its run.

(23) Such a Good Love - tried to be artsy ended up just boring.

(22) To Love or To Defy - FL is an assassin getting distracted by an honorable prince. The logic is utterly absent but the fun is fun.

(21) Once Upon a Dream - fakecest is the flavor of the day - why date out of the family when your adopted brother is right there, has great hair and dubious notions of consent? This one is very pretty.

(20) The Prisoner of Love - he tortures her, then she tortures him and on and on and on - the usual. Featuring a couple where FL rides off into wedded bliss with the man who murdered her parents.

(19) Stolen Love - someone watched Kunning and decided to write a Yan Lin AU, honest. I liked it but it did get repetitive and FL is kinda brain dead.

(18) Sadistic Love - despite the name, a surprisingly not psychotic love story with fakecest and a lot of gay vibes.

(17) The First Frost - a modern about broken up lovers reconnecting, this was a masterpiece for 3/4 of its run and then made a narrative decision so stupid it ruined the drama for me.

(16) Hidden Love - not the ZLS flufffest, this is full on fakecest delight. FL's two choices are ML who she thinks is her half brother (he turns out not to be) and her actual half brother. As it goes.

(15) A Love Never Lost - I think, if I were objective, this is the best drama this year. It is not my favorite for very subjective reasons but God, what a masterpiece about an epoch. Bleak ending, characters who ranged from complex and controversial to complex and unlikable (still in awe of Li Xian taking on THAT role - Liang Xiang was complex, larger than life, driven, smart and a monster who was a rapist and a betrayer) and the death of Yang Kaizhi (Wei Daxun) a rare moment that made me cry when I rarely get this moved by dramas.

(14) Kill My Sins - a thoroughly adult story of loss and vengeance, with Liu Shi Shi and Shawn Dou sparking with each other as equally ruthless and equally damaged souls who find kinship (this is a drama where they never even kiss or confess but when they call each other "soulmate" you FELT it.) So good!

(13) Always My General - like some of my favorite web novels made into a drama. FL is a woman pretending to be a man and becoming a legendary general, ML is a prince who loves her either way - so delicious. My fave mini of the year.

(12) The Glory - a Gothic and female-centric tale of vengeance and dysfunctional families, this is a story with characters shockingly manipulative and dark. It made Chen Duling a bigger star and well-deservedly so - her abused, violent and brittle protagonist is the person who the show rests on. It did drag a little in the middle but then came back swinging in the end.

(11) A Moment But Forever - in a year that gave me a lot of awesome xianxias, this one does not disappoint. A depressed and abused philosophy major meets a literal and cheerful engineering major - xianxia style. Liu Xueyi is gorgeous and Tang Yan a delight but what really hits is a surprisingly solid story about divinity, life and forgiveness.

(10) Perfect Match - Jane Austen but frothier, this tale of a widow moving with her four marriageable daughters to the capital where the fifth married daughter lives, this is a souffle with a love story for every taste and delightful bit of sisterly love on top. Pick your favorite romance! (Mine is fourth sister and her judge husband.)

(9) Love of the Divine Tree - it's like someone watched TTEOTM and went "this is how it should go instead." Our heroine is a master who finds feral, hot, abuser demon child and cat hero and decides to give him therapy via a petting zoo and chores.

(8) The Demon Hunter's Romance - just a solid lovely tale that includes some genuinely adult, common sense interactions and characters and a wildly creative take on demons and their stories.

(7) The Prisoner of Beauty - finally released out of the dungeon, this story of arranged marriage between members of feuding clans turned to love is a delight, held mainly by sane interactions and insane chemistry between Liu Yuning and Song Zuer.

(6) Love in Pavilion - do you like gorgeous pain? Come right in. Do you like doomed love in many varieties and incredible visuals and a totally gonzo set up? This is everything Red Moon Pact should have been but was not.

(5) The Blossoming Love - the best xianxia of them all in a very solid xianxia year, this story of a demoness and the perfect saint of the cultivating world goes hard on an incredible OTP and some glorious destroy the pantheon energy. Our Male Lead is not an atheist who does not believe in gods. No, he knows they are real and he WILL end them.

(4) Under the Moonlight - came out of nowhere to own my heart. This tale of a former courtesan assisting in cases in the yamen, a sheltered noble son who gets involved and the upright commissioner is everything - smart and moving and with so many points about class and gender (that is not preachy in the least.) It's realistic in a way most dramas are not and deals with portions of society dramas often don't, but it makes you both think and feel.

(3) Eternal Brotherhood 2: second year in a row a season of this drama misses top spot by the skin of its teeth. This grim, smart feudal-world-at-war and the three sworn brothers who deal with it drama comes back with more hard choices, brotherhood, love kept and lost and some insane cinematography and acting

(1 tie) Legend of Zang Hai - sometimes a huge hit starring a big star IS actually all that and a bag of chips, and this is that rare example. Ostensibly a story about vengeance, this is actually a smart, emotionally riveting character study about selfishness and selflessness, damage, kindness and evil. The script is tight, the direction impeccable and the performances out of this world. Xiao Zhan as the containedly insane focus and maelstrom of all the madness gives a performance I will long remember.

(1) The White Olive Tree - a modern is my n1 drama of the year? The world is coming to an end. The story of a journalist and bomb disposal expert who meet, fall in love in, and are destroyed by trauma in a war zone is a masterpiece. It's delicate, it's hopeful, it's heartbreaking. It also is a vanishingly rare portrayal of trauma that does not have pat solutions or easy outs. It's a romance and a tragedy in the classic Greek sense of the word, especially for the ML whose very idealism and goodness are what make him both perfect and unsuitable for helping and that ultimately take him down.

FAVORITE DRAMA

It's a tie:

The White Olive Tree - for the first time in ever, since I first started watching cdramas in 2007 - my favorite cdrama is a modern. Yeah, I know. Flawless from beginning to end, with literally nothing I'd change, this love story and character story is unflinching in its portrayal of love and trauma. Everyone gives a great performance but it's anchored by a genuinely jaw dropping performance from CZY as shattered idealist Li Zan.

Legend of Zang Hai - that rare beast - both smart and emotional, with gorgeous cinematography and impeccable acting, this really shows the cost and burden of revenge and makes you hope against hope for happiness and healing.

WORST DRAMA

Serendipity - this is what eating a plastic bag must feel like. Dumb plot, terrible look, horrible acting, hideous ML etc etc. Where do I start.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Li Zan (Chen Zheyuan), The White Olive Tree - one of the three male performances and characters of the year for me. Li Zan starts the story as a shining light and ends a broken wreck and it's an epic performance throughout - it shows how uncomfortable it is to love a saint but it also shows this saint as human in all his complexity and drive; it makes idealism human - it's intense and haunting and you can't look away whether you are swooning or crying.

Zang Hai (Xiao Zhan), Legend of Zang Hai - I so rarely find actors with such huge and intense fanbases worth the hype, but XZ really is worth it. This performance of traumatized, vengeance-driven but unable to get rid of his soft heart Zang Hai was incredible - so many scenes that just had me jaw-droppingly in awe.

Liang Xiang (Li Xian), A Love Never Lost - Li Xian owns the role of a magnetic larger than life monstrous mover and shaker of the end of Qing. The man is a rapist and a murderer; he's also a filial son, a supremely competent leader and a terrifying kind of an idealist. This is not a role any idol-adjacent actor normally takes but Li Xian is incredible in the role.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Luo Shu (Hu Bingqing), Under the Moonlight - she is so complex, so strong, so haunted. Very much a gender swapped "haunted, tough man with a cause falls for a sheltered kind woman" set up for her and her OTP but what I love even more is she's not defined by romance.

Xiao Qiao (Song Zuer), The Prisoner of Beauty - she made a soft spoken, largely internalized character irresistible. I loved her from beginning to end.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

99% of the people in A Moment But Forever - I am Team Apocalypse for that one. Truly awful horrors, whether the torturing selfish immortal sect, the useless deities, the evil war demons who created the worst society possible or the gross humans. Kill them all!

Beast Kingdom people in Love in Pavilion - we would not have the tragedy without them.

And, as last year, City Lord from Eternal Brotherhood 2.

BEST BAD GUY

When Deng Wei's character in Tree, Zhang Bin Bin's in TBL or Liu Xueyi's in Moment go evil, they automatically become 10x hotter and seeing they were already hot to start with...but my favorite is Lord Jiuhuo (Charles Lin) in Love in Pavilion - that man was willing to wreck the world for love and he was epic doing it. My favorite part of LiP.

“HAROLD, THEY ARE LESBIANS” AWARD

And Chen Duling is in this one for the second year in a row - Zhuang Hanyan (CDL) x Chai Jing (Jinna Fu) in The Glory are 100% a couple, with frankly as many couple scenes and set ups as the ostensibly canon het OTP.

“HOW DID CENSORS NAP THROUGH THIS” AWARD

Honestly, any mini would be on this list (have you SEEN the sex scenes in Blazing Elegance?) but if we are talking "proper" dramas, let's go with The Glory, which let all sorts of awful, murdery characters get a happy ending.

MALE LEAD MOST LIKELY TO BE BROUGHT HOME TO MOTHER

No, thank you! The few modern ones she’d not approve of (Li Zan is likely to leave you a young widow and Sang Yan from TFF would never decouple from his girl anyway) and the period ones are no go since few moms would be keen on wild-eyed, bloodied sons in law however hot and long haired they may be.

FAVORITE SHIP

The White Olive Tree - idealists who love each other more than life but that love is not enough to fix them.

Kill My Sins - they don't kiss, they don't confess, they barely touch. And yet the soulmate compatibility and the chemistry just pour off the screen. I was feral whenever they were within two feet of each other.

Legend of Zang Hai - not a ship centric show and sometimes these make the best ships. I would lose it when they even touched palms. They are both damaged and wary (and he's borderline nuts from trauma) and watching them dance around and get their hearts broken and healed was...

The Blossoming Love - taking on Gods in any life and form and so ride or die and sexy and AAAAAAAA

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Many excellent choices this year (the cursed cultivators in The Blossoming Loves, all the secondary OTPs in Love in Pavilion, First and Fourth couples in Perfect Match) but the winner is the haunted, dysfunctional, intense, doomed secondary OTP of Moonlight Mystique. I finished that drama solely for them.

NOTP

Serendipity - I really don't want to waste more time on this toxic dump of a drama so all I am gonna say is they made fakecest, my fave trope, boring!

HOTTEST SCENE

Blazing Elegance - all their sex scenes are insane but also the aphrodisiac scenes in Love in Pavilion take the cake for sheer intensity and the baby making in ep 32 of The Prisoner of Beauty because phew boy!

FAVORITE SCENE

Li Zan's breakdown in the hospital and the aftermath when he tells FL the truth in The White Olive Tree. That scene? Shivers.

Zang Hai emerging out of the tomb in Legend of Zang Hai - the breakdown, the manipulation are epic. The epic Greek tragedy of the Marquis' death.

In Eternal Brotherhood 2, Di Lin arriving to rescue his brothers at Payu; or his kneeling to Xiujia's pregnant stomach, his hands gentle on it, promising to come back.

Liu Xueyi's madness in the hole in A Moment but Forever - LXY is an actor who's often too good for his dramas and this scene shows how good he can be as he's going mad and confronting his inner demons.

The First Frost ultimately fell apart for me, but the scene of teen Sang Yan watching Wen Yifan dance on the rooftop he equipped for her is what swooning over poetry feels like.

BIGGEST CRUSH

We are gonna go in the most opposite way possible: the law abiding, incredibly decent, rather rigid Fourth Husband, Perfect Match and Di Lin in Eternal Brotherhood 2 - the man is ideal husband, a terrifying beast in battle and just all around sex on legs.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Zhuang Zhixing (Zhou Qi), Legend of Zang Hai - the sole decent person in that family of monsters, he stole my heart and his arc OMG!

BEST COSTUMES AND WIGS

Costumes: Legend of Zang Hai - real embroidery, and costumes that look real.

Wigs: I am gonna be weird here and say Kill My Sins.

MOST EXTRA OUTFIT

Honestly, most have been fairly sane but Feud should fix it.

FAVORITE SECONDARY ML

General Yun in Eternal Brotherhood 2 - Si Yilin x Ka Dan were my n1 OTP in s1 and yet the man's honor and willingless to risk his life to protect Ka Dan without expecting anything has got me almost switching ships.

MOST BLATANT INNUENDO MOMENT

It hasn't aired yet but we all saw that poster for Feud, with Bai Lu fondling Zeng Shunxi's enormous...sword:

FAVORITE 2025 CDRAMA SONG

Chen Xueran's Moonlight Dance from The White Olive Tree. You have no idea how much I listened to it.

MVP OF THE YEAR

Song Zuer, who beat her tax allegations (already a miracle) and came back with two awesome dramas.

ACTING SURPRISE

So many great performances, but I am gonna go with Chen Zheyuan in The White Olive Tree. He's been solid in so many awful dramas but I never knew he could be such a revelation

NEEDS A SEQUEL

The Demon Hunter's Romance - not really but would be fun. And EB2 likely since I cannot see how they will wrap the novel's story in the remaining number of eps.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Serendipity - in addition to all its other sins, this simply cannot support 40 eps.

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Surprisingly none, I think dramas have adjusted to the 40 ep limit.

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Same as last year - the emperor cannot be irredeemable. WTF, China, you are a communist country! Though they are nibbling at the edges this year. Also fake feminism - I am all for girl power but not when it’s ridiculously anachronistic for the period with no explanation at all. And finally NO MORE TRADE DRAMAS PLS PLS PLS

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Men (and women) knowingly fighting for a doomed cause because otherwise they’d cease to be who they are. Or if we are being shallow all the beautiful men in chains.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

The First Frost: it was so exquisite for about 2/3 and then the Hong Kong arc happened (and was not in the book; the adaptation was faithful so far so nothing heralded it) and ruined the whole drama. It negated the development, the themes, the characters - it made me dislike both leads and the way the narrative never addressed it made the whole story utterly fall apart.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

The White Olive Tree, Under the Moonlight, A Moment but Forever, The Demon Hunter's Romance - this has been a year of surprises, so many of my top dramas weren't on my radar at all.

2025 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

I have honestly watched everything I wanted so far.

BEST NON-2025 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2025

Do you think I have the time? Ahahahaha

MOST ANTICIPATED

Love in the Clouds, Legend of the Female General, Moonlit Reunion, A Dream within a Dream, Hidden Shadow, Shadow Love, You Sheng You Ya, The Princess' Gambit, Feud, Fated Hearts, Love and Crown

[douqhnxtss]

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ MY GIRL, MY GIRL, MY GIRL ✧˖°.⋆.˚⊹ ࣪ ˖

𝓛𝗈𝗈𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖺𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝖺𝖽𝗆𝗂𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝘢𝘧𝘢𝘳. 𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚. 𝓣𝒁𝑼𝒀𝑼 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗈𝖻𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖺𝗇𝗍, 𝗂𝗍 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝖿𝖺𝖼𝗍. 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗂𝗍 𝖼𝖺𝗆𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝓨𝑶𝑼, 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝖽𝗂𝖽𝗇'𝗍 𝗈𝖻𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗏𝖾, 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝖺𝗅𝗐𝖺𝗒𝗌. 𝗇𝗈 𝗆𝖺𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗐𝖾𝗋𝖾, 𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗇 𝗂𝖿 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗐𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝗌𝗂𝖽𝖾 𝗁𝖾𝗋; 𝗌𝗁𝖾 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗇𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗋 𝗆𝗂𝗌𝗌 𝖺 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝖽𝗆𝗂𝗋𝖾 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭.

✧ fluff, domestic, drabble, down bad!tzuyu, lots of blushing and giggling and love, not much just two lovers basking in eachothers love and presence, proofread — girlfriend!tzuyu × fem!reader ⋆ wc! 0.61k 𐙚𐙚 pls make do w this tzuyu drabble while I slowly work on redamancy.. soz I'll try my best to get it pit this week and also, I love tzuyu so much, write this for ml @y0ziimisii the tzuyu to my sana hope you like it >_< love ya<33

✧ now playing! — we fell in love in october ♪ girl in red 𐙚

────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────

THE ESSENCE OF LOVE FLOWED WITH THE SOFT BREEZE. you circled your arm around hers, interwining your fingers in the process. your head rested on tzuyu's shoulder.

"best first anniversary date ever." you said with a soft smile, tilting your head up to look at the taller. she looked at you, her lips parted like she was about to talk.

tzuyu's eyes followed every bump and crevice on your face, your eyes, nose, lips, brows, everything. you let out a little giggle, a soft blush presenting itself on your cheeks, butterflies erupting in your stomach.

"do i look that pretty?" you asked softly, your teeth holding your bottom lip hostage. her other hand reached up to your face as her thumb gently pulled your lip out of its hold under your teeth.

"you.. you look mind numbingly gorgeous, love." tzuyu whispered in a hushed tone, her lips curving into a lovesick smile. no matter how many times she'd addressed you with the nickname, you never failed to blush.

"thank you, you look beautiful too, tzu." you complimented the taiwanese, her crimson cheeks were harder to see but her ears covered in red gave her away. she looked away for a second before her gaze locked with yours once again.

"thank you so much." she whispered, giving your hand a little squeeze making your heart race. speaking of your heart, it was content. having spent a whole day with the person it cherished most, it couldn't have wished for anything more.

a few minutes passed, you looked away, overwhelmed by her loving gaze. you chose to look at the stars and moon, the only shining objects in the dark canvas that was the night sky.

she didn't look away though, eyes looking at you as if she was carving every detail about you in her mind, "you didn't say you're welcome for the date." you gave her a glance.

she just hummed, realizing she did indeed overlook the statement, "oh, yes. you're welcome, i couldn't be happier." you couldn't help but blush even more, her mere presence was enough to make your stomach do backflips.

"why do you always admire me, even when we're beside eachother?" you asked, looking at her teasingly, tilting your head. tzuyu looked at you for a second too long with her eyes which were drunk in love before she responded.

"you've got me lovestruck, my love. you're also too beautiful and too mine to not be admired by me." your heart skipped a few beats, eyes widening a fraction. you swiped your tongue your bottom lip, "you're... so good at getting me flustered."

she let out a soft giggle. she leaned in to give you a short and sweet kiss before pulling away. tzuyu's grip on your intertwined hand tightened slightly, not enough to hurt you and just enough to give you a reassurance that she's there and grasp your attention at the same time.

you turned to look at her. tzuyu chuckled and began, "obviously i'll be good at getting my girl flustered." she brought your hand up to her lips, pressing a lingering kiss on the back of your hand.

you smiled so hard your cheeks hurt but it didn't matter. all that mattered in the moment was you two and your love for eachother. the world seemed to have shrunk down into just the two of you, time also felt like it had been slowed down, giving you two a chance to just be happy for the stretching night with eachother.

"i love you, tzu." you connected your forehead with hers, never leaving her hand, keeping them intertwined. she pecked you sweetly before whispering, "i love you too and always will, my girl."

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 ᯓ✦ 𝓊𝗻𝚒𝘷𝐞𝗋𝓢𝙚 !

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ regulars! @woniefication @shyoko

Douqhnxtss © 23042025 — ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. do not edit, translate, repost or plagiarize any of my work !

[tonycries]

Some answers are written in the stars. Others, you must ask to know.

How do you make your text/ titles gradient?

Patorjk’s Text Color Fader!! My life-saver frfr, I just use the steps of the tutorial provided here <3 However, this unfortunately can’t be done on mobile 😔

Where do you find the manga panels for your headers?

I usually find the panels and/ or titles on mangacap account on Twitter (eg. HornetPills, FAKKU, and lewdxvisuals). Most of my headers are from → “Lady K & The Sick Man”, “Infiltration! Agent on the Edge”, and “Hachisuka’s Family Kotoribako.”

How do you make your headers?

On Canva! I did a tutorial for getting that colorful ombré look right here <3

Where do you make your memes/ get those silly reaction pics?

I make all my memes on imgflip, and the unhinged pics - including the infamous werewolf ones - are mainly from Pinterest and stan Twitter. 

What are your writing tips?

Here are the writing tips n' quirks that work most often for me, and here is for if you want something more practical/ to help with writer's block!!

Can I take inspiration from your fic/ did you take inspiration from [X]?

As long as you give credits/ tag me then yess you can take inspo lovely! It's the same thing with me - if I've taken inspiration, the author will be linked in the A/N, if not, the work n' concept is completely my own!!

What fandoms do you write for/ have you written for?

Currently, only JJK - but if you checkout my first masterlist you'll see that I have written for a lil' bit of AOT and Haikyuu.

What is your posting schedule?

9:30PM - 10PM EST on Wednesdays and Sundays for my fics; and you’ll usually catch me answering asks from 1:30PM onwards and 11:30PM onwards the rest of those days. Tiny reminder though that I don’t answer asks on days I post my writing and for 24 hours beforehand (ya girl will be busy typing away something diabolical 😩.)

Why did you miss a posting day?

I try very, very hard not too n’ I miss a posting day very rarely - I promise!! 99% of the time it’s because I’m super sick, though, and I’ll let you babygirls know prior to that. Dw, I almost always bounce back on schedule for the next posting day <3

Are you taking requests at the moment?

Noooope!! Sorry lovelies, but requests are closed. I do take suggestions and thirsts where I’ll just brainstorm or add on to the idea if I really like it, however. Something that looks like this or this.

Where are you from?

Sri Lankan through n’ through rahhh 🇱🇰 Feel free to yap with me in my inbox about it!

What is your gender/ what are your pronouns?

I’m a girlie n’ I go by she/her pronouns yup yup 😌 

So then, why does everyone call you “daddy Tony”?

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT STARTED BUT DADDY TONY IS SIMPLY DADDY TONY 😈 DOESN’T MATTER THE GENDER 😈😈 (+ Tony is just what everyone irl calls me too so.)

If that makes you uncomfortable though, you can always call me simply Tony without the daddy part, or Toe knee, or Toenail, or mommy Toenail- you get the point. My lovely babygirls love to make up a lot of names for me n’ I haven’t heard one that doesn’t make me CACKLE just yet 😭

Why do you call your followers ���babygirls”?

Ah, I’m daddy Tony and you all are just my babygirls heheh. It started off as a joke at first because I tend to start most of my announcements with “bonjour babygirls” even irl, but it eventually just grew to me referring to all my gorgeous followers as Tony’s Cult of Babygirls - took a page out of Geto’s book there.

I also tend to sift through a variety of pet names when responding to individual asks/ comments - like sweetheart, lovely, ml, gorgeous. etc. Do let me know straight-up if this makes you uncomfortable, because using those is simply my default.

Why didn’t you respond to the thing I tagged you in?

*SOBS* I’m saur sorry about that, I get tagged in a lot of things so either my notifications were clogged n’ I didn’t get it, or I simply missed it amongst everything. I love responding to things y’all tag me in, though - so send me an ask to double check!!

Did you see my ask or was it eaten up – you haven’t answered yet?

Pinky-promise daddy Tony’s not ignoring you!! If I haven’t responded to an ask, it’s usually one of these reasons: 

I get a LOOOT of asks daily - and while I do try my best to respond to every single one - I might take some time to get to yours. Please, please, please don’t send a follow-up ask about your previous one unless it’s really, really important, or until it’s been two weeks since I haven’t responded. That only adds more to my inbox, and I do answer before it reaches that point.

I might have gotten an ask that was very similar to yours, n’ responded to that one instead of both.

Your ask went against my rules/ it was a request (because my requests are closed, most asks like that end up written down in a doc I have. But they won’t be publicly answered until requests open up/ I just decide to write it.) Again: Thirsts and suggestions are completely okay – just no requests!

Your question was already answered in my FAQ - in that case, yippee I hope you got your answer, lovely <3

Sometimes my asks actually get eaten up by this site, and I apologize for that 😔 Like I said, if it’s been two weeks then please do resend me the ask!!

Who are the anons that you have right now?

🧃, 🐹, 🐁, 🔮, 🪦, 🍙, toji titties anon, ⛸️, scribbler anon, 🌳, ♍, medicine major anon, gojo big cock gagger anon, 🫃, 🗣️🩰, <3 anon, orgy anon, 🐝, marketing major anon, 🫶🏻💕, 🧋, 🐠, 🐛, 🗣️🎬‼️, 😼, 🐇, ✏️, 🪶🧠, 🌸, 👀, 🧝🏽, 🌦️, 🌺, 🍭, 🌙, 🔔❤️⚙️, 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴 anon, neuroscience anon, 🎀💄, 🫐, 💋, 🦴, 🦎, 🦩, 🌱, 🫀, 🍓, CJ anon, 🐨, 🦤, 🐚, 💃, 🦇, 🌛, 🪼, 💤, 🍫, ⭐, 😈, spooky sweet tea anon, 🧠, 🧌, 🗣️, 🐄, corpse goon anon, 🦐, tiny anon, 🌟🦈, 💧, 🎱, 🦢, dewdrop anon, 🍵, 🥗, 🥠, :) anon, 🥥, 🐩, 🌝, 🪽🦦, (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) anon, silly anon, jester anon, 🐡, 🎀,  anon H, Marchailina, 👟, horny anon, b. anon, 🍰, 🪢, 🦚, lads anon, lads anon #2, 😻, 💐, 🐢, 🍣, 🃏, ex Nanami-hater anon, ovulating anon, 🐼, 🐜, 🦗, 🚀, vet major anon, 😔, 🐦, void anon, 🦢🐚, gojo convertee anon, therapist gojo anon, 💗, 🧸, 🍄, 🐾🐕, ✨🍀, 🐦‍⬛, lawnmower anon, Nanami’s 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴 anon, 🕷️, 🍞, Nanami anon, ☀️🪵, reading sesh anon, 🐸, 🏵️, 🍄😈, 🪨🧍, law student anon, 🦶, 🔖, 🪞, 🍯, 💌, 🎧, 🪐, 🫆, Hoyoverse anon, 🐈, 🐮, 👅🍑, 🪱, 🍍, 🧪, 🥖, 🌊, 🤍, Hua Cheng anon, 🦅, ♠️, 🕷, 🫧, 🧱ed🆙, waitress anon, ❤️🌻, ⏾, 𝐹𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎 𝓃𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎 👹, 🪱🔥, 💠, freaky lads anon, 🤠, ❄️ 🐆, ⚜️, 🎏, 🅰️🍄, ♒️, 🎐, 🦦, 🐯, ⭐️, 🐈🐈‍⬛, 🍜, 🔬, ☄, 🫦, 🍸, 🦋, 🍒, (.)(.) anon, brother’s best friend!piner anon, freaky filo anon, 💢, 🦊, 🍃, 🪸, 🩻, 🎻

Why do you scare me?

I promise I don't bite unless asked to!!

[theonottsbxtch]

CELEBRITY CRUSH | LS2

a/n: i know people have been begging for part three of secret sister but! this first and then maybe part three - making the most of my summer break 🤭 also i am british and i know that london and silverstone aren't close at all. it's just for the plot :(

fc: gracie abrams & pinterest

requests: open

yourusername

liked by yourbestfriend, userone, usertwo and 98,372 others

paris are we ready! teaser song for new album secret of us comes out tomorrow, be there or be square.

*tap to load more comments*

userone: we are SO ready

usertwo: secret of us is going to eat i fear

yourbestfriend: WHOOP WHOOP

yourusername: that’s the sound of the police!

yourbestfriend: yes but no

userthree: anyone have any resale 🥲

userfour: did i just hear new situationship anthem?

userfive: guys i am not ready

Twitter - Celebrity Goss

Logan Sargeant Post Race Interview

Twitter

yourusername

liked by logansargeant, yourbestfriend, userone and 87,917 others

home (london looks prettier than bedford)

*tap to load more comments*

userone: @/logansargeant

usertwo: @/logansargeant

userthree: @/logansargeant

userfour: @/logansargeant

yourbestfriend: what is going on😭

yourusername: i have no idea😭

userfive: @/logansargeant

logansargeant: 🤨

yourusername: fuck

twitter

yourusername

liked by logansargeant, yourbestfriend, mgmrecords and 91,728 others

everyone say hi to clover

*tap to load more comments*

userone: hi clover

usertwo: patiently waiting for logan to comment

userthree: she’s so cute

yourbestfriend: clover is MY dog

yourusername: i havé no idea what you're on about

userfour: our cottage girl

logansargeant: cute

yourusername: i am not cute 😡 i am a very serious woman

logansargeant: that’s cute

usertwo: AHHHH THEYRE PUBLICLY FLIRTING

yourusername’s story

[caption: vegas are we ready!!]

story replies:

yourbestfriend: good look ml!

userone: see you there!

logansargeant: 👀

logansargeant's story

[caption: MGM grand las vegas]

userone: no way!!

usertwo: i can't believe what i'm seeing right now

userthree: holy shit.

alex_albon: there is no way you actually did it

oscarpiastri: when i said you should go to her concert i meant it as a joke, creep.

twitter

yourusername

liked by yourbestfriend, logansargeant, alex_albon and 89,935 others

thank you vegas

*tap to load more comments*

userone: GUYS LOGAN WAS THERE!

yourbestfriend: most specialist person in my life

yourusername: most specialist person in mine

usertwo: we are witnissing fandom history

userthree: i love you, i'm sorry is going to CHART

logansargeant: good show

yourusername: just good

logansargeant: absolutely splendid

yourusername: you sound british, are you making fun of me?

logansargeant: i live in london

yourusername: then why don't you come to my london show?

logansargeant: if you come to silverstone, i will

userfour: holy shit.

userfive: are you seeing what i'm seeing?

usersix: AHHHH

userseven: THEY ARE FLIRTING!! CODE RED!!

yourusername

liked by logansargeant, yourbestfriend, oscarpiastri and 94,284 others

oh how i love you london (and silverstone)

*tap to load more comments*

userone: SHE WENT!

usertwo: london gig was so cute

userthree: who else saw logan at the london mouthing the lyrics to close to you?

alex_albon: now you know what i can hear from his drivers room

userthree: HOLY SHIT NO WAY

yourbestfriend: that was so cool, i now want to watch cars go zoom more often

oscarpiastri: if she doesn't invite you let me know

userfour: OSCAR WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

userfive: project number two?

logansargeant: will never forgive you for wearing a ferrari cap

yourusername: i had nothing else

logansargeant: we can change that

usersix: parents

yourusername's story

story replies

yourbestfriend: that's what your phone was on dnd all day

userone: AHHHH

logansargeant's story

story replies

oscarpiastri: no wonder you cancelled on gym

alex_albon: guess i understand why you skipped cardio at the gym with us today

userone: holy shit holy shit holy shit

yourusername

liked by logansargeant, yourbestfriend, williamsracing and 92,048 others

well deserved break

*tap to load more comments*

userone: THIRD SLIDE

usertwo: is that yn on the mug help

yourbestfriend: i would appreciate it if you stopped kidnapping my dogs

yourusername: no :)

userthree: mum and dad

userfour: can't wait to see you in melbourne!

logansargeant: cute

yourusername: i am not playing this game with you again

logansargeant: you suck

alex_albon: @/oscarpiastri @/yourbestfriend i'm so glad they use the mug we got them

oscarpiastri: good investement

yourbestfriend: you're welcome for the photo

logansargeant

liked by oscarpiastri, alex_albon yourusername and 983,392 others

summer break pending.

*tap to load more comments*

userone: there is no way they got matching shoes

usertwo: correction, HE got them matching shoes. his blue for williams and hers pink for her bows. ladies and gentlemen, logan sargeant.

userthree: i want what they have

yourbestfriend: where is my pair of shoes

oscarpiastri: i can get you one

yourbestfriend: yay! thanks osc :)

yourusername: osc?

userfour: osc?

alex_albon: osc?

logansargeant: osc?

userfive: i'm telling my kids that they were carl and ellie from up

usersix: i don't know who i'm more jealous of

yourusername: guess you're cool or wtv

logansargeant: guess you're cute of wtv

yourusername:😡

bonus

logansargeant

liked by oscarpiastri, alex_albon, yourusername and 84,384 others

my girlfriend is hotter (and cuter) than yours

*tap to load more comments*

userone: stop they're so adorable

usertwo: the cute comment

yourbestfriend: did she let you post that?

alex_albon: she is currently chasing him around the training facility while me, lily and oscar are laughing

yourbestfriend: film it

userthree: and post it.

userfour: your honour, i love them too much

a/n: i had too much fun with this hehe

[seraphicloves]

𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍

⊱✿⊰ summary: headcanons with bakugo and a black cat girl

⊱✿⊰ warnings: swearing, suggestive comments, fighting ig, idrk

⊱✿⊰ notes: i have had this request for like fifteen months lol but im finally doing it for my pookie's bday. Happy birthday ml 🫶 im posting it now so i dont forget lol

❀ he hates you at first sorry not sorry. bakugo just sees you as yet another one of those extras who happen to have an annoying tendency to fight with him. i feel like he might respect your tenacity but barely and he still hates your guts whoops

❀ on the topic of hatred, your other classmates half are jokingly shipping you and the other half are just wishing you two would stop fighting. mina is at the head of the shipping bandwagon especially after she read a book with rivals to lovers. todoroki might say he ships you guys only because he thinks it means he wants you two to get along lol

❀ your arguments would mostly be stupid shit like who rescued who, who did better on the assignment. you guys are rivals who also get into fistfights because why not.

❀ bakugo doesn't think much of your swearing problem because he's used to it by his mom. you're just another annoying person who happens to like using some naughty words all the time (him in girl form)

❀ i feel like the way you two get closer is kinda sad but also drama yay. basically mineta was being an S-class pervert and he was literally harassing you.

❀ and it made you uncomfortable so you started to fight back. bakugo doesn't find you until the aftermath, huddled in the corner of the dorm while trying to hide your tears

❀ he didn't know seeing someone cry could make his heart clench like that. But for some reason, seeing you all teary eyed and sad made him want to punch the living daylights out of whoever made you like that

❀ as awkwardly as he can, he tries to comfort you. His large hand patting your back, not saying anything since words have never been his forte. He was used to using anger to battle his sadness, he didn't know how to help someone succumb to it.

❀ you guys sit there in comfortable silence until you explain to bakugo what happened. he'd always hated the little brat but now he was wishing he had uraraka's powers so he could throw mineta into space. how was the creep still in the hero course?

❀ lets just say the nice day mineta looked more like a cranberry than a grape

❀ you guys aren't particularly close after that but he does tend to notice you more which means his respect for you goes up. you're in combat training and you beat deku? fuck yeah he likes you now. even if you don't hate deku like he does he still thought it was awesome seeing you beat the daylights out of him.

❀ the moment he realized he liked you was when he almost lost you. by now hanging out was pretty regular for the two of you, even if bakugo would rather die than admit that he sees you as a friend. and since you guys spent time together he was around for whenever you got crushes...and told him about it.

❀ most of the time he would shrug it off, especially since half of your crushes were fictional and why would he care? he's not jealous! however you started falling for a boy in class 2b which (for some reason) was a major no go for bakugo. why would you want to date a stupid extra when he was right in front of you

❀ despite what everyone says he isn't the most emotionally constipated. it takes awhile yeah but i imagine he started going to therapy during the course of the show so he started to understand what feelings went where and etc

and one thing was for certain: this feeling was love.

❀ he started being a massive asshole after that. he went right back to always arguing with you or ignoring you completely. he might understand his feelings but that doesn't mean he knows how to handle them

❀ he was so wrapped up in his angry emoness that he didn't know you had stopped talking to the boy from class 2b, forgetting him entirely. he also failed to notice the hurt looks you'd give bakugo before you snapped right back into your harsh comebacks.

❀ the reason you guys even talk it out is during a simulation where the both of you get stuck inside rubble. you were both exhausted, dehydrated, and heartbroken.

❀ you just couldn't help but ask, "why do you hate me?" which basically broke his heart into a million little pieces. he couldn't help the way he admitted to his feelings, the way he handed you his heart in hopes you'd keep it safe...and safe you did.

❀ if you two as rivals were bad you two dating is even worse. you guys are the ultimate power couple, able to tear anybody down with a few well placed sneers and snorts.

❀ everybody either loves or hates you guys. mina obviously loves you guys even if you two are constantly arguing still plus with the added of you two tag teaming one person. she loves when she manifests things.

❀ you guys still have that silly banter and with your tempers. but now you guys made up your arguments with kisses and cuddles

❀ you guys aren't allowed to get paired together for assignments because you are either bickering or making out. and aizawa is too tired to try to stop it.

lori © 2024. please don't copy, modify, or do anything weird with my writing! i like reblogs and comments but please be kind as this was my writing.

[daintylovers]

I need MORE brat!tamer dally. MORE I SAY.

If you feel comfortable can you write like what rules dally gives you to follow? And what punishments he uses? Lowkey dally seems like he’d be creative when it comes to punishments.

That’s all, bye ml!! Have a good day!

u say more, and u shall receive more.

now, for the time, i feel like it makes sense he would have rules he wanted you to follow.

don't go anywhere alone!

this feels pretty obvious and straightforward. because of you're association with the greasers and dally, in particular, you now have a shiny red target on your back. and socs don't care about gender in relation to physical violence. if they would hit a soc' girl, then they would sure as hell hit a greaser. or at least a "pretend" greaser as they would say.

so dally gets more than a little nervous and always keeps tabs on your whereabouts and who you're with. more often than not he's right by your side, or at least in your vicinity. but on the off chance he isn't, he likes to have soda or darry watch out for you. he trusts them most because of how ponyboy is watched after.

when you do break this rule, because you're just a girl, after all, his punishment varies. it depends on how long you were alone and the amount of danger you got yourself into. if it was the quick walk from your house to soda's, a light reminder of why you shouldn't do that. if it's a drunken stumble from a house party (that you shouldn't have even been at) back to bucks place that sobers you up with the chills, you're in for it.

of course, he makes sure nothing happened, but once he gets the all clear he is bending you over his lap and making you count. he doesn't relent either, in fact, he reveals in the tears and jolts that come from you. he aims to leave handprints, smacking your bottom with a little too much force. enough that has you feeling it for the next few days. and even after you're tired out from the spanking, he's drilling into you, spearing you open on his cock. slamming into you with the same force, talking about how stupid you must be to wander off on your own. you babble back to him, incoherent moans only spring him on.

2. if you want to be a jerk, do it in private

we saw the repercussions of this one last time. not only do you get a physical punishment, but then the added embarrassment that comes from knowing that the gang also knows.

it also doesn't help because dally can't keep his trap shut. constantly telling the boys about having to "handle you". it's degrading, you aren't a puppy dog! but that's the point, he wants you embarrassed, so you won't act out again.

3. no smoking.

a hypocritical one, of course. but it's for your own good, he can't have his sweetheart getting lung cancer. but of course, it's okay for him to indulge in the habit. sure he lets you take a puff or two off his from time to time. but you aren't ever allowed to have your own.

so when he catches you in an alley with your good-for-nothing friends, smoking away, he gets furious. he's down the alley in an instant, grabbing a hold of your wrist and yanking you away. your friends are snickering and laughing behind your back as your big tough boyfriend drags you away. he stows you away in the car before zooming off to bucks.

once he's there he makes you sit on the bed and explain yourself. then he asks you to stick out your tongue. he lights a cig and then, when it's time, ashes it out on your tongue. the taste is foul and burns. but you aren't allowed to put your tongue in your mouth until he's finished. what? if you like to smoke so much, this shouldn't be a problem. maybe it will teach you a thing or two next time you want to harm your tiny lungs.

[fizzywashere87]

OKAY OKAY SO I WAMNA REQUEST LIKE 2012 RAPH HAS A CRUSH

AND HIS CRUSH IS THE MOST DENSE MF EVER LIKE RAOH WILL FLIRT WITH EM AND THEY'LL BE LIKE "awe thanks!" Just really oblivious lol

notes: OMGIE YESSSSS THIS IS CUTE (it has been rotting in my inbox for a few weeks months and this i apologize for) also i didn't know if you wanted hc's or a fic so i js went with a fic for this one BUT I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS TYSM FOR REQUESTING ML I HOPE YOU ENJOY!! 🫶🫶

Content: Gn! Reader, Fluff? Slight crack ig, Rushed at the end kinda

Warnings: None

M.List

Think Babes, Think!

Raphael and his brothers were training in the dojo, as usual. Nothing new, nothing to bat an eye for, though Raphael was somewhat distracted. This was not usual.

What was he thinking about that made him so distracted you ask me?

Them.

Who's them?

(Name)

He's gonna try and flirt with them today, that's why he's so worked up.

Raphael is put against Donatello today in their sparring matches, and while they circle each other just waiting for Master Splinter to give them the 'go,' Raphael can't seem to shut his thoughts up.

They probably don't even like you back.

You're an ugly, gross mutant, they're human and just perfect, no human wants to be with a mutant, nonetheless one like them.

Ugly green freak-

His anger was beginning to show on his face. Donatello noticed, raising a non-existent brow, he started, "Uh- Raph-"

"Haijime!"

Raph lunged at Donnie right away, which the taller turtle narrowly dodged, causing Raph to tuck and land on his knees for him to quickly get back up again. The rest of the sparring match was a blur, Raphael was just angry.

"Yame!"

He came back to his sense when he heard Donnie groan from the floor as he stood over him panting slightly. He wasn't as angry as he was a few seconds ago, but the feeling of anger definitely lingered. Donnie got up, Leo and Mikey were already seated on their knees, Leo having won that match. "Uh, Raph, you look, like extra angry dude-" Mikey spoke up prompting Raph to whip his head at his younger brother and send him a glare.

"I am not angry." He spoke through gritted teeth, Mikey put his hands up in mock defense as Donnie and Raph go to sit on their knees beside their two brothers. Master Splinter stands in front of his four sons his hands clasped behind his back, the boys wait to hear what he's about to say, Raph, with an angered look on his features.

"You boys did-"

"Casey! Cut it out!"

"I didn't do nothin' red!"

"Say on God, we both seen you Jones!"

Master Splinter sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose at the certain ruckus going on at the new arrivals if you'll call them that, Leo also seems to sigh, the rest of the brothers unphased.

At the sound of their voice, Raph's anger was immediately lifted a ton, and he thought about his plan to flirt with them today. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he was going to. His attention turned back to his sensei when he heard another sigh come from him. "You boys did well today, remember your strengths, hide and let go of your weaknesses. We will resume our training tomorrow."

"Hai sensei!" The boys say together, bowing slightly before getting up and meeting their human friends who're in the living room.

As the four boys walk in, April gives a warm smile and wave, (Name) flashes their usual grin, and Casey continues munching on popcorn. Donnie runs to April first much to Casey's dismay and he gets ready to pick a small fight. Mikey, as usual runs to grab a comic book and he plops on the couch next to Casey, giving (Name) a fist bump, Leo also walking over to greet and join his friends. (Name) looks to Raph who seems to be taking the soul out of that poor punching dummy.

(Name) walks over to him, smiling slightly. "Hey Raph, what 'cha up to?" They ask talking over his quieter grunts. He pauses for a moment, looking at them and sighing slightly, (Name) didn't pick up on it.

"Nothing, just punching." He replies, crossing his arms, they look at the dummy and back at him, nodding in understandment. He really wanted to say something sweet to them, something that would give them the hint. This was so, so, not like him. He's not supposed to care about this, the only thing he's supposed to care about is punching aliens and taking down Shredder. So why, why was he so persistent with this?

Although now that he thinks about it, he may have to be a bit more straightforward with (Name). There was that one time...

"Hey." Raph says as a greeting, seeing (Name) walk into the lair, they plop down on the couch next to him, and he sets his comic down.

"Hey Raph! What's up?" (Name) smiled and started idly tapping their foot on the ground. This was his chance, why was he doing this? Never mind that he's doing it, no matter how soft he comes off as.

"You," he clears his throat, "you look cute today." Raph says mentally cursing himself at the way he sounded and how they easily could've taken that as him implying they don't look cute everyday.

(Name) pauses for a moment, taking in his words. A bright smile etches across their face and she gives him a thumbs up. "Thank you Raph! You look pretty good yourself!" They stay quiet for a moment before speaking up. "You okay? It's totally not like you to give out compliments like that!" (Name) tilts their head a wave of concern washing over their adorable human features.

Raph was dumbfounded, shocked even. He stayed quiet for a moment as he processes how his flirting just flew over your head. Were they playing dumb with him to avoid rejecting him? he wouldn't blame them... (Name) was a human and he was an ugly green freak!

"What do you mean?! I can't compliment people?!" He plays the angry and defensive card to get out of that one.

(Name) watches as he punches the dummy, looking over how his muscles flexed at certain points, taking it all in. They wished he seen them the way they do. Why can't he like them back?

Raph stops his punching and turns towards (Name), he took a deep breath and sighed. "(Name), can I ask you something?" He sounded almost nervous? What was wrong?

"Of course Raph! What's up?" (Name) asked slightly concerned, it could be anything at this point. (Name) was hoping he'd get it over quickly so they don't have to wait any longer in suspense.

"Would you," Raph clears his throat, "Would you want to go out sometime?" His tried not to wince as his voice took on a higher pitch at the end.

(Name) thought for a moment, was he asking them out? Probably not, either way they would love to go. "Sure!" They smile, "Any specific reason?" They ask curious as to why Raph of all people would want to go out with them.

Raph sighed audibly through his nose. Welp, this was going to be all or nothing. Time to rip the bandaid off for this one. "I was asking you out on a date." He crosses his arms he scoffs. "Forget it, you wouldn't want to go on a date with an ugly green mutant. Stop playing stupid with me." Raph walks off, angry and a little sad.

(Name) pauses for a moment, as if something wet had just hit them in the face. "What?" They mumble. "Raph wait!" They call out and Raph pauses.

"What do you want?" Raph turns around to face them again, although he didn't really want to. (Name) lightly jogs up to him. "I would love to go out with you, I just didn't think that you liked me like that..." (Name) says rubbing the back of their neck awkwardly.

Raph raises a brow, a small smirk on his face. "You really are that dense." He said crossing his arms, getting an eye roll from (Name)."Where were you thinking we go?" (Name) asks, referring to their up coming date, completely disregarding his (lighthearted) insult.

"Mr. Murakami's place, it's not like I can go anywhere else." Raph says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. (Name) shrugs and nods. "You do have a point there." They smile at him and plant a kiss on his cheek.

"Pick me up at 8 on Friday!" (Name) skips off to go hangout with April who was seated on the couch engrossed in her laptop for school. Raph was left there with pink cheeks and wide eyes, his jaw slightly agape.

Wow.

@fashionablysouly @serendipitous-girl

[ruusawa]

✶⋆.˚ MDNI, 18+ ONLY

✶⋆.˚ Kory (starfire) x fem reader

✶⋆.˚ wlw, fem reader, dick and Kory are amicable dw, affectionate insult/name calling (it’s my love language I’m sorry), oral f!receiving, beta read by @wingfleur thank you ml

✶⋆.˚ 1.6k words

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

The breakup was amicable, thank god. Kory doesn’t know how she’d feel at odds with Dick while trying to work together. Kory had worried that they would ask her to leave the team, but thankfully, they hadn’t. The Titans had become her family, one she cared for deeply since coming to earth; it was not something she wanted to lose.

It was unusually hot in San Francisco today, temperatures at a record high for the year. 

“You look like a slut,” Dick calls from the kitchen in Titans Tower as you walk into the common area, flopping onto one of the couches. You flip Dick off, making him laugh. 

“Fuck off, Dickhead, it’s hot,” you grumble, fanning yourself with your hand. You’re wearing shorts, and that’s being generous. They’re so small, most of your ass is visible. 

Kory looks up from her book, frowning. “She is not dressed like a slut.” 

You laugh as Dick sputters at Kory’s earnest tone. She’s so serious about this. 

“I meant it affectionately!” Dick squawks as you cackle at the situation. Kory looks between the two of you, she’s never understood the dynamic between the two of you fully. 

You and Dick had been friends for years, there through thick and thin. Kory remember’s her first fight with Dick, the glare you’d sent her way could’ve killed as you were grabbing snacks to console your best friend. Kory can also remember when you gave him a kick up the ass when he was being an idiot. It’s a partnership, a close bond. Kory’s always wondered if there was anything more than friendship between the two of you, you’re both just so comfortable with each other. 

You let out a soft groan, fanning your face. Kory can’t help but admire you, shorts riding up your thighs, sweat beading at your temple because of the heat, nipples pebbled beneath your shirt. You’re not wearing a bra again, Kory realises. You’re a treat, scantily clad and delicious. But not a treat Kory can have. While the breakup is amicable, Kory and Dick are friends; there are no hard feelings, it’s all been hashed out, but Kory doesn’t think Dick would appreciate her making an advance on his best friend. She’s pretty sure that crosses a line on Earth. And that’s a shame, truly. Because Kory thinks you’re amazing, and she likes you. 

Earth etiquette is confusing. 

“You’re staring.”

Your soft comment knocks Kory out of her thoughts. You’re studying her, taking her in, thought clear on your face. 

“What are you thinking about?” 

“How beautiful you are,” Kory answers honestly. She’s nothing but honest, you are beautiful. 

You snort, disbelieving of the compliment. 

Kory looks almost offended. “You are. Dick is wrong, you do not look like a slut. You are a vision.” 

A flush paints your cheekbones, that you’re absolutely going to blame on the heat. You stare up at Kory, lashes fluttering slightly as you simply bask in the compliment. Why did she have to be your best friend’s ex? The quickening of your heart (and the wetness of your cunt) is definitely against the best friend code. 

“God, my best friend is an idiot,” you mutter. 

Kory cocks her head to the left, an adorable habit that makes you want to coo at her and pinch her cheek every time she does it. “What do you mean?” 

“I don’t know how he could give you up,” you murmur. “If he wasn’t my best friend…” 

You let the unsaid words hang between you. The tension is so thick you can taste it. It’s too hot, and you don’t know if it’s the heatwave or Kory’s eyes on you. You’ve never held eye contact with Kory like this before, and it’s in this moment you realise how pretty her eyes truly are. They’re such a captivating green, it feels like you could get truly lost in the way they sparkle. 

“Just fuck already!” Dick yells from the kitchen, the fucking mood killer. 

Both you and Kory stare at Dick, who’s grinning at you like a fucking idiot. 

You huff, blowing some hair out of your face. “Well, we have his blessing,” you comment dryly. 

Kory laughs, the sound bright and airy. God, she’s beautiful. “We do.” 

“I’ll wine and dine you first, unless you wanna skip to the good bit.” 

Wine and dine Kory, you do. You take her to your favourite restaurant, a lovely local Japanese place with food, which in your opinion, to die for. It’s not awkward like you’re expecting, the conversation flows easy, the both of you even getting some good natured jabs in on Dick, too. 

“So, you and Dick have you ever-”

“Oh fuck no,” you interrupt Kory as you’re both walking home. “He has too many legs for me.” 

“I see,” Kory muses. 

As you get into the elevator, there’s a tension between you. It’s waiting to snap, someone just has to make the first move. You let your gaze sweep over Kory appreciatively. Her jeans hug her hips perfectly, and you feel no better than a man as you check out her ass. Kory notices, years as a hero sharpens your senses after all. 

“I’m going to kiss you,” Kory declares. 

Your eyes flutter as Kory leans in, smiling so warmly as her hands come to cup your cheeks.

Kory’s kisses are burning. They make you feel like fire is spreading through your veins. Her hands cradle your face as your tongues brush languidly. Your body feels like it’s burning from both the arousal and Kory’s natural body heat. Your hands come to Kory’s back, smoothing up her shoulders and down her arms, clutching her wrists as your skin tingles, the sound of lips smacking together softly fills the elevator. Kory’s kisses are confident, she’s not shy about it at all. You chase Kory’s lips as she pulls away once the elevator reaches its destination. It makes her laugh softly at your eagerness, your sarcastic bravado long gone; it’s been replaced with breathlessness and flushed cheeks. 

You let Kory lead you out of the elevator and down the hall, past rows of bedroom doors. 

“Taking me to bed already, hm?” you try to tease, hoping to get some control back. 

“And if I was?” Kory asks, looking over her shoulder at you. 

Oh. Well, that went straight to your cunt. 

“Okay then. You’ll have to tell me if my head’s better than Dick’s.”

Kory’s hand tangles in your hair, tugging your face closer to her leaky cunt. Your breath ghosts her folds, tongue teasingly flicking out to taste her. You just stay there, breathing Kory in, revelling in making her squirm. You lay there between her legs, looking up her body, admiring the way her orange skin flushes, you’ve never seen anyone look like this. So different, so beautiful, so perfect. With the next tug on your hair, you let Kory guide you in, placing a kiss on her slit, tongue dipping into Kory’s wetness as your nose bumps against her clit. You moan against her, the vibrations causing Kory’s hand to tighten in your hair, the sting shooting pleasure down your spine. 

“You’re so beautiful like this,” you murmur against Kory’s cunt, your lips trailing upwards to place soft pecks on her clit. Kory’s thighs spasm around your head, squeezing just a little. 

“You are… a vision between my thighs,” Kory’s voice is breathy, a pretty flush painting her orange skin. Her eyes are glazed over, the green looking like it’s sparkling. 

You sigh against Kory’s wetness, your finger teasing the juncture of her thigh. You give a harsh suck to Kory’s clit, making her gasp and tighten her hand in your hair once again. “Keep your legs open for me, beautiful.” 

The noise Kory lets out is sinful, but she does as she’s told, spreading her legs a little wider. One of your hands grip the flesh of her thigh, the other pressing two fingers into her sopping cunt, feeling around for the spot that you know will have Kory turn into a puddle in your hands. When Kory lets out a prolonged moan and pulls your hair to bring your lips closer to her clit, you know you’ve found it. You oblige, fingers pressing against the gummy walls of Kory’s cunt, putting delicious pressure against the spot that her melt, sucking on her clit. You switch between giving harsh sucks and circling your tongue around the bud, and then flattening your tongue against her. 

 Kory’s not shy with her noises, moaning above you, breathy praises passing her lips. It spurs you on, eager to make her fall apart just so you can pull her back together again. Kory’s breath stutters, you reach up the hand not buried in her cunt to clasp her fingers as she reaches for something to ground herself. You squeeze her hand, a silent I’ve got you. 

You press your thighs together, panties sticking to your own pussy, as Kory keens, a high pitched moan escaping her lips. Her cunt squeezes around your fingers, back arching off the bed as you carefully work her through her orgasm. 

“You are…”

“Better than Dick?” you ask with a cocky grin. 

The smile Kory gives in return makes your heart melt as you rest your cheek on her thigh. 

“I give better head than you, apparently.”

You laugh as Dick chokes on his cereal, Wally patting his back, looking completely unconcerned. 

“What?” 

“Said your head game is shit, Grayson.” 

“It is not, you crusty bitch, my head game is just fine!” Dick squawks. 

“Actually, babe,” Wally pipes up. “It could use a bit of work.” 

Dick lets out an indignant noise, looking offended. “No more head for you then,” he grumbles as you and Wally laugh.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

Happy pride month!

This was supposed to come out on the 12th on my birthday but, yeah… I have no defence

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Alexis @wingfleur for beta reading <3

Shout out to Kali for suffering through the process with me, ily ml @silkentrigger

I hope everyone has a happy pride month

Asks are open please yap at me I live for that

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Any ML characters that you do think are overhated?

No one really comes to mind. While I end up defending Marinette the most, I'm more critical of specific criticisms or the way the criticisms are handled than I am of the fact that people can't stand her or any other character. Almost every significant character has come across as pretty terribly at one point or another and I understand why some viewers can't look past those bad writing choices. Many side characters have also done questionable things. Off to top of my head, here are some flaws that are understandably hard to overlook:

Alya blindly believing everything Lila says and dismissing Marinette's concerns, especially after the reveal of Ladybug's identity

Nino outing Alya's identity to Adrien and never telling her (Rocketear), then doing it again in public without asking her permission (Illusion)

Adrien pushing for Ladynoir in spite of Ladybug's multiple requests that he stop

Marinette using her trauma as an excuse for her inability to treat Adrien as a normal human being

The entire miracuclass trying to force Marinette and Adrien to kiss while they watch

Everything Nathalie did - or more damningly didn't do - in season five

Any and all of these things are understandably off-putting. While I don't particularly like pure salt fics, I do get why they exist. Sometimes you just need an outlet to express your frustration! I do it via this blog, but I don't judge anyone for doing it via a vent fic instead. I just get concerned when the annoyance and anger leads to poor media literacy where people act as if these characters are real people doing real things. They're not. They're puppets controlled by poor-quality puppet masters.

Along the same lines, I also get annoyed when people pick and choose which jokes to take at face value, when people hold different characters to wildly different standards, or when people act like their favorite is the biggest victim of the bad writing. They're all victims at this point. There's no point debating who got it worse. It's not going to fix the issues. At this point, I don't think that anything can. The last two seasons made the flaws too deep. The only way to make the story work is a full reboot.

That's why this is a writing salt, character sugar blog. I'm not here to defend the writing or tell you that the characters have done nothing wrong. I'm here to defend the basic story setup and explain why the problems all fall at the feet of the writers. This isn't the kind of story where it is intentionally making you hate the characters. Outside of Chloe and Lila, you are supposed to like basically the entire cast. It's embarrassing how hard the writers failed at that assignment.

[dangermousie]

2024 list - cdrama edition

Yes, it's cdrama world so even though December is halfway though, they may drop 10 more dramas I will check out between now and 2025. But if I wait, this will never get done and it can always be updated, so here we go. This has been one of the best cdrama years for me!

This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2024; if I watched it but it was made in a different year, it’s not on the list. As always, very subjective.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

61 My Divine Emissary - it’s actually a pretty good drama year when the worst cdrama I’ve checked out this year is merely utterly shrill and brain dead but not horrifyingly offensive to good taste.

60 Are You the One - no you are not. There are objectively worse dramas I've ranked higher but this is here because I am annoyed at the waste of Zhang Wanyi and this drama's popularity and douban rating. I am a petty bitch.

59 Fight for Love - they had wonderful actors and a great premise and utterly wasted it. There might someday be a good drama about a female general torn between a royal and an enemy general but this ain’t it.

58 Peacock in Wonderland - I am a few decades too old for this brain dead fest but I am glad Zhou Jun Wei is not canceled at least.

57 Her Fantastic Adventures - honestly, this, MDE and Revenger are all the same type of subgenre - they aren’t offensive they are just as empty as air. This also suffers from casting an utter dud as ML and a charisma boat as SML. Why?

56 Lady Revenger Returns from the Fire - the main thing I remember from this is that Miles Wei must have stolen the wig maker’s parking spot. That wig is the one that should have gone into the fire.

55 Fox Matchmaker: The Red Moon Pact - it’s so pretty, so full of gorgeous costumes and actors and I enjoyed the first few eps, but ultimately it was like watching colorful paint dry. It was so dull, I couldn’t even hate watch it, and that is more damning than anything.

54 Your Trap/Imprisoned Love - the plot of this mini made no sense but the softcore vibes of sanitized 1990s cinemax were on point!

53 The Unexpected Marriage - cutesy dumb period romcom. Could be worse, not that this is much of a praise.

52 Love’s Rebellion - so twee, so precious, so full of cutesy awful CGI and actors who aren’t bothering. I am not sure why Zhang Linghe and Jing Tian are in this mess that looks like rainbow vomited on a xianxia set.

51 My Wife’s Double Life - her life may be double but her brain is only half.

50 Jade’s Fateful Love - I lost some braincells trying this one, but (a) it’s gorgeous and (b) no transmigration say you? Multiple transmigration in first ep alone! Good for you, makers!

49 Follow My Heart - how do you have Luo Yunxi, Song Yi and Cheng Lei and waste them so utterly? First few eps were nice and then it’s like exercise in how much you can tolerate before you call it quits.

48 The Story of Pearl Girl - almost made me dislike ZLS and LYN and that's a feat. Dull and stupid and pointless from beginning to end.

47 Brocade Odyssey - more like Snooze Novella.

46 Melody of Golden Age - see write up for FMH because it fits here. This is bland with a side of bland.

45 The Legend of Taotie - an unequivocally bad drama but the look is such a nostalgia trip and I had fun.

44 Sword and Fairy 4 - it’s kinda a mess but I loved the actors and some of the plots and you can do worse.

43 Dawn Amidst Hidden Clouds - I enjoy watching Chang Huasen as a ML but the rest is eminently forgettable.

42 Blossoms in Adversity - dumb as a set of particularly dumb bricks and ML I don’t think could act if his life depended on it, but it was strangely addictive and I watched it often before better dramas. It’s just a genuinely good time somehow!

41 Judge Dee - it’s not you it’s me in action. It’s smart and gorgeous and well acted, I just don’t do procedurals.

40 The Substitute Princess’ Love - it’s like some of those trashy web novels I enjoy. It was clearly cut, its budget was equivalent to loose change found in the pockets of makers of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, but it was a surprisingly fun watch, though I enjoyed the first half better than the second. Also as a drama old, it was a fun blast from the past seeing Dylan Kuo (if you have never watched the old twdrama The Outsiders, what are you even doing with your life?)

39 Rise from the Ashes - a wacky as hell mini where reborn FL wreaks revenge with help of her fake uncle as they carry on as some sort of Borgia/Phillip II of Spain fame hybrid. If you don’t need to use your brain, you could have a worse time.

38 The Legend of Heroes - it suffered from me seeing other versions of this tale before that I liked more and not loving how dark looking it is but that cast is A+ and Wang Hongyi was a revelation as Yang Kang.

37 Beauty Strategy - a mini of what a few years ago would have been a proper angsty drama of palace scheming enemies while lovers, powerless emperor etc etc. Honestly, I loved it.

36 Lovesickness - this year’s gender-reversed Ancient Love Song, not as artistic or good but still a good time about a woman traveling back in time and falling for a powerful but doomed duke.

35 Fragments of Kylin - demon slayer falls for a demon; this one came out of nowhere and didn’t have much of a budget but is surprisingly lovely.

34 Love of Nirvana - the good parts are vvvvv good and points for making the emperor the villain, but it almost never emotionally grabbed me, and a lot of time was spent on narratives I had no interest in.

33 Enslaved by Love - the only reason it’s not the most fucked up drama on this list is because Shadow Sect, Palace Shadows and Burning Flames exist. The ML is toxic enough to be banned by the Geneva convention but FL does get some of her own back and also if you ever wanted to see blindness-curing sex, boy do I have a drama for you!

32 The Princess Royal/The Grand Princess - I am in the minority of finding this drama very mid. The acting was fine (except for former eunuch dude), the writing was fine, but I never really got invested alas. I don’t even know why. I think it’s just not my type of narrative; there was no intensity.

31 Secrets of the Shadow Sect - head of sect lady and her very very subby bodyguard. What’s not to love?

30 Palace Shadows: Between Two Princes - ML pretends to be his own twin, bdsm and sluttiness ensues. I cannot even explain how wild this drama is but the acting is on point and way way fun!

29 Dashing Youth - I had no expectations of this drama (was either indifferent to or disliked everyone in the cast, wuxia and wuxia-adjacent is rarely my genre, the number of characters is huge) but I loved how under its bright colors, it eventually gets very dark (it’s quite old school that way) and somehow I am invested in everyone in the huge cast. This being a prequel to The Blood of Youth makes us know the fates of many of the characters and this adds the air of tragic inevitability to it all.)

28 The Last Immortal - a surprisingly sweet and touching xianxia that works largely because Zhao Lusi and Wang Anyu are so so so so solid separately and together.

27 Burning Flames - the most gonzo drama on this list. I love it for committing to insanity as it should (if you pick insane source material, commit.) Humans taking on the worst Gods since Olympus, fur and chains, sentient crystal FL, ML who goes from Crown Prince to mine slave to rebel leader, bare chests and fur, demon elves, a villain that leaches color from the world - this drama has everything and I loved its unhinged glory.

26 Lost You Forever 2 - it would have been higher except it fell apart in the last third so badly I am still wondering how the makers could misunderstand their own characters and their own narratives so badly. The first season was a masterpiece. This is a hot mess.

25 Fateful Love - this was released after years in the dungeon and feels old school in the best way. It's what reading one of those OP FL web novels feels like, and the OTP is shockingly competent and adult. I loved that.

24 Love Game In Eastern Fantasy - excellent start, mid middle, and a terrible last third but I cannot have truly hard feelings since before it fell off, it really was fun.

23 Love in a Dream - it's a mini that has the most gorgeous cinematography I've seen all year except for Fangs of Fortune and Eternal Brotherhood. I loved the vibes and the story (though of course it suffered from mini running time constraints) and its feeling of tragic love and lost time.

22 Different Princess - a ridiculous amount of fun and ship about an author falling through to her own novel and falling for the villain.

21 Kill Me Love Me - the story is a mess and a half but the OTP gave me some incredible incredible scenes, and Wu Jinyan, Liu Xueyi and Baron Chen are gorgeous and acting their hearts out, plus the whump mmmm.

20 Meet You at the Blossom - this is a Thai/Taiwan/China coproduction so I am including it. It's my list! An uncensored BL adaptation with delicious dysfunction, sunshine x murder boy, angst, shippiness, groveling and wigs that are surprisingly decent for the budget!

19 Sword and Fairy 6 - I love this tale; the young OTP (a whale weapon and a clone of her trigger? More wholesome than you think) who are so ride or die for each other, the other amazing characters (sect leader who has to live as a man and her “twin” who is an ancient trapped spirit, a wolf demon, etc…) It’s just genuinely good and proof that targeted to younger audience doesn’t have to be bad.

18 In Blossom - sure, we all know JJY can’t act, but the narrative was so fun and the visuals were so gorgeous and Liu Xueyi so gorgeous and magnetic in his first proper Male Lead role, it was all worth it. I liked the first half when they were still cautious of each other more than the second but this is just a good time!

17 Snowy Night Timeless Love - a classic, tragic, romantic wuxia the way "they don't make it any more" only they did. Just lovely.

16 The Rise of Ning - such a pleasant, easy slice of period life with a side of revenge and fakecest (but only a teeny side.) Secondary characters are not particularly engaging and the plot suffers from being limited to 40 eps, but the main OTP is so enjoyable and Ren Min and Zhang Wanyi are doing such nuanced, lovely job that I can't even complain.

15 Hard to Find - my second favorite mini on the list, this is an aesthetic feast. The doomed couple from enemy kingdoms, the vengeance, the twists - if ever a mini deserved to be a proper drama, this would be it. But alas, if it was they’d probably not let it.

14 The Double - unhinged web novel vibe done so perfectly in the inimitable Yu Zheng style. The leads were so good even the amazing villains didn’t truly steal the show. Like with a lot of cdramas, it lost a lot of steam in second half for me, but still a great watch.

13 Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2 - I never like procedurals. Somehow both seasons of this show are the sole exception. It is so gorgeous, so impeccably acted, with such great characters. I cannot wait for s3.

12 Love in the Desert - a mini drama in story but with a proper budget and run time, this is such gorgeous sensual fun with a great main OTP, a truly incredible secondary OTP and some beautiful visuals.

11 Fortune Writer - the best mini this year and better than most “proper” cdramas (Douban raters agree), this tale of villains in love fighting the narrative has a lot to say about writing cliches and writing conventions. I love how clever it is and how it actually made me care for the characters.

10 Tender Light - except for that ending, this was in the running for my favorite 2024 cdrama. The writers’ lack of ability to commit and carry through pushed it lower but otherwise it’s a genuine masterpiece. The acting, the chemistry, the looping narrative, what it has to say about abuse and complicity of society and blazing your own moral path is something else.

9 Derailment - who knew a little quasi scifi modern would be this high but this one is amazing. If you watch one modern this year, make it this one. Our FL is a rich girl a little in the future who somehow wakes up in a different timeline a few years back in the body of that universe’s version of her (who is poor and has been missing) and her one connection is a young man who was in love with that universe’s version of her. I don’t want to say more so as not to spoil because the twists are twisty but this is EVERYTHING and also addresses transmigration, what it means to love, what is ethical etc etc. And that OTP!

8 Will Love in Spring - this is a year of miracles because I don't just have one modern among my favorites, I have a bunch. This is a gorgeous story about love and healing and awkward, scarred emotionally and physically people feeling if their odd angles and prickly flaws actually fit and working towards a future with fits and starts and it's just so chemistry driven, so tender, so gorgeous.

7 Snowfall - a fever dream of a vampire narrative set in an alternate universe of the Republican era, it’s gorgeous, passionate, hella queer and just like watching the most amazing fanfic come to life.

6 Heroes - a complete masterpiece about three men about to be on the scrapheap of history in the Qing Dynasty about to fall (a constable devoted to obsolete norms, who spent his whole life studying for the imperial exam which got canceled, the world’s best swordsman in the era of guns, and a former imperial guard who emerges from prison into a different world) whose stories intersect as they search for treasure and the women and other people in their lives. This is smart, impeccably acted, filmed in a stunning way, bleak and funny at once and - I don’t use the term masterpiece often but I will use it here.

4 (tie) Blossom - a romantic fever dream, with gorgeous damaged destined lovers. The director is the person who made A Familiar Stranger and Butterflied Lover into amazingness on a short run time and no budget, so when he actually has a proper run time and a budget - oh boy - it's romantic and beautiful and intense, a drama as opera.

4 (tie) The Legend of Shen Li - I am often indifferent to xianxia that suffers from too much CGI, hella immaturity and not enough stakes. Shen Li is everything. It’s gorgeously filmed, it’s adult, it gives the story time to breathe and centers it on characters and relationships. And the OTP is everything you can ever dream of - it reunites Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin, totally healing those Princess Agents wounds - their chemistry is still utter fire but the narrative supports them every step of the way.

3 Eternal Brotherhood - if JoL2/FoF did not come out this year, this would be my favorite cdrama of the year. It’s clearly a passion project with a small budget but this complex and grim tale of three rather different sworn brothers in a world at war is gorgeous, smart, well acted, dark and inspiring at once. There are shots that take my breath away, the love stories are amazing, the pace is perfect, and ohhh our complex mainsssssss.

1 (tie) Joy of Life 2 - (almost) nothing can beat this masterpiece. The first season was perfect and somehow the second is even more perfect. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s heartbreaking, the cast is still impeccable and Zhang Ruoyun still gives a completely jawdropping performance as the focus of all the madness Fan Xian. If you watch only one cdrama this year, make it this one; well, this and Fangs of Fortune.

1 (tie) Fangs of Fortune - this is an emotional and visual feast, with such incredible characters, interesting explorations of fantasy and mortality and morality and what makes life worth living. It made awful actors good and mid actors amazing (and amazing ones extra amazing.) It is also the most stunning drama I've ever watched as well as throwing me back into what it's like to be immersed into an amazing fantasy book as a kid and the characters and the relationships and the themes sing to me. A miracle.

FAVORITE DRAMA

Fangs of Fortune - I have rarely seen a drama that speaks to me so personally, but it is also narratively perfect, emotionally devastating, with impeccable acting, complex characters and visuals that are beyond stunning.

Joy of Life 2 - there is not one second I forwarded, not one unnecessary scene, not one weak link character. It’s a smart, fierce masterpiece.

Eternal Brotherhood is a runner up - it came out of nowhere and owned my whole heart. It’s the sole other cdrama this year where I did not ff a second.

WORST DRAMA

My Divine Emissary may have been the lowest ranked drama on my list but honestly, a drama with a tiny budget and a bunch of nobodies does not deserve to be listed as the Worst. What does? Fox Spirit Matchmaker - a huge budget, fancy stars etc etc and yet it's a completely and utterly unwatchable mess. To make something this thoroughly dull is a genuine feat. I cannot think of a drama that insults its viewer more not just this year but any recent year.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

Fan Xian (Zhang Ruoyun), Joy of Life 2 - how could it ever be anyone but smart, irreverent, fierce, broken, idealistic, funny Fan Xian. The man who fights against the horrors of the universe, who remains human while being so larger than life. This character is everything.

Or Zhu Yun (Hou Minghao), an ancient, irreverent, vivid, borken demon who wants to die even as he might finally find a reason to live in Fangs of Fortune.

Runner up: Zhou Luo (Zhang Xincheng), Tender Light - idealistic loner who refuses to compromise his principles even as it would be easier to, even as it destroys his life, ZXC has always been a solid actor but here he is beyond.

Alternatively, Zichuan Xiu (Yang Xuwen), Eternal Brotherhood - only way to describe Xiu is “trauma sunshine.” He’s funny, he’s irrevocably fucked up, he is magnetic and intense and he fights for his hopeless ideals and he breaks and he keeps going.

or Xing Zhi (Lin Gengxin), the lonely ancient god in Shen Li discovering the pleasure of life for the first time in aeons.

or Zhuo Yichen (Fangs of Fortune) - a traumatized idealist who goes through so much hell but retains his heart and his core of steel even as he grows up about complexities of the world and the human heart.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Shen Li (Zhao Liying), The Legend of Shen Li - so fierce, so certain, so alive. She is a goddess but ZLY made her feel so real.

Runner up: Nan Ya (Tong Yao), Tender Light - an abuse victim who keeps trying to find a way out, she’s strong and damaged and complex and honestly, one of the best performances this year.

Alternatively, Jiang Xiao Yuan (Liu Haocun), Derailment - she makes a character that in other hands would be boring or trite, someone I want to reach through to the screen and protect and love.

Or Mi Lan (Ouyang Nana), Snowfall - a tiny, suicidal, abused, seemingly helpless blind girl who decides she needs to protect a deadly ancient vampire as her reason for living and she is unstoppable, fierce and a force of nature in her goal.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

99% of the denizens of the town in Tender Light - selfish every day denizens monstrous because of their very everydayness - they watch abuse and choose to blame the victim and gossip and enjoy the view. I hated them all.

BEST BAD GUY

Li Lun (Fangs of Fortune) - with his glorious mane, equally glorious eventual redemption, and incredibly dramatic attitude to a bad breakup, that was a feast.

The Emperor (Joy of Life 2) - a magnetic monster, smartest and the most ruthless character in any scene - Chen Dao Ming gives an insane performance.

Wang Jia Luo (Heroes) - a revolutionary for conservatism, a young man with brains and ideals who gets destroyed by them, who out-Javerts Javert, his descent into villainy and inability to live in the modern complex world, is one of the most compelling and tragic arcs of the drama.

Shen Yurong (The Double) - both repellent and somehow sympathetic, it takes skill to make me feel for a man who tried to bury his wife alive in ep 1. The performance of the whole drama for me.

City Lord (Eternal Brotherhood) - an utterly vile toad of a man, with nothing truly human and yet hiding it under weak and caring facade. I need him taken out.

"HAROLD, THEY ARE LESBIANS" AWARD

Wen Xiao x Pei Sijing, Fangs of Fortune - Duh.

"HOW DID CENSORS NAP THROUGH THIS" AWARD

Vamp Daddy and Loser Li in Snowfall and the entirety of Fangs of Fortune.

MALE LEAD MOST LIKELY TO BE BROUGHT HOME TO MOTHER

No, thank you! The few modern ones she'd not approve of (a mortician with issues? A teenager? A man who had his memories rearranged?) and the period ones are no go since few moms would be keen on wild-eyed, bloodied sons in law however hot and long haired they may be.

FAVORITE SHIP

Dou Zhao x Song Mo, Blossom - one of the most perfectly in sync couples out there, smart, competent, different kinds of damaged, get each other before they love or even trust each other. Your OTP could never. Unless your OTP is them.

Fan Xian x Lin Wan'er, Joy of Life 2 - she is his peace and his haven and the place his busy mind can rest, he is her safety and happiness and ability to live and not exist. They are everything to me.

Shen Li x Xing Zhi, The Legend of Shen Li - the chemistry, the yearning, the slow inevitable collapse into admittance, the way he protects the world and she protects him, the way they dance around each other, her being the aggressor, his surrender to forbidden emotion, their utter mutual belief in each other’s competence. They are everything to me.

Whatever the throuple (with sides?) thing was going on in Fangs of Fortune - I've raved enough about it elsewhere but that was insane in its intensity and gorgeousness and emotion and narrative arcs.

Runner up: the OTP in Derailment - those two went through some mind and soul breaking stuff and made it out.

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Hands down Ruo Wen x Ge Xinwei, Love in the Desert. An amoral, magnetic bandit leader and a princess gone wild on spring break stole the drama utterly. His unhinged energy was so matched by her sfl but with an appropriate target fixation. They made me swoon, laugh and cry.

Amusingly enough, Fu Xin Bo is the male actor in two - the crossdressing sect leader x wolf demon OTP in Sword and Fairy 6, and First Prince x Eldest Princess in Joy of Life 2. What can I say, man knows how to pick them. Those OTPs are both utterly adorable!

If we are talking about an OTP where it’s not that it’s not the main but it’s not a ship-centric drama so they don’t get much time, then we have Si Yilin x Ka Dan, Eternal Brotherhood - they are both such desperately good people in a mad world, tender with each other despite surrounding cruelty and Shen Zhiheng x Mi Lan, Snowfall - a vampire age gap romance done well, the ancient gentleman vampire and the tiny fierce blind girl who decides to protect him.

And of course Qing Geng x Fei, Fangs of Fortune - Ai Mi and Zuo Ye breaking my heart yet AGAIN.

NOTP

The couple in Fox Spirit Matchmaker - such pretty people, and so bland and boring and pointless together. It was kinda amazing.

HOTTEST SCENE

Ka Dan and Si Yilin (Eternal Brotherhood), the primmest, properest OTP of them all, consummate their love without any marriage, but with plenty of golden light.

FAVORITE SCENE

God, so many good scenes this year so far - Fan Xian watching the death of the old censor and the aftermath, in JoL2; his confrontation with Wan'er after she finds out about the truth behind her brother’s death, the scene where he poisons Second Prince, his scene with the registrar. Xiu giving up his future to protect the surrendered soldiers only to come back and find Di Lin executed them all in EB, the scene in Ning’s bedroom when he tells her how he really feels because she can’t hear, the very end of that season and Di Lin striding into the light, Ka Dan and SYL’s letters to each other. XZ literally defying heaven’s lightning and all their longing in Shen Li. The last scene of LYN and his girl in Heroes, the way Heroes always intercuts the golden past of the guard and princess and the dreary present (especially when we see her bicycle spin out of control back when and her husband lose it in the present and this time there is nobody to catch her), the big reveal in Derailment and the hairwashing scene, Mi Lan touching Vamp Daddy’s face as their thing in Snowfall, and the cage stuff, the aborted sex scene in Will Love in Spring, so many scenes in Fangs of Fortune but especially the aftermath on the stairs between ZYC and ZYZ post the latter's loss of control, the final sacrifice,Li Lun x ZYC x ZYZ battle against the bad guy, the whole plague demon storyline, ZYC becoming a demon, ZYZ having to slap himself to nerve himself to walk to his death, everything. And we haven't gotten to it yet, but the scene in all Blossom previews where Song Mo falls to his knees in front of Dou Zhao from a dead run is imprinted in me.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Shen Zhiheng (Gao Weiguang), Snowfall - Vamp Daddy made me hormonal in a way I haven’t felt for a cdrama lead since the heady days of Darren Wang in The Wolf. Those outfits, that hair, that height, that restraint, that lack of restraint. THE CHAINS

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Liu Duan Duan as Second Prince in Joy of Life 2 - what a performance! Unhinged, magnetic, pitiable, terrifying and always mesmerizing. The Second Prince is Fan Xian’s foil and a worthy one. LDD is always a great actor, and with a role that actually gives him something to sink his teeth into - wow!

Runner up - Baron Chen in Kill Me Love Me. It's the year of unhinged royal princes, I guess.

BEST COSTUMES AND WIGS

Fangs of Fortune - the whole design is exquisite!

MOST EXTRA OUTFIT

Burning Flames - this drama was a feat of extraness and that meant costumes but even among those, costumes worn by Peter Ho's human king and Jeremy Tsui's psychotic god stood out.

FAVORITE SECONDARY ML

Wu Shan, Blossom - this man is a literal sunshine angel.

MOST BLATANT INNUENDO MOMENT

The Double - As our FL fondles her wet flower petals in the bath, our ML wields and swings his giant sword shirtless in the rain. That was eye popping.

FAVORITE 2024 CDRAMA SONG

This Chen Xueran song from Eternal Brotherhood:

MVP OF THE YEAR

Liu Xueyi (In Blossom, Kill Me Love Me) - this is the year LXY finally achieved leading man status and he was spectacular in both of his outings - so very different in both but equally magnetic in either even if the dramas themselves had flaws. I have a new fave!

ACTING SURPRISE

Ouyang Nana - Li Muge performs miracles. He made Yang Chaoye be good in Heroes (2022) and now Nana, who was always as wooden as a post, is a revelation as blind abused girl who becomes a vampire in Snowfall.

Hou Minghao - I've always found HMH a stunningly beautiful man and a thoroughly bland actor. But he was surprisingly solid in Dashing Youth and utterly blew me away in Fangs of Fortune. Like jaw on the floor level blown away.

Wang Hongyi - found him bland as paint in LYF (both seasons) but his Yang Kang in Condor Heroes blew me away and then he repeated that feat as a very different character in a very different drama (Snowy Night.) Consider me a new fan.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

Joy of Life 2 of course - I need to see the looming confrontation between Fan Xian and the emperor, though not sure how that will pass censorship.

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

FF button has cured me of finding contenders for this category, but perhaps cutting out a lot of terrible acting and lack of stage presence of “not yet a eunuch” dude in The Princess Royal, would have improved it.

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Lost You Forever 2 - there were other issues with it, but all the cuts couldn’t have helped with coherency.

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

Same as last year - the emperor cannot be irredeemable. WTF, China, you are a communist country! Though they are nibbling at the edges this year. Also fake feminism - I am all for girl power but not when it's ridiculously anachronistic for the period with no explanation at all. And finally NO MORE TRADE DRAMAS PLS PLS PLS

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

Men (and women) knowingly fighting for a doomed cause because otherwise they’d cease to be who they are. Or if we are being shallow all the beautiful men in chains.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Lost Your Forever 2 - the first season was my favorite drama of 2023 but LYF2 just fell apart so so so badly, it was almost fascinating. It totally eviscerated the characters and the meanings of the story.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

So many of top dramas on my list are not dramas that were on my radar at all before airing - Heroes, Eternal Brotherhood, Fangs of Fortune, Will Love in Spring and Snowfall were not anything I anticipated, let alone I realized how much I’d love them. Same for Derailment and Tender Light. This has been a year of surprises.

2024 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

I have honestly watched everything I wanted.

BEST NON-2024 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2024

Lighter and Princess, hands down. I rarely even enjoy moderns and this one made it into my Top 5 cdrama of all time. This is how you make a love story. This is literally perfect. PERFECT.

Runner up: Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty - I, a procedural and mystery hater (especially when there is close to no romance) somehow fell like a ton of bricks for this gorgeous, smart, impeccably acted show.

MOST ANTICIPATED

A Dream Within a Dream looks like Fortune Writer with proper length and budget, Legend of the Female General looks epic and I love the novel, Divine Tree with Deng Wei is all my fave tropes, Veil of Shadows is peak Guo Jingming, and so many more.

[dark-night-hero]

I’ve a question please don’t mind

Why are people so obsessed about non-mc reader?

I mean

Just why

We’re the mc’s??

And it’s proven that the boys only have eyes for the mc

So why? I’ve also seen ppl making the mc the villain in their stories and it’s not my cup of tea

So I usually ignore it

But the troupe of

Non-mc reader being the wife of ml’s who are cheating with mc

Then the non-mc reader suffers or sometimes gains a redemption arc as the ml’s grovel at their feets

But

Why?

I kind of hate ppl making the mc such an irredeemable villain when really nothing is relevant to her in the first place

I tried filtering the non-mc tag but nope

This is just my opinion about this matter i hope you don't mind. But I think it has something to do with the what if of: what if I'm a total different persona- someone who was out of the scene- but still exist in the world of lads- would he fall for me for being actually me- or would he stick to this other version of me who alread had this certain connection to me, the MC.

I love MC, I think others love her too (I mean come on, that girl is basically us too. That's correct, thats a fact.) But the difference between MC and NON-MC reader is the fact that MC already has certain connection with the lads man. Zayne and Caleb as her childhood friend. Rafayel as her Bodyguard. Xavier as a Coworker. Sylus as... well those two have a very complicated business partner like relationships. But the thing is, it comes naturally, like fate.

Non-MC readers were the one who doesn't have that natural connection. They aren't the childhood friend, bodyguard, coworker nor business partner. They were just... at most of the time bystander. Like actually us in the real world who was behind the screen watching the lads man and mc interact. It was the version of us that was the bystander. Always there for them but was beyond reach.

And I love that fact, I love that realistic vibe I got from non-mc reader. And yes, while it sound so wrong to get the MC, the other version of ourself be the villain. I kind of get it because it is the easiest way to make it more painful, to make it hurt even better. I suppose if there as any mc like candidate in lads she wouldn't be villainize that much. But she was the only one we have that could actually make it hurt and make it feel so damn insecure about the non-mc reader. After all who could hurt us better than our own self.

Initially, on the part 2 of my caleb non mc significant other. I want solely the mc to be the reason why he left. But then halfway, I was like. Nah. That seemed predictable which lead me to the path I never thought before. Be it another person. Which made it happened. That's when I realise perhaps I too antagonize the mc too much. Made me view her,mc, into different light. At the same time, a non-mc would always and will always be somehow insecure about her no matter how good their relationship is with each other unless the lads boys stop showing like she. The mc was their priority.

Overall, as a angst writer. Non-mc reader was such good writing material in the lads fandom. And if I'm writing for pain and wanted to give, I would use it over and over again. I think that also is the reason for others why they like non-mc trope so much.

Then again, that was just my option hehe.

[youuuimeanmee]

Get ready with me to be surprised with

✨️Arnold Crowley✨️

Hint: Crowley

I was scrolling through Twitter/X, laughing and giggling at the cute DamiAnya and Loid tweets from the recent chapter 95, when I stumbled on a tweet about Arnold Crowley.

Btw, Arnold is one of the character I'm looking forwad meeting the most because he's the top scorer in the classical language test. His score must be 90 or above, which is kinda insane when we know classical language is a dead language and barely taught anymore. I previously made a theory that the reason why Anya is so good at classical language is because she came from Covenia, the equivalent of Romania irl; which language derived from Latin language. That's why I was intrigued with Arnold Crowley; I want to know how is he able to beat Anya's score. Like, did he come from the same place as Anya, or, does his family have a medical/researcher background; stuffs like that

Anyway, back to the tweet. Some people are weirded out with Arnold Crowley's hairstyle, which is not surprising, because me too.

I clicked the comments when I saw this.

What. The Fuck. Is That.

The hair/hat reference! The same last name!

Suddenly everything about Arnold clicked. Why I feel weirded out not just from his hairstyle, but also from his bow tie (which reminds me of a moth's wing pattern). Why his polite demeanor is lowkey making me uneasy. Why he is so interested to meet the runner-up of his strong subject. Why he is so good at classical language.

I was scared. I am scared.

But I was still excited to learn that Crowley was a real person, so I googled him just to make sure.

Oh FFUCK.

Dear God what did I discover.

Arnold Crowley or his parents might be based on Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley is an occultist.

He practiced spells.

Spells often comes from Latin words.

He is also a poet.

A poet also often uses Latin language.

Do you see what I'm seeing here.

Summary:

Arnold Crowley or his parents might be an occultist or poet; that's how he's able to be excelled in classical language.

If Arnold's family is a poet, then thank God.

If Arnold's family is an occultist, I am really scared for Anya. What if he wants to learn if Anya is a fellow occultist like him. What if he wants to invite Anya to join his cult. What if he finds out about Anya's telepathic ability. What if he somehow trigger Anya's bad memories with his magic skills(?). I really want Anya to get tf away from him now.

And here I was so excited with Arnold's appereance, I even joked he'd become Anya's new classmate or even the 2nd ML, lol. But now? I'm really not sure. I better keep an eye on him from now on.

Yah that's about it! Thank you for following me in this short journey! 👋

*Edit: I missed the fact that Aleister Crowley is from British. Now I imagine Arnold speak in British accent and I can't stop laughing 🤣