#zelkam

[crispyzhan]

(via @limitbreaker23 )

au where parallel to Lan Wangji having his bunnies there is Jiang Cheng with those yelling frogs

lwj visits to relax, jc to join their screaming

[tls123]

francesca evakant birthday!! I hope you will have a wonderful day! 🥰

thank you aneta zelkam 🥰💞💞

[guangchuans]

1 and 22 for the end of the year asks!

1: song of the year?

— once again i don’t keep up with new releases so i’ll just go with the song that really stuck with me this year <3 and july by heize and dean… i feel like that song is my song of the year for every year though haaa

22: favourite place you visited this year?

— i’ve only visited one place this year that i haven’t known before and it’s lake como in italy :) i enjoyed my time greatly there. here’s a photo!

[haleths]

22 and 67! ✨🎶

22. sleeping bag - zz top

67. i can't see myself leaving you - aretha franklin

send me a number 1-100 for the corresponding song from my spotify wrapped! 

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

The Tamed by defractum

It's the third and final post of my self-declared pamphlet bind week! This is another bind from summer before last. Fic by @defractum, cover illustration by @zelkams-art, used with permission. (Um, sorry to both of you for asking about this and then taking a literal eon to post it. I'm happy to send either of you a print or digital copy if you want!)

This fic embraces its crackfic smut premise and leans into it, and despite the claims in the tags of being a PWP, some plot definitely sneaks in around the edges. What can I say, I love fic that doesn't forget that WWX is dangerous.

If the Second Jade of Lan insists on bringing the Yiling Patriarch as his guest to the next Cultivation Conference, he must first demonstrate a control over the Yiling Patriarch and his unnatural abilities. The letter lies on their desk for days. - Post-canon, Wei Ying is invited, sort of, to a Discussion Conference.

Cardstock cover, public domain art for the inside of the cover. I've used WWX's red ribbon to tie into the red drop caps and text, copying a tiny portion of the cover art onto the title page, and using a flourish-y ribbon-esque font for the scene breaks. Sewn with red thread, of course.

No interesting household objects used for the background for this one, just a big sheet of Nepalese Lokta mulberry fibre paper that I hadn't yet cut down for endpapers. I think I used most of it on Wangxian fanbinds, unsurprisingly.

That's it for the pamphlet bound fic for now, but has me thinking about how very satisfying and practically instant-gratification they are to make, and eyeing my typeset WIP folder...

[thislittlebadwolf]

sometimes the dash just fits

[ruanbaijie]

🎃 art

[x] great news! wei wuxian has died! by @zelkams-art

[x] a moonlit hotel room, just him and the devil 🩸🦇 by @artseamoni

[x] abyss by @no1rubbish

[x] it's coming to an end. by @killpinkflmingo

[x] tenth doctor by @nipuni

[x] he deserved it, didn't he? by @yadovitayasabaqa

[x] with you, always by @kelchenarts

[x] dongfang yanwei & lanhua niangzi | drowning in her eyes... by @clj-art-blog

[x] 人若思念便思念 / 终会相见 by @yingui

[x] "no one has painted me in over 400 years" let's fix that… by @shuploc

[x] xie lian by @seagreenlaurin

[x] a love letter to you, from 800 years ago by @cn-alastair-lite

[x] yiling patriarch + fashion by @tyeth

🎃 edits

[x] weren't you supposed to be taken by my beauty? by @kimdokjas

[x] told through the phases of the moon by @puppy-phum

🎃 gifsets

[x] huaibao + tropes by @jinxiaobao

[x] fill in the blank: jin xiao bao is ______ by @jinxiaobao

[x] favourite [post-2000] horror movies by @svnsetromance

[x] natalie scatorccio + any colour by @shadowhaert

[x] anne rice, queen of the damned by @alinaastarkov

[x] you're like two sides of the same coin. by @nataliescatorccio

[x] a bit of a love story in a way, of these two women by @nataliescatorccio

[x] beginnings & endings by @miwtual

[x] raise your right hand, and say you reject the father, son and holy spirit. by @mingjoes

[x] happy belated birthday tan jianci by @01432853

[x] helnik + tropes by @nicknelosn

[x] taissa turner ft. teen & adult dynamics by @taiturner

[x] horror television by @scre6m

[x] modern horror by @scre6m

[korpikorppi]

Some thoughts on the origins of Jin Guangyao's sword, Hensheng, in the Untamed

Saw this excellent set of gifs from ep23 by @zelkam and went "Wait! Wait wait wait. That's a soft sword!"

So I went to check ep23 and indeed, Meng Yao kills Wen Ruohan with a soft sword:

Then I recalled (been a while too long since I last rewatched these episodes 😅) that this is actually confirmed by Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao's discussion during the victory banquet (in ep23):

JGY: You seemed to want to say something to me as we were greeting rach other.

WWX: It's nothing. Just that the weapon you used to kill Wen Ruohan on that day of the Sunshot Campaign seemed to be a flexible blade. Why doesn't Young Master Jin carry it today?

JGY: Young Master Wei, sorry to have made (it) a show. It was just a random blade I picked up. Later, as I found out it had dark energy, I threw it away.

(As a side note, how observant Wei Wuxian is! He was exhausted from using the Tiger Seal, choked by Wen Ruohan, about to lose consciousness, and yet he noticed that!)

Yeah, right. We all believe you, Jin Guangyao 🙄. Soft swords (rare as they are) just tend to lie around. And that soft sword looks very - very - similar to Hensheng:

In ep23, the blade has fittings that are clearly Wen, with dark-tarnished metal parts and a dark-red handle:

And as we see in ep41, for example, Hensheng has white, gold and green fittings that are very clearly Jin, as befitting Jin Guangyao's status.

But fittings can easily be changed, and the overall similarity is so great that it is quite clear (or at least I am convinced) that it is the same blade (and as already mentioned, soft swords are not that common). I am also quite convinced that it was not "just a random blade" he picked up.

If that is so, when did Meng Yao acquire the sword? Did he acquire it at some point after his banishment from Unclean Realm? Or did he acquire it during his time in Nightless City, a hidden sword for a last line of defence in an enemy stronghold? Or, was it a gift from Wen Ruohan?

As I mentioned, soft swords are not that common and high-class spiritual swords do not come cheap, so it is unlikely that Meng Yao would have been able to acquire one after his banisment, when his means must have been quite limited. It is more feasible that he could have acquired one sometime during his stay in the Nightless City, but I think I am most intriqued by the last possibility. Meng Yao seemed to have gained a high status and a position as some kind of advisor or right-hand man to Wen Ruohan, so it is feasible that he gifted the sword to his servant. This would be supported, firstly, by the custom made Wen fittings (no standard fittings for that type of blade!) and, secondly, by Jin Guangyao's mention that the sword had "dark energy" (translated sometimes as the sword being sinister) and by his eagerness to downplay the whole thing as "just a random sword I threw away" (can you just imagine Nie Mingjue's reaction to that piece of information in the aftermath of the Sunshot Campaign...).

Also, I have always found Hensheng (恨生, Hènshēng), to hate/regret life, to be a bit peculiar name for a cultivator's blade (even for Jin Guangyao's blade), but if the origin of the blade would indeed lie here, it would add an entire new dimension to why Jin Guangyao chose to name it so. Or was the blade named for him?

So in the end, if what I am speculating here is right, Wen Ruohan had his own weapons turned against him, in more ways than one.

And as an end note, there is no mention about the origin of the blade in the MDZS wiki, so it is not mentioned in the novel? Anyone remember if there is anything implied? Also, Hensheng definitely is a soft sword in The Untamed, contrary to what is written in the wiki.

[veliseraptor]

So that latest Zelkam art of the core transfer has been sucking my brain out of my head all night. And now I can't stop thinking of how much JC's inherited that he never wanted or knew: Zidian (mother), the core (brother), Jin Ling (sister), Suibian (brother x2). I'd include the Jiang name and clan if I wanted to include his father. And it hurts me. He's left with so many remnants of his loved ones and yet how hollow does he feel? How unloved? Answers surely depend on post/canon timeline but idk. I'm just wrecked. *dies quietly*

I have a lot of Feelings about the ways in which Jiang Cheng really does just keep getting handed inheritances he doesn't want to have. People keep giving him things (in a material and metaphorical sense), but it doesn't seem like the give him things as an uncomplicated gift but as this enormous, weighty thing that comes with an immense price. "Here, take my life," people keep saying to Jiang Cheng, "take this and my death with it." And the hideous irony of the core transfer is that that's true even when Jiang Cheng himself tries to give his own life for the people he loves, only with the result that Wei Wuxian turns right around and gives up his own to "fix" it.

But yeah! His mother bequeaths him Zidian in the process of sending him away while she dies. Wei Wuxian dies and leaves him with a flute and a sword he doesn't want. Jin Ling...it's not that he doesn't want Jin Ling, he always would have wanted to be in his life, but not like this. oh I know I'm going to do the thing I do and quote my own fic

You, me, and a-Cheng, said a-jie’s voice in his ear. We must stay together, and never separate.

He’d never learned how to let go, but he’d been the one left behind anyway.

for someone who is in a lot of ways defined by the way that he holds on to the past, for better or worse (and I don't think it's all bad! his success rebuilding Jiang Sect is I think owed in part to his drive to never let what happened to it before to happen again), he does keep end up being the one left, and left holding mementos and reminders that are just a constant chafing reminder of what he lost.

it really adds something fun and spicy too to the bit during the second siege of the Burial Mounds, both in the novel and in CQL:

Jin Ling had never seen so many fierce corpses before, much less at such a close distance. He could feel his scalp tingle, and clenched Suihua's hilt. Yet, suddenly, his fist was peeled open, and a cold object was stuffed inside. He looked down in surprise. "Jiujiu?"

Jiang Cheng propped himself up with Sandu, which had lost its spiritual energy. His figure wavered slightly. "Try losing Zidian, just see what happens!"

[...] When Jin Ling saw that all of the people his age had rushed over, he couldn't hold himself back either. When Jiang Cheng was distracted, he stuffed Zidian back into his hand and sprinted toward the front... (Chapter 80, trans. Exiled Rebels)

The way it's acted here in particular it feels very much like Jin Ling at least has a sense of how loaded this gesture is, whatever Jiang Cheng says about giving it back. Here he is! Continuing the chain of just passing down things as a legacy that in no way substitute for the person they stand for.

just to set those screenshots alongside this:

there's something I think to Jiang Cheng that's not just incredibly painful in all the obvious ways about the core transfer, but specifically in the way that it's related to a sacrifice he very deliberately made - and now he finds out that not only was that sacrifice ultimately utterly pointless, or worse than pointless, the person he originally made it for made it so. It's this "oh, you can sacrifice yourself for me but I can't do the same for you?" that's so bitter to feel, both because I do think there's some amount of "why do you always, always get to come out of things the hero" but more than that, "why did you do this when I made my decisions specifically to protect you; does my desire to protect you not matter? doesn't it mean anything?"

Jiang Cheng standing with his hands full of memorials going "I don't want these," because what he actually wanted was his family, but the world kept taking them away, and apparently in at least one case his family actively didn't get the memo.

[theguildawards]

Hello guildmates!

The Nomination Period is now closed! Below the cut you will find a complete list of all the fanart nominations received for The Guild Awards this term! The mobile-friendly version can be found in a Google Doc here that has the complete list!

You can find the list of all the fanfiction nominations here!

If you do not see your nomination, or you find issues with the links, please reach out to us as soon as possible!

We are going to give you 2 weeks time to enjoy all of the pieces nominated for this term! We strongly encourage that when you view a work of art or read a fanfiction, please reblog or leave a review to let the creators know how much their work and talent is appreciated!

The voting period will begin November 15th and end November 29th midnight PST!

In order to be able to vote, you will need to login. We will be posting the link to the voting form on the first day of the voting session.

Got a question? Check out our FAQ or send us an ask!

Message one of the mods directly: @sassybratt9791 @phoenix-before-the-flame @kiliinstinct​ @ratretro  @phoneboxfairy

Thank you to everyone who nominated for making this term absolutely wonderful and happy voting!

[please reblog to help spread the love of these amazing creators!]

FANART

Best Action/Adventure

“we illuminate the dark” by @flamedork (tumblr)

“Mirajane” by @pencilequipped (tumblr)

“Freed Day” by @moxiepoxart (tumblr/TW)

Best AU/AR

“a quick art for an AU” by @4stralfairy (tumblr)

“erza redesign” by @mousecracker (tumblr)

“Accidental Freed AU/backstory” by @intelligentbiscuit (tumblr/DA)

“Fairytail Next Generation” by @hollie-artz (tumblr)

“Dragon Erza” by @ace-of-fairytail (tumblr)

Best Canon

“Juvia piece” by @pencilequipped (tumblr)

“Happy Nalu Day 2023” by @likubears (tumblr)

Best Angst

“foolish remains of a hyacinth” by @heartonxions (tumblr/IG)

“queen of fairies” by @nalunalu (tumblr)

Best Dark

“Untitled” by @heartserion (tumblr)

“Monster” by @acnologias-ass (tumblr)

“‘You’ve become a beast’ ‘I know’” by @phoenix-before-the-flame (tumblr)

“A Mouth Full of Ridicule” by @firapolemos05 (tumblr)

Best Humor/Parody

“NaLu Winter Wonderland 2022” by @imnothereokuwu (tumblr)

“They’re guilty😔” by @lav3nder-bees (tumblr)

“Why As a Man, Are you Blond” by @butcherza (tumblr)

“Barbie Movie Tickets For Phantom Buddies” by @imyourcoopid (tumblr)

Best Kiss

“Guilty Pleasures” by @bluessom1 (tumblr)

“don’t interrupt the master’s meetings” by @castkorb (tumblr)

“Luvia” by @watcher-ofthe-sky (tumblr)

Best Romance

“A Fairy Tale of our own making” by @nalunalu (tumblr)

'Love and Other Fairy Tales’  by @heartonxions (tumblr)

“Gruvia Week” by @goodnightlover (tumblr)

Best LGBTQ+ Romance

“lucy + cana &lt;3” by @heartserion (tumblr)

“Untitled” by @annluvazzel (tumblr)

“fraxus week day 5 - guilty pleasures / indulgences” by @lav3nder-bees (tumblr)

“Shadowlight Week Day 2: Thrill/Undress” by @oryu404 (tumblr)

Best Character

“Juvia piece” by @pencilequipped (tumblr)

“Lucy Heartfilia - Fairy Tail” by @lumen-anima (tumblr)

“when the hard work pays off (Aries)” by @burilingo (tumblr)

“Natsu Dragneel” by @anushpaint (tumblr)

“Thunder Dragon King Laxus Dreyar!!” by @wispzoa (tumblr)

Best Duo/Pairing

“Untitled” by @doubleragnarok (tumblr)

“fairy tails only(?) 2 two card mages” by @ace-of-fairytail (tumblr)

“Summer Fraxus” by @wispzoa (tumblr/TW)

“a quick art for an AU” by @4stralfairy (tumblr)

“Fight!!” by @castkorb (tumblr)

“The Blue-Haired Found Siblings” by @jerzaworms (tumblr)

Best Group Depiction

“Anniversary” by @love---mandy

“some crime sorciere pastels” by @jerzaworms (tumblr)

“Team Thunderstorm Naptime” by @pencilofawesomeness (tumblr)

“hehehe team shadowgear make brain go brrr” by @moonylilies (tumblr)

Best Manga Coloring

“Juvia”  by @shuvia-lu (tumblr)

“Mashima's Twitter doodle" by @zelkams-art (tumblr)

“Sun vs. Moon” by @krn02-12 (tumblr)

Best Redraw 

“I believe in you” by @imnothereokuwu (tumblr)

“Redrawing one of my favorite frames” by @sherlismyfather (tumblr)

“Cryptid Mode” by @pencilofawesomeness (tumblr)

“Jackal” by @misquitz (tumblr)

“Nalu Gruvia Jerza Redraw from Mashima’s Art” by @gymjunkie412 (tumblr)

Best Overall

“Please, accept him” by @phoenix-before-the-flame (tumblr)

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb” by @bluessom1 (tumblr)

“Happy Gajeel Day" by @butcherza (tumblr)

“Night sovereignty” by @crowind1 (tumblr)

[dimpledpran]

THANK YOU TO ALL THE WONDERFUL CONTENT CREATORS WHO HAVE BLESSED MY DASH WITH AWESOME CREATIONS THAT MADE MY DAY!

There are definitely much more faves, but these are the ones I can squeeze into one post. So the rest will be reblogged on my blog over the course of the week.

GFX : @agendratum : The Untamed @belsmultifandommess : Love Between Fairy And Devil @dengswei : The Untamed @difanghua : The Untamed @highwarlockkareena : The Untamed Yanli POV , The Untamed Love Edit , Word of Honor Barbie @jiaoliqiao : Word of Honor @khaotunqs : The Untamed @krystaljungs : The Untamed @mxtxnet : The Untamed @sandushengshou : The Untamed-Demonic Cultivator Jiang Siblings , The Untamed-Demonic Cultivator WWX and JC , The Untamed-LWJ , The Untamed-LWJ Barbie , The Untamed-WWX Barbie @stilessderek : The Untamed @usergif : The Untamed @yilinglaozu : The Untamed @zelkam : @The Untamed

Fanart: @jengarie : Mo Dao Zu Shi @merinaart: The Untamed @nat-draws : Mo Dao Zu Shi @pillow-boi : Mo Dao Zu Shi @truckeecheeze : Mo Dao Zu Shi @zelkams-art : Mo Dao Zu Shi @themaymoth : MXTX

Thank you for all your hardwork in creating this beautiful. masterpieces! Looking forward to see what new creations you gift us this year!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2024!! Take care and see yall around! 💙

[Main][Thai Series][Others]

[danmei-described]

[ID: A gifset of Jiang Cheng from The Untamed, with lines from a quote overlaid in boxes that are connected throughout the gifset.

Jiang Cheng holding his sword, seen from the lower half. "I want to be myself again."

Jiang Cheng near tears watching a vision of his father and Wei Wuxian's child self being affectionate. "I want to be six."

Jiang Cheng kneeling in Guanyin temple, sobbing and punching the ground. "I want to stop knowing everything I know."

[Plain text: — catherynne m. valente, deathless. End PT]

—  catherynne m. valente, deathless

[tls123]

top six reads of 2023 📚

i was tagged by my beloved aneta @zelkam

quite thankful that i had exactly six "best" reads from 2023 so that i didn't have to cut anything or add from the 'honorable mentions' — no particular order to the list above, they're were all incredibly good for different reasons so i don't want to make a proper ranked list

this year, it seems, was the year of queer love, stories about stories, circular narratives, moving on, and general mindfuckery <3

i hope you won't mind that i don't go into details for each one, like you've done because i wouldn't even know where to start.

tagging: @neixins @kimdokjas @davinciae @amabit @petesdragon and anyone who'd like to do this, please mention me so i can see what you've been reading 🧡📖 i don't know who has been tagged already so hopefully this is alright. also, as always no pressure!

i have some stats for my 2023 reading here, along with those extra "honorable mentions" i spoke of before. and here's my storygraph account if anyone is interested <3

edit: whoops sorry let me list them out!

omniscient reader's view point by 싱숑

this is how you lose a time war by max gladstone and amal el-mohtar

even though i knew the end by c. l. polk

our wives under the sea by julia armfield

piranesi by susanna clarke

devil venerable also wants to know by 青色羽翼

[rininis]

i was tagged by @zelkam (thank you aneta 🩷)

Rules: Put your playlist on shuffle, list the first five songs that come up and let people vote on which song they like the most.

no pressure tags !! (please ignore this if you've already done it 😭) - @tls123 @ye-xiu @thitiponqs @kindlichekaiserins @wantbytaemin

[eohachu]

teaser tidbit tuesday/wip wednesday/fuck it friday

tagged by @highwarlockkareena thank you bb!! you're lucky bc I was actually giffing just now lol.

I'm tagging: @evakant, @dengswei, @morkofday, @yohankang, @zelkam — no pressure! but i'm nosy

my favourite hua hua gong zi lmao. i love him. finally making a set for him!! this is the first gif i just made 💙 i might need to adjust the skin colour more but I think it's already quite nice.

[lanwangjihouse]

tag of the week:

@zelkam :

#my last two brain cells ❋