theballadofreadingirl - Tumblr blog

[theballadofreadingirl]

Lan Wangji endured all 33 lashes with not a sound above a faint, painful groan. There was blood almost everywhere - his whole back, his boots, dripping from his closed mouth, speckled on the floor and on those near enough.

Uncle wasn't even looking at him, face severe and hands behind his back. He know uncle is angry and disappointed, but doesn't care. He is unrepentant. Or, to word it better, Lan Wangji has no regrets.

Wei Ying is not evil.

That's what he believes deep in his heart, with all his being.

Wei Ying believed in justice and action. He wanted to live a life without regrets. Wei Ying saved innocent lives when everyone else just wanted to forget and ignore, if not just eradicate it.

Wei Ying is not evil. Lan Wangji has no regrets.

When the last lash from the discipline whip teared through his flesh, Lan Wangji let out a soft sigh of despair. Then, all pain was gone and he felt his body light, as if flowing.

When the last lash from the discipline whip stroke Lan Wangji's back, he ascended.

Lan Qiren's eyes were wide open when the golden, sparkling light surrounded his nephew and flew him up to the clouds slowly at first and fast as light when was high enough.

"Impossible!" someone said too loudly, too astonished.

When they looked to where the sound came, an senior disciple was pointing at another golden beam, exactly like the one they were witnessing.

Someone else was ascending at the same time.

"Where that is?!" Lan Qiren demanded, feeling dread in his guts.

"Maps! Someone bring the maps!"

"Quick!"

The lights slowly faded, looking faint, until they disappeared with a blink of an eye.

"That's... Xiansheng, that's Yiling's direction."

"Impossible!" Lan Qiren exclaimed.

Then, as if hearing their disbelief, a golden butterfly came flying at rapid speed to Lan Qiren. It was a message from Lan Xichen, who was at the Burial Mounds.

"Xiansheng?"

Lan Qiren blinked several times, feeling faint.

"The Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian, sacrificed himself to destroy the Yin Tiger Tally. Instead of suffering backlash, his body ascended and the area where the Wen's lived were instantly purified." Lan Qiren said seriously.

Without much thought he sent a butterfly back: "Hanguang-jun ascended after the last of the 33 lashes from the discipline whip. At the same time a golden light appeared from Yiling's general direction."

Then, he turned around and walked away.

The cultivation world was in uproar after that. Was Wei Wuxian right, then? Why was Hanguang-jun being whipped? Why they both? Why together?

So many questions, so little answers.

A temple was quickly erected by the foot of the gloomy hill, paid by those who participated on the siege and we're deeply afraid of it's consequences. Although some tried to destroy once or twice in anger and despair.

After a whole year passed, the head priest of Hanguang-jun and Yiling Patriarch's temple, together with a anonymous patron (Nie Huaisang), released a book to be distributed to all of the sects and those who wanted to know about the story of those two gods.

The gods of justice, that helps anyone in need with no discrimination and for nothing but a smile. The light bearer who goes where the chaos is and helps those in need. The dark master who isn't afraid of being hated, just so he can save as much innocent lives as he can, even at the cost of his own life.

They ask for nothing. They need nothing.

The lover gods, forced apart because of misunderstandings and discriminations, brought back together by a fate stronger than their lives.

To explain one's heart by actions. To avoid the corrupted matters of the human world. Whatever it needs.

With one's heart as pure as a infant's and be free of worldly concerns.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian thrive after ascending together. Through years and centuries, their story is told over and over again. People look for them when in need, look after them and want to be like them. There are those who look at the statues, one beside another just shy of holding hands, and sigh thinking when would they find someone to live a love story with them.

[theballadofreadingirl]

When someone puts a hand around your waist.... isn't that a loving way of not letting you escape? Instead of grabbing and yelling and threatening? A possessive way of saying I Love You? A gentle way of saying You Belong To Me?

[theballadofreadingirl]

To be sixteen again by Keaton St. James

Prompt courtesy of this list from @nosebleedclub

[poem text: “to be sixteen again” & swimming for whole afternoons through the half-cool lake water & the shining mud, drying my sunburnt body in the shade of the sycamore tree, carving runes into rocks with arrowheads, keeping my hair long & wild. boys

like me understood one truth: that when we coaxed fish hooks out of the soles of our bare feet, we did not weep at the blood. & when our mothers draped us in their summer jewelry, smeared their blush on our cheek-

bones, told us to stay quiet & behave like beautiful young girls, we could not weep then either. but sometimes, as we lay in our sleeping bags looking up at the stars, we let ourselves dream city apartments with windowsills full of plants, kitchen cabinets

stocked with cinnamon canisters & vegetable broths, piles of scuffed shoes by the door, ours & our lover’s. these adult apartments with the space enough to name ourselves anything we wanted, where we could embrace the echoes of the bodies

we were gently leaving behind. /end poem text]

[theballadofreadingirl]

We fought like stars crashing:

Exploding into the most brilliant of lights -

The most fiery of colours;

Exulting in evil,

Inhumanity in our hearts.