... And The Juniors He Lured To Yi City. And The Cats He Killed In Order To Do That. Making NHS Out To

Wait, people say WHAT now? Did we read the same book? There are so many legitimate reasons to dislike Jin Guangyao - trust me, my best friend has listed all of them to me as if I didn't know myself - that there is no need to make up new ones.

Look. I don't think anyone is (unironically) saying that man hasn't done anything wrong. But this is the kind of stuff that I'd respond to with, 'Whatever you say, Sect Leader Yao', because no-one with more sense than him could have come up with that tripe.

It's fascinating. Apparently people completely fall for the unreliable narrator - even though Wei Wuxian says that the stuff happening to Jin Guangyao is the same mob mentality that got him killed and that they're trying to pin everything that ever went wrong in all of history on him, no matter if it's true or not.

"actually jgy harassed mxy and then framed mxy" is fucking wild bc consider:

wwx got the account "mxy harassed jgy" from mxy's own writings. if things were actually the other way around and mxy got framed then don't you think that mxy's writings would have mentioned that. like mxy's diary entries were all about how everyone persecuted him and how his life was miserable, so if mxy actually were framed don't you think his This Is Why I'm Making An Evil Spirit Kill Everyone essay would have brought it up lol

even if mxy didn't harass jgy, then....that still doesn't imply that jgy harassed mxy?????

like im sure that with enough Free Invention you could construct a full explanation of events that has jgy harass mxy and also doesnt directly contradict anything directly stated by the novel. but you still need quite some insane leaps of logic to even get there lmao

Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Tho’ Much Is Taken, Much Abides

New beginnings need new rules.

For starters, talk to him like a normal person. Someone should have tried that some time. (Yes, I know a total amount of two (2) people did that - and those don't include Minshan because hero-worship is not normal.)

.

He's in your room what do you do.

Sorry I didn't know what to do with this photo.

After watching CQL, I feel the need to write a fanfic. Because of course I do. Now I just need to finish my current project and then read the books.

Until I have, my ability to predict what it'll be like is limited, but I do know that it'll be a Xiyao fic. I know from my friend that things end a bit differently in the books, but I don't know how. She thinks I can work with it. 😅 She did not word this in a promising manner.

Oh, and there is one more thing. Jin Guangyao is going to have a huge, HUGE praise kink. I'm prepared to die on that hill.

The title might be 'No Bonds Can Hold Me', but that might very well change.

Oh and the friend I mentioned is the same one who asked me to write beefleaf. There is a tendency there, but this time no persuasion was necessary.

Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Made Weak by Time and Fate

Some things cannot be forgiven.

So far, no incidents to speak of. Let's hope our luck holds. (I have been incredibly lucky with my dice so far, I have to say.)

ok now I need to subscribe to you on Ao3, who are you?

Haha, same as here pretty much: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pre_Reform_Voice

Thanks a lot!

This will never not be hilarious.

What's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi) is about?

It is easy: Jin Ling's uncle dies to bring back Jin Ling's uncle, who was killed by Jin Ling's uncle, except not really. Then Jin Ling's uncle, and Jin Ling's future uncle teams up to solve the mystery of a mutilated corpse, who was actually Jin Ling's uncle, and was killed by Jin Ling's uncle. This leads to the scene where Jin Ling's uncle, Jin Ling's future uncle, Jin Ling's uncle, and Jin Ling's uncle confronts Jin Ling's uncle. Then Jin Ling uncle gets stabbed by Jin Ling's uncle, and gets killed by the ghost of Jin Ling's uncle. In the end it turns out that everything was planned by Jin Ling's uncle.

A plea for imperfection

Warning: Random rambling ahead.

A friend of mine is beta reading my YoI fan fiction and in the second part (Love Aims At One Scope) she got really mad at Viktor. She's only seen the anime once, and when he makes a rather nasty, off-hand statement to an OC who is trying to make him feel better, she couldn't see it.

But here's the deal, Viktor isn't as clean as he seems. He is the epitome of a person who has no filter.

In the real world, a lot of people who say that about themselves use it as an excuse to be cruel. They put others down intentionally and enjoy it, and when that person has the audacity to tell them they're hurt, they claim they were only joking or gaslight the person in some other way.

Mind you, that is NOT how I see Viktor.

He's a great guy, he cares, he's affectionate, he can be incredibly kind and understanding - and sometimes he talks before he thinks through what effect his words will have. And that sentence in my fic - as bad as it is - I think is completely in character. I really contemplated changing that, or at least have him say something that isn't THAT bad, but it's something I can see. That sentence will stay.

I love Viktor. He's a wonderful human being. But he's also an incredibly flawed deuteragonist who hides his shortcomings behind his charms so well it works in the real world, apparently, not just within the universe.

My friend has since decided she has to watch it again for several reasons, and she'll keep a lookout for this. Currently, she has Viktor as much on a pedestal as Yuuri did, it seems. But for me his less-than-wonderful traits are what make writing him so amazing. It makes him feel real to me, and relatable, and even if I sometimes want to whack him with a wet towel (the original version in the anime and my own), I still think he's a walking green flag. Most of the time. When he actually uses his brain.

Mini-fic or Prologue - who knows?!

Okay, I have drafted a prologue for the Xiyao fic I threatened earlier today. My friend likes it, so I took a second glance at it, smoothed out a few wrinkles, and now I'm throwing it here.

I have no idea if this can function because I have yet to read the books, so I can't tell for certain if I will use it all - and if I do, it might not be the prologue so much as part of a chapter, all of that is written in the stars. But since Ao3 doesn't allow placeholders (nor should it) and I don't know when I get to write the whole thing (although that I will write it certain), I'll at least put this fragment of questionable permanence here for the time being. I will announce when I post the actual fic to Ao3.

No Bonds Can Hold Me

‘Maintain your own discipline. Train your body and your mind. Store your inner wisdom deeply.’

Second nature. All of this was second nature to a man who had lived by these rules his entire life. Now discipline eluded him, his mind refused to focus on what mattered, and his inner wisdom was torn to shreds. There was almost nothing left of the man he had been … before. And if there was nothing left, what was the point of him? ‘Do not act impulsively.’ That rule had saved his life several times over recently. To what end? He had broken so many others: ‘Do not grieve in excess. Do not bully the weak. Do not associate with evil.’

Am I the evil? The voice that existed in his thoughts only perforated his meagre attempt at meditation again, stripping away another layer of his strength.

Seclusion had done nothing to erase the guilt and the pain and the grief, to silence this voice. It lived in his heart as constantly as its beating. It hadn’t helped compose his mind, hadn’t let him accept that what was done was done. Every time he started out asking himself, ‘How could I have acted any differently?’ the question quickly degraded into the much simpler and much more destructive, ‘How could I?!’ The blood on his hands and clothes was long gone, but he could still feel it sticking to his skin any time his eyes closed, could smell its cloying scent, so much, so much of it.

‘Be gentle and content in adversity.’

Slowly, Lan Xichen opened his eyes. It was, indeed, done, and yet he knew there was one path not yet taken. ‘Do not act impulsively. Do not fall to evil.’ But was an act he had chewed over time and time again for more hours than he could count impulsive? Was saving a soul evil?

He hadn’t allowed himself those thoughts at first, but now that he did, he felt calmer. ‘Have a strong will and anything can be achieved.’ His path was laid out before him and he would walk it openly and with determination. He needed help, and he wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Beg for it, if he had to.

‘Don’t be unreasonable.’ What was one more rule broken anyway?

The voice in his head that kept repeating his name like a broken mantra could only be assuaged by returning it to the real world. It was his fault that it had been silenced, so it had to be him that did all he could to restore it. (‘Uphold the value of justice.’) And if that proved impossible, he should earnestly consider following it into oblivion, the way he had been prepared to.

Lan Xichen stepped out into the darkness. (‘Venturing out at night is prohibited.’) He had tried to silence the call that only he could hear, but now he welcomed it, let it guide his steps and fuel his spirit. Lan Xichen, Lan Xichen … ‘Yes,’ he thought, conscious of the cool air surrounding him and the light breeze rustling his robes, ‘I still hear you. I’m not grieving for you. I’m coming for you.’