#and again her self-absorption is understandable

[winepresswrath]

The princess told me that she had felt for a long time that the Cohort movements didn't make sense to her. She said what would be most economically productive was intermingling with these people, allowing immigration and absorption into the Nine Houses; that shepherd planets got more costly the further the Houses extended themselves, and that instead of creating long-lasting industry we were doing little more than slash-and-burn trading. Scattershot, she said. Notwithstanding the moral issue. She said she and her sister had always been interested in the way the Houses were being run, and that lanthe had encouraged her interest. She had always thought we were being wasteful... Afterward she said it was much more than theory. She said she had groomed herself for something and all it had done was make her unfit for the purpose. What purpose? ... I told her she wouldn't understand. When she asked me why not, I said I was just an administrator; she was a princess. A king. ... The princess turned to me then and took my hands. I kept my balance. She said, Jody, if I offered you that sword, wouldn't you take it? I know how to use it. I know what it would mean. Lieutenant Dyas is dead. My own necromancer wouldn't have me. Won't you let me be your cavalier? Here, now, at the end of the world? Save me, Jody. Bind me to you, or who knows where I will go? What throne will I mount, if you don’t bind me down?

- As Yet Unsent

“But we’re closer to the goal than ever before.” “Of course we are, you perfect genius,” said Crown, lovingly, and she took the dead gloved fingers, and she kissed them. Every single dead soldier’s fingers twitched. Prince Ianthe Naberius raised hers, an involuntary movement almost, and that waxen, handsome face was an expressionless mask, with only the cool grey eyeballs moving in their sockets. Then Crown said quietly, “We can do good work, Ianthe. I know people who need us.”

-Nona the Ninth

- The Unwanted Guest

Corona recoiled from Gideon and looked up at her, her golden hair smeared to her forehead with sweat and tears. “She took Babs,” she said, which seemed fair enough. But then Corona started crying again, big tears leaking out of her eyes, her voice thick with misery and self-pity. “And who even cares about Babs? Babs! She could have taken me.”

-Gideon the Ninth

Emphasis mine, excuse my dreadful formatting I'm just excited because every time we learn more about the Tridentarii's schemes I remember again how Coronabeth (Crown) wants to be eaten and knighted and bound, but also possibly be god-king of the universe, allegedly on the grounds that Jod's forever war is morally bankrupt and economically likely to lead to bankruptcies.

#coronabeth tridentarius #tlt spoilers #spoilers #always! everybody's! girl #quick to sympathy and quick to violence #cries over every sob story and her #blood boils at any perceived injustice. #admittedly this is what judith and ianthe have to say about her and they simply cannot be trusted #ianthe isn't ianthe tridentarius anymore she's ianthe naberius #excited to see what will happen as they continue to diverge #not such a matched set now are we

[pearlywritings]

Come with me, my love

synopsis: the best way to heal is to go somewhere else. Do not worry, your lover has already taken care of that.

pairing and characters: Albedo, Diluc, Kaeya, Zhongli x reader (separately)

tw: pure fluff, hurt/comfort

word count: 2.9k+ words in total

author’s note: I dedicate it to my dear @lunargrapejuice , I hope this will bring you comfort you need, my dear 💛 and also to anyone else who is in desperate need of it☺

Albedo

The concept of relationship is fairly new to Albedo, he’s still exploring the field and is learning new things, even though you two have already changed the status to official. However, he is unbelievably observant, and his ability to note anomalies comes in handy when it concerns you.

Lately he’s noticed how you haven’t been your usual self - the bubbly, smiley, affectionate, lively self with energy almost bursting out of your body. You’ve become grim, sluggish, and didn't come to him for a kiss or a hug unless it was him who approached you and gave you those. In the moments like this you were clinging to him, as if fearing he’d break the comforting atmosphere and go back to his research. But the one thing the young man understood about relationships is the importance of being there for your partner. 

Albedo didn’t ask you to tell him what’s wrong - you’ll open up to him when you are ready if you’d ever feel like that - he knows and trusts you. He just holds you close until you doze off and only then comes back to his work table to wrap up whatever is hanging and call it a night.

When it goes like this for over a week, the blond becomes really concerned and understands that it requires some more drastic measures. He officially submits documents for a couple of days off to Jean, informs his alchemist team about his absence and starts researching and planning an immaculate solution to the issue before him.

The gathered data eventually suggests that going out somewhere away from bustling places of constant presence and unwinding is what usually helps to deal with growing depression. You might think his first thought would be taking you out to Dragonspine. After all, the scenery is breath-taking (when there are no raging blizzards), it’s serene and mostly quiet, and no one can disturb you two.

…well, he considered it.

But ultimately he decided on a beach day. Just you, and him, and Klee, since he knows how strongly you adore the little troublemaker. Listen, maybe taking a child who loves fish blasting to the lake isn’t the best idea, but Albedo checked and rechecked her belongings to make sure everything exploding was left home before actually going there.

Weaponizing Klee's charms was a clever decision and proved to be effective. The pyro user becomes your energizer as she constantly asks you to search for seashells, play with her in the water, draw Dodoko on the sand (Albedo, who joins you in almost every activity, undoubtedly wins this one), search for seashells some more, play with a ball, build sand castles…

You plop onto your towel only when the girl starts chasing the crabs, gleefully laughing and swinging her bucket in which she was going to put her new "friend". Your lover hums, keeping an eye out for her to not get into any sort of predicament and sits down next to you, side by side, bending one leg and resting his arm on the knee.

“How’s the vitamin D absorption going?” You chuckle at his choice of words, but then again, you spent so much time inside your shared apartment, of course your organism started lacking the sun rays.

“Pretty awesome, I must admit,” rearranging your body so you could lie down with the man still sitting close, you give your body a good stretch, contently sighing.

“Glad to hear that,” elegant artistic fingers reach out to brush the stray locks from your face, and you quickly catch his wrist, bringing it to your lips to leave a soft kiss.

“Thank you, ‘bedo. I am sorry if I caused you trouble with my… well…” You trail off, but of course he understands what you mean.

“No need to apologize,” a small, but warm smile graces his lips, “You didn’t cause me any trouble, sunshine.”

At the sweet petname your heart skips a beat and mouth twists in your attempts to not reveal a stupid grin. The Chief Alchemist is enchanted by you, so bright and shining, drinking in your soft expressions and bashful body language.

The mission deems to be a success, but solidifying the results with late night cuddles back home wouldn’t hurt.

Diluc

The owner of the Dawn Winery hates parting with you for longer than a work day, even though sometimes the list of his duties keeps him away from you for exactly over a full work day. That’s why he loathes business trips that require his presence.

You hate those too, because it means you won’t get to get a morning kiss from him and give him one, share breakfast with him, see him throughout a day and sneak sweet kisses and hand holdings in private of the backroom of the tavern, walk with him or welcome him home, feel his arms around you when he climbs through the window of your shared bedroom at the winery after his late night endeavors…

You won’t get to see his vibrant eyes - hazy with sleep, sharp when annoyed and absolutely swirling with adoration when he gazes at you. You won’t get to whine for him to stay in bed for just a little longer, because the warmth of his body is too precious to lose so easily. You won’t get to drag his gloves off of his hands when he doesn’t go out in the city at night, preferring to go to sleep with you. You won’t get to braid or unbraid his flaming hair, massage his scalp and listen to his calm content breathing, as he eagerly leans in your arms.

You get the point - business trips are the worst.

And your feelings are completely mutual on Diluc’s end, even if some of the reasons for him feeling agitated may vary.

This is exactly why you are planting your feet on one of the streets of Fontaine, holding onto your fiance’s hand and curiously looking around you. This time the man’s heart ached when he saw an absolutely heart-broken look on your face when he informed you of yet another we-cannot-sign-this-deal-without-you business trip. The past two weeks had been hard for both of you, and the lack of seeing each other only worsened your mood and made you feel so miserable. A week more without him? You didn’t think you’d endure it without crying, because everything was pressing on your shoulders and it was suffocating, nearly crushing.

The decision was fast and simple - going there together. While Diluc Ragnvindr enjoys privacy, he feels pride at the idea of showing his amazing significant other - soon to become a spouse - off. The amount of mischief concealed within the multiple walls of his character can’t help but look forward to you cutting off the suitors that inevitably come after the young wine tycoon. He knows you can do it just with a single glance and that’s one of the things he loves about you - the power of your beautiful eyes. He himself is weak before the effect of them.

“So… This is Fontaine…” You whisper in awe, still observing everything your gaze has an opportunity to be cast upon. Your hand is still clinging onto his, and something flutters in the male’s chest, when you gently tug on it, urging him to move after you.

“First things first - we are purchasing the Kamera. I want to capture all the moments we’ll share here,” at your proclamation Diluc softly chuckles, briefly turning around and signaling for the servants to unload your carriage and bring everything into the house he rented for you to stay in.

“Sure, my flame. I’d love that as well.”

You grin happily - looks like there is no trace of your previous depressed state anymore. A day in the carriage huddled in blankets together managed to heal your sullen mood and partially feed your desire for being close with him. Don’t think he didn’t enjoy it too, only Celestia above knows how desperately this man craved your presence and affection - it’s just that you and your satisfaction come first.

This trip must give you many memories and Diluc will make sure to spend all the free time he’ll have with you. Oh, but to think of it, in his busy time he also can have you there, because what are they gonna do? Revoke the deal they themselves begged him to consider? Exactly - no.

You are stuck with him, and honestly, this is the best thing when we are talking about two touch-starved and presence-craving lovers.

Kaeya

“Kaeya, I am nervous.”

“You better not be, she’ll sense that you are not in control.”

“You are not helping!”

The man, whose leg literally brushes against yours, as the two horses - a pitch black one and golden with flaxen mane and tail one - slowly march side by side along the road of a Starfell Valley, finds it cute. Finds you cute. A crease between your eyebrows from before disappeared and the look on your face was replaced with such adorable concern. You really don’t have anything to worry about, the girl he chose for you is the calmest specimen he has in stables, very docile and friendly, having been won by you with a piece of apple you offered to her prior to this walk. It is really much better when getting you on his stallion, who is not that tolerant to the people who are not Kaeya himself.

“Do not worry, I am not letting go of her reins until you are ready to try it yourself,” he assures you in a soft voice, which smoothness infiltrates all your senses and lulls the rising unease. “Swing your body lightly back and forth with the horse’s steps, it’ll help you to stay in the saddle and help you feel the movement under you. Trust me, it’ll help.”

“O-oh, alright,” with his palm pressed against the small of your back, you try doing as he says, carefully moving your body. His thumb gently rubs your skin under a thin blouse, assuring you that everything is okay, and, when you glance at him from the corner of your eyes, he offers you a sweet smile, murmuring ‘god job, snowflake’ just above the whisper. It makes your heart flutter and lips form a small smile of your own. Your lover is your salvation, really. The moment he saw your gloomy face upon arriving home, he knew he’d go any lengths to bring a smile back to your face. Kaeya consoled and cuddled you that evening, and a couple of days later took you out of the city to spend his day off together.

A horse walk idea has been stuck in his mind for a month already, after you became a witness of him training recruits, the ones that signed for cavalry. Him, on his stallion, with reins in one hand and a training sword in another, entranced you, to the point you snapped out of your stupor only when he hopped on the ground and approached you with a teasing smirk. 

Now his words and expressions lack the usual banter, the softness of his cerulean eye blending with the spotless sky above, the rustle of his lips being like one of the grass and leaves the wind plays with, and his smile warmer than the afternoon sun. He belongs in Mondstadt so much. He belongs next to you so much.

Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kaeya’s visible eye widens when you, using stirrups, rise and reach to him, pressing your lips together. The hand on your back instantly slides further and settles on your hip, keeping you steadied, as his mouth slowly devours yours. He senses no more negative feelings inside your body, and it sparks joy in his chest, which spreads through his body in waves of lingering warmth.

Your eyes sparkle when you separate and the man nearly lets go of both his and your reins, reprimanded by his horse’s disgruntled snort.

“Thank you, Kae,” Archons your smile is blinding, “I needed it.”

“No need to thank me. I got you. Always,” and you giggle when he smooches right under your chin.

“So, when can I trot?”

“Trot?” He nearly snorts at your zeal. “Haven’t even held the reins, and wanna trot already?”

“But you looked so elegant while doing so!”

“Got you mesmerized, eh?” You lightly pinch a hand still resting on your hip. “Ouch! Goodness, Y/n, can’t you admit you are head over heels for this Cavalry Captain?”

“In your dreams, Alberich,” you stick a tongue at him and the man is completely reassured that his Y/n is back.

“Then I’ll be waiting in my dreams. As for reality, I wouldn’t be opposed to giving my love private lessons in horse-riding.”

“Oh! Can we start today?” Eager, aren’t you? How lovely.

“Consider we’ve already started.”

Zhongli

The snowflakes are dancing in the sky, twirling and slowly lowering to the snow-covered ground, pristine whiteness almost blinding with how every tiny frozen crystal reflects the sunlight and sparkles like the finest gems of the Liyue mines. The crust is crunching under your legs, as you and your husband are taking your morning walk in the vast lands of Snezhnaya.

Truth to be spoken, Zhongli would’ve probably never found himself on the territory of the Cryo Archon, but this is a special case. He knew how badly you needed a change of place and new experience in your current dispirited state. No surprise he agreed almost immediately, when during his last visit to the land of Morax Childe invited the two of you to stay with him and his wife in their homeland. He promised no interruption from the Tsaritsa or the Harbingers, and, knowing that partially the invitation was surely coming from the ginger’s lover, whom he had met and whom both him and you found very pleasant to be around, the man believed it.

At first the idea of coming to Snezhnaya worried you, but Zhongli didn’t miss the curious and excited glint in your pretty eyes. He gave you time to consider the idea, and a week later the three of you were on a ship, half-way to the country of snow. The woman carrying Ajax’ real last name welcomed you warmly and with a big smile on her face, chewing her husband lightly for not having invited you two earlier.

The atmosphere that prevailed in this house surely helped distract you from oppressive thoughts, and exploring outside with your caring husband made you so tired, but in a pleased kind of sense, that you didn’t have the energy to spend it on anything but share a goodnight kiss with Zhongli and fall asleep in his comforting embrace. You were healing, and it couldn’t but delight him. 

You took a liking to the walks in the early hours of morning, because it, as you proclaimed, was very refreshing for the beginning of the day. Being a morning person Zhongli always joins you on your little outings. Childe introduced a thermos to you two, and ever since your husband tends to have it on him whenever you are outside. The tea in there has a calming and soothing effect, meticulously prepared by skillful hands with love and care.

Another thing you both became fond of was dancing. Just like snowflakes in the air you spin in each other’s embrace, heavy cloaks with fur collars barely swiping the snow under your feet. A soft melody hummed in deep voice mixed with gleeful giggles, turning into a shared laughter soon into the dance that really didn’t have any name.

Sometimes though the quietness around you awakes a feeling of loneliness and you can’t help but shed tears, face pressed to his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around your form. He lets you cry and release the negative emotions, gently swaying your bodies to some rhythm existing only in the beat of his heart. He tries to swipe your tears before they turn into the frozen droplets and sting your eyes or bite your cheeks.

The usual expensive leather of his gloves is replaced by thick wool and feels warm against your face, as his big palms cradle it in his delicate hold.

“My gem…” the puff of hot air from his mouth caresses your nose - that’s how close he is - and you cutely wrinkle it. “Don’t you think we should return? It’s been almost an hour, your skin is burning from the cold already.”

“Must we really?” An adorable pout doesn’t work on a stoic man, as he lets go of your face and, to the accompaniment of your squeals, hoists you in his arms bridal style.

“If you refuse to use your two legs, then I’ll just carry you,” his smile is disarming, damn him.

“All the way back?”

“Why, of course, my dear. Do you question my strength?”

“No, of course not! It’s just…” Though your cheeks are already red, he doesn’t mistake the way you avert your eyes in quiet embarrassment.

“Oh, is this position making you shy? Don’t worry, I am sure our hosts will understand.”

“You..!” The man chuckles lightheartedly, not having it in him to stop himself from teasing you. Ah, this truly is refreshing, and Zhongli is so elated to see a once again happy smile that you desperately try to hide in the fur of your coat.

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #albedo x reader #diluc x reader #kaeya x reader #zhongli x reader #albedo kreideprinz #diluc ragnvindr #kaeya alberich #zhongli #albedo kreideprinz x reader #diluc ragnvindr x reader #kaeya alberich x reader #genshin impact fluff

[robininthelabyrinth]

The Other Mountain - ao3 - Chapter 25

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan

Warning Tags on Ao3

———————————————————————-

The evidence from the Fire Palace came in not long after, confirming Lan Qiren’s deduction.

Wen Ruohan still looked stupefied by the revelation, though he’d lived up to his word and believed Lan Qiren immediately, which was nice. He just hadn’t believed it of Jin Guanshan, Lan Qiren supposed.

That was reasonable enough.

Jin Guangshan might not be especially smart, but he made up for it by having cunning in spades. Lan Qiren could out-argue him nearly every time, particularly on matters of morality, but Jin Guangshan got his own way just as often, whether through schemes and maneuvering or underhanded tricks. He’d been pretty close to Wen Ruohan, too. The Wen sect never made alliances, it was part of their founding principles – the clan over everyone, the clan over the world, Wen Mao at what was either his finest or his worst depending on what commentary you were reading – but Jin Guangshan was good at flattering people, and Wen Ruohan liked to be flattered. He enjoyed not only the reality of being powerful, but the pageantry of it: he liked it when people bowed to him or recited phrases honoring him, he liked it when people thought about him, and he liked it when people praised him, even when they were smarmy sycophants obviously out for their own interests like Jin Guangshan.

(Having now spent a little more time with Wen Chao, Lan Qiren felt that he had a better understanding of Wen Ruohan’s character. Wen Ruohan was smarter, subtler, and far more experienced than his second son, and certainly more ruthless, but Lan Qiren could see that some of the same characteristics were there, writ miniature. Certainly some of the same flaws: Wen arrogance and self-absorption, a prickly competitive pride – though with Wen Chao, unlike his father, not quite enough cleverness and talent to justify it – and of course a tendency towards indolence and laziness, impulsiveness and excitability…not to mention, interestingly enough, a certain degree of gullibility, worsened by their tendency to think themselves above being tricked.

It was a little adorable, actually.

Wen Chao, at least, was young enough that Lan Qiren felt confident he could help ameliorate the worst of his flaws, or at least help him manage them better and with fewer awful tendencies than his father. As for Wen Ruohan…well, it was good for him that Lan Qiren liked him so much. He’d never met a man more in need of a beating. And that included Lao Nie.)

“Why would he be so foolish?” Wen Ruohan asked, not for the first time. He had started pacing – almost as if conjured up by his irritation, Cangse Sanren had appeared, this time with Wei Changze trailing behind her. “No Great Sect directly encroaches on another, not like this. We all refrain because we all know where it would lead…why would he incite war against me?”

“Not just a war, but a war in which you are the aggrieved party,” Wei Changze agreed. He looked worried, probably because of his natal sect’s potential involvement – the Jiang sect were formal allies with the Jin sect, close to the point of having arranged for a future engagement between Jiang Yanli and Jin Guangshan’s son, Jin Zixuan. The engagement had been mediated by their mothers, who had been close as girls, but even Lan Qiren, who did not gossip and tried not to listen to it when it was presented to him, knew the rumors that claimed that Madam Jin had utilized that very connection to help win her current place as mistress of Jinlin Tower. “It does seem rather implausible, not to mention irrational.”

“People act irrationally out of fear,” Cangse Sanren said. She’d perched herself on the stool again, with her knees pulled up in a dreadfully inappropriate manner; Lan Qiren was starting to wonder if she had difficulty getting comfortable unless she was contorting herself. “His conduct being irrational doesn’t necessarily mean that this is a trap.”

“It could be,” Wen Ruohan said.

“Anything could be. In this case, I don’t think it is. Qiren-gege is right: Sect Leader Jin decided to bet on a roll of the dice with Qingheng-jun, siding with him and trying to box Sect Leader Wen into a major loss. He probably figured that two Great Sects acting together were hard to stop, especially since he could bulk up their power by suborning Yunmeng Jiang through their alliance with his sect. And it’s a good point! With three Great Sects you can do a lot!” She shrugged. “But he didn’t realize that Qingheng-jun was insane, so his plan failed.”

“That’s not unreasonable. But it is unreasonable to go from there to ordering an assassination.”

“I suspect that part is likely my fault,” Lan Qiren said heavily. “Jin Guangshan has always been able to rely on his knowledge of people to manipulate them. With Wen Ruohan, he counted on knowing how to calm him down whenever he overstepped, whether through flattery or gifts or otherwise. But now, for the first time, we rejected his attempt to smooth things over…well, I rejected it, and Wen Ruohan endorsed that rejection. That may have spooked him.”

“Spooked him enough to try to kill me?” Wen Ruohan sounded offended, even though he himself had pointed out several times that his temporary vulnerability made it a perfectly reasonable time for someone to try something. “I understand that he had a relatively narrow window of opportunity at present and would need to act swiftly if he wished to take advantage of my impairment, but at the same time, it seems like rather a bold move, particularly for him. Maybe it is a trap.”

“Even if it is a trap, how can we avoid it?” Lan Qiren pointed out. Quite reasonably, to his mind. “I despise war. I would do everything within my power to avoid it where possible, but despite that, even I know that trying to kill another sect’s sect leader can lead nowhere else. If we do not respond in force, it would be tantamount to saying that anyone can try to kill the people in the Nightless City with impunity.”

“How bloodthirsty of you, Qiren.”

“He’s not being bloodthirsty,” Cangse Sanren objected. “He’s being logical.”

“He’s being terrifying,” Wei Changze said bluntly. “He’s not wrong, it makes sense, it’s the way it has to be. But wars aren’t bloodless, and they shouldn’t be started bloodlessly.”

Lan Qiren frowned. He was hardly being cold-hearted, he didn’t think – it really was only logical, and not just because his new sect happened to be the victim. The Wen sect was the most powerful sect in the cultivation world; its behavior set the standard for the rest, for better or for worse. If they didn’t take the strongest possible measures against someone who had ordered an assassination now, it would suggest that such things were acceptable, or at least not too objectionable, and setting such a precedent would be disastrous for the entire cultivation world, not just the Nightless City. Every sect would start thinking about how to target each other.

They had to stamp this out at once. They had to make it so incredibly clear that the consequences of this type of behavior vastly outweighed the benefits, that there would be immediate and overwhelming reprisals, that the only outcome would be utterly cataclysmic. The only way to do that was to go to war.

There was simply no other choice.

What had Jin Guangshan been thinking? It would be one thing if he were in the Wen sect’s position, thinking that he was strong enough to cast off the consequences or maybe even to intimidate whoever he had offended out of demanding justice. But they weren’t a small sect being threatened by a large sect, where they would have to balance accepting an intolerable offense against the risk of their sect being subsequently destroyed. The Wen sect was large and powerful and unlike most sects, it had an army. An army, and a powerful sect leader known for conquest and tyranny. It would never take such an insult lying down.

Jin Guangshan wasn’t strong enough to go against Wen Ruohan’s Wen sect, and surely he knew that. He’d done the equivalent of poking a bear with a stick and running away, expecting the bear to chase.

Under the circumstances, it was pretty obvious that there had to be some sort of trap involved.

Why get a bear to chase you if you didn’t have plans to deal with the bear once you got it to where you wanted it to go? Lan Qiren was perfectly willing to believe that Jin Guangshan was a little stupid, or even more than a little, but he wasn’t that stupid. He must have, or at least must believe that he had, some sort of ace up his sleeve that would enable him to turn the tables against them at the last moment, some final card left to play, something that he plausibly thought would let him triumph over not only a weakened Wen Ruohan, but the entire Wen sect army.

But what could it be?

“– need to look at who we’re dealing with here,” Cangse Sanren was arguing. “Don’t look at the situation as a general rule, what would normal people do and why would they do it. We need to think about why Sect Leader Jin would do what he did. ‘People are different, and different people react differently to the same stimulus.’”

That almost had the sound of a rule.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Lan Qiren thought he might remember having said something similar to Cangse Sanren all way back when they were still adolescents, back when she’d been frustrated by not being able to understand why people acted the way they did. He’d overheard her ranting about it one afternoon and he’d been struck by a sudden sense of kinship. As one person struggling with the same issue to another, he’d offered to share the benefits of his hard-won lessons on social norms. He hadn’t actually expected her to accept, but she had, and he’d spent a number of highly enjoyable afternoons explaining what he’d figured out to her, occasionally even supplementing his explanations with charts and the like. It had been fun.

He hadn’t realized that she remembered.

“I see your point,” Wei Changze said thoughtfully. “Sect Leader Jin is rich and powerful, and he was born rich and powerful. I doubt he’s ever haggled or been desperate for anything in his life. He doesn’t need to take risks, he probably never did before, and now, for the first time in his life…”

“Exactly! He’s exposed. It’s probably the weakest hand he’s ever held. Combine that with pride and egotism, and he decides to double down – ”

“It is still irrational,” Wen Ruohan said with a scowl. “Starting a war with another Great Sect – with my sect – is tantamount to suicide. Jin Guangshan may be foolish, but he is not that foolish. To act so recklessly is unlike him. I think – ”

“Qiren-gege,” Cangse Sanren interrupted, turning to look at Lan Qiren. “Can you call a doctor? I think Sect Leader Wen might be under the influence of some sort of severe fever or mind-altering drug – ”

“What?!”

“Or possession! It could be possession, we haven’t checked – ”

“Cangse Sanren, that is enough,” Lan Qiren said sternly.

She crossed her arms and arched her eyebrows. “Sect Leader Wen is refusing an invitation to go to war? A justified war, that no one will be able to object to? By the laws of the night-hunt, that definitely qualifies as aberrant behavior sufficient to necessitate a check for possession.”

“I am not refusing,” Wen Ruohan snarled. “I am merely – ”

“I think my brother might be involved,” Lan Qiren announced, deciding that the minor breach of etiquette involved in interrupting people and blatantly changing the subject was less egregious than allowing this conversation to continue any further. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed that Wen Ruohan was being unusually squirrelly about being handed an opportunity that he would normally salivate over and even scheme wildly to obtain, but he also had enough insight to be able to determine that his hesitation was more than likely due to him still being unnerved by their earlier discussion about Lao Nie rather than any actual anxiety over the notion of going to war.

After all, Lao Nie and Jin Guangshan had ascended to their positions at around the same time. To lose one would be an ominous sign for the other, and Wen Ruohan had already lived past the length of a human lifetime, had already lost every single person he’d known as a young man. He hadn’t yet prepared himself for more loss, more change.

Lan Qiren could sympathize with that.

“I do not mean to be repetitive on the topic of my brother,” he added, when everyone else had stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him. “I assure you, I am not seeking to lay the blame for all my misfortunes in one place simply for convenience. I genuinely think that my brother may have played a role in what happened.”

“I doubt your brother has access to assassins,” Wen Ruohan said dryly, then smirked. “Unless – ”

“There are no secret assassins in the Lan sect.”

“Hey, Lan Qiren,” Wei Changze said. “Remind me again, what was that really cool skill that Lan Yi invented? Starts with ‘chord,’ ends with…?”

“…Chord Assassination is named that way because of its similarity to other already existing methods of combat, and the fact that at the time using a string to garrote one's enemies was considered the sole province of assassins,” Lan Qiren said, rubbing his temples. “We do not employ actual assassins.”

“But theoretically, if you wanted to – ”

“If I wished to assassinate someone, I would not use Chord Assassination to do it. I have a sword. I would merely stab them.” He scowled at the crowd of grinning monkeys in front of him. “As I very recently demonstrated, if you recall. Can we return to the subject at hand?”

“Right, your brother,” Wen Ruohan said. He was still smirking, but Lan Qiren was willing to give him a pass on account of smirking being better than the tight and angry expression he’d had earlier. “Explain your thought process. How is he involved?”

“He was always exceptionally talented, and he continued to improve both his cultivation and his swordsmanship during his time in seclusion,” Lan Qiren explained. “Having faced him, I would rank him exceedingly high, putting him among the greatest cultivators of our time, up there at the top alongside Wen Ruohan and Lao Nie.”

“From what I hear, you’re not that bad yourself,” Cangse Sanren put in, rather unhelpfully. “Especially once you factor in the element of surprise.”

“He’s magnificent,” Wen Ruohan informed her. Also unhelpfully.

Lan Qiren decided to ignore them.

“We know that my brother has not returned to the Lan sect,” he said. “We know, too, that he must have worked with Jin Guangshan to put together the plot that led to the mountain collapse in Xixiang, though presumably Jin Guangshan was only informed about the parts of the plan that involved causing Wen Ruohan to take a loss, rather than the parts that involved mass slaughter of innocent lives.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Wei Changze mumbled. “I’ve met him. He might not mind.”

Lan Qiren was also not particularly sure, having also met Jin Guangshan, and indeed having had to spend significantly more time around the odious lecher than he would have preferred. Still, the rules said Be easy on others.

“However it may be, we know that they worked together. It was likely one of the Lanling Jin sect’s spies that was used to set up the plot, and Lanling Jin’s support was critical to springing the trap by convincing the rest of the world of the truth of their claims – in short, for whatever reason, however he did it, my brother successfully obtained Jin Guangshan’s support. I propose that when my brother left Xixiang, he may have gone to ground in Jinlin Tower.”

“Jin Guangshan also left the battlefield early, around the same time that your brother disappeared,” Wen Ruohan said, nodding. “His absence was commented on at some length at the party. Wasn’t that why he was handing out those stupid trinkets? To distract everyone from that?”

“Trinkets?” Cangse Sanren perked up, resembling a magpie catching a hint of something shiny. “What trinkets?”

“Commemorative coins to celebrate the event.” Wen Ruohan wrinkled his nose in genuine disgust. It was adorable, though possibly Lan Qiren was biased. “I had my subordinates pick up a few extras, if you’d like some.”

“Ugh, no thanks. They’re probably unbelievably gaudy.”

“They are. They’re also made of gold.”

“We’ll take two,” Wei Changze put in at once. “Cangse, stop scowling. Even if they’re hideously ugly, it’s not like we’ll keep them for very long. We’ll sell them the next time we run out of cash.”

“Oh, all right…”

Lan Qiren pointedly cleared his throat.

“I believe I see where Qiren is going with this,” Wen Ruohan said, returning to the subject with the speed of a man who knew Lan Qiren’s temper. “If Qingheng-jun has gone to ground in Lanling, that may be what Jin Guangshan is counting on to defeat any attack that we throw at him…though that still seems unreasonably foolish to me. There is a limit to what one man alone can do.”

“That was the previous wisdom,” Lan Qiren said. “You just demonstrated that it might not be the case.”

Wen Ruohan looked pleased.

“So you think your brother, what, told Jin Guangshan that he could do something similar to what Sect Leader Wen did at Xixiang?” Cangse Sanren looked thoughtful. “And Jin Guangshan believed him, so he thinks that even if we attack Jinlin Tower, he’ll be able to fight back, or at least cause enough damage to the Wen side to make a siege not worth continuing. Not the worst plan, I guess.”

“No, but it is also not an especially good one,” Lan Qiren conceded. “But I think you had it right earlier in your analysis of Jin Guangshan: he placed his bet on my brother, and now that the risk has gotten greater and the stakes higher, he has chosen to double down on that bet.”

“Hold a moment,” Wei Changze said. “That was a gambling metaphor. Lan Qiren, you know how to gamble?”

Lan Qiren threw the nearest thing to hand at his head.

He expected Wei Changze to dodge, the way anyone else who knew him well would have, but apparently he’d managed to take him by surprise – he hit him dead on, the paperweight hitting his head and bouncing off.

“Owwww…” Wei Changze whined with theatrical pitifulness to his wife, who was sniggering unmercifully at his expense. “Cangse, don’t laugh! Your husband is injured…”

“I have a better question for everyone to consider,” Cangse Sanren said, eventually yielding enough to press a kiss to her husband’s definitely-not-actually-bruised temple. “What is Qingheng-jun getting out of this arrangement? Jin Guangshan gets a powerful weapon, but what does Qingheng-jun get? What is even his goal, now that his plan has failed?”

That was a good question. Lan Qiren had been wracking his brain for answers, but short of “trying to kill me” – which would involve explaining why his brother hated him enough to consider breaching the taboo against murdering one’s kin – he couldn’t think of anything. What could his brother’s motive possibly be? Why wouldn’t he go back to the Lan sect? What in the world could he still want, after having lost his schemes for power, lost face, and lost even his chance for revenge…?

“He wants to kill everyone, of course.”

Now everyone turned to stare at Wen Ruohan, who shrugged.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked. “It’s certainly how I would feel under the circumstances.”

“…please explain,” Lan Qiren said, still staring. “What do you mean, ‘kill everyone’?”

“I mean exactly that. If you put me in a situation where, to my perception, the whole world has seen my disgrace, I would naturally want to raze it all to the ground to cover it up.”

“That’s not natural,” Cangse Sanren announced. “That’s definitely not what most people would think…uh, right, Qiren?”

“Certainly not,” Lan Qiren assured her.

“It seems natural to me. Perhaps it is the assumption of rulers…?”

“You’re so full of yourself. Why are you like this?”

“It seems like a fairly wild assumption to me,” Lan Qiren said, turning back to Wen Ruohan before he could answer the question. He suspected that Wen Ruohan’s answer, whatever it would be, would be annoying enough to kick off a fight, and they should not waste time nor energy on that. No matter how tempting it might be. “That my brother would so swiftly go from wanting to damage the Lan sect but not kill it, to wanting to kill not just them but far more people…when you say ‘everyone,’ do you really mean the entire cultivation world? How would he even do something like that?”

“Oh, I know! Poison the water – I’ll be quiet now, Qiren-gege, please don’t throw anything at me.”

Wei Changze politely cleared his throat, possibly in an effort to save his wife from Lan Qiren’s wrath. “Is there perhaps some other goal that he could be seeking to pursue at this stage?”

“I can’t think of anything,” Wen Ruohan said.

Cangse Sanren thought for a moment, then shrugged in agreement.

Lan Qiren…was going to have to mention it.

“He may want to kill me,” he confessed, and winced at the expressions of alarm on both Wen Ruohan and Cangse Sanren’s faces. “To remind you: I am here, I am fine, there is no cause to worry.”

“He’s your brother. He wanted to kill you?” Wen Ruohan was scowling. “He tried to kill you?”

“I think you should have mentioned that earlier,” Cangse Sanren said, with a shockingly identical look on her face. “Say, preferably before you went to a party where someone else tried to kill you…?”

“I do not think that was related,” Lan Qiren protested. “It is my belief that the assassins wanted to kill me to avoid me taking over the Wen sect in the event that their attempt to kill Wen Ruohan was successful.”

They were still glaring at him.

“Why does he want to kill you?” Wei Changze asked, in what would have been a helpful breath of fresh air and logic except for the fact that Lan Qiren dearly did not want to answer that question.

(He’d moved from being embarrassed to being angry about it. How dare his brother question his integrity like that? How dare he question He Kexin like that? Wasn’t it enough that he’d forced her to marry him, that she’d borne his children despite being in seclusion…? How could he have thrown away ten years just like that, without a moment of regret…? Even Wen Ruohan had regretted ordering Lan Qiren to the Fire Palace almost immediately, and they’d only been married for the equivalent of a blink of the eye!)

“Yes, that’s a good question,” Wen Ruohan said. “I knew he hated you and would gladly see you dead, but most people would not violate the taboo of killing one’s own blood-related kin with their own hands. What could compel him to go to such extremes?”

“I…that is, he…” Lan Qiren was stuttering. He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply. Be strict with yourself. Stop bad habits. Do not tell lies. “He thinks that I seduced his wife.”

“He what?!” all three of them shouted.

Lan Qiren grimaced at the loudness. He hated to even repeat the slander, though in truth he felt a certain amount of relief at having shared the information with them, freeing himself of a burdensome secret. As always, the rules were right, and following them the correct path.

“Not just that,” he said with a huff that encompassed all of the complaints that had been weighing him down. “If that were not ridiculous enough – as if He Kexin and I did not barely tolerate each other! – he continuously accuses me of seeking to subvert him through violations of the rules against promiscuity and debauchery. His relationship with his wife, his alliance with Wen Ruohan… I do not know why he is so fixated on the subject, but he is.”

Cangse Sanren suddenly laughed.

Lan Qiren turned to look at her, feeling betrayed. What was funny about what he’d said?

“I’m sorry,” she sniggered, her laughter getting more out of control rather than less. “I’m sorry, are you saying that your brother thinks you’re some sort of – seductive vixen?”

“…I did not say that.”

“But you meant it! That’s what you meant!”

Lan Qiren thought back over his brother’s accusations. “Well. I mean, I suppose – ”

Wen Ruohan started laughing as well.

Lan Qiren tried to glare at him, but it was impossible, not with Wen Ruohan looking as overwhelmingly gleeful as he did. Even Wei Changze had hidden away his face in his sleeves, his shoulders shaking with laughter. Cangse Sanren was nearly in tears.

“You!” she kept chortling. “You! Lan Qiren! Harlot and seductress, a nation-destroying fox-face beauty…you. With – ”

She hiccupped.

“With – with your slutty, slutty thousands of rules…”

Wei Changze fell off his chair, now completely covering his head with his sleeves. Wen Ruohan was by now bent over at the waist, the volume of his mirth reaching that typically associated with chittering baboons – in fact, it was possible he was crying with laughter as well.

Admittedly, even Lan Qiren could see the humor of it.

“Please do not refer to the rules that way,” he still said with a faint sigh. The laughter seemed to be doing them all some good. “You may continue to poke fun, but please limit your pejorative comments to me.”

Tragically, all three of them were more than willing to abide by that restriction, and insisted on continuing in the same vein for some time. It turned out that they all had several additional and very colorful suggestions that they felt the need to express before they were willing to change subjects. Or, well, Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren produced the majority, while after a few contributions Wen Ruohan primarily spent his time looking at Lan Qiren with a hungry expression that suggested that he had a new idea for what they could do later when they were alone.

Possibly something involving a nation-destroying fox and an indulgent emperor.

After a suitable interval, once the giggles seemed to have mostly passed, Lan Qiren cleared his throat pointedly.

“Can we focus?” he asked. “Need I remind you all that we must now prepare for a war? I cannot imagine that such an endeavor will be an easy one.”

“Easier than you might think,” Wen Ruohan said. He was still smirking lazily, but the tension from earlier had completely disappeared – now he looked the way Lan Qiren would have expected, full of anticipation and ambition, eager for an opportunity to expand his sect’s power at the expense of others. “I gave all the necessary orders to mobilize the army already to deal with the situation in Xixiang, and no one has ordered them to stand down. On the contrary, I suspect my generals have been putting them through their paces in an effort to demonstrate their competence to me – it will take no time at all to get them ready to march.”

“They’re all eager for a fight,” Cangse Sanren agreed. “Or at least to go out and show off.”

“War isn’t about showing off,” Wei Changze reminded her, but she only shrugged carelessly.

“What actually needs to be done to prepare?” she asked Wen Ruohan. “I’ve never seen a war before…Ooh, will there be siege weapons involved? Can we take some?”

Wen Ruohan snorted and took up his brush. “I’ll put together the orders, and you can take them to my generals. We will depart in the morning. I will include that you have my permission to examine the armory – ”

“Yes!”

“– but you will need to clear anything you wish to use with me before you remove it.”

“Spoilsport.” She smirked. “You know me so well by now. Don’t you trust me?”

“Not with siege weaponry.”

“I don’t trust you with siege weaponry, and it’s because I know you,” Wei Changze put in, looking alarmed. “Cangse – ”

“Beloved husband of mine – love of my life – ”

“You do not need siege weaponry!”

“But my love, sometimes women want something really big and really, really destructive…”

Wen Ruohan finished what he was writing and held up the page. “Take this and get lost. I have something to show Qiren, and I do not require your company for that.”

“I bet you don’t,” she giggled. “Be careful, Sect Leader Wen, you never know what a sexy beast like our Qiren might do – ”

“Never say that again,” Lan Qiren said firmly. “Ever. Under any circumstances.”

“I do have to ask, Senior Lan,” Wei Changze said. “Has your brother ever…met you?”

Lan Qiren reached out and picked up the inkstone from the table.

Wei Changze fled the room laughing, hand-in-hand with his wife.

“You know, I’d been planning to find a reason to repurpose the Fire Palace,” Wen Ruohan remarked. “But it hasn’t been repurposed yet. There’s still an opportunity…”

Lan Qiren snorted and put the inkstone back. “That is unnecessary. Is what you want to show me the gift you mentioned earlier? The painting?”

“It is. I do not know if it will be to your taste, but I wish to present it to you nonetheless.” Wen Ruohan rose to his feet, gesturing for Lan Qiren to join him, then paused. “Do not ask me to explain the meaning behind it.”

Lan Qiren nodded, accepting the limitation, and followed him. He was immensely curious. Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji had told him about their conversation with Wen Ruohan on the flight from Xixiang to the Nightless City, and that had been funny enough – Lan Qiren had privately enjoyed the thought of Wen Ruohan interrogating two children as to the best method of apologizing to him – but he had been particularly captivated by their mention of Wen Ruohan’s claim of being an accomplished painter.

Wen Ruohan was notoriously vain. If he was an accomplished painter, shouldn’t his own paintings be everywhere in the Nightless City, given place of honor? Since they weren’t, what was the reason?

He’d even taken a little time to ask around with the record-keepers of the Nightless City, discovering to his surprise that Wen Ruohan had once been more famous as a painter than a tyrant or even a warrior, back when he was only a young master and one son among many. Only…he had also been assured that Wen Ruohan had given up the habit of painting long ago, so long ago that few people could remember it.

Lan Qiren wondered what it meant, that he’d picked up his brush for Lan Qiren’s sake now. Or even if it meant anything at all – perhaps it was just a whim, just a mindless impulse that was, as he himself warned, not susceptible to questions about his intent…

“Oh,” Lan Qiren murmured, stopping just inside the threshold of the secondary study. Wen Ruohan had just stepped aside, letting him see the painting.

It was – beautiful.

Wen Ruohan painted the way he wrote, bold and fearless, arrogance and self-assurance in every stroke. The painting was a masterpiece of the cultivator’s art, seething with deeper meaning: he’d captured both image and spiritual energy, the overwhelming feeling of the image pouring out at the viewer. The trees towered over the ruined earth, the blood and the ash, the remnants of war – devastating and grim, gloomy, despair tasting like soot on the tongue –

“I don’t explain my paintings,” Wen Ruohan said.

“I do not require an explanation,” Lan Qiren said, stepping forward and looking it over more closely: had Wen Ruohan really completed this in a single evening? No wonder it had taken him into the next day. It was exquisitely detailed, sparse lines coming together to suggest deeper meaning, adding additional complexity to the image. “It makes perfect sense to me. It is beautiful. Thank you.”

Wen Ruohan stepped up behind him. “I’m pleased that you like it.”

He put his hands on Lan Qiren’s waist. His breath was hot on Lan Qiren’s ear.

“Tell me, do you know what this scene depicts?”

A war scene, Lan Qiren wanted to say, but something stilled his tongue. There was something in there, something more than just a war. There was devastation, yes, the remnants left behind by a battle, grotesque in its intrinsic cruelty, the shadows all that was left of those that passed through and left this in their wake, but there was something else here. Something almost familiar…

“Obliteration,” he said, and that felt right. “A broken heart.”

Wen Ruohan’s hands tightened around him.

Lan Qiren tilted his head to the side a little, not looking away from the painting. “Is this my sect?” he asked. “My Gusu Lan…did we do this?”

“Mm. Your sect, and mine. There was a war between our sects when I was young.”

Lan Qiren traced the lines of the painting with his eyes. The way the trees loomed, tall and almost misshapen…he calculated the time in his head. The Lan sect records mentioned a war from over a century ago, though details were sparse. Perhaps deliberately: that war was not considered a point of pride for their sect, even though it had been instrumental in settling the borders of their territory where they presently lay. On the contrary, it had always been referred to with some censure, seen as an overreaction, though no one had ever mentioned what exactly the sect leader of that time had been reacting to.

If he had the dates correct, Wen Ruohan would have been very young indeed.

“Thank you,” he said once more, unable to say anything more than that. His chest felt full of feelings, which he could not bring himself to express aloud. One day, perhaps, his eloquence would return, and he would be able to put the feelings into words – or perhaps he would do what Lan Wangji suggested in the essay he had composed in response to Wen Ruohan’s request, and put to music the feelings that Wen Ruohan, who was not gifted in composition, could not.

Obliteration.

Obsession.

Perhaps other people would not appreciate such a gift. It was a war scene, after all, and they were about to march to war themselves – such a thing could have been a mockery, disdaining the sacrifice and destruction that awaited them, the pain that accompanied all wars. What sort of gift was this for a lover? One did not often associate war with love…

Well, perhaps other sects did not. But Gusu Lan did.

A broken-hearted Lan on the path of just revenge will not rest until they have obliterated the cause of their grief. Complete destruction, without mercy or regret. Whether external or internal, whether the target is another or themselves…such grief demands an answer, and Gusu Lan will answer.

If you have been consumed by love, if you are mad with it, then I am mad alongside you.

My feelings are just as strong as yours.

I will be your partner, as you have been to me. I will match you in this as I will in anything else.

Believe me.

Lan Qiren smiled.

Yes, he would need to finish composing that song for Wen Ruohan one of these days. He thought he might even know how it went, now, the difficulty he’d been previously having with it melting away in the heat of the inspiration. The heat of the sun, perhaps – it seemed apposite.

He thought Wen Ruohan would like it.

Wen Ruohan chuckled, resting his chin on Lan Qiren’s shoulder. “I assume I should resign myself to a lonely night of listening to you at your guqin? I know what inspiration looks like.”

“It will not be lonely,” Lan Qiren said peaceably. “I will be there.”

“All for the best, I suppose. I do have a war to prepare for – if I were to spend all evening in bed, I really would be letting myself get distracted by a nation-destroying fox.”

Lan Qiren rolled his eyes and shook Wen Ruohan off. Where was his guqin? Back in the other room, right. He should make his way there at once…

The daze of inspiration did not lift by evening, when he went to sleep, and it continued throughout the morning. It even continued past the point when the army set out – Lan Qiren merely relocated himself from the bedroom to the carriage and carried on, slowly refining the song he was putting together.

By the time he actually managed to extract himself long enough to notice where they were and what was going on, they were already well on their way to Lanling.

He could hear the army singing as they went. Not musical cultivation, since the Wen sect didn’t do that, but rather just an ordinary person’s travel song, one of the ones from Qishan. It was surprisingly euphonious to hear them all together like that, even though Lan Qiren could tell that most of the people singing had never had any sort of training and many didn’t know how to hold a tune.

He shook off the lethargy of a particularly long period of creative activity, stretched out his aching hands, and got out of the carriage, intending to explore. He was quite curious.

Lan Qiren had not had much opportunity to date to interact with the Wen sect army.

The entire concept of a professional army of cultivators was an innovation of Wen Ruohan’s own making. Most sects did not have anything of the sort. When they went to war, they took only their sect disciples, armed with whatever sect treasures they happened to have, and it boiled down to being a battle of power and talent. Even the Great Sects, which went to war on a larger scale, had to rely both on their larger selection of outside disciples and on the subsidiary sects that swore loyalty to them to make up the numbers.

Wen Ruohan had not been satisfied with that. Contrary to the approach of most sects, which fiercely guarded their cultivation styles and resisted spreading them to others, the Wen sect had taken its cultivation style and broken it down to its barest essentials, until it was barely more than rudimentary, and then they’d taught it to all the recruits that joined their army. The truly talented were accepted as proper sect disciples, becoming outside disciples just as with all the other sects, but those that were less talented, the ones that other sects would have rejected outright, were offered the chance to learn cultivation in exchange for their service. For many, it was the only opportunity they would have to learn cultivation in their lifetime – many of them were people born in ordinary families, without cultivator ancestry or lineage, and they happily traded their loyalty for the chance.

No, to call it mere loyalty would be to understate it. Wen Ruohan’s army was fanatically devoted to him.

And why wouldn’t they be? Their families back home were able to boast to all and sundry that they had a cultivator in the family, an immortal who could touch the clouds, and borrowed their glory to better their own fates, while their hometowns grew bold and unafraid, each one feeling that they had a resource they could rely on for when evil spirits emerged from the dark. The common people were proud of their cultivators, prouder than most, and Lan Qiren couldn’t blame them one bit.

As for the soldiers themselves, however poor their personal cultivation might be – many of them could not even fly a sword – they still found themselves with a career, salary enough to let them marry a wife if they chose, as well as a home, a place to belong. Those of them that were talented were given resources that they could not find anywhere else. Cultivation was a rich man’s province. To progress in cultivation, one required both money and leisure: sufficient time to spend in meditation, contemplation, and art, whether the sword or an instrument, and also access to spiritual jade and other tools, a place with appropriate spiritual energy…the Wen sect, with all its power and wealth, was able to hand such things out more liberally than most sects could ever dream. There was a reason that many sects voluntarily came under the Wen sect’s banner, and why even those that hadn’t joined voluntarily often found that they had trouble extracting themselves later.

The Wen sect’s soldiers even had the glimmer of hope that they could one day exceed their relatively lowly station, demonstrate their worth through their talent, maybe becoming one of the Wen sect’s outer disciples – or even higher than that. The Wen sect was rather famously one of the few that voluntarily shared its surname, adopting in the best of the best so that their brilliance could shine light onto their clan’s glory. Lan Qiren had no doubt that the dangling prize of that goal was a feature of many of the surrounding soldiers’ dreams.

The end result of it all was an army whose numbers dwarfed the rest of the cultivation world.

Sure, any solid sect disciple, and certainly one from any Great Sect, could easily match themselves against three or four Wen sect soldiers, and a talented one would be able to defeat still more than that. But battles weren’t merely cultivation against cultivation, not when there were such numbers, not when the Wen sect army could bring to bear treasures and siege weapons and formations that utilized numbers as their basis. It didn’t matter if a talented cultivator could defeat ten Wen sect soldiers if they were up against a hundred.

The army must have been such a scandal when it was first proposed, Lan Qiren mused to himself. But who knew how long ago that had been? By now, no one objected on the basis of it violating orthodoxy. It was just accepted as being part of what the Wen sect did…

He wandered through the army, nodding at the Wen sect disciples who served as lieutenants as he passed – they saluted him in return, though they did not stop marching. He could not quite determine the way the army was organized, though he could see that there was some sort of division, with various smaller groups each being distinguished by the presence of a flag: either the one with the Wen sect name, white with red calligraphy, or else the symbol of the sun.

He had never noticed it before, actually, but the army’s emblem was black with a golden sun, a contrast to the white-and-red that was the Wen sect’s emblem in peacetime. He wondered if that was Wen Ruohan making a private joke to himself: that mysterious black sun that was the greatest weapon of his cultivation power, and the black sun of his army that was the foundation of his political power, too.

Probably. It seemed like him.

Lan Qiren wondered if Wen Ruohan expected him to accept some of these soldiers into his classes as well. Many of them were already adults, but surely they had children that they wanted to educate, and for those that came from common families, without a cultivation background, it was possible that even the adults would benefit from a solid foundation in orthodoxy.

He certainly wouldn’t mind if that was the case. He had started his classes by inviting second and third sons, branch members and cousins, all the troublemakers that other sects grew impatient with. It was only later, once he’d gotten a reputation as a teacher, that people had started sending him their talents, their geniuses and their heirs. It wasn’t unheard of for him to accept a particularly promising disciple even if they lacked a sect’s surname – he’d even agreed to take on servants as students a few times, though his sect elders had always given him an earful whenever he’d done so, looking down their noses and citing Avoid imparting knowledge to the wrong individuals with a disdainful sniff.

Not that he especially cared about what the Gusu Lan sect leaders thought right now. Especially ones like Lan Zhengquan, who had been one of the harshest critics of Lan Qiren’s classes. What a joke that turned out to be now! He’d always been unreasonably concerned that Lan Qiren was letting slip some of Gusu Lan’s secrets, rather than just helping people understand their rules and establish the moral basis they would need, helping them find ways to improve themselves as they went down their own cultivation paths.

Judging others by his own standard, Lan Qiren supposed. The hypocrisy was truly vile.

He’d have to find time to go to the Lan sect to confront them, and soon. Even though it had been ten years since the injustice that they had perpetrated, now that Lan Qiren knew about it, impatience bubbled under his skin – he wanted to go at once, wanted to fix it at once. He wanted to excise the tumor of that crime from his sect’s heart, wanted to cut out the rot and purify the whole thing, to remake the sect back into its original intended image.

He wanted Gusu Lan to be everything that it should be. His nephews deserved that.

Whether he would be able to achieve his aims, he did not know. But he felt compelled to try.

Eventually, Lan Qiren’s wandering took him to where Wen Ruohan was conversing with his generals, all of them sitting or standing around a map in a moving pavilion drawn by horses. He paused briefly before greeting them, enjoying the sight of Wen Ruohan in his element: he looked alive, spirited and enthusiastic, even as he lounged back indolently in the seat that was very nearly a throne and waved his hands as he spoke, smirking as he dismissed some idea or another.

After another moment, Wen Ruohan noticed him, and his smirk widened momentarily into a genuine smile as he waved for Lan Qiren to join him.

Lan Qiren climbed up onto the pavilion.

“We’re discussing strategy for dealing with Lanling Jin,” Wen Ruohab said, not bothering with a greeting – or indeed with any questions or teasing about the fact that Lan Qiren had just spent several days in non-stop composing. Presumably he understood the impulse. “It is complicated by the fact that Jinlin Tower is based in an urban environment, surrounded by Lanling City.”

Lan Qiren nodded. That was one of the unique features of Lanling Jin – the Cloud Recesses were nestled among the valleys between the mountains, while the Unclean Realm was built into the very side of their own mountains, both of them isolated from the nearest towns, and while the Lotus Pier was situated near a large trading town, both on the same river, it was not part of it. The only one that was remotely comparable to the urban nature of the Jin sect was the Nightless City, but even that was different: the Nightless City was a city, yes, but the entire place was under Wen Ruohan’s personal management as sect leader, with even the ordinary people belonging to the Wen sect in some way. Lanling City, in contrast, was full of ordinary people who might pay tax to Lanling Jin, but who were otherwise completely uninvolved with them: ordinary merchants, tradesmen, artisans, scholars…

It went without saying that if they simply ignored the existence of the city and attacked anyway, there would be tremendous loss of life. Ordinary people were no match for cultivators, and Lan Qiren couldn’t even imagine what they would do in the face of siege weaponry: large scale treasures with effects that stretched out well into the distance around them, formations that could bring down entire forests and shake mountains, and all of that not even bringing into consideration the sort of specialist arrays a master like Wen Ruohan could put together. It would be a disaster.

A disaster Wen Ruohan was currently trying to avoid.

(Lan Qiren did not flatter himself into thinking he was the only or even primary reason for that. Wen Ruohan was a canny politician, well aware of the importance of saving face in public – he would never go around blatantly slaughtering common people left and right, as that would risk drawing the ire of the entire cultivation world. Certainly he would not do so when it was easier to take precautions, and in so doing win admiration and praise for his restraint. But whatever the cause, it was nice to know that Lan Qiren’s lover was not, in fact, a bloodthirsty madman with no sense of conscience or self-control, as he sometimes treated himself in his worst moments.)

“What is your plan?” he asked.

“It depends on the circumstances when we get there, which won’t be long now – we’ll get there by this afternoon. You can already see the lights of Lanling in the distance from here if you fly up a little, and in another shichen you won’t even need to do that.” Wen Ruohan tapped the map with a sharp fingernail, indicating where they were. “If they took my words to heart and set up their shields, we will have no choice but to set ourselves around them. We can take measures to evacuate the city back by some distance, creating a buffer zone in which we will operate. However, we are hoping that they haven’t raised the shields at all – that they are still hoping for some end that involves negotiation rather than fighting. If that’s the case, we will send a delegation inside to confront them.”

“How will that help?”

Wen Ruohan’s smirk was vicious. “Once we have people inside their shield perimeter, everything gets a great deal easier.”

Lan Qiren frowned, disapproving – No dishonest practices, no concealing sharp weapons – but ultimately he decided not to object. The Wen sect was well known for their treachery and disregard for convention. If Jin Guangshan invited them into his city despite knowing that, it could barely even be called a dishonest practice.

Wen Ruohan was watching him, and his smirk broadened triumphantly when Lan Qiren refrained from speaking. He’d probably been betting with himself as to whether he would or not, and was very happy to have been proven right.

(If he mistakenly thought that Lan Qiren had set aside the concern entirely, he was going to be very disappointed in the future. What Lan Qiren considered to be appropriate under the present circumstances, when Jin Guangshan had literally tried to murder them both and scapegoat his own allied sect as the perpetrator, was most certainly not what he would be willing to allow for in other situations.)

“What is your plan for what happens after that?” Lan Qiren asked, deciding to move on.

Wen Ruohan waved at one of the generals, who stepped forward and began to explain.

The army rolled inexorably forward.

It was late afternoon by the time they arrived. By that time, the forward parts of the army had already settled into their pre-arranged places outside the city gates, setting up siege formations – the gates themselves were full of civilians from Lanling City, peering anxiously down at them.

Lan Qiren was pleased, if somewhat conflicted, to see that Jinlin Tower had not activated its shields.

That presumably meant that they really were planning to try to negotiate, rather than simply start fighting right away – a remarkably foolish move on Jin Guangshan’s part. This entire sequence of events had been one misstep after another for him. He should never have gone up against Wen Ruohan.

Or Lan Qiren, for that matter.

(If Lan Qiren ever managed to find that Wang Liu that Wen Ruohan had spoken of, the spy that had deliberately incited all of Wen Ruohan’s worst insecurities and set Lan Qiren up for the Fire Palace…!)

“Not long now,” Wen Ruohan observed. He looked smug and satisfied, as well he should. It didn’t really matter if his personal cultivation was temporarily weakened, not when he had his army there to wield.

“No,” Lan Qiren agreed, unable to refrain from a faint sigh. If only they could avoid going to war at all...! “Not long now. Will we send a messenger first, or shall we await them?”

“An excellent question. I expect they will try to make us wait…” Wen Ruohan’s voice trailed off, his eyebrows arching slightly with surprise as a lone cultivator flew out of Lanling City, clearly heading their way. “Or perhaps not. That seems rather impatient of them.”

Lan Qiren privately agreed. Putting aside everything else, displaying that level of eagerness for a conversation did not speak well for Lanling Jin’s negotiation skills – showing desperation was a rookie mistake, and not one Lanling Jin would normally commit. It struck him as odd.

He said as much to Wen Ruohan, who frowned and agreed.

Perhaps for that reason, he told his general “Send the messenger in as soon as he arrives,” when normally Lan Qiren knew that he’d likely make the messenger wait outside as a demonstration of power.

Not long later, the messenger appeared. He was a middle-aged cultivator, clearly of relatively high rank in Lanling Jin, wearing Sparks Amidst Snow – meaning that this was a Jin of the main family, no less. That was an interesting choice for a negotiator; it suggested a considerable degree of respect, above and beyond the sort normally afforded to enemies.

“Sect Leader Wen,” he said, saluting respectfully, and then, in a move that surprised Lan Qiren, saluted Lan Qiren as well. “Senior Lan. Thank you both for granting me an audience. I have a message for you from Lanling Jin.”

“Oh?” Wen Ruohan drawled. “And what does Jin Guangshan have to say for himself?”

“Nothing,” the man said grimly. “You see, Sect Leader Jin is dead.”

#mdzs #wen ruohan #lan qiren #cangse sanren #wei changze #my fic #my fics #Megafic

[utilitycaster]

So I've felt a little bit like I'm struggling a bit to see for myself where you and others are recognizing Imogen's self-centeredness. Like, it makes sense for it to be there once it's pointed out to me, but she has a lot of moments where she DOES consider whether or not she or the party are potentially bringing harm to other people or animals—so it wasn't difficult for me to come away from her character, at a surface level, thinking that her biggest flaw is being a cynic and not letting people in, and I think between fanon and judging her by past Laura PCs, I have some trouble getting a read on her. What are you taking into consideration as you observe her character and her choices, and how much do you think Laura's leaning into those things intentionally?

So I do think that I probably cover her selfish moments more than I cover her on the whole, both because I find those moments a particularly interesting part of her character and in reaction to the bad fanon of her as a long-suffering victim deprived of choices. I should also note that I don't think she's a black hole of self absorption, so much as she tends to perhaps not consider that multiple options all have a chance of hurting people in a way I find insensitive.

Perhaps an overarching theme is the psychic powers in that I think she is so used to picking up people's thoughts that she doesn't realize the power imbalance this grants. Like...I think she sometimes forgets that a conversation needs to be a two-way street and is not solely her reading thoughts, but an opportunity for others to get information about her and hear her feelings, and also for her to express that curiosity about others. Which is a weird take on self-centeredness! I think most people think of self-centeredness as someone who only talks about themselves, and Imogen is not that. But at the same time...a good example is when she sees her father, who is pretty clearly desperately lonely and isolated and has been abandoned by both his wife and daughter due to them having powers well beyond what he understands. I don't think she picks up on all the visual cues, and while she could read what he's thinking, I think she forgets the impact of a simple "how are you?" or the responsibilities of both people to engage with conversation. Like...yes, you can understand someone's upset by reading their mind, but what about talking it through? What about the benefits the other person gains by having to put things into words? That's often lost in Imogen's interactions.

When she's focused on getting information, all the niceties fall away, and if she doesn't want the information she doesn't have that sense of give and take that would obligate most people to still carry on a conversation. (I suspect this is also why the two arguments she's had with Laudna have both fizzled out so unsatisfyingly; you have someone who will rapidly cover up any unhappiness and someone who - in my interpretation anyway - doesn't take that into consideration.)

The conversation leading up to the solstice is also a big one; I think again that the underlying motivation isn't ill-intentioned, per se, when she talks about whether the Vanguard might be right. I think that comes from, as I've said, an idea of hypocrisy of words vs. thoughts not matching, whereas most of us would think of hypocrisy as a mismatch of word and action. I don't think she intends to hurt people here. But at the same time it's immensely hurtful to bring this up to someone like Orym, who has lost his husband and his father figure and nearly his own life, or to Laudna, who could have been permanently killed by Otohan. It's not that it's not a valid line of discussion even though ideologically I'm opposed; it's that I don't think she has that sense of tact here. Which is also understandable, in that 18-year-old Imogen was never spared people's thoughts about her, but that doesn't mean it's not selfish. And it stands out because, again, I feel that people who talk to Imogen are not granted that opportunity to talk through their thoughts and use her as a sounding board, but she (again - possibly unwittingly) expects others to be available as one for her. Sort of to your point - I think she often thinks about whether the party is going to hurt people but I don't think she thinks about whether she, Imogen, is going to say something immensely hurtful to a party member.

I also find that she's just...not terribly pragmatic, and I'll admit that this is just a strong personal preference on my part in that I find adherence to pure ideology without a clear plan to be selfish at worst, though just extremely annoying at best. It feels she shoots down or criticizes a lot of plans with no better idea in mind (this happened a bunch in Uthodurn/Molaesmyr so this might be recency bias) and that always in real life makes me go "ok so if you're the one with the good ideas, have one." The "what about people who don't follow the gods" line after Deanna and FCG had direct visions really made me go "girl this is not about you;" it's not that it's not a valid question but for real, girl this is not about you and I don't know, what about them? Figure it out yourself.

Writing it out I think that this is honestly not that different from what you might call cynicism. I think Imogen just...doesn't always get that people are in fact more than their collections of thoughts, and hasn't put in the effort to really get a sense of how non-psychics might interact with the world.

As for intentionality: I have to admit I'm not sure how much is an intentional analysis of how a psychic might behave. I think the view of hypocrisy is on purpose, but I don't know if the conflict avoidance with Laudna is motivated by that or by something else. I also wonder, but am not sure, if some of the subtle changes with Imogen after getting the circlet are her adjusting to not reading people's thoughts. Like, that puts the interaction with Deanna killing the goat in a new light, because that's an interaction where I don't fault Imogen, and I think it works well as her being like "TRULY WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT I CAN'T READ YOUR MIND." But Laura's played it close to the vest on 4SD and I have some again kind of personal...maybe not biases, but definitely hunches and doubts regarding backstory for Imogen, and I don't know how much she's thought it out.

And finally, also through writing this out, I do think some of what I say is again a personal reaction to not just fanon but the very "this person is RIGHT and this person is WRONG" nature a lot of fanon, especially surrounding Imogen, has taken. I think if there were a fandom environment in which (for example) it was more common for people to say "Oh, it looks like Relvin is someone who tried hard but was limited by his own knowledge, and his attempt to protect Imogen by keeping her in the dark about Liliana made things worse, and Imogen in turn saw his distance and increased it, and these are two people who love each other but have hurt each other pretty badly and don't want to deal with it because for a long time they were all the other had, and frankly Imogen is still all Relvin has" instead of projecting their personal daddy issues onto it in the service of the stripped of choice innocent but all-powerful failgirl narrative, I'd have a more measured response myself. "Insensitive in a way that quite likely is unintentional but often comes off as all take and no give, particularly in her one-on-one interactions with others" is probably a better way to put it, and I think that her cynicism is part of why she's like this.

#answered #burr-ell #cr tag #critical role spoilers #imogen temult

[sneezemonster15]

why do u think sasuke apologized to sakura at the end? it's not like she apologized to him after all that she's done... he shouldn't have

I couldn't agree more anon. He shouldn't have, Sakura didn't deserve an apology from him.

My sense is that he did it because of Naruto. Don't get me wrong. Naruto didn't force him to do it or anything. But after chapter 698, Sasuke came over to Naruto's side and committed to adapt to a new life where he pledged to assist Naruto to reach his objective of uniting the shinobi world, and he wouldn't make Naruto's life unnecessarily difficult.

It's not that black and white, it's a little more nuanced. Naruto always urged Sasuke to treat Sakura and Kakashi better, because Sasuke was so irreverent towards Kakashi and contemptuous towards Sakura.

After Sasuke learns about the truth of Uchiha massacre, he sees Kakashi's very evident hypocrisy and gives him a good dressing down in the kage arc. Which I really enjoyed btw. Sasuke just hits the pressure points, that's one of the things I like about him. He says very valid shit that others either dont see or are unwilling to see. Naruto is led by the light side, Sasuke is led by the dark side of their world, which is why they work well together, evidenced by their symbolism, the yin and yang, perfectly balanced and attuned to each other.

Anyway, Sasuke attempts to kill both Kakashi and Sakura in kage arc and it becomes very clear that he doesn't owe Kakashi or Sakura any consideration. Kakashi who conveniently uses Sasuke's clan's Sharingan to further his own interests or objectives and then has the audacity to lecture Sasuke about things, the enormity of which he doesn't even begin to comprehend and Sakura for the more obvious reasons, her egotism, narcissism and self absorption to the exclusion of everything else.

Sasuke doesn't give a fuck about team seven in Shippuden. But he tries to remain tactful as much as he can. In the war arc, where you see team seven gathered again, Kakashi tries to find about Sasuke's intentions and Sasuke meaningfully remains quiet. He doesn't want to be distracted from the battle, he who is so anal (no pun intended) about keeping an eye on the enemy, and he doesn't consider Kakashi or Sakura significant enough to satisfy their queries. And I like him a lot for that. :)

All he has to say about team seven's teamwork is a succinct and insouciant 'hmph'. Lol.

He really cannot give a fuck. And Naruto is trying to be the peacekeeper. So he chides Sasuke, like a mum, to behave. Lol. I find it cute.

Sasuke would grudgingly relent and answer Naruto but he still won't really address Kakashi or Sakura.

Naruto mum - Sasuke, did you say thank you to Obito and Sakura properly?

Sasuke - ......focus on the enemy Naruto (dobe!).

I mean c'mon, they are in the middle of a war and Naruto is trying to correct Sasuke's manners, lol. In a good humored way, of course, but it's very funny. Naruto was obviously very happy and relieved to see Sasuke was unharmed and brought back to the current dimension safely. Sasuke does tell Naruto point blank that for him, Naruto is the only priority because he has the seal and the rest of the players are pretty irrelevant. Naruto agrees but Naruto can't help his nature, ie, protecting people he cares for and urges Sasuke to understand since there was a time when Sasuke did the same for Naruto.

So at the end of vote 2, when Sasuke apologizes to Sakura, as compared to how other apologies went, like Obito to Naruto and Kakashi, or Itachi to Sasuke, or even Kushina to Naruto, so eloquent and emotional, Sasuke's apology is trademark tokenism, like seriously it has five words in total in it, lol. Sasuke's apology is not even specific, it's deliberately blithely vague, and immediately after his attention latches back onto Naruto.

And truth is, neither Sakura nor Kakashi were condemned in the narrative for their ways of thinking. Kakashi, with his well established faulty perception goes on to believe that everything has gone back to the way it was before, and Sakura, having not changed or learnt at all, acts like she deserved the apology so damn much, like it was due for so long and she is only getting it now. As if it really was Sasuke's fault and not hers. Lol. Some nerve.

But the point is, Kishi could not have made Sasuke ask for it, because harking back on it would have meant revisiting/rehashing the issue all over again, which would have given the impression that Sasuke wasn't over his bitterness and resentment, which would go against the climax where Sasuke just got his resolution. Ideally, this condemnation should have come from Naruto. Naruto should have held Sakura and Kakashi accountable for their third grade treatment of Sasuke. Which is one of the reasons why I hate the ending. Well, first of all, I don't think Sasuke should have been written to completely give over his ambition to adopt Naruto's but Kishi had to finally 'resolve' (I use the term with a pinch, nay, a fistful of salt) the problems of the current shinobi world, even if he had to do it forcefully while breaking storytelling rules, so as to move over to the upcoming plotline, Boruto ie, which had to do with aliens and shit as the shinobi world in it is sans shinobi problems, as Naruto has erased them. That and he couldn't have brought about any more discussions on issues that were related to democratic dissent or more nuanced ethical dwellings on the individual vs collective. It's not for SJ. Kishi did his best to imbue the narrative with it anyway, giving Sasuke the revolutionary, the role of anti hero, and painstakingly making his character narratively equal to Naruto's, under the aegis of SJ. But he could not have taken it any further. Sasuke's story itself was the allegory. But well, SJ celebrates Japanese sensibilities and so it would not have been possible. And Kishi had already fought quite a few battles for his manga. Revisiting certain things would have potentially opened a can of worms for him. Kishi got away with a lot to begin with. It was also important for Kishi to portray Sakura, as per her consistently written character as a self absorbed and self important wench who only cares about her own ego and needs and not Sasuke's, but wants Sasuke as her trophy anyway. It was necessary for them to be put together for the sake of Boruto (to sire Sarada), and with a person like Sakura, Sasuke could get away with not being emotionally attached at all, giving her meager and so obviously half hearted scraps and yet, she would rejoice in them. She is shallow like that. Heh. So this apology, and Sakura's reaction to it, is yet another indication that Sakura is so addicted to Sasuke that she would happily ignore and dismiss Sasuke's honest feelings for her as long as she finally gets to marry an unwilling and unloving Sasuke.

Anyway, apart from that, it obviously makes Naruto happy to see Sasuke adjusting to new circumstances and from how it looks, apologizing to Sakura doesn't make much of a difference to Sasuke because Naruto just confessed his love to him. Sasuke doesn't feel alone anymore, look how much lighter and relaxed he looks with Naruto, watching Naruto smiling and laughing, visibly relaxed. The rest of the people, including Sakura, don't matter half as much to him, which is proven by him flicking Sakura's forehead later, a certified Itachi move repurposed for her, signifying deliberate distancing and obfuscation/lies.

He also knows that Naruto tries to avoid conflict as much as he can and when he needs to confront, he tries to deal with things with as much empathy and genuine consideration he can garner. So Sasuke doesn't want to make it any more challenging for Naruto, who is leading the gargantuan task of bringing all the shinobi nations together. Sasuke's job is now to assist him in his objective and make it easier. Sasuke has already clearly been shown to hide information from Naruto so as not to cause him any worry, like he did when he made Sakura promise not to tell Naruto about the curse mark. Sasuke is wholeheartedly devoted to Naruto and he takes his position as Naruto's best friend, work partner, soulmate (implied), shadow hokage etc very seriously. So he would take on things himself and endure them, because he knows if Naruto knew, he will not sit quietly. He would go one step ahead and demand to share Sasuke's burden, he would not allow Sasuke to be alone or hurting, he would make it his life's mission to relieve Sasuke, just the way he did. That's just how they are.

Which is why the ending really hurts. Sigh.

#ask #sasuke #naruto #anti sakura #anti ss #uzumaki naruto #uchiha sasuke #haruno sakura #naruto meta

[demonbirdsforever]

The New Suicide Squad

They’ve been talking about how a hero by the name of Dream Girl is gonna be team leader for a New Suicide Squad. Normally I’m iffy with DC comics cause I never know what I’m gonna get but this time. I’m completely done before it even gets started. Cause this Suicide Squad has Black Alice on it. Now I just want to point out that I have no problem with Black Alice. What I’ve seen has made her an interesting character.

The problem is that Alice is obviously being used to combat the Magically inclined on the Hero’s side. Again not a big issue except most everyone sees Raven as just magical. When in actuality she has 2 (or 3 If you choose to see her soul self as a separate thing) sets of powers. She is both a Magic user and a Psychic. Every time they bring a magical absorber into the mix. They instantly defeat Raven. It’s…. very… half assed. Every time they want the bad guy to win. They nerf Raven. I understand that Raven is an OP character. I understand that there aren’t that many characters who are on par with her, but seriously if you can give Superman a proper fight. Then you should be able to do so with Raven. Cause apparently Superman & Raven are equal on the power scale. ( I’m pretty sure this is only when Raven is dealing with her father’s influence and not when she’s White or Dark Raven)

Anyway I’m honestly don’t want anything to do with this comic series. There’s so many things deliberately missing when a fight between Raven & Black Alice occurs that it’s a complete and utter joke. I also imagine they’re going to do something similar to Constantine as well. Even though he has the Synchronicity Wave & a whole bunch of magical objects. As well as his Tats. He should have something up his sleeve if he ends up dealing with Magical Absorption.🧐

#dc comics #raven teen titans #john constantine #dc titans #suicide squad #Justice League

[streetstylis]

10 Hailey Bieber's Favorite Beauty Tips

1. Moisturizing Magic: A Lesson from Mom

One beauty tip that has been ingrained in her since her childhood is the importance of moisturizing.

She revealed in an interview: "I vividly remember my mom generously slathering moisturizer on me from head to toe. It's a ritual I've carried with me into adulthood, and I can't stress enough how crucial it is. Hydrated skin is happy skin, and this simple act has been a game-changer for me."

2. Serum Secrets: Layering and Absorption

When it comes to applying serums and moisturizers, understanding what layers well together is key, she emphasizes again and again.

She've found that applying serum on damp skin enhances product absorption. It's a small tweak in her routine that makes a big difference, leaving her skin feeling nourished and radiant.

3. Travel Must-Have: Thick Moisturizer

For all the fellow jet-setters out there, her go-to beauty tip while traveling is to pack a thick moisturizer.

Whether Hailey is on a plane or adjusting to a different climate, this ensures her skin stays protected and hydrated throughout the journey.

4. Makeup Wisdom from Pat McGrath: The Foundation Technique

One of the best makeup tips she has received is from the legendary Pat McGrath.

Her technique of applying foundation to the hands, rubbing them together, and pressing it into the skin resonated with her immediately.

It's a method that not only creates a flawless finish but also feels like a personalized touch to her makeup routine.

As Hailey is best known for her natural make-up looks in line with the "clean girl aesthetic" trend, this is a technique that helps her a lot. After all, foundations can quickly look pasted on or artificial, with this technique it looks much more natural and lighter.

We love it!

5. Essential Rhode Skin Products: A Curated Line of Favorites

Choosing her favorite Rhode Skin products is like picking a favorite child—it's nearly impossible.

The concept of a curated line of essentials speaks to her. It simplifies her choices, ensuring that every product is a favorite.

"I can't leave the house without these essentials; they are my beauty companions.", she said.

6. Beauty Advice to Teenage Hailey: Embrace Your Eyebrows

If she could turn back time and give her teenage self a beauty tip, it would be to avoid plucking her eyebrows too thin.

We all have our phases, and overplucking was definitely one of hers. Embracing natural brows is a lesson I wish I had learned sooner.

Read The Whole Article:

#hailey bieber halloween #hailey bieber outfits #hailey bieber style #hailey bieber #hailey bieber skincare #hailey bieber beauty #beauty tps #hailey bieber skin #beauty tips

[gacha-incels]

thoughts on stellar blade and the model?

imo right now it’s occupying a similar space as something like that game with the “sexy” faceless robots, atomic heart. hailed by misogynists and racists as an “antidote” to any sort of diversity in videogames, gameplay very rarely discussed if at all, eventually after release it ends up back in obscurity. it was never going to be “just a game” regardless (and I do find a certain naïveté in discussing it as such) since the developer Shift-Up (most known for gacha NIKKE) has engaged in feminist ideological verification. There’s a reason so many posts about it say shit like “5 minutes in already GOTY”. I do have some overarching thoughts on the entire scenario.. because stellar blade is created by an east asian company there is an added layer of fetishization regarding the female character designs among western men who view japanese and korean women as the remaining women who are “truly feminine”. In their eyes this is a petite, young, thin, subservient dollfaced woman who, by these “feminine” traits, reaffirms the man’s “masculinity” and therefore his place at the top of the patriarchal hierarchy enforced by societal gender roles. When women push back against these dehumanizing and racist stereotypes the men will condescendingly say they have been “ruined” by western feminists - showing again they believe east asian women cannot think for themselves. I don’t think it’s just a coincidence you can find similar misogynistic arguments made by western “sex tourist” or “mail order bride” (their terms) purchasing men throughout the years. This is of course only lightly touching on the dynamics and intersection of misogyny/racism/colonialism/class, not to mention women’s movements themselves in east asian countries etc. for the sake of brevity at this moment we’ll just look at some aspects of the western man, I believe a lot of us have seen reactions from this group regarding stellar blade and the previous “gamer gate”.

What I find illuminating here is twofold- the fact that as the (in this case, typically white, esp. for the earlier dates) western woman gained and fought for more rights, the (same note) western man felt emasculated as women became even slightly closer to them in society (“he criticizes the desire of women for autonomy, independence, and equality”) and secondly, his strong “masculinity” needs constant personal and societal affirmation which can only be sated by having the lesser “feminine” gender roles subjected upon women. in many cases he enacts this “domination” via the “purchase” of poor, trafficked foreign women which we can also see as a colonial and racist action made upon her body.

This type of attitude can be seen reflected in the type of language reactionary men use when discussing “east asian” games as opposition to “western” games. the (in this example, stellar blade) korean game is said to show “beautiful, feminine, unpolitical” female character designs while the western games are characterized as having “ugly” female characters, designed to be that way on purpose, who have “masculine” bodies and attitudes, who exist solely because of “politics”. the pushback and valorization is done by these male gamers because they want, and need, to reinforce starkly polarized gender roles that put them in control. they think there’s a “war” on their enjoyment of “beautiful women”. when they read criticism of the hypersexualized female character designs in games they (in self-absorption) understand it as women telling them men are evil for being straight and/or male. the belief is men must be obviously “masculine” and women must be hyper “feminine”, only this way can the first group be recognized and dominate the second. they believe it’s “nature” as you can see in the above tweet. this is why I touched upon male vs female character design in the post about gacha designs- the sexes are typically starkly different from one another. the strong, sturdy and clothed males stand in polar opposition to the lithe female characters whose designs put heavy emphasis on tits and ass. when a male character is designed in a way to unequivocally be male and yet have clothing that follows the typical sexualized female attire, there are these types of men that erupt in anger as we saw with Genshin’s Lyney and Limbus Company’s summer Sinclair. when a female character doesn’t have a sexy enough outfit (LC Ishmael summer, GI Shenhe CNY costume that incels believed to have “removed” tit jiggle, Samsung Hu Tao outfit that doesn’t “show bellybutton”) the artist gets accused of being a feminist.

A female character like in Stellar Blade wears a body suit essentially showing her naked figure - she has no imperfections, she’s thin with no muscle mass, she’s petite, her tits jiggle with every movement, her ass is front and center to the game’s player. this objectification flatters the male player- this is a woman who you control, an object created solely for your desire, who will never challenge your sense of superiority, who will always be “for you” first in a game made by men for an audience of men. the fact that this type of game is created , marketed and sold is, in and of itself, a testament to male domination of entertainment. There can never be comparison, hypothetical or not, to sexualization of men in entertainment for women- entire societies would have to be changed in order to even begin considering this. gendered socialization literally starts in the womb. we live in a patriarchal society completely saturated with representation of women and girls’ bodies plastered everywhere- hypersexualized, objectified, brutalized, used for advertising, sold as products, raped for entertainment, dominated by men. there’s no way you can entertain even the hypothetical of “what if the roles were reversed?” while living in a society like this, let alone compare some baldur’s gate 3 guy taking his shirt off to the stellar blade woman running around in a hypersexualized skintight bodysuit. this “shirtless guy” argument is DOA.

I see people ask “do these men even enjoy games or art?” I think at least psychologically what a lot of them they enjoy the most is the feeling of domination and power that presents itself within an entertainment industry that is so catered to their fantasies. This is why they see it as such an “attack” when games are made without as much pandering to them. they need to dominate all parts of culture which is why they create such violent backlash to anything they perceive as challenging this, it’s why Anita Sarkeesian had such unbelievable abuse directed at her for making video essays of pretty basic feminist critiques of videogames. what this type of male wants is incompatible with the growth of any artistic medium, whether you find videogames to be art or simply entertainment, it’s stagnation to keep making the same thing constantly. we can see a lot of these guys who gas up stellar blade saying things like they want the “old” games back “where men were men and women were women” type of statements. nostalgia is exceptionally potent during times of confusing, hightened social and financial strain. imo this is also why it’s easy for some women (so far I’ve seen tradcath posting the most with white women demographic) to get caught up in the “tradwife” propaganda. in regards to this type of woman (in North America) I found Dworkin’s book “right wing women” to be informative. But there’s definitely a reason these “RETVRN”/ “this is what they took from you” guys usually praise ancient Roman sculptures and deride contemporary conceptual art. I don’t think they are particularly attached to this art but rather the power it represents. but this is another wish for artistic stagnation. sorry for the highlighting makes anything difficult to read in the passages I posted, it’s from my own pdf copies.

#long post #stellar blade #feminism #misogyny #shift up

[zofi-persson-quotes]

Aura

Aura is a very interesting and rare technique. There are some general abilities, plus seven Aura Chakras, each with their attributes and colors.

Red (Muladhara): Deals with the physical nature of the body.

Orange (Svadhishthana): Deals with emotions.

Yellow (Manipura): Deals with self-energy and willpower.

Green (Anahata): Deals with healing.

Blue (Vishuddha): Deals with intelligence.

Indigo (Ajna): Deals with mental communication.

Violet (Sahasrara): Deals with awareness of illusions and obtaining a higher consciousness.

Aura is something that Overlords, Hollow Heads and Stickfigures can learn,even if it’s something long forgotten by Hollow Heads and Stickfigures, and a power only cultivated and studied by the Overlords with Astral powers, and many of its uses and spells were forgotten over 2000 years.

This is a transcript from ancient books found inside King Abner’s old temple, written with the permission of Sir Entros, the leader of the old Order of Warriors that were at Abner’s service, by yours truly, in the hope to make Aura known once again.

Saffron B.

General Abilities

Aura Generation: The user can generate aura.

Etheric Cord Manipulation: The user has control over etheric cords.

Self-Aura Manipulation: The user has control over their own aura.

Aura Concealment: The user can conceal their aura.

Aura Detection: The user can detect the presence of auras in their vicinity.

Aura Absorption: The user can see and absorb the auras of others, taking their life-force, memories, and powers.

Aura Attacks: The user can release/use aura for various attacks.

Aura Charging: The user can charge and refuel objects or others with their aura.

Aura Combat: The user can combine aura control with physical combat skill.

Aura Constructs: The user can create weapons and other materials made of aura, capable of reforming them with complete control and creating anything they need.

Aura Flight: The user can use their aura for flight and direction control, reaching hypersonic speeds at full power (common to all auras).

Aura Infusion: The user can infuse an aura in a body or an object.

Aura Mimicry: The user can mimic the auras of others, understanding their feelings and mimicking their powers.

Aura Solidification: The user can solidify aura into a tangible physical form as per their wish.

Aura Trapping: The user can trap others in their own aura.

Expanded Presence: The user can expand their own aura.

Life-Force Conversion: The user can transform their aura into other forms of matter/energy.

Life-Force Factor Manipulation: The user can use their aura as a medium to develop their own unique powers.

Life-Force Infusion: The user can infuse their own aura into an object or body, enhancing it greatly.

The Seven Chakras

Red (Muladhara)

Physical Augmentation: The user can channel their aura to increase their physical aspects.

Bodily Attribute Augmentation: The user can use their aura to enhance specific bodily attributes of their body and their physical and mental condition to any level,enhancing their capabilities to massive levels.

Optimal Finesse: The user can use their aura to enhance their finesse to the highest potential.

Biological Manipulation:The user can manipulate their own biology or those of other organisms with the effects being either temporary or permanent.

Orange (Swadhisthana)

Empathy: The user can empathize with others for better understanding.

Animal Empathy: The user can empathize with any kind of animal.

Combat Perception: The user can predict the foe's movements by reading their emotional pulses.

Ecological Empathy: The user can empathize with the surrounding ecosystem.

Spiritual Empathy: The user can empathize with the spirit.

Emotion Manipulation: The user can control the emotions of every individual, including his or her own.

Indomitable Emotions: The user has unusually strong emotions, enabling him to bear extensive emotional damage without succumbing to its effects.

Emotional Consistency: The user's power is dependent on certain emotions.

Emotion Aura: The user can turn their emotions into pure aura.

Emotion Empowerment: The more of an emotion the user feels, the stronger they become.

Emotional Trigger: The user can activate and utilize powers based on emotions

Yellow (Manipura)

Aura Generation: The user is able to generate their own unique aura.

Aura Constructs: The user can form their aura into solid constructs, capable of reforming them with complete control and creating anything at will.

Spiritual Weaponry: The user is able to solidify their aura and shape it into any kind of weaponry.

Spiritual Armor: The user can form their aura into durable armor.

Energetic Pressure: The user can destroy the surrounding area with nothing except the force and intensity of their aura.

Energy Duplication: The user can duplicate themselves by using their aura.

Ergokinetic Combat: The user can channel their aura into their arms and/or legs to create power energy enhanced strikes.

Ergo-Telekinesis: The user can use their aura to manipulate matter.

Indomitable Will: The user possesses an unusually strong force of will, enabling them to overcome any situation whether it be life-threatening or not.

Life-Force Beam Emission: The user can project their aura in the form of a destructive beam.

Spiritual Energy Conversion: The user can convert their aura into a form of energy or matter.

Aura Infusion: The user can infuse their aura into an object and/or person.

Aura Mixture: The user is able to mix their aura with the aura of others.

Green (Anahata)

Disease Detection: The user can use their aura to sense the pain, disease, etc., in others and themselves.

Healing: The user can heal or regenerate themselves or another.

Healing Aura: The user can generate a healing aura.

Regenerative Healing Factor: The user can heal rapidly to his or her optimal state.

Empathic Healing: The user can heal the emotional and traumatic pains.

Mental Healing: The user can heal the minds of themselves or another.

Internal Bodily Cleansing: The user can cleanse the body from any foreign impurities.

Foreign Forces Removal: The user can remove any foreign forces from their body and other's bodies as well.

Blue (Vishuddha)

Intelligence Augmentation: The user can channel their aura to gain a higher level of enlightenment which enhances their intelligence.

Causality Perception: The user with this aura can deduce cause and effect relations and create appropriate and effective countermeasures.

Hypercognition: The user can utilize their aura as a medium to perform complex mental operations beyond those of a normal human mind.

Occultism: The user can gain wisdom of the supernatural by channeling their aura.

Indigo (Ajna)

Spiritual Meditation: The user can be at one with their aura in order to keep control of their abilities.

Astral Projection: The user can separate themselves from their physical form.

Dowsing: The user can use their aura to track and locate objects, resources, and people.

Intuitive Aptitude: The user can learn the complexities and develop the perfect methods for any field of expertise without taking much time.

Mind's Eye: The user can use the indigo aura to access the third eye.

Psychic Energy/Psychic Force Manipulation: The user of this power possesses and is able to use the fuel and or force behind psychic/mental abilities/powers.

Psionics: The user can use various forms of psychic/mental abilities/powers

Telepathy: In a meditative state, the user can mentally communicate with others.

Tranquil State: The user can quiet and clear their mind, allowing them to focus on only the task at hand.

Violet (Sahasrara)

Aura Reading: The user can read the aura of another and gain information of one's emotion, health, and gain information of the special abilities of others.

Higher Consciousness: At a higher level, the user can spiritually ascend into a developed state of awareness.

Inner Power: The user is able to awaken the hidden potential that has slept within them.

True-Self Recognition: The user is able to connect with their true higher selves within themselves.

Illusion Awareness: The user can become aware of false realities and break free of the Illusion.

Enlightenment: The user can comprehend the whole universe and beyond.

#alan becker #ava au #worldbuilding #zofi's headcanons #eat up some lore my children /hj #and yes #the name “Saffron B.” is lore

[tennesseine]

Patterns, patterns, patterns…

In order to avoid the mistakes of the past, you have to recognize your patterns and why they exist.

Last year I got involved with a woman who called herself a “starving artist.” Which is my weakness. I love creative people, and I have a particular weakness for the dark, reflective types.

The problem isn’t getting involved with artists, mind you. The problem is with this particular type. I’ve done it three times now. Enough to finally see my pattern of seeking out malignant narcissists.

All three had several traits in common:

1) Self-obsession. In the beginning of each relationship, it was amazing: long, fascinating talks about everything from the general human condition to what relationships are about to what makes for a meaningful life. I live for talks like that, so of course that always drew me in. But these talks were balanced by other interactions that met my other needs: silliness, fun, the lightness and joy of life. This is what experts call the “love bombing” stage.

But as time passed, the latter gave way almost exclusively to the former, and the former started to narrow: instead of being about life and people, it became all about them, them, them.

This actually makes sense when I look back on it, because each had described herself as being prone to general unhappiness and anxiety, so it should have been a warning to me that they seemed so happy with me at first. It was only a matter of time before their self-absorption forced them to return to their constant brooding, the brief respite driven only by the hormones and neurotransmitters we collectively and colloquially call “New Relationship Energy.”

(And that’s where my own ego is to blame. I have an unfortunate tendency (that I’m working on) to want to “save” people. It’s why I get attracted to that type: I want to take away their sadness and heal them because I see their inner beauty. And all that NRE makes me think I’m succeeding. But of course, that is vanity, ego, and arrogance, hence my need to work on it. You can’t fix people. They must fix themselves. I’m nobody’s savior, and the sooner I truly internalize that, the better.)

So of course once the newness of the relationship wore off, each woman started to revert to her true nature: navel-gazing self-obsession leading to unhappiness. With the last one, it took just weeks. Soon, all she could talk about was either herself and how grievously the world misunderstood her, or about us and our relationship, constantly dissecting it, analyzing it, obsessing over the supposed hidden meaning of everything. (More on the latter below.)

And again, the signs were all there for me to see. For the last one, they still are, actually: though she’s a visual artist, she also writes a lot, and almost everything she writes is completely self-absorbed. The last thing of hers I read was a long treatise on how the world sees her, how misunderstood and complicated she is, etc, etc, etc. It never seems to occur to this type of person that maybe the world would be both kinder and more understanding of her if she made an effort to understand and focus on others more. But this type dramatically declares that it isn’t self-absorption, but reflection and self-discovery. Which it would be…in small doses. But when it’s all you ever think and talk about, it’s just neurosis. Which brings me to the next trait, mentioned above.

2) “Relationship neurosis.” For this type, being in a relationship is really just an opportunity to slightly expand their navel-gazing. Because sooner or later that trait extends to you, too, and they begin picking apart and obsessing over every aspect of your relationship. In each of the three cases, once the newness faded, if she wasn’t talking about herself, she was obsessing over “us” and what that meant for her. It reminds me of that old joke about the narcissist trying not to sound narcissistic: “But enough of me talking about me! Let’s talk about what you think about me!”

In the last relationship, it took over everything. Gone were the moments of lightness and joy and silliness, all replaced by constant brooding and moodiness. It’s at this point that people often move on, which is exactly why this type is always complaining that people “love them and leave them.” The last one actually whined that most men “seem to move on and forget about me within a couple of weeks.” At no point did it ever seem to occur to her that she might be to blame, and that no, it wasn’t because she was “tragically misunderstood.” Quite the contrary: people move on from her exactly at that moment they do understand her true nature. But of course that realization would require honesty about oneself, not just abstract philosophical analysis. Which brings me to the next common trait.

3) Intellectualization of feelings. Communication about feelings is a critical component of any relationship, but with this type, it soon becomes clear that there’s a key difference for them. They turn feelings into objects to be analyzed without allowing for true vulnerability or appreciation of the feelings themselves. I call it “emotional objectification.”

Perfect example: with one of them, one day we were discussing the emotion jealousy. She started the conversation by mentioning she had felt it to a degree with us. But just as a binary statement really: a simple declaration of the feeling’s existence. I then talked about my own experiences and feelings and poured my heart out on the subject, expecting her to share equally. She replied with an analysis of everything I had said and shared nothing. Because of course she couldn’t: when feelings are to be treated as just topics of intellectual discourse, you can’t express them as feelings at all. So when someone is open with you, you respond to their vulnerability with cold analysis. Talk about bait and switch.

Emotional objectification also dooms any hope of a meaningful long-term relationship. When all you do is obsess over and analyze feelings instead of living your life and leaving time simply to feel things and live in the joy and lightness of life, eventually all romantic feelings die, each one carefully picked apart until there’s nothing beautiful left. And once they’re gone, they can never be revived, because by the time you’ve gone through that destructive process, the other person is out the door and never wants to look back.

So what have I learned from all this? Will I do any better the next time? All the traits above only become obvious when it’s too late. I need to see it coming! So I created a mental portrait.

Here’s my verbal portrait:

The highly cultivated persona. Though they call themselves some variant of “starving artists,” and all definitely have varying degrees of true talent, it is really just a cover for being too lazy to make an effort at life. The last one I was with was a perfect example: constantly moaning about being broke, but rarely looking for work in her field, turning down projects, whining about being “misunderstood,” the typical siren call of the self-obsessed neurotic type. All part of a highly curated persona they show to the world, a persona of a tortured artistic soul. It’s hard to be anything but a starving artist if you spend all day navel-gazing.

So I need to be more skeptical about women presenting themselves as “artists” if they’re not actually feeding themselves through art. Especially at my age. It’s one thing to be a “starving artist” at 25 or even 35, but quite another entirely to be one at 50. The last one was 41 and still not making enough to support herself well. If you’re a 41-year-old woman who can’t fully support herself, artist or not, you better rethink your whole approach to life.

Selfish in the small things. Not surprisingly, self-absorbed people tend to be selfish. The trick is to recognize that before you’re in too deep. By the time I realized just how selfish the last one was, I was already at that stage of self-deception we reach when we’re in new love, so I was dismissing all the red flags and awful behavior (which is on me). Her total apathy with respect to my needs didn’t become obvious until I was all the way down the rabbit hole.

But looking back, there were plenty of signs early on, and those can help me avoid her type next time. I need to look out for the small things: how they react to changes in plans, their behavior when they don’t get their way, their flexibility: all are indicators. Perfect example: one of the first times we went out to dinner, the last one almost had a meltdown because I wanted to order an appetizer, which didn’t even affect her, because she preferred to have all the food come at once. For a moment I thought she was going to make a scene. It was childish and ridiculous, but of course I made excuses for it. I feel foolish admitting that now. If I had been smart, I would have asked for the check, paid, and walked out on her right then and there. Going forward, I will keep a sharp eye out for red flags like that.

Some of you will recognize this type. Others won’t. Either way, the fundamental message is the same: don’t ignore red flags, listen to your instincts v your heart, and don’t lie to yourself just because you think you’re in love.

#amwriting #relationships #humanity #patterns #narcissismawareness #personality #sociopath #self awareness #self sabotage #surviving narcissism

[morleybobsource]

In Limbo has the pace and tone of a sitcom, but it packs an emotional punch

(!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

The snappy banter between Charlie (Ryan Corr) and Nate (Bob Morley) in the opening scenes of this comedy-drama introduces much of what you need to know about their long-time friendship. But, as with many aspects of this cleverly calibrated series, it’s also deliberately deceptive.

The scenes establish a connection between the men, illustrating a friendship that dates back to their childhood. There’s an instinctive understanding between them despite their readily discernible differences. Charlie is uneasy and uncertain, rehearsing his delivery of a eulogy for a funeral. Nate breezes in offering advice on everything from Charlie’s outfit to the desirable tone and content of his speech, as well as his chances of picking up at a funeral. He’s quick-witted, confident and funny, as vibrant as his wardrobe of shirts, and he seems to be operating at an entirely different frequency from his best pal. Everything about Charlie suggests a heaviness, a man carrying a weighty burden, and we gradually come to see him as someone who’s closed in on himself and refuses to discuss the reasons why.

Created and co-written by Lucas Taylor (Harrow, Secrets & Lies), In Limbo indicates its area of interest early: it’s about men and mental health, and one of the key points that it aims to make is that problems, and an unwillingness to discuss them, can afflict all sorts of men.

It emerges that Charlie’s marriage has collapsed, his wife, Beth (Jane Harber), has left him and he’s determinedly dodging her concerned calls and visits. And that Nate has his own issues, in spite of his upbeat manner. In Limbo is clear in its view that appearances can’t be trusted and that cheery assurances along the lines of “All good, mate” can mask deep-seated difficulties.

Over its six episodes, the series, written with crisp wit by Taylor and Tamara Asmar, develops a range of stories alongside its portrait of the core characters. A lively community grows around Charlie and Nate as we’re introduced to their families, friends and workmates, and it becomes clear that the series’ title applies to a number of characters.

What also becomes clear is that, despite its sunny Brisbane setting and light and airy tone, In Limbo is interested in dealing with a range of darker issues: depression, addiction and domestic violence. As well, it explores the shock, regret, guilt and grief that can follow a sudden death. Yet, as with the opening sequence, this is deceptive, because while In Limbo has the pace and tone of a sitcom, it can also pack a potent emotional punch. It’s a serious study wrapped in bright and shiny packaging.

Overseeing the first two episodes and managing to nail a tone that’s tricky to achieve, set-up director Trent O’Donnell (No Activity, The Letdown, Hacks, Ghosts) again displays his precision timing and gift for comedy. While economically establishing the ensemble, he keeps things fast and funny but captures the glances and gestures that are revealing of character without requiring expository dialogue. Taking over from episode three, David Stubbs (Daffodils, Girl vs Boy) seamlessly maintains those qualities.

While the series’ central concern is men, it maintains that focus without reducing the female characters to props. They’re as well-written and cast as their male counterparts. Emma Harvie delivers a nuanced performance as Nate’s wife, Freya, and Shabana Azeez is a charismatic livewire as her younger sister. And Georgina Naidu is a hoot as their mother, who flies in from London in a perfumed cloud of self-absorption. The relationship between Nate’s parents (Lena Cruz and Russell Dykstra) is also beautifully drawn, presenting a couple who’ve come to a quiet understanding of each other. Even the youngest cast member, Kamillia Rihani as Nate and Freya’s daughter, is impressive.

As they do in the opening scenes, Corr (Holding the Man, Wakefield, Ladies in Black) and Morley (The 100, Love Me) shine throughout the series, their sensitive, potent performances providing a strong foundation for the community built around them.

They do the bantering bloke stuff beautifully, portraying pals who can happily argue about which character each of them represents from Top Gun – who’s Maverick and who’s Goose? – and debating the all-time best Christmas movie: Die Hard or Gremlins?

They also underline the series’ assertion that men need to talk more – to each other, to their partners, to family and friends, and possibly also to health professionals – about their doubts and fears and difficulties, and not just about their pop-culture preferences.

In Limbo premieres on ABC, Wednesday, May 24, 9pm and iview.

#bob morley #ryan corr #in limbo #in limbo series #bobmorleyedit #the 100 cast #articles #news #ours

[vickyvicarious]

...when suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It came from the room into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated, and I rushed into the room.

Annotation: The oddity of this observation seems to be directly based in Victor's experience as a physiologist. What the reader cannot miss, however, is the extent of self-absorption that could lead a man in the process of discovering his wife's corpse to note his own bodily symptoms with such detached scrupulosity.

Oh c'mon, what bullshit is that. It's not the extent of his self-absorption. If anything, it's linking him back to the Creature again. Victor experiences a sudden immobilizing awareness of the life running through his body in a way that reminds me of the Creature's first moments of being alive. Except unlike his creation, Victor has a scientific understanding of his own body perfectly, down to the blood in his veins - the overwhelming sensation takes on a clarity that is no less debilitating than the Creature's initial overwhelming sensation with complete lack of knowledge.

Marriage has been linked to 'new life', both in the sense of uniting with someone who had a sympathy/understanding of you and starting a new life together, and the expectation of eventual literal new life in a child. As well, of course, 'new life' as the female Creature who was expected to fulfill those roles by the Creature. So by showing Victor's intense awareness of his own life in this moment it isn't only contrasting his living body against the sound of his wife dying (the opposite of his expected outcome for the night), but also playing with the life Victor brought to the Creature but stole from the female Creature when he 'killed' her (destroyed rather than animating) on the cusp of her birth/anticipated union with the Creature. It's recreated here with Victor living (emphasized with his awareness of his body) and the Creature killing Victor's wide on the eve of their union.

Or even without any of that you could say simply this is shock, he's frozen in shock and horror and this is how he describes the feeling of it!

But this definitely isn't 'Victor's so selfish he takes a moment to think about his own symptoms with scientific detachment while his wife is dying', come on.

#frankenstein weekly #victor frankenstein #the annotations have been getting more and more hostile to victor as we go along #to the point of missing what seem like clear and intentional parallels to me #in favor of just getting snippy about victor being egocentric #like it's not that he's never self-absorbed but please

[goodnightmemes]

PENNY DREADFUL S1E01 - S01E04 SENTENCE STARTERS

❛ One smile and I say yes. ❜

❛ Do not be amazed at anything you see and don't hesitate. ❜

❛ You're a man with a bloody knife like everybody else out there, so stop putting on airs. ❜

❛ I will not bore myself with explanations you could not possibly understand. ❜

❛ Nature's rarely so neat. Nature abhors symmetry. ❜

❛ Do you believe there is a demimonde? A half-world between what we know and what we fear? A place in the shadows, rarely seen, but deeply felt. Do you believe that? ❜

❛A wise man would walk away from this house and make a concerted effort to forget everything that occurred last night. ❜

❛ Should you be so unwise as to entertain the idea, we have continued use of a man of your skills. ❜

❛ There's much we don't know and must discover. ❜

❛ I've been a hired gun before. Doesn't suit me. There's no exaltation in killing for gold. ❜

❛ We all have our curses, don't we? ❜

❛ Could I be more charmed? No, I could not. ❜

❛ Sorry, my dear, it's a bit ghoulish to the lay-person. ❜

❛ And before I engage in professional matters, I feel it is vital to engage in social congress. Get to know the sort of people one is working with, you understand? ❜

❛ I've long since learned that truth is mutable. ❜

❛ You have the soul of a poet. ❜

❛ You seem to be a freethinker who might imagine a world less constrained by what we think we know of as "truth." ❜

❛ To save her, I would murder the world. ❜

❛ Join me. With me, you will behold terrible wonders. ❜

❛ Was I not responsible? But for my transgression, would any of this have occurred? ❜

❛ We cannot unmake the past. We shall live with our guilt, you and I. ❜

❛ My mother taught me many things. Among the most useful, is one must always have Shakespeare close to hand. ❜

❛ Aren't you mysterious? ❜

❛ Not much surprises me. ❜

❛ There is always a way to make a living when you've a bit of flesh, isn't there? ❜

❛ He's here. Unbutton the top of your dress. ❜

❛ Man does not live only in the empirical world. We must seek the ephemeral or why live? ❜

❛ You need all the help I can give you. ❜

❛ When the next one occurs, I shall need to see the crime scene immediately. ❜

❛ I've never fucked a dying creature before. Do you feel things more deeply, I wonder? ❜

❛ As you grow up, you'll learn we all do things which cause us shame. ❜

❛ Come along. Let's just stroll, see what wickedness we can find. ❜

❛ You do not belong here. Even less than I. ❜

❛ I believe we're about to commune with the spirits. ❜

❛ You knew I was dying… didn't you? ❜

❛ I wonder when was the moment you knew you wanted to fuck her? ❜

❛ You're not mistaking me for a sweet little debutante at the summer fair, are you? ❜

❛ If one is to engage with the primordial forces of darkness, one must expect a bit of… social awkwardness. ❜

❛ After all, who wants to know they're hunted by the devil? ❜

❛ When the poets write of death, it's invariably serene. I wonder if that's what it is really. This death, this ending of things. ❜

❛ There are some things we're not meant to know. ❜

❛ Did you imagine that I was dead? That I could die? You know better. ❜

❛ I would seek you even unto the maelstrom of the blackest tempest of the darkest night. ❜

❛ The first human action that I experienced was rejection. So do not wonder at my loathing of your species. ❜

❛ Were you really so naive to imagine that we'd see eternity in a daffodil? ❜

❛ You ran from me once. Never again. We are the Janus mask. Inseparable. ❜

❛ What in the name of all the tender mercies happened to you? ❜

❛ You know, occurs to me, given my total self-absorption, I never asked your name. ❜

❛ What do you want of me? To suffer? You've done that. ❜

❛ I'm sorry for the cruelty you've endured, that I inflicted upon you, but I cannot unmake the past! ❜

❛ I'm not concerned with the past, only the future. ❜

❛ Who has money for that? Not when there's eating to be done. ❜

❛ I'll not waste your time. I'm looking for money. I'll work for it. ❜

❛ I see things sometimes. I am affected by forces beyond our world. ❜

❛ Don't torment me. ❜

❛ In this life, there are hungers that compel us. Food, shelter, warmth, even poetry. But one thing stands titanic. Love. ❜

❛ I can never love you. ❜

❛ I do not seek your love! I do not seek what is not there. I would weep for you if ever I'd learned how. ❜

❛ This you shall do. Or I will strike down all those you love and render your brightest day… your darkest night. ❜

❛ You seek to threaten me with death? If you seek to threaten me, threaten me with life. ❜

❛ Do not test me. You have not known horror until I have shown it to you. ❜

❛ There's something wrong here. What haven't you told me? ❜

❛ Fear already? You will not survive long in this cruel old world. ❜

❛ We here have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return. ❜

❛ There is no going back from this moment. If we are to proceed, we proceed as one. Without hesitation… and with fealty to each other alone. ❜

❛ Who doesn't love a lost cause? ❜

❛ No one's ever accused me of being useful before. ❜

❛ Things are so rarely what they seem. ❜

❛ Which of us does not have our secrets? ❜

❛ It's not an easy thing, this you ask of me. ❜

❛ What a simple thing it is to snap your neck. You are so fragile, you mortals, such things of skin and air. ❜

❛ The future belongs to the strong, to the immortal races, to me and my kind. ❜

❛ I wonder what lips yours have kissed and where. ❜

❛ We've all done things to survive. There are such sins at my back it would kill me to turn around. ❜

❛ Get your best duds ready for tonight, we're going out. ❜

❛ Remind me why we're doing this again. ❜

❛ My, my. That temper of yours. ❜

❛ Why must you always denigrate my work? ❜

❛ Say it like that and you can get me to do anything. ❜

❛ Don't you worry about me. Go on to your friends, now, won't you? ❜

❛ It's a sad spectacle, why don't we just admit it? There’s no goddamn future in it for either of us. Who are we trying to fool? ❜

❛ You ever wish you could be someone else? Just run away from your life? ❜

❛ Once you get used to something, why bother? It's just repetition. ❜

❛ Have the courage to face your own sin before you cite mine so easily. ❜

❛ We'll carry on with this fight. We can lose every battle, except the last. ❜

#rp meme #sentence starters #roleplay prompts #roleplay meme #inbox meme #ask meme #rp prompt #*tv #*pennydreadful

[faejilly]

What do you think of the head-cannon that Alec taught Izzy how to fight in heals?

I am also not the target demographic for that one! (Again, you do you tho, if you like it.)

I will say that I personally find that headcanon OOC for both of them.

Alec hates being the center of attention, has a remarkably unshowy fighting style, and even when he DOES take the stage he's understated and steady about it. Would he spar WITH Isabelle while she's learning the heels and shit? Absolutely, he loves her and wants her to be safe but fighting in heels seems like nonsense when boots exist and also he has too much other shit to do tyvm.

On her side of things, whether you adore Isabelle for her independence or despise her for her self-absorption, it is deeply inherent to my understanding of her character that she is aggressively (charmingly) self-reliant.

She will learn about adamas & nephilim weapons but refuse to lock herself up in the Citadel with the Iron Sisters. She will train herself to be a fully qualified lab tech and yet keep her job as a field agent. She will do whatever the fuck she wants because she is the smartest person in the room and will REFUSE TO ALLOW YOU TO FORGET IT.

I mean. If you *don't* like her in canon that does mean she comes across as a spoiled princess/mad scientist vs a beautiful chaotic-good maverick & nerd... but much like terrible-parent-pre-canon-Maryse (which is a comparison she would hate but is, nonetheless I think, reasonably accurate) she has the strength of her convictions and is a self-made woman, including both flaws and talents.

So, I absolutely believe that she will teach herself how to fight in mundane fashions and ridiculous heels and fuck you if you think she can't.

#jilly answers #anonymous #shadowhunters #isabelle lightwood #alec lightwood #my sh rambling

[panlight]

RE: Rose and being the heroine of her own story. OK, but like, Bella literally says, "no one has ever loved anyone as much as I love [Edward]" so who's actually being super hyperbolic and melodramatic here? Edward's like, "[Bella is] my life now" but Rose feeling the same for Emmett is "self-absorption"? At least Rose isn't putting her entire family as well as dozens of innocents into danger due to being with Emmett.

I almost included that in my commentary, actually! Because, yeah, SM is all “Rose thinks she and Emmett are the great love story, how could anyone feel the same?” and then Bella and Edward actually say that no one has loved anyone as much as they love each other!

And if we’re reading it as two teenagers in love, yeah that tracks. That’s fine. 

But I think we’re supposed to read it literally, that SM actually believes that E/B are the greatest love story of all time. Which, I mean, she’s entitled to her opinion and all but it’s weird that this is a FLAW in Rosalie but just the facts, ma’am with her main characters. 

I suspect she really believes that E/B is the greatest love ever because of comments she made comparing them to other famous lovers:

WHAT IF… What if true love left you? Not some ordinary high school romance, not some random jock boyfriend, not anyone at all replaceable. True love. The real deal. Your other half, your true soul’s match. What happens if he leaves?

The answer is different for everyone. Juliet had her version, Marianne Dashwood had hers, Isolde and Catherine Earnshaw and Scarlett O’Hara and Anne Shirley all had their ways of coping.

I had to answer the question for Bella. What does Bella Swan do when true love leaves her? Not just true love, but Edward Cullen! None of those other heroines lost an Edward (Romeo was a hothead, Willoughby was a scoundrel, Tristan had loyalty issues, Heathcliff was pure evil, Rhett had a mean streak and cheated with hookers, and sweet Gilbert was much more of a Jacob than an Edward). 

So, like, I don’t know, to me that reads like she honestly does think that E/B are a greater love than not only Rosalie and Emmett, but every other great literary love story. Again, entitled to her opinion . . . but weird she faults Rosalie for not sharing it.

Although the idea of the rest of the Cullens agreeing that Edward loves Bella more than anyone has ever loved anyone and arguing with Rose about it is pretty hilarious given just how ridiculous it is. 

“Oh, Jasper is my world, I waited decades for him with only visions to sustain me, but yeah Edward loves Bella more, it’s science.” 

“Esme’s gift is literally the ability to love, but she can’t compete with Edward and Bella. Don’t you understand we’re side characters in a romance?” 

“Yeah babe, get your head in the game!” 

#asks

[promblums]

"So, why does Naota manage to briefly embody Atomsk? Why is he given ultimate power and freedom, and why does he let it go? It's the literalization of his character arc. Naota starts off disgusted with the "immature" adults around him, and keeps himself aloof from them. But, when Haruko comes into his life, he's enamored with her; her power, her freedom, the joy she takes in each moment of her life. She is to him what Atomsk is to her. But, ultimately, Naota realises what his brother only half-did to when he left for America with barely a goodbye: we have to be true to who we are, but nothing we do happens in isolation. We echo through our community. There's no answer to the question of which is more important. This is why he is able to harness the ultimate power of self-determination, and why he lets it fly off, rather than try to hang onto it."

OK I adore everything about this post but this right here reminds me SO MUCH of the lord of the rings stuff my fan friend has been talking about re the ring and power and how the point is that no one should or can handle it. i'm not explaining it as well as he did but DAMN.

I think more what I mean to say is that Naota being able to handle the symbol of ultimate freedom in the finale is that he comes to understand the difference between assertion of self-worth and absorption by complete self-interest. Early-series Naota is wounded by his brother's lack of regard for the rest of the Nandaba family. Naota clearly admired Tasuku immensely, but when he leaves for America with what seems to be very little notice, Naota can't reconcile how his brother could leave him behind so easily. So, when we first meet him, he's sullen and withdrawn, regarding any sentiment as 'kid stuff' because he's still stinging from having an important family connection cut off with so little apology.

And of course, there's more to it. We see in-series that his brother does write, if not that frequently, and we have to consider the instability of Naota's home life and how trapped he feels in Mabase, but it's a good window into why episode one Naota has become the total opposite of his image of his brother: no self-interest. Won't ask for what he wants. Can't even really conceptualize it, leaving him frustrated and directionless. By the end, he's gone through substantial personal growth. Haruko has shown him how incredible the world outside is, and how grand one person can become if they understand what they want and go after it.

There's a reason he keeps commenting how sometimes, she looks like his brother, you know?

But, just like before, she's shown him how blind that pursuit can make you, and how you can hurt the people you care about in the process. In the last episode, after running through a microcosm of the whole series again but with the benefit of experience, he finally comes to understand this whole "adulthood" thing that's taken up most of the series. You have a responsibility to the people in your life to treat them as people, but you have a responsibility to yourself, too, and neither one truly outweighs the other. That's why he is briefly able to embody the most powerful character in the series. He is finally in possession of himself. Of course, you could also look at the ending through the lens of Naota's feelings for Haruko, but that's an entire other post.

#FLCL #flcl #flcl anime #naota nandaba #haruko haruhara #talkin waaaaay too much about FLCL again