Anyway I know at this point everyone is sick of hearing takes about it, but I still see Hua Cheng as fundamentally, viscerally needy in a way that I personally perceive as submissive in at least some sense. Doesn't matter that he's the top. Doesn't matter that he's rough in bed. (Like...none of that is new information?? We've had the extras for a while now??) The roughness is starvation, and Xie Lian is still in his temple coaxing a malnourished and hopeless child to eat. Hua Cheng is still that feral boy frantically consuming what his god offers him. I'm even half-inclined to think that MXTX herself is drawing that comparison in the new revised version, at least based on this translation.
When Hong Hong-er is in Xie Lian's shrine as a child, just after the "use me as your reason to live" speech:
The boy sat in a daze for a long while, but when Xie Lian's voice didn't return, he rubbed hard at his face and reached for the offering plate on the altar. He held it in his arms and started eating the shriveled fruit and refreshments. He chewed and chewed vigorously, looking like a pitiful, vicious, small animal. Xie Lian bent down to watch him, a smile spreading across his face.
"You see?" he said to the other two. "It worked. He refused to eat before, but now he is."
When Tonglu opens:
...Hua Cheng viciously covered Xie Lian's lips again, like a small beast tearing at its prey. Xie Lian shed tears, not out of sorrow, but purely out of affection/from being kissed. [Two varying translations there]
(And is Xie Lian himself not comparable to a shriveled old piece of long-abandoned fruit, spiritually if not physically? 😅)
I don't know, something about how Hua Cheng is compared to some small hungry thing rather than like a big angry beast, and something about the way Xie Lian is just concerned and overwhelmed with affection...it's still hard for me to attach the word dominant mentally to Hua Cheng. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm totally aware that that interpretation probably has more proof to rest on at this point. I just can't quite emotionally click with it.
117 notes
·
View notes
Not to be like overly sensitive but if your jokes about ADHD people are only ever "lmao can't get anything done" "5282892 hour rant when i tried to ask a simple question" "forgot what they were doing and were always late ugh haha" and never anything remotely framed as positive, then maybe you're just using the trend of people being more open about their diagnoses to make the same fucking weird people jokes everyone made about me in middle school. Just saying.
18 notes
·
View notes
I’m sure I’m late to this fandom, but I wanted to point this out. On our left we have the one, the only Mogami Keiji, and joining on the right is renowned child-puncher Shimazaki Ryo. It may be difficult to see, but in Mogami’s second picture, he does have those lovely red pupils.
The thing is, Mogami offed himself to get eyes like those, and Shimazaki was born with them.
Add in a close working relationship with your friendly neighborhood psychopath Suzuki Toichiro, a relationship which could be anywhere between 3-20 years old (and I’d guess it’s on the older end, because I assume Suzuki’s search started in Japan), and I think Shimazaki’s apparent life philosophy of ‘just roll with it’ is surprisingly well-adjusted.
I dunno, I see people hating him and I think that’s perfectly understandable. He goes all-out against kids, after all. It’s just that I also see Implications in what little history tidbits we get, which paint a picture of someone for whom sanity and stability were never allowed at the table.
So, it’s been bugging me.
20 notes
·
View notes
Hey for your 100 followers can you do a Haikyuu red string au for Kuroo with a female or gn reader?
Red String Soulmate AU - Kuroo
He remembers when he was a kid and he was terrified of the red string attached to his pinky finger. He was a lot more socially awkward back then. And then he got older and started to think about what his soulmate would be like. Shallow things, at first. Like what you look like and whether you prefer strawberry candy or licorice. And he got into volleyball and started to wonder if you liked the sport too. If you’d watch him play, your eyes locked on him. He wondered if you’d laugh at his jokes and if you’d think his hair looked like a rooster. He wondered if you fiddled with your string when you were bored, too. He wondered if he’d look at you and just know.
“Hey, Ken, you ever think about your soulmate?” Kenma just shrugged, only half paying attention.
“Why should I? I’ll think about them when I meet them.” He reasoned, returning to his game. It seemed impossible to Kuroo. How could you not wonder? And sure, not everyone believed that your red string would lead you to true love and a happy ever after but still. If there was a chance, shouldn’t you grab at it? A couple of the guys had already met their soulmates, felt their strings pulled taut. They were annoyingly and disgustingly in love. Not that he was jealous.
He absentmindedly tugged on the string. It’d become a source of comfort in a weird way. A kind of ‘there is someone out there who the universe itself says has to love you’ which was as strong a comfort as any. It wasn’t like he was impatient to meet you because he was lonely, far from it. He had his team and he had something to work towards. And, he’d promised to help his coach be able to fulfill his dream of Nekoma competing against Karasuno at Nationals. He liked a challenge, and true love? That seemed like it’d be a pretty fun one. As stupid as it sounded, he wanted a partner. He wanted someone he could rely on, like people relied on him. He wanted to find the person that was meant to balance him out, whatever form that took. So he’d tug on his string, just wondering if there was somebody out there feeling that slight increase in tautness. Then it came time for the Nekoma, Fukurodani and Karasuno training camp. His string was more resistant to his fiddling than usual, like it was trying to pull itself towards his soulmate, pull him towards his soulmate. It felt like he was holding the leash of an annoyingly persistent small dog.
And then he was being introduced to everyone and he felt it again. That annoying insistent tug, like a demand for attention. He pulled his finger backwards. And sure, he was observant, but he still didn’t hear a small stumble at the back of the Fukurodani group. It was a moment he’d look back on and cringe at. So much for just knowing. He managed to somehow not notice for most of the training camp, remaining oblivious to the fact you were RIGHT THERE, as much as the string wrapped around his little finger tried to get him to realize. But then, it happened. He was hanging out with the guys in Gym 3 and you’d been assigned ‘Bokuto duty’ by Akaashi. Basically, you were meant to make sure Bokuto didn’t end up causing any intense structural damage while Akaashi was distracted actually playing volleyball. Kuroo felt the tug at his finger, more insistent than ever, as he stood on the court.
“You good, man?” Asked Bokuto, pausing the game for a moment.
“It’s my string,” he replied, “it’s really pulling at me.” Hinata gasped, eyes wide.
“That means your soulmate’s nearby.”
“No, short-stack, it means his soulmate’s traveling really quickly. They’re probably just on a plane somewhere.” Groaned Tsukishima. Nobody really understood the mechanics of soulmate strings. All they knew was when you and your soulmate were in close enough proximity, the link that bound the two of you became entirely visible. It was at that moment that the doors swung open.
“Bokuto I really hope you haven’t broken anything yet cause if you have the team is gonna yell at me and I do NOT have the energy for that today.” Came a voice. And, all of a sudden, he saw it. It was like seeing the world in high definition, seeing a person at the end of the string.
“Hi.” He said, breathless.
“Hi.” You replied. “L/N.”
“Kuroo. Kuroo Tetsurou.” He introduced him, reaching his hand out to shake yours. His end of the string brushed against yours and he smiled because finally, he was done waiting.
AN- I hope you liked this! I’m sorry if it was a bit short, Kuroo isn’t really the character I know most about so I find it hard to write for him. Thanks for requesting and a reminder to everyone that requests are open (I also have an event on) and comments are appreciated. 💖
121 notes
·
View notes