#lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

jun wu's ending will never not drive me absolutely insane. it's just...nobody's asked to forgive him or forget what he's done, but he's not being punished, either, and xie lian's deeply symbolic gesture of passing on the bamboo hat (representing the compassion he received at his lowest point) is so heavy with meaning.

jun wu is finished but he doesn't have to die and he doesn't have to suffer, or at least the narrative isn't lingering on his suffering - to the contrary! it portrays his defeat as a relief even to him. he doesn't even have to be imprisoned in eternal isolation - mei nianqing is there to stay with him explicitly as a friend.

it's such a compassionate ending for a main antagonist and it murders me.

(anyway once again mxtx's rejection of the punitive impulse and truly jun wu is the apotheosis of that and feels a little like mxtx banging the reader over the head with it as a theme. or maybe that's just me.)

#dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #lise reads tgcf #webnovel liveblogging #jun wu

[kasasagi-eye]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "kasasagi-eye "?

Okay this one is fun so here we go! Number one is pretty much set in stone, while 2 to 9 are just in the order they come to me AND are in the fandoms I've been enagged with in recent years, because I move fandoms a lot. Let's say that if I happened to be stranded somewhere with no Internet these are the fics I would like to have with me, at this moment.

desynchronization by Ontogenesis (hikaru no go, Ogata/Sei) It has: an amnesiac displaced out of time who was formerly a ghost and lots of relationship drama. I reread this pretty much every year. One of my favorite things about this is that while it is written in english, the characters' dialogues flow AS IF THEY WERE IN JAPANESE, and I can hear they actually say these senteces. Which to me is an amazing feat.

Game of Stacks by CommaSplice (GoT, multiple ships). Such a well-thought modern AU is hard to come by.

if living can be this by Lise (MDZS, songxuexiao). My fave Yi City redemption fic. Lise is one of my all time fave authors becuase of the excellent characterizaiton and dialogue; I orignally got hooked by their Steve/Loki works in Marvel fandom, which are also amazing.

This Side of Rain by Erinye (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, squarejohn). I love this one for making me see the benefits of unlinear narrative, and what has to be one of the most agonizingly equisite description of pining in fiction.

Unwilling Sleep by Telanu (this author also has other pseodonyms but I don't remember them off the bat (Petshop of Horrors, Leon/Count D) It has: an immortal character becoming mortal, and all it entails.

Listerworld by Kahvi, Roadstergal (Red Dwarf, LIster/Rimmer). One of the most unique plots I've read, befitting the uniqueness of the source material. Also, pining.

The Most Important Thing by NorthenSparrow (Supernatural, destiel). All of their destiel works are amazing but this one has amnesia, which is one of my favorite tropes so ^^

Wizardry By Consent by Sixthlight (Rivers of London, Peter/Nightingale). I love all of this author's works in the fandom, amazing writing.

Не в нашей власти by Ликующий Октаэдр. (SVSSS, bingjiu) This fic is a bit longer than my preferred fic length, which is up to 200k words and moreover still ongoing, but manages to keep the (extremely well crafted) story interesting. Amazing bingjiu interactions.

Дождь и Ветер by Eswet (Nirvana in Fire, Prince Yu/Mei Changsu). A great redemption fic for my favorite evil prince and some proper food to ease the hunger for my favorite rarepair (71 works on AO3 including two paltry attempts of my own T_T) Honorable mentions go to many fics by esama in Hikaru no Go and Harry Potter fandoms out of which I cannot pick a single one, bingjiu fics by xpityx, The Lotus Eaters by aldora 89 (Kirk/Spock). oh wait and also A bit of Fragnance by Silvercistern (now orphaned because the author got harassed by f***ing antis in a different fandom), which is a great arranged marriage AU for Quan Yizhen/Yin Yu (TGCF). And --- I MUST HIT SEND ALREADY BECAUSE I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS TRUST ME (Oh wait you also asked about my nickname, so just a short explanation - Kasasagi means magpie in Japanese and it is how my writing works - I steal the shiny bits of everything I see (and read) and put them together.)

#fic recs #hikaru no go #game of thrones #mdzs #svssss #tgcf #nif #rivers of london #psoh #red dwarf #Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

[curiosity-killed]

Thoughts on xue yang x xiao xingchen?

it’s horrible and i like it

ah okay so more seriously: I don’t really seek it out because I...well actually I’ve been in a No Fic Phase since my reread of tgcf and have only really been reading a few WIPs I’m following BUT beyond that, i’m too invested in the yunmeng siblings+ dynamics to have actually crawled past that in searching for fics orz

Narratively, I think it’s delectable. It’s TERRIBLE! There is so much suffering and cruelty and manipulation and hurt in it—and in this make-believe alternate reality they create in Yi City, there’s also friendship and rapport and letting each other see sides of themselves that they don’t show others. There’s trust and how much of it is deserved? and I love that shit

I am Big Weak for antagonists who think they want to destroy/ruin their opponents and a) rather than acknowledging their changing feelings, convince themselves that Domesticity and Kindness and Living Together is Totally Part of the Plan and Totally a Trick to Make Them Feel Bad and not at all because they, y’know, sincerely want that AND b) double down on that to do terrible, unforgivable things and c) only realize that they didn’t actually want their opponent dead after it’s too late :’)

...I feel like it’s telling that the whole time I’ve been writing this i’ve been thinking of @veliseraptor‘s thor & loki fics considering Lise is also my main source of xuexiao content and there’s...overlap....there...

#on that note #it's been 8 million years since i reread we were the whirlpool/we were the reef #and AH wow still big love #also more on-topic #there are certainly more elements to their dynamic that i find rich and fascinating #but i don't exactly have thoughts so much as like #a general sense of Nice. #Anonymice #asked & answered

[veliseraptor]

still one of my favorite moments in tgcf, though, for two reasons

hua cheng's pointed "well if it isn't lord earth master looking alive as hell today". he knows he xuan is in disguise and he's not going to rat him out directly but he is going to give him a lot of shit about it especially when he xuan has the gall to show up at taizi dianxia's house completely uninvited

he xuan immediately going "don't look at me man, this wasn't my idea"

partly I think I just love picturing shi qingxuan going "oh I know! let's go see his highness and ask him for help re: my venerable problem! obviously you're coming because you're my best friend :D" and minghe yixuan's immediate air raid sirens

very much makes me think of the bit later on where hua cheng is like "excuse me for a minute i have to go" and bails and the timing sure seems to me like him yanking he xuan into a corner and hissing "you better not fuck with dianxia or we're gonna have problems"

he xuan's like "still not my idea to bring him into it in the first place"

#i just. really like their weird relationship #it's good #he xuan #hua cheng #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #webnovel liveblogging #lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

thoughts I'm thinking about this time rereading black water arc (for, what. fourth time? i stopped keeping track) - the fact that He Xuan more or less keeps his face the same in his "Ming Yi" form. in light of the conversation with Shi Wudu that immediately follows this, it seems pretty clear to me that there was a challenge in his doing so; similar to the chances he gave Shi Qingxuan to walk away from her brother (and be spared), it's an opening where...I don't think there ever would've been mercy from He Xuan for Shi Wudu.

but I do wonder how much more seething rage there was the first time He Xuan came face to face with Shi Wudu and there was no trace of recognition whatsoever. He Xuan knows Shi Wudu's face as the last thing he saw as a living human, but Shi Wudu doesn't think about him, the man whose life he destroyed, at all.

#dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #shi wudu #he xuan #anyway. black water arc #fucked me up again! love it. chapter 124 my beloved #webnovel liveblogging #lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

reading vol 3 of the official tgcf translation has me remembering how much I love mu qing. so much. he's such a bitch and it's great.

love in particular this time around how he hears xie lian talking about someone else who is good with a saber and a promising fighter and is immediately >:( about it.

he is xie lian's good with a saber friend, back off nameless soldier, there ain't room in this town for the both of us

#mu qing #webnovel liveblogging #lise reads tgcf #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks

[veliseraptor]

truly one of the excellent things about rereading tgcf is always the bits where hua cheng is saying shit to he xuan while he xuan can’t retaliate. such a bitch move, love that for him. well done hua chengzhu

#lise reads tgcf #hua cheng #he xuan #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks

[veliseraptor]

me, normal about things, reading tgcf vol. 4: black water arc! black water arc! black water arc!

#webnovel liveblogging #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #lise reads tgcf #i'm having thoughts. maybe revisit later

[veliseraptor]

now that's what I call girlfriend material

#lise reads fgep #webnovel liveblogging #i think i'm going to go read vol. 8 of tgcf in bed now #just for more webnovel to close out my night

[veliseraptor]

just wanted to say. back in 2020 i had a huge mcu phase and binged all ur fics and got so sad when i finished all of them bc u weren’t really writing any more :( ur one of my favorite authors fr. amazing prose and style and characterization and everything.

fast forward to 2024 and i’ve just gotten into kinnporsche (late i know) and remember wait,, didn’t lise write something for kinnporsche? and now i’m so happy i get to read new lise fics woohoo

i liked tgcf so maybe one day i will also get into mdzs just so i can read ur fics for that fandom too lol

aww, this is such a sweet message to receive! and delights me very much. thank you!

and welcome to the kinnporsche pit! never too late to join.

#conversating #confoundedman #nice things people say

[veliseraptor]

aloha lise! i've been following you for years and i realize we somehow always end up in the same fandoms or i enjoy most of the stuff you "promote" on your tumblr! so because of your impeccable taste, i would like to ask if you have any recommendations for books and shows?

(i very much enjoyed mcu (mostly loki and stoki thanks to you HAHA), mdzs, cql, tgcf, svsss, lymond chronicles, doctrine of labyrinth...many of the same fandoms that you are in and i got to know and like many of them thanks to you!)

hello and thank you! I certainly have well-defined tastes at the very least. I have fun and that's what matters

as far as recommendations go...oh lord anon, I read...a lot, and watch somewhat less but have still watched a lot of things, and mostly the things I do fandom for are a smaller subset of the things I like. so I almost don't know where to start with this? I guess right off the bat I'm presently rewatching The X-Files which I'm very much enjoying, and if you haven't Kinnporsched yet you might give it a try. outside of that...I wrote a recs list a long time ago that was basically "my personal 'essential fantasy/scifi' list" and favorite books/favorite books of the decade posts. You can also check my #book recs tag or my #book starter kits tag.

if you haven't read The Silmarillion I'll throw The Silmarillion on here too even though it has next to nothing in common with the other things on the list you gave. I recently finished reading the Green Bone Saga by Jane Fonda and definitely recommend that. if you hang around this blog on a regular basis I've started doing monthly reading recaps going over everything I read in the prior month and a snapshot of my thoughts on it, so there might be some recs in there for you, too.

if you enjoyed MXTX's works I will recommend trying out some other danmei, of which there are...very many. I'm a big fan of 2HA or Husky and his White Cat Shizun, which is...being published officially, though slowly, and unfortunately never had a complete alternate (human) translation online. I'm really enjoying QJJ which is basically a historical epic of war and political intrigue in the classical style that happens to have gay main characters.

I'm reading LHJC and have been enjoying it but the translation has gone quiet for a while and is incomplete. :(

this is all fiction and also reading material...I read a lot of nonfiction as well. I do watch things once in a while but really I'm very bad at it. several things on my list that I'm sure I'll enjoy when I eventually get to them but just. haven't yet. of course right now I am forgetting everything I have ever watched in my entire life. Princess Mononoke and The Last Unicorn are foundational movies that shaped my personality. Le Chevalier d'Eon is the weirdest anime nobody else I know has ever seen. I've really enjoyed what I've seen of Kingdom and My Country: The New Age but haven't yet finished either.

lord, what other shows/movies have I even watched

#conversating #anonymous #book recs #sometimes i read things #i hope this is even remotely helpful anon

[veliseraptor]

I've been on a binge of all mxtx's novels finally and all I keep thinking is ooh boy, can't wait to read Lise's fics with my new fancy ✨Knowledge ✨ I've gathered 😌👌

Basically I'm just happy I've got all your amazing fics and recs to pour over once I'm thru the source material lololol

I hope you're having safe and warm holidays ❤️💪

hahahahaha oh man I love this, I hope you're having fun and also that you enjoy the fics/recs with the new fancy Knowledge that you are acquiring via novel reading. I am myself about to start the (published) volume 5 of TGCF now (this is my...third read of that one? fourth read? unsure) so also mxtx novel reading high five

(I am also simultaneously reading two other cnovels. if you thought I hadn't still lost control of my life, you would be wrong)

anyway thank you! and I am having a pretty nice holiday, until recently I was in a nice warm climate wearing a tank top and shorts every day and now I am back in my overly warm apartment still wearing a tank top every day even with the windows open and it in the 20s (F). miss being able to control my own home's temperature

also miss the amount of time I was spending submerged in bodies of water, but that's not related to the time of year or anything, that's just a general state of being when I'm not actively submerged in bodies of water.

#conversating #thebeingofeverything

[veliseraptor]

yin yu just like... “i’m sorry dianxia but if i address you in a way that could possibly be construed as disrespectful my boss who is giving me a very stern stare right now is going to flatten me like a pancake”

#yin yu #xie lian #hua cheng #i have such a clear picture in my head of this #with xie lian like ^___^ and hua cheng right over his shoulder like #ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #webnovel liveblogging #lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

this part just absolutely fucking sends me and it’s even funnier when you know that, like, xie lian is perfectly aware that fu yao = mu qing and therefore that he is right there listening to him give him the most backhanded defense ever

like. xie lian is a sweetheart in a lot of ways, a generally kind and good-natured person, and then sometimes he is just a complete and utter bastard in the funniest way possible

#xie lian #mu qing #webnovel liveblogging #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #if you're wondering i'm going through old screencaps i took during my last read and remembering #why i should just reread tgcf probably #lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

i love it so much when hua cheng flexes in terrifying ways. it’s very cool and sexy of him

#also find his 'perhaps that doesn't count as my kill?' inordinately entertaining #webnovel liveblogging #hua cheng #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #suicide mention cw #lise reads tgcf

[veliseraptor]

sdlfksjdflkj the whole exchange between xie lian and qi rong here is just

#also catch me adopting qi rong this readthrough apparently #i mean i was halfway there but. there i go the rest of the way #i love every one of the four calamities! they are all valid #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks #xie lian #qi rong #webnovel liveblogging #lise reads tgcf