DarcyBlue

23 | Multi-fandom

[aquilacalvitium]

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

[lizluvscupcakes]

Well, OP, I’m officially invested in this shit. Your whiny ass is doing self care if I have to drive to your goddamn house and do it for you.

[aquilacalvitium]

By Talos this can't be happening

[oysters-aint-for-me]

reblog this everyone i wanna see what happens when op’s reverse-hubris forces them to practice basic self care.

why? because it’s funny and completely possible actually so good fucking luck op

[tungsten-moon]

I figured out roughly how many notes it's been getting per day and multiplied that by the number of days left until the end of 2023

If we keep it going at this rate we'll be far past 666k

[aquilacalvitium]

IMPORTANT

Okay so clearly I've underestimated y'all

So how about we make this more interesting?

I will practise self care if this post reaches 666k BY THE END OF 2022

[moonlarking]

Op you have fuckethed with the devil this post has gained 30,000 notes since I reblogged it last night

[catgirlcaliphate]

OP I hope you are ready to practice some self care because if there's one thing the gremlins of tumblr love it's a challenge.

[saint-batrick]

i normally hate these "oh noo don't give me a ton of notes" posts but this one? this one i love.

posts that have 666k notes TO ME. and hopefully to you, too, OP. 💜

[solarmama-plantsareneat]

Let's all practice self care if this post hits the magic number…

[purpleblobfrompluto]

Yes

[purpleblobfrompluto]

YALL HELP US

@bigfootshonkers @dollopheadsandclotpoles @gwaine-the-rock-johnson @hannahhook7744 @knightofwoodsbeyond @reality-schmality @thirteenthedoctor @yoursassybookwormfriend if you want to of course @fuckyeahsnackables

[purpleblobfrompluto]

Op telling us we'll never make it to 666k by the end of 2023 (only having to make it 2022 after all):

Us:

[aquilacalvitium]

I was going to wait until y'all hit the mark, But I feel like I should say this now

When I made this post, it was supposed to be a joke

I mean, none of my posts ever get more than 20 notes if I'm lucky, so what are the odds of one reaching 666k? Impossible, haha

But then, something happened, something I didn't expect

People actually began to... like it? And... reblog? And comment?

Before I knew it, my notifications were swarmed with comments after comments after reblogs after comments all on this one post

Then, still in the mindset of this being a joke, I realised I'd made the goal too easy, so I upped the stakes

But... the notes just got more frequent from there

And it started to hit me just what was happening

For a while, I was overwhelmed with a feeling

A feeling I wasn't used to

It was like... all of a sudden... I mattered...

My existance was actually noteworthy

People actually... cared?

It wasn't a game anymore, it was a race to assure a stranger on the Internet that they were actually worth something

Hundreds of people all gathering in one online place to help out

Leaving messages and well wishes

Making me smile

Making me laugh

Funny comments

Jokes

Fun facts

Even simple comments

It all suddenly felt so real

This was never a joke to you

This was important

And I won't let any of that go in vain

So... stay tuned I suppose

I'll look after myself, and I'll post proof of it too

I'll catalogue every time I put my health first

Physical and mental

I'll acknowledge my bad days and celebrate my good days

But most of all

I won't forget this

Any of this

Ever

(Tagging all the people in that screenshot)

@deepsea-bathyna @royalsampaguita @timeturnerturns @twerkyvulture @reblogspamletsgoooo @gender-crisis-time @obsidianstrawberrymilk @shana-rosee @thefandombringer @sunshinedarlingiloveyou @bregee13 @moonlarking-blog @arcan6yo @crazyw3irdo @xinea @ghastmaskzombie @killthestairs @abalidoth @leesbian42

[kittydesade]

THIS ONE. REBLOG THIS ONE. LET’S GO SELF CARE 2023

[toxicsamruby]

actually that fits w my theory that fanfiction is closer to literary analysis than it is to creative writing. like i feel like so much of fanfiction is more about “this is my interpretation of the text, and i’m teasing out the complexities of this interpretation by writing it in the format of a creative writing piece” than it is about an original piece of fiction

[mikkeneko]

I have often commented that so much of my fanfic is either “here are all of my headcanons about this setting, in 30k (or 300k) fic format” or “I spent 10 hours of my life trying to get into the head of this character to make sense of their motivations, and y’all get to read the conclusions”

[clarabrighet]

The tag “You gotta GET the original before you can translate it” is SUCH a Very Good Take

[darthmelyanna]

This actually fits with what I’ve understood of actors who read fan fiction about their characters. Nearly always it’s someone who wants more analysis of the character than they’re getting from the scripts, so they look to what fans are producing and find those deep dives there.

[pocketsizedquasar]

ID: a screenshot of tumblr tags that reads: “see my word splurge the other day about transmuting elements of canon to an AU. you gotta GET the original before you can translate it.”

[darcy-blue]

As a lit major, I heartily agree.

Fanfiction and adaptations have a lot of similarities, the most basic being that they're interpretations of the source material. One major difference, however, is that a lot of "official" adaptations have commerical motivations that fanfiction doesn't. I partially blame that for why so many adaptations lack a degree of care and affection for the source story and characters. In contrast, fanfiction writers care so deeply for the characters they're writing that their work ends up being inevitably better for other fans.

(also commercial adaptations have many other limitations due to rl issues such as casting, money etc that fanfiction doesn't, obviously)

[wangxianficrecs]

MOAR Wangxian Rec Sources!

~*~

Hi, I’ve made 13 Wangxian collections on Archive of Our Own, based on special themes/tags. Feel free to use them for your own search/library activities. I love your blog, keep up the good work 💪~ @hhtopblog

~*~

Oh, thank you so much for telling us about your curated collections, my dear;  this is so useful.  I notice that they’re Open… does that mean others can make suggestions or add their own bookmarks?  (It’s absolutely fine if not, I’m just clarifying).

Here are the 13 collections, for y’all’s reading pleasure! These are Bookmark collections, rather than Works collections, so be sure to go hunting under the right tab! How wonderfully organized! 

📖

⚫The Untamed Alcohol Effect – “A drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts” or: the alcohol effect in MDZS/The Untamed.

⚫The Untamed Brothers and Beasts – Enchanting Wangxian fics where Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are bonded as rabbits, wolves, foxes, dragons, demons or other magic creatures

⚫The Untamed Epistolary Edition – Fics about Wangxian getting together in series of letters, e-mails, social media, vlogs, online games

⚫The Untamed Great Pretenders – A collection of Wangxian falling-in-love-fics while faking their identity, relationship or marriage

⚫The Untamed Green-Eyed Kunze – This collection is about jealousy, mostly Lan Zhan’s. His critique on Wei Ying is secretly meant as a warning for himself. “Shameless”, because he loves Wei Ying more than the rules. “Ridiculous”, because Wei Ying doesn’t love him, he only likes to tease. “Boring”, because he just knows Wei Ying will leave him one day for a more interesting person, right?

⚫The Untamed Kinsey Reports – The ultimate Untamed collection on ‘Sexual Behavior of the Human Male’ as mentioned in The Kinsey Reports (1948): masturbation, pre-adolescent orgasm, biting, seven grades of sexual orientation, marital coitus, sadomasochism.

⚫The Untamed Love Has No Ending – Real love has no ending. The best Wangxian fics about mutual pining, grief, getting together or getting back together.

⚫The Untamed Love Thy Neighbor – A fine collection of Wangxian AU fics where Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian fall in love as they share a room, building, campus, office, or whatever.

⚫The Untamed Medics Portal – Wangxian Sick-Fics where Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji are either patient or doctor waiting for their soul mate.

⚫The Untamed Rules of Seduction – Great fics about mutual attraction between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying; their strategy to seduce each other, unconsciously or intentionally.

⚫The Untamed Sporty Boys – Modern Wangxian fics where The Untamed cast gather at sport clubs, events, or the local cultivators gym.

⚫The Untamed Time Travel Edition – Enjoy Wangxian fics where Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian meet each other in different eras, universes, like themselves, aliens, androids or otherwise, to reach that same happy ending.

⚫The Untamed Wangxian Retellings – The lovestory of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian retold in the format of other well-known novels, movies, tv series, fairytales or legends.

[dingyuxi]

i would gif things but I’m waaaay to hot

[darcy-blue]

A mood

[shanastoryteller]

this idea started with this thought:

it would be extremely fucking funny if wei wuxian was lan xichen’s friend first

imagine if that’s how lan wangji meets him. that’s their introduction. the category wei wuxian is introduced to him as is “my brother’s friend” which puts him right there with nie mingjue.

in canon this is very good but slightly harder to finagle without being very au but you know where this is just very choice?

modern au.

how it happens is this

wei wuxian is a little genius and skips two grades when he’s young. on one hand, madame yu complains about jiang cheng not skipping any grades constantly, but on the other hand she can’t compare them so precisely because they’re talking different tests in different classes and for couple years at a time are even in different schools, which really cuts down on a lot of the tension between wei wuxian and jiang cheng.

this also means that wei wuxian is in the same class as jiang yanli

jiang yanli doesn’t have the energy to be jealous and is also much more gracious about accepting help. which means wei wuxian doesn’t let his sister get anything less than straight a’s in everything because he doesn’t want madame yu to yell at her for it.

when they’re all still young kids the jiangs move and the kids are enrolled in the same school as all our favorite people.

lan wangji is also a little genius but everyone’s very concerned about his social development and the potential damage skipping grades could do to it, so he stays right where he is. also in his class is jiang cheng, nie huaisang, mianmina, jin zixuan, wen ning, and meng yao who skipped one grade because he was worried skipping two would get him the wrong sort of attention.

but two years ahead of them is wei wuxian, jiang yanli, lan xichen, and nie mingjue. lan xichen initially befriended wei wuxian (to his best friend nie mingjue’s annoyance) because he was new and young and lan xichen didn’t want him to feel intimidated and alone. then someone talked shit to jiang yanli and wei wuxian cheerfully squared up and kicked their ass which horrified lan xichen while nie mingjue was delighted and decided maybe this kid isn’t too bad after all

this is also good because we still have wei wuxian struggling with his peer group. are his peers the kids his own age? or the kids he spends all day ever day with in class and has for years? cue an identity crisis, wash rinse repeat

anyway sort of on accident wei wuxian becomes best friends with lan xichen and nie mingjue. he’s friendly with the others but they are, well, his best friends’ little siblings, even if they’re the same age as him, so they don’t really hang out. nie huaisang comes over sometimes but wei wuxian tries to avoid him when he does because they’re actually decent friends but jiang cheng gets upset about not having one friend that doesn’t like wei wuxian better which is, you know, unfair but also a valid emotion so wei wuxian and nie huaisang just text constantly

the fun thing about lan xichen and nie mingjue is that they secretly love getting into shenanigans but have to be responsible older brothers about everything and good role models and whatever. wei wuxian can’t be bothered with any of that. so he’s constantly getting them into trouble that they’re delighted to be in and they all practice sparring at the nie studio and wei wuxian is friendly and fun and outgoing in a way that neither lan xichen and nie mingjue are. the three of them all balance each other out so well, softening the hard edges of the other two, and of course they’re all very beautiful and smart and kind in their own way, and well

the three of them are the popular kids, easily, which baffles all of them to varying degrees

(if jiang cheng is never asked “oh, are you wei wuxian’s brother?” again in his life it’ll be too soon)

so throughout all of this lan xichen goes over to the jiang’s and he and wei wuxian both spend a lot of time at the nie but because lan qiren is strict and not fun it’s not until the summer before their junior year that wei wuxian goes over to the lans

this is the first time lan wangji is meeting the boy who’s been his brother’s other best friend for years, since obviously he’s known nie mingjue since they were toddlers

and uh

holy shit

his brother never told him wei wuxian is hot

commence the mortifying ordeal of 1. being a freshman and 2. having a crush on your elder brother’s friend

[shanastoryteller]

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian says, popping his head into his younger brother’s room, already in his swim trunks. “Do you want to come to Mingjue’s with me and A-jie? It’s too hot, we’re going swimming.”

Jiang Cheng looks up from his books, hesitating. He loves swimming, but his last middle school exams are looming ever closer, and he’s taking it very seriously. Wei Wuxian doesn’t take end of year exams seriously, as a rule, and that he aces them anyway infuriates pretty much everyone in his class except for his friends, and even they get pretty exasperated with him.

“Wen Qing will be there,” he says, which he thinks is pretty compelling and will definitely get Jiang Cheng to agree.

Instead Jiang Cheng flushes and looks down. “No thanks. I have studying to do.”

His brother isn’t looking at him, so Wei Wuxian doesn’t bother to keep the disappointment off his face. “Okay, well call us if you change your mind, okay? We’ll come pick you up.”

The frown around his mouth softens but he just nods and Wei Wuxian sighs before retreating.

He goes outside and shakes his head at A-jie. She’s wearing the sundress that Wei Wuxian got her for her birthday last year over her bikini and giant sunglasses that cover most of her face. Her mouth twists into a frown but she gets into her car, a deep purple convertible that her parents had given her for her recent sixteenth birthday which had made her the envy of all their friends. Mingjue had gotten a jeep which was extremely useful for camping but less outright cool. Xichen, unfortunately, had gotten a very sensible and boring white sedan. It’s also a BMW, but that only makes up for so much.

Uncle Jiang had promised Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng they’d get cars for their birthday too, but Wei Wuxian knows Aunt Yu hadn’t been pleased about that, and really, it’s excessive for his best friends and his siblings and him to have a car. It’s not like there’s any lack of people he can bum rides off of.

A-jie pulls up outside of the Wen’s apartment building. They own the whole thing and their entire family lives there. She beeps the horn because they’ve learned the hard way not to bother going inside. The doorman is a creep, and also they have guard dogs, so. No.

Wen Qing must have been waiting for them because she comes out a moment later, some sort of complicated red gauzy dress on, and maybe it’s for the best that Jiang Cheng didn’t come. It might have killed him. She hops into the back seat without opening the door.

“No Wen Ning?” Wei Wuxian asks.

“Hello, Wei Wuxian, I’m doing great, thanks,” she says sarcastically, leaning forward to poke him in the side. He squirms away from her but there’s nowhere for him to go. “He’s helping Granny with something in the kitchen. I offered to help, but they said no.”

“A smart decision,” A-jie mutters, pulling back onto the road.

Wen Qing kicks the back of her seat then slumps back and does her seat belt.

They pull up to the Nie manor twenty minutes later and Wei Wuxian hasn’t knocked since he was ten. Instead he takes out his keys and unlocks the front door, letting all of them in. “Mingjue, we’re here!” he shouts, heading towards the kitchen.

Xichen grins at from where he’s in the middle of cubing watermelon. He nods at the girls, who wave back, but don’t pause in going out to the pool. Wei Wuxian boosts himself onto the counter then reaches out to steal some of the watermelon. Vodka bursts across his tongue and he nearly chokes. “Well, Wuxian?” Xichen asks innocently, “How is it?”

“This was not your idea,” he declares, popping another bite of the vodka soaked watermelon into his mouth.

“It was Nie Huaisang’s,” he admits. “Mingjue is worried about him starting high school and I’m starting to think he’s right.”

“Worried,” Wei Wuxian scoffs, deciding to actually be useful and getting down to pull a large bowl out of the cabinet to put the watermelon in. “He’s going to be ruling that place by the end of the year. He should be more worried about college. Nie Huaisang was made for college.”

Xichen pauses in cutting, a blank look on his face. “Don’t bring that up to Mingjue. You’re right, but for our own sanity let’s not introduce that idea to him just yet.”

Wei Wuxian laughs, and he’s still laughing when Mingjue comes downstairs in just his swim trunks. He’s already regretting having to see the looks A-jie is going to give Mingjue behind her too big sunglasses. He and Xichen are about the same height, and Mingjue is several inches shorter, but what he lacks in height he makes up for in wingspan. He can hold him and Xichen on each shoulder. They’d checked.

“Wuxian, finally, what too you so long?” he complains, punching him in the arm as he walks by.

Wei Wuxian gives an exaggerated wince and clutches his arm, but Mingjue just rolls his eyes and Xichen doesn’t look up from where he’s putting the last of the watermelon into the bowl. “Mingjue, please, I only have the one arm.”

“You have two arms, actually,” he says, unrepentant. He opens the fridge and starts taking out beers. Mingjue and Nie Huaisang’s parents are perpetually absent, always on some business trip, but for as long as Wei Wuxian has known them, they’ve given their sons the freedom to do pretty much whatever as long as no one gets hurt or arrested and the house is still standing when they get back.

It’s such a difference from the Jiang household and definitely from the Lan that it’s no wonder they spend all their time at Mingjue’s house rather than their own. Wei Wuxian has never even been inside Xichen’s house. Mingjue assures him he’s not missing much.

“We had to pick up Wen Qing,” he says instead of clarifying that he only has one left arm. “Her uncle took her car away again.”

The three of them share a dark look that covers a conversation they’ve had dozens of times before. Then Xichen picks up the bowl of watermelon and Wei Wuxian carries half the beers out and they put that aside for now, like they so often put aside the things they hate and can do nothing about, like Lan Qiren’s strictness and the Nie’s absence and Aunt Yu’s everything, and go out to have a sunsoaked day with their friends and each other.

[shanastoryteller]

The first time Lan Wangji hears about Wei Wuxian, he’s ten years old, it’s a Saturday, and Uncle is angrier than he’s seen him since Dad left.

Xichen had field trip to a planetarium today, but instead of going to pick him up at the school parking lot like they’d been planning, they’re on their way to the planetarium to get him because Xichen got in a fight.

Xichen. Got in a fight. With the other students.

Lan Wangji thinks that someone might be playing a prank on him.

They arrive, Uncle straight backed and furious, and find Xichen and Nie Mingjue standing outside with a chaperone. Xichen has a split lip and Nie Mingjue’s shirt is ripped and his knuckles bruised. Uncle exchanges quick greetings and apologies with the chaperone, then turns to them and demands, “What on earth were you thinking? What was that about? Did you fight each other?”

That seems almost as ridiculous as Xichen fighting at all. They’ve been best friends for longer than Lan Wangji can remember.

“It was with two other students, Wen Chao and Wen Xu,” the chaperone says. She seems more bored than upset about the whole thing. “Their father already came to pick them up.”

Uncle turns a concerning shade of red then snaps, “Well? What sort of explanation do you have for this? Why did this happen?”

Xichen and Nie Mingjue share an uncomfortable look, communicating something through several raised eyebrows and minute shakes of the head. Finally it’s Nie Mingjue who says, “We, um. Don’t. Know.”

“You don’t know why you started a fight with other students?” Uncle asks. Lan Wangji cringes and the tone’s not even being directed at him. “You just decided to act disgracefully for no reason at all?”

“No!” Xichen denies and Nie Mingjue elbows him in the side. “It wasn’t – um. We just. Well. There was a reason. We just don’t know what it was.”

Uncle pinches the bridge of his nose. Nie Mingjue brightens and Lan Wangji turns to see Nie Zonghui walking up the steps towards them. Nie Zonghui is a Nie cousin that’s only a handful of years older than Nie Mingjue, but he’s usually the one who shows up for things like this.

“Lan Qiren,” Nie Zonghui greets, then looks down at Nie Mingjue. “I had plans today, you know.”

“Sorry,” Nie Mingjue says, not sounding very sorry at all.

Nie Zonghui rolls his eyes then says to chaperone, “Sorry about the inconvenience. Can we take them home now?”

“Of course,” she says, “I believe the teacher will assign further punishments on Monday.”

He nods and she waves at both of them before going back inside.

“You’re really not going to tell me what all this is about?” Uncle asks.

Nie Mingjue and Xichen share another complicated look then Xichen says, “We don’t know why. We saw Wei Wuxian fighting with the Wen brothers so we, uh, jumped in. A little. Two against one isn’t a fair fight! Especially against Wei Wuxian, even if he is tall!”

Uncle goes nearly apoplectic in his rage while Nie Zonghui gives an approving nod, which seems to scandalize Uncle nearly as much as the fight. “Xichen! I taught you better than that! Have you no brain of your own? If this Wei Wuxian jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”

The lack of immediate denial is definitely not the right answer.

Nie Mingjue shrugs and says, “Maybe? If the bridge was falling apart and there was a river underneath, or if there was a fire, or if someone was drowning? It would depend. It’s not like he came up to us and told us to punch them so we did. It was already happening! And we know the Wens are jerks.”

“Well, where is this boy?” Uncle asks.

“His aunt already picked him up,” Xichen says, and just for a moment a dark look comes over his face, and he almost looks like their mother.

Nie Mingjue crosses his arms and looks away from them, scowling.

Lan Wangji takes that to mean they don’t like this boy’s aunt.

“Fine,” Uncle huffs. “We’ll discuss this later. Let’s go.”

Nie Zonghui reaches out to ruffle Nie Mingjue’s hair and they all begin walking down the stairs.

“Wait! Hey! Stop!”

They stop and turn. A girl in bright red shoes with chin length hair comes running after them. They pause, but she doesn’t stop running until she’s in front of them, skidding to a stop in front of Lan Xichen and immediately bowing to him, then Nie Mingjue, and holding the bow as she says, “Thank you for helping my brother.”

“You’re Wei Wuxian’s sister?” Uncle asks.

She shakes her head at the same time as Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. “No. I’m Wen Qing.”

Wen Qing. Like the Wen brothers that were also involved in the fight? It doesn’t sound like they were protecting them.

“What are you talking about?” Uncle asks, clearly at the end of his patience. “Do you know what this was all about?”

She hesitates, slowly standing straight. She bites her bottom lip but says, “My little brother really likes space, and I don’t like leaving him alone at home with Granny, so I got permission to bring him with me. Only Wen Chao and Wen Xu don’t – they’re always – my brother is sick,” she says, looking at the space next to Uncle rather than at him. “They’re always mean to him, but this time they went too far. They split off from the group and stole his inhaler and then locked him in a janitor’s closet. I was helping the teacher because he let A-Ning come, so I wasn’t pay attention, and I didn’t notice when he missing. Wei Wuxian did. That’s why they were fighting. Wei Wuxian found them and let out A-Ning, who went to go find me, but when they tried to stop him, Wei Wuxian fought back, and then Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue went looking for Wei Wuxian, and, well,” she shrugs. She bows again and says, “Thank you for helping.”

“They took his inhaler?” Nie Zonghui asks, scowling.

She nods. “It’s okay. He was panicking in there, but then Wei Wuxian let him out and gave him his inhaler, so he’s okay, and we have another at home. I’ll give it back to him on Monday. My brother is with Jiang Yanli now, but I wanted to make sure I thanked you before you left.”

“Wei Wuxian has an inhaler?” Uncle has a different look on his face than had before. Lan Wangji thinks that Xichen probably is only going to have to do a hundred push ups instead of a thousand.

“Sort of,” Nie Mingjue answers. “It’s not his.”

Uncle is back to looking like he has a headache.

“His sister uses one,” Xichen clarifies. “She’s in our class too. She has her own, but he always carries an extra, just in case.”

Wen Qing doesn’t smile at them, but she bow one last time, and then she’s running back up the steps to the planetarium.

“See,” Nie Mingjue says, “there was a good reason.”

Uncle glares at him, but it’s Nie Mingjue, so he doesn’t even look a little bit sorry.

“Alright, you’ve caused enough trouble for one day,” Nie Zonghui says wryly, “come on, let’s go, your parents are going to be – well, they’re going to hear about it, and they’ll have a reaction. Of some sort.”

Nie Mingjue shorts, but then they’re moving again, and he waves to them before walking in the opposite direction with his cousin.

Uncle still makes Xichen do a lot of pushups and handstands, but he doesn’t say that he shouldn’t have done it, which Lan Wangji knows is a victory in an of itself.

[shanastoryteller]

Lan Xichen has known Mingjue for longer than he can remember. He’d been forced to play with a lot of his family friends’ children, but Mingjue is the only one who stuck.

He vividly remembers meeting Wuxian.

He’d been little kid standing next to his elder sister in a way that reminded him painfully of Wangji. Jiang Yanli hadn’t been in all their classes, and Lan Xichen had felt that it was his responsibility as a fellow elder sibling to keep an eye on Wuxian when Jiang Yanli couldn’t.

Mingjue hadn’t felt the same. Then it had turned out that they needed to less keep an eye on him than keep an eye on everyone who felt the need to piss him off.

The infamous planetarium fight was neither the first or the last time they ended up getting dragged into something by Wuxian. Once Mingjue had found out that Wuxian tended to solve his problems by being a sarcastic little shit with no sense of self preservation, he’d warmed up to him. Lan Xichen had despaired that now there were two of them.

Now he’s seventeen, smiling at the half dozen retreating boys with his mouth and nothing else, Wuxian and Mingjue at his side and blood on his knuckles.

Most of it isn’t his.

This fight has ended with the group of them ungracefully accepting their defeat by running away.

Lan Xichen is starting to have serious doubts about the intelligence of some of their classmates. He’s not sure how many times someone has to get their ass kicked before they figure out they’re not going to get away with being an asshole while they’re around. Some people still try and pick on Wen Ning, like Wuxian hasn’t spent the past half decade acting as his self appointed big brother.

(Lan Xichen is pretty sure this is why Jiang Cheng doesn’t get along with Wen Ning, but he’s never figured out how to say that without hurting someone’s feelings, so he just hasn’t said it at all.)

“Hey, are you okay?” Wuxian asks. “You’re the new transfer, right? Jin Zixuan’s brother. My condolences. He’s the worst.”

“Wuxian!” Mingjue sighs. “How can you say that? Jin Zixun is right there.”

A pause. “You know, that’s a good point. But consider this: Jin Zixun isn’t trying to date my sister.”

“What if he was though?” Mingjue muses, then a moment later yelps, “Ow!” when Wuxian punches him in the arm.  

“Sorry about them,” Xichen says. “Are you okay? It’s Meng Yao, right?”

“Yes,” he answers, looking between them carefully. “Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t mention it,” Wuxian says cheerfully. “I love punching those guys. It’s good for the immune system.”

Meng Yao smiles politely in a way that seems to imply that he thinks Wuxian is slightly unhinged. That’s oaky. Lots of people do that.

“You just moved here, right?” Lan Xichen asks.

“Yes,” Meng Yao answers, then wrinkles his nose. He reaches into his pocket and takes out a real actual handkerchief. He steps forward and grabs Lan Xichen’s wrist, delicately dabbing at he blood of his knuckles. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m Lan Xichen, actually,” he replies, voice too high, and immediately wants to die.

Meng Yao smiles instead of laughing at him. He has dimples. Death would probably be a mercy.

By his friends’ ominous, sudden silence, Lan Xichen knows that they’re absolutely going to mock him for this later.

[shanastoryteller]

Lan Wangji doesn’t have that many emotions about starting high school. It’s all the same people he’s known his whole life and the classwork that he’s been doing. It’s a new building and it has more students but the basic formula of go to class, go home, rinse and repeat seems largely unchanged.

The only real upside is that he’s going to same school as Xichen for the next two years. This also means that he can stop taking the bus and just drive to school with his brother.

By the time they get there, the parking lot is nearly full, which is why Lan Wangji is confused by him driving by the empty spots and then past several full rows. There’s not going to be any more free spots this close to the entrance –

There are three empty spots right at the front.

Xichen pulls in to one like it’s exactly what he expected to find. He turns off the car, but doesn’t get out, instead reaching for his phone and leaning back in his seat.

“Should we go inside?” Lan Wangji prods after another moment of Xichen making no move to get out of the car.

“What?” he looks up from his phone. “Oh. But everyone’s not here yet.”

Before Lan Wangji can ask about what he’s talking about, there’s a familiar silver jeep tearing around the corner and slamming into the parking space next to Xichen’s with eerie precision.

“Da-ge!” Nie Huaisang wails, clearly heard through the open window. “My hair! It’s ruined! You’re the worst!”

Nie Mingjue is too busy laughing as his brother slaps his chest with one hand and uses the other to frantically attempt to smooth his hair back. Xichen’s lips are twitching as he steps out of the car, Lan Wangji following.

A moment later a purple convertible turns the corner and pulls into the final empty spot next to Nie Mingjue. Jiang Yanli has on very big heart shaped sunglasses and a silk scarf around her hair, which is something Nie Huaisang might want to invest in if Nie Mingjue is going to keep driving like that with the windows down. Jiang Cheng is scowling so fiercely that it can only be to cover up his nerves.

Xichen frowns and Lan Wangji is about to ask why when Nie Mingjue jumps out of the jeep and bellows, “Oi, A-Li! Where’s Wuxian?”

A hand appears from the backseat, giving the peace sign, before gripping the seat and pulling himself up.

Lying down in the backseat is another way to protect your hair, Lan Wangji thinks distantly.

There’s a perfect boy sitting in the back of Jiang Yanli’s car, his long hair held up in a ponytail and a huge grin across his face. Lan Wangji thinks he can hear his own heartbeat, which doesn’t seem anatomically possible, and also he’s possibly forgotten how to breath.

“Right here, Mingjue!” the perfect boy says cheerfully.  “Damn, Huaisang, what happened to your hair?”

Nie Huaisang screeches and then they’re all laughing, even Jiang Cheng pulled from his grumpiness into a snicker.

“Wuxian, be nice,” Xichen scolds, but he’s laughing too.

The perfect boy is Wei Wuxian.

His brother’s best friend.

High school just got a lot more interesting.

[shanastoryteller]

Xichen’s brother is hot.

Wei Wuxian isn’t going to say that, because he’d be in violation of several important codes of friendship, but it doesn’t make it less true. Standing there scowling in his slacks and his crisp button up he kind of reminds him of Lan Qiren, which is very much not hot boy energy, but the sharpness of his cheekbones more than makes up for it.

“Do you want me to walk you to class?” he asks Jiang Cheng, all of them clustered around A-jie’s locker as usual. Wen Qing and Wen Ning are heading to them from down the call, coming from the biology labs where Wen Qing absolutely isn’t running secret experiments. Jiang Cheng now isn’t paying any attention him at all, far too busy with drooling over Wen Qing. It’d be embarrassing, except he’s been doing it since they were kids and Wen Qing is pretty drool worthy. He continues, “I can show you the shortcuts!”

“Do not show him the shortcuts,” A-jie says sternly, touching up her lip gloss in the mirror inside of her locker. He stands behind her shoulder to do the same. “Cutting through other classrooms and the kitchens is really going to get you in trouble one of these days.”

“It hasn’t yet,” Mingjue points out. “Besides, the lunch ladies love us.”

Xichen starts frantically slapping at his shoulder and Wei Wuxian is confused until he sees the object of his friend’s affections standing with Dumb and Dumber and Mianmian. Mingjue pretends like he doesn’t notice them because he’s dealing with his crush on Mianmian by pretending she doesn’t exist. It’s both ineffective and hilarious.

He absently puts Wen Ning in a quick headlock while Wen Qing uses A-jie’s mirror to wipe some sort of unidentifiable liquid off her face. He knows better than to ask any questions.

“Oi, A-Yao!” he shouts and Xichen punches him in the arm hard enough to bruise, although he’s all gentle smiles when Meng Yao looks in their direction. “Your company sucks! Come hang out with us instead.”

Meng Yao hesitates, but Jin Zixuan never misses an opportunity to awkwardly pant over his sister, so he makes a beeline towards them while the rest follow. “Hi, Jiang Yanli,” he says.

“Hello Zixuan,” she returns.

Before they can continue anything resembling a real conversation, Jiang Cheng steps forward until he’s shoulder and shoulder to Wei Wuxian. “We weren’t talking to you,” he says pointedly, then pauses to add, “Hi Mianmian.”

“Hey guys,” she says. “Do I need an invitation too?”

“No, you’re cool,” Wei Wuxian answers. “They’re not.”

“As if you’d know anything about being cool,” Jin Zixun scoffs.

Wei Wuxia knows calling himself cool is a deeply uncool thing to do, even if it’s true, so he ignores him completely to say to Meng Yao, “Everything going okay? If anyone gives you a hard time again, Xichen would be more than happy to beat them up for you!”

Mingjue starts coughing in a terrible attempt to hide his laughter and a flush slowly starts to creep up Xichen’s neck. This is fucking hysterical.  

“Would you?” Meng Yao asks, looking up at Xichen from under his lashes.

“I – if you, I mean, I could. If, um, you needed, I wouldn’t, you know, mind,” he says. Wen Qing rubs at her temples and even Jiang Cheng looks pitying.

Wei Wuxian is thriving. Meng Yao transferring here is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

“Thank you,” Meng Yao says, with what appears to be perfect sincerity.

Xichen is literally saved by the bell as the two minute warning reverberates off the halls. Everyone gives quick goodbyes and Wei Wuxian sneaks one more look at Xichen’s very quiet, very hot brother before heading to class.

[darcy-blue]

Ohmygod this is perfect please go on I NEED it

[lucisandra]

Wangxian icons

like/reblog if you save/use

[firstprincelovechild]

cmq book 4?????? 5?????? my heart is full

[darcy-blue]

!!!!!

[patroclusdefencesquad]

blorbo has done so many things wrong and i know this and i love him

[darcy-blue]

Me@wwx bby is innocent of everything :c

[layzeal]

hey hanguang-jun fans, take this quiz that’s going around on twt. trust me

[layzeal]

I DIDN’T MAKE THIS BTW, go yell at op, i’m innocent

[darcy-blue]

Feeling ATTACKED

[teenage-beauty-queen-of-sorts]

cant wait to watch uma thurman (!!!) give a powerpoint presentation about sleeping with the prince of england

[darcy-blue]

OMG EXCITEDDDD

[ashtray-girl]

"In the 70s it was black and minority ethnic people, in the 80s it was gay people, trans people are just the latest to get it in the neck from comedians who can't be bothered to try at their jobs anymore. I cannot stand there and watch another dogshit comedian go: 'Ooohh if a woman can identify as a man, maybe I'll identify as a chair!' Why don't you identify as good comedians, you hack motherfuckers?!"

- Nish Kumar: "It's In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves pt.2"

[sophiamcdougall]

Yeah but you need to actually hear the full clip and the fury and passion and glee (because he knows he's nailing them) in his voice. (Wish I could find the audio somewhere other than Twitter, but I can't.

[dtbird]

here it is!

[darcy-blue]

Nish Kumar is just 👌

[niebruvsky]

LGBTQ acronyms are so complicated these days. what the fck is mdzs

[mikkeneko]

[darcy-blue]

And literally all of these are an accurate summary of MDZS lmao

[kabaks]

sometimes i think about gay people who lived centuries ago who thought they were all alone who imagined a world where they could live openly as themselves who met in secret spoke in code defied everything and everyone just to exist and i’m like..i gotta sit down. whew i gotta sit down

[l2g-deactivated20240513]

this is why this sappho fragment hits me so hard

[doomedvoyages]

[phantom-tail]

If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex and devoted the best years of her life in striving for the political equality and social and moral elevation of women.

“The Great Geysers of California” by Laura De Force Gordon, 1879, unearthed from a 100-year-old time capsule in San Francisco, 1979.

[levourdalak]

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time. Then all the world could see how in love we are.”

Gordon Bowsher to Gilbert Bradley, 1940s

[secretlifeoffangirls]

I'm reverting back to my insufferable doctor who era, besties. I'm shifting into Doctor Who mode

[darcy-blue]

RTD really out here bringing out all the BIG GUNS to get us Whovians back and I'm ABSOLUTELY buying it without a fucking pause

[lucianalight]

The Making of Loki: Better than the Loki Show

I just watched “Assembled: The Making of Loki” and that episode was more engaging and enjoyable than all of the six episodes of the show together. The lines Tom was narrating were better than all of the dialogues in the show. Just hearing his voice and seeing his enthusiasm on screen is a joy. Th cast were great. Tom’s and Owen’s chemistry was so good and fun. And I learned that the production designer of the show is from my country which made me happy.

Here are some random thoughts I had during watching the show.

There were supposed to be a Rocket Racoon variant and more people in the waiting queue. Also the coloring and clothes in this concept art are much better than what we saw in the show.

Loki supposed to have a wardrobe change! He wears an Asgardian outfit in Lamentis and he wears his battle armor including his cape and horns to their final destination! So pray tell, why this didn’t happen in the show!? To see more of his personality? Please. As if Loki’s outfits ever prevented that. As if they aren’t part of his personality and aesthetic. Smh. Unbelievable.

Also look at these Lokis. The aesthetic and outfits look far better than what we got to see. Specially the one in the far right. I love it!

Are you telling me that the show could be far worse than what we got? I shudder to think about it. Please never write Loki again.

[justarandomgirly]

Huh. I cant wait for excuses why Loki wasnt given wardrobe change.

[lotus-eyedindiangoddess]

Also like… About Mike Waldron… Do people genuinely think he’s a “professional”? Have they read his original script? No one has even heard about him till recently and honestly, I’m seeing why he was so unknown till now. I’m fairly convinced that anything remotely good about the show is because of Tom and the cast. Because if we left Mike Waldron to handle everything, we’d have Loki saying “ya boi” in the series. Can I also add that… The people defending Mike Waldron, (especially by attacking negative opinion holders of the show) keep saying “these antis seriously think they know better than PRofFessIonalS! They’re allowed to do whatever they want with the characters they created!”.

Okay no. Waldron didn’t create Loki, and another thing is that Mike Waldron is NOT a professional. No professional writes scripts like a twelve year old, and lacks the creative ability to write scripts for CHARACTERS. An already existing character with an established back story no less. How professional a writer is he if he is in the movie industry, where writers are tasked with making sequels of someone else’s show all the time? They’re able to do it without actively destroying the character that was previously established, so is he really a professional if he destroys the very character he’s supposed to be writing about? His personality in the show is VASTLY different from in the movies. Too different to excuse and yet people call Mike Waldron a “professional”. He’s bad at his job. Fire him.

You wouldn’t keep around an incompetent writer if YOU were the managing director of large media company now would you? So why defend him when he’s literally bad at the very job he’s paid in millions to do?

[justarandomgirly]

I wonder what will they say if (and the possibility is huge because he writes Multiverse of madness) he destroys Wanda and Stephen too. @lotus-eyedindiangoddess Also. Fans defend him like he created Loki in 2011. Like it was his script back then so he knows Loki better than anyone. No. He has never had anything to do with Loki. Some of us have been fans for decade and I can assure you know a lot more about Loki than this clown. So yes. We can critisize him.

[damalseer]

I think the only reason they hired him is because he was a writer for Rick and Morty and said “yeah I can write about various characters” and thinking his ideas were great til ppl who also work in it are like “we don’t want to dumb it down to the point of cartoony”

[lucianalight]

I cant wait for excuses why Loki wasnt given wardrobe change. 

@allaboutloki Christine Wada the costume designer explained the reason for their choice of costume in Making of Loki. Basically they wanted to do sth completely opposite to what Loki was shown to wear so far.

Wada: “You see him first in his Avengers costume. And so, that’s this, you know, very elaborate sort of fighting outfit, right? So we wanted to just do a real stark contrast. Just a very, like, open it up with a bang.”

Tom: “We put him in a standard-issue TVA jumpsuit and essentially, in that scene, break him down to his most vulnerable core.” [He is talking about the first episode and time theater scene]

Wada: “You wanted to give a little insight into the character that wasn’t just about the wall of superhero costume, right? You wanted to feel like you were penetrating some layers into this character.”

Excuse me? Penetrate layers into this character? As if Loki wasn’t the most layered complex character MCU created so far. And even if we accept the explanation for the first episode, it doesn’t explain why Loki didn’t change from the ugly TVA suit to sth Asgardian the first chance he got. It was in the concept arts, why it wasn’t in the show? You were working on a superhero genre, why Loki was the only character who didn’t get to wear his iconic costume? Did you spend all of your time and budget on TVA and multiverse lore that nothing was left for Loki? Of course you did. Because you were making a show about TVA and multiverse. Not Loki. You used Loki, your most popular character and baited his fanbase to tell a story that wasn’t about him at all. It was to set up the next phase of MCU and its big bad. Funny how Marvel always treats Loki like Odin. Saving him only to use him for their other plans with regards to the character. No wonder their narrative always side with Odin and portrays him as a good father who was betrayed by his ungrateful adopted son. Smh.

Also about Multiverse of Madness, here’s what Elizabeth Olsen has said about it:

“I wrapped “WandaVision” on a Wednesday and flew to London on a Friday to continue playing this part [in “Doctor Strange 2”]. I could have used getting out of the mindset, though, because they were totally different utilizations of the character and people would have had more time to understand “WandaVision” had we not just wrapped. And so there’s just a lot of, “We covered this in ‘WandaVision…'” It’s bigger than me, there’s lots of threads that are continuing on after me that I’m not aware of, and so it’s always about, “What can I get from this journey with this character that maybe I haven’t tapped into yet with her?” That’s where I keep approaching things from, so that I feel like I have some sort of strap-hang — that I can know that there’s going to be growth of some kind, even though it all maybe looks the same to other people. There is that conscious decision to learn a new element of this woman, or even of myself as an actor — something that I want to explore that I can bring to it.” [X]

Seems to me there’s going to be a difference in handling the character. It might not be necessarily bad, but the way she talks about the writers not understanding WV or not being aware of Wanda’s story arc in it, is not assuring. And it’s just like MCU that the creators handle the story without paying attention or caring about the other works or other appearances of the character.

[darcy-blue]

Well, it was certainly quite obvious that the team behind MoM did not understand Wanda's characterisation and arc in Wandavision.

I will probably write a longer rant at some point because I am infuriated, if not exactly surprised. I didn't know Waldron was a writer for the movie too but figures, I hated both the movie and Loki 🙃

[ouroboroscully]

the child who reads 500 books a year to 20 something adult who only reads fanfic pipeline

[th3d0n]

[darcy-blue]

My reaction exactly jeez

[dushman-e-jaan]

Are there any good books or texts you could recommend for people who want to deepen their literary analysis of fiction?

Thank you!

I'm going to list some that are at the back of my mind. I'd update it when I think of more.

Here's the list (so far):

Aspects of Novel by E.M. Forster (A great book as a starting point for any novice reader of criticism; it's short, easy to read, and informative)

Critica Practica or Practical Criticism by I. A. Richards (This book is much longer than the former and goes into great detail as to how our prior knowledge affects our interpretations and much more; I can't recommend this book enough; and to be very frank, it's a must-read for anyone who's even mildly interested in Media Literacy)

The Literary Mind by Mark Turner

Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction by Keith Oatley

The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason by Mark Johnson

Understanding Cinema by Per Persson

Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design by Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen

The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama by Keir Elam (This would prove to be a very tough read for new-comers, so I recommend that it should be tackled after the above have been gone through)

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga

Man, Play and Games by Roger Caillois (Both of these books are on the nature of play, interactivity, and imagination in regard to the aspects of make-believe)

The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart by Noël Carroll

The Video Game Theory Reader, Edited by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron

Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play by Bernard Perron

Interactive Storytelling for Video Games: A Player-centered Approach to Creating Memorable Characters and Stories, Chris Klug and Josiah Lebowitz (These three books on Video Games are surprisingly informative in regard to narrative as a structure and its distinctive nature with respect to other narrative forms)

Poetics by Aristotle (I’m listing this at the end as you’d require some groundwork to get into this; however, it’s an essential read when it comes to understanding the basis of western criticism)

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (This one is different from the rest, but it ought to be read by everyone who wants to become knowledgeable on media propaganda and its entire apparatus)

Books that cover more advanced concepts:

Metaphor and metonymy across time and cultures: perspectives on the sociohistorical linguistics of figurative language, edited by Díaz Vera, Javier E.

Metaphor and Metonymy revisited beyond the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor, edited by Francisco Gonzálvez-García, María Sandra Peña-Cervel, and Lorena Pérez-Hernández

Metaphor and Metonymy in Comparison and Contrast, edited by Rene Dirven and Ralf Parings

Note: This list will be updated from time to time.

[darcy-blue]

Reblogging to save!