I just wanted to drop by, I'm 3 years older wooooo time FLIES, I got rid of my titties a year ago and i've been on T for a week, I go more by lio or beelio now, hope you're doing good, the horrors are endless but we stay silly!
I'm over at @beesinspades now, still writing fics and making all my faves asexual, but I also picked up drawing because trigun rewired my brain chemistry.
(READ TRIGUN MAXIMUM VIA @trigun-manga-overhaul WATCH TRIGUN STAMPEDE THE ORDER DOESN'T MATTER TRUST MEEEE IT'S SO GOOD I KNOW YOU WANT TO)
I just wanted to drop by, I'm 3 years older wooooo time FLIES, I got rid of my titties a year ago and i've been on T for a week, I go more by livio or lio or beelio now, hope you're doing good, the horrors are endless but we stay silly!
I'm over at @beesinspades now, still writing fics and making all my faves asexual, but I also picked up drawing because trigun rewired my brain chemistry.
(READ TRIGUN MAXIMUM VIA @trigun-manga-overhaul WATCH TRIGUN STAMPEDE THE ORDER DOESN'T MATTER TRUST MEEEE IT'S SO GOOD I KNOW YOU WANT TO)
I just wanted to drop by, I'm 3 years older wooooo time FLIES, I got rid of my titties a year ago and i've been on T for a week, I go more by livio or lio or beelio now, hope you're doing good, the horrors are endless but we stay silly!
I'm over at @beesinspades now, still writing fics and making all my faves asexual, but I also picked up drawing because trigun rewired my brain chemistry.
(READ TRIGUN MAXIMUM VIA @trigun-manga-overhaul WATCH TRIGUN STAMPEDE THE ORDER DOESN'T MATTER TRUST MEEEE IT'S SO GOOD I KNOW YOU WANT TO)
I have 2.5k followers but Iâm pretty sure most of them are inactive, I want a simpler tagging system, and I donât know, it always feels good to start anew.
I have 2.5k followers but Iâm pretty sure most of them are inactive, I want a simpler tagging system, and I donât know, it always feels good to start anew.
[id: eight gifs from âheaven officialâs blessingâ, centred around xie lian. they are yellow, white, purple, and orange. they show: in yellow: xie lian in the spiritual communication array, a still shot while looking at hua cheng. in white: xie lian during the god-pleasing festival with his mask falling off, his third ascension. in purple: xie lian fighting the demon of yi nian bridge, in the air with his robes flowing heavily. in orange: xie lian turning around and smiling, talking and looking off to the right.
xie lian thoughts?? i just finished the novel and i can't stop thinking about him!!! best boi oh my god. i need to read long long metas on him (and hua cheng) to stop hyperfixating. if you ever have the time and wish...please? meta more on him? 𼺠i just LOVE your metas on cql so đ
anon youâre in luck that I managed to scrape together the remnants of intelligent thought in my brain to come up with this
we talk all the time about Hua Cheng being Xie Lianâs most devout believer, but what we often overlook is that Xie Lian himself is a profoundly devout believer as well
itâs just not as obvious as the depths of Hua Chengâs love (which, thanks to a nifty trick of worldbuilding, translates directly into Xie Lianâs power), but Xie Lian is as fervent of a believer as Hua Cheng--he simply places his faith in the inherent goodness of humanity
part of the reason why I find Xie Lianâs character arc so compelling is that his story grapples with the tangled issues of privilege, power, and morality. in his youth, as the beloved Crown Prince of Xianle, of course Xie Lian can afford to compassionate and charitable, because he wants for nothing and can infinitely provide out of the coffers of the royal family. He has a simplistic, black-and-white view of the world. Just do the right thing, he says, as if itâs obvious, as if itâs easy, as if itâs that simple
when faced with the thought experiment of the two people dying of thirst in the desert, and the single cup of water--if you were a god, asks his teacher, who would you give the water to?--a young, arrogant, undefeated Xie Lian, a Xie Lian who has yet to come face-to-face with a power greater than himself, flippantly chooses a third path of impossible optimism, and while itâs admirable, itâs also aggravating, naive, and impractical
this of course, comes back to haunt Xie Lian in book four, dogging his footsteps as he crawls his way through the mortal world, hemmed in on all sides by the strictures of conduct, the incessant demands of survival. we see Xie Lian pushed to and past his limits; we see the way his vaunted morals crumble in the face of hunger and desperation and need. where is the third path, when you are one of those people dying in the desert, and there is only one cup of water? what is the point of being a god if you canât even save the people you love?
we see Xie Lianâs belief in goodness and righteousness stretch and bend under the pressure of everything heâs put through--and we see it shatter.Â
Xie Lian loses faith. Xie Lian has his belief in the worthiness of morality and compassion crushed to smithereens, left smeared across the floor of an abandoned temple in his own blood and viscera. after chapter 190, we come to know a terrifying Xie Lian whose heart has frozen over, who will lie and cheat and steal and kill without batting an eye. this Xie Lian dons the mask of his worst enemy and does it justice
there is a dead space, a blank space, an unwritten space in the narrative following the immense trauma of chapter 190. two months go by after blood spills onto the floor of an abandoned temple and flame chars the corpses inside to ash, and we donât know what happens to Xie Lian in those two months, except that Bai Wuxiang is there, and Bai Wuxiang is watching over him, and Bai Wuxiang sends Xie Lian off down the mountain with the black sword that was both agent and accessory to his suffering
but. but. even after all that--even after all that--there is still some of that old Xie Lian left, an ember not gone completely cold. he leaves the door open. he gives humanity another chance
and humanity nearly fails that second test, that last test; that ember of hope, of belief, of faith comes so close to being snuffed out, but all it takes is a straw hat in the rain, a single momentâs kindness, unasked for, freely given, even if itâs accompanied with grumbling and insults and no shortage of cursing
the full force of Xie Lianâs belief comes surging back, and even though he is still fettered by the cursed shackle around his throat, Xie Lian is back, once more full of the power and agency and divine goodness that makes him who he truly is, the beloved taizi-dianxia of Xianle, whose beauty was matched only by his goodness, whose power was only matched by the depth of his benevolence
it is the strength of his belief in what is good and right and worthy that carries him through the end of book four, to a battered and bruised and dearly-bought victory snatched from the jaws of despair and disillusionment and destruction, and it is this same ironclad belief that leads him to scattering his allotted luck, carries him through another seven hundred and seventy years of unending misfortune with, impossibly, a smile on his face and laughter on his lips
Xie Lianâs faith is tested, and Xie Lianâs faith fails him. but faith isnât something that, once lost, can never be restored. faith is forgiving, faith is enduring, and sometimes all it takes is for one brief moment, one tiny action to restore it to full, blazing glory
we first meet Xie Lian, eight centuries into this life, and he is still travelling, still doing good deeds. one would think, after a few centuries, after book four, that Xie Lian is entitled to a retirement, or at least a vacation
but when people cry out for help, he goes to them. when a traveller stops by his temple with news of vanishing caravans, he doesnât hesitate, journeys to distant Banyue to investigate. Xie Lian doesnât stop, doesnât give up, because heâs found his calling and harmonized it with his being
so of course Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are perfectly matched for each other, and not just because Hua Cheng refashions himself to perfectly complement Xie Lian, but because the two of them are both devout believers of their respective faiths--Xie Lian in the worthiness of the world, and Hua Cheng in the worthiness of Xie Lian
@huacheng-zhuâ! lion! lion proportions are SO HARD fsdgh
@ravioliwingsâ! a badger!
@smol-merciâ! capybara (side note, capybaras are adorable and lovely but a capybara with its mouth open is horrifying)
@sketchyscribblesâ! a fluffy cat! i donât⌠know how to draw long fur apparently orz
@snarkymonkeyprimeâ! a kitty! i just watched the way of the househusband so this is, vaguely, that cat :â) except i didnât look it up so the markings are probably wrong. cat yawns are cute but difficult from an artistic perscpective sdfgh
thank you all for your prompts!!! iâm sorry if the colors are whack i am saving my eyeballs and drawing with my screen dimmer turned on lol
Pairing: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian
Rated: Teen and Up Audiences
Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Disappearance, Angst, Past Separations, Additional Tags and Warnings in Author's Notes
Word Count: 8.3k
