born under a bad sign

She/Her/They/Them, queer, asian, fandom old, no patience for purity squad bullshit. You can find me on AO3 as la_muerta and on twitter @tethysea If you'd like to support my work, feel free to Buy Me a Coffee (https://ko-fi.com/lamuerta)

[la-muerta]

Blog Navigation/Housekeeping

Hi! I'm LM. I'm mainly a fic writer but I also do art, video edits, gifsets, and translation.

I'm also the admin for the Mysterious Lotus Casebook tumblr community and Xiao Shunyao Fans tumblr community.

My fanworks can be found under the following tags:

LM's gifs

LM's vids

LM's art

LM's translations and meta

All my fanfic is on AO3

Please do not repost my vids, gifs, and art onto other platforms, especially without credit.

Fandoms and celebrities I make things about (past and present):

莲花楼 Mysterious Lotus Casebook

大梦归离 Fangs of Fortune

Shadowhunters (TV only)

陈情令 The Untamed/ 魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

山河令 Word of Honour

肖顺尧 Xiao Shunyao

侯明昊 Hou Minghao

成毅 Cheng Yi

张哲瀚 Zhang Zhehan

岑勇康 Harry Shum Jr

肖战 Xiao Zhan

You can also find me on:

AO3

Twitter

Bluesky

Please yell about the things we love with me! I also have a tip jar (Kofi)

Last updated: 4 Dec 2024

[mariemarion]

🏹​

Alec commission for @soulless-baka😭​💖​💖​ tysm! yeees, he's being surrounded by Magnus's magic 🩵​

[mariemarion]

✨​

Magnus commission for @soulless-baka tysm ToT 🌌​!! yes this one it's meant to be paired with the Alec one🩵

[voidandradiance]

the most disorienting thing thats ever happened to me was when a linguistics major stopped in the middle of our conversation, looked me in the eye, and said, "you have a very interesting vernacular. were you on tumblr in 2014?" and i had to just stand there and process that one for a good ten seconds

[booksandchainmail]

#i was in a car with a linguist i had never met before the car trip and like half an hour in he looked at me#after i finished describing a geology thing that was happening out the window and asked if i'd ever spent much time on tumblr#the fuckor of it all#and then we spent six more hours driving#it sure does leave linguistic markers! i'm not sure i'm good with it (tags via @thoughtsformtheuniverse)

[issela-santina]

it is one thing to be a linguist and another to be a linguist who knows enough of 2010s Tumblr to spot one of its enjoyers

[lierdumoa]

Oh! @meret118 see above comment! The use of the word "enjoyers" instead of "users" or "bloggers" -> You left a comment a while back asking, "Does this just mean vocabulary words? Other than blorbo and sweet cinnamon roll etc, I can't think of what a Tumblr accent would be." I almost never see anyone use the word "enjoyer" anywhere outside of tumblr, but I see it on tumblr fairly frequently.

Another one is the verb "perceive" i.e. "don't perceive me" "I am perceiving" "I am being percieved." That's something that feels very specific to tumblr parlance.

There's the thing where people on tumblr have an emotional reaction to something and instead of, or in addition to telling you how they feel about it using emotion words, they will narrate a fictional action in the present progressive tense. "I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure "I am kissing you on the mouth" "you are going into the soup" "you are getting all of the awards"

I once saw someone use that response format in ... I think it was a restaurant review, or a doordash review, or something like that. It was very unexpected seeing it outside of a tumblr post.

There are a lot of other tumblr linguistic quirks I can't currently remember off the top of my head, but I'll instantly recognize them if I see/hear them outside of tumblr. It's always a bit startling to see them out of context.

[pacificnorthwhore]

[i-wear-the-cheese]

when I was in university one of my modules was about internet slang and for our grades project we had to compile and analyse a small database of 100 words used by a specific community of our choice. I chose tumblr and that's how I stumbled across Gretchen McCulloch's research and discovered that yes not only did tumblr have its own vernacular and syntax (as @lierdumoa demonstrates), it was at the time a crucible of slang and memes probably unrivalled by any other part of the internet. and it's stayed that way! even the very title is McCulloch's book because internet is an example of this specific phraseology.

sadly my project is lost due to the website being wiped from the university database after graduation and my then laptop having a major hardware failure. backup your backups people! but the crux of the entire module was that the internet is full of communities using language not only as jargon for specific purpose but also to signal membership in said community. I even wrote a bit about non capitalisation and punctuation useage as a visual cue on tumblr and how including information in the reblog body or the tags indicated different levels of importance or intimacy of thought

I am holding the side of your face and looking deep in your eyes and telling you that love is stored in the syntax, and that we are rotating words together all at once as we all nod at their new and baffling meanings. if the devils sacrament be tumblr then the devils gospel is our collective voice. thanks for coming to my tedtalk

[weirdchristmas]

I am being perceived.

[la-muerta]

Last Three Lines

rules: in a new post, show the last three lines you wrote or the last thing you drew, and tag as many people as you feel like!

I was tagged by @yeliuxi <3

As the characters on screen spoke their next bit of dialogue, Li Lianhua thought he heard Feng Qing speak, and Di Feisheng replied in a low rumble that was impossible to make out from this distance. Feng Qing laughed, and in the slight lull in the dialogue on screen, Li Lianhua heard him say, "Di-Sir, you truly live up to your reputation as one of the best on the Hong Kong Police Force. How did you figure that out?"

Yes it's from the Dihua Infernal Affairs AU one hand on the trigger (the other hand in mine) // 暗线 and I know the last update was a year ago 🙈 But I'm still writing it! Slowly but surely (emphasis on slow lol)

Tagging: @harocat @moonrise-rebel @exitvelocities @tiny-breadcrumbs and anybody else who wants to play!

[evenlyevi]

My beloved (Ixora)

[romanceyourdemons]

i bet belle and hua mulan would love each other. the filial piety brothers 💪

[romanceyourdemons]

belle: i respect my father so much

hua mulan: hey i respect MY father so much, and also yours

belle: i would lay down my life for him in an instant, so of course when his life was on the line i didn’t hesitate to set aside whatever identity and thoughts of the future i had had to defend him

hua mulan: that’s crazy i also did that

belle: i didn’t expect that i would end up with more grandeur and authority than i ever could have accessed otherwise, but of course i didn’t forget who i was doing this for or let the power tempt me

hua mulan: 100% with you sister

belle: also the giant bloodthirsty cat creature gives insane dick like you wouldn’t even believe

hua mulan: the what

[firawren]

Not letting @dumpster-fire-rats leave that in the tags

[la-muerta]

晚安哦 Goodnight 💤

Photos from Zhang Zhehan 张哲瀚's Kuala Lumpur fanmeet, "镜 Kaleidoscope", 3rd May 2026. [source: Zhang Zhehan's IG]

[cdramazine]

PREORDERS FOR RESPLENDENT, A ZINE DEDICATED TO CHINESE DRAMAS, ARE NOW OPEN.

146 Pages of Fic and Art, Perfect Bound, 16.96x26 CM, Full Color, Features Thirty-Three Different Fandoms. Optional Merch Bundles Bring the Fandom Selection to Almost Forty!

Preorders are open from April 30 2026-May 31st 2026

Stretch goal enamel pin will be unlocked with eighty total physical zine preorders.

Further info on our bundle options.

Further info on the fandoms featured.

Our chosen charities: Shan Shui Conservation Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action.

Please look through our blog for promo and previews of the fanworks featured!

Direct any questions to our ask box, contact info on our carrd, or to the bigcartel contact form.

ORDER HERE!

[colorlessjay-destielblog]

Saw a lot of people doing it and wanted to throw my hat into the ring

[evalineart]

[la-muerta]

I started reading the novel that Minghao's new show Immortalis is based on, 碧血蝉. Halfway through the first chapter and his character Yang Wujian has appeared dressed as a girl, trashing everyone in a martial arts competition while teasing/flirting with his opponents so hard that he scared two guys off 😂😂😂 By the end of the chapter, he deliberately falls into the arms of Zhou Huai (Xu Zhenxuan's character) because he was standing in the place that Yang Wujian wanted to be at. I hope they keep it all in, this should be fun lol

[la-muerta]

Zhang Zhehan 张哲瀚 for Marie Claire Serbia, May 2026

We’ve gone through a lot in this era. People can grow distant, there’s doubt, uncertainty, and even the impact of the AI age. In times like this, the most important thing between people is warmth. We should try our best to give that to each other.

The full interview, "Born to Shine", can be found here.

[la-muerta]

More photos from the shoot, shared by Zhehan on his Instagram account, 27 Apr 2026

[la-muerta]

it's been a few hundred years, and Di Feisheng is still waiting on the shore, looking out over Donghai and searching...

(or, Xiao Shunyao's weibo update 26 Apr 2026 with pics from his trip to Italy)

[la-muerta]

Zhang Zhehan 张哲瀚 for Marie Claire Serbia, May 2026

We’ve gone through a lot in this era. People can grow distant, there’s doubt, uncertainty, and even the impact of the AI age. In times like this, the most important thing between people is warmth. We should try our best to give that to each other.

The full interview, "Born to Shine", can be found here.

[cdramazine]

Are you all ready for our bundle options and prices? Here you go!

Our FULL BUNDLE features fanworks from almost forty Cdrama fandoms! Put April 30th in your calendar, because that’s when preorders open. ❤️

-Mod Team

[la-muerta]

So I was invited by @cdramazine to contribute a fic, and here's a little teaser in the form of the fic banner I've made for it 😉

P/S: The zine honestly looks amazing! There's so much good fic and art from a variety of fandoms, the contributing artists, writers, and mods all did a fantastic job! Less than two weeks until preorders open (and proceeds will go to two charities)!