shoemaking and obstetrics

27, she/her. prone to hyperfixation and subsequent fandom hibernation (c) softfuzzymannnnn. i've experienced some fanfic in my time (c) david tennant. Currently on TGCF steak, but I'm also a whovian, who loves Good Omens, who's mostly into manga/anime rn (Spy x Family, JJK, Given, BNHA). Some other things I love are Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Samuel Barnett & Jamie Parker. Basically a geek in love with sci-fi, science and anime. Other faves are Lucifer (and Tom Ellis), Daredevil, The Scorpions, Imagine Dragons, Peter Capaldi, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Mentallist, Marvel and DC movies and TV series

[the-s1lly-corner]

Having comfort characters is so funny because you hear or see something that vaguely reminds you of them and it's like

[rylandsgrace]

DAVID TENNANT and GEORGIA TENNANT

EE BAFTA Film Awards 2024 (Feb 18, 2024)

[neil-gaiman]

hello

can you please tell me to continue writing whatever the hell i am writing, because currently it seems like i'm writing nonsense

thank you

You too? Absolutely. You keep going and I'll keep going too.

[raining-stars-somewhere-else-de]

I’m writing right now too and struggling a little, but I’ll keep going along with you two

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Every time this post comes up on my dash i feel so fucking called out.

I dug up an old WIP yesterday and read through the entire thing, it was some 180 pages of an original story and I actually really fucking liked it??

[Of course, it was still transcendentally weird. On one hand there was a painfully beautifully scene where the trans boy comes out his crush and is worried he'll be rejected. On the other hand I discovered lines that i just. Who let me write them. Said crush, Rian, walked up to Avi who was getting flirted with by a bunch of people while preparing soil. And he just fucking says "I thought we were supposed to be using shovels for gardening, I see Avi's using hoes instead." Ngk????!!!!! 😭]

BUT WHO'S GOING TO WRITE THE REST OF IT? ME???? THIS IS HOMOPHOBIA.

Someone encourage me to write please so that my two idiot gays can have their enemies to lovers happily ever after and I can sit and be stupid with them.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

WE CAN DO IT EVERYONE WRITE. IT MAY NOT LOOK GOOD TO YOU. IT DOESN'T MATTER. THE ONLY THING YOU NEED TO DO TO BE A WRITER IS, WELL. WRITE.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Alright you know what? Today's the day I drag that WIP out from its dusty little hole and write. I'll set a timer for an hour and just fucking do it.

[neil-gaiman]

For the record, that thing I was writing last week that I was convinced was the worst thing in the world...? I kept going. I finished it. I revised it. I sent it in. Everybody loves it so much. Even me.

[huaenrose]

“You’re home, Your Highness,” Hua Cheng welcomes Xie Lian with a tender kiss on his lips.

"San Lang, will you ever stop calling me that?"

"You are my highness."

"I'm your husband."

"As I said: my highness", the answer is as firm as the intertwining of their hands at that moment.

"I haven't been a prince for a long time now," Xie Lian laughs at his tragedy, as usual.

"Now you convinced me" Hua Cheng says, with serious eyes, "as soon as you married me, a Ghost King, you obviously became king too" and kisses the hand he holds in a whisper, "Your Majesty."

[saawek]

It’s rather odd how peaceful things can feel after a traumatic event. 

Xie Lian remembered the screams of agony that had torn Wu Ming apart when he had taken the souls, when he had sacrificed himself to save him from a terrible fate. Those screams would forever haunt him. 

But right now, he could only hear the fresh breeze caressing his cheeks. He could only see the colours of this cold spring morning. He could only see the birds and the flowers surrounding him. It felt so very alive.

And kneeling in front of him, the same ghost, always so calm and so reverent. The fallen god could have cried at this moment, but he only delicately took the flower that was given to him. With all the care in the world this time. 

There was nothing he could say to Wu Ming in this instant. Wu Ming who was looking at him with his eyes bright and so very full of love, ready to die one more time if asked. 

So Xie Lian just gripped the flower tighter and held it against his heart.

—- more ghibli hualian here and here ——

ps this isn’t a smiley rock… but wu ming’s mask…

[estrella-etoile-deactivated2025]

Hua Cheng's Very Different Loves

There is often a fundamental misunderstanding of Hua Cheng's love for Xie Lian. The biggest of them was Mu Qing and Feng Xin's assumption at seeing the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods.

They see Hua Cheng as obsessive, dangerous. And given the history with Bai Wuxian, yeah, not entirely in the wrong for that assumption.

It's hard to understand that Hua Cheng is one who has truly separated his devotion from his romantic love for Xie Lian. Because devotion/worship of a god and love of a person are different.

At least until now, the devout and obsessive level of worship that Hua Cheng exhibits is the first type. The type of a religious devotee. And that cave, that's what we see. Hua Cheng did not make the sculptures and the paintings for Xie Lian exactly, he didn't do it with a plan to bring Xie Lian there and ask for praise, he did it because Xie Lian was his totem, the very thing that could center him even at times of extreme suffering to pull through. Religious love is not something that expects reciprocation, it's not something that requires anything of the subject of worship except their existence. And the Hua Cheng of the past 800 years poured his obsessive love into this type of love, the love that he does not have any expectations for.

We also know that Hua Cheng also felt the other type of love too. His sexual awakening was downright traumatic. Seriously, imagine being fourteen, and having to defend your beloved god from sex demons who are forcing you to realize that your devotion to your god has an edge of desire, all while said god is stabbing himself to keep from acting on the extreme discomfort of sexual urges forced on him by those same damn sex demons. No wonder Hua Cheng is so absolutely freaked out and a little disgusted about harboring that type of love for Xie Lian.

When Hua Cheng finally finds Xie Lian again after 800 years, I fundamentally believe that Hua Cheng would have been content with an existence of watching over and protecting his god from the sidelines. His devotion mattering more than that sliver of self-loathing desire that would never be erased.

The story we got to read though, the one that makes TGCF so special is the way that the other love grows so naturally between Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. They enjoy each other's company, enjoy teasing and talking, enjoy the little touches that they share. When Hua Cheng talks about his beloved, he speaks of his romantic love and winning over that person. He speaks of it shyly, because he knows it is something that has to be shared and has to grow naturally. It's what makes their love story is so so human, because Hua Cheng treated his religious love and his desirous love as completely separate from each other. And the best part? Xie Lian knows this, understands this, has no doubt about this.

It means that the scene in the cave, where both Feng Xin and Mu Qing mistook Hua Cheng's obsessive devotion for obsessive desire, Xie Lian recognizes correctly.

And Xie Lian reciprocates those romantic feelings.

I like to picture those days that Xie Lian wakes up and finds the other side of his bed empty, then wanders to the Thousand Lights Temple to see Hua Cheng there changing the single white flower in his god's hands, then bowing his head and saying a prayer. Xie Lian rolls his eyes, because well, he's right there, but it's Hua Cheng's ritual, and whether they are husbands, whether they had rough and enjoyable sex the night before, Hua Cheng won't slack on his religious love just because he gets to share romantic love with his husband and god.

[sonneillonv]

[arohuacheng]

so we're all aware of e'ming as an externalization of hua cheng's self hatred right like we're all thinking about the way that e'ming is functionally a representation of hua cheng's self and specifically his younger self and that his abuse toward it and his anger toward it and the fact that he uses it as a weapon all leads back into the way that he treats himself and that it's made of the eye that marked him as ugly and cursed from birth and that e'ming is a crystallization of that moment when hua cheng tore his own eye out because he wasn't strong enough before and made himself stronger by tearing himself apart and making himself the weapon and so e'ming is an essential part of him that he can never ever leave behind but also a constant reminder of the self that was not strong enough, the self that was cursed and unloved, the self that he has tried so so hard to outgrow and leave behind but can never escape because it's him... and the violence that he uses the sword for and that he directs at the sword is all violence surrounding himself... we're all aware of that right...

[aystas]

my comfort

[eepybubble]

only thing that stands between me and going to bed is the entire internet that fits in the palm of my hand

[victorialovesstiles]

There’s something so subtle about the way Hua Cheng loves Xie Lian.

(Hold on, hear me out...)

In fiction, when we have a character who loves someone as deeply as Hua Cheng loves Xie Lian, we usually see the ugly side of that affection rear it's head eventually.

Adoration turns into obsession (any positive thing can turn ugly in excess). Obsession can drive behaviour that most of us cringe at; one worst case scenario is stalking, but even a best case would be the expectation (or worthiness) of reciprication.

This obsession can also be followed by huge, grandiose actions that leave the object of the affections no room to guess at the other's feelings and intentions.

Hua Cheng doesn't do any of that. His love is akin to worship, or rather, it literally is reverance for a god. No expectation, no indignance - just pure adoration untainted by the usual consequences of human love.

His love is so subtle, in fact, that Xie Lian can't even begin to guess at his intentions. Even going so far as to wonder continuously in the beginning why Hua Cheng spares so much time and kindness for him.

Hua Cheng expects nothing from Xie Lian - he demands nothing from Xie Lian, not even in the way a worshiper might. This type of god-worshiper love is so hard to fit into the mould of a romantic relationship.

Watching it unfold is so beautiful, complex, and fragmented. It's not the innocent love story you would expect, and honestly it's part of the reason why I love their relationship so much.

You rarely see such pure, unadulterated, and selfless love written this perfectly in fiction.

[abilai]

Little red flower for dianxia

[ebiemoon]

TGCF SPOILERS FOR VOLUME 6 (official eng translation)

not saying this in a discourse-y way but i really could never label the cave of 10,000 gods and the murals, even the more... sensual ones, as creepy or stalker-adjacent. like we aren't mu qing or feng xin- we have the info we need to know that hua cheng's lifelong devotion is pure and the things in that cave were made with respect and yearning. we know it through the person he would only ever be honest with- xie lian

even if some of the works in that cave implied carnal desire (normal to have btw), we know that hc would never act upon it unless xl wished it. he was bothered when called disgusting, afraid that xl had seen certain pieces in that cave, held him differently as not to touch him so much, let the effects of the talisman stuck to xl fade rather than removing it himself, and then reassured him that he wouldn't [touch him]. hc's so painfully aware. he's so afraid of possibly being repulsive

and well, its a romantic, fantasy context. a love so pure and untainted that could never exist in real life can definitely exist here

[no-one-says-hi]

My canonically married dads as my other canonically divorced dads.

(Hualian x Good Omens)

[fatcowboys]

i am a simple guy. i like something. i watch it again. i watch it again. i watch it ag

[checaria]

quiet vulnerable hualian moments ;-;

[munchy-k]

got the sudden urge to doodle tonglu hc~