Bibliophile

Ravenclaw, Stargaryen, Wolfstar, Slytherclaw, Klaroline, Olicity, Snowbarry, Dramione, Harmony

[raindrops-on-concrete]

wei wuxian's foolproof plan of making everyone believe that he is, in fact, not the yiling patriarch:

step 1: pretend to be a gay lunatic (he already was a gay lunatic)

step 2: throw step 1 out of the window as soon as someone disrespects the lan clan (his life-long crush's clan)

step 3: play the flute (the instrument well known as the yiling patriarch's spiritual weapon of choice)

step 4: summon the ghost general (the yiling patriarch's right hand man)

step 5: play a song composed by hanguang-jun that only him and the yiling patriarch have ever heard

step 6: flirt with hanguang-jun (his lifelong crush)

[sybilius]

Don’t give me one-sided unrequited love, give me two-sided unwanted love. Both sides are deeply in love with the other and both sides are like ‘fuck, really?? them??? really?’

[effortlessly-unhinged]

Cloud Recesses Study Arc be like…

[greatnesswithoutenvies]

#no but seriously#much is said about Lan Zhan hating his crushing wwx

#but imagine being wwx#known free spirited rebel

#and you suddenly feel tinglies in your tummy for the most BORING nerd you’ve ever met

#for starters you thought you were straight#so like wtf

[sunflower-galaxy-star]

I tried to make some more fan animation.

[soursoppi]

baby is baby no matter the size or age

[chaotic-fluff3]

And now I present a ranking of MXTX's protagonist and designated simp's cooking skills.

1st place: Luo Binghe (canonically an incredible cook)

2nd place: Lan Wangji (starts out as only able to make bland food, but adapts to make food for his husband and child. Can cook anything with a recipe.)

3rd place: Hua Cheng (a passible cook in my head canon, not sure if it was ever specified in the source material if he was a good cook or not. He would rather order a 5 star chef to make food for his gege.)

4th place: Wei Wuxian (will make everything so spicy it burns your taste buds off, but it is edible and will not kill you. Your mouth may never recover based on your spice tolerance, but it's not technically poison.)

5th place: Shen Yuan (can make instant ramen and pre-cooked meals that just need to be heated up. Loses points as it doesn't really count as cooking and there isn't any instant ramen in Ancient China.)

6th place: Xie Lian (Hazardous To All Sentient Beings Except Hua Cheng and Xie Lian Himself. DO NOT CONSUME.)

[laughableconcept]

I just love picturing the cook off~

Xie Lian in conservative white robes, dusty from the road, delivering a bubbling pot with censorship mosaics.

Wei Wuxian in eerily drifting black robes, delivering a dish that smells good, but is red enough to be it's own warning label.

And Shen Qingqiu,

in layers of green silk and finery,

gracefully sweeping away his sleeves,

to tip hot water from a delicate teapot... into Cup Noodle.

Shang Qinghua hears about the competition later and immediately calls him out for cheating, "If it weren't for the System shop interface, you'd be delivering burnt water!"

[laughableconcept]

Lan defensive techniques.

[lanwangjihouse]

tag of the week:

@peanutbutter-nutella :

#“you're wearing my underwear” “your WHAT” >>>

[laughableconcept]

Damn, you ever have a perfect mental image of an episode and then get frustrated when you can't find the perfect gif for it?

WWX is absolutely wearing LWJ's undergarments.

The best part is not their time together, it's later, in the cave, when WWX throws off his outer robes to draw a blood talisman on his own himself... and we get a shot of Lan Qiren clearly noticing that WWX is wearing his nephews underrobes.

[sapphoshands]

A lot of fiction these days reads as if—as I saw Peter Raleigh put it the other day, and as I’ve discussed it before—the author is trying to describe a video playing in their mind. Often there is little or no interiority. Scenes play out in “real time” without summary. First-person POV stories describe things the character can’t see, but a distant camera could. There’s an overemphasis on characters’ outfits and facial expressions, including my personal pet peeve: the “reaction shot round-up” in which we get a description of every character’s reaction to something as if a camera was cutting between sitcom actors.

When I talk with other creative writing professors, we all seem to agree that interiority is disappearing. Even in first-person POV stories, younger writers often skip describing their character’s hopes, dreams, fears, thoughts, memories, or reactions. This trend is hardly limited to young writers though. I was speaking to an editor yesterday who agreed interiority has largely vanished from commercial fiction, and I think you increasingly notice its absence even in works shelved as “literary fiction.” When interiority does appear on the page, it is often brief and redundant with the dialogue and action. All of this is a great shame. Interiority is perhaps the prime example of an advantage prose as a medium holds over other artforms.

fascinated by this article, "Turning Off the TV in Your Mind," about the influences of visual narratives on writing prose narratives. i def notice the two things i excerpted above in fanfic, which i guess makes even more sense as most of the fic i read is for tv and film. i will also be thinking about its discussion of time in prose - i think that's something i often struggle with and i will try to be more conscious of the differences between screen and page next time i'm writing.

[laughableconcept]

You also lose out on the value of an unreliable narrator when you write as though describing a video.

I'll show you what I mean.

Imagine an awkward confession.

In visual media, the actor/actress will use their body language and facial expressions to reflect the awkwardness of the confessor, sure, but you can also see the person they are confessing to.

The other actor/actress is also using body language and facial expressions to react to the confession in character, which immediately reveals to the audient what their feelings about that confession even if there is no verbal reply.

Contrast that with written media where you can't see the other person.

You don't know whether the awkward confession was accepted or rejected unless the writing tells you as much. If you've got first person or limited third person perspective, and there's no spoken reply, then you could have no idea what that other person's reaction was. All you know is what the person who confessed thinks might have happened, and they could be wrong.

You get more invested in the main character, their wants, worries, and goals, when you can't see everything going on around them like an omniscient god looking down and passing informed judgement on whether the character made an intelligent decision or not.

Perfect example:

In the novel, it's completely understandable that WWX didn't know LWJ likes him and that it took him time to reach an understanding both about LWJ's feelings and about his own.

But he comes off as dumb in visual adaptations because the audience can clearly see what's up.

Heck, CQL removed the gay relationship in order to comply with CCP censorship and you still look at WWX and think he's dumb for not knowing LWJ likes him.

Pretty sure you can find more examples in MXTX other works, too.

If there aren't SEVERAL examples of this for Scum Villain, I'll eat my sketchpad.

[clingonlikeclingwrap]

immediate friendship

[poorlittleyaoyao]

Shoutout to Jin Zixuan for being the only member of his generation to NOT lose his mother at a young age!

Unfortunately, this distinction is achieved by making his mother the first of two MDZS women to bury her son.

[neo--queen--serenity]

Everyone talks about how embarrassing the wangxian confession was in the Guanyin temple, but I would argue that Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen's messy, public divorce should be competing for the title of "most awkward for hapless bystanders."

Because sure, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were being shamelessly cuddly, but Jin Guangyao—the man who was revealing his supervillain masterplot bit by bit throughout this altercation—spent a portion of that time on his knees in front of Lan Xichen with a tearful, "it's not true baby let me explain," routine—during which you can physically see Lan Xichen yo-yo in real-time between fully buying into jiggy's excuses, then snapping himself out of it with a colorful spectrum of emotions that are definitely in contrast with the Lan family precepts.

What's worse, not only are Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen essentially two of the biggest celebrities of the cultivation world, but most of the cultivators present actively work for Jin Guangyao. That is their boss ugly crying on the floor trying not to fumble the man they are actively holding as their prisoner.

wangxian's PDA crimes pale in comparison to whatever the fuck xiyao was putting them through.

[rovadeve]

Cultivating to immortality is the most statisfying conclusion to Lan Xichens’ character and also the worst thing that could happen to him. Man goes into seclusion after finding out one of the loves of his life killed the other, and he knows he’s complacent in all murder attempts and bad blood between the two of them. During seclusion all he can do is cultivate and meditate and he slowly finds he no longer ages. His hair stays eternally jetblack, his face never starts to show any lines. He realises his little brother looks older than he does when they stand next to each other. He finds he’s going to be here with himself forever, on a cold mountain guided by more than a thousand rules of which he doesn’t know how many he broke, forever seperated from the two men he loved and wronged and forever carrying the guilt and what if’s around. Jin Guangyao shoved Lan Xichen away from that coffin and as such damned himself and Nie Mingjue to eternal fighting without their souls ever getting rest, and damned Lan Xichen to an eternal life living with that guilt and pain. Like his sworn brothers were doomed to die, he should be doomed to an eternal life. Everyone will forever see him as the perfect image of Gusu Lan cultivation practice. Lan Xichen doesn’t know where he can start to explain that that’s not true.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Secondary poll based on the comments so far:

You two should reconsider your relationship if you're not able to compromise

You're perfect for each other, never involve anyone else in this situation

Voting ended onJun 23, 2023

Original post

[hellscabanaboy]

propose to him with the worst fucking ring you can possibly get your hands on. like not a half-assed, "oh you won't like anything I get anyway," passive-aggression ring, that is not the play, you need to do your research and take some interest in the things that matter to your enemy future husband and really learn about like, the gemstone cuts or whatever, and then you need to get him the most eye-catching ring you can find that would also be completely offensive to his overdeveloped sensibilities. He's putting in all this effort to bribe the cat to bite you, it's the least you could do to step it up in response.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

So that anon came back with an adorable proposal story, but I fucking love this idea and need it to make it into someone's fanfic or something

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

UPDATE What's up, it's the proposal guy. You said you wanted to know how this turned out, so I figured I'd tell you. First some context though, because I'm mean and I wanna keep you in suspense longer.

1- I don't wanna doxx us so I'm not telling you where we live, but suffice to say, neither of us are American, and gay marriage has been legal here for less than five years. For both of us, this is the first relationship we've had where marriage was even an OPTION, and I think that's where we've been getting some of that whole 'this has to be a REAL proposal with EVERYTHING' idea.

2- I gotta figure out how to explain this properly. So, I'm pretty used to being the GUY guy in relationships? I was always the one who did the nice gestures, not the one they got done for. Before I met my dream guy, I didn't really notice or care that it was such a thing, I just assumed that's how shit worked. Also, I promised I wouldn't talk a lot about his stuff here, but his last boyfriend before me SUCKED. Anyway point here is, it turns out we both REALLY like feeling swept off our feet sometimes, and a big part of finding each other has been getting to feel special for once? That's a stupid sappy way of putting it the point here is I think all that's what morphed into "I need to be the one getting proposed to, also it has to be completely perfect", and then our Petty & Extra genes got involved.

So I'm sitting in bed thinking about all that up there, and watching all the comments coming in basically being like "Dude, you are BLOWING this" on repeat, and telling me to compromise, and I look up and see him flossing in the bathroom and making all these doofy faces at the mirror, and it's like a switch just flips in my brain, and I'm like "Oh, I'd rather he gets to have his perfect proposal than we both have an okay one". I'm gonna do it.

Morning rolls around, and while I'm 'out for my jog like normal' I hit up a pawn shop for a temp ring (the ring pop thing is cute but NOT HIM). I found one I was at least confident wouldn't get ruined the first time he got his hands greasy (he fixes old machines as a hobby it's hot as hell), got back home, and hid the box in the toe of my nasty ass workout shoes in the bedroom closet, since I figured he'd check there last.

He was still asleep, because he stays up late no matter what and then is SHOCKED he's tired the next day, so I called and booked a table at our usual anniversary spot. (Side note about the 'he picks bad restaurants' thing. This isn't an 'I like Greek, you like Chinese' situation, dude's just BAD at finding places. He either assumes pricey is tasty and I get to eat some overrated gourmet bullshit, or he'll try and find something hip and underground and risk giving us food poisoning again, and he REFUSES to give up and pick somewhere we've been before when it's his turn to plan date night. I'm obsessed with him <3.) Date was set, I'd propose on the 21st.

Some of you might have noticed this, but fun fact! It's currently the 16th.

Last night I'm doing dishes and he's been sent to our room for mug collection duty, and he's taking FOREVER, so I go check just in case he found the ring, because the man's a gift tracking BLOODHOUND. Turns out he hasn't, he's found my Angry Box.

I assume other people have an Angry Box? Basically, we had this huge messy fight right when we first moved in together, and I never wanna let it get that bad again, so I have this shoebox where I keep a bunch of our stuff I can look at if we're fighting and hopefully cool off. There's one of those photo booth roll things, letters we wrote when he moved back with his parents for COVID, the wine cork from our first date, shit like that. Anyway, he's just sitting on the floor staring at it, and I explain about the Angry Box, and then he! Proposes!!! Kind of.

He definitely didn't have anything prepared, because by 'propose' I mean 'ugly cried & rambled at me for several minutes before I figured out it WAS a proposal', but once I got on the same page it was amazing. I said yes, and he had to admit he didn't have a ring for me because he was CONVINCED he'd win and I'd do it, so I grabbed mine because, yeah, he was right. He was like "this is the ugliest ring I've ever seen" and I was like yeah well the plan is to replace it later and he went "No. You can pry this off my cold dead fingers. After I'm buried with it." So I guess it's not a temporary ring anymore.

I'm just gonna go ahead and skip to this morning. I pointed out we still have the reservation, and he said I should propose there anyway because "We can get a free dessert. They have those creme brulee shot glasses you like. And for love, or something" and I said ok deal, but that means you gotta get me a ring to keep it fair, and his eyes LIT UP. When I swung by his work for lunch he was still on the phone with a jeweler and he had a whole page of notes on three other ones. Pray for me.

OH PS: I was RIGHT that he'd been the one behind the cat biting me, but it wasn't about the proposal stuff, it's because I paid my baby sister three dollars to shout 'fuck you' every single time he enters a room she's in for (if you ask me, he should be madder at my sister for charging so little), and he did it by giving her a bunch of treats for biting his hands too, so now neither of us can pet our baby girl without oven mitts on. HOLY SHIT I love this man.

Oh my goddddddd I love everything about this <333 I awwww'd out loud on a voice call, like, six times while reading. You two are friggin perfect for each other and so obviously smitten with each other and I wish y'all all the happiness in the world

PS Are y'all planning to have a big wedding? If so oh boy I can't WAIT to get that one in the inbox

Original post

[freaking-hungry]

If you didn't feel something when Klaus looked at Caroline at the start of the dance in Dangerous Liaisons I fear you may be dead inside.

[thedisdainfullysilentvisitor]

He was fully expecting her to be too afraid of him to look at him when she was expected to in the dance.

She does, because she might be afraid, but she isn't going to let it rule her.

And he admires that.

Time goes on, and she doesn't fear him anymore. His admiration grows. That's an enemies to lovers trope if I ever saw one and....I just have a lot of feelings...

[soursoppi]

saw this cute pic of a raven making a heart, had to draw crowxian

(also a little extra of crowxian getting some cute aggression and having to nom on his shidi)

[elucubrare]

You’ve heard of “i didn’t say it was good, i said i liked it,” get ready for “i said it had some technical problems & didn’t fully deliver on its themes, not that i didn’t like it”

[elucubrare]

#I voiced a criticism of some of its aspects#which in no way implies I did not like it#“and especially does not imply that I would like to hear a defense of it of the form 'shut up and let people have fun'”

REALLY endorsing these tags from galileosballs