[VD: A clip of an interview from Sky News between journalist, Dr. Myriam Francois, and news anchor, Yalda Hakim.
Hakim: Dr. Francois, there are many who are saying the Biden administration, frankly, should have acted sooner and faster. That hundreds of billions of dollars has been put at risk because the Houthis have held this area in the Red Sea at ransom.â
Francois: Sorry. So, let me just get this straight Yalda. We are bombing the poorestâ one of the poorest countries in the world that has been under a humanitarian blockade. There has been famine, these people have been decimated. And we are bombing them because a couple of guys in dinghies in support for the Palestinians, who are having a genocide committed against them, theyâre objecting to that and weâre bombing them? Come on, now.
Hakim: Well, itâ Iâ
Francois: I mean, this is just an insane world for us to even thinkâ
Hakim: Iâ
Francois: Iâm so sorry your Amazon packages are delayed, I really am. Like, I wish mine came on time. But, you know, genocide, guys, genocide. There are two mothers a day dying in Gaza right now. Itâs 109 days into a conflict in which a humanitarian crisis has been declared to the world day in, day out.
Hakim: By the way, Dr. Francois, there are many who are Yemen watchers who monitor and follow the Houthis, who say this is doing wonders for their branding, actually.
Francois: Mhm.
Hakim: That it isn't just the Palestinian cause that they're focused on.
Francois: So call a cease-fire now and end the positive branding. If you want to stop the Houthis doing what they're doing, then call a cease-fire right now.
Hakim: Do you genuinely believe that the Houthis would stop doing what they're doing, if...
Francois: They have literally said that that's why they're doing what they're doing. They have not previously blocked those routes for any other reason except this one. So, yes, I do. And I also think the West needs to start to understand, that you cannot just go around playing cowboys in the world. There are consequences to your actions. You cannot just go around bombing people's countries, ignoring international law and expect no repercussions. For every cause there is a consequence and just 'cause you don't like a couple of guys trying to resist. The fact that this isâ
Hakim: I mean, these are now proscribed terrorists, the Houthis.
Francois: Sure, according to Western governments, they are terrorist governments, yeah.
Hakim: Well, also according to the Yemeni people, because they've obviously beenâ
Francois: Yeah, which is a Saudi-backed government, which is essentially our.
Hakim: Yeah, but the Yemenis who live under Houthi rule, talk about the fact that this group continues to terrorize them as well.
Francois: Yalda, I'm no fan of the Houthis apart from when they're blockading in favor of a cease-fire, which should have been called a long time ago. 25,000 people are dead in Gaza right now. There are over 60,000 people injured with no access to food, water, aid. How dare we have a conversation about trade, when there are children right now being treated without anesthetic?
Hakim: Well the fact is thatâ
Francois: There are some things that require us to make some sacrifices and this would be one of them.
Hakim: I mean, they do have the global economy, global markets hostage.
Francois: Good for them.
Hakim: Bill Browder
Francois: Good for them. Cease-fire now, cease-fire now.
Hakim: We're gonna have to leave it there. But Dr. Myriam Francoisâ
Francois: You cannot allow these people to be decimated and expect there to be no consequences.
Happy 2024, here is the best MDZS/The Untamed fic of 2023!
The theme of the year is Competence Kink.
Just kidding, that's the theme every year!
asunder by alessandriana
Post-canon; 51032 words
There's only a handful of canon-compliant Yunmeng shuangjie reconciliations I'm really impressed by and 100% buy, and this tops the list. The character work is incisive and insightful and had something new to say to me, which is a feat after four years in this fandom. The tragic casefic it hangs on is perfect for the job, and it's all gorgeously, generously illustrated by sugar_shoal.
Safety of Distance by little-smartass
Post-canon; 64543 words
Stuffed together in a coffin, Nie Mingue and Meng Yao are too volatile for containment, so Wei Wuxian fishes them out and gives Lan Xichen a grim choice: obliterate them so hard their souls will never reincarnate, or reanimate them and restore their consciousnesses, with some hefty caveats. He chooses the latter, and mere hours later is on the run with two resentment-fueled enemies who must learn to take their teeth out of each other's throats before the rest of the cultivation world catches up with them. This plot could have been a much more nerve-racking cat-and-mouse game than it is. Instead, it's wholly and whole-heartedly a forced intimacy fic. Taken as such, it's a damned good one.
The Needle and the Nail by littledust
Canon AU; 119323 words
An epic retelling of the post-resurrection events of CQL from the POV of Wen Qing, who (*Gonzo voice*) did NOT die, but has been a prisoner of the Jin all this time. Mysteriously liberated, she immediately collides with Jiang Cheng, and they both have ... so many feelings to unpack about that. Littledust balances action and FEELINGS and an unsettling mystery plot with ease, let's Jiang Cheng shine as a romantic lead while keeping everybody ruthlessly in-character, and weaves in amazing little character moments, from her clever Wen Qing to the slightest of walk-on parts.
Say More by lettered
Modern AU; 95147 words
After shitty circumstances pried them apart in high school. wangxian reconnect and resume their intense friendship as adults. This is one chapter of angsty backstory followed by many chapters of agonizingly stoic devotion (lan zhan) and agonizing obliviousness and trauma residue (wei ying) before it all comes out right. The selling point, for me, is lettered's astonishing free indirect style. The material is nothing like Jane Austen, and yet you can tell that Austen was her teacher. Wei Ying's POV is cacophonous, poetic, hurtling, heartbreaking brilliance. What's more, Lan Zhan's side of the story is clear as glass at every step, even as Wei Ying utterly fails to read his cues. Tour-de-force stuff.
Thicker than Water by athena_crikey
Modern with magic; 67732 words
I found this author only a few months ago, but their steady stream of interesting, literate bangers and weird takes on classic tropes (vampires, bio-soulmates, bodyguards, mystics...) has been sustaining me ever since. Competence kink galore. This one has a particularly solid plot: an orthodox cultivator (Lan Zhan!) must collaborate with and learn to respect a charismatic but disconcerting and reckless medium (Wei Ying!) to solve hauntings. Some of the hauntings are personal.
Truth Will Out (when caught on video) by KizuKatana
Modern with magic; 141257 words (WIP last updated 07Jan2023, ch. 17/19)
A less self-sacrificial and more coerced version of the golden core transfer (unless you count Madam Yu sacrificing her characterization to take a turn as a cartoon villain) leaves Wei Ying sectless. To make ends meet, he turns to live-streaming his nighthunts. He meets a doctor who recommends therapeutic dual cultivation, a prudish cultivator who unfortunately might be his ideal cultivation partner, and a mysterious cosplay tailor determined to outfit him in the sexiest hunting gear the internet has ever seen. This is so...so juicily written. A massive box of gourmet peaches in fic form.
Darkness Before the Dawn by Selenay
Modern with magic; 63946 words
Cozy zombie apocalypse? Wei Ying, on the run with A-Yuan, gets swept up and brought to safety by Lan Zhan, giving him room to breathe, innovate, and do right by his kid. The bulk of this story is warm, romantic kidfic, but it's got a handful of tightly paced action and suspense scenes that smartly keep its engine running.
the exploration of a courageous heart (all this unexpected glory) by Stratisphyre
Canon AU; 54710 words
Stratisphyre, O honoured purveyor of fix-it fic, smooth and mellow, with some sweetness. You have my sword just for giving Jiang Yanli an entire 50k to solve everybody's problems and win the hearts of not one, but two sterling young masters with washboard abs.
Turn Left by kianspo
Canon AU; 204411 words
Lan Zhan is kidnapped as a young child and dumped in a brothel. To avoid being pressed into service, he pays a witch to curse him with ugliness. He has many adventures thereafter, which eventually bring him back into the sphere of his family and Wei Ying. An epic, plotty, ripping yarn and an interesting character study.
call it what you want by Eevee, art by Rainewritesfanfics
Modern AU; 20329 words
Wen Qing opens the door. âWhat has Wei Wuxian done now?â
Yanli stutters out, âN-nothing, heâs fine,â and then immediately bursts into tears.
This ship has many fans and few stories of substantial length. I love to see them take ye old surprise pregnancy trope for a spin, and the execution is funny and sweet and everything I didn't know I wanted. It's delicious to see these women who are usually such poised side characters backfooted in their own wacky romcom while their bemused friends play peanut gallery.
a harmony between qin and se by Alaceron
Southern Song Dynasty AU, no magic; 62095 words
Wangxian, nominally. The author, inspired by the drama Luoyang, wanted to write an m/f autistic stoic/clever gremlin Song Dynasty arranged marriage with a completely original plot, and gave the leads the names of their blorbos du jour because it was expedient and made them happy. Double-edged sword, that: popping it in the wangxian tag may have got them more eyeballs, but probably drove off just as many readers who were annoyed to see a beloved m/m ship borrowed for het. I really like the author's other stuff, so I clicked. The milieu and material culture are fabulous, the prose is agile and full of neat literary references, and the plot is a hoot. Loved it.
fear you won't fall by anaphoricae
Modern AU; 87248 words
What if wangxian were (*spins wheel*) a fire dancer and a trapeze artist? :D A competently penned, comfortably classic romance AU with a lushly detailed setting, cheeky humour, and nice, vivid characters.
Sisi, Nie Huaisang, and the Great Comet of the Second Year of Ningkang by huanglaoshu
Post-canon; 1812 words
I really love this fate for Sisi, and I REALLY love the astronomy geekery in here.
paie shadows of forgotten names by Chrononautical
Canon AU; 56517 words
An arranged marriage makes Lan Zhan Wei Ying's jailor in exchange for amnesty for the Wens. I was expecting a heap of angsty misunderstandings, but these are fully CQL characterizations: wangxian are barely-adults in a shitty situation, but they're in it together, and they like and trust each other. I loooved the way the author pulls Madam Lan into the story. The plot is a little lopsided, but every now and then it yields up a line like this one:
Lan Zhan grinned at him. Which was to say Lan Zhanâs eyes narrowed by the width of a rabbitâs whisker and his mouth turned upward like the edges of a lotus leaf weighed down in the center by a single drop of water.
If I Should Fall Behind by theladyscribe
Canon-era AU; 6403 words; WIP last updated 25Feb2023, ch. 1/5
An arranged marriage between Lan Wangji and Wen Qing. One of my well-documented fic kinks is people in crappy situations doing their best to be kind. I adore theladyscribe's understated, thoughtful, note-perfect character work.
Hot sun, cool fire by bylambd
Modern AU; 34099 words
Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are grad students and neighbours. Wei Ying gets involved in community organizing on behalf of undocumented immigrants. Lan Zhan finds himself pulled in, too. This story has much to recommend it, but the kicker for me is these two paragraphs that manage to distill my entire romance novel manifesto:
The few times he had tried dating had been long ago, back in college, and they had all started with the sex. Heâs not even dating Wei Ying, doesnât know for sure that his romantic feelings are reciprocated, but the intimacy they are growing together feels overwhelming at times, even contained as it is to these late night conversations, where half the time they canât even see each otherâs faces. It feels almost painfully precious to him, and fragile in equal measure.
Most of the time, the sexual attraction that Lan Zhan feels towards Wei Ying seems small and unimportant compared to the exhilaration of truly learning him, for all that it used to keep him up at night.
One Can Keep A Secret (If He Does Not Know It's There) by H_Belle
Modern with magic; 5602 words
Wei Wuxian makes up a bunch of talismans as a student, files patents, then forgets they exist. Three alternate scenarios follow in which the consequences catch up with him. I cackled.
Grave dirt by esama
Canon AU; 92273 words
Classic Burial Mounds cottagecore that leans into the strategy, tactics and logistics of (a) farming dead soil when your best available tools are dead people and (b) convincing the rest of the world to let you live. I occasionally love the genre of fic that's basically 100000 words of bugbear: "Gah, they are being so dumb about this; here's how I would do it!" and lovingly spends an entire chapter on, like, double entry bookkeeping.
Reunion Dinner by vivisextion
Post-canon; 4427 words
Jiang Cheng mans up and learns to make his sister's soup. This is written by somebody with soup opinions and I appreciate that. Recipe included.
Black Honey on my Table by Grizmelder
Modern AU; 7390 words
A moody, sensual flirtation between an art restorer and his client.
pro bono by astronicht
Italian Renaissance AU; 18021 words (series total)
This is so cool. It's a vampire fic. It is spectacularly grounded in time and place. It's weird and scholarly and hot and ... fandom is my fandom.
I always post these things and spend the next week kicking myself for forgetting something crucial. Please save me and recommend your personal favs in the comments. My searching is heavily skewed toward wangxian, so I'm especially interested in gems featuring other characters. Self-recs encouraged!
So what this paint company does is take iron pollution from abandoned mines that are polluting soils and rivers and makes iron based red pigment paints out of it.
Basically they realized hey no one's cleaning this shit up, it's polluting the streams, killing all the fish, making the water undrinkable and there's a huge market for it so why not make money by cleaning it the fuck up?
They remove this stuff by the industrial bucket load from the rivers. The idea is if it's in a painting, if it's in your home, it's not poisoning wildlife.
anyway its cool as shit, please support tf out of these people https://gamblinstore.com/reclaimed-earth-colors-set/
There's a user called Erika Horn (@erikahorn.art) on tiktok who made a "duet me" challenge so technically impressive that all of the duets are exactly like this LMAO
My family uses words that i never see anyone else use
and i want to know whether we're like. the only people in the world that are weird in these particular usages. So!
Have you ever heard someone say ''destructions'' to refer to a set of guidelines for how to accomplish something (ie in place of ''instructions'')?
Yes
No, what the living fuck are you talking about?
Voting ended onAug 26, 2023
Please go ahead and reblog so I can cast as wide a net as possible, this is something that just occurred to me
also chime in in the tags if there's some other ''i've never heard anyone else say this'' word or word usage that you've heard from your family, i'm interested to find out
A pun post crossed my dash, and I reblogged it with an equally bad pun in return. A couple of my followers find it funny, it's a good day for everyone.
That was on July 7th.
Virality on Reddit was entirely algorithmic. You could garner a couple crossposts, but the success of a post was entirely dependent on whether or not it hit r/all--the main page of Reddit. If your post does that, it's immediately exposed to 10x the number of people and immediately gets upvoted.
On my pun post, I get a couple reblogs. And those reblogs get a couple reblogs--nobody really adds any content to the post, it just gets a couple reblogs here and there.
There's a specific chain of reblogs that I'd like to focus on. The most popular post on this chain has about 25 reblogs on it. Half the posts have three reblogs or fewer. Five posts in this chain have just one reblog total.
But the reblog chain keeps going. And going. It breaches containment many times over. And finally, after a chain THIRTY SIX posts long, at 9:30 AM, July 22nd this morning, it hits a popular account.
99% percent of the people who have seen the post--virtually unchanged from how it left my dash--have seen it because it was curated by 36 different people. That's insane to me.
None of those 36 people know that they're part of this chain. They saw a post, reblogged it, and moved on. If any one of these people had not reblogged, the post would have a fraction of the impact it has.
And yet, after two weeks, the post has effectively hit the main page of tumblr. It was picked up, only because people liked it enough to show it to their followers. There were no algorithms necessary.
You really, truly, cannot get this on any other website.
Image ID: blue text on a cream background which reads âNine types of rest. 1) time away 2) permission to not be helpful 3) something âunproductiveâ 4) connection to art and nature 5) solitude to recharge 6) a break from responsibility 7) stillness to decompress 8) safe space 9) alone time at homeâ. End ID.
Last year I did a few write-ups and drawings about some lady fighters from history who fought openly as their gender (there are plenty of disguised-as-a-man soldiers and plenty of trans soldiers, but those are outside the scope of this series). Â This is by no means an exhaustive list; there were plenty of great figures that my schedule didnât permit me to tackle (at least not yet). Â But as Womenâs History Month gets started tomorrow, I thought yâall might enjoy reading about some of historyâs toughest broads.
