#blackwaves

[tunamayuuu]

hiiii asking politely with pleading eyes and my hands outstretched like a poor child asking for alms for. teruko... (alternatively would be curious for literally any of bsd's middleaged-to-old men in your style (notably! kyogoku...) but up to you xoxo)

— @blackwaves

SO THEEEERE'S THIS SENIOR CITIZEN! crowd has found me

AYE IS ME AND GRANDMAMA!

[psychopomp-namine]

li tianchen + 🍇 for the ask game !!!

@blackwaves

ask game

I should've seen this coming ^^ but wow a whole bunch of grapes... okay let's go through all of them! 🍇

presenting, my li tianchen propaganda:

1. off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?

oldest sibling duties

guard dog coded. his natural state is to be a protector. in the absence of someone to protect (liu lan and li tianxi), he puts that energy into liu xiao (by process of elimination)

isolated; doesn't really have many interpersonal connections

"out of sight, out of mind" (hence why he leaves the phone behind in S2)

needs to feel in control of his life because it sucks so much, but doesn't actually have to be in control. thinks he wants to be the knight but actually thrives being the sword (so long as the wielder is someone he trusts) (<- NOT qian jin) (this is because being a sword allows him to not be responsible for his actions, which is something he doesn't really like to confront. he doesn't like thinking that he had a hand in why his life is hell right now)

a character who keeps digging one huge hole he can't climb out of. especially by the end of S2, he's sunk cost fallacy: the character

surprisingly impressionable (see: liu xiao, cheng xiaoshi) (not counting qian jin because li tianchen didn't really fully trust him and he was kinda dependent on him and he was ready to betray him anytime). he doesn't trust easily, but when he does, he emulates the person's values (liu xiao) or has high expectations of the other person (most apparent with cheng xiaoshi in S2) (of course that establishment of trust wasn't really equal or fair, but yeah. details)

pretty sharp and calculating! these character traits are usually given to other characters, but most of the actually antagonist planning in S2 was done by li tianchen (stealing liu min's phone, kidnapping cheng xiaoshi from the police station, the hostage exchange, etc)

"do I have other choices?"

(open to interpretation) has gender thoughts but doesn't think about it

2. adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?

I don't think fandom remembers or talks about li tianchen much these days to begin with 😔

additional answers under the cut because this is... getting long. I am SO sorry.

3. throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each other— regardless of timeline or logistics (crossovers allowed if you're interesting about it). why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?

this is a hypothetical situation where li tianchen finds out that qiao ling inherited li tianxi's ability and memories (one day I will debut this fic, but it's not today)

qiao ling: sees li tianchen as pitiful; she doesn't condone his actions, but she can sympathize. still wary of him since he did possess her to stab lu guang. thinks he's an annoying brat, especially when he taunts her about always keeping secrets and doing nothing about them. he kinda ticks her off! a lot!! maybe to the point where she'll get angry enough to do something about the secrets she does keep.

li tianchen: outwardly, he's pissed off because he wanted to bury the past, so qiao ling serves as a reminder of his failures and that he can never move on. mockingly and derisively calls her his sister. inwardly, he wishes li tianxi met her earlier. as far as he knows, qiao ling is the only other person who learned to communicate with her, and it only happened too late. he begrudgingly respects her trying to be an older sister to cheng xiaoshi (he hates cheng xiaoshi though lol); will bite her if she tries that shit with him though. very hot or cold with her.

if lh0 hires me as a writer for S3, I'd pair them up as the "wild cards" of the season. there's a chessboard with HHH on one side, and shiguang on the other. for whatever reason, qiao ling and li tianchen team up last minute and changes the game to checkers, to everyone's utter surprise. but that's just me; that's not happening in canon lol

4. how do you think you would react to this character in real life and vice versa? would you prefer be a million miles out of range, be amicable classmates, or fall desperately in love? (bonus: arrange a hypothetical date between yourself and this character. getting silly with it is encouraged (fakedate them! escape a dinner date through a bathroom window!))

tbh I think he'd be a decent work buddy/colleague! we see him at his extremes in the show, but in everyday life (if li tianxi is alive and well) he's probably more chill. at the very least, he's competent when he has a goal (consider: he only got li tianxi's family picture after she ran away and her wallet dropped, which happened during chen bin's suicide; so he only had a small amount of time to decide and plan on giving lu guang the picture and then lure cheng xiaoshi to the police station after). so if we're at work (whatever that work might be), I think he'd be fascinating to observe. he's got interesting problem solving skills (WHO thinks up of dressing up shiguang in theater clothes for a hostage exchange??)

5. ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect them— do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?

I like seeing him in situations that's basically "a car crash in slow motion" and he's both inside the car and also aware of the incoming crash and is also the cause of the crash. so... more of S2, but in a post-S2 scenario. I'm so sorry li tianchen, but you're at your most interesting when you're miserable. I need to see you crash out.

6. weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculation— which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?

I'll touch on the twins in the next section so I won't repeat them here. but yeah, definitely the twins are the most important

I also want to know more about liu min and li tianchen (liu min going, "have we met before?" was intriguing). I already touched on qiao ling above. I'd also love to see him re-evaluate the hunter-beast metaphor with vein; have control/trust mind games with liu xiao; and explore trust/games/body autonomy issues that come with body possession with cheng xiaoshi

there's this one scene from this fic that I found super funny:

7. do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes. (openly controversial takes are permitted, but also: hyper-specific headcanons which you believe in and no one else has considered enough to disagree with yet. pick a hill to die on.)

you already know this, but I don't think li tianchen is naive or completely helpless when it comes to liu xiao. they're playing house and they both know it

he truly does not see his sister as sick, but I think sometimes people forget that when he says this, it's with the knowledge of having known li tianxi when she could still speak. to him, li tianxi going mute isn't an issue; it's the rest of the world for not accommodating her new way of communicating. li tianxi doesn't want to use words anymore? okay, he'll just learn sign language then. not an issue. she doesn't need fixing.

(headcanon territory) my most hyper-specific niche thoughts about him can only be unlocked by comparing and contrasting him to hndr's ima tsukumo, which I feel is out of scope for this ask. something something... it's important to li tianchen that he doesn't abandon his sister, and that manifests in making her complicit to the murder-suicides. I'd go farther and say that to li tianchen, it's not li tianxi's safety that he necessarily prioritizes: it's her companionship. it's her having someone she can spend time with and communicate with. they do everything together, including learning to survive this world together. in a kinder universe, this manifests with them forming a band together in the neo aurora au. in link click. well. the overlap between hndr and lc fandom is so slim, but to the maybe like two other link click fans out there who also play hndr... do you see my vision. do you see where I'm going with this. ima and tianchen are the same character, except when they're not, and what makes them different also dictates what they lose in a situation where their sisters disappear, that's why— (gets dragged offstage with a gag in my mouth)

[muninnhuginn]

stopwatch!!! hi re:scissor seven i watched the first few eps of it (maybe the first season or first half-season) a while ago and enjoyed it but was overall kind of meh about it... but i think i've seen u post abt it before would u rec picking it back up—

@blackwaves

Hi!!

What I'd say is that s1 is pretty rough (the humour is what I struggle with specifically). It starts to pick up near the end of s1 (specifically Cola's episode and the "bonus" episodes that get tagged to the end of s1) and by mid s2 settles into itself. The main issue is that you can't just skip the rough parts of s1 because, for better or for worse, it's about establishing the island citizens so that you care about them (and their impact on Seven) when the island comes under threat later on.

That said, the episode lengths are really short, so if you can make it through s1 then it's not too much of a time investment to continue. If you get through s2 and it's still not got you though, then yeah, I don't think it will. Also, I just remembered you made it through To Be Hero (sans the X), so you've definitely got the tolerance for season 1 🏃‍♀️

I will admit that even though the comedy is the main driver early on (and tbf, later on too, though thankfully the *style* of comedy changes), the character stuff is where I feel like the show shines. Seven's amnesia and the way you're given peeks at his past self vs now are so fascinating. And the way other people view his current self vs his past self, essentially treating them as different people. And I appreciate the way it gets the audience in on this, so you (general) like amnesiac Seven, but can Seven really survive as that version of himself? (I have many more thoughts on this but they're all spoilery. Let's just say I'm also a fan of Mob Pyscho 100 and leave it at that)

I do also really like Thirteen. She's not the main character but she has a really solid subplot. Seven and Thirteen are fail4fail

lemme just. drop an amv. Has spoilers for s4 but eh if you're mixed on whether to give the show another shot, then I may as well:

[moondal514]

hiiii am i allowed to ask abt chase you to the end of the world. insert eyesemojis.

@blackwaves

ask me about my wips

hi kavi :) of course you can ask <3

so chase you to the end of the world is my “lu guang actually dies from the stab wound and cheng xiaoshi goes back in time” fic. i’ve sorta stalled out on it cuz idk exactly what direction i want to go with it and it might go on the back burner until season 3 comes out but we’ll see. anyways a snippet:

The deviations begin less than 48 hours after Lu Guang begins the dive. At precisely 12:09, Cheng Xiaoshi drags him in for a commemorative selfie—and Lu Guang knows it’s coming, but he stiffens at the touch anyways.

Cheng Xiaoshi’s arm around his neck, his laugh in his ear, so warm and vibrant and alive—

The phone camera clicks. Cheng Xiaoshi shudders suddenly. He looks at Lu Guang, expression strange, as though he is surprised to see him. Then, he pulls Lu Guang into his arms and bursts into tears.

[louisediamond]

"... it was made by no man. They had forgotten the time... Oh, for leap years sake, and times man-made... [They] had forgotten my time, it is..." {and so on the narrative goes} "The air between my toes, the cranes in the sky. Incorrect instances for every sentences. Days made like they made their-story. February 30th [2thousand'forever]." 13/28 Here's to books unwritten and stories untold and art unseen/ unheard. #brownliquor #brownskin #brownface #brownleather #brownsugar #brownleaves #brownkeys #brownzippers #brownface #blackskin #blackbraids #blackwaves #blackdays #blackbaes #poetry #writing @saintrecords #tonimorrison #kanye #kindred #octaviaebutler #selfportrait #artoftheday #LouiseDiamond (at Wynnefield, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Ltu3vBrEo/?igshid=1wl08at1taje2

[19paola79]

Back to black 🖤 #blackwaves #hair #backtoblack #unicorn #tattoed #inked #nofiltropialla #steps https://www.instagram.com/p/B63PjCgFEgD/?igshid=8tffqr6gadhr

[static-static]

Single File:

Houses of Heaven

“Black Waves”

felte

Former Vaniish mastermind Keven Tecon is back with a new project, Houses of Heaven and armed with their first single “Black Waves.”

The Bay Area based group (rounded out by Adam Beck and Nick Ott) bring some nervous kraut-indebted psych and match it blow by blow with moody post-punk. “Black Waves” is never at a standstill, getting by on endlessly rolling percussion, a pocket or airy synths, and ghostly vocals. This is goth for the jittery set, pure & simple.

Houses of Heaven are onto something here and you can now consider my appetite as firmly wet...... 

Houses of Heaven’s debut EP ‘Remnant’ drops 5/19 via felte records

[psychopomp-namine]

any particular wq + ltx thoughts... 👀? @blackwaves

haha idk if it'll make it in time for the event, but I have a short fic about them that I wanted to write for a while based on this post (not set in canon timeline)

something something about them being accomplices to their loved ones (shao yuanyuan, li tianchen) in varying degrees of willingness. at the end of the day, they (wang qing, li tianxi) mourn the loss of a home to go back to, even if that home wasn't always kind to them (assuming wang qing considers bahati as a kind of home for herself). wang qing has more narrative agency and seems (?) to have more freedom within shao yuanyuan's plan than li tianxi had with li tianchen's, which makes it interesting to draw comparisons between them. I feel like it's easier to explain through fic than through an ask lol, or maybe I just haven't explored the idea fully yet myself. but I imagine the questions li tianxi might ask are things wang qing have also interrogated within herself

in general, I also just think it'd be interesting to put the "people readers" in a room. it's the same reason I think liu xiao & wang qing would be interesting (heart reader & body language reader) (li tianxi in this case is, I guess, a memory reader). any combination of the three, really. liu xiao & li tianxi, wang qing & li tianxi, liu xiao & wang qing. my personal headcanon is that this type of ability affords the user incredible insight on people, but just because they can read people doesn't mean other people can read them. which can be emotionally isolating. liu xiao has his liu xiao-isms, li tianxi has trouble with communication, and I imagine wang qing's profession as a therapist means she puts a certain amount of distance between herself and the client

with the fic I want to write, in particular, there's a thing in therapy called transference and I kinda want to play around with the idea of how both wang qing and li tianxi are possessed by the people they trust. possession is also a kind of transference. it's all vague atm, but there's something to explore there, I think