#justastoryteller

[luckthebard]

As someone squicked by body horror and psychological torture, how much of a warning should I expect going into this week's episode? The idea of the city is fascinating and I don't want to fall behind but....yeeeeuurgh.

I haven’t finished the episode yet, but honestly, depending on how you’re feeling, you may want to hold off, or certainly be braced for a lot of it. Matt’s descriptions get pretty heavy in especially the body horror direction this week. 

If you’re feeling in a place to engage with it, a strategy might be to tune out or skip through Matt’s combat descriptions especially, or any time he describes a “citizen” of the city. 

If you want to just skip over it entirely, I highly recommend critrolestats’s livetweets as a way to catch up on any lore that dropped while the city was being gross and that you might miss in skipping content you want to avoid.

[songxiaolin]

Tell me about everyone's favorite foods and yes I'm including the kids.

oh damn i literally did not see this but okay, here goes

lin ming: cong you bing! she loves the fried dough, okay. and for something fried it’s actually not heavy at all but is very filling. source: i make it at home and it’s great, the green onion is flavorful and fresh ‘cause it doesn’t take long to cook. (you actually make a rectangle with the dough and spread the onion and pepper over it and then roll it so when you tear it open, there will be layers.)

xiao xingchen: liang cai which is like..... cold veggies and shredded tofu (which is a noodle like type of tofu) in a marinade! it’s very simple to make and you can even add things like bitter melon. mostly, though, it’s cucumber and bell pepper and carrot and onion. you make the marinade/dressing with light soy sauce and black vinegar (which is super good btw) and sesame oil, served cold.

song lan: you men sun aka braised bamboo shoots. it’s always cooked uh.... hong shao? aka a particular braising style of cooking that makes the food a reddish brown color. it’s actually really easy and you can do it with almost anything! all you really need is both light and dark soy and shaoxing wine. anyway, you can make braised bamboo shoots with winter bamboo and it’s a traditional dish that doesn’t call for anything spicier than some ginger which is perfect for song lan. (also this is longer because i’m really passionate about hong shao! anyone can do it and it’s so satisfying to see that nice reddish color. try it with almost any veggie or chicken thighs.)

a-qing: dumplings! the girl is a dumpling fiend. she prefers pork dumplings but they make theirs with mushroom, cabbage, and carrot which is hearty enough for her. the sauce, though, is really what she likes. traditional dumpling sauce is SUPER easy. a little bit of hot water, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, chili oil, garlic (minced), sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds.

yuchun: yu xiang eggplant also known as fish sauce eggplant. this is a dish i haven’t made yet but i’m dying to try. the yu xiang sauce is the key! it’s called fish fragrant sauce not because it smells fishy but because it was meant to cover the odor of fish! the key is the pickled red peppers and broad bean paste (doubanjiang) which gives a nice red color together. it’s a spicy dish and she loves spicy food! 

huishan: mushroom shaomai. it’s a type of open top dumpling (looks like a drawstring pouch tbh) filled with shallots, mushrooms, peas, and sticky rice. it’s a little harder to do at home if you don’t have a rice cooker but you can soak it and steam it to make sticky rice but just make sure it’s the right kind of rice or it’ll be terrible. this is also another recipe where the base flavors are green onion, soy sauce, and shaoxing wine.

baiying: hot and sour stir fry cabbage. it’s a sichuan dish and it has soy sauce, black vinegar and fish sauce which makes it really tasty and great over rice. you only use the steams for this, but if you put the leaves in at the very end, it’d probably be okay. but the steams soak up so much flavor. you thicken the sauce with cornstarch so it really sticks to the cabbage and rice! 

ANYWAY

i held myself back and this still turned into Cooking Time with Amanda but i’m very passionate about cooking in general. 

the thing about food is it really is a simple act of love and jinghai and the songxiao sect are built on simple acts of love. i know that sounds like a stretch, but it’s true. there’s not One Dish, it’s all of them. just like it’s making tea or brushing someone’s hair. all people are worthy of help, regardless of sects or bloodlines, and sometimes that starts really simply.

even if none of these fuckers can cook

[criticalrolo]

17, 40, 70 for Thalia

17. What is your character’s favorite season?

Spring/beginning of summer, when it’s warm but not too hot and the flowers are all At Their Best :)

40. Where does your character feel the most at home?

She has always lived near the beach, so she feels the most at home when she’s not completely landlocked. She’s also practically a flying creature so she’s very at home in the air as well.

70. What is your character’s biggest pet peeve?

Oh, Thalia does NOT have the TIME for obvious evasiveness. She’s a very direct sort of person and she can tell when people are giving her the runaround. She hates feeling Used and would much prefer someone to say something to her face and if you’re going to lie at least be good at it.

[yokohamasonebraincell]

Untamed

Send me series and I’ll tell you my:

Favorite character: Lan Zhan, I would die for him.

Second favorite character: Wei Wuxian, whom I would also die for. after that I’d say the juniors and Wen Qing.

Least favorite character: Wen Chao and Su She

The character I’m most like: probably Mianmian honestly. it’s the whole ‘tried to be the reasonable one and peacekeeper for her clan but eventually got fed up and left to go raise a family’ thing.

Favorite pairing: clearly Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan

Least favorite pairing: hmmm Meng Yao with anyone because he doesn’t deserve love okay.

Favorite moment: OH UHHHH!! It’s a complete tie between the drunk conversation Lan Zhan has with Wei Wuxian in ep. 36 because the sheer pain in his face and him admitting that he believes he fucked up (and in a way he did but not for lack of trying), that he kept looking the entire time. plus the little hand holding and how gentle Wei Wuxian is with him. and the moment on the stairs where Wei Wuxian finally understands that he is not alone, that there absolutely is someone who will stand with no matter what, and that he doesn’t have to tear himself apart for those he loves because he has someone willing to do just that for him.

Rating out of 10: listen. this is another 10 in my heart but I’m gonna knock it a little for that dog. 9.5/10 western media take fucking note ‘cause they were working against censorship so what’s your excuse

[gr8stoneddragon]

IN MY OWN HOME

[makapedia]

justastoryteller replied to your post: dont play laser tag in heels my legs might never...

why would you DO that

because i was visiting friends in canada and it was either closed toe red wedge bootie things or flipflops and i didnt want my flops to be slapping down the ramps the whole time

[songxiaolin]

repair

rest prompts

repair: being confined to bed due to injury or illness and hating every second of it.  

Xiao Xingchen was dying.

It wasn’t the pain in his leg or the way anything other than a shallow breath caused a sharp, hot feeling in his side. His injuries - while certainly bad and likely would have killed anyone else - would heal and there would be little evidence of them except for perhaps a scar on his leg where the break had occurred. 

But he felt as if he was dying. There was nothing as bad as being confined to a bed like this.

No matter how he shifted, he couldn’t get comfortable. No matter what books he tried to read, he couldn’t get his mind to settle. 

What was supposed to be a simple request to appease a forlorn spirit had turned into angry spirits that needed to be suppressed. It had caught him and Song Lan so off-guard that even with their skill, it had been all they could do to escort the grieving family away safely. 

That thought rankled; people could be hurt because of him. 

Sighing, Xiao Xingchen placed the book aside and leaned back, eyes drifting across the dark wood ceiling of Biaxue temple. 

“This doesn’t look like resting,” said Song Lan as he slid the door shut as quietly as he had opened it. 

“Zichen.” He straightened and then winced. “I am resting.”

“You’re fidgeting.” His long strides carried him across the room and he held out the book that had been tucked under his arm. “I brought another I thought you might like but it seems you haven’t read the last.”

“I can’t focus, Zichen, not sitting here like this. Not when we left so much unfinished at that shrine,” he said, a strained sort of urgency in his voice.

Song Lan’s face softened and carefully he took a seat on the floor, next to the bed, facing Xiao Xingchen. 

“I know.” He moved his hand as if he wanted to touch Xiao Xingchen but stopped. “And as soon as you heal, we’ll go back, but first you have to heal.”

The slight movement didn’t go unnoticed and Xiao Xingchen placed his hand over Song Lan’s. 

“Thank you. I’m being childish but it’s hard to sit here and do nothing.”

For a moment, Song Lan didn’t answer, eyes focused on their hands. It was hard to tell when it was Xiao Xingchen being... Xiao Xingchen and when it meant something more. He hoped it meant something more. Selfishly, that’s all he wanted. Song Lan swallowed. 

“If you’re being childish, then perhaps I should read to you, instead.”

Xiao Xingchen laughed. 

“I think you just want to make sure I’m resting and not fidgeting,” he said, the smile on his face amused, the worry that had lined his face fading. 

“Do you think it will work?” Song Lan asked, even though he had already opened the book, turning the pages until a poem caught his eye, a slight half smile on his face.

“There’s only one way to be certain,” said Xiao Xingchen, his attempt to sound serious failing towards the end.

Xiao Xingchen laid back, fingers running over the fabric of Song Lan’s sleeve, and decided that being confined to bed was not so bad when the company was so good. 

[songxiaolin]

Songxiaolin: 1, 7, 12, 17

otp questions! 

1) who can outdrink the other?

It goes Xiao Xingchen < Song Lan < Lin Ming. 

No one is really surprised Lin Ming can outdrink the other two. They are marginally surprised that Song Lan can handle his alcohol as well as he does because both him and Xiao Xingchen give off ‘lightweight’ vibes. Which, comparatively, they are but it’s fine.

They’re fine. Lin Ming thinks it’s adorable and when she does get drunk, she definitely cries about how much she loves them sometimes. 

12) who hogs the bathroom?

I think it’s a tie between Xiao Xingchen and Lin Ming.

Xiao Xingchen does take a bit of time fixing his hair because he likes doing it - that’s why he also does Song Lan’s hair for him and Lin Ming’s sometimes as well - and it takes him a bit longer to do so than average. 

The only reason Lin Ming takes longer than Song Lan is because she uses some concealer on a few of her scars just to keep people from asking questions she doesn’t want to answer. She’s not big into makeup, though. 

17) who fusses over takes care of the other when they get sick?

All of them. 

As in, if one person gets sick, the other two definitely will fuss about it, just all kind of in different ways.

Song Lan tends to however, making sure that they’re not doing things that they shouldn’t be (because Xiao Xingchen is Like That and so is Lin Ming). He makes a lot of tea and buys soup. 

Lin Ming is.... she’s always a bit hesitant but worries a lot. She’s more of the ‘cuddles you on the couch and pets your hair while you watch movies’ type but she will stay with you the whole time.

And Xiao Xingchen just. does it all. He’s always asking if they’re okay, if they need anything. He has damp wash clothes and vick’s vapor rub and he’s going to tuck them in and sit with them.