#liên

[sholokhov09]

American century of humiliation

[stepswowdsen]

【KHR AU】 XanLena Wearing Việt Phục ❤️💜🔥🪷

Doodle WIPs of Xanxus wearing Áo Dài and Selena in her main outfit

Intro Rambles

Nguyễn Selena (Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên) is my Viet NB KHR OC and beloved wifey wife 💜🪷

She's a calm and aloof assassin with a cheery personality who's a flower enthusiast (florist and gardener) with an interest in fashion and collecting traditional clothes, including lolita fashion, girly fashion, and historical fashion.

I mainly pair her with Xanxus, my fave KHR meow meow mf (my no. 1 KHR fave tied with Hibari)

I've been thinking about drawing XanLena for Xanxus' birthday on 10/10. Most of my midterms are after the 1 week break we get during mid October. I'll post it whenever I get started on the sketch. I'll probably post the whole thing on main whenever I get it done

I definitely want to draw XanLena in Việt phục ("Viet traditional clothing"). I'm either gonna go for Xanxus wearing Áo Dài ("Long dress") and Selena wearing Áo Tấc ("Ceremonial dress"), or Selena wearing some kind of Việt phục (Áo Tấc) with a big Nón quai thao.

The big hat is called Nón quai thao ("Wide flat palm hat with fringes/strap tassels"). It can be worn with any Việt Phục. I was thinking of having plants and lotuses on her big hat. Maybe her smol little cloud puppy could be resting on it too… That'd be cute.

Picking flowers for XanLena based on Flower symbolism is easy since Selena is Xanxus' cute florist assassin gf/wifey.

I want gifting flowers (based on their symbolisms in the Hanakotoba, Japanese Floriography, etc.) to be one of their love languages.

Like I imagine it starts with Selena gifting flowers to Xanxus because of her interests, and then he starts getting the servants to gift her bouquets of flowers she likes (and then also hands gifts personally to her himself, too) 🥰💘

I haven't decided on Selena's birthday yet.

Selena is a Central baby who was born in Huế, a city in Central Vietnam. Huế was the former Imperial capital.

I want her birthday to be in the lotus blooming season in Huế.

Selena's Viet name is Liên, which means "Lotus" in Sino-Viet, and the lotus is Vietnam's national flower 🪷

XanLena Art Ideas

I had a couple different art ideas in my head. I usually imagine Xanxus wearing Áo dài ("Long dress") since the shape language of it suits him most. I think he'd also look nice in Áo giao lĩnh ("Cross collared dress"). Since Xanxus has a very masculine presenting appearance and mannerisms.

Examples of Áo giao lĩnh. I love the soft purple colours. Reminds me of Selena 🥰💜🪷

Admittedly Viet men's fashion isn't as diverse as Viet women's fashion so I'll have to think of ways to differentiate my masc meow meow mf faves' outfits from each other

I think GNC masc charas like Douman (FGO), Judar (Magi), Kuroha/Saeru (KagePro) would look nice wearing both masc and femme Viet clothes ^^

Selena's design is NB flag colours 💜🖤🤍💛

I would consider purple, blue, and pink to be her theme colours, but purple is her main one. Her main colour palette and main theme colours make up the NB and Bi flag colours. My Bi NB icon~ 💗

Selena’s main Flame attribute is Cloud (purple flames) ☁️

Her secondary Flame attribute is Rain (blue flames) 💙💧

Soft pastel purple is Selena's main theme colour 💜

Blue and pink are Selena’ secondary theme colours 💙 🩷

I consider pink to be her secondary theme colour since it's also the colour of the lotus flower. She looks great wearing soft pinks 🩷

Idea 1: Couple art with XanLena wearing Việt Phục where Xanxus wears a black Áo dài ("Long dress") with red accents and gold flame shaped earrings with a red gem, and Selena wears a pastel purple Áo Tấc ("Ceremonial Dress") and khăn đóng (purple headwear) with lotuses and flowers on it, while holding a lotus.

Xanxus could also be holding a fan. It’d be super pretty if they were wearing fairy style Áo Tấc with either semi-translucent sleeves, or a semi-translucent sash or outer coat on top...

I’d want Selena to have the flowers on her khăn đóng, or in her hair, because it’d fit her very well!

Idea 2: Selena wearing a purple Việt Phục with a big Nón quai thao ("Wide flat palm hat with fringes/strap tassels") that has lotuses and flowers resting on top of it. Perhaps her cute pom pom (pomeranian) cloud pupper could be lying asleep on top of it as well? Like dog, like owner, they both like falling asleep in random places 🥰

Selena has a tendency to fall asleep in random places like a cat cot, including in her own garden, so Xanxus orders his men to go fetch his cat gf like the overbearing bf he is 🐈‍⬛🦁 Black cat gf x lion bf. I love the look of the Nón quai thao sm… The hat varies in size!

Idea 3: Selena wearing Áo Nhật Bình ("Square collared dress"). The Áo Nhật Bình is one of my favourite Viet traditional clothings because the patterns are SO gorgeous. The traditional Áo Nhật Bình is usually in red, but there's all types of colours! I recently bought pastel purple and traditional red ones with gorgeous patterns. The pastel purple one has coincidental trans flag stripe colours~ 🏳️‍⚧️ She'd look so pretty in it!

Iirc, this dress was worn by women of high status/royalty (princesses)

Selena falling asleep in flowers like harvest mice 💐🪷

In my KHR AU, Selena falling asleep in giant flowers is based on harvest mice (field mice) falling asleep in flowers like tulips. Xanxus who goes like (Huffs) whenever Selena loses track of time and falls asleep in her flowers/garden and has to send his men to fetch her

She's like a cat so she can fall asleep even in random places (her giant semi conscious plants will make a plant/flower bed for her). Selena being very eepy is sooo cute. It's always a good time for a nap to her. Xanxus who goes overbearing bf mode whenever Selena falls asleep in random places… It’s his own way of looking after the sleepy gf~~ She’s basically this cat. Snork mimimimi 🐈‍⬛😴💤

You can read more under the cut!

Old Arts of XanLena

Doodle WIPs I did back in 2023

I drew this Selena wearing Áo Tấc before back in 2023!

I love the colours of this one, especially the purple and pink gradient of the Áo Tấc, but I wanna redraw it to make it consistent with my current style cuz I've improved a lot since then

I also wanna update the old XanLena chibis I drew in 2023 to make it consistent with my art style too.

I did this super messy XanLena sketch back then of Selena giving him a bouquet of flowers 🪷

Trưng Sisters (FGO) by Takegarou

It's based on Takegarou's chibi style, one of the main Pokémon artists for Pokémon Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield, Legends: Arceus, and Scarlet and Violet.

Take is the character artist for the Trưng Sisters, known as Hai Bà Trưng ("Two Ladies [Named] Trưng") in FGO.

I love Take's aesthetic sense. Take's sense for picking colours and designing is fantastic. You can very clearly see the Viet traditional clothing inspirations~

Áo Nhật Bình

I recently got pastel purple and red Áo Nhật Bình. I'd LOVE to wear it sometime. The colours and patterns are so gorgeous!!!

Purple and red are XanLena colours 💜❤️

Art Rambles

When I do an initial sketch, I just focus on making the face + eyes look good so I tend to draw multiple versions of each, and then choose the best one. I refine my doodles many times, making the sketch neater everytime. So I just clean up my sketch. I just realized I hardly get to colour and properly render cuz I need a cleaner sketch to guide my colouring. Hopefully I can change that and get the opportunity to colour more

I remember a bunch of times in 2020 - 2023, my friends had sentiments like "I hardly get to see you colour, but I love your aesthetic sense in picking colours."

I love picking colours! I can try leaning into a messy painting style…

Oh and just if people are curious. I'd call myself Yume (lit. "Dream") and Yumejin (lit. "Dreaming person") since I do Canon/OC content for my KHR AU, and prefer gender neutral terms as someone NB.

Misc KHR Rambles

Just gonna put the context for mutuals who don't know much about KHR but wanna tune into my rambles

Xanxus was named for his flame as a kid (the Flame of Wrath), since he was born on 10/10, so he has two of the Roman numeral X's in his name, and so believed that he'd become Vongola 10th boss.

As my friend Cinna said, "Xanxus' sheer existence was made for rising on top of the mafia. He was born, named, and raised, to be a leader."

Xanxus' name has the roman numeral X for Decimo = 10, having dreamed to be the Vongola 10th (Decimo) since birth. He was named for that very reason. He was also born on 10/10.

Born on 10/10 to be a 10/10~

Easy to remember: Hibari: 5/5, Mukuro: 6/9, Xanxus: 10/10

I'm gonna be real honest like these three are the only KHR birthdays I remember just cuz they're easy to remember. I always find out about others after their birthdays pass like oops 😭

5/5 = Children's Day in Japan

6/9 = His fandom number is 69 (Ro (6) + Kyu (9) = Roku) -> Rokudo Mukuro

10/10 = The man with two X's in his name. Roman numeral X = 10

[azalearosa]

Vietnam human name explained!

Let me explain to you the meaning behind Vietnam most popular human name: Trần Chung Liên! (Yes, I love this version the most!)

I won't get you into the surname and middle name as I don't know how to explain, lol. I just really, really like the rhythms than the most of other given surname/middle name.

First name: Liên

OK, let come back to look at the canon human name of Japan: both regularly and Nyo version. "Kiku and Sakura!"

You guys might already know "Sakura" mean cherry blossom. And, Kiku means "daisy" aka Japan's national flower!

OK, back to Vietnam, similar things happened. "Liên" means Lotus!

But wait! Isn't lotus in Vietnamese "hoa sen"?

Oh, to make it clear, "Liên" (莲) means "lotus" in sino-vietnamese.

"Hoa sen", on other hand, is in regularly Vietnamese language. Well, "Sen" as a name is OK too. Actually, you can name literally anything as long as it is not swearing words). But, it can also sounds like a slang for "servant"

I really like the name, because (1) it related to the Lotus flower; (2) a feminie name fit for a female character (3) It is a sino-vietnamese.

Using Sino-Vietnamese will help a couple of thing sounds more formally . This is extremely common when naming thing formally (Not always, ofc). And no, using Sino-Vietnamese won't make you a Chinese worshippers. It is extremely helpful in formal situation and avoid sounding ridiculous in some case. It is still play an important part in Vietnamese language. And, it is just a very common and normal thing for Vietnamese people to named their kids, title or a company with Sino-Vietnamese in it.

Of course, you have to use it as right time, right place or it will also backfire. It will sound boring, weird, and unnecessary formally when the situation is no need for it.

Anddd, Liên is a common female name, that what I was greatful for. Some name might sound badass but it, like, not fit for a female (at least not in mordern time). Or it is just sound werid in general to use in modern day context.

[sr09n]

[adrenalynntattoos]

[stepswowdsen]

【KHR】 XanLena ❤️💜🔥🪷

I drew sketches of Xanxus and Selena recently!

Xanxus ❤️🍷🔥

New (2024)

Old (2023)

Xanxus wearing áo dài ("Long dress"), a type of Vietnamese traditional clothing

I think my art style is improving nicely! The way I draw faces is getting more refined

I'll redraw the hair later. I just sketched this quickly for now.

Cuz I was just thinking about how I wanted to draw XanLena together more

I have a XanLena art idea in my head... Just need to get started with actually drawing it

Did a quick colour test today. I'll draw the rest later.

I wanna do a big XanLena piece eventually... And also matching XanLena in traditional Vietnamese clothing 🥰💞

Selena (Liên) 💜🪷

Recent sketches I did of my KHR OC, Selena (Liên)

My wife and her NB swag~ 💜🖤🤍💛

Her Vietnamese name is Liên, which is the Sino-Viet word for "Lotus" 🪷

Selena's Names:

English name: Nguyễn Selena (グエン・セリナ)

Vietnamese name: Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên (阮月雲蓮)

Japanese alias name: Gen Suzuha (阮月雲蓮)

New (2024)

Old (2023)

I resketched Selena's hair recently 💜

I resketched these quickly so it's not as refined but I'm still experimenting/trying to decide how I want Selena's hair to be drawn, whether I want to keep the curls in the back or not.

I feel like her ponytail is pretty iconic to her design. So if Selena got a TYL (10 Years Later) design, then I'd just add a bun on top of the ponytail

Didn't redraw everything yet but just updated this for now

I redrew the bow and it has better lines but I prefer how pointy the shape of the OG bow was so I'll just combine the two eventually. I just wanted to get the new Selena down

Though both are nice! I just like how the shapes/silhouette of the hair are generally clearer and cleaner now

Oh and I'll make the silhouette of the ponytail more wavy like the 1st one

XanLena Chibis (2023)

This is pretty old so I'd like to redraw it but I still think it's cute ^^

I rambled more about XanLena and Selena in a previous ramble post.

I'll put it under the cut!

【KHR AU】 XanLena & Selena Rambles ❤️💜🍷🪷

Sen's KHR OCs Nguyễn Selena (Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên) Lê Thiên Linh Selena Doodles (Quick redraws) 💜✨ I resketched Selena's hair 💜 Oh an

[stepswowdsen]

【KHR AU】 XanLena and the Varia visit Vietnam ❤️💜🔥🪷

CN Neka by BIKOSI KHR Official art by Akira Amano

Intro

Discussion rambles I had with my friends Cinna and Snow about a KHR AU scenario of mine where XanLena (Xanxus/Selena) and the rest of the Varia visit Vietnam.

For those who don't know, Selena is my Viet NB assassin KHR OC who joins the Varia as one of their members. She has a calm, reserved personality and likes flowers, gardening, and fashion. In my KHR AU, she is Xanxus' S/O. My lotus themed wife... 💜🪷

I wanted to post this for Xanxus' birthday today! Happy birthday Xanxus! Happy birthday to my fave KHR character ❤️🍷🔥

Xanxus is my favourite KHR character, tied with Hibari. You were born on 10/10 to be a 10/10! I wanna draw XanLena when I get the chance…

Varia visits Vietnam

Selena in her main outfit and Xanxus wearing áo dài

Me: I have a lot of KHR related discussions (including about my KHR AU), which is why I need to start posting more of it here. I write a lot about Selena's shenanigans with the other Varia members. The Vongola family's chaotic funky assassin squad. Assassin kindergarten brawl

Omg this generates ideas in my head of the Varia taking a vacation to Vietnam... When Selena asks him about visiting Vietnam, I feel like Xanxus would want to see Selena's home country

C: CUTE. The blorboes exploring your home country is peak comfort actually /lh

S: Y e s

Hạ Long Bay

Me: The idea I had in my head was so funny. Like I imagined the Varia visiting famous Viet tourist attractions like Hạ Long Bay. The Varia members are going sightseeing in boats.

Xanxus and Selena are sitting together in a separate boat, while Xanxus is sitting all cross legged

The other members (Squalo, Bel, Lussuria, Levi, Mammon) are in separate boats. At one point, they start arguing and fighting. And the ensuing chaos causes their boats to tip over, causing them to all fall into the water

Me: And Xanxus continues to sit there with his eyes closed, completely unconcerned/unfazed, and Selena is just like (!?!?!?) when she sees the huge splashes when everyone falls into the water

I imagined him to have these expressions~

(KHR: Vol. 40 - Ch. 391) (KHR: Vol. 25 - Ch. 227) (KHR: Vol. 39 - Ch. 375)

C: ONSNCNZNXNDZ

Average day with the Varia

I swear, Vietnam has one acre less of land once the Varia leaves /jk

S: These pics look so pretty

Me: HDAHSHDSHSH

Omg Varia exploring in Vietnam's caverns via boat would be fun!

Me: For the "The Varia members are at Hạ Long Bay" idea I had

I imagine when the Varia members fight and tip each other's boats over (which causes everyone except XanLena to fall into the water), Xanxus is just sitting like this, completely unfazed while chilling in his boat with Selena

C: Truly an average day

...

I remember coming up with a bunch of KHR AU scenarios where the Varia visit Vietnam. I wanna make more scenarios based on this idea since it's so fun to imagine the Varia's shenanigans while they're on vacation in Vietnam.

Selena would be scolding them to not wreck her home country 💥

I imagine Selena expresses to Xanxus that she feels a little homesick since she's been living with him in Italy but misses going back to see her home country every once in a while, so she wants to take a short trip to Vietnam by herself, if possible, when her work is done.

Xanxus thinks it over in his head and then decides they'll be going on vacation.

Xanxus announces to the Varia and they're going on vacation and says it's for "work" but everyone knows what it's actually for.

Hehehe. Getaway vacation to Vietnam! ✌️

(Read under the cut for more)

Misc Rambles

FGO referenced Hạ Long Bay with the Trưng Sisters! Very cool of them. Here's Hạ Long Bay in the Trưng Sisters' Noble Phantasm (NP) background at the end.

Trưng Sisters (Fate/Grand Order)

IKR AVERAGE DAY WITH THE VARIA

S: WNNISSUVAA

C: Oooh true!!! That's very cool :3 LMFAO

Me: I imagine Selena has a trait where she tips money to children at booths (since kids often help out at their family's stores). Like in general, she gives tips to people who provide good services, but will give larger amounts to kids.

S: Aw

C: Ohhh cuute. She's a good person fr

Me: Still cannot believe that FGO gave me the first major Viet rep in mainstream media like animanga and games. And they were drawn by Takegarou, one of my fave artists. And they have wonderful designs and colours. Massive W

Cuz it's FGO, which has a horrible reputation with rep, I expected to lose on every front tbh, but I won with this (and I never expected to win)

The outfit designs and colours are gorgeous... Take is such a good character designer and has really diverse body and facial types and skintones (unlike F*na LMFAO).

Take has such a strong aesthetic sense. Her colours are so strong. I love that the Trưng Sisters have tanner skin like a SEA person would. I used them as refs for Selena and Xanxus' skintones (I HC Xanxus to be a mixed Italian)

My good friend Feuri told me that Southern Italy and especially Sicily tends to have a higher mixed population and more tan and olive skinned folks compared to North Italy.

So I HC Xanxus has a very mixed ethnicity (^^) And it fits with the KHR ani giving him an olive or warmer skin tone, compared to his OG manga version. Xanxus' design literally looks better with darker skin, because it harmonizes against the black and red colours in his design.

Me: I visited Hạ Long Bay when I was a kid (my family and I went on a huge vacation all over Vietnam when I was 6 ~ 7)

YEA Selena is genuinely a good person. She's a sweetie, but she does have an unhinged side when it comes to her work. Which is a nice contrast to the rest of the Varia

C: Very true. Since outside of her job, Selena is legit nice af lmao

S: Cool :3

Me: Hạ Long Bay caves! I think I did see the caves as a tourist attraction

Oh yeah and the Varia are probably all chilling in Viet clothes while on their vacation

C: Oh those are fucking gorgeous holy shit Awwww

Me:

C: I swear Vietnam has one less acre of land when the Varia leaves

Yeah and I imagine Selena is basically the little sister of the Varia who keeps up a mentally big sister role and tries to keep her chaotic siblings in line

C: POOR SELENA JSJGNDKFKD WORST POSITION EVER HONESTLY

...

Me: Vietnam has elephant riding tourist attractions and the elephants are nice! And there's also ladders that'd lead up to tall wooden houses

C: Cool :3

Misc Rambles

S: I sometimes forget that in the art they’re like teenagers and not mid 20 adults

Me: It depends on the charas! Some are teens, some are mid 20s adults or older

S: Not in a bad way but I just think it’s funny a lot of teenagers in shounen media look like adults cause honestly I have that same problem with my art 🙈

Me: SAME LMAO

Biggest reason why you haven't seen me draw Wadanohara yet or MMBN/EXE charas that much: I can't draw kids good at all /lh

C: SHONEN CHARACTERS ALWAYS LOOK 5 YEARS YOUNGER OR FIVE YEARS OLDER I SWEAR

S: IT'S SO FUCKING FUNNY

Me: And the Xích lô (cyclos) in Vietnam where you pay a very inexpensive amount of money (it's cheap) and then get lead around in like bikes/cycles It's a common tourist attraction.

C: Oh yeah! I think I've heard

...

Me: Ngl a part of me wants to visit Vietnam again someday... I feel a higher cultural connection to VN culture than most of the younger gen in my family does and the tourist attractions are WAY more exciting than here.

There were even elephant riding tourist attractions and the elephants were nice! And ladders that'd lead to wooden houses (tourist attractions). And a bunch of caverns and such

C: Cool :3

S: Oooooo I see

C: And it'd be a great opportunity to reconnect with your culture up close

Me: I am slowly reconnecting with my culture by getting more VN clothes heehee

I want to reconnect with my culture since I'm Việt Kiều (Viet diaspora), so I want to learn more about Viet culture

Previous Posts

【KHR AU】 XanLena Wearing Việt Phục ❤️💜🔥🪷

Doodle WIPs of Xanxus wearing Áo Dài and Selena in her main outfit Intro Rambles Nguyễn Selena (Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Liên) is my Viet NB KHR