#little-smartass

[guqin-and-flute]

RE: gentle nudges asking about writing projects - any progress with the snowed-in morning after fic? 👀

👀👀👀

Perhaps that's what I should work on today >:3

[crossdressingdeath]

living for your great defence of Zixuan re: reaction to forced marriage! I also think his feelings about it are further complicated by the fact that the tv drama makes it pretty clear that from the beginning, despite everything else, he IS attracted to her - in EVERY scene they're together early on he has a little 😯 starstruck moment at her, even twice at the inn! - and can you imagine being a sixteen year old boy who has resented this forced faceless fiancee for years, only to meet her out of the blue and OH NO SHE'S HOT? of course his brain is scrambled!!! with the added bonus that it's not difficult to extrapolate that, with a father like JGS, a very moral, proper and upright kid (that Zixuan clearly wants to be) is gonna have........ shall we say ISSUES around his perception of his own sexuality and attraction to women. which, you know, probably isn't going to help when it comes to staying cool-headed whilst he's accused of not wanting to marry her (he doesn't!!!! not even a little bit!!!! he doesn't even want to kiss her or touch her face!!! fuck off!!!)

Personally I prefer the novel where he very much isn’t attracted to her at first (because frankly why would he be, he honestly has no reason to like her), partly because this is not JZX and JYL’s story and partly because it kind of undermines the fight with WWX; JZX isn’t being tsundere in the fight, he has genuine issues with having to marry JYL. Basically CQL’s version is funnier but MDZS’s version just... works better. Also like. personally I feel like JZX having issues regarding things like marriage and sexuality due to his father being Just The Worst is kind of undermined by him meeting the woman he’s resented for pretty much his entire life and immediately falling for her because she’s pretty, y’know?

[henshengs]

little-smartass replied to your post “Xiyao squad, do we think that Meng Yao could ever have been happy as...”

I think he'd find it difficult because, compared to the constant busy CHAOS of jinlintai, there's just... less for him to DO in cloud recesses? he needs to feel NEEDED, and he gotta keep that big brain busy. and even with his dad dead I think he'd still crave being part of the jin family. the fic "half cloak half dagger" does a really good job of articulating why he might be hesitant to marry lxc, even being fully in love with him.

this makes perfect sense, I think you’re right. (Yes, I’ve read that fic and loved it!) The happiest ending I can come up with for MY is being Sect Leader Jin Zixuan’s recognized respected brother and most trusted advisor, but this also makes me sad because I want him and LXC to be able to cuddle every night but there’s just no good way to make it happen. 

(Okay no the actual happiest ending for him is far away from the cultivation world running a school for disadvantaged youth with LXC as his devoted house husband but there’s no way to make that happen without setting it post canon after all the canon terribleness.)

[lenle-g]

little-smartass replied to your post: me: *wants to draw* also me: *has no idea what to...

me, still crying over my sketchbook: m-may I suggest listening to sappy music and drawing your feelings

Jess i love you

[summerofspock]

@little-smartass replied to your post: i think there’s something so taboo about liking...

oh mood, like 99% of what I write is just tropes and characters I love of course I’m gonna fucking like it I’M BASICALLY CATERING IT SPECIFICALLY TO ME.

YES EXACTLY! Im making this cake because i WANT THIS SPECIFIC FLAVOR so im definitely going to eat it and love every bite!

[pilferingapples]

@little-smartass replied to your post “@little-smartass replied to your post: UM YES...”

you should know that I am as we speak opening photoshop to draw some les mis/black books crossover art

This Delights Me:D

[guqin-and-flute]

Nie Braids Meaning Things Responses

@caityjay13  said: nnnnnnnnnnnng yessssssssss

THINK OF THE ROMANCE

@little-smartass​ said: Meng Yao walking around with "Sect Leader's Special Little Guy" braids 😌

hasiodjfo I’m picturing the smuggest little face (I’m getting the urge to draw that exact emoji face but with his braids)

OH, just think of him walking around The Unclean Realm right after his promotion after having meticulously studied whether or not non-Nie Clan members can wear braids or not--they can? Oh goodie. Turning away from a Perfectly Pleasant™ conversation with one of the men that had made fun of him before at a precise angle so he can see the braids. 

Mingjue sees them and gives a ‘hmph’ of satisfaction. Then points out, ‘Put another loop here--’ and points. ‘That would be more accurate. And maybe cross those over closer to the crown of your head.’ And Meng Yao knows that that’s given him another boost up, like another medal, oh yes, and stifles his Stupid Brain from suggesting that Nie-zongzhu should show him how and where, exactly those should go. You know, just so he gets it right :)))

@greenwitching said:  :3ccc

>:3ccc hehehehehehe

scarlet-gryphon said: Not to toot my own horn or anything but… https://archiveofourown.org/works/26166007

ALWAYS TOOT YOUR OWN HORN, HERE! This was adorble, courting with braids  ;u;

[guqin-and-flute]

3zun + prompt 51 (what is THAT) + Xichen turning up with a baby carrier containing a newborn after being AWOL all day

51. “What is that?” [5000% dedicated to you and our conversation about this, I'm shamelessly stealing it♥]

[Ao3 Link] [Modern A-Fu Verse]

When Mingjue heard the car door slam, he paused his music and set the barbell on his thigh, looking up to the small window high on the wall of the basement where he could see a tiny sliver of sky above the aggressively manicured flowerbed. Had A-Yao ordered food in? Or was Xichen finally back from his early morning dash-out where he had simply left a note that had said ‘Family emergency. I’m fine.’ (Mingjue doubted that, considering the radio silence that he and A-Yao had received from their usually highly responsive partner.) 

Silence and no movement from the front walk. Mingjue frowned. The car door had been from their driveway, he had been sure of it. Was Huaisang showing up unannounced again? He often did that, the art school he had chosen was not all that far away--even then, Mingjue had insisted on him living in the dorms instead of commuting in, for both their sakes. Sometimes he sat in his car and lost himself in social media for a good half hour before he managed to tear himself away and actually come in. 

A second car door opening. Then closing. Then, a human form passed across the weird lilac twilight of the wedge of sky above the flowers' spikey tops; Xichen. Mingjue recognized the jacket and the chest that it covered. From the way he was leaning, it looked like he brought home heavy groceries. At this, Mingjue went to go open the door for him, setting down the barbell, plucking out his ear buds, and wiping down his face with the towel hanging around his neck as he climbed the stairs. He had crossed the expansive foyer and pulled open the door, opening his mouth to greet him--when it hung slack at the sight in front of him.

His partner, his boyfriend of the better part of a decade was standing in the yellow light of the front porch, disheveled and puffing, clutching no less than 4 overstuffed reusable grocery bags in one hand. And a baby's car seat in the other.

With a baby in it.

"Listen," Xichen was saying desperately as Mingjue stared, eyes wide. The baby was staring back, tongue half poked out of its little pooch of lips, like it couldn't quite fit. "I can explain--"

"Xichen--"

"Listen--"

"Is he back?" A-Yao's voice sounded along with the swift, light drumming of feet down the carpeted stairs. Xichen stiffened as if given an electric shock, the look of overwhelming helpless pleading deepening. "Where was he? Brr, it's freezing down here, why are you just--" This slightly harried monologue stopped, somewhere behind and to the left of Mingjue's shoulder. After a beat of silence, there came, in a very different tone, "What is that?"

"It's...a baby," Xichen answered, weakly.

"Well...yes. I can see that. I mean why do you have one?" A-Yao sounded like he doesn't know whether to land on suspicion, confusion, or dread.

Underneath his already not-so-cool exterior, it was clear Xichen was entirely in panic mode, because he smiled in self defense while his eyes said 'help'.

Mingjue kept staring at the baby. It dribbled spit and looked away to stare at the little, brightly colored caterpillar toy that was clipped to the handle right next to Xichen's white knuckled grip. It was very young. It had been years and years since he had had occasion to be near a baby, let alone a newborn--but judging from how incredibly huge its eyes were, how incredibly tiny its little fingers were, and how purply-red in little veiny splotches it was, Mingjue would be willing to bet his motorcycle and all his gear that that's exactly what this was.

His eye caught the top of a stack of baby bottles, formula, and the arm of the tiniest little cow onesie poking out of the top of one of the bags Xichen clutched.

A newborn. A family emergency.

Oh. Oh no.