#robininthelabyrinth

[wantonlywindswept]

If Nie Mingjue had a favorite tv show/movie/genre, what would it be?

[songofclarity]

based on that last post you reblogged, just imagine NHS accidentally meeting WRH during the archery competition and realizing that the rule about NMJ being everyone's serial awakening (one way or another) really means everyone...

The power Nie Mingjue possesses just cannot be fully comprehended and once Nie Huaisang is forced to see that not even Wen Ruohan is immune to whatever Nie Mingjue's got going on, he needs to lie down for a week to recover.

"No, I CANNOT participate in the archery competition anymore, Da-ge. Wen Ruohan is there."

"Do not use him as an excuse to hide how you haven't been practicing! I already know!"

"😭😭😭 You don't know anything!!"

Free from having to sit in on the actual conference, the archery competition was the first time Nie Huaisang had ever met Wen Ruohan face-to-face. Nie Mingjue, meanwhile, had first met Wen Ruohan a year earlier when the Qinghe Nie were duty-bound to host the discussion conference before it. Invitations were always open to any cultivator, from small sect to large sect to no sect at all.

That the Qishan Wen were so bold as to actually show up was no surprise to anyone. Moods were quick to turn south and the smoke of fire still lingered in the eyes of the Qinghe Nie who had yet to recover from the insult. No one, at least, was harmed, which was more than Nie Huaisang could say for one of his most exquisite porn books, compliments of Lan Wangji's wrath.

Although judging by the disgruntled mood that lingered even weeks later when Nie Huaisang returned, more than one person hadn't wanted to let Wen Ruohan walk in and walk out untouched.

But so he did.

And if everyone else could be in such a terrible mood about it, Nie Huaisang expected Nie Mingjue to be in the thick of it, up to his neck in it, up to his eyeballs in it.

But Nie Mingjue didn't have much to say about the discussion conference. He was wound-up with tension, but not so much with rage. It wasn't something a massage or ten minutes with Lan Xichen couldn't fix. If Lan Xichen had been around, Nie Huaisang might have recommended both at once.

As for the discussion conference--

"It's done," Nie Mingjue said, as if that was his primary objective. Maybe it was. Maybe Nie Huaisang didn't get the better end of the deal by being sent away to Cloud Recesses to miss it. "Did you pass your classes, Huaisang?"

And that was the last time they spoke of Nie Mingjue and Wen Ruohan's first meeting.

But a new terrible discovery had Nie Huaisang throwing himself face down on the bed after the archery competition was over. He had lost, of course, but not because he was a poor shot, just a slow one.

He had been slow about this, too: everyone at Cloud Recesses had burdened a poor and pitiful little brother who had done nothing wrong with tales of how Nie Mingjue stirred their hearts or loins--sometimes both, oftentimes both--but now he was assaulted with a new question.

Who had awakened Nie Mingjue?

Nia Huaisang had always thought it was Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen was the one person Nie MIngjue talked to because he liked to, the one person whose presence could ease the tension in Nie Mingjue's expression, the one person who brought about a softness in Nie Mingjue's eyes.

The archery competition showed Wen Ruohan could do none of those nice and pleasant things. Nie Mingjue's shoulders were tense when Wen Ruohan walked on by as if walking on air. The words cut short in Nie Mingjue's mouth as Wen Ruohan's voice slipped into hearing. A fire raged in Nie Mingjue's eyes as he slowly turned his head to look when Wen Ruohan called him over to join them, and Nie Huaisang had to see them stand side-by-side, face-to-face.

Who had awakened Nie Mingjue?

Nie Huaisang had always thought it was Lan Xichen, all pleasant and calm.

He was wrong.

[kitsune1818]

Based on chapter 1 of Curse-breaker by Nirejseki in AO3, @robininthelabyrinth here in tumblr.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33656905/chapters/83640799

---

“…da-ge?”

Nie Huaisang’s big brother didn’t look right. He was crouched down, carrying his body low as if he were trying to support himself and protect his middle at the same time, his fingers digging into the ground for balance – his lips were peeled back from his teeth in something caught between a grimace and a growl. His left eye was normal, but his right was horribly red, shot through with pulsing veins that seemed to bleed into the iris, the color of which had faded from warm golden brown to something more like a slate or steel grey.

[dulharpa]

@robininthelabyrinth i'm sorry haha

(fic on tumblr) (fic on ao3)

[oneiriad]

would you write a MDZS/Leverage fusion? if so, how?

Maybe more of a crossover, but...

The cultivator sects still exist in their corner of China. They’ve survived the centuries by staying firmly apolitical and also by the virtue of their corner of China having an unusually high level of ambient magic, which is what allows cultivators (and random fierce corpses) to exist there to begin with. Also, they do their level best to stay hidden - sure, the authorities in China know they are real, but the further away from the cultivator sect headquarters you get, the more likely people are to dismiss the whole thing as religious nonsense.

And yes, there are Immortals hanging out in some of those sects, and probably not only our favourites. It’s been quite a few centuries, after all.

Anyway, in the US? Most people don’t believe and have never encountered a cultivator.

Eliot Spencer? Might possibly have spent a few years studying with the Nie sect. It’s not something he mentions and he mostly keeps his saber locked away, but - he’s got it.

And then one day a visitor walks straight into the Leverage headquarters, plops himself down on the nearest couch and takes out a fan.

“Spencer-shidi,” says the most useless Immortal of them all, “you never call, you never write. How is this humble person to know what you are getting up to these days?”

[unfoxmeart]

An Angel who is the ghost of a star for @robininthelabyrinth 

|caption deleters & self promoters blocked| art belongs to blog tagged, no use beyond theirs is authorized| commissions open| insta: unfoxme| click for better quality|

[perelka-l]

Commission for @robininthelabyrinth of some dark!Hashirama 💙

[montagnarde1793]

robininthelabyrinth a réagi à votre billet : stand-up-gifs: theleftbackkids: ...

This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. you know what’s the actual barrier to progress? Republicans. Trump. Is it FUN voting for the not-great option? No. Is it WORSE not to vote, i.e., letting Republicans win? Yes. Seriously, what is WITH people??? Can you really not see any difference between Biden (really not great) and Trump (nightmarishly horrible)???

...That’s not really what the post is saying. Let me be clear, if the choices are a centrist Democrat and a Republican, I’ll vote for the Democrat and encourage everyone else to do so as well. It’s a shitty system, but ignoring it won’t make it go away and while the Democratic establishment is wrong that the status quo was just fine and Trump is the only real problem (Trump is obviously a symptom), a return to the status quo ante Trump, while in danger of producing more Trumps, is still an improvement over more Trump. Sitting back and waiting for a revolution to happen before November is childish and irresponsible.

That said, the Democratic Party is an obstacle to progress in a fundamental way that no openly right-wing party can be, because it undermines anyone trying to go further to the left of its corporate-backed mainstream, even as that mainstream (politicians, not voters, I should specify) moves ever further to the right. People who actually want the left-wing solutions to problems that society desperately needs know the Republican Party is the enemy, but are often taken in by platitudes from Democratic politicians who don’t put their support for concrete policies where their mouth is and many people who mobilize against Republicans for pursuing certain destructive policies will ignore it when Democrats pursue those exact same policies and even idolize them (which, also, don’t ever idolize a politician for any reason, but especially don’t completely ignore their policies in favor of a cult of personality).

So yes, if by progress one means a real left-wing, the Democrats are the greater obstacle to its emergence. Right-wing parties have frequently stopped left-wing parties from winning but nothing succeeds at stopping them from existing than a rigid two-party system with a centrist party as the only “left” option.