#xia gaojun

[tobiasdrake]

My cynical ass being introduced to the obvious hetero love interest in Raven of the Inner Palace. Like.

Gaojun: As emperor, I want you to be my actual consort for realsies. Shouxue: Ew no. Me: Alright, here we go. He's going to get pushier and pushier until she inexplicably decides it's charming and-- Gaojun: My bad. I will literally never bring it up again for the rest of the season. Me: Wait. What. Gaojun: Also I've taken efforts to flatten the power imbalance that exists between us so that we can engage with one another as equals. Me: Hang on. Gaojun: Now that we're able to meet on equal footing, would you be willing to be my friend? I'm not asking for any strings attached or promises of anything more, and also I don't fully understand what being friends means, but I would like it if we could learn together. Me: OH MY GOD.

And now I want to have his fucking babies. Are you kidding me with this guy!?

Hooooooly shit. The show is actually putting in the work to make him likable and give us legitimate reasons to root for these two characters getting together. Other media's just like, "Uh, he's a guy, why wouldn't you want him to get his dick wet with the Most Waifu in the series?" but both Gaojun personally and his relationship with Shouxue are being handled with so much care to make this guy likable.

I just.

I know it's probably because it's shoujo so the shoe is on the other foot (trying to write men as desirable husbandos instead of writing women as desirable waifus). This guy is the Chinese inspired but Japanese written equivalent of a Disney Prince. But. Still. I just. This hits so different. It hits so different.

Men, what is stopping you from putting this much effort into your male protagonists?

[aishiteru-kenshin]

Raven of The Inner Palace | 後宮の烏 | Kōkyū no Karasu

“When I saw you by the lake, I thought, "This must be what a goddess looks like.” I’d never seen anything so beautiful.“

[bytheminute]

Fandom: Raven of the Inner Palace

Rating: General

Relationships: (One-sided?) Ka Koshun/Ryuu Jusetsu (implied)

Characters: Ka Koshun, Ei Sei, Ryuu Jusetsu (mentioned)

A/N: i.e., Koshun being sentimental after Jusetsu leaves. May or may not be a series, contains light novel spoilers not in the anime. I wrote this with a Modern AU in mind but it ended up being vague enough to fit both the AU and canon so there's that lol

———

They don't look alike.

The words roll around in his mind, but he knows this. It's why it came as a shock when Ei Sei first revealed it to him, shoulders shaking and eyes quivering in a way Koshun has only seen a handful of times before. Because on first inspection, there's hardly any evidence to support the idea that Jusetsu and Ei Sei could be related, much less be siblings, from their hair to their eyes to the planes of their faces and bodies. There were no records, their parents were deceased, and no other reliable witnesses.

And yet.

There it is, he thinks, peeking at Ei Sei over the rim of his tea cup.

They've been friends for years, but Ei Sei has always kept his distance, claiming the difference in their stations as a reasonable excuse. Koshun never agreed—in his eyes, they were both orphans with mothers who protected them to their ruin and fathers who couldn't care less. They had the same teachers, ate the same food, slept under the same roof ("Only because you made it so, Koshun-sama," Ei Sei lamented). Ei Sei was achingly familiar, more family to him than any of his half-siblings, whose own families have shielded them from the estranged Ka boy.

All of this is to say that despite Ei Sei (stubbornly, stupidly) always standing five paces away, Koshun knows him. Even now that he's more relaxed than he's ever been (especially so in the year since they met Jusetsu), seated across him with his back slumped against his chair, nursing a cup of tea with a free hand. His other massages his temple as his eyes are closed—a long-time tell that he was mentally preparing a lecture for Koshun, a tell that would always and only ever remind him of Ei Sei if anyone else did it.

But then he opens his eyes, and there's that look. When he opens his mouth to lecture him, there's that tone. He tilts his head in the same way as he finishes his argument. And even though Koshun has only known her for a fraction of the time that he's known Ei Sei, he sees her—all the little bits that she somehow shares with his best friend who is miraculously also her brother, who is his only tie to her now that she's left their home to explore the world.

"Oi, Koshun-sama." Ei Sei huffs—something he's always done, but how did Koshun not notice sooner that she did the exact same when he annoyed her? "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Deluding yourself." Ei Sei moves to stand, taking his and Koshun's cups with him to rinse in the sink. "We aren't that alike."

Koshun and the running tally in his mind beg to differ.

[nocandnc]

To date this is actually my favorite scene - establishes their character dynamics perfectly while also being damn hilarious.

[pandedios-carli]

Shouxue's love for food it's so cute but at the same time so sad

Food as the only way for her to connect with the world and with the people

[koukyuu-network]

Raven of The Inner Palace | 後宮の烏 | Kōkyū no Karasu

[ruthserbel]

Raven of the Inner Palace

[tsukinomask]

MYSTEEEERIOUS!! 🎐🌸