🌟

pfp by @cello_shelli they/them #1 Cleric Chih fan🫶 Devoted Mizu lover🌊 I LOVE TRE DUOLOGY<33 An avid lover of many things😞 I love my ocs😭😭 (same username on both insta and tt) meadowlarkcitizen on ao3

[cutecipher]

it really is annoying as hell how someone will talk about how poor people can't avoid ethically dubious products because of how being poor works and then someone with a two story house in the suburbs will take that to mean they can order harry potter books through a drone delivery from amazon and if you criticize that you're a bigot

[sapphling]

"drug seeking" as a patient label one of the most dogshit stupid concepts of all time. fuuuck everybody look out this guy came in here expecting medical treatment. better watch out in case he goes to a restaurant and starts food seeking

[sapphling]

i hope everyone gets the drugs they want forever even if they don't need them (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

[tropiyas]

[do-not-u-dare]

let’s talk about how they made it impossible to function without a phone and digitalised everything and then turned around and went “actually! these phone things aren’t safe for kids but it’s magically ok once you’re eighteen. guess you’ll have to have your life dictated by your parents now lol cause we’re gonna take the devices away from you. IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING”

[do-not-u-dare]

ok my apologies. take away my ability to buy anything too ig because these fuckass stores don’t accept cash anymore. take away my ability to communicate with people outside my house and school because I can’t text and I can’t email and I cant drive to them either and I can’t even fucking get public transport without a phone either. can’t order at a fucking restaurant without being asked to get a membership and install an app and also very sorry but you can only order through our online menu now! have you ever considered that it’s not just about instagram?

[treefey]

"I want my media to be historically accurate"

Cool, so you want natural fiber costumes with no/nuanced corset slander, people wearing colors, historical hairstyles, people wearing hats or headcoverings and long sleeves outside during the day, no potatoes or pumpkins in pre-columbian Europe, actors with textured skin and wrinkles, minimal makeup, consulting HEMA groups and weapons scholars for all the weapons and fight scenes, a good soundtrack that includes traditional instruments?

Oh, you mean you want 100% white people. Even in crowd scenes in port cities. There's a different word for that.

[should-be-sleeping]

You are 60% water and every lake, river, pond, swamp, creek, and ocean you encounter wants to reclaim it desperately. Be careful out there.

[should-be-sleeping]

[should-be-sleeping]

Good, I hope it haunts everyone about to enter a body of water so bad that they wear a life jacket. 🙌

[should-be-sleeping]

Every single person I knew (past tense) who has drowned was "a strong swimmer." Water in the wild does not care how good you are at swimming.

[should-be-sleeping]

I mean this with all due respect:

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.

You may be unable to return to shore. Rescue may be unable to find you quickly.

[joanthreatt]

Scheduling this for when weather starts warming up. Be careful swimming this summer

[ouyangposting-quarantine]

i've always been a huge fan of ouyang's narration because his reactions to things are like SO intense, it's super fun, he's like raskolnikov in this way kinda. especially in the second book it's like

"His thought process was abruptly cut as Ouyang turned around and saw Zhu being nice to a woman on the other side of the road.

His heart rate went up and soon, dark spots began dancing in front of his eyes. Obviously Zhu never saw him as anything other than a pathetic excuse of a human being. He must have found treating Ouyang as if he was a woman incredibly funny, that stupid bald motherfucker. Just as he was starting to consider that someone could view him as anything other than an abomination that was never meant to exist, Zhu did the obvious thing of stabbing him in the back.

Talking to that anonymous disgusting evil woman was the proof he needed. There was no space for him to exist except for the comforting dark nothingness he was slipping into.

The next thing he saw was Zhu's ugly face hovering above him with an expression somewhat resembling concern. Obviously that couldn't be the case, Ouyang established already that the monk would only be satisfied by endlessly mocking his pathetic existence. Despite still feeling hazy, he slapped Zhu across the face and immediately passed out again as a result of the rage that made all of his blood leave his body."

character of all time, why is he like that (i know why but it always feels good to ask)

[beezlebutch]

"Pride month is over"

WRONG! Your pride month is over! Me and all the other disabled queers are having pride month two: disability edition

[jehandant]

Reblogging this again bc people in the notes are asking a lot of "Am I included? Am I disabled if I have x?" and I just wanted to add the flag here to show people who the pride month is for.

This is the new flag, the old one was more vivid and in a z shape, but it's been made more neutral to be inclusive of people with seizures or sensory issues.

Each stripe represents a different aspect of disability:

Red: Physical disabilities

Yellow: Cognitive & intellectual disabilities

White: (And this is the key one I think) Invisible AND undiagnosed disabilities

Blue: Mental illnesses

Green: Sensory disabilities

If you're autistic or have ADHD? this is your pride month. If you have a mental illness, it's your pride month. If you're hard of hearing, this is your pride month. If you have an autoimmune disorder, this is your pride month. If you are not diagnosed with anything but you know something is up with you: THIS IS STILL YOUR PRIDE MONTH.

[mini-wrants]

Outdoor in sun perfec t place for president to do speech! Outdoor very warm very soft put old man on green lawn under sun. Put old man in warm sun. no problem ever in warm sun because good view and audience can see long speech. Nice podium outdoor sunny perfect place for old president can trust warm sun to give nice view to President good luck to President. friend sun.

[astrarche-x]

just reread the zhu/ma bath scene in swbts and i love that zhu's flirting strategy is basically acting as poor little meow meow

[fibromyalgicaf]

Edited to add: Since a lot of people are reblogging this original post, I'm adding the updated version I did that incorporates the intersex circle...

I know intersex people are still getting excluded in a lot of LGBTQIA+ spaces (let alone wider society) and I think it's crucial to show this group is included in the statement that we all deserve equal rights.

[mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026]

Petition to make this our new flag because this looks cool as fuck

[greens-your-color]

How Old is Ouyang Anyway?

Shelley Parker-Chan’s fabulous one-shot Ouyang/Baoxaing pwp fic gives us the crucial bit of information that Esen is two years older than Ouyang:

But exactly how old are they?

During my first read through, I got the vibes from Ouyang that he was physically around 38 and spiritually 58. Let’s be honest, he’s jaded af. I wanted my Man Yaoi,* dammit!

But apparently not!

My best guess is that he is somewhere between 25-29 during the primary events of the canon novels. That would make Esen around 27-31. However, SPC gives conflicting timelines that make it hard to know for sure.

Let’s get into it:

Route 1: Using Zhu’s Age for Reference

We know Zhu’s birth year pretty exactly. She’s 10 years old in 1345 and 19 in 1354, making her birth year reliably 1335.

Zhu is 12 years old when Chaghan (then Prince of Henan), Esen, Ouyang, and Baoxaing visit the monastery in 1347. The narrator describes the three boys as “radiant youths” and “young,” though their specific ages aren’t given.

When Ouyang returns to the monastery as a General of the Yuan in 1354, Zhu is 19. She recalls him from their prior encounter in 1347 as “younger than she was now.” Meaning, Ouyang was younger than 19 in 1347. It’s not clear how much younger.

If we assume he was between 16-18 in 1347, that puts his birth year in 1329-1331.

Ergo, during the main canon years of TRE, he is 23-25 at the beginning (1354) and 25-27 at the end (1356).

Kinda gives new perspective to that scene in 1354 when he makes fun of the Red Turbans’ general for being 22, doesn’t it? ;)

Route 2: Using Esen’s Spring Hunt History for Reference

Here’s where things get more concrete—but also more contradictory.

Early in SWBTS, Ouyang has a bit of a rambling internal monologue about his past history with Esen vis-a-vis the Great Khan’s yearly Spring Hunt.

Here’s the narration we get:

“Ouyang had attended once when he was twenty, when he had been the commander of Esen’s personal guards. But the next year the Prince of Henan had retired from campaigning, and since then Esen and Ouyang had always been in the south during the Spring Hunt. This would be the first time in seven years that Esen would be available to accompany the Prince of Henan to Hichetu. And it was all because of Ouyang’s defeat.”

Omg this is so much easier! Seven years ago Ouyang was 20, so now (as of the 1355 Spring Hunt at least) he is 27, making his birth year 1327. Easy peasy.

But here’s the thing. If Ouyang was born in 1327, Zhu’s statement about him being “younger than she was now” (aka younger than 19) in 1347 would be simply incorrect. He would be 20 in 1347 and Esen would be 22—not exactly youths by (TRE’s) Yuan standards.

All told, I’m inclined to go with the second reading, which more directly pinpoints Ouyang’s birth year, and lets him be a bit older, which his ancient creaky ass soul deserves.

What this means, though, is that Zhu’s judgement of Ouyang’s (and Esen’s) ages aren’t exactly accurate. The narrative really sets them up to look and act like teenagers, not adults, in that 1347 scene.

More Event-Dating Wobbliness

So how old was Ouyang when he became Esen’s eunuch slave? Obviously pre-puberty, but when exactly?

During that deeply homoerotic scene (aren’t they all) from SWBTS in which Ouyang helps Esen with his armor, he reflects that he’s served Esen for sixteen years. This is in the first month of 1355.

(But in ~thee murder scene~~, in the second month of 1356, Ouyang says “I was nearly twenty years by your side.” Just some exaggeration I guess—“seventeen years” doesn’t sound quite as satisfying or cathartic when you’re trying to psych yourself up to kill your master/best friend/eternal toxic crush.)

At any rate, let’s assume Ouyang became Esen’s slave sixteen years before 1355, in 1339. If we follow Route 2 (Ouyang born in 1327), he is 12 when he first enters the Prince’s household.

But here’s another complication!!!

Remember this scene?

If Ouyang is 12 when he first becomes a slave, there’s no time at all for the “before picture” this scene paints. No “had always been able” possible. Ouyang has to have been with Esen for at least a couple years prior to Esen turning 14 in order for this dynamic to work out.

So let’s go back to Route 1 (Ouyang born in 1329-1331) for a minute. In that scenario, Ouyang was anywhere from 8-10 when he first becomes a slave. To me this seems a lot more plausible.

A third explanation might be that that “sixteen years” figure might be inaccurate, or not the full picture. It could be that Ouyang really has been “at [Esen’s] side” for something like 20 years, but have only been his specific attendant for 16 of those years. Maybe he did other slave-duties (whatever they might have been) prior to that time. That would allow him to keep his greater age (I don’t think he deserves to start the main narrative at 23 lol) while also preserving a longer connection to Esen and a bit more tragedy.

Anyway. What can we conclude, if anything, from all this. Frankly I emerged from this process more confused than I began it.

For the sake of the childhood fic I’m currently plotting, this is how I choose to proceed: Ouyang comes to the Prince’s residence as a slave at age 8, in 1335. Esen is 10 at the time. The two rather secretly become friends, and Esen demands that Ouyang become his specific attendant slave in 1339, when Ouyang is 12 and he is 14. Thereafter, Ouyang gradually rises to become commander of his personal guard and eventually his general. Then canon events unfold as written. 🥲

*As in, not old man yaoi but not exactly young man yaoi, either. Just normal man yaoi. Mid-30s/early 40s yaoi. But what would Ouyang think about being called a normal man, eh? Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t have to find out.

[anglaised]

theres a reason u associate east asians with femininity and black people with masculinity and it has nothing to do with actual masculine or feminine “behavior” and everything to do with race science 😭 u have been taught race science, u haven’t unlearned race science 😭😭😭😭 READ A BOOK ABOUT RACISMMMM

[sevgiyagsin]

ZIRAAAA

^ early November last year

[hagiomoto]

I don't think this is an appropriate response to an article about South Asian farmers losing their teeth because temperatures are now reaching 45 Celcius.

[normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke]

Conservative beauty standards are back with a vengeance which means it's especially important to go out this summer with bellies out and bodies unshaved. Also be unapologetically disabled with mobility aids and wearable medical devices and stim toys and ear defenders and all that stuff. You need it. People need to see it. Everyone needs to be reminded that life is unquestioningly more enjoyable when you're not living inside an arbitrary set of rules created by people who are offended by all the wrong things.

[cazort]

Add any type of gender-non-conforming to this list. Or age-non-conforming. Wear that dinosaur onesie as an adult. Wear that mini skirt as a senior citizen. Break "fashion rules". Pattern clash. Color clash. Wear things that are "out of style". Look out of place for the setting you are in.

[cedarwaxwingsandberries]

So the heatwave affecting India right now is insane. For my fellow fahrenheit folks out there, 60°C (the white areas) is 140°F.

The highest recorded temperature in Death Valley was 134°F.