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Has my constant yapping made you fall in love with me yet?

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[ID: gifs of the character Li Lun from the series "Fangs of Fortune." He tells Wen Xiao, "Pagoda trees are naturally prone to attracting dark and malicious energy. Since ancient times, we've been called ghost trees." Next, he watches Zhuo Yichen stab Zhao Yuanzhou. Next, he looks betrayed at Zhao Yuanzhou and says, "How dare you hurt me for the sake of humans who killed demons?" Then he brandishes the rattle drum against Zhao Yuanzhou. Then Zhuo Yichen asks him, "What exactly do you expect me to understand?" and Li Lun answers, "Me." Next he is shown smiling when Zhao Yuanzhou initially gives him the rattle drum. Next he is shown apathetically stepping on Zhuo Yichen's face. Then he is shown closing his eyes as Zhuo Yichen asks Zhao Yuanzhou who he is and Zhao Yuanzhou responds, "A scumbag who has to stay hidden." Then he is shown grieving as Ao Yin dies. Lastly, he is shown smiling as he says, "A while is enough." /end ID]

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Looks missed:

Looks exchanged:

First and last day that Zhuo Yichen and Li Lun were present in each other's lives.

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Zhuo Yichen went on adventures with the person who killed his entire family and destroyed his clan — but yes, he's not conquering anything. Lan Wangji lost his father, lost his mother, lost the person he loves, had his clan half-destroyed and his home burnt, fought a war for fuck’s sake, yet it never charred his heart  —  but yes, he's not conquering anything.

Sadness, melancholy, and homesickness, you're confusing those with all-consuming grief, the kind that traps people in a vortex of bad decisions and pain (like Wei Wuxian in his first life, who made certain choices and couldn’t shoulder the consequences of said choices). You're pinpointing separate instances that only contribute to a larger picture that paints these people coming out on top, with their hearts full and open, their backs straight and chins high, despite everything they went through. Winners in this fight.

They’re constantly conquering demons within themselves (Xiao Zhuo does it both literally and figuratively, and the demon within him is Bingyi, the saddest, most grieving creature in the whole world, whom he learns to embrace), never falling into the abyss. And even when they momentarily do, they crawl out of it, following the light. That’s what Xiao Zhuo literally spells out to Li Lun by that canal, fundamentally changing him, and the audience.

If you accompanied all of those people — and Zhuo Yichen specifically, since you seem more familiar with him, and his entire character arc is very straightforward about the themes of light, grief, and acceptance — on their journey, and still came to a hopeless conclusion... I don’t know. I guess we fundamentally differ in how we view life itself.

character flavour: conqueror of grief

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Tags via @silver-and-stars: #girl they conquered nothing they BECAME grief personifed

This stuck with me so much, I had to ramble about it. Elder Yue, Lan Wangji, Tantai Jin, Zhuo Yichen. Grief accompanied them throughout their whole lives, like an old friend catching up with them as the years passed, marvelling at how they hadn’t broken yet. Every devastating loss chipped away at their hearts, and yet those hearts of gold remained big enough, benign enough, pure enough to always choose kindness at the end of the day.

Let go. Live. Yearn for the light. Fix the mistakes of the past, or shoulder the consequences of the choices you made with your back straight — and live. Try to be better.

They’re indefatigable.

A little starlight, a candle flame, and a streetlamp left on for travellers can all pierce the darkness, and you.

But when you have a big heart, it’ll contain many things. It’s inevitable that your heart is heavy. One’s heart is like a big empty house. All the wealth and martial goods in this world are not enough to fill it up. But as long as there’s a little light, just a little, it can fill up one’s entire heart.

Wen Zongyu is grief personified. Lan Wangji’s father, and Lan Xichen (hell, even Wei Wuxian), are grief personified. Gong Huanyu, Shangguan Qian, Tantai Minglang. All those people who cannibalised themselves, lost in the darkness, crushed under the weight of pain and loss. They extinguished the light, the smallest light, they were meant to veil caringly with the tenderness of their palms. 

While Elder Yue, Lan Wangji, Tantai Jin, and Zhuo Yichen protected the light with their entire bodies, curling over it, shielding it from any blow, any gust of a blade, or blood raining down. They kept it safe and close, even when it burnt them.

character flavour: conqueror of grief

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Zhuo Yichen and Li Lun seem to have grabbed the wrong weapons. Don't try and help them solve this predicament, they quite enjoy themselves.

Commission of my dramatic princesses I asked matchasakura2 to draw, thank you! <3

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sometimes you can tell when somebody who likes a ship just likes one of the characters and is simply using the other half as a vaguely ooc vehicle to make content for their fave which is whatever. not against the law. until the other half theyre using as a vehicle is YOUR fave. and then you want to explode them with your mind

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Ah to die for your human lover.

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I keep rereading your ll/zyc fics and the way ll is so jealous of everything is giving me life. Do you think he'll ever use his vines to tie zyc up or choke him or will he only ever use his own hands for that, too possessive of him to have even that little bit of distance in what's touching zyc?

Thank youuu! <3<3<3 Ah, I'm so happy to hear you can come back to read the little fics.

The sound of jealousy comes in a rustle of leaves, haha. I think Li Lun should tie up Zhuo Yichen in his branches now and then. Really, the wood wrapping around Zhuo Yichen's throat or wrists would look very pretty to hold him place, but I do think that, especially for Yichen's throat, Li Lun does prefer his hands. There is a certain intimacy in their choke moments, truly, especially bc we have so many comparisons. FoF team full of chokers, tbh. Between Li Lun and Zhuo Yichen, it's not as much a possessive move even. Instead, there's a fascinating evolution from dominance, to desperateness, to something unfathomably delicate. So, if we spin that thought, then we would have to make Li Lun choke Yichen with his branches in moments when he's actually possessive in an unhinged way, because their hand choke moments are simply too intimate. Li Lun's branches can be a shield, but he mostly uses them to attack, and I'm sure Zhuo Yichen would sense the threat in them. Deliciously unhinged.

Li Lun also doesn't have to be possessively jealous like that, he can be quite pouty and a heavy sulker, after all. On the day our poor pathetic sapling reaches to catch Yichen, who dares to walk away from him, he might wrap a branch around his wrist or leg too tightly to pull him back, hold him close - and make Yichen faceplant instead. Oh no, what if he faceplant straight into lap, whatever will I do with these thoughts now, oh no! It will be very embarrassing and totally not his fault. Hopefully one day, he will also just hug Yichen into his branches. Zhuo Yichen can never be sure if they wrap around him to choke or comfort him. Li Lun's branches are definitely perfect to be a clingy sort of jealous, haha.

I did really enjoy writing about Zhuo Yichen leaning against the branches of Li Lun's cave. It was a subconscious search for familiar comfort that unknowingly teased Li Lun into the possibility of wrapping Zhuo Yichen into his branches. So, it's definitely most fun to play with that ability of Li Lun and the connection to tree hugger Zhuo Yichen.

I derailed. I do that when I get invited to talk about my ships, so thank you for asking! <3

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Pathetic Sapling attempts to flirt.

If you’ve thought about levelling up your game, I invite you to join the Pathetic Sapling Pickup Artist Bootcamp, where you’ll learn to forcibly break your cultivation, leading to your irreversible vanishing, for a chance to save your crush newly acquired opponent with the Truth Eye. We teach authentic attraction: how to dramatically die for your crush newly acquired opponent, leaving a dokidoki impression beforehand.

Li Lun oh Li Lun.

Li Lun, who restored Yichen's ability to dream, returned to pull his most perfect opponent out of the nightmare.

I get it. I totally get the Pathetic Sapling. There’s no one worth doing all that for except Zhuo Yichen, whose life-changing, illuminating words Li Lun carried in his heart. His damn opponent as Zhuo Yichen called himself. You want to save Zhuo Yichen. I'm here to fuck him one last time help.

It's also just so utterly devastating, cute, fun, and everything in between that Li Lun's root stirs back to life the second Zhao Yuanzhou calls for Yichen, and it's clear that Zhuo Yichen's life is in danger. Absolutely glorious sequence editing.

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Beloved Bai Lun.

Sometimes I think Li Lun managed to deliver an Oscar-worthy performance as Bai Jiu, because so many people failed to recognize him in Bai Jiu's body. But then I put them side by side, look at how weird Bai Jiu is in this episode, and all I can say is, Li Lun is such a bad actor. (and the biggest dork)

Did he even try? He didn't look up Bai Jiu hair tutorial, maintained his princess posture over the realism of the character he was portraying, and failed miserably to suppress his inner Miranda Priestly, changing into much better clothes halfway through. The actor is horrible. He's just playing himself! This biopic is wack. Did he want Zhuo Yichen to find out and kiss him? No wonder he was so disappointed.

Zhuo Yichen and Ying Lei share one barely functioning braincell when they're together. Honestly loser boys, how could you not recognise him? He clearly wanted you to.

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Xiao Zhuo: Li Lun, shut up. I'm your boyfriend now. Be obedient.

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so, i ordered xiao zhuo and put him into a blender. (and some other things)

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You are the hand that touches my face when I awaken from death. I only ever dream of you.

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like one thing i will ETERNALLY thank gjm for is for giving me yanan and tian jiarui and in getting to see them as both in a deliciously toxic situationship in fangs of fortune AND as each other's ride or die in veil of shadows. the flavour is EXQUISITE 🤌.

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Dork on dork mirroring.