#Cheese Heaven

[cheesecakemermaid1048]

I may not be into all of these franchise, but I can imagine this is how one feels

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

I’m beginning to think I should start keeping a list of the fandoms I accidentally stumbled into at some point before binging fics for a month straight and having it take over the ao3 reading portion of my life. Like yes, the last 27 pages of my ao3 history ARE of this fandom I knew nothing about a month ago, as a matter of fact.

[nikito0x]

TGCF - Different Ending AU

"You said you would never leave me."

Tears running down his cheeks, a lump in his throat, a heartbreak on the horizon with a hole that shall never be filled by any other.

"There is no banquet in this world that doesn't come to an end."

Xie Lian didn't want to hear it.

Those loving, heart wrenching words Hua Cheng was saying to him. Those gentle hands trying to soothe him. He didn't want it. He couldn't bear it. He wouldn't survive it.

Never again, he thought.

Never again, he wished.

Never again, he promised.

Without thinking, Xie Lian grabbed onto Hua Cheng's wrists and poured every last drop of spiritual energy he had left into him. And when it was over he dug and found a little something more, and more, and more. Xie Lian pulled spiritual energy from the Heavenly Realm itself and when he could do that no longer, he dug even deeper within himself.

Hua Cheng tried to halt him, to reason with him. He didn't listen. Not now, when he could still see his San Lang, his friend, his beloved, still fading and Xie Lian-

Xie Lian needed to be faster. He needed more energy. But there was nothing left, no one near. And yet he dug deeper within himself until he found something. Something fluid, yet solid. Something sticking to him like tree's roots were stuck into the earth. But it was energy, and so he pulled.

He pulled and he pulled, and it was starting to hurt, and Hua Cheng was trying to rip himself away from him, but he didn't allow him to, not now, not yet.

He was still fading, fading, fading.

Never again, Xie Lian chanted in his mind, never again, never again.

"Dianxia, please, don't exhaust yourself! I will never leave you. I will come back. Your Highness, believe me, please."

Never again, he thought one last time, and with a final, forceful, tearing tug, golden energy was pouring, pouring, pouring into his love and, suddenly, he wasn't fading, he was perfectly solid and ripping away from him and-

...

Xie Lian felt so utterly exhausted and empty.

Before he could think any further on it, before he could rejoice in the fact that, yes, he had managed to save Hua Cheng for once, and he was okay and nothing else mattered, before he could properly register Hua Cheng's look of utter horror-

All Xie Lian knew was darkness.

-----

Two days later, Hua Cheng was in Paradise Manor, sitting in a chair by his God's bedside.

He wanted to be sick again remembering the events that had led him to this moment.

His Highness, desperate to save him, to keep him by his side, had sacrificed more than Hua Cheng thought he knew. Had pushed and pushed until he tore himself apart. All for Hua Cheng.

Hua Cheng had been helpless to do anything but watch.

Again.

He remembered the horror of realizing what that golden light was, of watching Dianxia smile for one last time, seeing him safe, and then passing out.

Passing out because he had torn his own godhood from his essence, all in an attempt to save Hua Cheng.

Hua Cheng wanted to tear himself limb from limb for having the audacity to posses his God's (always his God, forever, even now) divinity when he was laying there helpless, as a mortal, for the first time in over 800 years.

For the first time in over eight centuries, Xie Lian was a mortal. So very mortal, and it was all Hua Cheng's fault.

If he thought jumping from Heaven and discarding his newly acquired godhood would help, he would have done it in an instant. It wasn't like it mattered in the face if his beloved's continued wellbeing. It wasn't like Hua Cheng ever really cared to become a God anyway.

But for all rights and purposes, right now, he was a Heavenly Official. He never really wanted this, but it was a gift from his God and so, he would honor it. Eventually. Hopefully after Dianxia soon woke up to scold him for not fulfilling his duties as a Heavenly Official now.

But gods, he wanted to end himself. Wanted to tear his ashes from his God's neck and crush them to the useless dust that they were.

But that would make his God's sacrifice amount to nothing, so he refrained. Barely.

He was useless, as ever.

He had already interrogated Black Water on how to give his God's divinity back. He was told in no uncertain terms that that wasn't possible, not right now anyhow. Hua Cheng had almost slayed him on the spot, even weakened as he still was, but managed to stop himself from doing anything too rash.

He had taken Xie Lian back to the Ghost Realm to recover as soon as possible. He had had to threaten the two idiots to let him be. Hua Cheng knew that, eventually, after everyone recuperated a little bit, they would come demanding to see Dianxia. He would deal with it when the time came.

Right now, all that mattered was his God.

-----

Xie Lian thought he knew what being a mortal meant. He had thought that he'd been used to it with the last eight centuries of wandering the Earth as nothing but a scrap collecting cultivator.

He was wrong.

He had the majority of the strength he had always possessed, but it turned out that the endurance held by someone banished from godhood was still more divine than initially assumed.

He also felt phantom pain of old injuries he had long forgotten about, gotten during his banishments.

Xie Lian had to remember how easy it was to get scars now, how staying up for days on end wasn't possible, how even his own cooking was a danger to his life right now.

Not that Hua Cheng would let him be in any danger at all, not even from himself, not now, not ever.

-----

Xie Lian had woken up on the third day after the battle.

He was faced with a worried out of his mind Ghost King, now a new God.

Truth be told, he didn't know that what he had done was giving his godhood to Hua Cheng. He didn't regret it though, he never could. Not when he could see him standing there, tall and proud as ever.

Or, well, he should have been.

Instead, Xie Lian was faced with a completely distraught Ghost King who was ready to apologize on his knees for taking Xie Lian's godhood away from him. Xie Lian had put an immediate stop to that, of course.

There were many conversations he had with Hua Cheng in the next year to come. About each other's self sacrificing tendencies most of all. But they also talked about their fears. About Hua Cheng's fear of losing him and Xie Lian never ascending again. About Xie Lian's own fears of losing Hua Cheng and his new misgivings about his mortality.

They talked about Wu Ming, about Yong'an. There were many tears and apologies made. There was a lot of love shared too. They were there for each other.

Xie Lian had encouraged Hua Cheng to jump from Heaven if he felt uncomfortable with godhood. Hua Cheng didn't think much of godhood either way (unless it was Xie Lian) but he refused to squander a gift from his god when Xie Lian himself didn't have it.

They agreed that if (when, Hua Cheng insisted) Xie Lian ascended again he would do as he pleased with his godhood, but as of right now, he didn't feel it right to give it up.

-----

There were good and bad times in the upcoming year. Mostly good.

A few problems the couple had encountered was in regards to themselves.

They both needed to feel secure in each other's safety and feel okay to separate for longer than an incense stick time. It was one of the hardest things either of them had done.

Eventually, they learned.

They would always have that bit of codependency in them, but they didn't find it as such a bad thing.

Xie Lian was forced to reconciliate his love of cooking with the fact that he could no longer eat his own food.

Xie Lian did one of the hardest things he had ever done in regards to his own grieving.

He had to let go.

Xie Lian wasn't the type to let go of grief, of penance. He had asked for his shackles during his second ascension as a way to honor Wu Ming, and he had kept them even after his third.

In a similar manner, he had kept cooking inedible, hard (*cough* impossible *cough*) to stomach food to honor his mother.

He knew Hua Cheng could and would still eat his dishes even if Xie Lian never ate anything from them himself (not because of the taste - he was used to the taste).

But that didn't feel right to Xie Lian. And after his long and many talks with Hua Cheng about his grieving of Wu Ming, he felt it might make his mother sad seeing him like this. She would want him to move on.

And Xie Lian... Xie Lian wanted to cook something actually edible for his future husband for once.

So, after many long hugs and tears, Xie Lian finally picked up a cookbook and followed the recipe from start to finish.

He cried while eating it too, but that was alright. He had Hua Cheng by him anyhow.

-----

Picking up a new cultivation method was surprisingly easy.

If he had known something like a martial arts focused cultivation existed-

...

Well, he wouldn't have picked it as a prince then either, but it was a welcome surprise anyhow.

Learning to meditate while moving was something he'd needed to get used to. But as he did it, he noticed the way he became less and less exhausted after exercising as time passed. Learning the breath control techniques from this cultivation method had returned some of the endurance he thought lost to him.

And soon enough, he was able to cultivate some of his own spiritual energy.

Hua Cheng suggested to wait to break his previous cultivation only after he had fully settled into the new one. Transferring the effort kept up for over 800 years to the new method would take time and transitioning of the way his spiritual energy flowed and appeared, but it wouldn't change at its core.

It still needed time to accomplish though.

They had done that with the hope that when he next ascended, his cultivation would reflect his regained powers.

While Xie Lian didn't care as much for his own power as Hua Cheng did, he could see the sense in keeping it up in case trouble came by. He never wanted to see his future husband feel powerless again if he could help it.

(Why was the wedding taking so long? Take a guess for the perfectionist culprit.)

And so Xie Lian had set his goal to ascend within the year.

-----

Feng Xin and Mu Qing visited often. They hadn't taken the news of his mortality well either. In fact, they became annoyingly overprotective. More so than previously, yes.

One good thing had come out of it though.

Once, they had caught Xie Lian in the crossfire of their argument and had left him with a small scar on his ankle. They were being more conscious about their fighting and carefully considered which fights were worth becoming physical for after that.

-----

Xie Lian made sure to keep in contact with Shi Qingxuan as well. They healed their misgivings about mortality by understanding each other and motivating each other to ascend again.

-----

A little more than half a year into his new mortal life, Xie Lian realized that he had actually grown by a cun or two (couple of cm/inches).

To think, he missed a growth spurt because he ascended so young...

San Land teased him for ages, then lovingly kissed his pout until it went away.

-----

At last, Xie Lian ascended. Grander than ever, the ascension bell lauder than ever, more palaces toppling to the ground than previously seen, before he even set foot in the Heavenly Realm.

Once again a martial god.

But this time, also, the God of sanctuary, of shelter, of hope.

-----

For all that grandeur, the wedding of Crimson Rain Sought Flower and the Flower Crowned Martial God was even more so.

[jjcocker]

whhat id call an alt fit for rcokers 2 jj. Again

[karatekamania]

this is wayyy too much effort for a redrawn tumblr post. they should give me exams again.

[ahedderick]

Less than a treat

During the week I wanted a) a treat! and b) to check out the plantings of serviceberry all around the rain garden area of the nearby Cracker Barrel restaurant. The good new was, all the serviceberry bushes are FULL of berries, and will ripen in a week or two. The less god news was, the restaurant was having an 'off' night, and my dinner was quite as much of a treat as I'd hoped.

K agreed, and we decided that the hashbrown casserole (that I usually enjoy so much! But that night it was dried up and icky!) had to be something we could replicate at home.

Cue a few minutes of websearching recipes, and bingo! We had all the necessary ingredients, and whipped it up together this afternoon. Other than the fact that both of us forgot that we have a lovely selection of fresh herbs in the garden, it was great. Will be even better if I make it with chives, parsley, and rosemary next time. Oh, and there will be a next time. Mmmm.

It has so, so much sour cream, butter, and cheese in it. Ridiculous. Delicious. A treat!

I got it here, but I did use a bit less sour cream and cheese than she states. Also, this recipe has no salt (?) so that needs to be added.

[fearowkenya]

wasnt planning on posting sad zack but me gongaga monday seems like a reasonable albeit mean occasion to do so

(designation number seven is chadley btw; he's not called chadley yet)

[pilferingapples]

favorite thing about the Les Mis Letters server this year has been the growing certainty that the TRUE villain of Les Mis is Geometry

[bingqiuhateabortion]

Okay guys do you think the smiling faces hua cheng keeps laying out on his plates out of vegetables are also supposed to be xie lian faces. Like he has prof deformation of his artistic skills.

[milo-by-the-fishtank]

I’m very accepting of almost every religion, except Mormonism, I could never fucking accept Mormonism. Like unironically, if I was friends with somebody and then they turned out to be Mormon, there’s like a 50-50 possibility that I would stop being friends with them. I can’t even say it’s less about the religion itself, because I’ve actually peaked my nose into the Book of Mormon, and holy fuck guys. Then on top of that all the weird fucking shit that the LDS church has done 

I’m trying to say is that my true prejudices are against other white people and Mormons

This does not mean that I’m mean to Mormons though, this is counter productive to the agenda

[devistyping333]

waked and baked, just had a good ass bagel, playing dragon age inquisition again, and cuddling with my puppies. life feels good again. i’m back in 2015.

(i’m avoiding my finals work but that’s okay)

[xwildwhirlx]

guys why did my brother have to remind me of the existence of geronimo stilton? because now im tempted to buy childrens books like an utter FOOL

[jjcocker]

ok hi im done this is rhe high effort shitpost itself. I got too stressed in the making so I just. yeah got lazy

[piracyisnoparty]

sleepy... 💤

[happy-mokka]

You're having a really shitty time at work for weeks...

You feel your midlife (or any life) crisis in full aggro mode nagging at you...

You don't remember when you've had your last good night of sleep...

You're touch deprived and lonely most of the time and feel your queer little heart is missing its other half...

Then you come home, shuffle to the fridge, not because you're actually hungry but you've the feeling that there's got to be something that will change your life to the better, even if it's only for a short amount of time.

You open the fridge...

For a moment all you can see is blinding light...

Then, slowly, a smile works it's way onto your face...

You reach into the fridge and gently take it with you to the couch...

Your key to your temporary peace of mind and joy in your tummy...

Brick of cheese (TM)

🧀

[rockintapper]

i rushed this one. happy set 6 ds monday

and bonus mo doodle because it's also MOnday