#she is now stuck with Him

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The peach tree beams so red, How brilliant are its flowers!

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[miyamiwu]

Why Xiao Yueqing had to die

Apr. 28, 2025: This post has been heavily edited to address stuff brought up in the notes and to expound on the existing points.

Not to excuse Li Haoling’s crimes against women, but after calming down from the episode and sleeping over it, I can now properly think about why Xiao Yueqing had to die.

I mean, I’ve expected her to die since that episode 1 ending. Li Haoling may like misdirecting the audience, but one thing he never betrays us for is following up on cliffhangers. There was no way he’d show us a bleeding Xiao Yueqing in a vision and not have it show up again.

But aside from justifying the episode 1 cliffhanger (and to have her leave an impact on a male character, sigh), Xiao Yueqing’s death also signifies something else—that heroes are forever bound by the Trust system (and the Association that helps enforce it). And the only way to break free from it is to give up that trust completely and openly.

Yingxiong Budao (Firm Man) got to retire from his hero job by kneeling down in public, completely breaking the people’s trust in him to be always standing.

Lin Ling was able to resist his believers’ wish to not respond to God Eye’s trap by going down with the mission to reveal his identity, giving up the Nice persona and forfeiting his trust value.

But Xiao Yueqing? She got her “freedom” by deceiving the public. She betrayed their trust. Something a hero should never do.

Sure, her leaving her teleportation gun behind may have been symbolic of her giving up her hero identity, but it’s not enough. Because the gun still works. The power of trust is still at play.

She used the trust placed on her not for the people but for herself. And look, I get it, the trust were shackles on her, but it doesn’t change the fact that she abused the people’s beliefs for her own desires.

Maybe that’s why E-Soul had to kill her. Maybe E-Soul was sent by the Association to eliminate heroes who abuse trust value for their own wishes.

Like, imagine if after Xiao Yueqing got her freedom, she suddenly turned evil and used that freedom to commit crimes all over the world. The people’s trust value would become her weapon. We know she won’t do this, of course, but I doubt the Association is gonna conduct a personality test on her first to come to that same conclusion.

The Association has three ways to deal with “criminals” like Xiao Yueqing:

Have her openly admit her deception in public and make her lose her trust value

Erase her memories

Or just kill her

Edit: With Lin Ling as the new rising hero, there was no way they’d go for option one. A negative image on Xiao Yueqing would impact Lin Ling, the new cash cow. Remember, those fangirls started paying attention to Lin Ling because they believed he was the one who cried during Xiao Yueqing’s death and because they saw him willing to risk his life for her. If Xiao Yueqing turns out be alive, then they’d start questioning whether his tears and love are real. Lin Ling’s trust value would be shaken.

And to expound on #1, I also mean to say that the Association just won’t do it because it would cost more resources.

Imagine the work it would take: Prepare a press conference for one hero, then damage control for the hit Treeman, Lin Ling, and heroes in general would take. There’s already been two cases of heroes deceiving the public (Blankster and “Nice”), and the recent villain’s entire shtick was uncovering their lies. If the people’s beloved goddess was also such a liar, would the public still want to believe in heroes?

They had to kill Xiao Yueqing not just for Lin Ling, but for the dignity of heroes as a whole. The Association can’t allow the people to be skeptical about heroes because that would impact their powers. This point had also been foreshadowed with the words of Gu Lang (Wolf Girl): “So to protect the egos of these so-called heroes, you’re going to neglect a living, breathing person right in front of you?”

Moreover, I just want to properly respond to what @naisikill brought up in the tags:

#still a little questionable on XYQ admitting to being alive making fans not trust lin ling #since she was already shown to be alive by god eye since he had her captured #(which ended up being fake but no one knew that at the time)

In episode 4, it was the fans’ strong belief that Xiao Yueqing was dead and that God Eye was just using a fake that prevented Lin Ling from going down to save "her." The fans had seen Xiao Yueqing die in front of them, and they had no reason to believe in the villain God Eye who’s had a bad reputation for always trying to defame Nice. And so they wished for Nice to not respond to the threat because they believed it was just a trap. If it was later revealed that what they believed in so strongly turned out to be another lie, then Lin Ling, as Xiao Yueqing’s accomplice, would undoubtedly take a hit.

Moving on to number two, it also can’t be done because Blankster, the one who can erase memories, just conveniently lost his powers early on in the episode.

A writing choice was clearly made here. Li Haoling didn’t want to “absolve” Xiao Yueqing of her “crimes” by simply making her forget. That would be too easy for her, and in a way it might even count as a reward for her to become an ordinary person. A statement had to be made, and that statement is most impactful with a punishment through death—which is option 3.

Xiao Yueqing had already died in the eyes of the public. Killing her would be just fulfilling what the public believes of her, essentially undoing her deception to them.

In short, Xiao Yueqing’s death was to ensure that the trust system remains fair and absolute. She can’t have her cake and eat it too.

Although my mutual @psychopomp-namine argued in the tags that she wasn’t actually eating her cake because she wasn’t happy on the island, I think that’s less the system’s fault and more of Xiao Yueqing’s (and L0’s) naivety. They thought they could easily cheat the system, only to be hit with the painful lesson that nobody is escaping it. Nice even had to commit suicide. They should’ve known better.

The Trust System is fair and absolute. Its drawbacks are mainly brought about by agencies trying to capitalize on it through PR stunts and marketing gimmicks. Juan-jie packaged Nice as the perfect hero, and the public, not knowing any better, just believed in what they were fed, leading to disastrous effects on Nice.

The people want a perfect hero couple? Well then, let’s give them one so we can farm their trust value.

If heroes can just be honest, if they didn’t have to stick to a particular brand… then trust won’t feel like shackles as they did on Xiao Yueqing and Nice.

Lin Ling proved this in episode 4. He came as himself and even got beaten ugly, but the people learned to trust him anyway. They trusted the real him they saw that day, and with the power of trust, he was able to beat God Eye.

[niccolites]

is possessed by an evil spirit for a moment and i can only think abt brother's best friend soap (heavily inspired by @ceilidho's ask here)

Idk man something about soap having always been a little bit weird with u. he's been friends with ur brother for years, back to when you were teenagers. He's only a year older but you felt the gulf of that gap, exaggerated when he shot up, puberty like a tool he used just to tower over u and make u uncomfortable

Growing up with him as a perpetual shadow, always a little bit too close, always a little bit too intense. Your parents shrug it off when u complain about it, telling u that he just likes u and u could be nicer to him about it, poor guy. Ur brother calls u stuck up when u snub soap, hissing at u to stop embarrassing him when ur rude when johnny tries to give u his seat on the couch where they're playing on their console

only you know that he's only offering u a seat so that he can press in close, a hulking mass in the corner of your eye as hot breath hits the side of ur face while he tries to look down ur shirt. constantly trying to dodge his grabby hands that grip ur exposed thighs or smooth over ur hips - pupils blown out when his hands swallow up the expanse of your skin

u snap at one point and tell him that he disgusts u, that ur not into him at all. he goes red in the face, growling that you've been leading him on, that ur playing games with his head (he is assuming u wearing a blue bra after he yanked ur turtleneck up was to match his eyes, even tho he shouldn't have seen it in the first place)

u end up with ur panties around ur knees as he forces u to stroke his cock, panting into ur throat as u 'make apologies' to him. he forgives u btw, he knows that u have to act this way, that ur brother would kill him if he knew. makes it seem like ur partners in crime, in this together even with his hand manacled around ur wrist to stroke him off

it gets worse after he enlists, and u don't see him for weeks or months. he gets pent up, barely putting a show on for everyone before he's dragging u off slick mouth on urs until there's spittle dribbling down ur chin, whining for u to please let him see his pretty girl (he's talking abt ur pussy), already 2 knuckles deep so ur wondering why he's even asking in the first place

and now he's a hero to everyone else. stuck in the bind of him being the in-love teenager to the kind-hearted man that is risking his life for everyone, do you have to be so cruel to him?

u wonder why, face pressed into the pillows of ur childhood bedroom as he hikes ur ass into the air to rut into u hard and fast

u do what u always do, hissing and spitting at him until he finally gets his way and ur back bows as he barely pauses through ur orgasm as he chases his own. he knows that u have to put the show on, lovey, but he's waiting in the backwing for u. partners in crime right?

[whenthewallfell]

Katniss tried to take Prim hunting exactly once, and it went about as well as expected - she failed to shoot anything and burst into tears when Katniss showed her how to skin a rabbit. On the way back they found a lost colt with an ear bitten off and a nasty set of claw marks on its flank. Katniss was happy to just leave it, but Prim insisted they nurse it back to health.

Thus began the long and turbulent relationship of Katniss and Buttercup. Mortal enemies to the bitter end, they've entered an uneasy truce only through their love of Primrose; Katniss promises not to shoot the damn thing, and he in turn tries to resist trampling her. (He'll still try to throw her off now and again, of course. A horse has his pride.)

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

Danny Fenton, aka Phantom, has been given a new task!

In short, literally no one in the Ghost Zone/Infinite Realms wants their mostly peaceful afterlife to be rocked by a certain Gotham rogue named Joker. Which, when he dies, is almost sure to happen because of whatever the hell was in that vat he dropped in included ectoplasm. So, yay, he’s also a little ghostly too, meaning he *is* pretty hard to kill. Unfortunately, there’s also a certain vigilante that is quite keen to murder him in recent years.

So now Danny has to keep the mass murderer trauma clown alive for as long as he possibly can while attempting to keep the Joker from. Well. Being the Joker.

Oh, and naturally, Danny got this assignment AFTER Joker got out of Arkham. Again. And entirely blew up the asylum. Time to join the Goonion, he is NOT doing this without getting PAID, thank you.

[fraternum-momentum]

i was thinking aimee would most likely rub off of whitney and the scooby gang if she hangs out with them too much and she would probably needed to b knocked down a peg or two

[czaneavecg]

Tiso and Hornet causally throws hands

bonus + image alt

ImageAlt

[technically-human]

The Case of the Devlin House (Reverse Verse!) as commissioned by @i-am-as-normal-as-you-are everyone thank Haunted!

The father of the Devlin family murdered his wife and children one night, and no one knows why. While investigating the case, Edwin finds a letter from the eldest daughter, in which she expressed her desire to go to college to get away from her father... and closer to the girl she loved. The family has been stuck in a loop since that awful night, and now Edwin is too.

Bonus:

[bluerosefox]

Possessed Pearl's

You know how in some ghost stories sometimes its not a person or a land that's haunted but the items?

Well what if, when looking for a mother's day gift for his mom, Danny is looking around a pawn shop and finds a necklace, it's missing some pearls but it's just enough to pass off as a decent gift. Danny humms but decides against it and goes to leave it....

That was until he gasped out blue frost and spots a ghostly woman appear out of the necklace with a somber smile. She isn't as seeable as the other ghosts in Amity though, meaning she doesn't have enough ectoplasm on her own (that might change the longer she's in Amity and around Danny though) and that right now only Danny can see her.

And Danny well... hes been doing his hero gig for a bit now, might go and ask if there was anything he can do to help.

And later Danny's good deed... bites him back. Oh boy. Because now he has the Bats looking into Amity Park... Wait what do you mean Martha is now strong enough to be seen?!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Don't Wormy About Me.

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[blueskittlesart]

oh btw heres some more school art!! this was my character design final, a 3-phase video game boss and an environment to go along with it! my prompt words for this assignment were "demonic swamp" lol

[kashmimo]

baby pokemon trainers 🐣

[microvibing]

She has created the greatest warrior

Alternatively:

[paradoxic-ally]

Does this one count??? HOW would this one count?!

[aenslem]

Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) || 1.03 "Parallax"

[catgrandpa]

I started this post with the intention of asking for fic recs where Bruce gets his kids early, but then I ended up just writing some ficlets

_(:3 」∠)_

I still really just want recs I swear but I wrote these anyway and am incapable of doing more with them so here

☆彡

Dick Grayson is 8 years old when he watches his parents die. Bruce is 24 years old when he sees a young boy’s life fall to pieces. He’s far too young to be a single father. But he sees too much of himself in the child, and he knows in his heart that he won’t be able to walk away from him.

He talks to Alfred about his fears of only furthering Dick’s trauma by failing him as a guardian. It takes some time, but Alfred is able to convince Bruce to find a therapist and take some discreet parenting classes. He’s still Batman, and I don’t think he’s capable of Gentle Parenting™ but he does do better. Plus, Dick is young enough to learn to read Bruce before the teenage hormones kick in so they manage to communicate much more effectively with each other.

☆彡

Bruce meets Catherine Todd by chance because there was a cool park Dick wanted to stop at. She’s trying to deal with her hungry and fussy 3 year old step son, but she’s young and stressed out and hungry herself and she just doesn’t know what to do. Bruce offers to take them out for lunch. He asks Dick to take Jason to the play area in the corner while they talk.

She breaks down and tells him of her struggles with addiction. She does her best to keep Jason fed, but it’s so hard. Feeding him means she goes hungry most of the time because she can’t quit using. Jason wouldn’t survive if she had to go through withdrawals with him.

He’s not even her kid! Not really. Her husband is just an abusive deadbeat so she doesn’t have a choice. She does love him, but she never wanted kids, and she can’t just let a child die when she can do something.

Bruce fills their fridge and cabinets to the brim (he offers to do much more for them but that’s all she will budge on. She has too much pride to accept outright charity, but she will do what she can to keep her kid safe) and he makes it clear to her that he is willing to take care of Jason for however long is necessary when she decides to take the first step to get clean.

Two months later, Willis gets arrested and Catherine shows up at Wayne Manor and tells Bruce she signed up for inpatient, but she thinks it would be best for Jason and for herself if Bruce would be willing to take permanent custody. She stays in Jason’s life, just not as a mother figure.

☆彡

A year or so later, Bruce gifts Alfred with a vacation as an early birthday present. Things have been hectic with the sudden acquisition of two sons, and Alfred has done so much, he deserves a break. Bruce promises he’ll be able to handle two kids on his own.

Turns out, he was mostly right, but only just barely. The kids are fine, the manor not so much. He ends up hiring a few services to help out with general housekeeping. A couple of those workers also happen to be regular hires for the Drakes.

Bruce overhears them talking about how sad it is that those awful people treat their toddler more like a doll than a child. He learns that not only do they leave for long periods at a time while not hiring a proper nanny to watch over their son, just expecting the help to take care of him, but they also lock him away on his own whenever it’s ’not fashionable’ to have a 2 year old around.

Alfred comes back to the manor on August 15th, just in time to celebrate his and Master Jason’s birthdays together. He opens the door and dodged around a very excited 4 year old jumping up and down in the entry hall.

“ALFIE! ALFIE! BOOSE GOT ME A BABY BWOTHER FOR MY BIRFDAY! LOOK! LOOK! HIMS NAME IS TIMMY AND HE’S THE BESTEST!”

Alfred leans over to peak behind the boy, and sees a very quiet, very small child standing behind him.

“Oh, dear.”

☆彡

The day Bruce got the call from Talia telling him she was pregnant with his child was one of the best days of Bruce’s life. The day she called to tell him she miscarried was one of the worst.

The only blessing was that he didn’t need to explain it to his kids. Talia was going to move in once she was in her second trimester, and they planned to reveal her pregnancy together.

He got the call two weeks before her flight out. He begged her to come anyway, he loved her, they could still be a family. She refused.

Six and a half months later, he walks into his bedroom to find Talia standing by the window with a squirming bundle in her arms. With equal measures steel and sorrow in her eyes she tells Bruce she is sorry for what she put him through, but it was the only way to keep their son safe. He gathers them both in his arms and holds them tight as she explains.

Her father had planned to raise an heir to be the Demon Head. He would be kept a secret from Batman until the very end. But when Talia gave the final push to birth their son, he came out quiet. She panicked for a moment until her midwife quietly leaned down to listen to the baby’s breathing and then looked up with a soft smile, she bundled up the small thing and handed Talia her baby. Big beautiful green eyes blinked up at her. The midwife leaned closer to Talia and whispered, “Sadly, your son was stillborn. I’m deeply sorry for your loss, but surely The Great Head of the Demon would be willing to allow you some time away from your duties while you recover.” Talia allowed the woman to cover her beautiful cooing baby gently with soft linen and silk and carry him from the room. Later that night she left her home with her son and boarded the first flight to Gotham.

Tears gather on Bruce’s lashes and he tells her everything will be alright because now they can finally be together as a family. Once more, she refuses. She tells him Damian and his boys are far too precious for her to bring the danger of the league of assassins to their door. Bruce closes his eyes in sorrow, but nods his acceptance. He asks her to at least stay the night together. They fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms with their baby boy safely bundled between them. Talia is gone when he wakes.

☆彡

It’s been one week since Talia left and, while still beyond upset, Bruce feels like he’s starting to have a decent handle on things. He is sitting with his boys at the breakfast table, Dick and Jason to his left, Tim to his right, Damian in his arms, and Alfred across from him. They’re finally able to have a relaxing breakfast. No babies crying, no food fights, no arguing, just the sounds of eating and gentle chatter.

He feels a small hand grab his right sleeve and give a gentle tug.

“Boo?” Tim asks, quietly. Bruce feels his heart warm at his son finally feeling like he can speak up without permission.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Why isn’t Big Sister sitting with us?”

Alfred is the only person in the room other than Tim to not startle at the sudden appearance of a 5 year old girl standing next to Bruce at the dining table. He simply sighs, stands up, and grabs another place setting for her at the table.