bluemorningsoup - Tumblr blog

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On one hand, Kobe is objectively the ideal landing place.

On the other hand, it’s not Edinburgh and my friends aren’t there 😞

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the thing about gay bdsm dynamics is they will make explicit what is implicit in normative cisheterosexual dynamics and then those complicit in cisheterosexuality will act all scandalized about seeing themselves in the funhouse mirror

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(preview pages, more below)

NEW TYK FANCOMIC WOOHOO HELLO!

An adaptation of the second half of chapter 65 of TYK, in other words, THE "Are you sincere" scene! (yes, again).

🎉 43 pages! 🎉

Link to the full comic > https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/116988959

Or just click HERE

And of course, some preview pages and more below!

First half of the comic for your enjoyment! I intend on making another post detailing the process and some of my thoughts and reflections on it.

I'm very happy with how it came together, and am extremely thankful to all the people who supported me throughout the process of making it. SableFan, Hanya, Moose, Bichen, E, Siv, Ailsa, Li, sebyth, Azur, and all the MGZ people, y'all are rockstars!!

This is my first TYK chapter adaptation in a long time, and I've been meaning to make it for a very long time but was unable to do so for personal reasons. Being able to finally put it out is extremely meaningful to me, so this "little" comic is, in more ways than one, very precious to me.

I hope you can enjoy my interpretation of what would be one of the most famous scenes of TYK.

More musings about that scene here.

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Back to the human world

I have many thoughts and feels regarding what happens after Zhou Zishu has come to rescue Wen Kexing ("gather his corpse") after the battle on Mt. Fengya.....

Zhou Zishu, healthier after having taken Da Wu's medicine for 3 months, now, has been tailing the scorpions for a while, too. Infiltrated them. He's the closest to his peak that he has been in years. And Wen Kexing, who is now free, unburdened, so close to dying... And they each have one question for each other.

"He [Zhou Zishu] looked at Wen Kexing in the eyes, and said : 'I'm asking you. Do you want to live?' Wen Kexing silently looked back at him for a long, long time, then answered : 'Will... will you leave me?'"

他看着温客行的眼睛道：“我问你，你想不想活？” 温客行沉默地看着他，良久良久，问道：“你……会走么？”

They will both live, and they will both stay. Wen Kexing is then brought back into the light, to the human world. The fragility in that scene, in the both of them. How I'm also convinced that when Wen Kexing sees Zhou Zishu arrive, fight, and then come to him, when he says his famous "There's a light on you" ('你身上有光') line, he pretty much falls in love all over again. How later, then, he tells Zhou Zishu how the one thing capable to defeat a ghost is the human heart... (Gu Xiang's, Zhou Zishu's, Zhang Chengling's, his own...) So much!! In that scene!!! I wish I can one day do way more than a few illustrations and concept arts. I wish I could do so much more to translate just how much I adore this ending (granted, what comes after is a bit rushed-- BUT! That leaves SO much space to imagine how then Zhou Zishu has taken care of Wen Kexing while he was recovering, and the following journey to Mt. Changming.... SO MUCH!! TO IMAGINE!! AND CREATE!!!) Here are a few additional designs :

What I imagine Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu look like at Mt Fengya. Wen Kexing, in his "dark red" Ghost Valley Master robes. The sword... actually isn't there, but I liked the look. And then, Zhou Zishu, disguised as a scorpion. He kinda looks like a sith, but I really like that haha. His cheeks and frame are fuller, because I consider that on top of having been taking the meds for 3 months now, he has also been preparing for the surgery (so he's been eating more and better).

Following an idea from Bichen, I imagine the tree Wen Kexing sits under to be a giant willow tree (among other willow trees). The scorpion confrontation happens while the sun is rising. Also, isn't it poetic that it is under a <willow tree> when Zhou "Xu"'s name means willow catkin? I just really like that.

That's it for now. I'm certainly not done with this whole passage, but... Yeah. So much to do!!! So little time!!!

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WenZhou x Memes! and, of course, some thoughts. More memes below + explanations! (Very Long Post)

You know other men?

The first one above was based on a famous "you know other men?" meme, that Bichen suggested we take part in (in the TYK community). I wanted to make ZZS smile at WKX's antics because it makes him laugh, ofc, and because he's quite fond of that wife act WKX enjoys playing so much.

The Barbie meme

Interestingly enough, this one has sparked quite a bunch of discussions online. When we had talked about making the meme for TYK!WenZhou, both Moose (@butleronice) and I thought that having ZZS as the serious one felt a bit strange. I feel like TYK!ZZS as I know him is rather goofy and would be more likely to make fun of the situation and the authorities that he doesn't take seriously.

WKX, besides in ZZS' presence, in the book, tends to act very cold and not necessarily civil--especially if you think those would be Jianghu authorities. Not saying the reverse wouldn't work, of course! But for my conception of the characters, it felt off. However--on twitter, we both received more comments than necessary saying: "This should be the opposite." "WKX should be the fun one--", etc. I have to confess that this left me worried regarding ZZS' reputation, considering that more often than not, when I make him to be the goofier, more stupid looking one, I get surprised reactions. I wonder what exactly has given him these... serious, un-fun vibes for many people.

The way I see it, in the book, ZZS is quite fun, overly civil and polite in a fake-smiley way, gets himself in absurd situations and WKX comments on him as being ridiculous and goofy. Of course, in ZZS' presence, WKX himself acts in a very extra way, but overall, in the book, WKX is quite closed-off and cold towards others, and doesn't give those vibes of being fun, extra or goofy to me. (I won't lie, I do blame the first and most popular translations for that, as they make ZZS quite stiff in the dialogs and I feel like this doesn't help...) I don't think it's a problem if people see them differently, though! But it was upsetting to see how some people did (quite rudely in some case) allow themselves to tell us how wrong we were, especially considering the time and care we both put in our decision to characterise them this way (and work on their expressions).

I recommend going to check Moose's version on her twitter as well (@butleronduty)!!

Equal strength

This one was based on a meme posted by Choco (@kwehxing) on twitter; about how this dialog would be fun for WenZhou.

I, once again, considered that yeah, maybe the default would have WKX turn any situation into a reason to fuck--but at the same time, I wondered: is it really his style? Isn't he having plenty of situations in which he can bring that up, already? I like to read ZZS as having a certain competence kink, and I think he gets off of sparring and feeling WKX's strength. I thought it fun to imagine him getting really worked up from sparring and using that as an excuse to demand fucking because OBVIOUSLY what else. I guess that to me, this is a reflection of how his mind is working.

The Tintin parody

My friend Angel brought a tintin parody comic from the @tintinades account on twitter and instagram. Here is the original. I thought it could be really fun to adapt it for WenZhou with a little twist at the end. Of course, mastering qinggong, WenZhou probably don't really need the ropes--although I think that ZCL isn't able to safely cross the road yet which is why they wanted to make a way. However, WKX clearly got distracted and went on ahead, hehe.

The distracted BF

This one was suggested by Bichen again--a classic, which worked really well and was actually quite funny when using Hoboxu.

He wants to order

This was the first meme I ever drew for WenZhou, following the "he/she wants to order" pattern. Pretty self-explanatory!

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quick sketch ✍️

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for the fic ask game i'd love if you answered ✄ and ✦

Thanks for the questions!

✄ what’s your editing process?

I have zero post-completion editing process; most of my fics are posted minutes after completion.

On the other hand, while writing, I tend to rewrite sentences and paragraphs over and over until I’m happy with them before moving on to the next sentence.

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

The easiest would be Pillow Talk, which was written in 5 minutes, in bed, on my Notes app, right before I passed out. If we’re talking about a longer piece, then it would probably be Happy To Be Home, which I wrote in a fugue state in one sitting… I also greatly enjoyed the writing process of The Millet’s Dream.

The hardest was definitely Song of Divination. At the end of it, I felt like I had been pared to the bone.

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Working hard on the business!!

I had a lot of fun working on this piece that fits well as a companion to this one! I really, really enjoy Wuxi and Zishu's side hustle and think about it a lot.

More musings on this piece below!

I have been thinking a lot about Wuxi and Zishu's relationship for the past few months--working on the translation of Qiye has given me a fresh look and new perspective on it which I feel like elaborating on for a bit.

While they come from very different place and are 5 years apart in age, Wuxi and Zishu seem to rather quickly relate to each other due to both being outsiders--to the capital and its codes. It's very sweet to see how quickly Wuxi seems intrigued and interested in Zishu, wanting to know more about him and quick to react when he's around.

Beiyuan is Wuxi's only friend so far, and I think it's very refreshing for Wuxi to find another person with whom he may be able to relate more on some regards, and whom he can look up to in terms of martial arts skills and craftiness. This is a personal HC of mine, but I sort of see Wuxi as having this sort of (fully platonic) "cool older guy crush" on Zishu.

Because of that, I feel like Zishu showing interest in Wuxi and going as far as to offer him to collaborate must have been incredibly validating and exciting. It was a way for Wuxi to be more independent, do something for himself aside from his own training, aside from his role as the young shaman of Nanjiang. Something for his own experimentation and profit--be useful, but also be shown respect and interest by someone he himself is interested in and respects.

I like to imagine that Zishu was already interested in poisons given his field of work and potentially learned a thing or two about that back in Siji manor--even potentially worked on some of his own, and was therefore more than excited to be able to figure out new things with Wuxi's help. On top of that, it must have been pretty fun and gratifying to work on this side hustle which in turn also helped gain some more control over the population (welp).

So yeah! It's nice to think more about what lead to the bond they have, and I can't help but think of how affected Wuxi must have been in TYK when he discovers Zishu's state several years later. Regardless of how helpful Zishu was when Wuxi worked to get Beiyuan out of the capital, he was a friend first and foremost and that alone must be a big reason why Wuxi is so determined to find a way to save him.

(that aside, the illustration was more fun to make than I initially feared. I usually don't like having to work on a ton of tiny details LOL but somehow the atmosphere here made it entertaining!)

(btw! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but in case I didn't: I transliterate "Wuxi" as such ((in one word)) because, him not being han, it feels more right to transliterate his name in a non-han fashion as well. It's unlikely that his family name is Wu and first name is Xi--rather, Nanjiang/Wasa names seem to work differently ((same for Axinlai and Nuaha)) than the typically han family name-first name model. Many thanks to Lianzi and the other members of the 7.0 team for bringing that up! That's it!)

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fic ask game!

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

✿ did anything major change when you started writing [fic] to when you finished?

☉ what do you do when you get stuck writing?

✄ what’s your editing process?

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

ϟ tell me what moment/scene in [fic] made you sicko in the window.jpg to read and i’ll tell you which scene made me feel that way to write

⊞ send a prediction for a fic i’ll write in the future

♡ pick a fic and I’ll pick a comment that made me really happy

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line

❖ pick 2 fics and I’ll combine them somehow

↻ pick a fic and a different ship and I’ll tell you how I’d rewrite it

☰ send a fic and an unrelated trope and I’ll remix it

♫ send a fic and i’ll make a 3-5 song playlist for you

✹ wildcard - ask any other question you have!

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My version of the wardrobe template! yay!! I had a LOT of fun doing this and feel like I could elaborate a bit more on each of those.

It's already linked up here, but here's once again a > link to the post.< Anyway! More about these designs below!

So first, for WKX's template! - Chapter 2: Grey robes I had already made my design of those for the full TYK lineup I made a while back. I really, really like those, and took inspiration from some of the robes SHL!WKX wears in the show for the shapes. - Chapter 69: dark robes with dark red belt I expected to like that style for him, but not that much! I had seen a tutorial on how asymetrical hanfus were worn by archers in the past and that inspired me, purely on a fashion level of course. I like how intimidating he looks with those and enjoy the touches of blue in the inner layer of the robes. - Chapter 75: dark red robes The GVM robes! which I also designed a while back when researching for the illustrations of the Mt Fengya battle scenes that I wanted to make. I reworked them just a little bit and got rid of some details that I didn't like anymore. I tremendously pleated skirts for WKX so I went at it once again. I also used shifts in hues to make it look like it could have been drenched in blood. - Extra 5: deep red robes For the reminder (since apparently some people are not aware of extra 5's existance), this extra is set 5 years post-canon. I wanted WKX to wear something that looked comfortable for traveling but also practical and fashionable. The teal jacket is of course another nod at SHL since the red and teal combo was an absolute banger. Let's say I didn't want WKX to just sport an all-red look. Furthermore, the teal really works to adorn the red hues. - My personal favourite I actually don't really know whether those are my actual personal favourites, but I've come to LOVE WKX dressed in red and white thanks to @kwehxing's designs. I think it really suits him and on top of that it avoids the question "is this Hua Cheng" LMAO--okay jokes aside, I combined most of the shapes that I really like for WKX (wider shoulders, wide sleeves, and long robes with pleated inner robes) and I find him very elegant like this. Now, for ZZS! - Chapter 1: sapphire blue scholar robes Those had already been designed before as well! They're my go to generic TC!ZZS robes, haha. I was a bit extra with the blue colour here, but oh well. I'm quite obsessed with the silver brocade cynching his waist, haha. - Chapter 2: stolen farmer robes A classic as well as far as I'm concerned--of course, inspired by his hobo fit in SHL because it was quite efficient. I'm forever fond of my scruffy hobo!Xu and his toes poking from his sandals. - Chapter 18: luxurious robes from the Gao family Those were a new design! Which I had a lot of fun coming up with. Putting ZZS in a different colour scheme was also really nice. For those who don't remember, ZZS feels quite ridiculous when he sees himself in a mirror wearing those fancy robes while being so emaciated and still sporting his hobo mask. I wanted to give this "out of place" feeling; and also work on a very "wuxia" style for the robes, since this is jianghu and they were provided by Gao Chong. - Extra 5: black robes I'm incredibly fond of this design. I worked quite a bit on it, since I wasn't sure of where I wanted to go. My main guidelines were: practical and cool. I really like ZZS having a lot of room to move so ideally not too much fabric in the way, and I think he also needs arm braces to be rid of annoying sleeves. Of course, him looking much healthier and having a dynamic ponytail really works to "complete the look", and I find that he looks really cool there haha. - My personal favourite This one has been refined over the months, but it's definitely, overall, my favourite look for him in terms of shapes and construction. I like that the robes are short, I like the more fashionable jacket. I'm especially into the "pants tucked into the boots" silhouette, as well as the little ribbons keeping them tight around the ankles. I'd say that this leg shape + short robes + a bun (or sometimes a ponytail) is THE ZZS design combo for me, haha. It looks practical and fun and adventurous, just how I like it.

To conclude the whole post, I had more fun doing this than I even expected, and needless to say that I'm very excited to see other versions of them following this template. It was a good opportunity to try and project what the characters look like throughout the book, and a fun design exercise as well. I actually don't really like doing character design usually, but for characters I'm obsessed with, it's of course a much nicer experience. Anyway, thank you for reading!

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Or reblog with your headcanon!

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Reblog and put the species of the nearest stuffed animal

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That Wen Kexing wanted to destroy Zhou Zishu’s martial arts was out of love. That Wen Kexing couldn’t bring himself to destroy Zhou Zishu’s martial arts was also out of love.

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I need to point out that in the novel, absolutely NO ONE is under any illusions about WenZhou’s relationship. They are effectively married to literally everyone EXCEPT Zhou Zishu for the majority of it. I adore Word of Honor, but after recently reading the novel and then going back and watching the show, this is SO funny to me.

In the show, people see them cradling each other and staring into each other’s eyes and have little to no reaction. Wow, what two good friends, nothing to see here. In the novel, people spend like two minutes with their bickering married couple asses and IMMEDIATELY feel the need to be like, “Wow I’ve never seen real gay people before, I MEAN LIKE ITS COOL I JUST-“

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I watched super eyepatch wolf's last video about fake video games, and as it is something that I had been meaning to do for a while, I got motivated to start making a few snapshots of what various TYK based games could look like. This is the first one of, I hope, a longer series. Yay!

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Horniness is not intrinsically less pure than any other human motivation