fayunlong-blog - Tumblr blog

[fayunlong-blog]

faxjia‌:

Jia wondered what she had done wrong. A month into their familiar/witch relationship, she had asked Yun what to call him and he had given her a list of options and when she asked which he liked best, he had said gege. So, she had taken to calling him that. Albeit, only when they spoke in English, which was most of the time. It was the common thread between her, Daewon, and Yun.  He was also never particularly picky about what she called him in Spanish or even Korean. Albeit, those endearments were usually relegated to his cat form, but the idea stood.

Based on the way they were looking at her, maybe she had pronounced it wrong and had said something else? Something offensive? But Yun was usually quick to kindly correct her pronunciation. Maybe he was embarrassed to correct her in public. Her cheeks turned pinker. She had not blushed like this in years and she was most definitely not enjoying it. She envied Fei-mei, whose expression had not shifted during the entire meal. She had no idea what they were thinking about in the slightest. 

She was relatively sure she could handle Ming-mei as far as magic was concerned, but if the woman opted to jump across the table and claw her eyes out with her bare hands, that would probably be another story. Jia had never been in a fight a day in her life. 

If she made it through the dinner, she was definitely going to go to mass on Sunday and light a plethora of candles, because clearly that would be an act of divine intervention. She cleared her throat for what felt like the umpteenth time. 

“Yes, that would be great.” She had only half-heard what he said. He could have asked if she wanted to eat dirt and she would have agreed. Anything to make this meal go faster so they could go home and she could die of mortification in peace. Why had Daewon not called her yet? After the fuss he had put up, she was sure she would have gotten millions of texts by now. She would love to use one as an excuse to cut the evening short. She shook her head. He probably distracted himself with some video games. “Which one’s your favorite? I will have that.” 

She wondered if they had anything sweet. She was not sure if that normally went with the cuisine. However, she needed a pick me up and she had a feeling by the end of the meal, she would need it, especially if she planned to abstain from alcohol. She had never been drunk before but right now she would kill for it. Still, she did not know what she was supposed to call Yun. Oh, of course. She could call him by his name. Duh. She was sure she had heard it tossed around among the Mandarin. That was a safe bet. “Jin, could you tell me what the desserts are? What goes good with that?” 

unless someone decided to outright attack someone else, yun had a hard time seeing how this could get any worse. then again he probably shouldn’t even think that - it was just asking for something horrible to happen. the tension at the table had gone for steely ice to pulsing fire. it was no longer a solid thing, but rather a thick liquid that tainted everything around it. 

cheng-ge looked like he was about to cry. it was very understandable, given yun had turned him down every time he’d asked to be allowed to address yun by more familiar terms, both in private and in public. hearing this new person address yun in public by a name that he wouldn’t allow his oldest friends to use even in private, that must be a truly harsh blow. however, he of all people should know how much yun have longed for his witch, and what liberties he would allow her to take. out of the five of them, cheng-ge was the only one that had any form of experience with relationships, and thus the subjects to all of yun’s woes and monologues.

to be perfectly honest, the fact that ming-mei hadn’t lunged across the table was a pleasant surprise. she certainly looked ready to, muscle clenching and flexing, teeth grinding. in fact, it looked like she was trying to but couldn’t for some reason. wait... leaning slightly to the side, he recognized the telltale soft glow of light brown that meant a restraining talisman was active. there was only two people at the table brave enough to do that.

looking up again, yun quickly scanned the expressions of the two suspects. or well, one of them, who as wearing such a delighted expression that there was no doubt he was the culprit. leveling a disappointed glare at yang-ge, yun wished there was way for him to undo the talisman himself. however he wasn’t close enough to reach down and remove it. all he could do was to hope someone else would notice it. maybe jia would - he had taught her the basics of talismans, such as how they were made, how they worked, how to activate them, and how to counter them. then again, given the one being protected by the talisman was her, she didn’t exactly have motivation to remove it.

no, that was a lie. jia was among the most kindhearted people he’d ever met. while she might be petty enough to leave it be, given how ming-mei had behaved, he doubted she would let it stay active very long. or at least he hoped so. glancing down at the menu, he quickly took in the different options of noodles offered. it was the standard qinghai style noodles, with different varieties of spicing, as well as meat and extra vegetables. just looking at the words made yun’s mouth water - he hadn’t had proper noodles in so long. “then we’ll order two sets of the savory ones with ginger. do you want meat or extra vegetables in it?”

cheng-ge had recovered a bit it seemed, as he decided to pipe in with his opinion. “the meat is usually just boiled, but you can ask for it to be fried beforehand if you prefer.” yun smiled at him, thankful for something not contributing to them tense atmosphere. of course ming-mei had to ruin that by snorting disdainfully, and opened her mouth to probably make a comment about the proper way to eat meat in traditional cuisine. thankfully she was interrupted by fei-mei closing their menu rather loudly. “i’m ready to order. and if you want desserts, we’ll have to go for street foods afterwards. unless you want black sesame soup.”

don’t try to question my heart any longer

[fayunlong-blog]

Letter Writing Meme

Send ✍️ to find out:

What salutation they use (dear, hello, etc).

How they address your muse. 

If they use letterheads.

What type of paper they use.

What my muse’s closing signature is.

If they include anything else in the envelope.

An excerpt from their most recent letter:

[fayunlong-blog]

november blues

@faxjordan​ 

“you’re bold, sir. i’m cold, sir.”

november always holds a chill in the air, but yun is used to it. the inner city is always warmer than what he grew up with. the people and cars bustling around adds heat, quickly melting whatever snow find its way onto the ground. due to that, he’s not taken to wearing a coat just yet. just the suit jacket with a thicker shirt underneath is warm enough. if he was back home, the multiple layers of his usual robes would provide plenty of warmth. sadly that is not acceptable city wear, but in a way that’s good. he would probably be sweating right now, if he wore his traditional late autumn garb.

of course, most people are not like him, wearing coats, scarfs, hats, and gloves. that’s what you do if you suspect you will be cold. clearing his throat, he glances at jordan, feeling a bit helpless. “i do not have anything with me, i’m afraid. do you wish to head indoors?” he does have a heating talisman, but that’s not exactly something you can just activate in such a public space. if it was jia (or danny), he would offer his suit jacket, but given it is not, that feels a bit too forward. he doesn’t want to assume.

[fayunlong-blog]

faxjia‌:

Jia wondered if they served alcohol. What kind of alcohol did Chinese people drink again? No. It was best to stay sober as always. She didn’t want to embarrass Yun today and she knew she had a habit of being loose-lipped when she had enough to drink. She was a lightweight, embarrassingly so. Still she was painfully aware of her entire body. She knew she should probably let go of Yun’s hand; he was hardly one for public displays of affection, particularly outside of his cat form, and Asians were conservative by nature. However, when he squeezed back she quickly banished the thought. She supposed them thinking she was an uncouth American could not really add much insult to injury. Besides, she was fairly sure they were all to proper to directly insult her while she was in the room or in front of Yun.

She knew some Mandaring; Yun was a traditional man, so she figured it was important to him. Unfortunately, she was long past the years where learning languages was easy for her. She had tried to talk to Ming-mei, who seemed to give her a look every time she said her name, though she was not sure if it was the pronunciation or if she should not be calling them what Yun did, but after a while gave up. She seemed to enjoy pretending she did not know any English or understand hand gestures. She reminded Jia of a bully she had known in high school, except shorter. Jia towered over Ming-mei in her high heels, which she had only worn to be formal, but somehow the tiny woman made her feel small.

She tried more with Yang-ge, with slightly more successful. She wondered if he was more nervous than she was. He was a little flushed. Yang-ge was quiet, but also did not seem to completely hate her. He was even polite. Or, well, as polite when someone could be when they were asking about the entire genealogy of both her ancestors. After starting to suspect he might become more critical when mentioning the long line of farmers in her background, she opted to change the subject to her experiments.

Jia turned from the stilted conversation, glad to have a reason to avoid Ming-mei’s eyes, which were very much following her. She cleared her throat. “Yes, gege?” She was not sure why, but conversation around the table suddenly stopped. She gave Yun a small smile, trying not to focus on that. She had not done anything wrong, right? She hadn’t even called him gatito, like she did in his animal form.

yun briefly considered hiding underneath the table as the tension at the table reached an even higher point. ming-mei was glaring daggers at jia, having snapped closed her menu in one of her usual bursts of anger. cheng-ge looked as awkward as yun felt, so at least there was that. yang-ge had on his typical micro-expression that indicated his curiosity, which was not a good thing in this situation. fei-mei was pointedly ignoring them all by keeping their menu raised enough to cover their whole face. all in all, it was going somewhat better than expected.

ming-mei looked like she was about to make another cutting comment, so yun decided to be proactive for once and cut her of before she could start. turning his upper body towards jia, he tried to smile gently. it probably came out rather nervous and shaky, but at least he was trying right? “i was just wondering what type of dishes you would like.” given the size of their party, they would probably end up ordering a meat platter to share, so it was just the side dishes to think about. unless one of them decided to be stingy and order their own, which he wouldn’t put above either of them at the moment.

ming-mei was already on edge, which was far from a surprise. she hadn’t warmed up to him living in korea yet, so introducing her to his korean-latine witch wasn’t exactly the best move. however, hiding jia’s exsistence would just make things worse. on the other side of it all was yang-ge, which in yun’s opinion was being way too familiar with jia, especially given that his fiance was at the table. sure, ming-mei and yang-ge wasn’t exactly a romantic match, but some basic manners wasn’t too much to ask for. they probably had had yet another spat, and was pushing the other to be the one to mend fences.

the whole name situation was not making things better. yun had introduced everyone by their full courtesy names, but switched to their usual nicknames after that. given that he hadn’t told jia how to address them, it was understandable that she defaulted to what he was using. it was also understandable the the four would take offense at that. however, this cold war they had going by not correcting her was their own choice and yun was not about to touch that whole mess. then, she blatantly called him ‘gege’, a term which he had never allowed any of them to use. he suspected cheng-ge was the one to take most offense for that, but also the one least likely to mention it.

it was all just a mess, and no one seemed inclined to take the first step to fix it. yun felt like just banging his head against the table, or possibly see if jia could let danny out via some form of spell. having the dog crash this dinner could not exactly make things worse, right? pushing back those thoughts, he quickly glanced through the menu, looking for something to recommend. “this section here is for noodles, if you would like to try some of that.”

don’t try to question my heart any longer

[fayunlong-blog]

Rudolph’s Shiny New Year Sentence Starters

“And it all began on that very same foggy night.”

“Dear  ___________, I am in terrible trouble. You must help me.”

“The old year ends in a week, but this time, there may not be another year to follow.”

“The baby new year is missing.”

“I’ll send out a search party at once!”

“But wait… nobody could find their way anywhere in all this dark fog and snow.”

“Once more, the happiness of the all world’s children depends on you.”

“I’ll do my best,  ___________.”

“How do I know, you ask? Who am I?”

“Uh, what do I do, you ask?”

“Oh, I do what all father’s do. I take care of things.”

“I keep everything in tip-top, tick-tock shape.”

“Slowpoke!”

“I make certain that every 1st of January, we have a bright and happy new year.”

“That’s why I was so upset to find ___________ missing.”

“You’re bold, sir. I’m cold, sir.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t weaken.”

“A desert? What do we do now?”

“Wow! That’s still a long way to go.”

“Perhaps I might be of some assistance.”

“ ___________ sent me to help me with your journey.”

“I’d rather you didn’t, if it’s all the same.”

“Now hop on, please.”

“We’ve got to flee!”

“Run, run, run! Run!”

“It’s not us he’s looking for.”

“He has only six days left.”

“As the bells ring out, everyone will shout: ‘Happy New Year!’“

“May each day be filled with good cheer, and with nothing less than happiness, all through the year.”

“It’s a pleasure to serve you, sir.”

“All I know is that everybody says ‘Happy New Year’.”

“It’s the one certain thing in all the universe.”

“In a way, it’s like an old king stepping down and a new one taking his place.”

“You can’t hold back the clock.”

“Make every moment count.”

“The magic diamond is lowered to signify the end, and the beginning.”

“Well, blimey, I can’t help it.”

“No one meant to be cruel.”

“That night,  poor ___________ ran away and we haven’t seen hide or hair of him since.”

“I wish he would’ve come to me. I know just how he felt.”

“I bet the called him names and wouldn’t let him join in any new year games.”

“Do you have any idea where he went.”

“What does that word mean, sir?”

“I don’t understand, sir.”

“I’ll search every island if I have to.”

“Do not veer from your course and you’ll find yourself going back, back in time.”

“Turn back the years, live the simple life once again.”

“Just remember the good times that you knew; don’t remember the bad times you’ve been through.”

“Life disappears sooner than you think it would.”

“Fool yourself, everybody should.”

“Oh, it looked pretty bad for  ___________.”

“Got to go… faster!”

“Climb inside. It’s safe in there.”

“I asked if you were comfortable.”

“Kinda hard to talk with your mouth full.”

“Short for  ___________. Too much work all the time saying  ___________.”

“It’s raining sunshine.”

“Sounds wonderful,  ___________. I’ll take your advice.”

“He’s missing. I thought he might’ve come here.”

“And that is the last time I have ever seen him.”

“He has positively got to be on one of these islands. Maybe.”

“Okay, come on.  ___________ is waiting.”

“1965 was too noisy.”

“It’s only three days until December the 31st.”

“Time’s running short.”

“I’ve not the slightest notion in me noggin.”

“What a wonderful world we live in when we live in the world of make believe.”

“Fairy tales can come true if you just wish them to.”

“You can live like a king, you can be anything, as long as you believe it’s true.”

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t seen  ___________.”

“No baby around here.”

“Better look someplace else.”

“Aye, I saw him… But he ran away from me.”

“No baby ever wants to stay with me.”

“Uh oh, he broke it.”

“Whoever owns this house is not gonna like that.”

“Someone’s been sitting in my chair.”

“Somebody broke my chair!”

“Someone’s been sleeping in our beds!”

“Oh, and there he is.”

“He’d make a nice friend.”

“You want to be my little friend?”

“We can make up games, all kinds of games.”

“I guess that’s about the most important thing in the world, isn’t it? Making friends, I mean.”

“Another mouth to feed?”

“You slay me.”

“It’s only a game you know.”

“Hit me. Not too hard, but you hit me. Go ahead.”

“It’s only a game, you know.”

“You got me! You got me!”

“But you got to! That’s the way the game goes.”

“Fine friend you are.”

“Boy, I never seen nothing like that before.”

“It’s dangerous out in the woods all alone.”

“ ___________, don’t hide! We’re here to help you!”

“He’s got to be somewhere.”

“I’ll be your friend. You’ll like living with me.”

“Come on, we can’t let them out of our sight!”

“Don’t know who you are, or where you come from, but you’re welcome to join our big  ___________ celebration.”

“Come on! You’re just in time for the big parade!”

“Oh no, we’re too late! It happened again!”

“We must pursue them!”

“To the ends of the earth! ‘Til victory is ours!”

“We’ve got one day ‘til New Years. This is our last chance.”

“It was a terrible place, more like a haunted iceberg than an island.”

“Nothing is ever hopeless.”

“Have a little faith in me, and day by day, I’ll make your dreams in all come true.”

“I’ll lend a helping hand when things go wrong.”

“Have a little faith in me, that’s all I ask.”

“We’ve got to be quick, then.”

“The awful sound he made caused an avalanche.”

“Your last hope is gone.”

“Wait a minute, don’t be afraid.”

“I wanna be your friend.”

“You think you can’t have any friends? Why not?”

“Oh, come on. You can tell me.”

“Heck, it couldn’t be that bad.”

“You want to see something? Look.”

“Go ahead, laugh right out. Doesn’t bother me anymore.”

“You mean you never heard about me?”

“You’ll go down in history.”

“You see, I stuck it out.”

“It was all mine. It was really me.”

“Come on. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Oh, now don’t get upset because I laughed.”

“Why they… they make folks happy!”

“Take off your hat, quick!”

“Take it off for good.”

“Well, it’s the first time that monstrosity ever laughed in his life.”

“He laughed himself silly.”

“Even though we found  ___________, we’re too late.”

“Don’t give up hope.”

[fayunlong-blog]

faxjia‌:

@fayunlong

Jia did not believe in past lives, but in that moment she was relatively sure she had pissed someone off in her last one. It was the only explanation for why she had to go to dinner with Yun’s friends while they stared at her like she was the rag the waiter used to clean their table. Fortunately, Mandarin was one of the languages she didn’t know, so she was not sure what they said about her. Unfortunately, it left her overactive mind to fill in the gaps. She doubted that was much better.

She, Danny, and Yun had known each other for seven months now. They practically lived at her place, though she knew it was a serious downgrade for them both. For a while, they had tried to work things out quietly, making sure the bond was real on all ends. Jia was still trying to get her footing. However, when Yun invited her to dinner, she couldn’t find it in her heart to say no, though she knew it would make her uncomfortable.

At the moment, she wished she was a worse person. There eyes frequently stopped at her clothes. She knew that she should have picked a different dress, but it was the nicest one she owned, usually reserved for weddings since she didn’t exactly have anywhere formal to go otherwise. Instinctively, she reached down and grabbed Yun’s hand, squeezing it for support. 

when yun moved to south korea half a year ago, ming-mei had sworn up and down that she was not setting a foot across the border. cheng-ge had been more supportive, but still not very keen on traveling outside of the homeland. yang-ge and fei-mei had been in the northern provience at the time, so he never got their thoughts on the matter. thus, it meant a lot that they all had agreed to come here to meet his witch. or well, demanded to. he strongly suspected the only reason they hadn’t been on a plane as soon as his letter had been opened was visa issues.

they were currently staying at his other residence, but for the first meeting, had insisted on a more formal setting. yun had agreed without complaint, and then booked a non-magical restaurant in order to prevent arguments from becoming literally explosive. of course that’s not how he sold it to them, no, it was easier to point out that is was the only restaurant that was both of a standard they approved of and served qinghai cuisine. it was also a restaurant that operated solely in mandarin, which wasn’t that bad. he could translate for jia.

however, it was very frustrating when he not only had to translate what the waiter was saying, but also what his friends was talking about. given that he knew they all spoke passable english, it was incredibly frustrating. he had known they would be on the defensive, given the thoughts they had expressed in their letters, but this was ridiculous. the fact that everyone but yang-ge had decided to wear more traditional formal garb, instead of modern, was also something he couldn’t help but be annoyed by. out of the five of them, yun was easily the one whose wardrobe contained the least modern garments, yet here he was in a two-piece suit.

pushing away all those negative thoughts, he pointedly ignored ming-mei’s question about his clothes as the waiter finally arrived with the menus. smiling gratefully at the young man who had no clue how much of a live saver he had just been, yun passed one onto jia with the hand not holding onto hers. that one he squeezed lightly, both for her sake and his. the menu was fully in mandarin, as expected, and without any pictures. still not letting go of her hand, he opened his and scanned over the familiar cuisine.

“do you want som-” he was about to give the gist of the different sections of the menu, but froze mid-sentence. how could he ask her if she preferred a whole lamp or just the intestines? jia was from america after all. she ate meat, that much he knew, but there was a difference between steak and organs. the silence at the table was expected, given the others was reviewing the menu as well, but for yun it was plain tense. he didn’t even know how to restart his sentence, and just stared down at the menu in frustration. this whole meeting had not been going well, and now it was getting worse before they had even ordered.

don’t try to question my heart any longer

[fayunlong-blog]

faxjia‌:

@fayunlong and @fadaewon 

March 3, 2019

Jia was not normally tackled on deliveries. Sure, she had been chased by the odd animal or two, but a dog had never barreled into her side. They had also not turned into an attractive man while on top of her. And the person she delivered to didn’t normally start hissing, though it seemed to be more directed towards the dog-man, than towards her.

So, now she was passing back and forth in Mr. Qiu’s living room, trying to make sense of things and hope that he wouldn’t make her pay for the door, which had definitely received some damage. “Clearly there has been a mistake. Are you sure you two aren’t looking for another Latina in Seoul?”

yun was caught in between two very strong desires - the one to be a good host and the to curl up in a ball and ride out the mortification. he glanced backwards into the living room at his witch who was pacing back and forth. scratch that, three desires. he also wanted to hiss and claw and the second guest in his apartment - another familiar. a dog that had barreled into his witch and also knocked his door of its hinges. 

at the moment, the desire to be a good host was winning out. his parents had raised him well after all, and focusing on making tea instead of the conflicting mess of feelings inside him was working out well. sadly it didn’t take long to warm water, and he headed back into the living room with the pot as well as three cups. he had considered being petty and just offer two, but the one without would end up being him in that case. rudeness was simply not a part of his being.

putting everything down on the sofa table, he eased himself into one of the armchairs. he’d gotten this far, he could push on and not curl into a ball under the table. “it doesn’t work that way. i don’t know who i am looking for, just where they are. and right now, she is in my living room.”

once upon a dream//flashback

[fayunlong-blog]

so i passed out last night after some hurried packing since i thought i would be going back to campus today. due to sudden snow, ice, and slippery roads that’ll be tomorrow instead! so here i am with a belated intro! this is qiu yunlong, familiar to jia acosta, and fellow familiar of danny moon! he’s an old man, turned thirty this year, and is born and raised in rural china. moved to seoul to find his witch in march this year! some random trivia and facts under the cut! as for my ims, i promise i’ll send out some replies in a few minutes! cheers!

from an old ass line of magical people.

raised at his family’s estate, 80% home schooled.

v traditional as a result, and somewhat lacking knowledge in some non-magical areas like technology.

somewhat conservative in general, but not in a misogynistic or racist way.

just you know, society is changing too fast, you don’t mix modern stuff and magic.

rich af, but is a freelance consultant because he enjoys it.

owns an apartment in central seoul where he lives most of the time.

also owns a house in rural korea/the outskirts where he goes when he needs time to breathe.

though most of the time you find him at jia’s shop, napping on the counter.

spends a lot of time in his familiar form, esp if there’s someone around to open doors for him.

cares a lot about people, goes out of his way to help in any way he can.

esp young familiars and witches, he just picks them up, brings them home, and teaches life lessons.

that said he’s somewhat private or w/e you should call it.

big about formal distances like no nicknames or informal speech allowed.

yunlong is his courtesy name yah know.

uhm enjoys buying random stuff that reminds him of home.

or just things he likes.

formal gifts ahoy if you’re somewhat friendly with him be ready for them.

grew up around a lot of people, his family, extended family, servants etc so really likes guests since he hates living alone.

yeah that’s it for now just hmu with any questions you have about him!! or if you got a cool plot idea, i’m all for those!!

[fayunlong-blog]

i’m gonna head down to eat dinner now, but i’ll try to get an intro post for yun up at some point afterwards!! i’m just really bad at those. in the meantime, here is some facts about him. if you have any questions or would like to plot, just hmu!! i’m much better at answering questions than just going freeform lol.

[fayunlong-blog]

something wicked this way comes…

now introducing qiu lunyong, a familiar who looks remarkably like zhang yixing (lay). learn more about this magical creature with a look into the grimoire !!

Keep reading