nikito0x

[nikito0x]

Update:

So... I was wrong....

Apparently we weren't really past the whole Wu Ming arc yet, my bad.

Because I apparently planted too many seeds in one pot, the poppies started to suffocate each other until there were none left - basically, bye bye Wu Ming.

And when I thought I would have to plant new seeds to have any poppies - maybe even wait until next year - I saw two tiny sprouts fighting for their life and growing despite it all. They are really living up to their namesake.

As for Dianxia, well... My hyacinth started wilting and getting brown, so I asked a gardener friend what that was all about. I was told their season was ending and the flower would completely wilt and then grow again next year.

I also went home for about a month and left my plants with a competent babysitter. And so 100 years coffin time it is for XL.

My white hyacinth that I named Xie Lian just went through his first character arc by loosing his home (being moved to a bigger pot), having his life turned upside down (untangling his roots) and being left all alone in the big wide world (the new pot).

I sure hope Hua Cheng (the red poppy seeds I planted) will be there to comfort his Gege soon... [pointedly staring at my poppy pot]

[nikito0x]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

[nikito0x]

Writing prompt

Character A & Character B are dating and decide to create a TikTok/YT Short/something.

A has their chin resting on the inner side of B's elbow while B is flexing, showing how strong they are.

Suddenly B yells "I'm built different!" and A's cheeks are supposed to squeeze cutely like a chipmunk but instead a crack is heard in the silence.

B startles and lets go of A, hitting their other arm's elbow on the counter where the phone is. The phone falls in the chaos and all that's left is a black screen.

A is making pained noises in the background and says something that is barely understandable but still sounds a lot like, "I think you broke my jaw," while you can hear B panicking and trying to check if they are okay.

(Update video: A's jaw was just dislocated. B's elbow had a hairline fracture from hitting the counter. They are all good and, yes, still together.)

[nikito0x]

san lang is sick :(

[nikito0x]

ok but Pinterest is totally the wedding planner right?

[nikito0x]

his favourite tea!!!! a tgcf fan comic

[nikito0x]

Hold him gentle❤️

[nikito0x]

TGCF fic prompt

What if Xie Lian's bamboo hat becomes a spiritual weapon? How many times would he have to die wearing it for it to gain its own sentience and powers?

What powers would it have?

Shield - For all the times the kindness it reminded Xie Lian of so often didn't protect him from people's cruelty.

A sharp disk/Separates into individual needles - As a reminder that kindness is good but not everyone learns from it.

Also.

The hat would have never gotten the chance to meet Hua Cheng as Ruoye did when he was Wu Ming, so it will have the opportunity get to know him and decide if it likes him.

Ruoye would be the hat's older sibling in a way. And they can fight like siblings too.

Imagine Xie Lian automatically parenting Feng Xin and Mu Qing like he would for his spiritual weapons because he is just so used to breaking up their fights like naughty children.

"We do not hit each other to prove a point. Now apologize and make up."

Que: FX and MQ getting minor flashbacks to their mothers and especially XL's mom.

Or Xie Lian patting Hua Cheng's head to tell him he did a good job because that is what he does for his hat.

[nikito0x]

TGCF PROMPT №4

Feel free to use any of my ideas, but don't forget to send me a link to the fanfic! I want to read it too!

(Calamity Ruoye??!)

At some point before Xie Lian's third ascension, Tonglu Mountain opens up again. As usual, Xie Lian is unlucky and, fleeing from a crowd of angry ghosts, he finds himself on the Mountain's territory. Not knowing where he is and having no way out, the only thing left for Xie Lian to do is fight. So, for several years, he fights and explores the territory of Tonglu, at some point probably finding the caves with his statues.

Eventually, he breaks out of the Kiln and if he were a ghost, he would become the Supreme. However, only Ruoye is the ghost among them, but Xie Lian gave the orders and thus they share their newfound powers.

Ruoye can now take the form of any weapon Xie Lian needs, and its shields are impenetrable. Perhaps it can now take the form of a white-haired child, still mute, who looks exactly like Xie Lian. Xie Lian's robes are now black with ash and demonic blood, and golden with his own divine blood. The power given by Tonglu Mountain has broken one of the Cursed Shackles (only one, because the power was divided between Xie Lian and Ruoye). Later, Xie Lian noticed that he can grant death with a single touch if he wishes, because when the mountain was opened, he was in his right mind and tried to make all his killings quick and merciful.

And now he walks through cities and villages, granting quick and painless relief from suffering to those who ask for it, and people begin to pray to him as the god of merciful death.

[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.

[nikito0x]

ghost in the house: GET OUT. I WILL TAKE YOU-

real estate agent: chill, its me.

ghost: oh hey. have you sold it yet.

real estate agent: obviously NOT, idiot.

[nikito0x]

- Alternate Reunion -

I love the idea of Hua Cheng coming across Xie Lian by chance during one of his street performances <3

[nikito0x]

Congratulations to all AO3 users! Important Milestone reached!

Bookmark database overran!

[nikito0x]

me reading the ao3 outage notification this morning: yeah that makes sense, they need to take the archive offline to fix the bookmarks

*six hours later*

me: so maybe we don’t actually like, NEED need bookmarks

[nikito0x]

[nikito0x]

HE NEEDS SUPPORT!!!! I tried animating for the first time in like, 4-5 years lol I think it came out pretty good!

[nikito0x]

TGCF - Modern AU with Magical Elements

Young prince Xie Lian, from the long gone Kingdom of Xianle, was cursed with a fate worse than death.

Blamed for someone else's crimes and disgraced by his own people, the young prince was stabbed through the heart and turned to stone so he may forever feel the agony of the injury.

His beloved, a man with significant magical talent, used all of it in a last attempt to add one last enchantment to the stone, before being executed by the people for interfering with their chosen punishment.

Only centuries later was the truth uncovered by researchers interested in learning the causes of the fall of different civilizations.

The prince was never guilty.

By then, the craft of magic was long considered a myth or a hoax by the general population. But most enjoyed this ancient myth.

Of a tragic prince, cursed with pain forever, with a love that was never allowed to flourish.

And so, an old, beautifully tragic statue of a handsome man stands in a this city. It stands beside an inscription on a slab of stone next to it. And the script declares that whomever shall pull the sword from the prince's chest, saving him from eternal agony, is the reincarnated soul of the lover who never truly left or moved on.

A popular attraction, and with such a truly captivating story, how could it not be?

Enter: Hua Cheng. A quite wealthy young man who had decided to explore the city while on a work trip.

Bored, Hua Cheng stumbles onto an old statue while on his walk. He finds the man's beauty unrealistic, no one could really look like that for real, could they?

One hand on his heart where the sword is, the other holding a flower.

Unlike most other times, around this attraction there was no one else. The streets still had people but none seem interested in the statue. A little strange but not alarming.

The young master shrugs to himself and decides, "What the hell? Why not?" And pulls the sword with the expectation that nothing would happen.

Instead, the sword is left in his hand.

...

What?

The statue starts cracking, the hole left with the sword's removal starts closing up, the slab of stone with the famous script crumbles into dust, a holy light shines through cracks as the statue becomes something else entirely.

The statue's face fractures at last and the top layer of it falls off completely, revealing a young, handsome man.

Shocked, Hua Cheng rushes to catch the man before he falls, the prince's legs not capable fo holding him up.

Before he falls unconscious, he says a single word in an ancient language long forgotten, "Beloved." He's smiling in his sleep.

Only later would Hua Cheng realise he understood the word even though he never knew the language.

Only later would he realise that there is a red string on his finger leading directly to the prince and he seems to be the only one able to see it.

Only later does he realise that, for the first time in his life, he feels whole. His art has never been more vibrant, and he is smiling more than he ever thought possible by just having the prince by his side.

But right now?

Hua Cheng panics because he has the most beautiful man he's ever seen in his arms and he should probably take him to a hospital, and what in the actual fuck!?