#( eternity really isn't fun the more you think about it 🥲 )

[erabundus]

i  was  talking  to  @ruinlost  about  this  last  night  (  who  is  a  very  cool  friend,  incredibly  talented  writer  and  artist,  as  well  as  a  co-conspirator  /  enabler  of  scaramouche-related  ramblings  )  but  the  teaser  prompted  me  to  come  to  a  realization.

can  wanderer  actually  (  realistically  )  die?  

looking  back  at  the  fall,  we  already  knew  he  was  durable  —  but  i  don’t  think  we’ve  really  had  evidence  to  scale  just  HOW  durable  he  actually  is.  if  he  can  tank  crashing  to  the  ground  headfirst  from  such  an  absurd  height,  if  he  can  sit  (  completely  unscathed  )  in  a  burning  building  as  it  crumbles  around  him,  can  he  even  be  killed  at  all?  we  know  he  is  capable  of  being  DESTROYED  in  some  capacity  —  but  i  don’t  think  those  means  (  or  the  knowledge  to  use  them  )  would  be  available  to  more  than  a  very,  very  small  handful  of  people.  the  best  mortals  can  hope  to  do  is  hinder  him.  i  don’t  even  think  many  immortals  would  be  able  to  effectively  put  him  down  for  good,  either.  you  can  knock  him  out.  you  can  smack  him  around.  but  he  will  get  up  again.  in  a  war  of  attrition,  wanderer  always,  ALWAYS  wins  by  default  —  because  he  was  created  to  last  forever.  

which  is,  really,  more  of  a  curse  than  it  is  a  blessing.  but  wanderer’s  specific  brand  of  immortality  is  ESPECIALLY  horrifying  the  more  you  think  about  it.

teyvat  has  more  than  its  fair  share  of  gods  and  creatures  not  limited  by  the  constraints  of  a  mortal  lifespan.  however,  they  are  all  subject  to  EROSION.  wanderer,  by  design,  is  not.  he  has  outlived  humans  before  —  but  he  also  has  the  capability  to  outlast  even  the  gods.  and  that  is  what  makes  how  durable  he  is  absolutely  terrifying.  he  will  never  die.  he  can  (  almost  )  never  be  killed.  his  mind  will  stay  just  as  SHARP  as  it  always  has.  he  is  going  to  outlive  everyone  —  and  i  do  mean  EVERYONE.  it’s  no  wonder  that  he’s  decided  to  live  a  life  completely  estranged  from  other  people.

at  the  end  of  time,  at  the  end  of  teyvat,  at  the  end  of  everything,  wanderer  will  still  be  there.  he  doesn’t  have  a  choice.  and  if  the  first  five  hundred  years  were  already  so  difficult,  i  can  hardly  imagine  what  ten  thousand  will  bring.

i  know  we’ve  had  the  pieces  to  come  to  this  conclusion  for  a  while,  but  the  teaser  really  put  into  perspective  just  how  nightmarish  his  situation  really  is.  thanks,  i  hate  it!

[plan-d-to-i]

I have never understood why people see the library scene in the incense burner chapter as something that lwj fantasise about. When i read that scene, i specifically remember wwx describing this exact scene when they had sex outside. So basically to me the incense burner chapters is a manifestation of wwx’s teasing/rape kink. With the kiss in the mountains we saw how he reacted to what he did. I think it has been established a couple of times that lwj would never do something that wwx doesn’t want to do. Not even fantasising about it.

Ah, I'm sorry to contradict you, I too believe it's something LWJ fantasizes about... I think people have written more in depth on this, but take this moment:

Wei WuXian leaped down, tightly hugging Lan WangJi whose entire head was covered, and pushed him onto the bed, “Rape!”

Lan WangJi, “…”

Wei WuXian’s hands vulgarly touched and fumbled around his body, yet Lan WangJi still lay as quiet as dead, letting him do whatever he pleased. Wei WuXian lost interest just a while later, “HanGuang-Jun, why don’t you even resist a bit? If you’re just lying there not even moving, what’s the fun of me raping you?”

Lan WangJi’s muffled voice came through the blanket, “What do you want me to do?”

Wei WuXian advised, “When I hold you down, you’re gonna push me and not let me get on top of you, and squeeze your legs together and struggle as hard as you can, at the same time scream for help…”

Lan WangJi, “Making noise is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.”

Wei WuXian, “Then you can call for help lightly. And also, when I rip your clothes apart, you should try your best to resist and protect your chest.”

The blanket was silent for a while.

A moment later, Lan WangJi replied, “It sounds rather difficult.”

Wei WuXian, “Really?!”

Lan WangJi, “Mn.”

Wei WuXian, “I’m out of ideas, then. How about we change things up and you rape me instead…”

Before he finished, his view spun and the blankets flew off. Lan WangJi had already pushed him onto the bed.

Because he was smothered inside the blanket by Wei WuXian for quite a while, even his eternally-neat hair tie and forehead ribbon were somewhat crooked. His hair was somewhat disheveled, a few strands dangling down, and his originally jade-white cheeks shone through with soft pink. Under the candlelight, he was quite the bashful beauty. Unfortunately, though, the beauty’s arm strength was absurdly great, firmly locked around Wei WuXian like clamps of iron as he begged, “HanGuang-Jun, HanGuang-Jun, to forgive is a virtue.”

Lan WangJi’s eyes didn’t waver, while the two bright flames of the candle trembled in their reflection. His expression was calm, “Yes.”

Wei WuXian, “Yes what? Handstand? Rape? Hey! My clothes.”

Lan WangJi, “You said so yourself.”

As he spoke, he set his body between Wei WuXian’s legs and stayed for a while. Wei WuXian waited for a while, but nothing came, “What!”

Lan WangJi straightened up slightly, “Why do you not resist?”

LWJ when WWX says he's going to r him: 😐🥱

LWJ when WWX suggests they switch: ✨🔥✨

LOL! But there's nothing wrong with it!!! There's nothing wrong with them having this cnc fantasy and exploring it with each other with consent. ofc a story isn't going to read like a consent guidebook and people shouldn't take it as such but no one is getting the short end of the stick in this relationship. Or being forced to do something they don't want to do. People are being a bit puritanical about this 🥲.

[gold-kobold]

Wooo, finally read the new chapter and LOVED it!!! I really like how the dynamic between Dic and Angor keeps developing. Their interactions (as well as Angor steadily opening up with more of the other people) really shows the differences in how they face their traumas. Angor shows continued growth and desire to heal, while Dictatious digs his heels in about every single problem and pretends his problems don't exist. Yet he's also shown growth in different ways, like being more confident about battling! But he's still his own biggest obstacle. 😅🥲

Like in their argument about Changelings, I really like how Angor makes more and more effort to watch out for upsetting Dictatious by mistake, and reassuring him that he'd never hurt him, while still standing by his beliefs and letting it be known that Dictatious is in the wrong. Meanwhile Dictatious keeps falling back to his default of trying to do whatever necessary to keep safe of backlash from the stronger, scarier troll.

I get the feeling that Angor wants to let Dictatious come to terms with things at his own pace, especially after how bad trying to force the Gunmar issue backfired, but Dictatious's walls keep staying up, as do the prejudices. So it's going to take some light coaxing to get to the right place! (Or so are my thoughts. 😅)

Y E S

you and moonlit have hit pretty much all the nails on the freakin' head, i swear--

i freakin' love writing dictatious being an EXTREMELY emotionally constipated bastard, like, from what canon's given us, he HAS gone through a lot of trauma (even if abuse from gunmar isn't confirmed, i believe it's implied to some extent, and even without that, trapped in the darklands for however many centuries HAS to be traumatic to some degree-) but he so very much feels like the kind of personality who'd 100% ignore that Dumb Feelings Shit lmao, like from the very carefree attitude we see in the eternal night, and how casual (sort of?) he behaved with blinky, it just gives me vibes of like, "ah yes, things happened, let's absolutely not think about them and pretend everything is normal and fine haha" bUT THERE WERE ALL THOSE INSTANCES WHERE HE WAS OBVIOUSLY TERRIFIED OF/DEEPLY AFFECTED BY GUNMAR'S BULLSHIT AND IT'S LIKE MMMM GIVE ME THE PAIN AND EMOTIONAL TURMOIL--

angor rot be out here like "i know you're in so much pain and just find it easier to ignore than to feel, and i keep trying to give you a place to process those repressed feelings, but i'm nOT GOING TO LET YOU BE BLATANTLY BIGOTED GODDAMMIT--"

next chapter is going to be VERY much fun and i'm excited to finish it lolol