#CI musings

[lunarblue21]

And, another long-overdue update (eight months!), oops! :/ Anyway, here is CI bk 1 chapter 5! In this chapter, we explore the dynamics of Diego & Peaches uncle/niece relationship further, as actions made long ago, back in IA1, come back to bite Diego with regard to his uneasy relationship to other sabre packs becos of his role as Bredelands Guardian, something he faces bullying for from both sides, a fact that bothers Manny, deep down, a lot...

FFN AO3

(Reviews/comments/reactions deeply appreciated, even if it's just an emoji or keyboard smashes!)

[shallowcloudz]

Kind of ironic how one of Xie Lian's titles is "The god-pleasing crown prince" when the one thing he does consistently without fail is piss off the Heavenly Emperor.

[mueritos]

prince sidon makes a discovery about height differences....

(my link is trans here but feel free to imagine him as cis!)

patreon | itch.io

[kevinzhechair]

I was going to fully color this one but I got lazy lol, I just thought this would be funny

[semi-otaku]

Was that little silver butterfly really that scary? Xie Lian wondered. It wasn't that bad… It was kind of cute.

-Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1

[spookikookiboo]

Obsession

Is Bill a muse or obsession?

~Spooki🖤

[aesthetinkie]

If Bill used that "im your muse" thang on me, it woud prolly work sadly, i am extremely gullible

The after math:

[reinekoya]

“My muse” △ x 6

[marshmallowwitharubberband]

Something that pops up at me in MXTX's stories is the duality of suffering from "can't have women thriving in my very gay sausage fest" syndrome (which is very prevalent in BL and some people categorize as internalized misogyny — something I don't wanna get into rn), but at the same time, a recurring but subtle (or maybe ignored) theme in her stories is portraying sex workers as people. All three of her novels feature prostitutes as background characters, but, for the most part, their portrayal isn't truly negative.

Shen Jiu preferred sleeping in brothels because he felt safer there, and it's treated as something tragic but ultimately harmless.

Jin Guangyao was reviled for being a prostitute's son, but this is clearly stated by the novel to be morally wrong and fueled by the nobles' prejudice and superficiality.

Wei Wuxian was a-ok with hanging out with or helping ghost sex workers and doesn't call any sort of attention to it. They're just regular ghosts to him.

Even Xie Lian's encounter with the brothel workers in Ghost Town doesn't paint them in a bad light, they're merely pushy like any other vendor of any other product would be.

Whatever their role or narrative purpose when they appear, they aren't portrayed like some symbol of corruption or evil, they're simply workers doing their job.

That's pretty neat.

[cas-winchester-novak]

Art for Arts sake.

So I can't believe that happened. Like I don't believe muse is dead.

But my husband came up with the whole idea that someone else picks up the Muse title.

It would make sense, the fact that it's been stated muse is a multi series villain. And all of the advitisment in muses style.

It would also make sense if it was to align more with his comic self, muses whole thing was we knew nothing about them other than his bloody murder art. And Bastian didn't seem nearly desperate enough for praise of his art.

Muse in the comics is kinda...none serious. He likes art and sees people as a medium for a statement.

It didn't sit right with me the moment I clocked it was him speaking to the therapist back in the first couple episodes, (when he asked her at the book signing).

Idk, I think it be pretty cool.

[lunarblue21]

For the “Behind the Scenes Writing Ask Game”: 😭, ❗️, and ✏️.

Thank you for the ask! :) Askmeme found here, for reference.

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPs?" In all honesty, keeping all the info - and various documents for that info - straight, since I have outline documents, OC character description/plot doc, as well as documents simply for retaining "Scraps" (either cut or deleted scenes/sentences to reuse later), so it's a lot to keep track of. My longfics tend towards being plotty, too, so it's helpful having an outline to make sure all plot threads are consistent and that there aren't any plot holes. ❗"how many WIPs do you have?"

Right now, just the one - Cruel Intentions. I do have various other half-completed one-shots, but they're not WIPs at the moment, however. Cruel Intentions (or CI bk 1) is, and it deserves all my major focus since it's a story/longfic I've been steadfastly planning since 2009. ✏️"what are your current WIPs about?"

Cruel Intentions, my Ice Age Diego & Manny & Peaches family circle longfic is about exploring the family dynamics in the Ice Age herd, namely those btwn Manny, Diego, and Peaches. Peaches looks up to and admires Diego greatly, and sees him as a "second father" to her, and - a la her mother, Ellie - she wants to be "part tiger" becos the two are close becos of the circumstances of her birth in Dinotopia. But such mixed-species herds/families are looked down upon in the Bredelands, where the herd lives, making their situation precarious, and ghosts from the past can still find ways to haunt, especially since Diego & Manny find themselves caught in the crosshairs of revenge...

[shallowcloudz]

I know that hua cheng's mother is barely mentioned in the books, but we know from mxtx that she was part of an ethnic minority (likely hmong judging by hua cheng's jewelry and accessories) and that hua cheng was very close to her, meaning that she was likely the only other person, apart from xie lian, to ever treat hua cheng with kindness and respect. Which got me thinking, what if, after her death, her soul lingered in the mortal realm as a peaceful ghost for a while and maybe during that time her and hua cheng managed to meet by chance? Thus allowing hua cheng to reunite with his mother and spend some time with her before she passed on.

[crow-n-prince]

more yizhens...... playing with how I want to interpret his charm points (blank stares, angry resting face, thick eyebrows, braided hairstyles, Big..... so on and so forth♡...)

[kevinzhechair]

oh to be two people in one body who have different views on things

[semi-otaku]

Xie Lian with his “big princess bby girl” eyes.

[fagtainsparklez]

Is being on both testosterone and estrogen at the same time a real thing? Wouldn't they cancel each other out? /gen I don't know how hormone drugs work and that sounds fascinating

it totally is! hormones are something that differ for everyone and every body is gonna have different reactions and levels (esp in people who have had surgery!). it also depends on how they’re taken, ie injections will have a stronger and faster reaction than say, gel, on top of obviously dosage. what i hope to be doing is just microdosing on estrogen for a Specific Thing, and in that case i’ll be taking such a small and focused dose that it literally won’t effect any other part of my body. you can take kind of every hormone concoction imaginable in certain doses and with certain methods! beautiful hrt soup