#IT'S SLOW GOING

[bbcphile]

WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for another excerpt from my Mysterious Lotus Casebook longfic!

This week, enjoy Fang Duobing trying to get Di Feisheng to take care of himself by explaining how it will help Li Lianhua take care of himself. (AKA. FDB's Caretaking 101 for DFS). (You can find earlier excerpts here.)

**

Fang Duobing sniffled, picked up the cloth once more, and got to work. At least the cabinet was almost blood-free. Only one stain left. 

“What did you mean about Xiangyi and help?” a-Fei asked on Fang Duobing’s third pass over the stain.

Fang Duobing’s hands stopped mid-scrub. Did a-Fei even have any caretaking experience? Either giving or receiving? Or had he just always used qi to heal everything, so recuperation was never an issue? Starting from the most basic level and working up to the question was probably the best move.

He started scrubbing the stain again, willing his hands and voice to be steady. “Li Lianhua will need rest, right? And sleep, and food, and medicine.”

“Obviously. He’s healing.”

Well, at least a-Fei knew that much.

“It took me a decade to recover from my duel with Xiangyi, Duobing,” a-Fei said, his tone as dry as the basin was wet. “I’m familiar with the process.”

A decade? So he really had been in seclusion all that time. Wait–Li Lianhua had injured him that badly and he wanted another duel? How did that make any sense? He mentally shook himself and tried to find the thread of the conversation again before he could spiral off in a different direction. “Alright. I’m assuming the Medicine Demon or someone was overseeing your healing. Did you actually follow his orders?”

“Of course,” a-Fei said, as though he were the sort of person to take orders from anyone.

He was kidding, wasn’t he? Fang Duobing craned his head over his shoulder to take a look. No annoyingly attractive smirk or eyebrow raised in challenge in sight. Huh. He’d try to make sense of that later. “Well . . . good for you,” he said, facing forward again. “Li Lianhua won’t. He wouldn’t even before the situation with his shiniang. It’s not only giving away qi he couldn’t spare to heal people. He tries to squirm his way out of receiving help all the time, and always pushes himself too far, long past any reasonable limit.” Sound like anyone else you know, a-Fei? “I don’t think he knows how to do things any other way. So instead of accidentally encouraging him to hurt himself, what if we do the opposite? Practice accepting help, even if we don’t need it to survive, so he feels less guilty about needing it?”

Silence. He forced himself to keep scrubbing and wait. If a-Fei needed time, then that’s what he’d give him.

“What are you suggesting?” a-Fei asked at last.

Fang Duobing blinked at the cloth in his hand. “Um,” he said, frantically casting around for something to follow it, as all his ideas fled. “It doesn’t need to be anything big. Simple things count. For instance, you could ask me to hand you something if it’s nearer to me. Or tell me to go away when you need alone time. And I could ask you to make me medicine if I wasn’t feeling well. Or meditate when we’re low on qi, sleep when we’re worn out. That sort of thing.” He winced internally. No wonder his Niang liked to say he was as transparent as water. 

Well, since he’d come this far, he might as well commit. “All I’m saying is that it might help Li Lianhua as well as yourself if you don’t try to push yourself to your absolute limit. Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to. Or that you should. And you don’t need to, because I’m here. And you shouldn’t if you don’t want Li Lianhua to think he needs to do the same thing. He deserves to rest. And if we can show him what that looks like, then isn’t that the responsible thing to do?”

A-Fei made a faint hum that could have meant anything from ‘excellent point, Xiaobao’ to ‘I think you’re an idiot.’

Who was he kidding? It was probably the latter.

Fang Duobing squeezed the handkerchief over the bowl. The water turned purple as the paint and blood mixed together. He waited.

No new sounds from a-Fei. Just the whisper of his fingers through Huli Jing’s fur.

Fang Duobing swallowed back a sigh. At least he’d tried. “I’m going to go dump this,” he said, standing up. “I’ll be back soon.” He started for the door.

“Wait.”

Fang Duobing stilled. “What?”

A-Fei stared at him for a long moment, something complicated lurking under his almost neutral expression. “Clean the blood off your face first,” he said at last.

“Oh. Good point.” He dug out his own handkerchief from his robe–the other one had splinters in it now–dunked it, and wiped it across his cheek. “Better?”

“Almost,” a-Fei said, pointing to a spot near his temple and another across his forehead.

Fang Duobing wiped wherever a-Fei pointed until he finally nodded his approval. “Thanks.” He was about to leave, but then the candlelight hit a-Fei’s cheekbone in exactly the right way to make the teartrack from earlier glisten. Of course a-Fei hadn’t taken the time to clean up, either. “Did you want to–”

A-Fei shook his head. 

So much for acknowledging limits or asking for help. “Right. Never mind.” He left without waiting for a response.

[clockwayswrites]

*slowly drags chapter 9 of abson over to me*

Hello my boys, I've missed you. Let's see if we can't finally wrap this all up. You deserve your soft end.

[essentialthyme]

From the Narenare twitter account!

I only watched the 1 episode so im like completely out of the loop but this looked cute!

Shion daydreaming about Suzuha parkouring is very on brand lol they should do Suzuha daydreaming about Shion's awful, awful singing as a matching set

[mvimes]

Watching the phantom troupe in their dank-ass hideout because even though they're legendary thieves or whatever they can't afford a hotel room

My brain: wait they're right outside Yorknew City in what appears to be apocalyptic wasteland for miles

...

oh my god the phantom troupe hideout is in Newark. there's no other place in the greater nyc area that's terrible enough. These guys are literally sitting in some old Portuguese church in the waste of the ironbound

[maydays-medbay]

Happy Pride!!

(Featuring my star couple, Karma and Silverfall! I have not drawn enough pride stuff so far, and I hope to change that soon! I've gotten a little more free time recently so I've had the ability to draw some things :>)

Sketch Version!

[characteroulette]

for a thing, do you have any pokemon team ideas for the RGB puzzlers? I may be doing something

Ooohh!!! I love creating Pokemon teams!! Hold up I'm about to go full nerd mode --

Okay so I crafted one for Luke on a whim since he's so connected with animals all ready. We got

Toppy the Rattata,

Theo the Teddiursa,

a Ducklett,

a Chatot,

a Slurpuff,

and a Carbink! (Though Bunnelby, Buneary, or either Nidoran would also work)

(As a bonus, Layton's team includes an Unown, a Sigilyph, and a Galarian Weezing. Phoenix has a Talonflame, a Masquerain, a Sigilyph, and either a Dragonite or a Salamance. Just some sort of Dragon.) (Bonus bonus, Claire has a Chingling/Chimecho on her team.)

Apollo team is a lot harder a think for me. I am coming up with this on the fly okay here we go

Hisuian Arcanine,

a Litleo,

a Larvesta (or maybe even a Slither Wing?),

a Basculin (evolves into Basculegion, of course),

a Goomy (also Hisuian form),

and then maybe a Cacnea. Because prickly jokes.

And then Snufkin team can go one of several ways!! Either he has no traditional team (but there is a Celebi always following him around...), he has an entirely Fish team (Arrokuda, Veluza, Finneon, Bruxish, Magikarp, Barboach), OR he has the team I built for him in ScarVio

a Dragonite (his Moominite, if you will),

a Smoliv,

a Finneon (/Basculin; would tie him to Apollo more),

a Dedenne,

a Klefki,

and either a Larvitar or Bramblin, I can't decide. (Sudowoodo also good.)

Hopefully my theming comes through on Snufkin and Apollo's teams lol thanks for asking this!!!

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Did you get a lot of French songs ? (I know I submitted one but I’m curious if you got any other)

I've seen at least one, as I've said before, I've not compiled the entire bracket yet

[jonathanbyersphd]

🥮 for the fic writer asks! <3

I don't know that I have any big miestones atm. I'm just trying to work on actually writing the story in my head

[tinypinkmouse]

I'm putting a lot of effort into writing a thing three people might read again. It's a little bit frustrating, but I still want to know where this story is going.

[undeadfillum]

Chillout Jazz House Music Mix - Cozy Pancakes Brunch Bar | Relaxing Livi... Scanning film background tunes

[roppiepop]

Who’s coming to the cookout?

[ollyrewind]

Look at him. I would die for him. I would kill for him.

Either way — what bliss.

[mcmissileproof]

favorite hobby when I'm driving is to catch someone trying to climb up my back bumper while I'm going a completely reasonable speed and just slowly take my foot off the gas. you seem upset, brother. why don't we slow down and enjoy the view awhile

[sarcastic-clapping]

“sad day for devil’s minion enjoyers” girl WHAT? armand turned that old man. he sucked him silly. do you really think nothing else went down or was said in that penthouse? on the unreliable narrator show where they love to breadcrumb pieces until you get the full truth? hello? i’m popping BOTTLES

[eggsdoodz]

🩷🌷🐑⭐️🎀

[toyducks]

made my own prefall/angel lucifer design