#LBX

[shizunitis]

Ghostfire Shen Yuan loyally following the lonely, undying, forgotten Luo Binghe from the original outline.

They never even met.

Shen Yuan had died long before Luo Binghe’s story was set to start. Abandoned by his System, he was left wandering the realms, searching for anything to latch onto, anything to stave off the darkness encroaching on his consciousness whenever he stopped. He keeps himself entertained with little jokes and references that will never reach anyone. At least back home, there were other people on the opposite side of his screen reacting, seeing. Paying attention.

He never would have thought he’d miss the times he was perceived by others. He’d give anything, though. Anything.

He stumbles upon the protagonist as he’s ascending the stairs of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect for the first time. Dressed in rags and heaving with the effort, Luo Binghe is exactly as Shen Yuan had pictured: a little bun, soft and kind and so very brave.

The excitement wears off soon enough. When the tea ceremony is held, Shen Yuan watches, hopelessly trying to stop the cup from hitting Binghe’s head. He lunges at Shen Jiu; let him be identified and exorcised, at least he would have done something with himself, however useless. It doesn’t work. Of course not—nothing can come between Luo Binghe and his fate.

Shen Yuan thinks about leaving. Many times. But every time he considers the possibility of going back to wandering the world, or just passing on… Well. There’s still a lot to see, isn’t there? It will get better. It will.

Only, it doesn’t. Not really.

There’s no harem; there’s no warm comfort offered to Luo Binghe by a sympathetic beauty, no wedding celebrations, no moments of gentle companionship, however brief, however superficial. There’s no camaraderie with the demons underlings, his generals, his allies; it’s all casual cruelty and dismissals, before it’s violence and subjugation.

There’s no joy. There’s no hope. There’s no ‘better’.

Something is wrong, that’s clear. Something is wrong, and Shen Yuan has no one to blame.

This is clearly not the Proud Immortal Demon Way he knows.

Centuries later, when Luo Binghe begs for the heavens to allow him to die, Shen Yuan hears. When Luo Binghe rages against the passage of time, alone in the wreckage of his palace, left behind by everyone he’d ever known, Shen Yuan accompanies him. When Luo Binghe lies down in the Holy Mausoleum and refuses to get up, Shen Yuan waits until he opens his eyes again and leaves the palace.

They end up in a hidden realm so filled with Yin Energy that Shen Yuan can channel it to manipulate his form into that of his former body. It’s not detectable by the living, but it’s there. He feels stronger, too. He can walk, float, fly, interact with what few other ghosts they encounter.

Still, Luo Binghe cannot see him.

Luo Binghe doesn’t talk much. Well, that makes sense, he was never in the habit of talking to himself, but still. It’s lonely.

They end up in a town where a diviner takes one look at Luo Binghe and offers him a free reading. Shen Yuan can’t enter her tent, so he waits outside.

She tells Luo Binghe of the little hanger-on he’s got. A powerful one, too, though he’s still getting used to his powers. He’s been here for a long time, she says. Since he was a child. He comes from far away—farther than even the most distant star.

Luo Binghe begins talking to him. Shen Yuan isn’t sure why, but he’s not complaining!

Luo Binghe also begins meditating again, trying to soothe the damage done by Xin Mo over the centuries. For every meal, he places a few fruits across from him on a plate he’d made himself, which he eats only after finishing his own dish. He makes space by his side whenever he walks on a narrow road. He stops at every landmark and tells stories about them, always starting the same way.

“Do you remember when…” becomes Shen Yuan’s favourite phrase.

One night, Luo Binghe sighs and looks across the table. Shen Yuan places himself so that he’s in Luo Binghe’s focus.

“What is it, Binghe?”

Luo Binghe doesn’t answer him, of course. Still, it feels like a conversation, when he says:

“I wish I knew your name.”

Shen Yuan frets. He’s been trying to manipulate the physical world, but he never got the hang of it. He’d tried drawing in sand, with water, just pushing things off shelves. And yet, nothing.

“I’m sorry, I wish—” he tries, but Luo Binghe is already talking again.

“I wonder if we ever crossed paths when you were alive.” He’s expressed this thought more than once. Shen Yuan never likes to think about how they’ve missed each other, how they’d been set up for failure from the start. “I wonder if we would have been friends.”

Shen Yuan scoffs. Of course not. Him and the protagonist? No way.

But—those cold star eyes, blindly searching for him, trying to land on him… They make him want to say, I would have liked that.

He reaches a hand out to touch Luo Binghe’s forhead. He’s taken to doing it whenever Luo Binghe broods, or makes a silly joke Shen Yuan wishes he didn’t find funny. It’s soothing.

He wishes Binghe could feel it.

When his finger touches the demon mark, it blazes. Luo Binghe gasps, that heavy gaze settling on Shen Yuan’s face.

Shen Yuan startles, and jumps away.

“No! Wait!”

Shen Yuan hesitates. Luo Binghe is looking around himself, eyes begging for even a wisp of Shen Yuan’s shadow.

He can’t deny Luo Binghe this.

He can’t deny himself this.

He reaches out again. This time, he cups Luo Binghe’s cheeks. When those eyes clear of panic and widen in awe, he whispers, softly, “Shen Yuan. My name is Shen Yuan.”

Luo Binghe looks like he’s been handed a treasure so precious he’s afraid to touch it. He hesitates, raising his hands in careful starts and stops, before taking Shen Yuan’s face in them, gently caressing the soft, cold skin of his face. His eyes dance with the haste he takes in memorising Shen Yuan’s features.

Then, he smiles. Helpless and weak and so, so precious. Shen Yuan has not seen hope so bright in Luo Binghe’s face since that fateful day on Cang Qiong Mountain.

“Hello, Shen Yuan.”

[erysium]

I'm tabling at Lightbox Expo today and this weekend! If you're in LA, come say hi to me at table 715! :) I'll have some comics and prints for sale.

[liluylero28]

Fran again (I love her)

[railroadlion]

✨I’m going to be tabling at Lightbox Expo in October!✨

I’m going to be tabling at Lightbox Expo with my friend @cowinf October 25th-27th in Pasadena CA! I’ll be selling tons of merch, some of which you’ve seen on this very blog, plus some never before things I’m working on right now!

Tickets are on sale now, so consider purchasing some and stopping by our booth!

[agents20]

Fran and Heliorosa🌹🖤

[aquiboni]

Happy to announce I’ll be tabling at @lightboxexpo this year! :D I’m really excited haha it’ll be my first time going☆

[meruz]

some of the books ill have at lightbox expo in pasadena this weekend! i will also have my standard ridiculous print gallery and assorted merch like charms and buttons and such... please stop by if ur in the area!

[shoomlah]

A little preview of the new art book for Lightbox! I’ll make sure to list them online once the con is over 👍🏼

[bestest-dead-best-friend-bracket]

What’s this? A new bracket!!

It’s true, friends, after months (estimation) of radio silence, I finally have something new to give you! My apologies for taking so long.

I present the Heterochromia Bracket! The first round goes up on Monday the 13th, so don’t forget to stop by and leave your vote, and maybe even a reblog??

Full lineup for Round 1 below the cut:

Idunn (Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade)

Ooto Ai (Wonder Egg Priority)

Astral (Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal)

Handsome Jack (Borderlands)

Sakura Haruka (Wind Breaker)

Emilou Apache (Bleach)

Kaname Date (AI: The Somnium Files)

Uta (One Piece)

Nishiki (Donten ni Warau)

Euden (Dragalia Lost)

Iguro Obanai (Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Kousuke Kamiya (Danball Senki)

Todoroki Shoto (Boku no Hero Academia)

Kurosaki Ranmaru (Uta no Prince-sama)

Raymond (Animal Crossing)

Nakajima Atsushi (Bungo Stray Dogs)

[coloured-braids]

can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll be part of the artist alley at lightbox expo 2023 .

It’ll be my first time ✿

~LightBox Expo (LBX) is an event that connects fans with the artists and creators behind their favorite films, animation, games, TV shows and illustrations. It's a place for aspiring artists to come, learn and be inspired~

[shizunitis]

you are luo binghe you are ten years old your mother is sickly and getting worse every day but you’ll make it better. you are luo binghe you are walking towards your future with a stale bun you fought the dogs for and your mother’s memory held tight in your fist, enclosed in the fake jade of your pendant. you are luo binghe and you are digging a hole, digging like a beast digging its way out of its own grave, digging until there’s only darkness around you like a hungry maw deciding whether it’s worth it to bite down, digging until you can’t breathe with the scent of overturned soil and dying grass and when you come to you have barely dug a cun into the ground and your name has already been called. you are luo binghe you look up at the immortal master that has chosen you and you are so anxious to be standing before him but you’ve sworn to yourself that you are brave and strong and becoming a good man who would have never treated you the way the world treated your little family. you are luo binghe and you serve your shizun tea, and he asks about your mother, and you say she was the kindest in the world to you, and your voice is strong and you’ve matured, you won’t cry anymore, and he looks at you, and he looks at you, and he looks at you, all the while scraping the leaves of his tea and you’re not sure why you’re holding your breath but this feels like a momentuous experience, a graze of the universe against your dirt-stained hands. you are luo binghe and shizun smiles, and there’s no explanation for the feeling of ease that overtakes you but you don’t need an explanation, because shizun pats your head and welcomes you to your new home, and introduces you to your new sect siblings all the while never taking his eyes off of you and you’re going to make your mother proud.

you are luo binghe and you wake up in your palace and you are scraped raw by a memory that never belonged to you. you get up, shake it off, and begin your day

[ideological-rudiment]

[kwwwotangens]

Okay, anyone remember this anime?? I LOVED it as a kid 😭 And Ran was my favorite character

(Sorry for the long absence, I've been dissatisfied with almost every drawing I've done lately)

[dynamotoon]

Leena stickers at LBX!! Gonna be tabling there so if you guys are interested in this and more check out my booth!

[agents20]

Hanasaki Ran💖

[38sr]

LIGHTBOX EXPO WEEK IS HERE!!! I'll be tabling alongside with @richsarts at LBX this weekend (Oct 27-29). This is my first time tabling so I'll be selling two art books! There is a limited stock so grab one while you can!

Cant wait to see y'all there!