#Lotus Creations

[lotusfaebell]

⊱ “You are my best friend in every world, story, and lifetime.”

[billy-crudup]

THE WHITE LOTUS | 2.07 BYG

[mewguca]

OC Palette Swap

some bonus lineups i suppose. not 100% size/height accurate but it gives a good approximation of how freaking tall nctg and eolw are compared to the shortest

[sennamybeloved]

★ — selfship kisses : an ask meme.

inspired by these two memes + a meme i saw on twitter! there are two ways to go about this specific ask meme: send me a number + a f/o (orr just a number if you prefer) and i'll create something based on the prompt, OR send me a f/o and i'll use a random number generator to randomize a prompt for them! either way, this ask meme is intended to encourage creativity in the form of art and writing. please practice reblog karma & feel free to tag me, the creator, in whatever you make!!

1 - lips

2 - cheek

3 - nose

4 - forehead

5 - crown of the head

6 - eyelid

7 - neck

8 - collarbone

9 - shoulder

10 - back

11 - chest

12 - stomach

13 - temple

14 - arm

15 - wrist

16 - palm

17 - back of hand

18 - fingers/knuckles

19 - on top of a scar/injury

20 - first kiss

21 - quick kiss

22 - slow/passionate kiss

23 - accidental

24 - blowing a kiss

25 - good morning

26 - goodnight

27 - hello

28 - goodbye

29 - in public

30 - in private

31 - while laughing

32 - through tears

33 - apology

34 - distraction

35 - to celebrate something

36 - in the rain

37 - out of jealousy

38 - reunion

39 - wedding day

40 - while one is asleep

41 - while one is sick

42 - suddenly

43 - during an argument

44 - out of habit

45 - while one is wearing lipstick

46 - as a reward

47 - during a conversation

48 - playfully

49 - sleepily

50 - under the stars

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。・✭・.・✫・

[lotus-pear]

you can clearly see where scara gets his good looks from

[journeytothewestresearch]

Bad FSYY English translation

The four-volume Library of Chinese Classics bilingual edition of Creation/Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi, c. 1620) published in 2000 is the only full-length translation of the story available in English. I've had a PDF of the entire set archived on my external blog since May of 2020. It is serviceable for the general reader, but it is not great for hobbyist researchers like myself.

I'd like to provide an example showing how it is not very accurate and/or comprehensive. Chapter 12 describes how young Nezha inadvertently causes havoc in the underwater realm when washing himself in a river with a powerful magic sash. This eventually leads to Li Gen (李艮), a yaksha water-spirit soldier, to attack him with an ax. Gu Zhizhong's (2000) translation reads:

Nezha, naked and empty-handed, dodged the vicious blow, raised his Universal Ring and struck Li Gen on the head. How could the Yaksha withstand the magic weapon from Fairy Primordial! His skull broke open and he fell dead on the river bank (Gu, 2000, vol. 1, p. 239).

However, the full Chinese reads:

Standing there naked, Nezha dodged the advancing warrior's attack and upraised the Universal Ring in his right hand. This treasure was originally bestowed by the Jade Emptiness Palace of Mt. Kunlun to the Perfected Man of the Grand Monad to secure the items of his Golden Light Cave. How could the yaksha withstand the magic weapon as it struck downward on his head? His brains exploded from the blow, and he fell dead on the shore. 哪吒正赤身站立，見夜叉來得勇猛，將身躲過，把右手套的乾坤圈望空中一舉。此寶原係崑崙山玉虛宮所賜太乙真人鎮金光洞之物，夜叉那裏經得起，那寶打將下來，正落在夜叉頭上，只打的腦漿迸流，即死於岸上。 (I don't consider myself a translator, so please forgive any errors.)

You can see that quite a bit of information was left out. This happens throughout the entire novel. This makes me angrier the more that I think about. Why even bother to translate something if you are only going to paraphrase or even skip over passages? It seems like a pointless enterprise.

Source:

Gu, Z. (2000). Creation of the Gods (Vols. 1-4). Beijing: New World Press.

[ao3-anonymous]

Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (09/18/2023)

Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms.  Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.

Overall:

Over 1,000 Fics:

Over 5,000 Fics:

Over 10,000 Fics:

Source: AO3 Fandom Dashboard

[nemainofthewater]

Best character surnamed: Ji

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgotten anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

[luminouslumity]

I'm really hoping these two interact at least once before the series ends, if only to see what their dynamic is like today and what the show's take on their history is, or if they even have one in this world at all. And for those who don't know, yes, according to Chinese legend, Nezha and Ao Guang have a history, but it's never really portrayed accurately in adaptations, which usually have Ao Guang come off as evil while Nezha gets to play the hero.

Don't get me wrong, Ao Guang isn't exactly a saint either, but Nezha?

Okay, storytime for those who don't know! So, their beef is brought up in only two chapters of Fengshen Yanyi (封神演), often translated in English as The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods, a 16th century Chinese novel by Xu Zhonglin (許仲琳) about the rise of the Zhou Dynasty and the gods who help make it happen (you can read the full bilingual version here and a summary of the events chapter-by-chapter here).

One of these gods is Nezha (哪吒), son of Li Jing (李靖) and Lady Yin (殷氏), who was pregnant with him for three years and six months. He's also the youngest brother of Jinzha (金吒) and Muzha (木吒) as well as the reincarnation of the Lingzhu (灵珠), or Pearl Spirit, who was a disciple of Taiyi Zhenren (太乙真人), or True Man Primordial (called Fairy Primordial in the English translation).

Also, Nezha was born at about four in the morning! And if I may remind everyone, the number four in China is associated with death, and Nezha—even according to his own mentor—was destined to kill because of this!

Oh, boy.

So, what does Ao Guang (敖光) have to do with all of this? Well, Nezha killed his best investigator Li Gen (李艮) the Yaksha (a nature spirit) as well as his third son Ao Bing (敖丙), who isn't always really portrayed in the best light in adaptations, either. And contrary to what some portrayals of this story may state about Nezha killing them for noble reasons, this is what happens according to FSY:

Obviously Ao Guang confronts the Li family about it and this is what Nezha says in response:

Shouldn't be considered guilty? Nezha, whether you did it deliberately or not, you still killed a yaksha (albeit in self-defense) and a dragon prince and then wanted to turn the latter's tendon into a belt! Keep in mind that Nezha is also seven at this time, which may help explain some things, supernatural being or not.

Afterwards, Ao Guang decides to go to the Jade Emperor about this and Nezha goes to ask for his master's help in the meantime:

Minor matter, he says!

So this is what he does to Ao Guang:

And here's Nezha comforting his parents:

I know it's because of the political circumstances, so yeah, Nezha can't afford to be punished, but the fact that he considers killing the dragons a trifling matter is almost hilarious! Not necessarily for the situation, but for the reactions!

And after that, guess what! This seven year old—again, seven!—kills again! Specifically, he accidentally shoots down a disciple belonging to Shiji Niangniang (石矶娘娘), or Lady Rock, but Fairy Primordial helps Nezha deal with her and the child returns home just before his parents can be arrested for Li Gen and Ao Bing's deaths. Taking responsibility, Nezha decides to go through reincarnation again, eventually helping bring about the fall of the Shang, as destiny ordained.

As for Ao Bing, he—like so many other characters in the book, both who'd died and survived over the course of the story—eventually gets deified at the end, becoming the god of the Huagai Xing (华盖星), or Imperial Canopy Star.

And if you wanna know what happens next with Nezha, read here!

[butters-flower-mom]

I'm getting overwhelmed by the cuteness of my own OC thinking about all the stuff of her I'd draw if only drawing didn't take so much energy out of me.

[cuteniaarts]

Ladies and gentlemen,

✨HER✨

[lotusfaebell]

Summertime in Stardew Valley ☀️🌻 I am still new to making GIFs, so sorry if they do not have rhythm >.>

[handmadebyhongjun]

🪷Lotus Pond Nightlight🪷

🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷

i particularly like this↑ shot of the glowing lotus bud

these fishes are those transparent stickers made for embedding into epoxy

the whole lamp! It fits into one hand, It's one of my more ambitious personal projects and took me over a week to complete as I was also working on commissions, but the outcome was pretty satisfying

[mewguca]

I need to brainstorm for a different iterator OC but instead I gave her a very basic ref

I'd explain more about her concept but I'm dehydrated and I forgot to post this like 3 times

[echoheart0324]

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?"

(The first and second drawings show off more of their designs + chibi full body references since the initial full body refs I had were back when they were still Puyo OCs before deciding to make them their own thing instead.

Meanwhile, the third picture is in reference to Lotus and Maple drifting apart from each other, featuring their timeskip designs in the bottom row.)

More design/character notes:

Both Lotus and Maple’s hairstyles (mostly their bangs and upper hair spikes) are based on their respective plants (the lotus and the maple leaf), just upside down and exaggerated.

The timeskip design for Maple is very similar to his previous design with only a few adjustments (and a longer cloak that’s not shown here), since he’s the one still clinging onto the past, unlike Lotus. (It’s like watching your childhood best friend slowly gravitate towards other friend groups as time passes, while you stay the same.) This is ironic to the symbolism of the maple leaf, representing “change”, but it’s also known as a symbol for loyalty and strength/protection.

The gold flower symbols on Lotus have more detail to it since they’re the child of Wally (who’s in charge of the town they live in).

Lotus specializes in all elements of magic but prefers sticking to earth and water magic the most. Maple specializes in wind and fire magic but prefers not using it because he lives in a very flammable area and would rather not risk it (hence his sword).

( Anyways, this is for the OC brackets, run by @original-character-championship )

[local-creative-cryptid]

Dotus (Click on images for better visual)