#a slow and painful death actually

[tcfactory]

I'm pretty certain this is not a new idea, but it's kinda relevant for one of the fics I'm writing, so please consider:

The Northern Demon Kings all have an expiration date, because the ancestral power their clan hoards and covets is poison. Some bear it better and rule for thousands of years before it wears them down. Some are not compatible with this horrid amalgamation of energies and fade quickly. There was the rare occasion when the wannabe king died from trying to assimilate the power and never lived to be officially crowned.

Mobei-jun - not Shang Qinghua's hulky ice demon, but his father - has been slowly, painfully dying since the moment he took on the power of his ancestors.

In canon Linguang-jun tells young Mobei (Qinghua's Mobei, our Mobei) that he should die young like his father. Linguang-jun himself isn't very old, likely no more than 10-20 years older than Mobei, so Mobei-jun probably inherited the throne not long before Mobei was born. Mobei-jun doesn't even rule a full century, in the end. He wastes away from the strain of keeping the ancestral power controlled. He neglects his family. He neglects his kingdom. He withdraws from the public eye except for his appearances at court where he has all the means to keep up the illusion of a strong, if eccentric and lazy king.

The king is dying.

It's a secret that weighs heavily on those who know.

Mobei doesn't know until he has to take over most duties of the fading king and he still doesn't know the cause; he assumes it has to be the result of some poison or assassination attempt. Mobei-jun is too proud to admit what he sees as the consequences of a personal failing to his son, although he does write his thoughts down in a series of journals meant for Mobei to find and read after Mobei-jun has passed.

Linguang-jun knows - how could he not? He was barely a teen when he had to start supporting his brother, picking up the slack in administration and rulership where his brother can't. Him dropping off his young nephew in the human world was an impulsive act of lashing out - a teenager having to do too much for his older brother with too much responsibility, coupled with his very young nephew going through a very clingy/annoying/needy phase made him snap and deal with the stressor he had the ability to deal with: smol Mobei. He regretted it almost immediately, but he couldn't admit that it was because of all the stress he was under (and he couldn't have explained it to his nephew without divulging his brother's state of health, which he swore not to do) so he just doubled down on the assassination attempt angle and then stewed in bitter regret.

Mobei-jun, when he finally becomes king, gets author's favorite blorbo treatment which means he can basically rule until the end of the world if he so pleases, but not without side effects. One cannot hold the cumulated power of a bloodline as ancient and powerful as the Mobei clan without paying the price.

But that's an idea for another day.

[tickledpink31]

You’ve heard of Vegeta’s “Goku button,” now get ready for Sun Wukong’s “wife button.”

And yeah the last drawing was a slight reference to this screenshot from the OSP Journey to the West retelling

[prisonpodcast]

Also people who said c!techno had a victim complex pls never try to analyze any piece of media again ever, please and thank you 🙏🏻

[norrlands-nonsense]

Durmstrang!Draco and Hermione dancing at the Yule Ball ❄️

[minglana]

love when bus drivers yell at u bc u didn hear what they said bc the bus' motor is too loud and ur ears are plugged bc ur sick (again) :)))))

[pastafossa]

I kinda want the man in white to be killed by a pack of wolves. Like ya'know, show him what a wild animal really is.

I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say I have a very painful death planned for him that will basically hit upon everything he fears and hates, down to the point where even his molecules will be forced into a wordly purgatory, one created by his own hubris.

There will be no escape for him.

[rook-specter]

seriously, my dad's a fucking menace and he deserves to burn

[rottengurlz]

I finished the shuddering now I need a little treat of people being happy and falling in love

[snufflimsuperstar]

I hope I meet a guy brave enough to kill me.

[tcfactory]

imagining a semi comedic bit of qqq being all "the leader is an ex slave, the strategist is an ex slave, are there any other ex slaves we should know about??" sqh admits he was an urchin. mqf was too. wqw is from a dishonored military family. there isnt a name for lords of the alcohol peak or the monk peak but sorry girl, only you and lqg are from 'respectable' breeding.

You joke, but for another fic I toyed with the idea of Mu-shidi being pretty quiet about his family because they were a clan of really evil cultivators up until like a few generations back. Like, "grandpa Fang worked really hard to turn his life around and dedicate himself to medicine and healing, but we are still not mentioning him in righteous circles because they would put the whole family to the sword for the shit he did when young" levels of evil. And now I really like the idea of the dishonored military family for WQW, I might hold onto that if you don't mind.

The lord of the beast peak is a wild foundling. The lord of the monk peak started cultivating late because he became a monk to leave behind a life of crime. Sorry QQQ, but you really are in the extreme minority here.

I don't know if I'm going to finish that other fic (the working title is 'Cursed Panacea' and it has very 'a world w/ unchecked papapa curses and flowers would really suck for the people actually living in it' ft. 'MQF has succubus ancestry and he fucking hates it' vibes) but here are some of the Mu-family relevant parts of the WIP. Warning for a lot of implied rape:

The story goes like this: the founding ancestor of the Mu family was an evil demonic cultivator, one that made it all the way to Body Unity with the power of her wicked arts, draining the cultivation of others to bolster her own. At that stage, however, she could no longer progress just by draining cultivation from others, so she started to consume powerful demons - one of which was a succubus matriarch that left her with a new, carnal craving. It drove her to distraction and when she won a clash against one of her long standing rivals, she could bear it no longer: she forced herself on the man there and then, in the wreckage of their fight. She discovered that dual cultivation could not only sate her new craving, it could bolster her cultivation far beyond her previous method of consumption, especially since her victim could last her a while before they perished from her ceaseless plundering of their qi. That is the origin of the wretched practice called human cauldrons. That is the origin of the Mu clan.

(...)

The tale goes like this: one day, a feared and loathed Mu-clan cultivator falls in love with his rival, a master of gu poisons just as feared as him, poisonous even to the touch. He stole a kiss during one of their many fights and has obsessed over him ever since, even during the three decades it took him to recover from the poison. Three hundred cauldrons are his to do with as he wishes, but he can only think of that toxic, deadly kiss. He starts courting the master of poisons and to his surprise his court is reciprocated. His beloved feeds him bits of his poisonous qi to slowly acclimate him to his deadly touch and he takes it all eagerly, even when each dose leaves him hovering on the edge of death for years at a time. They are as happy as such wicked men could ever be. However, one day someone finds a poison strong enough to affect even his beloved, a nameless toxin without a cure that is killing him before the Mu cultivator’s very eyes. In a last ditch effort, he prays to the heavens and swears that he would walk the righteous path until the end of his life if his beloved can be saved. With that solemn oath a thought comes to him and he uses his cauldron technique to take just the poison, just the wretched, harmful qi from his beloved. In his body, without the thousands of toxins to feed on, the poison is subdued and no longer deadly. They live, both of them, and they both thank the heavens for that miraculous strike of inspiration. They disappear after that. No more master of poisons, no more wretched keeper of cauldrons. Three centuries later the Mu clan is founded anew, by an eccentric master of medicines who is said to be able to concoct a pill for any ill and his fragile husband, a doctor so wondrously skilled they say he can cure everything except death. Their names are Mu Fang and Ran Hao. They are Mu Qingfang’s great grandfathers.

[thedragonagelesbian]

Every time i try to articulate something about cyrus & astarion's relationship, i immediately lose all coherency something in there is like catnip to me but i Cannot Talk About It Ever

[dirt-str1der]

Kiryu is so a guy who gets his lung punctured then starts snorting and snuffling like a pug because he cant breathe... so cute ...

[proxyedgy]

“What?! You found my new body?! Then let’s immediately-- HAH? APRIL FOOLS?! Hey, hey, don’t go around spewing shit like that...! I’ll kill you.”

Another gem from my favourite poor little boo boo </3

[jvzebel-x]

🦋

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

I find it amazing how some of men's fashion used to be back then and how it was still somehow considered masculine or macho. Lmao

[andthebeanstalk]

Moulin Rouge: a man obsessed with his love for a sex worker is shocked that she would engage in sex work and also somehow misses that the woman he loves has tuberculosis until she literally dies of it.