#howdaretrashships

[bbcphile]

The Yin Leaves Threat Is a Bluff (MLC Meta)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook fans: Are we ready to talk about how the yin leaves threat was a bluff?

So many people seem to be taking Di Feisheng at his word that he wanted to make Li Xiangyi eat the yin leaves of the Wangchuan flower to regain his martial arts for one last glorious fight and that he was fine with Li Xiangyi dying very painfully from their poison after. And I see why: after all, LLH took him at his word, too, and LLH is famously smart and a good detective.

However, LLH has a history of jumping to false conclusions about DFS and, like the rest of the jianghu, assuming the worst of him: in fact, his mistaken belief that DFS broke the peace treaty and had his shixiong killed is the central misunderstanding that nearly destroyed both their respective sects and each other. So, since LLH is canonically very bad at telling who actually wants him dead and who loves him, it’s worth investigating this further. And looking at DFS’ history of bluffing is a good place to start.

DFS and Bluffing

Di Feisheng has a history of bluffing and/or threatening to kill or torture people when he doesn’t mean it. Here are some of his most notable examples (but click here for a much longer list of things he’s lied about or withheld info about):

Threatening to kill Qiao Wanmian to convince LLH to let him find a cure for Bicha (he doesn’t kill women)

Threatening to torture Gao Qian for information (he searches rooms instead)

Threatening to kill FDB when LLH says he’s trouble (the smirk after shows he was joking)

Threatening to kill Xiao Zijin at the wedding if LLH doesn’t help him get into 188 prisons (LLH walks him into a trap and yet DFS doesn’t even try to hurt XZJ in the fight)

Lying about poisoning and curing QWM to protect LLH’s identity and pretending to kidnap her

In all of those examples, DFS is trying to help or protect LLH, albeit in a very dysfunctional way. In the first example, he’s trying to blackmail LLH into living; the second example is to solve the case to find Shi Hun to expel the Asura Grass so he can find a cure for Bicha; the third is a joke, but also one designed to make LLH admit he does care about FDB because LLH is pretending he doesn’t care about anything as a prelude to giving up once he finds SGD’s body; the fourth is to get evidence that someone framed the Jinyuanmeng so LLH will trust him again and want to live to figure out who really killed his shixiong; and the last is to protect LLH’s identity (even though he only agreed to protect it until the Asura Grass was expelled. He’s trying to prove to LLH that LLH can trust him and he wants to help him, not harm him.)

All that to say: DFS has a history of bluffing about threatening to kill people if he thinks it will help Xiangyi live, and will take on the role of the villain—role the jianghu regularly casts him in—if he thinks it will help. And as some of those examples show, he also doesn’t share his plans with LLH until after the plan has been completed. And just look at all the things DFS withheld from LXY at their first donghai battle if you need more examples: he doesn’t mention that he knows it’s a frame job or why he stole SGD’s body. In all these examples, it’s not just that DFS has control issues and doesn’t want to share theories until he has proof: it seems likely that he knows/assumes LXY wouldn’t have believed him, because LLH already proved he didn’t trust him when he fell for the frame job, broke the peace treaty, and attacked the Jinyuanmeng. DFS assumes that there’s no point in presenting information to someone who won’t listen to it; he’d think it’s a waste of time and energy that could be better spent actively solving the problem.

But Why Bluff About the Yin Leaves?

Yao Mo’s Questionable Loyalty:

When DFS says he just needs LLH to live long enough to compete with him, he’s not talking to LLH himself: he’s talking to Yao Mo. In fact, the entire yin leaves plan was Yao Mo’s idea. And that changes everything.

Why? Well, for starters, Yao Mo is the one who invented the Bicha poison and gave it to JLQ to use on LXY (without DFS’ knowledge or permission). That alone is reason enough for DFS to not know if he can trust him, and this lack of trust explains why DFS never told Yao Mo that the mystery patient was LXY/LLH or that he was poisoned by Bicha. Since JLQ poisoned LXY because DFS paid so much attention to him and to fighting with him, it makes sense that DFS would try to protect LLH by hiding his identity and not drawing attention to him. 

But of course, as soon as Yao Mo figures out the mystery patient was poisoned with Bicha, that secret is blown. The pained face (and Throat Bob of Emotion) DFS makes while Yao Mo is having this realization shows not only how upset he is that they don’t yet have a cure, but also how worried he is that Yao Mo now knows it’s LLH, which makes everything more complicated.

DFS was right that Yao Mo would figure it out, since the first thing Yao Mo does after this realization is tell DFS he’s thought of a way “to heal him so he can compete with you.” DFS had pointedly NOT mentioned competing with him in front of Yao Mo yet (to hide LLH’s identity), so this is definitive proof that his cover is blown and that DFS needs to find a new way to keep LLH safe. 

This new plan is to downplay how much LLH means to him, and that motive explains so much about this scene. We know from watching him grieve and tear up while mourning LLH at his personal waterfall after his enthronement ceremony that DFS is miserable because of LXY’s supposed death and that he doesn’t see the point in fighting anymore without him, so we know that one last fight with LXY wouldn’t fix that: he’d still be dead and DFS would still be devastated. 

(Here are some screenshots of him mourning at the waterfall.)

But this isn’t common knowledge. In fact, it seems to be a closely guarded secret; he’s mourning in private, with only Wuyan as a witness. In public and to the rest of his subordinates, he’s trying to project the attitude of the unemotional, unflappable, heartless demon of the jianghu because his reputation is part of his armor that keeps him safe. It lets him seem like he doesn’t have any weaknesses (since “a swordsman shouldn’t have weaknesses”), and it keeps people from knowing that his primary weakness (other than the mind control bug) is LXY/LLH. 

(NOTE: He’s not even comfortable with anyone other than Wuyan and the three kings knowing he cares more about reaching the pinnacle of martial arts than he does about the Jinyuanmeng itself, and it’s not clear if any of them know that he mainly wants to increase his strength and power to free himself from the mind control bug. That’s how closely he guards his vulnerabilities.) 

With that in mind, if he wants to keep Yao Mo (and therefore JLQ) from knowing how important LXY is to him, there’s only one possible answer to Yao Mo’s question about whether he’d mind if LLH dies from the yin leaves after the fight: pretending he wouldn’t object. If he said he’d give up a fight rather than let LLH die from the yin leaves, then Yao Mo would know LLH matters to him more than fighting, which would be revealing a weakness. If DFS said he would give the entire Wangchuan flower to LLH to cure him and would therefore be sacrificing his chance of getting stronger, it would be painting an even larger target on LLH’s back and showing Yao Mo that endangering LLH would be the key to controlling him. The only safe option for both LLH and DFS is for DFS to claim he doesn’t care if LLH dies after they fight and to give orders to find the flower.

Here’s a gif of his command about the Wangchuan flower:

Notice his furrowed brow, the tightness around his eyes and mouth, the way he’s almost wincing as he gives the order? He is miserable about having to play this game and his incredible poker face is barely up to the task.

Here’s a still image of right after the pronouncement; you can still see the barely suppressed wince.

After this command, he dismisses Yao Mo from the cave immediately so he doesn’t have to keep pretending he’s going to sacrifice LLH. The entire time Yao Mo is present, even while he’s walking away, DFS holds himself completely motionless, staying in character from the bluff and desperately waiting to be alone with LLH. The instant Yao Mo is gone, DFS slumps in relief, or at least, does his version of a slump: he bows/droops his head as though the weight of what just happened was too much to shoulder. 

Here’s a close-up of his reaction:

DFS’s relief at being alone with LLH shows that he believed LLH knew him well enough to know when he was bluffing.

He was wrong. 

LLH: Believing the Worst of DFS (again)

LLH’s belief that DFS wants to kill him for a duel makes sense, since at this point, he still thinks DFS did in fact have SGD killed and broke the peace treaty, and he’s pissed off, feeling betrayed, and also in pain (from the medicine and the Beifeng Baiyang transfer that made him cough up blood, and from all the snake bites–he’s primed to read those as exclusively aggressive and cruel attempts to heal him at all costs for the fight, and not to realize that DFS would absolutely do all these things to himself to heal his own martial arts without batting an eye. And he’s in too much pain to see the horrified look on DFS’s face when LLH coughs up blood and DFS realized he almost killed LLH while trying to cure him.) 

But that doesn’t mean LLH is right. 

DFS, upon seeing that LLH has again cast him as the heartless villain, doesn’t try to dispute it. In the same way that he didn’t explain about why he took SGD’s body at the donghai battle, he doesn’t explain himself about the flower, possibly because he thinks he doesn’t have time to waste arguing. His goal is to get LLH to live–he grieved him for a decade, after all, and doesn’t want to have to do it again–and he is painfully aware that he is running out of time. LLH hasn’t exactly been subtle about only staying alive to find and bury SGD’s body, and now that they’ve accomplished that, he wants to make sure LLH doesn’t give up. Growing up in Di Fortress, DFS probably learned how to recognize what it looks like when people give up on life, and seeing those signs in LLH would explain some of the desperation behind his actions.

So, what does he do instead of trying to convince LLH the threat was a bluff? Here’s a gif of his response:

He swallows his disappointment at being thought a heartless killer–bowing his head again and shaking it, then looking up at the cave roof in exasperation–and takes a long, long inhale to collect himself and to quickly brainstorm a new plan. Once he’s figured it out, he says LXY’s name and launches into stage 2 of his plan to convince LLH to live: correcting the initial misunderstanding that first led LLH to not trust him anymore. 

DFS tries to convince LLH that someone conspired against both of them a decade ago–the truth he thought LXY wouldn’t believe him about on the ship–because if that worked, then it would solve two problems: 1.  LLH might believe him that he doesn’t want to kill him for the rematch if he knew he hadn’t had SGD killed, and 2. LLH would choose to stay alive to find SGD’s real killer and get revenge. 

And when LLH doesn’t believe his initial attempt, he gives what is possibly his longest speech in the entire show detailing the evidence supporting his claim that they were both set up and offers to help him find the truth in exchange for their rematch. While he definitely does want a rematch, DFS mentions it here in part because LLH thinks it’s all he cares about; if he were to offer to help without requiring the fight, LLH would be less likely to believe him and even more suspicious of his claims, especially since LLH currently thinks DFS would kill him for said rematch.

But unfortunately, his plan for them to team up fails as he thought it would all those years ago, so he decides to play along with being the heartless villain LLH thinks he is, and it’s only then that he threatens to kill FDB (revealing FDB’s parentage in the process), because he knows that LLH would stay alive to protect FDB. 

I have another 2000+ words worth of thoughts about his talk and fight with FDB–the way he tries to “kidnap” him first instead of fighting him, the way he looks miserable during the fight instead of enjoying it the way he did during the fight at QWM and XZJ’s wedding–but it will have to wait for another meta because this is already way too long as it is. The point, though, is that he’s not fighting FDB because he wants to or is enjoying hurting him: he actually hates every second of it and of performing the role of jianghu villain LLH has once again cast him in. But he’s doing it because he thinks it’s the only way to keep LLH alive. 

These aren’t the actions of someone who just wants to sacrifice his old rival for a fight; they’re the actions of someone trying everything he can think of to keep the person he loves alive. It’s an incredibly convoluted way to show his care, but given that he’s desperate, out of time, and can’t get LLH to trust or believe him, it makes sense that he’d fall back on a reliable skillset that’s kept himself alive despite all the odds: bluffing, keeping his true goals a secret, adopting the mantle of villain, and letting himself be hated for things he hasn’t done.

With both the fight with FDB and with the yin leaves threat, DFS plays the villain to try to force LLH to live, because he’d rather LLH hate him and live than love him and die. 

Because Di Feisheng has never wanted Li Xiangyi–or Li Lianhua–dead.

[la-muerta]

movie gif game

Rules: Without naming them, post a gif from ten of your favourite films, then tag ten people to do the same!

I was tagged by @lynne-monstr, thank you! <3

Tagging: @exitvelocities @yeliuxi @bbcphile @demy85 @fiyaerrigan @dragongirlg-fics @darknutmeg @howdaretrashships @faejilly @junemermaid

[exitvelocities]

tag game

tagged by @la-muerta ❤

Last song: big jet plane by daniela andrade feat. dabin

Favourite colour: pastel pink

Last book: just started "the archive undying" by emma mieko candon

Last movie: twilight city: walled in

Last show: i just finished melody in golden age, which was... ok. currently i'm in the middle of rewatching both love & redemption and joy of life and s4 of call me by fire. idk. my brain is mushy.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: savory for the most part. sometimes sweet.

Relationship status: disinterested

Last thing I googled: liang long bc i was curious about his stage attire

Current obsession: idk everything feels kind of muted right now. my intangible starfish collection maybe, though i did just get the official dfs and lxy magnet dolls yesterday. maybe li lun/lizhou. always dihua on the backburner.

Looking forward to: hmmm i guess my candy hearts assignment? hoping i get something fun that makes me want to write.

tagging @philologicalbat, @eirenical, @chlorophanes, @howdaretrashships, @tiny-breadcrumbs if u feel like it!

[philologicalbat]

Three Random Facts About Yourself

Rules: if you get this, answer with three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs! anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog <3

I was tagged by @howdaretrashships and @orchisailsa. Thanks for the tags, y'all!

I used to grow tropical plants but not in a cute houseplant way. No, it was in a took-over-the-living-room-and-the-guest-bathroom way. There was a fern mounted above the shower, which was very cool to shower with—right up until I filled up the rest of the shower stall with plants and retreated to our en suite bathroom for actual bathing.

My cat once escaped her carrier on a 12+-hour-long international flight. A very nice man sitting near me ended up holding her in his arms while I desperately tried to get rid of my meal tray, so I could put her back in her carrier. This was not the weirdest thing that happened on that flight.

In my preteens, I was obsessed with reading books on punctuation. My favorite punctuation mark is currently the comma. I like to steal them from my friends while I beta their fic. :>

Tagging: @mkiaraokazami @busarewski @dytabytes @michkovs @fizzlizard @hedwig-dordt @sputnikcentury (no pressure of course!)

[gaywatch]

Now that you've gotten through episode 8:

https://www.tumblr.com/howdaretrashships/745346863053651968/li-lianhua-being-fond-of-di-feisheng-in-the-yipin

They almost killed each other ten years ago and then cross paths again only to go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and vibe into the sunset on mutual respect and shared history like sure they're each other's archenemies but do THEY know that

[nutcasewithaknife]

Five People I'd LIke to Get to Know Better

Thanks for the tag @howdaretrashships @tiny-breadcrumbs and @evolutionsbedingt !!

🎶 Last song I listened to: 人世太匆忙 (The World Is Too Hasty) from the MLC soundtrack)

📺 Currently watching: The Midnight Romance at Hagwon. I'm loving it! It's been a long time since I've binged a Korean drama but this is just too fun.

🌶️ Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: Sweet! I have a decent spice tolerance but I'll always go for the sweet <3

❤️ Relationship status: Single and very queer about it

🤩 Current obsession: Mysterious Lotus Casebook continues to haunt my mind as always, and Dungeon Meshi has joined it. Interview With the Vampire is also joining them. The inside of my head is a wild place rn ;-;

tagging: @thebansacredbanned @a-memory-a-distant-echo @bbcphile @endrega23 @fangdoubing

(Also if I show up spamming your notes or your timeline every now and then, please consider yourself tagged too!)

[tide-locked]

five people I’d like to get to know better 💘💘💘

tagged by @lianhuajing, who may now regret having tagged me, but: too late. i'm downgrading this from nine to five people, because tumblr seems to currently not be letting you tag more than five people.

🎶 Last song I listened to: dig by orange ocean. while i was writing this it changed, and now it's auld wives by bear's den.

📺 Currently watching: mmm, well. see. i'm watching mysterious lotus casebook. yes, again. yes, for the sixth time since i first watched it in march. we're also watching heroes (2022) but in the slowest way possible, because every time something bad happens to my precious boys (which is basically every episode) we have to take a break until i'm calm enough to continue.

🌶️ Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: savoury, always. i'll often choose straight-up unflavoured over sweet.

❤️ Relationship status: married enough that we've had to pay multiple governments about it

🤩 Current obsession: mysterious lotus casebook and…gruel, i guess? feels like all we do lately is blorbopost and eat gruel. not a bad life, all up.

absolutely no pressure tags: @anndramarama @howdaretrashships @omgpurplefattie @tiny-breadcrumbs @yletylyf

[bbcphile]

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 for MLCB? ^_^

Thanks for the ask!! :D

Here's some of LLH's POV from my long fic:

A-Fei’s jaw worked subtly side to side once, then twice. He swallowed, throat jerking with the movement. “Alright,” he said at last. “What do you need to not do it again?”

“What?” Xiaobao shouted.

How had he guessed? What had given it away? No, it didn’t matter. How could he hide it? He had to do something, say something, but he couldn’t think over the sound of his pulse, thundering in his ears, and–

–and something was fluttering against his hand. Repeatedly.

He glanced down. 

A-Fei’s fingers were lightly resting on the inside of his wrist, and gently, well-nigh imperceptibly, tapping a rapid, two-beat pattern. 

His pulse.

A-Fei had been listening to his pulse when he asked those questions. That’s how he spotted the lie.

. . . Shit.

He glared daggers at a-Fei. A-Fei retaliated with the faintest of half-smiles, a matching raised eyebrow, and a one-armed shrug that curled up as imperceptibly as his lip and eyebrow had.

Smug bastard.

[la-muerta]

Writing Patterns

rules: share the first line of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

Thank you for the tag @yeliuxi! <3

1. one hand on the trigger (the other hand in mine) // 暗线, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

Li Xiangyi turned the collar of his leather jacket up and quickened his pace, trying not to look around too obviously as he checked if he was being followed.

2. again and again we look up to the moon // 细算浮生千万绪, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the ship tipped forward with a gut-heaving lurch as the huge wave it was riding crested and fell.

3. Lightwood After Dark, Magnus Bane x Alec Lightwood (Shadowhunters), Rated T

The party at The Institute is in full swing now, with everything going according to plan — the food and drinks that had been catered presented exactly as he instructed, no tech issues with any of the screens and photobooths, the music list more or less bearable thanks to Simon, and every part of the theme perfectly executed.

4. no sweeter taste // 特别甜, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated G

"We don't need a recipe, of course your Lao Ba knows what goes in a cake," Li Lianhua says distractedly while digging in the depths of the kitchen cabinets for a bowl big enough to mix the batter in.

5. the moon in the water // 镜中花，水中月, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

The man that Di Feisheng and Fang Duobing find on the beach is Li Xiangyi, but isn't.

6. can't read my poker face*, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

Alone in his dark apartment, Li Lianhua is hunched over his laptop, the video that is playing on his screen reflected in the lenses of his glasses.

*this is a collaborative work but I happened to be the one who wrote the first line

7. being a teenager sucks, platonic junior quartet + Lan Sizhui x Jin Ling (MDZS), Rated T

"Why are we even here?" Jin Ling complained as he frowned at the rundown building looming in front of them.

8. now I've got you in my sights // 你眼里的一首情歌, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

The light this morning is perfect, the first proper sun they've had after days of gloom and rain, coming in soft and warm when it filters through the gauzy curtains.

9. this is the nonsense of love // 只想跟你说些温暖的废话, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

Friday afternoons just after lunch, Li Xiangyi decides, were not meant for sitting in Di Feisheng's office trying to make his brain concentrate on Fang Duobing's weekly department reports.

10. it ends or it doesn't // 奈何吟, Di Feisheng x Li Lianhua (MLC), Rated E

Li Lianhua can feel the bird's frantic heartbeat under his fingertips when he picks it up, life caged in fragile bone and soft feathers.

--

Looks like my first lines usually have some sensory description. I remember that the last time I did this tag game, most of them started with dialogue, so it's interesting that I seem to have changed that habit.

No-pressure tagging: @peridot-tears @howdaretrashships @exitvelocities @junemermaid @omgpurplefattie and anyone else who feels like playing!

[philologicalbat]

last line tag game! thanks for the tag @bettercostume. (obviously i have been putting it off for a month trying to, you know, have a last line that isn't just random domestic blathering from my main manchild fdb, but honestly that's not the energy of my writing life anymore. nothing is cool or suave. it's all fdb falling over himself and screaming internally.)

anyway here's something deeply dorky that fdb said while trying to sass llh:

Chewing on a piece of overcooked pork, Fang Duobing rolled his eyes. “Does he have better taste in shows than you do?”

ok i'm tagging @a-memory-a-distant-echo @howdaretrashships @orchisailsa and you! if you want to be tagged.

[rainingkittens]

#as a WWX fan I have to say it's not that I see the gc transfer as moral#but when you're adopted into a family and are seen as a burden and are told you owe your existence to this family for taking you in#and are told ''protect the blood heir with your own life. it's what you owe for being such a burden all this time''#and then you FAIL#of course he owed his own golden core#he was willing to give his hand why wouldn't he give his core#it is his DUTY to cut pieces of himself away in order to make the remaining family whole#and there's nothing MORAL about that way of thinking bcuz being part of a family isn't supposed to be transactional#but he was the troublemaker. he was the burden. he was the one stealing JC's spotlight and JFM's attention.#the gc transfer was his way of trying to balance the scales (@howdaretrashships)

i feel like one of the biggest divides between wwx stans and jc stans is that the former view the golden core transfer as an unambiguously morally good act, while the latter...do not

[bbcphile]

Dihua Exchange 2024

Happy Dihua fic exchange, @exitvelocities! I had so much fun writing this for you, and I hope you enjoy it! (I tried to combine post-canon gross domesticity, sleeping arrangements, and fully recovered LLH.) Thanks for putting this exchange together, and happy reading!

Waning Marks and Dawning Realizations (3703 words) by bbcphile Fandom: 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV) Rating: Mature Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Relationship: Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua | Li Xiangyi Characters: Di FeishengLi Lianhua | Li Xiangyi Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Happy Ending, Li Lianhua | Li Xiangyi Lives, Healed!Li Lianhua, fluff and humor with a dash of angst, Domestic, Banter, Nonverbal Communication, Cooking, Kissing, Making Out, Sharing a Bed, Banter as Foreplay, Tenderness, Scar Kissing, Donghai battle anniversary, get loved idiots

Summary:  Twelve years, he thought, stroking his free hand along Xiangyi’s spine. Twelve years to the day. And two since the wedding room. They hadn’t celebrated last year, hadn’t even acknowledged it, beyond a silent toast to the moon and holding each other more tightly that night. There hadn’t been much to celebrate, not when it seemed likely that Xiangyi would be taken from him for a third and final time. But now? Now was different, no matter what the moonlight said. A.K.A. The anniversary fic where Di Feisheng tries to cook a surprise breakfast, Li Lianhua tries to prove just how healed he is, and they both keep tripping over the marks and scars the past had left behind.

(Special thanks to @momosandlemonsoda and @a-memory-a-distant-echo for the beta and to @evolutionsbedingt, @the-surreptitious-albatross, and @howdaretrashships for the cheerleading! <3)

[bbcphile]

Fic Word Meme

Rules: you will be given a word. Then you share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that starts with each letter of your word!

Thanks for the tag, @momosandlemonsoda, and for the word WRETCH!

W: What an incredibly stubborn, absurd, and unfairly attractive man.

R: “Recriminations can wait.”

E: Either he’d lash out and give Xiangyi more things to hate himself for, or he’d let something slip that he couldn’t afford to share.

T: Then warm, callused fingers cradled his face as though he mattered, with a hesitance and gentleness that spoke a language he didn’t want to understand.

C: “–Check your heart meridian,” a-Fei said, his fingers gripping the hair near Li Lianhua’s scalp tightly as though it could somehow keep him in this world.

H: He shook his head and swallowed back the scream that seemed to be building like a wave from the soles of his feet through his lungs, howling through his body like his qi and cresting in his throat.

Low-key tagging @howdaretrashships, @la-muerta, and @exitvelocities! Your new word is FLIGHT (with SPOKEN as the backup)

[bbcphile]

Last Line tag game

Thanks to @yletylyf , @cheetahing, and @the-surreptitious-albatross for tagging me!

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).

On Xiaobao’s fourth anxious circuit past the bed, Li Lianhua took pity on his floorboards. “Come on, sit down while we wait,” he said, patting the bed next to him, “before you wear a hole in the wood.”

Tagging @eirenical @howdaretrashships @momosandlemonsoda @xthelastknownsurvivorx @evolutionsbedingt @la-muerta @a-memory-a-distant-echo @peridot-tears @nutcasewithaknife @the-wintry-mizzenmast @thesilversun @athenasdragon @rose-tinted-vision @enbysaurus-rex @kingsandbastardz @wuxia-vanlifer and anyone else who wants to join in! (And no pressure if you don’t want to!)

[bbcphile]

WIP Wednesday (yet more MLC)

Have some more Di Feisheng and Fang Duobing post-canon interactions from my long fic!

(You can find more excerpts here.)

Fang Duobing took a calming breath, and tried to approach it as though he were solving a mystery involving someone else. “How did you know he had shattered it himself? Did you know all along? Was it something you could tell from inspecting it?”

“I didn’t know until he lied about it.”

“Which time?”

A-Fei snorted. “I suspected when he said the person who shattered it would die. I knew when I asked him directly.”

“He wasn’t just lying with that story? You think he was talking about himself when he said the villain who did it wouldn’t live to cause more problems?”

A-Fei inhaled slowly, then nodded again.

Fang Duobing’s stomach lurched like he’d missed a step and was in free-fall. “He’s said something like that to me before. Back when you poisoned me with your gang qi. He said you were trying to convince him to save someone, and he said he wouldn’t do it, because the person you wanted him to save was a bad person. I didn’t realize he meant himself!” Fang Duobing’s breath hitched. “He’s been suicidal that long? Not just resigned to dying? And you blackmailed him into living a little longer, using me?”

A-Fei nodded. “Poisoning you kept him alive.”

Fang Duobing sat up straight. “I know! What if we–”

“–No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

A-Fei rolled his eyes. “Yes I do. And once was enough. I’m not doing it again.”

“Obviously you couldn’t be the one to do it. He’d never believe you’d hurt me. Not now, at least. But–”

“–No. He’d drain himself dry to heal you. And he’d blame himself for being the reason you were hurt.” A-Fei sighed. “Hurting you hurts him. Don’t do it.”

“Fine,” Fang Duobing said, deflating again, and trying not to pout about the fact that a-Fei didn’t want to poison him, which said a lot about how his life was going.

(Thanks to @howdaretrashships for suggesting this excerpt for this week!)

[la-muerta]

Fic Writer Q & A!

I was tagged by @dragongirlg-fics! <3 Thank you~

1. How many wips do you have currently?

I'm going to count stuff that might actually get done, so fic-wise, for Dihua (Mysterious Lotus Casebook), 5. One for Malec (Shadowhunters), and one half-posted one for Red White and Royal Blue. I also have a bunch of art, vid editing, and craft WIPs ^^;

2. Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

Definitely the RWRB fic. Unfortunately I crashed out of the fandom because there was too much drama and racism. But I don't like leaving fic unfinished once I start posting so I want to try to get back to it (eventually?) since it's already plotted out.

3. What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

I can write about 3k words in a couple of hours if the stars align or whatever lol. But that doesn't happen often.

4. Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

I have general playlists for action scenes, creepy scenes, etc. I don't go out of my way to look for songs but if I happen across a song that fits a mood I want, I'll pop it in a playlist. I used to make specific lists for each fic but I don't have time for that now.

5. Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organised?

My fics tend to be plot-heavy, so I do have to outline. I usually have the beginning and ending written before I start writing properly. But sometimes things change in the middle and I am very bad at gauging how many plot points fit in a chapter, which is why my chapter counts always increase lol.

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No pressure tagging: @howdaretrashships @exitvelocities @bbcphile and anyone else who wants to play!