#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.

[cuubism]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

aw thank you :) here's a few i've been thinking of, for dreamling:

Here in the Darkness

Hope and Morpheus are so special to me ❤️ my favorite AU that I got way too into and am still into. Reverse verse AU.

Morphology

Eldritch smut with genderfluid shape-fluid Dream. Really pushed myself outside my comfort zone to write this one and it was very fun.

Deja vu, Deja Connu

Fic where I'm like "I promise it's really good in my head, guys" because I'm so slow at updating it. But for real, Dream being Hob's lover in different guises throughout the centuries and deluding himself about it not being a real relationship. I really enjoy thinking about it, would love to actually write more of it too 😂

how longingly

I think it's my favorite smut I've written for them :) Dream, who's never slept with a man, decides he wants to know what it's like. How convenient that Hob is there for some no strings attached sex.

In Waking Dreams

Dream marriage fishbowl rescue. My most complex plotty fic for them. I swear to god I'm gonna finish it soon!

[rinbylin]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

Tagged by @howdaretrashships thank you!! <3

3 Ships You Like: "like" hm. "three" only hmm. :( anyway I'll limit these to dramas AND one ship one drama only: 1) dihua from 莲花楼 mysterious lotus casebook; 2) xiao dingquan and xu changping from 鹤唳华亭 royal nirvana; 3) anran and mu ze from 覆流年 lost track of time

First Ship Ever: um. pretty sure it's a pairing from a Channel 8 (local sg) drama I watched as a kid.

Last Song You Heard: oh.. I was just listening to the newly released OST of the upcoming DJT series, so I'm now on my Thai playlist. the last play is Violette Wautier's Kam Welah ข้ามเวลา from Prom Likit OST <3

Favorite Childhood Book: I was not an avid reader as a child like the majority of tunglr dot com seem to be, regrettably... but I loved Horrible Histories

Currently Reading: main ones in the current routine are my slow but steady reread of 中国哲学史 - very close to the end, and also very close to the end of Kate Buford's Burt Lancaster biography after a looong time. (I just read extremely slow.)

Currently Watching: trying to finish up the last quarter of The Starry Love 星落凝成糖 - hopefully very soon so I can move on from it lol. on top of the regular movies routine, have been taking my time with first full rewatch of Royal Nirvana, and recently started my first full rewatch of Mysterious Lotus Casebook (I very rarely do full drama rewatches so this is just a special time in my life lol)

Currently Consuming: ribena

Currently Craving: a new satisfying lakorn (i was replaying a Ratee Luang OST last night and now desperately need lakorns back in my life again!!! - you've caught me right in my lakorn mood)

Tagging (the usual note about consider yourself tagged if you see this etc etc): @bocje-ce-ustu @redemption-revenge @angryundies @seeorseem @mademoiselle-red @tytangfei @bemybabymp3 @karinyosa @valancystirling48 (also bonus tags @markiafc @ananeiah @dtriad)

[exitvelocities]

✨ weekend wip exposure club ✨

rules: post 7 sentences/a snippet of an unfinished work

tagged by @momosandlemonsoda!

i mostly have actor au going right now, but here's a bit from the mafia au i'm trying to write for a bingo event, trying being the operative word.

“thought you were dead,” di feisheng continues. his head is floating away but it’s okay, li xiangyi is holding his body down. “i was so fucking sad. and you were a cop the whole time. hilarious.” “you’re delirious,” li xiangyi says, pale face swimming briefly into view, mouth pressed into a thin line. “no,” di feisheng says, though maybe he is. the words are tumbling off his tongue so easily. “i was so in love with you.” “we’ll talk about this later,” li xiangyi says, so quietly di feisheng only barely hears him. there are sirens in the distance now, blaring at the edge of his consciousness. ah. maybe he’ll get to die in a nice, clean hospital instead of here on the grimy parking garage floor. that might be nice.

hopefully i can actually get the bits i want done for the event!

tagging @yletylyf, @la-muerta, @howdaretrashships if you feel like it!

[thesilversun]

(the now rather late) weekend WIP exposure club

Rules: post 7 sentences/a snippet of an unfinished work

Tagged by: @howdaretrashships and @momosandlemonsoda❤️ Thank you for the tags!

This is from the still slowly being written part 8 of Before the Dawn (I'm beginning to think I'd going to have to split this part in two - it's 5200 words so far and it's only about half of it)

Anyway, here is a little of Fang Duobing talking with Qin Po.

--

“He’ll live?”  

“There’s hope.” She pats his hand. “There is always hope. You’ve already helped him more than I thought you’d be able to. More than I thought he’d accept, but then he didn’t know what you were doing.” She lets it sink in for a moment that she is aware of what he has been doing, then says, “He knows now.”  

“Oh.” Fang Duobing feels his heart sink. Guilt over lying to him quickly buried under the fear that he will no longer allow him to help. “Was he angry? 

She shakes her head. “No, not really, not even if he tried to be. He's scared for you. So don’t hurt yourself for him. I know it’s hard. You care about him, but it’s a mutual feeling, and he cannot bear you being hurt for his sake. He’d rather his own life ended than that.” 

“If he knows how that feels, then he must know that I feel the same.”  

“He does. Because if he didn’t or if you didn’t feel that way about him, he wouldn’t be so worried for you.”  Leaning over to him, Qin Po presses her fingers to Fang Duobing’s wrist. “No real harm done, but you should rest for a day or two before you try helping him again.  

“But-” 

“None of that,” she says firmly.  “He’s in no immediate danger. So you are going to sit there and eat and drink, and not even think about doing anything else for at least an hour.” 

---

Tagging whoever would like to do it - as it seems rather silly tagging people for a weekend thing at when it is the very early hours of Tuesday morning.

[la-muerta]

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 @bbcphile! <3

I was kinda reckless and crazy as a teenager, and once someone dared me to jump off a jetty into the ocean so I did (I don't think it was that high... like 6–7m?). Anyway it was fine, except that when I reached the shore I realised that my legs were all stung up by jellyfish — must have landed on or kicked one (or several??) while swimming and didn't even notice it lol.

When I started out as a journalist, I used to volunteer for all the assignments in conflict zones (see above re: crazy and reckless). So I've been in a jeep that got shot at and narrowly avoided being blown up in a bomb attack. In the second case, that's how I realised that my translator must have been part of the insurgent movement because he suddenly told me that we had to leave and 10mins later the bomb went off.

I have one (1) IMDB credit as Assistant Director lol. It's for an indie film with quite a limited run, mostly aired at a few festivals I think.

No pressure tagging: @howdaretrashships @lynne-monstr @greentealycheejelly @exitvelocities @omgpurplefattie @quicklymybasement @difeisheng

[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!)

[where-the-water-flows]

tagged by @howdaretrashships, @a-memory-a-distant-echo, and @kingsandbastardz in the last line game - cheers <3 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).

Got tagged by three people, so three lines! (and maybe this will actually get me moving forwards on any of these)

What Li Lianhua doesn't say: he's already dead.

this is from a...canon adjacent au I'm kicking about based on the idea that li xiangyi does, actually, for real, die in the donghai battle, and li lianhua is... what crawls out of the sea afterwards, anyway.

Eventually has to let up; trades the sharp edge of his teeth for a slow pull at the hair caught in his grip, forcing Fang Duobing to arch backwards and expose his throat to Li Lianhua's eager mouth.

this is an early canon fanghua character study! wearing the coat of a bad idea tipsy fuck. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"I'm not robbing them," 'Xiaobao' explains then, as if Di Feisheng gives a single fuck.

this is. the insane fucking pre-canon divergence point au that is eating my brain; the basic premise is that:

shan gudao moves on becoming emperor way earlier, and succeeds

di feisheng is, rather than a guy in charge of an alliance he doesn't really care about, a very reluctant rebellion leader

fang doubing and li lianhua are having a series of real bad times, separately and also together.

At this point I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged, so open tags!

[momosandlemonsoda]

Last Line Game

rules: share the last line you've written, then tag some people, and have fun

Thanks for the tag, @howdaretrashships !

I’m sad to say I haven’t been writing much lately, between work insanity, covid, and back-to-school logistics. However, at one point last week I did manage to sketch out a bit more of the rock star au, so here you go:

“Hold onto the saddle,” he orders, and Li Lianhua starts to object and then flails for it, Di Feisheng’s hand on his cock throwing him off balance, the way the man himself has all day.

Low-key tagging @bbcphile @a-memory-a-distant-echo @junemermaid @alxina @foxofninetales @the-gail and anyone else who’s interested.

[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!)

[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.

[tenillypo]

Last Line Tag Game

Tagged by @howdaretrashships - thank you for the tag!

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).

"I'm fine," Xie Yuchen lied, but the sound of splashing had already changed direction. A moment later, Hei Xiazi's hands were under his arms, lifting him up. Xie Yuchen shrugged away from them the moment he was on his feet again, but Hei Xiazi grabbed his chin, quick as lightning, tilting his face up. The subtle movement of air in front of his eyes had him squinting irritably. "Stop waving your hand. You know I can't see it."

tagging @incandescentflower, because we both need the motivation...

[a-memory-a-distant-echo]

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

[exitvelocities]

last line game

tagged by @floatingonyourback! i sat on it for a while and decided i can use the last line i wrote in a thing regardless of how long ago i wrote it, ahah.

rules: share the last line you've written, then tag some people, and have fun

li xiangyi doesn’t have a strategic justification for why he does it in the moment; he just kisses di feisheng because he can and he wants to and the reaction he gets is gratifying to say the least.

this is from the mafia au, which i'm hopefully getting on with soon. disclaimer that this sentence may not end up in the final version in this or any form tho, i'm very noodly about it hahah.

tags if you feel like doing it: @la-muerta @yletylyf @howdaretrashships

[thesilversun]

Five Lines Fic Meme Tagged by: @howdaretrashships Thanks for the tag!

Rules: find five lines in your fic based on the prompts you are given, then change one of the prompts at the end!

A Line You Think is Hilarious

from

Mainframe, HEX and the Temporal Trouser Error

a Torchwood/Discworld crossover where two computers talk to each other despite a difference in programming language.

It' a few lines really (and tbh pretty much all the fic - it's by far the silliest thing I've written.)

Mainframe gave the electronic equivalent of a shrug, and then sent her next message. [Please identify date of three leg trouser formation] Hopefully Hex would understand it if it was sent in terms it understood.  +++14 Grune. Year eight. Century of the Anchovy+++ Which could, Mainframe computed, mean anything from ten thousand years ago to a week last Tuesday. So she sent back [Sync calendar function?] A calendar page from the previous May appeared on screen, then across one of the days flashed the word +++Wrong Trouser Day+++

A Line About Mysteries

Time Enough and Life (Torchwood, Jack/Ianto)

By 1969 the Electro was threatened with closure. It managed a stay of execution thanks to the British Film institute scheme supporting regional arthouse cinemas, and was renamed the Cardiff Showhouse. Even so, as the 1970s wore on it struggled to turn a profit and it finally closed its doors on the 22nd of February 1977. Jack stops and reads the sentence again. Simple, factual and easy to understand it is also completely incomprehensible in relation to what Ianto has told him about it. There had been such genuine fondness and affection in Ianto's voice at the memories of Saturday mornings spent there with his father that Jack finds it incredibly unlikely that it is a lie. Yet if it's not a lie Ianto is a great deal older than he looks and had lied about his age when he joined Torchwood One. Either that or his father's idea of a nice day out was to zip back a couple of decades to see a film. All the options are preposterous, yet a quick search of the internet confirms the 1977 closure date. The only thing that’s clear is that, for whatever reason, Ianto has been lying to him, and maybe to Torchwood from the outset. The question is why?

A Line About Love

From All the Lies (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley) (written after S1, not seen S2, so if there is an angel in S2 call Uriel it isn't this one)

Uriel watched them for a moment surprise growing on her face. "You love him." "We are meant to love," Aziraphale said, pulling the fuzzy, midnight-blue fabric around him. "More than anything that is our purpose. I cannot and will not be sorry for being as She made me." "Not you." Uriel pointed at Crowley. "That...thing. The demon. How can It do that?" "Thing. Demon. It. Well isn't that just charming. It's Crowley. Crow-Ley. Two syllables. Really not that tricky." He gave her an irritated look that somehow managed to be conveyed despite the glasses. "You know the one who helped screw up the whole end of the world thing for you." "But you shouldn't love him," Uriel persisted. "You can't." "Why not? We were all angels once," Crowley said, quieter than usual. "Falling didn't change..." He stopped, genuine raw hurt on his face. "Falling was a punishment and what better punishment for a Fallen Angel than to still feel love, but know they'll never, ever deserve it. Never." He turned away, swallowing down millennia old hurt. "Seriously I thought all you angels knew that. Just something else for you to be smug about." It felt like a punch in the gut. Had Crowley thought that about him too? The things he'd said to him...Some of them had been so thoughtless, cruel even. "Oh Crowley, my dear, you should have said something," Aziraphale said, catching his hand in his own. "Of course you're loved. I love you." Panic, fear and desperate hope, radiated from him as he looked at their clasped hands. "You....you do?"

A Line About Dreams

From Before the Dawn (Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Difanghua - a nightmare rather than a good dream, unfortunately)

There is water all around him. Ice cold and dark. It is full of hands. Some tiny, some huge. Men’s hands, women’s hands, things that may or may not be human at all. Gripping, grasping hands that pull at him, at his hair, at his clothing. Not clothing. His clothes are gone. He can’t open his eyes, but Di Feisheng can see them all the same. Nothing but hands. No heads or faces. No bodies or even limbs. Just innumerable hands, their sharp nails, talons, claws, red painted, like cinnabar, like wedding clothes. they hook into his skin, tearing it open. The water turns redder still. Like blood. Perhaps it was always blood. Either way he’s soaked in it. Drowning in it. He always has been. He struggles against the tide of clawing fingers. They swarm up his body, no part left untouched. They close around his throat, squeezing, crushing the air from him. They pry his mouth open, blood rushing in and out, they are in throat from the inside, choking him. He wants to scream, but there’s no air left in him. “A-Fei!” It’s distant. He tries to kick out, but his legs will barely respond. There are hands on his shoulders pinning down. He’s going to die. He doesn’t want to die. “A-Fei! Wake up!” It’s closer. More urgent. Familiar. The hands, which aren’t the same as the ones in his dream, shake him. Careful, rather than rough, as they pull back to wakefulness. To safety.

An Atmospheric Line

from Three months and a thousand miles of sea Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Dihua.

He turns to the wide horizons. “Li Xiangyi! Come back and face me!” Only the echo of the mountains answer, taunting and hopeless. He sits amidst the snow and shattered rock. The sun sets and the cold moon rises. Frost settles on his hair. His hands heal. Still the empty ache inside will not ease. The sun rises and he leaves. The cold of the mountains seems to have seeped into his bones, like he will never be warm again and still he aches for what could have been. What should have been.

Tagging: @yletylyf @galexibrain @cheesybadgers @killerandhealerqueen @momosandlemonsoda if you want to that is, and any one else who wants to do it even if not tagged

Prompts:

A Line You Think is Hilarious

A Line About anger

A Line About Love

A Line About Dreams

An Atmospheric Line