#i wasn't using it anyway

[jaimebluesq]

I wish you would write a fic where...

As his brothers condition is going downhill, Nie Huaisang finds an array/ritual to bolster Nie Mingjue's core at the expense of his own.

This was so intriguing! I hope this satisfied you, dear anon, but be warned - I teared up a little writing this, so it may prompt waterworks in the reader.

~ ~ ~

It was spring, and the peonies around Koi Tower were in full bloom, filling the air with the scents and colours of the season. Anyone walking around the gardens should be feeling relaxed and at ease, perhaps even inspired by the beauty around them.

Nie Huaisang was none of that. He walked around the beauty and tried to ignore the emotions churning at his gut.

His brother had been getting worse. This time, instead of simply yelling at him to go to saber practice, Nie Mingjue had grabbed his arm and physically dragged him across the sect in front of every disciple and a pair of visiting merchants that had come to strike a deal on new metal alloys for their weapons. That night, Nie Huaisang had removed his robes before going to bed only to find bruises on his arm shaped in a perfect imprint of his brother’s hand. Deep inside, he knew what this meant, that Da-ge would spiral out of control until he went the same way their father did. If he were a good brother, he would be in the Unclean Realm, spending as much time with his brother as he could before the end.

But Nie Huaisang was a coward, and instead had run off for Lanling where he could cower and ignore reality for a little while longer.

Jin Guangyao was in meetings all afternoon but would meet him for dinner later, and until then, Nie Huaisang had free reign of Koi Tower. He had all of the sect available to him, and yet he could take no pleasure in any of it. He reached into his sleeve for his favourite fan, only to find it missing. He furrowed his brow – had he forgotten it in Jin Guangyao’s room that morning when they’d had breakfast together? Rather than waiting until dinner, Nie Huaisang decided to fetch it immediately.

At least it gave him something tangible to do rather than simply trying to escape from himself.

He found his fan quickly, exactly where he had expected it to be. He grabbed it and turned swiftly to leave, but his long sleeve caught on the corner of a tea service placed carefully on a nearby sideboard. The set went flying, sending pieces scattering and crashing to the floor.

All except for a single spoon that flew toward the tall mirror in the corner, and then vanished.

Ignoring the mess all around him, he stepped over to the mirror and reached out to touch it, only to watch as his finger ‘disappeared’ as well. He put his hand further inside the mirror and wiggled his fingers, and he was able to feel them moving. If he had any sense, he would appreciate that this was some sort of spiritual or magical item that should not be messed with, and he would take his fan, clean up the mess, and leave Jin Guangyao’s rooms.

Instead, he bit his bottom lip and stepped through the mirror.

He was in a lavishly appointed room with treasures on every shelf. San-ge had a treasure room, and he’d never shown Nie Huaisang! He hated being left out of a secret, particularly one that could be so useful. Imagine, having such a secret place to run to if things reached terrible proportions at home. He wandered around, tracing his finger along various items and deducing where each had come from, though there were a handful that were beyond his comprehension.

And then he spotted a familiar sheathed sword. He approached it and reached out with trembling fingers. “Suibian? What is Wei-xiong’s sword doing here? Does Jiang Cheng know?” Sadly, the sword was nothing like a Nie saber and could not answer his inquiry. He noticed a set of shelves beneath the sword with spaces for various papers and texts, and out of curiosity, he pulled out a pile. Some of it was in Wei Wuxian’s handwriting, descriptions of talismans and theories on reanimating fierce corpses with their consciousness intact. He instinctively shuddered at the thought and set those papers down.

But the other papers were in another person’s hand, and after only reading a few words, Nie Huaisang felt a compulsion to continue looking through them all. They were written by the doctor, Wen Qing, and outlined various thoughts and theories regarding the nature of cultivators’ golden cores. She described the process of transferring a core from one person to another in such detail that he could imagine her having performed such a procedure. And then she proposed theories about further ways that one cultivator’s core could work on another. Such as stabilizing unstable cores.

One page carried both her and Wei Wuxian’s handwriting, each contributing to create an array that would allow a cultivator to use their core to stabilize another.

He stuffed the paper in his robes and quickly put away the rest. He returned to Jin Guangyao’s rooms and cleaned the mess he’d made of the tea service. And he waited impatiently until that night to tell San-ge that he would be returning to the Unclean Realm the next day.

For the first time in many, many months, he felt the glow of hope in his chest.

~ ~ ~

For the first time in many, many months, Nie Mingjue woke feeling well-rested and optimistic for the day ahead. Usually he awoke angry or with a headache, as if he’d overindulged in wine the night before even though he hadn’t touched the stuff since the last cultivation conference. But that morning, he awoke feeling really, really good, and even the confusion it caused him did not hinder the glow of health that left him feeling like he could take on the world.

With a smile, he stretched his arms over his head, listening as his shoulder joints popped. Then with a deep breath, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed.

What the hell had happened?!

The floor next to his bed had been painted, streaks of white and yellow forming a large, round array that covered most of the room’s floor like a strange sort of rug. And lying unconscious in the middle of it was his brother.

“Huaisang?” There was no answer. “Didi? Wake up!” The only movement was the slight lifting of Nie Huaisang’s chest as he breathed.

Nie Mingjue swallowed around the growing feeling of panic rising up his throat.

He leapt off the bed and reached out for his brother, shaking his shoulder and checking to see if he was injured in some way. But his brother appeared fine, simply unconscious – except for one thing. When Nie Mingjue placed his fingers over his brother’s meridian to check his qi, he felt nothing.

“Huaisang, what happened to you?” he asked, lifting his brother into his arms and cradling his limp body in his lap.

There was a light groan. “Da-ge?”

“I’m here,” he replied, unable to keep the worry from his voice. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“I’m just... tired,” Nie Huaisang muttered sleepily.

“No, don’t you dare go back to sleep, not until you tell me what happened.”

Nie Huaisang’s eyes fluttered open and looked up into Nie Mingjue’s face. “I had to make you feel better, Da-ge. It’s okay... I wasn’t using my core anyway.”

Nie Mingjue didn’t understand the array painted onto the floor, but he didn’t have to in order to realize just what his brother was implying. He clutched his brother harder in his arms, ignoring the press of Nie Huaisang’s nose into his neck even as his own tears began to spill over onto his brother’s braided hair.

“How could you have done something so stupid?” he hissed. “I’m supposed to protect you.”

“You can’t protect me if you’re dead like Baba,” his brother replied weakly.

He sniffed and closed his eyes. Whatever Nie Huaisang had done was done, but he would be damned if he wasted the second chance his brother had given him. And though his brother had now denied himself the long life of a cultivator, at least he might now live longer than most Nie.

And Nie Mingjue would protect every day of that life for as long as he lived.

[petricorah]

I love "i would kill for you" ship dynamics but what about "i would stop killing" ship dynamic??

I would lay down my sword for you. I would change my nature and go against everything i've known. I would resist the easy way out of solving my problems. I would give up the adrenaline of battle to stay by your side and make tea instead. I'm not sure I know who I am without a weapon in my hand because I've had to fight for so long but for you I'm willing to try and figure this out.

It must be hard. To put down your weapon that's protected you for so long. It's allowed you to stay alive it's kept you from getting hurt--physically and mentally. Because you've never had to worry about a real relationship if you think you'll be dead at the next battle. And you feel naked without it and it feels like you're ripping off an extension of yourself. Are you even whole without it? Are you worthy of being loved if you can't prove it by risking your life? And yet they've found someone who's asking them for something much harder than dying in battle on their behalf. They've found someone who wants them to live. And that's much more terrifying.

[egophiliac]

IT WAS ERIC AFTER ALL!!!! I'm so glad we got to meet him (before Vil snaps him away with those Infinity Gauntlets) (can't wait to see what happens when we get the matching Infinity Tiara to go with them, there will be no survivors)

(sorry to be so slow/rough lately, just got a lot of stuff on the ol' brain at the moment! alas, if only I could spend all my time drawing incredibly stupid characters I mean I do but)

[deoidesign]

Happy pride from Adam and Steve, my t4t gay vampire and werewolf!!!

They're from my webcomic. It's good. I'm not biased. It's funny and gentle and they time travel to a new location every full moon, where there's a new little mystery to solve!

[artharakka]

Beautiful, But Broken

[triplecreature]

actually I'm kind of curious about this because it was a huge debate among my peers in my community

Clarifications under the cut:

The poster is in a public space where it is typical for everyday people to post things. It is not someone's private property or possession. Think piece of paper taped to a telephone pole, not sign in a storefront or in someone's yard.

The poster is not protected by law; you are very unlikely to face legal consequences for vandalizing it. Caveat: some peers have argued that it risks being socially consequential because an organization or demographic that you are a part of may be judged as intolerant/oppressive/disruptive/otherwise unpleasant if people witness your actions, and thus advocated against vandalism for fear of damaging your public image.

The poster is not an expensive or personal piece of artwork; it is a mass produced print on letter paper.

You are vehemently opposed to the message displayed on the poster, but it is an opinion that people are free to have in your country.

The 4th option refers to things like intentionally putting your own poster over top of the bad poster or otherwise making the bad poster harder to view; some people argued that targeting the poster for removal is out of line, but posting your own messages is an innocent action that you are well within your right to do (in this context, posters regularly eclipse each other as new ones are posted over top of outdated ones due to limited space)

The poster is part of a campaign; it's not unique. There are many postings of it across the community.

This is all assuming that the offending poster is not old and would typically not be considered fair game for pruning for quite some time, and that it is being specifically targeted for removal because of its message (rather than petty vandalism or because it's obstructive or damaged). E.g., if a poster is advertising an event happening on April 20th, it's typical to prune it after that date but not before.

Of course the situation that prompted the real life debate did involve a specific offending message, but I'm not going to specify what it was for now because I think it'll skew the results as people will just end up voting based on whether they like or dislike that message, which isn't the point of this. For this poll we are assuming that it IS a message that you are very opposed to; you can substitute in your own opinion that you have strong feelings about.

Please reblog for sample size!

[rev-velvet]

In the wise words of our queen:

Lowkey though Im not even mad nor suprised that Team Bear cubs won yall was fightin like Mr.Grizz was 'bout to cut your pay by 80% if you didn't

[ruporas]

all I wanted was to save them... (ID in alt)

[alexturner]

MELANIE LYNSKEY InStyle magazine Photographed by Gizelle Hernandez

[jack-the-fool]

Today, I will not apologize when I do not know who I am playing

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

if you struggle with mental health, one piece of advice i would genuinely give you is learn to knit.

or crochet: something repetitive to do with your hands, assuming you're capable of it. if you're like me and learnt to knit as a kid but let it lie fallow for a long time, it may be that starting a large, simple project (for me it was a cloak, but a blanket could work too) gets you back into it. or maybe doing something smaller, idk. i personally found socks really hard for a while because they felt smaller than my cloak but weren't getting Done quick enough for me. as i've sped up i find it more interesting to knit socks.

regardless, a repetitive task is great for emotional regulation (also see: autistic stimming), and something that you can look at and go hey i've done something, unlike simply using a fidget toy, can also help to pick your mood up when the brain is being cruel.

it's also useful as a conversation starter or distracter if you don't know what to talk about. if you're wanting to talk to older people also you're more likely to reel them in with knitting (i work better with older people, and 99% of people who ask what i'm knitting are older than me). it also gives you the opportunity to not make eye contact because you're busy knitting, even if you're still carrying on a conversation. if you're absolutely stuck for conversation you can count your stitches and people might stop bothering you.

if you have trouble focusing without doing something with your hands, you can knit! i knit a lot in church, and it helps me to focus on what's being said.

i probably have more reasons you should pick up knitting, but i can't recall them right now, so yeah.

[noah-price]

@pscentral event 23: arcs

noise boys on game changer

[nebuladreamz]

[deafening-radio-silence]

I think that Dr. Christina "I was an excellent soldier" Raynor needs to deal with some personal things before she's anyone's therapist, because she strong-armed more of Bucky's autonomy away from him than Zemo did within the series.

[fallenstarzz]

Thinking many many thoughts about how Jean was Riko's partner for a YEAR and was still rooming with Goon #3. Because that was how unwilling Riko was to let go of Kevin. And how that implies that Jean was placed as his partner both because of the practicality of Kevin being gone AND as a punishment for letting him go in the first place. Being partners with Jean could actually slow Riko down depending on how often he's hurt (because I don't think Riko was all that exempt from the rules to the point where his partner's performance would completely not matter) and he was still placed there. Riko was just THAT angry at him over Kevin's escape. And all the while he was keeping Kevin's side of room like an altar, even back when he didn't even think Kevin could PLAY, because of an injury he caused.

[patrickztump]

patrick stump appreciation post: feat. pete – 13/∞