#maybe i'll come back and tag it later

[veliseraptor]

Please tell me all the reasons xxc and nmj wouldn't get along, I'd love to hear that as a rant

I kept meaning to get back to this one and then forgetting and then going "oh I should answer that" and then going "but I don't want to be too bitchy" and then - and anyway that's why this took me like two months to answer.

basing this more on novel canon than cql, because that's where I tend to see the comparison being made more often, I think because they're more directly in contact in one specific scene.

so I think why people say this is basically because they see nie mingjue's "xue yang must be punished/killed" and xiao xingchen's "xue yang must be punished/killed" and also look at nie mingjue's relationship to jin guangyao and xiao xingchen's relationship to xue yang and go "oh so they're morally aligned and are parallel to each other :)" and that's just! not true!

for one thing, and I think this is something that gets lost a lot - xiao xingchen does not live within the hierarchy and structure of cultivation society at large, and is in fact not a huge fan of it. he and song lan are actively trying to do their own thing! that is part of xiao xingchen's problem specifically - he walks into great sect politics with the expectation of justice and runs headlong into, well, politics. and a big part of that is that he doesn't have a whole lot of respect for power if he sees that power as unjust or acting badly: despite pressure from the Jin, "neither coaxing nor coercion had budged Xiao Xingchen."

I think then people look at nie mingjue's showing up and arguing for the same and take those two things as equivalent, but they really aren't, because while nie mingjue is younger than jin guangshan and therefore owes him respect in that sense, he is also a sect leader and approaching from a far more equal position, which is why he can get away with actively threatening violence in a way that xiao xingchen...couldn't. nie mingjue has power, even if it ends up not working for him; xiao xingchen doesn't.

furthermore, I think another important distinction between the two of them is around the question of violence. specifically in the scene around xue yang's initial trial (ish), the distinction between xiao xingchen's bringing xue yang back to jinlintai to ask for him to be punished (by the sect whose responsibility he is), versus nie mingjue's attempt at direct personal execution, including an attack on jin guangyao when he doesn't get his way. again, some of this is likely based on power dynamics (nie mingjue, again, is closer to equal status and therefore has more allowance to step into jin guangshan's affairs), but I think some of it is a difference in approach, too, and inclination. I think it's also notable that (at least in translation) xiao xingchen doesn't specifically say that xue yang should die ("severely punished" is the phrase), as opposed to nie mingjue going for outright beheading.

so I think presenting them as similar/aligned in this scene, basically, is overselling it.

it's not that I think they would hate each other, or anything. I just don't think they'd be friends, or particularly see each other as allies. xiao xingchen occupies a space outside of the social order; nie mingjue, I would argue, is deeply wedded to the social order as it stands. xiao xingchen has a loose sense of the importance of traditional hierarchies of power; nie mingjue is very much embedded in those hierarchies of power and believes in upholding them.

furthermore, looking at the nie mingjue/jin guangyao dynamic versus the xiao xingchen/xue yang dynamic, I think the idea that they're narrative parallels really falls apart. nie mingjue is jin guangyao's superior officer and continues to perceive himself as an authority over jin guangyao; it is his job to correct his behavior and discipline him as he sees fit. xue yang is a criminal that xiao xingchen apprehends, and xue yang turns around and takes revenge on him for interfering. the latter are much closer to equals, at least in the way they perceive each other, and xue yang's revenge on xiao xingchen is considerably less motivated by self-preservation.

they're just not similar except in terms of very specifically both having the opinion "xue yang must be punished" and being willing to push against jin guangshan to do something about it, which isn't a lot to build on for a relationship of any kind, and I have a hard time seeing them vibe personalitywise.

boy this got long. you did ask for a rant though so I guess you got one? climbing down off my soapbox now and going back to my yi city cave where I belong.

[cutiesigh]

❤️🖤🩷

Wuthering Waves has taken over all of my free time recently, so here's a sketch of Scar!Ren I originally shared in da 14DWY Discord!!

[randomloserlover]

Oh no!! You've been poisoned by Pillow!!

post update: She has legs now

[geminison]

you reap what you sow, my dear Corvo

[angelsdean]

ruthlessly deleting old 2021/2022 posts (not by me) from my dean studies tag like *click* un-incorporating that from my beliefs system! also the way SO many posts have me like ok uh-huh good aaand then say one completely wrong thing that loses me. it's so many posts.

[koushirouizumi]

"God told me that if I had any wishes, that they would grant just one." - Kobato {Kobato}

"...I... I still... haven't granted it. ... Your wish... I promised... ...that I'd grant it... ...I promised..." - Kimihiro to Yuuko {Holic}

"I answered that I wanted to live." - Kobato {Kobato}

"I'll do whatever I can because I want to be here." - Kimihiro {Holic}

"What is happiness {/to you}?" - {Chobits}; Dark Chii {as Red 'Atashi'} to Chii {Pink 'Atashi'} {Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Arc}; Lilie Shinomoto to Sakura {Sakura relating this to a canon Non-human Character}

"My wish is for you to go on existing. That's ALL I want." - Yuuko to Kimihiro {Holic}

"But the one Tsuyuri {Kohane} cares about most is YOU." - Doumeki to Kimihiro {Holic}

"{Doumeki} didn't want {YOU} to vanish forever." - Yuuko to Kimihiro; on Doumeki {Holic}

"To be happy... that's a rather vague goal, don't you think?" "{YES}, but that's what makes it {interesting}. All the more interesting... in that most people would consider it {IMPOSSIBLE}." "{Impossible}. How so?" "Well, you need a {life}... a {soul}. And if you're not alive... If you don't have a {soul}... what then? Then happiness is just a story... in a fairy tale book." - Zima to Dita; {Chobits}

"Even if a {combination}/{of two [or more] people} Looks a bit 'odd' on the outside... They can still be happy on the inside." - Ichiro Mihara {Angelic Layer} x {Chobits}, to Chitose Hibiya (later Chitose Mihara {Kobato})

"The greatest happiness for me is to let the person I most like have the most happiness." - Tomoyo; {about Sakura} {Card Captor Sakura}

"One day a man had a dream. He dreamed that he was a butterfly. He fluttered and fluttered, flew and flew. He so loved the feeling of freedom… That he decided that he was a butterfly. But when he woke up, he wasn’t a butterfly. He was a human after all. Then the man thought… “I wonder if I, The Man, dreamed that I was a butterfly… Or if this moment is truly the dream. Maybe the man I am now is a dream that a butterfly is having"" - Haruka Doumeki, who primarily communicates to Watanuki through dreams; relating a story, about dreams {Holic}

"Some things are worth caring about." - Doumeki to Kimihiro {Holic} {Heavily implied to be about Watanuki}

"{Yuuko said} 'at this rate', {Watanuki would} 'disappear'" - Implied by Doumeki {Holic}

"I don't love Chii because 'I wanted' to 'make love' to {Chii}.

'I wanted' to 'make love' to {have sex with} Chii because I LOVE {CHII}." - Hideki Motosuwa, on Chii {Chobits}

"Chii Persocom." "Yeah" "Chii is not human." "Yeah"

"Can't do SOME things. ..." {Implied as: 'Have sex with'}

"YEAH." - Hideki; - Chii to Hideki {Chobits}

"Happiness... That is..." - Someone Just For Me {Chobits} (Storybook)

"Maybe the man I am now is a dream that a BUTTERFLY is having"

"Because if we can all find that special person{/people}, then the world would be a happy place. The love that we all feel may not be the SAME, but it won’t matter if it’s the ‘someone just for you’." - C.L.A.M.P {Chobits}

"Happiness doesn't just come in one shape." - Ichiro Mihara {Angelic Layer} x {Chobits}, implied relevant to Ichiro and Chitose Hibiya (later Chitose Mihara {Kobato})

"I wanted to create, with {C.C.S}, a series with a girl who saw {MINORITIES} as normal. For example, Syaoran and Eriol are foreign exchange students, but to Sakura they’re the same as {people} who transferred in from a local school. Similarly, Sakura believes in all the forms of love {Sakura} sees. Towards the end {of C.C.S's 1st series} I had several characters give advice to a worried Sakura, showing that there are many kinds and forms of love. I wondered how the series would be received, since it ran in Nakayoshi, but it was received better than I expected. - Nanase Ohkawa (C.L.A.M.P) {x}

"Ohkawa: (…) I am glad that the readers are happy that Sakura and Syaoran got together, but that anyone would think it’s {just} because they make a normal {combination}/couple… it’s a little disconcerting. Sakura didn’t chose Syaoran because {Syaoran}'s a boy close to {Sakura} in age. If Syaoran had been a girl, if they had been far apart in age, as long as {Syaoran} was still Syaoran, I think Sakura would have fallen in love with {Syaoran}. It’d sadden me if you thought they’re a good {combination} because they’re 'normal'." - Nanase Ohkawa (C.L.A.M.P) {x}

"Normal? What’s normal? To only do what the masses do? And what is the benefit of that? Where is the problem in adopting a custom that is ‘abnormal’ if it has no negative affect on the world at large?" - Yuuko {Holic}

"I don't see anything wrong with being what everyone calls 'not normal'." - Yuuko to Watanuki {Holic}

-Observations made when rereading many C.LA.M.P Lores (To Be Re-Compiled, Someday)

Doumeki, probably:

"I don't love Watanuki because I wanted to 'have sex with' Watanuki."

"I wanted to 'make love' to Watanuki because I love Watanuki"

{AND IF WATANUKI EVER ISN'T FULLY 'HUMAN' ANYMORE?}

{Holic x Drug & Drop Cross-over} (Read panels right-to-left)

[awriterandabird]

can you post kelpy here tbh everyone needs to see it

ABSOLUTELY- HOLD ON

so this is kind of a rabbit-hole, but on stream catcat brought up the Idea Wiki wikia. a wiki dedicated to "ideas and idea related material". a lot of it seems to be younger kids making ideas for cool tv shows or movies or whatnot and there's so much super cute like. just kid ideas?? i don't know how to describe how happy it makes me to see younger people just be able to imagine huge things and just Create Unabashedly.

anyways, "Kelpy is a character from Mystic Island and Citrus's Pet Tales." there's not a lot on the page but if you follow links you'll find Kelpy is actually the pet of another character, an otter named Noreen. Noreen is one of the main characters and has a lot of art and episode plots centered around her! Noreen actually has another pet too! another "weedy yorkie" named Seaweed (this is actually new info to me while i was grabbing links. beloved)

i found kelpy entirely on accident hitting special:random and when i saw the edit date was literally 4 hours ago at the time i fell in love.

basically, i just wanted to make some random-person-on-the-internet's day.

i really hope people never stop creating things- no matter your age or skill level, just the act of putting your Heart and Soul into something. seeing people do that, it makes me indescribably happy.

sorry for getting sappy or whatever. you know how it is. blah blah indomitable human spirit and power of creation blah

[noirandchocolate]

Me: *listening to my big shamisen playlist while I work at home reading cases* Hehe strings go twang nicely for my braincells

Spotify: *hits me in the face with “Blue” by Aun J-Classic Orchestra again*

Me: I am going to die. ToT

[thisismeracing]

I don’t remember most of these dreams in great detail but I’ve had:

- one where I kissed Lando;

- one where I was making out with Seb;

- several where Lance was my boyfriend (I had a massive crush and then a significant enough ick that I was just done lol);

- one where I was having sex with Mick;

- one where George tried to kiss me and I told him we couldn’t do anything else because I wanted to have sex with Carlos and I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea;

- one where Charles straight up rejected me; and

- one where baby Carlos was sitting in my lap - I will send the picture off anon (this also kicked off enough dreams of me holding or having a baby boy that my best friend and I are convinced my firstborn is going to be a boy)

Bestie- I- now you got me thinking in all of these scenarios aaaaa

no wait, you mean in your dream or irl you got an ick w lance?

KJDSGKSDJGKSJDG OMG THE GEORGE ONE- I- you're a strong soldier, nonny! Idk what my dream version would do, but kudos to you for staying faithful to your future man! (that's such a good fic plot tho, can you imagine the angsty options we would have?! like George head over heels, and carlos just friends, up until you decide to give russell a chance, and then sainz realizes he actually likes you too and-!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

ok the charles one- I feel personally attacked, let's get some sense into him (or create another angsty scenario where we go with his teammate instead, and then he realizes his feelings heh).

*created a whole baby fever fic plot w the last dream, forgive me, bestie* in my head the baby is actually reader's baby w carlos and the lil boy is his dad carbon copy

adding your carlos pic <3

[imagine-nerd]

The fucking disconnect is so real.

[pardonmystardust]

Mutual Aid Request

A well known restaurant in my hometown was recently bought out by new ownership who promptly notified the entire staff mid-shift that the restaurant would be closing for at least three weeks without pay or any material support for the staff from ownership.

Needless to say, these workers cannot absorb a monthlong pause in their paychecks, especially as many of them are parents and back-to-school is right around the corner.

Many other local businesses and restaurants in the area are prioritizing these workers for any relevant positions as many of them seek gainful employment elsewhere, but a GoFundMe has been set up in the meantime to support these workers fill in the gaps as the situation progresses.

There's already been an overwhelming local response in support of these workers, and there are surely more urgent needs here, but if you're able, consider pitching in

[softausterity]

the birthday art you painted for saitou fucks so hard i love everything about it. the whole vibe. im going to think about it and look at it a lot because it captures him so so so well, thank you for sharing it!

i was looking through my asks for something else and i completely missed this when it came in?? thank you !!!

the specific visual of the square panels against that dialogue with the matchbox imagery has been in my head for AGES but i just never got around to it because, composition is hard and that's a lot of drawing. i would have liked to have spent a lot more time on it (has never done birthday art for a character on time (TOPICAL)) but i'm happy with how it turned out

[dandelion-wings]

Thinking about going back through my 'fic bits' tag and moving some of them onto AO3, and there's a part of me that wants to do a full sweep just for archival purposes (because, listen, Tumblr is going to go away someday and we all know it), but while some need only minimal editing and some just need expansion, some of them are... not at all in the shape of what I would consider a 'story,' or would need so much context to get there that I might as well just write the longfic I was deliberately doing a short on Tumblr to avoid writing out. XD;; Not to mention the ones that have just been made so totally not-canon-compliant by new canon released since that I'd feel weird putting them up on AO3 now!

[hypn0sssss]

I got bored and ranked all of the Enstars shuffle unit songs

Some notes: 1. I tried my hardest to keep group/character bias out of it! 2. I relistened to the full version of most of the songs for this, and the ones I didn't, I already knew rather well!

Enjoy :)

10: Paradigm Reversi (Puffy☆Bunny)

Let me preface this by saying that I love Puffy☆Bunny. They're just silly guys and I love that for them! However, I just couldn't vibe with this song. I didn't like the instrumentals all that much :(

9: Aisle, Be With You (Ring.A.Bell)

I find this one really forgettable sorry guys. I do like the melody of the first part of the chorus. But besides that, I can't think of anything else that I found to be memorable

8: Heart Aid Cafeteria (Blend+)

This is one of the ones I listened to for the first time for this ranking! I do really love the instrumental for this song, I think it's so fun! Besides that though, I found this song kinda forgettable

7: FIST OF SOUL (Butou-Kai)

This one's fun! I like the rap section a lot and the chorus feels really badass! Not much to say here but I like it :)

BRANCO MY SWEETIES!! Originally, this song was much higher, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was the bias talking lmao. It's a great song and has a cute theme, but I don't find myself listening to it as much. Still love it though!!

6: Sweet Sweet White Song (Branco)

Before relistening to it for this, I was expecting to put it rather low, but now I realize that it's a banger and I've been sleeping on it. The instrumental is fun, I like the vocals, and it's catchy as SHIT! Overall, really good :3

5: Midnight Butlers (XXVeil)

This one's a banger! It's really damn catchy and so fun to listen to! That “my girl” part gets stuck in my head SO MUCH. Overall a really great song

4: Date Plan A to Z (√AtoZ)

3: Have You Been Naughty Or Nice (Flambé)

GOD I love this song! It's so catchy, I love the theme, the instrumental hits, and the vocals are SO GOOD!! The “holy night” note hits every time!! I love it so so much

This is the other one I listened to for the first time for this! I got jumpscared by the fact that this was a Christmas song lmao! But yeah, this is a straight up BANGER! The instrumentals, the vocals, everything about it hits!

2: Noir Neige (La Mort)

HWHEHEHEHEHE I LOVE THIS SONG I'M SO SO NORMAL ABOUT IT (lying)!!! EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, FROM THE VOCALS TO THE INSTRUMENTAL TO THE ENERGY!! IT'S SO CATCHY IT GETS STUCK IN MY HEAD EVERYTIME!! ESPECIALLY THE “ONE NIGHT FEVER/MOONLIGHT DISCO” PART RAHHH

1: Moonlight Disco (Getto Spectacle)

[rynris]

S H E

chainsaw man is fun! kind of disappointed with the plot, but the animation is excellent and super stylish.

[vanilla-waffles]

3 Years 253 Days! So I did a thing just for me