Latest Posts by pre-reform-voice - Page 2

reblog with one creative goal that you would like to pursue in 2025 in the tags

it doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and there is no pressure to complete said goal. but i’d love to hear from writers, artists, performers, academics, designers, coders, and so on! 🤍

if it’s a creative outlet, it’s included. let’s inspire each other ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

This will never not be hilarious.

What's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi) is about?

It is easy: Jin Ling's uncle dies to bring back Jin Ling's uncle, who was killed by Jin Ling's uncle, except not really. Then Jin Ling's uncle, and Jin Ling's future uncle teams up to solve the mystery of a mutilated corpse, who was actually Jin Ling's uncle, and was killed by Jin Ling's uncle. This leads to the scene where Jin Ling's uncle, Jin Ling's future uncle, Jin Ling's uncle, and Jin Ling's uncle confronts Jin Ling's uncle. Then Jin Ling uncle gets stabbed by Jin Ling's uncle, and gets killed by the ghost of Jin Ling's uncle. In the end it turns out that everything was planned by Jin Ling's uncle.

I'm currently watching the MDZS donghua with my Mom - and yes, I'll make a list of her opinions again when we're done, but my schedule right now is crazy, so I don't get to sit down in peace as much as I'd like.

This isn't about that. This is about me warning her that I'll sit her through The Untamed, eventually. (Assuming I'll survive this. Every time Jin Guangyao shows up on the screen a beam at him, actually whooped in his first scene because it's so, so late in the donghua and WHAT AN ENTRANCE THEY GAVE MY LITTLE GUY, and I've said I adore that man. She's going flay me alive because she's not going to feel the same way.) She's all for it, but I warned her that the special effects are ... ahem. Not it.

Her response: Is it phallactite-level bad?

Me, trying to process this question for a minute and failing: WHAT-level bad?!

Her giving me a huge grin: You know, pallactite. Like the one from Kirk.

It took another hot minute for me to get what she meant, but then I told her that I knew she was okay with the horrible effects and props from Star Trek, but it's one thing in a no-budget 60s show and another in a modern one so I wanted to warn her. I also said the props and costumes and what not are good and SOME of the effects are, too, but she shouldn't think too much about how physics work most of the time.

(Look up the scene in 'What Are Little Girls Made Of' with a stalactite. Or just look for Kirk and stalactite. The scene is about a minute. If you find a still of Kirk holding a huge, unfortunately shaped prop - yes, that is, in fact, a real still.)

Now keep your fingers crossed that I live long enough to do this.

I'm reblogging this from you just to let you know you're no longer alone because ... Jin Guangyao.

Cackles in "my mom has a lower jaw bone she snatched from a graveyard (!) because she reckons it's her grandfather's (!?) and it's on broad display with some pretty seashells (!!!)."

Mini-fic or Prologue - who knows?!

Okay, I have drafted a prologue for the Xiyao fic I threatened earlier today. My friend likes it, so I took a second glance at it, smoothed out a few wrinkles, and now I'm throwing it here.

I have no idea if this can function because I have yet to read the books, so I can't tell for certain if I will use it all - and if I do, it might not be the prologue so much as part of a chapter, all of that is written in the stars. But since Ao3 doesn't allow placeholders (nor should it) and I don't know when I get to write the whole thing (although that I will write it certain), I'll at least put this fragment of questionable permanence here for the time being. I will announce when I post the actual fic to Ao3.

No Bonds Can Hold Me

‘Maintain your own discipline. Train your body and your mind. Store your inner wisdom deeply.’

Second nature. All of this was second nature to a man who had lived by these rules his entire life. Now discipline eluded him, his mind refused to focus on what mattered, and his inner wisdom was torn to shreds. There was almost nothing left of the man he had been … before. And if there was nothing left, what was the point of him? ‘Do not act impulsively.’ That rule had saved his life several times over recently. To what end? He had broken so many others: ‘Do not grieve in excess. Do not bully the weak. Do not associate with evil.’

Am I the evil? The voice that existed in his thoughts only perforated his meagre attempt at meditation again, stripping away another layer of his strength.

Seclusion had done nothing to erase the guilt and the pain and the grief, to silence this voice. It lived in his heart as constantly as its beating. It hadn’t helped compose his mind, hadn’t let him accept that what was done was done. Every time he started out asking himself, ‘How could I have acted any differently?’ the question quickly degraded into the much simpler and much more destructive, ‘How could I?!’ The blood on his hands and clothes was long gone, but he could still feel it sticking to his skin any time his eyes closed, could smell its cloying scent, so much, so much of it.

‘Be gentle and content in adversity.’

Slowly, Lan Xichen opened his eyes. It was, indeed, done, and yet he knew there was one path not yet taken. ‘Do not act impulsively. Do not fall to evil.’ But was an act he had chewed over time and time again for more hours than he could count impulsive? Was saving a soul evil?

He hadn’t allowed himself those thoughts at first, but now that he did, he felt calmer. ‘Have a strong will and anything can be achieved.’ His path was laid out before him and he would walk it openly and with determination. He needed help, and he wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Beg for it, if he had to.

‘Don’t be unreasonable.’ What was one more rule broken anyway?

The voice in his head that kept repeating his name like a broken mantra could only be assuaged by returning it to the real world. It was his fault that it had been silenced, so it had to be him that did all he could to restore it. (‘Uphold the value of justice.’) And if that proved impossible, he should earnestly consider following it into oblivion, the way he had been prepared to.

Lan Xichen stepped out into the darkness. (‘Venturing out at night is prohibited.’) He had tried to silence the call that only he could hear, but now he welcomed it, let it guide his steps and fuel his spirit. Lan Xichen, Lan Xichen … ‘Yes,’ he thought, conscious of the cool air surrounding him and the light breeze rustling his robes, ‘I still hear you. I’m not grieving for you. I’m coming for you.’

After watching CQL, I feel the need to write a fanfic. Because of course I do. Now I just need to finish my current project and then read the books.

Until I have, my ability to predict what it'll be like is limited, but I do know that it'll be a Xiyao fic. I know from my friend that things end a bit differently in the books, but I don't know how. She thinks I can work with it. 😅 She did not word this in a promising manner.

Oh, and there is one more thing. Jin Guangyao is going to have a huge, HUGE praise kink. I'm prepared to die on that hill.

The title might be 'No Bonds Can Hold Me', but that might very well change.

Oh and the friend I mentioned is the same one who asked me to write beefleaf. There is a tendency there, but this time no persuasion was necessary.

Okay, listen. I never read WiPs because I got invested in too many of them before they were discontinued. I have no idea what possessed me to open this one first BUT I AM SO GLAD I DID and you should, too.

This fic takes a somewhat different direction regarding what will happen with Shi Qingxuan after canon, and it's believable and brilliantly executed.

Go on. If you like Beefleaf and slow burn and HELL I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO END but I think it'll be fine because if it isn't I'll cry ... Anyway, if you like those things, then read it.

New cover, same amazing Beef-Leaf fanfic!

Check out the 100k+ word, still-in-progress story now!

Soon We'll Be Found - Chapter 1 - bluberryblurays - 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Archive of Our Own]

http://www.wattpad.com/story/359906100-soon-we%27ll-be-found-tgcf-beefleaf

Hello! Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to five other writers 🥰

Haha, this is fun:

Air (and the sequels): Because a massive ton of research went into my first ever hard sci-fi fic. That thing had so many comments on the original platform, too, but it no longer exists, which makes me a bit sad. (Star Trek, K/S)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead: Because I'm really, really proud of this one. There will be a sequel, too. (TGCF, Beefleaf and Hualian)

Counting Blurry Stars: Because it has what must be the most wholesome pair of greenflasgs in history. (Yuri!!! on Ice - it's marked incomplete, but I thought it was finished at the stage it's currently at, haha.)

Dye Their Flowers With My Blood: Because it's the fic my younger self would have loved: A redemption story for at least one of a group of villains. (Inuysha, but a Shichinintai fic.)

Tug-o-War: Because it took me ages and the thing fought back, but I love what it became. (Witcher x Chronicles of the Raven; several rare-pairs: Hirad/Ilkar, Thraun/Will [which I'll tell everyone who listens is canon], and Regis/Shani, which blindsided me a bit.)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

Xie Lian has made his report. His plan for the rest of the night is to go home and sleep - and he'll get to do just that. Except there is this one little thing ...

(Note: I also posted the epilogue already, so we are, officially, finished!)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

The best laid plans don't always work out. And Shi Qingxuan's plan was never all that good to begin with.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

Shi Qingxuan wants to go back to his investigation, and since he can't stop him without sitting on him, He Xuan does his best to be helpful.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

Shi Qingxuan is exhausted. He wants to have time to think - but mostly, he wants to be alone with He Xuan.

(I'm a day early this week because tomorrow I won't be able to post at a reasonable time by the looks of it.)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

Shi Qingxuan is missing and He Xuan is uncooperative. Xie Lian isn't convinced he wants to let his friend's fate rest in the ghost's hands alone, so he and Hua Cheng look for him on their own.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

The investigation has been crudely planned, but it leads ... well, somewhere. How to get back from wherever that is is a different question entirely.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

Sure, Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan have a lot they absolutely have to talk about. But maybe a stroll through the Royal Capital is not the time and place for it.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New Chapter:

How should a mortal deal with a furious ghost? Shi Qingxuan may not know the answer to that, but he'll try anyway. Even if he has to accept help he doesn't feel he deserves - or wants.

(I'm posting this about 32 hours earlier than I normally would, but I'll be busy later and probably won't remember, and I'm out tomorrow, so there we are. Between now or mid-Saturday, I'm choosing now.)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New chapter:

Once affairs in heaven are brought to a semblance of order, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng finally get to look for the ghost causing trouble in the Royal Capital.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

New chapter:

Shi Qingxuan finds himself in an unfamiliar place and in the care of the same woman that came to the beggars' temple.

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead

A ghost is being harassed and a mortal is taken. A god and his ghost king follow the trail.

Someone sneaks into the temple Shi Qingxuan and his beggars use as a shelter, acting like a sneak-thief. Of course, he won’t have that. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian on the other hand just want to spend the morning in bed. Possibly the whole day. An unannounced visitor spoils that plan.

Parallels between Sinner's Pit and the Heavenly Parade

Re-reading TGCF is interesting. Someone has probably said this, but here I go anyway.

During the Banyue arc, I had a bit of an epiphany. Hua Cheng catches Xie Lian, keeps holding him while fighting Kemo, and tells him not to be worried.

In the flashback at the end of the second volume, Xie Lian catches a then unknown child, keeps holding him during the staged fight with Mu Qing, and tells him not to be worried.

Even the first time I thought ‘It’s dirty’ is an odd excuse for not setting Xie Lian down. I mean, they’ve travelled through the desert by funnel cloud, they’ve had a building collapse right near them, and had an intermezzo with the mud face. I’m sure Xie Lian’s clothes weren’t exactly pristine any more. But that isn’t what it was about: He refused to pass up the opportunity to recreate their first encounter with reversed roles. It was just too good to let go.

This is really, really well done.

(Pictures from the Seven Seas novels 1 and 2.)

Reblogging and signing. Conversion therapy is a terror on the face of the world. One I nearly lost a very dear person to due to suicide. It's evil, and I never use that word lightly.

Tagging this with gay fandoms sorry

There's currently a European proposition to ban conversion practice in Europe

If you're European please sign it

If you're not please reblog

eci.ec.europa.eu

European Citizens' Initiative

Give your support !

Edit 1: Just in case the previous link doesn't bring you where you need here

Edit 2: It's EU not Europe sorry

TGCF meets John Dowland

Okay, but this isn't the ultimate He Xuan song, I don't know any more.

Adding that if anyone needs an example of a character that acts VERY feminine and uses ore, I'd like them to take a good, hard look at Jakotsu, who also uses 俺.

Do you know this queer character?

Victor is MLM and uses he/him pronouns!

Reblogging this because I'm relieved I'm not the only one who sees him like this. Quan Yizhen's whole story was like looking into a cruel mirror (minus the supernatural stuff), and people acting like he's stupid is ... not great. He isn't. See, I refuse to believe I'm stupid, but if you don't spell stuff out for me, I won't see it. Not in a lifetime. I don't even blame Yin Yu because ... well, most people work differently and get hints. But I can't blame Yizhen, either, or I'll have to rip my own wonky head off.

quan yizhen did NOTHING wrong, this is entirely yin yu’s fault for failing to communicate i don’t give a FUCK

Watching Heaven Official's Blessing with my Mom - season 2

For the record, she's 70, I'm 40. I introduced her to the Donghua because I knew she'd love it.

"I think your husband* has a few screws loose." (About Shi Qingxuan trying to turn Xie Lian into a woman.)

"Be nicer to him. I'd drop you at once." (About the Earth Master being rescued, then carried.)

"Are you sure this is your husband?" I confirmed this. "Oh honey, I think your husband is gay." (Same as above, pretty much only a blink later.)

She had an eye-rolling contest with Mu Qing when he and Feng Xin fought while Xie Lian was under arrest. She would have won.

"Oh, but he's whipped." (About Hua Cheng helping to free the prisoners in Qi Rong's lair. She believes he might not have bothered. I'm a bit on the fence about this, knowing how he made Eming - and more to the point, how he did not. But I can hardly tell her that.)

There was no verbal response to Qi Rong aside from an exhausted "Pitiful." She observed him with the same expression she might use on a particularly slow dog.

"Now there's a guy you know never got laid." (She said this when Shi Qingxuan threw her breasts at Feng Xin. I was howling with laughter, she thinks it was in agreement, but it was obviously a bit more hysteria-tinged.) She also noted my husband is a brat. I can't argue with that.

She asked me if Xie Lian killed that guy at the end. I told her if she wants to know that she'll either have to be VERY patient until season 3 comes - or be moderately patient and read the books where that answer doesn't come at once, either.

*I told her that on the fuck - marry - kill list Shi Qingxuan is number two. I told her that fuck is Pei Ming because that man has experience. The way Xuan Ji clings to him, he must have some skill, too. Kill is Shi Wudu, but I did not say that to her, just that it's a character she hasn't met. She knows I dislike the Water Master, but she doesn't know how much. I didn't give that answer lightly, in my defence. There are very few characters I resent enough in TGCF, if any, but I had to name someone.)

That ... hurts.

I'm sure someone has already said this, but I have resisted posting this for THREE DAYS and now I have to.

I can't get over how fitting the name Ship-Sinking Black Water is.

Because that fellow sank his own ship so, so hard.

I don't even blame him, mind you. I actually like him, even though he's an acquired taste for me. I just want to scream at him and maybe whack him on the head until he uses it.

But other than that I'm totally sane about these people.