This Is So Beautiful! If You Make A Calendar, I’ll Be Needing One, That Much I Know Already. They Look

So far, no incidents to speak of. Let's hope our luck holds. (I have been incredibly lucky with my dice so far, I have to say.)

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!

But ... that read is complete inane?? As in ... single-brain-cell level? It says explicitly in the text that while the Jin clan BUILT the watch towers, they are manned by members of several sects EACH?* Exactly BECAUSE Jin Guangyao doesn't want to recreate the supervisory offices? Trust me on re-reading I paid an inordinate amount of attention to everything Jin Guangyao does. This was a good thing for everyone (except people near Yi city, which by total coincidence *cough* had no watchtower near it).

And let's just say that this is a great point to prove how useful they were? Because shit like that didn't go down in other places that did have one.

*Exact words from 7 seas, volume 2, page 183: "These watchtowers were distributed in remote and impoverished lands, and every watch tower was allocated a number of sect disciples from various clans."

gonna be honest here chief a lot of "uhhhh Ackshually the watchtowers are Bad because xyz" does not read like you guys critically analyzing the text or even drawing from irl historical precedent.....but rather you guys seething and coping that jgy (the villain!!!!!! who is Bad!!!!!!!! excuse you!!!!!!!) dared do something that could possibly be described as having a positive impact on the world

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.)

Progress Report: In Truth No Beauty, in Lies No Refuge

I just sent my Papyrus file to my beta. Since I'm just under 90.000 words and she has a life on the side, it'll take a hot minute. This part is, oddly, the hardest. I can't do much except wait, feeling both accomplished and anxious.

Well, I can do one thing: Get going with the next fanfic. Which is exactly what I'm going to do. (No, not a beefleaf one. Next one's Xiyao.)

The Russian one jumped out at me because I say it so much *ahem* and then I started looking at the rest, and oh boy.

Add in your own language

It's my birthday, I get to be sappy. Happy birthday to me ♡♡♡♡♡

It's bloody 7 A.M. and I was not ready for this.

it just wasn’t meant to be

I'm not a fan of fall. Or winter. Or anything that isn't scorching hot summer. Seriously, give me a city at 40°C any day, that's more than fine. The one bright light is figure skating. It makes the whole freezing drab wetness bearable.

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.’