Im Sexy And I Know It Girl Look A Dead Body Girl Look A Dead Body

does jiang cheng have a choice?

antis hate Jiang Cheng for ‘abandoning’ Wei Wuxian, but did he realistically have any other options available? 

for my money, the non-negotiable goals for Jiang Cheng in this situation are

keep Wei Wuxian alive and not in the custody of another clan

ease the pressure from the other clans to take responsibility for/act against Wei Wuxian 

maintain the Jiang clan’s autonomy and standing amongst the clans

and the non-negotiable goals for Wei Wuxian in this situation are

keep Jiang Cheng and the Jiang clan safe, alive, and out of the direct control of other clans (especially the Jin) 

undermine Jiang Cheng’s authority as clan leader as little as possible 

keep the Wen safe, alive, and free (ish– at least as free as they are now) 

continue trying to save Wen Ning/keep him ‘alive’ once he’s revived 

do not reveal to anyone that he has lost his golden core 

do not give anyone the Yin Tiger Tally 

Wei Wuxian returning to the Jiang is off the table because he won’t leave the Wen. Wei Wuxian AND the Wen somehow coming into the custody of the Jiang isn’t possible because Jiang Cheng doesn’t have that much clout, and it’s hard to believe that Wei Wuxian would accept a situation that would necessarily have to look a lot like imprisonment for the Wen if the other clans were going to accept it. so already, the only way for Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to both achieve some of their key goals is for Wei Wuxian to stay in the Burial Mounds with the Wen somehow– which means the only goals remaining to both of them are ensuring that the Jiang clan doesn’t get punished for that, or placed in a situation where they’re forced to act violently against Wei Wuxian/the Burial Mounds/the Wen (and yes, obviously it comes to that eventually anyway, but a lot changes first). and canon is explicitly clear that the other clans are absolutely not about to let the Jiang off the hook for what Wei Wuxian is doing. they want and need him to turn on Wei Wuxian, and if he won’t, they don’t really care about dragging this decimated, teenager-led clan down with Wei Wuxian. 

the Jiang clan has nothing at this point, barely even a home. even if the other clans were open to reaching a compromise in terms of the Wei Wuxian situation, who on earth is going to believe him if he says, I’ve got the Wei Wuxian situation handled, I’m going to leave him in the Burial Mounds and keep an eye on him, he’s my problem not yours? 

and that’s the final, essential element– Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are not in a fair fight. the other clans are actively pushing them towards conflict, and won’t accept any outcome besides a complete break, or a complete capitulation by Wei Wuxian. 

maybe I’m just not feeling creative today, but I genuinely can’t come up with a single other solution beyond the one that the two of them find and implement in canon– a fake schism and staged fight. 

imprisoned for his crimes of being too babey

The power dynamic between Bingqiu is so complex and unhinged.

On the one hand, Shen Qingqiu is the Shizun, and Luo Binghe the disciple. He still pretty much serves and defers to him as such. Shen Qingqiu is the master, the elder, the superior, in a way that can never change in a culture so steeped in respect for such hierarchies, and where reversal or equalization is simply not a thing. Shen Qingqiu himself still refers to himself as "this master" for most of the story (even post canon? I can't remember), and the one quality he appreciates in Luo Binghe (at least that he says aloud) is his obedience. In both their minds, he's very firmly the one who raised and trained Luo Binghe - though with very different connotations depending on who you ask.

On the other hand... well... Luo Binghe plays the obedient puppy-ish disciple, but he pretty much cute/pathetic-bullies his way into anything he wants, because Shen Qingqiu is weak to him and can't say no. So Luo Binghe plays submissive, cries a little, then gets to top Shen Qingqiu into next Sunday in the most unfillial way imaginable lol. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, he's the most powerful person in the world, he doesn't have to serve anyone in a humble cottage. He literally has an empire and is a ruler, but he plays housewife and meek disciple to this one spoiled guy who gave him the correct manual once and head-patted him with abandon.

Also let's not forget that, to Luo Binghe, Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan are pretty seamlessly the same person. This serial head-patter is also the guy who poured hot tea on him and would string him up to beat him and made him sleep in the woodshed like a particularly miserable Cinderella. To him, one day, his cruel master deemed him worthy of his love after he made him go through many trials, and then slam-dunked him into the abyss, and then self-destructed to save him and then turned out to be alive and avoiding him like the plague and then sulked because Luo Binghe did not properly ask his hand in marriage. Luo Binghe may be the most powerful man in the world and have Shen Qingqiu wrapped around his manipulative golden little finger, BUT the grip and ascendant Shen Qingqiu possesses over Luo Binghe's psyche is unparalleled.

BUT the other side of this equation is that Shen Qingqiu feels so guilty, and loves Luo Binghe so much, he can't bear to make him unhappy and folds like a wet paper towel any time there is the merest hint of tears - which is a conscious strategy on Luo Binghe's part! Shang Qinghua told him acting pathetic works, and it does, and so he milks it! Who knows how much of it is real? Not me. Not Shen Qingqiu either, who also does not care that he's being manipulated. He knows he's being manipulated! But it works anyway!

Because what are you going to do when a cute puppy makes sad eyes at you?? Not give him the bit of meat???

You're his master but he owns your heart so that's your fate, now. He's huge and could maul you but he loves you too much and prefers to act spoiled. He sits when you say sit, comes when you say come. You tell him no but he climbs into your lap anyway and you are helpless to stop him so you pet him. It's messy, full of pathos, possibly unhealthy. You're both living your best life.

That's Bingqiu.

An old wip :-) I really loved the Pesterquest art from Roxy’s route.

xie lian + hua cheng icons

like or reblog if you use or save

based on friend’s story

I think part of the reason I’m so obsessed with MXTX’s works is the way that each story seems to hold you gently as say “Your kindness mattered. It didn’t alleviate the suffering, it did not undo the pain. But your kindness mattered.”

Kindness could not erase Luo Binghe’s abuse, but it changed the story into a kinder one.

Kindness did not stop Wei Wuxian’s death, but it did save a-Yuan.

Kindness did not undo Xie Lian’s suffering, but it renewed his sincerity to help others.

Kindness did not change the entire world, but it helped create a softer future.

Its such a nice message, that maybe kindness will not protect you, maybe you don’t see the outcome of it, but you should still try to be kind, and I love that honestly.

Happy new year!!! This was supposed to be for Christmas but life got in the way.. Wishing everyone a year of growth and happiness for 2023!

unhinged binggehua posting because I can’t be stopped

CW for kidnapping and general bingge behavior 

Bingge, who has wrenched gods from the heavens and made use of countless divine treasures, ripping through the folds of time-space with xin mo to find and crush the orchestrator of his misery. He does not think it will be hard. He expects his creator to be an old creature, immortal and mighty as time itself; perhaps they will be calm and speak of fate, as though bingge’s suffering was naught but an ant struggling in the dirt to them; perhaps they will be cruel, having taken true delight in making his life agonizing.

But in a dingy apartment, small and cramped and stained with water leaks, he finds sqh working. The night is late and the only thing that lights up sqh’s face is the glow of his laptop. It’s almost divine. But bingge catches a glimpse of sqh’s face, and see’s him - so young, and yet impossibly weary and aged by the dark circles under his eyes and the weary blankness of his expression. This is no lofty god, conducting fates from upon a cloud. This is a creature who needs to eat and sleep as bingge once did.

Sqh turns when bingge steps on a crooked floorboard wrong, making it squeak. There is a bare fraction of a second where sqh looks upon bingge, and his eyes widen with emotion- recognition, panic, awe, fear. In that moment, bingge leaps forward, and knocks sqh clean out before a scream can even begin to form in his throat.

For a moment, bingge holds sqh. His creator, his god. Sqh is a faint weight in his arms, made haggard and pale by years of being shut away. But his face is softer in sleep, younger. Bingge enters his mind through his dreams.

He learns all there is to know of ‘Shang Qinghua’. There is no great tragedy to his life; he is no wayward orphan, or abused stepchild, or prince fallen from grace, or any other physically beaten and bereaved creature. But abandonment still lingers around him, the hurt of rejection buried deep. He is as resigned to his life of unpleasant work for survival as bingge is to his shallow existence and hollowed heart. Where bingge clings ever tighter to any love he can unearth, sqh shies from it, afraid to gain something for fear of the slight chance of losing it again. Here, in sqh, bingge finds the root of himself. He finds that which birthed him - that which held him close and nursed him, and released him onto the world as both a survival tactic and a buried cry for help.

Here is his creator, his god. His.

Perhaps it is not love bingge feels, not in the way he sees married couples love one another (not like his own marriages, no - he has long since learned that his marriages, even to the women he genuinely cares for, are not born of a true love). But it is a bone-deep feeling of belonging, the sense that a mechanism has clicked into place and is running properly for the first time. Here is the connection he has so craved; an utterly undeniable binding of red thread, a bond that cannot be broken by things like distance or emotion. Sqh is his, inasmuch as he is sqh’s. Creator and creation, god and vessel, mother and child.

Bingge’s suffering was molded by sqh’s hand, yes. But it was not without purpose, no - it is bingge’s suffering that has been given the dual purpose of keeping food in sqh’s mouth and kept him from going mad with lack of catharsis. Bingge has always, always been able to suffer any hurt if it would aid someone, and so he cannot help the thrill that he feels to know that his agony had meaning. It is a flaw he shares with his creator; for why else would sqh change the story of his heart to suit the whims of faceless people, to cater to their desires? Bingge feels every ounce of resentment flood away.

Bingge cradles sqh’s body on the apartment floor. The light of the laptop continues to pool over them, washing out the color in sqh’s skin, making him look as delicate as porcelain. Bingge wonders what color he is under the light of the warm sun. He gently tugs sqh’s hair free of it’s tangled hair tie, loosening the unwashed strands. The room smells of sweat, and salty noodles. Sqh’s strange clothes fit him ill, bulky and oversized, as though he was trying to trick himself into believing there was someone nearby.

He is small and dirty and weak, but bingge finds this irrelevant, if not comforting. Here is one who would not scorn his child self, grubby-handed and shoeless and starving. What is a physical state, in the end, when it can be changed so easily? Bingge will wash him and drape him in fine clothes, and feed him by hand until he is radiant, and then people will look upon sqh and see what he is - bingge’s.

(He knows, from looking, that mbj is sqh’s most beloved creation. His favorite. A toy made just for himself, carefully hidden from the greedy gazes of his readers. Bingge does not mind - for he is the first, and he will not be jealous of the little pet sqh made for himself. Perhaps mbj would be better suited to a bed than the battlefield anyway, he muses.)

Without another look or another thought, bingge rends the world with his sword again and steps through the hole, god cradled in his arms

I've been thinking about this a lot