Do you ever find yourself over-using the word “cry” (or “cried” or “crying”) in your writing? Try using these words instead:
sob / sobbed / sobbing
wail / wailed / wailing
weep / wept / weeping
bawl / bawled / bawling
whimper / whimpered / whimpering
howl / howled / howling
blubber / blubbered / blubbering
snivel / sniveled / sniveling
squall / squalled / squalling
yelp / yelped / yelping
whine / whined / whining
shed tears / shed tears / shedding tears
burst into tears / burst into tears / bursting into tears
tear up / teared up / tearing up
choke up / choked up / choking up
well up / welled up / welling up
break down / broke down / breaking down
let it out / let it out / letting it out
turn on the waterworks / turned on the waterworks / turning on the waterworks
open the floodgates / opened the floodgates / opening the floodgates
jin guangyao with his decades worth of meticulous information gathering, eidetic memory, expert plotting abilities, assasination skills, title, and small private army: i am untouchable. I have peaked and I will never be brought to heel
nie huaisang with like two braincells, the aura of a small animal, the ability to cry pretty, feral intent, and a knife: yeah ok, headass bitch
and yet the world is silent…
How would zyx have handled being born in the canon sects?
my brain is mush, but let’s give this a shot. in no particular order...
Yunmeng Jiang:
Comes over as part of the Meishan Yu side courtesy of Madame Yu, as Yu Lin 虞琳 (no courtesy name, same lin character as in DBD).
Freaks out when she Realizes some realizations.
And then it’s down to business because she fucking lives here now, it’s her fucking house and it’s going to fucking catch fire.
Due to precociousness and competence from of being Done since birth, she’s trained as the successor of Jinzhu/Yinzhu for JC.
Pre-WWX arrival, she sticks to teaching/providing emotional and mental support to the Jiang sibs so they don’t end up so screwed by their parents.
(Secretly works with JYL to help her cultivation bc fuck that noise.)
Once WWX arrives, she ends up tag-teaming with JYL to keep the peace. WWX ends up treating her like Shijie #2 - especially when he starts to cultivate and notices that she knows a lot more than she lets on.
WWX: “Lin-jiejie! Play with Xianxian!” JC: “Wei Wuxian, have you no shame? Even our shimei is more well-behaved than you!” WWX: “Our... what?”
(Still younger than everyone, but she never says anything. Conceal don’t feel.)
Overall: more emotionally stable and patient, Exhausted(TM), and much more reserved. Can’t wait to fuck off somewhere.
If the Golden Core transfer thing is going to happen, it’s not going on her watch - she’d knock WWX out, let JC take her GC instead, and then finds a nice quiet mountain to retire onto. Immortality didn’t mean much to someone that has died before. Also, the math then works out. Everything should be okay. Right?
(Obviously, no. But we’ll leave it at that.)
Lanling Jin:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Lanling Jin is... ugh. Name: Jin Zi’ai/ 金子藹 (zi as the generational character, ai for affable/luxuriant)
IDK if you know those dinner parties with your relatives when you are done with their shit by hour 2... but it’s like that 24/7. She awaits the day she’s powerful and influential enough to go feral.
The resources available to her are awful. She’s a close enough cousin that she has to see JGS’s shit all day. Deal with Jin Zixun all day. But for the sake of survival and agency, she grits her teeth and ingratiates herself with Madame Jin to get close to Jin Zixuan and get access to better cultivation education and resources.
Mme Jin cuts her a deal - if she can be useful to her son and the heir of Lanling Jin, she’ll help out on the side.
At first, JZA (god that’s so weird to see a vowel in an MXTX name abbr) is planning to just use JZX and get the fuck out.
And then his awkwardness makes her care. Damn it.
Plan: Get her uncle pushed down the stairs Actively set up JZX to take over Lanling Jin by Year 5 post-Sunshot Campaign.
Reluctantly ends up taking MY/JGY under her wing once she remembers the Qin Su situation. Ticks another year off of JGS’s life.
Best fucking friends with LQY.
(Plans go to shit once she meets people outside of LLJ. Recalibrating...)
(Due to a bad JZX/JYL encounter, WWX makes an exception and she’s the only girl he hates. “Just as insufferable, if not more, than that Peacock.”)
Qinghe Nie:
It’s fucking cold. She complains about humid heat, but she also bitches about cold and snow. All weather sucks.
QHN is probably the only sect that lets her get away with as much as she does in Shuangfeng. Goes gender-neutral again.
Name: Nie Yunxun. Done.
‘Don’t yell bankai, don’t yell bankai -’ as NYX is training with a humongous sabre. Big sword is encouraged. Give an inch, take a mile.
Da-ge energy pulls them in like a black hole. “Damn it, now I fucking care.” None of this Song of Turmoil Shit on their watch.
(”Da-ge,” because NHS latched onto them and NMJ allowed it, “Not everything is so black and white.” Tries their best to slowly make him chill the fuck out.)
Pretty prim and proper despite a foul mouth - slated to take over for Nie Zonghui when it comes time for the new generation.
Refuses to believe that eating dirt is the only future for sabre-wielders. Convinces NHS to trust and confide in them once he figures out what they’re trying to research and test.
(NHS latching on - 1) he catches NYX punning a subtle insult on LLJ during a discussion conference, 2) while escorting NHS to watch a play, he then catches them making the bitterest commentary on the not-so-great plot, and 3) on the days that he really can’t confront the fact that his Da-ge is going to cultivate to his own death, they will lie to NMJ’s face with no shame and let him hide.)
Uses QHN reputation to their advantage to play stupid and guileless. “A pretty, dumb brute.”
In public, NYX is essentially NHS’s long-suffering henchman.
In private, NYX and NHS are the Shady Duo, scheming tirelessly to... make the Cultivation Realm better, of course :) (better for some, not for others.)
Gusu Lan:
This feels worse than LLJ.
Lan Wenhui 藍文慧, wen for literary, and hui for intelligence.
CR is fine to visit, but awful to grow up in.
Grows up like a grumpy version of Lan Jingyi, because she knows that things aren’t going to be okay and there’s nothing she can do about it from her position.
Acts out a lot (like pre-ZYF death little Lin-lin). Sometimes accidentally, sometime purposefully. Living the CR feels like perpetually having an itch that she’s not allowed to scratch.
In trying to ‘tame the little beast’, LQR discovers two methods: 1) stump her with challenging/stimulating work, or 2) make LWJ ‘babysit’ her.
(Never mind telling an eight-year-old to watch a seven-year-old - but it’s the Chinese way to outsource your older kids to watch younger kids)
LWH can’t bring herself to be mean to LWJ. Thus LWJ gains a reluctant cousin-friend, and a buff to his social interaction skills.
LXC dotes on her so unabashedly that she effectively goes speechless for the whole day out of embarrassment.
Thus LQR discovers method #3 to nerf the Little Devil of the Cloud Recesses, and is so proud of himself and his nephews.
(WWX kicks him off his laurels when he arrives.)
Endgame: post-SSC (since she’s not in a position to change much without being scrutinized), seeing the 3Zun’s essentially make an alliance sans YMJ (+ JYL being betrothed to JZX), JGS basically is the most influential leader of the cultivation world.
Fuck no.
She orchestrates a ruse, if you will. ‘Accidentally’ lets JC pull her ribbon and doesn’t object. When questioned, lies and says that ‘he was her first love since catching a glimpse during the Cloud Recesses.’ (Complete with inflectionless voice)
“well shit, there’s nothing really objectionable about this match... so... congrats on your upcoming nuptials?”
Actually using that time to 1) go back and forth between YMJ with a semi-legit reason to interact and collude with the Yunmeng sibs and warn them of the upcoming BS, 2) delay the JZX/JYL wedding, 3) give LWJ time with WWX and hopefully they both get their heads out of their asses.
Shenanigans, fake dating/betrothal-turned-real? idk.
Qishan Wen:
The worst. Worstest.
Two options:
Option one, side-side-side branch Wen
She’s fucking off.
Learning some cultivation/stealing some manuals, do a little spying and map-making, and deserting.
Drops some secret missives for the other main sects, when the information becomes more relevant.
Due diligence done, fucks off to some coastal town as their standoffish, neighborhood Cultivator.
Micromanages the town and its well-being with the tenacity of playing a city builder/animal crossing in her previous life.
Grow old.
Die.
Option two, Wen Qing/Wen Ning’s family, the middle child. Wen Ling 溫玲, ling for exquisite.
She’s close enough to be in WRH’s purview but not in his main family. Whew.
Tries to convince older sister WQ to turn traitor and dip.
Almost causes catastrophic end for their family bc of premature planning.
She can’t play the same espionage game as WQ or MY/JGY does with WRH because she knows there’s no recovering from being publicly seen supporting WRH post-SSC. So she just works as a mainline fighter bc at least she’ll be able to defend herself and feel ‘useful’.
Fakes death and deserts mid-SSC.
If lucky, lives and reluctantly infiltrates LLJ to be in the position to rescue her family after the war.
If she’s not... WWX kills her while she’s on the battlefield. She sees him and picks that moment to fake her death.
In this case, WWX catches her in the act, kills her but she calls out for WQ.
WQ learns about her death. WN is the one to tell WWX about the relation.
Tries to revive her as ‘owing one’ to the Wen sibs, looks for her corpse, encounters LWJ, gets his help to catch her soul with inquiry.
(Prime LWJ vinegar-drinking as he makes up his own reasons for why Wen Yuan exists and why WWX is taking care of him).
Ends up possessing WN on accident when WangXian returns to the Burial Mounds, able to help avert the Qiongqi Path incident.
Grimy spytime shenanigans to fight back against LLJ and surviving, and ends up passing on once things settle.
Nie Mingjue will regret this in the morning.
honestly it would only be beneficial for everyone if jiang yanli and wen qing swapped younger brothers for the day
jiang yanli + wen ning: peacefully gardening and cooking, having a lovely and wholesome time
wen qing, jiang cheng and wei wuxian: several things are on fire, one of them is jiang cheng, wen qing is going to put him out in a minute she just needs to stop laughing first
“Gusu Lan Sect, Lan Wangji.”
“Wei Ying.”
“Emperor’s Smile, I’ll share one with you, can you pretend you didn’t see me?”
“Why would I not dare to turn up here? I’ve faced 3000 people myself before.”
“Ah Xian.”
“I’d like to see just what minor and small evil spirits dare to create trouble here.”
“Becoming strong… this is something that is within my expectations.”
“Being hardworking in studies and practice is a priority for all Lan disciples.”
“How boring, where’s Fairy?”
“Walking quickly is forbidden in Cloud Recesses!”
“Who has summoned me? It sounds so familiar…”
“How did I end up meeting him again?”
陈情令 The Untamed Game Official PV 1
And we have a bonus character who literally has no character card because he’s that extra:
Set someone on fire. Twice.
Pause a chase sequence for a karaoke competition. Make the song choice key to the climax.
Give the villain a parrot whose mocking repetition undermines them at the most inconvenient moments.
Add a dragon.
Set your romantic confession scene on a fast-moving vehicle.
Make readers think a beloved character dies, only to reveal them alive and ready for action later. You get all of the angst and none of the hate mail!
Make the power go out at the worst time.
Snow your heroes in with the villain. Do they kill each other or break out monopoly?
Force your characters to act as other characters (disguises, body swapping, go wild with this one).
Add another dragon.
Now that college students no longer have access to their libraries in the same way we used to and have to do most of our learning at home it would be just terrible if we all knew about https://1lib.eu/ a website which has books on basically every topic ever available for free including college textbooks. Imagine if people were researching their thesis without paying for it.
DO NOT USE THIS SITE AND DEFINITELY DO NOT NOT TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS SITE, THEY MIGHT START DOING THESIS RESEARCH FOR FREE OR JUST START READING BOOKS THEY FOUND ON THERE FOR FUN BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE INTERESTING. This would be terrible :( :(
Reblog to spread the word so that everyone knows to avoid this site!