Nothing Quite Like Getting Obsessed To Ensure You'll Get Into The Habit Of Practising. This Kind Of Challenge

Chapter 1: Fever

Summary: In the past few days, by his own initiative, Xie Lian had hugged and carried Hua Cheng more times than he could count. He'd held his hand for hours at a time, he kept squeezing his cheeks and nuzzling his hair. He shared blankets with him every night and made his hair every morning. His attention brought Hua Cheng a level of comfort and reassurance he hadn’t even imagined before. Even the smallest gesture of tenderness coming from Xie Lian could push all the rage of the volcano to the far corners of Hua Cheng’s mind and make him forget that it was there.

Perhaps that had been the problem. Perhaps Hua Cheng had got too comfortable basking in Xie Lian’s attention, shamelessly taking advantage of his good heart until, due to his carelessness, a wave of the mountain’s evil influence impacted his brain directly, taking him out of commission like a stupid novice.

It took over ten days for Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to walk from the inn where they met with the emperor to the entrance of Mount Tonglu. What happened during that journey? And most importantly, what would've happened if things had gone differently during that journey?

Expect folk stories told by Hua Cheng worshippers, Xie Lian figuring out stuff he could've realised one hundred chapters ago, and a Ghost King simultaneously hating on his child-like appearance and getting the best out of it.

Canon divergence from chapter 143. Contains many spoilers from the book!

Read on Ao3.

Chapter 4: Something for Xie Lian

This story is complete! Right in time to alleviate the void left by the ending of season 2 of the donghua (what will be of our Wednesdays now?)

One of my goals for 2024 is to write in a more relaxed and spontaneous way, and here's my first step in that direction.

Summary: After a series of unfortunate events, Xie Lian’s old friends allow him to crash their couch for a few weeks. Upon arrival, Xie Lian is amazed by the amount of online shopping Feng Xin and Mu Qing do, and even more by the extremely awkward timing of the local postman who brings their parcels. How is it possible that this man only rings whenever Xie Lian is in the shower?!

Ooh can I ask about "Clarity" 👀

Yes, you can, haha... ha /sweats

"Clarity" is an E rated, possibly dead dove, dubcon, top Xie Lian/bottom Hua Cheng project. Also known as "as far removed from what Yaban normally writes as humanly possible."

As I mentioned in the original description, the action takes place towards the end of the novel, and it's as close to canon as I can get with this premise. This means that the dubcon doesn't come from Xie Lian being a dark version of himself, but rather from a sort of "fuck or die" scenario. I make no promises of the smut being sexy —for starters, I haven't written smut since like 2011— because I'm more interested in Xie Lian's internal turmoil than anything. In fact, one of the tags I think I'll add is "this would be sexier if only Xie Lian didn't overthink so much."

I'm not sure of when the idea first occurred to me, but I've been turning it over in my mind for probably more than a year. Here's what I have written so far:

—————

Xie Lian waited until the last moment. He held on, and on, and on, watching how some flowers wilted and dried whilst others turned into fruit that ripened and fell, bursting over dead petals, making a mess of his front yard and the paths he’d painstakingly built from the base of Mount Taicang to his cottage. He had a hunch that Hua Cheng would be back before the flowering period was over, and he wouldn’t admit that such a thing happened until the very last bloom fell. 

One hot night of late summer, a sudden torrential rain shook the mountain, washing every single weak flower and most of the fruit away. Lightening felled a maple tree midway down the path, too, blocking transit. After assessing the damage in the morning after, Xie Lian resigned himself. Going back to the cottage, he picked a hatchet from his little trove of used farming tools and put on his new bamboo hat, given to him by a young man from Puqi Village who noticed he wasn’t wearing the original any more. The boy had asked what had happened to it, and Xie Lian had said that he’d given it to someone who needed it.

“But daozhang needs a hat too,” the boy had protested, reminding him of Hua Cheng.

This wasn’t a surprise, and it didn’t hurt. It was only natural that everything and everyone made him think of his beloved ghost. Xie Lian missed him dearly, so what was better than thinking about him to pass the time while he waited? He’d done so in many ways: dusting off his memories, visiting the places they’d shared, talking to Hua Cheng’s many subjects in Ghost City. Reading and wondering. Dreaming. Praying, once or twice, when he’d stumbled upon shrines dedicated to the Crimson Rain Seeking a Flower. That day, the circumstances invited him to reminisce about how swift and efficient Hua Cheng was cutting wood, the strength and elegance of every swing of his axe, and the way he cheekily pretended to sweat so he had an excuse to bare his snow-white, lean torso.

Xie Lian felt his face warm up and sighed deeply. Many days and nights of his heart and thoughts being spurred in dangerous directions by the memory of Hua Cheng’s scalding gaze and mischievous lips had made him familiar with this sort of agitation. In fact, he’d started to enjoy it, although he didn’t indulge much. The intensity of these new emotions and sensations was strong enough that, regardless of how scandalised he was at the prospect, he didn’t expect to preserve his path of cultivation nor the reserves of spiritual power attached to it once Hua Cheng came back. However, he was adamantly against allowing anything to break before that came to happen. After eight centuries and eight months that felt like a millennium each, he wasn’t going to succumb to his own imagination.

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When will I finish it? Who knows. I will focus on completing my ongoing fics first, but I'll keep taking notes and writing on the side. This is a very daunting project, so if inspiration strikes, I won't let it pass. Thanks for asking!

Back to WIP game main post.

Just finished the cover for 2024 MXTX Food Zine!

@mxtxfoodzine contains 55 recipes going along with art and fanfiction as well as a printable no-title version of the cover. Releasing this November.

I have new profile pics!

The drawing is for my creations accounts (AO3, Tumblr and Bluesky) and the photo for my cosplay accounts (Facebook, Instagram and TikTok).

The original sketch of the drawing was made years ago by my BFF Lini, who used as reference a photo from the first professional photoshoot I had with my cosplay of Kusuriuri.

The photo is a selfie I took while preparing my (failed) submission to DigiKomi 2021.

Now, I'm ready for the worldwide release via Netflix of "Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain"!

Sketch: @linipik

Colours: Me

Reference photo: Prism Photography (Instagram)

Cosplay and selfie: Me (yabancosplay on Instagram)

Are you frustrated you can't leave second kudos on AO3? or third kudos? or whatever-who's-counting kudos?

Well, have I got the html for you!

Plop any of these in a comment (by copy&pasting the code) to make an author's day and show your appreciation!

Second kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tHMjbb6/second-kudos.png" alt="second kudos">

Third kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/52bggQH/third-kudos.png" alt="third kudos">

nth kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/6y7qGtC/nth-kudos.png" alt="nth kudos">

yet another kudos: <img src="https://i.ibb.co/wKtcj0s/yet-another-kudos.png" alt="yet another kudos">

It will look something like this (and will be transparent with white outline on dark backgrounds):

Feel free to spread and use these as much as you like! (and if you have ideas for other variations, let me know ✌️)

The flow of time is always cruel.

Can y'all BELIEVE this art? Tiira, you're the best ;A;

I participated in the TGCF Mini Bang 2022 as an artist for Withering Lotus, a modern heavy metal au fic written by Yabanned and beta-read by Leonidskies!

Working with Ban on this series has been an absolute joy and I love this fic and everything about the work process more than I can describe. Ban is a lovely writer and I recommend this fic to everyone who enjoys mostly fluffy and healing modern au fics with a twinge of angst! The Xie Lian lotus cover art was based on an idea and a sketch from Ban!

TGCF Mini Bang 2022 collection

Thanks for the tag. Here's both of us, as per tradition~

Open to whoever wants to do it.

Picrew train!!

Do this picrew : and tag people!!

Picrew

tunasalad character maker

!! personal / non-commercial use only !! ✅ profile pictures, icons, social media ❌ branding / business, advertising, promotion !! do not

(not my picrew credit to artist!!)

@megaroniandcheez @fish-nailed-to-a-cross @justobsessedwithvic @cheesesandwjch @milltheinfinity @illiteratesblog @le-dormeur-du-val @that-one-xachster @hermy-97 @ladyloss-blog and anyone else who wants to join!

Cuando, luego de leer las tres novelas de MXTX, decidí explorar los fanfics dedicados a cada historia, dejé a SAVE para el final. Lo que me hizo retrasarlo fue la reticencia a leer algo en ese universo que no tuviera la comedia emocional y a veces trágica tan característica de la novela, la cual me parece su más grande acierto y lo que la hace una lectura tan particular y disfrutable. Es posible que jamás hubiese dado el paso si no fuera porque ‘open my lungs to let you in’ me apareció un día en Twitter y el resumen, expuesto en una captura de pantalla, me hizo soltar la carcajada. Ghost escribe con sensibilidad e ingenio, su caracterización es fresca, hilarante y capaz de alcanzar ese precario nivel de parodia absurda que hace reír y llorar, y de hacerme volver para releer una y otra vez. Finalmente, decidí pedir permiso para traducir el fic y ahora lo dejo aquí, en español de aires colombianos, con la esperanza de que nuevos públicos puedan acceder a esta expansión creativa del mundo de SAVE.

En español: Abro mis pulmones para dejarte entrar.

En inglés: open my lungs to let you in