So One Of My Neighbors Has A Lawn Roomba Or Whatever They're Called, And This Thing Trundles Around Looking

It's been 83 years, but I finally updated my TGCF metal music AU. Come read about the adventures and misadventures of Hua Cheng living his own Y/N beach episode with Xie Lian at the Shi family's vacation villa!

The ByTheBi's Collection: Style Your 20cm Minidoll After Three Selected TGCF Fanfiction Stories

Yaban's Doll Atelier is proud to present the ByTheBi's Collection, an indispensable addition to the closet of your 20cm Minidoll. Re-enact three beloved stories by acclaimed fanfiction author ByTheBi with these exclusive sets of accessories.

—

‘One Man's Treasure’ - A set worthy of love

Read the fic on AO3

Some habits are hard to break, even after millennia. Hua Cheng knows this best, as he always accompanies Xie Lian on his dumpster-diving adventures.

This set includes one raggedy fox plush, two poorly translated shirts, and a clean bin to keep things organised. The fox has already been taken care of, and his hand-embroidered eyepatch is removable to reveal Hua Cheng's signature red eye.

In honour of Xie Lian's scrap-collecting passion, everything in this set is made with recovered/recycled materials.

—

‘Your Package Has Been Delivered’ - These toys are not for kids!

Read the fic on AO3

Hua Cheng's packages keep getting delivered to his cute neighbour, which is all fine and dandy until some special toys get mixed in the mail! While Hua Cheng is the one who sees the contents of Xie Lian's discreet package in the fic, here we picture the opposite because Yaban's Doll Atelier can't afford Hua Cheng's modelling fees seeing Xie Lian's reaction in that scenario would've been very funny.

This set includes two labelled black boxes, two invoices, two receipts, one bottle of lube, a cock ring and the infamously dubbed "Colon Destroyer" with its remote controller. Hua Cheng did his best to conceal the fact that he opened Xie Lian's box, but you can see some traces of the debacle if you look carefully.

—

‘With Patience, With Love’ - A cosy set to eternal happiness

Read the fic on AO3

Hua Cheng is acting strange, and Xie Lian doesn't know what to think when he catches him lying. Deciding to trust him no matter what, his loyalty gets rewarded with a surprise made with the utmost patience and the utmost love.

This set includes a long ivory scarf, a thrifted mug that says "Coffee isn't my cup of tea", fairly lights, and 25 paper butterflies with the motives and colours described in the story.

—

The ByTheBi's Collection is an exclusive, ultra limited edition made for @peachylixir as part of the Puqi Shrine Secret Santa 2024. Happy Christmas, Peachy!

A note to all creatives:

Right now, you have to be a team player. You cannot complain about AI being used to fuck over your industry and then turn around and use it on somebody else’s industry.

No AI book covers. No making funny little videos using deepfakes to make an actor say stuff they never did. No AI translation of your book. No AI audiobooks. No AI generated moodboards or fancasts or any of that shit. No feeding someone else’s unfinished work into Chat GPT “because you just want to know how it ends*” (what the fuck is wrong with you?). No playing around with AI generated 3D assets you can’t ascertain the origin of. None of it. And stop using AI filters on your selfies or ESPECIALLY using AI on somebody else’s photo or artwork.

We are at a crossroad and at a time of historically shitty conditions for working artists across ALL creative fields, and we gotta stick together. And you know what? Not only is standing up for other artists against exploitation and theft the morally correct thing to do, it’s also the professionally smartest thing to do, too. Because the corporations will fuck you over too, and then they do it’s your peers that will hold you up. And we have a long memory.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking “your peers” are only the people in your own industry. Writers can’t succeed without artists, editors, translators, etc making their books a reality. Illustrators depend on writers and editors for work. Video creators co-exist with voice actors and animators and people who do 3D rendering etc. If you piss off everyone else but the ones who do the exact same job you do, congratulations! You’ve just sunk your career.

Always remember: the artists who succeed in this career path, the ones who get hired or are sought after for commissions or collaboration, they aren’t the super talented “fuck you I got mine” types. They’re the one who show up to do the work and are easy to get along with.

And they especially are not scabs.

*that’s not even how it ends that’s a statistically likely and creatively boring way for it to end. Why would you even want to read that.

Drawing I've made as reward for donations to Care for Gaza in the context of the TGCF Gotcha for Gaza event. Prompts are in the image descriptions.

Thanks to all commissioners and donators! The Gotcha4Gaza initiative has raised more than 50k USD across multiple fandoms, and it's still ongoing. Learn more and be part of the movement by browsing the current events going on this X/Twitter account, or by creating your own!

For the WIP game, The Newcomer one sounds so cool!! I'd love to hear more about it!

Heavy spoiler warning for Heaven Official's Blessing. Hi! Right, so, The Newcomer. I came up with the idea around two years ago, while re-reading the Ghost City arc. Do you remember how the mortal who's betting against Hua Cheng when Xie Lian arrives uses his daughter's lifespan and fate in marriage as a wager? It established fortune/fate as a sort of currency in the world of TGCF, a notion that later got reinforced by things like:

-How Hua Cheng can transfer luck in games of chance to Xie Lian -How Shi Wudu could use He Xuan's divine fate to make Shi Qingxuan ascend instead -How Jun Wu physically took Xie Lian's fortune away from him with the second shackle and scattered it among mortals (or so we hope, because Xie Lian asked for that to happen, but with Jun Wu, you never know) -How Jun Wu can put his resentment to bake in the Kiln and cook curses of horrible misfortune with it, which was what made Hong'er's brief life so miserable

The whole thing is quite intriguing. Does the Gambler's Den have a vault of good and bad fortunes in different areas of life, that they've been hoarding for centuries in order to offer them as rewards to new patrons? How, where, and from whom did Hua Cheng learn the magic required for such a thing? Does part of his extremely good luck come from gambling earnings, or is it all his, and the house has its own separate reserves? Is there anyone able to audit these transactions and confirm that there's no cheating and everybody involved gave their informed consent, which seems to be the requisite for the magic to work without breeding resentment (as opposed to a stolen fate, like the Blackwater case), or do they have to believe in what Hua Cheng says because he's too strong to be opposed or challenged?

If I have those questions, surely some characters in the story could have them too. Cue the new Earth Master, formerly an overseer of a big mining operation at the service of the Chinese empire, who swears that he was coerced into betting his extraordinarily auspicious fate in marriage in the Gambler's Den, and claims that Hua Cheng used it to marry Xie Lian, because otherwise there's no way "any respectable god would agree to marry such a vile monster." He ascends shortly after Hualian get married, which in turn is not too long after Hua Cheng's return. Many gods are still resentful towards Hua Cheng for his past deeds and the fanfare of the bells singing him praises every day, so they rally with the new Earth Master to see if they can take him down. Naturally, Xie Lian doesn't believe any of it for even an instant. He's devastated by the turn of events, and when he's told that he should not only stay away from the case because he's biased, but also stay away from Hua Cheng altogether until they determine if their love is legitimate or the product of a fate switch, he almost gets into his second calamity era and locks himself in Paradise Manor, refusing to leave until the case is closed (he's too strong for anyone to force him out, so at least there's that).

As I mentioned, Ling Wen takes on the case to get some fresh air and see if that can get her out on parole. She's in terrible terms with Hua Cheng, but I think she's too pragmatic to try to use the chance to get back at him. Instead, I think she'd be genuinely interested in finding out whether the old fox is as cunning as people paint him to be.

That's what I have defined so far. The rest is rather nebulous because there are a lot of possibilities, both in regard to what actually happened, and also in regard to the POV(s) I want to focus on. I could stay with Ling Wen and show how the Earth Master mirrors the men who looked down on her and mistreated her through her life, or I could focus on Hualian, or do a mix of both... I have started the story two or three times, testing the waters, but I'm still unsure.

Thanks for asking!

——————

Back to WIP game main post.

Fanart made at the same time and xie lian .. again

Hualian Mix'n'Match, day 4 Ghost fire Hua Cheng and God of Flowers Xie Lian (butterfly dream)

Prompt: Fire and rain

Children scared of a ghost fire in their flower fields prayed to Xie Lian, the god of flowers, so he could get rid of it. He answered with no intention to damage the little spirit, wishing to talk with it instead. The rain surprised the god and ghost while they talked, and the former was quick to shelter the latter, who shone brightly to compensate for its lack of warm.

Event page || Organisers

Consider: TGCF... but metal.

Written by: Yabanned. Art by: Tiiracotta. Beta-read by: Leonidskies.

Read Withering Lotus (part 1 of 3) on AO3.

Summary:

Xie Lian is a talented multi-instrumentalist who had a meteoric rise as a metal star when his band, White Lotus, released their first EP and got the attention of the prestigious label Immortal Records. When he became the youngest artist to sign with them at the age of 17, he felt that he had the world in the palm of his hand. Three years later, though, a song he wrote tore everything down: he lost his contract, his career, his friends and his family. Vetoed and blacklisted, he was forced to live on the move, as far away from the offices of his old record label as possible, picking little odd jobs related to music in order to survive.

After eight years, a bureaucratic nightmare forces Xie Lian to come back to the capital. He tries his best to go unnoticed, yet he receives two unsettling requests upon arrival: a man in red wants his permission to cover a song he wrote, and a man in white wants him to inherit his mask.

Part of the TGCF Minibang 2022.

Let's get cozy, friend.

[crow-time.com]