Xuexiao and carquinyoli appreciation blog

(And they are so precious!)

The devil(god) wears prada...

Luo Yunxi is made to be on beautiful magazine covers.

City on fire, ran over by demons and controlled by a dark god? Sure, take a good picture, print it, and let all the cowering subjects know who is in charge now!

Using this database, you can access the names and biographical information of real people across Chinese historical periods and dynasties. You can go on here and find the names (not just given names but courtesy names and other sorts of honorary aliases, depending on the period) of thousands of real individuals, though it's almost entirely men in the older dynasties. Very few women.

💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy? 🎥 Pick a fic and I'll tell you the song I imagine playing during its movie trailer.

📝 How many words do you have posted?

🤩 What's the most meaningful comment you've ever received?

🔮What's your favorite plot twist you've ever written?

👄 Your OTP are having their first kiss. What song do you imagine is playing?

🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you?

🙊Your coworkers or classmates stumble across one of your fics, but don't know you're the author. Do you fess up? Or keep quiet?

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

🦉Is there another author that helped inspire you to write?

👶Fankids: How you do you feel about them? Would your OTP have kids?

🐗How do you handle trolls?

🟥How long do you spend in edits?

🏡What is your perfect writing envrionment?

💪What motivates you to write?

🚿Where do your best ideas seem to strike?

🌠What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?

💻What do you write your stories on? Laptop, phone, paper, etc.

🤔What are some words or phrases you find yourself overusing?

📕How do you feel about people printing your fics?

🤷‍♀️What's a fic you didn't expect to be popular, but really took off?

🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic?

🥘What wip are you most excited about?

🦗Do you write in sequence or jump around?

👀 Would you ever accept requests or commissions?

😱What's your greatest fear as a fanfic writer?

☕Coffee or tea while you write?

📈Which are your top three most popular fics by bookmarks?

🎬One of your fics gets turned into a TV series. Which one is it and what network is it on?

🛌 What's a trope you haven't written, but want to?

🐸 If you incorporated your OTP into a Disney movie plot, which would it be?

👩‍🎓 Do you have an 'official' creative writing background such as a degree or previous experience publishing?

⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be?

💯 What rating do you write the most? Gen Audiences, Teen, Mature, or Explicit? How many fics at that rating do you have?

😁What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?

🐎 Would you ever do a medieval or pirate au?

👩‍🏫Pick a character and I'll tell you their favorite season and why.

🎵Do you make playlists for your fics?

🌷What's one of your fics that isn't as popular, but you hold dear?

Let's see...

Which of your fics is your pride and joy? Aaahh!!!! Starting with a difficult question!!! Sorry, I truly cannot stick to one here...

I'm immensely proud of To carry a bit of yesterday. The first time I thought something I had written was good enough to commission art for it. Some kind of dream is in the same vein, so I love it equally.

Shards of morning nights and forbidden kisses, because it was my first attempt at omegaverse AND niecest+jadecest, and beyond the sexiness I just loved to write about the politics of those horny idiots's respective sects.

A comedy of Yi City errors was a THRILL to coordinate and turn into hilarious crack. It took a lot of planning but the results are brilliant, I think. In a similar vein, Just another corporate secret is equally fun for all the well pieced-together modern day equivalences for the sect's meeting (with NHS cockwarming LWJ in said meeting!)

You never learned to fall upwards, because for ONCE we get horny and cruel Xiao Xingchen domming Xue Yang in a (drumroll!!!) canon-fitting way, and without breaking their happy life at Yi City. Yey!!

And a big mention to Hell hath no fury from Mysterious Lotus Casebook, because I think I managed to capture the devious and fast-thinking personality of Li Lianhua, weaponizing his own rape to escape from a tricky situation.

What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of? Too many to count. I've been re-reading for this answer game and I had to stop because everywhere I see too may things I love... Let's just leave it with the ending lines for Some kind of dream.

“Hmm… Daozhang?” asked a sleepy voice beside his ear. “Yes?” “I’m not… not done with you.” “Ah?” “I’m still a wanted criminal.” It almost sounded like a pout. “Ah… Yes, of course.” “Fearsome, and cruel, and terrible, aren’t I?” “You are, A-Mei.” “…your worst nightmare,” he mumbled, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Xiao Xingchen hummed in agreement, but Chengmei didn’t seem to be awake anymore. Calmly making his way back home, with a smile on his face and warmth on his heart, Xiao Xingchen felt like he couldn’t agree more. “You certainly feel like some kind of dream to me.”

How long do you spend in edits? Little to no time. Negative time, actually, if you consider I often post fics and only then I realize there are typos I have to quickly attack.

Where do your best ideas seem to strike? In the shower. Without fail.

What's a fic you didn't expect to be popular, but really took off?Shadows in red, green, yellow I took part in a trauma-based fic exchange, which had such interesting props, but my giftee asked for a SVSSS fic, which I had never written for. I wrote original Shen flashbacks to his slave years and the unfortunate trauma Liu Qingge triggers with his aggressive manners. I liked the wordplay in the title, and thought the nice parallels between the three chapters were pretty clever, but I didn't think much of it beyond that… Just a little hurt/comfort story. It is my most kudosed fic ^^U (comes to show how insanely loyal and starving for content the svsss fandom is. I love them all)

What's your greatest fear as a fanfic writer? That ao3 shuts down one day. It is so big, so important, and there are far too many people who would see it burn out of hostility towards things they don't like nor understand.

What's a trope you haven't written, but want to? I've never dared mafia/thriller AUs even though I find the genre interesting, because I don't think I know enough of the matter not to avoid falling into cliches that would make it boring. Jin Corp working behind the scenes, hired assassin Xue Yang, environmental activist Xiao Xingchen (and friends) who oppose a very lucrative deal… it all fits too neatly, see? Maybe I should find a twist, like XY going undercover in their hippy little group and has more fun sabotaging the daoshi's relationship than the actual greenpeace operation… or XXC is really a serial killer behind SL's back… idk.

If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be? Don't be afraid to write fanfiction. There is not one right way to write fics, no boogyman will bite your head off for not doing it "correctly", and if you love the original material enough to want to tell stories about it, characterization will just come naturally to you.

What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks? Comments are the pride and joy of any writer. Commenters who engage in conversation? A true treasure. That's how I made amazing friends all these years.

What's one of your fics that isn't as popular, but you hold dear? I adore Relentless in love (and in dodging needles). Cangse Sanren and Xiao Xingchen having some sibling time together!! As a way to show both these character's personalities, I'm really very proud of how it came out, but naturally the tags aren't that attention-grabbing.

In fact... I do want to add a passage I like from it.

Song Lan said more things, but Xiao Xingchen barely heard him. He didn’t dare move his focus away from the fight between the spider and the young cultivator, who was now laughing maniacally as it chopped off more legs with glee. “MWAHAHAHA! What’s that, you bug? You scared?? Want me to stop? Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of you DYING!!!” she yelled. Her sword slashed twice more, and the spider was finally discharged of all its legs, falling heavily on the ground where it rolled slightly until it hit the wall. The young woman swiftly jumped on the round body, stomping pettily on it while the spider let out pathetic little whines. Xiao Xingchen was in awe. (...)

She must have been a very skilled and powerful cultivator in life! And such a powerful spirit, she could become a true menace if corrupted by rage and grief. Xiao Xingchen needed to be very, very careful. “Stop with the frowny face, silly. I know I’m dead”

Ok, that's it. Thank you very much for inviting me to this game.

I do have questions for you too!

💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

🤩 What's the most meaningful comment you've ever received?

🔮What's your favorite plot twist you've ever written?

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

🌠What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?

📕How do you feel about people printing your fics? (Trick question I know hahahahahahhaha)

👀 Would you ever accept requests or commissions?

🐸 If you incorporated your OTP into a Disney movie plot, which would it be?

💯 What rating do you enjoy writing the most? Gen Audiences, Teen, Mature, or Explicit? How many fics at that rating do you have?

😁What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?

🐎 Would you ever do a medieval or pirate au?

🌷What's one of your fics that isn't as popular, but you hold dear?

(If it's too many questions, feel free to drop a few)

Sailor Moon, One Piece, Detective Conan, Shin-Chan and Cardcaptor sakura were also in the background of "cartoons" we watched.

But the first Actual Passion anime I would count, as in it got me so invested I was upset if one day I had to skip it because I didn't get home early enough, was Yu Yu Hakusho.

First manga I painstakingly bought every single book of, as they kept appearing in the manga festivals, year by year.

Then about a week into their journey like

Legolas: *in Elvish, for approximately the 20th time* ugh fucking hobbits, so annoying

Frodo: *also in Elvish, deadpan* yeah we’re the worst

Legolas:

Legolas: ugh fucking hobbits

Merry: Frodo what’d he say

Frodo: I’m not sure he speaks a weird dialect but I think he’s insulting us. I should tell him I can understand Elvish

Merry: I mean you could do that but consider

Merry: you can only tell him ONCE

Legolas: umm well your accent is horrible

Aragorn: *hollering from a distance* HIS ACCENT IS BETTER THAN YOURS LEGOLAS YOU SILVAN HICK

Legolas: y’alld’ve’ff’ve

Frodo: Good morrow to thee, frend. I hope we twain shalle bee moste excellente companions.

Legolas: Wots that mate? ‘Ere, you avin’ a giggle? Fookin’ ‘obbits, I sware.

english would probably have changed less since Chaucer’s time, if a lot of our cultural leaders from the thirteenth century were still alive and running things.

they’ve had like. seven generations since the sun happened, max. frodo’s books are old to him, but outside any very old poetry copied down exactly, the dialect represented in them isn’t likely to be older than the Second Age, wherein Aragorn’s foster-father Elrond started out as a very young adult and grew into himself, and Legolas’ father was born.

so like, three to six thousand years old, maybe, which is probably a drop in the bucket of Elvish history judging by all the ethnic differentiation that had time to develop before Ungoliant came along, even if we can’t really tell because there weren’t years to count, before the Trees were destroyed.

plus a lot of Bilbo’s materials were probably directly from Elrond, whose library dates largely from the Third Age, probably, because he didn’t establish Imladris until after the Last Alliance. and Elrond isn’t the type to intentionally help Bilbo learn the wrong dialect and sound sillier than can be helped, even if everyone was humoring him more than a little.

so depending on how much of a role Thranduil took in his upbringing (and Oropher in his), Legolas may have some weird stilted old-fashioned speaking tics in his Sindarin that reflect a more purely Doriathrin dialect rather than the Doriathrin-influenced Western Sindarin that became the most widely spoken Sindarin long before he was born, or he might have a School Voice from having been taught how to Speak Proper and then lapse into really obscure colloquial Avari dialect when he’s being casual. or both!

considering legolas’ moderately complicated political position, i expect he can code-switch.

…it’s also fairly likely considering the linguistic politics involved that Legolas is reasonably articulate in Sindarin, though with some level of accent, but knows approximately zero Quenya outside of loanwords into Sindarin, and even those he mostly didn’t learn as a kid.

which would be extra hilarious when he and gimli fetch up in Valinor in his little homemade skiff, if the first elves he meets have never been to Middle Earth and they’re just standing there on the beach reduced to miming about what is the short beard person, and who are you, and why.

Pippin, confused: Is he not speaking Elvish?

Frodo, sarcastically: I dunno, are you speaking Hobbit?

Boromir, who has been lowkey pissed-off at the Hobbits’ weird dialect this whole time: That’s what it sounds like to me.

Merry, who actually knows some shit about Hobbit background: We are actually speaking multiple variants of the Shire dialect of Westron, you ignorant fuck.

This song may be one of the most beautiful anthems in the world, in my opinion.

La Balanguera. Inspired on a traditional Mallorcan song, the lyrics are a poem by Joan Alcover (1854-1926) to which Amadeu Vives added music to in 1926. It became so popular and significant for Mallorcan people -especially in the 1960s when Mallorcans and other Catalans were using music as an instrument in their fight against fascism which has persecuted our culture and language- that in 1996 it was recognised as the official anthem of Mallorca.

It talks about a woman referred to as the “balanguera”. The Balanguera is a character from a traditional Mallorcan song who spins and weaves. The name comes from a confusion of the word “bolangera” (“baker”, a figure that appears in different folk dances of Catalonia and the Valencian Country) and “Berenguera” (the name of some dances of the Mallorcan “cossiers” folk dance).

Here are the lyrics in Catalan and the translation of each stanza to English.

La balanguera, misteriosa, com una aranya d'art subtil, buida que buida sa filosa, de nostra vida treu el fil. Com un parca bé cavil·la, teixint la tela per a demà. La balanguera fila, fila… La balanguera filarà.

The mysterious Balanguera, like a spider of subtle art, empties, oh, empties her spinning wheel and pulls off the thread of our lives. Like a Parca she ponders well, weaving the cloth for tomorrow. The Balanguera spins, spins… the Balanguera will spin.

Girant l'ullada cap enrere, guaita les ombres de l'avior, i de la nova primavera sap on s'amaga la llavor. Sap que la soca més s'enfila com més endins pot arrelar. La balanguera fila, fila. La balanguera filarà.

Turning her glance to the past, she guards the shades of ancestry and of the new spring she knows where the seed is hidden. She knows that the vine-stock climbs up higher the deeper its roots can go. The Balanguera spins, spins, the Balanguera will spin.

De tradicions i d'esperances tix la senyera pel jovent, com qui fa un vel de nuviances amb cabelleres d'or i argent. De la infantesa qui s'enfila, de la vellura qui se'n va. La balanguera fila, fila. La balanguera filarà.

Una pregunta, a veure si en saps res... La Balanguera apareix a la façana del Palau de la música, però aquest edifici és força anterior a quan es va afegir la múisca al poema d'Alcover.

Tenia la Balanguera alguna relació amb la música, abans de 1926? (A més, l'Amadeu Vivies era un dels fundadors de l'Orfeó Català, cosa que el conecta encara més al Palau...)

- A villain -

And so, the demon god returns...

Welcome back, Tantai Jin.

The Devil Wears Prada?

BAH!