#maaaaaybeeee

Making a shopper out of granny squares for a friend.

Pattern by Creggy's Crochet on YouTube, dunno if they have any other page.

Okay, enough is enough. I get that we are all grateful to the Empress Dowager for providing us with such a nifty metaphor, but my stallion one was better it’s getting a bit worn around the edges. Fine, that’s a filthy lie. The truth is that every time I see this whole alpha wolf and proud she-wolf bit, my mind does a weird, weird thing and skips straight to pondering on who would be the Moon Moon of that pack. It’s totally Song Huaien, by the way. No need to thank me for that interesting piece of mental imagery.

Huh, Xiao Qi really is the poster child man for healthy masculinity. Emotional stoicism? Why not, but only as far as it serves an actual purpose and is not a product of silly prejudice. The thing that makes Xiao Qi such a compelling and utterly charismatic character is that he’s frightfully self-aware. It takes an excellent knowledge of your own mental functioning to be able not only to freely admit to feeling fear, but also to realistically estimate your abilities. Xiao Qi hides only those emotions that should be hidden for a good reason and only when there is a good reason for hiding them. And mind you, concealing your emotions from others also means bottling them up to an extent. Which... may have unpredictable consequences. A bloody wise man, our general is.

The rest of his emotions? Those are left in the open for everybody to see and that includes the fact that he loves his wife. Because why the hell should he hide that? It’s not a weakness, not politically and even if, then not to an extent that would necessitate hiding it. And it’s not shameful in the least, because how could it be? Awu is his lawfully wedded wife, loving her is basically his duty, right...? And duty should be first and foremost for every Ningshuo soldier! The fact that he’s positively bursting with pride knowing that such a brave, beautiful, smart and overall wonderful True Princess has chosen him - and keeps choosing him every day - has nothing to do with that!