#Calligraphic Practice kids | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrspasser · 2 years

Text

Don’t tell mom

Matchablossom fanfiction

Kojiro planned to feed Kaoru, close up the restaurant, change his clothes and then head to S. He should've known that the kids don't care for his plans...

In which Reki calls for help, Kaoru has secret pockets in the sleeves of his kimono and there's improper use of a trash can.

"You want coffee before we go?" Kojiro asks as he takes the empty plate and wineglass away from where his last customer of the day sits at the bar.

Kaoru dabs at his lips with his napkin and hums thoughtfully. He crumples the cloth up and tosses it on the plate before Kojiro turns away. "Might as well."

"Thought you could use the caffeine," Kojiro offers. "You've had a long day. If you want to win any races tonight you're gonna need a double espresso." It's said with as much faux innocence as he can muster and it immediately makes the flint appear in Kaoru's eyes, just like he intended.

"I can win with my eyes closed when I'm racing you!" Kaoru is already up from his chair, leaning his hands on the bar.

"Because you cheat, letting your robot girlfriend take the wheel!" Kojiro calls back through the open kitchen hatch. He quickly cleans the plate and the glass in the sink, doing the last bit of clean up before he can close up for tonight. He already did the rest while Kaoru was eating, grumbling about his day. The master calligrapher had two workshops today and those always tire him out, mostly from having to socialise with lots of different people. If Kojiro wanted to tease him, he'd say he's tired from having to smile all day; straining muscles he never uses. That's not it, though, Kaoru smiles often enough. It's usually hidden behind a black mask, or only visible to those who have the privilege. Kojiro loves having that privilege.

Their bickering back and forth is enough to rile Kaoru up, make him forget about his earlier lethargy. Having a full stomach helps too. The man always forgets to eat when he's busy at his studio, so Kojiro was happy to feed him today when he showed up towards the end of dinner service. He's always happy to feed his friend; he likes having some company while he putters around the bar to clean up. His servers straighten out the front room and the kitchen staff does most of the cleaning in the back, leaving only the loose ends for their chef. They have a system and it works. Sometimes even Kaoru helps: lining up the centrepieces at the tables with the artworks on the wall, or something equally perfectionistic. He doesn't need to help to earn his meal, Kojiro mainly likes the comfort of having his best and oldest friend around.

When his phone buzzes in his pocket, Kojiro lifts a finger to stop Kaoru's angry rant. His friend glares at him, but obediently shuts his mouth. He checks to see who it is and then hits the speaker button. "Hey Reki, what's up?"

"Joe! I'm so happy you picked up! We uh... We kinda need your help."

"What did you do?" Kaoru arches an inquisitive eyebrow at his words, inching closer to where Kojiro rounds the bar so he can hear the conversation better.

Reki immediately gets defensive. "Who says I did something?" Kojiro and Kaoru exchange a meaningful glance at his tone. To be fair, it's a one in three chance that Reki was the one that caused the trouble. Langa and Miya should never be ruled out. "And why do you immediately assume something bad happened?"

Kojiro sighs and rolls his eyes. "Why else would you need help?"

"I could be needing help with my maths homework!"

"You would've called Cherry." Kojiro ignores the smug look from his pink haired friend. He did fine in school, but he likes working with his hands more. Besides, he's kinda lost touch with the non-practical side of the things they learned in school. Kaoru is better at it anyway. 'Nerd' he mouths at his friend, who elbows him in the side in retaliation.

"Fine," Reki relents. "But we could really use a hand. Can you come to the park?"

"Did one of you bail and need a ride to the hospital?" Kojiro's mind is suddenly filled with the images of blood and broken bones. There's a rail slide in the park that the kids like to practice on, but it's pretty challenging. He immediately feels around his pockets for his car keys, yet he's still in his work clothes and his car keys are in the apartment upstairs. Kaoru slides a hand up the sleeve of his kimono and shows him his own car keys instead, moving with him towards the door.

"No, no! No hospital needed." Reki hesitates for a second. "Just get here, alright? We'll explain it then. Or, I guess you can see for yourself."

"That doesn't bode well," Kaoru says when Kojiro disconnects the call after Reki oddly suggests he should bring some tools. "Come on, I've got tools in the back of my car."

"Maybe his board broke down?" Kojiro gets in on the passenger side of the small Toyota Kaoru drives.

"Reki could fix that himself."

The drive to the park isn't very far. It certainly doesn't give Kojiro enough time to think of valid reasons for why Reki needs his help. He's just thinking that maybe one of the kids climbed to the top of the jungle gym in the park and can't get down, when Kaoru stops the car by the entrance to the park. They immediately spot Reki and Langa, standing beneath a lamp post just inside the wrought iron gates that decorate the main entrance. The kids seem surprised that Kaoru gets out of the car too, eyeing his formal wear curiously.

"You brought Cherry?" Reki almost whines, self consciously rubbing a hand through his hair.

"Technically I brought Joe, seeing as I drove us here," Kaoru answers haughtily, folding his hands into the sleeves of his kimono and drawing up to his full height. He looks intimidating like that.

Reki makes a face and looks at Kojiro. "We were kinda hoping it would just be you."

"Why did you call me anyway?" Kojiro is puzzled: both Reki and Langa look no worse for wear and they both have their skateboards with them, still fully intact. "You both look fine, I don't see any problems. And why would you not want me to bring Cherry?"

Kaoru huffs. "Because they did something stupid and they thought a gorilla would understand."

"Hey!" Kojiro exclaims.

"See! You don't even know what we did and you're already mad!" Reki fidgets with the skateboard in his hands, looking far too guilty. Langa, next to him, has a blank look on his face, but that's kind of his default expression. His face doesn't emulate much in general, except when you put free food in front of him.

Kaoru assesses them with sharp eyes and then pans his gaze over their surroundings. Every few metres a lamppost lights up the darkness. He stops at the sight of a lonely skateboard, a little ways over. "Where is Miya?" The words are sharp, with a hint of worry.

"Yeah..." Reki draws out. "That's kinda the thing."

"He's in there," Langa interrupts, pointing in the direction of the skateboard with the purple x on it.

"In where?" Kojiro sees nothing but nicely trimmed rose bushes and yellow pavement. There's some benches at the edge of the square where they're standing, but that's about it. Last summer Kaoru did a calligraphy demonstration on this square. Kojiro remembers, because he got roped in to carry all his equipment.

The calligrapher in question, who made his way in the direction Langa pointed at, suddenly stops beside a large trash can. It's one of those models that always remind Kojiro somewhat of a robot: the large bucket sits up on two legs that run up the whole length of the trash can, holding up a raised lid that covers the top opening like an awning. The front of the bucket has a door so the city workers can empty the thing easily. Kaoru bends over slightly to peer into the top opening. When he turns back to the others his eyes are comically large. "What is Miya doing in a trash can?"

"What?" Kojiro makes it over in a few large strides. There appears to be a faint light coming from inside the trash can. The source reveals itself as Miya's Switch. The kid is sitting on the floor of the otherwise empty trash can with his knees folded up against his chest and his nose almost touching the screen of his game. Kojiro is dumbfounded. "What??"

"You see, we made a bet," Reki starts.

"We thought Miya wouldn't fit inside the trash can," Langa adds.

"The slimes dared me," finishes Miya from inside the trash can. His voice echoes slightly against the metal of his current housing.

"So you climbed inside a municipal trash can," Kaoru deadpans, disapproval clear in his tone.

"He went in willingly!" Reki hurries to say. "And the thing was empty anyway. It's not like we dared him to go sit in a bunch of trash."

Kojiro touches the raised lid, which doesn't budge. There's an opening on two sides, but they're too small for even Miya to fit through. The whole thing isn't even big enough for Miya to stand up in. "How the hell did you get in?"

"The door was open," Langa explains, gesturing towards the front of the bucket.

"With the emphasis on was," Kojiro quickly understands, as he tries but fails to pull the door open. There's a lock on the front, requiring a key that no one of them currently possesses. A quick check with Miya confirms that he indeed can't open the mechanism from inside, which explains why the kids had called for help. "I'll have to break it open."

"Are you crazy?" Kaoru interjects testily. "We have a slight inconvenience on our hands and your immediate reaction is to resort to vandalism?"

"Do you call this a slight inconvenience?"

"It kinda is," Langa shrugs. "At least until the battery of Miya's game runs out."

"How long has he been in there already?!" Kaoru demands before declaring he doesn't even want to know. He whips out his phone - again from a hidden pocket in his kimono sleeve - and points the torch light on the lock. "We could pick the lock," he offers after a short inspection.

"Already tried that," Reki says, brandishing a T-shaped tool from the pocket of his hoodie.

"You can't pick a lock with a skate tool." Kojiro fears Kaoru's eyes will get stuck in the back of his head if he rolls them any harder. "I'll go see what I can do."

A few minutes later Kaoru sits crouched in front of the trash can, trying to pry the look open with a screwdriver he had in his car. Kojiro and the others watch over his shoulder eagerly. "How did the door get locked anyway?" Kojiro asks, side eyeing the two teens.

"It just happened."

"It was an accident."

"Reki pushed the door closed behind me and the lock clicked into place," echoes Miya from inside. There's faint noises coming from his game. At least the kid is entertained.

Kaoru gets to his feet with an angry huff. "How could you kids be so stupid?" he bites out, which Kojiro knows to translate as "I can't get the lock to open." Kaoru will never admit he can't do something, he's too proud for that.

"It didn't work?" Reki asks, sounding disappointed.

"It's still locked, isn't it?" The kids flinch back at Kaoru's angry hiss. A lot of his friend's emotions come out as anger, Kojiro has learned over the years. Sadness, worry, frustration, disappointment. Reki and Langa will learn that too, if they stick around long enough.

Reki turns to Kojiro, sidling a bit further away from the angry Cherry Blossom. "Didn't you bring an angle grinder?"

"I'm a chef," Kojiro replies incredulously, "do I look like I use power tools in my kitchen?"

"We are not destroying municipal property." The kids protest, hell, even Kojiro argues, but Kaoru can't be swayed. "We're not vandals, nor are we delinquents."

"We skate at an abandoned mine every week," Reki counters. "That's pretty illegal. And you and Joe even founded the whole skating scene there!" He yelps in pain when he gets wacked on the head with a fan.

"Ko - Joe, don't you know someone at the Fire Department?" Kaoru asks over the heads of the two teens. He gives Kojiro a meaningful look that makes him think he really should know someone there. It dawns on him a moment later.

"Chief Edo!" The town council sometimes has lunch meetings at Sia La Luce and the fire chief is a big fan of Italian cuisine. So much so that he sometimes orders food to be brought to the fire station, even though the restaurant normally doesn't offer take out services.

"Are you calling 119?" Reki exclaims when Kojiro takes out his phone and taps the screen a few times.

"911?" Langa's face shows emotion for the first time that evening as he rounds on Reki. "Is Joe calling the police?!"

"No, the Fire Brigade," Reki corrects. "And it's 119, not 911."

"Pretty sure it's 911."

Kojiro ignores the boys squabbling over the correct emergency number. He's not calling that anyway, as they risk a fine or at least a bill if they call in the fire squad through official channels. Kaoru's idea is their best shot: Kojiro can probably call in a favour to rescue Miya from his predicament. Not that the kid seems to care much about being locked up inside a trash can, he's as cool as a cucumber in there. Or so it seems. Kaoru keeps a sharp eye on him anyway. He thanks his lucky stars when Chief Edo turns out to be on duty tonight. The older man is understanding and promises to send over some help quickly. While they wait for help to arrive, Kaoru lectures the boys sternly on their idiotic behaviour. He's noticeably more lenient towards Miya, going as far as speaking calmly with the still locked up kid. Kojiro suspects Miya isn't as laid-back about the situation as he tries to appear, so he herds the two other young boys to the other side of the square where they can toy around with their skateboards for a bit.

A red hatchback with the fire department logo on it appears by the entrance to the park, with two firemen stepping out. One of them is Chief Edo, who greets Kojiro with a jovial clap to his shoulder. "Now, where's the fire?" he jokes. Kojiro shows the two men the trash can with Miya inside and it turns out to be an easy job for one of the various master keys they have in their car. The door of the trash can opens on squeaking hinges and Miya half falls out, stumbling when he has to stretch his sore limbs to catch himself. Kaoru rights him with a hand underneath his arm, keeping the boy close even though he makes the kid bow to the firemen to thank them for their trouble.

"Thanks again," Kojiro says, walking the two firemen back to their car. "I'll make sure to bring by lunch for the crew tomorrow."

"Reki and Langa can do that," Kaoru suggests, only it's more of a command. "They can also wash the dishes afterwards." He still has a hand on Miya's shoulder, steering the kid towards his small Toyota. The thirteen year old is strangely subdued, evidence that his little adventure did not leave him unaffected.

"That's not fair! What about Miya?!" Reki cries out.

"I think sitting in a trash can for over an hour is punishment enough already," Kojiro interjects before Kaoru can react. His stern face matches Kaoru's thunderous expression, although his is mostly for show. Getting a friend stuck in a trash can is nothing compared to the shit he and Kaoru got up to when they were younger, but he does kinda want to teach them a lesson. After all, he could've been on his way to S right now, instead of standing here in an empty, dark park, still dressed in his chef's uniform. "I expect you boys to come by the restaurant tomorrow morning."

Both boys give him a reluctant nod and then they skate away, the wheels of their skateboards rolling noisily down the sidewalk.

Kaoru is waiting for him by the car, his hand on the opened car door. Miya is already sitting in the back, face glued to his game again. "Do you still want to go to S?" he asks quietly, his eyes following Kojiro as he walks around the car to the passenger side.

Kojiro sighs, his shoulders slumping as he leans his arms on top of the car. "I guess we better get the kid home first."

"He needs a bath," Kaoru confirms, his nose wrinkling slightly.

"It'll probably be too late for S after that." Kojiro considers going anyway, but he has to get up in time for lunch service tomorrow, so he didn't plan on staying at S for that long to begin with. It's not worth the hassle, he decides. They can always go tomorrow night.

"Wine and a movie?" Kaoru suggests instead, guessing his thoughts. He already moves to get behind the wheel, counting on the other to agree.

Kojiro nods and gets in too. "Sounds like a plan."

#matchablossom #matchablossom fanfic #sk8 the infinity #sk8 fanfic #cherry and joe acting like a married couple #improper use of a trash can #inspired by a news item about a kid stuck in a trash can #miya is that kid #mom cherry blossom #parental Kaoru #parental Kojiro #Sakurayashiki Kaoru #Nanjo Kojiro

16 notes · View notes

empyrisan · 2 years

Note

what are your favorite animals to draw?

I tend to be really partial to drawing birds, snakes, tigers, bulls, and dinosaurs.

I find that the sheer diversity of birds and dinosaurs offer endless enrichment and inspiration. I was a dinosaur kid, and now I'm a dinosaur adult drawing dinosaurs for work. And a years ago, I buckled down and filled a few sketchbooks of birds. I can more or less draw a general bird's wing from memory because of this.

I find snakes to be really beautiful and it's pretty much imperative that I study them well to draw eastern dragons and other serpentine beasts.

Tiger anatomy often get translated into many of my creature designs, but their standout trait are their calligraphic black stripes set against a background of orange fur. It's not hard to see why they're so popular with artists.

And bulls are just really fascinating to me. One of the things I've learned about myself in the past few years is that I really love minotaurs and bovine-like creatures.

But otherwise, my favorite animal to draw is gonna differ day-to-day and depend on what I'm in the mood to draw. The practice I put into drawing, or simply looking at and studying animals in general, naturally gets channeled into the creatures I design.

#tori talks #art talk

7 notes · View notes

whatiscalligraphy · 3 days

Text

Eco-Friendly Calligraphy Gear: Sustainable Art Choices

Eco-Friendly Calligraphy Gear: Discover the Top Sustainable Art Choices Today!

Welcome to the world of eco-friendly calligraphy gear and sustainable art choices! If you're a calligraphy enthusiast who also cares about the environment, this article is for you. Discover how you can practice calligraphy while making conscious choices that reduce your environmental impact. From choosing recycled paper to using non-toxic inks, there are plenty of options available to help you create beautiful art in an eco-friendly way. Key Takeaways: - High-quality eco-friendly printing reduces environmental impact and enhances brand image. - Choose eco-friendly craft supplies made with sustainable materials and non-toxic ingredients. - Opt for eco-friendly printing and framing solutions that prioritize sustainability. - Explore sustainable options for calligraphy tools and materials, such as organic cotton pen wraps and recyclable paper. - Consider eco-conscious packaging for calligraphy products, using recyclable materials and minimal waste.

Why Choose Eco-Friendly Craft Supplies?

When it comes to practicing calligraphy, choosing eco-friendly craft supplies is not only a responsible choice but also a way to promote sustainability. Eco-friendly craft supplies are made with sustainable materials and non-toxic ingredients, ensuring a healthier and more environmentally friendly artistic process. Let's explore some of the reasons why you should consider incorporating eco-friendly craft supplies into your calligraphy practice. One of the main advantages of eco-friendly craft supplies is that they are made with sustainable materials. By opting for materials like recycled paper and organic cotton, you can reduce the demand for virgin resources and support the recycling industry. These sustainable materials have a lower environmental impact compared to their conventional counterparts, making them an excellent choice for eco-conscious calligraphers. In addition to using sustainable materials, eco-friendly craft supplies are also made with non-toxic ingredients. Traditional mass-produced craft supplies often contain harmful substances that can be detrimental to both human health and the environment. By choosing non-toxic alternatives, you can protect yourself and the planet from the negative effects of these harmful chemicals. When it comes to specific eco-friendly craft supply brands, there are several options available. Eco-Kids, Worthwhile Paper, Onyx and Green, Eco-Friendly Crafts, and Honeysticks are some examples of brands that offer eco-friendly and non-toxic craft supplies. These brands are dedicated to promoting sustainability and prioritizing the use of environmentally friendly materials in their products. By supporting these brands, you can make a conscious choice towards a greener art community. Eco-Friendly Craft Supplies Benefits: - Made with sustainable materials - Non-toxic ingredients - Support recycling industry - Promote a healthier and environmentally friendly artistic process By choosing eco-friendly craft supplies for your calligraphy practice, you can contribute to a more sustainable and earth-friendly art community. Embrace the use of sustainable materials and non-toxic ingredients to minimize your environmental impact while indulging in your creative passion.

Eco-Friendly Printing and Framing Solutions

When it comes to sustainable calligraphy and art, choosing eco-friendly printing and framing solutions is crucial. These solutions not only reduce your environmental impact but also promote the use of sustainable art materials. Companies like King's Framing & Art Gallery and Strathmore prioritize eco-conscious practices in their printing and framing processes. King's Framing & Art Gallery is committed to sustainability by using low VOC paint, non-toxic cleaning products, and recycled shipping materials. They also offer alternatives like cadmium-free colors and art materials made with renewable energy sources. Strathmore, on the other hand, produces artist papers made with wind power and offers a wide range of recycled papers and papers made from alternative fibers like bamboo, hemp, and cotton. Both companies prioritize reducing the use of hazardous chemicals and promoting sustainable practices. Choosing eco-friendly printing and framing solutions is not only good for the environment but also for the longevity of your artwork. By opting for these sustainable options, you can protect both the planet and your artistic creations. Comparing Eco-Friendly Printing and Framing Solutions: Company Printing Practices Framing Practices King's Framing & Art Gallery Low VOC paint, non-toxic inks, use of renewable energy sources Use of recycled materials, eco-friendly frame options Strathmore Artist papers made with wind power, recycled papers, alternative fibers Use of sustainable materials, eco-friendly frame options By choosing eco-friendly printing and framing solutions, you can support companies that prioritize sustainability while ensuring the preservation of your artwork for years to come.

Sustainable Calligraphy Tools and Materials

When it comes to practicing calligraphy in a sustainable and eco-friendly way, it's important to choose the right tools and materials. By opting for sustainable options, you can reduce your environmental impact and contribute to a greener planet. Here are some sustainable calligraphy tools and materials to consider: 1. Eco-Friendly Inks Traditional calligraphy inks often contain harmful chemicals that can harm the environment. Opt for eco-friendly inks made from non-toxic and plant-based ingredients. These inks are not only better for the planet but also safer for your health. Look for brands that prioritize sustainability and offer eco-friendly ink options. 2. Recycled Paper Choosing recycled paper for your calligraphy projects is another great way to be eco-friendly. Look for paper made from post-consumer waste or sustainable sources. Recycled paper not only helps reduce the demand for virgin paper but also minimizes the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. 3. Reusable Inkwells Instead of using disposable ink cartridges or plastic ink containers, consider investing in reusable inkwells. These inkwells are typically made from glass or other sustainable materials and can be refilled with your preferred ink. By using reusable inkwells, you can minimize waste and reduce your carbon footprint. 4. Organic Cotton Pen Wraps When it comes to storing and protecting your calligraphy pens, opt for organic cotton pen wraps. These wraps are made from sustainably sourced organic cotton, which is free from harmful pesticides and chemicals. Organic cotton pen wraps provide a natural and eco-friendly alternative to synthetic materials. By choosing sustainable calligraphy tools and materials, you can enjoy your creative practice while making a positive impact on the environment. Embrace eco-friendly inks, recycled paper, reusable inkwells, and organic cotton pen wraps to create beautiful calligraphy art in a sustainable way.

Eco-Conscious Packaging for Calligraphy Products

Eco-conscious packaging is an important aspect of sustainable calligraphy products. When choosing calligraphy supplies, opt for packaging that is recyclable and made from recycled materials whenever possible. By prioritizing eco-conscious packaging, you can reduce your environmental impact and contribute to a greener planet. One sustainable packaging option for calligraphy products is the use of reclaimed glass ink bottles. These bottles are not only visually appealing but also offer a more eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastic bottles. Reclaimed glass reduces waste and helps to conserve resources by giving new life to existing materials. "Choosing calligraphy sets and kits with minimal packaging waste is another way to promote eco-consciousness. By opting for products with minimal packaging, you can reduce the amount of waste generated and minimize your overall environmental footprint." Another key aspect of eco-conscious packaging is the use of recycled materials. Look for calligraphy products that are packaged using recycled materials, such as recycled paper or cardboard. This helps to conserve resources and reduce the demand for virgin materials, leading to a more sustainable calligraphy practice. Benefits of Eco-Conscious Packaging Examples Promotes sustainability Opting for recyclable and recycled packaging materials Reduces waste Choosing calligraphy sets and kits with minimal packaging waste Conserves resources Using reclaimed glass ink bottles and recycled materials Minimizes environmental impact Supporting brands that prioritize eco-conscious packaging By considering the packaging materials used for calligraphy products, you can make a more eco-friendly choice. Opting for recyclable packaging, reclaimed glass ink bottles, and products packaged with recycled materials can help to minimize waste and reduce your overall environmental impact.

Earth-Friendly Calligraphy Workshops and Tutorials

Earth-friendly calligraphy workshops and tutorials offer a great way to learn and practice calligraphy while also making a positive impact on the environment. These workshops and tutorials prioritize sustainability in their practices, incorporating eco-friendly elements that reduce energy consumption and promote sustainable materials. By participating in these earth-friendly sessions, you can develop your calligraphy skills while minimizing your environmental footprint. Energy-Efficient Lighting One of the key features of earth-friendly calligraphy workshops is the use of energy-efficient lighting. By utilizing LED lights or other energy-saving alternatives, these workshops reduce energy consumption and lower carbon emissions. Not only does this contribute to a greener planet, but it also creates a pleasant and well-lit environment for calligraphy practice. So, when searching for calligraphy workshops, look for those that prioritize energy efficiency in their lighting choices. Digital Calligraphy Devices and Rechargeable Batteries Another eco-friendly aspect of calligraphy workshops and tutorials is the use of digital calligraphy devices and rechargeable batteries. Digital devices eliminate the need for paper and traditional ink, reducing waste and promoting a more sustainable approach. Additionally, using rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones reduces battery waste and minimizes the environmental impact of power consumption. Embracing these digital and rechargeable options showcases a commitment to eco-conscious calligraphy practice. Eco-Friendly Calligraphy Tutorials Beyond workshops, there are also many online tutorials available that focus on eco-friendly calligraphy practices. These tutorials share tips on using sustainable materials, reducing waste, and adopting environmentally friendly techniques. By following these tutorials, you can learn new calligraphy skills while also gaining insights into earth-friendly approaches. Whether you prefer in-person workshops or online tutorials, there are plenty of options available to support your journey towards eco-friendly calligraphy.

Sustainable Storage and Organization for Calligraphy Supplies

When it comes to storing and organizing your calligraphy supplies, it's important to choose sustainable options that align with your eco-friendly mindset. Opting for sustainable storage solutions not only keeps your supplies organized but also contributes to a greener planet. One sustainable option for calligraphy storage is FSC-certified wood. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, an organization that promotes responsible forest management. By choosing storage solutions made from FSC-certified wood, you can ensure that the materials used come from responsibly managed forests. Another consideration for sustainable storage is to look for options made from other eco-friendly and sustainable materials. This can include materials like bamboo or recycled plastic. These options provide a durable and eco-conscious alternative to traditional storage solutions, reducing your environmental impact. "Choosing sustainable storage solutions not only keeps your supplies organized but also contributes to a greener planet." By prioritizing sustainability in your storage and organization choices, you can create a more eco-friendly calligraphy practice. Not only will you feel good about reducing your environmental footprint, but you'll also be inspired to create beautiful art knowing that you're making a positive impact on the planet. Incorporating sustainable storage solutions into your calligraphy practice is just one way to embrace eco-friendly choices. By considering the materials used in your tools, accessories, and packaging, you can create a truly sustainable and earth-friendly calligraphy experience. Sustainable Calligraphy Storage Options: Storage Solution Description FSC-Certified Wood Storage Box A stylish and eco-friendly option made from responsibly sourced wood. Bamboo Calligraphy Pen Holder A durable and sustainable alternative to traditional pen holders. Recycled Plastic Organizer Made from recycled materials, providing an eco-conscious storage solution. Upcycled Tin Can Pencil Holder A creative and sustainable DIY option using repurposed materials.

Eco-Friendly Calligraphy Accessories

When practicing calligraphy with an eco-friendly approach, it's important to consider the accessories you use. Opting for sustainable and environmentally friendly options can make a significant difference. Here are some eco-friendly calligraphy accessories to incorporate into your creative process: Natural Rubber Erasers Replace synthetic erasers with natural rubber erasers to reduce environmental impact. Natural rubber erasers are made from renewable resources and biodegrade over time, making them a more sustainable choice. They effectively remove pencil and graphite marks without leaving residue or damaging paper surfaces. Biodegradable Pen Wipes Keep your calligraphy pens clean and maintained with biodegradable pen wipes. These wipes are made from environmentally friendly materials that break down naturally over time. They effectively remove ink residue from pen nibs, ensuring optimal performance while minimizing the use of harsh chemicals. Plant-Based Calligraphy Pen Oils When lubricating your calligraphy pens, opt for plant-based oils instead of synthetic alternatives. Plant-based calligraphy pen oils are derived from renewable resources and offer a natural lubricant for smooth ink flow. They are non-toxic and environmentally friendly, providing a sustainable option for pen maintenance. Lead-Free Accessories Ensure that the accessories you use in your calligraphy practice are lead-free. Lead can be harmful to both human health and the environment. By choosing lead-free calligraphy accessories, you prioritize safety and contribute to a more sustainable artistic process. Accessories Description Natural Rubber Erasers Renewable, biodegradable erasers that effectively remove pencil and graphite marks without damaging paper surfaces. Biodegradable Pen Wipes Environmentally friendly wipes made from biodegradable materials for cleaning and maintaining calligraphy pens. Plant-Based Calligraphy Pen Oils Natural lubricants derived from renewable resources, providing a sustainable option for pen maintenance. Lead-Free Accessories Accessories that are free from lead, prioritizing safety and sustainability in your calligraphy practice. By incorporating these eco-friendly calligraphy accessories into your creative process, you can enjoy the art of calligraphy while minimizing your environmental impact.

Eco-Responsible Calligraphy Brands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw0cGc7LRKQ When it comes to calligraphy, there are several eco-responsible brands that prioritize sustainability and environmentally friendly practices. These brands offer a wide range of calligraphy supplies made from sustainable art materials, ensuring that you can create beautiful artwork while minimizing your environmental impact. By supporting these eco-responsible calligraphy brands, you can contribute to a greener planet and promote the use of sustainable art supplies. One such brand is Sustainable Ink Co., which specializes in producing eco-friendly calligraphy inks. Their inks are made from plant-based ingredients, ensuring that they are non-toxic and safe for both artists and the environment. Additionally, Sustainable Ink Co. focuses on using recyclable packaging materials and minimizing waste throughout their manufacturing process. Another eco-responsible calligraphy brand is Earthbound Crafts, known for their commitment to using environmentally friendly materials. Earthbound Crafts offers a range of sustainable calligraphy tools, including pen holders made from FSC-certified wood and reusable inkwells. They also prioritize using recycled paper and packaging materials. Brand Specialty Key Features Sustainable Ink Co. Eco-Friendly Inks - Plant-based ingredients - Non-toxic - Recyclable packaging Earthbound Crafts Sustainable Calligraphy Tools - FSC-certified wood - Reusable inkwells - Recycled paper and packaging materials By choosing eco-responsible calligraphy brands, you can ensure that your art supplies are made with environmentally friendly materials and production methods. Not only will you be able to create beautiful calligraphy, but you will also be contributing to a more sustainable and earth-friendly art community. Read the full article

#BiodegradableArtGear #EcoArtMaterials #Eco-FriendlyCalligraphy #EnvironmentallyFriendlyGear #GreenArtSupplies #GreenInkChoices #NaturalInkOptions #RecycledCalligraphySupplies #SustainableArt #SustainableCalligraphyTools

0 notes

praeteritus-memories-muses · 4 months

Text

Name: Kaoru Sakurayashiki

Series: Sk8 The Infinity

Continuity: Anime

Age: 27

Height: 5'9"

Birthday: March 27th

Birthplace: Okinawa, Japan

Orientation: Homosexual

Species: Human

Occupation: Calligrapher, Skateboarder

Father: Gaku Sakurayashiki

Mother: Kayo Sakurayashiki (deceased)

Bio:

Born to a father that owned a small tech company and a quiet stay-at-home mom, Kaoru Sakurayashiki was pretty spoiled as a child. He was their only child, as he has no brothers or sisters to speak of, so it's safe to say that his parents wanted him to have the best life possible.

This meant that Kaoru ended up growing a sort of attachment and abandonment issue. The older he got, the more his parents started to take off. His father's tech company required more business trips to Tokyo while his mother had poor health and had to stay in bed most days.

He probably would've been completely alone had it not been for the only other child in the neighborhood, Kojiro Nanjo. He and Kojiro hit it off immediately and pretty much became inseparable friends, some even thought they might've been family from just how close they've been. Though some question how when they bicker and argue nearly every chance they get. It's all their way of bonding as friends though, though originally it was a lesson to tech Kaoru when they were kids about treating others better.

Due to being so spoiled, it made Kaoru arrogant in himself. With Kojiro being so down to earth, the two ended up balancing each other out and pulling the other up or down when they needed a hand to reach out for them.

This was especially needed when his mother passed away during his second year of high school from her poor health. He probably would've been a complete wreck, had it not been for Kojiro to introduce him to skateboarding where they'd sneak out their homes in the middle of the night to skateboard in the streets.

With his father still working in Tokyo full time, Kaoru started to rebel against him. He got a lip ring, sakura branch tattoo on his lower back and earrings to make his father mad, knowing he would disapproved of that kind of 'inappropriate' jewelry. He never did notice, only making Kaoru rely more on his new skating family and Kojiro.

One night they met a mysterious skater who went by Adam. The three of them quickly became a group of best friends. They're some of Kaoru's happiest moments, and the three of them decided to start a secret skating club called "S" where they could all be free. In S, they'd skate on dangerous tracks while trying to impress one another.

It was no wonder that Kaoru fell in love with Adam, and damn did he fall hard. Just before he was planning to confess to him about his feelings, Adam started behaving strangely.

Adam would try to pull skaters into "the zone", a state of mind when your brain goes on auto pilot which is pretty much suicidal on dangerous tracks. On top of that, just before graduation, Adam announced he's quitting skating and moving to America.

This left Kaoru heartbroken and deeply upset, he was practically ready to chase after him to America until Kojiro pulled him aside and stayed there for him. They did try to find him after graduation, but Kaoru couldn't dig up any information online about him. Why did Adam have to be so distrusting and cold to leave them like that?

Over the next ten years, Kaoru stayed in Okinawa to study in calligraphy. His father suggested he try studying tech and joining the business, but he declined despite his immense talent. As time went on, he discovered how much he loved writing. Skateboarding was fun, but writing traditionally really did calm him down and help process so much about his life.

After college, Kojiro and Kaoru stayed together like glue. They traveled around the world together, including France and Los Angeles. Yet Kaoru would never forget Adam, wondering just what the hell happened to him?

A few years ago, Adam mysteriously returned from America and reopened S. Every time they tried to talk to Adam or call out to him, he pretty much ignored them. Something was definitely wrong with him, Adam didn't look like the calm and happy teenager they knew. This was someone who was clearly miserable in their life. If anything, it reminded Kaoru of how bitter he felt as a teenager.

He would eventually get to skate alongside Adam in an attempt to get through to him, but he was met with a skateboard to the face and told he was 'boring'. Kaoru was absolutely furious at Adam, and any feelings he had for Adam was now gone.

This wasn't the Adam he knew as a teenager anymore. This was Adam going off the deep end as though to prove a point to someone. Who? Himself? He wouldn't really know.

It's only a few weeks after Langa faced off against Adam that he got those answers at a party to congratulate Langa for winning again him. Adam had apparently had a rough childhood and a suffocating private life, but it doesn't mean that Kaoru will forgive him right away for what he did to him and Reki or...ever really.

It all depends on how hard Adam tries to change as a person now that Langa has helped him move into a better direction in life. If he does? He'll think about it and be open to repairing their friendship. If he doesn't? He can't see himself being friends with Adam ever again. His only true friend is Kojiro, their relationship is true infinity.

Kaoru is very intelligent, calm, polite and kind hearted. Yet he's also easily jealous, stubborn, prickly, arrogant, childish and even a little selfish at times. He's also incredibly good with technology and has an AI assistant in his skateboard and cell phone named Carla. Carla's voice was designed after his mother, and he can only fall asleep if Carla sings the same lullaby his mother did. Horrifically prideful as he is, he still misses his mother dearly. Though he did work out his relationship with his father over time, Though his father still works in Tokyo.

He's extremely close with Kojiro, as much as they argue among one another, and he takes on a motherly role for the younger teenagers inside of S. He'll never admit it, but he wants to help guide the kids through that confusing period of life. His name in S is Cherry Blossom, a reference to his last name containing 'Sakura'.

1 note · View note

budgiematiceee · 7 months

Text

my experiences w my grandpas movies

ok so when i was 7 me and my moms moved to my grandpas estate after my grandma died so we could look after the property while he was gone shooting. and since i am gods (and my grandpas) favourite, i got to go to set a lot >:}}}

signet of silence

okok so i was??? 9 when this was shot?? and my grandpa forgot to tell literally anyone that i was gonna be sitting in for a day. and so they decided that they were gonna shoot the scene where copper man comes up through that guys stomach. btw, if you didn't know, grandpa ONLY used practical effects. and it is just as scary irl. so i, obviously, start crying (thats why you hear a kid screaming, they KEPT IT IN THE SCENE), and the SECOND the AD yells cut gianluca ortez like. breaks character. and takes off his mask. and comes to calm me down. he shows me how every piece of the blood machine works, how the man model was built, TOTALLY threw off the schedule for the day. honestly, i think that's what REALLY made me wanna do movies. he still sends me a birthday card every year :}}}

calligraphic

i played the little girl who lives with atlas!! my evil monster big sister >:}}} plus all of the drawings they find in the cabinet were mine from when i was littleeeee hehehe

passerine birds

riley mckalan was SO MEAN for NO REASON!!!!! he saw me walking up to him and LOST HIS MINDD because he thought i was a fan that snuck onto set. he literally called me the r slur. thats why he was recast LOLLLL. his wife was soo nice though idk why she decided to marry him.............

there r definitely more stories but i will save them 4 another day <333

#family #chirp #movies

0 notes

progressivemother · 1 year

Text

Teaching my children calligraphy

I have recently introduced my children to calligraphy. This is especially important in a time when cursive writing is being eliminated from public schools. I want my children to still learn how to write in a beautiful and intelligent manner.

My daughter, who is creative by nature, is completely fascinated by calligraphy because it is an artistic form of writing. It's lovely. I am very proud of her. She started practicing diligently and is doing great at it at the age of eight.

Calligraphy, or beautiful writing, has roots in more than one culture. Early examples of calligraphy can be found in China from more than 4000 years ago with characters inscribed into clay with metal tools. Other early examples are found in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, carved into clay tablets and Japanese, Arabic, and Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. We now have what is called modern calligraphy since it has been making a comeback in recent years.

How to Introduce Kids to Calligraphy

Step 1: Clear the table

Step 2: Set up your supplies. Calligraphy pen, ink, paper

Step 3: Show your child examples of calligraphy. I personally have started with videos and writing out letters myself but I do plan on getting books for practice soon.

Step 4: Practice drawing and writing. The object here is to have fun with the pen(s) and not worry too much about how the writing actually turns out.

The idea here isn’t to teach my kids how to write in perfect calligraphic form but to introduce them to the material. They will most likely enjoy it and feel proud of themselves for working hard like my daughter did.

#love #children #relationship #progressive #liberal #toddlers #family #calligraphy #teaching #teachthemyoung

0 notes

wizhob · 2 years

Text

'Calligraphy is the most intimate, private and spontaneous expressive means. Like a fingerprint or voice it is unique with every person'. - Hermann Zapf, German designer Learning Calligraphy Is All About Being Patient: At the beginning, it can be discouraging to be starting from the ground up, practicing mundane ‘drills’ and feeling like your skills will never be as advanced as you’d like. But calligraphy and lettering are specialized skills. And just like you wouldn’t pick up an instrument and know how to play a song right away, you can’t just pick up a brush pen and be a master at calligraphy or lettering. You need to practice. A lot. Dedicate time for practice every single day, and you will get better. s we already established, calligraphy and handwriting are very different. In calligraphy, there are actually some BASIC strokes you have to learn before you can ever do your alphabet. 'Perfection of handwriting needs proper education, regular exercises, and purity of the soul'. Skipping Basics Can Lower Down One’s Performance: In calligraphy, you need to start with the very, very basics. These are referred to as ‘strokes’. All of your letters are made up of strokes. So, practice the strokes- over, and over, and over again- until they’re consistent. The more consistent your strokes, the more consistent your letters. picking up a brush pen and copying someone’s else’s style would be like picking up an instrument and learning a song without knowing how to play each note. You could eventually figure out how to play the song by copying the sounds, but if someone asked you to play them a ‘G minor’, you wouldn’t know how. You skipped a step. Just grab some fancy brush pens and use them with my already-nice handwriting. Turns out, that’s the fast track to failure! Each letter in every script known to man holds an eternal power, an individual beauty in its vertical, horizontal, angular lines, in their continuity'. -Achyut Palav, Indian Calligrapher Use The Right Lettering Tools: just until you know what you’re doing enough to get the expensive ones. And this is true- to an extent. You can practice with any supplies you want at the beginning- a pencil, a ballpoint pen, Crayola markers, your kids colouring supplies- but when you want to get serious, you need the right supplies.The simple reason: brush pens, inks, nibs, and papers are not created equal. If you use the wrong ones, you will frustrate yourself and ruin your supplies. even though some tools DO make our life easy, or can speed up some processes, the only way to see improvements fast is with practice, so try to carve as much time as you can, download some of my free workbooks and let's focus on our deliberate practice! The art of beautiful writing is accessible to anyone who wants to unlock its secrets. Julien Chazal Socializing With Others Of The Same Filed: When you browse hashtags and look through your search page, you start to come across the same people over and over again. If you find someone whose style you really love, or who you think you’d get along with in real life, MESSAGE THEM! Be genuine- tell them what you love about their work, ask questions, and start a conversation. Learning calligraphy & lettering is tough, and it’s so nice to have other like-minded people on your side. I am a firm, firm believer in community over competition. So reach out to others- engage with them, tell them when you like their stuff. It really does go far. 

0 notes

broken-clover · 3 years

Text

For some reason all the headcanons I have for Punch-Out are of the dumb and silly variety, but I still like sharing headcanons because they’re fun. So here’s what I have so far!

-It’s an unofficial code that whichever boxer is local to the upcoming venue has to take his opponent out and show them around. Von Kaiser in particular greatly enjoys showing off his native Berlin and has a bakery that he tends to stop at along the tour.

-Disco Kid is a bit of a vinyl snob and will go on about how it is the best form of audio delivery to anyone who will listen. His collection is admittedly very impressive and he keeps everything in immaculate condition

-King Hippo has very beautiful, calligraphic handwriting, to the point where many people will ask for his autograph solely because of how nice it looks.

-Joe is the fan favorite of the WVBA’s on-site medical team, mostly since he’s been there the most often and he’s managed to befriend basically everyone who works there. They have a betting game whenever he has a fight (it was originally a drinking game, until someone realized getting drunk on the job is sorta counterintuitive to practicing medicine)

-Aran Ryan learned sign language for the main purpose of swearing at people without them noticing. He keeps trying to get Mac to teach him more curse words, and he refuses solely on the principle that everyone would immediately know who taught it to him.

-Bald Bull’s sideburns are unbelievably soft to the touch but only a few people can feel them without immediately getting headbutted for it.

-Even though he is questionably skilled at boxing, Joe is an absolute beast at fighting games, despite barely knowing what video games actually are or how to play one. He is also officially banned from the communal smash bros game after mercilessly crushing everyone at it and then gushing for ten minutes about ‘that cute little electric clown mouse’ that he used to do it.

-Except under certain circumstances, Soda Popinski will not wear pants.

-There was a WVBA groupchat. Emphasis on was. It lasted all of three days before becoming a cesspool of memes and multi-language swearing and got canned

-Though nobody will admit it, everyone has Aran’s contact info saved under some variation of ‘asshole’

-Likewise, Aran has the entire WVBA saved in his contacts under various Irish curses.

-Bald Bull cannot find Little Mac intimidating. Not because he thinks Mac can’t kick his ass at boxing, because he can and has, but because he got guilt tripped asked by Doc to drive Mac home after getting his wisdom teeth pulled, and there really is no coming back from that

-Bear Hugger uses way too many outdated dad memes while texting. In his defense he spends a lot of time in the wilderness. He also unironically pronounces it ‘may-mays’

-Don Flamenco goes out of his way to get roses without thorns because otherwise he will repeatedly forget about them and stab himself

-Von Kaiser, Soda and Great Tiger are locked into a fierce rivalry over which of them has the best mustache

-Mac is a doodler, he has a habit of scribbling on documents and will usually draw something by his signature whenever people ask for an autograph

#I love these idiots very much #I want them to be friends #or at least friendly rivals #okay tags uh...#punch out!!#Little Mac #glass joe #von kaiser #Disco Kid #King Hippo #Bear Hugger #Great Tiger #don flamenco #aran ryan #soda popinski #bald bull #I do genuinely want to pet the sideburns

170 notes · View notes

lailaenterprise25 · 2 years

Text

Reusable Writing Paste Calligraphy Handwriting Copybook For Kids Word Children Book English Calligraphic Letter Practice

#Reusable Writing Paste Calligraphy #Handwriting Copybook For Kids #Word Children Book #English Calligraphic Letter Practice

0 notes

fatemazannat · 2 years

Text

Reusable Writing Paste Calligraphy Handwriting Copybook For Kids Word Book Kids English Calligraphic Letter Practice Toy

#Calligraphy Handwriting #Copybook For Kids #Word Book #Book Kids English #Calligraphic Letter Practice

0 notes

citrina-posts · 4 years

Text

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

#this deleted idk why #so here is me reposting it #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #cultural appropriation #meta #atla meta #racism

786 notes · View notes

plumoh · 3 years

Text

[SK8] at all times, at all sides

Rating: T

Word count: 7409

Summary: Kaoru is shaped by the choices he makes and the people surrounding him. And through the years, Kojirou was there in one way or another.

Note: AO3 link. This was posted a while after Kaoru’s birthday, as a character study of sorts, birthday by birthday. I make the assumption that in the present day, Kaoru and Kojirou are 27-28 years old.There is a brief mention of alcohol at age 20, and Kaoru is a bit drunk at age 26.

15.

Kaoru gets two additional piercings on his left ear on his fifteenth birthday.

The first one, at what is considered a normal place for an earring in the middle of the earlobe, was done as an impulsive act of brashness to show off to his friends at school at the beginning of the year. He likes the attention. The family name attached to him makes people gasp when they see him with holes in his ear, but he would be lying if he said it didn’t bring him some sort of satisfaction. It’s kind of ridiculous and entirely too stiff an attitude to be offended by some nails stuck into someone else’s skin, as if it changes who he fundamentally is. Besides, piercings are cool.

So Kaoru gets two additional piercings, a helix piercing and another one in the earlobe, and Kojirou whistles.

“You sure your parents won’t cut off your entire ear for that?” he asks, his gaze appraising Kaoru’s new look.

“I’ll live with only one ear, then,” Kaoru answers, shrugging. “What do you think? I look cool, right?”

Kaoru gestures to his ear, grinning and looking at Kojirou expectantly. He knows that he must be acting like a child who got permission to eat a second candy after dinner, but it’s his birthday and he feels he can be excited for what is, essentially, a new approach to his lifestyle. He paid for these piercings with his own pocket money (and money earned through foolish bets and challenges, and he’s thankful that most skaters are stupid).

Kojirou hums, his face pinched in intense concentration. Kaoru rolls his eyes.

“That’s a yes or no question, Kojirou.”

“Let me give you a complete review of your new fashion style, impatient bastard,” Kojirou says.

“I don’t need a complete review! They’re just piercings!”

Kojirou always takes forever when asked to give his opinion on any topic, be it about his younger brother’s latest baseball game or the best suited color for a piece of garment Kaoru’s mother has decided to wear for an important meeting. It’s utterly unnecessary and a waste of time—Kaoru isn’t asking Kojirou to write an essay about his piercings.

“Just answer the question,” Kaoru says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, if you like your piercings so much, maybe show them off more?” Kojirou sighs. “I don’t know, you have more hair than any human being is supposed to have. It hides the piercings.”

Kaoru snorts. “Complain to my mother about that.”

But Kaoru entertains the idea.

16.

Keeping his hair long is a simple matter of preference. There is no rule in his family stating that its members should have a specific length of hair, so why not? Very few boys and men have it this long, and Kojirou always asks him why he bothers taking care of such a useless physical feature when all it does is getting into his way when he skates. Kaoru admits he does have a point, but he likes his hair.

Kaoru is currently tying it into a ponytail, lazily skating on the sidewalk around their neighborhood. Kojirou is skating at his side eating an entire soda flavored Garigari-kun popsicle, shoving it into his mouth and crunching into the ice because he likes having brain freeze.

“Hey, it’s your birthday next week,” Kojirou announces, like it’s the most thrilling event of the week. “Did you plan something? Wanna go explore some new skating areas?”

Kaoru flips his hair over his shoulder and shrugs. Kojirou is looking at him curiously, almost intently, and that makes Kaoru raise an eyebrow.

“Nothing special, but it’s also on the same day as some renown calligrapher from Tokyo visiting our studio. So yeah.”

“All the way from Tokyo? That sounds important.”

“Maybe. I didn’t really pay attention.”

Simply thinking about all the formal procedures that will take place in his house and the fact he will have to be on his “best behavior, please, Kaoru” is pissing him off. He’s not interested in hearing about the works of this supposedly famous and talented calligrapher bestowing upon their modest family his knowledge and wise advice. Kaoru doesn’t even know why he still attends the calligraphy lessons when he’s pretty sure he’ll go into computer science or something. His parents are always on his case about maintaining his posture and improving his strokes every day, and at some point Kaoru started obeying to make their noisy demands stop. He doesn’t genuinely hate the art itself; he simply thinks that his time is better spent elsewhere. What does calligraphy have when computers can do much more fascinating stuff?

Kojirou is nibbling at the popsicle stick, eyeing him with that critical look he often gets when he considers throwing paper balls at Kaoru in class, or when he thinks that Kaoru needs a snack to calm down, like some fucking animal he’s trying to tame—Kaoru hates that somehow, food always works.

“You want to ditch?” Kojirou asks as neutrally as possible, but Kaoru hears the sympathy in his voice. Which is appreciated, but unnecessary.

“No, I was actually thinking of scandalizing my parents by cutting my hair and having it cropped short,” Kaoru says with a half-feral grin. “Like, strands of hair sticking everywhere and impossible to make it look presentable.”

Kojirou almost stumbles on his skateboard, even though it’s a straight line and he wasn’t even pushing with his feet on the concrete.

“What?! But you never shut up about your hair!”

“You fucking liar, I only ever say I like having it long!”

“Yeah, that still makes it stupid! Why would you cut your hair if you like it long?”

“Because hair grows again?”

“Not as fast as you’d think, if you even thought about it before blurting out you want to get a bowl cut.”

“Disheveled and rowdy haircut, not a bowl cut, you idiot!”

They make a turn at the corner of the street, expertly avoiding a kid walking her dog and dodging the woman carrying groceries behind her, not without getting scolded for skating in residential areas (or skating at all) but those are words that go in one ear and exit in the other. Kaoru smiles to himself and kicks into the ground to get more speed, jumps and flips his board in the air before landing on it again with minimal risk of smashing his face in the concrete. He lifts a fist in the air with a whooping cry.

“Oh hey, that was a good one!” he exclaims, giving Kojirou a radiant grin.

“You mastered this trick long ago, why are you so excited?” Kojirou grumbles.

“Because it felt nice, that’s all. Be happy about the small things in life, that’s what you keep saying.”

“Sometimes I feel you’re purposely throwing back my words at my face only when it’s convenient for you.”

“I always listen to you, even if it might come as a surprise.”

Kaoru laughs, spinning his board and continuing on a straight line, ahead of Kojirou. Today’s weather is pleasant and he can’t wait for the end of the school year at the end of the week to go skating all day. It will come with more calligraphy practice, but at least he will have time for his other hobbies too. And if he can’t focus on anything at home, he can still go to Kojirou’s place and bother him all day.

“Then don’t cut your hair!” Kojirou shouts, catching up to him.

The lines on Kojirou’s face are weird, all upset and a bit worried, and that’s not an expression Kaoru is used to see when they’re talking about haircuts, of all things. Maybe when they’re doing their geography homework or when they’ve spent one hour practicing tricks and got more bruises than actual results, but not hair.

“What’s up with you?” Kaoru asks, slowing down. “It’s just my hair. It’s a good prank.”

“You’re going to look like a bird’s nest for at least three months, you okay with that?” Kojirou retorts.

“That’s not the worst thing in existence. And if I recall, you told me last year I should show off my piercings more, so having short hair would effectively do that.”

Kojirou groans and drags a hand across his face, almost looking defeated.

“Just style it in a way that makes your piercings visible, then,” Kojirou adds. “You… have nice hair.”

Kaoru blinks. Kojirou looks straight ahead, his posture stiff, determined not to turn his head in Kaoru’s direction.

“I have nice hair,” Kaoru repeats.

“Yes.”

“You don’t want me to cut my hair because it looks nice?”

“Yes.”

“That might be the most honest compliment you’ve ever said to me.”

“Shut up, I’m never complimenting you ever again!”

Kojirou speeds up, but not before Kaoru catches a glimpse of his reddening ears. The situation is starting to make even less sense, but seeing Kojirou so flustered over nothing is piquing Kaoru’s interest and his lips stretch in a wide grin. Kaoru joins Kojirou in their less-than-recommended skating speed.

“Okay, but you’re being weird!” Kaoru shouts over the sound of their wheels scratching against the ground. “Was that an offer to style my hair?”

“I’m not talking to you,” Kojirou mutters.

“You’re the one who suggested it, you can’t drop the topic!”

It’s almost comical to see two teenagers loudly arguing about a pointless subject while skateboarding and avoiding any obstacles they come across, as if being on a board is the same as walking. Passersby shoot them quizzical looks and a lot of adults are clearly not approving their noise level.

They end up skating all the way to the playground near the elementary school of the neighborhood, where a few kids are playing while their parents are watching over them. There is a skating park farther away, but people are already using it and Kaoru doesn’t like skating with people not part of their crew unless he’s looking for a fight. So they keep skating around, at a lower speed because colliding with children won’t exactly look good on either of them.

“Fine, keep being stubborn, you asshole,” Kaoru grumbles. “I’ll get another piercing.”

Kojirou finally jerks his head towards Kaoru, his expression a lot less constipated and more curious. “On such a short notice?”

“I’ll find a way. And even if I can’t get it done before my birthday, it will still be infuriating for my parents.”

Kaoru taps at his lower lip, not missing the way Kojirou’s eyes follow the movement with rapt attention.

“I wanted to get a lip ring, anyway,” he says.

There is something simply enthralling in a lip ring—the light catches on it, and people are immediately in admiration when they see it. Not everyone has the guts to get one, after all.

Kojirou slowly nods, tearing his gaze away from Kaoru’s face.

“If you want,” he says. “I don’t see any problem with that.”

“You’re so weird today.” Kaoru rolls his eyes.

“You’re the weird one, obsessed with piercings.”

“You just wish you could be as cool as me. Race you to my home!”

“Damn it Kaoru, stop cheating!”

Kaoru ignores Kojirou and launches himself at full speed to make his skateboard pivot and turn around, going back from the way they came. Kojirou is still yelling at him.

Kaoru doesn’t manage to get his lip pierced before his birthday, but he does sweep the left side of his hair behind his head and keep it in place with a hair clamp, leaving his earrings in plain sight. To the calligrapher’s credit, upon seeing who the supposed Sakurayashiki heir is, he makes only the vaguest noise of shock before getting into business. Kaoru smiles all throughout the visit.

17.

Kaoru’s seventeenth birthday remains one of the most special days of his life.

He got gifts, snacks and high-fives from various people whom he cares more or less about (the crew bought a cake but Kaoru only got a thin slice of it because they are greedy bastards), while Kojirou bought him a book on AI that was way too expensive even if he has a part-time job salary (Kaoru wrestled him to the ground when he recognized the book).

Adam takes them skating in a place they’ve never explored before.

It’s beautiful. Exciting, captivating and alluring, making them use all their senses to turn at the right time, to ride down a hill without losing control, and to feel the full path reverberated through their bodies in shock waves. Skateboarding is fun, but this is on another level entirely—it’s like sliding on the edge of a cliff, giving heart palpitations but also an intoxicating feeling of a game that needs to be beaten, whose ending is all worth these efforts.

The three of them are skating as if wings sprouted on their back, uncaring of the world outside of their little bubble of thrills. Kaoru watches in fascination as Adam seems to fly across the track, smooth in his skating and unconcerned with the bumpy road. The wind seems to be an inconsequential factor in his descent in the slope, moving along with it and never straying far from the road. It’s subjugating, it’s beautiful, it’s freedom.

“Watch where you’re skating, idiot!” Kojirou yells right next to him, startling Kaoru out of his reverie.

Kaoru crouches low and makes a sharp turn, avoiding a rock that would have sent him sprawling. He straightens and keeps going at a controlled pace, glaring at Kojirou.

“I know what I’m doing!” he grunts.

“You almost smacked that wall with your face,” Kojirou points out with a glare of his own. “Stop getting distracted.”

“I’m not distracted,” Kaoru snaps back automatically.

But the look Kojirou is giving him is indescribable, so foreign on his face and even more so as it is directed at Kaoru. There is something brewing in the air and Kaoru doesn’t like it, doesn’t want a chasm opening between them because of a stupid argument, but he doesn’t even know what made Kojirou so irritable in the first place.

Adam is waiting for them at the end of the path, watching them arriving at a sullen pace with a raised eyebrow. Kaoru stops right in front of him and plasters a smile on his face, much more eager to talk about they’ve come here for.

“That’s an amazing place! Skating here is so fun, we can make a challenge out of a lot of things in this mountain.”

“Yes, the turns are different and there are many slopes that we need to be careful of,” Adam agrees, smiling. “I truly believe we can accomplish a lot, if we do it together. I want to create a special race here for skaters to push their limits.”

Adam looks at Kaoru, then at Kojirou—the glint of mischief and of confidence reflected in his eyes is the same as the one that pulls everyone in his orbit, making them give their all to become the best. It’s a look that Kaoru feels inextricably drawn to, enamored with the unbridled possibilities he imagines behind words that promise a paradise of freedom grander than anything they’ve ever known.

“You both have skills that will be useful to establish this race,” Adam continues. “People are following you and your skating is among the best. I said before that you guys were special, and I mean it.”

Kaoru does not preen, but the shivers that course through his body as Adam opens his heart are ones that feel pleasant, almost addictive. His grin splits his face in two.

“You can count on us, we’re going to create the best skating race in existence,” Kaoru assures. “Right, Kojirou?”

“Yeah, of course!”

Kojirou’s earnest tone is almost a relief—he’s clearly as excited about this race as them, and Kaoru would have been seriously worried if that wasn’t the case.

For the first time, the joyous expression on Adam’s face seems to be born out of sincerity plucked from the deepest corner of his heart. It suits him; it makes him look even more radiant than usual. Kaoru can’t look away.

“It’s decided, then,” Adam says. “The three of us, inaugurating the “S” race. Together.”

On that day, when Kaoru turned seventeen and his mind was filled with nothing but skateboarding, he thought that this is what belonging felt like.

18.

Sitting perfectly straight, legs tucked under him, Kaoru picks up a brush, dips it into ink he has carefully ground, presses it against the sheet of paper and splashes black trails all over it. The ink drips outside of the frame and stains the tatami floor of the study he hasn’t bothered to protect, littering everything in dark, angry marks that resemble the work of a child throwing a tantrum.

There is no word, no poem written on his paper. Half of the inkstick is grossly used up, its tip almost falling apart, like it wasn’t deemed worthy of being respected as one of the treasures of calligraphy. Kaoru is filling the paper with nothing but emptiness.

It’s not even rage moving his arm like a possessed demon. It would have been easier to deal with, if it was rage; handling it requires minimal effort, as he can mindlessly let his heart wreak havoc upon anything his hands come into contact with, or he can scream all the grievances he’s bottled up to clear the space occupied by unpleasant thoughts. Rage is physical, in and out, and Kaoru’s had years of practice getting rid of it.

But this is not rage that nudges him in the direction of destroying a perfectly good piece of paper with expensive ink and an even more expensive brush, tarnishing their quality and the noble use they are destined to. It’s cold and quiet resignation, trapping him in his own mind as he lets himself be selfish one last time and act out in childish anger.

Kaoru’s eighteenth birthday is spent alone, grieving his dream of ever cutting ties with family traditions. He hasn’t touched a skateboard in months and he hasn’t tinkered with his AI program in even longer. There was no point anyway—Kojirou has other things to focus on, and Adam left.

Kaoru was a fool to think he was strong and resolute enough to follow a path that is not written with the same deep ink as the one he’s used all his life.

20.

“You can legally drink now, congrats.”

“Great. I can sip my alcohol in the presence of guests and pretend I’m enjoying their company when all I want is getting drunk.”

“That’s not very professional, soon-to-be Sakurayashiki-sensei.”

“You’re one to talk, I bet you’re consuming way too many beers at those parties. Has gaining muscle mass made you lose brain cells?”

“Hey, you four-eyes, that was uncalled for!”

There is something moving behind Kojirou, a door opening and someone poking his head inside, and Kojirou turns his head to rattle off a few words in Italian before facing the camera again. Chin resting in his palm, Kaoru is watching with a raised eyebrow Kojirou’s roommate rummage through Kojirou’s dressing, before retreating back into the corridor.

“Does he make a habit to walk around your shared apartment half-naked?” Kaoru asks.

Kojirou laughs, waving his hand. “He was looking for a clean shirt, he forgot to do laundry yesterday. I told him he could borrow one of mine.”

“I’m surprised you still find shirts your size with the way your body’s taking the shape of a gorilla’s.”

“Just admit you’re jealous of my perfect muscles.”

Kojirou makes a show of flexing his bicep and Kaoru snorts.

“Yeah, I’m so jealous of that gorilla body that is unnecessarily big.” Kaoru deadpans.

“Believe it or not, it makes skating a lot more fun too,” Kojirou adds with a smile. “More power in the legs to do tricks.”

Kojirou looks...satisfied with the direction his life is taking. Kaoru is happy for him—studying abroad in culinary school and discovering a whole new culture seems to be the change of pace Kojirou needed. Sometimes Kaoru wishes he could also skate in the places full of pipes and curvy roads that Kojirou shows him, but he has to make do with the familiar tracks he’s skated on all his life.

“I upgraded Carla to calculate distances faster and to automatically record what she sees,” Kaoru says with a hint of smugness.

“Your AI having a girl’s name will never stop being weird,” Kojirou groans. “Why haven’t you chosen something normal like “Ghost Voice” or “Robotico”?”

“An AI is not a robot.” Kaoru pinches the bridge of his nose, already tired of having to repeat this for the umpteenth time. “Your Roomba is a robot. Carla recognizes many more things than the shape of your apartment.”

“Then program Carla to clean my apartment too.”

“Carla isn’t a vacuum cleaner, you dimwit!”

“That’s a big shame, maybe you should also create an AI cooking for you!”

Kaoru opens his mouth to reply something scathing, then snaps it shut. On the screen, Kojirou frowns.

“Don’t,” Kojirou warns.

“We have enough resources and data to program an AI that creates recipes from a list of ingredients,” Kaoru says anyway. “If we implement it into a robot, with the correct code and careful adjustments, then maybe it will be a decent cook.”

“If you start making a cook AI I don’t want to heart about it,” Kojirou mutters.

Kaoru rolls his eyes. “Do you think I have enough hours in a day to focus on another project? Carla already requires my full attention.”

There is no need for him to say that calligraphy practice is what he does most of the day, if he’s not attending courses on speech or on business. It’s his life now; he chose to become the next Sakurayashiki calligrapher and he can’t back down now. Not that he’s ever fully considered leaving calligraphy behind for one of his better, more interesting hobbies—and this was exactly the problem. He never untied his hands from the string tethering him to a brush.

“You always want to work on something, so I’m expecting anything from you when you’re bored,” Kojirou says with a smirk.

“Maybe my next project will make gorillas like you shut up.”

Kaoru is twenty years old, discovering every day new aspects of himself in a professional environment, but one thing that never changes is the comfort of simply existing as himself when he talks to Kojirou.

22.

Kaoru spends a couple of years simmering in feelings he doesn’t acknowledge.

He isn’t someone who takes the time to reflect on his own feelings, negative or positive. They simply happen and he decides on whether to act on them—which has been true since he was a child, throwing tantrums when he didn’t like the task he was asked to do, kicking someone he didn’t agree with as a teenager, and deflecting when answering journalists’ questions that would force him to look deep into his heart. He lives in the moment and tries very hard not to burden himself with useless thoughts and regrets he can’t act upon.

He doesn’t dwell more than necessary on his choice to inherit the family calligraphy studio, because it will lead to nothing productive. He has perhaps harbored ill feelings towards calligraphy in the past, but they’re not so visceral he can’t execute the job he’s been trained for since he could hold a brush. Sometimes he thinks he could have rejected everything he’s been taught and disappoint his family for the rest of his life, but he immediately chases the thought away and decides that suffering through a successful career of calligrapher appears to be a small sacrifice compared to the headaches that would have come with removing himself from the Sakurayashiki studio.

He’s a full grown adult, by society’s standards. He shed his sweaters for yukatas and took off his piercings with reluctance, feeling like he ripped off a part of himself that’s been with him forever to fit into a mold he’s accepted as his new normal. Those were remnants of his old, carefree life that he abandoned, and it’d be preposterous to wish for things to have gone differently.

At least he has his AI—a new spin to a traditional art that is resistant to change. Carla is efficient, impressive and shocks people into admiration; Kaoru has upgraded and improved the code as many times as it required, making her compatible with every device in his possession so that she could accompany him in all his tasks. Skating became a game of precision, detail and finesse, aiming for perfection beyond what the average mind would think of. Calligraphy is enhanced and magnified, the digital aspect adding beauty in an art that is almost exclusively done by hand. Incorporating technology in his otherwise boring job undoubtedly made his days easier and more fun.

Kaoru isn’t dissatisfied. He can do better, but he could have done worse. However, if there is one thing that makes him antsy it’s the realization that he’s seeing less of Kojirou with each passing day, and he would have never thought it would leave a growing ache in his chest every time he thinks about it.

They have their own lives to live. It’s part of growing up—and he hasn’t completely lost his best friend yet.

25.

They have been wandering the streets of Paris for exactly ten minutes and Kaoru is already starting to regret his decision.

“It’s not that hard to read a map,” he seethes, trying to grab Kojirou’s phone.

Kojirou lifts the device higher and turns his back on Kaoru, stubbornly keeping his eyes riveted on the screen.

“I’ve got this, stop distracting me,” Kojirou says.

“The metro station is right there, let’s just change itinerary, stupid gorilla!”

“You want to take the metro when we could explore the city on foot?”

“The probability of getting shitted on by pigeons is way too high for my liking.”

This gets an undignified snort from Kojirou, more amused than mocking though Kaoru knows not to assume when every one of his words can be thrown back at his face later on.

They do end up taking the metro. They can go anywhere in Paris by bus or metro, making it extremely convenient to find their way but it gets overwhelming really fast—the metro lines seem to be full of people at all hours of the day, according to Kaoru’s extensive research before their trip, and they are nothing like the monorail they have back in Okinawa. Most passengers are focused on their phones, while others are taking a quick nap, which is not that different from what they’re used to.

“It can’t be worse than the Tokyo rail lines,” Kaoru mutters as they’re being shaken by the train doing a particularly sharp and violent turn.

“You’ve never been to Tokyo,” Kojirou replies with a raised eyebrow.

“I did last year for a meeting.”

“And that single trip was enough for you to get the full experience of the infamous rush of Tokyo’s Yamanote line?”

“I wasn’t saying I used the Yamanote line, imbecile. All trains are crowded. I think you wouldn’t have been able to squeeze in with your gorilla body.”

“At least I’m not at risk of going blind when someone knocks off my glasses by pushing me around in a crowd!”

“I always carry a second pair of glasses with me to avoid this kind of incident!”

It’s probably a good thing that this line of metro makes the same level of noise as a tractor revved up at full power, because their arguing is by no means quiet and people are starting to stare at them. But as soon as Kaoru glances at them, they avert their eyes and pretend they weren’t gawking. Typical.

March weather is terrible. Their trip lasts one week, and there is an equal number of sunny days and of cloudy days, with high probability of rain. It shouldn’t be normal to have a changing weather so unpredictable that it makes planning for their day a real pain in the ass. Kojirou is already complaining about the sun beginning to leave space for clouds at merely eleven in the morning, and Kaoru silently agrees with the sentiment.

The food is good, at least.

“Reminds me a bit of what restaurants looked like in Italy,” Kojirou says around a mouthful of beef. “Maybe I can draw inspiration from those recipes.”

“It’s not Italian cuisine,” Kaoru points out. “Unless you intend to make a mixed menu.”

“Of course not, but the flavors can be useful.”

Kojirou is examining his piece of vegetable like a scientist observing an experiment under a microscope, as if it could give him the secrets of its cooking time or the spices used for it. Kaoru lightly kicks him under the table, and Kojirou hisses.

“Stop being weird and eat your food.”

“Do you really have to hit me every time you want to make a point?”

“I’m not hitting that hard.”

The other way around is more likely to happen; Kaoru won’t ever admit it but he doubts that Kojirou feels more pain than Kaoru does when he hits him. Those muscles are ridiculous and entirely unnecessary, honestly.

They take pictures at the landmarks and get mad at the long lines and narrow their eyes at the price of various food and drinks they stumble upon. They’re not short on money, but drinking a cup of café au lait at twice the price of what they can find in regular coffee shops doesn’t leave a good taste in their mouth. Kojirou uses the knowledge from his time in Italy to make educated guesses on whether they’re paying something at an unreasonable price or not—he looks a bit too smug doing so but Kaoru lets it slide for once and allows him to play the role of the brain for this specific aspect of their trip. Kaoru can at least trust Kojirou’s judgment when money is concerned (even if his intuition can be skewed sometimes).

“It’s only because it’s your birthday trip that I’m putting up with your need to visit museums,” Kojirou says, waving at the multiple pamphlets they gathered after three days of sightseeing.

“Having some culture ingrained in your mind is nothing but beneficial for you,” Kaoru retorts evenly.

Kojirou rolls his eyes, clearly not interested in that conversation, and gets up from his bed of their hotel room. It’s past midnight but they’re still wide awake. Sharing one room would be awkward or embarrassing for a lot of people, but Kaoru has known Kojirou half his life and it would be ridiculous to feel self-conscious now, when they’ve seen each other in various states of undress and wakefulness. Perhaps the only complaint Kaoru will voice that he didn’t have when he was thirteen is that the older Kojirou gets, the louder his snoring is (as if the noise level grows with the wideness of his body).

“Hey, Kaoru.”

Kaoru looks up from tomorrow’s schedule displayed on his phone to come face to face with a giant box of pastries and Kojirou’s bright grin. Kojirou is holding the box one-handed, slightly bent forward, like he would a tray to present his dish to his most loyal customers.

“Happy birthday, four-eyes,” Kojirou says on a light tone.

“Must you call me names when you’re wishing me happy birthday?” Kaoru scoffs, but he eyes the pastries with unconcealed interest.

They went to a bakery in the afternoon for a snack, buying a croissant, a pain au chocolat and a pain aux raisins because they apparently lack self control when it comes to cheap baked goods—but for some reason Kaoru missed the moment Kojirou acquired this box of pastries.

“It’s past midnight,” Kaoru reminds him.

Kojirou shrugs. “We’re grown adults and on holiday, I don’t think it’s much of a problem.”

“There are six different pastries in this box.”

“Nobody’s saying we should eat all of them right now, moron. Save some of them for tomorrow.”

They end up eating three pasties, one half each, while arguing about the pros and cons of buying smaller portions of different sweets over getting an entire cake for a birthday, as well as the point of starting celebrating said birthday at midnight instead of simply waiting for morning. They’ve had these conversations before, at Kaoru’s or Kojirou’s birthday over the years, but it seems they never grow sick of repeating the same arguments even when the topic is stupid.

It’s like a well-oiled machine; pushing on one button always leads to the same result. Kaoru and Kojirou argue because this is what they’re used to do, a response at their lips even before they hear the end of the other’s sentence. What comes out of their mouths takes the shape of banter but Kaoru, even though he usually ignores it, notices how at ease he is in these moments.

Kojirou invited him for this trip even if he didn’t have to, and bought pastries to share at midnight like they’re holding a small party. His face is illuminated by his generosity and his big heart that finds a way to carve itself in his eyes.

“Let’s go skating tomorrow afternoon, it will be fun,” Kojirou suggests, mischief and plain desire to have fun glimmering in his gaze.

And Kaoru can’t say no.

They brought their boards, like they did when they traveled to Los Angeles. It might sound like a waste of space in their luggage, but nobody has a say in what they consider fun. Kaoru had to change Carla’s battery for her to fall under airport regulation, which was a hassle on short notice (Kojirou dropped a plane ticket on Kaoru’s lap a week before departure, and Kaoru shoved back money at him but it somehow ended back in his hands after a few minutes of jostling) but definitely worth it, because there’s no way he will skate with a lower quality board.

On March 27th, when Kaoru turns twenty-five years old, he almost resorts to a more physical solution to win petty squabbles against skaters in another country, a behavior he was prone to display when he was seventeen. But he’s an adult who is traveling for leisure and isn’t foolish enough to ruin the trip by punching someone when he can skate away and show off with a few tricks involving exact calculations and perfect angles, so this is what he does—after Kojirou, admittedly, forced him to remain calm, as though he was his impulse control when Kojirou is just as quick to rise to a challenge.

Maybe the difference is that Kojirou isn’t a cocky bastard like Kaoru is. Debatable, but Kaoru won’t deny that he loves the feeling of achieving something flashy or impressive. Getting into trouble for it is always worth it, especially if Kojirou is there to live it with him. It’s never the same without Kojirou—they might bicker and have more arguments then actual conversations, but Kojirou’s a warm presence enveloping him in a tight hug he can never quite shake off.

The trip to Paris isn’t half-bad, and it’s full of memories with the person he trusts the most.

26.

Kojirou is very, very still when Kaoru finally stops fighting with himself and leans his head on his shoulder, completely wasted after drinking too much wine at this event gathering too many important people to talk to and drink with. The taxi is silent and all he can hear is the screech of the wheels on the asphalt.

“Rest until we reach your home,” Kojirou says, something akin to laughter in his voice.

“Hm.”

Kaoru registers the words coming out of Kojirou’s mouth, and judges them acceptable before closing his eyes and letting himself be rocked by the car drive. In his drunken haze, when he called Kojirou to be picked up, he forgot Kojirou lent his car to his little brother; remembering such an essential detail would have saved them a lot of trouble, but Kojirou called a taxi and is now sitting with Kaoru in the backseat instead of going back to his own home. What an idiot.

Kojirou helps him into his apartment, grumbling as his elbows hit the walls and his feet get caught in stray shoes in the genkan that Kaoru eventually wanted to sort out and put away. They manage to get to the couch, and Kaoru collapses on it without grace and lets out a long groan, draping an arm over his eyes.

“I’m not drinking at this sort of event again,” he complains.

“That’s your fault for not limiting yourself,” Kojirou sounds unimpressed. “You always say you’ll stop drinking but you keep doing it.”

“Half a glass with each guest is customary. Beyond that is called showing off.”

“So you’re showing off, stupid four-eyes.”

“Shut up, gorilla. I have something to prove.”

Kojirou’s sigh is filled with such apparent exasperation that Kaoru immediately realizes how petty and ridiculous he just sounded.

“On the day of your birthday, to top it all,” Kojirou says. “Do you need babysitting?”

“You are not going to babysit me,” Kaoru snaps. “I’ll just go to sleep.”

“Yeah, and you’ll start bitching tomorrow morning because you forgot to drink water and take a shower.”

“I’m not that incompetent, you giant brainless idiot.”

Kojirou doesn’t deign responding to his insult and slides behind the kitchen counter. Kaoru drops his arm and watches him rummaging through the cabinets with too much confidence for someone who doesn’t live there. Kojirou comes back with a glass of water and two slices of bread that Kaoru usually eats in the morning when he’s too lazy to make breakfast.

“You probably didn’t eat much, since your robophile brain was wired on ingesting wine.”

“I just said I don’t need your help,” Kaoru mutters.

Kojirou ignores him and deposits the items on the coffee table. He then sits down next to Kaoru, causing Kaoru to shift further on his side of the couch because of his needlessly big body.

“Do you have to sit so close to me?” Kaoru grumbles, leaning forward to snatch the water and the bread, pretending that his world didn’t start spinning as he did so. He takes a few sips of the water.

“Your couch isn’t large enough.”

“It’s your body that’s not average size, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“You’re suspiciously coherent for someone who says he’s drunk.”

Kaoru shrugs, foregoing manners as he speaks and munches on the bread at the same time. “My mind is clear, my thoughts aren’t confused in the least.”

“Right. What time is it?”

Kaoru looks at the time displayed on his TV box, sitting on the stand pushed against the opposite wall of where they’re sitting. He squints at the numbers, slightly blurry despite his glasses still resting on his nose. He has no idea what time it is.

“Eleven forty-seven,” Kaoru announces.

“No, it’s twelve forty-seven,” Kojirou snickers. “Finish that, take a shower and go to bed.”

“And you’re going to stay here and take up space in my apartment?”

“Well, if your event hadn’t run for so long, I would have spent some time with you anyway since it’s your birthday. So I might as well stay until you fall asleep.”

Several things get jumbled in his head at that moment, and Kaoru stares at Kojirou in disbelief. There’s something funny and warm happening in the pit of his stomach.

“You have nothing else to do,” Kaoru asks, or accuses—he doesn’t know how his voice comes across.

“Just go to sleep, Kaoru.”

Kojirou takes the empty glass from Kaoru’s hands and puts it on the table. He then tugs Kaoru upright, holding his wrists in a gentle and careful grip, as if Kaoru will break if he’s not handled in the most delicate manner. Half of the second slice of bread is lying abandoned in the plate, but Kaoru doesn’t particularly mind as he realizes, with strange clarity, that this isn’t unpleasant to be taken care of like this. Kojirou is smiling at him with his most genuine expression, and Kaoru has to look down to avoid his gaze, embarrassed and fulfilled and relieved all at once.

28.

It’s been a long time coming, Kaoru thinks as his fingers tangle in Kojirou’s hair and he brings him closer, always closer to him. The night is warm and too uncomfortable for a spring day, but the heat twisting his stomach is from something entirely separate. His lips meet Kojirou’s endlessly, like this act alone will make him absorb whatever Kojirou is willing to give to him for safekeeping. It’s the first time they’re kissing and yet it feels like they should have been doing this for years now, hiding under the shade of a tree or behind a rocky wall to share a private moment together, in a pocket of time that will burst only when they decide to drop all pretenses.

He knows it’s been a long time coming, because Kojirou is laughing against his lips, and when Kaoru cracks an eye open he sees how open and fond Kojirou’s face is. Kaoru immediately wants to close his eyes again and to stop noticing how luminous everything has become.

“We’re so dumb,” Kojirou says.

“You are stupid, for holding back all those years,” Kaoru retorts.

“Yeah, now it’s my fault for being considerate of your feelings towards me.”

“If you believed for one instant that I’d cut ties with you, then you’re more foolish than I thought you were.”

Kojirou still has hi arms wound around Kaoru’s back, and when he shrugs he presses Kaoru closer to himself. There is no anger and no regret in his eyes or his posture, as though nothing in the world would strip him of the bliss he’s currently being filled with. Kaoru finds himself drunk on the sight.

“I didn’t think that, no. I was just too scared of doing anything that will cause a shift in our relationship.”

The words sound strange, once Kaoru hears them spoken out loud. Kojirou is the one constant in his life that never changed, a shadow at his back and a light guiding him. They’ve both seen each other at their worst and their best, tending to bruises and squeezing a shoulder in comfort or riling each other up as part of their routine. Kojirou is an entity that exists at Karou’s side, full of familiarity and overflowing with kindness that doesn’t need to be voiced.

Kojirou is stupid for ever having hesitated or doubted the strength of their bond. But Kaoru is stupid, too, for simply taking what Kojirou was offering without ever giving back properly.

“We’re never having this conversation again,” Kaoru warns, tugging at Kojirou’s hair and pressing his forehead against his. “I trust you, Kojirou. I always have. This isn’t going to change.”

Kojirou is clinging to every one of his words, looking at Kaoru with the most enraptured expression he’s ever shown. Like this is a dream that cannot be real. Kaoru scowls.

“Don’t look so surprised, gorilla. That’s not a secret.”

“I’m not surprised, I’m simply enjoying that you’re saying it at all,” Kojirou laughs.

“You never say anything pleasant about me either.”

“You’re the one who barges into my restaurant and half the time demand dishes that aren’t even on the menu, and I still cook them! I’m being nice enough!”

“What else would you do in a restaurant, muscles for brain ape?”

“I don’t know, cook a dish I have the actual ingredients for?”

Kaoru’s lips are pulled upward despite everything, his heart as light as ever in Kojirou’s presence. The ease surrounding them remains the same, electric veil sealing them in their own brand of intimacy they wouldn’t trade for anything else.

It feels effortless, then, to switch to a less barbed attitude but still retaining playfulness. Kaoru brushes strands of hair out of Kojirou’s face, and Kojirou runs a thumb under Kaoru’s eye.

“It’s my birthday at the end of the week,” Kaoru whispers, locking eyes with Kojirou. “Take me somewhere nice.”

“Bossy as ever,” Kojirou sighs, though his voice sounds like contentment and bliss contained in a space called home.

Kaoru smiles.

#matchablossom #joecherry #matcha blossom #kaoru sakurayashiki #kojiro nanjo #sk8 #sk8 the infinity #kaoru is like 'i know i have feelings but i'm making the decision of not seeing them'#i'm fascinated by his change from punk high schooler to stoic adult #i also have more thoughts about kaoru+calligraphy relationship that i'll eventually write down #when i have the time o(-(

23 notes · View notes

smiting-finger · 4 years

Text

Bin AU Headcanons

Part II of the (〃ω〃) 500 followers! unwritten-headcanon amnesty (some given in response to AO3 comment questions, and others given unsolicited, lol), this time for Out of the Bin and Into Your Heart and from me to you, my heart to yours

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian

Pre-Wei Wuxian’s first arrest, Lan Wangji was quietly volunteering as general legal aid (helping old migrants with their internet/other service contracts, helping women with their domestic violence paperwork), and then Wei Wuxian gets arrested at a protest and Lan Wangji is not there and he doesn’t know this area of law so he signs up to get involved with Activist Legal Support the next day.

Relatedly: Lan Wangji’s approach to helping Wei Wuxian has always been to turn up, do what needs to be done for Wei Wuxian to achieve his goals and then silently leave again. So when the two goobers eventually move in together (and are finally fully in each other’s space, and fully across each other’s movements), Wei Wuxian goes through a period of constant realisations like “Oh, Lan Zhan, you’re the one who’s been doing this? This as well?! THAT, TOO???”

Pre-fake dating, Lan Wangji knows that Wei Wuxian won’t keep any gifts given by secret admirers, but will shamelessly accept anything that Lan Wangji gives him outright as a friend (”friend”). He derives a petty satisfaction from that, and so has responded more than once to a gift-incident by giving Wei Wuxian a corresponding gift of his own:

So if he heard about the gift socks, he’d go out and get Wei Wuxian a pair of novelty There’s No Planet B! socks, which Wei Wuxian would naturally wear both immediately and proudly with his shortest pair of 4/5ths pants. (And Lan Wangji would stand next to him and somehow radiate smugness without making any change to his expression.)

Needless to say, Wei Wuxian has received a lot of Lan Wangji chocolate (chilli, fairtrade), lunches (homemade, nutritious) and other small items.

Wei Wuxian never even considers the possibility of not putting all his fake-dating eggs into the Lan Zhan basket. And also never stops to think about why that iss.

In re kungfu practice: when sparring against normal people, Lan Wangji does annoyed-leg-sweeps because of “I’ll bring you down every peg to the floor” reasons he’s too well-bred to voice.

Past recipients of this treatment have included:

Wen Chao,

Xue Yang at his most obnoxious

Jin Zixuan when gossip about his comments in re Jiang Yanli not being pretty or successful enough to date him (”I can’t believe my mum set me up with someone so mediocre”) is at its height.

This is pre-Wei Wuxian onstage-punch. That comes during the second round of gossip.

With Wei Wuxian (and only Wei Wuxian), however, it’s always leg sweeps and pinning, which is because of ... “irritation”.

The Phoenix Mountain Reserve photo has been Lan Wangji’s favourite shot of Wei Wuxian since it was made publicly available, but he couldn’t use it as a wallpaper for obvious reasons.

Then he agrees to the fake-dating, sees how far Wei Wuxian was going to take it and realised: chansu!

At some point during the fake-dating, Wei Wuxian escalates from the phone entry of Oppa to calling Lan Wangji “Oppa~!” in real life, and then from there to a full “Oppa! Saranghaeyo~!” with the arms-on-head love heart.

After n iterations of this, Lan Zhan responds with a mirror arms-on-head love heart and a deadpan “Saranghaeyo.” with his face still like (• _ •) and it’s an instant, supereffective K.O. for Wei Wuxian.

Every so often, when another one of his romantic overtures has soared right over Wei Wuxian’s head, Lan Wangji considers Jin Zixuan’s over-the-top demonstrations of affection and thinks (bleakly) “...Jin Zixuan got a singing telegram. Must I also resort to a singing telegram? ; _ ; “

In re: the concert hip-hop number, shirtlessness is the goal all along:

A-Qing (who is also a troublemaker on Lan Qiren’s radar - as soon as he receives the form that says that she and Wei Wuxian will be working together, his spidey senses start tingling) has been constantly referencing it throughout all their practices like:

“Well, because you’ll be shirtless, you’ll have to make sure to-”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, totally do that, but remember that you’ll be shirtless too, so-”

Even Song Zichen and Xue Yang know about it and have been visibly bracing themselves for the dress (or undress, lul) rehearsal

Wei Wuxian has missed all of this because of his amazing tunnel vision.

Speaking of Song Zichen and Xue Yang, while they’re having their Moments:

Xiao Xingchen is swanning around like “But do you think the performance had artistic integrity? A-Qing, I’m a little worried that the choreography didn’t do full justice to the abilities of all our members! I hope they don’t think I’m hogging the limelight!”, taunting them with his half-nakedness while he earnestly tries to make sure that all the other dancers are comfortable and happy with the final arrangement

A-Qing fully notices the heart-eye beams shooting over from the wings (and fully notices the same heart-eye beams shooting over during various practices), briefly thinks about saying something to put the two losers out of their misery (because Xiao Xingchen is not the special level of oblivious that Wei Wuxian is), but then thinks ... nah.

During practice back-painting, Wei Wuxian is so focused on Not Looking that his mistimes his ~sexy stretch~ and gets it in precisely when Lan Wangji has turned his back to get the towel, so it really is all for nothing, RIP.

In the reprise back-painting session (and there definitely is one, what with Lan Wangji’s love for marking and the fact that Chinese calligraphers usually sign their name on their work), the levels of both shamelessness and trolling shoot through the roof on both sides:

Wei Wuxian suddenly feels the need to do a lot more whimpering and moaning, and his flinches of “surprise” and wriggling to “get comfortable” suddenly happen a lot more in the hip area than they did before.

Lan Wangji does a lot more touching of the skin he’s about to paint to “warn” Wei Wuxian that the brush is coming (do warnings have to be quite so ... lingering? Only Lan Wangji knows), discovers a sudden need for wrist-pinning to “hold Wei Wuxian still while he works” and his blowing on ink to get it dry suddenly gets a lot more ... sensual ...

Lan Wangji is the teacher that all his babies are always proposing to. They lOvE him with every inch of their tiny baby hearts, and after they get together, Wei Wuxian watches on with a knowing nod, like “My fam, I getcha. Gege will support you in expressing your feelings and we can ALL win!”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t know it, but he has a group of grannies and grandpas wringing their hands over his happiness, too: It’s all well and good that he’s seeing the Lan boy now, but when are they gonna get married, huh? HUH?! WHAT’S THE POINT OF SAVING THE PLANET IF YOU’RE NOT GONNA FILL IT WITH BABIES, WEI WUXIAN???

So once they officially start dating, Wei Wuxian steps into the Cultural Centre like “Ah, our fresh new romance! Even after all this time of fake-dating, I’d better give people some transition time to get used to this new state of affairs!”

And in the background, 73 aunties and grannies are thinking “Look how behind schedule you are, Wei Wuxian!” (because it’s definitely his fault, and not Lan Wangji’s). “Where are the babies? WHERE ARE THE BABIES??”

The wedding advice Wei Wuxian got from the grannies during Mianmian’s wedding prep is liberally flavoured with real life anecdotes like:

“Don’t be like XX’s son. He made the mistake of trying to skimp on the dowry - so disrespectful to people who’ve poured so much love and energy into raising a daughter - and it poisoned the entire relationship.”

“That venue is no good - YY’s daughter had her reception there, and we all had diarrhoea after eating the prawns.”

(And Wei Wuxian is like: “How can you retain all of this bullshit detail about every wedding the Cultural Society has ever witnessed, but still not know how to say the phrase ‘Excuse me, what time is the bus coming’ in English?!”)

Mianmian definitely also gets strong-armed by her excited mother into some glorious(ly terrible) Chinese-style studio wedding photos (with industrial-strength airbrushing and wedding costume changes that span many cultures and many Chinese time periods).

Mianmian swears to never let Wei Wuxian get his grubby hands on that album, on pain of death.

But then her parents host something, and Wei Wuxian goes, and right there, hanging in their living room, is a floor-to-ceiling calendar, featuring Mianmian and Mian-man dressed as Chinese emperor and empress (because Mianmian certainly didn’t want it in her house, but it came with the package.)

Wei Wuxian makes a noise that Mianmian previously thought only dolphins could produce, and proceeds to take SO MANY photos with his phone.

At some point after Mianmian’s wedding, Lan Wangji comes out of the shower to find:

1 pair of pyjama bottoms waiting for him on the bed; and

Wei Wuxian in the corresponding top (which doesn’t cover his butt after all, but whatever, he’s committed), shooting him a double-thumbs up and wearing an expression like 8D!

(And Lan Wangji decides it’s not worth fighting and just goes with it.)

Lan Qiren

Lan Qiren is totally the kind of parent who never boasts about his children directly, but will listen politely to you telling him about how your son scored 86 in his maths examination, and wait for you to obligation-ask about his kids before casually saying, “Oh, Wangji? He scored full marks” and smiling thinly.

He’ll add “Sounds like your son worked really hard” for extra fuck you value if you were being particularly obnoxious.

The greatest tragedy in his parenting life is realising that if your children are The Best, it’s only possible for them to marry down.

His initial feelings regarding Wei Wuxian dating his nephew can probably be summed up as: “Wei Wuxian, I did not lovingly raise my precious Lan Wangji just to give him to you!!!”

(The problem is that his nephew (inexplicably) likes Wei Wuxian so much, mumblegrumble.)

For weeks after The Resentment of Lan Qiren, every time Lan Qiren sees Wen Ning, he shakes his head sadly to himself and mutters “What a shame, what a shame.”

When Wen Ning responds with a slightly panicked “?!”, Lan Qiren just pats him on the shoulder, like, “No, no, it’s not you. We can’t choose our relatives. And isn’t that the greatest shame in the world?” - and then DOESN’T EXPLAIN ANYTHING.

And after many bouts of thinking and rethinking still lead him to the conclusion that Wei Wuxian is the best choice in comparison to all the other available options, Lan Qiren may or may not visit Cangse Sanren’s grave to burn some incense for an excuse to stand there and offer a sullen, “You fukken got me again, you bastard. I can’t believe you.”

He doesn’t know who he hates more:

Wei Wuxian for being himself and yet still the best choice

Cangse Sanren for not letting being dead stop her from continuing to be a thorn in Lan Qiren’s side

Wen Ruohan for being undesirable enough to disqualify the only valid competitor

The other parents for failing to produce children who are better than Wei Wuxian

(Like: Surely it can’t be that hard if he (+ his brother + his sister-in law) managed to produce two)

So he settles for hating everyone.

For his next birthday, Lan Xichen sends him a box of blood-pressure-lowering supplements.

Lan Qiren is like “!!!” but he still takes them because just because his nephew is being impudent does not mean there is not also a Need.

In re 3zun:

Lan Qiren goes around determinedly Not Thinking about Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao. Every time his eyes approach something he doesn’t want to see, he just turns his head like NOPE.

He eventually realises that he and Wei Wuxian have this in common and that Wei Wuxian is therefore his most valuable ally - both in terms of having someone to pivot to and have very loud, very enthusiastic conversations about anything else whenever the 3zun do something they don’t want to see, and also having someone to commiserate with about Not Wanting to Know. (But because they’re them, they alternate between teaming up for self-preservation and using their mutual weakness to take petty jabs at each other.)

"-If two of them are dating, then where does that leave the third one?!"

"RIGHT? Imagine finding out that they were silently pining away, forced to third-wheel for their unrequited love and best friend - unrequited LOVES AND BEST FRIENDS? What would you say to that?!"

"That's not even considering which one the third wheel would be - I honestly don't know which option would be the worst, they're all terrible."

"I'm almost ready to say that I'd rather they all be dating each other, except then I'd have to think about how that would work, dynamic-wise, like - who calls the shots? Do you think Nie Mingjue is domineering all the time, or do you think it’s a public front, and he then goes home to be dominated by-"

“STOP.”

Even before 3zun get together (both Lan Qiren and Wei Wuxian have chosen to Never Know when this is), Jin Guangyao is throwing out suggestive comments left and right and then immediately whipping out his (◔◡◔✿) face for anyone’s double-take:

50% to test the waters of public sentiment before he makes a move and it actually becomes his problem

50% because he’s a troll who likes dominance displays

Knowing this factoid, one of Wei Wuxian’s mental 3zun Dynamics possibilities features Superdom!Jin Guangyao, but he does his best to avoid thinking about that.

After Lan Qiren mentally accepts Wei Wuxian into the fold:

He still internally responds to at least 50% of the things that Wei Wuxian does with “Why, that little shit”, but it’s also implied that Wei Wuxian is their little shit now.

And for Lan Family! Qiren, this means: If you shit on him, WE shit on you.

“Shufu”

Lan Qiren definitely Notices when Wei Wuxian calls him that, but it Doesn’t Do to make a fuss.

He probably has a conversation with Lan Xichen sometime around the first family dinner that goes:

LQR: You've noticed that he's still calling me 'Uncle Qiren' like we're nothing to each other.

LXC: ...If you want him to call you Shufu, should you perhaps not mention that to him?

LQR: What? No, he should already know these things!

And then after the wedding:

LQR: Your brother's boyfriend is finally acting like one of the family. LXC: Haha, oh my.

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan

Although their mothers have been friends for ages, Jin Zixuan grows up in a different city, so they don't see each other growing up. The Jins later move for Jin Zixuan's high-flying corporate job, Madam Jin joins the Culture Society at her friend's behest and immediately falls in love with Jiang Yanli as a daughter-in-law.

After a lot of cajoling (in both directions), she gets them to agree to one date, which is a disaster (I have more headcanons about this but they won't fit in here)

Jin Zixuan has a lot of money and zero sense of proportion, which does not generally result in tasteful things. (Where Jiang Yanli is concerned, his desire to keep up a "cool" image is completely overpowered by his desire to please, so that doesn't help either. Like a golden retriever who wants people to think he's a cat.)

After they get married, Wei Wuxian sometimes thinks about the peacock's peacocking rituals, like: "It's good that he's gotten more reasonable now that they're married - no, wait, what if he hasn't gotten more reasonable, but there's just no one around to see it because they're married?!" and never gets brave enough to ask his sister about it.

After Jin Ling's birth, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng (and maybe even Jin Zixuan) get locked in an ongoing battle for Jin Ling's affections. Jiang Yanli is the clear favourite, as she should be, but they all want to be #2, and their constant jostling is how he ends up with no chill despite being raised by one calm mum and one aloof (but secretly disaster) dad

But because Jiang Yanli is around, he's very polite about it: the kind of kid who barrels in screaming blue murder, skids to a halt and says "Auntie", and then tears out screaming blue murder again

Wei Wuxian tones it down a lot after he and Lan Wangji adopt A-Yuan because he’s got better things to do, but it’s still A Thing (during visits, A-Yuan spends a lot of time in Auntie Yanli’s lap being gently fed things while his dad and shushu yell at each other over the top of his cousin’s head)

Lan Xichen and Jiang Yanli

Initially brought together by their brothers, they now meet up for regular, peaceful, wholesome tea-dates where they discuss the lives of their mutuals and gently exchange advice (and strategies on how to keep their angry-angry parent/proxy-parent's blood pressure down.

Whereas Jiang Cheng gets closer to coughing up blood with every year that passes by without Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji getting their shit together, Lan Xichen and Jiang Yanli take the more optimistic view of "Look at how well-prepared we are, we've just run another year ahead of schedule!"

Dinner Crew

Jiang Cheng has been the unwilling audience to years of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s bullshit.

If asked, he would say: “And you wonder why I’m so angry?! What do you mean ‘dating’, you’ve been fucking married for the last five years!” but no one ever does :’D

Every so often, he thinks about how happy their sister is about the dating situation because she doesn’t know that it’s fake, and he grinds his teeth because why can’t he also not-know!?

To this, Nie Huaisang says, “If we didn’t know we couldn’t help!”

And Jiang Cheng replies, “WE’RE NOT HELPING ANYWAY, LOOK AT HIM!!!”

Meanwhile, Jiang Yanli continues to gush about how happy she is for Wei Wuxian and all Jiang Cheng can do is laugh really unnaturally because he has to “Be strong, Jiang Cheng! Be strong for A-jie! ╥﹏╥”

He goes to read the comments on the Society Facebook after the fujoshi conversation, and gets so angry at all these people who are like “Ah, their love is so beautiful!” that he has to uninstall his Facebook app, and go and shout into a cupboard somewhere.

The non-Wei-Wuxian members of the dinner group have set up a separate chat to act as a support group, where they all go to:

Wail and gnash their teeth after Wei Wuxian does something particularly dumb

Scheme ways into getting Wei Wuxian to get a clue

Console one another when someone’s brave attempt at getting Wei Wuxian to face the truth fails miserably (because while they play by the rules of ‘what a normal human would do’, Wei Wuxian lives by the principle of ‘lol norms are for losers’.)

Relatedly: for every resigned Nie Huaisang face or enraged Jiang Cheng face that Wei Wuxian notices, there are at least three desperate-yet-silent exchanges that he doesn’t.

Wen Ning is always really optimistic about it, nodding encouragingly like “He’s gonna get it - he’s gonna get it! - oh no, he’s not gonna get it. Oh. Oh no. Ó╭╮Ò”

Wen Ning always has at least one small child hanging off him at all times when he’s at the Cultural Centre because they know he can always be bullied into playing with them and they think he’s great.

Past bullshit dinner group projects have included Getting Jiang Cheng a Date and Making a Picture out of Jin Guangyao’s Forehead Dot While He’s Sleeping

(In re the forehead dot, they end up settling for making it bigger every time he nods off during a movie night at Nie Huaisang’s house, and Nie Mingjue comes home to what’s basically a Japanese flag on Jin Guangyao’s forehead and is like ಠ_ಠ)

Future dinner group projects include providing Wei Wuxian with support for Grand Plans like Getting Along with Uncle Qiren and providing Jiang Cheng with unwanted support for things like Workshopping Jiang Cheng’s List of Partner Requirements

A-Yuan

After A-Yuan’s adoption, Wei Wuxian and Lan Qiren redouble their efforts in Can we divorce an in-law?! because although they couldn’t save themselves from being related to Jin Guangyao, for their PRECIOUS BOY--

Therefore, when A-Yuan is five or six and starts to sound out how he’s related to people and why:

A-Yuan: So if Jin-yeye is Uncle Guangyao’s dad, then that makes him my-

Wei Wuxian: NOTHING!

Lan Qiren (springing up from the other side of the room): NOTHING!

Lan Xichen: lol

At around about this same time, Wei Wuxian, who is never gonna stop trolling Lan Qiren about ruzhui until the day he dies, runs A-Yuan through the “You see, my son, my family is not so well-to-do, and since your Uncle married into the Nie family-” talk, and then proceeds to reference it at every opportunity:

1: Despite A-Yuan almost certainly not asking, and

2: despite (/especially because of) Lan Qiren shouting “DON’T TEACH HIM WEIRD THINGS!” in the background.

(Lan Wangji probably lets it happen or encourages it because he thinks it’s funny)

#CQL #The Untamed #Wangxian #陈情令 #魔道祖师 #mo dao zu shi #not-fic

628 notes · View notes