Huo Xiu Xiu: Everyone has a toxic trait. Except Xiao Hua, they’re perfect.

Xiao Hua: Wrong! My toxic trait is how badly I want to domesticate a raccoon.

Some DMBJs from recent 8/17 merch and stuff

That one parks and rec scene you know the one

there’s a mistake on the first panel and I’m not fixing it, we’re all living with it now

It dawns on me that I forgot to post this here for [checks notes] the past several months!

Anyways I just think Xiao Hua should have everything he wants, always

Official ‘New Year of the Rabbit’ Artwork - NPSS store on Taobao

what i’m trying to say is aro queen xiuxiu <3

[ID: "Image of a ship in a lightning-struck sea, bowsprit pointing to a gap in the cloud cover where stars are visible. Two fine lines of text read, ‘Ah, love is a voyage with water and a star,’ and, ‘love is a war of lights in the lightning flashes…’. Title reads, ‘With Water and a Star" End ID]

Chapters: 1/17 Fandom: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Xu Lei, 沙海 | Tomb of the Sea (TV), 终极笔记 | Ultimate Note (TV), 怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 | Explore with the Note & The Lost Tomb (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hei Xiazi/Huo Xiuxiu/Xie Yuchen Characters: Hei Xiazi (DMBJ Series), Huo Xiuxiu, Xie Yuchen, Wang Pangzi, Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s) Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Arranged Marriage, Misunderstandings, Battle Couple, Friends to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Canon-typical Jiumen mafia politics, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Attempted Sexual Assault, Details in author's notes, Podfic, Podfic Length: 2-2.5 Hours Summary:

So much, he thought, for settling into a low-key lifestyle after the end of the Wang family. He grimaced as he raised his head and looked at her. “A scandal.”

Huo Xiuxiu/A-Ning, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind AU (or, if that doesn't suit, same pairing but Robin Hood AU)

ohhhh these are getting good now. i saw nausicaa but reprehensibly i can't remember it, so i'm going with...chinese robin hood? song jiang, from water margin! who was a 義匪 yi fei, or "righteous bandit." also i really wanted to work a-ning's always perfect lipstick into this but i failed :(

*

A-Ning is in a very bad mood. She can't even enjoy celebrating with her 108 Stars of Destiny, her beloved heroes, even though there's plenty of baijiu for everyone, her brother is already seven sheets to the wind, and together they made off with more copper and silver than A-Ning has ever seen in her entire life, all to be redistributed to the good people of Shandong. "What's wrong, jie?" asks Jiang Zisuan. He bumps her shoulder and hiccups. "Something on your mind? Or someone, I should guess—"

"Shut up," says A-Ning automatically. She just needs some fresh air, that's all. She steps outside and inhales the frosty winter of Mount Liang. What she really needs to do is stop thinking about things she can't have. But A-Ning has never been good at accepting defeat, and Huo Xiuxiu is no exception. The flower of the Jiumen; smart, beautiful, and a disarmingly good fighter. A-Ning will never forget the first time they crossed paths, and how Xiuxiu, in a pretty lavender dress, had promptly thrown her down on the ground, knee in the middle of her back, and wouldn't let her up until A-Ning surrendered her name. She stares out into the darkness, arms crossed. What is she thinking—she's a ruffian, a thief and a bandit. What use could a Huo have for someone like her— "A-Ning?" There's a voice from the trees, and A-Ning has drawn her knife before she sees who it is. It's Xiuxiu, in field clothing, leather trousers and jacket, walking towards her with her hands held out. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Why haven't you written to me? Where have you been—" Suddenly A-Ning's evening is a lot better.

*

send me a pairing and an AU and i’ll write you a ficlet!

quick Xiu Xiu/Hei Xiazi sketch for these classic Hollywood couple poses. Thank you @ohyka and @brother-genitivi for posting about these.

are you surprised that I'm asking you to do Wu Xie for the blorbo bingo ?

(alternative offers if you want to do them: Li Cu, since you're finishing sha hai and/or Huo Xiuxiu)

i’m very late in replying to this sorryyy

absolutely not surprised but i appreciate the window of opportunity to let me *unintelligible noises* about wu xie <3

(for disclaimer purposes as always these are all just my personal opinions and aren’t pretending to be objective facts)

i’m totally normal about wu xie my beloved (who absolutely has pretty boy privilege that he definitely uses to his advantage whether he fully realizes he does or not, also this man is vain af in the most human way possible), he’s the ultimate blorbo and i’d be writing essays about him if i actually fully got into why i love him. wu xie is incredibly complex and goes through one of the most realistic and in-depth developments i’ve seen in a fictional character honestly. it says something that usually first person narration isn’t really my thing, but wu xie’s pov is so enjoyable and compelling you can’t put the books down. because of that unique perspective, we get wu xie in all that he is as he changes (though not quite as much as he himself thinks he does) throughout his experiences, the good and the ugly both, and while he’s deeply flawed, it’s because he’s deeply flawed and contradictory and so painfully human as a result that he’s as interesting and endearing as he is, i love him a very normal amount :))

the one maybe controversial opinion i have is that while not most because that would be exaggerating, i still find a number of popular fandom takes on wu xie, on the western side of the fandom specifically, are off just enough they bother me. it’s hard to narrow it down to a single reason because it’s a mix of different things that aren’t always objective (as in some things are just my preference vs someone else’s), but i would say one of the bigger ones is the sometimes gross misunderstanding of cultural backdrop and framework that have made him into who he is. you can easily extend this to pretty much all the characters, it’s just more noticeable in the portrayals of the main ones, but dmbj is a story deeply informed by its cultural framework, both in terms of narrative and in terms of the characters, how they act, their thought processes, and how all this impacts their interactions with others. so it’s not hard to understand that disregarding that would skew the characters on a fundamental level, which is something i find happens to wu xie more than it should. but that’s just me

next! li cu

i don’t have anything crazy to say about li cu really outside the fact i find him a little more compelling in the book than in the drama, mostly because you get his thought process a little more in-depth in the book, and he’s interesting as a contrast to how wu xie works. he’s clearly way in over his head and trying his best to cope with increasing trauma that just keeps heaping itself on top of itself without letting him really process it so yes he needs to stop being in situations (even if arguably being in situations is what ultimately saves his life). he’s also a teenage boy which just makes me want to fix him. just a little bit. i swear he can be better it’s not his fault teenage boys are a little dumb in the head! he does show up more in later canon post-ten years later, so it’s not like he completely disappears, but him and the desert triangle squad aren’t uninteresting characters so it’s interesting enough to keep up with them even if his strained relationship with wu xie hurts me for both of them (li cu using wu xie as a convenient party to pin the blame on for all his misfortunes vs wu xie perceiving li cu as the consequences of his necessary evils made flesh ouchouchouch)

aaaand huo xiuxiu

huo xiuxiu my beloved, best girl hands down, none can compare <3

when i say the writers dropped the ball on her, i mostly mean the dramas, although tbh more specifically lost tomb 2 and 2.5 that. yeah that’s not xiuxiu that’s all i’ll say. i find the closest to book version of her is in ultimate note, that still for introducing characters earlier than they should have been reasons couldn’t give her some of her coolest scenes. she’s intelligent, she’s skilled and cunning and pretty, yet in the beginning she also has that gap of practical inexperience that make her human. she’s the whole deal really. interestingly enough when they meet in the books, wu xie often finds he and xiuxiu are similar in terms of the way they think and react, which i find is interesting and pretty accurate. she’s also not in the story enough, so i’m happy that in current canon she’s been upgraded to one of the main squad and is down in dangerous tombs with the iron triangle and heihua. she’s also as unhinged as they all are i love her <3

Wu Xie: You know what I learned from my friendship with Xiao Hua?

Pangzi: There’s no such thing as too mean?

Huo XiuXiu: Never let your friends know for sure if you like them?

Hei Xiazi: Always hold a grudge?

every character in dmbj is trans because i said so (part 1)

bonus, the entirety of jiumen is trans

to be continued...

(also daily reminder i LOVE to hear about trans dmbj headcanons to if that’s relevant to you feel free to just show up in my dms)

I have more DMBJ followers than the last time I asked this, so I'll try again:

I've only seen the shows, and no show has filled in this bit (maybe a movie did, but I haven't seen those)::

All the shows preceeding Tomb of the Sea // Sand Sea story-wise (so like, even ones filmed later on) show Huo Xiuxiu having a very good relationship with her grandmother and a prominent position in the family.

So why, by Tomb of the Sea // Sand Sea, is she the outcast of the Jiumen families? What happened?

And is she dead by the time Reunion runs around, or just not involved?

Mandatory GIF to make people stop and read:

Official ‘New Year of the Rabbit’ Artwork - NPSS store on Taobao

huo xiuxiu spin-off where she just tries everything to get as far away from the lao jiumen bullshit as possible. but everywhere she goes, no matter how far away from home, no matter how well she hides her identity, she bumps into something related to the lao jiumen and gets tangled up in their bullshit time and time again no matter what she tries.