So uhh I may be legally blind 😀

I knew my eyesight was bad but damn

Let’s Talk: The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion

I finished all 40 eps about two weeks ago, actually. I enjoyed it for the most part, the 1st half especially, but there were several things near the end that took me out. 

But first some of the good bits...

The cast chemistry was immaculate. Our four main lead actors were a lot of fun together. Not just Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi, but also Wang You Shuo and Xu Jiaqi (Loved them!). The four of them have such obvious ease with each other after their previous work together in Legend of Yun Xi and it made scenes with any combination of the main four really pop. 

I was especially drawn to the sisters’ relationship and the Prince-Vassal bond going on between Prince Su and Little Marquis. (Y’all know I’m a sucker for both sibling stories and stories about fictional royals and their loyal vassals.)

Most of the ancillary characters were interesting, actually. As y’all know from my last post about this one, I was crack shipping like crazy all the side characters. 😂 This cast made it easy for me.

Except for Prince An. (Sorry to hit the bad so early.) Good god, I hated that man. His character was poorly drawn in pretty much every way, which is unfortunate cuz he’s the main antagonist. Any story with a main antagonist that just doesn’t work is always gonna be weaker.

Also, no offense to people who like that actor but he was the only cast member who did absolutely nothing for me in terms of performance. So much of the story was focused on his weaksauce motivation and dry acting like, my god, put me out of my misery I do not care.

Anyway, the set design and costuming was top notch and I even enjoyed the broader story ideas the show was trying to put forth. The sitcom vibe of the first 20 eps or so was SOOO good. Our four mains’ comedic timings were pitch perfect. 

Unfortunately, the writing took a sharp nosedive in the back 3rd or so and it had a rough ending. (The lightning strike on the tower scene, the fight in the underground temple, the return of Prince An’s mom...all of that was trash. let’s be real.)

I mostly blame this on three things: the missteps with the Prince An character, the lack of development of Rong’s prophetic dreams even though that was the main premise of the show, and the jump-the-shark moment that was the wedding night and its subsequently underwritten fallout. 

Now to clarify, I don’t mean to say the wedding night event shouldn’t have happened at all but rather the execution of it within the story was poor and it negatively impacted 90% of the other character motivations/progressions and the overall pacing. 

You know, it felt like that thing you do as a writer where you wake up and have a specific scene in your mind. It’s evocative, impactful, fun, or otherwise intense. But you just have that scene and it’s something that would have to happen in the middle of your story. So you work your way backwards to try to get to that scene and you do your best to get the characters to make decisions to get there but when you sit down to write nothing works out. It’s clunky or OOC for the scene to still happen so you end up having to either scrap the evocative scene or keep the clunky lead up and hope no one notices. That’s what that wedding scene and everything that happened after felt like. They wrote themselves into a corner and just struggled to recover until the bitter end. 

The main pairing suffered the most because of the poor writing choices. No matter how much chemistry ZZH and JJY have together, even they could not completely salvage Rong’s yo-yoing behavior with Prince Su. They started off so wholesome and then dove into such toxicity and miscommunication for no reason. 

Don’t get me wrong. I can very easily enjoy angst. But Fu Rong consistently broke this man down. After ep 25-26, it stopped being good angst and became so awful to watch all the emotional manipulation and turmoil. There’s something broken in the writing if 9 out of 10 times Prince Su cried or fell into depression it was because of something Rong did or said to him after jumping to a conclusion with only part of the puzzle pieces gathered. 

I could forgive some stuff because Prince An was manipulating things but some stuff was just all Rong not giving Prince Su the benefit of the doubt or plain old not doing her due diligence in investigating. She is supposed to have inherited the most prolific and successful spy organization in the show and she still got 90% of her conclusions wrong. It was like she was determined to always think the worst of Prince Su no matter what despite how often he went above and beyond to help her. Despite the fact that he literally had a reputation as a general for being a harsh taskmaster but fair and just. 

I think what broke me was when she did the bare minimum investigation into her own father’s death and just fully blamed Prince Su without confronting him honestly or even considering his personality or their relationship up until that point. She really believed a single street seller’s entire testimony over the man she lived with and supposedly loved for months. Girl...

And this is after she’d previously mistakenly accused him of killing her mentor with very few facts to the point where she stabbed him on their wedding night.

There came a point where I actually wanted Prince Su to finally, truly divorce Rong and settle down with someone who could love him right. Maybe give him time to heal from the repeated heartbreaks, betrayals, and the literal stab wound in his chest but he was so fucking in love with Rong, he just couldn’t escape.

(If there were behind the scenes production reasons for the clunky-ness of the back half, I would not be surprised at all but ultimately they don’t matter cuz the story we got was the story we got.)

Imagine if we had gotten a Rong who used her prophetic dreams to navigate the cut throat world of royal politics. Or imagine if we’d gotten Rong as a true apprentice to Ruyi who learned both metalsmithing and spycraft in the first half and took over the pavilion as a competent leader in the second half. As it stands, it just felt like wasted potential.

I’m glad they had the modern day special AU eps tho cuz those were great. Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi had the opportunity to really showcase their incredible chemistry but in a modern setting and with better writing than the back 3rd of BRYP.

Now let’s talk Zhang Zhehan since he was the reason I started this in the first place. I loved him in this. I truly did. He was stern and serious but also playful and sweet. He was romantic but awkward, badass but vulnerable. He really delivered a nuanced and charming performance. I loved every second.

I think my favorite moment wasn’t some badass fight or even a super romantic moment. No, it was when he got drunk and started crying like a little baby cuz Rong was constantly doubting him no matter what he did. It was simultaneously sad and hilarious. Like gut busting funny. Y’all can watch it here:

I laughed so fucking hard at this. Oh my god, guys! This shit was too much.

Random Thoughts:

The romance between the 2nd leads was A+. Truly an adorable affair. Though I think they should’ve gotten together officially earlier around ep 25 or so and we should’ve seen the rest with them as a couple.

The costuming was so good y’all. For all the main four characters but I was especially drawn to Prince Su’s outfits.

The ghostly pale look with the bright red lips and eyeshadow makeup for Rong did not bother me at all. I actually liked it for her though I think it would’ve worked better if she’d had more explicit prophetic abilities.

I could’ve used more actual war scenes with Prince Su and Little Marquis.

The OST for the show SLAPPED!

That one kid spy in Ruyi Pavilion was voiced by the same actor as Chengling from WOH and I have never double-taked harder. lmao

Even though there were things I didn’t like in this show, I appreciated how gay I could make it in my last post. Truly it was a bisexual’s dream aesthetically.

Word Prompt #10 - NSFW

Word: Honorific WIP: Thriving series CW: 18+ only, my fellow humans(?), for this is…not in any way safe for work whatsoever. Word Count: 1,922 Additional Notes: This is directly following up another WP piece of mine, Beard, and uh yeah. Also, I’m kinda glad I originally pulled this cuz I made a few minor changes to it.

***

Possibly two feet from the bedroom door was when Warren realized he was in the midst of experiencing the most difficult anticipatory moments of his life, and he glanced from his bags in Thrive’s arms up to the beautiful beard growth over the sharp angles of his jaw, the silver pin keeping the small bun of hair in place, and wanted so badly to knock the luggage out of his clutches and throw himself at him right in the middle of the hallway.

Thrive, however, had slightly different plans. He allowed Warren into the bedroom first, kicked the door closed behind him, and set the bags on the floor at his feet. Then from all but nowhere shot his hand to grab Warren’s throat and shove him back into the wall with barely restrained effort.

“Oh, fuck,” Warren managed to gasp before Thrive silenced him by claiming his mouth, the urgency of their kiss very apparent right off the bat. Warren pulled him closer by the hips, slid his hands up his back, clutched him around the ribs, weak in the knees from letting Thrive run his tongue over his bottom lip while simultaneously giving his mind permission to curl around his psyche, to return home where it was familiar and warm.

Warren reached up to remove the pin holding Thrive’s hair together, and he couldn’t even pull away to get a look at it as he was too busy reeling from the thigh that had made its way between his legs and the fingers creeping their way into his hair. Somewhat luckily, their mental connection allowed him to foresee it when Thrive decided to grip his mahogany locks and tug his head to the side, grazing his teeth over his throat and inhaling deeply.

“Hmm,” he murmured, and Warren could feel his husky timbre vibrating in his sternum. Thrive pressed his mouth to Warren’s ear. “This smell is unfamiliar.”

Heat roiled in Warren’s stomach and all of the blood in his head made a quick and terrible nosedive in the complete opposite direction. “This smell is possibly a whole month of being in the wilds of Logoryt.”

“We’ll just have to fix that, won’t we?” Thrive said, his voice barely a whisper as he deftly moved down the succession of Warren’s shirt buttons with one hand. “You and I both know the only scent that should be on your skin is mine.”

He’d growled the last word and Warren’s knees nearly buckled, though the thigh between his legs did a good job keeping him upright. “This is…probably the most functionally deficient I’ve ever been in my life—”

Thrive kissed him again, his beard barely scratching against his face, and it only became clear that he’d finished unbuttoning Warren’s red and gray flannel when his fingers found the strained zipper of his jeans and he dusted his knuckles across the swollen shape.

Warren, who’d been touch-starved for about an entire year, quickly pressed Thrive’s hand to himself and kept him still, biting his lip almost hard enough to draw blood. “Ah…careful. I’m a bad gust of wind away from ending this whole thing.”

Thrive’s eyes glittered with a thought. “Is that so….”

Warren didn’t even have the chance to confirm before Thrive sank to his knees, popping his jeans open and releasing him in one fluid movement. He curled an arm around the underside of Warren’s thigh and pinned him against the wall.

“Hey, now, wait a minute, wasn’t I supposed to be the one—OH! My fucking god—” Warren’s head smacked the wall upon Thrive’s mouth enveloping him, and it was all he could do not to buck forward, though that proved moot once Thrive’s other hand gripped his hip to keep him still. “Yeah, shit, I can't—”

“You can,” Thrive said against him, tightly squeezing him and inciting an inconsequential amount of pain to keep him in check. “And you will.”

Warren took a few deep breaths through his nose, his legs already shaking. “I’m gonna die here and it’s your fault.”

Thrive slid his hand up Warren’s stomach and stroked him slowly, angling a crooked grin in his direction. “What a way to go.”

Warren ran his fingers through Thrive’s chin-length hair and cradled the back of his head well into finding himself back in his mouth, screwing his eyes shut and simultaneously enjoying the sensations and doing his absolute best to keep himself going for just a little longer.

“Okay,” he panted, cupping Thrive’s face as a warning. “Okay, okay, okay….”

Thrive pulled back, but instead of stopping, he continued to stroke him, watching him intently. He used his other hand to flip his hair to one side and made direct eye-contact with Warren. “I don’t think you realize who’s in charge this morning.”

With a loud groan and a sharp cant of his hips, Warren writhed against the wall, full-body shivers overwhelming him and practically uprooting him as Thrive encouraged everything out of him. His limbs turned to jelly and he didn’t notice Thrive had begun to remove his jeans for him altogether.

“God,” Warren said forcefully. “I think I gotta leave home more often….”

Thrive stood. “Bed.”

Blinking away his lightheadedness, Warren glanced at him. “I dunno if I can walk, babe.”

Thrive curled his fingers around him again, causing him to inhale sharply and hiss through clenched teeth. “…You will address me by my honorific.”

Warren groaned again. “Mm…sorry…Your Majesty.”

“Get on the bed.”

He sat on the edge, watching Thrive carefully remove his cape and peel off the few layers of his robes and flushing a deep crimson when his hair caught the light of the sun through the window.

“On your stomach,” Thrive ordered.

Warren shivered again, doing as instructed. “Wanna get this thing out of the way?” he asked, tugging the collar of his shirt.

Thrive rummaged around the drawers of Warren’s dresser. “No.”

The fabric of his bedspread made Warren’s sensitive skin tingle. “I gotta say this is kinda hitting on a fantasy of mine,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve spent years daydreaming about you, uh, dominating me and….” He scratched his temple. “The choking thing was really doin’ it for me.”

“The idea of me breaking you in half arouses you?”

“Fuck yes,” Warren laughed. “Yeah, exactly. The fact that you could is like…combined with the fact that you’re super smart is just….”

Thrive had meandered back over to the bed. “Talk more of what turns you on about me.”

“So many things,” Warren said, fully aware of the snap of a bottle opening and the scent of synthetic peach filling the air, and his gut tightened in response to the bed sinking beneath his knees. “Your eyes are so gorgeous, the way you talk to me sometimes is so hot, and your body….” He dropped his head to the mattress when he felt a hand at the small of his back. “…Is incredible.”

“This is not my body, Warren,” Thrive murmured.

Warren clutched the bedspread with tight fists as Thrive’s coated fingers found their target and sent a wave of electricity through him. “Yeah…yeah, I know that….”

“If I were to become natural at this very moment, would you still feel as unraveled and vulnerable as you do now?”

Warren couldn’t hold back the laugh that burst forth from him again. “If you became natural right now while you’re doing what you’re doing I would actually explode without further prompting.”

There was a curious pause from Thrive as he continued to touch Warren, hot palm caressing his back and the curve of his backside as his other hand prepped him. “…That is good to know.”

Warren’s grip on the bedspread only tightened when Thrive pulled him back by the hem of his shirt, then his hips and sheathed himself within him. “Ah, god….”

“Up,” Thrive grunted, and with his help Warren pushed himself upward so Thrive could wrap an arm around his midsection and hold him tight to his chest, finding a pace that drew the most sounds out of him. He tugged on Warren’s earlobe with his teeth. “Right…I’m not letting you out of this house again.”

Warren’s head dropped back onto a broad shoulder, his emotions swirling together with Thrive’s. “I…can’t see myself arguing with that at the moment….”

The sun eventually reached its peak in the sky and Thrive flipped Warren onto his back, his hand once again tight but safe around his throat, and Warren hooked his legs around Thrive’s waist for leverage, and between all of that and the fact that they were in full view of anyone who happened to fly by the window at that time—

“Oh, fuck, Thrive,” Warren groaned, overwhelmed with heat and the rise of pleasure in their mental connection.

“Say it,” Thrive growled.

“Your Majesty—!”

Thrive arched himself over Warren and threw a dark leg over his shoulder, rolling his hips into him a few times before Warren couldn’t contain himself any more and let go, pulling Thrive’s face down to kiss him hard and dig his nails into the flesh of his back, releasing cries of ecstasy that he was suddenly glad no one else was in the house to hear.

Slowing to a stop, Thrive smoothed Warren’s hair down on his head and instantly collapsed beside him, holding him in his arms as Warren came down from his euphoric state.

“Holy shit,” Warren panted, throwing an arm over his face to hide the tears streaming down the sides of his head. “That was so fucking amazing….”

Thrive stroked the side of his face. “You’re alright?”

“I’m shaking….” Warren held his hands up to look at them and chuckled. “God, yeah, I’m great.”

“Was it too much for you?”

“No. No…no, you could’ve even pushed harder, to be honest.”

“I worry about hurting you.”

Warren turned his head to look Thrive in the eye, a bit taken aback. His chest heaved with his efforts to catch his breath. “I mean, everyone’s got a limit, but…a little pain isn’t too bad. Is it?”

Thrive linked his and Warren’s hands together and brought his knuckles up to his lips. “As long as you’re fine with what transpired here.”

“Are you?”

“Truthfully, I only had you in mind.” Thrive shook his head to keep his hair out of his face, and he smiled when Warren raked his nails through his beard. “I only ever have you in mind.”

He dropped his head low to meet Warren in another kiss.

“Damn,” Warren whispered. “I’m so glad to be home.”

“Well,” Thrive replied, “I very slightly meant what I said about keeping you here. It’s always a ruin to contentment without you at my side at all times.”

They lay in quiet for a moment, gazing into each other, and Warren held his face in his hands.

“Let’s do this again,” he murmured. “But keep looking at me just like that.”

Thrive obliged him, and they spent the rest of the day in bed, making up for lost time, until Warren had nothing left within him to spend, and the start of the sunset called for a long nap in each others’ arms with the view of the three moons of Tournaltis curving across the sky and the waking desert lights bobbing over the distant shore.

“Love you, Your Majesty,” Warren mumbled sleepily beneath Thrive’s jaw.

Thrive tucked a hand comfortably into the waistband of Warren’s sweatpants at the small of his back. “Love you as well, Your Highness.”

Warren smiled against his skin.

***

NSFW tag list (ask to be added or removed!): @pertinax--loculos @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt @biscottibitch @drabbleitout  @holidaysong

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Today’s writing ended up being a complete one shot. Enjoy some (totally unedited) Mallory misery! It had been a pretty decent day. Things were nice and quiet at the base, there had been no criminal activity for the last week, and it was the off season. She had as much free time as she wanted this afternoon and she was going to enjoy it by wandering around the mall and then catching a movie later. Her good mood was shattered when she saw it. Mallory stopped and stared at the life size, cardboard standee of herself outside the Shoe Zone. She remembered doing the photo shoot, but she had never okayed which photos they were allowed to use. They had to have picked the absolute worst one possible. The cutout had her standing sideways, one hand on her hip and an athletic shoe in the other hand while she smiled vacantly. At that angle, her bill looked horribly misshapen. The cutout was a little smaller than she really was, despite being supposedly life sized. They had removed all traces of her muscles in favor of making her into one of the stick-thin, skeletal models California loved. That... That had to go. No way. While she watched, a mother and her young son came out of the store and he excitedly stood by the standee, smiling while she took his photo. While she watched, a three teenage boys came out of the store, laughing as two posed by the standee while the third took their photo. One of the boys grabbed the cardboard breast while the other pretended to slap its rear end. "Dude, she's so hot," one joked. "I know! I'd totally sleep with that alien." "You'd sleep with anything." "Yeah, but," he moved behind the standee and made thrusting motions with his hips, "She's probably never been with a real man." He laughed loudly while his friend gave him a high five. Mallory cleared her throat and took a step closer to them, arms crossed and a death stare directed at the one saying he'd sleep with her. "What was that?" she growled. "Oh, shit..." Kyle's eyes grew wide and the other two grew silent at seeing the real life hockey player in front of them. "That's no way to talk about a lady," Duke's voice came from behind her as he appeared from nowhere. “Now, if I were you,” he pointed at them, “I’d leave before I decide to help her teach you boys some manners.” “Uh, yeah,” Jason nodded. “No problem. Sorry. We didn’t mean any disrespect.” “Bullshit,” Mallory said. “Bye!” the third one said as they all turned and ran to the food court. The two ducks stood in silence for several moments, watching them retreat. Mallory glared at the standee once more, not really sure how she felt. How could some stupid human kids make her feel cheap like that? “They shouldn’t have done that,” Duke said quietly. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, shaking her head. “What time does the movie start again?” He looked at her, weighing if it was worth talking about or if he should just let her drop the topic. “Half hour,” he said. “That’s not a good photo of you anyway.” “I wish I could burn it.” She turned and headed towards the theater, making sure to keep a respectable distance between them as they walked side by side. Boys humping effigies of her was bad enough; she didn’t need more tabloid talk of her cheating on Nosedive with Duke or having a secret fling with the team’s center. “Hm. Not a bad idea.” He kept the same distance, not moving to close it. 0000 Anaconda had been the worst movie that they had seen in a long time and they both loved it. The movie had been good enough to take their minds off the stupidity in he mall earlier. That was, until they walked past Shoe Zone again on their way out. The mall was closing and an employee was moving the standee and shoes that had been displayed with it into the store before pulling down the gate. “Hey!” Duke called out, jogging to the store as the young woman jumped up to grab the gate and pull it down. “Oh! Wow! Hi!” She stopped with the gate halfway down. “You’re Mighty Ducks!” “Hi.” Mallory glared at the paper version of herself. “Yeah. Uh, is there any chance we could have that?” Duke asked, pointing to the standee. “I really wish I could.” She sighed. “We’d have to order another through corporate and this thing is super popular. We’ve almost sold out of the Ice Runner’s this week. My manager wouldn’t let me.” “Okay. Thanks.” He turned to go. “Wait!” “Yeah?” Duke and Mallory turned around again. “Can I have an autograph?” “Would it get us that thing?” Mallory asked. “I don’t want to lose my job,” she said. “It’s okay.” Duke pulled a pen from his pocket and looked at her expectantly. “Oh! Uh…” She felt around in her pockets and pulled out a receipt. Duke signed it and handed it to Mallory. She shook her head, refusing at first, but Duke pushed the pen and paper at her again and she scribbled a quick mess of a signature. “Have a good evening,” Duke said as he and Mallory left. “I hate that thing,” Mallory said again. “How many of them do you think there are in the city?” “How many Shoe Zones are there?” “I don’t even want to think about it…”

0000 “Hey, Mal!” Nosedive called out at seeing his teammate in the kitchen. “What?” She finished putting her sandwich together. “Want to take lunch to Tanya?” “Is she working on something and not eating again?” “No.” “Then she can get her own food.” She added chips to the plate and moved to sit at the table. “Come on,” he pleaded. “Please?” “You make it.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “She likes your food better?” Mallory paused in her chewing and frowned at him. She finished chewing and swallowed before answering. “What are you up to?” “Nothing! Just, make Tanya lunch and take it to her.” “Wait a minute…” She mentally ran over the schedule for the day. “It’s Wednesday. She should be at that island with Huggerman.” “Ugh. Fiiiine.” He sat down across from her. “Just go to the lab, okay?” “Why?” She continued eating her meal. “Because?” He tried a charming smile. “Don’t feel like it.” She munched on a chip. “But—” She put another chip in her mouth and crunched it loudly. He waited for her to finish. “So—” She ate another chip, looking him in the eye and daring him to interrupt over the noisy food. “Are you—” Another one. “Fine!” He stood, throwing his arms up in the air. “Just go to the lab. Duke’s got something he wants you to see.” She stopped eating and frowned at him. Puzzling through what Duke could want to show her, decided it wasn’t that important if he was sending Nosedive instead of telling her himself, and picked up her sandwich for another bite. “You’re really not going?” “Maybe later.” She took a drink of water. “Your loss.” He stood up and left. Just before the door closed, he stuck his head back in and said, “Guess we’ll just set everything on fire without you.” Fire? That sounded fun… She quickly ate the last bite of sandwich and put the plate in the dishwasher before hurrying to the lab. 0000 When Mallory looked entered Tanya’s lab, she found herself surrounded by dozens of the hideous standees from Shoe Zone. “What?” She half shouted. “Why?!” Duke chuckled and walked over to her, a flame thrower in his hands. “You said you wanted to burn it.” “But, how? I didn’t think you could get these?” “Not too hard to run off with them when a star hockey player’s distracting the clerks,” Duke said. Nosedive stood next to one, grinning. “That’s a really bad photo, Mal.” Duke held the flame thrower out to her. She grinned and took it. They moved one of the standees into the flameproof containment unit in the lab and she eagerly squeezed the trigger, sending flames shooting out to burn the cardboard to ash. They spent the rest of the afternoon setting up the standees in different formations, burning them all. 0000 Tanya hummed to herself as she entered her lab. She had some more dermatic dressings growing in petri dishes and wanted to check on them. The distinct odor of chemical accelerant and ash filled the air. Someone had been in there… “They’d better not have messed with the spectrometer,” she muttered, walking around the lab and looking for disturbed things. What she found was an inch thick pile of ash in the containment unit and three sets of bootprints surrounding it. She considered finding whoever did it and forcing them to clean up the mess. Instead, she decided to add an extra serving of capsaicin to dinner next week.