straightforwardly

So it’s looking like I’m going to be talking about my thoughts & reactions to the new 2025 extra in a more piecemeal way rather than writing up One Big Reaction Post like I’d originally planned, which I’m fine with! Probably should have planned on this from the start tbh, because… I have many thoughts and this is less overwhelming. ( many spoilers beneath the cut )

Today, I want to talk about writing! Specifically, my writing, in a very self-indulgent, rambling kind of way, because, these past 1.5 months or so, I’ve been writing much more than I have in a long while, even if I haven’t actually posted anything yet.

One thing I’ve been trying out recently in order to (hopefully) keep me focused on fic projects long enough to actually finish them is making a list of three WIPs that I’m “allowed” to work on, and have those be my main focus. This is kind of a compromise that I’m hoping will work for me. I know that simply saying “I’m only going to work on this one fic and nothing else until it’s done” doesn’t work for me, because I’m the type of person who’s very swayed by their “mood”, i.e. I’m just as much of a “mood writer” as I am a “mood reader”. So that kind of system would break down very fast for me, either because I’d end up not writing at all or because I’d constantly be switching what that “one” fic will be, thereby defeating the purpose.

But at the same time, just opening up my WIP folders and picking what fic to work on at random based on mood isn’t very efficient either—I can get wracked by indecision, or spend my writing time just rereading various WIPs and never actually doing any writing, or waste time constantly having to settle “into” a story & what my plans and vibes for it were, and so on.

So, three fics, because three is a good number, with the three in question carefully chosen to not overlap too much with the kinds of writing “moods” that might hit me. So far, this is working pretty well…? ( more rambling beneath the cut )

Over the past few days, I’ve been having one of those moments where I want to post about so many different things that I become paralyzed with indecision about what to tackle first, and then don’t write any posts at all. So, in the interests of clearing out as many of the links and notes in my “dw update” writing document as possible, I’ve decided that I’m just going to tackle all of the “smaller” things I’ve been wanting to post about in this entry, and then figure out things from there with the “bigger” things.

Predictably, most of these things are Scum Villain-related, but not everything!

One. So, I think I’ve mentioned before that I keep a spreadsheet tracking my reading (both original & fic), gaming, watching, etc. I may have also mentioned before that I keep a physical reading/media journal—mostly dedicated to writing down my thoughts about the books I read, but it also contains some tracking spreads and monthly wrap-ups, and at some point I started doing quarterly wrap-ups as well.

One of the things I include in those quarterly wrap-ups is a list of my “most read” (usually top five) fandoms for the past three months, as determined by the number of individual fics read for them. Over the weekend, I was compiling the stats I need for the quarter that just ended, and—well. These were the results:

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System — 115
The Goes Wrong Show — 14
Pokémon (Main Games) — 12
Radiant Emperor — 11
Fire Emblem Fates — 7

I had to laugh. That drop-off… incredible.

Two. Over the weekend, I finally read the new Scum Villain extra for the first time. My full thoughts on it definitely don’t count as a “smaller” thing—I’m hoping to write a full post dedicated to that at some point, because I definitely have many, many thoughts—but I do want to bring up something related to it, namely, MXTX’s afterword.

Or, more specifically, my discovering that MXTX refers to Scum Villain (the novel) as a “lively little grasshopper”.

I instantly wanted to cry, in the best way. That’s so adorable. And it’s even cuter in context: ( more beneath the cut )

Three. Related to the above—as someone who loves subtle fannish merch, my first thought upon discovering that MXTX describes Scum Villain as a “little grasshopper” (after, of course, having a meltdown about how cute that is), was—I need art and accessories featuring grasshoppers now. So I immediately went on Etsy, and… found that pickings were rather slim, at least according to my criteria. I ended up narrowing my search to “grasshopper necklace”, but most of what seems to be out there is either cartoony in style or colored in a solid silver or gold, neither of which was what I was wanting.

Along the way, I did come across this gorgeous lunar moth necklace, which is pretty much exactly what I want in terms of both style and color. Just. It’s the wrong insect, lol. (Though still quite pretty... and I do like moths.)

Four. This morning, I came across this Scum Villain fanvid: “Spoken for me” by sapin7 and just have to share it. It does use common character design elements that I dislike (namely, Binghe being given bestial traits), but even so, it’s still very good. The way that the creator matches the images on-screen with the lyrics sent me down such an emotional rollercoaster—I swallowed down so many urges to scream while watching.

Five. The other day, while playing a nonogram-style game on my phone, I was shown this ad for Merge Teahouse. Now, I’m not going to be downloading this game—both because I’ve placed a blanket ban on myself for phone games that incentivize daily logins, and because phone game ads are notorious for not having any real resemblance to the actual game’s vibe and story—but I was very struck at how perfectly calculated this is to appeal to my interests.

We have: a FOX who has taken human form (complete with cute ears and tail!), hurt/comfort with an emphasis on blood, implied pining, devotion won through a past act of kindness that the FL may or may not even remember, a ML who looks hot and cool and powerful but acts pathetic and cute around the FL* (including him taking down their enemies before giving the FL puppy eyes and going on about how ~scared~ he was!!), clear femdom potential, both the FL and ML clearly being competent in battle, the FL using a sword…

I would read that novel, is what I’m saying. I would play that visual novel. I would even consider watching that show. In short, that is the kind of ship I could absolutely lose my mind over, in different circumstances.

(* and yes. It does not escape me that Bingmei also has elements of this character trait. What can I say—I like what I like!)

Six. I’ve had a link to this tumblr post about the nature of fandom sitting around since like March or April of this year, waiting for me to talk about it, and—I don’t know if I have the right words for it right now, but it does resonate with me, and I do want to share it.

Last night, I finished my reread of volume 3 of Scum Villain, so it’s time for more reactions! I told myself not to go too overboard with the quotes, but the Holy Mausoleum arc is my favorite arc in the novel (and the other arcs in this volume are also quite high on the list), so it was a struggle to restrain myself… only the fact that I am physically typing out these quotes by hand saved me, lol. ( beneath the cut )

Similar to my last post, but focusing on quotes from volume 2 this time! I desperately need to be getting to bed now, so I'll let the rest of this speak for itself. ( beneath the cut )

I did another playthrough of Cute Bite yesterday, this time aiming for a romance between Saule and the vampiric mistress, and it ended up giving me even more thoughts on that Scum Villain AU I brainstormed the other day. ( more musing + spoilers for Cute Bite beneath the cut )

This is a callout post for one of my worst habits, namely, buying editions of Scum Villains in languages that I can’t read. I was looking at my personal library tracking spreadsheet yesterday evening, and discovered that I own fifteen volumes of Scum Villain across four different languages. Over the weekend, I found this wiki page listing all the different official releases Scum Villain has had globally, and this was arguably a dangerous discovery, as it led to my almost immediately purchasing a version I hadn’t been aware of before then (the 2022 traditional Chinese rerelease)… and eyeing another one I really want (2025 simplified Chinese version)… or maybe more than one asdfghjkl;

But I’m also really excited about getting my hands on the 2022 version! I looked it up on eBay on the same day, and found that someone in my country was auctioning it off for a reasonable price—with the auction ending the next day (Sunday). I set a timer, stalked it very closely, set a truly ridiculous maximum high bid… but no one else bidded on it, so I got it for that reasonable price after all! It’s actually already arrived (yesterday, which is why I was looking at my spreadsheet in the first place… had to log my new acquisition, after all!), and I’m so pleased with it. It’s so pretty!

And, vitally, it was also the “deluxe edition”, according to the ebay listing, which means that it came with a little box of merch—postcards and mini file folders and the like. This is what I was the most excited about, because that makes it so much easier to display the, quite frankly, gorgeous art and character designs from this version!

One of the things included was this plastic block-type thing (idk what it’s actually supposed to be) that had this image on it, and—omg. The cat. THE CAT. This is now canon in my heart. Post-canon Bingqiu ABSOLUTELY get a cute little orange cat as a pet at some point, and absolutely no one can tell me otherwise, lol.

( more rambling about the different versions & how I ended up becoming this kind of ridiculous person beneath the cut )

Honestly, the most important part of this entry (and the reason why I started writing this in the first place) is, in fact, Bingqiu and the orange cat that they absolutely now have, with the rest just being my own self-indulgent rambling.

I am (once again) having a bit of a Scum Villain moment. (This is the fault of a very excellent fic I picked up, and which I’ll rec at the end of this entry.) I’ve also been listening to Evanescence’s Fallen album quite a bit recently, as one does! And, well, listening to “My Immortal” while thinking about Scum Villain made me realize… it would not be the worst of bingqiu songs? Particularly if it were a duet instead of a solo singer.( beneath the cut )

And, as promised above, a fic rec—the fic that has once again sent me falling down this Scum Villain rabbit hole was this one:

forgiveness is beyond our reach (WIP, currently 232K, last updated 2026)
"And what sort of story is Shizun's favorite?" Luo Binghe asks, not really caring about the answer. Luo Binghe's shizun is an air-headed man who hides his inanity behind his fan; surely, whatever it is that Shen Qingqiu deems to read in his free time, it must be something equally ridiculous and superficial. Probably romance, Luo Binghe thinks. Perhaps cultivation adventure stories where the hero always gets the girl and slays evil.

Shen Qingqiu flips his fan open to hide his face. "Revenge stories," he replies.

(AU where Luo Binghe is raised by Tianlang-Jun. When Yue Qingyuan kills his father, Luo Binghe resolves to settle the score.)

I tend to be wary of fics that give Binghe an alternate backstory, because… characterization… but, as it turns out, characterization is what this fic excels at! It has a kind of characterization that invokes the same reaction as very good meta in me, which is to say, I find myself chewing over the interpretation it’s offering, considering where it’s coming from, holding it up against my own interpretations, and debating whether I should reevaluate certain aspects of my understanding of the characters and canon. This is always super satisfying to me! Among other things, it manages to balance Binghe being shaped by the differing circumstances of his backstory while still feeling like Binghe, and also features what might very well be the best Yue Qingyuan characterization I’ve ever come across.

A meme I saw on tumblr, adjusted for dreamwidth:

Ask me what my top five of anything is, and I will answer!

(In my case, probably unranked, because I am not typically a person who is good at choosing a top favorite anything, haha.)

In that vein, feel very free to request more than one category/list! <3

Time for more Digimon Ghost Game thoughts! This time for episodes 50-60. Getting so close to the end… I can’t believe I only have seven episodes left. ( beneath the cut )