#he's like 'i just need my bro meng yao to take care of me and ill go see my other bro nie'
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Rusong: *reading to Jingyi* a proper Wangzi shouldn't rush, but glide through wherever they are. Gracefully~
Jingyi: *falling asleep*
Rusomg: *playfully hits him with his fan*
Jingyi: ouch! Rusong!
Rusong: are you listening to me, A-Yi?
Jingyi: yea! Not that you're boring, Rusong. I just like to sleep whenever someone starts reading.
How are we supposed to glide.
Rusong: they don't mean that literally. We just got to walk gracefully. That's all.
Jingyi: oh. So I can't rush?
Rusong: when it's absolutely necessary.
Jingyi: can I jump into the crowd?
Rusong: no.
Yao: *entering with Qin Su and Meng Shi* Song'er, Yi'er.
Both: hey A-Die, A-niang and Nainai.
Qin Su: *caresses their faces* what are you two doing? Planning mischief?
Rusong: nah, I was teaching Jingyi some stuff, and he fell asleep on me.
Jingyi: and he hit me with his fan. *pout*
Yao: Song'er, don't hit your brother.
Rusong: then how to get his attention when my fan was next to me.
Qin Su: mischievous Song'er.
Jingyi: he wanted to hit me all along.
Rusong: A-niang, do you see how dramatic he is.
Qin Su: Yi'er, you have to pay attention to your big bro. He'll guide you.
Jingyi: ok, A-niang.
But I don't why why Rusong wants me to glide so badly.
I'm always in a hurry. Also I think I had too much to eat.
Rusong: should I ask the staff to only give you one chicken wing?
Jingyi: oh gosh don't kill me!
Qin Su: sometimes I don't understand you two and your antics. *laughing*
Jingyi: shows Rusong his tongue*
Rusong: hey!
A-Die, did you see!
Yao: I saw nothing, lol.
Rusong: Nainai.
Jingyi: don't hide behind Nainai.
She's my Nainai too.
Meng Shi: *cracking up* oh goodness why am I involved in this!
Rusong: *hugs* Nainai.
Jingyi: *does the same* Nainai.
Meng Shi: ah, I see. You two are still babies, who needs Nainai's kisses.
Jingyi: don't kiss Rusong.
Rusong: don't kiss Jingyi.
Yao: have we overly pampered them?
Qin Su: I think their Nainai did.
Meng Shi: *kisses both of them*
Are you happy now?
Both: mhm.
Meng Shi: you'll forever be my babies.
Yao and Qin Su: *gives them kisses as well*
Meng Shi: A-Yao, you have such a beautiful family of your own.
Yao: thank you, A-niang.
Are you guys ready?
We're going to meet some people in Jingjing, remember.
Rusong: oh right!
Jingyi: yea we're ready.
Rusong: *tidying Jingyi's clothes and hair*
Qin Su: weren't you two just fighting?
Meng Shi: they care about each other deep down.
Yao: exactly.
Song'er looks so cute as a big bro.
Team dimple: *Entering*
Yao: hey team d.
Xue yang: hey Jiggylicious. *kisses*
Mo xuanyu: have fun, Yao gege.
Yao: thank you, A-Yu.
Su she: the Meng family are just fabulous altogether.
Yao: i agree. *smile*
Now who's coming along?
Mo xuanyu: take Shanshan. He's team d's captain after all.
Xue yang: anybody but Lan lips.
Qin Su: right! Anybody but Lan lips. I mean Lan gui fei.
Meng Shi: you're A-Yao's empress, A-Su. He can't do anything to you.
Qin Su: but I don't like to see him.
Meng Shi: oh dear.
Xue yang: yea Jiggy, carry Shanshan.
Su she: *blushing* if Huangdi wishes.
Anyways, I would love to escort him.
Qin Su: aww.
Yao: come.
Yes I have my other escorts, but team dimple is most personal.
Su she: I'll certainly escort you, Huangdi.
(A-Yao would have carried all three of them if it was only him who's meeting people in Jingjing)
~~~
A few minutes later, the Meng fam arrived at their Jingjing, where they began chatting with people.
The hulijings however were happy to see the beautiful A-Yao and Qin Su together, the gorgeous Meng Shi and their energetic Wangzis. One held a fan and one held a sword. (OK, not like the nies~ but....) Their citizens see Rusong as elegance and Jingyi as their valour.
They're polar opposites, but complete each other.
Despite both being excellent at fighting and cultivation, Jingyi would solve problems with the sword, wheras Rusong would solve something with words or through writing.
These two are the two sides of Yao Huangdi.
But don't get me wrong, they have Qin Su's qualities too.
Rusong is very soft spoken like her.
Su Huanghou, welcome back.
We missed you!
Qin su: *smile* I missed you all too.
How are you?
I'm good, Huanghou.
Huangdi, are you taking good care of her?
Yao: of course I am.
But I feel like she's a little too expensive.
X: *laughing* but Huangdi, you're filthy rich, and huanghou just got here.
Yao: *laughing along* how do you know that I'm rich. You're quite smart.
Qin Su: looks like we have a minister of finance in our midst.
Yao: seems so.
X: isn't the emperor rich?
Yao: I'll ask him later, and get back to you.
Hulijings: *cracking up* Huangdi!
Qin Su: *joking* stop being mischievous. It's rubbing off on Rusong.
Yao: ahahaha.
*to his citizens * nice to meet you.
And no, I wasn't just scolded by my wife.
Huangdi Huangdi, your dimples are really cute.
Yao: thank you.
Huanghou, what will you give Huangdi as a gift?
Qin su: ummm......Huangdi, block your ears.
Meng Shi: Qin Huanghou will definitely give her Huangdi something thoughtful.
Something to put on the little workaholics desk to remind him of her.
Hulijings: awww.
Yao: now you both want me to be detracted.
Hulijings: Huangdi, it's not our fault that Huanghou is gorgeous.
Does she rule team dimple?
Yao: of course.
She's the head of the harem.
Charming couple!
I feel as if it's our taihou goddess' doing.
The goddess of Hulijings know that it would bring good luck to the empire. And the Wangzis would be very happy.
Meng Shi: oh guys. I have only pulled some strings.
Then the matchmaker immortal tied them together.
Don't give me any credit.
Huangdi, congratulations. *kisses hand*
Yao: ah thank you very much.
Someone else: Huangdi, anything new for our empire?
Yao: lately have been planning on bringing technology.
Just to make your lives more easy.
Ohhh.
Yao: this will be a fox spirit technology.
We're getting support from the Phoenix spirits as well. So they'll be in on it too.
Is it free for us to go to the fox spirit realm, Huangdi?
Yao: definitely. But I believe that the fox spirits who are skilled in fire or Kitsunabe can easily adapt to that realm, as it's fiery.
Ohhh interesting.
Huangdi, give us an example on your technology
Yao: I'm planning on a pendant like device that can show you your qi level, as well as deliver news and messages.
Rest assured, this won't put our printing companies and storytellers out of business.
How brilliant, Huangdi.
Hail huangdi!
Hail huangdi!
Taihou, have a basket of fresh persimmons
Meng Shi: aw, how lovely. Thank you! But, I don't like taking food items from my people. It feels like stealing.
*hands them a few* have some as well, so it would be like sharing.
Aww taihou you can steal from us if you want. We would be happy.
You're really adorable!
Meng shi: *smiling* A-Si. *hands the basket over to her*
Sisi: mn. Huanghou jiejie, I'll make some desserts with them for you.
Meng Shi: wonderful, dear.
.
On the other side, with the Wangzis.
Dianxia, er Dianxia, you two look so charming.
Rusong: thank you. We're a charming team.
Er Dianxia, did you two do night hunting lately.
Jingyi: yea! Actually we did.
There were dangerous Yokai in Lanling.
But don't worry.
Rusong: we'll continue to protect our people.
Those yokais were tearing apart people's houses and eating their crops. Maybe drinking animal's blood.
Omg.
Are you two Wangzis ok?
Jingyi: of course we are.
Dianxia, when are you coming to Yunping?
Rusong: maybe next week. Jingyi and I have a meeting with the governor.
Jingyi: yup.
Rusong: I didn't go in a while, because I was busy helping Huangdi diedie and night hunting.
Wangzis, what are your favoutite clans.
Rusong: laoling Qin sect.
Soon I'll be their sect leader.
You'll be such a perfect leader! And you're our future Huangdi anyways.
Rusong: mn.
Jingyi: I love the lan sect! At times.
I hate how they're strict and forbid meat.
Hulijings: *laughing* aww, er Dianxia.
I agree! The lan sect should be more relaxed.
Jingyi: yea. Luckily I don't get flogged or told to do handstands again. As I'm now a prince.
Good for you, er Dianxia.
Jingyi: also I'm not an apprentice anymore.
Huangdi diedie wants me to get the title Jun.
You deserve it!
Ohhh, like Zewu Jun!
Jingyi: mhm.
And our Dianxia is the 2nd lianfang zun. Amazing pair.
Dianxia, how your gf?
Rusong: ahhh. She's fine! She's in her hometown.
Jingyi: you have a gf!
Dianxia, you didn't tell your brother?
Jingyi: Rusong, that's not fair!
Rusong: I was waiting on the right time, A-Yi. *laughing* don't worry, I'll introduce you to her when she visits.
Jingyi: you better.
Does er Dianxia have a girlfriend?
Jingyi: not yet. But I hope I find someone. Probably a hulijing.
Er Dianxia, you can marry me if you want.
Yea, you're so fun!
You and Dianxia are the most attractive young guys here.
Huangdi's concubines are also really attractive but they're older than us.
Huangdi is already hot, and Dianxia has his face.
Rusong: *laughing* I'm flattered.
Jingyi: haha, thats right. He resembles Huangdi diedie a lot.
Er Dianxia will be Mr. Mischief and Dianxia will have the empire in a chokehold with his dimples.
Jingyi: that's right.
Rusong: oh my goodness. *chuckling*
~
Greetings taihou. *kisses her hand*
Meng Shi: nice to see you.
Now what are you asking my grandsons?
About their love life.
We love teasing them.
Meng Shi: ah, continue teasing them.
Jingyi: why, Nainai.
Meng Shi: because, it amuses me, and you should laugh along with your citizens.
Also your faces are hilarious. Poor babies.
Taihou is so savage,
Rusong: *pout*
Meng Shi: *nudges* ay, future Huangdi. Don't pout in front your people.
Rusong: mn. Ok Nainai.
Meng shi: *squishes Rusong's dimple. Then fondly pats Jingyi's head*
#the huli jing emperor#meng yao#dimpledlianfang#foxyao#hulijing emperor 2#jin guangyao#jin zixuan#part 2#su she#the untamed
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nie huaisang does a LOT for a dude who refuses nearly always to carry a real weapon even when surrounded by murderous hoards of puppets and literally a murderous clan holding him prisoner, who really mainly just prioritizes the simple things in life like gossiping about hot guys with his bros n partying n getting ppl to give him nice things
#rant#nie huaisang#the untamed lb#im just. thinkin bout early episodes where#xian is basically his human shield then jiang cheng is then wen qing is#and all he does is scream and contemplate how hot lan zhan is#and thru it ALL he's like 'i got my FAN im GOOD YALL'#he's like 'i just need my bro meng yao to take care of me and ill go see my other bro nie'#....dude has it rough tbf. him and lan xichen and nie minjue probs the only ppl who even emotionally are attached to meng yao#so when meng yao goes off the deep end? well big bro nie is like I HATE YOU#but little huaisang? he's like 'ahhh idk maybe whoever meng yao killed mightve been justified idk'#'i just dont know WHY you TWO gotta tear this family apart RIGHT NOW??? we're in war??!!! also ur the only 2 ppl i care about??!!! WHY#then when older bro nie dies? last straw#meng yao pretty much was an adopted raised bro in teens with huaisang - and hows it end?#with the guy ruining haisang's whole family!#its a great parallel to wuxian/jiang cheng - also friends-raised-like-brothers#wuxian ALSO is indirectly the cause of cheng's family dying. and cheng loses freaking EVERYONE#but the key difference is meng yao was maliciously purposely destroying his family#wei wuxian didnt want any of those tragedies to happen - even if him picking to 'save' some of wen clan DID definitely#eventually lead to deaths he caused.#the paralleling and foiling stories and characters in the untamed/mdzs is really really Well laid out
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Same River Twice (aka Time Travel Nie Bros) - part 4 - see ao3 or tumblr part 1, part 2, part 3
-
“You know what,” Nie Mingjue said, several shichen into the most awkward conversation he’d ever been forced to overhear in his life, “I think Wei Wuxian needs more friends.”
His father stopped contemplating the window with an expression that suggested he was considering throwing himself out of it and looked at him. “So you’ve mentioned before.”
“Yes, I know,” Nie Mingjue said, because he had in fact brought it up after Nie Huaisang’s no doubt unintentionally apt suggestion. “But on second thought, he needs them urgently. As does Huaisang. You don’t want them growing up barbaric and unsocialized, do you?”
His father mouthed the words ‘barbaric and unsocialized’ to himself, looking delighted. “By which you mean that you’d like to take them to visit the Lan sect, I assume?” he asked, not bothering to hide his amusement. “To learn good habits from them there?”
“To avoid learning bad habits here,” Nie Mingjue said. “Alternatively, you could always kick all of them out so that all of us can stop getting the loud and dramatic rendition of all the different types of bad decisions adults can make, courtesy of our friends in the Jiang sect and our new guest disciples.”
“…take Zonghui with you,” his father said. “Have a nice trip. Enjoy the quiet.”
There was a better than decent chance that he was being sarcastic, but Nie Mingjue wasn’t going to wait around long enough to find out – he saluted and turned to run away at once.
“Don’t get into too much trouble!” his father shouted after him.
That was ridiculous. What sort of trouble could Nie Mingjue get into in Gusu, of all places?
-
“Nie-gongzi, has anyone ever told you that you have really weird taste in rewards?” Nie Zonghui said, looking long-suffering as always.
Wei Wuxian, who was riding on his shoulders, craned his head down to look at him. “Rewards? What is Nie-da-ge getting rewarded for?”
“He performed especially well on his first ever night hunt,” Nie Zonghui told him, while Nie Mingjue flushed red and Nie Huaisang, who was riding on his shoulders, giggled. “His father wanted to reward him, and determined to do so by granting the first request he made.”
“He didn’t tell me he was planning on doing that,” Nie Mingjue hissed. If he had, he might’ve asked to visit Yunping City to collect Meng Yao – finding a reason to go there was much harder to achieve than arranging a simple visit to the Lan sect, which would’ve happened sooner or later anyway.
His thoughts hadn’t been focused on reward at all. He’d only really, truly desperately wanted to get away from any further discussion of Sect Leader Jiang’s sex life.
(Cangse Sanren was blunt and straightforward in her speech, something Nie Mingjue greatly appreciated right up until she was shouting things about size and shape and performance and also her husband…it was absolutely mortifying, even just as a spectator, except possibly Jiang Fengmian was into things like that because he just kept on arguing. In his past-future life, Nie Mingjue had had to sit across the table from Jiang Fengmian for years, and might yet have to do so again if he was not successful in adverting his father’s death, which was something he wouldn’t be able to if he kept hearing things like this! He didn’t want to know things like this!)
No, Nie Mingjue hadn’t thought about rewards at all – had already put away all thoughts of that particular night-hunt in favor of showing of his improvement with Baxia, who practically purred in his hands when he wielded her, so that he could win his independence sooner rather than later.
Even picking Gusu as their destination had been primarily motivated by seizing on the last place anyone had mentioned to him as a plausible destination that could be sold to his father.
Nie Huaisang had asked him, all big and wide-eyed and adorable, why they were going to somewhere as far away from the Unclean Realm as the Cloud Recesses, and Nie Mingjue had blamed Nie Huaisang’s suggestion of introducing Wei Wuxian to the Lan sect.
Nie Huaisang had also asked why they were going now and Nie Mingjue had explained in a rush of tangled words that sometimes grown-ups liked to talk about private things very loudly and maybe it would be better to leave them to it.
Nie Huaisang had found that dreadfully funny for some reason, giggling until both he and Wei Wuxian were rolling around on the ground laughing their heads off at the idea of going to Gusu –
Nie Mingjue didn’t care. As long as they went, and with them his excuse to go as well!
(Besides, it would be nice to see Lan Xichen.)
“Of course he didn’t tell you about it, Nie-gongzi,” Nie Zonghui said patiently. “It was meant to be a surprise. Wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if you knew about it, would it?”
Nie Mingjue sighed. Nie Zonghui was a half-generation above him – older than him by over a decade, entitling him (if only technically) to be called uncle rather than cousin, but young enough that he sometimes felt more like a peer. Certainly once Nie Mingjue himself had become sect leader, having someone like him to help figure out how to communicate with the elders had been priceless.
That didn’t mean he didn’t want to punch the man in the face on a regular basis.
Stupid sense of humor.
“Wouldn’t da-ge be happier if he could pick what he got?” Nie Huaisang asked. “What if he’d asked for something stupid, like a map?”
Nie Mingjue reached up to one of the legs currently dangling next to his ear and pinched him lightly, making his little brother squeak and then giggle again. He wasn’t sure why Nie Huaisang was still so worried about his offer to buy him a map – he hadn’t even known that the under-five age group could have a sense of financial economy, much less guilt over it, but then again he didn’t know much about kids that age anyway – but no matter what he wasn’t having any of it.
In this life, his brother would be happy for as long as Nie Mingjue could give him.
-
Of course, making Nie Huaisang happy would be easier if he wasn’t so picky.
“Didi, didi, it’s all right,” he said, trying to be soothing and not really remembering how. “You don’t need to be afraid - Lan Xichen is a friend…I’m sorry, Xichen, I really don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“It’s no problem,” Lan Xichen said, looking exactly as one would expect a nine-year-old being addressed as a peer by a twelve-year-old that his guardian routinely praised as a role model would be – which was to say, a little pleased, a little uncertain, and mostly confused. The shrieking four-year-old wasn’t helping matters, either. “I don’t think I’ve done anything to offend him...?”
“You’re blind,” Nie Huaisang hissed at him, tears still streaming down his face. “Blind, blind, blind!”
“No, Huaisang,” Nie Mingjue said helplessly. He had no idea where Nie Huaisang got these ideas into his head, was it a feature of early childhood or something? “He’s not – look, the bandage is around his forehead, right? Not his eyes. And since when do you have something against blind people anyway?”
Nie Huaisang buried his face into his side. “Stupid da-ge.”
Nie Mingjue patted him on the back. “Sorry,” he said to Lan Xichen again. “This isn’t exactly the first impression I was hoping for.”
Lan Xichen abruptly grinned, looking for a moment like a regular child rather than the polite and reserved young man Nie Mingjue had known for so many years – it reminded him a little of the boy from the future timeline that he’d only seen brief glimpses of through the pieces of his soul that were attached to the pieces of his body, the loud and irreverent one called Lan Jingyi.
Back then he'd wondered abstractly how exactly such a boy could be related to the Lan clan, stately and elegant even when they acted radically, and now all of a sudden he saw that boy staring out of him from Lan Xichen’s immature face.
“Bet you thought you’d look a lot more dashing, didn’t you?” Lan Xichen asked merrily. “Flying in on your swords, jumping down for a perfect landing, and then – waaaaaaah!”
Nie Mingjue laughed, because it really had happened a bit like that.
“Don’t forget the domino effect,” he said wryly, glancing over at where Wei Wuxian was being plied with treats from a bag pulled from Nie Zonghui’s sleeve – he’d started sympathy crying when Nie Huaisang had inexplicably started wailing, and was having trouble stopping even though he admitted that nothing was actually wrong with him other than having feelings. “They’re probably just over-tired from the trip.”
“Did you really fly all the way from Qinghe?” Lan Xichen asked eagerly. “All by yourself?”
“We made a lot of stops –”
“But you were on your own sword, right? Just you?”
“It’s a saber and I was carrying Huaisang, but yes, in terms of who was in charge of propulsion, it was just me.”
Lan Xichen heaved a sigh full of obvious envy, and Nie Mingjue smiled. “If you want, I can petition your uncle that you act as my guide to the surrounding environs as well as the Cloud Recesses itself? He’d have to let you fly by yourself if that was the case.”
“Oh, would you?” Lan Xichen enthused. “That would be great! I’m not that good yet, but I’m not going to get good if I don’t have a chance to practice, except Uncle is always saying that – oh, wait, I’m not supposed to say –”
“Speaking of others behind their back is prohibited,” Nie Mingjue said solemnly, then cracked up at the dumbfounded expression on Lan Xichen’s face. “No, I’m sorry, I won’t quote your sect rules at you, I promise, it was just a joke…”
“You’d better!”
He rather liked this enthusiastic version of Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue thought.
Even Nie Huaisang seemed to have gotten over his initial fright to start begrudgingly enjoying all of Lan Xichen’s chattering and bustling around – Nie Mingjue thought he might, given that Lan Xichen currently reminded him immensely of an extremely chatty blue-breasted quail and Nie Huaisang had always liked those. There was so much life in Lan Xichen, good humor and cheer filling him up until he was practically bursting with it; he hadn’t yet had to learn how to hold back his feelings and hide them, hadn’t yet learned that the only acceptable way to interact with others was through a carefully practiced smile.
Perhaps what was why Lan Xichen had been so drawn to Meng Yao, Nie Mingjue reflected – Meng Yao had hidden himself underneath a smile, too. Where he himself had admired Meng Yao for what he had thought was his strength of character, his ability to ignore the jibes and the slights he faced in favor of carrying on and doing what must be done, just as Nie Mingjue longed to be able to do, perhaps Lan Xichen had from the very first moment seen Meng Yao as someone in need of sympathy and affection. Perhaps it had been his own suffering projected onto Meng Yao’s open, facile face that had so tugged on his heartstrings.
It was a little odd, though.
It was a long time ago, but Nie Mingjue recalled meeting Lan Xichen when they were both quite young, and if he put his mind to thinking about it, he was pretty sure they would have met in about two years’ time – his fourteen to Lan Xichen’s eleven, with Nie Huaisang nearly six and Lan Wangji nearly seven. And yet the Lan Xichen he had met had been so very different from this, far more serious and reserved, quiet more often than not, that practiced smile already on his face and only with great reluctance melting into something real…
He wondered why there had been such a great change.
In the meantime, Nie Mingjue relieved Nie Zonghui of his duties on account of their safety – the older man had been to Gusu before for discussion conferences, and looked extremely bored – and took Nie Huaisang’s hand in one hand and Wei Wuxian’s in the other, and the three of them followed Lan Xichen around as he pointed out all the things he liked best.
Wei Wuxian broke away at one point and sped into the brush, shrieking something about a rabbit, and when they gave chase and found him again, he’d somehow bumped into Lan Wangji, who with his white clothing and solemn expression resembled nothing so much a bunny himself.
“Nie-da-ge, this is my friend!” Wei Wuxian hollered, even though they couldn’t have been talking for more than a few minutes before the rest of them caught up. “His name’s Lan Zhan! I’m keeping him forever!”
Nie Huaisang sniggered, and Nie Mingjue poked him – it was rude to laugh at other people’s earnestness.
“That’s nice, Wuxian,” he said, and formally saluted Lan Wangji, knowing how much the other boy liked rules and things being done right. “I’m pleased to meet you, Wangji. I hope we can be friends as well.”
Lan Wangji stared at him mutely for a long moment, and then his entire face slowly turned bright red as if he were boiling.
Nie Mingjue blinked, unsure about the reason for such an extreme reaction, but standing beside him Lan Xichen cackled. “Oh, oh, this is great,” he crowed. “Wait till I tell Mom!”
Lan Wangji attempted to bite him, which naturally made Wei Wuxian leap to his friend’s assistance, and somehow Nie Huaisang ended up wading into the fray with a stick that he waved around like a war-fan, seeking inexplicably to defend Lan Xichen despite having previously displayed no fondness for him at all.
Nie Mingjue waded in as well, of course, trying to separate them and somehow ending up as everyone’s target when they realized that he was strong enough to pick them all up and toss them (lightly) into the piles of soft grass that covered the meadow, even Lan Xichen, and at that point they all threw themselves at him eagerly in order to be throw back.
Nie Mingjue wasn’t really thinking about that, though. He was thinking about what Lan Xichen had said.
He was thinking about – Mom.
Not Nie Mingjue’s own, naturally. She’d been gone since he was younger than Nie Huaisang was now. Perhaps it was because Nie Mingjue had his father and his aunts and his uncles, but he had never really felt the lack of her all that much, except maybe when he needed to learn some etiquette he didn’t know or when his peers spoke fondly of their own mothers. Nor was he thinking of Nie Huaisang’s mother, who had been very nice and whose untimely death had upset him immensely; he honestly hadn’t thought of either of them in years and years by the time he’d died.
But rather, he thought about Lan Xichen’s mother – Lan Wangji’s mother –
Nie Mingjue hadn’t learned the story of her fate until much, much later in life, when he was very nearly an adult. The Lan sect had always kept their secrets very well, and he might never have learned the details if it hadn’t been for Lan Xichen willingly divulging them. He’d told him the whole awful story of how his mother had not loved his father even though he loved her, how she had killed someone dear to him, how he had married her to save her and gone into seclusion to punish himself, how the Lan sect, ever concerned with its face, had covered it all up by forcing her into permanent seclusion…
The story had never really sat right with him. A punishment was one thing, entirely justifiable; murder was murder, and life imprisonment was a valid sentence, a valid commutation of the death sentence that she probably ought to have received. It was not Nie Mingjue’s place to question how the Lan sect selected and imposed punishments…
And yet, something about it had always felt rotten.
Maybe it was only that the Nie sect didn’t believe in solitary imprisonment. Or, well, really solitary anything, with even seclusion being done in a relatively well-traveled area so that those inside could, if they wished, open a one-sided window to hear the noise and know that their family was around them. Even their tombs, their saber halls, were joined together into what was practically a necropolis – even in death, the Nie sect would rather be together than apart.
If he recalled correctly, Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji’s mother would soon be taken away from them for good. She’d died when Lan Xichen was – ten? Ten to Lan Wangji’s six, yes, that sounded right.
A year from now, then. Less, maybe.
“– xiongzhang is da-ge, not er-ge!”
“No, you don’t understand, my da-ge is older – and bigger – so he’s da-ge, and your xiongzhang is er-ge, and that means you’d be san-ge, and Wei-gege is – wait, which one of you is older?”
“Huaisang, it doesn’t work that way, we’re not the same family –”
“What are you even talking about?” Nie Mingjue asked, abruptly coming out of his thoughts. They’d continued playing while he daydreamed, and now Lan Xichen was perched on his back like a monkey, with Nie Huaisang on one of Nie Mingjue’s shoulder while Wei Wuxian hung off the other arm’s bicep and Lan Wangi clung to his neck in front like a sloth on a branch, as Nie Mingjue demonstrated that he could, in fact, keep walking with all of them attached. Every single one of them seemed to think this was the absolute height of entertainment. “Who’s related to what now? Huaisang, can’t you just call Xichen Xichen-ge or something?”
“Oh, fine. Xichen-gege! Xichen-gege!”
“Nie-didi! Nie-didi!”
“Too loud,” Lan Wangji sniffed.
“Didn’t you hear Lan Zhan?!” Wei Wuxian promptly hollered at the top of his lungs. “You’re all being too loud!”
“I’m going to throw each and every one of you into a pond,” Nie Mingjue said. “One by one, if I have to.”
“Do you promise?” Lan Xichen giggled in his ear. “That sounds like fun!”
“Actually,” Nie Mingjue said, “I had a different thought. How about we play hide-and-seek?”
-
The advantage of future knowledge, Nie Mingjue thought, was that he knew exactly where Madame Lan’s home was and how to get there within the time period he’d suggested for the initial hiding.
The disadvantage was that he was so focused on achieving his goal that he forgot that what implications might be taken from a twelve-year-old boy breaking into a woman’s home, especially at a time when she wasn’t expecting visitors.
“I’m so sorry!” he all but shrieked, covering his eyes even though he had already turned his back. “Please put on clothing!”
“Oh, your face –” Madame Lan was guffawing. “You’re so red – boy, you don’t have to throw yourself out the window in penance or anything. I’m still wearing my inner robe, you can’t even see anything.”
“It’s still inappropriate!”
“Could be worse. I could’ve been –”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” he begged. “I swear I’m not actually doing this because I have a crush on you, so please, please, please don’t give me any details about what you do in the privacy of your own home, okay? And stop offering me your under-things! I don’t want them!”
“I was only doing laundry,” she said, almost crying with laughter. “I didn’t mean to throw my underwear at your face, it was really just the closest thing to hand…who are you, anyway? Shouldn’t you be introducing yourself to me?”
“I’ll introduce myself when you’re dressed and not a moment earlier.”
“Oh, all right, have it your way. Give me a moment.” There was some rustling. “All right, turn around.”
He peeked and sighed with relief: Madame Lan was, in fact, appropriately dressed in a lovely white silk dress, adorned with the typical Lan sect cloud embroidery and everything. The style was a little freer and less conservative than he might have expected to see the mistress of a Great Sect wearing, but then again he supposed she’d never actually had to do the work associated with it. It was hard to host a society party from seclusion…
“Qinghe Nie’s Nie Mingjue greets He Kexin, Madame Lan,” he said, saluting properly. “I’m a visitor to your sect.”
“I hadn’t realized that we were anticipating visitors from another Great Sect,” she remarked. “Normally there’s a great deal more hustle and bustle involved with preparing to receive a visit.”
“It’s an informal one,” Nie Mingjue explained. “Somewhat, uh, abrupt. We didn’t send word in advance. You see, we recently accepted Cangse Sanren and her husband as guest disciples, and shortly thereafter the Jiang sect paid us an unexpected visit…”
Madame Lan had clearly heard about that disaster, if the way she put her hand over her mouth in a futile attempt to stifle her chortling was any indication.
“I think I see the issue, being as I happen to remember Cangse Sanren very well,” she said, her eyes dancing. “What a troublemaker. She even shaved off Qiren-xiaoshuzi’s beard one time! I’m guessing based on the way you turned into a boiled crayfish that she scared you out of your own home?”
Nie Mingjue opened his mouth to protest, except, well, that wasn’t entirely inaccurate…
“What a charming little egg you are! You’re such a rotten liar that you can’t even do it to save face.”
“Being dishonest isn’t saving face,” Nie Mingjue said, even though his face felt like it was burning and he was probably just as red as she said he was. “The truth is what the truth is, that’s all. You’re not wrong, that’s more or less what happened – I brought Huaisang and Wuxian here so that we could get away from all the yelling.”
“You picked a good place for that,” Madame Lan said, and there was a dull look in her eye all of a sudden. Nothing like the liveliness from a few moments before. “There’s nowhere like the Cloud Recesses for quiet.”
Nie Mingjue bit his lip, not quite sure how to say what he wanted to say. Right up until that moment, she hadn’t seemed at all sick, the way he’d thought she’d be – less than a year before she died, from what he remembered of Lan Xichen’s stories. He’d assumed she’d already be ill with the early stages whatever it was that had eventually taken her from her sons.
But now, he didn’t think she was sick, not really, only…bored.
Dreadfully, horribly bored. The sort of bored that drained your life away bit by bit.
Formal training in swordsmanship and scholarship began at six at the Cloud Recesses, Nie Mingjue abruptly remembered. There were plenty of lessons prior to that, of course, but at age six they would become formalized, the children shifting over from the realm of babies to proper young-adults-to-be. Once Lan Wangji turned six, Madame Lan would have had nothing to look forward to in life.
Nothing, except for her children starting to drift further and further away from her: nothing to do, no purpose, no friends…
Just boredom.
“The Unclean Realm has a communal prison,” he blurted out, and then smacked his hands into his face to hide his shame for being such an inconsiderate ass. Why had he thought he could do this by himself?
He wasn’t even sure what he’d originally come here to accomplish, other than to let Madame Lan know that she ought to see a doctor sooner rather than later in the hopes that they would be able to catch and stymie whatever disease it had been that had killed her, except now of course Nie Mingjue understood that it was no disease at all.
“…what?” she said blankly.
It was too late to retreat, so Nie Mingjue gathered up every bit of courage he’d ever had and barreled onwards.
“I just mean,” he said, tripping over his words, “if you’d like to be – a bit less quiet. Even if your sentence is life imprisonment, surely you don’t have to necessarily serve it here, right?”
Madame Lan stared at him. His shoulders started creeping up to his ears.
“Actually,” she said abruptly, “I was never sentenced.”
He gaped at her. “You – what?”
“Qiren-xiaoshuzi pushed for it, said it was only fair that I knew the exact contours of my punishment, but the sect elders refused,” she explained. “They didn’t want to lose face by having a trial at all, not even privately.”
“But – but if you haven’t been sentenced, you can’t be imprisoned!”
“Is that so?” she asked, looking amused.
“You can’t,” Nie Mingjue insisted, horrified. “The laws of war say that someone can be executed on the spot for committing a crime, but in peacetime they have to be sentenced first even if you catch them red-handed. What if your accuser recants his accusation, whether because he was wrong or because he decided not to press charges? If they recant, you can’t be tried; if you can’t be tried, even if everyone knows you’ve done wrong, you still must be released. No trial, no sentence, no imprisonment!”
“Tell that to the Lan sect,” she said dryly. “Not even my husband could do more than he did to forestall my punishment, and he’s sect leader. Nominally, anyway.”
This did seem to be a problem of the Lan sect. Of all sects, really – he had his own share of old men causing issues and sticking their noses into things – but he’d never had anywhere near the problem with the sect elders as Lan Xichen had had with his Lan sect.
“Why should I?” Nie Mingjue asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t see why we have to tell them anything at all.”
-
“Why are we doing this?” Nie Huaisang asked, tugging on Nie Mingjue’s sleeve.
“I already explained,” Nie Mingjue said, which he had. He’d also explained that he’d run in there by accident while looking for a place to hide, and he’d tried to look as much like a stupid twelve-year-old as possible when he said it. “About the lack of a trial –”
Nie Huaisang tugged again. “Not that. Why are we rescuing her?”
“Because she might die if we don’t,” Nie Mingjue said. “She’s very bored in there all by herself.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, so? It’d make Xichen and Wangji sad if she died.”
“So?”
“So they shouldn’t be sad if they don’t have to be! I don’t want them to be sad because they lost a parent…don’t you remember being sad about your mom having died, Huaisang?”
“No,” Nie Huaisang said. “I had da-ge.”
Nie Mingjue sighed. He’d keep this conversation in mind for later when Nie Huaisang was old enough to actually understand the concept of death, and then he’d use it to torment him forever.
“Wouldn’t you be sad if da-ge died, then?” he asked, and felt Nie Huaisang’s hands abruptly clutch tight on his arms. “There you go. That’s why we’re doing this.”
Nie Huaisang nodded, but he was still scowling a little in his adorable childhood way, and Nie Mingjue thought for a second that he heard him murmuring something about inviting unnecessary trouble under his voice, but…whatever, it wasn’t important.
What was more important was that Lan Xichen had arrived with what Nie Mingjue had asked him to fetch for him, his cheeks bright pink with excitement. “Nie-da-ge,” he hissed even though there wasn’t anyone in the area, thrusting the package into Nie Mingjue’s arms. “I got it!”
“Good,” Nie Mingjue said, then paused. “Er, you don’t mind, do you?”
“Mind? Mind what?”
“That I’m kind of, uh, well – I mean, I’m kidnapping your mother. You won’t be able to see her as often as you do now if this works…”
“She’ll be free,” Lan Wangji, trailing behind Lan Xichen as always, said solemnly. Then he stuck his thumb in his mouth, which somewhat ruined the effect.
Wei Wuxian, who’d rushed over to stand next to him as soon as he’d seen him, hugged him tightly. “You’ll come over all the time,” he assured him. “My mom will like your mom, and we’ll all go outside and play all the time. We’ll be really happy!”
Lan Wangji sniffed and buried his face into Wei Wuxian’s shoulder.
“It’s like Wangji said,” Lan Xichen said. His eyes were intense. “She’s not happy here, she’s not free here, and we only see her once a month anyway – less, in the future, once we’re both busy with lessons all the time. If she can be free somewhere else…you will let us come visit, right?”
“As often as you’re allowed,” Nie Mingjue promised, as it was about all he could do. “I’ll talk to my father about it…”
His father would probably have a fit.
Still, this was an injustice. Even if his father disagreed, it was something he had to do. He’d justify it with reference to their sect principles, and take any punishment duty his father chose to impose.
“It doesn’t matter, he’ll agree,” he said firmly. “You’ll definitely be able to visit.”
“Can I raise an objection?” Nie Zonghui said mournfully from where he was hovering by the side of the clearing. “Possibly two – no, three objections.”
Nie Mingjue looked at him and tilted his head to the side in silent question.
“One, your father said not to get into trouble, if you’ll trouble yourself to remember back that far,” he said, raising a finger. “Two, how exactly do you plan to break the array keeping Madame Lan imprisoned? And three, even if you do break it, how do you plan to get her out?”
The first was irrelevant. The other two…
“We’re going to walk out the front gate,” Nie Mingjue said, and opened up the package Lan Xichen had gotten him – as he’d suspected, there had been spare robes for Qinghe Nie disciples left behind from the previous discussion conference, and sure enough the Lan sect had kept hold of them as a courtesy to the owners. “The Lan sect has never affirmatively stated that Madame Lan wasn’t allowed to leave; they just said she was too sickly to do so. Therefore, if we leave with a Nie sect disciple who is clearly capable of walking out, there’s nothing they can do to stop us without admitting that it’s her and that she’s a prisoner – which they won’t do, because then they’d lose face.”
“That barely counts as a plan,” Nie Zonghui said, and for some reason Nie Huaisang nodded in agreement. “But sadly I think it might actually work.”
Nie Huaisang looked betrayed.
“It will work,” Lan Xichen said. “Especially if you insist that she’s one of yours. They won’t be able to call you out without calling you a liar, and they wouldn’t want to do that. Not publicly, not about this.”
“Won’t there be a problem that she’s a girl wearing boy’s clothing?” Wei Wuxian asked, patting Lan Wangji’s head.
“No, that’s not a problem in Qinghe,” Nie Huaisang told him. “You’re new, so you’re not used to it, but it really isn’t. I mean, she could be misaligned or something, it’s not our business.”
“And we won’t be lying about her being one of ours,” Nie Mingjue said. “Since I’ve offered her sanctuary in our sect, it’s even technically true.”
Nie Zonghui sighed. “And if they ask Lan-gongzi and Lan-er-gongzi if she’s their mother?”
“Wangji won’t say anything,” Lan Xichen said at once. “And I’ll – I’ll lie if I have to.”
He was truly unbearably cute at this age.
Nie Zonghui appeared to be suffering from a similar problem, reaching over and patting him lightly on the head in helpless amusement. “Okay, okay. Let’s hope they don’t ask,” he said. “But – Nie-gongzi, we still have the second problem. How do you intend to get Madame Lan out of the imprisonment array?”
Nie Mingjue patted his cousin – who he knew from his future experience was one of the finest array breakers in their sect, a charming side-effect courtesy of his dual-wielded saber cultivation style – on the shoulder. “I intend to delegate.”
Nie Zonghui blinked, then glared. “I walked myself into that one, didn’t I?”
“You did,” Nie Mingjue said peaceably. “Can you break it? I can use Baxia, if it’ll help.”
“Hmph. Yes, it would help a great deal, but will she agree to consume an array for you? That’s fairly high-grade work, and talent or no talent, you’re still fairly new to mastering the saber.”
Nie Mingjue put his hand on Baxia’s blade, which felt warm and pleased. Practically purring. At some point he would need to investigate why she was so happy all the time – she’d never been this compliant in his first life, and he’d expected her to be more vicious, not less. “Yes, she’ll be happy to help.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Nie Zonghui paused briefly. “Also, if your father asks, you held Baxia to my throat and made me do it. It was definitely not me being curious about whether or not I could break such a complicated array.”
“Of course it wasn’t,” Nie Mingjue said understandingly, and drew Baxia. “All right. Let’s go get ourselves banned from the Cloud Recesses.”
#mdzs#nie mingjue#nie huaisang#lan xichen#wei wuxian#lan wangji#nie zonghui#madame lan#my fic#my fics#time travel nie bros
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watched all of the untamed / cql in two weeks after my friend 1 told me abt mdzs a hundred years ago and my friends 2 and 3 tried to get me into cql for like two whole years and there are.
feelings.
very first scene is a very dramatic death in the middle of nightmare battle on sith planet land . i will forget abt it in the next tenish episodes and then will be very surprised when it becomes Extremely Painful
anyway magic flying gays and possession and human sacrifice! we are off to a great start
in retrospect, chaos goblin wei wuxian must have had a blast pretending to be so cRaZy and be as disruptive as he could as mo xuanyu lbr
listen. why is fire always evil coded. cant a magic clan wear red, black and orange and have flame motif while being wholesome?
For Legal Reasons These Are Not Zombies
i wish the politics of the sect were a bit clearer, especially at the beggining when the wen clan had sm power, was wen ruohan the chief cultivator? is that why they were so slow in responding to the attacks? im v confused by the pre yiling patriarch politics
fighting in the roof by the moonlight as way of flirtiiiiiiing. as i understand this is a wuxia/xianxia trope and honestly...... thank u for ur service
slight bullying and being a nuisance in general, as a way of flirting we love to see it
wwx: if i drink on the rooftop, thats not inside the cloud recesses! hmmm check and mate :D lwj: i will fuck u up so help me god wwx: :0
i lov them
through hell or high water (quite literally) wei wuxian rem ains a trashfire gremlin till the end and i love him with my whole heart
in the pt subs wei wuxian calls jiang cheng a stubborn duck and i dearly wish that had come back
my opinions on almost every character goes from love to hate u - Hmm Me Like U - BABY. ILY. and i am Very Pleased w that. its been a while since i loved such a complete cast so much i think
no really. i WONT go into a detailed rant abt what i love about each of these characters and each of their relationships to each other. but i COULD.
some lan disciples in the loudest whisper ever: YEAH THATS THE JIN BASTARD MENG YAO HEARD THE GOT SUPER HUMILIATED BY HIS DAD LOL SURE HOPE HE DOESNT TAKE SLIGHTS TO HIS CHARACTER TO HEART
lan xichen, immediately: i must Love him
being into problematic ppl is in the Lan genetics, we come to realize
wen qing deserves so many awards for so many things but not snapping and just stabbing wen chao is at the top
that scene at lan qirens class where wwx talks about using resentful energy to fight a violent spirit. exquisite.
It establishes Good Student lan wangji, wei wuxian as curious and questioning and not afraid of taboo, lwj sees that wwx is not, in fact, a dumb ass hes just a Dumbass, shows us the audience (esp. a western audience) how shocking the idea of disrupting the dead/dying and controlling resentful energy actually is, the theoretical foreshadow arguing, everyone else like ‘shUT UP’, “and how could you ensure that the resentful energy would obey you and not hurt other?” “well i havent thought that far” and of course, lan qiren just straight up lobbing a hard object at wwx head,. chefs kiss
fellas is it gay to bother the hot rule obessessed nerd from ur school and make drawings of him with flowers in his hair and then hide gay porn in his book to antagonize him and ask him to hold ur hand and be ur friend and talk to him all the time and get him drunk and give him bunnies bc you know he likes them and give him a lantern and always want his attention and dedicate yourself to getting him to smile-
and after all of that wwx rly said oh i Admire him, aksd like yeah we all were there in high school buddy
i have Learned. caves = gay.
accidental marriage +beint physically tied together with the sacred married ribbon+ gay panic+foreshadowing+bunnies! in the cave (1)
the story abt lan yi and baoshan sanren tho. i would like to see it
early days wen bros pull my heart strings like a guqin
EVERYTHING about the lantern scene; disaster hets jiang yanli and jin zixuan; how wwx made lwj a bunny lantern. how soft and touched lwj was. wwx gleefully pointing out he was smiling and lwj IMMEDIATELY PULLING HIW SWORD ON HIM LMAO. tragically foreshadowy promises to do right by pepople, living without regrets. lwjs 'oh no do i love him??' face. just. all of it.
i have it on good acc that in the novel lwj is explicitly Repressed Gay Panicked Big Horny which is delightful and rly Adds to the performance
baby lwj is really just conceal dont feel dont let them know u have EMOTIONS (derogatory)
jiang cheng rly went "why dont.u go play with HIM if u like him so much"
jc and wwx have big BIG annoying sibling energy dont think too hard abt it or youll cry
lotus pier is soo pretty :((((((((((((((((
up until episode 13 you could think this could be a magical ancient chinese gays pride n prejudice w swords and shenanigans ................youre just not prepared for the game of thrones of it all
seriously ha ha ha i cried so much w this show my eyes genuinely swelled up . like. physically. fun timez fun timez
that being said, its hilarious that wen xu goes to cloud recesses like 'come out or ill kill all these hostages' and then DOESNT WAIT FOR AN ASWER AND KILLS THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY. do u know how blackmail works sir
would like to make it recorded that from day one i was like 'CALL A GODDAMN CULTIVATION G20 THIS ASSHOLE SECT IS LITERALLY MASSACRING YALL!!' and it took them like 3 or 4 massacres to do anything and they STILL sent their heirs into their territory LIKE
when wwx cites the gusu lan rules to wen chao tho. that rebel/attention whore/cutie pie 'look lan zhan i DID memorize the rules after all' ‘also a big fuck you to the wen sect :D :D’ sweet spot that scene achieves . delicious
all the cultivator young masters being petty af even though they are practically prisoners at the cave is hilarious and i love them
hurt and comfort + gay mistunderstandings + watsonian gay declaration music + accidental evil acquisition! at the cave (2)
its like where do i start? the fact theyre both trapped and kind of heavily injured inside an isolated cave with a murder turtle? wwx gay panicking lwj into coughing up bad blood? lwj being jealous as wwx babbles abt mianmian? telling him he shouldnt play with people and wwx saying he never played him? wwx going Oh. I See what is happening. YOU like mianmian, and lwj absolute done face ??? (iconic) wwx touching the sacred married ribbon Again? the telepathic communication? the sword? WEI WUXIAN ASKING LAN WANGJI TO SING TO HIM AS HE IS PASSING OUT AND LWJ SINGING HIM. THE SONG. HE WROTE. FOR WWX. AND THAT HE CALLED. THEIR SHIP NAME????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
they are SO insufferable pleeeeease
in the words of my friend 1 : “CQL is so gay we were all amazed how it got past the censors Ofc unfortunately it can't be novel level gay But they did their best And we love them for it”
in the theme of songs THIS OST. WUJI HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY MIND RENT FREE SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT the whole ost is so so sO beautiful.
the costuming in this is also soooo exquisite. the embroidery? the fabrics? the details? how every sect and clan has a distinct style and architecture? (also ik they based each off of dif periods in chinese history which is REALLY fucking cool) just chefs kiss
the direction too!. i enjoy the unusual camera movements and i think they give it that Vibe, also their composition is PARTICULARLY good when it comes to telling the subtext through position of camera/position of character (like nhs off to the side in scenes he at first glance doesnt need to be/ how lwj is often centered when hes Jealous Yearning at wwx being affectionate w other ppl, wwx return from burial mounds etc)
ik madam yu is like Badass Milf Check and shes not getting any mom of the year awards but im delighted at how messy she is. IMAGINE that woman on tiktok
you better have enjoyed gay cave (2) bc its Just Pain from here on out!
jiang fengmian and madame yu win the Most Dramatic Way to show they do care about each other, actually ..... ever :)
i thought jiang yanli jiang cheng and wei wuxian forcing themselves to escape yunmeng barely holding on after their parents are killed was going to be the height of pain in this show. ha.
the family dynamics in general on this showwwww, both blood/ adopted/ found families, brotherly bonds and lifelong friendships just. rly. truly. fucked me up. theyre all so important and complicated and well rounded and beautiful and tragic
and beyond being a Win For the Gays im so glad the relationships w wwx and jiang yanli/ wen qing were NOT changed from platonic bc they are so much better like that imo. like maybe if we didnt Live In A Society it wouldnt be so, but the fact wwx and others can love and value them so much and theres nothing romantic or sexual abt it is like. so refreshing. especially @ jyl, with the way he and jc are overprotective of her and shes such a nurturing/care taker figure for them, it would just not vibe as well if they made it romantic
i love that this is a story abt Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch aka Actual Satan/Boogey Man/Village With/Public Enemy Number One , my dude is literally a necromancer who only dresses in black and has evil smokey black tendrils wafting out of him, but the really edgy one is still jiang cheng, pastel purple fashion icon
and speaking of best/worst siblings wei wuxian and jiang cheng *immediately starts crying*
The Golden Core Transfer i just. no thots only tears
wen qing and wen ning putting themselves in so much danger just.... to help them. wn saving jc from wen chao. wq finding a way to get wwx to transfer his core. like thinking about the monumental work these two did to help wwx and jyl and jc... jyl trying so fucking hard to be strong and keep on moving and giver her little brothers comfort after losing everything... jiang cheng. losing his parents and his home and his ability to do anything abt it and his complete desperation and lack of self worth and turning on them with agression when he didnt realize all that they did for him ... hhhhhhhhhhhhh
me, pointing at the whole cast “i just LOVE them mom!!!”
its sad tho, that BARELY ANY of the women have like.... actual important conversations let alone relationships with each other at all in the story. and like wq and jyl have stayed at the same place for extended periods of time, where wq actively took care of her TWICE, and still! not one measly convo, nothing! ................ .𝓌ₕᵧ
everyone in this show need a good sip of Self Worth and Stop Sacrificing Yourself juice
ngl the sword flying looks very dumb
“a-cheng, please bring a-xian back.” “i will, i promise.” ;-;
the whole calling each other by the More Intimate Version of the name, first as teasing and later as true intimacy. mmmhmmm yes
untamed where everythings the same but wwx evil flute song is eoeo
related that scene when wwx comes back from the burial mounds for the first time w demonic cultivation and he acts all formal and calls lwj hanguang-jun and keeps being evasive and distant and mean and soooooo................. facetious
and how hes kind of desperately trying to keep intense lwj at bay (A FIRST) and avoiding actually talking to either of them and its all tension ughhh and then he MOCKS his and lwjs relationship, he jokes w him in this like... mean echo of their usual ~banter~ oof
and like!!! uncertain but so relieved jc who just HUGS him w no reservations for once and its not like he isnt just as worried as lwj abt wwx and what hes doing, but he chooses in that moment to enjoy getting him back first and mmhmMMMmMm yes (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show? MAYBE SO. )
highkey hurt me but also. i might be into mean wwx. i will take no criticism.
lan zhans sad eyes tho :(((((((((
on one hand i wish we could have seen what happened at the burial mounds but on the other the timeskip adds so much flair to his return so im hnnn
also i love that hes been missing for 3 months reappears kinda melancholic and bloodthirsty and knowing malign tricks and jc is like 'so. are u sad bc of lan wangji'
when ur bae survived the war but he thinks ur evil/ might be evil so you cant kiss :///
hmmm talking at the rooftop under the moonlight not mentioning everything that stands between usssss
they are the two jades of lan and we’ll be the two heroes of yunmeng is the type of line u dont even need to know whats gonna happen to know thats gonna be sad
when they fight wen ruoshan at the nightless city i thought that was the battle we see at the first ep and its not and its so easy and theyre all like ‘yayy we won go wwx!’ i was just. SCREAMS WHAT is gonna HAPPEN
so like. post burial mounds/sunshot campaign pre yiling patriarch wwx is like. ultra arrogant, ultra mocking, peak lil shit and it gave me e v e r y t h i n g i wanted
even tho having the wen prisoners at the targets at phoenix mountain and still having wwx and jzx shooting the arrows was???? so.... tone deaf
wwx: fucking w demonic energy jyl: he has never done anything wrong in his life, ever <3 <3 (mood)
the parallels between meng yao/wei wuxian (and even xue yang a bit?) are Seen and they are Valid
wwx post burial mounds: can yall SHUT UP abt the goddamn sword (suibian left the chat)
LIKE truly, we talk abt the angst and yearning with wangxian. but what abt wwx and suibian. xianbian / xianqing angst and comfort 100k
take a shot everytime someone coughs up blood
zidian is simply the coolest spiritual weapon rip to suibian and chenqing and bichen and sendou and baixa........ but tis the truth
cons: everyones families died in a nightmare war! everyones homes burned to the ground! everyone is traumatized! pros: everyone gets cooler clothes and weapons!!
wen ning and a-yuan and yanli bestest babes squad dont touch me rn
everyone: brooding and fighting wq and jyl: why dont you try some acupunture/drinking some soup and calm down huh? how abt that bitch??
showing the battle/massacre at the nightless city first was genius actually bc then everytime we have a cute scene w yunmeng bros and theyre like 'we'll be together forever! uwu' youre like oh. oh no. oh no no no.
justice vs lawfulness vs means and ends 👁
jc: stay in the right path and practice the art of the sword wx: yeah thats not gonna happen chief
my reaction to wwx renouncing to the sect politics to help the wens was just that elmo burning gif in succession
the dramatic rain. wen qing desperately calling out to wen ning. the ghosts/puppets killing the guards. how terrifying wn actually was while wwx was controlling him :( lwj goeing after him to try and stop him and then he just; he Sees him and understands him even if he cant actually do anything about it other than let them go.
“there must be somewhere in this earth we can go to :(((((((((”
"IF I HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, I'D RATHER IT BE YOU. DYING BY YOUR HANDS WOULD AT LEAST BE WORTH IT." oh my god oh my god oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddd
also lwjs umbrella is white w black smoke.. . . nice
yiling patriarch / demonic farming burial mounds settlement is like one of my favorite concepts. they an "EVIL" FARMING COMMUNITY LED BY THE VILLAGE WITCH COME ON
they planted TURNIPS and LOTUS FLOWERS and ONE (1) baby and made lanterns and a common hall :(((((((
wen qing and wei wuxian, baddest bitches and genius science best friends i absolutely LOVED to see it. they rly went ‘is anyone gonna sibling/project partner that’ and didnt wait for an answer
both wwx and jyl getting lotus ponds at the burial mounds and in lanling bc they miss lotus pier ;;;;;;;w
;;;;; wish jyl had actually gone into the burial mounds. we were robbed of jyl and wq meeting again and jyl meeting a-yuan and seeing the settlement and the homes and all ;w; at least jc did go, stab wounds and broken arms and all
wwx like... having thrown his whole life away to help the wens (yeah the sect leaders and jin guangshan in particular wanting his stygian tiger amulet was an Element but still) and not.... necessarily regretting it, but grappling with all of the consequences of it... becoming moody and drepressed at times, missing his family and lotus pier and his friends and probably simply missing being around people and causing trouble, extrovert that he is, lashing out at the wens and at a-yuan, just in general the whole messiness of that experience
the way the resentful energy does affect his temperament is rly nice bc its not too in your face,(i mean outside of the Shaky Hands of Rage) but like he clearly has a much lesser control on his anger and impulsivity (tall order) than both before bm and after hes ressurected
on that note A-YUAN BABIEST BABY BOY BEST BOY
lan zhan being like oh hey there wei ying fancy meeting u and our son here. just passing by u know how it is hmmmmMm and then PLOT TWIST having defied orders to go see him and being punished for it. oof;;
they habent seen each other in like? a year? and now theyre tgt 10 seconds and are already parenting a child together
also lwj rly kneels down in the snow way too much to be healthy
wwx: calm down guyssss i wont lose control of demonic cultivation omgggg . spoiler alert: he loses control of demonic cultivation
did u enjoy cute children? good bc now the Real Pain Begins
jiang yanli and jin zixuan rly out there APROPRIATING both disaster gays AND bury ur gays huh ;w;
i KNEW jin lings birthday was gonna fuck something up but the GASP that left my body when wwx lost control of wn and killed jin zixuan .. . .
im sorry and thank you aaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAA
when wen ning and wen qing were telling wwx their plan i was saying NO NO NO NO NO NO out loud in despair
also can we talk abt how wq is definetely talking about only the both of them surrending themselves but then? everyone else just surrenders w them? IT MAKES NO SENSE LIKE WHY WOULD THEY what would be the Point
sometimes there are some pretty gaping jumps in logic and continuity that are just like ? ?
wwx: oh so when you try to murder me its justified but when i survive through dark magic and murder all of you its a "war crime"
unsurprisingly, his most feral, most spiraling moment talking to the sect leaders on the roof and attacking them and even fighting lan zhan is among my favorite scenes... its like, so painful to watch but also so thrilling (and maybe my wen bbs dying arose some resentful energy in me what can i say)
and its JUST, all they ever wanted was to do good but then... war. and trauma. and hubris.
jiang cheng on the ground clearly thorn between what to do and feel is a Mood, lets just say
i was already crying when jyl showed up, but if i wasnt-
i suffered SO MUCH through this series trying to figure out WHY jc would kill wwx. and when i understood. its somehow not as bad as i thought and also MUCH MUCH WORSE
a look into my group chat during the last flashback episodes:
SO ANYWAY. after the BLOOD BATH and RIPPING YOUR HEART OUT and FEEDING IT TO YOU the untamed goes ‘ayy back to the present!! tu du dud ud du’
literally it ends a quarter into an episode and then KEEPS GOING i had to pause and stare blankly at the ceiling for an hour
babie cultivators and detective soulmates . i do need some cute after All of That
(not that the pain is over LOL)
lwj is significantly less emotionally repressed in the present and its delightful. hes just ALL IN with wwx. and not just in the ‘i would and have killed various men and risked my reputation for you’ but also ‘ur tired here have a drink i brought it up cause i know u like it and it want you to be happy, always’
“when everyone praised me and wanted my power, you were the only one that challenged me. now that everyone hates me and wants me dead, youre the only one that stands by my side.” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
and just filling in the blanks how lan zhan searched for him. for all of those 16 years he searched for him and was punished for it and raised a-yuan, the only survivor of the burial mounds settlement, as his own in gusu......
and jiang cheng. being the tough love uncle . having raised the yunmeng jiang clan from the rubble all alone, his whole family dead, some of it on the blame of his own brother, his siblings, his closest friends gone.......and only jin ling there needing his guidance.
THE PARALLEL BETWEEN JIN LING BEING A LIFELINE FOR JIANG CHENG AND A-YUAN FOR LAN WANGJI AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE NIGHTLESS CITY
great now i made myself sad
and like . the fact! that lwj and jc dislike each other!!. jc projects blame onto him for wwx both “leaving” him and indirectly causing their families deaths and when hes so consumed by it he makes wwx an enemy, lwj is there now? trying to protect him?? and lwj, who can never understand the pain that wwx , indirectly or not put jc through, but who was right there when jc tried to kill him and will never allow him to hurt wwx again. and how they like. in a way project blame of their tragedies onto each other while dealing with some type of survivor guilt and in their own way still loving wwx through it all??? amd in way its kind of fundamentally selfish but also tragically understandable? and like when u put it against the fact that after he disappears during the sunshot campaign they were looking for him together and fought together??
JUST. THE CHARACTERS. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS. MAN. UGH. GOD.
and like i think thats what makes it so good? its such a sad and painful and violent story, edgy even, but its compelling bc at the center of it there are all of these relationships and different types of love and hope and. :( i love it
enough crying lets talk abt wwx sleeping at the jingshi with lwj and wearing his under garment for a minute 🙏
jin ling just has that Was Raised by JC energy tho lmao i love him
babie cultivator squad is the perfect ammount of cute and comedic relief while still bearing the weight? of the narrative in a way, both from sizhui and jin lings existences, and also. like. how do i put this. they feel hopeful? they were born after a war, they came of age at a time of relative peace, they dont hold on so closely to the resentments of their parents/father figures, they are specifically shown as more accepting and open minded. and its like.... Hope for the future
one of the ?? things i love the most is the fact that the main cast are often in situations where theyre hunted/running but they like. never wear disguises... just going around in their gorgeous expensive clan clothes and hair ornaments and distinctive spiritual weapons.... maybe w a straw hat on, just for kicks
wwx teacher 🥺🥺🥺
so this is why its called Yi City Misery huh
a-qing is such. an icon. im so sad. my girl even knew to leave xys dumb self rotting by the road but no one listens to her thats why theyre all dead or sad
her and xue yang measuring each other up was so entertaining lmao
its the funniest thing when hes like. HERES MY SAD STORY. FOR WHY IM A SADISTIC MURDERER. I BROKE MY HAND ONCE.
like ok someone broke his hand in a horrible way, and like Poverty, i get it but also like.......... that lost the brunt of a proper sob story like, 50 sadistic murders ago bby
and i love that xingchen does not entertain that for a second hes like ‘not ?????? good enough???’ and the best thing is he wasnt even like 'u hadto be the bigger person' or sth but ' well then break that dudes hand back, rip his arm off for i care, what do the rest of us have to do w anything???”
anjo sensato :(
xue yang is like..... the sexy sadistic evil version of a himbo..... a meanbo...
the fucked upness of xy’s feelings for xxc/ xxc and sl feelings for each other... like my dude literally gave his bf HIS EYES. and xy getting so attached to xxc .... the fucked up fake domesticity.... having him hurt sl..... then desperately trying to bring him back ...................... oof
song lan........... literally had his eyes AND tongue removed, his bfs eyes put in place, was almost killed, turned into a puppet by his bf unknowingly, manipulated by xy, sees his bf killing himself in despair.... and STILL finds the strenght to get up from there, and keep on traveling and helping people and attempting to fix xxcs soul.......... like, my man. damn.
wangxian looking at songxiao and seeing an Actually more painful parallel for themselves. ft. that Color Coding.
THE A-YUAN/SIZHUI REVEAL PUNCHED ME IN THE HEART but in a good way for a change
should have know that he would be the Best Boy the cute one w all the braincells
the butterfly AND the bunny lantern. i see how it is
u know is very convenient that no one can see the stark black veins on wen nings neck, ever
BAT WEN NING
wns face when lwj comes into wwx room like ‘:0 omg did u two finally get your shit together? good for you master wei good for u’
(they didnt) (yet)
DISASTER DRUNK LWJ. JUST. THRUST SOME CHICKENS TO SHOW UR RESSURECTED BAE THAT U LOVE THEM.
i have absolutely no idea WHY they gave lwj the same punishment for fighting his own sect/allies to protect the burial mounds as when they got drunk on cloud recess class days.... like? its such a ... emotional continuity error again
also is lwj gonna get an actual friend besides wwx , ever
mianmian marrying and having a family and a cute life after saying FUCK U AND UR SYSTEM TOO in a much less unhinged and dramatic way than wwx......... fills me w joy
also lol the idea that like. her husband not knowing that shes friends w satan/the boogey man/the village witch is hilarious
i love nie mingjue bc hes the resident Though Guy but also the most dramatic bitch in this show and thats Saying Something
jin ling cant have one uneventful relative can he
the fact that everyone present already knew “mo xuanyu” was wwx at the stairs is so funny, their faces are like ‘oh............ wow. that. sure is a development. shock”
in the tradition of extremely loud whispers wwx tells lwj with twelve guards standing like one meter away from them: HEY PSH LAN ZHAN PRETEND IM FORCING YOU TO STAY W ME DO IT
oh my god oh my god
the absolute Yearning on his face when he leaves wwx and a-yuan at the burial mounds and refuses to stay for dinner was already Enough but the fact?? they brought it back?? to this declaration of love?? their expressions??????? strike me dead right now just go ahead
lFor Legal Reasons We Cant Kiss but we will have a very sappy declaration of love and trust and look at each other in way that is the actualization of 💞💘💗💖💓💘💞💗💖💘💗💖💕💞
also icb all the sect leaders and guards are standing there watching them say they like like each other with a dozen swords pointing at their neck
i enjoyed the depiction of the fickle public perception and how easily it can be used to scapegoat people. when the sect leaders turn on jgy and wwx knows thats its more for convenience than anything else...
poor lxc is literally like 'oh so when YOUR problematic boyfriend gets called evil its a misunderstanding but when its MY problematic bf-'
ok like i cant get over nmj let jgy play a song that messed with his temperament at all, like maN u KNEW he might be shady wth
wwx: “hey dont say anything bad abt lan zhan hes not an arrogant dick, thats just his face.
ME ON THE OTHER HAND"
the cultivators as wwx is poking holes in their narrative is literally *nazaré meme*
"wei wuxian-!" "what did i break your leg, too?" not to be problematic but i laughed so hard
not as hard as "you dont have the rank to talk to me " tho
i Enjoy that, over the course of story, wwx sees that... theres nothing truly to Do, but move on. he saw how his arrogance and his mistakes hurt others, and hes trying to fix what he can, but he already did die for his mistakes and there are things he cant fix and that's. just how it is. even towards jgy, the narrative doesn't go gleefully and completely with "lets make THEM pay bc theyre the big bad" bc its not that simple, and it wouldn't lead anywhere but more pain...
re him and jiang cheng and the wens and kinda. isnt that what nhs did? scheming to displace jgy out of revenge more than any justice and doing so in the most painful way?
idk if that actually makes sense im truly just babbling
i thought the scene at the lotus pond would be CUTE but the context was PAIN again
jiang cheng finding out about his golden core and his conflict with wwx at the guanyin temple .... destroyed me but in a nice way kinda.... same way it destroys him look at his face oh god
and. the fact??? he sacrificed himself for wwx?? first?? and he'll probably never tell anyone much less wwx???? keeps me up at night
i havent decided if the neckbreak transition between jgy does sth super Evil or does he he does OR Does He yes he does O R does heeeee is sth i dislike or not
jin guangyao and wei wuxians most interesting parallel is that... theyve both seen 'hmm hey this system is fucked up' and wwx went 'so fuck it all i will renounce it and challenge it' and jgy went 'so fuck it i will use all of it to my advantage and manipulate it to my goals and whims'
the fact jgys mom was actually great and he loved her and his whole issue w it was more than simply being ashamed of being a bastard kinda got me ngl
never trust a dude with a fan.
nhs and jgy: the first rule to a convoluted and decades spanning violent revenge plot is to have fun and be yourself!
when a-yuan finally FINALLY remembers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; wen ning has someone in his family back and a-yuan has someone to talk abt his wen family and wwx has him back bc he survived and lwj raised him anD HES THEIR SON. THEYRE MARRIED AND HAVE A SON. UGH.
and theyre allowed to heal. everyone is allowed to try and recover and be happy
netflix put all of the 3 endings on top of each other and it looks kinda weird actually BUT I DONT EVEN MIND :’’’’’’’’’)
the gasp that left me when lwj says ‘wei ying’ and wwx turns.........
there was also a screen with ‘thank you mxtx for creating these characters, we hope their wishes come true’ and i might. have cried then too. maybe.
that was . a ride. as is proven by this behemot of a ramble clearly i just really needed and Outlet. i am currently trying to convince dumb monkey brain to not consume the other medias of mdzs immediately bc i REALLY need to like. live. a life. and take care of real responsibilities. *longest oh boi ever*
#m.#ANYWAY#ENOUGH TALKING#THIS IS SO LONG#LOL#but whatever this is MY performative journaling i do what i want#rambling impressions abt what i watch is a thing i do now? apparently??#cql#untamed#the untamed#fun fact that chat is named 'k keeps on babbling abt the untamed' and it STILL wasnt enough#also it took me 15 episodes to realize lwj was yibo#IT WAS V SHOCKING#i did not recognize him at a l l#but in retrospect he WAS the perfect choice
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Alright Untamed fandom, where do I submit and/or beg for my fic ideas?
I DESPERATELY need a Leverage AU for this fandom (and for Word of Honor, too, but that’s going to be a separate post), you GUYS!?! Tell me you can’t see this:
Lan Zhan in the role of Nate--maybe as a detective of some fashion instead of insurance investigation. Or maybe he works as head of security for his very wealthy family. And for a while he’s so sure that he’s doing the Right and Honorable and Just thing, hunting down these criminals. And he’s got some serious angst over his friend Wei Ying who was head of security for the Jiang until he stole some huge corporate secret and sold it to their competitors before disappearing into the criminal underworld. And Lan Zhan’s seen him over the next few years, only very briefly, when their paths cross from opposite sides of a heist and Wei Ying says he’s been framed, but no matter how often Lan Zhan tries to convince him to come home and set things right and face punishment. Because even if he hadn’t done the original crime, he’s clearly doing crime (and being gay, but that is neither here nor there) and he has to take responsibility and Wei Ying’s like no thanks, bro.
So then Lan Zhan finds out something that sort of shakes him to the core, like maybe some sketchy things his own family have done, or that they were in on framing Wei Ying along with the Jin, whatever, not sure on the details. But he quits and starts having guilt over the fact that he just assumed the worst about Wei Ying, and also, all these awful things that Wei Ying has done since? Are him trying to clean up messes made by the Wen and Jin and Lan.
After some soul searching, Lan Zhan starts digging into all the shit that these major corporations have been up to, and starts identifying the people who’ve been hurt by them and have been fighting back on their own, and decides to bring them all together. There’s:
* Meng Yao (fucked over by his father and out for revenge on the whole wide world, and who would be the perfect confidence man, lbr and very brainy, yes, but no where on the level of...)
* Nie Huaisang (hacker extraordinaire, able to get any information on anyone or anything in basically 10 seconds or less, and able to use that to manipulate every scenario perfectly to his whims--he doesn’t NEED to steal, you’ll give him exactly what he wants without you even realising it...look, he doesn’t need to be doing this, but he is pissed over what happened with Wei Ying and the Wen are constantly flexing on his brother, and also, it’s fun!)
* Wen Ning (who to everyone’s astonishment is the best hitter in the game, started helping Wei Ying shortly after his fall from grace, has issues galore with basically every sect, but he’s really only in this for his family and Wei Ying)
* Wen Qing (who comes part and parcel with WN and WY because these assholes always end up needing to be patched up, and also, need a voice of sanity and reason)
* Xue Yang (who just likes shiny things and fucking shit up and bewilders everyone over the fact that he can steal, like, anything and has warehouses full of treasure, but just squats in a ramshackle abandoned building and spends all his money on candy and baked goods)
* A-Qing (who is Xue Yang’s thief and con-woman in training, and who will mercilessly use her youth and anonymity with the main companies to bleed them fucking dry)
And Lan Zhan can’t get ahold of Wei Ying at first, but after the team’s first job, oh you better fucking believe Wei Ying is interested now! (okay, he was interested as soon as Lan Zhan spoke to the Wen siblings, but he was waiting to see how things fell out and if this was some sort of trap that he’d need to spring them from). They’re in the middle of some elaborate heist and it’s all about to fall apart, and Lan Zhan is as close to freaking out as someone like Lan Zhan can be, and Wei Ying just strolls in and saves the day with his devastating smile.
So the gang saves the day and makes the bad guys pay, and then they decide you know, there are a lot more assholes out there pulling things like this, and we’re really good at screwing them over.
I just want all the found-family feels, and the reconciliation, and the romance. How Yanli finds ways to send care packages to Wei Ying through Huaisang and trying to let him know she believes in him no matter what. And someday after the initial confrontation with the Jin/Wen/Lan, just stopping by the team’s headquarters on the regular to feed them when they’re so busy planning they forget to take care of themselves. The eventual confrontation of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan with their respective brothers and adoptive parents/uncle. Meng Yao getting the love and recognition he deserves after his father is arrested. The crew picking up new members here and there, like XXC and SL who are some sort of law enforcement, and...not so sure about this at first, but eventually end up looking the other way (and maybe adopting A-Qing and inexplicably becoming enamored of Xue Yang). Wei Ying and Lan Zhan rescuing A-Yuan at some point when taking on the Wen, and him being raised by his two dads and the craziest and most loving group of Aunties and Uncles.
Some of them go more ~legit after things fall out. Like Meng Yao is way more appropriate to run the Jin than his brother, and they both know it. And Huaisang has to keep an air of respectability about himself, and Wen Qing is a legit doctor, okay...but they still help out on the regular.
Look, I would write this myself, I WOULD. Except 1.) I know no where NEAR enough about Chinese culture to do it justice, and 2.) ever since I started my ADHD meds I’ve been...incapable of writing? (which goes hand in hand with 2 actually, because researching feels daunting). So *hands* someone make it a thing??
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Sangcheng and Nielan prompt- NMJ thinks that JC is one of rare people he can trust in case of his brother. JC is a Good Bro. NMJ tries to be a matchmaker and make sangcheng happen. LXC tries to help because he is in middle of projecting his own romantic tension and young love is so cute
"I need your help."
"I'm all ears, A-Jue." Xichen said softly petting the purring mass of grey-brown fur in his lap. Baxia looked at him smugly as Xichen scratched behind her ears, cooing at her. Traitor.
He pushed back the warmth that flooded him every time Xichen spoke his name and sat forward.
"A-Sang has had his heart broken before, we both know this." he began.
"A-Jue I'm not hiding a body for you. I don't care how much I love you."
Not in the way I want you to.
Anyway.
"A-Sang's taste in men is... Questionable. But. There's this TA who joined the department, Jiang Wanyin. He's a good kid and I..."
"You think he would be right for A-Sang." Xichen finished.
"Yes. That."
"And you need my help in getting them together?"
"Yes. That too." he was grateful Xichen could read him so well.
"Alright. I'll play."
"You will?"
"Yeah. Another side project won't hurt."
"I still don't understand why you're pushing Wei Wuxian on poor Wangji like this."
"I don't choose who my didi likes, A-Jue. Now. You came to the right person for this, I'm something of an expert in matchmaking younger siblings."
Mingjue let out an amused huff as Xichen collected the materials from his pile of papers and began to draw up a plan.
-
Huaisang needed to have words with his da ge. Why this kid from the engineering department kept finding him, he'd never understand, but he had a feeling it was something to do with him.
A quick gossip with Wei Wuxian and a little bit of digging in his brothers social media accounts had confirmed his suspicions and had lead him to the point where he was banging his fan on his da ges door.
"DA GE! DA GE OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"
The door swung open.
"Ow! Huaisang what the hell!" Mingjue growled as Huaisang's fan smacked the side of his face. He gripped the fan and yanked it out of his hand. "What are you screaming about now? I'm marking papers, can this shit wait?"
"No it can't fucking wait!"
"Language."
"Will you make your mind up about my love life? First you want to kill anyone I've ever slept with and now you and your little boyfriend are trying to set me up?!"
"Xichen isn't my boyfriend, Huaisang, we've been over this."
"You live with him, you're both single, and you have a cat. You're basically a celibate married couple."
"HUAISANG."
"Anyway, we're getting off topic. Why are you setting me up with this Jiang Wanyin kid? You literally chased my first boyfriend out of the house with a meat cleaver and probably asked Meng Yao to put hits on all my exes."
"I haven't, but it's a good idea. Remind me to call him later."
"Da ge!"
"Okay! Fine, fine." Huaisang watched his older brother deflate and lean against the doorframe, taking off his glasses and pinching his brow. "I just... Bear with me I'm not good at this feelings thing but... I've seen you get hurt, a lot, okay? I... I promised Ba and A-Niang when they died that I would look after you and make sure you're okay... These boys... These children... They've hurt you. Wanyin is a good kid. Strong spirit, a good heart. He's someone that would treat you right. He seems angry but he's quite gentle. He's a very good uncle actually. I just... I thought setting him up with you would be a good idea."
Huaisang sighed as his brother handed his fan back. He shuffled his feet, staring at the ground. Da ge rarely spoke about their parents, and now he was getting choked up. His da ge gave up everything for him when their parents died. He put his whole life on hold for him, fought their aunties and uncles to keep custody of him. A brother and a father, he truly was grateful.
"I guess... I could give him a chance. He's pretty cute. Nice sharp jaw... Nice arms... Cute b-"
"Don't finish that sentence in front of me."
Huaisang cackled and snapped his fan open, hiding behind it. Mingjue rolled his eyes, huffing softly. His lips twitched up in a soft smile. Mingjue reached forward and ruffled Huaisang's hair, chuckling softly.
"I'll kick his ass if he hurts you."
"I know da ge." Huaisang hummed, fixing his hair with an annoyed pout.
"Alright, get out of my sight. Do your work."
"Make me!" Huaisang stuck his tongue out before breaking into a sprint. "You can't catch me!"
"I'm just glad you're doing exercise, Huaisang!" he called down the hall. "You need to work on your form though, you're running like a newborn fawn!"
"I can't hear you!"
-
Mingjue chuckled to himself, shutting his door.
"So," Xichen hummed, sipping his tea from his chair on the other side of his desk. "A celibate married couple?"
Mingjue spluttered, trying to come up with an explanation, feeling his cheeks burn and tripping over his words. Xichen laughed, such a sweet, musical sound. He stood up - so elegant, oh so elegant - and walked toward Mingjue.
"I-it's just a joke! Yeah. Just a joke. You know A-Sang..." he said nervously, cringing at how his voice cracked.
With a sly smile, his long, deft fingers wrapped around his tie, gently straightening it. Mingjue felt mortified at the shiver that jolted through him.
"Just a joke? So how would you feel if I asked if you would like to make this 'marriage' not so... Celibate, anymore? Maybe more of an actual marriage?"
Mingjue felt his cheeks burn even hotter as he nodded, feeling unable to say anything other than;
"Yes. Yes. Please. I want that. For so long. Please."
Xichen laughed softly, gently pulling Mingjue in by his tie.
"Good. Me too." he hummed, his breath fanning against his lips before he drew him into a kiss.
#the untamed#mo dao zu shi#lan xichen#nie mingjue#nie huaisang#jiang cheng#jiang wanyin#sangcheng#nielan#ship prompts#my shitty writing
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Episode 23: the One where JYL Captains the Ship
Alrighty, so battle stuff is happening
Nothing major going on
EXCEPT wen ruohan leaves his evil lair to confront wwx about how he took control of his puppets!
Wrh: where did you get the Plot Device?? Did xy give it to you?? HOW ARE YOU MAKING IT WORK??
Basically just Angry Ranting that Bad Guys do
Wwx mouths off, as usual
Lwj’s eyes are glued on him this entire time bc when isn’t staring at wwx?
(I understand lwj, I too cannot tear my eyes away from wwx when he's onscreen, that beauty mark just under his lower lip is so goddamn distracting...)
Wwx: hey, wrh, i just finished making his nifty thing and haven’t shown anyone yet, wanna see it?
And tah dah! We now have Plot Device 2 (aka stygian tiger seal/amulet whatever)
Pay attention to Plot Device 2, guys, it’s gonna cause us some angsty wangxiantics in the future (BRACE YOURSELVES)
Pausing here to point out how freaking cool wwx looks, levitating the pieces of Plot Device 2
OH NO, WEN RUOHAN IS NOW CHOKING WWX
THAT’S NOT ALLOWED!!
STOP HURTING MY SUNSHINE BOY
And wwx is smirking in victory?? What the heck wwx
Oh, it’s bc since wrh and wwx are wrapped up in their confrontation, there’s no one controlling the puppets so the puppets all collapse. That was part of his plan, maybe?? Idk, doesn’t matter
What matters is that this frees up LWJ to fly to wwx’s side
WHICH MEANS THAT LWJ IS THERE TO CATCH WWX ONCE WRH DROPS HIM!!
Lwj: Wei Ying! *catches his soulmate*
Wwx: *passes out in the arms of his very dashing soulmate*
Lwj barely even acknowledges that Meng Yao kills Wen Ruohan bc who cares about the big bad villain getting killed whEN YOUR SOULMATE IS PASSED OUT IN YOUR ARMS??
Lwj: Wei Ying
He says again! As his eyes stay glued onto wwx’s beautiful unconscious face. HE HOLDS HIM SO CLOSE
I mean, he could totally hold him CLOSER but that would be too much for the censors maybe??
Ppl are cheering. I was cheering. I don’t think we were cheering for the same reasons.
I was cheering bc lwj was ~tenderly cradling~ our beautiful sunshine boy
I think the other ppl were cheering bc the bad guy died? Weird.
LOL, DEJA VU MOMENT HERE
Lxc is cradling an unconscious Nmj
I guess the lan bros ARE pretty similar lolol
Boring stuff. Plot stuff. OMG I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY MENG YAO, SHUT UP.
Ahhhh, this next scene!
WWX is waking up in a bed and jyl is at the bedside.
Jyl starts bringing out the wangxian pie~! Maybe i should start using soup metaphors since Soup is her Thing…
Jyl is so happy that wwx is awake now!!
Jyl: you’ve been asleep for three (3) days!
Wwx: THREE DAYS??? What about jc and lwj??
HE IMMEDIATELY ASKS ABOUT THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT GUYS IN HIS LIFE, I LOVE MY SUNSHINE BOY.
Jyl: both jc and lwj have been very worried about you!
We find out that even sect leader jin has been visiting which is disgusting, so we’re ignoring it
Oh, jyl is trying to get wwx to stop moving around so much
Jyl: LWJ says you need to rest more. He says you used too much spiritual energy
LWJ HAS BEEN KEEPING TRACK OF HIM THIS WHOLE TIME
JYL TRUSTS HIM TO TAKE CARE OF HER LITTLE BROTHER!!!
Jyl: also don’t use Plot Device 2 all willy-nilly. LWJ says it’ll hurt you!!
Wwx: LWJ, LWJ, why do you keep talking about him? He’s so boring and he doesn’t talk enough!
BUT HE SAYS THIS WITH A CUTE LITTLE FOND SMILE
BC THINKING ABOUT LWJ MAKES HIM HAPPY
BOYYYYY
YOUR CRUSH CAN BE SEEN FROM PRESENT-DAY NON-FANTASY CHINA (but, uh, discreetly, bc of censorship)
Jyl: while you were comatose, lwj came by every morning and evening to play his guqin for you. To relax your mind and spirit
Jyl: you probably wouldn’t have woken up so soon if he hadn’t done that
AHHHHHHH THIS NEXT SCENE!!!!!
JYL IS JUST SPOONFEEDING US WANGXIAN PIE NOW
SHE’S GIVING US A BIG OL’ HELPING OF WANGXIAN PIE HERE!! WHICH IS GREAT BC I AM STARVING
Here comes lwj, with his guqin strapped to his back!
Lwj actually brings himself to knock on the door this time
SEE, THAT WASN’T SO HARD, WAS IT LWJ?? WHY COULDN’T YOU DO THAT BEFORE??
Jyl: oh, that must be lwj~!
ohhh, wwx's face when she says this! He looks all nervous and flustered
bc he has a ~gentleman caller~ and he’s not decent!!!
HE’S ONLY IN HIS ENTICING RED UNDER-ROBES!! IN BED!! AND LWJ IS VISITING!!
Okay, that’s probably not why BUT IN MY HEART THAT’S TOTALLY WHY
So jyl goes and answers the door
Lwj bows so respectfully to her (he knows she’s wwx’s precious person!!)
LOL, I LOVE HOW JYL DOESN’T MENTION THAT WWX IS AWAKE HERE
THAT’S MY CAPTAIN!! Lxc wishes he could captain as good
she just greets him like usual and lets him in
HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT’S WAITING FOR HIM INSIDE
IT’S AMAZING, JYL IS THE BEST
She leads him to the bedroom aND OH GOD, THE MINUTE LWJ’S EYES LAND ON WWX
HIS LIPS PART AS IF HIS BREATHING HITCHED IN HIS THROAT
HIS EYES NOTICEABLY WIDEN IN SURPRISE
THERE’S A SLIGHT PAUSE IN HIS STEPS!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HE’S SUPER EXPRESSIVE HERE GUYS
(...well, by lwj standards anyway)
And ooooh, wwx’s reaction is adorable!!
His eyes catch lwj’s gaze for half a second before they skitter down to the side as if seeing lwj in person (in his bedroom!!) is too much to take in all at once!
HE’S SO FLUSTERED?? HIS EYES ARE FLICKERING TO AND FRO TRYING TO LOOK AT ANYTHING BUT LWJ.
HE’S SO NERVOUS IT’S ADORABLE I CAN’T HANDLE IT
(i may have rewound to watch this scene 3x, DON’T JUDGE ME)
(there was so much happening! Lwj’s beautiful plush lips parted, wwx was acting cutely bashful)
(WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT, HUH? JUST WATCH IT ONCE AND MOVE ON?? I DON’T THINK SO)
And you know, jyl leads lwj like, right to wwx’s bedside and WATCHES ALL THIS GO DOWN
YOU KNOW SHE NOTICED ALL THESE THINGS TOO
I’M NOT A CRAZY PERSON HERE
Jyl: thank you, lwj! Without you, wwx would not have woken up so soon!
Jyl: you two go ahead and talk now
Jyl: i’ll just go tend to the other wounded
Jyl: and leave you both here ~all alone~
Jyl: in this bedroom
Jyl: with wwx just in his under-things
Jyl: still on his rumpled bed
Jyl: okay, byyyyeee~!
(LXC AND JYL NEED TO HANG OUT AND TALK ABOUT THEIR LITTLE BROTHERS AND HOW HOPELESS THEY ARE AROUND EACH OTHER)
(THIS IS A THING THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN)
Okay, and now not only do we get MORE wangxian time, we also just get the most beautiful scene ever?? Like, aesthetically? THIS SHOW IS A BLESSING
Lwj is playing his guqin in the communal area next to wwx
The music is gorgeous (it's the same Magic Music from before! it sounds like warm morning sunlight on a calm spring day)
And the set is beautiful, all reds and whites to match our boys’ colors, and it’s all emphasized with equally beautiful lighting
Wwx: lan zhan, actually, i--
Lwj: quiet. Concentrate.
Wwx POUTS and taps his nose and then SULKILY crosses his legs
HE’S THE MOST ADORABLE BOY IN THE WORLD AND I LOVE HIM
IF LWJ WOULDN’T MURDER ME IMMEDIATELY, I’D GO AND PROPOSE TO WWX RIGHT NOW
ACTUALLY I’D PROBABLY DO IT ANYWAY
I’VE LIVED A GOOD LIFE, I PROBABLY WON’T ACCOMPLISH MUCH ELSE WITH IT. IT’S TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Ahem
Back to the utterly breathtaking wangxian scene
No seriously, EVERYTHING IS SO GORGEOUS?
ALL THESE BEAUTIFUL SHOTS
THE CLOSE UP ON THE FLOWERS
THE UNFOCUSED SHOTS THROUGH THE HANGING SCREENS
THE LIGHTING THE COLORS THE MUSIC
LWJ IN HIS PHENOMENAL WHITE OUTFIT AND WWX IN HIS INDECENT RED ROBES
IT ALL ADDS UP TO THIS SYRUPY DREAMY SCENE THAT’S JUST, UGH, DRIPPING WITH TENDERNESS AND ROMANCE
IT’S TOO MUCH IT’S TOO MUCH
Okay, i’m done geeking out over the aesthetics
Oh, wwx is breaking his meditation pose and flexing his wrists excitedly!
Wwx: lan zhan, i’m all better now!
Lwj stops playing and calmly makes his way to the bed where wei ying is and checks him
Lwj: three more days are needed
Wwx does not like this answer lol. He leaps up from the bed all affronted
Wwx: but i’m totally fine now, look! *starts flexing his arms around*
Lwj is not budging on this tho
Lwj: exorcise evil, ease the mind. Do not be neglectful
Wwx: exorcise evil? I don’t need an exorcism!! I just used too much energy
Cue awkward silence (lwj’s eyes never waver from wwx tho)
Lwj: wei ying (you know, i think he just likes saying his name...)
Wwx: lan zhan, do you really think that Plot Device 2 is evil? Do you really believe there’s an undetectable something that can change someone from good to evil?
Ooooh, wwx is getting all philosophical on us!!
His brow is all furrowed here; he’s hurt that lwj doesn’t trust him with Plot Device 2!
And that’s the end of that MOST DELICIOUS SLICE WANGXIAN PIE
Other stuff happens
Screaming, the murder of innocent people, sect leaders debating on said murder of innocent people
You know, boring stuff.
There was a fun bit here tho
Nmj: maybe it’s okay to kill innocent civilians…
Lxc: *sad face*
Nmj: uh, maybe we can NOT kill defenseless people this time?
Ahhh, if only lan zhan’s sad face was effective on wei ying as lxc’s is to nmj…
Plot plot plot Jgs being an asshole Plot plot plot
MORE plot plotty plot plot
OH NO
WE’RE ON A CLIFF IN NIGHTLESS CITY
THAT CLIFF WE DON’T LIKE
THAT REALLY REALLY HORRIBLE AWFUL NO GOOD CLIFF
AND WWX IS STANDING CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF IT GET AWAY FROM THERE WWX, GET AWAY RIGHT NOW
And now lwj joins him
Wwx: lan zhan, what do you think of the people here? Who is good, who is evil?
Yeesh, getting right into the heavy stuff aren’t we
Like, nbd, i’m just gonna compLETELY CHANGE YOUR WORLDVIEW AND TEACH YOU SHADES OF GRAY (AGAIN)
Oooh, but as he says that, he starts clutching at his chest and swaying on his feet! Bc the resentful energy is hurting him!!!
Lwj grabs his arm to steady him
Lwj: wei ying, concentrate
Great, it’s about to get real hurt-y now
Lwj: wei ying, do you want to learn how to play Magic Music?
Wwx: lan zhan, you want me to learn that? Do you doubt me, too?
And the way he says it!! It’s a tone that says “please don’t let this be true”
BUT LWJ LOOKS AWAY AND FLASHBACKS TO WHAT WRH WAS RANTING ABOUT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EP
WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT LWJ. WHY.
So instead of answering wwx, he just questions him on why he made Plot Device 2???
THAT IS THE WRONG APPROACH LWJ
THAT WILL NOT GET YOU WHAT YOU REALLY WANT
Wwx: lan zhan, if i told you i got a Screaming Sword of Resentment from the Murder Turtle would you believe me?
Lwj keeps answering questions with questions and the whole convo is devolving horribly
Lwj: if you already knew the sword had Plot Device stuff in it, why did you refine it?
Wwx: LAN ZHAN, ENOUGH
he snaps at lwj
he raised his voice at lwj
Lwj: you promised you’d let me help you (he says calmly)
Wwx: if you don’t believe in me, how can you help me?
OUCH
Lwj: Plot device 2 isn’t safe, you might lose control!
Wwx: you’re scared i’ll be like wen ruohan, but i’m not him! And Plot Device 2 is not the same as Plot Device!
And then before we can get too emotional about our soulmate boys being at odds (AGAIN), we get to witness the murder of innocent people
How fun
Jin Zixun shows us he’s scum of the earth by trying to shoot down a Wen mother carrying her child as she flees
Thank goodness lwj guqin’s the arrow away
There’s a confrontation but lwj doesn’t let wwx tear into jin zixun even tHO HE CLEARLY DESERVES IT
And everyone leaves but not before wwx comments that there’s gonna be a lot of resentment here where the innocents were killed and that the place needed Magic Music
Oh, turns out lwj didn’t leave
Lwj stays at the scene of the crime and plays Magic Music on his guqin.
As soon as wwx hears it, he starts playing counterpoint on his flute!
I love it when they play music together, Magic or not!!
We cut away here to watch lxc, nmj, and jgy become Official Bros™
BORING
Now Jgs and jgy are hosting a banquet
STILL BORING
Political posturing happens
SO BORING
Wait, something interesting just happened!
We see lwj just up and leave the banquet the moment he realizes wwx isn’t there
Bc wwx is out on the steps getting drunk
(wwx, we’ve talked about this. Drinking is not a Solution)
Wwx: lan zhan, it’s you! How about playing some Magic Music? (I'm detecting some sarcasm…)
Lwj: i’m learning a new score
Wwx: *scoffs* you haven’t given up yet? You’re really stubborn *mocking snort*
STOP BEING MEAN, WWX
That’s the last bit of wangxiantics we have for this episode
JYL GAVE US SUCH A GREAT MOMENT AND WE ENDED UP AT ODDS AGAIN
IT’S A WHOLE "ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK" SITUATION
I DON’T LIKE IT
Return to Masterpost
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"If the face says nothing, listen to the heartbeat" - Lan WangJi, Mo Dao Zu Shi (Weeks 3+4)
https://zhtheuntamedprojec.wixsite.com/theuntamedproject
... those who have read the novel know the real context of this line in the scene BUT taken out of context and used in a completely different (*cough* our) scenario..."If the face says nothing," translates to "Even if we seem calm on the outside,""listen to the heartbeat." translates to "we're so stressed to the point of ventricular fibrillation." (dunno if that's even a likely story but the overly exaggerated point still stands: we just handed our uni applications in and we're dreading admission tests and awaiting interviews...)
Quick overview
So aside from school work and university prep, TUP has taken up whatever spare moment either one of us has. However since Zara's Physics coursework began (good luck Zara!!) and both of us prepping for our respective admissions tests, we've decided instead of marching onwards with research on architecture and other food science related stuff, to settle on more relaxed Google seshes on MDZS (and totally not using this as an excuse to read the source text again) and beginning to design the buildings on CAD and paper.
So I'm going to introduce to you the barebones framework of what we plan to include in the design: characters, buildings and effects~ apologies in advance for not including the accents/tones in names (I cba tbh ;-; )
Characters
Because all these little dudes are just going to be cut out gingerbread men, we could include as many characters as possible (we did say we're making a universe are we not?). Those in italics are "maybe" characters depending on the dough remaining (or whether we like them to be part of the universe or not...) or how much gingerbread we're willing to eat ourselves (though huge shout out to everyone thats offered to eat our spare and broken gingerbread during materials testing - which I will get to a bit later :3)
Gusu Lan (the pretty sect)
Lan XiChen / Lan Huan (Sect Leader - simped so hard for his sworn brothers that both of them ended up dead)
Lan WangJi / Lan Zhan (repressed gay but we love him still)
Lan Yuan / Lan Sizhui (he's part of the Lan sect now goddamnit)
Lan JingYi (the most unLan Lan yet has the highest chance of being the next sect leader lmaoo)
Lan QiRen
Lan Yi / Lan An
QingHeng-Jun (Twin Jades' father)
Madam Lan (Twin Jades' mother)
Yunmeng Jiang (arguably the only "normal" sect here...)
Jiang Cheng / Jiang Wanyin (Sect Leader also an "angry grape" as put by Zara)
Jiang YanLi (OUR QUEEN)
Jiang FengMian (loved Wei Ying more than Jiang Cheng lol jk xd)
Yu ZiYuan (BAMF)
Wei Ying not included here since technically he defected from the Sect (; - ;)
Qinghe Nie (fans and sabers my bros)
Nie HuaiSang (Sect Leader - yeah, I can't believe it either)
Nie MingJue (noooooooooo)
Honestly, I swear this clan is either "big muscles or big brain?". If you have neither, you can't be part of their clique. I mean sect.
Lanling Jin (rich rich rich rich rich)
Jin Ling / Jin RuLan (Sect Leader - totally not named after Wei Ying's crush/ husband's family)
Jin GuangYao / Meng Yao (*smiles*)
Jin ZiXuan (peacock but JYL's husband nonetheless)
Jin GuangShan (gross)
Jin ZiXun (double gross)
Mo XuanYu (literally did not sign up to any of this. He just wanted to end his suffering at Mo Manor)
We decided against including everyone from Mo Manor since they literally died within the first few chapters of the novel / first episode of the drama so were kinda irrelevant. Also, we don't care about them like we care for the Lan Sect members either.
Off topic side rant, Zara has been on my case whenever I bring up Jin GuangYao. I have to say, he's way more lovable in the drama than in the novel (didn't really leave much of an impression on me in the novel, NHS did a better job at that). I'm here to briefly explain why this boy is misunderstood and deserved more than what he got (and also why you should love him because he deserves love).JGY is a poor soul who's goal in life was to please others because no one was ever satisfied with him. His mother wasn't satisfied. His father wasn't satisfied. Hell, even his sworn brother NMJ wasn't satisfied with him eventually. BUT GUESS WHAT Xichen the angel is the only person that showed any love or thanks to JGY that's why he didn't kill him in the end - he wouldn't kill people that actually cared about him. IF ONLY EVERYONE ACTUALLY PAID ATTENTION TO HOW CLEVER AND CUNNING THIS MAN WAS, THERE MAY NOT EVEN BE WENS THREATENING THE WORLD. end of brief rant.
Qishan Wen (too hot, hot damn)
Wen RuoHan (Sect Leader - could have taken over the world if his children weren't incompetent)
Wen Qing (half the reason why included this sect)
Wen Ning / Wen QiongLin (the other half of the reason)
Wen Yuan (WE NEED THIS BABIE ALONGSIDE SIZHUI OK)
Wen Chao (questionable)
Wen ZhuLiu (also questionable but less annoying than Wen Chao)
Rogue cultivators (including people we didn't really know where to put)
Wei WuXian / Wei Ying (Can work out how to cultivate resentful energy, fight against the biggest cultivation clans in the world and gain a formidable reputation as the Yiling Patriarch yet can't figure out that Lan Zhan has a crush on him. Makes it look like cultivating resentful energy is easy as pie.)
CangSe SanRen (Wei Ying's mother)
Wei ChangZe (Wei Ying's father)
Xiao XingChen (honestly, the nicest guy ever. Could rival Xichen in terms of kindness. But then again... where did that kindness lead either of them? Moral of story: screw kindness)
Song Lan (Wen Ning's dead buddy~)
Xue Yang (he was cool in the novel, a bit questionable in the drama ngl)
A-Qing (didn't report her situation to the police...)
Baoshan Sanren (without knowledge of her existence, Jiang Cheng may have given up on life after he lost his golden core)
Ouyang ZiZhen (I didn't know who he was at all from the novel (ie he left no impression) but since he's technically part of the juniors, we have to include him)
Wang Ling Jiao / Jiao Jiao (just so Wen Chao has a friend perhaps... I don't know if we're that kind)
Su She (ew. just. He's not our favourite. The whole thing could have gone smoother if he didn't exist)
Luo Qingyang / Mian Mian (that one girl that made Wei Ying think Lan Zhan was straight)
Whew! That's all the character's we've considered! We have yet to come up with individual designs for the clothes and what not but at least we know there are going to be straight up cutting them out using the gingerbread man cutters.
Also! let's not forget:
Li'l Apple (didn't sign up for any of this either)
Fairy (gift from JGY to JL, also good doggo)
All the bunnies in Gusu (yes.)
All the fans and sabers in Qinghe (it's part of their aesthetic)
Locations and Buildings
This section's going to be MUCH shorter than the previous one haha since we've basically come up with 5 main buildings and in 7 locations. We're planning these buildings to be architectural masterpieces (okay, that's a slight exaggeration but that's the point). These buildings will take SIGNIFICANTLY more time than the gingerbread characters and is the reason we've put so much effort into researching what would make the most stable type of building. This is because we've planned to mirror the buildings as close as possible to the drama. We haven't yet drawn 2D sketches as I've left that job mostly to Zara (sorry!) so it's sort of hard to describe in words but by next post, we hope to have these down~ (though please see the mood boards from Zara's post previously)~
Gusu Lan - Cloud Recesses
The Wall of Discipline
The Courtyard
The Orchid Room (the main classroom/hall)
Yunmeng Jiang - Lotus Pier
The Main Pier
Lotus Pod Lake
Qinghe Nie - The Unclean Realm
The Main Courtyard and stairs
Lanling Jin - Koi Tower
Koi Tower
Qishan Wen - Nightless City
Main building and stairs
Yiling - Burial Grounds
The Mountains (and farms/Wen settlements)
Demon-Slaughtering Cave
And of course, Yi City.
We don't know if we want to include any more places but we'll let you know if there are any changes to this list. Plus the effects of LEDs and other arts and craft jazz besides gingerbread, we plan to make sure each Sect get's their own spotlight~
Please enjoy our baby Cloud Recesses, they're going to grow up and be a fine specimen of society worthy of the Lan name :D
The plan going forward
Although unfortunately, things haven't gone totally to plan due to fairly busy circumstances, we still have some major events along the way before starting to build the whole thing (which would probably be around mid-to-end of December) which have indeed started preparing for. Including:
Material testing gingerbread and icing (ie finally, bringing our research to the real world) - a lot of gingerbread will be made, so thank you to the willing volunteers who wanted to eat our failed experiments!
Finding / creating a suitable recipe for the gingerbread people
2D and 3D sketches of the buildings
Designing costumes for the gingerbread people
Another thing that we kinda want to do is to make this project benefit the wider community (we wanted to set up a GoFundMe at some point and raise some money for charity~). But we don't know how to do that as of yet T-T . Any ideas, feel free to contact us and let us know! We want to help others through this project (if at all possible haha)!
#mdzs#update#characters#gingerbread#gusulan#yunmengjiang#qinghenie#lanlingjin#qishanwen#weiying#lanzhan
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The Untamed Rewatch (ep 6)
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aka in which WWX as a friend comes with many benefits *winky-face*
Yeah, this is definitely the episode where WWX goes from thinking of LWJ as an uptight person to poke fun at and try to provoke and starts thinking of him as a person with deep emotions hidden under lock and key. This is also the episode when WWX decides he actually wants to be LWJ's friend and starts working towards that goal. He does still provoke LWJ after this, but that's more due to his natural personality rather than intentional poking to get a reaction.
We learn more about schooldays WWX here, as we see that he and Nie Huaisang have a simple knock code for afterhours hangouts. The three bros are hanging out drinking and eating peanuts. They're all fairly drunk, judging their behavior. Jiang Cheng and WWX needle each other about their potential marriage prospects. Jiang Cheng apparently has QUITE a laundry list of requirements for his future marriage partner. Maybe. Jiang Cheng. Babe. Maybe this is why you don't have one in the future. Maybe your standards aren't realistic. So, we've got: beautiful, tender, diligent, can run a household, good family, quiet, frugal, not too high a cultivation level. It does seem like Jiang Cheng wants someone who will run everything behind the scenes but never challenge him — possibly because his parents' marriage is so contentious?
We don't see many healthy & happy marriages on-screen in the drama overall — Madame Yu and Jiang Fengmian argue in front of their children (among other issues), Jin Guangshan and Madame Jin don't need elaboration, the parents of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji have a very messed up story even if you look at it as generously as possible, the Mo family don't seem terribly happy either tbh and also raised a bully and continued to cosset him into adulthood, Jin Guangyao and Qin Su, well…
Two of the happy marriages we see end in the early death of both spouses, who leave behind a small child who needs to be raised by others — WWX's parents, and Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. The only real exception is MianMian and her husband, who do appear to be happy and are also still alive by the end of the series, but obviously that can't serve as an example to any of our characters in the flashback episodes. Am I missing any examples of good marriages?
All of which is to say… if Jiang Cheng does have issues with marriage and maybe even sets his standards so high because he's hesitant to get married at all, I can understand why.
Lan Wangji comes in and breaks up the… party, and WWX takes advantage of him turning his back to place a talisman on him that forces him to act under WWX's control, which is definitely not a good thing for WWX to do. WWX does seem surprised that it worked but this ties into one of the main things that the… eh, evil, I suppose, characters do, which is turn other people into puppets to act through. I do think WWX learns his lesson here with this talisman, not because he himself was punished over the event, but because it meant LWJ got punished when he didn't deserve it. WWX, for all his trickster tendencies, does have a strong sense of fair play.
But, imo, the main reason of this choice on the part of the drama is because they need WWX to see through some of LWJ's emotional walls and start to see him as a person rather than a rulebook now, in the flashback, because they want to make sure to establish a mutual bond in the past as well (which I feel is related to their attempts to sidle around censorship rules since they know they won't be able to do the kisses or the "I really wanted to sleep with you back then" type moments).
It's also about the rule of unintended consequences — WWX wants LWJ to relax and stop being so fussy over the rules, and instead he gets something completely unexpected that throws him for a loop and makes him reconsider who LWJ is as a person. He learns about the importance of the forehead ribbon, and he sees LWJ's loneliness and sadness.
There are a couple of different ways I can take LWJ going "yeah, that's fine" to WWX telling him no woman is gonna want to marry him: first, that he's not attracted to women and he knows and accepts it or, second, that having seen what happened with his parents, the idea of staying single seems more attractive than the idea of being married. Going back up to 'not a lot of examples of happy marriages in CQL' (there might be more in the novel), again, and LWJ would know about even fewer. His only real example of marriage is a set of matched cages, his and hers.
The moment when WWX realizes that LWJ's mom is dead is beautifully-played, I think.
He realizes they have something in common and confides to LWJ. Now, since we know LWJ is a black-out drunk in present-day, he probably doesn't remember anything that happened after WWX had him take a drink (which is why he doesn't already know why WWX is afraid of dogs when they talk again about it in the present-day), but WWX doesn't know that when he tells LWJ about his parents and about living on the street.
We do also get WWX talking about his bad memory here — he says that he thinks he should be able to remember his parents, but mostly he remembers is the trauma that happened afterwards. From what I've read of people's posts about the novel, WWX's bad memory is used differently there but, in the drama, it seems to be tied to trauma overwhelming other things. And we get the flashback to tiniest bb!WWX with his parents and I die. It's so cute. He confides in LWJ and essentially begins the process of adopting him as a friend.
So, the Lan Qiren & Lan Xichen scene makes me wonder, and this might be answered later but, Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue must already be friends at this point, yeah? They're both young sect leaders and Lan Xichen speaks highly of NMJ's integrity to Meng Yao. It's either implied or said flat-out, I think, that Nie Mingjue has sent Nie Huaisang to Gusu to study for multiple years, so obviously Nie Mingjue thinks highly of Lan sect's teachings as well. So, like, they had this established friendship going on that Jin Guangyao gets in the middle of and ultimately taints in a way by using Lan Xichen's teachings as the way he learns how to kill Nie Mingjue.
That's really sad!
Anyway, the bros (plus poor innocent LWJ) get busted for sneaking alcohol into the Cloud Recesses and other shenanigans and we learn that WWX's mom acted the way same when Lan Qiren knew her. They never talk about it on-screen during the time of the drama, but I like to think at some point, post-canon, WWX is able to weedle stories about his mom about Lan Qiren. Let me have my dreams! I'm not sure if Lan Xichen also met her at some point — he would have been pretty young since she died when WWX was a kidlet and he doesn't say anything about it, so probably not — or he's just amused because he thinks WWX is amusing.
Lan Xichen's face is so shocked when he learns Wangji (apparently) took part in WWX's secret drinking party. Like, he wanted WWX to be friends with his brother and maybe teach him to have fun, but this result was not expected! And since LWJ doesn't tell them what really happened and WWX gets cut off before he can explain, does LXC continue to think that WWX talked his brother into drinking with him or does he assume something more along the lines of what really happened?
So, I'm not sure if I need to say this or not but: I'm not a fan of violent punishments; I don't think they teach anything useful. But since the show doesn't really depict them as successful in that way, I don't necessarily have an issue with them being part of the narrative any more than I have issues with other violent choices by characters, if that makes sense? But just to make my own position on it clear, I guess! I don't think an authority figure hurting someone under their care is justified because that person broke their rules.
Anyway, Lan Xichen obviously doesn't hold WWX's apparent influence over LWJ's actions against him, because he points WWX in the direction of the cold springs, where he already knows his brother is chilling.
We get the first scene between WWX and LWJ after WWX has decided they shall Now Be Friends. I've gotta say, this scene has the same energy as Darcy's first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice: I'm about to insult you (/your family) and don't realize at all this might be off-putting when I ask for a deeper emotional bond between us. And, much like with Elizabeth, I don't blame LWJ for being… 'no'. Like, WWX literally just said "hey, I thought you were boring but have now decided to give you the honor of being my friend". He's basically trying to neg LWJ into a friendship, it's a terrible approach.
I think we also get our first Gay Panic moment from poor LWJ here as his annoying, arrogant, stubborn-as-hell crush looks like he might strip in front of him. And then talks about the pretty girls back home. Poor LWJ.
They get yoinked into the cave where Lan Yi is holding the Yin Metal. I'm guessing this is all added since the Yin Metal wasn't a plotline in the novel, but it's a fun time (I mean, not really for the boys; they're pretty cold and wet). The show uses it as an excuse to put in some things they probably couldn't have otherwise sneaked in like WWX and LWJ getting tied together with the sacred forehead ribbon, plus it's also used to jumpstart the extra flashback stuff related to the drama-only Yin Metal plot. It's used to give us exposition in a way that's interesting for both us and the characters, plus there are bunnies.
Oh, they mention here that playing Spirit Inquiry is passed down through the family, and I remember I think that Lan Sizhui says that he's been learning it when we get to the future? That's so cute. If my memory is correct, hah.
Meeting Lan Yi and all the stuff with her is great. I understand (from what I've read of them) why some people have issues with the Yin Metal storyline in general. Obviously, as I was watching it without knowing it was drama-only, it did really work for me and it still does so far. WWX is less of an absolute genius, as he doesn't invent the discipline of demonic cultivation, but he does end up being the only person who is able to practice it large-scale without getting eaten up by it (... on his second try, but still).
Instead, what the drama does is set up several cautionary tales/parallels for WWX. The sects joining forces to destroy the current master of demonic cultivation becomes a reoccuring theme — first with Xue Chonghai in the distant past, then Wen Rouhan in the early/middle flashback sequence, then Wei Wuxian at the end of the flashback sequence.
Lan Yi was, apparently, the only female head of Lan Sect, but she did invent the cool musical technique that gets passed down from generation to generation. Lan Yi is a very likable character. She's polite and helpful and she raises bunnies and she readily admits to her mistakes of the past. She also has been working hard to try to mitigate the damage caused by her big mistake. She's a good person, but not perfect.
We also see the contrast here between Lan Yi and Lan Qiren — WWX essentially makes the same kind of suggestion here that he does in Lan Qiren's classroom but where LQR got angry and indignant over the idea, Lan Yi is sympathetic because she'd wondered the same thing. And one main difference between them that Lan Yi brings up is that she felt like she needed the edge because of the sexism she had to face as a female sect leader.
The first of our WWX-LWJ relationship parallels pops up here too — Lan Yi's one true friend was Baoshan. Lan Yi was young and aggressive, needed an edge, wouldn't listen to other people telling her that resentful energy was too much to handle, thought she could handle it all on her own. Baoshan was worried that the resentful energy would end up controlling and damaging her instead. It's a fairly blatant parallel. I really like that LWJ's parallel is the teacher of WWX's mom and WWX's parallel is LWJ's ancestor. Much like the other parallels we will run across, the story of Lan Yi and Baoshan ends more sadly than WWX and LWJ will; it's a cautionary tale. But even their endings do echo what happens at the end of the flashbacks — after Baoshan fails to stop Lan Yi from using the Yin Metal, she goes into seclusion and separates herself from the world emotionally, while Lan Yi is wounded and unleashed something dangerous she can't control.
So.... Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji go missing together. For hours. When they get found (in the next episode), obviously Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen find out where they really were but… what exactly does everyone else think happened to them? When they were missing together. For hours. And come back soaking wet with LWJ's sacred forehead ribbon wrapped around their wrists and unharmed (...and shoeless).
*gazes off into the distance*
*thinks about how all the disciples learn about the forehead ribbon in lessons*
*thinks about Jiang Cheng's reactions in the future when WWX ditches him for LWJ*
*gazes off into the distance again*
In the search scene, we get another moment when Jiang Yanli is Feeling Poorly. I swear, that girl is sick every time we turn around. I want to give her a warm blanket and have someone else feed her soup for a change. Ah, we get Jiang Cheng's first empty threat about breaking someone's legs here (chronologically-speaking). Honestly, Jin Ling is such a reckless kiddo. Despite having literally zero of WWX's genes, I feel like he gives Jiang Cheng WWX flashbacks all the time.
Speaking of Jin Ling, Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan get a classic romantic trope when she slips and he catches her in his arms (a romantic trope that WWX enjoys with LWJ many times in the future, bless). I've been wanting to keep an eye on him and his assumptions and his reactions to her. They do quite a bit of staring before they break away, and it does look like he's feeling something too. But then he immediately flees. It's a miracle he ever managed to marry her.
Next time: Lan Wangji falls in love; Wei Wuxian gets himself kicked out of the Cloud Recesses.
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#mdzs meta#the untamed#wangxian#the untamed | chen qing ling#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#wei wuxian | wei ying#lan wangji | lan zhan#cql rewatch
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