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aurorablackwei · 9 months

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Sometimes when I read fanfics that put all the blame on WWX for not knowing LWJ's feelings or that he is idiot, ignorant or obviously I feel they leave many things aside, starting with the communication in the couple and the psychology of the character. (I blame "The Untamed" for that perception, their relationship there is much more obvious and in the end LWJ does not accompany him and remains at the service of the hypocrites of the world of cultivation, horrible)

They put LWJ in the "Friendzone" and I think something I really hate in real life and fantasy is the idea that good deeds and care for another must be returned in romantic feelings or sexual actions, especially if there is no declaration of intent . Even LXC kinda perpetuates this "after all he's done for you and you still don't love him" idea, so yeah, LXC in general is always well portrayed.

But personally and I speak from experience, assuming the feelings of another is the biggest mistake. Demanding that for being nice or having feelings someone should return those feelings or even sexual favors is a farce of a true relationship. It's generally misogynistic when a lot of men, which is where I see it the most, are nice to or befriend a woman for a chance, then complain that they didn't get laid or that she chose someone else.

She probably chose someone who, who really declared his intentions, tried to win her and from the beginning announced that wanted to have a romance or sex. If you introduce yourself as a friend, don't expect someone to treat you as a couple.

The worst of all this is that LWJ understands it, he can't be friendzoned because he was never there, he loved WWX before his death but he only acts on his feelings in secret (when he kisses him) or in despair (Nightless city ), before that he does not demand anything because he does not present himself as a potential partner, his feelings are his and he suffers for them, but he does not impose them on WWX or demand anything in return because he does nothing about it. We also know that he trusted the system, his sect, his clan and his family and it is later that he realizes that they are rotten. He also makes mistakes, because he always dedicated himself to driving WWX away or trying to help him thinking that he knew better, believing that his sect was right and could help him (personally I think that if WWX went to Gusu at first it would not be different from Madame Lan because LWJ still trusted his elders and their teachings, not his fault obviously).

When he saves him and faces the elders, I think it is the moment of deepest change for LWJ but it is too late to do anything, and I don't think the lashes are WWX's fault either, LWJ here must be 22/23 years old and although they were desperate measures, he make the decisions he make and he owns that and takes his punishment. That does not change the love nor the perceived rejection, nor the death of WWX.

LWJ understands it better than anyone and lives it for 13 years, he love WWX, he is still devoting his thoughts and his heart even if it is not reciprocated, even if the person is no longer there and will last as long as it has to last.

I think that the most beautiful thing about Wangxian as a couple is that they overcome that idea of debts, unlike other relationships like WQ and WWX or JC and WWX, LWJ does not expect WWX to return his love, if he thinks that WWX rejected him, it is not a impediment to continue loving and protecting him. He woos, nurtures and protects him and WWX even understands his wooing and falls in love with LWJ even more. When he realizes that his actions were cruel, despite being unintentional he explains it to LWJ, he clears up the misunderstandings. And they can be together.

When WWX returns, LWJ protects him, stay by his side, trusts him, and in the process pampers and woos him. And surprise, WWX falls in love. We know that before he had at least one crush, but I think there was no space in his life, mind and heart to fall in love, because there were many things happening, each one worse than the last, however he always wanted Lan Zhan's attention and now that has his is wrapped up in it and falls even deeper.

And even those misunderstandings make sense.

1.- WWX does not have the context behind LWJ's actions and still falls in love. He doesn't know what happened after the Nightless City.

2.- They have the fight with Jiang Cheng at Lotus Pier where we already know that he was thinking of marrying LWJ and he had caught him falling from the tree, but he sees LWJ upset and was unconscious later, after te GC reveal.

3.- In his mind at that point LWJ was so good that what he does for him he would do for anyone and they only added points to his greatness.

4.- LWJ's "rejection" at the inn is the last nail in the coffin, thinking that he abused LWJ and destroyed their relationship.

For LWJ

1.- He doesn't know that WWX doesn't remember Nightless City and still thinks that he was rejected.

2.- He probably believes that WWX was flirting with him like he did before, and that WWX also had experience.

3.- Maybe everything was going well but Lotus Pier happens and WWX says that they are just friends and LWJ does not know that he was trying to protect his reputation.

When JGY and LXC tell WWX about LWJ's feelings and punishment, I think that more than the punishment he took for him is knowing that LWJ loves him and the punishment is a sample of how far he would go for him, it makes it tangible, not just an idea or a word, for WWX words do not have as much value as actions, learning about the punishment makes tangible the fact that LWJ loves him despite how painful it is to know. And being sure of that makes him able to deliver his feelings without fear of rejection or displeasure, and he needs to tell him right then and there.

4.- When he is conscious in the inn it is to hear WWX thanking him and then saying that what they did is normal between friends and not important.

WWX is a self-confident character in many aspects, but emotionally delicate, few people have sincerely loved him, and he has been able to count on fewer, so to be in a relationship, he probably does need to be courted. He need be openly loved and with the confidence that they will be by his side, because he will give himself completely and without restrictions, as in all his other relationships. LWJ shows him that, that he will always be by his side, in every way and his relationship is healthy with trust and communication. Even his intimacy and sex life is a reflection of that, they trust each other, communicate their needs and desires, and support each other.

Unfortunately they worked on it apart, LWJ through mourning the love of his life and the disappointment of a system and precepts he trusted. WWX through loneliness, isolation and then his death. Maybe in another world they could grow and learn together, the idea that young couples don't last, is false. I know many couples that have lasted for years starting at 19 or 20 and others that don't, it depends on the sacrifices that each one wants to do and the objectives that they have together and these are not necessarily to start a family, they can be to travel and still do it together, professional success and still do it together, if you have a partner who is by your side and you are by his side you can, as long as you're both willing, learning together is also an experience. And at least for WWX dreams as long as he's having a couple of flings, he'd probably love the stability of a home and a partner (and therapy).

So I don't think LWJ should be friendzoned, especially since he's not an idiot who thinks he's owed something for his good deeds, and because he's shown that he doesn't accept feelings as thanks. The "Friendzone" is as far away from LWJ as you can get.

A veces cuando leo fanfics que ponen toda la culpa en WWX por no saber los sentimientos de LWJ o que es idiota o ignorante siento que dejan muchas cosas de lado, partiendo por la comunicacion en la pareja y las psicologia del personaje. (Culpo a "The Untamed" por esa percepción, su relación ahí es mucho mas obvia y al final LWJ no lo acompaña y se queda al servicio de los hipócritas del mundo del cultivo, horrible)

...................................................................................................

Ponen a LWJ en la "Friendzone" y creo que algo que odio en la vida real y en la fantasía es la idea de que los buenos actos y el cuidado por un otro deben ser devueltos en sentimientos romanticos, sobretodo si no hay declaracion de intenciones. Incluso LXC perpetúa un poco esta idea "despues de todo lo que hizo por ti y aún no lo amas", asi que sí, LXC en general esta bien retratado siempre.

Pero en lo personal y hablo por experiencia, asumir los sentimientos de otro es el mayor error. Exigir que por ser amable o tener sentimientos alguien me debe devolver esos sentimientos o incluso favores sexuales es una farsa a una verdadera relación. Es en general misogino cuando muchos hombres, que es donde mas lo veo, son amables o se hacen amigos de una mujer para tener una oportunidad, luego se quejan de que no lograron acostarse o de que ella eligio a alguien más.

Probablemente eligió a alguien que si declaro sus intenciones, trato de conquistarla y desde un principio aviso que quería tener un romance o sexo. Si te presentas como amigo no esperes que te trate como pareja.

Lo peor de todo esto es que LWJ lo entiende, el no puede ser puesto en la friendzone porque jamas estuvo ahí, amaba a WWX antes de su muerte pero solo actúa en sus sentimientos en secreto (cuando lo besa) o en desesperación (Nigthless city), antes de eso no exige nada porque no se presenta como pareja potencial, sus sentimientos son suyos y sufre por ellos, pero no se los impone a WWX ni exige nada a cambio porque no hace nada al respecto. También sabemos que confiaba en el sistema, su secta, su clan y su familia y es mas tarde cuando se da cuenta de que estaba todo podrido. Y también comete errores, porque siempre se dedico a alejar a WWX o intentar ayudarlo pensando que sabia mejor, creyendo que su secta tenia razón y podía ayudarlo(en lo personal creo que si WWX fuera a Gusu al principio no sería distinto a Madame Lan porque LWJ aun confiaba en sus mayores y en sus enseñanzas, no es su culpa obviamente).

Cuando lo salva y se enfrenta a los ancianos creo que es el momento de cambio mas profundo para LWJ pero es muy tarde para hacer algo, y tampoco creo que sea culpa de WWX los latigazos, LWJ aqui debe tener 22/23 años y aunque fueron medidas desesperadas tomo las decisiones que tomo y se hace cargo de eso y toma su castigo. Eso no cambia su amor, ni el rechazo percibido, ni la muerte de WWX.

LWJ lo entiende mejor que nadie y lo vive por 13 años, el amor es eso, dedicar tus pensamientos y tu corazon aunque no sea correspondido, aunque la persona ya no este y durara lo que tenga que durar.

Cuando WWX regresa LWJ lo protege, se queda a su lado, confia en él y en el proceso lo mima y lo corteja. Y sorpresa, WWX se enamora. Sabemos que antes tenia al menos un flechazo, pero creo que no había espacio en su vida, mente y corazon para enamorarse, porque habia muchas cosas pasando, cada una peor que la anterior, sin embargo siempre quiso la atención de Lan Zhan y ahora que la tiene esta envuelto en eso y cae aun mas profundo.

Creo que lo mas lindo de la Wangxian como pareja es que superan esa idea de deudas, al comtrario de otras relaciones como WQ y WWX o JC y WWX, LWJ no espera que WWX devuelva su amor, si cree que WWX lo rechazo no es un impedimento para seguir amandolo y protegiendolo. Lo corteja, lo cuida y lo protege y WWX incluso entiende esos cortejos y se enamora de LWJ aun más. Cuando se da cuenta que sus acciones fueron crueles, a pesar de ser sin intención se lo explica a LWJ, aclara los malentendidos. Y pueden estar juntos.

E incluso esos malentendidos tienen sentido.

Por WWX:

1.- WWX no tiene el contexto detras de las acciones de LWJ y aun asi se enamora. No sabe lo que paso después del Nigthless City.

2.- Tienen la pelea con Jiang Cheng en Lotus Pier donde ya sabemos que pensaba en casarse con LWJ y lo habian atrapado cayendo del árbol, pero ve molestia en LWJ y estaba inconsciente mas tarde.

3.- En su mente en ese punto LWJ era tan bueno que lo que hace por el lo haria por cualquier persona y solo agregaban puntos a su grandeza.

4.- El "rechazo" de LWJ en la posada es el último clavo en el ataúd, pensar que abuso de la confianza de LWJ y destruyo su relación.

Por LWJ:

1.- No sabe que WWX no recuerda Nigthless City y aun piensa que fue rechazado.

2.- Probablemente cree que WWX coqueteaba con el igual como lo hacia antes, y que además WWX tenia experiencia.

3.- Tal vez todo iba bien pero ocurre Lotus Pier y WWX dice que solo son amigos y LWJ no sabe que estaba tratando de proteger su reputación.

4.- Cuando esta consciente en la posada es para escuchar a WWX agradeciéndole y luego diciendo que lo que hicieron es normal entre amigos y no importante.

Cuando JGY y LXC le dicen de los sentimientos y el castigo de LWJ, creo que mas que el castigo que tomo por él es saber que LWJ lo ama y el castigo es una muestra de hasta donde llegaría por el, lo hace tangible, no solo una idea o una palabra, para WWX las palabras no tienen tanto valor como las acciones, enterarse del castigo hace tangible el hecho de que LWJ lo ama a pesar de lo doloroso que es saberlo. Y estar seguro de eso hace que puede entregar sus sentimientos sin temor al rechazo o desagrado, y necesita decírselo en ese mismo momento.

WWX es un personaje seguro de si mismo en muchos aspectos, pero sensible emocionalmente, pocas personas lo han amado sinceramente, y con menos ha podido contar, por lo que para estar en una relación probablemente sí necesita ser cortejado y estar seguro para devolver sus sentimientos abiertamente y con confianza de que estarán a su lado, porque el se entregarápor completo y sin restricciones, como en todas sus otras relaciones. LWJ le demuestra eso, que estará a su lado siempre, en todos los sentidos y su relación es saludable con confianza y comunicación. Incluso su intimidad y vida sexual es un reflejo de eso, confian en el otro, comunican sus nececidades y deseos y se apoyan mutuamente.

Lamentablemente trabajaron en eso separados, LWJ a través del duelo por el amor de su vida y la decepción de un sistema y preceptos en los que confiaba . WWX a través de la soledad, el aislamiento y luego su muerte. Tal vez en otro mundo podrían crecer y aprender juntos. edad, el aislamiento y luego su muerte.

Veo mucho de las parejas jovenes no duran es por eso, deben crecer o madurar y conozco muchas parejas que han durado años empezando a los 18 o 20 y otras que no, depende de los sacrificios que cada uno quiera hacer y los objetivos que tengan juntos y estos no necesariamente son formar una familia, pueden ser viajar y aun asi hacerlo juntos, exito profesional y aún asi hacerlo juntos, si tienes un compañero que esta a tu lado y tu a su lado se puede, siempre y cuando ambos esten dispuestos, aprender juntos tambien es una experiencia. Y al menos por los sueños de WWX mientras tenga un par de aventuras, probablemente amaría la estabilidad de un hogar y una pareja (y terapia).

Así que no creo que LWJ deba ser puesto en la "Friendzone", sobretodo porque no es un idiota que cree que se le debe algo por sus buenas acciones, y porque ha demostrado que no aceptara sentimientos en agradecimientos. La "Friendzone" es lo más alejado de LWJ que se pueda estar.

#wei wuxian #wangxian #wangxian family #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan

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plan-d-to-i · 3 years

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I genuinely think that people don't understand that the reason that wwx went "you can do whatever you want to me" with lwj is bc he knows him and trusts in him. he is very much aware that lwj would never ask him to do anything that he wouldn't do/like, both in terms of relationship like sex and stuff and in terms of actions. they are married, they are a couple, they love each other, but they are also each other's greatest confident, best friend and, more important: partners. they agree with each other, they have the same moral ideals. they trust in eo's hearts. it's not bc wwx is blind by love, no, it's pretty much the opposite: it's bc he can see cleary who his beloved is

— mlisz

Absolutely. This is not Wei Wuxian meeting Lan Wangji for the first time and blindly giving him consent carte blanche. This is them growing towards each other over two lifetimes. WangXian may outwardly express themselves differently however their world views are completely aligned. They desire the same things, the same things are important to them, their goals are the same, the way they see the world, the people in it, and what's right and wrong is in harmony.

I think Wei Wuxian recognizes that he's met his potential match in Lan Zhan quite early, and he tries very hard to tease his way closer to him, but by the time LWJ figures out that he can trust Wei Wuxian's heart that boundless enthusiasm has dimmed somewhat both with past rejection and with the secret behind his demonic cultivation now coming between them. By the time LWJ makes his decisive move it's too late and Wei Wuxian can't even hear him.

In WWX's second life Lan Wangji has full faith in Wei Wuxian's nature, and he doesn't care if his feelings are returned as long as he's permitted to stand by WWX's side and be there for him unreservedly. He makes it clear enough with his actions that it can rectify all the previous misunderstandings they've had between them and it works. Unconsciously WWX starts to realize it -when jiang cheng kidnaps him and tortures him with Fairy, in that state of instinctive distress it's Lan Wangji's name that he shouts.

“Suddenly, Jiang Cheng glanced sideway at him, “Whose name did you call?”

Wei WuXian was in such a state of distress that he couldn’t remember whether or not he called someone’s name at all.”

As he's walking to reunite with LWJ he finally examines it:

“He had always thought that Jiang Cheng would be on his side, and Lan WangJi on the side opposite to him. He could never have imagined that things would turn out so differently.”

I'd say it really crystalizes when Lan Wangji takes his side in front of the whole cultivation world as his identity is revealed. Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji the same easy out he gave jiang cheng with his proposal to defect. He would take the world's condemnation squarely on his own shoulders and spare LWJ the ignominy of their association. LWJ however is not trash jc.

“Lan WangJi, though, was different from him. He wouldn’t even have to explain, and people would explain for him, such as how HanGuang-Jun had been deceived by the YiLing Patriarch.

Wei WuXian, “HanGuang-Jun, you don’t have to follow me!”

Lan WangJi looked straight in front of him, saying nothing in reply. The two left behind them a crowd of cultivators shouting to kill. Amid the chaos, Wei WuXian spoke again, “You really want to go with me? Think carefully. After you walk out this door, your reputation will be destroyed! The two had already dashed down the steps of Koi Tower. Lan WangJi grabbed his wrist”

Things get even more dire after Jin Ling, driven by the hate and lies jc has poured into his ear all these years, stabs WWX (in the same spot jiang cheng had stabbed him) still Lan Wangji remains staunchly by WWX's side.

“[Wei WuXian] didn’t know how long had passed, but when he hazily opened his eyes again, Lan WangJi flew on Bichen, while he was carried on Lan WangJi’s back. Blood had spilled onto half of his snow colored cheeks...

Wei WuXian called out, “… Lan Zhan.”

Lan WangJi’s breathing wasn’t as placid as usual, feeling somewhat rushed. It was probably from carrying Wei WuXian while fending off attacks and being on the run for too long.”

“The tone in which he replied, however, was still the single syllable, as steady as ever, “Mnn.”

After the “mnn”, he added, “I am here.”

Hearing the words, something that Wei WuXian had never felt before sprouted within his heart. It was like sorrow. His chest hurt a bit, but also felt a bit warm.

He could still remember how, back in Jiangling, Lan WangJi came all the way to assist him, yet he didn’t appreciate the kindness at all. With all kinds of disputes, the two of them often parted with disapproval.

But what he hadn’t expected was that when everyone feared him and flattered him, Lan WangJi scolded him right in his face; when everyone spurned him and loathed him, Lan WangJi stood by his side.”

It's very interesting that after this we get the long flashback of suffering WWX went through in his previous life, and as he finally wakes up in the present again :

“Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian for a while. Seeing that he was motionless again, he was about to stand up when Wei WuXian grabbed him with his other hand, hugging his arm and refusing to let go. He shouted, “I’ll go with you, quick, take me back to your sect!

This comes right on the heels of the chapter ending with LWJ standing outside the courier station where jc and WWX have killed Wen Chao and where LWJ's “Go back to Gusu with me” was misunderstood and rejected by WWX. So the novel beautifully contrasts these two moments and the sharp change between them.

When WangXian head out again towards Yiling to investigate further it's clear things have shifted for Wei Wuxian. He even starts thinking of his childhood! with his mother and father and the incomparable warmth and safety that he experienced with them and playfully tricks Lan Wangji into reenacting that little scene with him.

“With this journey to Yiling, it was clear that their future was still unclear, even somewhat dangerous. Wei WuXian couldn’t get himself to feel nervous at all. Sitting on a donkey with Lan WangJi holding the rein, leading them down the path, his entire heart was fluttering, feeling as though he was walking on air. Even if a bunch of sects suddenly attacked from beside the road, aside from destroying the scene and spoiling his mood, he thought that he wouldn’t find it too bad.

Finally the symbolic fall from the tree into Lan Wangji's arms.

“All of a sudden, an abnormally strong impulse surged into Wei WuXian’s mind.

He wanted to fall down again, just like back then.

A voice inside of him said, If he catches me, I’ll…

At this point where he thought ‘I’ll’, Wei WuXian let go. Seeing that he fell out of the tree without any warning, Lan WangJi’s eyes immediately widened. He shot forward just in time to catch Wei WuXian, or one might say, be caught by Wei WuXian.”...

“His voice was hoarse, “Thank you.”

He wasn’t scared of falling. All these years, he’d fallen many times. But falling on the ground still hurt, after all. If someone was there to catch him, it’d be more than wonderful.”

It's just such a beautiful progression. Wei Wuxian trusts his entire being into Lan Wangji's care because he's seen step by step how careful Lan Wangji is with him and he's learned to read Lan Wangji and accurately reinterpret his past actions. Lan Wangji has become his safety. I think nowhere is it actually more obvious than in his own thoughts right before the Guanyin Temple at the end. In his life WWX was the kind of person who made due with what he had. Maybe because he'd lost his family so young and then lost what passed for his second home, then had to give up his Clan, then lost whatever home he'd set up with the Wens, a part of him remained untethered. He learned that he could lose everything so he should need nothing, but that was no longer the case when it came to Lan Wangji:

“He thought about it some more. Wen Ning didn’t know where he was going, but he didn’t know either, did he? In the beginning, when he was with Lan WangJi, he never thought about this problem at all. He took it as granted that they’d continue like this without change. But after tonight, maybe he and Lan WangJi wouldn’t go back to how they were ever again. Without Lan WangJi, it seemed as if it wasn’t too impossible for him to roam the world on his own.

But a voice in Wei WuXian’s heart told him with clarity, No, you can’t.

The words he said back on Koi Tower really proved to be true. The current Wei WuXian couldn’t do without Lan WangJi.”

#how did this get so long #I wanted to answer like five questions haha #mdzs #Wei Wuxian #Lan Wangji #WangXian #Lan Zhan #mdzs meta

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catohphm · 2 years

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-Some Headcanons for Merula-

Hello! I came up with some ideas for Merula as she is portrayed in my headcanon for Cato! I want to portray her in a better way than JC did. In my take on her she is more repentant and changes for the better (for real) as she gets older. Merula deserved better and screw JC canon! I hope you enjoy! Replies, reblogs and likes are welcome! 😁💚

* Like in the original HPHM game, young Merula's parents were Death Eaters. She was raised by them for a couple years until the Aurors came knocking.

* Cato's father Freddy helped to prosecute and imprison Merula's parents. This is one of the primary reasons why she picked on his son during their early years at Hogwarts. (I thank my friend and moot @hphmmatthewluther for helping to come up with this idea!)

* Merula in year 1 is an arrogant, headstrong witch who is fuelled by fear and easily influenced by ideas she thinks will go along with her desire for power.

* She has a short temper and is easily offended by people who question her status as the "most powerful witch at Hogwarts."

* Merula believes that by doing things such as trying to get rid of Cato because he is apparently "dangerous" she is helping Hogwarts. She is led to believe that what she is doing is righteous, yet she has a hard time accepting that's not true.

* She bullies people that question her ego or who she considers "weak" and won't be able to retaliate against her.

* Merula is boastful and throws her weight around a lot in her first year, much to the chagrin of students who get fed up with her tyrannical charade.

* She is afraid that society considers her as "inferior" because she has to live by herself after her parents were arrested and that they were Death Eaters. Merula feels that she has to constantly prove her superiority by acting tough and bullying those who question her, seem like competition or easy targets.

* Merula uses her ego and desire for power as a coping mechanism for her trauma, grief and fear. Behind the shell is a scared girl who is ashamed of being the offspring of Death Eaters and is doubtful if she has a purpose in life.

* Her early friendship with Tulip is kept intact. They bond over their disdain for authority figures and rogue-ish personalities. Tulip eventually betrays Merula after realizing the extreme views that she had.

* She was manipulated by her parents to believe in Pure-blood supremacy which also accounts for her behavior early into her education. The parents continue to keep contact with their daughter from Azkaban. Because of their actions, Merula thinks what they tell her in their letters is right. It takes a couple years after she starts school to realize they were wrong and were feeding her with biased prejudice. After this revelation, Merula decides to cut off contact with her parents. At heart she does not stand for their beliefs and is very angry when she realizes they lied to her.

* At some point, later on in her Hogwarts career, she admits to Cato that she tormented him all this time because his father helped sentence her parents to Azkaban. Merula formally apologizes for her behavior and states she should have done it sooner but she just couldn't bring herself to own up to her actions and that were in reality, wrong.

* She isn't a mole for R nor has a strong desire to murder Rakepick in my headcanon.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #Cato Reese #hphm merula snyde #Merula snyde #hphm mc #hogwarts mystery mc #harry potter hogwarts mystery #merula snyde hphm #tw prison #tw murder mention #tw bullying

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xiyao-feels · 3 years

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☕ possibly unpopular opinion, but I don't think lxc survives his seclusion. I think his world view is too badly shattered and he either wastes away slowly or outright kills himself.

I like—one-quarter agree with this, I think?

On the one hand, as I've said before, I do think CQL LXC kills himself. The man is just... really completely broken. And also just tried to die with JGY. I mean, I don't even think he goes into seclusion first, necessarily.

On the other hand, while MDZS LXC is also very much broken, I don't think he does die; even aside from anything else, JGY is still sealed in the coffin, and dying would be leaving him behind in a way it wouldn't in CQL—so in MDZS I don't think he does.

The part where I totally disagree with you is—I don't think it's about his worldview. It's about JGY being dead. I—think people very much want it to be about something other than that (including his grief for JGY /and NMJ/, which, still no) , and I am as ever prepared to look at a textual argument in favour if someone wants to assemble one, but honestly I think the text is pretty clear here. Throughout the temple, he's reacting and processing pretty normally—to borrow from my own previous work, here's an overview of some of his reactions to things and people other than JGY:

Obviously we see [LXC] react when he’s telling LWJ about WWX’s feelings, but even beyond that, even when he’s occupying a more background role in the narrative, we’re given his reaction quite a few times. He sighs when LWJ seals his spiritual powers (ch 100); he tends to NHS, covering with his outer robe (ch 102), comforting him when he’s disturbed at the sight of the coffin (ch 103), protecting him from SMS (after NHS frames him for stabbing him, ch. 107) and from NMJ (ch 107), and comforting him and giving him pain medicine about the wound in his leg (ch 108); along with LWJ, he’s distressed by the sound of JC’s sword-scraping technique against JGY’s music (ch 101); he tries to warn JC a couple of times when JC is fighting JGY (ch 101), cautions JL (ch 101) and later JC (ch 102) about worsening JC’s injuries, and along with JL, WWX, and LWJ freezes when JC slaps JL to the ground (ch 102); he asks Minshan why he’s being rude to LWJ, and a little later, with SMS and JL, pauses in astonishment when LWJ laughs (ch 100); he averts his gaze from and seems perhaps embarassed by the ghosts that WWX summons (ch 104); he calls out to WWX to remind him that his current body is closely related to JGY, and will therefore attract NMJ’s fierce corpse (ch 107). He actually has a couple of entertaining reactions to Wangxian being Wangxian: he coughs and tells WWX it is maybe not the best time and place for this when WWX is about to repeat “I really wanted to sleep with you,” and then later he and Jin Ling inexplicably! move their sitting cushions far away from Wangxian’s and gaze into the distance (ch 100).

And of course he reacts to JGY again and again, and—again!—is engaging and processing. Again pulling from my previous post—

And more than anything else—in what I think is a very instructive contrast—he reacts to JGY, in a way that reflects an ongoing continual emotional investment. He is, quite notably, consistently worried about JGY and unable to stand the sight of him in pain, even when he thinks he shouldn’t be. When the coffin trap goes off, and they overhear Jin cultivators wailing and a pungent smoke emerges, there’s worry in LXC’s eyes; after JGY and Minshan make it out, and JGY takes some medicine against the poison, LXC hesitates for a moment and then asks what happened (ch 103). After LWJ cuts JGY’s hand off—which means /after/ he’s taken JL hostage, note—LXC “seemed as though he wanted to help him for an instant,” though “in the end he dared not” (ch 106). When Minshan asks him for medicine for JGY, seeing how terrible JGY looks, he hesitates slightly before they’re interrupted by NMJ’s success fighting the Jin cultivators (ch 107). After they’ve defeated NMJ, he treats JGY’s wrist; moreover, “Seeing that Jin GuangYao almost passed out from the pain, Lan XiChen, who in the beginning wanted to use this to punish him, still didn’t have the heart to bear it,” and goes for the pain-relief medicine from NHS. And this is all not even accounting for his reactions to JGY either during his questioning of JGY or post-stabbing!

and

For the first, he calls out Sect Leader Jin when JGY starts in on JC after JC calls him the son of a prostitute (ch 104), although notably he does not do the same in their earlier confrontation when JGY is distracting JC in order to defeat him, only warning JC (ch 101); when JGY confesses to having burned down the brothel, he’s distressed when JGY says that it wasn’t entirely to remove the traces (ch 105); he becomes /less/ angry about the second siege and about QS when it turns out that he was operating under constraint in those conditions (ch 106); and of course, the thing he’s angriest about is JGY killing his father, “and even in such a way” (ch 106). In ch 103, looking down at the coffin he is shocked that JGY buried something that caused such horror to its surroundings, but without further information about JGY’s reasons this does not metamorphose into anger.

And there's even more! I don't want to quote all of that section because it's really long, but you get the point: before JGY dies, he's distressed, sure, but he's still processing.

And then after JGY dies, it's—

Lan XiChen staggered a few steps back from the push. He hadn’t realized what happened yet.

Lan XiChen stared at the coffin enveloped in seven guqin strings. He was still lost in thought. Nie HuaiSang extended a hand and waved it before his eyes, terrified, “… B-Brother XiChen, are you alright?”

Lan XiChen, “HuaiSang, just now, was he really trying to catch me off guard with an attack?”

Nie HuaiSang, “I think I saw it…”

Hearing his hesitation, Lan XiChen pressed, “Think it over some more.”

Nie HuaiSang, “If you ask me like that, I can’t be sure either… It really did seem like…”

Lan XiChen, “Cut out the ‘seem like’! Did it happen or not?!”

Nie HuaiSang answered with difficulty, “… I don’t know, I really don’t know!”

This was the only thing Nie HuaiSang knew to say when he was desperate. Lan XiChen buried his forehead in his palm. He seemed as if his head was about to split, unwilling to speak again.

Lan XiChen was startled, “Induce? Induce what?”

Lan WangJi’s voice was low, “Jin GuangYao’s killing intent.”

If it were the usual ZeWu-Jun, he couldn’t have failed to fathom this. But right now, it was likely he had no more space in his mind to think.

(ch 109)

Veins suddenly lined the back of the hand in which Lan XiChen placed on his forehead. His voice sounded muffled, “… Just what does he want to do? I once thought I knew him well, and then I realized I did not. Before tonight, I thought I knew him well once more, but now I do not.” Nobody could give him an answer. Lan XiChen repeated in frustration, “Just what does he want to do?”

Of the people here, some were cleaning up the scene, some were solidifying the seal on the coffin, some were thinking about how to move it safely, and some were feeling angry. Lan QiRen raged, “XiChen, what in the world is wrong with you?!”

As his hand pressed the corner of his forehead, Lan XiChen’s face was full of an unspeakable grief. He seemed tired, “… Uncle, I am begging you. Ask no further. Really. Right now, I really wish to say nothing.”

Lan QiRen had never seen Lan XiChen, a child he single-handedly brought up, look so agitated and discomposed. He looked at him, then looked at Lan WangJi, surrounded by disciples alongside Wei WuXian, and felt more irritated the more he looked. He felt that of these two of his proudest disciples who had been absolutely perfect, neither listened to him anymore and both gave him much worry.

Lan QiRen watched Lan XiChen who followed behind him sluggishly, still absent-minded, and sighed forcefully before he left with a flip of his sleeves.

(ch 110)

And then in the banquet extras, three months later:

Wei WuXian still clung to Lan WangJi’s chest, face buried at his neck as he felt the sandalwood aroma on Lan WangJi’s body grow even richer. He felt lazy all over, eyes closed, “Is your brother alright?”

Lan WangJi embraced his naked back, stroking again and again. After a while of a silence, he answered, “Not really.”

Both of the two were sticky with sweat. Wei WuXian felt an itch crawl from his skin all the way to the bottom of his heart as Lan WangJi stroked him. He twisted somewhat uncomfortably, swallowing Lan WangJi even deeper.

Lan WangJi lowered his voice, “In the years when I was in secluded meditation, Brother had always been the one to comfort me.”

Yet now the situation was the exact opposite.

Likely because Lan QiRen got a heart attack whenever he saw Wei WuXian, he simply decided not to look at him, staring straight forward. Lan XiChen was pleasant as always, holding the hint of a smile at his lips that always seemed like spring wind. Yet, perhaps because of the secluded meditation, Wei WuXian felt that ZeWu-Jun looked a bit frail.

(ch 115)

After the tasteless meal, the servants took away the plates and tables. As usual, Lan XiChen started to summarize the recent plans for the sect. But after listening for just a few sentences, Wei WuXian began to feel that he was a bit absent-minded. He even remembered two night-hunting locations wrong and didn’t realize after he spoke, causing Lan QiRen to throw a couple of sideway looks at him and puff his goatee into the air. A while later, he finally couldn’t help but interrupt him. Fortunately, the sect banquet finally ended, although somewhat hastily.

(ch 116)

So to recap—before JGY dies, he's distressed but he's still processing and reacting to things basically normally, he's got his head in the game. And then after JGY dies, he is very much /not/ processing things, he's not reacting normally, the things he's preoccupied with are entirely about JGY, LQR is like 'I've never seen him this way before.' And when we see him three months later, failing at very basic tasks he's long performed perfectly, it's the same kind of symptom—just as it was in ch 109, he seems to have no more space in his mind to think.

There's also the explicitly-drawn parallels between him and LWJ—by LQR, and by LWJ himself, paralleling LXC's current state with his own time in seclusion. And what would LWJ have needed comforting about while he was in seclusion? It's not the shattering of his worldview—it's Wei Ying.

I'm not going to go and rewatch and cap CQL temple, but the same basic pattern shows. Before JGY's death, he's functional and processing: afterwards, he's broken. I do think CQL LXC is more emotionally agitated before JGY's death than MDZS LXC is, but he's also even less functional afterwards so it evens out. If you go to 18:40ish in ep 50 (on YT, might be a different timestamp in Netflix) you can watch LXC stand frozen and stare into space and totally fail to react to anything including the conversation right next to him about his brother and WWX having run off.

I mean, I think it's also about the manner of JGY's death, if JGY had, idk, died heroically saving JL's life or something a year earlier he'd still have broken but probably not as badly? But it really is about JGY.

Tldr: I do think he kills himself in CQL; I don't think he does, even passively, in MDZS; but either way, his state at the end of canon isn't about his shattered worldview, it's about JGY being dead.

#ask meme #a gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs #the best of men

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somuchnonsense · 4 years

Text

MDZS Fic Masterpost

From the Ashes -- Wangxian, E, 83,399 words -- The war is over and Lan Zhan wants nothing more than a quiet life and a simple job as ship's security. His partner Wei Ying has other ideas about the quiet part, and life is never so simple... (a.k.a. Wangxian In Space)

Love Me Just A Little -- Wangxian, T, 16114 words -- Wei Ying made his own bed by keeping their relationship secret for so many years, and he'll have to lie in it sooner or later. It's just so much easier to avoid it—if you can call having your husband pretend to be your brand new boyfriend easy.

"I won't hide it forever. I just don't want to dump everything on them at once, you know? 'Hey, I'm bi and I've been dating my boyfriend for four years and we moved in together last year and eloped a month ago. Anyway, how are things back home?'

In which Jiang Cheng and Yanli come to visit, newly married couple Wangxian pretend to be newly dating, and Wei Ying's life is difficult (and it's mostly his own fault). (modern AU)

If You Asked -- Wangxian, E, 8179 words -- Maybe he does love Lan Zhan and it took a stupid dare while drunk to make him realize it, to make him realize how badly he wants Lan Zhan to want to kiss him back, and to love him back.

Wei Ying always enjoys Nie Huaisang's drinking games, but it's not every day that they result in him making out with Lan Zhan and having an epiphany about his feelings. (modern AU)

Live and Learn -- Jin Ling-centric gen (with LWJ, LSZ & WWX), T, 6687 words -- Clan Leader Jin Ling comes to study briefly at Cloud Recesses to learn about cultivation, himself, the world, and, somewhat reluctantly, about Wei Wuxian. (post-canon)

✨ Thirdhand -- Wangxian featuring Wen Ning, E, 6475 words -- Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji awkwardly stumble into a relationship, and Wen Ning keeps awkwardly stumbling onto them, a.k.a. Five Times Wen Ning Cockblocks Wangxian And Two Times He Doesn't (CQL canon/post-canon)

Drink With Me -- WWX & JC-centric gen, G, 3493 words -- Wei Wuxian is definitely not in Yunmeng to see Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng definitely doesn't want to see him. (post-canon)

Care -- WWX & JC-centric gen, T, 3388 words -- In which Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji visit Lotus Pier, and Jiang Cheng is not quite as angry as he used to be. (post-canon, sequel to Drink With Me)

✨ Home Again -- WQ-centric gen (with NHS, JC, WN, WWX, LSZ and LWJ), T, 3088 words - Wen Qing spent sixteen long years isolated in the Jin Sect's dungeons before Jin Guangyao's death set her free. Now, at last, she can reunite with the people she loves and find happiness again. (post-canonish)

Breathless -- Wangxian, E, 2784 words -- Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have fun with their forehead and hair ribbons. (post-canon, PWP)

Understanding -- Wangxian, T, 1855 words -- If Wei Wuxian had his way, they would never talk about him giving up his golden core, but Lan Wangji thinks some things need to be said. (post-canon)

Hope -- WWX & JL-centric gen, T, 1685 words -- "Tell me about my mother," Jin Ling says. (In which Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling talk about the past and about the future.) (post-canon)

✨ For You -- Wangxian, T, 1551 words -- In which Wei Wuxian and the Lan juniors take on some demonic trees and Lan Wangji worries and loves. (post-canon)

Believe -- Wangxian, T, 1308 words -- Wei Wuxian is strong with Lan Wangji by his side, but what would he do without him? (post-canon)

Together Against The World -- Wangxian, T, 1059 words -- The weight of the past is heavy sometimes, but Wei Wuxian doesn't have to shoulder it alone. (post-canon)

Have No Fear -- Wangxian, G, 1031 words -- Lan Zhan is happy now, but he can't quite shake the fear that it won't last. (post-canon)

MDZS Drabble Collection

#mdzs fic #cql fic #the untamed fic #mdzs fanfic #cql fanfic #the untamed fanfic #mdzs #fic #mine #wangxian

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luhanvirus · 4 years

Text

Butterfly Effect

In which a 29-year-old gay LXC married his 26-year-old family friend JC (who happens to be a trans man) out of convenience so that both of their traditional families would leave them alone and let them live their lives, without thinking that he will find love in this marriage.

N/A: Xicheng AU based on that Redditor who shared his touching AF love story.

For the #CultivaTober2020, another story that no one asked me. Incomplete for the lack of time.

Day 23: Butterfly

A lot of people like to think that love comes before marriage, oftentimes it doesn't always work out that way.

Sometimes people get married because of different pressures and expectations put on them by society and their families, but that doesn't mean you can't find love in this kind of situation.

Lan Xichen didn’t expected falling in love with his husband.

They didn’t marry for love, actually they married to make a giant scam on their families.

It maybe be weird, but Lan Xichen was a gay man that came from a wealthy and traditional Chinese family where he managed the business extension abroad.

And as the current heir of the company after his father’s death, the elders didn’t liked when he came up openly about his homosexuality and they didn’t accept it. No matter how many times Xichen said them that he wouldn’t marry a man, they still wanted him very married to a lady from a good and influential family.

One day Xichen got tired and said them clearly that he will just stay single, so they should stay out of his business.

That kind of worked for four years, until the last year when uncle Lan Qiren trapped him in a visit with a this “girl” that was the single “daughter” of one of their business allies and left them alone in a room.

Xichen looked at her, she was pretty indeed. His posture emitted an air of confidence and his almond gray eyes resembled storm clouds, like lighting bolts would appear in any moment to attack, her short black hair was pulled into a bun with a purple ribbon and she wore a big violet hoodie that covered all her body curves.

It was so obvious that neither of them wanted to be here.

Anyways, Xichen didn’t expected that this person would misunderstand the whole situation:

“Listen to me, because I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m a trans male and I’m not out of my family and I DON’T WANT to get married to you”, blunted out the person. “You don’t want to be married with me because I am a MAN, so just leave it!”

Lan Xichen blinked, really shocked.

Did she.... Did he really thought that I set up the visit?

“I don’t even like women, what do you mean?” Xichen babbled, confused at least.

The boy looked at him, suspicious.

“What did you said?”

Xichen massaged the left side of his forehead, without knowing if the should laugh or cry at the turn of the events. “Well, I’m gay.”

When he said it, he didn’t wanted to be funny.

He was serious.

“Oh my god,” mumbled the boy before to start laughing loudly. “My mom will die if she knows!”

At least one of them was having a good time, finding the whole thing hilarious.

Xichen didn’t noticed when he started to laugh too.

Well, could you blame him? This was so ridiculous. Yet, they ended being friends after that unfortunate turn of the events. They even exchanged numbers before to part away.

. 　 · ✦

“I knew it was her, she’s perfect. Well mannered and ...”

Uncle Qiren was delighted at the idea that Xichen was cured from homosexuality, the poor man still has hopes that he would change his mind and will fall in love with the little daughter of Jiang Fengmian haha.

If you only know, uncle. Thought Xichen, having a good time that night.

Unlike Wangji who seemed worried, he was his only support in those kinda family meetings.

“Brother.”

Xichen smiled at his brother, relieved that everything ended in good terms even if it was a disaster. “Don’t worry, Wangji. I know what I’m doing.”

He couldn’t be more wrong.

Wangji looked at him, unconvinced. “If you say so.”

However, Xichen didn’t overthink it in the moment because Jiang Wanyin was someone really nice to talk by the way, so he keep talking with him.

And they talked a lot through nine weeks.

What made both families to get excited at the match, they never got this far with any other candidates.

So they kept pushing them about marriage.

Xichen didn’t knew why, but one day they just accepted to marry each other. He remember that both were "like yeah, screw it" and that’s how they got quickly married in Yunmeng a summer day of August to get their families off of their backs.

Wanyin moved at Gusu with him and both pulled a giant scam on their families and got away with it.

No matter how you see it, it was a win-win situation. Wanyin lived his own life and take the guest room for himself while Xichen didn’t get more cutting remarks about being gay because he has a “wife” now.

Life was easygoing, so he let Wanyin cut his hair short and stop dressing feminine as his family forced him.

It was a little gesture, but that small change resulted in something unexpected.

. 　 · ✦

The things had been so smooth sailing between them that they even adopted a dog, Xichen was having a good time when he come to his house now that he has a roommate and a pet.

It felt more like a home than the place where he’s slept.

He didn’t noticed before, but his house didn’t felt like a home before he married.

Wanyin resume his university studies and made new friends, he was so comfortable and happy that he started to cooking dinner for both of them recently. Sometimes Xichen couldn’t eat with him because he returned at home passed by midnight, but he tried to return early at home to share at least a couple of dinners together at week.

That night Xichen got a little late, but Wanyin stayed with him in the dinning room. Looking him eat everything and even repeating a dish.

“Were you hungry, huh?”

Xichen was used to not talk when he eat because he was educated like that, but he found rude to not reply his husband at the same time. So he did an exception that night.

After all, Wanyin cooked that delicious food for him and waited for him.

“I didn’t have lunch today.”

Wanyin looked at him, with a bothered frown in his eyebrows. It reminded Xichen the first time that they share a dinner in home and he couldn’t stand the spicy food that Wanyin cooked.

That time he thought he would die, but he survived to Wanyin spicy food.

Now he’s getting to used to piquant food.

“I can cook your lunch.”

“You don’t have to do it, Wanyin.”

“What kind of husband am I if I left my spouse starving?” Wanyin teased him, smirking.

. 　 · ✦

Next morning Xichen didn’t expected that Wanyin would fulfill his word and made a lunch for him, even his coworkers seemed surprised to see him eating in his office instead to skipping the lunch when he had important meetings.

That day he had a meeting with Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao, so they planned to invite him to eat a hotpot without knowing that Xichen would refuse.

When they saw why he refused, they stayed to accompany him.

It seems that it was a friendship duty annoy at your recently married friends.

“Now Xichen-ge gots lovely lunchs made by his wife, I’m jealous”, said Jin Guangyao as he looked for food delivery on his telephone for him and Mingjue, they didn’t want to leave his friend alone if they could tease him.

Mingjue nudged at Xichen, grinning “As your childhood friend, I demand to be the godfather of your first child.”

“That’s unfair, Da-ge! Let Xichen-ge chose the godfather!!”

Xichen smiles nervously at his friends, feeling a cold sweet in this forehead.

“We are not having kids.”

Mingjue raised an eye brown, confused. “Why not?”

Xichen felt conflicted.

Well, these were his friends and he should trust them, right? He wasn’t ashamed of his husband, actually he felt proud that he could be himself since they met.

“Uhm, how I could say this? My “wife” is a trans male, so...”

“Oh.”

“It’s complicated, we got it.” Ends the conversation Jin Guangyao, putting a hand in Mingjue’s mouth.

. 　 · ✦

Months passed fast and it was December when Xichen realized that his husband started to getting closer to him.

Not like they were strangers before, but something changed after Christmas.

Wanyin started to watch tv with him in the sofa when Xichen was in home, eating with him every time they can, buying him stuff and even texting him more frequently, sending photos of him and Huan Huan when he go to walk their puppy. He even started staying in Xichen’s room to facetime his mom because she always complained about how he always facetimed alone so he came to Xichen bed to get him to say hi.

And after a while, Wanyin got tired to get out of Xichen’s bed to go back to his own to sleep, so he moved to Xichen room permanently.

Before Xichen knew, they escalated to cuddling awaken and sleeping.

Contrary to Xichen could think, it wasn’t that weird.

Actually it felt heartwarming to hold his tiny husband on his arms, specially when their puppy dog was in the middle of them. Enjoying the warm between his owners.

It made him feel something, but he wasn’t sure what.

. 　 · ✦

“When are you two going to give us a grandchild?” Wanyin’s mother asked them one day via facetime.

Wanyin went all red, screaming. “Mom!”

It was obvious that he didn’t wanted to have this conversation with his mother.

Xichen was beside him in the bed, working on his laptop before to speak in the name of the two. “We want to enjoy our youth first. So no kids for now.”

Hoping that Wanyin wouldn’t mind with his idea.

They didn’t talked about children, yet.

His mother-in-law sounded a bit beaten after that, but she insisted on encourage Wanyin to make his own family as if their dog wasn’t their son already.

When Wanyin cut the call, Xichen finished his work so he put the computer aside.

“Sorry, Xichen.”

“Why? It’s not your fault that your mother want another grandchild.”

Wanyin looked at him before sprawled out on top of him, doing random things and Xichen was unsure what it means. “Then, how many children do you want?”

He asked so suddenly that got Xichen out of guard.

“What?”

“I’m joking, do you want children anyways?”

He was always like that since they got close to each other last year, always joking around him.

Sometimes Xichen didn’t know if he was joking or being serious.

“I don’t know, I never thought about having kids.” Xichen blurt out of his mind, smiling at the thought that they have this level of communication to talk about things like this. “What about you?”

“We have Huan Huan, enough for me.”

“I don’t think your mother

“Well, Huan Huan would be the only grandson that I’m going to give her.”

. 　 · ✦

They almost kissed twice, one time when they were cuddling in the bed and the other one when Wanyin started sitting on Xichen’s lap, nuzzling him and stuff like that.

Their faces were so close that Xichen thought they were going to kiss.

It was so close that he could feel his hot breath, but then Wanyin went all red and jumped ship at the last minute. Xichen felt so disappointed that they didn't kissed already, but he thought that he understand why Wanyin might not kiss him.

He must be thinking that he doesn't want this or something like that.

Contrary to what people could think about his husband, Wanyin had the tendency to overthink things.

He still was working on this, but Xichen couldn’t handle with the self-isolation and the romantic? tension in the house every time he saw Wanyin flustering and getting shy around him.

It was odd after met the confident and a little arrogant side of his husband, so this new side made him feel things that he didn’t know he could feel for Wanyin.

Xichen even feel butterflies in the stomach every time they get close for any reason.

He just wants to kiss Wanyin so badly that he felt embarrassed.

He was so screwed.

. 　 · ✦

One day, Xichen couldn’t stand the situation anymore. He was still a little unsure about his own feelings so he talked long and tended with his friends at the bar about how he wants to take Wanyin on dates and kiss him and let him speak as much as he wants because Wanyin likes to talk about the things that he loves and how much he loves their dog, he could talk about Huan Huan all day and Xichen wouldn't mind, he loves their puppy too.

In the end, he ended asking advice to asking his husband out.

“I want him be happy and I want myself be happy. So how can I ask my literal husband of nine months to be in an actual relationship with me?”

"Talk to him. Tell him what you’re feeling. Ask if he feels the same way," said Mingjue.

“You made it sound that simple, Da-ge.”

"I think you should let him know that you’re open to having a more intimate relationship. It seems he’s feeling something too since he’s cuddling you,” added Jin Guangyao.

“I don’t know what to do.”

Mingjue take a a big sip of wine before to talk again. “Just close your eyes and jump, man. You got this."

#MXTXLATAM #CultivaTober2020 #MoDaoZuShi #Mo Dao Zu Shi #GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivation #Xicheng #Jiang Cheng #Jiang Wanyin #Zewu-Jun #Zewu jun #Lan Xichen #Lan Huan #trans male character #trans Jiang Cheng #October Challenge 2020 #idk what I'm doing #Nie Mingjue #Jin Guangyao #Meng Yao

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crossdressingdeath · 3 years

Note

On WWX’s parents, when you think about it - almost all the Night Hunts we see in the series are pretty easily handled by the Cultivators. What Night Hunts on the series are dangerous? The first one is the arm - but the arm wasn’t what they were called for. They Lans were called in for walking corpses, which are considered barely a threat by cultivators. The arm was thrown into the mix by an outside force.

The Waterborne Abyss. The Waterborn Abyss was only dangerous because it was unexpected. It was pushed there by the Wen Sect, the Lan Sect had no idea they were dealing with anything more dangerous than Water Ghouls (which are so non-threatening, WWX mentions his main method of dealing with them is diving into water with them). And once they realized it was Waterborne Abyss they managed to seal it and manage it. The Goddess Statue? Yeah, it was dangerous, but only when people made wishes on it. And again, it was really only dangerous for the inexperienced cultivators - WWX was confident either LWJ or JC could handle it, since he tried to get the juniors to call them. He only stepped in when he realized help wouldn’t arrive in time.

The Tortoise of Slaughter wasn’t exactly a normal Night Hunt. The Wen Sect was the only ones who knew what was going on, the others were intentionally put in a dangerous situation where they used as fodder. The murder turtle wouldn’t have even been an issue since it was trapped in its cave and sleeping. Basically almost every dangerous Night Hunt was only dangerous due to outside interference. I suppose you could consider the Burial Mounds a Night Hunt location that wasn’t caused by interference. But if you wanted to be safe, it was as simple as not going there. That’s all you needed to be safe.

Obviously one could just choose not to go on any dangerous Night Hunts. At the end of the novel, MianMian takes her young daughter and non-cultivator husband with her on Night Hunts.

I’m not saying CSSR and WCZ were completely in the right, but I think they had a decent reason to believe they weren’t going to die. Most cultivators have a very good constitution, and can retain their youth through cultivation. Only the Nie Sect cultivators have any real concerns about health, but that doesn’t apply to either CSSR or WCZ.

Again, not trying to say that they shouldn’t have planned for their deaths. But I feel like there is something odd about their deaths, especially since you would think that they would take every precaution to be safe if they had a child. Especially since, compared to other characters with dead parents, we actually know very little about them and their deaths. LWJ’s parents backstories and deaths are covered, JC’s parents are shown in flashbacks, as are JL’s and JZX’s. Even JGY’s parents are covered! It’s just always been a little detail that’s stuck out to me.

...I feel the need to point out that the only night hunt we see where no one comes incredibly close to dying is the one that is a hoax? And the least dangerous of the night hunts we see are the ones that were given to juniors, not fully trained cultivators, and they still nearly died because of things happening that they didn’t expect? And there were a lot of fully trained cultivators at Dafan Mountain; it wasn’t just the juniors! LWJ is known to be an insanely good cultivator and JC travels with a posse of cultivators, both of their presences would do a lot of good that has nothing to do with the goddess statue only being a threat to inexperienced cultivators. If you need either a small army or a guy known for being better than literally anyone else to solve a situation then that situation is a pretty big problem!

As for the Waterborne Abyss only being a threat because it was unexpected... uh, no. We’re talking about a force that drowned who knows how many people and took years to clear up. All the cultivators could do was run and come back with a larger force. The Wens pushed it onto the Lans because it was too big a deal to handle quickly and easily! Also, water ghouls being manageable as individuals doesn’t mean the amount we see in the lake would have been easy to deal with? Sheer numbers would do a lot to make the fight harder! A large force of cultivators could handle them, sure, but we’re not talking about a large force with WWX’s parents; we’re talking about two people. And the Xuanwu not being an issue is, uh... This thing killed a lot of people. Thousands, if memory serves. And was never defeated. It went into hibernation, which suggests that it got itself into that cave to begin with; there’s no evidence it couldn’t have gotten itself out again, or that it wouldn’t have woken up on its own eventually. Hell, we don’t even know for sure that the cultivators did wake it up; it’s possible, if not likely, that they just had extremely poor timing. And uh... the Wens knew what was going on and still ended up having to run despite presumably having prepared for a serious fight, so clearly it’s not just a threat because of a lack of knowledge. Basically if your only explanation for why a night hunt isn’t a big deal is because “Well it wasn’t doing anything until people showed up” for situations that involve creatures that either have killed massive amounts of people or are currently in the process of growing stronger and will likely soon be powerful enough to kill people without people having to go to them... well, if the cultivation world worked on that logic I suspect it would very quickly get extremely dangerous. Also... it’s their job, is the thing. It is the job of cultivators to deal with things that are putting people in danger. They couldn’t just refuse to deal with the goddess statue because “Well if you just don’t make any wishes it’s fine”. They will be getting paid for this. And you can’t just leave something that could gain enough power to start doing things without human interference lying around in the hope that no one will unknowingly (or deliberately; desperation makes people do really unwise things) activate her again? Sure, they can just tell the common folk who are paying them “Eh as long as no one ever fucks up again you’ll be fine”, I’m sure that will go over just fine...

And I do have to say... you’re saying that night hunts are only dangerous when unexpected things happen and saying that you can just choose not to go on dangerous night hunts, here. So which is it? Do incredibly dangerous things sometimes happen without any prior warning and if you’re unprepared you’re fucked, or can you always choose to only go on safe night hunts? Not to mention that as rogue cultivators WCZ and CSSR would have to take whatever work was available; Mianmian can choose to turn down any fights that seem too dangerous or call in support (who would then take a cut of the payment, I imagine) because her merchant husband (who presumably is still working as a merchant) brings an alternate source of income to the table; if WCZ and CSSR refused to take work or called in help too often, they’d starve. This is a dangerous profession; we’re dealing with the big leagues in MDZS, cultivators too powerful to get killed by small night hunts and too important to risk their necks on large ones unless they choose to (which most don’t, and the only one we see going out despite the risks is, again, insanely powerful), but I don’t doubt for a second that lower rank cultivators die on night hunts all the time. Don’t forget that the people in real trouble from these unexpected dangers on otherwise seemingly pretty safe hunts are juniors; their training isn’t finished yet, they’re not getting sent on really dangerous night hunts because they aren’t ready. The night hunts we see with them, especially when they’re largely unsupervised with just a senior nearby in case things get out of hand, shouldn’t be super dangerous because they’re training, presumably teaching them how to handle a night hunt without just turning to the nearest senior for instructions. Those are the cases where the real danger comes from an outside source because the hunt they were expecting was specifically picked out as being manageable by partly trained teenagers.

Basically, at the end of the day... we see enough to know that things go wrong. Night hunting is as dangerous and unpredictable as any other profession that involves a lot of travelling and fighting. CSSR and WCZ could be the most powerful cultivators ever and only go on night hunts they were sure they could handle and still die due to a situation turning out to be more dangerous than they had planned for. A good constitution is not going to save you from being mauled by monsters, just make it harder for that to happen. There’s no reason to think there’s anything suspicious about their deaths; if there was I’d expect the story to... y’know, go into that? Bring it up as a possibility, at least. We never really see them in flashbacks or hear about them because a) the earliest flashbacks take place several years after their deaths, b) WWX (our viewpoint character) only has a couple memories of them, which we do see, and c) the only people around him who knew them refuse to talk about them for a variety of clear or easily guessed reasons. The way I see it they made no plans for what would happen to WWX if they died because they were short-sighted, and quite possibly still of an age where they were convinced they were immortal. You’d think they would make plans, but... well, you’d think a lot of people would act differently than they do in MDZS. You’d think two people with a young child would try to find a job that didn’t involve travelling around and fighting all the time! This isn’t a story about people making the exact right choice every time. Bad calls by the people in a situation don’t automatically make that situation suspicious. As far as we see in canon WCZ and CSSR died because a night hunt went wrong, as you yourself have pointed out they often seem to, and no plans were made for WWX’s future if they died because they were short-sighted. It’s an interesting headcanon to say that they might have been murdered, but... well, there’s no evidence and no one with any real motive. Maybe YZY if you squint, but if that’s the case it doesn’t make sense that she doesn’t kill WWX, who she clearly hates and wants gone. I don’t know, I don’t buy it.

#mdzs #cql #wei changze #cangse sanren #also is it canon or fanon that jfm found wwx in yiling?#i can't remember #if it's fanon obviously it doesn't matter but if it's canon clearly wcz and cssr weren't avoiding the burial mounds #anon #asks

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morkofday · 3 years

Text

fic tag game

thank you so much for tagging me @i-am-just-a-kiddo ♥ i love rambling about my fics and my writing even if it always also brings up all the doubts and insecurities i have but. these are my children so i will show them some love :’) and it is always just wonderful to share this all with you my dear ♥

placing under cut bc i do ramble, as yall know to expect by now!

Name: VishCount i’ve already explained the origin of that name a couple of times so am sparing you from that but gotta just say that i never expected to get so fond of this username and the nicknames that followed ♥

Fandoms: wow ok so buckle up, this is gonna be a ride first i gotta mention the finnish fandom for this youtuber group called LaeppaVika. i adored them as a teenager and i still watch the videos sometimes :’) couple of the members still stream stuff even if the group has pretty much fallen apart by now and am just very fond every time. they feel like home in a way. those fics were my first ones and am still kinda proud of some of those?

then there’s this one random finnish utapri fic i once wrote... tbh i’m not sure why my anime fandoms never made me write anything? maybe it was the inexperience and the fear of using a second language lol

after i got over that and got into BTS, i’ve written a ton for them. most of those are oneshots that vary from 1k words to 10k or something. a couple of longer ones have sprouted too and one is still in the making and i have sooooo many ideas. mostly just random aus. i adore to write those.

lately MDZS has been my favored fandom and it has gotten some oneshots too as well as my gigantic xicheng fic that hangs somewhere well above 100k now. i wish to finish the last part for that soon but who knows, maybe it will take longer than expected sigh. and now DMBJ has pushed in as something that yells at me to write tho i’ve only posted a short oneshot for it for now. and oh, last year i also posted a couple of silly oneshots for 2moons! that was... weird tbh but am glad i did that.

i wish i had more fandoms tbh bc there is so much interesting stuff there and i have so many ideas and inspirations but i’m very slow at writing. things don’t always just come out and some fandoms don’t grasp me for long enough that i would be able to tap into any projects. but i have no hurry, right?

Tropes: hmm do i have any? am not sure. i thought that maybe soulmate aus or some abo stuff was my thing but i’ve slowly drifted away from those. then it comes to just... idk. hurt/comfort? found families? i also adore slow burn these days and i feel like i’ve gotten a bit better at writing that but it’s still a struggle. also just, as already noted, all these different aus? mostly fantasy based ones. those are always so cool and somehow very whimsical? and lately i’ve also just fallen into this hole where i love to write some bittersweet tragedies or at least stuff that feels like a tragedy in some sense (and i blame my dear kiddo for that bc they’ve written the sweetest of tragedies and i want that too ok)

Fic I spent most time on: how do you count this? do wips count? bc if they do, then I feel like my xicheng fic called you’re the sunset and i’m the last purple left behind is it. it just keeps on going and i feel like i’ve given it all of my waking hours and heart and soul. then it could also be my BTS abo fic My Lungs for You to Breathe that is slowly reaching its second year? am not sure. but it has been going for ages bc sometimes it comes and sometimes it goes and currently i’ve spent over six months without updating it and. yeah. (it would be nice to mention some fic here that i’ve made some research for but tbh i never do any research. am horrible like that but i’ve never just. had the energy? tho i have hopes that i could go on this wild research spree for this one guardian idea i have but let’s see...)

Favorite fic(s) you’ve written: (making a list bc am unable to choose, fight me)

and you remain - my pingxie oneshot that just helped me to get all of the feelings i had after tlt2 pour out. am very fond of it destiny tied us together - some introspection of lwj and jc’s relationship and how it changes throughout the years as they both mature, learn things about themselves, fall in love and realize that they share the same ppl in their hearts (and maybe develop a tentative friendship bc they’re so similar in so many ways). i had so much fun with this and it just felt like my brightest moment haha painting your skin with all of me - the xicheng soulmate oneshot i wrote at some point and still adore. it just seemed to work and in the middle of my xicheng struggles writing them so briefly and gently just felt right pouring love (growing flowers) - the ot7 oneshot i wrote bc of this one amazing twt prompt/moodboard. it was the last part of my mono series. i love it so much. joon was so nice to write throughout the whole thing ;; lilies bloomed under your carpet - my god au for taejoon. it poured out of me so wonderfully and it was so amazing. still one of my favorite creations, this whole au. Stories Untold / chapter 3 - this was a collection of taejoon oneshots that i was trying to make but am not sure if i will ever finish them all. but this one, where tae is a forest god and joon a human able to see supernatural things, is very dear to me bc it just feels complete

Fic I spent least time on: gosh i think it must be either my first wangxian oneshot we had it almost or my touch-starved joon oneshot show me my skin and touch my heart with very soft and lovely taejoon. both created themselves in a couple of hours?

Longest fic: currently my xicheng monster but i somehow expect my bts abo fic to get even longer if i ever manage to finish it

Shortest fic: it’s apparently my namseok fic for joon’s tokyo called missing you (i’m homesick). it created itself out of my own experiences of living in a long distance relationship and is one of my faves in that series.

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks: most hits and comments go for my bts abo fic which doesn’t really surprise me when it’s a multichapter fic :’D most kudos go for the already mentioned xicheng oneshot and most bookmarks go for the bts ot7 fic!

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: hmm if i could rewrite something, it would probably be my first bts fic and my second long fic called Even the Universe Makes Mistakes. that soulmate au now feels a bit outdated and there are many parts i would like to change and things i would love to think again. then if i was allowed to expand some world, i would love to write more for the xicheng soulmate au bc there are many other pairings i would love to explore there too or just to see lxc’s take on the events perhaps. other thing would be my namgi oneshot it passes (for us both) bc i adore namgi and the love they create in that brief moment.

Share a bit of a WIP: it hasn’t been long since i shared snippets of several wips but let’s go with my pingxie which i’ve been working on and am just so damn excited about (especially now that i can use the bazaar photoshoot imagery as inspiration):

“He moves, pulled in by the darkness of the lake, mirroring the softly blue sky with its gray, heavy clouds. The snow lands on his nose, into his lashes, clings to his coat and his shoes. He doesn’t feel cold, doesn’t hear anything beyond the softness of the snowfall. Nothing exists and everything does, real and fake at the same time, comforting but still making him feel afraid.

He could lose himself here, could be lost from everything. He could stay and be forgotten, could join those people that tried to make him remain, could take the easier way. He could rest, just like he was supposed to do so many times before.

Maybe he does belong, after all. Maybe he is part of this place, so awfully familiar with it, so willing to even stop his own heart to get here. And maybe he is not, this place only hungry for those who don’t yet remain, refuse to give into this dream-like space.”

thank you once more for tagging me my dear! this was fun even if looking back to my old fics and all the lack of updating and posting these days makes me feel kinda bad... i’ve just been in a slump lately and am slowly trying to get out of it even if i almost fall back in all the time. it’s funny when last spring i felt like i was at my peak sigh. but well, as i’ve already said, i have time right?

i dunno so many writers over here but i’m tagging @cross-d-a and @kholran bc i’m curious about your work. also tagging @inkblue-black and @jockvillagersonly if you want to blabber about something or if you just want to see this. and oh also tagging @wangxianbunnydoodles bc am always open for new ppl and i know that you write ^^

#tag game #sorry am making these posts today again #also sorry for always tagging the same ppl #i hope you don't mind #have fun!!#about me

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with-my-murder-flute · 3 years

Note

(Fanfic ask meme!)

12. Friends with benefits or secret dating?

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. I honestly believe so much in the secular romance of people who have sex and respect each other and live their own lives and just... accept each other where they’re at. This overlaps a lot with how I like to write/read about polyamory, and also about the relationships I’ve had.

There’s this Alanis Morisette song, And You Owe Me Nothing in Return, and it’s not that it’s the only kind of love I know is in the world, but it’s the only way of moving through love that’s worked for me.

Like, when I broke up with my last girlfriend, I considered our relationship a success. Because she was also my first girlfriend, and before I started dating her, I still had this deep visceral sense that nobody would ever actually want me. Nobody would ever actually want to be with me. My negative mental scripts kept hiccuping for months after we started dating, like “and nobody will ever want me (except my girlfriend???)”. It was like a record skipping.

Oh god this got long. Below: More about me and my girlfriend; my epic FWBmances in previous fandoms, and my super ambitious plans for someone who’s on friendly-fucking terms with half the CQL cast.

It was a long-distance relationship, and she’s married to other people, and she was not one of the people the universe hit me over the head about, so it was not Grand High Romance, but there was a lot of “I love you platonically and if we can make sex work that’d be cool”

So after a few years our lives got busier, which was better for both of us, BUT, it made trying to coordinate times to get together harder, and we kept missing phonecalls and trying to make it up and failing again, and we both have ADHD, and one day I realized that a) trying to make this relationship work was taking a whole fucking lot of energy for not as much reward, and b) My deep sense of being personally unlovable had shifted, over time, to the feeling that I probably could find someone else if I put myself out there.

She made my life better. She made me better. Her perspectives and experiences on things like queer activism and fanfic and community organizing enriched my personal and intellectual life immensely. Last week I had a question about cults and power and control that I knew she was the perfect person to consult with, so we spent half an hour on the phone.

I’m still really fond of the fic-sets I did in Check Please fandom, where I took a canon character who was super obsessed/hung up on his first boyfriend, and changed his life by giving him, in one continuity, a pair of lovers who provide a refuge from his toxic workplace and show him very different ways to succeed at being human and support him building a healthier (and eventually sexy) relationship with his ex,

and in another timeline, a love interest whose interests and ambitions he respects too much to demand she stay where she’s miserable for his sake, and after a couple years of being FWB, she finds a way to come back to him (in which he also has his relationship with the first two, but makes the choice not to focus on them as his primary partners, but they stay friends, and I lost my enthusiasm before I wrote about his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend falling in love but not in a threesome way but it was gonna be awesome)

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to finish it, but the WIP I’m most engaged with right now is about an OC who was super injured during the Sunshot Campaign and ended up working in as a courtesan/prostitute since he doesn’t have magic healing and his only marketable skills left are reciting poetry and sucking dick, and then he eventually joins a dual cultivation sect and does his best to add as many of the Top 10 Hottest Male Cultivators to his clientele as possible

Which includes really weird and distant and intimate, sexual and emotional and platonic, relationships with all of them, because he can discuss the sexual ethics of BDSM with Lan Wangji before offering to demonstrate that people really can enjoy the sex freak hidden beneath that icy shell, and then turn around and offer Jiang Cheng a person who isn’t intimidated by him and doesn’t want him to be the Big Strong Man (yes there’s pegging). He can fail to help Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue find dual cultivation techniques to prevent Mingue’s qi deviation, and enliven Nie Huisang’s drinking parties with Mo Xuanyu with witty and erudite banter, and quietly stan Jin Guangyao as someone from the gutter who made it, even when that means JGY as Chief Cultivator can’t be seen to do anything to raise dual cultivation sects’ frankly abysmal social status in the cultivation world.

The Juniors fear him because he and his sect head gave them a series of lectures on sexual ethics, so he’s the fatal combination of a weirdo hippy who’ll talk freely about masturbation, and the stern teacher who will know if you don’t tip your sex workers in cash where their management can’t see.

(And then when he meets Wen Ning he recognizes another outcast, someone uniquely without arrogance or pride--someone with, frankly, an outrageously idealistic amount of anger towards the cultivation world’s status quo--and thinks, I would like to become the kind of person who could walk beside you.)

But when one of his patrons advocates for the Jiang sect to accept him as a student in swordsmanship, they tell Jiang Cheng some things that significantly recontextualize their whole years-long relationship as sex worker and client, like how this guy got injured in the first place, which is just frankly hitting Jiang Cheng when he’s already been clobbered over the head with the fact that his pride has ruined his life, and this guy ends up at ground zero of JC working his way out of the post-series breakdown/spiritual awakening. While being consistently in love with/longing to join Wen Ning.

IT’S BASICALLY AN EPIC ROMANCE ABOUT FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS WITH ONE LITTLE ROMANCE-ROMANCE THROWN IN FOR SPICE. I CAN SEE IT ALL SO CLEARLY.

I hope to god I can write the damn thing. And find him a fucking courtesy name.

#my stuff #the untamed #check please #runawaymarbles #story: peach wine

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rosethornewrites · 3 years

Text

NR, E, and M fics I read this weekend!

All MDZS/The Untamed fics. I’m going to start posting this daily.

Finished:

Not Rated:

JYL takes JC and WWX away, by nirejseki

Prompt: yanli takes wwx and jc on a "training mission" at some point and then forgets to come back, she still gives updates to her senior sect siblings when she sees them, but refuses to return to loctus pier.

JZX wants to be a good big brother, by nirejseki

Prompt: JZX is more politically aware, but mostly lonely. When he learns that JGY is his younger brother he's determined to be a good dage. His only examples however, are LXC, who hes not sure is human, WWX who- just- NO, and NMJ, who despite being his sworn brother seems to HATE JGY? So hes on his own. It can't be that hard right?

The light that disappeared, by KawaiiKittyCat

"Lan Zhan!"

At the call he startled. It’s weird. He doesn’t remember falling asleep.

"Lan Zhan!"

Lan Wangji raised his gaze to look at the person on the other side of a table. There, in familiar black-red robes, sat Wei Wuxian with a playful smirk.

Yiling Laozu's Drunk Jokes, by chiyukimei

Wei Wuxian manages to go to Jin Ling's one month celebration but he gets very drunk throughout the event and spills the secrets he doesn't want to while joking about them.

Rated E:

Speechless, by SuiteJayne

Bored with transcribing the Lan Clan's Collection of Righteousness, Wei Wuxian again decides to provoke a reaction out of Lan Wangji. He gets a different one than he expected.

Adventures In The Air, by coffeepie

Wei Wuxian has never had Lan Wangji at his mercy before and takes advantage of the situation.

Even if they are miles in the air in broad daylight.

bellflowers, by hauntedotamatone

During the brief break in their schedule, Lan Zhan takes some time to explore Wei Ying.

liberties untaken, by northofallmusic (tofsla)

There are things that Lan Wangji remembers. The tap of a hand fastening a talisman to his anger-taut shoulder. The snap of fingers. The evening turning syrupy and amber, honey-drowned. The messy room, the fragrance of wine, a laughing mocking face. The slow-flowing stream of his thoughts. Fingers on his sleeve making a suggestive gesture. Fury. Longing.

He thinks about that night. He thinks about it when things are bad.

OR: Things Wei Wuxian Never Did to Lan Wangji.

Rated M:

if you know love, by yuer (vintageblueskies)

Wei Wuxian is strangled before his husband's eyes.

Parental advisory: explicit content, by arcsinx

Sect Leader Yao had been to Cloud Recesses a couple times. Not many, as Gusu Lan was a fairly reserved sect. Today marks his fourth visit to Cloud Recesses ever and he’d been informed that both Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren were otherwise occupied at the moment, but in case the matter was urgent Lan Wangji could attend to him.

Sect Leader Yao had agreed on the spot. Lan Wangji was famous for his orthodox ways, his powerful cultivation, and lately, which was a very confusing matter to Sect Leader Yao, for bonding with the Yiling Patriarch himself, Wei Wuxian. Back from the dead. Oh well. They’d had a child, apparently, and it didn’t scape Sect Leader Yao that this would be a good opportunity to sate his curiosity on the child and Lan Wangji himself after giving birth.

Apparently he'd wrongly expected the new family to be more discreet on their domesticity.

in loving memory, by quillifer (wbtrashking)

The Yiling Patriarch dies—for good.

Unfinished:

Rated E:

Setting fire to our insides, by StarsAlignNomore

Lan Wangji dies after the thirty-third strike. Lan Xichen does not handle it well.

*fleabag voice* This is a fix it.

Time Travel Diary, by adrian_kres (second in a series)

Journal entries depicting the life of one Lan Wangji as he moves through the twenty years in between when he meets Wei Ying and their thirteenth wedding anniversary. (The lost time between chapters 5 and 6 of To Spend Eternity with You).

Rated M:

Live Again, Love Anew, by kkanime5555

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian finally speaks up.

“Mn.” Lan Zhan hums to show he’s listening.

“I think we traveled back in time.”

...

“I’ll go, Lan Zhan. I’ll come to Gusu with you.”

-----

Or,

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are soulmates and, upon Wei Ying's death, they are sent back to when they first met as kids on the streets of Yiling. From there, they both are taken to Gusu, where they are raised together, gradually learning of their shared feelings and finding out the mystery of who sent them back in time and why, all while planning how to save the world, preferably with all their loved ones left alive.

Kiss My Wounds, Bless My Scars, by Pegunicent

When he is sixteen, Lan Wangji makes a choice. He becomes Wei Ying's bride.

hear those bells ring deep in your soul, by Cendiar

Lan Wangji hears an unfamiliar flute when the Wen siblings are brought to Koi Tower, and he immediately goes to the Yiling Barrows to find Wei Wuxian. In that moment, Lan Wangji knows that he will do whatever he must in order to stand by Wei Wuxian's side, keep him safe, and be worthy him. It is not the first time he has bound them together to do so. The two of them do their best to protect each other in a trembling world and, in time, they heal together.

Shared Space, by hoarder_of_stories

Lan Wangji hears that Wei Wuxian is going to be evicted from his apartment, and offers him a place to stay. Wei Wuxian has recently started doing online sex work, and worries that this will make things awkward. (He’s right! It does! They’ll figure it out, though.)

Idiot Shixiong, by Jazz_Reenn

Jin Ling decided to host his birthday banquet at Yumeng Jiang with his uncle’s permission. Jiang Cheng reluctantly agreed till he realized who Jin Ling invited.

Wei Wuxian.

It was too late for him to go back on his word now. He has to face his former Shixiong.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #cql #mdzs #untamed fanfiction

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pastthevaulteddoors · 3 years

Text

My brain fogs usually end with me babbling.

This morning @delicatelygloriousphoenix allowed me to babble to them about a thought I had.

And then... It just kept going.

I’m still tired. Here’s a cut version of that conversation.

I had a thought before bed last night 'cause I'm finishing up the extras to SVSSS.

What if someone was reborn into Mo Dao Zu Shi and had to save everyone?

What if Jiang Cheng was the person they were born into? I can't remember the scene properly from the novel, but right before WWX interrupts the summit meeting on Koi/Carp tower, drinks LWJ's booze and accuses Jin Zixun of his labor camp is when this person becomes the new Jiang Cheng. He himself interrupts WWX's rant that nearly falls into a fight and demands that he/Lotus Pier are allowed to keep the rest of the Wens because they burned the place to the ground and therefore have a right to them to rebuild the place.

The argument is quick, and JC is like "I'm taking them" and drags WWX out in surprise. But he turns to LWJ and is like "You comin'?" so of course LWJ comes when he's actually invited to do so. They run off to the camp. JC tries to hurry to get there before Wen Ning is stabbed. They do get there earlier than in the show/novel, but WN is already stabbed (but not dead).

They drag the Wens and an unconscious WN out of the camp. WWX doesn’t go nuts because WN isn’t dead yet and JC is there to lay down some tsundere harshness in his stead.

They have to stop at a village before they get there where Wen Qing can work on her brother and the Wens can rest. JC buys them all rando threadbare robes so they don't stand out as Wens anymore.

Lan Xichen shows up at some point to see if he can't... not so much help as his position won't allow him to take sides on this, but there to 'check on his brother.’ When he gets there, he’s pushed to the inn room where he sees JC focused at WN’s side. He’s giving him spiritual energy while WQ rests nearby. That's LXC’s first little spark of "Ah, JC is nicer than he first appears."

The Wens are supposed to be 'laborers' to help rebuild Lotus Pier, but JC's really just wanting to make sure that WWX isn't forced off to Burial Mounds and becomes an icon of hatred like the show/novel. And he doesn't have to remove him from the sect entirely.

However, he tells a distracted WWX that he obviously has ideas with his new powers and gives him leave to seclude himself to practice/create/invent but in a safe environment. Jiang Yanli is happy that her brothers are not alone yet able to pursue their separate interests/areas of need.

LXC suggests Gusu taking the Wens as well as 'laborers' since Cloud Recesses was also burned down by the Wens. In reality, they have more safe space for the Wens, it's harder to ambush the 'labor camp' when it's on a mountain peak.

This is where the ALIVE yet healing Wen Ning and Wen Qing ask the Lans to take care of A-Yuan as they are not in the best situation to take care of a child at their camp. This is where LWJ and the frequently visiting WWX basically adopt him.

I mean, if the Wens aren't in danger, WWX has no reason to go back to the burial mounds so of course he’d come to check up on the Wens a lot. Which just means hanging out with A-Yuan and the bunnies often. If LWJ happens to be there with him all the time... well... who’s to say what that means?!

Meanwhile, JC is trying to handle his sect with only a bit of help from WWX here and there, although Wen Qing shows up a lot, as does LXC as a gesture of goodwill and to help the young new sect leader.

JC enjoys being a leader and the System provided him with knowledge and ability to train his new sect. He used to be a salaryman when he was alive, this is far more exciting and much more stimulating.

JC is pretty oblivious that both WQ and LXC are absently crushing on this confident and warmly grumpy JC. He just thinks they like visiting him to talk sect leader stuff or night hunt or... maybe he even thinks they’re his friends.

BUT JC knows his mission is not done, as the System keeps reminding him.

He needs to make sure Jin Guangyao doesn't marry his sister but he can't break OOC or share his knowledge of knowing that JGY and Qin Su are siblings... so he subtly courts Qin Su instead to basically cock block JGY.

Which surprises all but whatever. JC has changed since becoming sect leader, or so they say (really, JC is a different person entirely but ya know).

JC is okay with it, saying Qin Su is a decent woman and pretty enough. He'd be okay if they'd end up marrying, although he's very aware that JGY might try to murder him for taking the girl he likes but he's got his defenses up.

The courting goes on for awhile and JC keeps blocking JGY’s advances where he can but doesn’t go further with his own.

A few years later, JC hosts a birthday party of four year old Jin Ling, with little Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen among others... so it's a mini sect leader party, too. All of this without going OOC, he's still a grumpy sect leader but he's less feared (like, in the novel, JC was a friggen murderer! He tortured and killed anyone he thought was using WWX's methods or was his incarnation!). People actually seem to like him!

Late night at the party WWX, JC, LWJ, and LXC were hanging out. They suggest going on a boat together because a lot of lanterns were going to be let off in the lakes for JL’s birthday.

JC 'accidentally' spills tea on LXC's robes so he has to excuse himself to change. The others wait by the boat and JC is like "Oop, I changed my mind. I'm going to do something else" and kicks the boat off with LWJ and WWX in it and walks away. He chills in a pavilion a little bit later, watching the lanterns on the water and a few boats out there when LXC comes back. He doesn't even ask when happened and joins him, watching the boat that their brothers are in. LXC and JC haven't talked about it, but they both low key ship LWJ and WWX so they're of agreement.

This event triggers the Wangxian relationship quest. JC is pretty happy that they don’t have to wait 13-16 years before they get to enjoy each other’s company.

And that's when JC himself starts to admire LXC. Not that he hadn't before, they had become friends of sorts from both rebuilding their sects, passing advice to each other, and generally get to complain to each other as young sect leaders. JC kept distance though, knowing LXC’s sworn brothers are his confidants but now and again LXC even lets on a bit of that drama (realizing how much NMJ and JGY are at odds) when JC mentions "they just gotta fuck and get it out of their system"

But yeah, it's during that conversation that JC is like "LXC is actually really attractive and fun to talk to..." crush style.

Then a new mission starts! JC has to team up with LXC to get JGY and NMJ together. All the while JC is loosely courting Qin Su still. Wen Qing has since moved on with her affections (WQ is fast realizing that everyone is gay and instead goes to make out with Mianmian because yes lesbians!).

So LXC realizes that he likes JC but doesn't think he'd be interested because of Qin Su and Wen Qing.

Meanwhile, JC is like "The author said the only gay couple in this novel was WWX and LWJ but!!!?!?!?!??!?!? everyone is gay!?”

At WWX and LWJ's wedding, LXC and JC spy on JGY and NMJ who end up kissing behind a tree. They're tipsy but success! JC gives LXC a high five which amuses LXC because 'wtf is a high five? that's so cute, what a grumpy dork'

JC outright stops courting Qin Su then, which pisses off her sect, that is in close ties with the Jins, which turn their anger towards the Jiang sect. So JC has to fight with the Jins in a political battle, and his sister is preggers with her third kid so she can't help much.

But it's finally JGY that stands up to his father to stop bulling smaller sects. No hard feelings for stealing Qin Su then dumping her, apparently.

It's about this time when Mo Xuanyu shows up and is like "you're my daddy" Lady Jin already hates her husband's illegitimate children but now she's furious, especially after her friend tells her that Jin Guangshan raped her and Qin Su is ALSO an illegitimate child (another reason JGY decides he doesn’t hate JC for cock blocking him).

All this combined, Jin Guangshan is shamed off his throne. Jin ZiXuan takes up a lead and JGY (now renamed Jin Ziyao as is the proper generational name) decides he's happy with not being an asshole (since he's getting good dickings with his boyfriend NMJ and Lady Jin has finally stopped bullying him) and decides that he'd be content, even happy, being his brother's advisor rather than dethroning him for sect leadership.

But of course there's gotta be drama. Shi Su and Jin Zixun are not the smartest of people but they've teamed up with Xue Yang who has a bit of the Iron. Together, they start to plot against the sects to overrule them, because they're dumb idiots with a semblance of power.

That's about as far as my brain went when I fell asleep and then this morning when the brain fog focused on that instead of on work while I was waking up.

Just something about 13 years later, JC and LXC are pretty close but not lovers yet, when something-something adventure and JC and LXC become a thing in a similar manner that WWX and LWJ did in the novel. RANDOM CONFESSION TIME that other people have to point out to them!

The following is related conversation but I don’t want to put my friend’s part so... it’s disjointed. Sorry not sorry I’m tired.

Continued conversation about wangxian being together:

because JC already knew they'd be together from the show/novel, and LXC shipped them, so they teamed up to get them to confess

That's what I meant when JC forced them onto a romantic boat ride together.

They weren't parted from the Wen fight stuff so instead of fighting at Nightless City, they had time to realize their feelings and not die instead of confess. ;p

Conversation... conversation...

So for so long JC doesn't know he's into guys (LXC in particular, kinda like SQQ in SVSSS) but just like JC in the novel, he gets himself blacklisted from the matchmakers. Meanwhile, this whole time his very close friend, LXC (they're really close now since JGY and NMJ are a couple so he doesn't like to third wheel it and instead spend his time with JC) things that JC is straight and lowkey crushes on him for 13-16 years before WWX and LWJ have to spell it out to them.

but Lan have a-yuan as adopted heir

He'd (JC) probably ask Jinli if one of her kids could be heir

What if Jin Zixun tries to take the sect leader throne or something. He'd be next in line if jin Zixuan didn't die and JGY didn't step up.

#wangxian #xicheng #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #svsss #scumbag villain self saving system

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porcupine-girl · 4 years

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Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

#the untamed #fic recs #wangxian #if I haven't recced your fic I probably haven't read it yet #literally this is most of the fics I've managed to read so far #when I say the same moon shines took up all of my reading time for 2-3 weeks I am being entirely serious #and then vermillion ribbon is 220+k so it took a week or two too #so like i've got ao3 emails waiting in my inbox for fics by tippy and moosefeels and through_shadows_falling and a few others #I promise I will get to them!

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llycaons · 3 years

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29! overall a very sweet and silly episode. this is one of the few with no jiang cheng at all, so that may be part of the reason why. he kind of brings down the mood

I always skip the opening but I just realized how many blatant spoilers appear in it. like, you see myu and jfm dead in LP surrounded by blood and wen soldiers. I wish cql had the budget to make an intro like tsomd had

the first couple seconds are actually really funny because lwj and wwx are just sitting in silence and lwj is staring at his food and a-yuan is running around and trying to get lwj to look at his toys but lwj doesn’t know how to deal with kids yet so he’s just like it’s okay just sit here. kinda awkward

a-yuan must be so excited to meet a new person. he has no playmates his age :(

there’s sometimes (to me) a disconnect in how wwx is written in the romance and that’s because some of the scenes are from the novel and some are cql originals, and not only is the dynamic different but the narrative of the love story is too, with how they interact with each other. it’s impossible to watch cql with the novel in mind and say it’s completely accurate to novel characters, especially since a lot of scenes are up to interpretation, but the cql characters aren’t always consistent either

last time we saw wwx and lwj together, wwx was passionately proclaiming his willingness to die at the hands of lwj only, and before had a very intimate and vulnerable confession to him (cql scenes) and when they meet up again he’s like very lighthearted and casual (I think that’s accurate to the novel) so the tonal difference is kind of jarring. by the end of this scene I do think he gets back to that cql dynamic though (which is, imo ‘we know we’re in love or at least I know I’m in love but the circumstances are impossible and he’s made his choice and he’s drifting away from me because of the choices I made, but I can’t make different choices. also i’m worried he’ll try to lecture me and judge me”) meanwhile in the novel iirc he thought lwj hated him and wanted to capture him and punish him. it’s dumb.

a-yuan offering wwx food and then putting the spoon into his own mouth even though there’s no food on it...sweetie. kids who try to take care of grownups like they get taken care of is so cute. I wish my brothers did that it would have been hilarious. they did other things, like flush their toys down the toilet and try to eat dog food and mix flour and raisins together. carnage.

on the other hand that scene where he tries to comfort wwx is actually a little uncomfortable...he’s like, four years old and he shouldn’t feel the need to do that? I read a rly long post a while ago about how his trauma manifests as people-pleasing and that fact that you can kind of see that here so young no matter how hard his caretakers worked to give him a good childhood is so sad

wwx being like “well you came here to see me huh? well you’re not interested in marriage and I don’t want to be lectured about music okay?” oh buddy you’ve totally given up on the idea of being with him huh...

wwx correcting himself to say “lady jiang” and then immediately going back to saying ‘senior sister” and “jiang cheng” yeah

little wwx and jc planning a wedding together is so cute I love that detail this loss for him breaks my heart it really does he should have been there!! not to mention missing JL’s ceremony not to mention her DEATH not to mention him dealing with JL hating him it just gets worse and worse. and you know she NEVER wanted that for him! she just wanted him to be happy and loved and safe! jc talks big about respecting her memory while not respecting that her dying wish was to keep wwx alive jfc

in the novel yanli was apparently very plain and boring and people thought lowly of her which is why wwx says “people don't think she’s good enough for jzx” but this wasn’t really a thing in cql so it sounds out of place. and if we didn’t know how highly wwx thought of yanli, then it would have sounded very passive-aggressive lol

I’ve seen people call the BM community an anarchist commune and I’m like???? there is still a hierarchy there. wwx and wq are called by their titles based on their status. wwx doesn’t really have to do manual labor and doesn’t think he should have to based on his status. granny wen curtsies when she comes to take a-yuan. they exist outside the clan’s political system and it’s definitely not authoritarian but I don’t think anarchist is the right word. but that’s not something I’m too well-read on maybe I’m wrong

wq crying and holding wen ning after he wakes up!!!!! wwx getting flashbacks to how his sister used to comfort him!!!

I find it nitpicky to try to claim who wwx felt closer to or who was his ‘real siblings”. the wens didn’t replace the jiangs. they were all his family. he loved all of them. on some level, he did belong with all of them.

wq expressing her concern for wwx without disregarding his boundaries or insulting him...she does threaten him a little but it’s not like, serious...that reminds me how annoyed I get when jc dismisses wwx’s worries or fears with this implication that he shouldn’t even be complaining or that he has it great (”when have you been treated like a servant?” as if myu never existed or the politicians didn’t use that as a tool to try to control him)

jc isn’t even this episode and I’m annoyed with him

anyway the demon-subdue pun is still fucking hilarious

the untamed is like *comical music plays as the protagonist spits up blood*

and the farewell...wwx saying he doesn’t have any other choice or else the wens would die and lwj can’t even argue...

lwj spends most of the episode avoiding eye contact and not speaking actually. he knows any argument he’d give against wwx’s choices doesn’t have much merit and he’s too honest to try

SINGLE-PLANK BRIDGE. god that line fucks. ready to do what he needs to do even if it kills him

but then!!!! if you walk around in the dark all alone you'll get hurt!! we’ll light up the way for you!!! it’s not dark anymore because we love you!!! wen ning is cooking!!! fourth uncle made wine for him!!!

you’re running too fast we can never catch up to you! see how I cry over this foreshadowing

wwx was loved here, and had reprieve from the specific challenges he faced in LP, and after he gets closer to everyone else I like to think he wasn’t suffocating so badly. but he misses lwj and yanli bad enough to get absolutely smashed that night

he doesn’t even MENTION jc except in connection with yanli lmao you are so relieved not to have to baby him while concealing your own pain anymore aren’t you buddy. god I hate to say this but if jc died and the other three lived I would have been so much happier. at least wen ning came back!

OKAY and the snow punishment scene!!!! the visuals are so stunning I forgot that this wuji version plays the lyrics too, which allude to old flames never being extinguished and both grief and joy in a life (on-brand)

lwj in snow....this scene had almost no dialogue but honest to god it’s one of the best in the series for the callbacks the atmosphere the illustration of lwj’s character in stark relief the cinematography the symbolism and finally the music making this punishment both melancholy and triumphant like WOW lwj is amazing

this little chunk at the end is pretty forgettable to me but it’s fun to see him buying up those caricatures of the yllz while creating his inventions. his sense of humor really never did leave him, after everything. that’s extraordinary. it really is

knockoff chenqings being sold by con artists is SO funny. the humor feels very modern in the same way tgcf’s humor does, despite the setting

you know I’ve seen posts about how wwx and wen ning have a more equal relationship postres, which I like in theory, but lbr the stuff wwx has wen ning do for him in this episode is absolutely the kind of stuff he has him do in ep46. and wen ning doesn’t mind it! he and his family are alive bc wwx made an incredible sacrifice. and he has this undead body now that can’t cry or sleep, but is very very strong so of course he’s going to help out his best friend who’s draining his life force by the day to keep their family safe. so while I don’t love wen ning taking on this role, I get it

I’m not in love with how only a handful of the wens are even named, which lessens the emotional investment on the audience’s end and makes them feel like plot devices to get murdered. I do look forward to seeing the lotus pond and yanli’s robes so I’m going to try to keep it moving

#getting into crama was great bc it gives me somthing to do on break. thanks cql #cql rewatch #long post

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davidobitch · 4 years

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Are You Trying to Seduce Me? | Kian Lawley

(so here’s part 2. it’s definitely a lot longer than i anticipated but it’s finally done. i merged it with a request someone sent cuz I'm innovative. also thanks for forgetting about this part 2 cuz it’s been a hottt minute since i started writing it but thanks to quarantine i had plenty of time to finish it) (and a big thanks to the anon that gave me this idea on why they broke up!)

PART 1

prompt request taken from this post

14: why’d you leave? (part 2) 20: are you trying to seduce me? (part 1)

You were woken up from the constant shifting happening next to you. Glancing at the time, you saw it was a little past 7am. You let out a sigh, mad that your feelings got the best of you. Trying not to make too much noise, you slipped out of bed and made your way out the door.

You didn’t know where you were going but when you started walking your feet led to the beach. Part of you regrets giving in to Kian but the other part of you missed him a lot more than you wanted to admit. Neither of you ever got the closure you deserved and every day without Kian, you regretted leaving the way you did.

You watched the sun rise as thoughts and memories flooded your head, not realizing how long you’ve been out there. When you got to the beach, it was nearly empty, just a couple joggers here and there but now it’s filled with people every way you look.

“Where have you been!” Franny yelled at you as you walked off the elevator to your floor, “We’ve been trying to call you dude,”

You shrug your shoulders, not seeing the big deal, “I was at the beach.”

Franny’s face contorted, clearly confused, “You were at the beach...in sweatpants?”

Brushing off her comment, you pull your key card and walk into your room only to have 4 pairs of eyes on you. “Uh, hello?” you said, cautiously stepping further into the room.

An abundance of questions and comments started filling the room.

“What the fuck (Y/n),” from Jc

“We thought you got kidnapped,” from Corey

“Next time bring your phone if you’re gonna run off,” from Bobby

Your eyes locked on Kian’s, waiting for him to say something about your actions but it became clear he didn’t want to talk when he got off the bed and locked himself in the bathroom.

“Seriously, (y/n), what the hell happened?” Corey asks as they make space for you on the bed.

You couldn’t understand why everyone was freaking out over your disappearance until you looked at the clock. 1:45pm.

You were out for almost 6 hours with no phone, no way to contact anyone if anything happened. When you left, you didn’t even think about bringing anything with you. You also hadn’t expected to be there for as long as you were.

“Listen, I’m sorry, okay? I went to the beach and I didn’t realize how long I was out for. I forgot to grab my phone before I left,” your fingers played with the drawstring on your pants. You knew if you said anything else they’d bombard you with more questions.

You could feel everyone looking at each other and then at you and then at the bathroom door. Everyone assumed you and Kian probably had an argument and you didn’t want to be near him, but little did they know it was the complete opposite.

“As long as everything’s good,” Franny said, giving you her ‘I know something’s up but I’ll pretend you’re fine’ look.

You let out a little laugh when Corey said from behind his phone screen, “We’re just glad you’re not dead. That would have put a damper on this trip,”

“Oh thanks Cor. Glad that all you care about is your vacation,” you joked, rolling your eyes at him.

“Well am I wrong?” He retorted causing you to throw a pillow hitting him square in the face.

Your friends started their own conversations, finally leaving you alone. Nobody seemed to notice that Kian was still in the bathroom. You knew you couldn’t avoid him forever, as much as you wanted to, but right now he’s the one avoiding you.

You texted him that you needed to talk but minutes passed and he didn't answer. You felt a pinch on your heart when you saw he read it.

Just as you were going to give up on him, Kian emerges from the bathroom, instantly locking eyes with you. The room went silent and once again all eyes were on you.

Neither you or Kian said a word, but it was clear that he wanted to talk when he tilted his head towards the door. In the background your friends fake coughing to ease the tension but when the hotel room door opens, they begin to whisper like little kids.

The two of you walk a couple rooms down the hall for privacy. You settle next to Kian on a bench you guys found by the elevators. Your fingers found their way to the drawstring once again, putting all your attention on anything but Kian.

“Why’d you leave?” Kian asked, his voice low and barely audible. You could hear the hurt in his voice as he spoke, “There were so many ways you could have gone, but just leaving? No note, no text. Nothing, (y/n).”

Your eyes roamed every inch of the room, not daring to make eye contact all while Kian never took his off of you. He studied your features, up and down, like he’s never seen you before. But he knows you. He knows you’re feeling guilty and scared. He knows you’re mad at yourself for letting him back in so easily. He spent 3 years with you, 3 years studying every facial feature, every look you make.

“I just..” You started to say, but as you opened your mouth every thought you had sublimated, “I don’t know why I left, okay? I just woke up and you were next to me and I don’t fucking know, Kian.”

The two of you stayed quiet, neither of you knowing what to say to the other.

“Do you regret last night?” Kian asks, finally taking his gaze off of you, knowing if he continued looking at you, he would get the answer he was dreading.

No.

Not one second.

Tell him! Tell him you don’t regret it

Just say it, (y/n).

Your head was spinning with words but nothing seemed to come out of your mouth. Kian got the hint, that your silence was your answer. He stood up, ready to walk away.

You couldn’t tell him he was wrong. That you never wanted last night to end. It was as if your lips were glued shut, keeping in a secret you swore you’d never tell.

“I don’t,” you finally blurted out before Kian could take another couple steps away from you, “Last night, I don’t regret it.”

You could see Kian’s lips pull into a small smile before you turned around to sit next to you again.

“Then why’d you leave? And go off the grid for half the day?” Kian leaned back, resting his around on the ledge behind you. It took everything in him not to grab your hands and comfort you like he used to.

“Honestly? I knew if I stayed we’d have to talk about what happened. And not last night. I wasn’t ready but then I started thinking, and it’s not fair to you.”

Kians head rocked back and forth, taking in your answer but not getting the information he wanted. “Glad you’re finally realizing that,” Kian said, not completely joking, “So can you finally tell me what the fuck happened that made you leave us the way you did?”

You took a deep breath, sewing together words into sentences, hoping whatever you were about to say came out correct, “I just got scared,”

So many words. So many sentences. But that’s all you could get out.

“Scared of what though?”

“You. And Andrea.”

“Me and And- (Y/n), what the hell? Because of our friendship?”

You nodded, “You guys were getting close again and I felt like it was just a matter of time before your feelings for her came back and we just stopped being us.”

Kian let out a small laugh, realizing how far off you were with your assumption. You shot a look at Kian, making him go serious, “Look, me and Andrea had history, yeah. But I was with you. I love you. You’re the only person I wanted to be with. Me and Andrea broke up for a reason.”

“But still. You were spending so much time with her. It was like you forgot about me and I just couldn’t do it anymore. So i left.”

The memory of that night played so clearly in your head. It did every night since the breakup.

“Franny, I can’t. Every time they’re together it’s like I disappear from his life and everything is about her.” You were holding back the tears as you confessed to Franny. You were going back and forth about leaving Kian. You wanted to stay and deal with this with him but you could only fight for so long.

“Did you walk to him about it? Does he even know how you feel?” Franny asks as she cradles your body, doing anything she can to keep you calm.

You couldn’t speak. You knew if you did a waterfall of tears would come and there’s no stopping until your eyes were empty of tears.

“I think you should keep fighting for him. But I get it. If you mentally and emotionally can’t deal with her being around anymore then maybe this is the end, (y/n).” Franny’s words kept replaying over and over.

This is the end.

3 years of your life gone just like that.

Everything you and Kian built together.

Every morning. Every night. Every kiss. Every touch.

Everything

Just like that, it’s all gone.

You picked yourself off the bed and headed straight for the closet. Grabbing your suitcase and bags, you stuffed all your belongings you had scattered around Kian’s room into them, praying you didn’t leave anything behind.

All the guys were out for the night, which gave you your chance to leave without anyone seeing.

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Franny asked as she met you at the bedroom door, getting ready to follow you out.

“No, but I know this is what’s good for me.” You say before exiting the room.

You were staying at Franny’s for a couple weeks until you could find your own apartment. Not a day went by that Kian didn’t try reaching out to you. Whether it’s a call or text or showing up unannounced at Fran’s.

“Please let me talk to her, Fran. I haven’t heard from her in a week. I need to know she’s okay,” you could hear Kian say from his spot behind the front door. You could hear his voice crack, knowing he was seconds away from a breakdown.

“Kian, I know you love her, but she needs space. She’s fine I promise. We’re all looking after her. But you need to let her get her head straight.”

And he did. He stopped calling, and texting, and showing up unexpectedly.

He moved on.

But you never did.

“It wasn’t fair to me. Do you know how bad that fucked me up (y/n)? All I wanted to do was talk to you and I couldn’t even do that.” Kian played with his fingers, reliving that moment in time all over again.

The feelings from months ago came rushing back. All the sleepless night, the numerous reach outs, every night he went to bed without you got harder and harder.

“I know. And I wanted to call you but by the time everything settled down I didn’t think it was right to put you through it all again,” tears pricked your eyes as you just now realized Kian never moved on. For months all he thought about was you. Just like all you thought about was him.

“So now what?” Kian asked, breaking the silence that fell upon the two of you.

You hadn’t thought this far ahead when you were racking your brain on what could possibly happen. You wanted him in you life, whether as a friend or more. You missed his presence every day he was gone.

“I don’t really know. We can’t exactly pick up where we left off,” You glance as Kian to find him already looking at you.

You knew that wasn’t true. You could pick up where you left off, But a couple hours before that. You could fix everything together and nothing would change.

“I mean,” Kian said as he leaned forward, not once taking his eyes off of you, “We can. It wasn’t that hard for us last night,” You eyes fluttered to his lips. His tongue gliding over them as he inched closer to you, “Do you want to pick up where we left off?”

Your attention was brought back to his eyes. For once you didn’t think twice about your actions. You leaned forward, colliding your lips with his.

Everything happening around you stopped. The entire world was put on pause and the only thing happening was this moment with Kian.

“I’m assuming that’s a yes,” Kian muttered as he pulled away, his lips ghosting over yours.

“Of course it’s a yes,” you say before continuing your moment with him.

#kl #kian lawley #kian lawley imagine #masterlist #prompt #imagine #knj #kian and jc #kian and jc imagine #bobby mares #corey la barrie #franny arrieta #jc caylen

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amethystshipper · 4 years

Text

I was scrolling through my dash, as one does, and saw .gifs of the scene where the juniors are defending WWX to Sect leader Yao, and I was just smiling and thinking “ah, the kids are all right this time, it will be better”. And then I realized that ... the kids were all right the previous generation, too? And it would have been so easy to see them band together, especially after everything?

Hear me out. In essence, there’s no difference between the juniors and the ... OG juniors. (We need a name for them. Is there a name for that generation??? Cause we have the parents, and we have the juniors, what are WWX&co named??? Whatever, I’m sticking with OG juniors.) Each of these groups went through shitty situations, the OGs arguably through worse with the war and all. But before the war, we have 2 major bonding moments: the Cloud Recesses classes, and the Wen indoctrination. What if they actually bonded together, and their relationships were more flushed out? (Keep in mind I only saw the live-action drama, so that’s what I’m basing everything on.)

So, Cloud Recesses. You have the Jiangs, and then NSH, LWJ, WN and WQ added to the group, more or less willingly. JZX is still being a little bitch, but whatever, he’s there too, along with MianMian, who is arguably his biggest contribution. I will admit, there are ... levels ... of closeness. But you have the three gremlins getting together, and LWJ pulled in (again, levels), you have star-struck WN and tough WQ (who, need I remind you, took care of JYL at least once, which I bet the latter will not forget). You have LQR spitting blood because the boy is definitely his mother’s son, but LXC smiling indulgently, seeing his little brother finally make friends. (And LQR will remember that CSR was mischief made human form, and her son definitely follows in her footsteps, but both of them wanted always to help and not destroy, so there is definitely something wrong with the accusations that WWX wants to take over the world. And LXC will remember the Wen boy who stayed behind to save one of their own, and the Wei boy who dived in to help them both, and will not believe the grim tales of the fierce Ghost General and the Yiling Patriarch.)

After CR, WWX/LWJ/JC/NHS have their little murder adventure, with a WQ cameo. LWJ is added to the gremlin dynamic and sure, he might not feel like he fits in at first, but WWX cannot seem to stay away from him, and he suffers in silence with JC while WWX is being an idiot and risking his life, omg, stop that, get down you demented cat, and then finds that there’s a certain bond little brothers with big brothers larger-than-life have, and maybe having two more friends is. Acceptable. They’re all supposed to be 15-16 at this point, teenage boys that started this adventure fully confident, at least on the outside. And then Xue Yang happens. And this is, I think, one of the biggest turning point for these four. Because, to a certain degree, all of them rely on rules. Their own, if nothing else. And here is a guy who just ... wants to see the world burn. He kills with no remorse, admits it gleefully, and is just awful in so many ways. This is their first brush with how brutal the outside world is, when they start to doubt themselves and their convictions. But then! XXC and SL appear, and it’s a breath of fresh air! Because there are terrible people and worse situations, but as long as they hold fast in their beliefs and work together and trust eachother, they can beat them!

So they go to the Unclean Realm, and they meet Daddy NMJ. And he’s been watching them approach, and he sees his little brother laughing with the boy in black, he sees him cackling while the one in purple is swinging his fists around; he sees him share a smile with Xichen’s little brother while the other two are laughing so hard they’re bent over so far they’re almost falling to the ground. And he doesn’t show it, because the Red Blade Master is gruff, and tough, and mighty, but in his heart he’s already adopted these kids who include his baby brother in their circle with so much ease, it’s hard to imagine him on the outside. (And in the future, when people are yelling about WWX’s darkness, this is the image he will have in his head: four boys being innocent and happy and his, how dare you try to touch them?!)

Cloud Recesses burns. LXC is nowhere. And then. The biggest paradigm shift - the indoctrination. Everyone arrives in Nightless City. The three OG gremlins watch LWJ back to his jade statue default, they lose their swords, they are on the same side with JZX and WWX/JC don’t know which one of these frustrates them more. It should be the looming war. It’s probably the JZX part. Now, I assume they spend at least a few weeks there, I don’t remember if it’s mentioned. But WWX always tried to get in front, to catch WC’s attention. (Because he’s the disposable one, right? High enough in status that WC is satisfied when he gets to punish him, but not a sect heir, not someone who will bring down a whole sect if he dies. Little does he know.) So don’t tell me that the others don’t rally around him. (Discreetly of course. They learn fast that he just gets more protective if others are hurt because of him.) There’s nothing stronger than a common enemy, and the Wens and WC, specifically, are definitely that. So they watch, and they remember WWX being beaten, whipped, humiliated, all so that others will not be. Not to mention that one night that he doesn’t tell even JC about, because it would crush his little brother to know he couldn’t keep his promise. They remember him staying behind so that they have a chance to escape the murder turtle. (And after the war, when the adults will try to damn WWX for being too arrogant and too prideful, the OG juniors will remember the kid who stood up to the Wen clan and has the scars to prove it, and all to protect them. Where was Jin Guangshan? Where was Sect leader Yao?)

Lotus pier burns. WWX disappears. JC and LWJ look for him for 3 months. And then. And then he comes back. And he burns the Sun to the ground, using dark cultivation and corpses and no sword, and everything that they were taught not to do, ever. And he succeeds where everyone else fails.

Afterwards, when the dust settles but not really, when life comes back to normal but not quite, when things become too boring apparently, the young ones see their elders muttering. And gossip. And look a bit too much at WWX, too closely. But this was a generation forged in the fires of war. They were not like their parents, who had time to figure out their shit and then go to battle, no. They were kids when it all started. There are no more kids amongst them now.

So when the minor sect leaders, subtly encouraged by JGS and JGY, talk about the “young” LC being a leader at such a young age with honeyed words that hide rot, NMJ and LXC rise to his defense. Both of them became sect leaders at young ages, both of them know how hard it is. LQR rises as well and the older ones expect him to be on their side, but they forget LQR got entrusted with a clan and 2 children that he was not supposed to have, so he will never demean another who was in an even worse position, but rose to the occasion despite everything that happened. The Lans promote knowledge and learning above all, and many people can learn a lot from Sandu Shengshou, wouldn’t you agree Sect leader Yao?

When the Jin sect complains about the Stygian Tiger Seal, rumors begin to spread from behind hand painted fans that they are after the artifacts of other sects. After all, does WWX not belong to YungmengJiang? Therefore, do his creations not belong to the sect as well? Who’s to say they won’t go after the treasures of the other sects next?

When JYL destroys Jin Zixun at Phoenix Mountain, JZX steps up to the plate and stands behind his fiancee. WWX is obviously her little brother that she cares deeply about, he will be his future brother-in-law, and honestly Zixun where were you even during the war?? You have demands now because?? Go shoot some arrows and chill. (JC is just standing there with crossed arms, looking at Jin Zixun without blinking, keeping a tight grip over Zidian who is the definition of “lemme at him!!!” Jiejie doesn’t like it when he slices and dices people, although she’s not leaving much for him to chew on. It’s the most fun he’s had in years.)

When JGY sweetly suggest that there might be a viper poised to strike them in the back, NHS innocently asks “but San-Ge, didn’t your blow to WRH’s back help us win the war?” (NMJ has never loved his brother more than when he roasts JGY. Really, he could cry with pride. Here, A-Sang, there’s that fan you wanted. I ordered new birdcages to be build back home, you can have all the birds you want. Training is ... postponed.)

When news about the labor camps and the slaughtered Wens are revealed, many stay silent. A few of them cheer. But there are also a few that remember a boy willing to save someone from drowning, willing to risk his life to save the dead bodies of two parents. They remember the best doctor of their generation helping them heal, and rest, and save their loved ones. They remember that they are not the only children who were taken by this war, that they were not the only ones forced to make awful choices that haunt their dreams. They remember that it’s easy to stand back, but yet there was always one who stood up for the others, who would stand up for them, so how can they not stand with him now when he most need it?

WWX is not alone. The YungmengJiang clan is not alone. These kids went through hell and back in the past couple of years, and they will be damned if they will let another rise in WRH’s place. This ends now.

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