Wen Qing is just So Much. She's a leader doing her damned best to protect her people. She's a sister desperately trying to protect her brother. She never managed to kill her heart, risking it all over and over out of kindness. She is so impossibly kind. She is so horribly guilty. She cannot bear to ask for help. She can't do anything but ask for help to save her people, her brother. She can never forgive herself for letting wwx throw himself into the whole mess. She can barely live with the knowledge of what she turned her brother into out of a selfish desire to have him by her side. She is helpless and detests it. She's the best doctor in the land. She takes Jiang Cheng’s comb and keeps it till she thinks she's lost the heart and hope it gave her forever. She understands only too well what it means to give everything to protect those you're in charge of. She looks at the brother she gained, whose home she plucked out of him along with his core, and understands only too well what it means to give everything to protect those you're in charge of. She still loathes what she let him do, what she did for them; instead of culling her guilt, it only increased it tenfold. She is so tired of fighting, because the cost is no longer her; everyone who tries to pull her out gets sucked in as well. Her hope is so tattered at the end that she walks towards death with her people following and her brother's hand in hers. She smiles at the end, still fighting, still hoping that she can protect at least one of the people she cared for. How can one person carry all that and not buckle under its weight? Just. She!!!

Chapter 1 of Wen Ning Gets a Life is up!

OK, I looked at the poll results and it seems like the consensus is "just fucking post it," so without further ado: Chapter 1 of Wen Ning Gets a Life is up. Let's get that fierce corpse (disappointingly) laid! (You will need an AO3 account to read it.)

Title: Wen Ning Gets a Life

Rating: E

Pairings: Wen Ning/Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (background)

Summary:

Sometime after the events of the novel, Wen Ning receives a series of good surprises: 1. Wen Qing is alive. 2. She has a plan to make him alive, too. 3. That plan involves sex with Wei Wuxian, his best friend and long-time crush. (And Lan Wangji.) Unfortunately, nothing has ever gone according to plan in Wen Ning's entire life, and it looks like his unlife won't be any different—especially once Jiang Cheng gets involved.

from this poll

You're Gonna Go Far, Kid | The Offspring

another concept that has lived in my mind rent-free for so long that I've finally gotten around to creating! these boys are just such [clenches fist] incredible narrative foils. I am truly team #morallygreybisexualtwink.

Wen Ning came back wrong.

He was still gentle. He was still sweet and shy. Wen Qing’s soft-spoken little brother, with his big, dark eyes. Shy and awkward around people he didn’t know. Too shy and too awkward to get to know almost anybody. Ever-eager to help, ever-willing to offer kindness to anyone willing to take it. The same as he’d always been.

But Wen Ning came back wrong.

He’d been frail and fragile when he was younger, and timid and spineless when he’d grown. He’d needed Wen Qing to protect him, helpless and weak as he was. She’d tried to bully him into standing up for himself, but mostly she’d tried to shield him from the harshness of the world. He was so naive, so idealistic, so oblivious to the darkness in other people. Her brother, always so afraid. Her brother, who did as he was told, who trusted her to make decisions for him. Her brother, who never ever talked back.

His defiance started with Wei Wuxian, but it didn’t stop with him. Wen Ning had been apologetic and guilty before, when he went against her orders. He’d at least had the shame to wait until she turned her head before he broke her rules. Since his resurrection she hasn’t been able to get him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. He doesn’t even pretend to listen to her. He refuses her, now, quietly but unquestionably, and no amount of arguing will convince him to stay where she can see him, where she can take care of him, where she can keep him safe. He goes where he pleases, and she cannot hold him.

Which means Wen Ning came back wrong.

He used to waste so much time with his bow, hours and hours shooting targets when he should have been helping her brew medicine. Now he spends his time testing his new and terrible strength. He tears ancient trees from the ground root and all. Shreds the training dummies Wei Wuxian builds for him into kindling, and when Wei Wuxian makes them sturdier Wen Ning hits them harder. She stands on the edge of the wards surrounding the Burial Mounds and watches Wei Wuxian layer talismans around the boulder they’re using as the target’s head, chattering about the strength of helmets and the density of the human skull, how much pressure it takes to deal lethal amounts of damage through armor. Wen Ning reaches out and, almost casual, crushes the boulder into so many chunks of debris. Wei Wuxian sputters and laughs. Her frail little brother flexes his pale, clawed, deadly fingers, looking oh so very pleased with himself.

He hunts. He patrols their settlement with a lethal kind of control in his movements, coiled-tight and waiting. He rips resentful creatures apart with his hands. Wei Wuxian asks if he’s ever killed a human before, during the war or the camps, before his death. Wen Qing wants to say of course not, because Wen Ning is her brother and her brother was not a killer, could not be. Only Wen Ning had tilted his head to the side, bird-like. Kneaded his fingers against the edge of the table like he was finding his grip on a weapon. Asked why Wei-Gongzi wanted to know, and nodded earnestly when Wei Wuxian mentioned needing a bodyguard for his trip to Lanling.

Wen Ning came back wrong.

Wen Qing can’t figure out how. Can’t describe it, exactly. No one else seems to notice or care. Their sweet a-Ning, their gentle, kind, soft-spoken a-Ning. He’s still here. He’s still right here.

But Wen Ning came back wrong.

He came back wrong.

He had to have come back wrong.

Because if he didn’t… then Wen Qing never really knew her brother at all, did she?

ok I'm sorry I promise this is the last long post in a row but I think somehow people have misinterpreted Wen Qing's death scene as purely a fridging scene for mxtx to get out of having to write a strong female character any more. I think this, though understandable as a cynical take, is surface level and takes away a very important aspect of this scene-- Wen Qing and Wen Ning were sacrificing themselves. They had a choice and they made it, so definitively that they literally drugged wwx to prevent them from interfering because they knew he would try to stop them. To take away this element removes the agency of their characters, and dilutes the resounding theme of sacrifice and succession in mdzs that appears in every corner of the book. So why did Wen Ning get to be revived while Wen Qing stayed dead? Because of the equally foundational mdzs theme of power and control. Wen Qing is a manifestation of that pesky free will and independence that interferes with the main mdzs villains' need for subservient accomplices-- her existence as a point of power was only allowed with the expectation of her compliance under Wen Ruohan, and her reestablishment as a free agent removed that safety and added more suspicious eyes on her, ones that knew that she couldn't be trusted to stay in her place without acting back. The only reason Wen Ning was kept living by the institution he sacrificed himself to is because he could be, in the most literal sense, dehumanized and controlled. Wen Ning as he is imprisoned in Koi Tower for 13 years is, like women like Qin Su, merely an object. A tool for further power gains whose body is wholly exploited for the selfish actions of the 1%. The Wen sibling's sacrifice is one of the most tragic scenes in mdzs not because it represents a meaningless fridging of a character that might have had potential, but because it exemplifies how those with power in society can exploit even the most well-intentioned martyrdoms by dehumanizing the sacrifices and taking the silence that follows their death as an invitation to spread manipulation without backlash from the martyrs.

well me and MY husband can see colors only known to shrimp

Day 3: Supernatural, Prompt: Modern Cultivators

No, but hear me out. If modern samurais and ninjas can be Sentai/Power Rangers, so can modern cultivators.

speaking of needing to finish certain playlists, if you have good songs for:

wen qing

jiang yanli

nie huaisang

mo xuanyu

nie bros

jiang siblings

wen siblings

mo xuanyu and wei wuxian

pleasseee send them to me love and light

chapter 4 of ”this precious soul of mine, it’s so beautiful”

this is another monster of a chapter! we have:

wen ning being a pouty li’l bro

wen qing and wwx family bonding

lwj plotting how to woo wwx and being hornee (as usual, but this time from his pov)

wwx upping his flirting game and dealing ko to lwj through the whole chapter, only to lose to lwj’s fledgling flirting skills at the end

wangxian clearing the air between them

wangxian nighthunting together

*gasp* someone getting hurt...?!

as usual, snippet under a read more!

“There you are!”

He heard a tinkling laugh. His mouth softened in an approximation of a smile even before he turned his head.

“Hello, Wei Ying,” he greeted.

Another laugh graced his ears. “So casual! Oh, Lan Zhan, if only fifteen year old me knew we would be so close that you would greet me with a simple ‘hello’!”

Lan Wangji’s lips curled upwards a bit more. “Are we not close?”

Wei Wuxian collapsed into the seat next to him in a heap of giggles. “Lan Zhan—! Hehe… How can you - ahaha - tease me like this?”

He leaned onto Lan Wangji, letting him carry his weight while he tried to get the giggles under control. Lan Wangji moved his squished arm from under Wei Wuxian, for a moment letting it hover in the air as he didn’t know what to do with it. After a moment of hesitation, he settled it around Wei Wuxian’s waist, tucking him closer into his side, ostentatiously to not let him fall; in all honesty, he just wanted to bask in the warmth emanating from the other man. His right side felt scalding, and the heat spread to his whole body, making him wish he could loosen the collars of his robes at least a little.

“Haa…” Wei Wuxian sighed out the last chuckle. “I stand corrected, if only fifteen year old me could hear that! And from Lan Zhan’s own mouth!” he said gleefully.

Lan Wangji did not disturb his fun, feeling very indulgent even as he was more and more consumed by their shared warmth. He did not want to alert him to their position either, as surely he would straighten up if he were to notice. With his free hand, he summoned a waiter and asked for some snacks and more tea, at Wei Wuxian’s request.

“You do not want to drink?” he asked, surprised.

Wei Wuxian shot him a side glance, mouth pursed in fake indignation. “Alcohol, in broad daylight? Why, what an opinion you must have of me, Hanguang-jun!” he protested loftily.

Lan Wangji shifted slightly, feeling chagrined. Even though he knew Wei Wuxian’s scolding was playful, his assumption was still out of line.

At his agitation, Wei Wuxian put more of his weight onto his side and leaned over slightly to place his head lightly on his shoulder. Lan Wangji’s breath caught. Both of them sat very carefully still, but when neither objected, Wei Wuxian relaxed. His head was a precious weight on his shoulder, strands of fine and silky hair tickling his neck and the underside of his jaw.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jiāng Yànlí/Niè Míngjué/Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī) Characters: Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī), Jiāng Yànlí, Niè Míngjué, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, POV Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī), Polyamory, Established Relationship, Foursome - F/F/M/M, Kissing, Cunnilingus, Nipple Play, Light BDSM, Fluff and Smut Series: Part 3 of we four and our bodies Summary:

"So much fuss!" Wen Qing protests, only half meaning it, as they take turns kissing her. Mingjue shuts the bedroom door with a click before taking his turn; Xichen moves away, presumably to unmake the bed; it’s almost like they’ve choreographed the dance.

"We missed you," Yanli says and moves in to kiss her as soon as Mingjue steps aside.

--

Wen Qing comes home from a conference and gets quite the welcome back.

This is my contribution to the wonderful MDZS Women Flash Exchange! Frostferox’s prompts went perfectly with my “let Wen Qing be spoiled” agenda :3

"the yunmeng trio are a family" lmao, let's see JC's perspective 👇

JC to WWX: YoU WeRE SuPpoSEd tO Be My SuBOrdiNatE-

If JC & WWX really are a family (which they are not), then it's very toxic. Every time JC opens his mouth it's about things like 'you owe a debt to my sect' and 'my father favours you' and 'you are the cause of my sect's destruction' and 'my mother was right about you'. This kind of power dynamic is better off not called a familial relationship.

In contrast, yiling trio won't kill each other and they also deeply respect one another, so it's a healthier relationship. There's no superior-inferior dynamic going on between them. They are more 'family' than yunmeng trio could ever be.

I guess JYL could be WWX's family, she isn't malicious, loves WWX enough to sacrifice her life for him, but not powerful enough to do much either. As for JC? I don't think he would be happy if WWX is considered as a part of his family, unless a servant is also considered family. After all, the only advantage JC has over WWX all his life is his gentry status, how could a classist like JC ever be willing to see WWX, the 'son of a servant', in the same social class as himself?

jc with his daemon 🥺🥺 bc of course i gotta focus on my blorbo so my first thought is the tragedy of jc never knowing if she’s his or wwx’s

Same, honestly.

I don't know either. It's possible that crushing his golden core operated as a form of intercision, separating Jiang Cheng from his daemon but not immediately killing either of them. In that scenario, Wen Ning could have smuggled both Jiang Cheng and his daemon out of Lotus Pier, and the golden core surgery just reestablished the connection (while severing Wei Wuxian's connection to his daemon).

The other option is she simply disappeared and then reappeared after the golden core surgery, and no one precisely knows how that worked or what happened to Wei Wuxian's daemon, which... sucks. For her, but also everyone else involved, since I can't imagine Wen Qing felt OK about that?

Either way, the daemon's existence can't be exactly related to having a golden core, since everyone has a daemon but not everyone has a golden core. Rather, crushing a core probably damages whatever structure is used to anchor the daemon to the human, sometimes killing one or both, but not always.

That said, in either scenario, I think the new golden core would have affected what forms it was possible for Jiang Cheng's daemon to take, and that after the surgery, it would be impossible for her to ever to take the form of a dog or wolf. (Without his upbringing, responsibilities, and Wei Wuxian's trauma, I think one of those would have been the most natural adult form for him.)

...to be loved is to get tricked into secret nonconsensual surgery that changes the literal shape of your soul?

Why is this ENTIRE EPISODE about Wangxian killing the owl. I am reasonably certain that they devote more screentime to Wangxian trying to kill the owl than they give to Qin Su in her entirety.

aaaaand because I love you guys, you can have some runner up art too - jin sibs!

so a while back @justkeeptrekkin and I were discussing potential ideas for what a sequel to their amazing xiyao spy AU Beg, Bite, Kiss might look like, and since it's unlikely to get written now I thought I'd share some... I guess you could call it concept art!

essentially, the three eldest Jin sibs would team up to rescue their newly-discovered little brother Xuanyu from the clutches of the remains of the Wen corporation, who want to use his DNA to access the dangerous experimental tech in the Jin vault! it's very much a "retired spies come back for one last job and this time it's personal" situation.

"If Jiang Cheng is all about debts, he should repay his debts to Wen Qing and Wen Ning!"

What debts? The two were from a sect that decimated his own. Be it willingly or not, they occupied the burned remains of his sect and helped the war effort on the Wen side (whilst assisting WWX and JC, but bear in mind, WQ only did it begrudgingly due to the risks associated with asissiting them. It's funny that y'all would jump to her defence whilst shitting on JC when she was in the exact same position he was in btw. But that's a debate for another day~).

Expecting him to pay a debt to the people that were, to at least some degree, complicit in numerous genocides is pretty messed up.

Even then, JC DID vouch for them to express his gratitude for helping him and WWX to escape and get their parent's remains back. But the other leaders shut him down when he did and scoffed at him. I feel like I've said this so many times on here, but he was in no position to argue any further on the matter. Especially when a more established sect leader like LXC was shut down, too.

As for the core transfer that he didn't consent to, how can he thank someone for that when he never knew it had happened in the first place?? Or asked for, for that matter?? The whole thing made him feel shitty anyway when he found out about it.

WQ and WWX, although both had good intentions, still had no right to experiment on him like that and keep this very invasive secret from him for so long, too. You can't just do something for someone without them knowing or consenting and expect them to repay that "debt" when you find yourself in a pinch. That's kinda like blackmail and is very coercive.. Something WWX and the Wen sibs are certainly not..

Then there's the situation with WN. Sure, he could be thankful for WN helping to get him to safety and treating his wounds (which, see my earlier point, JC did express gratitude.) But that opportunity kinda all fizzled out when WN killed JZX (I know it was an accident due to him being under the influence of DC but let's be real. That resentment is going to be there. Espeically since the topic greatly upsets JL soooo).

Even all that aside, you seriously can't expect JC to "repay his debts" and help WN and WQ out of that situation when the whole CW was against them. Helping them was suicidal and would bring on the wrath of the other major sects. And we all saw how that went for WWX (as JC rightly predicted)..

Had JC sided with the Wens and took them in to "pay his debts," he would have dragged the whole of his sect into the siege that happened soon after. This would mean more innocents would have been involved, and it would be the destruction of Lotus Pier all over again (and quite possibly the destruction of the Jiang, too). JC had to prioritise his own people. He would be a shit leader otherwise.

I feel as though some of y'all put some unrealistic expectations on JC when assessing his character. Especially when you compare him to the others in the story (returning back to my point I made earlier about him and WQ and how similar they both are).

On the topic of "debts" though, I would also like to argue that doing a good deed out of the kindness of your heart shouldn't be seen as a debt. And if you do something with the expectation that someone would do something for you back in kind, wouldn't that make you a shitty person? Is that what you're implying the Wen sibs are (or should be) ? Self-serving people who only help others if something is to be gained? 🤨

But what about the "debt" JC goes on about, you might ask? Oh, you mean the PROMISE that WWX made HIMSELF? That he would stay by JC's side? And be his subordinate? To fulfil his role as promised and expected of him?

That wasn't a debt.

WWX construed it as being one, but it doesn't fit the criteria, honestly. What WWX had was an obligation. He made that promise himself, and JC held him to it. It wasn't one JC forced him into as some form of servitiude, nor was it made in return for bed and board or something.

We know JC isn't truly about holding debts over others. If he was, he would have dangled his own sacrifice over WWX and used that to guilt trip him instead. Or force him to pay him back in kind. But he never did. Why? Because he loved WWX, and he didn't want him to feel "indebted" to him. Especially when WWX revealed his feelings of "letting go and moving on" to him.

You could go on forever about debts and who owes who what, but the thing is, each of these characters have hurt eachother in one way or another that at this point, the notion of who owes what doesn't matter anymore. The situation is far more complex than that. That's why all "debts" were dropped at the end, and JC and WWX just moved on. I feel that was the message MXTX tried to convey in her work. About moving on and letting go of grudges. Perhaps JC antis should take on that advice? And move on too?