#Nie Huaisang too but for different reasons

[thoroughlycollected]

I was listening to Ms Jepsen as one does, enjoying the new album and with an older track or two occasionally slipped in and anyway—

I think the first time modern au Lan Wangji heard “All That” he laid down on his bed in his outside clothes (over the covers, of course) and spiraled about Wei Ying for two hours while the song played on repeat.

(He also likes No One Dies From Love by Tove Lo)

#i recently began to ship NMJxLWJxWWX so Wangji thinks about him too #especially if it’s an au with established NMJxWWX and LWJ is pining after them both?! #Xichen heard the song repeating through their shared bedroom wall #he’d go over to comfort Wangji except he had to lay on the floor and think about JGY #Jiang Cheng sings this song in his heart @ literally everyone poor bub #he just wants to be wanted #Yanli’s song is Happy Not Knowing btw #Nie Huaisang too but for different reasons #i’m musing #cql #lwj #my beloved #my blorbo

[tbgkaru-woh]

hi! i was just wondering what it is specifically that you dislike about wangxian? i'm kind of intrigued, because while i get how someone could find them boring, i've never really considered anything about their dynamic (and as you mentioned in response to a previous anon, their confession scene) particularly off putting. no pressure to answer this, and this is in no way hate towards you i'm just genuinely curious <3 (i love your art by the way it's gorgeous)

Thank you for the compliment! ♥ This is gonna get ranty so I will hide it below read more as not everyone has to deal with reading this, so proceed with caution :'D

Wangxian is the weakest WWX dynamic. On god, even if I'm not fond of Yanli, they have very loving relationship where they are protective of each other and gentle with each other in a harsh world. I don't ship WWX/JC but their story and complicated love of someone you grow up with and care for deeply but clash constantly with is more interesting than anything wangxian ever had. Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian clicked together so naturally, they are chaotic and are similiarly not too interested in being up to rules. Jin Zixuan and WWX had a potential of going from enemies to partners in crime, to become family and have each other's backs but JZX was cut short and WWX never really cared afterwards either. WWX with the wens took time to build up but his YLLZ farmer era was one of the best WWX's in the story. Damn, even Lan Xichen who's always amused with WWX's temperament and secretly has a drink with wwx and is altogether looser with the rules while still being lawful matches with him way more than LWJ where there's... nothing. They were smashed together for convenience and we were suppossed to just go with it cause they are the two main characters. LWJ feels like he was just made so WWX has a "hot stoic top" to fuck him and the rest of the characters are actually build with the story and therefore feel more natural

Wangxian don't feel like they are in love, not in the way the fans make them out to be into some romantic picture perfect angsty deserved lovestory. LWJ's personal space is constantly disrespected, he's punished constantly for WWX's mistakes, he constantly needs to be the one to adjust to how WWX is instead of the other way around and after all that, LWJ doesn't really /know/ WWX so his attraction feels very idealized. WWX is the bad boy that goes against the rules and LWJ wishes he could be that (or with that) but it's almost a childish infatuation from their Gusu days that never evolved into something more mature. And WWX? I can't see how he'd like LWJ as anything more than in a physical sense. Even their obnoxious "Back then I wanted to sleep with you" confession scene is purely physical. He doesn't really know LWJ or respects him, LWJ is just a familiar face in a world that is against WWX and he's a hot body that likes him. LWJ is an easy score in a way, he's a safe option. And it'd be SO interesting if they went into that, but instead it's played like the only true love (dont forget, they are meant to be as the ONLY gay pairing in MDZS which I find insane when everyone else has more chemistry and in the end gets shat on so wangxian can fuck in a bush. I mean, LWJ leaves LXC to be depressed and alone after everything LXC stands for and did? Fucking ridiculous.)

It tries to "subvert" tropes but ends up being more stereotypical than anything. WWX was almost meant as this jock-y rebellious hotshot but instead we got a quirky twink, early 2000s shonen protagonist and every yaoi's Uke I've been seeing since like 2008. Are they suppossed to be different because the "stoic white-coded" one is not the bottom? Is the bar this low? If anything, this ornament top is the most usual top, let's be real, LWJ barely has personality or growth or focus, he's there to fuck WWX.

This is a petty reason but MXTX's "wangxian is the only gay couple" everyone else being implied straight as if to highlight just how real their love is that they are gay in time period where it's frowned upon, even though Yi City and 3zun combinations had more chemistry than anyone is. Annoying. And so is the "Don't ship them with anyone else and don't switch their dynamics" that fuels some of the most obnoxious people in the fandom to go after fanwork creators that do/like things differently.

All in all Wangxian is THE face of danmei, they are the most known even outside of danmei circles and they are extremely mediocry written for that. I mean, fuck, you put straight couple in their place and I guarantee no one would like it, it has the depth of a high school hormone-riddled couple who have different classes and "only" get to see each other during breaks and make out during lunch with others at the table, idk it's so fucking annoying to me when I know there were better options, when WWX had so many interesting dynamics that got shat on in favor of bland ass ship and I'm tired of having to like it/tolerate it just because it's gay.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk, this was extremely healing 🤣

#hcs #hc #this is of course my subjective perception of it #i just can't believe this is the most popular couple #if it was less so or not the main one i wouldnt even mind them #also i'm fine with them as standalone characters #just not together. #i will still make them together as a scenery to MY ships cause it makes it feel more canon #but i definitely dont go out of my way to interact with that ship #which is fine #there's more than enough of it y'all dont need me

[weiying-lanzhan-fics]

Practical Mythology by metisket

Funnest story ever! I loved this soooo much - didn’t want it to ever end. Thank you for this gem ❤️

Quotes:

“You only hurt bad people,” Lan Wangji informs him with perfect confidence. “They won’t be worried.”

“Ah, Lan Zhan,” the Yiling Patriarch says, ducking his head and smiling, but sounding sad for some reason. “If only everyone had the faith in me that you do.”

Lan Wangji frowns. Everyone should have faith in the Yiling Patriarch. The Yiling Patriarch is always fair, and that means his rules and the Lan rules can’t be that different. “Can I visit you again?”

The Yiling Patriarch beams at him so brightly that Lan Wangji’s breath catches. “Yes! Come visit me, Lan Zhan. But you have to wait until you’re grown, okay? For decency’s sake.” He laughs, and Lan Wangji isn’t sure why.

“When will I be grown?” Lan Wangji wants to be clear.

“Hmm.” The Yiling Patriarch looks skyward, rubbing his nose thoughtfully. “…Twenty? Let’s say twenty. Your uncle shouldn’t have too much of a qi deviation about that. How’s that sound?”

Lan Wangji frowns, but nods anyway. It’s a very long time, but he supposes that’s how all the Yiling Patriarch stories are. You can’t win anything worth having without fighting for it yourself. “I will be here.”

“I look forward to it, Lan Zhan,” the Yiling Patriarch, smiling and tugging gently at Lan Wangji’s hair one last time before sending him away to the other side of the barrier—to his brother and uncle.

————

It takes him a couple of hours, but he eventually finds the perfect victim. Said victim is innocently standing in a garden admiring the flowers, and has no idea what level of little brother nonsense is about to hit him. Poor thing.

“So, Xichen-ge, I hear your brother is planning to run away and marry the Yiling Patriarch,” Nie Huaisang casually declares. He’s always felt more comfortable hassling Lan Xichen than he has Lan Wangji, anyway. “What’s that about?”

Lan Xichen sighs and suddenly looks very tired. “It was cute when he was eight.”

Wow. Just wow. “How did he even meet the Yiling Patriarch when he was eight?”

Oh, that was a bad question, because Lan Xichen’s eyes just iced over like a Gusu winter. Nie Huaisang will just have to pry the details of that ugly story from someone else. “Never mind!” he cries. “It doesn’t matter. At least Senior Wei is nice.”

Lan Xichen frowns at him in confusion. “Senior Wei? Your father’s friend, Senior Wei?”

Oh good. At least Nie Huaisang isn’t the only one who didn’t know. “My father’s friend, Senior Wei, who is the Yiling Patriarch. Yes.”

He’s never seen Lan Xichen gape before. This is a shockingly exciting day in the Cloud Recesses.

T, 17.5k

Summary:

The Yiling Patriarch is a living legend—a terrifying, ancient force of nature, dispensing punishment or reward with implacable, indifferent fairness.

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, is a weird but oddly charming guy who wanders around the cultivation world making fun of people's art and mooching food from sect leaders.

It really upsets people to find out that they're the same person.

#wangxian #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan #the untamed fic #wangxian fic rec #the untamed fanfiction #untamed fic #mdzs fic #fun fic

[shanastoryteller]

Happy birthday

Modern the untamed? The one where Wei wuxian is friends first with Lan Xichen

a continuation of 1

Sophomore year the administration had tried to exert some type of control over them by putting the three of them all in different lunch periods.

That had resulted in two of them cutting a class every single day so they could all have lunch together. Xichen either missed study hall or band, neither of which required his attendance and so his uncle was only moderately apocalyptic about him missing, and the only person Mingjue had to answer to was his cousin, who frankly didn’t give a shit, so skipping class was easy for him too. Wei Wuxian had the worst of it, because while he could ace statistics and chemistry in his sleep, Aunt Yu took every excuse possible to punish him and Uncle Jiang could only redirect her so many times.

Both Xichen and Mingjue had just offered to come to his lunch permanently, but that wasn’t fair and it wasn’t like Lan Qiren wasn’t punishing Xichen, he just wasn’t being as vindictive about it. So they took turns.

Not having lunch together wasn’t an option because that meant letting the administration win and that was unacceptable. The next semester they’d put them all in the same lunch, accepting that they actually caused less trouble that way, and had done so ever since, so it was a battle well won.

“Do you think this is a bribe?” Wei Wuxian asks as they sit at their customary table under the oak tree. They’d gotten into two physical fights and one prank war to claim it freshman year from the seniors, which may or may not be when the rumors about them first started. “Putting us in the same lunch as our brothers.”

“It’s probably just saving them a headache,” Xichen answers, taking out his healthy lunch that he brought from home. Wei Wuxian snags it to start distributing the rice and pickled vegetables between him and Mingjue’s plate and Mingjue leans over to dumb the cheese sticks and questionable meat loaf from their plates onto Xichen’s.

Lan Qiren is convinced that school lunches are filled with plastic and poison and pesticides. Which is probably accurate, but it still tastes better than pickled vegetables. Most days.

“Someone warned me against sitting here,” Nie Huaisang complains as he slams is tray down. “Which means now I’m required to have lunch with you in order to gain some extremely dubious street cred.”

“I’m only here because Nie Huaisang is,” Jiang Cheng says, even though he sits across from Wei Wuxian at the opposite end of the table. “Don’t get used to it.”

Wen Qing has this lunch period too, but she always spends it in the lab. Maybe he can entice her to eat lunch sometimes, because Jiang Cheng will definitely sit with them then.

“Hello,” Xichen’s extremely hot brother says as he sits down. He has an identical lunch box to Xichen’s, except he apparently eats all of his himself. That’s deranged. He’s lucky he’s so beautiful because it makes up for the pressed khakis and awful food choices.

It’s a tragedy that A-jie has the lunch after them, especially because it’s the same one that the Jin degenerates have. Wen Ning has that one too, but he’s not much protection.

“Can we beat up Jin Zixuan?” he asks.

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng, Mingjue, and Nie Huaisang all say at once.

Xichen sighs. “Can we at least have a good reason first?”

Very hot brother – his name is Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian should probably start using it – looks at them all with faint disapproval.

That’s hot too, actually.

#okay i'm giving in and breaking up both of the cursed posts i guess #trying to keep everything in one post was an atrocious idea but we live and we learn #prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #forestandstardust #untamed

[satonthelotuspier]

I just wanted to talk a little about these three dumbasses, and what a complete disaster trio they're displayed as during the Cloud Recesses days, and how it's meant to act as a foil for the people there were shortly to become.

We all know the shenanigans they got up to, and the shortcomings of them all; the untamed genius, the emotionally stunted heir, the lazy fop; and despite this you're looking at the people who achieved the greatest feats of their generation.

One resurrected a sect from near-decimation to become one of the most powerful in the land in a single decade, one brought into being an entirely new type of cultivation that arguably won the Sunshot Campaign against the Wens, and the other schemed and achieved a stunningly elaborate revenge plot against the most powerful man in the cultivational world.

And every single one of them did it in total isolation. Strong, silent, and alone.

And what a foil for the venerated triad these stupid little boys are meant to be.

Three war heroes from the three most powerful sects of the time, the hope of a generation. Three men who couldn't change, couldn't bend, couldn't adapt themselves, and who ended in tragedy, ripped apart by their own sworn brotherhood.

And these three boys who started from tragedy, shouldered the burdens left to them and did what needed doing, entirely by themselves.

Did any of them grow as people? Absolutely not, MDZS is most definitely not a story about personal growth; its a story about war and politics, power and corruption, and people doing what they thought needed to be done, and all the reasons that might be so: personal codes (Wei Wuxian), duty and responsibility (Jiang Cheng) and revenge (Nie Huaisang).

Ironically those are motivating factors we see reflected in the 3zun too, but with very different outcomes.

Although that only stands to the end of the book, who knows what would happen in the future?

Was Wei Wuxian happy by the end of the book? Short term? Yes, Wangxian got the riding off into the sunset, but Wei Wuxian's trauma has trauma, and trauma doesn't just vanish for a happily ever after.

Nie Huaisang? Revenge is sweet, but after devoting yourself to that kind of darkness for so many years, after isolating yourself and eating, breathing, sleeping your revenge, what can possibly come next in life?

Jiang Cheng? Destroyed by the core reveal and struggling with the knowledge that he's in Wei Wuxian's debt, and shadow, once again. What did his own sacrifice mean if it just caused Wei Wuxian suffering in a different way? It would be no surprise if Jiang Cheng is feeling an immense amount of guilt, like he is the reason Wei Wuxian suffered as he did, because of the core loss. All those old insecurities rising back to the surface. He couldn't even save his Shixiong in the end.

Obviously it really isn't that simple in reality, but those kinds of emotions don't really care about that. Guilt isn't always logical, and we know how much Jiang Cheng loves Wei Wuxian.

It's fair to say none of the three have an easy immediate post canon future coming up.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #nie huaisang #venerated triad #lan xichen #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #meta #cross posted from twitter

[jaimebluesq]

always found it interesting that despite the fact he clearly wants the sect to remain in the family, nie mingjue literally never made any attempts at continuing his bloodline, foisting it off on huaisang instead along with the sect leader title. what if it was he couldn't have had kids even if he wanted to, because taking up baxia too early caused him to become sterile? and admitting as much would have been too humiliating? anyway, brotherly scene where he's forced to come clean about it, and whether it ends in a decision to adopt or huaisang agreeing to take up a political marriage in the future just for heirs or whatever is up to you.

Oh Anon, you have no idea how close this idea is to my heart because of my own life experiences. I love that you came up with it, and thank you for sending it to me... now let’s see if I can do it justice.

~ ~ ~

Nie Huaisang stood outside his brother’s office, his hands twisting upon his closed fan. He’d been anxious for days, trying to figure out how to broach a particularly sensitive topic with his brother – had practised with both Nie Zonghui and Jin Guangyao to try and get his words just right. Oh, it was something he’d tried asking many times before, but his brother had always brushed him off and directed him to the training field for saber practice.

Not today. Today, he would get an answer whether his brother liked it or not.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he knocked on the door and entered when his brother called out. He was careful to close the door behind himself before approaching his brother’s desk.

“What is it?” Nie Mingjue asked tiredly, his fingers rubbing at his temple. “Isn’t it time for-”

“Saber practice was this morning,” he replied, “and I actually attended today.” He’d attended only to leave one less thing to anger his brother on the day he came to seek answers – though Nie Mingjue’s fatigue made him wonder if he should have chosen a different day. But then, his brother looked tired most days since the end of the war.

“If you’re asking about-”

“Da-ge?” He waited until his brother finally looked up at him. “I... wanted to talk to you. About something important.”

Nie Mingjue looked him over, then picked up his papers and set them aside. He sat back in his chair, hands on the arms and fingers drumming along the cherry wood, waiting for Nie Huaisang to speak.

The first thing Nie Huaisang did was sit down to face his brother. “I heard from Zonghui that you received a request for an alliance from Yao-zongzhu,” he began, wanting to ease into the subject he wanted to address.

His brother sniffed. “He’s trying to pawn off his sister to anyone who’ll have her, all to tie himself to one of the great sects. I’ve no desire to ally with the Yao.”

“But what about the He,” Nie Huaisang prodded. “Or the Lan – Er-ge told me he has a younger cousin that’s quite lovely and kind and would make a wonderful furen. Or the Jiang – I know Jiang-xiong doesn’t have any blood relatives, but he has some promising lady disciples that would-”

“We don’t need another alliance,” Nie Mingjue ground out through gritted teeth. “Is that why you’re here? To harass me about getting married? Leave it alone – it’s none of your business.”

It was the same answer he had given Nie Huaisang before – but it was one he could no longer accept.

“But Da-ge... it is my business,” he said with a shaky voice that grew stronger with every word he spoke. “It’s my business because this is the reason I’m your heir, and I have the right to know why.”

Nie Mingjue narrowed his eyes, his face turning dark. “If this is just another argument to get out of saber practice-”

“I don’t want this!” Nie Huaisang’s voice broke mid-sentence. He tightened his grip on his fan. “I don’t want to be sect leader one day, you know this. And the Elders don’t want me either – you’ve heard what they say about me when my back is turned.”

“If you would only practice your saber more-”

“It won’t do a thing, Da-ge, because I’m not meant for this!” He took in a shaky breath. “Please, Da-ge, don’t make me do this anymore. You, me, the sect, we all deserve better, don’t we? Please don’t tell me you genuinely think me being heir is the best thing for Qinghe Nie?”

“This sect must be led by a member of our family’s main line,” Nie Mingjue insisted.

“Then why haven’t you started a family to inherit the sect?”

“Because I can’t!!!”

Nie Huaisang felt glued to his seat. There was something in the tone of his brother’s voice... it wasn’t anger, not just anger, but it was painful to hear. And then his brother’s shoulders dropped and he brought a hand to rub at his temple, and Nie Huaisang could have sworn he saw a glint of wetness in his brother’s eyes.

“I can’t,” Nie Mingjue repeated, slower and a little calmer.

When Nie Mingjue looked up, their eyes met. The two of them breathed heavily for several moments, broken only when Nie Mingjue picked up a document and threw it across the room. Nie Huaisang heard a rattling nearby; he glanced over to where Baxia trembled lightly in her stand.

“When one of us becomes sect leader,” Nie Mingjue explained, “there are many different rituals and sect secrets we learn from the Elders and other sect officials. And one of the very first things they tell us is that we need to work immediately on birthing an heir. Because our lives are so short, and one never knows when we’ll be taken out by a Yao or a qi deviation, or some tyrannical sect leader who doesn’t like being opposed.”

Nie Huaisang swallowed hard. His brother had only been fifteen when their father had died... he couldn’t imagine being told he had to become a father when he was only fifteen.

“None of the other sects helped me try to bring evidence against Wen Ruohan for what he did to A-Die, and I certainly wasn’t going to ally with any of them.” Nie Mingjue grimaced. “It was suggested to me that we find someone outside the sect, someone completely apart from the cultivation world, who wouldn’t have known enough to vie for power. I... I had no idea what to do, who to look for. All I’d ever done before was train, and when I did have tender thoughts, they weren’t about the girls they brought before me.”

This didn’t surprise Nie Huaisang – he’d seen the looks exchanged between Nie Mingjue and his ‘sworn brothers’. He nodded.

“So we finally settled on someone to try with,” Nie Mingjue continued. His voice already sounded lighter than when he had first begun explaining, and Nie Huaisang wondered if his brother had ever told this story to anyone else before – if Er-ge and San-ge even knew. “She was kind, and patient. The agreement was that if she became with child, then we would officially bring her in as a concubine. But after a year of trying once a week, every week... nothing happened. And then the Elders insisted on trying with another woman because the problem ‘obviously’ wasn’t with Nie-zongzhu, and before I knew it, I had four women I didn’t want that I had to lay with, all to try and do my duty to my sect.”

By this point, Nie Mingjue was no longer looking at Nie Huaisang, but rather staring out the nearby window. A part of Nie Huaisang wanted to tell his brother to stop, to tell him he didn’t have to say anything more – but the other part of him really wanted to hear the answer, to understand what had gone wrong, both for his brother and himself.

“After another two, three years of nothing, the Elders called in a highly respected physician. He looked me over, did a few tests, and then the Elders discussed the results. And then they told me that I was a rare case – that training so aggressively from such a young age may have made me stronger than anyone else in our sect, but it also had the side-effect of rendering me... barren, so to speak.” He sighed. “We called off the women after paying them handsomely for their efforts, and we helped them find husbands who would honour them properly. And then I named you my heir permanently.”

Nie Huaisang’s shoulders felt heavy even as he tried to roll one of them back. “Why didn’t you tell me, Da-ge?” he asked softly.

Nie Mingjue snorted. “Your voice hadn’t even begun to change when all this happened. The only things you knew about such matters were from spring books – and yes, I know you’ve had them since you were twelve, I’m not an idiot. There was no way I was going to lay this on you.”

“I may have been young, but so were you.” Nie Huaisang tried to offer a smile when his brother finally faced him again. “And... this is something we’ve needed to discuss, for the good of our sect. After all, I’m not a boy anymore.”

“You’ll always be a boy,” Nie Mingjue countered with a wistful smile. “The tiniest little thing that Xiao-Niang brought out to me and told me to protect it for the rest of my life.”

“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang whined, mostly to break the seriousness of the moment.

Nie Mingjue let out a chuckle. “Well, you know now.”

Nie Huaisang nodded. “And now we can figure out what to do about it.” His brother’s eyebrow lifted. “Because the way I see it, the moment you die – which you’re not allowed to do, by the way, not without my permission – this sect will immediately undergo a challenge to leadership, because there are far too many people who don’t see me as a proper leader. And quite frankly, they’re right. So... I’m presuming adopting is out of the question, or else you would have done it already...” As he spoke, he began counting off fingers from his hand.

“Ideally, the leadership would remain in the main family line,” Nie Mingjue explained tentatively.

“Well, I suppose that leaves us with only one option left,” he concluded with a nod to the growing confusion on his brother’s face. “The only question is, do we work to ally with another sect, or find someone outside the Jianghu? Because I don’t mind getting married or taking a concubine, but I do not want anything to do with Yao-zongzhu’s sister. Just because I enjoy pretty ladies does not mean I want a part of that mess>”

“You can’t be serious!” Nie Mingjue huffed. “You’re just a boy!”

“I’m the same age as Jin Zixuan,” he countered, “and he’s marrying Jiang-guniang in a few months.” He absently chewed on his bottom lip. “And just the other day in Lanling, I was chatting with Madame Qin – she is very much not in favour of Qin Su’s little crush on San-ge, by the way – and she was trying to encourage me to ask her to walk in the gardens. She is rather pretty, and-” He paused at the stare his brother gave him.

“You don’t have to do this,” Nie Mingjue sighed. “Just because I can’t do this, it doesn’t mean you have to give up your life like this.”

He met his brother’s gaze in a way he never would have done as a boy. “I’m a Nie,” he explained, “and we both know we have had to fulfill our duties to our sect. I know I can’t fulfill mine on the battlefield – I was never meant to be a soldier or even a cultivator – but I can do this.”

The corners of Nie Mingjue’s eyes crinkled, and he nodded. “Qin-zongzhu’s daughter does seem like a good choice,” he finally agreed, “but the girl is still enamoured with A-Yao no matter how he has tried to dissuade her.”

“Then I imagine San-ge would have a vested interest in helping her get over him,” he grinned, “don’t you think?” Nie Mingjue nodded. Nie Huaisang stood up and stretched out his back. “I’ll go write him a letter and see what he has to say, and we’ll go from there.” He began walking to the office door, but stopped at his brother’s voice.

“But for the record,” Nie Mingjue announced, his tone steady and strong, “you and the Elders are wrong. You might not be meant for the battlefield, but... a sect needs a different kind of leader in peace-time, and you would make a good one.”

Nie Huaisang swallowed through his suddenly tight throat. He made no sound, nothing to indicate he’d heard his brother’s words, and continued on his way out the door.

But his heart flooded with warmth at one of the few compliments he’d ever received from his brother.

#nie bros #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #discussion of infertility #nie bro feels

[hastalahamon]

Now that I've slept on it, i gotta say, I don't think New's plan ever involved any of them surviving this, including him. I think his plan was to make them all admit to it, kill them, make Phee admit to his role in it, kill him, and then kill himself.

If... and that's a BIG if for me, since i'm still on my white is sus agenda, but if white is truly innocent, maybe he gets to live.

none of them are redeemable. some of them don't exactly deserve to die, but as an older sibling, i understand the rage New feels. in fact, i'm finding it a tad difficult to grasp how tame he's being about it.

and i see nothing wrong with him doing this for selfish reasons. this happened to him too. he lost his brother, his whole family because of these assholes. he gets to be angry and sad because of it. and he gets to deal with it in a way that helps him. it wasn't some sad accident that cause the ruin of his entire family, these cunts did all of this on purpose.

his comment that it doesn't matter what non would have wanted is valid af. non is dead (or is he), they made sure they ruined that boy completely, they don't get to weasel their way out of this piggybacking on his kindness. they don't get to use him for their own gain, AGAIN

AND JIN. do not even get me started on jin. mr nice guy whose first reaction after NOT confessing his feelings and finding out his crush has a boyfriend and then seeing said crush being raped by a teacher is TO FILM IT. even fluke was like wtf man. you know you're fucked in the head when even fluke judges you. fluke's been silent the entire time, about EVERYTHING, but this was the hill he decided to get judgy on.

jin was instrumental in getting non to go along with all of their shit. he was the nice friend who'd put his hand on non's shoulder, bat his eyelashes, and get non to do whatever the gang wanted. he talks big game about how they're mean in calling non greasy, and yet he never, not once stopped the others from bullying non. even fluke calls him out on it when tee drugs non and takes him away. jin get's all oh no they're taking non away and fluke outright tells him to do something about it if he has a problem with it... and surprise surprise, jin does nothing.

and phee, phee doesn't get to forgive jin. it's not phee's place to understand and forgive, phee washed his hands of non, he was done with him, and just cause he feels guilty for his last words to non doesn't mean he gets to absolve himself of his guilt by finding someone who's done non worse and forgiving him. that video ruined non's life. and even if he could come back from such a scandal (he was coerced (read raped), what fucking scandal, but that's a different conversation), that video was directly used to stop any chance non ever had of being found by the police or the police even looking into his disappearance.

and even if jin wasn't the one who leaked it, he was the one to film it. in fact, i repeat, it was his first reaction to seeing his UNDERAGE crush being raped by a teacher. had jin not been a colossal dick, that video wouldn't even exist in the first place, and no one would use keng to make it seem that non ran off with his lover.

also, i don't think non is dead. and i don't think white is there by mistake. and i'm sus of that friend of tee's. he got way too much screen time for someone who's supposed to be there just for exposition.

and that bob haired thug, the one that's all i don't know i don't know. SUS. last time someone didn't know didn't know nie huaisang took down meng yao and exposed all his crimes.

#dead friend forever #dead friend forever the series #dff #dff the series

[hannigramislife]

Nie Huaisang was Nie Mingjue's half brother. They had different mothers, yet Nie Mingjue loved and cared for Nie Huaisang greatly, being overly protective and worrying about his education and going easy on him–

They could have been real siblings, no? What was the point of making them half-brothers, when there was no storyline connected to it?

It didn't make a difference o Nie Mingjue, that they didn't share the same mother. Nie Mingjue never saw that as a reason to have any distance between them.

Maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but it's a nice idea, to think about how in a world of privilege and status, Nie Mingjue really didn't care about the circumstances of one's birth.

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie bros

[hami-gua]

If it Means to Remain by Your Side

From the list I posted yesterday, I'm gonna start with the Dan Heng x Reader MDZS inpsired fic first.

Characters and plot won’t be as accurate to the inspired plot. Especially for this story which involves a lot of adults and teens an not much children.  So many characters are left out simply due to the fact that a lot of npcs either didn’t fit the role, or were far too young for my standards.

I also ended up having to lean more onto the live action version than the novel/manhua version. Not all characters casted are exactly accurate too, as there are more traumatized than non-traumatized.

Cast

Dan Heng  - Lan zhan/Lan Wangji

Reader - Wei Ying/Wei Wuxian

Jing Yuan - Lan Xichen

Blade/Yingxing - Song Lan

March - Lan Jingyi

Yukong - Jian Yanli

Tingyun - Jin Guangyao

Jingliu - Xue Yang

Baiheng - Xiao Xingchen

Yanqing - Jin Ling

Ruan Mei _ Baoshan Sanren

Luocha - Jin Zixuan (Ik Yukong and him aren’t a ship, but it'll have to do as Honkai doesn’t really have a F and M implied relations. I mean the only ones that do are in a love triangle.)

Xueyi - Wen Ning

Hanya - Wen Qing

Qingque - Nie Huaisang

Diting - Fairy

Fu Xuan - Jiang Cheng

Guinaifen - Lan Sizhui/Lan Yuan (Again, not a ship as Yanqing is too fight frenzy of a kid to actually have a crush. I just think these two would pair well as friends)

Sushang - A-Qing

Setting/Sects

Luofu -- Gusu Lan

Dan Heng

Jing Yuan

March

Guinaifen (later half)

Yaoqing -- Qinghe Nie

Qingque

Zhuming -- Qishan Wen

Hanya

Xueyi

Guinaifen (first half

Yuque -- Lanling Jin

Yanqing & Fairy

Luocha

Tingyun

Fanghu -- Yunmeng Jiang

Reader

Fuxuan

Yukong

Misc.

Blade/Yingxing

Jingliu

Baiheng

Sushang

Huohuo

Ruan Mei

Xuling -- Burial Mounds

Reader (Mid-way)

Hanya (Mid-way)

Xueyi (Mid-way)

Guinafen (Mid-way)

I literally looked up all the different alliance of Xianzhou just to see which would be Wen sect. So here’s the reasoning.

Luofu: They don’t really have a specialty. Their main goal is to take out abundance cult.

Yaoqing: Much like Luofu, don’t really have a specialty. Aggressive and good at martial arts.

Zhuming: Their main export specialty is porcelain. According to Fandom wiki, the people here love playing with fire.

Yuque: They export jade abaci, thus making me think they’ll be wealthy due to it and technologically advanced/smart.

Fanghu: Exports a lot of marine things. Though it would make since to have Dan Heng come from here, but it would not make sense for other characters like March and Jing Yuan to have been born here. And it’s the closest in description to Yunmeng.

Xuling: Not much is really stated about this place on Fandom Wiki, but it looks like a place of law. But piggybacking off of the fact that not much is written about this area, Imma just gonna liken this area to Burial Mounds.

Idk why I stressed so much trying to make it 100% accurate 💀

My main source for these infos are from MDZS and Star Rail fandom wiki, so if inaccuracies occur, I apologize in advance for it.

#dan heng fluff #dan heng angst #dan heng x reader #hsr dan heng x reader #hsr x reader #honkai star rail x reader #dan heng x you #hsr dan heng x you #hsr dan heng

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

Okay, so. This is the first of the broken twitter threadfics. The reasons I picked it to post are A) it broke at a relatively good ending point, and B) I was doing this as an experiment to see if I could keep myself from planning out where a story was going to go before writing it, and twitter's fuckery effectively kneecapped that. So, here it is!

----------

(“Why can’t you be more like-”)

A month before he’s supposed to attend the lectures, Nie Huaisang is nowhere to be found in the Unclean Realms.

In his wake are a pair of boxes for his brother and Meng Yao, each of which contains a cheerily biting note that since they each clearly want him to become the other, he’s giving them what they’ve always wanted!

Each other.

Without him in the middle.

Meng Yao is unnerved by this sudden disappearance, but anyone he mentions it to, Nie Mingjue included, just rolls their eyes. 

it's a bratty tantrum, nothing more. 

Huaisang will be back by dinner, complaining of being hungry. 

The rest of the day passes.

Then another. 

Then a week. 

The time for Huaisang and the other disciples his age to leave for the Cloud Recesses comes and goes, and still no one knows where he is. 

An uncomfortable heaviness develops in the air inside the fortress. 

Everyone can tell that everyone else is worried, but nobody will broach the subject because Nie Mingjue (though clearly the most worried of all) is stubbornly refusing to discuss it. 

When a letter comes from Gusu asking why Nie Huaisang never arrived for classes even though Nie Mingjue was adamant he would keep attending until he passed, it gets crumpled and tossed into the fire without a reply. 

Meanwhile, whatever sort of relationship Huaisang thought his brother and Meng Yao were forming based on the weird backhanded praise of each other/putdowns towards him doesn't happen. 

It's too awkward. 

Both retreat entirely into bland professionalism and if a topic doesn’t have to do with work, they don't bring it up. 

(Meng Yao doesn't understand why Huaisang was convinced he was pushing to get close to Mingjue in such a manner. Huaisang knew about his plans to eventually join his father, what could possibly make him believe-? 

But with Huaisang no longer there to be a distraction while he's working, he finds his brain replaying certain events, and gradually starting to see them from a different perspective. 

And… he doesn’t like what he sees.

For all he'd claimed repeatedly to be a neutral party in the brothers’ arguments, he... wasn't. 

Even on the occasions that he was personally more sympathetic to Huaisang’s side of the matter, he'd always pushed him to be the one to back down and give in. Be an obedient little brother. 

Behave.

Which... he can't be blamed for that, surely. 

As much as Huaisang liked him, Huaisang wasn't his primary employer. it made logical sense that- 

-No. 

That's where he'd gone wrong. 

He should have either truly remained neutral by telling both brothers it wasn't his place to get involved, or he should have told Huaisang why he felt compelled to take Nie Mingjue’s side so often. 

But instead, he'd willingly taken up that center role, and then- 

Ah. 

What a mess.)

—

As the days of the summer and early fall tick by, Meng Yao finds himself... keeping an eye out. 

Not searching (no one will admit to doing that, especially not Mingjue), just... hoping. 

Huaisang has always despised winter and what it does to his health, surely once the weather starts to change for the worse, he will- 

Huaisang still doesn't come back. 

(It's getting harder and harder not to dwell on how much he misses Huaisang. 

How much of a mistake he made. 

He should have- 

If only he had- 

His… his friend is gone. 

Now he only has coworkers. 

And while he gets along with... most of them fairly well nowadays, it isn't the same. 

It isn’t the same at all.) 

—

They have been monitoring the movements of the Wen sect day in and day out, but it still catches them by surprise when it isn't inside their borders that the first blatant act of war is committed. 

Meng Yao goes out among the scouts to make sure they are well-supplied with flares and messenger tokens and everything else they will need to keep the flow of information strong. 

(He does not say that he is looking for Huaisang, but he does not have to.

He does not find Huaisang, but he does bring home Mingjue's friend from the Lan sect, bruised and filthy and exhausted. 

He decides he likes Lan Xichen well enough, but-)

When the envoys from the Wen sect come to demand their heir, it is the first time Nie Mingjue says out loud, to anyone, that they don't have one. 

For the briefest moment, Nie Huaisang is no longer a ghost, as every present member of the sect flinches. 

Their visitors do not.

Meng Yao is the only one who catches that they seem to have expected this answer. 

He doesn't like that at all. 

And when he tells them later, as they help the disciples who have volunteered to go pack what little they are being allowed to bring, Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen like it even less. 

(That night, Meng Yao hears the door to the room beside his unlock for the first time in over a year. 

He curls himself into a ball under the blankets and pretends not to hear anything after that.) 

—

A week after their disciples have made it home after escaping from the indoctrination camp, (at the same time that Lotus Pier is burning), Meng Yao has gone out with the scouts again, this time with a disguised Lan Xichen among their numbers- 

-He wants to find his brother. Neither Nie Mingjue nor Meng Yao can begrudge him that, not when they are still- 

-and they overhear a loud scuffle and heated voices- 

"He fucking bit me! just slit the little bitch's throat already!" "You do it! And then you can explain to the boss why and see what that gets you!" 

"Let him go! He hasn't done anything!" "Stay out of it, or you can die in his place!"

The source of the fight is several men in white and red robes crowded around an unseen figure as villagers yell from the sidelines. 

One moves to the right, just long enough for Meng Yao to glimpse- 

It’s-

His whole body goes cold. 

It's- 

He moves without thinking, a borrowed sword in hand. He doesn't hear Lan Xichen's startled warning, but it doesn't matter, as the other man immediately follows. 

When he comes back to himself, there are five dead men on the ground and Nie Huaisang has thrown himself to his feet to run- 

-from them, just as much as he'd probably tried to escape the Wen. 

Spell music keeps him from getting more than a few steps before he drops into a heap right next to a sorry mess of bloody black feathers that has an arrow sticking out of it. 

The old man who'd done the most yelling looks like he might be ready to do more, and Meng Yao, still feeling numb and sick and a hundred other things, manages to regain himself enough to reassure him that they have no intention of harming- 

harming- 

It hits him that he has no idea what Nie Huaisang was calling himself here. 

Here, a tiny backwater village so close to the border between Qinghe and Qishan.

The complicated and messy swirl of emotions becomes distant... muted. He's still dizzy, but in a way that's like looking at the ground from up high. 

The fight took place in front of a book copy shop- 

"-er, yes, he does," the old man says, making Meng Yao realize he'd just asked if this person whose name he doesn't know works there. 

Ha. 

The only thing in the world that Nie Huaisang had ever hated as much as saber training was being forced to duplicate texts and rules and notes- 

-and he's here. 

Working and living in some nondescript copy shop.

Lan Xichen is saying something, and then the old man is speaking again, but Meng Yao comprehends none of it. Other Nie disciples have arrived and need to be caught up to speed, but he- 

He pushes his way into the shop, and then up the back stairs to the living quarters above it.

There are only four small rooms and it's easy to tell which one is-

-was- 

-is Huaisang's because it's the one that has three little wooden perches- 

-clearly built of scavenged branches, they are still the most well made things in the room- 

-arranged by the window and the door.

There is no wardrobe, just a couple of shoddy-looking boxes. The bed is... serviceable, which is the nicest word he can come up with. There is no wash basin, nor privacy screen. The shade over the window is so thin it would practically be useless in winter. A teapot and cup that look like they could crumble any moment sit on a tiny table that isn't in much better shape. 

Meng Yao... has been in this room before. 

Maybe not this specific room, but this room. 

It's the same room he lived in during every stop between the brothel and Koi Tower, between Koi Tower and the Unclean Realms, paying for what rest he could get by offering up his education or labor. 

And this room... 

This room is where... 

His fingers clench on the door frame. 

He inhales slowly, though whether to keep from laughing or throwing up, he isn't sure which. 

Oh... they had so badly underestimated how much resentment and hurt their failed -misguided- attempts at incentivization had brewed within Nie Huaisang. 

Nie Huaisang had been a boy who despised rote routine work, who loved soft and comfortable things, who always needed to be surrounded by people and animals for companionship, who got bitterly sick every time the weather turned cold. 

And yet he had been living in this room, with a job doing what he hated day in and day out, and only the one bird that had undoubtedly been shot out of the windowsill by a Wen arrow for company. 

He can't help but wonder if Huaisang had chosen this life specifically because it was so antithetical to everything the sect knew about him; because they'd never think to look in a place like this. 

Or if he had just decided that even this was preferable to letting anyone think he'd been cowed into crawling back home. 

Meng Yao is still nauseous when he stumbles back down the stairs to find the others waiting for him and Nie Huaisang, still unconscious from the spellsong, lying in the back of a small wagon the disciples have procured. 

"There was nothing worth bringing," he says in response to one man's question, and ignores Lan Xichen's query as to whether or not he is well. 

It's already been decided that he will be the one to take Nie Huaisang back to the closest camp, while the disciples will fly to the primary one further south to alert Nie Mingjue that his brother has been found. 

Although he knows he's been picked because his sword flight is still unsteady, he is fine with it. 

If anyone else had offered -or demanded- to take the wagon, that would be another story. 

Except for Lan Xichen, who has brought back the horses he and Meng Yao had been using to avoid being seen on their swords, the others take off once the Wen corpses have been moved away from the buildings and burned.

(Meng Yao probably should have supervised that, being the sect leader's aide. 

But that would have meant moving away from Nie Huaisang, and he… 

He just can’t-) 

They hitch the horses to the wagon. Before he climbs up into the saddle, Meng Yao takes off his cloak and wraps it around his- 

Not his- 

His young master. 

(How funny that, almost two years ago, he would have been the one who needed it more. 

How funny that, almost two years ago, Nie Huaisang would have had more than one and would have offered them all with a laugh and a gentle tease. 

How funny that-) 

If Lan Xichen notices him wiping his eyes as they nudge the horses to start down the road, he is kind enough not to mention it.

—

By the time they reach the camp, the spell song has worn off, but Nie Huaisang still sleeps- 

-and he does still sleep. Meng Yao's judgment may have been in grievous error in one painfully important category, but he can still easily tell when Huaisang is feigning in order to be left alone-

-heavily enough that his only reaction to being picked up by Lan Xichen is to pull the borrowed cloak tighter around himself like a turtle trying to shrink into its shell. 

"I'll make the report to the camp commander after taking him to the main infirmary tent," Lan Xichen says.

'Because I don't think you'd want to leave him alone long enough to do it,' Meng Yao hears. He nods, trying -badly- to hide his relief at the offer.

As they enter the tent, one of the medics turns to greet them, then his eyes go huge. 

"Is that-" 

"Not one more word," Meng Yao cuts him off, a little more sharply than he'd meant to. "No one is to find out he's here before Zongzhu arrives, got it?" 

The medic's mouth closes with an audible snap, then he recovers his composure and nods, gesturing to an empty cot. 

The results of the ensuing exam are... roughly what Meng Yao expected… because they are very similar to his own the first time he'd been ordered into a tent to have his medical baseline set when he’d joined the Nie camps. 

Except for the lungs. 

He is sitting close enough that he doesn't need the medic to tell him the soft, pained-sounding wheeze is not good. 

Again, his thoughts and his stomach begin to twist and tangle around the reversal of their fortunes and the dozens of other little itchy thoughts. His fingers tighten on the edge of the camp stool he's sitting on and he has to squeeze his eyes shut and just focus on inhaling- 

-and exhaling- 

-until the knots loosen up enough that he no longer feels like vomiting. 

Prying one hand away from his seat, he reaches out and takes hold of Nie Huaisang's colder one. 

When the first big winter storm had arrived and Nie Huaisang had not arrived with it, he had started to have dreams that were uncomfortable in more ways than one. Even now, gently rubbing his thumb over the other young man's ink and dirt-stained fingers, memories-not-memories from them flicker through his mind. 

He has no idea how Nie Mingjue will react to his brother's reappearance, but no matter what his sect leader decides, he can't- 

-won't- 

-can’t let Nie Huaisang disappear again. 

Even, he thinks as he lifts those cold fingers up to breathe warmth onto them, if he has to refashion an aviary into another kind of cage. 

—

It is just past nightfall when he hears the flutter of activity outside the tent. 

It is a familiar enough clatter to both of them that the noise makes Nie Huaisang stir. 

(He wants to be the first person Nie Huaisang sees. 

He wants to try and smooth things over before-

He wants-)

But there isn't enough time, and it's more important that he- 

He steps out of the tent right as Nie Mingjue is approaching. 

He bows to his sect leader, but keeps the tent flap held closed behind him. 

When he doesn't move aside, the faint scowl on Nie Mingjue's face deepens and he raises an eyebrow in a familiar expression of 'What do you think you're doing?' 

"Zongzhu," Meng Yao replies to the unspoken question. "Will you hear my report first?" 

His words are deferential, holding none of the direct defiance that his position does, but the combination of the two is enough to give Nie Mingjue pause, his expression shifting from annoyance to curious concern before he nods. 

Meng Yao keeps it short, but painfully blunt, emphasizing where and how Nie Huaisang had been living, and how close to danger and for how long. 

"I would not be so presumptuous as to give you directions on how to handle this. But he was already prepared to bolt from-" me "-us as if we were just as much of a threat as the Wen. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that if you storm in there and immediately start dressing him down, then-" unless you let me lock him away "-it will be the last time you ever see him, let alone get the chance to talk to him,” he finishes quietly.

Then he steps aside and lets go of the tent flap.

Although he doesn't want to leave, he knows that if they -even accidentally- give Huaisang the impression that they are immediately falling back into the old pattern, this will be a disaster. 

So he forces himself to walk away from the tent. 

He should really see about acquiring food anyway. Though he'd had some travel rations on his person, he hadn't been able to make himself eat since they'd found Huaisang, and Huaisang- 

The many ways their fortunes have been reversed hits him again, and he swallows hard to keep from bringing attention to himself by hysterically laughing... or something even more embarrassing. 

Okay. 

Food. 

Concentrate on that. 

Though it grates on him to do so, he purposely takes the time to eat his own meal at the kitchen tents, even dragging it out a little longer than normal. 

Just as he finishes eating, he finally catches a glimpse of Nie Mingjue headed towards the main command tent. 

His sect leader's expression is tense, but not angry or panicked. His tone, from what Meng Yao can hear, is a little sharply clipped, but there is no real bark to the orders he's giving. 

Meng Yao will take those as good signs. 

Collecting a tray of simple dishes and jars of pressed juice and water, he heads back to the infirmary tent where he'd left Huaisang.

He doesn't find Huaisang there- 

-he's fled, the fight was worse than anticipated, they won't- 

-but is relieved to find he's only been moved to one of the smaller side tents. It's fine- it's good, even. Fewer people will see him this way. 

Huaisang is sitting on the little cot he's been given, facing away from (him) the entrance. He's huddled under one of the spare blankets, the cloak Meng Yao had wrapped him in folded up and laid on the end of the thin pallet mattress. 

(That bothers him. 

Sits in the back of his brain like another little itch. 

"Why don't you want- it, Huaisang?" bubbles up in the back of his throat, and he has to force it back down.) 

"I owe you an apology," Huaisang says suddenly, surprising Meng Yao into looking up from the small camp table he'd been setting up for the food. 

(His voice has become as small as the rest of him, Meng Yao's mind notes with a discomforting mix of emotions. Small and rough and raspy- is it because the reunion with his brother brought tears with it? Or is that just how he sounds now? Does he really want to know?) 

"Whatever for?" Meng Yao asks after shoving all that turbulence into the little chest in his mind to join the rest of it and pretending it's not going to be overstuffed and refuse to close soon. 

"I never paid attention to how hard your job was. I just made it worse." 

He finds himself glancing at those ink and dirt stained fingers again, now clutching the edge of the blanket so tightly. 

Reversal of fortunes. 

Some little part of him is satisfied by the recognition, of the acknowledgment, but the rest- 

if this is the result of another fight- if this apology was somehow forced by Nie Mingjue- 

He bites his tongue for a moment to quell the swell of unexpected irritation. "There's nothing to apologize for in that regard. At most, you could be exasperating on occasion… but more often than not, you were the only one reminding me to care for myself," he says, reaching over to pick up the folded cloak and wrap it around Huaisang's shoulders over the blanket. 

Better. 

He looks much better with that (mark of possession). 

"I have no idea how many times I forgot to stop for a meal or any other necessities without you there to insist." 

The mention of food earns a sharp, unmistakable growl, and Huaisang ducks his head as he huddles deeper into the borrowed blanket and offered cloak, his unbound hair doing little to hide his expression of uncomfortable embarrassment. 

Reversal of fortunes. 

Once upon a time, Nie Huaisang had offered him clothing from his own wardrobe and food swiped from the kitchens and Meng Yao had struggled to politely decline out of fear that bounds were being overstepped and he would be the one to get in trouble for it. 

Now however... now, he understands. 

Whether or not Huaisang had felt the same possessiveness back then that Meng Yao is grappling with now is an interesting, but ultimately unimportant, question. 

But he understands. 

And, just as Huaisang once had, he will not allow refusal.

He takes a seat on a little stool across from Huaisang and offers one of the dishes he'd brought, a fairly simple combination of steamed rice, roasted chicken, and greens with only a little bit of seasoning. 

Even though growing up in Yunping had given him a fairly high tolerance for spice, he remembers all too well how much it had hurt to eat too much good food at once after months going on the minimum, and he has no desire to make Huaisang similarly sick. 

"Don't rush. We've got time." 

Nie Huaisang's mouth presses into a thin line, like he might disagree with that judgment. 

Curiosity lingers hot and fuzzy on the back of his neck- 

-what had the brothers said to each other?- 

-but he swats it aside and merely waits. 

He will not risk scaring his young master away by pressing him for information so soon after getting him back. 

Hunger eventually wins over discontent, and Huaisang reaches out to accept the food. 

He eats in a stilted, almost wooden way that is so very alien to how he used to be, but so very familiar to Meng Yao. It is another addition to the list of things that he wants to- will fix. 

Huaisang's hair falls back into his face as he hunches over the bowl, and Meng Yao finds himself impulsively reaching to brush it back. 

Huaisang flinches at the contact, and they both go still, staring at each other, Meng Yao's hand still outstretched. 

He should pull back. 

Give space. 

He doesn't want to. 

But no matter how much their situation has changed, their nominal statuses dictate he must.

Just as he starts to withdraw, however, Huaisang lets out an unsteady breath and tilts his head just enough to maintain contact. 

Without a single spoken word, it's a lonely plea and an apology and forgiveness and so many other things rolled up into a little ball of bruised and battered emotions. 

It makes Meng Yao almost dizzy, and he can't contain the smile that blooms on his mouth as he indulges in what he's been offered, sweeping his fingers along Huaisang's cheek to tuck his hair back behind his ear. 

All too quickly, however, the flutters of almost-giddiness fade as he remembers their situation is still hanging precariously on a thread as thin as spider silk. 

But any discussion of what will happen next for them can -will have to- wait until the food is gone. 

They fall into an awkward silence as Nie Huaisang finishes the bowl of food and a jar of water. He quickly looks away when he realizes Meng Yao has caught him eyeing the second dish with apprehensive longing. 

"Here," Meng Yao says, offering one of the jars of juice instead. "It won't be as heavy on your stomach." 

Nie Huaisang hesitates, the expression on his face unreadable as he looks at it, then at Meng Yao- 

-Meng Yao wants to ask, he wants to ask, he can’t ask- 

Then he takes it from Meng Yao's hands and tilts it up to swallow a mouthful. 

Meng Yao unconsciously mimics the swallow. 

there is something- 

-something- 

-one thing that still eats at him, but he is struggling to let it out of where he's kept it caged in his chest. 

He is very, very good at offering apologies as a matter of politeness. 

He has never been as good at offering apologies out of sincerity. 

"Gongzi-" he starts only for his voice to die in his throat when green eyes regard him over the rim of the jar. 

Inhale.

Exhale. 

Try again. 

"I... I have missed you, Huaisang," he says. 

It is not what he intended to say. 

It is not what he was supposed to say. 

It's an entirely different but equally difficult level of vulnerability; one he hadn't been trying so hard to hide because he'd never expected it to attempt escape to begin with. 

He had recognized too much of himself in this changed Huaisang, and that familiarity had momentarily lured him into a false sense of… of…

His first instinct is to take it back. 

Cover his too-exposed heart with his usual deferential politeness, smile and offer a more neutral comment. 

"I missed you too," Huaisang says quietly before he can do any of that. 

Meng Yao exhales sharply, the air punched out of his chest as surely as if Nie Huaisang had buried a fist into the soft spot below his sternum, and he has to look away before he can let it show how starkly he has been affected. 

He is still pulling himself together when he sees one of the captains who'd been accompanying Nie Mingjue earlier poke his head into the tent. 

The man looks around for a moment before his gaze lands on them, and he gives a quick jerk of his head in a silent demand. 

Meng Yao hesitates. 

As emotionally fraught as this had just become, he doesn't want to leave. They still have that- 

-that one thing that they have to talk about, and if he leaves now, they might not ever- 

"Better go," Nie Huaisang says, and when Meng Yao turns his head, his young master is once again wearing that expression Meng Yao cannot decipher. 

Meng Yao bites the inside of his lip, then reaches out and squeezes the hand not occupied with the jar. "I'll be back soon," he says. 

Nie Huaisang salutes him with the jar, the gesture too flippant for the look in his eyes. 

Meng Yao again finds himself wondering just what the brothers had said to each other. 

But he does not ask, instead getting up to follow the captain away from the infirmary and towards the tent where Nie Mingjue has temporarily taken up residence until he returns to the main camp.

—

Meng Yao frowns as he finishes reading the missive his sect leader has handed him. 

It is not the fact that Nie Huaisang is being sent back to the Unclean Realms that bothers him. Even if he were in better health, the time he's spent away from the sect has made him even less prepared for a fight. it's better for him to go- to go home. 

No, what bothers Meng Yao is the escort being sent with him. Only two guards, both only weeks out of no longer being classified as juniors, and a single healing assistant- not even a full-fledged medic. 

He knows that this wouldn't be enough of an escort for someone the Wen wasn’t even looking for, let alone someone they had already made a kidnapping attempt on. 

Suddenly, Huaisang's too-bland attitude and strange reactions make more sense, if this had been one of the things the brothers had discussed. 

(What had they said? 

What had they said? 

The prickle of curiosity has become a gnawing, but still he squashes it.) 

He rereads the missive twice over before it finally hits him. 

This is another manifestation of the- 

Not once had Nie Mingjue ever officially sent out search parties, or discussed his missing brother, or- or- 

(But Meng Yao, much as he'd pretended otherwise, very vividly remembers that midnight breakdown in Nie Huaisang's abandoned room.) 

A sect leader preparing for an inevitable war couldn't be seen as soft or weak by the enemy, nor his own. 

A sect leader in the middle of a war couldn't be seen as soft or weak by the enemy, nor his own. 

Nie Mingjue might have sorely missed his brother, but he also clearly believed that extending more than the barest minimum would be read as special treatment. Coddling, even. 

No matter how much this particular situation warranted a stronger approach. 

Meng Yao understands the politics of appearance all too well, so he gets it. He does. That doesn't stop him from wanting to beat his head against the table in frustration. 

Stubborn. 

Stubborn.

Gods, both of them are so- 

He takes a deep, slow inhale, then lays the paper down. "What are you going to do if this posturing for your men gets your brother killed?"

Nie Mingjue goes rigid, the line of his spine completely straight. 

The captain he was talking to is a smart man; his eyes go wide for the briefest moment, and then he turns around and walks out of the tent without a word. 

Meng Yao is acutely aware he's just stepped into dangerous territory. A few years ago, he never would have let that question escape his mouth. Instead, as soon as he’d finished reading the missive the first time, he would have immediately gone to cajole Huaisang not to make a fuss about the orders. 

Well, look where that had gotten them. 

"The only reason we found him at all is because Wen Ruohan had somehow figured out where he was first,” he presses.”And yet you're risking sending him right back into the jaws of the tiger to-" 

Nie Mingjue's hands clench into fists at his sides. 

Though the man has never so much raised his voice in Meng Yao's direction, the memories of all the shouting matches between the brothers make him involuntarily take a step back. 

But Nie Mingjue, apparently remembering his earlier advice, does not yell, though the curt, emotionless tone of the words "The orders will not be changed," is almost worse. 

This bullheaded-! 

Realizing he will get nowhere, that the fact there had been no shouting between the brothers this time really was the only concession Nie Mingjue had been willing -or perhaps 'been able' was the better description- to make, Meng Yao leaves him standing alone at the table of maps and missives and walks back to the infirmary. 

At the very least, he should make sure that Huaisang has warmer clothes for travel than the ones they found him in. 

–- 

Nie Huaisang and his pittance of an escort are up and ready to leave before dawn, hoping to get some ground covered while only the enemy’s night scouts are still on the hunt. 

Nie Huaisang doesn't make a peep of complaint about having to get up so early for what amounts to boring work, which only drives the knife of how much he has changed deeper between Meng Yao's ribs. 

(He knows Huaisang has to go. 

He wants him to stay.

He wants to go with him. 

He wants-) 

"Hu- Gongzi, may we speak?" he asks quietly. 

Huaisang stops pretending to not be watching his brother out of the corner of his eye and turns his attention to Meng Yao, then nods. 

Meng Yao's mouth suddenly goes dry under the quiet intensity of that green-eyed stare, but he gathers his nerves back together and ties them down tight. 

"I... I owe you an apology as well. You were right that I was only lying to both of us when I claimed not to be taking sides in your arguments. I should have stayed out of it. I'm... I'm sorry." 

There. 

He has said it. 

It is hardly the most eloquent apology he has ever given, but... again, sincerity is much more difficult than politeness. 

But it also seems to have been more effective. Huaisang blinks at him in surprise, tilting his head like a startled bird... then he takes hold of Meng Yao's hands and smiles.

It's small, unsure, almost as if he's forgotten how to do it. but it's there, and- 

"Thank you," he says, and "Apology accepted." 

Ha. 

Okay. 

Meng Yao does not embarrass himself by tearing up in front of everyone, but he comes close. He squeezes the hands holding his, ruthlessly smothering the sudden urge to kiss too-cold fingers 

-or do something more- 

-then steps back and lets go. 

He doesn't watch them leave. 

Neither does Nie Mingjue.

—

It has been six days. 

Even though he has remained diligent to his responsibilities as the sect leader’s aide, Meng Yao's mind keeps being distracted by the map he has drawn in his mind. 

Even on foot, even if there were a few small delays here and there, Huaisang and his escorts should arrive at the unclean realms by the next morning, so when sundown arrives, the nervous tension that's been humming through his nerves finally starts to ease…

And then, right in the middle of dinner, Nie Mingjue suddenly jerks as though he's been shot with an arrow. 

Meng Yao, Lan Xichen, and the small knot of disciples present all see the color drain from his face as he rips a talisman out of the collar of his inner robe- 

-and when Meng Yao sees the deep splotch of red blooming across the paper, his own heart drops. 

It's a bloodshed talisman. 

And they all immediately know who it has to be tied to. 

Meng Yao has never seen a human move so fast in his entire life. 

Nie Mingjue is already in the sky on Baxia before any of the rest of them are out of the tent. Even Lan Xichen can't catch him before he can no longer be seen in the darkness. 

Meng Yao inwardly curses his own faltering cultivation that leaves him unable to keep up with the others, but at least his mental map means he won't get lost because of the lag. 

He just hopes- 

He just hopes- 

He lands in the middle of a maelstrom of clashing metal and screaming horses, more than a little bewildered by the number of moving and dead bodies in the forest clearing. 

How the fuck had this many Wen managed to get this deep into Qinghe territory? Their scouts should have caught them long before- 

No matter. His sect leader and the others would deal with them. 

He has to find- 

There are two figures in green and grey lying among the more numerous white and red. The first, he immediately identifies as the medical assistant -(dead)- and the other- 

He rushes over and pulls a semi-conscious Nie Huaisang up onto his knees. The younger man is sluggishly bleeding from his nose and a second blow to the head that has bruised most of the right side of his face, and his wrists are also raw and bloody from struggling out of the ropes lying under him. 

"Yao-ge? When... Where did...?" he asks in a disoriented slur. 

(Later, Meng Yao will allow himself to be thrilled by the return of the endearment.) 

For now, he jerks Nie Huaisang out of the way of a falling Wen horse and then drags him towards the treeline. They're almost out of the fight zone when a sword whistles past, barely missing taking off Meng Yao's ear. 

Fortunately, its owner hits the ground dead before he can call it back to try again. 

With that last death cry, the clearing goes silent, they and the disciples and Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue all staring at each other, almost dazed from the wearing off of the battle adrenaline. 

Then Nie Mingjue crosses the clearing with almost the same superhuman speed as before and jerks Nie Huaisang out of Meng Yao's hands, wrapping his brother in an embrace so tight that Nie Huaisang can't help letting out a small squeak of protest.

—

There is never a verbal apology. 

In fact, neither brother says a word during the (unsettlingly) short flight to the Unclean Realms. 

But neither of them lets go of the other for the entire flight either, and Meng Yao supposes that has to be enough for them. 

(He desperately hopes that it is enough for them.) 

The first time Nie Mingjue puts his brother down since that first desperate grab is when they land inside the courtyard, and even then, he has a solid grip on Nie Huaisang's shoulder. 

"Finally," Meng Yao hears a feminine voice mutter from amongst the staff who came running at their unexpected approach, before others immediately shush her. 

He bites his tongue to keep from smirking, but he hears a couple of the disciples with them have to choke back laughter. 

It is indeed a relief to finally have at least one of the many sources of tension in the realm eased. 

Though there is now another in its place, as he notices Nie Huaisang glance around warily, already growing stiff and uncomfortable in the place that hasn't been his home for some time now. 

This won't do. 

"Zongzhu," he says, mindful of how to balance the situation now. "Perhaps it would be best for everyone to rest before any discussion of important matters." 

"...Right," Nie Mingjue mutters awkwardly, then moves to dismiss the small crowd. 

He still hasn't let go of Nie Huaisang.

#mdzs #cql #mixed canon #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #lan xichen #sangyao #sorta not yet #fanfic

[piosplayhouse]

Mdzs fic writers if any of you need inspiration let me pitch my idea:

Erotica writers au where the 5 great sects are different publishing houses, currently all of them are in a war to earn the annual worst sex scene award. Wen Publishing has grown too powerful and now controls their own supply chain, giving them significant edge over the market. The other houses want to stop them because it's well known that their CEO is homophobic and refuses to publish gay erotica. Lan Wangji writes yaoi manga, his penname is "Hanguang-Jun" because he's known for his creative use of light beam censors on all of his sex scenes (there are a lot). Wei Wuxian is known for his extensive worldbuilding and tendency to include random public domain characters (therefore bringing them back from the dead) in his innovative "Yiling Laozu" series, a gay historical fantasy/mystery/for some reason engineering textbook erotica light novel. They end up sleeping together as "research" for their newest collaboration manga/light novel. You don't have to credit me just make sure Nie Huaisang's penname is 7 fans tornado cocktwister

#long post #long posts #mdzs shitpost #cql shitpost #wangxian #wei wuxian #wwx #lan wangji #lwj #lemon text #nsft #mdzs #cql

[robininthelabyrinth]

Sworn brothers LWJ, NHS, and JZX. You would think they're the least messy of the sworn brothers but they are just in different ways especially when they're together and have to share one and a half braincells and two are hopeless, social awkward romantics

--------------------

“I regret my youthful folly,” Lan Wangji said solemnly. “Deeply.”

“I understand,” Jin Zixuan said. “I, too, have reason for regret.”

“Oh, stop being such spoilsports, both of you!” Nie Huaisang laughed, wrapping his arms around each of their shoulders. “You should pity me, instead! I have the most boring sworn brothers in the world!”

“I still think we shouldn’t have been held responsible for it,” Jin Zixuan said gloomily. “We were eight. We hadn’t even met other people yet.”

Lan Wangji nodded.

“Pssh, like either of you have still met other people,” Nie Huaisang said. “I’m the one being robbed here. I could have sworn brotherhood with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian!”

Suddenly he was being glared at.

“…unless that’s the problem?” he hazarded a guess. “Wait, why do you guys want to swear brotherhood with them? Lan Zhan, don’t you have a thing against Wei Wuxian?”

“…no,” Lan Wangji said.

Nie Huaisang stared at him. “Are you saying no because you don’t have any feelings about Wei Wuxian, or because your feelings aren’t against him?”

Lan Wangji sullenly refused to answer, which was already answer enough.

“And you,” Nie Huaisang said, spinning to look at Jin Zixuan, who’d already preemptively started blushing. “What is your problem? You don’t even want to marry Jiang Yanli – are you crushing on her brother?”

“I’ve never even met her,” Jin Zixuan squeaked. “It’s not the same…”

“You’re both useless,” Nie Huaisang declared. “Completely, utterly, totally useless.”

Then he grinned.

“Luckily, you have me here…”

#submission #mdzs #nie huaisang #jin zixuan #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons #i have never gotten the hang of answering submissions #please just send asks if possible

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Pretty colors

This was supposed to be for Wei Wuxian's birthday, but just like him, I was in the Burial Mounds and couldn't bring myself to do anything but survive - so here I am, comically late, with this cute little thing.

Enjoy <3

Today is Wei Wuxian's birthday - but he doubts anybody knows it, and frankly, this is no time to celebrate either. It has not been that long since he rescued the Wen remnants from the cruel working camps the Jin threw them in, so he must keep his guard up still - although, to be fair, he has never been relaxed ever since the Burial Mounds became his wretched home.

Not to mention that he cannot afford a celebration either - they're all on the brink of poverty, on the brink of death, so such frivolous things pale in the face of the sheer need for survival. There is barely enough food for everyone and the money is so scarce that they can barely afford the most basic of ingredients - of course there is no room for gifts or treats of any kind in such condition.

This is one of the main reasons why Wei Wuxian has decided he will be spending this entire day like he spends the rest of them - holed up in his cave, inventing all sorts of things to cover up the empty helplessness behind the place where his golden core had once thrummed power into his meridians.

Because he knows that, despite the dire conditions and the many things that they lack, the Wen remnants will do their utmost to give him something, to mark this day as special - they're all so kind, so giving, but Wei Wuxian knows they are also still vaguely afraid of him. So of course they would sacrifice a day's worth of food or clothing to offer him something as gratitude - and Wei Wuxian does not want that. They are suffering enough as it is and don't need to add to their burden.

So, Wei Wuxian sits at his makeshift desk that is nothing more than a conveniently flat piece of rock and begins writing, drawing and testing out talismans, stubbornly refusing to think about how different last year was on his birthday.

How his friends were still alive, rowdy as ever, and how Jiang Yanli would make him a special kind of cake he got to eat all on his own no matter how much the others whined about wanting some too. How he received all sorts of gifts the proof of whose existence is only now a faded memory. They all burned down when Lotus Pier was attacked.

How much easier life was - or rather, how much more comfortable. Of course, Wei Wuxian isn't a vain man and he does not care much for luxury and riches. But he still thinks of his warm bed in the Lotus Pier, of the plentiful food and the frivolous entertainment in the streets, and though he doesn't regret anything - neither giving up his core, nor saving the Wens - he does long for that life's pleasures every now and then.

Today he can't even really eat. There isn't enough for him too no matter how much granny argues otherwise - and even if he cannot practice inedia anymore, he is used to being hungry, so it's okay. A-Yuan and Wen Qing and granny need to eat more than he does. And it's not like he can treat himself with some wine or anything like that either - the money need to be used for other things.

In fact, the only thing Wei Wuxian can hope to enjoy today is, perhaps, an early night's sleep, if the talisman he's been working on will be any good. And given the fact that he hasn't properly rested in months, this is more valuable than his dwindling weight in gold.

So, for his birthday this year, all Wei Wuxian is planning to do is sleep and pretend like this is all a bad dream.

---

It is sad, in a way, though. There is nobody from his past that cares enough for Wei Wuxian to remember that it's his birthday today. Rationally, he knows Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli cannot reach out to him, same for Nie Huaisang and even Lan Zhan. He is not someone people really want to associate themselves with anymore and that's understandable.

Still, a letter or something couldn't have been so bad, could it?

Wei Wuxian decides that these thoughts are a sign he should fulfill his plan and give himself a good night's sleep if nobody else bothered to gift him anything else.

So, he lays out his shoddy robes that serve as linen, and a blanket that's more tatters than wool, and just as he is about to wave the candles off, he hears the sound of many steps walking into his cave.

With Wen Ning, Wen Qing and A-Yuan in the lead, the Wen remnants fill the space, and smiling conspirationally at each other, they shout out a lively, excited "happy birthday!"

The cave echoes with it, and the clapping and joyous laughter that follow - and Wei Wuxian is so shocked that he doesn't react at all until he feels A-Yuan hug at his legs tightly as he giggles a "Are you surprised, Xian-gege?"

Wei Wuxian realizes that he's crying only when he feels hot droplets slide down his cheeks. "I... thank you, all of you... but how did you know?"

Wen Qing smiles proudly. "A-Ning told me! You know, back then, when you were the only person that was nice to him at the archery competition, he became a little obsessed with you-"

"That's not true at all!" Wen Ning defends quickly and, if he was alive, he would be beet red. "I just wanted to know a bit about you, that's all... stuff like your birthday and..."

Laughter is pulled out of Wei Wuxian before he knows it. "That's a bit stalkerish, you know?"

"It wasn't like that at all!" Wen Ning tries, flustering even further, "I was just-"

"I'm joking, it's okay. And anyway, you saved my life and Jiang Cheng's, so I guess I can at least overlook the stalking in exchange."

"It wasn't stalking!"

Wei Wuxian laughs again, and Wen Ning can't help but join in a little bit, as much as his dead vocal cords allowed it.

"Anyway," Wen Qing continues, "We figured you'd be sulking here by yourself all day cause there's nowhere to party here, so..." she hands him a jar of what is definitely Emperor's Smile, "...we brought the party to you!"

He takes the wine with trembling hands. "I really cam't accept this... it's so expensive-"

"Well it's not like we can return it now! It came here all the way from Gusu!" Uncle Four shouts, and a few of his family smile knowingly amongst themselves.

"Gusu...?" Wei Wuxian mutters to himself, and his eyes soften even more. Lan Zhan.

"Oh and this came from Yunmeng." Wen Qing adds as she hands the other another jar, an enticing aroma flowing through the cave. "It's some kind of curry, but when I tried smelling it, it was like sinking my face into hellfire. It's apparently one of your favorites!"

"But..." Wei Wuxian starts, heart stuttering at the thought of Yanli and Jiang Cheng conspiring to have this brought to him, "...there isn't enough for everyone..."

"We want none of that, young man!" Granny laughs. "You eat it!"

At this, Wei Wuxian laughs with her, though he cannot help wondering if his body will be able to take so much spice now, despite his love for it.

"I made you something too!" A-Yuan interjects suddenly. "I know that people get flowers on their birthday but there are no flowers here and uncle Ning doesn't wanna let me steal from the markets, so..." he produces a little bouquet of colorful leaves, all tied together with a piece of one of his hair ribbons. They're all sorts of shades of red and orange, like pieces of sunset captured from the few sunny days that end in a spectacle of colors. They're neatly arranged, from the most vibrant shade of vermillion, to the palest amber, like a muted rainbow.

"Auntie Qing and I also made this." A-Yuan says as he hands Wei Wuxian a little envelope with a bit of yellow talisman paper hanging out at the top. "It's like one of those drawings you work on all day, but this one shines in all sorts of pretty colors! It's for when you have a really bad day, to make you feel better!"

All Wei Wuxian can do is pick the boy up and cry, hiding into his hair to mask his tears. "Thank you, little one. I love them. And I love you. All of you."

--

Wei Wuxian shouts out as he feels pain tear through him as unforgivingly as resentful energy bites at his bloody, mauled body. Everything hurts beyond words, beyond imagination, and his legs give out against the cruel onslaught of ghostly claws gauging at his flesh. It won't be long now before he'll be left without a voice, without eyesight, without life.

And though he has accepted it, and has stopped trying to fight the inevitable, there is still some will in him left for one thing before the world goes dark with pain and decay.

In his sleeve, still intact in its little envelope, there is a talisman.

And with a little bit of blood, Wei Wuxian sees it light up, a tiny firework show, blues and reds and purples burning through the paper one after the other.

The paper dissintegrates, and so does he.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #writing attempts

[littlesmartart]

(Hope it’s okay that I come in with an askbox and say something). Your most recent NieYao drawing gave me all the feels. I liked the tags too, especially the “what’s your rage hiding” with Nie Mingjue. Even if he’s relatively straightforward he’s not necessarily a simple character, and his whole attitude toward Jin Guangyao especially probably requires multiple essays and diagrams to sort out. So yeah. I liked what you drew and it gave me thoughts.

ah, I'm so glad to hear that!!

oh boy, "what is the rage hiding" is actually a character starting point that I got from @ellethinthewoods whilst we were writing our AU @greenhills-woodtoburn-fic! NMJ is such an interesting character... whilst it is true that in a sense he wears his heart on his sleeve - bursting into tears at the slightest emotion, god bless you wang yizhou for your acting choices - I think he also uses rage to hide a lot, not only externally but also from himself! NMJ is not a person prone to introspection or self-reflection (and neither is JGY lmao but for different reasons), and I do believe he is exceptionally good at duping himself by slapping anger over whatever he doesn't like and pretending like he has no clue there's anything else under it. and obviously this gets less conscious and more uncontrollable the closer to qi-deviation he gets, but this is a tendency he exhibits from earlier in the story, when he is still more or less stable, so I definitely see it as a key character trait.

like, people enjoy hating on LXC for willfully ignoring stuff, but... hello, NMJ also uses anger to do that too???? he deliberately chooses to ignore a whole BUNCH of shit!!! so often he takes one look at a situation and goes "this is my opinion and I have decided that it is objective truth, and if anyone or anything disagrees it will be easier to simply Get Big Mad About It(TM) rather than consider that I might be wrong or whether there are more complicated emotions to address". he does it with Huaisang. obviously he does it with JGY. NMJ is really really good at refusing to see things - only in his case, he is usually refusing to acknowledge things that might refute his negative opionion.

so yeah. not sure where this is going, but I love NMJ's character! I think it's really interesting how he can be both our beloved self-sacrificing, loving, cares-so-much-he-cries da-ge, aaaaand also a big fat stinking pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps hypocrite who is sticking his fingers in his ears going "lalalala can't hear you" when an emotional situation might require something more complex than getting pissed off because feeling angry is easier than feeling pain or remorse.

#nie mingjue #the untamed #ask #eastofakkala #thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble!!! #NMJ haters can get fucking lost I love this terrible man 😌

[shanastoryteller]

Happy Pride! Something Untamed related please :D

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Jiang women are the best.

Nie Huaisang has been dropping by Lotus Pier for years, so he knows this to be true. Being engaged to either Jiang Yanli or Wei Wuxian would have been awesome, for entirely different reasons, because Jiang women also have range. If his brother really does start pushing him to get married, he's going to insist they marry in a Jiang disciple, even if the best ones are taken.

At least Jiang Cheng is appropriately appreciative of his awesome fiance. Jin Zixuan is a tragedy - engaged to Jiang Yanli and pouting about it? It makes him doubt Jin Zixuan's academic rankings.

The point is he's known that Jiang women are in a class of their own for years and watching Lan Wangji come to that conclusion himself is hilarious.

"So, your brother," Nie Huaisang says, barging into Lan Xichen's room He and Mingjue are best friends, of course he knows and is friendly with Lan Xichen.

Lan Xichen doesn't even look up from the scroll he's reading, although his lips do rise at the corners. "What about him?"

"Has he talked to you about his crush on Wei Wuxian?" he asks, collapsing on the table across from him.

Lan Xichen stills, his shoulders drawing back slightly. "Wei Wuxian is engaged to Jiang Wanyin. Wangji would never behave inappropriately."

He absolutely would, but that's not what Nie Huaisang's here about. "Relax, he hasn't done anything inappropriate." If he had, he'd be dead. He's not sure if either Wei Wuxian or Jiang Cheng could take Lan Wangji on alone, but together it's no question. "I'm just wondering if he's talked to you about it. Has he had crushes before? He's never talked to me about them."

In spite of all the time they'd been forced to spend together as kids, Lan Wangji never talks to him about anything. It would be insulting if Nie Huaisang was the type of person to let himself get insulted.

Lan Xichen ignores him for another moment before sighing and setting down the scroll. "Wangji is ... private."

That's a no, then.

"I'll talk to him," Lan Xichen says. "I wouldn't want things to get complicated. Politically."

He blinks. "Uh, if you want to, but I don't think it's an issue."

"Don't think it's an issue," Lan Xichen repeats.

He shrugs. "Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are solid. And you know Jiang don't like to play games. If he does something to piss them off, the worse they'll do is beat him up, but they won't make an inter-clan issue over some feelings. Lan Wangji won't be the first person to flirt with Wei Wuxian and he won't be the last."

People flirt with Jiang Cheng all the time too, but that's less of an issue since he seems equally uninterested in all of it, while Wei Wuxian's general interest does exist.

"My brother doesn't flirt," Lan Xichen says, pained.

That is, unfortunately, true.

Flirting would be easy and logical and harmless, instead of this weird one sided dominance display he's having with Jiang Cheng.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #huntress-lieutenant #untamed

[onhoude]

Jiang Wanyin, Nie Huaisang, and Wei Wuxian teaming up (sworn brothers) would've been extraordinary. In canon it wouldn't work (it would also make an entirely different tale). For plenty reasons. For one, I think Jiang Wanyin would have too little insight to play along with their schemes, and Wei Wuxian too reckless to play things strategically/politically, but if we pretend the stars are aligned it would have been amazing.

More under the cut because I'm rambling. It all boils down to Nie Huaisang interacting with Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian more before Nie Mingjue's death and having a tight leash on them both while being pitiful and feigning as politically insignificant.

Jiang Wanyin is actually fine with creating some unrest in the cultivation world if he has another sect's (combative) reputable backing (which used to be Nie Mingjue, so his early presence would be part of the whole 'stars must align' deal). After all, he was also one of the main instigators for the Sunshot Campaign, as a gongzi who just lost his entire sect against largely hesitant sects.

Jiang Wanyin also rebuilt an entire sect and elevated it to a high position in his own generation, all while during a war. That said, he's respectable and efficient but lacks the influence, charisma and sway to be truly persuasive.

Nie Huaisang would garner information, offer what Jiang Wanyin lacks in cunning, and set things up for Jiang Wanyin to honourably settle things publically (or lets things be taken care of, less publically). His timid reputation would soften the fear people have of his other sworn brother, Wei Wuxian.

Now, Wei Wuxian (pre-death) is a powerhouse with or without Golden Core (the archery competition, for example) and intelligent, but unorthodox and brash. With Nie Huaisang placating him (and helping him stay out of trouble), Wei Wuxian might be more likely to leave things up to Jiang Wanyin (who, at this point, would have a greater chance of actually succeeding in back-stabbing cultivator land) while his presence alone suffices as a threat.

But not too much of a threat! After all, if the Head Shaker cries on Yiling Laozu's lap after only half a cup of wine, then he can't be entirely ruthless, shameful and without compassion. Especially if Wei Wuxian is as charismatic as he usually is towards Nie Huaisang in public, as well.

Sect Leader Nie Mingjue is also not to be messed with. Even though he openly dislikes Wei Wuxian (demonic cultivation is dishonourable), Nie Huaisang does like him, and at least his younger brother's meddling is pulling some weight politically. Additionally, Nie Mingjue respects Jiang Wanyin for his role during the Sunshot Campaign. If Wei Wuxian is still in good standing with Jiang Wanyin, then altogether it's good for the relationship between Qinghe Nie and Yunmeng Jiang (as well as Gusu Lan, though Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian have yet to figure out that Wei Wuxian's antics have a beneficial effect on one Hanguang-jun and thus Sect Leader Lan Xichen - who is of course sworn brother of Nie Mingjue himself as well as Jin Guangyao).

And even if Nie Mingjue still dies (which he likely will, especially if the alliance between Qinghe Nie and Yunmeng Jiang stabilizes), that would only make Nie Huaisang (tragically) more driven. And he'd be less alone, having the support of brothers to get him through it.

Tensions would be so, so, so high because Jiang Wanyin (as the de facto leader) isn't technically politically powerful, but everyone has to concede to him a little anyway because of the sheer pressure the three hold.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #nie huaisang #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #gusu trio #im pretending to understand cultivator politics #and of course jiang yanli's marriage into lanling jin #jin guangshan's greatest success was isolating wei wuxian the way he did #mdzs spoilers #minor sect head disciple: we're listening to this? #minor sect leader: points at the gleaming red eyes (with nie huaisang seemingly just happy to be there) behind sect leader jiang