#Junior quartet fic in the works

[krussyarts]

IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY <333

I love him sm

He's my favourite blorbo to draw atm, his bangs are so silly <33

#jin ling #Jin ling fanart #mdzs fanart #mdzs #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #grandmaster of demonic arts #Bro how many alternative names does mdzs have????? #I could spend like ten minutes just tagging all the different names istg #Anyway #Jin ling is one of my favourite blorbos #I love the entire junior quartet sm #Istg stop leaving ouyang zizhen out #What did he ever do to you?? #There may be a fic in the works #Like. Unrelated to this post #but just in general #Junior quartet fic in the works #Heehoo

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Why Not Me?

Chapter 7 (Epilogue)

[Ch. 1] [Ch. 2] [Ch. 3] [Ch. 4] [Ch. 5] [Ch. 6]

[[Y'all this entire fic without the epilogue is just under 20k. This epilogue is juuust shy of 7k. It's over a third of the entire fic 😂. But anyway -- Here it is, the epilogue, in which LQR and LJY get to hug it out a few times (and we catch up to canon time, to the interactions that inspired it all) Enjoy!]]

--//--

-9-

“ZEWU-JUN!!!!!”

Jingyi’s shout skitters off the rocks in the pretty white gardens and the buildings ahead of him, propelled by his powerful lungs and the racing of his feet as he tears through Cloud Recesses like a wild mountain wind. Scandalized teachers and disciples alike call after him to stop running and shouting, but Jingyi doesn’t care one bit what they think, not right now.

“Zewu-jun!!” Jingyi shouts again at a volume that maybe won’t wake the ancestors when he’s closer to the Sect Leader’s office, but he’s thankfully still loud enough that he sees the man in question step out onto the porch to meet him before he’s even reached the border of his courtyard.

“Jingyi, hush,” Zewu-jun cautions, though without much conviction in his always-soft voice. “What is it, what’s wrong?”

Jingyi skids to a stop at the base of the few stairs that lead up to the porch and he bends double to brace his hands on his shaking knees to try to suck in deep breaths and recover what he hadn’t drawn in while he’d been running pell-mell through every shortcut he knows — and he knows a lot of them.

“Lan-xiansheng is hurt!” he manages to cough after a few breaths and Zewu-jun hurries (politely) down the steps to take him by the arm and help him stand upright.

“How is Shufu hurt?” his cousin asks, quick and quiet. Jingyi turns at the sound of scuffling behind him to find that his headlong flight has garnered them an audience. He hurries to wave Zewu-jun down to his level so he can talk quietly in his ear, and Zewu-jun obliges him immediately.

“Lan-xiansheng didn’t wake up on time this morning so I made him breakfast but when I woke him up to eat it he got sick and then coughed up a bunch of stale blood and then he told me to come find you and then he passed out and you have to come and help him, please Zewu-jun!”

Jingyi is half-expecting Zewu-jun to brush him off like all the other adults in the Sect do (except for Lan-xiansheng and Hanguang-jun, of course), but thankfully Zewu-jun seems to know he isn’t telling a tall tale just for attention. Jingyi’s definitely too big for it now but Zewu-jun still bends down to sweep him up onto his hip, and Jingyi isn’t even embarrassed to be carried like a baby because Zewu-jun can walk as fast as Jingyi can run without making it look like running, so he clings tight and tries to stop shaking as Zewu-jun carries him back through the disturbance Jingyi had left in his wake.

They arrive at the Yashi quickly and Zewu-jun sets him down again just inside the door that Jingyi hurries to close against the curious eyes of the rest of the Sect while Zewu-jun hurries further inside the house.

“Shufu?” Jingyi hears him ask, low and urgent, and he breathes a tiny sigh of relief at the responding rumble from Lan-xiansheng, too quiet for him to pick out the individual words. He has too much nervous energy in his hands for even his well-worn rock to contend with, so Jingyi busies himself with making tea and stirring up the morning’s congee to make sure it isn’t getting all burnt and gross on the bottom of the wok.

When the tea is steeped and the congee stirred he cleans up the mess he’d made while preparing breakfast and stirs the congee again a few more times for good measure…and Zewu-jun still hasn’t come back from the bedroom Jingyi shares with Lan-xiansheng. He doesn’t want to interrupt in case it would be bad, but he can’t stand another second not knowing what’s happening so he creeps on tiptoe to the door to peek cautiously around the frame and look through the gloom to try to see what’s happening.

Between Zewu-jun and Lan-xiansheng there glows a thin thread of qi, pure blue and glinting like a mountain stream at noon, tossing strange shadows on the walls beside and behind Lan-xiansheng’s bed. Jingyi drifts a little closer, still on tiptoe, to try to see what’s happening, and between one flickering blink and the next he’s able to make out the shape of Lan-xiansheng on his back and Zewu-jun’s first two fingers pointed at the center of his forehead where the cloud emblem of his ribbon would be sitting had Lan-xiansheng had the strength to get dressed this morning. Jingyi watches the transfer of qi with bated breath, holding still with a monumental effort as if the efficacy of the healing is completely dependent on how quiet and small he can keep himself.

It goes on for a long time, long enough that Jingyi’s fingers begin twitching on his sleeves and his knees feel like a wobbly jelly from his favorite dessert stall in Caiyi from how tightly he’s been keeping them locked to stay still. But finally, just when he’s about to break, the room goes dim again and Zewu-jun sighs as he pulls his hand away, no longer feeding Lan-xiansheng a stream of his qi.

“You are overextending yourself again, Shufu,” Zewu-jun says quietly, even though Lan-xiansheng looks like he’s gone back to sleep.

“It is hardly anything to be so fretful over,” Lan-xiansheng grumps in the same tone he uses when he knows Jingyi is right about one of his ethics puzzles but it isn’t the nice orthodox answer Lan-xiansheng likes. “I taught the talisman classes yesterday and activated a few too many, that’s all.”

Zewu-jun’s voice is nearly inaudible as he replies, “You frightened Jingyi, Shufu. He doesn’t know what sorts of injuries are fatal yet, he may be…overly worried.”

“Well it’s not fatal,” Lan-xiansheng snaps, still grumpy. “I’ll just need to rest today and I will be fine by tomorrow, I said there’s no need for so much fuss!”

Jingyi forces his jelly knees to bend so he can creep back out of the room before he gets caught eavesdropping. Now that Zewu-jun has said it, Jingyi realizes he is scared, and he should probably do something about that before he has to hide it while he brings Lan-xiansheng breakfast again. He digs around in the hollows around the hearth until he can fish out their big sack of rice and tuck himself small and round in the space it fits in, the stone pressed against his back toasty warm from the fire. Jingyi huddles into a ball there in his new hiding place and hugs his knees tightly to his chest, tight-tight-tight until his arms shake and his joints ache and he doesn’t feel like he’s about to fly apart into a million little pieces like he’s heard fierce corpses do when Hanguang-jun plays his guqin at them.

What if Lan-xiansheng isn’t really okay? What if his health is getting really bad? What if he’s going to die and leave Jingyi alone again, like his parents? What if he has to go back to the children’s home to live? What if he doesn’t get to have special classes and a family and a purpose anymore, what if he has to go back to being just a regular disciple with no one to want him around? Hanguang-jun leaves often for night hunts, and Sizhui lives in the disciple dormitories now whenever his dad is gone. Jingyi supposes he could probably try to live in the dormitories too, but Lan-xiansheng has said he doesn’t want him to, he said it wouldn’t be the right place for him because they wouldn’t understand him and the ways he has to live noisily. Would that be worse or better than the children’s home? But there’s no doubt that both of them would be horrible because it would mean Lan-xiansheng is gone, and Jingyi doesn’t want that to happen ever. He wants to keep living with Lan-xiansheng and helping him with all his work and being allowed to be noisy and run around when they’re at home and he wants his life to keep going exactly how it is, with Lan-xiansheng looking after him so Jingyi can look after him, too.

But what if it all just…ends?

“Shhh, Jingyi, it’s alright,” Zewu-jun suddenly murmurs from close by, and Jingyi hiccups around his next ragged breath. “Don’t be afraid, Shufu’s going to be fine. Do you need to stay in there a little longer, or would you like to come out?”

Jingyi squeezes his arms tight-tight-tighter and buries his face in his knobby knees, tilting sideways away from Zewu-jun until the back wall of the cubby-hole is pressed up against his side. He tries to push himself harder against it with his feet but they scuff against the floor and don’t help much at all, so he tries it again with a frustrated little huff that turns into a whine when the scuffing just happens again.

“It’s alright, Jingyi,” Zewu-jun repeats but that’s a lie because it’s not alright! Jingyi opens his mouth to tell him so, Sect Leader or not, but then big warm hands are pressing against his shoulder and knee to hold him stuck firmly in place against the stone, so tight it feels like he’s being squished under a boulder. Jingyi lets some of the tension in his arms go and Zewu-jun still holds him right there, pressed up against the wall so Jingyi can relax and lean his head against it too, suddenly exhausted as if he’d run laps around the base of the whole mountain instead of only through the main part of Cloud Recesses.

“Can you hear me now or is your mind still too loud?” Zewu-jun asks after a few long minutes of silence except for Jingyi’s breathing slowing down and the occasional ruffle of silk against stone when he or Zewu-jun readjust a little bit.

Jingyi pouts into his knees, but he gives his honest answer anyway. “I can hear.”

“Thank you, Jingyi. Shufu is only tired, he isn’t sick, or hurt. He was hurt some years ago when the Cloud Recesses was attacked, and sometimes his old injury takes up all his energy when he tries to do too many things in one day.” Zewu-jun’s explanation is patient and soft, and as he continues to hold Jingyi smushed up against the wall Jingyi finds that the information is…good. That it helps him to relax a little more. “He will not die from it, Jingyi, I promise you. No matter how tired he gets, no matter how ill he feels, this injury will not take him away from us. Can you repeat that for me?”

“Lan-xiansheng was hurt by the Wens when they burned Cloud Recesses. He feels worse when he’s used up too much energy. He won’t die.”

“Good. Shufu is a very strong cultivator. Everything will be alright so long as we make sure he looks after himself well to keep up that strength. Can you keep helping me do that?”

Jingyi sucks in a deep breath and lets it all back out with a big whoosh that takes all the tension in his muscles with it. “Yes, Zewu-jun,” he promises, and when he wriggles a little bit against his Sect Leader’s hold, beginning to feel cramped, Zewu-jun releases him easily and helps pull him back out of his hiding spot. Zewu-jun is kneeling right there in their kitchen, on eye-level with Jingyi, and so Jingyi can see it perfectly when Zewu-jun offers him a gentle smile as he pats the side of his head, careful to avoid his ribbon.

“You’re a good boy, Jingyi,” Zewu-jun tells him. “I was worried at first that Shufu would get too tired looking after you, but do you want to know a secret? It’s a good one, I promise.”

Jingyi nods, though perhaps a little reluctantly. (He still doesn’t like hearing that Zewu-jun thought he wouldn’t be good for Lan-xiansheng to keep around, which he privately thinks is fair.)

“Shufu’s health has been much better since he brought you home, I think raising you is a very good thing for him. Hanguang-jun and I are quite relieved and happy that he has you. Thank you, Jingyi.”

Jingyi’s tight chest sparks with the same joy he still finds in being useful to Lan-xiansheng, in carrying out his chores well and helping Lan-xiansheng with all his paperwork and meetings in between their cultivation lessons. He stands up a little straighter, feels a little better, and Zewu-jun smiles at him in the same gentle way Hanguang-jun does (only he does it with his mouth too, and not just his eyes).

“The congee is still warm,” Jingyi says. “But the tea is probably gross now.”

“Mm, I see. Shufu can have water with his congee, then. Will you take it to him?”

A task. A set task, one he can for sure accomplish without a problem. Jingyi relaxes further, relieved, and hurries to nod and scoop up some congee into a small wooden bowl, only realizing belatedly that it’s one of his and not one of Lan-xiansheng’s nice ceramic bowls like he always uses. Oh well, maybe wooden bowls are better for eating in bed anyway.

“Lan-xiansheng?” he calls from the doorway, as soft as he can make his voice (he’s getting pretty good at it!).

Lan-xiansheng’s voice is still rough around the edges, but it’s a relief to hear him call back an exhausted, “Come in, Jingyi.”

“I have congee and —“ Jingyi cuts himself off, guilty, and half-turns as if to head back to the kitchen only to find Zewu-jun already waiting behind him with a cup of water and that nice smile still on his face. He holds a finger up to his lips to shush him and winks before he hands the cup to Jingyi, so he doesn’t have to admit that he forgot something important. “I have congee and water,” he says to Lan-xiansheng and shoots a grateful look at Zewu-jun over his shoulder.

“Hmph. Filial child,” Lan-xiansheng huffs as he does anytime Jingyi makes it a point to take extra good care of him. He always sounds grumpy when he says it, but there’s always a little smile hiding under his mustache so that’s okay. “Bring it here, then.”

Jingyi makes his way carefully across the room to offer Lan-xiansheng his breakfast, and when the man takes the dishes off his hands Jingyi simply climbs up to sit on the edge of his bed and wait, kicking his feet a little and trying not to yawn. He always gets sleepy after he has to be small and tight for a while, but usually he can ignore it if he goes to do something outside after.

“You should not have run and shouted for Xichen like you did, Jingyi,” Lan-xiansheng admonishes when he’s finished and Jingyi has carefully taken the dishes back, the jade cup tucked safely inside the sturdier wood bowl. Jingyi grips the bowl a little tighter and shakes his head with a stubborn clench in his jaw.

“Lan-xiansheng’s health was in danger, I needed Zewu-jun’s help.”

“His help could have been requested at an appropriate volume.”

Jingyi’s jaw pops from how hard he’s biting down a big shivery feeling in his chest, and because Lan-xiansheng sees everything of course he notices.

“Jingyi?”

“I was scared,” he admits, ducking his head and using the hand Lan-xiansheng can’t see to swipe at his suddenly-damp cheek. He still cries just as easily as he had before he got his family, which is embarrassing, but they never say anything mean about it so it’s not too bad. “I yelled and ran because I was scared.”

“Ah, I see,” Lan-xiansheng hums. Jingyi swipes at his cheek again before he sits up straight and tries to begin hopping down from the bed to take the dishes back to be scrubbed — but then strong arms are wrapping around him and Jingyi melts into the embrace immediately.

Lan-xiansheng isn’t much for hugging. Hanguang-jun is, he hugs Jingyi a lot, but Zewu-jun and Lan-xiansheng don’t ever really hug him, and he’s noticed they don’t hug Hanguang-jun or Lan Yuan all that much either. But Lan-xiansheng is hugging him now, just as warm as the hearthstone and a little tighter than even Zewu-jun had pressed him against the wall to help him get through his panic, and without thinking Jingyi drops the bowl and cup with a clatter to hug Lan-xiansheng back just as fiercely.

“Please don’t die,” he whispers into Lan-xiansheng’s shoulder. His heart shies away from just saying it aloud, like maybe if he says it right to Lan-xiansheng it’ll actually happen. But before he can really get himself worked up, Lan-xiansheng presses a hand tight to the back of his head and shakes his own head enough for Jingyi to feel it.

“I will not die, Jingyi. I promised I would raise you. Are you grown yet?”

Jingyi laughs a little wetly around a big sniffle. “No, Lan-xiansheng.”

“Mm. Silly child.”

“Can you stay even when I’m grown though?” he has to ask, his voice small and nervous where he’s still hiding in Lan-xiansheng’s shoulder. If Lan-xiansheng has to die when Jingyi grows up then he’ll just have to find a way to stay a kid forever, it’s flawless logic.

Lan-xiansheng pauses for a long moment before he gives Jingyi an extra-hard squeeze and then pushes him away enough to look him in the eyes. “I will live for as long as I can.  You may be…60 years old and still be a silly child. Will you be grown, then? Will you stop needing me then?”

Jingyi laughs again, stronger this time, and shakes his head ‘no’.

“Correct. I need to rest now — you may have a rest in your bed as well if you need to, we will not be doing work today.”

Jingyi, thus reassured of both Lan-xiansheng’s longevity and permission to nap through the exhaustion of one of his own episodes, hurries to return the dishes to the now-empty kitchen so he can lay down for his nap, the fear from the morning all but gone in the wake of getting a hug from Lan-xiansheng.

--//--

-15(.5)-

“Yangfu!” Jingyi hollers as he slams the door to the Yashi open with a clatter. “I’m home!”

“Child, how many times must I remind you that I can hear you coming from a li away? You do not need to shout that you have arrived.”

“Sorry,” Jingyi grins, not sorry at all. As expected, Lan-xiansheng waves a wooden spoon at him with a vague noise of irritation and nothing more — he’s long since stopped reminding Jingyi of any of the several rules pertaining to lying and careless speech that render his ‘apology’ worthy of reprimand.

“Go wash,” is all he says instead, so Jingyi salutes him deeply just to tweak his tail again before he hurries to set his sword aside and head out into the back garden for a perfunctory wash in the rain barrel. The weather is turning cool so he’s not too dirty from sword practice, which means he’s quick enough to wash and change into fresh clothes before he returns to the kitchen to strategically make himself too much of a nuisance for Lan-xiansheng to be willing to share the hearth with him. Jingyi cheerfully takes over the making of their dinner when Lan-xiansheng retreats with irritated grumbling about filial piety and pointy teenage elbows — a familiar background music to Jingyi’s evening routine.

“Yangfu,” Jingyi pipes up after they’ve finished eating in their usual silence and he’s chattered at Lan-xiansheng about his afternoon of training through the process of washing up and brewing tea that always follows. Lan-xiansheng barely glances up from the painting he’s carefully contemplating the next addition to at his call.

“Hm?”

“Did da-shixiong come to talk to you this afternoon?”

“He did.”

Jingyi fidgets from foot to foot before huffing in (fond) exasperation. Lan-xiansheng ignores him, of course, and continues to sip at his tea and study his own in-progress painting like the possibility of Jingyi beginning to join his peers on nighthunts isn’t being dangled in front of Jingyi’s eyes like a fish flailing on a line.

“Can I go?” he finally breaks enough to ask, flopping down into a…sort of correct kneel in front of the table. Lan-xiansheng holds his ink-loaded brush well away from the clattering table with the ease of many years of practice navigating a space with Jingyi’s clumsiness.

“If your da-shixiong has not seen fit to inform you —“

“Yangfu!”

Lan-xiansheng sniffs and finally looks up from his painting to level an acerbic glare at him from under truly impressive angry brows. (He can’t fool Jingyi though, he’s doing this on purpose just for the fun of teasing him.)

“Do not interrupt me, child, I’ve had enough of that in my meetings this afternoon. If your da-shixiong has not seen fit to inform you of your first assignment then why should I rob him of the headache?”

Jingyi grins wide enough to split his face and gamely gives Lan-xiansheng enough time to set his brush down and cover his ears with a pointed look before he lets out a noisy whoop and hops up to go run a couple laps around the back garden to burn off the sudden burst of energy.

“Wash again before you come inside if you’re going to be so energetic!” Lan-xiansheng’s sharp bark makes Jingyi laugh, and when he finishes a few more laps (cartwheels, to tire himself out as much as he can) he obligingly heads back to the barrel to dunk his head in the cool water, if for no other reason than to see the poorly-disguised distaste on Lan-xiansheng’s face when he tromps back in dripping water on the floor from the ends of his hair.

“Incorrigible boy,” Lan-xiansheng huffs. “Come sit, I know you won’t remember to comb your hair and I refuse to look at a bird’s nest on your head tomorrow. We have to go down to Caiyi for business in the morning, you should be presentable.”

Jingyi grins, fetches his usual oil and his comb, and finally feels his energy settle enough that he only fidgets a little once he’s sat at the table and Lan-xiansheng is kneeling behind him to comb his hair out with methodical movements.

“Thank you, Yangfu,” Jingyi murmurs when the motion of the comb in his hair has settled him further.

Lan-xiansheng sniffs in a way that could either be dismissive or a show of emotion (Jingyi will choose to believe it’s the latter). “It’s past time you went out on hunts. The other boys your age already do, and you are ahead of most of them in your cultivation.”

“Aiyah,” Jingyi tuts with a smirk. “Arrogance is forbidden! Do not flatter! Hey–!”

“Do not use the precepts for levity with me, Yi-er, it is disrespectful,” Lan-xiansheng scolds while Jingyi rubs at the spot on his scalp Lan-xiansheng had just swatted. “It is not arrogance or flattery to state what is fact. Your cultivation is highly ranked amongst your peers, they should take you for an example in their learning on night hunts.”

Jingyi smiles, practically glowing with happiness from such blatant praise, and settles down obediently for the rest of the de-tangling process.

“You will be careful on your hunt,” Lan-xiansheng says eventually, as serious as always. “You will listen closely to your seniors and obey them, should their instruction be correct. If it is not, you will go through the proper authority to see it corrected, you will not take matters into your own hands to reprimand them yourself. You will only attend group hunts supervised by Wangji until you have proven yourself capable of behaving well enough for the other supervising cultivators that they understand you are not intentionally disobedient. You will not risk your life, and you will not encourage or support others in doing so, either.”

Jingyi nods vigorously enough that Lan-xiansheng puts his free hand on top of his head to stop him from yanking at the comb the man is still running through his hair.

“What scenario have I not considered?”

Jingyi screws up his face for a moment to run back through the list of instructions. Lan-xiansheng has gotten really good over the years at learning how to give him thorough enough lists of instructions that most circumstances are typically accounted for, but Jingyi is nothing if not creative in circumventing any rule he can, even when he doesn’t mean to be.

“What if a mundane person is in life-threatening trouble and I’m the only one who can help them but it’s really dangerous?”

Lan-xiansheng swats at his head again, more gently this time. “You will not be going on such dangerous hunts, and you will not be tasked with protecting civilians directly. It will be your task to shadow your seniors and do as directed, and to learn all you can from observing their work. You are not to endanger yourself, Jingyi. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Yangfu. I won’t endanger myself.”

“Good.”

Jingyi stays still as Lan-xiansheng finishes combing his hair and braids it for sleep, tucking the ends of his ribbon neatly into the braid to keep it safe. (Most of the time if he takes it off at night he forgets to put it on again in the morning, it’s easiest to just sleep in it.)

Jingyi returns his comb and oil where they belong and settles in across from Lan-xiansheng at the table to work on a bit of lure talisman research he’s interested in, the silence comfortable and peaceful at the end of a day. When the sandalwood incense burning in the brazier switches to jasmine, informing them of the start of hai shi, they set aside their individual pursuits and begin to prepare for bed. Jingyi is about to slip into his own bedroom — an addition to the house Lan-xiansheng commissioned to be built for him some years ago — when a hand around his wrist stops him.

For all the growth spurts Jingyi has gone through in the last few years, Lan-xiansheng still stands a few cuns taller than him. He looks every bit of it now, his gaze stern as Jingyi turns to look up at him, curious. “Yangfu?”

“I will not stop you from night hunting,” he says with apparent difficulty. “It is your right and your duty as a cultivator capable of helping to do so.” Jingyi stays quiet as Lan-xiansheng visibly chews on his next words before he manages to get them out. “You are..vitally important to me. Promise me you will be careful.”

Jingyi — suddenly feeling quite a bit younger than his 15 and a half years — surges forward to hug Lan-xiansheng tightly around the middle and hide his face in his chest. Lan-xiansheng still isn’t much of a hugger, but for now he indulges Jingyi enough to wrap his arms around his shoulders and hold on tight.

“I’ll be careful, Yangfu,” Jingyi promises into soft white silk, feeling wonderfully comfortable. “I won’t take risks. I’ll listen to my seniors. Hanguang-jun will keep us all safe, and I swear I’ll behave and follow all the rules.”

Lan-xiansheng is too slow to stop his disbelieving snort at that, so Jingyi grins and squeezes him tighter to irritate his adoptive father for daring to doubt him.

“Follow what rules you can,” Lan-xiansheng sighs, long-suffering, and pats his back a few times to signal him to let go. “And come back in one piece.”

That much, at least, he can do. He says as much and wishes Lan-xiansheng goodnight before they retreat back to their individual rooms. He settles in for bed with a smile and a shake of his head, unable to sleep for hours with the excitement of his first nighthunt humming under his skin.

--//--

-17-

In the two years since Jingyi started joining his agemates on nighthunts (when his other duties allow), he’s seen his fair share of wild and unbelievable things. The world is wide and the Lan disciples travel far, following the example set for them by (and usually under the direct leadership of) Hanguang-jun. He’d known even on that very first hunt that they wouldn’t always be so easy, that he wouldn’t always get to follow his favorite seniors around doing little more than holding their spare qiankun pouches for them and shouting about how cool they are at opportune moments in battle. That being said, he still thinks that it’s a little excessive that only two years later he’s progressed all the way up to getting kidnapped and thrown in a cave in the Burial Mounds with a bunch of other juniors who don’t have any better ideas than he does as to how they’re going to get the fuck out of here.

“If you ask me, you shouldn’t have just stabbed him once. Why didn’t you slice his throat?”

Ugh — not only kidnapped and thrown into the Burial Mounds. Kidnapped, thrown into the Burial Mounds, and tied to Jin Chan. Truly a low point in his life, Jingyi has to admit, and something he will decidedly not be putting into his reports of this nighthunt if they make it out of here (though he will likely complain about it to Lan-xiansheng in the privacy of their own home. Their home which he will definitely see again, he promised to be careful and come back in one piece, like he always does).

“It’s been a few days since they left us here,” Jingyi says, mostly to distract himself from the prospect of breaking such an important promise. “What do they want to do? To beat us or kill us…at least make it fast.” Jokes? Jokes. Jokes about death are a solid way to make it funny and not at all a very real possibility. He can make jokes about anything until he’s blue in the face, this is fine. “I’d rather be bitten to death by a monster while hunting than starve to death in this shithole.”

Jingyi can’t even find it in himself to feel bad that no one laughs. He’s not really laughing either, after all.

“What else would they want?” Jin Chan retorts into the despondent silence. “It must be like back in Nightless City, he wants to make us into fierce corpses and use us to fight our families!..”

Jingyi sighs and tunes out whatever other drivel about Wei-qianbei is coming out of Jin Chan’s mouth, and barely pays attention to whatever Jin Ling snaps back at him as if they aren’t always at each other’s throats anyway. He tunes back in enough to hear Sizhui trying to calm them down but he doesn’t bother trying to help his best friend — he at least knows a hopeless cause when he sees one. Or is tied to one, as the case may be, which becomes ridiculously annoying when Jin Chan starts struggling at their ropes to try to get at Jin Ling.

His irritation at his companions is a decent enough distraction from the morbid direction his thoughts had been trying to head in, at least — and then it hardly matters because someone’s calling to them from the entry to the cave and when Jingyi cranes around to look towards the familiar voice he can’t help but grin and relax in relief.

“Hanguang-jun!” Jingyi’s call comes right on the heels of Sizhui’s. It’s a simple fact of life that so long as Hanguang-jun is here then everything will be fine, and between one breath and the next he doesn’t doubt for a moment that he’ll make it home to Lan-xiansheng after all (though he will admit that being approached by the Ghost General wielding a sword comes really close to making him doubt it all over again in the moments before he’s cut free).

As is proper, he and Sizhui are the first to hurry up and greet Hanguang-jun, who studies them both closely as Sizhui greets Wei-qianbei and reaffirms for everyone present that their whole kidnapping and attempted murder predicament is not his fault. Jingyi doesn’t really care whose fault it is, if he’s being honest, he mostly just wants to go home and maybe spend a couple weeks (at least) doing nothing but helping Lan-xiansheng with his mountains of paperwork and badmouthing the Sect Leaders he doesn’t like since Lan-xiansheng can’t say any of it himself. Not that he doesn’t like nighthunting, and not that he doesn’t enjoy going out on adventures with Sizhui and Hanguang-jun, but this is maybe enough excitement for a while.

In the interest of washing his hands of the situation, Jingyi tells Hanguang-jun and Wei-qianbei what he knows about their captors and the fierce corpses outside (which is really very little). Hanguang-jun’s soft, “You did well,” makes him feel just as incredible as ever, even having to share the praise equally with Sizhui. He preens just a bit under it, smirking and sharing a look with Sizhui that his best friend returns with all the natural good grace that Jingyi always seems to lack. They’re so close to being able to go home he can almost feel the cool mist of Cloud Recesses on his face instead of the dry stale wind of the Burial Mounds.

Hanguang-jun’s attention suddenly darts over Jingyi’s shoulder and he shifts his weight to step in front of Wei-qianbei. When Jingyi mirrors him, ready in a heartbeat to follow Hanguang-jun’s signal, he scowls to see Jin Ling stepping forward with his usual sour expression on his face.

“What, are you going to stab him again?” he demands, ignoring Sizhui’s gently admonishing call of his name. They’re all thinking it anyway or else they wouldn’t be stepping forward to protect Wei-qianbei from him, so that means it’s only rude to say, not actually against any rules. (It’s not gossip, everyone knows Jin Ling stabbed Wei-qianbei at Jinlintai, and it’s not a lie because it’s a question, so there.)

“Aiyah, don’t surround him like that. Enough,” Wei-qianbei chides. “We’ll talk outside.”

Jingyi has to fight hard to keep from rolling his eyes when everyone else simply fidgets and makes no move to head for the doors like he’s itching to do. “What?” he calls to the room at large. “Still want to stay here?”

“There are so many fierce corpses outside. You want us to go out there and die?” Jingyi does roll his eyes at that, but since it’s Jin Chan who said it he’s probably not the only one doing so.

The Ghost General offers to keep the fierce corpses outside at bay, and Sizhui comes up with a much more eloquent argument than Jingyi’s badgering, and finally they’re all moving to head out, Jingyi’s practically thrumming with an electric buzz to get his sword under his feet and go home —

Or else the buzzing is actually the crackle of the Zidian whip, considering it throws the Ghost General back into the cave before the rest of them can even step foot outside. And where there’s the lightning whip, there’s —

“Jin Ling!” Sandu Shengshou shouts from outside the massive doors to the cave, and Jingyi feels everyone’s mood lift at the idea of help arriving that isn’t Wei-qianbei and the Ghost General (Jingyi, personally, thinks that they have no right to be picky since Hanguang-jun is also here, but maybe that’s just him [and probably Sizhui too]).

Ouyang Zizhen calls out to his dad next, and Jingyi’s heart actually does a little leap because if that old windbag Ouyang-zongzhu is here as well as the young ones like Sandu Shengshou then, maybe —

Jingyi falls into step quickly behind Hanguang-jun to file outside and yes, there, through the trees — Lan-xiansheng. Jingyi barely keeps from hopping out of line to run to him, and only manages it because Hanguang-jun hurries to lead them over so they can salute and fall in line properly the moment it’s possible. Jingyi takes up his spot close behind Lan-xiansheng’s left shoulder with immense relief that nearly makes his knees buckle. The only person he’s happier to see than Hanguang-jun is his adoptive father, and a few minutes later when Lan-xiansheng steps close enough amongst all the shouting and clamoring for Wei-qianbei to apologize (or whatever it is the rest of the world is demanding of him), Jingyi latches his fingers into the trailing end of Lan-xiansheng’s sleeve gratefully to give it a little tug in greeting.

Jingyi has a very definite purpose in this life, and that’s to take care of Lan-xiansheng with all the energy he has. The man took him in, raised him, taught him, sheltered him from the criticisms of the extreme traditionalists in the Sect, amongst whom Jingyi knows Lan-xiansheng was once counted. His job, then, is to be the most filial ward he can be, and so when a wicked trick costs everyone their spiritual energy the moment they begin fighting off the next wave of fierce corpses, Jingyi immediately lets Lan-xiansheng lean on him to hurry into the protection of the cave. He shouts down Su She and his stupid fucking joke of a Sect copying theirs because he knows Lan-xiansheng can’t say it himself, but won’t stop Jingyi from saying what everyone knows to be true, even if it’s ‘rude’. When all the talking and standing around comes to an end and Wei-qianbei makes himself into a lure for the fierce corpses, Jingyi knows that Hanguang-jun can rest easy helping him fight them off because he’s helping Lan-xiansheng down the path and away from danger.

And when all is said and done, when they’ve arrived at Lotus Pier to recover from their ordeal, and the events of the evening have unfolded in shocking ways but everyone is too exhausted to run after Jin Guangyao tonight, Jingyi settles into a guest room deep in the warrens of Lotus Pier with Lan-xiansheng to let the man fuss and grumble over him to his heart’s content. Jingyi half-listens and passes him a steady thread of qi like he’d seen Zewu-Jun do almost a decade ago, his own energy now more than strong enough to support Lan-xiansheng’s recovery efforts whenever necessary.

“I told you not to get in trouble,” Lan-xiansheng grouses, clearly unhappy to be laid up with his old injuries through no fault of his own. “I told you to stay on the safe roads and to stay with Sizhui at all times and to use your signal flares if you needed help —”

“Aiyah, Yangfu! Enough,” Jingyi admonishes with a little jiggle of Lan-xiansheng’s wrist in his grip where he’s monitoring the balance of his qi. “I was with Sizhui, we both got caught! Everyone did. Are you going to blame me for getting the juniors of so many Sects kidnapped when we were plotted against and meant to be used as bait?”

“Yes,” Lan-xiansheng snaps. “You’re different than they are, you’re not supposed to get caught up in these sorts of things. You’re my son!”

Jingyi’s breath hitches in his chest and he has to stop the stream of qi to Lan-xiansheng as his energy bobbles in response to the depth of the emotion boiling in his chest at such a pronouncement. Lan-xiansheng has let him call him ‘Yangfu’ without complaint since he started doing it when he was 11 and had just learnt what it meant, and that had been plenty, that had been great. Lan-xiansheng has always indulged him and shown him he loves him in the stuffy quiet ways all good Lans do (with the exceptions of his rare and treasured embraces). But this, right now, is the first time Lan-xiansheng has ever called him his son.

“Ha-Hanguang-jun,” he says around the tightness in his throat, “Zewu-jun..they’re…”

“Jingyi,” Lan-xiansheng interrupts, not unkindly. He strains to sit up straight again and Jingyi lunges forward to help him, conscious of how exhausted Lan-xiansheng is after his qi is depleted and his injury allowed to flare up in its absence. “Your cousins know that I care for them, but it has always been…complicated. They belong to the Sect, and to the world, because they must. They are their father’s sons, and they will never escape that entirely. Out of the three children I have raised, only you could ever truly be mine.”

Jingyi’s next inhale hiccups in his chest — it’s been a while since he cried as easily as he used to, but he doesn’t think that Lan-xiansheng calling him his son is something he’s supposed to take as stoically as most people would expect him to.

“I was so afraid, Yangfu,” he hiccups and darts in to wrap his arms around Lan-xiansheng’s middle so tightly it must be a bit uncomfortable, but Lan-xiansheng doesn’t protest. “I just wanted to go home and see you.”

“Well you’ve seen me now, and we can leave for home tomorrow. Leave this mess to the others, we’ve got enough work to do in Gusu. Alright?”

Jingyi nods and Lan-xiansheng’s hand resting on the back of his head moves with him, as solid and comforting as it had been that very first time when he was still so lonely and afraid, so certain that no one in the world would ever truly want him. But now he’s Lan-xiansheng’s son. His Yangfu loves him as his own, worries for him when he’s in trouble, accepts his help without complaint when he needs it. Jingyi burrows into his shoulder a little tighter and imagines standing in front of himself as a child just so he can look himself in the eyes and promise that it all gets better in the end.

#the untamed fanfic #Lan Jingyi #Lan Qiren #Lan Xichen #Lan Wangji #Junior Quartet #Why Not Me #Now that I have one LQR-gets-the-children-he-deserves fic done....I think I'd better work on the og one lol #also I fully had Jingyi calling LQR yifu and then I looked it up just to check and it turns out yangfu is much more appropriate! #yangfu is more directly adoptive/foster father while yifu is apparently more symbolic and more like a mentor figure? #the more you know #I love language

[wangxianficfinder]

Junior Centric

~*~

to make an arbitrary wager by moonsteps (G, 9k, Junior Quartet, JL & LSZ, WangXian, Post Canon, Junior Quartet Dynamics, Friendship, sizhui and the mortifying ordeal of being the gusu lan heir)

Not Yet (There As Needed) by sunrise_and_death (T, 13k, wangxian, WWX & LSZ, LSZ & JL, post-canon, family bonding, dramatic revelations)  

无别无离 | Without Farewells, Without Parting by dragongirlG (M, 30k, Junior Quartet, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Fix-It of Sorts, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, POV Alternating, Jin Ling's Hundredth Day Celebration, qiongqi path, Family Feels, Hopeful Ending)

Would You Come Home? by s6115 (Not rated, 46k, WangXian, Junior Quartet Centric, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, Junior Quartet Dynamics)

❤️ kick at the darkness ‘til it bleeds daylight by AlfAlfAlfAlfAlf, tardigradeschool (T, 75k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Eventual Happy Ending, Getting Together, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Inspired by The Parent Trap (1998), Kid Fic, teen shenanigans, two a-yuans, Fluff and Angst, [Podfic] kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight by contributor-sky (deepestbluesky), esbielle was also here (esbielle), glittercracker, GodOfLaundryBaskets, jellyfishfire, kisahawklin, Koontyme, Rionaa, semperfiona)

❤️ grow by cafecliche (T, 14k, WangXian, Age Regression/De-Aging, Character Study, Post-Canon)

home is where we are by halfdemonvash (T, 17k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng are Bad at Communicating, JC & WWX Reconciliation, Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst and Feels, Hijinks & Shenanigans, accidental baby acquisition, but it's actually your older brother, references to wwx's past being homeless, and also his past food insecurity, Post-Canon, Yúnmèng Siblings Feels, Junior Trio Shenanigans)

You Bring the Colour by fuddy_duddy (rainier_day) (G, 11k, WangXian, Modern AU, Art School, Art Restoration)

a symbol to remind you that there's more to see by paperminds (T, 9k, WangXian, canon-compliant(ish), post-canon(ish), Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Mild/Moderate Angs, tangst with happy ending, Yunmeng Shuangjie, Twin Idiots, Reconciliation) - Jin Ling & WWX focused, with a healthy side of Yunmeng bros

Anonymous Hero by NeverEnoughWangxian (T, 5k, WangXian, Modern AU, Modern Cultivators, Inventor WWX, POV LSZ, Inadvertently Reuniting Your Boss With His Old Crush/Best Friend, Reunions, Handwavy Detective Work, Handwavy Talismans)

keeping score by hauntedotamatone (T, 6k, LSZ & WWX, Background WangXian, the opposite of reconciliation, Protective WWX, Duelling, Grief/Mourning, not for jc fans, Swordfighting, Resentment, LSZ centric, No JC & WWX Reconciliation)

Lan Jingyi's Sixth Sense by bluesloth (M, 120k, LJY & WQ, LJY & LSZ, LJY-centric, Ghosts, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Explicit Language, Friendship, Drama, Humor, Action/Adventure, Family Feels, POV LJY, Canon Era, Minor Wangxian)

Tragedy is Not the End by Hobbsy3 (T, 358k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, People die but they (mostly) get better, Time Travel, Torture, Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core Reveal, Canon Divergence from Qiongqi Pass, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Because JGS and JZN suck, JC is doing his best, JYL fixes everything with soup and a baby, JZX gets it together, Yunmeng sibling bonding, good dad WWX, good dad LWJ, JZX Lives, JYL Lives, Wēn Remnants Live, Junior Quartet Dynamics)

Important Distinctions by nagi_blue (T, 5k, Background Relationships, Fluff and Crack, Podfic Available)

🧡 Lan Sizhui Sees Dead People Series by darkbrokenreaper (T, 30k, WIP, WangXian, LWJ & LSZ, JC & LSZ, Canon Divergence, Fluff, Kid Fic, Hurt/Comfort, lsz sees dead people, Paranormal)

🔒 Lan Sizhui's Got a Crush! by Theladyofravenclaw (T, 46k, JL & LSZ & LJY & OYZZ, LSZ/OFC, Humor, Fluff and Crack, Case Fic, Gūsū Lán Juniors Dynamics, Junior Quartet Dynamics, Body Horror, Mild Gore, technically there are two cases in this fic, as a treat, the juniors acting as wingmen for LSZ, or more like they're trying to be good matchmakers, Post-Canon)

🔒 Grim Grinning Ghosts by Theladyofravenclaw (G, 3k, JL & LSZ & LJY & OYZZ, Ghost City, mxtx crossover, WWX's Birthday, the juniors shenanigans, Gambling, slight mention of gore once they enter the city, but nothing very graphic)

🔒 How to Seduce the Yiling Patriarch by Theladyofravenclaw (T, 8k, wangxian, post-canon, temporary amnesia, case fic, fluff & humor, crack treated seriously, angst, jealous WWX, YLLZ WWX, gusu lan junior dynamics, mild gore)

🔒 blue flies buzzing by RoseThorne (T, 2k, Junior Quartet, WangXian, Gossip, Rumors, Mentioned Wēn Remnants, Sect Leader Yáo Bashing, Yunmeng bros Reconciliation, NHS Is A Little Shit, POV LJY, POV Third Person, Threats, Justice, Cultivation Discussion Conferences, LWJ is LSZ’s Parent, LJY Being LJY)

~*~

#wangxianficfinder #mdzs #the untamed #junior quartet #Junior quartet centric comp #junior quartet compilation #long post

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

Just read this amazing fic, basically it's about Jiang Cheng realizing that sizhui is Wei wuxian's son and it's really beautifully written,really enjoyed the moments between the junior quartets and Jiang Cheng's realization lol -Anon

sing to the clouds in summer

by stiltonbasket (@stiltonbasket)

G, 28k, Wangxian

Summary: Lan Xichen cordially invites Sect Leader Jiang to the naming ceremony of his nephew Lan Yuan, first and only son and heir of his brother, Lan Wangji.  Jiang Cheng looks at the letter and blinks. Since when did Lan Wangji of all people have a twelve-year-old son? (Or, three times Jiang Cheng met Lan Sizhui, and one time he finally realized who he was.)

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

#Wangxian Fic Recs #follower recs #follower rec #January 2024 #mdzs #MDZS #Mo Dao Zu Shi #The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Wangxian #Gen #medium fic 15k-49k #sing to the clouds in summer #stiltonbasket

[artsy-alice]

🌵💚 an easy recipe 💜🌵

mdzs | sangcheng + junior quartet | pt. 2 of leverage-inspired AU | holiday fluff | 7k, oneshot

At any other time, he would love to banter with the boys - they’re smart, witty, funny, and all charming in different ways - but unfortunately, Nie Huaisang is still on duty. So he does something that he rarely does - he gets straight to the point - “Jingyi, what is really going on?” “Why do you think something’s going on?” “Oh, Jingyi, Jingyi… The smartest of my smart boys… Do you remember when I was in the frontline as we took down a billion-dollar corporation, barely a year ago?” “Yeah, alright, haha… I suck at lying. Anyways, nothing’s going on.” “Mm-hm.” “But… suppose something is… Um, are you in town?” Nie Huaisang sighs for the third and final time. “Alright, what do you need?”

Or: A year after they finished the con that took down Jin Corp, Nie Huaisang gets suspicious calls from his quartet of teenage vigilante do-gooders. Or: A lil sequel to the lil Leverage-inspired AU!

Read it here: https://ao3.org/works/43965528

i wrote whole one full fic today,, on the last day of 2022,, and i am posting 15 minutes before the new year and for what??? idk what but it worked

#mdzs #sangcheng #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #junior quartet #mo dao zu shi #lan jingyi #lan sizhui #ouyang zizhen #jin ling #(fanfic) #(december2022)

[thatswhatsushesaid]

1, 6, 22, 23?

1. "the character everyone gets wrong"

the obvious answer is jgy, but I have also written so extensively about jgy's characterization that I'm reasonably sure I don't have to repeat myself here. so I'll go with the other character whose characterization frequently leaves me wanting to chew glass when I check the tags, and that's nie huaisang

I know part of this can be blamed on medium bleed (and fatal journey but lol we do not talk about fatal journey here), but I think the common characterization of nie huaisang that I see in the tags and in fic as 1) some laser-focused mastermind crouching at the centre of a spider web pulling literally all of the narrative strings from the very beginning in order to achieve his revenge, and/or 2) as helpless babie incapable of doing any schemes or any crimes until he was so moved by nmj's death that he just selflessly sacrificed over a decade of his life in pursuit of justice, justice for da-ge!!! and neither of these bland-ass takes are interesting or particularly consistent with the novel or with what we see in cql, tbh.

characterization #1 is harder for me to prove definitively, at least right now, so let's just call it a hard headcanon that he is not this genius schemer and move on for now. (I'm working on a longer Thing for nhs and trauma in my drafts, but it's not done yet, so /waves hands, watch this space)

it's easier for me to point to clear textual and visual evidence of why characterization #2 doesn't hold up under close scrutiny just because wwx lays out so much of it for us during his scooby doo murder mystery postmortem interrogation of wwx after jgy and nmj have been sealed together in the crypt. everything that nhs does to trigger jgy's 'killing intent,' to use wwx's own words (the law in most countries calls this 'entrapment,' btw, and it is illegal, but I digress), involves unnecessary collateral damage, and I say 'unnecessary' because there is no one holding a cursed murder sword to nhs's head forcing him to take any of these actions. he could just not do any of them at any point, and go on living his life, but he doesn't. and what he does do is manipulate mxy into utilizing the sacrifice summon ritual to bring wwx back from the dead to murder the entire mo family; he does the thing that I PERSONALLY had the most difficulty dealing with as a reader sensitive to animal death, which was kill a bunch of cats to lure wwx, lwj, and the junior quartet to yi city; he is the one who ensures that the knowledge of jgy and qin su's relation to each other reaches qin su without any regard to how learning this information would impact her psychologically; and he is perfectly comfortable using lxc as his last-minute, convenient tool to kill jgy when it seems otherwise inevitable to him that jgy will walk out of the temple alive.

all of this 👆👆👆 is not the sort of thing that someone does if they are pursuing justice. nhs wants vengeance, and I am fine with that being his character's driving motivation, I have no problem with that story. I would just very much prefer it if this fandom would treat his revenge quest specifically as that--a revenge quest--and then engage with what the actual, concrete consequences of realizing that revenge quest are for nhs in canon. in short: nmj is not at peace; the one person in his life who had made some attempt to understand him, care for him, and advocate on his behalf to nmj, is now dead, because he killed him; nmj's remaining sworn brother will certainly not be stepping up to provide him assistance as nie-zongzhu or xiandu from seclusion; and none of his remaining friends from childhood trust him. post-canon nhs, whether sauntering away from the guanyin temple as he does in the novel, or trudging away with a thousand-yard shellshocked stare on his face as he does in the drama, essentially has his san-ge's bloody hat for company henceforth, and that's it. that's depressing, and lonely.

6. "which ship fans are the most annoying?"

wangxian lol at least on tumblr. x!cheng as a ship drives me nuts and I can't stand it, but x!cheng shippers themselves are fine. honestly it's just the wangxian fans that make me want to blacklist the ship altogether.

22. "your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores"

huh! I don't know that I have one that my little corner of the fandom doesn't pay attention to? I suppose something I wish we speculated on more in the form of fic or art or w/e is meng yao's time in qishan with wen ruohan, because I am crawling up the walls in my eagerness to know how meng yao became the only person able to approach wen ruohan's throne not on his knees. I want to know how meng yao becomes someone wen ruohan actively wants to protect from harm in that final nightless city confrontation between him and nie mingjue, while meng yao is actively undermining his battlefield advantages through sending intelligence to lxc.

I just have so many questions!!

23. "ship you've unwillingly come around to"

I don't think it is fair to say that I have 'come around' to this particular ship because I still very much do not like 99.9% of fic and art that feature it, but I read one romantic 3zun fic rec'd to me by @poorlittleyaoyao that absolutely left me in emotional tatters. but that's it, that was ONE fic, and I think I mainly vibed with it so hard because the principle romance at work was xiyao. but even the n!eyao still left me feeling "oh 🥺" which I for sure was not expecting lmao.

edit: mea culpa @thymianne !! the fic is called 'favor' by venndaai (aka henshengs here on tumblr), and it is a hunger games AU that leans extremely hard into all of the messy, ugly feelings and actions that you would expect from a hunger games AU. you will absolutely suffer! enjoy it.

#asks answered #ask meme #mdzs meta #nie huaisang #let him have birds!! 🕊️

[benevolenterrancy]

It had promised to be a very long season for Lan Sizhui and the others. The warmer months always brought an increase to the number of meetings, conferences, and celebrations being held, and it had everyone, in particular their new Chief Cultivator, very busy as the hot weather dragged on. Even Wei Wuxian, who had set off on his own curious mission with the Ghost General in tow, was busy. Too busy to be at Cloud Recesses and his absence was being felt by everyone. But sooner or later summer would end and Wei Wuxian would return, this was a single reassuring thought to cling to... until Lan Sizhui finds Lan Wangji in the embrace of another man, one that Lan Sizhui has certainly never seen before. Or: The Junior Quartet has a no good very stressful summer

I love dramatic irony and supremely dumb, overwrought misunderstandings so here's the fast and silly fic i've been working on to help ignore The Horrors

#seriously dramatic irony is an underappreciated form of humour everything deserves more dramatic irony #this is Very Ridiculous but it was a lot of fun to write #mdzs #fanfiction #lan sizhui #junior quartet #wangxian

[makethewordsyours]

posting it here too lol soo yesterday i posted chapter 1 of my new mdzs fic hehe

here’s the summary:

Wei Wuxian dashes across the distance that separates him from his husband, like a child running through the dark as if that would lessen its existence. He grabs Lan Zhan’s hand and holds the arm close to his side, to a soft breath of laughter.

“Come on, Hanguang-jun,” he half-whispers, because the atmosphere seems to call for it. “Light the way for us.”

(Wei Wuxian has scarcely known fear to be gentle — and still. It's as if there’s something murmuring down the hallway, behind the closed door, next to the window in this howling storm: I’m here, I’m here, I’ve always been here…)

Or, as Wei Wuxian starts to look into the reasons behind the unsettling notion that something is not quite right, something else starts to look back.

this is a case fic, vaguely inspired by the magnus archives. it’s on-going at 12k and partly pre-written. i’d be very happy if you checked it out! we have: married wangxian fathers of four, the junior quartet being awesome, hurt/comfort for the win, everyone being protective of everyone, (and emotional depth to everyone as a treat), musings on the nature of fear and memory, and Intrigue…

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan zhan #fic rec #mdzs juniors #tma #the magnus archives #mdzs wwx #mdzs lwj #cql fic #cql #mdzs fic rec #cql fic rec #the untamed fic rec #wangxian fic rec

[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on . . . original(ish) characters

So I’m pretty good at inventing original characters in fanfic. By which I mean, I'm good at creating circumstances where I need to. It's one part mostly writing post-canon to two parts rampant gap-filling world building. I usually end up needing to fill a role for which no canon character works.

With Iron-Blooded Orphans, however, there are a plethora of relatively distinct extras and background character designs that serve as the basis for populating the roles I'd normally make someone up for whole-cloth. Not that I haven't done that too over the course of Wishing on Space Hardware, but I thought – as an end of the year post – I should go through and note down where I've bolted personalities on to existing character models (or retrofitted character models to OCs, because that has happened too). Plus a bonus full-on OC if you reach the end . . .

It's a fun exercise at least, and has bulked out my reference images folder nicely! I hope anyone who follows me for those stories will get a kick out of seeing who I've been talking about this whole time. And if you haven't already read the fics and you're an Iron-Blooded Orphans fan . . . ? Maybe the ideas I jot down here will let you know if you want to take a look.

Spoilers ahead (for the entire series and my fic). Screenshots snipped from Netflix and Youtube for illustrative purposes only. You should go watch this show – it's good! Content warnings (for the series and these notes) for child abuse, child soldiers, and mentions of substance abuse and sexual assault.

Tekkadan

So due to events of the series (SPOILERS, ye gods, I did warn you), my fic bumps everyone up at least one character tier (secondary and tertiary characters have become primary ones, various extras have taken secondary roles). Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ride Mass' roving brigade of junior revolutionaries. The core of this group consists of the surviving members of the background quartet, seen here with Merribit. Clockwise from the left, these are Hirume, Trow, Elgar and Embi. They have minor speaking parts throughout both seasons of the show and what I'd call variable levels of actual personality traits.

Trow is the guy usually seen in a blue cap and scarf. He seems to have quite a serious personality, with his most prominent speaking parts being telling Mr Alesi that 'this is a battle for revenge' while loading up the train in episode 23 and explaining to the new recruits at the start of Season Two that most of Tekkadan have nowhere else to go. Post-canon, I decided he'd developed into a fairly gregarious person, somewhat inverting his previous stoicism and generally taking a Shino-like role in the group. However, his original seriousness re-emerges when there's fighting to do and he probably takes the least pleasure in combat. He is extremely loyal to Ride, who he credits with turning their anger at what happened to Tekkadan into concrete action.

Hirume gets the fewest lines and those he has are largely exposition. As a result, I made him inclined to being quiet and thoughtful, as well as the one who comes closest to sharing Ride's growing consciousness of the systemic problems with the world. He's a smoker where Trow is a drinker – each of these kids has some kind of coping mechanism – and a bit of a player. Has definitely had the most girl/boyfriends out of any of them. Gets much more excitable when fighting breaks out, which is influenced by how he looks in the Tekkadan group shot taken after the Battle of Chryse (he's the happiest-looking person in that picture by a mile).

And then there's Embi. Oh boy, Embi. His twin brother Elgar is killed in the final battle of the series and this event looms largest in my characterisation of him. Aggressive, misanthropic, absolutely haunted by his brother's death – Embi only signs on with Ride for the chance to lash out at the people who hurt him and quickly ditches them when thing turn political.

Side-note: I am taking this guy who shows up during the epilogue to be Embi, sans hat and grown up. It's not a one-to-one match with his original model (he normally has double-pointed eyebrows ala Treize and Dorothy from Gundam Wing) but it's close enough to make sense.

In all this, I'm building off the one clear trait he has throughout his appearances which is that he is a jerk. Both the twins are nuisances but Embi is actively mean to other people, insulting Ride and calling Elgar a coward for not wanting the Alaya-Vijnana surgery again (which Embi does, clearly idealising Mikazuki). His vice of choice is smoking harder drugs than Hirume, specifically those that get him far enough out of his skull that he stops imagining his brother is still at his shoulder, which is honestly when he's the most pleasant to be around.

Also, he actually likes fish, having been in hearing distance of Atra saying how amazing it was during that one meal where everyone else refuses to eat it. This is entirely based on where he's sitting in the scene and the priceless look of indecision he's wearing throughout.

Anyway, he ends up falling under Almiria Bauduin's influence which makes everything better.

(Additional spoiler: that was a lie.)

Pel is the name I gave to the guy on the left here, pictured while severely unimpressed that Eugene went from scolding him for perving on Merribit to basically doing the same thing in the key of 'puppy-dog.' As far as I can tell, this character model doesn't show up ever again but I like it and I needed an extra member of Ride's group for a recurring role. He's their fourth pilot, using a restored Garm Rodi, and is a basically decent guy, doing his best. 'Pel' is short for 'Pellinore' and he will deck you if you call him by the full version.

There is a fifth member of Ride's crew, Saji Watts, for whom I do not have a character model assigned because he's not Tekkadan but rather an ex-member of another mercenary group who got pulled into their orbit. Again, there's not much to him beyond 'can fight, will do so for good cause.'

Moving over to the non-terrorist side of post-Tekkadan life, we have Alessio, who appears to the left of the group shot I mentioned earlier. I really wish I had a better image of the character model but, again, he only shows up here. Alessio is the larger guy on the right and grows into a chill enbee (they/he) who works as an engineer at Kassapa Factory. They favour baby blue overalls, royal blue mohawks, and are generally a nice, calming person to be around. They are also have decent musical taste, being the group's resident DJ.

The guy pictured next to them is John Plant, their old boyfriend, because I refuse to believe Yamagi was the only person to develop feelings for someone they lived with for so long, or that Shino's denseness over how found families work was in any way endemic. Sadly, their story had a similarly tragic conclusion to the main gay romance because John was a pilot and, well . . .

Yeah.

I took John's name from those scratched on to the memorial stone in the epilogue. He's the last in-action casualty Tekkadan suffered before they retreated to Mars.

Finally, we have the back of Ivan's head. I mean, Ivan is the name I gave to the chap seen giving a report to Eugene in the epilogue scenes with Kudelia's office. He's second-in-command of the Admoss Company security team and his primary traits are being intimidatingly large, fiercely loyal,  and willing – if not necessarily able – to help Akatsuki with his homework. I've made Ivan a Tekkadan veteran but sadly haven't hunted down a younger character model that quite fits. Just imagine he was there, off-screen somewhere.

[UPDATE: Young Ivan!]

Turbines

Moving on to the other group with tons and tons of interesting-looking background characters, I picked out this lady to play the part of one of Azee's right-hand pilots in a future iteration of the Turbines. Ria is a competent, serious woman and a bit of a bruiser. She fills the role of security chief aboard Azee's ship as well as flying a Hekija in combat. She is also in a relationship with Bilt Turbine and has at least one kid, Barrett 'Barry' Turbine, who is the splitting image of Naze.

Bilt herself is one of the few non-central named Turbines, serving as part of the Hammerhead's bridge crew. I carried that job forward, making her the chief pilot of Azee's ship. I don't think I've really expanded her much beyond what she does in the series, but she's a fairly bright, glamorous presence and a good sounding board for Azee. She and Ria get very soppy over one another. (I'm sorry, was I not supposed to ship aboard the ship of polyamory?)

Chloe is another named Hammerhead crewmember from the show and I include her mainly because I've promoted her to captain of another Teiwaz ship. I don't really have much of an idea for what she's like as a person, but she seemed prominent enough among the Turbines that using her in the story made sense.

Finally, another one I created both name and personality for, Lola is a systems expert and general hacker who will talk your ear off about coding technicalities if you're not careful. I retrofitted her to this character model at the last minute because it's dead-on for how I pictured her (she shows up in episode 10, right before the Brewers arc).

There's one further prominent OC I introduced called Claire, a trainee mobile suit pilot, but she explicitly isn't based on an in-show Turbine as I intended her to have joined Azee's main group from another part of the organisation.

I would be remiss, however, not to include the Turbine kids I invented. Barry I've already mentioned – he's a good boy and a bit of a clutz, who is noted to have inherited Naze's looks but not his brains. Likes nail-painting (it's Lafter's fault) and should not be allowed to work on heavy machinery unsupervised. Gabriela, meanwhile, is merrily following in Amida's footsteps as a pilot and general badass. An absolute terror who will reprogram your simulator at a higher level when you aren't looking. I described her as having frizzy hair, which I will hand-wave as saying she grew into because she is absolutely meant to be the baby Naze was holding in the Turbines' backstory episode.

Civilians

Back to Teiwaz proper, I created a character called Nikolai Critchlow – a pedantic, fussy accountant – to serve as a thorn in Azee's side for several parts of the story. I didn't mean for him to match a character model from the show, but blow me down if this chap from the Teiwaz board scenes early in Season Two isn't bang on the money. I don't know if it quite makes sense with the character for him to have been at a meeting that's clearly for the underbosses the Italian/Japanese fusion space mafia, but I could certainly come up with a reason for this to be him. On Jasley's side of the table too, in case you needed a clue to where his inclinations lie.

I also created a character to be an actual underboss: Grayling Une, head of the 4S Phalanx security company. Sadly, I forgot this scene existed when I made him up, so I missed out on matching him exactly to one of the people here. He could almost fit the very bald gentleman to the right, except that I did emphasise his enormous bushy eyebrows and I'm too enamoured with this image to want to change it. Given his personality, it'd be quite fitting if he wasn't present here, so I'm OK with that.

(Content warnings for the next part: reference to sexual abuse of minors.)

(Also, don’t adjust your sets, this screenshot was taken through a car window.)

At the opposite end of . . . well, one spectrum or another, is the kid who shows up in the limo with Iznario Fareed right after the Dort arc. I named him Asher and there's no way to sugar coat that he's another kid like McGillis who was sexually abused by Lord Fareed. This is, in hindsight, an obvious meaning of this scene and I made Asher the 'spare' to McGillis' 'heir': a second kid who Iznario was in the process of adopting when the whole Edmonton debacle happened. He's definitely the character I am most worried about writing well, given the sensitive subject matter he's wrapped up with. Personality-wise, he comes across as incredibly forgettable and bland to most people, but much of that is obfuscation as he's a very good actor. He joined up with Almiria and plays the part of 'Montag', the face of the terrorist activities that she helps orchestrate. It's unclear, even to him, if he really wants to be involved or if he's just desperate for companionship after being left adrift after the events of the series. A chronic condition results in bouts of extreme muscle pain, which he copes with via both medical and recreational drugs; it was via the latter that he met Embi, to whom he has taken an unaccountable liking. Asher is just about the only person in the solar system who thinks of Embi with any fondness and as to where this or the trifecta they make with Almiria is going . . . you'll just have to read the fics!

Gjallarhorn

This guy isn't someone I needed to do much invention for, since his role in my story is to be killed for doing what he does in Season One. Johannes Gough, the officer in charge of the mission to crush the workers' unions in the Dort Colonies, gets promoted for his dedication to upholding the status quo and takes over as operations director for the Ariadne Network. He is a trusted ally of Rustal Elion and has part to play only insofar as Ride shoots him with a missile during a party at which Azee and the cast of the IBO spin-off manga are guests.

Less loyal to the new order by far are two of the officers who were part of McGillis' crew in the final retreat. The first guy appearing in this scene prior to Mackie's last blaze of glory goes on to become part of a radical group that forms the bulk of the alliance Almiria builds to take on Gjallarhorn. Callum Rai (yes, that's a Gundam mythology gag) appears briefly in The Ares Affair, running an operation on Mars – he's the thin, haggard man Chad and Yamagi encounter. He has somewhat lost his revolutionary fire in the years between the end of the show and the present timeline of my fic, which is going to be important later.

The other one, Reuben Bonnaire, absolutely has not lost his belief in a reformed Gjallarhorn and serves as the brains of the outfit. A clever tactician but less-than charismatic leader, he agrees to work with Almiria because she can provide a figurehead for their efforts (Asher/Montag). This will also be important later and may or may not be a colossal mistake.

And I suppose, while on the subject of Gjallarhorn-adjacent OCs, I may as well include this sketch I did for my main villainous OC. This is Resource Major Almandi Iversion, R&D division commander, obsessive Gundam fan-nb, all-round manipulative bastard, and one of most horrible people I've ever written. Only, you know, in a cathartic way. They're not exactly the main antagonist of the series but they are the vector through which major parts of the plot operates.

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

#Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans #gundam ibo #Tekketsu no Orphans #g tekketsu #notes #reference #screenshots #original characters #kinda #some of them more than others #giving extras personalities for fun and profit #character development #fanfic #fanart #my art #(my art is right at the end)

[txxfiles]

give me all the fics where the boys kiss

Hi! It looks like I'm week 3!

I honestly have no idea idea what im doing really but i guess you'll just have to listen to me ramble about something i enjoy. Seems to fit the theme we've accidentally settled on and well! if theres one thing im good at rambling about its bl fanfiction. i read ALOT of fanfiction. like 13million words worth of it in 2023 alone (an estimate but i did the ugly math for jan and feb last year and id already read 2.7 million words so i dont think its too high an estimate).

ive read fics from too many fandoms to count and also have way more hyperfixations then any one person has a right too but the one that has owned my ass consistently for the last 4 years is The Untamed otherwise know as Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS).

The lovely Eucalyptus from week 2 was watching the untamed during covid (and holy shit what a wild ride that was) and the next thing I know im neck deep drowning in fan art and tiktok edits of beautiful chinese men that have no business being as talented as they are (Im looking at u Wang Yibo) This. shit. fucked. up. my. life.

then i turned to my good friend AO3 (love of my life i could not exist without you) and 4 years later ive read my tags dry. if its complete, ive read it. im getting desperate and ive started reading works in progress, yikes. its so risky i honestly cannot tell you how much anxiety it gives me. ive been burnt too many times.

HOWEVER

this does mean if you need a fic recommendation then your girl has got you covered, so i figured i would share with you my TOP SIX fic recommendations. im sorry i tried to make it 5 but i just couldnt do it.

I will be chasing a starlight by feyburner & sundiscus 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 71,479 words - Complete

Omg. Wangxian Startrek AU. The pining, the miscommunication. I felt every range of emotion on this roller-coaster. I literally printed this out so that I could keep it forever. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again. This Fic hit AO3 like a comet. It even has it’s own Tumblr thread! Also comes with stunning fanart.

Paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 53,808 words - Complete

Modern Day AU, Musician/Single dad Lan Wangji falls in love with his son’s Art Teacher Wei Wuxian. I swear it's one of the cutest stories ever written, makes me feel all the good things. A-yuan is adorable and wangxian are hot and charming. The Ultimate wangxian comfort fic. 

Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller 

Jin Rulan & Wei Wuxian - 63,907 words - Complete

Jin Ling fishes his Da-Ju out of the gutter post canon (Literally dying alone in a dirty inn, Wei Wuxian it's been 5 minutes pls) and decides if no one else is gonna keep him then he damn well will. 

It is perfect.  

Junior Quartet goodness, Yunmeng bro reconciliation and Jin Ling being a boss bitch little shit that has no time for anyone's bullshit. I cried as much as Jin Ling did in this story – which is alot. (Also another story ive made myself a solid copy of that i can love forever)

Joy In The Mindst of These Things by Glitterbombshell 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 52,901 words - 5 Works

TEACHER WEI WUXIAN! I love this trope with my whole soul. Lots of adorable baby Lans, I would kill for them. Beautifully written. Lan Qiren gets a much needed wakeup call. Last story is incomplete but can be read without the 5th installment. SO WORTH IT, ive read it like 10 times

The One-Body Problem by mitisket 

Lan Jingyi & Wei Wuxian - 28,689 words - Complete

Well shit. How many times have a reread this story? I honestly couldn't tell you. Jingyi gets possessed by Wei Wuxian’s very tired soul pre canon and it changes nothing and yet everything. Their friendship gives me life and Jingyi fixes a lot of problems for his new bestie/mentor/uncle with his big mouth. Mom I love him 

The Edge of Night by Hobbsy3 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 277,225 words - Complete

The best Zombie Apocalypse au on the MDZS tag honestly. There are so many good zombie film references in this one, i see you Train to Busan. Baby junior quartet, a perfect Wei Wuxian modern day depiction and so much love, angst and stress. It's delicious and I've never recovered.  

All of these fics are actually part of a mother document i made last week of all my favourite fics organised by tag because apparently thats what i do with my free time. hit me up if you need a rec!

Now that ive gotten that off my chest i'll let you be lol. maybe I'll do a rec for a different fandom next time. I definitely have enough to choose from!

Lots of Love,

Iris

#blog post #fic rec #mdzs #rant post #2024 #Iris

[rhysiana]

For organizational purposes, links to all my writing of the past couple of years, short bits though they may be: (updated 7/3/2023)

Atom no Ko -This Would Be Enough: Tumblr | AO3 (post-canon getting together ft. ace Nayuta)

Old Fashion Cupcake -Meta: the half-generation divide between Togawa and Nozue and how they approach work-life balance -Meta: Old Fashion Cupcake and kawaii culture -Meta: gay characters and office matchmaking in Old Fashion Cupcake and Kinou nani tabeta? -Kawaii ne (Togawa, Nozue, and the power of kawaii): Tumblr | AO3 -Petit Fours - an AO3 collection of post-canon domestic moments (originally individually posted on Tumblr, currently at 6 moments) --“only fools rush in” - a song lyric prompt ficlet --Togawa stuck in a hotel away from home - a winter travel woes prompt fill Semantic Error -Embrace (Chu Sangwoo learns to appreciate hugs): Tumblr | AO3 -Missing a train in France - a winter travel woes prompt fill -5 Times Chu Sangwoo Made a Change and 1 Time He Didn’t Have To: Tumblr | AO3 - post-canon domesticity and learning to live together Under the Skin -Tiny character study: Du Cheng looking at Shen Yi -Tiny character study: Shen Yi being conflicted about his art -“there's a light in your room, and it burns like a shade of yellow” - a song lyric prompt ficlet Nirvana in Fire -Fragments of a Life Lived in Dreams: Tumblr | AO3 | Podfic - what if Lin Shu and Xiao Jingyan started sharing dreams after Lin Shu fell? Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -New teacher Tang Fan gets rescued from typhoon flooding by neighbor Sui Zhou (modern AU inspired by stupid personal experience, sadly not extending to being rescued by Sui Zhou) -Modern AU where Tang Fan loses his perfect scarf and has to track down the knitter to get a new one -Bad Coffee and Good Company (an unacknowledged reincarnation AU, mostly vibes, fake-to-real dating speedrun): Tumblr | AO3 My Country: The New Age -“all we need is candlelight” - a modern AU Seonhwi song lyric prompt ficlet (now also on AO3) -a Seonhwi sci-fi AU in which Nam Seon-ho had an emotion-repressing implant and Seo Hwi rescues him from drifting in space (this one I did start rewriting in a more polished style, but who knows if it will actually get finished) -Weather the Storm: Tumblr | AO3 - snowed in at the secret shack, a Seonhwi winter travel woes prompt fill -“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love you.” - tiny Seonhwi angst prompt fill Cherry Magic -Off of the Podium, Into His Heart (a winter Olympics AU): Tumblr | AO3 The Untamed -A Shang Chi AU ft. Yunmeng Jiang -Test pilot WWX with a Wangxian romance novel rescue -Chengqing modern arranged marriage AU -The punk club AU: Wangxian 1&2, Wangxian 3, Songxiao -Modern Untamed chained romcom series ft. Sangcheng, Nielan, and Wangxian (whyyyy do I not have enough writing brain to turn this into the glorious fic series it deserves to be?) -In Love with Ghosts (post-canon LXC & Song Lan): Tumblr | AO3 -All the Lotuses in the World (post-canon Sangcheng): AO3 | Tumblr [art post for ch 2] -“not until you return” - a post-canon Wangxian song lyric prompt ficlet -“I'm gonna spouse you and make ya tat' ya ring” - a modern AU Wangxian song lyric prompt ficlet -“Hurts.” “I know. It’s going to hurt some more, okay? Deep breaths. I’m sorry— I’m so sorry—” - a tiny Jingyi/Sizhui angst prompt fill -art class nerdery - thoughts about NHS, WWX, and LWJ as students in art classes I took in high school -Warmth in Winter: Tumblr | AO3 - a Wangxian post-canon winter travel woes prompt fill -Already On It: Tumblr | AO3 - a Chengqing modern AU winter travel woes prompt fill ft. mutual competence appreciation -OYZZ disappears modern juniors quartet AU fic prompt idea free to a good home -Fics I Didn’t Write: Nighthunt Dispatcher NHS - premise for a modern cultivation AU that was going to be a set-up for a Sangcheng sex pollen emergency contact story, but also started b/c NHS being good at a job against his will made me laugh -Fics I Didn’t Write: Nieyao MMA AU - the opening of a niche medical massage therapist/MMA fighter AU I started as a vehicle for my issues with the MMA fetishization of jiu jitsu school pedigree -Two Pollens (Alike in Indignity): Tumblr | AO3 - a Nieyao truth pollen + sex pollen story, cowritten with ritualist (the longest thing I’ve completed in forever!) -3 People Wei Ying Talked to About Suddenly Getting Taller and 1 Person Who Definitely Noticed On His Own: Tumblr | AO3

Word of Honor -Antihistamine-fueled modern college AU ft. Wenzhou as disaffected seniors out to make Prof. Zhao's life hell -Modern AU ft. author ZZS and hairdresser WKX (started as a joke after I watched Hey Sensei, Don't You Know? and then took a swerve into actual plot, another one I really wanted to turn into something more formally written, but as it is it's already over 5k) --Update: Now on AO3 with a title! Persistence Pays Off Guardian -Urban fantasy AU with Shen Wei as a symphony conductor (I 100% forgot I wrote this) Devil Judge -“you can call me villain” - a Gahan Vicious AU song lyric prompt ficlet -Gaon finally makes it to Switzerland - a Gahan winter travel woes prompt fill Bonus throwback content: OMGCP -“this can't be love” - song lyric prompt speedrun version of a long Nurseydex I had in progress before Asian dramas took over -to be myself again - the bits of the longer version that actually got written (post-canon, Dex inherits a house back in Maine, invites Nursey to stay while he works through writer's block), also with notes

#rhys's stuff #masterpost

[enbiart]

Junior Quartet-Centric Time Travel fic. if you know me you know i LOVE a good Time Travel Fix-it. It's also fake dating/marriage Sizhui/Zizhen.

#as of this post there are EIGHT chapters up with one and a half waiting to get posted #my writing #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #junior quartet #lan sizhui #lan jingyi #ouyang zizhen #jin ling #zhuizhen

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

After Each Midnight Begins A New Day

Extra #13 - Mo Xuanyu and Lan Jingyi

[Listen, real question: What do I start calling these things that I write in this universe that aren't actually extras for the main fic? I call them all extras because that's what I started out writing alongside the main fic, but this is just straight up a different fic in the same universe, only very tangentially related to the main work. Is it still an extra? What is this??]

[P.S. This is completely self-indulgent fluff and Gender Feelings that I started writing last spring but never actually posted. Am I projecting so hard on Mo Xuanyu I essentially created a brand new character? Lol yeah, and many thanks to MXTX for not fleshing him out much at all in canon. He's free real estate.]

[Masterpost]

-/-

Jinlintai is about as gaudy as Jingyi had expected it to be, just judging based on Jin Ling’s usual wardrobe and his haughty attitude that he still hasn’t managed to drop around them completely even after years of friendship.

He climbs the stairs of the tower with Zizhen and Sizhui making suitably impressed noises on either side of him. He nearly breaks their act when he meets Zizhen’s eyes and starts snickering at the disbelieving look he finds there (‘oh gods it’s even worse than we pictured’ his eyes scream and Jingyi knows his are screaming back ‘I know I know I know!!!’) but thankfully they’re saved by Sizhui stepping neatly on his foot with that serene smile of his still on his lips.

“Be kind,” Sizhui murmurs under his breath, too low for Jin Ling to overhear, and Jingyi shares an eyeroll with Zizhen. The day those two admit that they like each other is going to be the day all four of their lives get so much easier, honestly.

Thankfully when they reach the top they’re quickly swept into a receiving pavilion to be officially greeted by Jin Zongzhu and Madam Jin, the two of them clearly happy to have the three of them visiting. It’s a lovely welcome, and the moment the official greetings are over Jin Ling’s siblings are just as clingy and wild as their friend had warned them. It’s funny though, and the children are clearly happy so Jingyi doesn’t mind one bit. Jin Fei, at least, is clearly looking forward to having other people close to his age to hang out with besides Jin Ling, and Lan Jingyi suspects the twins are going to be equally as interested in spending time with them as new sparring partners if nothing else.

Jingyi is a little embarrassed when it takes him a few days to realize that there’s one member of the family who’s notoriously absent any time they’re all gathered in the same place.

“Hey-“ he finally says a few days into the visit, “Where’s your weird uncle you’re always whining about?”

“Yu-shushu? He’s uh…He’s busy,” Jin Ling deflects very poorly. Really, they’ll need to work on sharpening up his lying skills but for now it’s more fun to torment him, which is how he finds an excuse to grab Zizhen so they can both sit on their stupid best friend while Wen Sizhui laughs at their antics. 

-/-

For all his teasing and cajoling when Jin Ling had said he was inviting his friends to Jinlintai for a few weeks, Mo Xuanyu is actually really happy for his nephew. Of course Jin Ling and his siblings are all fond of each other, and their enormous but ridiculously close family is pretty much a built-in friend group, but Mo Xuanyu is still proud of Jin Ling for going out into the world and making successful and fulfilling connections in the other sects.

And he knows Jin Ling probably didn’t really mean anything by asking Mo Xuanyu to hold off on meeting them. He’s much like Jin Zixuan in that way, back when he had been younger - talking first and only thinking about implications once the words are already out. Mo Xuanyu is as willing to be generous with Jin Ling as he was with Jin Zixuan so many years ago, fumbling his way through trying to comfort him, trying to be a good brother, trying to show him he cared about him.

He’s willing to give Jin Ling the benefit of the doubt and assume that his request has more to do with him not wanting Mo Xuanyu’s feelings to be hurt by his friends’ potentially negative reactions to meeting him, rather than embarrassment at having his friends see him related to someone like Mo Xuanyu.

Probably.

Maybe.

He knows he’s eccentric, is the thing. And that it’s perfectly fine and normal as long as it’s just the family around, or when Jin Zixuan lets him tell off asshole sect leaders who think they have a right to dictate how he acts in his own home because he makes them uncomfortable.

But Jin Ling is easily embarrassed, easily flustered, and Mo Xuanyu is pretty sure he wants to impress his guests (mostly because he’s pretty sure Jin Ling has a crush on at least one of these new friends of his, judging by how often the name ‘Wen Sizhui’ gets dropped). 

Well, he amends, they’re not really new. Jin Ling had first met them years ago in Cloud Recesses when it was his turn for the summer lectures, but this is the first time any of them are coming here to Jinlintai rather than just meeting each other out on their night hunts or whenever Jin Ling travels with Jin Zixuan for sect business. So: new to seeing Jinlintai, new to meeting the family - new to meeting him, and he knows he’s a lot to take in.

He doesn’t judge Jin Ling for asking him to hide for a little bit, at least until his friends are more settled and they don’t have to worry about the boys becoming..overwhelmed by the force of his personality.

In the end, though, when he does meet them it’s entirely by accident and not his fault, Jin Ling, get over it.

He’s busy doing his favorite thing to keep himself entertained when everyone else is busy : he’s escorting little Jin Ye through Jinlintai wherever she wants to go and treating her like a princess. She’s the only one of her siblings still young enough not to be annoyed by his antics, to still find him absolutely delightful like her siblings once had, and he loves spending time with her in return, knowing that she’ll always appreciate it. He knows his family and the servants appreciate it too, that he keeps her out of trouble and in doing so keeps himself out from under their feet as well. Everybody wins that way, and Mo Xuanyu, for all the noise he makes about not wanting children of his own (which is true), loves spoiling his youngest niece as much as humanly possible.

This afternoon, he’s kneeling with her in one of the public peony gardens intently watching her watch a bug crawling across one of the closed buds of a Sparks Amidst Snow. They’ve been here for a while, which means his lap is already full of some of the choicest early blooms - according to Jin Ye’s impeccable taste - to take back to Jiang Yanli whenever it’s time to return inside.

He looks up from Jin Ye’s concentrated little face - reluctantly - at the sound of a burst of laughter and he smiles to see Jin Ling horsing around with his friends. They’re easy to identify even just based on what he knows of their names and the clothing standards of their clans, and so he knows when it’s Lan Jingyi in his soft blues and distinctive headband who gives Jin Ling a rough shove that almost sends him toppling into the flowers, and when Wen Sizhui in his red and white is the one who rescues him at the last moment with a hand under his elbow while Jin Ling splutters his indignation. It’s Ouyang Zizhen, in his deep jewel blues and purples, who spots Mo Xuanyu first, kneeling there amongst the flowers with a hand on Jin Ye’s back to steady her as she totters to her feet to follow the bug from one flower to the next. He offers a nod and an uncertain smile, wary of Jin Ling’s desire that he not meet his friends too soon, and is prepared to duck his head again and continue with his own business when the Ouyang boy calls out to him.

“Stop it you idiots! We apologize for the disruption, guniang,” Ouyang Zizhen calls and Mo Xuanyu blinks in surprise when he looks up and realizes the boy is bowing to him, and then his face splits into a delighted grin at being addressed as such even as Jin Ling coughs on a laugh and tries poorly to hide it.

“What’s the matter with you?” Lan Jingyi snaps and Mo Xuanyu muffles a laugh of his own into his sleeve at the sharpness in his voice that’s so biting he wonders for a second if he got the names wrong in his head - he’s never heard a Lan talk like that, and he’s met plenty of them over the years.

“Yu-shushu,” Jin Ling calls wearily with a pained look on his face. Calling out to him is no doubt more of a correction of Ouyang Zizhen’s assumption of his title and status rather than any actual desire to address him in this particular moment, and Mo Xuanyu has the pleasure of watching three comically identical looks of surprise cross his friends’ faces. Ouyang Zizhen looks particularly stricken, and so it’s to him that Mo Xuanyu directs a reassuring nod.

“Hello,” he calls with a wave - and then, because he can’t help being a little shit sometimes, he adds, “Hi LingLing, long time no see. Can I finally have the honor of meeting your boyfriends?” just to see his nephew splutter and his friends blush so brightly it makes him laugh all over again.

“What are you doing out here?” Jin Ling snaps. Mo Xuanyu waves a lazy hand in his direction, dismissive as he turns his attention back to Jin Ye.

“I can go anywhere I want to, A-Ling. And my favorite person in this entire world is very determinedly chasing a bug, so I’m watching with rapt attention to make sure I don’t miss a moment of the action.”

“You’re so weird, Yu-shushu,” Jin Ling grumbles with a huff as he straightens his robes and flicks his sleeves behind his back in a gesture he absolutely learned from Jin Zixuan - Mo Xuanyu makes a mental note to tease his brother about it at the next opportunity.

“Someone in this family needs to be. I’m hoping if I spend enough time with Xiao-Ye at this age I can corrupt her into being the next black sheep to carry on my legacy,” he laughs as Jin Ye darts up and runs to another patch of the flower beds to point excitedly at a peony in full bloom.

“Shushu!!” she cries and he smiles as he gets smoothly to his feet, the cut flowers she’s already chosen clutched carefully in his hand in a loose bouquet.

“A beautiful choice yet again, Xiao-Ye, your mother will love it,” he praises as he bends to snip the stem with a small knife from his sleeve and add the flower to his handful. When he straightens again and turns around he’s nonplussed to find Jin Ling and his friends still standing there - normally Jin Ling storms off at the first opportunity when Mo Xuanyu has irritated him. “Oh. Yes?” he prompts, confused.

“You said you wanted to meet them so come over here and meet them!” Jin Ling snaps and Mo Xuanyu slowly raises a darkened eyebrow at him. He doesn’t often pull rank on Jin Ling, not seriously, but honestly...after a week and a half of being mostly shepherded to the private areas of Jinlintai to make things easier on his nephew and his friends, and then having his afternoon with his niece interrupted by their presence anyway, he’s not really in the mood to get ordered around, he doesn’t care if Jin Ling is embarrassed. And for all that they were once classmates before Mo Xuanyu decided not to seriously pursue cultivation, he is still older, both in years and generation, technically speaking. And they have company - important company.

Jin Ling at least has the good sense to look abashed and, perhaps, a touch guilty. It’s for that reason alone that Mo Xuanyu decides not to point out that he had wanted to meet Jin Ling’s friends along with the rest of the family when the boys had arrived over a week ago, not as an afterthought, as an accident, caught by surprise in the gardens when their visit is already well underway. Like he’s not as important as the rest of the family. Like he doesn’t deserve the same respect, eccentric or not.

“Come on Xiao-Ye, let’s go tell LingLing how horrible his manners are,” Mo Xuanyu ‘whispers’ plenty loudly enough to be heard by their audience as he holds his free hand out for the toddler to take. He carefully helps her pick her way through the flowers to the path and then he measures his steps to make sure he doesn’t outpace her before he comes to a stop in front of the quartet to offer a perfectly executed curtsy in response to the three visitors’ bows. He watches Jin Ling’s face go red but he thankfully has enough tact not to comment.

The thing is, Jin Ling isn’t ever really there on the extremely rare occasions when Mo Xuanyu pulls out his real manners. The manners and etiquette he had shyly asked Qin Su to teach him once she had come to Jinlintai, just as he was beginning to accept that he wasn’t going to be like the rest of the boys his age. He knows how to bow properly, his sword in his hands. He knows how to walk through the world like he owns it, like the rest of the Jin men do. But he also knows how to own it the way his sisters do - how to be soft and proper but with steel in his eyes. How to be a walking contradiction for the world to rail against every single day of his life, and do it with his head held high. His decision to act like he doesn’t know it most days is just that - a decision, a choice. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t actually know how.

(He frequently teases Jin Ling about his youth in comparison to his own age, and while it is usually a joke, he still hopes that one day Jin Ling will be able to look back on it through the lens of experience and realize that, for Mo Xuanyu, the gaps in their experiences and the way he’s been forced to grow up ahead of his time where Jin Ling has not have been blindingly obvious since the first day they met.)

“Mo-gongzi,” Jin Ling’s friends chorus and he offers them all a wide grin.

“So respectful! Let me take guesses with your names, I’m sure I can get them right,” he says with a playful hum, ignoring Jin Ling’s impatient shuffling. “Ouyang-gongzi,” he starts with Ouyang Zizhen, offering him a polite curtsy that the boy is apparently still too embarrassed to acknowledge. “Wen-gongzi,” to Wen Sizhui with another curtsy (Wen Sizhui offers him the sweetest smile Mo Xuanyu has ever seen on someone who’s not either of his sisters and his heart melts a little - if anyone can soften Jin Ling’s too-sharp edges, it’s going to be that boy). “Lan-gongzi,” he finishes with one more curtsy for Lan Jingyi, who’s just staring at him, wide-eyed with blatant curiosity even as he returns the curtsy with a quick sketch of a bow.

Well. Curiosity is better than the outright disdain he tends to get from the older generations.

He glances down when there’s a tug on the skirts of his robes and he laughs in delight to see Jin Ye pouting up at him imperiously. He instantly turns to her and offers her the deepest curtsy he can, bowing so low she can reach up to tap her fingers at the ornaments tinkling softly in his hair.

“And of course, this humble one could never forget! The beloved Xiao-Ye, the little treasure of Lanling,” he says with a dramatic flourish that makes her giggle as he straightens up again, her hand finding his instantly when he reaches down to her.

“Mo-gongzi, we were just on our way to spar with Jin-er-gongzi, Jin-guniang, and Jin-er-guniang,” Wen Sizhui supplies when he faces them again and Mo Xuanyu is unsurprised to find his voice is as soft as his smile. “Would you like to join us?”

“Oh that’s very sweet of you to ask,” Mo Xuanyu laughs as Jin Ling makes a sound like a dying animal. “Hush, LingLing, your friends are being nice to your poor Yu-shushu, let me enjoy it! You never invite me to watch your sparring.”

“Because you show up anyway if you want to!”

“That’s neither here nor there - it’s nice to be asked sometimes,” he sniffs. “But as it happens I have to take Jin Ye into the nursery for her nap and then I have letters I’d like to write, so I’ll have to join you some other time. I’m interested to see your different clan styles though, so I will definitely watch one day during your stay here.”

“Do you have training with a sword too?” Lan Jingyi suddenly pipes up in a rush and Mo Xuanyu tips his head a bit to the side as he looks at him with a playful smirk on his rouged lips.

“I’ve had lots of different types of training,” he teases. “Today I’m practicing my flower arranging for the Little Treasure. Tomorrow maybe I’ll remember my old sword forms. Ask me again at the afternoon meal and I may agree to participate. If you’ll excuse me.”

He offers another curtsy and then he turns to head back inside, pausing only to bend and lift Jin Ye onto his hip with careful hands so he can walk as quickly as he wants to. He hears conversation break out behind him before he’s even inside, but he doesn’t listen. Let them talk.

He delivers Jin Ye to the servants in the nursery with a kiss to her forehead and an extracted promise that she’ll be good and then he goes to find Jiang Yanli, flowers in hand.

“Ah, Li-jie, here you are,” he says happily when he finds her a few minutes later on the path that leads to the main part of the tower from the family residences.

“A-Yu,” she greets warmly, instantly reaching out for his arm, which he loops through hers easily, both of them folding their hands demurely over their sternums. “How is your day?”

“Wonderful. Xiao-Ye has been showing me that her taste in flowers is still unmatched,” he smiles as he holds the flowers out to Jiang Yanli with a flourish for her to take with her free hand. “She wants you to put them on your writing desk.”

“Oh I’ll be happy to! They’re beautiful, thank you.”

They walk in silence for a few long moments before he gathers up the courage to say, “While I was in the gardens I met A-Ling and his friends,”  though it still comes out with a hint of hesitation. Jiang Yanli’s arm goes stiff in his for a moment before she relaxes with what seems like an effort.

“Were they kind?”

“The young masters are very polite, it was a pleasure to finally meet them.”

“Was A-Ling?”

Mo Xuanyu clears his throat and doesn’t answer, but that’s answer enough. He hears Jiang Yanli take a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly.

“I don’t understand this new problem,” she admits as they turn a corner to walk slowly along the perimeter of a shady, currently unused courtyard, empty but for someone sweeping the stone clean on the other side. “You’ve been a part of the children’s lives since you were a child yourself, he’s never had this issue before.”

“I embarrass him.”

“A-Ling is so much like A-Cheng - his pride is easily turned against him and that means plenty of things embarrass him. That’s no excuse for him to treat you like this.”

“Li-jie…” he starts, his voice quiet, timid in a way it almost never is anymore. “Do you think the children respect me? I mean..truly respect me as their uncle, the way they respect Yao-ge, or Su-jie as their aunt?”

Jiang Yanli stops in her tracks to turn to him and Mo Xuanyu unlinks his arm from hers to face her as well, to meet her scrutinizing gaze with a vulnerable one of his own.

“Why do you ask?”

“I know I bother them,” he starts, his chest feeling fluttery and hollow in a way that doesn’t bode well. “I know..none of the rest of them are quite ready to have to make their peace with the way I’m thought of in the public eye just yet but..but A-Fei and A-Yan and A-Yu are nearly ready; A-Fei has already gone to Cloud Recesses for his lectures, and the twins will be ready for the next lecture season if they want to go. They’ll all make friends from other sects just like A-Ling has, they’ll bring them here as guests eventually. What if none of the children want their friends to know I’m related to them? What if they’re all ashamed of me like A-Ling is?”

“Oh A-Yu...” Jiang Yanli murmurs sympathetically and somehow that’s what pushes the feeling in his chest outward, the shiver of it turning into a trembling in his hands and stinging in his eyes that he furiously blinks away.

“The children may love me, Li-jie, but sometimes...I don’t think they like me very much. I’m just..I’m so different.”

“Shhh it’s okay, come here,” she soothes, pulling him in for a hug and he collapses gratefully into her arms with trembling and quiet sniffles that he’s trying to stifle.

When he had first come to Jinlintai - actually, when he had first met Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli back in Mo village - he had immediately been drawn to his sister-in-law. She’s steady and warm like his mother had been while she had been alive. She had loved him with her whole heart from the moment he was brought to Jinlintai, even when he got comfortable enough to be himself and the other children became wary of him and his wild nature, the way he grinned too widely, laughed too loudly, raised chaos everywhere he could simply for the hell of it. He’s calmed down in recent years somewhat, become marginally more acceptable, but Jiang Yanli had loved him from the instant they had met and he had been a young boy afraid of disappointing his mother, and she had been the young Madam of a Great Sect and a pregnant mother of four, doing her best to fulfill her roles with grace and poise.

He had always yearned for a big sister, and he had found everything he had ever dreamt of in Jiang Yanli’s soothing presence. Of all of his family, she - along with Qin Su, later - has never once made him feel like he was too much to handle, too strange to love, or to like. He’s older now, more assured in himself (usually), but he knows that he wouldn’t be at this point if not for her constant, gentle nature, the way she had nurtured his behaviors, his choices, to help lead him to who he is now.

Her support as a sister has been an invaluable part of his life, and he’s reminded of it for the millionth time now as she hugs him tightly and rubs his back in slow, soothing circles like she had when he had been a boy and he’d just lost his mother to a swift fever that had swept through their village.

“Hush, A-Yu, shh. The children love you,” she murmurs quietly. “I love you, as does A-Su, and A-Xuan, and A-Yao, and all of our extended family too. Our family wouldn’t be complete without you in it, A-Yu. You belong with us, we wouldn’t have you be anywhere or anyone else.”

Mo Xuanyu huddles closer and squeezes his eyes shut as tears drip from his lashes - he’s careful not to let them drip onto Jiang Yanli’s clothes, stained black as the tears are with the kohl painted around his eyes and dusted in his lashes. Her robes are a pale gold-trimmed lavender today, his tears would only ruin them.

“The children -”

“Know their Yu-shushu adores them,” Jiang Yanli cuts him off to soothe. “Children go through phases where they’re beginning to learn and think for themselves, and sometimes they lose their way while they test their new boundaries. I can talk to them if you’d like me to, make sure they know that the casual way you show your love for them isn’t an invitation to disrespect you.”

Mo Xuanyu considers telling her not to worry about it, but..he can’t escape the mental image of being pushed to the background as the children grow, shunted aside because he doesn’t fit their idea of what they want their family to look like to people they want to impress. Even little Xiao-Ye will one day be old enough to possibly push him away like that no matter how much they adore each other now, and the thought breaks his heart. His family is all he has in the world - he doesn’t want to lose them because they’re ashamed to know him.

“Please,” he says instead, then. The children always listen to Jiang Yanli - as they should, she’s a wonderful mother. If she tells them to respect him, they will. If she tells them to be gentle with him for a while as he finds his feet again after this newest blow to his confidence, they will. He can trust her.

“Alright,” she hums, as easily as if they had just agreed that clouds are white. “I’ll talk to them, and I’ll begin with A-Ling. Do you want to help me decide how he should make this up to you?”

“No! No, that’s okay,” he protests as he finally straightens up to wipe at his cheeks. Jiang Yanli tuts and pulls a handkerchief from her sleeve to dab gently under his eyes, cleaning the smears of his makeup. “I...I trust you and A-Xuan to take care of it.”

“Okay. Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up, hm? You’ve smudged your kohl.”

He nods and follows along at her side as they turn back to the family pavilions and his nerves settle further as he realizes they’re heading for Qin Su’s rooms. She opens the door just as they reach the steps and Mo Xuanyu offers her a watery smile.

“Su-jie,” he wheedles with a pout to see her smile. “Mean boys have ruined my makeup again.”

“Oh dear,” she says gently, playing along - unfortunately his makeup getting ruined was a common occurrence when he began wearing it, and he had frequently come to Qin Su both for comfort and for her help in reapplying. “Come inside, come on. We’ll make you even more beautiful than before.”

#the untamed fanfic #Lan Jingyi #Mo Xuanyu #Lan Jingyi/Mo Xuanyu #Nonbinary Mo Xuanyu #Junior Quartet #Jiang Yanli #Qin Su #this will be multichaptered but I don't know how many #for as long as I've been working on it in bits and pieces it's not actually a cohesive whole with a plot or anything #but I've had this beginning written for like. Over a year now I think #So I figured I could at least share this much lol #Also this is 100% an exercise to find out how much gender fuckery and cis4trans love I can fit into one fic #don't get me wrong I love a good t4t but idk this dynamic compels me

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

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1. Hi could you please suggest some

A) Omega Wei wuxian alpha lwj fanfics?

B) And fox wwx dragon lwj with good plot too @lostsoul234

1A)

A/B/O Comp

🧡 shoot your shot -- hot or knot by defractum (nyargles) (E, 51k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Reality Show, Hunger Games Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Extremely Dubious Consent, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Humor, Additional Warnings In Author's Notes) (link in #6) would probably work?

B)

@archeaologies said: re your latest 'im in the mood for' post, 1b (foxxian and dragonji fics): ive been slowly putting together a massive rec list on my sideblog (@lansyuan) of exactly this au - its currently sat in my drafts but if op wants to pm me on my sideblog then i can link them all the fics ive collected so far! 🥰

Shape-shifter AU Comp

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2. I was wondering if yall wouldn't mind reccing any favorite Chengxian canon Era fics? @dragonfairies

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3. Itmf for wangxian post canon where WWX is threatened to sacrifice himself for LWJ. It can be any case fiction with an interesting villain making their life hard. @paraffin22

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4. Hello, thank you for all your wonderful recommendations! Itmf LXC takes care of WWX

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5. Itmf omega WWX presenting for lwj

#2 in this fic finder might have a few you would enjoy

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6. Itmf wangxian survival fics, like wilderness or cold, etc

and from our own/live to ourselves by betweentheheavesofstorm (M, 105k, wangxian, modern, fantasy, reality tv, angst w/ happy ending, survival, blood & gore, self-harm, animal death, slow burn) this might count?

🧡 shoot your shot -- hot or knot by defractum (nyargles) (E, 51k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Reality Show, Hunger Games Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Extremely Dubious Consent, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Humor, Additional Warnings In Author's Notes) would probably work?

The Edge of Night by Hobbsy3 (M, 277k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern AU, Zombie Apocalypse, Yúnmèng Siblings Dynamics, Accidental Baby Acquisition During a Zombie Apocalypse, Junior Quartet, (except they’re all babies), Angst with a Happy Ending, Minor Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, Ensemble Cast, Worst Zombie Fighting Team Ever, Found Family)

In The Dark Right Now by phnelt (T, 10k, wangxian, JC & LWJ, WWX & JC, graphic depictions of injuries, trapped in a cave, Near Death Experience, fatalistic thinking, established wangxian, Family Feels, mention of unnamed illness of an offscreen character, Nobody dies in this fic, Modern Setting, JC and WWX are caved in and LWJ talks to them through the radio, Hurt/Comfort)

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7. itmf (self indulgent) wwx appreciation fic. have a good day.

Simping over WWX is my fave hobby Series by brrrrrRawr (T, 10k, WangXian, WWX's original body, Fluff, Pet Name,s Blushing, No Smut, Genius WWX, yunmeng bros reconciliation, endgame lotus pier, big bro wwx rights, also dad wwx rights, BAMF WWX, Bad Writing, Body Dysphoria So OOC, world building, cliff diving, corpse wrestling, OOC, Canon Divergence, god WWX, god WN, god WQ, child JL, teenager MXY, xuanli get resurrected, rip nmj tho, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, BAMF WWX, BAMF WN, BAMF WQ)

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8. papa-zhan fics please! a-yuan/sizhui calling him dad, a-die, baba, whatever. canon world or modern anything, just some baba lan wangji softness.

🧡 Yiling Salon: Hair, Nails and Piercing by TriviasFolly (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, hairstylist AU, WWX owns a salon, Hairstylist WWX, 5+1 Things, Fluff, Experimental Style)

🧡 paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 (E, 53k, WangXian, Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Everyone Is Alive, Modern AU, Dadji, Mutual Pining, Happy Ending, Brief Alcohol Mention, Masturbation, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Accidentally co-parenting with your son's art teacher, Fatherhood)

When You Wake, 怎能当梦一场 by acertainrogue (T, 39k, WangXian, WWX is in a coma, Angst with a Happy Ending, Modern AU, Single Dad LWJ, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Parenthood, YZY's A+ Parenting, JFM's A+ parenting, wangxian family) mind the tags pls

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9. hello! it is me that animal-whisperer lwj fic anon! thank you for recommending that, it was such a good read..

would it be fine to ask more of that kind? i cannot seem to get enough of that trope.

🧡 A Study in Fluff by WeaverOfTheNight (T, 29k, WangXian, Modern AU, Ghost bunnies, Vet LWJ, Architect WWX, Kid LSZ, Domestic fluff, Modern with Magic)

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10. This is more of a recommendation ask, does anyone know of any good canon compliant post last chapter fics? basically just more of lwj and wwx and the juniors etc just living their lives like the iron hook extra in the novels? Basically just any very canon post story stories people made i can’t get over the last chapter it was so cute with the lotuses and tipped boat help Sorry if that doesn’t really make sense THABK YOU TUMBLR!!!!!! @kaleajakic

🔒do not go gentle by RoseThorne (G, 684, WN & WQ, WN & WWX, LSZ & WQ, Canonical Character Death, Spirits, Ghosts, LWJ Plays Inquiry, Song: Inquiry, Protectiveness, Grief/Mourning, Love, Acceptance, Family, Angst, Post-Canon, POV Third Person, POV WN)

A More Practical Approach by Elhana (T,9k, WangXian, Canon Compliant Teacher WWX, Humour, POV Multiple, Implied Sexual Content, WWX is resourceful, wuxia magic shenanigans, Based on a Tumblr Post, Post-Canon)

It takes courage to pet a dog. by nenufares (T, 10k, WangXian, Post-Canon, a bit of canon-typical violence, past animal abandonment, Dogs, Fluff and Humor, Mild Hurt/Comfort) I'm not sure if they really count but they are post canon and I enjoyed reading them!

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11. itmf fic where wwx is cultivating the ghostly path like in the novel. i'd like recs for a cultivation that's more a compassion/empathy-based collaboration that results in the liberation of the resentful dead not an antihero necromancer forcing the dead to do his will for the greater good. thanks ❤️🩵

🔒 the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break by RoseThorne (E, 91k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Soulmates, Self-Esteem Issues, Fix-It, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, PTSD, Handfasting, Panic Attacks, Getting Together, First Time, Aftercare, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, /Referenced Torture, Scars, Chronic Pain, Golden Core Reveal, First Time, Switching, sex-related injury, LWJ Stays at the Burial Mounds, LSZ is a Wèi, Good Sibling JC, Dissociation, Burial Mounds Settlement Days)

A Life Without Regrets by naqaashi (M, 74k, wangxian, JFM & WWX, JC & WWX, WRH & WWX, LXC & LWJ, LQR & LWJ, LWJ & NHS, Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst and Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Crack Treated Seriously, musical cultivation, Slow Burn, Pining, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Murder Husbands, PTSD, BAMF WWX, Demonic Cultivation, POV WWX, Cultivation Sect Politics, Worldbuilding, No Yīn Iron, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Artist WWX, Musician WWX, Night Hunts, Fate & Destiny, Bad Parent JFM & YZY, Golden Core, Cultivation Theory, Sentient Burial Mounds, Father-Son Relationship, Dysfunctional Family, Grief/Mourning, Parent-Child Relationship, Angry WWX, Pining WWX, WWX is Not Okay, No Golden Core Transfer, BAMF LWJ, Pining LWJ, POV LWJ, Angry LWJ, One-Braincell Wangxian, Love Confessions, Idiots in Love, WIP)

Ad Oblivione by Baph, HikariNoHimeWriter (M, 70k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, POV Multiple, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Identity Reveal, Golden Core Reveal, Cultivation World Critical, Not JC Friendly, Abusive YZY, Angst with a Happy Ending)  

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12. Hi! I was just wondering if you have any good, longer fluff pieces. They can have plot, but in general everyone is happy and no one gets hurt (unless it’s jgs). I know canon makes it a bit more difficult, but if you have any recs, that would be great! I’m just looking for fluff, humor, and plot

Thank you!

how to fall in love with a catfish: a guide by wei wuxian (disaster rat) by bwyn, Yuisaki (T, 54k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Actors, Multimedia, Online Friendship, Drunken Shenanigans, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Underage Drinking, Drinking Games, Families of Choice, Ensemble Cast, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Catfish AU) there's a bit of angst here

Meet Me Friday At Seven by craftyTrickster (luoxiaobai) (E, 128k, wangxian, modern, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Friends to Lovers, Blind Date, lots of texting, almost a chat fic, WC and WLJ aren’t evil but they are annoying, Kissing, Masturbation, Anal Sex, romantic sex, Bi WWX, bi nhs, Single Parent WWX, Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator) just pure fluff

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13. Hi! I am looking for canon-divergent fics where people think WWX dies but he actually doesn’t? I then want a big reveal when people realize he is still alive/never actually died. Thank you so much!

ahhh I just sent in an itmf ask about WWX dying but not really? I meant to specify that I want him to be "dead" for a long period of time, not just a brief gimmick. Long enough that people mourn him or move on, and then he comes back years later like in canon. Thanks, and sorry for not putting this in the first ask!

🔒Brotherhood by LtLJ (G, 10k, JC & WWX, CQL canon, Canon Divergence, Yunmeng Brothers Reconciliation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, breaks from canon during the time skip, YLLZ WWX)

WWX and JYL run away by shanastoryteller (WangXian, XuanLi, JYL and JZX lives, JYL and WWX raise JL and LSZ, Fake Character Death)

Something From Nothing by sami (E, 55k, WangXian, XianLi, Minor QingLi, XiCheng, Canonical Character Death, Canonical Character Resurrection, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, Assassin's Creed Fusion, Kinda, Assassin's Creed Vibes, Wangxian is endgame, Slow Burn, specifically for wangxian, no infidelity, no partner betrayal, Angst with a Happy Ending) This has canon divergence and wwx being dead long enough for people to move on plus hey he's alive reveal but not exactly the way requester described

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14. hii! I'm sorry to bother you! i was hoping you could rec me some dark lwj, or dark gusu lan fics? them being more manipulative or possessive? thank you so much in advance<3

A Matter of Time by mrcformoso (M, 40k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, graphic depictions of violence, underage, LWJ pov, JC pov, dark LWJ, manipulation, grooming, teen body adult mind for LWJ, happy ending for wangxian, problematic consensual underage sex, blood & violence, insane LWJ, manic LWJ)

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15. hello!!! hehe would just like to ask if you have any fics where lsz is referenced as the lan heir? thank you! 💕

anyway, here's wuji by kakikaeru (T, 18k, ZhuiYi, WangXian, LingZhen, Post-Canon)

❤️ A Civil Combpaign by Ariaste (M, 12k, zhuiling, wangxian, arranged marriage, combs, courting, awkward teenagers, teenage drama, humor, feelings, fluff)

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16. Heyy ! I am in the mood for your favourite nightmares fic (Wangxian if possible). Thxx ! @sebyyw

#FreePalestine | hold me close by gentil-minou (Flyingsuits) (E, 13k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Porn with Feelings, Emotional Sex, Grief, Mental Health Issues, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, tender husbands being tender, Character Study, Masturbation, Oral Sex ,Anal Sex, Working Through Grief With Sex, Grieving Your Husband While Fucking Him, Depressed LWJ) I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for but lwj has a nightmare in one scene in my fic here

hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (E, 23k, wangxian, Canon Compliant, discussion of canon character death, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Getting Together, Yearning, Literal Sleeping Together, Really Excessive Amounts of Hurt/Comfort)

Feathers On My Breath by Sweetlittlevampire (T, 3k, wangxian, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Teen Crush, Pre-Relationship, Panic Attacks, LWJ Has A Panic Attack, Nightmare, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Past Character Death, Mentions of Dying Linked To The Panic Attack, Sharing a Bed)

a needle, a whisper, an insidious dream by pale_and_tragic (M, 19k, wangxian, WWX & WQ & LWJ, post-canon, fix-it of sorts, case fic, horror elements, nightmares, hallucinations, pining, hurt LWJ, aroace WQ, platonic relationships, suicidal thoughts, angst w/ happy ending, hurt/comfort, sleeping beauty)

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17. Me again, back to pester you all w/ an ITMF ask! Thank you so much for all you do! I have read (and re-read) An Elegant Solution and also Things to Do with a Flute During Wartime, and they have put me in the mood for NMJ-centric stories where he is a fully robust, complex, interesting character. Any ship is okay, and modern AUs welcome, but pref. no MCD. &lt;;3 @kimboo-york

🔒 Audience of One by WinterDreams (T, 181k, XiCheng, WangXian, XuanLi, mentioned SongXiao, implied MingYao, Modern AU, Celebrities, Inspired by 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Singer LXC, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Swearing, Slow Burn, Family Feels, Family Bonding, childhood crushes, past emotional abuse, Post-Betrayal, Venerated Triad Feels, Yunmeng Duo Feels, Nightmares, Fluff and Angst, hand holding, Babysitter Ā-Qìng, Domestic Fluff, Soft XiCheng, Eventual Happy Ending)

🔒 shades of grey spill from my veins (bleeding ink all over the page) by Reverie (cl410) (M, 58k, LXC/NMJ, wangxian, NHS/WN, POV NMJ, Canon Divergence, WWX raised by the Nie Sec, Mentions of WWX's life on the streets, Hurt/Comfort, Accidental Sibling Acquisition, Single Dad NMJ, NHS & WWX Friendship, Fluff, Humor, Happy Ending, Everyone Lives AU, Protective NMJ, a plot showed up, Sunshot Campaign, Some angst, Blood and Injury, Kidnapping, Protective Siblings, Found Family) more canon

found in translation by sysrae (E, 12k, LXC/NMJ, wangxian, Modern Cultivation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, my extremely justified hatred of LQR, Meddling brothers, Coming Out, Loss of Virginity, Under-negotiated Kink, slight breathplay, Light Dom/sub, Aftercare, Angst with a Happy Ending) a modern AU

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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic recs #i'm in the mood for a fic #the untamed #wangxian fic search #wangxianficfinder #long post

[takonxmz]

A junior-quartet centered mdzs podfic collaboration for a @voiceteam 2023 challenge PILLAR-TO-POST-PRODUCTION: Individually or as a group, write a fic and then record it. Minimum length 1K.

Juniors' High Nighthunt

Featuring @mynaminnarr @semperfiona @jennisaisquoi @polynomialpandemic-blog , @irrationalpie, & @AirgiodSLV (idk if someone of these guys are on tumblr aaaaa)

#the juniors get punked by a lost spirit that gets them all high on lonely ghost smoke #JFJGFJJSJS A SUMMARY WAS NEVER RLY WRITTEN HERE #it is fun pls listen #mdzs #my art #junior quartet #background wangxian #lan sizhui #lan jingyi #jin ling #ouyang zizhen #mdzs podfic #tako podfics #multivoice

[rnmyn]

2022 art summary

still stuck on wangxian brainrot ʕ ;; •ᴥ• ʔ posted less art this year but! still very happy, especially with my chibis in which i attempt to make them roumder and roumder every month i see and i also see i've made wwx bite lwj twice am always just happy to share my works and honestly just vibe; i appreciate you all very much ♡ more notes below the cut ☆

top posts in 2022 (according to hellsite)

Motivational MDZS/CQL Older Sibs

Cinna is Sadly NOT a Bunny

LWJ Jealous of Plushji

WWX Used CHOMP!

Husblanket WWX & Cuddler LWJ

three personal favorites (top posts excluded)

I'll drink from him (Inspired Fic ♡ by @/queenofattolia)

Chicken Wings ft. Junior Quartet (MXTX Foodzine)

Xianxian Cheek Poke dot GIF

new year's art resolution

me last year: draw your ocs; me this year: draw your ocs hfsljfhsl i kind of miss doing work that i spend 20 hours on so i might. do that. altho, knowing me this is highly theoretical. BUT! highly likely that i'll also draw new stuff in 2023 seeing most of the games i'm anticipating are coming out next year??? ALSO i want to do those draw this again things SO i might—

2021 ver.

#art summary #rnmyn.art #thank u cql for shoving me into this rabbit hole 2k22 bc im way happier with my art since then #apologies in advance for the person i'll be (offline) when eiyu/den and the suiko/den remakes drop #if you've scrolled to the depths of my archive i had mostly game fanarts #fun fact: i finished (1) wen/clair fanart but i'm still staring at it so see u next year #happy decade to me i think on this hellsite