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shanastoryteller · 9 months

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Happy Pride!!!! Living Blood or Lady Mo please!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Xuanyu disrobes unashamedly, hesitating only at the last second with the sleeve covering her left arm.

Jiang Yanli laughs. “Bit late to be modest, I think.”

“Modesty is overrated,” she returns, which is something that Zixuan would say and A-Yao would think. She slips the rest of the robes off and steps into the steaming bath, letting out a deep sigh of satisfaction.

The changes her body has undergone are even more obvious without the thick layers of the robes obscuring her form. The extra weight seems to have settled in ideal places, not only thickening her waist and limbs but settling heavily along her hips and breasts, which hadn’t exactly been small to begin with.

She sits behind Xuanyu, filling a bowl with water and then pouring it over her hair to rinse it of blood and dirt that had been hidden by her dark hair. Acting as a bathing assistant is far below her station, but Xuanyu had sent all the servants away and she doesn’t mind, really. Xuanyu is her sister, likely the only one she’ll ever have considering A-Cheng’s track record with matchmakers, and she’s been worried about her. This gives them time to speak alone. “How has your marriage with Lan Wangji been? Has he been kind?”

Xuanyu pulls a face, which isn’t encouraging. “I guess. He mostly left me alone, and then we had a couple fights and he was a jerk, and now I think he’s trying to make up for being a jerk, but it’s a little – well, it’s nice that he’s making an effort. I suppose.”

Not as good as she’d hoped, but not as bad as she’d feared. “Sect Leader Lan seems fond of you.”

“Oh, Lan Xichen is great,” she says easily. Better than reaction to Lan Wangji, but still not what Jiang Yanli had been hoping for. Then her eyes light up. “Sizhui is wonderful! I’ll give Wangji one thing, he’s raised a good kid. He’s so sweet, and a great cultivator, and he’s always trying to help out everyone around him. I’m glad Jingyi’s always hanging around – without him, I think everyone would just take advantage of Sizhui’s good nature.”

Well, that’s something. Surely Lan Wangji can’t resist Xuanyu’s charms for long, not when she dotes on his son and gets along with his brother.

“What trouble did you get into on the road?” she asks, running her hand over the wound on Xuanyu’s shoulder. It looks nearly fully healed already and there’s another mostly healed wound on her hip, a thin slice on her left arm, and the shadow of various bruises that were likely much worse a couple hours ago. It’s of course a good thing that Xuanyu has a strong golden core, but Jiang Yanli can’t help a moment of wistfulness.

Her own core never lived up to her mother’s expectations, or her own. If she’d had a stronger core, she could have given A-Ling siblings. A child should have siblings. She would have had a calmer childhood without two little brothers underfoot, but a lonelier one too.

Xuanyu shrugs, lazily scrubbing herself down. “Looks like Xiao Xingchen picked up the girl, A-Qing, while he and Song Lan were separated and was trapped in this place that was basically a ghost town.” How could he be trapped by a place that had no people? “And I’d heard some rumors so when we ran into Song Lan I helped him find Xiao Xingchen, but there was a bit of a fight with someone who didn’t want him to leave. I just happened to get caught in the crossfire, so to speak.”

She’s stretching the truth to outright lying. Before Jiang Yanli can call her on it, her stomach growls.

“Didn’t get a chance to eat on the road?” she teases.

Xuanyu flushes, ducking briefly beneath the water to hide her flaming cheeks before resurfacing. “Things were a little hectic. It may have slipped my mind.”

How has she managed to put on weight while also forgetting to eat? Perhaps Lan Wangji deserves more credit.

“I think I have some candies in my room, if you want something before the banquet,” she offers. “I know the speeches take forever.”

Her eyes light up before dimming and she slumps in the bath. “Thanks, Yanli-jie, but I better not. Sizhui gave me some on the road and I usually love them but just putting it in my mouth almost made me sick. It was awful. And weird! They’re my favorite.”

Jiang Yanli blinks then gives Xuanyu’s significantly larger chest a considering look. It could be nothing. It’s probably nothing. She hasn’t even been married a year and it doesn’t sound as if she and Lan Wangji have been seeing eye to eye.

Then again, the same could have been said about her and Zixuan.

“Can I ask you something personal, Meimei?”

Xuanyu nods. “You can ask me anything, Yanli-jie.”

“Are you and Lan Wangji having sex?”

She turns bright red and ducks beneath the water for so long that Jiang Yanli is starting to get concerned before she resurfaces, still red faced. “Um. We did once. Well – I guess, technically, it was three times, but it was only one night.”

Well. Apparently Lan Wangji has stamina on and off the battlefield.

“One moment,” she says, briefly squeezing Xuanyu’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

It takes one whispered conversation with the servant outside the hall and approximately ninety seconds before her personal healer is standing in front of her. Jiang Yanli ducks back inside to see Xuanyu out of the bath, in a thin bathing robe that’s clinging to her as she wrings her hair out. “I’d like my healer to take a look at you, Meimei.”

Xuanyu freezes, slowly standing straight with a wary look on her face. “That’s really not necessary. The wounds were just superficial and they’re basically healed already.”

“It’ll be quick,” she says, because if she’s right then she can’t let Xuanyu go down to the banquet without letting her know. “She’s very discreet – she’s been my personal healer since I was a child.”

“Jiang Xingyi?” Xuanyu asks, some of her tension draining away.

Jiang Yanli nods, trying to think of some reason that Xuanyu would know her healer’s name, or her reputation, but all the servants are terrible gossips and her health is a frequent topic of derision. “Just your wrist, okay? Your golden core has changed a lot. I just want her to take a look.”

She feels bad about lying, but Xuanyu had lied to her first.

Xuanyu relaxes even further. “Okay, Yanli-jie. If it’ll make you feel better.”

“Thank you,” she smiles, then opens the door to usher Jiang Xingyi in.

The old woman doesn’t smile, but Xuanyu grins back undeterred, and says, “Hi, Granny,” before paling and adding, “uh, um. Sorry.”

Jiang Yanli feels a familiar pang of grief go through her. A-Xian had referred to Jiang Xingyi as Granny, the only disciple both bold and beloved enough to get away with it.

Jiang Xingyi ignores her, instead reaching for her wrist and pressing her fingers against it. Xuanyu fidgets, shifting from one foot to the other, but says nothing as the moments stack on top of one another.

Finally, Jiang Xingyi drops her wrist and steps back. Her stern visage breaks, a smile stretching her mouth across her face. “Congratulations, Madame Lan.”

She knew it!

“Thanks,” Xuanyu answers before wrinkling her nose. “Um. For what?”

“You are expecting,” she answers. “At least a couple months along, I believe, although I’d have to do a more thorough examination to be sure.”

Jiang Yanli moves to embrace her, but Xuanyu’s face drops and she turns dangerously pale. “What? No. That’s not possible. I can’t be.”

“Three times,” Jiang Yanli reminds her, trying to goad Xuanyu into laughter.

But instead she just shakes her head. “No, no I can’t, I – this can’t be happening,” she whispers to herself, grabbing her own arms in a white knuckled grip. “It’s not. It’s impossible. I can’t be.”

She’s young, and this wasn’t a marriage of her own choosing, and it’s so new. Of course she’s surprised and nervous. Jiang Yanli touches her elbow, intending to say something soothing, but Xuanyu collapses into her arms, gripping her waist and hiding her tears in her shoulder.

“Xuanyu!” she says, hugging her back just as fiercely, her heart breaking for the younger girl’s anguish. “Meimei, it’s okay, I know this is scary, but it’s going to be fine.”

“It’s not,” she says, voice thick with tears, “A-jie, this is awful, this is – it can’t happen! It can’t, Wangji is going to be so mad, he’s going to hate me, and everything is ruined and awful, I can’t be – I can’t! I’m going to die!”

Jiang Yanli’s whole body goes cold and she grips Xuanyu even tighter against her. “You’re going to be fine,” she says, pushing her conviction into every syllable.

No matter what Jiang Yanli has to do, Xuanyu is going to be fine.

#oh wwx #our babygirl is going through it #dw everything is going to be fine #wwx is like i'm going to die before i can have this baby and kill lan zhan's baby and he's going to hate me forever #and jyl who obviously has no context for this hears that xuanyu thinks that lwj is going to kill her #which she'd think that lwj would never do but also she saw him during war and she's not the one married to him #and everyone knows he didn't want this marriage and also made a big thing about how sizhui's position won't be usurped #jyl to herself: do i have to kill lan wangji?#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #anon #untamed

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canary3d-obsessed · 9 months

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 38 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Shopping and Night Hunting

Xue Yang convinces Xiao Xingchen to take him along as his night hunting assistant, and the Empathy session jumps forward. The next thing we see is a whole street full of dead people with Xiao Xingchen standing over them with his sword, while Xue Yang looks on approvingly.

Xiao Xingchen explains that the whole village was Puppets, with no living people. Dude. DUDE. Even by the standards of a world that contains Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen, you are way too trusting of shit that people tell you.

A-Qing checks the corpses and they have white eyes, which makes her think they might really be puppets. Xue Yang makes some insane faces just so we know he's not actually turned over a new leaf.

Next we see Xiao Xingchen trying to buy potatoes (this is fantasy China, not pre-Qing historical China; they can have all the potatoes they want) and a vendor telling him to scram. Is Xiao Xingchen just asking for free potatoes? Is this the first time he’s realized that doesn’t generally work?. Xue Yang menaces the vendor by loudly stabbing a potato, and then calls Xiao Xingchen back over.

The vendor gasps and fills up their basket with food, and Xiao Xingchen smiles because he thinks that his buddy silently convinced the guy to give them food by...being nice? Unclear.

I Ain’t Gonna Play Yi City

Next we see ultrahot Song Lan arriving at the gate of Yi City, where A-Qing is happily picking up a money purse. ...whose? Do enough living people come through here that they just casually drop money on the ground? Song Lan twigs to her not being blind pretty quickly, although for politeness sake he lets her continue to pretend.

Song Lan asks if she's seen a white-clad sword-bearing daoist priest, and she quizzes him to make sure he's a good guy before helping him. Her entire set of security questions:

1. are you friends? 2. How tall is he? 3. is he hot? 4. What does his sword look like?

If this is not a mistranslation, these are not very good questions to ask if you want someone to believe you’re blind, incidentally.

Song Lan's answers:

1. ............... .... ...yes 2. me and him match like a set of salt and pepper shakers 3. like, SO hot 4. It’s named Shuanghua (”splendid frost,” per Viki), as all True Sword Fans know

(more after the cut!)

These answers are correct, pretty much, so he passes the security check and she leads him into the city. He comes carrying his sword Fuxue (”blowing away snow,” roughly), his horsetail flail, and his messy, messy feelings, which are going to be his undoing.

They walk through the super-abandoned town, which has paper decorations hanging up. These paper decorations are really well made, considering that they are still there when WangXian roll up several years later.

Song Lan has a little crisis trying to psych himself up to see Xiao Xingchen. Bro, you have been walking around looking for him for literally YEARS, and you haven't figured out what to say yet? Contrast with Lan Wangji, who went for the wrist-grab mere moments after discovering that Wei Wuxian was back, and followed it up by carrying him off to his bed.

Enemy Mine

While he's dithering, Xue Yang comes back, and A-Qing hides while Song Lan stands there being shocked.

We're treated to the Xue Yang version of sweet banter, where he tricks Xiao Xingchen into picking a short straw for chores, and then tells him he was tricking him because he was blind.

They have a laugh together and Xue Yang is handsy with XXC, causing Song Lan to clench his fist so strongly that we can hear his knuckles cracking.

You knew your ex was going to be at the party; if you can’t handle seeing him with a new guy you shouldn’t have come.

Then he sees Xue Yang go out to get groceries, and he grips his flail so hard that his palm starts bleeding. That sentence is about a weapon, not about his dick, incidentally.

More Empathy

But then empathy skips ahead, showing Xiao Xingchen stabbing Song Lan, while Wei Wuxian's hands shake and he says "Song Lan, don't!" like he’s in the audience of a horror movie. A-Qing, in the present, drools up some blood, which is pretty normal for her, TBH.

The Lan kids are alarmed and want to wake them up, but Jin Ling says to hang in there for a bit more. For a kid, Jin Ling isn’t bad at wielding authority.

A distraught Jingyi insists, however, so Jin Ling starts ringing the bell, and Wei Wuxian opens his eyes but doesn't come out of Empathy. He does stop skipping ahead, though, so we go back to Song Lan & Xue Yang's confrontation, which is possibly the best fight in the whole dang show.

We’re Gonna Get It On ‘Cause We Don’t Get Along

Xue Yang comes back from the grocery store to find Song Lan perched on his roof like a sexy vengeful raven. Xue Yang greets him sexily politely and with no anxiety at all, and Song Lan attacks.

Song Lan has had literally years to settle his mind and get his emotions under control and...he has not done that. Like, at all.

He could have cleared this whole situation up with about four words to Xiao Xingchen, and they could have fought Xue Yang together. But he was so unready to hug it out with his ex that he opted to face Xue Yang all on his own. Dumb. Ass.

Contrast this with Lan Wangji, who always talked to Wei Wuxian, no matter how estranged they had become. Trying to stab him counts as talking. And also contrast this with Jiang Cheng, who hashed everything out with Wei Wuxian in an excruciating public confrontation, after which they teamed up to save their nephew. Neither of those guys let their ooky feelings stand in the way of a reconnection, and their outcomes were way, way, way better than Song Lan’s.

Xue Yang and Song Lan get busy fighting, and Song Lan starts asking what the fuck Xue Yang is playing at, how long has he been deceiving Xiao Xingchen, etc.

Xue Yang is a perceptive guy, and he points out that Song Lan is holding back because he wants to ask these questions. He’s absolutely right; Song Lan wants to feel indignant and righteous, partly because he knows he himself has mistreated Xiao Xingchen. He’s putting himself in the role of Xiao Xingchen’s protector, when he doesn’t actually have that relationship with him any more.

I love this fight sequence for two reasons. First, because it showcases the actors doing a lot of moves themselves, and they both look amazing and move beautifully. (OP has slowed most of these gifs down quite a bit to avoid giving everybody a migraine, incidentally--the camera operator was moving around as much as the actors in these shots)

Second, because a lot of story happens in this fight; the dynamic between them, as two people with a very complex mutual hatred, is played out in their moves. Song Lan's moves are all strong attacks, expressing his anger and frustration, while Xue Yang’s are mainly defensive, avoidant, and slippery, because he is more interested in hurting Song Lan with words than with his blade at this point. He knows he has an unbeatable advantage up his sleeve, so he’s not particularly worried, even when Song Lan lands a couple of hits.

Xue Yang lays it all out for Song Lan, explaining that Xiao Xingchen, being blind, relies on his sword to point toward resentful energy. Hey, isn't that what Wei Wuxian's Compass of Evil does? So WWX only needs that thing because he can't carry a sword? That...actually makes sense. Anyway, Xue Yang figured out if he cuts people's tongues out, Shuanghua can't tell living people from monsters, which is so awesome and fun for Xue Yang.

Song Lan starts to lose his composure and calls Xue Yang a “villain,” which leads Xue Yang to mock him for his weaksauce cussing ability.

Xue Yang: You educated people have a disadvantage when cursing someone out. Song Lan: Eat a bag of dicks, fuckstick.

Then he criticizes Xue Yang for taking advantage of Xiao Xingchen's blindness.

He gets a couple of licks in but then Xue Yang stops and points out that Xiao Xingchen is only blind because of giving his eyes to Song Lan.

This stops Song Lan in his tracks; I am not sure if he already knew that’s where his eyeballs came from, or if he thought it was a coincidence that Xiao Xingchen became blind after he, Song Lan, got new eyeballs. Then Xue Yang challenges Song Lan's standing to be fighting on Xiao Xingchen's behalf, reminding him that he's not actually Xiao Xingchen's friend. These are the same tactics that Jin Guangyao will later use on righteous, insecure Jiang Cheng.

Back when Xue Yang killed Song Lan's sect/temple buddies, Song Lan blamed Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang says now that that was his plan; he killed them to turn Song Lan against Xiao Xingchen.

It totally worked. Song Lan said that they should never see each other again, and Xiao Xingchen took it to heart and fucked off forever - after giving Song Lan his eyes. Contrast this with Wei Wuxian, who stuck by Jiang Cheng despite being blamed & choked by him after the Lotus Pier massacre.

Despite all this emotional turmoil, Song Lan is holding his own...until Xue Yang pulls out his secret weapon; half of a yin tiger seal.

He starts hitting Song Lan with corpse poison and resentment blasts and very quickly has him on the ropes.

He finishes up by cutting his tongue out. Yikes.

At this point it’s clear that Xue Yang was never in any serious danger; this was his plan for Song Lan all along. Song Lan goes to attack Xue Yang but now that he’s been modded, Splendid Frost thinks he’s a zombie, so Xiao Xingchen comes sailing in and stabs him.

Song Lan tries to raise his sword to XXC's fingers so he can identify himself, but at the last moment his eyes turn solid black and he drops the sword. Does that mean Xue Yang stuck a nail in his head already? *shrug*

Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen head back into the coffin house -- seriously, why do they live there instead of one of the many actual houses in this town? -- and leave Song Lan lying in the street, with A-Qing, who saw the whole thing, hiding behind a hay stack.

Xue Yang Must Die...eventually

After some more bell ringing, Wei Wuxian emerges from Empathy, pretty overwhelmed.

He gets up and goes over to Xiao Xingchen's coffin and looks closely at the wound on his neck, understanding that XXC killed himself, and why.

His face, in this moment. Suicide isn’t something he expected to have in common with his uncle.

He tells the kids and A-Qing to stay in the coffin house; he won't explain what he saw, except to say that Xue Yang must die. Then he goes off to kill Xue Yang, by which I mean to assemble his Xue-Yang killing team, rather than try to take him mano a mano like Song Lan did.

The first order of business is to finish rebooting Song Lan, which he does by pulling the second nail out of his head like he should have done four hours ago.

Note that Wen Ning and Song Lan were fighting for the ENTIRE time Wei Wuxian was doing Empathy. Corpses don’t get tired, I guess.

As soon as the nail comes out of his head, Song Lan quiets down, looking bereft, and crouches on the ground to try to reassemble his shattered consciousness. Unlike Wen Ning, he doesn’t have to bake in a cave for a month to achieve this.

We get a nice shot of Wei Wuxian, Song Lan, and Wen Ning looking like the cultivation world’s handsomest goth band.

Next, Lan Wangji cuts open Xue Yang's shirt so he can yoink his spirit-trapping bag, which he then tosses to Wei Wuxian.

Now Xue Yang is the one who's overly emotional.

Wei Wuxian, despite being very upset by what he saw in Empathy, is completely cool and in control of himself now, because that's just how he is in a fight. (Unless you kill his sister. That gets him very emotional, but the emotion is rage, at least initially, so it’s not a safe tactic.)

Lan Wangji gets in another poke with Bichen while Xue Yang is distracted.

Camera operator: Spare me!

Xue Yang decides to take his ball amulet and go home, disappearing into the fog while Wei Wuxian keeps talking smack at him.

Holy Abrupt Episode Ending, Batman!

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #ep38 #canary3d-original #yi city

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jonathankai · 6 months

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I was going for a text post, but ended up with a drabble about sharing bed on cold nights, getting used to non-sexual intimacy and Xue Yang loosing at his own games and being surprisingly content with it. Hope you enjoy!

During their first winter on one particularly cold night Xiao Xingchen offers his outer robe to A-Qing to use as a blanket. When she asks what about him, Xue Yang interferes, saying that they shall sleep together to keep each other warm. He just wants to tease, but Xiao Xingchen suddenly agrees. More than that, he seems to be... enthusiastic about it?

Later that evening, Xiao Xingchen reveals that since nights can be pretty harsh where he came from, it was common for children to share bed and sleep together. Xue Yang plays it cool despite being mildly irritated that instead of embarrassed (as was originally planned), Xiao Xingchen looks happy. However, after some time, this happiness dulls into nostalgia, sadness even, and Xiao XIngchen shyly asks Xue Yang if he can hug him.As they fall asleep, Xiao Xingchen shares stories from their sleepovers back at home in a hushed tone. And Xue Yang...

Xue Yang is not sure why he agrees to all of this – to this hug, to these stories. The whole thing clearly doesn’t go in his favor. Unlike certain someone, he’s never slept next to another person and he lets Xiao Xingchen share his stupid stories, so he doesn’t have to do the talking and can focus on his feelings instead. It does feel very nice and warm. He was worried that he will be repulsed by foreign presence, but Xiao Xingchen is not the problem. The problem is: since it’s an unfamiliar situation and since people only got this close to him when they tried to kill him, part of his brain is writhing, looking for a catch, waiting for an attack. Reasonably, Xue Yang understands that since it’s daozhang Xiao Xingchen, the worst thing that could happen is that he would drool in his sleep, but that doesn’t stop the alarm ringing in his head. Xue Yang falls asleep to warmth, to gentle hands around him, to soft whisper, but also to uneasy feeling in his gut.

That’s why, when he wakes up, the first thing his brain processes is that there’s someone close enough to kill him. Xue Yang’s hand flies to Jiangzai, but it’s not on its’ place next to him, so instead Xue Yang kicks as hard as he can and rolls back.

Xiao Xingchen wakes up to being kicked in the stomach, which sends him in a coughing fit. A-Qing wakes up then and immediately starts shouting at Xue Yang. Out of three, it’s daozhang who first accesses the situation. Everybody has a story, for many people their stories are tragic, and Xiao Xingchen has already figured that his new friend is one of them. So he assures A-Qing that everything is alright, and then tries to calm down the man.

Xue Yang has hard time remembering where he is, why fucking Xiao Xingchen is there, and why he tells him that no one will hurt him. It’s hard to get a hold of himself and remember the persona he’s supposed to play, but eventually he manages.

The winter is being pretty harsh that year, and soon enough Xiao Xingchen offers his outer robe to A-Qing again. He asks Xue Yang if maybe they could sleep together. and Xue Yang agrees on a whim. The thing is, that time he woke up disorientated and scared, and it took a while before he could bear his surroundings. And if he was to live with Xiao Xingchen, it just wouldn’t do. He has to train himself better.

It’s Xiao Xingchen’s idea that they should sleep next to each other, but not too close, so dear friend won’t get... triggered in the morning. So they do, and this time they talk about their day, what else can be done to make coffin house hold against the weather, whether they have enough logs stacked for winter or not and stuff like this. Xue Yang falls asleep mid-sentence, his last coherent thought being that it was a stupid idea, because it doesn’t get much warmer this way.

Xue Yang has always been adaptive and pretty soon he learns to wake up without as much as a shiver. Besides, they’ve been slowly scooting closer to each other in their sleep anyway, seeking the source of warmth. He rarely gets to wake up before Xiao Xingchen (seems that he’s pretty adaptive too and one kick in the stomach was enough for him), but when he does, he likes to throw his arm and leg around daozhang and pretend he’s sleeping, so when the other man wakes up, he always tries to disentangle himself as discreetly as possible. Xue Yang found out he can make it harder if he tightens his hold and makes a protesting sound “in his sleep”. The first time he does it, he kind of hopes that Xiao Xingchen would admit defeat and stay close for as long as he would entertain it. But even if Xiao Xingchen halts and doubles his efforts at being accurate, he always gets up and leaves Xue Yang.

One morning Xue Yang wakes up with Xiao Xingchen’s arms around him. He hasn’t hugged him since that first time, but they’ve been sleeping close for a while now, so Xue Yang doesn’t freak out. In fact, it feels nice, adds to the warmth, so he just spends some time in thoughtless bliss. But then he wants to get up. He tries to be sneaky about it, but the arm around him tightens. Xue Yang stills, waits a little bit and tries again, but the embrace tightens further. Each try only makes Xiao Xingchen’s grip grow stronger. Who knows how long it continues, until Xue Yang hears the voice of a clearly very awake person right next to his year:

“I bet you’re very proud of yourself”.

Xue Yang smirks.

“Why shouldn’t I be?”

“I knew you were awake each time. I just thought I’ll indulge you for a bit”.

“And what’s happening now? Payback time?”

“Well, I thought maybe this time you’ll indulge me”, Xiao Xingchen says, his voice soft with amusement, fingers lightly tapping some rhythm on the other man’s back.

Xue Yang closes his eyes. He lost. He got caught. By all accounts, he should be mad, but somehow, he isn’t. Somehow, he feels good.

Xiao Xingchen must have interpreted his silence in his own manner, because his hold becomes slack and he moves away so Xue Yang could see his face.

“I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t bother you. I should have thought about it sooner”.

“No, it’s okay. I got used to you by now, so you can hug me whenever you want. I won’t kick you again... I think”.

Xiao Xingchen’s eyebrows go up.

“You think?”

Xue Yang grins.

“Yeah. Scared?”

He finds it incredibly funny when the other man actually thinks about it until he smiles resolutely.

“Worth the risk”, he says.

As the worst of the winter cold passes, Xiao Xingchen ends up offering his outer robe to A-Qing three nights in a row, and she declines his generous offer each time. On the third night Xiao Xingchen looks so defeated that Xue Yang can’t hold it anymore: he breaks into laughter and says that if Xiao Xingchen wanted to sleep together, he should have just said so. This makes A-Qing’s hackles rise. She makes a snarky remark how there is literally no reason for them to be sleeping together since it’s not so cold anymore. Somehow, this makes daozhang look even more sorrowful, and Xue Yang decides that just this once, he will save him.

“But sharing bed reminds him of home! He does so much for an ungrateful brat like you, and now he can’t have even one good thing!”

“My friend, A-Qing is only pointing the obvious: we started this, so we could all stay warm”.

“Yes, but we don’t have to stick to this reason. Let’s create another one and move on”.

This makes Xiao Xingchen freeze for a moment just like he used to when Xue Yang played his tricks in the morning.

“Alright”, he says eventually, and all the sorrow he had before leaves him at once.

Xue Yang looks at him a little dumbfounded, suddenly realizing that their routine just went through permanent changes.

They are all quiet for a while, before A-Qing asks in a far more pleasing tone:

“Daozhang, if you are sleeping with him, can I have your outer robe?”

Winter slowly gives way to the spring.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #xue yang #xiao xingchen #xuexiao #a qing #yi city #mdzsips

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veliseraptor · 1 year

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Okay, but consider: Groundhog Day Yi City, a tragic-comedy of repeated errors with drama sprinkles on top (results vary depending on who’s Bill Murray)

a secret that I have never seen the actual groundhog day movie. I feel like I should admit that, as a big fan of time loop stuff, I have not seen the trope namer. I just feel like that should be out there.

also if you saw me post this before it was finished: no you didn't

but to the substance of your ask: yes, I have considered this, I have considered this a lot and I actually technically have a fic in progress for it from xiao xingchen's pov but I might need to start it over, we'll see. and it is so much fun! because the success states vary wildly for each character, like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, nice domestic life preserved

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, xue yang not alive, xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with

xiao xingchen: song lan alive, a-qing alive, doesn't even know what he wants with xue yang??? ahhhhh

a-qing: xiao xingchen alive, all else optional and only relevant inasmuch as it serves that end

so there are three of them aligned on the "xiao xingchen alive" goal, at least (xiao xingchen's a little more wobbly on that one), and only one person actively invested in xue yang being dead, and nobody actually putting as a definitive condition song lan being dead (though xue yang operates on a low key assumption, most of the time, that the win condition of "himself alive" depends on the condition "song lan dead"; he is not necessarily right about this but he tends to assume it's the case. however, it's not something that's necessary; I think if xue yang knew how badly things could go, he would be fine with letting song lan live if it didn't ruin the other stuff).

however, these points of agreement come into conflict with each other in several key places. I feel like I'm also thinking about these in order of priority (i.e. what's most important to least important) in which case it looks like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen/himself alive (either/or is not acceptable, has to be both), nice domestic life preserved (terms and conditions may apply, he'll make it work), song lan dead (possible condition but not required, particularly the longer he has to go on trying)

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, xue yang dead (at least initially, though I think it might eventually swap places with), xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with, himself alive

xiao xingchen: a-qing alive/song lan alive (I don't think he could deal with either not being true), still doesn't know what he wants to do with xue yang (affectionate/derogatory/deeply confused)

a-qing: she's got a very clear single priority and she's sticking to it.

so how this fic looks, and what the resolution is, could go any number of ways depending on who is trying to "fix" it and what the individual author decided a fix-it looked like (someone who is not me might think that just killing xue yang fixes the problem, but they would sadly be incorrect. common misconception! but inaccurate.). which is why my favorite version of this, I realized as I've been writing this post, is a version where all of them are time looping but none of them knows anybody else is, and every time one of anybody's primary win conditions are violated it starts over (i.e. if xue yang dies, even though it's only his win condition that stipulates his survival first and foremost, it still cycles back to the beginning).

just please consider with me the mutual frustration both song lan and xue yang in particular experience on discovering that they cannot, in fact, fix the problem by just murdering the other person in the right way. I feel like that alone makes this entire concept worth it.

also a-qing just getting xiao xingchen the heck out of dodge and being like "GREAT DODGED THAT BULLET" only to end up cycled back because one of the other two died. she didn't sign up for this

#conversating #anonymous #aggressively headcanons #i'm not equipped to write this right now but i'm kind of eyeing it now like in the future....maybe #but if someone else wanted to do it. please do #songxuexiao #song lan #xue yang #xiao xingchen #a qing

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wangxianficfinder · 2 years

Text

In the mood for a Fic

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1. So there's been a few times where I've stumbled upon a fic that I wouldn't have normally read/sought out, and ended up really liking it. For the next itmf, what are some fics like that for the other fair readers of this blog, and why did you like it?

The Teenage Girl's Self-Saving System by mercyandmagic (T, 108k, WLJ/WC, WLJ/NMJ, wangxian, LXC/JGY, JYL/JZX, JC/WQ, OC main character, transmigration, everyone’s least fave characer gets character development!) evadingreallife: ‘i'm not a fan of OCs, modern-to-xianxia, self( or any-) inserts, and ofc wang lingjiao, but the premise of this fic was so crack-ish that i just HAD to check it out, and it was a good one in the end´

Let the streetlights guide you home by tellthemstories (M, 37k, wangxian, modern, UST, car racing, Mojo’s bookmark) flamingwell: ‘aka the illegal street racing AU you never knew you needed BUT YOU NEED IT!! Also one of the most *incredible* podfics I've ever listened to’

Spilled Pearls by nirejseki (T, 88k, LQR/WRH, sect leader nie / WRH, slow burn, angst w/ happy ending) Mod L: ‘Aside from all the WIPs I follow I couldnt decide between these three lol For this first one, it’s somewhat difficult for me to grow interested enough to read a fic on pairings and characters I’m neutral about or not fond of. It was really fascinating to read and I liked the exploration of LQR & WRH’s characters in this one.’

The Cloudweavers《云织之者》 by Joythea (T, 38k, wangxian, Madam Lan & OCs, post-canon, OC pov, fluff & angst) Mod L: ‘OCs can be really hit & miss for me and I don’t usually go for fics with OC povs. I loved to read WX’s love from outside and also about madam Lan.’

Diplomatic Incidents by Ariaste (M, wangxian, Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, dragon age crossover, getting together, linguistics, fluff, post-canon mdzs) Mod L: ‘I generally prefer MXTX crossovers when reading MXTX works. And outside of those, I prefer similarly themed(?) crossovers. But sometimes you feel like exploring and come across a crossover that you didn’t think would work well at all. The differences and similarities between the main pairings were just really nice :’D’

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2. hello! I know this is a wangxian blog mostly but I was just curious if anyone knows any good xuexiao fics? Not ones with heavy angst or unhappy endings. So many xuexiao fics are far too sad for me and I was hoping someone might know some fics that are happier. I just read Misalignment by Kasasagi and was looking for something kind of similar? In that Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen have a healthy relationship / talk things through and a happy ending. Could be either Canon or modern era. Also please no songxiaoxue. I like song lan but I just want xuexiao fics. Thank you ~~~

The body's way of saying... by Aoshika_October (T, 2k, WIP, XueXiao, Modern AU, Sickfic, Common Cold, Fever, Caretaking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Literal Sleeping Together, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Relationship, tags will vary depending on the chapter, Idiots in Love, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, terms of endearment, Self-Indulgent)

3. For the next itmf... are there any fics where wwx doesn't get blamed for everything? Even when people are "on his side" they're calling him stupid and getting mad at him all the time. Yeah he's reckless with his own safety but it's rarely acknowledged that he was literally raised to be that way? And that kind of mentality and upbringing takes a lot to break free from, and yelling at someone for it isnt exactly helpful. And the Lans are always written as being mad at wwx for not realizing lwj was in love with him when there really was no way wwx could have clued into that pre-resurrection? Are there any fics that just... point out how cruel that kind of treatment is? That call people out for ALWAYS blaming wwx even when it's not really his fault?

golden when the day met the night by glitteringmoonlight (Not Rated, 82k, WIP, WangXian, Canon, Slow-ish burn, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Light Angst, Fluff, Developing Relationship, warprize au with a twist, Eventual Smut)

The Young Masters of Four Seasons Manor by gaotamao (G, 91k, WenZhou, WangXian, WOH Crossover, Time Regression, fix-it, WKX raises monstrous sons, Not Jiang Sect Friendly, No Golden Core Transfer) x-over with WoH, but even if you're not familiar with WoH it's worth a read just for the great outsider POV of WWX and LWJ's lives

The Chinese Garden Court by deliciousblizzardshark (T, 5k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Reincarnation, Immortality, Museums)

The Return Series by LtLJ (G, 63k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Yunmeng Brothers Reconciliation, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, breaks from canon during the time skip, YL WWX, CQL Canon, BAMF LWJ, BAMF NHS, Hurt/Comfort, WQ Lives)

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4. mdzs prompts/ looking for

idea originated from a fic I hope that you will come and meet me by feyburner

"I will, I'll sleep here every night. Do you understand? If Lan Zhan wants me to, I will. If Lan Zhan wants me in his bed, that's where I am. If Lan Zhan wants me gone, then I'm gone"

idea: what if lan zhan did want wei ying to be gone or disappear? seems impossible but i want it (ʘᗩʘ’) @ner-u

Does anyone even read work titles? idk what to call this by Nighttdust (M, 14k, WangXian, Curses, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Established Relationship,Post-Canon, Happy Ending, Protective WWX, Insecurity)

the ugly truth by reidviolet (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, heavy angst, breaking up, sad WWX, losing interest, sad ending)

Anginal Equivalents by fakeplasticlily (E, 23k, wangxian, modern, medical residents au, childhood friends, pining, oblivious WWX, sexual content)

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5. For the next In The Mood For post I'd really like to see… anyone's favorite fics with Wei Wuxian in peril! Of course he's very capable and powerful, but everybody needs help sometimes. Would like to see WWX in danger and have someone ride to his rescue -- Lan Wangji is a fav of course, but even better would be Wen Ning, or Jiang Cheng or the juniors, or anyone else who cares about Wei Wuxian. @mikkeneko

Story-Shaped by lingering_song (T, 13k, WangXian, NHS & WWX, Post-Canon, Chief Cultivator LWJ, Inventor WWX, Found Family, Mentioned Character Death, Alcohol, Protective NHS, WangXian Endgame, Not JC Friendly, Not particularly gentry sects friendly overall tbh) NHS does the rescuing in his own way

some good mistakes by Lise (T, 18k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Post-Canon, Road trips, rescue Missions, Hurt/Comfort, Awkward Conversations, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, [Podfic] some good mistakes by kisahawklin ) WWX goes missing, Jiang Cheng and LWJ team up to find him. The focus is on all the Emotions that team up brings up, but very much does include a dramatic rescue scene

In The Dark Right Now by phnelt (T, 10k, WangXian, JC & LWJ, JC & WWX, graphic depictions of injuries, trapped in a cave, Near Death Experience, fatalistic thinking, established wangxian, Family Feels, Nobody dies in this fic, Modern AU, Hurt/Comfort) the one where wy and jc are trapped in a cave in- lz on the radio

just as the stories say by TheDameJudiWench (T, 11k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Medical Procedures, some gore, Yunmeng brothers feelings, Family Dynamics, Attempted Murder, Injury Recovery, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, Found Family, POV Outsider, Revenge, Grief/Mourning, Forgiveness, Whump, Near Death Experiences) the one where a young girl tries to murder the yiling laozu and almost succeeds

See Me, Feel Me (Listening to You) by Ghost_Honey (T, 29k, WangXian, Junior Quartet, POV WWX, WWX Needs a Hug, WWX's Abyssmal Self-Esteem, Emotional Healing, Angst, Curses, WWX is an Unreliable Narrator, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, The Angst is Mainly Emotional, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling) the one where wy is cursed so he can’t see or feel anyone who feels strongly about him and assumes this means that the people he cares about actually hate him

Something at the Door by Pip (Moirail) (E, 50k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivation, background 3zun, Background Yi City trio, Intrusive Thoughts, Horror, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Character Death, Blood, Explicit Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mystery, Urban Fantasy) wwx has a horror-flavored bad time - mostly lwj helping, with a dash of jc for spice

medium blues by darkterrible (E, 193k, WangXian, Horror, Spooky, Opposites Attract, Fluff and Angst, Gore, Ghosts, Necromancy) WWX requires rescuing on a frequent basis

Inkstone by PorcelainBlue (T, 7k, WangXian) an AU that begins with the Twin Jades and some juniors coming to the rescue of Artist! WWX

heroic aftermath by Last_For_Hell (T, 5k, WangXian, Aftermath of Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt WWX, Guilt, References to WWX’s Cynophobia, Implied Sexual Content) the Juniors are caring for a critically-injured WWX (he got mauled by a pack of dog yao!), feeding him spiritual energy in relays until LWJ arrives.)

The Losses and Gains Remain Uncommented On by caesteves (Not Rated, 7k, WangXian, WWX & LXC, Married Couple, Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt WWX, Worried LWJ, Case Fic, (sort of), Alcohol, Hurt/Comfort)

Don't Hold Too Much in Your Heart by caesteves (Not Rated, 13k, WangXian, LSZ & WWX, Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt WWX, Worried LWJ, Fluff, Accidents, Concussions)

transitory by lao_you_tiao (E, 5k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Post-Canon, Porn with Feelings) LWJ rescues a drunken and roofied WWX from a would-be rapist

Cotton Wool ch 5 and Hubris by incendir, the same story from LWJ’s and WWX’s POV respectively, both by incendir; LWJ comes to rescue WWX from an attempted rape by prior harassers. (WWX has been doing a devastating job of self-defense, but is injured, dissociating, and in need of talking down and comforting.)

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6. hi! this blog is such an amazing resource for people like me (bad at using ao3) and thank you guys for the work you do!! sorry if this has been answered, but do you know of any fics that are about a-qing? not as a background or side character but as the/a focus of the fic. brave and clever a-qing :,(

The sparrow's curious song by Mhalachai (T, 13k, NHS & A-Qing, adoption, A-Qing gets happy ending, NHS’ revenge plotting) NHS, intrigued by the clever street rat who picked his pocket, recruits AQ as a disciple

stare at the sun by chomrafy (Not rated, 2k, A-Qing & QS, A-Qing & JRS, canon divergence, fluff, light angst, family feels, everyone lives au, or at least A-Q & QS live) AQ is taken in as a babysitter by QS, who has run away with JRS to live incognito in Yi City

despite it all by novalotypo (T, 292k, wangxian, canon divergence, god of luck WWX, memory loss, non-linear narrative, WIP) WWX, ascended as a God of Luck, takes AQ as his First Disciple

walk with me (I think we'll find a way) by bringsnofear (T, 9k, SL/XXC, AQ & SL, AQ & XXC, hurt/comfort, mute SL, XXC lives, blind XXC, AQ lives, reunions, yi city fix-it) with A-Qing as the main character

Covered By Frost and Snow by Siamesa (T, 44k, wangxian, canon divergence, outsider POV, canon-typical violence, grief/mourning, disabled character, angst & humor, male-female friendship, families of choice, not everyone dies au, major character injury, rabbits, female friendship, WIP)

someone will remember us by captain_apostrophe, MonocerosRex (M, 39k, ChengQing, MingQing, Fluff, yunmeng siblings, Family Feels, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, he gets thoroughly trounced dw, Lan Yi did nothing wrong, mianmian is a rare Functional Bisexual, Canon Schmanon, previous generation, Blood, Violence, Guns, Cowboys, jgs gets what he deserves, MDZS Women Appreciation Weeks) a would-be rapist learns not to fuck with poor defenseless little blind girls.

Fractured - yet unbroken by ThetenthtenbeingofTen (G, <1k, OYZZ/OFC, wangxian, post-canon, yi-city, OYZZ getting married, reincarnation) AQ is reborn to OYZZ and his OC wife as twin girls, one blind and one mute (her soul having been fragmented); they become personal disciples to LWJ and WWX.

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7. mdzs prompts/ looking for

lwj and wwx having secret relationship (cloud recess study age?? or maybe older, anything is fine) and wwx died or got into a comma. their relationship only got known after wwx died/comatose @ner-u

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8. Hi!!! Thanks for everything yall do for us 1st off. Secondly, for the next itmf do yall know of any fics where one part of a couple and 1 half is reincarnated in modern times? I love this kind of fic and have only read a couple (throughline by lunatea and all old things are new again by the feels whale come to mind) especially the intensity of when the reincarnated person gets all their memories back! @curlytopped

the recluse at the end of the moonlit path by b_ofdale (T, 29k, wangxian, modern, reincarnation au, post-canon, immortal LWJ, jack of all trades artist WWX, pining, light angst, reunions, hurt/comfort, implied sexual content, asexual character, good vibes, Mojo’s post)

🧡 The World We Made by updatebug (T, 80k, WangXian, The Old Guard fusion, Immortals, Immortal LWJ, Angst with a Happy Ending, Reincarnation, Modern AU, The Old Guard AU, Temporary Character Death)

I will wait by shadowchan93 (T, <1k, wangxian, major character death, post-canon, immortal LWJ, bittersweet, angst, grief, sadness, not super sad ending but not a happy one either)

Yiling Poltergeist by jaemyun (G, 16k, WangXian, Modern AU, Mention of canon history, Ghost! Wwx, Past Lives, Reincarnation, Humor, Fluff)

Thirty-three Lashes by Winglesss (E, 56k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Modern with Magic, Immortality, Reincarnation, Case Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Nightmares, Ghosts, Curses, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Major Character Injury, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, Memory Loss)

🧡We Were Never Strangers by NeverEnoughWangxian (M, 36k, WangXian, Reincarnation, Modern AU, POV WWX, (mostly), College Student WWX, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Immortal LWJ, Immortal LSZ, Dreams, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Sexual Tension, Sexual Content)

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9. Hello Lovely Mods! Thank you so much for all you do. I was wondering for the next I'm In The Mood For - if you could suggest any fics where voice cultivation is explored/used. I read a fic where Jingyi learned it, but I'd be happy with anyone. It was such a cool premise that I find myself wanting more. Thanks in advance 😁 @ommited-miscellaneously

Tumblr comic by @lee-luca may have originated the idea of LJY studying vocal cultivation.

Please Take This Radish by Wildcard (M, 7k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Bad Parenting, not abusive parenting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comedy, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Dysfunctional Family, demonic radishes, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, For Want of a Nail, Temporary Character Death, Mistaken Identity, musical cultivation) has Xue Yang following Wen Ning home to the burial mounds, where he becomes wwx's 'disciple' (or the teen gets forcibly adopted by the entire village) and learns voice cultivation from wwx. really REALLY good wip au of burial mound days/first siege of burial mounds

Running up that hill by Lhaewiel (M, 9k, WangXian, XuanLi, ChengQing, Canon Divergence, Angst, Drama, Tumblr Link) sorry to answer a Mood request with a Fic Finder request, but I seem to recall a Tumblr fic (illustrated with photos taken from other of the actors’ roles) in which all three Yunmeng Jiang Siblings were musical demonic cultivators: WWX of course played the dizi, JYL played the pipa, and JC sang.

These bright and violent delights by worrystone (G, 15k, XiCheng, ZhanCheng, ChengXian, ChengYao, ChengJue, JC/Everyone, Demonic Cultivator JC, Role Reversal, what if jc had fallen off the cliff instead?, Angst, Ambiguous/Open Ending, read warnings girlies don't say i didn't warn you) role reversal; Yiling Laozu! JC uses vocal musical demonic cultivation

Mending the Pieces by JustAWanderingBabbit (G, 98k, 3zun, post-canon, reincarnation) the Jin Rusong of JustAWanderingBabbit’s stories is a vocal musical cultivator, notably in third-generation fic Mending the Pieces

Different Paths to the Same Route by JustAWanderingBabbit (T, 184k, WangXian, 3Zun, Canon Divergence, What-If, Implied Necrophilia, At least they're talking now, Medicical science in a cultivational world, Magical Genetic Testing, Family Issues) chapter 23 has him being tutored by Lan Jingyi (who thus gets to be a cool Shixiong.)

Gift by Befallings (G, 403, WWX & LXC, Bunnies as a cure to Sadness, Seclusion is Stupid, Light Angst, Angst and Feels, Family Bonding) WWX proposes vocal cultivation to LXC (during Bunny Therapy) as a musical path for LJY

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10. Y’all I read a threadfic and now I’ve got a craving. I’m in the mood for stories where the Lan brothers aren’t on good terms. Specifically after Wei Wuxian’s death and the ensuing 16 years, but I’ll take whatever I can get. I just want some Lan family angst 🥰

恩仇仙人- Enchou xianren (Immortal Avenger) by AshayaTReldai (E, 133k, WIP, WangXian, Angst, Mental Anguish, Pining, Revenge, Execution, internalinter-clan politics, Reincarnation, TGCF notions of ascension and deity, WWX/LWJ marriage, First Time, Post-LWJ whipping, Injury Recovery, Issues of justice, Torture, Not friendly to the Clans - they all get their comeuppance, Hurt/Comfort, Dark LWJ, novel compliant characterisation)

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, Angst, Fluff) is not the main focus but I really liked the Lan brothers relationship in kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight

Bitter Recompense by mondengel (M, 1k, LXC & LWJ, Angst)

to arrive late is better than not to arrive at all by Moominmammashandbag (M, 34k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Soulmates, Chronic Illness, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Hanahaki Disease, but as a curse, Feelings Realization, obsession with interior design, Fluff and Smut, Family Angst, sibling angst, Wedding, Motion Sickness, sect politics, Marriage Proposal)

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11. Hi!! Lately I've read one fic with JC and LXC being a couple and I liked it! So for the next "I'm in a mood for" I'd like recommendations of fic with JC and LXC falling in love, arranging marriage, etc. With Wangxian too, please. I don't mind witch couple is the main one, but I'd love to read fics with this two couples. Happy Endings please! Thank you!! 😊 (If you can find fics that happens when JC and Wangxian were teenagers it'd be awesome!)

Even the Sunlight Pierces to the Bone by OrdinaryRealities (T, 16k, JC/LXC, 2nd in series, post-canon, 5+1, cooking as a form of friendship, relationship based on friendship, working through trauma together, good uncle JC, communication, listening, JGY was a friend and a villain)

smells like teen spirit by TheWanderingHeart (G, 6k, JC/LXC, JC & WWX, ABO, cloud recesses study era, fluff & humor, courtship, omega JC, alpha LXC, puberty, scents & smells)

Utterly Inevitable by sami (M, 20k, XiCheng, WangXian, Family, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Self-Worth Issues, References to Canonical Character Death, Recovery, Character Study, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Marriage, Yunmeng Shuangjie Reconciliation, Post-Canon)

And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 138k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together) If you don’t mind poly I rec this one.

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12. hello lovely mods, does anyone know if this has this been done for wangxian as a crossover? bc idk about y'all but this screams wangxian vibes to me. just imagine! lwj as the cleric and wwx as the disguised mxy on the run bc of fear of rejection just does it for me lol (bonus points if lwj actually was the cleric who did the reviving but wwx doesn't know that) @xiaokuer-schmetterling

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13. HI Mods! Do you happen to know of any story where at some point, JC gets all pissed at JGY bc he's trying to turn Yunmeng Jiang into Yunmeng "Meng"?

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14. Hello! for ITMF, are there any fics where wwx dies before/during the sunshot campaign? thank you in advance!

You still sound like a song by Moominmammashandbag (M, 64k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Ghost!WWX, Mystery, LWJ plays inquiry, AU from after the Wens came to Lotus Pier, Most people lived, not everybody died, Angst with a Happy Ending, river spirit!WWX, Angst and Feels, description of murder, imminent smut, Execution, Dogs, Poisons, Discussion of Attempted Murder, BAMF WWX, Family Feels) He dies when the Wens attack Lotus Pier

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15. Hello there!I am in the mood for angsty fic like:

Novel canon, post whip punishment, injured LWJ is able to meet WWX prior the first siege, yet the siege still happen and LWJ witness WWX’s death as in novel version. (NOT falling from a cliff as in CQL)

I am relying on you! Thank you in advance! @yellowridge

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16. Hi. I'm not sure if you're still taking these but I'm in a mood for wangxian fic where wwx is madly in love with lwj but thinks his love is unrequited as lwj always looks conflicted when he has to interact with wwx. What he doesn't know is that lwj is equally in love with him if not more and is just a dork who's bad at emotions.

All at Once It's You by tiptoe39 (E, 28k, wangxian, accidental bonding, love curse, no plot happens au, wens are not evil, gusu lan summer school, internalized homophobia)

💖 Pentimento. by orange_crushed (E, 73k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, art conservation, museums, pining, not actually unrequited love, angst w/ happy ending, misunderstandings, smut, major character injury, hospitalization, hurt/comfort, past incarceration, forgery)

the earthquake in the room by phnelt (E, 39k, WangXian, Modern AU, College AU, Canada, Getting Together, Mentions of lwj/others background NieLan, background WQ/MM, inter-faculty romance, Strangers to lovers to frenemies to lovers)

Fervid as a Flame by snowkatze (T, 5k, wangxian, modern, getting together, first kiss, pining, insecurity, misunderstandings, not actually unrequited love, angst w/ happy ending)

Anginal Equivalents by fakeplasticlily (E, 23k, wangxian, modern, medical residents au, childhood friends, pining, oblivious WWX, sexual content) (link in #4)

Straight at the Sun by diamondbruise (E, 33k, WangXian, Canon Universe, no war though, Mutual Pining, Pining while fucking, Misunderstandings, First Time, Anal Sex, wwx desperately wants lwj’s attention, lwj desperately wants to marry wwx, Miscommunication, Jealousy, in abundance, Happy Ending) kinda

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17. Hi! Thank you so much for this blog and all your hard work! For your next iitmf, do you know any fics where JC deals with drug taking/addiction/getting clean? I don't mind where the fic is set, just no JC bashing! Thank you!

the long way back home by Misila (E, 210k, WIP, WangXian Yunmeng Siblings, Family, Romance, Heavy Angst, Hopeful Ending, JC-centric, Dysfunctional Family, Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Suicide Themes, Recovery, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note) i think it is implied in this one, my memory is kinda bad though😅

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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!***

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

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greenandhazy · 1 year

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I am getting like seriously obsessed with the idea of an AU in which Meng Yao, Wei Ying, and Xue Yang meet as children and grow up to be sworn brothers/an Abhorrent Triad (not sold on that exact adjective but w/e)

Wei Ying doesn’t get found/adopted by the Jiang clan, but a nice older boy who lives in a brothel helps him hide there when he’s scared of a dog and they become friends. Meng Yao doesn’t have much food to share, but he does what he can, and he does have books and that’s worth just as much. A few years later Wei Ying stumbles across a boy who has been walking for days trying to track down Chang Ci’an, despite the fact that he’s practically delirious from the pain of an injured hand. Meng Shi is ailing by that point and maybe Meng Yao is reluctant to take on another brother, but Wei Ying brings Xue Yang inside just to give him cool water and bandages at least and Meng Shi insists they help, and Xue Yang is already nursing a vicious streak that becomes really useful as the brothel becomes more of a hostile place to live.

A few years later, Meng Yao goes to Jinlintai. Gets thrown out of Jinlintai. But Wei Ying and Xue Yang are there to say fuck the Jin, we’re your family, and they swear it in an informal little ceremony in the cheapest room of the only inn they can afford. They go to the Nie. At some point, Jiang Fengmian comes across Wei Ying, realizes who he is, and insists on sponsoring his education with the Lan. Xue Yang is already kind of resentful because being a minor vassal for the Nie does NOT suit his temperament, so not being able to accompany Wei Ying is the last straw and he runs away. Neither of his brothers see him again until he’s slaughtered the Chang Clan—although I think this version of Xue Yang, where he has some family he can rely on from an early age, softens him just enough that he is a little more discriminating. He leaves the children alive, at least, and when he’s captured, his silver-tongued Da-ge can make an argument that he was enforcing some kind of justice.

Not enough to convince Nie Mingjue, but enough that Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan (who accompany the group to Qinghe this time because they’re obvi not letting this criminal’s brothers have absolute custody of him) are somewhat swayed. The three brothers end up escaping together—I’m going to say Wei Ying still ends up in the Wen indoctrination camp because he still managed to piss of Wen Chao, but I can’t decide if it makes more sense for Meng Yao to remain as the Wen spy or for Xue Yang to get that job? 🤔 Anyway ONE of them takes it, but regardless Meng Yao also is like “war is coming, that means civilian casualties, that means famine” and sets up like a proto-watchtower system with the help of XXC, SL, and other rogue cultivators.

Wei Ying still turns to demonic cultivation. Xue Yang still turns to demonic cultivation. By the end of the war, the major clans are still calling for their heads but they’re heroes and no amount of propaganda is going to convince the common people that the Abhorrent Triad deserves death, not after they saved so many of the lives that the major clans didn’t seem to care about.

Hand-waving the end of the war a bit because I’m not sure exactly how the Nie/Jiang relationships with WY and MY would change things, but. Imagining Xue Yang having a full screaming meltdown when Wei Ying dies, Meng Yao can just barely keep him from jumping over the cliff to catch him. Meng Yao asks Lan Xichen to promise that if they’re going to be executed, they kill Xue Yang first, because Xue Yang is practically catatonic and he can’t bear to leave his didi alone, even for a few minutes, not after all of this.

ANYWAYYYYY. I think the class and family politics of these three characters makes for a fascinating contrast and I would like it to have even more angst and love and the particular angst that comes from loving others more than you love yourself thnx bye.

#totally cql-verse because the ages are easier lol #wei wuxian #jin guangyao #xue yang #the untamed #(I imagine wwx and xy still get their courtesy names)#(from their da-ge)#(but meng yao refuses to consider one. out of pure spite.)#I posted this on twitter but I have like 2 followers and no one cared lmao #so tumblr gets it too #yingyangyao

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qourmet · 1 year

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for All intents and purposes, 90% of anything that i say do or create for the birthers of the canon mdzs generation are either speculative or headcanons. idk if i'm going to Stop with the lan & jiang sects or if i'm going to go all out & include the nie, jin & wen sects & all their affiliates, & really the only characters i Truly Want to draw are the last Nie clan leader & his 2 wives & lan furen. Clan Leader Nie is slowly giving me uzui tengen vibes, if for no other reason than I Like to Think that Nie Huaisang's Mother is a crybaby like Suma & Mingjue's mother like hinatsuru

all that being said, i'm gonna log some headcanons

Wei Changze is an unfortunate only child, though there's a high chance that he's milk-brothers with Fengmian. wcz's only living relative is his mother, a small woman with no spiritual power to speak of who is nervous in the presence of men. the wei family in general is Small, & any extended family that still lives are so estranged from wei changze and his mother that they may as well not exist at all. while the jiang family was well-off and in no need of any new servants, a young man came by some few decades ago and bartered his sister off to the family in exchange for money and some supplies for travel. the then-clan leader took pity on the woman being sold off by her own flesh and blood and let her work for them, but within a month it became obvious that the reason her brother didn't want her was because they were going to happen on another mouth to feed and no man to claim a bastard. despite her reservation towards men, wei changze grows into the type of person who's unreasonably gentle with his own mother and he's one of the extremely few men that can exist in the same room as her alone without her breaking into an awful fit of trembling. his mother ends up being one of the midwives that helps bring jiang fengmian into the world.

knowing that she was raised on a Celestial mountain under an immortal, & knowing that xiao xingchen's name has multiple instances of the Sun radical in it, i have hcs that cssr's Name has moon radicals in it. i've tried thinking for sun & stars but i dont like it so the yue radical is in there, most likely under Radiant. she's a feral child, less in the sense of being a creature that acts impulsively and lashes out, and more in the sense that she just refuses to be tamed, by her master, by the sects, by the world at large. she's living life & enjoying it, "ain't nothin gonna break my stride, nobody gonna slow me down" kinda girl. she's level headed, very much likes to think things through, but she knows definitively what she does not want.

fengmian has an instant crush on jiejie, though to be wholly fair cssr descended on them like a celestial being herself to wreak havoc on lqr Immediately. wcz is enamored, but knowing he has no hope and lives with expectations of finding a nice subservient wife to fulfill his nice subservient life, he makes no move towards her & instead enjoys the light that jfm's eyes give.

cssr doesn't see the jiang disciples again for another year at Least, after the cloud-recesses incident that ends with her yanking Qiren's goatee out. she spends time in each sect as she wanders around, making friends in each one and by the time she's around yunmeng, her closest companion currently being the nie heir. like a boy in love, fengmian is intent on spending as much time as he can with her, learning her quirks and likes and dislikes, and she can see clearly that he's looking at her with rose-tinted glasses but makes no move or indication that she's intent on returning the feelings, mostly because she's not interested in him but also the idea of being a sect-leader's Wife, a position that would put her in the very proximity of the politics her master held such disdain for, was wholly unappealing

nie zhongzu was a trailblazer. he was very much a man who did not care of other people's opinions and very blatantly lived in a righteous way. if he wanted to do something that didn't affect the people around him in any direct way, he'd do it (like promoting a concubine to the status of Wife when doing so was highly frowned upon). he'd be a himbo if it weren't for the fact that he was a master of the 5 arts, extremely well read and the heir to a clan knee deep in sect politics raised with the expectation of taking this mantel. that aside i like to think he had sisters that carried that big beefy nie blood.

nie furen was a tall woman, her husband was just taller. the man was built like mingjue, a bull. she gives off willow-tree vibes, is probably a strong cultivator, collected in nature and relatively subservient. she doesn't want for much and has accepted her roll in being the political tie to the nies and behaves accordingly. really the only person that can make nie furen flustered is her husband's concubine, and not even in the competitive way. nie furen is gay & she enjoys huaisang's mother Very much as both company and eye candy.

concubine xiao laopo is nie zhongzu's childhood friend. well really she's one of the nie servants that got promoted to concubine after nie zhongzhu announced that he was going to marry her when they were children and the elders rushed to put a stop to his insanity. she's not a cultivator, and because she's not, she doesn't have much of an eye for either the education they receive nor a true understanding of the work they perform outside of "important" & "helpful to all" & "spiritual." that being said, her heart is still moved by whatever arts are presented to her. she's bubbly and quick to make friends with nie furen when the furen is married into the clan, and takes solace in the idea that their husband is a pretty open-minded man to bypass any shame she would otherwise feel behaving towards the recognized wife of the nie clan. xlp has an equal interest in men and women and was Probably present when nmj was conceived. i wanna name her Bu but i feel like thats too on the nose for the Me who recently got into cdramas

wen-sibling parents have the classic shounen + love interest dynamic, borderline main character & his tsun girl who berates him for his recklessness, except roll reversed. their mom is a physically strong woman, tall, wonderful cultivator, probably only shorter than nie-zhongzhu ((honestly she herself might be a nie descendant)). she's a bit on the stoic side and pretty headstrong, meanwhile their dad is a relatively small man who constantly gets into spats with his wife because she'll often have another wound that needs tending to whenever she comes back from hunts. he's Technically a cultivator, but no notably strong golden core and rather spends his time studying the flow of qi & how to best clear blockages in meridians. honestly before they're even married it's highly speculated that she gets hurt just to be doted on. she'll bite back but let him win arguments, and on distant night hunts she'll bring him back bushels of herbs that can't be found in qishan. more often than not she won't present them with any fanfare, but rather just leave them in a place he can find. they're awkward around each other before marriage & argue for the sake of filling white noise afterwards.

wen daifu is wen ruohan's third cousin. he doesn't wear his hair with any real embellishments or guans that denote status in the clan or even allude to his affiliation with the clan, despite the fact that his robes would give it away regardless. he has a gnarly scar on his body courtesy of the main family's children, and is often bullied onto nighthunts with them because he is the best practicing doctor of their generation. despite being brought on as a healer for the longer nighthunts and ruohan taking special interest on keeping his cousin by his side, wen daifu is pretty adamant about healing anyone from any sect that is injured in front of him. he's not taller than 5'7"/170cm, but his curt and clear way of speaking makes up for any attention he'd fail to garner just by existing.

wen ruohan is the middle of 3 boys and quite fond of playing weiqi. his older brother has no patience for sitting and playing board games with his younger brother, being a relatively active kid that enjoys pushing his weight around with other cultivators from his generation. his younger brother is half his age and takes a great deal of satisfaction in imitating their eldest brother but still looks to ruohan for approval. despite his attempts at imitating the eldest son, the youngest brother often finds himself on the receiving end of his peer's fists whenever their squabbles get out of hand. despite his penchant for being all-smiles, ruohan is fond of neither brother.

jin guangshan is the only boy in a family of daughters. all of the jin children are spoiled, and many of his older sisters made it a point to spoil him rotten. his father being elated that they finally have a boy to inherit the clan dotes on him and gives his boy anything he asks for, pardons any misgivings, and creates an environment that caters to his son's every whim. when he meets his future wife at the behest of his parents, his response is lackluster and despite being a beautiful boy, crushes her hopes with the weird faces he makes in response to being introduced to her.

qingheng-jun is every bit as quiet and intimidating as his youngest son grows up to be. he's a leader that gives off a cold and impenetrable aura that makes it extremely difficult for anyone to challenge his logic as sect-leader-to-be, but really quite enjoys it when someone is bold enough to challenge him. he's not the Most expressive person, but he is more than wangji. he just finds that there's not much worth having an expression over, certainly not in excess, and is adept at handling his tasks with the same grace his eldest will exude.

lan furen is a non-cultivator who was raised on horseback, traveling between the central plateaus and the eastern oceanfront. she's adept at living off of the land and while she isn't an inherently kind or social woman, it's easy to see that her heart lies calmest racing across the continent under the wide expanse of sky. she's an excellent marksman and roams with a band of for-hire escorts that keep cargo and people from harm on long treks. despite being a non-cultivator, she probably has the budding of a strong golden core that just isn't focused on in her daily life.

yu ziyuan is a girl about as demur as any other when she's sent to yunmeng jiang as a means of formal introduction to jiang fengmian. she's doll-like in both appearance and personality, but her chaperone comes with gifts from meishan yu to help push along the betrothal process. the gifts in question are resources forged through meishan yu, crystals refined in such a way that can react to and absorb spiritual power, much like how zidian functions. her meeting with cssr turns her bitter towards the prospect of marrying jfm but she is too proud and too filial to let feelings disrupt the process of their betrothal.

#mdzs #screaming into the void #thinks wistfully about ziyuan & jin furen being young women who were Very Good at the cultivation they performed #cangse sanren #yu ziyuan #jin furen #jin guangshan #jiang fengmian #wen ruohan #so many ocs #qingheng-jun #lan furen #wei changze #nie zongzhu #xiao laopo #nie furen #cw: implied rape #qourmet: aga

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a-force-dyad-in-space · 7 months

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Me, in my XY feels after rewatching Yi City last night: Let me check the character tag for some nice content about him

Me, while checking the character tag: *sees the most misguided takes about his character, incl. one where OP genuinely believed he would still be the bloodlusty, revenge-filled monster, even if he'd grown up in security like WWX without going through the trauma of losing his finger*

Do I think he likely would have grown up with resentful feelings toward YZY if she'd whipped him growing up? Sure, if that had been the case, but I don't think she would have resented him enough to do so.

Why, you ask? Because the main reason why JFM was so attached to WWX and YZY felt so threatened in regards to JC's neglectment was because of his history with WWX's parents, especially his mother. XY has no relations to WWX's parents, has no history with the Jiang clan, thus YZY would have had no reason to treat him the way she treated WWX.

Ergo, his growing up with them likely would have been very peaceful for the most part and he probably would have grown up loved, sheltered and a lot more emotionally stable. Can I imagine him being quick to anger? Sure, but not necesserarily out of his own volition but by osmosis of having grown up with YZY (whose character traits also heavily influenced JC). He and JC might have ended up pretty similar, but not necessarily.

It was never that XY had no sense of justice, his sense of justice was just always inflated and self-centered. No one, and I mean NO ONE, was looking out for him and his safety and comfort, so him looking out for himself first by whatever means necessary was a natural consequence.

He was abused by pretty much everyone he ever met (he himself said he was ALWAYS beaten up by everyone) UNTIL Xiao Xingchen saved his life in Yi City. That was LITERALLY the first time anyone had ever shown him genuine kindness in his life.

"And he thanked him by using his blindness against him, bla bla bla, so that's proof that he always would have been a monster even if people were nice to him, wah wah wah" I'm sorry, but did you miss the part where he'd already been through 20+ years of trauma at that point??? You really, genuinely think that a XY who had never gone through any of his childhood and adolescent trauma would still have made the exact same choices he made in canon???

Sure, his trauma is not an excuse for his behavior, but then again, his behavior probably would not exist without it.

He's a very loving person when he allows himself to be, even though he doesn't know that what he's experiencing is love and devotion, no matter how messed up it may look.

And we all know the tricking-XXC-into-killing-innocents thing only happened for a limited time; eventually, he stopped doing that. He loved living with XXC and AQ, that much is evident. If SL hadn't shown up, he would have kept living with them until the end.

Anyway, those bad takes just disappointed me, and they worry me with how little sympathy or compassion there seem to be behind them.

#jen's ramblings #checking the tag was a mistake #horrible just horrible

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wifiwuxians · 3 months

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quick aside for my moment of befuddlement because ive always misunderstood the idiom "like a house on fire" LOL. i always thought it was a passive aggressive way of saying "dude, we would destroy each other lets not talk" so when i first read that I was like ??? context??? doesnt match??? did they misunderstand the idiom? DID I? then i googled it and you're right lol its a nice thing. (tho now i wanna put that in a fic bc i think that would be a delightful misunderstanding for characters to have). IM SO GLAD I MADE UR FUNK SLIGHTLY LESS FUNKY THO. you're great and you're super sweet ;w; if i had more self-confidence, i would definitely jump at the opportunity to befriend. maybe when i get more gutsy

BACK TO THE SONG LAN HATE THO. im sorry, im still in shock. just HOW. also..... how is my interpretation of them not the common one??? again, i stay so strictly to my lane i didnt know other lanes existed and i definitely dont want to hear about it bc i think song lan hate would hurt my heart. it already hurts my heart sometimes when i see xue yang hate and XUE YANG DESERVES IT. literally i despair at media literacy sometimes. i absolutely cannot understand how anyone consumed the same content as we did and decided to be mean to song lan.

YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY A FAVORITE ARTIST, DUDE. have you fucking SEEN your stuff?!? like, are you as blind as xiao xingchen? (my sweetie, may he forever regain his sight). your art is GORGEOUS. absolutely worthy of being a fav artist and i am sure im not the only one. for starters, your pieces always have a depth to them that sets them in a scene so freaking beautifully EVEN WHEN THERES NO BG or even in your more simplified styles. when you come out with a "silly phone doodle of xue yang", i see the freaking SKILL needed to make THAT adorable lil gremlin as just a 'silly doodle'. like BRO, youre so skilled that i think youve lost depth of how good an artist you really are. i wish i was smarter with art words so i could tell you in color theory exactly why your colors are so beautiful but im dumb and all i know is "color pretty" BUT SINCE I CAN PORTRAY STUFF WITH WORDS SOMETIMES i'll try to just express how your colors alone can evoke emotion and tell a story, how you use the contrast to make your art pop off the page, the way that the colors caress a scene and show so much more inside. its beautiful, your art is beautiful, i can look at a piece for such a long time and still find interesting details that make me smile. oki i'll stop beng weird now but like NEVER DOUBT YOU'RE FREAKING SKILL BRO. (shit i didnt even get to how your animations just break my brain oeuihgo i love)

lolololol dw abt telling me about the cannibalisms piece, i look Specifically disrespectfully at that one. not big into cannibalism but damn dude, there is a Mood to that piece and frankly, something that messed up sort of suits them on their worst days euorhgioeurh i like me a fluff au or a fix-it fic but damn those two can get Dark.

My otps are often rarepairs ;A; i never do it on purpose, im normally jumping headfirst into a more popular ship but then i just See the potential in two other lil guys and im like.... holdup, wait is no one else seeing those two??? AM I THE ONLY ONE WITNESSING THIS? (yes, yes i am). And the hyperfixation begins and its just me alone at a bar with no bartenders so i make my own food. but im a weird lil guy so my cocktails are always strange and im alone at the bar lol. tbh songxue is one of my LESS rarepair rarepairs. like... theres actually fics that i didnt write for them LOL. (there was one fandom where there were 40 fics for a ship and i wrote all 40. i am a sad and lonely lil loser lol)

(scuse me one of my fav artists said they think i'd write my otp well, i can die happy oaierhgoeirh i actually do write ff for songxue but hahaha im still just a silly anon but its rlly good to know that the person i think characterizes them best in the fandom (that ive seen) thinks i would do a good job with them aoeghuihr thankyou for the high praise, i guarantee i dont deserve it)

(sometimes i've wondered if the reason you draw/write them so well is bc you dont ship them? weird take but like, shippers have shipping goggles right? we see what we wanna see a lot of the time. but since you just think they'd be neat standing next to each other (much agree), you actually put thought into their characterizations and personality instead of just "this is how they'd F*CK" or smth similar. and bc the personalities and stuff mean way more to me than sexy stuff (thats the whole reason i ship them! their personalities!) the fact that even your crack stuff has such a good basis in who they are as people makes your content just so good. whereas sometimes i see content by shippers (no disrespect meant, everyone ships in their own way), its very actively ooc, usually for a kink fill, and im just... but what abt their personalities? what abt the whole reason i think they'd be good together if given the chance?! WHAT ABOUT THEM? and then u come around drawing them like that and i just wish more people portrayed them the way you do. this isnt meant as like an anti-smut thing, i like smut, its just that sometimes pwp is just two strangers who happen to have the character names of my blorbos and literally nothing else in common and theyre my BLORBOS. more power to people who like that stuff, i will stay in my lane and bother this poor lovely person who doesnt even like the ship but is kind enough to see their potential to be pals cuz damn im in it for the emotions)

heh heh yeah it means we'd get along well but i like that interpretation too and think it would make a great story!! here's to you becoming more gutsy! (though again you're very free to use an alt or something!)

genuinely why i don't go looking lmao... song lan fans are so fucking strong to have to deal with the shit people have said BUT nowadays the climate seems to be a lot better :D i see lots of thirst for him at least KFHKDJ and my appreciation post of him has 800 notes so that's hopeful at least! but same i don't get it at all (though honestly i will say a lot of character hate stems from shipping. legit.) but yeah regarding xy hate for me it's gotta be for the "right" reasons LMAO

LJHLFHFD ALL THE COMPLIMENTS MY BRAIN CANT TAKE EM!!!! genuinely!!! THANK YOU!!!! i do often tell myself 'your stuff doesn't have to be perfect it just has to spark joy' to feel better about not rendering a piece to hell and back and mostly taking the lazy route, though this year i really wanna branch out and try more! but all of this has shot me in the heart... emotion to me is the most important part of art, and one of my favorite responses to get is laughter, and you don't need a 4K HD piece for that haha BUT LISTEN YOURE NOT WEIRD EVERY ARTIST I KNOW WOULD KILL TO HEAR THIS im gonna frame it. but after ive printed and eaten another copy like wow you think i set the scene ;_; will cry (agsjdhf sorry i really do read everything im just. PROCESSING!!!)

ahaha yeah for sure! i do love me some cannibalism (i am the cannibal friend) but absolutely that was just intended as a very dark place. song lan has Had it (the premise was xy thinking hey, he likes me, let me remove the nails i am sure everything will be fineOHNOOO)

oh dude i have chronic rarepair disease. most of what i ship is stuff i've come up with myself so any content is me + 2 souls maximum who i have managed to drag with me and make content KSGKFJ (case in point, xuechao) i just have this compulsion to do what nobody else has done

(you do deserve it! and dont go looking i wanna keep being the one who portrays them best :p)

and hey maybe because YES!!!! my work almost exclusively stems from personality oh my god thank you for acknowledging that i think that is the highest praise of all... how their personalities gel together is SUPER important for me, shipping or otherwise!! i'm telling you you and i would get along really well since we agree on the fundamentals i think! like yeah there's nothing wrong with some good old self indulgence but ooc takes me out of stuff a fair bit, and trust me i feel like most people would think MY stuff is ooc! but the thing about the strangers with blorbo names made me laugh so hard lhKDHJAfhsg i am so guilty of that in the past, i've read my old stuff and i'm just like damn. i just projected onto these dudes. NO MORE (it is bound to still happen privately but hey, ultimately, write what you want to read)

song lan and xue yang, in the 'if given the chance' realm, have exactly my favorite type of duo dynamism which is why i cannot stop drawing them lol like some funky spin on boke/tsukkomi... generally speaking ">:D -_-" is visually my favorite thing to draw haha and again! i wanna say it's not an all-out global dislike, i just a) understand most people are NOT coming at it from where i am so it doesn't interest me/makes me sad, and B) understand WHY people wouldn't be into it. because wow. um. ouch. that sure is some shit

i am gonna take a moment to plug an author i think you might really enjoy, pomegranites on ao3 (@pometogo on here!) ! i can't speak for Every flavor in there being to your tastes but there are definitely a fair few fics that made me bonkers, namely not easily let go, written for song lan love week :D

#long post #shin dont look #jic #who AM I i never do fic recs LOL #the fic i linked i treat it as a twin soul to your hands and mine #<- if you havent read this one pls. anyone seeing this. your hands and mine gotnocents ao3 thank yuo

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jayktoralldaylong · 2 years

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It wasn't just about the candy for Xue Yang, or perhaps it was. Xue Yang was a little boy who lashed out because someone broke a promise and his finger. He hadn't been planning to survive his attack on the Chan family. He was going to get revenge one way or another, and while his reason might seem petty to most, for little orphan Xue Yang, candy was his everything. It was his dream to be given candy. It was just unfortunate that he was born a genius. So it went from him killing one man and his family, to massacring an entire clan. He must have been shocked when all the screaming and killing ended and he found himself somehow still alive. Yes, he killed women and children because Xue Yang had never been raised with a sense of responsibility. He didn't see them as people that should be protected because not a single person had protected him as a child. They'd run over him like he was dirt on the ground so he treated women and children in his life the exact same way. As enemies. Enemies that just were not strong enough to kill him yet. He couldn't let them get away. After all, he'd also been a little boy and no one had cared, so why should he care now?

He won for the first time in his life standing over the massacred bodies of that clan and it must have felt fucking great. He'd come from literally zero to having bested an entire clan and he lost his mind with joy. However, Xue Yang now found himself with a new problem. He'd won. He no longer had an enemy. The only thing he'd learnt to do was steal, kill and destroy. What was he to do now that he no longer had anyone to channel his hatred to? What was the meaning of his life?

He moved on, killing and stealing and ran into Xiao Xingchen who reignited his purpose of living. Xiao Xingchen defeated him. Xue Yang tasted the dirt once more but this time he tasted it with a smile. Once again he had ambition! He was going to ruin Xiao Xingchen because that's what enemies did. But there was such an annoying problem. Xiao Xingchen didn't have any family. He couldn't take the same approach if there was no one to attack so what was he to do? Well, Xingchen's friend had a family, Song Lan had a whole clan and Xingchen loved him with his whole heart. So now, Xue Yang finally had a goal.

His wickedness had also matured into manipulation and torture. He understood that he'd killed his first enemy way too fast. He couldn't make the same mistake with the second. So he murdered Song Lan's entire family and took his eyes, but he kept Song Lan and Xingchen alive so there would be someone to chase him around. Someone to have fun with. When he got beat up to the point of death Xue Yang would have likely accepted that he'd played too much with humanity and he was finally getting his due. Imagine his surprise when he opened his eyes to see Xingchen had saved him. That was a first.

Of course, Xingchen was still his enemy. His enemy couldn't see him and didn't recognize him so Xue Yang realised he was safe. He would mess with Xingchen and take advantage of him because that's what enemies do, and they were enemies, weren't they? Xue Yang didn't notice at all when his feelings towards Xingchen started to change because the only thing he'd ever felt towards anyone was hate. So how could it possibly be that he did not hate Xingchen? He didn't think it possible at all....until Xingchen was gone....and it didn't feel great. It didn't feel great at all. His second ultimate victory....hurt like hell and Xue Yang didn't understand why. He didn't know why instead of smiling when Xingchen hit the ground, he only wanted to cry. He didn't know why he clung so much to that stupid nice horrid blind man who'd helped him like an idiot, a fool. Someone who was always nice to the world was sure to get hurt, just like the world had hurt him. So why had he been the one to hurt Xingchen? Why did it hurt that he'd hurt him? The first person in his life to gift him candy without wanting a single thing in return.

For the first time in his life, Xue Yang found himself with a wound that he could not cure with medicine or bandages, a pain that refused to go away no matter how many victories he won or innocents he slaughtered. That one wound in his heart brought about the end for the little boy who'd just wanted candy.

#xue yang #xuexiao #xiao xingchen #the untamed #the untamed thoughts #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #yi city arc #yi city #song lan #xue chengmei

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shanastoryteller · 10 months

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Happy pride!!! I would die for a continuation of lady mo please!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Wei Wuxian is keeping himself upright through sheer force of will and his utter refusal to let Lan Zhan be right about anything.

He has been sort of exhausted lately, but he’s been training himself into the ground and keeping to ridiculous Lan morning routines and he has a curse mark slowly killing him, so he thinks he’s entitled. He would have made it to the Jin tower just fine if he hadn’t run into Song Lan and had to hunt down a town fierce corpses and fight Xue Yang. That alone would leave most people exhausted, so he has a perfectly good excuse for his vision to be going fuzzy on the edges.

Except he’d literally rather fall off his sword and snap his neck then admit that. He can’t even let that happen, because A-Qing is flying on his sword with him, and she’s not even a cultivator. Her bones will break a lot easier than his will.

He’s not even injured. Or, well, not any injuries that count. He once fought off fierce corpses right after having his core ripped out, being tortured, and dropped from a height high enough to kill. Some bruises and cuts are nothing, and they don’t feel like anything now. Maybe he should have let Xue Yang stab him a couple of times. It would have made everything more believable and also would have let him nap with his dignity intact.

They land back at the inn and the rest of the Lans look extremely relieved and then confused when they see their newest additions. Except for Jin Guangyao, who only shows that he’s noticed them by raising a single eyebrow and looking to him immediately.

Jin Guangyao is a stone cold bitch that’s too smart for anyone’s own good. Wei Wuxian sort of regrets that they’d never had any reason to really get to know one another during the war. Surely Jin Guangyao could have steered him away from some of his worse decisions.

“We’re bringing guests,” he announces to all of them, jumping to the ground and nudging A-Qing to do the same with a guiding hand on her hip. “Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen, who I assume you all already know. And A-Qing. They’ve had a rough time and we’re going to be very nice to them.” He looks over to Lan Xichen. “I guess it’s a good thing that you brought the carriage. They can ride in there the rest of the way.”

The awkward silence is broken by Jin Guangyao saying, “Madame Jin is not fond of accommodating extra guests.”

Madame Jin is going to make Jin Guangyao deal with it because she’s petty that way. Apparently Jin Zixuan plays interference as much as he can, but considering he’s no longer fighting fit and the perfect heir he once was, his ability to influence his mother has been similarly reduced.

A politician down to her core. Wei Wuxian might be able to admire it if it didn’t make him hate her so much.

“I’m not fond of Madame Jin, so I’m sure it even outs,” he says carelessly.

Some of the Lan go to the effort to pretend to be appalled but most of them seem to have no problem agreeing, regardless of all the rules of propriety and respecting one’s elders that he’s breaking. People take their cue from their leaders and Lan Xichen is straight up just pretending he didn’t say that, probably because he agrees.

He’s treated to the rare sight of Jin Guangyao’s dimples. “Can you at least pretend not to be a menace? I can only put out so many fires at once.”

“I can pretend,” he agrees and then A-Qing is faking a coughing fit to hide her giggles.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #dreamsfullofdragons #untamed

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canary3d-obsessed · 10 months

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 38 part one

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

OK But Why?

This tale-within-a-tale is excruciating, yeah? So let's start off by considering why it even exists. Yi City feels like, if not a fully separate story, a pretty complete arc that can play as its own little movie. And it's incredibly sad, in every direction. While it may have begun life, in its originally-written form, as a different story exploring some of the same themes, MXTX placed it in the novel deliberately, and the producers of CQL included it deliberately. Why? Other than the, you know, catharsis of a well-wrought tragedy?

I think the answer is that it tells a set of parallel stories, alternate versions of the stories our main characters inhabit, with different outcomes driven by the character's choices. There's an obvious parallel between Lan Wangji's grief and Song Lan's, and another clear one between Wei Wuxian's core donation and Xiao Xingchen's eyeball donation.

And there's an important comparison to be made between Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian, two demonic cultivators. They share some formative experiences, but have followed radically different paths, shaped, at a key moment, by another person's choice.

Overall, the Yi City story illustrates how choices made in a moment affect not just an individual life, but ripple outward into other lives. So be prepared for me to point out parallels even more than usual, as we go through these episodes.

Empathy

We start off learning about Empathy and how it’s sooper dangerous, which means of course Wei Wuxian is totally down for it and probably invented it. He gathers the kids around and assigns Jin Ling to be the person in charge of supervising and deciding when to pull him out of the matrix link.

Jin Ling is surprised and reluctant so teacher’s pet Sizhui jumps forward and volunteers.

Wei Wuxian asks Jin Ling for his Jiang clarity bell, which is on a tassel that used to be Jiang Yanli’s.

(more behind the cut!)

Once the bell/tassel is out of Jin Ling’s hand, however, he changes his mind and snatches it, and the responsibility, back.

It seems like Sizhui might recognize this tassel?

It’s like the one Jiang Yanli gave Wei Wuxian when they met up before her wedding, which means Wei Wuxian would have had it with him during their year in the burial mounds.

Jingyi disapproves of Jin Ling’s mind-changing, which is a little unfair since JL didn’t actually say “no” prior to Sizhui putting in his oar. (Sizhui is entirely loveable, but he is also a pushy brown-noser just like Lan Wangji was at his age. He just does it so sweetly that nobody minds.)

Sizhui, also like his Lan dad, has made it his life’s mission to manage a loudmouth hothead’s temper for him.

Heading into empathy with A-Qing, we get flashes of bits of the story that we're about to see in depth. Then we jump to "ten years ago" which, given the way this series does math, probably means seven years ago.

Side note: A-Qing has managed to keep her hair looking pretty cute despite being 90% dead.

Splish Splash

This particular section of the Wuxia River of Sadness is reserved for people who are contemplating the total mess they have made of their lives (gifset here), but A-Qing didn't get that memo, so she's having a nice time splashing joyfully without a care in the world.

A-Qing isn't about drama or being depressed, even when things are pretty difficult. She has found a big rock to sit on and is having a nice day hanging out on it.

Then she goes skipping along singing "la la la la" (which is the same sound in Chinese as we make in English when we're singing and don't know the words, incidentally). Ok, show, we get it, she's happy and carefree. I sure hope she doesn't get involved in any weird relationships.

Grifting

She sees a couple of women walking on the path and she starts pretending to be blind. In the book, this pretense was facilitated by her having completely white eyes, but in the show she has normal brown eyes, until she actually is blinded by Xue Yang. So her entire pretense of being blind is to unfocus her eyes a bit and wave her hands around...

...with frequent intervals where she thinks no-one is watching her, and she acts 100% like she can see. Somehow she is almost never busted for this.

The ladies give her a steamed bun and whisper loudly to each other about how pitiful she is.

Then she heads into town for a little grifting, picking a wealthy douchebag as a mark. She bumps into him and steals his money bag, which he doesn't notice because he's too busy creeping on her.

She's annoyed and disappointed that he doesn't have a lot of money.

Hey Pretty, Don’t You Want To Take a Ride With Me

Next she bumps into (and robs) Xiao Xingchen, who is actually blind, so he doesn’t notice her noticing how extremely pretty he is.

He does notice that she has robbed him, however.

Did you know if you have your eyes removed or even just damaged so you can't see any more, your eye sockets and/or tear ducts will bleed pretty much forever? Yeah, me neither.

Xiao Xingchen immediately takes charge of A-Qing, telling her to walk more slowly and then telling her - kindly - to return his money purse. Before she can answer him, the rich douchebag comes back to yell at her and try to hit her. Xiao Xingchen stops him and smooths over the situation, and then lectures Ah Qing about stealing and how it's bad. But he tells her to keep his money, so - mixed messages, bro.

She calls him gege and says that since he's blind and she's blind, she's going to follow him forever. He’s like, okey dokey, and they walk off together. Is she really the first person (since Song Lan) who’s had this idea about him? He is *very* pretty, after all.

It's unclear to me if she's calling him gege in the sense of “orphan girl who wants a family,” or in the sense of “mostly-grown-up woman who would like to Hit That.” Xiao Xingchen appears to take it as the former; he is too gay virtuous for the other option.

Two seconds after they decide to stay together, they encounter Xue Yang lying injured by the side of the road. A-Qing pretends she didn’t see him, and almost successfully wangles a piggyback ride out of Xiao Xingchen.

But then he hears Xue Yang and immediately decides to rescue him, like the do-gooder Xue Yang despises him for being.

Xue Yang gets the romance-tropey piggyback ride that A-Qing was hoping for. Girl, the time to stop trying to seduce your gay male friend is 5 minutes before you started, ok?

So...why was Xue Yang lying by the side of the road with a stab wound? Who gave it to him? If Jin Guangyao was sick of him, he would have stabbed him 100% fatally, and he wouldn't have let him hang on to Tiger Seal 2.0. And presumably Xue Yang wouldn’t think of him as a friend any more. It’s a mystery.

The new throuple decide to go to the creepiest abandoned walled city that has ever existed, and head past all the regular houses to set up camp in the morgue, for some reason. Not even inside one of the buildings; just out in the courtyard with a bunch of possibly-occupied coffins. Xiao Xingchen is so fucking weird.

Each Unhappy Family is Unhappy in its Own Way

Xiao Xingchen gets to work patching Xue Yang up, and Xue Yang wakes up and recognizes him. A-Qing explains that they are blind and tells him not to be rude about it.

Xue Yang takes a second to process the situation, and then decided he’s going to hide his identity and make nice with Xiao Xingchen. Proving that found family can also have hideous toxic dynamics.

Xue Yang is very careful to keep XXC from touching his hand, since that would give away his identity. He has a...prosthetic finger? He wears a black glove and keeps his pinky finger straight so we know it's a replacement, or injured, or something.

I think this is a concession to Wang Haoxuan having ten functional fingers and the show having a limited CGI budget. In a real sword-based society, missing a finger is probably not particularly uncommon, and he would probably just rock the nine-fingered look without having a special glove.

At this point, the complex interactions of the trio get rolling. Xiao Xingchen is honestly kind, Xue Yang is fake-kind, A-Qing is fake-unaware with Xue Yang and is unable to make Xiao Xingchen understand the problem, and Xiao Xingchen is genuinely unaware of everything.

We spend a fairly large amount of time with Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen playing happy families. As part of his false persona, Xue Yang adopts a coy and whiny tone when talking to his pet white-clad cultivator, remarkably like another demonic cultivator we know.

I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian has never managed to cop a feel while his sweetie climbs up a ladder, however.

Then again, neither Lan Wangji nor Wei Wuxian has ever needed a ladder to get onto a roof, so maybe it’s just a lack of opportunity.

This relationship, on the surface, is cute and sweet, which just makes the reality of it more disturbing. It’s super uncomfortable to watch, but there’s more than manipulation happening in these interactions. As Xue Yang flits around doing domestic tasks like patching the roof of the crappy outdoor shelter that they absolutely do not need to be using, he tells Xiao Xingchen various true things about his early life, and we begin to see what shaped him.

Xue Yang (like OP) is obsessed with candy. In Xue Yang’s case, he was a hungry street kid who loved candy but couldn’t usually have it because of poverty. We learn that he has skills in patching up inadequate housing because he did it growing up.

And we learn that he was beaten a lot.

So he and Wei Wuxian have these things in common - except now Wei Wuxian gets his sugar from alcohol, not from candy. And Wei Wuxian’s handyman skills are used to make a home for his former enemies in the burial grounds, while Xue Yang’s are used - also in a cemetery, of sorts - to manipulate and trap his enemy.

I Want Candy

In classic predator form, Xue Yang uses candy to lure A-Qing into coming within stabbing range, because he thinks she’s faking her blindness and wants to test her.

I find him super attractive right here in spite of his evilness. I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s offering candy. (OP goes and gets a jolly rancher out of her purse).

After calling her over, he draws his sword with a super-loud "sshshk" noise that she inexplicably doesn't notice, and she bravely walks up to, and nearly on to, the point of the sword.

This shocks him and convinces him that she's really blind. He sits her down with apparently sincere gentleness, and gives her candy, while quizzing her about her hot gege.

A-Qing tries to warn Xiao Xingchen about Xue Yang being a bad guy, pointing out that he's a cultivator and won't tell them his name. (She can’t say “also he tried to stab me” because she’d have to come clean about being able to see.) Xiao Xingchen, because he is a condescending prick--albeit a very sweet one--pats her on the fucking head and laughs off her extremely useful warning.

Xiao Xingchen came out into the wider world with a set of ideals that he lives by, apparently without examining them. He’s humble, kind, frugal, and wants to eradicate evil. He also believes that the majority of people are good like him, and that detecting evil is simple--as simple as following his sword toward it. He doesn’t allow A-Qing, who is experienced in the wider world, to teach him anything, preferring to keep his ideals untarnished.

Contrast this with Lan Wangji, who also starts his journey into the wider world with a set of ideals (codified as rules), but does not make the mistake of assuming that other people shares his beliefs. Once he’s away from the Cloud Recesses, he follows Wei Wuxian’s lead when dealing with new people, rather than insisting on doing things the way he did back home. In general, he is open to having his beliefs challenged, even when it makes him upset or uncomfortable. As a result, he grows into a righteous man, not a naïve one, and he’s fully capable of identifying enemies even when they appear to be friends.

Bonus:

In this brief long-distance shot we learn that A-Qing sleeps in a coffin, which is some next level goth girl shit.

Soundtrack: 1. Hey Pretty by Poe 2. I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow 3. Cheap Thrills by Sia

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #yi city #yi city trio #canary3d-original #ep 38

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eleanorfenyxwrites · 7 months

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WIP Wednesday Things I’m Working On Thursday

I actually worked on the next chapter of Soldier, Poet, King a little bit this week!

—//—

“His readings are all over the place,” Mo Xuanyu reports over the sound of Xue Yang’s screaming. “It’s a miracle he’s not dead, the Kaiju seem to have completely rewired his brain!”

Jin Guangyao takes note of that in a distant sort of way as he stands in front of A-Qing in a futile attempt to shield her from watching Xue Yang’s shockingly rapid deterioration. The Immortals are standing at his head, Xiao Xingchen attempting to keep him from thrashing so much he injures himself and Song Zichen pressed up behind his husband to hold Xue Yang’s shoulders down with a grip so firm his knuckles and fingertips have gone white.

Whatever it is that’s happening to the veins in Xue Yang’s neck is spreading, the same spidery blue veins standing in stark relief in his temples and across his forehead, and he can only assume it’s spreading downwards as well. (With a detached sort of interest he wonders what’ll happen if it reaches his heart, but it’s highly likely that they don’t want to find that out if they also want Xue Yang to survive. Which he does.)

The Wen siblings arrive just as Xue Yang’s screaming is choked off, quite literally, by a profusion of foamy blood, and as Jin Guangyao turns to usher A-Qing fully out of the room he hears Wen Qing calling out orders to her brother and everyone else in the room, taking charge of the emergency with her usual deft authority.

“Wait — is he dying? For real?” A-Qing asks, suddenly sounding every bit her very young age. “Wait stop, Yao-ge, stop! He’s not allowed to die unless I kill him!!”

“He won’t die,” Jin Guangyao says smoothly, though he and A-Qing both know that’s not something he’s actually capable of guaranteeing. “I promised him I’d send him away from all of this, somewhere nice in the countryside where no one would ever bother you or him or the daozhangs again. I’ll keep my promise, but you must calm down.”

A-Qing is small but she’s ferociously strong; Jin Guangyao grapples with her in an attempt to keep her from running back into the lab, their heights evenly matched. For a long moment they stand there locked in a struggling stalemate until A-Qing bites his shoulder and Jin Guangyao manages to get a foot hooked around the back of one of her ankles to kick her feet out from under her and bear her to the ground with the loud clang! of (his) bone on metal.

Jin Guangyao winces for the bruises that definitely left on his knuckles, but that’s preferable to giving poor A-Qing a concussion simply because she’s afraid for Xue Yang’s life. He grits his teeth against a pained shout as A-Qing throws her head back to grind his bruised hand hard enough into the floor that he feels the slight texturing of it for grip start to grate the skin off his knuckles, but he still refuses to let her up.

“Alright come here pipsqueak, up you get.”

Jin Guangyao doesn’t even entertain the thought that Wei Wuxian would dare talk to him like that, so he simply rolls to the side to let A-Qing pop up off the floor — to barrel straight into a much more secure hold in Wei Wuxian’s arms, where she struggles hard against his superior height and strength, and loses.

#the untamed fanfic #wip wednesday #soldier poet king #Jin Guangyao #pacific rim au #I’m back in college and also still working on my secret projects hence the lack of progress on literally anything else lol

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veliseraptor · 2 years

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growing pains | The Untamed

2.8k, song lan/xue yang, part of the if living can be this series

posting this here first because I feel like my followers in particular deserve some kind of extra special bonus reward for putting up with my bullshit all day every day. just a bit of a thing, set earlier in the 'verse timeline and I'm pretty sure someone prompted this but lord if I remember who. ao3 posting to follow.

A-Qing and Xingchen were gone for the next day and overnight, off to Tanzhou to find some new clothes for a-Qing since she was growing out of the old ones, and Xue Yang was in a mood.

Song Lan was inclined to chalk it up to Xingchen’s absence. Sulking because a-Qing had specifically said she wanted to go alone with Xingchen, and heavens forbid Xingchen pay attention to someone else. It didn’t make him pleasant company: sullen and snappish, by turns brooding in silence and needling Song Lan in a clear attempt to get a rise out of him. That it was obvious he was trying to do so made it somewhat easier to ignore.

“You’re so fucking boring,” Xue Yang snarled, finally, and shoved to his feet to stalk out of the yizhuang altogether. Song Lan let him go with a sigh of faint relief; he only had so much patience, and Xue Yang had a gift for finding the limits of it.

He was gone for several hours, long enough that Song Lan began to feel the pricklings of worry - not really that he might’ve done something, but more that maybe he’d taken off after Xingchen, or something. Or gotten himself into some kind of trouble.

Probably unnecessary, but Song Lan didn’t assume much about what Xue Yang would or wouldn’t do. He was less unpredictable than he’d believed at first, but that didn’t make him predictable.

Xue Yang returned close to evening, as Song Lan was making himself dinner and feeling a little abandoned in spite of himself. He saw him appear in the doorway out of the corner of his eye; unfortunately, he didn’t look in a much better mood than he’d left in.

“There should be enough for you,” Song Lan said, after waiting a few moments to see if Xue Yang was going to say anything.

“Aw, Zichen. That’s so nice of you,” Xue Yang said, sweetly vicious, and Song Lan blinked, thrown. Xue Yang hadn’t talked to him like that in…some time, and hearing it now made an uneasy shiver run down his spine. After a moment Xue Yang glanced away from him, mouth twisting in the way that Song Lan had deciphered meant he was feeling embarrassed about something and wasn’t going to admit it. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” he said, in more normal tones. Song Lan frowned.

“There’s a sentence I’ve never heard out of your mouth,” he said, carefully dry.

“First time for everything,” Xue Yang said, with a grin that looked too sharp. “I’m just gonna–”

Song Lan gave up on trying to talk around it and interrupted to say, “what’s wrong?”

Xue Yang’s shoulders tensed, his eyes narrowing. “Nothing,” he said. Song Lan could practically hear the bristling fur and warning growl. He ignored it.

“Give me a little more credit than that,” Song Lan said flatly. “Obviously something is bothering you. You’ve been in a foul mood all day.”

Xue Yang’s jaw tightened, his mouth twisting further for a moment. “And I told you it’s nothing,” he said more loudly. “So leave it alone and stop bothering me, okay?” And he stalked into their bedroom and closed the door emphatically loudly. It was only so much of a gesture considering the size of the space, but it did make Song Lan wonder if he shouldn’t sleep alone tonight. If Xue Yang wanted to brood over whatever was bothering him, then fine. There wasn’t much Song Lan could do about it.

It wasn’t as though it was unusual. Xue Yang still wasn’t in the habit of…well, telling Song Lan things. Particularly when something was bothering him, prying it out of him was next to impossible. Normally he’d refer it to Xiao Xingchen, who seemed to have a particular gift for it; all he had to do was put on a certain expression and ask, or sometimes just saying a simple “Chengmei” would do it.

Song Lan had wondered idly if he could make the same trick work for him, but he didn’t think so. The problem was rather more fundamental, and personal, than that.

Knowing that didn’t necessarily make it any easier to accept the fact that one of his…whatever you wanted to call him, still didn’t fully trust him. Particularly not with anything approaching a vulnerability.

It takes time, Xingchen had told him gently, last time he’d said something to him, though he looked pained. It did with me, and the two of you had…a difficult start.

That was certainly one way of putting it. Song Lan had enough self-control not to wince.

I know, he’d said. But it would be nice if it took a little less. Which had made Xingchen laugh, even if he hadn’t really been joking.

Xue Yang’s mood was no better in the morning. If anything, he seemed worse; he snapped at Song Lan when he asked him about breakfast, and remained curled up in bed for a concerning amount of the morning before emerging.

“Are you sick?” Song Lan asked him, point blank.

“No,” Xue Yang said.

Is this about Xingchen being gone, he would ask, if he wanted to deal with a veritable explosion. He examined Xue Yang again, trying to divine what had gone wrong. Maybe it was just one of his moods - he did get those, seemingly for no real reason, but usually this sort of behavior was preceded by a swing into a frenzied state of even more abundant energy than usual, and there hadn’t been that. He studied Xue Yang’s hunched shoulders, the set of his mouth. There were shadows under his eyes. Song Lan could almost picture a storm cloud hanging over his head.

Something clicked in Song Lan’s head and he sat up, eyes narrowing.

Before he could think better of it, he said, “your hand’s bothering you.”

Xue Yang’s head whipped around with a speed that would’ve been comedic if it weren’t for the look in his eyes of hunted-animal alarm. That just hurt.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Song Lan said, pretending he didn’t notice and carefully keeping his voice neutral. Xue Yang’s shoulders drew up closer to his ears and his gaze darted past Song Lan to the door like he was considering making a run for it. Song Lan put both his hands on the table so they would be visible and weaponless. “Hasn’t Xingchen told you…”

“Started after he left,” Xue Yang said. “It’s not a big deal. Yeah, sure, maybe it hurts, sometimes it does that. It’s nothing I can’t deal with.”

“Yes,” Song Lan said, his voice flattening. “I’m aware you are capable of managing pain and I’m suitably impressed. That doesn’t mean you should.”

Xue Yang narrowed his eyes. “You know how I feel about should. It doesn’t mean anything about what happens. And it’ll be fine. I don’t know why you’re getting all bothered about it, I’m not going to do anything.”

“That wasn’t my assumption,” Song Lan said, a little stung.

“Whatever it is, then.”

“The idea of dealing with your sour mood until Xingchen comes back–”

“I’ll go somewhere else, then,” Xue Yang snarled. “Sorry to inconvenience you with my presence, Song-daozhang.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Song Lan said, exasperated. “You know - Xingchen isn’t the only one who knows healing techniques.”

Xue Yang twitched his shoulders, his eyes shifting away again, but just for a moment. “Yeah? Good for a-Qing,” he said. Song Lan made an exasperated noise and decided to give up on trying to approach sideways.

“I could help,” he said, trying and only partially succeeding at keeping his voice level, “if you let me.”

Xue Yang stared at him with wide and wary eyes that Song Lan tried, very hard, not to take personally. He knew this was a sore point, that it was something Xue Yang worked to hide - the glove that he nearly always wore would have made that obvious even if everything else didn’t. For all that it didn’t seem to impact his swordsmanship or cultivation, Xue Yang guarded his off hand like an open wound.

An old one, though he still didn’t know how old. Or what had caused it. Taking Xingchen’s word, he hadn’t asked more than once, for all his curiosity about it. The majority of Xue Yang’s life before they’d first encountered him, Song Lan had learned, was a subject that was generally better left alone.

But he couldn’t bring himself to just sit around and know Xue Yang was suffering when he could at least try to do something about it.

Xue Yang turned his head slightly to one side like he needed to look at Song Lan from a different angle.

“Would you really rather suffer than let me do it?” he said, and he meant it to be dry or neutral but it came out hurt and a little bitter. Xue Yang’s eyes widened a little, like he hadn’t expected to be called on it.

“What? That’s not–” He made a frustrated noise. “Are you offended or something?”

Song Lan could feel himself tensing and tried to relax. “No.”

Xue Yang shifted his shoulders. His teeth tugged at his lower lip. “Sure,” he said abruptly. “Okay, fine, if you want to so bad.” Issued like a challenge, or a dare, but it was all too easy to see the spark of fear at the back of Xue Yang’s eyes.

That hurt, too.

It’s not personal. Or at least not just personal. Xingchen is a sole exception, and isn’t he in so many ways?

“Thank you,” he said, which got a strange look from Xue Yang that he ignored. “Sit down and take off your glove.”

Xue Yang hesitated a moment longer, then did sit down, yanking the half-glove off with the same air of defiance. Song Lan held out one hand palm up and waited for Xue Yang to extend his before taking it. Keeping his touch carefully light, he looked his hand over with careful attention. He already knew what to expect: the ugly scar where his smallest finger had been severed, two others healed slightly crooked. In his hand, too: bone healed out of alignment. Xue Yang’s fingers flexed - unconsciously, Song Lan thought - and the joints popped loudly.

What happened, he wanted to ask. Who did this to you, but he choked the questions down and focused on what he’d said he was going to do. He could feel Xue Yang’s eyes boring into him, the tension in his body.

“Try to relax,” he said. Xue Yang sort of scoffed, and Song Lan paused. “I mean it,” he said. “If you’re tensing up that’s just going to make it more difficult.”

“Fine, whatever,” Xue Yang said, not quite snapped, but he did seem to try to relax. Sort of. He was still wound tight.

“What do you think I’m going to do?” Song Lan burst out.

“I don’t know,” Xue Yang said, and then shook himself and said, “I don’t think you’re going to do anything, you just could.”

Song Lan pressed his lips together and exhaled through his nose, shaking his head. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Xue Yang laughed, though it sounded a little wild. “Song-daozhang, you know I like it when you hurt me,” he said with a sharp-edged grin. Song Lan gave up and just pressed his fingers in where he could feel a snarl of stagnated qi. Xue Yang’s whole body jumped with a sound that wasn’t quite a yelp, but he didn’t yank away.

Half closing his eyes, Song Lan focused on sensing the flow of energy in Xue Yang’s hand, up his arm. Strong and vital throughout, but…

Seeing was one thing; feeling was another. He controlled the urge to wince, sure that Xue Yang would notice if he did and react poorly. The damage ran deep and old; it disrupted the normal flow of qi but it seemed that somehow Xue Yang’s body had adapted. It was no wonder, though, that this was a recurring problem. He could see how he might have corrected it, at some point, but that time was long gone now.

Xue Yang had gone quiet as Song Lan worked, using just his hands for now but wondering if he shouldn’t find Xingchen’s acupuncture needles. Song Lan considered and decided there was probably no better time than now, given the effect he’d seen this process have on Xue Yang when Xingchen did it.

“Why do you hide it from us when it hurts,” he asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. Xue Yang twitched almost like he was going to pull away but didn’t complete the motion.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I don’t want Daozhang fussing over it every time it happens and he always does, and now there’s you, too. Besides, I’m used to it.”

“Considering the impact it has on your mood it seems to still very much affect you,,” Song Lan said. Xue Yang made an irritated noise.

“Yeah, it still hurts and I don’t like it but it’s not–” his voice broke off with a sort of ah noise; Song Lan felt something release and heard Xue Yang’s exhale. His body relaxed with clear relief.

“Xingchen always notices anyway,” Song Lan said. “And even if you don’t think it’s a problem, he does.” He didn’t mention his own feelings on the matter. He doubted they’d be relevant.

“Xiao Xingchen gets too worked up about shit sometimes,” Xue Yang muttered, but his voice sounded a little blurry. Song Lan kept himself from smiling.

“Maybe,” he said. “But you can’t keep him from doing so. It’s in his nature.”

Xue Yang made a bit of a face, but it looked half-hearted. Song Lan found another pressure point and nearly flushed at Xue Yang’s moan.

“It just seems,” he said slowly, “that if there’s a means to spare yourself this pain then…why not take it?”

Xue Yang was quiet, though maybe that had something to do with the fact that he was looking increasingly hazy in a way that Song Lan had somewhat different associations with. He coughed, refocusing.

“Xue Yang?” he said, after several moments of silence.

“I wish you didn’t,” Xue Yang said, and there was something darker in his voice that had a warning pinging at the back of Song Lan’s mind. “Know, I mean. You or him. Nobody’s supposed to. It’s not–” he made a frustrated noise and then said, somewhat nonsensically, “it doesn’t own me.”

Song Lan frowned. “What does that mean?”

“What I said,” Xue Yang said. “That it doesn’t…it’s just my fucking hand. It’s not gonna kill me so…so whatever. I’m not going to just - go around crying about it like a fucking baby.”

“I didn’t say you should,” Song Lan said, pausing because he could hear Xue Yang getting himself worked up and wanted to head it off before it got too far. “All I’m saying is that given we do know, and something can be done about it…”

He couldn’t say why don’t you trust me out loud, even if he wanted to. He didn’t know that Xue Yang knew what it was to trust someone. At least not the word; in practice he seemed to manage it without noticing what was happening.

“It’s stupid,” Xue Yang said, a little quieter. “I’m not - you’d think it’d stop hurting by now, maybe get the hint that it’s just the way it is and to shut up about it.” He let out a laugh that sounded more than a little harsh. “Guess not.”

Song Lan very carefully did not let himself pause even as something clicked in his head. Not the whole of it, he thought. Certainly the unease about showing vulnerability was no small part, as it was with so many things about Xue Yang. But maybe something else as well.

He didn’t know what would be safe to say, so Song Lan decided to say nothing.

Song Lan didn’t stop until he was certain that the circulation of energy was as regular as it was going to get and the tension of pain had oozed fully out of Xue Yang’s body. Xue Yang didn’t quite go fully to sleep on Song Lan, and he tried not to be disappointed by that fact. He certainly came close, though.

When Song Lan did stop, he roused sleepily from where he’d ended up slumped sideways against Song Lan’s side; for a flicker of a moment Song Lan considered pulling him back just to see what he did, but decided against it.

“Better?” he said, trying not to sound smug. Xue Yang squinted at him like he was still hearing it anyway.

“Yeah,” he said eventually. “I guess.”

Song Lan supposed he’d have to take that as good enough.

#if living can be this #songxue #background established #songxuexiao #song lan #xue yang #a wild fic appeared #and i'm OUT #(for a while anyways. might see if i can finish this scene tonight)

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