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pharahsgf · 2 years

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I was rewatching e.27-28 of CQL the other day, and I realized just how much of e.27-28 is completely re-written in the fandom! Even back when I liked JC a lot more (before the fanon ticked me off), I’ve still always thought it was pretty clear that CQL shows JC really never saw the Wens as *people,* except for Wen Qing (and also that the idea of JC “adopting” A-Yuan would be absolutely horrifying, not a sweet nephew-uncle bonding story).

But I’ve heard “it was WWX’s idea first to duel” bandied about so much that even I believed it...but no, JC is very much the first one to say “let’s duel” when JC realizes that WWX will not stop defending the Wens while WWX silently lets tears fall. Meanwhile WWX is genuinely very angry and upset about JC’s callous disregard for the Wens’ lives! It’s not just a misunderstanding, WWX sees JC point of view very clear and very much does not agree with it. And the way the duel scene is shot, with JC constantly, angrily on the offensive while WWX flits around, the show frames it as JC getting mad about WWX’s decision about the Wens; so, instead of giving him a light injury like WWX did him, JC stabs him. And then once it’s over, it’s framed like JC got so mad about both the Wens and his broken arm that he declared to his protesting disciples that WWX has “rebelled and escaped,” has “openly gone against the other sects,” been “expelled” from the clan, and that the two of them have “cut ties” (whereas WWX only said “rebelled” and that his actions “have nothing to do with the Yunmeng Jiang”). Sometimes, it feels as if the fandom acts like JC went to JGS, bald-facedly lied to him about WWX’s dramatic separation in a speech that was planned down to the word between him and WWX, all the while chuckling to himself about his and WWX’s big fake clever story that everyone believed hook line and sinker. But no, it’s very much presented as JC got pissed and made things much worse for WWX out of his own anger.

This isn’t even getting into the idea that “WWX was just too stubborn to accept help!” But the only “help” JC repeatedly offered was “help” killing Wen Ning, and “help” handing the Wens back to the Jins to die (unless, like JC, someone really does consider that as “help” - which, sure, it’s fiction, you do you. But even then, WWX didn’t refuse out of stubbornness, but his sense of morality and right and wrong). Or the idea that JC’s anger is either...very surface level and it would only take clearing some miscommunication to get rid of it, or that he’s not actually angry at WWX, but only angry on WWX’s behalf for getting into dangerous situations (as if that isn’t contradicted by JC stabbing him, choking him, and insulting him, amongst so much else). But no, JC’s anger, like his mother’s, runs very deep and is very self-centered.

(It was reassuring, however, that I while was watching the episodes with two other people - one of whom has read MDZS, and one of whom is watching for the first time - all three of us took a moment to make fun of JC’s moral cowardice as he stared down pitifully at WQ’s comb XD It’s nice to know that yes, rewriting of JC’s character is an online phenomenon, not something inherent to CQL.)

putting the response under a cut because this post is long as is rip

this is a really comprehensive explanation of the situation and how it differs from fan conception! when jiang cheng shows up he sees the wens are just regular, harmless people, and still shows them no regard or empathy whatsoever, even yelling at little a'yuan. wen qing and wei wuxian are obviously quick to realise this - wen qing tries to keep him away from wen ning, and wei wuxian blocks his attempt to draw his blade without even flinching - but wei wuxian still tries to convince jiang cheng of the wens' right to live and is visibly shocked by jiang cheng's vehement condemnation of them. 2 me wei wuxian's departure from the jiang sect wasn't purely functional, but also a result of wei wuxian being confronted with the full extent of jiang cheng's selfishness and being disgusted by it. this is not the kind of man wei wuxian wants to answer to.

(also the scene where wei wuxian blocks sandu's strike from hitting wen ning is so full of symbolism like the way his bare hands overpower jiang cheng's spiritual sword as a reference to his superiority even in relative powerlessness, the way he hands it back and jiang cheng accepts it with wei wuxian's blood still on the hilt as a visual representation of his power at wei wuxian's expense, the way it mirrors the scene where wen ning uses his hands to defend jin ling from baxia further compounding jiang cheng's debt to wen ning - okay maybe i'm reading too far into it, i'll stop now)

the misconception that wei wuxian was the one who suggested they fight is extremely stupid & especially when you consider his reaction: he let his threat of leaving the jiang clan hang in the air and jiang cheng, sentimental change-resistant jiang cheng who wants to keep his loved ones close at all costs, not only confirmed that he'd rather lose wei wuxian forever than sacrifice anything for the innocent, but also insisted on getting to stab wei wuxian while he was at it. of course wei wuxian couldn't help but cry a little; jiang cheng was placing the opinions of others over his duty as a cultivator, his debt to the jiang siblings, and wei wuxian himself, and did so with spite.

a lot of fan theories surrounding jiang cheng fall apart after honest analysis of these episodes, which make it abundantly clear that the yunmeng brothers' falling out was a result of their conflicting priorities and ethical stances. i'm glad cql managed to stay true to that narrative despite being forced to absolve jiang cheng of some responsibility for the wens' deaths, and i wish more people actually got the message instead of insisting that two characters who can't even agree on the value of human life should stay together always and only grew apart because of ~misunderstandings~.

#replies #jaggedcliffs #jc hate blog #long post #there is a scene where jc seems conflicted abt his decisions but i was distracted from my mental analysis by the contrast between jc's #ostentatious fucking bed and huge room & the miserable little cave bed wq was sleeping in

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sarah-yyy · 4 years

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I was rereading your rebuttable presumption verse, and one of them talks about jc and lwj teaming up in the future to keep wwx from doing stupid things. Any chance we'll ever see some of that?

“Er-dianxia,” Jiang Wanyin says, striding into Lan Wangji’s study. “Wei Wuxian-”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji hums. “I am aware, and I do not approve.”

“Good,” Jiang Wanyin says. He settles into a nearby chair, and makes himself at home, pouring a cup of tea for himself. “The best thing he did in life was to marry someone with good sense.”

The corner of Lan Wangji’s lip twitches. “A generous compliment, General Jiang.”

Lan Wangji has always had a very strange relationship with Jiang Wanyin, even after Lan Wangji married Wei Wuxian, but in recent years, they have bonded by exchanging tips on dealing with Wei Wuxian’s more...ill-advised adventures.

Jiang Wanyin is a regular presence in Hanguang-fu now, and about a third of the time, he is here to speak to Lan Wangji instead of Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji finds that he quite enjoys his dealings with Jiang Wanyin. In the same way that Wei Wuxian enjoys riling Jiang Wanyin up, Lan Wangji finds that he’s developed the same liking to the way Jiang Wanyin turns at least three different shades of purple when he is yelling.

It is...fun.

Wei Wuxian has brought a lot of fun into Lan Wangji’s life.

Jiang Wanyin narrows his eyes. “Do you have a plan to talk him out of being stupid?”

“Yes,” Lan Wangji tells him. He’s already put the plan into place, and is moderately sure that it is working.

Jiang Wanyin stares at him. When Lan Wangji doesn’t elaborate, he huffs, and asks, “Well? What’s the big plan?”

“Wei Ying cannot throw himself into unnecessary danger if he is too busy or too tired to do so,” Lan Wangji tells him, schooling his features to hide the smirk he can feel creeping up his lips.

Jiang Wanyin blinks at him, and then his mouth sets into a scowl. “If you’re thinking about drugging Wei Wuxian-”

“Sex,” Lan Wangji interrupts. “I intend to keep Wei Ying very busy with sex.”

Jiang Wanyin lets out a garbled choke. “Lan Wangji!” he yells. He is loud enough that no doubt Wei Wuxian will come prancing into Lan Wangji’s study soon, and Lan Wangji can’t help his smile at the thought. “Do you want to die!”

(buy me a kofi! // more rebuttable presumption)

#the untamed #mdzs #rebuttable presumption verse #ficlets #no sads!!#just a super short one tonight!!#but it's a fun one!!!#absolutely no sads!!!#+ bonus appearance of everyone's favourite shameless!lwj :DDDD #ANYWAY i'll be busy until wednesday so don't expect anything until then!!#my dv short cause fixture is on tuesday #this is the one that has dragged from august last year #so i don't even really remember most the details so HMMMMM rip me i guess #titaniumplatedspine

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canary3d-obsessed · 4 years

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 11 first part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Goodness)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Okay! This episode is a real slice of healthy family dynamics, not triggering in any way. [Uh if this is your first Restless Rewatch: that is sarcasm, dear readers]

Goodbye to You, Goodbye to Everything We Knew

Nie Huaisang asks why Meng Yao has to leave and Meng Yao says "I killed a guy without permission, so your brother fired me."

Ha ha ha ha no he doesn't. But he does give Nie Huaisang a sweet, sad smile; he seems touched by NHS's distress.

Meng Yao carefully removes Nie Huaisang's hands from his shoulders and bows to him, wordlessly signaling the change in their relationship from intimate friends to formal strangers, while Nie Huaisang looks crushed.

They will return to intimate friendship in the future, but falsely. Meng Yao believes that truly loving a person can include destroying their family and using them as an instrument in your murder plots as long as you don't directly harm them. Nie Huaisang eventually learns to use people just as brutally, but he doesn't lie to himself about what he's doing. This farewell may be the last harmless moment between these friends.

Jiang Cheng is distressed by what's going on, while Wei Wuxian crosses his arms and watches, fully in Sherlock Holmes mode, instead of his more usual concerned-for-my-friend mode. This may signal mistrust of Meng Yao, who refused his initial attempt at friendship, and not in a sexy, slice-your-face-off way. Or it may mean that he's reserving judgement on a complicated family situation. He maintains his uncharacteristic reserve through the entire encounter.

(more behind the cut!)

Nie Huaisang runs in and asks his brother WTF happened. Nie Mingjue says "he killed my subordinate without permission, when he knows perfectly well power must flow from the ruler; it's like he didn't even read that Foucault book I gave him."

Ha ha ha actually he just yells at his brother, as if NHS doesn’t have his own relationship with Meng Yao after being wonder twink powers with him for probably a couple of years now. NHS has to sit and process his loss and confusion in silence.

As a younger sibling who would make friends with my older siblings' girlfriends and then lose those friends if they broke up, for reasons having nothing to do with why I liked their girlfriends, I super feel Nie Huaisang's pain here.

OTOH, older siblings are entitled to have break ups and not explain themselves to anyone besides their lover because that's the nature of intimacy. The moral is, uhh...don't have a family curse that makes you unreasonably angry.

Jiang Cheng steps up to advocate for Meng Yao, because Meng Yao is injured, and because Jiang Cheng is actually a born leader who knows better than to throw away a useful subordinate. For example, even when Wei Wuxian is at his drunkest and most defiant, Jiang Cheng tries to reform him, not kick him out, only drawing the line at having unpopular zombie friends.

Wei Wuxian continues to keep his mouth shut, waiting for Nie Mingjue to calm down, and speaking only about the tactical situation. He clearly knows there's more to this story but he's pretty good at keeping his head down in a family ruckus, and we're about to learn why.

Yunmeng Town

The Yunmeng bros go home to Lotus Pier, where they are greeted in town with bows, smiles, and free stuff.

We've mostly been seeing them in their roles within the cultivation community, where Jiang Cheng is grumpy and anxious, and Wei Wuxian is sassy and iconoclastic. Here among common people, they are both charming, friendly, and polite, like the imaginary good kind of gentry.

They hear the news from a local lotus seller that the small clans are coming to the Jiang Clan for shelter, but that otherwise everything's ok, which doesn't sound like everything is ok at all. He gives Wei Wuxian a giant bag of lotuses for his sister to make soup from.

Home to Lotus Pier

All the disciples practicing in the courtyard at Lotus Pier are excited to see them, and one girl goes running to tell Jiang Yanli. Thanks to the admittedly beautiful design of Lotus Pier, she is running for a long time.

A long, long time. Getting around on all these insane walkways must be a real drag if you're not the flying sort of cultivator.

Discipline and Punish

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian immediately go and kneel while they wait for their official punishment. Jiang Cheng is kinda worried about the punishment and Wei Wuxian is like, I'm good at being punished, just let me do it.

Much later, and for a really long fucking time

He also tries to get Jiang Cheng to stop being mad, even giving him skritches while he says they should be brothers after they die.

Which they will, as it happens, although Jiang Cheng after the Wen torture is only mostly golden-core dead, while WWX dies for real.

When Jiang Fengmian shows up Jiang Cheng starts to explain that they were with Lan Wangji, but Wei Wuxian hushes him; he is still keeping the secret of the Yin Iron. Although he's keeping it in exactly the manner that a teenager keeps their weed stash secret: immediately tell literally every teen friend about it, but keep it extra secret from everybody's parents.

Happy Families Are All Alike

Now we get to meet Yu Ziyuan, who is generally styled Madame Yu but who I'm going to call by her name just as if she was a male character. More on that concept in a minute. She rolls up looking, smelling, feeling like a million yuan, with her two murder bitches in tow.

Her marriage is an unhappy one, and her husband does his best to avoid her and avoid conflict, lying to the kids that she's tired and then sending her away later with the same line about being tired, which is a particularly gendered kind of gaslighting. She is obviously not tired, other than being tired of Jiang Fengmian's shit.

I'm not going to say she's the worst mother ever, because parenthood in a feudal society entails a wide range of skills, many of which she has in abundance. She starts off with a relatively tender greeting to Jiang Cheng, tuning up his always-amazing sartorial style, which is exactly like her own. They are all ready for the mommy & me fashion show.

That said, she dishes out hellacious verbal abuse to everyone in her family. She targets each one in turn, making Wei Wuxian the focus of most of her ire, but without ever directly speaking to him. He is not, in her view, part of her family.

The Stages of Family Dinner

1. Try to fix it and defuse the situation

2. Yeah no

3. Just keep your head down and be glad it’s not your turn in the hot seat

This family meal hammers home how much Wei Wuxian is not, actually, part of the family. Jiang Fengmian adopted him into the clan, and told A-Cheng and A-Yi to treat him as a sibling, but he didn't give him the Jiang name, and he didn't get his wife's approval. He also doesn’t expect him to dress like any other clan member, apparently.

Compare this to how Lan Wangji, actual good parent, fully integrates his own adopted son into his clan and family, starting with giving him the Lan surname.

The hits just keep coming as she goes after Jiang Cheng for being less gifted than Wei Wuxian, Yanli for performing labor for Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Fengmian for possibly begetting Wei Wuxian.

On first watching this scene I took her question "Is this how you raise someone else's son?" to mean that she thought Jiang Fengmian was being too nice to a kid who was actually an outsider, taking resources away from the real kids. But on rewatching, it's pretty clear that she's saying his favoring Wei Wuxian is evidence that Wei Wuxian is NOT someone else's son; that he's Jiang Fengmian's bastard.

Jiang Fengmian doesn't say a thing to this, or to her mentioning WWX’s mother. This shit is why WWX is running around in the world desperate for any crumb of info he can get about his Mom; he hears about her all the goddamn time at home, but only as insults to her character.

A Bitch is Not Wrong

Here's the thing, though; a lot of what Yu Ziyuan says is correct.

Jiang Fengmian should be a lot more concerned about the danger to the children, and should not leave it up to the kids to decide who's going to bear that danger.

Yanli does a lot of food=love, which is ok in the right doses, but causes her to pretty extremely lose face during the whole "soup for Jin Zixuan" debacle. And her doting on Wei Wuxian is...kinda excessive. I mean, yeah, she’s more like a mom than a sister to him, but still. Running out onto an active battlefield to look for him, frex, will be a skosh too much.

I have a dictionary too, mom

Jiang Cheng, as the future clan leader, shouldn't let his attachments affect his decision making, and should let Wei Wuxian, who's the superior cultivator, fend for himself more often. We love Jiang Cheng for those moments where he puts himself in harm's way to protect his loved ones, but it's not a good strategy. He constantly yells at Wei Wuxian for the exact same thing he does all the time himself; he just limits who he does it for.

After she roasts the shit out of everyone for these failings, she leaves, and everyone sits around being miserable and not talking about what just happened.

Not to be gender studies-y on main but: the awful things she says to her children are really not very different from the things that Jiang Cheng says to Jin Ling, although her targeting is more adept. JC also says a lot of mean things to WWX when he’s angry. When a man says cruel or insulting things, it's often presented as real love hidden under a rough exterior. When a woman does it, she's a monster.

If you enjoy this sort of interaction you should definitely have a look at Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and the plays of Eugene O'Neill.

Road Runner

Oh thank god, moving on

Lan Wangji is headed back to Cloud Recesses, and gets ambushed by the roadside with the most ridiculous trap this side of Wile E. Coyote.

Wen Chao thinks the "rug over a hole" trap is a good idea for someone who can literally fly.

Lan Wangji doesn't faff about with sword riding, he just fucking goes up in the air and stays there until he is good goddamn ready to come down. A hole in the sidewalk is really not going to be a problem for him.

Wen Zhuliu does get in one kick before Lan Wanji yeets backwards away from him, in a moment that's scarier on rewatching, now that I know what Wen Zhuliu is capable of.

Wen Chao talks some smack to Lan Wangji, hilariously complaining about "your patronizing tone" to a man who has literally never spoken a word to him, IIRC, and certainly isn't speaking now. Maybe it's a mistranslation and should be "attitude," or maybe Wen Chao is just that dumb.

Apparently Wei Wuxian made a stack of talismans for Lan Wangji to take on the road with him. This talisman is a twin to the one Lan Wangji brings out way, way later in Yunping, when Wei Wuxian says "you even have kept it until now." Missing scene alert! What else did he make for him?

In Yunping this talisman is used to distract some random harmless street bullies. Here it is used against a seven-man murder squad.

This works.

Assault on Cloud Recesses

Forgettable disciple #1, Su She, comes rushing in to tell Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen that Cloud Recesses is under attack.

I'm pretty sure these dudes already know it, because they are meditating extra hard with a buttload of incense, and Lan Qiren is about to cough up some blood. So I think they're trying to hold the ward, rather than just, like, chilling while their disciples get stabbed.

Cloud Recesses is super on fire, you guys; it's going to totally burn to the ground; look at that conflagration, oh the humanity, etc.

Lan Qiren Rises to the Occasion

Ok, I like to rag on Failmaster Qiren and he is definitely an authoritarian dick a whole lot of the time, but in this scene he is fucking amazing.

He starts off worrying about Lan Wangji, not just out of affection but out of strategic planning, probably in equal parts. All three of these Lans take their clan responsibilities extremely seriously.

Then he calmly assesses the situation while imperturbable Lan Xichen freaks the fuck out.

Lan Xichen is right to be alarmed, because he knows his uncle, he knows one of them is likely to die, and he knows that Lan Qiren will choose to take the hit.

I love, love, love Lan Qiren's physicality here; how centered and assured he is, as he holds his nephew steady and explains what is required of both of them.

Lan Xichen knows Lan Qiren is right. He is utterly fucking devastated, and all he can do to show his love...

...is to obey.

This whole scene just. kills me.

Su She and forgettable disciple #2 are in the room for this whole conversation, and they join Lan Xichen in this deep bow. Note: I will be reminding everyone of this fact in Part 2.

Whew. This episode is a LOT. Part 2 Coming Soon!

Writing Prompt: What other goodies did Wei Wuxian put in Lan Wangji's care package before Lan Wangji hit the road without saying goodbye?

Soundtrack: 1. Michelle Branch, Goodbye to You 2. Ludacris, Stand Up

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #wei wuxian #yu ziyuan #lan qiren #restless rewatch the untamed #the untamed spoilers #lan xichen #canary3d-original #my gifs #the untamed meta

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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hi hunxi! there's a thought that keeps bugging me. During the battle at nightless city we can see that wwx doesn't kill yl and jc is clearly there and sees it as well. It may have been all the loss he went through & all the suffering he had to face, but why would he refuse to accept that and blame wwx anyways? Is it because in his mind that would hurt less?(i can't see how that would hurt him less tho) i admit i don't like jc much but i dont get why would he treat wwx so badly when he returns

hi anon! So I think it’s a little more complicated than simply “blaming Wei Wuxian for Jiang Yanli’s death,” because it’s the slow accumulation of a multitude of smaller events that have snowballed into the respective terrible mental states that both Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are in by the second siege of Nightless City

Jiang Cheng’s eternal frustration with Wei Wuxian emerges from the same question, every time -- why can’t you stop. It’s fun and cutesy during Cloud Recesses summer school, when Jiang Cheng is just constantly rolling his eyes at Wei Wuxian’s oblivious crush on Lan Wangji and being like dude, why can’t you stop riling up the Lans you’re making Yunmeng Jiang look bad but it’s all small-scale stuff, nothing that can’t be smoothed over with a brotherly arm over the shoulder and some mutual teasing

This comes back in an uglier light when we get to the evil counterpart of Cloud Recesses summer school, i.e. Wen indoctrination and the Xuanwu Cave Arc. Here, we see the same issue crop up when Wei Wuxian goes to help a visibly limping Lan Wangji. Jiang Cheng, ever defensive, ever conservative, begs Wei Wuxian to stop sticking his neck out to help other people. They’re not even sure they can protect themselves, because the Wens are making more and more outrageous demands by the second, so Jiang Cheng grabs Wei Wuxian by the elbow in a sunlit clearing, trying to hold him back, and thinks why can’t you stop, don’t you understand that things are different now, don’t you understand that now, your disobedience has real, dangerous consequences that will be visited on both of our heads.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to speed, no one can match Wei Wuxian for how swiftly he’ll light himself on fire to save someone else. It’s why we call him a hero; it’s also why his life (the first one, at least) is a tragedy.

And to be someone who loves him -- Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Lan Wangji -- and have to watch him as he strikes that match to the kindling of his life again and again and again -- it’s terrifying. It’s devastating. It’s incredibly frustrating, because sometimes you just want to grab him by the shoulders and yell at him until he realizes that he’s loved, he’s valued, that he’s worth more to the world sunlit and laughing and alive than he is tragic and doomed and sacrificed.

Right after the fall of Lotus Pier in episode 16, Jiang Cheng screams at Wei Wuxian, wraps his hands around his throat, knocks them both over in an unnamed meadow during the darkest night of their lives (so far. yikes). Tell me why! Jiang Cheng yells at Wei Wuxian, slamming him to the ground. Why did you save them? Are you happy? How many times did I tell you not to play the hero? You should have just let Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan die! What would their deaths have to do with us? You could have just let them die! Why did you stick your neck out for them?

凭什么！Why! Jiang Cheng screams -- the same words he’ll cry and scream and rage at Wei Wuxian with in a haunted temple, almost two decades later.

Why can’t you stop? Jiang Cheng asks, time and time again -- why can’t Wei Wuxian stop antagonizing Lan Wangji, why can’t Wei Wuxian stop sticking his neck out for other people, why can’t Wei Wuxian just keep his head down and stay safe, why does he have to keep doing things that make the people who love him so, so afraid for him as well?

Why can’t Wei Wuxian put down that goddamned flute and pick up Suibian again? Why must Wei Wuxian insist on being so special, so different? Why must Wei Wuxian stick his neck out again, after the war no less, for a bunch of people they don’t even know well? Why can’t Wei Wuxian stop? Why can’t Wei Wuxian just stay safe?

Jiang Cheng tries, tries to get Wei Wuxian to come back to him, to come back with him, so he can finally protect this foolish brave ridiculous wonderful infuriating generous brother who he loves ferociously. He visits Wei Wuxian in the Burial Mounds; he brings Jiang Yanli to him before her wedding. Jiang Cheng does everything short of telling Wei Wuxian that he needs him, which also means that Wei Wuxian -- filled and overfilled with his own self-perceived guilt for the disasters visited on the Jiang Sect -- doesn’t understand that Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to come back, burden or no. Wei Wuxian thinks he’s doing Jiang Cheng a favor; Jiang Cheng thinks that Wei Wuxian is rejecting him. Jiang Cheng can’t understand why Wei Wuxian won’t listen to reason for his own good, Wei Wuxian doesn’t consider his own good to be that all that important.

so when it comes to the actual worst night of their lives in Nightless City, when both of them are equally powerless in protecting Jiang Yanli from the sword to her back, the sword to her heart, it’s painfully easy for me to see why Jiang Cheng fucking snaps and shoves Wei Wuxian away. How many times did he tell Wei Wuxian to stop being the hero, to stop standing up for other people, to stop sticking his neck out for others when Wei Wuxian can’t even protect himself or the ones he loves? How many times did he beg Wei Wuxian to do less, to pick fewer battles, to narrow the focus of his vast reservoirs of empathy down to the people closest to him, the people who needed him most? How many times did Wei Wuxian refuse to listen, did Wei Wuxian insist that he had it all under control?

Why is it that Jiang Cheng has to pay for Wei Wuxian’s noble sacrifices?

(because every time, Jiang Cheng feels like he does -- he’s the one who’s always there to 收尸 pick up after Wei Wuxian, the one who has to smooth things over with the other sect leaders, the one who has to go on alone. Jiang Cheng keeps being left behind by those he loves and he’s so fucking sick of it)

all of which is a very long, roundabout way of saying: Jiang Cheng knows that Wei Wuxian was not the person who plunged the sword into Jiang Yanli’s heart. But all the factors that led to this convergence of events -- the whole confrontation at Nightless City, the fact that Wei Wuxian just killed the brother of the man who stabbed Jiang Yanli, the fact that Jiang Yanli died because she was protecting Wei Wuxian -- everything about the situation around them revolves unerringly around the gravity point of Wei Wuxian.

It’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault that the sects have selected him as scapegoat, as sacrificial lamb, on this night of all nights. It’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault that Jiang Yanli ran into the middle of a melee to look for him. It’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault that a sword found its way to Jiang Yanli’s heart.

But if Wei Wuxian hadn’t tried to protect the Wen refugees; if Wei Wuxian had just behaved like a normal cultivator instead of riling up the other sects with his uncanny new cultivation techniques; if Wei Wuxian could have just kept his mouth shut for once; if Wei Wuxian hadn’t stuck his neck out for Lan Wangji all those years ago...

It’s years of frustration finally breaking the dam for Jiang Cheng, because he told him, he told Wei Wuxian so many times, and now look what’s happened

They’ve both lost the best person in their lives, and everything around them screams Wei Wuxian’s name.

#listen... it's... frustrating #it's not great #it's not logical #but sometimes emotions rule so much more of our minds than we'd like it to #sometimes the reality of your emotions will bend the reality of truth and knowledge #and it's difficult to extricate them from each other #am I frustrated with Jiang Cheng? yes #am I also frustrated with Wei Wuxian? holy shit yes #it's more than a rock and a hard place for the two of them #it's a goddamned booby trapped labyrinth #and every single wall is closing in on this moment #anyway #ask and ye shall receive #Jiang Cheng #Wei Wuxian #ep 32 #ep 16

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bloody-bee-tea · 3 years

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JC Love Month 2020 Day 5

Best Birthday Present

Here’s already a continuation for Day 1 of JC Love Month, because if one JC doesn’t expect any gifts on his birthday then it’s definitely the one who just got kicked out of his family and was adopted by the Nie’s. Well, the Nie’s thrive to exceed expectations.

With everything that has been going on, Jiang Cheng thinks it can be expected that he doesn’t expect any birthday presents. So he guesses it’s fair that he freezes with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth when Nie Huaisang asks him what he wants for his birthday.

“Excuse me?” Jiang Cheng asks, and Nie Huaisang rolls his eyes at him.

“I said, what do you want for your birthday? It’s soon, right? You have to give us at least two days to get your presents.”

“What presents?” Jiang Cheng asks, because, again, with everything going on, there is no way birthday presents are even on the table.

“The ones you’ll be getting from us,” Mo Xuanyu says, munching on as if nothing is wrong in the world and Jiang Cheng very carefully puts his chopsticks down completely.

“I did not expect that I would get any,” Jiang Cheng calmly tells them. “So you don’t have to worry about that.”

Now it’s Nie Huaisang’s, Mo Xuanyu’s and Nie Mingjue’s time to freeze and they all do it rather comically with their chopsticks halfway raised as well.

“What?” Nie Huaisang asks, but there’s already a dangerous glint in his eyes.

“I mean, I don’t usually get birthday presents, either, so you don’t have to bother,” Jiang Cheng hurriedly says, but it seems to be the entirely wrong thing to say, because Nie Huaisang goes white in the face.

“What do you mean, you don’t normally get birthday presents?” Mo Xuanyu asks, and he seems recovered enough from his shock that he goes back to eating. “Even I got a present from my aunt and her family; granted, it was a suitcase and the strong hint that I should move out but still. It is kind of a useful present too.”

“I—usually get a day off work,” Jiang Cheng hesitantly says, frowning down at the table. “And my mother wouldn’t yell at me for a day.”

There’s a deafening silence following his words and then Mo Xuanyu throws himself halfway across the table to pull Jiang Cheng into a hug.

“Shut up, no one wants to hear about your sob-story of a life,” he cries and then clings to Jiang Cheng for longer than Jiang Cheng is entirely comfortable with.

“It’s okay,” he eventually awkwardly says and pats Mo Xuanyu’s shoulder.

Jiang Cheng is not ashamed to admit that he lets out a relieved breath when Mo Xuanyu finally lets go of him, but it was also kind of touching.

“Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang says, and this time it’s Nie Mingjue who interrupts them.

“No fighting and/or shouting at the table,” Nie Mingjue chastises Nie Huaisang before he can even get started and Jiang Cheng shrinks in on himself.

He knows the Nie’s have a room especially for that; it’s soundproofed and what happens in the room, or rather what is being said, stays in there. Jiang Cheng has seen Nie Huaisang drag Nie Mingjue in there more than once already, but it doesn’t seem to help much.

Because every time they come back out of the room, Nie Mingjue has the smuggest look on his face while Nie Huaisang seems to be already gearing up for another shouting match.

One day, Jiang Cheng will ask what that is all about.

So far Jiang Cheng didn’t have cause to go into the room himself, either as the yeller or as the one who is being yelled at, but he guesses his luck will change this evening.

“The room, after dinner,” Nie Huaisang hisses just then, and Jiang Cheng gives a dejected nod, but he can’t quite keep his mouth shut.

“You guys already gave me a home, and a family,” he whispers, more into his rice than to any of them. “There’s no need to bother to get me anything else.”

“You are not a bother,” Nie Mingjue very firmly says, and he puts his hand on Jiang Cheng’s neck. “And getting you a present wouldn’t be a bother either, because that is what family does for each other.”

He says it very calmly and like nothing at all is wrong in the world, and it only brings new tears to Jiang Cheng’s eyes.

He has been crying an awful lot, ever since he came to live here, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t mind it as much as he would have, if—for example—his parents would see him cry.

They only ever told him to suck it up and to be stronger than this; here, they let him cry. Hell, Mo Xuanyu joins in more often than not and it always ends in a cuddle pile that no one complaints about. It’s kind of nice, if Jiang Cheng is being honest.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng very belatedly says, and he hopes that it will get him out of a trip to the room, but Nie Huaisang is still glaring at him, so Jiang Cheng guesses that he’s out of luck there.

Nie Huaisang drags him off as soon as it’s clear that everyone is done with dinner and when the door closes behind Jiang Cheng he has a second to admire the set-up of the room, before Nie Huaisang starts to yell.

And yell he does.

Mostly about what utter assholes Jiang Cheng’s parents are—and Jiang Cheng doesn’t chime in on that, because yes—but then he goes on about how stupid Jiang Cheng is to think that things would go the same here.

“I’ve only been here for a little less than a week,” Jiang Cheng dares to chime in eventually. “You are giving me a place to stay, and food, and everything else I need. Is it really so unreasonably of me to think that there will be nothing more?”

“Yes!” Nie Huaisang screams right in his face. “Because everyone deserves a goddamn birthday present!”

“Alright,” Jiang Cheng sheepishly says, mostly to get Nie Huaisang to calm down again.

“Don’t alright me, Jiang Wanyin,” Nie Huaisang hisses. “I will get you the best goddamn birthday present and you will like it, for fuck’s sake,” Nie Huaisang tells him and Jiang Cheng takes it for the threat it is.

“Whatever you say,” he tries, hoping to get out of this sooner rather than later, and it’s only then that Nie Huaisang takes a deep breath.

“Okay, I feel better now,” he declares and then simply marches out of the room, leaving a truly bewildered Jiang Cheng behind.

“You alright?” Nie Mingjue asks, poking his head into the room and Jiang Cheng shrugs.

“I don’t know?” he tries, because it’s the truth. “He insists on getting me a present.”

“What is being said in the room, stays in the room,” Nie Mingjue gently reminds him and Jiang Cheng flushes when he realizes that he blundered that rule. “But yes, I figured. He’s right about that, too,” Nie Mingjue says and pats Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.

“Family always gets birthday presents.”

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng whispers under his breath when that brings tears to his eyes again and he wonders just how long he will start to cry at even the most basic decency being shown to him.

It’s really rather bothersome.

“I have a question,” Jiang Cheng asks, mostly to distract himself, and going by the indulgent smile Nie Mingjue gives him, he knows it damn well, too.

Luckily, he allows the topic change.

“Ask,” he encourages Jiang Cheng.

“Whenever you and Huaisang disappear into this room, he comes out looking as angry as he did before, while you always seem so—”

“Smug?” Nie Mingjue asks when Jiang Cheng is unsure of how to word it.

“Yes.”

“That’s because I am,” Nie Mingjue says and steers Jiang Cheng towards the living room. “I insisted on building this room, but it was mostly for Huaisang. He has a bit of a problem, keeping his emotions inside and he tends to explode.”

Jiang Cheng keeps his mouth closed, because from what he knew about the Nie brother’s before he would have guessed it’s the other way around.

“Surprising, I know,” Nie Mingjue says with a smile, so clearly Jiang Cheng is not the first one to think that. “Huaisang was very adamant that he doesn’t need the room and that it was a waste of money and resources and whatnot and that there is no way a yelling match will make him feel better.”

Jiang Cheng doubts that, because he has seen how unburdened Nie Huaisang had just seemed.

“When we come out of the room, I look smug because Huaisang does feel better after a good yelling and he hates that I was right about it all along.”

“Hence the long face,” Jiang Cheng sums up and Nie Mingjue nods.

When they come into the living-room, Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu are already there, cuddled up on the couch with a bucket of ice cream balanced on their legs.

“This is what happens after the room,” Nie Mingjue tells Jiang Cheng and pushes him down on the couch as well. “Ice cream and cuddles.”

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng breathes when Mo Xuanyu makes space for him without hesitation and Nie Huaisang almost smacks him in the face with a spoon.

“Eat,” Nie Huaisang grumbles, clearly still upset about the whole birthday present thing. “You’re way too thin.”

Jiang Cheng takes the spoon from him, mostly because he’s afraid Nie Huaisang will whack him in the face with it, and then Mo Xuanyu leans over.

“Just take it. He’s a worrywart. He’s going to feed you until you gained at least four pounds and even then he won’t be happy. It’s a love thing.”

“I see,” Jiang Cheng says, mostly to have something to say, because he does in fact not see.

“Did your sister not make her special soup on bad days?” Nie Mingjue asks from Jiang Cheng’s other side, where he settled down with his own bucket of ice. “You can share mine, too,” he offers almost absentmindedly and Jiang Cheng suspects that the feeding thing is not restricted to Nie Huaisang alone.

“She did,” Jiang Cheng admits around a spoonful of ice cream. “But mostly for Wei Wuxian,” he then admits, something he never dared to say before. “I’m not even that much of a fan of lotus pork rib soup,” he whispers and Nie Mingjue just looks at him for a very long time.

“You will tell her that, eventually,” he then decides and Jiang Cheng shrinks in on himself.

“Hey, cut it out, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang suddenly says from across the couch and leans around to smack his spoon on Nie Mingjue’s arm before he turns towards Jiang Cheng. “Don’t listen to him, if you don’t want to tell your sister that, you don’t have to.”

“I tell you, worrywart,” Mo Xuanyu whispers, leaning very close and it’s all ridiculous enough that Jiang Cheng starts to laugh.

“There, that’s better,” Nie Mingjue decides and it’s only then that they resume their movie.

Jiang Cheng didn’t know being almost squished to death on the couch could feel like love.

~*~*~

Despite the yelling he received, Jiang Cheng doesn’t dare to hope for anything on his birthday. He knows it’s better to keep his expectations low, and really. There is nothing they could give him anymore.

They are offering him a family; that’s already more than Jiang Cheng ever dared to wish for.

So when he comes into the kitchen on the morning of his birthday, he’s more than surprised to see a huge cake, but also the smiling faces of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli around the table.

“What are you guys doing here?” Jiang Cheng asks, already close to tears yet again and Wei Wuxian jumps up to hug him.

“We’re here for your birthday,” he tells him and then bodily lifts him off the floor with his crushing hug. “Happy birthday, didi.”

“Hey,” Jiang Cheng complaints but then Jiang Yanli is already there, and she pulls him into a hug as well.

And where Jiang Cheng feared that maybe Wei Wuxian would break his ribs, Jiang Yanli’s is soft and feels like home.

“Happy birthday, A-Cheng,” she repeats and no one mentions it when Jiang Cheng wipes his tears.

“Happy birthday, asshole,” Nie Huaisang says when Jiang Cheng finally takes a seat at the table, and Nie Mingjue immediately cuffs him over the head.

“No bad words at the table,” he says, and Jiang Cheng is reasonably sure that’s a rule he just made up, but Nie Huaisang just glares at him before he turns back to Jiang Cheng.

“That is our present,” he then says and Jiang Cheng frowns.

“I don’t think I understand,” he admits and Nie Huaisang sighs, but his face softens.

“A day with your family,” he then explains. “You get cake and us, and we’re going to gorge ourselves on too much take-out food and unhealthy shit, and there will be some alcohol in the evening and tomorrow we’ll all regret whatever we will do today. That’s our birthday present to you.”

Jiang Cheng has to blink very rapidly to keep from crying, but in the end he simply gives in.

“And I am damn well liking it,” he says under his tears, causing Nie Huaisang to laugh and everything is a blur after that.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

It’s exactly like Nie Huaisang promised him it would be; too much of everything—especially sugar—but utterly perfect and easily the best birthday present Jiang Cheng has ever gotten.

Next part

#bt writes #jclovemonth2020 #the untamed #mdzs #jiang cheng #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #mo xuanyu #jiang yanli #wei wuxian #modern au #found family #hurt/comfort #fluff #birthday presents

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ibijau · 3 years

Note

How about MingCheng with 30? As far as I remember, we have no textual evidence that NMJ knows how to swim, so it’s a great opportunity for JC’s accomplished swimming skills to be needed!

set in the short window of time between JC returning from Gusu, and the Wen Summer Camp From Hell

Nie Mingjue turned around when they reached the edge of the dock and frowned.

“Where’s Huaisang?”

Jiang Cheng, interrupted in the middle of his explanation about the trade they got thanks to the lake, turned as well to check. Wei Wuxian was a few steps behind them, as he had been for most of their visit of Yunmeng, but there was no trace of Nie Huaisang with whom he had been chatting.

It was, sadly, not as big of a surprise as it should have been. Jiang Cheng knew his shixiong, and he knew Nie Huaisang too… and neither of them were subtle people when they were planning mischief, no matter how clever they seemed to think they were.

Wei Wuxian laughed, just a little too high pitched to be sincere. Nie Mingjue scared him, Jiang Cheng suspected, so it must have been Nie Huaisang who had come up with whatever they were doing, since he was the only person in the world who didn’t fear Nie Mingjue.

“Oh no, I guess I lost Nie-xiong in the crowd!” Wei Wuxian gasped. “I will go look for him right away, don’t worry Nie zongzhu! Just continue the visit with Jiang Cheng and we’ll catch up with you later!”

Jiang Cheng glared at him. If Wei Wuxian insisted on lying, couldn’t he learn to do it well at least? He was so transparent when he was dishonest, and without surprise, Nie Mingjue noticed, because he was a lot smarter than his reputation led people to expect. Cleverness ran in that family, though Nie Mingjue had the good grace of being less annoying about it than his brother.

Nie Mingjue frowned at the lie, and started looking around, trying to catch a glimpse of his brother. There weren’t too many people around the docks at the moment, so if Nie Huaisang was missing, he must have ditched them earlier, when they went through the market.

“I’ll find him,” Nie Mingjue grumbled, more resigned than properly angry. “That damn brat…”

“No, no, it’s fine, I’ll take care of this!” Wei Wuxian insisted. “Don’t bother, stay with Jiang Cheng and continue the visit, it’s fine, I know Yunmeng well and, uh…”

Nie Mingjue ignored him and passed by him without so much as a glance, like someone far too used to youngsters’ antics.

Wei Wuxian laughed nervously, and then, because he always made the worst of decisions, he shoved Nie Mingjue to the side. This caught Nie Mingjue completely by surprise, and since he wasn’t bracing himself for an attack, he lost his balance and fell.

Since they were on a pier, he fell into the water with a loud splash.

Jiang Cheng gaped at Wei Wuxian who winced and scratched his nose uncomfortably.

“I slipped?” he tried. “Oops? Anyway, I’d better go look for Nie-xiong now, bye!”

“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng roared, but it was already too late. The other boy had already dashed away, leaving Jiang Cheng to deal with his mess, as always.

Not feeling particularly eager to get yelled at for something he hadn’t even done, Jiang Cheng walked to the edge of the pier to look down at Nie Mingjue, ready to apologise and to tell him how to get back on dry land. There were a few spots with ladders along the docks, precisely for that sort of situation, and they were never too far away.

When he looked down, he saw Nie Mingjue behind oddly still and silent in the water, his head thrown back and gasping for breath, his eyes wide and panicked. Once or twice he made movement with his arms, as if trying to raise himself above the surface of the water, but his flapping was too clumsy to do anything.

It took Jiang Cheng a moment to understand what was going on, because he hadn’t seen it often. Everyone in Yunmeng knew how to swim at least a little. And since Nie Huaisang had come to play with Wei Wuxian and him near water more than once, Jiang Cheng knew his friend could swim as well.

Apparently, his brother couldn’t.

Nie Mingjue couldn’t swim, and he was drowning.

As soon as he realised this, Jiang Cheng dove into the water, only to find it cold enough his muscles tensed instantly. He forced himself to warm up and relax through controlling his Qi as his father had taught him, then swam toward Nie Mingjue. In that short amount of time, the young man had already gone underwater, still weakly flapping his arms. Jiang Cheng managed to swim closer and, approaching him from behind, grabbed him so they could both get back to the surface.

By then, the fact that there were two people in the water had been noticed, and people were coming to help. A few passerbys pulled Nie Mingjue out of the water, and helped Jiang Cheng as well.

Thankfully, Nie Mingjue didn’t seem to have swallowed too much water. Once back on firm land again, he coughed up water and started breathing with only small difficulty, though he was shaking pretty bad. The water had been pretty cold, even for cultivators. Jiang Cheng himself was starting to shiver, though he hardly noticed, too focused on Nie Mingjue.

“Someone get me some a blanket!” he ordered toward the crowd that had gathered. “And go warn Jiang zongzhu that there’s been an accident. Now!”

At some other time, it might have pleased Jiang Cheng that his order was obeyed without delay. For the time being, he was more worried about making sure Nie Mingjue didn’t fall into hypothermia, so while circulating his Qi to raise his own temperature back to normal, Jiang Cheng started pulling on Nie Mingjue’s wet clothes.

“Buy me a drink first,” the man grumbled, though he didn’t push him away. “If you planned this with Huaisang to get my attention…”

“Yes, I always try to murder the people I like to make them think well of me,” Jiang Cheng grumbled, struggling with wet ties for a while. “Why… how do you have so many layers? What are you, a Lan?”

Nie Mingjue chuckled weakly. He didn’t complain when Jiang Cheng gave up mid-way on undressing him to instead wrap him in the blanket someone had brought. Nie Mingjue seemed to be doing better already, but still looked a little unfocused. They’d have to keep a close eye on him for the entire day to come, Jiang Cheng knew. After that he’d be fine, but the first day after that sort of incident was the most dangerous.

Mostly it’d be dangerous for Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng.

Madam Yu was going to murder them for causing a diplomatic incident.

#mingcheng #nie mingjue #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #mo dao zu shi #jau writes #somewhat trying to get back into it #I now know more about drowning than I wished to know #it's actually one of my biggest fear so this was... interesting to write to say the least #Anonymous

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winepresswrath · 3 years

Note

Listen when I asked why Wen Ning would tap JC i wasn’t hating, it was an invitation to be enlightened. I was always down for Chengning as I am down for any and all JC pairings, but this one in particular was difficult to imagine BC I’ve had the thought that WN is emotionally intelligent, though maybe I’m wrong there. So, to make it clear, are we 100% saying that WN/JC will start out as hate sex? I may be trying to trick you into writing more bullet points.

I can’t be tricked into bullet points! I have to be feeling them!

I’m not sure I’d characterize Wen Ning as emotionally intelligent. He’s very consistently kind and gentle until he’s not, and he’s definitely not terrible at feelings, but I’m not sure they’re a particular strength.

He’s good at understanding his sister’s feelings, for sure, and I think having had a core relationship that strong and supportive where they knew each other so well really helps with his overall stability.

That being said I also think Wen Ning and Jiang Cheng could jointly have a lot of feelings about being babied and maybe discounted and condescended to a little, disliking that, and then having it go away in pretty much the worst way possible.

Wen Ning is also very, very lonely. I think he was lonely even before he became the (almost) lone not-survivor of a reviled clan of murderous assholes and that didn’t really help with the situation. He can join the sad lonely socially isolated gongzis club Zixuan and Lan Wangji kicked Jiang Cheng out of for making friends with Wei Wuxian (unfair, bcs Lan Wangji has Xichen but WHATEVER).

We are not 100% saying that it begins as hate sex but I do think their relationship starts out in a pretty rough place.

A key feature of the appeal to me personally is that Jiang Cheng is basically the only person Wen Ning, who is usually so gentle and diffident, gives himself permission to be mean to. It perversely makes me long for scenarios in which Wen Ning could bring the comfort, rather than the hurt

Like, Wen Ning is a person who will let children bully him because he is afraid of his own strength and I do not think that is a good mindset to enter into a relationship with/

also tbh emotionally the easiest way to knock Jiang Cheng’s knees open is to be someone who he feels like he can count on to protect Jin Ling. You can kind of watch it happen at the temple! I see no reason why it should not also work in a literal way.

Anyway, they keep bumping into each other on night hunts, and they aren’t mean to each other exactly but they certainly aren’t nice

maybe sometimes they are a little mean. but also they keep on having these awkward moments of mutual understanding.

They fight some monsters! Jiang Cheng yells about the juniors’ ghost banishing skills in a way that means they’re doing very well. Wen Ning at some point picks up two juniors by the back of their robes and jumps into a tree with them and Jiang Cheng is like. wow. he’s very strong. i bet when my mom did that to me and Wei Wuxian we looked exactly that stupid and then is briefly overcome with feeling

fortunately there’s a monster right in front of him he can beat to death

The plot happens happens and they get hit by something bigger than they were expecting, and they have to go all out or it’s going to go terribly wrong and both of their beloved reasons for persisting in their cursed existences could perish

Jiang Cheng realizes that he’s actually glad that Wen Ning is there. he trusts him to have his back in this one simple but vital way way. Thinks he’ll probably be able to grab the kids and make a run for it if he has to.

he shoves this realization deep down in the feelings hole

Meanwhile, on Wen Ning’s end of things he is processing that Jiang Cheng appears to be relying on him in this fight? and they’re working well together? ok. sure. that’s fine. he totally gets people trusting him and wanting him around in dangerous situations all the time.

Jiang Cheng really doesn’t seem to think he’s going to punch anyone to death. but like. maybe he does. maybe Wen Ning is wrong, and this isn’t trust, it’s just expediency, because Jiang Cheng seemed very clear on the accursed zombie thing.

Jiang Cheng takes a hit! And yells at Wen Ning to get the juniors out of there, so ok, that’s trust, but also Jin Ling is cursing out his uncle and frantically trying to get to him and clearly not going anywhere without him, and the rest of them aren’t going anywhere without Jin Ling, so Wen Ning just brute forces his way in there (is it a melee now? don’t ask me to do blocking on a bullet point list) and grabs Jiang Cheng

Bridal carry because I said so

The Status Quo has Shifted at some point Wei Wuxian is going to be making Zombie viagra for hate(?) ok probably more like vaguely antagonistic but extremely fraught sex.

#i DO really like hate sex but i'm not sure wen ning would #also like #the zombie viagra is not a GIVEN and even if they don't have it #far be it from me to say you need blood pressure in a dick to fuck #but i do think the possibility that #wen ning has to go to jiang cheng's older brother for ~assistance~ might put a #bit of a damper on the bad idea spontaneity that underlies so much hate sex #also it's FUNNY ok wei wuxian you don't get to zombie punch your way out of dealing with inlaws forever!#or maybe you do on account of jiang cheng's personality and inclinations #but i enjoy it when you don't

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many-gay-magpies · 3 years

Text

@honeyseungz @loabivey so that uh. that mini au that you had like a very small rb thread about yesterday (well over a few days ago now that im posting this). well uh. um . actually you know what im just gonna let you read it yourselves

so. heeseung, jay, and sunoo are all brothers. wether its actual brothers or just "brothers" by blood bond or whatever idk. but, regardless, they're brothers. im thinking that like, at first they aren't vampires, theyre just regular dudes yknow? (and just a forewarning, a lot of this isnt gonna be as compliant with the enhaverse theorizing we've done so far, it's just a little brain worm i wanted to play around with, throwing a little bit of enhaverse crumbs in here and there)

but anyway. they're not vampires, im thinking theyre just like... adopted/found family brothers, probably orphans or something. regardless they love each other a lot and its great. personality-wise everything is super different, but just for plot conveniences, heeseung, jay, and sunoo are the yunmeng trio (heeseung as wwx, jay as jc, and sunoo as jyl respectively), and jungwon is lwj.

the three brothers meet jungwon, probably brought together by this Big Fantasy Evil, maybe something involving the vampire queen as a character? idk. there's some big evil shit going down, and the three brothers somehow end up with jungwon and HIS big bro, who im imagining is jake (basically the lan xichen in this situation—very soft, kind, gentle; the vibes are right). both of them are vampires, not that our three orphan bois know that. they get caught up in the danger, and vampire bros jake and jungwon coms to the rescue.

now, a little bit of personality-mapping here: jay is outwardly very loud, fun, temperamental, and sarcastic, generally very much like he is irl; but inside, he's intensely loyal, protective, and loving, with a HUGE soft spot for the people closest to him. sunoo is very sweet, sensitive, and kind—the walking hug of the three brothers, who is certainly not without his bite and wont hesitate to talk back to anyone who hurts them. aggressively and without mercy. also he makes them soup for comfort and is generally best boy. heeseung is very goofy, playful, free-spirited, and bright, but insecure and sensitive underneath it all; generally a loud annoying mess of a boy. pure chaotic neutral and a gremlin if there ever was one. jungwon, on the other hand, is... not. he's nervous, quiet, cautious to a fault and intensely righteous, always standing up for what's right and refusing to waver from his chosen path. very lawful good vibes. he, naturally, is more than a little put off when jay, sunoo, and heeseung's chaotic ass come crashing into he and his brother jake's once-peaceful (ish) lives. and it doesn't help that heeseung is a... huge flirt, and apparently deadset on making jungwon his friend. fuck.

jungwon... doesn't know what to do. and it would all be so much easier if heeseung were dumb or stupid or unattractive or just a total asshole—but he isnt any of those things. he's beautiful, smart, insanely witty with a brain faster than any jungwon's ever seen—he can't help but admire him. but on top of that, he's wreckless as hell, unpredictable, and pushy, and gives jungwon heart attacks way too much for his liking. he doesn't even have a heartbeat. he's fucking dead.

it eventually comes out that jake and jungwon are vampires; the brothers are surprisingly cool with it. not the craziest thing that's happened to them.

the five boys get closer, staying together as they fight their foe (which im becoming increasingly inclined to make the werewolves), and through a series of convoluted events, jungwon learns that heeseung is not only gorgeous, smart, talented, and funny as all get-out, but also sensitive, caring, insecure, and thoughtful... and heeseung, who's only goal had been to break through the nervous and straightforward outer shell of his young dongsaeng, does just that. and jungwon, naturally, starts to fall in love.

somewhere along the line, though, things go wrong—as they were bound to do in an au loosely based off of the untamed. something happens to heeseung; he's fatally wounded after saving jay's life, and disappears, nowhere to be found. his brothers eventually assume the worse; that he's gone forever. but the queen finds him, takes care of him, nurses him back to health. turns him.

when he comes back, nothing's the same. the war is still going, and his brothers thought he was dead—but he isn't. but he's... different. jungwon and jake are quick to realize that he's been turned, how, they dont know—but they talk to him, teach him, try to help him, jungwon especially. of course he does; he's in love. heeseung, of course, is dismissive; doesn't take it seriously. ill be fine, whats so bad about this? or, perhaps, he doesn't let on just how hard he's taking it; fearing vulnerability more than he fears being a vampire.

inevitably, though, heeseung's wrecklessness leads to doom—he lets his bloodlust overtake him, relishes in it, no matter how much jungwon had warned him against it, pleaded with him to take caution. he says it's usefull—says he can help them take out enemies, help them win this war. jungwon warns him that he could end up getting more than he bargained for. heeseung doesn't listen.

heeseung helps them win the war; practically wins it for them. hes happy, bitterly, until he isnt. he's happy, until he sees his brother—sees sunoo. blood-covered, pale-skinned, drained.

no.

heeseung is broken. jay even moreso. jay yells at him; yells and yells and yells and yells. curses him out, tells him he hates him, tells him he's nothing but cruel evil—he doesn't mean it, of course, but no one knows it then, not even him. now he is only angry; so, so angry. heeseung, wrought with guilt and shame and grief, flees—hides himself somewhere secluded, does the closest thing a vampire can possibly do to death, the equivalent of a thousand-year hibernation. none can find him, he's made sure of that. in his guilt and shame and anger he stews, asleep, for hundreds, thousands of years.

after the anger passes, jay is more than anything in mourning—for heeseung as well as for sunoo. he has a realization, that being that, when, inevitably, heeseung comes back, he doesn't want him to be alone: even if he'll have jungwon and jake, it won't be the same as having his brother. so jay pleads, cries, begs for jungwon to turn him—so that they can search for heeseung together, so that when heeseung comes back, he'll have jay waiting for him, too. so, reluctantly, jungwon gives in and turns jay—after which he helps him deal with his newfound immortality and vampiric status—helping him handle his bloodlust and helping him learn how to feed. over the centuries that heeseung is gone, jay, jungwon, and jake grow even closer (j line eyyy), inseparable as they search for heeseung and even outside of that. jungwon and jay are the closest, jay growing a colossal soft spot for the boy and not hesitating to take him under his wing and protect him with all he has (initially, sort of as a replacement for protecting heeseung, but eventually jay's affection for jungwon grows into something all it's own). to be clear, no love triangle bullshit here, only sickening-sweet platonic soulmates jaywon and a jungwon that is still achingly in love with heeseung.

(okay for anyone thats actually watched cql/read mdzs, yes i KNOW lwj and jc did not get along at all and kind of hated each other but. this is my au i do what i want, and if i want to add soft jaywon into the mix then im fucking going to, goddamnit)

OKAY TIME FOR SOME WACKY SIDE-PLOT MADNESS

so. sunghoon. how does he fit into all this? how does he end up being the one to trigger heeseung's "resurrection"? how does heeseung GET resurrected in the first place? well, not to worry, you're about to find out! and i am too because i'm just figuring this out as i go along baybyyyy

sunghoon, im thinking, is a friend of jake's (lets throw some jakehoon in here too bcs why not), either from before everything went to shit and heeseung went and isolated himself, or sometime during the numerous centuries jakewon spent looking for heeseung with jay. either way, sunghoon is this boy who jake is friends with and cares about a lot, and is also maybe kind of in love with. while jaywon spend most of their time looking for heeseung, jake spends his with sunghoon—finding himself often alone, now that his little bother is going off on his own adventures.

in a situation quite similar to heeseung's, sunghoon probably gets fatally injured somehow and is near death, but jake, not wanting him to die, decides to turn him instead. niki is also involved, and it's a sort of package deal, because before meeting jakewon, heeseung, and everyone, they were their own little thing; not unlike jay, heeseung, and sunoo's brother's triad. they were both probably orphans, niki being the much younger one, and as such sunghoon took him under his wing and never looked back. when jake turned sunghoon, niki was basically like "m8 what the fuck" and demanded he be turned too, not wanting his sunghoon-hyung to live on forever while he grew old and died. jake, also having a soft spot for niki, was like "fine alright" and turned him too. so, now their little vampire coven numbered five, and all was (moderately) well.

or not.

the thing was, jake hadn't anticipated how powerful sunghoon would be—there's nothing in life that anyone's found yet that would indicate a person's level of power once turned, so jake had... pretty much no way to see this coming. but, anyway, sunghoon was... really, really powerful. like, insanely powerful. all the abilities vampires were said to have in legends, the likes of which were previously reserved for just legends, he had them; flawless teleportation, mind control, shape-shifting, the whole bit. and on top of that, he was controlled—insanely good at monitoring himself and keeping tabs on his own instincts. one of the most self-sufficient, well-mannered vampires jake had ever seen. it was... frankly insane.

the problem? the queen. this is where she comes in, because she's played a part in all the boys' transformations, albeit indirectly—when jake and jungwon first turned, it was she who turned them. she could sense sunghoon's power, and she wanted it for herself. jake and jungwon had done well at avoiding her, even forgetting about her for a while; but what she wanted, she took, and take she did. it was sunghoon she took: luring him to her in small increments and then all at once, taking control of him, turning him into a mindless puppet. sunghoon had always prided himself in control, and without it, havoc wreaked: bodies dropping left and right, people being killed seemingly at random, their only purpose being to instill fear and paranoia.

now, niki had heard tales, before, from his hyungs but also from regular townspeople to whom the legend had gotten passed down, of heeseung, and how great and terrible he was. heeseung, the townspeoples' folktales said, had been insane, unstoppable: a mad genius far too gone for redemption. niki also knew from his hyungs' fond stories that heeseung, more than evil, was kind and caring; he was loyal, and powerful in his loyalty, and niki thought that if anyone could save his sunghoon-hyung, it was heeseung.

so niki went on a journey. without telling jaywon or anyone else (and thus causing quite the panic), he spent years searching for heeseung, everywhere jaywon had thought to look and everywhere they hadn't, and twice more for good measure. and, by some stroke of luck, either due to his own sheer force of will of something else entirely, niki found him: locked away in an old castle that never quite seemed to stay put, constantly phasing in between realities. it made sense why no one had found him before then—he didn't want to be found. desperately, in fact.

but niki, too, was desperate. he enacted a ritual that was said (by jake, so of course it was to be trusted) to wake any vampire that had gone into hibernation, and, miracles continuing to work for the bitter young boy, it worked. heeseung awoke—startled to find himself staring into the face of a very teary, very angry (visibly) sixteen-year-old.

confusion passed, things and motives were explained, and heeseung (although bitter at having been woken up, and still riddled with enough guilt to last 1500 lifetimes) attempted to patiently tell niki that he had no fucking idea how to help sunghoon whatsoever. niki pretty much said "well you better fucking find a way because you're not going back to sleep now, the world's about to fucking end. also jay and jungwon-hyung have been looking for you for literal centuries, do you know how pissed theyd be if i went out looking for you, found you, then came back empty-handed? really fucking pissed is how much. also sad. did i mention sad?" and heeseung, notoriously weak and also kind of (read: very) in love, is just like "...jungwon? jay?"

so niki brings heeseung back to the others, the return journey taking a long enough time that the two become significantly close to each other, heeseung's long-forgotten big brother instincts (tm) kicking in around the younger vampire. niki has to basically drag heeseung out of the castle by his teeth, because as much as he misses his brother and jungwon, he's still so incredibly guilty, and completely convinced that he isnt worth love or life whatsoever and that jay still hates his guts. and, jungwon... he doesn't even want to think about jungwon. how he failed him. how he let him down. but, niki slowly works through the insecurities, bit by bit: assuring heeseung that, no, even though jay will definitely rip him a new one once he sees him again, he'll also cry and hug him for at least 24 hours because he misses him like hell and heeseungie hyung you have no idea.

they weather a lot together. storms, mental breakdowns, bouts of blood-starvation so severe heeseung thinks he'll lose it again: but they're there for each other. they hunt, talk, keep each other warm, and in it, form an unbreakable bond. niki had heard tales of the legendary lee heeseung, who wiped out entire armies in two seconds flat and comforted his friends when they were sad and annoyed jay to the very ends of the earth: but what he's faced with is a man with more insecurities than niki has hairs on his head—and he has a lot of hairs on his head.

by the time they make it back to the coven's home, heeseung has grown sufficiently attached to the enigma that is niki, and has almost completely but it out of his mind that he's here for his old friends, too. he's only doing this for niki: it's a fact he's comfortable with. so when they reach the front steps he just... freezes.

i have a very clear image of it in my head—jungwon, jay, and jake sense niki's presence, in some weird vampire-y way. it's been around 10, 15 years since he left at this point, so of course they rush out to greet him, ready with scoldings and lashings about how stupid he had been (after, of course, making sure he's unharmed and alright)—but it all dies on their tongues as soon as they see who's with him.

frozen. everything is frozen.

i imagine it's a lot like lulu and artzyy's post. jungwon is the first to move, stepping forward and whimpering out a broken "hyung", and all heeseung's guilt and avoidance is forgotten in favor of cradling jungwon to his chest, holding him close and whispering reassurances into the crown of his head, wonnie, im so sorry, hyung's so sorry; i didn't mean to leave you for so long, i'm here now, its okay. and of course then jay comes in, crying and screaming about how the fuck is it okay, how can it ever be okay, how could you just not mean to leave us alone for 1500 years?! how the fuck do you just expect to waltz back into our lives like nothing ever happened and pretend its all okay?!? and then he hits him, and hurts him, tries to make him feel even an inkling of the hurt he was made to feel for the past fifteen hundred years—but then punching him turns into fisting hands into the back of his shirt and sobbing into his neck and holding him so tight he wouldn't be able to breath if he had the need to and please, please don't leave, why would you leave, you asshole, why did you leave?

so yeah. things happen. reunions are had, tears are shed. some indirect heewon love confessions probably happen later on in the form of very intense devotions of life and self and all that. "walking on the single-log bridge in the dark really isnt so bad" you know the whole shbang. meanwhile jay salty in the background just like "cant you just say you love each other like normal human beings jesus fucking christ"

jayseung's relationship (or the reigniting of it) is, well, rocky. they're both conflicted—jay even more than heeseung. because, the thing is, heeseung killed sunoo. as regretful as he is, that doesn't make it any easier to forget. but he's back, and alive, and in one piece, and he isn't leaving, and jay knows it wasn't really his fault, he wasn't in control—but he killed him. he killed their brother. and it WAS his own stupid fault for losing control in the first place, for not listening to jungwon, so what the hell is jay supposed to think? he flip-flops between being intensely grateful that heeseung is back and okay and finally with them again, and then remembering what he's done, giving him the cold shoulder and not speaking to him for hours on end. and all the while, heeseung is riddled with guilt, and shame, and grief he'd suppressed for far too long; niki's stubbornness combined with jungwon's unwavering support being the only things keeping him from bolting into oblivion all over again. all in all, it's a difficult time—but they get there. eventually.

naturally, they save sunghoon. what else is there to do? they defeat the queen, break her control over their friend—and then jakehoon have their own teary reunion, not unlike heewon's, and sungki have theirs, not unlike jayseung's (although with a... considerable decrease in cursing and conflicted emotions, and a lot more immediate sobbing). they're a mess—sunghoon is traumatized, heeseung is traumatized, jay and niki are traumatized, they're all just fucking traumatized. jayseung will probably take a long time to get back to the way they once were, if it's even possible—there'll always be an empty space there, something gone, something missing, and it's one that can't be filled. jungwon barely lets heeseung out of sight or touch alike, and heeseung isn't much better off. jay's always been the more touchy one out of the three of them; but after years of missing, of longing, there's plenty of time to be made up, and heeseung is just... so, so soft, and warm, and being held by him is the loveliest thing jungwon's ever known.

AND NOW A SUNOO THING, BECAUSE THE IDEA OF ENHA LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER AS OT6 WITH SUNOO JUST FUCKING DEAD DOES. NOT WORK FOR ME

so like. sunoo isn't dead, or he doesn't stay dead, or not the soulless-unmoving kind of dead anyway. you know how necromancy and fierce corpses exist in donghua and shit? well they exist here too because fuck you and also i said so. i made myself sad and now im making it happy again goddamnit.

anyway. after he dies, sunoo gets found by the queen, too, and because she's all-powerful and whatnot she fucking necromances him—figures he'll be useful later. as he is, though, he's basically nothing more than a puppet; like wen ning and song lan were when they were being controlled. his soul isn't... gone exactly, just imprisoned, prevented from being able to come forward and command his body.

so. sunoo is still partially alive, and the boys (jay, jake, jungwon, sunghoon, niki, and whatnot)... don't know that. i imagine that for pretty much the entirety of the centuries that heeseung is gone, sunoo's status as a necromanced fierce corpse goes entirely unknown to them, and it's only after heeseung is brought back by niki that he starts to resurface. i imagine they realize it in a sort of tense, action-filled scenario: the boys have gone to investigate another attack, thinking it's sunghoon, but as it turns out the queen has had TWO undead corpses running around doing her dirty work instead of one. and one of them is sunoo.

heeseung and jay, of course, are stunned. they cant believe it's real; it isn't real, it can't be—and yet.

a lot of angsty plot stuff happens—i dont have the energy or enough shits to give to figure out what. the thing is, the queen only kept sunoo this long and brought him out as a tactic to lure heeseung, make him weaker; and it probably worked. in the midst of both fighting against sunghoon and fighting to SAVE sunghoon, heeseung is bent on saving sunoo as well, and there's probably a lot of very angsty talk wherein there are disagreements about who's life, really, is more important in this situation, and if heeseung is just trying to make up for what he did to sunoo. regardless, heeseung ends up saving sunoo and bringing his soul back to the surface. what he doesn't expect is for sunoo to forgive him—fully and wholeheartedly. and it feels wrong, because no, you should be angry with me, you should hate me and want to hurt me like i hurt you; but sunoo is just... happy. happy that he's back, happy that heeseung is back, happy that they're all together again. and its conflicting, to say the least. even moreso because sunoo isnt stupid—he didnt just act like heeseung was an innocent who did no wrong; he knew he had been wreckless, knew he was at fault, and he forgave him still. loved him still. that was something heeseung... hadn't been prepared for.

like i said in the last part, they save sunghoon; how, im not sure, but they save him, probably with a fair bit of sunoo's help, and they're together again. only the tiny difference here is that sunoo is with them too. sunoo is back, and the gang has yet another undead bestie to teach the ropes of being a vampire to. things are awkward, obviously, especially between the original brother's trio of heeseung, sunoo, and jay; because sunoo is his usual sweet and kind self while jay believes that he should be more angry at heeseung for killing him, heeseung agrees, and jay has some very conflicted feelings about how self-depricating his hyung is being (because like... yeah you killed sunoo and im supposed to hate you but you're not supposed to hate yourself, you idiot, what the fuck?)

(also like. if we're gonna take some more crumbs from cql canon here im gonna go ahead and say sunoo's death was at least somewhat self-sacrificial, even if it was heeseung that ended up causing it in the end)

(i kind of love how jiang cheng-y i made enhaverse jay here to be honest)

(okay this has been in my drafts WAY too long because ive been waiting for some miraculous Other Detail i need to add to pop up in my mind, but honestly i can just add anything else i think of in a reblog afterwards, this bitch just needs to see the light of day)

#magpie thoughts #magpie writes #??? kind of ???#enhaverse #enhaverse theories #ALSO kind of???#enhaverse writing #enhaverse aus #the untamed/cql #the untamed spoilers #idk but just to be safe ig .

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watch-grok-brainrot · 3 years

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For the minific ask meme: Jiang Yanli and U. coming home.

So… I LOVE this prompt. Thank you !!! What i wanted to do with this took a few brain jumps. First, i wanted a story about soup and about Yanli feeling like her role is to use soup to stabilize everything and heal. Then, i thought about writing a dark Yanli that haunts JC -- but that’s so OOC I decided not to go there. Finally I settled on this. It has been in my head for over a month, trying to figure out how I want to write this. Thank you for your patience!

Earth Offical’s Pardoning

Rated G

Word Count: 1213 (+/- 5 because I never let things be)

Content: cql compliant not other adaptations/novel compliant, canonical characters being dead, family feels, sad JC, baby!jin ling, mention of food because when do i not mention food?, holidays, visiting people, watching her child growing up, childhood development milestones

----

Zhongyuan Festival. Earth Offical’s Pardoning. The fifteenth day of the seventh month. On this day, the doors of the underworld opened and Jiang Yanli found herself walking hand-in-hand with her husband towards the world of the living.

They traveled first to Carp Tower. Zixuan wanted to unite with their son and his family before seeing A-Cheng. Their gossamer forms breezed over the tower stairs and into the main complex. The small lotus pond Zixuan had built for her was abandoned -- brown lotus stems and dried lily pads stuck out of drier ground.

Zixuan squeezed her hand and they headed towards his family’s Ancestral Hall. Jin Guangyao was in the midst of orchestrating a grand ceremony to honor the ancestral spirits. Jin Ling could not be found. Zixuan stepped before his still grieving mother, knelt, kowtowed thrice with tears in his eyes. He then stood up and tried to comfort her with intangible hands; they trailed over her shoulders and cupped around her face. Jiang Yanli bit her lip and looked away.

After half a shichen of listening to insufferable ceremonies, Jiang Yanli grew impatient. Zixuan noticed her anxious hands and returned by her side. Jiang Yanli took her husband’s hand, “Let’s go see A-Cheng and Ling’er.”

Together they folded the fabric of existence and stepped over to Lotus Pier. Crossing the threshold, they flew over the familiar lotus motif of the training grounds, straightened and then landed before the sword practice hall. Walking down the wooden corridors, Jiang Yanli traced her fingers through the hated cracks and scorch marks left from the Sunshot Campaign. A-Cheng kept them intentionally, persevering their appearance. They served to motivate the new disciples, to guide people in righteousness, and to remind everyone what the sect had once lost.

She glided along the familiar winding paths, missing the way wood once felt beneath her feet. She loved the twists and turns, like life, like rivers, like fate. There was something comforting to the seemingly inefficient corridors of her childhood home. Zixuan trailed behind, commenting occasionally on the beauty of said home.

A few lotus species remained in bloom in the late summer. Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan stopped to admire the multi-layered ombre hues; their bodies hovering over the flowers, their hands failing to make the flowers waver at their touch.

When they finally stepped into the Jiang Sect Ancestral Hall, Jiang Yanli realized Lotus Pier had been strangely devoid of people this entire time. Had A-Cheng sent everyone else away?

A pot of Lotus root and pork rib soup, plates of sweet and fragrant pastries, fresh fruit, and fresh lotus pods were set out as offerings for Jiang Yanli, for her parents, and for the other ancestors. A-Cheng sat at the edge of the lotus altar, as she often did after their parents’ death. Ling’er squirmed in A-Cheng’s left arm as his left hand held a wooden tablet. His right hand was pointing at the text on the tablet -- the tablet with her name.

“A-Ling, this is my Jiejie, your mother. She was the most amazing person. I hope you grow up to be strong, kind, and intelligent, just like her,” A-Cheng said as he bounced Ling’er on one knee, his voice cracking as he spoke.

Zixuan let go of her hand and she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around her little brother and her child. Shortly after, Zixuan sat down next to her and held his hand out to caress their toddler son. They had missed so many months of his infancy.

“Ling-er is so big now. He has gotten half again as big as he was when I last saw him,” Zixuan said.

Jiang Yanli hovered her hand over her child’s head, “He babbles now. I wonder who he talks to. Is the wetnurse good for him? Does he have friends? Is he lonely? Is there someone to respond to his babbling?” Her vision blurred as she blinked back tears.

The two of them sat by A-Cheng and Ling’er, watching A-Cheng play with the boy and teach the boy. Who would bet someone with as deadly a title as Sandu Shengshou would be so gentle with a child?

Ling’er became fussy and A-Cheng set him down. The baby pulled himself up by A-Cheng’s robes and reached up to ask for A-Cheng’s hand.

“You can do this yourself,” A-Cheng responded gently and shooed Ling’er away from him.

Ling’er’s bottom lip quivered.

“I know you can walk if you try. Look, I’ll catch you if you fall, ok? But at least try. Maybe your parents are here. It would be nice if they were around to see you take your first steps.”

A-Cheng picked up Ling’er, stood up, and set Ling’er next to the altar for stability. Then he took 3 large steps back, squatted down, and motioned for the baby.

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan watched, captivated by the two of them. Would they really be so lucky to witness their child’s first steps today?

Ling’er reached for his uncle. He took a few steps balanced against the altar and then pushed off. A step, two steps, and then teetered forward. Zidian flew out and caught the child. “A-Ling, good job! If only your mother were here, she would be so proud of your first steps!”

Jin Zixuan yelled, “Zidian! A vicious spiritual weapon was just used on our baby! What is your brother thinking? That’s dangerous!”

Jiang Yanli smiled, “A-niang taught us how to walk like this. Zixian knows bloodlines and the owner’s intent. It can be as steady as a banister while feeling more gentle than a dandelion puff.”

They spent the rest of their day with A-Cheng. They watched Ling’er be fed, be held, be coddled. They watched A-Cheng patiently teaching, softly holding, and playfully carrying the boy. Ling’er clung to A-Cheng and A-Cheng to Ling’er. Afterall, they were the closest blood relatives each other had.

Time flew and night fell. A-Cheng took Ling’er to the market on the docks. Jiang Yanli knew the day was ending; her time here was ending. A-Cheng purchased a violet and gold lotus with nine intricate petals and a candle shaped like a lotus pod. He set Ling’er down and handed the lantern to the boy.

“Hold.”

Ling’er took the lantern by a corner, waved it, and dropped it to play with the lotus pod candle that fell out. Jiang Yanli felt Zixuan’s arm around her waist squeeze her close. If they were still part of the living, watching her brother and her child bond like this would be bliss.

A-Cheng picked up the lantern, took Ling’er’s hands and set the candle inside. He then lit the wick with his spiritual energy. The light from the flame flickered, casting violet and gold shadows over the uncle and nephew duo who belonged to the sects of violet and gold.

A-Cheng swooped Ling’er into an arm and gently set the lantern in the water with his free hand. Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan felt themselves drawn towards the lotus lantern. They held each other close and watched A-Cheng walk away with Ling’er towards Lotus Pier. They stood in place but the pull of the lantern carried them away. Lotus Pier slowly faded as they returned to the Earth Offical’s realm.

Notes:

So… there are 3 [something]-yuan festivals. Shang means upper. Zhong means middle. Xia means bottom. They all have an associated saying: for Shangyuan Festival, Heaven Offical’s Blessing (yes, like the title of the novel); for Zhongyuan Festival, Earth Offical’s Pardoning; for Xiayuan Festival, Water Offical’s Salvation. (uh… I chose salvation here because the chinese means relieving/saving from distress/suffering).

I don’t like the sound of A-Ling, so i went with Ling’er. I think JC would try to keep his sister’s naming convention and stick with A-Ling… but I also think Yanli might call Jin Ling Ling’er, especially since er can mean child. E.g. Ying’er LITERALLY means infant so uh… WWX probably didn’t get that name for a reason. XD Though i can see gremlin CSSR calling him that…

Yes, Jin Ling is too young to walk. Maybe JC feeds him spiritual energy when he plays with the baby and so Jing Ling developed a bit faster? IDK. I wanted the story to be set on the Zhongyuan Festival so I fudged childhood development a little. I can also see Jiang Cheng intentionally trying to make Jin Ling do things younger so he can be “better than” or “beat” WWX at things… :/

I think this is only a little sad? Or it starts off sad and ends on an ok note? I’m curious to see what people think

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crossdressingdeath · 3 years

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that post about wwx being a bad parent because evil scary mood swings just reads to me as ableist tbh. we see TWO examples of wwx getting mad in front of a-yuan (which is? a thing parents do sometimes?? and clearly hasn't stopped a-yuan from feeling happy and safe around wwx??) but because wwx is Unstable he's like a danger to small children i guess. yzy and jc can fly into a rage at the kids in their care and it's fine but oh no don't let the scawwy traumatized man raise his voice! the horror!

That’s a good point, actually. Also I think maybe I’ve seen the post now and it was something like “Oh Sizhui still does his best to defuse tense situations and also when he was a kid he put his hand on WWX’s leg to calm him down, clearly he was ~deeply impacted~ by WWX’s ~lack of control~” and it’s like... or maybe he just doesn’t like conflict! Maybe he’s just a genuinely good person who wants to help keep the peace! Maybe when he was a little kid he saw that his parental/big brother figure was upset and wanted to comfort him! Little kids do do that, you know! They don’t have to be ~traumatized~ (by getting yelled at one time) to do it! “LWJ forces him to intercede with his petty refusal to speak to the man who murdered the love of his life and is now being a dick vow of silence!” Or maybe as head disciple it’s Sizhui’s job to speak for his seniors in situations like this! Maybe CQL’s Sizhui is a grown man who is willing to do this thing for someone he clearly respects and loves very much!

But more importantly... yeah, acting like WWX’s ~issues~ had a serious effect on Sizhui’s development when there’s no actual evidence of that beyond him preferring to defuse tense situations before they boil over into outright conflict (which isn’t proof, if anything I’d say it’s proof of LXC having a role in his upbringing; you know, LXC who’s famous for doing his best to defuse situations and who is also Sizhui’s uncle who probably played a major role in raising and teaching him while LWJ was in seclusion?) does feel just a little ableist. Which I hope wasn’t deliberate, but it does have that sort of like... “looking at a kid whose parent has some sort of mental health issue and actively searching for something wrong with them that you can blame on their parent” vibe. You have to really reach to say “Sizhui’s gentle nature and dislike of conflict is a result of WWX losing his cool in front of him like one time during a period Sizhui doesn’t even remember for most of canon” (frankly even the insistence that Sizhui playing mediator is somehow unhealthy when this meta seems to draw mostly from CQL where Sizhui is a grown man and certainly old enough to have decided he wants to emulate his uncle bothers me quite a bit), and that sort of reach aimed at a character who clearly is having some mental health issues seems... maybe not outright malicious, but certainly a bit tone deaf. WWX (and LWJ, because the post complained about him having issues too) does everything he can to raise Sizhui to the best of his ability under the circumstances, and saying him losing his temper twice (and only once actually at Sizhui, and then only for like two seconds) scarred Sizhui for life when most parents yell at their kids way more often than that is, frankly, an insult to him as a character.

#mdzs #cql #wei wuxian #lan sizhui #anon #asks

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gofancyninjaworld · 4 years

Text

The Changing Structure of the OPM Story -- and the Challenge of Adaptation

I've been thinking a lot about the structure of OPM and how it's been changing as we get into the story. I really don't envy anyone who has the task of adapting OPM for screen, particularly as the story advances.

Something that Shingo Natsume says in his interview with AnimeLab Australia really brought it home for me. He says that it's not correct to call the characters around Saitama a 'supporting cast' as they all have their unique roles (start around 2:30). And that got me thinking.

youtube

I think we can broadly divide OPM’s story so far into four phases (the divisions are arbitrary, but I hope useful)

Phase I: INDIVIDUALS

When OPM starts, it's all about the individual characters and there's little focus on the world in which they exist in. It's natural, because we're just being introduced to them. We start out, it's just Saitama, wandering around in splendid isolation. He’s in a world that’s bizarre with giant brothers and underground civilizations, but nothing is explained to us. He exists.

Then it's Saitama and Genos, and it all gets very cosy. Then we add another character. And a few more. We see how they do, we see what some of the people of the world make of them, but we have to take everything on face value, we don’t have a lot of history or context.

Still even at the end of the first phase, we've got not that much context other than that the Hero Association exists to deal with the monsters and threats we see, we've met the Class S heroes and the wider world isn't really in focus as to what their relationship to it means.

The alien invasion really marks the end of this phase as we can’t help but hear what the world makes of the world-shaking fact of having been contacted by aliens and the tragedy of the destruction of a major city.

To adapt it, Shingo Natsume decided to frame the story as a drama first and then a superhero story only secondarily. By doing so, he really made the best of the characters as individuals. We didn’t know why they were the way they were -- in fact, we still don’t entirely know -- but we could come to understand who they were and care about them and be bothered by their relations with the world. We see a lot of it from Saitama’s place and the inhabited world looks remote, fickle, difficult to understand and even hostile. And yet, we get lots to laugh about too.

Interview with Shingo Natsume - Animation Director [Episode 3]

It’s only a couple of minutes long, you’ll want to watch it all.

Phase II: INDIVIDUALS and the world

When King gets introduced, things change. Unlike all the other characters, we don’t get to know King himself, what he says, what he does. Rather, we get what other people around King see in him. What he means to them.

This is where I start not envying people. The first phase, if you’re doing an adaptation, you can largely get by by focusing on the individual characters and their interactions with each other. The second phase is a lot more balanced between the individuals and the world.

As Garou starts cutting a swathe through the heroes and the Monster Association makes life hell for people, the world shares importance with the individuals we're following.

I think that's where season 2's adaptation really struggled. It didn't do such a good job of portraying what all that strife meant to people, the terror and confusion they were feeling, and what a threat to the reputation of the Hero Association it was. Every corner JC Staff cut in not showing the crowds of people, in not showing the extent of destruction or public consternation, every last bit hurt the impact of the story.

When the Monster Association directly challenges the Hero Association, they’re not just out to destroy a group of heroes. We started this phase understanding how people have been able to trust that even in this chaotic world, there are heroes who can end the evil threatening them, or else save them from the danger. And that faith is what is very directly under attack now.

Of course, a certain teenage jerk thinks he’s got what it takes to be the most important individual in the world.

If I were thinking of a frame for this phase, it’d be the loss of innocence and really made the linkage between Amai Mask’s yelling at the heroes at the end of the last season, the faith we saw people have in King and the growing sense of dismay and even betrayal as monsters arose and heroes were nowhere to be found. It’s an increasingly urgent background against which to set the very personal struggles of the various characters we’re following in this part of the story. One that will have a lot of relevance later.

Phase III: Individuals in the World

Whoever takes OPM forward, that problem is only going to get worse. The story moves around ever more relentlessly from scene to scene, from individual to individual and along with it, the world does too. Where to place the weight of our attention is a matter of choice and mastery. Succeed, and we have an epic conflict. Fail and it’s ‘all these things are happening and I can’t keep anything straight.’

Some of that weight needs to be put on the world. Almost from the start, the story frames the individual actions in the context of what it means for the world. We've got the Monster Worship Party, the people so scared of what's happening that they'd rather limit the damage than risk being all destroyed. Garou’s dismay when he realises that he’s not going to be the biggest thing in the world is sobering.

reality, it bites

It’s in this phase that world-building gets serious. We learn about what monsterisation is, are introduced to the concept of a limiter and how individuals may gain power. The manga also builds out more in terms of just why the conflict is happening in City Z, linking together the apparently random dreams of Saitama to the location and the history of just why that part of the city was deserted.

The stakes are clearly drawn by the manga. We literally have two towers rising out of the ruins of a city opposing one another. The Tower of Justice built out of the ashes of City A and the Tower of Despair hauled up through the ruins of City Z. It’s not just the physical struggle between hero and monster that we get, there’s also the philosophical and even spiritual strife between them. A struggle seemingly for the well-being of humanity. All with bonus Garou going through both like a wrecking ball.

and of course, set against all the titans battling, the ordinary little man who has broken past the rules of the world

Phase IV: THE WORLD and its individuals

And now, after the Monster Association, we have the WORLD and the individuals are much smaller. It's become about the movers and shakers and the organisations that influence the world and the individuals are actors going about this changing world. The Hero Association has come in for a critical re-evaluation by the media and public. A rival organisation has arisen. Other organisations start to flex their muscles with varying degrees of covertness, all looking for power and influence.

The history of the world starts to come to view. We learn about the peculiar physical and human geography of this world and a lot more about the role monsters play in the world.

Individuals aren’t forgotten. We start too, to get more background on many characters whose behaviour had hitherto been rather difficult to understand.

It’s been interesting to see Garou’s actual impact. He never became the greatest monster the whole world knew and feared. Rather, he served to potentiate the resentment and strife between the various classes of heroes.

to be fair, this has been a long time coming

We started OPM with all these weird individuals and we loved them as the slightly crazy eccentrics they were. Now one by one, we're getting the contexts they come from and it's beginning to make sense.

all those crazy individuals -- the insecure and empire-building Fubuki, the needlessly antagonistic and over-possessive Tatsumaki, the obsessive ninjas -- all of them are starting to look a lot less crazy. even the cyborg ranting and raving about a mystery cyborg who devastated his life isn’t looking quite so far-fetched any longer. Their truths look to be sadder and wilder than we’d imagined.

The world of OPM is bigger and weirder than any one person within it is able to experience or understand. ONE so far is doing an interesting exercise in telling us about the world, but showing us what it means for the individuals affected by its various aspects.

How an adaptation will keep the story interesting and human and focused while bringing in the sense of scale and context is going to be a real challenge! I do not envy the director. But it's going to be so worth taking on.

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#OPM #meta #story structure #the changing emphasis on the individuals and the world in which they exist in is interesting to observe #ONE has permitted us to enjoy a lot while still keeping it human by focussing on what it means for the individual #but the world does matter -- how an adaptation keeps the balance is going to be good to see #30th #June #2020 #June 30th 2020

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overtureofchaos · 3 years

Text

When Things Change

I was asked by several people to post this one shot on Tumblr. It is also on my Wattpad profile. This is my first attempt at a Y/N one shot, so I hope you enjoy it.

Plot: You and Carisi have been roommates for years, but after a near-death experience, everything changes.

Starts after the events of 18x7

Content: sex, violence, mentions of rape. All mild.

As you stood looking down at the pregnancy test, your stomach flipped more that you thought it ever could. Throwing up in the morning was one thing but this was where the rubber hit the road. It was not just some bug; you had a baby in you. His baby. You could ask yourself how it happened but at the end of the day you knew full well how it happened. Though you and your roommate had long been friends with benefits, mostly on bad nights or heavy cases or around test days, Sonny had already passed the bar so for him the super stressful school days were over. For you though, you were still plugging along trying hard to get your nursing degree. Thankfully you were in clinicals now, but the days were long and sometimes unforgiving. Back when he was still in school you two would have long nights studying and grilling each other. Sometimes those nights would end with a romp but Sonny always used a condom. Not the last time though. Something shifted that day. Not that you two were in love or anything like that, but something in his attitude and mentality.

The day had been normal for you. School, and the afternoon at the coffee shop. That didn’t pay much and with reduced hours, there was a need for more money. You could not let Sonny pay for everything so you took on a side gig in the evenings that seemed easy enough. Before the night in question, Sonny told you about this case where one of the possible witnesses was a professional cuddler. It sounded so ludacris but you kept thinking to yourself it was definitely something you could do and you found her services online, went for an interview and was hired. The job paid well and currently did not have any negative effects on your life. The extra money was nice and because Sonny was always so busy at work he never questioned where your money for bills was coming from. You were not doing anything illegal or even explicit.

Sometimes his days were very long and he would come back tired or cranky or not in the mood to even conversate. That seemed to be more often than usual now. He’d expressed early on a crush on his partner, which was fine because even though the two of you had sex you were not in any way romantically involved. There was no heart in it, just bodies - just sex. He’d had some god-awful cases over the past year or so - someone on his squad died, they’d chased two different serial killers, a cold case serial rapist… the work he did was terrifying but no matter what you two remained the best of friends and could always lean on each other if you just needed to vent.

That particular night, he came in later in the afternoon. Hearing the door, you yelled out but no one responded so you got a little freaked. “Sonny? That better be you!” Nothing. Poking your head out from your room slowly to access the situation you saw your closest friends ever standing in the living room nearly catatonic. How he got home was beyond you. There was blood on his face and in his hairline. Slowly you approached with your hands up and out just in case he wasn’t really connected to reality. Knowing his job was dangerous was something you had long ago settled with. He ran the risk everyday of getting hurt or killed but he loved his job and he was great at it. You could do nothing but respect him for the risks he took day to day to keep both you and the city safe. The closer you got you could see there was blood on his shirt and tie and right on him there was something in his hair. Being a nursing student that had considered working in an ER you recognized the mass as brain matter.

Your expression dropped away. “Holy shit, Sonny. What happened to you?” He did not answer you. Slowly you eased him onto the coffee table. Normally you would yell at him for sitting on the coffee table but all the years you two had lived together you knew his favorite places to sit were tables. Easily three times a week you would snap at him about the perfectly good sofa he could be resting his ass on. He would just smirk like a dick and stay on the table. Or he would stand and thrust his hands into his pockets. The man was happier about pockets than any woman ever could be. He’d flaunt them like nothing else. Unsure what to do you knew he would have been checked out at the scene of whatever happened; surely this was work related. Either way you went to the kitchen and filled a bowl with warm water and grabbed a rag to clean him up. He just sat there staring out the window not responding to anything you were doing. He did, however, let you lead him.

After cleaning his face up, you walked him to his bedroom and started removing his clothes. To hopefully arouse some interest in his current situation, with every button you spoke out what you were doing and rare as it was, you were thankful he was not wearing a three-piece today of all days. You made him sit on the bed and removed his shoes and shimmied him out of his slacks and gently forced him back on the bed. He still had not said a single word. Because you’d lived together for years, you did have the numbers of everyone in his unit and thought very seriously about reaching out to his lieutenant, but if this was not work related you didn’t want to get him in trouble. Sonny would need to tell you what to do. He just laid there, so you left him and took his clothing to clean out any blood and hopefully salvage the shirt and tie. About an hour passed before you decided to check back on him. He had not moved an inch.

The only thing you could think to do was give him some human interaction. Your newly discovered cuddling skills came into play so you stripped down to your tank and undies - to match his attire - and crawled onto the bed in front of him, letting him be the big spoon. It was a good thing no one was working that night because you fell asleep to the sound of his breath steadying on your neck. About maybe four in the morning, you finally felt him stir. His arms wrapped around you and pulled you closer and before long he was rolling you toward him so he could see your face. He hesitated but finally spoke, choking a little on his words, they were rife with emotions.

“Y/N, thank you. You didn’t have to do all that. I mean, I appreciate all of it.”

Clearly he comprehended what you had done for him so it was nice to see he hadn’t had a complete mental break. “Sonny, what happened?” You whispered softly, cupping his cheek. “You had blood on you and, uh, brain?” How do you say that without setting him off again, but the two of you have always been able to speak candidly with each other.

“We had to go to Jersey. This cop had kidnapped a girl and we knew he had her but it was just Lieu and I. I found her in the house but he was in there too and he, uh, he put a gun right to my head. I thought he was going to kill me, Y/N. He maybe would have if Lieu hadn’t shown up when she did. No hesitation, she shot him. In the head. I was able to stay composed when I was with her but the moment I was alone, I couldn’t help but realize I could have died today. And if Mike hadn’t died? I don’t know that Lieu would have been so vigilant, ya know?”

Hearing what he’d been through you could not help but feel those similar emotions. He was still distraught and with you he didn’t have to save face. There was no need for that squad room bravado here. He could be as stripped and bare as he needed to be. He had always allowed the same with you. As close as you were in this moment you were not expecting what happened next. The two of you had sex before but it was always playful, why-the-hell-not kind of sex. It was never romantic and he’d always used to condom. Hell, after you always went to separate bedrooms, so even lying in each other's arms was different, but maybe that contributed. First he kissed you, then he took over and you let him. It wasn’t just sex that night. You felt like you’d made love but never would you admit that to Sonny’s face.

You would; however, tell your closest workmate (B/F) what happened. They knew that you and Sonny fooled around every once in a while and also knew that you cared about him. When you want more from someone, it is usually easier for someone else to see than yourself. Denial is an excellent camouflage. The weeks after things change a little between the two of you. There was a lot more touching and a lot more texts making sure each other were okay. But there was no more sex and you started to think it was just different that one night and things would eventually feel normal again. Pushing down your growing feelings for your roommate was nothing new. That was until you started feeling queasy in the morning.

At work, you walked straight up to B/F and pulled them aside. “I think I’m pregnant.”

B/F just stared at you blankly for a minute before responding. “Like with a baby?”

You couldn’t help but smack them in the arm. “What? Of course with a baby. I can’t have a giraffe. JC, Mary and Joseph, B/F. What am I gonna do?”

“I am assuming this is from your passionate romp with Son-Son? I mean you haven’t said you’ve been with anyone else since the night he almost died, right?” B/F could be a real ass sometimes but no matter what they kept things real. “I mean, Detective Hottie would be a good dad, right? You’re not thinking you’d, you know?” Twirling their finger around insinuating an abortion.

“What? No! Come on, but I mean, I haven’t taken a test yet, so I still need to confirm but I have to do it first thing in the morning. You break before me today. If I give you some cash will you run to the bodega and grab me a test? Please?”

All B/F could do was laugh. “You got it, Y/N. I would do anything for you. Besides, I want to know so I need to be on this journey with you, girl.”

Now, test in hand - more precisely, test in shaking hand, that big plus sign was screaming at you. You could hear Sonny in the kitchen making coffee and probably breakfast. Swallowing you buried the test in the trash, sent B/F a quick text saying it was positive, and then hopped in the shower. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Sonny to come in while you were in there or you when he was, but given there was that screaming gem in the garbage your body tensed the moment you heard him walk in. “Hey, Y/N, where is my green dress shirt? The darker one. Didn’t it come back from the cleaners?”

Relaxing a little you continued to shower,”Yes, it should be in your closest. I picked it up yesterday.”

“It’s not though, I already looked.”

Knowing how out of it you were the day before you bit into your lip thankful Sonny could not see your face. “Check my closet then? I mean, I could have accidentally hung it in mine. I’m not perfect.”

You heard him leave and then yell out to you though you could not make out what he said before he returned. “Bingo. Wow, you know, I never realized how organized you are. I like it.” Next thing I know he is pulling the curtain back and smiling like an idiot. Your first reaction was to cover yourself knowing full well he’d not only seen but explored every part of your body. Still casual sex versus this you were taken aback. Furling your brow you tried not to smile, “Can I help you, detective?” So busy looking at his face you didn’t see he wasn’t dressed until he climbed in the shower with you.

“What the hell, Sonny?” He pulled you close to him and the skin on skin contact made your breath catch. He wasn’t some big strapping hunk all muscle bound, but he was perfect in so many ways. In a suit he looked skinny, but there was enough there to hold onto. There was just enough chest hair to not be gross - not overly hairy and not under hairy like a boy. Lanky suited him. Only 6 feet tall he had the longest thighs you’d ever seen on a man from hip to knee. You thought he was well proportioned everywhere that mattered.

He turned you around and pulled your hair off to the side to gain access to your neck. Even though there were moderate grunts of protest your body was fully responding to his touch. Your back arched and you could feel him hard against you while his hand gripped your hip and forced you closer, his other found your rock hard nipples and started playing with them just before you had to brace yourself against the shower wall. He was in you, kissing and nibbling on your back and neck and with each of his thrusts forward you rocked back in turn. His had left your nipple and made its way down to your clit, sure it was pulsating under his lengthy fingers. The two of you never had shower sex before but if this is what it was like you were willing every day. Holding you close as your body let go, the orgasm he gave you made you nearly collapse. He was soon to follow and it took a few minutes for either of you to recover.

You turned to him with a shit-eating grin and lightly smacked his chest. “What the fuck was that all about? I mean, I am not complaining but it seems out of character. You okay?”

All he could do was kiss you. “You were taking too long and I need to get ready for work too here. I mean, if you’re going to be a shower hog,” he shrugged and pursed his lips as he forced you to change positions with him with a laugh. Now he was under the water, soap in hand.

“So being a shower hog means I get that? Geez, Carisi, I will hog the shower every day then. You aren’t buying yourself free bathroom time.” You returned the laughter and got out of the shower trying your hardest to not glance at the waste basket. Had he seen it? Is that why he was so fucking giddy? Either way, you had class and were gone before he was even out of the shower. The day was long and trying to decide how to tell him was the hardest thing you’d ever encountered. This was a life changer. Kids. Sonny was a proud uncle and godfather, but a father? Like children of his own? On top of that with a woman he lived with and did not love. What would his mother say? Or worse, think of you? Certainly Mrs. Carisi would be overjoyed to have another grandbaby and one from her only son, no less, but Sonny’s dad was a jerk. The two of you spent many nights over the years talking about their parents and even meeting each other’s families, friends and co-workers. People found it hard to believe there was never more between the two of you but aside from very casual sex things had been very much a friendship until he almost got killed.

Walking into work there was definitely a bit of a pep in your step that morning. Had you only taken the pregnancy test, chances were you would feel queasy all day long and not just these morning blahs created by the growing baby Carisi. But Sonny was completely on point this morning and that made you smile enough for B/F to notice. Immediately they came over to you, “Girl, you are glowing! Tell me, tell me. I mean I saw your text but he must have been happy as hell for you to be floating like this!”

Their giddiness was infectious. “Stop it!” You giggled as you pulled them into the back room. “No, I didn’t tell Sonny at all. I think I would have, but he was in a mood this morning. He came into the bathroom several times when I was showering which isn’t out of the ordinary, but he crawled into the shower with me and damn, B/F” You clutched your chest and took a deep breath.

B/F raised a brow. “The shower? Like damn, what has gotten into him lately? He can’t get enough of you girl. It’s that man's prowess. He knows you’re pregnant even if he doesn’t know it. You’re sexier to him and he can’t get enough of you. But seriously, when are you gonna tell him for real?” That was not a question you had an answer for.

Thankfully, in the nicest sense, Sonny caught a case that kept him working, something about a nanny kidnapping the boy she watched because she didn’t like the woman she worked for. That was scary because there were so many nannies in New York City. Would you two have to pay for a nanny? Would that be a question? Your mind said you were not fixing this. There was a baby in existence and that child deserved to live and even if Sonny didn’t love you the way a man should love a child’s mother he would certainly love his kid. That man was way too Catholic to want anything other than the child. Your biggest concern right now was did he already know? You’d thrown the trash down the shoot and the test was still in there. Sonny was just acting weird.

When he finally came home you were sitting at the table doing school work. You said hello but kept studying, trying to get a feel for his mood. Jumping up and running to greet him had never been your way and a couple of crazy encounters shouldn’t change that. He set down his keys, badge and gun; took off his coat and then his wallet. This was his routine and nothing had changed. He was telling you how the case went and how they found the boy safe and unharmed and it was crazy how far people would go to prove they were right. They could break every law and still not feel deserving of the consequences. Then onto the couch. “Hey, Y/N, come here a sec, would ya?”

Tapping your pencil on your notebook, there was seriousness in his voice that raised concern. So you walked around the couch expecting to take his seat on the coffee table but instead he pulled you onto his lap, forcing your legs apart so you were straddling him. Your back arched again. All these years and though you’d found him attractive, these past few weeks were different. Sexiness came from how affectionate he was, or could be, and the man oozed it. He pulled you in for a kiss before talking. “We’ve been doing that a lot lately. Everything okay? I mean it sounded like you guys did good. Saved the child?”

“Yeah, I mean, life is pretty good. I’ve just been thinking. You and me, I know we go way back but here recently I can’t help but think we’re really good together, right? I mean, you could see it if you tried right? Being, maybe, more than just friends? Just roommates?”

That shot a jolt of fear through you. And concern. Had he discovered the test and now he was just trying to do what was right? It was one thing to know you were undoubtedly falling head over heels for this guy but to entrap him with a baby was a totally different scenario. He had every right to be a part of his child’s life but should never be forced into a loveless relationship and neither of you had ever professed your love. Great sex was not love and sadly, making babies together was not love either. Even though he could probably see that expression of fear all over your face, you tried hard to play it off. “Seriously, we share a couple of earth shaking orgasms and now you want to take a stab at forever, Sonny? Don’t be so mean.”

“I am serious,” he said, visibly hurt by your words. Almost that look a man would have if he proposed and then was rejected. Had you made him feel rejected?

“Come on, Sonny, how long have we been friends. You cannot be serious. That is just, well, it’s a little ridiculous. And insulting.” You feverishly were trying to protect your heart here, not knowing if this was the right time to spring the baby on him or even figure out if he knew. If you had to guess you were fishing for the latter. As you started to rise off his lap, what came next was not expected in the least. His nostrils flared a little and despite not being a big, bulky man, he was strong. He gripped your arms and threw you off to the side, landing on the couch. He’d actually hurt you. Was he so butt hurt that you didn’t take his seriously that he was willing to hurt you?

“Ouch, Sonny, that fucking hurt! You asshole!”

But he was up and on his feet now pacing. “That hurt? You landed on the sofa, Y/N. And, and, I’m an asshole? What about you? I put it out there, my heart on the line and you what, you just laugh at me like this is a big fucking joke? Good enough to live with, good enough to fuck but nothing else, huh? You don’t think I could take care of you?” He was screaming and you should have appeared visibly frightened to him. Something you think would make him stop but the only explanation you had in your head was he knew you were pregnant and this rejection was too much to handle. Sonny had yelled before around you but never laid hands on you and even though he hadn’t hit you your arms were still throbbing from his grip.

Dumbstruck, your own anger rose to the surface. “One second you are telling me you think we’d be great together and the next you’re tossing me around like afucking ragdoll because, what? I didn’t think you were serious? I deserved for you to lash out at me like that? You’re acting like your dad, Dominick.” You spit those words out with way more vitriol that you’d planned. Sonny tried so hard to be anything but Dominick Carisi the Senior and yet here you were fighting with him because his temper got the better of him. His face grayed. If not taking him seriously about a relationship hit a nerve, that statement must have set all of them on fire.

“What the hell did you just say to me?” He took a step forward and stopped but his finger was pointing at you and there were tears building in both your eyes. He looked pissed still but more hurt than upset.

Trying your damnedest to stand your ground. “You really think I would be okay with this behavior? You don’t love me, Sonny. You picked me up and threw me like I was nothing. I don’t give a shit what kind of man I thought you were, I can’t have this baby. And have to deal with that temper, all the time? Is that what this is? Like, make me love you and then you just turn into your father? I will not lie down for you. Fuck you. I’m leaving. I’m gonna go to B/F’s place. You can stay here and wonder what the hell just happened. I’m out.” You stormed off to your room, shaking and crying and could not find your phone before you realized it was still on the table with all your books. “Fuck,” you muttered. You two had never had an argument. Not once in nearly five years. Trying your best to calm down you pulled your gym bag out of the closet and broke down in tears.

Sonny, on the other hand, was now standing alone in the living room trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. He’d thought all day about you and how there was a shift and about your past together and it all seemed so crazy that he had not realized sooner he’d fallen for you. Amanda had teased him before about it but no matter how many times he heard it from other people he’d never been able to admit it. But then he almost died and thinking deeply about the people he loved or even the people that would be upset had he been killed, you were right there in the forefront, even before his mother and sisters. The detective part of his brain kicked into overdrive. On the way home he’d worked himself up thinking there was no way that a girl like you could ever love a guy like him. The sex was great and really, everything else seemed great too, so why not see where it could go. Getting angry was the last thing he’d thought about and yet here he was exploding with emotion and so raw.

You’d equated him to his father, which is the last man in the world Sonny ever wanted to be compared to. You overreacted and said he’d thrown you when all he was trying to do was get you off him and if he did that too harshly he was sorry, but his heart was breaking because he swear you’d said something about a baby? And not just a generic statement but the words ‘this baby’ as in an already existing child? And then the comparison to his father? That was a low blow but was it because you were pregnant? His confusion was too much. Taking a breath, a big one, he went to your room and knocked on the door before opening it.

You were curled on the bed crying. Sonny walked around, hands up and started talking like he would to a rape victim at work. “We need to talk. And you have every right to be mad at me, Y/N, you do, but you can’t shut me out like this. Not after what you said out there.”

Eyes burning you found the courage to look at his face. “I know, Sonny. It was unfair of me to compare you to your father, and I am sorry. But I have never seen you that angry and you have never treated me that way. I am totally caught off guard by it.” Sitting up, you grabbed a pillow and pulled it close to your body, squeezing it like a child would a teddy bear. “What is going on with you? Lately you have been so different.”

“It’s not obvious?” He asked, confused.

“Obvious? The only thing obvious here is that we just had a major blow up and I am not sure we can come back from this.”

“Don’t you think we have to? I mean we should, right?” He nodded in your direction but you were not putting two and two together.

“What do you mean we have to?”

Sonny had always been really great and knowing when a woman was pregnant given just how much time he’d spent around women. His baby sisters, his partner - every time they were pregnant, Sonny knew. How had he missed it with you?

“Y/N, you said out there, I can’t have this baby… you’re pregnant. And you didn’t tell me? Were you going to? Cause I am so confused.”

There would be no way Sonny would miss the color leaving your face. You said that out loud? Holy shit. You were upset and not thinking, but that was not the way you wanted Sonny to hear about it. Somehow you thought you would not have to tell him, that he would know and just ask you and then you could answer honestly. Instead, you spewed it out in a hateful, over-dramatic way because you didn’t think he could seriously ever love you despite how much he had changed over the past few weeks. You loved Sonny and deep down you knew it and were too afraid to admit it and then finding out you were having his baby you also knew you didn’t feel worthy enough to be the mother of his child.

Choking back your emotions you began to speak slowly and as steadily as you possibly could. “Sonny, I, um…”

He moved to sit on the bed with you, calm as ever, the man you knew you loved. “I am so sorry I scared you. That is not who I am, Y/N and I hope you know that, but this is big and we do need to at least talk about this. I mean, you didn’t mean it did you? You wouldn’t get rid of the baby, would you?”

“No! It’s just, I found out last week the morning you came into the shower. You were acting so unlike you and I thought you’d seen the box or the test and I am still not sure why you haven’t asked about it? I just thought you were acting differently because you knew. And then you’re asking me out there if we should be a thing and that we work great together and I felt like because you had to know that you were only asking me because I am pregnant and not because you really love me or want to be with me or us. Then you got angry and I have never seen you so angry, not once and I must be the reason right? Me or the baby or both?” By time you were done with the hysterical rant you were practically out of breath.

All Sonny could do was smile. He felt like a total ass for allowing his temper to get the better of him. “Did I hurt you out there? I mean, I know I hurt you, but are you hurt, like needing to go to the hospital hurt?” All you could do was nod no. “Okay, I want to put it out there that I didn’t know. I have been acting so differently because when Cole tried to kill me, my world changed. I have been shot at and I know the job is dangerous, but literally my life flashed before my eyes. And on the way home, once I was alone, I had time to think about everything I would be leaving behind and how much I would miss you. And then you took care of me and I realized how you really always have. You work two jobs,” he smiled that beautiful, crooked smile, “Yeah, don’t think I don’t know about the cuddling thing. Either way. You pick up my dry cleaning, you were my biggest cheerleader when I was at Fordham. You’re everything, Y/N. So, yeah, things were different that night and I wasn’t sure how to tell you without freaking you out.”

You started laughing through the falling tears. His words were sweet and you knew that moment of upset was just as much a misunderstanding as it was a shock to both you. Sonny was not Dominick - never had been, never would be. This whole thing was a moment in time, two people who’d fallen in love and were too afraid to admit it. “Our child is going to be born talking, isn’t it?”

You both laughed. The tears in his eyes were those of joy. He pointed and you nodded before he crawled up on the bed the rest of the way, beside you, and took you into his arms.

“I love you, Y/N. I promise I will never, ever lash out like that again. Will you promise me something though?”

Looking up into his eyes, “I love you too, Sonny. And I am sorry I didn’t just tell you. What do you want me to promise?”

“That the next time there is something THIS big, you tell me?”

“I promise.”

#my writing #sonny carisi #y/n #one shot #svu

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elevenharringtons · 4 years

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Babysitting El pt. 1

Pairing: None (but leading into a bit of Steve x Reader)

Summary: Hopper, exasperated by having to deal with monsters invading Hawkins and having a teenage girl, has asked you to come babysit while he investigates for the night. Max shows up (unannounced, to you at least) and proposes a mall day to cheer everyone up. However, things don’t go as planned, and you find yourself an accomplice to Mike and El’s breakup.

Warnings: Profanity

Word Count: 3.3k

This is a two-parter! This part is based on El and Max’s shopping trip. It’s not exact, considering El was the one to seek Max out, but nonetheless, you’ll read some familiar scenarios. Just some good ol’ girl time and bonding over stupid boys. Part Two should be out sooner rather than later, considering all the time that has suddenly found itself on my doorstep. Stay safe out there, y’all.

***UPDATE: There will be a taglist for the second part, so if you’d like to be on it, let me know!

“I’ll be there.”

“If that Wheeler kid shows up here one more time-“

“Calm down! She’s a young woman now, she’s doing what she’s supposed to be doing” you say, twirling the yellowed telephone cable between your fingers. This is the third time this week that your uncle has called you upset that El was dating the second youngest Wheeler. Hopper hadn’t necessarily been on good terms with Mike, considering he found ways around Hopper’s rules, especially rules that were crafted for Eleven’s safety. Grumbling ensues on the other line.

“What time are you going to be here?”

“8 o’clock,” you reply almost confidently.

“Sharp?”

“8 o’clock...ish?” Hopper was good at seeing through your facades. Your mother was a pro at being fashionably late to things, a habit that you’re not too happy that you picked up. “You know it takes at least 15 minutes to get back to Hawkins, and then at least another 20 to remember which turn into the woods I have to take to find your cabin-“

“Save it. Just...promise me you’ll take care of this?” Hopper pleaded. You could hear someone rapping on the door in the background and assumed it was Mike trying to get back in to see El.

“I’ll do what I can. Bye, Uncle Hop.” You hear indistinct chatter on the line before it cuts to a dial tone and chuckle to yourself, continuing to pack a small overnight bag full of clothes and other essentials needed to ‘babysit’ Eleven. Hopper had to deal with a special assignment that you had specifically chosen not to ask him about, knowing it must be a continuation of the strange events that kept happening in Hawkins the past two years. Your mission was to stay with El until Hopper returned, however, now that El was a teenager, that was no easy task. Boys, best friends, and fighting intergalactic monsters had El in more directions than you remember when you were her age. Then again, you didn’t have to deal with the intergalactic monster part.

The morning drive wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be. Surprisingly, you remembered exactly where to turn into the woods to find Hopper’s cabin. The ground was wet from a rain storm the night before as you tried your best to maneuver your mom’s old Buick through the slippery terrain. El was standing outside on Hopper’s porch, her eyes lighting up for a quick second before diminishing again. She turned and headed back inside the cabin before you had the chance to get out of the car. Hopper met you at the door.

“What’s her deal?” You ask, closing the car door and moving to the trunk to grab your backpack.

“I, uh, may have had a hand in that,” Hopper replied.

“What’d you do”

“Joyce told me to have a talk with her and Mike, but instead, I told Mike that his grandmother was sick and that he should go be with her instead of with El,” Hopper couldn’t meet your stare. You laughed out loud.

“Seriously, Uncle Hop?”

“She doesn’t know!”

“And what made you think that was a good idea? What advice did Joyce give you that made you do that? Couldn’t have been that bad, it’s Joyce!” You’re leaning against the car door, arms crossed over your chest. You weren’t letting your uncle off that easy before he left you with a moody teenager.

“She just said to set some ground rules, to talk to them,”

“The three inch rule?” You quip.

“Well, El doesn’t always adhere to the three inch rule, that’s why I had to do something about it,” Hopper replied.

“So telling Mike Wheeler that his grandmother was sick even though she isn’t is how you’re handling this?”

“Why do you think you’re here?”

“Oh, so I’m the diffusion? She needs to be a teenager, Uncle Hop! Explore! Kiss a guy! Kiss a girl if she wants to! Fall in love! Get her heart broken! You were a teenager once, weren’t you?” You say. Out of the corner of your eye, El reappeared on the porch.

“Y/N?”

“Hi, El!” You smile and wave as El does the same. Hopper runs his hand over his face before leading you to the cabin. He grumbles under his breath as you walk.

“Look, just make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. No one can find her out here, it’s dangerous.”

“I’ve got it under control, Hopper. She won’t leave my sight,” You assure him as you walk up the stairs to wrap El in a hug. Hopper watched as the both of you headed inside the cabin before starting his truck up and driving away.

“So, Hopper has you on some…guidelines, huh?” You say once the door is closed, taking in the cabin. It wasn’t as messy as you would have guessed it to be, definitely not like the lake house that you had practically grown up in. You put your bag down on Hopper’s armchair before leaning against the couch, watching El as she paced around.

“Guidelines?” She asked.

“Oh, um, rules. Like how he won’t let you out past a certain hour?”

“Or how he doesn’t let Mike over,” El nervously played with her hands. She was still pacing, clearly worried that Mike had abandoned her.

“Hey,” you say softly. “He doesn’t hate Mike, you know? He just…isn’t ready for you to grow up yet.” El was trying to take in what you were saying, but a knock was at the door causing the both of you to jump. El looks to you for permission to open the door, which you grant. She gets up and crosses to the door, standing on tip toes to peer into the peephole.

“It’s Max,” El says, almost disappointed.

“You can let her in,” you say. The door swings open to reveal the fiery red head, who doesn’t stay outside long.

“Lucas dropped all of our plans today for some family thing he forgot last minute,” she says. “So I told him that we were on a break.”

“A break?” El asks.

“Yeah. Like not a break up but you want to break up? Kind of?” Max says. You stare wide eyed at the two of them.

“I’m sorry, you told Lucas you wanted to take a break because he had to do something with his family?” You ask.

“Look, he pulls this last minute shit all the time. He’s probably at home playing with his stupid walkie talkie or at Mike’s. It’s better to take a minute to show him that I’m mad by taking a break than to dump his ass altogether,” she plops herself into Hopper’s armchair and right on top of your stuff without missing a beat. El sits stiffly beside you on the couch.

“Mike’s grandmother is sick, so he’s probably not at Mike’s,” you say, trying to go along with Hopper’s false narrative as truthfully as you could. Max rolls her eyes.

“Sounds like some last minute bullshit to me.”

“Last minute,” El says thoughtfully. “Mike didn’t call this morning.”

“Then dump his ass,” Max says matter-of-factly. “He keeps you on the line way too much for you to keep putting up with that.”

“I don’t think it’s Mike’s fault,” you say under your breath. Max doesn’t hear you.

“Dump his ass?” El questions.

“He’s obviously hiding something from you. Don’t put up with it,” Max shrugs.

“Nobody’s dumping anyone. Look, you can’t just break someone’s heart because they can’t do something with you,” you say. You may not have a lot of experience in the dating department, but you also could recognize human mistakes from lies. Plus, you had your uncle’s fake storyline standing over your shoulder, so it was best that El not make any hasty decisions.

“I’m just saying, El, you could do a lot better,” Max says. “In the meantime, though, we should give you a makeover and show him what he’s missing. Let’s go to the mall!”

“Whoa, El’s not allowed out. You know that,” you say, standing now between El and Max’s line of vision.

“Hopper’s not here is he? Plus, you’re here. Nothing bad can happen if you’re with us,” Max retorts. She had a point. Having an adult around two teenagers in a mall cramped their style, automatically making them less of a target to the bad guys. Right?

“Technically, I’m not supposed to have you here,” you reply. Max rolled her eyes.

“Y/N, can we please go to the mall?” El asks. Her shimmering brown eyes are enough to make you cave. She knew just how to push your buttons.

“Fine,” you say, “but you guys can’t leave my sight.”

“Deal,” Max and El say together as they race outside to your car.

“I said don’t leave my sight!” You yell, running after them. How bad could this be?

**********

Two hours later and you’ve become the stereotypical pack-mule “boyfriend” to your two teenaged counterparts. Max had insisted El buy a new wardrobe to make Mike jealous, so her muddied shoes and ragged plaid shirt were stuffed in a tiny bag from The Gap while Max made El try on several brightly colored combos. Then, El wanted Glamour Shots, so you watched as her and Max put on oversized pearls and lavish feathered hats, posing ridiculously for the camera. You’d bought each of them a keychain sized version of their favorite picture, adding another bag to your hand. Max had careened into JC Penney without your knowledge, taking El with her through the winding racks of aerobics wear and puffy jacket vests. You managed to find them, though, because Max was trying on bright red sunglasses in the mirrors right next to the entrance.

“What did I tell you about running off?” You say. Before Max could protest, El had walked out in a black romper with neon shapes plastered all over it. She was stumbling around on two inch heels, her stark white socks making it obvious that she’d never worn anything else besides sneakers. However, the smile on her face distracted you from the fact that she could fall and break her ankle at any moment. She stopped to pose in the mirror before turning to you.

“What do you think, Y/N?”

“I think it’s a winner. You look beautiful, El,” you say, her grin growing wider. Chastising them for running off could be saved until later. Or until something actually~ happened.

“That’ll show those stupid boys not to mess with you!” Max exclaimed.

“Maybe not in those heels, though,” you say, choosing to ignore Max’s comment. Not that you were doubling back on your whole “give Mike another chance” mantra, just that you didn’t want to ruin El’s confidence. You motion for Max to help you get the heels off of El before slipping her new Nikes back on her feet.

“Can I wear this out instead?” El asks.

“And ditch those cute yellow suspenders?” You quip.

“Come on, Y/N!” Max joined in. “What’s another bag? Another swipe of the old Visa?”

“This is the last time I bring you out shopping,” you sigh, watching as the two girls squealed, jumping up and down like they were front row at a concert. Max agrees to gather El’s other outfit from the dressing room while you take El to the register to pay. Then, you’re off again into the bustle of the Starcourt Mall. As you’re walking out, though, you spy Mike and Lucas, along with Will Byers, stepping out of a jewelry store in a heated discussion. Max and El giggled beside you, blissfully unaware that you had just caught both of their “men” doing the exact opposite of what they should be. You silently curse Mike for being this stupid. You careen then girls onto the down escalator.

“Where are we going?” Max asks.

“I saw a food court downstairs. Figured we’d go refuel for a little bit,” you say, not entirely sure the girls would fall for it.

“Oooo, can we get ice cream?” Max replied.

Mission accomplished.

That was until you had taken your eye off them for two seconds after looking at the time on the big yellow clock in the center of the food court. Max had taken El by the hand and bounded down the escalator, into the sailor themed eatery, Scoops Ahoy. You pushed through a group of teenagers balancing ice cream cones, finding the two girls receiving ice cream from a brunette boy in a ridiculous bright blue uniform. You couldn’t shake the familiarity of his face, like something you had seen in dreams. It wasn’t until you were inside of the shop, shivering from the slight temperature change, and smelling the sweetness of the treats before the name had come to you.

“Thanks, Steve!” Max said as she and El grabbed a strawberry and vanilla cone from the boy’s hands, blissfully unaware of your presence as they enjoyed their treats.

Steve Harrington. A name you hadn’t heard since you were in grade school. You remember him being the troublemaker, the one who had stolen your new pack of crayons when you weren’t looking and the one who was every teacher’s nightmare. But you also remembered him being the sweetheart. The boy who stood up for you when Tommy H was making fun of your bangs in second grade. The boy who tried to kiss you on the cheek by the swings when no one was looking. The last time you saw Steve Harrington was when your parents’ moving van was careening carefully down Main Street as you all were moving cities once you completed fifth grade. Steve was riding his bike, stopping in front of Melvald’s General Store before locking it to a rack and walking inside. Since then, Steve had become a memory, someone who would appear every once in a while as a nameless face in a dream.

You stood speechless at the counter, his back turned to you as he cleaned the ice cream scoops before meeting his next customer. There was no way he was going to remember you, your mind was racing. Years of never even thinking of him and here you were a nervous wreck. And for what? Shaking thoughts from your head, you reached into your bag to pull out three dollars for the girls’ dessert. The sound of change clanging on the counter caused him to turn. Shit.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. They come here all the time.”

You looked up to meet his brown eyes, hands still nervously reaching for the change that had fallen out of your hands. You watched as something in his mind clicked.

“Y/N?”

“That’s me,” you reply, shoving the money back into your bag, trying to avoid an awkward conversation that probably neither of you wanted. “Sorry that they ran in here like that.”

“Jesus, how long has it been? What brings you to town?” Guess he wanted an awkward conversation.

“Oh, my uncle, he, uh, wanted me to come watch El for him while he figures out…you know, normal Hawkins police stuff.” God, why are you like this??

“How long are you here?” Steve asked, catching you completely off guard.

“I mean, I only packed an overnight bag,” you say.

“Oh, cool,” Steve replies. The spark that was in his eyes when you’d first connected had vanished.

“But, uh, Hopper never said when he was coming back, so, maybe the weekend?” You tell him, watching the corner of his mouth curl into a smile.

“Would you maybe want to catch up sometime? Like, tonight after I get off?” Steve asks. You could feel your cheeks getting hot. It was your turn to smile now. Instinct struck, though, as you turned away from him and noticed El and Max were gone from the place that they were sitting not too long ago.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I have to…go. Because the girls are…yeah. I’ll come here tonight,” you ramble as you rush out the front towards the escalator.

“See you…later,” Steve called after you. You waved a hand as you bounded up the escalator past several angry mall-goers. You couldn’t even process that you were having a “date” with someone that you hadn’t seen since elementary school, someone that you subconsciously always thought about. If you couldn’t find El, though, it would be your ass. You could already hear Hopper yelling at you at length over the phone when you spot Max’s slender frame standing out front with a melting ice cream cone in her hand. She was watching something, hopefully something to do with El, but you couldn’t figure out why Max wasn’t standing right next to El. Then it hit you.

El found Mike.

You pushed through the front door as quietly as one could push through a heavy glass door. Max’s expression went from supportive to nervous wreck once she had laid eyes on you. The “why did you run out of my sight you dumb idiots” conversation could wait a few minutes. You heard Mike trying to come up with a good excuse as to why he was out at the mall with his friends when El’s quiet voice cut through the palpable tension.

“I dump your ass.”

Max chuckled, mouth agape in surprise. You tried to keep your composure, especially considering you had told the girls not to just dump the boys over “nothing”, but you were proud of El for sticking up for herself. Mike, Lucas, and Will were stoic as El turned dramatically, hair bouncing, arm linking with Max. You heard the boys mumble to themselves as you ushered the girls away from the mall and into your car. In the rearview mirror, you watched as Max gave El a high five, offering to switch ice cream cones with her.

“Don’t think I haven’t forgot that you all ran away from me,” you half-smile. Their faces fell. “I’m not mad.” You scramble to say, just to bring that little bit of happiness back to them.

“Look, we got ice cream and then caught two lying ass boys. It’s not our fault that we fell behind flirting with the sailor boy,” Max said under her breath, taking a bite of El’s ice cream. Your cheeks grew hotter than they were in Scoops Ahoy.

“I wasn’t flirting…”

“Oh, please, I had to sit through weeks of watching El flirt with Mike. I think I know what flirting is,” Max said.

“How did you even-“

“We were sitting in a booth practically behind you. Then El saw Mike and I had to chase after her. You’re welcome, by the way. I should get some of the money that Hopper is giving you for watching her.”

“First of all, I’m not getting paid. Second, thanks, I guess?” You shake your head. “Plus, my love life is not something we should be discussing right now. Didn’t you both just dump your boyfriends?”

“Boys are stupid,” El said matter-of-factly. She wasn’t wrong. Max gave El another high five as they switched ice cream cones again.

“So are you going on a date with Harrington or not?” Max asked.

“Yes, but-“

“Great! I’ll spend the night, and El and I will help you get ready,” she said. El nodded in response, too enticed by her ice cream to give verbal recognition.

“I thought you were against boys?” By now, you had turned down the pathway to Hopper’s cabin. You put the car in park, turning to look at the two girls in the back seat.

“Those boys. Helping you nab Harrington is a different story.” Max said, grabbing her JC Penney bag and bounding out of the car. You helped El carry all of her belongings into the cabin before plopping it into Hopper’s armchair.

“Makeover?” El asked once everyone was inside and settled.

“Oh, yeah,” Max replied. They each took your hands and led you to the bathroom.

What were you about to get into?

#stranger things #stranger things fic #steve harrington x reader #elmax #eleven #max mayfield #stranger things 3 #stranger things season 3 #stranger things imagines

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canary3d-obsessed · 3 years

Text

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 15

(Masterpost)(Other Canary Content)

Warning: Spoilers for all 50 episodes!

This rewatch is going to fit into a single post, because a third of the episode is just crying and yelling on a very slow boat. If you want to learn the Chinese words for “Mother” and “Father” this is your episode.

Captain Blowhard

Clan Leader Yao shows up, having barely survived the massacre of his clan, along with two disciples who aren't too excited about their unwilling promotion to top targets. Jiang Cheng tells his dad that the Wens are systematically exterminating the smaller clans, and have said anyone who helps the survivors is going to be punished.

Jiang Fengmian tells Yao that the Jiang Clan will protect him. Which is why Wei Wuxian is responsible for the massacre of the Jiang Clan.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both think that taking Yao to the Jin clan is the best way to keep him safe. Wei Wuxian was wrong to help the heirs of the powerfullest richest clans, but sure, let's save this asshole.

Road Tripping

The boys go down to the dock to send Jiang Yanli and Jiang Fengmian off, saying a formal goodbye with a bunch of disciples and showing off how extremely good they look in these close-fitted, simply cut robes with cool belts.

Yu Ziyuan comes down to say goodbye to Yanli and give her some medicine, covering by saying it's for Jiang Fengmian, because being sick is bad for marriage prospects, probably.

Later the boys will mention their hope that YZY will be mollified by the time JFM returns, which means this possibly isn't the usual state of their relationship. The dislike and jealousy seem to be constant, but perhaps being openly at war with each other is not.

(more after the cut!)

Club Ruohan

At Club Ruohan, Wen Ruohan is tired of sitting on his big uncomfortable throne so he's sitting on the floor next to it, instead. He's suffering the embarrassing problem of black smoke leakage, and needs Wen Qing to give him acupuncture to fix it, but she's not around. Wen Ruohan has an awful lot of trouble containing resentful energy, possibly because he is controlling a bunch of zombies 24x7 instead of letting them take a break. Wei Wuxian is mostly able to control it--except when he, you know, totally isn't--without ever needing an attractive acupuncturist to give him a poke.

WRH learns from Wen Chao that Wei Wuxian 1. killed a boss-level monster on nightmare level difficulty without his sword 2. took whatever thing had been suppressing the nightmare monster for the previous really long time. WRH wants whatever it is.

Boys in Charge

When the boys get back to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng doesn't understand why they couldn't all go to the Lins together, and Wei Wuxian explains it to him. Wei Wuxian is the one seeing the big picture, and he wants to plan how to handle the Wen forces when they, inevitably, arrive.

Jiang Cheng would rather talk big than actually plan, showing how--at this age--his anger management problem is an issue on a strategic level, not just a personal one. As a clan leader he will eventually master this aspect, for the most part, and learn to keep a cool head in regard to martial matters, while continuing to feed his interpersonal rage problem.

The brothers supervise the archery practice of the Jiang disciples, having their last nice time together, and still without a plan. Wei Wuxian is bored and calls practice early so he can go be bored on the porch or in his room, since he isn't allowed out. In fact he's so bored by lockdown that he starts an irreverent niche blog.

(he’s kidding! keep your mask on, don’t go to wine houses)

Knowing that the Wen Clan is gunning for enemy cultivators, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng send the whole group of disciples, including children, outside the compound walls to retrieve their kites. This is what happens when you don't have a plan.

Wen the Levee Breaks

Wen Chao’s girlfriend Wang Lingjiao finds a kite with a hole in it and uses it as a pretext to snatch up the youngest disciple.

The other disciples come running back and tell WWX and JC what happened. Wei Wuxian calmly gets all of the information from them and starts figuring out what to do, while Jiang Cheng freaks out.

Jiang Cheng is a good fighter, and matures into an excellent one after a core upgrade and war experience. But Wei Wuxian is a born battle leader, developing strategies on the fly and staying cool under pressure.

Madame Yu is as brave as a barrel full of bears and Yinzhu and Jinzhu chase lions down the stairs

Yu Ziyuan and the murder twins show up and all of the disciples line up behind them, relieved to have someone scary in charge.. Yu Ziyuan is also a natural leader and an awesome fighter, but her judgement is terrible, as we're about to discover.

Bitchfest

Wang Lingjiao strolls in to the main hall and has the nerve to comment on the interior decorating, because it doesn't have enough rough-hewn black rock and lava pits, apparently.

She shows them all the kite and says that because it looks (kind of) like the sun, using it for target practice is an attack on the Wen Clan. Bitch, everything your clan wears and uses has fire on it and is red. The sun is not your emblem, no matter what the text says. This kite situation is presumably where the anti-Wen campaign gets its name of "Sunshot," however, which sounds pretty cool.

Wang Lingjiao moves along to her main point, which is that Wei Wuxian needs his ass kicked, and she'd like Yu Ziyuan to do the kicking. To goad her, she starts talking about the rumors about Wei Wuxian's parentage.

Let it Whip

So let it whip (let's whip it, baby) Get a grip (let's whip it baby) Well, what's your trip? (Oh no)

Yu Ziyuan takes the bait, and proceeds to whip the shit out of her strongest battle asset, in a sequence that's either horrifying or completely fucking awesome, depending on how you feel about whump.

There are a lot of bad effects in this show and a lot of questionable fighting, but any time Zidian flies, I am HERE for it. I gave this beatdown its own gifset over here.

Jiang Cheng is devastated and tries again and again to protect Wei Wuxian, but his mother and her lieutenants keep moving him out of the way so the beating can continue.

Yu Ziyuan hits Wei Wuxian at least 5 times, until he is totally unable to get up off the floor. Wang Lingjiao has succeeded in eliminating him as a threat for the moment.

Gotta Hand It To You

Wang Lingjiao isn't satisfied with the brutal whipping, however; she wants his right hand as a trophy, and for him to be unable to recover. Yu Ziyuan tells Jinzhu and Yinzhu to close the doors because some blood is going to fly.

I'd like to think this is when Yu Ziyuan decides to kill the Wens, rather than maiming WWX, but I'm not certain. Because she doesn't start attacking until after Wang Lingjiao says the Wens are taking Lotus Pier, and tells her to discipline Jiang Cheng. So maybe she is okay with taking WWX’s hand, but draws the line at giving up her house.

Through all of this, Wei Wuxian doesn't once protest, even when he thinks they're getting ready to take his hand off. He'll do whatever it takes to make peace. THIS is the core of his heroism; he will sacrifice anything to do what he thinks is right. He's not "playing the hero;" not doing this for fame or kudos, but for a clear conscience.

It’s a Murder Party

Wang Lingjiao explains the new Wen World order, and Yu Ziyuan smacks her to the floor and then takes out all 8 of the Wen soldiers in one elegant move.

Can we talk about how incredibly effective a fighter Yu Ziyuan is, without a sword? With her first-class spiritual tool as her only weapon? Nobody is telling her she needs to carry a sword. She shows she can use one, after she gives Zidian to Jiang Cheng, but she's absolutely devastating without one.

Having defied Wang Lingjiao, Yu Ziyuan...doesn't kill her. She chokes her, slaps her and yells at her. Then she insults her clan and sticks her FOOT on her FACE.

She sics the murder twins on the guards in the room, and they shank all of them at super speed while the boys watch with alarm.

Then she has them sloooowly advance on Wang Lingjiao, giving her plenty of time to holler for Wen Zhuliu before they can kill her.

Het Heat

Wen Zhuliu comes flying in, literally, kicking both murder twins across the room at the same time. This is followed by Core-Melting Hand x Violet Spider suddenly becoming the most shippable M/F couple in this thing, because wow, they have some serious chemistry.

I never saw a pretty girl look so tough

Actor Feng Mingjing continues to do an awful lot with almost no lines, in his portrayal of Wen Zhuliu. WZL politely apologizes to Yu Ziyuan. Is he offering to withdraw, or is he just being polite before getting down to the killy bit? Either way, Yu Ziyuan is ready to rumble, and doesn't even consider de-escalating.

You know who was able to rein in his temper, after fighting with this same extremely dangerous dude, and therefore lived to fight another day? Fucking Nie Mingjue, that's who, who has a generational CURSE making him angry. While Yu Ziyuan, is like, "fuck the safety of my clan, this is Wei Wuxian's fault anyway" and throws down.

Wen Zhuliu and Yu Ziyuan proceed to have an epic, sexy fight, where he catches her whip and she dodges his attempt to feel up her core.

He's a magic man, mama, he's got the magic hands.

Wei Wuxian, still incapacitated, tells Jiang Cheng to stop Wang Lingjiao from calling for help, but JC gets distracted by the threat to his mom, and goes to engage with Wen Zhuliu.

Jiang Cheng takes a horrifying smack in the chest, which injures him and takes him out, while Wang Lingjiao sends the signal that seals the fate of Lotus Pier.

It’s All Over Except for the Crying

Yu Ziyuan immediately sees that she's lost the battle, and has the murder twins divert Wen Zhuliu while she brings the two boys to the pier.

She verifies that Jiang Cheng's core is still intact, showing the viewers, for future reference, that it's possible to tell by touch if someone's core is missing, although a casual touch won't do it.

Then she re-codes the Zidian so that it recognizes Jiang Cheng and puts it on his wrist. She follows this with a display of maternal affection for Jiang Cheng unlike anything we've seen so far, which super fails to reassure him.

She follows this up with screaming at Wei Wuxian and telling him how much she hates him, and blaming him for the multiple shitty choices she just made..

With a heart full of rage, she reminds him that his worth lies in what he can do for more important people.

She binds the boys with Zidian and then sends the boat on its way....

...with a frickin' TALISMAN, holeee shit. As toxic as she is for Wei Wuxian, there is a direct line from her cultivation skills to his.

Dad To The Rescue...sort of

The last third of the episode is basically yelling and crying punctuated by a couple of interactions out on the water. The extreme emotions go on for long enough that I eventually stop feeling bad for the characters and start feeling bad for the actors, who had to maintain this level of feeling for probably days of shooting.

The boys eventually meet up with Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli. JFM discovers that Zidian responds to his control, which tells him something is very, very wrong, since it probably knows how his wife feels about him.

This thing isn’t biting me; your mom is in serious trouble.

Here Jiang Fengmian decides to do the heroic, totally futile thing, which is exactly his style. He tosses Jiang Yanli in with the boys and takes his leave so he can go die with his wife while the children survive.

He has to know that Yu Ziyuan is the stronger fighter of the two of them, and that he's not going back to rescue her. He's just going to stand with her and die together, which is the most romantic thing you can do in a C-drama, after all.

How Much Do You Owe the Jiang Clan?

Jiang Fengmian tells his two children not to cry, making them and the viewer cry extra hard. (specially ouchy gifset here).

Then he turns to Wei Wuxian and, with a heart full of tenderness, reminds him that his worth lies in what he can do for more important people.

Next episode: Is going to be even more horrible!

Soundtrack: 1. When The Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin 2. The Tale of Custard the Dragon (poem) by Ogden Nash 3. Let it Whip by the Dazz Band 4. U Got the Look by Prince & Sheena Easton 5. Magic Man by Heart

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #yi ziyuan #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #the untamed spoilers #tw: crying #omg this episode

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