#and lotus pier falls into ruins

[runespoor7]

I mean obviously I’m am going to ask you about chengxian, for the ask meme

What made you ship it?

It was the most interesting relationship in the book. I'm a sucker for childhood friends with broken promises, for grief, for misunderstandings over loyalty and love, and for relationships whose resolution in canon is bittersweet.

It still took some time and effort before I started really shipping it. I was theoretically open to shipping it but I hadn't yet read fics that really sold me on it (this was in 2019, I think). Then as an experiment I put a WWX-inspired character in the setting I was GMing for the JC and JYL NPC stand-ins to have him to play off of. Turned out I did ship them.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

😬

*wide, helpless, expansive gesture*

It's never simple with them. It's always fraught. They love one another but they also resent one another. Hunting demonic cultivators is about WWX still maybe being alive. Maybe JC can bring himself to kill WWX this time, or maybe he can find a way to bring WWX back home and forgive him. WWX promises to be with JC but he ends up promising that he won't stay ("like my father served your father") but he didn't mean it with an end. the mess that is the fraughtness of WWX's liminal space when it comes to his social rank.

love hurts, what hurts is love.

the fact that the one 'leading' is WWX, not JC, going against the accepted social order. (tbh, if that wasn't the case, I probably wouldn't be into the ship.) it paints such a picture of WWX being so charismatic, and JC being so taken with him, that JC falls into being WWX's sidekick. no wonder YZY was awful about it.

JC keeping Chenqing like a mad dog and keeping Lotus Pier WWX-safe. I. god. JC rating WWX's attention >>>>>>>>>>>>> JC's self-respect every time, in every way. Amazing.

it's incredible to me how WWX asks JYL about love in a scene framed in a manner to make it subtextually point in the direction of LWJ (it's mdzs; the canon pair in mdzs is wgxn; there are no - explicit - love triangles in mdzs; and yet even WWX's original crush on LWJ is, uh. informed by JC and how WWX is with JC and the fact that LWJ is New and Not The Son of WWX's Benefactor. this is normal.), where it's apparent that WWX is scared of being in love because it changes how you act, it's a limit, it's a cage, you're limiting yourself for someone else - and then WWX does something for JC that is everything he was scared of.

and it does ruin him! it's terrible! so his romance with LWJ is everything his feelings for JC weren't. He's not the one doing the protecting. LWJ doesn't question him. There are no expectations of anything, no discussions of the future, no thoughts of society. LWJ is just such a comfort, just a good thing WWX gets because he wants it. Also LWJ isn't emotionally taxing af (this is a big one). (WWX kinda ends up YZY-ing himself at the end of the book but I'm not thinking about that.)

WWX's utter toxicity toward JC. not a iota of respect for either JC or JC's boundaries to be found, except when convenient for WWX.

they both really, really believe that WWX is better than JC in every way. it's very cool

look. i'm a simple person. arrogant genius jerk/grumpy dutiful tsundere otp.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I love the joke that chengxian isn't incest but both of them wish it were, but I think the only time one of them wished they were brothers was JC when he decided to sacrifice himself for WWX and he was lying in bed making morbid jokes. At least sacrificing yourself for your brother who is the better cultivator and can lead the sect would be simple. Forgivable. Good.

I also think they might grow to think of one another as brothers at some point post-canon, that's a sort of reconciliation that might happen, but to me it's key that during canon they don't know what they are to one another, they just know they're scarily, terrifyingly important, and there's no word for what they are to one another.

JC refused shixiong-shidi (in a shocking reversal of their normal dynamic, I think he forgot he did that and spent roughly two decades feeling insecure and weird that WWX doesn't call him shidi) and they can be nothing else, socially speaking. The love that dare not speak its name, if you would. And at that same time post-canon they could also decide that what they're to each other is that WWX used to be in love with JC, and maybe JC still is, and they're not brothers. Or maybe both! The point is, the definition of their relationship is uncharted waters and they never thought of each other as 'brothers' (much less called each other that).

2) WWX is incredibly bitter and resentful of giving his core to JC and that colors everything he thinks and says about JC afterwards, including after he's returned to life. Basically, he gave, and gave, and gave, and felt there was no gratitude, and he's unable to live the life he wanted, unable to reap the promises life made him, and JC isn't any more agreeable or tractable than before (less so, in fact!). It's not fair.

#chengxian #ask meme

[wangxianficrecs]

💙 in payment, a hand by justdoityoufucker (orphan_account)

💙 in payment, a hand

by justdoityoufucker (orphan_account)

M, 10k, Series, Wangxian

Summary: “It was a kindness she didn’t take your right hand,” Jiang Yanli is the one to say, when she’s arrived with Jiang-shushu and he’s finally been taken to the healers. Not that the healers can do much. - Or, the one where Wei Wuxian's hand is taken. Kay's comments: I absolutely adore this series and I'm still heartbroken that justdoityoufucker orphaned all their works, but thankfully, the stories didn't get deleted and are still here for us to enjoy! This story has everything that I love: a fix-it that it's rooted in "it gets worse before it gets better", canon-divergence, Wen siblings feelings, Wei Wuxian finding his own path away from the Jiang Sect and Wangian finding their way together, it's the perfect package! It explores how the story could have gone, if Madam Yu had cut off Wei Wuxian's hand to save Lotus Pier and I love which directions it took. Excerpt: When Wei Ying wakes again, he initially thinks himself alone in the room, Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s beds neatly made up and the two of them not in eyesight when he pushes himself to sitting. He’s wrong. He’s not alone. There’s an achingly familiar white-clad form at the low table, sitting with perfect posture, writing with exact precision. Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan, he thinks the other boy’s name but he must say it out loud because Lan Zhan turns to him like a flower toward sun. He doesn’t know why, but upon the sight of Lan Zhan, upon the way his eyes soften with worry when he sees Wei Ying, Wei Ying bursts into tears. It’s all so much, too much, and he wants to go to sleep and wake up and have it be before all this, before his hand got cut off, before the Xuanwu, before everything. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Lan Zhan was starting to look worried about the sudden tears, which was a funny thought, but not funny enough to override the sudden realization of just how much his life has been ruined by those he once thought to be his family. “Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan finally says, standing and stepping forward until he’s right next to the bed. He hesitates for a second, then flicks his sleeves out and neatly sits there, on the edge of the bed, and doesn’t even flinch when Wei Ying collapses into him.

pov wei wuxian, canon divergence, fall of lotus pier, sunshot campaign, family of choice, found family, amputation, injury recovery, major character injury, jiang family dynamics, not jiang family friendly, implied/referenced abuse, love confessions, getting together, first kiss, self-reflection, angst with a happy ending, no golden core transfer, angst with hurt/comfort, recovery, weddings

~*~

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

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #MDZS #Kay's Rec #Kay's Favorite #pov wei wuxian #canon divergence #fall of lotus pier #sunshot campaign #family of choice #found family #amputation #injury recovery #major character injury #jiang family dynamics #not jiang family friendly #implied/referenced abuse #love confessions #getting together #first kiss #self-reflection #angst with a happy ending #no golden core transfer #angst with hurt/comfort #recovery #weddings #in payment a hand #justdoityoufucker (orphan account) #medium fic 15k-49k

[angstymdzsthoughts]

after jiang yanli and jin zixuan's engagement falls a part, jiang fengmian thinks about who he wants his daughter to marry and brings up the idea of wei wuxian and jiang yanli getting married. in his eyes this is a great match, as it means all of them can stay in lotus pier (so yanli doesn't have to move away to be with her husband's family) & he trusts wei wuxian to take care of yanli, but everybody else is horrified. yu ziyuan hates the idea of actually having to be related to wei wuxian even in an in-law capacity, the jiang sibling trio are horrified because they all view each other as siblings, and its a blow to wei wuxian because he always thought of the jiang family as his family, but this is sort of proof that jiang fengmian doesn't really think the same way (otherwise he wouldn't want wei ying to marry his daughter). since everyone hates the idea so much, jiang fengmian concedes that it wasn't a good idea, but even the fact that mentioned it permanently ruins everybody's family relationship with him and makes wei wuxian feel like he is viewed as an outsider.

maybe also as a consequence to this, wei wuxian starts acting more distant from jiang yanli because he is afraid of how other people view their relationship now (he has always viewed her as an older sister, and while he knew that some people didn't understand that, in the past he didn't care because he didn't care what others thought in the distant, but now he knows even someone as close as jiang fengmian can misinterpret that relationship, and he doesn't want anybody to try to misinterpret it again) and jiang yanli is heartbroken because she also loves wei wuxian as a brother and hates how distant he's being, but she understands that it's not really his fault and that this is just a bad situation

Oh I like this one. JFM wants WWX to be his son in law but all the siblings are like isnt he Already Your Son?!?

#mdzs #wei wuxian #jiang fengmien

[thoroughlycollected]

Regarding the MDZS donghua:

So I was rewatching random episodes, as one does, when I got Lan family feelings.

(First, I should say that I’ve long held the interpretation (headcanon?) that in the Lan Sect if the Sect Leader is indisposed then the “heir apparent” takes over until a proper heir is born and old enough to lead. For this reason as long as QHJ is in seclusion, LQR leads. And depending on adaptation LXC is either an adult or coming into adulthood when the Wen attack, meaning that if QHJ is dead afterwards then LXC is the Sect Leader. And if he’s on the run [indisposed] then his “heir apparent” is LWJ! I’m saying I think that one of the reasons Wangji sprinted back to his people after the false Xuanwu cave rescue is because he was worried about his family foremost and concerned he might technically be in charge secondly.)

So anyway, I’m watching the donghua, it’s episode 12, Lotus Pier just got wrecked, Wangji is vining in his Ancestral Shrine, and this Lan Elder approaches Wangji. According to the Tencent youtube channel’s subtitles the conversation goes—

Lan Elder: Wangji

LWJ (bowing in greeting): Great Uncle (Shufu).

Lan Elder: I heard that you’ve sent disciples to Yunmeng and Meishan to look for the Jiang Clan leader’s daughter and son, and his senior disciple.

LWJ: Yes.

Lan Elder: Wangji, this time Wen Clan of Qishan used a heavy hand and destroyed Jiang Clan of Yunmeng in one night. They even hunted down the three young people at that night. With every effort to kill them all. Do you know why?

LWJ: I understand.

Lan Elder: Then why did you have to help Jiang Clan and get yourself in trouble? Wen Clan of Qishan made such a big deal to deter us just to show it’s the unchallengeable leader of the clans. Who obeys will live and who objects will die. Now the rest of the clans avoid confronting them. Our Lan Clan has been hit hard. It’s better to bide our time and focus on building up strength.

LWJ: Great Uncle, the clans are closely related, the others will be in danger if one of them falls. At times like this, we should contend with the Wen Clan together.

Lan Elder: To contend with? Wen Clan of Qishan is so powerful and strong. How’s it possible to get rid of them easily? The one taking this lead will be the target of Wen Ruohan later. The Cloud Recesses is the legacy that our ancestors have built with hundreds of years of efforts. We shall not ruin it.

LWJ: When a nest falls, all the eggs break. And someone must take the lead.

[Lan Qiren enters the scene]

Lan Elder: Just listen to you, why are you so stubborn? notices LQR Qiren, your timing is perfect. Come on, talk some sense into Wangji.

LQR (bowing in greeting): Uncle, I think what Wangji said was totally right.

Lan Elder: What?

LQR: When a nest falls, all the eggs break. Facing such a crunch, all the clans should join their hands to pull through this. Tomorrow, I’ll hit the road to Qinghe.

Lan Elder: Unbelievable!

And then the Elder leaves! And Lan Qiren encourages Wangji, reminding him that the Elder is only worried about the clan, and then asks Wangji for any updates on Xichen. Wangji hasn’t heard anything and he’s like “no news means good news. He’s smart. He’ll survive this.” and then he asks for updates on the Jiang kids!

And like. Imagine Lan Qiren who knows what it’s like to have your older brother suddenly not there, leaving you in a position of authority you weren’t really trained for, supporting Lan Wangji as he tries to lead his family into the beginning of uncertain times with war on the horizon. Where’s the fic about those uncle-nephew conversations?

#mdzs donghua #mdzs #long post #lan posting #thinkin about the lans again #i'm always thinkin about them tho what a loving and also fucked family unit amirite #Lan Qiren #Lan Wangji #LQR and LWJ plotting together how to rally the smaller clans bc they can't rely on Lanling Jin #LWJ making hard choices and LQR supporting him and checking in with him #lan qiren must feel sick watching history repeat #and he's like trying to be the adult he would've wanted by his side when his brother first became ~indisposed~ #and then that GOOD bit of history continues as lan wangji is the adult he would've wanted #always hovering nearby like a constant safety net for his little coterie of juniors #i know we like to call them wwx's ducklings #but the duckies were only in a row to be scooped up bc the lan+ouyang ones were a line behind hanguang jun #when the adults pay forward the good stuff everyone benefits and when ppl focus on revenge and violence everyone fckin suffers lol #pre-sunshot campaign

[satonthelotuspier]

Jiang Cheng has been extremely busy with sect business recently. The end of summer is a stressful time of year, and he barely has the energy to do more than spend a little time with his family when he's finished for the evening, before he falls into bed asleep.

Lan Xichen and lil A-Ling of course want to do something really nice for him after the worst has passed, something that will help him relax and rest up and allow the three of them to spend time together as a family.

And they want it to be a lovely surprise for Jiang Cheng.

They arrange it all, Lan Xichen speaks with Yang Hai and Yang Mei and get the willing conspirators to agree to take up the reigns so Jiang Cheng can spend a few days away from Lotus Pier.

The problem is, of course, that between them they're absolutely abysmal at keeping secrets or acting innocently if they have anything to hide.

A-Ling has the excuse of youth for his lack of finesse in this, not realising the exaggerated winks and obscure hints have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Conversely, because of his upbringing in the Lan sect, Lan Xichen keeping a secret makes him feel like the worst transgressor to ever walk the earth; like any moment Shufu will crash through the door to mete out punishment for his sins.

His discomfort at holding a secret back is absolutely written all over his face for anyone to see. And Jiang Cheng knows them both too well to even be fooled for a moment, and he 'tortures' the truth out of Lan Xichen literally the first night after the arrangements are made (see: asks him to his face if there's something he's keeping from Jiang Cheng).

The colours Lan Xichen's face turned while he tried so very hard to work out what he should and could say were a sight to behold!

In the end, broken and beaten down (see: above), Lan Xichen could do nothing but come clean and admit everything.

But he begged Jiang Cheng not to say anything to A-Ling and still act shocked when they took him away for a few days, so as not to spoil A-Ling's surprise.

Jiang Cheng thinks this break is a little annoying, he really could do with staying in Lotus Pier; but if Yang Hai and Yang Mei have already agreed to it, and Lan Xichen and and Jin Ling have put so much effort into this...he can't reasonably ruin it for the pair.

So he agrees, and if his heart is a little bit fuller, and if he has a few suspicious tears at the corners of his eyes, its no ones business but his own.

He loves, and is loved, by two complete, yet adorable, disasters. And that Lan Xichen is just as protective of Jin Ling as Jiang Cheng is, demonstrated by the other's request for Jiang Cheng to still play along to not spoil things for A-Ling, then that just proves what an excellent choice Jiang Cheng made with Lan Xichen, doesn't it?

#xicheng #jiujiu and a ling #crossposted from twitter

[haitang-flowers]

Oh I'm having thoughts about post-canon chengsu au

where qin su lives and her reputation is ruined and where Jiang Cheng is broken, somehow once more at his lowest point of his life again.

Questioning whether his success at bringing back Yunmeng Jiang was the countless sleepless nights and hard work he put in, or the unknown gift of Wei Wuxian's core.

Both feeling as though they have so little left but both barely holding it together to try and help Jin Ling. Who they love. Who they want to succeed because he wants to prove everyone wrong, that the Jin can be a sect that is worth something.

I imagine their coming together would be a slow burn. Both healing from their wounds, trying to find their place with the new knowledge that has broken them down. But, as they rebuild they don't even realise they're doing it together. Evenings spent with Jin Ling, evenings away from him planning and plotting against those who would over throw him.

And maybe, once the dust settles they're friends. Jiang Cheng can recognise the hurt in Qin Su's eyes as they walk the halls, see how the memories haunt her and he invites her to Lotus Pier. Where the lotus's are blooming and Qin Su for the first time in years feels like she can breath again. Where the disciples look at their sect leader with respect and that makes something warm grown in Qin Su's chest.

She's given a beautiful room that backs onto the lakes, and the longer she spends in Lotus Pier the harder it feels knowing she'll have to leave. It should have been obvious really, but it feels so different to how it had been with Jin Guangyao. It's a quiet moment on a pier, watching Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling swimming in the piers when it hits her. She is in love with him, with Jiang Cheng.

I could honestly go on forever about the gentle, healing way they both fall in love.

#jiang cheng #qin su #chengsu #the untamed #mo dao zu shi

[sandupommelfrog]

yunmeng sibs monster au :D

It began with the fall of Lotus Pier. 

A complete massacre that nearly ended the Jiang line– save for its heirs and first disciple. No one knew where they had fled to in the days after, until the youngest ran in front of a group of Wen soldiers in Yiling.

Some say he did it on purpose– some part of him wanted to be turned into the monster that chewed up the Wens…

All manner of stories abound about what happened when he was brought back to the ruined shell of his home, but what matters is that they threw his body into the lake. His parents were burned, but the rest of his sect was dumped in the water along with him to become bloated and rancid things.

–

It continued with the burning of Yiling. 

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli escaped further after the news of their brother’s death. They managed to rally the towns and villages of Yiling to join Zewu-jun’s growing Sunshot campaign. They became united in their collective rage and sorrow and fear of the Wens. Some even say the Ghost General and the Drowned Doctor helped them.

But their insurrection was cut short when the Wen’s caught wind of their secret planning. Yiling was burned and became an extension of the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian was captured making sure his shijie escaped. His core was burned out of him like his shidi’s, and then he was thrown into the deadly center of the original Burial Mounds. 

The soldier’s said the snapping of his neck resounded like a tree struck by lightning.

–

The end was solidified in Jinlintai.

Jiang Yanli managed to run to Lanling and was found in the streets by her once-betrothed. Jin Zixuan took her in as the chaos outside their borders grew. She was terrified and filled with grief, never thinking she would be left so alone as an anger at the world grew in her.

As she told Jin Zixuan of what happened in all its gory detail, something sour grew in him every time he watched his father speak amicably of Wen Ruohan, claiming that his war was good for their coffers.

Soon, news of the horrors of Yunmeng and Yiling began to reach Lanling. 

Endlessly deep lakes filled with grabbing hands and tangling weeds began to appear under Wen soldier’s feet. Half of Yunmeng was already underwater, and while its people were adapting to a freshwater seafaring life, the only Wen who so much as touched its waters and lived was Wen Qing. She was apparently carried by the currents to refuge in Gusu Lan soaked to the bone, completely unharmed despite her lower than normal body temperature. The comb in her sleeve bought her amnesty from the Lan’s although it was too late to save her little brother.

The dead began to walk in Yiling, led by a flute that almost sounded like the tortured whistling of winds and headed by the furious corpse of Wen Ning. Shadows grew long, filled with claws and the hungry shapes of people. Soon, Wen soldiers begged their superiors to let them fight during the night and burn forests so the smoke would blot out the moon. Anything to be free of the danger of their own shadows. 

A fearful hope grew in Jiang Yanli, and Jin Zixuan couldn’t help but stoke it as he saw life in her for the first time since she arrived. Save for in the eyes of Jin Zixuan and Luo Qingyang, her image in Jinlintai began to change. She was an omen, she was a beast yet to awaken, she was a flare leading the horrors of Yunmeng and Yiling to their doorsteps.

Jinlintai’s fate was sealed the moment someone slipped poison into her drink. She would’ve died that night had Jin Zixuan not given her his qi and fled. 

He took her to where a river crossed from Yunmeng to Yiling and begged the waiting air to save his beloved. 

He was answered by two figures. Two of them stood as if held up by faulty supports and suspended strings– one knee deep in the river and the other standing on now-dead grasses. Together, they were carried to the border between Yunmeng and Gusu.

Jin Zixuan was given a task, one that would betray his family. But as he nodded, he thought that perhaps he would have a new one– his beloved’s family.

–

Jiang Yanli returned several weeks later, saved by Wen Qing. How, no one knew, but people whispered that she had drunk the blood of her corpse brother, mingled with qi from her beloved and the foul waters of Yunmeng. Others said the Drowned Doctor had taught her to create a panacea for herself– that would surely explain the waxing and waning of her health.

A week or so after her return, Jin elders and advisors began disappearing one by one, supposedly caught and torn to pieces by some monster roaming Jinlintai. No one could track it or sense any demon or resentful creature, and it had to be one, right? Only a monster could hack a person to pieces and tear open their abdomens like that, presumably while they were still alive even.

Three people in Koi Tower knew, and they knew best to keep quiet, although, who would ever expect sweet, mild mannered Jiang Yanli? After all, she had kept her rage hidden under grief and behind closed doors. Deep within the family quarters given to her by Jin Zixuan, no one would see her drop golden cores into her soup pot and simmer them in ichor extracted from Yunmeng’s waters and Yiling’s shadows. No one would believe that anyway.

She disappeared for weeks at a time, and no one would say where, but the smell of ash and stagnant waters and rot always clung to her when she returned. No one would dare say anything. Not after the subsequent failed poison attempts.

#yunmeng sibs go apeshit #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #jiang yanli #jc #wwx #jyl #the untamed #mdzs #cql #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #yunmeng siblings #jiang siblings #monster au

[musings-on-aching-flowers]

Wei Wuxian - on strengths instead of flaws

I think there’s a lot of confusion between the various MDZS canons, like the novel canon vs donghua canon vs audio drama canon vs manhua canon vs CQL canon. One such confusion is on the nature of one Wei Wuxian.

Mo Dao Zu Shi is a story about resentment. It is a story where those who hang onto resentment, who tally up past grievances and pay them back hundredfold, are the ones who eventually meet their downfall. Xue Yang. Jin Guangyao. Even Mo Xuanyu. These people made their resentment an intrinsic part of who they were, and it ruined them. 

Of course, resentment is not an exclusive theme of the novel, and it may not even be the main one, depending on how you look at it. It’s also about class conflict, and mob mentality, and righteousness in the face of every obstacle. But in MDZS, the people who hold onto their resentment the tightest, who bury it within themselves and grow around it like the sand forming a pearl, those are the people whose actions eventually catch up to them. 

Wei Wuxian does not hold onto resentment. He is the type of person to keep moving forward. He doesn’t resent Yu Ziyuan, or Jiang Cheng, even with how awfully they treated him. He never resented Lan Wangji when he believed that he’d wanted to take him back to Gusu to imprison him. He doesn’t even resent the 3000 cultivators that came to slaughter him, or the cultivation world as a whole, although that would be very natural, because what did they know about Wei Wuxian? 

On top of that, Wei Wuxian seems to be always smiling. Even in his Yiling Laozu era, he was smiling when Lan Wangji showed up in the Burial Mounds. A lot of people seem to ascribe this part of his character to cripplingly low self-esteem, in that he doesn’t see himself as someone who deserves or is allowed to resent others. CQL in particular falls prey to this mischaracterisation, as do many of its fanworks who may have not experienced the original novel.

In fact, it’s much the opposite. It takes knowing your own self worth to forgive and move on. 

I know this from experience - one of my friends believes I don’t have enough self esteem to get properly angry over being wronged, and perhaps I don’t, but to me it takes strength to acknowledge something as out of your control and move on rather than continue to be hung up over it. Similarly, it speaks to a great inner strength that Wei Wuxian has this capacity to keep moving forward, despite every single blow he is dealt over the course of his life. His ability to keep smiling is born from strength, not flaw. 

Of course, just because he doesn’t resent these people doesn’t mean he necessarily has to reconcile with them - and he doesn’t.  That also takes knowing your own worth and value. Wei Wuxian knows that he deserves better than constant degradation, and realises that by stepping away from Lotus Pier, and never returning. There is nothing left for him there anymore, thus, it’s not productive nor healthy for him to stay. 

In sum: Wei Wuxian is self-empowered, capable and confident in his capability. He knows his own value, and he trusts his judgement (and he is right to - he is the most righteous cultivator of them all).

He is resilient. And that is what sets him apart from the rest. 

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #mdzs novel #cql #mdzs meta #wei wuxian #wei ying #my meta #character analysis

[admirableadmiranda]

Just a silly rumble of words; I didn't get into any of the works till this very year (first week January), at the loving pushing of a friend who wanted to drag me into the fandom pit. I watched 28 eps of the untamed and couldn't get past that cus of how we were stuck in the past and it was all very depressing and maddening lol. I picked up the novel and had no issues finishing it. To say it was a jarring experience finishing the novel and going into fandom spaces and the overwhelming love and stans of JC, I felt like I had walked into the twilight zone. I kept reading posts on him and thinking I had gotten the name wrong because I was seeing zero link in the slightest(I would even wiki names), then it became undeniable it was definitely 'him'. The fanart was the final nail in the coffin, why was so much of it with wwx and JC speaking after the end; a thing? It was overwhelmingly clear it was a mutual cut off and neither had a desire for the other to be around them. Every form of media I wanted to engage with all had that, I couldn't read fanfics, look at most art, even written analysis posts it was so OOC. I actively went looking for posts on why they liked JC, why they thought this and that, and every time it was just 'but he objectively didnt' 'that didn't happen though' It felt very isolating and confusing because I generally wanted to take an active part in the space. I can't say the JC rewrite was the only issue but rewriting in general was a very big problem in general. I even watched scenes and videos to see if the drama held weight to create this character but even then he was written in a more pitiful and likeable light but I still personally didn't feel it was fully justified. I'm all for liking unlikeable characters but this character wasn't even a shadow of the canon character I knew and I went in wanting and willing to understand and love him. I was (am) beyond excited to find people who did analysis posts and created spaces that follow the novel, I blocked tags, followed blogs, made a little space that was limited content but it was still content. To say I'm just exhausted and frustrated over this whole 'discourse' event, is putting it lightly. I always got push over content that didn't fit my taste but I would just move past it. My friend is even a fan of JC but openly admits to not enjoying the novel so only takes the 'lore' of the drama as real and we've never had any issues, I'll even send those push over posts of JC that come on my tl to them. It feels like we created a home on a mountain, happily existing in peace and then people come storming in saying we're evil and ruining their experience and active haters out to ruin the fandom. It's just bewildering, with all this being said thank you to you and all the other content creators for the content and I'm sorry and sad you're getting harassed for creating it but pls know it's very much appreciated and wanted. (And needed for my sanity lol)

Ah anon, I understand your cql burnout there. I myself had to skip from around the fall of Lotus Pier up to episode 33 in order to actually watch it as the backstory is just too long and really ruins the framing of present day and backstory that the book does so well.

I understand your confusion and frustration there. I had a lot of those same experiences when I joined the fandom, of being confused and bewildered at all this stuff that either vaguely or completely contradicted the book. It took me accidentally stumbling across a blog that actively did not like Jiang Cheng to revive my fandom love and then stumbling into a wonderful friend group that were happy to have me too in order to finally really start enjoying MDZS fandom. Sort of the same thing you did, only with more active pushback against fandom narratives.

Thank you very much for your kind words. It is currently a very frustrating time, but I won’t give in and let them have the tag. I conceded one fight, I won’t give in on this one.

The wheel continues to turn and people move with it. It will not always be this frustrating.

<3

#asks #anon #anon asks #sweet anons

[i-ship-therefore-i-am]

thinking today about wangxian post-canon, whether they end up living in CR or settle on a farm somewhere, and wwx waking up one day and realizing that he has had a home with lwj longer than anywhere else he's ever lived.

longer than those dark years in the burial mounds, longer than the brief time he got with his parents, longer than the years he spent at lotus pier

longer even than the years he was dead

he's spent most of his lives braced to lose everything again, to have to rebuild yet again. even after finding a home in lwj. he still was always braced for it. for the ending. for the thing he did wrong to ruin it all

it was so constant. just a thrum in his skin.

but this morning he wakes, counts the years, and looks over at his husband and the life they have. the longest he has ever had a place, a person to call home. his home.

not something borrowed or stolen or needed. not something destined to be lost. Just. Home.

i imagine him looking over at his husband, a slow, settled smile spreading across his face. He's ready to stop counting.

so he curls back into his husband's body, and falls back asleep to the sound of his breathing. he's at peace.

#the untamed #cql #wei wuxian #wangxian #just wanting to think about content wwx today #okay?

[stiricidewrites]

All the Things We’ll Leave Behind: ch 28, pt 16

Previously

~

It took four more trips for them to bring the last batches of rabbits to wwx’s house. jzxuan had wanted to forgo the last trip, insisting that they had only found a few on the third—even though it had been the longest, by far, what with lwj searching in every hiding spot he could find for any renegade rabbits—and any more trips would be wasted. In the end, lwj’s refusal to be stopped had meant jzxuan had been forced to follow his friend into the woods again—nearly pitch black and ominously silent by then—to make sure there were no stragglers. There had been a few, but whether due to his drunkenness or growing tiredness, lwj had made no comment on how jzxuan had effectively advocated for them to be abandoned there. Whoops, his bad.

The last bunnies had been fussier than the others, upset at having been pulled from their homes and sleep to be relocated—not to mention possibly stressed as their friends vanished throughout the evening—and repeatedly tried to jump out of jzxuan’s arms on the return walk. Annoyingly, lwj was apparently the world’s best bunny whisperer, and his own haul had almost immediately calmed once they were safely in his arms. Bastard.

Becca had stayed behind each time, digging through wwx’s house in search of boxes and blankets and anything else that could be useful for the rabbits overnight. jzxuan hoped she hadn’t ruined anything important in her search, but it would serve lwj right if she had. Not only was this entire thing his fault, but he’d practically ignored the teen the whole evening, save when he had given her the rabbits, food for the rabbits, and kicked her out upon their final return, although he also hadn’t stopped her from taking two of the rabbits with her.

“How are you going to get those home?” jzxuan asked as he followed her to the door, eyeing up the two bunnies who had taken a liking to her. He supposed her mother might not let her keep them—and he made sure she’d return them to him or lwj, rather than release them into the woods, if that happened—but getting them overseas? He wasn’t sure how that would work. He knew enough from overhearing his father’s business associates bitch about the difficulty of travelling with pets to know there were hoops to jump through that even the rich had a time navigating.

“Dunno,” she said, jamming her feet into her shoes—they really did seem on the verge of falling apart. “I’ll figure it out.” She barely glanced up at him as she turned to go, eyes glued to her screen, where a map labelled “How to Escape (Or Infiltrate) Lotus Pier” lay, sent to her from one of the twins, although the map itself seemed to have so much detail that someone who lived at Lotus Pier must have made it, and jzxuan’s mind once again slipped to jwy. He seriously couldn’t imagine the testy younger boy having been friendly enough with the locals to give them a guide on how to get in and out of his family’s home, but they had slipped into Lotus Pier thanks to that map, and Becca had waved off all concern he had for her own escape.

“I have been assured,” she said, throwing a smile over her shoulder, one of her new rabbits peeking through her hair and him, “that I will encounter no issues, thanks to this baby.”

#fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #wangxian #stiricidesbottomji #omegaverse

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

it was a march we made towards ruin and despair (but we held hands all the while)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/M64Gbg7

by Buttercup_ghost

"Nagito," Yasuke Matsuda glared, and Nagito Komaeda laughed brightly, the four refugees from the Towa Sect behind him. "What the fuck did you do now?"

"Matsuda-kun, isn't it lovely?" Nagito laughed. "The Towa siblings survived the massacre! With some help, I'm sure they'd be able to defeat Enoshima-san!"

"Um." Makoto fucking Naegi said, holding Monaka Towa close to his chest as Komaru clung to his sleeve. "Hi?"

"Nagito. What the fuck."

-

Yasuke Matsuda didn't plan on betraying Junko Enoshima today. Unfortunately for him, there are four traumatized, injured siblings who need his help, and Nagito Komaeda is especially meddlesome.

Words: 823, Chapters: 1/3, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of and be kind to those you love (and be kind to those you don't)

Fandoms: Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Dangan Ronpa Zero, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Matsuda Yasuke, Komaeda Nagito, Towa Haiji, Towa Monaca, Naegi Komaru

Relationships: Enoshima Junko/Matsuda Yasuke, (mentioned) - Relationship

Additional Tags: Background Relationships, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Minor Matsuda Yasuke/Enoshima Junko, Minor Enoshima Junko/Tsumiki Mikan, Like... one line of it being a thing lol, Fall of Lotus Pier (Módào Zǔshī), WN!Komaeda Nagito, WQ!Matsuda Yasuke, MoDao ZuShi AU, Sunshot Campaign (Módào Zǔshī), Pre-Sunshot Campaign (Módào Zǔshī), Concubine Tsumiki Mikan, Good for her

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/M64Gbg7

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #dangan ronpa #danganronpa #dr

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

I just reread my bookmark and found this WIP. It's character seeing the past

The Characters of MDZS Watching the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 

by emma_screams

M, WIP, 147k, Wangxian

Summary: What happens when a suspicious letter was sent to all the clans, inviting them to an appointed location to learn about the truth of thirteen years ago and now? Will the Yiling Patriarch finally get the justice he seeks? Will Hanguang-Jun lose some of his regret? Will Jiang Cheng find the peace he desperately needs? And will the other Sect Leaders finally realize what a piece of shit they are get the faceslapping they deserve? But most importantly, will Wei Wuxian allow a drunk Lan Zhan to be viewed by the public? Find out in the epic series of the characters watching the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation!

~*~

i'd like to rec some fics for wip week!

i loved the description of "this is an lqr & wwx get-along-sweater fic" 😂 @danmeiireader

patching the road with vague intentions

by loosingletters (@loosingmoreletters)

T, WIP, 9k, Wangxian

Summary: “What have you done!?” thundered a voice Wei Wuxian had, frankly speaking, never wanted to hear again. “Old man Lan?” Wei Wuxian blurted out, staring at the aged face of his former teacher. At the back of his mind, Wei Wuxian remembered the cut of his robes, that he wasn’t dressed like a widow at all, but like a Lan. Lan Qiren looked around, his gaze stuck somewhere above Wei Wuxian’s head, most likely the half-ruined summoning array behind him – fucking stupid, Wei Wuxian should’ve gotten rid of it immediately. Just why did it have to be a Lan summoning him, why Lan Qiren his visitor at the door? Wasn’t death enough punishment? “Wei Wuxian?” Lan Qiren asked wearily. Or, Wei Wuxian is summoned back to life in the Cloud Recesses. Unfortunately, the person to find him is Lan Qiren, forcing the unlikely duo to work together to keep the circumstances Wei Wuxian's return undiscovered.

~*~

sibling dynamics! dadxian! magically turning yourself trans! 👌🏽 @danmeiireader

deeper than the ink

by loosingletters (@loosingmoreletters)

M, WIP, 49k, Wangxian

Summary: Lonesomeness, the state of waiting and wanting, being caught in an endless fog with no escape. Harried by the distance to Wei Wuxian and his sister’s impending marriage, Jiang Cheng makes a trip to the Burial Mounds that doesn’t end in just another screaming match, but a desperate scheme to keep his brother by his side. On a mountain of corpses, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng damn themselves to one last lie.

~*~

i ADORE wen ning (like, in general, but especially in this fic) @danmeiireader

Where The Arrow Points

by Nillegible (@nillegible)

G, WIP, 4k, Wangxian

Summary: Wen Ning is thrown back in time to the archery competition at the Qishan Wen discussion conference. Before he died, and before a war. Last time he was here, he missed his shot, and was laughed away. This time he doesn't miss. (Or, Wen Ning pulls a Mockingjay at the Wen Sect's discussion conference, and changes the fate of the world.)

~*~

knives :) @danmeiireader

Every time you fall

by Nillegible (@nillegible)

T, WIP, 9k, Wangxian

Summary: “I always said that you would bring trouble to our sect,” says Madam Yu, following it up with a third strike, then more, one after another, each one jerking his body forward, robbing him of control enough to breathe, to think. He’s never felt pain like this before. Not the fiery lashes tearing the flesh on his back, the pain of his heart shattering as he realizes what will happen now. 'I didn’t know this would happen,' thinks Wei Wuxian. 'I was only trying to do the right thing.' For the first time ever, Wei Wuxian believes Madam Yu’s censure of him. I did this. I brought them here. My fault. (or: WWX decides the Wen attack on Lotus Pier is his fault, so he sends Madam Yu and Jiang Cheng away towards Meishan Yu, and runs back to save the others)

~*~

and i saw that you recced SSJ [💙Stunted, Starving Juvenility] (my beloved!!!), and i wanted to specifically rec its podfic! it's SO well done. the reader has a pleasant tone and pace, and does thoughtful character voices and even regional accents (an interpretation of them!). the podfic is OVER SIXTY HOURS (so far!!!!)(after editing!!!) so i'd like to give a nod to the insane amount of hard work that went into it ❤💙 @danmeiireader

Stunted, Starving Juvenility [Podfic]

by gndmlvr01

E, WIP, Podfic, Wangxian

Summary: Podfic of Stunted, Starving Juvenility, by TomatenMark Read by gndmlvr01, and posted with permission Please note: I did add on extra tags that I find helpful to locate works like this (ex: Genius WWX) Original story summary: At sixteen Wei Wuxian is—through some strange twist of fate, or a nick in the layer between parallel universes, who knows—out of the blue confronted with that one incense burner dream one night. While his curious mind is left unable to stop poking at this new perspective on Lan Wangji, circumstances in the Cloud Recesses begin to change and Wei Wuxian is suddenly presented with life-altering opportunities. Maybe Gusu isn’t so bad after all? (Or alternatively: The fic where I get to give Wei Wuxian the academic scholarship he deserves while simultaneously getting him hitched early on.)

~*~

oh no forgot one for wip week 😅

this fic was recced for an itmf i sent and i love the premise! @danmeiireader

Please Take This Radish

by Wildcard

M, WIP, 7k, Wangxian

Summary: “Are you telling me,” Jiang Cheng said, voice starting out in a low growl and then rapidly rising in volume, “That Wei Wuxian - the YILING PATRIARCH - reincarnated in his old bedroom?!” Xue Yang is the first and best disciple of the Yiling Patriarch. He is excellent at raising corpses, spectacular at making talismans and an expert swordsman. He is also 11 years old, trying to raise a toddler and has been mistaken for a de-aged Yiling Patriarch. Life is not going well.

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for these hard-working authors if you like – or think others might like – these stories.)

#Wangxian Fic Recs #follower recs #mdzs #the untamed #follower rec #MDZS #Mo Dao Zu Shi #The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Wangxian #The Untamed #Chenqingling #CQL #Chenqing Ling #WIP Rec Week #WIP #September 2023 #The Characters of MDZS Watching the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #emma_screams #patching the road with vague intentions #loosingletters #Mature #Teen #short fic <15k #epic length fic > 100k #deeper than the ink #medium fic 15k-49k #Where The Arrow Points #Gen #Nillegible #Stunted Starving Juvenility

[bloody-bee-tea]

So I want to suffer bc an AU in which JC died instead of JYL the day everything went wrong :) I’ve had this AU stuck on my head for awhile but I never let myself think too much about it bc it hurts but I want to hear your hc :p

1. Jiang Yanli kneels with her brother’s body in her lap and has to watch as her other brother finally succumbs to all that he did and what happened and has to watch him fling himself off a cliff.

2. When she gets back to Jinlintai she demands to see Jin Ling and then she spends the better part of a month grieving everyone she lost. She’s very lucky that despite everything she has support in this Sect.

3. One month is enough, she decides almost out of the blue and bundles up Jin Ling before she very firmly tells Madam Jin that she’ll be going back to Lotus Pier. When she arrives there, a small brawl between the smaller Sects has already started, because they all want to take over Lotus Pier.

4. Jiang Yanli reminds them very gently that it’s her family that ruled and with her back now, it’s still her family that rules. The other Sect Leaders are not impressed, but Lotus Pier stands behind Jiang Yanli, so they can’t really do anything. For now.

5. Jiang Yanli is known as a gentle and just person. She’s also known for the steel beneath her cutting words, and the easy flick of a wrist, accompanied by a sparkling purple.

6. She rebuilds Lotus Pier. She takes in disciples. She knows her strength and cultivation is not it, but she is a good judge of character and there is no shortage of people who want to teach at Lotus Pier. She builds a strong Sect.

(7. There are eight days in the year (five birthdays and three death days) where she is absolutely unavailable for everyone. Those are the days she spends breaking apart.)

[Send me an AU]

#bt answers #timetomakeanewwish #au #jiang yanli #it was either this #or an au where she stays in the safety of jinlintai #and lotus pier falls into ruins #so that when wwx comes back #there are only three great sects left #zidian was buried with jc #jyl never looked at yunmeng again #she would have torn out the lotus pond in jinlintai as well #but that was a gift of her late husband and she can't bring herself to do it

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

BNHA

Razzmatazz by xylophones

Izuku has plans for everything.

He plans out what to say to the cashier when ordering coffee, he plans out his homework before even opening his textbook. He has a whole ten-year plan for how he’s going to get into UA’s hero course and get his hero license fully quirkless. He plans for every wild, unlikely scenario he can think of because his anxiety gets so bad if he doesn’t go through every possible outcome, every way his life could landslide into disaster–– but Izuku never planned for this.

For once, he doesn’t have a plan and he doesn’t have time to think of one. All he can see is Yagi-san’s lined, kind face looking resigned as he stares down the villain in his shop. Yagi-san, who is the closest thing to a father figure Izuku has ever had.

Izuku doesn’t think. He just moves.

(Or: Izuku saves the number one hero, gets a hero license way earlier than anyone wanted, realizes that maybe hero society isn’t as great as he thought it was, and everything just kind of falls apart from there.)

Untamed

other side of paradise by blueseam

“I want you to come back to Lotus Pier.”

The words fall with all the grace of a lead mallet, and Jiang Cheng watches the Yiling Laozu’s face contort as he chokes on a sip of tea.

Or: Jiang Cheng learns emotional maturity.

ATLA

The Cycle by levnuns

Annya is old. She’s been part of the palace staff for years, and when Izumi arrives, she often finds herself waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Marvel

i’ve been holding back tears (while you’re throwing back beers) by im_your_mom_now

After the deaths of his parents, Peter Parker—along with his two other siblings—were put under the care of his alcoholic aunt. Twelve years later, Peter is juggling life as a sixteen-year-old caretaker of his four cousins, a prodigious student, and a Pizza King employee. Oh yeah, and he’s Spider-Man.

As things start to unfurl, Tony Stark—Peter’s mentor—starts to suspect some issues at home. Peter can’t let his role model know anything or else he risks losing their budding relationship or, more importantly, his family.

TLDR: Aunt May sucks, Peter has to pick up the slack because she’s not only his guardian, but the guardian of his two other siblings & her own four kids. Peter is trying his best. Tony wants to help.

Clone Wars

Capture the Flag by Artemis_Neardos

It's all fun and games, but a good portion of the galaxy is fairly certain that at least part of the GAR has quietly lost its mind. Obi-Wan isn't completely sure what's going on. His men are having fun and no ones getting hurt, so he has no problem playing along.

Anakin's DNA Wish by phoenixyfriend

Anakin's blood is half Force. It glows under microscopes and ruins genome sequencing machines, and everyone's very tired of that.

One day, while recovering from the loss of his arm and on many, many painkillers, Anakin makes a wish. Obi-Wan is now his father, in blood as well as spirit. The Force wipes away some tension, because Anakin's DNA had been held together by spit and a prayer, and Obi-Wan's DNA finally gives it something to work with.

Too bad nobody was told to update Anakin's medical profile.

Star Wars the Groupchat by Allise

[CC-3636 has added CC-2224, CC-6454, CT-7567, CC-1010, and CC-5052 to General] [CC-3636 has named the chat Fucking Shenanigans] [CC-3636 has changed their name to Wolffe]

Wolffe: @CC-2224 and @CT-7567 please come collect General Kenobi and save both him and myself from this embarrassment [CC-2224 has changed their name to Cody] Cody: . . . I almost don’t want to ask because this already feels like a disaster

#that bnha fic was so good that i want to start reading bnha fics again #if anyone has some amazingly written recs i would love to have them #my posts #fic recs #weekly fic round up #bnha recs #atla recs #marvel recs #sw recs

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spite in Misery - ao3

(rather silly AU of Delight in Misery, only even more petty and passive aggressive, and also slightly more JC/LWJ)

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

“What do you want?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Sanctuary,” Lan Wangji said, prim and proper as he always was, the perfect untouchable iceberg as always, except maybe for the small child he was holding. “For me and my son.”

“Wait, you fuck?”

Wait, that wasn’t the right question.

“Why do you need sanctuary here?” Jiang Cheng asked, utterly bemused. “There isn’t a single place in the cultivation world you wouldn’t be welcomed –”

Except here.

“– and anyway, your brother, his sworn brothers, and your sect would demolish anyone who even thought about hurting you. Who in the world could you need sanctuary from?”

“My brother,” Lan Wangji said. “His sworn brothers, and my sect.”

Jiang Cheng stared at him.

Lan Wangji stared right back at him.

And then he collapsed.

“No,” Jiang Cheng said to the unconscious or possibly dead body currently lying across the threshold of the Lotus Pier and the small feverish-looking child in barely better state splayed out beside it. “I refuse to take responsibility for this!”

-

“You will not say anything about the room I have chosen to house you in,” Jiang Cheng said. “You will not complain about the food, the amenities, or make any requests whatsoever. Do you hear me?”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

Jiang Cheng ought to have expected as much.

“And don’t think this means I’m going to like you or anything,” Jiang Cheng added self-righteously.

“I despise you with every drop of blood in my body,” Lan Wangji said.

“…so noted,” Jiang Cheng said.

After a moment, he added, “I don’t care!” and stormed out.

After yet another moment, he came right back into the room where he’d put Lan Wangji – it was just a convenient room, not specifically Wei Wuxian’s room, and if putting Lan Wangji in there meant he could delay having to clean out all the personal possessions left in there and actually repurpose it, that was his business and no one else’s – and said, “Why do you hate me, exactly?”

“Do you care?” Lan Wangji asked. He was examining the small cot Jiang Cheng had set up to put the still-unconscious and therefore nameless child on.

“Obviously,” Jiang Cheng said. “Or I wouldn’t have asked.”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

Jiang Cheng waited a few moments, moments that grew longer and longer, and finally he realized – “You’re not planning on telling me?”

“I despise you,” Lan Wangji reminded him.

“Oh, you – you…!” Jiang Cheng ground his teeth together. “I’m the one giving you sanctuary, remember?”

“I came to you because you were the only one powerful enough to accomplish the task and spiteful enough to do it. I did not come here to owe you any favors.”

“Well, you’re going to owe me one anyway,” Jiang Cheng said, scowling at him. “You – you – ugh. Forget it!”

He stormed back out.

And then he realized he hadn’t actually brought the medicine that he’d intended to bring to Lan Wangji, so he had to go in and drop it off, but then he was finally able to storm away properly.

-

“I was under the belief we had agreed it would be best for us to see each other as little as possible,” Lan Wangji said, his voice even icier than usual – which was saying something.

“That’s right,” Jiang Cheng agreed, eying him warily. “I’m only here personally to drop off your medicine because it means fewer people know that you’re here.”

He’d thought that he would need to bring in a doctor for Lan Wangji’s injuries, but it turned out to be whip marks from a discipline whip and Jiang Cheng – well. Jiang Cheng knew everything there was to know about injuries like that.

Sure, he’d had to take A-Yuan to a doctor, he didn’t know shit about pediatric illnesses, but that was fine, it didn’t give the whole game away. Jiang Cheng was able to pass him off as some random sad orphan he’d taken pity on, which wasn’t far from what he suspected to be the truth.

“In that case,” and Lan Wangji’s voice was even colder, which how, “why do you live next door?”

“This was the only room available,” Jiang Cheng lied.

Lan Wangji glared death at him.

“Beggars can’t be choosers. I’m giving you sanctuary, aren’t I?” Jiang Cheng scowled. “Anyway, I told you that you weren’t allowed to complain about the room.”

Lan Wangji did not appear impressed.

“How’d you know I was next door, anyway?”

“You have nightmares.”

…right.

“I’ll invest in better soundproofing, then,” Jiang Cheng said haughtily. He wasn’t ashamed of having nightmares. After the life he’d lived, it was only to be expected.

“I don’t want to be around you at all,” Lan Wangji clarified.

“Too bad.”

“I don’t want you spending time with A-Yuan.”

Oh, so that was the real issue here. Well, in that case, the answer was still – “Too bad.”

“He’s my son.”

“He’s in my house,” Jiang Cheng said. “In my sect, in my lands, in my part of the cultivation world, which is the only reason you came here rather than literally anywhere else, remember? Because I’m a territorial bastard with a paranoid streak that won’t let anyone come look for you in here without hovering over their backs like a shadow, making it impossible for them to actually find you – sound familiar?”

Lan Wangji’s face twitched. “I did not say that.”

“You thought it,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji’s silence proved he was right. “Anyway, I don’t care if you don’t like me spending time with A-Yuan. He’s one of the only people who can make Jin Ling laugh.”

“He wants to be his big brother,” Lan Wangji said. He sounded like he had swallowed glass.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said, not understanding. “Good for him?”

Brothers didn’t have to be biological, he thought, and that old pain tore through his heart the way it always did when he thought about Wei Wuxian.

“Worthless,” Lan Wangji said, glaring at him, and Jiang Cheng almost agreed with that assessment of himself – thoughts of Wei Wuxian usually had that effect – except of course it was Lan Wangji saying it, so naturally he had to disagree.

It was oddly reaffirming, actually. He might beat himself up as being worthless, useless and pathetic, a broken shell of a man who couldn’t keep a single member of his family alive, who had nothing and lived for nothing and existed purely for the sake of his sect and Jin Ling –

But the second Lan Wangji said that he was worthless, Lan Wangji who was wrong about everything, Jiang Cheng was immediately convinced that he was the best thing that had ever been invented.

Wait, was this how Wei Wuxian used to feel all the time?

No wonder he was always tormenting Lan Wangji.

-

“I brought you some books on physical rehabilitation,” Jiang Cheng announced. “No, don’t thank me - the sooner you’re better, the sooner you can leave.”

“It will not be too soon,” Lan Wangji said.

Personally, Jiang Cheng didn’t think Lan Wangji was going to be leaving for at least another year, maybe a few more years, not with that many strikes of the discipline whip to heal and his disordered qi to straighten out, but it was nice for both of them to see a destination at the end of the road in which they didn’t have to see each other all the time. Either way, he agreed, so he wasn’t going to ruin the rare moment of complete harmony by being persnickety.

“You should knock before entering,” Lan Wangji added, prissy as always.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. He probably should have, yes, but he always had the ‘it’s my house’ thing to fall back on. This was the Lotus Pier where the rules of the Lan sect didn’t apply, and as far as he was concerned, that was reason enough to ignore etiquette. Anyway, Lan Wangji was here alone and healing just the way he’d been doing the past few months, what exactly was he going to be doing that Jiang Cheng might walk in on –

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng said when Lan Wangji attempted, with dignity, to extract his hands from inside his clothing, which was unfortunately not something he could do subtly. “Were you trying to jerk off?”

Lan Wangji looked mutinous.

“…were you failing to jerk off?”

Lan Wangji now looked like he wanted to rip Jiang Cheng limb from limb, even though it ought to have been clear enough that Jiang Cheng would only think to ask the question because he’d had a similar issue for a while there. The time after his family had died had been brutal, and he couldn’t even use getting off as a shortcut to fall asleep because every time he tried he couldn’t keep it up; it’d been awful. He’d been terrified that he’d broken his own dick somehow, which led to worries that he wouldn’t be able to have kids in the future and thereby fail his parents and ancestors in a brand new and yet unexplored way, which led to even more panic and even less sleeping. It hadn’t been until someone (he suspected Nie Mingjue, bizarrely enough) shoved a medical treatise about trauma reactions under his door that he’d realized it was a fairly normal aftereffect and managed to calm down a little.

Nie Mingjue had also given him so much work to do that Jiang Cheng hadn’t had time to even think about that sort of thing until nearly half a year later, at which point everything was working again and he’d completely forgotten it was even an issue until halfway into the afterglow.

Good man, that Nie Mingjue.

“If it’s a symptom, you need to tell me these things,” Jiang Cheng said, taking far too much wretched enjoyment out of the whole thing. He’d give Lan Wangji the trauma book, of course – he still had it – but he had to get his wins in where he could against the perfect iceberg, cheap shots or no. “As your current attending doctor, I’m responsible for your care –”

“It is unwanted but necessary. It is simply something that I must endure,” Lan Wangji said grimly, and Jiang Cheng raised his eyebrows.

The book had covered that, too, although that hadn’t been his problem, personally.

“Oh, I see,” he said. “You keep getting hard, is that it? And then retraumatizing yourself when you try to jerk off, which means you can’t satisfy the need, which means you can’t solve the getting hard all the time problem, which in turn affects your cultivation and so your healing…yeah, I see the issue. You should probably get someone else to do it for you if you get really desperate.”

“I see no one but you,” Lan Wangji said through gritted teeth.

A problem, Jiang Cheng admitted.

Still mostly Lan Wangji’s problem, though.

“Well,” he said with the smarmiest smirk he could manage, “as your attending doctor –”

Lan Wanjgji threw a book at his head.

-

“What are you planning on doing once you’re better?” Jiang Cheng wondered.

“Why are you talking to me?” Lan Wangji replied.

“Oh come on,” Jiang Cheng said. “How can you say such a thing after taking advantage of me? I let you into my home –”

“You will not be able to rely upon that fact forever.”

“I will be able to rely on that fact for eternity,” Jiang Cheng disagreed. “I let you into my home, I hid you away from the world – which isn’t actually as easy as I make it look, just so you know! Your brother is practically scouring the earth –”

Lan Wangji looked like he’d bitten into something extremely sour.

“I’m sorry, did you think he was not going to do that? And recruit his sworn brothers to help him?” Jiang Cheng asked. “I thought the whole point of this was – well –”

“It was.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“I do not enjoy hearing of it.”

“Listen, if you’re going to decide to torture someone by turning your back on them and disappearing without a word, you should at least have the guts to own it.”

“You speak from experience, I take it.”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Did you somehow forget everything that happened back then with Wei Wuxian?”

“…you were the one who turned your back on Wei Ying.”

Jiang Cheng laughed disbelievingly. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he jeered. “Because I was so well-known for my backbone when it came to Wei Wuxian. I definitely was the one to come up with the idea to throw him out of my sect and cut ties, yeah, definitely, that’s completely what happened. I mean, obviously, I always got my way when dealing with him, every time, that’s how it always was between us. He had nothing to do with it.”

Lan Wangji was glaring at him. “Not then,” he said, each word cutting like a sword. “The Nightless City.”

“You mean the time he arrogantly and completely without warning started a fight that got my sister killed and then murdered three thousand people, including some of the very few family members and friends I had left?”

Lan Wangji was silent.

“You do mean that time,” Jiang Cheng said, marveling. “Are you insane? Even if I wanted to, if I took his side then, I’d have had no claim later on to grab him as a prisoner before anyone else did. The Jin would have executed him for sure! And slowly!”

“The Burial Mounds –”

“He imploded in front of my face!” Jiang Cheng shouted. “I had to see – when he – he died! He was – he did – you don’t even know – no, you know what, I’m not talking about this. Not with you of all people; you hated him.”

Lan Wangji’s hands were fists. “I did not.”

“No? You did a good job of acting like you did,” Jiang Cheng sneered. “Always talking about how you wanted to drag him back to Gusu just because it would make you feel better –”

“Better than leaving him.”

“I did what he wanted! And yes, fine, maybe that was my mistake. Maybe I should’ve ignored what he wanted, maybe I should’ve dragged him back to the Lotus Pier and locked him in a little room for the rest of his life the way everyone knows your dad did to your mom – ”

Lan Wangji flinched.

In fairness, Jiang Cheng was exaggerating about everyone knowing. He only knew about it because he’d heard his mother spit it out at his father during one of their nastier fights, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to have known about it, either.

“– but stupid me, I thought he’d be happier being free and alone than stuck with someone he clearly didn’t want to be around him anymore! But what do I know? Maybe I should ask you, you selfish bastard. You’re the one in his position this time, you’re the one who’s doing the turning away – I bet you don’t even know what it’s like to be the one that’s not wanted.”

Lan Wangji stared down at his hands as Jiang Cheng jumped up to his feet, Zidian crackling to life in his hand despite himself, persisting even though he tried to suppress it.

“I’m going to go hunt down some demonic cultivators,” he said, trying in vain to keep his temper even a little bit and knowing it was a lost cause. “And then I’m going to bring them back here and make them scream somewhere you can hear it. You can chew on that with some glass for all I care!”

-

“You handled that last one well,” Lan Wangji said. It sounded like someone was pulling teeth from his head.

“You’re sick,” Jiang Cheng announced. “I will go get some fever medicine at once. Are you experiencing any other symptoms in addition to hallucinations? Or should I be checking for signs of possession instead?”

Lan Wangji was back to glaring at him.

“I don’t know what drove that sudden spurt of niceness and I don’t care to know,” Jiang Cheng informed him. “I don’t need your approval.”

Lan Wangji ignored him. That was more customary.

Also unfortunate, because Jiang Cheng managed to get less than half a shichen of work done before coming back into Lan Wangji’s room (not Wei Wuxian’s room) and saying, “Okay, what exactly did I do?”

Lan Wangji looked at him sidelong.

“Seriously,” Jiang Cheng said. “What did I do that was so impressive that even you approved of it?”

“The demonic cultivator. The last one.”

Jiang Cheng frowned, thinking about it. “The – stupid one, you mean?”

Lan Wangji stared at him, and then looked at the ceiling, long-suffering. “The one from Yunping.”

“The stupid one,” Jiang Cheng confirmed, and then he was ranting again because he couldn’t seem to stop ranting about it. “I can’t believe the idiot got into demonic cultivation as a way to make money! That’s just – it’s just – if I ever figure out who paid him, I’m going to rearrange their guts with my sword. Lousy rotten opportunistic…!” He coughed, realizing he’d gotten started again when he’d promised Jiang Meimei that he’d stop. It apparently got old after the sixth repetition. “Anyway, what’s so notable about that?”

“You accepted him as an outer disciple of your own sect.”

“Well, yeah. What else was I going to do with him? He’s clearly got some talent for cultivation if he figured out demonic cultivation without dying. It’d be a waste to send him back to be a fisherman or a dockworker or something.”

“You didn’t kill him.”

“I’m not going to kill someone who got into demonic cultivation as a way to raise funds to get medicine for his sick mother,” Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “The idiot’s on tomb-sweeping duty for the next year to make up for having manipulated corpses the way he did, that’s punishment enough. It’s not at all comparable to the usual sort of amateur demonic cultivator, the ones that summon corpses to torment former lovers or murder business partners or that sort of thing – those are the ones I use as an example to warn everyone else. What’s the big deal?”

Lan Wangji said nothing.

“Fine, keep your secrets. Can you watch Jin Ling today? I have a – uh – important meeting.”

“Another woman that you have no intention of actually marrying?”

“Shut up and mind your own business.”

-

“No, but seriously,” Jiang Cheng said. “What are you going to do once you’re better?”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Lan Wangji said, his voice muffled on account of his face being firmly in his hands. “Go away.”

“Listen, we’re still neighbors, we still need to talk. There’s no point in being suddenly shy about it just because you’re still in the acceptance phase of grief in connection with the whole me helping you with getting off business –”

“Never speak of it.”

Jiang Cheng sniggered. He wouldn’t have pegged the Lan sect as having uncontrolled libidos, much less Lan Wangji, but apparently the situation had gotten truly dire. Anyway, really, getting mockery rights was totally worth an arm work-out and having to put up with Lan Wangji, the latter of which he had to do anyway.

“You really are taking advantage of me now, though! My poor virtue –”

Lan Wangji looked at him through his fingers. “You don’t have any virtue.”

“Really?” Jiang Cheng asked, suddenly curious. “I strike you as someone with a lot of experience –”

“I meant morally.”

“Oh. Hey!”

Lan Wangji rolled his eyes. “Pathetic.”

“Not as pathetic as someone who won’t answer a straight question,” Jiang Cheng said. “What’s your plan for after you’re healed? Are you going back to the Lan sect? Or start traveling as a rogue cultivator?”

“Why do you care?” Lan Wangji asked.

“I can care!”

“But you don’t. Not about my affairs.”

Jiang Cheng had to admit this was correct. “Fine,” he said. “I need a name.”

Lan Wangji frowned at him.

“For A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s been a year. The kid’s as healthy as he’s ever going to be, and he’s old enough for me to shove him in with the rest of the younger generation now that we’re starting lessons back up – cultivation, swordsmanship, shooting, etiquette, all the usual. But I can’t register him in the class without a surname, and I need to know if that surname’s going to be Lan or if you plan on changing it to something else.”

Lan Wangji was frowning at him.

“I know, I know, you’re in hiding,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s fine, it won’t give you away even if you do pick ‘Lan’. I can register him as a Yunmeng Lan instead of a Gusu Lan, the surname’s common enough that no one will suspect anything unless you make him start wearing a forehead ribbon, which I don’t think you lot do at this age yet anyway. But if you’re planning on continuing to hide from your family after you get better, you’re going to need to do something about all of that.”

Lan Wangji looked sour.

“Anyway, long story short, that’s it. Your plans, I need to know them.”

Lan Wangji looked even more sour.

“Well? What is it?”

“We will return to the Lan sect,” Lan Wangji said.

“Not that hard, was it,” Jiang Cheng said. “I knew you were just throwing a temper tantrum.”

Lan Wangji rolled his eyes.

After a moment, he said, “What do we do about Jin Ling?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do we do about Jin Ling’?” Jiang Cheng asked suspiciously. “I had to fight half of Lanling Jin for the right to raise him here, we’re not doing anything about Jin Ling – anyway, who’s ‘we’? He’s my nephew!”

“A-Yuan sees him as a little brother.”

This was true.

“They will not want to part.”

…also true.

“Moreover,” and here Lan Wangji looked especially sour, “I believe A-Yuan has taken you as something of a – second parent.”

“Well, that’s nice,” Jiang Cheng said. “He’s a cute kid. Anyway, don’t take it so personally. Kids just do that, they adopt any adult in the vicinity as their own. I mean, certainly Jin Ling thinks of you as…wait. Wait. Are we co-parenting?!”

“Mm. Took you long enough to notice.”

-

It had been a bad day, a bad week, and a bad month, and Jiang Cheng’s temper, never good, was on the verge of imploding, so naturally that was when he completely lost all self-control he might have had and marched over to Lan Wangji’s room to blurt out, “Why do you hate me?”

Lan Wangji’s hands stilled over his guqin.

“I know why I hate you, even putting aside the fact that you’re a jackass with the emotional capacity of a brick,” Jiang Cheng said. “But I really have no idea what I did to you to make you hate me.”

There were so many options, after all. He was a cruel, vicious, and bitter man – he was a terrible parent, unlikable as a friend, barely sufficient as a sect leader, and such a failure at connecting socially with anyone that he’d been blacklisted as a marriage prospect despite being handsome, young, rich, and powerful. There were so many reasons to hate him.

But he didn’t know which one was the one that made Lan Wangji look at him with disdain, even if he thought that perhaps there was slightly less of that these days than there had been before.

“I hate you because you abandoned Wei Ying when he needed you,” Lan Wangji said. “He was your brother, and you left him behind – more than that, you led the charge against him, resulting in his death.”

…that was a good reason.

Jiang Cheng wouldn’t mind being hated for that reason, actually. It was a nice change from all those people who congratulated him for having done the right thing: all those smug sect leaders that comforted him for having raised a white-eyed wolf in the family, the ones that said his actions showed that he had a good backbone and a righteous bearing, the ones that had the gall to send him gifts of congratulation on the anniversary of Wei Wuxian’s death to thank him for his contribution to the cultivation world when all he wanted was to be left alone to mourn…

“That’s fine,” he croaked. “Okay. Yes. That’s – fine.”

“Why do you hate me?” Lan Wangji asked in turn. “You said you knew.”

“Oh, that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Same reason.”

Lan Wangji stared.

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “I mean, I know you were always harsh on him when we were together at your uncle’s lectures, which was completely fair given how much he was always bothering you. But he really did try sincerely to help you when we were all the Wen sect’s camp, and in the cave with the Xuanwu – but after, in the war, when he showed up with his demonic cultivation, you suddenly turned on him even though he was just doing it to help. You kept telling him he had to stop, even though you knew he was doing so much for the war effort, and you wanted to take him back to Gusu to do who-knows-what to him…you even snatched him away during the battle of the Nightless City! I saw you. I was so afraid you were going to kill him, I completely lost my head. I looked for you everywhere – I really don’t know how he was lucky enough to get away from you that time.”

Lan Wangji stared at him.

“And then you didn’t even bother to show up to the siege of the Burial Mounds in person,” Jiang Cheng added, feeling bitter. “After I heard from the Lan sect that he escaped from you, I briefly thought that you’d changed your mind and let him go. I was counting on you to be at the Burial Mounds to support me in claiming him as a Jiang sect prisoner – I had Chifeng-zun signed on, if reluctantly, and with you leading the Lan I could’ve made a decent argument. But then you didn’t show, either you or your brother; instead you sent your uncle, and of course there wasn’t even any point in asking him, was there?”

“…I didn’t know,” Lan Wangji said. His voice sounded strangely hoarse. “I wasn’t informed. It was shortly after…”

He nodded at his own shoulder, meaning the disaster on his back. Jiang Cheng hadn’t asked how it happened – he really wanted to know, as in really, really, really wanted to know, but even he was aware that actually asking would be unbearably rude. Still, he was surprised by the timing of it. How had Lan Wangji managed to end up in the hands of his enemies then? Who had even been left to do it to him?

“Yeah, well,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head to try to kick away his curiosity the way he would something clinging to his foot. “You were still a bastard to him when he needed you, so I hate you.”

He frowned.

“Also, you hate me,” he said. “So I hated you back just for that. Though I guess, since your reason for hating me is valid, maybe I should stop hating you back for that?”

He considered it.

“No,” he decided. “You’re too annoying not to hate.”

“The same for you,” Lan Wangji said after an unusual hesitation.

Jiang Cheng nodded and, feeling oddly relieved at not having found a new basis for self-hatred, departs.

-

“So once you’ve reestablished yourself at the Cloud Recesses, we’ll exchange extended visits on a regular basis so the kids can see each other,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji nodded. “A minimum of three weeks per season, whether in the Lotus Pier or Cloud Recesses, and preferably double that.”

“Agreed.”

“In the meantime, you’ll work on getting the trade agreement we hammered out through your brother and sect elders as recompense for the time you spent here.”

“Mm.”

“An agreement whose source you will be disclosing very carefully because the Venerated Triad will not hesitate to murder me if they figure out without adequate warning it was me that was housing you for all this time.”

Lan Wangji said nothing and promised nothing.

Bastard.

Still, after nearly three years, Jiang Cheng was pretty used to it.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said. “Is there anything I’ve left out?”

“Joint night-hunts.”

“Right, right, we’ll make a point of regularly going on joint night-hunts – wait, why are we doing that? You don’t need me to watch your back now that you’re fully healed.”

Lan Wangji’s gaze wandered.

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng said. “So we can keep having hate-sex on the regular?”

“…mm.”

“Why didn’t you just say so? It’s not like I’m doing anything else – or anyone else. Blacklisted, remember?”

“Unsurprising,” Lan Wangji said, like the bastard he was.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, whatever. The set-up works, doesn’t it? I’m blacklisted, you’re apparently eternally pining for Wei Wuxian of all people – your taste is the worst – so who’s going to call us out on it? Go on, get out of here already. I’ll see you next month.”

-

“Well,” Jiang Cheng said, looking between the newly resurrected Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, abruptly made of an issue he had hitherto not considered based on Lan Wangji’s screaming body language. “This is. Uh. Awkward?”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #spite in misery #delight in misery #sometimes you get a silly idea #and then you write it