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#but nmj is the best da-ge
thatswhatsushesaid · 10 months
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shitpost dispatches from nightless city - incorrect but plausibly canon quotes edition
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wangxianficfinder · 3 months
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In the mood for...
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1. Itmf best brother nmj/nmj is everyone’s da ge.
🧡 Where's Your Emergency? by trippednfell (M, 64k, WangXian, 911 Dispatcher WWX, Single dad LWJ, Kid fic, Modern AU, D&D Games, Angst with a happy ending)
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2. I randomly came across this video recently of the Japanese Rabbit Hopping Assc. today, and I immediately felt compelled to ask if anyone has written (or possibly is inspired to write) 'actually very serious rabbit agility racer Lan Wangji'
Video link if anyone wants it lol:
youtube
Tumblr story by @/mondengel2 I took it as a prompt
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3. Hii!! I am really looking for fics with angst with happy ending (happy ending for wangxian mostly) coupled with Jiang Yanli betraying Wei Ying if there are any? Thanks!! @yilinglaobunny
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4. Hiya!!! I've got an IIMF request: fic where Wen Yuan is actually a blood heir of the Wen and that somehow factors into the story importantly (like, he's Wen Rouhan's grandson, has special Wen powers, etc). Thanks for all the hard you you all do! @kimboo-york
sami's 'Dream of Youth' and 'Hand in Hand Together' has A'Yuan as Wen Xu's bio son. It's a minor plot point though.
The Dreams of Youth by sami (E, 85k, WangXian, YZY/TLJ, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Fix-It, Family, Not Lan Sect Friendly, Bad Dads, good dads, JFM's A+ parenting, Qingheng-Jun's F- Existence, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Sort Of, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Sexual Content, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Some People Live/Not Everyone Dies, Canonical Character Death)
Hand in Hand Together (All Your Life) by sami (T, 41k, WZL/JC, WangXian, Queerplatonic relationship, Implied future MingLi, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Healing, Slow Burn)
When Flowers Spring from Killing Things by windsweptice (B0redaf) (Not rated, 100k, wangxian, Wen WWX, Demonic Cultivation, WWX Has No Golden Core, he's got a resentful one instead, Yīn Iron, WRH pov, LWJ pov, WWX pov, WWX Isn't Adopted by the Jiāngs, Sentient Burial Mounds, XY Is A Little Shit, WQ pov, Protective WWX, Protective WQ, Cinnamon Roll WN, Protective WN, LXC pov, BAMF WWX, Burning of the Cloud Recesses, Fall of Lotus Pier, Cultivation Discussion Conferences, BAMF LWJ, BAMF WN, BAMF WQ, Good Person WX, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, Weddings) might not be everyone's cup of tea cause he's literally wen ruohan's son
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5. Hello! ITMF a fic where WWX survived the siege at Burial Mounds and remembers that LWJ saved him that night at Nightless City. Then WWX finds out about the punishment LWJ had to go through because of that. And WWX takes LWJ to Burial Mounds to mend his scars and they end up together.
I saw a fanart of wangxian with Yilling Patriarch!WWX treating LWJ's scars and that was all I could think about.
❤️ A Myriad of Blossoms by Itszero (E, 56k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Forced Marriage, YLLZ WWX, Hurt LWJ, Cruel wwx, he's cruel until he's not, Protective WWX, Caring WWX, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Eventual Smut, Bottom LWJ, Dark WWX) pls pls read this because based on ur request this is amazing (pls don't hate wwx in the beginning)
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6. Hello! I'm in the mood for fics where wwx is experiencing some kind of delusion or psychosis and lwj (or other characters) try to help him through it. I don't mind wether it's canon universe with the demonic cultivation being the cause, a curse or even modern au.
Thanks!
From Underneath by steppjes (M, 15k, wangxian, Character Death, Major Character Injury, Modern, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, Demons, Ghosts, Hallucinations, Grief/Mourning, Blood and Injury, Depression, Hospitals, Mutual Pining, The Troubles of Baby Acquisition, Very on brand self hate from wwx, he's going through a lot okay)
Mud on Your Feet by AvoOwO (Not Rated, 59k, WangXian, Nightmares, Sentient Burial Mounds, Possession, Panic Attacks, Night Terrors, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Good Sibling JC, Hurt WWX, Soft WangXian, Blood and Injury, Hallucinations, Delusions, JC Loves WWX, Insomnia, Good Sibling WWX, Sleepwalking, Sleeptalking, Protective JC, POV LWJ, PTSD, Post-Canon, YLLZ WWX, resentful energy, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Soft JC, Yúnmèng Siblings Feels)
let me sing to you by greybird_crookedbranch (T, 61k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, adorable Juniors, Minor Original Character(s)for plot purposes, Minor Violence, Demonic Cultivation, resentful energy, Trauma, Guilt, Protectiveness, BAMF WWX, Hurt wwx, Protective WWX, Protective LWJ, Baby Lans, WWX loving and being loved by tiny Lan babies, LWJ being utterly whipped for WWX, Mental Instability, Possession, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV LWJ, a tasteful seasoning of Yunmeng Bros Reconcilliation, CQL canon except LWJ is not chief cultivator, Nightmares)
out in the garden, there's things you hid away by saltyfeathers (E, 121k, WangXian, Possession, Animal Death, mass death event, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt(s), lotta hurt lotta comfort, wwx-centric, unfortunately there's also a bodily fluids warning, just like a lot of bodily fluids, there is sex and it is all in the last chapter, Serious Injuries, Angst with a Happy Ending, Post canon)
Something at the Door by Pip (Moirail) (E, 50k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivation, background 3zun, Background Yi City trio, Intrusive Thoughts, Horror, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Character Death, Blood, Explicit Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mystery, Urban Fantasy)
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7. Helloooo mods! It’s been a while! 💜 for the next itmf can i get some completed fics that explores wen ning in a romantic way? Like fluff and falling in love? Aside from JC , i don’t mind who he’s shipped with.
Thank you! 😊 @jikcf
the height of summer by la_dissonance (G, 8k, WN/LWJ/WWX, Getting Together, Romance, Accidental Courtship, On purpose courtship, Polyamory, Fluff, a small amount of pining, Love Confessions, WN/Happiness forever otp, Gift Giving, Secret Admirer)
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8. Can you please find a au marvel or Wwx as Wanda or black widow ! Thank you 😊 @brighterthanmagicalfluff
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9. Ok guys, I'm in the mood for your favorite Good Uncle LQR fics. I don't care for any other details besides that, please & thank you
小兔子 | Little Bunny by dragongirlG (T, 6k, LQR & LWJ, LXC & LQR & LWJ, LSZ & LQR, minor wangxian, POV LQR, love language: acts of service, Caring LQR, Character Study, Canon Universe, References to Canon, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Comatose QHJ, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful Ending, Podfic Available, Good Uncle LQR)
🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 742k, WangXian, WIP, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Feelings Realization, Getting Together, Sexual Tension, Supportive LQR, Light Angst, Internalized Homophobia, Period-Typical Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, WWX learns about his parents, First Dates, First Kiss, First Time, LWJ is confused, Then he is 100 percent on board, Kink Discovery, Kink Exploration, Bisexual WWX, Dual Cultivation, Slow Burn, Fix-It of Sorts, Not JFM friendly, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fluff and Angst, Blood and Gore, Supportive LXC, Protective LXC, Canon Divergence, Inventor WWX, Eventual Smut, Possessive LWJ, Genius WWX, Cultivation Sect Politics, Scheming NHS, Cultivation Discussion Conferences, Pre-Sunshot Campaign, Minor Character Death, NHS gets himself a beard (not the facial kind), POV WWX, Fluff and Smut, Burning of the Cloud Recesses)
Lessons relearned by Iamnotawriter (T, 44k, WangXian, LQR & WWX, Not Madam Yu Friendly, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inventor WWX, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, No Golden Core Transfer, YZY Bashing)
Skate Happy by cinder1013 (E, 12k, wangxian, Modern, Meet-Cute, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Skate disco waiter outfits, booty shorts, Inappropriate Marriage Proposal, secret wedding plans, Good Uncle LQR, Good Friend JGY, not entirely evil XY, wwx has low self-esteem, but it works out in the end, They buy a farm, wwx wears what he likes, Panties, Anal Sex, A+ parenting all around)
🔒 Baby, Beard and Birds by mondengel (G, <1k, LQR & LWJ, Fluff, Babyfic, Family)
🔒 An old kettle, a tiny teacup, and a new pot. by mondengel (G, 2k, LQR & LWJ)
Between the rotten apples lies a fresh grave by hamlets_ghost (T, 12k, LXC & LWJ, WangXian, NieLan, Modern AU, Twin Jades of Lán Dynamics, Canonical Character Death, (Madam Lan), child LXC, Child LWJ, Child Neglect, implied kidnapping, (madam lan), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, (also madam lan), this is not a happy fic so mind the tags please, passive suicidal thoughts (but not really?), Angst with a Happy Ending, non-linear timeline, semi-explicit discribtion of a corpse (chapter 3), Slightly hinted 3zun)
When we were small by deliciousblizzardshark (T, 7k, LXC & LQR & LWJ, Implied WangXian, Modern AU, Kid Fic, Good Uncle LQR, Neurodivergent LWJ, Baby LWJ, Baby WWX, Parenthood, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, POV LQR, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Grief/Mourning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort)
Discordant Rhapsody by nirejseki (T, 49k, LQR & WWX, wangxian, JC & WWX, WQ & WWX & WN, LWJ & LQR & LXC, canon divergence, fix-it, hurt/comfort, trauma, politics, protective LQR, protective LWJ, protective WWX, LQR centric, whump, angst)
through the eyes of elders series by Fleetling (T, 13k, LXC & LWJ, LXC & LQR, wangxian, LXC & WWX, LQR & WWX, CQL Canon Compliant, LQR's perspective on wangxian, mainly him being frustrated at wwx wasting his talents and then realising that oh no that backfired wangji's in love, the homeoroticness of sword fights, wangxian DOES NOT get together there's just ust and longing glances like in canon, LQR isn't bad he just wants the best for his nephew, LQR pov, LQR is a good uncle, LXC recovering from the whole JGY thing is a major part, Wingman LXC, good brothers!!!)
Good Guy Lan Qiren series by thunderwear (T, 28k, wangxian, LQR & WWX, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Golden Core Reveal, LWJ's POV, Fluff, Everyone Lives AU, LQR finds out about WWX's core, wwx and lqr are friends?? In My Fic? its more likely than you think, lwj in the bg like whats happening?, WWX goes to Gusu, Mutual Pining)
The stuffed bunny, the beautiful nephew, and other gifts from Lan Qiren by deliciousblizzardshark (G, 8k, LQR & WWX, wangxian, Modern, Single Parent WWX, Good Uncle LQR, Accidental Uncle Acquisition, Found Family, Fluff)
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10. OMG I REALLY WANT TO READ REVERSE ROLES LZ AND WWX (ex: cold WWX and troublemaker LZ, Top WWX and Bot LZ) IDK 😭 @naoenowa
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11. hi! I'd like to make an itmf req for canon era fics that feature a dark(ish) gusu lan/lan zhan, such as "hoards and treasures" by apathyinreverie which i loved. for instance, fics where the gusu lan interpret their rules with a darker lens, and where they might turn to manipulation/deceit to achieve what they consider right.
i know about "A Matter of Time", which is on my read list! but I'm also esp interested in seeing the dark gusu lan/lan zhan trope explored without time-travel elements. thank you very much! @potatokunst
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12. Hola :) , For the next In the mood for, I'm really, really interested in Lan Sizhui fics centric, specially related to Gusu Lan or his relationship with Clan Lan.
you are my chosen family by jinyinhua (T, 14k, LSZ & LJY, wangxian, LJY & LSZ & LWJ & WWX, 5+1 Things, Good Kid LJY, Good Kid LSZ, Blood and Injury, Night Hunts, Drinking, Age Regression/De-Aging, Married Wangxian, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Gūsū Lán Juniors Dynamics)
Revolution by mrcformoso (T, 8k, WangXian, ZhuiYi, Light Angst, Happy Ending, POV LSZ, Found Family, Toxic Elders, Fatherhood, Growing Up, The Lan Juniors, LWJ Adopts LSZ, WWX is LSZ's Parent, LSZ is a polite menace, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence, Good Uncle WN) You might need to read the other stories in the series but if you just want LSZ feels then this can stand alone :)
this blood in my mouth by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 3k, WangXian, POV LXC, Post-Canon)
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13. Hi!
For the next IMTF, I'm looking for fics where LXC finds himself a new passion and is hilariously bad at it, much to others' amusement & secondhand embarrassment. Especially lwj or lqr is suffering.
His partners, be it jgy, nmj, jc or anyone, is very supportive of lxc's passion. It could be baking, gardening, cooking, dancing etc.
For example, "The evolution of the heart" by Uglybeautiful, Radiencia..(lxc takes up magic/the art of illusion and joins a circus) @imstillthinkingaboutithmm
Magic Mishap by Regency_Bunny (T, 8k, WangXian, NieLan, Modern AU, Single parent WWX, Fluff, Humor, Kid Fic, Meet cute, Love at first sight, Himbo LXC, Magic tricks)
The Shape of Your Love (is Horny) by Vamillepudding (T, 25k, WangXian, XiYao, Urban Fantasy, Getting Together, Romantic Comedy, WWX is Bad at Being a Demon, LWJ is definitely a Monsterfucker) had a running gag about LXC taking up new hobbies that he is horrible at, including ceramics, perfume-making, knitting, etc. JGY is very supportive and LWJ and LQR try to ignore it out of politeness
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14. Hi! I’m itfm
a) tattooed lwj agenda. Specifically when his arms are tattooed and they show when he pulls up his sleeves, but anything and everything is fine
b) Ceo lwj where his employees find out he’s married or dating wwx or regular office worker lwj and his coworkers find out
Thank you! @wangxian-is-my-life
14A)
(our friendship) up against the ropes by daltoneering (E, 36k, WangXian, Modern AU, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, lan zhan FUCKS, Fluff and Smut, Experienced LWJ, Oblivious WWX, Mutual Pining, Friends With Benefits, Pining while fucking, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Masturbation, Spit Kink, Dirty Talk, Light Bondage, Praise Kink, Dom/sub Undertones, Kink Negotiation, Pride and Prejudice 2005 (dir. Joe Wright), mentions of Wei Ying/others and Lan Zhan/others)
🔒 Craquelure & Coverups by Inessencedivided (E, 27k, wangxian, Modern, Tattoo Parlor AU, Reincarnation, Tattoo Artist WWX, Tattooed LWJ, Dreams and Nightmares, Past Lives, trauma discussions, Mutual Pining, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Chronic Pain, First Kiss, First Time, Body Worship, Non-Penetrative Sex, Happy Ending, further tw in the notes)
Tattoos for Broken Hearts by TriviasFolly (G, 1k, WangXian, Modern AU, LWJ has a Tramp Stamp Tattoo, that's the fic) lower back tattoo
14B)
like strawberries on a summer evening by ritualist (E, 15k, WangXianChengYi, Foursome - M/M/M/M, Modern AU, Accidental Voyeurism, Office Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Choking, Light Dom/sub, Light BDSM, Bratting, Light breathplay, Wei Ying says no when he means yes (and everyone understands this to be the case), Mild S&M, Spitroasting, Rimming, Porn with Feelings, Polyamory) lawyers, poly 4some
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15. Hi! For ITMF, could you recommend me a heavy plot fic in canon era before WWX died and revolve around him. It can be fix it/time travel/canon divergence/etc. No bashing except several character like YZY, JFM, LQR, JGS, WC, WLJ. You can bash them but i prefer not.
Thank you @idontknowwhattowriteforusername
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16. I saw a lwj whump in the itmf some time ago but I can't find it.
I believe it was physical lwj whump specifically, can u help please?
hope you're having a nice day
Alter by Solmae (E, 162k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Drama & Romance, Slow Burn, Canon-Typical Violence, Rape/Non-con Elements, Gang Rape, Forced Prostitution, PTSD, Top/Bottom Versatile | Switch WangXian, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Slavery, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Torture) LWJ is taken as a sex slave by the Wen, so definitely counts as whump
Bring Your Wonder (Lose Your Faith) by kianspo (M, 75k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Different Sunshot Campaign, straight boy wwx, Feelings Realization, Protective LXC, Protective WWX, BAMF WWX, Angst with a Happy Ending, Twin Jades of Lán Feels, POV Multiple, LWJ Whump)
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17. Hi! I know this isn’t your normal ship, but could I itmf WWX/NMJ fics? I recently read “Better Things To Do With A Flute In Wartime” (a WWX/NMJ/ eventual also LWJ fic) and really liked the dynamic between WWX and NMJ. Particularly how blunt NMJ was, how he valued WWX’s mind and strength from a kind of unbiased viewpoint as a sect leader and war general, and also that they bonded over unorthodox cultivation methods. Would love to see more of this couple! Thank you so much!
An Elegant Solution by giraffeter (E, 205k, niewangxian, canon divergence, arranged marriage, friends to lovers, fix-it, everyone lives au, courtship, polyamory, smut)
Crowned in Glory (fear no more) by Pip (Moirail) (E, 19k, NMJ/WWX, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Multiple Orgasms, Overstimulation, Loss of Virginity, Size Difference, Sunshot Campaign, Sexual Tension, Certified dage fucker, Dirty Talk, Oral Sex, Rimming, Canon Divergence, Butterfly Effect, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Dubious interpretation of resentful energy)
Resent & Blossom by manaika (T, 26k, NMJ/WWX, JC & WWX, LWJ & WWX, NHS & NMJ, NHS & WWX, Love Triangles, Pining, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, eferences to Fatal Journey, Strangers to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Murder Attempt)
Pastime (With Good Company) by nirejseki (Not rated, 25k, NMJ/WWX/LWJ, Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, WWX is very thirsty, and not straight at all, same for LWJ, WIP)
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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***
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untamedmetablogiguess · 5 months
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finally got around to watching Fatal Journey and honestly the most devastating part of it is not how it gives us adorable baby Nie brothers ( though that does hurt), nor how it makes Huaisang accidentally implicated in the music poisoning (though that hurts, too) - it’s how it deepens Huaisang’s character from merely a harmless pleasure-seeker to a genuinely good person.
the version of Huaisang we see in the show proper isn’t particularly interested in being moral! He’s not a BAD person, he doesn’t want to hurt anybody, but neither does he particularly care to be GOOD. he leaves that, like all the tough parts of life, to his da-ge to take care of. Surely Mingjue is righteous enough for both of them! Huaisang’s no good in a fight- surely he’d just get in the way! Huaisang’s tragedy, originally, is his descent from a lovable goofball, a harmless fop, a perpetual baby brother, into a hardened, ruthless, desperately lonely man hellbent on revenge no matter how many people he has to destroy on the way. And that’s a pretty good tragedy!
but with the material introduced in Fatal Journey, Huaisang appears to be a genuinely good person- a much better person than anyone ever gave him credit for. He sees something he believes is morally reprehensible being done by the people he loves and respects- especially his brother, who is regarded as a paragon of righteousness in their society- and he stands up and says ‘no.’ I don’t think ANYONE else does that, at least where we can see it. WWX’s whole DEAL is doing the right thing in the face of people who have waaay more power than him (Wens, Jins….), but he’s never put in this specific situation because the people he loves and respects aren’t the ones doing morally reprehensible things! The closest parallel we see is maybe LWJ fighting the Lan elders in defense of WWX, but that is much less a principled stance based on moral virtue and much more an act of tremendous personal love and sacrifice. He’s not doing it because it’s there right thing to do, he’s doing it because he loves WWX and doesn’t CARE whether that’s right or wrong anymore.
NHS is put in a fairly unique position where he is directly exposed to some of the basest hypocrisy of the cultivation world, and instead of saying ‘well, da-ge’s doing it so it must be okay, I guess it's not really that bad,” he says ‘No, this is unacceptable.’ He says ‘You’re better than this. WE are better than this. We HAVE to be better than this.’ He is not, ultimately, able to change anything about it, because he doesn’t have that kind of power, but he SAYS it, he makes it clear, directly to NMJ’s face, that he is disappointed in him, and ashamed of what he is doing, and he thinks it’s wrong.
and the fall from THAT, from someone who argues that exploiting the corpses of the dead is wrong EVEN if those people were criminals, into someone who would deliberately desecrate the body of a woman he KNOWS is innocent because it’s the best way he can think of to hurt the person he wants to hurt, a person for whom the ends justify any and all means, and who ignores or disregards the collateral damage of any other lives destroyed - that’s SO MUCH WORSE. That hurts SO much more.
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poorlittleyaoyao · 5 months
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re: NHS’s vengeance plan (or lack thereof), and how he’s sabotaging his own sect with exaggerated incompetence purely on the grounds of “this will inconvenience JGY and also reduce expectations for me, so if one day I do take action, hypothetically, he won’t see me coming!” since he has no proof of wrongdoing for years…
This choice is arguably MORE deranged in CQL canon, because my least favorite scene of Fatal Journey establishes that he does have proof that JGY killed his brother! He knows that the song JGY taught him wasn’t Cleansing! And since it’s CQL canon, where Turmoil is an obviously different tune and NMJ simply doesn’t know what music is, NHS could have just played Turmoil within earshot of any Lan and raised eyebrows.
(“Why do you know that song, Nie-zongzhu?”
“ohhhhh yes I know this is a secret Lan technique but we were all trying so hard to help poor Da-ge so San-ge taught this to me 🥺”
“You PLAYED this for him?”
“yes I did my very best to play Cleansing but it just wasn’t good enough! 🥺”
“Nie-zongzhu, this isn’t Cleansing. You shouldn’t even know this song.”
“Whaaaaaat??? 🤯 but San-ge said!!!! 🥺”)
And sure, maybe he suspects LXC as an accompliance for that very reason! But is he going to distrust ALL of the Lan? Someone would go and check the Forbidden Library and find those score pages missing.
So CQL NHS is out here with concrete proof that something weird happened there, and decides to still spend more than a decade being bad at his job on purpose so he can… gather evidence that he already has.
(And then if you REALLY lean into CQL peculiarities, NMJ isn’t a rampaging fierce corpse who had to be suppressed via dismemberment; they confusingly say that he “went missing” after his qi deviation, so the discovery of his corpse in Yi City is the first concrete proof that he’s actually dead. It’d make complete sense for NHS to cry and wail that da-ge isn’t REALLY dead, you can’t make him believe that, where is your proof? etc etc, so it’s CRUEL of you to expect him to take the rulership that rightfully belongs to his brother! He could’ve refused to take the title and put someone else in charge of sect business! Or he could have actually done a decent job (albeit in a way that was super compliant with whatever Jinlintai wants) on the stated grounds that he doesn’t want his brother to be mad at him “when he gets back,” which will have everyone doubting his faculties but in a much more sympathetic light than they do when they just think he’s incompetent. What are you doing, CQL Huaisang! You are an enigma!)
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prince-liest · 8 months
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self-indulgent 3zun ABO AU because I like putting JGY into ~situations~
Alpha NMJ, beta LXC, and omega JGY who has been masquerading as a beta in typical ABO trope fashion, except the dramatic omega reveal happens way back when he murders the Nie captain and gets kicked out of Qinghe.
(I really do wonder what an ABO universe would do to them, psychosocially-speaking, considering that their major flaws can be pretty neatly sorted into “stereotypical” ABO roles that can be used to malign them: Nie Mingjue’s saber-induced anger issues and prior jumping to conclusions, Lan Xichen’s tendency to peacekeep with his loved ones and mold himself into a mediator to a fault, and Jin Guangyao’s....... entire existence as, basically, a tiny venomous snake.)
Present day is post-war Jinlintai before anyone I like (read: JYL, JZX) dies, where 3zun are forced to figure (just enough of) their shit out earlier—WAY earlier—and have been in not just a sworn brotherhood but a mate bond for a while now because in a world with synaesthesic scent markers and mating bites, you don’t get to take things like that back...
... At the very beginning of which bond, NMJ, still incensed and affected by Baxia's resentment, basically accepts the relationship on the bad-faith condition that JGY doesn't "pull any of that manipulative omega shit.” Would he say something like that about Nie Huaisang? No, but he’s just reaching for what hurts. When asked to elaborate on what that actually means, he doesn’t actually have anything in mind and thus rifles around in his mental sack of negative omega stereotypes for all of three seconds before clarifying that he’s talking about all that nonsense with baiting people with heats and baby trapping and whatnot.
JGY, the bitter little gremlin that he is, takes this the worst way possible and has since been taking heat suppressant ✨️indefinitely✨️. We all know how that goes. Maybe he runs out, maybe his body gives out, but most likely Jin Guangshan decides that getting JGY knocked up and too busy to politically machinate against him in addition to all the political machinating he’s doing for him is to his benefit, and arranges the botching of the preparation of whatever tea JGY takes to make this happen. Ideally right in time for NMJ and LXC to be at Jinlintai.
Except this isn’t a sexy, “Oh no, I’m a secret omega and I went into heat! My love must now ravish me!” story. Despite his best efforts, everyone already knows JGY is an omega. Despite his best accidental counterefforts, he technically has two mates already. And still, three hours into NMJ and LXC’s visit, when he realizes what is happening, he fucking panics.
Heat brain isn’t fun brain. Heat brain on top of the writhing bag of neurotic rats that runs JGY’s brain is worse. He’s fucking dead, he thinks. NMJ definitely hates omegas other than his brother (has he met any others? JGY can’t remember, which is terrifying, because JGY remembers everything), and only tolerates JGY’s omega-ness because he’s on suppressants. Da-ge is going to be so mad. And er-ge is going to have to mediate again. Unacceptable! Mortifying! Possibly not an issue because he thinks he might be having a heart attack and dying!
He spends two hours wedged into an emergency bolt-hole he built into his quarters while LXC sits outside going “pspspsps” and NMJ guiltily retrieves increasingly unfeasible amounts of food from the kitchens. It does not end up a sexy heat. It ends up a “hold the hyperventilating omega while he repeatedly forgets how to breathe” heat, because the body is not going to do sexy times while experiencing the most dramatic fight or flight instinct JGY has ever felt. Thanks, chemically-induced hormone imbalance.
(Da-ge turns out to be a good weighted blanket. Compression is good for the anxiety. And guilt turns out good for forcing people to talk things over.)
(And nobody gets pregnant.)
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tavina-writes · 1 year
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NMJ, JGY, and Vices/Hobbies Meta
So, I’ve been thinking a lot about this particular quote from MDZS chapter 49, which is often cited as “NMJ has no hobbies canonically besides killing Wen and practicing saber” and I have to say that after reading the Chinese version I don’t? Necessarily agree? I don’t think this is what that scene was about at all. 
This is going to be long, so meta under the cut. 
The Fantranslation of the passage in question:
Jin GuangYao nodded lightly and sat as he had been told, “Brother, if you’re concerned for HuaiSang, softer words would do no harm. Why this?”
Nie MingJue, “Even when a blade’s at his neck he’s still like this. Looks like he’ll always be a good-for-nothing.”
Jin GuangYao, “It isn’t that HuaiSang is a good-for-nothing, but that his heart lies somewhere else.”
Nie MingJue, “Well you’ve really discerned where his heart lies, haven’t you?”
Jin GuangYao smiled, “Of course. Isn’t that what I’m the best at? The only person whom I can’t discern is you, Brother.”
He knew of people’s likes and dislikes so that he could find suitable solutions; he loved running errands and could do twice the work with half the effort. Thus, Jin GuangYao could be said to be quite a talent at analyzing others’ interests. Nie MingJue was the only person whom Jin GuangYao couldn’t probe out any useful information about. Wei WuXian saw this already, back then when Meng Yao was working under Nie MingJue. Women, liquor, riches—he touched none; art, calligraphy, antiques—a pile of ink and mud; the finest green tea leaves and dregs from a roadside booth—there was no difference. Meng Yao tried everything he could think of yet still couldn’t find if he was interested in anything beside training his saberwork and killing Wen-dogs. He really was a wall made of iron, impenetrable by even the sharpest blades.
And here's the official translation of the passage in question:
Knowing a person's likes and dislikes, and then catering to them accordingly, made getting things done easier. You could accomplish your goals with half as much effort. As such, the ability to discern people's desires was truly Jin Guangyao's forte. The only person he could never seem to pry any useful information out of was Nie Mingjue. Wei Wuxian had seen this firsthand, back when Meng Yao had worked under Nie Mingjue's command. The man never laid his hands on women, alcohol, or material wealth; paintings, calligraphy and antiques were all piles of ink and mud in his eyes. Top-grade premium tea tasted the same to him as dregs from a roadside stall. Meng Yao had racked his brain and still failed to identify anything Nie Mingjue might have a taste for, other than training with his saber every day and killing Wen dogs. He was truly an iron bastion, with no weaknesses to exploit. Volume 2, Page 319
I’ll go through with the chinese, my own translation based on what the Chinese says, [explanations of a few word choices along the way] and the analysis of what this actually means.
金光瑶微微颔首,依言落座,道:“大哥既是关心怀桑,稍平和些劝诫也是好的,何必如此?”
聂明玦道:“拿刀架在他脖子上逼都这样,看来是打死也不成器了。”
金光瑶道:“怀桑非是不成器,志不在此而已。”
聂明玦道:“你倒是把他志在何处摸得一清二楚。”
金光瑶笑笑,道:“那是自然,我岂非最擅长于此?唯一摸不出来的,也只有大哥了。”
Jin Guangyao nodded slightly, sank into a seat, and said "Since Da-ge is worried about Huaisang, wouldn't it be better to persuade him calmly?"
Nie Mingjue said, "Even when I've got a knife on his neck [aka even though NHS is being forced to do whatever] he's still like this, it seems like even if one beat him to death it wouldn't make him become good at it." <-- this seems to be a response to JGY's "why don't you try to persuade him to practice saber gently and calmly? to which Da-ge is like "if I can't get him to do it while yelling at him, lmao you think gently critiquing him will help? lol"
Jin Guangyao said, "It's not that Huaisang is useless, it's just that his strengths don't lie here [with the saber]" <-- I'm assuming that since NMJ and NHS were yelling about saber stuff before JGY got there that JGY and NMJ are still talking about NHS and the saber business
Nie Mingjue said, "It seems like you've got him entirely figured out."
Jin Guangyao laughed and said, "isn't that natural? I'm predisposed to this [figuring out people/finding out what they like] the only person who's still murky is Da-ge."
This particular conversation is not particularly antagonistic! JGY is trying to persuade NMJ that he could persuade NHS to practice the saber with honey and NMJ is like “I don’t think that’s probable.” and then JGY says “oh, saber isn’t really NHS’s skillset!” and NMJ says “looks like you have him all figured out!” and then JGY laughs and goes “I’m a natural at figuring people out, but Da-ge you’re really mysterious to me. (also the only person mysterious to me, people who are called Jin Guangyao)” Like, idk, this doesn’t sound particularly terrifyingly argumentative or upsetting to me.
知人喜恶,对症下药,最好办事,事半功倍。因此金光瑶在揣摩人嗜好上可谓是一把好手。唯有聂明玦,金光瑶试探不出来任何有用的信息。
Knowing people's likes and dislikes and [here the prescribing medicine is an idiomatic saying for "and then appealing to the root of their nature"] is the best way to get things done, to get the most reward for one's effort. Jin Guangyao, therefore, could be said to be a good hand at figuring out people's hobbies. Only in the case of Nie Mingjue, could Jin Guangyao not find any useful information.
The word for “hobbies” herein is 嗜好 which is another word for addiction. Now, there ARE other more common words for “hobbies” in Chinese and they are more commonly used when not referring to addictions, they are: yule and aihao. Yulei being “amusement, entertainment, recreation,” and aihao being “hobby, interest, thing one enjoys and takes pleasure in.”
Pleco screenshots here for emphasis on word meanings:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
So the more accurate translation here is "Jin Guangyao, therefore, could be said to be a good hand at figuring out people's addictions."
当年孟瑶在聂明玦手底下做事时魏无羡就见识过了,女·色酒财一样不沾,书画古董在他眼里就是一堆墨水泥巴,绝酿佳茗和路边摊茶渣在他喝来没有任何区别,
孟瑶挖空了心思也没试探出来他除了每天练刀和杀温狗以外有什么特别喜好,简直铜墙铁壁刀枪不入。
听他语带自嘲,聂明玦反而没那么反感了,道:“你少助长他这幅德性。”
In the past, when Meng Yao was still working under Nie Mingjue, Wei Wuxian had already experienced this: feminine charms, wine, and wealth were equal in that [nmj] did not touch them. Painting and calligraphy, antiques were just a pile of ink and mud. There was no difference between him drinking excellent tea and the dregs from a roadside stall.
Meng Yao hollowed out his brains [spent a lot of effort thinking about this basically] and didn't figure out besides practicing the saber every day and killing Wen-dogs if he had anything else of particular habits. <-- THE XIHAO HERE IS NOT HOBBY. THE XIHAO HERE IS HABIT, ESP ONE THAT YOU'VE WORN A GROOVE IN.
He [NMJ] was just like an iron wall, neither swords nor spears could penetrate it.
Hearing [JGY's] self deprecation, Nie Mingjue, on the countrary, became not as upset, and said, "stop encouraging that part of his character" <-- talking about NHS's love of painting and fans again.
Now, the important thing to remember about this analysis of both 1) the dynamic between JGY and NMJ and 2) what JGY thinks NMJ’s hobbies, preferences, vices, addictions are is this: neither JGY nor NMJ are implied to have been talking or thinking about NMJ’s wartime preferences during this conversation or even during the war.
What JGY and NMJ actually say in this scene are peppered through with WWX’s own thoughts on observing this scene between them, and neither JGY nor NMJ actually say “JGY believes that NMJ’s only hobbies [during the time JGY served under NMJ at Langya front] are practicing the saber and killing Wen-dogs.] In fact, JGY and NMJ don’t mention 1) the Wen at all in this scene and 2) the only time they talk about saber training is the fact that NHS is doing 0 of it.
What they DO however, say to each other is this:
JGY: you could probably persuade Huaisang to train by persuading him gently!
NMJ: lmao if threats don’t work, bribes won’t either.
JGY: Huaisang isn’t useless, he’s just talented in other ways.
NMJ: you’ve got him all figured out haven’t you?
JGY: haha, you know me Da-ge, I’m a natural at figuring people out. Except you, Da-ge, you’re very mysterious.
NMJ: don’t encourage his [NHS’s] bad expensive habits.
In the middle of this conversation, Wei Wuxian from his own (not unfiltered or unbiased) perspective observes this about NMJ during wartime: "yeah that JGY, he's great at finding out people's addictions, he sure is! but Chifeng-zun doesn't really have any of those lmao. at least from back when I knew Chifeng-zun during the war. He doesn't like girls, doesn't like wine, doesn't like wealth, doesn't like calligraphy or paintings or antiques. Wow! Meng Yao must've worked really hard and found nothing!"
JGY and NMJ in fact, don’t talk about 1) the war 2) the wen or 3) NMJ’s interests, hobbies, vices, or addictions here at all. Nor does JGY claim that he spent a lot of time searching for NMJ’s hobbies and found only saber practice and Wen-dog killing. Nor does JGY claim to be good at finding out people’s addictions, he just made a joke about how NHS’s interests are really obvious and “but you Da-ge are a mystery to me.”
And thus concludes my dissertation about how this really says nothing about NMJ’s hobbies, interests or vices, he could be collecting incense burners and a lover of bubble baths for all we know.
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robininthelabyrinth · 2 years
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NMJ is the scheming one, NHS is the martial prodigy
“Do I have to?” Nie Huaisang whined.
“Yes,” Nie Mingjue said ruthlessly. “If you don’t do it this way, I’ll probably die, and then you’ll really have to do work.”
Nie Huaisang grimaced. “Oh I hate that,” he said. “I really hate that. I hate that more than fighting.”
It was rather unfair, Nie Mingjue reflected to himself, that Nie Huaisang hated fighting so much when he was so damn good at it. In a just world, Nie Mingjue, with his height and his strength, would be the exceptional warrior, while small and scrawny Nie Huaisang would be the one who excelled at using his brain, but instead they were stuck in this world, where Nie Mingjue was tall and strong but with terrible coordination that left him incapable of anything more complicated than ‘stab’ or ‘slice’ and Nie Huaisang preferred whenever possible to forget his saber but could, upon picking it up, bring down almost every opponent they’d ever put in front of him.
“Then you’ll fight,” Nie Mingjue said, and shoved the padded cloak and height-enhancing boots at him. “Put on the damn disguise, and do your best to make it look like me, all right? Officially, I can’t enter this tournament because I’m a sect leader, but everyone knows I like fighting –”
“You hate fighting. You suck at fighting.”
“Yes, true. Fine. Everyone thinks I like fighting because I’m tall. So your job is to go get into some duels while pretending to be me so that people think I’m good at fighting.”
“But why does it matter?” Nie Huaisang asked petulantly.
Nie Mingjue suppressed a sigh. “Because if people think I’m good at fighting, they won’t challenge me. If they don’t challenge me, I can spend more time running the sect and getting people to trust me and support me. And that means I can do a better job of defending the sect borders…” He was losing his audience. “…as well as making the sect more money, and thereby giving you a bigger allowance.”
Nie Huaisang predictably lit up at once. “You’ll give me a bigger allowance?!”
“I’m not paying you to contribute to the sect,” Nie Mingjue corrected him. “I was just speculating that if you did this and things pan out the way I hope they will, then in the future…”
“Bigger allowance!” Nie Huaisang crowed. “All right, I’m in. Who do you want me to beat up?”
“Anyone you like of our generation,” Nie Mingjue said, then thought about it. “Extra points if it’s a Wen.”
“You can count of me, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said proudly. “I’ll make you proud, and no one will ever know I had anything to do with it.”
“Perfect,” Nie Mingjue said. “After all, you wouldn’t want people to get expectations about you.”
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3cosmicfrogs · 1 month
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for the ask game: naybe an AU where LXC is not on the stairs at thaf JGY/NMJ confrontatiom but baxia Got Attached so she refuses to be like. Slammed down?? And nieyao js now awkwarsly staring at each other, because whay is happening
hmmmmm you propose an interesting scenario.... i guess this could fit into the More Sentient Baxia AU that Woob and i have fever-dreamed up? in that case, five headcanons of what would happen if baxia got Attached:
baxia does not want to kill the Searching-Wanting-Waiting-Watching Human. she likes him, he gives nice skritches. and he always surrounds himself with a delicious aura of almost-evil that she just itches to sink her teeth into and rip away from him... Plus, her master clearly likes him too, he just needs her to show him!
baxia has seen into her human's heart and decided that he needs to get laid, immediately. She will take the necessary steps to make this happen, because she is a Good Sabre! now that she's saved the Searching-Wanting-Waiting-Watching Human, she only needs to find a way to make her intentions clear to the Floating-Calming-Softly-Quietly Human... her best course of action is clearly to start hovering in his peripheral vision from what she is sure is her most seductive angle.
Misunderstandings! Misunderstandings everywhere! naturally, because they are grown adults, mingjue and meng yao cannot possibly have a conversation about this. they will continue to Agonise separately and entirely unproductively while Xichen looks on and sighs. All the while everyone is being terrorised by baxia. Eventually someone breaks (my bet is on xichen) and demands to know exactly what is going on?! and if you think the resulting argument anything is but a sarcastic word-duel you'd be wrong! again, because nieyao are mature, grown-ass adults about this who can totally handle their feelings.
"are you upset you couldn't follow through, da-ge?" "I swear this has never happened before! I usually perform just fine!" "that's alright, mingjue-xiong, maybe you were just stressed?" "yes, there's no reason to be embarassed, da-ge." "a-yao is right, i'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time...?" "well did it ever happen to either of you?!" "...no." "whatever! let's try again then, i'm sure i'll manage this time!" <- this conversation will be overheard by an outside character of your choosing (nhs perhaps?) to Maximum Comedic Effect.
When the Issues Are Being Resolved, mingjue is faced with the absolutely mortifying ordeal of explaining to his increasingly incredulous sworn brothers that yes, nie sabres do in fact sometimes talk to their masters, of course this is normal what are you talking about, and also his magical bloodthirsty weapon has decided that he really really needs a romantic relationship and picked xichen and meng yao. yes she's been tormenting him. they can try a relationship he supposes, just to satisfy the Magical Bloodthirsty Weapon of course, no feelings will arise surely, and if nothing comes of it she will back off. this is entirely unaided by huaisang, who keeps orchestrating bed shortages and feeding the three of them aphrodisiacs because he is convinced that his brother is suffering from erectile dysfunction.
I'm not very good at making coherent plots or headcanons as you can see, but i thrive in crack treated seriously, and so this is what this will be.
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jaimebluesq · 10 months
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Happy Birthday to my beloved Blorbo, Nie Huaisang!!!
Here's a little prequel vignette in the universe of my fic "It Was You All Along" - but it's perfectly understandable without the fic as context!
Takes place post-NMJ's death, pre-WWX's return - The SangCheng is one-sided pining in this vignette (but rest assured, it ends up requited eventually :D)
~~~
Nie Huaisang had been at Koi Tower the day he received the invitation.
In all honesty, it wasn’t where he’d wanted to be for his birthday. He longed to be back at the Unclean Realm with a good book and a full bath, and afterwards he would curl up on the bed in his brother’s room – which had not been touched since the day he died, other than to keep it dust-free – and cry himself to sleep. Birthdays hadn’t been the same without Nie Mingjue there to act grumpy and threaten to sling Nie Huaisang over his shoulder and drag him to saber practice, and then surprise him with something truly special.
The last birthday gift Da-ge had given him had been a beautiful silk fan. It had burned along with the rest of his things on that fateful day...
But instead of being in the familiarity of home, he was in Koi Tower. Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao had insisted on him spending his birthdays with them as an attempt at keeping his spirits up, both saying that it’s what Da-ge would have wanted – the thought had turned his stomach. He had never fought them, though, needing to continue the appearance of being addled by grief – and currently, he was trying to establish just how much Lan Xichen knew about Nie Mingjue’s death. Jin Guangyao continued to act as if it had been simply a terrible tragedy of fate and he was foremost in Nie Huaisang’s plans for revenge, but he had yet to completely discount Lan Xichen’s potential role in the matter. Perhaps Er-ge was innocent. Or perhaps he too had betrayed Nie Mingjue.
Perhaps Nie Huaisang was exhausted and tired of pretending, of spending his days filled with terror and suspicion. Perhaps he was hollow and lifeless beneath the surface of his skin, and perhaps he had a desperate hope that the moment his brother was avenged, that the life within him would no longer be smothered by grief.
But that day, there was the invitation.
It was on fine quality paper with the emblem for Yunmeng Jiang, and clearly stated that there would be a courtship tournament for Jiang Wangyin. He remembered the cultivation conferences where the matter of Jiang Cheng’s marriage prospects had been discussed, with the other sect leaders treating his bachelorhood like a problem that needed to be solved, rather than it merely being a matter of a man living his life the way he wished and damn the rest of their opinions. He’d done what he could to distract them, but sect leaders were mostly busybodies by nature and enjoyed meddling where they weren’t wanted – particularly those whose wives and daughters had caught a glance of the handsome Sandu Shengshou and wished a piece of him.
Honestly, he couldn’t blame them – he’d fantasized of that very thing since he’d been a boy in Cloud Recesses.
He had been given the invitation by Jin Ling himself with the expectation that he would bring it back to Qinghe and post it for his disciples. It was a reasonable expectation, and Nie Huaisang did intend on doing just that. Even if he wished he could destroy it. Even if he wished the tournament would never happen.
That night, after putting on an excellent performance at playing the fool for Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, he lay in his night robes, curled up in his guest bedroom with the invitation in his hands. His thumb rubbed against the ink forming the name Jiang Wanyin - oh, Jiang Cheng must have hated that they’d used his courtesy name.
In the dark of night, he indulged himself in a fantasy – it was his birthday, he deserved it – that he himself would enter the tournament. He would dress in his best robes and put on his best airs, and every step of the way he would beat out the competition. And when he won, he would offer Jiang Cheng his freedom – a promise that he would hold him to no commitment unless he wished it... and then Jiang Cheng would look at him, profess his undying love, and take him to bed without another moment’s hesitation.
It was, after all, a fantasy.
He finally folded up the invitation and placed it on his night table. Fantasies were wonderful, but he could never confuse them for reality. No doubt only women would be allowed to enter in the tournament. And he truly didn’t have the time to participate in such a thing – he had clues to dig out and suspects to eliminate or verify, and there were still parts of his brother’s corpse that he hadn’t found yet, not to mention the daily duties of being a sect leader that he tried to manage despite all appearances otherwise. There were so many things to do; what time did he have for something so frivolous, even if he were allowed to participate?
After all, wouldn’t Jiang Cheng toss him out the moment he showed up? “Very funny, Nie-xiong,” he imagined him saying, the nickname something Nie Huaisang hadn’t heard since before Wei Wuxian’s death and missed terribly. “Now stop making a joke of this and get back to Qinghe where you belong.”
He chuckled, imagining in his mind’s eye the huge eyeroll he would receive for even trying to put himself forward as a candidate.
“Don’t laugh,” another voice spoke in his mind, turning his chuckle into a sob. “You may be lazy and frivolous, but you’re still my Didi and anyone would be lucky to have you. If anyone ever said you weren’t good enough for them, point me at them and Baxia and I will inform them otherwise.”
He sniffed and wiped the tears from his cheek. “Goodnight, Da-ge,” he whispered into the darkness.
“Happy birthday, Huaisang,” he heard as his brother’s voice faded from his mind.
He closed his eyes, intent on trying to push his emotions aside and fall asleep. In what heart he had left, he sent a wish to the Heavens that they show Jiang Cheng some kindness and bring him a spouse that would make him happy and love him for who he was – even if that spouse could never be him.
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woobifiedvillain · 5 months
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Would love an explanation for "Magical healing bussy cringefail compilation"
ahdhasfhsakjasf okay listen.
the premise is based on the post linked in this illustration. Basically. NMJ should bottom for his health.
Except. I *also* wanted to write a timeloop fic and I suck at writing actual things with plot. I've finished exactly one of those. Long ones anyway. So my strategy here was like well why not both maybe then I'd actually finish it. It's chaotic enough. Time loop makes it like several short fics I can write separately.
Also just the idea of NHSs ability to fixate on something he wants and wait patiently (he does this with birds and little brother persistence even before it gains the tragic dimension) and just. Keep going. No matter what. When he's motivated he's SO motivated it's not his fault most things are simply not interesting-- I think it'd be cool if this was harnessed for. Something other than revenge. So.
But the actual premise is that NHS wants revenge but what he really wants is his brother back, and if he has to chose, he's going to try and save his brother. Except. Because I have terminal "but wouldn't it be funny if" brain. It's not traditional time travel. He's reckless he's desperate he finds an idea of a time travel spell looking through WWXs shit same way he ends up with the resurrection ritual notes. And tests this thing on himself because fuck it.
And uh. He does time travel! But he cant quite remember anything beyond what he did at the time. He knows the future but only vibes and he's not fully sure he didn't just have some weird dreams. But he does know he *has to save his brother* frommmm something. He doesn't quite remember WHAT though and this is driving him insane.
So (as per the comic) he just starts having his brother get checked out by every doctor known to man. He will get this shit diagnosed. NMJ is convinced NHS is the terminally ill one. I'm honestly not sure how or if WQ gets involved because see that's a lot of plot maneuvering although I love her.
So *somehow*. It's figured out its a qi issue. and NHS porn extraordinaire knows getting fucked for your health is a thing. So he's like. Well you will not be dying on me and if I want something I will get it. Project get Da-ge laid commences.
The thing is this doesn't. Necessarily go well for a variety of reasons. Because again I refuse to fix the entirety of canon I cannot handle that level of plot and stuff I won't ever write this if I do. So instead.
It's just devolved into. The spell lets NHS reset the timeline whenever he wants but because his memory is fucked he doesn't fully understand that's what it is. But he does know he will save his brother and getting 3zun to happen essentially is his best idea *how* at this point so he will do it. And every time it fails catastrophically? well. Reset!
Hence the cringe fail compilation part. There's a reason they didn't fuck in canon. 3zun is so dysfunctional this is difficult okay. He keeps accidentally making nieyao kill each other faster, for one. LXC has just walked off into the woods, never to return, in another. The bussy is not. well. I guess it should be magical healing dick I guess unless I also decide to make some of them trans which you know what. I *can* do whatever I want.
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truly-morgan · 7 months
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[Reincarnation AU, better chance next life]
Niecest | Mo Dao Zu Shi cw: incest + non-incest reincarnation 11-07-2021
[#niecest - better chance next life] (cw for, well incest, + non-incest reincarnation, canon-divergence)
the nie brothers had a type of love for each other they have learned quickly was not... usual for brothers. They had grown to love each other rather than simple brothers, and when they were old enough to realise it, they were also old enough to know no one should know (and they weren't young enough for it to be passed as some kind of possibly weird joke made by a child anymore).
The cultivation world did find a bit weird how close these two brothers were, but they partly assume it was only how they had grown up together without any other family. At the end of the day, they weren't exactly the weirdest and most peculiar duo out there.
Outside they acted as brothers and nothing more, simply showing a close bond that some might have.
But behind closed doors, they would indulge in the love they shouldn't be having.
It had been hard for nmj at times, believing he might have done something wrong for nhs to turn out like this too. He could have lived his life ignoring his strange love for his younger brother, keeping a safe distance.
but sometimes he wondered if he had influenced nhs in this kind of relationship if he had ever made any wrong step for them to end up here.
yet nhs would always reassure him with light kisses, telling him it had always been like this, that his precious da-ge had always been his most important. he would sweep away those worries with reassuring words, kisses and promise that he had truly not caused this.
everything was alright, secretly living their love behind closed doors, which they found restraining but couldn't do much about it.
Of course, sometimes it was hard, as nmj was still the sect leader, which they both knew he would need to eventually find a wife to have an heir. It was something they both knew would happen, so they enjoyed their time as much as possible.
little did they know that fate wouldn't even leave them that kind of time.
when nmj died, nhs made sure that his body would stay protected and never be touched by anyone else. He knew something was off about how his brother die, and he wouldn't allow anything else to happen to him. it was hard, truly, leaving all these years without his dear brother by his side, slowly scheming revenge for him, playing a huge game of chess.
he did try to find people to replace nmj, even for one night, but they never were enough, something was missing. they simply weren't him.
Then, once his grand plan was over, he tried living as best as he could, knowing now that nmj had been avenged. It made him feel better for some time, until he was back to how it was, avenging his da-ge didn't mean it would make him come back.
He had been tempted to ask for wwx help, after all, the man had made it once, maybe he could do it twice. But he wouldn't be able to go over the fact that he took away nmj chance at reincarnating. when he was on his deathbed, all he wished for was to have the possibility to meet him again in another life.
"Maybe we will be luckier this time..." was one of his last thoughts before dying.
century skip。・:*:・゚’★,。・:*:・゚’☆
Wu mingjue was sitting at his usual spot in the café, drinking some coffee as he was going over some notes for his afternoon classes. Yet his attention couldn't stay on that for long, his gaze wandering back to a young man sitting in a corner, focused on something he was drawing, drinking from what seemed more like sugar with added coffee than coffee itself. He had seen the kid at his college (most likely an art student by the look of what he was carrying around and what he was always doing, maybe the clothes too).
he had seen him around many times, yet he couldn't shake off the impression that... he had seen him somewhere before. Something in him simply wanted to walk up to him and talk to him, but he couldn't tell where this was from.
So he instead simply sat in another corner, nearly faking studying as he would observe the young man sitting at the other corner.
It had become a habit in the past three weeks, to come here every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon simply to see him. It was this feeling of knowing him from somewhere that he couldn't shake off.
But he also felt like if he kept going, he would look like a stalker, especially with how often he would observe him for a bit when he would see him in the college, often working on some drawing.
(also, he would lie if he said the young man didn't look attractive (his friend would even argue he has a small crush), he had a really pretty face and despite his fashion don't bring one wmj would ever wear, it was really fitting for him).
Yet, until now he had never been caught (yet one of his best friends did tell him it was creepy to do that).
He sighed when he realised he couldn't study like this and that he would simply look at the young man until he needed to go to class. he closed his laptop, taking another gulp of his coffee, throwing a last glance to the young artist.
Their eyes met.
It made him jump a bit, looking away immediately. he cursed internally, telling himself it look even more weird to act like this when the other man probably didn't even notice he was looking at him.
but if he did notice before then it would be weird and he didn't want to come across as creepy to the young man. Had he noticed how suddenly wmj was coming when he was here? How he kept on looking his way without really doing what he was doing?
it was really not good if he did.
He finished placing his thing back into his back, drinking more hot coffee before standing up to leave.
"Maybe I should avoid coming when he's here," he thought to himself as a way to fix this.
。・:*:・゚’★,。・:*:・゚’☆
Chen Huaisang had started coming to this café after it was recommended by a friend ("You can sketch people all you want, the staff won't bother you as long as you do buy something").
He ended up coming after his morning classes for lunch, enjoying the decor and how the va-et-vient of people was slow enough that he can sketch people to practice, but fast enough that new people would have to the possibility to draw. but there was something else.
or rather, someone.
He had noticed this other student who came here. He had seen him in school and sometimes, when he would come across this wide back he felt like running up to it and calling out to this person (he sometimes even had the ghost of a name on his tongue, but could never actually know what name he thought he wanted to call this person).
the man was seriously attractive too, hence how he also attracted his attention, but there was /something/ about him that seemed... familiar, like someone he really wants by his side, as if it was someone that /should/ have been by his side since forever. Looking at this wide back sometimes gave him a weird feeling of deja vue, but he knew it couldn't be possible.
He wanted to talk to the man, but he seemed always busy (or a bit grumpy too, to which he didn't want to make it worst). This weird feeling was enough to want to make him talk to him, but the man happened to be his type, how could he not want to talk to him?
so seeing him come to this café caused him to stay. even more, he notices how their schedule coincided. He knew the man would steal some glances his way ("Is he feeling the same as me?" he wonder more than once).
He couldn't tell either how many times he sketched this man, his hand sometimes adding lines he didn't really mean to as they didn't exactly work with his face, yet it came as tho it was supposed to be that (although sometimes he felt like he could draw him without even look at him).
hopefully, he wasn't too obvious when he drew him, although he had learned to be sneaky.
then one time his eyes met his when he looked back again, feeling a bit surprised that they had suddenly looked at each other at the same time. He decided to throw a small smile his way, even giving him a little wave to acknowledge him.
He was a bit sad to see him go.
Then he noticed how the other student seemed to avoid coming at the same time as him and it did somehow hurt a bit. Had he done something wrong? Was acknowledging him bad?
He instead tried to find other times when the man would come, always sitting a bit closer to the usual corner the man would use.
then one time, as they arrived at the same time, chs suddenly grabbed his sleeve lightly, the man stopping in his tracks, clearly startled that he approached him suddenly.
"Would you like to have coffee with me?" he asked with a soft smile a bit nervous that he would be rejected and that he mistook everything. the pause made him doubt, but then the taller one replied "Of course".
So they went in (wmj even suggesting helping to carry his portfolio and school bag) to get their usual coffee, sitting in the corner chs usually sits at.
It was the first time they ever spoke and stayed together like this, yet it felt like they were supposed to be there.
they both had the feeling they would be great together.
====
I might add more to this weird AU of a better chance in next life. also, I hope the Chinese name doesn't sound bad I tried making them alright despite not being familiar with what are and aren't family names in china (and I didn't want to keep nie, since they aren't from the nie sect anymore and don't know each other either)
anyway, hope the idea does please some
Original
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crithir · 6 months
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what about transmigrating into jgy himself? say it's already post-sunshot
NOOOOO JGY 😭😭😭
Alright well assuming there’s no way I can bring JGY back and put myself back where I belong, the obvious goal is to survive, but I’m also going to do my best to accomplish JGY’s goals since he no longer can. And I’m going to win, because I have the benefit of foresight.
So first things first, I’m obviously not going to get involved with Qin Su. Not like that, anyway. I’m still going to keep her close, though, because I’m going to need a good relationship with Laoling Qin later. Since I have the benefit of seeing who she is 10 years down the line, I’m going to trust that she wouldn’t out or hurt someone she considers a friend, so I’m going to let her down gently by telling her that I’m a cutsleeve and that’s why I can’t return her affections. But Qin-guniang is still very dear to me and I would like to help ensure that she gets the love match she wants. I think she’ll be compassionate enough to keep my confidence and agree to remaining friends and allies.
I’m not intervening in SMS cursing Zixun to try to change much of the fallout from that. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I would still tell Zixuan about the ambush at Qiongqi path, because regardless of JGY’s feelings or intentions for doing that, the fact remains that Zixuan is the only person who had a shot of intervening there and changing the outcome. He was ignorant to JGS’s machinations to take down WWX so he had the power to broker peace without suffering consequences from JGS, and it was far more likely that Zixun and WWX would listen to Zixuan than to JGY because WWX should care about Zixuan if for no other reason than Yanli’s sake and Zixun respected Zixuan (meanwhile both of them outright ignored JGY when he tried to talk to them in the past, so). Of course it still didn’t work and wasn’t enough, but Zixuan was the best shot at a different outcome. Alas.
I would, however, at least attempt to stop JYL from running off to Nightless City, because it would be nice if Jin Ling gets to keep his mother. Maybe “someone” “accidentally” traps her in her room or something until it’s over.
Now the NMJ & JGS issue… this potentially is a lot harder. Since we’re assuming post-Sunshot here but not specifying exactly when, I’m going to assume I have the option to just not take in Xue Yang and go with that. I’m not taking in Xue Yang. Which doesn’t entirely solve the issue but it at least takes some of the immediate pressure off and buys me time. Because the thing is, NMJ & JGS both still gotta go. But without the Xue Yang issue I can probably go about thing differently. So, assuming nothing major happens that becomes the Xue Yang issue in another form, my plan is to take on playing the Song of Clarity for da-ge, no DJ JGY remix…but I’m not going to put much of any spiritual power into it. I’m a weak cultivator after all and I did my best uwu. Then wait for nature to take its course and make sure I’m nowhere near when the inevitable happens.
Now, on the off chance that something equivalent to the Xue Yang incident happened and forced me to be more proactive than purposefully negligent, I would have Turmoil in my back pocket and use it if needed. And if in that scenario, or even in the one outlined above if da-ge turned fierce corpse and came after me anyway… well. If I Turmoiled him, then he’s getting the chop chop, and because I am not bound by silly plot necessities all of those pieces are getting burned and the ashes scattered to the four winds. If I didn’t have to Turmoil him but he came after me anyway… then I’m calling er-ge in for help with the problem. Pretty confident he’d be able to find a way to put da-ge to rest.
Throwing a little side note in here about NHS before we move on to the JGS issue: if NMJ qi deviated to death just because of the saber curse running its course and my playing not being of much help, then I don’t think I have to worry about him much but I would still keep an eye on him. And under any of the other circumstances I would of course be keeping an eye on him as well… and the second he starts acting funny, he’s done. And the very convenient thing about NHS is that he seems to have a habit of getting drunk and very dramatically and publicly threatening suicide when he wants help with his problems. So if he one day turned up dead of apparent suicide… well, wasn’t he always saying things like that? No one ever took him seriously, but oh, we should have! I would even go so far as to take the blame for it… because just once, he caught me at a very bad time, and I was so stressed, and instead of helping him as I always do, I snapped at him. I told him I was tired of it and that he needed to stand up on his own and take care of his own problems for once. How I wish I could take those words back! It’s all my fault, and I will never forgive myself 😔
…. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I’m ready if it does.
Anyway, it’s patricide time! Of course I’m not going to off JGS the way JGY did because yikes. But I have ammo that he didn’t have, because I haven’t damned myself with accidental incest, so there’s nothing stopping me from driving a wedge between JGS and Qin Cangye and benefitting from the fallout. How to do that? By surreptitiously revealing what JGS did to Madam Qin (icky, I know, but it must be done). Either I wait for her to die like she did in canon and then forge a deathbed letter from her to be found by Qin Cangye, or if she doesn’t die as she does in canon (because she’s not heartbroken by her daughter’s marriage? unclear) then I’ll have to forge a letter by a made up anonymous witness. A servant or something. Idk. Either way, the point is that JGS’s secret is out, and Qin Cangye will presumably want justice. Revenge. Whatever you want to call it. Ideally there would be a public spectacle about it, but regardless, I now have to walk a tightrope playing both filial son and peacemaker while goading them toward the outcome I want: a duel. So I will have to convince Qin Cangye that he cannot try to start a war against JGS. My father is too powerful, they’ll be crushed, wiped out. But if he publicly challenges JGS to a duel, it will spare lives from both sects and JGS will have to accept if he wants to save face. At the same time, I’ll be working on JGS, suggesting that he accept the duel and doubtless get rid of Qin Cangye, and then he can do as he wishes with the rest of the traitor clan. Wipe them out or play magnanimous, sparing them despite the lies and treason of their sect leader.
So assuming they both agree to resolve this with a duel, QCY to spare his clansmen and JGS to save his face and pride, the duel is sure to be a public spectacle as well. And I, ever the filial son, will of course be with my father before the duel. I will even take responsibility for thoroughly cleaning his sword before the duel. And if his sword happens to break during the duel, leading to his demise… it must be the will of the heavens. Proof of his guilt! It certainly couldn’t be that his son used a little trick he learned from an old master and tampered with the sword before he presented it to his father >:)
Now of course we’ll need time to mourn Jin Guangshan, but not before his grieving son swears to Qin Cangye that this is the end of it. That there will be no retribution or aggression from Lanling Jin, and that they will even pay any sort of reparations he might demand. Of course, the best way to ensure that I can keep this promise is if I have his support in succeeding JGS as sect leader. I will even put every effort toward finding a good and advantageous match for Qin Su, as a gesture of goodwill.
Of course I already have the support of Lan as well, and I’m sure er-ge is very proud of the tactful and gracious way I handled such a distasteful affair—preventing more war and bloodshed while still upholding my duties to my father. The Nie are in the bag, little sway as they hold now with NMJ gone. Jiang support is easily secured by pledging to Jiang Cheng that I have no intention of marrying and producing heirs, that Jin Ling will remain my sole heir and that I will abdicate in his favor when he comes of age. He can even keep Jin Ling with him for half the year, if I am Jin-zongzhu and in the position to grant that :)
And so as in canon, with the Jin sect knowing that I have the support of and good relationships with the other great sects plus the support of various Jin vassal sects like Laoling Qin and Moling Su, I’m succeeding to sect leader of Lanling Jin. And eventually, elected xiandu.
And I am building three thousand watchtowers. And erecting a temple with a Guanyin carved in Meng Shi’s image (I’ll just buy out the brothel and tear it down the normal way though).
As for my promise to find an advantageous match for Qin Su… I hear Jiang-zongzhu needs a wife. And it just so happens that my meimei has all of the qualities even the most particular of men could want in a wife. I know he will be fiercely loyal to her even if he’s prickly around the edges, and I know she’ll win his heart before long. Lotus Pier will have heirs, and Jin Ling will have cousins.
And then there is Mo Xuanyu! Oh, what to do about Mo Xuanyu. Well again, because I haven’t accidentally committed incest, I have a little more leeway in how to handle Mo Xuanyu here. But I still can’t afford to have any scandals going on. So before anything gets too far, I’m going to send him to Su Minshan to live as a guest disciple of Moling Su. This way he’ll be safe and treated well but away from direct contact with me, with the added benefit that I can keep an eye on him through Minshan. And yeah, that necessarily means WWX is never coming back.
Last but never least and most certainly first in my heart—Lan Xichen. We’re going to live a long and happy life together. Sworn brothers, best friends, partners in cultivating a better future for the jianghu. And of course, lovers, but the rest of the world doesn’t need to know about that. They’ll write songs about us and our devotion to each other regardless.
I think it’s what JGY would have wanted.
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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year
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i think the main reason i keep starting and stopping and then going “hrmmm 🧐” at my most recent attempts to dig down into why i personally don’t believe jgy hated nmj is probably because (imo) there are very few (named) characters in the text that jgy does hate. so that makes it a bit more difficult to draw distinctions between his behaviour and actions wrt other characters, and compare/contrast them against his actions with nmj.
however!! i think one character we can all agree that jgy comes to regard with intense contempt and loathing is jgs, and that comes across both in jgy’s brutal means of killing him and in how he talks about his father with lxc during the guanyin temple confrontation. he loses control of his emotions and his cherished composure (in part of course because he’s not! at his best! in this moment), and compares his own father to a stallion gone into rut. like it’s very apparent that jgy has no respect left for his dead father, forget filial piety at this stage, and he demonstrates zero remorse for choosing to kill him the way he did.
contrast this against the way jgy still calls even nmj’s fierce corpse “da-ge” up until the final fraught seconds of his life—which ftr i don’t think should be viewed as some deeply revealing moment about jgy’s character except to highlight how so often his words and his actions are at crossed purposes. he shouts at lxc with fury, but ultimately saves his life; he curses at mingjue as he’s about to be killed and defies that he’s afraid, but, well. 🥺
anyway, these are just some Morning Thoughts, i don’t have the book in front of me to dig further down into jgy’s feelings on nmj pre-the jinlintai steps vs post but /sticks a pin in this, i’ll come back to it.
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poorlittleyaoyao · 7 months
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About MDZS The Book - yes! this exactly! when I first joined the fandom I came in through the donghua, then through the books, and only bits and pieces of the untamed (bc honestly fanfiction taught me all the changes the live action made and by the time I got around to it I had realized I have realized I am Here for jiang cheng like if Jiujiu Supreme is not present I Do Not Care about these 2 weirdos being horny in public (except when I do))
but I just could NOT understand why people loved nmj so much like he just feels kinda There in the donghua and in the novel I was like jgy deserves a little murder as a TreatTM
like I sorta get it now but I am always gonna side-eye Mr Da-Ge until I know which nmj is da-ge’ing
Ahh, I have the same questions for you as for the previous anon about coming from the donghua: What things were most surprising about other adaptations, and what things did you feel the donghua does better than the others?
Re: Jiang Cheng, one of my favorite things to do when swapping fandom news with a friend who's never seen any iteration of MDZS/CQL is to tell her facts about Jiang Cheng and then remind her that people honest-to-god think he's a villain. She is always so APPALLED and she's correct. Jiujiu Supremacy is the way.
I legit Do Not Get the appeal of NMJ outside of the drama. I mean, there's stuff to play with there as a writer, but like. He is at best Just Some Guy and his fixation on JGY is weird. It is so SO weird. It predates him knowing that JGY murdered him! It even predates the murder itself!
(FUN FACT: I watched the drama rather sporadically the first time--we're talking an average of an episode every two days, maybe--and I kept forgetting about NMJ every time he wasn't actively onscreen. He made zero impression! The reason I like him so much now is that my JGY brainworms led to me rewatching the episodes where the two of them interact prominently for fic purposes, and now I get where both sides of the divorce are coming from even though I am still biased.)
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thebiscuiteternal · 1 year
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would nmj's fate change in the larger age gap au? with the changes in relationships and political dynamics, i just can't see jgy finding it as easy to decide to kill him in this version.
I think it would, for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, no matter which version of canon you use, Nie Huaisang is going to push the "ge" button in the back of Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao's brain hard. I wrote a little snippet of them meeting on Discord using the non-CQL setting
Please imagine that during Sunshot in the greater-age-gap Nies timeline, something comes up at the Unclean Realms and since Mingjue can't leave the battlefield for whatever reason, he asks newly-minted 18yo aide-de-camp Meng Yao to go handle it.
So Meng Yao goes to the Unclean Realms and is met at the gate by a 10/11 yo with a grumpy expression.
"You're not Da-ge," he says, clearly disappointed.
Oh, this is the Sang-di that his sect leader is always talking about.
He's adorable.
Meng Yao smiles. "Sorry, but even your brother can't be in two places at once. This one is Meng Yao; his assistant."
Nie Huaisang brightens up just a little. "Oh! The really smart one!"
(Zongzhu actually said that in his letters home? Meng Yao's a little touched.)
Huaisang takes him to meet the supply overseers who needed assistance, but sticks around instead of going back to whatever he'd been doing.
Meng Yao catches the boy watching him a couple of times, but every time, Huaisang quickly looks away, face red.
They don't talk about it before Meng Yao leaves, crisis averted.
Cute little creechur! Who clearly thinks he's cool despite growing up around all these powerful cultivators! Meng Yao is smitten.
And then add in the fact that Mingjue and Huaisang's relationship is much more stable, with it being evident to anyone with eyes that they're each other's foundation, and Jin Guangyao would have a much harder time justifying the damage to a Huaisang that killing Mingjue would do.
Especially since, if I haven't fucked up my own timeline, he would be all of fourteen when his big brother died and he got thrown into an inheritance crisis. Yikes.
Of course, there's also another option.
Supposing instead that Jin Guangshan were to go the route that Nie Mingjue dreads the most, the very reason he'd held off on making Huaisang his heir to begin with: he is very young and very vulnerable and it would do a lot of damage to sect morale if anything were to happen to him.
Suppose Jin Guangshan decides the best way to remove Nie Mingjue from being a pest politically is to get rid of Huaisang.
Now, I've had a story where Jin Guangyao goes through with it; most of you have seen that.
But again, it's much harder to justify killing a 14yo than it is to kill a 20-23yo, especially one that clearly loves you.
Angsty soul-searching ahoy!
So I think either way, he'd try to stall for time. Maybe he can't tell them directly what's going on without feeling unfilial to his father, but he can drop hints and let his father braid enough rope to hang himself.
Whether or not it would work is still up in the air.
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eleanorfenyxwrites · 9 months
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WIP Wednesday
Saw a post celebrating leather daddies (as we SHOULD) and immediately got reminded of my little hint at NMJ and MY being into the leather scene in my 3zun extra for my 70’s AU so. Anyway I definitely 100% needed another new wip, I was running low 💀
—//—
Lan Xichen arrives home from work to his phone ringing. He contemplates not answering — there’s a big case most of the firm has been assigned to work on, and many of his colleagues Lan Xichen has not yet had the…pleasure of working with don’t seem to have much respect for personal time like his usual team does.
The ringing stops as he’s untying his shoes, and starts again just as he’s sliding his feet into his house slippers. A little spike of worry wriggles its way under his ribs. Of course it isn’t only people from the office who have his phone number, and if it’s his family calling then to do so this late (and so insistently) would mean an emergency.
He hurries into the kitchen to answer it, the cool, heavy plastic creaking a little in his grip as he lifts it to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Er-ge,” Meng Yao practically purrs on the other end and every bit of nebulous anxiety abruptly fizzles out to be replaced by something much sweeter.
“A-Yao,” Xichen replies with a tender little curl of a smile. He switches to Mandarin to continue, “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until tomorrow, what a pleasant surprise.”
“Were you working late again, gege?”
“I was. You may scold me as much as you like.”
“So forward!” A-Yao laughs, catching the innuendo just as Xichen had intended. “You want to come out tonight? We could do something about that scolding if you want, though I actually had more of a special treat in mind.”
Xichen closes his eyes and doesn’t even try to stop smiling like a fool. He knows what he should say — it’s late, it’s only Wednesday and he has work in the morning.
“What’s my treat?” he asks instead, because anything but seeing his boyfriends a day earlier than anticipated seems like unnecessary torment, and he’s trying not to punish himself either intentionally or not anymore, as per said boyfriends’ request.
“The bar’s understaffed tonight, literally no one available to cover the first shift, so Da-ge has caved to the inevitable and agreed to do it. He’s a sight to see, I promise it’ll be worth the trip.”
“You and Mingjue-ge are always worth the trip,” Xichen argues. He smiles wider to hear A-Yao laugh and turn his head to call out what he’d said to Mingjue, barely muffled by, Xichen assumes, his hand over the receiver.
There’s a bit of a scuffle and a waspish, “Go pick it up in our room, you animal!” that Xichen stifles a laugh at, easily imagining Mingjue using his bulk and much longer reach to manhandle the phone away from A-Yao.
“You suck-up,” Mingjue grumbles in his ear, the words clumsy but tinged with his amusement. (His Mandarin isn’t quite as fluid as A-Yao’s, but they all agreed it was the best way to keep Xichen’s lily-white neighbors from overhearing something dangerous should they pick up and catch them saying something private on the neighborhood party line.)
“I only speak the truth! You’re always worth seeing, gege.”
Mingjue grumbles some more under his breath, some mixture of English and the dialect that Xichen has only ever heard Mingjue and his brother use (and barely understands even when spoken clearly), before he sighs and says, “Come to the bar, A-Huan. You’ll have fun, we want to see you.”
“Alright, you’ve twisted my arm,” Xichen laughs. “I’ll be there, ge, don’t worry.”
“Good.”
Xichen’s heart stutters in his chest at the sound of a click, someone new connecting in.
“It’s just me, I picked up the other line,” A-Yao soothes, anticipating his fear with his usual ease. “So you’re coming, yes?”
Xichen exhales the fresh tension with a hum. “Mn, I’d love to. I’ll have to leave early in the morning though.”
A-Yao tuts softly, the sort of gentle disapproval that can send both Xichen and Mingjue to their knees to apologize in a heartbeat. “That still leaves us plenty of time tonight. Just get here soon.”
“Quick as I can,” Xichen promises them both, painfully earnest in a way he knows they know to expect from him now.
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