#i first had this thought after learning su she could play the flute

[eldritch-elrics]

modern au where wei wuxian + lan wangji and su she + jin guangyao are rival flute/guqin bands

(lan xichen, of course, is highly supportive of both)

#the untamed #my post #i first had this thought after learning su she could play the flute #and only just remembered it #mdzs

[ibijau]

Future Past pt17 / on AO3

After being dragged on a Night Hunt by Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen ponders the choices in front of him

“And that’s when Sect Leader Yao fell face first into the bog,” Nie Mingjue finished with a grin.

Lan Xichen, who had been fighting not to react for most of the story, burst out laughing so hard he had to stop walking, before quickly pressing one hand to his mouth in a vain effort to silence himself.

“There, I knew I hadn’t lost my touch,” Nie Mingjue said with an even wider grin, and Lan Xichen was nearly overcome with how much he’d missed him.

Of course he only had himself to blame for that. During the past year, Nie Mingjue had reached out to him several times, inviting Lan Xichen to spend a week or two in the Unclean Realm to flee his uncle’s students, or else suggesting they go on a Night Hunt together. But every time, Lan Xichen had found plenty of excuses to refuse. They were all good excuses, and he’d been busy with his regular duties, and the copying of the library, and…

And good or not, excuses were just excuses. The honest trust was that Lan Xichen had, in fact, been avoiding his best friend. The lingering shame from that horrible future had been too much to bear. How could he have faced Nie Mingjue, knowing he would have failed him someday, knowing he’d sided with his murderer, knowing he’d allowed his precious brother to turn into a monster? Horrified by the terrible friend he would have become, Lan Xichen had tried to distance himself from Nie Mingjue.

It hadn’t worked. Nie Mingjue had been patient with him, until one day he wasn’t, and just dropped by the Cloud Recesses unannounced, warned Lan Qiren that he was borrowing his nephew, and took Lan Xichen on a Night Hunt before anyone could protest. That had been the previous afternoon, and since then Nie Mingjue had been on a quest to make Lan Xichen laugh.

They’d just arrived at the location where a demon bear was causing trouble, and finally Nie Mingjue’s effort had been rewarded.

Now that he was laughing, Lan Xichen felt a little stupid for trying so hard to stay serious. Even if in his memories of the future Nie Mingjue had become an angry man too short tempered to have fun with, in the present he was the funniest person Lan Xichen knew.

The most forgiving, too, because he wasn’t even angry that Lan Xichen had pushed him away for an entire year.

“You’ve gotten too stern,” Nie Mingjue just said while Lan Xichen laughed. “I need to scold your uncle for making you work too much. I also need to steal you more often.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Lan Xichen replied, meaning it. He had been too serious since gaining those unwanted memories. Except for music lessons with Nie Huaisang, letters from Jiang Cheng, and a few chats with his brother, everything had felt dreary and stressful these last few months. “I’d wanted to act more maturely, but I suppose it’s important to have fun too.”

This prompted Nie Mingjue to make an annoyed noise.

“Huaisang told me the same thing last week,” he said in an aggravated tone. “That little brat…”

“I thought you wanted him to act more seriously?”

“I do, but not like that,” Nie Mingjue grumbled as he resumed walking. “He’s weird since he came back. First he ran off on his own, flying on his sabre…”

Lan Xichen winced. That hadn’t happened in his memory of another life. But at the same time, in that other life Nie Huaisang hadn’t gotten in nearly as much trouble, not during that first year in the Cloud Recesses at least. Lan Xichen couldn’t help feeling guilty about that, since it had to have been his fault for changing the normal course of events.

“Then when he comes back, he brings that orphan he found somewhere and demands that I let him join the sect!”

That was new as well.

“Did you agree?” Lan Xichen asked.

Nie Mingjue shrugged, and Lan Xichen had to bite his cheeks not to smile. So that was a yes. As expected, Nie Mingjue just didn’t know how to refuse his brother’s whims. It was comforting to know that this, at least, hadn’t changed.

“He’s obsessed with that kid,” Nie Mingjue explained. “Don’t know why. The boy is a damn pest, gets in fights all the time with everyone… but I guess he is clever, and he’s got potential. It’s just so weird to see Huaisang always asking about his progress. He’s never cared about any younger disciples before!”

“Maybe he brought you your future brother-in-law,” Lan Xichen teased.

“I don’t think so. The kid’s only about ten, I’d need to have a serious discussion with Huaisang if he was going after someone that young. Besides, doesn’t he already have a fling with that Lan disciple, what's his name… Su She, right?”

Hearing this, Lan Xichen’s good humour crumbled. Since Nie Huaisang had told him in Yunping City that there was nothing of the sort between himself and Su She, Lan Xichen had stopped thinking about it. But Nie Mingjue sounded quite sure of himself, so either Nie Huaisang had lied that time, or things had changed since then.

If so, Lan Xichen could only be happy for them, he supposed. After all he knew too well how loyal Su She could be toward those he cared about, and Nie Huaisang had passionately taken the defence of his friend on multiple occasions. They wouldn’t be the worst of matches, and if Lan Xichen felt any discomfort over that idea, it was only because of lingering memories of that future that would not be.

"Did I get it wrong?" Nie Mingjue asked when Lan Xichen remained silent too long. "I've just never heard that brat talk like that about anyone. Since he came back, it's all 'Su-xiong said this' about everything, except when it's 'Xichen-gege said that', so I figured you might know something”

He paused for a moment, looking concerned. Lan Xichen glanced around, in case Nie Mingjue had heard a noise, or noticed anything about that demon bear they were after, but everything seemed quiet.

“That Su She, what sort of a person is he?” Nie Mingjue suddenly asked with a grim expression. “Huaisang really is enthusiastic about that boy, but he’s mentioned that his ‘Su-xiong’ has a temper, and… he failed the exams even though both you and your uncle wrote that he’s been studying a lot. It's almost like he did it on purpose. And he’s so nervous since he came back, but he won’t say why.”

“Su She is not a bad person,” Lan Xichen replied, and it still startled him that he meant it. Something of the man he would have become lingered in Lan Xichen that was still suspicious of what Su She would have done, but in the end it was unfair to judge him on something that hadn’t happened yet. “He’s not the most popular junior in the sect, but he’s hardworking and very dedicated to his friendship with Huaisang. If they do have that sort of relationship…”

He hesitated for a second. The idea remained startlingly unpleasant, but he refused to linger on that.

“If it’s like that, then I think Huaisang could do a lot worse.”

Tension immediately drained from Nie Mingjue’s body, who smiled at his friend.

“That’s a relief. I've been really… did you hear that?"

Lan Xichen gave one short nod, his hand resting on his sword. The cracking noise they'd both heard was followed by more, then a series of low grunts. 

The demon bear had been found. 

 -

 The Night Hunt went well, not that Lan Xichen ever doubted it. He vaguely recalled that even in the other future they’d hunted that demon bear, and though he hadn’t remembered the details, he knew it had gone very well over there too. 

With their job done, Nie Mingjue and him warned the local magistrate that the threat had been handled before heading to a local inn to eat and relax for a moment. They both had a lot of work waiting for them at home, but Night Hunting together was always a chance to escape that for a time, and to pretend they were just two ordinary young men as careless as others their age. They usually went to the site of the Night Hunt quickly, aware that lives might be at stake, and then took several days to come home, travelling together as far as they could before separating. It felt like a bit of innocent mischief, and Lan Xichen loved it. 

The inn they ended up in was pleasant enough, though Lan Xichen’s standards were not very high at that moment. As long as he was safe from the bitter winter cold, with some warm tea, and decent enough food, he was satisfied. Still, it was a pleasant bonus to discover that there was a musician at the inn that day, playing on his flute whatever songs people requested as long as they dropped a few coins. The man was decently skilled, and some of the songs were nice enough that Lan Xichen wouldn’t have minded learning them.

To Lan Xichen’s surprise, Nie Mingjue too was paying attention to the performer. It struck him as quite odd, since his friend had little taste for songs unless they were weapons to use in battle.

“If that melody is one you like, I can ask for its name and try to learn it,” Lan Xichen offered after a moment, a little excited for a chance to please his friend. “It would not be a problem.”

The suggestion startled Nie Mingjue who tore his eyes from the performer, and seemed a little embarrassed to have been caught staring.

“That’s very generous of you, but I was just… thinking about Huaisang,” he admitted. “He’s really obsessed with music lately. Even raided our library in search of pieces to learn. I’m trying to understand what’s so great about that. At least with painting I can see if it’s good or not, and his birds force him to be responsible, but music… I’m really out of my depth with that, and I hate that I don’t know how to support him.”

Nie Mingjue sighed, as if it truly wounded him that his brother would have a passion so foreign to his own interests. Perhaps it did. Lan Xichen, whose tastes were so similar to his brother’s in most things, couldn’t imagine what it would be like to love so much someone so different from one’s self.

"Is he actually any good?” Nie Mingjue then asked. “he sounds great to me, but that's not saying much. Every musician sounds good to me. But some of the elders have said they're impressed by his skill, and said they’d like him to play sometimes when we have guests to entertain. They might just be polite." 

"Did he borrow a guqin from someone to continue practicing?" Lan Xichen asked, still surprised by the enthusiasm Nie Huaisang showed for music.

"Worse, he bought his own," Nie Mingjue explained, rolling his eyes. "That brat! He used up half his allowance for the year on that. I’ve warned him not to beg for money in six months when he has nothing to use for his trips to Gusu, he needs to learn not to overspend like that."

Lan Xichen froze, and for a second nearly fell into breathless panic. It was a stupid thing to worry about, compared to everything else he had changed, but… 

But in that other life too he'd gone on that Night Hunt with Nie Mingjue, who had then complained that his brother had spent a fortune on a series of exquisite fans, and even had made the same threat about not giving him more funds (which he still had done when Nie Huaisang had written to beg for money down the line). It had been the starting point of Nie Huaisang's collection, a collection that he'd continued working on for the rest of his life, no matter what else changed. 

Even that very last time Lan Xichen had met Nie Huaisang in that other life, after every lie had been revealed, even as he spilled all of his hatred for a man he'd grown to despise, Nie Huaisang had been flaunting a brand new fan, painted by a famous artist. 

Fans had appeared to be Nie Huaisang’s last joy left after he'd lost everything else, and if Lan Xichen had taken that from him… 

"You know," Nie Mingjue said, "whether he's good or not, I'm grateful you decided to teach him. He's so damn nervous all the time these days, but playing seems to calm him. So I was wondering if you might continue with the lessons?”

“Really?”

Nie Mingjue shrugged with affected indifference. 

“If that brat is finally interested in something I can pretend is related to cultivation… " he grumbled." I’m not asking you to teach him any Lan songs," he quickly added," but I wouldn’t mind if some of our elders thought that. If you have time, of course. It’s gonna be a rough year for you, with the students you have coming this time."

Lan Xichen wrinkled his nose at the thought. The year promised to be intense indeed. He hadn’t yet decided what to do about that Wei Wuxian person who would play such a role in his brother's life, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. In his memories of the future, the man he’d become had eventually accepted that Wei Wuxian was Lan Wangji’s true love, sharing with him a bond so strong that not even death had severed it. 

But Lan Xichen as he currently was couldn’t help thinking about all the pain and hardship that love had cost his brother, and he wasn’t sure if that was quite worth it. For all that he’d supported the acquaintance when it had started in that other life, Lan Xichen now wanted to prevent his brother from falling in love with that person. Surely it would be better if Lan Wangji didn't suffer like that. 

“I don’t mind continuing the lessons,” Lan Xichen said, who had already been planning for that anyway. “He’s quite good, and he actually could learn some of our songs, if he set his mind to it. Besides, he’s good company, we’ve had some good fun.”

Not to mention Nie Huaisang might be able to help with whatever Lan Xichen decided to do regarding Wei Wuxian, since they would become good friends. He might give a hand in preventing Lan Wangji from meeting that boy, or give a hint in the right direction if Lan Xichen decide to help that little romance.

“So that’s why you’ve been ignoring me then,” Nie Mingjue replied dryly. “A prettier friend who makes you laugh and calls you cute nicknames… I'm ditched so easily. Truly tragic.”

It was a joke. 

Having been friends with him for this many years, Lan Xichen knew how Nie Mingjue joked, as deadpan as his brother was dramatic, but this time the teasing hit a little too close to home. Lan Xichen hurriedly grabbed his friend’s hands and squeezed them tight. For a moment he found himself fighting to breathe, for which Nie Mingjue threw him a concerned look.

“I would never betray you,” Lan Xichen managed to wheeze out. “I swear! You… You are my friend, the person I trust the most, the person who knows me best. I would never choose someone else over you!”

Not again, anyway.

Not while knowing what the cost of it might be.

Of course even in that other future he’d thought he’d been acting for Nie Mingjue’s good. He’d thought he was helping. He had trusted Jin Guangyao's sweet words, trusted the power of Cleansing, trusted… 

Nie Mingjue freed one of his hands, and leaned closer to rub circles on Lan Xichen's back, encouraging him to breathe. It was Lan Xichen's worst attack since the night he awoke with memories not quite his own. Panic and guilt mixed together, closing his throat tighter so no air could get to his lungs. It lasted long enough that Lan Xichen wondered if it might be possible for him to die like this. 

Just as soon as that idea hit him, his body's desperate need for air became stronger than the power of his memories, and he was able to take one shaky breath. He gasped and coughed, all too aware of the eyes of other patrons on him, while Nie Mingjue continued rubbing his back. 

"Wipe your face," Nie Mingjue gently ordered when his friend had calmed down, handing him a napkin. "Do you need to go out for some fresh air, or do you prefer to sit?" 

"Sit," Lan Xichen replied in a raspy voice as he dried his tears. "Sorry. It happens sometimes. It looks worse than it is."

Nie Mingjue said nothing. A fresh pot of tea was ordered, which soothed Lan Xichen's poor throat and warmed him up again. He still felt a little fragile, but put on a smile to hide it. This, in turn, only made Nie Mingjue frown. 

"Your uncle told me he was worried about your health when I saw him some weeks ago, but I didn't realise it was this bad."

"My health is fine," Lan Xichen protested. After one sharp look from his friend, he continued: "It really isn't that bad. I've been a little anxious, that's all. It's hard not to be in the current climate." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Haven't the Wen just absorbed another sect?" 

Nie Mingjue grimly nodded. The leader of a sect had just died, and Wen Ruohan had promptly married his youngest son to the man's daughter and claimed the whole sect. It was not something they could openly discuss, but the issue was serious and should have distracted Nie Mingjue from the panic attack he'd witnessed. 

It did not quite work. 

"Your uncle too mentioned something about that when I saw him. He used to be pretty sure nothing would happen, but lately he's been keeping me updated on that sort of news." 

Lan Xichen hesitated. His plan regarding the war, so far, had been to stay out of things. The Sunshot campaign appeared to him like a terrible thing that could not, should not be avoided, like a great fire that would allow for a healthier regrowth. Perhaps he might have hoped to lessen the damage, but ultimately nothing less than a war could rid them of Wen Ruohan. 

That plan to allow for the war to unfold naturally was countered by two things. 

The first was that Lan Xichen had already changed the way it would happen. If everything went as he hoped, Meng Yao would never become a spy amidst the Wens, something which had been crucial to their victory (or something that had appeared to be so to the man Lan Xichen had become; he was ever so fond of that Meng Yao, perhaps the memories of that dark future were tainted by that). It was after all unlikely that the Jiangs would ever give Meng Yao any help to join Lanling Jin, his first step toward spying on Wen Ruohan… and that was supposing Meng Yao even survived long enough to take part in the war, when most of Yunmeng Jiang was fated to be slaughtered.

And this was the second issue with Lan Xichen’s initial plan. He had, from the start, been uncomfortable with allowing the slaughter of the Lotus Pier to happen, even when it would someday become agreed that nothing less than this attack on a Great Sect could have convinced the cultivation world to finally rebel against the Wens. But just because people in the future found ways to justify that disaster didn’t make it right to do nothing to avoid it. Lan Xichen was taking measures to protect his sect, wasn’t it his responsibility to also help others?

Having been cursed with that knowledge, wasn’t it his duty to…

“Breathe,” Nie Mingjue said, his hand on Lan Xichen’s shoulder once more. “Slowly, breathe in, breathe out. There you go.”

Lan Xichen obeyed, and managed to avoid another attack, though only narrowly, and only because the fear of the Sunshot Campaign was his alone. The man he would have become had made his peace with the horror witnessed during that time, but Lan Xichen himself was overcome by terror every time he thought about what was to come.

It was a burden too heavy for his shoulders alone, and he alone couldn’t have done much to prevent that dark future from coming to pass, at least where that war was concerned.

So perhaps he needed to not do it alone. What good had secrets done to Jin Guangyao, to Nie Huaisang, in that future that would not be? It had turned them into monsters, bitter and too willing to hurt others, and for what? Jin Guangyao had lost everything, Nie Huaisang had become isolated from everyone who had ever cared about him, and all just because they wanted to be in control, because they thought nobody around them was worthy of being told the truth.

Lan Xichen refused to become like them

“Mingjue-xiong, do you trust me?” he asked when he had calmed down again, and breathing wasn’t such a struggle.

“You wouldn’t be my friend if I didn’t trust you,” came the answer, honest and earnest and so painful that Lan Xichen thought panic would seize him again over that underserved trust.

But this time he managed to keep his calm, either because he was too exhausted to panic again, or because his mind saw this as a chance to right some of the wrong he would have caused in the future.

“I have something to tell you,” Lan Xichen said as he stood up. “But we’ll need to be somewhere more private. It’s going to sound completely crazy to you, but… you need to know.”

Nie Mingjue looked worried but quietly stood up as well. They left the inn together and took flight, making their sword rise high in the sky, where no one might spy on them without their notice.

“So, here is what happened,” Lan Xichen explained when he felt he could do it safely. “Around this time last year, I had a vision…”

He wouldn’t, couldn’t say everything, because it would have been too cruel to plague Nie Mingjue with the knowledge of his own early death, to tell him how loss and rage would turn his beloved brother into a man he might have despised. But the rest, the Wen’s exactions, the war that loomed over them… this Lan Xichen shared with more details than he’d ever given to Lan Qiren. Nie Mingjue listened, first with astonishment, then with concern, eventually with anger. 

"Are you sure?" Nie Mingjue asked when Lan Xichen had finished a quick tale of what was to come. 

"I know it's odd, and I won't blame you if you find it impossible to believe." 

Nie Mingjue did not reply right away, a deep frown creasing his forehead. 

"You've already had proof, and you're sure of it. That's good enough for me. Now let's find a quiet place to talk about this. I'll need you to tell me everything you remember about the Wen's forces, so I can start preparing." 

Lan Xichen felt breathless again, but this time it was gratitude overwhelming him. He'd forgotten how good Nie Mingjue was. Those last few months had spoiled so much, souring old memories, but there had been such great times before that. There would be even more, in this new life, this new chance they'd been given. 

This time, he swore to himself, he would be worthy of that affection.

#xisang #nie mingjue #lan xichen #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #double time travel #jau writes

[hamliet]

Hey there! I’d like to ask something, if you’re ok with that. In mdzs, a lot of people say that despite JC being so antagonistic towards WWX, he still loves him and misses him. I don’t see how, his actions in any version of the story say the exact opposite to me. Maybe one needs to look between the lines to see it, but I’m horrible at reading others, so if I may bother you and ask what your thoughts are on the subject?

Hey! You are always welcome to ask me questions about MDZS. Especially while we’re all trapped inside.

So I will say I do think Jiang Cheng does indeed love and miss Wei Wuxian. I also think the fandom has a tendency to wipe away Jiang Cheng’s extremely serious flaws (especially in comparison to, say, how they treat Jin Guangyao’s flaws in comparison). Jiang Cheng is very much a foil for Jin Guangyao and for Madame Yu, Wei Wuxian, and Jin Ling (as well as Su She, but that’s perhaps for another meta).

Jiang Cheng’s fundamental defense mechanism is projection. We know already that he is insecure–the way his father treated him is horrible. Madame Yu, in turn, was very clearly projecting her own insecurities onto her son:

Jiang Cheng was stuck between his father and his mother. After a moment of hesitation, he moved to his mother’s side. Holding his shoulders, Madam Yu pushed him forward for Jiang FengMian to see, “Sect Leader Jiang, it seems that some things I have to say. Look carefully—this, is your own son, the future head of Lotus Pier. Even if you frown upon him just because I was the one who bore him, his surname is still Jiang! … I don’t believe for one second that you haven’t heard of how the outside people gossips, that Sect Leader Jiang has still not moved on from a certain Sanren though so many years have passed, regarding the son of his old friend as a son of his own; they’re speculating if Wei Ying is your…”

She’s really asking: I’m here, so why don’t you care about me? Do you really prefer a dead Cangse Sanren to me? But the tragic irony is that the way in which she asks this question only pushes Jiang Fengmian away. And yet, she did love him, which Jiang Fengmian realizes when, in the end, he finds out Madame Yu had taught Zidian to obey his command as well as hers. Zidian is a symbol of her pride and heritage.

Let’s also look at MXTX’s description of Jiang Cheng’s ideal woman. While it’s not in the novel and is extra material, it’s a perfect example of projection:

naturally beautiful, graceful and obedient, hard-working and thrifty, coming from a respected family, cultivation level not too high, personality not too strong, not too talkative, voice not too loud and must treat Jin Ling nicely. 

Is he looking for a wife, or is he looking for Shijie to mother Jin Ling? Because he’s 100% describing Jiang Yanli.

Jiang Cheng does exactly what his mother did to him to Wei Wuxian. He projects his own insecurities, the very ones Madame Yu identified (great job mothering there), onto Wei Wuxian. Why does he hate Wei Wuxian? He hates Wei Wuxian for killing Shijie, when it was Shijie’s own choice to sacrifice herself, and Jiang Cheng then rendered her last sacrifice moot by killing his shixiong. So does Jiang Cheng hate Wei Wuxian, or does he hate himself for killing his sibling in a moment of rage?

It goes deeper, though. Because we see that Jiang Cheng’s fundamental issue is that he hates himself, because he is not as good at cultivation nor as strong as Wei Wuxian, and his father doesn’t love him as much as he loves Wei Wuxian. A child’s mind is going to connect that to “if I’m stronger, Dad will love me.” Jiang Cheng never grew out of this mindset. But what is strength to Jiang Cheng?

It’s protecting the people he loves. So Shijie’s death? He blames himself. One of Jiang Cheng’s most vulnerable moments is when he begs Wei Wuxian to turn away from Yiling and the Wens, because “I can’t protect you.” He wants to protect Wei Wuxian because he couldn’t protect his parents, yet he wants to protect himself more. It’s tragic. What Jin Guangyao said to Jiang Cheng in the temple is true, though of course, it’s not so simple as to be Jiang Cheng’s fault solely. But his insecurities did play a role and were indeed exploited by a cruel, calculating society:

“… Back then, the LanlingJin Sect, the QingheNie Sect, and the GusuLan Sect had already finished fighting over the biggest share. The rest could only get some small shrimps. You, on the other hand, had just rebuilt Lotus Pier and behind you was the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, the danger of whom was immeasurable. Do you think the other sects would like to see a young sect leader who was so advantaged? Luckily, you didn’t seem to be on good terms with your shixiong, and since everyone thought there was an opportunity, of course they’d add fuels to your fire if they could. No matter what, to weaken the YunmengJiang Sect was to strengthen themselves. Sect Leader Jiang, if only your attitude towards your shixiong was just a bit better, showing everyone that your bond was too strong to be broken for them to have a chance, or if you exhibited just a bit more tolerance after what happened, things wouldn’t have become what they were. Oh, speaking of it, you were also a main force of the siege at Burial Mound…”

Jin Guangyao isn’t wrong here, and unlike Jiang Cheng, he’s aware that society sucks but tries to join it anyways. Jiang Cheng grew up privileged despite his sad home life, and therefore never examined whether society was fair or not (as is reinforced by the early conversation Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian have about Jin Guangyao, in which Wei Wuxian expresses that he likes Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng says that, as the son of a whore, Jin Guangyao will only be able to climb so far, yet expresses no deeper concern about this). Jin Guangyao’s tragedy was trying to join society in an effort to prove himself to his father, and Jiang Cheng’s tragedy was not examining himself and his role in society in an effort to prove himself to his father as well, both fathers of whom would be better off ignored. Jiang Cheng did rebuild Lotus Pier, but Wei Wuxian learns that the local people are terrified of Jiang Cheng and hate him, while Jin Guangyao actually did protect the common people, yet Jiang Cheng still has a chance to redeem himself in the end and Jin Guangyao does not, which can be chalked up in great part due to privilege.

This isn’t to argue Jiang Cheng is worse than Jin Guangyao, because better/worse is moot in the world of MDZS. The point is that both Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao bring about the death of a brother by prioritizing their own wellbeing and proving themselves to the fathers whose approval it is impossible to win (because the problem is with them rather than with Jiang Cheng or Jin Guangyao themselves), would have/did kill a child on the basis of their parentage (Wen Yuan was rescued by Lan Wangji or he would absolutely have been killed, Jin Guangyao does kill A-Song–it doesn’t matter whether or not either of them did/would have done it personally; at the very least they set in motion events they knew would result in a child’s death), and yet both raised and genuinely loved Jin Ling (as Jin Ling himself concludes in the end).

But in regards to Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng’s insecurities make it impossible for him to communicate well with the people he loves. He warns Jin Ling not to come back unless he accomplishes something on Dafan Mountain, which almost gets Jin Ling killed trying to prove himself. (I wrote more about that in this meta here.)

After Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, Jiang Cheng proves that he doesn’t hate Wei Wuxian several times despite claiming he does. Firstly? When Jin Guangyao accuses Mo Xuanyu of being Wei Wuxian in the middle of a crowd, Jiang Cheng could easily turn him in  and be rid of him since Jiang Cheng already knows it. And yet, Jiang Cheng does not do so, even when called upon; instead, his indecision is noted. Secondly, he kept Chenqing with him all these years, when he very easily could have destroyed it (which is another parallel to Jin Guangyao, who kept Suibian, an ultimately useless sword); the flute, on the other hand, is a symbol of demonic cultivation and yet Jiang Cheng does not get rid of it. He went so far as to torture other demonic cultivators to death, many of whom are noted to have been innocent, and yet he kept demonic cultivational tools with him, because it was his brother’s–which also, yes, shows how he hates himself and kind of wants to punish himself, too.

And, of course, there’s the sacrifice that Jiang Cheng never reveals (at least not by the novel’s end). He sacrificed his own life to save Wei Wuxian from the Wens, was willing to give up what he always wanted–to lead Lotus Pier and thereby earn his father’s respect–to save Wei Wuxian’s life. Yet, in the end that led to Wei Wuxian sacrificing his golden core for Jiang Cheng, and in the end, Jiang Cheng can’t tell Wei Wuxian for the same reason Wei Wuxian couldn’t tell Jiang Cheng in his first life: it would sound like an excuse. So, again, Jiang Cheng’s pride is getting in the way–yet, at least this time, he is willing to sacrifice looking good and look worse for the sake of letting Wei Wuxian go.

However, I think there’s reason to hope, as I’ve said before. I did not interpret that ending to mean their relationship was over or could never be significantly close again. Wei Wuxian has let go of a lot of his pride and learned some hard lessons about self-sacrifice and protecting people, and the younger generation is making so much room for nuance and kindness and thereby challenging society. I personally assumed they’d have that conversation eventually, but we didn’t need to see it to assume it would happen.

#ask hamliet #jiang cheng #mdzs #mdzs meta #mxtx #mxtx meta #wei wuxian #jin guangyao #jin ling #su she #madame yu #yu ziyuan

[razberryyum]

The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 9, Part 2 of 2

(spoilers for everything MDZS/Untamed)

[covers MDZS chapters 28 and 29...kinda….]

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰+🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰 +🐰🐰🐰+🐰🐰+🐰🐰+🐰+🐰+🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰

Continued from Part 1:

Aside from the fact that Wei Ying grabbing and pulling on Lan Zhan’s tassle like a leash is really one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, I think it’s also adorable how Lan Zhan went from not even tolerating Wei Ying touching his sleeve to now putting up with him poking him and holding onto his wrist. Once again he never makes any attempt to shake him off and instead allows Wei Ying to lead him forward. Watching the little ways Wei Ying is changing Lan Zhan is so endearing and rewarding. I’m so glad Wei Ying came on this mission with him. According to Big Bro Xichen, Lan Zhan’s never had friends before, the reason he wanted Lan Zhan to attend classes at Cloud Recesses was so that he could make friends with people his own age. However, considering his cold and aloof disposition, it’s doubtful he would have made any friends if Wei Ying hadn’t come along and been so insistent on gaining his friendship. Just thinking of the boys that were at Cloud Recesses with them—Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, Jin Zixuan, Wen Ning, in addition to all those other nameless disciples—whom among them would have even made the slightest effort to get through to Lan Zhan? Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan couldn’t care less, Nie Huaisang seems downright scared of him, and Wen Ning probably feels the same, not to mention, I can‘t even imagine shy sweet Wen Ning trying to proactively make friends with anyone anyway. Therefore, if it wasn’t for Wei Ying, Lan Zhan would have ended up as friendless and alone as he started out being. He probably never experienced something as simple as sitting down and having a meal or drinks with his peers, and yet now he’s doing it as if it was just the most mundane event for him. To think, if Wei Ying hadn’t invited himself along on this secret mission, thereby eventually bringing in Jiang Cheng and NHS as well, Lan Zhan would’ve been all alone through this journey...who would’ve been there to comfort him when that yin metal went all haywire on him?  

Fascinating thing about this moment that I noticed is that the words (the Chinese characters specifically) Wei Ying uses to calm Lan Zhan are the same exact words that Lan Zhan uses later on at Phoenix Mountain when he is trying to calm Wei Ying down as he is being overcome with dark rage.  

I would love to think that Team CQL set up this parallelism on purpose to show how Lan Zhan remembers everything that Wei Ying did for him and said to him, even down to the usage of two simple calming words. It melts my heart to imagine Lan Zhan carefully collecting all these memories and holding on tightly to them because every single moment they shared together became so important to him. When I think about how he probably lived on just those memories alone, not only during the sixteen long years when Wei Ying was dead, but probably even during the times when they were apart while he was still alive, I just feel so unbelievably sad for Lan Zhan that my eyes always well up with tears.

Yeah, I pretty much get weepy once a day because of these boys. Unfortunately I’m not exaggerating at all.  

Nie Huaisang/Ji Li Appreciation Time

To be honest, I don’t know if what I feel about Nie Huaisang could really be called love, even though I think I’ve thrown that word around when referring to him at least once. I definitely don’t hate him...he’s too complex and interesting and adorable in his own way to hate. And I did buy into his dumb, naïve and helpless act for a long time, much like everyone did. But I can’t say I really love him anymore either because of what he did to dear, sweet Big Bro Xichen, which was really unnecessarily cruel. It’s premature to go into all that now, so all I’m going to say is, while my feelings towards him are probably more on the ambivalent side overall, I do really appreciate him as a character, especially at this point of the story, because he’s always so funny and entertaining. I’d like to think that he did genuinely like Wei Ying as a friend because, as exemplified in the scene above, Wei Ying was actually really nice and considerate to him, not to mention protective. I hope that was part of NHS' motivation for reviving Wei Ying later on, and not just because he thought the Yiling Patriarch would be the only one strong enough to deal with the Stygian tiger seal.    

Despite how I feel about NHS, I do really enjoy Ji Li’s portrayal of the character, and I think his voice performance is awesome as well. I believe he’s the only actor on the show that used his own voice whereas everyone else’s dubbing was performed by a voice actor, and his voice work definitely made NHS even more fun as a character. He definitely has a talent for voice acting. He’s been cast in the Hikaru no Go live action due to be released next year and I cannot be more excited. I can totally imagine him as Sai. (Although, there’s not much information on the show yet from what I can see; looks like one of the male leads has been cast and also a female, but no other information on their actual roles...God I hope they don’t decide to turn Hikaru no Go into a BG romance because that’s not what it’s about AT ALL.)

ChengQing

We didn’t really see his reaction but when Wei Ying grabbed Wen Qing’s wrist, I did wonder how Jiang Cheng felt about it. Here he is, trying his hardest to gain Wen Qing’s favor, but all of his efforts seem to be mostly futile since she hardly gives him the time of her day. Honestly, for a while as I was watching the show for the first time, I did worry that Team CQL was trying to create a love triangle between Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing/Wei Ying. Even after reading the novel and knowing nothing of the sort exists in the source material, because Wen Qing’s characterization in the show was already so different from her novel counterpart, my concern remained for quite some time. I hated the mere idea a lot because it’s such a tropey and stupid gimmick, especially since Jiang Cheng really didn’t need yet another reason to be angry at Wei Ying. I’m glad they didn’t go in that horrible direction after all, but I don’t think I was able to breathe easy about the issue until after her death.  Poor Wen Qing, she gave me so much anxiety throughout the first half of the show; I would be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a teeny bit relieved when she died because I was finally able to lay my worries to rest completely.

Odds and Ends

I just love these three stooges; they’re so adorable together and I wish we got to see them engage in more shenanigans before all the fun was over forever.

When I first saw this scene, I thought it was pretty horrific and creepy; really, it’s one of the most effective scenes in the show. However, now, when I see this scene, my heart clenches a little because I know that’s the same fate that will eventually befall the Yunmeng Jiang sect as well. The fact that both Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying are present to see that horrible tableau just makes things worse, especially the sight of those two sect leaders hanging in the doorway. Completely heart-breaking.

Wen Qing being able to control the ghost puppets with the flute was totally a creation for the live action since she never did that in the novel, but I actually thought it was a neat touch. At first I thought she was going to be the one to teach Wei Ying that ability, but when that didn’t pan out, I wondered if he was inspired to learn that ability after seeing her do that. While it does take away Wei Ying’s inventiveness since in the novel that was a skill he developed on his own, I didn’t mind that change since it also established that other people can control the ghost puppets as well, which nicely sets up what Su She does later on with that skill. Interestingly enough, she’s playing “Rest” so now I wonder if she learned that during her time at Cloud Recesses and if so, does that mean essentially Wei Ying’s inspiration for fluting can be traced back to his time there as well, which means he was able to survive the Burial Mounds really because of his tutelage by the Gusu Lan sect. Omg that’s so sweet. 

Anyway, I just wish we got to see Wen Qing do more with that skill, it’s kind of odd how later on she relied on Wei Ying completely for calming Wen Ning when she seems to be perfectly capable of that feat as well. It’s like the show forgot she had this ability.

Question I still had

So basically, Lan Zhan met A-Yuan this early on but he completely forgot about that little Wen kid when they crossed paths again in Yiling? It’s no big deal, but I just thought that was rather odd considering Lan Zhan is usually more observant than that and of course he has a really good memory. I guess there’s always the possibility that he just didn’t care enough about the Wens to notice the kid.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

#The Untamed #陈情令 #spoilers #WangXian #Untamed Rewatch #Mo Dao Zu Shi #CQL #MDZS #魔道祖师 #Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Founder of Diabolism #Lan Zhan Lan Wangji #Wei Ying Wei Wuxian #Nie Huaisang #ChengQing #Jiang Cheng #Wen Qing #A-Yuan #Yunmeng Jiang Sect #Yue Yang Chang Sect

[rockets-and-raccoons]

I'm just sat here thinking, wondering.

What if, after Wei WuXians death, Jiang Cheng did one last thorough search of the Burial Mounds - before Lan Zhan had the chance to drag himself up to search himself.

Everyone else is either leaving, or also searching, just in case. Jiang Cheng wants to be sure.

What if it was Jiang Cheng who found little Wen Yuan?

Would he have left him? Maybe he would be tempted to. After all, the kids a Wen. Someone Wei WuXian chose to betray his family for.

But this little kid was also Wei WuXians son. This was, in all technicality, Jiang Cheng's nephew.

Maybe he wants to leave the boy. He's angry and still filled with a furious, broken rage at what has happened. Broken over the death of Yanli. As much as he hates Wei WuXian. He hates himself more for being upset over his brothers death.

And here's his nephew. Feverish. Ill. Dying.

There's still other cultivators around. The Jin clan would have no qualms with killing the child.

It sticks in Jiang Cheng's chest. His stomach twisting - whether from the events of what's just transpired, or the thought of sentencing a child to death, he doesn't want to dwell on it. Its not just any child he would be leaving to be killed. It's Wei WuXian's child. His nephew.

He's angry. Bitter. Hurting.

He can't let them kill Yuan.

And a little boy wakes up, recovering, in Lotus Pier. With no real memories. But a nice, pretty name, and purple clothes. Jiang Yuan.

People are curious, about where Jiang Cheng acquired a young child. But he lies, he found the child orphaned in Yunmeng, living on the streets - such a similar story, to that of someone who's name is forbidden from use. People wonder, should the sect leader have not learned from his fathers mistakes?

No one questions him to his face.

When Lan WangJi first sees Sect Leader Jiang's adopted son, something knowing flickers in his eyes. Jiang Cheng sees it, and silently dares him to say a word. Lan WangJi says nothing, yet an odd sense of understanding settles between them.

Jiang Yuan grows up in Yunmeng. Grows up close to his cousin, Jin Ling. Watching his father and his cousin argue and yell - somehow, he manages to keep himself calm. He thinks, his father needs something calm and steady in his life.

The name Wei WuXian is forbidden in Yunmeng Jiang. Everyone says its because the sect leader hates his once sworn brother, despises the Yiling Patriarch and shall do till death. Jiang Cheng hates what became of his brother, of the actions Wei WuXian took, hates him for his betrayal - that much is all true. But he bans the name not for his sake, but so Yuan does not have to grow up hearing his father being slandered - after all, one day, Jiang Cheng will have to tell him where he came from.

After thirteen (16) years, Jiang Cheng is staring down a madman during a night hunt. His nephew pinned to the ground, the boy he rose following just behind. As Lan Zhan interferes, he watches the demonic cultivator with a twist in his stomach. There's something different about that one.

And he's right. A flute and Wen Ning are all the proof he truly needs. Lan Zhan defending the man just solidifys it. But Zidian says - no.

And young Yuan - Jiang Cheng would not likely name him Sizhui, in this life he would bear a different curtosy name - would be watching curiously. He would have heard tales of the infamous Yiling Patriarch without ever knowing his real name.

Once again, Wei WuXian runs off with Lan Zhan, and Jiang Cheng almost feels his heart break. I raised your son you bastard, look at him. He wants to yell. Instead, he insults him, and drags the children away. He still doesn't know whether he hates or misses Wei WuXian more. All he knows in that he's angry.

And Wei WuXian shows up in his life time and time again. Not denying once to Jiang Cheng who he was. Always leaving Jiang Cheng behind. Yet somehow managing to spend time with Jin Ling and Jiang Yuan. The boys seem to like the 'not so mad' More XuanYu.

He tells no one his brother is back.

He does not tell Yuan about his dad.

He does not tell Wei WuXian about his son.

How can he, when they both keep running off?

And then Wei WuXian is found out, and Lan Zhan is standing by him. And Jin Ling stabs his uncle. All he wants to do is ask why? Why have you done all this? Why are you still such a fucking idiot?

Jin Ling is at war with himself, and despite his nature, he can tell Jiang Yuan is questioning something.

His once sworn brother turns out to be playing some kind of detective. Revealing for once he's innocent, Su She on the other hand, is not.

Wei WuXian decides to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Again.

He thinks that's what he hates about his sworn brother the most.

Before he knows it, his world is crumbling around him. Wei WuXian may have broken his promise to Jiang Cheng, but he had kept his promise to Madam Yu. His core burns in his chest as tears burn his face.

Over a decade had past and while things had never added up, all his anger had been directed at one person. It was so much easier to follow the crowd than to think critically. He had blamed Wei WuXian blindly. Did it excuse everything his brother did? No. Wei WuXian made mistakes, but so had everyone else. It was only Wei WuXian who had paid for them all. And how was he, Jiang Cheng, supposed to truly feel about that? After all, he had helped punish the man who was supposed to be his brother.

They had both failed.

In the end, Wei WuXian turned to leave once more. With Lan Zhan by his side, as always. And everything burned in Jiang Cheng's throat, desperate to tell him everything. Anything. To ask him to stay. To finally come back to Lotus Pier. To not leave Jiang Cheng behind. Again.

In this version, Yuan yells it out in the courtyard. Running after the two men, and Jiang Cheng can do nothing but watch as the boy he raised yells about being buried as a turnip. Can do nothing but watch Wei WuXians face flicked with dawning realisation, hope, and pure unbridled relief.

He watches the embrace and the tears. Watches and Wei WuXians disbelieving eyes meet Jiang Cheng's. Keeping the dizi was nothing compared to raising his child. Keeping him safe and alive.

And does anything really, truly, need to be said after such a reveal.

He wanted to hate his brother. And maybe he did - he needed somewhere to direct all his anger and his hatred. But in the end, they were brothers. He loved him. Yuan would have been told about Wei WuXian whether the man had been resurrected or not. Never about the Yiling Patriarch. Just the man who had feigned being three just to get some soup. The man who broke half a dozen Gusu rules before even stepping into the classroom. He would have been told about the fun loving man who created chaos wherever he went, but only ever tried to do the right thing.

And in the end, Jiang Cheng could look Wei WuXian in the eye, and he wasn't sure what he felt. But there's hope in there. That even if he's left behind, Wei WuXian always comes back.

After all, Yuan was back in his arms. His dizi back in his hand. That doesn't happen, if there isn't a chance to fix anything.

#idk what the ever loving fuck this is #but here we go #the untamed #cql #mdzs #mo doa zu shi #wei wuxian #wei ying #yiling patriarch #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #lan sizhui #lan yuan #wen yuan #lan zhan #lan wangji #writing #jin ling #long post #like long af #wtf me #shut the fuck up cat #fic #technically

[sleepymarmot]

The Untamed liveblog, eps. 22-32.5

God, that’s so many!

22

The opening scene is Healing

Poor Yanli D: This is hard to watch

Ooh, Meng Yao as a spy makes more sense. I was thinking about Qing or Ning and wondering since when either of them counted as Xichen's "old friend".

23

"Yin Iron" "Stygian Tiger Amulet" THESE ARE LITERALLY THE SAME WORD "YIN" WHY DO YOU TRANSLATE IT IN ONE CASE AND NOT THE OTHER

It's painful to watch the fear and reverence Meng Yao still holds for his father figure. The flinching, the hiding, the immediate supplication -- when was the last time he felt safe and respected, before the bullying with the Nie and having to watch and even partake in atrocities with the Wen? I hope he can finally have some good things in his life now.

"These past few days when you were in a coma, Second Young Master Lan came here every morning and evening and played his guqin for you to relax your mind and spirit. If he hadn't done that, I'm afraid you wouldn't have woken up so soon." Awwwww!!!

Ohh so now that your illegitimate son is a hero you want to acknowledge him huh!!! Motherfucker

LOVE how Xichen immediately calls him "A-Yao" while standing right between his shitty fathers

This is not the context I expected for their first duet

LWJ just took his sword in a dignified and showy gesture and left the banquet, and now I can't stop thinking of an urban fantasy where people use magic with their phones and grab them from the table in the same dramatic manner when they need to leave

MOTHERFUCKER not only uses Yao to make himself look better but does this shit to the Jiangs too. Is he that malicious, or that stupid?

Wei Wuxian to the rescue!

24

Love how WWX enters dramatically, helps his siblings, and leaves

"...and he has an intimate relationship with Second Young Master Lan..." excuse me?

I gotta say, as someone living in a country of ill reputation which official symbol is a two-headed eagle, every close-up on the Wen two-headed eagle as a symbol of malice has me in stitches

wait, the old Lan master is still alive? where has he been all this time?

Cheng, if you can't control your anger, maybe you shouldn't be a teacher

When will it finally occur to WWX to consult with Wen Qing, the only person in the world who knows his secret

Wow, Cheng really disappointed me. I did not expect him to be this prejudiced. Does he secretly think the same way of WWX too? If you're of even slightly lower birth, you're forever a nobody? His mother indoctrinated him well... When WWX turned to him with a surprised expression, I really thought it was to call him out on this... Btw I'm really nervous of where Yao's storyline is going -- if it'll end in "he's scheming and ignoble, what else could be expected from a bastard" I'm going to flip a table

25

One of advantages of a flute over a sword is that you can twirl it in your hand in casual conversation

So they're really making Guangyao evil huh :/

Unbelievable that nobody had enough decency to free the prisoners

YANLI WENT OFF

This is outrageous! Yanli should have escalated in response. You're accusing me of incest? Well I have another brother, would you accuse him too? Should I go and officially inform my brother, the leader of the clan, that clan Jin has delivered a terrible insult to the entire clan Jiang? Etc. How can one just stand quietly and take that?!

God it sucks to be Yanli and have the most dramatic and scandalous moments of your romantic life happen in front of literally everyone

Hell yeah WWX and Qing can finally talk!

26

Uh, have we met Su She before? And what is Guangyao's mistake? That he invited a disobedient vassal of clan Lan as if he's a representative of an independent clan?

Wise things to do when you discover your "ally" is committing war crimes: explain in detail to people in power you trust, like your relatives or friends, and form a united front with them Less wise things: run away with little explanation, leaving a whole village of corpses behind

27

Why can't JC just say Qing and Ning saved his life?! Surely that would hold more weight than the vague "they helped us"

I just realized who immoral advisor!Guangyao reminds me of: Weyoun. Exactly the same facial expression!

omg WWX is so good with kids

current cause of heartache: Jiang Cheng suppressing his smile when WWX is parenting a little child

28

really gonna kill your brother or die trying because he wants to live independently in a wasteland with a handful of refugees, huh

I truly don't understand why JC is being so stupid and selfish about this. I thought his hatred would be the result of misunderstanding or lies, but he's just being like "oh woe is me, my brother is doing the right thing and that's improper"

GIRL DO YOU WANT TO MARRY THIS NERD OR NOT MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND this storyline is becoming really unbearable

"I have a child", "You're pretty but always grumpy", and other heartfelt greetings for your crush whom you accidentally met on the street while being considered a war criminal

"IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL" is pretty much the summary of WWX's actions in the last two episodes

tbh a bit disappointed that Wei Wuxian Literally Did Nothing Wrong and his reputation was just misunderstanding or propaganda. Well, the flashback isn't over yet, he has time to do something worth throwind himself off a cliff over!

It's episode 28 and I just noticed the ending titles have inbuilt Chinese subtitles for the song. No such courtesy from the translation!

29

had the perfect moment to kiss when they were alone in the cave but alas, censorship

wow he really replaced Cheng with Qing as the Sibling To Bicker With

not very nice of him to use Wen Ning as a personal zombie servant!

30

Hilarious how Yanli "generously" brought a bowl to Ning but he has to eat while still awkwardly standing outside. this is a show about the Highest Echelons of Nobility and nobody else is invited

it's very bittersweet how they pretend nothing happened and act like a normal family again

wait, so that fight was just pretend? what? for whose benefit??

Why is Qing so upset that WWX was visited by his siblings?

god, that decoration is ENTIRELY lotus-themed

so he's going to crash his sister's wedding, make a scene, and everything goes straight to hell and leads into the endgame. correct?

there's highkey Murder in Guangyao's eyes for all that LWJ wears his face like a mask, that's even more noticeable with JGY. You can really hear the kill bill sirens going off behind his eyes in pretty much any given scene he's been running on pure self-preservation as long as he can remember himself. he doesn't know any lasting way of interacting with the world other than kissing the ass of his current boss because he has never had the chance to learn one. I don't know if he even comprehends how the others despise him for it.

31

oh, Guangyao is making preparations for taking over everything huh? so he's gonna use the celebration to murder someone and frame WWX? very ironic that only yesterday I wrote that Yao "has done nothing wrong ever in his life". welp. he's done SOME things wrong since then!

oh alright so the murder and framing have already been happening. when JGY looked like he poisoned that dude it was because he did

torn between "wtf happened" and "that's what happens when you're a pet class but your pet attacks the wrong target". at least now I understand why everyone hated him! oh boy, I really don't want to watch what is about to happen

poor Yanli just can't have nice things

I was afraid Qing would confess love... That would have been very unnecessary, so thank god!

this is very much not the context I expected for the "Wen siblings in the Jin residence" image in the opening sequence

32

Why didn't WWX turn himself in? I thought that was what he came for?

Is "cremains" a real word in the English language?!

IT'S NOT EVEN A BIG WOUND JUST CALL HER A HEALER! WANGJI CAN HEAL AND HE'S RIGHT THERE!!! alright, THAT was a big wound. just seconds after I typed the sentence above...

33

"Well, maybe this time it will go differently" thought I, laughing at my futile hope, as the opening scene of the show was replaying. And then, to my surprise, it WAS slightly different!

Now it's time to rewatch some moments from the first two episodes with new understanding. And then call it a day, because finally the race to find out what happened is over, and there's a perfect spot to take a break at the end of the big arc.

#the untamed #blah blah blah #whew! glad i could deal with the bulk of the show during the national holidays #starting tomorrow i'll have to Do Things

[theteenagetrickster]

How Henry Ford, Who Published Racist Diatribes Against Jazz, Helped Popularize the Sound of Jazz and R&B - The Truth About Cars

Henry Ford playing fiddle with his old-time dance orchestra on his 70th birthday in 1933. (From the collections of The Henry Ford)

Henry Ford was unquestionably a great man, but he was not a very good man. As an entrepreneur and industrialist, he may have changed the world — for the better, I personally think — but as a human being he had serious failings. According to Richard Bak’s , the elder Ford would humiliate his son, Edsel, in public because Henry, a farm boy, worried that his only child would become the soft son of a rich man. That practice continued into Edsel’s adulthood.

Clara (Mrs. Ford) had to make her peace with Henry’s long-term relationship with Evangeline Cote Dahlinger, whom the industrialist met when he was 50 and she was 23 — his associate C. Harold Wills’ secretary at the Highland Park plant. Her son John Dahlinger asserted that he was the son of Henry Ford, whom he strongly resembled.

Ford’s public life was no less unsavory. His bigotries are well known. In his mind he divided the Jewish community between “good Jews” — those he personally knew, like architect Albert Kahn — and “bad Jews,” the boogeymen “bankers” of his fevered imaginations. Less well-known is the fact that many of the most hateful things attributed to Ford were not his own words.

Henry Ford was no writer. After foolishly for defamation, ignoring the old saying about not suing folks who buy ink by the trainload, Ford was shown, in a humiliating fashion on the witness stand, to not be a proficient reader. In guiding the development of the Model T, we know that Ford preferred wooden models of parts to blueprints. He may have been dyslexic. He certainly didn’t have the skills to write for publication.

Ford’s autobiography, My Life and Work, was ghostwritten by Samuel Crowther.

The task of expressing Ford’s distrust of world Jewry fell to Ernest G. Liebold, Henry Ford’s personal secretary and general manager of , the newspaper Ford used as his public megaphone. Liebold first came to Ford’s attention when, in 1912, Henry took over the small Dearborn bank where Liebold worked as a teller. The son of Prussian immigrants, he was precise, rigid, unemotional, and willing to do things that Ford wouldn’t ask his other associates to do (well, other than Harry Bennett). Over time his services to Ford included being his personal business representative, signing the automaker’s personal checks, responding to Ford’s mail, acting as Ford’s personal spokesman to the media, and, perhaps most importantly, controlling Ford’s schedule and who had access to him.

Liebold, like Ford, was also a man with Jews on the brain. He believed in Jewish conspiracies and, with Ford’s backing, set up an agency in New York City to investigate prominent Jews and those Gentiles he considered to be doing the bidding of Jewish masters. He surrounded himself with like-minded Jew-haters, an interesting mix of former government officials, ex-Secret Service men, czarist Russian emigres, fanatics, and ex-cons.

At the Dearborn Independent, Liebold began running a series under the heading of The International Jew, alleging all sorts of nefarious activities to those of the Mosaic persuasion. Jews supposedly had a “dictatorship” in the United States, where they maintained secret control of newspaper editors, bootlegged whiskey, Tammany Hall, and even major league baseball.

Liebold’s (and Ford’s) bigotries were not restricted to Jews. They saw blacks as inferior and criminal, though that, too, was blamed on Hebrews. The Independent blamed lynchings of blacks on “Negro outbursts” provoked by “n***** gin” allegedly produced by Jews.

One of African-Americans’ great cultural contributions to America and the world, jazz music, was also seen by Ford and Liebold as a Jewish plot*. Jewish Jazz – Moron Music – Becomes Our National Music, was published in the August 6, 1921 issue of the Dearborn Independent. Recorded music had been around since Edison’s 1877 wax-cylinder phonograph, and the “modern” Victrola that played Emile Berliner’s flat recordings was introduced in 1906. However, though the phonograph was a great success, in the 1920s much of what was considered popular music was still being sold as sheet music, and much of that originated from music publishing firms in New York City’s “Tin Pan Alley,” where many of the composers, lyricists, and publishers were from Jewish backgrounds.

From :

“Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent parlors and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons… Popular Music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, the slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.

Monkey talk, jungle squeals, grunts and squeaks and gasps suggestive of cave love are camouflaged by a few feverish notes and admitted to homes where the thing itself, unaided by the piano, would be stamped out in horror. Girls and boys a little while ago were inquiring who paid Mrs. Rip Van Winkle’s rent while Mr. Rip Van Winkle was away. In decent parlors the fluttering music sheets disclosed expressions taken directly from the cesspools of modern capitals, to be made the daily slang, the thoughtlessly hummed remarks of high school boys and girls.”

And you thought jazz was about improvising on a musical theme.

In addition to the less savory aspects of Henry Ford’s musical tastes, he had a genuine affection for the kinds of traditional music that many Americans played at home and at community events. Among Ford’s personal artifacts at the Henry Ford Museum are his Stradivarius and Guarneri violins that he used to play fiddle music.

Ford started subsidizing old-timey music. Richard A. Peterson, the author of Creating Country Music, said that Ford, “put more money into promoting country music in the 1920s than anyone else. Ford was frightened by what he saw as the urban decadence of couples jazz dancing. In response he organized fiddling contests and promoted square dances across the country to encourage what he saw as older, more wholesome forms of entertainment.”

By the way, before you read “urban” as a euphemism for “black,” as it is sometimes used today, Ford genuinely didn’t like big cities and regretted how the success of the Model T created wrenching changes for the rural America of his youth.

Among those wholesome forms of entertainment, found in many homes, were reed organs, also known as pump organs. Once quite popular, you can find pump organs free for the carting these days on Craigslist. A reed organ is like an accordion with a steroid problem that you sit at to play. Foot pedals pump a bellows that sounds the reeds. Ford liked organs – there are at least a couple in the Henry Ford Museum’s collection, and he and Clara had an elaborate and costly pipe organ installed at their Fairlane estate by the Estey organ company, with the keyboard placed in a spot of honor in the mansion’s living room

Henry Ford was a tinkerer at heart, completely self-taught. He learned enough to become the chief operating engineer of Detroit’s Edison Illuminating Co., but he was far from a university-trained engineer. Laurens Hammond, on the other hand, was a graduate of Cornell’s engineering school.

Laurens Hammond (Hammond publicity photo)

Coincidentally, Hammond’s first job after graduating from college and serving in the military in World War One was for the automobile industry in Detroit, for the Gray Motor Company, which made marine engines. While at Gray, he invented a silent spring-driven clock that was successful enough that he was able to leave Gray and set up a small office in New York City. It was there he then developed an early version of shutter-glasses for viewing 3D films. That wasn’t a commercial success, though, and Hammond moved to Chicago to continue work on a synchronous electric motor he had invented.

Because it was linked to the frequency of the alternating current electric supply, it was very, very accurate. It had very little torque, though, so little that the motor had to be hand-cranked to start, but Hammond found a market for a low powered, but very accurate electric motor. Going back to his earlier invention, a clock, he replaced the spring drive with his synchronous motor, which could be started up by spinning the clock’s hands.

Though the clock company was an initial success, the Great Depression took its toll on Hammond Clock. Laurens Hammond pursued a couple of other inventions, like a self-dealing card table for playing bridge, but he ultimately found success in a market segment known better for bingo than for bridge.

America has always been a secular country with a fairly religious populace. Thousands and thousands of churches dotted America’s landscape in the 1930s. Many of them needed an organ, but something from the Aeolian or Skinner pipe organ companies was beyond the means of many less affluent churches.

Inspired by Thadeous Cahill’s Telharmonium, a massive, 200-ton machine patented in 1897 that was the progenitor for every electronic music synthesizer in use since, Hammond developed the “tonewheel generator.” To create music electronically, you first need something that can create a pure tone — a sin wave. Those pure tones, when combined with harmonics (integer multiples of the base tone’s frequency) and partials (fractional multiples), along with attack, sustain, and decay characteristics, are what make a violin sound like a violin and a flute sound like a flute.

For centuries, pipe organ makers have used that method to imitate other instruments, though to this writer’s ears, no matter what the “stop” on the pipe organ is labeled, it’s going to still sound like a pipe organ, perhaps an organ trying to sound like a flute, but still an organ.

By the 1930s there were vacuum tube-based oscillators that could create pure tones, but the sheer number of tubes necessary to create the many needed tones made tube-based organs cumbersome, hot, and not very reliable. Instead, Hammond pursued an electromechanical method of creating tones called a tonewheel.

A period article from Popular Science magazine called Hammond’s invention an “Electric Piano” and managed to get both how the organ worked (it used tonewheels, not vacuum tubes to generate tones) and where Hammond’s company was located (Chicago, not New York) wrong.

Hammond didn’t invent the tonewheel but he perfected it. Imagine something like a bicycle sprocket spinning past an electromagnetic pickup set radially near the teeth. As the profile of the sprocket’s teeth passes the pickup, it induces an alternating current whose frequency and amplitude are related to the number of teeth, their shape, and the sprocket’s speed. Using his quiet, accurate motors to power the tonewheels resulted in tones that didn’t waver. Hammond organs with tonewheel generators never really need tuning (though a lack of lubrication will affect pitch). Since the tonewheel motor was still low on torque, the original prototype had a hand crank, replaced in later production units with higher torque starter motor, to get the tonewheels up to speed before switching to the synchronous drive.

At first, Hammond thought he would sell a novelty called the Electric Flute that would sell for $30 or $40 dollars.

The Ethics of the Fathers responds to the question, “who is wise?”, with the answer, “he who recognizes the birth of something,” someone who sees the possible consequences of something from its start. It is a rare inventor who sees the full potential of even his or her own invention. Laurens Hammond himself thought Don Leslie’s rotating speakers made his organs sound worse, but Hammond Organ eventually bought Leslie’s ideas and his company, and today the swirling sound of a “Leslie” is closely associated with Hammond organs.

Hammond did, however, realize that his tonewheels had more potential than just being a plaything and started to develop a fully voiced organ.

That presented a problem because, ironically, Laurens Hammond couldn’t play keyboards. You can find publicity photos of Hammond sitting at one of his organs, but you will search in vain for a film or recordings of him actually playing the things.

Not being able to play an instrument is not necessarily an impediment to inventing or improving a musical instrument. Nobody today cares how good a violinist Antonio Stradivari was. Leo Fender couldn’t play guitar or bass, and he pretty much perfected the electric guitar and with George Fullerton, who also couldn’t play, Fender invented the electric bass. Hammond, though, was also tone-deaf, so profoundly so that he has been described as “amusical.” Nearly everyone that he hired after he started the organ project, whether they were secretaries, bookkeepers, or engineers, they were also musicians because he needed their ears.

Work on the prototype and patent sample started in 1933. Sources say that patent approval was sped up because the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office saw the invention as commercially viable and thought it would create jobs during the worldwide economic depression. The patent was granted in April, 1934 and production of the Hammond Model A organ began in 1935. While Hammond was waiting to hear from the patent office, like any inventor he must have had concerns if his invention was going to be commercially successful or not.

By the time production started, though, Hammond knew he had at least one customer, a very important customer.

In February 1934, after the prototype organ was returned to Hammond’s Chicago office from the USPTO, two engineers from Dearborn, Michigan visited Hammond’s facility at the personal request of Henry Ford. Somehow Ford had found out about Hammond’s new organ, perhaps from a source in the patent office, and he wanted an expert opinion. The engineers must have approved because they placed a tentative order for the first six Hammond Model A organs.

Thus, Henry Ford was the first customer for the Hammond organ, even if he didn’t end up owning the first one.

This is a good time to clear up some confusion. For a long time, there was a Hammond Model A on display in a place associated with another Model A, the Henry Ford Museum, one of those six. It was thought by some that that was the first production Hammond organ, a notion Henry did nothing to rebut. Additionally, the Hammond company promoted the idea that famed composer George Gershwin got the first Hammond organ. Considering how Henry felt about “Jewish jazz,” and considering that Gershwin was born Yakov Gershowitz and wrote some of the most famous jazz and blues compositions ever, it isn’t surprising that Henry might have rather people thought of him as owning the first Hammond organ, not Gershwin.

While there’s no record if Henry Ford and Laurens Hammond ever met in person, Ford did get a chance to personally check out an early Hammond Model A. One of the first production units was loaded onto Hammond’s beat up Ford Model A panel truck, driven by Emory Penny, sales manager for the Hammond Clock Co., and John Hanert, Hammond’s chief engineer. They were headed for the instrument’s first public demonstration at the 1935 Industrial Arts Exposition in the RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) in New York’s Radio City. Before they got to NYC, however, Penny and Hanert detoured to Detroit to show it to a very important customer before the general public got to hear it.

The roads between Chicago and Detroit in 1935 weren’t exactly up to modern Interstate highway standards and proved to be a test of the organ’s durability. When they got to Dearborn, Ford had them directed to drive the now muddy truck right into the Ford Engineering Laboratory building and onto its shiny oak floors. The industrialist brought along a “hillbilly” band to accompany him as he tested out the organ. His reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

“In twenty years, there should be one in every home in America,” Ford told Penny, adding, “You should sell organs at $300 . . . and don’t fall into the hands of those Eastern Bankers.”

Despite apparently thinking they could be sold for a fraction of the $1,250 introductory price, Ford gave his personal approval to the purchase of those half dozen Model A Hammond organs.

While en route to New York, Penny wrote to Hammond, “I feel he [Ford] would lend us half a million dollars.”

One of those six instruments was the organ that was on display for over 25 years at the Henry Ford Museum. Unfortunately, that piece of musical history was destroyed in a 1970 fire at the museum along with many other artifacts.

Incidentally, the actual first Hammond Model A didn’t belong to either Henry Ford or George Gershwin, though the fact that they endorsed the instrument with their purchases was undoubtedly a factor in Hammond soon being deluged with 1,400 backorders. Hammond Model A #1 ended up at a Kansas City dealer, who used it as a traveling demonstration unit for years until it was sold to a local church. It is now at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Bob Pierce, a salesman for that dealer, described the early days on the road with it in his book, the Pierce Piano Atlas.

“Three of us, an organist, a maintenance man and I traveled in safari-like fashion with a van and an automobile for the next three years. We drove through Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, and Texas, hitting every little burg with a population over 100. We demonstrated the Model A on university campuses and radio stations, for women’s clubs, in music stores and churches, and even mortuaries. The only places we avoided were the gin mills.” That last bit proved to be ironic.

Hammond #1 ended up in a church and Bob Pierce’s sales team made sales stops at churches part of their regular routine. That wasn’t coincidental. Pipe organs were expensive and the Hammond Model A was a reasonable facsimile at a much lower price. The Hammond Model A was so competitive that pipe organ makers even lobbied the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute Hammond for calling his instrument a true organ instead of their preferred term, an “electrotone.” That backfired, as tests conducted at the University of Chicago’s chapel showed that experts were unable to distinguish between a Hammond and a $75,000 Skinner pipe organ. Hammond got slapped for unsupported claims in his advertising, but he won the right to call it a “Hammond organ.”

Whether Hammond salesmen deliberately marketed the Model A to black churches because they had less money to spend on organs, or whether it was because there were African American churches in the general vicinity of the Hammond factory on Chicago’s West Side, Hammond organs undoubtedly quickly became popular in black houses of worship. The Hammond B3 model was introduced in 1954 and added a percussive attack to the instrument’s tone and a “scanner” vibrato that fit well with the strains of the gospel music performed in those churches. The B3’s funky sound also fit new forms of popular music better than the tone of Wurlitzer’s competing organs, which were more in tune with rollerskating rinks.

The sound of the Hammond organ in church inspired musicians like Fats Waller, “Wild” Bill Davis, and the great Jimmy Smith to take up the instrument in a jazz setting. Smith’s protege Jimmy McGriff did likewise with the blues. Soon nightclubs purchased Hammond organs for visiting players to use just as they would have pianos. Moving from jazz and blues clubs to rhythm and blues bands like Booker T and the MGs was just a hop, skip and jump, making the Hammond B3 organ one of the elemental sounds of soul music.

Henry Ford died in 1947. By the time the Hammond organ started becoming popular in African-American music in the 1940s, though, Ford was already beginning to show signs of dementia, so he likely was not aware of what was happening in the world of music. If he had been aware of the kind of success the Hammond organ had, and with whom it had that success, he might have had some reservations about sending those engineers to Chicago.

In any case, that is how Henry Ford, a notorious bigot and hater of jazz and African American music, ended up inadvertently helping the Hammond organ become one of the foundational sounds of black worship, jazz music, and rhythm & blues.

*Little did Ford know that the Kosofsky family of New Orleans helped jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong buy his first horn.

This content was originally published here.

[whyamistillwatchingtheseshows]

The Untamed...

This is all based heavily upon the live action drama (spoilers). It’s where I draw up most of my thoughts but there a some novelization things I learned happen differently...

If you get through this, you’re awesome: 

There’s always one thing in the live action I’ve wondered about the last battle. Why the fuck is everyone so obsessed with the Yin Iron/Stygian Tiger Amulet? My theory is that Jin GuangYao was spreading resentment somehow? Even in the early stages before he acquired a piece of the refined Yin Iron, because at first he was using an unrefined piece that Xue Yang had right, then they somehow refined it? Something he couldn’t control, well, because his temperament was already starkly different because of how he emotionally handled his traumatic experiences and honestly I think the Stygian Tiger Amulet responded to one true master. Sure, they had enough power to craft a second flute and play it , but Jin GuangYao also learned to manipulate the Lan Clan’s music..but why in the battle did everyone seem so obsessed with the Yin Iron? Was it the effect from the second flute? Not Wei Ying’s doing, obviously. The second flute not only created puppets but it too harmed everyone else’s resolve, amplifying the resentment? They all wanted a piece of it and then since WY is out in the open doing his thing he’s to blame?? I know the battles happen differently in the novel, so I learned from a couple review videos on Youtube. Something about it being only one battle. Lan Zhan gets punished for making a stand against 33 masters of his clan at the Burial Mounds. He is then grounded at Cloud Recesses by his Uncle, whipped 33 times and then while unable to do anything LZ hears about a battle led by Jiang Cheng with confirmation of Wei Ying’s death. No cliff scene, I think? Novel LZ was not there when Wei Ying died. He didn’t catch him. He didn’t see him fall from a cliff. He was left feeling helpless and probably even angrier he couldn’t be there to save him...

My theory as to why everyone is so obsessed with the Yin Iron? Everyone has a weak resolve and it was THEIR TEMPERAMENT being damaged. Somehow I think even Jiang Yanli was unaffected, after all she bounced back when she touched the flute; though I don’t think the spirits intention was to harm her, because Master would not like that...She also knew what was happening to him long before everyone else. Also, the Wen Clan must have mighty resolve [especially Wen Ning who ends up resolving his demonic cultivation/possession but yes he still loses himself] given the fact they’ve been around Wei Ying’s “dangerous practices” for how long? Jiang Cheng remained steady enough to not succumb and in turn that strength was passed onto his cultivators (also in the last battle Wei Ying was choosing to protect his brother and the Jiang Clan). Obviously, we know where the Lan Clan stands. They have the strongest resolve (maybe not all of them) against the effects of the Yin Iron given their disciplines and techniques. One of those calming techniques Wei Ying admitted using himself for three months when he refined the Yin Iron. 

Want to know something else that always bothered me? In the end, when everything is coming down around Jin GuangYao? Well, we hear that he trapped Zewua Jun and temporarily drained him of spiritual core...then he shows up and strangles Wei Ying. Drama drama drama, LZ buckles up his core and then somehow the dumb ass lets LZ keep the sword? Huh. Sorry, if I were this villain, swords go bye bye. Then as we near the end of this shitshow… he fights with Jiang Cheng where honestly Jin GuangYao must’ve been shaking, because at first JC was kicking his ass. But he doesn’t and somehow we’ve come to this point where Mister Silly Hat decides to tie up people’s hands. Why the fuck you tie up Wei Ying’s hands? You said yourself in the beginning, “don't think about whistling.” Sooo much pride, right? Thinking he can still win? ME? If it were me. I’d tie up LZ’s hands...you think he won’t use that sword anyway? Sure, it’d probably be heavy as fuck (something I heard explained in the novel, Bichen is apparently heavy) but he’d do it. Didn’t he do it once because a stupid Su She unsheathed his sword? Okay, so I tie LZ’s hands and then I’d probably be the sneaky bitch who tells him to put the Silence Spell on Wei Ying, then for added measure tape Wei Ying’s mouth shut. His literal fighting method is his mouth, the fuck Jin GuangYao worried about his hands for? Also, Mister Silly Hat didn’t think that Zewua Jun would restore spiritual core so quickly? Did LZ too? Maybe not fully, but he was sure up and about, wielding Bichen strong enough to chop off the dude’s fucking arm (aka you think the buckle up core spell lasted that long? Hence, why the fuck didn’t you take his sword?)  Maybe everything was too heavily scripted in the end? If you catch my drift...so semantics? It’s just the details always bothered me because I keep thinking, Mister Silly Hat you’re setting yourself up for failure. Also, there’s the fact that NH made this into a trap but no one knows that and Mister Silly Hat is in all truthfulness fumbling. Also, the Netflix translation when they discover that Jin GuangYao broke into the Forbidden Chamber of the library to steal that piece of music...it translates Wei Ying saying something like, “he tore out this page to cover his tracks. But he has awfully good memory…” Why the fuq he tear out the page if the one thing he’s admired for is his apparently, in modern terms, his EIDETIC memory (photographic memory)? Wouldn’t it be better to just leave it there? They solved the mystery anyway through Wei Ying’s empathy with Blade Master so page or no page, what’s the point? Except to drive home that Zewua Jun is feeling very used and misguided... 

Can I make this post longer and add in a small headcanon that no one can pry from me? That DOG was Jing GuangYao’s undoing. Almost ruined NH’s secret evil plans too (but it’s interesting how Fairy seemed keen on destroying Jin GuangYao’s intentions, but no warning about NH? Or was the warning at the Nie Clan’s burial grounds because it couldn’t enter to save JinLing?) But do you know why I think the dog was his undoing? The dog was gifted to JinLing, but who do I think also helped take care of it? Jiang Cheng. The name, right? Fairy. Truthfully, I think that wonder dog was very loyal to JC and it’s protectiveness of JinLing came from direct order of him. The dog did sorta listen to JinLing’s commands but if you notice in the end the dog just runs off towards danger and JL is chasing it, trying to command it back but it doesn’t ever work. Hell, if with one look LZ is able to tell the dog to eff off, did JL ever have control or was it him wandering into trouble then the dog being ordered by JC to follow? So in the end, JL is apprehended and of course the only place for the dog to run is back to JC. Before the end, what gets me is that this supposedly vicious wonder dog that attacked Su She wasn’t even baring its teeth when it chased after Mo/Wwx..when Fairy encountered him again, the dog simply laid down and barked at him to “out” his presence, but why not attack [Fairy never found this person dangerous unlike Su She who it relentlessly attacked]? NOT UNTIL JC figured out his true identity did Fairy become vicious towards WWX. Assuming the wonder dog is only mimicking JC’s anger because it senses a master is displeased with this particular person like a loyal protective pet. Incidentally, Jin GuangYao gifted something, in hopes, he could control the kid, but little did he know that gift also became too loyal to the other Uncle and in the end after receiving nasty information from the two women and now Fairy comes running back without JinLing, relentlessly barking at him, probably even nipping at his robes to drag him where he wants, you bet Jiang Cheng is coming in hot. 

I would not care so much for this dog if it wasn’t for the fact that Jiang Cheng once had an obsession with dogs and I think he fell head over heels and took advantage of what he didn’t get to keep as a kid...I have a lot of JC feels the more I re-watch. Insert request: Still want that Jiang Cheng focused video to the song Believer by Imagine Dragons!! And I’ll end this post here by saying you’re amazing if you made it to the last sentence!!

#the untamed #you are amazing if you read all of this #heart eyes #this is me blabbering because I can't stop #ugh #dug myself another rabbit hole #hehe #long post

[elexuscal]

Fusion, Freedom, Reinvention

Relationships: Ruby/Sapphire Summary: They met under the stars, and that was the start of everything-- stealing glances, strolling through the forest, kissing under the moonlight. Theirs is a fairy tale romance-- of magic and glamour, of debts and blood, of love and sacrifice.

(Part of the SU Fae AU, The Crystal Court)

They first met at mid-autumn, a time of truce for their two Courts.

Under the full moon, the Sovereigns of Summer and the Witnesses of Winter met in a stone circle upon the moors. Space was malleable there, and time too; those who passed the rocks found themselves in a field which seemed to stretch for infinity, its ground carpeted in crisp fallen leaves, the night air lit by the glow of will-o-the-wisps.

Ruby was a soldier, her skin like embers, her hair flames.

Sapphire was a seer, her skin frosted, her single eye a crystal of ice.

Fae are not clumsy. They are elegant by nature, light on their feet, as insubstantial as air.

Somehow, though, Ruby collided with Sapphire.

There was a hush.

A silence which was not just the absence of sound, but a complete vacuum of it.

Sapphire stared down at herself, at where some of her skin had melted and boiled away.

“My apologies,” Ruby stammered, through fear and half-frozen lips.

“It was determined,” Sapphire said, and waved it off. Already, the frost was creeping back up her skin.

The vacuum filled in, as all at once the Gentry continued on with their business. The soldier and the seer watched each other for one more moment, and then they too, carried on.

Fae do not say thank you. Those words are too shallow a thing-- just a trinket, a distraction behind which to hide.

Nonetheless, Ruby was grateful. Sapphire could have had her executed with a word. Instead, she had spared her.

There was a debt there, and debts have to be repaid.

--

They met again at the next truce, at mid-spring. Again it was held at the same rock circle upon the moors. Now the ground beneath their feet had sprung fresh new grass, and the air thrummed with the call of cicadas.

Someone had brought human musicians for entertainment. With the insect buzz as the beat, their flute and fiddle wove a tune that captivated the Fair Folk, and set them all to dancing. The Fae spun across the grass, exchanging partners as they went. There was a pattern, but one too subtle and too complex to be determined by mortal eyes, all politics and power, pulling at the dancers as the moon pulled at the tides.

Ruby sought Sapphire out. A single dance was not worth the price of a life, but it would at least begin to settle the score.

“Would you like a dance?” Ruby asked, bowing deep.

Sapphire considered for a moment, the curtsied in return. “I would.”

They orbited each other, careful not to touch. Still, they could feel one another, the burn, the chill.

The music got faster, and the dancing sped to match.

It was dizzying, and delightful, but despite it all, Ruby found herself still catching glimpses of the human musicians. Her eyes felt pulled towards them. They were in a sorry state. The fiddle player’s fingers were raw, the blood dripping down his bow onto the new earth below. He was the luckier of the two. The woodwind player’s flute had grown into her skin; already her face was covered in bark, leaves sprouting where her eyes should have been. It should have been amusing, and yet…

Ruby only just bit back a wince.

Sapphire saw the sympathy on her face. Knew the trouble that would be inflicted upon her, if another member of the Courts saw that sympathy.

“Look at me,” Sapphire said, and pulled Ruby’s gaze to her. “Keep your eyes on me.”

So Ruby did. She was an easier thing to look at, anyway. Sapphire was as beautiful as the freshly fallen snow.

And for her part, Sapphire felt herself drawn towards Ruby like a moth to the flame.

--

And so it went, through the seasons, the years, the decades. Each autumn and spring, the Courts of Summer and Winter would come to a truce, and Ruby and Sapphire would seek each other out.

If there was a chance, they would dance.

In time, even that was not enough.

They found other ways to meet, away from other Fae eyes. Sapphire would See into the future, found the times she would not be missed. Ruby would wait until her betters were occupied, by the Hunt or other such proceedings, and sneak away.

They’d meet in forested groves; at the edges of oceans; on mountain peaks.  

They learned to weave better glamours, ones which better hid their natures. That dampened Ruby’s flames, and thawed Sapphire’s ice. It allowed them to pass through the world unimpeded, helped keep them hidden from watchful eyes. It let them grow closer, too. Disguised, the two could bare each other’s touch for at least a few moments.

Unbound by Court politics, Court ceremony, Court hierarchy, they could speak freely. They discussed whatever topics crossed their minds, like clouds drifting through the sky. Their lives. The seasons. Animals. Humans.

They were fascinated by humans, as all Fae were. They could not stop themselves from visiting human townships, any more than water could stop itself from rolling down hills.

They had to be careful. Humans were wary of the Fair Folk-- and they were right to be wary, both of them thought. They kept their towns well warded. Even in human guise, the pair were careful to avoid iron, and hazel, and rowan, and bread, and the ringing of bells at twilight.

They were careful, too, not to let their natures overwhelm themselves. To not have Ruby’s sparks go wild, and leave a barn burned down. To not have Sapphire’s frost encroach, and leave the crops dead in their fields.

At first, it was merely practical. The Courts would not care about such destruction-- they’d revel in it, in fact-- but they would care about the nature of the perpetrators, if they caught wind. A lowly, untitled foot-soldier and a high seer?  That was scandalous enough, though not unheard of. But to take a lover from an opposing court? Treason. It would never be tolerated, more than reason for anyone, fae or mortal, to extract a very high price indeed for the keeping of such a secret

Then, it was indulgent. Humans were curious creatures, delightful to watch. Ruby liked to see their children playing in the streets, shrieking and laughing with unbridled delight. Sapphire liked to watch the women weaving, creating cloth from wool, like a conjuring. Both of them loved human songs, and sought out any chance to hear them.

Then, it was indulgent. The humans had their own lives, their own personal concerns, their own private dramas. They were intriguing despite how small, blind and feeble they were-- or perhaps because of that. They were like characters in a play. The farmer’s wife, her belly swelling with child. The widowed midwife who tended to her. The carpenter’s apprentice. The barman. The tailor. The goatherd.

Some of the humans left gifts for the Fair Folk-- offerings of milk, butter, and food. These were not the treats of fae, not sparkling wine made from starlight, not pastries spun from rainbows, not the sweet fruits that grew from the trees of the other worlds. They were mortal meals, made of meat, and of fat, and of grain, and they filled the Fae up as nothing had before.

They left gifts for the humans, in exchange. A charm on a wine cellar, to keep it cool, even in the height of summer. A spell on a hearth to keep it hot, even in the depths of winter. And together, a casting of their very own, to keep the blight at bay.

--

Sapphire and Ruby spied uponafter all of the humans, but their favourites were most certainly the young lovers.

They followed the lovers, hiding from them using charms of invisibility, or else disguising themselves as birds, or frogs, or hounds. Followed them through the town square; flew above them as they wandered the fields; watched them at night from the windows. Saw the tender ways they touched one another. The gifts they exchanged freely, without any expectation of returns. The compliments they whispered in each others ears. Sweet nothings, the humans called them. Oaths and promises which were not binding, spoken only for delight.

Ruby and Sapphire wished they could do the same.

--

Centuries and centuries, these meetings had been going, when the words were spoken.

“I love you,” Ruby pledged.

“I love you too,” Sapphire returned.

And then they cried into each other’s arms, because The Fair Folk cannot lie, so they knew these words were true.

--

They were discovered soon after.

They did not know how. Perhaps some sprite had spied them, and reported it to gain favour. Perhaps their glamour had failed at a key moment. Perhaps the Court had stolen some human from the village, who’d let something slip. Perhaps one of the Queens had simply felt the magical imprint the pair had left behind in their wanderings.

All they knew was that when the next Spring Truce came, there was no feasting, no songs, no dancing.

The two were dragged to the centre of the Stone Circle, the Gentry of both Courts gathered around, cheering, shouting, jeering, taunting.

“Traitors!” they cried.

“Spies!” they yelled.

“Defilers!” they hooted.

“Silence!” ordered two voices, one crackling with heat and the other with cold.

The Queens appeared before their Courts.  

They sat in their thrones. Summer’s was made of brambles that shone like burnished gold. The ripest of berries hung among the thorns. Winter’s was carved from ice, and beneath the surface one could see indistinct shapes moving.

Already thrown to the ground, Ruby and Sapphire bowed to their lieges.

“What have you done?” Summer demanded.

Ruby explained.

Neither Queen understood.

“Why did you do this?” Winter demanded.

Sapphire explained.

Neither Queen understood.

The last question the Queen’s asked in unison: “Will you renounce one another?”

Ruby and Sapphire locked eyes. The Fair Folk cannot lie.

Together, they answered: “No.”

Still neither Queen understood.

And so they could not allow it to stand at all.

“Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard,” said Summer, “get to your feet.”

Bound by her True Name, Ruby stood.

“Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth,” said Winter, “rise.”

Bound by her True Name, Sapphire stood.

The Queens had created them, and so knew their true natures, their True Names. Those Names wielded power, and when spoken, direct demands could not be denied.

And the Queens demanded that that night, when the moon was at its peak, that Ruby must kill Sapphire, and that Sapphire must kill Ruby. And all would see what was to become of those that betrayed the intended order.

--

The sun was setting.

Ruby and Sapphire were not placed in cages, were not locked away. They was no way to escape, ringed as they were by Courtesans on all sides. They were allowed to stay together. To share in the agony until it reached the inevitable time when they would be forced to end each other.

“There must be some way,” Ruby said, her voice a fierce, desperate whisper.

“There is none,” Sapphire said, resigned. She could See the future in front of her, solid as ice. There were three possibilities. Sapphire could kill Ruby. Ruby could kill Sapphire. Or both would kill each other at the same time.

Ruby cried, her tears boiling.

Sapphire cried, her tears freezing.

Those Kindly Ones around them laughed.

--

“There has to be something,” Ruby said, as the sky turned purple, and the moon began to rise.

Sapphire shook her head. “We cannot deny our Names.”

Ruby stared down at her hands, shaking.

Then the answer came to her.

She looked up, met Sapphire’s eye, and said, “What if they were not our Names?’

--

The moon climbed higher and higher in the sky, the time drawing closer.

It was not a dark moon. It was not a new moon, a single crescent of silver. Nor was it a full. It was in the most powerful phase of all.

Half dark, half light.

The Queens returned, and the Fae encircling the two lovers drawing nearer. Their smiles were as sharp as knives, and their eyes glinted like wildcats’, ten times as cruel.

The lovers stood up.

None of the onlookers spoke, waiting to see what would happen.

Sapphire held out her hands, and Ruby took them.  

There was no glamour here, no magic concealing their true natures, dampening them. The heat burned through Sapphire’s skin, melting it. Instantly it boiled away, and Sapphire could all but stop herself from crying out in pain. Ruby too was rocked, as Sapphire’s fingers grew into long icicles, bursting through her gloves and piercing into Ruby’s flesh, embedding themselves there. She struggled to stay on her feet, as though buffeted by a winter wind.

Through the pain, they spoke.

“Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth,” said Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard, “I pledge myself to you, wholly and completely. I give you my power, to use however you wish.”

“Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard,” said Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth, “I pledge myself to you as well, wholly and completely. I give to you my power, to use however you wish.”

The Gentry were screaming now, crying with voices that howled like wolves, but all the lovers could hear were each other’s voices. All they could see was each other’s faces. They pressed themselves close, feeling their skin freeze and boil and melt, and the pain was exquisite.

The next part, they spoke unison: “Let me change you, and in doing so, be changed myself. For now and forever.”

Lightning flashed.

--

The Faerie that stood there was something entirely new.

Her legs were too long, her fists too large, her hips too wide, her waist too small. Her chill had been softened by spring; her heat tempered by autumn. She glowed, lightning racing up and down her body, and so none could touch her, unless she permitted it. She had three eyes, and with them, she saw the Kindly Ones around her for what they truly were.

Most Fae turned their eyes away, unable to bear the sight.

The Queens of Summer and Winter cried out to the new one. Ordered the new one to stop. To halt. To destroy themselves-- herself-- there and then.

But the Names they called out were not hers. Not anymore. And she would not be bound by them.

So The One Who Forged Herself Of Love ran from the Courts, and did not look back.

#steven universe #fanfic #su fanfic #garnet #rupphire #fae