#i have no idea how to color...but my boi lan

[temnurus]

LWJ POV Fic Recs

I've done a WWX rec list, so I thought it was about time I made one for Lan Zhan, whom I adore & can never get enough of. The fact that we couldn't see into his head during canon will forever drive me mad, & if this bothers you as much as it does me, boy do I have good news for you! There are not one but two series re-writes from LWJ's POV in this list for your reading pleasure, along with 8 other not-quite-so canon compliant fics that are nevertheless out of this world good. Not gonna lie, people, several of these would make my top 20 if I redid my favorites list today, so I wish you some very happy reading. 😉

he comes in colors by ilip13 (M, 63,596)

Thoughts: The prose was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the author’s writing style, & the way they portrayed how Lan Zhan viewed the world was breathtakingly beautiful. I appreciated the nod in the author’s note about him possibly being read as neurodivergent because I picked up on that, & it felt both familiar & comforting in an I’m-not-so-alone-after-all way. I outright sobbed at some points due to the intensity of the emotions, both Lan Zhan’s & others’.

Wei Ying’s care & consideration for Lan Zhan was very gratifying & lovely to see. The depiction of grief was deeply moving, & the dynamics between all the characters in the story were rich, deep, & very meaningful. This is a new favorite of mine, & I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after I finished. Fic hangover is very much a possibility with this one, but it will be 100% worth it; I promise you that.

paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 (E, 53,808)

Thoughts: Barely anything hurt in this. Like, you could blink past a minimal amount of anxiety. It was mostly an adorable kid fic in which Lan Zhan very quickly found himself falling for his son’s art teacher. Wei Ying being so desperate to spend more time with both of them was heart-meltingly cute, & I loved how he just slotted so easily into their lives it was like he could’ve been there all along. If you like domesticity & gratuitous fluff, then I urge you to give this one a go. I was thoroughly charmed & added it to my favorites list immediately.

The Price of Old Wishes by SoManyJacks (E, 67,793)

Thoughts: This was absolutely fantastic. I crave Lan Zhan POVs, & a fic that was basically canon from his perspective was very much on my wish list. I was so excited when I found it, & I devoured it in a day. The tags that serve as trigger warnings are all referring to events in canon, so there’s not really much that’s going to be a surprise in that respect. If you handled canon, then I think you’d probably be fine to read this fic. I loved the explanation for Lan Zhan’s difficulty with words being selective mutism. It’s the second fic I’ve read with that idea, & I’ve loved both of them. I highly recommend this. It’s definitely been added to my favorites list.

leave all your love and your longing behind by ScarlettStorm (E, 143,609)

Thoughts: This was one of the best modern AUs for Wangxian I’ve ever read. It hooked me from the very beginning, & I absolutely melted at how sweet & caring Lan Zhan was when Wei Ying invaded his house in a panic while trying to escape from the dog that was chasing him. His cat Bunny (so cute) was a love muffin & such a comfort in the moment. The dynamics between the neighborhood help squad Lan Zhan contacted to assist with the dog & its overwhelmed owners were also incredibly heartwarming. This fic expanded beyond a love story into a lesson on the importance of community & treating each other with kindness. I can’t recommend this highly enough. I already know it’s going to be a consistent reread for me. It really is just that good.

When the Lights Come Up by brooklinegirl (E, 50,012) Thoughts: This is more Notting Hill inspired/adjacent than strictly following that story, for which I was actually quite grateful, as there were parts of Notting Hill I wouldn’t have cared for or felt fit Wangxian’s dynamic. I loved Lan Zhan’s characterization in this so, so much. Actually, I enjoyed pretty much everyone’s characterization, even down to side characters like Lan Huan & Nie Huaisang. Wangxian’s chemistry in this was spectacular, & the yearning was FELT. I got so anxious & heartbroken during the angsty bits, but as always, brooklinegirl delivered on that happy ending with aplomb. As someone with ADHD, I lamented the lack of chapters for good stopping places, but this is a minor personal quibble & by no means takes away from the overall brilliance of the work.

Where You Fell by Sweet_William (E, 63,596)

Thoughts: The angst was REAL in this fic, y’all. The intensity of Lan Zhan’s feelings is one of my favorite things about him, & that aspect of his character was fully realized here. I cried like a baby several times in this fic. I probably lost count, to be honest. Wei Ying being homeless & begrudgingly allowing Lan Zhan to help him in small ways at first nearly broke my heart, & then it absolutely shattered into a million pieces when the story hit peak angst later on. Tissues were a necessity, but I promise you that it was all worth it in the end. The slow burn was fantastic & so, so satisfying when they finally got their happy ending. They certainly deserved it. It was very overdue!

to hold the wind by androids_fighting93 (E, 62,474)

Thoughts: I was very excited to read another Wangxian soulmates AU, & this one was particularly interesting with the execution. The first time soulmates touched they remembered a scene from their past lives together. This of course offered a wealth of opportunity for angst with the quality of the memories Wangxian would have of theirs, & it delivered exactly that.

The slow burn was torture, & I cried at a couple of different points, particularly at Lan Zhan stifling his own feelings in order to respect Wei Ying’s boundaries regarding not wanting to remember. This fic also made me incandescently angry at Jiang Fengmian & Madam Yu for being such shitty foster parents & utterly failing Wei Ying (not that it was a new feeling, heh). He got his happy ending eventually, thank fuck, because we all know I couldn’t possibly accept anything less.

And He Knew Those Silver Eyes Were Trouble by PieceofLove

Thoughts: This is basically a series rewrite of The Untamed from Lan Zhan’s POV, though the author does mix book canon in as well, like the Phoenix Mountain kiss, etc. It’s the second I’ve read, though much longer than the first & not quite as well written but only because the bar was set so high by the first! I very much enjoyed this fic. I binged it within a few days, & that’s not bad for a little over 300k. The author clearly adored Lan Zhan (as they should), so it was fun to get their take on his side of the story. I’d absolutely recommend it as worth reading, even if I still like The Price of Old Wishes best of all the Lan Zhan POV rewrites of the series I've read so far.

Adventures in Pet Sitting by raitala (E, 63,003)

Thoughts: Wei Ying was a surprise extra roommate for Lan Zhan when he showed up to his brother’s apartment to pet sit. This was the first fic I’ve read that featured Lan Zhan as the one who was under the misapprehension that he was straight due compulsory heterosexuality. Usually I see Wei Ying placed in that position, so it was an interesting change of pace.

I loved how awkward things were at first & how it built up over time with the intense sexual tension between Lan Zhan & Wei Ying. One of my favorite scenes pre Lan Zhan’s self realization earned the light dom/sub tag, & I was very jealous of Wei Ying for the experience. That’s all I’ll say so that you can find out for yourself. Nie Huaisang was another highlight of the fic. I loved his meddling & the comic relief he provided amidst the Wangxian shenanigans.

varied my velocity by fantasiavii (E, 58,876)

Thoughts: I adored Lan Zhan in this. I have a soft spot for Lan Zhan POV fics, & this one was really well done. His characterization was just perfect. My heart went out to him for the shame he carried surrounding his sexuality. It made me cry at one point. I also really enjoyed the author’s dance background & how it came through in the fic with Lan Zhan’s love of ballet. The banter & intimate moments between Lan Zhan & Wei Ying as they got closer were absolutely fantastic. I really can’t rec this highly enough. It’s a new favorite.

*Edit: So I goofed & had to replace Scales & Arpeggios in this rec list because I forgot it was an alternating POV fic, not strictly Lan Zhan's. I do promise that the brooklinegirlfic is just as good. She's one of my very favorite Wangxian authors, after all.

#mdzs #the untamed #cql #wangxian #lan zhan #wei ying #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wangxian fic rec #Temnurus rec list #this one's for you lwj #bc we love a petty bitch #he's so funny y'all #i love him so much #we goofed but we fixed it!

[missveryvery]

Have you watched episode 1 of tgcf season two yet? 👀

Are you kidding. It's literally the only thing that's keeping me alive. Now my life is "hold out until Wednesday, buddy, we can do this."

I'm not sure but I think they fixed up the animation from the preview we got before (like a million years ago) of the scene where they're all assembling because I remember thinking "oh no they lost their budget" and now the scene looks like "here are a hundred gods we made look incredible just for the background"

(Still salty about Mu Qing's hair getting nerfed, make it bigger you cowards)

The part where Pei Ming is about to kick Pei Xiu came off as cartoony in the book but they made it really intense here! I guess because they're trying to hide his clown nose for as long as possible.

I feel very gratified that I was correct that the person we saw for a split second in the preview FROM BEHIND was in fact sqx and my brain worms have again served me well.

I think if I was watching this and had no idea what the story was, I'd think sqx was another love interest because holy shit. The way they shot Shi Qingxuan after transformation where her hair falls and her eyes are locked on him is from Xie Lian's POV, right? Three people have "hair that falls prettily" scenes in this and it's Hua Cheng, Xie Lian, and Shi Qingxuan.

Gif set by @murcielaguitos

They're really going "she's BEAUTIFUL" and you can get the impression that even Xie Lian thinks so. I love the way Shi Qingxuan is looking at him here and her cute smile ; ; like "see? :)"

This is the first time I realized how massive her boobs are. They're INSANE. I really like how Shi Qingxuan's other form is so different! I like to think the trans color scheme is on purpose but idk if they care about flag stuff in China? I don't want to like, push that on them.

In the book, there are a couple people Xie Lian remarks as being attractive, I think Shi Qingxuan is the only lady?

Also the shot earlier of Shi Qingxuan glancing at Xie Lian's chest like ":) I could put some ginormous bazoons there for you, friend"

(Lmao, He Xuan is so fucking stupid 😭 what kind of idiot...?!?? This could have been yours, you absolute clown.)

I was surprised they kept Lan Chang!!! Like wow you're gonna do that part, huh?!

The presentation of the mission's circumstanses also gave me a theory about why Shi Qingxuan was sent with Xie Lian on this specific mission...!

I saw someone talking about how lonely the opening of Xie Lian waking up seemed. But then he gets such a cute friend...! That's so similar to him! It's so nice to see him happy. I like to think that if Hua Cheng didn't exist and all that other background shit wasn't happening, Xie Lian's third go around might have been nice, Shi Qingxuan could have gotten him settled in, reconciled with the clown boys, etc.

The way he looks at Lang Qianqiu ;0;!! he's like "My baby ;0;"

Also losing my mind over this rando. I need to see what the uniforms for each god looks like or I'll die. Why was this dude so well designed and animated ;0;! I love him?!? So exasperated with his dumbass god ;0;

#tgcf #tgcf meta #tgcf spoilers #shi qingxuan #xie lian #i think sqx and xl should kiss #please it would be so cute #xiao shiwei

[formerchaoslord]

RiFT! all good? I hope so! Remember our conversation about the possible existence of a Bert son of Regal? then! I improved this idea!

Firstly, let's do him before he "rebellion" (I was going to do a version of him in the Picrew, but I decided to describe it) a skinny boy with somewhat pale skin, but his freckles give him a little life, in contrast to he's dark circles, his loose hair reaches up to his shoulder, I don't know if Bert's hair is curly or simply something unknown to me, but it's the same color as his father's hair, before he "rebellion" he was all about "doing it for my father" "getting this for my father" "help my father" "do you know my father?" "live for my father" "father"

he had no personality, he had no interests, he couldn't live if it weren't for his father, but that changed when he met Lan, well, it took a long process, but he finally rebelled, hehehe

rebellious now, he dyes his hair red and starts wearing his hair tied up, and now he has personality! insecure, courageous, intelligent, whiny, stressed (when pressured), kind, affectionate, and doesn't miss the opportunity to take something from his father, like LaserMan.EXE!!

(as I unfortunately haven't seen anything from BN, I could be wrong about what I'm going to say now, corrections are totally accepted here!) Before MegaMan.EXE deletes Laser, Bert stops him, and they even think he was a cheater, but no, he just shut down Laser, and then restarted him, changing certain aspects of his personality, and then making him his operator!

I also think about a friendly relationship between Bert and Coronel.EXE, more because of Baryl, but nothing is certain yet

but the thing I most like to think about this Bert is the relationship between grandson and grandfather with Wily!

for now, I can only imagine Wily singing "Mother (grandpa?) knows best" from Tangled, more specifically the rerun

"If he's lying, don't come crying, grandpa knows better!" but even with that feeling of "I don't care about you" deep down, he does care

Well, that was it, sorry for the long text, I was really excited! hehe, and making it clear that all this could change when i actually start see BN, but for now, we have this! hehehe, bye bye! to the next!

"Ah. Hello again. I have been well, thank you. I hope everything is well on your end...

"Yes, I do remember this conversation. A very interesting concept. I think I would like to meet the Bert of that dimension... Also, I do like the possibility of LaserMan getting a redemption Arc, especially since his operator did in the prime timeline, but poor LaserMan remained deleted. My job can be hard, but nice little moments and details like this can make it fun, especially when it means making a new friend..."

"Hey. Sorry to cut in all of a sudden, but does Wily still get redeemed by the end of the Cybeast incident in Bert's dimension, or does he stay a villain?"

"I... Believe we're still figuring it out, Lan. We still don't know everything about this said dimension. It's more of a... Concept."

"Are we breaking the fourth wall again? Do you know how tough it was to repair it the last time we did that?"

"If it makes you feel any better, don't consider any of this canon."

"It doesn't..."

"If I can interject, the idea of having a grandson does intrigue me. Though, if I don''t renounce my evil ways in said dimension, I'd be fearful of how it would effect Bert, especially after seeing how much I failed Regal as a father..."

"Even if that's the case, Wily, who that version of Wily doesn't effect who who are now. We have been very grateful for your help during this Multiverse War."

"Anyway, I enjoyed the concept and would love to hear more about it if you ever have more to add. And if this dimension turns up, I'd love to visit it someday."

#leleamo #new data discovered (ask) #data analyzed (answered) #rift is connected (ic) #lan is ready to battle (ic) #megaman has logged in (ic) #iCO has logged in (ic) #Dr. wily turns a new leaf (ic) #Dr. hikari's new project (ic) #scilab scientists #mega man zero #megaman battle network #mega man x dive

[onaperduamedee]

Notes on The Path of Daggers

Oh, Shienar leaders reunion! Does it mean we will at last get some Lan content? They don’t seem to be ready to support Rand though.

Verin is the very definition of a bad bitch. She perceives so much more than she lets on and I love that she clearly has her own agenda. Black Ajah? Spy? I have no idea what her deal is, but she seems to be on a level with Cadsuane and Moiraine when it comes to acting as a free agent. 

Birgitte is smaller than Aviendha and Elayne? Lies! Lieeeeeeees!

"You can ask or demand anything of me, but never to let you die without trying to save you. The day you die, I die." I am in agony. The way this is both about Nynaeve and Moiraine, but in a different light, with the trust and love placed in Nynaeve and the acknowledgement of betrayal by Moiraine. Blood and ashes, this storyline is going to hurt.

Not liking Aviendha's thoughts on women and softness, all the more ridiculous that Birgitte is right here, with her love of dresses and feminity despite being very strong. I get this is Aviendha’s POV, but this is only the hundredth time we got such an angle and I am tired.

On one hand, I understand Nyn and Elayne not trusting the Aes Sedai with guarding the Black Ajah, because there has to be one or two BA sisters in their ranks. On the other, they don't have the best track records with decision-making and risk assessment, so I will be surprised if Ispan doesn't escape eventually, with casualties at that.

I am rooting for the Kin so hard. Please, let them be Aes Sedai and prove themselves, they are so cool. Like with the noblewomen and grandmothers being integrated into the Tower by Egwene later on, this storyline gives me so much joy.

Nynaeve ready to yell at the Aes Sedai despite them not doing anything for once is so funny. For all their flaws, Aes Sedai are no worse or better than other groups, especially with all the parallels to the Aiel. I’d say it was the most fun these chapters had been because the conflict between the four groups is getting repetitive.

I love Aviendha worrying about the gholam when we know for a fact Seanchan are invading at this very moment. She is a trouper though and I love her lion-heart.

Elayne and Aviendha giving strong "she is so smart and brave and beautiful" New Spring Siuan and Moiraine vibes. They legit have more chemistry together than either with Rand.

Yeah, still not a fan of Nyn and Elayne relying so much on their strength to intimidate or gain the upper hand on others. It's not something they picked up only from Aes Sedai either considering Verin's words at the beginning of The Dragon Reborn. It's just... You know the way people with power are terrified of weaker people enacting on them the same violence because they cannot conceive of a world without a power imbalance? Yeah that.

What I gather from all those new channelers being insanely powerful, even more than Nynaeve, is that as the Age comes to an end, more channelers in line with the Age of Legends will reveal themselves in different nations.

People with cloud dancing abilities and the Windmistresses are doing unaided what required ter'angreal in the AoL? Very interesting. As with the bonding weave, I love the nuance in picturing evolution as non-linear, with gains and losses, particularly in light of all the history and scientific advancement lost to time.

RJ's insistence that Aiel are tanned white people instead of the people of color they should have been will never stop being bizarre. I know they are fantasy Irish/Scottish people, but the fact they are uniformly described as tanned blond white Californians is throwing me off.

See, one of my issues with Elayne that is standing out this book is the way she often seems to me an Egwene stand-in: her arc about being Queen but having to prove it is too similar to Egwene’s at this point. They’re not the same obviously, but too closely related, especially considering how different the boys are from one another.

I am glad that Caire and the Sea folk took the helm with the Bowl of winds because otherwise, it would have been super White savioury of Elayne to lead. It will be such a bloody incredible scene on-screen, I cannot wait.

Alise in the long line of very competent working-class women without which whole institutions would crumble. Also described like an avalanche btw. Yes, I miss Moiraine.

The Seanchan attack and Elayne unraveling the gateway was so bloody epic. Elayne the mad scientist remains my favourite Elayne. I love the unease in the Seachan camp when they incorrectly conclude from this that their enemies have weapons of mass destruction (which they do, in the form of sa’-, ter’- and angreal, but this was an accident.)

Oh, Perrin is crossing paths with Morgase's party! I am digging this. This is going to be interesting, with Morgase hiding her identity and so many leaders traveling with Perrin, a rebel leader himself.

Here's the thing, if you send away Berelain and Anoura, gag Seonid and only use the Wise Ones as watchdogs, you're left with Perrin and Morgase and they just are not interesting enough by themselves to keep my attention.

Is Lini forcing Morgase to marry Tallanvor? Why are old women so creepy in these books?

I love Faile. I don't love that her presence prompts gender essentialism to worsen every time in Perrrin’s thoughts. I will never get used to it. I hate being yanked out of the story because of this.

Faile and her Cha Faile. Her being a shrewd politician and general, seeing the potential of eager and devoted young Cairhienins who are likely expert practitioners of Daes Dae’mar. She’s genuinely a good leader, like Berelain or Egwene, and I love her political acumen. 

In an ideal Lubitschean Wot Universe, Faile and Perrin are married, Aram is Perrin’s boyfriend and Berelain is Faile’s girlfriend.

Oh boy, Tallanvor and Morgase is almost as bad as Siuan and Gareth. Stop forcing women in a vulnerable mental state to hook up with guys they depend on for survival.

The Aiel and indentured servitude… There’s a whole discussion to have about making prisoners apprentices in this way, as opposed to willingly like Aviendha and Egwene. The Aes Sedai are not Aiel, this is not ji’e’toh.

About Alliandre: just another powerful woman pledging to a man, nothing to see here. 

That said, the discussion between Alliandre, Faile, Berelain and Annoura? So good. RJ writes bloody entertaining negotiating scenes, truly.

Ah yes, the four horsemen of the fantasy apocalypse :

Elayne - nepotism

Perrin - feudalism

Aviendha - indentured servitude

Rand - imperialism

Between the Cha Faile, the Rebels outside Cairhien with Darlin and Caraline, Mat's army, there is a strong recurring theme of Tear and Cairhien coming together under the Dragon's banner and it makes Siuan's association with Moiraine all the more thematically relevant, just saying.

Okay, maybe I should pay more attention to Moridin if he is Nae'blis. Who the heck is he? Also Cyndane? I love this game of whack-a-Forsaken.

I don’t say this enough, but the Forsaken are incredibly amusing in a Grand Guignol way.

Despite the initial Manicheism, the granularity of evil and good in these books is really fascinating: there are a million individuals on each side and in between, pursuing their own goal, or a common one but in a vastly different way.

Also, I can't bemoan the stupidity and lack of organization of the antagonists, particularly the Forsaken, without recognizing that most of the heroes are pretty incompetent themselves: they all have their own agenda and interest, their personality gets in the way all the time, they absolutely suck at communication and negotiation, and their plans rarely work as it should. The ta'veren factor does a lot of work here. Don't get me wrong, it is generally fun to read, on both sides, but yeah, sheer luck and lots of foolishness.

Aielman standing in the streets staring at the pouring rain and Cairhienin noblewoman laughing with her hood down under the rain, I send you paper kisses because that was charming.

A bit disappointed we did not get the first encounter between Sorilea and Cadsuane, but I really enjoyed their conversation. At least Sorilea is realizing the Aiel are as much help as the AS and that Rand needs a different kind of support than what they are providing.

Rand chapter finally!

And unfortunately it's one of those "group A disagrees with group B with the support of group C although group C hates group A while group D glares at group A sneering at C for agreeing with them, and B silently mocks group D for being so careless" chapters. It’s a lot of mannerisms and opposing POVs. It doesn’t really add much to the story beyond colouring and at this point in the conflicts, we don’t really need more colouring.

Adored the conversation with the Asha'man afterward though. They’ve gained a lot of individuality now that they’re away from Taim, which has to be intentional. Getting really worried about Rand’s symptoms and the possibility they are indeed starting to lose their mind.

I wonder if like healing stilling, healing the weather required both male and female channelers, and in their haste, the circle only fixed the weather partially because that’s a LOT of snow after a scorching summer. All the trees are going to die out of shock.

I love Egwene so bloody much. And Siuan. And Leane. I love their machinations, their mutual support, their chemistry, their strength, their flaws, their ridiculousness, their humanity, their everything.

Siuan knowing the history of the Tower by heart fills me with so much love. I feel so emotional about the contrast between the contempt some sisters hold her in for breaking the Tower and the devotion Siuan still has for the Tower, the love she has for who she is, an Aes Sedai. They get deserved crap for their stupid hierarchies, their arcane rules, their inflexibility and isolation, but the White Tower was created with laudable goals at first: preserving humanity and knowledge. They are not soldiers, they were meant to be custodians; seeing someone like Siuan, who embodied the Tower and broke it and herself in trying to push it in another direction… UGH. It reminds me of loving a country, a community, and hating it so much, hating what it taught me, what it broke in trying to preserve itself, and believing that maybe it would be easier to destroy it entirely, and still there is some good here and it deserves, perhaps, to remain and be changed. 

Yeah, I love Siuan so much. Egwene is right: Siuan is so incredibly strong.

Shit, Aran'gar killed Selame? Sheriam is spying? For who? Shit shit shit. The Salidar lot is in so much danger.

I knew Elayne and Nynaeve's bargain with the Sea Folk was pretty much BS. They promised the moon knowing it was near impossible for Egwene to fulfill the bargain. Knowing Egwene, she will rise to the challenge.

I would die if Egwene puzzling out Siuan is in love with Gareth became in the show Egwene understanding Siuan is not merely mourning a co-conspirator in Moiraine but also a lover. 

Talmanes feeling Mat needs him from hundreds of miles? Oh that's gay

Whatever possesses RJ to constantly interrupt charming bonding scenes or intense plotting schemes with the most childish romantic nonsense? Women and men alike lose braincells at the most inconvenient moment. It’s killing the vibe each time.

Everything about the way Egwene prepared and navigated the negotiations with the Andorans, and then the Aes Sedai? Phenomenal. I was on the edge of my seat.

I'm not gonna lie, going from blood-pumping Egwene chapters to mostly static Elayne and Rand chapters is underwhelming.

Still, there is an extremely uneasy and frantic energy to this particular fight around Ebou Dar. Perhaps it’s Rand’s extreme confidence in the Asha’man. Perhaps it’s the clear instability spreading through the male channelers. Perhaps it’s the grueling Guerilla approach to this battle. Perhaps it’s the oddness of the One Power in the mountains. I am really enjoying this tbh.

The Asha'man are much, much too eager to fight Aes Sedai and Taim has too great a hold on them. I don’t like that Rand’s distrust is caused mostly by LTT’s voice but he is right to suspect Taim’s influence on the Asha’man.

Are we ever going to find out what the deal is with the One Power for women and men near Ebou Dar? I love the concept of corrupted places where physics or magic doesn’t work as it should.

Liandrin?! In the hands of the Seanchan? What is going on?!?

Why is Lews Therin quoting that Prussian general? Is Prussia canon in the Wheel of Time univers?

THEY STOLE THE OATH ROAD And Pevara and Seaine discovered how to undo the Oaths? Oh, that is really interesting. REALLY interesting, particularly after Siuan’s discussion with Egwene.

Oh my god, if you order an Aes Sedai to lie under an oath, she can die choking?!?

OoooooooOooooooooOoooooh they are recruiting Salidar's spies to hunt the Black Ajah! This is so good. What an exciting development! 

I got chills when the last Aes Sedai who discovered Seaine and Pevara refused to swear she was not a Darkfriend. I suspect it can’t be that easy though. Still really hyped for this storyline.

As I said, Asha’man = incel army. Of course, they would capture Aes Sedai and use compulsion to make them love them.

"Maybe Elayne had taught him." In a week while making out in Tear? Rather than Moiraine who spent months with him in the Waste cramming his head with 20 years' worth of experience as Blue Ajah? Or Bashere who has been working with him to handle no less than 4 different armies begrudgingly working together? Or the Aiel who are the fantasy Sparta culture? Come on, Min, I know you're trying very hard not to get jealous, but you're being foolish and as Rand’s primary advisor currently, you cannot afford to be foolish.

Cadsuane joking she expects the Asha'man to juggle made me cackle. She is the definition of the bigger bully.

Callandor requires men and women to work? Nice, I was hoping to get a sa’angreal like this soon. Seeing Rand navigate people he doesn’t trust while working with them is also particularly exciting.

Oh, they killed Adeleas... Vandene crying out loud for her sister after the others were sent away was actually heartbreaking. I do like that DF are still a serious threat; not a given with the number of actors now at play. Elayne and Nynaeve were faaaaar too trusting of the dozens of strangers they took up at the farm.

Rand and the Asha'man... Man, that was brutal. The madness was bound to catch up to them, but this, coming right after a near defeat, deaths caused by Rand and a betrayal, is absolutely harrowing. I love that we got Rand talking about consulting Nynaeve to cure the taint beforehand, giving them some hope, and then Rand invokes Nynaene to provide the only cure available for now to Fedwin. It’s so bleak, I love it.

Not liking one bit the idea that women like Nynaeve and Faile need to be dominated by their husbands to have a happy marriage. Not one bit.

We didn't get unnecessary female nudity in a while and now we get it for ALL our ladies. Amazing. At least, my gal Berelain escaped. 

The finale was a little jarring in the sense that we needed to catch up with everybody suddenly and still got nothing on Mat and the Shienaran alliance, but before that I really enjoyed the bleakness on Rand’s side. Reminded me of New Spring. I do wish we spent more time on the aftermath of the attack Rand in the Sun Palace and the first mercy killing, but I suspect it will be explored next book.

Verdict: two books into the slog and I am cruising so far. My biggest complaint is the similarities in power struggles between Rand, Egwene and Elayne, the three big threads here: for several chapters, each is trying to handle groups at daggers drawn, with varied degrees of success. It’s obviously the unifying theme, but the story would have benefitted from a serious arc for Mat and Nynaeve for breathers, as both are generally entertaining wildcards. Nynaeve had practically NOTHING to do outside of her beef with Alise, which is frustrating because I’ve been unsatisfied with her arc for a few books now. Hopefully, she’ll get one with the research to clean saidin. 

Yet, as much as I absolutely see the slackening in the narrative, with several chapters depicting characters riding and disagreeing and nothing else, I appreciate the depths added by Egwene’s moves, Rand losing his grip and the overcorrection of the weather. It’s not much, true, and this book will likely be merged with another for TV, but it certainly wasn’t as slow as certain parts of TEotW or LoC. I was deeply moved by certain parts (the Asha’man, Siuan and Egwene, Vandene and Adeleas), which makes this book automatically better than others in the series.

#the wheel of time #wot book spoilers #wot book review #wot book journey #the path of daggers #remblai #still having a good time honestly #I suspect the slog will start slogging next book #it's all that snow #Verin entering the characters top 10 in one chapter only woah #Wot review

[gravitywonagain]

Ok, but the whole Wen Qing sacrificial Au is like one big clusterfuck. And Wei Wuxian wouldn't know shit about the functions of his own new body. And what if the eyes of the body change color as a reaction to the new soul inhibiting it. He would have monthly bleedings! He would have to deal with cramps and fuck! He would understand so much more about his Shijie and Madame Yu!

Also correlating with the homecoming gift, what if she found a way to package her knowledge as a gift and Wei Wuxian now understands so much better why Wen Qing was so pissed about his disregard for his own health all the time. And he starts to connect that knowledge and know-how to develop his talismans and cultivation further!

How would Lan Wangji react to see the Wen doctor again, only for her to paralyze him after a fight with a monster where Lan Wangji just was not at his best, and actually check him over as if it was the most normal thing to do. What if Wei Wuxian went on and found a way to heal the scars on Lan Zhan's back to a degree where it's not visible anymore unless you know to search for it.

And he would get suibian back as soon as possible and fly with it. He would have his sword back. And if people ask he would just flippantly say that it only responds to people Wei Wuxian trusts and held dear to his heart.

Ah, sorry about my rambling, I have brain rot about this thing now. And I had a WIP where I was leaning on the aspect that Wei Wuxian was the son of a servant and had servant skills as well... You make me more work ^^'

yessss i love the rambling!!! i see the next one, too!!! sorry it took me a minute there was brain fog and then wife birthday daytripping and then many sleeps and now we're here

i am now a little bit obsessed with the idea of wq somehow passing on her vast amounts of medical cultivation knowledge to wwx. or at least imparting enough of it that he can do nonsense wwx innovation shit. something something the formation and structure of her core is built around the use of certain skills and techniques and this might have happened with mxy too but all of his previous knowledge was based off of wwx's own.................. yeah. fascinating. fun. i love it.

also the idea of wwx actually trying to pull of just being wq -- at least in public because there's no way he gets away with that around lwj -- is patently hilarious to me. but also! who knows her better than wwx and wn anyway? who else could possibly pull that off if not them? also i do love the shenanigans that ensue in a good identity porn fic.

okay so if i'm being very honest, half the reason for this au even popping up in my head is that i, like @jasontoddiefor, love a good genderswapped resurrection fic specifically because all of the nonsense that comes with having a uterus. (and also the idea of wangxian biological babies, like hell yes, their breeding kink dreams can become a reality, but also only if they try hard enough because actual conception can be fucking difficult!) and yes, after the years of malnutrition and general anxiety of living under threat finally starts to recede, wwx gets to deal with a whole new set of problems! lucky boy.

as for lan yuan, i feel like he might be grateful to see his qing-jie's face again, even though he's forgotten it, but would then mourn her presence and his xian-gege's face. it would be rough for him. moreso than with mxy because wq's face mixed with wwx's mannerisms might actually trigger some more memories earlier? idk, what do you think?

ALSO. i can't get over lwj figuring out how to marry wq without arousing the suspicion of the entire cultivation world. like this is early in my head. this happens just a few years after wwx dies. so a lot of The Nonsense hasn't happened yet. he gets out of seclusion and then immediately goes for the next worst person imaginable? the escaped but somehow not dead last daughter of the wen? lqr would have a fit. lxc would be confused as hell. jc would be furious and hurt and so even more furious. nhs would, probably, figure it out pretty quickly, as would jgy, and now the race is on. like this would be such a political nightmare and i'm living for it!!

#saiaisaiko #asks #wen qing sacrifice au

[greenandhazy]

don't mind me, I'm just thinking about this concept again and talking through some difficulties

so I'm really committed to the idea of WWX dying and coming back in roughly the same circumstances as canon, and in the intervening years MY and XY being imprisoned (or in XY's case "imprisoned") by the Lan and the Jin respectively and then getting their "fuck yeah the boys are back in town" moment. I also think MY needs to be involved in getting the burial mounds settled, both because that fits his skillset and because I quite like the idea of him going "fuck this I'm out" during one of those big meetings and getting to truly stick it to his father.

BUT of course this causes issues with the whole resurrection plot, because if MY shows his colors before then, obviously he's not playing "Cleansing" for NMJ and causing a qi deviation, so what is the overarching reason for the resurrection?

THE SWAP SOLUTION:

the first thing I toyed with was the idea of swapping the function of Nie Mingjue and Jiang Yanli's deaths in the narrative. Mingjue dies in Nightless City (protecting Huaisang maybe?), Huaisang is the sibling who gets the big "Wei Wuxian, go to hell!" moment before he dies, Jiang Yanli is killed afterwards by... someone... and Jiang Cheng is the sibling who convinces Mo Xuanyu to make the sacrifice so Wei Wuxian can help him find/prove who killed her.

potential problems:

I mean no offense to Yanli but it seems like she probably dies in battle easier than Nie Mingjue, so there's a believability issue there

in the case of her being DELIBERATELY killed rather than accidentally--who the hell would want to do it? from what I've seen so far she's universally beloved

that character would also have to step in and fill the Big Bad Mastermind role the JGY holds in the canon narrative, which requires competency that most of the other Little Bads don't have

does Jiang Cheng have the subtlety to go the Huaisang route? (counterargument: does he need the subtlety? maybe he goes around for a decade shouting at people to try and solve this mystery, and the second WWX is back he storms up to him and is like "hi yes hello it's me the guy who brought you back, tell me who I can stab on behalf of my sister.")

THE FUGITIVE SOLUTION:

the other possibility is that, contrary to my first instinct, MY and XY aren't immediately captured when WWX dies. they manage to escape and evade capture for a while, and figure out a way to kidnap/murder NMJ in a way that's more aligned with canon before being caught--but their role in NMJ's death isn't discovered at that time, so Huaisang still gets to have a few years of fuming before deciding that MY's nice cozy seclusion among the Lan isn't enough of a punishment, he needs to be exposed and his beloved dead brother is going to do the exposing for extra drama. this also has the convenience of letting this-Meng Yao keep canon-Jin Guangao's "the bad guy at the center of the bad stuff" role.

potential problems:

believability again. absent slow qi poisoning, can two canonically weak cultivators take down Nie Mingjue? (counterargument: I keep forgetting to give Xue Yang a shard of Yin Iron in this verse but ig that would help.)

also, a major clan leader who has had public beef with two wanted criminals while they're on the run. does anyone need to be told whose fault it is?

I haven't figured out how I want this verse to end fully, but... it kind of leaves Meng Yao in a darker place than I want? like I do really like the idea of MY/WWX/XY being beloved by the common people in spite of everything the great sects say, and I feel like having the three of them uncover an act of corruption among the sects and having a "see! we told you so!" moment is a more satisfying ending than having Huaisang go "see! he's a murderer just like we've said all along!" and having the public go "we don't care." it's just a little anticlimactic.

THE SPY SOLUTION:

Similar to the above, except in this version, everyone knows that Xue Yang fought on WWX's side, and thinks that Meng Yao actually opposed him--he basically went from spying on the Wens for the Sunshot Campaign to spying on the Jins (/the other great clans) for his brother and the unaffiliated cultivators running the proto-watchtower/refugee camps. he could have been funneling money into them from his official position, and while Xue Yang is imprisoned (or "imprisoned") in this verse, Meng Yao is essentially in the exact same position as he is in canon--Jin Guangyao, popular Chief Cultivator, secret murderer. also makes it a bit more believable that this refugee camp idea would be feasible.

potential problems:

again with ending on a darker yet anticlimactic note. kind of exacerbated, even, because in the first version we at least have the momentum of Meng Yao being freed from seclusion whereas in this version he's already in a good place

it means I have to give up my "Xue Yang loses it on the battlefield and Meng Yao has to calm him down" scene AND my "Meng Yao tells Jin Guangshan and every member of the cultivation world to go fuck themselves on behalf of his brothers" ideas and I really, really like those.

THE SIMPLE SOLUTION:

I go with my original plan for MY & XY--they ally publicly with WWX, get captured, get imprisoned, but because of the timeline, NMJ doesn't die and Mo Xuanyu gets the idea to resurrect WWX all by himself. the fourth person he's meant to get revenge on is Jin Guangshan. added advantage is that... I'm not planning on writing a huge 100k fic of this, just a handful of related oneshots in a series, and this is an ending I can probably toss in somewhere for background purposes without having to do this whole THING.

potential problems:

it leaves MY and XY with not much to do for most of the time jump. might feel anticlimactic as well?? idk

it would definitely frontload a lot of the drama, because right now the majority of the ideas I have are for pre-death, and this would mean that the ONLY thing WWX has to do in his second life--no hunting down body parts, no Yi City arc, etc--is wake up, draw the OBVIOUS conclusion of "one of Jin Guangshan's bastards wantts me to kill Jin Guangshan" and boom presto, he's done. doesn't exactly show off much, does it?

right now I'm leaning to either the Swap or the Simple solutions... I do really like it when I can make an Alternate Universe fic that preserves as much of the original as possible in creative ways, so the Swap is fun for that, but the Simple is also good for like... stopping myself from going WAY overboard? and also might leave the door open for some endgame 3zun which would be cool......... I'm gonna keep musing.

#welcome to.....my writing brain #feel free to chime in if you want ig #I tried so hard to come up with S names for the second one I really did #this actually was super helpful tho #I kept mixing up bits and pieces so having them all written down is useful

[layzeal]

What would Wei Wuxian canonically wear at each point of his life: A Self-Indulgent Analysis

The novel isn’t very descriptive at all when it comes to WWX’s outfits. All we know is that he began wearing black after he crawled out from the Burial Mounds and didn’t stop since, but even his black outfits can tell a story so!! Let’s see what we’ve got (fun fact: not even the red ribbon is mentioned! only as an easter egg that showed up in the incense burner extras two years later!! buuut i’ll be considering it canon here because it’s fitting and also who cares)

This is analyzing how each adaptation dolls him up with and which one had the best idea according to me, based on fully unbiased points such as “i like it” or “i think it’s neat”, or even “this doesn’t make any sense why is this here?”

i’m really just here to show my thought process of why i like each of these outfits for these events and have no intention of “convincing” anyone of anything, so if you’re wondering “Hey op do you take constructive criticis--” no i do not, let’s go

WARNING..... LONG, VERY LONG POST

Edit 1: Change of preferred design for Ressurection Edit 2: Correction about Qiongqi Path outfit Edit 3: added special mention from new audio drama episode!

1. CR Study Era / Yunmeng Da-Shixiong 

Winner: MDZS Audio Drama (SpoonKid’ & Tai’s art)’s Gusu white guest disciple robes and/or YMJ purple disciple robes

Special Mention: CQL

Sorry guys but there is only one correct answer here, and that is: PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE!!! he is the YMJ DA-SHIXIONG, there is just NO WAY he would wear literally any other color!!! “Oh but Madam Yu had him wear different colors because he’s not part of the family” THAT DOESNT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE, HE’S STILL A DISCIPLE!!! AND A VERY IMPORTANT ONE AT THAT. It’s purple. that boy wears purple and continues to wear purple all the way until Lotus Pier falls

If i’m feeling extra self-indulgent i’ll have him wear white during his CR study era because i can’t see the Lans enjoying a bunch of different colored uniforms in their highly aesthetic home and also WWX in Lan white is incredibly seratonin-inducing, like what’s next?? Gonna get married to a lan and wear it everyday??? heh. but yeah in my heart they all wear white, and if not, WWX has to wear purple, none of that red-and-black thing most of the fandom sticks to

CQL Special Mention

 i LOVE the choice they went with for the white disciple robes!! unlike the AD which has LWJ wear the same type robes of the guest disciples, CQL was very throughout in giving the disciples different styles of robes WITH COLOR ACCENTS!!! TO IDENTIFY MEMBERS OF EACH SECT WITHOUT BREAKING THE AESTHETIC. 10/10 big brain idea, love it!!

HOWEVER i cannot give CQL the cake because.... WWX does not wear purple or any outfit that identifies him as a YMJ disciple, WHICH DRIVES ME INSANE. i know that WWX occupies an awkward place in the sect where he is more than a disciple but less than family, but having his clothes always be too different to fit one or another just... idk, it takes me out of the story everytime. AND THAT RED..... LOOK, WE’RE GONNA GET THERE, BUT IT IS!! NOT!!! TIME!! FOR HIM TO BE WEARING RED!!!! a big flaw here is that already he has too much of the aesthetic he wears as YLLZ, so when he actually transforms it’s just kinda???? okay??? what changed???? not a fan, should have gone with either a lighter blue or more of a purple tone, and REMOVE that red from the skirt, her time will come, just not now!

EXTRA SPECIAL MENTION: Baoshan Karo’s illustrations for the CR era. god i’m SO HAPPY that WWX in Lan guest disciple robes are officially a thing in some editions of the novel now (1) (2)

2. Qishan Discussion Conference

Winner: MDZS Manhua’s red ceremonial uniform

Special Mention(?): Novel cover by Qianerbai

This one was eaaaasy because it’s one of the few occasions where we’re told what Wei Wuxian is wearing, which is the “red, round-collared robe with narrow sleeves, tied with a belt of nine rings—the juniors’ ceremonial uniform during the Qishan Wen Clan’s Discussion Conference” (fanyiyi translation).

CQL doesn’t cover this arc so it’s out. The Donghua still keeps them in those initial designs, the Audio Drama’s only art of this moment "First Meeting with Wen Ning" has him in YMJ purple (which i would be happy with in any other occasion), so all we’re left with is the manhua!! my second favorite adaptation wahoo!!

the artist maotuanxjj made us all a favor in making WWX look extra handsome in his red uniform which follows the novel’s description to a T, so well done!! amazing!!! 10/10!!!! (can i just mention how i love this style of bangs for OG wwx? i wish the manhua had kept it that way ahhhh)

Qianerbai Special Mention

So i wanted to put this here because YES we do get to see him in the red junior uniform, but......... this is the novel’s 3rd volume, and i’m quite sure it’s meant to represent the Phoenix Mountain hunt, which they were NOT wearing red for, so??????????? anyway the uniform is still perfect though, just not on the right moment of the story

3. Wen Indocrination Arc

Winner: MDZS Audio Drama (SpoonKid)’s purple YMJ disciple robes

quick and simple: the answer is the same as the Yunmeng Da-Shixiong, purple!! which once again, SpoonKid is the only one who has represented as such in an official art, so here it is two more of them, as a treat.

4. Yiling Laozu

okay you guys will have to be very patient with me now, because what the fandom mostly refers to YLLZ is actually 3 different stages of his life (+1 bonus) which directly affect whatever he is wearing, and the only thing in common they have is that WWX will be wearing black (OR NOT?)

i went back and forth with how to present this one, and in the end i decided i won’t be announcing a “winner”, because most adaptations only have one look for him in this stage (a great look let’s be real), but it’s not particularly realistic or even canon-compliant for it to be so, so i’ll be looking at adaptations that do change his look during his era and see which are more fitting for each moment

4.a) The Return

Favorite outfit: Donghua, Manhua & Audio Drama’s black/red large robes with wide sleeves

no competition here AT ALL, this outfit SLAPS!! if i have one (1) complaint it’d be the donghua’s fire motif on the sleeves, it just doesn’t make sense for him to wear something so similar to QishanWen’s uniform, but other than that the aesthetic is on point!

the large robes make WWX look bigger, more intimidating and mature. THIS is the look of a man who spent 3 months in hell, eating corpses and fighting the resentment just to crawl out half a ghost half a human. the silhouette is so different from what he had before, it really feels striking!!

about the colors: THIS is the one point in the novel where we know he starts wearing black and red on a daily basis! and it is no coincidence his color palette is the exact same as the ghost flute Chenqing, they’re one in the same, carved into a different shape the Burial Mounds, made for the purpose of leading the dead.

Red is a very strong and lively color, but it’s also a color of extremes. it can mean the most positive and the most negative things, and for Wei Wuxian, what will be very telling about his fate and mental state is how much of it is present in his outfits. He’s always had a red ribbon on his hair, the strong, bright and passionate boy that he was, but things have changed,  wei wuxian is back, but he came back wrong. Pay attention to the red from now on 🔴

for many people, the outfit above is not only his “i’m back baby” outfit, but also the one that defines him for the rest of the following events, and that’s perfectly fine! it is one HELL of a good design! buuuut since i’d never make things easy for myself, let’s look at some other ones

4.b) Sunshot Campaign

Favorite outfit: CQL’s black robes and red inner robes with narrow sleeves and shoulder padding

Special Mention: Zelda CW (i know she’s not an offcial MDZS artist but i NEED her art to explain my point here)

NOW is the time for the red skirt to appear!! man can you imagine if they hadn’t shown him in black and red before and then boom! he shows up in this color palette? it’d have been soo good. ANYWAYS, notice the colors!! Red inner robes, black outer robes, fancy shoulder padding, a red skirt that feels quite striking. Remember what i said about WWX and Chenqing matching and being one in the same? in this stage of his life, such resemblance is even more important, you CANNOT separate WWX from the Ghost Path at this point.

RE: The design, this is a wei wuxian who has now returned to the cultivation world. He took a nice bath, had some soup, took off those clothes that he probably stole from corpses, took his YMJ money and got himself a uniform to kick some QishanWen butts! i like this one for the Sunshot Campaign much more than his poncho look from earlier because i just find it a loooot more fitting for a soldier, ESPECIALLY ZeldaCW’s interpretation over there with the shoulder padding and sleeves that almost look like a cape (and the small YMJ lotus symbols around)

The silhouette isn’t as intimidating as before, but it doesn’t have to be, he’s no longer a resentful ghost haunting the dreams of Wen soldiers. He’s a commander, carrying a military tally of his own, with the favor that the right hand man of Sect Leader Jiang ought to have. He’s become a respected and feared war hero, but that people still look down upon due to his cultivation and refusal to carry a sword. That made him have to carry himself in a proud and arrogant way which years later even WWX himself will recognize as obnoxious. ALL I’M SAYING IS, i find this clean silhouette and design much more fitting for this stage of his life than the loose and ruffled look he had previously, ya feel me? More military-feeling, less angsty ghost man.

(also this is my fav look for YilingWei Sect AUs but that’s neither here nor there)

4.c) Burial Mound Settlement

Favorite outfit: CQL’s grey+black, coarse overalls with red sleeves and belt

(farm boy wwx is SUCH a treat for us, thank u xiao zhan)

LOOOOOVE THIS LOOK SO MUCH!! One major irony in MDZS is how WWX is named the “Yiling Laozu” and is at his most feared in THIS stage, when he is actually in his most harmless form. CQL in general really nailed the vibes of the Burial Mound Settlement as a farming community, we see people in coarse clothing doing all sorts of manual work, there is really no difference from them and any other farmers, no identification at all that these people are Wens other than their surname. And people think he’s forming his own sect, pfff

at this point WWX is really only worried about 1. keeping the barrier of the BM safe 2. keeping everyone fed 3. locking himself in his cave and working on his inventions . As much as he IS still doing plenty of use of demonic cultivation, it doesn’t come close to how he was using it back during Sunshot, leading entire armies of corpses everyday with nothing but resentment. Here, the Ghost Path is still part of him, but it doesn’t define him anymore, he’s much closer to a poor scholar than anything else, and his clothing reflects that!

anyway, coarse materials, slim silhouette, presence of red but much less saturated, looking very soft and cozy, 10/10

Special Mention!!

Spoonkid’s YLLZ!WWX from the new incense burner Audio Drama extra! Notice how the YLLZ is also wearing comfy clothes instead of the usual robes she’s drawn him in for mid-sunshot campaign! We know that the incense burner puts wwx’s in his original body, likely the one from shortly before his death, so it makes sense he’d be wearing something more casual like this!

EDIT

BEFORE WE HEAD TO THE NEXT ONE

so something i had COMPLETELY overlooked and it’s 100% my fault is that, for Jin Ling’s 100 day celebration, Wei Wuxian buys and wears a new outfit that is white. YEAH. I never noticed it, and a apparently many people didn’t either? Thanks to my dearest HellingLaozu on twt for pointing it out!

Unfortunately, however, no adaptation gave us this outfit :’( we were robbed!!! interestingly though, by the time WWX gets unfrozen and heads to Nightless City, he is wearing black once again! Maybe WN and WQ changed him? no idea! could have been an overlook on MXTX’s part, could have been implied in some untranslated part, I’ll have to analyze it more in-depth later!

Since we have no visual reference of him wearing white robes on Qiongqi Path, I’ll maintain my pre-edited text below that assumes he buys a new black outfit instead

EDIT: so it’s technically not official art, but Changyang (that one official artist) did draw the one and only art of the YLLZ in white i’ve ever seen, and it’s gorgeous, check it out!!!

4.d) Nightless City

Favorite outfit: CQL’s black robes with bright red at the sides + red inner robes and cuffed sleeves

Special mention: Novel cover by Qianerbai

now this.... this is A Look. do i even HAVE to tell you to look at the colors and the presence of red? gosh, it’s almost popping out of the screen, it’s incredibly telling to what is happening in the story now

the reason i particularly love this look for the Qionqi Path and Nightless City events is that we ARE TOLD that WWX used WQ’s money to buy not only the pretty tassel pendant for Jin Ling’s gift, but also to buy a new outfit for the ceremony! (edit: it was a white outfit. i’m silly. pls honk my clown nose) GUYS, HE DOLLED HIMSELF UP TO MEET HIS NEPHEW, he wanted to make a good impression so bad 😭 goddammit jin guangshan

anyways! the outfit above is very fitting for it! as always all we know is that he was wearing black, and of course WWX wouldn’t want to give up his YLLZ vibes, he still needs people to fear him if he wants to keep the Wens safe, but the outfit is very nice and clean. You can see it’s nothing too fancy though, nothing too elaborate esp compared to what he used to wear before, but it’s good enough to meet with the Jiangs again! it’s not like the Jins would like him even if he came dressed as an emperor. (edit: this paragraph doesnt rly apply anymore but i still like it, so it stays)

so during the day it’s just that: nice, clean, still striking but not too intimidating. During the NIGHT though??? ohhhh that red starts POPPING so hard it’s almost all you can see, him and Chenqing are once again matching perfectly, and after losing his two closest friends and hearing of how these “righteous people” are vowing to invade their settlement even though they’ve promised not to hurt anyone else if the wen sibs gave themselves up? well, he’s ready to commit some murders <3

if you asked me “hey lace what would you wear to crash a party and go into a hopeless descent into madness as you lose everyone you’ve ever loved?”, probably a nice lil outfit with some satured red on the sides.

Qianerbai Special Mention

I can’t help but feel like that CQL look look was inspired by th *checks when the 2nd edition of the Pinsin edition was released* [it was July 2019] [i am now VERY confused] ok so i was gonna say CQL took inspo from this novel cover, but i just realized as i type this that this cover was released long after the show finished filming so now i’m??? HM??? COINCIDENCE??

anyway this look that WWX has in the qianerbai novel cover is VERY good too, has all of the pros i mentioned above when it comes to color and “yeah i can visit carp tower and see my nephew in this AND kill a bunch of people 3 days later”. if the CQL look had a red belt i would honestly be even more sold! honestly if it wasnt for the white inner robe, this could have been the winner as well!

5. Ressurection

Winner: MDZS Donghua’s black/red short outer robe and white underrobe

EDIT - NEW WINNER: MDZS Manhua’s black short outer robes w/ red accent and white underrobes

[so yes the text below was for the donghua, but then my dearest @10000111100101100 brought attention to WWX’s ressurection look in the manhua and WOW, somehow i’d forgotten about it!! and it’s even more fitting!! so yeah new winner <3]

GOD I LOVEEEE THIS LOOK FOR MXY!WWX SOOOOO MUCH, i may be a bit of mxy simp we all know that but ugh!! it’s so good!! i forgot the name rn but these short robes coupled with the disheveled hair and trousers is just. idk, it gives him such a youthful look that is especially fitting for the absolute gremlin energy that WWX brings upon ressurection!

the outfit is dark, but it isn’t like what he wore during his YLLZ era. Of course the black and red are still very pronounced, he did just get dragged back from the dead by a demonic ritual he wrote down himself, and has no qualms about commanding corpses, digging graves, and creating talismans as soon as he can walk again. my man is back in business!! though of course, his mentality is different now, he’s fully aware that he’s got nothing rooting him down, no responsabilities, no one to protect, free to do whatever he wants!! and then promptly forgets all about it as soon as few teenagers look like they need help lmao

basically: this wei wuxian is very dependent on guidao, but thanks to his new freedom, it’s not to a level that could endenger him or cause major problems if he lost control. This outfit passes the message well by still having dark colors, though mostly on a grey scale, with red left only for some accents on his lapels/belt/ribbon. he doesn’t look intimidating, or fancy, or scary at all, he’s really just vibing, good for him!

also is that a white inner robe? ohoho... some changes are already beginning to take place

6. Present & Post-Canon

Winner: MDZS Audio Drama’s black outer robes + white inner robes and pants, with a red accent only on the ribbon/chenqing/belt

Special mention: CQL’s post-carp tower black outfit + white inner robe

if this post feels like i’m tooting the horn of the MDZS audio drama it’s because i am. SO!! for those who don’t know, the AD’s design for WWX is quite unique! in all versions he’s always seen wearing a dark robe with loose sleeves on top of a white inner robe. his pants are usually white as well and so is the belt

do you notice the almost complete absence of red? it’s usually left only for his ribbon, and more rarely, his belt, but that’s it!! of course, through most of the present timeline, chenqing is nowhere to be seen. obviously that doesn’t stop wwx from using demonic cultivation, but once again, it is in a far smaller scale than he did back in the day, and usually only low level spells (that on his hands become powerful)

all of that red has beem almost completely replaced by white, and if that makes you think that it’s because he now has lan wangji by his side to protect him, congratulations, you get a kiss on the head and a cookie. the word that comes to mind for me is: soft. this is what this AD outfit makes me feel. Soft. WWX is no longer controlled by his debts and duties, he doesn’t have to solely rely on demonic cultivation to protect himself, LWJ offers him that freedom and protection now, what he’s been craving since his first life, and that’s visible not only in his color palette but in the silhouette as well: his sleeves are long and flowy, but his black robes don’t outright consume him as they did back when he first crawled back from the burial mounds. LWJ’s influence is seen in his new easygoing disposition, that unlike his youthful energy, it’s far more calm. he’s matured and grown into that love and trust and man it feels SO good to see!!

CQL Special Mention

i always really liked this cql outfit, and for quite the same reasons as i’ve mentioned above! the feeling of calmness, trust and safety it gives to WWX is so great it makes.... well, soft! a total lack of red, a black robe over white inner robes (LWJ’s... inner robes), and it’s very fitting for this part of the narrative as well. WWX just woke up from being stabbed at Carp Tower (which in the novel is also when he starts noticing his own feelings for LWJ) and things get quite sweet and domestic. LXC tells us the story of Madam Lan, cql wangxian have that nice little moment in the snow that totally doesn’t end in sex, they see the rabbits together, leave CR, wwx plays wangxian.mp3, they either meet mianmian (cql) or jump into a pile of hay together (novel) and it’s basically just all so so sweet.

the reason i can’t give it the cake though it’s just that it would be better imo if it followed the AD footsteps and gave him loose sleeved instead of narrow, and added a bit more white, just to REALLY show LWJ’s influence in his current mental state, but other than that it’s a very nice looking outfit, with great vibes, very simple but very domestic!! love it!

i ended up putting waaaaay too much thought into all of this lmao, but anyway!! these are the outfits i believe are the most fitting to each stage of WWX’s life, according to the novel’s descriptions and my own personal interpretations. i love how all the adaptations expanded a little bit into it and allowed us to pick and choose our favorite ones. MDZS is one hell of a good book but it really is made even better with the added thought of fan and other cretaive insights

if you made it to the end, congratulations, i honestly didn’t think anyone would read this *gives you another kiss on the forehead and a cookie*

#mdzs #the gif isnt serving any purpose i just think he's beautfiul #my goal in this fandom is to ignore all of the popular and repetitive discourse #while having very strong opinions about crap that does NOT matter #and god i even wanted to talk more abt LWJ but that isn't happening this post is already a MONSTER #the WWX brainworms have completely eaten my brain. oh well. enjoy! #modao #lace speaks

[guqin-and-flute]

I wish you would write a fic where Xue Yang went to the Burial Mounds to learn from the Yiling Laozu when he was young and he grew up decent and with a baby brother (Lan Sizhui) but then everything happens and he and Sizhui end up with Lan Wangji anyway. And he doesn't usually go for help when he's in trouble, but Lan Wangji manages to gain his trust enough that he starts to go after him for help, in a shy and maybe even petulant way and Lan Wangji starts to smile like the snow is melting to him and Yue Yang it's kinda thrown off by that smile because the only other person who would smile like that to him was Wei Wuxian and he misses his gege so much. And they start to really really bond, and when he's like 18 he's glued to Lan Wangji and whenever Lan Wangji has to go out, he goes with him, unless he has classes because then Lan Wangji is not that cool to let him skip classes.

[OoOoO. This made a little scene pop into my head, so here's part of the first meeting. No promises to continue but this has intrigued me as an idea, so who's to say! I've obviously played with the ages since in either canon, Xue Yang is at the very least a late teenager when Wei Wuxian is known as the Yiling Patriarch. You know me, I look canon in the eye and backflip out the window, that’s just how it is. Xue Yang doesn’t know exactly how old he is and he looks younger because he’s all malnourished and stuff, so he’s anywhere from 8 to 13, here.]

"Gongzi. There's someone watching us."

Wei Wuxian cracked an eye, wincing at the stab of sunlight that had apparently peaked above the roof behind them since he had closed his eyes. Raising his arm against it, he rolled his head to follow Wen Ning's gaze.

Down the street, a boy stood at the mouth of an alley, feet planted, openly staring. He looked somewhere around...ugh, Wuxian was horrible with kids ages. 9? 11? He was skinny and short, as many street kids were--which he unquestionably was. His clothes were several inches too short and of that indeterminate color that meant years of dirt and grime that would never completely wash out. His hair was unkempt and half balled up on the top of his head in a ratty topknot. And it was something in the eyes. Too old and too sharp for such a young face. You could always tell by the eyes.

"Hey. What?" Wuxian called without sitting up.

The boy said nothing, unmoving.

"I see you just standing over there like a weird little goblin. Are you trying to hide? You're doing a terrible job, you're literally out in the open. What? Do you want a radish? We're selling them. Do you have money?"

The boy was still silent.

"Do you...we have lots of them, do you want one?" Wen Ning called hesitantly, holding out the vegetable he had been waggling hopefully at passerby's.

Wei Wuxian tapped Wen Ning's wrist with the ChenQing. "Don't give him the huge one, he'll make himself sick trying to eat it all at once. Give him a smaller one." As Wen Ning turned and fumbled in their sack, Wuxian sat up. "Hey. Come here, you can have a radish, if you want. Just don't tell your friends, we're trying to make a living, here."

The strange kid tilted his head, eyes narrowing, focused on Wuxian.

"You're a creepy little thing, aren't you? Fine. No radishes for you. If you learn some manners and come over here to talk properly, then you'll get one." With that, he turned so most of his back faced the kid and bellowed, “RADISHES! FRESH, AMAZING RADISHES!”

When he glanced back over his shoulder, the mouth of the alleyway was empty.

-

“You know, if we grew potatoes, we would have sold so much more. Why does your sister undermine my economic prowess? Why--what?” He stopped, catching ChenQing mid-spin between his fingers as he felt Wen Ning stop behind him, the squeaky wagon wheel going silent.

“I think he’s back, gongzi.”

“Who?”

“That boy. I think he’s followed us.”

Wuxian turned and peered around, but couldn’t see anyone in the gloom under the trees. “Why?”

“I keep--I keep hearing footsteps behind us, but...but they’re very light.”

Shrugging, Wuxian leaned down and scooped up an apple off of the pile of offerings people kept leaving on the giant stone that marked the beginning of the wards to the Burial Mounds. “He’s probably just seeing if he can catch us alone to rob us or something. Whatever. He’ll probably just take the food here and leave,” he raised his voice so it echoed off the trees. “‘Cause he won’t be able to get past the wards and I don’t suggest he try. Though it would be hilarious, so what do I care.” Crunching into the apple definitively, he set off again, trusting that Wen Ning would follow him up.

-

“What the fuck,” Wuxian growled groggily, swaying upright.

The scroll he had fallen asleep reading slid down his chest and clattered to the floor beside his nest of blankets. It was dark, the candle he’d lit on his bedside rock burned down to a cold stub. And someone was trying to mess with the wards on the mountain. They weren’t very good at it and they were absolutely nowhere near successful. But it was like a mosquito buzzing in his ear, a little zing in his spiritual awareness that had him scratching at his scalp like a louse-ridden mutt. It was probably that damn waif from town.

Wei Wuxian had sympathy for him, as a former street rat from that city himself. It was a fucking horrible and hard life he wouldn’t wish on anyone, let alone a kid. But he was definitely less sympathetic at--he squinted out the little sky light for a clue, but it was cloudy, obscuring the moon and stars. He grumbled again, scrubbing his face--at stupid-middle-of-the-night-o’clock. He was the fucking Yiling Laozu, dammit, and that should at least gain him enough terror-induced respect to not have to deal with rude little punks in the wee hours of the morning.

If he was still there in the morning, Wuxian would go down and give him what for. But right now, he could fuck right off. Turning over, he yanked the blanket over his head and grumpily clawed after sleep.

-

“Whoever he is, I’m going to drop kick him back down the mountain,” Wei Wuxian groused over breakfast, pinching A-Yuan’s cheeks as he sat in his lap and clumsily fed them both congee.

Both Wen siblings traded an annoyingly knowing look with each other and ignored him, Wen Ning turning away with the empty congee bowls and Wen Qing sipping her water.

“What?”

Wen Qing pulled an innocent face and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“You think I won’t? That little asshole was there all night--”

“What asshole?” A-Yuan repeated curiously in his lap.

“Hey, never you mind, potty mouth, don’t say that, who do you think you are?” Wuxian demanded, as if appalled, covering the whole of the child’s face with his hand.

A-Yuan squirmed and pawed at it, giggling. Wen Qing rolled her eyes and sighed. When A-Yuan managed to peel his palm away, Wei Wuxian curled his lip at the boy as if disgusted until he offered up another spoonful of congee, which he faux-reluctantly stooped down to eat. “I’m ‘onna ‘o ‘own vere an’ deach ‘im a resson,” he warned Wen Qing around his mouthful.

“Then go,” she put her chin in her hand, watching him with bored eyes. “Tell me how it goes.”

“I will!”

“Mmhmm.”

-

“Hey!”

There was no one, his voice echoing impotently off the spindly, bare trees. Except there fucking wasn’t, the little pest, and they both knew it. “Hey, get out here.”

Nothing.

Wei Wuxian crossed his arms and glared down at the pile of offering food--it was definitely about half gone, the buns and fruit and even some of the spices gone. “You little twerp, I know you’re out there. You either come here right now, get lost, or get cursed. I have powers beyond your mortal comprehension and I’ll turn every one of your bloodline into a newt.”

Nothing but the wind whistling through the trees. Until, “Yeah?”

The tone wasn’t scared or pitiably thin or even cowed. It was one of interest and it came from above his head. Wuxian left his arms crossed and looked up to see the boy squatting on a thick tree branch, peering down at him with bird-bright eyes and the ghost of an insolent smirk. Stepping back so he didn’t have to crane his neck, Wuxian scowled up at him. “Yeah. What do you want?”

“Can you really?”

“Can I what, you impertinent little shit--I asked you a question! Respect your elders!”

“Turn people into things.”

“I can turn them into corpses just fine, so don’t test me. What is your deal?”

“So. You’re the Yiling Laozu.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Are you?”

Wuxian snorted. “You don’t get an answer until I do, little man, I don’t just give away information.”

Those eyes slowly scanned down the length of him, that smirk widening. “You don’t look like much. But I guess you must be.”

“And why is that?”

He raised the hand that wasn’t steadying himself on the trunk and pointed to Wuxian’s waist. “Flute.”

Despite himself, he automatically gripped ChenQing, then snorted, twirling the end of her tassel. “Lots of people have flutes. Ever seen a Lan? They’re practically bristling with instruments.”

“No.”

“No what?”

“I’ve never seen a Lan. What’s a Lan?”

“It’s a cultivation sect. Don’t you know anything? Who raised you?”

Slowly, the kid tilted his head. “No one.”

Aha. They were getting somewhere. Wuxian kept up his aggrieved frown. “Well then you’ve never heard of Hanguang-jun, which is a shame, because he’d probably have a lot more patience for a little delinquent like you. Why are you looking for the Yiling Laozu?”

He blinked slowly, like a lizard, that little smirk still on his lips. “To teach me.”

“You really don’t know anything--everyone knows he doesn’t take disciples.”

The kid rested his chin on the heel of his palm, his elbow on his knee, hooding his eyes as if bored. “If you’re really half as dumb as you’re pretending to be, maybe I don’t want you to be. There’s a banner people put here, all fancy and black and red. Offerings everywhere. Wards on the mountain he lives on. Who else would you be?”

“Maybe I just live here, you punk. You can’t even read.”

He shrugged. “Don’t have to. Pretty obvious. Teach me.”

“Teach you what?”

“Demonic Cultivation.”

Wuxian threw back his head and laughed derisively for far too long. When he petered off, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, the brazen smugness was gone from the kid’s smile, leaving it cold and more of a sneer. But his eyes were narrowed and burning. Aha. A little shit with pride and spice. “Like I said, little brat--I don’t take disciples. And you have a lot of audacity to think that you could handle it.”

At this, his eyes lit, the sullen danger bleeding from his face into intent and he leaned so far forward on the branch, Wei Wuxian’s arms immediately unfolded and began to raise to catch him before he stopped himself. “I knew it! It is you! Teach me. I’ll do anything you ask--I’ll dig up corpses, I’ll kill your enemies--”

“Good gods, you just jump straight to murder! Do you think that’s all I do? You saw me selling radishes on the side of the road and think that my top priority is hiring a 5 year old assassin? What do you want to learn this for, anyway?”

The boy eagerly swung down, dropping to the ground before him with a thunk that made Wei Wuxian wince in sympathy for his ankles. “Destroy my enemies. Make them wish they had never met me--like you.”

“That’s hilarious. What kind of enemies would a toddler even have, anyway?”

That flash of anger came into the kids eyes again and he bared his teeth. “I’m not a toddler.”

“How old are you, then?”

He shrugged--and Wei Wuxian could see he was missing the pinky finger on his left hand, leaving a gnarled scar. In fact, all the fingers on his left hand were slightly misshapen, some joints overlarge, some digits crooked at the end. Wuxian’s stomach twisted slightly. It was old. It happened when he was a much younger child. “Dunno. Does it matter?”

Kneading his temple, Wei Wuxian let out an annoyed sigh. “What is your name, twerp?”

This time, his face split into a wide grin, eyes burning and intent. “Does that mean you will?”

Wuxian glared down at him, hands on his hips. “It means I want to know who the hell kept me up all last night so I can spell your name correctly in my curses.”

Not looking in the least bit worried, the kid mirrored him, hands on his hips. “Xue Yang.”

“Xue Yang, you are nosey and obnoxious.”

With a grin, Xue Yang came forward and grabbed the cuff of Wuxian’s sleeve, tugging. “Yiling Laozu, shifu, gongzi, teach me to make them die screaming. I’ll do all your dirty work. I’ll never complain. Teach me, make me your disciple.”

Wuxian pursed his lips down at him, wrinkling his nose. “No.”

That smile widened, sharpened, and he tugged hard, once. Then, his hand darted out and before Wei Wuxian could stop him, Xue Yang yelped and reeled back a few steps, cradling it to his gut, his sharp little face hard and set.

Snatching ChenQing from his belt, Wuxian brandished it at the kid and bellowed, “You little idiot! What did you think was going to happen?! ChenQing is a first class spiritual tool, of course she��s going to fucking bite you if you try to steal her! Why would I take on a thief who doesn’t know the first thing about cultivation in the first place?!”

Xue Yang’s nostrils flared and he stayed where he was, still holding his chastened hand. “I’ll learn. Teach me.”

“No!”

“I’ll do anything you ask.”

Wei Wuxian threw his hands in the air and turned his back on him. “Anything like steal my flute? Get lost.”

He hadn’t taken 2 steps when the kid yelled at the top of his lungs, “Teach me! I’ll do anything! Anything at all!” His voice was raw and strained with the edge of a crazed laugh. “I’m not leaving! I’ll test your wards all night, every night! I’ll spoil all the food offerings! I’ll--I’ll shoot anyone who leaves this mountain! You’ll have to kill me!”

Geez, this kid was obnoxious! Scowling, Wei Wuxian whirled around. “You think I won’t?”

Breathing hard, his eyes alight, Xue Yang grinned with all his teeth. “Then do it. You’ll never get rid of me, otherwise. I’ll make your life a nightmare. I’ll find a way to get in and steal your secrets and kill you.”

Wuxian rolled his eyes. “Wow, that’s a super compelling argument to make me want to live with you. I’m sure you have many friends.”

Xue Yang’s jaw worked as he panted, his hands both fists. Then, he said in a tightly controlled, trembling voice, “I’ll do anything. I’ll listen to your every order. I’ll follow every rule. I’ll never question you.”

Coolly, Wuxian raised an eyebrow. “Anything? Dig latrine holes and grind my ink for hours? Stoke the kitchen fires and launder clothes? Babysit A-Yuan and sell radishes with Wen Ning?” he demanded dryly. “You have a really specific and grandiose view of my life, kid. I live in a cave on a mountain of corpses with 50 disgraced cultivators the world wants dead. It’s not a luxurious castle of malevolence. It’s all chores, up there. I don’t have work for you to do because I work alone. You’ll be my servant.”

“I don’t care,” he said, immediately. “I’ll do it. I’ll prove it to you.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Wuxian tilted his head back, fist on his hip. It was silent for a long while, just the moan of the wind up the mountain and Xue Yang’s harsh, slowing breath. There was a scuff and Wuxian tensed, ready for this kid to try stabbing him or something equally as “convincing” but he had simply dropped to his knees, looking up at him with a falsely beatific smile, all teeth and shining youth. “Please. Shifu. Gongzi.” He thought a second, then his smile widened and he tilted his head, all cutesy. “Gege.”

Wei Wuxian snorted, twirling ChenQing expertly between his fingers. “You’re way too old for that to work properly. You have to be A-Yuan’s age.” There was something when all that cunning and watchful tension was gone from his face, though, however insincerely. He really wasn’t very old. He was just a kid with nowhere to go, if his desperation was to be believed.

Ugh.

“Ugh. Get over here.”

Xue Yang scrambled to his feet, face eager. Wei Wuxian pulled out a talisman, bit his thumb to bleeding, sketched out a rough entry pass and shoved it into the kid’s dirty lapel. “You’re on probation. You step out of line, you’re out. You do something to endanger us, you’re out. You annoy me too much, you’re out. If I’m in a really bad mood, I’ll plant you in ground so you can feed our radishes. I’m not teaching you.” He added, forcefully as Xue Yang’s grin came back in full, triumphant force. “A kid your age has no business learning things like that. But you can have a roof over your head at night.”

“Sure, gege,” he answered, slyly. “Whatever you say.”

With a noise of aggravated disgust, Wei Wuxian spun on his heel and stalked back up the mountain, trusting him to follow. This little shit was going to try to steal his notes and spy on him for sure. What a hassle.

#[sighs heavily] this is going to be a 'verse isn't it? #my fic #my stuff #xy #wwx #au party #ask #I haven't written much of Xue Yang this was interesting #Wei Wuxian is a softie and everyone but him knows it

[robininthelabyrinth]

A-Yuan wasn’t the only child among the Wen Remnants, just the youngest.

Children's Day - ao3

Lan Wangji carefully scooped up the boy out of his hiding place, tucked beneath a pile of stones, sick with fever and fast asleep.

It was a good hiding place. If Lan Wangji hadn’t played Inquiry and demanded to know if there were any living beings around in this cursed place of death, he would never have found the small child.

He remembered him – this was little A-Yuan, who Wei Wuxian had taken down into town to play, the one Lan Wangji had bought all those toys for in his confusion, the one who called him rich-gege. Barely more than two years old, having never known anything but war.

He was all that was left, now. There was nothing else left in the battlefield.

No one else left.

Lan Wangji closed his eyes in pain.

I’ll care for him for you, he promised Wei Wuxian’s ghost, wherever it might be now. Now that you cannot.

I’ll take him back to Gusu to raise as my own – wishing you were by my side.

-

-Earlier-

“Sect Leader!” one of his aides cried out when he staggered back into camp. “What – who’s that?”

Jiang Cheng looked down at the girl in his arms. She was – four, maybe? Five? He had no idea.

She looked a bit like Wen Qing.

“I found her hiding in the corner of the battlefield when she made a noise,” he said hoarsely. “The Wen sect remnants…by the time I got there, they were almost all dead already, all her family. She’s – she’s young. It didn’t seem right.”

Wei Wuxian always liked children, he thought vaguely to himself as he looked down at her. It wasn’t so much of a surprise that he would keep one there…in fact, if he thought back to that horrible meeting they’d had that one time he’d come to the Burial Mounds to try to talk to Wei Wuxian, he thought he remembered there being a small child there. This must be her.

She was bigger than he remembered, but that was what happened with small children, wasn’t it?

“Her surname is Wen?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng snapped automatically, and his aide took a step back from his vehemence. “The Wen sect is dead, you understand? All of them. The cultivation world refused to allow them to live, that much is obvious enough. Her surname…”

He looked down at her.

I failed Wei Wuxian, he thought grimly. I won’t fail his legacy.

“Her surname will be Jiang.”

-

-Earlier-

“We found this child hiding in the Demon Subduing Cave,” one of the guards reported, looking nervous. “Lianfeng-zun – what do we do with them?”

Jin Guangyao frowned down at the child, judging the child’s age to be about five or six – maybe seven, considering the likelihood of malnutrition at the Burial Mounds. If they were any younger, he would’ve said that the child ought to just execute them as useless; any older, and he would’ve had no choice but to declare them an enemy combatant, and thereby order them executed.

At this age, though…they were still young enough to be taught to forget their current surname, and to learn new loyalties, and yet old enough to perhaps remember a little of what they had learned, living as they had for a few years with the inventor of demonic cultivation.

Jin Guangyao glanced at the papers in his hands, full of barely legible scribbles, laying out powerful new spells and interesting ideas. They would help Xue Yang with his work – but not as much as a helper would, and naturally they’d just brutally executed all the other ‘helpers’ that might have been available.

Not exactly Jin Guangyao’s personal preference, but he wasn’t the one leading the Jin sect army.

Still, his father, who had been the one leading, had retired to his tent, and now Jin Guangyao was the one with the power, left to be in charge of mopping up. That, in turn, gave him a little more leeway, which meant he could implement his own thoughts, rather than badly thought out instructions.

“Put the child in my tent,” he said, and smiled. “The poor thing must have gotten lost and entered the battlefield – after we arrived. You understand?”

The guard saluted deeply. “Lianfeng-zun is kind and beneficent,” he said, and his expression was worshipful. “I will tell the others that the child is from some distant Jin branch.”

Jin Guangyao hadn’t intended for him to do that, but – well, he couldn’t exactly refute it now, could he, and anyway there were worse things to happen. Everyone would know that he had kindly taken in some orphaned child of war, which would be good for his reputation.

He smiled and nodded, and thought of the future.

-

-Earlier-

“Well, shit,” Nie Mingjue said, staring at the trio of children: nine or ten years old, he thought, maybe a little older, two girls and a boy. They stared back at him, wide-eyed and terrified – they were very clearly trying to sneak off the Burial Mounds down the back way.

Nie Mingjue rubbed his face, glad that he’d insisted on doing the forward scout work before the attack tomorrow morning himself rather than let it go to someone else. He hadn’t wanted to come to this blasted place in the first place, being that he still wasn’t sure exactly what had gone down with Wei Wuxian, who’d been a good man once. But good Nie cultivators had died at Lanling City at Wen Ning’s hands, the Jin sect claiming that that brutal attack was at Wei Wuxian’s instigation, and at the Nightless City at Wei Wuxian’s hands directly, and he didn’t have any evidence to exculpate the man, either; he had no grounds to look the families of those Nie cultivators in the eye and tell them not to pursue vengeance against the man who had slaughtered their brothers and fathers and sons, sisters and mothers and daughters, like they meant nothing.

They deserved vengeance.

Just as he had, for his father.

But at the same time…

“You’re all surnamed Wen, I take it?” he asked, and they slowly nodded. “Dafan Wen?”

Another nod.

“Wrong answer,” he said, making a snap decision. This wasn’t like his father at all, not really; he had wanted to kill Wen Ruohan, who had done the deed himself, while these children clearly hadn’t done anything. “Swear to me here and now that you won’t seek revenge for your sect or family, and you can be surnamed Nie instead.”

They looked at each other.

“Your family didn’t send you to run away because they wanted you to take revenge,” he said. It was a guess, but he could tell from the way their shoulders sagged that he was right. “They wanted you to live. Well?”

They swore.

He took them home.

-

-Earlier-

She tripped and fell flat on her face.

“Hey, girl!”

She looked up, eyes wide with terror – she hadn’t expected to be caught so soon – but the cultivator in front of her didn’t strike her down. He was a young man, just a few years older than her, and he looked nice, kneeling to help her up.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “Did you get lost?”

Lost? From where would she get lost, exactly?

Despite that, she nodded.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Here isn’t a good place, though – we’re going to have a battle tomorrow…can you tell me where you’re from?” He frowned. “Or – can’t you speak?”

An idea suddenly came to mind, and she shook her head, lifting up her hands to mime signs like the ones she’d seen Lady Wen and her brother use sometimes when they needed to talk without disturbing others.

“Doesn’t talk,” he murmured to himself. “Clothing of white, ripped all to ribbons –”

She’d torn out any trace of the red sun. White was a common color, but she was old enough to know that she couldn’t let anyone know she was surnamed Wen.

“Oh, I’ve read about this before! Are you a bird yao that’s cultivated to humanity?”

What?

She’d been thinking of trying to pass as a traumatized war veteran, but she was only fourteen, after all; it wasn’t very believable. Of course, it was a lot more believable that bird yao – who would leap to that conclusion?

“My surname is Ouyang,” the man said, smiling brightly at her. “You should come back with me – I can teach you to speak, and we can give you a name…how about ‘Luo’ as a surname? That has to do with birds. Or we could surname you Bai, instead, since your clothing is white! Or maybe -”

She smiled helplessly at his nonsense. What a silly, cheerful man! Maybe she’d overestimated his age, he couldn’t be more than two or three years older, at most, and his brain was clearly not in the right place, filled up to the brim with romantic stories and adventure tales instead of facts.

It was a nice change, actually.

She accepted his hand as she stood.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

-

-Earlier-

Lan Wangji had returned home and submitted to a dreadful punishment. The elders he had injured on Wei Wuxian’s behalf were either in treatment or recovering.

As for the rest that had been at the Nightless City…

Many were dead.

Lan Qiren landed in the Burial Mounds, lips pressed tightly together.

He knew he was taking a risk in coming here to Wei Wuxian’s lair – no matter what Lan Wangji thought, whatever good points he’d had in the past, the man was now little better than a mad dog. He’d caused the death of three thousand people just the day before, three thousand innocents that hadn’t had anything to do with anything; why would he hesitate to attack his old teacher?

There was already talk of a siege – Jiang Cheng himself had promised to lead it, to wipe off the stain on the Jiang sect’s record, and the Jin sect had been right behind him. Even Nie Mingjue had been dragged in against his will, suborned by his sect members’ need for vengeance. As for the Lan Sect…Lan Xichen had looked so stricken by the thought that Lan Qiren had volunteered for the grim duty, despite Lan Qiren having never been much of a fighter and even less of a general. He intended to take only the smallest possible contingent, and to limit their work as much as possible to cleansing the dead rather than killing those who remained there – that much, at least, he could do for his nephew.

Either way, though, no matter his powers, Wei Wuxian would not live out the week.

If Lan Qiren desired vengeance, he need only wait.

And yet, here he was.

Alone, practically unarmed – and here nonetheless.

An old woman came out from the cave and squinted at him.

“It’s over,” she said sadly. “Isn’t it?”

Lan Qiren looked at her. One of the Wen remnants that Wei Wuxian had surrounded himself with, he assumed; the ones he’d given up his comfortable life for, claiming he was only acting as a righteous man ought. Perhaps he even had thought he was, back then.

Perhaps he really had been, back then.

“Yes,” Lan Qiren said, and cleared his throat. “After what he did at the Nightless City – the verdict is unquestionably death. But the rest of you…there are armies coming, and armies are not known for their leniency, especially not on passerby with the wrong surname. But they’re not here yet. There’s still time to flee – if you go now, you could take on a new surname and find some quiet place to live on.”

Lan Wangji had said they were civilians. Civilian life was to be prioritized above all else.

Lan Qiren was only doing what he must.

Despite his well-meant warnings, however, the old lady shook her head.

“There’s nowhere to go, and we won’t give up our surname,” she said, polite but stubborn to the last. “But thank you for taking the time to come here to tell us.”

“Wangji said that there were children here,” Lan Qiren insisted, ignoring her refusal. “If you won’t flee with them, at least send those that are old enough out on their own, and hide the younger ones. Tell them to forget their surnames – most people won’t rampantly murder children, so there’s a chance they’ll make it through, and live. Can you deny them that, just for pride?”

That gave the old woman pause.

“We’ll do what we can,” she said, and then eyed him. “How good are you at medicine?”

Lan Qiren frowned. “I can’t provide care –”

“She’s already dead. Come help anyway.”

The woman in question was not already dead, but dying – she was in her late teens, seventeen or eighteen at most, and she was in labor. From the glassiness of her eyes, the redness of her cheeks, and the threadiness of her pulse, it was clear that infection had long ago set in. It was not an exaggeration to say she was dead, little better than a corpse.

She was little more than a child.

“I don’t want her to die alone,” the old woman said. “But if you stay with her, I can use the time to try to take care of the rest. You’re not wrong, I suppose – the children, at least, deserve a chance to live on, even if it means leaving our surname behind.”

Lan Qiren looked down at the woman, unconscious already and unlikely to ever wake, and yet still whimpering. “And her child?”

The old woman looked surprised. “Can a child born like this still live?”

Lan Qiren had almost no medical training beyond the most superficial basics that were the necessity for any battlefield or night-hunt, with one sole exception: he had supervised the births of both his nephews by himself with little aid – his brother’s wife hadn’t wanted anyone else to be present, possibly in an attempt to prematurely enter her grave, possibly just out of spite. He had studied very hard in the days leading up to those births, and knew far more on the subject than most men did.

“It’s possible,” he said. “Unlikely, but – possible.”

He hesitated for a long moment.

“I can take the baby,” he finally said. “Pass him off as some war-orphan child of distant Lan cousins, sent to me on account of their deaths. I could raise him, or else give him to my cousin to raise; he’s got a large enough family that no one would question it.”

“Why would you do that?”

Lan Qiren looked at the woman who was dying, little more than a child herself. “Because of the children I can’t help.”

The old woman was quiet for a little while.

“Very well,” she said, and leaned forward to whisper the name the young woman had thought about for her child into his ear. “That works with Lan as a surname, wouldn’t it? That’s not bad.”

“Not bad at all,” Lan Qiren agreed, and rolled up his sleeves, settling down beside the girl. “Not bad at all.”

#mdzs #lan wangji #jiang cheng #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #lan qiren #original characters #my fic #my fics #children's day #some untamed elements

[tangledinmdzs]

Your talent for writing is a blessing! It makes my day a bit better reading your content. if your not busy (please take a break if you are) is it ok to request how LXC, JC, WWX and LWJ react to their s/o who is very stoic and cold smile for the first time? Like they never see them smile in canon au? Advance Thank You

hi!

thank you so much for your sweetness 

this such a cute and familiar concept. i’ve feel like i’ve written something similar before for song lan...; if i find that post again i’ll share it here, hehe.

please enjoy this concept with some more characters!

to you~

*:..｡o○　　○o｡..:*

Lan Xichen

it is not coldness, as much as it is pure seriousness

you didn’t really ever smile 

you were very work oriented, straight forward and focused

so smiling, laughing, stronger (happier) emotions were mostly pushed to the side

not when there was so much work to be done, as the leader and protector that you were 

but in the instance that Lan Xichen catches a smile on your face

that being, when you are giving him a tour of your one of the outer villages of your sect

and a child comes running up to you,

the smile that you give the toddler is absolutely radiant,

so loving, caring

and it isn’t hard to see why the children of your sect love you so much 

watching your serene profile as you pick the young boy up, nudge his cheek as he laughs at you

Lan Xichen knows that you will be a great leader,

and he’s in awe, a little love struck, by the warmth of happiness, spread on your face 

Jiang Cheng

honestly, Jiang Cheng would have just thought that you didn’t know how to smile

your presence at sect leader meetings was similar to the frost on the branches in winter

cold, biting, freezing

you were quiet, serious and rarely ever laughed

which is why the expression that you wear now makes him quite winded

this soft, laid back expression on your face, as you sit with him on one of the higher floors of the shops,

overlooking the riverside port of his town

it is the first time that you have ever accepted an invitation to dine with him, 

working with you, he understood that you rarely ever made time for anything that wasn’t business

he doesn’t know why you’d agree to meet him tonight,

but he’s grateful that you did

“thank you,” he hears you tell him, as you lift the cup of liquor to your lips and down it 

when you put it down, a bit heavy handedly 

he watches this small smile grace your face, a mixture of intoxication and melancholy as you stare at the cup in your hands

Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what to think of your expression

doesn’t think he can ever forget it

Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian has never seen you smile

and he didn’t think that he would ever get to 

your natural disposition was quite cold, closed off ever since he met you 

now that he’s known you for a few months,

it is still much the same

though instead of coldness, he understands the serious look you wear is more out of shyness than anything

he’s getting to know your emotions little by little

remembering your squeezed eye and light shout when you’re surprised, or scared

knows the smirk that you sometimes don when he does something stupid 

but still yet to see a full smile 

“c’mon, smile for me, won’t you? it’ll probably help the birds sing,” Wei Wuxian teases you, now that he’s so easily walked over past the line of acquaintance and into friend

and you hate to admit it, but you think of him as a friend too

and it’s after the probably hundredth time that he teases you on your walk that you finally

stop, turn over to him and give him this full blown forced smile, 

and you look like a kid, a five year old

it gets a loud laugh out of Wei Wuxian, one that colors your ears and cheeks red as you quickly stop ahead of him on the dirt path

your face is so bright, so cute even with such a forced smile

and as Wei Wuxian follows your lead,

he gets even more curious, of how bright a real smile would look on you

Lan Wangji

honestly seeing a smile from the Hanguang-Jun himself, was also a feat in and of itself

but where Lan Wangji just usually didn’t smile 

you, yourself, didn’t like to smile

and it was the oddest idea that Lan Wangji had ever come across, ever since you had told him about it,

“people won’t take me seriously if i smile,” you had said, when the topic comes along after a long night of scroll reading and advisement and boring work

and that had been the end of that

you don’t smile, at all, ever really and keep that little bit of yourself secret

until a few months down the line of your friendship with Lan Wangji

when he finally sees you smile, 

he is quite taken back

because you look so happy, carefree from your normal seriousness,

it throws Wangji for a small loop

and he thinks maybe the real reason why you don’t smile

is because any one who saw it would be so easily distracted, smitten

Lan Wangji knows he himself is, 

from the first look 

“why are you looking at me like that?” you ask him, looking away from the bunny you’re bouncing in your arms for a moment

Lan Wangji simply stares,

doesn’t quite respond

#mdzs #mdzs headcanons #mdzs anon ask #mdzs anon requests #mdzs lan wangji x reader #mdzs wei wuxian x reader #mdzs jiang cheng x reader #mdzs lan xichen x reader #mdzs au #mdzs canon au #cql x reader #the untamed x reader #tangledwriting

[morifinwes]

wangxian fic rec list!

aka in which i read fics, write some recs down for aamna and share them!! they're all wangxian fics and uhh @yibobibo i hope you'll like them!!

modern

wolf devours playboy bunny by @greenteafiend (5K, werewolf!lwj, getting together, idk if anyone needs to know that but there's nudity just not uhh explicit)

Lan Zhan has wanted Wei Ying as long as he has known him, and the worst part is that he thinks Wei Ying could want him back.

Too bad he could never in good conscience let himself go there—Wei Ying has a debilitating fear of all things canine, and once a month, Lan Zhan is the exact, precise thing that Wei Ying’s nightmares are made of.

Aka, Lan Zhan is a werewolf.

between the lines by @jywait (19K gaming au!!!, i'm always down for a good gaming au, lwj is the best aksks he's such a good boy)

☆yilingpatriarch☆: pls...give me some face, help me fight these monsters...I'm gonna die

Bluetooth: no.

"You have died." The screen said, and Wei Wuxian threw his hands up in frustration.

resonant frequencies by chinxe (15K, college au, fake dating au, tw mention of cheating but it's brief and no one was cheated on i promise)

In which Wei Wuxian decides that the best way to deal with being in love with Lan Wangji is to pretend to date him for three weeks.

It goes about as well as can be expected.

drift compatible by windoworwhatever (5K, poetry, fluff, drunkji, getting together, college au)

"It was just a fact of life. The sky was blue, university stipends for graduate students working in TA positions barely covered rent, bisexuals cuffed their jeans, Lan Wangji had a massive crush on Wei Wuxian, and spent his time pining and writing research papers about gay subtexts in ancient poetry."

OR

Lan Wangji is in love with Wei Wuxian, and everybody knows, except Wei Wuxian.

the bunny next door by detailsinthefabric (43K, this is mostly fluff and very light angst, and they were neighbors!!!, rabbits!!, aka wangxian's bunny children, this is... so cute i just have to rec it)

Lan Wangji did not know what he was doing. He did not know what he was going to say. He was frozen in place, puzzling over the situation. Maybe he had made the man uncomfortable, which is why he wanted to leave? But his tone had still been so friendly—maybe…

“Would…” he paused, swallowed, forced the last words to come out of his suddenly parched mouth, “would you let me pet him?”

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

Lan Wangji, who doesn't know how to socialize and whose icy demeanor scares everyone away, lets down all his defenses when he meets the bunny next door...oh, and also its owner, Wei Wuxian.

leading tone by silencemostofall (32K, everyone is a music student? or something like that akskk, curse fic, tw panic attacks, tw child abuse, small scene of drunkji, wwx has low self esteem, bro this was so painful to read)

The first time you touch someone you're fated to love, you leave a mark on their skin. If they will love you in return, they'll mark you where you touched them. The deeper the color, the deeper the connection.

Wei Ying has no marks at all.

public places, private thoughts by leahelisabeth (for the love of camelot) ( 8K, cherry magic au, getting together with like... immediate upgrade to fiance status, the author is wrong i crave good wangxian cherry magic aus even tho i haven't even watched cherry magic)

Wei Wuxian had heard the story of course. It had made its rounds through his high school and followed him into his college days. He didn’t think there was any possibility it was true. Virginity was a social construct, invented by creepy old men to exercise dominance over women. The idea that a simple lack of sexual activity before the age of thirty could give one magical powers was absolutely ludicrous.

Wei Wuxian believed this until the morning of his thirtieth birthday.

AKA the Wangxian Cherry Magic AU that absolutely nobody asked for.

i'd be all right (if i could see you) by @thirtysixsavefiles (16K, this was nice, i read this at 6am but it was cute, (while writing this post i must admit i don't remember anything but 6am-me said it's good))

The younger Lan brother is something of an enigma on campus; while Lan Xichen can sometimes be seen in the company of other graduate students or conducting a seminar, Lan Wangji appears to spend all his time in class or in the library. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t attend social events. He doesn’t do anything for fun, as far as Wei Wuxian can tell, and it’s driving Wei Wuxian just a little bit up the wall.

Or, Wei Wuxian convinces Lan Wangji to come to a house party, and then they're assigned to the same group project. Wei Wuxian tries his best, but he is not in possession of all the facts.

axe on leg by itszero (4K, i still don't get why wwx did that but it was nice seeing him jealous for once, jealous!wwx, lwj i love you....)

Wei Wuxian pressed his face into his pillow and screamed. He paused to take a few deep breaths, partially hindered by the pillow, and listened to the sounds of Nie Huaisang slurping his iced coffee, from his seat on Wei Wuxian's desk chair.

Having caught his breath, he resumed his screaming and did not stop at the sound of his dorm room door opening.

"What's wrong with him?" He heard his brother, Jiang Cheng, ask.

The slurping stopped. "He's an idiot."

"He's always been an idiot. Why is he bothered about it now?"

"He forced Lan Wangji to go on a date," Nie Huaisang replied, shaking the ice cubes in his drink.

"Okay and…?"

"With someone else." The slurping resumed.

Wei Wuxian, in all his glorious dumbassery, convinces his boyfriend to go on a date with someone else.

these two most powerful by @stiltonbasket (4K, amnesia, wangxian with children!!!, aksksk this was adorable, dadji!!)

When Lan Wangji went to bed last night, he was alone in a tiny guest room with nothing but the howling of the wind in the mountains and his own lonely thoughts for company.

 

But when he opened his eyes in the morning, Wei Ying was asleep beside him.

 

(In which Lan Wangji loses twenty years' worth of memories after a night-hunt gone wrong, and his life as a doting father and husband continues without a hitch somehow.)

good things come to those who wait [but i ain't in a patient phase] by @cerlunas (4K, getting together, pining lwj)

Lan Wangji can't take it anymore.

 

“I love you”, he says, and god, it feels terrifying. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

“Lan Zhan…” Wei Wuxian starts, but Lan Wangji doesn’t want to hear it.

He grabs his cup and drinks everything. He doesn’t know what face Wei Wuxian is making at him right now, and it’s okay. 

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian repeats louder, but it’s too late. He is already falling asleep.

Or, even after 13 years, Lan Wangji is still in love with his best friend. Maybe it's time to open up.

wei ying, will you marry m- oh my god he swallowed the ring! by selene210 (2K, marriage proposals, crack, marriage proposals but.. they go wrong)

“A ring?”

And indeed it was. The ring Lan Wangji was going to propose to Wei Ying with. That the man had now choked on.

“You swallowed it.”

“It was in my soufflé! Why did you put a ring in my soufflé Lan Zhan- oh. oh”

of glittery valentine's cards by @soft-fics (3K, valentine's day, this was adorable aksk, a-yuan best boy!!)

Lan Zhan didn't want to know what his best friend had planned for Valentine's Day; his heart would simply not be able to handle it. When his son tells him that he made Wei Ying a Valentine's Day card, though, Lan Zhan decided to bring it over anyway.

of coffee and white tea by @soft-fics (9K, fluff, lwj doesn't like coffee, wwx buys him coffee, then they switch drinks, again and again and again, the staff ships it lmao, tbh jc shouldn't have done that like wtf)

For the fourth time this week a stranger orders him a cup of coffee. Lan Wangji wonders how exactly to tell this man to stop ordering him coffee he doesn't even like. Turns out, buying the other white tea and switching drinks is not the best way to go about it

canon setting

on the importance of restraint (or lack thereof) by nixthothou (4K, in which sizhui snaps, i love that boy, no like seriously he's the best boy)

Lan Sizhui does not usually find himself in the company of Sect Leader Jiang.

Suffice to say, Lan Sizhui's feelings toward him are conflicted.

lan wangji is wei wuxian's baby by lilycs (3K, i was craving fluff while reading this, lwj my beloved, drunk!lwj)

Lan Wangji gets drunk from barely a cup of alcohol, becoming a whiny baby and asking his husband for cuddles.

one of our own by glitteringmoonlight (8K, wei wuxian & lan sect, 5+1 things, in which they learn to love him, they're all part of the wwx protection squad lead by lwj, wangxian isn't the focus but !!! THIS)

Times change, but some people remain the same.

The Lans are nothing, if not aware of this.

For one of their own, they will stand against the world.

Or, 5 times the Lans defended Wei Wuxian, and the 1 time he was there to see it happen.

so why not crack your skull when the mind swells by @greenteafiend (13K, love curse, post cql canon, curses, getting together, fluff, so much fluff, lwj tries to talk about his emotions!, lwj pov)

Lan Wangji detects the curse trying to curl through his heart meridians like smoke. A love curse, then. It must have been cast remotely somehow to have found him in his bed in Cloud Recesses. No matter. Lan Wangji crushes it easily, enveloping it in his spiritual energy, and then squeezing. Curse averted, Lan Wangji closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. He thinks no more of it.

Two days later, Wei Wuxian arrives in Cloud Recesses.

Or, Wei Wuxian is cursed to feel terrible pain when he and Lan Wangji aren’t touching.

i started from the bottom / now i'm rich by x_los (57K, time travel, fix it, jealous lwj, crack treated serious, god this is so good tho, wwx/wrh & wwx/jgs but like as a joke and it doesn't really happen, but it has its purpose!!)

“First, you get the money. Then you get the power, respect - hos come last.”

 

Wen Qing traps Wei Wuxian in the Demon Slaughtering Cave, but Wei Wuxian isn’t interested in being the beneficiary of the Wen Remnants’ noble sacrifice. His efforts to free himself accidentally send him back to the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign. Coreless but armed with demonic cultivation, knowledge of the future and his wits, Wei Wuxian takes advantage of this opportunity to come out on top of both the war and its aftermath—before either has a chance to happen—by marrying and swiftly burying the cultivation world’s worst men.

Lan Wangji is confused, hurt, and uncomfortably aroused by Wei Wuxian’s improbably elaborate series of Sect-themed bridal negligees.

lead me on through by mrsronweasley (55K, they're in love your honor, arranged marriage but they don't know to whom, basically wwx & lwj want to practice kissing which then goes beyond kissing but not the whole way y'know, lxc the best wingman tho)

"Who do you think your betrothed is?" Wei Wuxian asks, sprawling out in front of Lan Zhan and enjoying the prim thinning of his lips at the question. He shouldn't be sprawling—they're in the library, for one, and Lan Zhan is studying, for another—but he can't help himself. Wei Wuxian is a sprawler.

"I do not believe this to be of importance," Lan Zhan responds, without turning his gaze away from his book.

"What!" Wei Wuxian sits up. "How can you say that? Of course it's important! This is the person you'll be with for the rest of your life, Lan Zhan."

#wei wuxian #lan wangji #the untamed #wangxian #mdzs #cql fic #mdzs fic #mo dao zu shi #lan zhan #wei ying #lan xichen #wangxian fics #wangxian fic #fic recs #mdzs fics #jiang yanli #lan sizhui #jiang cheng #lan qiren #lan sect #aamna tag #the possibility of this showing up in the tags is like 1% bcs there are so many links and y'know how that is

[canary3d-obsessed]

Master Post - The Untamed

All of my CQL original content! This consolidates & replaces my previous CQL masterposts. 

You MAY repost any gifs or images from ANY of my “Restless Rewatch” posts as long as you credit me (Canary3d) or my blog (@canary3d-obsessed) somewhere in your post or comment. For non-Restless Rewatch images, please ask me first. (If you’re using Tumblr’s weird gif feature there’s no need to ask because that embeds a credit and it’s impossible to tell if it came from a RR post or not). 

Restless Rewatch Gifs and Memes

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 |part 6 (Jiang Cheng) |part 7 

Restless Rewatch Full Posts

Now also on AO3: Restless Rewatch: The Untamed by Canary3d

I’ve updated these links with gaps between the A and B parts, so hopefully they will work properly in the phone app, unlike before. If they’re still not working, please drop me a note, thanks!

Ep 40 (part one) and (part 2) (NEW)

Ep 39 (part one) and (part 2) and (part 3) 

Ep 38 (A) and (B)

Ep 37 (A) and (B)

Ep 36 (A) and (B) 

Ep 35 (A) and (B) 

Ep 34 (A)

Ep 33 (A) and (B)

Ep 32 (A) and (B)

Ep 31 (A) and (B) 

Ep 30 (A) and (B) 

Ep 29 (A) and (B) 

Ep 28 (A) 

Ep27 (A) and (B)

Ep26 (A) and (B) 

Ep25 (A) and (B) 

Ep24 (A)  and (B) 

Ep23 (A) and (B) 

Ep22 (A) and (B) 

Ep21(A) and (B) 

Ep20 (A) and (B) and (C) 

Ep19 (A) and (B) 

Ep18: (A) and (B) 

Ep17 (A) and (B)  

Ep 16: (A) and (B)  

Ep15 (A)  

Ep14 (A) and (B)  

Ep13 (A) and (B) 

Ep12 (A) and (B) and EXTRAS 

Ep11 (A) and (B) 

Ep10 (A) and (B) 

Ep09 (A) and (B) 

Ep08 (A) and (B) 

Ep07 (A) and (B) 

Ep06 (A) and (B) 

Ep05 (A) and (B) 

Ep04 (A) and (B) 

Ep03 (A)  

Ep02 (A) 

Ep01 (A)

Restless Writing Prompts 

Clipper’s Guide to The Untamed

Mo Dao Zu Shi Adaptations Available in English

Parallels

I love digging into the many, many visual, stylistic, and thematic parallels in The Untamed.

A cave, a baby, a fever 

Wrist Holding: Parting & Reunion

The Blurry Sword of Doom 

Bichen at Wei Wuxian’s Throat 

The Honor of a Glance (more of a “see how time changes things” than a parallel, exactly) 

Troublemaker (ditto above) 

Letting Go

Arm Holding on Mount Yeet - Gif Overlay Challenge

Protective Lans

Putting Lan Zhan to Bed  

A Gentleman’s Revenge

Answer Me

When the Man Comes Around

I Am Leaving

You Touch It You Buy It

The Sky is Vast and the Earth is Wide

Pay It Forward

Wen Ning’s Boat Rides

(Here’s a cut so I don’t kill your dashboard)

Holding on/Letting go

Don’t Cry

Having a Spat, Yunmeng Style

Like Father, Like Son

Let Me Carry You

Never

Great Idea, Thanks Bro

Assorted Gifs & Memes & Stuff

Mood: Serious

Lan Wangji Watching Wei Wuxian, Episode 33

Wei Wuxian screaming with Xiao Zhan’s voice 

Rainy Argument 1 | 2 | 3 

Rainy

World’s Second-Worst Party Guest

Wei Wuxian is here to  make you feel better

Yu Ziyuan’s daughter

If you don’t trust me, how can you help me?

Do You Want Revenge?

Wei Wuxian Blindfolding Jiang Cheng

Contemplating the Future

Which unlucky family’s place did you take?

Hands, Episode 16

Zidian Beatdown

A Man Should Have Scars

Trauma Survivor Wei Wuxian

Mood: Neutral

Reciting the Lan rules at the Wen indoctrination

Question and Answer Time

Lan Zhan, do you like rabbits?

Right in Front of Lil Apple’s Apple Salad 

Jiang Cheng and his facial expressions 

Besties

Wei Wuxian wants you to know: you’re awesome

LWJ looking at WWX

I adore you//Fucking hell

Color Palette Challenge

Blindfolded

The many loves of Wei Wuxian

Significant Glances

Flute Fixing

Study Time in Yiling

Single Plank Bridge (Untamed/Yanxi Palace)

Soft Papa

WWX Jumps into Battle

Wen Siblings @ Burial Grounds

Flower Boys

Flower Boy Nie Huaisang

Fisherman Nie Huaisang

Kicking Your Ass: Teen Edition

Kicking Your Ass: Adult Edition

This Beautiful Hothead

Mood: Silly

The Adventures of Paperman (NEW)

New Problems Have Appeared (NEW)

Let’s have a cooking sequence but make it terrible 

That Twitter/Tumbler Meme but it’s CQL 

Reactions to Sisi’s Story, Ep 45 

Wangxian Communication

The Untamed as Dear Prudie Letters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 

Curses, cockblocked again

The Tuber of Disappointment 

Wei Wuxian & Wen Kexing

Wen Qing and the Lan Nymphs

No Time for Necromancy

When the landlord says it’s ok to repaint

How did you express the pain (WOH spoiler!)

The Untamed as Psychology Today Articles

Voice Actor Wang Kai Yelling at Xiao Zhan

Half-Incorrect Subtitles

Wangxian Brothel AU 

Nie Mingjue Yells Merry Christmas

Wei Wuxian making out with his Lunch

Wei Wuxian x Unnecessarily Erotic Drinking

Nie Huaisang Reporting In

Strong Hanguang Jun

Jiang Cheng’s Purple Jammies

Wei Wuxian searches Xue Yang

Adolescent’s observation

Failmaster Lan Qiren

Oh No He Noticed

Super Regularly

Oh Crap! Act Normal!

Emergency Hairpieces

Acceptability Review Meeting Episode 45/46

Acceptability Review Meeting Episode 45

Fanvids

Drinking, Drinking, Drinking

Xue Yang/Dandy Highwayman

Fight Moves/You Spin Me

Wei Wuxian/Not an Addict

Fanfic

Fractured Spirit (Warning: EXPLICIT)

Other Stuff

Adoption meta

#the untamed #canary3d-original #this combines all my previous untamed masterposts #into one untamed master masterpost #masterpost

[wangxianficrecs]

wide enough and wild by impossibletruths

wide enough and wild

by impossibletruths

E, 64k, wangxian

Summary:  Wei Ying leaves. He follows

My comments:  In case the summary didn't do it for you, please enjoy these author tags: Noping Out Of Society With Your Boyfriend And Your 50 Wen Refugees: The Novel//Overzealous Use Of Imagery//Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies//Well Except Wen Ning But He Was Already Dead So//Fix-It of Sorts __________

Well DAMN, this starts with a bang, the Jins stating that wwx and the wens (vanished from their ken) should be hunted down and brought to justice. This makes lwj... feel some things. (None of them good.)

Story is from lwj's POV -- and his voice is FANTASTIC, and author's style is dreamy and vivid, which brings his perspective to life. He follows wwx and the Wens, and eventually finds them, hidden behind talismans and barriers in a far corner of the wide, wild world. He joins them, but acceptance of him is slow (except for A-Yuan), and wwx is not doing well at all, draining himself until there's nothing left. But slowly their lives congeal, homes are wrestled from the ruin of the abandoned town, crops are planted, wwx and lwj learn to understand each other better (and lwj is THOROUGHLY commited, although quietly sad that he'll never see his brother again).

Culminates in an endeavor which shreds lwj's back (like the 33 lashes) and very nearly kills him and forces this tiny Wen Clan to make a choice.

Excerpt:  “Bright-gege, where’s Xian-gege ?”

“He is— occupied.” The explanation is insufficient, but he does not know what else to say. Perhaps a-Yuan is familiar with Wei Ying’s clouded moods, because the boy frowns in something resembling recognition.

“Is he still sad?”

“I believe so.”

He considers this. “When a-Yuan is sad, Xian-gege makes it better.”

Wangji has no idea how to explain the wrenching, sucking sorrow of Wei Ying’s situation, of the estrangement of his family, how he has given up everything he has known to sequester himself in the furthest corner of the world in the hopes of keeping a-Yuan and all the rest safe. It is something even he cannot conceive in its entirety, everything Wei Ying has willingly let go in the name of doing what is right. He does not have the words to explain it to the boy.

“Sometimes,” he says, stilted, “the only thing one can do is be sad.”

Another excerpt *** The writing is often just pure poetry: ***:

“You should rest,” he murmurs, thumb sweeping against the curve of his knee, cloth bunching and unbunching with each stroke. Wei Ying watches the motion and meets his gaze. This is how he looks kissed: mouth bruise-dark, color high on his cheeks, neat-combed hair mussed where Wangji has threaded fingers through it. Wangji memorizes it, folds it thrice and tucks it in his chest, buried among the roots of the sapling seeded within.

canon divergence, fix it, POV lan wangji, post sunshot campaign, pre burial mounds,  Noping Out Of Society With Your Boyfriend And Your 50 Wen Refugees: The Novel, everyone lives/nobody dies, accidental baby acquisition (canon), angst, wen remnants, families of choice, getting together, homesteading, building trust, a-yuan, first kiss, first time, golden core reveal, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, 33 lashes, (not really but it’s a back injury so I’ll want this tag), lan wangji leaves the lan clan, happy ending, @impossibletruths​

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for this author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #mdzs #fix it #canon divergence #pov lan wangji #wen remnants #everyone lives/nobody dies #arranged marriage #families of choice #accidental baby acquisition #homesteading #a yuan #33 lashes #hurt/comfort #emotional hurt/comfort #golden core reveal #lan wangji leaves the lan clan #lan wangji stays in the burial mounds #wide enough and wild #impossibletruths #long fic >50k #NC-17

[watch-grok-brainrot]

A Good Sword

Written for @mdzsnet 1 year net anniversary event. Request sent in by @susuwatari-kompeito​

Rated: G

Word Count:  4392

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Suibian (Módào Zǔshī), Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, OC character mentions

Other tags:  Post-Canon, sentient weapons, cw blood, cw injury, Night Hunt, Yunmeng, Post-Canon, Established Relationship WangXian, Gusu, Jiang Cheng being difficult, I stan the least Lan of Lans who also happens to be the best Lan, food mentioned

Summary: Wei Wuxian is forming a golden core in Mo Xuanyu's body. He realizes this means he can wield Suibian again but Lan Wangji reminds him it's with Jiang Cheng in Yunmeng. Their help is requested to subdue supernatural disturbances on Mushan Island so Wangxian head there with some juniors. During the night hunt, they run into Jiang Cheng who happens to have Suibian with him. How will Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian resolve who gets to keep the sword?

Thank you @merelhyn and Aube for the beta!

[Gusu, Cloud Recesses]

A warm spring breeze drifted through the bamboo forest outside the Jingshi, rustling the leaves. As the wind ebbed and flowed, the rustling rose and fell, mimicking the sound of ocean waves. The soothing sound of the bamboo served as stark contrast to the stillness of the Jingshi. Cool sandalwood smoke curled up from a small ceramic incense burner, tumbling up and dissipating into the air. Lan Wangji knelt before his desk with his back straight and shoulders relaxed. A small mountain of letters piled to his right. Three stacks sat neatly to his left. He took a letter from the pile to his right, skimmed it twice with his pale colored eyes, and carefully set it in the appropriate pile to his left. The sandalwood smoke continued to rise as Lan Wangji methodically moved through his work. Only the occasional crinkling of paper and the wave-like sound of bamboo could be heard. The stillness was interrupted when Wei Wuxian charged into the building. Lan Wangji looked up at the sound of quick footsteps. “Lan Zhan! Look what I noticed today!” Wei Wuxian shoved his wrist in front of Lan Wangji. His shirt was half open, showing his bare chest, and his cheeks flushed from exercise. “Mn?” Lan Wangji asked, setting down the letter he was reading. He looked up at Wei Ying’s face and then his gaze drifted to Wei Ying's bare chest. “Feel, Lan Zhan! Feel my pulse!” Wei Wuxian waved his wrist in front of Lan Wangji’s face as he plopped down next to Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji caught the flailing limb, set Wei Ying’s hand gently onto the desk, and pressed his fingers against the other man’s pulse. Wei Ying beamed as Lan Wangji assessed his pulse, feeling along the paths of the shorter man’s meridians. Lan Wangji’s qi was met with Wei Ying’s own energy and ferried to Wei Ying’s core. A golden core was forming inside his Wei Ying at last. “It’s coalescing.” “Yes! And at a decent pace too! Before you know it, I’ll be able to fight with a sword again! Are you looking forward to sparring with me?” “Mn,” Lan Wangji felt the corner of his lips pull back slightly. “Hey, Lan Zhan, speaking of swords, do you know what happened to Suibian? I haven’t seen it for months. Did I misplace it somewhere in Jingshi?” “Jiang Wanyin has it.” “What? Since when?” “When we left Yunmeng.” “Huh. I don’t remember this.” “Do you remember Jin Guangyao provoking Jiang Wanyin about the core transfer?” Wei Wuxian’s eyes darted up towards the ceiling briefly. “He could pull Suibian from its sheath. I remember that now! Hm… I wonder if he’s planning on keeping it or if…” Wei Wuxian trailed off as he turned around and leaned against Lan Wangji’s shoulder. “Lan Zhan, were you working this morning?” “Perusing correspondence. I should continue,” Lan Wangji responded as he wrapped his left arm around Wei Ying. He placed a kiss on the other man’s hair and breathed in — musk from exercising, dust from outside, pine resin, and hint of prickly spice. “Wei Ying always smells good.” The other man laughed. “You always smell good too, Lan er-gege.” Always active, Wei Ying reached towards Lan Wangji’s desk. “Lan Zhan, watcha reading now?” “We received a letter seeking help from Wuhu Gong Sect.” “Wuhu? Where is that?” “Between Gusu and Yunmeng, east of Hefei.” “What did they want?” “Disturbances on ChaoHu’s MuShan Island near Hefei.” “What kind?” “Unclear.” “Are we going to go help?” Lan Wangji waited, choosing not to answer. Wei Ying will figure it out. “Silly question. You go where the chaos is,” Wei Wuxian turned and kissed Lan Wangji. He then laughed, “And here I thought I was the chaos.” Lan Wangji huffed out a small snort. “Alright, alright. We should write back and go help out. I’ll find Chenqing and pack our stuff. You can finish your pile of letters.” “Check between the bed and the window.” “What?” Wei Wuxian hopped from where he was sitting and bounded over to the bed. “You left Chenqing there earlier in the month.” “You really remember everything, don’t you, Lan Zhan?” “No. Only if it pertains to Wei Ying.”

[Yunmeng, Lotus Pier]

Jiang Cheng snapped his head up at the sound of running. “Zongzhu! Help is requested urgently from Hefei!” A young disciple charged into the room waving a letter. “Is there the need to yell and run? Will a few additional moments change the outcome?” Jiang Cheng scolded as he snatched the folded message from the frantic disciple. “Go practice ‘Picking Lotus Roots in the Mud’ in the courtyard at one fifth the standard pace.” “Uh… One fifth?” “Do I need to repeat myself?” Jiang Cheng looked the boy in the eye. “No Zongzhu. Right away,” the disciple scurried off. Jiang Cheng watched the retreating figure and wondered if he himself could even perform the form at one fifth the speed. No matter, the boy was supposed to practice and it would teach him patience. Jiang Cheng turned his attention to the message in his hand. It was from Hefei’s Mi sect, a small sect allied to Yunmeng： “Seeking help from Sandu Shengshou Jiang Wanyin and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. Mysterious yao disturbances on ChaoHu’s MuShan Island. Hefei Mi and Wuhu Gong attempted to subdue to no avail. Many spiritual weapons were lost in the process. The disturbances have been intensifying over the past three months. The people suffer. Area sects are forced to seek aid from major sects. Hefei Mi Sect Mi Tayan” Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes and refolded the letter. Why can’t minor sects be more competent? He and Wei Wuxian were probably subduing yao of that caliber when they were thirteen. Then again, Gong and Mi have had decent reputations lately. Maybe he should not underestimate the yao. Jiang Cheng’s right thumb began idly spinning the violet ring on his middle finger. ChaoHu was large. Yao thriving on those resources could be powerful. Such situations would be best approached with caution. A pity he couldn’t simply ignore this. As the Mi sect was Yunmeng’s most loyal supporter, Yunmeng was obligated to help. Luckily he had at least one spiritual weapon to spare. He stood and swept out of the room.

[MuShan Island]

Dusk blanketed the island in the middle of Chaohu. As the long shadows of trees merged into deep blue darkness, a full moon rose to cast a crisp white light over the party of cultivators on a night hunt. “Lan Zhan! There’s something over here!” Wei Wuxian said as he threw out a talisman towards a large tree. They had been scouring the island since lunch time and Wei Wuxian was growing hungry. The talisman flew forward, glowed bright red, and expanded into a spiritual net, aiming to capture an unidentified target. Wei Wuxian followed his talisman attack by pulling out Chenqing, twirling the flute in his hand once to adjust positioning, and bringing it to his lips. As the high pitch trill of the black bamboo flute pierced the air, the red glow of the spiritual net flickered and flared. Shadows pulsated against the net and Wei Wuxian closed his eyes to focus on pushing his will onto the creature with his infamous demon flute. “Sizhui, flank right with your group. Jingyi, flank left with yours. Aim to subdue, not kill,” Lan Wangji instructed the group of juniors. He then summoned Wangji qin from his qiankun pouch and set about sending spiritual energy towards Wei Wuxian’s net. Sizhui and Jingyi had developed enough experience that they were leading small groups on their own in major night hunts. The two juniors directed their groups to take up positions based on the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper. Then, they all unsheathed their swords and sent them towards the being under the net. The spiritual blades danced around Wei Wuxian’s talisman. As they flew, the swords collided continuously. “PoZhangYin!” Wei Wuxian opened his eyes and exclaimed after a few collisions, realizing the clanging of the blades played out Gusu’s famous battle melody. “That’s a clever use of swords! I see someone has been teaching useful things like creativity and practical application of known skills!” “Wei-qianbei has a good ear!” Jingyi said as his sword hit Sizhui’s. “It was Sizhui’s idea. He remembered that awful blade of grass you used and thought we could do the same with our swords. We have been practicing!” “Jingyi, focus,” Lan Wangji chided, sending another wave of qin energy towards the target. “Wei Ying, do you know what it is?” “Some sort of old waterfowl yao. I can’t quite get a sense of it yet. Possibly a duck. Hey, Hanguang-jun, do you want to have roast duck for dinner?” “I prefer sampling local delicacies,” Lan Wangji responded, his voice steady as he sent another wave of energy towards the trapped yao. “You do have a point, Lan Zhan. I hear the Binjiong cakes here are good. We should give them a try.” “Mn. Focus so Wei Ying can eat later. It’s loquat season.” Wei Wuxian laughed, “Alright! Your treat, Hanguang-jun!” He turned his attention back to the trapped yao. As the nine cultivators poured their energies into the talisman and sword formation, the shadows emanating from the net began to subside. After a stick of incense worth of time, the last notes of PoZhangYin clanged from the swords and the talisman net’s bright glow softened to the dim light of embers. Anguished quacks could be heard. “Wei-qianbei! You’re right, it is a duck yao!” The noises continued and Wei Wuxian’s brows furrowed. Something did not feel right. The sound was not… Wei Wuxian cursed and bolted to the yao. He hurriedly started casting a silencing talisman while explaining, “This isn’t a duck yao. It’s a mandarin duck yao and she’s calling for her mate. He’s probab—” Something fast crashed into his back, knocking him forward. He fell, crushing the talisman net and releasing the yao inside. “Wei Ying!” Wei Wuxian heard Lan Zhan yell as energy waves from Wangji washed over him. Both yao being hit by the chord attacks reared up and expanded in size. The smell of rotting fish, stale lake water, and decaying wood filled Wei Wuxian’s nose. The two yao propelled themselves into the air, their attention diverted from Wei Wuxian to Lan Wangji. “Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian yelled as he scrambled up and brought Chenqing to his lips again. The strong melancholy notes from Chenqing pushed towards the yao, attempting to control them. “Sizhui, Jingyi, Bagua formation! Contain them. Vanquish if necessary,” Lan Wangji ordered, Wangji still in hand. He swept his fingers over the seven strings, sending out seven separate chord assassination attacks. The juniors took positions in accordance to Bagua with Lan Wangji at the Qian position and Sizhui at the Kun position wielding their respective qin. The other juniors’ swords wove around the two yao. Marsh, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, and Mountain anchored between Heaven and Earth. The Bagua formation shifted between its permutations, drawing upon these primal aspects of nature. The two yao, trapped in an ever-mutating array of sword and qin energies, struggled against the Lan sect attack at first. The female soon calmed. She flew around the male, calming him as well. They hovered in midair observing the attacks. Then, the two yao moved. The female allowed herself to get hit by an attack from Lan Haoye. The sword stabbed into her left side but seemed to do little damage. Instead, the sword became embedded in the yao and Haoye lost control of her sword. Then, the female dove for the youngest cultivator, Lan Pinshu, who stood halfway between Lan Sizhui and Lan Wangji. The male, similarly, took a hit from Lan Runchan and dove for Lan Jinglin. Haoye stood on the water position and Pinshu on fire. Lan Runchan was on marsh and Jinglin on mountain. Wei Wuxian cursed again, “Everyone be careful. They’re taking hits aligned with their nature to strengthen themselves and attacking the opposite element to counter us. The female is cunning.” Wei Wuxian gathered his qi and pushed off the ground towards Pinshu. Times like these he missed his old body. This one was still too slow and had too little reach. To accelerate himself further, he slapped a talisman onto his lower back. He was closer to the boy than the female yao. He had a chance to protect the boy if he could just move between them. The force of the magic boosted his speed, giving him just enough time to step between the yao and the boy. He tucked Chenqing into his qiankun sleeve and grabbed Haoye’s sword jutting from the yao’s side. The yao screamed, strong resentful energy burst forth from her body. Gusts of resentment whipped around Wei Wuxian and Lan Pinshu, lifting up small pieces of foliage and debris. Wei Wuxian stood firm, putting himself between the yao and Pinshu, using his body as a shield. He clung onto Haoye’s sword and sliced down, aiming to split the yao in half. The yao screeched for her mate. The male yao abandoned his trajectory, shifting his body and arced towards Wei Wuxian. In flight, his form flattened into a blade with his beak elongating and sharpening into a point. Wei Wuxian saw the male yao approach but stood his ground. Haoye’s sword cut through and broke free from the female yao as the male yao’s beak pierced Wei Wuxian’s left side, sliding between two of his ribs. Before Wei Wuxian could redirect Haoye’s sword to slice towards the yao embedded half way in his chest, a bright flash of purple accompanied by a loud pop grabbed the tail end of the yao and forcibly pulled it out of Wei Wuxian’s chest. Wei Wuxian bit down on a scream. There was no reason to scare Pinshu right now. Wei Wuxian heard his name through a daze as something zoomed towards him. He lifted up Haoye’s sword to deflect the projectile but instinct took over and he found himself catching the object at the last moment. Suibian, his old sword, rested in his hand. In his previous life, Suibian’s hilt fit his hand so perfectly it was as if the sword had formed knowing it would be his. Considering the inscription on its sheath, maybe it did know. In this new body, his hand was just a fraction too small to wield Suibian with that old familiarity and ease. Wei Wuxian tightened his grip on his old friend. “Wei Wuxian, pay attention!” The sound of Jiang Cheng yelling shook Wei Wuxian from his thoughts. The female yao charged at him with half her entrails spilling from her body. Wei Wuxian unsheathed Suibian, pulled spiritual energy from his newly forming golden core, and sliced towards the yao. After a few exchanges, Suibian decapitated the creature, its body falling to the ground with a splat. Wei Wuxian smiled, “Suibian, looks like we still got this.” He thought he felt the sword shiver in response. Looking around, he saw Jiang Cheng and the Lans had disposed of the male yao as well. Lan Wangji and Sizhui were putting their qin away; Zidian was receding into Jiang Cheng’s ring; and the juniors were all sheathing their swords. Wei Wuxian watched Lan Wangji give instructions to the five unseasoned juniors to cleanse the area of residual resentment. Everyone was safe and well. He let out a sigh of relief which turned into coughs. Blood dribbled from his mouth and he fell to his knees. As he toppled forward, his right hand shot out to support his weight as his left hand pressed against the suddenly searing wound on his chest. Footsteps and people yelling his name closed in around him. “Wei Ying!” “Wei-qianbei!” “Wei Wuxian!” “I’m ok. Just a small wound,” Wei Wuxian tried to wave everyone off. Lan Wangji knelt by Wei Wuxian and started examining his puncture wound. “I can’t believe you let that yao hit you. What were you thinking? What if it were trying to curse you?” Jiang Cheng walked up and started scolding. “I was fighting the female.” “You’re coughing up blood.” “Jiang Cheng, you try having something stab you in the lungs. I’m sure you’ll cough up some blood too,” Wei Wuxian retorted, making himself cough up more blood. “Jin Guangyao did a few months ago, remember?” “Wei Ying. Stop talking.” “Jiang-zongzhu, maybe it’s not the best idea for you to antagonize Wei-qianbei right now,” Sizhui spoke up, giving Lan Wangji nervous glances. Lan Wangji stymied the blood flow by hitting a few choice acupoints. He then disinfected Wei Wuxian’s wound with a stream of qi and sprinkled some wound sealing powder to help accelerate clotting. He wrapped his right arm around Wei Wuxian’s waist, “Can you stand?” Wei Wuxian gave a nod and let Lan Wangji help him up. He looked at Jiang Cheng awkwardly. “Um…” “I’m just here to retrieve my sword.” “Sandu?” “The one in your hand.” Wei Wuxian felt his grip on Suibian tighten. “Suibian has always been my sword.” “It unsheathes for me.” Wei Wuxian paused. What argument could he use? They both knew Suibian would unsheathe for Jiang Cheng because Jiang Cheng has Wei Wuxian’s golden core. Because it was what Wei Wuxian owed the Jiangs. Because Wei Wuxian did not believe Jiang Cheng would be able to survive without one. But that was not an argument he could make. His chest was hurting and he did not need to revisit Jiang Cheng’s reaction. “I’m taking your silence as agreement,” Jiang Cheng reached for the sword. Wei Wuxian pulled Suibian out of Jiang Cheng’s reach. “Suibian also unsheathes for me.” “Suibian was given to you as the head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang. You’re no longer in the sect. You defected. I should have taken Suibian with me then,” Jiang Cheng drew himself to his full height and looked down his nose at Wei Wuxian. “Suibian is sentient. It knows Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji spoke up, glaring down at Jiang Cheng. “Suibian is made from the trees of Yunmeng, its blade quenched with our waters. It belongs in Yunmeng. And it knows me as well.” “Suibian has always been Wei Wuxian’s sword. You did not take it when Wei Ying moved to the Burial Mounds. It is not yours to take right now.” “Wei Wuxian would not even have it had I not brought it as a backup to Sandu today.” “Jiang Cheng, why are you here anyway? And why bring Suibian?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Mi Tayan wrote Yunmeng seeking help. Apparently the Gong sect and Mi sect could not handle these two on their own. Suibian served as a spare since the yao had been taking spiritual weapons,” Jiang Cheng answered frankly. He then looked Wei Wuxian up and down. Wei Wuxian shrunk into Lan Wangji, hearing Jiang Cheng’s unspoken words: Your new body is weak. You don’t have a golden core anyway. You can’t use it for long. “A few days ago, I felt the beginning of a golden core coalescing.” Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow. “Why are you telling me this? Why would I care?” “I will have the strength to wield Suibian again. Suibian is mine.” “You can take it when you can and are willing to take the golden core inside me back,” Jiang Cheng spat. His ring crackled as Zidian sent forth a warning shock. “You know I would never do that.” “Then give me back my sect’s sword.” Wei Wuxian pushed Lan Wangji away and placed his right hand on Suibian’s hilt. “I don’t want to fight you Jiang Cheng but I’m not someone you can bully.” Zidian crackled. “Suibian belongs to Yunmeng. I will not let Lan-er or any other self-righteous, headband wearing, cultivator take what belongs to my sect. Yunmeng will not back down.” Sizhui interjected, “Wait. Fighting now is unproductive. Jiang-zongzhu, Wei-qianbei, is there no other resolution? If Suibian is sentient, can we not ask it to choose?” “Yeah! Even if Jiang-zongzhu beats Wei-qianbei, it wouldn’t reflect well on Yunmeng. I didn’t think Yunmeng would be the type to pick on someone who was just injured and without a fully formed core,” Jingyi added. Wei Wuxian scoffed, “You’re not holding back, are you, Jingyi?” “Sorry Wei-qianbei. Fighting Jiang-zongzhu right now would be so unfair to you.” “Ask it to choose?” Jiang Cheng scoffed at Sizhui. “Suibian isn’t some spirit you can just ask with WenLing who it is, how it died, what it wants. It’s a sword that has bonded with a person.” Jingyi laughed, “Well, then we just have to show if it’s bonded more to the soul or the golden core.” “And how do you propose to do this? I’ve never heard of such an assessment.” “Jiang-zongzhu, we just need to be a bit creative. Would you mind performing some initial tests with us?” Sizhui asked. “I’m not here to play games.” “We are serious, right, Sizhui? We are simply trying to apply our new-found creativity and practical application of known skills!” Jingyi beamed. Sizhui did not roll his eyes at his smug friend. “Jiang-zongshu, has Jin Ling ever spoken with you about the events that transpired at Yi City involving Xue Yang, Song Lan-daozhang, and Xiao Xingchen-daozhang? “Some.” “Are you aware that Xue Yang had Shuanghua at the time? And Hanguang-jun was able to take it from him?” “Jin Ling did mention something like that.” “Shuanghua was aware that Xue Yang did not align with Xiao Xingchen-daozhang’s world view and thus abandoned Xue Yang. I believe if you and Wei-qianbei are both able to wield Suiban then it becomes a matter of seeing if one of you can override the other’s will.” Jiang Cheng pursed his lips into a line. Sizhui added, “Jiang-zongzhu, you have the advantage here. Considering Wei-qianbei’s lower cultivation, he would only be able to override your will if Suibian is truly loyal to him. You have very little to lose.” “Fine,” Jiang Cheng scowled. “Let’s get this over with.” Sizhui then turned to Wei Wuxian, “Wei-qianbei, would you mind sending Suibian out to encircle that tree, approaching from the left, and returning it to its sheath?” Wei Wuxian performed the task. “Wei-qianbei, hand Suibian to Jiang-zongzhu,” Jingyi ordered. “Jiang-zongzhu please do the same but approach from the right.” Jiang Cheng performed the task with a bored expression. “Jiang-zongzhu, please hand Suibian back to Wei-qianbei. Now, Wei-qianbei will perform the same task as he did earlier. You goal, Jiang-zongzhu is to get Suibian to circle the tree from the other direction.” Wei Wuxian stared at the sword that was too big for his hand. Are you really mine? Or have you bonded with Jiang Cheng in the last few months? He closed his eyes, sighed, and sent Suibian flying. Suibian flew true and returned to Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng scowled, “Is that it? This proves nothing.” “There is at least one more step,” Sizhui answered respectfully. “Wei-qianbei, give Suibian to Jiang-zongzhu. Your turn to try to make Suibian fly the other direction!” Jingyi said, shaking with excitement. “Jiang-zongzhu, if Wei-qianbei is able to divert Suibian, then it is likely bonded with him more than with you. If not, then we will need to find a different way to assess the ownership of the sword.” Wei Wuxian nodded and whispered to the sword, “Suibian, you sealed for me for thirteen years. I cannot ask for more. But maybe do me a favor this one time.” He then handed it over to Jiang Cheng. Sizhui stared Jiang Cheng in the eye. “You may proceed.” Suibian flew out from Jiang Cheng towards the pre-appointed tree. It started veering right but wobbled. Jiang Cheng’s brow furrowed, driving it back on course. Wei Wuxian bit his lip, his eyes narrowing slightly, shoving his focus into the sword. The distance between where they stood and the tree was only ten zhang or so. He didn’t have much time. He could feel Jiang Cheng urging the sword to the right. Wei Wuxian shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, mentally reaching for Suibian. Suibian, I miss you. Please. Wei Wuxian could feel Jiang Cheng’s connection to the sword snap as Suibian swerved in mid-air, circled the tree from the left, and flew into Wei Wuxian’s grip. Jiang Cheng let out a startled grunt. Wei Wuxian almost laughed at the familiar sound. It reminded him of childhood in Yunmeng, of waking up to that sound and a thud as Jiang Cheng rolled off his bed. A grin spread across Wei Wuxian’s face. “Incredible! Suibian really is sentient,” Pinshu sighed in admiration. “I thought only cultivators who had bonded for a lifetime with their swords had that sort of loyalty!” “Suibian has always been loyal to Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji explained. “Its inscription is indicative of its devotion. Sizhui, Jingyi, good work." The two juniors stood up straighter and grinned at each other under Lan Wangji's praise. Jiang Cheng handed Suibian's sheath to Wei Wuxian, “Yours. Don’t be too smug. I don’t want it if it doesn’t belong to Yunmeng. And stop leaving it places.” “Jiang Cheng…” “What?” “Thank you.” “Whatever. It’s not like it’s that good a sword anyway,” Jiang Cheng said and stalked off into the darkness to look for the other members of his sect. Wei Wuxian clung onto Suibian, “Welcome back. I’ve missed you.” He suddenly lifted up Suibian and stared at the sword in awe. “Wei Ying?” “Lan Zhan, is my hand suddenly bigger?” Wei Wuxian asked, holding up a hand that once belonged to a man named Mo Xuanyu. Lan Zhan held up his hand as well. Wei Wuxian’s hand was smaller by the same familiar margin. “No. Why does Wei Ying ask?” Wei Wuxian gripped Suibian by the hilt and held out his fist out. “My hand was a bit too small earlier tonight. And now it’s perfect for my hand again.” “Mn. Suibian is a good sword.” “Suibian really is a good sword,” Wei Wuxian echoed. “Hey, do you think you can treat your poor wounded husband to some roast mandarin duck and Binjiong cakes now?” “Loquats as well. My treat,” Lan Wangji nodded once with a hint of a smile.

Author’s notes: 

1) For SHL/WOH fans, I was working on this request and trying to find a place between yunmeng and gusu. I ended up seeing Hefei, Chaohu, and Mushan Island. As I was zooming out, I noticed Wuhu was a town pretty close by… so I decided to shove a reference to Gong Jun and his Wuhu singing into my story as an easter egg. I’m not sorry.

2) Poetry references: A - The name of the form JC asks the disciple to practice is 泥中采藕 in chinese. I pulled it from this poem: 元 · 丁鹤年 水上摘莲青的的，泥中采藕白纤纤。 却笑同根不同味，莲心清苦藕芽甜。

B - This is completely me being derp. Hefei is a location where the name fertile (in terms of soil)/fat is part of the name. I chose the sect to have a last name related to grains. And then I looked up that character in poetry to name the sect leader: 黄庭坚 (宋） 嚼冰进糜餐，冲雪踏层巘

C - Since CR’s name is from a Jia Dao poem, I chose to pull all the names of the OC juniors from Jia Dao Poems as well: Pinshu is from: 《让纠曹上乐使君》 瓶汲南溪水，书来北岳僧。

Haoye is per: 《上谷旅夜》 月到寒窗空皓晶，风翻落叶更飕飗

Jinglin and Runchan I took inspiration from: 《升道精舍南台对月寄姚合》 月向南台见，秋霖洗涤余。 出逢危叶落，静看众峰疏。 冷露常时有，禅窗此夜虚。 相思聊怅望，润气遍衣初。

3) Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper is the big dipper. It’s common in wuxia as a formation. Same goes for Bagua. Both are daoist but so is Xianxia type cultivation. I know the Lans are Buddhist in origin but they really aren’t that way religion-wise.

4) Mandarin ducks are yuanyang and a term/symbol of a loving couple and monogamous faithfulness.

5) 滨炯一品玉带糕 are binjiong yiping (first ranked) jade-belted cakes. They’re a famous pastry/cake in the area. Idk if it’s period accurate but mdzs isn’t period accurate so i’m using it. 姥山枇杷 (mushan loquats) are supposed to be large, sweet, thin skinned with lots of flesh and super juicy. It was a good thing to include since this story is so heavily wangxian. And i don’t know if people eat mandarin ducks, but I would want to if i were wwx after that night hunt.

#mdzsnet #fytheuntamed #fymdzs #the untamed #陈情令 #wei wuxian #魏无羡 #lan wangji #蓝忘机 #jiang cheng #江澄 #随便 #suibian #Lan Jingyi #蓝景仪 #lan sizhui #蓝思追 #cw blood #wwx in mo xuanyu's body #fanfic #my fanfic #long post

[demonictales]

BITTERSWEET - XUE YANG X READER

this wasn't requested but i got this idea shortly before i fell asleep so i figured I'll give it a try and see where I'll land with it. let me know what you think, aite? characters briefly featured: nie huaisang, nie mingjue, wei wuxian, lan wangji about 3k words

TW: MURDER, CHILD ABUSE, DEATH

It was a bright day in Yueyang as you walked quietly next to your father, only sweet eight years of age. You were the youngest of clan leader Chang Ci'an's children, your older brother Chang Ping, at home complaining why you were allowed to follow your father to Yueyang on this day while he had to learn swordman ship. It was your birthday, so you begged your father to let you come along and you did. Looking out of the window of the ox cart you were riding the eyes of the young child were looking left and right, dazzling items everywhere. But the toy stall was mostly what caught your attention.

"Diē diè, can I have some toys?" The angel like soft tone of your voice making your father laugh heartily. " How much more do you want today ? " He responded patting the place next to him. "Pretty please? It's my eight birthday. -- " You argued. "After I am done with my business here we'll walk the market." It was his final word and you were more than happy. Perhaps you'd even bring something for your brother. Not long after spoken words and a few hours after midday you finally enjoyed the market running from stall to stall until a sweet scent filled your nostrils. Your eyes became big when you spotted the freshly baked sweet pastries on a stall, running for it and it seemed you weren't the only one being lured by the sweetness flowing through the air of the Yueyang market. Next to you stood a boy, probably around your age, a bit taller than you and not as clean. His clothes were ripped apart and dirty, a beggar you concluded. It kind of made you sad but you couldn't do anything about it. One of the servants had caught up and you ushered him to buy you some pastries, delightfully taking a bite as you saw the boy next to you eyeing them. He could take them off of you if he'd ran fast enought but fate had different plans. You handed him some, two pastries, because you wanted too. He seemed hungry and you hated the feeling of being hungry to an extrend that made your eight year old body angry in a different way. You'd throw quite the tantrums. Perhaps that came from being to spoiled by your father. And speaking of the devil here he came, voice rough and loud. " Boy, do you want some pastries? " Ci'an asked, but you knew his tone, he wanted something in return. Your father did not even let the boy speak at all while pulling out an envelope. " If you can deliever this letter, young boy, I'll buy you the pastries. Find me afterwards." That was something nice you thought to yourself. Making him word but giving him food as payment. What your naive little mind did not know was that your father had other plans in mind and simply kept walking away from the pastries stand, leaving you to walk around on your own for a little while longer before asking you to hop onto the cart again to leave for home as it was soon dinner time. Xue Yang did gladly do as he was told for he could have some sweets and finally some food in his stomach. Yet the encounter didn't go as planned, instead he was angering the recipient of the letter and the boy had to deal with the consequences. Being dragged to the nearby liquor shop next to the stall where pastries were sold Ci'an and his daughter were long gone, leaving a young naive boy hungry outside, waiting in despair for trusting people. All the boy wanted was something to eat, so he roamed the streets until he found the man and his ox cart, a girl's head looking out of the window excitedly as she spotted the boy. "Diē diè! Diē diè!" You spoke loudly, rushing your father to stop the cart as the boy was running behind. " The boy has returned. You have to buy him pastries now." Though, as naive as you were you saw another side of your father that day, changing moods from being so generous to annoyed and angry. You had never seen him like that. And he did not stop the cart, not until the boy ran in front of it, halting it on his own terms. The scene played in front of your innocent eyes, making you cry. This was not how you knew your father to be, not in your eyes. The sound of the whip beating flesh making you fall back onto the ground of the cart, begging your dad to stop as it scarred you. Crying like a coward, just like the display of your father made your anxiety well up. For far you enjoyed your day, your birthday. Getting more toys, even finding something for A-Ping, your older brother and even sharing pastries with the boy outside just to see it all turn into a small nightmare during day. The sudden movement of the cart made you fall back again onto the ground until you heard a scream from underneath. It was not something you wanted to ever hear again. But the yells from people

around reminded you of what your father had just done. 'How cowardly to hurt a child. ' ' He really has no shame. ' 'Chang Ca'in you bastard.' 'Stop involving others in your quarrels. ' Peaking outside, you only saw a small group of homeless people gather around the boy who's name you never learned. Lying on the ground bleeding in pain and agony, holding his hand while crying. If you could only help him as you rode further away from the scene, back home. The past few days did not change a lot, you practically begged your older brother or any servant to take you to YueYang to find the boy and eventually one servant gave in. It took you a lot of convincing but you tried your best to find the boy. You had packed a small bag with bread and cheese and fruit. It wasn't a lot but it should be enough for a day or two. You even stole money from your father, hopefully it was enough to let a doctor help him. Ever since that day you saw your father in different eyes and learnt quickly he wasn't as great as you thought he was. You were only eight but you grew up faster than you wanted it to be true. You had spent all morning trying to find the boy until noon, you asked any beggar on the street, any stall owner, anyone you could probably think of and find until you found him dozing near the liquor shop next to the pastries. Their sweet scent filing the air around you once more. Carefully you approached the young boy, afraid you might scare him. He looked peaceful lying there and you did not want to wake him up. He sure had to be in pain. As quietly as you could you put down the small bag with food next to him, along the way you even bought a small bottle he could fill up with water. You wanted to apologize for your father's actions but you did not want to disturb him so you whispered something while being crouched down next to him. "I'm really sorry, little brother. Please eat well and get treatment or medicine. I wish it would not have happened.. Hopefully, you can accept my sincere apology." Little did you know he was listening as your eyes scanned his hand, you could not imagine the pain he had gone through, but there wasn't much more that you could do. You knew you were in trouble if your father found out you apologized to a beggar, especially to someone he caused harm to. Yet no one but Xue Yang knew that the two of you would meet soon again.

THIRTEEN YEARS LATER

You had soon learned to leave your home as fights with your father became bigger and more unbearable. You were ashamed to be a part of his cowardly behaviour and did not tolerate it. So eventually when you turned eighteen, you left the manor and roamed the cultivation world, working on yourself, getting to know yourself and making aquaintances. One of your aquaintances was Nie Huaisang. He was a refreshing young man you'd enjoy drinking with, leading you to meet Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng and even the most famous Lan Wangji along your journey. Nie Huaisang had become a good friend of yours, eventually you were a welcome guest at Qinghe. It was rare but welcomed, you saw him as family, a brother you enjoyed spending time with. Even now, you resided at Qinghe having Nie Mingjue talking sense into you for going back home on your mother's birthday and visiting her. Your father's reputation had spread wide and far over the years, making you embarrassed to even carry the last name of Chang but here you were, bowing to the clan leader and biding your farewell. Qinghe might never be your home nor would the Nie Clan ever be your family, but at least you had a place to stay and you were more than thankful of it. Many times had you spoken to Mingjue and expressed your thanks and all you could do was to repay his hospitality with loyalty. Hard to earn but easy to give and be accepted. Leaving at dawn it took you about two days to arrive at Yueyang. At the gates of a place you called home, though the atmosphere around it did make you shiver as you tigthly held onto your sword. Something seemed terribly off and it was a feeling you hadn't felt in years, nothing except one thing could compare to it. The hair on the back of your neck stood up, as you slowly approached the gates of what was once your home. Unbeknownst to you, someone was watching rather excitedly from the rooftop, ready to attack at any given moment. The quietness drove you mad as you kicked the door open, being greeted by hanging corpses yet the scenery of mass murder unfolded behind them. There was you clan, wiped out from existence. Elders, children, servants and anyone you once knew, lying in their own poodles of crimson colored blood. What happend? Who did this? Where was your brother? Where was your mother and your father? All security forgotten you run forward, looking for your parents. " Mother! --- Mother! " Unwillingly your vision became blurry as you stumbled through the corpses of what once belonged to your name. The stinging smell of death making it hard to breath. How many days were they laying there for already? A loud dull thud was heard as you fell to your knees, tears running silently down your pale cheeks as you cradled your mother's cold body to your chest, sobbing without content. Oh how he enjoyed the drama unfold in front of his eyes, better than any theater you could see at the market. Though even he did not let one person live, something about her seemed familiar. He could not pin point it, all he wanted was the revenge for what this man had done to his hand. It was worth the massacre and the now free show as he landed quietly a few feet behind her. She must've been the last remaining person of this god forsaken clan and his last victim to get full revenge. "I should never have let home in the first place. I'm so sorry, mother. I'm so sorry.." Your words were swallowed by your mothers dark hair. You would mourn her for a long time, she was a gentle lady. A few feet away you saw you father, nothing but anger welled up in you as you placed your mother down onto the cold ground, your robes stained by her blood. You had never felt this much rage or anger inside of you as you grabbed your sword, ready to hit whatever flew into your way. Standing above him, you could not hold one piece of respect for him. It was his fault again, for you to feel so painfully lost once more. " What kind of father are you? --- You cannot even protect your own wife. " Broken words had left your lips. " All because you were so cowardly, playing bigger than what

you could pay for. " Quietly those words left your lips, " Now we are no more. There is no more Chang clan, all because of your greed. " Out of nowhere someone started clapping, as if he waited for just the right moment. Faster than lightling you pulled out your sword, facing the young man in front of you, close to where you kneeled moments ago next to your mother's body. "What a tragedy! But brilliantly spoken. ----- It was indeed his fault. " Xue Yang crossed his arms behind his back as he came closer, step by step. " It seems I have not yet fully killed every single member of this clan. --- Who might you be? " He smiled mischieviously at you, but you answered either way. " Chang Y/N. -- Only daughter of clan leader Chang Ci'an. --- " "Today must be my lucky day then. I will for once and all end all of the clan members life. -- " Xue Yang dashed forward, a devilish smile as both of you fought amidst the chaos created by him. Usually something like that would excite you, you could flaunt your skills thought it was a different matter as you landed on the roof, holding him away from you. "What have we done to deserve being slaughtered?" You questioned him, not even bothering asking for his name in return. All you knew was that he had to die today, for the sake of your clan and that they may rest in peace. "Fine with me. " He grinned. as he held up his hand, turning it to look at it at every angle. Silently you watched as he turned around, voice raising. " Once upon a time there was a child, all he wanted was some food. ----- He met a men on the marked here in Yueyang, saying that if he'd delivered a letter, he'd buy him the pastries. As young and naive as the child was, he did so, the only thing on his mind was the food he would get. " The story seemed awfully familiar to you as you remembered the day, your eight birthday. "Though, he did as he was told, Chang Ci'an left without ever paying his debt to the boy. Instead the boy was beaten up, kicked out of the liqour shop and left hungry on the street. Dumb as he was, he confronted the man just ----" "--- just to get whipped and his hand crushed by an ox cart. " You finished his sentence as Xue Yang whipped around in curiousity, wondering how you knew. "You're the boy I met back then. The boy my father hurt. ------ " It was a moment of carelessness from your side, letting your guard down bit by bit. A change of attitute in your behaviour. " I came looking for you, to apologize. I left food and drink and even money to get yourself treatment. " Xue Yang's head was slightly tilted, oh he did remember, but that did not still his urge to have the clan burned down to ashes for what they did to him. She had shown him care indeed, but that was long forgotten he had no mercy, not the elders or children, not even you. "Why? --- Why di------" The sound of metal falling on the bricks of the roof filled the early evening. You had lost the grib on your sword when you looked down, the blade that pierced your back turned red with your blood dripping down, stopping you mid sentence. He had taken advantag of you being distracted, but could you blame him? No, you couldn't. Falling forward onto your knees, you started coughing up blood until you were kicked down, landing onto the stairs of the entrance, feeling the hit of the stone underneath you in your bones, shattering you into pieces from the pain you felt. Turning onto your back in pain, you saw him looking down at you. A huff left your lips, coughing again, quietly choking on the blood that filled your lungs. " What--- what is your--- name?" Words came out in pieces, all you could do was lay there, barely able to move as your own blood colored your robes in dark wet liquid that was warm. "Xue Yang!" "I'm sorry, little brother Xue Yang.." Your words were barely above a whisper as your head fell aside, your vision becoming darker by the second, all you remember was a young boy you once handed two pastries too because he seemed hungry. What you did not see was the smile that had left Xue Yang's features, the agony that

he enjoyed before hearing your words, the same words but with his name, the same words you'd spoken as you thought he was sleeping. In the end, you had the last word, not him. And your friend had to witness you and your clan being whipped out of existence, reporting to his brother that you had passed away at home being murdered.

For Xue Yang hearing those words being spoken lastly, it was everlasting terror.

#mdzs x reader #mdzs reader insert #xue yang x reader #cdrama x reader #the untamed x reader #mdzs x y/n #anime x reader #xue yang #mdzs: xue yang

[silverflame2724]

Ok so, an angsty prompt for you: WWX in the Cloud Recesses as a glorified prisoner or something. He is under strict guard, constantly monitored and only allowed to *see* his precious son once every two weeks. He’s not allowed to touch, not allowed to hand him anything or accept anything from the child. (Just in case he influences the boy) WWX dreads the day that he slips up and then he won’t be allowed even this interaction with his most precious child; Lan clan are watching him like hawks. “Your bracelets are so pretty Baba!” A-Yuan says as he looks at the repressing-manacles on each of WWX’s wrists and ankles. “I want to be just like you when I grow up, with pretty bracelets.” He has no idea why his Baba starts to sob, he has always smiled, always talked kindly and made A-Yuan laugh. But Baba scoops him up into his arms and kisses his forehead and holds him for the first time ... and the last. A-Yuan’s visit is cut short as he is torn from his Baba’s arms and marched away as WWX weakly calls out the only thing he can “Baba loves you, A-Yuan. Be happy.” The guards report A-Yuan’s innocent words to LQ and LXC and ... well. Their reactions are as you’d expect. A-Yuan wants to be like WWX, clearly the demonic cultivator is influencing the child toward the dark path and this cannot continue! WWX only has the memory of holding his baby to comfort him now.

Why does everyone give me so many angsty prompts to write???? 

Also, I was going to make this super angsty and have WWX DIE but my mom was like no and inspired me to do something else.

__________________________________

Wei Wuxian stares at the four white walls of the prison he’s forced to call home. How many years had it been? He didn’t know.

When....When Jin Zixuan died because of him, Wei Wuxian’s mental state had plummeted to the ground. He didn’t know what to do or how to fix it. Then, Lan Wangji came. He came.....and offered protection and Wei Wuxian, tired of everything, had agreed. Lan Wangji said he promised protection but when they and the Wens got to the Cloud Recesses......he became a prisoner just as feared.......and hoped. A part of him wanted to be punished for killing Jin Zixuan, after all. But what he didn’t expect........was that he would have restricted visits with A’ Yuan. 

He couldn’t even touch the one he had considered his son. 

Every day he was allowed to see A’ Yuan was one spent in fear that he would slip up and never see his A’ Yuan again. 

Lan Zhan......Lan Zhan tried to rescue him from the situation. He was one of the few he was allowed to see. But.......

“You promised!” Lan Zhan cried to his brother as the elders captured them. “You promised this wouldn’t happen!”

“I’m sorry, Wangji.” Lan Xichen had said, not looking sorry at all. “This is what the Jins demanded in exchange for his survival.”

They took Lan Zhan away and next he heard of him, he had been whipped and isolated for daring to assist in his escape. They had put repressing manacles on his wrists and ankles and supervised his visits with A’ Yuan, in fear of him “influencing” the boy just as he had with Lan Zhan.

Then, A’ Yuan commented on how pretty his shackles were, how he wanted to be like him when he grew up and Wei Wuxian couldn’t hold the sob, clutching his son close, kissing his forehead.

“Baba loves you, A’ Yuan. Be happy.” He managed to say before they ripped his crying baby from his arms.

He never saw A’ Yuan again from that day on and his grip on reality became thin and tenuous.

Wei Wuxian had nothing left to keep him going. With his brother and sister banned from seeing him, with Lan Wangji being whipped and confined to his own house for even attempting to rescue him from this situation, and now, with A’ Yuan being snatched from his arms, only the memory of him in his arms,........Wei Wuxian couldn’t go on. Couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t.

And besides.......

Wouldn’t it be better if he died anyway? Without him around, A’ Yuan would have a normal life without being scrutinized. Lan Zhan would be free from his punishment and perhaps even assistance with his injuries. And Jiang Cheng and Shijie.......they wouldn’t have to worry about backlash from his actions.

Perhaps it’s better this way. 

If he dyed the pure white walls of this hell a different color.

________________________

If you would like the sad ending, assume from the last line above that WWX kills himself. HOWEVER, if you would like the happy ending, continue below:

________________________

His vision started to become blurry as he wailed into the silence. He was lonely, lonely, lonely. He wanted to run, he wanted to be free. He wanted to live out his life with A’ Yuan and Lan Zhan, in a little home they called theirs, where they weren’t hounded by the cruel outside world.

But those dreams would never come true now.

Never....never.......

[.....hear.....me?]

.....Huh?

[Can you.....hear me?]

Wei Wuxian sat up straight. He recognized the consistency of this voice. It was a spirit. 

One of the side effects of demonic cultivation was the ability to converse with spirits. Even though the resentful energy in his body had been restricted, this ability hadn’t disappeared. But the spirits in the Cloud Recesses had been purified or non-existant.

At least, that’s what Wei Wuxian had thought.

“I can hear you.”

[.....Good.....I.....am weak......but not enough that I can’t help.....you.]

The shackles restraining him unlocked and Wei Wuxian felt a rush of power flooding him.

Rubbing his wrists, he asked, “Who are you?”

[No one...special....just someone.....in a similar situation....as you. And someone.....trapped in this house until I......died.]

“I see........”

[It matters not. You.....do not have to feel.....sorry for.....me. I have long since made peace.....with it. But.....I lingered.....I suppose.....for my sons.]

“Your sons?”

[Yes.....] The spirit sounded wistful. [Forgive me......I will show you....the way out.....]

Wei Wuxian gathered himself together and followed the spirit’s instructions. Finding a loose floorboard and a tunnel underneath it.

“If you had made this tunnel, then why didn’t you escape?”

[I told you......for my sons......I stayed.]

Wei Wuxian nodded and gathered what little belongings he had. He jumped into the tunnel and sealed the opening with the floorboard, making sure to rip a part of his white robes and using his blood to make sure no one found out about the hollow floorboard.

He followed the tunnel out. And found himself outside the Cloud Recesses. Smelling the fresh air, he nearly teared up. 

“Hey, spirit, are you there?”

[Yes?]

“I can give you a bit of resentful energy to sustain yourself. If you want to see your sons, should they still be here.”

[I......]

“You don’t have to. It was just a suggestion.”

[I......yes. I would like to.....]

Wei Wuxian stretched out a hand and let a bit of less harmful resentful energy flow into the helpful spirit. The spirit became a little more visible and Wei Wuxian gasped. She looked......so much like Lan Zhan. The same golden eyes and facial structure.

“You are....!”

[Please keep it a secret.]

“Okay. But.....what shall I address you as?”

[My surname is......Liu.]

“Then.....Senior Liu?” 

[That is.....fine.]

“Then, Senior Liu, can you help me get to Lan Zhan.....and maybe A’ Yuan?”

[I......yes, I can. But you.....stay here. I will get him. Hide somewhere. We cannot risk you getting caught.]

“Okay.” Wei Wuxian used another pieces of his robes and blood to carve an invisibility talisman and waited a little bit away.

Senior Liu returned with both Lan Zhan and A’ Yuan, since it happened to be the day A’ Yuan got to visit Lan Zhan.

“Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan limped towards him.

“Don’t strain yourself!” Wei Wuxian scolded.

“I....I’m sorry. Wei Ying, I promised you and....”

“It’s fine. I know.....you didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Mn.”

“Baba! Fuqin!” A’ Yuan was delighted to see both his parents.

“A’ Yuan.” Wei Wuxian hugged him tight. A’ Yuan had grown up so much and he had missed so, so much. He won’t miss anymore.

“Let’s go.”

Lan Zhan and Senior Liu nodded in the same exact way and Wei Wuxian nearly laughed at that.

As they left and made plans to get the rest of the Wens, Wei Wuxian smiled. Maybe his dream of having a nice life with Lan Zhan and A’ Yuan wasn’t so far off.

______________________________

In case you were wondering, they did rescue the rest of the Wens, said a ‘fuck you’ to the rest of the world and disappeared and didn’t return. Lan Xichen lost his brother - and even though he didn’t know it, his mother. (Serves him right!) Wei Wuxian could either re-cultivate his golden core or cultivate demonic cultivation into a core, depending on your preference and lived happily ever after with Lan Zhan and A’ Yuan and had a small wedding ceremony with Lan Zhan’s mother watching over them.

#wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #lan wangji #lan yuan #madam lan #who I gave the surname Liu because I sure as hell think that she doesn't want the lan name #sad wei ying #for first ending: #sad ending #major character death #suicide #prisoner #bad lans #except LWJ #who was whipped for trying to rescue WWX #for second ending: #madam Lan to the rescue! #WWX escapes!! #LWJ and A' Yuan escape!! #and they have a happy life in the middle of nowhere!! #WangXian are married and have a son