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jazzyoranges · 5 months

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Saw you take requests!! Can you do a fluffy Wednesday x Shape shifter!Reader (no smut please) where it's Wednesday's writing time but she can't think of ideas so reader turns into a cat and curls up on Wednesday's lap? Basically helping Wednesday by making sure Wednesday can't get up until she writes a chapter. Thanks!

Orange kitty - drabble

Wednesday Addams x fem!reader

Words: 0.8k

A/n: i feel like we as a fandom haven’t been putting the orange cat x black cat trope in enough fics. this is me advocating for orange cat!r

“I feel your eyes on me, (Y/n).”

“I’m not allowed to look at my friend anymore?”

“It’s distracting. You’re inhibiting me from writing.” Wednesday isn’t fully lying. She just doesn’t add how you give her an odd feeling. An odd feeling she doesn’t like.

“Aww, do I make you nervous, Wens?” You laugh, deciding to ignore the glare she sends your way

“Keep talking and I’ll remove your voice box.”

“Please, I think you’d miss me too much” You roll your eyes, stretching on Wednesday’s bed

You turn into a cat as per Thing’s request, and you two start to play tag around Wednesday and Enid’s shared room. Thing happily bragged that you and him were better friends once. His hubris only resulted in Wednesday taking away his favorite lotions for an entire week.

The Addams girl huffs when she, yet again, makes a mistake on her typewriter. This was unlike her. The tiny trash can under her desk was nearing being full only after one or two hours of her failed attempts at writing. Wednesday put her hands in her lap after she realized her words only became futile

The abrupt stop of clacking keys makes you turn your head, giving Thing the perfect opportunity to tag you back on Enid’s bed. You quickly turn human again with almost a cartoon-ish pop, and ask Thing if Wednesday was allergic to cats

“She’s not, why do you ask?” He signs

“Do you think she’d kill me if I sat on her lap?” You sign back, not wanting Wednesday to hear

“As a human, most definitely. But if you were a cat maybe she’d tolerate you. No promises, though” Thing somehow shrugs using his thumb and pinkie finger as arms. God, you loved the weird appendage

“I can hear you two talking. I’d prefer if you’d leave me in silence.”

“Writers block?”

“No, I’m merely thinking of the correct words to use.”

“Maybe you should ask Enid for help. The woman can reach over the Twitter character limit in like… three seconds. Two if she’s really excited”

“Recommend such a horrid idea again and I’ll release you in my pen of hellhounds.”

“We both know I’d win” You cockily smirk, again ignoring what looks to be annoyance on Wednesday’s face. Then again, she always looked annoyed

“Your hubris is laughable. Let’s see how you suffice when your digestive system is ripped open.”

“Tempting, but I’d rather stay here with you”

You can only assume Thing listens with watchful… fingers? You execute your plan to him, and a quick pinkie-promise indicates he gets to bury you if Wednesday decides to kill you after the stunt you’re about to pull

“Hey, Wens?” The Addams doesn’t show any form of talking but you decide to keep going

“Did you know people say cats can lessen anxiety?”

The Addams hums in acknowledgement, so you continue

“Well, I don’t exactly believe it”

“And why is that.” Wednesday sighs. Sometimes she wonders why she indulges in you

“I dunno, just seems fake. I was wondering if you’d do an experiment with me?”

“I’d rather not.”

“Great! Thanks, Wens” You give Thing a quick wink after turning into a cat and hopping up onto her desk. Turning your head to the side as if you were asking a question, you looked at Wednesday for an answer

You were crazy, but not crazy enough to do something to make Wednesday hate you

For some reason, the Addams girl doesn’t even have a second chance to think before scooting back her chair. You’re about to jump into her lap with a paw over the edge of her desk, but you glance up to make sure Wednesday was sure. You receive a small nod

The action is enough to make you whisper a small “thank you” but it only comes out as a small meow

You circle around her lap for a good area to lay, and you quickly take your spot with a tiny smile that makes your eyes close. Wednesday scoots her chair back in, and she has absolutely no idea what to do.

Only when you start to purr a shiver goes up her spine. The vibrations are light, and something about you happily laying on her lap makes you chip away at Wednesday’s walls the tiniest bit. She contemplates where to put her hands before Thing scurries on top of you to scratch behind your ear. Wednesday shoots him a deathly glare in return, but your favorite Addams (don’t tell Wednesday) stays put

As if showing Wednesday how to pet a cat, Thing gets off of your back and points a finger in your direction. Hesitantly, the Addams girl copies the actions Thing showed her

And you? You were having an amazing time. Wednesday’s fingers were cold but every stroke of her hand was calculated. She took note of which spots you purred louder, and continued her movements

Fuck you and your ability to get what you want, Wednesday thinks. Of course your smug ass knew cats lessened anxiety. Of course.

But Wednesday can’t help being addicted to your tiny purrs and vibrations

With her left hand fondling your ear and her right on her typewriter, she decides maybe a cat could be arranged in her novel.

#jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega #wednesday (2022)#wednesday x reader #wednesday x y/n #wednesday x you #wednesday addams x reader #wednesday addams #thing addams #enid sinclair

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garoujo · 2 years

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・✶ ｡ﾟ shinichiro doesn’t know how he ended up with someone as perfect as you.

♱ warnings — f!reader, praise, unprotected sex, he has to pull out to stop himself cumming too soon, im still losing my mind over him im sorry.

♱ note — just wen u thought i was done . more shin ! this isn’t even the last draft i have 4 him either . very lazily proofread .

“fuck—how the hell did i get this lucky, huh?” shinichiro breathes, voice low and shakey as his hands smooth along the back of your thighs—spreading you open while his eyes look over you from behind his dark lashes.

he’s drinking in every dip of your figure as you lay naked below him, spread out so eagerly and his cock throbs before he speaks again, a flush high on his cheeks—framed by his messy mop of dark hair that’s still mused from your hands. “can’t believe i get t’ call you my baby.”

you watch shinichiro intently, watch how he moves to drag his fingers along your folds—your essence glistening along his digits after how well he’s prepped you, deliberately petting over your clit and you jerk at the sudden sensitivity before he brings his fingers to his mouth. eyes trained on the way he sucks them between his lips with a groan, cheeks hollowing as he cleans off your slick before he drags them out slowly.

“p-please shin.” you whisper, your eyes cloudy with want as you blink up at the man above you and he swallows heavily at your airy tone, his heart racing in his chest as he inches closer to your pliant body. the sensitive head of his cock slides along your thigh slowly and his jaw clenches at the slight friction, cursing softly under his breath.

“y’ready for me, baby?” shinichiro asks, his voice low while his eyes glance towards your face, his hands wrapping around the base of his cock while the other squeezes the fat of your thigh affectionately, awaiting your reply “yes—please fuck me.”

he blinks slowly, dark eyes still heavy with lust before he lines himself up—a little too eagerly at first when the fat head clumsily slides through your folds instead, causing you to whimper when it catches on your clit.

shinichiro curses softly, spreading you a little more before pulling back to try again—successfully this time as he sinks into you, carefully—allowing you to adjust to his length while his eyes flutter closed, his lips parting as his fingers tighten on your skin.

“o-oh fuck—“ his voice is breathless and shakey and you feel like the room is spinning with how well he fills you up, his cock sliding so perfectly along the spots inside you that have your thighs twitching below him.

he finally bottoms out with a low grunt and his eyes close momentarily when your walls flex around him, trying to keep himself composed while your pussy feels like it’s trying to pull him in deeper, and shinichiro feels his sanity fade at how fucking good it feels, how fucking good you feel.

his hands move to your waist, slender fingers digging into the skin as he pulls his hips back—exhaling heavily when he rolls them back into you, his cock twitching and thickening inside you as he begins a steady pace.

the loud squelching noises grow louder with each of his heavy thrusts and he groans, massaging your waist before allowing himself to fall forward, his face now resting just above the crook of your neck—allowing you to hear the lust driven curses and whimpers that fall from his lips with each languid stroke.

“my baby.. mmm, my perfect fuckin’ girl.” shinichiro grunts, dark hair falling perfectly over his face as he hisses through his teeth and how fucked out he looks already has your pussy flexing around him again, the coil tightening in your stomach as the head of his cock continues to push against the spongy spots inside you that have your vision blurring.

“y-y.. y’feel so fuckin’ good..” he exhales shakily and the force of his hips pick up, his head falling against your shoulder “e-every damn time.”

you hiccup his name, turning to try and meet his gaze as you feel his breath fan along your neck before he turns to meet you—his lips are parted and his eyes are heavy when they find yours, and you whimper at the sight of him looking so lost in pleasure before you pull him in for a sloppy kiss, moaning when you feel his tongue drag along your own as your mind spins.

but shinichiro’s movements become sloppier, his breathing ragged and his fingers in your skin tighten before they leave you entirely and you gasp suddenly when you feel the warmth of his body and his cock leave you, your eyes opening to see him kneeling above you with a sorry expression on his face.

his chest is heaving, a flush blooming from the chiseled muscles to his cheeks as his figure expands with each soft pant before he swallows, voice raspy. “fuck.. my bad, baby. i just—was gonna cum, didn’t wanna cause.. hadn’t had enough ‘f you yet—“ he gulps, running an exasperated hand through his messy hair before he’s leaning over you again, placing a gentle peck against your lips to silence himself before you hear him exhale once more.

shinichiro’s body relaxes as he lines himself up again, sliding in with ease this time considering how wet you are—allowing his cock to push deep inside you as he leans over you with a drawn out sigh.

his hips draw back once more and he rocks forward, his thrusts more practiced this time while the tight grip he has on your waist remains.

you’re both gasping and whimpering, hearing him whisper hushed praises between soft pants and low groans of your name, and the way his balls smack against your ass with each thrust has you struggling to form a sentence that doesn’t consist of “more” and “shin—“ his cock throbbing and thickening inside you every time he hears his name fall from your pouty lips.

shinichiro’s hands tremble when they drag along your skin and your thighs shake when you feel the pads of his fingers drag languidly along your clit, swirling the sensitive bud until you’re keening below him, pushing your tits against his chest while he watches you in awe.

“so pretty, every part ‘f ya.” he gasps, groaning when you tighten around him and his head drops into the crook of your neck once more, his thrusts loud and clapping and you can hear him growl against your skin, his nose brushing against your cheek as he trembles on top of you at the addictive, fluttering pull of your pussy.

“c-cum, shit—cum for me.”

#݁ . ࿓ : sealed#tokyo revengers smut #tokyo rev x reader #tokyorev smut #tokyo revengers x you #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyorev x reader #tokyorev x you #tokyo rev smut #sano shinichiro x you #sano shinichiro x reader #shinichiro x reader #shinichiro smut #sano shinichiro smut

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robininthelabyrinth · 10 months

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@thedarkline ask which disappeared:

Can you do one where Huisang is upset about the loss of his best friends? After the cloud recesses and the training camp he looked forward to seeing Wei Wuxian and JC again and now they don’t even like each other and WW is so cold now. Maybe they deserve a forced vacation?

ao3

Nie Mingjue blinked.

“Oh,” he said. “I see. This is a hallucination, and I should go get checked out by the doctors.”

“Rude, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang sniffed. “Also, you should in fact go get checked out by the doctors some more. I’m still worried about you, you got out of bed too quickly after everything. But also: rude!”

“All right, I’ll concede that maybe I didn’t hallucinate and you in fact said what you said,” Nie Mingjue said. “But…why? I thought you liked Wei Wuxian!”

“I do like him! Of course I like him!”

Nie Mingjue threw his hands into the air. “Then why in the world would you want me to bring him to trial?”

“Because he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Nie Huaisang said. “It’s all a bunch of rumor and innuendo, and now Jiang Cheng had to throw him out of the sect and pretend he doesn’t like him – which is ridiculous – and we can’t all hang out the way we used to and it’s awful, da-ge! Just awful!”

“Pretty awful for Wei Wuxian stuck living on the Burial Mounds and Jiang Cheng having to rebuild his sect all by himself, but yes, by all means, let’s focus on how it affects you personally,” Nie Mingjue said dryly. “No fun hangouts with your friends. How will you survive?”

Nie Huaisang ignored him.

“My point is,” he said loftily, “if he’s found innocent after a trial, then he can come back. It’s perfect!”

“Huaisang…”

“I’m serious.”

Nie Mingjue rubbed his forehead and, reluctantly, started trying to actually think it through. Nie Huaisang could sometimes be distracted by shiny things, like a shopping trip or a new fan, but sometimes he would demonstrate his heritage by getting his teeth into something and stubbornly refusing to let up on it, ever.

It was nice to see him living up to at least some family traditions.

“Wei Wuxian did murder some Jin sect guards,” he pointed out. “He’s unquestionably guilty of that.”

“First off, no one cares about that,” Nie Huaisang rebutted. “And you know it.”

“They should. The fact that the Jin are soulless bastards isn’t exculpatory.”

“No, but also you’re wrong. The fact is, Wei Wuxian didn’t kill them.”

“What?”

“He didn’t! Wen Ning did.”

“…I’m not sure how it’s better that the Ghost General was involved.”

Nie Huaisang waved his fan at him. “Da-ge, don’t be obtuse! Wen Ning wasn’t the Ghost General at that point – he was just a fierce corpse. No consciousness.”

Nie Mingjue waited for his brother to explain his logic. He assumed there was some, anyway.

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes as if he thought Nie Mingjue was being purposefully slow just to mess with him, which he wasn’t, for once. “Da-ge. Wen Ning was a fierce corpse who had been killed by the Jin sect guards. If he’d resurrected without Wei-xiong’s help, would anyone have said anything?”

“Of course not. A murderer’s victim seeking vengeance for the crime committed against them is a classic case that calls for liberation, provided they haven’t killed anyone else in the process or gotten a taste for killing people such that they would continue doing so afterwards.”

“Exactly.”

“But Wei Wuxian did resurrect him.”

“Naturally he did! He was looking for his friend, he wanted to speak with him; he’s a demonic cultivator. What could be more natural? It’s no different from a Lan playing Inquiry to see if they can find a lost soul. How was Wei Wuxian to know that the Jin sect guards had murdered him, and that Wen Ning would therefore arise as a fierce corpse bent on immediate vengeance?”

Nie Mingjue wanted to laugh, and also possibly to suggest that Nie Huaisang consider picking up a sideline in advocacy, except that he really didn’t actually want a lawyer in the family.

“All right,” he said, suppressing his amusement. “Let’s say I’m following where you’re leading. Then why didn’t Wei Wuxian, demonic cultivator, stop the murder?”

“Da-ge, please,” Nie Huaisang cast him a horrified look. “You’re not suggesting a cultivator can be held responsible for not acting swiftly enough to stop something, are you? Imagine how much of the cultivation world might be at risk if that were the rule!”

“Mm. A good point. Didn’t I hear somewhere that Wei Wuxian had already known that the Jin sect guards had killed Wen Ning…?”

“Surely Wei-xiong would never make such an assumption about the good, upstanding people that a good, upstanding sect like Lanling Jin took on as their own. It must have been a misunderstanding. You know how young heroes are, all bluster and hot air. Are we kicking people out of sects just for that?”

Nie Mingjue’s shoulders were shaking with the effort to keep his laughter inside.

“There, you see! Perfectly logical,” Nie Huaisang concluded, throwing his sleeves up with a flourish. “Obviously the entire sequence of events that led to Jiang Cheng kicking Wei Wuxian out is simply a misunderstanding. Easily resolved!”

“Right. And the Wen sect? They were supposed to be in Jin sect custody.”

“Uh, da-ge, the Jin sect appointed guards that killed some of them, a fact we know for sure because we’ve gotten it based on the testimony of the dead – again, like Inquiry. Are you saying we can’t rely on things like Inquiry? What will the Lan sect say if they hear you suggest such a thing?”

“I’m suggesting that we still need to do something with the Wen sect.”

“Let Jiang Cheng take them and put them to work.” Nie Huaisang shrugged. “He’s got a whole sect to rebuild, hasn’t he? Anyway, they were the ones who were massacred, they should get first call on what to do with them.”

“Firstly, taking them in means that Jiang Cheng has to feed them –”

“The Jin sect can pay for that, if they’re so enthusiastic about helping deal with them.”

“Secondly, why would Jiang Cheng want the kinsman of the people who killed his parents? I thought you liked him?”

“I’m getting him back Wei Wuxian,” Nie Huaisang said. “He’s going to have to deal with the baggage Wei Wuxian picked up along the way on his own. What do I look like, someone who fixes things for people? Please, da-ge. I’m only human. There’s only so much that I’m capable of.”

Nie Mingjue gave in and started laughing.

#mdzs #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #my fic #my fics #another old one #and a theme I've hit before #maybe even posted htis one before???#but I like this one anyway because of the stupid lawyering

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wangxianficrecs · 2 months

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Black and white by apathyinreverie

Black and white

by apathyinreverie (@apathyinreverie)

T, 10k, Wangxian

Summary: The thing is, Sizhui knows that nothing in this world is ever truly black or white. Kay's comments: This story is giving me something I'm always craving: Lan Sizhui pondering over his place in the world and in the Lan Sect after everything that happened in canon, after he learned of his true identity and after he learned what happened to the Wen remnants. It's bitter, it's honest, it's absolutely perfect. Lived for the part where he was roasting Lan Qiren for his hypocricy and I loved the ending of the story - very satisfying! Also featuring outsider POV on Wangxian's developement post-canon in a mostly The Untamed-verse with Chief Cultivator Lan Wangji and them not being together yet, very heart-breaking and heart-warming in equal measures. Excerpt: However, he also sees the shadowed caution, the uncertainty so briefly flitting through Xian-ge’s eyes at Jingyi’s enthusiastic invitation, mixed with something else, something that would be impossible to read for Sizhui if he didn’t already know about the longing Xian-ge usually hides so successfully. It is a little devastating to realize how unexpected the invitation apparently seems to Xian-ge. Because, even several months after his return, he still isn’t certain of his welcome in Gusu, of his welcome with A-Die, and it has been barely three weeks since he last left and to return now would certainly break the pattern of only returning every few months which Xian-ge seems to have set himself for his visits. ‘Not unless he is explicitly told’, Wen Ning’s voice once more echoes in his mind. Sizhui chooses to interject softly, “Please, Wei-qianbei,” leaning forward the slightest bit, still a little jarred at their ever-decreasing distance in height, now barely needing to look up to meet Xian-ge’s eyes any longer. “You would most certainly be welcome. This one would be very happy if you were to join us on our way back.”

pov lan sizhui, post-canon, mo dao zu shi & the untamed combination, the untamed compliant, chief cultivator lan wangji, pov outsider lan wangji/wei wuxian, getting together, hurt/comfort, adorable juniors, gusu lan sect rules, cultivation sect politics, good parents lan wangji and wei wuxian, mutual pining, oblivious wei wuxian, protective lan wangji, protective lan sizhui, communication

~*~

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

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rubywonu · 7 months

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𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 - 𝘄𝗲𝗻 𝗷𝘂𝗻𝗵𝘂𝗶

summary: in which the new addition to the cafe fascinates you.

pairing: wen junhui x fem!reader

genre: meet cute, bakery au!.

warnings: mentions of ghost - shaped cookies.

w/c: 0.9k

nia’s notes: such a wonderful start to cutetober, isn’t it amazing.

this is part of cutetober!

although the outside world was getting ready to start its day, you and the rest of the bakery staff had already completed half of the work. it was october, one of the busiest months of the year.

it marked the official start of fall and boy, was the bakery buys. pumpkin spice lattes, cinnamon rolls, and the bakery's specialty - ghost-shaped cookies flew off the shelf as soon as they were stocked.

so it was time to hustle. there were a few employees in the main part of the bakery and they were setting up for opening. meanwhile, you were prepping the kitchen and you were also waiting for the new joiner.

it was the perfect time for a new employee. you didn't know how he looked or anything about him apart from his name, wen junhui. sounds chinese. you thought just as the kitchen door opened.

and there he was, the man you were awaiting. dear lord, you didn't expect him to look this good. with that cute cream and blue zip-up and his hair down, all fluffy, you were experiencing what you realized were butterflies at that moment.

"yn, this is jun. our new employee." hari, your friend and the bakery's cashier introduced the fine man. "he'll be helping you in the kitchen from now on."

the universe must be on your side since you would be partnering with jun. "hi, jun." you smiled as you tested his name on your tongue. it felt comfortable.

"hi, yn. nice to meet you." if you thought he looked good with his face neutral you were awestruck when you saw him flash out a grin.

the two of you made eye contact and it felt like sparks were shooting in all directions. the sounds drained out and all you cared about were that devouring eyes.

"um. so, i'm going to leave." hari backed out, clearly uncomfortable at the tension between you and jun.

the slight slam of the door broke out the contact and you were calling jun over. "here, put this on." you handed an apron to jun and you showed him the workstation where you were making the cookies.

the first batch was already out and it was a test one. "so, the bakery's specialty is the ghost-shaped cookies. and i make them. now that you're here, you're going to help me make them."

"ok, that sounds nice." jun finished tying his apron. "what should i do?"

"well, you can prep the cookie dough while i finish icing the test batch. after that, i'll help you with the selling batches." you gave jun gloves as you put on your own.

the both of you started working, and you started sneaking glances at the man next to you. the way jun's eyebrows furrowed when he concentrated on perfecting the dough. you glanced at him without realizing that jun was doing the same too.

from the moment jun walked inside the kitchen, his eyes were blessed. jun found you gorgeous, he loved the way your eyes crinkled when you smiled at him. and he loved the way your voice sounded like honey.

he looked at you focusing on decorating the ghost-shaped cookies. your mouth was in a pout and it made you look very adorable. he went back to focusing on the dough.

jun wanted to get a little playful like he did. he slowly reached over to the finished test batch cookies and he grabbed one cookie. as he was about to put the cookie in his mouth, he felt a slap on his hand and the cookie being pulled away.

"these are for later, not now." the smile that was threatening to come out trapped the both of you. you and jun tried hard to not smile and remain neutral but that failed miserably. you were intrigued by jun's playful behavior.

it brought out the inner child in you as you saw his flour-stained hand. you realized that when you slapped his hand, a little flour had stained his hand.

the two of you looked up from his hand and burst out in laughter. you were too busy giggling, that you didn't notice that jun was covering your cheek in flour too.

"no you didn't." you scoffed with a mischievous glint in your eyes before you grabbed a little flour and put it on his cheek as well.

"i surrender." jun was lagging while putting his hands up in position. "how about i get you coffee as a truce."

the both of you didn't need a truce but was jun going to pass up an opportunity to ask you out? no, absolutely not.

"we work in a bakery, i can literally walk out to get a coffee." fair point. jun thought.

"how about dinner, i doubt you can get that here too." now it looked like jun had trapped you.

"sure. tomorrow, after our shift." just like that you had started a new relationship with a man who you didn't know would be the love of your life, and you owed it all to ghost-shaped cookies and a bit of flour.

taglist: @caratlibrary . @caratsland . @kflixnet . @jyiiscool . @readingaddict420 . @pixieskie . @@anemoiant . @horanghae8 . @boooooseun . @wonwooz1 . @xomingyu . @bangchansbae .

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richincolor · 3 months

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January's New Releases

2024 has already started off right with a strong list of new releases of debuts, a few sequels and trilogies, and a whole slew of highly anticipated novels. Which book will you start your 2024 TBR list with? Click below to read all that has come out so far.

Week of January 2nd

Stay with My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan Inkyard Press

From the author of Counting Down with You and A Show for Two comes a new YA contemporary about a girl who accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band and falls for the guitarist while secretly trying to make up for her mistake.

Liana Sarkar lives and breathes music, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her A&R coordinator father. Maybe if she succeeds, he’ll finally give her the time of day instead of drowning himself in work to distract from the grief of her mother’s passing.

When Liana accidentally sabotages an up-and-coming local band, Third Eye, she makes it her mission to steer them towards success—without them discovering her role in their setback. But as she gets closer to Third Eye, especially their enigmatic leader Skyler Moon, it becomes harder to hide the truth.

With both her heart and their futures on the line, will Liana be able to undo the damage she’s caused?

Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia HarperTeen

In this YA standalone perfect for fans of Tobly McSmith and Meredith Russo, the first out trans girl at an all-girls school must choose between keeping her head down or blazing a trail.

Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.

That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all.

Being the figurehead of a movement isn’t something Tara’s interested in. She’d rather read old speeches and hang out with the Sibyls who are on her side—especially Felicity, a new friend she thinks could turn into something more. Then the club’s sponsor, a famous alumna, attacks her in the media and turns the selection process into a spectacle.

Tara’s always found comfort in the power of other peoples’ words. But when it comes time to fight for herself, will she be able to find her own voice?

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White (Song of the Last Kingdom #2) by Amélie Wen Zhao Delacorte

Years ago, the Elantian colonizers invaded Lan’s homeland and killed her mother in their search to uncover the Last Kingdom’s greatest the location of its legendary four Demon Gods. Lan’s mother devoted her life to destroying the Demon Gods, and Lan is determined to finish her mission. Yet, there are others searching for the gods, too.

Zen knew his soul was forfeit the moment he made a deal with the Demon God known as the Black Tortoise, but he’s willing to lose himself if it means saving the Kingdom–and the girl–he loves. But to crush the colonizers who have invaded his land he needs more power than even a single Demon God can provide. He needs an army. And he knows exactly where he can find it–in the undead army his great grandfather lead decades ago.

The Elantians may have stolen their throne, but the battle for the Last Kingdom has only begun.

Ghost Roast by Shawneé and Shawnelle Gibbs & illustrated by Emily Cannon Versify

For as long as she can remember, Chelsea Grant has tried everything she can think of to distance herself from the disastrous damage her father does to her social life. It’s not easy to shake her reputation as Ghost Girl when Dad keeps advertising his business as a “paranormal removal expert” in big, bold, loud letters all over New Orleans!

This year, Chelsea’s all grown up, attending one of the most prestigious high schools in the city, and she’s finally made friends with the popular crowd. Things are looking up—until a night on the town backfires spectacularly, landing her in hot water at home. Her punishment? Working for her dad at Paranormal Removal Services. All. Summer.

Worst of all, her new job reveals an unexpected secret she has to keep: While Dad hunts ghosts with his own DIY tech, Chelsea can actually see them. And when she meets Oliver, a friendly spirit, at the fancy mansion her dad is getting a handsome fee to exorcize, she realizes she has to save his after-life, even if it risks everything her father’s worked for.

Week of January 9th

Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah Sourcebooks Fire

Seventeen-year-old Krescent Dune is buried under the weight of her dead parents’ debt and the ruinous legacy they left behind. The only way she can earn enough money to escape her unforgiving island is by battling monstrous creatures in an underground fighting pit. After a fight goes terribly wrong, she’s banned from the pits. Now hopeless, she is offered a deal: in exchange for the erasure of her debts, she must join and protect a hunting party for a rescue mission deep within the mining caves beneath the island.

Krescent is determined to keep her head down and fulfill her role as the dutiful bodyguard, even though she is trapped underground with her childhood enemy and a company of people who would gladly kill her if they knew who her parents were. As they come across creatures she believed only existed in legends, it becomes clear they are in far more danger than she could have imagined. But someone doesn’t want her to make it out alive. And she’ll have to figure out who before she’s left alone… in the dark.

From the author of Monsters Born and Made comes an action-packed South Asian inspired fantasy that will have your heart racing at every turn.

Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment by Arushi Avachat Wednesday Books

Shaadi preparations are in full swing, which means lehenga shopping, taste testing, dance rehearsals, and best of all, Arya’s sister Alina is home. The Khannas are together again, finally, and Arya wants to enjoy it. So she stifles her lingering resentment towards Alina, plays mediator during her sister’s fights with their mother, and welcomes her future brother-in-law with open arms. (Okay, maybe enjoy isn’t exactly right.)

Meanwhile at school, Arya’s senior year dreams are unraveling. In between class and her part-time gig as a bookshop assistant, Arya struggles to navigate the aftermath of a bad breakup between her two best friends and a tense student council partnership with her rival, the frustratingly attractive Dean Merriweather.

Arya is determined to keep the peace at home and at school, but this shaadi season teaches Arya new realities: Alina won’t always be in the bedroom down the hall, Mamma’s sadness isn’t mendable, friendships must evolve, and life doesn’t always work out like her beloved Bollywood movies. But sometimes, the person you least expect will give you a glimpse of your dream sequence just when you need it most.

Structured like a Bollywood film (entertaining intermission included!) Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment will make you swoon, laugh, cry, think, nod your head in agreement, and quite possibly make you get up and dance.

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by LeUyen Pham First Second

Valentina Tran was named after Valentine’s Day, which used to be her favorite holiday. But when Val learns the truth behind what happened with her parents and why she’s being raised by a single father, she realizes true love is a lie. This is reinforced when she meets the spirit of Saint Valentine, who tells her she and her family are cursed to always be unlucky in love. Val is ready to give into her fate, until one Lunar New Year festival, where a mysterious lion dancer hands her a paper heart, and ZING. Val becomes determined to change her destiny, prove Saint Valentine wrong, and give her heart to the right person.

Meanwhile, lion dancing is the only thing that has given Jae peace after his dad passed away. It’s also what keeps him connected to his father’s side of the family. Both Jae and his cousin Leslie notice Val at the Lunar New Year festival, and for some inexplicable reason, Jae hands Val a paper heart. But it’s Leslie, with his K-Pop good looks, who starts to date Val. Jae still feels this connection with Val and feels it’s somehow tied to how he feels about losing his father.

Both Val and Jae struggle with the spirits who haunt them as they are inextricably brought together in a love story that is satisfying, sweet, and moving.

Week of January 16th

Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney HarperTeen

Jane has no interest in a husband. Eager to make her own way in the world, she accepts the governess position at Thornfield Hall. Though her new employer, Edward Rochester, has a charming air—not to mention a handsome face—Jane discovers that his smile can sharpen in an instant. Plagued by Edward’s mercurial mood and the strange wails that echo through the corridors, she grows suspicious of the secrets hidden within Thornfield Hall—unaware of the true horrors lurking above her very head.

On the topmost floor, Bertha is trapped in more ways than one. After her whirlwind marriage to Edward turned into a nightmare, he locked her away as revenge for withholding her inheritance. Now his patience grows thin in the face of Bertha’s resilience and Jane’s persistent questions, and both young women are in more danger than they realize. When their only chance at safety—and perhaps something more—is in each other’s arms, can they find and keep one another safe before Edward’s dark machinations close in around them?

Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa Feiwel & Friends

London, 1812 . Oliver Bennet feels trapped—not just by the endless corsets, petticoats, and skirts he’s forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society’s expectations. The world, and the vast majority of his family and friends, think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone’s wife.

But Oliver can’t bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family’s home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It’s during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to “Elizabeth” at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart, not to mention attractive.

As Oliver spends more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares to hope that his dream of love and life as a man can be possible. But suitors are growing bolder―and even threatening―and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he’s not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly his own.

So Let Them Burn (Divine Traitors #1) by Kamilah Cole Little, Brown Young Readers

Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland.

Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.

A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel Rick Riordan Presents

Sixteen-year-old Manisha is no stranger to monsters—she’s been running from them for years, from beasts who roam the jungle to the King’s army, who forced her people, the naga, to scatter to the ends of the earth. You might think that the kingdom’s famed holy temples atop the floating mountains, where Manisha is now a priestess, would be safe—but you would be wrong.

Seventeen-year-old Pratyush is a famed slayer of monsters, one of the King’s most prized warriors and a frequent visitor to the floating temples. For every monster the slayer kills, years are added to his life. You might think such a powerful warrior could do whatever he wants, but true power lies with the King. Tired after years of fighting, Pratyush wants nothing more than a peaceful, respectable life.

When Pratyush and Manisha meet, each sees in the other the possibility to chart a new path. Unfortunately, the kingdom’s powerful have other plans. A temple visitor sexually assaults Manisha and pushes her off the mountain into a pit of vipers. A month later, the King sends Pratyush off to kill one last monster (a powerful nagin who has been turning men to stone) before he’ll consider granting his freedom.

Except Manisha doesn’t die, despite the hundreds of snake bites covering her body and the venom running through her veins. She rises from the pit more powerful than ever before, with heightened senses, armor-like skin, and blood that can turn people to stone. And Pratyush doesn’t know it, but the “monster” he’s been sent to kill is none other than the girl he wants to marry.

Alternating between Manisha’s and Pratyush’s perspectives, Sajni Patel weaves together lush language, high stakes, and page-turning suspense, demanding an answer to the question “What does it truly mean to be a monster?”

Beasts of War (Beasts of Prey #3) by Ayana Gray Nancy Paulsen Books

Once a prisoner to Fedu, the vengeful god of death, Koffi has regained her freedom, but she is far from safe. Fedu will stop at nothing to hunt her down and use her power to decimate the mortal world. Koffi knows when Fedu will during the next Bonding, a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. To survive, Koffi will have to find powerful new allies quickly, and convince them to help her in the terrible battle to come.

Once a warrior-turned-runaway, Ekon has carved out a new life for himself outside Lkossa, but the shadows of his past still haunt him. Now, alongside unexpected friends, Ekon tries to focus on getting Koffi to the Kusonga Plains before the next Bonding. If he fails, Koffi will be consumed, either by her own dangerous power, or the terrible fate Ekon is doing everything he can to prevent. Ekon devotes himself to protecting Koffi, but the lingering threats from his own past are more urgent than he knows.

As Koffi and Ekon race to the Kusonga Plains—and try to garner the help of Eshōza’s ancient gods along the way—they must face a slew of dangerous beasts old and new. In the end, destiny may unite Koffi and Ekon for the last time—or tear them apart for good.

Week of January 23rd

Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru HarperTeen

In the slowly sinking city of Coconino, Arizona, the days are long, the money is tight, and the rain never stops.

For Jin Haldar, this life is nothing new—ever since her father died in a diving accident, she’s barely made ends meet for her and her younger sister, Thara.

Enter Bhili: a drifter who offers Jin and Thara the score of a lifetime—a massive stash of gold hidden in the sunken ruins of Las Vegas.

Jin knows it’s too dangerous. She stopped diving after her father’s accident. But when her sister decides to go, Jin’s left with only one choice: to go with her.

A ragtag crew is assembled—including Jin’s annoyingly hot ex-boyfriend. From there, a high-stakes heist ensues that’s beyond even Jin’s wildest fears. Crumbling ruins, sea beasts, corsairs, and a mysterious figure named João Silva all lie in wait. To survive, Jin will have to do what she promised herself she’d never do again: dive.

Out of Our League: 16 Stories of Girls in Sports edited by Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacopelli Feiwel and Friends

A compelling YA anthology from editors Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacopelli about the trials and triumphs of girls in sports.

Ambition. Drive. Determination. Talent. Courage. Teamwork.

Every athlete knows what it takes to win. But for teen female players, the stakes are so much higher. In this anthology, the voices of these athletes come alive, highlighting the ferocity of those who are often shunted to the side. From navigating rampant misogyny to forging a sisterhood through sweat or just reveling in the love of the game, the stories in Out of Our League address the phenomenal physical and emotional power of teenage athletes as they compete, persevere, and thrive, on and off the field.

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee by Ellen Oh Crown

When a Korean American teenage artist gets sucked into the world of her own web comic, she must find a way out with the help of a cute boy all while facing off against a villainous corporation. Inspired by the A-ha’s “Take on Me” music video, this entertaining YA novel is a grounded speculative fiction adventure from the co-founder of We Need Diverse Books.

Mina has become the hero of her own story. Literally.

When Mina Lee woke up on Saturday morning for SAT prep, she did NOT expect to:

1. Nearly be fried by a superhero who turned out to be a supervillain. 2. Come face to face with Jin, the handsome boy of her dreams. 3. Discover a conspiracy involving the evil corporation Merco that she created.

And it’s all happening in her fictional world. Mina is trapped in the story she created. Now it’s up to her to save everyone. Even if it means losing Jin forever.

Barracoon by Zora Neal Hurston, Adapted by Ibram X. Kendi, Illustrated by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson HarperCollins Childrens

In the first middle grade offering from Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi, young readers are introduced to the remarkable and true-life story of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last survivors of the Atlantic human trade, in an adaptation of the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Barracoon.

This is the life story of Cudjo Lewis, as told by himself.

Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America to be enslaved, eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis was then the only person alive to tell the story of his capture and bondage—fifty years after the Atlantic human trade was outlawed in the United States. Cudjo shared his firsthand account with legendary folklorist, anthropologist, and writer Zora Neale Hurston.

Adapted with care and delivered with age-appropriate historical context by award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi, Cudjo’s incredible story is now available for young readers and emerging scholars. With powerful illustrations by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, this poignant work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.

#new releases #weneeddiversebooks #young adult books

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kanekoii · 3 months

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mechatu-a being your boyfriend <3

mika’s notes -> i love niji jp sm y’all don’t even know and this group has most of my oshis too-

pairings -> saiki ittetsu, akagi wen, usami rito, hibachi mana, hoshirube shou, murakumo kagetsu, koyanagi rou, inami rai x gn! reader (all seperate)

genre -> scenario, fluff

song -> perfect hero - mechatu-a (cover)

warnings -> canonical hero stuff, i love these fellas!!, they’re all simps lmao

SAIKI ITTETSU ->

when i say he’s naturally a loud person i mean it. of course, he still has your best interests at heart during his more chaotic moments. given his somewhat intimidating exterior, it was a little surprising to learn that he was a hero after all. if anything, he’s the anti-hero the group needs to ensure some unruly people are put in their place with his deep and intimidating voice. yet behind closed doors, he’s such a sweetheart! always sharing his food with you and gladly sitting down with you just to chat on the longer work days. being a hero isn’t just beating up bad guys after all! there’s also a decent amount of celebrity work that goes into it, so please allow him to take time out of his schedule to love and pay attention to you, because nothing could make him happier.

AKAGI WEN ->

unlike ittetsu, he doesn’t wait until he’s behind closed doors to be a total sweetheart to his beloved partner. he’s always cooking meals for you, and he’ll be absolutely over the moon if you offer to help. if you’re okay with your relationship with this cheery hero, he will talk about you constantly in interviews and such! wen just wants the whole world to know he loves you to the moon and back! ultimately, he wouldn’t trade his relationship with you for the whole world. he’ll come home to you late at night sometimes with a plushie and a dessert for you as a sort of apology for possibly worrying you, seeing as he was out so late. absolute and total soft little sweetheart boyfriend who just wants to make you happy so please reassure him sometimes and do something for him in return!

USAMI RITO ->

this foodie hero’s love language is absolutely sharing his snacks with you. seeing as he often treats food as if it’s the only thing in the world that matters, it’s a real honor that he’s willing to share with you! he’s a bit of the chaotic dad of the group, so if you date him, you’d likely end up taking on a caretaker role to the other heroes too. he’s very cheesy with his shows of affection, it’s his way of saying he doesn’t care what others think and that even if he’s technically a public figure, you’re the only one he wants in the whole world. his ideal date would likely be bringing your favorite snacks home with him and watching movies while he cuddles with you! like the others, he’s a total softie even if his job as a hero doesn’t necessarily favor that due to questionable moral situations he may be put in. he’s not as upfront about his relationship with you, but he mentions it offhandedly every once in a while to remind people that he loves you oh so much.

HIBACHI MANA ->

your relationship with him most definitely started as friends and slowly evolved into something more, mostly without either of you noticing. most definitely a friends to lovers situation, because he had been your best friend since childhood. this hero has always been a very sweet and kind person, but especially towards you. his love for you most definitely would stand the rest of time as he continued his hero work. despite stress and injury, you were always there for him no matter what. it really made mana have a new appreciation for your relationship when you would drop everything to comfort him. he knows his job isn’t the most favorable for romantic relationships, but the fact that you stay with him despite that just makes his heart flutter when he thinks about it.

HOSHIRUBE SHOU ->

seeing as he’s much more of a quiet type, it was surprising he even allowed his feelings for you to be heard in the first place. especially considering how shy and quiet he is, having someone he loves as much as you is a blessing. he knows he's not the best with expressing affection verbally, but he makes up for it by always holding your hand or hugging or kissing you. in a way, it's easier to express than saying he loves you. of course, that doesn't mean shou doesn't love you with all his heart. the first time he audibly says the words "i love you", his face is covered in blush. he hides it behind his purple and blue hair, voice shaking slightly out of nervousness. he still blushes when you take the initiative and kiss him first, even if you’ve kissed hundreds of times. showing affection in public makes him very flustered, but he still holds your hand in front of other people just to show everyone that he loves you!

MURAKUMO KAGETSU ->

simply put, you’re everything to this ninja hero. he’s much more private about his relationship so many people wouldn’t even know he had a significant other aside from his closest friends. he reassures you constantly that he isn’t ashamed or anything of the like, just that it might cause danger for you due to the relatively risky nature of his work as a hero. ultimately, it’s just to keep you safe. as soon as he’s certain of your safety, he’ll be parading you about and talking about you every single chance he gets just to show the world how much he adores you. there’s a picture of you and him together in his phone case as a sort of motivator when his hero work has him down, cuz if nothing else, he has you to come home to every day. he has you to hug and kiss and pour all his love into at the end of every day. coming through the door to your shared home and seeing you is his absolute favorite thing in the world. especially if kagetsu is home especially late and sees you sleeping on the couch waiting for him, his heart just melts on the spot.

KOYANAGI ROU ->

most definitely a more condescending type who teases you over the smallest things sometimes. he can’t help it, it’s just his love language! rou isn’t really the best with being super affectionate, so please understand that him teasing you is how he shows he loves you. of course, he occasionally shows more traditional signs of love and affection such as buying you gifts or cuddling with you, but he just isn’t that affectionate of a person. please don’t let it get you down or make it think he doesn’t love you, because he really warms up to the idea of being affectionate after dating you for a while. behind closed doors at least, he’ll be wrapped around you all day and night commenting on how cute you are and how he just loves you so so much! he would never let his friends or fellow heroes see him in such a state though, they would never let him hear the end of it and he’s the one who teases other people, not the other way around! once in a blue moon, his friends will see him kiss your cheek or forehead though, and just as expected, he will never hear the end of it.

INAMI RAI ->

the mechanic prefers just having you by his side as he works on his newest invention or tinkers with his fellow hero’s gear to hopefully improve it. just sitting and chatting with you while he tinkers with things is his favorite pastime because he gets to mess with mechanical things and talk to his beloved!! he has a bunch of pictures of you at his work station as well as in his phone case just like kagetsu! his fellow heroes end up getting pretty annoyed with the way rai won’t shut up about you, but he thinks of you so highly that he could barely even convey how much he loves you in words. doesn’t mean he doesn’t try tho, cuz he does…he talks for hours just about how much he loves you. at first, he was scared to ask you out and rou had to put him up to it. both of them were absolutely taken aback when you actually agreed to go out with rai, and ESPECIALLY when you started seeing him regularly and made your relationship official.

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deanmafia · 4 months

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Before I post my super long spam on all the clerks content/Eltingville content I’ve made on here I thought I’d share my doodlez for today (this is just an excuse to rant abt httyd)

Ok so in my opinion I think they ruined Snotlout in the 2nd movie I mean overall it’s an ok movie my issue was that we didn’t get to see their dynamic a lot but I understood cuz this was abt hiccup but Snotlout’s relationship with Ruffnut pissed me off cuz the 3 of them were like brother and sister in the tv show but they made Snotlout have a crush on Ruffnut which was weird, hard to watch, but funny too. I don’t think it’s really THAT good just ok.

Httyd 3 ok overall it’s a poorly done the villain was good the other stuff was bad The light fury, Toothless acting like a dog, Them giving away their dragons it just could’ve been done better. Part 2 and 3 were so weird becuz after the 1st movie the entire gang became the main characters like I said it’s a lil understandable for 2 becuz it was focused on Hiccups mother and his family but 3 was insane they had no screen time it was just Hiccup and Astrid like we get it already 😭 A lot of ppl disliked Snotlout becuz of his “crush” but it wasn’t really a crush it was more like “I admire u” I think the writer or someone who worked on the script had said it not really being a crush but more “ur so cool” typa thing. I didn’t really mind the “crush” tbh I felt like it was such a Snotlout thing to do what ppl ignored was Snotlout’s envy towards Eret and it’s my fav ship becuz u can tell he likes him but would never admit it. And I wouldn’t blame him for being pissy either eret is just automatically accepted by everyone wen he literally used to be the bad guy. We all know Snotlout isn’t shy abt his feelings but I always felt like he was the type to be pissy if he REALLY liked someone. That’s just how I saw it. Snotlout’s outfit ATE tho like all their outfits did 😭

I think both movies could’ve been better ecpecially part 3 and I had wished they kept the sibling dynamic of the twins and Snotlout. I just CANNOT see Snotlout and any of the twins together as a couple they r too much like siblings in the show in my eyes I can see fishlegs but Eret and Snotlout they just go together u know wat I mean? They have a lot more in common etc and yet r so different literally just *muah* perfect🤌🏾

I love Snotlout sm and wish other ppl liked him and eret together too😭

#httyd fanart #httyd #httyd rtte #httyd 2 #httyd 3 #httyd fandom #httyd snotlout #snotlout jorgenson #eret son of eret #Snotloutxeret

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pieridae-art · 2 months

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Special Lan Xichen analysis post

As I’ve previously said, Lan Xichen is a very flawed person and that’s okay! I want to examine him at several parts of the story and pick apart some of the criticism he gets. So let’s talk Lan Xichen!

Siege of the Burial Mounds: I really like this one shot from the donghua where the Sect Leaders of each sect (NMJ, JGS, and JC) are shown at the siege and beside them representing the Lan sect is… Lan Qiren. Not LXC. Setting aside the perfect storm JGS set up for the siege to occur (I don’t care who led it; JGS is the problem post-Sunshot Campaign about 99% of the time), I think this is because LXC stayed back in the Cloud Recesses with LWJ tending to his wounds post-whipping. Not assuming LXC’s absence, however, the siege was led by JC and orchestrated (because separating the twin prides of Yunmeng and artificially creating tension within the jianghu was a deliberate action) by JGS. Not saying LXC’s participation is okay just because he wasn’t the driving force behind it but imagine if the Lan sect stood against the other sect’s wishes. Standing up for WWX would have been the right thing to do but were the Lans in any position to oppose the siege with their sect in the process of rebuilding? Going along with the siege, to me, is an act of cowardice, not malice. Extra note: we see his capability of defending the Wen remnants when JGS is talking shit about them and WWX but he is shut down immediately and does not speak up any further. This is not a matter of hypocrisy; it’s a matter of fearing the consequences.

NMJ’s death: this is rocky territory. It was a bad idea full stop to force proximity between them hoping everything would sort itself out. But you simply cannot blame him for NMJ’s death because he couldn’t have known. One could argue that he endangered JGY by forcing him to be near someone who tried to kill him several times. I think that’s an oversimplification of the situation. To me, this was a gesture of trust. Trust that NMJ will make an attempt to restrain himself/get better and trust that JGY will aid him in doing so. As we know, this trust is misguided. He’s rather naive to think this would work. But he is humored anyway by two people with bad intentions toward each other. LXC is not at fault for this going south when it was at a certain point inevitable. But he did enable it.

That one line about WWX being LWJ’s only mistake: I get so defensive because honestly I’d have said much worse in his position! Think about what he knows about Wangxian’s relationship leading up to it. He saw his brother devastated that the man he loved was being corrupted and harmed by his cultivation, watched as LWJ despaired over him and fought the elders and got whipped for him. He’s only seen his brother suffer due to his love for WWX. Was saying this okay? No. Consider the circumstances surrounding this line, however. Also criticizing him for this is just plain nit-picky to me lol there’s plenty this man has actually done wrong to criticize him for.

And another thing: stop saying he favored JGY over LWJ!! The entire point of his denial surrounding JGY is that there was no solid, tangible proof that was damning enough for him to outright condemn JGY without some level of unfair assumption! He was trying to be fair about the investigation! Might I add: WWX was the only one who saw NMJ’s head in Jinlintai. Had it been LWJ to see it and approach him I think the story would’ve gone differently! But it wasn’t. And he wanted to have faith in his friend from an underprivileged background constantly facing slander and mistreatment despite doing good things for the world against the jianghu’s wishes because isn’t that what LWJ did with WWX? LXC learned his lesson from WWX’s death, he just practiced it on the wrong person.

What have we learned? Lan Xichen was complicit in and enabled a lot of Bad Things if he was not an active participant, most of it willingly and some of it unknowingly. He’s unfair sometimes. He’s weak willed and lacks the strength to actually stand up for anyone in a meaningful way. He’s naive. In my opinion, he was in denial for a large portion of his story about the harmful effects of his actions.

And I adore him! He’s got the capacity for so much good and he fails to live up to it! He wants to be righteous and he doesn’t know how without putting the people he is responsible for at risk! He thinks he can do conflict resolution and he just can’t! By the end of the story, he is painfully aware of all of this and he lives knowing he did the wrong thing over and over and over again. He got the only outcome he could ever have. I don’t think he deserved his ending but I do think he might have earned it.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs lan xichen #lan xichen #lan huan #mdzs meta #mdzs #mxtx #I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM #he makes me autistically insane

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hedgehoginkalaziris · 3 months

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The opinion I expressed about Mingjue today is not enough for me. There’s more I want to say.

It is actually based on a thread from twitter I’ve seen recently. It says that NMJ isn’t getting enough understanding and sympathy on behalf of his mental problems because “he’s not going through it in a “pretty” way”. It is actually scary for me how people see some other, mentally ill people with particular behavior patterns. Talking about NMJ, we can see how a dude who has some issues with trust (his dad’s death and Wen Ruohan’s role in it) and expression of his feelings (he expresses his love for his Didi through forcing him to learn things he does not like but will need in future) is seen as an “abuser”, if we talk about his relationship with Huaisang.

And I think he is harsh on his bro not just because he (NMJ) is a bad person and such. No. He’s paranoid because he knows he’ll die one day and at the moment he did not see NHS as someone who is capable of protecting himself in their cruel world of ancient-chinese-gay-fantasy, not even speaking about a whole clan. And, as a clan leader and big brother he needs to do something with this problem.

I am not saying it was OK to burn down NHS’s fans (and whatever he ordered to burn with them, I can only recall some books or such), no. It was gross. But I understand why he did it, and I’m not even saying he was under “the song of clarity” (at least he thought it was that melody, RIP NMJ’s sense of music) and he was not in a clear state of mind, as the Qi deviation progressed.

I’m not saying that he’s a perfect person. He is a person who needs professional help. And not from his sworn brothers. Not going to talk shit about LXC, but he knew NMJ didn’t like MY. And made him provide “therapy” for NMJ that should have made him calmer. That was... “Genius”. Such a disservice.

I still like nielan though.

#nie mingjue

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sunflower-butch · 1 year

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Alright gay people. Be prepared to lose your shit:

Ronance Lemonade Mouth AU

Nancy is Stella!!! Because I said so!!! Nancy deserves a rebel era and I can so see her being upset about the arts funding being cut for sports, including journalism. Electric guitar player Nancy my beloved >>>

Robin is Olivia, the shy, socially awkward songwriter and singer!!! Going to have her living with Steve as opposed to a grandma or something, but keeping the cat (who ironically in the movie is named Nancy). Might keep the her dad is in prison part? Undecided on how I’m translating Olivia’s background to Robin.

Speaking of Steve, he gets to be Charlie, the drummer! Keeping the pretty hair and parental pressure, but instead of wanting him to go to Stanford or play soccer, his dad wants him to join the insurance firm.

Eddie is Wen because Stella/Wen friendship > Nancy/Eddie besties ofc. Rather than coming in with rap, he adds amazing guitar riffs and heavy metal elements to the band’s sound. His family trouble involves settling in with Wayne, rather than dealing with a new stepmom.

And Mo was hard to decide, but!!! Our own Chrissy Cunningham. Her mom puts so much pressure on her to be the perfect daughter and Mo’s relationship with the one guy translates far too well to Chrissy’s relationship with Jason. Chrissy bass player arc omfg.

The rival band includes Jason, Billy (the one shitty guy who always starts drama), Tommy H, and Lucas (mirroring the basketball team here). Lucas tries to settle the drama throughout the AU.

The story begins when everyone gets detention. Robin and Chrissy were skipping class, Nancy blew up at someone about a news segment. Eddie got mad at a teacher, and Steve hit someone with a basketball (on accident).

The music teacher is Joyce and she leaves them all alone and that goofy little music moment happens and they all sing together.

Instead of Mel’s Lemonade, hear me out: Argyle’s Lemonade.

Robin has severe stage fright, but the band helps her get through it, especially Nancy. She and Steve live together. Eddie is often over to help with lyrics. She has an old ass cat that’s the last thing she has of her mother, just like Olivia.

Nancy gets to be rebellious in this fic. Her dad thinks she should just settle for a white picket fence (when he bothers to pay attention to her at all), her mom doesn’t really fight it, so Nancy rebels. She’s also getting the school newspaper together after the funding cut. Tell me this girl isn’t the kind to protest lack of free speech and the removal of the lemonade machine.

Eddie was only just sent to Wayne. It’s supposed to be temporary. In the same way Wen gets used to his stepmom, Eddie has to get used to Wayne and they do eventually grow closer. The scene where it’s revealed that Wen’s stepmom is moving in is instead Eddie arriving home to all of his belongings there in boxes and his parents nowhere to be seen—his stay is suddenly much more permanent.

Steve’s dad wants him to be an athlete (basketball) and join the insurance firm, but Steve just doesn’t want that. He quits basketball for the band and there’s some family struggle.

Rethinking the living situation, I may have Robin and Steve move in together partway through the story as opposed to the beginning, but I’m unsure where that leaves Robin. Her background is the hardest to work out.

Chrissy learns to stand on her own, gets away from her mom’s expectations, and sees Jason as the manipulative shitheel he is. Naturally she falls for one of the band’s biggest fans: Vickie.

Dustin plays the role of the AV kid that helps the band throughout the movie. He shows Nancy around in the beginning, explains the budget cut, and he makes the first vinyls for the band.

Nancy gets to rock Billy’s shit because I said so.

In the end scene, it’s Max and Lucas who save the day. Lucas leaves the rival band to help Lemonade Mouth out, Max is the first person in the crowd to start singing.

Steddie is established already. Ronance is the focus. Any of the Wen/Olivia scenes will be Ronance instead because I said so. Rumors circulate that Eddie and Robin are dating because Steddie keeps quiet and Robin isn’t out and the whole band finds it hilarious.

#lemonade mouth ronance #ronance #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #robin x nancy #nancy x robin #chrissy cunningham #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #lemonade mouth #this movie is bomb #best dcom actually #that’s just objective fact

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withthewindinherfootsteps · 7 months

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i saw “Jiang Yanli is a well-written character actually” and i had to follow you

Thank you very much! I do very much think she's a character people give very little credit to in the fandom – I did actually start writing a meta on this last year, and because I'm not sure when I'll finish it*, I'll post an excerpt here:

She’s a much deeper character than people give her credit for, and part of that stems from just how coherent her traits are with her background. And I feel bad for her, because she’s so much more well-written than people give her credit for. And more than that, she’s just so very human. She’s like Lan Xichen in a lot of ways (and the way that the fandom treats them is very similar, too). They’re both sheltered and naive, and often wilfully so, but ultimately want the best for the people they consider family. The only problem is that they’re not willing to confront their worldview to do that until it’s too late – they want the world to be like the comfort of how they think they is, and ignore the signs that point to something else. And that’s a very understandable! It takes a lot of courage to confront your worldview and replace it with a truth that’s worse, and not very many people have the courage to willingly do that – and that makes them flawed and perhaps complacent, but not evil in any way. And the best part about this in Jiang Yanli is that it makes perfect sense with the way she was brought up. She was sheltered pretty much all the time in her early life – she doesn’t go to Gusu to study, she doesn’t go to the Wen indoctrination camp, she doesn’t really experience anything that broadens her horizons and perspective and forces her to face and confront the harshness of the world. Even when Lotus Pier falls, she doesn’t experience it first-hand – which may hurt just as much, but yet again she doesn’t have to physically confront the Wen clan’s tyranny. She’s not brought up as a cultivator who goes out to face danger and fight foes and inevitably experience the harshness of the world, she’s brought up as somebody from a wealthy clan whose role is to marry for political gain into another wealthy family, where she’ll presumably be sheltered all her life, too. By that time the Fall of Lotus Pier happens, and everything else after that, she’s grown up and her mind isn’t as susceptible to being shaped by new experiences – her view of what the world is and how she thinks it is is already instilled into her, and much, much harder to change. And she wants nothing more to hold onto that world – she doesn’t want to venture out of her comfort zone or confront truths that may be painful. We see that all the time in her actions. During the Sunshot Campaign, during a war, what does she focus on? Her familiar childhood crush on Jin ZiXuan, and by extension the familiar life that was planned out for her; and her ability to make soup, something she made all the time at Lotus Pier for her family there. When Wei Wuxian is protecting the Wen remnants, what does she cling onto? The idea that nothing’s wrong, that he and her and Jiang Cheng can still be a happy family because that’s how it’s always been to her, even if that was never really the case, and even if it’s impossible; her soup, again, and it’s not just because she likes making the soup, it’s again symbolic of their childhood days in Yunmeng. During the gathering at Nightless City, why does she go? To see her brother one last time. I think that that aspect of her also stems from the volatility of Lotus Pier – she wants things to be predictable, to be safe, she wants to be in control of her grasp over the situation. That’s why she de-escalates conflict the way she does, that’s why she stays ignorant to the more sinister parts of the world. She wants things to stay how she knows them to be. She does try to distract people from conflict rather than resolving it, which can do more harm than help, but it makes sense with her character – she grew up in the incredibly volatile Lotus Pier, with her parents arguing all the time, and of course that affects her! Of course she wants to avoid that! And she takes after the only example she has of someone trying to de-escalate conflict, Jiang Fengmian, who does the same thing. (September 2022)

*I'm saying this because 1) I know I've been very inactive lately, which is because currently my hyperfixations are on other fandoms (they always cycle back around, but it can take a while) so it's harder to make myself write content here; and 2) because I haven't read MDZS in a while so don't want to write using only use information from my memory without canon sources, and risk misinterpreting something or giving a reading that doesn't fit with the source material. I do plan to read it again, but I'm not confident in how accurate I can be right now, and I definitely don't want to spread misinformation. Even the excerpt above doesn't have evidence ie quotes, which I'd quite like to back up the claims I make. But yes, thank you very much for the ask!

#mdzs meta #my asks #my meta #(sort of)#jiang yanli

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miixz · 2 years

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the MDZS ending recently, so here’s a rambly post about where I'm currently at:

Wangxian made the choice to stay a part of the Lan Sect. Their interactions seem to be limited due to the amount they travel, but they’re still at home in the sect, it’s where they have their house, they work with the juniors, where their money comes from. I’ve seen people say that because it is not a place that accepts them, and that because the Lan Sect has committed its own crimes, that this was a bad choice, one that will make them unhappy in the future, and I just sort of don’t agree.

Something I think I rambled about before is that Mo Dao Zu Shi is pretty realistic with its societal problems like homophobia and classism, they are structural problems that are part of their entire society. That kind of thing isn’t solved in a day, and short of seclusion I don’t think there’s anywhere Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji could go that’s completely free of them, and if we think of that through a realistic lens, isn’t that much sadder? I know a good portion of people in the fandom are queer or marginalized in some other way, isn’t the thought of just… Never being accepted, having to hide away forever, being made to leave society, much much sadder?

Not everyone wants to be out and proud, not everyone is safe to do that, hell I’m not. But I don’t think limiting my interactions with people and leaving all the places that bring me joy would be a form of resistance, running away feels like a tragedy in itself. Obviously I don’t mean that for every situation, it’s great and encouraged for people to leave situations that make them unsafe! You don’t have to interact with bigoted people if you don’t want to! It’s important to take care and living a happy life does count as resistance in a world that doesn’t want you to. It’s just that in their case I don’t think that's what it’d be.

Yes, some of us are tired and want to leave a society that clearly was not made for us, but there are people fighting to make it a better one and that thrive within that. That’s the kind of people I think they are supposed to read as. They’ve found a way to make their happiness and exist within those spaces they want to occupy, and it isn’t perfect, but we see signs of it getting better through the juniors, and I think it’s entirely possible that it’s not as bad as some of us fear it to be in the adult front as well. Not in the direct interactions with the Sect, but in the rest of the novel.

Most of us are in acceptance that saving the Wen Remnants was the right thing to do, and that they were not all in agreement over what was happening in the sect all the time right? If not all Wens are the same as Wen Rouhan and his closest family, then why do we make all sects be a monolith? People will have different opinions, these organizations are big places and I highly doubt everyone feels some unanimous way about Wangxian.

More on the Wens, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both show no resentment towards that group of people, even though that had been right after the war and they had been enemies very recently. And they might very well have fought some of the people in the burial mounds settlement before! But the point is not what they did, it was that the war was over and that it wasn’t right to act in the same way as the Wen had, fostering resentment and cruelty.

It’s not about what the Wens did or didn’t do, but more about what kind of person Wangxian are.

I think the same applies here. To change people’s minds about prejudice and to encourage growth, you need to offer them a place to go when they leave those beliefs behind. Now, do I think that means Wei Wuxian should be buddy buddy with Jiang Cheng if he ever changes his mind and miraculously goes through some character growth? Become happy in-laws with Lan Qiren? No! There is such a thing as having healthy boundaries while also not holding onto vengeful feelings.

The kind of people we see they accept into their lives are ones like Jin Ling and the other kids who change their minds on Wei Wuxian over the course of the story, Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang who are in dubious places regarding morality, those I think seem to have room to grow.

It’s admirable and heartwarming to me that they would choose to live a good, happy life and to make their world better, little by little as they help people and teach juniors and affect everyone else around them. I don’t think either of them are actively being activists in the way we would conceptualize them right now. They are simply happy and just being themselves and still their happiness by itself will have an impact on plenty of people that get involved with them. It’s not perfect, but it feels like a good ending to me, especially when I think of its relevance to the world we live in right now. It won’t change to accept us, but we can still be kind to people, perhaps change some minds, and be happy in spite of all the prejudice.

Idk, it just seems like a good message to me. One of the things I love the most about both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji is how kind they are, and it makes a lot of sense to me that if they could give a chance to the Wen Sect Remnants, they can give a chance to Lan Wangji’s family too, and they might change some minds and make some close ties with some of them like it happened between Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, while some people there might never change, but at the end of the day Wangxian will be happy regardless and also leave the world a better place than it was when they entered it.

I'd love to hear others opinions on this, but its just an interpretation I arrived at that makes me feel happy about the ending and where its going.

#mdzs #wangxian #i am literally just rambling rgdfsdfdxz i may be full of shit #i would love to hear others opinions on it too #but idk i tend to try to view things on the best light whenever possible and mdzs just feels so Hopeful yknow?#tw: homophobia

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robininthelabyrinth · 1 year

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The Greed Is The Unraveling - Chapter 4 - ao3

Wen Ning couldn’t tell what was more awkward.

The presence of not one but two fierce corpses sitting in the dining room of the Nie sect, surrounded by sabers teeming with resentful energy that wanted nothing more than to slaughter them?

Nie Huaisang looking thoughtfully at the father that had notoriously died in a hideous fashion when he was only six, and therefore scarcely remembered?

Nie Mingjue, the toddler, insisting quite loudly that he wanted to sit in the lap of Nie Mingjue, the fierce corpse?

Wen Ning, surnamed Wen like an enemy, sitting here in the midst of it all?

Probably that last one.

“Don’t be so nervous,” Nie Huaisang scolded him in an undertone. He seemed amused, face hidden behind his fan, but then he always seemed amused to Wen Ning these days; ever since he’d gotten his brother back, even dead, he had become practically tranquil. “This is our home, da-ge and I! We’re more than welcome here, always, and so are our guests. It’s all very hospitable here.”

Wen Ning tried to paste on a smile and also hide his head in his arched-up shoulders as if he were a turtle at the same time. It wasn’t his home, and unfortunately for him, he wasn’t a guest – in fact, what Nie Huaisang was very pointedly not saying was that Wen Ning had only been transported into the past to land here with the two Nie brothers, rather than with the juniors he liked to follow and protect or with Wei Wuxian who he spent the rest of his time with, because he’d been spying on them. No one had asked him to, but Wei Wuxian had expressed a bit of concern a few times regarding what Nie Huaisang would get up to now that he’d finished all his other plotting and, well, it wasn’t as if Wen Ning had anything better to be doing…

Of course, his attempts at being stealthy had been demolished by the unexpected pull of time travel.

(He would die of embarrassment, only he was already dead. As it was, he was wondering if it was still somehow possible.)

“Oh, we’re extremely hospitable,” the former (current?) Sect Leader Nie said. He was somehow smiling, and it even seemed genuine. He seemed to think this was funny. “This is the most interesting thing that’s happened in – ages! Isn’t that right, Xiaoxiao?”

“No, da-ge,” a broad-shouldered woman with a positively massive saber on her back said disinterestedly from where she was standing guard by the door. “Your first wife was plenty interesting.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“It counts.”

“Ah, Xiaoxiao, my darling little sister, you don’t understand…”

“Little cousin, why don’t you take the one surnamed Wen out for a walk?” Nie Xiao said to the child that was hovering around her side. Her eye was twitching a little – she was clearly younger than Sect Leader Nie by a good number of years, but that dynamic didn’t appear in evidence at all. She looked like she was about to let loose and punch her sect leader and elder brother in the face, while he looked like he’d probably just nod and say that he deserved it while offering some corrections to her form. Not that Wen Ning thought that a battleax like this woman would need improvements to her undoubtedly perfect fighting technique… “Let the rest of this conversation be between us Nie – excluding the children, of course.”

Nie Zonghui, tasked with the responsibility for removing Wen Ning from the situation so that the scary lady could start yelling at her sect leader in private, was apparently twelve and therefore not a child, a fact he made very clear to Wen Ning at once as soon as they got outside.

Despite that, it was pretty clear he had no interest in disobeying the orders of what turned out to be his aunt.

Wen Ning couldn’t blame him. She seemed rather scary.

Had he mentioned that she was scary recently?

She was.

(Nearly, but not quite, as scary as Nie Huaisang, who just watched the goings-on in front of him with that tranquil smile, casually fanning himself, and somehow despite that looking more terrifying than anyone else in the room.)

Of course Nie Zonghui promptly ruined that moment of shared understanding by taking Wen Ning over to the training yards to meet his parents, who were also extremely scary, and also someone they all called Auntie Xinwei, who was even scarier. It turned out that Nie Zonghui’s parents were the Nie sect’s training masters, saber-mad and crazed with a desire to perform physical exercise – something Wen Ning hadn’t enjoyed while he was alive, and wasn’t overly interested in now that he was dead, insane rages when he was out of his mind not being applicable – but Auntie Xinwei, a mere travelling warrior from the last generation, was worse.

She was a doctor.

Or…maybe?

She didn’t look as scary at first sight, except for the fact that she took one look at Wen Ning and started talking about medicine and wanting to try things, and Wen Ning had learned enough medicine from his sister to know for absolute sure that absolutely nothing she said was medically accurate or recommended.

“She’s more enthusiastic than talented,” Nie Zonghui admitted (very quietly), and ushered Wen Ning away on his somewhat alarmed parents’ orders. Wen Ning was starting to feel like an unwanted hot potato, and also possibly like the Nie sect was far more dangerous than he’d previously realized. Was this why his uncle had never tried to take it over directly? “Still, she’s better than the Sect Leader.”

“Is she?” Wen Ning asked, feeling dubious. The sect leader, Nie Huaisang’s father, had seemed relatively normal, if possessed of a strange sense of humor. “What’s the matter with him?”

“Well, you see, it’s his taste in romantic partners. My parents have never forgiven him for what happened with his first wife…”

At the end of the explanation, Wen Ning thought he probably had more questions than answers.

“What about his second wife?” he asked nervously, thinking about the rendition of ex-lovers Nie Zonghui had just regaled him with, and also about how dangerous Nie Huaisang looked to someone with eyes that could see resentful energy. Sometimes he wished he’d just taken one look and gone the other way. “What was she?”

“…he doesn’t have a second wife, Wen-gongzi.”

“Oh. Uh. He will?”

“And will she be something weird?”

“…probably.”

Nie Zonghui sighed.

“Well, come on,” he said. “I’ll show you some other parts of the Unclean Realm.”

Wen Ning followed, and wondered as he did at how often Nie Zonghui had to do distraction tours like this. Surely it couldn’t be that common, right? …right?

They toured several sights of great interest to Nie Zonghui – the snack pantry, for one, though he did become apologetic when he realized Wen Ning couldn’t sample anything – and were just passing by one of the side gates when it opened unexpectedly and Wen Ning ran straight into his uncle.

It took a moment for him to realize what was unusual about this.

Wen Ning had been a clumsy child in his youth, and he’d always been running after his sister, so it wasn’t uncommon for him to run into people, and his uncle, with his habit of prowling around the Nightless City, more than most. Luckily it had mostly happened when he was very young, when his uncle was still mostly inclined to shrug it off and ignore it, and by the time his uncle had completely lost his mind and become far more dangerous, Wen Ning had learned the basics of not crashing. But it was still something he remembered with a startlingly vivid sense of clarity.

Therefore, the first thought that came to his mind when it happened was – Why isn’t he taller?

Followed, after a moment, by, Wait. Why is he here?!

“Sect Leader Wen, you’re hurt!” Nie Zonghui exclaimed, and Wen Ning blinked, then realized to his shock that it was true. His uncle’s white-and-red robes were more red than white, except only those parts that were the brown of dried blood, and he was leaning heavily on someone who was clearly a Lan, but whose white robes had been so covered in mud and blood that they were nearly unrecognizable.

Wen Ning automatically rushed over to support his uncle’s other side. He’d been eight when his uncle had lost his mind for good, old enough to have plenty of memories of when his uncle had been terrifying only to outsiders. It had taken years after that before he’d finally realized that his uncle had changed so drastically that there was no turning back.

“Do I know you?” his uncle asked him with a faint frown.

“Is that really the important thing to focus on here?” the Lan beside him asked. “You need medical care. Immediately.”

“He’s my bloodline,” Wen Ning’s uncle said stubbornly. “I know everyone in my bloodline, but I don’t know him. That means I’ve either missed something – or someone kept it from me – or else I’ve started to lose my mind –”

“I’m from the future,” Wen Ning blurted out. “And you’re not crazy yet!”

His uncle stared at him for a moment, and then smirked, that subtle-but-still-present touch of humor sneaking into his expression the way Wen Ning remembered from when he was very small. “That’s not as comforting as you might think, you know.”

“Medical treatment,” the Lan stressed. “Now.”

“Uh, Auntie Xinwei’s visiting,” Nie Zonghui said, and both the Lan and Wen Ruohan made faces suggested that they were familiar with the lady in question.

“I know the basics?” Wen Ning offered. Clearly, no one sane wanted to be treated by Nie Xinwei.

“That’ll do until we can convince someone else to help,” Wen Ruohan said with a shudder. “Qiren, this young man is supporting me just fine, you should go get Lao Nie –”

“Wait,” Wen Ning said, suddenly horrified. “This is Teacher Lan?”

“On second thought, the small Nie boy can go get his sect leader. I insist that you stay while we find out everything we can from my future kinsman, including everything he can tell me about you.”

Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily, Nie Zonghui managed to wrangle up his sect leader in swift order, only he also brought along Nie Xiao, Nie Mingjue in both editions (the larger one carrying the smaller one on his shoulders), and Nie Huaisang, sweeping up behind the rest of them at a causal walk.

“Oh, good,” he said when he saw Teacher Lan helping Wen Ning tend to his uncle’s wounds. “Very good. The two of you getting together will solve all sorts of problems in the future.”

“Getting together what?” Teacher Lan asked.

“What sorts of problems?” Wen Ruohan inquired, which was – extremely worrying, actually.

“But I thought he was together with the Sect Leader…?” Nie Zonghui said, which was both much more worrying and also easily the most horrifying thing anyone had said, ever.

“We are,” Wen Ruohan said, which immediately eclipsed the previous statement in horror.

“You mean you were,” Nie Huaisang said coolly. “I happen to want to be born, thank you, which means you two will split up at some point over it, and from my understanding the entire fiasco just rots the relationship from that point on. Far better to cut it off now and start over again fresh with someone new. Someone with better morals. Someone that isn’t likely to cheat on you.”

Wen Ruohan turned his gaze onto Sect Leader Nie with a glare.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Sect Leader Nie protested. “I haven’t even done anything yet. Anyway, you and Qiren do seem very cozy. It’s cute!”

“We’re not,” Teacher Lan said. “It’s too cold to be cozy, and the clothing-drying spell only works so many times. A blanket would be nice.”

Wen Ning numbly dug one up and handed it to him. It seemed like the least he could do.

Poor Teacher Lan.

“Thank you. Are you in fact surnamed Wen?”

Wen Ning nodded.

“And are you really from the future?”

Another nod.

“…are there many conscious fierce corpses in the future?”

“No, just us two,” Wen Ning said, relieved to finally be able to answer a question. “It’s complicated.”

“What was that about a dragon?” Wen Ruohan, who’d been having a completely different conversation, demanded loudly. “Lao Nie! What the fuck?”

“I haven’t done anything yet!”

“I’ll testify to that,” Nie Huaisang said. He was smiling. “He never got around to it, last time around. I was just saying that I’d be curious to see what a little sibling that was also partially a dragon would look like, assuming that this time you don’t murder my father before he had the chance to procreate a third time.”

“Lao Nie!”

“I haven’t done it yet!”

“You’re not denying that you would!”

“Well – I mean – I guess it depends on the dragon –”

“Would you like to go somewhere else to have a bath and a change of clothing?” Wen Ning asked Teacher Lan, desperate for an excuse to get out of the room, and was deeply relieved when the other man agreed. Once they were out of the room, they lapsed into a much more comfortable silence.

Well, mostly comfortable. Wen Ning was still mostly horrified, but also a little curious.

“Uh, Teacher Lan?”

The shockingly young Lan Qiren glanced at him.

“Are you really interested in my uncle?”

Lan Qiren blinked. “I don’t understand the question,” he said. “Who doesn’t have an interest in him? He’s extremely dangerous. Not paying attention to him is a recipe for disaster.”

Oh, there was definitely room for disaster here, Wen Ning thought miserably. It was like watching a happy little sheep follow a wolf into its den for a cup of tea, and filial piety meant that Wen Ning couldn’t even warn him.

Though maybe his uncle would benefit from having someone a little less unbelievably irritating as Lao Nie in his life. And who knew? Maybe Teacher Lan’s morals would rub off a little…and maybe Teacher Lan wouldn’t even be that unhappy about it, given how charming Wen Ning’s uncle could be when he was really trying –

Oh, who was he trying to fool? Poor Teacher Lan. He was doomed.

Just as doomed as the future they were all from, actually. They’d really messed this up entirely, hadn’t they?

That conviction only got worse when they returned to the room and Wen Ning’s uncle explained that that the reason he looked the way he did was because he’d been attacked by people who sounded an awful lot like Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

And also, apparently, Lan Qiren’s terrible older brother and Jin Guangshan.

“Obviously this is unacceptable,” Wen Ruohan said, his voice silky and mild in a way that suggested he was about to commit atrocities. “We will need to take firm action in response to this.”

“No need,” Nie Huaisang said, still fanning himself. “There’s an easy fix.”

They all turned to stare at him.

(Well, except for the fierce corpse Nie Mingjue, who was pinching his brow as if he knew exactly what his little brother was going to say and was just barely refraining from groaning at the idea.)

Nie Huaisang’s smile widened.

“Relax, all of you. Jiang-xiong will have to run into his grandfather by now – a-die, you once told da-ge all about him and really, it explains so much – and he’s a bright fellow; he’ll figure everything out soon enough, and that means he’ll be heading this way. More to the point, Jiang-xiong has exactly no sense of subtlety, which means there’s no way that he won’t make a gigantic stink on the way, and that means that Wei-xiong will hear about it and be heading here, too…in his own style.”

Nie Mingjue groaned.

(Little Nie Mingjue excitedly mimicked him.)

“Yes, da-ge, he’s probably going to blow something up, especially if anyone tries to lock him away somewhere, if you know what I mean. And an explosion of that magnitude will draw everyone’s attention, even er-ge, who probably didn’t even notice the time travel from his stupid little seclusion house, and then he’ll know that he needs to come here, too. And once they’re all here, there’s a very nice, very straightforward fix to every single one of our problems.”

“This is such a terrible idea,” fierce corpse Nie Mingjue muttered. “Even worse than tricking everyone you care about in the cultivation world to take a one-way trip back in time so that you can get access to the one person who has both enough power and enough skills in arrays to restore my sense of taste.”

Wait. Was that why they’d all gone back in time?!

(Was Nie Huaisang going to share? Wen Ning would like to taste things again.)

“Stop complaining,” Nie Huaisang said. “And stop underestimating the brilliance of my plan! I’m going to use the time anomaly to have Sect Leader Wen restore you to life, not just your taste.”

Okay, assuming Wen Ning was also getting in on that deal, he was officially no longer complaining.

Their future was terrible. Who needed it?

Listen, Wen Ning had grown up under his uncle’s tutelage, and his uncle had once been the most brilliant cultivator alive. He knew enough to figure out that – if you ignored his airy and almost certainly sarcastic words about wanting to be born – Nie Huaisang intended to use the untapped potential of their own future supposed-to-happen births to power an array that would bring a future corpse or two back to life. Sure, it meant that Wen Ning would probably never be born, but that was fine: if he had toddler Nie Mingjue’s age right then Wen Qing had already been born, and that’s more of what he cared about.

Actually, if he thought about the time and the ages, Jiang Yanli was likely already on the way, and Lan Xichen would have been only a few months off from being conceived. If Nie Huaisang really wanted to generate a lot of potential-time-bending power, he could interfere with those births as well – all he needed to do was prevent the future Madame Lan from marrying her husband! – and then, well…

Hmm. He’d still need to find a leverage point to anchor them to the timeline, though.

That had always been his uncle’s complaint about the time-manipulation array: he’d been able to use it to keep his own age permanently locked at his late twenties, but he hadn’t been able to really change anything because permanent time travel required there to be a second anchor point outside of the time, and that was impossible.

Eh, it was Nie Huaisang, and he’d already claimed his plan was ‘brilliant’. Surely he’d accounted for that?

“How bad are we talking here?” Lao Nie asked.

Nie Mingjue looked resigned. “A-die, you’re going to love it.”

Lao Nie looked excited.

Lan Qiren looked concerned. Wen Ruohan looked…mostly still murderous, but with a mildly curious edge, in a way that was weirdly not entirely unlike that mostly feral cats Wen Ning used to feed behind the Nightless City.

(It was so weird for Wen Ning to see his uncle back to the mostly-still-a-human-being self he’d once been. He was actually not awful about his murderous impulses, which were mostly reasonable and not absolutely insane. He was the fun uncle again. It was terrible.)

“Would you like to share your solution?” Wen Ruohan drawled. “You have one chance to outbid ‘kill them’ in the ranking order in my mind, so I suggest you use it well. Going once, going twice…”

Terrible.

Nie Huaisang laughed and snapped his fan shut.

“I can do that,” he said confidently. “It’s called ‘we make things worse to make them better’. Now, I believe, in this time period, you would already be familiar with the lady called Cangse Sanren…?”

#mdzs #wen ning #nie huaisang #wen ruohan #lan qiren #sect leader nie #nie mingjue #my fics #my fic

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loosingmoreletters · 1 year

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Summary: Her crime is justice. How long would it take for a-Zhan’s boy to fall to the same judge? Deep in the throes of the Sunshot Campaign, Lan Zhan begs his mother for help. Warning: Rated M for Implied/Referenced Rape of Madam Lan.

“Mother, please.”

A-Zhan is her son and that scares them. They insist his posture remain perfect, his conduct flawless, and his adherence to the rules absolute. She and Lan Qiren have an understanding, so she knows it is an act of love. If Lan Qiren can raise a-Zhan right, he will not be put in the hands of others, who might forbid her from seeing her sons altogether. For all his own faults, Lan Qiren has raised a-Zhan well. She doesn’t begrudge him this – Lan Qiren has never wanted to be a sect leader or father and his brother has forced him to become both.

No, she judges Lan Qiren for a hundred other things, a thousand sometimes, when she is feeling particularly vicious. Those days turned rarer as her sons grew older and she saw them raised to be kind. A-Huan listens when most refuse, even to her plight, against her wishes and expectations. No boy should learn what monster he’s forced to call father, but neither she nor Lan Qiren could spare him this.

His death was a relief.

It takes a-Zhan longer to realize because they’ve learned what mistakes not to make with a-Huan and because a-Zhan struggles to imagine cruelty as anything but absence. He brings her injured animals to heal and learns traveling songs to remind her of the road.

Her children are both kind, but a-Zhan is hers in the way a-Huan isn’t.

A-Zhan would taste blood for love.

It would coat his teeth the same as hers as she consented to having a-Zhan in exchange for seeing a-Huan. Had the birth not nearly killed her, she likely would’ve struck a bargain again, bloodied teeth, nails digging into the wood, carving runes. Two decades of imprisonment, and all she has to show for it are papers beneath hidden floorboards, enough anger to break the barrier holding her.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The Lan know how to keep someone quiet and isolated better than anyone else.

Even now, when they are in the middle of rebuilding and fighting, her sons bleeding on the battlefield, she is kept here instead of sent out to fight, mind the children, or cook meals. It isn’t a-Huan’s decision to keep her, but his word isn’t setting her free either.

It is a-Zhan, too thin, crying as he did upon his first return to Cloud Recesses, finding her alive.

“Wei Ying,” he says, “Wei Ying, his cultivation is harming him.”

Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian, the adventurous boy keeping her son away from her for three months, the clever boy who gave her the fish he’d caught after being dismissed from the classroom, the dear boy her son loves and cannot keep.

“What is he doing?” she asks unnecessarily, already aware of what they call him.

She is not a soldier in this war, but she knows the Wen army is twice the size of theirs and heard of the man drowning in resentment, commanding what she prophesized years ago.

‘Energy is energy!’ laughed the unfamiliar boy openly when the same crime had seen her imprisoned.

Well, not the suggestions. They accused her of lying when she’d been entirely truthful: she had come to the Cloud Recesses to study. Haunted by a girl suffering under a man’s hands that her spirit could not be suppressed anymore, wouldn’t it be more righteous to let her vent her anger at the target? When she came to the Lan, she thought their cultivation might give her ideas; instead, she found an injustice no one would take action against.

Her crime is justice. How long would it take for a-Zhan’s boy to fall to the same judge?

“He has corpses fight for him, he commands them by song or whistle, clapping if he can do neither. He walks the unorthodox path and I cannot help him. Mother, please. I need your aid. If he won’t listen to me, won’t take back the sword—”

Mother, can you protect my love?

All her theories are hidden beneath the floorboards and she knows a-Zhan hasn’t seen them. “Who told you, a-Zhan?”

Her son avoids her gaze, which is as good a confession as any. No one told him; he’s either concluded why her cottage is warded so heavily against resentment or caught sight of whatever documents remain of her hushed-up trial.

“A-Zhan,” she says and brushes the tears off her son’s cheek. “I theorized, but the furthest I’ve ever come to using resentment was summoning a singular spirit to my bidding.”

And her bidding had been the spirit’s will. Who summoned who in that forest, twenty years ago?

But her son is desperate and she loves him. There is nothing she wouldn’t do for him, has remained here for a-Huan and him.

“Talk to him, please. You soothe my mind when you speak to me. Perhaps you’ll figure out how to ease his temper. No one understands what he does, only that it is unnatural.”

Her a-Zhan is five all over again, asking her about a world she hasn’t seen in years, confident that mother will righten it and lead him on the correct path.

She smiles at her son and brushes imaginary dust off her robes. She has a xiao, bought when she was a student and kept because the Lan did not know what she wanted to use it for. Absentmindedly, she wonders if Lan Qiren has seen Wei Ying and realized what the instrument was for. She hopes a-Huan won’t resent her for using an instrument he utilizes too, and only because of her.

“I’ll do my best, a-Zhan. Can you bring me to him?”

Breaking the ward will call attention to her escape, but before she has time to linger on the thought, a-Zhan simply deactivates it. She blinks, having forgotten momentarily that for a few terrible weeks, a-Zhan was the sect heir, a-Huan presumed missing or dead.

“We must hurry, mother.”

So serious, her dear boy. She laughs and accepts his hand, taking one step after another out of her prison. She is further from the building than ever when a-Zhan helps her step on his sword. What a picture they must make together, a-Zhan dressed for recovery and her for another day of solitary leisure, flying towards war.

She doesn’t cry or show relief yet, refuses to give her son any reason to feel guilty.

Tomorrow, she will see his Wei Ying and ask him if twenty years of theory measure up to three months of practice.

#wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #madam lan #mdzs #the untamed #fanfic #mdzs fanfic

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