#not a thing in the show where he mostly seems to hate Wen Ning in particular

[what-if-nct]

Hiiii!!!! I. Have. Talked. To. My. Crush. She. Likes. The Owl House. And. I. Promised. To. Draw. Something. For. Her. Birthday. And. She. Is. So. Nice. To. Me.

BUT SHE HAS A GIRLFRIEND 😭😭 Although I'm really happy for her they look so so so cute together!!! She's so nice to me tho, tho we dont have anything much to talk about anymore. I befriended her and thats enough. I hope they have a happy life together and that she'll always be happy!!!

How are you doing? Are you feeling alright? I hope you're feeling okay!!! ( I love your style so much, even more than anything I've loved in my life. You're too cute and pretty and nice and kind for this world. ) For the colors, every except gold( ish ) I don't feel comfortable flirting with you, but I really really really love you! Hope life treats you well!!!!

I'm going through a minor Wang Yibo addiction right now. His voice sounds so good and him and Xiao Zhan ( platonically ) are better than the world. Yeah I watched the untamed and I am going through another phase. Xue Yang. Also there's this character who's name is Wen Ning and he's shy. And sells radishes. And he's a dead man. A very kind dead man. He is really kind and I love him way too much. Just seeing his face just cheers me up tho most of the time he's staring into my soul.

Today I showed my Haechan ( ♡ ) photocard to my dad to see if he could guess the age, and he guessed it right. So my dad is a boomer, such a boomer, but somehow, he knows some stuff. I sang 'I wonder how' once, and then he sang 'I wonder why' I was fucking terrified. Seriously I had not expected that. Also the song Bamboleo once trended in a community I was in, and he knew that too. He still is very much a boomer, he doesn't know who Justin Bieber is. He only knows the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. He probably doesn't even know Queen.

I went to my new school, and ran away with a panic attack day one. I got chased by the same teacher thrice. She terrifies me now. I hate her for how she acted. I said 'leave me alone' everytime and everytime she was like 'okay.' And then she came back with 'i only wanted to check if you're on the right side of the train station' and 'maybe it'd be better if your dad came picking you up' you know what? Fuck off. I hate her now and nothing will probably change it 😭

— sneeze ♡♡♡

Hiii! Oh yay I'm glad you were able to at least become friends and get to know each other. I think a friendship would be just as fulfilling. I hope you get to have more things to talk about in the future. And it's so sweet you're going to draw her something for her birthday I'm sure she'll just love it.

I've heard Wang Yibo's name before but I don't remember where he sounds so familiar. I just went to check and hes been on shows with Yixing that's how I know him of course. I figured it was through my husband Yixing. Also Yibo has the same birthday as me! The only person I know with my birthday is Yungblud and I love him. Also Yungblud and Yibo were born same day same year I love finding birthday twins.

The older generation does tend to know at least a few things from later generations. But not much but a few unless you have a mom who used to be a groupie for white snake or guns and roses or a grandma who was a hippie who went to Woodstock clearly they are the coolest people of their generation. Also Gen X are automatically the coolest generation of them all. Like Millennials honestly an anxious mess of a generation as one I can say that we're a mess. Gen Z still finding their footing mostly teens but definitely seem the most tame compared in the since there's this puritanicalness I haven't seen in my generation or in Gen X it's fascinating.

I kinda understand maybe her intentions but within the situation chasing you down multiple times isn't the right way to go about it would have been best to let you be and calm down cause she's just adding fuel to the fire and frightening you there's definitely better things she could have done. I'm so sorry it was a hard first day.

And I'm feeling fine I've had an odd obsession with cashews lately I've bought four containers of cashews this month and one of them was a pound so far this month and they're all gone it's all I want to eat. I have this thing where I will just eat the same food over and over if no one stops me. And you're so cute! Oh my gosh. Thank you! I've actually been having a fashion crisis just where I have clothes that don't match. I turned one top into two tops. It was a long sleeve top with big sleeves so I was able to get two tops out of it but I don't have skirts the right color or the prints are too busy. But I'm so picky that I can't find exactly what I want till Loey Lane, a YouTuber posted an outfit and I looked up the store and I finally found clothes I love in my size. There's one skirt I love it's sequin but its a micro mini skirt and I love it but there's a front slit and I just know it'll be too short I only have one micro mini skirt and it's just long enough to be decent. Can't bend over but it's decent. But I want the sequiny one. But.

I love short skirts but I just know it's too short but it's so pretty. I'll think about it. But this is what I already decided one.

Kinda obsessed with wearing bikini tops as regular tops it's so cute and I just needed a little cardigan cause all I have is velour zip hoodies. And I just need a plain skirt and I like getting longer skirts cause I can hike it up shorter to a length I like.

[winepresswrath]

Whats your opinion on JC knowing Sizhui is a Wen? I've seen interpretations where people say he would have recognised Yuan if he saw him young enough and put two and two together, others where he finds out later and flies into a rage. I personally think he would be fairly disinterested in LWJ's ward that he wouldn't recognise him, but I really can't see him wanting a child dead after finding out who he is.

I don't have a firm opinion! I tend more towards thinking he'll probably figure it out at some point post canon based on how Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning interact with Sizhui, but post canon Jiang Cheng is someone who has made his peace with Wen Ning running around. If Jiang Cheng is willing to downgrade Wen Ning from "brother-in-law killing, life ruining, unholy abomination I'd like to set on fire" to "person I don't want to invite into my house" after the second siege at the burial mounds but before the golden core reveal and Wen Ning choosing to protect Jin Ling from Mingjue, I can't see him not at a minimum extending the same courtesy to a friend of Jin Ling's who he doesn't have any specific grudge against. I think he's likely to feel some combination of fascinated by and uncomfortable with the Wei Wuxian connection, but there's a lot of different places you can go with that. I agree that pre-canon Jiang Cheng is probably not very interested in Lan Wangji's ward and is also unlikely to be in direct contact with baby lans until they're old enough to come out night hunting.

#this is another one where book vs show matters a lot! #Jiang Cheng leading the siege at nightless city is a very different vibe #than Jiang Cheng looking upset about Wen Qing's ashes #though of course he could have changed his mind after Yanli's death in nightless city #which is a breaking point for all Jiang Chengs #but the book also does give us a scene where #some lady says that Jiang Cheng refused aid to a dude who just happened to have Wen as a surname and wasn't even a cultivator #which is third hand gossip and thus not necessarily reliable in an mxtx book but still #not a thing in the show where he mostly seems to hate Wen Ning in particular #so I do think there's a reasonable case to be made that precanon Jiang Cheng would be angry about #the lans harbouring a Wen and teaching him to cultivate #but like you I doubt he'd want him dead. permabanned from lotus pier #I can see but I think it's also possible he'd just stuff it in the feelings hole and fume #and yet! even book Jiang Cheng is bumping into Wen Ning on night hunts where they're both stalking their kids #without any major disasters #meanwhile I honestly think Jiang Cheng in the show would just be like nephew? nephew :/ #and then start chucking himself in front of swords without every conveying that sentiment to anyone #TBF he might be willing to do that for any age appropriate friends Jin Ling makes who don't make fun of him for having a dead mom #he knows how lonely being a teenaged sect leader is! he's openly devastated on Jin Ling's behalf by how the Yaoyao situation #resolves itself #I cannot see him destabilizing those friendships unless he believed that Sizhui was a legitimate threat

[mlm-writer]

Rutterly Filled (Omega!Wei Wuxian x Alpha!Male!Reader)

Pairing: Omega!Wei Wuxian/Wei Ying (The Untamed ver.) x Alpha!Male Reader (NOT trans-friendly) Rating: Explicit Words: 3416 POV: Second Summary: You have not had a rut ever since you have been captures with the other Wens. Now things are going well on Burial Mounds, your body decides it is time. Unfortunately, your prolonged period of being rutless meant your next one was going to be extreme. Fortunately, the Yiling Patriarch is secretly an omega and you two have been flirting ever since you met. Notes: This is 200% self-indulgent. I saw the twink, I fell in love, I wanted to wreck him. Do I need an excuse?  Tags: Omegaverse, a/b/o dynamics, ruts, idiots in love, being in a relationship without realising it, reader is a himbo, loss of control, magical restraints, breeding, knotting, multiple orgasms, does Wei Ying have a dick and a pussy or a dick and an ass? up to you!, self-lubrication, fingering, blowjobs, facials, handjobs, gēge kink and fuck or die

There was no qi flowing anywhere. The only thing that filled your ‘internal stream’ was utter rage. “I told Wen Qing this would not work without a golden core!” You exclaimed as you got up and started stomping around. The alpha pheromones were rolling off you in waves and you were low key glad you were the only alpha present on Burial Mounds or you would have started a fight the second you caught a whiff of any other alpha.

“It was still worth a try. I do not think there is a way to stop your rut now.” You stomped around Wen Qing. You did not want to lash out at her. Were it not for her concoctions, you would have gone into rut a few days ago without a backup plan at all. Your hands clenched and unclenched at your sides. “There is one thing I have not yet told you.” You let out a grunt, indicating you were listening. “Wei Wuxian is an omega and has offered to help you through your rut.” 

You stilled for a second. The Yiling Patriarch was an omega. It only took a second for you to process. Wei Wuxian was not known to adhere to any stereotype or standard. It was not crazy to think that the Yiling Patriarch, a figure that induced fear and hate in many cultivators, was a fragile omega. He may carry himself around like a big figure, but truth to be told, he was skinny like a twig and if he was not such a good fighter, anyone could snap him in half. It all made sense, it was not a crazy thought.

“Master Wei has saved my life. I am already indebted to him. I will wait out my rut in the tent Wen Ning set up in the woods.” You were already walking to the door of Wen Qing’s humble hut, but she stood in your way. Sometimes you suspected her of being an alpha as well. One never knew, when cultivators could just simply suppress their second gender, making them all appear like betas. 

“You have not had a rut in a long while due to the poor conditions we have been under. Your first rut in a while may be much more intense than you are used to.” You clenched your fist, digging your nails into the palm on your hand. Your eye twitched. “Wei Wuxian can defend himself against you, should there be any need. He is also the only omega on the whole mountain. His only condition is that you do not mark him.” You violently shook your head before you could agree to it. The man was the prettiest boy you had ever laid eyes upon and while you two had been flirting, you had not yet confessed that every flirty word you shot his way was truthful. The thing between you two, unnamed and not yet romantic, was too good to risk. 

You walked away from the door, before you were going to physically lash out at Wen Qing. “I will not take advantage of master Wei. I owe him too much already.” 

“Your excuses are so weak, I’m starting to think that you don’t think I’m attractive.” Your whole body whipped to the door, where the omega in question had appeared with a pout on his face that made you want to kiss him. His lips were pink and glistening. They looked so full and soft. Wen Qing told him to get out, but you already caught a whiff of the omega scent you had never noticed on him before. Before you had any control of your tongue, you had agreed to spending your rut with Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch. Want bubbled up from deep within you. There was no way back now. 

You followed him and his scent like a blind puppy, as he let you between trees to a tent Wen Ning had set up earlier in case you could not suppress your rut. You saw the dark red fabric in the distance, when suddenly you were caged against a tree by Wei Wuxian. “Scent me,” he whispered into your face and he did not need to say it twice. You rubbed your nose all over his neck and down to where it met his shoulder. You took deep breaths, letting your lungs fill with the sweet and spicy scent that you from now on would know as Wei Wuxian. You didn’t know how long you were rubbing yourself on him and smelling him, but after a while, the fog of alpha hormones cleared and you had a bit more grip on what was going on and what was about to happen. “Better?” Wei Wuxian giggled as he rested against you. You held him close and slowly breathed in his scent. 

After a few slow breaths, you nodded and took his hand to drag him to the tent. It was big enough that you two could stand inside and there were supplies inside, mostly food and water, but also extra robes. You didn’t hear the sound of a lake behind the tent, as you dragged Wei Wuxian inside and pushed him down onto the straw mat on the ground. You crawled on top of him, but as your eyes met his, you were awfully aware of how you were acting. “Sorry, maybe we should talk about what I can and cannot do, before I lose all my patience.” Wei Wuxian laughed and shifted so you two were sitting on the straw mat, facing one another. His robes had fallen open a little and the sight of his chest threatened another frenzy to make itself known.

“You can do anything, but try not to claim me. It is a little early in our relationship for that.” You almost choked on your own saliva and started coughing. Wei Wuxian handed you a waterskin, but you needed a solid minute, before you had enough breath to actually attempt drinking anything. 

“I’m sorry, but… relationship?” You watched Wei Wuxian through teary eyes from your coughing fit. He seemed to turn red in an instant, his face now matching the ribbon in his beautiful silk black hair. 

“Yes? I mean I thought… we always flirt? And we drink together and you sometimes feed me at dinner? We also cuddled when we were drunk? I know we never talked about it, but we are in a relationship or something… right?” You stared at him, a little dumbfounded. He did not lie; those things happened. You just took all those things for things Wei Wuxian would do with anyone.

“I didn’t think of it that way,” you immediately regretted your words as you could see Wei Wuxian’s heart breaking all over his face, “but! But! But!” He looked at you, hopeful in a way that seemed plainly desperate. “I want it to be that way! I just didn’t realise what we were, but I want to be…” There was a flare of hormones and you shuffled forward to bury your nose against Wei Wuxian’s scent gland. “I want you, even when my rut is over, but also now. Right now.” A slight shift and you noticed you were hard between your legs. 

Wei Wuxian might have noticed it too through your robes, because he was shoving at your clothes. You stood up, ripping everything off in a hurry and grabbing Wei Wuxian by his ponytail. You pulled at it until his lips were around your hard cock. You let out a moan of relief, as he immediately started sucking on the length. He resisted when you tried to get him to swallow more of you. Wei Wuxian only took the tip, but with the way he was sucking and licking, it was enough for now. You threw your head back, grunting into the air, while Wei Wuxian sucked you off. His tongue cupped the head of your cock and played with the ridge between the head and the rest of your length. The wet sounds of his mouth seemed so loud in the small space. Before he even took more of you in his mouth, you grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. Wei Wuxian took the hint and with a wet pop he pulled his mouth off your cock. You would have protested, were it not for the hand on your hard length. 

The cultivator squeezed the knot at the base of your cock, everytime his hand was at the bottom of your length. You looked down at him, seeing him with his tongue out, a smile hinting behind that lewd expression, cheeks a beautiful rosy colour that matched his spit-glistened lips. You let out a groan and kept a firm grip on his shoulder. Ropes of cum spilled from your cock. Wei Wuxian’s face, hair and robes were painted white with your seed. When he finally let go of your cock, your face heated up at the sight of him. A mixture of embarrassment and arousal swimmed inside your belly. “I’m sorry,” you whispered out of breath, but Wei Wuxian just smiled at you and started taking his soiled robes off, wiping himself off with a sleeve. When he was mostly clean off your cum, he laid himself down on the straw mat, completely naked and stretched out like a meal for you to devour. 

“Don’t apologise, I want this too,” he confessed with flushed skin and a hard omega dick twitching between his legs. You kneeled down and hoisted his legs onto your shoulders. Your tongue automatically fell from your lips at the scent of omega slick filling your nostrils. Lapping up the slick that had escaped his wet hole and trickled down his thighs, drew a gasp from Wei Wuxian’s lips. “Don’t tease me.” 

You huffed out a laugh at the annoyance in his voice. “Or else? Will the Yiling Patriarch haunt me like a ghost and eat me?” You didn’t let Wei Wuxian reply. You held him up with one hand and pushed your tongue inside, the other hand touching his cock. The omega mewled and moaned as if he was putting on a show for you. Maybe he was. When was Wei Wuxian not making a scene? “Wei Wuxian sounds so perfect,” you growled as you licked the slick off your lips. 

“If you are going to knot me until I can’t walk, at least call me Wei Ying,” the demonic cultivator huffed, his eyes ravishing your body. You smiled as you put his legs around your waist and lined your cock up with his wet hole. 

“Wei Ying is perfect.” And with those words, you slid into his heat. Wei Ying gasped as he stretched around your thick alpha cock, the slick making the slide easier, but he was not in heat. You got halfway, before the resistance became too much. “Wei Ying needs to relax,” you grunted as you rutted inside him, micromovements trying to make further entrance possible. 

“You’re too big,” he complained, hands on your arms and squeezing your biceps. You leaned down and caught his lips in a biting kiss. Soft, pink lips turned red under your onslaught. A hand made its way to his throat and he gasped deliciously against your wet lips. Wei Ying squirmed and gasped for breath as you frantically fucked his hole open until you were slipping in deeper. “So big, too big, I’m going to tear in two!” 

You would be more concerned for him, were it nog for the thick cloud of alpha hormones clouding your judgement. Instead of sounding fearful, Wei Ying’s voice fuelled the fantasy of a helpless omega at your mercy. “Pretty omegas like you can handle this,” you growled in a voice no one woud have recognised as your own. Both hands landed on Wei Ying’s hips and you sat up, so you could thrust inside him with vigour. 

Wei Ying’s voice would have been audible from miles away as he screamed mostly in pain. Coherent thoughts had long left your mind and all that was left was ‘mark’, ‘claim’, ‘fuck’, ‘knot’ and ‘breed’. Pleasure was all on your mind as you closed your eyes to fully enjoy the stretch of Wei Ying’s walls around your cock. That was until you found yourself unable to move. “No! No! No!” You growled as Wei Ying slid off your cock. He pushed you onto your knees and sat down across from you. 

“I’m sorry, alpha, but don’t worry I will not leave you like this,” he croaked out as he struggled with sitting down comfortably. His chest rose and fell in deep, but ragged breaths. You now noticed the redness around his eyes and the wetness on his cheeks. Worry paved a little clarity in the lustful fog dominating your head. 

“Cruel bastard,” you found yourself snarling back, in spite of the seed of worry Wei Ying’s image planted deep inside you. Before even the last syllable left your lips, Wei Ying had his hand tight around your cock and stroked, drawing a guttural groan from you. “That’s not enough, I need more,” you breathed out at the torture that was the grip of Wei Ying’s hand. It felt good, but his omega hole had felt so much better.

“And I need more preparation, I am not in heat,” Wei Ying huffed back as he reached behind himself. You could hear the wet squelch of him fingering himself and it drove you into a frenzy. You demanded being released, so you could once more claim your omega, but Wei Ying did not release you. He let you cum with his hand. Once he needed a better angle to shove more fingers inside, he switched his hand for his mouth, so he could support himself with one hand while he tried to shove his whole fist inside. His mouth felt better than his hand, but you already had had a taste of paradise and this was not it. 

“You’re open enough, please, I feel like I’ll die,” you whined, shortly after you covered Wei Ying in your fourth load. No matter how often you came, it would not be enough until you knotted the omega in front of you. Wei Ying seemed to take mercy on you and he turned around. Wei Ying lowered himself onto your cock. The mercy got you moaning. You could see where you entered him as he bounced on your cock, his hole gripping your length visibly. “Yes, you feel so good omega,” you moaned as he rode your fat length. “Release me and I’ll pound you so good. I will knot you and fill you with my cum and then pound you again.” Wei Ying gasped, a hand moving to his cock to stroke it. The smell of his slick as it dripped down your cock was intoxicating. 

“Gēge, you talk so indecently when you’re in a rut.” You wanted to pin him down and fuck him so bad when he called you ‘gēge’ and Wei Ying seemed to know. The glint in his eyes as he shot you a look over his shoulder was quite telling. “But I’m afraid gēge will break me if I release him. Gēge is such a strong alpha and I’m just a frail omega,” he spoke dramatically, knowing fully well he was far from a frail omega. His words would have made you cringe were it not for the fact you were in a full-on rut. The idea, the thought, the image of him being so fragile and breakable and at your mercy suddenly got something flowing in you. The feeling was unfamiliar, as was the strength it brought. 

You had no mind to think about it, but enough instinct to use it. With this new-found energy, you broke yourself free from whatever was holding you in place and grabbed Wei Ying by the back of his neck. A hard shove and Wei Ying was face down, ass up on the ground with your cock plunging into his wet hole. “Maybe they are right, the Yiling Patriarch is cruel,” you drew a loud moan from the man below you with a hard thrust, “and evil.” 

Wei Ying did not move from where you had him. Instead, he took your punishing pace with the prettiest moans you ever had the honour of hearing. His voice filled the tent with a symphony of pleasure, which only grew louder when you pressed inside and your knot slipped in. Wei Ying screamed in pleasure and pain as you slotted the two of you together and filled him up with your hot seed. 

Still, it was not enough. He was beautiful, had the most breedable body you ever laid eyes upon. How could it be enough to only fill his slick hole once?You only stilled for a minute inside of him, before you pulled out until the knot pulled painfully at the inside of his rim. Then, you pushed back inside, as deep as you could go. Wei Ying whined as you fucked him like that, the knot dragging against his walls and drawing out the melody of pain mixed with pleasure. He moaned and screamed about how he was stretched to the limit, but there was no urgency in his voice this time. 

Everything was a blur from there. Somewhere between rutting inside him and fucking him with your knot, Wei Ying had gone near-silent. His ass had become so open that your knot no longer served its purpose of keeping you inside as you spilled your seed. You didn’t know how many rounds you went, how often you filled the Yiling Patriarch with your load or how often the omega came himself. In one final mind-blurring explosion of pleasure, you passed out. Whether it was on top of him or if you managed to fall beside him was out of your control. 

When you woke up, however, you found Wei Ying on top of you. The smell of sex still hung heavy in the air, mixed with pheromones, both alpha and omega. A groan left your dry throat as you lifted your head to take a look at the man to whom you were indebted with your life, twice. He looked like he was not going to wake up for another 100 years. You tried to brush the hair out of his face, but your fingers got tangled in the silk black strands. Guilt filled your heart at the sight of bruises on his hips and sides. A respectful look down revealed there was still cum dripping out of his hole. 

You untangled yourself from him. It took you a good hour to get Wei Ying cleaned up and placed on a clean towel; the straw mat was completely ruined. You had him on his side, still sleeping peacefully, while you tried to comb the tangles carefully out of his hair. You were almost done when you noticed him stir. “Wei Ying?” You called out softly, hand shooting for the waterskin. You held it to his lips. “Don’t move; drink first.” To your surprise, he obeyed. He tried to sit up, but winced. You took the hint and helped him sit on your lap, the gap between your legs perfect for his ass to rest between with no pressure on it. “I’m sorry. I lost control.” 

Wei Ying blinked at you and then reached for the jar of wine in the corner. You chuckled and handed it to him, still cradling him close. He took a few gulps, before speaking up. “I thought I would die,” he pouted in a somewhat playful way that gave you conflicted emotions about his words. “Gēge, you were such a monster. Next time, I will use a stronger talisman to keep you down.”

You inhaled sharply. ‘Next time’, he had said. You licked your dry lips and nodded, agreeing with him. A signature smile painted the omegas lips, before he snuggled closer to you. “Gege is adorable when he is worried about me. I’ll be fine, I swear. Just don’t make me do anything for a few days.” You let out an empty laugh, relieved and still worried. Another nod as you put a hand on his head, holding it close to your shoulder. You twisted your head, placing a kiss upon Wei Ying’s temple. He hummed happily and closed his eyes. 

“Wei Ying! You need to eat before you go back to sleep!” 

#the untamed #wei wuxian #wei ying #wwx #wwx x reader #wwx x male reader #wei wuxian x reader #wei ying x reader #wei wuxian x male reader #wei ying x male reader #male reader #abo #omegaverse #alpha/beta/omega verse #alpha reader #omega wei wuxian #wen qing #wen ning #lemon #the untamed x reader #the untamed x male reader #mdzs #mdzs x reader #mdzs x male reader

[veliseraptor]

CQL Characters Rated by Their Stress Levels

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “Lan Wangji smiling at Wei Wuxian” and 10 being “Lan Xichen at Guanyin Temple.”

Lan Wangji: Varies wildly over the course of the series; see @howpeacefulislwj for detailed rundown. The roundup post averages his peacefulness at 4.2/10. Generally speaking, stress levels middling, between 3/10 and 5/10 with some extreme highs, pretty much all Wei Wuxian related.

Wei Wuxian: One of those people where you’re like “god I hate him, everything’s so easy for him and he can do everything better than me, it’s the worst, how the fuck does he do it” and then years later you find out that he had an epic burnout and dropped off the face of the earth for sixteen years because actually it wasn’t that easy he just made it look that way. 

I mean, he starts the series at about a 5/10 general state (he’s managing a lot but handling it okay) and basically escalates to a relatively consistent 9 or 10/10 for most of the stretch from the Burial Mounds through to his dying. Someone should make a @howpeacefuliswwx chart, I’d be curious to see his average.

Jiang Cheng: Has been existing in a constant low-level state of stress since late childhood and only grows over time. The calmest I think we ever see him is when he’s holding a bunny and other than that it’s mostly downhill. I worry about him getting ulcers sometimes. 8/10.

Jiang Yanli: Jiang Yanli is so used to being stressed that she barely even registers it any more. What do you mean, most people don’t raise two other children when they are also a child? What do you mean, most people take breaks from supporting others to help themselves? Weird. If she was thinking about it she’d be at a 8 or 9/10 but since she’s so accustomed to this way of life that it just feels totally normal she’s more like a 4 or a 5. 

Jiang Fengmian: Avoids being more stressed by generally avoiding his problems, which is one way to deal with it but doesn’t really end up working out most of the time. 3/10.

Yu Ziyuan: Resides somewhere in the vicinity of 5/10 stress levels, 11/10 rage levels, and when the stress levels get above 5 then everyone else’s stress levels better be hitting the roof.

Lan Xichen: Lan Xichen would probably be relatively unstressed if life didn’t consistently come crashing through his relatively chill vibes. Lan Xichen on a good day is, like, 3/10, handling pretty well, but when things start going wrong around him then he pretty quickly hits critical stress levels and will do drastic things to resolve that, such as convincing Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao to set aside their near-murder differences and swear brotherhood, which will definitely work out absolutely fine. Ends up averaging closer to 8/10 because things keep going wrong around him.

Lan Qiren: He’d be fine if his entire family didn’t insist on causing him problems, constantly. Handling it surprisingly well, all things considered. Still 6/10 though.

Nie Mingjue: I mean, does spend a large chunk of time steadily inching toward a qi deviation? That on its own is pretty stressful and also he just seems like generally a high blood pressure sort of person. But the qi deviation inducing saber is definitely not, like, helping. Putting him at a roughly 6 or 7/10 with a median level that just keeps inching slowly upward.

Nie Huaisang: Actually less stressed than you’d expect given how flighty he seems to be! Even when plotting revenge is less “stressed” than “determined.” Pretty good at keeping himself calm most of the time. Generally sits at a stress level of 4/10 or so with a few significant exceptions.

Jin Guangyao: Very stressed all of the time. He has a lot to be stressed about! Between the various complexes and the tendency toward paranoia, Jin Guangyao is definitely among the most stressed in a room at any given time, while doing his best to convey otherwise. But seriously, look at this smile. Does that look like the smile of a serene man to you? 10/10.

Jin Zixuan: You know those high-strung racehorses that sometimes get spooked by, like, a shadow on the ground? That’s Jin Zixuan. Mostly manages to mask his constant low-level “AHHHHH” with a layer of arrogance and/or social awkwardness that looks like arrogance, but it’s there, in the background. 7/10.

Jin Zixun: Shielded from the general Jin neuroses by being an asshole. It’s not fair, but there you are. 3/10 because he does seem to have some inferiority complex issues going on, but that’s not the same thing as stress.

Jin Guangshan: Deserves to be a lot more stressed than he is. Alas, is confident enough to not be terribly stressed. 2/10.

Mianmian: So you know how cheetahs are very panicky animals and so they often in zoos get paired with dogs who will help them figure out that this situation is safe and they don’t need to panic? I feel like Mianmian is Jin Zixuan’s stress meter in their friendship. She will let him know when to be stressed! Because she is not going to spook at her own shadow. Has a sense of reasonable responses to stressors and knows how to remove herself from a bad situation when necessary. Generally a 5/10 because the inherent stress of existing in the Jin Sect is a real thing. 

Wen Qing: It’s hard to be the most competent person in the room most of the time who spends most of her time in very politically precarious positions and with her or her brother’s life at least sort of in danger! Pretty up there for “most stressed” candidates. She’s really having a time of it. Generally hovers around an 8/10.

Wen Ning: Generally not stressed, at least not in the traditional way. Is distressed a lot, but not so much stressed. Ends up at roughly 4/10.

Wen Chao: Like Jin Zixun, gets somewhat shielded from stress by being an unrepentant asshole, though his end of life 11/10 stress via Wei Wuxian kind of makes up for the rest. Averages more of a 2/10 most of the time, though? I don’t think we can let that relatively brief period skew the scale too much.

Wen Ruohan: Does “magic induced losing your mind” count as stress? I mean, he has a pretty stressful job even before that, but he doesn’t project “stress” so much as “incipient madness” during the period where we actually see him doing things. Not sure what rating to give here. It seems like he’s kind of on a different scale.

Wang Lingjao: For the most part seems to manage to get by relatively stress-free, up until things start going completely to shit and she gets haunted to death. Generally closer to a 2 or 3/10, because life as a servant ascended to mistress in a strictly hierarchical society is inherently a wee bit stressful.

Wen Zhuliu: Too sick of this shit and not getting paid enough to really stress out about it. 1/10.

Lan Sizhui: One of those people who manages to appear serene and calm all the time but mostly has just gotten used to functioning at a higher level of stress and therefore can pass for calm even when he is having an Experience of it, which makes his stress levels kind of hard to gauge. But I’d put him at a relatively consistent 6/10.

Lan Jingyi: Wouldn’t call him stressed exactly but he’s definitely very high energy. Kind of gives off the vibes of a very energetic dog who would be stressed if you didn’t keep him busy, but mostly (because I feel like Gusu Lan Sect is pretty good at keeping him busy) hovers around a 2 or 3/10. 

Jin Ling: I feel like Jin Ling isn’t stressed most of the time up until the actual events of CQL itself, where he is both very stressed and very confused almost constantly from the time he first runs into Wei Xuanyu, and it only goes downhill from there. So covering the events of the show I’m going to put him at a 7/10, because he does manage to deal with some wild things with some equanamity and makes it all the way to episode forty-five without breaking down sobbing.

Ouyang Zizhen: Seems like a sensitive soul but doesn’t give off the impression of carrying around a lot of stress, at least not from what we see of him. Probably the chillest of the junior quartet, tbh. Gonna give him a 2/10.

Xiao Xingchen: For most of his life Xiao Xingchen manages his stress very well! He’s actually surprisingly chill. Gets significantly more stressed, understandably, after Xue Yang engineers his no good very bad breakup (the first one) with Song Lan. But in general not that stressed! It is actually part of why he doesn’t handle the stress when it comes very well. He’s not used to it and he only had one pair of eyes to sacrifice. In general a 3/10.

Song Lan: Makes up for Xiao Xingchen’s relatively low stress levels by picking up on the stress for both of them. Still chiller than a lot of people on this list, though, but there’s a lot of very stressed people in this show, so. 5/10.

Xue Yang: Manages his stress by making everyone else very stressed, on purpose. If he’s having a bad day he’ll go and make someone else have a worse day and it helps. At least until there’s a dead Xiao Xingchen and then nothing helps! But as a rule exists at a general 2/10 and honestly he deserves it.

A-Qing: Her life is inherently stressful because she is a street kid trying to make it in a world that is not very friendly to people with no structure supporting them, but she manages to bear it pretty well on the whole. Still, it’s hard being a-Qing. She just makes it look easy. Probably a 4 or 5/10.

Sect Leader Yao: He’s not stressed, but he’s very good at making everyone around him stressed every time he opens his mouth. His presence is a +2 to stress for everyone in his vicinity with the exception of Sect Leader Ouyang, who is for some reason immune. 0/10.

#the untamed #cql #i'm not going to tag every character on this list that is TOO MUCH WORK #lise does meta #(um. ish) #i should just have an 'untamed shitposts' tag at this point #the sad queer cultivators show

[bloody-bee-tea]

JC Love Month 2020 Day 2

Power and Pride

Day 2 of JC Love Month brings some fluff where the kids (mostly JL) tell JC that they admire him a whole lot, and even WWX is not exempt from that. Thankfully, that admiration goes both way. 

Jiang Cheng isn’t quite sure how he came to feel like an outsider in his own home, but it’s happening, and his otherwise empty table is probably playing a big part in it.

Especially compared to the cramped one, where Wei Wuxian and his gaggle of ducklings are seated.

It’s not often that Wei Wuxian brings them around after a night hunt, but they were close to Lotus Pier and Wei Wuxian at least knows that Jiang Cheng would skin him alive if he did a job in Jiang Cheng’s territory and then didn’t even have the good grace to drop by.

It’s just a bonus that he brought the kids with him, because Jiang Cheng would never admit it, but he missed Jin Ling. It’s not often that he gets to see him anymore, not with how he’s now Sect Leader himself, and it’s good to see that Jin Ling still takes the time to do something educational but at the same time gets to spend an night with his friends.

And it only stings the tiniest bit that Jin Ling didn’t come to visit Lotus Pier before, but Jiang Cheng pushes that thought far, far away. It’s important for Jin Ling to spend some time with people his age, and not just his family.

There’s an especially loud laugh from Wei Wuxian to something Lan Jingyi said and Jiang Cheng almost feels the urge to go over there and sit with them instead of a few tables further away, but he guesses he would ruin the mood.

He’s not pleasant company, he knows it, and he would hate to ruin the good mood of the kids. They deserve some time to celebrate after their successful night hunt.

So Jiang Cheng sits alone with his tea, and keeps half an ear on the rambunctious group. It has to be enough.

“So, let’s say,” Wei Wuxian’s voice carries over and Jiang Cheng might listen in a bit more closely at that, because he still remembers that tone of voice and it promises mischief.

“Let��s say what, Senior Wei?” Ouyang Zizhen asks, leaning expectantly over the table.

“Let’s say you’d have to choose the most powerful cultivator,” Wei Wuxian says, a laugh playing around his mouth. “Who would you choose?”

“Easy,” Lan Jingyi immediately says and Jiang Cheng has to hide his snort in his tea.

He would always bet his entire fortune on the loudmouthed Lan to be the first to answer a question.

“Zewu-Jun,” Lan Jingyi then says, full of conviction, though he only gets surprised glances at that.

“Why him?” Wei Wuxian wants to know, and Jiang Cheng is unsure if he has a higher goal in mind with this question or if he is just playing around with them.

“Because he’s ranked first, of course,” Lan Jingyi confidently says, and Jiang Cheng has to admit it’s solid reasoning.

Zewu-Jun is still ranked first, despite the fact that he went into seclusion, and the list is not only about looks. It’s also about the level of cultivation after all, so Lan Jingyi made the easy, obvious choice.

“But I don’t think he’s the most powerful,” Lan Sizhui carefully says, clearly trying to not offend his friend and while Jiang Cheng admires the effort, he thinks it’s entirely impossible to offend Lan Jingyi.

“Then who do you think, huh?” Lan Jingyi wants to know, clearly more curious than offended and Lan Sizhui shrugs.

“Hanguang-Jun,” he says, very predictably if you ask Jiang Cheng.

Not that anyone seems to be even thinking of Jiang Cheng.

“How come?” Wei Wuxian questions and then he gets that dreamy look on his face that Jiang Cheng learned to abhor so much. “I mean, you’re right of course, there is no one with more power in this world than my Lan Zhan, but explain it?”

“No one with more power over your already limited awareness, maybe,” Jin Ling mutters under his breath and Jiang Cheng almost chokes on his tea when Wei Wuxian lets out an enraged yell.

There’s chaos for a while at the other table, because it seems like the kids are entirely too comfortable to roast Wei Wuxian over his sickeningly sweet feelings for Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng is very content to stay out of that train wreck.

They do settle down eventually, and they even get back on track with the question.

“It should be kind of obvious,” Lan Sizhui says finally. “He is the Chief Cultivator after all, and that means he holds the most powerful position.”

It’s just as solid reasoning as Lan Jingyi’s pick had been but Ouyang Zizhen shakes his head.

“You all got it wrong,” he says and leans a little bit closer to them as if he’s going to tell them a secret. “The most powerful cultivator is of course the Ghost General!”

“He doesn’t even count!” Lan Jingyi cries out. “He’s a ferocious corpse, and not a cultivator anymore!”

“But you have to admit that he is more powerful than both of your picks,” Ouyang Zizhen says and Jiang Cheng forces to unclench his hand.

He is still repairing his relationship with Wei Wuxian, he gave up entirely on every reaching anything but polite distance with Lan Wangji, but he will probably forever have some animosity for Wen Ning.

In the very darkest hours of the night Jiang Cheng can admit that it’s unfair to hate Wen Ning like that, that he wasn’t wrong about what he said to Jiang Cheng during that cursed reveal of just whose golden core is inside of Jiang Cheng, but that is only in the dead of the night.

During the day, Jiang Cheng reserves the right to still be fucking mad at Wen Ning for accusing him like that when it was him, Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian who decided to go along with the medical procedure without even so much as asking Jiang Cheng about it.

It doesn’t change the fact that Wen Ning is a rather powerful being and Jiang Cheng would hate to have to go up against him if he’s really furious. Jiang Cheng is aware enough of his own strength to know that it would be a damn difficult fight; and he couldn’t even confidently say that he’d win.

“You all don’t know anything,” Jin Ling suddenly speaks up, and Jiang Cheng is moderately curious, he’s not going to lie about that.

Jin Ling doesn’t like Lan Wangji—Jiang Cheng is more than aware that it’s his fault—but he admires Zewu-Jun and he is starting to build something of a friendship with Wen Ning, so Jiang Cheng is honestly curious to hear who Jin Ling thinks of as the most powerful cultivator.

Not to mention that Wei Wuxian is sitting right there, and for all that Jiang Cheng wishes it would be different, he doubts that there is anyone who could match Wei Wuxian at his Yiling Patriarch high.

“Who is it then?” Lan Jingyi asks, chin stubbornly set and Jin Ling glares at him.

“The most powerful cultivator is of course my jiu-jiu,” Jin Ling says, absolute certainty in his voice and everyone goes very quiet as they dart glances at Jiang Cheng.

“Why do you think so?” Wei Wuxian asks yet again, but his voice is soft in a way that Jiang Cheng can hardly stand and he has half a mind just getting up and fleeing.

But then Jin Ling turns around to him and pins him with his look and Jiang Cheng stays right where he is.

He didn’t know his nephew had already perfected that glare.

“Because he survived,” Jin Ling says. “Because he lost his parents and his home, and then his siblings. He had a destroyed Sect and a tiny baby to look after and he did it,” Jin Ling says and Jiang Cheng can’t hold his gaze any longer, but Jin Ling mercilessly goes on.

“He rebuild his Sect; and not only that, but he made it the most powerful of the Great Four. He raised the kid, that wasn’t even his own, and all the while he still managed to get the respect of the people he leads.”

“Jin Ling, you are my pride and joy, but would you please shut the fuck up?” Jiang Cheng bites out, feeling just a little bit choked up, but no one is listening to him.

“And he did it all without his own golden core,” Wei Wuxian chimes in, voice still so horribly soft, “because he even survived losing it.”

“He did a decent job at raising the little mistress, too,” Lan Jingyi says and even though Jin Ling turns to glare at him, it’s clearly meant as very high praise.

“He doesn’t just have the respect of his people,” Lan Sizhui suddenly says and shrinks in on himself, just a little bit when Jiang Cheng starts to glare at him.

It’s still not enough to shut them all up, but Jiang Cheng has to try at least.

“They adore him; they love him so much, all of them, and it’s so easy to see, too.”

Jiang Cheng doesn’t think it’s easy to see at all, but Ouyang Zizhen speaks before Jiang Cheng can get a word in otherwise.

“Oh, yeah, did you see how they all practically light up when he walks through the market? And they all give him samples of their stuff for free, too, and not because they are afraid of him or they want to show off. They just genuinely want to show him their appreciation!”

“Ah, but that’s not a new thing,” Wei Wuxian says and smiles slightly. “People always fell over themselves to make Jiang Cheng smile.”

“That’s not true,” Jiang Cheng says, because he remembers the times he and Wei Wuxian went to the market.

The people fell all over themselves to please Wei Wuxian, not him.

“Don’t be stupid,” Jin Ling bites out, and Jiang Cheng is taken aback at how mad he suddenly seems. “Do you even know how often people ask me where you are when I go to the market alone? No one cares about me, they only want to see you. I bet it was the same with Wei Wuxian.”

“He’s right,” Wei Wuxian nods immediately. “I couldn’t take two steps without people crowding me in, asking where their favourite was.”

“Shut up!” Jiang Cheng gets out, though he’s aware that he’s blushing bright red.

He knows he has the respect of his people, but their love? He never dared to hope for that.

“So, yes. My jiu-jiu is the most powerful, because he survived all kinds of tragedies and still came out on top.”

“You’re right,” Lan Jingyi nods and then everyone is suddenly agreeing with Jin Ling.

Much to Jiang Cheng’s embarrassment.

“Shut up, all of you,” he snaps out, “you’re all wrong.”

“Get over here then, and tell us why,” Wei Wuxian very eagerly says and winks him over.

The kids make space for him immediately, and they are all looking expectantly at Jiang Cheng, too, so really. What else can he do but go over there and join them.

He refuses to think about the warm, fluttering feeling in his chest at the thought that he gets included in this.

“Tell us who you think is the most powerful,” Wei Wuxian says, excited like a little kid, and when he leans forward, Jiang Cheng pushes him away with a hand to his face.

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian protest, but the kids all laugh and even Jiang Cheng has to bite back a smile.

“If you think I’m going to name you, you’re mistaken,” he tells Wei Wuxian who gives him an almost devastating pout.

“But I was so powerful back in the day,” Wei Wuxian whines and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“And then you died, so really, how powerful can you be?” he wants to know. “And don’t even get me started on the fact that you made it back, because you had nothing to do with that! That was all Mo Xuanyu.”

Jiang Cheng is aware that the kids are staring at him and Wei Wuxian and it occurs to Jiang Cheng that they have never seen them banter like this.

Like they used to do before everything went to shit, and it gives Jiang Cheng hope that they can repair their relationship.

“But who else could it be?” Wei Wuxian whines as he slumps over the table and Jiang Cheng flips his forehead.

“Sect Leader Yao, of course,” Jiang Cheng says, smug as anything when he sees dropped jaws all around the table and then he laughs.

“No, no, you have to explain,” Jin Ling suddenly says and Jiang Cheng calms down just long enough to do so.

“Think about it. He’s mediocre at best but he’s still around. It’s been almost twenty years and he still aggravates everyone at the Cultivation Conferences. No one killed him yet and he still didn’t die. Clearly, he is more powerful than any of us.”

“That’s right,” Wei Wuxian gasps. “He survived the Sunshot Campaign, and I remember he was amongst those who called for my blood, too.”

“And then he survived all of Jin Guangyao’s scheming, and every fight that happened since,” Jiang Cheng adds and it’s only then that Jin Ling smacks his arm.

“Stop this, you hate Sect Leader Yao, you would never vote for him,” Jin Ling says and Jiang Cheng has half a mind to ruffle his hair.

“But I mean it!” Jiang Cheng says but now Wei Wuxian also caught on to the fact that he was just fucking with them, and he narrows his eyes at Jiang Cheng.

“No. Tell us the truth.”

“Fine,” Jiang Cheng says and rolls his eyes at him, mostly so that he doesn’t have to look when he says his next words. “I always thought that my brother was the most powerful,” he mutters and this time the silence that falls over the table is a very expectant one.

When Jiang Cheng finally does lift his gaze again, he sees that all of the kids are looking at Wei Wuxian instead of him, and so Jiang Cheng does the same.

“A-Cheng,” Wei Wuxian says and Jiang Cheng is startled to see tears in his eyes. “I love you, too,” Wei Wuxian cries out and then throws himself over the table to hug Jiang Cheng.

“Let go of me, you gremlin,” Jiang Cheng complaints, but he doesn’t push Wei Wuxian away as hard as he maybe could.

“I always thought my brother was the strongest, too,” Wei Wuxian then mutters and Jiang Cheng has to close his eyes against the sting of tears.

“Ah, fuck,” Jiang Cheng whispers.

“No swear words at the table,” Jin Ling says, clearly out of habit but also way too late, and Jiang Cheng is thankful for it, because it breaks the weird tension.

“There,” Ouyang Zizhen says with great satisfaction. “He did a very good job raising the little mistress.”

It sets off a new round of roughhousing, this time between the kids, mostly, and Jiang Cheng takes the break to compose himself again.

But when he catches Wei Wuxian’s still somewhat misty eyes over the table, he figures it’s not entirely necessary to be his usually grumpy self.

He can let loose a little bit, with his family around.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

#bt writes #jclovemonth2020 #the untamed #mdzs #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #jin ling #post canon #fix it #fluff #admiration #family feels

[whatisalifeihaveablog]

Like Real People Do

Ship: Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning Rating: T Summary: This is an expansion upon/continuation of 'Warmth', a drabble I posted in June where Wen Ning and Jiang Wanyin have begun to spend their nights together. It isn't necessary to read that to understand this but it is only 100 words, so why not?

AO3 link

If Wen Ning had any circulation to be cut off, he's quite certain his arm would be asleep right now with the way Jiang Wanyin was sleeping on it. He squeezed his hand into a fist and opened it again as if it had and he needed to get the blood flowing. If he were being honest, this was not very comfortable. Wanyin had been laying on his chest before, that was comfortable, but then he had to roll over and pin Wen Ning's arm to the bed. He wanted to move. There was no real reason to move, it's not like staying like this was going to hurt him, so he looked over at the man causing the dilemma and sighed, deciding it wasn't worth potentially waking him.

It was nearly morning anyway so he wouldn't have to wait too long, there was no way this arrangement of theirs was going to be completely comfortable for him all of the time anyway. When it first happened nearly three months ago he never expected it to become a nightly routine. The two of them often found themselves in the same places and while they made a valiant attempt to ignore each other completely, they had too many shared connections in this world and those connections were determined to bring them together. The first time they talked, really had a conversation, was the night Wei Wuxian got married. Wanyin was feeling melancholic and happened to find the same spot in the Cloud Recesses Wen Ning always went to be alone. It didn't take long to figure out he was extremely drunk. In retrospect that was probably the only reason why the conversation happened, it probably didn't even matter who he was talking to, but Wen Ning felt honored to be trusted with the feelings Wanyin voiced that night.

That was also the first night they slept together. Or, Wanyin slept and Wen Ning held him. It was nice, Sandu Shengshou wanting to be held was a surprise and Wen Ning was sure he was going to be yelled at and kicked out in the morning, but Wanyin was warm and it felt nice to be with another person and to have a physical connection. On the other hand he was also filled with anxiety, fully expecting things to turn bad. But the morning came and Jiang Wanyin opened his eyes and though it was covered quickly Wen Ning was sure he saw something like relief in them.

"You're still here." Wanyin said in a groggy, still halfway asleep kind of voice.

It wasn't angry or an accusation like Wen Ning would have expected so he just nodded, gave an awkward smile and said "I'm still here."

A month after that Wen Ning accompanied Wei Wuxian to Lotus Pier and it happened again. Only this time Jiang Wanyin wasn't drunk, and Wen Ning stayed. His excuse was that he wanted to stay with Sizhui, who was staying with Jin Ling, who was here. But then a week passed and Sizhui left and he stayed and there were no more excuses. It was odd. It was sudden. And was still odd if he thought about it for too long. They never talked about that first night after it happened and they never talked about these nights here. It almost felt as if speaking about it would break the spell. All of the progress they have made interacting peacefully, or as peacefully as possible with someone like Jiang Wanyin, would shatter and he would be hated again and he would be forced to leave Lotus Pier. These nights of warmth would end.

So Wen Ning just seemed to be living here for the last two months and no one knew why and since the clan leader said nothing, neither did anyone else. There was one exception, Wei Wuxian knew why now. It was about a week ago when Wei Wuxian showed up suddenly to Yunmeng and decided on a whim to enter Lotus Pier in the middle of the night and surprise his brother by barging into his room to announce his arrival. He was most likely treating it like some sort of prank, expecting to be yelled at in a way he found entertaining. What he was not expecting was to find Wen Ning in his brother's bed. Wei Wuxian froze and stared for a moment, giving Wanyin enough time to wake up and process what just happened, and then burst out laughing.

"Shit, I'm so sorry" Wei Wuxian choked out in between laughs, "I shouldn't laugh, I shouldn't, sorry!"

Still laughing of course.

"GET OUT!" Jiang Wanyin looked ready to kill someone and might have acted on that if Wei Wuxian hadn't nodded and left, managing to hold what was left of his laughter in

Wanyin avoided the both of them the next day and Wen Ning was scared, more scared than he had been prepared to be, that it was over now. Wei Wuxian promised not to tell, but did want to talk to Wen Ning about it. That conversation was excruciating.

"Jiang Cheng can be intense and I know you're both lonely but I just want to make sure this isn't hurting you. Either of you" Wei Wuxian said, sincerity mostly replacing his amusement

Wen Ning was mortified, talking too quickly and stuttering as a result, "Wei-gongzi, please, this isn't what you're thinking!" He managed to get out, "It's just something that happened and it's just sleeping. Nothing else! It's just-"

"Just what?" Wei Wuxian asked.

Wen Ning didn't know how to answer. It was a good question. What the hell was this?

"I don't know what. I do know I don't want it to stop. I know we've been getting along much better-"

That made Wei Wuxian suddenly laugh again, "I would hope so! He's letting you in his bed with him every night, he definitely likes you now."

"I don't know about that" Wen Ning argued, "We argue, he yells all of the time."

"Jiang Cheng yells to express his affection" Wei Wuxian smiled.

"He yells to express everything."

That got another loud laugh before Wei Wuxian leaned forward, grabbed his hands, and when their eyes met he could still see some amusement there "Ah, Wen Ning, don't be stupid like me, okay?"

Wen Ning did not have the slightest idea what he meant by that but looking over at Wanyin sleeping soundly crushing his arm, he knew he couldn't bring himself to move. And it wasn't for convenience, it was because Wanyin slept so soundly. It was because he was the only person who ever got to see Wanyin like this and he wasn't going to give up a moment of it.

What were they doing?

What the hell were they doing?

What the hell was he doing?

A groan and some shifting next to him told him this night was over. Wanyin turned back toward him and sat up slowly. This was...different? Wanyin stared at him for far longer than was comfortable with a contemplative expression.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, direct as ever even this early.

Wen Ning blinked, "What?"

"Don't 'what' me! You look like you're about to cry. What's wrong with you?" He shouted, brows furrowing as he became more frustrated.

Wen Ning took in a sharp breath. He hadn't realized he was letting his emotions show like that. He certainly did not want to have this talk right this second. He looked at Wanyin's face and thought about how immediately his features became much harder when he woke. He looked so much older this way. He looked angry but Wen Ning was slowly learning to see behind the anger. Once upon a time Wanyin's tone in his questioning would make Wen Ning shrink back and feel attacked but now he can hear the concern in it. Jiang Wanyin was worried about him. That realization hit him in a way he couldn't have seen coming and if he could cry he might have started.

"It's nothing." Wen Ning lied, "You've slept in some, get dressed and go have breakfast."

Wanyin stared at him for another agonizing second before deciding to let it go for the moment.

"Don't tell me what to do" He barked as he got up from the bed and began to get dressed.

Wen Ning smiled softly and only let it drop when Wanyin left the room. Not now. He couldn't have that conversation now. He couldn't risk breaking this.

"Don't be stupid like me, okay?"

Wen Ning groaned and let himself fall back on the bed as he suddenly realized what Wei Wuxian was talking about. He let himself fall in love without even realizing. He was so fucked. Their conversation implied Wei Wuxian believed Wanyin loved him back but there was no way he could know for sure. He wanted to call Wanyin back in and tell him everything he realized overnight. He wanted to run and hide and never see Wanyin again. He wanted to know how Wanyin felt. He absolutely did not want to know how Wanyin felt. He hated this. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before sitting back up and deciding to meditate. There was nothing he could do right now, so why was he panicking? Wanyin would be taking care of sect business most of the day and he would have time to collect his thoughts.

Despite his attempts not to worry, it started getting dark without Wen Ning realizing how much time had passed. He'd been hiding in Wanyin's room all day, knowing he wouldn't come back until dark, but now it was getting closer to the time he wouldn't be able to avoid. Talking to Wanyin. He looked around the room and took it all in just in case. Made sure he memorized every detail he could in case he was right all along and talking about it was going to ruin things. As prepared as he could be he stepped out of the room. It took some looking but he found Wanyin in a secluded area of Lotus Pier. A beautiful spot with a view of the water where they both sometimes went to enjoy the peace.

Not giving him a chance to turn back Wanyin looked over at him immediately, "Oh, so you're done avoiding me now?"

Wen Ning did flinch at that tone. He hadn't meant to hurt him but he remembered how it felt to be avoided the day Wei Wuxian found out and felt guilt set in.

"I'm sorry" Wen Ning started, "I've been thinking about things, we should talk"

Wanyin visibly steeled himself, "About what?"

Wen Ning took a deep breath, "Wanyin, what are we doing?"

Silence. Definitely not the worst answer he could have gotten but it did nothing to quell his anxieties. He took several steps closer so that they were standing face to face. From here he could see clearly he wasn't alone in that anxiety. He guessed Wanyin wanted to scream right now since that was how he usually dealt with things and Wen Ning felt grateful he wasn't doing that now.

"Wei Wuxian freaked you out, didn't he?" Wanyin was gritting his teeth, holding something in Wen Ning couldn't place, "No one is forcing you to be here. You can just go if you want."

"Do you want me to go?" Wen Ning said with a shaky breath, taking another step closer.

"Why would I care?"

But Wen Ning could see it. Behind the clenched jaw, and the frown, and the angry furrow of his brows, he was just as afraid as Wen Ning had been. Maybe he would never understand how this started, why Wanyin wanted him here, but he was here now and had no intention of leaving. Wanyin was fooling no one by saying he didn't care and it was time to call his bluff. Wen Ning let the silence go on as he built up his nerve and closed the distance between them, bringing their lips together softly at first to give Wanyin a chance to back out but kissing him fully when he did not. He cupped Wanyin's face in his hands and pulled him in deeper, smiling lightly when he felt Wanyin's hands flail a bit, not seeming to be able to decide where to land. He settled for holding on to Wen Ning's arms.

It was awkward and brief and the most thrilling experience Wen Ning had ever had. He had never kissed anyone before. When they pulled back his head was spinning and all he wanted was to go back for more.

"I'm staying right here."

They fell into bed that night still kissing and letting their hands explore. Wen Ning kissed from Wanyin's mouth to his jaw, and relished in the gasp Wanyin gave when he got to his neck. He was sure he could do this forever, the rest of their talk could wait. They eventually had to roll back over, Wanyin laying on his chest slowly falling asleep. Wen Ning held him firm and watched his breath even out, closing his eyes and letting his own breath sync with it and it almost felt like sleep. He could feel Wanyin's heartbeat on his chest, he could feel the ghost of Wanyins lips on his, and now more than ever, he felt warm.

#sarah writes #chengning #ningcheng #jiang cheng #wen ning #mo dao zu shi #i cannot begin to express how much anxiety posting this is giving me lmao

[taizi]

the ship sways but the heart is steady

chapter one: the ship sways

the untamed pairing: jiang cheng & wei ying, lan zhan/wei ying word count: 2549 summary: Wei Ying’s friends are at rock-bottom, and Wei Ying puts his life on hold to help them put theirs back together. To absolutely no one’s surprise except Wei Ying’s, his family goes with him. read on ao3

x

During family dinner, Wei Ying’s phone rings, cutting mother off mid-sentence.

Jiang Cheng cringes inwardly and his brother’s face goes two shades paler. They have guests over, so mother doesn’t do more than glare hatefully in Wei Ying’s direction.

She won’t make a scene in front of Yanli’s husband, or even Wei Ying’s fiancé—Jin Zixuan is everything Yu Ziyuan wants in a match for her daughter, and Lan Zhan’s family is one of the richest on the East Coast.

Lan Zhan is also willing to give as good as he gets. His eyes are already narrowing in mother’s direction, the tentative ceasefire of family dinner wobbling precariously beneath their feet as he perceives the great and unforgivable offense of insult to Wei Ying. A-Li resolutely tries to pick the conversation back up from where it lulled, with all the steely resolve of someone throwing herself into the path of a rampaging bull. Jin Zixuan has graduated from grimacing into his wineglass to gazing hopefully at the clock every three minutes.

Always willing to fall on the grenade, Wei Ying ducks his head meekly.

“Sorry, I thought I silenced it,” he says, the shape of a laugh in his voice even if he can’t manage to drag it all the way out. He’s rummaging his cellphone out of his pocket, presumably to turn it off as a gesture of good faith. “I’ll just…”

But his eyes catch on the screen, and something happens to his expression that Jiang Cheng has never seen before.

Wei Ying stands up, so abruptly his chair sails back with an awful screech, and excuses himself. Lan Zhan follows him out of the dining room without a single word or a backwards glance. That’s all it takes for mother to pick up a scathing tirade against Jiang Cheng’s good-for-nothing, ungrateful, waste-of-space brother.

He joins Jin Zixuan in watching the clock. Worry swims in the back of his mind like a school of startled fish.

#

Wei Ying’s apartment is really actually Lan Zhan’s apartment, but the two of them have been inseparable since they were fourteen, and it naturally followed that where one of them would live, so would the other. The place is ridiculous, modern and minimalist, and it would look like something out of a magazine if not for Wei Ying’s inevitable clutter. But even the stacks of books and magazines, and haphazard easels, and little jars of paints and loose brushes everywhere manage to make the place seem charming and lived-in instead of the horrible disaster tornado it rightly should be.

Jiang Cheng asked him once what the monthly rent was but Wei Ying looked so haunted by the question that Jiang Cheng decided he didn’t actually want to know.

They’re all crammed into the conversation pit, recovering from family dinner in the usual fashion. Jin Zixuan is much more likable when his tie is loose and he’s nursing a lukewarm beer.

A-Li is clinging to Jiang Cheng’s hand so hard he’s beginning to lose circulation but he’d sooner agree to amputate than he would shake her off.

“You’re on speaker, A-Qing,” Wei Ying says with mock-severity. “Keep it PG for the children in the room, please.”

“So Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan are there?” Wen Qing asks rhetorically.

Jin Zixuan sighs but doesn’t rise to it. Jiang Cheng snaps, “Listen, assholes,” partly out of half-hearted irritation, and partly to hear Wen Qing sigh the way she does when she doesn’t want to reward someone with a real laugh.

“Yanli and Lan Zhan are here, too,” Wei Ying says cheerfully. His tone doesn’t match how worried his eyes are. “This is a family-only meeting. So tell us what those texts were about.”

Jiang Cheng realizes right away why Wei Ying bailed on dinner.

There was an apartment fire. The Wens lost everything. Wen Ning is in the hospital with smoke inhalation and second-degree burns because he ran in to make sure their neighbors got out safely. All of their savings are wrapped up in putting Wen Qing through medical school. She’s adrift now in a way that Jiang Cheng has never been.

“There’s... we have an old house, somewhere out in the country. It was sold to my grandparents cheap, but they never got around to renovating it. It’s not even livable, just bare bones.”

A-Li starts crying the second Wen Qing does.

“It’s too much,” Wen Qing forces out. “I can’t do this on my own.”

Wei Ying, to his credit, actually does hesitate. A whole five seconds. And then he says, “I thought you were supposed to be my smart friend. Who said you were doing this on your own?”

He says it as easily as if it was an absolute given that he would turn his whole life around and upside down for her. All she had to do was call.

#

There is a minor disagreement between Jiang Cheng’s siblings.

“A-Li,” Wei Ying says, holding both of her hands in both of his own and looking deeply, imploringly, into her eyes. “You’re way too pregnant to fly.”

Her face crinkles alarmingly, eyes already red and puffy from recent tears. Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan and Lan Zhan tense in exactly the same way, at the same time.

“I won’t have you going all the way to California by yourself,” Yanli says in her most eldest-sibling tone of voice. “I won’t have it, A-Ying.”

“I am a grown-up,” Wei Ying points out gently, with all the wisdom of his twenty-four years. “I pay bills and have a job I hate and everything. And I won’t be by myself, I’ll have A-Qing and A-Ning.”

“And me, obviously,” Jiang Cheng grumbles. Wei Ying whips around to stare at him.

“Oh,” Yanli says, a blanket of relief rolling across her face. “Oh, of course.”

“You can’t,” Wei Ying hisses at him, looking more panicked now than he has all night. “Your mother—”

“Okay, first of all, don’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” Jiang Cheng bites back, prickly with worry for the Wens and worry for his idiot brother. “Secondly, you, going by yourself, is not an option. It’s off the table. It was never on the table. Stupid,” he adds, on principle.

Lan Zhan doesn’t contribute much to the conversation at this point but Jiang Cheng learned a long time ago that that doesn’t mean shit. Lan Zhan has more opinions than any three people combined, whether or not he chooses to voice them. There is no fucking way he doesn’t have thoughts about his fiance picking up and moving nearly three thousand miles away.

Maybe there’s some strange alternate timeline out there where he would be content to stay behind and let Wei Ying go off without him, but Jiang Cheng would bet his entire trust fund that that’s simply not happening here.

If ever there was a world where Wei Ying would be backed into a corner and forced to help the Wens alone, this world isn’t it.

#

There’s a minor disagreement between his siblings, and there’s a whole fucking nuclear fallout at home.

“I forbid it,” mother snaps. She’s livid, but she’s livid so much of the time that it started losing its edge a few years ago. “Absolutely not. I refuse to allow this family to lose face because you want to gallivant across the country for some charity case.”

Jiang Cheng sees it when Wei Ying’s posture changes. The dreamy raincloud gray of Wei Ying’s eyes hardens into heavy steel, and his spine stiffens, and his shoulders go back; the absolute opposite of his downcast self at dinner earlier. He’s willing to fight any impossible battle as long as it’s for someone else.

Jiang Cheng grew up looking up to him. He spent all of his formative years as Wei Ying’s little brother. That’s why he’s willing, too.

“The Wens aren’t a charity case,” he says. Not very loud, but he says it. It’s a lot more than he could have done when he was a kid.

“You don’t even know them! They’re just some random people on the Internet. They’re probably scamming you, and you’re both idiot enough to fall for it!”

That’s so untrue and unfair that Jiang Cheng doesn’t know how to argue for a moment. They’ve never met the Wens in person, but Wei Ying has been friends with them since he was ten. They mail each other presents for Christmas and birthdays. Jiang Cheng distinctly remembers calling Wen Qing for help with biochem homework, multiple times. Wen Ning always Skyped with Yanli when he was stuck on a recipe, the two of them cooking together from three time zones apart. They’re all tangled up in each other’s lives, comfortably, irrevocably.

Of course we know them, Jiang Cheng thinks, bewildered.

Out loud, he says, “They’re not scamming us. And we already told them we’re coming.”

Mother screeches and storms around the house and throws things, but she hasn’t actually hit either of them since they grew taller than her. She hasn’t been a source of real fear since Jiang Cheng started looking down at her instead of looking up. It’s mostly just miserable to be around her now.

He remembers that fear, though. It sticks to his body like a half-healed scar. It reminds him to flinch.

#

It’s early enough in the morning that it might as well still be nighttime when Jiang Cheng and his suitcases finally show up at Wei Ying’s building. He leaves his luggage in the lobby under the watchful gaze of the concierge and takes the private elevator up, keying in the code to his brother’s apartment.

The doors roll open to the living room. Lan Zhan is holding a tiny animal carrier in his hands, gazing at Wei Ying in an extremely gross and smitten way while Wei Ying discusses the upcoming trip with their pets. Pidan and Bao are not being particularly attentive, snuffling at his chin and chewing on a piece of his hair respectively.

“Diedie has decided to be stubborn and not listen to good sense,” Wei Ying is telling the rabbits seriously, “so you’re coming with me and ruining your life instead of being safe and comfortable here at home.”

“Baba is being dramatic,” Lan Zhan informs them in turn. “And also foolish, if he doesn’t realize that our home is wherever he goes.”

“This is the weirdest domestic scene I’ve ever walked into,” Jiang Cheng says loudly, since apparently the telltale ding of the elevator wasn’t enough to announce his presence. He has to interrupt before they do something horrible, like make out in front of him. It’s a constant fucking risk with these two. “Are we leaving or what?”

So the rabbits go into their crate with a frankly absurd amount of fanfare and Jiang Cheng helps wrestle the luggage downstairs. By then, the shuttle that Lan Zhan ordered is waiting for them at the curb.

He knows it isn’t going to be a vacation. Wei Ying’s friends are at rock-bottom, and Wei Ying has essentially put his life on hold to help them put theirs back together. It’s going to be hard work. It’s probably going to be painful, and a little bit scary.

Jiang Cheng is only involved because he chose to be, but it never occurs to him to choose anything else.

If this is where his brother is going, it’s probably the right place to go. And if it’s not, if the whole thing turns out to be a horrible mistake and he regrets all of it, then at least he’ll be in good company.

#

Wen Ning is out of the hospital by the time their plane lands, and he’s waiting with Wen Qing at the airport. Wei Ying, who by all accounts should feel as foggy and queasy as Jiang Cheng definitely does, drops his bags and sprints across the terminal towards them.

Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan follow at a more reasonable human pace, possibly in part to give the friends a few moments together. The busy airport traffic moves around them like a river flowing around a rock.

Wen Ning is sobbing, almost a full head taller than Wei Ying but buried against him like the little brother he is. Wen Qing is leaning quietly against the two of them with her eyes closed, as if filling her reserves and shoring up her strength.  

She’s the type of person who would be able to cow his mother with a single glance, Jiang Cheng thinks admiringly, and more efficiently than Lan Zhan ever could. She must have a spine built out of steel to be able to stand there without crumbling under the weight of what she’s lost.

And Wei Ying stands there holding them up, tireless and steady. He’s talking too quietly for Jiang Cheng to hear, saying something that makes Wen Ning nod against his shoulder. He’ll hold them up until the ground falls out from under his feet if he has to. Thankfully it’s more like three minutes.

Introductions aren’t necessary. They all just trade exhausted looks and move as a cohesive unit towards the doors.

Wen Ning starts to help with the bags, bandaged hands and all. Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng both snap at him before he can so much as touch a suitcase, and then he just waffles in place anxiously, like he doesn’t know how to person if he isn’t actively being helpful.

“Hold the kids,” Wei Ying says in the spirit of compromise, taking the pet crate from Lan Zhan and holding it out to Wen Ning instead.

Somehow, they shuffle everything out of the airport and into a rental car. Lan Zhan’s phone starts to blow up as soon as he turns airplane mode off, so he turns airplane mode back on and returns the phone to his pocket.

“My uncle has checked the credit card statement,” Lan Zhan says calmly. “My brother is handling it.”

“Poor Lan Huan,” Wei Ying murmurs.

“We have to call A-Li,” Jiang Cheng remembers with a jolt. He digs his own phone out. “She wanted us to call as soon as we landed.”

Everyone clusters in close for the FaceTime call with Yanli, who is tearful and hormonal and indignant about being left behind. Jiang Cheng begs her not to get into a fight with their mother over this. Yanli raises her chin and says, “We’ll see.”

It’s a very long drive to the estate. Wei Ying’s head sinks against Lan Zhan’s shoulder in an inevitable, unstoppable act of gravity. He falls asleep within minutes.

“You have to help me thank him,” Wen Qing says quietly, tapping anxious fingers against the steering wheel. “Help me figure out how to thank him.”

Jiang Cheng snorts, not unkindly. “What makes you think I know how?”

An entire childhood spent raising each other, protecting each other, annoying the shit out of each other, and there are still some things Jiang Cheng has no idea how to say to his brother in a way that he’ll understand. Like I’m sorry, and thank you.

Lan Zhan turns his head to the side, so that his cheek is pillowed against Wei Ying’s hair. Outside, the sprawling California countryside sprints past the windows, wild and golden under a relentless summer sun.

#mo dao zu shi #the untamed #mdzs #wangxian #yunmeng shuangjie #jiang cheng #wei ying #lan zhan #wen ning #wen qing #jiang yanli #my writing #mdzs fic #it was only a matter of time fellas #the ship sways

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Ep 27

Note: I will be critical of Jiang Cheng in these posts. If you can’t handle that, please feel free to scroll on.

It's really interesting here that Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that he has to save Wen Ning. I wonder if he even understands that that is precisely how Lan Wangji feels about him. I mean, I suppose it's different. Wei Wuxian also feels like he's indebted to Wen Ning, which he is because of what happened at Lotus Pier, but I also think there is the secondary reason that Wen Ning and the other Wens are being treated unfairly, and Wei Wuxian won't stand for that.

A lot of people see this as a romantic moment: Wei Wuxian saying that he'd be honored to be killed by Lan Wangji. I think rather than being romantic, it's just really sad. Lan Wangji doesn't want to fight with Wei Wuxian, and he certainly doesn't want to kill him. He wants to take him home and hide him so that no one can hurt him, because he loves him. So there's that. It's also sad because it's as if Lan Wangji's feelings haven't gotten through to Wei Wuxian at all. He must be feeling like, "What did I do wrong? Wasn't I clear enough? Did I not do enough to show him how I feel?" Obviously Lan Wangji didn't confess or anything, but it must be disappointing to hear that Wei Wuxian is fine being killed by him. Like, don't you understand that I would never kill you? Doesn't he understand that Lan Wangji is willing to break the rules for Wei Wuxian? He'd certainly never do that for anyone else.

This is a defining moment for Lan Wangji. If he followed the rules, if he followed what the other cultivators want, he would have fought with Wei Wuxian right here. In fact, if Wei Wuxian's expression is any indication, Wei Wuxian expected him to fight with him. He seemed to think that Lan Wangji's devotion to orthodoxy and the rules of his clan would have compelled him to stand in Wei Wuxian's way. I guess he didn't understand their relationship, that Lan Wangji values Wei Wuxian more than any rules or orthodoxy, that he values him as a man--a friend, a lover if the two of them could ever get on the same page. But Lan Wangji chooses Wei Wuxian here. He chooses to protect him by letting him go. He chooses to love him from a distance, at least knowing that Wei Wuxian is safe. He chooses to break the rules because his devotion to Wei Wuxian is stronger than any devotion he has for the orthodoxy of the other clans. The most heartbreaking thing for me is that old adage: if you love something, set it free. He loves Wei Wuxian, so he has to let him go. Standing in his way won't make him happy, taking him back to Gusu won't make him happy. There is, really, nothing Lan Wangji can do for him anymore. He failed. He couldn't save him. And that's what's so sad.

So...this scene kind of sucks for Jiang Cheng: they're all dragging out his dirty laundry. Really hammering home Jiang Cheng didn't really do his job in keeping Wei Wuxian in line. You can see he's struggling with the fact that Wei Wuxian is so close to him and yet completely out of his control, which, as a control freak, he absolutely HATES. The only way their relationship works peacefully is if Jiang Cheng maintains control. And clearly, after the banquet, he's totally lost control. I mean, even before that, Wei Wuxian wouldn't listen to him. But what is a little annoying here is that Jiang Cheng doesn't try to understand where Wei Wuxian is coming from, at least not at this point. Lan Wangji goes out to stop him or reason with him after the banquet, but where's Jiang Cheng? That's right! He's crushing cups in his hand! My feeling has always been (whether I practice this or not) that if you didn't try to do anything about it, then why should you get to complain? Jiang Cheng hasn't been there for Wei Wuxian. He hasn't tried to understand him, he hasn't tried to listen to his side of the story. All he's really tried to do is get Wei Wuxian to act normally. And I think Lan Wangji is guilty of this as well, except for the fact that Lan Wangji's motivation is to save and protect Wei Wuxian (because he loves him). What's Jiang Cheng's motivation? Control and power. His desire to look better than Wei Wuxian outweighs any sense of filial bonds.

The only person in the damn room (outside of MianMian) who will stand up for Wei Wuxian. Jin Guangshan spreading actual lies about Wei Wuxian, and no one in this room disagrees until Lan Wangji speaks up. And if anyone would have heard Wei Wuxian say anything about Jiang Cheng, it would have been Lan Wangji. He was with him just about the entire time. I honestly love this scene for a lot of reasons, but it's so hard watching Lan Wangji just sit, his lips pressed together, trying to stop himself from shouting back at these people. He can't say anything, though. Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren are both there and he doesn't want to cause them trouble. But he's clearly incensed by what these people are saying about Wei Wuxian. And then they say, "Oh, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are close friends--he'll say anything to protect him." And I think that's true in this situation. Lan Wangji absolutely is on Wei Wuxian's side, even though what he did wronged the Jin Clan. So Lan Wangji can't refute that statement, and he knows that he can't argue against people who are just looking for a witch hunt. The Wens are all but gone, so now they need someone else to go after, someone else who isn't following the rules of the larger clans.

Poor MianMian, trying to use logic on a bunch of men who are just looking for a scapegoat. She's so right here, though, and I really don't think it's because she feels like she owes Wei Wuxian anything. I'm sure she's still grateful for what he did for her back in Xuanwu Cave, but I don't think that is what drives her to speak. She's one of the only female cultivators in this room right now, amongst a bunch of men who don't really know Wei Wuxian at all. Let's be honest, she barely knows him either. But even Jiang Cheng won't stand up for him! The only other person in the room who has defended Wei Wuxian was Lan Wangji. I think MianMian, like him, just wants to do what's right here. Wei Wuxian doesn't kill indiscriminately--he kills who is to blame for the atrocities against Wen Ning and the other Wens.

But the way they all attack her here is so disgusting. There aren't a lot of women in this show/novel, but the ones in it always make an impact. We get to see what it's like for a female cultivator in a seemingly male-dominated world. The immediately imply that she's only standing up for Wei Wuxian because she feels guilty about what happened to him in Xuanwu Cave. They make it about feelings, you know. They take the logic out of her argument and convince the room that it's her female emotions that are driving her statement. This is a character we haven't seen for quite some time, yet we all remember what happened to her, we all remember how he stood up for her, we all remember how she cried big tears for him. But here she is, several years later, a cultivator in her own right, and this room just sees her as that young girl who couldn't defend herself.

It sucks that Jiang Cheng is essentially being scolded here, in front of everyone, by Jin Guangshan. Seriously, it must be so humiliating. It's pretty clear what they are trying to do, though. They want him to tame Wei Wuxian or, if that's not possible, abandon him. They want to ostracize Wei Wuxian to the point that he's nothing with no power, whether that's as a member of the Jiang Clan or not. And Jiang Cheng just goes along with it. I mean, he has to, doesn't he? If he stands up to them and says that Wei Wuxian was right (if he believed that, which I don't think he does), then he'll be the one being ostracized. Obviously he can't have that. He's a new clan leader--he has to continue rebuilding to return his clan to its former glory. He really has no choice but to go along with Jin Guangshan and the other clan leaders here. That's not really correct--there is a choice. His clan or Wei Wuxian. And what would most clan leaders do in that situation? They aren't going to sacrifice their entire clan for one person, no matter who that person is.

His face throughout the whole thing: smirk. Seriously, it's like he's engineered this whole thing and he's just enjoying the evil villain-ness of it all. I just giggle every time they pan over to Jin Guangyao, because he always has this evil genius smirk on his face. Very entertaining.

On a side note, every time the Lans are shown, they look like they've just eaten something sour. They both look so uncomfortable with everything here. I'm sure they are the only ones who feel that these actions are questionable. But they also have taken some heat for what Lan Wangji did, likely, when he let Wei Wuxian go off with the Wen prisoners. Lan Qiren came out of seclusion for this meeting, but he says nothing. Lan Xichen seems mostly worried about Lan Wangji, who is obviously struggling.

Ugh, it's hard seeing Lan Wangji get scolded here. Obviously Lan Qiren is just worried about him! In CQL verse, he's raised Lan Wangji longer than his father ever did (well, in any verse, because even when his father was alive in the novel, he was in seclusion), so he's more of a son to Lan Qiren than a nephew. He's tried to be subtle, pushing the disciplines on Lan Wangji, making him recite and transcribe them over and over again--but that hasn't worked. He refuses to see that it doesn't matter what the rules are. Lan Wangji will break them because it's Wei Wuxian. It's a bit confusing in CQL, because I guess we're supposed to believe that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are just best friends and that nothing more is going on. I realize this is A Thing and that it's believable that Lan Wangji would give up his life for Wei Wuxian as just a good friend, but when the book is so centered around Lan Wangji having romantic feelings for Wei Wuxian, that's a hard pill to swallow. Lan Wangji isn't doing all this because they are friends-he's doing all this because he loves Wei Wuxian. And part of novel!Lan Qiren's issues are that he knows what the other cultivators are saying--that they are questioning what a strange relationship Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have. But of course, primarily, he just wants Lan Wangji to stick to the disciplines and not end up like his father. Actually, imagine if Lan Wangji had brought Wei Wuxian back and locked him in a house. Yikes. ::smirk::

I love how Jin Zixuan grabs her arm and tells her not to go, and it's so tropey, but I love it so much! Why do they make my heart flutter? I don't know, but they do!! Even though I know how it turns out, I still love watching them fall in love, or rather, realizing that they love each other.

He seems upset here. Did he not think that this whole thing with his sister and Jin Zixuan was going to work out? Did he hope that she would stay in Lotus Pier forever? How selfish is he? We know that Wei Wuxian is extremely selfish about his shijie and also doesn't like Jin Zixuan, but Jiang Cheng has always rolled his eyes about that. So it's odd now that he's upset about his sister. I guess this means that he'll be very much alone, unless he can convince Wei Wuxian to come back to Lotus Pier with him.

Stop it. This kid is too cute. And I love him and want to protect him forever and ever and ever. Also this part about planting a child and growing more children is adorable. I just can't.

Jiang Cheng is so upset when he arrives. He sees that these are women, children, and elderly people, and not some evil Wen warriors ready to destroy the rest of the cultivation world. I think Jiang Cheng wanted to show up and be self-righteous, and take Wei Wuxian out of the mess he'd gotten himself into. So when he sees that Wei Wuxian actually did a good thing by rescuing these people, he finds that extremely irritating and it just makes him angry.

Also he's a dick to A-Yuan, telling him to get off. I won't forget this, mister!! The next stranger that A-Yuan grabs onto is not mean to him--uncomfortable, yes, but he isn't mean to him. I'm going to have to gif these two bits, side by side, how Jiang Cheng sneers at him and how Lan Wangji smiles down at him. Ugh, my heart.

The way that he behaves here, he's like a jilted lover. He barely even glances at Wen Qing--but she doesn't owe him anything. There was never anything between them, yet he treats her like she wronged him, when, in fact, she did quite the opposite. She didn't accept him as a lover--does that give him the right to treat her this way? It's so annoying.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | Or just check out the #CQL Rewatch hashtag

#wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #cql #the untamed #jiang cheng #jin zixuan #jiang yanli #wen qing #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #ep 27 #cql rewatch

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Vid - The Untamed

I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…

Nah, I just think he's hot.

Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.

I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.

And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)

I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.

WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???

I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.

I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.

I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.

Clip choices:

I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.

Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way

I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.

Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take

I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)

'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.

Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say

The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.

'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.

Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)

There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown

I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.

It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.

We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid

WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.

The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D

WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)

I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"

For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.

And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!

Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,

Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.

ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Other vidding notes:

I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.

Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.

Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.

Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.

The vid:

Available on AO3.

#vidding #wen ning

[fytheuntamed]

I used to see WWX as sunshine incarnated and how it hurt me when I realized that it's mostly just fake and he's really not. I thought he was such a genuine person and when I realized that he hides so much of himself that he's not very genuine at all my heart broke a little and I needed to share my feelings. I still love him though, but it was a huge shock to me that everything I initially fell in love with was actually wrong. I hope this little ramble wasn't a bother.

Hello, anon! First off, you’re not bothering me at all; even if I can’t reply to all of them, I read and appreciate every ask I get. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling a bit disillusioned with WWX; I know some would say he’s just a fictional character, but I think all of us here can attest to the power fictional characters have in impacting the lives of real people. Your ask made me think a lot about who WWX is, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing my own thoughts on the matter! Just a few disclaimers before I get into it: all analysis is based off of drama!WWX, as that is the adaption I know best, so keep this in mind as you read because I know his characterization varies a bit from adaption to adaption. WWX also happens to be my favorite character from the show, so this could will get long :’) I’m also going to continue on with the assumption that you’ve seen the show in its entirety!

I think one of the most important things to understand about people, fictional or real, is that we, like ogres, have layers. This is just what happens when you exist in a world where different settings with different people bring out different sides of us as dictated by societal norms. Does this make someone fake? I would say no, mainly because I think there’s a difference between acting “fake” and being fake. Anytime I speak on the phone with a stranger I automatically assume my “telephone voice,” which sounds quite different from my talking-with-friends-and-family-voice. I don’t leave such phone calls thinking to myself, “wow, I’m such a fake,” because I know that when speaking with strangers, being more polite than I would be around close friends and family is respectful. I think what it comes down to for me is, regardless of how I am presenting myself, am I staying true to my beliefs and values? This is why I think WWX is in fact very genuine, and I would also argue that it is his genuine nature (once revealed) that attracts LWJ to WWX.

Returning to the idea of people having layers, we must recognize that people are not static; we are constantly reacting to our settings and thus our moods fluctuate accordingly. WWX is sunshine incarnate, but he is also someone who has suffered a great deal over the course of his life. To expect him to smile no matter what is a cruel burden to impose on him, and I believe it is a burden he feels in canon. Because both Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu impress upon WWX that he must keep Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng safe, that they are the priority, WWX feels compelled to smile and put on a strong facade so that he doesn’t crumble and fall apart, thus “failing” his adoptive parents and siblings. So while these smiles may simply be masks to hide his pain, thus not “real” smiles, they do not make WWX himself fake, but rather (imo) reinforce his genuine nature because his motives are genuine, even if his smiles may not always be.

There are also times when he smiles and acts extremely cocky in front of others, only for this facade to immediately fall away the moment he is alone/out of the public eye. One of my favorite examples of this is in episode 26 when he questions Jin Zixun about the whereabouts of Wen Ning. The entire time he is there, he exudes a cocky disregard for formality and the established hierarchy, even going so far as to say, “If I, Wei Wuxian, want to kill someone, who can stop me? Who would dare to stop me?!” Once he has the information he needs and turns to leave, however, we immediately see the cockiness fall from his face to be replaced by one of...remorse? I’ll let you guys decide for yourselves.

[gif credit]

I think it is worth noting that his facade fades once he looks at LWJ, because LWJ is one of the few people at this point in time who WWX respects, and whose opinion of WWX still holds value to WWX. And so again we see that WWX’s outward behavior does not seem to align with his inner feelings. Look at the situation that WWX is in, though. He is just one man, albeit a powerful one, going against the biggest, most powerful clans. If he shows an ounce of weakness, they’ll eat him alive. And so in order to stay true to his beliefs, WWX puts on a show. In episode 25 we also see WWX put on a show of shooting many arrows simultaneously while blindfolded. @cal3ris made an excellent post on here stating that WWX was not just doing this to show off, but that he was ensuring the temporary safety of the Wen prisoners by pulling off such a feat so as to ensure no other cultivator would attempt the challenge after him. In situations such as this one, it works in WWX’s favor that the vast majority of the cultivation world believes him to be nothing but a showoff with a big mouth. And of course, there is a part of WWX that does enjoy being in the spotlight! Especially if someone he wants to impress is watching~

At the beginning of the Gusu days flashback (ep 3), we see WWX before everything goes to hell. He’s constantly smiling, goofing around, and is a genuine gremlin of a lad. This is real! He’s a teenager in the flush of his youth, he’s with his beloved siblings, he’s smart and talented, the list goes on and on. For people who don’t know WWX, he comes off as a shallow person with no real depth who thinks of nothing but goofing around all day. For those who know WWX intimately, like Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng (though he’s less vocal about it), they know this is not the case. The point is, WWX doesn’t care what people think about him. He doesn’t care because he knows who he is and what he stands for. This is a huge part of who WWX is as a person: “I don’t care if they slander me, as long as I have a clear conscience.” It is also one of the defining things that connect Wangxian to one another, which brings me to the point of LWJ being someone whom WWX hates to deceive, because he greatly values LWJ’s good opinion of him. We see how much it pains WWX to put distance between himself and LWJ, but we also see that WWX is willing to do so if he believes it is for the best. In episode 20, after being reunited with Jiang Cheng and LWJ, we see WWX purposefully push LWJ away with cold precision. Once more he plays his role with practiced ease, but we see his mask fall as he watches LWJ walk away.

WWX goes from this:

[gif credit]

to this as soon as LWJ isn’t looking at him:

[gif credit]

Having just returned from the Burial Mounds, WWX is very unstable, both physically and mentally. For the past months that he’s spent in the Burial Mounds, survival has been his priority. We see this instability and the signs of PTSD manifest quite a bit throughout the Sunshot episodes. In episode 20 Jiang Cheng hugs WWX, who honestly seems at a loss as to how to respond. In episode 20 we see LWJ step towards WWX, who immediately steps back. We also see WWX shrink away from Nie Huaisang’s touch. This is incredibly telling because WWX is someone who likes physical touch and proximity. He’s constantly putting his arms around Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang and constantly puts himself in LWJ’s personal space (much to LWJ’s initial chagrin). I believe WWX’s behavior post Burial Mounds comes from a desire to protect himself from those around him as well as those around him from himself. [apt gifset here] Nothing about this WWX is fake to me. He is acting differently here because he is different. Trauma does not define a person, but it does change a person. Post Burial Mounds WWX is a different person, but he has not lost what makes him him, which is his strong commitment to his beliefs and morals. For WWX during this time, I don’t believe he has the emotional strength to relive his trauma to those closest to him, so he settles for brushing them off with excuses and yes, fake smiles. This also ties into WWX’s habit of internalizing his own struggles so as not to burden those around him. Hopefully at this point a clear pattern has revealed itself: no matter how WWX presents himself on the outside, he never compromises his beliefs.

After being resurrected in Mo Xuanyu’s body, we see a WWX who is far more reminiscent of the carefree teenager back in Gusu. We see WWX slowly heal from the traumas of his past life and we see him begin to smile again, not because he needs to, but because he can’t help it. We might be tempted to look at this WWX and think, “ah, this is the real him,” but I think this does a disservice to the complexity of his character. The point is, it’s all WWX. The pranks, the smiles that crinkle the corners of his eyes, the creativity, the cockiness, the way his laughter bursts out of his body at times and at other times comes out like a sigh or an afterthought, the way he looks out for the juniors, and both his quiet and loud rage are all what makes him who he is. Certain aspects may be muted at times, but that’s to be expected. WWX is by no means perfect, but I would say he is painfully genuine. Just think, would LWJ feel so strongly about him if he weren’t?

As I feared, this got way too long and I probably rambled and repeated myself and got off track, but it’s fine…..

#the untamed #wwx #wei wuxian #wei ying #ask #anon #Anonymous #does this count as meta? pretty sure it's just me blabbing about how valid wwx is lmao #also DUDE why is tumblr putting the read more in the ask and not where i want it???

[silverseedthings]

Jin Ling is a little younger Fix-It AU

Alright, so I had a silly thought:

I’ve read a lot of fic where Jin Guangyao didn’t love Qin Su but wanted the political connections of marrying her (plus the appearence of respectability inherent in being a married man) and he seduced her in order to force her family’s hand since they wouldn’t let them marry. 

So far, this makes sense. Jin Guangyao is an experienced manipulator, he has charm, he has dimples, he’s a war hero. A sheltered girl like Qin Su would probably be easy prey for him. Equally logically, Qin Su’s mother would be Extremely Against this marriage. But she’s not going to admit to having been raped when she has the handy excuse of “But he’s the son of a whore!”

Now, what if Qin Su’s maids heard about what their mistress and her suitor were planning? The scandal! The juicy gossip! The extremely hefty tips they could receive in Jinlintai for that piece of intelligence on one of Carp Tower’s most disliked inhabitants!

Qin Su and Jin Guangyao quietly cease their association. But the Jin Sect is really gross and sexist even beyond the standards of the really gross and sexist cultivation world. Who’s going to get the worst of the backlash? Qin Su.

And Jin Zixuan notices. Madam Jin makes SURE he notices, anyway, with how she rants about shamelessness and dishonorability, even if in her case it’s mostly so she can say that she didn’t expect any better from JGY.

Now, Jin Zixuan had been quietly hopeful that he could get some action before the wedding, but he has just gotten a brutal reminder of how insidious Carp Tower gossip is, and he’s humiliated Jiang Yanli enough for a lifetime. He would never even look at her nonconsensually -he’s not his father- but he rather thinks Jiang Cheng would still take him aside for a quiet conversation with Zidian if there was a blowup of this magnitude (probably worse considering their station) with his sister. So he keeps it in his pants.

(Do I know if the timeline works for this? No. Do I care? Also no)

Now, fast forward most of a year past the wedding. The situation is thus:

Wei Wuxian is quietly farming in the Burial Mounds. Nobody has heard of the Yiling Patriarch in months beyond vague rumour-mongering.

Jiang Yanli is only just starting to show a baby bump. No official announcements have been made.

Jiang Cheng absolutely refuses to commit to an attack on the remaining Wens. Without Jiang support for the Jin’s proposal, Lan Xichen feels comfortable mantaining neutrality. Nie Mingjue hates Wens and demonic cultivation, but he has his priorities mostly straight. He won’t launch an offensive unprovoked, and is considering retracting his support of the siege plans out of spite since he Really Fucking Hates both Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao.

Jin Guangshan’s patience is wearing thin.

Now, Jin Guangyao knows very well he’s disposable. It’s why he wanted to marry Qin Su in the first place: a bastard son can be quietly (or loudly, depending on what is most convenient) expelled from the Sect once he’s no longer useful. If he was married to a lady from a prominent family that could be taken as an insult to his in-laws. But that plan backfired.

The social capital from his heroic deeds in the war is drying up. The scandal has left him in an even more precarious position, and to the public it looks like not even his sworn brothers are supporting him.

(It legitimately cracks me up that the outside perspective is that Lan Xichen is quietly disapproving of his actions while Nie Mingjue still gives him the benefit of the doubt, based on who’s standing with his clan on the Yiling Patriarch issue)

His assets are: one (1) easily-manipulated, bitter and petty minor sect leader with a disturbing obsession with Lan Wangji and one (1) out of his myriad of siblings (sworn, recognized, unrecognized or otherwise) that still likes and trusts him.

He goes to talk to Lan Xichen.

Here’s when what I like to call “The Tea of Misunderstandings” happens.

JGY, with earnest eyes and a pitiful expression: “Er-ge, I really don’t know what to do about the issue of the Yiling Patriarch. My father is convinced he’s an evil man that is amassing an army, but I haven’t seen you agree with him. Do you think his opinion is unfounded? Do you know anyone who could give an accurate account of his character? Please advise”

LXC, who always errs on the side of thinking the best of everyone’s intentions: “Well, I never had many interactions with Young Master Wei. I really couldn’t say for sure what he’s thinking, even if his chosen cultivation method is deeply troubling. If you want to hear what someone that has fought with him in the past has to say, perhaps you could ask Wangji?”

JGY, internally: “Perfect. Everyone knows Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian can’t stand one another. Er-ge won’t want to risk a large battle unless he’s attacked when his sect suffered so much so recently, but it will be easy to get him onboard once I give him a good excuse”

LXC, internally: “It’s so nice of A-Yao to be worried about doing the right thing, even if it might not align with his sect leader’s opinion. So inspiring! I hope Young Master Wei really is the man Wangji thinks he is, and that Wangji can convince A-Yao to speak to Sect Leader Jin on his behalf. We might be able to solve this situation without bloodshed.”

Remember, at this point in time Lan Wangji is still an Extremely Repressed Gay, and he and Wei Wuxian have had many very public disagreements. You can forgive JGY for not realizing that everybody knows they hate each other in much the same way everybody knows the Yiling Patriarch is amassing a terrifying Wen army.

You may blame Lan Xichen for his word choice when he meant “Someone who fought beside Wei Wuxian in the Sunshot Campaign and other occasions”. Poor jiggy interpreted “Someone who fought AGAINST Wei Wuxian”.

Convincing Su She to curse Lan Wangji is easy. Convincing him that the Yiling Patriarch: 1) Will be pleased about this and welcome him with open arms; 2) Can and will get rid of the curse backlash; 3) Will be easy to fool into revealing his plans so Su She can access glory and reknown in the same way JGY did is easier.

Jin Guangyao is prepared for every outcome: 

If WWX kills Su She on the spot (which seems unlikely), Lan Wangji will still have suffered a direct attack “from the Yiling Patriarch” and Lan Xichen will feel compelled to support Jin Guangshan’s agenda. The Jiang will have no choice but to bow to the other three sects’ will and join. The death of a minor sect leader will get the minor sects foaming at the mouth to mount his head on a pike. Win.

If WWX lets his grudge cloud his judgement and actually welcomes Su She into the Burial Mounds (possible), the movilization to eradicate him and his camp will be even faster. Win.

If WWX tries to get Su She to pass him information and push his own agenda on the cultivation world (most probable, since he’s in desperate need of both information and people speaking for him, even if they come with the ticking time-bomb of a curse), Su She will just report on his forces and condemn him for “forcing him” to curse LWJ, as planned. Win.

Even in the unlikely event that WWX actually can (and the even unlikelier scenario that he does) get rid of the curse mark, JGY can blame Su She for everything and present himself as the one who uncovered their sinister plots so as to not share the glory. Win.

....Or so he’d thought. WWX trussing up Su She like a turkey and presenting them both at the gates of Cloud Recesses in a very public show of concern for LWJ was not something he’d thought he’d need a contingency for.

When LWJ turns out to believe everything WWX tells him even after Su She shockingly doesn’t sell JGY out and they team up to uncover the mystery, jiggy is ready to just throw up his hands in disbelief. That’s just unfair.

(WWX would probably have killed Su She on the spot, because he Cannot Even at the idea of LWJ being the slightest at risk, but Wen Ning was the one who found him and got the spiel about joining them and having cursed LWJ as a mark of his sincerity. It didn’t particularly endear him to Wen Ning either, but WN is smart enough to realize that a moron incompetent enough to get lost on the way to the Burial Mounds, in such a way that they had to split up to find him after he tripped the wards because apparentely?? he can’t feel the strongest fucking focus of resentful energy EVER?? is probably not smart enough to figure out a way to curse Hanguang Jun. Much less through the GusuLan sect’s barriers. So WWX and LWJ investigate to find out who’s the mastermind)

#I don't know if JGY sets his father up to take the fall #and lives to scheme another day #or if both of them bite the dust #but I know he won't risk something with this much of a chance to blow up in his face again #can you tell I hate the trope of masterminds that can predict fucking everything? #JGY's plan is solid #all of them are #but they still have a very good chance of backfiring #canon worked out for him #because he was lucky #he took a lot of very big risks for big rewards #but it could have easily gone the other way #and it amuses me to write an AU where that's exactly what happens #mdzs #JGY #WWX #LWJ #WN #LXC #silverseed writes #my theories #my AUs

[fondofeveryprickle]

MDZS and The Untamed comparision

let's preface this by saying this is my opinion. and I know my opinion is not universal. but I wanted to put my thoughts someplace. you can agree or disagree, and I would love to hear your takes on both. also, I may get information mixed up, I read the novel really fast and then went straight to watching the show. please, correct me if I'm wrong.

so I need to start saying I loved both so much. they both have things the other lacked and I had such a joy while watching/reading.

On the main plot:

the novel wins this one easy!!!

I particularly don't like the idea of Yin Iron. it takes from Wei WuXian's story. if the yin iron already existed and was used to control corpses/resentful energy, what Wei WuXian did with the stygian tiger Amulet was not as impressive as him doing it without any precedent.

but I also understand why they did it, so Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi had reasons to work together at the beginning

still on the yin iron and the whole wen clan thing. I really prefer the novel, where it shows that the wen sect just wants power. it's not anything supernatural or whatever.

the whole "corpses" being censured from cql made the show lose so many opportunities. I really wanted to see the horror of it. those black clouds of resentful energy were just okay for me, not scary enough. and it didn't feel powerful enough (specially on the nightless city battle)

and I really wanted them looking for body parts and discovering that people had been buried with wrong body parts and all. and having them taking a really long time to discover it was Nie MingJue, because they had just some body parts that could have been anybody.

and not having the corpses took a lot of power from Wei WuXian. and made wen ning not make any sense (the explanation from the dancing statue makes no sense, really)

all in all, novel wins this round

On the characters:

on this one I have mixed feelings. I feel like a lot of characters had a better development on the show (specially on the scenes from before 16 years), because the novel was from Wei WuXian's pov, so there were lots of things he was not really paying attention to.

I still prefer wwx from the novel. his character arc is more interesting for me. specially because he is actually guilty of the things people accuse him of (even if he had reasons, and I agree to those reasons), and the show took it away from him, and laid the blame on jgy. I feel like the show took the easy way out, not letting wwx deal with the lack of control on those situations. but I also love him in the novel in all the ways he's always ready for chaos, on the show he seems more calm, I guess. I also love him coming to terms that he likes guys (or at least lwj). it was a long way coming in the novel, and the "oh" moment was so good.

also the whole mo XuanYu/resurrection thing. it doesn't make sense that he went back to having his own body. and made it really hard for him to hide himself. although story-wise I don't like that he has his own body because it doesn't make sense. I am really glad they didn't change, because the actor is simply perfect as Wei WuXian, and I wouldn't want it to change either.

on Lan WangJi I have mixed feelings. since we read the novel through wwx's pov, we mostly know what he knows. and I think the show and the actor did an amazing job of portraying lwj that felt faithful to the novel but also a little more fleshed out, mainly past lwj. but they also made him softer than the book in a way. I like both versions very much. I can't choose. but I really don't think he would ever become chief cultivator, and I don't really like this ending for him. it doesn't make a lot of sense. he doesn't really enjoy talking to people and making compromises, which he would have to do a lot, being the leader of all clans/sects. he's the person who likes to travel to help whoever needs help, he likes teaching the juniors.

we also deserved more drunk!Lan WangJi than what we got

YanLi!!!! the show for sure!!!! ❤ her role is much bigger on the show and I love her very much.

the same with wen qinq. I loved the little we got of her from the novel, but I loved that she had a much bigger role on the show (still bitter she's dead - I want modern!au fics where she and wwx are best friends)

another thing. I think because the show is mostly in chronological order it made me care more about the characters (and not only wwx and lwj) and so I cried more (not sure if it's a positive thing).

on the novel, the flashbacks were all mixed up in the middle of the story, and even then, they were not in chronological order, but the thing we needed to know because it related to things that were about to happen. so I already knew who was dead, and who was friend or foe, so when they appeared in the flashback chapters, I couldn't care a lot about them so I wouldn't suffer.

even reading the novel first, watching the show gave me a chance to care about a lot of people, because they were always there, and so I suffered a little more.

the show also gave me a chance to fall in love with nie MingJue and then take him away from me. I feel like the novel didn't talk about him enough.

On the relationships:

both. both is good. no, actually both is great and they complement each other so well!!!!

this is a point that I really really can't choose one or the other. maybe most people say the novel, because the relationship is canon and they are married by the end of it. and that's a great point in its favour for sure.

I think their relationship has more time to develop in the past on the show than on the novel. there were a lot of moments they had together in the past and we can see lwj, and see him getting soft near wwx. there are a lot of declarations of intent on the show as well

but I also love their relationship on the novel, post resurrection. I love how lwj creates all the reasons they need to stick together, even when wwx wants to run away.

I do love that it is canon. I love so much. I love that wwx gave the rabbits to lwj when they were teenagers, and 13 years after wwx died, he still had rabbits. I love all their stolen kisses, and I love that they are actually married travelling the world, and stopping back at cloud recesses sometimes.

I love how we discover that lwj always loved wwx, even when the world hated him. and wwx didn't know. but he also didn't know that he loved lwj. but we can see it in all the times he talks about him, and how much he really wants to befriend lwj and everything.

but I miss the teasing on the show. I miss drunk! lwj letting wwx do whatever. I miss a little lwj holding wwx by his hands tied with his headband in front of all the juniors and wwx doesn't really know what's the big deal.

but for a show that had the gay censored, I really love the development of their relationship through smiles and soft looks and little touches and protections. and some big gestures (staircase scene? rain scene?)

I liked Wei WuXian & Jiang Cheng relationship better on the show. their sibling love is so strong, and so beautiful, all the more painful after everything that happened. again, I think this one for me feels like that because the show is chronological, so. made me love Jiang Cheng, for later to feel so sad and betrayed for what he did to wwx.

another one, Jiang Cheng/Wen Qinq. I don't know how I feel about them. they don't exist in the novel. Jiang Cheng met her once right after his parents and his whole clan died, and he was really rude to her, and then they meet again, when he goes to burial mounds to talk to wwx. but on the show they have an awkward something going on, which makes it all more sad that he won't help her and her family and then just watches her die.

Other:

the whole importance of Jin GuangYao during the show was a little annoying to me. it was never a surprise that he was not really the good guy. I preferred the surprise of discovering all together from the novel.

the ending. without a doubt the novel wins this one. making them go their separate ways? after everything lwj did to have wwx back? makes zero sense. and I already said what I think about lwj becoming chief cultivator.

I guess that's it. all in all, I prefer the novel, but I also love the show. and I believed they can be complementary to each other (as long as I ignore the ending of the show).

(i guess I'm ready for the fics now. I just wish it were easier to find out if they use novel canon or show canon)

#the untamed #mdzs #cql #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my thoughts #I still need to finish the special edition #what are your thoughts?

[inessencedevided]

Once you're done with the entire show, could you maybe do sorting for all the characters? I usually know the house for each character, but I have literally no idea with The Untamed. WWX for example I can equally see him as a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff and my brain hurts trying to decide.

First of all: I'm so so sorry anon! This took ages to answer! I hope you're still out there to read this! I started answering ages ago and then trailed off because I had to think about it. So here goes:

Thank you so much for this opening! I LOVE sorting non-HP characters into Hogwarts houses!! And for some of these, I’ve already done so in my head ages ago :D

Disclaimer: I’m mostly going off live action canon here, but will make some comments about the novel from time to time.

Disclaimer 2: Obviously, these are extremely subjective. If anyone disagrees, I would love to hear your counter arguments! I love discussing these things!

Wei Wuxian

GRYFFINDOR!

I know you said you weren’t sure but in my book, he’s a textbook Gryffindor. I’m not saying he doesn’t have Hufflepuff or Raveclaw traits (his sense of justice and his “out of the box thinking” kinda genius come to mind), but those aren’t the main drive of his actions imo. WWX follows his confiction and he often does so without even considering a second option or a compromise, especially before his death. And he is not afraid of deviating from the law or societal expectations to do so. This alone could also make him a Slytherin. The reason I wouldn’t place him there is the way he acts very much in the open. He doesn’t try to bring about change by quietly working in the background. He openly calls people out on their bullshit, even when it is clearly to his disadvantage and might just come back to bite him in the ass. Imo, WWX is a brilliant example of how a gryffindor might be driven to doing some very questionable shit given the "right" circumstances.

Lan Wangji

Now, he’s a different story. I have a lot more problems sorting him, maybe because he is not our point of view character. And he's the reason why it took me so long to answer this ask. My conclusion might be controversial, so let me work up to it. Slytherin? His most slytherin trait, imo, is his determination and drive, which I think stems, among other things, from a desire to prove himself. However, I believe his main reasons for this were family loyalty and (somewhat headcanon territory) the rejection he must have felt at his parents absence. And I don't see him as cunning either, as that always carries a certain level of deceitful intent, even if it's not malicious. And deceitful? That's one thing lwj certainly isn't. So, Slytherin is not a good fit for him. Ravenclaw maybe? He is certainly very intelligent, but that intelligence is more due to his studious nature and his focus, imo. And wisdom and out-of-the-box-thinking are not traits I would associate him with, especially in his younger years. So gryffindor then? He is certainly brave in many ways. He is enduring and stubborn, both gryffindor traits. But he also someone who takes his time to arrive at decisions, unless he is under extreme emotional duress (losing his mother or the love of his live). His bravery, to me, seems to be deeply rooted in his deep deep devotion. He goes through extreme, long lasting pain for the few people he holds close to his heart. In the end it all comes down to his heart, his loyalties, his devotion. Ironically, even more so in the book than in cql. And that loyalty, that steadfastness, that devotion is extremely hufflepuff.

So here you go:

HUFFLEPUFF! (There is no yellow:/)

(And now I really wanna write that AU :D on first glance, lwj would make such an unusual hufflepuff, with his cold and aloof behaviour. I want to play with this idea now!)

Lan Xichen

HUFFLEPUFF!

Aaaahhh! Now I really like the idea of the twin jades of hufflepuff. :D and Lan Xichen is a bit more obvious right? He certainly has the intelligence of a ravenclaw, but his defining characteristics are his devotion to his duty, his kindness, his fairness and his willingness to carefully consider all sides. A hufflepuff to boot. No wonder, I love him so much.

(And now I can't help but imagine lan Xichen, welcoming his little brother at the hufflepuff table, beaming with pride. And later, making sure that they eat at least 1 meal per day together because he knows his brother doesn't make friends easily, even in a house as theirs. Until there's a certain rebellious and bright eyed gryffindor, with a penchant for DADA ...)

Jiang Cheng

He, too, gave me a hard time sorting him. Ravenclaw, I discarded immediately. Gryffindor came next. He's definitely brave in his own way. Going on after the devastating loss of his entire family is brave beyond anything I can imagine, but his motivation why he did it, I believe, was a mixture of family loyalty and his competitiveness and drive to prove himself worthy. Thise are hufflepuff and Slytherin traits, respectively. I would tip the scale towards the latter, simply because his inner conflict is so defined by his feelings of inferiority, his feelings of never living up to his parents expectations. He's in that weird place of being both extremely privileged and emotionally neglected. It reminds me of Draco, come to think of it. So, my favourite angry grape, I'll place in ...

SLYTHERIN!

(He's even rockin' the snake aesthetic already :D)

Jiang Yanli

With her association with cooking and motherly love she seems to be a rather obvious hufflepuff. She is certainly brave, too, enduring her family's near destruction and moving on, or standing in front of her adoptive brother and defending his place in her family and in society. But again, it's very much tied to the people she loves. So yeah,

HUFFLEPUFF!

Nie Mingjue

The jock to end all jocks and still he's got a heart of gold. He's kinda the cliche gryffindor and I can't find a reason to not place him there. So *head barely touches him*

GRYFFINDOR!

Nie Huaisang

SLYTHERIN!

If the twist at the end didn't happen, I'd have placed him in Ravenclaw, as it is, he is such a quintessential Slytherin and also, just ... my favourite kind, especially in cql, where he just fuvjs off to paint his fans and leaves others to do the heavy lifting. He got what he wanted, revenge for his beloved older brother. It reminds me a bit of Horace Slughorn (minus the people collecting). He doesn't want to be at the top. He just wants a comfortable enough life and the possibility to reach his very specific and not at all mainstream goals. A legend. (In mdzs, where he becomes chief cultivator, he's still a Slytherin, albeit a slightly less interesting one.)

Wen Qing

Now, she is another hard one. Another fiercely loyal person (although that's a common trait in mdzs/cql), she also had to show incredible resourcefulness to survive and still stick to her principles throughout her life. But to mention that she invented and su subsequently performed the first core transfer in history. (In the book, it is specifically mentioned that the essay on this subject was written by her). In short, this woman is s genius in her field and forward thinking and incentive. All of those are textbook Ravenclaw traits. So, with her we have ...

RAVENCLAW!

Wen Ning

Puh, he is hard. I know, with his timid behaviour and gentle nature, hufflepuff comes to mind BUT ... he strikes me as a neville. As in, his bravery lies in the fact that his own insecurities hinder him constantly and yet he overcomes them every day in a hundred small ways. He is brave precisely because he is afraid of so many things. And, like Neville, when his sense if right and wrong demands it, he takes a stand. His rescue of wwx and jc extremely dangerous circumstances and the core reveal come to mind. So, even though he probably argues with the hat to place him in hufflepuff, I'll place him in ...

GRYFFINDOR!

Jin Guangyao

SLYTHERIN!

Do I have to explain this?

Luo Qingyang

I know, she's a much more minor character than the others but I love her and this is my post, so she's in it. Do i have to say it? I hate to be the "Gryffindors ftw!!!"-one (as a proud snake), but yeah, Nie Mingjue was goddamn right when he said that she's got more backbone than half the cultivation world combined. My queen snapped and removed herself from the narrative and I love her for it!

GRYFFINDOR!

Let's get to the juniors:

Lan Sizhui

Now, maybe the hufflepuff does run in his family because I do think he belongs there, too. His defining characteristics are shown to be kindness, fairness and filial piety, even though he also has a mischievous streak and does not shy away from confrontation when he thinks his warranted (politely defending "Mo Xuanyu" in front of the Mo clan comes to mind). So yeah

HUFFLEPUFF!

Lan Jingyi

His brash and outgoing nature would make him a good gryffindor fit, certainly. However, the trait I associate with him the most is his nonconformity and that in a sect where that is highly unusual. He might not be as much of a social butterfly as Luba, but he still reminds me more of the kind of eccentricity associated with ...

RAVENCLAW!

Jin Ling

Now he's hard. Maybe because he postures a lot though that's something that's true for a lot of these characters. He tries to imitate his uncle but has non of the trauma to back it up, though he is an orphan and,in his position, probably pretty lonely which leads to the kind of breakdown we see him having over his confrontation with the person who killed his parents and he can't even really blame and so he just... crumbles. And non of that really helps me in my search for a house for him. I don't really see him as a Slytherin because while he loves to posture and play his privileges, he mostly crumbles under pressure and I don't think there's conviction behind it. He's certainly not sly either. Rabenclaw? Nah. I see neither outstanding amounts of eccentricity or wisdom. Gryffindor? Maybe. He's certainly impulsive. And he displayed bravery both in Yi City and even more so in the Guanyin temple where he had to face the fact that one of his uncles, the men who raised him, would kill him to achieve his goals. Still, what left the biggest impression on me was how, after his own world had just completely changed, he send his dog away because wwx would fear him. And how he then tried to get his uncle to talk to wwx. So I'd tentatively go with

HUFFLEPUFF!

Ouyang Zizhen

Another hard one because we don't know him very well in canon. But what we do know is that he is very emotional (passionate one might say) and has no qualms going against his father in a fit of teenage rebellion. I love him for it but that's not that much to go on. Both of these point to gryffindor however, so that's where he goes. :D

GRYFFINDOR!

So ... that's where I'll leave it. I know I missed the Yi city arc but it's getting late and I'm tired. 😅 If anyone wants to add them, feel free!

Congrats of you've made it this far down! :D

Please, do come and discuss these with me!

#the untamed #cql #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #lan xichen #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #wen qing #wen ning #luo qingyang #lan sizhui #a yuan #lan jingyi #jin ling #ouyang zizhen #hogwarts houses #hogwarts #harry potter #lwj #wwx #wangxian

[lolmouseywritings]

Another story outline from the plot bunnies...

So tbh I wrote this outline where Wei Wuxian would inherent the Wen sect (not just the small group, but I mean the entire WEN SECT) maybe a few weeks ago.

I’m sure other’s have had similar ideas but dammit if there can be a bazillion coffee shop AU then I’m having this []~(￣▽￣)~*

It starts at the Gusu Recess studies. Along the way to pick up the Heaven’s Smile wine WWX meets Wen Xu who is in disguise, he is trying to get intel with Gusu. WWX does not know who he really is, just thinks he is a friendly traveler and gives him the extra wine bottle for catching him.

WWX still has that sword fight scene with Lan Wangji on the rooftop.

Instead of Wen Chao of bringing Wen Qing and Wen Ning, it’s Wen Xu. Instead of leaving, he makes a show how the Lan’s should host the Wen’s for their extensive travel for just a few days. It’s because of this he hears WWX explanation about using resentful energy and sends a note to his father.

WWX still gifts the rabbits and gives the drawing. However, there is an uneasiness when he catches Wen Xu looking at him. Lan Wangji is sure to remind Wen Xu that bothering other’s prohibited in Gusu. A few days later Wen Xu leaves, which let’s WWX relax. Finally, he’s gone. At first he was friendly, but he creeped out WWX, looking at him as if he was some prize. Didn’t matter that he left his gifts here and there. He told him it wasn’t necessary several times. At least with Lan Zhan, he asked if he like it and he did. 

When WWX’s kicked out of Gusu Wen Ruohan basically strong-arms Jiang Fengmian into sending WWX to the Nightless city. (Reason range being for disciplinary action to just a significant interest in WWX ideas of cultivation). At the Nightless city, WWX comes across the Yin Metal and studies it with Wen Ruohan’s permission. 

During his study, he inadvertently causes the Yin Metal to have an actual conscious. Now Wen Ruohan does everything in his power to keep WWX and considers having  Wen Xu marry him. Wen Xu has no problem, WWX is easy on the eyes and he quite enjoyed WWX’s company.

When WWX sees his family Jiang Cheng attempts to have him run away, but WWX tells him no. Jiang Yanli agree’s regretfully. The Wen’s would use this as an opportunity to trample the Jiang Sect.

They also invite the other Sects, including the Lan’s. Lan Xichen notices that his brother, Lan Wangji’s upset.

They marry but don’t consummate because of WWX’s nervousness (he really didn’t want to). Wen Xu prefers a willing partner and believe’s he has all the time in the world. This is around the time WWX finds out that Wen Ruohan is up to something.

At the Conference Tournament WWX is glad to his family again since the wedding and warns them of the Wen Sect. During the Conference WWX teases Lan Wangji, however, with the ribbon scene Wen Xu stops WWX from fixing it, allowing it to fall. Lan Wangji’s surprised and thanks WX, it will be later on that it leaves him wondering how his ribbon would look in WWX’s hand. With WX and WWX, he verbally accuses WWX of infidelity and if he ever causes another stunt like this again, Lotus Pier will definitely suffer the consequence. WWX did not understand the significance of the ribbon till now.

Wen Ruohan orders the classes, which WWX begs to go. Wen Ruohan allows it because WWX shares what he has learned so far from the Yin Metal. It especially pleases him he can now control the sentient being. His worry was it would be too independent, but with WWX’s constant contact it seems he has nothing to worry about.

WWX’s forced to watch the farce of a class. Even faces the blatant disrespect from Wen Chao, who hates how much attention he is getting from his father. Only reason he does not punish him is because he knows his brother is sweet on him. 

He gets some medicinal herbs to give to Lan Zhan Thank you Wen Ning for the herbs.; he refuses. He has a feeling that they broke his leg because of his association with WWX. Wen Xu seemed especially pleased.

The Tortoise Cave event happens with a few differences (WWX stopped Wang Lingjiao from harming Mianmian. WWX does not receive the branding, but Wen Chao threatened to inform his brother that WWX was being flirtatious). He’s left in the cave with the other’s as he didn’t want to leave them. Jiang Cheng tries his hardest to convince him to come with them, to go back to Lotus Pier. Doesn’t happen, and a disciple has to force Jiang Cheng to escape.

They defeat the Tortoise, and just stay together reminiscing the days in Gusu. WWX also thanks him for trying to keep WX away from him. Lan Zhan disagrees as he could not help him since he ended up married to him. They almost kiss, but stop when they hear the Wen soldier’s come back to save WWX (Wen Chao may hate him but he knows his father will punish him severely for leaving him there) WWX is lucky he could hide Lan Zhan who escaped. Lan Zhan didn’t want to leave, but WWX could be very convincing when he wanted to. This act will haunt Lan Zhan for days.

Wen Ruohan is furious with WWX that he orders his golden core  destroyed. He won’t let go of him though, as WWX is an investment for him. Wen Xu may have held him as he laid in their bed in shock.

The War starts and Wen Xu leaves. Wen Qing is told to monitor him as he heals. He convinces Wen Qing that Wen Ruohan will end up destroying the Wen Sect with his greed.

Note: he has no love for the Wen’s at the moment. They kidnapped him from home, forced him to marry someone and punished him by destroying his core. He intends to help the other Sects. As time goes on, he sees how some of these cultivators are not glad or how they’re tortured for going against orders. He’s lucky that he could find a group that feared what would happen to their sect. 

Wen Qing is a valuable ally, and they rally up soldiers that will stage a coup. It’s dangerous and they know other sects will talk about them, but they have their families to think about. That’s how they meet Meng Yao, who sends word to Lan Xichen that they have help on the inside.

Wen Xu dies. It confuses WWX how he should feel. On one hand, he was the man he’s forced to marry. Though, he kept his distance from him and never forced himself on him. He resolves to wear the mourning clothes, but not for long. Wei Wuxian was married to him, but he didn’t love him. It was a forced marriage. Which is sad for Wen Xu. His last thoughts was when he first met WWX and how he smiled at him when they first met. (Yes, I threw some angst)

Wen Ruohan finds out about WWX's coup and uses him as an example when he finds traitors in his midst. Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan try to save him, and both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue attack Wen Ruohan to stop him. They are all surprised when the Yin Metal refuses to kill him and Meng Yao appears from behind to kill him.

Seeing as the heirs are dead and WWX was the husband of Wen Xu he now inherent’s the Sect. (Can that happen? I sincerely doubt it, but it’s a fanfic story.)

Now that the Wen Sect  is in the hands of Wei Wuxian things can get somewhat normal.....

This is where the b.s. starts

So the whole one-sided Wen Xu and Wei Wuxian came out of left field. Not planned, just came out of nowhere. It was mostly to introduce how Wen Ruohan would get Wei Wuxian into the sect. I mean, Wangxian was planned, but then Xuxian just came out of nowhere and wanted to overwhelm this outline! w(ﾟДﾟ)w

There is a second part, but it doesn’t have the ending. I’m open to suggestions on what to call this au. Like, I have no idea what to call it.

Edit: I’m calling this the WenWuxianau

#MDZS #mo dao zu shi #mao dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #Wei Wuxian #wei ying #Lan Zhan #Lan Wangji #Wen Xu #Wen Ruohan #Xuxian onesided #Wangji #how many times do you want to guess I wrote sex instead of sect? #seriously I had to correcting my finger key position several times #The Yin Metal is sentient #It's more noticeable in the second part #I have an idea how to finish it... I think #there's more that happens but here's what I have #wenxuxian #Wenwuxian au

[trensu]

Episode 12: The One where Everyone Goes to Evil Summer School and Has a Bad Time

And we’re off to a bad start bc we’re at Evil Summer School and WC is monologuing like the world’s shittiest villain

His flunkies take everyone’s swords and wwx whispers “lan zhan” after watching lwj hand over his sword (LIKE, THE ONE THING HE HAS LEFT OF HIS HOME *SOBS*)

Lwj ignores him tho

And then keeps ignoring him

Be easy on him, folks, he’s overcoming some trauma

We get more useless wc monologuing

But we’ll ignore him and focus instead on how wwx keeps throwing worried little glances at lwj

(hey remember how last episode i told you all about lwj’s capture and subsequent injury even tho it wasn’t wangxian moment?? IT PAYS OFF IN THIS EPISODE WITH MULTIPLE WANGXIAN MOMENTS)

(also, just fyi at this point wwx still doesn’t know what all went down at the cloud recesses or that lwj is injured; i mean yeah, wc bragged to him about it but what, we’re gonna take him at his word? Heck no)

Wc assigns the class homework - Memorizing Wen Clan Rules

So we see wwx being all studious

He and jc are dragging the wen clan for their hypocrisy and then wwx has an Epiphany

Wwx: hey, the Wen clan is so petty, they wouldn’t have just settled for LWJ attending Evil Summer School; they would’ve taken way more hostages I mean disciples!! SOMETHING BAD MUST’VE HAPPENED

And he leaps up with every intention of tracking down LWJ but some wen flunkies are guarding the door so that ends up being a no-go

But wwx is not deterred! No sir, he is coming up with a plan to finally get LWJ’s attention 

We’re back in class at Evil Summer School and wc is all i’m gonna pick ppl to recite the rules bc i’m a douchebag

And ofc he picks lwj, wwx, and jzx

Lwj: Can’t do it. Not today.

Jzx: Yeah, no, that’s Beneath me

Wwx: oh oh pick me!! I can do it!! *raises hand excitedly*

Omg wwx he already picked you, you don’t have to do that

Wc: okay, but if you get it wrong I will Punish you bc i’m an asshole that way

Cue wwx’s Classic Look of Disgust (guys, guys, i just love this expression on his face SO MUCH, i couldn’t even tell you why)

But that look quickly morphs into his Signature Mischievous Grin 

Which he aims at lwj, so ofc it looks SUPER FLIRTY ahhhhh

Lwj continues to ignore him

AGAIN I ASK, how the HELL does he keep doing that??! If i had wwx smile like that at me, he’d have my FULL UNDIVIDED ATTENTION FOREVER

Okay, here’s where a good moment becomes a GREAT moment

Wwx goes up all cocky and starts THEATRICALLY doing STRETCHES even tho all he’s doing is RECITING LINES, OMG, WWX

Wc: GET ON WITH IT

Wwx: right, right, i got this. Okay, listen carefully~!

Wwx: *STARTS RECITING LAN CLAN RULES*

THAT’S MY BOY!!! LOOK AT MY BOY GO! HOLY SHIT, THE AUDACITY. WHAT A BI-CON, I LOVE IT!!

Now lwj FINALLY looks at him!!

And it only took 14min and wwx reciting his clan’s rules to FINALLY GET A REACTION

Wc: HOW DARE YOU RECITE LAN CLAN RULES IN QISHAN

Wwx: oh dear, oh gosh, how foolish of me! I am SO sorry i got them all mixed up!!

And then he literally pats himself on the back with a pleased little smirk

And that’s how jzx, lwj, and wwx end up in Evil Detention carrying manure to the vegetable fields

Lwj is just pouring the manure out of the buckets

Wwx: lan zhan, you want me to find you a scooper?

Lwj: *ignores him*

Jzx: *unwillingly bears witness to this and rolls his eyes*

(don’t even, jzx, you het disaster)

Wwx: hey lan zhan, how come your clan has a silencing spell but not a spell that blocks out gross smells?

Lwj: *picks up empty buckets and leaves, CONTINUING TO IGNORE WWX FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON*

Here wwx just sloppily dumps out his buckets and chases after him

As they walk over to wherever they need to go to refill their buckets, wwx starts asking lwj Plot Questions and generally worrying about him

Which could’ve become a sweet moment

Except that wc shows up to ruin the moment with his, you know, general existence

So obviously wwx has to go and insult wc to his face, right? HE WAS TRYING TO HAVE QUALITY TIME WITH HIS SOULMATE, GODDAMNIT

Wc tries to whip wwx but wwx catches it like a BADASS and is all “don’t try me”

But then wc gets his flunkies to tie up wwx!! (i’m telling you guys, this clan really seems to have a thing for tying/chaining people up)

Lwj sees that his soulmate is defenseless and is like, can’t have that happening and goes to defend him!!

Ugghhh but that ASSHOLE WEN CHAO GOES AND HITS LWJ ON HIS INJURED LEG WHICH SENDS LWJ TUMBLING INTO THE GROUND

Wwx: HEY, leave him alone! I was the one insulting you!!

DO YOU SEE THAT GUYS?? THEY ALWAYS DEFEND EACH OTHER!!

And actually this starts up a general pattern for them: lwj always defends wwx physically and wwx always defends lwj verbally

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. THEY COVER EACH OTHER’S WEAK SPOTS WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT!! 

(lwj isn’t all that good with words as you know, and wwx has this talent of making everyone around him want to punch him in the face, his beautiful beautiful face)

Wc goes to whip wwx again, but LWJ gets up on his feet in an instant (even with the leg wound!!) and catches the whip ONE-HANDED AND YANKS IT OUT OF WC’S GRASP

LIKE, DON’T FUCKING TOUCH MY SOULMATE YOU SLIMY BASTARD

Obvs he didn’t say that, but you can see it in his eyes that that’s exactly what he was thinking, word-for-word. Trust me on this.

The wen flunkies release wwx who drops to the ground and lwj immediately grabs him by the arm

He doesn’t try to lift him up and he’s not actually holding him up

So why the arm-grabbing?

I’LL TELL YOU WHY

BC HE WANTS TO BE NEAR WWX, THAT’S WHY

And let me remind you that this is the same lwj who’s all “i don’t touch people” back in episode 5: the One with Angry bb!LWJ

Yeah, that rule doesn’t apply to wwx anymore BC SOULMATES

Although in all fairness, who wouldn’t grab onto wwx given half a chance?

Okay now wc monologues some more 

Wwx: wc, stop babbling 

(omg wwx, stop baiting him)

Wc: TAKE HIM TO THE DUNGEON

Lwj: *BOLTS UPRIGHT ON HIS INJURED LEG AND BLOCKS THEIR WAY*

Srsly, injured leg!! And it doesn’t even slow him down when it comes to protecting wwx!! And he stretches out his arm so his pretty white sleeves mostly cover wwx from view

Wc: don’t worry, the dungeon’s big enough for two (wc you slimy bastard, you’re ruining everyone’s sex dungeon fantasies)

Wwx: *pushes away lwj’s arm* nah, just take me. The dungeon’s bound to be cooler than being out on these sunny fields anyway lol

And now we have this terrible moment where we see wwx be well and truly terrified for the first time in the show

He’s thrown into the dungeon WHILE CHAINED UP and there’s this HUGE MUTANT DOG MONSTER

Poor wwx visibly pales and breaks out into a cold sweat while wen chao mocks him (I HATE HIM SO MUCH)

Okay, i’d like to take a moment here to fully acknowledge that this dog monster thing is, like, really horrible effects-wise. We all know this. But we’re gonna pretend for sake of the Emotional Trauma it causes our darling wwx that it’s actually a big scary thing, okay?

Anyway

WEN NING TO THE RESCUE - knocks out the dog with strategically placed needles and provides wwx Medicine Pouch and Medicine Bottle 

he’s like, i stole medicine for you bc we’re bffs and i’d die for you (which he does eventually lololol I’M SORRY THAT WAS AWFUL)

I’m sure you’re all hey trensu, this isn’t a wangxian moment you said this was a wangxian guide, what the heck

BUT IT IS A WANGXIAN MOMENT and also it sets us up for ANOTHER wangxian moment later on in the show!

It’s a wangxian moment now bc wen ning provides the info wwx has been trying to get this whole time, aka what the heck is up with lwj and the cloud recesses?

Wwx looks utterly DEVASTATED when wn tells him lwj’s home was burned

And when he tells wwx about the wens breaking lwj’s leg?

FUCKING FURIOUS

HE’S SO ANGRY THAT THEY HURT HIS LAN ZHAN

HE PUNCHES THE STONE FLOOR OF HIS CELL WITH AN ALREADY BLOODIED UP HAND

THAT’S HOW ANGRY HE IS

See? Totally a wangxian moment

Oh, and then we see him take like, only one (1) medicine piece from Medicine Bottle and then slips the it and the Medicine Pouch into his robes

Wwx: i’ll save this for lan zhan

I’LL SAVE THIS FOR LAN ZHAN, HE SAYS

HE’S INJURED AND CHAINED UP AND HE’S SAVING THE MAJORITY OF THE MEDICINE FOR LAN ZHAN

BC HE LOVES HIM

AHHHHHH

Okay now we’re back in class (and wtf, wwx has to attend class even after all that??)

Wwx is still looking all wrung-out and bloodied

We see lwj look at wwx all concerned!

Plot stuff happens

More plot stuff

Now we get set up for our last wangxian moment of the episode!!

Wen Flunkie: hey boss, there’s this monster in this mountain that probably someone should get rid off

Wc: oh cool, good thing i’ve got all these hostages i mean cannon fodder I MEAN visiting disciples with me. Let’s do it!

TIME FOR A FIELD TRIP (OF EVIL)!!!

Wen chao is on a horse with his girlfriend while everyone else is walking bc wc is the WORST PERSON

Then oh no, lwj is visibly limping as they go on!!

And wwx looks over and sees lwj limping

~THEIR SONG~ STARTS GENTLY PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND AHH AHHHHH

IDK IF YOU GUYS NOTICED YET BUT THAT’S OUR CUE THAT SOME GOOD WANGXIANTICS IS COMING UP

Wwx does not hesitate even a minute to go help him!! BC THAT’S WHAT SOULMATES DO

But JC ofc holds him back (what the heck jc), and he’s all leave him alone, you’ve helped him enough already

And wwx is like, HE JUST LOST HIS HOME, JC!! AND HIS LEG IS BROKEN. WHAT IF HE LOSES HIS LEG??

JC: it’s not like he’ll let you close enough to carry him anyway!!

Wwx: well that’s his choice BUT I STILL GOTTA OFFER BC I LOVE HIM, HE NEEDS TO KNOW IT’S AN OPTION!!

JC: we can’t stick our noses in his business!

Wwx: well SOMEBODY has to help him!!

And he flounces off to go to lwj

Wwx: lan zhan, how’s your leg?

Lwj: it’s fine

He says, y’know, like a liar.

Wwx: hey, we’re friends, you can be honest with me!! Are you sure your leg is okay??

Lwj: it’s fine

GOD DAMN IT LWJ, HE’S TRYING TO HELP YOU

Wwx: don’t pretend it’s fine all the time!! I can carry you~! 

OMG HE SAYS THIS WITH THE SWEETEST, MOST SINCERE SMILE, GUYS

HE WANTS TO HELP LWJ SO BAD

HE WANTS LWJ TO LET HIM CLOSE!! 

BECAUSE HE LOVES HIM, AHHHHH

And with that sweet, sincere smile, the episode ends

On a high note!!

Lovely, lovely, it was lovely, i want to stare at that smile forever

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed

[kinghellcat]

Tales from the Burial Mounds, Part I

I wrote a little vignette! I think I want to make a short series of these, detailing the time Wei Wuxian and the Dafan-Wen family lived in Yiling. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, and much longer since I shared my writing, so... be nice to me :x Thanks!

2k Rated G

Tags: Wei Wuxian & Wen Ning, feelings, a lot of feelings (dude idk how to tag)

The wind made hardly a sound as it rushed through the bare, brittle branches of the trees dotting the sides of the Burial Mounds. Though it was well into the summer, the trees remained gnarled and blackened, as though they’d been burned. Not one of them bore leaves, nor flowers, nor fruits. Indeed the only thing that grew well here were bitter wild herbs. Those and radishes. Wei Wuxian had never liked radishes, and couldn’t imagine why anyone else would. But they grew here, they fed the people here, and thus he would tend them. 

Wei Wuxian kneeled in the dirt, pulling weeds and inspecting the spindly leaves. Much of the work had already been done, but he wasn’t ready to rejoin the others yet. “Yiling Patriarch” is hardly the title he would’ve given himself -- how self-important it sounds! -- but he supposed it suited him after all. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he’d already begun feeling the pressure of supporting and protecting the people here. He had brought the remnants of the Wen clan, the Dafan-Wen, to this dreary place, and thus he would protect them. 

Only, he felt that they deserved better. Better homes, better clothes, better food certainly. A better leader too. Someone who had more, or anything at all, to offer. Eventually, Wei Wuxian’s hands came to a stop and he found himself just sitting in the radish patch alone, feeling sorry for himself. He shook his head vigorously, like he could shake the negative thoughts from his mind. He stood and stretched his arms high to the waning sunlight. 

It was probably almost dinner time. If he didn’t return to the main compound -- if you could call it that -- Wen Qing would surely give him another lecture. Heaving a mighty sigh, he brushed off his robes and made his way back to their shabby dining room/main hall/everything else room. It was made from the ruins of a temple to the fallen, all those whose bodies were buried in these hills. The irony was not lost on him; the fearsome Yiling Patriarch, the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation making his home on a literal mound of corpses and sharing meals with criminals in a desecrated temple was probably exactly what the world had expected of him. 

In reality, it was just a bunch of poor, scared people who wanted nothing more than to live in peace. The world would never get to see that, they wouldn’t even try. And why should they? Wei Wuxian thought wryly, It’s not like this is a place worth visiting. He shook his head again. Now was not the time for complaints. If the Burial Mounds weren’t worth visiting, he would at least try to make it a place worth living in. And if that meant he had to eat radish soup every night for the rest of his life, well, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. 

He arrived with enough time to spare that Wen Qing didn’t go off on him, but she did lightly scold him for getting so dirty. Wei Wuxian just laughed it off; he had realized by now that she scolded people to show that she cared. It was sort of touching to think he was included among the people she cared for, if only she could express it more kindly… With a sharp breath, Wei Wuxian once again cut off his train of thought. If he let his mind wander toward Jiang Yanli, he might actually cry. Instead he forced himself to focus on the present, on the people around him now. 

Wen Ning had helped Granny Wen make dinner tonight, and though it was still mostly radishes, it was almost tasty. Wen Ning had apparently been quite skilled in the kitchen since he was very young. “Well, see, my sister was always busy with her studies, and after our parents died, it was only natural that it’d fall to me, right?” He had reasoned when Wei Wuxian remarked on his cooking. Underselling himself, as usual, Wei Wuxian thought. But he knew that trying to force praise on Wen Ning only made him uncomfortable, so he let it be. He settled for giving his hand a warm squeeze. 

Wen Ning shuffled his feet shyly, but squeezed Wei Wuxian’s hand in return, ever so lightly. “Thanks…” he mumbled. He withdrew his hand and returned to serving up the others, with a very small smile. Even when he was alive, Wen Ning hadn’t been the most expressive person, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel deeply. On the contrary, it was the strength and breadth of the feelings he left unexpressed that had allowed Wei Wuxian to return him to life, or something close to it. All his leftover resentment and fury at the abuse he and his family suffered before his death, on top of a lifetime of being looked down on and ignored, had turned him into a frighteningly powerful fierce corpse. 

But that rage was tempered by an even greater kindness. For all his anger at the injustices of the world, Wen Ning was a gentle young man. Sweet, even. Juxtaposed with his ferocity on the battlefield, one might assume he was two different people. Wei Wuxian laughed, thinking that if only people could see the great and terrible Ghost General serving soup to his aunties and cousins, they couldn’t possibly find him so frightening. They couldn’t possibly hate him. Wei Wuxian had already cursed himself a thousand times for turning such a good, kind person into a weapon, to be feared and reviled by the rest of the cultivation world. But what else could he have done? Let him die? He could never have forgiven himself for doing nothing. 

Wei Wuxian sighed. He wasn’t doing a very good job at staying positive tonight. He finished his soup, down to the last wretched radish, and excused himself. Wen Qing side-eyed him as he slunk away, but if she was suspicious or concerned for him, she didn’t say so. She returned her attention to her family, and reached across the table to wipe a dribble of soup from Wen Yuan’s chin. “A-Yuan, slow down or you’ll make a mess.” The little boy nodded, but continued to slurp loudly and messily. Wen Qing shook her head, but she smiled fondly. 

Wei Wuxian’s mind threatened to wander to his sister again. How he wished to see her again! But how could he, after his unceremonious departure from the Jiang sect? Jiang Cheng would never allow it, and frankly, he wouldn’t want Yanli to see this sorry place. He wanted nothing more than to taste her cooking again, to rest his head on her shoulder while she comforted him… His fingers curled into fists at his sides and he squeezed his eyes shut. It wouldn’t do to start crying while anyone was still awake. 

The inside of the Demon-Subdue Cave was just as shabby as the rest of the settlement, worse maybe, considering that it was literally a dark, creepy cave. But Wei Wuxian had claimed the spot for his own, and the Wens knew better than to bother him here. There was plenty of space to tinker, which meant there was plenty of space to make messes. There were crumpled papers, faulty talismans, and half-finished inventions littered all across the floor and on the flat, raised stones that functioned as tables. Wei Wuxian stepped carefully around them as he made his way to the back of the cave where his bed stood. It was another raised stone platform, just long enough to lay on, with a moth-eaten blanket thrown haphazardly over it. He stretched out lazily, his shoulders popping and spine cracking loudly. Though it seemed almost pointless to try, he got as comfortable as he could and tried to sleep.

Sure enough, sleep evaded him. He tried over and over again to clear his mind and relax, but failed every time. Waves of melancholy lapped at him, shot through with deep regret. Why did I do this? How could I leave Yunmeng? How could I betray Jiang Cheng and shijie? One half of him lamented, desperately wishing for his soft bed in his nice clean room back at Lotus Pier. The other half tried to reason with him: I had to do something. I couldn’t let the Wens die! My dream has always been to stand on the side of justice. Isn’t that what I’m doing? It was a solid argument but still he had trouble convincing himself. 

He got up and surveyed his many abandoned projects. Maybe he could distract himself with his inventions. He’d been meaning to work on improving his Compass of Evil. Scooping up his prototypes and sitting at his makeshift desk, he examined the parts and the enchantments he’d placed on them. He took the latest version apart and put it back together, but couldn’t think of what to add, what to do differently. Frustration mounting, he gripped the compass and hurled it across the cave with all his might.

It hit the wall and broke into pieces. A yelp from the darkness startled Wei Wuxian from his seething. Wen Ning took a step into the dim candlelight. “Master Wei… are you well?” He asked. Since his resurrection he had lost his stutter and most of his nervous twitches, but he was still shy, and polite to a fault. His long, dark hair was loose around his shoulders, nearly blending in with the darkness, making his ghostly pale face stand out among the gloom. “You left dinner much earlier than usual… I wanted to check on you sooner, but Wen Qing kept stopping me.” 

“I’m fine,” Wei Wuxian lied. “Thanks for worrying, though.” He tried to smile but must have failed; Wen Ning looked thoroughly unconvinced.

“Forgive me, Master Wei, but I’m not stupid. I can tell something is bothering you… I want to help you if I can.” He took a few steps forward, but stayed out of reach, like he was afraid to approach Wei Wuxian. Was his poor mood so obvious? Wei Wuxian stood and closed the gap between them, ignoring the flash of panic in Wen Ning’s eyes. 

“Oh Wen Ning. I know you’re not stupid.” He started, laying a hand on Wen Ning’s arm. Wen Ning’s posture relaxed a little. “But really, it’s fine. You help me with so much already! You don’t have to worry about a bad day.” 

“Master Wei--” Wen Ning tried to argue, but Wei Wuxian cut him off.

“Haven’t I told you to stop calling me that?” He laughed. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Wen Ning stared for a moment, eyes wide. “Friends…” he echoed. “Right… Sorry Mas-- er… um.” He fumbled his words, eloquent as always. Suddenly he seemed very interested in the ground.

Wei Wuxian laughed for real this time. Maybe he was teasing him too much, but it really was a lot of fun. And at least he seemed distracted from trying to talk to Wei Wuxian about his feelings. Just to lay it on thick, he reached out for Wen Ning’s chin and tipped it up so they were looking each other in the eyes. “Repeat after me: Wei. Wu. Xian.” He said clearly.

If Wen Ning could still blush, he would surely have gone beet red by now. “Wei…” he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Wei Wuxian.”

“Good!” Wei Wuxian smiled, patting Wen Ning’s cheek gently. It had actually felt a little nice for Wen Ning to drop some of his usual reverent formality. 

Wen Ning shifted his gaze to the ground again. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, trying to find the right words. After a few moments, he clenched his jaw and made eye contact with Wei Wuxian again. “Wei Wuxian,” he repeated, with more confidence than Wei Wuxian had ever heard from him. “As your friend, I am worried about you. Even if I can’t help… At least let me care.” His expression was subtle, but the knit of his eyebrows and the set of his jaw spoke volumes. He was serious. 

Wei Wuxian didn’t have a response to that. He simply blinked a few times before a single tear slipped out. With a gasp, he took a step away and turned his back. Stop it stop it stop it! He yelled at himself. A firm hand grasped his shoulder. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. But you don’t have to be alone with whatever is bothering you.” Wen Ning said, his voice barely above a whisper. 

Wei Wuxian was still for a long time. At last, he nodded and turned back around. He mustered up a watery smile for his friend. “Thank you. I’m glad to have a friend like you.” They sat together quietly for a while and eventually Wei Wuxian couldn’t hold back his tears. He was just thankful he managed to keep the pitiful wailing to a minimum. When he finally felt as if he had run out of tears, Wei Wuxian was exhausted. He’d been tired for days now, unable to relax enough to get any rest, but now he could barely resist the thrall of sleep. He figured this must be his body finally giving up on him. His eyelids fluttered and he swayed a little. Immediately, Wen Ning reached out to steady him, and looked at him quizzically. He leaned into Wen Ning, resting his head on his shoulder, smiling vaguely before blacking out completely.

#badcat.txt #mdzs #mdzs fic #wei wuxian #wen ning #wen qing #wen yuan #wei wuxian & wen ning #first mdzs fic #be nice to me