#sculptor headcanons | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eleanorfenyxwrites · 1 year

Text

You're Safe Here

@polyshipweek 2023 Day 2 - Missing Scene

I left a cameo of 3zun in the epilogue of 'The Sculptor' that I feel like deserves to be expanded on, so I thought I'd give y'all a few scenes of their first couple of meetings.

TW for mentions of police violence against a gay OC (it doesn't happen on-screen, but both Meng Yao and Lan Xichen recall the event and its aftermath in conversation as a significant plot point). Also, as in the main fic, this is not a perfect world without homophobia, so there's a bit of that as well (i.e. I tagged for 'Period-typical attitudes' and 'Period-typical homophobia' on ao3, though it's also only discussed and not shown outright).

It's fluffier than it sounds I swear lol, and we already know that their story also ends happily thanks to that mention in the epilogue.

--//--

Xichen meets Mingjue first.

He tells himself that it’s research.

He nearly convinces himself that it’s research.

Xichen is a well-seasoned veteran in his field. Sure, he hasn’t been a lawyer for nearly as long as many of his peers, but he’s had a robust career so far, and it’s preceded by many years of job shadowing at his Uncle’s side, first, and then years of internships throughout university – and those not just at the family firm, either, though that first round of experience had certainly helped get his foot in the door elsewhere. In the world of law he thinks it would be difficult to find anyone in his position (especially at his age) who didn’t get there at least in part through nepotism, but such is the way of things.

He's earned a good reputation for himself anyway, completely irrespective of his family name, and it’s one that he’s quite proud of even if it makes things…taxing, sometimes.

Xichen is well known for his delicate and respectful handling of particularly sensitive cases, and it’s a responsibility that he takes seriously. People of all sorts come to him to rely on his discretion, his tact, his ability to put himself in anyone’s shoes and approach their case with a sympathetic ear. His latest case had taken quite a toll, in that regard, but it had taken until it was over and won for him to realize why this victory feels sweeter than so many others.

Something about it all hit closer to home than he would have ever expected, or perhaps been willing to admit.

So.

Xichen goes to the place where his client was arrested and unjustly assaulted by police officers, and he tells himself that he only wants to get a feel for how his client had been deceived that night. (He only half-believes himself.)

“You’re new,” a gruff voice says from a cut of shadow. Xichen blinks to try to clear his eyes of the way the streetlight nearby is blinding him, but in the end it takes the man pushing off the wall and into the light for Xichen to know just where to look to address his reply.

“Yes, I suppose I am,” Xichen replies to the absolute bear of a man who emerges, lit cigarette hanging from his mouth under a truly impressive mustache, his white tank top doing very little to contain his well-muscled, hair-dark chest (and, as it’s designed to do, absolutely nothing at all to contain his heavily-tattooed arms that are equally as impressive). “I’m just..having a look around?”

The man raises a brow at him and exhales smoke from his nose on a sigh.

“We don’t really take kindly to that, just so you know. Gawking’s not really the name of the game around here.”

Ah. Yes. Xichen had…been warned about that. It’s part of why his own excuse is a bit harder to buy than he’d like.

“Right…” he trails off and glances around, though if anyone else around has noticed he’s in need of some help, they’re not really showing it. There aren’t many people around to begin with, though – he’d come out on a Wednesday night, hardly ‘peak season’ as it were, but there’s enough of a crowd for him to know he’s in the right place anyway.

When he looks back at his unexpected conversational partner it’s to find the man slowly starting to grin, sharp and wicked around his cigarette glowing orange, the tiny light of it catching and cupping in a dimple nearly hidden under that mustache.

“You seem nice, so I’ll save you a bit of panic. I’m not cruising either, I’m here to keep a look out for the people who are so they can focus on what they’re doing. You can stand here and nobody’ll bother you, okay? I won’t even make a pass at you, I swear.”

Xichen flushes warm and he hopes that the yellow, monochrome glow of the street lamp hides it well enough.

“Ah…thank you, that’s very kind of you,” he says perhaps a little awkwardly. The man saves him by dusting off one massive hand on his jeans before he holds it out for Xichen to shake, which he does entirely on instinct.

“I’m Mingjue,” the man offers while Xichen is trying very hard not to think about how big and warm and rough his hand is curled around his.

“Xichen,” he offers, going still when Mingjue’s eyes narrow ever so slightly.

“Lan Xichen?”

“Ah..”

“Gotta be, can’t be many Xichens around town, and definitely not ones who’d know to come here. I’ll bet my last $10 you’re the lawyer who just won Danny Boy’s case for him.”

Xichen, wary of discussing any of his clients but particularly his most recent, can only fidget as he tries unsuccessfully to come up with a convincing lie.

Mingjue squints at him for a moment, his grin fading into something a little softer around the edges. “Hey, chill out man. I’m serious, no one’s going to hurt you around here. Danny only got nabbed because I wasn’t here that night to chase off the fuzz, and you representing him earned you a lot of favors with this crowd. Alright? You’re safe here.”

Xichen will never know exactly what it is about Mingjue that makes him believe him, but those three magic words, ‘You’re safe here’, feel like they take far more weight off his shoulders than just the fear that he’ll be caught cruising for other men (which he isn’t even here to do!).

He glances around again, for what he isn’t sure. He catches a glimpse of a couple of guys disappearing around the bend of the pedestrian path in the park across the street, a few more hanging out on the low wall around some brick building Xichen doesn’t know the purpose of, chatting and laughing. He watches a beer get passed around, sips taken between laughs like indirect kisses, mouth-bottle-mouth. There are others like Mingjue, just hanging out on their own having a cigarette or a drink, bodies casually on display with the sort of confidence Lan Xichen can only envy.

There’s a sense of…camaraderie under the edge of a sexual charge.

When he looks at Mingjue again the man’s watching him, eyes dark and thoughtful in the moment before he slips back into shadow, leaning against his wall. He takes a drag off his cigarette, the extra burn glinting for a moment off that dark, assessing gaze. A spark that fizzles into ash with his next exhale.

Xichen crosses the couple of feet of pavement between them to lean against the wall beside him, a respectful distance between his shirtsleeve and Mingjue’s bare arm.

“Want a light?” Mingjue asks, holding a fresh cigarette into the space between them.

“Ah..no, thank you though.”

Mingjue snorts and slides the cigarette up behind his ear. Now that Xichen has joined him in the shadows he’s easier to see, the streetlamp no longer blinding him. He looks perfectly at ease like this, even as Xichen spots the shine of brass knuckles on the hand he’s using to pluck his cigarette from his lips to talk.

“You’re better off that way, it’s a nasty habit. I always told my brother growing up I’d better not ever catch him smoking or I’d kill him myself, then what do I do? Let my pretty little boyfriend talk me into picking it up, the snake.”

Xichen, thoroughly out of his depth but…bemused, asks, “Did he have an easy time talking you into it?”

Mingjue snorts again, grinning in the second before he takes another drag.

“We’d just started dating, right, and I told him I don’t care if he smokes but I don’t want to, and he got it no problem, said he’d tried quitting a few times before too, but it never stuck. Then one night we’re out with some friends from around here and he looks at me – he’s got these big dark eyes and the longest lashes you’ve ever seen – and he asks me so sweetly if I’d light his cigarette off one in my mouth. Hot as fuck when you’re half-drunk and thinking this guy’s the best thing to ever happen to you, so I say yes and then it became a thing. And all he ever wanted me to do is light his, that’s it, but, well. Here I am. I still light his with mine though, so as usual: he wins.”

Xichen laughs a little and tries to imagine it, finding someone – another man, even – alluring enough to go along with such a proposition. He’s never really had a reason to think about it before, but picturing it he can see the appeal. The intimacy of it, anyway, is something he could certainly imagine himself craving. Perhaps not…quite like that. But he gets it.

“He must have quite some eyes, then,” is all he can think of to say, but it makes Mingjue laugh as he flicks his cigarette butt to the ground and snuffs it under the heel of his boot.

“Yeah he’s a keeper, damn him,” Mingjue sighs. “But come on, what’s your story then?”

Xichen blinks at that and finds his mind has suddenly gone blank. His story? Does he…have one of those? It seems so…mundane, his life so far. Surely it wouldn’t be interesting to someone like Mingjue. Someone with a boyfriend. Someone with a boyfriend he clearly cares for but who hangs out where guys go cruising anyway all night long, just to run off the cops. Someone with tattoos down his arms and a cigarette tucked behind his ear, brass knuckles on his thick fingers.

“I’m not quite sure I’ve got one,” Xichen says, because he truly doesn’t know what else to say. It seems safest to not open that door anyway. He doesn’t want to examine what might be behind it.

Mingjue turns his head to look at him, their heights perfectly matched despite the way he feels like Mingjue has a much larger presence than Xichen himself ever has. “Nah, everyone’s got something to tell. I know you do, too; doesn’t have to be your whole life, Xichen. Maybe start with what you came here looking for – everyone’s looking for something, whether they know it or not.”

Xichen swallows thickly and looks out into the street again. In the alley across the way he sees, through the shadows, a man on his knees in front of another with his head tipped back to bare his neck. They’re barely shapes in the darkness, nigh on undetectable had he not accidentally looked right at them and spotted the pattern of recognizable shapes the pair of them make. Even though it makes his entire face and neck burn he can’t seem to tear his eyes away again.

He sucks a deep breath in and says, eyes still trained on the pair in the alley, “I wanted to see what was here that was worth getting arrested for.”

Mingjue hums in what sounds like understanding. Xichen exhales shakily as he hears the scratch of a match being struck, the smell of it tickling his nose even before it’s followed up with fresh smoke from Mingjue’s next cigarette.

“I want…” He trails off into nothing.

What does he want? It’s not a question he asks himself very often, and one he answers even less so. That’s not really ever been…an option. There are things he needs. There are things he does. There aren’t many things he wants.

Mingjue takes a drag off his new cigarette and hums again, prompting.

“I want to know what else is out there,” he finally decides. “I just..I wanted to know.”

Mingjue nods and tells him, “Yeah. I get that.”

In the alley, Xichen watches the man on his knees stand up to kiss his partner like they’re the only two people in the world, and something in his chest clenches.

--//--

Xichen meets A-Yao second.

After that first night, he’d told himself he wouldn’t go back. It hadn’t been exactly pleasant, no one would think it strange if he didn’t go back. His clothes reeked of Mingjue’s cigarettes, and the balmy night had left him feeling too sticky and out-of-sorts to go to bed until he’d relented and taken a shower.

And he’d stood there under the water, and leaned back against the tile, and thought about what it might feel like to be rucked up against a wall in a dark alley with a man on his knees in front of him. Or Mingjue leaning in close enough to touch the tip of a cigarette against one in his mouth. Or sharing that single bottle of beer that he’d seen the group passing around, lips pressed to where lips had been mere moments before. Would it feel different? Would it taste different? He’s never had beer before but would he like it if other men had taken swigs of it first, left their kisses behind for him to taste?

He'd stood up straight with a jolt and spent the rest of his shower breathing carefully through the shock of cold water pouring over him to help clear his head.

So he wasn’t going to go back.

But Mingjue had told him that Wednesdays are too quiet, and if he wants to know he needs to come back at the weekend.

“Friday nights are hopping,” he’d said around midnight with a glance out of the corner of his eye. “Can’t hardly move without getting at least a look, if not an offer. You want to know what’s worth it? That’s the night to check it out.”

On Friday evening after a too-long day, Xichen turns down an invitation to go out for an evening of schmoozing and social climbing at a bar near the firm with some of the other partners and heads home instead. When he changes out of his work clothes, he reaches for the soft pajamas he always wears – and then without consciously deciding to do so, he’s striding into his closet to find anything to wear that would possibly be…interesting. Anything that might make him seem like less of an outsider.

By 10 – horribly late by his standards – he’s got his hands tucked into the pockets of jeans he hardly ever wears and he strides with a false bravado into the area ‘everyone’ knows you don’t step foot in past dusk if you know what’s good for you.

He finds Mingjue standing at the same wall, in the same shadow, cigarette glowing between his lips and brass knuckles once again on his fist.

This time, there’s a tiny Asian guy tucked under his arm, nearly hidden by Mingjue’s bulk, and when he turns his head to watch his approach Xichen thinks:

Oh. Eyes.

“Mingjue, is this your new friend?” he purrs. Something about the way he says it makes Xichen feel like he’s done…something, or maybe that’s just guilt for the fact that his dreams for the last two nights had smushed Wednesday’s snapshots together and put Mingjue on his knees with his mouth full of Xichen’s cock. He’d woken up hard as a rock.

That can’t possibly be okay.

He isn’t thinking about it.

“Xichen,” Mingjue greets, warmer than his greeting that first night but still gruff around the edges. “This is A-Yao. A-Yao, Lan Xichen, Danny’s miracle lawyer.”

“Just Xichen is fine, there’s no need for any of the rest of it,” he says with a smile as he reaches them. He doesn’t want to be ‘Lan Xichen the lawyer’ here, to them, though he isn’t thinking about why that might be, either. “Is this the infamous boyfriend who can charm one into picking up smoking?”

“Ugh,” A-Yao scoffs, turning his head to glare up at Mingjue who’s grinning around his cigarette again. “I hate that you tell that story, you make it sound like I forced you!”

“I do not! I tell it exactly like it happened!”

Xichen clears his throat delicately. “I got the impression, rather, that you didn’t pressure him at all, but that he finds you impossible to resist and so ended up falling into a habit that supports yours, simply because it’ll make you happy.”

A-Yao looks up at him again, an incredulous little smile on his lips, and this close Xichen is in a position to think:

Oh. Eyelashes.

“Mmm lawyers and your quicksilver tongues,” A-Yao smiles, “Finally, someone I can talk to properly.”

Xichen ducks his head to hide a smile of his own when Mingjue snorts and jostles A-Yao under his arm a little as he says, “Don’t be rude, A-Yao,” without any heat behind it.

“I don’t want to intrude on your evening so I’ll just – ” Xichen starts, taking a half-step back towards the curb. A car passes on the road behind him, music on and windows down as they roll far too slowly along the avenue. Xichen turns his head to investigate, only to realize that this is the actual, literal ‘cruising’ part of the slang when he spots a couple of guys leaning out of the windows, a few of the men standing around offering them long glances that promise more.

“Ohh,” A-Yao says quietly, like a dawning realization. “Come here baby, come stand with me. Mingjue said you just want to see what it’s like around here?”

Xichen, reeling from the fact that A-Yao had apparently called him ‘baby’, finds he can only nod a little helplessly.

“That’s alright,” A-Yao tells him, so soft Xichen can’t help but believe him. “You can watch if that’s all you want to do, no one’ll bother you if you’re with us. You’re not interrupting anything, we’re just watching too. Come on, don’t be shy. You’re with us for the night.”

Xichen swallows and looks at the pair of them again, tucked so comfortably out of the way. Tucked up comfortably together, so obviously a package deal. They’re both watching him with looks he isn’t going to analyze. A-Yao leans a little more into Mingjue’s space, laying his head against his boyfriend’s chest, and Mingjue plucks the cigarette from his mouth to hold it down for A-Yao to take a drag off of.

Mouth-paper-mouth.

Xichen thinks he maybe gets the appeal of smoking a little more.

He crosses the pavement to turn and stand next to them on A-Yao’s other side, and A-Yao turns fully to rest his back against Mingjue’s side, the man’s enormous arm wrapped across his chest like a sash to keep holding him close while A-Yao tips his head to the side, looking up at Xichen like he’s a puzzle to be solved.

“I’d ask you what your story is but Mingjue already warned me you don’t like that,” A-Yao says after his moment of contemplation (in which Xichen hopes he wasn’t judged too harshly). “So, just Xichen – how are you?”

He asks it so sincerely, so kindly, not like he wants a standard water cooler answer but like he wants to know. Xichen hopes the shadow they’re standing in hides the way his eyes are suddenly stinging and he can’t see more than a wobbly outline of A-Yao reaching up to steal Mingjue’s cigarette from his lips for another drag.

“I’m alright,” he manages to answer. And it’s true. He’s fine.

He’s good.

He’s alright.

“You’re a shit liar, Xichen,” Mingjue tells him, and somewhere in the middle of Xichen’s answering laugh it turns into a sob.

--//--

“Get him some water, Mingjue, will you?” A-Yao requests as the door to their third-floor walkup (just a block over from the cruising spot) slams shut behind them, making Xichen jump. “Sorry, forgot to warn you it does that,” A-Yao sighs with a pat to his arm. “You just get used to it eventually, even if you don’t ever think you will.”

“It’s alright. You really don’t need to do this –” he starts. Mingjue comes back out of the kitchen with a glass of water in hand and raises an eyebrow at A-Yao dropped to his knees on the carpet to unlace his shoes. Not his own shoes. Xichen’s.

He’s very determinedly not thinking about the men in the alley (they’d been back for a repeat performance tonight, or else someone else had had the exact same idea in the same spot).

“A-Yao don’t smother him.”

“I’m not, and you’re worried about him too so don’t give me any sass,” A-Yao tosses back over his shoulder. Xichen meets Mingjue’s eyes, pleading for help, but receives nothing more than a shrug with a sort of ‘what can you do’ look on his handsome face, bottom lip pouting out from under his mustache. “And grab him the blanket off the bed!” A-Yao adds towards Mingjue’s retreating back.

“Really, I’m fine –”

“Xichen, you just broke down crying because I asked you how you are. It’s okay, we’re just going to get you some water and a quiet spot to sit down for a while, and when you’re calmer you can go if you want to.”

Xichen blushes (the recap of what’s probably one of the most embarrassing moments of his life was wholly unnecessary) and concedes that A-Yao is going to accomplish whatever it is he wants to, and it’s probably better to just go along with it. He slips out of his shoes when he feels coaxing hands on his ankles. A-Yao sets the wingtips aside on the rack inside the door before shepherding him further into the tiny apartment.

It's a chaotic mess, dark wood paneling and strange paintings on the walls, orange carpet with a pea-soup green throw rug over most of it in the living room that seems to double as a dining room as well. The couch matches the rug, the drapes don’t match anything at all, and Xichen feels more at home in the middle of all of it than he ever has in his own apartment.

Mingjue reappears from what Xichen assumes is their bedroom with a loudly-patterned throw blanket in his hands, frowning in thought as he attempts to find the long side by spreading it corner to corner, and then again on the next side.

“Here, sit down,” A-Yao coaxes to plonk him down right in the center of the couch. The water Mingjue had fetched for him is on the coffee table (it’s also wood but not a shade that matches the wall panels at all) amongst a few scattered papers and magazines he doesn’t recognize. The second he leans forward to pick up the glass, Mingjue tosses the blanket around his shoulders for A-Yao to pull tighter around him.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs after a few sips of water, feeling contrite. Mingjue sits down in an arm chair caddy-corner to the sofa (it’s mustard yellow, unlike anything else in the room) and lets A-Yao sit down in his lap with all the ease of a couple who have done so a thousand times.

Xichen’s chest clenches again and he rubs his hand over his sternum automatically, trying to relieve the ache.

He continues, “I don’t know why that…that happened. I’ll be out of your hair soon and then you can go back to your nice evening, I really don’t want to intrude.”

A-Yao watches him with those wide, dark eyes of his, assessing. Mingjue looks up at his boyfriend but says nothing, and Xichen wonders just what it is that they must think of him, showing up out of nowhere to gawk at them and their friends only to break down crying when asked how he is. He must look like a lunatic.

“You know,” A-Yao says after a long silence that’s heavy and soft as a down blanket, “Danny came back as soon as they let him out and he got things going with your firm. He went right back to chatting up the guys he likes flirting with, and when Mingjue asked him if he shouldn’t lay low for a while you know what he said?”

Xichen holds a sip of water in his mouth as he shakes his head.

“He said he didn’t have to worry about a single thing, because he’d found the best lawyer in the city who was going to look out for him, and make sure he was taken care of. He came back singing your praises, talking about how kind you are. How you really listened to him when he’d been so scared nobody would even take him seriously, let alone understand.”

Xichen fidgets with the corner of the blanket, the glass of tepid water in his hands, anything to avoid meeting that assessing gaze. Of course he’d helped. It’s his job to help. It’s his job to care, and to know exactly what he needs to know to make sure the people he protects get to see justice served. To know that they’re not alone, that someone is in their corner. He’s not special, that’s every lawyer’s job.

“I was there, Xichen, when Danny got arrested.”

Xichen looks up sharply – Mingjue had said he wasn’t, it hadn’t even occurred to him to think that A-Yao was.

“They beat him half to death while we all tried to pull them off him, and I know that there are plenty of people – the majority of people – who wouldn’t have given two shits about him, or how much having to see that hurt us all. But you cared, and you did it in a courtroom full of people. You can’t possibly ‘intrude’ on us or our community, okay? You’re Family now.”

Xichen’s next inhale catches in his chest and he tries to cover it with another sip of his water.

“Knew you’d be better at explaining it than me,” Mingjue rumbles low in his chest. “I tried to tell him the other night but I guess it didn’t stick.”

A-Yao hums and leans back to kiss Mingjue’s cheek, casual and sweet and it doesn’t even occur to Xichen to find it odd. How could he – clearly they love each other. A-Yao stands up from Mingjue’s lap then with a pat to one broad shoulder.

“Keep an eye on him, ge, I need to go call A-Sang.”

“Sure,” Mingjue agrees easily and doesn’t bother hiding that he watches A-Yao’s ass as he leaves. Xichen hides behind another sip of his water and very carefully, very slowly, relaxes back into the couch cushions with a little sigh of relief.

They sit in companionable silence for a while. Xichen feels himself calming down despite the riot of color around him. A-Yao’s talking quietly in the other room and occasionally laughing, though never loud enough to disrupt. Mingjue’s staring off into space as he brushes his fingers back and forth across the heavy metal rings still on his knuckles, and Xichen happily leaves him to whatever thoughts he’s having as he tries to get his own in order.

Finally, eventually, he sets his empty water glass down on the coffee table and without taking his eyes off of it he admits, “Danny’s case was…surprisingly important to me.”

Mingjue’s attention shifts to him, he can feel it like the press of a hand on the back of his neck, but he doesn’t look up from the coffee table to meet his gaze. If he does he isn’t sure he’ll actually find the courage to keep talking.

“All of my cases are important to me, but Danny’s was…when I heard what happened, what…what they did to him, all I could think was that no one deserved it, but especially not someone just looking for some companionship. And he was so sweet when I met with him. His eye was still swollen shut and he looked so relieved when I told him I was sorry it had happened. I didn’t…It seemed so unfair, for someone so sweet to have been excited by a new encounter only to have it go horrifically wrong.”

Xichen sucks in a breath that shudders in his chest and Mingjue levers himself up out of the chair to sit next to him on the couch instead, not quite touching but close enough that Xichen can feel the solid weight of him as if they were.

“I don’t understand what people think is so wrong about the way you all live,” he admits in a murmur. It feels like if he says it loudly enough Lan Qiren will somehow hear him, punish him for falling into degeneracy when he was raised so much ‘better’ than that. “It’s just…it’s still love, isn’t it? It’s really not so different to anyone else. Everyone just wants...someone who cares. What else matters?”

Mingjue exhales and leans back to rest more fully against the sofa, head tipped back to rest on top of the cushions. Xichen mirrors his posture, hands linked over his stomach and elbow knocking against Mingjue’s beside him.

“Well obviously A-Yao and I aren’t going to argue with you on that,” Mingjue jokes, dry as a bone. “We don’t get the big deal either, and I can guarantee you we’re about as ‘out there’ as they get, especially by most people’s standards. But it’s not like it’s anyone else’s business unless we decide that it is, so why should people care? We’re just minding our own.”

Xichen isn’t really sure what ‘out there’ means, but. Well. He has an imagination. It’s not very creative (it doesn’t have much to work with), but maybe that’s something to be examined at a later time when he’s not on Mingjue and A-Yao’s sofa and failing to prevent himself from having an identity crisis.

“I can see the appeal of it, your lifestyle,” he says next – utterly damning, by the standards he was raised with. Mingjue just snorts hard enough that Xichen feels it through the couch cushions.

“’M not surprised, if you’re really as good at understanding other people as Danny says. Anyone that good at listening would see there’s an appeal to just about anything under the right circumstances. You just have to figure out what appeals to you. If it’s your clients and your suits and your buttoned-up coworkers that’s fine, there’s a place for that. If it’s this –” Mingjue gestures expansively with one massive hand at the apartment around them, including A-Yao still chatting in the kitchen and the sound of music and laughter down in the street below “ – then obviously there’s a place for that too. Maybe it’s both, who knows?”

Both?

Xichen hums to show he’s heard but he doesn’t say anything else, too caught up in the idea of that.

Both.

His office, and the career that he finds fulfilling and satisfying even if he didn’t necessarily get to choose it for himself. He’s never resented that, not even once. He likes it. But his life could be…more. It could be…this. At night. When he’s free to do as he pleases.

Some of the pressure in his chest eases.

He doesn’t have to devote his entire life to only doing what his Uncle expects of him. He probably should, it would be unfilial not to appreciate everything Lan Qiren has given him in this life. The potential for guilt is there, waiting in the wings behind the possibilities unfolding in his mind’s eye. But he doesn’t have to. He could simply…add to it.

“Danny mentioned a…place. A club,” Xichen says, a little breathless with his daring. This isn’t research, he can’t even pretend it is. He’s seen the spot where Danny got hurt, he’s seen what it’s like for the men who go cruising. He gets it. He doesn’t need to see anymore.

“Yeah? Probably mine. A-Yao and I run the gay bar at the other end of the street, but on the weekends it’s definitely more like a club. You wanna see that too?”

Xichen turns his head to look at Mingjue beside him to find the man already peeking at him out of the corner of his eye. There’s no judgement in the look, just open and frank honesty. Does he want to see the gay club? It’s entirely up to him, and Mingjue won’t be bothered one way or the other.

“Yes. Yes I think I would. Tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“What’s tomorrow?” A-Yao asks as he comes back into the room to sit down with a sigh on Xichen’s other side. Xichen turns his head to look at him without lifting it from the back of the couch and gets the strangest thrill out of sitting with such poor posture for so long. He imagines Lan Qiren scolding him for not sitting properly on such a garish sofa in the apartment of two people so deeply important to the local queer scene and has to hold back a smile.

“I’d like to come see yours and Mingjue’s club, if I may.”

“ ‘If I may’,” A-Yao quotes back with a smile that makes twin deep dimples pop in his cheeks. “Such a gentleman. Of course you can, Xichen. We’ll need to be there tomorrow night anyway so you can come with us; no safer place to be.”

Xichen tucks that promise of safety, so similar to Mingjue’s the other night, into his heart and tells it to slow down, that he doesn’t have to be afraid. Not when they’ve got him taken care of.

‘Out there’ for A-Yao and Mingjue, he learns a few weeks later, means at least in part that he’s apparently being ‘tag-teamed’ according to Nie Huaisang, visiting from a few towns over for the weekend. And when he tumbles very happily into bed with A-Yao and Mingjue later that night (with far more leather than he would’ve ever thought the activity could involve), Xichen is thoroughly startled to realize he’s maybe a bit ‘out there’ too, and he knows he’s very lucky to have realized this whilst in such indulgent company.

#the untamed fanfic #polyshipweek23 #3zun #You're Safe Here #The Sculptor #<- universe #Lan Xichen #Nie Mingjue #Meng Yao #I put some extra headcanons that didn't make it into the fic in the end notes over on ao3 so y'all make sure to check those out!#I may bring them over here as a separate post in a few days though we'll see

22 notes · View notes

taotaoirl · 4 months

Text

idv masterlist

galatea (sculptor):

galatea claude x reader general headcanons (sfw)

mary (bloody queen):

mary x reader general headcanons (sfw)

joseph (photographer):

yandere!joseph x reader (sfw)

4 notes · View notes

mythgirlimagines · 1 year

Note

I am aggressively interested in Saimatsu out of nowhere. I did not think I would take that Cupid Kaede x Incubus Saihara idea and spiral. I thought I didn't ship anymore what the hell.

Anyways uh Ult. Ice Sculptor Saihara x Ult. Candlemaker Kaede. This is, indeed, the two talents for one of my OC pairings. yes I like Opposites Attract. a lot.

It's a nice one lol

Kaede personally found it funny that their talents seemed to be opposite of each other, but that also means they have so much ground covered between them. Shuichi thinks it’s kind of ironic, too.

Since Shuichi generally spends more time on one sculpture than Kaede does on one candle, they can’t really hang out while he works like they do when she works.

Though for the most part, they love sharing their talents with each other. Sometimes Kaede will try her hand at sculpting, though Shuichi’s better at making candles than she is at that.

Kaede has her own little shop online for her candles, whereas Shuichi generally works on commission or for art exhibits. Different vibes, but they can support each other though it all.

Shuichi has some of Kaede’s candles in his room that she made specifically for him, some with his favorite scents and some with scents that help calm him down if he needs it. They’re some of his favorite possessions.

#answered ask #headcanons #talentswap #ultimate ice sculptor shuichi #ultimate candlemaker kaede #saimatsu #shuichi x kaede #shuichi saihara #kaede akamatsu #danganronpa #ndrv3

8 notes · View notes

thatsaseriouscomplexhun · 5 months

Text

Orangutan and Kingfisher.

Maybe Kingfisher leaving, even though it was on good terms, somehow effected Orangutan and his mental state. I mean, his equal had parted ways with him. They were each other’s only companions for a long time, and that could definitely do something to a person. This likely happened sometime after he found Emma and asked Dogen to raised her.

Orangutan and Dogen.

They raised Emma together. Fight me they did. They were a family.

I’m starting to ship Isshin and the Sculptor

This is why I can’t be left alone

But hear me out,

They are the only living members of the large group they once had. The old generation. Lady Tomoe, Lord Takeru, Dogen, Isshin, Orangutan, Owl and (I’m pretty sure but not 100%) Lady Butterfly. The old group was likely very close before everyone started leaving and dying. It was probably Orangutan almost becoming Shura that started it all. Loosing a member that shut himself away from them all to protect everyone, then likely followed by Lady Butterfly and Owl, both having their own agendas. Lord Takeru and Lady Tomoe left together, well died/whatever it was they did but semantics. Dogen passed perhaps years later, leaving Isshin by himself with the kid two of his closest friends raised together before it became too dangerous for Orangutan to stay.

In a way, it would have looked like Isshin’s fault that everything started to collapse. All because he had to cut off his friend’s arm to prevent him from becoming a demon that would have attempted to slaughter them all.

That tragic romance type thing. Old friends but haven’t spoken in years due to guilt on Isshin’s side and Orangutan having to keep carving to keep himself sane.

Never worry about shipping something different. Always remember someone out there ships something much worse.

5 notes · View notes

headcanontheshitoutofsoulsborne · 2 years

Text

The Sculptor does not notice the heat. It is always too hot; a heatwave isn't any worse than what he normally feels.

#sekiro shadows die twice #the sculptor #headcanon #:-(

23 notes · View notes

genderqueer-karma · 9 months

Text

walk with me, for a moment.

#yo it's d :)#my emotional support geezer #that old man is transgender. by the time of his prosecutorial debut in 1976 he was already fully socially transitioned do not argue w/ me #‘but . but isn’t that a headcanon?’ no one in this series has a canon agab. he hasn’t been in a game since 2011. this is canon (in my world)#‘don’t you hc him as genderqueer?’ yes but no. his gender is clay to me. and brother i am a sculptor.#actually wait my mistake there’s like two characters with canon agab #still. my point stands. canon agab is so few and far between that i can throw any label and make it stick.#y’all do that anyway 🤷‍♀️

3 notes · View notes

unknownperson-is-not-known · 1 year

Text

Rating hunter's weapon/skills

Warning: mentions of broken bones, blood, bruise, gore etc etc.... I'm not a doctor so this is probably not accurate

Hell ember

-its a shark plushie....

-the only way he can kill you is that he suffocate you or have ungodly amount of power

-so 0/10

-but if we're talking about his old weapon then.... Yup. It WILL hurt

-you are alive but not thriving

-yes he can use it to kill you but it depends on his force/where he strikes really. 7/10

-his puppet is made out of metal(?) so yeah you will get bruises

Smiley face

-imma be honest idk how it works but it will probably hurt

-but from his animation he's kinda thrusting so the tip is only hitting you also it's blunt so it's more of a bruise

-this sounds dirty out of context but yeah 5/10

-but old weapon.... 10/10 it's literally a CHAINSAW unless you have plot armor

The ripper

-yeah.... About your back

-rip (no pun intended)

-it depends on how hard he hit you

-worst case scenario is that he hit your nerves and stuff (I'm not a med school student don't ask please)

-best case scenario he just scratch your back lol

-6-8/10

-foggy blade is a different story tho.

-ill assume that it's like a force of wind hitting your back which again, depends on distance/how hard etc.

-so for me i think it's just bruise 4/10

Gamekeeper

-do you see that shit????

-it doesn't hit you

-it doesn't hit your spinal cord

-but that shit goes through you 10/10

-but if he hit you then about 6/10

-now Bear traps....

-you won't die (unless you are left to bleed out) but it will hurt so fucking much

-7/10

Violetta

-bruises

-her arm (legs?) Is made out of metal so it's just bruises 4/10

-her web is just going to make your skin very itchy that's for sure 1/10 unless you cannot tolerate it like me then 3/10

-now cacoon death...

-i think you'll die because of lack of air which kinda explain why you die faster than the rocket chair 8/10 not painful as others but is very unique

-im not going to talk about her throwing web though

Geisha

-the most tolerable out of anyone (except hell ember shark plushie lol)

-yes it's hard but hey you live and it won't hurt much like others 1/10

-no butterflies they don't hurt ya

Feaster

-bruises

-it hurts the next day but not the match lol 6/10

-the is way too short so....

-if we considered that he has so much power then... Some broken bones?

Wu Chang

-more bruises 2/10

-ill just assume that their skill just f with your mental health

Photographer

-ah yes everyone favorite short midget bald grandpa with Donald duck colo(u)r palette

-its a sword

-ALSO he actually have training 7/10

-i won't rate photo world

Mad eyes

-our ACTUAL favorite grandpa

-off topic but if you main Chad eyes i respect you and your dedication so much

-but if we are talking about his walls then....10/10 you are dead

-okay so bruises again 6/10

-EDIT: yeah imma change that to 10/10 bc of the steam... Might burn ur skin off

Dream witch (servant)

-pickaxe

-self explanatory really 7/10

Axe boy

-an axe

-7/10

-BUT remember he's a decapitated child so he won't really have much power so 5ish/10

-fire ball jkjk but 2nd degree burns go brrrrr 8/10

Evil reptilian

-kinda like geisha but sharper so 4/10

-okay....

-anyone forbids that this lizard man get presence

-WILL crush you and step on you (lucky simps)

-10/10 ain't no way you are gonna survive

Bloody Queen

-quick question

-how isn't her finger cut off yet????

-shes pretty much a corpse

-4/10

Guard 26

-spike go brrrrr

-yup that's gonna hurt

-6-7/10

-BUT BOMBS!

-Again 2nd degree burns

-7-8 ish /10

"Disciple"

-shes doesn't outright stab you with that so 4/10

-but if she stabs you instead of slapping you....

-again depends where soooo 6-10/10

-if her cat have rabies then you are dead 10/10

Violinist

-it doesn't hurt much 1.5/10

-bro got scammed by the devil lololol

-his skills literally make people ears bleed

-0.5/10

Sculptor

-my main :D

-she uses telepathy so i can't calculate

-but she seems to be new at it

-ngl at the end of her attack she's like trying to pick her chisel up

-its a shallow stab 4/10

-BUT

-STATUES

-MORE BRUISES

-also by her description you need to be crash into something with her statues

-so assuming that she chips everytime and you crash against the wall then....

-broken bones

-bruises

-internal bleeding

-10/10

Undead

-bro sword is like clouds sword from final fantasy 7/10

-he slug you

-ALSO charge attack skill makes your heart skip a beat 10/10

The breaking wheel

-spikes

-hey um breaking wheel mains out there...

-how tf do you play him?

-i can't even kite him ffs

-anyways there's no hope you are dead 10/10

Naiad

-another shallow stab but this time it's sharper so 5/10

-despite what people thinks

-she doesn't drown people in her abyss (even though it will be pretty cool and horrifying at the same time

-theres just creatures from the sea that bites you 4/10

Wax artist

-bruises y'all know the drill

-2nd degree burns from wax

-3/10

-EDIT: change to 7/10 if the weapon thing is boiling (i forgot what it's called)

-also can someone explain his backstory and why people think he's racist????

Nightmare

-shallow stab gang

-4-5/10

-his crow did nothing at all sooooo-

Clerk

-what is she even holding????

-a cane?

-anyways about 1.5/10

-also what is her backstory and what is her gameplay? I legit can't play her

Hermit (the frog)

-cane 2/10 but he have to hit you like million times to down you/hj

-yall know how it feels like to be paralyze???

-its kinda weird you feel but also don't feel

BONUS

-so about 6/10

Night watch (nagito Komeada/hj)

-I would say 7/10 if he stabs you with it but he kinda slap you with it 4/10 (it's still metal anyways)

-WINDBLADE i mean... Cyclone The wind won't affect you much UNLESS he pulls you in and you got crash into a wall or something.

-again it depends

-0-1/10 if it's just the wind 8/10 if you crash into everything

patroller

-bites you so 8/10 lol

-rabies.

-you can't convince me otherwise so 10/10

A/n this is 1 am so I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense/rating kinda weird

BONUS BONUS:

THOMAS THE TRAM

INFINITY OUT OF INFINITY

THE MOST OP HUNTER

18 notes · View notes

mogai-headcanons · 10 months

Text

Smiley Face from Identity V is a disabled gay trans man bear with PTSD!

The Ripper is a disabled bisexual genderfluid man with schizophrenia!

Soul Weaver is a disabled femme bisexual nonbinary woman with GAD!

Geisha is a pansexual woman with PTSD!

Wu Chang is a gay man with depression and PTSD!

Photographer is a uranic transmasculine man with PTSD and HPD!

Mad Eyes is a disabled gay man with OCD!

Evil Reptilian is an asexual neutrois man with BPD!

Bloody Queen is a pansexual woman with PTSD!

Guard 26 is a robotgender person with amnesia!

The Violinist is a bi gay genderpunk man with synesthesia and PTSD!

The Sculptor is a disabled neurodivergent lesbian girl with GAD!

The Undead is a vulcuric horrorcosmium nonbinary man with SZPD!

The Breaking Wheel are gay and canonically have dwarfism!

The Naiad is an aroace demigirl with Tourette's syndrome!

The Wax Artist is a trans man!

His sister Wax Woman is a bisexual trans woman!

The Nightmare is an asexual demifluid transneutral person with DID and PTSD!

dni link

5 notes · View notes

meili-sheep · 2 years

Note

Do you think Diluc is interested in a building's architecture? How it was built? Like is he fascinated how the people sculpted the statues and patterns on the building? (I just remembered he has those owl statues in dawn winery.)

Honestly, that feels really up Diluc's alley.

I do think he's got a general curiosity about the world. And in liking chess, I feel like he likes putting together good plants and seeing it come to fruition.

So that would be expanded into architecture and construction. He's interested in seeing buildings come from a blueprint to a full elegant building.

I also think walking the line of practicality and aesthetics would be really fun for him. Just making something that looks good but serves a purpose.

I think maybe that while his father was into painting, Diluc was always more into pottery and sculpting. But he wasn't really allowed to pursue it. He sort of forgot about it until he started traveling away and seeing all the different buildings and other countries' pottery and sculpture forms.

Then he returns home and just decides to try it. I can see maybe Crepus had an art studio, and Diluc was originally planning to turn it into a storage room. But ends up converting it to something he can use to make model buildings and start trying to sculpt.

And he has so much fun working with his hands.

Diluc doesn't share any of this with anyone, though. That old room is locked up tight, and everyone just thinks Diluc has old memories stored there. And he just goes in there to reminisce.

But no. It's actually the little joy Diluc feels he has left in his world. A little "What if" He likes to occasionally dream about. But ultimately, he's happy with his hobby as is.

#diluc headcanons #diluc ragnvindr #diluc #Now I'm thinking sculptor Diluc

12 notes · View notes

nightmarecountry-a · 2 years

Text

I'm going to kiss every writer on ao3 that leans in HARD to the horror aspects of Mansand honestly, especially where Corinth.ian is concerned

#( ooc. )#[ like not just because he's a serial killing nightmare i more mean like.#his role. his purpose. what he IS.#Where's that one fucking headcanon post of mine where I talked about how horrifying the Endless can be and what it is to be one of their-#-creations and bound to their will. That's the vibe tonight boys.]#[ art and artist baby!!!!!!! sculptor and statue!!!!]

0 notes

eleanorfenyxwrites · 2 years

Text

Headcanon Time: The Sculptor

So I feel like I ended up having quite a few thoughts behind the choices I made for some of the elements of The Sculptor that I wasn't able to fit into the fic itself, and can't really make narrative extras out of either, so I'll put them here! For today's Thoughts(™) I want to talk about something I'm (mostly tangentially) passionate about - fashion!

I had a couple of people in the comments over on AO3 mention/chat with me a bit about Lan Wangji's jarringly anachronistic clothes, and it's something I absolutely 100% did on purpose and with a lot of thought. (I can't help it, I overthink everything.)

But anyway - It's the 70's, right? It's supposed to be leisure suits and bellbottoms and polyester everywhere! Why is Lan Wangji dressed the way he is? 3-piece wool or linen suits. Ties. A hat. I did this very much on purpose, and the reason is that I like to think that in modern AU's - no matter what the decade itself is - Lan Wangji always feels and looks a bit like a man out of time. He's old-fashioned partly because he was raised that way (Lan Qiren is the textbook definition of tradition no matter the setting), but also because I think he just genuinely likes it. I think he likes the sense of dignity and respect afforded to the past by the people in the present. I think he resonates a lot with people who are significantly older than him and more likely to be as serious of a person as he is, and I think that informs a lot of his choices. But more on that later.

With the fic being set in the 70's, and Wangxian being in their late 30's (which I can't remember if I directly mentioned or not in the fic itself but probably not), that means that they were born and raised during the 1940's-60's. They're already mature adults by the 70's, and while yes people that young were absolutely wearing the fashion of the day, I think Wangxian would have been a lot less likely to completely indulge in it, established in themselves and their lifestyles as they already are by the time they meet.

[headcanons about Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and Wen Qing - with photos! - under the cut because naturally this got out of hand]

First: Wei Wuxian

I'm only going to touch very briefly on Wei Wuxian because I have fewer thoughts on his clothes (and no example photos because I feel like it's too vague to search for anything specific). I think Wei Wuxian's clothing wouldn't feel out of place in any decade - because he's broke. When you're broke - and all your clothes end up covered in paint/clay/chalk/etc. anyway - you find pieces that don't show too much wear and tear, don't ever really go out of fashion, and you stick with them. (Source: I'm a broke ceramicist who still wears the Owl City graphic tees they bought in 2011 every single week because I give no shits). I think Wei Wuxian's wardrobe is a lot of sturdy jeans/trousers and a fairly even mixture of t-shirts and soft button-downs - flannel or cotton, soft and durable materials - that he can wear and work hard in without having to bother with too much fuss when it comes time to do laundry. Neutral dark colors, because they don't show stains as easily. Sturdy boots or shoes that he won't have to replace every winter because again - when your income isn't steady, you learn to pick up good pieces and do everything you can to hang onto them and repair them.

So - I think Wei Wuxian's wardrobe is very blue-collar, comfortable and work-hardy clothing that he's had for probably at least a decade if not longer by the time he meets Lan Wangji. Everything's in decent repair, but he's definitely not too worried about looking fashionable which actually ends up making him pretty timeless and fashionable in his own way no matter the decade.

Now: Lan Wangji

Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji, Hanguang-Jun, my beloved. I adore this man, y'all. I just needed to get that out there.

I spent a lot of time while writing this fic thinking about Lan Wangji's life and choices, more so than I did anyone else's. While the perspective bounces back and forth between him and Wei Wuxian, and I did actually start the fic intending for it to only be from Wei Wuxian's perspective, I realized really quickly that it's actually really Lan Wangji's story, since he's the one who really goes through a visible growth and change in the narrative - opening himself up to the vulnerability and unexpected joy of learning to ask for things he'd never expected to have. This kind of hesitation and repression in his character had to come from somewhere, and while yes a large part of it is a conservative society's views of homosexuality in general, you have to consider where those ideas came from first in the course of Lan Wangji's life. Which would be Lan Qiren.

Lan Qiren is uptight and tradition-bound, conservative in all areas, and extremely concerned with right and wrong. In a society that saw a significant uptick in liberal counter-culture during his nephews' teenage/young adult years, I think Lan Qiren would have overcorrected and been extremely strict in teaching young Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen what he thought was right - politically, economically, and socially. So you end up with this very very rigid and unforgiving academic upbringing that could have pushed either of the boys towards more radical lines of thinking (I very briefly mentioned Lan Xichen in the epilogue as living with two partners, and I think there's a lot I could explore there in terms of Lan Xichen responding to this strict childhood by becoming an avid supporter of the free love movement as well as becoming extremely active in the queer/kink community in a larger, more liberal city as an adult), but you also have to keep in mind just how much Lan Wangji respects his uncle and looks up to him as a parent. Lan Qiren was the first authority figure to show him (and Lan Xichen) any sort of emotional stability, any kind of image to look up to and attempt to emulate, and that's important to Lan Wangji's character in so many ways. Mannerisms, behavior, career choice, and - yes, the actual point of this post before I got sidetracked by Lan Qiren AGAIN - Lan Wangji's fashion.

A lot of people seemed to be thrown off by picturing Lan Wangji in a much more 1950's sort of look, but that's exactly what I wanted, confusion and all! Lan Wangji took so much inspiration from a man who was probably born around the late 1900's or maybe 1910, and who we can assume grew up in an equally strict and traditional household to have become the man he did, perpetuating his own upbringing when it comes time to raise his nephews. This means that in my mind Lan Qiren is the sort to dress in a way that's really more antiquated than just old-fashioned, sticking with some of the silhouettes that are more indicative of the turn of the century and when he changes anything about his personal style doing so very slowly - and not necessarily hitting the same beats that society does when they happen. By the time he's raising the Jades he's firmly established as an academic and has little reason or incentive to change much of anything about himself, which equally-stubborn little Lan Wangji admires. His uncle is always so beyond reproach, so stern and unwilling to bend to societal whims that seem useless and arbitrary when they don't pertain to anything he deems important - of course he starts emulating him. And Lan Qiren encourages both of the Jades to follow in his footsteps, which he sees as being the best (read: safest) path for their lives, so he encourages anything they do that ties into that. Which is why, in the 1970's, we end up with a Lan Wangji who wouldn't look at all out of place a few decades prior - why bother reinventing the wheel when what he wears is tied so closely into his perception of himself (and Lan Qiren by extension) as an upstanding and righteous man?

(I'm not saying Gregory Peck as the stern and unyielding but ultimately very loving father Atticus Finch was formative for me as a kid, but I'm not not saying it either. I mean just look at him.)

(As far as Lan Wangji's hats go, I like to think of him in either the top right or the bottom left, long hair gathered up inside it to keep it off his neck.)

All of this makes him stick out quite a bit in the setting of the 1970's, but unlike his homosexuality, his fashion is a way to stand out that he has actively chosen and fully embraced by the time he's an adult. Of his numerous peculiarities, this one is maybe the most acceptable to people in general because it fits so well with the reserved and haughty air that he has (or is assumed by others to have). It's comfortable for him, and so long as it stays respectable then he has very little reason to change.

Last but not least: Wen Qing

I didn't flesh Wen Qing out too much in the actual body of the fic to keep from clogging up the Wangxian storyline, but she's precisely what I think we would expect from 1970's Modern Woman Wen Qing. Were it not for her family's tradition and her own passion for medicine, she would have chosen to become a Women's Studies professor instead of working in the biological sciences, although there's also a lot to be said for her choosing to work in a male-dominated academic field like this. She had fully intended on becoming a doctor when she was younger, but with her family's financial situation and Wen Ning's fragile health she just wasn't able to make it work, and has instead committed herself to staying on the leading edge of scientific and medical breakthroughs and then sharing everything she can find with her students, many of whom will go on to become doctors/nurses/etc. themselves.

This woman Takes No Shit, and everyone who sees her knows this immediately. (Lan Wangji, Understatement King, about Wen Qing in chapter 3: “I have it on good authority that she is…intimidating.”) She absolutely does not buy into gendered respectability politics any more than she absolutely has to - in the context of the fic, she'll sit down for three (endless) hours with the neighbors whom she assumes are expecting her to play the perfect housewife to her old-fashioned husband and indulge their assumptions as much as she can stand, but she absolutely will not compromise on anything that truly matters to her. She and Lan Wangji are equal partners in their house and share the duties appropriately. She will not cave to external pressure and leave her career, which she loves, in order to be a homemaker, but nor will she truly condemn any woman who wants to be a homemaker. Her frustration with, say, Margaret from next door is that she's a convenient representation of how much of society thinks that everyone in her position would want to take the homemaker route - or worse, doesn't even have wants and needs of her own and should therefore cater her life to her husband's.

Wen Qing definitely doesn't play that game.

How does this relate to her fashion, you may ask?

PANTS.

PANTS PANTS PANTS.

Listen to me - there are no skirts and pearls in this household. Wen Qing wears trousers. Suits. Jumpsuits. They're practical and comfortable, but most importantly they help her feel that she's rebelling in a way that is very easy to brush off as part of her profession rather than a small representation of a much much deeper discontent with heteronormative society, as a queer woman. She's very upfront about this - she will not, under any circumstances, wear a dress. Important social function at work? She will show up in well-tailored trousers and an understated blouse, no matter what the dresscode is said to be. She never wants to be mistaken for someone who can't or won't think and decide for herself - she wants to make sure that everyone knows she's Lan Wangji's equal. If he can be outdated and peerless in his 50's-esque suits, then she will be roaringly progressive in her suits, and they'll just have to be matching oddities in their community.

(Helen Hulick in 1938 who was jailed for wearing trousers when appearing in court - look her up, she's fantastic.)

I think she's not always so stern about it, but Wen Qing definitely Does Not Give A Shit about anyone's opinions on her clothing, and there would be many opinions about her as a professional woman in a male-dominated field. That being said, I also imagine her maybe outside of the university/professional setting in something much more obviously 1970's:

There was a lot of Good Shit happening in women's fashion in the 70's (following in the footsteps of the more progressive fads of the 1960's), and without Wen Qing being so deeply tied to old-fashioned ideals like Lan Wangji is, she sees nothing wrong with adapting with the times and looking damn good while doing it. As much as she isn't afraid to wear more masculine clothes in the workplace - something still pretty controversial by the early 70's - she also doesn't mind a more feminine look in her free time. But always pants. Always always always pants.

#the untamed fanfic #headcanon time #The Sculptor #Wei Wuxian #Lan Wangji #Wen Qing #You would think that between how long my fics usually are and how many extras I write #there wouldn't be much left over #but no. no y'all there's still So Much going on in my brain when I'm writing #Like every choice is so deliberate and I just have to sit and listen to my own #internal monologue about all of it all the time lol #here's just a small piece of it #I'll probably start doing more of these just to get them out of my head and onto the page #'these' being headcanon times not necessarily more posts about fashion

13 notes · View notes