#this manifests in a big way with jin ling too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Note

What would happen if Jiang Cheng found A-Yuan hiding in the tree stump at the Siege of the Burial Mounds and decided he's going to take in this toddler Wei Wuxian's was raising and raise him, in the memory of what WWX promised to be for JC?

sequel to this aka Delight in Misery (ao3)

“Sizhui?!” Jiang Cheng roared as he stormed into Lan Wangji’s room. “You named him Sizhui?”

Lan Wangji had already long ago become inured to Jiang Cheng’s huffing and puffing. Anyway, Jiang Cheng had medicine in his hands when he stormed in, which meant that he wasn’t bothered enough by it to come yell at him outside the usual time - and that meant that whatever it was, it was no big deal.

Accordingly, Lan Wangji didn’t give the yelling any more thought than it required, opting instead to turn onto his stomach in silent invitation.

Sure enough, Jiang Cheng came over to sit on the bed, grumbling the entire time he undid the bandages on Lan Wangji’s back and starting to spread the soothing balm onto the slowly healing wounds.

“I can’t believe you picked ‘Sizhui’ as a courtesy name for A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng said, sounding thoroughly disgusted and more than a little disgruntled as well. His hands, however, were as gentle as his voice was harsh. “Sizhui. Was carving ‘Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian’ into the woodwork too subtle for you?”

Being face down made it easier for Lan Wangji to hide the way his lips twitched.

At first, he had been disturbed at the notion that his grief for Wei Wuxian’s loss – an endless well of despair, an injury that would never heal – might in some ways be balanced with instances of joy, and yet, in time, he had slowly come to accept it. After all, Wei Wuxian himself had never remembered pain for more than a moment; he would not have wanted Lan Wangji to deny himself the pleasures of A-Yuan’s cheerful presence, the peace of being surrounded by Wei Wuxian’s belongings, the amusement of Jiang Cheng’s sarcastic commentary that was so thoroughly ungracious it could only be laughed at.

The adjustment had not been easy. Lan Wangji was broken in both body and heart, lingering too longer in regrets of the past, while Jiang Cheng had walked a fine line on the verge of true madness, periods of calm interrupted suddenly by grief so intense it manifested as hysterical anger and furious lashing out, his own servants trembling to see it - it was only when Jin Ling had ended up with them, a safe haven for him in his younger years while Lanling Jin sorted out its own internal issues, that Jiang Cheng had started to calm down. His nights were still full of nightmares, brutal soul-shattering screaming ones that Lan Wangji suspected matched his own, but there were now entire days in which the man who kept him company (because apparently “seclusion” wasn’t considered a real word in Yunmeng Jiang, and “alone” was translated to mean “with me”) was a serious, earnest sect leader with a penchant for snide quips rather than the devastated wreckage of a human being he had met upon the Burial Mounds.

They had not been particularly close, before, and their personalities weren’t exactly compatible. And yet, to his surprise, Lan Wangji found that he didn’t miss the serenity of the Cloud Recesses as much as he thought he would, but rather appreciated the noise and clamor that Jiang Cheng brought into his life.

“ – like two drops of water, both of you,” Jiang Cheng was saying. “Sizhui and Rulan! These are people’s names! They’ll have to bear them their entire lives! Do you think when they’re adults they’re going to enjoy telling people, ‘oh, yes, well, you see, the people who named us had absolutely no sense of dignity or proportion, so –’”

“How is A-Ling?” Lan Wangji asked, feeling his ears go red. He had known about Jin Ling’s courtesy name since long ago, but he hadn’t known until Jiang Cheng had told him that the name had been bestowed by Wei Wuxian, or that Wei Wuxian had praised his sect and maybe even him in the naming – it sometimes made him wonder if his feelings, which he’d long believed to be unrequited, might not have been so hopeless after all.

That didn’t mean he wanted to talk about said feelings with Jiang Cheng, though.

Luckily, Jiang Cheng’s attention was very easy to divert when it came to his precious nephew. “Good! His teeth are finally coming out properly, so we won’t have to deal with all that wailing and gnawing anymore – I thought we’d have to lose A-Yuan’s fingers to all that biting before it ever happened –”

“I thought you told him to stop.”

“Of course I did. Did he listen? No. He just looked sad and obedient whenever I looked at him, and snuck his fingers into the crib whenever I didn’t – I should’ve gotten you to give him the order. He actually listens to you.”

Lan Wangji hummed in response, listening as Jiang Cheng continued in his usual manner to update him about the development of the children they were raising – teething for Jin Ling, Lan Yuan’s rapidly swelling waistline (he was almost recognizable as a child again instead of the pile of bones he’d been after he’d recovered from his fever) and the need to start him on physical conditioning soon, the investment of time and effort that all three of them were putting into trying to convince Jin Ling that his first word should be ‘jiujiu’ – and then, from there, about developments at the Lotus Pier more generally.

At first, Lan Wangji had thought there was a purpose to these updates, that he was meant to give some sort of advice as payment for taking up food and resources, but after a while he realized that Jiang Cheng just wanted someone to listen to him.

He didn’t seem to have anyone else that would.

“– finally finished the full set of docks, so maybe the fishermen will stop beating my ears in about it,” Jiang Cheng was saying. “And yes, damn you, your idea about opening up hotels was both very popular and very profitable – just goes to show that your Lan sect’s reputation for being above it all isn’t in any way justified, you lot make money better than the Jin sect…your brother came by again.”

Lan Wangji tensed.

“Stop that! Your back’s bad enough without adding knots to it.” Jiang Cheng pressed down on one of them purposefully: it hurt for a moment, and then released, and Lan Wangji involuntarily relaxed as the relief spread through him. Jiang Cheng either had a very good teacher in massage or a natural-born talent for it; Lan Wangji hadn’t yet figured out how to ask which it was. “He’s still looking for you, that’s all, and it’s starting to take a bit of a toll on him; he looks like he hasn’t slept in a while. I’m starting to almost feel bad about it.”

It was very classic Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji had found, to orchestrate a punishment for someone and feel bad about it almost immediately thereafter. It was no wonder A-Yuan had him so thoroughly wrapped around his little finger.

“You can tell him, if you want,” Lan Wangji said reluctantly. Telling would mean seeing, and while he missed his brother very much, he was still very angry over everything that had happened. “I do not want the Lotus Pier to suffer for having harbored me.”

“Stop being so damned self-sacrificing,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji wasn’t looking but he could hear him rolling his eyes. “I don’t care how much you enjoy it; I for one can’t stand it. Anyway, if my Jiang Sect can’t hold our heads up against another sect’s anger, we don’t deserve to be called a Great Sect. It’s like I told you: the moment he actually admits that you’re missing, rather than being all ambiguous and vague about it, I’ll tell him.”

Lan Wangji was secretly glad, even though he knew it was petty of him.

The thought of how frantic Lan Xichen must be after all these months, the idea of him not sleeping, of him travelling to all the sects to ask again and again if they’d seen him…the thought of it hurt, he didn’t deny it. But it didn’t hurt as much as finding out that Wei Wuxian had died with no one by his side – as finding out that his brother, who knew what Wei Wuxian meant to him, had known and deliberately omitted to tell him.

Just as Jiang Cheng was deliberately omitting to tell Lan Xichen the truth now.

“The sect would lose face,” he finally said, offering up an explanation for his brother’s actions, both then and now.

“Yeah, well, fuck your sect,” Jiang Cheng said. “I picked my sect over my family, too, and where did that leave me? Now it’s all I have left.”

His hands stilled for a moment.

“…except you and kids, I guess,” he said, sounding especially bitter about it in the sort of way that Lan Wangji had learned indicated that Jiang Cheng was having an attack of feelings and not particularly enjoying the experience. “You’re not that annoying.”

That was practically stating that Jiang Cheng would die without them.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, and after a moment Jiang Cheng continued rubbing in the salve. There was even a brief moment of silence, probably Jiang Cheng being thankful that Lan Wangji didn’t call him out on those feelings. Normally, Lan Wangji would just enjoy it, but… “You could have children of your own.”

Jiang Cheng choked, his hand slipping as he nearly fell over. “What?”

“Children,” Lan Wangji said. “You could marry.”

Not that marriage was a requirement for children, as Jin Guangshan continuously seemed to demonstrate – according to some of the gossip Jiang Cheng had recently reported, he’d recently brought another bastard son home.

“I’m trying, aren’t I?” Jiang Cheng asked, indignant. “I’ve gone on three matchmaking dates –”

Lan Wangji was well aware. He had been the one to whom Jiang Cheng had exaggeratedly complained after each one of those disastrous dates.

“Deliberate sabotage,” he said, because even without having left the four walls around him in months he could figure that much out. “Why?”

Jiang Cheng hesitated, then snorted. “Well, let’s hope not everyone’s as perceptive as you. It’s the agreement I made with the Jin sect to allow me to raise Jin Ling – no other children.”

Somehow, Lan Wangji hadn’t expected that.

He swallowed, his throat suddenly tight. He knew, of course, that there was nothing Jiang Cheng wouldn’t do for his last living blood relative, even risk having his Jiang sect turned into nothing more than an inheritance to be gobbled up by the Jin sect, but he hadn’t realized – that the Jin sect would take advantage of the grief and trauma that Jiang Cheng suffered, the same grief and trauma that he himself suffered from every day…

It made him taste bile.

“Though you’ve nearly screwed that up, you know,” Jiang Cheng said, sounding suddenly amused. “Back’s done, by the way.”

Lan Wangji sat up and turned his head to look at Jiang Cheng. “How?”

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Well, given your injuries, I’m the one out there teaching Lan Yuan all the basics, aren’t I? The Jiang sect hasn’t started accepting disciples that young yet, so he stands out. Everyone’s starting to say that he’s mine.”

“His surname is Lan.”

“And Wei Wuxian’s was Wei; that never stopped people from talking, did it?” Jiang Cheng scowled a little at the reminder he’d just given himself; as Lan Wangji had found out these past few months, Jiang Cheng was a master of the self-inflicted injury. “The latest I’ve heard is that I fell in love with some lady from the Lan sect who left her child with me when she died – honestly, it’s a bit sad that they can’t think of anything more interesting. Why would I be stupid enough to make the same mistakes as my father?”

Lan Wangji frowned. Jiang Cheng’s voice was shading near to actual pain, rather than his usual bark without a bite – he had let slip enough about his childhood for Lan Wangji to have figured out that the old jokes about the Jiang sect leader’s favoritism for Wei Wuxian were not jokes at all.

More like an old wound ripped open so many times that it would never heal.

It was no surprise, then, that it hurt him to be cast in the same role.

“You could always tell them that the lady still lives,” he said mildly, pretending his words weren’t hurting himself this time. Maybe Jiang Cheng had a point when he said that Lan Wangji enjoyed self-sacrifice. “Only that she’s ill, or in confinement, and cannot be seen.”

“Not a chance! Like I’d ever do something like that,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji very briefly loved him for his immediate rejection of the idea. “Besides, if I say that, what do I do when you do come out of here and claim him? Everyone will think we’ve been sleeping together.”

Lan Wangji politely didn’t mention the occasional night that Jiang Cheng spent huddling by his side, wild-eyed, until the nightmares went away, or the way Jiang Cheng would occasionally lend a hand with certain physiological reactions that Lan Wangji could not bear to deal with himself, turning what might have been a trigger for self-hatred and near suicidal despair into a process as mundane as the baths he still needed help taking; neither of those were what was meant.

“No one would fear that you would have children if they thought you cut your sleeve,” he pointed out, not sure why he was pushing the issue. Even if people did say that, it was only rumors, after all, and temporary ones: when Lan Wangji could walk again, even the most pointed would swiftly fade in favor of ones that slandered Lan Wangji’s reputation instead.

“I’m still hoping to get married eventually,” Jiang Cheng said. “Just – after Jin Ling is an adult. Once he’s sect leader, he can release me from the promise I made. No harm done, assuming I don’t die first.”

Lan Wangji nodded. It made sense, though for some reason he felt some dissatisfaction.

“Though,” Jiang Cheng continued, looking thoughtful, “it might not be that bad an idea to spread some rumors. If I never commented on it, people would never know for sure if it was true or just slander by some dissatisfied female cultivator after one of my horrible matchmaking meetings.”

“It would still affect your reputation.”

“Like I care,” Jiang Cheng scoffed. “Let them talk! If anyone is stupid enough to think that the contents of my bed have any impact on my abilities, I still have Zidian to show them the error of their ways. And I will, too; don’t think I won’t!”

Lan Wangji abruptly felt lighter inside. Of course Jiang Cheng wouldn’t care; he hardly ever cared about anything other than his sect and the children – and anyway, just because Lan Wangji had never told Jiang Cheng directly how he felt about Wei Wuxian didn’t mean that he hadn’t guessed. He had given Lan Wangji Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, after all. “I would never be so foolish.”

Jiang Cheng huffed and tossed his head, then turned to say something that he promptly forgot in favor of gaping at him. “Hanguang-jun, what are you doing with your mouth?”

Lan Wangji allowed his smile to widen. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Stop it! It’s creepy! Go back to being humorless and dull this instant!”

“No.”

“This is my sect and you’re my guest; you have to do what I say.”

“No.”

“You’re worse than A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng complained. “At least he pretends to listen. I’ll have to raise Jin Ling to be properly obedient.”

For some reason, Lan Wangji didn’t think he would have much luck with that.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #lan wangji #lan sizhui #jin ling #my fic #my fics #delight in misery #accidental life partner acquisition #lacommunarde

810 notes · View notes

tangledinmdzs · 3 years

Text

no tears left to cry, junior quartet hcs

juniors reacting to you crying over them

° 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 ₒ 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 ° ° 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 ₒ 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 ° ° 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 ₒ 𐐪𐑂 ♡ 𐐪𐑂 °

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　Lan Sizhui　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

when Sizhui sees the two big drops cascade down your cheeks, he wanted to jump out of bed right then and there

but he couldn’t, not with his arm in a cast

and his body feeling weak overall

but it physically pains him when he catches the way your breath hitches as your tears fall

and the fact that you were trying to hold it in

hide your tears from him

“y/n...” Sizhui beckons to you where he’s leaned on the headboard of his bed

you’re sat at his bedside, closer than he ever imagined but still out of hand’s reach

and you’re avoiding his eyes, looking at the floor as if that would hide the fact that you’re crying

“y/n, come here” he asks again and you wipe roughly at your tears before scooting a millimeter closer to him

but that small millimeter seems to be close enough for him to use his renewed strength and pull you into his chest

you fall unceremoniously into his open arms, and with the wetness of your tears on his chest, there’s no hiding it now

“i’m okay... i swear” Sizhui reassures you, bringing his other hand to hold the back of your head

at his voice you get a bit more strength to hold back your remaining tears, sniffling before sitting up a bit away from his chest

you don’t leave his arms though

“i was...really scared” you say, blinking away the blurriness of the water in your eyes

the rapid blink of your eye causes another stray tear to fall, but Sizhui catches it when his thumb goes up to hold your cheek

“shh, no more. i’m alright now, i’m here with you” Sizhui asserts, moving even his injured hand up to hold your face properly

you sniffle quietly, leaning gently onto his good hand

you bring your hand up to hold his wrists, looking to meet his eyes

“promise me, you won’t do something so reckless again...”

“please...” your voice is quiet as you ask,

and honestly you don’t know how you would feel if he denied his own safety-

“i promise... i won’t scare you like this again,” Sizhui promises, looking at you straight in the eyes

you take in a shaking breath, managing a small smile at his promise

and he smiles at you too

because your face makes him reminiscent of the sunlight after a rainfall

and he would always take your smile over your tears

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　Lan Jingyi　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“you’re always thinking about other people! don’t you ever think about yourself for once?” you shout

Jingyi levels his stare at you, getting into your space as he shouts back

“it’s never been about me! we go on these missions to save people! it doesn’t matter what happens to me!’

“how could it not matter! do you really think that you’re that insignificant!” you scream, pushing at him

the tears are falling from your eyes before you can stop it

and you push at his chest again

because this mission that he’d gotten from his clan’s elder is said to be the most dangerous one yet

darker than a night hunt

longer than a simple travel

and even though he’s been gifted a strong team, going to be accompanied by his friends, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re scared for his safety

your breath hitches as you continue to cry, pushing heavily at his chest

he lets you push at him a few more times before he catches your wrists

the next time you make a push at him he pulls you into his arms, letting you hide your face there as you cry

“don’t cry like this for me... please y/n” Jingyi consoles when your cries soften

his voice is deeper, rumbling with your ear pressed to his chest

you shake your head, burying your face into his chest

with you in his arms, he holds you tight, realizing that he might not be able to do this for a long time

“i swear, the moment i take care of the mission i’m coming back here, you just need to wait for me” Jingyi swears

the moonlight spills down on both of your forms

counting down the hours until his departure

“you better come back alive,” you murmur into his chest, and even though he hadn’t heard clearly he felt every single word

Jingyi takes a deep breath, wrapping you even tighter in his arms

a quiet response

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　Jin Ling 　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“and what would YOU know? about anything? about all that i’ve done?”

the words hurt even though you know that Jin Ling doesn’t really ever mean every single thing that he says

but because you had been the person by his side for such a long time

in the middle of all the deceits he was roped in

in between death and survival and numerous near death encounters

you always thought that you knew him best

yet you never thought that his frustrations as sect leader would manifest itself into such painful words

sat in the back gardens of Lanling, you feel isolated for the first time in a place that you had always known

the small lotus pond that’s nearby provides little comfort

and your tears continue to fall, even though you don’t make a single sound

they blur your vision, and subdue a lot of your other senses

so you don’t notice the swish of long robes

or even the gentle thump of someone sat down besides you

you don’t even believe the soft puff of air that you hear alongside the slight breeze

“i... i didn’t mean to say all that i said to you before...” Jin Ling’s rough voice begins

you take in a quiet breath, hiding your hands by clenching them under the long sleeves of your robes

“...there’s been so much going on around me, in my sect, with my uncles. and it always seems like everything is either not going to happen or happening all at once. and... i never have enough time for you either” Jin Ling admits and turns to gauge your reaction

you’re not looking at him

but he is speechless when he catches the single drop that falls from your face onto your hands in your lap

at your tears, Jin Ling abandons his cold front, immediately going to kneel in front of you, trying to catch your face

because he can’t believe that

he’d made you cry

Jin Ling holds your hands in his, even when you look adamantly anywhere but him

“i don’t deserve your forgiveness” Jin Ling begins, because he’s reeling at how much you had been hurt by what he said

“but i’m so sorry, y/n” Jin Ling apologizes, clutches your hand

your tears make him want to cry himself

reminds him of his father’s reputation

because of course he’s heard the stories, passed by the wind from ear to ear

how much his father had made his mother cry

and he thought he’d be different

but alas

“don’t say such...mean things to me, because i care about you... don’t you know that?”

Jin Ling looks up at your voice

you’re still not quite looking at him, but you’re speaking to him

Jin Ling squeezes your hand in his, nodding his head at you

“i love you, i’m so sorry” Jin Ling apologizes again, leaning his head on your knees

and even though he doesn’t hear a response

he knows he’s on his way to being forgiven when he feels the squeeze that you give his hand

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　Ouyang Zizhen　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“Zizhen!” you shout, panicked as he drops the bow and arrow

you quickly grab his hand, ignoring the way that the game master is asking if he’s doing well, or ‘alright’

there’s a pretty ugly gash from where the arrow back had sliced in his palm, and the red of the blood stains the frays of your robe sleeves from where you’re holding his hand

you let your body run on auto-pilot, dragging the young sect leader to a more empty part of the street festival and sitting him down on a few free steps

you run off to find a bandage and some medicine to clean the cut without another word, Zizhen not even having time to process the pain before you’re back and taking care of his wound

sat on the open steps of some store, you’re gentle as you dab the, luckily, skin level injury with medicine, wrapping it up with a nice clean bandage

you don’t notice the wateriness and worry of your own eyes until a single salty drop lands on ZIzhen’s freshly bandaged palm

Zizhen’s surprised, immediately tilting your face up from where it’s staring at his small injury to meet your eyes

at your tears he offers a worried smile,

“why are you crying?” he asks you gently, and brushes away another tear when you suddenly cry again

you shrug, blinking to keep the tears at bay only for them to fall quickly from your action

he laughs at your reaction, helping you to wipe away the tears that fall

you swipe at your own face and the tears pass

with a sigh you regain a bit of your composure

you hold his injured hand in yours, tracing your small fingers against the wrap that you made

“i just hate seeing you hurt” you admit, quietly, feeling a bit embarrassed at your overdramatic reaction

Zizhen just huffs a soft, cute chuckle at you, laying his other hand on top of yours

his thumb traces against your own palm, reassuringly

“i’m okay, you take such great care of me,” Zizhen tells you, honestly

but with the way he usually is, you have a hard time telling if he’s teasing you or what

at your cute little eyebrow raise, he brings you into a side hug, laying his head on top of yours when you lean into him close enough

only you, would care about him this much

Zizhen realizes

only you, would he care for just as much, actually return tenfold

100 notes · View notes

chnqin · 3 years

Text

My Epic MDZS/The Untamed Daemon AU

I’m sure other people have already done Daemon AUs, but this idea wouldn’t leave me alone. I have been working on this for like three weeks now.

I just wrote down my first instinctive thought for most characters, and then researched* further into subspecies etc. What I found for a lot of the animals made me agree with my first opinion even more, although all of these are obviously just my own opinions. I also decided to stick to non-mythological animals. (some characters have been given a lot more consideration than others, I’m sorry)

Wei Wuxian: beech marten Beech martens are quick and clever. The are nocturnal, omnivores, and skilled swimmers. They move through paths made by larger animals such as hares in the snow. {further notes under read more}

Lan Wangji: white hare More solitary animals. They have an association with the moon, which I tend to associate LWJ with. {f/n}

Jiang Cheng: osprey Aquatic birds; good hunters. {f/n}

Lan Xichen: white stag {f/n}

Jiang Yanli: asian black bear {explained in detail under the read more}

Jin Zixuan: lion Ngl it’s probably because the Persian pokemon reminds me of him

Jin Guangyao: domestic cat {f/n}

Nie Huiasang: pangolin {f/n}

Nie Mingju: wolf {f/n}

Wen Qing: Chinese sparrowhawk {f/n}

Wen Ning: black Formosan mountain dog (tuguo) {f/n}

Lan Sizhui: Xiasi Quan dog or red panda or badger {f/n}

Jin Ling: lion {f/n}

Lan Jingi: monkey They’re respected animals but also have a mischievous side

Ouyen Zihzen: capybara No, they’re not native to China, but this is what I imagined him as and I couldn’t get it out of my head or find a perfect substitute

Xiao Xinchen: swan He just gives me major swan vibes, possibly something to do with Swan Lake (as do some Lans but they’re not graceful in the same way or tragic in the same way)

Song Lan: oriental hobby falcon or black horse He struck me as some sort of raptor, but I also liked a horse for him

Luo Qingyang/Mianmian: lynx

Lan Qiren: sheep Symbolise filial piety. Also follow other people without question (*cough* the Lan Sect elders)

Jiang Fengiman: otter Spends a lot of time around the water, just what popped into my head

Yu Ziyuan: snake Because Zidian

The Jiang Sect favour animals who live near or on the water, some even possessing daemons which are fully aquatic, and thus are unable to leave Lotus Pier

The Lan Sect usually have herbivore animals for daemons and favour swift, elegant animals.

The Jins tend towards lions and panthers, but also flashy, rich birds like pheasants and peacocks (which makes WWX’s nickname for JZX even more funny).

The Nies often have pack or herd animals. Wolves and mountain lions are very common, but also a lot of horned animals like oxen, mountain goats and sheep (bighorn sheep and ibex are common), and also wild boar.

The Wens were typically birds of prey (the Dire Owl becomes Wen Chao’s daemon) or mountain cats.

The Yus often have daemons which take reptile form. Wildcats also common. I quite like the idea that the Yus are a sect which has cultivated the ability to separate themselves from their daemons.

~Further notes on why I picked these animals, Daemon settling, angsty AUs of my AU, and research disclaimer under the cut~

Story & Research Notes:

(I’m going with the idea that trauma can make a daemon settle into a particular form)

WWX A marten was the first thing to come to mind for WWX, I have no idea why, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. They’re really inquisitive, playful, and cute, but are also predators and will fuck you up if necessary. A crow was another obvious choice because they’re curious and inventive, but with a bit of a dark connotation. However, in my version at least (I’m not great on His Dark Materials canon), Daemons usually settle in the early teens, and at that point WWX really didn’t have as much darkness in him as he develops later.

I think WWX was one of those people whose daemon changed with every thought and feeling of his, whose daemon changed so rapidly and so repeatedly that people would complain of motion sickness watching it. His daemon’s most common forms were a martin, a magpie, an otter (which drove Madam Yu nuts), and (after JYL’s settled) very occasionally a bear.

When WWX comes back most people don’t realise anything is wrong because Mo Xuanyu always hid his daemon (I think it was probably something like a field mouse although how funny would it be if Little Apple was actually his daemon and WWX unknowingly inherited her along with the body), so they just think his has settled into something too big to hide now. However, his beech martin is the other reason Lan Wangji knows who Wei Wuxian is (WWX’s daemon hides from Jiang Cheng at Dafan Mountain, so JC only suspects it’s WWX). (Angsty AU further down)

LWJ I know that arctic hares aren’t native to China, but I want you to pretend that something like that does exist because I need lwj to have a white hare daemon. They are also bigger than other hares and cuter (they look slightly less cursed than some hares do). I’m imagining a lot of the daemons being slightly bigger than their real-life animal counterparts would be, so imagine the ears coming up to a normal person’s hip-height when the daemon is sitting. Rabbits can also apparently symbolise hope, and that suits someone who is known to go where the chaos is, bringing hope and light in the darkness.

As a child, LWJ’s daemon was expressive in a way he never could be. It liked to take snow leopard form a lot, which was seen as excessively violent to the Lan sect, who preferred non-carnivorous animals, and often snarled at people. His daemon always took snow leopard form when visiting his mother so it could curl up with her tiger daemon.

LWJ’s daemon settled exceptionally early, shortly after his mother’s death, into an acceptable hare form. Lan Xichen always wondered if LWJ himself made his daemon settle, if she was not supposed to have been a snow leopard all along, and so always looks upon LWJ’s daemon with a bit of sadness because he feels like it was LWJ stifling - almost killing off - a part of his personality (spoiler: it was) in order to fit into the Lan sect.

(More on that in an angsty AU below)

JC Ngl, I wanted to make Jiang Cheng a goose because they’re always angry but I didn’t. Jiang Cheng shifted mostly between a hunting dog and a mouse as a child, both of which infuriated Yu Ziyuan (honestly what she wanted her children’s daemons to be even I don’t know). Jiang Cheng’s daemon settled very late (another thing his mother wasn’t happy with). In fact, it didn’t settle till the attack on Lotus Pier and the death of his parents, when it took the shape of an osprey (because he wanted to be able to fly away and pretend none of it ever happened).

Even more angsty: One Chinese poem has the Osprey as a symbol of marital harmony and fidelity. Upon seeing his parents death, finally united in a way they hadn’t been in life, JC’s constant wish for his parents to love each other (and, by extension, him) physically manifests itself in his daemon.

JYL I know what you’re thinking. Why the hell did you give Jiang Yanli a bear of all people. Well I’ll tell you. For two reasons: one, because I can do what I want, and two, because I would say one of JYL’s most central characteristics is her wish to look after people. She’s not physically strong in the way most other cultivators are, however, and she’s always having to keep the peace at home - and so I can see her daemon becoming a physical manifestation of that need to protect (bears are known to be protective, particularly mothers), and a physical example of her inner strength which is so often overlooked.

Yanli shifted between a dove, a crane, and a maritime striped squirrel for most of her childhood. She favoured the squirrel and dove (incredibly mild animals) over the crane, which disappointed Madam Yu. It’s one of the reasons Jin Zixuan never saw her as a potential match, her daemon too small and docile to match his almost constant lion daemon.

When Jiang Yanli was around fourteen Madam Yu took things with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng too far one day, and Yanli saw it. Her daemon suddenly shifted into a bear, a form it had never taken up to that point, and jumped on Yu Ziyuan’s snake daemon. WWX and JC always remembered Yanli standing in the doorway, her expression placid while her huge bear daemon growled with absolute fury and menace. Everyone expected Yanli’s daemon to go back to its usual squirrel or dove form, but it never did. It remained a bear, and remained the biggest daemon of pretty much anyone in any of the sects.

I had already picked a crane as one of JYL’s potential daemons because of its connection to water and positive symbolism in China. Upon further (hopefully accurate) research, I saw that cranes depicted with lotuses in Chinese art symbolise purity and longevity, and I liked making her daemon a bear even more, because her daemon took that form to protect WWX and JC - years after her death, they both wondered if, had her daemon had taken crane form, maybe she wouldn’t have died. From what I found, “crane” is also a homophone for 合 hé “peace, harmony”, which is a quality Jiang Yanli had much of, and tried to inspire in others.

LXC I think its LXC’s hairpiece which always makes me think of deer antlers (even though it’s a dragon?), so that’s probably why I immediately thought of a stag for him. But stags are also very noble and refined looking animals which don’t tend towards violence, but also have horns for a reason. Obviously, like with LWJ, it’s a white stag because aesthetique. Upon further research, I discovered a (hopefully correct) source which says 鹿 lù (deer) is a homonym with 璐 lù (precious jade), and the character for deer is used within the character 丽 lì ‘beautiful; elegant’ - both fit LXC very well.

JGY Cats are sneaky little fuckers (I say this with love). The ultimate predator in small unassuming form. Many of the main Jin family have big cat daemons so this is kind of another smack in the face for JGY - so close to being a real part of the Jin family, but still kept apart from them - and something people like to bring up along with his mother. However, many Jins are also birds (including JGS), and cats prey on birds.

NHS I thought a fox was a bit on the nose. Also I like the way pangolin’s just drop and curl up in defence - it’s a viable form of protection, but to the outside appears cowardly. However, their scales are sharp and can cut predators who come after them. Also I didn’t want him to fit into any of his sect’s typical animals. Also also imagine how cute it would look being carried around everywhere by NHS because it’s too lazy to walk, absolutely adorable.

NMJ A wolf was what immediately came to mind for Nie Mingjue. Wolves are apparently sometimes associated with greed, self-interest, and lechery, but I think the pack elements and the carnivore/hunting nature of the wolf really suits NMJ and the Nie clan in general, so I decided to overlook that aspect (although I did briefly consider making JGS a wolf, but I like them as animals too much in real life to do that to them and also he doesn’t have a soul, so he doesn’t get a daemon).

WQ I always saw Wen Qing as some sort of hawk, I just think it suits her very well. The Chinese sparrowhawk is quite small and very beautiful. It has white, red and grey colours. They are good hunters and swift flyers.

WN I knew I wanted Wen Ning to be some sort of dog because he’s very loyal, and also (angsty) when the Jins call the Wens dogs I wanted that to hurt even more. He’s very unusual for a Wen, none of the main sect have dog daemons - it is very much a thing that is specific to their branch of the Wen family. The mountain dog I picked for him is an endangered breed, which I also felt fitted WN well. From what I found, dogs symbolise watchful wisdom, honesty, and loyalty, which all fit Wen Ning.

This was all perfect till I remembered WWX’s all-consuming fear of dogs. I decided to get round this by cheating and saying that for some reason daemons are different and he’s not scared of them (because they represent a part of someone’s soul, rather than being a real animal? I guess?? Please do not look too hard at this delicately constructed card tower)

Angsty version: when Wen Ning becomes a fierce corpse he loses his daemon, another reason people are unsettled by him and another thing WWX feels guilty about.

LSZ I think Lan Sizhui was the hardest to pick. I couldn’t decide which way to go: should he follow a “Lan approved” daemon pattern; should he have a bird like Wen Qing and a lot of other Wens? Then I saw the Xiasi Quan and it’s white and fluffy and cute but it was also a hunting and a guard dog, which seemed right for him. And I liked that it gave LSZ and WN this one very tangible connection. It is also endangered. However, I also liked a red panda and a badger for Lan Sizhui too. I really couldn’t decide between the three. I like them all, why is he the hardest to choose for? (I’m still not 100% happy with this, let me know if you have any alternative suggestions)

Again, please suspend your disbelief at the fact that WWX’s child has a dog daemon and he’s fine with this (it would have looked so cute as a little puppy running around the Burial Mounds though).

When he was younger his daemon liked to take on the forms of those closest to him. So you’d often see a bby marten running after WWX’s daemon, a tiny bird perched with Wen Qing’s sparrow-hawk, a puppy following Wen Ning’s dog around, and a tiny bby rabbit in Cloud Recesses. As he got older it shifted between the dog, a red panda, and a badger. (maybe I’ll just say his hasn’t settled yet and that’s why I can’t decide)

JL Jin Ling definitely also had a daemon which shifted because of a) his loved ones and b) his mood, and he hated it. As if his own explosive temper didn’t give him away enough, his daemon always showed his exact feelings. When he wanted nothing more than his mother to be there it would be a bear. When he was feeling defensive about his parents it would turn into a lion (this happens when he and WWX first meet and any time people talk about his parents’ deaths). When he was younger his daemon spent a lot of time as a cat and a bird, although different types to what his uncles had.

Jin Ling’s daemon still hasn’t settled when WWX is resurrected, and he is absolutely mortified the one time it decides to turn into a beech marten like WWX’s. Eventually it will settle into a lion, and WWX will pretend to be grumpy that it didn’t choose a bear instead.

Angsty AUs:

Daemons are linked to golden cores Jiang Cheng loses his daemon along with his core. When Wei Wuxian’s core is removed it’s more like when daemons and humans are separated in the books. His daemon stays with him, but can move about freely - this is part of what causes WWX to rapidly destabilise, not just resentful energy. Jiang Cheng always feels weirdly aware of WWX’s daemon after that but doesn’t know why. WWX’s daemon is technically connected to JC too, and also finds this weird. JC also can’t work out why his daemon never came back with his golden core, and that loss is part of why he’s so angry and isolated.

The effect of trauma on Daemons Another angsty au is based on the idea that, if trauma can make your daemon settle early, then trauma can also make it change.

When Wei Wuxian is thrown into the Burial Mounds, he wishes so hard to be able to fly that his beech marten turns into a crow (because I do love a crow for him too). I kind of like the idea that after the Burial Mounds WWX’s daemon almost un-settles itself, and can change between a marten and a crow. This really freaks people out and is another reason people say he’s dangerous.

Similarly, after Wei Ying’s death and the Lan sect’s punishment, Lan Wangji wakes up to find his daemon has shifted from its hare to snow leopard form. In his soul, LWJ feels like if he had been less passive and actually stood with WWX then his soulmate would still be alive. His daemon changes from a more passive hare to the more aggressive snow leopard.

He’s criticised by the elders for it, but they shut up when his daemon flattens theirs, while LWJ’s face remains an impassive mask but his eyes promise murder. WWX is really sad when he comes back to see LWJ’s hare gone and blames himself for causing LWJ so much trauma his daemon changed. (personally if I were writing a Daemon AU this is what I would have happen, because I love LWJ with a snow leopard daemon - they symbolise bravery and martial ferocity, while rabbits are virtue and gentleness, and I feel like these two both accurately represent the two sides of LWJ. I really feel like LWJ has a huge shift in himself after WWX’s death which would be represented in his daemon. It also is, in a way, a return of a core part of himself which was lost after his mother’s death)

Sword/Instrument substitute Mixing Daemons with sword sprits - the animal becomes a physical representation of the spiritual tool. Some people could therefore have more than one daemon (for example, LWJ could have Bichen - his rabbit sword daemon - and Wangji - his snow leopard guqin daemon)

Angsty version: WWX actually does die in the burial mounds and Suibian, his beech martin, dies/changes into Chenqing, a raven/crow.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。..・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

If you are reading this you have made it to the end of this post, well done.

I wanted to make it shorter but I had too many ideas and wanted to explain my reasoning for my choices and decided just to put it all in one post rather than lots of little ones.

*Disclaimer: I know only the smallest amount of Chinese, and have taken all my information about imagery, word meanings, and homophones etc from web-sources, and so it is very possible I have made mistakes. Though I have, to the best of my abilities, attempted to check on the cultural/artistic meaning, if any, that certain animals have in Chinese culture, the internet lies and I can’t get any decent books on it atm as the libraries are closed, so I’m really sorry if there are errors and I hope people will forgive any mistakes or blunders I might have made.

#mdzs #the untamed #cql #daemon au #mdzs daemon au #mine #guys i have spent a stupid amount of time on this #myau

29 notes · View notes

cyb-by-lang · 3 years

Note

Since Tomoe and Shinta are near WWX’s age-group... does that mean we get to see big sis!Kei despite her not having little gremlin brother Hayate yet!? (*looks at Wen Yuan and Jin Ling excitedly*) because if Wuya-jie doesn’t pull up her sleeves and dive headfirst into the clusterfuck that is the Wen Remnants, then what was the point of WWX getting another badass shijie?

(On another note, I find it fascinating how many strong, independent women WWX attracts/knows. There’s JYL, sweet lady that she is that burned JZX’s cousin at Phoenix Mountain; WQ, who is pretty much self-explainatory; MianMian, who stood against the Jin Sect and left; YZY, while a sour woman, still very bamf; BSSR, an immortal for heaven’s sake; LY, the only mentioned female sect leader and creator of the Assassination Chord Technique. Which, can any of the Nippon residents pull off?)

Long answer below the cut, with some spoilers.

Kei hasn’t been born in this part of the timeline. Right now, Tomoe and Wataru aren’t even officially together yet. They’re sort of writing back and forth, with Tomoe using Shinta as a messenger pigeon because she’s kinda holding off any character development with both hands and her bad attitude. Even her overtures to Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, and Jiang Yanli are from a place of fairly obvious self-interest. At this point in the story, Tomoe’s early enough in her character arc that she’s not particularly nice, and Kei and Hayate are not even a thought in her head.

From what I can tell, the Chord Assassination technique is...basically the same as if you garrotted someone with a wire, but with spiritual energy used to reinforce the wire/ensure cutting power. Originally used to silence dissidents within the Lan sect. Cheery, really. Anyway, there are a lot of spiritual techniques that are fiendishly difficult (if not impossible) for people without the correct training and/or spiritual structures in their bodies, but Chord Assassination is fairly straightforward. It’s just the exact opposite of what Tomoe does when she attacks someone with her katana.

On the whole, the Japanese characters introduced in Dig Two Graves mostly don’t have access to the standard cultivator skill set. No flying on swords, no talismans, no ability to stave off starvation through inedia, and not much in the way of an increased lifespan/youth. They’re also too old by most cultivators’ standards to actually do the training necessary to forge a golden core. By the same token, cultivators almost all share a power source and general set of skills, but mostly can’t branch into the weird esoteric crap that the shinobi bring to the party. For example, there’s not really a means to give someone the Inuzuka sense of smell, or the Uzumaki blood magic/chain manifestation. On top of everything, most of these abilities are treated as secrets not taught to outsiders by both countries, which means there’s less crossover than there might otherwise be. It’s just that Tomoe and Shinta are in an area where their version of “everyone knows how to do that” doesn’t fly.

Literally.

Wei Wuxian does seem to have Protagonist Syndrome; barring like… Qin Su, basically every character has some sort of reaction directly to him. The ones who don’t also happen to be dead. Then again, a lot of the ones who do are also dead. Mianmian is a glorious exception, but also very much an exception. There’s a bit of a body count in this story, is what I’m saying. (And since he’s never actually met Baoshan Sanren, I’m a little vague on their theoretical relationship and don’t think either character actually cares to pick up that thread.)

To give you an idea of what my and Beta’s opinion of Madam Yu is, one of the conditions of actually having a beta reader on Dig Two Graves was that she needed to be dead. Her and Jiang Fengmian. I agreed immediately, because I didn’t like either of the Jiang parents and still don’t. Especially not Madam Yu.

#dig two graves #the untamed #asks #word of god #nyd-needs-cuddles

12 notes · View notes

vardasvapors · 4 years

Note

link to the resentment tentacle core fingering fic please?????????

PSYCH I HAD TO POST A WHOLE LIST OF RECS SORRY FOR THE WAIT ANON anyway these are in no way comprehensive most of them were just recalled by skimming my chat history

sometimes my hands don’t feel like my own by northofallmusic: ok i say ‘golden core fingering tentacle fic’ flippantly but it’s EXTREMELY serious okay. it’s not often that anything written by someone else actually hits that balls-out extremeness of utterly emotionally sincere and extrapolating from a baseline of Abomination Rights intensity of body-horror-wrapping-back-around-to-non-horror monsterfucking that actually satisfies let alone impresses ME, but this one does! same w the rest of this author’s mdzs works lol. shitton of holification vibes which is always good. anyway the golden core fingering is very reciprocated by ‘diy transhumanism bone fingering’ which i Won’t elaborate on.

you are my delightful intruder by hanguang_jacked (lmao): my girlfriend once described this by telling me ‘thanks for sending me that fic where lwj is a disaster autism and gets railed.’ this is actually my #1 favorite fic in the fandom and i’m annoyed that it manages to stitch like, Absolute Perfection into a object-impermanence meltdown and subsequent hyper-intimacy of marking kink RACK. the exquisite depiction of emotions(love)-too-big-and-intense-for-his-form stuff.

catharsis by niixna: there are about 900 ‘lwj grief pov set after wwx dies’ fics but this one is by far the best and most immaculately characterized and utterly devoid of self-consciousness or rationalism in the face of emotional sincerity, even though i’m pretty sure english is not the author’s first language and it’s extremely poorly edited and it shows. i am so picky about lwj characterization and this is like. the platonic ideal tbh. i never cry about stuff i read but i did at this.

like looking through a fogged mirror by xiyaogarbage (lmao!): extremely viciously thematically appropriate (especially for untamed verse) ‘au but is it necessarily an au?’ fic with the premise of ‘jin guangyao did not actually murder his son.’ it’s always ofc been obvious to me that the reason jgy is the unparalleled master of weaponizing this flavor of reputation-based plausible-deniability scapegoating against other people, is precisely because he himself has both observed and been victimized by its effectiveness, and he still continues to be. no one would believe him if he said he was innocent of just this one particular act — in this fic he doesn’t even entirely believe himself. it’s just fucking. incredible.

moonlight by staringatstars: honestly i’m not entirely sure WHY this is one of my favorite fics. ‘nie huaisang nie-huaisanging’ and ‘the collection of turmoil hot’ doesn’t cut it. the uneasily loose-ended and threatening thread of the progression of a political microcosm incident that meanders through a broad swathe of subjects is just good. i guess i just really like chief-cultivator!lwj fics that irresistibly remind me of ikuhara’s liner notes for the end of utena lol.

hills and rivers are waiting by LtLJ: this is a jin ling pov plotty case-fic and it’s perfect, all those yi city field trip/post-canon casefic extra novel chapters vibes. the other fics in this series are amazing too! general revelations about tingshan he, and wen ning song lan mianmian and jin ling scheming to set up their own mini sect, as a treat.

too much, not enough by shamelesscooper: i’m not sure HOW a fic of the bizarrely common interfandom cliche which i don’t even like that is ‘cis male character is cursed with a vagina and needs someone to fuck him in it to get his junk back’ managed to be one of the best wwx & jiang cheng relationship study fics i’ve ever read (and that’s Not a low bar), but it is.

translucent ties that gently bind by katoptris9: It’s short and there are ofc also 900 fics about lxc’s post-canon mental-health-scrapheap out there, but I mostly am reccing for the very cruel but believable self-awareness, and flashback to lxc’s pov of lwj’s drunken selfharm rampage lol

an aging wound by lise: a wwx & jc ‘’’’’reconciliation’’’’’ fic with the absolute most neurotic communication possible, i laughed so hard i hurt myself

my eclectic muse by tahto: okay i actually don’t really care much about anything in this fic EXCEPT its characterization of lan sizhui, which i’m COMPLETELY obsessed with. step on me.

sunshot outtakes by swordgrip: yiling laozu being hot. uh i mean. wwx and lwj wreck an entire repo’d mansion bedroom with uncontrolled magic power while fucking after killing a bunch of people in battle and it’s hot.

like the setting sun by silversshadow: i’m only partway through this series but the premise is basically ‘the lingering ghosts of the wen remnants manifest themselves and follow wwx and wen ning throughout the entire post-timeskip plotline, instead of just briefly appearing at the burial mounds’ and honestly this is just a concentration/externalization of everything that mdzs is about, the wish-fulfillment of murder victims clinging to the world to ensure their murderers come to justice instead of giving up the space they used to take up and proving how effective genocide is. the cultivation world as a system ostensibly intended to protect living ppl from ghosts but actually functioning as a system to suppress and erase dead victims of the gentry’s oppression and genocide LOL. can’t, unfortunately, speak to how effective it winds up given that i’m not finished. but i couldn’t pass up mentioning it.

#the untamed #mdzs #fic rec #SORRY LMAO #i’d rather be eaten by you than fed by anyone else

14 notes · View notes