#wei wuxian is hurting himself but he puts that as secondary.

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Beneath the surface

This is for point 11 of @sasukimimochi 's fall drawing/writing challenge, "unknown".

Um. I don't know what warnings to put in this one. It's kind of angsty, kind of horny, kind of monsterfuck-y.

...yeah, don't look at me.

Anyways, enjoy <3

Lan Wangji treads the water as he has always done, sinking underneath the surface of the Cold Pond gradually, elegant and unbothered by the cold of it - though this time is different from all those others.

And not only because he is sharing his meditative space with somebody else.

And not even because that somebody else is the very person he has finally accepted he loves and loves him in return, the person he has thought forever lost but that has been so miraculously returned to him.

He tries not to allow anxiety to stir him, and he tries, fruitlessly, to focus on his bodily sensations, on the chills on his skin and the trill of night birds and grasshoppers.

Wei Wuxian follows after him, uncharacteristically silent. He does not even whine about the low temperature or how he wishes to be held in his husband's arms to warm up his fragile body. Instead, he keeps those gripes to himself and shivers as he feels the icy water bite at his skin until it reaches his midriff.

"Wei Ying..." Lan Wangji begins, his voice small, vulnerable. "Are you sure about this?"

He nods, and smiles as softly and reassuringly as he can muster. "You can trust me, Lan Zhan, you know that." He reaches to touch his husband's face, caressing the soft skin of his right cheek. "You don't need to hide anymore."

Lan Wangji looks at him, full of love and fear, and pulls him into a kiss so passionate and regretful, as though he's certain he won't ever get to do it again.

He knows his husband loves him - but Wei Wuxian has never seen him as he is, in his purest, rawest form, the form he hides beneath a carefully crafted disguise.

Because there is a secret he hides - a secret everybody in his family hides, and he has been so dutifully devoted to keeping it that he has not even allowed his husband to know it until it became too unbearable to keep it.

The truth is that the Lan aren't strange because of their harsh upbringing, their many rules or their strict lifestyles. Rather, it is these constraints that keep them within the bounds of normalcy, at least enough for them to pass off as peculiar rather than monstruous.

Many have said the Lan appear out of this world, descended from the heavens. And though their words have been largely metaphoric, there has always been truth to them.

Because the Lan are not Earth-bound. They aren't even human.

Lan Wangji lets go of his husband regretfully, feeling the weight of uncertainty and impending rejection the moment he returns from the little bubble of happiness he always seemed to find himself isolated in whenever he shared affection with Wei Wuxian.

He knows the other is not one to judge, knows he has seen things he still cannot talk about and felt every fear and ache there is to feel.

But Lan Wangji also knows what he looks like - and he is certain it is nothing like the horrors Wei Wuxian has seen before. Perhaps, he is even worse.

But Wei Wuxian has asked to see him, all of him, and Lan Wangji has vowed never to deny him anything - and if that is going to ruin their love, their marriage and all that they have built together... Lan Wangji will accept it. He won't even judge Wei Wuxian for it, or hold a grudge. He will only hurt, until the end of his life, until the end of forever.

Lan Wangji closes his eyes, and breathes in deeply. This is it, there is no turning back, no way to undo it.

First, feels his body relax, tension leaving his muscles as his secondary limbs detach from beneath his skin. The length of his hair extends, the ends of it coming to life to move beneath the water, feeling at it like an insect's curious antennae.

His nails grow into the sharp talons he has so carefully learned to hide, and he shivers with the sensation of his scales no longer hurting as they lay trapped underneath his human skin.

His tail unfurls, long, undulating in the water like a snake only to wrap around one of his legs as if ashamed to exist.

All of this feels shameful, which is why Lan Wangji has yet to open his eyes and face his husband's reaction. He does not want to see the disgust and fear on Wei Wuxian's face as he sees the two pairs of tentacles sprouting from his sides, the translucent ivory of his skin, the talons and the tail and the way his sclera shines a pale yellow with nothing human in it.

He does not want to see Wei Ying recoil as he discovers the sharp fangs in Lan Wangji's mouth, or the way he feeds, the way he sounds, the way he exists as this terrible, inhuman, alien creature.

He does not open his eyes because he does not want to face reality and the pain of rejection that comes with it.

Instead, he hears the water swish quickly and figures Wei Wuxian has run off, disgusted and terrified with the monster his husband actually is, and he wants to do nothing but hide away and rot somewhere, alone, the way he has always been meant to...

...until he feels a pair of arms envelop him, so much smaller now than he remembers but still so powerfully loving.

That finally prompts Lan Wangji to open his eyes.

He does not meet any of the rejection he expects. Instead, Wei Wuxian stares at him with wonder, his arms struggling to encircle Lan Wangji's waist as he looks up at the man with boundless admiration.

"How beautiful..." he murmurs as he allows himself to look over Lan Wangji's form up close, fingers ghosting over the scaly skin of the other's human arms, then feeling the powerful muscle beneath the tentacles. "Let me discover you a little."

Lan Wangji nods, surprised with his husband's behavior, and allows himself to be examined as he tries to ease out of the anticipatory anxiety he's been drowning in.

Markings shine on Lan Wangji's skin as he feels Wei Wuxian's hands caress him - to which Wei Wuxian makes a curious sound as he traces one with a finger, watching it throb light as if embarrassed. It looks like a cluster of veins, or like stretchmarks, almost, shaped like a little star. Wei Wuxian can't help leaving a fleeting kiss over one such marking gleaming over Lan Wangji's heart.

Then, he continues his exploration dutifully as if Lan Wangji were one of his many experiments, touching him all over and humming with every discovery. He finds the skin changes texture with feeling - it started off scaly and cold, but the more relaxed Lan Wangji became, the softer and warmer it became in turn. Now it feels velvet soft, and it emits something like a buzz when it's touched. Wei Wuxian finds that he enjoys the way that feels on his fingers.

The markings, like surface veins, react to sensation in the body, but even more so when they're touched themselves. Lan Wangji lets out some kind of purr whenever that happens, which Wei Wuxian has found he also enjoys the feeling of.

The four tentacles are especially fascinating for him. The first two are thicker and shorter, smooth, covered with a slippery membrane, whereas the others are thin and long, much more sensitive to touch. They are not covered in that membrane, although they feel just as soft to the touch.

Wei Wuxian examines the way they twitch as he prods at them and only stops when he hears Lan Wangji breathe in sharply - whether that was from pain or pleasure, Wei Wuxian figures he will find out later.

He looks behind Lan Wangji and sees his tail protrude from his back, the appendage still circled around its owner's leg.

Lan Wangji opens his mouth to say something, but the sight of that prompts Wei Wuxian to touch at his lips with the same curiosity, grazing over the tips of his fangs. He seems pleased with what he finds inside Lan Wangji's mouth when he presses for his jaw to open and dips the tips of his fingers on the other's tongue. It feels both smooth and rough, and Wei Wuxian smiles to himself at that as he retracts his hand.

"I can't believe you've been hiding this from me all this time." He says, running his hands through Lan Wangji's hair, gently, so as not to upset the sensitive ends of it. He presses his body closer to that of his husband's, feeling the size and shape of it tightly against his own. He's much bigger now, stronger.

"Say, Lan Zhan..." Wei Wuxian continues, voice dropping low as he dips a hand beneath the water, seeking. "What else have you been hiding from me?"

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #writing attempts #lwj: the world is cruel and unjust i am an unsightly terrible monster #wwx: hehe hoho monster co

[theyilinglaozus]

Wei Wuxian in every episode → episode sixteen.

#wei wuxian #mdzsnet #the untamed #the untamed graphics #my graphics #wei wuxian in every episode #be prepared i'm going to get emotional and likely talk a lot about the next few episodes #because the golden core arc? absolutely ruins me. #even making these gifs was hard #because through the whole episode i was thinking about how wei wuxian feels at fault and to blame for what's happened to the jiangs #how he'll literally do anything for them. even if it means destroying himself in the process. #jiang cheng choking him in a field whilst telling him he shouldn't have saved lan wangji. that his parents deaths are wei wuxians fault. #and wei wuxian just lies back and takes it. thinking 'yeah. yeah you're right. #i'm giving you this power for your anger. take it out on me. kill me if you wish.' #and that - that is /heartbreaking/. #wei wuxian is hurting himself but he puts that as secondary. #because in his mind - he doesn't matter. but jiang cheng and jiang yanli? #their feelings and grief? that is more important and he needs to be there for them. #anyway - yell at me about wwx and his self worth issues because i am drowning in emotions #i warned you all we'd be in for mr bones' wild ride and here we are #there's no getting off of this pain train ;___;

[bloody-bee-tea]

Liminal Spaces

This also fills @felinesomnambulist​'s prompt of "only YOU could convince me to do something like this!” but I need to hold on to that ask for the second prompt.

“I hate you so much,” Jiang Cheng mutters, not for the first time but he still walks on.

“Come on, A-Cheng,” Nie Huaisang whines, hanging off Jiang Cheng’s arm, and his voice echoes eerily through the empty hallway.

“This is so bad,” Jiang Cheng mumbles, and he doesn’t even dare to imagine all the consequences this could have.

“It’s not that bad,” Nie Huaisang immediately gives back and dangles the key in front of Jiang Cheng. “I got this fair and square, so technically it’s not even breaking and entering.”

“You talked Lan Xichen into stealing this key from Lan Qiren so we could break into the school at night,” Jiang Cheng says, pinching the bridge of his nose because he can’t believe Nie Huaisang talked him into this.

“Yes, so it’s not even my crime,” Nie Huaisang says with the absolute conviction only fools can have and Jiang Cheng is absolutely helpless against it.

“I hate you so much,” he reiterates, because it bears repeating in Jiang Cheng’s mind, but Nie Huaisang only smiles at him.

“Come on, admit it,” he cajoles. “This is creepy and exciting and awesome.”

“Yeah, right until we get caught and I get disowned,” Jiang Cheng grumbles.

If his parents find out about this, he’s dead.

“But we won’t get caught,” Nie Huaisang reassures him and drags Jiang Cheng along. “And besides, would you rather I go with Wei Wuxian? Or would you rather go with him?”

Jiang Cheng snorts at the question.

“Only you could convince me to do something like this! And if you want to go with Wei Wuxian and risk serious repercussions because he doesn’t know how to behave, then please do feel free,” Jiang Cheng says and turns around on his heels, pretending he wants to leave.

“Noooooooo, please don’t do this to me, it’s too creepy alone,” Nie Huaisang almost yells and yet again his voice echoes.

“Be more quiet,” Jiang Cheng hisses, but to his chagrin that also carries and Nie Huaisang only laughs at him.

“Let’s get going,” Nie Huaisang says after he calmed down again and he keeps dragging Jiang Cheng away. “The faster we go on with this the sooner you can cross ‘visiting a liminal space’ off your bucket list and I can do the same with dancing on the bleachers.”

“You could totally dance on the bleachers during the day,” Jiang Cheng shoots back because it’s not like Nie Huaisang is ashamed of anything he does.

“But that’s not the point of it. It has to be exciting and slightly illegal,” Nie Huaisang gives back and Jiang Cheng stops dead in his tracks.

“So you admit it. It’s illegal.”

“Only a little bit. Not enough to get us into serious trouble, I promise,” Nie Huaisang reassures him, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t believe a single word he says.

This is going to end so badly.

“Let’s get this behind us,” Jiang Cheng decides and now he’s the one dragging Nie Huaisang along, but seriously, he just wants to get this over with so they can leave.

The sooner they leave the less chance there is for anyone to catch them. Or so Jiang Cheng hopes.

It’s not long before they get to the gym—this is their old school after all, so they know the ways—but it’s so much more creepy than Jiang Cheng imagined it to be. He hadn’t realized that people would make such a difference to the whole mood and he has to admit that he checks over his shoulder more than once on their way.

“Scared?” Nie Huaisang asks him, with a light jab of his elbow to Jiang Cheng’s side and with anyone else Jiang Cheng would snap but not with Nie Huaisang.

“Yes,” he admits, and relishes in the way Nie Huaisang’s eyes go wide.

“Oh,” he breathes out and then looks down. “I’m kinda scared, too. It’s so—empty and creepy. It shouldn’t be this empty,” Nie Huaisang says and Jiang Cheng smiles at him because this is why he feels he can be honest with Nie Huaisang.

“True. Now come on, I want to go home.”

They quickly make their way to the gym now, spurred on by their need to leave and soon enough they look up at the bleachers.

“You wanna dance on every row?”

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang decides and gets started on that immediately.

Jiang Cheng follows after him, though he’s much more careful about it and definitely doesn’t jump from row to row recklessly like Nie Huaisang does but they make their way up relatively soon.

“Well, that was kinda underwhelming,” Nie Huaisang decides and turns around to jump back down.

Except that he slips and falls off the row.

Jiang Cheng reaches out for him, and manages to get his hands on his arm, stopping Nie Huaisang from falling completely, but in turn Jiang Cheng slips off his own row.

And lands really badly on his foot.

“Fuck,” he yells, the ankle throbbing almost immediately, but he still keeps a hand on Nie Huaisang until he’s safely sitting down.

“You okay?” Jiang Cheng asks and Nie Huaisang looks at him with watery eyes.

“What does that even matter, you’re hurt!”

“It’s just sprained, I think,” Jiang Cheng tries to reassure him but when he puts weight on it—carefully, just testing the waters—pain laces up his entire leg. “Or maybe not,” he pants out, falling back onto the bleacher.

“We have to call someone,” Nie Huaisang says, already searching for his phone. “There’s no way you can bike back.”

He’s right, Jiang Cheng knows that, but he can’t call anyone. All of his options will get him into trouble and that seems so much worse to him than some simple pain.

“I can manage,” he presses out, but Nie Huaisang shakes his head.

“You can’t,” he decides and then he already has his phone pressed to his ear before Jiang Cheng can protest further.

The pain is suddenly secondary to the panic gripping Jiang Cheng’s heart, because he’ll be in so much trouble. His mother will yell at him for days, his father will either ignore him or hand him over to the police, his sister will be so disappointed and Wei Wuxian will be so mad that they didn’t take him with them, and seriously all of his options are bad.

“Huaisang, please, no,” he whispers, hoping to stop Nie Huaisang, but he simply waves him off.

“Da-ge? Yeah, so listen. Wanyin and I—we maybe, kinda, broke into our old school a little bit?” Nie Huaisang waits for a moment and Jiang Cheng can faintly hear Nie Mingjue yell at the other end of the line. “Maybe Wanyin got hurt saving me from falling? And maybe we can’t make our way back home on our own? And seeing as I have potentially the best da-ge in the world—oh, you’ll pick us up? How nice of you! We came through the side-entrance, you know the one, we’ll try to get there from the gym, but meet us halfway!” Nie Huaisang cheerfully says and then hangs up on Nie Mingjue.

“Huaisang,” Jiang Cheng hisses, and he’s sure his face must be absolutely pale because from all the possible options, getting yelled at by Nie Mingjue and disappointing him must be the worst of them.

They are on the verge of something, Jiang Cheng is aware of that—has to be really, with all the flirting they have been doing—but this is going to ruin everything. He would take being yelled at his by mother anytime over disappointing Nie Mingjue and ruining whatever chance he has with him.

“Don’t worry, da-ge has our backs.”

“He’s best friends with Lan Xichen. He’s going to rat us out. And even if he doesn’t, he’s going to be so disappointed.”

“Xichen gave us the key in the first place, I don’t see what he gets to say to this,” Nie Huaisang sniffs and then gets up. “And da-ge did way worse when he was younger. Alright, up you go, we have to limp a bit now.”

Jiang Cheng stares incredulously at him for a moment longer before he hauls himself up, balancing on one foot.

“This is going to suck so much,” he mutters, and then leans gratefully onto Nie Huaisang when he slides in under his arm.

“We’ll make it. Da-ge will handle the rest, you’ll see.”

“Your da-ge will kill me,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, but he starts limping along.

His foot is already swollen, he can tell, and putting any kind of weight on it hurts like hell, but somehow they make their way down the bleachers and across the gym.

They barely made it into the hallway when they hear something.

“Please let this be da-ge, please let this be da-ge, because otherwise this is the moment we die,” Nie Huaisang mutters.

“Huaisang!” Jiang Cheng hisses, because this is really not what he needs right now, but only a second later Nie Mingjue calls out.

“Huaisang? Wanyin?”

“Here, da-ge!” Nie Huaisang yells back immediately, and they simply wait for Nie Mingjue to find them.

“There you are,” he says once he comes into sight and takes in their appearance with one glance. “How bad?”

“Definitely sprained, maybe worse, he can’t walk on it at all,” Nie Huaisang sums up and then steps away and basically throws Jiang Cheng at Nie Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue catches him easily, and he steadies Jiang Cheng much better than Nie Huaisang did.

“You saved my idiot brother?” Nie Mingjue asks wryly and Jiang Cheng nods, much to Nie Huaisang’s protest. “Well done,” he praises him then and Jiang Cheng goes beet red in the face.

He hopes Nie Mingjue doesn’t notice.

“He didn’t want me to call you,” Nie Huaisang huffs when they start walking—well, hopping in Jiang Cheng’s case—and Jiang Cheng wishes he’d shut up.

“Why not?” Nie Mingjue asks but before anyone can answer he clicks his tongue. “No, actually, I see. Your parents. I wouldn’t call them either,” he says with a nod and then smiles at Jiang Cheng. “You can always call me.”

“Yeah, right,” Jiang Cheng bitterly says, because like hell he can.

Nie Mingjue is Nie Huaisang’s brother; of course he’ll come to help him. But if Jiang Cheng should need help, he doubts that Nie Mingjue would do the same.

“What?” Nie Mingjue asks and Nie Huaisang chimes in.

“He thinks he doesn’t have the right to call you, seeing as you’re my brother,” he helpfully explains and Jiang Cheng wishes he’d simply shut up.

And get out of his head.

“Ah, I see,” Nie Mingjue says and then stops in his tracks. “Okay then,” he decides and leans down to kiss Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng is completely frozen for the first second but then he melts into it and he doesn’t even pay attention to Nie Huaisang’s screech.

“What was that?” Nie Huaisang wants to know when Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng part and while Jiang Cheng is still a little bit dazed, Nie Mingjue smiles.

“Well, we’ve been flirting for a while, right, Wanyin?” he asks and Jiang Cheng can only nod.

They had been, true, but he had thought that maybe they weren’t ready for this. It seems like he was wrong about that.

“And like this he can call his boyfriend to come to his rescue.”

It makes Jiang Cheng laugh, and lean a little bit more into Nie Mingjue, while Nie Huaisang still pretends that he would love to gauge his own eyes out.

“I think I can manage to do that,” Jiang Cheng fondly says and leans up for another brief kiss.

“Stop that,” Nie Huaisang demands.

“I’m hurt because of you, I can have a little comfort,” Jiang Cheng tells him and Nie Mingjue drops a kiss on his forehead.

“Or a lot comfort,” he decides and then gets them walking again. “We’re going to bandage your foot, and put some ice on it, and then you’ll stay with me on the couch.”

“What a hardship,” Jiang Cheng grumbles and then gives a cheeky grin to Nie Huaisang. “You have the best ideas, Huaisang, did I ever tell you?”

“I hate you both,” Nie Huaisang decides and stalks off without them.

He has to wait for them at the side-entrance to lock it again but he doesn’t speak to them at all during the ride back to the Nie house and it’s only when Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng are cuddled up on the couch that he comes back out, ice-cream for all of them in his hands.

“Because you—“ he gives Jiang Cheng a bowl— “are the best friend, and you—” one bowl for Nie Mingjue—“are the best brother. Now, I’m happy for you both, but let’s never talk about this again, it’s bad enough I have to see it.”

Jiang Cheng laughs at that just like Nie Mingjue does and then they settle all right in.

All in all, it was a very good breaking-and-entering.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

#bt writes #the untamed #mdzs #mingcheng #mdzsbingo #modern au #getting together #breaking and entering #injury #hurt comfort #first kiss #fluff

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

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Hi! First of all, thank you so much for running this blog, It's become one of three reasons why I haven't yet committed arson (I jest but the Feeling is true). [Hee, hee, hee.] I have a rec for you! It's called "wholesome life usurp immediately" by comfect on ao3 and it's. So good. It's unfinished but the author updates it literally every other day if not faster! It's a lovely fic, I hope you enjoy it. 🌻

Wholesome Life Usurp Immediately

by Comfect (T, 55k, yunmeng sibs, qingli, wangxian, WIP)

Summary: Wen Qing examines Jiang Yanli at Cloud Recesses and has a cure for her poor cultivation.

Now there are Three Prides of Yunmeng.

Everything kind of fixes itself from there.

~*~

hello mojo!! I would really like to recommend standing still (but we keep going) by lwjromantics!! it's really good!!

standing still (but we keep going)

by lwjromantics (justfantaestic) (T, 5k, wangxian)

Summary: Lan Wangji supposed that if having to take care of little A-Yuan and Mo Xuanyu and having to look at the reminders of Wei Ying in their habits and mannerisms was punishment for his actions, he would willingly take it and flay his own back open.

— There are children in the Burial Mounds.

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hii mojo! I just read this cute fic and I loved it so I wanted to rec it :) 

Word Up, Talk the Talk

by Larryissocute (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary:  It wouldn’t have been a problem (it really wouldn’t) if they weren’t best friends. Wei Wuxian doesn’t know what good deeds he did in his past life to be blessed with Lan Wangji as a friend nor does he know what evil things he did to be cursed with being only a friend to Lan Wangji.

Or the one where Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji and then runs away.

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Hey! Love your account — and proud of you for taking the hiatus you needed.  [Lol - it was really nice!]  Idk if you take fic recommendations, but I'd love to rec Roots by ardenrabbit. Fantastic characterization, I really love it!

Roots

by ardenrabbit (E, 46k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  After Wei Wuxian's duel with Jiang Cheng, he finds that stab wounds aren't so trivial when he doesn't have a core to heal them. He wakes to find Lan Zhan in the Burial Mounds with him, already beloved by the Wens and making himself at home. When Lan Zhan tells him that he wants to stay and offers more help than Wei Wuxian knows how to accept, he fears that it's only too good to be true.

Lan Wangji knows that Wei Ying is doing the right thing, and he couldn't live with himself if he let him do it alone. For everything Wei Ying has sacrificed, Lan Wangji is determined to give something back to him.

Hanguang-Jun has turned his back on the clans to join the Yiling Wens and their demonic cultivator leader, and every clan has a different opinion on the matter.

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Hello! I wanted to rec a fic on ao3 called "Restoration" by jelenedra. It's complete, an alternate universe of the sunshot campaign told nonlinearly. It has strong fairy tale and fae elements, with a touch of mystery. Bit of a fix it. Some delightful one liners, and the final ending imagery is just LOVELY. The fic deserves much more love. There's also some YilingWei, wwx not raised by Jiang, and sentient Burial Mounds elements. Enchanting read that keeps you enthralled and curious and intrigued.

Restoration

by jelenedra (M, 85k, wangxian)

Summary:  They say he was thrown into Luanzang Gang by the man who killed his parents; they say that he is an immortal cultivator who had been in a deep trance until the Wen sect disturbed his rest and incurred his wrath; they say that he is the fierce corpse of a cultivator who had somehow regained his mind and his spiritual powers.

When Lan Wangji sees him for the first time, he understands why people talk.

Meng Yao wants safety. Xue Yang wants vengeance. The Sunshot Campaign wants victory. Yiling Laozu provides, for a price.

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I usually read all your recommendations. Thanks for gathering all good recs of wangxian. I am in love with every single story your recommend especially the favorites. [I’m so glad!]  I just wanted to suggest a fic i came across while searching for phoenix!wwx. Its a new story I think as author has published it today. The first chapter was very interesting that i thought ill recommend it you and know your opinion. The legendary phoenix and his dragon -Devipriya and Hidden Path to Love by ShadowTenshiV

Hidden Path to Love

by ShadowTenshiV (G, 78k, wangxian)

Summary:  Wei Ying is a servant working at the Gusu Lan castle. One day he enters through a secret passage way connected to the library where he meets a Lan for the first time. He may have left quite an impression, gaining the other´s attention and slowly becoming friends. They would like to become something more, but a servant can´t be with a prince, but maybe his secret can change that.

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hello mojo! i was wondering if I could make a fic rec? it’s called “and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow” by izanyas. it used to be on ao3 but the author has since moved it to eir own website and has started posting updates there. i was wondering if this could also act as a signal boost bc some old readers on ao3 might not have known that it is now on another website.   Author's been through a tough time so I think it deserves a lot more love.

For new readers, please mind the warnings in the prologue and the beginning of each chapter! it’s omegaverse and a very heavy read as it deals with (possible spoiler) off-screen rape that results in an unwanted pregnancy, as well as secondary gender oppression which runs deep, but for people who can bear it the writing, worldbuilding, and emotions are truly spectacular.

and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow

by izanyas (E, 270k, wangxian, WIP, link is to WordPress rather than AO3)

Summary: Cangse Sanren was the first of her kind to become a cultivator. Talented, passionate, free-spirited, she bested everything that ever came her way until the very end.

Jiang Fengmian refuses to see her son deprived of that same freedom.

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Hello Mojo! I dunno if this's been recced before, but here's another ficrec for you? It's complete, on ao3, "The Third Young Master of Qishan Wen" by KouriArashi. It's 'if wwx was raised by dafan wen, but gets recognized as 3rd heir due to his skill' scenario. Some really nice banter and characterization. Wwx and lz get together before the sunshot campaign. Story follows the live action but diverges into au, and does some cool callbacks to original canon. Love Meng Yao in this!  [Oh, I know KouriArashi from my last fandom, I love her works!]

❤️The Third Young Master of the Qishan Wen

by KouriArashi (T, 139k, wangxian, my post)

Summary:  The fic where Wei Wuxian is adopted by the Dafan Mountain Wens instead of the Yunmeng Jiang.

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Hi Mojo! I can count the number of times I’ve spoken on Tumblr on one hand (I’m shy heh) but I found this fic that I think you and others would really like? I’m a sucker for emotional hurt/comfort and this was just too sweet for me not to share (did I go through 20 pages of bookmarks just to make sure you don’t already have it? Maybe …) [Aww, you can do a sidebar search in the bookmarks for the author’s name.  But I hope you found other good fics by carding through the whole catalog!]  It’s “Close Your Soft Eyes” by timetoboldlygo! I also wanna say thank you for all the hard work you put into this blog! It’s a treasure beyond compare. :D [Thank you so much!]

Close Your Soft Eyes

by timetoboldlygo (G, 12k, wangxian)

Summary:  When Lan Wangji woke, the first thing he noticed was the slip of paper, folded and tucked between his index and middle fingers, not Wei Wuxian’s absence. His fingers trembled as he unfurled the paper. A donkey with a little smile beamed down at him.

-

On the nights that Wei Wuxian was gone, Lan Wangji woke to gifts on his pillow.

~*~

Hey Mojo! I love your blog it is beyond awesome! [Thank you!]  I was wondering if you would consider reading JaenysBloodcourt series "A Bond to Takes us home"? The summary is weird but I like the fics and would love to hear your opinion on LWJ POV (it's part 2). Part one is Mingxian but part two (Wangxian) reads as a standalone for the most part. Anyways, thank you for all your hard work! <3 [I’ll put it on my list!]

A Bond to Take Us Home

by JaenysBloodcourt (T, 10k, mingxian - nmj/wwx, wangxian, series in progress)

Summary:  Wei Wuxian has two soulmarks. He has two soulmates that seem to be the opposite of him. During his first life he meets both of them, loves only one and longs for the other. In his second life, the one he loved first is dead, and the one he pined after is pining after him.

These are the many tales of his soulmates and the raucous they made across the cultivation world.

Some are dark, some are light. Beware.

~*~

I forgot to send this in for Mother's Day a few weeks ago, but have you read dragongirlG's "into the light of a dark black night"? It's a short canon divergence where Mama Lan escapes the Cloud Recesses after spending one last, heartbreaking night with her sons. It's so beautiful and bittersweet! [Oh, ouch.  I just read this author’s time travelling juniors au, but hadn’t seen this one.]

into the light of a dark black night

by dragongirlG (T, 3k, Madam Lan & sons)

Summary:  The night that Wu Yuhua, formerly known as Madam Lan, plans to escape from the Cloud Recesses, she runs into an unexpected complication.

That complication comes in the form of her younger son A-Zhan running up to her door and kneeling in front of it, hushed whimpers escaping from his throat.

Wu Yuhua knows it's not the full moon, knows that it's not the one day a month she's allowed to see her children—but like hell is she going to leave her six-year-old son out there trying to stifle sobs in the snow.

She opens the door. "A-Zhan," she says, bending down and reaching out a hand. "Come in, my sweet boy."

On a snowy night in the dead of winter, Wu Yuhua, formerly known as Madam Lan, unexpectedly spends one last night with her sons before escaping from the Cloud Recesses.

~*~

Hello queen I’d like to recommend for ur follower rec posts Avatar: The Untamed Waterbender by KouriArashi. Banger of an ATLA au, def the best one I’ve seen. It’s a WIP but the author updates pretty regularly and it’s all around an A+ fic [Oh, yes, I’ve been waiting for this one to finish before I jump in.]

Avatar: The Untamed Waterbender

by KouriArashi (T, 123k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  You know the drill. Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

100 years later, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli find Wei Wuxian sealed in an iceberg.

Featuring: avatar WWX, waterbending JC, firebending Wens, airbending Lans, earthbending Nies and Jins, Jiang Yanli in possession of the brain cell, et cetera.

~*~

[My ko-fi.]

#follower rec #wangxian fic rec #I HAVEN'T READ THESE YET #wangxian #mdzs #follower recs

[smiting-finger]

I tripped and I fell and this HP AU came out

So I was chatting to @silverink58​ about the beautiful original picture of Professor LWJ, and they were saying that when they picked up the prompt for the inktober exchange, they were hoping to read Hogwarts student!LWJ, 

And I thought “oh how delightful, maybe I’ll think about that idea later”, and then that “later” became “now” and what I’m saying is they shouldn’t have let me download the google docs app onto my phone, because I clearly cannot be trusted.

@silverink58​ this is for you, lol. Thanks for naming “Little Apple” :’D.

He almost doesn’t see it: a flutter of black fabric, the edge of a student robe before it slips away out of sight. But he catches the movement from the corner of his eye, and pure reflex has Lan Zhan drawing his wand to fire off a quick body-bind curse.

There's a muffled noise of surprise, abruptly cut off, and then the thump of a body hitting the floor.

When Lan Zhan turns the corner, it’s to the sight of Wei Wuxian, lying face-down on the ground.

“It’s after curfew,” Lan Zhan says, turning him over with a quick Levitation spell. “You should be inside your dormitory.”

Dark eyes glare indignantly up at him. Calmly holding Wei Wuxian’s gaze, Lan Zhan lifts the curse.

“Report for detention tomorrow,” he says, as Wei Wuxian sits up and pointedly rubs the small pink spot on his forehead.

“Lan Zhaaaan,” Wei Wuxian complains, giving the edge of Lan Zhan’s robe a beseeching tug. Lan Zhan feels his own lips thin at the over-familiarity of both the form of address and the physical contact. 

“Don’t be like that! Let me off just this once? Think of the five wonderful years we’ve spent together as potions partners!”

“Just last week, you exploded our cauldron,” Lan Zhan reminds him flatly, and Wei Wuxian grins.

“Oh come on! Let’s not harp on about petty things like that,” he says, pushing himself up onto his feet. He shakes out his robes. “You wanted to know what would happen if we added the xiezhi horn, too, just admit it.”

Lan Zhan doesn’t dignify this with a response, and simply meets Wei Wuxian’s gaze and holds it.

He is a Lan of Gusu.

He would never admit to such a thing.

Wei Wuxian pouts, reaches out a hand and uses two fingers to give Lan Zhan’s sleeve a pleading tug.

Lan Zhan sighs. 

After five years of being a detention hall regular, if Wei Wuxian was going to learn anything from writing lines, he would've done it already.

“Return to your dormitory,” he says, and Wei Wuxian smiles brightly.

“Yup, sure thing, absolutely,” he chirps, nodding in enthusiastic agreement.

He doesn’t move.

Lan Zhan looks at him expectantly.

Wei Wuxian blinks back at him with wide eyes.

Lan Zhan continues to wait.

It’s Wei Wuxian’s turn to sigh.

“Okay, fine,” he says, shoulders slumping in defeat as he turns back to his original direction and beckons for Lan Zhan to follow. 

“There’s just something I have to do first - I swear it’s important. You can come with me to see, if you want.”

-

It’s a … bird.

A hatchling, almost completely featherless, that Wei Wuxian has hidden in a corner of one of the lesser-used greenhouses, and has been coming to feed every four hours.

It’s also, Lan Zhan thinks, staring blankly at its oversized head, squat little body, gangly legs and stumpy wings, really-

“Don’t stare at it like that just because it’s ugly!” Wei Wuxian hisses, turning from pouring whatever paste he’s made down the bird’s throat to swat Lan Zhan admonishingly on the arm. “You’ll hurt its feelings!”

“You just called it ugly,” Lan Zhan feels the need to point out. “But I’m the one who’s hurting its feelings?”

“Well, it’s just a baby,” Wei Wuxian replies reasonably. “It doesn’t understand anything that’s not bird-language yet.”

“It doesn’t understand anything but bird-language,” Lan Zhan repeats disbelievingly, “but it’s offended by stares?” 

Wei Wuxian nods gravely. 

“Everyone knows that body language is universal,” he claims loftily and Lan Zhan suppresses the desire to roll his eyes.

-

“You can’t keep coming every four hours,” Lan Zhan says, after the bird curls up and goes to sleep underneath a heating charm and Wei Wuxian’s threadbare toy demiguise (“What? I didn’t know if Jiang Cheng and I were going to be in the same dorm, and I was scared of getting lonely at night! I was eleven!”).

“Well, I’m going to have to,” Wei Wuxian replies carelessly, and shrugs. “Or it’ll die.”

“Its parents?” Lan Zhan asks and Wei Wuxian shrugs again.

“Didn’t seem to have any,” he says, quietly getting up and beckoning wordlessly for Lan Zhan to follow. “I waited an hour to see if one of them would come back, but nothing did, and it was crying, so.”

The moon is full and bright, providing ample light to guide their way back to the dormitories even now that all the lights have been put out.

“I did some reading in the library,” Wei Wuxian says around a yawn. “As it gets bigger, feedings will get less frequent. I don’t know what kind of bird it is, but it should only be like this for a couple of weeks, at most.”

Even for a couple of weeks, it’s not sustainable, Lan Zhan thinks when Wei Wuxian begins to list into his shoulder as they walk. He’ll have to leave halfway through every meal and risk getting caught by the other Prefects at night. He won’t be able to get enough sleep, which will affect his classwork, and, in turn, his learning, his grades, his disciplinary record-

“You can’t keep this up for that long,” Lan Zhan states firmly.

Wuxian groans. “I told you, Lan Zhan, I can’t just let it-”

“I’ll help you,” he says.

“You’ll - wait, really?”

-

They name it Little Apple because Wuxian says he's no fun.

("We should call it Little Ginseng, because that's what it looks like - bald and lumpy."

"...No.")

When it gets big enough to have a personality beyond eating and sleeping, Little Apple is surprisingly sweet. It loves: cuddles, being hand-fed and chasing after a love-knot tassel that Wuxian charmed to dance around in front of it.

It hates: eating by itself, being left alone for too long, cats (after Headboy Jin Guangyao's familiar somehow gets into the greenhouse and they have a very near miss), and Lan Zhan and Wuxian arguing.

It absolutely refuses to go to bed without being personally tucked in.

Soon, it starts to grow feathers; brown and grey patches of down sprouting all over its body, enough that they can stop renewing the heating charm.

It doesn't get less ugly.

("As its mother, even I think it's hideous. We should've called it Little Dustball, but it's too late now ")

They do, however, become very fond of it nonetheless.

("Hey, Lan Zhan, look, we learned manners today!"

Wuxian bows to Little Apple, who bobs its head unsteadily in return.

"-Lan Zhan, what's happening to your face? Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan, is that a smile?!")

-

They get caught.

"Wei Wuxian I expected no better of," his uncle growls after the greenhouse doors fly open to reveal his thunderous expression. "But Wangji, you are a prefect. I am deeply disappointed in you, sneaking off to the greenhouses at night to-"

Little Apple squawks. 

(Although its adult plumage has started to come in, there is no colour pattern that Lan Zhan can see; it has three red feathers on this wing, two on that one, small tufts of white in a patch on its belly and a scattering of green along its back.

“It’s … really not going to get better, is it?” Wuxian asks, sounding like he doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry.)

Lan Qiren stares.

-

"It's so…" his uncle says, still staring down at Little Apple, who squawks again and stares right back. "Ug-"

“Don’t listen to him, Little Apple!” Wuxian cries, hastily covering Little Apple’s ears with his hands. “It’s what’s on the inside that counts!”

-

And then one day Lan Zhan walks into the greenhouse and realises that Little Apple is ugly no longer.

Its wings are in fact red and black; red coverts edged with a line of striking black primaries and secondaries. A small plume of blue curls back off its forehead in a proud crest. The feathers on its back and shoulders are a shimmering emerald green, in some areas even tipped with gold, its belly is a soft pearlescent white, and its tail feathers are starting to lengthen into an impressive train.

Beside him, Wei Ying gasps and places a hand against his mouth, evidently coming to the same realisation. 

“Lan Zhan,” he says, deeply moved. “Our son is beautiful.”

-

It still can’t fly, though.

“I wonder if I should get my sword,” Wei Ying says, after an afternoon of running around flapping his arms has yielded no results beyond Little Apple having the time of its life chasing a new, human-sized tassel around the grounds like a particularly speedy chicken. 

He flops backwards onto the grass. Little Apple promptly jumps on top of his chest and starts to preen his hair.

"Or what if I flapped my arms and you Levitated me," Wei Ying wonders, squinting thoughtfully. With a lazy wave of his wand, he Levitates Little Apple, who squawks angrily in protest until it's brought back within range of his ponytail.

Lan Zhan takes the opportunity to re-tie the bandage on his wrist, and can’t help but hiss slightly when he has to unstick it from his burnt skin. It’s not a serious injury - a small graze from a ricocheted spell he’d been hit with between classes, while stopping an altercation in the hallway - but he hasn’t had the time to visit the infirmary to have it healed yet.

When he looks up, Little Apple is right in front of him, staring up with glistening eyes.

“Aw,” Wei Ying says, propping himself up on one elbow and looking enchanted.  “Look, Lan Zhan, he’s sad that his daddy’s hurt!”

Little Apple rests his face on Lan Zhan’s wrist for a moment, then sits back up and gives a self-satisfied squawk.

Lan Zhan looks down and finds that his wrist is fully healed.

“Huh,” Wei Ying says.

-

It turns out that they don’t need to worry about the flying, because the following week, Little Apple, eye caught by a firefly, simply spreads its wings, pushes off Wei Ying’s arm and takes off after it.

“Well,” Wei Ying begins after a moment of stunned silence. “I-”

Then Little Apple’s tail promptly bursts into flames and blazes a bright trail across the night sky.

“LAN ZHAN,” Wei Ying screeches, grabbing hold of Lan Zhan’s arm and shaking it. 

“LAN ZHAN, OUR SON IS A PHOENIX!”

-

There’s no keeping Little Apple in the greenhouse after that. It comes and goes as it pleases with the blessing of even Lan Zhan’s uncle, who is kept mollified by the fact that Little Apple is a phoenix, as well as the steady supply of tears and feathers for the school. 

Both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying take to leaving their bedroom windows ajar so that Little Apple can come in to roost at night when it returns, which it always does.

Until, one day, it doesn’t.

-

The next month, the Ministry announces that the Wizarding world is at war.

(And then, on a random morning after WWX comes back, there’s a tapping at the window of their shared bedroom, Lan Zhan gets up to investigate, and----!)

#The Untamed #wangxian #HP AU #fml #fic #mo dao zu shi

[red-talisman]

More random unbetaed “human guardian lion!!Jiang Cheng working on rebuilding Lotus Pier’s wards with his siblings while everyone has PTSD and they don’t know what’s coming in the plot.” Please don’t take my description of energy work here as any kind of accurate representation of any Chinese tradition. (  ´･ω･` )

[Portrayal of PTSD symptoms and allusion to past child abuse.]

_______

“You ready to head out to the lake?” Jiang Cheng asks when he clears the last bite from breakfast.

Wei Wuxian blinks at him. “What?”

“The lake, you idiot. We need to figure out where the flows of energy are so we can map out the new construction, remember?”

“Oh. Right.”

His tone is strange. Jiang Cheng frowns, and even Jiang Yanli looks concerned. “What’s wrong? Are you getting sick?”

“No, no, I’m not sick. But, uh. Today’s not good for me?”

Jiang Cheng sets down his teacup harder than he intends to and kindly pretends he doesn’t see Wei Wuxian’s reflexive twitch for a sword he doesn’t even bother to wear anymore. “What are you talking about? What could possibly be more important than this right now?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” says Wei Wuxian, getting to his feet with a smile that makes Jiang Cheng want to punch him because it’s so obviously fake, “but I’ll make it up to you! I promise! I have to go, but good luck!”

“What the fuck, Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng yells at his back. “Wei Wuxian!”

“Let him go,” Jiang Yanli says quietly, putting a hand over one of Jiang Cheng’s.

“A-Jie, what the hell is going on with him? Why wouldn’t he - does he not care?”

The thought sounds so ludicrous out loud - Wei Wuxian has never been anything but loyal in word and deed to the sect, especially his siblings, especially their sister - but with the gods-forsaken war finally over and all the sects agreeing to an unspoken pause in politics while they lick their respective wounds, what could possibly be more important than this?

"You know that’s not true,” Jiang Yanli murmurs, very gently disapproving, and Jiang Cheng flushes, because he does know that perfectly well. “I believe that it might...be a shadow he carries.”

“A shadow?”

“The kind that causes people to wake up at night.” Her glance at Jiang Cheng reminds him that she’s one of only two people who can calm those nights when he wakes with a swinging fist or a scream in his throat, or those days when a memory is particularly loud and he has no idea how much time will pass before the memory lets him go again. “I think he carries more from his time in the Burial Mounds than he’s ever admitted to us, and then he went straight into the campaign...”

“Then why won’t he tell us?” Jiang Cheng demands, confused and, yes, a little hurt, because if they can’t rely on each other, who else can they rely on? The sect is rebuilding but they only have each other. (Right? What does it mean if their brother doesn’t trust...?)

“Breathe, a-Cheng,” says Jiang Yanli, and he gasps out a sudden breath, unaware that he’d been holding it. “Our brother is still here with us. He just needs time. Things will get better.”

“Right,” he says, more to himself. “Right.” A few minutes in silence pass as he waits for his traitorous heart to stop racing so fast for no fucking reason. “I’m going to the secondary eastern dock. Where will you be?”

“I’ll be speaking with the weavers in the main courtyard about cloth supplies, and then I’ll be speaking with the doctors about the plans for the infirmary here in the hall,” she replies calmly, not at all perturbed by his need to know.

“Right,” he says again. “I’ll be back before lunch.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him and pets his hand before letting it go. “I look forward to it.”

__

The eastern docks are a short distance from the center of Lotus Pier, located just far enough around a curve of the lake’s shore that the noise of hammers and saws and loud conversation is dimmed but not silenced. (He doesn’t like being near the Pier but hearing only silence. It makes his mind start racing, and that fucks up his sword forms.) Only a few people are around, too busy to bother their sect leader with more than a passing nod. He approves. Clearly they have their priorities in the proper order.

Jiang Cheng sits cross-legged at the end of a dock, still sturdy despite the charred edges, and closes his eyes, lets his palms lay relaxed over his knees, allows his breathing to slow. It’s easy to find the warm glow of his golden core turning around itself deep in his chest, and although it’s felt odd in ways that Jiang Cheng can’t quite put into words since Baoshan Sanren somehow miraculously recreated it, he’s never been able to find anything actually wrong with it. 

He follows the flow of qi from his core and through his meridians, and soon he feels the whispers of qi which aren’t his own like small tributaries coming together to share waters. It starts with the wooden planks beneath him and their lingering memory of living as a tree. Then it’s the gentle ebb and flow of the water beneath that, a cool murmur that hints at the larger, heavier pool that permeates Yunmeng’s larger system of lakes and rivers. Below that, the earth sits heavy and cool, endlessly patient as the years pass it by.

It takes a golden core to feel so deeply into the world’s flows of qi, and even cultivators struggle with it. Jiang Cheng himself has never been able to do it outside of Yunmeng: the farther he is from Lotus Pier, the harder it is, and the few times he snuck away in Gusu Lan during indoctrination to test himself, he didn’t feel anything at all. He always figured it’s some weird quirk about having grown up running half-feral around these lakes along with the bone-deep certainty that he would one day become their human lord, as his father and his father before that had done. For whatever reason, since the war ended, it’s been easier than ever to sink into Lotus Pier’s invisible network.

Wei Wuxian, of course, almost never had any trouble tracking the flows of qi outside of himself, regardless of location. But Jiang Cheng breathes through that thought, ruthlessly reminding himself that the only people who would dare measure them against each other anymore are dead and that a skill carried by his brother is a skill that will strengthen the Yunmeng Jiang Sect as a whole.

He still has his brother and his sister. They are the Yunmeng Jiang Sect and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect is them, and they will be strong, they will be, and their waters will drown any fire that dares turn its heat towards them again.

He repeats this to himself over and over until the words turn into nonsensical sounds, and he keeps repeating them anyway.

__

“This is all you got?” Wei Wuxian asks during lunch, tilting his head at Jiang Cheng’s rough brushstrokes of green ink overlaying the darker lines of the geographical map.

“Yes, asshole, and you wouldn’t be complaining if you’d actually helped me,” Jiang Cheng grumbles over his rice.

Instead of whining like a child or wailing like Jiang Cheng had threatened his virtue, Wei Wuxian’s eyes narrow with uncharacteristic darkness. “Fuck you,” he snaps, and it feels so much like one of his mother’s unexpected slaps to the face that Jiang Cheng is shocked right out of his irritation.

“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli gasps.

They watch silently as their brother jerks back, stares between them, and finally lets out a long, shaky breath.

“...Sorry.”

There’s an awkward silence before Wei Wuxian clears his throat and pastes on a smile. “Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s see how far we can get with the feng shui before we realize we have to find someone who actually knows what they’re doing with it, ha!”

“No, no one else,” Jiang Cheng says decisively. “If one of the architects says we have to move something out of physical necessity, fine, but I don’t want anyone else knowing how the arrays work.”

“A-Cheng, it wasn’t a traitor who brought the Wens,” Jiang Yanli reminds him, but Jiang Cheng is shaking his head before she finishes her sentence. He’s not sure how to explain that even the thought of someone who isn’t one of his siblings seeing into the soul of Lotus Pier’s rebirth makes Zidian grow warm on his finger.

Wei Wuxian puts his hands in the air in a conciliatory gesture and says, very seriously, “That’s fine, but then we’ll have to figure something out in case there’s a situation that requires someone who isn’t one of us.”

If all three of them are incapacitated, then they’re probably fucked anyway, Jiang Cheng doesn’t say. But then again, there is no sect without disciples, and if he expects his disciples to be loyal, then the sect must be loyal to them in turn. “Fine. Yes, fine, you’re right. But not now. Maybe...maybe some of the senior disciples. But not now.”

“Not now, then,” Wei Wuxian agrees without a fight, and reaches out to run long fingers over a curl of green ink. “Let’s talk arrays that could blow an army up into the Jade Emperor’s throne room instead.”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #yunmeng trio #guardian lion jc #this whole fuckin ficlet series is eating my brain #jukebox fic

[multsicorn]

this may or may not be a pimping post

Before I got into The Untamed, what I knew was: yeah, it’s gay.  It’s a tv show from China, so there’s censorship, but the two main guys really are in love.  They get married, they have a child together.  All of which is true!  And none of which is enough to make me watch something, guys.  So what’s the story?  Well:

In fantasy ancient China, against a background of intrigue and strife between powerful clans of magic-users (aka ‘cultivators’)… two young men meet at school, flirt, and become friends.  As the aforementioned strife explodes into all-out war, the free-spirited Wei Wuxian starts using dark (aka ‘demonic’) magic, and eventually finds himself in opposition to the rest of the clans.  Caught between the rogue necromancer he loves and the rules of the world he believes in, what will the virtuous Lan Wangji do?

(and after a time-skip, sixteen years later, after Wei Wuxian has died and come back to life - that’s not a spoiler, it’s the start of the show - when the demonic magic that Wei Wuxian developed and the power struggle among the clans that killed him are still around, and again making trouble, how will Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian overcome these dangers, and finally get their shit together?)

THAT’S the story.  Doesn’t that sound more interesting?

And I love so many many things about it, I just had to try to make a list.

~~~~~~

First off, The Untamed is DELICIOUSLY TROPETASTIC.  IDDY AS FUCK.  etc.  Let me count some of the AO3 tags:

There is so much hurt/comfort.  Wei Wuxian, especially, gets hurt, threatened, tied or locked up, etc., so many times throughout this show, and we get to dwell on his suffering so much.  Lan Wangji’s frequently there to protect him and/or help him recover!  And it goes the other way round, too: Lan Wangji gets hurt or threatened, and Wei Wuxian heals or protects him.

There is… not quite huddling for warmth?  But Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji get trapped together in a cave, not just once, but twice!  The second scene goes so far as to include some undressing on the premise of ‘let me get out of these wet clothes,’ and sleeping sitting up next to each other.

For that matter, there’s multiple instances of undressing for ‘important plot reasons.’  Multiple instances of carrying or attempting to carry each other, for ‘important plot reasons.’  And Wei Wuxian putting Lan Wangji to bed (so tenderly!) for ‘important plot reasons.’

SO MANY people get tied up SO MUCH I’m just saying.  I kept noticing it ^__^.

There’s a pair of older (not-explicitly-canon) male cultivators who are wandering the world together, basically doing exactly what Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji want to do, showing them that it’s possible.

Speaking of ‘after the time-skip’ - like I said, Wei Wuxian dies and is resurrected.  Lan Wangji not only mourns him for sixteen years, but also takes in and raises a young boy who Wei Wuxian had introduced as his own son.  (That’s the ‘have a child together’ part, and also canon kidfic, and I don’t even go there but it’s so adorable.)

Again, speaking of ‘they’re just this canon’ - they go through several key of traditional Chinese courtship and wedding rituals together, WITHOUT EVER TALKING ABOUT IT, cause it’s just, apparently, something they silently agree to do.  (And Wei Wuxian touches Lan Wangji’s ‘only for parent, children, and spouses’ ~sacred forehead ribbon~ several times, starting in episode six.)

~~~~~~

Some more of my FAVORITE THINGS EVER that aren’t quite so smush-em-together:

Lan Wangji HUMS A SONG for Wei Wuxian when they’re trapped in mortal peril in a cave - BY WHICH HE THEN RECOGNIZES Wei Wuxian when Wei Wuxian plays it almost twenty years later.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are so drift compatible.  Whether they’re investigating or fighting or playing duets or doing magic, they trust each other implicitly, and grow to understand each other so well that they can eventually communicate with simply a look.

There are multiple times when Lan Wangji holds Wei Wuxian back from ~going too far,~ when Wei Wuxian’s being influenced by the demonic magic.  Lan Wangji knows Wei Wuxian just that well; Lan Wangji’s grip on Wei Wuxian’s wrist is enough to stop him.  And sometimes it isn’t!  Multiple times, also, Lan Wangji attacks Wei Wuxian with his sword, not even in spite of but because of the fact that he cares (so very much!) about him.  And there’s multiple times when Wei Wuxian (almost, or actually) invites Lan Wangji to kill him - only, specifically, Lan Wangji - if that’s what needs doing.

(That whole paragraph above is literally MY FAVORITE THING EVER, I could go a far way towards obsession just from that alone.  Being honest about myself here.)

And then there’s Wei Wuxian as a character: his endless questioning of rules and accepted ways of doing things.  The restlessness, both physical and intellectual, that makes him so much fun to watch, all the time, cause he’ll never sit still, or stop running his mouth.  The way he’s constantly delighted by every little thing, food and wine and his own cleverness.  Whenever everything else has paused for a bit, he is still A DELIGHT.

And THEN, there’s Wei Wuxian building a whole new home (and ~found family~, but, like, literally, they’re compared directly to his family-of-origin which he’s been forced by plot reasons to leave behind) for himself from the ground up in the Burial Mounds.  At the height of the conflict!  He’s figuring out how to grow lotus roots, and trying to make enough money for other food by selling (the subtitles say turnips, but it looks like daikon), hiding away and building houses and inventing on a cursed mountainside.

~~~~~

And it’s not all about the main characters!  The most important of the general themes above: suffering, comfort and protection, restraining or fighting with people you love - recur among many secondary characters.  I couldn’t list how many relationships of loyalty and obligation, conflicted or not, there are in this show - along with some very devasating betryals!

There’s a complicated sibling relationship (between the main character and his foster brother) which honestly rivals the central romantic pairing for me… which I could write a whole other post about, but that’s not this post.  There are, actually, quite a few interesting, intense, and variably fucked-up sibling relationships in this show!

There’s a couple of characters who are very good at manipulation, although who and how doesn’t become clear until the end of the show.

And then there’s the whole wonderfully fucked up tragedy which is the Yi city arc: a psycho mass murder is rescued by and lives domestically with a ~too good for this world~ Taoist monk, whom he both tricks into murdering people and also genuinely falls for.  And screws up irrevocably.

And the shallowest stuff: scenery porn!  costume porn!  swooshy hair and swooshy robes and swords and arrows and magic talismans (some of which are written in one’s own blood) and flutes and stringed instruments (guqins) and cute bunnies and a ‘wonder’ dog that the lead is scared of even though it’s adorable!

There’s so very much that I love.  These are the main things, I think.

~~~

There are some things I don’t like, too.

The pacing is just a mess.  The first two episodes make no sense as they’re placed, they introduce a bunch of characters that you’ll never see again and some more you won’t see until two-thirds through the show, and they’re in complete medias res re: the plot.  Everyone seems to say ‘just don’t worry,’ but if you don’t like watching things you don’t get (like me? is this such a rare preference?), I would say to actually start with episode three, and then in the middle of or after episode 33 (you’ll know when, it’ll be obvious), go back to episodes 1 and 2 to watch the start of the post-resurrection story.  Even skipping past the first two episodes, the plot takes a while to get going: if you like the lighthearted school shenanigans, you won’t have much of those for long, and if you prefer Conflict and Drama like me, you’ve still got to wait a little while.

(Lan Wangji starts having expressions, eventually, and Wei Wuxian becomes (somewhat) less of a brat.)

It’s cheesy fantasy show with not-great production values, the fight scenes and so on look ridiculous.  I love the costumes and the acting but… I’m not picky re: those sorts of things.  The reaction shots go on way too long (until you’re obsessed with every character and are glad for them), and subsequent shots sometimes have a way of overlapping with each other so that when the angle changes it looks like you’ve rewound a split second.

Lots of stuff about how the magic works never makes any sense.  Don’t worry, just go with it.

Lots and lots AND LOTS of people die.  I think the gore level is pretty mild/moderate, compared to the body count?  The show’s a sausage fest (about ~80% or more male, maybe closer to ~90% by screentime!) and although there are several interesting female characters, all but one minor one die by the story’s end.  (Also, although there’s no rape on-screen of women or of significant characters - there is of one minor villainous male character, and explicitly one and very arguably two backstories of rape between characters’ parents.)

~~~

If you wanna take a look at the show before diving right in, here are a few of my favorite vids:

The Archer by lolachrome, a character study of the main character (Wei Wuxian)

Daylight by helcinda, about the main relationship (Wangxian)

Sharp-Dressed Men by alpheratz, for the ooh shiny factor

Devil from Heaven by gamachanlive, focused on all the suffering and conflict and all four of my personal favorite relationships

#the untamed #cql #wangxian #this is WAY TOO LONG #and will probably tell exactly zero (0) people whether this show/fandom is #~right for them~ #but i had to write it so... lol #this is why! although i didn't know it till i'd watched it! #it is VERY FUCKING RIGHT for ME

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

This chapter was almost the end of me, ok. We have established that I need to get Wei Wuxian to turn me into a fierce corpse to survive the rest of the story.

Chapter 57: Poisons (Part 2)

“All of a sudden, Lan WangJi’s tear-streaked face, reflecting the firelight, flashed within his mind.”

;-;

that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

“We’ve got so many sects. Can’t we join together and…”

Just you wait! It’ll happen! Man, all this foreshadowing...A nice move, actually, because this would be foreshadowing if we had a linear narrative. Too much foreshadowing as you go along the story has a tendency to make the plot look too forced and everything contrived, but in this case it it’s not really foreshadowing since we have known the outcome for ages already.

“Shixiong!!! You’re alive now!!!”

“Wei WuXian, “What do you mean I’m alive now? I’ve never died to begin with!”

This reminds me of that one meme. That “Stop talking about me like I’m dead!” one.

ah, kids. it’s like ‘lol don’t go killing me off!’

The shooting kites day in and day out part gives off a ‘trapped in limbo’ feeling really well I have to say.

“If I went out, Madam Yu’s gonna whip a whole layer of skin off me.”

You’re too good at foreshadowing, Wei Wuxian. Too good.

On the other hand, we can totally see yet again that everyone in this world exaggerates corporeal punishment but you can never be too sure of when they’re actually serious!! how nice.

Ah, more martial problems...please get these two some marriage counseling. and family therapy for the whole group.

“What a shame that our swords don’t have that much spiritual energy yet. If they could sheath themselves, then nobody would be able to use them.”

“Jiang Cheng, “If you cultivate for another eighty years, then maybe it’d be possible.”

UH. THIS IS INTERESTING.

Suibian apparently does this after Wei Wuxian dies which is how Jin Guangyao outs him to everyone. According to Jiang Cheng, this shouldn’t be possible unless you cultivate to a very high level, so it must not be very common.

Wei Wuxian’s sword actually manages to do this though!

“Don’t let them hear anything we say that could be used to hold against us.”

Funny to hear these words coming from you, Wei Wuxian. See, he can be serious! When he was younger, he was especially more impulsive and carefree with his words.

“Wang LingJiao, “Of course. I didn’t have the time to come have a seat inside the last time I came to give out orders. Please.”

I kind of want to know what becomes of this woman. But I also want the satisfaction of reading her death for the first time, if the story tells us outright. Hey, at least we know who survives this conflict or not right?

I don’t know if I could survive a straight through narrative not knowing which of the secondary characters would live and which would die horrible deaths (and which villains made it out or not).

“last time I came to give out orders” though. like, damn. ultra level of disrespect.

“Sure, then, why don’t you go inside?”

I love Madam Yu’s responses. We may not have many ladies in this story, but at least we have badass ones like Madam Yu to make up for it!

“JinZhu and YinZhu stood behind her, both wearing light smirks on their faces.

YinZhu replied, “There is no tea. Get it yourself if you want any.”

And her maids! Awesome battle maids who apparently always wear armor.

I guess there really are no servants in the Jiang clan’s immediate household to serve tea lol. Jinzhu and Yinzhu sure as hell aren’t going to do it, and neither is Wei Wuxian xD that’s all they’ve got. (i’m sure they have others we don’t see. I wonder if this is a thing or they’re just saying this to spite Wang Lingjiao)

“As the person saying this, you’re a servant as well, aren’t you?”

I’m glad we get Wei Wuxian’s commentary still even though he isn’t running his mouth.

“Madam Yu, however, seemed to deeply understand the phrase ‘servants should be what servants ought to be’. Glancing at Wei WuXian, she happened to concur, responding loftily, “That’s right.”

She really does not like him. xD

“Shooting down such a kite is actually implying ‘shooting down the sun’! He wants to shoot down the sun!”

Youngest shidi, you will be immortalized and your sacrifice will not be forgotten!

remember! The war against the Wen sect is called the ‘campaign to shoot down the sun’ aka “Sunshot Campaign”. And the game that the kids in normal villages play is the same shooting down the kite game with the symbol of the sun on the kite, imitating the Sunshot Campaign.

on a more serious note, I know people who draw these wild, conspiracy-theory level conclusions from something very innocuous and it’s actually quite scary. They can’t be reasoned with, either. Just gotta roll with it unfortunately.

“Seeing that such a woman dared to make up stories of Jiang FengMian right in front of them, flames bursted from within Wei WuXian, “You…”

I actually don’t have many reactions to this part because I was just screaming silently at this part and it continues throughout to the end lol.

Ahhh, Wei Wuxian was going to defend him, but then he gets hit.

“Zidian had turned into its whip form, sizzling between her hands of cold jade.”

Remember how just using Zidian around Wei Wuxian’s leg caused a burn in the early chapters? Apparently this damn whip is nothing to scoff at and a really powerful weapon, and he gets hit so many times with it, too!

you understand why she’s doing it. At the same time, you can feel that she’s not 100% reluctant to do it either and it’s kinda scary.

then you also really feel the kids’ panic. Jiang Cheng who can’t do anything to stop it, but also of course really really wants his mom to stop whipping Wei Wuxian! and Wei Wuxian who urges him to get away and not get involved so nothing happens to him, too.

it’s just a really messed up scene and ARGH

“In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded.”

This little bit is important!

But it also doesn’t give a clear answer, which really gives these characters some realism.

Madam Yu, for all her yelling at him, never hurt him badly (this is exactly where Jiang Cheng gets his parenting skills from I’m dead bye). But Wei Wuxian doesn’t have negative or resentful feelings towards her even though she has never accepted him for as long as he has been there, so he is an unreliable narrator.

Then we get this scene where it seems like she has no hesitation in whipping the skin off his back with a really powerful weapon ok. What you can’t tell (since this is from Wei Wuxian’s pov) is the degree to which she means it. She could be a good actress, at the same time she could have been lenient before because of Jiang Fengmian (who always came to let Wei Wuxian out of punishment early). Or she could have been like Jiang Cheng to Jin Ling later and scream about beating him without ever actually meaning it (lol though Jiang Cheng has never hit Jin Ling, still, can you not threaten to break his leg).

We do know that she isn’t cruel enough to enjoy it, though, and there is a limit to what she deems acceptable (cutting off hands is obviously not acceptable)

“Young Master Wen is kind. He wouldn’t do something as cruel as chop off both of his legs. If only his right hand is chopped off, then he wouldn’t ever care about this again.”

see, like, this is why I’m glad we already know the outcome of these events broadly. xD

if you think about it from the characters’ perspectives, this is really fucking scary!

What! Cut off his hand? And if you don’t...? they’ll probably try to wipe out the whole sect or burn it to the ground like the Cloud Recesses!

“Jiang Cheng fought out of the arms of JinZhu and YinZhu. He crashed to his knees, hovering over Wei WuXian, “Mom, Mom, please don’t…”

oh, Jiang Cheng...I have feelings about this guy omg. no wonder he gains an inferiority complex and then as sect leader becomes a ball of Extra and anger issues who won’t stop until he catches Wei Wuxian!

He’s always second best, feels like his father doesn’t love him because of Wei Wuxian yet it’s not like he hates Wei Wuxian either. Then, through neither of their faults, Wei Wuxian is the brave one and Jiang Cheng gets to do the leg work. And when things turn serious, there is nothing he can do at all to save Wei Wuxian who he does obviously care about. for all the ‘you’re going to be the next sect leader, act like one!’ stuff, when it comes down to it there wasn’t anything he could do.

“Fabricking? What’s fabricking? And he suddenly realized, It’s abricating!”

this was nice to lighten the mood a little. only a little though.

“JinZhu, YinZhu, quick, go close the doors. Don’t let the others see the blood.”

see what I mean by ‘you can’t tell if she really means it?’ and the glory of a limited third person narrative done right: based off the description of her actions, it’s difficult to tell.

If it means saving the sect, I think she would absolutely cut off his hand, but only with a greater threat hanging over their heads. Well, this is because she sees him as a servant, of course she would never so readily, no hesitation or lack of composure, do the same to her son.

“Wei WuXian felt fear arise, Don’t tell me that she really is gonna chop off one my my hands?”

One of the times he does show fear!

However, this is where his sacrificial side which is really damn worrying comes in.

“Let it be, then! If it’s in exchange for the peace of the sect… a hand is just a hand. Fuck, if worst comes to worst I’ll just practice the left-handed sword from now on!!!”

It’s probably part of his personality somewhat to be self-sacrificing, or at least be willing to put himself in harm’s way to do good or the right thing. But it’s also highly tied to his upbringing/view of himself. As he states in the last chapter, he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s equal. On this, he agrees with Madam Yu: he sees himself as their servant. A servant who is very close to them, yes, and super casual borderline rude, but he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s brother.

On a subconscious level, this can really mess with you. He values his life and wellbeing, of course, as most people do. But it also allows his sacrificial nature to rear its head and for him to rationalize that it’s okay to allow himself to get hurt but not others.

Of the things that seem to get Madam Yu to stop/snap, mentioning Jiang Fengmian is one (It was all fine until he had mentioned Jiang FengMian.)

The supervision office is another.

And this is the final straw: “But seeing how obediently you followed my orders and how your personality suits my taste, I’ve still decided to give this great honor to…”

Madam Yu is a lady with a lot of pride. She endured it up to this point, kept swallowing her words, but finally she just snaps. It’s an accumulation of all the stuff that happened, not one thing in particular.

“You look at its owner before you hit a dog! You barged into my sect, and you want to punish my person in front of my face?”

Here’s the last part reveals something more about her true feelings here.

So, here we see her pride, which extends to her servants and not just the two that have been with her since she was young. She doesn’t like Wei Wuxian, she always thinks he should be disciplined more (or at least she says she does), but in the end of the day he is her servant and what right do others (especially another servant) have to punish people of her sect?

“Then let me teach you what superiority and inferiority means! I am the superior, you are the inferior!”

but, man, at the end of the day 57 chapters was worth the wait to finally get such a strong female character like Madam Yu.

This damn chapter was such an emotional rollercoaster omg.

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

#gdc aka the liveblog of TEARS

[theyilinglaozus]

actually you know what really gets me about the golden core arc... it isn't even the scene in the field. it starts before that. when their parents put them on the boat, tie them together with zidian and send them off. because wei wuxian is already injured! he was whipped! so every time jiang cheng struggles and jerks him around, it hurts him. for HOURS, continually, but he doesn't say a word, because he thinks jiang cheng deserves to scream and fight, and he thinks he deserves to hurt.

You are absolutely right!

The thing about Wei Wuxian as well is that, as soon as Jiang Fengmian took him in and gave him shelter, a home and safety, he has also always had Yu Ziyuan there too to remind him of his place. That although he’s close and cared for by the rest of the family, he is still the son of a servant and, in extension, a servant himself, and he can be thrown back out onto the streets at any given time. And the Jiangs would be well within their right to do so!

Wei Wuxian has always been thankful to the Jiangs for taking him in, knowing that a starving street orphan wouldn’t likely last very long alone. So when during the beginning of the golden core arc, he hears Yu Ziyuan blame him for the Wens arrival and all that happens to lead to the fall of Lotus Pier - he honestly believes that. Because Jiang Cheng had warned him during their time at the indoctrination, hadn’t he? He had told him to keep his head down and not cause trouble as it would be the Jiang Clan that would have to pay for it - and that’s exactly what he believes happened. 

We as the viewer / reader know that’s wrong - that the Wen Clan were just looking for any excuse to attack the major clans, that at the point that the Jiang Clan is being attacked other clans are also being targeted, that the Lans have already been attacked and targeted before the indoctrination and Cloud Recesses has been burnt down. But it doesn’t matter because in that moment Wei Wuxian can only think he’s brought destruction upon his loved ones simply for standing up against what he sees is wrong, and he hates himself for potentially being the cause of their downfall. It’s why when there’s mention of him loosing his hand he just accepts it like ‘yup. Fine. That’s fair. If this will mean the Jiangs will be okay in return I’ll let them take it. I’ll just have to learn to live with it’.

And then the boat scene ... honestly this scene weighs so much on the story in such a quiet way, and it’s because of Yu Ziyuan’s final words to him and Jiang Cheng. She says goodbye to her son, and then turns to Wei Wuxian - who is still very much injured from her attacks on him - and tells him that he has to ‘protect Jiang Cheng with his life’. It’s something Wei Wuxian would have done anyway, but with all the guilt that’s now on his shoulders from what’s happening? He takes those words one step further, and knows that if it should come to it, his life is secondary to Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli’s. Wei Wuxian will happily destroy himself as long as they were safe, and to me that’s so heartbreaking because neither Jiang Cheng nor Jiang Yanli want him to. They love him, they don’t see him in the same light their mother or others do - to the both of them Wei Wuxian is simply their beloved brother. They don’t want him to tear himself apart on their behalf. They want him to be happy and to live.

#mikkeneko #replies #the golden core arc is just layers and layers of pain #so much of which sends ripples in the water for what's to come later in the story #you can tell wei wuxian is conditioned to believe his value in the household #by how he reacts in yu ziyuan's presence #and that's not any tea or shade on her! she's acting exactly how a woman in her position would in this time period #but it certainly goes to show just for how long wei wuxian has lived with such negative beliefs #and how it really isn't difficult to see why he holds them for the truth