#when people draw LWJ or WWX with A-Yuan

[mikkeneko]

PSA to fan creators who don't have a lot of regular contact with children: They are almost always bigger than you think. A 1-year-old baby may already be walking. A toddler is likely already hip-high. A 10-year-old may already be taller than at least one of their parents. A 14/15 year old may already have reached their adult height.

#this is by no means a complaint re artists I am just always tickled #when people draw LWJ or WWX with A-Yuan #and he's the size of like... a cat in their arms #TV and movies do not help this misperception #they will cast small adults as teens and use camera tricks to make kids look smaller than they are #(cough michael j fox cough) #mikke's greatest hits (unfortunately)

[ninjakk]

When WWX met WN - Where LWJs jealousy for him stems from?

We know WWX met WN the day of the archery competition, during the Qishan Discussion Conference. This is the same day WWX saw LWJ again, after a year of pining for him - which I covered in a previous post here.

So, we can safely assume, judging from the fact WWX entered the arena just after he had seen LWJ, the scene below is set just prior to him being absolutely stunned at LWJ looking positively ravishing in the red uniform they were all wearing.

So let's dive straight into the scene where WWX meets WN.

Chapter 59

On that day, before the archery competition began, he was strolling around the Nightless City alone. As he strolled, he passed through a small garden and suddenly heard the sound of a bowstring vibrating from in front of him. Wei WuXian brushed through the leaves and branches. He saw a boy stand there, dressed in white, soft fabric. He drew a bow in the direction of a target before him and let go. The side of the boy’s face seemed to be quite handsome. His drawing posture was both standard and beautiful. On the target, feathered arrows had already thickly dotted the red center. This arrow had hit the center as well. None had been off the center. Wei WuXian exclaimed, “Bravo!” After the boy shot the arrow, he took out a new arrow from the quiver behind him. Head lowered; he was about to set it onto his bow as he suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice from toward the side. Surprised, his hands quivered and his arrow fell to the ground. Wei WuXian walked out from behind the garden, grinning, “Which of Wen Sect’s young masters are you? Well, well, beautiful, your shots are amazing. I haven’t seen anyone from your sect with such good…” Before he could finish, the boy had already disappeared, leaving behind him his bow and arrows. Wei WuXian was speechless. He felt his chin, Am I really so charming? So charming that I scared him away? He didn’t take the matter seriously either. He just thought that he saw something cool as he returned to the square.

This scene always brings a little smile to my face. WWX is so sweet and kind, he'll pay anyone a compliment if it is warranted. He loves to encourage people and he's actually very nurturing - which we see time and time again in later scenes with A-Yuan and the juniors.

It's quite a funny scene, with WN running away all flustered. Poor WWX, if men keep running away from him, he's going to get a complex! My favourite part of this scene is at the end when WWX thinks he's so charming that people just cannot bear it - it's just hilarious. Funnily enough, this is not what he thinks when LWJ does something similar in the not too distant future. This is because he's actually quite insecure about how LWJ sees him - after all, he's the object of his subconscious affections.

The competition was almost starting. Over on the Wen Sect’s side, there was much clamour. Wei WuXian asked Jiang Cheng, “How could they make such a fuss over their Discussion Conference? They have something going on every single day. What’s happening today?” Jiang Cheng, “What do you think? The spots are limited.They’re fighting over the people to let into the arena.” After a pause, he continued with disdain, “These Wen Sect’s… archery skills are the same level of bad. Wouldn't it be the same no matter who goes? What difference would be fighting over it make?” Wen Chao shouted from the side, “Another one! Another one, we’re still short one! The last one!” Amid the crowd beside him, the white-clothed boy was also there. Looking left and right, he finally raised his hand. But his hand wasn’t raised tall enough. He didn’t dare shout his name like the others did either. After a while of pushing around, somebody finally noticed him, musing, “QiongLin? You want to participate as well?” The boy called 'QiongLin' nodded his head. Somebody else laughed, “I haven’t even seen you pick up a bow. Why do you want to participate?! Don’t waste the spot.” Wen QiongLin seemed as if he wanted to protest for himself. The person said, “Alright, alright. Don’t be so curious. The rank is recorded. If you go up there and lose your own face it wouldn't be my problem.” Wei WuXian, Lose face? If anyone in the QishanWen Sect could find some face for you all, he’d be the one.

The Wen sect are making quite a big scene, we can imagine that a lot of the disciples waiting to enter the hunting grounds are watching from afar and wondering what is going on. LWJ is probably nearby as well.. so let's bear that in mind.

"Wei WuXian wasn’t too pleased. He raised his voice, “Who said that he’s never picked up a bow? He has, and his archery is quite good!” Everyone looked at him, somewhat surprised. They then turned to look at the boy. Wen QiongLin’s face was rather pale to begin with. Because of how everyone’s eyes centered on him, it immediately became bright red. Those pitch-black eyes stared at Wei WuXian. Wei WuXian walked over, hands behind his back, “Back then, weren’t you doing quite well in the garden?” Wen Chao turned around as well, doubting, “Really? You? Good at archery? Why haven’t I ever heard of this?” Wen QiongLin’s voice was low, “… I… I only startedpracticing recently…” His voice was not only low but also staggering. It sounded as if it could be stopped at any moment, and it was indeed often stopped. Wen Chao interrupted impatiently, “Alright, there’s a target over there. Quickly shoot an arrow for us to see. If it’s good then go, if it’s not good then don’t.”

WWX can't stand to watch WC being rude to WN after he had summoned up the guts to put himself forward. As he's witnessed, WNs archery skills are actually very good, so he interjects, vouching for WN.

Now.. as I said before, LWJ is most likely amongst the crowd waiting to enter the arena. LWJ is always very well aware of WWX if he is nearby - so it's safe to assume he had seen WWX prior. If not, he certainly would have heard WWX speaking up for WN. You can almost imagine LWJs cold glare homing in on the boy who is getting praise and attention off WWX!

The area around Wen QiongLin was immediately emptied. The hand that he clutched the arrow with tightened as he looked around, seemingly looking for help. Watching how unconfident he looked, Wei WuXian patted his shoulder, “Relax. Just do as you did before.” Wen QiongLin looked at him gratefully. With a deep breath, he drew his bow. Unfortunately, with the draw of the bow, Wei WuXian shook his head secretly, Uh-oh. It was likely that Wen QiongLin had never shot an arrow in front of other people. He was shaking all the way from his arm to his fingertips. The arrow flew out. It didn’t even land on the target. The Wen Sect’s people that watched from aside all laughed mockingly, “How is this good?!” “I can shoot better than this with my eyes closed.” “Okay, okay, stop wasting time. Let’s quickly pick somebody to enter the arena!

If LWJ was watching the scene from the crowd - he'd have seen WWX get closer to WN and put his hand on his shoulder, encouraging the mystery boy. LWJ probably also noticed that, according to an earlier description, WN is 'quite handsome'. He's been pining for WWX for a year and the first time he sees him again, he's acting friendly with a handsome boy. We know it doesn't mean anything, but if LWJ did indeed see this, jealousy would have surely sprouted within him - just as it does later in the novel when WWX is paying others attention. You can't really blame him either, yes it's all innocent, but he's a teenager with a huge crush and conflicting hormones waging war in his body!

Red seeped through Wen QiongLin’s face to even the bottom of his ears. There was no need for others to beckon him away; he fled self-consciously. Wei WuXian chased after him, “Hey, don’t run! Uh… QiongLin-xiong right? Why are you running?” Hearing his name called from behind him, Wen QiongLin finally stopped. Head hanging low, he turned around. It seemed as though shame rippled from his head to his toes as he stammered, “… I’m sorry.” Wei WuXian mused, “Why are you telling me you’re sorry?” Wen QiongLin replied with guilt, “You… You recommended me… but I made you lose face…” Wei WuXian, “How did it make me lose face? You haven’t really shot in front other people, have you? You were nervous?” Wen QiongLin nodded. Wei WuXian continued, “Have some confidence. Let me tell you the truth—you shoot better than everyone in your sect. Out of all of the disciples whom I’ve seen, no more than three people are better in archery than you.”

I find WWXs last comment about there only being three people better at archery than WN very interesting. Since the reader is already aware who placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the forthcoming competition - he's most likely referencing them. For reference, in case anyone has forgotten:

Chapter 51

In the end, after the calculations, the four with the best results were Wei WuXian, Lan XiChen, Jin ZiXuan, and Lan WangJi. If it weren’t for having to leave early, Lan WangJi could’ve done even better.

LWJ placed 4th, but according to WWX, he could have done even better if he'd not left the competition early - placing him higher than JZX. So it's highly likely he's stating WN is only marginally less skilled than himself, LXC and LWJ. Interesting, considering WWX claims a few short moments later (in chapter 45)... He hasn't thought about LWJ in some time! Which we knew was a lie anyway, but wow.. WWX you little liar! And I guess, if you wanted to really read into the above - you could also say that he has even contradicted himself further. He states, 'of all the disciples I've seen..' so, is this also him admitting he'd already seen LWJ prior to the start of Chapter 45, where he is gawping at LWJ's good looks? He's he been watching him practice as well? Just an interesting thought!

Anyway, I digress! Back to jealous LWJ.

So if LWJ has witnessed all of the above, which he most likely did - he would have saw WWX running after the WN. If he wasn't a little bit jealous of the attention he was giving WN before, be probably was now. I don't want to make LWJ sound pretty, because he's far from that. He is just a boy with a huge crush! And who didn't act a bit irrational regarding anything involving their crush at that age. Let's not forget, he was most likely well aware WWX would be attending the conference. LWJ was probably a potent cocktail of nerves, excitement and longing, in anticipation of catching a glimpse of WWX at the week-long event.

With that in mind... Try re-reading chapter 45 and notice how LWJ is acting. He's not seen WWX in a year. Yes, he finds it hard to talk to his crush - but he's not normally that rude to him really. He won't even look at him. Possibly because, he's jealous..?

You can find the chapter I'm referring to in my blog post on the archery competition, if you want to re-read it in full along with analysis. Or if you want to check it out for yourself, it's chapter 45.

Finally...

Silly headcanon... LWJ is even witness to WWX praising WNs archery skills while hiding in the bushes stalking him from afar! 🤣 No wonder he has a thing about WN and pushes him when drunk 🤣😱 Jealous LWJ is adorable ❤️

#mdzs #mdzs wei wuxian #mdzs lan wangji #mdzs wwx #mdzs lwj #wangxian #mo dao zu shi #mdzs novel #mdzs meta #wen ning #lwj is jealous #lwj is stalking wwx in the bushes #wwx is a little liar #when harry met sally... i mean wei wuxian met wen ning..

[llycaons]

I talk big about in-character writing as if I wasn't 2 chapters into a wx AU of a desperately tragic yet very hokey movie called 'unleashed' about an orphan raised like a dog by a mob boss as an enforcer who breaks free from his captors and starts reconnecting with his humanity and this orphan hero is none other than lan wangji...

edit: I'm almost done and this is less offensively bad that just....deeply odd. long rambling post under the cut

this is why I tend to dislike AUs based on very specific works - the characterizations and relationships just don't match and it feels like reading another story. because it IS.

first of all, why is this dehumanized and abused character manipulated into a weapon who lost his parents young and was treated like an animal lwj and not wwx? it would fit the story better. wwx (survivalist, very powerful, abused and used in canon) escapes and finds a lovely, stable, (wealthy), somewhat naive, caretaking piano teacher with a young son. he slowly recovers in a safe place as he grapples with his past of abuse and cruelty. he learns to love and be loved. but lwj is one of the wealthiest and most sheltered characters in the show! the choices simply do not make sense!

like...the lwj is decent, but that's only bc this lwj has been raised in very different circumstances and his core character traits (loving animals/music/wwx/small children, having a hidden humorous side, wanting to help people and generally unwilling to hurt the innocent) are somewhat simplistic. his other important traits (like his specific relationship with rules, his character arc as it related to his sect, how he acts wrt his privilege) don't really get a chance to manifest in this situation. he's pretty straightforward, which just makes the wx dynamic pretty boring.

based on his thoughts and dialogue, wwx just thinks he's just a hot sweetheart and so so good and brave. which he IS ig, but it's lacking the drama or intrigue or flair of canon. canon wwx didn't fall in love with simply a good brave kind sweetheart, he fell in love with someone with very strong principles that aligned with his, who challenged him at every turn and surprised him with his hidden sweet side and caretaking streak and humor and eventual willingness to break rules. who is also hot and good at swordfighting. there's shades of this to the relationship, but it's ultimately just a watered-down and decontextualized version of canon. and the draw of wwx and lwj and their relationship has so much to do with canon that this AU is just kind of boring and irrelevant to read

speaking of which, the wwx is VERY odd and somewhat insulting. he's currently a single dad of a-yuan (🙄, and side note but wq and wn aren't even RELATED to the bad wens???? way to drop a really important and thematically relevant detail), and he's a building super so he collects rents, and his personal history is similar to college except he has this really strange characterization around college and in this entanglement with this woman whose death he feels responsible for. like he describes himself as a failing student who drank way too much without getting into the why of it all or the other people who were definitely in his life at the time, also canon wwx at that same age was still a highly prolific and celebrated author even in the midst of severe trauma AND alcoholism. and he described himself and this oc woman as 'two shitty people who had nobody else to be shitty with' or something and then talked about how she was an addict and it was just a really strange and and insulting (to addicts) and ooc direction for his character to be taken.

like wwx always had a ton of friends except for when he was a social pariah for saving people from literal death camps and even then the wens and his siblings really cared about him so idk why his primary social connection is this oc woman whose only purpose is to have a baby and then be a bad mother/partner and then die to make wwx feel angsty. like, he does talk about her ballet skills and her intelligence and her humor but her role in the story is pure plot device. it must be from the original movie but it's SO random and shitty and ooc and cruel to addicts? and if you write an AU for a fanfic that you want to make sense you really have to actually alter the other work a bit to accommodate the other relationships and character dynamics. it would have made more sense for wwx to be barely scraping by while working three jobs and getting disowned by the jiangs and still getting straight As even if he struggled with alcoholism. and then he still would have taken in a-yuan if the alternative was the foster system. a-yuan's biological parentage and wx's adoption of him is genuinely so important oh it makes me mad they erased that

speaking of family, the jc and jyl aren't too bad and the jfm is mostly fine but the myu is bizarre. instead of the abusive, out of control, shaming, self-centered, violent woman from canon who literally hates wwx's guts, she's a kind of sharp divorcee whose method to curry favor with her grandchildren is to buy them expensive gifts and who asks nosy but well-meaning questions about wwx's love life. I do think myu would dote on a grandchild, but NOT if it was wwx's. his role in the jiangs is a little difficult to translate completely accurately to a modern setting, but her dislike for him and her blame on him for ruining her marriage and being better than her son is a really important part of her character. adult wwx would by all rights offer her the respect she is due as his parental figure, but would likely avoid her when possible and need to seek support from other people in his life when he interacts with her. and I don't think he'd easily let her be a part of his child's life. because she abused him as a child and teenager!

#stories like this in which someone is so completely dehumanized and isolated #to the point they cant read and don't know how to operate in the world are so very disturbing #im thinking of real life situations I read about. I don't have many fictional examples since I avoid these stories #really harrowing and heartbreaking stories. I do not tend to enjoy them in fiction #but for all the disclaimers about being ooc I actually think this is pretty decent characterization #for an lwj who was literally treated like a dog for his entire life #ficblogging

[stiricidewrites]

The Damage You Do: ch 19, pt 4

CW: more mentions of A-Yuan's previous, abusive home

Previously

~

“I’m serious,” wwx insisted, the hand he had wrapped around his dom’s wrist—keeping his long, oh so skilled fingers inside his mouth—tightening. “Mr. Lan is beautiful.”

lwj blinked at his, some annoying look that wwx wasn’t quite sure how to decipher—truly, this time; he had no idea what that mystery look was—crossing his face. His other hand came up to brush over wwx’s cheek, and wwx turned into the feel of it, cool over his increasingly flushed skin—flushed with both arousal or anger. “Thank you,” the man said again, his tone slightly more accepting of the praise than it had been a moment ago. “A-Ying is also very beautiful.”

“Liar,” wwx said before he could stop himself, so much venom in his voice that it honestly shocked him. Where had that even—

The hand lwj had been drawing over his cheek froze and when wwx’s looked up into his dom’s face he found just as much shock written over his features as he knew must be written across his own.

“I—” he started to say, unsure of what he even wanted to say, but whatever thoughts he had were driven off as lwj knelt before him.

He was so graceful, somehow, falling, fully nude. to the floor of this ridiculous vintage purple bathroom and looking like a fucking god doing it. He was beautiful—the most beautiful thing wwx had ever seen, except maybe that first smile that A-Yuan had given him, so many weeks after wwx had brought him home. It had taken that long for his son to accept that he was safe now, that he was never going back to that place—to those people—and that wwx, wq and Wen Ning would kill anyone who tried to make him. Popo too, and the handful of men still loyal to her. That smile, hard-earned and over the silliest of things, had been breathtaking and made wwx cry and then A-Yuan cry and then wwx had had to try to explain to his new, sweet child that they were tears of joy and love slipping from his eyes, not sadness or anger. Okay, there had been some sadness that the boy had lived such a horrible life, but that had been second to the absolutely heartbreaking happiness that had cracked through wwx’s entire soul.

#fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #wangxian #stiricidesmobji #dark lan zhan

[stiltonbasket]

empress lwj is like: asks a-yuan if he can draw pictures of him doing stuff for xiao-yu, received permission, and does it. gives them to xiao-yu, xiao-yu deigns to say "thank you" and proceeds to paper his room in the pictures.

this does a lot towards getting Xiao-Yu to like him! Baby is dealing with a lot right now--moving to a new place, meeting new people, being separated from his A-Niang for most of the day when he usually spent all his time running after WWX like a tiny duckling :( he's not happy at all when a competitor for A-Niang's affections appears! Lan Wangji has to prove himself.

#asks #lan xiaohui #lan wangji #empress lwj au #travelers through the empty gate

[plan-d-to-i]

I just saw someone wondering why lwj didn't say anything about how the people wwx was protecting weren't an army and that they were just mostly elderly and a child even and I wonder if he didn't or I just can't remember it...but if he didn't, why do you think so?

I'm sure ppl have probably answered this more elaborately, but for me I always saw it as when LWJ visited things were more or less at a stalemate between WWX and the cultivation world, so he probably wanted to let seething but semi sleeping dogs lie. More importantly jiang cheng's actions after visiting the Burial Mounds made it very hard, if not impossible to overturn public opinion.

“After the fight, Jiang Cheng told the outside that Wei WuXian defected from the sect and was an enemy to the entire cultivation world. The YunmengJiang Sect had already cast him out. From then on, no ties remained between them—a clear line was drawn. Henceforth, no matter what he did, they’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect!”

If his own martial brother, after visiting the Burial Mounds, declared Wei Wuxian the enemy of the entire cultivation world and cast him out wanting no association with him isn't that in the eyes of the cultivation world irrefutable confirmation that WWX is beyond redemption and the Wens are actually a danger?

“A few months passed like this. Aside from how the world’s comments on Wei WuXian worsened even more, there was no progress.”

It would be one thing for LWJ to add his voice to jc's voice if he'd shown even the slightest support for WWX, but like this I don't know who he could have even told. He'd spoken up for WWX before when JGS was trying to smear his name. Unlike jc he wasn't a Clan leader himself. JGY & JGS already knew the people in the Burial Mounds were not a threat. Had jc revealed the life debt he owed the Wens NMJ might have been receptive but since jc stayed silent that's not the case. LQR didn't exactly like WWX. LXC was being very deftly manipulated against WWX by JGY, naturally seeing jc abandon him would solidify this impression, and he already perhaps believed his little brother's judgement to be compromised re: Wei Ying.

He was the only one left to clean up the mess. How could he leave the scene? He reassured the crowd as he ranted, completely exhausted, “Young Master Wei really is too impulsive. How could he speak in such a way in front of so many sects?”

Lan WangJi spoke coldly, “Was he wrong?”

Jin GuangYao paused almost unnoticeably. He immediately laughed, “Haha. Yes, he’s right. But it’s because he’s right that he can’t say it in front of them, correct?”

Lan XiChen seemed as if he was deep in thought, “Young Master Wei’s heart really has changed.”

Hearing this, pain flashed across the light pair of eyes under Lan WangJi’s knitted brows.”

Here LXC draws his conclusion even after JGY's words are pitted directly against LWJ's. I think this scene is very telling.

When it came to actions (Nightless City) LWJ does stand by WWX. He spirits him away and fights the elders of his own Clan for him and bears the punishment for it unrepentantly. I don't know if LWJ was told about the siege before it was carried out considering how injured he was. We know when he finds out about WWX's death he still forces his injured body there to search for any trace of WWX and finds A-Yuan and saves him and raises him as a full Clan member-not just sect member like WWX was in YunmengJiang. So LWJ clearly didn't stay silent for fear of repercussions to him or his reputation or his Clan. It was most likely a judgement call that his words alone would not have changed anything. In other words WWX didn't need someone to prove the people in the Burial Mounds were mostly elderly/ a child and not a threat to the cultivation world at large, as that was only a red herring to attack them. What he'd needed was support. The support jc withheld from him and instead threw behind his opponents.

#mdzs #Lan Zhan #Wei Wuxian #jiang cheng #mdzs meta

[neverdoingmuch]

Wait cql lawyer/law school AU

i got you my pal dont worry!!

law school, im gonna be honest and say i know like nothing about law or law school so pls ignore any inconsistencies or inaccuracies

lwj goes to law school and he is definitely the top student in his class. they’ve been there for like a month and everyone already knows he’s gonna be the best

his one and only competition is this dude called wei wuxian but lwj isn’t particularly worried about him

so far they’re still in the stage of the course where they do the fun things to sucker people into doing the class for the semester so there’s been some practise debates and arguments and stuff in their tutorial classes

wei wuxian has that Charisma and like yeah all of his arguments are perfect but also he has an amazing smile and people are like yes i can trust him 

(he’s definitely the sort to be like hm, the easy way to argue this case would be to quote some laws and use precedence to justify this but that’s boring)

lwj is also good at that sort of stuff because his arguments are perfect and everything is so perfectly researched that there should be no ground at all for someone to lodge a counterargument

(wei wuxian manages somehow and it makes lwj so mad)

but that’s whatever lwj thinks,, a lot of people join law thinking it’s gonna be like the tv shows and books and then get completely blindsided when it comes to the rote learning part or like the actual laws 

and for all of wwx’s confidence, lwj hasn’t actually seen wwx so much as touch the textbook/s and he always studies in the law library so he knows that wwx has probably never even been there bc he hasn’t seen him even once (why’s he looking? bc he needs to see which books wwx uses to study,, bc there has to be something going on there,, obviously)

then they do their first like proper written assignment and lwj and wwx tie for the highest scores and now lwj has a Rival and he refuses to lose to someone who thinks that putting a ‘-us’ sound at the end of a word makes it latin (did wwx say habeas corpus and then point at a soft drink and go  sprite-us can-us,,, maybe,,,,)

anyway! lwj and wwx are kinda rivals for the top spot and it’s one of those situations where one test lwj wins by a point but then the next test wwx gets full marks and they just keep exchanging the top spot in class

and this whole time wwx is like The Worst to have in class. he’s always interrupting to ask questions or just straight up not listening and spends the class doodling pictures of rabbits (they’re cute but wwx is terrible and he’s not allowed to make cute drawings)

so after a few months the most horrible thing happens.... they get put together in a project and lwj is like ugh. internally of course but his face is also saying ugh

the first time wwx and lwj get together to work on the project, lwj is prepared with a proper list of tasks to do all nicely split up between the two of them and a schedule for when they should get certain parts done by. 

needless to say, lwj does not expect wwx to be ready, but wwx is definitely on top of things

he rocks up and is like yeah let’s do this, this and this and have them done by this time - basically proposing to do everything that lwj has already written down

and lwj is pleasantly surprised and is like hm maybe i misjudged wwx and decides to like re-evaluate his opinion on him

in doing so he realises that when he’d never seen wwx studying, it wasn’t an exaggeration at all. he’s never seen wwx so much as touch a textbook or spend more than a minute on a laptop doing something that wasn’t minesweeper or solitaire

but wwx is also making all of their deadlines and even adds extra information and resources to their document that could be useful elsewhere and sometimes he shows up to their study sessions and he looks absolutely exhausted

eventually lwj manages to get the truth out and wwx is just like yeah it’s easier to get worse grades than a genius but if you both study and you still get lower grades, it’s not easy,, for jc or for me

so wwx usually studies at night when his brother is asleep and lwj is like that’s bad, you can’t keep that up and just when wwx is about to go off at him lwj is like you can come study at my place

and thus begins the wonderful time where everything is alright and lwj falls in love with wwx

they work really well together and wwx is strangely considerate and nice? when he finds out lwj likes rabbits, he goes out and buys bunny post-it notes for lwj and starts to always bring him a doodle of bunnies every time he comes over. he always gets his work done on time, early even, and his work is always so brilliant and every time wwx smiles at him, lwj feels warm inside etc etc

for a long while lwj is like yes (: this is friendship (: bc he’s never had a crush before but then on the day they submit their project wwx is like hey,, the two of us make a great team,, we should always work together,, now and next year and even when we graduate,, i want to help the innocent people who need our help and i think i’d like it a lot if you joined me and lwj has his oh moment

they get a perfect score on the project of course and even after it finishes, wwx keeps coming over to lwj’s place to study or just hang out and lwj is just falling more and more for wwx each day

they’re best friends now and everyone gets used to seeing them work together on projects and then turn around to try and decimate each other when they’re working one on one and lwj thinks that he might just be the happiest he’s ever been

but then one day wwx doesn’t show up to class. it shouldn’t be strange but wwx has never missed class even once and he ends up hearing from lxc who heard from jgy that wwx was caught sabotaging some other student’s work (the other student was jzxun, who had a fondness for playing devil’s advocate and other than wwx once telling him that his argument was shit, wwx never spoke to him or seemed to know who he was but lwj is a bit too angry to remember that)

he manages to find wwx outside of his dorms as he’s moving out and he’s just like why did you do that? and wwx is like oh y’know,, bc he’s not really sure what’s happening himself,, one second he was at the top of his class and the next he was being brought before a board and being told that he was being expelled but he’s not going to tell lwj that bc lwj would definitely try and stand up for him and then they’d both get expelled

but lwj is furious and just spits out well if our dreams meant so little to you then maybe it’s a good thing you failed now,, bc his mother was a lawyer who took all these little jobs that helped people who actually needed the help and lwj was looking forward to doing that with wwx and he doesn’t even seem to care that now they can’t do that 

wwx flinches and then smiles at him and just cheerily says, that’s me and leaves. he doesn’t look back and lwj doesn’t chase after him.

lwj doesn’t see him again for years (you can do 13 or 5 or however long you feel like)

lwj is a fully licensed lawyer and he’s working for the family company and he spends half of his time working on cases and uses the rest of his time to do like outreach programs where he goes and visits schools and runs sessions on what it’s like to be a lawyer, how to apply, and to provide assistance to any students who decide to study law at uni

and then at one of these programs he meets this kid, wen yuan, who is ridiculously bright and enthusiastic and has a smile that seems oddly familiar

at the end of the second session he comes up to lwj and is like mr. lan, is your name lan wangji? and lwj just says yes, expecting the kid to be a fan of one of his cases or something but then wen yuan is like oh wow! i thought i recognised you from my dad’s photo!

and lwj isn’t expecting much but he asks what the photo looks like and wen yuan pulls out this photo from his pocket and lwj immediately recognises it,, it’s the only photo he has of him and wwx

your father is wei ying? lwj asks him and wen yuan is like yes, hesitates, and then asks, would you like to see him?

and that’s how lwj finds himself following wen yuan to some dinky little office that has a plaque outside that reads wen and wei

(wen ning is the nicest and sweetest person ever and lots of people underestimate him but then he’s an absolute monster on court. he gets up and completely decimates the opponent and then at the end is like (: it was so nice to meet you!! i am baby!! and all that,, you know our boy)

anyway they walk in and wwx turns to greet wen yuan but then he sees lwj and is like woah! you! and he’s not sure whether to hide or go and hug lwj so he just gives him a fist bump,, like a bro,, and immediately wants to shrivel up and die

anyway they get the reunion stuff out of the way, swelling music, tender wrist holding, lots of staring, lwj silently declaring his wholehearted love for wwx and refusing to believe rumours about him again even though he doesn’t actually know what happened, you know how it goes

from wwx’s side of things,, after he got kicked out he went to some small uni. good in its own right but not known for their law program and ended up specialising in family law

the first case he ever won was for the wens to have the right to keep custody of a-yuan and the first case wen ning ever won was to let wwx adopt a-yuan bc i’m soft like that

so wwx has just been kinda vibing,, being a single dad, living with the wens and helping to make that difference he always promised he would

now this isn’t gonna be some au where lwj goes oh my! i must give up my high salary job and work with wwx! bc lwj has been doing good stuff at his current job and for all of his family’s stuffiness, they run a fair and just company 

but! he does end up helping wwx when wwx gets a letter with a bunch of information about the jins and how they’re actually super corrupt and evil (big surprise,,) and how wwx was maybe definitely framed bc he was doing some casual work on the side and stumbled across some bad shit on the jins back in uni

lwj ends up being the one to take the case officially but wwx is definitely the guy leading it and so lwj ends up spending most of his time at the wen-wei office

lwj definitely bonds with wen yuan, who also wants to go into law, and writes him recommendation letters and helps him edit his applications and stuff

(and one day wen yuan is like leaving you was the hardest thing dad ever did and i dont think you appreciated how much he cared about you. he really did think that he annoyed you ‘til the end and lwj is like no! he didn’t! and wen yuan is like yeah i know but you gotta tell him and lwj really does mean to but the time is never right or something like that but also wen yuan is all but calling lwj dad at this point)

anyway they end up going to court, side by side, working as a team just as they promised to do and just as they finish their final day on the case, ended with the jury ruling jgy guilty and wwx’s reputation all but saved, wwx turns around and flings himself at lwj

is he crying? is he laughing? a bit of both tbh but wwx ends up confessing right then and there, still on record and everything (is that how that works??? idk! let’s say it does)

and what can lwj do but make out with him?

did a news crew come in to film the results of this massive court case just to end up with five minutes of wangxian kissing?? maybe! but when it played on tv it meant wwx and lwj didnt have to actually tell anyone they got together

(and does lwj eventually pop the question using wwx’s bad latinification? yes and wwx is too busy laughing to accept at first but he does and they end up being the worst possible tutors for wen yuan as he goes through law school bc they keep being all gross and lovey-dovey and acting like law school is the most romantic place in the world)

#mdzs #Anonymous #modao zushi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #all of my understanding of law comes from the pelican brief which i read over 10 years ago and one seminar on law courses at uni #so sorry if it's bad #): #lan sizhui #also i stand by wen yuan #let him keep his last name! #my aus #asks

[defractum]

Ah, au 5 prompts thing: what if during the burial mounds seige the wens convince wwx to take a-yuan and go save himself?

So after the Wen surrender themselves from Burial Mounds, WWX has no one left to turn to. He'd renounced Jiang Cheng, he's pissed off the rest of the cultivation world, and he doesn't even have a golden core anymore. He destroys the stygian amulet, he turns, and he leaves that world behind.

He and A-Yuan travel around, mostly going to places where the big sects won't bother. He becomes a rogue cultivator, but in secret – he'll take on jobs that pay and if he takes out his flute once they've left and sorts it out with a bit of demonic cultivation, well, most ordinary people don't know.

He carries his sword in a covered hilt; he can barely draw it these days anyway

They spend years as travelling cultivators – A-Yuan turns fourteen knowing that he is a Wen, and that his Xian-ge is the infamous Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch, and that he is loved. 

WWX has offered to drop him off at the doors of another sect so that he can get a more comprehensive education, but A-Yuan stays. (He hasn't met a lot of other cultivators his own age, so he doesn't realise for a while that his practical knowledge outstrips his peers by miles.)

WWX teaches A-Yuan cultivation, traditional cultivation. He can teach the theory and the meditation and sword forms even if he doesn’t do them himself anymore. A-Yuan gets very good at talismans and spells and improvising, and there's a tiny bit of demonic cultivation in there too – for emergencies. A-Yuan will be able to defend himself even when he doesn't have a sword.

He gifts A-Yuan Suibian, and his pride outshines his lingering regret.

It's not until they're cleaning out a nest of possessed sea snakes, WWX staying back and using talismans, A-Yuan methodically cutting their heads off, when he hears a familiar strumming from a guqin, dispatching the last of the snakes

WWX is thinking about running but A-Yuan has already turned to start thanking whoever it is – and it's Lan Wangji, of course. Older, and as regal as ever.

LWJ asks sharply where A-Yuan got his sword – and WWX's not about to abandon him, so he jumps down from the rooftop he was perched on and pushes A-Yuan behind him. "It was a gift. I wasn't using it anyway."

LWJ does the thing ("Wei Ying," he breathes, hand reaching out to snap around his wrist, grasping so tightly that it hurts, as if he's afraid if he can't feel him he might not be real.)

WWX asks why he's here ("This isn't anywhere near Gusu.")

LWJ spends much of his time travelling to places that don't have cultivational sects and cultivators readily available these days, after an intense few years helping to rebuild Cloud Recesses after the Wen attack – the sect politics matter little to him, and his brother has a handle on leading the sect by now

(A-Yuan stands like right there, eyes flicking back and forth between them. He's heard a lot about Lan Wangji from Wei Wuxian and this is the most fascinating thing that's ever happened to him – and that's saying something considering last week, they fought a shapeshifter that kept turning itself into WWX.)

WWX offers to split the reward for the possessed snakes between them, but Lan Wangji declines, and asks where they're going next instead; WWX says south, where it's warmer. LWJ tells him that's coincidentally where he was going to go too. (LWJ is a lying liar.) He tags along. And then he just keeps… tagging along.

Sometimes LWJ does need to go back to Gusu, but he always comes back. Once WWX realises that he has no intention of letting anyone know that he's found the Yiling Patriarch, they let him know where to find them next.

He never complains about the rundown inns that WWX picks, or how they walk or ride everywhere (A-Yuan can carry WWX on Suibian, but only for short periods of time and not very high up), or how they take the long way around every big city. Instead, he silently pays the innkeeper in the morning before WWX gets up, and picks up extra provisions for the nights spent camping.

They fall into disgusting domesticity remarkably quickly. LWJ starts teaching A-Yuan cultivation. WWX buys him a dizi of his own. LWJ gets him a guqin. They silently bicker over it until A-Yuan suggests that he could always play the suona – they both flatly stare at him and veto it. (He learns to play both the dizi and the guqin.)

Basically, they travel the countryside and cultivate together and A-Yuan spends far, far too much time and energy playing matchmaker and politely looking off into the middle-distance as they stare longingly at each other before they finally confess their feelings and get together.

Two years later, when a white Gusu distress signal comes from Mo Village, and they are the nearest cultivators around, Lan Wangji looks torn between responding and staying and WWX makes the decision for them – he grabs their things and says without hesitation, "I'll go with you."

See the other filled prompts

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql #wangxian #lan sizhui #my fic #kind of not really #sizhui is the best boy #the most long-suffering boy #also i'm completely incapable of doing a short headcanons post huh #Anonymous #asks

[nyerus]

Hi, nyerus.....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.

Thank you so much for asking! I would love to! (Apologies for the delay, and also for how long this is lol....)

TGCF

1.) Xie Lian: I could write forever about why I love him, but XL is just a really great character who subverted my expectations. He's gentle and compassionate, but also funny and snarky on the inside. His character arc is the classic hero's journey but told out of order. So we meet him when he's already wise and world-weary, then get to see what he was like before, and how he finishes his journey later on. He's extremely inspiring, to show that our choices and our actions are what make us, and ultimately no one can take those from us.

2.) Hua Cheng: This is no surprise! I also just adore HC for being a very intense character! He's completely devoted to XL and that zealotry is very unique in a character. He's 100%, not 50, not 75. While he has a lot of relateable aspects, this part of him is utterly fantastical, on the level only myth and fable can achieve--which tracks. After all, he isnt a Ghost King for nothing. In the story, he is the embodiment of the purest devotion, no strings attached.

3.) He Xuan: I actually like him for the same reasons as HC! He too is a walking fable, only instead of devotion, he represents vengence. (They're actually like foils of each other, which is quite neat.) I really adore his arc, and how murky his whole character is. It tells a cautionary tale of how sometimes, our worst enemy--the one who makes us most miserable--is often ourselves. SWD wronged him greviously, but HX's obsession with vengence ultimately prevented him from getting the peace and recompense he wanted in the end. Absolutely stellar storytelling.

4.) Mei Nianqing: While I often question his motives and methods, he is still a really good character. Caught between wanting to be a mentor and protector to XL, but still loving (platonically or romantically, that's up to you) JW. He's the only father figure in XL's life that actually took him seriously, even if he did have to come around to it. But ultimately, he was proud of who XL became even before he ascended. He was just terrified of XL drawing the attention of the one man he shouldn't--and did. However his belief in superstition and fear of Hong Hong-er also makes sense, even if it's sad. MNQ is also just a quirky and fun dude lol.

5.) Mu Qing: I really like how complicated and murky MQ's is in terms of his inner turmoil. I'm somewhat similar to him in the way he thinks, and it's real work not to make things worse for myself by expecting the worse. His background makes him naturally suspicious of... basically everyone, all the time, and it's honestly understandable. Ultimately, he does understand that you can't make assumptions about people's intentions by projecting your own insecurities onto them--which I think is something everyone can relate to. I really like his subtle journey of self-realization and self-forgiveness, and he ends up far better for it.

MDZS

1.) Lan Wangji: I love the fact that LWJ was just so ready to Night Hunt himself to death upon the loss of his beloved. As you can tell, I really like complicated characters who have extreme traits, haha! That being said, I just also really like his stoicism and reliability.

2.) Wei Wuxian: Naturally, it's hard not to love WWX! He decided "yeah maybe the ends do justify the means" and went for it. To us, he is the hero. To the regular people of the world? Whose ancestors were dug up and disturbed to be used by the Yiling Laozu? His blackened reputation is not without cause! (Like... JGY literally has done more positive and helpful things for regular people than Wangxian, but those metas already exist lol.) Once again, his gray morality is what makes him so damn good, and can be debated at length!

3.) Jiang Cheng: JC gets a bad rep, but oh boy he doesn't make things easy for himself at all. However if I was in his position, I probably would be much worse off. He lost EVERYTHING, and still trudged on because there were people who depended on him. His hatred of the Wens also makes sense in the context that... that's often how humans react to and process extreme trauma. We find something to blame and *waves at literally every major conflict since the dawn of time.* (His rumored torture of innocent people due to that is reprehensible, of course, but given that MDZS is a book about how rumors can make or break someone's life... we should take that line with a grain of skepticism, much like all other hearsay.) He's not typically the type of character I like, but I found him really interesting to read.

4.) Jiang Yanli: I really love JYL, who decided to be the emotional backbone of her family from the time she was a child. It was an undue and extremely heavy burden to bear, but she did all of it without complaint. That's strength. I think many elder siblings can relate to her having to step up and be the third parent, when the actual adults fail at it.

5.) Wen Qing: I really like her arc in the novel, where she makes some of the hardest decisions anyone will ever have to make, over and over and over again. I don't typically love very "rough" characters, but she has ever right to be that way (and it makes sense for her character, and isn't just a tacked-on character trait like hair color or eye color in a CC), and honestly I want to marry her very seriously.

SVSSS

1.) Luo Binghe: Probably the most misunderstood main character of all of MXTX's works. LBH is neither truly a crybaby nor is he a ruthless maniac. He's right in the middle, in the valley of misanthropy. And yet, he knows just how to use his charisma to get his way. Cunning and devious, intelligent and ruthless. Meanwhile, he craves love and intimacy--something he could only ever dream of.

2.) Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan): Extremely refreshing to see an transmigrator know how to handle transmigration almost flawlessly. (Me reading/watching other works with this trope and wanting to tear my hair out at the protags = me sympathizing on a personal level with SQQ.) This also proves to be SQQ's fatal flaw!! His knowledge of the novel is both a boon and a obstacle to him, and prevents him from understanding the other characters as people until he lets go of his pre-conceived notions. And of course, his snarky as heck inner dialogue is amazing.

3.) Liu Qingge: I don't actually even know why I love LQG as much as I do. He's just neat.

4.) Tianlang-Jun: Honestly same goes for TLJ. He's just great though, and I have a blast reading about him. He wanted to see the good in humanity, and ultimately comes around after writing them off.

5.) Yue Qingyuan: He's a fascinating character. Harmless on the outside, but a quagmire on the inside. His love for Shen Jiu was quite... problematic, in that he saught forgiveness from SJ, without actually ever taking the time to understand him or to make amends. Patronizing and judgemental, yet willing to let SJ get away with literally anything because of his own unresolved turmoil, etc etc. Fascinating.

#if this sounds like I want to study some of these characters under a microscope then you'd be correct #i also have a lot more faves i would want to talk about but actually it's a lot of work to Think #i just really love characters who make me think or are very complicated #tgcf #mdzs #svsss #asks #nyerus.txt #thanad-zid

[nillegible]

[More from the ghost!LWJ verse, still dealing with the aftermath of LWJ’s death. See the rest of the posts here.] “There were toys and spare robes,” says Jin Guangyao. “I’ll bring them here, perhaps it will be suitable as a relic, if there’s no luck seeking Wen Yuan’s body. A well-loved toy may have enough energy left over to establish a connection with his spirit.

“There were children’s things at the burial mound?” asks Lan Xichen, looking up at Jin Guangyao. “Why didn’t you tell me? You knew there was a child there!”

“Er-ge…”

“You knew. You could have stopped them.”

This expression is not one that Jin Guangyao ever expected Lan Xichen to turn towards him. It shows betrayal.

I never betrayed you.

(Liar.)

Don’t look at me like that.

(What would he do if he knew it was your fault his brother died?)

No! I didn’t mean for Lan Wangji to interfere! That’s not my fault!

(You betrayed him. He trusted you.)

Jin Guangyao cannot stand the accusation in Lan Xichen’s eyes, not from the only person who’s had unwavering faith in him still. For the first time, he raises his voice at Lan Xichen, cries “Of course, I knew! I knew all of them, not just Wen Yuan! I worked with them for four years, Er-ge! The Wen clan is big, but not that big. I knew all of them.”

Lan Xichen’s expression only sharpens. “And yet you didn’t even try to stop them, A-Yao,” he says.

Them? shouldn’t he be saying us?

“For what? Everyone already thought that my loyalty was suspect! Who would have listened to me? You think my Father would have listened, when he blamed WWX and the Wen for the death of his son and nephew? Was I supposed to tell him, that the Wen did nothing wrong? To tell Da-ge that? If I had defended the Wen remnants, I’d just be ONE MORE BODY left on the burial mounds when you all came for everyone there!” He stresses the you, even knowing how much it would hurt Lan Xichen, even though it twists deep inside Jin Guangyao’s own throat to do it. “If you think there was anything I could have done-”

“MENG YAO, ENOUGH!” says Nie Mingjue’s voice, and Jin Guangyao whirls around to see him walk into the room looking incandescently furious. Jin Guangyao flinches back in terror.

What am I doing? What have I done?

Lan Xichen was the last person who cared at all what happened to him, to strike at that friendship, what was Jin Guangyao doing? (Why did it hurt so much, to see Lan Xichen look at him like that?)

Only, instead of punching him for the words he’d spewed in anger, or worse, drawing his saber, Nie Mingjue just sets his hand firmly on Jin Guangyao’s shoulder. “Calm yourself, Meng Yao,” says Nie Mingjue, and there is something almost like kindness in his voice. “It was not your responsibility to hold the sects accountable.”

What? Jin Guangyao stares at Nie Mingjue incredulously, but the man says, “Xichen is distraught, he did not mean his words.” He looks over Jin Guangyao’s shoulder, expression sharpening. “Apologize, Xichen. That was inappropriate.”

What?

“I’m sorry! A-Yao I’m sorry, you’re right. You couldn’t have done anything, I shouldn’t have implied–”

Jin Guangyao turns back around to see that Lan Xichen has gone white, he’s stepped closer, hand out like he wishes to reach out and hold him, but can’t decide if he’s allowed to step closer or not.

“–I know you always try your best, I didn’t…” and then. Lan Xichen just. Crumples.

Outstretched arm wrapping back around his stomach as he falls to knees with a broken cry.

“Er-ge!” “Xichen!”

“…not your fault. Was mine. I just…”

Jin Guangyao is the first to reach him, kneeling in front of him and supporting him, keeping him from falling further. “Er-ge, please, I’m sorry,”

“No,” says Lan Xichen vehemently. He’s trembling faintly, but there’s a thread of steel in his voice as he speaks, as he says, “Even if, if you’d said. Would I have listened? Wangji told me and yet I only told him to try, I didn’t believe… I don’t know if I would have listened to you, A-Yao.”

“Xichen, you’re not to blame either,” says Nie Mingjue, also kneeling beside them now. His voice is gentler than it had been when he was scolding Lan Xichen just moments before.

“Aren’t I, Da-ge? The deaths of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli compromised the Jin and Jiang sects, we should have, I should have looked into it, but I just agreed, didn’t check. It’s my fault.”

Something’s wrong, something’s very very wrong, and it takes Jin Guangyao several moments to realize that Lan Xichen is breathing too fast; shallow, gasping breaths as he tries to hold himself together. “Er-ge, slow down, you’re going to hyperventilate!” he says, placing a palm on Lan Xichen’s chest.

“I - I. I stepped. As-side, and. and let. them k-kill, kill my b-b-broth-er. I ki-killed him, A-A-Yao, just for. For do-ing the right. right thing. I–”

“Er-ge please,” Jin Guangyao begs, “Don’t do this to yourself, it’s not your fault, you didn’t know! Please control your breathing, you’re frightening me.” Lan Xichen doesn’t though, although maybe he cannot; his eyes widen more as he seems to choke on his gasped breathing, short, sharp gasps that seem to catch in his throat, and Jin Guangyao has no idea what to do. He’s never seen Lan Xichen fall apart like this before.

“He-he’s go-ne. Not supp. supposed. to. I w-want. him. back. want. M-my fa-fault. Pun-ish me.”

Lan Xichen shows no signs of becoming less hysterical, and before Jin Guangyao can plead further, Nie Mingjue pulls him into his arms, tucking Lan Xichen into a hug, his head nestled beneath Nie Mingjue’s chin.

“Xichen,” he says, “Breathe. You can cry, but you have to breathe,” and somehow that gets through to him, he gasps and splutters some more but he tries, and when he finally starts sobbing into Nie Mingjue’s chest, broken and desperate, at least Jin Guangyao is no longer afraid he’s going to hurt himself.

Nie Mingjue holds Lan Xichen as he shakes apart and cries, and when Jin Guangyao meets his eyes over Lan Xichen’s head, he sees some kind of reflected grief there.

Nie Mingjue mouths, ‘Water.’ Nodding, Jin Guangyao gets up and fetches some, coming back and asking quietly, “Er-ge, would you like some water?” Three hands, from three different people help steady the glass as Lan Xichen sips slowly from it, every one of his hitched breaths still tugging at Jin Guangyao.

Why does it hurt so much?

You were never supposed to be hurt.

It takes some time, but eventually the glass is empty, and Lan Xichen is only crying silent tears into the collar of Nie Mingjue’s robes.

“It’s not your fault alone,” says Nie Mingjue, after the long silence. “I was hasty too. The blame belongs to all of us.”

“I disgust myself,” Lan Xichen whispers, after he lets go.

“It’s fine. They’ll have moved on, perhaps be reincarnated. Isn’t that why-”

“They wouldn’t have. Wen Qing’s ashes were scattered at the Nightless city, and the rest were thrown into a pool of resentful energy at the burial mounds. Their souls would not have escaped,” says Nie Mingjue.

Oh.

It’s at times like this that Jin Guangyao remembers just how cruel cultivators are.

“I’ll find them all, and put them to rest,” says Xichen. “Not just A-Yuan.”

“You’re a sect-leader, Xichen. You can’t just leave everything to do this. Assign it to your cultivators, not-”

“I won’t hurry. But I will give them all rest. I swear.”

“Xichen-”

“Maybe then Wangji’s soul will forgive me, and deign to speak to me,” says Lan Xichen, and Nie Mingjue stops protesting.

#ghost!LWJ fic excerpt #ghost!lwj verse #3zun #lan xichen #jin guangyao #jgy pov #nie mingjue

[crossdressingdeath]

I feel people forget we have canonical examples of people adopted into the family and that going better for the adoptee. People who argue that there's no difference between Wei Wuxian's position in the cultivation world compared to others forget that we have both Wen Yuan and Meng Yao for comparison. You can clearly see how the family treats them affects their standing.

Wei Wuxian was a young master (and yes that's relatively privileged) but he's clearly not considered part of the Jiang family and their equal. And that directly affects how he's treated and what he can get away with. People keep talking about how rude he is but others have been ruder and got away with it. Everyone knows what Madam Yu thinks of him. Everyone also knows what position he holds relative to Jiang Cheng, it's why it's so easy to make allegations about him to Jiang Cheng about insubordination. It's why it was easy for Jin Jixun to openly disparage/yell at him. He may be a desciple but he's got no actual authority or place in the Jiang sect, he's closer in postion to Su She then even someone like Jin Zixun (albiet a much more favored then Su She). It's sort of like the mc of Knives Out.

Compare this to Jin Guangyao, who even with the snub of his name, was still adopted into the family proper. His treatment at the Jins left much to be desired but he's still got all the privileges of rank. He's considered Jin Zixuan's brother and he's in line to inherit. And while the Jins are like that, clearly people from the outside treat him as a part of the Jin. See how Jiang Cheng treats him compared to how others treat Wei Wuxian, despite both having common backgrounds.

Finally we have Lan Shizui. He's adopted into the Lan clan proper, he's given the ribbon of the main family, and the Lans treat him as one of them. He's never ever treated as anything other then as a young master of Lan. He's given all the privileges of his rank. Even when Jc snipes at lan jingyi or Shizui, he's still wary of going over the top and incurring the Lans wrath. This is directly down to how Lans treat Shizui and how rumour proof they are. Note that his circumstances sort of mirror Wei Wuxian's (Lan Wangji just turns up with a child) and yet there's not horrible stuff said about him. People argue that Madam Yu makes sense with her yelling about what Wei Wuxian would have meant to Jiang Cheng's position, but Lan Wangji turns up with a child and his reputation doesn't suffer. And Jin Guangyao is adopted into the clan and no one really thinks he's above Jin Zixuan. It's her own insistence of constantly believing in the rumours and being part of the gossip that probably makes them worse. If she really cared about her son, she should have just laughed. But she doesn't, because she's not doing it out of care or political savvy, she's just doing it because she wants to berate Jiang Fengmian.

Yeah, that’s a good point. JGY isn’t fully respected, there are clearly people who still see him as just the bastard son of a prostitute, but the name “Jin” does buy him a lot of respect. Even before he becomes sect leader (or even the immediate heir) people at least won’t insult him to his face; even when JC is talking about how he’ll never amount to anything, he says it to WWX, not to JGY’s face. And yeah, no one seems to think that JGY outranks JZX despite actually being JGS’s son, because... he doesn’t. That’s not how it works. And LSZ very clearly has the full support of the Lan sect; as you say, we see JC sniping at them (picking a fight with teenagers, that’s real mature) but he doesn’t dare go too far for fear of annoying the Lans. He... might actually be the heir after LWJ, it’s unclear (he’s certainly head disciple and was adopted into the main clan, but we don’t know who adopted him; if it wasn’t one of the Twin Jades he’s likely not near the top of the succession line), but either way he’s clearly well respected and liked within the sect. So like... clearly most of the time there isn’t concern about the succession when someone is adopted into the sect. Also, I seem to recall getting someone telling me once that an adopted child wouldn’t be above a blood child in the line of succession regardless of age, at least not automatically.

Honestly? I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason there was gossip about WWX being JFM’s bastard was because YZY kept shouting about it. I mean, the one person who really brings up anything related to it is JZX, who is the son of YZY’s best friend. I don’t think JFM taking in his best friends’ orphaned son and giving that son the rank of head disciple when he turned out to be super talented was actually suspicious on its own. I mean, LWJ brings a completely unknown kid back from the Burial Mounds after fighting his sect’s elders to defend WWX and no one says shit about it! But if JFM’s wife is constantly shrieking about WWX being the result of an affair between him and CSSR... Well, that would draw some attention.

#mdzs #lotus mom #anon #asks

[wangxianficrecs]

anonymous asked:  Do you have any getting together mind reading Wangxian recs? Thank you in advance!

Oh, golly.  There’s:

hope dangling by a string

by KouriArashi

M, 70k, wangxian [my comment here]

Summary:   Lan Wangji had never had call to perform the spell of silent communication before he and Wei Wuxian joined together to fight Xuanwu. He figured it was temporary. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

Or: the AU in which Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian psychically bond in the cave, Wei Wuxian overhears Lan Wangji thinking about the fact that he actually likes him, and after several minutes of confusion, is fully on board with this.

Hyperprosexia

by malkinmalkout

E, 192k, wangxian [my comment here]

Summary:   As a Sentinel Wei Wuxian is constantly scrutinized by the cultivation world. He usually doesn’t mind but when Lan Wangji labels him as a threat Wei Wuxian is pushed into proving he’s more than his designation in order to befriend his unwanted rival.

As Guide Lan Wangji needs to be in constant control to ensure that other people’s emotions do not overwhelm him and to keep his own emotions from influencing others. This control is challenged when he meets Wei Wuxian, who seems to break down every one of Lan Wangji’s barriers.

Light a Fire They Can’t Put Out

by runningondreams

T, 920, wangxian [my post here]

Summary:  He watches Lan Wangji pace a slow circuit around the cave. Watches the slight downturn of his lips and furrowing of his brow as he draws a ward line across the shallow slope of the entrance. Watches him circle back with a slow smooth swish of silk and sit—on the same side of the fire, closer than he has too. Close enough that if Wei Wuxian was sitting properly cross-legged, their knees would nearly touch.

That’s not unusual, these days. It’s just that there’s a bit of his hair out of place, brushing his cheek, and Wei Wuxian is having trouble controlling his hands.

Silver & Gold

by beeswaxing

E, 162k, wangxian [my comment here]

Summary:  Wandering through a rather busy night market on the boundaries of Gusu after a successful night hunt, Wei Wuxian with his son and nephew chance on a mysterious cultivator who rivals him at talismans. Curious as to the wares she has spread out over her table, he forgets the simple rule - you break it, you buy it. AKA Wei Wuxian gets turned into a child and because it is Wei Wuxian, no one has any idea what to expect.

—

“Pretty-gege.”

SiZhui flushes at the doe eyes shining at him. “A-Ying is prettier,” he replies without thinking.

“You know my name?”

“We are family.”

“Oh…” the boy scrunches his nose, his expression vaguely apologetic. “But I don’t know your name.”

“It’s ok. You can call me…” SiZhui pauses for a moment at the sudden lump in his throat. He clears it, his voice rough with emotion. “You can call me Yuan-gege.”

And this one has our boys able to communicate telepathically through their ‘children’ over very long distances, but not purely between themselves:

❤️Fallen

by Jaywalker_Holmes

M, 151k, series with 6 parts, complete, [my post here]

Summary:  A cultivation accident in the future destroys Mo XuanYu’s frail body and sends Wei WuXian’s soul back into the past, in his six-year-old body. This time, armed with the knowledge of his future self and his love for his beloved Lan WangJi, he decides to rewrite his destiny and protect those he loves. Will the YiLing Patriarch have a happier life this time?

~*~*~ I haven’t read these yet: ~*~*~

@needleinthenonsense says, “This series has a telepathic bond between WWX and LWJ starting from part 5!” [I’m subscribed to this one!]

Magical Marriage Ribbons

by starandrea

M, 259k, wangxian, 7 works, series in progress

Summary:  Wei Ying and Lan Zhan somehow find time to be student sweethearts at Cloud Recesses, and it changes the course of the war. Mashup of novel, donghua, and drama, with a little manhua as a treat. Anything that wasn’t AU before Cloud Recesses is certainly AU after.

Happy fix-it with a little plot and a lot of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying being super cute together.

and @ziezie13 suggests:

A Peek Inside His Mind

by BarbaraAburi

M, 26k, wangxian, WIP

He allowed himself to lay down once more. Mind reeling over what he had found since waking up.

He could feel people’s emotions, every person’s emotions apparently had different sensations on him, he could hear their thoughts as well if this person was actively thinking in words, he could feel thoughts that were not words, like his Shijie knowing something he didn’t before.

And apparently, Lan Zhan loved him.

Or

What if after coming back from the Burial Mounds, Wei Ying had gained a few extra abilities due to his demonic cultivation? What if he had telepathy and could not only read minds, but feel the emotion of people around him?

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for these authors if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #WangxianFicRecs Presents #telepathy #mental bond #telepathic bond

[songofclarity]

One of my favorite ideas for the LSZ is WRH's son concept is an au where WRH survives the ssc (maybe he's too weak or is in a coma from his injuries for some time so he wasn't able to stop the aftermath of the ssc) and he's now a hermit living in a mountain in qishan away from society because he wants to be left alone to meditate and contemplate on his past mistakes in peace believing that he is the only one that's left of his whole clan

And since he's living in isolation he doesn't hear about wwx's return or the downfall of JGY or the fact that WN is alive and then one day he meet LSZ on some night hunt and he immediately recognizes his youngest child that he thought was dead years ago but he has no proof and LSZ evades all questions about his birth so WRH decides to investigate and finds out WN is alive and goes to find him and when he does WN reveals everything

I suppose LSZ's reaction at 1st would be hostile to WRH, he would refuse to even recognize him as his father, which would be normal but eventually LSZ comes to term with it and starts to accept him

Meanwhile wangxian are shocked at 1st but then very protective of LSZ because they don't trust WRH but ultimately they will respect LSZ's choice if he wants a relationship with his birth father

I'm thinking wangxian and WRH eventually reach an agreement to not try to kill each other and let bygones be bygones for LSZ's sake but that doesn't mean they will get along

In fact this starts a rivalry between WX and WRH. On one side WRH is jealous that wangxian (especially lwj) are the ones that raised his son and thus they're the ones who know him best they're the ones he goes to for comfort when in pain they're the ones he sees as a role model... Etc meanwhile wangxian are jealous that WRH shares something with LSZ that they can never have, the bond of blood, they also feel that WRH tries to encroach on their territory and that he's trying to draw LSZ away from them and the Lans so they don't trust him at all.

So the 3 of them are extremely passive aggressive and petty to each other especially behind LSZ's back, the juniors even dub it "the war of the dads" and start a betting pool on whose going to win

This goes on until LSZ falls into some grave danger and wangxian and WRH have to work together to help him and they eventually end up realizing that they all care for him the same way and only want him to be safe and happy and so they learn to coexist

Lan Sizhui has never been hostile to anyone in his life, but he decides his first victim will be this sad and lonely hermit who committed the crime of *checks notes* being a Wen?? lol

My feelings on Wangxian+son and the erasure of the Wen Remnants as also being Wen Yuan's family aside, so long as Lan Sizhui looks at Wen Ruohan and eventually says, "Hello... Dad," with his nerves all in bundles and choked with emotion, I can roll with this! Wen Ruohan coming in post-canon to shake things up and Lan Sizhui getting more Wen fam is a lot of fun!

Also just imagine Wei Wuxian having flashbacks to this moment:

Wen Yuan immediately shook his head, whispering, "…I won't go… I still want Granny."

Wei WuXian pressed, "You want Granny, but not me?"

Wen Yuan pleased, "I do. I want Brother Xian too.” He messed with his fingers, counting one by one, “And I want Brother Rich, Sister A-Qing, Brother Ning, Uncle Four, Uncle Six…"

Wei WuXian tossed the butterfly back onto his head, "That's enough, that's enough. I'm gonna be drowned amongst all the people." (ch 75, ERS)

Wei Wuxian just cannot become Wen Yuan/Lan Sizhui's favorite!? Because even once all the Wen are dead, they are now coming back to life apparently, just like he did lmao

An alternative thought I have on all this is based on how Wen Ruohan had Wen Zhuliu protect Wen Chao, which makes me struggle to see Wen Ruohan being confrontational towards Lan Wangji for, essentially, protecting and caring for Wen Yuan. I know it's less dramatic than a big comedic family feud, but I personally find it more compelling to have a situation where Wen Ruohan might feel indebted to Lan Wangji.

(Wen Ruohan and Wei Wuxian's situation would be far more rocky considering Wei Wuxian hunted Wen for sport for three years and rumor has it that the Wen Remnants were Wei Wuxian's slaves/servants lol But Wei Wuxian still saved a group of them all the same!! Or tried to save them...)

Which is to say the real hostility in all this would might come from the Lan Sect and the Lan Sect rules. In the Iron Hook extras, Lan Sizhui can't even admit he's scared because it goes against the Lan Sect rules, and he fears being punished by Lan Wangji if he confesses to it. Imagine Wen Ruohan's alarm, to hear that his happy and lovable and playful child was stifled to such a degree!

Wen Ruohan, "Thank you for protecting and raising A-Yuan, but also Xu-er might have had a point about burning this place to the ground. No child should ever have to live here."

(But at least Wen Yuan had a chance to live!)

Although we should really consider a post-conclusion where it's Granny Wen that Lan Sizhui remembers and loves the most LOL

#HOW does one send an ask this long #the last one i tried to send limited me to like 100 characters lmao #i don't have a problem with long asks i'm just impressed #mdzs thoughts #asked from above #anon #wangxian+son #wrh & wy #this is a pro granny wen blog

[stiricidewrites]

The Damage You Do: ch 19, pt 3

CW: mentions of A-Yuan being abused, mostly verbally; implied that lwj would also have been abused or bullied

Previously

~

“What are you smiling about?” lwj asked, stepping forward—now beautifully naked as well—and brushing a hand against wwx’s cheek.

He shuddered into the touch, grasping onto lwj’s wrist like it was a lifeline. It had been forever since he had felt his dom’s skin on his—forever in the time means nothing and it’s really been about a minute way, but forever no less. “Nothing~” he mumbled back, drawing lwj’s fingers to his mouth and bringing them fully into it before either of them realized what he was about to do.

“A-Ying,” lwj hissed, his voice barely a breath to wwx’s ears as he moaned around the fingers.

wwx blinked in what he was increasingly becoming convinced was a very, very pretty way—based solely on the way lwj’s eyes always darkened slightly when he did it—up at his dom as he sucked, his tongue slipping between the man’s fingers.

The bathroom lights weren’t on, he realized stupidly as he gazed up at the beautiful man, all the light shining in through huge windows on two of the walls, connected at the corner where the tub sat. They reached from the top of the tub—huge and purple like the rest of the bathroom—all the way to beyond the ceiling, the glass bending into the roof and creating a partial skylight. Plants hung from it, huge and thriving in the wet, sun filled room—not sunny now, though. Now, it was cold and dreary out, increasingly dark clouds gathering over the city. During the summer this room was probably like a sauna, though. Knowing lwj—in the vague way he did, at least—the man probably had ridiculously powerful AC units in every room, so maybe not. The idea of lwj, summer sweaty, his dress shirts sticking to his chest as he gulped down water so fast that it dripped down his chin—

“A-Ying?” lwj’s voice called wwx’s attention back to him, back to the fingers he was still idly sucking on, although—as one glance to his dom’s lower half confirmed—even his idle sucking was enough to arouse the man.

wwx smiled around the fingers, feeling dreamy and fucked out and not completely convinced he wasn’t in some kind of fever dream, imagining this whole insane bathroom as he was passed out in lwj’s arms. “You’re pretty,” he slurred around lwj.

“Thank you,” lwj said, something that wwx couldn’t quite identify crossing over his face—something that almost reminded him of the look A-Yuan got when people assured him his artwork was beautiful, or he was good at playing soccer, or anything else positive about his person or creations or abilities. Some insistent part of him—the part that had been torn apart by the adults that were supposed to love him before wwx had gotten ahold of him—screaming at him that it wasn’t true. That he was nothing, and that everything he did was wrong, bad, stupid.

This was stupid, though: that lwj could be feeling doubt in his words. lwj was beautiful. That was simple fact. How anyone could ever have made this man feel like he wasn’t…

wwx bristled slightly at the idea that anyone had ever made his dom feel less than he was. Maybe he’d misread the look? Maybe he had just been unsure if wwx had actually meant it? After all, he was probably used to his subs saying flattering things they didn’t really mean to him—although wwx still couldn’t imagine someone not thinking lwj was the most beautiful human in the whole fucking world.

#fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #wangxian #stiricidesmobji #dark lan zhan

[tanoraqui]

Grave dirt baby... 🥺✨

me, procrastinating my actual fic? no... GRAVE DIRT BABY A-YUAN

HEY TUMBLR FUCKED UP ALL MY BULLET POINTS ON THIS THE SECOND I HIT POST BUT IT’S 4AM SO I’M LEAVING IT UP ANYWAY. STUPID GODDAMN WEBSITE.

Wei Wuxian has been in the Burial Mounds for like 2.5 months out of what he doesn’t yet know will be about 3. He’s not even sure he’s going to survive yet. But he has managed to manifest an evil sword - the evil sword - out of the aether/ambient resentful energy/an attunement set with an unwise touch in the belly of an evil turtle

and he does know that he’s not going to survive if he doesn’t get the power of the Burial Mounds under some sort of control

so he cuts his arm and with blood running down the blade, draws something adjacent to the first demon-summoning flag but as an array in the dirt. He stands in the middle and - keep in mind that he more or less hasn’t slept in 2.5 months - plunges the sword into the center, still coated in his blood, and draws in all the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds

was it supposed to go into the sword? Into himself? Into just the single 4ft diameter array area, a column of bound death? who knows, not Wei Wuxian! it’s pure gut instinct

u know what else works on gut instinct, thought? Fairy tales.

And in a fairy tale, why, clay of the earth plus iron enough for a blade plus still-warm blood to show the way...

There’s an implosion and Wei Wuxian is standing - somehow still standing - in a small crater where the array used to be, and his evil sword is plunged into the belly of a baby

He yanks it out in horrified reflex, and realizes a moment later that the baby seems unfazed by this. If there was even a wound, it closes before his eyes, and the glimpse he had showed something more bloody clay than flesh beneath the skin

the iron sword crumbles as he pulls it away, as though rusted a thousand years. the baby turns its head from the iron shavings that falls on it, but then reaches up for Wei Wuxian with a cheerfully demanding cry

he picks it up, of course. (he’d think he was hallucinating if he wasn’t absolutely and utterly aware that he’s not)

it is, as far as he can tell, with physical and spiritual resentful inspection, an absolutely normal baby

oh, except when he looks really closely. Then he can sense the neutron star–dense knot of resentful energy where a golden core might (but will definitely not have room to) form. Also, it can command the dead, and when he holds it, so can he. He’s not sure if it’s a proximity-based power share or if he’s passing his desires through the baby, but even Wei Wuxian, at about 3 months with no food save the rage of the dead and no rest save the promise of final release, has to stop investigating at some point. He has things to do!

specifically, he has Wens to kill

so instead of the iconic shot of the dark flautist in the moonlight, we get the dark, uh...man singing a very spooky lullaby to his baby in the moonlight. It is still deeply creepy. It’s a making-it-up-as-he-goes tune based on a Yunmengi lullaby that he certainly learned from neither of his foster parents, and the lyrics are along the lines of, “let them remember what they did, sweet little potato, let them remember why they’re dying”

yeah he’s been calling this child “Little Potato” for 2 weeks 

why

is that not how you name a child

sometimes when he’s more annoyed at it, he calls it “Little Radish”, or even less appetizing root vegetables

by the time he walks in, the baby is asleep in his arms and he’s not singing anymore, just letting the dead do his will. This is what Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji see. The subsequent conversation, Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu at their feet, goes like this:

LWJ: Wei Ying. You have a baby.

WWX: Oh, uh...

PLAY DUMB!

WWX: What baby?

NOT THAT DUMB!

WWX: Oh, this baby! Haha yeah. I...found it.

JC: What the fuck

WWX: Yeah, weird, right? Right near the, uh...

LWJ: They said you were in the Burial Mounds

WWX: Yyyyup. Yes that is. I found this baby by the side of the road after I walked out of the Burial Mounds.

JC, briefly too morbidly fascinated to think about either the demonic cultivation they just watched or the fact that he wants to hug his brother like he’s never wanted to hug another being in his life: What did you name it?

WWX: ....

JC, desire to hug intensifying together with exasperation: oh my god

Sometime in the next couple days - after sleeping a bit, maybe - it occurs to Wei Wuxian that his raw instincts were right and things will go very badly for little A-Yuan (his siblings insisted he name it) if anyone finds out that he’s a not-yet-walking, not-yet-talking little neuron star of resentful energy. So he takes the iron shavings that are all that remain of the Stygian Turtle Sword and forges them into a Tiger-shaped Seal. He also carves a bamboo flute, like he’d been thinking about before the whole...baby thing. He loudly proclaims both to be dark and terrible weapons

(it really is helpful. The sword was...kind of A-Yuan’s other parent, after all, in addition to their third partner, the Burial Mounds. Chenqing gives him finer control of whatever stray resentful energy he chooses to pick up, and the Stygian Seal lets him channel A-Yuan’s power at need, even when not touching him. Which is good - a battlefield is no place for a baby)

even if that baby thinks ghosts and ghouls exist to pick him up and rock him or toss him around (babies like to be tossed)

Wei Wuxian puts so many goddamn spirit-repelling charms on that child, and lets it be marked down to the paranoia of a survivor

using whatever resentful energy he picks up is generally more effective, actually. Less strong, but it quickly becomes clear that the way this works does, in fact, involve Wei Wuxian communicating his desires through A-Yuan, or at least A-Yuan has to put up with the loan of power. There’s nothing quite like abruptly losing control of a field of corpses because the baby got abruptly uncooperative with anything that wasn’t barfing

the baby does eat, for the record. As far as Wei Wuxian can tell, he doesn’t actually need to, but once WWX fed him once, when they first left the Mounds, he wanted it all the time

he still takes A-Yuan with him when he can. That is the paranoia of a survivor. A-Yuan is...

“A battlefield is no place for a baby, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says gently, as he sets out from Carp Tower after another stolen visit, another failed attempt to convince Jin Guangshan off his ass. “And you are...so busy. LanlingJin takes in orphans, you know...”

“A-Yuan...he’s my blood,” Wei Wuxian says quietly. He’s never been good at lying to his shijie

Whatwherewhenhowwho, he’d see on her face if he was looking at it. But he isn’t. It’s not shame, though, she can see (it really never is, with Wei Wuxian). Fear of disappointing her, slight resignation...but mostly acceptance. Determination. Something almost like contentment.

(When Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangj first took him back to whatever resembled a base camp - somewhere in Qinghe, probably, or maybe Lanling - he had to let a trained healer look at A-Yuan, physical and spiritual examination, and he held his breath and calculated how many people he’d have to kill to get out of here, how fast he’d have to move to not hurt his brother or any particular friends; thought, oh, he’s mine, in a way he hadn’t before - as a child, a son, not just a very strange weapon - 

“He’s quite healthy,” said the doctor, mildly surprised, bouncing A-Yuan on one knee. A-Yuan gurgled happily. “About three months old?”

the longer Wei Wuxian took to answer, the more disapproving her stare got. But that did make sense)

Then all else can be dealt with later. “You should still leave him here,” Jiang Yanli says firmly. “You need to look after yourself and A-Cheng out there. I can look after A-Yuan.”

It takes a bit under two years to win back the lost and burnt territories, scour the Wens out of every crevice, corner Wen Ruohan in his precious Nightless City and bring it tumbling down. Nobody will know the timing but A-Yuan sleeps through the final battle, smiling at dreams that would make a grown man weep in horror. Somewhere, his father is playing a lullaby

About a week later, Jiang Cheng stalks into Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, which he shares with A-Yuan. One of the first rooms rebuilt in the new Lotus Pier. A-Yuan is there, too, playing with blocks while Wei Wuxian idly drafts talismans

“A-jie said the kid is yours,” he says, crossed arms. “Like, yours-yours. When the fuck did you do that?”

(Wei Wuxian has thought about this, by now; gone over the pros and cons of every possibility, the politics and potentials and maybe even the giddy possibility of telling something like the truth)

(the guiding principle is: he has no interest in drawing on the “Stygian Tiger Seal” ever again. The Sunshot Campaign is over. His loved ones are safe, and he sees no reason why they shouldn’t all live long, happy, normal lives)

(also/though, he will burn Jin Sect, Carp Tower, and all of Lanling to the ground before the new Chief Cultivator should touch his son)

“In Caiyi,” he lies. “Right before I got kicked out. I, uh, snuck out a lot more often than you noticed.”

His brother squints at him suspiciously. But Wei Wuxian can also watch him do the math in his head and reluctantly admit that it works.

“So are you claiming him or what?” he challenges. “’Wei Yuan’? You have a courtesy name - wait, no, you are not naming that kid again. You’re going to make his courtesy name be Carrothead or something.” 

“Should I let you pick it, oh wise and noble shidi - no, shushu?!” Wei Wuxian teases, as A-Yuan gets tired of his blocks and starts climbing up him like a jungle gym

Jiang Cheng sighs like the north wind - gusting long and hard, with just the faintest chill to suggest that the skies will be weeping, soon

But...

Despite some evidence to the contrary, Wei Wuxian is generally fully aware of when he’s about to cross a line that cannot be backtracked over. So he meets Wen Qing in the city, and before going to Lanling, he nips into Lotus Pier and picks up A-Yuan

He might leave A-Yuan with Wen Qing in the city when he goes to Glamour Hall, but Qiongqi Pass happens with a toddler watching silently from Wei Wuxian’s hip. Does Wei Wuxian tell him to look away, bury his face in baba’s shirt, or does he not bother, knowing the sort of song that makes up A-Yuan’s sweet dreams?

The Wens become the second through 51st or so people who learn what A-Yuan is. Wei Wuxian briefly considers trying to hide it, but, honestly, there are dead things everywhere on the Burial Mounds, and despite his genuine efforts, he cannot convince A-Yuan that a fierce corpse is anything but the ideal patty-cake companion. (They’ll play with him for hours! It’s a two-nearly-three-year-old’s dream!)

(he doesn’t want to convince him, not really. The last thing he wants to do ever is give A-Yuan anything to be scared of)

nor could he possibly wish that A-Yuan not be...obviously hale and hearty, running rosy-cheeked and strong around these hills of death that slowly seep the energy from any humans, animals, or even sturdy root crops

“So, uh, this is actually my demon baby,” said Wei Wuxian as they all settled in

“this day has been so weird already, this might as well goddamn happen”, said the Wens collectively

“You created a living child out of dead earth, so I’m going to take that as a yes that you can bring my brother back,” said Wen Qing specifically

“...fuck. I mean, yes. I mean - fuck,” said Wei Wuxian. “I- of course I will.”

(it doesn’t work like that, though)

The 52nd person to find out what A-Yuan is is Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian very much does not tell him. They have a pleasant toy-shopping trip and lunch in town, and then the alarm talisman goes off and Wei Wuxian grabs A-Yuan and Lan Wangji tugs them both onto Bichen and when they arrive, Wen Ning is roaring. Lan Wangji knows what’s important; he takes A-Yuan so Wei Wuxian’s hands are free and he doesn’t have to worry about his son

except Wen Ning, black-eyed with rage, throws Wei Wuxian into a tree hard enough to crack a rib, and even as Lan Wangji raises Bichen, A-Yuan shouts,

“Uncle Ning, stop!”

and Wen Ning stops

(as a rule, Wei Wuxian can’t take over with himself and Chenqing anything A-Yuan is controlling, unless A-Yuan lets him, and vice versa. To eliminate variables, Wei Wuxian had made sure that any reins on Wen Ning were his (Wei Wuxian’s) alone. But in that moment, before Wen Ning came fully back to himself, his reins were swinging free - and they were back within the bounds of the Burial Mounds, where A-Yuan was always strong)

and Lan Wangji puts several pieces together at once and prays to every single god in heaven and every ancestor he’s disappointing right now that this was a miracle of love and a very cute child piercing through a fierce corpse’s mindless rampage. That he simply...hallucinated the burst of resentful energy he just felt from the child in his arms

but he’s absolutely, utterly aware that he didn’t

Wei Wuxian explains, stilted and awkward at the bottom of the hill. Challenging and terrified. Holding on to A-Yuan. 

Lan Wangji promises to keep the secret. 

Wei Wuxian takes Hanguang-jun’s word

Remember, oh, remember, that Wei Wuxian walks A-Yuan back up the hill until A-Yuan gets tired and Wei Wuxian picks him up, on their one-and-a-half–man plank bridge through the dark. Remember remember remember that before he can finish speaking that line, there is light - the clearing is lit with lanterns and secret-keepers 2 through 51, and I suppose 53 now that Wen Ning is awake, are waiting with dinner and warmth and welcome. Reader, remember this.

But then...

Aunt Qing and Uncle Ning had gone, and then, with a terrible expression on his face, so had A-Yuan’s baba. Now his baba’s anger and sadness is so strong that the weight of it makes A-Yuan cry from hundreds of miles away, and he curls into Granny’s arms and sends his baba everything he can. Will everything be okay, then? Will everyone come home; will they be able to smile again?

(oh, A-Yuan...)

(No.)

A-Yuan - Wei Yuan, Little Potato (when he’s good for baba or bad for Aunt Qing) or Little Radish (inverse); one day to be Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui - was born in the good old fairy tale way of earth and iron and blood. It’s a hard thing for any child to lose even a single parent - in one day, in one minute, A-Yuan loses two of three, as the father of his blood burns away in hand the last shreds of Stygian iron, and promptly loses control of his own resentful energy

(the Tiger Seal does nothing like explode, in this world. It was never more than a prop - but a vital one. the benefit of proving it destroyed would be worth the loss of a parent, if only a second didn’t follow on its heels)

A-Yuan has been a dead thing (or close enough) come to life all his life, and both dead and living have been his friends and family. But he’s never felt the transition the other way: from life to death

It’s no wonder, really, that he can’t remember it afterward. No wonder that even on the land that was the last part of him, he was feverish and barely conscious when Lan Wangji stumbled, bleeding, off of Bichen, and took in his arms. No wonder that he remembered very little at all, including the dead. 

But he would be okay. Under physical and spiritual inspection, he’s a perfectly normal boy. He may not be able to form a golden core (there's something in the way), but there are...workarounds. He’ll grow up in one of the most heavily spiritually warded enclaves in the world, safe and loved as he relearns (mostly in secret) what he can do

(For the sake of this story, and A-Yuan’s survival as something close to canon, let’s say there are some truly dark things in the forbidden section of the Lan Library, that could only be used for nefarious purposes - though, I suppose we already knew that. Let’s say there are talismans that will disguise the very nature of qi, so resentful energy may appear spiritual. Let’s say, Lan Xichen becomes the 53rd to know the truth, because his brother needs help - and it’s Wei Wuxian’s child, okay? It’s just Wei Wuxian’s child, quiet and unsure rather than laughing as he always was. If you were in the inner circle of leaders of the Sunshot Campaign, you have absolutely met this child, probably held him and bounced him on one knee)

(What keeps Lan Xichen up at night isn’t the concealing amulet he helped his brother make, which Lan Yuan wears at all times around his neck. It’s the silence he keeps every time he meets Jiang Wanyin’s eyes over a diplomatic table. If anyone had the right to know Wei Yuan survived... But Sandu Sengshou killed Wei Wuxian, everyone knows that, and now he hunts demonic cultivators - what might his pride drive him to do to his nephew, if he ever learned the truth? (Selfishly, Lan Xichen know that if Lan Wangji lost A-Yuan, even just to living at Lotus Pier, Lan Xichen might lose his brother. That fear ebbs with time passing, but the the longer he hasn’t spoken, the worse it would be to do so...))

They don’t restrict Lan Yuan to the Cloud Recesses, no more than any other novice. For memory of their mother, neither of them could bear that. Jiang Cheng does eventually see him at a conference, and stops dead. Years have passed, but that is an entire goddamn nephew, right there. But - how? No, it can’t be. That’s...everyone knows Lan Wangji hated Wei Wuxian. It’s just...and someone would have told him. The Lans value propriety above all, after all.

Anything that can be done with spiritual cultivation can be done with demonic cultivation, save heal. Lan Sizhui makes up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of undead and monsters, and a prodigal talent for Inquiry

On their first night hunt, the young juniors face ghosts. Unfortunately, this is when Lan Jingyi learns that he’s terrified of ghosts. He’s hiding behind Lan Sizhui and panic is contagious, and the senior accompanying them is in a different room of the abandoned house, and Lan Sizhui forgets that he’s holding a sword and just shouts, “Stop! Go away!” 

the ghost, of course, obeys

Lan Jingyi peeks out form behind him. “Did- did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lan Sizhui admits (except that he’s absolutely sure he did)

There’s another flicker of movement, just the wind blowing ashes but Jingyi whips around with wild eyes. “Can you do it again?”

[friendship. my point is, he’s a demon baby but he has family and friends who love and accept him.]

And one day, some absolute fucking morons are going to bring him back home, where he can never be anything but strong, and threaten his friends and family? And the threat is an army of his old playmates, commanded by an attempt at recreating some combination of Chenqing and the Tiger Seal? He couldn’t manage it in Yi City, but now A-Yuan, Wei Yuan, Lan Sizhui stands on earth that has never stopped being part of him, or maybe he’s never stopped being part of it. If he closed his eyes he could feel every foot on it, living and restless dead. And they’re threatening his baba - who he remembers, as the earth remembers its old partner, even though the blood is changed - and his father Hanguang-jun, and his extended family and friends?

No.

#lyratalus #mdzs #the untamed #ficlet #lan sizhui #wei wuxian #uh who else is here #must i tag them all? don't wanna #my fic #hmm need the speaker for the dead variant to get more childhood stuff; they're similar there

[nyd-needs-cuddles]

More fanart! Modern-day Kei wearing a mask ‘cause she can listen to instructions. Unlike some people...

Also, more art about Lan!Kei. Her official courtesy name is now Lan Huangli!

Lan - blue

Huang - phoenix (feminine)

Li - reason, logic / stand, establish

Idk, it seemed like something LQR would choose. Also, tell me if I got her personality right @cyb-by-lang

Here are the texts from top to bottom, left to right:

[above the drawing of Kei clinging on LSZ]

*doesn’t have a jian and hitches a ride on others. (Usually LSZ, LJY.)

(Once rode with JL, had to move to LSZ because JL was too nervous.)

Kei (Lan Huangli): We’re gonna lose them, A-yuan.

LSZ, sweating: Y-Yes!

[with the arrows and a drawing of a horse with a white heart birthmark]

*LQR gave her a horse instead.

[arrow pointing to the horse’s mane]

Tied it since it goes to her face when running.

[chibi drawing of Kei wearing a cloth mask tied on the front of her face, carrying a sack depicted as: talismans that go boom confiscated by LQR]

*curfew is at 8, doesn’t sleep at that time and takes advatnage of her ninja skillz.

[drawing of 15 y/o Kei with NHS covering his face with a fan]

*made a bet with NHS over LWJ and WWX. Techincally, Kei wins.

NHS: I bet you 10 silver ingots they’ll hook up in three years.

Kei: Deal.

Kei: I bet it’ll take a near-death experience.

NHS: What will you bet?

Kei: Uh... White Heart (the horse)

Bonus: Holy Trinity of the Lan Sect