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saberspirit · 3 years

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jiang cheng character analysis essay under the cut! bc he means a Lot to me (its 5 pages im sorry)

tl;dr my thoughts on his relationship to his parents, his relationship with anger and feelings of inferiority, what zidian represents to him, his siblings (largely about what led to him and wwx falling out), and my thoughts on reconciliation between him and wei wuxian in the end.

tw!!! for child abuse and death, also warning for spoilers for the ending.

alternatively can be read on google docs for accessibility

foreword: by writing this it is not my intention to imply this is the end all be all interpretation, or that i know more than fans of colour (especially chinese/chinese-american fans). i’m looking at his character as a white fan and through a western lens. i understand there are nuances i wont understand, but i have tried and continue to look at him w/ an educated view point and i’m always trying to continue my own self-driven education. i’m as always open to criticism and correction, although i understand it is no ones job to do so. it’s purely an interpretation from someone relating to his themes that i talk about here. thank you for reading!

Jiang Cheng has a very complicated relationship with his parents (understatement), though different from Wei Wuxian’s complicated relationship w/ them (some overlaps being given).

It’s obvious to me that JC identifies more as his mother's son than his father's—feels he has to be because surely that’s why he feels neglected and like he’s constantly being found wanting by his father (even if Fengmian does Not mean to come across that way and isn’t a cruel man). He identifies with his mother’s anger and feeling of not being what his father truly wanted or loved and I don’t think he realized the effect she had on him with her constant comparison game—trying to measure him up because Madam Yu used him as a playing piece in her constant warring with Fengmian and instilled a sense of otherness in him and his deep-rooted feelings of inferiority and not being Good enough, not being enough in general. And yet he still deeply loves them even through all that he’s been through because of them both.

He never grew up learning how love should be in a relationship; should be from a parent to a child. The love he learned is a different type of conditional love from WWX's (WWX being that he doesn’t trust it in the first place, knowing it will leave). JC receives love and praise but knows it comes from a silent arrangement: it’s transactional. He upholds what his parents want and he gets…a form of it. Jiang Fengmian loved him in a way that you just kind of do love family, perhaps without a real reason otherwise—not pretty, but it is as it is. Madam Yu loved him in a way one loves a possession: she saw too much of Jiang Fengmian in him and JC was a reminder of how unhappy she was and how much her husband didn’t seem to care about her or what she gave him. (This isn’t to downplay Yanli's role in JC’s life: I think she was truly the only one to show him unconditional love in a way that he understood and recognized but it's unfortunately different from siblings and fell on half-deaf ears when all JC really wanted was his father’s approval).

Madam Yu was (afaik) stated to not be physically abusive (aside from the whipping when the Wens came from Wei Wuxian), but she was one-hundred percent verbally and emotionally abusive (for example, punishing WWX w/ isolation from the family w/ seclusion, or in general just how she talked to JC and WWX). She broke those two boys and it's something that can’t be undone…and Zidian represents that trauma, abuse, and expectation and JC’s anger and resentment that was the product of it. It’s literally lightning in a whip form; able to bind without harm, but it’s primarily used to hurt; it can reveal a true form; control over it is only relinquished to one’s family and loved ones.

JC doesn’t just lash out verbally at Wei Wuxian when they meet in his second life, he literally does. It’s his anger under his skin like static, driving him forward and being unable to rest because he’s constantly looking for closure he can’t have. He resents how his parents and Wei Wuxian made him feel but it’s also the only thing he has of them, and he clings to that (and therefore Zidian). It’s the last thing, bar Lotus Pier, that he has of his family anymore, and he wields it like a weapon…because ultimately it’s the only thing he's known for a very long time. Anger is an easy emotion. He wears it well. It was an emotion he learned from his mother, and he is his mother’s son.

As a side note for Zidian: Jin Ling refusing to take it from JC in the Burial Mounds to me was very much about not wanting a goodbye. He's a stubborn kid—JC mirrored what his mother did to him in handing off Zidian before certain death, and I think Jin Ling realized "take care of Zidian" meant "because I can’t anymore". JC wanted Jin Ling to stay safe and keep a hold on their family's legacy, but Jin Ling refused it and stepped forward to protect JC—JL is tired of goodbyes and afraid of losing more people, but also that stubborn streak to protect his family back. He went into the fray himself even if it’s not what JC was asking him to do (but then to JC’s chagrin the kid never really does do what he asks usually, Jin Ling has a good head on his shoulders and he’s as stubborn and quick to anger as his jiujiu but he’s also as incredibly loyal and caring). And I think it's a good vehicle to show that JL is breaking that cycle for them both.

Back to Jiang Cheng and anger and his siblings though. Yanli is all about showing affection in her words and actions (ie. meal sharing, peeling the lotus seeds, etc). WWX struggles to show it in forthright actions, let alone verbalize it (he’s truly bad at it) so while WWX does love his brother and shows it in actions like giving him his golden core…it’s not something JC picks up on well, or at all because he doesn’t even get told about the core until the Guanyin Temple. Jiang Cheng is someone who needs verbalized confirmation and very obvious action. But then to be fair, JC is also not good at verbalizing his love and care (he and Wei Wuxian are two peas in a pod w/ this one). It’s often behind barbed wire because 1) that’s how it was shown to him and 2) because it’s safer and easier to hide behind anger. He really does use it as a shield to protect his real feelings because he’s used to his feelings being trivial and being thrown in his face, and is used to loss. It’s a buffer.

This leads to a problem: Wei Wuxian does love him unconditionally, but I don’t think JC knows that. When he’s faced with the golden core surgery after everything, it’s definitely obvious, but it’s so twisted up in being hidden from him, in his own fears and feelings of failure and reliance that it’s soured. And he struggles to reach out and be frank with his own worries.

And this leads and lends to the severity of their falling out (not the only cause, but a big player in it).

He deeply loves his brother, but it's also entrenched in his bitterness and fears. If it was initially hard for him to verbalize because of those issues (on top of being a teenager/young adult and his feelings of inferiority irt WWX), he’s now in the current day steeped in sixteen years of loss/grief/trauma. Of unresolved tension between the two of them because WWX never told anyone anything—even if that’s just how he is, nothing personal towards JC except maybe that it’s his little brother, his shidi, and he doesn’t want to put a burden on those he loves—and JC tried time and time again to believe him and in him.

The problem was that his trust got thrown in his face time and time again. His older ‘peers’ (clan leaders) mocked and insulted him to his face for his naivety, pointed out that what WWX was doing was an insult to JC and their family, that WWX’s actions disrespected him and that he should do something about it. WWX’s actions themselves alongside him never letting JC in on anything further isolated them and put walls between them. This sewed the seed of the idea for JC that maybe he was naive. That WWX couldn’t uphold his duty and promises to JC and their family while also upkeeping his own personal code of ethics. (Not that it helped that Jiang Cheng also started lashing out at Wei Wuxian in minor ways for not having Suibian, but he didn’t exactly know why, to his credit).

His trust was him trying to care for WWX through all they’ve lost, but he’s also under the immense pressure of leading and rebuilding his home while also being looked down upon for his inexperience and ties to the man the cultivation world loathes.

Jiang Cheng believed WWX when he said he'd help him, wanted him to and expected him to. That’s his big brother and ultimately family comes first, so it was out of the question that WXX wouldn’t uphold that duty to him. Jiang Cheng is barely an adult as Sect Leader and was still a teen when they lost everything, so of course he wanted to rely on and believe Wei Wuxian when he said he'd help. JC doesn’t usually rely on others—I’d wager he hates relying on WWX especially as a callback to the inferiority complex—but he lets WWX in when they have the “Twin Prides” talk, lets him in when he promises JC to help him rebuild their home…and then WWX lets him down several times.

Post Burial Mounds there are signs that JC notices, if not consciously then subconsciously, that something is off with his brother (the demonic cultivation, the flute, the lack of Suibian, his weakness when pushed, etc), little things that he noted but didn’t have the time during a War to think too deeply on. He’s more relieved to just have him back where he can see him, happy that his brother can help them. Jiang Cheng gives him his vote of confidence in his abilities, in him, because he never thought of WWX or his methods badly (having been a fan until it became a symbol of losing Wei Wuxian to Something Else). Even if he had thought something of it, did have a concern, they don’t easily talk to each other now.

That much is obvious when after various meetings post the Sunshot Campaign as WWX is struggling with his temperament and resentful energy, after WWX saves the Wen remnants from the Jin Clan, and Jiang Cheng shows up at the Burial Mounds. He still believes in Wei Wuxian, still is bound to help him, and wants to help him. He’s willing to sacrifice the Wens for his brother. His actions and words are not pretty, but by god is he desperate. Jiang Cheng wants to save him and hides it with harsh words because once again he’s not good at being forthright with his feelings. He’s at his wits’ end, he’s barely 20, and suddenly he's losing Wei Wuxian too. It’s not about them being Wens because at this point he’s aware they’re helpless—it’s because it’s WWX and he’s supposed to make the right decision and be competent. It’s freshly post-war and he’s scared: his big brother is leaving and he feels powerless and he Hates that. Once again feels like he’s not good enough. Not good enough to save WWX, not good enough to lead, and he’s under intense scrutiny. He tells WWX as much that at this point he can’t help, and it hurts him to not be able to. Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to help him, help him. It’s an admittance wrapped in hurt and hurtful words, and WWX throws it in his face because he can’t let him in.

It’s not meant in any malicious way. Wei Wuxian is also traumatized, scared and hurting and dealing with the changes demonic cultivation is causing within him. But this is a key moment when JC for once verbalizes his fears and WWX tells him, ‘good, you don’t need to worry, I don’t have anything to do with you from now on’. (And of course, WWX is doing this to protect JC, but this response is what JC is afraid of).

So we have two times that JC has tried really hard in his own ways to let WWX in. To rely on him and be honest with him and WWX ends up…breaking his promises and leaving him and their family behind. And to me, that explains his actions when the last time they speak before he dies (that we’re shown anyways). WWX is sitting down with Jiang Cheng and Yanli. JC is the one that set up them being able to meet him, the one that reached out even after they fought to make his defecting from the Sect look convincing. He was the one that told Yanli that WWX should be the one to give a courtesy name to her child.

And then WWX brings Wen Ning. Yanli is open to Wen Ning sitting in and enjoying their family tradition, but JC can't understand why. Why WWX chose these people over his own family. He resents it. When he says "you might not be able to come back, to your family" I can imagine how much it destroys him to hear WWX say "but the people I’m returning to are also my family". Because what does that make them, WWX’s siblings; what does that make the promises and the years spent raised together, the duty he had to them first. Wei Wuxian might return to the Burial Mounds, but Jiang Cheng has to return to an empty Lotus Pier. The ghosts of his parents and ghosts of memories of his siblings he’s never getting back (because Yanli will be in Jinlin Tai after her upcoming wedding).

Repeatedly over and over Jiang Cheng reaches out, but time and time again it’s like WWX is telling him he’s not enough: not enough for WWX to rely on, not enough to protect him, not enough for him to want to return to, not enough to be family.

Then the cultivation world comes for WWX and his amulet. Yanli is killed, as far as JC can tell, because of the mess WWX made, and once again he’s in the dark about everything. Then WWX dies and rumours swirl that JC killed him, and maybe he did, maybe he is his brother’s killer even if Wei Wuxian would call it a misunderstanding. He’s left alone with an orphaned nephew in Lotus Pier with his entire family, bar an infant, dead.

So Jiang Cheng spends the next sixteen years without answers, with WWX having reinforced his insecurities and fears that stemmed from the abuse he'd suffered during childhood and then died. Yanli died when she never should’ve been in danger in the first place, seemingly because of Wei Wuxian. And he's so angry. He lashes out at memories and reminders, lashes out at anyone who chooses that same path that WWX chose over his family.

By the time Wei Wuxian’s come back from the dead and JC knows it’s him, WWX is still deflecting, still hiding still not telling him the truth. The fact that WWX comes back at all hurts purely as a fresh opening of the old wound, but the fact that he doesn’t come to find JC, that once again JC and his family isn’t a priority and once again is second best (this time to Lan Wangji)?

He doesn’t kill his brother. JC sits him down in a room and tries to talk but old hurts rile up and he reaches for anger again. WWX isn’t forthright and it makes it worse, neither of them are good at communicating: too many things unsaid, that can’t be said, too many misunderstandings and neither of them knowing how to talk about it. JC has Fairy there and it’s a minor act of revenge. JC uses what he knows is WWX’s weakness to intimidate and immobilize him, but it doesn’t help either of them actually talk.

Reconciliation is going to require WWX being able to talk to him without deflecting and JC getting angry so easily. But by this point, he’s given WWX a lot of chances and it’s why I think they could and would easily post-canon. Jiang Cheng's starting to come to an understanding that WWX did and still does care about him. He didn’t give him his golden core for no reason, and JC starts to understand why WWX did it for him and that he knew JC well enough to hide it in the first place.

He started to reach that conclusion shortly after Wen Ning told him—oh the pain of it having been WWX's chosen little brother figure—and Jiang Cheng had gone around asking people to unsheathe Suibian. It's why he brought Chenqing to the temple in the first place.

I think it speaks to his maturity that he decided at that moment he couldn’t say what he wanted to tell WWX in the end. I think he knew neither of them was ready, but I also think it speaks of how much he misses and trusts WWX to have let him go for now…I think he knows they will meet again as long as they both live, and that they'll be better for having waited. After some time to think, digest, they’ll be ready to be family again and all that entails.

#he really lives in my head rent free and i just. well. i think hes a really good example of the ''uglier'' side of the feelings of--#-- victims of abuse and how we deal -or sometimes cant- with it in our lives afterwards and how they affect relationships #BUT the important thing is that hes healing :)#jiang cheng #for my own tagging purposes #caleb meta hours #caleb.txt #i may come back to edit this tbh its 1am and i spent 3 hours editing it

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gusu-emilu · 3 years

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orange segments

Ship: Jiang Cheng / Qin Su (one-sided, sorry JC)

Summary: Jiang Cheng and Qin Su share a few moments (and an orange) with Jin Ling and each other.

Rated G, Fluff, brief mention of canon-typical violence

Read on AO3 or on Tumblr below

* * *

A-Ling passes the orange back and forth between his tiny hands, nearly dropping it once. His eyes shine bright with mirth at this simple game.

He's still so little. Jiang Cheng has seen plenty of children in Lotus Pier, yet he is always surprised by how small A-Ling is if he thinks about it too much. Both of his hands, still fiddling with the orange, could fit in Jiang Cheng’s. His nose is a little bump; his oversized ears stick out and somehow make him look even smaller.

Perhaps it is so difficult to process how little A-Ling is because it seems like every time Jiang Cheng visits Jinlintai, A-Ling is a bit bigger. Today he's two years old—and a half, as he’s been proclaiming.

With a sudden peal of laughter, A-Ling places the orange on the floor and rolls it to Qin Su, who is kneeling in front of him with Jiang Cheng. The round fruit gently thuds into her knee. “Shenshen!” A-Ling calls. “Make it for me?”

“Alright,” Qin Su says softly. She glances at Jiang Cheng with a smirk, then picks up the orange, cleans it, and begins peeling it. “How come you don’t make your jiujiu do any work?”

“He makes me do plenty,” Jiang Cheng counters before A-Ling can erupt into one of his new favorite remarks to offend him. It doesn’t make a difference.

“Jiujiu is too busy pouting!” A-Ling says through giggles, and Qin Su laughs with him. He undoubtedly learned this jab from her.

Qin Su has only been in Jinlintai for several months, her lavish wedding to Jin Guangyao still a fresh memory in the cultivation world, yet she has taken a liking to teasing Jiang Cheng quite rapidly. Somehow, they’d become friends over A-Ling after just a few times meeting each other. Qin Su, eager for a child of her own and perhaps even more eager to make pleasant acquaintances outside her maids—a difficult task in the snake pit of Jinlintai—latched onto him and A-Ling quickly. Although Jiang Cheng is not sure how he counts as a pleasant acquaintance.

As for how he ended up taking a liking to Qin Su…he supposes that anyone who treats A-Ling well will inevitably gain his favor. The fact that Qin Su is warm-hearted and sensible, intelligent and down-to-earth enough to see through the vacuous opulence of her new clan, and stubbornly cheeky enough to poke fun at Jiang Cheng of all people—and also that maybe Jiang Cheng is a bit lonely—that could have something to do with it, too. Potentially.

He might also have a miniscule crush on her.

But Qin Su is a married woman, expecting her own son in the coming months, and even if three quarters of the matchmakers have blacklisted Jiang Cheng like he’s some threat to womankind, he isn’t so much of a monster that he would dare disrespect Qin Su’s honor. A crush is not an idea he can entertain.

They're just friends who happen to look after the same little boy.

“If I did pout,” Jiang Cheng says, shooting a stern look at Qin Su, “which I don't, it wouldn’t incapacitate me so much that I can’t peel an orange.”

“Ah, this is good to know,” Qin Su says as she delicately removes another strip of orange peel, then holds the fruit out to Jiang Cheng. “Then I suppose your scowl right now will not hinder you from finishing my work for me.”

A-Ling cackles. Little brat. He probably doesn’t even know why he’s laughing.

The boy watches with twinkling eyes as Jiang Cheng sighs and takes the orange. The bittersweet fragrance of orange rind swirls around Jiang Cheng as he peels the fruit, while Qin Su starts playing a clapping game with A-Ling.

These moments in A-Ling’s room every few weeks hold Jiang Cheng over until the summers, when A-Ling lives in Lotus Pier. Although, now that Jiang Cheng gotten used to Qin Su's company, he’s beginning to wonder if he will miss her during the months he no longer needs to travel to visit A-Ling.

He’s formed comradery with his senior disciples during the war—the cultivators he’d trust with his life—in a way he’d never been able to while he was still the sect heir during times of peace. Watching your home be burned to the ground and fighting back-to-back soaked in blood and mourning the lost can build strong bonds with one's clansmen, if not happy ones.

But this is different.

This might be the closest glimpse of something like family that Jiang Cheng has had since…since two years ago.

Peace, for once.

Half an hour later, A-Ling falls asleep, and Qin Su tells Jiang Cheng about her hometown as they watch over him. Her voice is soft and quiet as she speaks about trips to the ocean and the time she and a friend found a giant sea creature’s fossils sticking out of a crumbled cliffside after an earthquake. Jiang Cheng tells her about the boat racing games he’d play on the lake and the time he got buried under lotus pads, although he doesn’t mention who accompanied him back then.

It’s nice, to share these lost memories, with a child’s cheerfulness between them to break what otherwise might be sorrowful. Qin Su has been separated from her hometown. Jiang Cheng lives in an empty hometown.

Sometimes, he wonders what his life might be like now if it had been he, not Jin Guangyao, who saved Qin Su during the Sunshot Campaign, and if she had pursued him instead. He had never truly wanted a wife (or he at least tries not to think about the one time he considered it), but if marriage could be like this…comfortable, like sitting beside a friend…

What is he doing thinking this way? Even if these wandering delusions weren't about a married woman, he has seen how marriages fail. With his days and his entire mind revolving around his sect when he isn't with A-Ling—or isn't wallowing in his own miseries or isn't lashing out in anger—he's just tired. Callous. He has so little care to offer that the matchmakers were probably right to blacklist him.

Qin Su slides an orange slice between her lips. “Jiang-zongzhu. May I ask—your birth name is Jiang Cheng?”

Surprised by the sudden question, Jiang Cheng just nods.

“Cheng as in chengzi (orange)?” She smiles wryly.

He crosses his arms. “No. Cheng as chengqing (clear). No parents would name a sect heir after a fruit.”

“I think it would have nice imagery. A river of oranges to go with the lotus lake.” She separates a piece of fruit and hands it to him. Although he glares at her, he takes the orange segment, careful not to brush her fingers. But just as he is about to eat it, she adds, “It could also be inspiration to give the Jiang Clan robes a makeover.”

His hand drops to his side, fist closing over the orange segment. “You don’t like our robes?” he asks with more distress in his voice than he intended.

She laughs, eyes bright. “I do. Don’t worry. Violet is a nice color.” She focuses her gaze back down on the orange half she holds in her hands, lips quirked. “You know that I was only pretending to insult you; do not insult me. Eat the piece I gave you.”

“Hmph.” Jiang Cheng pops the orange slice in his mouth and looks away.

“Thank you, Chengzi.”

“You—”

She shushes him. “If you start yelling, A-Ling will wake up.”

Across the room, A-Ling breathes deeply, eyes closed, one side of his faced smushed against his hand. The sight calms Jiang Cheng, although he is still offended.

“Have I ever yelled at you?” he asks.

“You haven't,” Qin Su says thoughtfully. “You can be a bit loud, though.”

Heat rises to his cheeks.

Qin Su doesn’t look over, but somehow she notices the faint blush, as if she has some magical sixth sense for detecting embarrassment. “I enjoy the color violet, I enjoy the company of people who are a bit loud.” She gestures toward A-Ling with the orange in her hand. “So does he, when he's not napping."

"Understood,” Jiang Cheng says, and nods. "A-Ling...A-Ling likes your company, too."

Qin Su smiles and hands over another orange segment. Holding back a smile of his own, Jiang Cheng eats it quietly.

The comfort of a friend, and a glimpse of something like family, is already satisfying enough.

* * *

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, you can be a supportive sibling like Jiang Yanli by visiting me on AO3! :D

江澄 - Jiāng Chéng - "river" and "clear, transparent" 江橙 - sounds exactly the same! - "river" and "orange" hence the "river of oranges" joke shoutout to @qi-ling for mentioning this a few days ago lol

I'm not sure if shenshen (father's younger brother's wife) is what Jin Ling would call Qin Su but I think it's right? Feel free to correct me.

#mdzsnet #chengsu #jiang cheng #qin su #mdzs #cql #the untamed #mdzs fanfic #cql fanfic #the untamed fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #cql fanfiction #the untamed fanfiction #emilu fics #emilu creations

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angstymdzsthoughts · 4 years

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onikiri (from the game onmyoji) inspired au

- yp!wwx gets captured by wrh before he can reunite with jc and lwj - wrh ties wwx's soul to the sword that would have been made into the stygian tiger seal, having retrieved it from the cave, and places a blood pact in wwx's left eye that seals away his memories and replaces them with fake ones to make wwx loyal to wrh - and so Wuxian becomes the “sword of the sun” who cuts down anyone that opposes wrh - everyone knows that he is dressed in fine wen sect robes with bandages over his left eye, but are not yet able to identify him further - wrh wins and imposes control over the cultivation world but doesn't demand spouses or anything - instead, he organizes for there to be a monthly conference, with some competitions, followed by a banquet - ofc, no one can refuse, they are at a loss as to how they could stop wrh - at the first conference, wrh comes with someone, who kneels at wrh's feet and lays his head on wrh's knee once wrh sits down - they are dressed in exquisite robes, seemingly more of a feminine cut. their hair is a thick, lustrous spill of ink, mostly unbound save for an intricately carved hairpin of lacquered wood and gold depicting a blazing gold sun rising over red spider lilies (lycoris radiata) - when they finally turn towards the gathered cultivators, most of the crowd is apprehensive and curious, but jc, jyl, nhs, lwj, lxc, lqr, and jzx are in horrified shock - it's wwx at wrh's feet. there is a cinnabar and gold leaf sun motif painted on his forehead, blood red staining his lips, and a subtle outline of kohl with flaring crimson around his eyes. wrh affectionately strokes wwx's head, smirks as he looks over the reactions of those who recognize wwx -the banquet proceeds with palpable tension in the air, everyone cautiously observing wrh and wwx, much to wrh's continued amusement - then, wrh pulls wwx onto his lap. the hall goes silent as wwx automatically leans into wrh's chest and lays his head and wrh's shoulder. - finally wrh says, with affected nonchalance that did not hide his sadistic amusement,"ah, i have not introduced my companion. this is my treasured sword, forged in the burial mounds. you may have seen him before." while he moves one arm around wwx's waist and the other plays with a lock of wwx's hair, bringing to his lips to kiss once he's finished his announcement - there is muted chaos. wrh is not known to be lecherous like jgs. his interest is more in, at least somewhat sadistic, power play and manipulation in the sense of torture and mind-break - most began to catch on from wrh's "forged in the burial mounds" that wwx must have been tortured there or something - so only a few people, who weren't so knowledgeable of wwx's character and didn't really understand the dynamics of the situation, feel resentful of wwx being the weapon that had wrought so much destruction or thought of him as a traitorous whore or immoral power-seeker - most people were able to see that there was no recognition in wwx's eyes when he saw his family. they realized there was some sort of seal in his now uncovered left eye. - so mostly, people felt pity that this had happened to wwx and relief that it had not been their own loved ones - jzx may not get along wwx but wwx is jyl's little brother and he feels so powerless to help her - jyl is softly crying, but there is an underlying anger born of grief and love that lends more strength to the steel she has had innocuously hidden in plain sight - jc is angry. he's angry at himself for not being strong enough to protect wwx, for not being able to find his brother and prevent this from happening. he's angry that wrh took wwx away, took away the future of ymj's twin prides. he's angry that this is making his a-jie cry and angry that he doesn't know how to fix it - lwj's expression is stricken, and his eyes a swirling molten gold only outward indication of his chaotic emotions inside. his wei ying is suffering, and for all his love, all his efforts, he wasn't able to help wei ying vague possible ending: - somehow the pact in wwx's eye is broken, unsealing his memories. he awakes with ptsd and a breakdown. he runs the sword he's bound to through wrh - however, wrh manages to break the sword before he dies, breaking wwx apart too - lwj gathers the shards of the sword he can and has the sword purified and reforged - wwx is put back together and able to materialize, but because some of the shards were lost, he appears closer to mxy's appearance and his 15 y/o self -mercy fluff! because wwx is essentially a spirit now, he's immortal. so wangxian gets together and lwj cultivates to immortality - in the process, they save the wen branch family, civilians, and anyone innocent. no conscious fierce corpses are made, our cinnamon roll wn is fully alive. - wen yuan is still an orphan though, so he gets adopted by wangxian and still becomes best son lsz

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crossdressingdeath · 4 years

Note

WWX’s strict and JC’s strict are very different. JC’s strict is learned behaviour from YZY and comes from a place of control. Yes he does love JL but he thinks restricting JL and pointing out faults while giving him near impossible expectations is too much will improve JL. WWX’s strict comes from a place of having so much freedom it choked him in the end because no adult figure truly scolded and looked out for him in a way a parent would and 1/

And left a lot of WWX’s choices for himself to decide, which can do as much harm as restricting someone. WWX is strict but his expectations of juniors doesn’t go beyond their age or ability. WWX scolds but he explains why he’s scolding so juniors learn from it. JC’s strict but he restrains as much as he puts on expectations. He scolds but criticizes without explaining the why behind it and causes frustration for JL and himself 2/

People like to compare CQL JC saying he’ll still scold JL when he’s older with WWX’s burying LSZ as proof they have the same parenting style but they miss the clear differences. JC grabs JL while WWX lets LSZ keep a distance when chasing him around. JC is harsh and JL is uncomfortable while WWX turns it into teasing when he brings LWJ into the mix and LSZ starts laughing at how ridiculous and nostalgic the situation is until he himself initiates contact with WWX 3/

And hugs WWX’s leg and lets him pat him on the head. WWX and JC are strict but they take it to different degrees and we see how well everyone, even JL, responds to WWX’s version compared to JC’s because while WWX’s comes from a place of looking out for the kids and wanting them to mature while keeping them safe, JC’s is just repeating what YZY did without stopping to think he’s hindering JL more than letting him grow as a person 3/3

Yeah, people saying the scenes with JC saying he’ll always be able to scold JL and WWX saying he’ll always be able to bury Sizhui mean they parent the same way weirds me out because... it’s so obviously different? I’d say those scenes are... I guess foils, would be the word? Showing how different the two of them are, even when the words are fairly similar. With WWX, it feels sort of like your parent saying “You’ll always be my baby”, that sort of thing; a little embarrassing, maybe, but the assurance that they will always be there if you need them. And Sizhui clearly enjoys it, treats it like a game, plays along by grabbing WWX’s leg like he’s a little kid. With JC there’s more of a “You’ll never be able to get away from me” feel. You do not have the right to discipline your nephew for being disobedient when your nephew is in his thirties and a sect leader. JC is controlling, refusing to let go unless he’s the one who decides to let go; his “love” is a cage, and any attempt to escape that cage is a betrayal, even if it’s only the “escape” of a child wanting to live his own life. WWX’s love is more like a safety net. He will always be there if needed, but he also won’t force the people around him to “rely” on him... even though unlike with JC relying on WWX is generally a good call provided he doesn’t end up declared an enemy of the cultivation world due to other people getting pissy about him having friends. Anyway, the point is that WWX doesn’t try to smother people the way JC does; he doesn’t want them to feel forced to stay by him. JC, on the other hand, knows that he has nothing in his personality that might convince someone to choose to stay by his side, so he has to rely on force. Hence the implication that he’ll be punishing JL when he’s a grown man and a sect leader.

#mdzs #cql #grapehate #wei wuxian #anon #asks

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pastthevaulteddoors · 3 years

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MDZS/The Untamed AU thoughts!

Awhile ago, I headcannoned an AU but I can’t find the post. I wanted to babble on it while I’m waking up.

A/B/O AU where if you decide to cultivate a golden core, you’ll present as one of A/B/O, therefore when you present it’s biological, but magic based so you can choose to present, but you can’t choose what it is.

Long post. Mentions of the R word.

Normal people don’t present and are just normal.

WWX was an alpha. As was Lan Wangji so while they might angry-flirt, they’re never going to be mates. But then the Wens win at Nightless City during the Sunshot Campaign and Wei Wuxian is publicly executed.

13 years later, WWX is reincarnated into the omega body of Mo Xuanyu.

The world is quite different from when he died.

The Wens have the run of the place. Wen Ruohan has been crowned King while all other cultivation sects are now considered supervisory offices. More or less labor camps that are tightly overseen by Wens.

Before WWX can come to grips with this new world and what he’s supposed to do, he’s swept out of Mo Manor by yet-presented and beta cultivators lead by a young man named Wen Sizhui. His troupe are all Lans with threadbare grey-not-white robes and forehead ribbons that look like they were ripped off of white clothing, or the ribbons are so frayed they look tattered and second hand.

While Wen Sizhui appears kind, with a sweet face and gentle tones, he’s ruthless. They take out the Mo family curse that’s closer to a death sentence than a saving, then they drag all omegas out of the manor for The Games.

They were there to pick up the omegas originally, and just happened to save/kill the Mo family while they’re there. Confused, WWX goes along with it, barely registering that he is in fact an omega now.

WWX is taken on a carriage that looks like it could be closed up like a jail cell. He’s squished in with a handful of others that look crossed between terrified and depressed, resigned to a horrible fate.

Along the way they are met with another group. These are Jins with another handful of villagers. This one is headed by a Jin Ling. There’s an offhanded conversation, where it seems that Wen Sizhui and Jin Ling know each other, maybe even friends.

Turns out, the Jins sided with the Wens and are thriving under the heavy hand of Wen, while the other sects are dwindling in homes that closely resemble labor camps.

The Lans had rebelled again, so The Games are going to be held on the mountains of Gusu. They head up to Cloud Recesses which was never properly rebuilt. There’s huts, not homes. Attempts were made to make this suppressed sect back into its tranquil past, but it’s clearly lacking.

Throughout a semi-imprisonment while people are gathered to Gusu, WWX learns that the Lans have been the biggest rebellion to subjugation even over a decade after losing. He sees LXC a few times. He looks as beautiful and regal as ever, but his clothing is old, his ribbon is cut short, and the once brightness in his eyes for hope has darkened to a façade. He has yet to see LWJ.

Lotus Pier is gone. Wen Xu was killed by LWJ, and Wen Ruohan has adopted Wen Sizhui as his heir when Wen Chao had proven unable to perform after he ‘lost his mind’ during the Sunshot campaign.

When Wen Ruohan arrives WWX is shocked to see that he’s flanked by Meng Yao (top advisor) and Jiang Cheng (his body guard). Turns out, Meng Yao was a pivotal point in getting the Jins to turn on the other sects that won the Wens the war. Jiang Cheng was said to be a loyal dog to the Wens when he had no where else to go. Others say that JC was blackmailed into the position when his sister was threatened.

Jin Guangshan cowers before Wen Ruohan, but he smiles and has his head held high. He knows he’s in a position of power but only at the behest of the Wens. Then a crowd gathers and a ceremony is being presented for The Games.

WWX and other omegas are ushered to a side stage like cattle. Across from a crowd he sees alphas on a similar platform. On the main stage Wen Ruohan has a handful of minor and major sect leaders.

WWX is THRILLED that his sister is in the omegas with him so he tries to communicate with her who he is. Like everyone in the group, she looks frightened but resigned to what is going to happen. She doesn’t give WWX much room to talk, as they must be quiet while a presentation happens. Jiang Yanli does hold WWX close, as if comforting the other omega. He notices that there are others clinging together, and this is not uncommon.

WWX also sees LWJ across to the other stage at where the alphas are lined up. This group is different. The alphas are stoic in general, but there is a good number of Wen alphas in front of them, clearly rowdy and excited.

WWX notices that Nie Mingjue is not there, and Nie Huaisang is a cowering beta on stage. Sadly, NMJ was killed a few years ago protecting LXC in The Games. It’s rumored that it was closer to a murder than self defense, an orchestrated attack. Jin Zixuan looks disappointed and is instructed by his father to stand with the Wen alphas.

A gruesome display happens. A Lan omega has been induced into a heat and is on display as they writhe, out of control, on stage. LXC finally breaks ranks and covers the omega before a rowdy Wen can get too close. He covers them with his coat and they’re both beaten.

“At least he’s not raped this year,” someone says in the omega’s stage, a whispered, scared thing. WWX is surprised but as it turns out, LXC is an omega. He always said he was beta, but being an omega as a sect leader is near impossible when it comes to respect among peers.

The Games, as it turns out, is like Hunger Games. Higher ranking omegas and alphas are forced into heats and ruts then let loose in a designated area for sport. Wens hunt the omegas. The alphas that are not Wens are let loose for the sake of humiliation.

The forced heats will usually last three days, in which there is no shelter on the mountainside, but magical barriers to keep them in one area. Birds with eye-talisman fly overhead so that those not in the arena can watch the chaos from a screen-like object.

After the ‘ceremony,’ the alphas and omegas are ushered into a tight space and a magic hormone scent is pumped into the area. They are being forced into head/ruts.

First into the arena, the omegas are released. They’re separated so they cannot hide together. The first alphas WWX encounters is JC and Jin Zixuan. He’s afraid of JC immediately when he’s rushed upon, thinking that he’s about to be raped by his former brother-turned Wen, when JC rushes past him to knock out a Wen that was coming up behind him.

Jin Zixuan looks on at WWX in disgust. Apparently, Mo Xuanyu had no shame and would try to mate with his blood relatives. But WWX’s fears of JC being let loose on him begins to fade when JC notes that he doesn’t like WWX’s scent and they surround him as they walk to find other non-Wens. They’re playing guard.

WWX is confused. Aren’t they Wen allies now? But as it turns out, in The Games, people form pacts. JZX obviously would only want to mate with his wife, and JC says he has a pact with another omega so he can’t spend his energy on WWX’s nasty smell.

The scents they give off is magic based with their golden core. Despite giving up his core, then dying, the scents of MXY is mixed with that of his own brand of magic. JC notices something is.. off on the scent. Familiar. Like the past and like his own but different. He can’t put his finger on it so he puts Mo Xuangyu into a familiar category in his brain/hormones which is a no-mate zone.

They find Jiang Yanli. She’s apparently the alpha of omegas and is known for taking omegas under his wing. She has a trail of them behind her and they all look relieved when JC and JZX come into view. They know they’re here to protect them... until their own hormones overwhelm them and they have to mate.

The next day they run across a group of roaming Wens that induced themselves to give them vigor and a stronger sex drive. JC and JZX have to play a careful political game to outwit and beat off the Wens without compromising their positions in the Wen hierarchy.

So JC isn’t a Wen loyalist after all. He was, indeed, blackmailed, and it appears that JZX had spoken out against the Wens and that is why he’s forced into The Games along with his wife. Despite protecting each other, it isn’t unheard of omegas getting raped despite being mated in these games. They are built to humiliate and tear down heroic sprites, but if one becomes pregnant with a Wen, then they are forced into a sort of Wen concubine’s life, forced to live under the Wen that is the parent of the child.

They eventually come by a small pact of Lans. WWX learns that the Lans have long since kept to themselves after they were overthrown and have little trust with other clans. However, WWX does note that LWJ and JC have a sort of alliance, possibly even friendship going for them. Or as friendly as the two of them can get. JC is low key always helping where he can, and WWX suspects that JC led Wen Xu into LWJ’s sword.

Among the Lans are a few others with masks on. WWX quickly recognizes the scent of Wen Sizhui. He holds respect for Lan Wangji because he saved his small village of Wens, including Wen Ning and Wen Qing.

Seems LWJ is all over the place making allies!

The few pacts run together for a bit until a few get too rowdy to help out. A few mated couples have to part way, unable to keep hormones in check.

During The Games, there is little shame among them. They cannot control themselves, so announcing to the group that one has to part because they’re going to lose control, and need to have a good dicking with their mate, is not frowned on. If one has to turn away in the corner of a cave to take care of things, it’s respectfully ignored and understood.

WWX has struggled quite a bit. This body is in his prime and he is not used to the responses of an omega.

When the pacts begin to shrink due to the need to part ways to mate, they start to converge. Eventually, the Lans run with JC’s group when JZX and Jiang Yanli had to leave.

Finally, JC admits that he cannot stay in control, and Lan Xichan leaves with him... that is when JC’s familiar scent leaves and WWX is overcome with LWJ’s dominate hormones.

That’s also when LWJ is not simmered from his brother’s scent and is overwhelmed with WWX. Not MXY, but he knows, he cannot mistake the scent of the former alpha he used to love.

It has been rumored that LWJ hasn’t touched anyone when forced into these games. He’s one of the few that still have fire in their eyes, a desire to fight back. In WWX’s opinion of seeing him again, he’s still just as beautiful as ever, even with his ripped robes and messy hair, he stole WWX’s attention even from far away.

Now, closer, stuck in this pact with LWJ the sole alpha among a handful of omegas and undercover Wen helpers... WWX lets out a whine and LWJ responds!! It takes everyone by surprise when LWJ doesn’t even try to move them away from the group as the others did when he grabs WWX and start rutting up against his thigh.

They’re used to this in The Games, honestly. It’s the sorry and sad nature of the event, but to see someone like LWJ break shakes them.

Wen Sizhui can’t get LWJ’s attention enough to even ask him to leave, that they’ll take care of the omegas when LWJ pushes WWX down on the ground and starts rucking up his robes. So the omegas and undercover Wens run before LWJ penetrates WWX. And as for WWX, the dam broke the moment LWJ touched him. He was gone, all wet and wants nothing more than to get LWJ inside of him and mate him until he can’t see straight.

Which he does. Brilliantly.

Having held back for so long, and never taken anyone, even in a forced rut, LWJ has very little control or downtime. He mumbles, between sessions, how he is sorry that he “cannot care of Wen Ying as he should” and WWX understands. And gets that, well, LWJ knows who he is.

After The Games end WWX begins to incite rebellion among the people. Mo Xuanyu was never respected for his obvious incestuous desires for his kin and his general lack of sanity (or so they say). But he suddenly gains new respect among the repressed with the rebellion leader LWJ by his side.

However, Meng Yao (sorry, he is the evil bad guy in this one) is smart, and uses his skills of persuasion and sweet face to always be at the right place at the right time when the rebellion tries to rise up. However, soon, the entirety of Gusu Lan is overturned and the Wen office is burned.

NHS gets on board and make a personal vendetta against Meng Yao for the plotted death of his brother. Soon, smaller sects join in once they see the tides turning.

Then on a surprise move, Jin Guangshan is poisoned. No one is 100% sure who did it, but some suspect his son. Jiang Yanli will never tell the public how her father-in-law tried yet again to get her into bed, and how her fingers slipped over his drink with something hidden in a ring.

This incites inner fighting, then a pushback on the Wens.

A few months of fighting passes by and changes happen as tensions rise and people are pushed together as they fight. Mainly, having to maintain heats around alphas.

WWX didn’t realize the amount of work that omegas went into to keep their scents at bay, so he didn’t realize at first just why LWJ would not let him have a night to himself. Or why LWJ would be possessive around other alphas. Then he goes into heat again, naturally, and LWJ steals him away for an amazing few days of doting and mating and come back to a lost battle for the rebels.

Lan Xichen has to teach WWX these things. Here, WWX learns about JC being a secret romantic to LXC and they have mated no just out of necessity. LXC blushes and says that JC marked him years ago and they had to find a spell in the black market to cover it up. Apparently, Wen Sizhui discovered this and handed the spell to JC and since has shown himself as an allie as well.

WWX slowly falls in love with LWJ, who turns out to be an incredibly doting mate and even asks to be marked before the final battle. LWJ never stopped loving him, even in death.

The final battle, NHS calls a secret truce talk with Meng Yao where NHS says he’ll betray the rebels as long as he’s left alone and safe with his art and fans. Then he stabs Meng Yao in the back. Literally, NHS asks for another bowl of wine, and when Meng Yao turns to get it he stabs the little f’er in the back.

The Wens are falling apart when JC pulls his loyalists/secret rebels/Jiang clan survivors to turn the tide. It’s Wen Suzhui that kills Wen Ruohan with a bloody show of power; even holds up his head as proof before everyone that he’s dead, then orders Wen Chao dragged out and beheaded as well.

Wen Suzhui is viciously cold when he has to be. Therefore, the young man becomes sect leader and surrenders the Wens to the rebels. Unlike before, when the Wens are all rounded up in the end they have a leader that doesn’t resist but demands boundaries to be set, all the while with the sweetest of faces and the deception of youth.

Wen Ruohan loyalists are cut down, and what little remains of the Wens are banished to a village where Wen Ning and Wen Qing are. So, not many Wens left. (Doesn’t stop Wen Suzhui from courting the Jin heir from afar with sweet letters, gently returned with flowers with Jin Ling’s scent)

At the celebratory banquet for their win, WWX announces his pregnancy and LWJ publicly cries happy tears. And then...?

Happily ever after? Probably.

#xicheng #wangxian #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #a/b/o au

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phoenixrisesoncemore · 4 years

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MDZS/CQL RPG mechanics

I was inspired by this awesome post from @wangxian-patriarch with additions by @moonwaif. Go check it out! And assume all those clever details and mechanics mentioned there.

This would work SO WELL for a late 90s PS1-style RPG, where graphics were improving and storylines/character arcs were becoming crazy complex but it was still kind of the Wild West/anything goes/take all the risks you want. And the best games (IMO) are those that mix genres in an episodic fashion and MDZS/CQL totally fits the bill for that! CQL even does it, itself.

This got so long that I hated to clog up their post with a reblog. Bear with me here. Batshit crazy thoughts coming at a million miles per hour. In addition to all the above wonderful stuff: picture this structured like a 75%/25% split of MDZS/CQL (because I think the interspersed flashbacks work better for a game where you get to see your past choices affect the present in chunks) but with 75% of the character expansions from CQL. AKA, more Shijie, meet WQ and WN in Cloud Recesses, interact with them at the Wen Indoctrination. Your choices determine at what pace the relationship with LWJ proceeds (see below)? The POV is always WWX.

Intro/tutorial: Mo Manor. WWX is your main character, obv. The main present story arc is a mostly linear action/adventure RPG. Mo Manor is your tutorial/training ground where you’re introduced to the main game mechanics, learn a bit about the world via NPC interaction and MXY’s notes, and get handed the first mystery/what appears to be the main game goal: who did MXY want you to get revenge on? Melodies keeps popping into WWX’s head. Begin mini game where you are introduced to the game’s musical mechanics as WWX tries to remember melodies. Most are eerie and harsh, but there is one WWX finds “strangely soothing” even though he can’t remember where it is from. Remember these songs, especially that soothing one, because it’s going to be important soon! Introduction of basic sword-based cultivation battle mechanics via an impromptu party forming with the ducklings against the corpse arm (WWX can join in with talismans or something relatively innocuous for now). Eventually WWX goes secret solo battle using flute-less demonic cultivation battle mechanics. Can you remember how to play some of those tunes to summon fierce corpses? Then LWJ appears and it’s time for you to get the Hell out of Dodge before there are questions about what you just did. Cue short sequence of getting out of Mo Village before you’re caught. Begin Little Apple game mechanics.

Dafan Mountain Quest. First big mission. Gather info and piece together the mystery while avoiding too much attention from the Jiang sect cultivators or Game Over. Solve the mystery and begin the first boss fight alongside the ducklings! But talismans and whistling isn’t cutting it any longer. Flute-based demonic cultivation mechanics activate! Remember those songs WWX has had going through his head. You’re going to need all of them now. Game Over if Jin Ling is killed by the goddess! Also: surprise! the goddess can only be defeated by a finishing move which requires summoning a high level fierce corpse. Which song is it? Succeed and summon Wen Ning, but oh no! he’s in berserk mode. Hmmm, what about that soothing song? Better remember how to play it fast or Wen Ning will kill the other cultivators and Game Over.

FLASHBACK: Cloud Recesses. I need this to somehow incorporate and deconstruct the school dating sim genre. I don’t know how, but I need that. Sharing loquats and Emperor’s Smile and causing trouble will sure make you popular. The rooftop fight seems like a standard fighting setup. Is there a way to mix those two genres? A fighting mini game inside a dating sim? Because there needs to be! Is Biling Lake a mini action-platformer segment? Also agree: Jiang Cheng interaction and combo learning here—sneak out to explore the back hill and learn pair fighting dynamics. Use WWX’s original sword-based cultivation skills. Rabbit-catching mini game. Decide what colors you want to gift to increasingly grumpy Lan Zhan. Get to know Mianmian and she’ll be more active in helping you later. Befriend NHS and change dialog trees with him in present arc.

Present day Cloud Recesses: your home base. Sandbox. Your actions in the flashback effect the present day Cloud Recesses. Did you hide some Emperor’s smile somewhere 16 years ago? Home of rabbit-raising mini game and various troublemaking side quests. You get points for every Lan Clan rule you break (and how deeply you corrupt the ducklings). The challenge is in figuring out how to break them. Break enough rules and gain early access to the library’s restricted section where you can learn all kinds of new unorthodox cultivation techniques. Break all of them and get a super awesome power-up. Up to a certain point you can return here with LWJ on Bichen once he joins your party. Duckling night hunts are initiated here?

Lan WangJi Joins the Party. The main body of the game commences as you begin the quest to solve the Mo Manor mystery and figure out who MXY wanted you to get revenge on. Your choices/skill in the flashbacks as they occur will alter (somewhat) the events of this, the game’s main “spine.” Each town/city encountered on the road trip has its own aesthetic and NPC populace from which you have to collect clues and learn what your next moves should be. Lots of immersive qualities and learning about the current political/social situation. Fierce corpse and ghost fights along the way. Collect (offensively inaccurate) YLLZ and Sunshot memorabilia. Slowly grow your affinity with LWJ in battle and use the skills for pair fighting you learned with Jiang Cheng to build towards those awesome battle-couple combos. LWJ will remain in your party for the rest of the main game (excluding flashbacks) except for short bits like Yi City. You can play WWX’s dizi along the road for practice and to up your skill level. Depending on how often and in what circumstances you play Wangxian and how you interact with LWJ you’ll start to get different (but still evasive) answers if you ask him how he knew it was you. Remember to play Rest so NMJ’s pieces don’t get out of hand.

Because this is long: more below the cut

The Man-eating castle. Logic puzzle dungeon. Try to outclever NHS in dialog trees to get him to spill information.

Chang Manor. Mystery dungeon with final grave robber boss fight. Learn about the story of XXC, SL, and XY as you explore Chang manor, looking for clues as to what happened. Avoid traps set by XY.

Yi City. I mean: THE FOG. It’s Silent Hill. It’s Fatal Frame. It’s a survival horror dungeon. How long and involved should the Empathy section be? How does the gameplay change there?

Explore Jin Lin Tai. Stealth dungeon. Sneak around Jin Lin Tai as first “MXY” and later as Paperman WWX (AH! Sudden scale/mechanics change), gathering clues and looking for NMJ’s head. Empathy cutscenes.

Escape Jin Lin Tai. Action segment/beat em up. A place to really show off those growing battle-couple mechanics with LWJ.

FLASHBACK: Happy Times at Lotus Pier. The closest we’ve been to the light-hearted gameplay of the first Cloud Recesses flashback. WWX. JC, and JYL involved in shenanigans at Lotus Pier. Maybe we even get the Lotus Seed Pod Extra content of stealing lotuses from the old man. Get a chance to use those Jiang Cheng combos you learned in the CR flashback. Last chance to use those sword cultivation techniques. Nostalgia galore.

FLASHBACK (cont): Indoctrination/Xuanwu Cave. WWX/JC party using non-sword techniques. Eventually morphs into a WWX/LWJ party. This would be the first time chronologically that they would have fought together.

FLASHBACK (cont): Lotus Pier Attack and Escape. I totally agree with the above that this will ultimately work out to stealth escort missions as you work to get JC to safety with WN’s help.

FLASHBACK (cont): Thrown into Burial Mounds. This could be super expressionistic. Wandering through Burial Mounds trying to stay alive, but with crazy nightmare-like elements. Think of the way Eternal Darkness messed with player perceptions and even broke the 4th wall when it came to game mechanics. Maybe this even bleeds seamlessly into the supervisory office deaths and Wen Chao’s chase and death.

Return to Cloud Recesses. More areas to explore are unlocked. Dialog trees with LWJ. Feelings.

Journey to Burial Mounds. This is your chance to really grind and refine those battle couple combos. Side-quests? How far has word spread that the YLLZ is back? How will that effect the way you can or can’t interact with NPCs. I also like the idea of interspersing the flashbacks from Sunshot and up through the building of the Burial Mounds settlement in here, so as to have the player get to interact with and design the settlement in the past before the ruins of it are seen in the present.

FLASHBACK: Sunshot. mashup of beat em up/strategy tactics using demonic cultivation with chenqing and the tiger seal to clear a path for the army of cultivators. WWX is a party of one for this.

FLASHBACK (cont): Post Sunshot. More deconstructed social sim mechanics. Use chenqing to help JC bag prey on Phoenix Mountain. Social decision trees at that really uncomfortable conference scene. Qiongqi Path rescue of the Wen Refugees. The LWJ in the rain confrontation either does or does not happen (or happens somewhat differently) depending on how your relationship has progressed thus far in the past.

FLASHBACK (cont): Building Burial Mounds Settlement. Settlement/Survival Sim elements. Choose where and how to build and what to grow. Play with and protect a-Yuan. Work to revive WN. Make demonic cultivation tools. Whatever you make will still exist in future and can be gathered/used for the Second Siege battle. JC duel (ouch, there’s those moves you learned together being used against you). Play around in YiLing with LWJ and a-Yuan. Spend the day as a family. Feelings.

Arrive at Burial Mounds. Explore the ruins of the place you built. Feelings. Gather items. Release the Juniors. Fight with the Cultivators.

FLASHBACK: Death of JZX/Nightless City. Beat em up using Wen Ning at Qiongqi Path. At Nightless City this time you’re solo sending hordes towards the cultivators. Heart breaking solo battle against LWJ, as with JC, he now knows and can anticipate your moves based on your previous flashback interactions. HORRIBLE TRAGEDY AND MASSIVE DEATH.

Second Seige of Burial Mounds. Massive beat em up where you finally get to utilize the full extent of your battle-couple skills along with Wen Ning in a series of brawls to end all brawls, eventually the ducklings join your party for brawl wave 3. You know that really big battle that happens near the turning point of video games that’s inevitably the second or third biggest battle of the game (and sometimes more difficult than the actual final boss battles)? That’s this one.

Return to Lotus Pier. Here’s where you get memories of WWX’s first night at Lotus Pier and YanLi saving him from the tree are interspersed as you explore the heartbreakingly different present day Lotus Pier. As with the other locations that you experience in both past and present, some choices in the past effect the location in the present. FEELINGS.

YunPing City: Final major location. Explore and gather info. Prep for the final battle. Drunk LWJ mini game shenanigans. (Sexy time? I mean, Indigo Prophecy did it...) Stealth your way into Guanyin Temple.

Guanyin Temple Climax: Dialog trees with JGY determine how difficult he is to defeat here in battle. Final boss fight against NMJ’s fierce corpse: poignant party/combo with both JC and LWJ.

Denouement. Maybe the Sizhui revelation happens differently depending on how you interact with him throughout the game. Obv NOT getting the revelation is considered the BAD ending.

Ultimately, how the relationship between WWX and LWJ unfolds in CQL and MDZS is influenced by the plot structure (or at least is better served in each medium by how it makes use of the plot structure). The character of that relashionship journey is so different between the mediums, but each has wonderful aspects. How that plays out here is kind of up in the air without nailing more things down. Is it possible your actions could determine the timing and expression of the ship such that you end up with something more distinctly MDZS or something more distinctly CQL? (And by that I don’t mean one is overtly sexual and one isn’t, but rather whether the revelation of their feelings comes all at once near the end or rather more gradually, shifting in intensity and character as the plot goes along). That would be quite a thing to pull off without breaking the central narrative. I don’t even want to think about how complex that decision tree would be, but it could potentially be kind of amazing!

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #cql #the untamed #chen qing ling #this is A LOT but i don’t care i am having a great time #i’ve only dipped my toes into game design previously but man this makes me wish I had done more #Because this is so fun #game design #rpgs #mdzs rpg?

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

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Wen Yuan and the Prisoner of Koi Tower

the only HP!au I will consider for mdzs is the one where WWX acts as Sirius and LWJ as Remus.

also Cloud Recesses already acts as a magical school of sorts so I would not go as far as plant the entire cast in England, but a modern Chinese setting would be a very nice touch and will allow many writers to play around with both pieces of media imo.

my take would be:

- WWX has escaped a secret and hidden magical prison 13 years after protecting the remaining Wens from facing justice after the entire Sect had been accused of being a threat to the laws protecting the cultivation world.

- while some of the Wens (Wen RuoHan and his sons) had actively tried to oppose the allicance by messing with commoners and revealing themselves to the non-cultivation world, other Wens were completely innocent and yet they were still persecuted after the war (Sunshot Campaign) that had exterminated the rest of their Sect.

- WWX sacrificed himself by pretending to be completely unable to control his demonic cultivation and causing the explosion of resentful energy that destroyed the Burial Mounds (the Wen Remains’ hideout), turning the lush forest in a wasteland. the magical barrier dividing the premise and the non-cultivation world was compromised and WWX was accused of having sided with the Wen-dogs to jeopardize the anonymity of the cultivation world.

- by attracting all the attention on himself and destroying their hideout, WWX convinced everyone he accidentally killed the Wen Remains to allow them to escape. with the barrier growing weaker, the Wens slipped into the shadows of the non-cultivation world and pretended to be commoners for the time being.

- Wen Yuan (i assume he would not have a courtesy name if he were to live outside of the modern!cultivation-world, before enrolling in school) has lived 13 years in modern!Yiling with Wen Ning and he’s now 16 under a different name (idk what name, but they certainly don’t plan to be sought out by announcing the world they are called Wen). they live pretending to be commoners and can only rarely see Wen Qing, who was able to work at the “magical school” as a physician only bc the headmaster Lan QiRen is more interested in her talent than her last name.

- Wen Ning and Wen Qing decided not to reveal their little cousin about the happenings of 13 years ago. when they tried to step into the common world the first time after the explosion, A-Yuan had slipped from their grasp and they didn’t know where he had disappeared to (imagine the mishaps of the Floo Network and such or when someone disappararates). A-Yuan, “splinched” and feverish with no memories of his past, was found by LWJ who brought him back to the Wen siblings and helped their entire clan to disappear from the radar.

- upon discovering A-Yuan had, in fact, a golden core at 10/11 years old (although I would also like to see him enrolling in school at 8 or 9 tbh), LWJ offers to pay for his education but asks the Wen siblings not to reveal his identity as a benefactor. so A-Yuan only knows someone in the Lan Sect saw potential in him and... offered him a scholarship? I guess?

- he enrolls under the name Lan SiZhui and tries to find out more as he grows and learns. his suspicions fall on LXC at first, because he’s very kind and pleasant to talk to and he frequently visits the school even though he’s not a teacher. then he suspects LQR or one of the elders to be his benefactor. but when he enters the third year and he’s finally allowed to study with the Qin Language Master (either that or an Array Master or even Spellwork Master, you choose) LWJ... A-Yuan knows.

- so A-Yuan spends roughly two years trying to crack LWJ’s exterior... but it’s actually easy bc LWJ is very fond of him. yet, the elusive teacher doesn’t even try to talk about WWX with him. nobody does. Wen Qing looks after A-Yuan while he’s at school, but they have to pretend they don’t know each other: all the school staff knows she’s a Wen but none of the students have a suspect; if their families were to discover this fact, they would take the children away from the school in retaliation against LQR for having betrayed the alliance by protecting a Wen.

- A-Yuan spends a lot of time with her anyway, sharing meals and gossip in the medical wing late at night. he also tries to injure himself at times during night hunts so that he can meet with her and be scolded by her. it is a delicate balance and a dangerous game they’re playing, but only LWJ knows about it. not even LQR is aware that A-Yuan is a Wen: he trusted his nephew when LWJ told him he found a promising child to bring to the cultivation world and he trusted him.

- Lan JingYi was also “found” in a similar way and he adopted the Lan name and lives with LXC during the summer bc he doesn’t have a family. OuYang ZiZhen is one of the few representing his Sect while Jin Ling leads the way for his Sect and its many members. Jin Ling tries to be a rival to A-Yuan so bad (just bc A-Yuan seems perfect, not bc he’s a Wen. only Lan JingYi knows about that) but they end up being friends.

- Jiang FengMian leads Yunmeng as a Sect Leader while Madam Yu teaches how to wield spiritual weapons. JC was born without a golden core, but WWX sacrificed it for him with a forbidden spell and developed demonic cultivation to balance the absence of his core. LQR saw potential in him and offered him an opportunity to form another golden core... but his attempts failed miserably and WWX graduated following the demonic path before studying to become a teacher himself to explore other cultivation methods.

- Jin GuangShan’s alive and kicking [*cough*sons from staircases*cough*] at the top of Lanling and three of his bastards kids are teachers: JGY, MXY, and Qin Su.

- Nie MingJue rules over Qinghe and sent Nie ZongHui as a teacher and protector of the students from their Sects. Nie HuaiSang visits sometimes to discuss Sect matters with him

- LQR’s older brother is the head of Gusu and only LWJ is a teacher, taking his mother’s place (I envision his mother as an outcasts of sorts, similarly to Trelawney, but less............you know. we still love a cryptid woman in this house tho. basically she was kept away bc she knew too much and went mad with the knowledge she held and vowed to never speak again or something + also I like the idea of LWJ teaching in a secluded place. not necessarily a tower, but I remember Lupin’s office to be quite fetching nonetheless and the Jinghi can still keep all of its minimalist furniture and still be cooler than anything else ever existing in-universe).

- when WWX escapes from prison, the first thing he wants is to find the Wens. the teachers think he’s after Wen Qing and they make sure to destroy every corpse surrounding the school so that WWX cannot summon them. night-hunting is put on hold for the entire year (which would be a parallel with quidditch championship being shut down... also sports being put on hold bc of an emergency sounds oddly familiar...)

- JC still has his brother’s dizi, protected under spells in one of his mother’s cabinets at the school... but Jin Ling is a silly boy and wants to prove to his friends that he knows that his grandma Madam Yu is hiding something important in her office. so during a late exploration night after curfew, the juniors find the cabinet, take the dizi to inspect it and flee the corridors. Madam Yu finds them first, but LWJ defends them and feign ignorance when the woman demands to be the one punishing them. LWJ then asks Jin Ling to give him the dizi and the boy begrudgingly does as the teacher says.

- people start disappearing soon after. one by one, people from MoLing and Baling from the school staff vanish into thin air, then it’s the Jin and Jiang’s turn. By the time LXC disappears as well, LWJ gets worried but he trusts his brother.

- Jin GuangShan’s however, after his younger son’s disappearance, point his finger against the Nie Sect and its dangerous method of cultivation: why nobody of the Nie Sect had disappeared? the culprit must be one of theirs! and if MXY cannot be found, then the Jin Sect will demand reparations from Nie MingJue himself... with his life.

- when the dizi disappears from LWJ’s office, JGY suggests the Yiling Patriarch has finally made his way inside the school and that maybe he’s after the disappearance of so many cultivators and students. then, when the dizi is found among Wen Qing’s possessions, LQR expels her from the school to save himself (?) and his Sect from being accused of shielding someone hiding the Yiling Patriarch... but she is able to snatch the dizi and flee, promising A-Yuan to be back for him when nobody is watching.

- ...nobody aside from Jin Ling, who sees Wen Qing embracing “A-Yuan” one last time. the heir of LanLing demands an explanation from his best friend, asking him why that woman had called him with a different name and why was he talking with such familiarity to a Wen dog even though he knew what the Wens had done to his family. how JZX, his father, had died because of a Wen and how his mother had died because of WWX. on top of that, if Wen Qing was really helping WWX, then it was still a Wen’s fault if his uncle MXY was now missing!

- feeling betrayed, Jin Ling disappears on his own volition and Jin GuangShan accuses the Yiling Patriarch of having abducted even his grandson now. the rest of the juniors look for Jin Ling and they travel into the night until they find a lead: JC, apparently, has found a way to lure WWX out by calling the sword-spirit Suibian through his lend-me-down version of a golden core. feeling someone “pulling” him in, WWX was certainly bound to come back and meet with the heir of YunmengJiang , right? (is this the equivalent of the Patronus thingie? maybe not?)

- the juniors figure out that Jin Ling would follow his uncle JC and so they follow the man as well. they end up where everything started, in the Burial Mounds. but Jin Ling has arrived there even before his own uncle. the juniors see WWX holding an unconscious Jin Ling in his arms when JC arrives wielding Sandu. they duel and in the cave there are a lot of ancient corpses WWX can order around with his dizi. JC is close to have the upper hand... when LWJ enters the cave and knocks JC to one of the walls in WWX’s defense.

- [just like in the movie, I would like the narration to be hinting at LWJ having helped WWX all along. even if there were to be POV from LWJ’s part up until this moment, I would still not let it show he’s still in love with WWX. (eg: is he were to look at an old photo with WWX, maybe LWJ’s POV would show him tossing the picture aside and A-Yuan would accidentally see the scene and the POV would switch... so the kid would assume LWJ had beef with WWX instead)]

- A-Yuan, who up until then has never had any reason to think of WWX as anything but a menace to the cultivation world, feels winded. why does his mentor, his father figure, his benefactor... side with a criminal? and why does WWX have the dizi? did Qing-Jie really give it to him? but wasn’t she framed? the dizi must have been planted in her closet when they found it... right?

- LWJ tries to explain that WWX was not behind the disappearances. and that Wen Qing had not taken the dizi from LWJ’s office: Nie ZongHui had. After so many people disappeared, after Jin GuangShan’s accusations against the Nie Sect, Nie ZongHui panicked and wanted to protect his Sect. and since he knew LWJ was hiding something... since he knew how LWJ and WWX were close during their youth... he snooped around until he found the dizi and planted it on the only person every teacher was suspicious of: Wen Qing.

- Wen Qing, after being framed, seeks out WWX and helps him hide in the Burial Mounds, taking down the barriers the cultivation world has set around the area. she then sent a message to LWJ telling him that JC was being lured as well by WWX into the cave to talk... but that Jin Ling had attacked first.

- tired and still incredulous about being finally, finally free, WWX himself explains the truth about the Wen Remains and what he had done to save them. LWJ holds him tight as the other explains that he cannot use resentful energy as he used to and that -when he had tried to protect himself from Jin Ling’s attacks using the dizi- his first attempt had knocked down the kid. JC had found him at the worst possible moment, really.

- but then... who was behind the disappearances? then appears Su She. who had followed the juniors pretending to be invested in their well-being.

- the first cultivators to disappear were from MoLing after all, but not because they were abducted... but because they were the one abducting people to begin with. leaving out cultivators from the Nie Sect had been done only to satisfy Jin GuangShan’s request to find Nie MingJue at fault: the man’s only sin being that he would have never voted in favor of Jin GuangShan for the position of Chief Cultivator (something like the Minister of Magic, I suppose??) wishing to get more power for his Sect, Su She accepted to give an opening for Jin GuangShan’s plan... after being ordered as much by JGY.

- JGY... who had been very quick to “suggest” WWX was behind the disappearances after finding out the dizi Madam Yu and LWJ were hiding had disappeared.

- LWJ duels with Su She, but eventually has to take a step back after the other uses a transportation talisman and disappears himself. if they let him go he will tell everyone that WWX is back, that LWJ is with him and they they both took JC and the juniors as hostages. a siege will be called upon them and they need to flee ASAP.

- WWX takes them to Wen Ning’s and A-Yuan is really confused. if it’s true that WWX helped the Wen Remains, then it’s probably right to assume that WWX and Wen Ning were friends... but why did that never occur to him? why neither Wen Qing nor her brother told him anything??

- Wen Ning cries of happiness upon seeing WWX and they embrace for a long time. Wen Qing is there and has put barriers around their apartment in Yiling to protect them from being found. there are spirits (invisible to the commoners) lurking around and flying in the sky, prodding at every window and door. A-Yuan looks out for danger close to the widows, trying to find a solution... and also as a way to stay away from his family for a bit as he tries to figure the truth out all on his own.

- however, he cannot help himself from listening in on what is being told, not with Lan JingYi asking a million questions per minute to an exhausted Yiling Patriarch. Jin Ling and JC are still unconscious on the sofa and A-Yuan holds his friend’s hand by the window for comfort -more for himself than for the other boy- when he learns that Wen Ning defended WWX by accidentally killing Jin Ling’s father JZX 13 years back. and then how, in one last attempt to save her own step-brother, even Jiang YanLi had died in the explosion that should have destroyed Burial Mounds completely.

- WWX had seen her only at the very last minute, dragging her body over to the mostly ruined cave before he could lose his senses to prevent her to turn into a vengeful corpse. to preserve her body until other Sects could arrive. he had truly no idea his sister wanted to talk to him and he accepted to go to prison for it.

- (JC had been the one to find his sister’s corpse and WWX’s unconscious body in the cave 13 years ago. he cried and took both of them back. after his sister and brother-in-law’s funeral, soon after WWX’s incarceration, JC revealed his mother he had found the dizi. she decided to hide it in the school, where nobody could have found it, all to prevent the rise of another demonic cultivator. WWX’s sword was believed to have been destroyed in the explosion... only JC can feel its existence through his lend-me-down golden core. but he doesn’t reveal this to anyone.)

- WWX reveals he should have been brought to the “magical prison” (maybe on Phoenix Mountain?) but he was instead trapped within the dungeons of Koi Tower, the ancient residence belonging to Jin Ling’s family. Jin Ling had spent most of his life there... unaware that his uncle WWX was there.

- WWX also tells them that someone helped him run away, a man younger than him that used to keep him company in the shadows, listening to his stories. someone who brought Suibian back to him... even if he would not be able to wield it without a golden core (he tried in school under LQR’s tutelage a la “Legilimens lessons” you feel me?).

- WWX has met with this person for a long time, even if he cannot be sure how many years exactly. maybe five or less. still, he would like to find this person and repay him in kindness, even if he doesn’t know what his name is. when asked to describe him, WWX tells them his eyes had been shut close all along with talismans and that he would be able to recognize the man only by voice alone.

- Jin Ling is awake by the time the story ends and squeezes A-Yuan’s hand back. they both discovered horrible things about their families and they can barely share a glance between them before they start silently crying. LWJ notices and steps in to try to comfort them... but Jin Ling asks him why he helped WWX instead. demanding to know if he helped him 13 years ago in destroying his family as well.

- LWJ only looks back at WWX and smiles as he shakes his head. then the two of them reveal they had lived together for a while in secret before the fallout. they even got married without anyone but Wen Ning and Wen Qing knowing, just right after the war (Sunshot Campaign)... before WWX’s control over the resentful energy grew unstable and he had to flee to prevent LWJ to be caught in the aftermath of his actions.

- WWX pretended he didn’t love LWJ anymore and asked to be left alone. heartbroken but still mindful of the other’s boundaries, LWJ thought he didn’t have any right to control WWX and let him go. in the following year or two, WWX found a home with the Wen Remains and defended them until the end.

- LWJ had tried to defend them from the hatred festering the cultivation world from within... but treaded maybe too carefully in the attempt not to disrespect his father and the elders of his family.

- when the Burial Mounds exploded, LWJ disappeared to help the Wens find new homes instead of lending his hand in containing the magical power from spilling over into the non-cultivation world. this was seen as an insult from his family’s standpoint and he was forced into seclusion for years. so while WWX was trapped in a jail covered in suppression talismans, LWJ had been forced into a prison of his own, in a freezing cave where he had to focus all of his attention on developing his cultivation in order to survive such temperatures.

- this led both of them to develop a trauma they don’t know if they will ever be able to overcome, unless they learn to live with its consequences one step at a time. during seclusion, LWJ figured that WWX had lied to him, but that he had been too in love and to young to see the truth at the time. so after he left seclusion he looked once more for A-Yuan, who WWX had loved like a son, and was willing to adopt him... but the child already had a family and it would have been cruel to separate him from them.

- that was why he offered to pay for his studies and never wanted to be found out... but A-Yuan was too smart not to find out and so LWJ allowed himself to hope for a future when he could tell the boy the truth. he wouldn’t dare to hope for WWX to ever leave prison, but he could still dream to see him again.

- at the end of the touching story, JC punches LWJ square on the jaw. he was still weak and couldn’t handle the dizziness, but he had listened to everything and now is furious with LWJ. he demands to know why he didn’t tell anyone WWX and him were married; why he thought possible that such a lovelorn idiot like JC’s brother could ever not be in love with LWJ after obsessing over him for the entirety of their academic career. JC and the entire Yunmeng would have helped them! JC would have even convinced Madam Yu to wield Zidian to protect them and the Wens if necessary! why did they have to do everything by themselves?!

- WWX finally sits close to his brother and lets him punch his chest and arms as much as he wants, until the younger man collapses back on the sofa, exhausted. A-Yuan observes all of this and yet he cannot understand: he doesn’t remember WWX at all, nor to have ever lived in Burial Mounds. he will not trust WWX until he finds out the truth by himself.

- Wen Qing, ever so practical, reminds them they have the entire cultivation world breathing on their necks and that no amount of family drama will save them from execution if they keep hiding doing nothing. that’s when LWJ receives a spiritual butterfly (this is the Patronus thingie! I guess??) from his brother LXC: the butterflies goes under the radar and slips inside the barriers set by Wen Qing easily; it says that “Nie MingJue is innocent and that JGY is helping them”.

- none of them could see how that’s possible, since it was JGY the one ordering Su She to kidnap all of those people just to give Jin GuangShan an opportunity to mess with the Nie Sect. yet, LWJ trusts his brother and decides to send another spiritual butterfly in response, asking where they should meet with LXC.

- while they wait, they eat and try to get along. the Wen siblings distract the kids while WWX and LWJ talk by themselves for a while. they need some alone time and they move to the guest bedroom to figure things out (i doubt they would go for the papapa after all that distance, longing, exhaustion and touch-starvation... especially because last time they saw each other WWX told LWJ he didn’t love him anymore. but... you know.... they did miss each other a lot, and WWX desperately needs a shower, so.......................... yeah.)

- Wen Qing coax the juniors close with food and tells them all sorts of stories about the infamous Yiling Patriarch and how he didn’t even know how to properly cook for the Wen Remains. she tells them how interested he was in the non-cultivation world (Arthur vibes anyone??) and how he was the one teaching the Wens how to use all sorts of common objects, like cars and toasters, washing machines and ovens. Wen Ning sadly suggests that maybe WWX had already imagined how they would need such knowledge for when they were going to leave the cultivation world for good. everyone becomes somber afterwards.

- Jin Ling is still wary of Wen Ning, but he accepts his food and doesn’t try anything funny. Lan JingYi asks Wen Qing to teach him how to make a television work and he eventually blasts the volume up until he wakes JC and receives a knock on the head for the trouble. OuYang ZiZhen starts flipping through the romance novels Wen Ning collects and gets hooked on at least three of them at the same time bc none of them are related to the cultivation world. A-Yuan spends time with Wen Ning and they promise to talk about everything that happened as soon as this nightmare will be over.

- the following morning: the kids are sprawled on the floor, JC somewhat surrounded by them and cushioning their heads with his limbs; Lan JingYi slips and calls him “dad” for some reason; Jin Ling boinks his head with a fist and tells him he already has A-Yuan as a cousin and he doesn’t need another one; A-Yuan sobs a little when a sleepy JC tells the kids he has enough love for everyone; OuYang ZiZhen declares he wants to be a cousin too; Wen Qing slips the equivalent of Veritaserum down JC’s open mouth as he snores and they ask him all sorts of questions just to mess with him.

- all is well and the wangxian lovebirds come out of their room: all combed out and clean, WWX looks almost a respectable member of society, but dressed in non-cultivation clothes he still looks too skin for comfort. Suibian held close, LWJ’s hand in his, WWX properly introduces himself and asks for forgiveness.

- still under the effects of the potion, JC reveals that he’s just glad he’s still alive and as annoying as ever. WWX cries of happiness and LWJ has never looked more serene and moved since A-Yuan got to know him properly.

- right then, a spiritual butterfly (a shouting one! like the Howlers this time around!) passes through the window of the apartment and only says: “they’re coming. hold onto Suibian, all of you”. the group has barely enough time to huddle around the sword when the windows of the flat explode and spirits swarms their way inside!

- the sword activates (like a Portkey!) and they get sucked in through a passage until they reach a dungeon in Qinghe Nie. WWX realizes the engravings in the metal had been slightly changed to accommodate a transportation spell that would be invisible to the eye. LWJ takes his sword and point it at their host... but he only finds his fellow teacher MXY. for a moment he had thought the butterfly had come from JGY, because that had been the man’s voice screaming at them to take Suibian... but he couldn’t be sure. spiritual butterflies only speak to the one they are directed to, so nobody heard when the message had been opened aside from him.

- but... what did MXY have to do with all of this? the younger teacher doesn’t speak, simply gesturing them to follow along. then they reach the throne chamber through a secret corridor and there they find... NHS. who finally explains to them what is happening.

* (flashback)

- NMJ and JGY had planned to stop Jin GuangShan’s plan to take over the non-cultivation world. initially they thought they could postpone the inevitable by letting NMJ voting against the Jin Sect Leader in the election for Chief Cultivator... but then the pig ordered JGY to find dirt on NMJ and to orchestrate something to trigger a new war between Sects.

- JGY asks Su She (who he knows he’s a spy under Jin GuangShan’s wing) to start taking people away from the school and help him “frame” the Nie cultivators. JGY has full permission from NMJ to do so and LXC is informed as well. LXC pretends to be “kidnapped” and protects the teachers, students, and members of the staff that had been taken away in the meantime.

- JGY needs to take one specific person out of the school (out of sight from his father’s spies): his brother MXY, who had learned how to use transportation talismans long ago. MXY gives JGY some low-level talismans for Su She and his cronies from MoLing, just to make his older brother appear more trustworthy to the spie. but he’s otherwise preoccupied with perfecting a spell to lead an activated Suibian (aka, the Portkey) all the way in Qinghe.

- JGY needs MXY to finish the “receiving end” of the spell and the array that would have welcomed the Yiling Patriarch back. and to achieve that JGY has to sneak MXY out without people from the Jin Sect suspecting him.

- Qin Su conveniently “suggests” to Su She to take MXY away for good measure: she got news from her brothers of their plan to dethrone their father and she’s on board. so her suggestion was taken seriously by Su She and he himself sneaks MXY out of the school despite the (uuuuuuuuh) lockdown (??? too soon? too soon)

- Jin GuangShan now has what he wanted: an opportunity to seek NMJ out... but Nie ZongHui panics and steals WWX’s dizi, planting it in Wen Qing’s belongings. JGY knows his father will still try to ignore the WWX situation in order to pick on NMJ no matter what... but if the cultivation world hears about how the Jin Sect didn’t care if the Yiling Patriarch was behind the disappearances... JGY knows a siege will come for his father all right, but it will come for him and his siblings too.

- so JGY suggests WWX is the one behind the kidnappings, reminding his father -this way- how the entire Sect will be under scrutiny if he refuses to acknowledge the disappearance of the dizi. JGY doesn’t want for the name of Jin to be followed by hatred and disgust just like it happened with the Wens.

- his father luckily catches up on the tension in the room and for the time being accepts to look for WWX like the others instead of trying to come for NMJ’s head (ahahah)

- while MXY works on the array to activate Suibian from afar, LXC is confident LWJ will find WWX all on his own and convince him to help them. but in case LWJ will fail in convincing him... well, activating Suibian they will still be able to summon WWX whether he likes it or not. but LXC doesn’t have time to send the butterfly that LWJ has already left the school (after receiving Wen Qing’s message). so the little butterfly looks for LWJ for the entire night before he finds him... and a bunch of children (including JC).

- which is unexpected, but LXC trusts his brother. he informs JGY and the two of them entrust to MXY the task to send another butterfly to LWJ, activate Suibian, and welcome the group in Qinghe. all while LXC, JGY and NMJ meet in Gusu to plan a siege against Jin GuangShan.

* (end of flashback)

- NHS finally reveals how he had been the one suggesting MXY to give Suibian back to WWX after transforming it into a (raw and unpolished) transportation talisman before freeing him from Koi Tower (roughly at the beginning of the school year). MXY would have needed more time to finish the work on Suibian, but rumors had it WWX was soon to be executed bc now useless to Jin GuangShan after 13 years.

- tense under the scrutiny, MXY remains silent as WWX slowly falls at his feet and thanks him for keeping him company all of those years. MXY still refuses to speak when WWX marvels at the wonderful job he had done with Suibian as he kneels in front of him and tries to take one of the younger man’s gloved hands in his.

- “Finally, Yiling Patriarch,” utters MXY as he graciously accepts WWX’s offer and takes his hand. but WWX tenses, trying to take his hand back, still kneeling in front of MXY, who is smiling down at him.

- “You’re not him,” is all WWX is able to say before Xue Yang reveals his real identity (the changing-faces thingie is apparently called “face-changing technique” and works here in place of the Polyjuice potion). XY activates Suibian (still in WWX’s hand) once more and disappears with WWX.

- now that he has the whole story (and the Yiling Patriarch all for himself to play with!), XY can go back to Jin GuangShan and be given his two fierce corpses back (SL & XXC), who had been held captive for experiments in Koi Tower.

- XY took MXY’s place upon discovering JGY’s younger brother had secretly let the Yiling Patriarch run away with an unfinished transportation talisman. Jin GuangShan’s ordering him to keep the traitor MXY under control and to find WWX. retracing the spell-work backwards only from MXY’s notes would have taken ages so XY hid MXY behind a mirror in a secret chamber, torturing him to force him to tell him how to find WWX. but MXY refused over and over again.

- XY transformed his features into MXY’s ones, but his missing pinky would have jeopardized his mission, so he wore stuffed gloves on both hands, shrugging it off as a stylistic choice. his acting so spot on, not even Qin Su or JGY noticed anything missing, not even NHS, MXY’s best friend, or Jin Ling.

- but JGY never told him the whole story. and now that he knew the truth about Jin GuangShan’s intention to conquer the non-cultivation world... now XY has leverage to get what he wants and flee with his (partners?? lovers?? guinea pigs??) fierce corpses.

- working on a double array to activate Suibian (whatever that means) took almost an entire school year, but in the end he got to drag WWX all the way back to Koi Tower... where the siege will soon take place.

- WWX gets nails in his skull (which I assume could work in place of an Imperius Curse, even if he’s not a fierce corpse) in order to defend Koi Tower from the siege by organizing the corpses against 3Zun’s army of cultivators.

- LWJ looks for his brother as the others and NHS look for more help. they still don’t know WWX is in Koi Tower or for who XY I start working, but NHS knows Jin GuangShan will not wait for the siege to take him down so he suggest they move to LanLing.

- the juniors are exhausted and yet they fly to Koi Tower in the attempt to warn LXC of what had just occurred, when they hear the dizi Chenqing summoning the dead. the battle begins, but doesn’t culminate until 3Zun show up and destroy most of WWX’s corpses.

- WWX himself is fighting against the nails in his skull and his demonic cultivation is deeply unstable, so much his corpses crumble down easily enough. still, there are so many: Koi Tower must have harvested them against the laws of the cultivation-world (XY being one of the mad scientists/magicians behind the project under Jin a GuangShan’s guidance... all in order to terrorize the commoners and eventually rule over the non-cultivation world)

- eventually, LWJ is able to face WWX and take him down, forcing him to come to his senses after taking the nails out. Jin GuangShan is captured and will face trial. Madam Jin takes over the Sect and makes JGY her General.

- during the battle, A-Yuan gets hit in the head and the other juniors try to use a spare transportation talisman (disapparate) to get him back to Wen Qing... but they don’t know where she is fighting and so they go back to Cloud Recesses.

- A-Yuan gets (Splinched) injuried even more and the pain reminds him of his past, of WWX and the rest of his family in the lush mountain of Burial Mounds.

- the school is empty, but Jin Ling finds a way back to his uncle JGY’s office where he knows there are medicinal herbs and talismans they can use. inside, they only find XY who’s looking for something by the desk in a hurry. XY tries to kill them (with an hex??) with a curse... but Madam Yu saves them by capturing him first with Zidian.

- Jin Ling embraces his grandma and explains what happened and where JC and WWX are, but he also insists on the need to save A-Yuan. once that is settled, Jin Ling forces XY to tell him where his younger uncle is -fearing he may be dead- by pointing his father’s sword at him.

- after getting what he wants, Jin Ling runs to MXY’s office and finds the bronze mirror... but he cannot step inside of it. he wishes and wishes and wishes, but nothing happens! he slides on the floor and cries his heart out.

- WWX and LWJ arrive with JC and Wen Qing at the school. Madam Yu is cold towards WWX and accuses him of destroying their family and of disrespecting the debt he owed them. WWX listens carefully and then embraces her anyway. it doesn’t last long, but he doesn’t care.

- LWJ steps inside JGY’s office and asks XY to tell him where MXY is. the other offers to tell him only if LWJ helps him find something in JGY’s room: a key to the (magical, I guess) cell where SL and XXC have been trapped.

- LWJ tells him they already freed them and that they are waiting for him downstairs. restless and eager to meet them, XY tells him nobody aside from someone with MXY’s face can open the mirror door in MXY’s office.

- tired of all that nonsense, LWJ drags XY over to the office, Zidian still cracking and squeezing him in place like a snake, and forces him to perform his imitation magic once more.

- WWX runs behind them and they find Jin Ling sobbing on the floor. WWX smashes XY’s now transformed face into the mirror and they barge inside. MXY is there, some fingers missing, a lost ear, too skinny for comfort, traumatized beyond recognition. but he immediately recognizes WWX and weakly allows the older man to embrace him and hold him tight.

- A-Yuan sees all of this, after Wen Qing got to work her magic on him and starts to cry. he too once had been too skinny and weak, he too had been saved by WWX and then once more by LWJ.

- he remembers everything now. LWJ hugs him tight as they made their way to WWX and MXY. A-Yuan holds WWX tight as MXY marvels at him.

- “Is this... is this A-Yuan? Wen Yuan?” MXY asks, smiling even in his weakened state, “Your dad told me so much about you... so it was you all along, Lan SiZhui?”

- and even if MXY had never been anything but one of his many weird teachers, now that A-Yuan finally sees him after one entire year, knowing he kept WWX company in Koi Tower for so many years... A-Yuan cannot do anything but feel a great deal of affection for him too. so he hugs MXY as well and he laughs as WWX and LWJ hold him tight.

[what a ride. what a fucking ride. I want 150k words for this but I cannot do it. any volunteers? anyway you can interpret the WWX/MXY thingie as strictly platonic, but you are talking to a wangxianyu shipper so........yeah. no but really, I just wanted these poor characters to be happy. also, even if this is a “HP: POA” inspired au, I’ve always loved the mindfuck that was discovering the truth about Mad-Eye Moody in “HP: GOF” so..... sue me.]

[XY will face a trial don’t you worry]

[ignore all the plot holes, Su She would be proud of me for them]

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #wangxianyu #wangxian

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