#he lied. he lied. he lied to Jc’s (and himself) so much he can’t no longer distinguish the truth of them and is so fucking sad

[beartes22]

Constantly thinking about how WWX thinks about JC how he thinks JFM thought about YZY but mostly as how he denied and yet carelessly commented JFM thinks (disregards) about JC

It is so, so, so fucked up and one of the reasons why chengxian is so doomed by the narrative bc no matter what JC does or says, WWX already "knows" what is about. Bc JC is his shidi and WWX knows best. And still, pre masacre, pre core exchange, it could have work. It could have, because they love each other so much but JC lost his core. WWX thinks he chose his parents. He thinks Jc choose the dead bodies of his parents, a filial duty, over survival, over him. And he never forgave Jc for it.

Bc now is WWX turn to assume the consequences of his shidi actions, now it is his turn to bear the pain for him. And he does not do it with reluctance, he does not, he does it bc he loves Jc so so much, but still. Still. The hurt it caused it. The hell it send to him. The hopelessness.

And then to see his shidi thrive were he can’t no longer. To see him shine when he is but a shadow. To see him reach for the impossible time and time again as if it was not WWX who never gave up before, who rallied his shidi over his (small, imagined, greedy) woes. To see all that and know envy, envy he had denied his whole life and envy he will repress into resentment, into sth useful bc WWX is not like yzy or Jc he is not, he does not hurt the ones he lives with his jealousy and sense of inferiority. Bc how can he not envy, when one says his dad doesn’t love him but he still has a dad? When one says he is not enough for his sect when he has such a inheritance, such a clear path at life. And WWX never cared never ever ever, how could he? He loved his shidi best, in spite of all the bad things.

And somehow, Jc himself is a thing he has to be loved in spite of. And it’s heartbreaking.

#but WWX never will say any of that aloud or even think it clearly #this man has been running form negative emotion like he’s sprinting his whole life #also that would make him the bad guy and WWX has enough guilt to carry and not talk about already try #also I love Jc and it shows sorry #this is not to say he is a perfect shidi or anything the man is a mess #but all his doubts about WWX character have it reason. it’s proof #and maybe the proof was forged but it was there #he does not deal with a single emotion gracefully but he does deal with them. he lets them simmer for eternity #which is. not ignoring them. #bad but at least real. idk how to say it. #anyway it fucks me up how much agency WWX denies Jc and how much complexity he refuses to see #like. WWX would do the impossible to make Jc the person who hates him irrationally so that he is not the bad guy in the relationship #(which is more complex than good or bad guys but I digress) #I love when they reconcile but I also hate it. bc it is never acknowledged how much WWX daily shits on Jc as a person) #you can love a person you don’t like. it happens. #but the Jc in WWX head is not the real Jc and the sad thing is that WWX loves the real Jc not the inherited prejudice from jfm #but he can’t perceive him he refuses to he can’t bc then he has to deal with what he did to him. #he lied. he lied. he lied to Jc’s (and himself) so much he can’t no longer distinguish the truth of them and is so fucking sad #mxtx #chengxian #grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. hi! i"m looking for a fic where wwx wrote letters for all the important people in his life, barricaded himself in the cave to destroy the yin tiger seal. wq & wn arrived early and kept shouting at wwx to stop outside the barrier but he still continued and killed himself. a-yuan was escorted by song lan at jinlintai where a-yuan recognizes lwj and run to him. & then a-yuan saw the robes of jins he starts shouting & crying. then jzx and madam jin took of their robes. jgs & jgy crimes were exposed

FOUND? The deleted fic When I’m Gone by qiankun_pouch

seramarias said: I have a link for #1 via Google Drive if anyone needs it.

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2. Fic finder request, please!

A scene where NMJ picks up young LWJ and tosses him into the air like he would NHS as a fun thing that kids like. LXC is horrified and says that that’s a bad punishment or something, but later on LWJ asks to be tossed again—gently and is happy about it.

I just remember it being a cute short fic and now I can’t find it! 😭

FOUND! Of Few Words by nirejseki (G, 5k, LWJ & NMJ, LXC & NMJ, NHS & NMJ, Childhood Friends, First Meetings, grief and recovery, Making Friends, Pre-Canon)

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3. Hello, please I'm desperately searching for a fic where wwx finds out his favorite porn content creator is his co-worker lwj during a business trip? At some point he spent so much money tipping lwj that lwj offered a special set for him. I appreciate your work SO MUCH y'all are pillars of this fandom

FOUND! Damask / 锦上添花 by auberjing (E, 9k, WangXian, Modern AU, Lingerie, Sex Worker LWJ, Nude Modeling, Nude Photos, Porn with Feelings, Getting Together, Masturbation, Rimming, Overstimulation, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Premature Ejaculation, LWJ in lingerie, WWX in lingerie, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Intercrural Sex)

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4. hi, I want to search the fanfic about the junior and maybe wwx and lwj travel back to qionqi path and stop by at banquet at jinlintai right after past wwx ask jin zixun about wen remnant. Also if I not mistaken, lwj cut tie with lqr. I read this at wattpad and not sure if the writer post this stories at other platform.

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5. was trying to find an omegaverse fic, where wwx was captured by wen chao, and traumatized to the point that whenever he went into heat, he'd go berserk and start hunting down alphas/wen soldiers to slaughter. lwj had been captured prior to him and was already halfway to feral, but the two of them ended up bonding without marking each other because lwj had been muzzled. anyone have a clue if this has been deleted or not? @ashewindrider

FOUND? The Faithful Demon of Yiling by TriviasFolly (M, 93k, wangxian, rape/non-con, JC POV, WWX is a Murder Baby, ABO, heat, The satisfaction of knowing how JGS's dick gets shot off, Omega WWX, Alpha LWJ, no cultivation au, Vaugely Historical AU, royal au, War AU, Slow Burn, WWX is a Baddass, Attempted Rape, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Character thinks another is dead for 75 precent of the story, Murder)

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6. Hello! I'm trying to find a fic, likely on ao3, where JYL was a reincarnation from Dongying/Japan, like a crossover between a period drama anime? I think she was still Yanli, but her previous spirit wanted so badly to have a family that the desire followed her to her next life, so she had paper white skin & maybe red eyes as a sign of haunting. I remember it was a well known anime but not one I knew, so I haven't been able to find it. She might've unlocked memories & found her reincarnated hubby

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7. Ficfinder request please! There's a "magic artifact fleshlight" that connects to an orifice of whoever's bloody gets on it. WWX overhears some Jin disciples plans to violate a woman using the artifact, and steals it and binds it to himself to protect her. LWJ catches him, and in order to protect her honour he lies, and says it's a simple toy, and that using it with one's friends is fun and totally something that LWJ should do. LWJ confiscates it and uses it, not knowing that it's connected to WWX. Shenanigans ensue

FOUND? The Golden Cutsleeve by syrus_jones (E, 77k, WangXian, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Humor, Aged-Up Character(s), WWX POV, WWX is a gremlin, Internally Screaming LWJ, No Sunshot Campaign, First Times, Accidental Sex, Masturbation, PWP, Porn with Feelings, WWX experimenting with things he shouldn’t like always, Happy Ending, Porn With Plot)

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8. Good day! Thank you all for your help/time/effort. Im here for fic finder. Im looking for the the fic where jgy had talisman that he sew to the other cultivators' clothes/robes—lwj, lxc, jwy, etc. Like he gave it as a gift, if im not mistaken. That talisman made them hate wwx so they said some hurtful words towards him. In result to that, wwx left and traveled alone. Then, I cant remember if its nhs who figure it out, but someone knew about the talisman then after that, they changed their wardrobes and started to look for wwx. If i remember it correctly, I found that fic via angst tag but since there's a lot of fic with that tag, I cant find it anymore. Thank you in advance! @httpskaixx

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9. Hello! I have been looking for a specifix wangxian tattoo artist fic on AO3 that I can't seem to find.

The details: Wei Ying is a tattoo artist who owns his own shop. Toddler Lan Yuan slips away from a babysitter and ends up at the tattoo shop which is how wangxian meet. Lan Zhan brings Yuan and Jingyi (Xichen's son if i remember right) to the shop repeatedly to see Wei Ying.

I swear the fic title is the name of the tattoo shop but my mind is blank. @abomimablesnwm

FOUND! 🧡 Yiling Salon: Hair, Nails and Piercing by TriviasFolly (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, hairstylist AU, WWX owns a salon, Hairstylist WWX, 5+1 Things, Fluff, Experimental Style) Are you sure it was a tattoo parlor? Because all I can think of is this fic. if it's not this one, I'd think you'd like it, it's similar - Mod C

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10. do you know of an nsfw fic where lan zhan is trans and wei wuxian asks to see “down there” and they end up having sex and it ends with lan zhan saying theyre engaged ? If you don’t take nsfw asks feel free to ignore!

FOUND? gratified in each other by Anonymous (E, 4k, wangxian, modern, Trans Male Character, Trans WWX, Brief Pining While Fucking, Getting Together, Friends to Lovers, wangxian speedrun friends to fiances within the span of an afternoon like completely normal people, the inherent eroticism of agreeing to knock up the man you've been pining for for years, Porn with Feelings, there is in fact a plot here, Creampie, Daddy Kink, Penis In Vagina Sex, Cunnilingus, Squirting, Marriage Proposal, Smut, Fluff and Smut) Could it be Gratified in Each Other? It is WY who is trans. LZ tells WY, "if you can feel me, shouldn't i be able to feel you?" WY tells LZ, "Boyfriend is nice but… but maybe husband would be even better."

FOUND? A Different Kind of Courtship by pomelos (E, 2k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Teenage Wangxian, Boypussy, Just the Tip, Undernegotiated Kink, mentions of Arranged Marriage, Virginity Kink, Loss of Virginity, Bottom LWJ/Top WWX, PWP, Mildly Dubious Consent)

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11. For a future fic finder. I'm looking for a fic that was set in the Cloud Recesses study arc, it was a cracky sort of AU where Lan Qiren was being a matchmaker and pairing up all the kids. Sitting the ones he thought would go well together next to each other in class and things like that. I believe Nie Mingjue was also courting Lan Xichen by giving him sweets and Lan Qiren was hoping he'd hurry up and accept before he got chubby? Something along those lines. I swear I had it bookmarked but can't find it so I'm hoping it hasn't been deleted. Nie Huaisang also was involved a little bit but Lan Qiren didn't realize until the end. TIA!

FOUND! sentimental education by everythingispoetry (G, 5k, Everyone Lives au, Humor, Fluff, Matchmaking, LQR is a closet romantic, using teenagers as one's personal chess pieces, Crack)

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12. I have been looking for this fic forever and can't find it 😭. It was focused on lan yuan and wei wuxian, where lsz remembered wwx telling him about the narrow path when lan wangji left the burial mounds the first time. Lsz then worries that wwx is disappointed that he grew up lan like wwx warned against. I can't remember if lsz remembered everything about wwx or just that one memory. Plz help lol, it's stuck in my head but I can't find it 😭

FOUND? Would You Come Home? by s6115 (Not rated, 46k, WangXian, Junior Quartet Centric, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, Junior Quartet Dynamics) LSZ finds talismans in WWX's old bedroom when he is invited to LP, and that way he can see different scenes of his life at BM, one of them being after the narrow path comment, when WWX tells him he can't have a ribbon, because that would mean be a Lan, who can't run, or laugh, or smile until his face hurts.

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13. Hi!! Can you help me find this fic? I've been reading this fic again and again before but unfortunately I didn't bookmarked it since I just kept the tab open but then I change my phone and now I cant find that fic! I'm just gonna tell specific parts I remembered 😅

So I forgot if wwx is alive here but lsz here is their real child in this fic and not adopted or whatever and so lsz is known as lwj's child but the cultivation world doesn't know how he looks like and then the gusu lan host a event where lsz would receive his courtesy name, family forehead ribbon, his own sword and music instrument and everyone in the cultivation world is invited, jyl and jzx is also alive here.

And here the jiang siblings or rather jc thought that lwj betrayed wwx since they kinda like know that they at least like each other? (Sorry this was really blurry in my memory 🥹 ) so they saw lsz and he resemble lwj so much but then they saw lsz and saw wwx in lsz, that is when they realized that the other parent is wwx. So they confronted lwj about this.

This is like the most memorable chap? Part? In the fic that I remembered 😅 I hope you can help me find this fic, it's one of my comfort fic🥹🥹 Thanks 😊 😊

FOUND! Until The End by abCEE (M, 365k, wangxian, canon divergence, communication, established relationship, sunshot campaign, mpreg, canon typical violence, WWX has new golden core, canonical character death, happy ending, fix-it of sorts)

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14. I'm looking for a fic that's a modern AU insofar as it's not in magical ancient China; it's set in the 1970s, I think, in China. Wei Ying is comatose, and Lan Zhan's been raising a-Yuan. He's basically been adopted into both the Jiang and Wen families as well. About halfway through the story, they're told that they have to remove Wei Ying from the machines keeping him alive (this is expected to be a death sentence). Lan Zhan collapses, but it turns out Wei Ying wakes up. @songscloset

FOUND! When You Wake, 怎能当梦一场 by MouSanRen (T, 40k, wangxian, modern, WWX is in a coma, Angst with a Happy Ending, Single Dad LWJ, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Parenthood, YZY's A+ Parenting,JFM's A+ parenting)

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15. Hello and thank you for all you do to this fandom, mods, you're so great.

I'm looking for two Very Explicit fics that I read AN ETERNITY ago (I think it was 2020?) and I really hope they still exist. I'm very sorry but the horny demon in my brain has been LOUD about them. They're both one shots.

A) genderbent A/B/O, omega wwx is married to someone else and has a son, alpha lwj keeps thirsting over her every time she goes for her run in the neighborhood? One day wwx invites her in and well. Sex ensues.

B) canon setting, hard BDSM, lwj has wwx tied up (suspended?), wwx goes into subspace and lwj makes him cum from eating his ass which apparently is not something he can manage to do usually.

15A)

FOUND? #15A seems to have been deleted from ao3 but it's "Young Sexy Dyke Rails Hot MILF From Next Door and Sucks Her Tits Dry!" by crimsonkestrel

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16. I'm looking for a story, I believe it was a multi-chapter, where WWX and LWJ keep trying to experiment with bondage, but it keeps going wrong. I know that the last time it went wrong, LWJ fell down a ravine and seriously injured his leg. It was also a modern AU, and they got married (or were in the process of getting married) at the end. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

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17. Hi (＾▽＾) I need help to find some fics!

A) I don't remember all that much but, it is after the SSC and WWX becomes like the jiang sect's elder and I'm pretty sure it's a fix-it.

B) Wangxian is getting married and they are doing a ritual in the bedroom were they eat baozi I think and WWX's is raw and filed with lotus petals.

C) LWJ timetravels and is preparing to support WWX's resentful cultivation but because he changed things WWX never looses his core and don't have to invent resentful cultivation.

thank you in advance!

Hi (＾▽＾) I was no. 17 in the last fic finder and Like a Water-Worn Stone is right! so is Twelve Moons and a Fortnight! yay! thank you! but Resilience isn't the one, if it helps I'm pretty sure LWJ back like the CR lectures and I don't think JC time traveled.

but again thank you so much!

17A)

not FOUND Elder, an Aesthetic by MarbleGlove (G, 8k, JC & WWX, fix-it, post-sunshot) 1st of the series Rest is Revolution

FOUND! Like a Water-Worn Stone by meyari (T, 41k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, very little hurt, lots of comfort, Chronic Illness, Serious Injuries, Self-Medication, Disability, PTSD, Depression, Self-Worth Issues, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, aftermath of war, Aftermath of Violence, Prisoner of War, Identity Issues, enslavement (discussion of), abuse (discussion of), actually very fluffy despite the warnings)

17B)

FOUND! Twelve Moons and a Fortnight by stiltonbasket (M, 290k, WangXian, Humor, Slow Burn, Post-Canon Fix-It, Long-Distance Relationship, Epistolary, Love Letters, Family Feels, a-qing lives, teenage romance, Adoption, Romantic Comedy, Happy Ending, Weddings, Case Fic, Parenthood, Politics) I just finished 12 Moons and a Fortnight and it had the baozi with raw lotus petals during the wedding night, so it's probably that

17C)

not FOUND💖 Resilience. by Vrishchika (T, 7k, WangXian, Time Travel, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Not JC Friendly, Self-Indulgent)

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18. Thanks so much for all you do. I love finding interesting fics to read through this page. That said, this is my first request and I hope I'm doing it right.

I know this fic was part of a series. Everyone seems to be a little darker than cannon. This particular fic was WWX and LZ during the sunshot campaign.

LZ and the Lans he was leading were trapped/ambushed in a forest. NMJ could not spare the men to rescue them. WWX goes to rescue him anyway. Between him and LZ they kill all the Wen in that forest. I remember LZ feeling he was not the right person to lead/be responsible  for others in combat. He knew he was given the role solely on his status. 

I thought I bookmarked this but apparently not. I don't know if this series was complete or not. Thank you so much

As a consequence LZ and WY are darker in this fic.

FOUND? The Children's Crusade by natcat5 (M, 44k, JC & Yunmeng disciples, NHS & NMJ, JC & WWX, wangxian, JYL/JZX, Canon Divergence, Missing Scenes, Character Study, Sunshot Campaign, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Partial Golden Core Reveal, references to ableism, self-direct ableism, Self-Esteem Issues, Let Jiang Yanli be a little angry as a treat) the fic in question is part 3

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19. hi, im looking for a modern au where lwj makes lan qiren give wwx a written apology for driving him away? i think lwj had a-yuan and wwx believed he was a bad influence or something? anyway, it was a formal apology and lwj gives oy to a flabbergasted wwx when they reunite.

FOUND! say it's here where our pieces fall in place by Lirelyn (E, 68k, WangXian, Modern AU, Family Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kid Fic, Adoption, Foster Care, Emotional Hurt/Comfort)

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20. good day! 🧡🧡 do u guys know the fic where lsz time traveled during the wens went to lotus pier like he saved the bloody wwx then called lwj and introduced himself as their son in the future. i remember that yuan left a letter and they put it in a frame (in their bedroom) at the end of the story. i bookmarked it but i cant find it on my list. thankyouuu!

FOUND? Son's Intervention by abCEE (T, 14k, WangXian, Time Travel, OOC, slightly (?), Dark LSZ, LSZ is LWJ and WWX's Child, Implied Mpreg, Fall of Lotus Pier, Revenge, No Golden Core Transfer, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, demonic array, Canon-Typical Violence, No Sunshot Campaign, No demonic cultivation, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Not Jiang Family Friendly, read beginning notes please, CQL Verse, Married WangXian Have Children, BAMF LSZ)

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#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

[jhnshi]

Hello ! Hihi! I hope you're doing well, I wanted to request, how would characters of your choice react to Gn Reader being insecure? Body, voice, whatever you prefer. Don't rush yourself, have a great day !! ^^

you are perfect.

★. — insecure reader and their boyfriend.

johnny & kuai liang. gender neutral reader.

a/n: i had to take several pauses for writing these two guys cuz holy crap, even my own heart tugged a bit. warning for a bit of cussing for jc :3 no angst, just some emotional stuff with cute endings!

you were already used to being spoiled rotten by your boyfriend, johnny cage. the glamourous actor, now turned earthrealm champion & movie director. it’s a customary that every time before he comes home to rest, he would take a moment to himself to purchase you a gift at any local shop. his favorite item to gift you was clothing in particular.

johnny was invited to an extravagant party from a hollywood colleague, and he immediately made you his plus one.

after getting dressed the fancy outfit that your boyfriend paid for you to be clothed in, you stood straight in front of the full-body mirror. you gazed at the details of your outfit first, giving yourself a grin. the more you analyzed yourself, the further your mind would slowly warp. you began to glare at your reflection. something felt… off. was it the ridiculously expensive attire that johnny splurged on for you? was it the way your hair was stylized? or was it… how your body appeared?

johnny barges into your room, interrupting the consumption of your own dark thoughts. he had his head down, buttoning his suit jacket together whilst treading towards you. “hey babe, are you finished yet? the limo is about to ab-“

he finally picks his head up and awes at you. he has never beamed so hard in his life before, ‘til this very moment. “y/n, wow. you are just the most beautiful person i have ever seen. holy shit… wow. this is just- oh my god…” johnny couldn’t crack his smile, not even one bit. he slowly paced over to you and stopped to study your figure even further.

he wanted to pull you into him, but you took a step back. you wish to endure this delightful moment with your boyfriend, but the void in your mind began to take control. “johnny… i don’t feel too good.” you croaked finally, looking away from his face. you had your crossed arms tucked into your chest, squeezing yourself. you can feel the tears about to burst the more you gave into your despair.

johnny blinked away from his adoration as soon as he saw you weep. he immediately grabbed you into his arms to a warm embrace. wrapping his palm on the back of your head and the other on your back, he rocks you back and forth as he coos. “hey hey hey, what’s wrong? y/n… what’s wrong sweetheart?”

“i don’t feel good, i don’t look good…” you wailed. “i feel ridiculous, okay? you keep on spending all of this money on me so i can dress up, but i hate it. i hate how my body looks, johnny. so so fucking much. i hate my arms, my legs, the way my face looks… everything. i hate it all.”

johnny just kept on massaging your scalp, holding you up as you bawl onto his chest. he finally pulled you away to look at your face. your poor weary face. “y/n.” his voice was now stern.

he took a breath and cleared his throat before continuing. “y/n, my one and only. my little diamond. do you know why i asked you out? it is because i have been completely in love with you since day one. every morning, my first thought is of you. every night, i go to sleep thinking of you. i go into debt from spoiling you because i just adore seeing you dress up, even if it’s for a stupid party.” he brushes your hair out of your wet face to get a better look, then takes your chin with his hand. you stare into his eyes, taking in every word he had to say to you.

“i know i can’t change your mind in just one night, but please trust me when i say this. you are the most gorgeous, the most stunning person i have ever lied my eyes on. you are perfect just the way you are. i love you, y/n. don’t you ever forget that.” johnny pulls you into a kiss, cupping both of your cheek. he finally breaks the embrace after a few solemn moments to look at you once more.

“how about this, y/n. we will just not go to this party. we can stay in for tonight, just you & me. we can watch one of my ol’ movies together if you want.” you giggled at his offer and nodded. “i like that idea.” johnny drags you into a hug again, nuzzling against your neck. “i love you sooo much, y/n. no matter how you feel, remember that i will always be here to remind you how beautiful you are.”

you were fiddling the food on your plate with your chopsticks, staring off into space. everyone crowding you on the table were too invested into their own conversations, that you slowly became a wallflower from your silence. the chats, the laughter; it all was just white noise to you.

kuai liang & you were invited to a small dinner at madam bo’s restaurant, accompanied by tomas and the other earthrealm champions. when the two of you arrived at the place, you were excited at first. but now, something was on your mind.

kuai liang didn’t take long to notice your disposition. he turns his head towards you. “y/n, are you alright?” you didn’t give an answer, so he repeated his question. “y/n, please. are you okay, dear?”

you nodded sluggishly, continuing to mess with the chopsticks in your hand. kuai liang sighed, and immediately grabbed onto your arm. “excuse us for a moment.” he announced to the others whilst dragging you away from the scene.

“hey, hey! kuai liang!” you yelped, trying to get away from his grip. he wasn’t being forcefully harsh with you, but his strength was controlled enough to carry your weight. the two of you stopped in a dark hallway across from the restaurant building. it was private enough, kuai liang thought to himself.

“kuai liang, what’s wrong with you?!” you cried. he let go of your arm to look at you in the eye. the height difference was impeccable, since now he was towering over you.

“i can ask you the same question. i demand an answer from you, y/n.” you gulped from how tense your boyfriend was now. you can also see flames in his eyes bursting from such emotion at that very moment.

“i just…” you sighed. “i just… feel off, okay? i-i feel weird because of how i look. you’re bringing me to meet with your friends, which is great, but i can’t help but feel left out.” you clenched your fist. “kuai liang, i don’t have any super abilities. nor do i go onto these adventures to save all kinds of realms. but you and your friends do, it’s all you ever talk about! …i am just so lost onto why you’re dating me- i don’t have anything special going on unlike you!”

you wrapped up your speech as soon as you saw kuai liang’s eyes soften. he reached out to hold your tense hand, and intertwined your fingers together.

“i understand y/n.” he tucked your hair back into your ear with his free hand. “i am sorry you feel this way, my love. i never knew how self-conscious you are now, which i deeply apologize. i regret not taking into consideration onto your well-being, i was ignorant.” he took ahold your waist to pull you closer to him. “i love you so deeply, y/n. you may not wield any sovereignty, but you are still very much special to me. my heart burns when i see you. i took you to this dinner with me because you are a special treasure of mine. if anything, i wanted you to be here so i can boast & showcase about how much of a beautiful person i am with.”

kuai liang finally pressed his lips against yours, holding you up. you can feel your feet lift from the floor as he carries you away. he caressed the back side of your neck, not wanting to pull away.

it was you that ended the enclosure, glancing at your boyfriend. he was just filled with love and joy, giving you the widest grin. “i love you, y/n. i love you forever.” he kisses you again, but now sets you down back to the ground.

he let go from your face and cupped your cheeks. “how about we head home together? we will rejoice the night in a better light. wouldn’t you enjoy that instead, my blossom? i can carry you back if you would so like to.”

#trying to write longer hehe #loving these requests!!! #mk #mk x reader #mk x y/n #mk1 #mk1 2023 #mortal kombat #fluff #some cussing #johnny cage #mk johnny cage #scorpion #mk scorpion #kuai liang #mk kuai liang

[kiriel123]

MDZS/The Untamed fic recs

The Book's Cover by Eudoxia

Alternate canon before Mo Xuanyu can summon the yllz into his body for revenge, someone else takes the chance. But even though Li Wenxiao’s body is plain, lwj can still see the soul behind it. Featuring a just as smitten as ever lwj and some very confused onlookers

still life by sunflowersfield

Modern AU lwj moves in next door to wwx and wwx becomes determined to befriend him. It’s just starting to work when wwx falls ill. Determined to tough it out, he suffers alone until lwj comes over to take care of him. So sweet

Not all treasure is silver and gold (but some is) by Vamillepudding

Post canon wwx, in the tradition followed by all Jiang men, buys his husband a comb because his husband deserves pretty things, but realizes that there are other pretty things lwj doesn’t let himself have. Such a tender post canon fic, best husbands all around

Perfect shot by sunandseas

WLW Modern AU lwj is a photographer, wwx is her model, and things get steamy after hours. Very sexy, with an extra bratty wwx and a lwj who can’t wait to teach her a lesson

come to the harbor of your longing by occultings (microcomets)

Modern AU lwj’s house is haunted and wwx is the medium who comes to exorcise the ghost (and steal lwj’s heart). Domesticity, beaches, and so much shirtlessness, it’s a wonder lwj didn’t snap earlier. Such a lovely fic

find a thing that can't be found by twigofwillow

Alternate canon lwj has long dreamed of a forest, but he never thought the forest actually existed. Turns out both the forest and its guardian are very real and very much what lwj wants. The ambiance of this was so achingly dreamy

"The Efficacy of Spanking on Behavioural Change" by redscudery

Modern AU wwx asks his best friend and roommate to spank as part of an experiment to see how effective corporal punishment is. Nothing weird to see here, just one bro, spanking another bro. Very sexy with a little sweet thrown in

Always, Sunshine Smile and Other Greatest Hits by out_there

Modern AU wwx and jc try out for a boyband as a summer lark, but joke’s on them because they pass the test and along with Meng Yao, Lan Xichen, and Jin Zixuan become a very popular group. Fun, with multiple points of view

我陪你 (I'll accompany you) by starandrea

Modern AU with Cultivation wwx disappeared 13 years ago, so when he shows up to answer a tech support call, lwj is not about to let him escape.  He loves him. He wants to marry him. Wwx still has his secrets but they work it out

i will find you again by Pip (Moirail)

Modern Ghost Story AU lwj is a novelist who rents an old house in the middle of nowhere to have a quiet place to write his next book. But the house is already occupied, and the ghosts have their own opinions on what should happen

#mdzs #the untamed #fic rec

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: what if jc was lxc's age (and jyl maybe 2 or 3 years older) and wwx was lwj's/nhs' age when he was brought to lotus pier? (Or anything that involves a much bigger age gap bw the jiang sibs and wwx - where wwx is babey)

Untamed

“You know what,” Jiang Cheng said to his sister, who looked at him. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not marrying a woman.”

Jiang Yanli’s lips started twitching uncontrollably and she hid her smile behind her sleeve. “Oh?”

“Nope. I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun.”

“On the basis of…?”

“If you take two adult men in charge of two Great Sects,” Jiang Cheng said, doing his utmost best to keep a straight face, “with all the power we can generate between us, we might – maybe – have a chance at disciplining our baby brothers.”

Jiang Yanli burst out laughing.

“There, there. It’s all right,” he said, grinning, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder. “You can join us if you’d like. There’s enough room in Qinghe for two wives.”

“We are not both running away to Qinghe,” she said, giggling. “A-Cheng!”

“What? I think it’s a great idea. If our parents want us back, they can negotiate with Chifeng-zun for it – may they have more luck than they had with the whole medicinal herb debacle.”

“A-Cheng, I am officially tabling this idea,” Jiang Yanli said, still snorting. “Older sibling privilege.”

“I let you out of the womb first as a matter of courtesy,” Jiang Cheng sniffed. “And now you use it against me? A-Li, how could you?”

“Call me jiejie! It doesn’t matter how much older, a few shichen or a few years, older is still older.”

“You probably elbowed me with those sharp pointy things you have on your arms. Weapons of war.”

“Older is older!” she sang. “Now tell me, what did A-Xian do this time?”

“Would you like it in chronological order, or in order of severity? I can also group it by theme, if you prefer.”

“Oh no,” Jiang Yanli said, covering her eyes. “Oh no.”

“And the chief-most theme,” Jiang Cheng said, continuing anyway, “is still called Lan Wangji.”

“Oh no!”

“He has the worst crush,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head with endless amusement. “And he just – refuses to admit it. ‘Nooooo, shixiong, we’re just friends, he can’t even stand me most of the time, he’s always trying to get me in trouble, but sometimes he lets me sit next to him and spend time with him and he’s so handsome and I really just want to make him laugh –’”

“We have,” Jiang Yanli said thoughtfully, “raised an idiot.”

“He was fine when we got him,” Jiang Cheng disagreed. “We have spoiled an idiot.”

“This is true. Maybe we should go form a mutual complaining society with Chifeng-zun; isn’t his little brother also an idiot?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Jiang Cheng said. “Worse: they’ve teamed up. Nie Huaisang buys Wei Wuxian porn now.”

“Oh no…”

“In return for help cheating on his tests!”

“Oh no!”

“So that’s why I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun,” Jiang Cheng concluded. “Our parents may be disappointed by my decision, but with our powers combined, we might be able to save the world from our respective younger idiots.”

“Maybe,” she said, and shook her head. “A-Cheng – about our parents…”

Jiang Cheng shook his head as well, echoing her action but more in denial. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that she took after their father and he took after their mother, that she was born a shichen prior to midnight and he a shichen after and their personalities completely different as a result; it was no one’s fault that their parents didn’t get along, with their mother disdaining what she perceived as Jiang Yanli’s passiveness and lack of passion and their father despising Jiang Cheng’ prickly temper and difficulty communicating his affection without scolding.

It certainly wasn’t Wei Wuxian’s fault for being younger and more brilliant, talented at everything he did and with just the sort of personality their father liked best – the combination of his former best friend and the girl he’d once thought of marrying – and that he’d always made that preference very clear to everyone, even to their mother who often worried that her husband would dispossess her children in favor of his foundling and who lashed out at everyone in response.

That had hurt – hurt a lot, even, and Jiang Cheng was soft and sensitive underneath all his defensive layers, but any time he got angry over it he would look at Wei Wuxian, their little A-Xian, baby Xianxian, who adored his older siblings more than anything and was adored in return, and he forced himself to get over it. He was old enough, by the time Wei Wuxian arrived, to know to whom the blame really belonged.

“I spoke with Nie Huaisang while I was at the Cloud Recesses,” Jiang Cheng said in an undertone, one reserved just for his sister. “He’s asked me to pass along a message to his brother, the next time I go night-hunting, about the whole debacle – he’s so terribly apologetic, you understand, he couldn’t wait for the post – if we get to Qinghe by tomorrow, Chifeng-zun will be able to get to Gusu in time to intervene before our father does something wretched like cancel your engagement and take A-Xian home early from his studies.”

“The engagement I wouldn’t mind,” she remarked. “If Jin Zixuan feels so strongly about it that he’d get into a fistfight with A-Xian, it’s better not to marry, no matter what our mother might think. But on no account is A-Xian to be sent home early! He needs his education!”

Unsaid was everything else he needed, things he could get better at the Cloud Recesses than anywhere else.

“Then we go?”

“We go,” she agreed. Between the two of them, Jiang Cheng had more talent at cultivation, but she was steadier, even in her overall mediocrity: when the two of them flew on a sword together, they could make it much further and faster than anyone expected.

Qinghe wasn’t really close enough for a quick jaunt – they flew all night without stopping – but Chifeng-zun was amendable to their scheme, jumping at once onto his saber and making his way straight to Gusu. A waste of spiritual energy all around, really, but far faster than their father would move, with his Sect Leader’s dignity and retinue, rushing to the Cloud Recesses to save his precious little Wei Wuxian from having any connections in life that weren’t to the Jiang sect, and the Jiang sect alone. 

And never mind how much he needed those connections: needed to have friends his own age, needed to have more time with that crush of his, needed independence and freedom and everything the Jiang sect supposedly stood for - needed for them to support him and act as the foundation beneath his feet, rather than the chains tying him down to earth.

Chifeng-zun – who was only a few years older than they were – was really a very understanding person, getting the problem at once and immediately agreeing with their view on things. Perhaps there really was something to be said about the difference in generations…

“Let me show you to rooms where you can rest,” Chifeng-zun’s aide said, a slender young man with a polite smile on his face as he saluted. “I’ll arrange for refreshments as well.”

“We hate to trouble you, but in all honesty you are a lifesaver,” Jiang Yanli said to him warmly, and he unexpectedly flushed red at the cheeks. “A-Cheng, let’s follow this handsome young man and rest a while before we return to the Lotus Pier.”

The young man was blushing.

“What’s your name?” Jiang Cheng asked, and the blush faded away at once as the man paled a little: it would be one he expected them to recognize, then, and not in a good way.

“This one is Meng Yao,” he said, and saluted again even though he’d already saluted once before, and Jiang Yanli’s eyes flickered to Jiang Cheng’s very briefly before she caught his arms and raised him up.

“I’ve heard of you. Smart and talented enough to get Chifeng-zun’s attention, even so far as becoming his personal deputy - you must be brilliant. Truly, you deserve a better father,” she told him, and he stared up at her, dumbstruck.

“Don’t mind her,” Jiang Cheng said. “She’s trying out this new thing in which she says everything she feels without thinking first.”

She elbowed him. “And isn’t it your fault?” she asked snappishly. “You’re the one who needs to speak your mind more; I’m just modeling good behavior!”

If she’d been older than him – really older, rather than just a few shichen – maybe she would have held her tongue more and played the role of the peacekeeper, trying to protect him from his father’s indifference the way she had tried to when they were both younger, just as he had tried to distract his mother from her with his hard-fought accomplishments. It wasn’t until they had little Wei Wuxian to spoil and care for, a joint task that required both of their attention, that they realized that splitting their forces like that was pointless and self-defeating: it wasn’t actually helping that Jiang Yanli suppressed so much of her spirit until she felt like little more than a reflective mirror with no content, nor that Jiang Cheng nearly worked himself to death trying to prove that he was worthy of his father’s love and respect that he would never receive, and it never would.

So they stopped.

They were trying very hard to stop, anyway.

“You’re very kind,” Meng Yao murmured, and led them to their rooms.

The moment he closed the door behind him, Jiang Yanli turned to Jiang Cheng and said, “I’ve changed my mind about your plan – we can run away to Qinghe. You marry Chifeng-zun, and I’ll marry that charming boy out there.”

There was an audible thudding sound from the corridor outside, as if someone had accidentally walked into a wall, and they both grinned at each other.

“Mother would kill you,” he warned her in an undertone.

“And being married to someone who disdains me enough to fight over my worthlessness in public wouldn’t?” she retorted, smiling even though her expression was tinged with pain: if she had one ambition in life, it was to never become their mother. “The marriage agreement might have been forged by our mothers, but the text of it says ‘the Jin sect leader’s son to the Jiang sect leader’s daughter’. Why can’t I marry him?”

“He hasn’t been acknowledged.”

“Only technically. Everyone knows he’s the real deal, or else his father wouldn’t have made such a fuss about it.”

“But –”

“Anyway, he must be a good man, or Chifeng-zun wouldn’t have promoted him.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Chifeng-zun doesn’t have the sense of self-preservation the heavens bestowed on a lemming.”

There was a vaguely audible snort from outside their door. It seemed Meng Yao, at least, had the good sense not to leave guests in his house unattended, and no discrimination against the very useful business of listening at doors.

He also had a sense of humor, which was good given Jiang Yanli’s newfound ambitions in his regard.

“Yes, well, I wasn’t saying I’d elope with him tomorrow or anything,” she sniffed, eyes dancing. “Give him some time to prove himself to me.”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but smile back. “That’s true,” he said, raising his voice a little. “At Chifeng-zun’s side, he’ll be able to make a name for himself until the whispers all say that his father was an idiot for keeping him away.”

“And if even that doesn’t work, I’ll marry him in and make him help me run the Jiang sect,” she said cheerfully. “Who needs Lanling Jin?”

“Wait, since when are you inheriting the Jiang sect?”

“I’m older! And anyway, aren’t you marrying Chifeng-zun? That means you’ll be away helping run his sect, and that leaves an opening at home for me.”

“…huh. Good point.”

“Maybe you can just swap places with Meng Yao,” she said, starting to giggle again. “And we can all see how long it takes anyone to notice…”

“Our parents might not,” Jiang Cheng said dryly. “But Chifeng-zun would. If only because I have my sights set on his bed, and I don’t think Meng Yao does.”

“You don’t know that; everyone wants Chifeng-zun. Maybe you have competition.”

“Better to have competition than be oblivious. Do you want to hear the whole story about A-Xian and Lan Wangji’s tragic mutual pining disaster? Xichen-xiong told me all the details he’s been leaving out of his letters.”

“Tell me everything!”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #meng yao #nie mingjue #my fic #my fics #jiang sect twins #crazycat27 #mingcheng #meng yao/jiang yanli

[angstymdzsthoughts]

(1/?) Bcz of his absences during akuma attacks & his hero life taking up more time, WWX’s ‘suspicious’ behaviour is soon noticed by YZY. She suspects he’s causing trouble (ex: drugs, smoking, harassing, cat-calling etc.) and after a particularly nasty akuma + the fact that he once again did smthg better than JC + JFM’s lengthy absence, she snaps and kicks him out of the house.

(2/?) WWX tells himself it’s ok, now he can do hero work 24/7. YZY lies to JFM & authorities, claiming he ran away. NHS suspects smthg (he alrdy more or less knows everyone’s secret IDs tbh) and investigates. But WWX insists it’s ok and not worth it, they had bigger problems anyways & he can’t abuse his power (plus, he’s secretly glad to be away from such a toxic household).

(3/?) WN offers him a place to stay & LWJ, JZX and NHS keep it a secret. They continue to be heroes, fighting akumas but they’re getting stronger and harder to defeat. One day, YZY gets akumatized and boi, she is a STRONG ASF akuma due to all that pent up bitterness and resentment. She becomes the Violet Spider and wreaks hell on the heroes. Unfortunately, JYL & JC are caught in the crossfire.

(4/?) Just before YZY could kill her own kids, WWX pushes them out of the way and gets hurt. Fatally. Even worse, his timer runs out and he detransforms; caught live on the news. LWJ screams, rips YZY’s spider leg off and carries WWX away but it’s too late. WWX used the last of his energy to purify the akuma & cast miraculous cure at the cost of his life. Everyone in the city heard LWJ’s anguished cries.

(5/?) A funeral is held, NHS casting illusions of their herosonas so they could attend too. When the Jiangs arrive, LWJ SNAPS. He calls out YZY on her abuse, JC on his entitlement, JFM & JYL on their passivity. He calls YZY for lying to the authorities and revealed she purposefully left WWX to fend for himself on the streets again.

(6/?) LWJ has to be physically restrained but it did make the police finally look into YZY and arrest her for child/domestic abuse & murder. But LWJ feels it’s not enough. After all, if WWX wasn’t a hero, would anyone have cared? Not too long ago, everyone in their school spat on his name but now shed tears and sang praises of him as though he was a close friend.

(7/?) Then LQR suggests him, WQ or JYL becomes the new Ladybug but the wound is still too raw (he just lost his zhiji, did his uncle see him and WWX as expendable child soldiers?). He runs away and goes to weep over WWX’s grave, regrets never making his feelings clear when he had the chance. Then someone arrives- his own father. He reveals his mother’s body and offers (manipulates) him to share the wish to bring both their loved ones back.

(8/?) LWJ agrees and lets himself be akumatized. He goes back to dig up WWX’s body (to be preserved like his mother's) but WN catches him. They fight, NHS & JZX also join to help but are no match against him. LWJ was always the most skilled; combined with the akumatization, he was leagues ahead. He tore through WN's shield, knew NHS's tricks and was a better fighter than JZX. Finally, he saw his beloved. Some magic had rubbed off on WWX, preserving his body & beauty, much to his relief.

(9/?) His uncle & brother went into hiding, knowing they’ve lost LWJ. He goes on a rampage- he made sure to torture YZY, made her feel every ounce of pain, suffering & fear she put WWX (a mere child) through. He ended her misery by slicing her into pieces with his qin strings and rearranging her body into a macabre kowtowing position (as if begging for forgiveness) before WWX’s past grave. Soon, more victims joined (ex: JFM, JC, Jin Zixun, Su She, Teacher Yao; JYL was the only Jiang spared).

(continuation of ML AU) (10/?) LXC takes up the ladybug mantle and confronts him but it isn’t enough bcz 1. this is his baby brother, he still(optimistically, naively) has hope for him & 2. LWJ knows LXC will hesitate, he’s too soft-hearted, he’s pragmatic enough to use that to his advantage. He pretended to be hurt, got LXC to drop his guard, then ripped the earrings off. Before leaving, he told LXC the secret LQR kept from them.

(11/?) Both sets complete, a wish is made. As the light envelopes them, LWJ tenderly caresses WWX’s cheek and kisses him, promising it’ll all be over soon and this time, he’ll do better. He’ll do right by him. Everything will be right and just at last, as it should be.

(12/12) Thus, it’s the dawn of a new day. LWJ goes to school, hangs out with JZX, WN, NHS & WWX, study at his home under the guidance of his stern uncle and father, his patient brother & his kind mother, and then play video games at WWX’s home (filled with warmth & love by a now alive Cangse Sanren & Wei Changze). Before leaving, WWX being the loving bf he is, gives LWJ a tender goodbye kiss. As for the Jiangs well, how can you find answers for someone who never existed?

#Lack of Reply #Character Death #Wei Wuxian #Lan Wangji #mdzs

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 24 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Arguing

After enjoying a tense  afternoon with Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian comes home to enjoy a tense evening with Jiang Cheng. He pauses in the doorway as he takes in Jiang Cheng’s mood and decides which metaphorical mask he will put on to interact with his shidi. As someone who grew up with explosive people, I find this routine very familiar. 

Wei Wuxian is always carefully playing a role as he interacts with the people in his life. Clearly he has read the classic sociology text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and is using it as a how-to guide. We see him do this same calculation over and over, in which he reacts internally to a situation, comes to a decision about what persona to inhabit, and then dons that persona. It’s a typical abuse survival tactic and...it is exhausting. 

This is why I think his leaving to be alone for a while in Episode 50 is a good thing. Being alone isn’t better than being with someone else, usually, but for Wei Wuxian, who is (by Episode 50) assured of love but not sure where he belongs in his own life, being by himself for a while is going to be the best thing for him. He can learn how to just be a person, instead of constantly trying to mold himself to fit everyone around him. 

For the current tense situation, Jiang Cheng is polishing his sword, which, incidentally, is slang (in English, not necessarily in Chinese) for masturbating. Which makes their conversation about how frequently it needs doing kind of a hoot. “One time a month should do,” per Wei Wuxian. 

Jiang Cheng yells at Wei Wuxian--fairly, really--for being drunk all the time and not working on clan tasks. Then he responds to a hug attempt by shoving Wei Wuxian and knocking him down. JC asks WW if he’s too drunk to manage his spiritual power. Now, we know that he doesn’t have any spiritual power to manage, and that’s the main point of this interaction. But it also shows us something else about their dynamic. 

This was just a quick hit, and when it takes WWX out, JC asks why he isn’t responding with spiritual power.  Which means that apparently *every* time Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian a shove or a shoulder check, or strikes him--like he’s been doing constantly since Episode 3--he’s putting spiritual power behind it. That’s...really harsh. 

Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to fight back, and Wei Wuxian can’t; this is a big part of why their relationship breaks down. Casual blows loaded with spiritual power are part of their vocabulary, and Wei Wuxian can’t speak that language any more, even for basic defense. He’s literally not safe having simple interactions with Jiang Cheng now, because he’s secretly disabled, and Jiang Cheng is casually injuring him whenever he gets too close. 

(more after the cut!)

This time Wei Wuxian has had enough, and raises Chenqing to Jiang Cheng, who immediately backs off. Jiang Cheng has seen that thing in action, not just on the battlefield, but in a small room full of whatever remained of Wen Chao when they were done with him. He takes this as a serious threat, and backs off, disturbed and puzzled and hurt.

Jiang Cheng thinks the change in Wei Wuxian is coming from apathy, not from disability, and so he misunderstands it over and over.  Think of a friend saying “whatever, I’m sick of arguing with you, do what you want.”  Jiang Cheng is very ready to feel rejected, and not at all ready to look at Wei Wuxian’s behavior and try to actually understand it. 

Crying Over You

Wei Wuxian bails and goes to see Jiang Yanli in the ancestral hall, where she is polishing a name plaque. I turned the gamma way up to see whose it is and...I dunno. This character might be 江 (Jiang), I guess?

Jiang Yanli is the only one of the trio who knows how to mourn properly, in that she is taking some time to sit and be sad. Mourning the dead--both ritually and just in the emotional sense--is as important a part of reclaiming Lotus Pier as the training of disciples and having good times on the lake.

She asks him about his fight with Jiang Cheng and he says he’s used to fighting with him. Jiang Yanli asks him if he’s tired of living there, and Wei Wuxian deflects and deflects, saying “it’s my home, where else would I go?” and that if Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted him he would still be begging in the streets. He says “no matter what happens, I won’t leave Lotus Pier,” which is not an answer to her question.

It’s also not true. Like so many of his promises, it’s an expression of his wishes, with no space for the surprises real life is made of. He promises her that he won’t be reckless again, and asks her not to be mad at him. She says she can’t be mad at him, and then they share a flashback about Jiang Fengmian finding him on the street. This is a story, not a memory; Wei Wuxian can’t remember but he remembers her telling him about it. Jiang Yanli wasn’t there, in the moment. So this is her telling the story as it was told to her, probably by Jiang Fengmian. 

Flashback Time

In the flashback, picky salad-hating Wei Ying is out on the street, looking for food in a cartload of pretty okay scraps. I mean, yeah, skip the tomatoes, but most of the greens look fine.  

He’s found and fed by Jiang Fengmian, who recognizes him and decides to take him in. 

Within a couple of episodes, we will see Wei Wuxian paying this favor forward, saving someone he finds starving on the street. Just like Jiang Fengmian, he's going to upset and disrupt his family in order to help someone for whom he feels a deep connection.

During this flashback we get a look at Jiang Fengmian’s sword, and it is a beauty. 

What is Love

As the flashback ends, Wei Wuxian is smiling, hearing Jiang Yanli tell this touching story of starvation and orphanhood. She tells him he was born with a smiling face, and that he never minds much about sorrowful things; no matter how bad the situation is, he is always happy. Way to reinforce that metaphorical mask he’s wearing over his deep, deep despair, sis!

They talk a bit about Jiang Cheng’s bad temper.  Then Jiang Yanli says now that her parents are gone, they three are the closest in the world, and he responds by putting his head down on her knee and theatrically saying he’s hungry. But he’s crying for real, and so is she.

Then he decides to ask her why people fall in love, basically, and claims that he does not have anyone in his heart. He says there’s no need to like a person that much, that it’s like “haltering your own neck,” according to Netflix. Let’s have a look at that figurative language for a second, and what’s missing from the Neflix translation. 

What he says is (as near as my qhanzi.com skills can make out) “這不就是自己給自己脖子上套犁拴韁吗” which Google tells me means "Isn't this just putting a plow on my neck with a rein?" The part of the image that’s missing from Netflix subs is the plow, and the hard labor and animal servitude involved in pulling a plow. This isn’t a pro-romance image.

He’s clearly thinking about Lan Wangji when he lies about having no-one in his heart, but right now the yoke that he wants to escape has nothing to do with Lan Wangji. The person he’s harnessed to in a team, the person who he labors with, the person he wants to escape, is Jiang Cheng.  What’s chafing his neck is the promise he made, to stay and serve as one half of a pair, when he can no longer pull his weight. 

Busted

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he is hanging around outside the shrine, listening to the conversation. Wei Wuxian busts him, pointing out not that eavesdropping is bad, but that it’s bad for grownups. Jiang Cheng points out that he’s the master of Lotus Pier so he’s allowed to go anywhere he wants.

(I love how he looks framed by this giant lotus behind him)

We Wuxian has another of those moments where he assesses the best approach to Jiang Cheng before responding. 

Then he picks a fake fight with him about soup.  Yanli comes out and tells them both to grow up, saying that JC is losing his demeanor as clan leader. He jokingly fixes his already-perfect robe ad they all have a chuckle.

Then Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian of his promise for the millionth time, and Jiang Yanli goes to make soup for the millionth time. As soon as the boys see that she’s gone, the smiles drop right off of their faces. They’re both performing their typical relationship dynamic for Jiang Yanli.

Being Reasonable

The brothers repair to the main hall, and stand behind the lotus throne looking out of this complicated wall/doorway thingy, while they talk about Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. 

Jiang Cheng is being mature and sensible here, trying to give Jiang Yanli what she wants and also explaining very, very basic political stuff to Wei Wuxian, who is too caught up in his hate boner for JZX to want to think about the bigger picture. He also thinks that Jin Guangyao is a nicer person, but Jiang Cheng says that nice doesn’t matter.  

Wei Wuxian is getting a full head of steam going about what a jerk JZX is, when Jiang Cheng makes him actually stop and think, by pointing out that it’s not for them to forgive or not forgive Jin Zixuan’s past behavior; it’s up to Yanli.

Wei Wuxian sees the reasoning in this, and starts to say he can’t understand why Yanli chose to like this person, but then he stops himself and goes through a rapid series of thoughtful, uncomfortable expressions. 

Perhaps he’s realizing that he himself has chosen to like an infamously stuck-up, fancy cultivator, albeit one with no soup-related character deficits.

Library Time

The stuck-up cultivator in question is currently in the Cloud Recesses library, where he has snuck into the forbidden books room, against his uncle’s express command, for the purpose of helping Wei Wuxian. The forbidden books room is an entire basement floor of the library; it probably has more books than the not-forbidden part of the library, since the main floor needs space for the restrooms, circulation desk, and copy machines.

(Did OP photoshop the Wangxian-in-the-Library porn picture onto Lan Wangjis’ book? She did.)

A couple of other Lans come along and see the main door unlocked. The lock is a big fish that probably uses magic for locking; it definitely doesn’t use a key. One of them steps in the doorway, glances back and forth without walking through, and does not check the secret door to the forbidden vault. Gosh, how did Su She and/or Jin Guangyao  ever manage to steal secrets from this highly secure location, wow.

Lan Wangji hears the Lan disciple on guard duty say “don’t tell Hanguang Jun about this!’ and has a series of microexpressions that might indicate some kind of feeling about simultaneously being a rule breaker and a rule enforcer.  

Boat Time

We end with an idyllic scene on the lake in Lotus pier, where a new batch of disciples is harvesting lotuses and learning the opposite of boat safety. 

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are having a good time, and seem utterly carefree; both of them are good at living in the moment, or faking it. 

Wei Wuxian thinks, in voiceover, that it seems that it’s not so hard to go back to the old days. Uh...ok.

Except he’s hiding a massive secret and these replacement kids are not the same juniors he used to hang out with, and he can’t actually teach them cultivation, since he has no socially-acceptable magic power, and everything is about to go to shit in the next episode. But you gotta take your joy where you can, I guess. 

Note: There are a lot of questionable effects in The Untamed, but there are also beautiful scenes like this one, which looks like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Compare with the BTS below and you can see what a good job the VFX team did in bringing this lake to life. 

#the untamed #cql #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs

[limeinaltime]

Since you covered a Murder Drone-less exoplanet, what about a timeline where the purge of the Workers was successful? The MDs successfully kill all the Workers, either because Uzi was killed before causing side-switching or she never existed to do so or any other reason.

Would JC Jenson (In Spaaaaaaace) just leave the MDs to starve or pick them up? Would they leave them based on any evaluation or just to get rid of them? When they finally realise they were abandoned, would they try to fix the ship to escape? Where would they plan to go?

For both canon and your AUs.

Hoohoohoo I've had an idea bouncing around in my head for this. In this timeline, N goes through with killing Uzi when she's abandoned by Khan, and he, V and J go through with wiping out Copper 9.

After all the worker drones are successfully wiped out, all the murder drone squads converge to wait for the company to come pick them up. There's a lot of chatter, some bragging, some old friends from training finally able to catch up without conflict. They sit and wait, staying out of the sun and looking up to the sky, waiting for a JC Jensen ship, or extra launch pods, or something that will take them off-planet.

They wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

There are mixed reactions. Some choose to continue waiting. Some start to get worried. Small conflicts break out, but nothing too big.

Then someone is killed. It was an accident. An argument that got too out of hand and ended up coming to blows before anyone could stop it. The dead body of Serial Designation K sits limp in the soil with E standing over her, eyes wide in shock. Her visor flickers in a last hurrah to stay awake, and then she's gone, the snow soon dyed black with oil.

Oil.

A few drones hear the conflict and hurry over, only to find E tearing into K's corpse, drinking the oil still stored in her system. It's only then that they realize just how warm their systems are. It's been two weeks, they've depleted their main storage, and are on emergency fumes now. They need to keep their cooling modules running (which they're now starting to realize are a lot more faulty than the modules built into their prey), they need to survive.

They make a few steps towards E and his fallen comrade, and he hisses like a feral animal. A few hesitate, but it's Serial Designation B, always the boldest and toughest girl next to V, who makes the first move. She lunges at E, and the others watch the two tumble around in the snow, snarling and biting like animals as they fight over K's corpse. They manage to steal a few sips of oil before Serial Designation C is suddenly impaled and then B is feeding off of her but she doesn't go out without a fight, slashing B open in her dying bursts of movement. More drones converge upon the scene.

The next few weeks are a nightmare. Murder drone corpses mix with the workers as they try to survive, fighting and killing and consuming as much oil as they can. They turn on each other, any sense of teamwork forgotten. Every drop of logic has given away to a single core drive: don’t starve, no matter the cost. 

Soon all the newer generations are dead. S is killed by R, and then X kills R to put her out of her misery. Q has also been killed, having had her home raided for corpses and then being killed herself in the struggle. With nowhere else to go, X just holes up in Q’s old den and waits for the Void to get bored and go into hibernation, listening to her students kill each other above. She can’t stop them, not when they’re like this. The young drones she once knew are gone.

She waits another week, and then when all falls silent above, one last drone comes to pay her a visit, crashing into the crater and dragging himself over to where she lies. N’s beat up, dirty and tired, but he’s somehow still alive for a few more minutes. X is on her last set of limbs as well, and can feel the Void going back into hibernation, no longer willing to keep its vessel alive. 

No words have to be exchanged. N just crawls into X’s arms, back into the familiar warmth he didn’t even know he missed, and the two most passive drones, whose traits that once were met with mockery kept them alive for as long as they did, shut down together, mentor and student, reunited at last.

#murder drones #hell. pain even. (murder drones edition) #oc #asks

[wangxianficrecs]

he gets under your skin by Skadiseven

he gets under your skin

by Skadiseven

M, 88k, wangxian

Summary: From his job in the Armitage L train station booth, Wei Ying has watched The Most Beautiful Man In The World ride the train at 8 am and 4:30 pm for years, always in perfect suits, always with perfect hair, always with a perfect smile.

He's going to marry that guy someday. So what if he doesn't know his name. Names have nothing to do with true love.

When he saves His Future Husband from being squished by a train, Wei Ying finds himself engulfed in a tsunami of Lans who think he really is going to marry Mr. Wonderful, Lan Xichen, their son/brother/uncle/nephew. Despite himself, Wei Ying likes belonging to them. Except for the lying. Except for the guilt. Except for the fact that he took one look at his pretend-fiancé's brother, Lan Zhan, and maybe, MAYBE fell stupidly, hopelessly in love.

He can't tell them. He can't not tell them. How could this possibly get any worse??? (spoiler alert: it gets worse)

My comments: There is something so satisfyingly voyeuristic about watching someone get trapped deeper and deeper in their web of lies. Wwx gets into the situation innocently enough - he is only culpable of not ending it. And who can blame him. Lan Xichen's family is amazing, really, Author does such a good job of rounding out all the characters and handling the flow of conversation and growth of feelings and a sense of desperately craving belonging. And then, enter Lan Zhan, and wwx falls so hard and it's so mutual, and they're paralyzed in the lies wwx can't let go of.

Soooo much angst and pining and falling in love. It's just gorgeous, and all framed in Author's very comprehensive musical references. Lots of feels. (Speaking of feels, wwx & jc have the best brother/ex relationships ever, and complement and support one another beautifully.)

modern au, While You Were Sleeping au, crushes, pining, loneliness, orphan wei wuxian, fake/pretend relationship, (the other partner is in a coma), family feels, angst, lies, soooo much pining and angst, getting to know each other, falling in love, feelings realization, jiang cheng & wei wuxian, brotherly feels, family fluff, found family, literally, accidental engagement, slow burn, Chicago, happy ending, @needtherapy

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

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #MDZS #fake/pretend relationship #while you were sleeping au #modern au #crushedopal #pining #loneliness #family feels #angst #lies #getting to know each other #falling in love #feelings realization #jiang cheng & wei wuxian #brotherly feels #family fluff #found family #accidental engagement #slow burn #Chicago #happy ending #he gets under your skin #Skadiseven #long fic >50k #mature

[bloody-bee-tea]

Hello,

(Sorry about anon, I'm shy)

For the speech prompt thing, most of the surprise ones would definitely work with JC, but I am particularly fond of JC&dogs/animals, so 16 or 15 depending on what way you want to go.

For disgust I am vibing with 2 and 9, and anger definitely 9 - all up to you, of course, and please don't neglect your health or your sleep schedule.

Also, if that is something you would like to try, outsider POV is always nice to read, especially if there are insights into the sects. (maybe the tailor? They do have a lot of nice robes.)

I also like ace!jc or ace!nmj, especially the way you write it. :D

But at the end of the day, I tend to like most of your stories, so don't stress yourself if you do something else than what I asked for!

Thank you very much.

Good night!

9) “You’ve been lying all this time?”

Nothing wrong with being shy, that's what anon is for after all! This turned out more sad than angry, but it is ace!jc so there's at least that. I hope you enjoy!

When Nie Mingjue dozes off, Jiang Cheng curls in on himself. He doesn’t quite feel dirty but he doesn’t feel particularly clean or comfortable either, and he’s itching to get up and clean himself thoroughly.

But that would wake Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng can’t bring himself to do that. So he stays curled up on his side, feeling way too vulnerable without any clothes on and he tries his best not to cry.

It’s not always this bad after they have sex but it seems like today is a rather bad day for Jiang Cheng. Nie Mingjue still has a hand on his hip and even that is almost too much for Jiang Cheng at the moment.

“You’re tense,” Nie Mingjue suddenly mutters, turning over to curl around Jiang Cheng’s back and Jiang Cheng tenses even further when Nie Mingjue’s cock nudges against his ass.

Thankfully he’s not hard, though; it’s the only reason Jiang Cheng manages to not pull away from him.

“I’m fine,” Jiang Cheng presses out but he has to close his eyes against the sting of tears.

Sometimes he just wants to tell Nie Mingjue the truth, but he never does. He loves him too much to lose him and so he always keeps quiet.

“Alright,” Nie Mingjue says, easily believing Jiang Cheng as he presses a sleepy kiss to Jiang Cheng’s nape.

They fall into silence again and Jiang Cheng tries to not let it bother him that he’s stillnaked but it’s not really working. He can’t relax like this, can’t fall asleep like this but he also can’t get up to get dressed.

Nie Mingjue never cares if they are naked and it would be weird for Jiang Cheng to get up now.

“Something’s bothering you,” Nie Mingjue mumbles—clearly not yet asleep—and he moves his arm to sling it around Jiang Cheng’s middle, pulling him more securely against his chest. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Jiang Cheng gives back and prays that Nie Mingjue will just let it drop for once.

“Clearly it’s not nothing,” Nie Mingjue sighs and soothingly moves his hand on Jiang Cheng’s stomach.

It would have a better effect if there was a shirt between Nie Mingjue’s hand and his stomach, and it would definitely have a better effect if Jiang Cheng were wearing boxers, just so that he doesn’t have to worry if Nie Mingjue will stray too low with his touch.

“Did you not like what we did today?” Nie Mingjue asks and there’s already the first note of worry in his voice and it’s exactly what Jiang Cheng doesn’t want.

“It was fine,” he lies straight through his teeth and hopes that Nie Mingjue will just let it drop.

There’s a brief pause—making Jiang Cheng believe that they will finally move on from this topic—before Nie Mingjue says “My heart, why don’t you ever tell me what you want to do?”

Jiang Cheng goes still, tries to not even breathe for a moment, before he takes a deliberately measured breath.

“What do you mean?” he asks, as if there could be any doubt to what Nie Mingjue wants to know, but it seems like there is no way out of this now.

“You always ask me what I want to do, but you never said what you like, what you prefer. Do you want us to switch it up sometimes? Do you want us to try something else?” Nie Mingjue asks him and Jiang Cheng’s heart starts to beat faster in his chest.

He has always been afraid that this conversation would come up eventually, but he managed to derail it until now. It seems like his luck has finally run out.

“No, it’s fine,” Jiang Cheng says, closing his eyes when they start to burn again.

He doesn’t want to have this conversation, he doesn’t want to lie to Nie Mingjue and he finally, finallywants to put on some clothes.

“Are you sure?” Nie Mingjue continues to prod and Jiang Cheng wiggles out of his embrace.

“I need to put on some clothes,” Jiang Cheng mutters, as he walks across the room, and he can feel Nie Mingjue’s worried eyes on him the whole time.

It’s only when Jiang Cheng is wearing his usual sleep clothes that he feels a little bit better.

“Wanyin, what’s going on?” Nie Mingjue wants to know, sitting up in the bed and Jiang Cheng is just lucky that the blanket pools in his lap because Nie Mingjue is still very naked.

“It’s nothing. Nothing is going on,” Jiang Cheng says, but he doesn’t quite feel like going back to bed right now and so he stays in front of his dresser.

“Clearly it is, if you can’t even come back to bed,” Nie Mingjue says, much too observant and Jiang Cheng crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“I can come back to bed just fine,” he bites out, but he makes no move to actually go there and Nie Mingjue raises a judging eyebrow at him.

“I see that,” he then says before he gets out of bed with a sigh.

Jiang Cheng silently watches him as he puts on some underwear and he can’t deny that he immediately feels a little bit better.

It makes him feel safe enough that he gets back into bed, though he keeps an eye on Nie Mingjue. Jiang Cheng knows that the topic is far from over, but with both of them at least no longer naked Jiang Cheng feels that he can maybe lie a little bit better about this now.

Especially when he pulls the blanket up all the way to his chin, despite still sitting up in bed.

“Why won’t you just tell me the truth,” Nie Mingjue sighs as he watches Jiang Cheng, and he warily sits down at the edge of bed.

It looks like he’s ready to get up at any sign that Jiang Cheng feels uncomfortable and it almost makes Jiang Cheng cry again.

“What do you like, Wanyin? What do you want to do? Has there been anything you didn’t like?” Nie Mingjue relentlessly asks and Jiang Cheng shrinks further into himself with every question that comes out of Nie Mingjue’s mouth.

“Look at you, Wanyin, clearly something is wrong. Just tell me what it is!” Nie Mingjue says when he notices how Jiang Cheng tries to melt into the bedding and his voice is getting louder as he speaks.

It’s enough to make Jiang Cheng’s heart beat faster in response and he can’t quite meet Nie Mingjue’s eyes anymore.

“Why are you not saying anything?”

“I don’t like any of it!” Jiang Cheng finally shouts, and then he clasps a hand over his mouth.

He never wanted to say that, never wanted to admit to that out loud, but he can’t take the words back and he can see how they hit Nie Mingjue.

“What?” Nie Mingjue breathes out, clearly taken just as off guard as Jiang Cheng is with his outburst. “You’ve been lying all this time?”

Jiang Cheng knows that he has two options now and one of them is going to break him. Either he tells the truth and admits that he doesn’t like having sex at all and he’s going to lose Nie Mingjue over it, or he continues to lie and he has to suffer through it again and again.

He has been doing the latter for years, with partners who weren’t as important to him as Nie Mingjue is and he can damn well continue to do so, if it means that he gets to keep Nie Mingjue.

“No, I haven’t—I—don’t listen to me, I’m tired,” Jiang Cheng tries, but of course it doesn’t work.

He already admitted it after all, and Nie Mingjue is not going to let this go without a proper explanation.

But if Jiang Cheng explains—if he admits that he doesn’t want to have sex—Nie Mingjue is going to leave him. He’s going to leave him and Jiang Cheng will lose the best thing in his life and he can’t do it.

That thought paired with Nie Mingjue’s hurt and clearly disbelieving look makes Jiang Cheng burst out into tears.

“Oh no, my heart, come here,” Nie Mingjue breathes out immediately and he scoots forward to pull Jiang Cheng into a hug.

Jiang Cheng clings to him, because there’s a very real danger that this will be the last time he’s allowed to do that and he can’t bear that thought at all.

“Please don’t leave me,” he gets out between his sobs and they only intensify when Nie Mingjue doesn’t say anything but simply continues to pat his back.

“Wanyin, won’t you tell me what’s going on now?” Nie Mingjue asks when Jiang Cheng finally calms down at least a little bit and Jiang Cheng knows that he has to now but it doesn’t make this any easier to talk about.

“What do you mean you don’t like any of it?” Nie Mingjue gently prods when Jiang Cheng fails to find his words and Jiang Cheng pulls away from him.

He couldn’t bear for Nie Mingjue to be the one to pull away.

“I mean just that,” Jiang Cheng whispers, scrubbing a hand over his face to get rid of the last lingering tears. “I don’t like any of it. I don’t like—having sex,” he breathes out and he braces himself for Nie Mingjue’s reaction but when nothing comes he forces himself to continue. “But you do and it’s okay, it’s fine what we’ve been doing, it’s not—not a problem,” Jiang Cheng gets out, though his voice breaks on the lie.

“Of course it’s a problem, Wanyin! If you don’t like having sex then why are you doing it?”

“Because you do!” Jiang Cheng hotly gives back because what other reason could there possibly be. “It’s either that or losing you and I’m not going to take that chance!”

“Losing me?” Nie Mingjue asks and he sounds honestly taken aback. “Why would you lose me over that?”

“Oh, come on, Mingjue, be honest. Would you really stay with me if we don’t have sex? Hell, you don’t even tell me you love me outside of it. You always only compliment me when we’re in bed together, so it doesn’t take a genius to count one and one together!”

“Is—that what you think?” Nie Mingjue sounds horrified as he asks that question and Jiang Cheng clenches his jaw.

“What else is there to think?”

“I love you,” Nie Mingjue says. “You’re perfect and beautiful and wonderful and I love you!”

“Yeah, right,” Jiang Cheng bitterly whispers and turns away from Nie Mingjue. “We should both just stop with these lies.”

It hurts him to say this, hurts him more than he ever expected it would, but he’s also tired of this. He’s tired of enduring this for Nie Mingjue’s sake and he’s tired of feeling bad und uneasy in his own skin and he’s also tired of Nie Mingjue pretending that there’s anything more to this.

“Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue says much more determinedly than before as he grabs Jiang Cheng’s chin to make him look at him. “I love you. I love you and it’s my fault that I never said it under different circumstances before. That’s on me, just like with the compliments. But it doesn’t change the fact that I think and feel like that, even if we don’t have sex.”

His words bring tears to Jiang Cheng’s eyes again, but he doesn’t dare to trust this. Not yet.

“Never, Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng says, and he forces himself to look at Nie Mingjue. “I never like to have sex,” he reiterates his point and Nie Mingjue nods.

“Okay.”

“Okay? How can this be okay?” Jiang Cheng demands to know, because he knows for a fact that Nie Mingjue loves to have sex.

“Because it’s what makes you comfortable. So of course it’s okay. I wouldn’t have forced you to begin with, if I had known.”

“You didn’t force me,” Jiang Cheng immediately says because he needs Nie Mingjue to know that.

“But you didn’t quite come willingly, did you?” Nie Mingjue lowly asks. “You thought you had to. It wasn’t because you wanted to.”

“That’s not on you, though,” Jiang Cheng reassures him. “That’s—I mean I could have said something. You didn’t—it wasn’t rape if you think along those lines right now,” Jiang Cheng says, because he fears that this might just be where Nie Mingjue’s thoughts went.

“Wasn’t it? I coerced you at best.”

“No,” Jiang Cheng decidedly says and rises up on his knees to put his hands to Nie Mingjue’s cheeks. “You didn’t coerce me. This is on me for not saying anything.”

Nie Mingjue doesn’t seem happy at all, but he raises his hands to gently encircle Jiang Cheng’s wrists.

“Let’s not—agree to disagree, okay? But more importantly let’s move on from this.” He pauses for just long enough to make Jiang Cheng’s heart drop. “Let’s go on and find a balance that works for both of us, okay?”

“There’s no—” ‘balance’ Jiang Cheng wants to say, because nothing related to sex will ever work for him, but Nie Mingjue shuts him up with a soft kiss.

“A balance where I get re-acquainted with my hands, you don’t have to do anything that that makes you uncomfortable, and where I tell you regularly how much I love you, okay?”

His voice is soft enough that tears spill over again and Nie Mingjue leans in to kiss them right off Jiang Cheng’s face.

“I love you,” Nie Mingjue whispers against his cheek and Jiang Cheng clings to him.

“I love you, too,” he gets out, and he can’t believe that he gets to keep this. That he should be so lucky. “I’m so sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Nie Mingjue reminds him and moves his kisses to Jiang Cheng’s mouth. “Just please tell me in the future.”

“I promise,” Jiang Cheng immediately agrees, because he doesn’t actually want to go through anything like this ever again.

“Okay,” Nie Mingjue says with a soft smile and pushes some hair out of Jiang Cheng’s face. “Now, do you want to get back to sleep, or should I leave for tonight?” he asks and Jiang Cheng can’t help it, he throws himself forward to hide his face in Nie Mingjue’s neck.

“Don’t go,” Jiang Cheng whispers. “Just—can you keep some clothes on?”

“Of course, my heart,” Nie Mingjue agrees and gently pushes him away. “Let me get a shirt, okay?”

Jiang Cheng scoots away so that he can get up, and meanwhile Jiang Cheng gets under the blanket again. He instantly reaches out for Nie Mingjue when he comes back and Jiang Cheng pulls him close.

“Cuddling is okay then, I take it,” Nie Mingjue mutters, a smile tugging at his mouth and Jiang Cheng huffs.

“Cuddling is more than okay,” he gives back and slots himself against Nie Mingjue.

Now that he knows that nothing will happen, it’s much nicer; Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to be on guard, doesn’t have to expect the worst and he can just enjoy this.

“I love you,” Nie Mingjue whispers into his hair and Jiang Cheng presses a kiss to Nie Mingjue’s shoulder.

“I love you, too,” he says again and he can’t believe that he gets to have this, even after everything. “Thank you for not leaving me.”

“Never, my heart,” Nie Mingjue gives back and then they fall into silence and soon enough they fall asleep as well.

Dialogue Prompts

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

#bt writes #mingcheng #the untamed #mdzs #ace!jc #established relationship #angst #hurt/comfort #cuddling and snuggling #best boyfriend nmj #anon #asexual character

[red-talisman]

An unbetaed snippet of post-CQL canon Yunmeng reconciliation, which is mostly extremely morbid and blunt conversation after beating each other hard enough that they’re too tired for their usual conflicting modes of emotional avoidance.

EDIT: now edited and posted on AO3. :D

CW for past suicidal ideation. Part of my “let WWX express some of his cynical humor and creepiness more often” and “let WWX find out about JC’s own sacrifice goddamnit” agendas.

___________________

Jiang Cheng stares blankly into the trees, their trunks slowly disappearing in the deepening darkness of twilight. Wei Wuxian’s back is warm against his and heaving for breath just as heavily. He thinks his ankle might be broken, but Wei Wuxian is probably worse off.

“You’re an asshole,” Wei Wuxian says thickly.

“Hypocrite,” Jiang Cheng mutters without heat, and Wei Wuxian manages a snort between his gasps.

“Yeah.” After a moment, he adds, with an echo of the old Yiling Laozu in his voice, “You know that if you ever do something like that again, I’ll probably find a way to do something worse than I did before.”

“If I do what, save your life by pulling the same fucking sacrificial shit that you do?”

“I swear to every god out there that I will bring you back as a fierce corpse and kill you myself,” Wei Wuxian says in a pleasant, albeit still somewhat breathless, tone. “I will dismember your carcass and make Jin Guangyao look like a fucking amateur.”

“Good thing Mo Xuanyu’s core isn’t worth shit, then,” Jiang Cheng replies. All of his attention is focused on the feeling of his brother’s bones and muscles moving against his own spine.

“You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

There’s a pause. Somewhere distant Jiang Cheng hears the panicked yells of what’s probably the juniors they left behind a few li back. Then Wei Wuxian sighs. “We’re really fucked up.”

Jiang Cheng takes his time considering and discarding several possible responses. His ankle hurts like a bitch; Mo Xuanyu’s core may not be worth shit, but damn if his asshole genius brother hasn’t figured out how to make the most of it anyway. He finally settles on a tired, “Yeah.”

The silence stretches on long enough that Wei Wuxian goes on, more quietly, “You and Shijie are the only reason I didn’t die in the Burial Mounds. The Wens grabbed me before I knew whether or not you’d even survived the core transfer.”

Jiang Cheng tilts his head just enough to glance briefly over his shoulder. “How did you survive the Burial Mounds?”

“Nope, no, I’m not putting that on you. Not even Lan Zhan knows. I can’t...I can’t do that.”

“Fine. Then tell me, is any of it going to come back and bite us in the ass at the worst possible moment?” he asks dryly.

Wei Wuxian snorts, humorless. “Nah. It’s all mine.”

“Would you tell me if it wasn’t?”

When Wei Wuxian hesitates for a few telling seconds, Jiang Cheng mutters, “You fucking asshole.”

“Yeah.” Wei Wuxian sighs again.

“You left me.”

“You didn’t need me.”

“Who the fuck said that?”

The knobs of Wei Wuxian’s spine are starting to press painfully into Jiang Cheng’s. Wei Wuxian snorts. “I was practically a fierce corpse myself when I dragged myself out of the Burial Mounds. Your position as sect leader was too precarious,” he says bluntly. “You were seventeen years old with no real family, a sister who was getting married off anyway, and an adopted brother who’d been controversial years before the war even happened and who was clearly half-mad and getting worse. And I...my mind never really left the Mounds, honestly.” He coughs, makes a wet sound, and spits. “If I stayed much longer I was going to end up dragging you back into Hell with me. I was a risk you couldn’t afford and I wasn’t going to destroy Yunmeng Jiang a second time.”

"Don’t pull that bullshit, Wei Wuxian.” Jiang Cheng is so, so tired. “Mother was wrong. You know Wen Chao was looking for any excuse. You’re as responsible for that as our shidi was for using a round kite.”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t respond. Jiang Cheng makes a mental note to beat that nonsense out of him in the future, when he can lift his arms again and his ankle isn’t most likely broken.

But Jiang Cheng remembers what it was like to try turning weapons, human and sword alike, into tools of peace. There are still whole weeks of the Sunshot Campaign that are just smears of sense-memory: the cacophony of screams and curses; the reek of mass funeral pyres and the soft ash drifting through the air like black, silent snow; the startling warmth of being suddenly drenched in blood after Sandu sliced open another living human. Half the time he’d come back to himself laughing hysterically, unable to see anything through the tears on his face, and as the war dragged on, the tears eventually dried up. It had taken months afterwards to settle into the mindset of rebuilding for Lotus Pier. (If he’s honest with himself, he never really did settle there. There's always a part of him still dragging itself through mud made by blood spilled on battlefields and churned up by soldiers' boots.)

“Jin Ling’s the only reason I never actually killed myself after you died,” Jiang Cheng says. “...Don’t you ever tell him that.”

“Wait, what?” Wei Wuxian snaps.

“You saying I would’ve died without a core - it was never about not having a core, you idiot, not really.” Not to say that hadn’t hurt, and Jiang Cheng really doesn’t know how he would’ve managed life as a commoner. But there were still worse things to lose than a core, which had also just lost and was about to lose yet again. “I had a few ideas on how to do it, depending on where I was and what was available when I decided I might as well get it over with.” He huffs a brief laugh and idly rubs his thumb over Sandu’s hilt. “I thought poison might be a good option, if a little heavy-handed on the metaphor.”

“I’d be laughing,” Wei Wuxian says flatly, “if you weren’t talking about killing my little brother.”

“Am I?”

“You never stopped.”

The silhouettes of the trees start to blur in Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “You left. You left, and everyone died, and somehow I was responsible for keeping our sister’s baby alive while the wolves tried to eat what remained of our sect from every direction. You left.”

“I never wanted to.”

“But you did.”

“Because I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe.”

“Because you chose strangers over family.”

“Because I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe,” Wei Wuxian hisses. Apparently they’re not so exhausted that they can’t get pissed after all. “I was hardly human anymore, Jiang Cheng. If I was going to die, then at least I’d die actually managing to save innocent people this time around and you would be safe from me.”

“I never wanted you to do that for me!”

“And I never wanted you to do that for me!”

The tension that had them both struggling to sit up straight suddenly breaks, and their backs collide again. Jiang Cheng grits his teeth against the urge to groan over the pain that ricochets through his chest and down his limbs. He hears a muffled yelp from behind him.

“You’re a damned fucking asshole and you’re my fucking brother and I hate you and don’t you ever assume you know what I need again, do you understand me,” snarls Jiang Cheng.

“You’re the damned fucking asshole and if you ever do that again then I will brand a reminder into your flesh right over the scar from the discipline whip,” Wei Wuxian snaps back, because he's never held back from fighting dirty if he thought it necessary.

“Fine!”

“Fine.”

They both stare into the dark forest, in opposite directions. It sounds like the juniors have finally picked up their tracks. Useless, the whole lot - Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian hadn't exactly been subtle in stepping aside for a private conversation that inevitably escalated, how could it take the kids this long?

"Those dumbasses had better not forget that we're on a night-hunt," he says.

"Like we did?" Wei Wuxian replies.

"You started it."

"Did not."

"No, I'm not doing this with you."

"Hey, you started this one."

"Shut the fuck up."

They fall silent again. A cold breeze picks up and Jiang Cheng feels Wei Wuxian shiver, pressing back just a little more firmly against Jiang Cheng for warmth, and he...leans back too. Just a little.

"I'm still fucking pissed at you," says Wei Wuxian.

"And I've got years' worth to pay you back for," says Jiang Cheng.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Sect Leader Jiang!" they hear. "Senior Wei!"

"If you don't show up for the mid-autumn festival," Jiang Cheng suddenly says, "I'll come drag you out of the Cloud Recesses by the heels."

"But the dogs - "

"Don't be an idiot. Jin Ling's dog is the only one allowed in Lotus Pier, you know that."

Well, come to think of it, Wei Wuxian probably doesn't know that, but whatever, now he does. Wei Wuxian is terrifyingly silent, but before Jiang Cheng can say something that will inevitably bring them back to throwing fists, he hears a quiet, "Yeah, okay."

"Do you think they killed each other?" they hear Lan Jingyi asking loudly. "I mean, Sandu Shengshou versus the Yiling Patriarch - who would win?"

"Don't be an idiot," retorts Jin Ling, and Wei Wuxian's body briefly shakes with a laugh. "My uncle, obviously."

"They're both your uncle, idiot!"

Jiang Cheng just sighs and lets his head fall back against Wei Wuxian’s shoulder.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #yunmeng bros #yunmeng reconciliation #through inappropriate and blunt conversation #this is not Trauma-Informed (TM) #i just wanted to vent some of my own feelings about them both #jukebox fic #mdzs

[ibijau]

👋🏼 Hello. For writing prompt thing 39. If you haven’t gotten too many of these. NMJ being super dotting on a pretty small baby. Baby could be NHS & LXCs, or NHS & JCs, or NMJ & MYs, 🤷🏼‍♀️

❤️ your writing!

me: aw, that's sweet!

also me: anyway, let's make it angsty

warning for implied trans character, and implied pregnancy of a trans man /o/

Jin Guangyao enters the room to the sound of cooing and meaningless blabber, and freezes on the spot.

His oldest sworn brother, sitting at his desk with a pile of work he ought to be doing, is instead playing with a baby. A very young baby. A month at the very most, going by the size of it… though since Nie cultivators tend to be large, maybe their children are as well, in which case it could be a little younger.

“Is da-ge babysitting?” Jin Guangyao asks, turning to close the door quietly to avoid startling the child.

When he turns again to look at Nie Mingjue, there is no trace left of the earlier softness he displayed while cooing at that baby. Instead, as always when confronted with Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue looks somewhat constipated.

“What are you doing here?”

Jin Guangyao startles at the barking tone, which has more bite than usual, even by Nie Mingjue’s standards. It has been a long while since his former sect leader has appeared this angry. They don’t get along anymore, not the way they used to, but Jin Guangyao had foolishly thought they were on the path to… not reconciliation, that would be too much to ask, but a certain understanding at least. There have even been times when he’s thought that Nie Mingjue looked at him with something that might pass for affection, though that always vanishes when their eyes meet, so he might have imagined it.

“Er-ge asked me if I could check on you,” Jin Guangyao explains as he comes to kneel on the other side of the table. Nie Mingjue holds the child tighter against his chest, as if fearing Jin Guangyao might stab it perhaps. Surprisingly, it hurts to be treated with such suspicion, even though Jin Guangyao ought to be used to it by now. “You were absent from that last discussion conference in Lanling, and you have refused all his most recent Night Hunting invitations, so he worries.”

He pauses, and looks at the baby, hit by a sudden doubt he dares not express.

“If da-ge fears that Night Hunting with er-ge will force him to spend time with me, we can make arrangements,” Jin Guangyao offers, pushing down that very ridiculous idea he’s just had. Nie Mingjue would have said something if… at least he would have told Lan Xichen, and nobody keeps these things a secret after the birth, do they? “I am very busy anyway, so I rarely have time to spend with er-ge. You don’t have to avoid him on my behalf.”

“I didn’t avoid him because of you,” Nie Mingjue snaps, his voice rising just enough to startle the baby.

It makes an unhappy noise, like a kitten mewling. Instantly Nie Mingjue’s entire body tenses, before he forces himself to relax and starts rocking the baby in his arms with that gentleness of his which still surprises Jin Guangyao every time he gets to witness it. It makes something go soft in Jin Guangyao’s chest, so soft it almost hurts, especially when he’s always been weak to the sight of fathers caring for their children. His mother used to promise that his own father too would be like that with him, someday, something he foolishly believed for far too long, in spite of how pragmatic he tried to be about other things.

“Is it yours?” Jin Guangyao asks, already knowing the answer.

Nie Mingjue just grunts, dropping a kiss on the baby’s forehead as it starts to calm down.

“I’m surprised you didn’t marry the other parent,” Jin Guangyao says. “Or did you just not think of inviting anyone? I can understand not wanting to see me, but er-ge would be disappointed. Nie Huaisang too, actually. And I know hecan’t have been there, that boy doesn’t know how to keep a secret.”

“There was no wedding.”

Something about Nie Mingjue’s tone startles Jin Guangyao, or perhaps it is the way the other man glares at him, again with more anger than he’s shown in a long while. Jin Guangyao can’t imagine why. It was a legitimate question to ask, he thinks. But then, he realises that perhaps the child came to be in… less than ideal circumstances. Jin Guangyao knows, as few people do, that Nie Mingjue is not like most men, something that he’s been asked (ordered) to keep to himself.

Something cold drops onto Jin Guangyao’s heart, freezing him solid.

He knows, indeed, that Nie Mingjue is a man like few others. He knows it intimately, because his sworn brother once trusted him, before things went sour between them, and because even after their relationship took a turn for the worse, in the early days after the war, there were a few occasions when drink and pent up emotions led to… lapses in judgement. It hasn’t happened in about a year, but…

Well, less than a year, really. More like ten months, more or less, because last time was when Nie Mingjue invited both his sworn brothers for a Night Hunt upon his birthday. They definitely drank too much that time. It wasn’t the only thing they did too much of.

“You should have told me,” Jin Guangyao says, unable to keep the pain out of his voice at this new proof of Nie Mingjue’s disdain for him. “Or… not, it can’t be that,” he adds, regaining control of himself, and bowing politely before his sworn brother. “You wouldn’t have kept it if it were mine. I’m sorry for even suggesting it.”

“If I’d told you, you would have told your father,” Nie Mingjue retorts, taking Jin Guangyao’s breath away, because it means it really is… “And then that old fart would have tried to use it against me. My sect’s safety comes first. Besides, I figured you’d rather not be involved.”

Jin Guangyao wishes it were an unfair appraisal of his priorities, and can’t help but wince at how well Nie Mingjue understands him, at least when it comes to the worst sides of him.

Of course he would have told Jin Guangshan. Possibly, foolishly, out of a hope that his father might mellow a little at the perspective of his first grandson, supposing Nie Mingjue told him before the announcement that Jin Zixuan’s engagement was to be renewed. Maybe also, yes, because there could be political advantage to be gained from this, and if Jin Guangyao can’t have his father’s good opinion out of affection, he’ll try to have it through his usefulness.

Nie Mingjue knows him too well.

And still he bore his child, when there are so many ways to prevent that.

“Why did you keep it?”

“I needed an heir,” Nie Mingjue says, gently rocking the child again, just the way Jin Guangyao now itches to do.

His child. He’s a father, but only because he did the one thing he always promised himself he wouldn’t do, spilled his seed carelessly and never thought twice about the consequences, leaving the details for the other party to figure out.

Like all those men at the brothels his mother worked at.

Like his own father.

“I refuse to believe I’m the only man who could have given you a child,” Jin Guangyao scoffs, clenching his fists over his knees, desperately wanting to reach over the table and beg to hold their child. “You’ve made it more than clear what you think of me.”

“I don’t take just anyone to bed.”

Ah, so that’s it, Jin Guangyao thinks, feeling the cold and heat of rejection. Of course in Nie Mingjue’s position, taking lovers is a delicate affair. Jin Guangyao can’t be what he would still go for, if he truly had a choice, but since he knows already, it was easier to continue like that than look for someone truly worthy of fathering the future sect leader of Qinghe Nie.

“I see. I am sorry da-ge had to settle for this one. And I suppose… no, of course I can’t be involved in the child’s life.”

“You can if you want to,” Nie Mingjue retorts, a strangle glint in his eyes which makes him look almost hopeful.

Hopeful that Jin Guangyao will know his place, no doubt.

And he does, of course. Everyone in the cultivation world has made sure that Jin Guangyao knows precisely what he’s worth to them, with his mother a whore and his father slightly less respected for having recognised him. The stain of his own birth would just be passed down on that child, on Nie Mingjue.

It doesn’t matter what Jin Guangyao wants.

It has never mattered.

“I think it best if I keep my distance,” he lies with a polite smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t interfere with your child’s life, da-ge, and I swear to never act as if I have any right to be part of its life.”

Nie Mingjue’s expression turns dark upon hearing this, which is no surprise. Of course he thinks that Jin Guangyao’s word had little value. He might not even be wrong. But for this, at least, Jin Guangyao intends to keep the promise he’s making.

It’s fine, anyway.

With Nie Mingjue being his sworn brother, he might still catch glimpses of his child here and there if he’s lucky, and watch it grow free from the disgrace of being descended from a whore.

#nieyao #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #I like nieyao when they keep fucking up their chances for reconciliation #wait actually have I ever written something not wildly angsty about them??

[tanoraqui]

okay so yet another MDZS/Untamed fic idea: post-canon “accidental de-aging leads to some rebuilding of the Yunmeng Bros’ relationship” fic, but instead of WWX (like I’ve seen several times) it’s Jiang Cheng who becomes Smol

it should be Wei Wuxian. It would have been Wei Wuxian, if Jiang Cheng hadn’t happened to arrive a day early for a cultivation conference at Gusu and come say hello by kicking open the door to the classroom in which Wei Wuxian was testing an experimental new array, and as he kicked open the door, Jiang Cheng saw that it was about to backfire dramatically - possibly bc he startled WWX? - and, of course, the angry shout of his brother’s name turns into a panicked one and he bodily tackles him out of the way

the magical backlash hits Jiang Cheng instead and boom. smol scowly boy. grumpy baby. actually, mostly just bewildered, and about 8 years old - old enough to be very definitely Wei Wuxian’s brother, but still Baby, u know?

no memories of later events, except maybe dreamlike slivers of moments, more memories of emotion than anything

despite some half-remembered reflexive resentment/fury/hatred he doesn’t understand, he latches himself onto Wei Wuxian like an imperious, grumpy limpet...once WWX convinces him that he in, in fact, Wei Wuxian, bc you know. Wrong body.

so the next several days are just Wei Wuxian desperately trying to fix this while bb!Jiang Cheng tags along after him. FEATURING:

bb!JC can accept that, like, if everyone his age is adults, he’s clan leader and his parents have passed away. That’s fine

but he assumes Wei Wuxian is his First Disciple, and it’s right at the beginning when he’s really freaked out so Wei Wuxian doesn’t have the heart to correct him

(also u know. fraternal yearning. maybe he can pretend just for a while...)

Lan Qiren is rude to Wei Wuxian and bb!JC just fucking lays into him

bb!JC is extremely skeptical of Lan Wangji, but willing to trust a little bit bc his brother is happy with this guy so it much be okay. Ish.

by instant unspoken universal agreement, Everyone Lies Desperately About Jiang Yanli

Jin Ling arrives for the conference and has to cope with this “baby uncle” situation somehow

Jin Ling absolutely fails to cope with this

bb!Jiang Cheng somehow slides into exactly the same relationship with Jin Ling that they have when he’s an adult

someone lets slip or bb!JC just figured out that Wei Wuxian seems to spend his life alternately at the Cloud Recesses or wandering the land. He is both confused and consternated, because why isn’t he at Lotus Pier?!? Wei Wuxian hastily lies that he spends half his time at Lotus Pier, obviously, being First Disciple yes

Jiang Cheng has only has Wei Wuxian as a brother for a couple years but it’s long enough to know that Wei Wuxian can never do anything normally, and frankly this sounds about like how he’d be happiest. begrudgingly, he’ll accept it

bb!Jiang Cheng keeps getting screaming nightmares about things that happened when he’s older, ends up crawling into bed with Wei Wuxian pretty much nightly

needless to say but Wei Wuxian being the most doting and protective shixiong to bb!JC throughout

bb!Jiang Cheng scowling while covered in rabbits

Jiang Cheng does eventually figure out that Wei Wuxian is lying about the whole First Disciple thing, and he doesn’t get the whole story but he’s FURIOUS and BETRAYED and HEARTBROKEN and probably runs away or some nonsense

dunno how he calms down from that - bunny therapy or Jin Ling or both, probably - but it’s right before they finally figure out how to re-age him. So he ends up standing in the new array (basically inverse of the first one) and glaring at Wei Wuxian and saying that even if everything did go wrong, and everyone they love is dead and it’s mostly Wei Wuxian’s fault and he’s a demonic cultivator now, married to Lan Wangji, he should still - [jutted chin, fierce 8yo scowl] - come home, because they’re brothers and that’s what brothers do.

WWX: [wuxian.exe has stopped working due a sudden influx affection and yearning for what he believes lost]

then they turn him back of course, and Wei Wuxian is hesitantly, like, “...what do you remember?” and Jiang Cheng says shortly, “Most of it” (the week of being a child again was like a dream, the sense of his own stubborn affection for Wei Wuxian is still painfully strong and as usual he wants it to go away, and even more than usual he couldn’t bear to give it up/just wishes it’d be reciprocated again.) And there’s a couple more snappy comments, the last of which Jiang Cheng says bitterly as he sweeps out, but - 

- but the combination of whatever vague bitter thing Jiang Cheng just said plus bb!Jiang Cheng’s descriptions of his nightmare-memories PLUS the memory of Jiang Cheng thoughtlessly tackling him out of the way of a magical effect of unknown-but-likely-dangerous origin, taking the hit himself...leads Wei Wuxian to suddenly be Pretty Goddamn Sure why exactly Jiang Cheng got caught by Wens and lost his core in the first place

and hand-in-hand with that, of course, the realization (supported by the past week of evidence) that Jiang Cheng...well. still loves him. didn’t stop when the Wens took Lotus Pier, didn’t stop when Jiang Yanli died, certainly didn’t stop when Wei Wuxian came back. He just shoves it under an awful lot of anger...just like he always did. The anger is more real, now, but that doesn’t mean the love isn’t/ He just still can’t ask for it

so Wei Wuxian, who’s never needed to be asked in his entire goddamn life (which is part of the problem, see: Golden Core, but in this moment a solution) shouts after him, dashes forward, slings an arm around his brother’s shoulder and clings like a particularly loud, obnoxious limpet

Jiang Cheng doesn’t shove him off particularly hard

#mdzs #the untamed #ficlet #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #my fic

[vrishchikawrites]

JC's condemnation of WWX and the recent discussion about Lan Xichen made me wonder about how both characters failed their brothers (JC obv more than LXC) and the entire discussion about how things could've changed if JC had stood by WWX.

And that made me wonder of a scenario where Xichen for the sake of his brother, actually tightens his belt and visits WWX in the Burial Mounds- would that have made an effect? After all LXC doesn't know WWX at all and only through second hand accounts at this point so why not actually DO something about it.

Honestly i wonder about a comparison between LXC and Jiang Fengmian where both characters are the wait-and-see type and do the bare minimum of courtesy but never proactive enough to bring about a change or raise their voice. I don't dislike these sort of characters because they still feel better then the ones who accuse and vilify and have no control over their emotions, but they also feel like a cautionary tale of being too mild and trying to make everyone happy but failing completely.

I know everyone says LWJ is suppressed but sometimes I think LXC is worse. LWJ is eventually honest with himself but I feel like LXC lies to himself a LOT. So much that he actually believes it. Always smiling. Always unruffled. The First Jade of Lan.

The cast is so big it's a bit hard to think about all characters so i've liked/been neutral about LXC for a while. I have to admit though that in many many fanfics he basically exists only to give shovel talks to WWX (which is beyond annoying) and very rarely makes friends with WWX and often when he does WWX is overly tearfully grateful and it's affected my view of the character somewhat. I've become less fond of LXC but I still sympathize with him for Meng Yao. It's what he warned to his little brother about WWX but instead it was actually happening to him.

On a different note- how strong a cultivator is Lan Xichen? I feel like he should be right up there among the best but his cultivation skills are mentioned. What is he good at? Is he super good at anything?

I sometimes think LXC is, in a way, a foil for LWJ. He's this gentle, placid guy, willing to cruise along with the world, serene as the surface of the lake until someone throws a stone. LWJ, on the other hand, feels powerful like a storm sometimes. Even his silence has an edge to it, he comes across as fierce in ways LXC just isn't.

His fierceness makes him proactive instead of reactive, that's especially true when he's an adult. He's always ready to shoot and he doesn't hesitate. That's why he goes where chaos exists. LWJ isn't the kind to sit idly by when people face problems, even if the people don't concern him.

With LXC, things are different. Yes, he earns his title during the war and is known for helping hundreds of cultivators. We get the picture that he's this incredibly kind, gentle, and honorable guy. And he is.

But honestly, there's a limit to how much a kind guy will care about other people not connected to him. He knows LWJ cares for WWX in some capacity but LXC himself isn't attached to WWX in anyway. In his view, this is the guy who teased his brother relentlessly as a teenager and then showed up rebeling against everything they had been taught.

WWX's no innocent peasant or helpless cultivator that needs defending. In his eyes, WWX is powerful, dangerous, and a proven soldier. He knows WWX is smart and cunning. LXC knows he's capable of being very ruthless.

All of the heroism and kindness that LWJ has seen first hand, LXC has seen none of it. I'm also uncertain about how much he understands LWJ's feelings for WWX. He was forced to go mediate between the two a few times during the war because they were fighting so much.

So why would he go out of his way to get the true facts regarding WWX and the Wens? Especially if JC, WWX's own sect leader is set against him? He has no reason to distrust JC, who has always seemed like a steady guy, trying to reign in WWX's chaos.

From his perspective, whatever happens to WWX and the Wens is just a part of the post-war politicking.

Now, if LWJ had asked him to check, LXC would've definitely gone to the BM settlement. But he didn't afaik. LXC simply went on handling his own sect business and life.

All of that makes perfect sense for his character and his station in life. He becomes a little more invested post-ressurection when LWJ and WWX request his aid. He gets involved because both of our heroes ask this time. And due to his connection with JGY. If he wasn't tied so closely to the situation, with JGY and LWJ at risk, he wouldn't have paid much attention to the situation.

Imo, he's just a kind guy who is inclined to help but also needs to have some sort of personal stake to truly involve himself. Everytime he's shown stepping forward (outside of war) in any meaningful way, it happens when someone close to him is at risk like JGY, NMJ, LWJ, or even NHS.

There's a big difference between how JC and LXC failed their brothers.

JC activily turned the entire Cultivation world against WWX. He refused to defend him or offer help when needed.

LXC only saw his brother's somewhat 'friend' was turning bad and his brother maybe felt a little put out about it. Can't even consider that a failure, tbh.

When he knew how seriously invested LWJ was, having seen his brother suffer for love, he became seriously invested in WWX's wellbeing too. He showed that by sheltering WWX even if it meant going against his sworn brother in spirit.

But that doesn't mean WWX owes LXC anything.

So to conclude, I think he's a kind but casual character. MXTX basically wanted him to be a humbo, so there's that.

As for his power, I believe he's a skilled cultivator, particularly good with musical cultivation. He's so good that JGY thought he was nothing in comparison. He's also a good swordman and very good at archery.

Is he has powerful as LWJ - I somehow don't believe he is simply because LWJ seems to go on many more nighthunts. I assume that hightens his cultivation somewhat. But LXC is very competent from what the text suggests.

#reader asks #my personal opinion #i could be wrong

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spite in Misery - ao3

(rather silly AU of Delight in Misery, only even more petty and passive aggressive, and also slightly more JC/LWJ)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you want?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Sanctuary,” Lan Wangji said, prim and proper as he always was, the perfect untouchable iceberg as always, except maybe for the small child he was holding. “For me and my son.”

“Wait, you fuck?”

Wait, that wasn’t the right question.

“Why do you need sanctuary here?” Jiang Cheng asked, utterly bemused. “There isn’t a single place in the cultivation world you wouldn’t be welcomed –”

Except here.

“– and anyway, your brother, his sworn brothers, and your sect would demolish anyone who even thought about hurting you. Who in the world could you need sanctuary from?”

“My brother,” Lan Wangji said. “His sworn brothers, and my sect.”

Jiang Cheng stared at him.

Lan Wangji stared right back at him.

And then he collapsed.

“No,” Jiang Cheng said to the unconscious or possibly dead body currently lying across the threshold of the Lotus Pier and the small feverish-looking child in barely better state splayed out beside it. “I refuse to take responsibility for this!”

-

“You will not say anything about the room I have chosen to house you in,” Jiang Cheng said. “You will not complain about the food, the amenities, or make any requests whatsoever. Do you hear me?”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

Jiang Cheng ought to have expected as much.

“And don’t think this means I’m going to like you or anything,” Jiang Cheng added self-righteously.

“I despise you with every drop of blood in my body,” Lan Wangji said.

“…so noted,” Jiang Cheng said.

After a moment, he added, “I don’t care!” and stormed out.

After yet another moment, he came right back into the room where he’d put Lan Wangji – it was just a convenient room, not specifically Wei Wuxian’s room, and if putting Lan Wangji in there meant he could delay having to clean out all the personal possessions left in there and actually repurpose it, that was his business and no one else’s – and said, “Why do you hate me, exactly?”

“Do you care?” Lan Wangji asked. He was examining the small cot Jiang Cheng had set up to put the still-unconscious and therefore nameless child on.

“Obviously,” Jiang Cheng said. “Or I wouldn’t have asked.”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

Jiang Cheng waited a few moments, moments that grew longer and longer, and finally he realized – “You’re not planning on telling me?”

“I despise you,” Lan Wangji reminded him.

“Oh, you – you…!” Jiang Cheng ground his teeth together. “I’m the one giving you sanctuary, remember?”

“I came to you because you were the only one powerful enough to accomplish the task and spiteful enough to do it. I did not come here to owe you any favors.”

“Well, you’re going to owe me one anyway,” Jiang Cheng said, scowling at him. “You – you – ugh. Forget it!”

He stormed back out.

And then he realized he hadn’t actually brought the medicine that he’d intended to bring to Lan Wangji, so he had to go in and drop it off, but then he was finally able to storm away properly.

-

“I was under the belief we had agreed it would be best for us to see each other as little as possible,” Lan Wangji said, his voice even icier than usual – which was saying something.

“That’s right,” Jiang Cheng agreed, eying him warily. “I’m only here personally to drop off your medicine because it means fewer people know that you’re here.”

He’d thought that he would need to bring in a doctor for Lan Wangji’s injuries, but it turned out to be whip marks from a discipline whip and Jiang Cheng – well. Jiang Cheng knew everything there was to know about injuries like that.

Sure, he’d had to take A-Yuan to a doctor, he didn’t know shit about pediatric illnesses, but that was fine, it didn’t give the whole game away. Jiang Cheng was able to pass him off as some random sad orphan he’d taken pity on, which wasn’t far from what he suspected to be the truth.

“In that case,” and Lan Wangji’s voice was even colder, which how, “why do you live next door?”

“This was the only room available,” Jiang Cheng lied.

Lan Wangji glared death at him.

“Beggars can’t be choosers. I’m giving you sanctuary, aren’t I?” Jiang Cheng scowled. “Anyway, I told you that you weren’t allowed to complain about the room.”

Lan Wangji did not appear impressed.

“How’d you know I was next door, anyway?”

“You have nightmares.”

…right.

“I’ll invest in better soundproofing, then,” Jiang Cheng said haughtily. He wasn’t ashamed of having nightmares. After the life he’d lived, it was only to be expected.

“I don’t want to be around you at all,” Lan Wangji clarified.

“Too bad.”

“I don’t want you spending time with A-Yuan.”

Oh, so that was the real issue here. Well, in that case, the answer was still – “Too bad.”

“He’s my son.”

“He’s in my house,” Jiang Cheng said. “In my sect, in my lands, in my part of the cultivation world, which is the only reason you came here rather than literally anywhere else, remember? Because I’m a territorial bastard with a paranoid streak that won’t let anyone come look for you in here without hovering over their backs like a shadow, making it impossible for them to actually find you – sound familiar?”

Lan Wangji’s face twitched. “I did not say that.”

“You thought it,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji’s silence proved he was right. “Anyway, I don’t care if you don’t like me spending time with A-Yuan. He’s one of the only people who can make Jin Ling laugh.”

“He wants to be his big brother,” Lan Wangji said. He sounded like he had swallowed glass.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said, not understanding. “Good for him?”

Brothers didn’t have to be biological, he thought, and that old pain tore through his heart the way it always did when he thought about Wei Wuxian.

“Worthless,” Lan Wangji said, glaring at him, and Jiang Cheng almost agreed with that assessment of himself – thoughts of Wei Wuxian usually had that effect – except of course it was Lan Wangji saying it, so naturally he had to disagree.

It was oddly reaffirming, actually. He might beat himself up as being worthless, useless and pathetic, a broken shell of a man who couldn’t keep a single member of his family alive, who had nothing and lived for nothing and existed purely for the sake of his sect and Jin Ling –

But the second Lan Wangji said that he was worthless, Lan Wangji who was wrong about everything, Jiang Cheng was immediately convinced that he was the best thing that had ever been invented.

Wait, was this how Wei Wuxian used to feel all the time?

No wonder he was always tormenting Lan Wangji.

-

“I brought you some books on physical rehabilitation,” Jiang Cheng announced. “No, don’t thank me - the sooner you’re better, the sooner you can leave.”

“It will not be too soon,” Lan Wangji said.

Personally, Jiang Cheng didn’t think Lan Wangji was going to be leaving for at least another year, maybe a few more years, not with that many strikes of the discipline whip to heal and his disordered qi to straighten out, but it was nice for both of them to see a destination at the end of the road in which they didn’t have to see each other all the time. Either way, he agreed, so he wasn’t going to ruin the rare moment of complete harmony by being persnickety.

“You should knock before entering,” Lan Wangji added, prissy as always.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. He probably should have, yes, but he always had the ‘it’s my house’ thing to fall back on. This was the Lotus Pier where the rules of the Lan sect didn’t apply, and as far as he was concerned, that was reason enough to ignore etiquette. Anyway, Lan Wangji was here alone and healing just the way he’d been doing the past few months, what exactly was he going to be doing that Jiang Cheng might walk in on –

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng said when Lan Wangji attempted, with dignity, to extract his hands from inside his clothing, which was unfortunately not something he could do subtly. “Were you trying to jerk off?”

Lan Wangji looked mutinous.

“…were you failing to jerk off?”

Lan Wangji now looked like he wanted to rip Jiang Cheng limb from limb, even though it ought to have been clear enough that Jiang Cheng would only think to ask the question because he’d had a similar issue for a while there. The time after his family had died had been brutal, and he couldn’t even use getting off as a shortcut to fall asleep because every time he tried he couldn’t keep it up; it’d been awful. He’d been terrified that he’d broken his own dick somehow, which led to worries that he wouldn’t be able to have kids in the future and thereby fail his parents and ancestors in a brand new and yet unexplored way, which led to even more panic and even less sleeping. It hadn’t been until someone (he suspected Nie Mingjue, bizarrely enough) shoved a medical treatise about trauma reactions under his door that he’d realized it was a fairly normal aftereffect and managed to calm down a little.

Nie Mingjue had also given him so much work to do that Jiang Cheng hadn’t had time to even think about that sort of thing until nearly half a year later, at which point everything was working again and he’d completely forgotten it was even an issue until halfway into the afterglow.

Good man, that Nie Mingjue.

“If it’s a symptom, you need to tell me these things,” Jiang Cheng said, taking far too much wretched enjoyment out of the whole thing. He’d give Lan Wangji the trauma book, of course – he still had it – but he had to get his wins in where he could against the perfect iceberg, cheap shots or no. “As your current attending doctor, I’m responsible for your care –”

“It is unwanted but necessary. It is simply something that I must endure,” Lan Wangji said grimly, and Jiang Cheng raised his eyebrows.

The book had covered that, too, although that hadn’t been his problem, personally.

“Oh, I see,” he said. “You keep getting hard, is that it? And then retraumatizing yourself when you try to jerk off, which means you can’t satisfy the need, which means you can’t solve the getting hard all the time problem, which in turn affects your cultivation and so your healing…yeah, I see the issue. You should probably get someone else to do it for you if you get really desperate.”

“I see no one but you,” Lan Wangji said through gritted teeth.

A problem, Jiang Cheng admitted.

Still mostly Lan Wangji’s problem, though.

“Well,” he said with the smarmiest smirk he could manage, “as your attending doctor –”

Lan Wanjgji threw a book at his head.

-

“What are you planning on doing once you’re better?” Jiang Cheng wondered.

“Why are you talking to me?” Lan Wangji replied.

“Oh come on,” Jiang Cheng said. “How can you say such a thing after taking advantage of me? I let you into my home –”

“You will not be able to rely upon that fact forever.”

“I will be able to rely on that fact for eternity,” Jiang Cheng disagreed. “I let you into my home, I hid you away from the world – which isn’t actually as easy as I make it look, just so you know! Your brother is practically scouring the earth –”

Lan Wangji looked like he’d bitten into something extremely sour.

“I’m sorry, did you think he was not going to do that? And recruit his sworn brothers to help him?” Jiang Cheng asked. “I thought the whole point of this was – well –”

“It was.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“I do not enjoy hearing of it.”

“Listen, if you’re going to decide to torture someone by turning your back on them and disappearing without a word, you should at least have the guts to own it.”

“You speak from experience, I take it.”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Did you somehow forget everything that happened back then with Wei Wuxian?”

“…you were the one who turned your back on Wei Ying.”

Jiang Cheng laughed disbelievingly. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he jeered. “Because I was so well-known for my backbone when it came to Wei Wuxian. I definitely was the one to come up with the idea to throw him out of my sect and cut ties, yeah, definitely, that’s completely what happened. I mean, obviously, I always got my way when dealing with him, every time, that’s how it always was between us. He had nothing to do with it.”

Lan Wangji was glaring at him. “Not then,” he said, each word cutting like a sword. “The Nightless City.”

“You mean the time he arrogantly and completely without warning started a fight that got my sister killed and then murdered three thousand people, including some of the very few family members and friends I had left?”

Lan Wangji was silent.

“You do mean that time,” Jiang Cheng said, marveling. “Are you insane? Even if I wanted to, if I took his side then, I’d have had no claim later on to grab him as a prisoner before anyone else did. The Jin would have executed him for sure! And slowly!”

“The Burial Mounds –”

“He imploded in front of my face!” Jiang Cheng shouted. “I had to see – when he – he died! He was – he did – you don’t even know – no, you know what, I’m not talking about this. Not with you of all people; you hated him.”

Lan Wangji’s hands were fists. “I did not.”

“No? You did a good job of acting like you did,” Jiang Cheng sneered. “Always talking about how you wanted to drag him back to Gusu just because it would make you feel better –”

“Better than leaving him.”

“I did what he wanted! And yes, fine, maybe that was my mistake. Maybe I should’ve ignored what he wanted, maybe I should’ve dragged him back to the Lotus Pier and locked him in a little room for the rest of his life the way everyone knows your dad did to your mom – ”

Lan Wangji flinched.

In fairness, Jiang Cheng was exaggerating about everyone knowing. He only knew about it because he’d heard his mother spit it out at his father during one of their nastier fights, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to have known about it, either.

“– but stupid me, I thought he’d be happier being free and alone than stuck with someone he clearly didn’t want to be around him anymore! But what do I know? Maybe I should ask you, you selfish bastard. You’re the one in his position this time, you’re the one who’s doing the turning away – I bet you don’t even know what it’s like to be the one that’s not wanted.”

Lan Wangji stared down at his hands as Jiang Cheng jumped up to his feet, Zidian crackling to life in his hand despite himself, persisting even though he tried to suppress it.

“I’m going to go hunt down some demonic cultivators,” he said, trying in vain to keep his temper even a little bit and knowing it was a lost cause. “And then I’m going to bring them back here and make them scream somewhere you can hear it. You can chew on that with some glass for all I care!”

-

“You handled that last one well,” Lan Wangji said. It sounded like someone was pulling teeth from his head.

“You’re sick,” Jiang Cheng announced. “I will go get some fever medicine at once. Are you experiencing any other symptoms in addition to hallucinations? Or should I be checking for signs of possession instead?”

Lan Wangji was back to glaring at him.

“I don’t know what drove that sudden spurt of niceness and I don’t care to know,” Jiang Cheng informed him. “I don’t need your approval.”

Lan Wangji ignored him. That was more customary.

Also unfortunate, because Jiang Cheng managed to get less than half a shichen of work done before coming back into Lan Wangji’s room (not Wei Wuxian’s room) and saying, “Okay, what exactly did I do?”

Lan Wangji looked at him sidelong.

“Seriously,” Jiang Cheng said. “What did I do that was so impressive that even you approved of it?”

“The demonic cultivator. The last one.”

Jiang Cheng frowned, thinking about it. “The – stupid one, you mean?”

Lan Wangji stared at him, and then looked at the ceiling, long-suffering. “The one from Yunping.”

“The stupid one,” Jiang Cheng confirmed, and then he was ranting again because he couldn’t seem to stop ranting about it. “I can’t believe the idiot got into demonic cultivation as a way to make money! That’s just – it’s just – if I ever figure out who paid him, I’m going to rearrange their guts with my sword. Lousy rotten opportunistic…!” He coughed, realizing he’d gotten started again when he’d promised Jiang Meimei that he’d stop. It apparently got old after the sixth repetition. “Anyway, what’s so notable about that?”

“You accepted him as an outer disciple of your own sect.”

“Well, yeah. What else was I going to do with him? He’s clearly got some talent for cultivation if he figured out demonic cultivation without dying. It’d be a waste to send him back to be a fisherman or a dockworker or something.”

“You didn’t kill him.”

“I’m not going to kill someone who got into demonic cultivation as a way to raise funds to get medicine for his sick mother,” Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “The idiot’s on tomb-sweeping duty for the next year to make up for having manipulated corpses the way he did, that’s punishment enough. It’s not at all comparable to the usual sort of amateur demonic cultivator, the ones that summon corpses to torment former lovers or murder business partners or that sort of thing – those are the ones I use as an example to warn everyone else. What’s the big deal?”

Lan Wangji said nothing.

“Fine, keep your secrets. Can you watch Jin Ling today? I have a – uh – important meeting.”

“Another woman that you have no intention of actually marrying?”

“Shut up and mind your own business.”

-

“No, but seriously,” Jiang Cheng said. “What are you going to do once you’re better?”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Lan Wangji said, his voice muffled on account of his face being firmly in his hands. “Go away.”

“Listen, we’re still neighbors, we still need to talk. There’s no point in being suddenly shy about it just because you’re still in the acceptance phase of grief in connection with the whole me helping you with getting off business –”

“Never speak of it.”

Jiang Cheng sniggered. He wouldn’t have pegged the Lan sect as having uncontrolled libidos, much less Lan Wangji, but apparently the situation had gotten truly dire. Anyway, really, getting mockery rights was totally worth an arm work-out and having to put up with Lan Wangji, the latter of which he had to do anyway.

“You really are taking advantage of me now, though! My poor virtue –”

Lan Wangji looked at him through his fingers. “You don’t have any virtue.”

“Really?” Jiang Cheng asked, suddenly curious. “I strike you as someone with a lot of experience –”

“I meant morally.”

“Oh. Hey!”

Lan Wangji rolled his eyes. “Pathetic.”

“Not as pathetic as someone who won’t answer a straight question,” Jiang Cheng said. “What’s your plan for after you’re healed? Are you going back to the Lan sect? Or start traveling as a rogue cultivator?”

“Why do you care?” Lan Wangji asked.

“I can care!”

“But you don’t. Not about my affairs.”

Jiang Cheng had to admit this was correct. “Fine,” he said. “I need a name.”

Lan Wangji frowned at him.

“For A-Yuan,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s been a year. The kid’s as healthy as he’s ever going to be, and he’s old enough for me to shove him in with the rest of the younger generation now that we’re starting lessons back up – cultivation, swordsmanship, shooting, etiquette, all the usual. But I can’t register him in the class without a surname, and I need to know if that surname’s going to be Lan or if you plan on changing it to something else.”

Lan Wangji was frowning at him.

“I know, I know, you’re in hiding,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s fine, it won’t give you away even if you do pick ‘Lan’. I can register him as a Yunmeng Lan instead of a Gusu Lan, the surname’s common enough that no one will suspect anything unless you make him start wearing a forehead ribbon, which I don’t think you lot do at this age yet anyway. But if you’re planning on continuing to hide from your family after you get better, you’re going to need to do something about all of that.”

Lan Wangji looked sour.

“Anyway, long story short, that’s it. Your plans, I need to know them.”

Lan Wangji looked even more sour.

“Well? What is it?”

“We will return to the Lan sect,” Lan Wangji said.

“Not that hard, was it,” Jiang Cheng said. “I knew you were just throwing a temper tantrum.”

Lan Wangji rolled his eyes.

After a moment, he said, “What do we do about Jin Ling?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do we do about Jin Ling’?” Jiang Cheng asked suspiciously. “I had to fight half of Lanling Jin for the right to raise him here, we’re not doing anything about Jin Ling – anyway, who’s ‘we’? He’s my nephew!”

“A-Yuan sees him as a little brother.”

This was true.

“They will not want to part.”

…also true.

“Moreover,” and here Lan Wangji looked especially sour, “I believe A-Yuan has taken you as something of a – second parent.”

“Well, that’s nice,” Jiang Cheng said. “He’s a cute kid. Anyway, don’t take it so personally. Kids just do that, they adopt any adult in the vicinity as their own. I mean, certainly Jin Ling thinks of you as…wait. Wait. Are we co-parenting?!”

“Mm. Took you long enough to notice.”

-

It had been a bad day, a bad week, and a bad month, and Jiang Cheng’s temper, never good, was on the verge of imploding, so naturally that was when he completely lost all self-control he might have had and marched over to Lan Wangji’s room to blurt out, “Why do you hate me?”

Lan Wangji’s hands stilled over his guqin.

“I know why I hate you, even putting aside the fact that you’re a jackass with the emotional capacity of a brick,” Jiang Cheng said. “But I really have no idea what I did to you to make you hate me.”

There were so many options, after all. He was a cruel, vicious, and bitter man – he was a terrible parent, unlikable as a friend, barely sufficient as a sect leader, and such a failure at connecting socially with anyone that he’d been blacklisted as a marriage prospect despite being handsome, young, rich, and powerful. There were so many reasons to hate him.

But he didn’t know which one was the one that made Lan Wangji look at him with disdain, even if he thought that perhaps there was slightly less of that these days than there had been before.

“I hate you because you abandoned Wei Ying when he needed you,” Lan Wangji said. “He was your brother, and you left him behind – more than that, you led the charge against him, resulting in his death.”

…that was a good reason.

Jiang Cheng wouldn’t mind being hated for that reason, actually. It was a nice change from all those people who congratulated him for having done the right thing: all those smug sect leaders that comforted him for having raised a white-eyed wolf in the family, the ones that said his actions showed that he had a good backbone and a righteous bearing, the ones that had the gall to send him gifts of congratulation on the anniversary of Wei Wuxian’s death to thank him for his contribution to the cultivation world when all he wanted was to be left alone to mourn…

“That’s fine,” he croaked. “Okay. Yes. That’s – fine.”

“Why do you hate me?” Lan Wangji asked in turn. “You said you knew.”

“Oh, that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Same reason.”

Lan Wangji stared.

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “I mean, I know you were always harsh on him when we were together at your uncle’s lectures, which was completely fair given how much he was always bothering you. But he really did try sincerely to help you when we were all the Wen sect’s camp, and in the cave with the Xuanwu – but after, in the war, when he showed up with his demonic cultivation, you suddenly turned on him even though he was just doing it to help. You kept telling him he had to stop, even though you knew he was doing so much for the war effort, and you wanted to take him back to Gusu to do who-knows-what to him…you even snatched him away during the battle of the Nightless City! I saw you. I was so afraid you were going to kill him, I completely lost my head. I looked for you everywhere – I really don’t know how he was lucky enough to get away from you that time.”

Lan Wangji stared at him.

“And then you didn’t even bother to show up to the siege of the Burial Mounds in person,” Jiang Cheng added, feeling bitter. “After I heard from the Lan sect that he escaped from you, I briefly thought that you’d changed your mind and let him go. I was counting on you to be at the Burial Mounds to support me in claiming him as a Jiang sect prisoner – I had Chifeng-zun signed on, if reluctantly, and with you leading the Lan I could’ve made a decent argument. But then you didn’t show, either you or your brother; instead you sent your uncle, and of course there wasn’t even any point in asking him, was there?”

“…I didn’t know,” Lan Wangji said. His voice sounded strangely hoarse. “I wasn’t informed. It was shortly after…”

He nodded at his own shoulder, meaning the disaster on his back. Jiang Cheng hadn’t asked how it happened – he really wanted to know, as in really, really, really wanted to know, but even he was aware that actually asking would be unbearably rude. Still, he was surprised by the timing of it. How had Lan Wangji managed to end up in the hands of his enemies then? Who had even been left to do it to him?

“Yeah, well,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head to try to kick away his curiosity the way he would something clinging to his foot. “You were still a bastard to him when he needed you, so I hate you.”

He frowned.

“Also, you hate me,” he said. “So I hated you back just for that. Though I guess, since your reason for hating me is valid, maybe I should stop hating you back for that?”

He considered it.

“No,” he decided. “You’re too annoying not to hate.”

“The same for you,” Lan Wangji said after an unusual hesitation.

Jiang Cheng nodded and, feeling oddly relieved at not having found a new basis for self-hatred, departs.

-

“So once you’ve reestablished yourself at the Cloud Recesses, we’ll exchange extended visits on a regular basis so the kids can see each other,” Jiang Cheng said, and Lan Wangji nodded. “A minimum of three weeks per season, whether in the Lotus Pier or Cloud Recesses, and preferably double that.”

“Agreed.”

“In the meantime, you’ll work on getting the trade agreement we hammered out through your brother and sect elders as recompense for the time you spent here.”

“Mm.”

“An agreement whose source you will be disclosing very carefully because the Venerated Triad will not hesitate to murder me if they figure out without adequate warning it was me that was housing you for all this time.”

Lan Wangji said nothing and promised nothing.

Bastard.

Still, after nearly three years, Jiang Cheng was pretty used to it.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng said. “Is there anything I’ve left out?”

“Joint night-hunts.”

“Right, right, we’ll make a point of regularly going on joint night-hunts – wait, why are we doing that? You don’t need me to watch your back now that you’re fully healed.”

Lan Wangji’s gaze wandered.

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng said. “So we can keep having hate-sex on the regular?”

“…mm.”

“Why didn’t you just say so? It’s not like I’m doing anything else – or anyone else. Blacklisted, remember?”

“Unsurprising,” Lan Wangji said, like the bastard he was.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, whatever. The set-up works, doesn’t it? I’m blacklisted, you’re apparently eternally pining for Wei Wuxian of all people – your taste is the worst – so who’s going to call us out on it? Go on, get out of here already. I’ll see you next month.”

-

“Well,” Jiang Cheng said, looking between the newly resurrected Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, abruptly made of an issue he had hitherto not considered based on Lan Wangji’s screaming body language. “This is. Uh. Awkward?”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #spite in misery #delight in misery #sometimes you get a silly idea #and then you write it

[crossdressingdeath]

JC could have been hailed as someone who tragically lost his core in a fight against Wen Zhuliu in an effort to reclaim the bodies of his parents in the most faithful display of filial piety he could make (…like obviously there’s exaggerations and flat out lies there but JC was the only one around and WWX wouldn’t have contradicted his story) and acted as a rallying point for any potential survivors of the Jiang sect to show that no matter what they won’t be defeated and instead he decided he couldn’t cope with losing one aspect of his power and decided to starve to death which would ensure he wouldn’t be able to do anything that could potentially avenge his parents (which is one of the first concerns he brings up after waking up). Just…seems really pathetic honestly

If we're being generous, this is very much JC's lowest point (...from a "having stuff" perspective, not a morality perspective); he's lost... pretty much everything. Wanting to give up isn't entirely unreasonable. But even so, the fact that he would literally rather die than accept the loss of his golden core (which... if his cultivation is so bad that he loses to JGY even with WWX's insanely powerful core he must have been pretty fucking bad with his own core, so it can't actually be that much of a loss) as an acceptable price to pay for WWX's life says a lot about him. He would literally rather die than live a normal life for the sake of saving WWX. Not even a bad life! Just a normal one! Being average (...more average than he already is) is so unbearable that he'd rather starve himself to death. I mean, come on. Yeah, yeah, he wants to avenge his sect, but you don't actually need cultivation to do that? I mean, look at JGY; his cultivation sucks, and he still managed to kill WRH. JC refuses to even try. Even for the sake of not forcing his "brother" (and sister in CQL) to watch him die slowly. Also, the fact that this is followed up by WWX's sacrifice (which he handles with such acceptance and willingness that no one except him and the Wens even knew what happened for a decade and a half) is like... I'm pretty sure we're supposed to compare them here, and JC definitely is not making a good showing of himself.

#mdzs #grapehate #dis-core-se