#that has very little to do with what jgy actually did

[br-disaster]

CQL's crybaby Nie Mingjue appreciation post

I always see people talking about CQL's Nie Mingjue crying constantly, and they're right to do so, but I haven't seen those scenes compiled so I thought it would be a good idea to do it, since it's one of my favorite things about this version of NMJ.

*I'll consider the times he was tearing up too because I think they're important, but i'm only considering "full crying scenes" the ones where there are actual tears falling down his face.

*It's all in chronological order.

Episode 41 - defending Meng Yao

Why is NMJ crying? Crying is his response to everything, okay? NMJ is very emotionally invested in everything he does. He's very mad these men for saying terrible things about Meng Yao while benefiting from his labour. He's so emotionally invested in everything he does.

Is it a full crying scene? No, he tears up the entire time he's scolding the cultivators but those tears don't leave his eyes.

Episode 10 - being threatened by Wen Chao

Why is NMJ crying? Wen Chao is being very disrespectful, as he often is. And it's understandable, NMJ is hurt, his home was invaded, some of his soldiers are dead and it's overall a terrible time for everybody. To be honest, though, I think he's tearing up out of pure rage because Wen Chao just mentioned what Wen Xu did to the Cloud Recesses.

Is it a full crying scene? No. I almost didn't include this one because it's very subtle but his eyes look too shiny to be ignored.

Episode 10 - expelling Meng Yao from the Unclean Realm

Why is NMJ crying? It's a very emotional and conflicting moment on top of a terrible day, on top of a very stressful period of his life. He was betrayed by his friend who saved his life right afterwards; his home was invaded and they're at war! He has every right to cry as much as he did.

Is it a full crying scene? Hell yes, and it's glorious. They even end the episode with his miserable little crying face.

Episode 41 - Everything, really

Why is NMJ crying? Everything sucks, he's defeated and hurt in front of the man who killed his father. He didn't get his personal revenge and he didn't free the world from Wen Ruohan's tyranny either. Instead, he watched helplessly as his men were murdered and now he has to watch his former deputy mock his father's death and threaten to have Wen Ruohan damage Baxia like he did with his father's blade.

Is it a full crying scene? No, only because he's being very brave about it. I have no idea how those tears didn't fall.

Episode 41 - confrontation at Jinlintai

Why is NMJ crying? Very difficult topics being discussed here. People who are way better with words than I am have already written amazing meta on how having his worldview challenged like this affects NMJ emotionally, so I won't go there. But between the song of turmoil making him more emotionally unstable and the disdain with which JGY talks about the men he killed, evoking this very traumatic moment I just mentioned on the previous crying scene; I think it's very understandable.

Is it a full crying scene? Yes! Most of the time he's holding back tears, but you can see the one dramatic tear running down his nose (on the outside of it) on the second gif!

In conclusion: he has so much to cry about, it's surprising he didn't cry more, it must have taken so much strength (or he was just crying offscreen, which is plausible, because sadly this isn't The Nie Mingjue show and we don't see him all the time)

Anyway, I am not here to claim he's not a crybaby because he absolutely is, but on the actual show we only have 2 full crying scenes. They were so impactful it feels like much more crying happened. Fatal Journey is it's own thing so I made a separate post for those tearing up, crying and emotional breakdown lovely scenes <3

#nie mingjue #this isn't meta this is me discovering the joy of making decent gifs #cql #long post #kinda #despite often being at the crime scene i won't tag jgy or nieyao because i don't go there and i'm not a fan but yall do whatever you want #i just wanted to look at his pretty crying face and have more than just screenshots of it #like look at him!! how can you say mean things to him or in his general vicinity knowing it will make him cry? #monsters all of them #the zoom on the second to last gif makes it so funny though #anyway i hope my gifs aren't horrible to tumblr standards

[lansplaining]

You know, in modern aus I feel like JGY gets done dirty a lot.

Like, this man is hardworking. Say whatever you’d like about anything else; not even the worst of takes try to claim that he’s anything less than dedicated and talented. In canon, this comes to nothing because the system is. The system is VERY not good, like, even more not good than usual.

But JGY is hard-working and very good at PR (look at those children! playing as the Noble War Hero Lianfang-zun! everyone saying ‘god i hope we don’t lose this guy for that brat teenager’ which is not the highest bar I admit but still works for my point!) it’s just that no matter how good he is at PR, his image is stained and destroyed by the default. He has to work against that shit.

He’d probably still have to work against it in a modern AU but also, like, his father isn’t the only possible source of an actual powerbase. His father isn’t his only way to power (and more importantly: safety), here! That alone does a fuck-ton, even if I’m halfway sure he would still end up trying for fatherly approval. But even just that lack of being permanently and irrevocably stuck on a ride that fucking hates you would do wonders for him.

He’d probably still end up as a scandal but there’s a difference between Modern AU magazines constantly airing out your personal life and people refusing to touch you because they believe you’re inherently tainted. Like, people will be assholes, but there is a real possibility of power all on his own merits, and I don’t think I can buy any version of Jiggy who would not desperately wish to have that. He wants to be RESPECTED! He wants to be SAFE! He wants to RUN A BUSINESS and by god, he is good at doing it.

Just. If NMJ can be less rage-poisoned, can JGY not get to be…you know. Valued a little more. You could scrap up replacement for magic murder via the switching of meds for a chronically ill man, after having erased all the original reasons why Jiggy did that murder in the first place, but you could also just simply NOT do that. If NMJ is not actively deteriorating due to rage disease then why is JGY the exact same way or pure cackling evil??? You do not think (comparatively) more equitable set-ups would…have an effect on him as a human being. You do not think that a society in which bureaucracy is a more valued skill than the ability to swing a sword around would have an effect on him?? YOU THINK A WORLD WHERE STARTING A BUSINESS IS A THING PEOPLE FREQUENTLY AND SUCCESSFULLY DO, WOULD HAVE ZERO EFFECT????

TL;DR — JGY should not be JGS’s cronie in Modern AUs, not if NMJ is out here with no degenerative evil disease, personally cuddling the souls of sick baby bunny rabbits back to life. He should be a middle manager struggling his way up at worst. Ideally, he should be a rival business to his father’s, about to crush him beneath his heel, and carry LXC off into the sunset.

YEAH MAN THIS DRIVES ME NUTS

why does modern AU NMJ always apparently get access to therapy to become a well-adjusted nice guy, but JGY's out here scheming and sometimes still literally murdering people

whatever crimes JGY actively commits need to not be that far outside the scope of what everyone else in his society is doing. literally everyone in the jianghu kills people-- that's the point. if JGY's doing actual murders, then everyone else had better be members of the mafia or FIFA executives or something

#ask answered

[thatswhatsushesaid]

Good hot take, actually. One interpretation of NHS is that he KNOWS it’s not Justice…and just goes for it anyway, because he’s grieving and angry and feels like he has to destroy JGY. And now he’s going to have a VERY fun post-canon. (/s). Idk I love NHS but he’s complicated.

🤝🤝🤝 we are the same, anon. I too love nhs, and you're so right that he is a complicated mess of a little guy who comes by his deep wellspring of rage and fury and trauma honestly. he can't very well go back in time and talk his ancestors out of choosing a cultivation technique that turns each subsequent generation of sect leaders into resentment-addled slaughterers, and he also can't abandon the Nie sect's chosen cultivation path without being unfilial (which is something that I do think matters to him) and ultimately meaning there is no Nie sect anymore.

I realize I'm entering Speculation Station here with my thoughts because the text is never going to confirm or deny any of this for me (or for anyone else lol) but I believe one of the reasons it takes nhs such a long time to enact his revenge vision quest is because he truly cannot decide what he wants to do. I don't think his headshaker routine was all artifice, smokes and mirrors; I do think he learned how to leverage his own indecisiveness quite early to either avoid doing things he just didn't want to do, or to coax sympathy and support out of his friends/family/sworn brothers when he felt overwhelmed by /checks notes, literally anything at all. so not learned helplessness but uhhhh some other thing that definitely exists, the word is just escaping me right now because it's not even 9am on a friday sfkls;k; something something executive dysfunction as both a real problem (boy can I relate to that) and also a means of manipulation? I'll mull that one over.

also, I think over the years he genuinely just goes a little crazy from how much he needs the person he feels most personally betrayed by!! which is also how I feel about jgy vis-a-vis jgs to be honest, tho I would say jgy has an iron grip on his executive function and, if he did become a ghost post-guanyin temple, would probably be the type of ghost who rises from his mortal remains and tries to go into the office anyway.

#asks answered #mdzs meta #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #he did crimes??? good for him 😌 #let him have birds!! 🕊️ #they are not the same but they hit all the same buttons that make my brain go bzzst so i love them

[tbgkaru-woh]

You said to ask you about your thoughts/hc on any ships so... what about SMS/JGY? It's so rare to find people that ship them ! What are your favorite scenarios for them? I'm so happy that they get to leave quietly and travel together in Pride of Jin, I wish that could have been their canon fate too ;__;

the scenario i'd use for them in Pride of Jin is one i think about often and like the most ;v; made a little doodle on them in that scenario ( i imagined that JGY would no longer have his vermillion mark but i used it on the art still so he's recognizable :') )

but yeah i like them a lot. JGY had few characters who liked him and even less characters he liked back. I'm still unsure if he was genuine with SMS because he felt for him being the outcast, especially when SMS was so loyal to him, or if he played him for his own gain as well, but I like to headcanon that it started as JGY using him, but the moment SMS got hurt for him, still SO DAMN LOYAL, protecting JGY and his cause unlike he did with the Lans, I could see his heart tug at the strings. Maybe JGY was still in love/hate relationship towards LXC (i love one-sided xiyao from jgy's side shhh) so he didn't really pay attention to what was right in front of him. SMS put JGY's goals above his own (whatever they may have been, maybe there were none and JGY is the one who put him together, picked him up like a beat up puppy and made him into a loyal dog). I love that SMS (at least in the show) is just so...pathetic :') fucking Jingyi destroys him, no one takes him seriously really, he's such a "we have Lans at home" with his whole aesthetic and then he doesn't even win a fight against Fairy. but he's SO protective of JGY and so into the little heist him, jgy and xue yang have going on, i wish he had some cool or capable scenes when he was in his "ghost" costume or to push his limits for JGY, anything that ensure that JGY will still see him as worth it. I actually never thought what SMS's relationship to JGY might have been, i've always jsut imagined the blind adoration, the absolute praise kink and dog-like loyalty he has towards him for just being treated well and talked up in front of others. basically JGY doing to SMS what JGY needed done for him, in a way. or was done to him (when NMJ stood up for him and made him important). they were definitely very interesting to me and i'd love to see into jgy's head more regarding their partnership and last but not least, look at them! it's like the sun/moon aesthetic

#suyao #su minshan #su she #jin guangyao #mdzs #hcs

[madtomedgar]

I wish "support" and "condemn" weren't the two dominant modes of talking about a character because imo that's fundamentally the most boring way to look at it, and also because like. There are things jgy, who I love, did that I think are extremely fucked up and kinda disturbing, and how the character gets there and then deals with having done that, and why are very much part of what I find compelling. And that's not compatible with a lot of... I guess "pro" jgy stuff but that's stupid! Like. The psychosexual derangement of jgs's murder is so juicy! The "it's actually fine, just don't think about it, that's what I do 🙃" response to Qin Su and then ??????? When she thinks that's nuts is very juicy too! Yes he is very smart and very polite and often well intentioned and often has a choice between bad and worse but it is also important that he is a a little bit of a nut job and I would find him kinda boring if he wasn't tbqh

#untamed stuff #shameless jiggy apologism #like yeah i get the kneejerk against the haters #but i dont like feeling like they dictate #the shape of all the discussions #and so its all about proving that he was right actually #which often he was yes good #but also. we could be talking about whatever the fuck #is up with his whole gender failure deal #instead #yknow

[evilhasnever]

Back in uhh May, @wishthefish sent a drabble prompt which was: “xiyao with children, and they’re obsessed with slime. That stuff that is so hard to clean off things. Both LXC and JGY are against it (but jgy tends to indulge children…)” (I went a bit off track, but today I got inspired for this because I thought of who exactly bought them the slime! Anyway here are 1000 words of rather self indulgent xiyao parenting! Bit of struggle, bit of flirting.)

Since Jin Guangyao returned to work full time, he’s been doing as well as he ever did on the professional side of things - but the anxiety never fully left him. He's handling it, but merely “handling it” is not the standard of excellence he aspires to. 

He’s doing his very best not to be a helicopter parent, not to text every hour, not to install several cameras in the house and connect them straight to his work monitors—actually, that idea is still on the table. Wei Wuxian has already sent him a few links to purchase the equipment at a discount. 

In short, Jin Guangyao is all too aware of the innumerable bad things that can happen to a child. Two children. Adventurous ones. His husband thinks everything will be just fine, but his husband has a remarkably optimistic outlook on life that Jin Guangyao doesn’t share. 

Fortunately, technology is wonderful - and the next best thing to ubiquity. Jin Guangyao works from home three days a week and hires the best babysitter money can buy the other two. He interviewed over thirty of them, and dug criminally deep into their records before confirming his choice. 

On the weekends, he and Lan Xichen are obviously dead to the world, since it’s the only time they are both home. Sometimes Lan Wangji will offer to babysit, perhaps in return for the many times Xichen had done so for him - but  it happens rarely and, out of unbecoming possessiveness, Jin Guangyao almost prefers it that way. Jingyi won’t shut up about uncle Wangji already. 

Lan Xichen takes over in the afternoons most days - it’s easier for him to take the evening off because he works in the family business; Lans, all of them, schedule their meetings at ungodly AM in the morning and often leave the rest of the day for personal pursuits, be it the gym, research or whatever else. 

It was working, it really was, until one day Jin Guangyao gets home to three pairs of big, apologetic cow eyes welcoming him in the lobby as he enters, guilt written all over three beloved faces. 

“What are you doing?” he asks, eyeing his twins and Xichen sitting on the floor in a line. His husband is in the lotus position, and he can tell the twins have tried and failed to copy him - mostly from the way they’re sitting all crab-legged and red-faced, but thankfully not crying. 

“We are meditating,” Lan Xichen says, in a transparent attempt to sound serene, “on some things we should not do again, and why we shouldn’t.” 

“I see,” Jin Guangyao carefully replies, putting down his satchel. “And what are some of these things, out of curiosity?” 

Without saying a word, Rusong points to the living room, ever the little tattletale. 

Jin Guangyao hears Lan Xichen sigh before he takes in the sight of his living room - his pride and joy - now looking like a crime scene. A quick prod with his foot tells him it is neither blood nor strawberry jam that is splattered on the white couch. On the carpet. On the tv. And somehow, up in the air conditioner filters. 

“What is it?” 

Lan Xichen replies from the corridor. “Slime, I am told. It’s not harmful, just… hard to clean.”

Jin Guangyao sighs. “Well, let’s clean up. Take them to their room, I’m sure they’ve learned the lesson.” Still in his suit, he starts googling how to clean up slime while Lan Xichen ushers the kids to bed. 

He does, however, take off his tailored pants to kneel and scrub the carpet. He is still working on it - vinegar, water and elbow grease - when Lan Xichen returns, looking so, so remorseful. And like he absolutely wasn’t caught peeking at his bum - because he’s currently feeling remorseful, of course.

“I’m sorry, A-Yao. Let me take over the scrubbing.” 

Jin Guangyao lets him, if just to appreciatively consider the sliver of skin revealed above his waistband when he bends. 

 “Who bought them this? I know you didn’t, gege. Fess up.” If he knows his husband, he knows Lan Xichen would never do anything so unwise. He may indulge the kids, but he is a very convincing person, certainly capable of diverting them towards a more palatable, preferably harmless toy if the need arises. 

“Huaisang brought it and I didn’t get to intercept before he handed it to them,” Lan Xichen admits, sitting up on his haunches with a browbeaten expression. 

“So that’s why you were in timeout, too?” Jin Guangyao chuckles, giving him a teasing side glance. 

“I should have acted faster,” Lan Xichen says, with disproportionate gravity. Done with the carpet, he stands up and wipes his hands thoroughly before pulling Jin Guangyao into a half hug. He props his head on top of Jin Guangyao’s, heaves a sigh that echoes through his skull. “I’m sorry, A-Yao.” 

Jin Guangyao frowns but doesn’t move. “It’s just a couch, gege. We can replace the upholstery.” 

“Yes. But I meant… I’m sorry I dismissed your worries so carelessly, when we talked about babysitting. Acting like parenting is easy or-or fun at all times, was really presumptuous of me.”

Well. If it took only a couch to get Lan Xichen to accept Jin Guangyao’s concerns as legitimate (and let him install some cameras), it was all worth it. 

“Apology accepted,” he murmurs, pulling back from the hug just to lean up on his tiptoes and tease Lan Xichen’s lower lip. “This A-Yao really needs a shower now, but perhaps my husband could give me a hand with that?” 

Xichen blushes happily, then seems to catch himself. “Ah, yes. But before that, there’s one more tub of that unfortunate substance to deal with in the kitchen. They… they tried to make a smoothie with it.” 

Jin Guangyao’s eyebrow twitches, which is as much distress as he is willing to display when he’s angling for *at least* a handjob. 

“Alright. You do that. I’m going to call Nie Huaisang to thank him for the gift.” 

#xiyao #Xiyao drabbles #I don’t usually write pure domesticity so I hope you like it? #ask box #Lan xichen #jin Guangyao #baby cameos

[jawnlmablueorchid]

No one asked for this (well, someone did in a discord chat, but no one here on tumblr I mean xD), but I guess I will put it here anyway.

So there's like very little we know about mxy and if the rumours as to why he was kicked out of the Jin are legit or not, therefore, I thought I would share my opinion on the matter of mxy and jgy's whole ordeal.

What we know about how much mxy was or not into jgy is told to us by jl or wwx, I can no longer remember who exactly says it, but the point is that we knew that mxy had been kicked out of the Jin for harassment, and then later we learn that harassment had been towards jgy (allegedly). What we also know is that he is seen as a lunatic homosexual.

So rumours are terrible things, that being said, a rumour tends to be born out of base layer of truth, and then with years or with how much people want to be mean, it gets distorted or amplified. But the basis for a rumour is that it has to be in a way believable, it's can't just be koo koo bonkers. So I do 100% believe that he was gay, or at least into men, and that he was a little eccentric in personality. If he genuinely falls into the 'lunacy' side of things tho, eh. I am 50/50 on that, maybe after he got kicked out of the Jin and was in ana abusive household, he can lean further into that role.

Mxy gives up his body for wwx, in his letter he says he wants all those who have harmed him or something along those lines (I also can't remember the exact quote for this here) to be killed basically. And then he gets one cut on his arm for every person he has beef with. We learn that wwx's cuts are healed after he killed the entirety of the Mo family, which to me means that even though we know for a fact jgy kicked mxy out of the Jin, mxy hold no resentment against him.

The other important thing we most keep in mind for this is that jgy is a man who holds how people view him in very high regards. The way he acts and how people see him is carefully calculated so that people will like him. He was someone whose worth was always seen as inferior because not only was he one of jgy's bastards, he was also the con of a courtesan (which people then diminish to a whore). So jgy is out here playing life on hard mode, because he needs to make himself likeable enough that people can look past those things.

Another detail to keep in mind is that jgs brings mxy into the Jin mostly as a "fuck you" to jgy. I can't remember if he brings him before or after jzx dies, I will have to double check that, but I think it's after jzx dies.

And one last detail to keep in mind is that when mxy is kicked out of the sect, jgy was already married to qs, and therefore he already lived with the fact that she was his half sister, and the fear of being found out about the incest of their relationship.

There are all important details to keep in mind:

mxy is into men (something the jianghu is not very keen on)

mxy has no ill inted towards jgy (seeing as there was no cut for him)

jgy has will do anything to maintain his image

jgy is already involved in incest||

So you mind wonder, "Jon, why the essay on just if you believe if mxy was into jgy or not?", and to that I answer "You see my dear fellow, theses are all very important points because I believe the rumour is both truth as well as a lie."

-gasp- I know, how dare I have nuance and be complicated.

So see, I believe that when mxy joined the Jin, stuff was not easy for him. He was one of jgs' bastards, terrible position to be in. I think that based off what I know about jgy, jgy was very nice to him because a) he needs to be, and b) there would be some sympathy towards mxy's situation. We know that jgy is very nice and polite when interacting with other people, something we can assume is not something mxy experiences often, based off how the Mo family was abusive as well as him being a bastard in the Jin.

So I do believe mxy likes jgy. Jgy is his half brother who ACTUALLY treats him kindly. And also might I remind you, mxy is 14yo when he is brought into the Jin. He is just a kid, and jgy is family and nice. I too would enjoy hanging out with jgy!

The thing is right, I think the rumour started because mxy was also unapologetically into men. He acted as himself, which is a death sentence in the Jin, not even Jin Ling can run away from the bullying, mxy had no chance. So he is already labeled as a bit of a weirdo, and now he is always constantly hanging out with jgy? The son of a whore? Mmmm, me thinks there must be something fishy playing up.

So the rumours get amplified, they get out of control. And by that time, jgy is already actually engaging in incest. The last thing jgy needs right now as a new sect leader, as the chief cultivator, is to have people believe these rumours, believe he was do something that depraved, and then actually find out about the actual relation between him and his wife. Jgy is terrified of the actual thing being found out.

So he needs to put an end to the rumours. Rumours mxy is also aware of, and is aware would put a stain on jgy's image. And by this point mxy is much older, he is like between 16 or 18 yo. And jgy has given him no reasons to ever not like him.

So he leaves the Jin, because these rumours are getting out of control, they would damage jgy's image, as well as mxy's. And at this point mxy is a little bit obsessed with jgy but in that "You actually like me for me, I didn't know family could do that" sort of thing. To mxy jgy was probably the only family, so obvi he is not going to hate him for doing this when he could see how it would/was affecting him as well.

So tl;dr: Rumours need a basis to form, and they spiral out of control. Mxy's rumous of harassing jgy are not nonsensical lies, they were close, but it's not the truth either. They become even more powerful after mxy leaves the Jin, because people need to blame something/someone for something happening, and at this point jgy's rep is good enough, so mxy's is the one to suffer.

#jgy #mxy #jin guangyao #mo xuanyu #are rumous real??? #I have no idea if I should or not mark this as meta #mdzs rant #mdzs

[shen-daozhang]

ooh i saw your tags in the post about ppl hating female characters for the same things they love about male characters, and i thought about sqt vs jgy, so i wonder what you think about both of them! (if you feel like answering! it's not like a 1:1 comparison)

*vibrating* Yea I like those characters a normal amount why do you ask!! (Also I had a super busy week at work and I kept thinking about this ask and monologuing about it in my head, so thank you for the enrichment in my enclosure)

(very messy thoughts incoming!)

Ngl, I never considered how they are similar until this ask, and there are a lot of ways that they are! A background that includes abuse, being seen as less-than for the circumstances of their birth (SQT as a Butterfly Boned Beauty Feast, JGY as an illegitimate son of a sex worker), both gravitate towards powerful men to protect themselves, both are navigating the confines of society trying to move upwards, again, in order to protect themselves. Also both use torture (or at least the 0.5 timeline SQT does)! So that's a fun little similarity.

Now, a big difference is there is the element of revenge in JGY's actions on top of the base need to survive (and a desire to thrive in a world that looks down on you), and I think considering his intelligence he would have gotten away with his plans if not for the completely buckwild re-introduction of WWX back into the plot after his death. I personally think SQT is just focused on survival, and even when she is cruel to Chu Wanning in the 0.5 timeline, I believe she does so because considering TXJ's own treatment of CWN she thinks that is want he wants, and doing so will improve her standing with him (which, sidebar, I am always floored by people who hate on SQT for hurting CWN while they woobify TXJ). Her accusation of Ye Wangxi is only done in an attempt to survive, and I think should be viewed in the lens of the danger that Mo Ran's planted evidence places her in - she's a known Beauty Feast and you know in the world of Erha the second she is out from the protection of Nangong Si her life is likely literally over.

SQT is also just not as smart as JGY, which isn't a slight towards her, JGY is obviously brilliant on many fronts. But I think there is an element of SQT batting above her level, and that leads to her downfall in both timelines. Another glaring similarity is the fandom reaction to them and their actions being a smidge... shall I kick the hornets nest and say hypocritical especially when compared to the actions of the main character? Or other characters in the story who get woobified? (I will also throw Ye Bingchang from Till the End of the Moon into this category). At the end of the day, they are people who are just trying to survive in a deeply messed up world in the only way they know how. Now! Are they both innocent of any wrong-doing because of this? Of course not! That's what makes them interesting and why I gravitate towards these types of characters. The TL;DR: of this is essentially, "people doing fucked up stuff to survive in a world where you have to do fucked up things to survive? It's more likely than you think!"

I will say the fandom's feelings towards JGY has chilled a bit lately, but people were nasty towards him back in the day. Unfortunately, people still are towards SQT and I don't see that changing. I actually ended up including her in my 0.5 fic because I was tired of seeing fics that she either didn't appear at all OR was killed off in a way that was obviously done with malice on behalf of the author. Now she uh doesn't meet a happy end in either of my fics where she features but she's actually a character I really enjoyed writing, and I hope I did it with some sense of sympathy.

There was more I wanted to say but this is already long so I shall post this before it withers further in my drafts! <3

Also gonna link my own fics in case anyone is curious since I mentioned them. SQT appears as a character in this one here - my take on "hanahaki but worse" which has a sad ending - and her death is an inciting incident in this one, an AU where Chu Wanning is the one who got the flower and has become a zealot trying to cleanse the cultivation world (a WIP but I will finish it!).

#jin guangyao #meng yao #song qiutong

[robininthelabyrinth]

Nie Mingjue the musical prodigy. Honestly anything with this idea, 3zun the cultivation world's 1st ever boy band? Secretly has mastered every instrument ever? (in canon you could have it play out where he knew at first that JGY was trying to kill him and kept hinting at it to LXC subtly but when LXC continued on blissfully oblivious NMJ assumed it was on purpose and that everyone was trying to kill him, and at that point since he was so close to qi deviation anyway better to die quick and fast then have NHS live through the long, drawn-out death their father had.)

“All right, I give in,” Nie Mingjue said after the third time Jin Guangyao played him the Song of Turmoil. “What does it do?”

“What do you mean, da-ge?” Jin Guangyao asked, though his heart rate subtly increased – he was pretty sure he’d covered his tracks with the combined song well enough that Nie Mingjue wouldn’t notice it, but there was always a possibility that something might have gone wrong. He had a plan for that, too: a whole list of excuses, explanations. He didn’t really understand what Lan Xichen had taught him, it was all his incompetence, etc.

“The song,” Nie Mingjue clarified, and there it was – he knew. Somehow or another, he knew. “It’s obviously different from the one Lan Xichen plays. What does your version do?”

“Da-ge, I’m sorry,” Jin Guangyao said. “If I’ve somehow gotten something wrong –”

“No, no, don’t, don’t start with that,” Nie Mingjue interrupted. “Do you think I’m an idiot? My sect doesn’t cultivate with music, and the only musical education I’ve ever received was during the one season I spent with the Lan sect, but I did learn something. Actually, Teacher Lan even said I was something of a prodigy…but either way, I’m very well aware that you don’t accidentally achieve effects with musical cultivation. If you get something wrong in error, it simply doesn’t work at all. It doesn’t create a new effect.”

Jin Guangyao was starting to feel a cold sweat on his back. Damnit, Lan Xichen had told him about Nie Mingjue’s summer at the Lan sect, and Nie Mingjue had mentioned it here and there, too – he’d just assumed that Nie Mingjue had been a prodigy at learning cultivation or rules or whatever, not music.

“Well?” Nie Mingjue prompted. “Don’t make me have to ask Xichen.”

That would be worse.

No, better to get ahead of the accusations now.

Jin Guangyao summoned tears into his eyes. “Da-ge, I’m sorry,” he said, trying for his best facsimile of sincerity. “If I’d had any choice in the matter, I wouldn’t have done it…”

“Oh, is it offensive? Really?” Nie Mingjue didn’t look as angry as Jin Guangyao thought he’d be. “Does it work slow or fast?”

Jin Guangyao hesitated. “…are you not angry?”

“That you were trying to kill me despite swearing brotherhood to me? I’m furious.” Nie Mingjue smiled, and it was as cold as anything Jin Guangyao had ever seen on Wen Ruohan’s face. “The only reason I haven’t pulled out Baxia and dismembered you this very second is because I, too, swore an oath of brotherhood to you, and I don’t break those oaths lightly…though if you kept poisoning me, I assume I’d eventually go mad enough to think that it was a valid option. Your plan was that it would look like a qi deviation, I assume?”

Jin Guangyao hesitated. Nie Mingjue took that as confirmation. “You’re not the first one to think of that,” he remarked. “But you’re going to be the last, my brother. Now tell me: does it work slow or fast? Or, perhaps more relevantly: how long would it take for this lovely little poison of yours to work if you poured it into your father’s ear instead of mine..?”

#mdzs #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons

[jaimebluesq]

not exactly a fic request just kind of a creepy imagine-this if you wanna keep it in your pocket.

there's a video game where one of the villains is SO obsessed with your character that while infiltrating his palace, you come across a torture chamber where all the corpses are under an illusion that makes them look like your character, each one killed a different way, and with a chair and plate of delicacies for someone to watch.

imagine how much it would fuck with meng yao's head when wen ruohan leads him to the fire palace and the first torture room they enter is full of mingjues and huaisangs.

Ooooooooooooooh. I'm all for Nie & Wen obsessions with one another, and I can see this as a tangent from WRH's obsession/hatred of Daddy Nie, and the things he targets the most in the fake NMJ & NHS are things they share with their father, etc etc. And poor Meng Yao, coming to this and seeing it, having gotten to know both Nie bros in person, and most of him is absolutely horrified, but a perverse little part of him is tantalized because he's also developed a mild obsession with the Nie (MY: "I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me"), and though he would never actually wish harm upon them, the torture room gives him the perfect outlet for some of his angers/frustrations - and also those dirty little sexual fantasies we would never admit to anyone else but harbour deep inside ourselves.

*Ahem*.

But reading this, my brain then went to the next place it would go, which is... what if it isn't WRH that has that torture room. What if, after NMJ's death, JGY is making his way through the Unclean Realm after having helped NHS with something he said he didn't know how to do, and he takes a hallway he rarely took, and through some accident finds a hidden door and falls through (very convoluted, just humour me). And he comes upon the kind of torture room you described, and every single corpse has been glamoured to look like JGY. He sees his own dead face staring up at him, blood spattered on surfaces everywhere, some of it used to write "Brother-murderer" and "I hope Da-ge watches you rot for what you did", and there is NO hiding the sheer amount of rage exhibited in this room. JGY looks at it and remembers how mere minutes ago, NHS was sniffling and begging for his help, and how NHS has NEVER shown signs of such anger or signs that he even suspected that JGY had killed NMJ.

And then, just as JGY is about to turn and run, the door slams shut.

~~~

"This isn't how it was supposed to go," Nie Huaisang says, his voice light but his face the darkest Jin Guangyao had ever seen it. "I haven't gathered enough evidence yet to turn the world against you. I was supposed to destroy EVERYTHING YOU EVER HELD DEAR!"

Jin Guangyao takes a nervous step back, his hand reaching for the handle of his sword at his waist.

"And I still haven't found all the parts of my brother's body yet. I needed to find them, so he could watch you pay for what you did."

"I don't know what you think I did," Jin Guangyao tries desperately, "but A-Sang-"

Nie Huaisang pulls a talisman from his robes and activates it. There is a clanking and rustling sound before four chains slither to Jin Guangyao and wrap around his arms and legs, pulling him backward against a damp and foul-smelling stone wall.

"Don't A-Sang me," Nie Huaisang growls, sounding almost exactly like his brother. "You could have had more years to enjoy before I destroyed you, but no, you had to find this room."

"You can still let me go! I won't tell a soul, and we can forget any of this happened." Jin Guangyao pulled at the chains, even tried to gather his qi to break them, but there was a power to them that was beyond his comprehension. How had weak and pathetically cultivated Nie Huaisang managed such a feat?

But then, had Jin Guangyao ever known the real Nie Huaisang?

"I can't do that, San-ge." Nie Huaisang stalked forward with measured steps, his eyes never leaving Jin Guangyao's face. "I can no more let you go than you can bring me my brother back."

Knowing he could not get out of this, Jin Guangyao did the only thing he could do - gathered his dignity around him like a cloak, and hope that Nie Huaisang made a mistake he could take advantage of. "So what are you going to do... kill me?"

The corner of Nie Huaisang's lips curled up. There was movement behind him, and Jin Guangyao realized that there was something approaching him, something that gleamed in the nearby candle-light.

Baxia.

"Oh no, San-ge." Nie Huaisang lifted up his right hand, and the huge saber easily slid into his waiting palm. "Death is far too good for you. But don't worry, I've been practising, and you'd be surprised just how much pain a person can suffer without dying."

Jin Guangyao swallowed hard.

"And," Nie Huaisang added with a sneer, "Baxia is hungry."

#ask response #nhs and jgy ideas #i love them both and torture them both #meng yao #jin guangyao #nie huaisang

[mqfx]

so a passing thought about post-canon sangcheng occurred to me & i would like to receive any wise counsel you'd like to give on my thought processes... 🙇‍♂️ they're a little disjointed. disclaimer that i havent read the novel in a while!

im not super convinced by the idea that nhs was able to control eeeeverything that occurred in his Great Revenge--i imagine a lot of it was incidental and opportunistic.

im not clear on whether jiang cheng would figure out that there was a masterminding aspect to the grand finale at the temple at all, bc while i think he's smart! he's also, like, so uninclined to overanalyse things that might uncover something painful for him (see: wwx's behavior post golden core transfer--unless you have to adjust for shixiong admiration/how jc places wwx on a competence pedestal? if wwx says he can handle it he can handle it, until he doesnt handle it so hard he dies. i guess.)

ANYWAY. i dont think jc would be friendly, or maybe he wouldnt like that he Was friendly with nhs if he thought nhs intentionally put jin ling in danger. im not sure if nhs DID! but im thinking in circles about whether jc would think that would have been the case. in my mind he is both endlessly capable of knee-jerk trust recindication (is that a word.) AND trust extended way past reasonable limits. but do you think that would be discussed (with jiang cheng loudly in tears about it in front of many rubbernecking witnesses, mdzs style?) at all? the most i can imagine is jiang cheng yelling obscurely around whether he can trust nie huaisang! clarifying details & inside voices are for the next generation.

i feel like there something to be said about how he trusts wwx with jin ling's safety, too...

this kind of doesn't have a conclusion im just interested in what you think of post canon sangcheng en generale-- it feels like a very different relationship from anything i can imagine in like... cloud recesses era. they're both miserable i think 😀 but actually post canon jiang cheng is doing better than usual than he has been for a long time, in a sense, and nie huaisang is probably thinking he should be doing better.

sorry this is so long!

ok firstable i must address "rescindification" bc it compelled me and apparently the noun form of "rescind" would be "recision" or "rescindment". heeheehee

now my thoughts on the matter:

2019 me wouldn't have agreed with this but remember 4-5 years ago i was only a college sophomore and was less capable of independent thought. since i was more caught up in fandom back then i generally went along with the headcanon that NHS Planned Everything, especially since it gave him more BAMF-ness(??) to, i guess, make up for the fact that he's not a "strong" cultivator. i would Like to delete the fic i wrote about it then but people like it a lot and i'd feel bad just taking it down. it's kinda like my sorrows of young werther (in that goethe regretted his first published work. not that im like goethe ew)

2023 me obviously thinks that's kinda eeehhh and i agree with you more now bc (flips through my memory of Hot Strategist Tips) no plan survives contact with the enemy. nhs wouldn't have been as effective if he had clear strict play-by-plays from the get-go. i think overplanning is what got jgy, because he kept stacking plots to cover his tracks but nothing makes a crime obvious quite like a cover-up

(unrelated question: if you're stark naked in the street, do you cover your ass or your balls? the correct answer is, you cover your face.)

as jgy's narrative foil and winner of that year's political oscars, nhs wouldn't make those exact same mistakes. not to mention, his strength (i think) is in recognizing patterns and doing the least amount of work for maximum effect--the hallmarks of the "lazy" (efficient) genius. plus it's not like he was starved for opportunity (again, bc jgy really was doing too much..... he really could've not gotten caught if he would just focus on the damn infrastructure)

also re:jc yes you're right my man's the king of repression and sublimation lol the whole "who is the REAL mastermind" would be the LEAST of his problems right nyeow!!! he has to help his nephew secure the succession and keep those scheming little rats of jinlintai away from jl, THEN he has to reckon with the fact that his brother is back, which comes with 15+ year old unopened baggage. wouldn't it be funny if he's like, an old retiree before nhs even tells him "yeah it was me lol" and that's finally the thing that kills him LOL sorry

ok that aside let's imagine a scenario where jc gets a whiff of an inkling of an idea that NHS Risked JL's Life (whether he did or not is irrelevant in this case). i'd like to believe that as an older sect leader, like yeah sure emotionally he's stunted like evel kneivel* but at the very least he should have the presence of mind not to scream at a fellow sect leader in the streets about Serious Accusations. (he is not as logical about wwx in canon because that's his big brother and no younger brother is ever logical about his big brother. also he knows wwx well enough that he can trust wwx Wouldn't Endanger Kids)

*get it. bc evel kneivel was a stuntman

imo jc would go in circles thinking "but no..... nhs wouldn't do that" then "but that's what i thought about jgy too......." and then working himself up to a froth. this will probably result in the most intense assessing death glares and some shady little quips in public. coin toss whether jc would decide to confront nhs about it privately. at least for as long as jl hasn't fully settled in on the role yet, i highly doubt jc would let his guard down for anyone, even nhs. maybe wwx

postcanon sangcheng...... keep in mind i have shipper goggles on. but they're not getting married babes im sorry if i'm keeping it realistic they both have Duties to fulfill and they live in a Society where they don't have time to...... governance is not just Paperwork, it's their lived reality and not everyone has the privilege of a living family to hold down the fort while one goes off traveling (@ lwj, but he can do whatever he wants forever). not saying that they'll get married to other people and have babies, mind you. especially in societies based on martial strength i think it would be less important to have an Unbroken Bloodline than it is to pass down sect techniques

at the end of it IF there's a romance then they're living off of stolen time, sneaking around during hunts and conferences. and i highly highly doubt it'll be a soft epilogue my loves they are two jagged broken people who have given up too much and gotten back so little. they are not gonna make each other better, but hey the consolation is that they also can't make each other worse! at least they'll have someone else who somewhat Understands what it's like. "miserable but not alone" is a boon if you've lost everything else that mattered

#hewwo #asks #anonymous #NOT TO PAINT A BLEAK PICTURE of one of my favorite ships in the world btw!!!!! #i just think it's not gonna be soft or fluffy. they both have a lot of healing to do :( #comfort like a knife under your pillow #sangcheng #long post

[thatswhatsushesaid]

Xiyao?

oh!! xiyao is the otp to end all otps for me (@verdantrivers tagging you as well since you also asked about them, even tho you already know everything I'm going to write anyway)

ship it 🤌

What made you ship it? in the novel, it was absolutely the teacups scene. but uhhh this is embarrassing but I came into this fandom backwards, and so my first exposure to xiyao was the show! tl;dr I was looking for a show on netflix to fill the void left in my soul after the depressing end of The Rise of the Phoenixes, and someone somewhere rec'd The Untamed because "it's gay and the gays get a happy ending!!" me, a depressed bisexual, "oh, what a relief, I could use a happy ending for the gays after all that depressing straight people nonsense I just suffered through." (joke's on me, my chosen gays did not get their happy ending, I clowned myself) anyway, /scuffs foot, it was the box scene. their cute little shuffle over the box. the shy yet lingering eye contact. meng yao's eyes doing the thing that zhu zanjin has them do every time he looks at lan xichen for longer than a second, like he's noticing how beautiful starlight is for the first time, and lan xichen looking like meng yao just awoke something in him that he didn't even realize was there until that moment. meng yao's beautiful face journey when he sees lan xichen and rushes to say goodbye to him. like... I feel it bears mentioning at this point that I knew so little about this show or the canon source material that I literally thought that xiyao was going to be the main ship with the happy ending just based on this moment alone, and so you can imagine by dismay once I realized how tragically wrong I was. RIP past me. anyway, while I absolutely prefer jgy's characterization and arc in the novel canon, I will nevertheless die for the way lhk and zzj chose to bring xiyao to life on-screen. they did the reading.

What are your favorite things about the ship? besides the siren call of a decades' long near-romance that is doomed by the narrative, probably that when given a choice (or rather, when jgy believes that he has a choice), jgy and lxc always choose each other, both when the stakes are low and when they are extremely high. one bad faith and garbage take on their dynamic that I often see trotted out by jgy's harshest critics is that he exploits lxc's affection for him exclusively to cement his position within the lanling jin sect and to further his own ambitions, which seems like such a dull and reductive way to view the nearly two decades they spend together in each other's lives. I also just don't understand where this interpretation comes from?? is it just from jgy using the pass token to get the song of spirit turmoil from the library pavilion's forbidden section? because yes, that was a violation of lxc's trust, but also like... would there even have been a forbidden section in the library pavilion for him to steal from if jgy hadn't sacrificed so much of his dearly bought social and political capital upon gaining his recognition from jgs to help the gusu lan rebuild the cloud recesses? this is not me trying to diminish that violation of lxc's trust, but just to emphasize that jgy actually had very little to gain, politically speaking, at the time he pressed his father to provide aid to the extremely vulnerable and weak gusu lan, but he did it anyway, and he did it because he knew lxc needed the help. smaller stakes: given the choice between being in anyone else's company or each other's, they always gravitate towards each other in any space they occupy together, and that does things to me lol.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? with very few exceptions, I don't enjoy lan-furen as a concept 🤷‍♀️ I didn't even fully understand why the lan-furen AUs didn't work for me until I read commentary specifically by you and @fincalinde and @confusion-and-more (I think) about how deeply jgy's pursuit of his birthright with the lanling jin is integral to his character. because I do remember reading objectively good and well-written lan-furen fic that should have been providing me with emotionally satisfying xiyao catharsis after getting hit by the truck that is the canon ending, and instead left me feeling like I'd eaten too many bites of a pie that was good yesterday but has already started to turn. idk that metaphor is getting away from me. also, more fics where jgy is the soft dom in the bedroom, please, that's my favourite jgy flavour.

#asks answered #xiyao #mdzs #mdzs meta #lan xichen #jin guangyao #he did crimes?? good for him 😌 #flute solo 🎶

[admirableadmiranda]

Something that annoys me about this “if you say this character is evil, you’re reading MDZS wrong” is that MXTX didn’t actually mean to write this “oh we’re all grey” story. She openly dislikes JGY, and she thought of JC as WWX’s crazy ex shidi with deep problems. Like, they aren’t there for you to justify their actions (god knows they did it a lot of times already) or to try to make them look good by putting them in the same bag as the protagonists just because “they’re all well fleshed and complex characters that are morally grey and flawed”.

What a way to miss MDZS’s actual message. It saddens me because WWX’s hero journey is as tragic as it is beautiful. I wish I was as brave as him, to oppose injustice even if I am alone against the world.

Yeah I totally get you anon! I’m not sure why it’s so hard for people especially in MDZS to figure out (though I have seen it for her other two works too, but not to the same extent), but she’s actually pretty clear in her work on who’s admirable and who’s not. Even when she’s deliberately using framing to get you to question what you’re hearing versus what you’re seeing, it’s pretty clear who you’re supposed to doubt the narrative about and who you’re not. Jin Guangyao is revealed as the main villain less than halfway through the book, after all!

There are works where that would be an appropriate reaction. Sometimes the heroes can too, be deeply flawed, negative people. But that’s not where MXTX is writing from and from what danmei/xianxia I’ve consumed so far, she has some of the least morally gray characters scattered through her works. She’s clearly very big on the idea that people can and will choose to do good if they want, and also that while it certainly doesn’t exempt them from flaws, that also flaws do not have to be hero killers.

Wei Wuxian is killed not because he is occasionally a little tactless and also keeps people at a distance because it is a very slow journey to trust them enough, but because his morals and willingness to stand up for them are inconvenient to the people in power. He is a flawed, well rounded character, but that’s not why he was hated or why he died. Similarly Jiang Cheng having sympathetic backstory and losses does not exempt him from being a shitty person because as we see in the novel, he’s not the only person who loses everything in his life, but he’s the one who decided to stew in it.

MXTX is so big on your choices define who you are, not your position or history. What matters most is what you do in the shadows and the light. That’s why Wei Wuxian is so heroic, he is always willing to stand by his morals even to the bitter end. It is tragic, but also it’s so full of hope, even! Look at what he has in the end of the story, it is so solidified that his choices and sacrifices did make a difference! Lan Sizhui is alive, well raised and cared for, because Wei Wuxian made that sacrifice for him. Mianmian is out living her best life with Mr. Mianmian and Mini Mianmian because she chose to follow Wei Wuxian’s bravery and has never regretted it. Jin Ling is blossoming under his patient guidance into a wonderful young man who can hold his head high with pride. It may be tragic, but so much good came from it too even if in the immediate moment it was hard to see.

And you know what, anon? We can be that too. Maybe not as far as he goes, but we can still shine bright and make the choices that have positive impacts down the road. We can be Mianmian, inspired by him to do the same that he did on the scales that we can.

The world may be a big thing to save, but we can always save little pieces of it here and there and the more of us that there are, the more powerful it becomes.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #wei wuxian is our guiding light #canon jiang cheng #asks #anon #anon asks #morally gray is a useless term in this fandom

[prince-liest]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

Aw, thank you so much for sending me this! <3 I've written a lot of fics, but my favorites have definitely changed over time... some I still adore, some I have a hard time looking at for a variety of reasons. These are in no particular order, but I'm especially fond of:

Calcium Carbonate, and Other Things That Run Bone Deep - Genshin Impact, Kaeya/Albedo, Rated M for Gore

Fondly nicknamed "vivisection makeouts fic" while I was writing it, this one was a very gratuitous "Albedo's (in)humanity clashes with Kaeya's desire to save Mondstadt" meet-ugly fic that I still really enjoy as a way that I got to wring both of their brains out like sponges. I was a little nervous when posting it due to the, y'know, vivisection makeouts, but it was received with overwhelming positivity that still makes me happy to think about.

How To Lose 800 Years of Cultivation - Heaven Official's Blessing, Feng Xin/Mu Qing, Rated E for Sexual Content

At one point I discovered how good of a method intimacy is for digging around in characters' brains, and this is the fic where I truly went ham with that. Like, there's a lot of sex in this fic, but there's also a lot of picking apart Mu Qing's issues with intimacy and sexuality, class inequality, and his perception of Feng Xin, who has his own shit to deal with but still fields it all like a champ. I've reread this like five times after publishing it and will definitely reread it again.

Dish Duty - Avatar: the Last Airbender, Zuko & Katara, Rated G

This is constantly threatening The Sword of Damocles is Swinging for being my most popular SFW fic (it has fewer hits but more kudos), and I like it because I think I did a really good job with capturing the canon tone of ATLA, as well as digging into the parts of Zuko's character that I was interested in excavating in it. Plus it had a fun little plot and adventure! It just turned into a really nice, self-contained fic that did everything I wanted it to.

Meng Yao's Guide to Sex and Love - MDZS, Lan Xichen/Meng Yao, Rated E for Sexual Content

I literally just finished writing this so obviously it's fresh in my mind, and I do actually have some things I find unsatisfying about it (the chapter arrangement, mostly), but I REALLY loved writing Meng Yao's modern AU version bag of cats brain and using this fic to learn more about both his and LXC's characterizations. Also, I just really like packing in canon-parallel worldbuilding into modern AUs for xianxia danmei series, and writing JGY & WWX friendship in general. Plainly, this was fun to write. My only #ragret is that now I'm really sick of writing cis smut and want to write trans!Meng Yao.

Smolder - Genshin Impact, Zhongli/Xiao, rated E for Sexual Content

I loved this when I wrote it, but now it's been forever since I've reread it and it's one of my favorites not so much for the fic itself but for how ridiculously popular it got. Very legitimately, I was wary of writing this ship at all in a way that was explicitly Not The Healthiest, and furthermore did not expect fandom to be so positive about trans characters (especially in smut). So it's just pleasing and also hilarious to me that my self-indulgent power imbalance smut ended up

And, as an aside: I think that a lot of my favorite fics have ended up comfortably in that 20-30k word range, which is interesting. I don't really write novel-length fics anymore (and only really did so one time, though it got very popular), and I think it's partly because I really just like to concentrate on the bits I'm interested in and write around everything else, letting people fill in the blanks based on what characters think and say.

Honorable mentions:

Both of the Xue Yang fics for having pretty few hits but extremely enthusiastic comments because the SXX community is baller like that.

The Beast of Pont Vanis, the only Witcher fic I've ever written, based on a song I've enjoyed and wanted to make a story out of since literally high school.

The Shinsou's Bad Days series, may I one day have the motivation to finish you.

The fic where I buried Albedo in an avalanche and let people do the math for how many days he was stuck there based on how many heartbeats he counted and how panic-tachycardic he was.

#you can tell the more recent fics are the ones where I had more fun naming them lol #personal #my writing #asks #messages #kae karo #kae-karo #ask memes #thank you!! <3 #fic recs #long post #text posts

[madtomedgar]

ok so i do not care about jin zixuan at all but it occurs to me that a tng “rascals” style situation would be really sweet for him and jgy. maybe lxc gently bullies him into taking jgy night hunting to try to bond and they both get hit with a curse that physically de-ages them to about 12 years old (mentally they are still adults). It’s very upsetting for jyl, and jgy is still trying to do taxes while everyone else is scrambling to find a solution so the heir to lanling jin isn’t... 12. and meanwhile he and jgy are put on leave because no one can take them seriously like this and also maybe they should rest and meditate about it? what if it gets worse? so zixuan is having fun! he gets to revisit his childhood! he has time and license to play! and now he even has a brother to play with, which he’d always wanted! play? says jin guangyao, what’s that. He’s never played. When he was 12 he did chores and tried to stay out of people’s way and taught himself cultivation. you know, says zixuan, like tag and climbing trees and stuff. jin guangyao says he has work to do. ah, but he doesn’t! he has been banned from work! (jin guangyao begins to panic. what else... is there?? what does one do, if not work? if he’s not working then... bad things surely will happen!). jin zixuan realizes that his brother actually had a very sad and hard life because a kid?? who didn’t get to play?? he didn’t even know that was legal?? and jin guangyao winds up getting dragged around by a very happy and very pushy little princeling to do all sorts of stupid kid stuff and it’s... fun? is this what fun is? is this why all the other kids were always smiling?? and then of course it all gets fixed but now, now they have actually bonded.

#untamed stuff #shameless jiggy apologism #generally not a fan of deaging but rascals (tng) has a special place in my heart #and i do think jzx would be like lol this is fun! after the initial oh shit #and jgy would be like #wow the last time i was this small and vulnerable #someone flung me down a staircase hahahahaha #and that could be fun

[leatherbookmark]

☁️🐚🍄🍓(all, or any combination you want) for the fanfiction author ask meme

kissing your hand reverently for the ask etc

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

i just like leather bookmarks!! originally lb was a non-kpop sideblog, and i wanted something that wouldn't be fandom-specific (i don't really like changing usernames) but that at the same time would fit my current fandom (the hobbit hehe). so, leatherbookmark!!

as for my ao3 username, oenanthe is a name of two genera: birds and plants, but i took mine from the bird one. specifically, this little guy. i love that the latin name is so pretty (wine+flower) but both english and polish taxonomers went "this bird has a white ass. alright then here you go"

by the way, huh, these arrows are fun! they're not -> but ⇢. they're dashed. cute

🐚 ⇢ do you like or dislike surprises?

oh boy i really don't... i used to when i was a kid, but at this point it's just a source of stress. though like -- depends, because if someone gets me a little postcard or a souvenir that's right up my alley, it's great and i'm happy they thought of me!, but if it's a big expensive gift... yeag

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

fascinated by the separation of ship and pairing here, btw

ohhhh my god i gotta get my fandom brain back in order.

xiyao. what do i think about xiyao? i like to think that in a better world they'd love to Eat. try out different stuff, ranging from "drowning in grease and made by a 78yo uncle who spits into his hands spiritedly before kneading the dough" to... hm. would they go for the "lick the citrus foam out of the plaster cast of the chef's mouth" dining, uh, experience? probably not, but lxc would be amazed and interested, half sincerely and half because he wants to check at what point jgy will go beloved, what the fuck.

but ALSO i think they'd just enjoy meals as a way of spending time together! so whether it's a modern au or not, they whip out the nice tableware, make sure there's a nice plantly being/something decorative on the table, etc. (they don't play music/put on tv in the background because they don't believe in that.)

(all of the above also means their meals take WAY longer than you'd expect, or rather -- as long as they can make them. breakfasts come with dessert now icydk)

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

hm!! i think i just... started doing it? when i was a kid and browsing blogs about the witch comic series, i stumbled upon some blogs that weren't like, character profiles and comic arc summaries, but instead basically chaptered fanfiction. and since that, i kind of seeked out people's fics, often more than canon material like scans, databases and such lol.

iirc i started out making comics about my OCs, weird little AUs (like... utena characters, but magical girls/boys lmfao), or "original" comics obviously were just crazy mixes of whatever i was into at the moment. i only started writing fic when i was, idk, ten? and even then it was more like "ough i have a certain scene/image/mood/feeling in my brain and i need to get it Out" than actual stories :')

another thing that hasn't changed until sort-of-very-recently was me just.... starting anew every new fandom. i'd be into fandom X for years, produce tons of fics, and then once i got into fandom Y i was like oh fuck this is all so embarrassing, STARTING A NEW ACCOUNT RIGHT AWAY OR WE DIE. 👍 on one hand cool, on the other i sometimes envy writers who don't have to log into three separate accounts to see all their stats ='D

#answered asks #woobifiedvillain