#and the Yi city gang

[anyanary]

I present to you: fem wangxian

[wisesnail]

I haven't painted a #XiaoXingChen in a long time! So here we go!

I hope you like it, despite the loss of quality here 🙈

Prints and other stuff on my RedBubble and Threadless (I'm Wisesnail on both)        

[wifiwuxians]

At last, to tie off Song Lan Love Week... the collab! Everyone's love and birthday wishes went into this, and it really shows. I couldn't be happier with the result. Happy birthday, Song Daozhang, whenever it may be!

I encourage all participants to post their individual collaborations so everyone can see them in all their glory!

A huge thank you to @falcities as always for helping out with the names! Credits under cut!

Front row: @baxiabells hoshi00yuki (twt) smolsabito (twt) spicy @enby-peep little-lion-man (bsky) Middle row: @bionicpaladin weiwifis (me!) @tricksterly-conduct @lightbluedevil @spicydevilartz touandling (twt) Back row: @sugarapplebaby alpaquitaydraws (twt) @mispronouncing-michaelangelo @aoxue @heyholmesletsgo @yustinamishka @falcities Top: @hashichosha

This is being crossposted so it doesn't always match what it says on the image but trust me it's the same people \m/ WOO

[catkindness]

just sillies being silly everything's fine nobody's dead mom xxc is making dinner

[wangxian-on-repeat]

Xue Chengmei: why is everyone so mean to me i am just a little guy :(

A-Qing, narrating: he has committed mass murder

[aoxue]

shiver the whole night through (T, 1.6k)

🌔 Turn of the century USA with magic/cultivation 🌔 Fantasy/horror AU oneshot 🌔 Yi City Appalachian gothic

Engrossed in his work, he hadn’t noticed the crickets when they began to strike up their song. The evening birds are quieting, and the air is cooling around him. Already, twilight is settling in. It’s later than he realized. Something anxious prickles beneath Xiao Xingchen's skin.

A small, creepy little scene for Halloween. 🎃

[lgbtlunaverse]

A-qing is such a tragic figure and i care her so much but one thing I love is this quiet character arc she has from a little girl doing what she has to do to survive, already more wordly and bitter than Xiao Xingchen even at her young age, a girl who isn't cruel but isn't here to help other people either, into genuinely a kind of guardian figure. After her death she sticks around and dedicates her non-life to protecting people, leading visitors away from Xue Yang and warning wwx and the juniors about him. And it works, in the end, without her they wouldn't have made it.

The yi city arc can seem so cynical sometimes. Idealism fails, helping a dying stranger by the side of the road only leads to tragedy, but a-qing cares and it helps! She's a counterpart to both xiao xingchen and song lan in that way, and thematically also a kind of counterpart to xue yang, where tragedy becomes a motivation for caring instead of against it. It's a weird thing to say since she's a kid that dies and her soul is shattered, but I think yi city would have come off a lot darker without her.

[silvandar]

Xue Yang but he's a llama with a hat.

Source

[aftersector]

some meow xingchens, song nyans, xue nyangs, and one paw-qing from my meow xingchen rp account from throughout 2020 :3

(the xue nyangs in the 4th and 5th drawings are based off of a xue nyang rp account who's @ i cannot find anymore's designs 😿, the last two xue nyangs r my own)

[sonik-kun]

Okay. So I have a vision here. Hear me out

So Jojo Great Days opening but it's the characters from MDZS. I just think the song and animation from the opening really suits the story, idk.

With WWX in Josuke's position, LWJ in both Jotaro and Okuyasu's positions. Jiang Cheng in Rohan's. And ofc JGY in Kira's.

The Juniors can be both Koichi and Yukako's positions.

We can even have the Yi City gang in it during the Shinobu and Hayato part.. Killer Queen as Xue Yang with A-Qing as Hayato, XXC as Shinobu.. If you know the plot of JoJo part 4, you'll see why this is perfect 👀

AND Reimi's hand pointing to the sky could be NMJ's zombie hand that inevitably led WWX to finding the culprit and ultimately justice in the end. Everyone pointing at Kira (JGY) as they sus him out during the Bites the Dust sequence.

I'm explaining this poorly. But omg a MDZS Great Days version would be so epic. Even more so with the Bites the Dust version too. I can see the potential here but I don't have the art or skill to execute it 😩

[wenqingfan2000]

the absolute utter horror of killing your best friend without a second thought because you didn't recognize them, of being the one killed but you don't get the mercy of an instant dreamless sleep. you have to lie there dying and keep your mouth shut! so that he can't tell that it's you from your voice! you traveled untold miles looking for him to apologize for something said in anger and grief years ago. your life is over. and you can't even say sorry.

it's been years and i'm still so impressed with how devastatingly tragic the yi city arc was!!!!!!

[wisesnail]

Another unwritten rule is that when you paint a Xiao XingChen, a wild Song Lan will appear shortly afterwards <;

I hope you like it, I didn't find many good refs of this poor boi! ><

Prints and other stuff on my RedBubble and Threadless (I'm Wisesnail on both)    

[silvandar]

OP you don't understand. We haven't forgotten any of this. This is exactly why we stan our murder husband.

We love a savage bitch. Especially when he's smoking hot.

People conveniently forgetting that Xue Yang massacred Song Lan's clan as revenge when xxc and szc brought him to the "chief cultivator" aka jgs to be executed for his crimes/massacring of the Chang clan.

Which resulted to szc loosing his sight and xxc having to plead his Grandmaster to take him back and give his eyes to szc. Which also resulted to xxc having to separate ways with szc so that the latter would not know that he has xxc's eyes.

Then because xxc was blind he did not know he was actually living with xue yang. Then xy saw this as a Chance to manipulate xxc on murdering the people of yi city for his own satisfaction and to use this fact to torment xxc later. Let me also add the fact that he cut the people's tongue so that xxc would not know that they are actually living people. The people of yi city did not deserve that. He also cut szc's tongue, that Led to xxc killing his best friend/love of his life.

Upon knowing this, xxc killed himself and his soul was so broken he can't even be reanimated as a walking corpse.

Then xy hunted down poor a-qing and killed her too.

[wangxian-on-repeat]

Xiao Xingchen: haha it’s ok to forgive and forget guys!

Xiao Xingchen: except for that one guy who stabbed out my boyfriend’s eyes. fuck that guy

Xue Chengmei: *family guy death pose*

[bingheluvr69]

YI CITY GANG!!!! 💯🔥🙌

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 39 Part 3

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)    

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Days of Future Past

After they leave Yi City, the gang comes to a proper town where there is a lantern festival going on, or else it's just a town that is really nuts about lanterns.

The juniors go shopping, looking at random trinkets, cell-phone cases, sunglasses, and electric toys that will break as soon as you get them home. Wait, that's my local mall I'm thinking of. But it's the same idea, pretty much.

Judging by the dream catchers hanging up on the right, this particular Ancient-China kiosk is owned by a traveling Ojibwe person.

Sizhui experiences a callback to symbolism from the past as he looks at an array of toy insects.

Jin Ling toy shames him, and Lan Jingyi comes to his defense.

Toys are for every age, people. Even if you outgrow one style of play, there's a lot of ways to enjoy toys, including tucking them in your robe and pulling them out to look at them whenever you have a memory cascade.

When Sizhui was young, he looked at toys with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian didn't give him the toys, however, because "asking is asking, buying is buying." For Wei Wuxian, there was always a vast chasm between what he wanted and what he could actually have. Lan Wangji, of course, promptly gave A-Yuan toys, including a version of this grass butterfly.

The last time we saw A-Yuan with the butterfly is the last time A-Yuan saw Wei Wuxian. WWX frightened him and he dropped his butterfly, and everything went to shit after that. So I think it's fair to say the butterfly symbolizes some stuff.

(More after the cut!)

Jingyi points out to Sizhui that they have all of this same stuff at home in Gusu, which is what happens in a franchise-based retail economy.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian enter the market together, but Wei Wuxian quickly runs ahead, enjoying the energy and the sights. Grown-up Lan Wangji, unlike his younger self, seems perfectly comfortable in this crowded and busy environment.

Lan Wangji pauses at a seller's stall to experience his own callback to the past, as he contemplates a lantern with rabbits on it.

Here the show the show restrains itself and does not show us a flashback to the rabbit lantern of the past. That's ok, though; the first lantern scene is one of the most memorable in the show, so we can just replay it in our heads.

Back then, Wei Wuxian made a special lantern for Lan Wangji, and they released it together. That was the first time we saw Lan Wangji smile, and it's also when Wei Wuxian's pledge of chivalry turned their mutual interest/attraction into something much deeper.

While Lan Wangji and Lan Sizhui are contemplating lost things from the past (sky lanterns, by their nature, are losses, but in a nice way), Wei Wuxian is confronting one of his own losses.

He sees a little kid running to a vendor, and his mind's eye sees A-Yuan.

Lan Wangji sees Wei Wuxian's reaction to the child, and he stops looking at the lantern to watch Wei Wuxian instead.

When Wei Wuxian realizes that the child is not, in fact, A-Yuan, the air goes out of him.

Is it too cruel of me to point out that while Wei Wuxian's heart is breaking from realizing that A-Yuan could not possibly be shopping for toys in this market, the real A-Yuan, Lan Sizhui, actually is shopping for toys in this market?

Wei Wuxian allows himself to feel things, for a moment--and when he turns around and sees Lan Wangji watching him, he doesn't immediately paste a fake smile onto his face, which is some kind of relationship growth.

Lan Wangji takes this opportunity to say "hey, Wei Ying, I forgot to mention that A-Yuan isn't dead."

Ha ha ha ha ha of course he doesn't say that. He's waiting for the right moment to share this information, and Lan Wangji has no idea what constitutes a right moment for verbalizing anything. If he can't use his sword to communicate his devotion or his disappointment, he's in a pickle.

Also, Lan Wangji is aware of the popular Wuxia trope of "lone survivor of a massacred clan grows up to seek revenge," and the rules say you can't reveal the survivor's identity until they have gotten a job as the bodyguard and/or concubine of their enemy's innocent heir. Sizhui has made a good start by befriending Jin Ling, but he's not showing much inclination to revenge, so Lan Wangji is stuck for now.

Like a Lantern in the Dark

When Wei Wuxian sees the lantern next to Lan Wangji, he breaks into a genuine, sunny smile, and runs up to very gently tease LWJ about it.

Like a lantern in the dark, Follow on now, follow your heart

Back then the lantern had a single rabbit, and was a gift from Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji said he's used to doing things alone, and Wei Wuxian said that he can change. This rabbit lantern has two rabbits, and is about to be a gift from Lan Wangji to Wei Wuxian. Because Lan Wangji has changed.

"Lan Zhan, let's buy it"

Wei Wuxian has also changed. He asks for what he wants, instead of just wishing, and is delighted when Lan Wangji gives it to him. The lantern, people. Lan Wangji gives the lantern to him.

They take the lantern together, walk with it together, and immediately give it to (their son) Sizhui, telling him to take good care of it. Sizhui is confused but Jingyi knows what's up. Look how happy he is that his favorite teacher has a boyfriend.

I'm pretty sure ceremonial lantern-giving is going to be incorporated into Gusu weddings from now on, at least weddings where there is already a kid who needs a special role in the ceremony.

Brotherly

The kids tell Lan Wangji that Zewu-Jun is here to see him, and Lan Wangji makes this face:

Holy fuck, what is going on between the Lan brothers? It occurs to me that we haven't seen them together since Wei Wuxian came back to life. They were close, in the before times, but 33 lashes and 3 years of forced seclusion might have changed things.

Wei Wuxian gets back into his mask, and they go and show the sword spirit to Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen...absorbs it...into his body? What is actually happening here?

I mean, it looks cool, but that can't be healthy.

Now that Nie Mingjue's body has been - mostly - found, his fears are confirmed. He says that Nie Mingjue qi-deviated in public and "all his veins were broken," which I'm pretty sure should actually be translated "all his meridians were broken." Meridians are what carry your qi around your body. After that happened, nobody knew what happened to him and/or his body.

So he's sad about this, but not shocked. I feel like Lan Xichen maybe could have tried harder to find out what happened, but he never was as stubborn as Lan Wangji.

You Don't Know Him Like I Do

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji point out that Jin Guangyao is the obvious suspect in the current situation, but Lan Xichen doesn't want to hear it; he literally turns his back on them while he explains all the reasons Jin Guangyao couldn't be the person who's in control of the Yin tiger seal.

Lan Wangji is hard to read in this conversation; he lets Wei Wuxian do the talking. But he seems deeply suspicious of Jin Guangyao, and is maybe kinda resigned to his brother refusing to hear him.

I wonder how many sketchy things Lan Xichen has forgiven, over the years? How many does Lan Wangji know about?

"He wouldn't do that"

Lan Xichen's statement here is a direct parallel to Lan Wangji's statement way back in epsiode 21, which is the last time we saw the brothers talking about anything besides battle strategy.

Back then, Lan Xichen asked about the deaths at the supervisory office - you know, all those people who killed themselves in horrible ways and/or were killed by vengeful spirits. He wanted to know if WWX killed them using Yin Iron. Lan Wangji said nope, not my sweetie, he sure didn't.

"He wouldn't do anything like that."

Same framing, same camera angle, same blocking. Same message: the one I love would not do bad things using Yin iron. But - here's the thing - Lan Wangji was flat-out lying in that earlier conversation. He saw Wei Wuxian doing forbidden stuff and got in a huge-ass fight with him about it, only to deny it to his brother.

Parallels being what they are in this show, I think this is a strong suggestion that Lan Xichen is knowingly lying in the current conversation.

If we look back at that previous conversation, when Lan Wangji asked Lan Xichen "how can we understand someone's heart?" Lan Xichen gave a surprising answer.

"When looking at someone, you[...]shouldn't use a clear right or wrong, black or white to judge them. What matters is what their heart believes in."

When this conversation happened, it seemed that he was giving Lan Wangji advice about his Wei Wuxian situation, but in retrospect, I think he was thinking about Meng Yao, who had recently murdered a guy and defected to the Wen clan.

In the present moment, I think Lan Xichen knows that Jin Guangyao is sketchy, but he also believes there are some lines his friend won't cross. (He doesn't know yet about the fratricide, patricide, and filicide, or the massacre of the sex workers in the brothel where JGY grew up.) I don't think any of these guys really believes that "Yin iron" is one of those uncrossable lines.

The conversation is interrupted by the juniors having a loud argument inside about whether Wei Wuxian is The Worst, or merely bad. Lan Sizhui started this by very very mildly defending demonic cultivators. Jin Ling is super upset, because of the whole "Wei Wuxian killed my dad" and "Uncle Jiang Cheng frequently reminds me to kill people like Wei Wuxian and feed them to my dog" situation.

Lan Wangji immediately drops the important conversation he is having to go inside and deal with the more important problem of a child talking shit about his boyfriend.

Busted

The moment that Lan Wangji goes inside, Lan Xichen addresses Wei Wuxian by name, letting him know that he's recognized him. Watching him fondle his untouchable didi's shoulder might have been a clue. Wei Wuxian is alarmed but makes a quick recovery.

Lan Xichen is surprisingly kind to Wei Wuxian at the same time as being extremely extremely wary of him. He's not pleased to see him, and Wei Wuxian's 1000 watt smile and apparently genuine pleasure in greeting him properly receives a chilly response.

Wei Wuxian gently asks Lan Xichen to think about what they've discussed, but he doesn't press. He gives him time and space to think. In a way, Wei Wuxian is better at handling Lan Xichen than Lan Wangji is; Lan Wangji's stubbornness makes him inclined to push. Wei Wuxian is better at fitting his tactics to the situation.

He says his bit and then leaves Lan Xichen to think things over in peace.

Soundtrack: Follow the Heart by Yaima