#because this was a lot of work

[idlebeks]

A Jumble of MDZS Fic Recs

I am on vacation, and I am so very bored. Relaxing is hard. So, have an incomplete list of my favorite MDZS fics from my AO3 bookmarks. These are almost entirely Wangxian, but there are a few other pairings and gen fics scattered in. I have made no effort to organize by theme or pairing, or anything else, so this runs the gamut from angst to crack. Check the tags for your own mental health. I may or may not do lists from other fandoms. I have five whole days of vacation left to burn after all.

murky waters by newamsterdam

Convinced Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian will never reconcile of their own accord, Jin Ling takes matters into his own hands by trapping both of his uncles alone, together, without their cultivation.

please don't let me be misunderstood by sysrae

Lan Wangji has known Wei Ying for a fortnight, the first time he sees him get hit by a car.

I Started From the Bottom/And Now I’m Rich by x_los

Wen Qing traps Wei Wuxian in the Demon Slaughtering Cave, but Wei Wuxian isn’t interested in being the beneficiary of the Wen Remnants’ noble sacrifice. His efforts to free himself accidentally send him back to the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign. Coreless but armed with demonic cultivation, knowledge of the future and his wits, Wei Wuxian takes advantage of this opportunity to come out on top of both the war and its aftermath—before either has a chance to happen—by marrying and swiftly burying the cultivation world’s worst men.

the field meets the wood by astronicht

Wei Wuxian is a dark shadow in the barley. Wei Wuxian is sorry for the kind of compassion that he is about to hand out.

Drowning in the Sun by Zelos

He was vengeance, he was hatred. He was the last sons of Lotus Pier, combined.

A fill for a kinkmeme prompt: Golden Core transfer, but Jiang Cheng's aware.

Three kinds by apathyinreverie

“Let’s see them choke on their own demands of ‘respecting clan secrets’ for once,” Jiang Cheng grumbles darkly to himself.

Across from him, features still gaunt and hollow-eyed from three months of who-the-hell-knows-what, Wei Wuxian huffs a softly amused laugh.

A Long Road by Vathara

The diplomatic mission went fine, until the white horse yao kidnapped the necromancer's boyfriend.

(The Companion would like to object to yao.

(Lan Wangji objects to boyfriend.

(Wei Wuxian objects to... Fine, whatever. The locals have a word for the ghost path? Roll with it!

(Queen Selenay would just like to know when the gods will stop dumping legends on her doorstep.)

in the arms of the angel by ScarlettStorm

So there was this jar, and it had so much peanut butter still in it, and when his fox nose scented it and didn’t catch any poison or spoilage, what was he supposed to do? Not avail himself of this gift? No. He shoved his delicate little snout right in there and got to licking, but, you know… Elegantly. Definitely not snarfing and making horrible little fox sounds and rolling around on the ground while he went ham on the jar. Sure, he had to work a little bit to get at the last of it, but anything good is worth working for, right? So finally, triumphant, no longer starving, and maybe a little thirsty now from eating half a cup of peanut butter in about two minutes, he’d tried to remove his head from the jar.

Operative word tried.

Or: Wei Ying gets stuck. Lan Zhan helps.

refrain; a musical phrase repeating in a song or instrumental piece by Cerusee, Mikkeneko

Wei Wuxian attempts to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by sending his consciousness back in time; in true Wei Wuxian fashion his inventions work, but with some very unintended consequences.

By Any Other Name by ShanaStoryteller

Wei Wuxian wakes up in Mo Xuanyu's body and heads straight for Lotus Pier. Wu Yingtai is the newest member of the Jiang Clan and rumored to be the future wife of Jiang Wanyin.

Lan Wangji is not in love with her.

In Memoriam by NevillesGran

A young man walked out of the Burial Mounds. He seemed to be alone, but of course he wasn’t: the dead accompanied him. The dead always accompanied him.

(In which the spirits of the Burial Mounds demanded a higher price for their aid.)

Wei Wuxian's Second Best Lay by LemonCakeDesign

Wei Wuxian really has the worst luck.

In The Dark Right Now by phnelt

What used to be a wide open cave mouth, propped up with stalactites and mites, has collapsed, leaving a wall of uneven rock. Caving is always a danger, but they’d thought this cave was pretty safe for their study of bat behaviours. The colony living in it is stable, had been here for at least fifty years, and of course the cave has been here for millennia. Nothing going wrong for so long and then a bunch of rocks falling? It’s just his luck, really.

the stone-filled sea by yukla

He forgets how quickly Wei-qianbei changes faces, sometimes. Like pulling a theater mask over a bruise—color over color, a diversion with the swipe of his hand.

Lan Sizhui navigates a world that hates his father, one endless wave at a time.

10 RMB lucky chickens by Raitelzen

This was a love story between a pair of right cocks.

Not on Jiang Cheng's watch.

(The one where Jiang Cheng's a PhD chlamydia researcher; Lan Xichen's the NEET social recluse who moves in next door; and they come together because Jiang Cheng's pet chicken Wei Cluckxian won't stay out of Lan Xichen's chicken Wingji's coop).

Calling Heaven by mondengel 

Lan Wangji had not wanted to come at all.

Wireless by mondengel 

The Jiang Sect was famous for it's marvelous creations. Lan Wangji is just as enthralled as everyone else until he gets a closer look.

among the stars by plonk

Twelve takes on Wangxian in Firefly-flavored space western settings, plus one in our world.

Featuring: psychics, outlaws, Companions, two kidnappings, both of which end surprisingly well, a hot butch mechanic, a new god and his chief disciple, a couple of cowboys out on the range, and some present-day comic con dads.

The Long Way Home by tangelotime

For the longest time, anger was the strength Jiang Cheng used to stand up straight and face the world. He was sect leader. He had expectations to meet and obligations to fulfill. But when his grip on his anger begins to slip, he needs to find what else can hold him up.

The Piper of Yiling by theLoyalRoyalGuard

Thirteen years after the death of Yiling Laozu, a ghostly flute plays in the hills above Lanling, and those who are outside to hear it are never seen again.

Then the brightest disciples of the sects begin to disappear, and the whispers begin.

You took my son. Now I take yours...

Old Foreshadows by protos_metazu_ison

With the threat of the Wen sect looming, the other major sects decide to summon the aid of a man they’d killed centuries ago: the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian.

Start a Riot by ohwhatevrewhatevr

“They killed A-Die and A-Niang,” Jiang Cheng says, his sharp, defined muscular frame curling in. He's all lean, purposeful muscle, nude and bruised. 

“Wei Wuxian -” Jiang Cheng grits out in a dangerous, furious rasp - there’s a slight tremor to it still. He still isn’t looking at Wei Ying, just lying there limp, his face to his side, showing his profile and those sharp cheekbones. “Where the hell did you go? Where did you go that was worth leaving me behind ?”

“I-”

“And why won’t you tell me? Why won’t you-”

TL;DR Jiang Cheng goes into heat, they fuck, and hormones make them spill some of the beans before they go spill some Wen blood. (no romance happens :/, just sex)

Not Yet (There As Needed) by sunrise_and_death

As always, he arrives with no forewarning. One second, Lan Sizhui and the others are struggling against the hordes of resentful spirits created by some villagers’ accidental disruption of an ancient burial ground—far more spirits than had been initially reported, far more than they had been prepared for—and the next, he’s there, striding fearlessly into the mix, the sound of Chenqing piercing the air.

Or: A meditation on family and the merits of communication, courtesy of Lan Sizhui.

of the things unsaid by Seeliteer

Then Wei Wuxian emerges from the Supervisory Office shrouded in resentment, daemon settled as a pitch black crow by his side.

He emerges, and he breaks Xichen’s brother’s heart.

Daemon au through the eyes of Lan Xichen

The Uncle Trap by ladyshadowdrake

Post-cannon, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng forced to cooperate to rescue their disaster!nephew, with guest appearances from Lan Wangji, Sizhui, and a very startled troll.

Helping Yourself by nirejseki

Wei Wuxian leaves the Burial Mounds with a brand new power, but the resentful energies have so corroded his mind that he's forgotten - many things. The name of the cultivator in purple, for example. The reason they hate their enemies so much. All he knows is how he feels about them.

And there's this one cultivator in white that makes him feel - something else. Wei Wuxian is pretty sure he knows what that something is.

the dead horse by curiositykilled

Dying hurts. She’s grown up with stories, of course, legends and histories alike about the glorious deaths of heroes. They’re often on battlefields like this, but no one mentions the chaos or the pain.

Lying in the ashes of clan members and unquiet spirits alike, Yanli thinks that was a pretty big oversight.

Her back burns with red-hot agony, and her chest is a cavity of pain so deep it’s almost numb. Already, the screams are blurring, smudging like smoke, like the black ribbons coiling off and around her little brother. Her eyes slip shut and the black swallows her.

anyway, here's wuji by kakikaeru

The melody gets a little clearer when he breaks out of the trees, and Jingyi changes course with certainty, barreling down the back hill and through the Cloud Recesses, dodging scandalized disciples left and right. He throws open the doors to the Receiving Hall without announcement and bows nearly double, eyes on the floor instead of on the shocked faces of the Mei delegation and the impenetrable gaze of the Chief Cultivator.

"Forgive this disciple," Jingyi shouts, because he's going to get punished for rule breaking regardless. "From the back hill, Hanguang-jun, there is a song in the wind!"

Pigtail Pulling by protos_metazu_ison

“Tell me I’m beautiful, Lan er-gege!”

“You are well aware you are beautiful,” Lan Wangji says.

Wei Wuxian trips over Jiang Wanyin and sends both of them to the ground in a tangle of limbs and bruises.

three days gone by occultings (microcomets)

“I’ve been mooning over Lan Zhan since far before I even realized I was mooning — since before you were even born.” Wei Wuxian grins slyly at Jin Ling. “Where do you think you got your courtesy name from, little nephew?”

Jin Ling’s face goes slack with shock and horror in equal measure. “No. No. Absolutely not.

Or: While missing Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian hazes his nephew. And maybe helps him beat up a guy.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae

In which Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan are conspicuously terrible, Lan Wangji decides to fake-date Wei Wuxian about it, and literally no braincells are consulted.

A Spark in Dry Brush by mondengel 

Blood dripped to the earth with a wet patter, dirt ground beneath a boot as loud as fireworks in a staggered step backward, and then Lan Wangji fell.

The Good That Won't Come Out by raisedbyhyenas

“I mean, yes, an entire family disappearing and vanishing cultivators aren’t ideal,” Wei Wuxian says, waving his hand. “But being out here! Investigating a mystery! Mortal peril, even! I mean, Lan Zhan, imagine — it’s been months since someone last tried to kill me — ”

Lan Wangji flinches. 

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji investigate a disappearance.

Neatly Arranged by thunderwear

Betrothed.

 

Lan Wangji was six the first time he heard that word. He wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but his mother didn’t seem to like it, so he decided that he didn’t like it either.

coming of age, coming alive by narie

"That Mo Xuanyu," Jingyi grumbled, "I don't like him. He has the thickest face. And he's dishonest, too - he's no more of a lunatic than I am. So why does he keep pretending anyhow?"

Sizhui hummed his acknowledgement. The way their new guest's moods could shift from shrillness to stunned stillness seemed something other than lunacy to him too. "Hanguang-jun trusts him," he said, when the silence between them made it clear Jingyi desired more conversation.

"I know." It was, apparently, a source of deep frustration for him. "I just can't understand why."

Out of the Bin and Into Your Heart by Alaceron

"Lan Zhan!” Wuxian exclaims as soon as the door to Lan Wangji's apartment opens. “Fake-date me!”

The door slams shut in his face.

i don't love you (but i always will) by sixstepsaway

They’re not soulmates.

Lan Wangji’s soulmate is a soft-spoken, even-tempered son of Jin Guangshan, and Wei Wuxian’s soulmate is the strong-willed and loyal Wen Qing.

They’re perfect matches, just like fate would decree, and Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian?

They're not soulmates and they never will be.

the shadow of a name in skin by iliacquer

Wei Wuxian doesn’t let the Wen Remnants hand themselves over after Jin Zixuan’s death. Instead he makes one last sacrifice to ensure they survive. Months later, a Lan cultivator kneels at the edge of the Burial Mounds, ready to offer himself to the feared Yiling Patriarch.

Or: Sacrifice is an old magic, but love is even older.

the necromancer's fairytale by iliacquer

The Prince of Gusu is kidnapped for ransom. He’s saved by a nightmare made flesh.

Or: A necromancer, his palace of bones, his long-lost husband, and the rise of their dark kingdom.

if you can't beat them, recruit them by moeblobmegane 

Rather than mourning a future that had not happened yet, he would rather work with all his might to prevent it from happening. [...] His aim was to fortify his home and his family so that they would never again be left vulnerable to greedy cultivators aiming for his genius. For that, he needed help.

He may be a genius, but he was not the cunning manipulative man they thought him to be.

No, that was not him.

He knew who was, though.

(Or: Wei Wuxian uses a powerful array to go back in time and builds a secret squad to prevent the misfortunes of the future.)

Cotton Wool by incendir

4 times someone protected the yiling patriarch's virtue, and 1 time he did it himself.

his heart an open wound by TheDameJudiWench

It's Sizhui who brings it to Lan Wangji's attention, his words so careful and apologetic that at first, Lan Wangji wonders what his son could possibly have done to be so apprehensive.

And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami

"Zewu-Jun. You once told me about a house surrounded by gentians, where you visited once a month, and how Lan Zhan still waited there, even when the door no longer opened."

Xichen feels light-headed. He feels shocked, and angry. He has never told anyone such a thing, but Lan Zhan is giving Xichen a look of utter betrayal.

"You told him?" Lan Zhan whispers. "When?"

Wei Wuxian takes Lan Zhan's hand. "About twenty years from now."

[krysmcscience]

I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.

Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:

Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao

this is so stupid :D

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[oasisr]

after hearing "simply having a wonderful christmas time" by paul mccartney 74 times while working in retail, I came to the conclusion that they shot the wrong beatle

[pirateprincessjess]

I feel the need to periodically remind people that Idiocracy is a eugenics movie.

One of the things that eugenicists believe is that it is bad for society when the “wrong people” breed.

The entire premise of the movie is that “stupid people” kept having kids while “smart people” didn’t have kids, and it ruined society because stupid genes propagated while smart genes died out. This is eugenics propaganda.

I know people will read this and their response will be “actually it’s satire” but the movie isn’t satirizing eugenics. It’s satirizing anti-intellectualism, and consumerism, and it proposes eugenics as a solution.

When eugenics was first conceived, it was used as a way to justify inequality. The idea was that people who held privilege were able to do so because they were smarter and genetically superior to lazy and stupid people who don’t have privilege. Obviously this is bad and wrong, but it is also the core lesson of Idiocracy.

The movie literally ends with the main character becoming president and having “the smartest children in the world.” Because he and his wife have smarter genes than everyone else. The proposed solution for the things that Idiocracy is satirizing is for the smart people to have children that can be in charge of the world.

I know it’s fun to use this movie to dunk on anti-intellectualism and the MAGA movement, but we need to stop. When you quote and reference this movie you are spreading eugenics propaganda.

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

...I got fiddlestan brainworms

hehehe funny spongebob reference

[fairydriver]

if you post an image in discord itll round the corners, but once you hit a certain smallness it rounds into a circle. so basically if you make an image that is 32x32 and you post it in discord itll go from this

to this.

so you basically can just draw a little face in mspaint or something and paste it into discord and itll look like a little emoji. you can potentially mess around with this a lot, its proportional to your image going smaller and it doesnt have to be a square either.

[clownowo]

been replaying the Portal series I think this is where its heading

[sixth-light]

I have had these thoughts bubbling away in my head for like...eighteen months or so now (it will become very obvious why shortly) but the discussion in this post has pushed me to write them down: I think societally we HUGELY underestimate how motherhood for primary caregivers, particularly first-time motherhood, can be a source of vulnerability to radicalisation.

There is obviously huge cultural variance here, but for a lot of cis women becoming primary caregiver to an infant in a capitalist Western society represents a time of immense vulnerability because in general you are:

Incredibly sleep-deprived (which has well-documented knock-on effects for your judgement, mental health, etc)

If you gave birth, recovering from a significant challenge to your physical health (even in the best-case scenario)

Isolated from your previous networks and communities of people in full-time work

Completely separated from the context of your prior career goals and achievements

Under huge amounts of stress to learn how to care for an infant (don't get me started on breastfeeding)

And on top of this, you are also be experiencing a huge amount of messaging about how all this is natural, wonderful, something you're meant to do, something you should love doing, and something that you must do for the welfare of their child. It's a huge amount of pressure and life change even when everything goes right and there's very little cultural space to express negative feelings about it.

Any group of people who offer community, support, and affirmation to cis women in this situation are going to have a really good shot at radicalising them into some very weird and dangerous headspaces and in fact we see this happen all the time - think antivaxxers and TERFs. It flies under the radar because of the hazy positive glow that associates with motherhood and babies and also because we don't take the radicalisation of women seriously I guess because they rarely shoot anybody, but...yeah. It is such a vulnerable time!

[remxedmoon]

comfort food.

(greyscale below!)

aaaaa. iii needed to make something self indulgent!!!! and for me that means drawing Bonnie and also putting a frankly stupid amount of work into rendering food!! outside of the onigiri and spaghetti (kind of), most of these were firsts for me and GOD im so happy with the results. i’ve seen a few people say that my art makes them hungry teehee. i hope this illicits the same reaction! please enjoy :3

here’s the greyscale version!! iii don’t think it’s As Appetizing as the colored version and the values are a little messy but! it exist !

[idolomantises]

Man is it just me or are a lot of TV shows nowadays are written to have big emotional episodes in scenes with very little build up.

[thethunderthedragonfruit]

i was REALLY surprised i hadnt seen anyone animate over anything from the prevenge script reading yet, so i took matters into my own hands. i thought this bit was hilarious

audio from here

[girlboyburger]

[captainjonnitkessler]

Do you guys notice how when Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, started planning a general strike, he did it by a) targeting his messaging towards unions with the ability to safely and effectively strike in large numbers, b) laid out a clear, actionable plan for those unions to follow (setting contracts to all expire at the same time, since many unions cannot strike while under contract), c) is using union contracts to set clear, actionable demands that can be met in order to gauge success and provide an end goal, and d) started organizing FOUR YEARS before the proposed strike date to give people the chance to plan accordingly, because it takes a really freaking long time to get tens of millions of people organized?

You notice how he didn't do it by slapping a message on Twitter saying 'hey nobody go to work on Monday, that'll really show 'em'?

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[blackkatdraws2]

[Toon x Mobster] drawn for fun, he doesn't know how to hold that thing wwwwww