#but if I’m in writing post-canon YQY he’ll either be single

[gaywarcriminals]

hi fish! i’m not sure if you multiship yqy but you are the yue qingyuan expert imo and i’m very curious to know your thoughts on tlj and yqy as a ship? maybe in a post canon world? i know he doesn’t need romance to be happy but… idk i’m haunted after reading your Trellis fic and can’t help but want someone to Pursue that sopping wet puppy man!! 🥺🤲 holds him gently

Aww, I’m honored to be considered a YQY expert 🥺 I will strive to be worthy of this title. 

I do multipship YQY (at least in theory. I’m picky about it), but tianyue is a NOTP for me! I understand the desire to shove two guys with a similar life experience together, and for that I really like the potential in their platonic dynamic (ex: YQY tolerating TLJ’s TLJ-ness because this is the one person he can talk to who Gets It), plus there’s the drama of YQY being at TLJ’s sealing and almost seeming to regret/think poorly of it, but I don’t multiship TLJ (Tianxi 4ever), and I haven’t personally found any grounds for tianyue romantic chemistry that compel me. 

As you alluded to, I also have a sort of philosophical disagreement with the idea of pairing up the two sad divorced widowers because they’re both single at the end of the story. Trellis is in part about my issues with romance as a moral imperative for happiness— as an aroace person I’m not a big fan of the idea that someone needs to get into a relationship to be happy, or to move on/get over someone. Platonic relationships are just as important, and I really really love the idea of YQY being supported by his found family martial siblings (if I hadn't been trying to get the fic done in time for YQYweekend, I would have added WQW and SQH too! I’m really happy with the final product as-is though). 

I don’t think post-canon, and specifically post-Trellis YQY needs a relationship to be happy because YQY has 11 people on the mountain who care a deeply for their Zhangmen-shixiong. I’m sure he also has many devoted disciples; there’s no shortage of people who want to love YQY if he would just let them in more. I headcanon that YQY didn’t really have friends pre-canon because he held everyone at a polite distance, so my goals for post-canon are often just to give him richer friendships. I think that’s what he really needs to heal and grow.