#cql-verse

[fortune-maiden]

I’m sure something like this already exists probably but I’m really craving a mdzs back to the future AU where Jin Ling travels back to the sunshot campaign…. just in time to witness the soup incident and rip Jin Zixuan a new one for making a woman cry like that.

And not realizing until afterwards that those were his parents

Well now he’s made an enemy of his father who has never been spoken to like that and who is this unruly child wearing Jin robes and sporting the vermillion mark? How dare?

Jin Ling, in a panic and definitely not knowing the sunshot timeline well enough: I’m Meng Yao

(It’s fine he thinks. The real Meng Yao had a brief stint in the Jin camp before joining the Wen as a spy. And his father and everyone important in the Jin clan never met the real one until after the war. And LXC and NMJ are on different fronts. So this cannot come back to haunt him.)

Meanwhile Jiang Yanli has a dilemma. All her life she’s built up an image of JZX in her head, the man she would one day marry, who’d take care of her and treat her well. And he’s humiliated her time and again and shown that he never cared to get to know her at all. But here is Meng Yao, a gentleman who spoke up for her despite his own poor standing and at great risk to himself. He looks quite similar to JZX too (well obviously, they are half brothers), but has the sort of righteous temper she’s always imagined on her ex-fiancée. And he seems to get along okay with her brothers!

Maybe it won’t hurt to get to know him a little better…

[thatswhatsushesaid]

"doubt comes in," from anaïs mitchell's hadestown (2010) - [pt. 1 | pt. 2]

[unforth]

Trick or treat!! What do you think about some Wen Ning and Wen Qing sibling bonding 🥺 as a treat 🥺

"So, are you ready to go trick-or-treating?" asked Wen Qing.

Startled, Wen Ning looked up, long strands of intentionally dirtied hair falling into his face. A Yuan had been...enthusiastic...about Wen Ning's zombie costume, and determined not to let his nephew down, Wen Ning had gone all in on makeup and tattered clothing, and had made himself filthy with some mud from a ditch near the apartment. But...

"We're done already?" he said hesitantly, gesturing toward where A Yuan had fallen asleep on the couch with his head in Granny's lap as she knit, the only sound the clink-clink-clink of her knitting needles. They'd gone all up and down the street, asking in every restaurant and shop, and had gotten a decent stash. A Yuan had been his usual sunny, cheery self, charming every owner into exclamations of "hen keai!!!" with his radish costume. It'd been fun. But now it was over. And that was fine.

"Not for him," said Wen Qing, rolling her eyes. The white contact lenses she wore for her jiangshi costume gave it an eerie effect. "For you."

"Me?" Wen Ning blinked at her.

"Yes, you." She pinned him with a pointed finger capped with a pointed stick-on nail.

"But I'm 16..."

"Oh, yes, definitely too old to go trick-or-treating." She rolled her eyes again, and Wen Ning was glad that even if the warmth in his cheeks meant a flush, his costume muck would hide it. "Seriously, didi," she continued more gently, "you deserve to get to act like a kid sometimes too. A Yuan is fine here with Granny" - Granny nodded her agreement with a faint hum - "and we never get to spend any time together. Go trick-or-treating with me?"

Despite the instincts telling him he should decline, Wen Ning couldn't help but break into a smile, and Wen Qing beamed in response. "Oh...okay," he mumbled.

"We'll be back," Wen Qing said to Granny. "Text if you need anything." She gave them a dismissive wave. They all knew she didn't know how to text. "Let's do this, bro."

And, vampire-in-zombie hand, they headed out to make the rounds. Wen Ning wasn't sure they'd be able to get any candy, but it was okay. An evening, just his sister and he, was precious time to be cherished even if they did nothing at all.

[sandu-zidian]

Most will only have one death. I will have two.

- Margaret Atwood, “Half-Hanged Mary”

[greenandhazy]

I am getting like seriously obsessed with the idea of an AU in which Meng Yao, Wei Ying, and Xue Yang meet as children and grow up to be sworn brothers/an Abhorrent Triad (not sold on that exact adjective but w/e)

Wei Ying doesn’t get found/adopted by the Jiang clan, but a nice older boy who lives in a brothel helps him hide there when he’s scared of a dog and they become friends. Meng Yao doesn’t have much food to share, but he does what he can, and he does have books and that’s worth just as much. A few years later Wei Ying stumbles across a boy who has been walking for days trying to track down Chang Ci’an, despite the fact that he’s practically delirious from the pain of an injured hand. Meng Shi is ailing by that point and maybe Meng Yao is reluctant to take on another brother, but Wei Ying brings Xue Yang inside just to give him cool water and bandages at least and Meng Shi insists they help, and Xue Yang is already nursing a vicious streak that becomes really useful as the brothel becomes more of a hostile place to live.

A few years later, Meng Yao goes to Jinlintai. Gets thrown out of Jinlintai. But Wei Ying and Xue Yang are there to say fuck the Jin, we’re your family, and they swear it in an informal little ceremony in the cheapest room of the only inn they can afford. They go to the Nie. At some point, Jiang Fengmian comes across Wei Ying, realizes who he is, and insists on sponsoring his education with the Lan. Xue Yang is already kind of resentful because being a minor vassal for the Nie does NOT suit his temperament, so not being able to accompany Wei Ying is the last straw and he runs away. Neither of his brothers see him again until he’s slaughtered the Chang Clan—although I think this version of Xue Yang, where he has some family he can rely on from an early age, softens him just enough that he is a little more discriminating. He leaves the children alive, at least, and when he’s captured, his silver-tongued Da-ge can make an argument that he was enforcing some kind of justice.

Not enough to convince Nie Mingjue, but enough that Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan (who accompany the group to Qinghe this time because they’re obvi not letting this criminal’s brothers have absolute custody of him) are somewhat swayed. The three brothers end up escaping together—I’m going to say Wei Ying still ends up in the Wen indoctrination camp because he still managed to piss of Wen Chao, but I can’t decide if it makes more sense for Meng Yao to remain as the Wen spy or for Xue Yang to get that job? 🤔 Anyway ONE of them takes it, but regardless Meng Yao also is like “war is coming, that means civilian casualties, that means famine” and sets up like a proto-watchtower system with the help of XXC, SL, and other rogue cultivators.

Wei Ying still turns to demonic cultivation. Xue Yang still turns to demonic cultivation. By the end of the war, the major clans are still calling for their heads but they’re heroes and no amount of propaganda is going to convince the common people that the Abhorrent Triad deserves death, not after they saved so many of the lives that the major clans didn’t seem to care about.

Hand-waving the end of the war a bit because I’m not sure exactly how the Nie/Jiang relationships with WY and MY would change things, but. Imagining Xue Yang having a full screaming meltdown when Wei Ying dies, Meng Yao can just barely keep him from jumping over the cliff to catch him. Meng Yao asks Lan Xichen to promise that if they’re going to be executed, they kill Xue Yang first, because Xue Yang is practically catatonic and he can’t bear to leave his didi alone, even for a few minutes, not after all of this.

ANYWAYYYYY. I think the class and family politics of these three characters makes for a fascinating contrast and I would like it to have even more angst and love and the particular angst that comes from loving others more than you love yourself thnx bye.

[wayofcloudbrain]

Paris - Milan - Qinghe (Da-ge is made for the runway.)

~~~

Inktober 2022 fill for the prompt “fashion”

[chengqing-zone]

Jiāng Chéng ♥ Wēn Qíng || Я слишком поздно, ты слишком рано.

[pear-blossom-days-jasmine-nights]

Here's my latest fic!

And here's a wee excerpt:

"There's only one bed," he finally concedes, preparing himself for another argument over who needs it more. He's slept on roof tiles and bare earth. Some blankets on the floor would be near luxurious in comparison. Lan Zhan, on the other hand, is used to a standard of living which does not include sleeping on the floor. It makes sense for them to divide the room like this.

“We can share it.”

Lan Zhan says it so easily that Wei Wuxian’s first thought is to wonder whether he’s possessed. People change, that is true, but how can this be the same Lan Zhan who once preferred to hold his collar instead of his hand? How can this be the same Lan Zhan who could once be frightened into coughing up blood by the mere sight of him disrobing?"

[fincalinde]

Every morning Lan Xichen wakes in Meng Yao's bed and experiences a frisson when Meng Yao smiles at him from his makeshift pallet on the floor. There is the nervous thrill of realising he is not wearing his ribbon, and the determined thrill of remembering that he owes Meng Yao not just his life but the very lifeblood of his clan.

x

Both during and after the war, Lan Xichen gives Jin Guangyao what gifts he can.

[llycaons]

I love lqr but he's hardly blameless in how he raised his nephews. its more explicit how strict he was in the novel and how difficult that was for lwj and lxc, but in the drama making lwj kneel with the bamboo for like...two days? with his arms out like that just for visiting wwx is so harsh. like presumably most of the lans, and honestly most of the sects, he's punitive minded and he sees it as the only way to protect people he sees as under his guardianship and correct behavior he sees as unacceptable. but he just causes suffering and in the end he didn't keep lwj away from wwx anyway

[eastofakkala]

Chapter 8 of A Koi Tower Christmas is out! @glitterlessgold​ and I are very happy to present the end of brunch at long last. Now there’s just an epilogue, and then we will be done! Thanks to everyone who’s read so far. 

Chapter Title: New Year’s? Kiss?? Spotlight Characters: Mianmian, Qin Su ⚠️ Trigger Warning: While this is a modern AU, we’ve decided to stay with Qin Su’s canon origin story. There will be discussion of sexual assault in this chapter. Please stay safe, everyone.

Read the chapter here. 

[hatredcurse]

@aranlae // Madara said  ❝ You look magnificent, Izuna, ❞ Madara beamed at him. ❝ My little brother is the most dashing one of the court. ❞

A smile curled on Izuna’s painted lips. One with unadulterated elation. The nervous shake in his hands ceased at his older brother’s affirming comments. Whatever uncertainty he held in his soul earlier, vanished into thin air like incense. 

“We both look good,” he couldn’t help but uplift his brother too. Both in matching robes and color scheme. Izuna’s carried a black sheer over layer the base crimson hanfu in addition to his signature qiuyi. The younger always had a bit more visual flair compared to the elder, both in makeup and dress, only because he had the inclination for the dramatics. His brother was a respected warlord, admired general, he had his own wardrobe agenda. Izuna much the same, except his talents tipped within the Damiyo palace specifically, and petty little him liked embarrassing the attending wives of the court.

Reaching forward, he helped smooth the creases from Madara’s robe, straightening his collar. “Are you excited for today?” he asked, fully knowing that this is routine for the two of them. 

A deep breath, expanding his lungs and allowing his clothes to slack against his frame since he felt like he was suffocating under the pressure of all the cloth. “They better recognize your accomplishments on the Western border and not pass off the glory to that sorry general who happened to be in the area,” he clutched his maple wood fan until his knuckles were white. “They’ll be sorry if they pull that again.” 

[hyraeth]

Spooky_Jgy.jpg

[unforth]

Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī Additional Tags: Sunshot Campaign (Módào Zǔshī), Epistolary, Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Length: 1,325 Summary:

Exhausted, Lan Zhan returns to his tent after a long day of battle during the Sunshot Campaign.

And, on his pillow, he finds a letter that cannot possibly exist.

(written for Day 2 of May Trope Mayhem: War Setting)

@duckprintspress

(whole fic is under the read more...)

It’s late when Lan Zhan returns to the tent he shares with his brother, far past the familiar Cloud Recesses curfew, far closer to the familiar Cloud Recesses morning wake-up hour; he’s exhausted. His robes are sullied with dirt and blood and he doesn’t know what else. Lan Huan hasn’t returned, won’t return until the Wen are driven from the field or the allies are. All Lan Zhan wants to do is seize the little sleep he’d manage before habit awakens him once more, before battle summons him once more, but as he drops to his knees beside the thin palette he pretends is a suitable bed, he’s arrested by a neatly folded paper laid across his so-called pillow.

Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji, Hanguang Jun, Lan Er-gege reads the achingly familiar calligraphy brushed onto it. Despite his fatigue, the list of alternative addresses brings an unwarranted, inappropriate smile to Lan Zhan’s face. The writing is Wei Wuxian’s, well-known after endless hours of supervised Lan Clan Rule copying, and Lan Zhan can picture Wei Wuxian sitting with the completed letter, staring at it, lips pursed around the end of his brush as he tries to decide how best to label it before finally deciding to simply use all the options. It’s so him, and it stirs such tender feelings, and Lan Zhan is far too gone - in more ways than one - to suppress that pleasure as he usually would.

Then his heart hardens as reality sets in. Wei Wuxian no longer sends light-hearted jabs Lan Zhan’s way, only pointed, cruel darts that stab at his heart. It’s been thus since he returned from the Burial Mounds, returned as the Yiling Laozu with too many dark tricks and too many secrets hidden behind his once-bright eyes.

I wish he’d just…talk to me.

Lan Zhan’s hands tremble around the fine paper as he lifts it, considering opening it, considering throwing it into the nearest fire. What would Wei Wuxian have to say to him that he’d want to read? But his gaze doesn’t leave the fluid lines of his name, his tired mind cataloging details without his conscious direction.

The writing is sloppy and rushed.

The ink is high quality.

The brush didn’t shed a single bristle.

The paper…

Lan Zhan frowns. The paper is his own preferred make, purchased from a craftsman in Gusu. How could Wei Wuxian have a sheet of it, here? How could he have it now?

Nothing about this letter makes sense.

And that is why Lan Zhan finally turns the letter over, breaks the seal - done in brilliant red, in a style Lan Zhan has never known Wei Wuxian to use before - and unfolds the fine page to reveal the scrawl within.

Lan Zhan - can I call you Lan Zhan? Too late now. I don’t know if you’ll receive this but, thinking back over the events of the last twenty years, I knew I had to try.

Twenty years? Twenty years ago, neither of them had been born yet. Could this be some reveal about Wen Ruohan? Some hidden history of the Burial Mounds? Some forgotten ritual or tool that might help Yunmeng, Gusu, Qinghe, and Lanling win the war? Or–

Wondering would never answer Lan Zhan’s questions. Reading on might. Fatigue made Lan Zhan foolish.

I used a complex ritual to send this to you. It looked like this

An arrow pointed at a sketch of a circle, outlined in thick lines and filled in with characters painted so thickly that they looked more like blotches than words. Lan Zhan is excellent at ritual construction, but he is still not an expert - not as skilled as Lan Qiren or Wei Wuxian - and he can make little of it.

Regardless, the point is if you’re holding this letter. It worked! Congratulations to myself. I’d ask you to tell me so, but if you tried, I wouldn’t understand, and anyway, you already have, or will have.

Growing annoyed, Lan Zhan scowls at the page. Had Wei Wuxian been drunk when he wrote this? It makes no sense! Lan Zhan’s time truly would be better spent sleeping - what use to him is Wei Wuxian’s self-aggrandizing babbling?

My mistake. None of that was the point either. The point is, if nothing changes, I’m going to die. I know, because for me, it has already happened. You’ve already been alone for over ten years. I’ve already been brought back. 

Lan Zhan’s jaw drops, and he looks back to the ritual Wei Wuxian has shared. He can see it now - the combination of lines, the careful placement of elements, the specific characters chosen, together they create an array that can pierce time itself.

And, of all possible options, Wei Wuxian of the future has chosen to write a letter to him?

Why?

“I’m going to die,” Wei Wuxian had written. Lan Zhan’s heart aches, and he reads on quickly, attention finally arrested, fatigue receding to the background.

It’s not too late to help him - to help me. I know how hard that will be for you. We’ve spoken about it, and even if we hadn’t, I remember: how icy you were, how cocky I was, how much arrogance had gone to each of our heads. Yes, yours too, oh precious jade of Gusu. He won’t want to listen to you, but you need to make him. You don’t even know how wrong everything is going to go once the war is over, how much everyone will suffer, how much you personally will suffer.

He’ll fight you every step of the way, but I promise you, Lan Zhan: he needs you. I need you. And…he’ll love you. Eventually, he’ll love you so much he won’t know how to live without you. He’ll love you as you love him, and as I love you. Don’t repeat our mistakes. Go to him, Lan Zhan. 

I’d sign it, but do I really need to? I know you, then as now, know my writing. Farewell, my love.

Tears sting Lan Zhan’s eyes as he reads, rereads, rereads, the ending of the letter.

What Wei Wuxian wrote was impossible.

Except it isn’t, clearly it isn’t: the ink, the paper, the personal stamp, the ritual - none of it can have a better explanation than the one that Wei Wuxian has offered. No one but Wei Wuxian could discover such a spell and use it thus…and no one but Lan Zhan could read these affecting words and focus on their plausibility instead of their essential meaning.

He knows he’s hiding from Wei Wuxian’s actual implications.

He’ll love you as I love you.

It’s impossible that Wei Wuxian knows that Lan Zhan adores him.

It’s impossible that Wei Wuxian could return his affections.

It’s impossible that Wei Wuxian could have written such a letter, could have sent such a letter, without some future Lan Zhan’s knowledge, input, implicit or explicit endorsement. 

As the night cycles toward dawn, Lan Zhan sits with the letter in his hand, thoughts spinning.

By the time sunlight makes the tent’s sides glow, he’s made his decision. 

It’s impossible that this current Wei Wuxian could feel thusly toward Lan Zhan, and equally impossible that Lan Zhan can command the expressions, the sentiments, the confessions, to make his own feelings known toward Wei Wuxian.

Except, at some point in the future, after death and separation and pain…Lan Zhan clearly does make such confessions, and his feelings clearly are reciprocated.

If he can do it at some point in the future…

…then why can’t he do it now?

No - he must do it now.

Folding the letter carefully, he places it into his sleeve and rises fluidly to his feet, stained robes heavy about his ankles.

He steps out of the tent, out into the morning, out toward the future.

He can, and will, and must do as Wei Wuxian…as his love has asked.

And he calls, “Wei Ying!”

[greenandhazy]

I need to get this off my chest:

I actually think LXC is the least attractive member of 3zun.

[musingsofabooklover]

I want more untamed/mdzs stuff on my dash, I only follow a couple of people who regularly post it at the moment and I want to see more wangxian on here lol. also the other characters too i have at least 10 favourites in this show