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veliseraptor · 3 years

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Hi! Can you give a brief spoilery summary of the Untamed? I just read [the pretties from your posts] died? Oh no. I tried getting information through google but it’s confusing for someone who doesn’t know the characters.

oh lord. there are all kinds of ‘brief summaries of the Untamed’ out there but I’ve always found them vaguely irritating so...I guess that means it’s time for my comeuppance in the form of having to do it myself? I’ll do my best.

I didn’t know how detailed you wanted me to get so I decided to get pretty detailed, since you did ask for spoilery. so this is like. entirely spoilers. spoilers for everything.

also, you can use, if it’s helpful, my brief character overview (‘brief’) which includes some plot information, and could be useful as cross reference also. I’m playing pretty fast and loose with a lot of terminology for the sake of intelligibility, because otherwise this would get even longer and have a lot more links.

also, because you asked me specifically for this, it’s going to have some bias. I tried to keep my interpretive commentary to a relative minimum? but. uh. yeah.

the briefest basic plot overview is (going off The Untamed canon, which you will also see abbreviated as CQL from the pinyin transliteration of the Chinese title (Chen Qing Ling)):

Wei Wuxian, a cultivation (think, loosely, magic) prodigy and creator of his own particular style of cultivation, dies reviled by most of the known world. Sixteen years later he’s raised from the dead by Mo Xuanyu, an outcast and the bastard son of one of the leaders of the main sects of the cultivation world, in order to take revenge on Mo Xuanyu’s enemies (specifically his abusive family and ~an unknown person~).

And here is where we get into the details.

Pretty much immediately upon Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, people start dying at Mo Manor, before Wei Wuxian has even done anything, because of (it turns out) a very angry spirit of a semi-sentient weapon. Wei Wuxian books it out of town after his old best friend/crush Lan Wangji shows up to help the Lan ducklings he’s shepherding (including most notably Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, the only named characters of that bunch), only to wind up running into him again on the road - and not only him, but his orphaned nephew (shorthand, go with it) Jin Ling (Wei Wuxian was responsible for his parents’ deaths) and Jiang Cheng, his martial brother who (at least according to rumor) killed him sixteen years ago and still bears a hell of a grudge. In order to save Jin Ling, Wei Wuxian summons the “Ghost General” Wen Ning, who was supposed to be destroyed and whose presence confirms his identity to a very pissed off Jiang Cheng. Lan Wangji recognizes Wei Wuxian as well. Wei Wuxian passes out.

followed any of that? no? that’s fine, because now we’re heading into a thirty episode flashback that’ll clarify some things. (but not before you forget a whole bunch of things from the first two episodes.)

I’m going to split this into arcs. I’m also going to put this under a read more, because...yeah, this came out to just a little over 10,500 words. I’m...sorry.

have fun?

Cloud Recesses Summer School Arc

The time card says “sixteen years earlier” but it isn’t sixteen years earlier because that would make no sense, but it’s better to give up on timeline now or you’ll just drive yourself nuts.

This is the part of the show where you meet the main characters, some of whom you saw earlier (notably Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian’s younger sort-of brother), and some of whom you only know from reference (Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian’s older sort-of sister) and some of whom are significantly important (Lan Wangji). You also meet Jin Zixuan, the snotty heir to the Jin Sect, who will be important later. Jiang Yanli is clearly into him and he seems to very much not return the feelings.

At this point, there are five main sects that the characters belong to. They are (with the characters you’ve met from them so far: the Jiang Sect (Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli), the Nie Sect (Nie Huaisang, a flighty and sort of feckless fellow), the Jin Sect (Jin Zixuan, his social skills translator Mianmian), the Lan Sect (Lan Wangji, his brother Lan Xichen) as well as the Wen Sect (more on them in a moment). Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian meet and immediately...something. Wei Wuxian wants to make friends, and Lan Wangji seems to emphatically Not.

You also meet Meng Yao, who is Nie Huaisang’s brother Nie Mingjue’s right hand man, and also the bastard son of Jin Guangshan (the leader of Jin Sect). He is also the son of (using the words of literally everyone) a prostitute, which people remind him of at every possible moment, in case he was in danger of forgetting, or something. He and Lan Xichen have kind of a moment.

Later on, members of the Wen Sect, led by Wen Chao storm in, posturing disrespectfully, and drop off Wen Qing to “learn” (but secretly she has a mission looking for the Yin Iron/Metal). The Wen are ascendant in power and seem to be flexing their muscle looking for trouble.

Wen Qing comes as a set with her brother Wen Ning - the pair of them are from sort of...a secondary branch of the main Wen family, and she’s being coerced into supporting Wen Ruohan despite being not thrilled about it. Wei Wuxian bonds with Wen Qing’s younger brother Wen Ning, who has a weird situation that makes him vulnerable to possession (this is important later).

At one point Wei Wuxian proposes - in response to a question! He’s just being innovative! - to put it simply, necromancy, which is, to say the least, not a hit. Remember that for later!

Eventually, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian end up falling by accident into some ice caves, where they learn from one of Lan Wangji’s ancestors (Lan Yi, she’s cool) about the Yin Iron, of which she has a piece. It is an spiritually corrupted metal that can’t be destroyed so it was broken into pieces and hidden in different places. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji resolve jointly to find the other pieces.

Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, and Jiang Cheng (henceforth “the Yunmeng siblings”) are picked up early by Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng’s dad (Jiang Fengmian) because Wei Wuxian causes problems both on purpose and not. Wei Wuxian, however, puts together that Lan Wangji is going off on his own chasing the Yin Iron, and ditches the rest of his family to go help.

Yin Iron Hunt Arc

Wei Wuxian meets up with Lan Wangji, who is not thrilled to see him (at least, apparently). They run into Nie Huaisang, who joins them. They come to a town where everyone seems to have vanished and there is nothing fishy going on in the cave with the statue that looks like a dancing lady at all. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng leaves home to go track down Wei Wuxian and bring him back.

The statue comes to life, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji fight together to defeat it, and then a bunch of...undead villagers (sort of, they get better) attack them, only to be lured away by Wen Qing playing a flute (this ability will never be brought up again). Jiang Cheng reveals himself as having been hanging out watching this go down. Ultimately, by killing the Stygian Pigeon that belongs to Wen Chao, the villagers are freed and they move on.

After a brief stopover in a village, they hear some rumors about a haunted house and take off to go check it out. When they get there, everyone is dead and Xue Yang is on the roof just kind of vibing. Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan manage to get him pinned down and taken captive. This is important and not just because I said so.

Nie Huaisang, who Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji ditched in town, arrives here with Meng Yao, who proposes bringing Xue Yang to Nie Mingjue for justice purposes (which when I write it like that sounds...um. moving right along), which is where everyone heads next, less Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan who have their own things to do. Wei Wuxian realizes that Xiao Xingchen had the same master as his mother, and gets really excited about it; it’s adorable.

They go to Nie Mingjue, who is talked out of executing Xue Yang because they’re trying to find out where he put the Yin Iron (which they figure he has, because reasons. there are reasons, I just don’t feel like going into it.) Lan Wangji leaves in the night without saying goodbye, and then Wen Chao arrives. He is accompanied by Wen Zhuliu, who is called the Core-Melting Hand for reasons that will be important later. There’s a fight, Xue Yang gets loose, and Nie Mingjue finds Meng Yao in a very compromising position (killing a captain of the guard and among a bunch of other dead bodies). He kicks Meng Yao out of the Nie Sect.

Meanwhile, the Wens attack Cloud Recesses. Lan Xichen’s uncle makes him leave to preserve himself and the most important texts. Everyone retreats to a cave that’s hidden and walled off; Su She (who was introduced briefly earlier) caves to threats to his life and tells the Wens how to get into the Lan’s cave sanctuary. Lan Wangji returns with Lan Yi’s Yin Iron and gives it and himself up to Wen Chao’s older brother Wen Xu to spare everyone else.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian leave for home (Lotus Pier). We witness family dynamics, which are terrible. The Wens want everyone to send their kids, specifically their heirs, to be reeducated in Wen territory, but they’re not hostages, we swear. No, really.

Reeducation Camp Arc

To reeducation camp with the Wens we go! Where Lan Wangji is not looking so hot, and Wei Wuxian rapidly causes problems on purpose to try to get to talk to him, but mostly just ends up getting himself tossed in a dungeon where he gets attacked by a very bad puppet of a dog. Wen Qing has told Wen Ning not to associate with Wei Wuxian because they’re on thin ice with their boss (Wen Ruohan), but Wen Ning sneaks him some medicine against Wen Qing’s orders anyway.

They go on a hunt, with the non-Wens featuring as bait. Here is where you meet Wen Chao’s main squeeze Wang Lingjiao, who was formerly a servant. Everyone ends up in a cave that contains a creature whose name is unfortunately translated as “Tortoise of Slaughter.” we’ll go with “Xuanwu of Slaughter” instead, it feels better. Wen Chao and his accompanying entourage make a run for it and ditch everyone else in the cave; they manage to sneak out but Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji end up trapped with no way out. They team up and kill the Xuanwu, partially because Wei Wuxian acquires a very cursed sword. Afterward, he is feverish and asks Lan Wangji to sing - enter Wuji! their theme. You see Lan Wangji mouth that it is called “Wangxian” before Wei Wuxian passes out. (Yes, he did name his composition after their ship name. Aww.)

I’ve skated through that very fast but it is important because it’s like...the point where they seriously bond in a major way and it’s all very...like, there was only one bed only they’re trapped in a cave and injured and forced to rely on each other. So not actually really like that.

Wei Wuxian comes around outside of the cave with Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan, who brought help to rescue him and Lan Wangji; Lan Wangji, however, is gone.

Oh Shit Things Went Downhill Fast Arc

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian go back to Lotus Pier, where Wei Wuxian is in big trouble with Jiang Cheng’s mother (Yu Ziyuan, seen later emotionally terrorizing all her children), who already doesn’t like him and accuses him of bringing trouble down on them by defying the Wens. Jiang Cheng’s dad is terrible, Wei Wuxian reaffirms that he and Jiang Cheng will be Together Forever, you, the viewer, know that is absolutely not how that’s going to go.

Word comes that the Wen have attacked one of the smaller sects, and Jiang Cheng’s dad (Jiang Fengmian) goes with Jiang Yanli to talk to Jin Guangshan about how to deal with the Wens.

Then Wang Lingjiao arrives with word that they’re gonna be in big trouble if they don’t punish Wei Wuxian right now. Yu Ziyuan uses her lightning whip to beat the shit out of Wei Wuxian, but Wang Lingjiao wants her to cut off his hand. Then she makes the mistake of saying that they’ll be making Lotus Pier a supervisory office of the Wens, thank you.

Yu Ziyuan reacts...poorly, Wang Lingjiao calls on her backup Wen Zhuliu (and everyone else); seeing the writing on the wall Yu Ziyuan grabs Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, puts them on a boat, and sends them away, bequeathing her sick-ass lightning whip (Zidian) to Jiang Cheng. They run into Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli; Jiang Fengmian adds Jiang Yanli to the boat full of crying children and goes to sail back to Lotus Pier.

Lotus Pier falls, everybody dies, Jiang Cheng goes semi-catatonic and then disappears, having been captured by the Wens after going back for his parents’ bodies. (Which is more important than it probably sounds, from a Western perspective.) Wei Wuxian follows him and finds Wen Ning, who smuggles Jiang Cheng out and takes him, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli to Wen Qing for safekeeping.

Jiang Cheng wakes up; his golden core (the...thing that lets him do superpowered things, let’s go with that) was destroyed by Wen Zhuliu. Melted, if you will. And it’s not the kind of thing you can just, you know, fix. He descends into absolute despair as Wei Wuxian looks frantically for a way to fix it - and finds one! Though Wen Qing is not happy about it, she still agrees.

at this point we see the return of an old friend! Song Lan, who has a bloody bandage over his eyes, but has eyes that work, despite the fact that he was blinded by Xue Yang who also killed his entire temple. He explains that Xiao Xingchen said that he was taking Song Lan to his master Baoshan Sanren, the immortal who can cure anything, and doesn’t remember anything else.

Wei Wuxian takes Jiang Cheng to Baoshan Sanren to get his core back. Psych! It’s a lie that he totally made up to explain the fact that he’s actually getting his own core transplanted into Jiang Cheng in a highly experimental procedure. Importantly, Wei Wuxian does not tell Jiang Cheng this.

Post-surgery, rather battered Wei Wuxian gets caught by Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao, who torture him and then throw him into a place called the Burial Mounds, which is more or less what it sounds like, is Very Cursed, and from which no one has emerged alive. Then this happens:

(I want you to appreciate how hard I’ve tried to not put any screencaps in here. but I had to do this one. I just had to.)

and you go oh shit and also well that’s sexy.

Jiang Cheng, delighted to have his core back, descends the mountain only to find that Wei Wuxian is...not there.

Cool! That seems fine.

Sunshot Campaign Arc

Timeskip to three months later! The rest of the sects have allied together to take down the Wen Sect (this is what ‘Sunshot Campaign’ refers to, because the symbol of the Wens is a sun). Things aren’t looking good for the Wens, including Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao. Wang Lingjiao hallucinates to the sound of a flute and ends up killing herself. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng have teamed up to look for Wei Wuxian. On their way, they start finding piles of Wen bodies killed in a mysterious and grotesque manner involving an unfamiliar method of cultivation.

(Side note: around now is where Jiang Cheng frees Wen Qing from where she was imprisoned by the Wens for being a dirty traitor during the war and gives her the comb of pining he bought way back in the Cloud Recesses arc, telling her that he will help her if she asks. This isn’t...exactly important, except I wanted to note it.)

Eventually, they find a house where Wen Chao has holed up with Wen Zhuliu, and watch as it’s revealed that he has gone through some nasty shit, is terrified and traumatized and badly injured. Ominous signs: begin to happen! Flames going out: happen! Shots of someone climbing slowly and menacingly up stairs: happen!

Yeah, it’s Wei Wuxian. New and improved, darker and meaner and very sexy about it, and with a new sick-ass flute. He starts attacking Wen Chao, and when Wen Zhuliu moves to attack Wei Wuxian Jiang Cheng jumps down and hangs Wen Zhuliu with Zidian. Lan Wangji confronts Wei Wuxian about this darker and meaner version and Wei Wuxian breaks up with him; Lan Wangji leaves Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to kill Wen Chao because the family that murders together stays together!

(They won’t, but.)

The war goes on, but the tides have turned, and the Wens are losing. Both of Wen Ruohan’s sons are dead. Soup drama happens here, which I don’t need to explain fully but it is clear that Wei Wuxian is extremely emotionally unstable, and also will no longer carry his sword despite everyone telling him he needs to carry his sword. All is not well with the Wei Wuxian! But nobody knows why. Lan Wangji’s repeated “LET ME FIX YOU” overtures are not well received. Lan Wangji also has a nice conversation about how the Lan rules did not prepare him for moral complexity.

Eventually Nie Mingjue proposes going to attack Wen Ruohan on his own while the others move on the Wen stronghold at Nightless City (at this point, they have received a map of Wen defenses from a ~mysterious spy~). Nie Mingjue is captured, and it is revealed that Meng Yao decided that after getting kicked out of Qinghe he could find a better boss somewhere else. Outside, an undead army shows up to kick everyone else’s ass. Things don’t look good for our heroes!

Wei Wuxian brings out his secret weapon the Yin Tiger Seal and...takes over the undead army. This is very troubling to everyone involved, but it does bring Wen Ruohan out to see what the deal is. Wei Wuxian delivers one of the sickest lines in the entire show:

(i’m restraining myself! trust me! i am!)

so yeah, that’s a normal and reassuring thing to say.

And then Meng Yao stabs Wen Ruohan in the back. And that’s it for Wen Ruohan! Our major antagonist is dead! Surely everything will be fine now.

Well We Won the War, Now What Arc

[cracks knuckles] and here’s where the politics starts.

Ready and totally psyched to step into the power vacuum left by the fall of the Wens is Jin Guangshan! Leader of the Jin Sect, least impacted by the war by vitue of joining up late. He recognizes Meng Yao as his son now that he’s, like, someone that is valuable to him politically, and Meng Yao gets a commensurate name change > Jin Guangyao. Pretty much immediately Jin Guangshan starts manuevering to consolidate power - pushing to marry Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, pushing to get access to Wei Wuxian’s Yin Tiger Seal, subtly undermining everyone else...the works.

Jin Guangshan is the worst, is what I’m saying here.

Meanwhile, Nie Mingjue is very unhappy about the whole “Meng Yao helping the Wens and fucking with him when he’s captured” thing, but then Lan Xichen (remember, Lan Wangji’s older brother) steps in and reveals that Jin Guangyao was a spy delivering information, actually, and also saved his life when he was on the run from the Wens, so don’t hurt him please. Nie Mingjue is still very suspicious, but he backs off. Subsequently, after agreeing to place the Wen (civilian) captives in a holding camp, Jin Guangyao has them killed (impliedly at the order of his father).

We are given cues that Jin Guangyao is bad news. Like, heavy cues. If you are me this makes you love him.

This is also where Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, and Jin Guangyao become sworn brothers, which is a big deal.

Meanwhile, back in Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian is...not doing so hot! He’s drinking heavily, shirking his responsibilities in a way that is making Jiang Cheng particularly very upset with him, generally being weird and traumatized but nobody knows how to deal with that, or him. Then Jin Zixuan arrives to invite everyone to a special hunt being hosted by his father including Jiang Yanli because he, he means his mom, really wants her to be there.

The hunt goes great! By that I mean Jin Zixuan is a spectacular failure at expressing his feelings to Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian almost starts a fight with Jin Zixuan, Jin Zixuan’s enormous asshole cousin gets nasty until Jiang Yanli makes him apologize, in a seriously badass moment. The whole thing comes off with Wei Wuxian really not looking good, including his decision to ditch the celebratory banquet. But also Jiang Yanli getting a liiiiittle closer to something she wants (i.e. Jin Zixuan). Jiang Cheng is like “dude what the fuck” at Wei Wuxian and gets zero percent explanation. Meanwhile everyone in the vicinity pokes at his massive insecurities, because the cultivation world’s favorite activity is actually gossip.

Things only get worse at the very bad after party. This is where we meet Su She again, who has gone and founded his own sect! Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji are sort of bitchy about it. But the real issue comes when Zixun peer pressures Lan Xichen into drinking despite the fact that it’s pretty solidly against the rules of the Lan Sect. Lan Xichen does it with a very “fuck you” smile, despite Jin Guangyao’s attempts to forestall the situation.

(I feel like I have not expressed the relationship between Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen? It’s a whole thing. Let’s just say that it’s a fairly popular ship for a reason.)

Lan Wangji, however, is not as diplomatic as his brother.

And then Wei Wuxian arrives! To ruin another party. Because he found Wen Qing wandering around in the streets and turns out that Wen Ning was taken prisoner by Jin Zixun and friends and removed to whereabouts unknown. Wei Wuxian proceeds to give the sexiest countdown ever to annihilating Jin Zixun if he doesn’t tell him where Wen Ning is.

Wen Ning, unfortunately, is in a pile of bodies. Because the Jin have been...well, experimenting on Wen prisoners, basically. Wen Ning is...not dead in this universe because censorship, but everything makes more sense if you just say “he’s basically dead and Wei Wuxian resurrects him to fuck up everyone in the vicinity who was responsible for his death, which is...everyone other than the other Wens. Eventually Wei Wuxian stops him by yelling his second (courtesy) name that no one else has used for him in speech up to this point (Wen Qionglin), because love is stored in the name. Wei Wuxian gathers up the survivors and takes off only to run into Lan Wangji standing in his way.

They have a point of no return moment. Wei Wuxian basically says “let me go or you have to kill me” only it’s better than that because what he actually says is like “if I’m going to be killed I should be killed by you, then I would know it was right” and it’s a whole fucking thing and anyway Lan Wangji steps aside and lets them all go and it is quite literally “I’m not crying, it’s just raining on my face” except he is also crying.

So...fuck.

Burial Mounds Arc

Wei Wuxian takes the Wens to the one place nobody’s probably going to follow them: namely, the Burial Mounds. Home sweet home!

Outside in the main world, rumors are flying about the army Wei Wuxian is building and the sect he’s planning to found and how ambitious he is and how he’s disrespecting Jiang Cheng and actually Jiang Cheng he probably never loved you anyway and is better and stronger and what are you good for, but I’m saying this out of concern and to be helpful (paraphrased from Jin Guangshan).

Accordingly, Jiang Cheng agrees to go and check things out and see what’s going on in Chez Burial Mounds. What is going on is basically a bunch of civilians eking out a very depressing living. There is also a child, a-Yuan, who is adorable. This will also be important later.

(are you keeping track of all this?)

Jiang Cheng also goes to see Wen Ning, who is...recovering from being dead/undead and Wei Wuxian is working on fixing him. Jiang Cheng says he has to die, and Wei Wuxian has to come home, and things are really bad, man, so stop worrying about these losers and avoid the entire cultivation world being really pissed with you, maybe?

Wei Wuxian isn’t going for it, and tells Jiang Cheng to cut him out of Jiang Sect in order to protect Jiang Sect’s reputation. It’s upsetting. They stage a very dramatic duel and Jiang Cheng announces that friendship ended with Wei Wuxian, he has no new friend actually.

This is also where Wen Qing significantly returns the comb of pining that Jiang Cheng gave her way back (remember that?) and is like. so you wouldn’t’ve helped me and Wen Ning actually, would you. And that is the end of Chengqing as a sidebar ship that never really sailed. Well done, you two.

Meanwhile, Jin Zixuan gets his shit together and proposes to Jiang Yanli by way of making her a lotus pond at Jinlintai. So that’s nice!

A bit later Lan Wangji comes to visit! Only it’s totally coincidental, he was just passing through, that’s all. He and Wei Wuxian hang out for a little while, pretending things are sort of normal, but they have to rush back to the Burial Mounds because the Wen Ning is out. They manage to get him under control and awaken him to proper consciousness again, though! Great! Things are looking up. :)

Lan Wangji does not stay for dinner, though. :(

In my notes I have written “meanwhile...political shitshow” and that is basically a summation of what’s up in places that aren’t the Burial Mounds. Specifically, Jin Guangshan, who seems to have deputized Jin Guangyao to do his dirty work generally, is making noises about how something needs to be done about that Wei Wuxian, and what about that Yin Tiger Seal anyway, doesn’t it seem Yin Iron-like, shouldn’t something like that not be in the hands of a random person? Probably it should be in someone else’s hands instead. Someone responsible with no ulterior motives. You know.

Also in here...somewhere, Mianmian tries to stand up for Wei Wuxian being maybe right about some things, gets shouted down, and decides to leave the Jin Sect entirely. Like...just walks out. Several people look at her like ‘you can do that?’, Lan Wangji is jealous, it is a total boss move. Mianmian hasn’t been a major character but this is important enough and cool enough that I had to mention it.

Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng come to Yiling (by the Burial Mounds) for a very secret rendezvous where Wei Wuxian gets to see Jiang Yanli’s beautiful wedding dress and eat some of her famous soup and it is very sweet and nice and Jiang Cheng is like “so do you have a plan for if everyone attacks you” and Wei Wuxian is like “absolutely. I will kill everyone is my plan.”

also possibly Jiang Yanli is already pregnant at this point??? she and Jiang Cheng are certainly exchanging a lot of conspiratorial smiles when she tells Wei Wuxian to give her future son a courtesy name.

She is for sure pregnant later, because there is a baby named Jin Ling who shows up! (Remember that name? No? He was the bratty teenager from episode 2.) Jin Guangshan does not allow Jin Guangyao to hold the baby, for which he deserves what he gets. For Jin Ling’s 100 day/three month (again! timelines, fuck em) celebration, Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Lan Wangji tag team to get Wei Wuxian invited, where he will come and it will be nice and everyone will discuss this Yin Tiger Seal issue like civilized people.

An invitation is sent for Wei Wuxian to come to the celebration! Wonderful! This is in no way going to go horribly wrong.

Oh Shit, Things Went Downhill Fast (Take Two) Arc

It goes horribly wrong.

On the way to Jinlintai to greet his new baby nephew, accompanied by Wen Ning, Wei Wuxian is confronted by - surprise! - Jin Zixun, accusing Wei Wuxian of putting a curse on him. Wei Wuxian denies it, naturally, since he didn’t. Jin Zixun decides the best way to deal with this situation is to kill Wei Wuxian, which will definitely break the curse that Wei Wuxian definitely cast on him.

He attacks, and Wen Ning goes Ghost General on everyone’s ass, and Wei Wuxian brings out his flute. Things are looking pretty hairy when Jin Zixuan shows up to call off the fight, trying to get Wei Wuxian to back down; he does not back down, because that would just mean getting shot full of arrows.

Wen Ning, who seems to have completely lost his mind, fists Jin Zixuan. Through the chest. This does, in fact, kill him.

His dying words are to say that Jiang Yanli is still waiting for Wei Wuxian to show up, just to make everything worse. Wen Ning kills Jin Zixun as well. This is not actually what Wei Wuxian wanted to happen.

Back at the Burial Mounds! In the wake of Jin Zixuan’s death, an ultimatum has been issued to give up the Wen siblings or else. This is pretty clearly (in my opinion) a pretext that doesn’t mean anything, but Wen Qing and Wen Ning have already decided to sacrifice themselves. Maybe they’re hoping it’ll work? Or at least that it’ll give Wei Wuxian some time? Wen Qing knocks Wei Wuxian out so he can’t stop them. The whole thing is really fucking heartbreaking.

Wei Wuxian comes around and goes to Jinlintai, where he sees Jiang Yanli, who is mourning her dead husband who got killed by her baby brother! Cool! She sees Wei Wuxian but he runs before she can say anything, partly because guards have been sicced on him. He is pretty clearly having a mental breakdown, hallucinations and all!

Cut to a gathering of...pretty much everyone important and all their followers at Nightless City, for a combination commemorating the dead/affirming the deaths of Wen Ning and Wen Qing/gearing up to kill Wei Wuxian.

Who spares them the effort of coming to find him by showing up on the roof! He proceeds to sic dark magic on everyone there except, conspicuously, for the Jiang Sect. Lan Wangji arrives to defuse the situation and fails to defuse the situation until Wei Wuxian hears Jiang Yanli calling for him.

Because she’s arrived on an active battlefield! Not her best idea but it’s not like I can actually blame her considering the week she’s having.

Wei Wuxian goes to look for her, as does Jiang Cheng who also heard her, and...suddenly loses control of his dark magic. Cool! One of the...undead? people there wounds Jiang Yanli. Even better! Jiang Cheng pleads with Wei Wuxian to get things under control, which he can’t! They have a moment while a lot of people around them are dying but you know what, they deserve it.

because like literally a second later Jiang Yanli pushes Wei Wuxian out of the way of a sword meant to stab him in the back and instead takes it herself. And dies.

So. Yeah.

Wei Wuxian loses the last threads of his sanity and destroys the Yin Tiger Seal. While everybody is fighting over it, he goes over to the edge of a cliff, and now we’re back here where we started! With Lan Wangji clinging to Wei Wuxian’s hand as he dangles over the edge of a cliff and tells him to let go.

Jiang Cheng arrives to defuse the situation, by which I mean “he tells Wei Wuxian to go die and stabs down.” He only hits rock; Wei Wuxian breaks himself loose of Lan Wangji’s grip and falls. You are left on the image of Lan Wangji’s absolutely devastated face.

nice! great. well, that brings us up to speed for the flashforward to the future, where you have probably completely forgotten what happened in the first two episodes.

For instance: remember how we saw Wen Ning despite the fact that he’s supposed to be ashes? Yeah.

And We’re Back in the Present Now Arc (Good Times in Qinghe Arc)

For some reason this is the part of the show where I remember the least and it all kind of blurs together with the exception of one scene? so I had to go look at Wikipedia episode summaries to make sure I was putting things in the right order.

Back in the present at the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji discover that the very angry sword spirit last seen killing people at Mo Manor (remember that?) is pointing them in the direction of Qinghe (the Nie Sect territory). They leave to go there and run into Jin Ling, who semi-accidentally terrorizes Wei Wuxian by way of dog.

By asking around, they also learn that there are rumors of a man-eating fortress in the woods, and that it hasn’t been dealt with because the leader of the Nie Sect is absolutely useless. The leader of the Nie Sect who is now - hey, been a while! - Nie Huaisang, since his older brother disappeared under mysterious circumstances after losing his mind years ago.

The dynamic duo go off to investigate the man-eating fortress, naturally, and what they find is a tomb full of swords and a wall full of skeletons, and also Jin Ling.

They remove Jin Ling from the wall, Lan Wangji goes chasing a mysterious attacker, and Wei Wuxian takes Jin Ling to safety only to end up running into - oh boy! - Jiang Cheng.

They have a calm talk about their feelings and address their dysfunction in a reasonable manner.

Nope! Jiang Cheng corners Wei Wuxian with Jin Ling’s dog, throws a cup of tea at a wall, and yells at Wei Wuxian about how he both didn’t come home right away and also how he should die ten million times (no, like, actually). Fortunately, Jin Ling arrives, lies out his ass about how he saw Wen Ning to get Jiang Cheng to leave, and lets Wei Wuxian go.

Back to that mysterious figure Lan Wangji went running after! Turns out it was none other than Nie Huaisang, who confesses - reluctantly - that the man-eating fortress belongs to his family and is a safe home for bloodthirsty swords after their owners die, which is a normal thing to get as a family heirloom. This is also where it becomes increasingly clear that (a) the sword spirit is Baxia, Nie Mingjue’s sword, and (b) Nie Mingjue is most likely hella dead, specifically murdered.

With this new information, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian move on, tracking the directions of the angry sword spirit. They overhear some very depressing story about Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang, specifically how things turned out horribly for them (though without details), which drives Lan Wangji to drink.

Lan Wangji cannot hold his liquor, at all. Wei Wuxian takes his unconsciousness as an opportunity to flute Wen Ning to him again, and removes a massive metal needle from his skull, which fixes the whole “unconscious zombie” issue. Unfortunately, Wen Ning remembers nothing about what happened to him between going to Jinlintai with Wen Qing and when he heard Wei Wuxian calling by way of flute.

And now we have Drunkji, who is the most adorable, hilarious thing ever. He gives Wei Wuxian chickens, with utmost sincerity. They are wedding chickens. It is very important that Wei Wuxian have these chickens.

This interlude is not important to the plot but it is hilarious. There is also a not hilarious interlude of Lan Wangji being very sad about how he didn’t help Wei Wuxian before, and also admitting that he likes rabbits. Again: not plot important. It is adorable.

Wei Wuxian herds Drunkji back to the inn, where a mysterious masked man attempts to steal the pouch holding the angry sword spirit, but is driven off and teleports away. Remember this guy! He’s important.

The next morning, they set off and hit the road for a place called Yi City, which if you’ve spent any time on this blog you know is deeply important in my heart if not, like, in terms of show space.

Yi City Arc Yi City Arc Yi City Arc

yes this is three episodes but this is my summary post so I get to give it its own section if I want to.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at Yi City, which is empty, and very spooky. They run into the pack of juniors (Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, sassmaster Lan Jingyi and consummate romantic Ouyang Zizhen are the named ones), and shortly thereafter into a whole bunch of undead. They also run into a ghost (???) girl who is blind and has no tongue. They also also run into Xiao Xingchen, severely wounded.

Psych! It’s Xue Yang in disguise and he has an undead Song Lan under his control. what a fun twist this is! and he wants one thing specifically: for Wei Wuxian to help him bring someone back to life. Problem is that their soul is in need of some serious super glue and super glue doesn’t work on souls.

Xue Yang informs Wei Wuxian that his consent is optional and he will be participating in Xue Yang’s necromancy experiment fantasies whether he likes it or not. Lan Wangji objects strenuously to this idea. While Lan Wangji is fighting Xue Yang and Wen Ning is fighting Song Lan (corpse fight! corpse fight!) Wei Wuxian herds the juniors into a safe courtyard where the corpses won’t go, led by the aforementioned ghost girl, who shows them a coffin.

the coffin has Xiao Xingchen in it. The actual real one. There’s a bandage over his eyes, because he doesn’t have any.

Wei Wuxian goes into the ghost girl’s memories in order to find out what happened using a technique called Empathy, and the next chunk of things I’m just going to tell in full chronologically even though there’s a break where you don’t see all of it until an episode later.

The ghost girl, a-Qing, is a con artist who pretends to be blind; she runs into Xiao Xingchen (who is actually blind) when she steals his money, and he just gives it to her after stopping someone else whose money she stole from beating him up. A-Qing decides they’re friends now. They’ve been traveling together for...some amount of time when they stumble on a badly injured man on the side of the road. Xiao Xingchen picks him up and takes him home with him (to an abandoned coffin house in Yi City). You get one guess who he’s rescued and who is totally psyched to discover that his life has been saved by Xiao Xingchen, who doesn’t know who he is, because he’s blind.

So you know, everything is coming up Xue Yang.

What follows is three years of domestic bliss, including hits like “entire villages dying by Xiao Xingchen under sort of suspicious circumstances” and “threatening grocers.” And then who should show up but Song Lan! Looking for Xiao Xingchen and he’s so happy to have finally found him.

Only he notices Xue Yang first.

A fight ensues, in which Xue Yang...sort of talks Song Lan to death by digging into the fact that Xiao Xingchen is blind because he gave his eyes to Song Lan, actually, and Song Lan hurt him so bad when they broke up, and because Xiao Xingchen is blind Xue Yang has been able to trick him into killing living people when he thinks he’s killing undead ones, and oooh do you feel bad now, well, guess what, you’re gonna feel worse when I poison you into becoming undead and cut out your tongue. :D

And even worse when this means that Xiao Xingchen stabs him because, you know, undead monster.

Cool! Things are going great.

Or they would be only a-Qing saw everything, reveals it to Xiao Xingchen, who puts it together and greets XueYang coming back from grocery shopping with a sword (rude). They break up, and by “break up” I mean “Xue Yang reveals his tragic backstory, Xiao Xingchen is not convinced that his tragic backstory means all the murder was justified, Xue Yang decides it’s time to make this all go nuclear.” So tells Xiao Xingchen about how he’s been killing people actually! And guess what, bonus, one of those people was your BFF/life partner/whatever, Song Lan. isn’t that amazing, Xiao Xingchen, isn’t that so cool--

Xiao Xingchen kills himself and this is, it turns out, Not What Xue Yang Wanted. So guess who’s in the pouch Xue Yang was hoping to resurrect? Yeah.

Back in the present, with help from a-Qing directing Lan Wangji, Xue Yang gets...hella stabbed, but not before he kills a-Qing. Song Lan, freed from Xue Yang’s control, kills Xue Yang.

Oh yeah, and then we see Xiao Xingchen tenderly laying pieces of candy on a bed, which is symbolically important, and also Xue Yang dies looking at the last piece of candy Xiao Xingchen gave him, and now I’m going to cry. anyway Yi City Arc, you’re welcome. Where the only person who survives did not, in fact, survive!

Oh, yeah, I guess it’s also important that there’s a headless body buried here and it gets...pretty conclusively identified as Nie Mingjue because the sword spirit (remember that?) takes the shape of his very distinctive large sword (Baxia). Also Xue Yang recreated the Yin Tiger Seal but it gets snatched away by the masked man from earlier. There’s also a bunch of stuff about the Yin Iron plot but you can ignore it, it doesn’t actually really matter that much.

Honestly at that point I was crying too much to pay a whole lot of attention to the whole point of them being in Yi City to begin with. So sue me.

The Plot Thickens, and Secrets Are Revealed Arc

Exeunt Yi City, rendezvous with Lan Xichen to discuss, obliquely, who could be responsible for Nie Mingjue’s death. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji delicately imply that maybe it was Jin Guangyao; Lan Xichen is unconvinced and informs us that there are no curse marks indicating that he’d teleported on Jin Guangyao’s body, he would know, and also they’ve been together every night so he wouldn’t have time to get up to shenanigans anyway.

Hm.

Still, they go ahead together to ruin another party/investigate at Jinlintai, with Wei Wuxian safely in disguise (barely), unfortunately as Mo Xuanyu, who is not exactly welcome in the Jin Sect because he got kicked out of it earlier. Mo Xuanyu is a whole...thing that I’m not really going into here because the show doesn’t really get into it either.

Wei Wuxian ducks out to investigate, and in the form of an animated paper man, to the tune of music we have never heard before in this show and will never hear again (look, it’s just weird to me), goes sneaking into Jin Guangyao’s rooms to do some poking around. His investigations are interrupted when Jin Guangyao’s wife Qin Su, in a state of severe distress, returns, followed shortly by Jin Guangyao. They argue about an unknown revelation in a letter Qin Su received that has resulted in her being disgusted by...something, we don’t know what, and angry with Jin Guangyao. She accuses him of killing their kid.

Eventually he paralyzes her and removes her to a secret room through a mirror, which is a thing everyone has, especially one with a bunch of torture instruments and a body sized table with dried blood on it. Normal!

Remember how the body in Yi City was headless? Yeah, we found the head now.

And it’s time for another Empathy flashback!

Empathy Flashback feat. Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao’s Bad Relationship Mini Arc

This time with Nie Mingjue (and Jin Guangyao). We see Jin Guangyao very quickly elevated from a servant who is spat upon by the other Nie cultivators to Nie Mingjue’s right hand man, like, literally in two seconds. Flash forward to episode 10 - remember that? - where Jin Guangyao has just been caught in a compromising murder position. Nie Mingjue accuses Jin Guangyao plotting all along and is a conniving little snake who was in league with Xue Yang (which is a thing that does not make sense, actually), and kicks him out.

We next see Nie Mingjue in Nightless City, having been captured and currently being taunted by a very sexy Meng Yao, who kills some other Nie cultivators and threatens to fuck up Nie Mingjue by shattering his sword (which would be catastrophic and is, we are informed, how Nie Mingjue’s dad died). Nie Mingjue is understandably rather displeased by this to the point of probable murder, though Lan Xichen reminds him (as he did in the previous scene) that Meng Yao was acting as a spy and Meng Yao argues that he needed to play his part.

The relationship between the two of them continues to deteriorate as Nie Mingjue becomes more unstable (something that just happens to the Nies by virtue of their cultivation style). That deterioration is being delayed by healing music from Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen teaches Jin Guangyao the healing music. Jin Guangyao seems to be possibly doing something not healing with the healing music.

This all escalates into a confrontation at the top of the stairs of Jinlintai, where Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao argue about class politics and justifiable violence (no, really) until Nie Mingjue explodes and kicks Jin Guangyao down the stairs.

And then proceeds to, as Jin Guangyao looks on, have a qi deviation, which is...well, let’s just call it both a physical and a mental breakdown. Nie Huaisang arrives to see this happening, and while we saw this before and it looked like Nie Mingjue was threatening Nie Huaisang because he didn’t recognize him, this time it is more apparent that he’s directing it at Jin Guangyao.

Next we see, Nie Mingjue is chained to that body sized table in the secret room. Xue Yang is there, and uses Nie Mingjue’s sword to behead Nie Mingjue. He’s psyched as hell about it. If you’re me this is adorable.

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming Arc

Flashback ends! And we are back in Jinlintai. Wei Wuxian goes to get Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen to storm Jin Guangyao’s bedroom, to which Su She objects, but Jin Guangyao eventually allows. They all file together into the secret room and look around, but there is no longer any severed head where Wei Wuxian left it. Whoops.

Then Qin Su kills herself, Jiang Cheng arrives to defuse the situation while Jin Guangyao pleads innocent, and Wei Wuxian, by way of drawing his sword that nobody else could draw before now, reveals that he is, in fact, Wei Wuxian. Everyone in this room actually already knew this information except for Jin Ling, who is not thrilled to discover that his cool uncle is the guy who murdered his parents. Nobody else does a very good job of faking surprise.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian make a run for it only to be cornered on the stairs. Extreme romance ensues where Lan Wangji announces his intent to stand by Wei Wuxian forever against the world.

This is where the “I was like, SCREAMS” meme kicks in.

Anyway, after that love confession (look, they can’t say ‘I love you’ but basically) in front of everyone, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian fight their way out together and are well on the way to freedom when Jin Ling stabs Wei Wuxian.

Nobody is happy about this, including Jin Ling.

Wei Wuxian is okay overall, though he does faint and have to get swept off to the Cloud Recesses and undressed and redressed in Lan Wangji’s underwear. Don’t worry about it. And now it’s time to talk to Lan Xichen, who is currently feeling very “what the hell is going on, you have no proof and are accusing a person I trust completely of something horrible without any proof.”

They still don’t have any proof, but Wei Wuxian reveals that in the flashback he heard Jin Guangyao playing the soothing music but different, and it comes out that there is evil Japanese music that can kill people and be used to poison someone slowly over time. It’s literally this post:

Lan Xichen is not entirely convinced but agrees to investigate; Jin Guangyao comes to Cloud Recesses and has an absolutely heartbreaking conversation with Lan Xichen about how is our friendship over, Zewu--jun :( while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji eavesdrop.

That conversation isn’t plot important either, I just personally find it very upsetting.

The Burial Mounds, Take Two Arc

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave the Cloud Recesses, heading toward the Burial Mounds because Jin Guangyao mentioned something being up there. But they end up meeting - surprise! - Mianmian, who is living her best life. This is mostly important because she is literally the only female character who makes it out of this show alive.

She mentions that there’s been some trouble around the Burial Mounds, so they head in that direction, running into Wen Ning along the way, who has been following them around because he loves Wei Wuxian. The Burial Mounds are indeed full of active undead and they fight their way up to the old farming commune location, which is less empty than expected because there are a bunch of kids tied up in Wei Wuxian’s old lair/cave/house. Like, all of them. Including Jin Ling, who really is having a terrible time lately, and I just feel the need to note that sometimes.

As they free the children and start to leave, everyone else arrives with the plan of killing Wei Wuxian again, because once wasn’t enough and obviously he’s Up To No Good, where else would these corpses be coming from, huh?

Speaking of corpses.

A small army of them shows up! All the cultivators who aren’t children lose their powers! Everyone has to retreat back into the lair/cave/house where they’ll be safe! So this is all...going well.

Fortunately, everyone being stuck in one place gives Wei Wuxian the opportunity to get his Hercule Poirot on and walk everyone through a series of deductions to get them to a place of realizing that (a) they were poisoned by evil music, (b) the evil music came from Su She, (c) Su She is working for Jin Guangyao who (d) planned all of this whole ‘everyone is going to the Burial Mounds to get killed’ thing.

Su She panics, inadvertently reveals that he alone still has his powers, and teleports out. Wei Wuxian decides that a reasonable solution to all these problems is to make himself bait for all the undead so everyone else can make a run for it, because Wei Wuxian is kind of like that.

It’s okay, though, he and Lan Wangji make a spectacular battle couple.

(Oh, yeah. Throughout here it is becoming increasingly clear that Lan Sizhui’s identity is Significant and actually we Might Have Seen Him Before.)

Back to Lotus Pier Arc, or Jin Ling Has a Very Bad Day, Continued Arc

Safely out of the Burial Mounds thanks to Wei Wuxian, everybody goes ahead and invites themselves back to Jiang Cheng’s house. To be fair, it is closest.

My notes here say “Wen Ning figures out that Lan Sizhui is a-Yuan, Jin Ling has an emotional breakdown” which is a more or less accurate summation of the situation. Honestly, though, I feel so bad for Jin Ling at this point, he’s had an absolute nightmare of a month and then today happened and like. I feel for him.

But Wen Ning reuniting with the last remaining member of his family! Though he doesn’t...actally tell Lan Sizhui this, and Lan Sizhui doesn’t have any memories of his early years.

Jiang Cheng reluctantly allows Wei Wuxian inside. Wen Ning has to stay on the porch, but Lan Sizhui stays with him to keep him company, because he is a good boy.

This next part...hoo boy. It’s a lot of exposition featuring two ladies who appear to relate their stories about Jin Guangyao, featuring the part where he murdered his father by using a bunch of sex workers (who then were murdered in turn, except for one), also involving necrophilia, and the one where Qin Su was Jin Guangyao’s sister, actually, and he knew it and still married her. Sect Leader Bad Takes says that’s probably why Jin Guangyao killed their kid, because children of incest inevitably have developmental problems? Yeah, sure, buddy.

Anyway, everyone starts shouting for Jin Guangyao’s head, which is very familiar to Wei Wuxian, who leaves in some disgust. While wandering with Lan Wangji, they wind up going to the family shrine (which is, to be clear, a pretty sacred place). Which is where Jiang Cheng finds them! And once again they have a reasonable and emotionally steady conversation.

Nope. Jiang Cheng talks shit trying to provoke a fight that Wei Wuxian won’t have. As he and Lan Wangji attempt to leave, Jiang Cheng pursues because he’s not done yelling dammit, lashing out with Zidian. Wei Wuxian faints, and Wen Ning arrives to stand in between him and Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng, holding Wei Wuxian’s sheathed sword (remember, the one nobody other than Wei Wuxian can draw). Wen Ning proceeds to initiate one of the single best devastating beatdowns of the show without laying a hand on Jiang Cheng, specifically by shoving the sword at Jiang Cheng and telling him to draw it, because hey you can do that now! Wonder why that is? Wouldn’t you like to know what’s going on there, Jiang Wanyin?

Remember way back when Jiang Cheng lost his core and got it back because Wei Wuxian gave him his core? Yeah, this is when he finds out about that. Psych! Your brother loves you and also the only reason you got to be as strong as you are is because he sacrificed himself for you! Which is also the reason why he took up demonic cultivation in the first place!

Seriously, it’s so good, I love this scene. Probably one of my favorites in the whole show.

Jiang Cheng runs away; Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have a moment on a lake where Lan Wangji indulges Wei Wuxian by eating stolen lotuses with him. It’s sweeter than it sounds when I put it like that.

Guanyin Temple Arc

oh god, how do I. how do I describe Guanyin Temple. partially this is hard because by virtue of censorship about dead bodies, among probably other things, there are huge gaps that make portions of it make no sense so I’m gonna go ahead and...fill in some of those that are intelligible pretty much only with some knowledge of book plot, imo.

Wen Ning, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian go to a place called Yunping because Jin Guangyao bought some land there for some reason. There they find a slightly suspicious temple (Guanyin Temple). They come back at night, leaving Wen Ning to stand guard, and spy on the courtyard, where a bunch of conspicuously armed monks are there, along with Lan Xichen aaaaand...Jin Guangyao.

Jin Ling arrives! And decides it’s a good idea to climb over the wall. Wei Wuxian blocks someone from shooting him by using the bamboo flute he’s been using this whole time, so he now functionally has no weapon, and also he and Lan Wangji have been exposed, so now the two of them and also Jin Ling are in the courtyard. Lan Xichen admits he was tricked and doesn’t have any of his powers. Jin Guangyao threatens Lan Wangji into sealing his by threatening Wei Wuxian with a wire. It’s sexy.

Everybody goes inside the temple, where several monks are digging up something ??? under the floor. This is never explained and that is because it is supposed to be Jin Guangyao’s mother’s body, and there are very strict rules I understand about what can be done with dead bodies in dramas like this one. Anyway, Jin Guangyao loved his mom very much and built a temple where she was buried where the statue has her face. He is exhuming her so he can take her body with him when he flees the country, which is what he was planning here. Of course, now he has a bunch of unwanted hostages (and one wanted hostage), which was not actually part of the plan.

The next person to join the party is an unconscious Nie Huaisang, brought in by Su She, who basically says “I have no idea what he was doing here but...here he is” and Jin Guangyao is like. Well, guess he’s here now.

Next to show up is Jiang Cheng! Making an excellent and extremely dramatic entrance. Unfortunately, he still gets injured and taken down as Jin Guangyao starts poking at his very obvious emotional weak spots, including revealing that Jiang Cheng knows about the golden core thing. Wei Wuxian, who did not know that secret came out because he was unconscious at the time, goes “wait, what?” and thus ensues the epic emotional catharsis crying and yelling conversation I was waiting for for 47 episodes. Seriously, it’s really good. They end up in a place where all is not solved but things are...maybe a little better?

Of course, they’re still hostages.

Meanwhile, back at the dig site, something gets unearthed that is not Jin Guangyao’s mother’s body but is in fact a coffin with Nie Mingjue’s body, now complete with head, in it. The reveal also drops here that Su She has the marks that indicate he cast the curse on Jin Zixun that Jin Zixun accused Wei Wuxian of casting.

A very ugly argument ensues where everyone is poking at everyone else’s things that they’re sensitive about, until finally Lan Xichen recovers his powers and turns the tables on Jin Guangyao by putting a sword to his neck.

The next part is basically...explaining how all the bad things that happened were Jin Guangyao’s fault? Or at least that’s the explanation given. I find it personally very frustrating as a narrative choice and sort of unnecessary, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, Jin Guangyao is pleading for mercy from Lan Xichen, saying he’ll leave and never return, the whole thing is very emotional.

We also find out that Jin Guangshan kicked Jin Guangyao down the stairs. People really need to stop doing that.

And now Wen Ning arrives! Punting Lan Sizhui in ahead of him. He is possessed by a very angry sword spirit (namely, Baxia). Lan Wangji cuts off Jin Guangyao’s right arm, because Lan Wangji likes doing that, apparently. Baxia-possessed Wen Ning then targets Jin Ling because Jin Ling has Jin Guangyao’s blood on him - only for Wen Ning to stop the blade with his bare hand and save Jin Ling’s life, because Wen Ning is both a badass and very good.

Jiang Cheng throws Wei Wuxian his old flute, which he apparently has just been keeping under his bed or something for sixteen years, which is a thing that I will always never be over, and Wei Wuxian flutes the very angry sword into the Nie Mingjue-holding coffin.

Which would be fine, only then Nie Huaisang starts yelling about how Su She totally stabbed him, no, really, look, he’s bleeding. Baxia kills Su She. Then Wei Wuxian manages to put the sword back in the coffin, as well as the Yin Tiger Seal, and locks both away.

Whew.

Everybody’s sitting down and recovering a little as Lan Xichen tends Jin Guangyao’s wounds. He turns around to get medicine from Nie Huaisang, who tells him to look out because Jin Guangyao is attacking you!!!

Lan Xichen runs Jin Guangyao through.

Oh boy.

Jin Guangyao is a little impressed about Nie Huaisang having been plotting this all along. Because he was. He absolutely was. He’s absolutely been planning this for years. Everybody needs a hobby.

But it’s Lan Xichen who he really addresses here, telling him that he’d never hurt him. The actual line really hurts but I’m trying to not reproduce lines here, except I am going to say that he drags Lan Xichen - still with a sword through him! - deeper into the temple and says “stay and die with me” as the temple starts to collapse. Lan Xichen, who was about to strike and presumably push himself away, lowers his hand, and Jin Guangyao abruptly pushes him away and out of the collapsing building.

Romance!

(No, but seriously, it’s a lot.)

Thus ends Jin Guangyao.

Outside in the courtyard, everyone’s taking a breather. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian stare longingly at each other across the room and say nothing. Jiang Cheng walks away and we learn that - surprise! - the reason Jiang Cheng was caught by the Wens way back when is because he was keeping the Wens from catching Wei Wuxian instead.

Everybody in this family in just a big circle of self sacrifice. In the words of Wen Qing:

(Who misses Wen Qing? I do!)

Anyway, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian leave with each other, only to be caught on the road by Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning - Lan Sizhui, who has remembered that he was a-Yuan and finally someone tells Wei Wuxian this, and ahhhh, okay, I know what I said about limiting screencaps but I can’t not:

Now that’s what I call a hug!

They part ways again, Lan Sizhui leaving with Wen Ning for some family time and for Wen Ning to find his own way. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian...seem like they’re going in different directions, but then they’re at Cloud Recesses together, playing music, hanging out, vibing. They talk to Nie Huaisang, but don’t directly confront him about his scheming. Mostly just making sure he’s not, you know, gonna do anything else.

Then Wei Wuxian leaves to go on a roadtrip to find himself. People really do not like this, but I personally really do like this, especially because the last shots of the show are Wei Wuxian playing his and Lan Wangji’s theme song (the one that Lan Wangji wrote, remember, from the cave? It’s come up a lot, I just haven’t mentioned it here), and when he finishes Lan Wangji’s voice says “Wei Ying” and he turns around and just like. Smiles. It’s scrunchy and happy and perfect.

Like this:

aaaaaaand scene! fifty episodes later your life has been ruined and you will never be the same.

and the thing is that this is leaving out, like. a lot, and probably is biased because I focus on different things than another person would, &c &c, but at least it might be a starting point for...the entire plot.

and also congratulations if you made it this far, I am impressed. have a screenshot of wei wuxian as a reward, whose mental breakdown does make him look sexy

you’re welcome.

#anonymous #conversating #HOLY SHIT THAT WENT SOMEWHERE #anon if this isn't what you wanted....i'm very sorry send me another ask and i can link you to someone else's summary #but i started going and then i couldn't stop #and now here we are #the sad queer cultivators show #you know what i am going to tag this because it was kind of a lot of work #the untamed #cql #thanks for reading this and making sure it made any kind of sense james #lise does meta #i guess??????

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minuteminx · 4 years

Text

Revolutionary

[NEW FIC ALERT!!]

Pairing: Preston Garvey/ Female Sole Survivor

Summary: In the aftermath of personal tragedies, Preston and Charlie both seek to make a difference in the Commonwealth and those around them. They could never anticipate the impact that they will have on eachother in the process.

[AO3 Link]

Chapter One: Paul Revere

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Qunicy Ruins, June 2288

When Preston was a kid, he’d sit with his dad on their tattered rug as the man picked lackadaisically at the strings of an ancient guitar. He’d wax all sorts of poetic about the past, the times before the war, before the bombs fell, before everything was rads and raiders and running from bands of ferals. It was that Great Commonwealth Myth of a pre-war paradise, of big ideals, and boundless opportunity. A myth that one would hear refuted if they listened closely enough to grumbles from ghouls who’d managed to keep their sanity over the two centuries since the end of the world.

The myth was a lie, for sure, one Preston had clung to for most of his life. But he couldn’t anymore, not as he stood staring at the massive pile of ashes that used to be his comrades and the settlers they attempted to protect. The bastards who murdered all of those people were direct descendents from the monsters who made weapons with enough power to wipe entire regions off the map. There was no paradise; it was just a prettier picture.

The Quincy settlement, if he could still call it that, looked a lot different since the last time he’d seen it, surrounded by junk fences and lined with barbed wire at the top. Buildings were tagged with Gunner graffiti, and the streets were quiet as the mass grave that the settlement had turned out to be. It really didn’t make much sense. Shouldn’t it have been some sort of bustling Gunner stronghold after Clint and his buddies went to all that trouble to claim it?

“I don’t like this,” Charlie remarked suddenly, her raspy voice a quick reminder that he wasn’t alone, hadn’t been alone for over eight months now. He turned to face her, eyes flicking around the ruins to the seven other Minutemen who’d come along. Millie was the only one who noticed him, and she gave him the least reassuring smile he’d ever seen.

“Neither do I,” he agreed as he returned his gaze to Charlie. “Not one bit.”

“It wasn’t like this when I got away,” Millie added, glancing around the square, “I know that there had been mention of disagreements between Clint and the other bosses, probably because he has the leadership ability of a bloatfly.”

Preston smirked. “Now, Millie, I think that’s giving him too much credit.”

She laughed and opened her mouth to reply to him, but an explosion rang out instead as a launched projectile crashed into one of the buildings just ahead of them. She eyed the area frantically before locking onto the rooftop of the church. “Shit. It’s Baker.”

“Baker?” He snapped his gaze up to the walkway, catching a glimpse of a figure clad in power armor and wielding a goddamned fat man.

“He’s one of the other bosses… and it looks like he found himself a new toy.”

Preston sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, running through the list of possible strategies in his head. “We need to fall back,” he muttered under his breath decisively, then looked up to make the suggestion to Charlie, to the general, “We need to fall b--”

She’d already taken off toward the church, a pistol in either hand, without giving a single order to him or the others. He wanted to drop everything and chase after her, to stop her from running directly into danger, just once. But someone had to give some kind of instruction before Baker launched a nuke directly on top of them. He waved his hand over his head and back toward the gates, motioning for the others to head back out of the middle of town. “Fall back. Head up to the walkways if you can. We can’t win this from the ground.”

Millie remained where she stood as the others fled to safety. “I’ll get these guys into position,” she stated, then nodded in the direction Charlie had run, “You go fetch your general.”

“But--” Another mini nuke exploded, in the distance this time, and his stomach lurched.

“Go.” She flicked her wrist in a shooing motion. “You’re not gonna be any use back here worried about her out there trying to pistol whip Baker to death.”

He snorted out a laugh despite the gravity of the situation, the image of the rail thin red-head successfully tackling him down, power armor and all, and smacking the butt of her favorite 10mm into his nose. Honestly, he’d seen her get away with wilder things. He tipped his hat at his long time friend, gave his musket a quick crank, and ran off after his wildcard general.

He faced little resistance on his way to the church, only a couple of Gunner conscripts crossed his path, and he was able to take them out easily. It looked like a lot of their efforts were focused on Millie and the others at the gates and climbing up the walkways. It was for the best, but it didn’t make him worry any less for their safety.

When he finally reached the church, it was too quiet, especially for somewhere Charlie was supposed to be. There was no gunfire, no talking, nothing. Just silence. Preston scanned the area, heart pounding uncomfortably in his chest. After everything Charlie had been through, all she’d survived, she couldn’t be dead now, not while doing a favor for him, not with all that unfinished business between them. She couldn’t.

Several moments passed, and there were still no signs of life in the area. He decided to head inside the church, figure out how to get up to the roof for a better view. Just as he moved toward the door, a loud clank of metal sounded behind him and he spun on his heels, weapon readied.

It was the traitor himself that he turned to face, Clint, in his hulking suit of stolen power armor, a militia hat perched disrespectfully atop his buzz cut head. He still wore sunglasses that were so reflective that Preston could see his own furious face in the lenses. Clint let out an arrogant chuckle, and stomped up closer.

“Well, well, well,” he mocked, “What do we have here? Paul Revere himself?”

“Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen.” He didn’t know why he felt the need to correct a man he intended to kill, but the words slipped out.

“I know who you are. Read all about you in Ol’ Ezra’s holotapes.” Clint laughed again. “And the Minutemen don’t exist anymore. I got rid of the last of ‘em, myself.

“You missed one,” Preston remarked, dryly.

“What? You? Ha!.” Clint shook his head. “And that merry band of farmers you marched in through the front gate with? Kind of a rookie move, there, son.”

“ Don’t call me son,” Preston spat, venom filling his mouth.

Before he could react, Clint’s armored fist slammed into his chest, knocking the wind from his lungs and sending him flying back against the rusty skeleton of an old car. Preston’s head crashed against the metal, and pain pulsed out from the point of impact throughout his whole head. His vision spun around him, creating a double of the man who towered over him. He felt sick to his stomach, and couldn’t quite figure out how to get back to his feet or where his weapon went. Darkness crept in at the corners of his vision.

“I hate mouthy punks,” Clint growled.

Preston attempted to speak, but couldn’t find words in the chaos of his head. He mumbled something even he couldn’t interpret.

“Oh man,” Clint exclaimed, smirk twisting on his face, “You’re really making this easy, Garvey. Can’t say you live up to Ezra’s praise. What in the goddamned wasteland made you think you could rebuild the Minutemen? You can’t even take a punch. Pathetic.”

As Clint spoke, Preston noticed a blur of movement behind the other man. He knew his eyes must have been playing tricks on him because it looked as if the air vibrated like it sometimes did in highly irradiated areas. Quincy wasn’t one of those places. The only other thing it could be was a--

Just as he thought the word stealth boy , the wobble in the air dissipated, and Charlie stood no more than ten feet behind Clint. She slowly raised a finger to her lips in a shushing motion, and readied her weapon to aim. Preston couldn’t keep the relief washing over his face, mouth twitching at the corners. She was alive, and not only that, she’d come to save him once again. Mama Murphy really did hit the nail on the head all those months ago.

“Why are you smiling,” Clint asked abruptly, lifting his laser rifle, locking it straight in the direction of Preston’s chest. “What’s so fucking funny, huh?”

“Nothing, man,” Preston managed, words slurring, “Nothing at all.”

At that moment, Charlie unleashed a terrifying barrage of shots into Clint’s armor, damaging the legs so severely that they locked in place, and Clint had to jump out. “What the--” he began, and turned around, to face his attacker. “You little bitch .”

He attempted to raise his weapon and aim at her, but before he could get there, she’d pulled her trigger. Preston couldn’t make out where she’d shot Clint, but the man dropped his gun and fell to his knees, before falling to his face. Charlie holstered her pistols, and stared down at the man she’d just killed, expression as flat as he’d ever seen it.

“I’m not a bitch,” she muttered, shaking her head before setting her gaze on Preston, worry knitting her brows as soon as their eyes met. She rushed over to where he sat, up against the car he’d been thrown into, and knelt down, cupping his face with a gloved hand on either side and turning his head to the left and then the right, clearly examining him for injury. She flipped a switch on her PipBoy, flashing a bright beam of light into each of his eyes. He squinted and shook his head, causing her to giggle, but he could hear the tears and sniffling between laughs.

“You’re okay,” she assured him, pressing an unexpected kiss to his forehead, “Looks like you might have a concussion, but you’re safe. I’m here.”

“You’re really scary sometimes, you know that,” he stated, words still stumbling out of his mouth clumsily.

She laughed nervously and glanced away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry, I just… I’d just watched Clint knock you into this car, and he was about to kill you and I just--.”

“No,” he corrected her, grin spreading across his face, “It’s kinda hot.”

She snorted and a tear rolled down her cheek, dripping off her chin. “Jesus, you hit your head harder than I thought.”

“It’s still the truth,” he admitted weakly, vision closing in entirely. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness entirely, was her voice calling his name.

“Preston?”

#fallout 4 #preston garvey #preston garvey x f!sole survivor #female sole survivor #fanfiction #my writing #long post

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raziroo · 3 years

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Karma | The Marauders

[Chapter 5] Nothing More

Gulping slightly, Karma turned to her left, and lo and behold – there stood Sirius. But God, oh, God, what had they done to him? What did they do to the person she once lived and breathed for, the one who was all the life she had left? The Prince Charming in her fairytale, the Casanova of Hogwarts, Padfoot? What had Dumbledore done to him? His face had become gaunt and weak and exhausted to the point where you wouldn’t know he was Sirius Black, a man who once looked to be sculpted by the gods themselves. His eyes had sunken drastically, there were circles underneath his grey orbs; his cheekbones stood out against his face which wasn’t in the least bit attractive – they weren’t sharp as they were scary. His skin that he spent hours on was now full of spots and ridges he’d have been disgusted by; well, the past Sirius would have, at least. His body, just from afar, looked frail; his once precious, luscious, silky locks were matted as if they hadn’t been washed properly, just hastily combed through. His cheeks were hollowed, his forehead had lines – lines, oh, her Sirius would have never – his stubble was messy, and his eyes, those grey, no, that wouldn’t do them justice – the storm in his eyes had calmed down immensely, and not in a good way, no, not at all. All the glory of the ebony and the pearly sheen and shadows and ash and charcoal, which could be disrespectfully simplified to clouds and the rain and thunder, it was all gone, just… gone.

And that was why it hurt. Because this person who was standing before her – this was not her Sirius. It couldn’t be. This was a man who didn’t have a trace of the storm that were Sirius’ eyes. This was a man who’d bore the full weight of being wrongfully thrown in a cell in Azkaban. And she knew, she knew it was so selfish of her, so incredibly selfish to not accept him for what he was now, but how could she? Sirius and Remus – those two were the only parts of her life she didn’t burst into tears thinking about. Their images in her mind had become spotless, flawless, whilst everyone else’s had become this miserable remnant with tears and holes and spots she didn’t ever want to think about again. She’d be damned if she thought about them fondly.

But who was she to care? After all, Sirius wasn’t hers anymore, was he? All this talk about her Sirius doing this and her Sirius saying that and her Sirius, when the reality was that her Sirius had died – died along with Lily and James and Marlene and Regulus and all the others. Her Sirius was just a false hope she’d been clinging to all this time. A hope that when she’d come back, if she’d ever, he would be standing there with open arms and that warm and cheeky smirk and smug expression on his face saying ‘told you so’. That she’d act annoyed, hit him on the head and they’d go back to what they were; not the high school sweethearts, never. They weren’t the high school sweethearts – tat title was reserved for James and Lily. They were that couple; the one with a not-so-serious forbidden love that was more teasing than romantic; the heartbreakers, the rebels, the ones with family issues. The ones who you looked at and thought, them? But you looked closely and that furrow in your brow disappeared and you understood why it was them, why it was always meant to be. And sometimes the fantasies would extend so far that their friends would join them and voila! – Slytherins and Gryffindors bantering together, what a sight. But then the true nature of those words together – Slytherins and Gryffindors – would come seeping in, and the friendly teasing and chummy banter would turn to hostile duels and vicious sneers and disgusted scowls.

But that – the sneering and scowling and curses and jinxes – was what Karma liked to fondly look back at, now, fourteen years later, at thirty-three.

Mentally smacking herself across the face because she was just staring at Sirius and Sirius back at her and everyone else at both of them, the woman pressed her lips together, and managed in as curt a tone as she possibly could, ‘Sirius, nice to mee-’

Holy crap.

She squinted her eyes just a bit, going over the boy’s face once again. The same raven, nest-for-hair, the ditto tan skin, that replicated slightly-mad-slightly-confused look in his eyes for having been woken up in the middle of the night – but wait a second – his eyes weren’t hazel… they were… green. Lily’s green. Her eyes jumped to his forehead, and there it was – the infamous lightning scar. James would’ve envied it, if Karma was being honest, because it made this boy look kind of rad.

But on second thought, James wouldn’t’ve been jealous at all; he’d have been proud. After all, this was his son. Harry James Potter.

Getting over the initial shock because she was sure she looked dumb, Karma turned to Sirius once again. She’d be getting straight to the point this time.

‘Where’s Dumbledore?’

Sirius made a face. ‘Dumble… Why would Dumbledore be here? It’s the middle of the night, Karma.’

She suppressed an eyeroll. ‘I know that. I got a letter… about twenty letters, actually, inside the deepest crevices of my home saying that he wanted to see me. Dumbledore. So, do you have any idea where he might be, beca-’

‘Didn’t he give you any address?’

‘Well, I was just going to mention that before you cut me off. All the addresses he gave me were of here. I found it weird too, but it’s Dumbledore, so… what can you expect, really?’ she mumbled the last bit in frustration. The man had asked to speak with her, given her this address, and was now clearly not here. What was she supposed to do?

‘I… Karma, I really don’t know why he’d do that. None of us have any clue as to why he wished to meet you. None of us even knew that you were… that you were supposed to be coming here.’ A couple, who she assumed were Arthur and Molly, nodded in agreement.

Karma sighed. Why couldn’t Dumbledore behave like a normal human being? Yes, the man was wise and powerful beyond anyone she knew, but this was preposterous. She hadn’t apparated across the Earth at 6 o’clock in the morning just to be greeted by remnants of her past that she was coaxing herself to forget. Time flew past especially quickly, and she was sure that it’d been half an hour already. If her neighbours didn’t find her in the morning, who knew what could end up happening? And then there was-

‘Well, you’re welcome to come inside,’ Sirius offered with a hopeful smile. How could she resist?

. . . . .

‘Si- Siri…Sirius, hey, hey, listen,’ Karma breathed out, chest heaving as she panted for air.

‘What, what is it, love?’ She looked up to see the boy look at her with pure mischief, mixed with adoration in his eyes. She wanted to kiss him so bad.

‘…First of all, I’m not your “love”, okay?’

Sirius had this smug look on his face. His smirk was ever-present. ‘You sure ‘bout that, love?’

Karma growled slightly. A look of pleasant surprise crossed Sirius’ face, then he began laughing. ‘Ooh, she growls.’ He’d gotten closer to her face, impossibly closer. His shallow breaths were felt on her skin, and the look in his eyes had switched to something else completely, something that she didn’t have the wits right now to decipher. If only she just pushed a little closer, there lips would brush, and-

‘Pads! Padfoot, you there?’ They jumped apart impossibly quickly; pretty violently too, it seems, because Karma ended up slipping and falling among a heap of mucky cauldrons. Gross.

Sirius helped her up, and dusted her off. ‘…Pads?’ Sirius rolled his eyes.

‘Yes, James, it’s me, your dearest friend. Stop shouting please.’

‘Where are you, anyway?’ asked Karma with a frown.

‘Here!’

‘AHH!’ Karma jumped. James had poked out his head from the window she was standing in front of, her back facing it. Her and Sirius were serving detention in an abandoned classroom for ‘vandalism of school property’. As if. They’d been stuck scrubbing old cauldrons while the entire school was at Hogsmeade. Unfair, and impossibly so. The reason why Karma had been panting earlier on was because the two of them had engaged in quite an enthusiastic soap fight.

‘I came to rescue you-’

‘That doesn’t matter, you nitwit! You know McGonagall is already mad at you, you don’t want to make her angrier, do you? You’ve already gotten six detentions in the past four days, you both.’

‘Eh, since when did you become such a buzzkill?’

‘I’m not-!’

‘Love, Minnie loves us,’ said Sirius casually. ‘James, wand.’ James handed Sirius a wand – it was the former’s – and the latter whipped it about a bit, and boom! Cauldrons squeaky clean.

‘You have an extra broom?’

‘What d’you think?’ Both the boys grinned impishly at one another. Karma frowned.

‘Wait…if there’s one extra broom, then I’m sitting in front.’

‘Why, love, don’t you trust me?’ questioned Sirius.

‘Nope,’ she made the ‘p’ pop. Snatching the extra broom James was holding, Karma swiftly perched on it.

‘Well, Padfoot. Hop on.’

. . . . .

‘So, Karma,’ said Sirius as the woman took a seat on the couch, ‘would you like something? Tea, perhaps?’

She simply shook her head, missing the way Sirius’ face fell. The man’s godson didn’t.

‘Who are you? How do you know Sirius?’ asked he.

Sirius and Karma looked at each other.

‘We just happened to be attending Hogwarts at the same time, and had a mutual friend. Nothing more,’ said Karma.

Sirius nodded, a cold look suddenly overtaking his eyes.

‘Yes, Harry. Nothing more.’

#sirius black #james potter #peter pettigrew #remus lupin #sirius black x reader #karma | the marauders #character x oc #raziroo #arabella lestrange #alec hartley #geoffrey bailey #adrian pucey #lucius malfoy #slytherin #hogwarts

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kevintor · 4 years

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I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: Teen Witch

I had not heard of this movie until friends suggested it for my list of movies to watch. They especially pointed out the amazing rap moment and that’s really all I knew that I could not infer from the title.

This movie doesn’t waste time getting to the saxophone-heavy music. This is how it should be. I can’t tell you how many movies I watch that make me wait for the sax solo. And sometimes it doesn’t even come! Looking at you, The Godfather.

We’ve all had that dream where a mystery hunk in a dress shirt with rolled up, short sleeves and Cavariccis slinks towards you in the dark. Why do we have to wake up???

No matter how good you look and feel, never stand on a ledge in heels. Maybe block heels but not the ones she has on.

Louise’s little brother eats sheet cake under her bed and reads her diary, actually ripping pages out. He’s clearly a psychopath that deserves whatever magic comes his way.

Her dad is not creepy. He’s just someone who likes his daughter to wear his favorite color.

Hot guy from the dream (Brad) rocks a 5.0 Mustang and is dating the popular girl (Randa) living right across the street from Louise. Why do the important people in these movies always live so close to each other? I bet Brad went 300 feet before he had to honk that horn (not a euphemism) for Randa.

Louise’s best friend (Polly) is excessively frumpy. She has on so many layers, I don’t know how the bike could support the weight. She’s dressed like she’s arriving at Ellis Island from the old country.

Louise and Polly wear disrespectfully large trench coats most of the time. The kind I would only wear if I was trying to cut weight for a fight. I know Louise will eventually be made over into a hottie but she doesn’t really need to start in a cocoon. In She’s All That, they simply used glasses.

There’s a trio of rappers that serenade the school. I will call them The Leastie Boys.

Louise has skipped grades because she’s so smart. I get it now. If I was a younger kid amongst seniors, I’d want to hide myself under as much wool and tweed as possible.

There’s a particularly horrific scene where the diary page that her brother ripped out is accidentally handed in with her homework and the teacher reads the whole thing to the class. Between the brother, the dad, and this awful teacher, I’m not going to be surprised if there’s a clown in the sewers.

The girls’ gym uniform is.a purple leotard and that’s it. No shorts. No trench coat.

The popular girls spontaneously break into a song called “I Like Boys.” Is this a musical? She’s introducing them all to this song and they are choreographing it on the spot beautifully. I guess if you feel confident enough in that leotard, you can do anything.

It appears that the leotards are stuck to their bodies. They don’t ever take them off. They have clearly showered because they are drying their hair while still in the gym leotards.

Brad works out shirtless on the football field. He throws a football twice at a tire and never misses. They cut from the throw to the same shot of the ball traveling through the tire. “There’s no time to throw two balls through a tire! Use the same clip! We have six more hours of leotard footage to shoot!”

Quick question: If you were doing an audition for a play and your scene was a kissing one with the girl whose diary about being into you was read out loud in front of you, would you have any awkwardness in the audition? Brad doesn’t. Nothing weird about this. Does he have the memory of a goldfish?

Brad, too aroused by teenage hanky panky, almost runs over Louise on her bike. He stops the car and tries to help her by offering a ride home. Is Brad a misunderstood jock hunk? Randa makes him leave but he was really concerned. What a sweet goldfish man.

With a broken bike and no cell phones, Louise is forced to seek the help of the nearby fortune teller. The fortune teller (Madame Serena) doesn’t let her use the phone and basically robs her of the last cash she has on her.

Madame Serena notices something odd during her palm reading and asks her name again. When Louise says “Miller,” Madame Serena realizes she is a witch with powers that will come to fruition on her 16th birthday. We later learn that Madame Serena and Louise go back 100s of years with witch souls (or whatever). If you had a spiritual connection with someone named “Miller,” I think you wouldn’t miss it the first time. Maybe she should look into getting a third ear instead of a third eye.

We learn that Goldfish Brad can Fonzie a Coke out of a machine. The impressive part about this is that Cokes were only 60 cents. I want to go to there.

Louise turns 16 while her brother dry humps the table in excitement for birthday cake. Feel free to watch it. There’s other way to describe it.

Randa asks Louise if she’d like to go on a date with her cousin from out of town. This is definitely going to work out.

The cousin is an insane nerd who is acting as if he only has one night to live. He asks her if she wants to smoke weed at one point. Then once he’s all drugged up, he tries to get some loving in the car on the way home. It’s cringe-y. Thankfully Louise is gaining powers and makes him literally disappear.

Louise turns her brother into a dog. As if I didn’t hate him enough already, now he’s a talking animal. (See Hocus Pocus)

Madame Serena gives Louise a book of spells. She uses a spell to make the popular girls tell each other the truth. It starts off with calm “you’re not a good singer” insults but gets real, super fast. One points out the other’s “alkie mother.”

Louise wants to make Brad love her and it appears that the secret to casting a good spell is cayenne pepper or maybe paprika.

Brad comes over Louise’s house to work on his English paper. Louise apparently removes the hundreds of chairs from her room so they’d have to sit on the bed. How many chairs does a teenage girl typically have in her room? It’s certainly enough for each family member to barge in and immediately notice them all missing.

Louise thinks better of forcing Brad to like her and gets all the chairs out of her closet. She’s a good person deep down.

The awful teacher is back and this time, goes through Louise’s bag and shows her birth control pills to the class. How does this teacher, even in the 80s, have a job?

Louise rightfully gets revenge. She makes a voodoo doll of the teacher and makes him undress in front of the class. The principal catches him right as Louise pulls the dolls underwear down. Somehow he still has a job. Tenure is amazing.

We finally get to the Rap Off I’ve been hearing so much about. Leader of the Leasties and Polly battle it out for one verse each. Honestly, this could have gone on longer. I know there was magic behind it but Polly’s verse was fire.

Brad tells Louise that someone like him has to go out with the most popular girl in school no matter how terrible she is. Social expectations are the worst. Instead of convincing Brad that he doesn’t have to be with Randa, it would be easier to cast a spell to make yourself popular. Maybe even insanely popular.

The chunky knit sweater budget was out of control for this movie

We have a montage showing us the extent of her popularity. She gets applause when she arrives places. People follow her around. The Leastie Boys rap for her. And her wardrobe consists of so much more denim.

Brad takes her to a lookout point that they have to climb up to and she’s unfortunately too popular for sensible footwear. It’s hard to climb up a sunflower hill in heels. But you do what you have to do to wear the crown!

In this abandoned house, they take off some of their six layers of clothing. Then they make out in the dirty house like only the most popular kids in school could.

Everyone starts dressing and wearing their hair like Louise. Polly gets left out of everything. I don’t know if scenes were cut out (What could possibly be considered “not good enough” for this film?) but we never have the scene where the newly popular girl treats her best friend like garbage and has to apologize. I know Polly misses her but I bet she could just ask Louise to hang out. Anyway, Louise tries to talk to Polly and Polly makes her feel bad.

Because she is so popular, Louise has to sneak out the back of her house to avoid her adoring classmates. Brad picks her up on a side street and takes her for a drive. They go out on the river to talk as teenagers do. He asks her to the dance. She turns him down because she thinks he’s been tricked him into liking her. She wants it real.

Louise wants to undo the popularity spell and she talks Madame Serena into coming to the dance with her to help her do it. No one questions bringing a tiny, old woman as your date to the dance. Not even the teachers.

She wishes the popularity away in the middle of the dance floor. People stop looking at her but Goldfish Brad still feels the pull for regular Louise. He walks slowly towards her. They touch fingertips and roll them up so the palms touch. This happens in a lot of romantic movies. I don’t get it. It’s a good way to train yourself to high five. You learn proper hand alignment. What you want the finish to be. But it’s not romantic. Either way, they kiss and all is good.

This is a fine, late 80s teen movie. It’s essentially a knock-off Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The brother, the nerd date, and the awful teacher were unnecessary. Now that I think about it, the nerd date never reappeared. In most movies you’d have him reappear somewhere embarrassing like under a manure truck that’s about to be dumped. In this movie, he vanishes into nothingness. It’s haunting.

Also, they show that water undoes her spells in the beginning and never return to that either. I was expecting the boat to tip over when she had that moment with Brad on the river. That never happened.

And, finally, she never made up with Polly. Where’s the learned-her-lesson reunion with the best friend, awkwardly hugging through all the layers?

Minus all these loose threads, I enjoyed it. I’d even watch it again if it was on.

#teen witch #80s movies #Movie Reviews #i watch a movie i should have seen #comedy #funny #blog #robyn lively #dick sargent #80s #denim #top that

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bisexualwomanofcolour · 4 years

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Karma | The Marauders

[Chapter 5] Nothing More

The Golden Trio Era

But that – the sneering and scowling and curses and jinxes – was what Karma liked to fondly look back at, now, fourteen years later, at thirty-three.

Holy crap.

But on second thought, James wouldn’t’ve been jealous at all; he’d have been proud. After all, this was his son. Harry James Potter.

Getting over the initial shock because she was sure she looked dumb, Karma turned to Sirius once again. She’d be getting straight to the point this time.

‘Where’s Dumbledore?’

Sirius made a face. ‘Dumble… Why would Dumbledore be here? It’s the middle of the night, Karma.’

‘Didn’t he give you any address?’

‘Well, you’re welcome to come inside,’ Sirius offered with a hopeful smile. How could she resist?

. . . . .

‘Si- Siri…Sirius, hey, hey, listen,’ Karma breathed out, chest heaving as she panted for air.

‘What, what is it, love?’ She looked up to see the boy look at her with pure mischief, mixed with adoration in his eyes. She wanted to kiss him so bad.

‘…First of all, I’m not your “love”, okay?’

Sirius had this smug look on his face. His smirk was ever-present. ‘You sure ‘bout that, love?’

‘Pads! Padfoot, you there?’ They jumped apart impossibly quickly; pretty violently too, it seems, because Karma ended up slipping and falling among a heap of mucky cauldrons. Gross.

Sirius helped her up, and dusted her off. ‘…Pads?’ Sirius rolled his eyes.

‘Yes, James, it’s me, your dearest friend. Stop shouting please.’

‘Where are you, anyway?’ asked Karma with a frown.

‘Here!’

‘I came to rescue you-’

‘Eh, since when did you become such a buzzkill?’

‘I’m not-!’

‘You have an extra broom?’

‘What d’you think?’ Both the boys grinned impishly at one another. Karma frowned.

‘Wait…if there’s one extra broom, then I’m sitting in front.’

‘Why, love, don’t you trust me?’ questioned Sirius.

‘Nope,’ she made the ‘p’ pop. Snatching the extra broom James was holding, Karma swiftly perched on it.

‘Well, Padfoot. Hop on.’

. . . . .

‘So, Karma,’ said Sirius as the woman took a seat on the couch, ‘would you like something? Tea, perhaps?’

She simply shook her head, missing the way Sirius’ face fell. The man’s godson didn’t.

‘Who are you? How do you know Sirius?’ asked he.

Sirius and Karma looked at each other.

‘We just happened to be attending Hogwarts at the same time, and had a mutual friend. Nothing more,’ said Karma.

Sirius nodded, a cold look suddenly overtaking his eyes.

‘Yes, Harry. Nothing more.’

#karma #the marauders #marauders era #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #peter pettigrew #james potter #Lily Evans #1995 #dumbledore #hogwarts #slytherin #gryffindor #nothing more #chapter 5 #raziroo

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duker42 · 5 years

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One day Levi, his s/o, and Marc was walking around town and Marc suddenly got really scared and wanted to go home, he was even on the verge of tears. Levi and his s/o wanted to know what made him so shaken up, but Marc didn't say anything. turns out Marc got really scared again when they went to town and its bc he saw his biological dad again and he's scared of him. his father came to take Marc back but Levi and his s/o didn't let him, making a point that Marc is their son.

***So this went WAY off my original plot, but I think it fits with some of the previous hints about Levi’s life. Great idea Anon!!!!

💜Our Son💜

Y/N and Levi thought they were having the perfect family outing. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and their son, Marc was happily in between them, holding their hands and swinging them as they strolled along the downtown shopping strip.

Everything was perfect until Marc stopped dead and refused to take one step further. He gripped their hands and tugged on them, begging to go back to to car, to go back home. Y/N was confused, they were headed to the arcade and to get ice cream. Levi noticed the panic in his son’s eyes, the tears building up and scanned the area for any threats. He didn’t see out of the ordinary, just people shopping and now discreetly watching their son’s panic attack.

Giving in, Y/N and Levi turned and headed back to the car with Marc. He practically ran there in his haste to leave, but refused to tell them what had scared him so badly.

It took hours of cuddles and being back in the safety of their home for Marc to finally open up. He had seen his biological father among the people shopping. And he was terrified of him. Levi’s eyes darkened. He knew what that man had done. It was written in the reports they were given. He had finally signed his parental rights away one year before Marc’s mother died, a favor to the boy, practically the only good thing the man had done in his life.

That night, they let Marc sleep in between them in their room. He needed the security of his parents and neither one had the heart to refuse him. As the little boy finally slept peacefully between them, Levi vowed that nothing, not that scumbag, not anything was going to hurt his family.

It was a week before something happened. Levi had just arrived home from work, barely stripping his suit off and showering before Y/N’s panicked voice called him from downstairs. As he rushed by the little boy quivering in fear at the top of the stairs he heard a stranger’s voice speak disrespectfully to his wife, standing at their open front door.

Settling his face in a menacing scowl, he stood behind Y/N. “Is there a problem here?” His voice was dark and Y/N jumped at the sound. It had been years since she had heard that tone.

“I’ve come for the brat.” The man looked like Marc, same facial structure, but years of hard living and evil deeds had turned what once might have been a handsome man into the disgusting creature before them.

“Only brat in this house belongs to me and she doesn’t like it when someone calls her that.” His voice was dry and mocking as he continued to pierce the man with an intimidating stare.

“The boy, I want my boy. I saw him with you. I want him back.” He had seen the brat with those rich looking yuppies. When he had thrown a tantrum he knew that the kid recognized him. He had followed them back to their big, expensive house and watched. Waited for the time to make his move. He was sure he could make these rich pussies pay to the right to see Marc. He didn’t really want the boy, just would dangle the kid in front of them anytime he needs some quick cash.

“Only boy in this house is my son. And you’re never touching him again, you piece of shit.” Y/N was pushed back protectively behind Levi as the shorter man made his statement.

“Kid’s mine. I’ve got a right to...”

“You’ve got shit, you disgusting worthless pile of flesh. You signed away your rights. I’ve got the papers in my safe. Even if you hadn’t, the courts would have taken them from you.” Levi’s voice got even harder. “I have the CPS reports as well. I know ever circular scar on that innocent boy’s body was out there by your cigarettes when he was a toddler. You touch my son, looking at my son, think about my son and I’ll make you sorry your mother ever pushed you out into this world.”

“What’s a pansy-assed, shrimp like you going to do to me, suit?” He grinned through rotten teeth, obviously not realized who Levi had been before leaving his former life behind.

“You’ve heard of the Wings of Freedom?” Levi inquired, looking down at his hand nonchalantly.

“That old gang that turned legit? Yeah, everyone has. They used to be ruthless.” He shrugged, not sure how this factored into his shakedown.

“I’m the founded member.” Levi’s viciously smiled. Y/N had managed to get Levi and his friends away from their dark path before they had records, but for a few years, their gang had been the most feared around. Levi had left that life behind, but the others had channeled their ruthless energy into helping those less fortunate, turning a gang into a nonprofit that had their hands in virtually every pie in the city. “One call and plenty of people can make your life a living hell. Now forget you every saw our son and get the fuck off my property.”

The man paled as he comprehended just who he had tried to mess with. Backing up, he stumbled down the stairs and turned, quickly fleeing back to his decrepit car.

Levi shut the door and turned to pull Y/N into his arms. “Come downstairs, Marc. He’s gone”

The boy hesitant obeyed his father, his eyes wide with apprehension as he came towards his parents. He had been so scared that his father was going to take him back. Hurt him again. The man who had chosen him as his son gently tugged him to the couple, and his new mom brought her arm down around him as well for a family hug.

Y/N spoke clearly with love and tenderness in her voice. “You are our son, Marc. No one will ever take you from us. Your dad will make sure of that.”

#captain levi #levi ackerman #snk levi #levi aot #shingeki no kyojin #aot fanfiction #attack on titan #levi ackerman x reader #snk x reader #aot x reader #captain levi x reader #levi x reader #levi modern au #modern au #captain levi fanfiction #levi fanfiction

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biaswreckingfics · 5 years

Text

No Exit: Part 10

Author: biaswreckingyourlifefics

Genre: Mafia AU - Warnings? Everything that happens in a Mafia AU

Word Count: 4.4k

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Suho's POV

When Suho walked back into the living room, he surveyed everyone's reactions, and from the looks of it, everyone was pretty pissed at what just happened, and he didn't blame them. He was fucking livid too.

How fucking dare those old ass crypt keepers come into his home and try to not only boss him around but show dominance over him. It took all of his self-control to not rip that cane out of Janghoon's hands and bash his fucking skull in with it.

That was what had pissed him off the most. Not the fact that they wanted to get rid of you or the blatant disrespect they showed Kai, although he wanted to snap like the rest of them at that, but the fact that they were still trying to undermine him and make him seem insignificant. He's lead EXO for nearly a decade, tripled their profits, and expanded their business more than the Elders ever could, and they refused to give him credit. It was enough to make him irate.

His eyes quickly sought out Xiumin and Kai, and he was pleased to find that both men were calmed down. He felt pride in his men, and yes, those were his men. They might lose their tempers, but they knew how to hold their shit together when necessary.

Next, his eyes found you as you vacantly stared out the window. Clearly, something was on your mind, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that you were unnerved with the Elders, but to his surprise, you held your own. You even jutted up a chin at the Elders in an act of defiance when Kai put his arm around your shoulders, and Suho found himself amused by it. Of course, the Elders hated it, which made him even more amused.

Xiumin's father had completely thrown him for a loop, though. "Hand her over to the Baem like they want"? Since when has EXO ever given the Baem something they wanted? Never, and fuck the Baem.

Not only did they kill five of his men, but he was 99% sure they killed his family also. The only reason a single Baem member was still breathing was because he had a leak.

An EXO member had been feeding the Baem information for years, and he knew it was an Elder. Suho just wasn't sure which one, or if there was more than one, but he had definitely set his sights on Xiumin's father after that meeting.

"What now, boss?"

Chen's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked around the room, taking in his men's expressions. They all stared back at him, waiting for their orders.

"We're going to have a meeting tonight to discuss our next move, but for now, just continue doing what you were doing before. Asking the Elders here was apparently pointless." Turning to look at you, he says, "I'd like to speak with you later as well."

At your nod, he turned and strode out of the room, knowing his second wasn't far behind.

Your POV

As you watched the men file out of the room, you knew Suho was gonna want to talk about what happened when the Elders saw you, and that wasn't something you particularly wanted to talk about. How could you tell him that you recognized one of them? You've continuously stated that you didn't have any connections to the mafia world, and then one walks right into their freaking living room.

"You okay?"

Focusing your attention on Jongin, who had suddenly appeared in front of you, you do a quick read of his expression. He was trying to hide it through the mischievous smile on his face, but you could tell he was upset about what they had said to him.

"I'm fine, but how are you?"

Shrugging his shoulders in an attempt to play it off, he says, "I don't care what they say about me."

You knew that Jongin didn't care about the Elder's opinions, but hearing the harsh words they threw at him had to hurt. It would hurt anyone.

"You know you don't have to hide it from me, right? The way I was brought here wasn't conventional, but I do consider you a friend."

He slightly tilts his head as a curious expression graces his face. "I wonder if you would still think of me as a friend when you find out why they dislike me."

"One way to find out." You smirk, letting him know, in your own way, you would.

He hesitated only for a second before taking a deep breath and saying, "I killed one of them."

The fact that you didn't even react to his confession showed you how quickly you had become comfortable in this world again, but you couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"From what I've seen, I'm sure they weren't that missed."

"It was my father." He states before scrunching his nose and saying, "Well, stepfather."

Your lips parted at the rest of the confession. That wasn't what you were expecting to hear. You waited for him to continue, but when he made no further attempt to continue, you ask him why.

He scrubs a hand down his face before looking at the couch and gesturing to it. Following his lead, you both sink into the couch, and you immediately turn to face him.

"Someone seems a little eager." He jokes, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Not every day someone blatantly tells me they killed their father."

"No, I suppose not." He takes a breath before finding your eyes. "So, when I was three, my mom married one of the EXO members, who eventually became one of the lead Elders. At first, he was alright. He ignored my existence, but I was three, so I didn't really understand either way. When I was four, my mom was killed in a random home intrusion..."

Jongin continued talking, but your mind flashed back to your own past. To when your parents were murdered in the same fashion right in front of you.

"Y/N?"

You guiltily snap out of your thoughts and give him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry... I just thought about my own parents for a second... continue, please."

"Right... you lost them too..." He nods in understanding, trailing off for a second. "Well, when I was five, he moved me into the EXO compound, and he started to beat me once he realized he was stuck with a child that wasn't his own. He beat me for years until I was able to start fighting back. Once I was stronger than him, he moved on to mentally abusing me instead. He would talk about my mom disrespectfully and bring prostitutes around who looked like her. I could deal with all that. I learned to ignore it.

When Suho took his position as leader, I officially joined EXO. I always liked it when he and Xiumin were around. They had been there for pretty much my whole life, and they were the only friends I had... With Suho taking power, high-level EXO secrets were unveiled to him and he was the one who told me that my stepfather had orchestrated the home invasion."

An audible gasp left your mouth before you could stop it. "He had your mother killed?"

"Yep. Turns out he only married her so he could collect the life insurance money when she died."

You searched Jongin's face at his detached voice. He hid whatever emotions he was feeling well enough that you couldn't get a grasp on his thoughts.

"I'm so sorry..."

He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't remember her much... that's the only sad thing about it."

You were inclined to disagree. He had been abused mentally, physically, and emotionally for most of his life. That type of damage does something to a person, and you knew that all too well. Fortunately for you, you only had to endure the abuse for a couple of years when you were in foster care, not the majority of your life.

"So, what'd you do when you found out?"

A smirk presented itself on to his face, but it looked slightly unnatural. "I confronted him in front of everyone, and then, I slit his throat."

The way he said it so matter of factly had you blinking a few times. The rational part of you told you that you should be scared of this man, but you weren't. It was Jongin, and he had never hurt you in your time here. He was caring and kind in his own way. Plus, if you were in his position, you couldn't say you wouldn't do the same thing. Maybe in a slightly less gruesome way, though.

"Still friends with me?" He asks you quietly.

When he continued to vacantly stare at the fireplace instead of meeting your gaze, you called his name and waited until he finally looked at you.

"If anything, I'm glad you retaliated. I don't know what that says about me as a person, but that piece of shit killed your mother and beat you. In my opinion, he deserved what he had coming to him."

He quietly regarded your words before saying, "I feel like a part of me should be worried that you're so okay with it, but... thanks for seeing it my way."

Leaning back into the couch, you realize that as a "normal" person whose supposedly not involved in the mafia world, your response might be an odd one. However, you had grown up in this world, and you were far from a normal person.

Jongin and you spent the next hour discussing the Elders and he filled you in on all of the bullshit they had pulled over the boys throughout the years, and before you knew it, Suho and Xiumin were standing in the doorway.

Almost immediately, you became apprehensive. Who knew what the pair was thinking after talking with the Elders?

Jongin quietly stood up and left the room, but not before gently putting a hand on Xiumin's shoulder and squeezing. Xiumin closed his eyes for a second, and then both leaders walked over to the couches and sat down, one beside you and one across from you. They hated the Elders, so odds were in your favor, and with that thought, you forced yourself to relax.

"So, those were the Elders..." Suho awkwardly starts.

Snorting at his opening, you reply, "I can't say I'm impressed."

"They're not an impressive bunch." He responds with a smirk.

Xiumin, who had quietly sat across from you, gave you an unreadable look. "Why did it seem like my dad knew who you were?"

"I was, kind of, hoping you could tell me. I've never seen him before in my life..."

It wasn't a lie. You had never seen Xiumin's father or the other leader before, but the third Elder? You had definitely seen him before.

"Not just his father, Janghoon and Hosung too... They all seemed to freak out, which I feel like should worry me, but it was more entertaining than anything."

Hosung... that must've been the man you recognized, and damn if his name didn't sound familiar...

"I suppose you don't know why they called you trouble either?" Xiumin asks casually.

"I assumed that was because I was a girl."

Both men freeze at your words, and you quickly look between the two of them. Xiumin was the one to break the silence.

"Who told you?"

"Baekhyun told me about his sister and Minhyuk."

The men exchange a glance before looking at you, regarding you slightly different than before.

"I knew you had grown close with a couple of the guys, but I didn't realize how close..." Suho quietly trails off.

"I don't have to tell you what'll happen if you end up betraying them in any way, do I?" Xiumin asks.

Sighing, you say, "Aren't we done with that yet? I've been here for, like, two months now. You haven't found out anything bad about me, and I've made no attempt to hurt anyone in any way. Annoyingly enough, I've grown to care about most of you in one way or another. Even your two stubborn asses."

Suho lets out a quiet chuckle, but Xiumin only raises an eyebrow at your small outburst.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't mean much in this world. Betrayal is a very real thing, and it's deadly. You could be biding your time, you could be an implant, or you could be innocent. Considering the Elder's reaction to you, clearly, you’re involved in this world somehow. Now whether you're lying to us or you simply can't remember is another story. I guess time will tell us which it is."

Suho quietly contemplated his second's statement before saying, "Well, I figured the Elders would've had you shaken up, but I guess not..."

"Don't get me wrong, they're intimidating, and I worry about what'll happen now since they told you to get rid of me, but I'm tougher than I look."

A look passed between the two leaders that you couldn't decipher, and Suho glanced out the window before turning to you.

"Bottom line? We don't trust the Elders. Not only do they have more secrets than I can keep track of, but they also have a leak."

You sat up and looked between the men. "Wait, really?"

"One of the Elders has been leaking information about us to the Baem for years."

"How come you haven't figured out who it is?" You ask.

"They're good at covering their tracks. We have it narrowed down to a couple of them, though."

At Suho's words, a muscle in Xiumin's jaw ticked, and that was when you noticed how tense he was. Before you could look away, he caught you staring at him.

"To answer your unspoken question, yes. My father is one of the suspects."

Xiumin's POV

He took in your surprised expression and knew he had caught you off guard with his bluntness. He wasn't stupid. He knew his father was Suho's number one suspect, but it sat wrong with him.

His father was a piece of shit, even Xiumin wouldn't deny that, but his father and Suho's father were best friends. He was his second, just like Xiumin was Suho's, so it didn't make sense to him that his father would be the one to betray EXO and leak information to the Baem.

There was a huge piece of the puzzle that was missing, and it was probably right in front of their faces.

The reaction the Elders had to you, however, was interesting. Xiumin heard his father take a breath when he saw you, and at first, Xiumin thought it was his "no girls are good enough for EXO" bullshit. That changed when he saw Hosung and Janghoon's reactions, though. They recognized you, and Xiumin had no fucking clue how they would know you.

So many scenarios ran through his mind at that moment, and they all pointed to his father and possibly the others being the leak. Maybe they freaked out because you could mess up their plans in some way, or maybe they freaked because they knew you were from a different group and were infiltrating them, but there's no way they wouldn't have immediately said that to Suho. Hiding who you were made no sense unless you were a Baem whore, and they knew it because they were the leaks.

However, Xiumin saw your confusion at their reactions, so he knew you meant it when you told them you didn't know who they were. Unless you were the best damn actress on this planet, but Xiumin wasn't going to give you that much credit. Add that to the missing piece of the puzzle.

"You think your dad could be the link?" Your voice draws him out of his thoughts.

He shrugs his shoulders in response. "A few people could be, but yes, he is a possibility."

When you didn't say anything, he sighed and leaned forward.

"Look my dad's an asshole. You saw the way he treated Jongin, who has been a member as long as we have, but he was the second in command for decades. It just doesn't make sense to me that he would betray us. However, I've been in this world long enough to know that it changes you in more ways than you could imagine. The father that I knew growing up is gone, and the man he is now is a suspect."

He could see that you had something you wanted to say to him. It was written all over your face.

"Spit it out."

Your eyes widened at his words, and you glanced at Suho before looking back at him.

"I know it's not my place..."

Suho snorts. "Which undoubtedly means you're going to say something anyway. Sometimes you are just like my - "

Xiumin quickly clears his throat, stopping his best friend from saying something he could regret. He knew what Suho was going to say. His sister. You reminded him of his baby sister, and in some ways, you reminded Xiumin of her too. He didn't have many interactions with her before the incident, but when she was younger, she would always try to hang out with the boys. Of course, they usually told her to go away, but most of the time, she was determined to be with them.

Seoyeon was a sweet, happy girl, and Xiumin remembered how destroyed Suho had been after she died. There were days when he thought Suho wasn't going to survive. He drowned his issues in alcohol and drugs before getting his shit together and taking his rightful spot as leader.

You were the first girl who truly tested him. All the other girls who had ever been around EXO weren't stupid enough to do that. They knew who he was and knew not to push his buttons, but you didn't seem to care. You were just like his sister, and Xiumin would be damned before he let Suho fall back into that dark place.

Xiumin continued to stare at you, waiting for you to finish whatever it was you were going to say, but what came out of your mouth wasn't something he had been prepared for.

"Jongin doesn't blame you, and while we're at it, neither does Baekhyun. Whatever idiotic things your father has said and done does not reflect on you."

Anger, shame, and frustration filled Xiumin, but before he could say anything, you cut him off.

"I saw the way you were after the meeting. It was tearing you up to see the way he was talking to Jongin. You are not your father."

It was silent after you spoke, and it lasted long enough for you to start fidgeting in your seat.

"Are you done?" He asks.

He knew you were trying to help, and he knew you were right, but it pissed him off that you could read him so easily, so he said the first thing he thought of.

"If I wanted a therapist, I'd fucking get one. You don't know me, and you don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

Your POV

You watched as Xiumin angrily stood up and marched out of the room. You knew you might've been overstepping your boundaries, but you wanted to help ease him in some way.

"Don't worry about him." Suho quietly tells you.

"I just wanted to help him..."

"He knows. He just doesn't want to hear it right now."

You nod because you don't know what else to do and change the subject. "So, what now?"

"I don't know." He quietly chuckles. "This whole situation is new territory for me. Normally, I would've just killed you in the shoot out, but there was something familiar about you. You've come into our world and our home and have completely shaken things up. I have no idea what to do about you or the situation."

You hesitate before asking one of the questions that had been on your mind for over a month now. "Why do I seem so familiar to you? Earlier, it sounded like you were going to compare me to someone... can I ask who?"

This time it was his turn to hesitate. "My sister... Sometimes, the way you say or do something, it reminds me of her."

"What happened to her?"

Suho turns his head away from you. The muscle in his jaw ticks and you get the feeling he was trying to keep himself composed.

"She was killed by a rival group. I don't think you have to guess who."

"Baem?" You whisper.

"Of course, there's never been any real proof, but nobody else is stupid enough to make that move."

His situation was eerily similar to yours. Both of your parents and your siblings killed by rival groups? It didn't take much for your mind to jump to a conclusion.

What if his father killed your family, and in retaliation, your father's group killed his? Or vice versa?

"Did you retaliate against them?"

He snorts before answering. "Of course we did. There's no way in hell I'd let my family's killer breathe longer than he needed to."

Your body froze as his words sunk in. Did your families kill each other? Was your father the leader of the Baem? Were you, by blood, a Baem?

"I'm sorry... I know this is still probably a lot for you to take in."

Meeting his eyes, you realize he had mistaken your panic for him retaliating and not what you were truly panicking about. Your panic was more about the fact that you were probably sitting across from your father's enemy.

"No, it's fine. I would do the exact same if someone had murdered my family." You tell him, meeting his stare head-on.

His cellphone ringing broke the eye contact the two of you were holding. As he spoke to whoever was on the other end, your mind ran with possibilities. What the heck were you going to do now?

"Alright. See you in a minute." He hangs up the phone as he begins to stand up. "Well, it's time for our meeting, so if you need anyone, you know where will be."

You nod to let him know you heard him and watch as he walks out of the room.

For the next couple of hours, you tried to fall into your favorite book, but your mind refused to let you. So many things weren't adding up, and you were getting a headache trying to figure it out.

If your father was a Baem leader, why would they try to kill you? The possibility that your family and Suho's family had killed each other was so real, but if the Baem were trying to kill you, then that wouldn't make sense.

What if...

No.

There was absolutely no way.

There is no possible way that your father was an EXO member because that would mean that Suho... was your brother...

No. You stopped that stupid idea and refused to let yourself go down that path. Your brother was dead. Definitely not down the hallway.

Dropping your head onto the back of the couch, you stare at the ceiling and think of the only three possible options to where you fit into this mess.

1. Your father had been the Baem leader, but you immediately nixed that idea. Your father's group wouldn't try to kill his daughter, right?

2. Your father had been the EXO leader and Suho was your brother, but you threw out that idea also. Though Suho had some resemblance to your brother, you knew your brother was dead, just like the rest of your family.

3. The only other option that made sense was that your father was the leader of an entirely different group that you didn't know, and you actually had nothing to do with EXO or the Baem.

You sigh and place the book down on the table. There was no use lying to yourself because you weren't going to get anywhere with reading it. Instead, you lean back into the couch and stare out the window in front of you.

It was a quiet, calm night. Not a cloud in the sky, and you were in a remote enough place to see the stars. Staring out the window had become one of your favorite pastimes since the only light that polluted the sky was from a cute little lantern in the backyard. The light was next to a path that led you into the tree line, so it was far enough away that it didn't bug you.

Quickly spotting it, you take comfort in it as you watch the tree branches sway in front of it, blocking it from view every so often. It must be...

You slowly sit up with the realization that there was no wind tonight, and therefore, whatever was blocking the light was not a tree branch.

On instinct, you slowly slide off the couch and onto the ground. Crawling over to the window as quickly as you can, you slowly peek above the windowsill. Trying to remain as still as possible, you peer over at the lantern. It only takes a couple of seconds before you spot the figure next to it.

The longer you stared, the more the shape of the person defined itself, and the quicker you realized they were not alone. There was another figure right next to them, and both of them were dressed in black from head-to-toe.

You knew all the boys were in their meeting, so it wasn't anyone friendly outside. Scanning the backyard for any more unwelcome guests, you spot another one off to the side a few yards away.

Slowly ducking back down, you pull yourself away from the window and begin to quickly crawl towards the entrance in the living room. It only takes you a few seconds before you crawl out into the hallway, where you jump to your feet and take off running for the meeting room.

You had to warn EXO that they were about to be under attack. You all were.

Tagging: @cina-bunn, @nothingbutadeadesceane, @spiltkpop, @meryljill-111192, @atwoodscott, @kaykaystay17, @sehunnies-hunnie96, @azul23blue, @exosnoona29

#no exit #mafia au #EXO Mafia #exo mafia au #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exo fic #exo fanfics #exo fics #exo scenarios #exo scenario #exo series #exo au #exo au series

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warriorgays · 7 years

Note

I'm going to ask the most broad and annoying question so forgive me, but what happened to everyone after Through the Gay Days ended? I have never been more invested in a group of characters in my life and I desperately want them all to be happy, whatever form that takes, in the end. Also! what other sources did you draw from besides Coming Out Under Fire? I was so impressed with how well researched everything was. 💖

OH MAN I didn’t expect to actually get a question, lol!! And that’s one I’m happy to answer, because I did think a lot about it. idk if I’m ever going to actually write a follow up, because my WIP list is soooo long and, tbh, the 50s are SO DEPRESSING in terms of LGBT stuff.

IT TOOK ME AN HOUR TO WRITE THIS UP. I APOLOGIZE. UNDER A CUT BECAUSE HOLY FUCK. I apologize for any typos but I’m just publishing instead of proofreading because what the fuck.

In terms of sources... I really think Coming Out Under Fire was the main “intentional” one. I have a BA in history and I’m getting my MA right now, so I’ve READ a lot of history and probably unconsciously drew on a lot. the other one I can definitely think of is Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, by Lillian Faderman, which covers lesbian U.S. history from the early 1900s to the 1980s. she draws on COUF for her 40s chapter (which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping for more WWII lesbian-specific content lol), but she’s good at covering some of the broad-strokes history of sexuality and LGBTQ identity. Becoming Visible by Molly McGarry is a really cool illustrated history, too, I’ve read that a few times over the years.

SO, for post-war lives, I’m going to warn you real quick it does get depressing for everybody for a little bit because uhhh the 50s fucking sucked? Faderman talks about this a lot, and actually Stephanie Coontz is a good source too--she has this book titled The Way We Never Were, which basically debunks the idea of “the ~traditional~ family” and looks at the ways our perceptions of society’s values have changed. and one thing she points out is that the 1950s are really the first time when society looks at single men--all single men--and thinks “there must be something WRONG with them.” before that, people were willing to accept that some dudes just didn’t want to get married, for plenty of reasons that had nothing to do with homosexuality, but in the 50s everyone was so gungho about The Family that anyone not into it was looked at with suspicion. add that to the whole “homosexuals are susceptible to Communist blackmail, better fire them all” and things fucking sucked.

I PROMISE HAPPY ENDINGS, THOUGH, because the whole “LGBTQ people lived depressing lives until these Enlightened Times” trope is my least favorite trope ever.

SO, for Gene Roe, my first thought for his post-war life was this Gaslight Anthem lyric that @antiquecompass prompted me for a Snafu/Roe fic foreverrrrrr again: “I’m in love with the way you’re in love with the night.” so I imagine that Snafu comes home, and they try to just settle into things as usual, but Snafu starts really pushing Gene’s buttons. being more snide, being disrespectfully obvious about being nonmonogamous (like it’s one thing to go cruising and another to bring dudes home to the apartment you’re sharing with your boyfriend, COME ON MAN), trying to pick fights. and of course the impetus for all this is Snafu struggling with PTSD and thinking that Gene is too good for him but not being able to end it himself. of course Gene doesn’t put up with this bs, so one day Snafu finally admits he’s doing this because he’s afraid the war turned him into kind of a fucked up asshole, and Gene’s like “you were always a fucked up asshole? what’s your point? I love you?”

so then things kinda simmer down. Gene’s not Officially a doctor anymore, but he and Snafu live in an apartment building in the poorer part of the city with a lot of ~ethnic~ folk nearby some black neighborhoods, so he does some informal community doctoring around those buildings, and that earns him enough goodwill that he and Snafu don’t really have to worry about getting caught out. it’s the kind of neighborhood where a lot of people have to... bend the law a bit to get by, to be happy, whatever, so people trade food and skills as needed and there’s always an alert if the cops are coming by. it’s a good place for them. they’re happy. I’ve only really thought ahead like ~ten years, but I can imagine them eventually moving on when the community moves on, you know, whether to another city or somewhere a little more rural, depending, and that being okay. and I think, with Gene’s influence, and seeing how strong the ties are between the Pansies with Parachutes(TM), Snafu is able to reach out to Sledge and Burgie and the rest more than irl/show canon.

Babe and Spina are the other two that totally make it, soulmates, heartbreakingly cute. but I promised a little heartbreaking, so basically my idea is that they actually move in together a little while after the war, but at some point Babe’s mom realizes what’s up and... does not take it well. gives him an ultimatum, break up with Ralph or she won’t let him near the family, which Babe finds agonizing because he’s really close with his family but Ralph doesn’t have very many relatives, at least not close by (in this verse at least), and even if he could bring himself to break up with Ralph, at this point he doesn’t think his mom will ever treat him the same anyway.

in my head there’s a really sweet scene when Ralph finds out what happens and a lot of hugging and comforting. but yeah. that briefly sucks. what DOESN’T suck is when Babe decides, after a few months, that he has to tell Bill (because Bill has gotten so close to the Heffrons that of course he notices when Babe suddenly isn’t speaking to them), and Bill proves himself to be a total Bro who decides that, well, the typical idea of a homosexual CLEARLY doesn’t fit Babe and Spina so... it’s all good? like c’mon they went through a war together, that’s worth something, right?

I think eventually Babe and Spina move, too. not super far, just maybe to, idk, New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, somewhere they can visit everyone but maybe far enough to put some distance between them and bad memories, and also because South Philly is small when your family isn’t speaking to you, you know? possibly they end up in the same city as Luz and Tipper (see next), I’m not 100% sure but I’m vaguely attracted to the idea of everybody ending up on a commune, lol.

so I think I’m probably meanest to Luz, because I imagine him getting arrested at some point. sorry, boo. his reaction is to pay the fine and slink out, and get out of dodge for a while to avoid his family getting any blowback, and he ends up visiting Tipper, who’s really frustrated (which I alluded to a bit at the end of Through the Gay Days) because he just doesn’t click with his old friends as much and he hasn’t had a lot of luck romantically. and again I have this clear scene in my head of Tipper helping Luz dress in drag for the first time, lots of giggling and teasing, but Tipper doesn’t really do drag anymore because he can’t keep his balance in heels, and they end up talking about their frustrations and venting and whatnot. and eventually Luz is like “you know what? fuck it! run away with me!”

and Tipper’s like “fuck it, let’s do it!” so they just kind of live a semi-nomadic life? idk, maybe not really nomadic, but they get jobs that let them move/travel, so they don’t have the pressure of expectations. I’m on the fence about whether they do this as lovers... I would say not, like, REALLY. like possibly a friends with benefits thing (and I’ll point out that Luz is one of the only other named characters who interacts with Tipper, other than Liebgott, because Tipper’s in charge of the map during the Major Horton scene, so that chemistry could totally work). because they’re, like, the two from the fic whose relationships don’t end up going anywhere, and I don’t want them to pine after the Joes forever, and they don’t, but sometimes people just don’t find their soulmates, it happens, and they can at least make each other happy.

this is one of those verses where I’ve decided Liebgott gets to keep his wife-and-kids dream. I do think he’s gay in this verse, and when he gets engaged he writes a letter to Tipper basically seeking closure, admitting he dealt with things in kind of a shitty way and admitting it might be nice to have a Gay Posse, but he also takes his marriage seriously even if it’s not a love match, and doesn’t seek romantic or sexual encounters with men. idk if Joe Toye actually gets married in this verse, but I don’t see him as gay. if we were to retroactively apply the Kinsey scale, I’d say he’d be a 1 or a 2, in which the situational aspect of war kind of pushed him towards interactions that he may have subconsciously desired, but definitely wouldn’t acknowledge in a normal time and place.

as for Chuck! I kind of like the future I give Chuck, partly because he conveniently is from the LA area. so for him, I imagine that at some point Ron Speirs just kind of shows up on his doorstep one day and they become, like, an actual Thing. and it’s good for a couple of years, but Ron seems... restless. and eventually Chuck sits him down and flat-out says “look, I really don’t think you’re cut out for this settled-down long-term-relationship kind of thing. we had a good run, we can part on good terms, but you can travel and have adventures and do all the stuff you want to do.” and then, correctly, points out that one of the reasons Speirs is so reluctant to do that is because he feels guilty for Chuck getting shot, which doesn’t really make any sense. Chuck’s only request is that Ron NOT GO BACK INTO THE ARMY, because fuck Korea, have you heard how many gay soldiers are getting kicked out of the military nowadays? Speirs agrees and they break up amicably.

(is Chuck still in love with him? yes. does it hurt like a motherfucker? yes.)

ANYWAY. the L.A. is where the Mattachine Society, the first official homosexual organization in the country, was founded in 1948... or maybe 49. I forget. the founder started asking around a while before he found people who were actually willing to join up. I figure Chuck eventually joins up and is the first of the Pansies with Parachutes(TM) to really develop a political gay identity. and through that org he eventually meets Beth, a lesbian who’s just broken up with her gf and is kind of panicking because now she might have to leave her apartment and go back to her parents in Nebraska, and they become fast friends and fuck it, why not get married? it’s good cover, and I could have also gotten a chance to talk about the working class lesbian bar scene in the 1950s, which is a cool topic.

if this were a formal fic, I would end it with 1952, when the entire group reunites in honor of the 10-year anniversary of them meeting at Toccoa. since it’s not, suffice to say they do have all-group reunions, and they also visit each other and call and write letters and stay friends 5ever. at some point Babe and Spina have a not-wedding (there’s a picture of a wedding in the 50s with two grooms in flower crowns in Becoming Visible, I love that picture) and they all come and celebrate. OH and at some point between Luz getting arrested and meeting with Tipper, he definitely visits Gene in Louisiana and they make out a bit. because, tbh, I caught a bit of UST in Through the Gay Days--I don’t know if it’s a ship I’d ship in any other verse, lol, but in this verse I feel like they need to make out.

anyway. eventually the 50s end. I want to say that by the time Stonewall happens, either Tipper&Luz or Babe/Spina (both??) are living in NYC and for three days everyone is frantically calling each other going “DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS???” and Chuck becomes totally into the California gay scene, and Babe’s nieces and nephews eventually reach out to him, Tipper and Luz either... idk, become real boyfriends or get hot younger boyfriends and become Wise Gay Dads to the younger crowd. Snafu and Gene grow old together, as hard as it is to imagine old Snafu.

EVERYBODY IS HAPPY AND FRIENDS AND GAY, THE END.

#onlythenuns

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