#i did read mdzs fics before joining the fandom

[mxtxfanatic]

I think the first few mdzs chapters made me believe 'jc and wwx are literal adopted siblings'. Ppl reccing mdzs on my tl referred to them as such too and the fantl I read (one of the earlier ExR versions) said in prologue something like 'it was his sect leader and adopted brother, jiang cheng, who killed him'. Afterwards when wwx overheard ppl discussing wwx and jc's relationship it cemented my belief. Wwx was taken in by jc's parents so voila they're brothers.

It was my first time reading cn novel as a westerner so I had no idea that sect siblings, martial brothers and sisters are very different things from actual 'siblings'

As I was finishing the novel I had some doubts but it was later, upon my reread once I was more educated that I changed my opinion. I now view them more as a young master&servant of sorts relationship and/or slightly unequal little toxic friendship. Further underlined that none of the Jiang parents actually considered wwx their child in any sense of the word. A "foster ward" would be the most familial word I'd use if pressed.

That is not to say their relationship wouldn't feel incredibly sibling-like for some people who grew up in similar relationships and applied hefty dose of projection.

However back then it used to be bad to say you don't think of them as siblings on tumblr bc it meant you think adoptive siblings aren't real siblings or you're somehow against wangxian and think wwx and jyl or jc should kiss and that's a crime (yeah idk either weird times) XD

Welp, glad I missed all those times cause 😬 The person who was reccing mdzs on my dash were tryna save me from myself by only posting fanart of wangxian and A-Yuan, and I still squandered their goodwill by trusting the wiki smh.

[idlebeks]

New Bundle of Multi Fandom Fic Recs

Fics from various fandoms that have made it into my favorites pile in the last few months. I’ve included the first fics in some unfinished series in this bunch, so if that bothers you be sure to check the series pages before you start to read. Here you will find recs for The Untamed/MDZS, SVSSS, Word of Honor, and Star Wars. One of these days I will create master lists for each fandom.These are a mix of gen and slash with a range of ratings, so read at your own risk. Don’t forget to leave some love for the authors.

The Untamed/MDZS

Stray Dog's Parable by natcat5

Innocence isn't the only thing to die in war. Propriety is the last thing on the minds of the teenaged generals, the orphan clan leaders of the Sunshot campaign.

Jin Guangshan is the only leader who ascended as an adult, who didn't have his parents murdered by the Wen, who didn't come of age during a war. The last adult standing, the only one with experience and age. He assumes this will put him in the most advantageous position, once the war ends. That the infant leaders of the other clans will gladly fall into step within his shadow.

He is wrong.

Your Heart and Mine by natcat5

Wangji and his swan have never met a daemon so terrible and improper as Wei Wuxian's wretched, shameless raven.

Fierce Rabbits by FaiaSakura 

Lan Yuan didn’t mean to start a collection of undead rabbits.

Inquiry by incendir

Sizhui cannot fall asleep for a long, long time that night. He hears the ever-familiar melody again. He thinks perhaps he has memorized it by now.

the anger remains by Gaez (bell_flowers) 

The ghost, when it comes to Lotus Pier, is not entirely unexpected. That it is the enraged shade of his elder sister, does give Jiang Wanyin pause.

just as the stories say by TheDameJudiWench

When a young girl tries to kill the Yiling Laozu, she learns that revenge may not be what she seeks. As Wei Wuxian fights for his life in Cloud Recesses, she begin to carve out an existence she never imagined. Suddenly, she has far more to lose than she ever believed she could gain.

The more she learns about Wei Wuxian and the people who love him, the more she understands about grief and atonement.

This is a story about forgiveness.

Whatever you do [Podfic] by gndmlvr01

Podfic of Whatever you do, by apathyinreverie

Read by gndmlvr01, and posted with blanket permission Please note: I did adjust tags that I find helpful to locate works like this (ex: Genius WWX)

Original story summary:

During the attack on Cloud Recesses, both Jades of Lan are captured. It changes everything. Not so much by way of their capture. But rather by way of who ends up coming to their rescue.

(Or, a Wei-Ying-is-appreciated fic. ‘Cause, there can never be enough of those.)

To a fault by apathyinreverie 

The one where Jiang Cheng wakes during the Golden Core transfer procedure, wakes to the sound of his brother’s agony, to the sight of Wei Wuxian letting his Golden Core be torn from his own chest.

SVSSS

anachronism of the moment by plutoisgay 

daemon au that follows Shen Yuan through his transmigration and life in PIDW

We Are Not Wise by Boomchick, Suzoomie

When Shen Qingqiu drew Shen Yuan’s soul sword, it felt like being burned from the inside out. The fire wasn’t cruel, but it was still fire—hot and destructive, searing the softest pieces of him.

When Binghe’s fingers touch the hilt, he is ready for pain.

Transmigrated into a version of Proud Immortal Demon Way where cultivators manifest their own souls into spiritual weapons, Shen Yuan finds himself sort of kind of…accidentally blackmailing Shen Qingqiu into taking him on as a disciple before Luo Binghe joins the sect.

That should give Shen Yuan plenty of opportunities to make sure nothing goes wrong for his favorite protagonist, right? RIGHT!?

Protagonist Rehabilitation Programme by cinnamonsnaps

(oh my god they were roommates)

"Thank you, valued user, for accepting the Protagonist Rehabilitation Programme. Your task: Ensure the protagonist's happiness."

Shen Yuan is convinced that his favouri... least favourite novel's main protagonist isn't really happy. He has babes, money and power, but does he have any friends? Cue the system handily dropping Demon King Luo Binghe into his bedroom. Can Shen Yuan make him happy before the timer runs out?

(90% light-hearted comedy, 10% existential horror and fear because this is the OG PIDW Binghe we're talking about)

Can't we just skip to the end? by chaoticgoodlawyer

When it was all said and done, Shen Qingqiu comforted himself that the end of the plot meant that, surely, all major events were out of the way. They were firmly in HEA territory and he could relax a little. Right? Right.

A year and a half into his marriage to the protagonist, he cursed himself for a fool when he woke next to a Luo Binghe from ten years in the past.

Meanwhile, a recently transmigrated Shen Yuan struggled to retain what little face he had when confronted with an overgrown, disturbingly gorgeous demon lord claiming to be his husband. Which is impossible, because he’s straight, the most hetero heterosexual to exist. System? A little help here??

Sit With Your Soul by Tossawary 

The original Shen Qingqiu suffers a severe deviation that unsettles his daemon, transforming them into a childish and inconstant creature, too curious and without any memories of the life that has made him so bitter. His soul is now unrecognizable to him and everyone can see his humiliation.

Shen Yuan isn't exactly happy to have transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way at all, much less as this doomed scum villain's daemon.

A His Dark Materials Fusion AU. Knowledge of HDM not required.

Celestial Afterglow by elanor_pam

Shang Qinghua, also known as Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, stared flatly at what had once been a field boasting near sect-level Feng Shui alignment, and the drowned, bloated remains of the Sun and Moon Dew Flower cuttings that had sprouted within it. Their plan was now quite literally a wash.

If only he could consult Cucumber Bro on how to save Cucumber Bro! But in the absence of Cucumber Bro, he could but rely on the one plot coupon the infamous Peerless Cucumber had ever applauded.

Tongfang by The Feels Whale (miscellea)

Shen Yuan is reincarnated as a cannon fodder character and eventual murder victim in one of the whodunnit arcs in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Things escalate quickly.

Or: that one where young Luo Binghe’s career goal is ‘Bride’.

---

Shen Yuan shut his eyes as a young man waiting to die in a hospital and opened them again as a wrinkly infant covered in substances best left unimagined.

[Welcome to the System! The System is based on the concept ‘YOU CAN YOU UP. NO CAN NO BB.’ We hope to provide you with a rewarding experience. It is our sincere hope that during the course of your adventure, you can achieve your desire to transform a ‘Stupid Novel’ into a high-end and impressive classic. We pray for your happiness,] a mechanical and inflectionless voice announced over the general hubbub of the group of women handling him. Then it added, somewhat more worryingly, [Error.]

In Service by x_los

Emperor Luo Binghe goes looking for a Shen Yuan of his own. The one he finds has yet to fully ripen, but Luo Binghe is used to turning adversity into advantage.

Go Down With You by SpiritOfFox

Your experience when transmigrating largely depends on what role you assume. For example: - you might become the protagonist, the favored golden child of the world... ୧(ಠ⌣ಠ)୨ - you could be the scum villain, the most hated character in the novel... (งಠ_ಠ)ง - you could also end up as the protagonist's wife, one of the many many members of the harem... ❤(ಠ_ಠ)❤

Let's say that Shen Yuan would like to lodge a complaint against the Transmigration System.

AKA the fic where Shen Yuan transmigrates into the role of a certain wife.

Word of Honor

I tend to sleep with my boots on by etymologyplayground

"I just mean… What if Xiao Shu is really Shifu? Shifu left and didn't tell us anything, and then this cat shows up out of nowhere, and it hangs out with us and hisses and scolds me with a single look!!"

"How old are you?" Wen Kexing wonders with a laugh. "Maybe you're just easily bullied, you ever think of that? No, men don't turn into cats. That doesn't happen in real life, you little dummy."

-

It's true that Wen Kexing doesn't know everything.

[Podfic] The Will of Heaven by elrohir podfic (elrohir) 

Zishu straightened up as someone knocked gently on the door. “Da-ren, a refill while you wait?”

About to dismiss the staff, Zishu hesitated as he poured out the last of the tea from the small black pot into his cup. “Fine.”

The man who walked in was handsome, bordering on pretty, an elegant beauty who wouldn’t look out of place among the brothel’s most valuable courtesans. His clothes were too finely made, though, in shades of pale jade and snowy white, and his red mouth wore a smile that was too sharp. He glided across the floor with a poise and gait that was far too considered for anyone untrained in martial arts.

Star Wars

canis by peradi

Rather than obliterating Alderaan, Anakin makes a different choice. How the universe changes; how the Force sings.

(The Jedi and the Sith should have known: Anakin Skywalker will do anything for his family.)

the tiger is out by elumish

Wolffe looks like he’s regretting having a second Jedi with them. 

Smash the Walls of the Clock and Run by Drag0nst0rm 

Cody's memory of Order 66 was strained at best.

But he was pretty sure it hadn't happened like this.

Memo: Jedi Maintenance (The Care and Feeding of Your Jetii) by RainofLittleFishes

The Care and Maintenance of Your Jedi: A Clone Trooper's Guide

Let's be real, a document with the above title totally existed during the Clone Wars. Write an excerpt from that document. That's it, that's the prompt.

* Ding!

You have a memo (Level: Non-Urgent, Confidential, Ongoing Maintenance, Internally Generated).

Memo: Jedi Maintenance

To: You. Yes, you. Presuming you don’t want to get shot up or be responsible for getting your unit shot up because you were too lazy to prep properly in a moment of downtime.

From Orbit by astolat

“You’ve got to quit doing this,” Han said.

Luke glanced at him. “What?”

Han made a wide impatient sweep of his arm. “This. Standing in the bay staring out into the void. It’s creepy, kid. Come on, it’s dinnertime. The fleet can make it into hyperspace without your personal supervision.”

If Blood Be The Price by cadesama

Anakin promised to free all the slaves and it is a promise he intends to keep. Struck by visions of a slave uprising on Tatooine, he runs away to join the fight. Five years later, it his new alliance of former slave worlds that the Republic fears, rather than a Separatist threat. Enlisted to negotiate a peace treaty, Senator Amidala is dispatched to find Anakin, alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, who only wishes to bring his former Padawan home. AOTC timeframe

[fondofeveryprickle]

Ju erjie, for the ask game, A10, B9, C3, D8?

Hi Sreya! ❤️

A10. Who did you have your first fanfic-related conversation with? What was it about?

Ohh! This is a hard one, and I'm not really sure? I started reading fics when I was around 12, I remember around that time that I was also trying to write and I took my writing notebook to school with me, so maybe my school friends of the time? Probably explaining to them what fanfic was and what I was trying to write. (fanfic really wasn't mainstream at the time)

But really talking about it? I guess when I was around 15. I joined a Harry Potter forum (yeah, I know) and there were some fic writers communities there, and I was part of one called "fic writers family", there we would exchange ideas and recs, and beta for each other. It was really cool! We were all different ages there, and it was really nice having people older than me who enjoyed fandom and had adult lives.

B9. Who is your OTP?

I'm not the person to have a true OTP in the right sense of the expression, as only ONE true pairing. Some fandoms i have only one pairing that I really like, and some fandoms i like many pairings. So some of my OTPs: Liushen (svsss), Hualian (tgcf), Wangxian (mdzs), Tododeku (bnha), Sterek (teen wolf), and so many others!

C3. Is there anything that makes you nope out of a story? What is it?

Hmmm, depends. Before I open, I always check the tags to see if there's something I don't like and then I avoid it. But there are things that make me nope out after I started reading it. The first thing that comes to mind is first person POV,i hit the back button very fast on these. Sometimes when the characters are too OOC, the walls of text. Other than that, I can't remember anything super specific.

D8. Which fandoms do you read fic for?

So many!! Lately I've been reading a lot of BNHA and SVSSS fics, bnha specifically the gen ones. I also read teen wolf, haikyuu, some game of thrones (I know), after I finish watching some series I like checking out the fics and see if there's anything interesting, there isn't usually a lot of fics on BL series, but some of them are really good! I'm taking a little break from mdzs at the moment, I think I read too much too fast, but the good thing is that when I come back, there will be so many new ones to read.

[draugrbite]

i've been doing some thinking (alt: wwx meta)

so, for some background, i was really, really into the wei wuxian/lan wanji (if there's a ship-name i've forgotten it) pairing for a good while. i'm talking from the time there were only 200 fics on AO3 to the time there was about 8000. i would refresh that page literally every single day and devour all the new fics i could get my grabby hands on.

i hate strongly dislike wei wuxian —and also lan wanji by association— with a ridicoulsly fierce passion now, to the point i even filter them out on my socials. and i think i finally have an answer for why.

wei wuxian is a trashfire (affectionally). he just is. if you pre-date the mdzs fandom from before the Untamed, you probably agree with me. if you joined the fandom through the Untamed then... i don't know, that's when i hit exit.

but, to put it simply, it's about accountability.

because wei wuxian is a trashfire. he makes poor choices born out of low self-esteem and a big ego. he thinks nothing of himself, and he thinks everyone else also thinks nothing of him because he thinks that and he's practically a genius, so he must be right, right?

he walks out on jiang cheng because he's certain it's the right thing to do and he expects jiang cheng to go along with it because he thinks it won't hurt jiang cheng that much, because low self-esteem.

wwx is a trashfire—he's flawed to his core. saying he's a straight-up good person is a lie, and it's one that damages his kind of fascinating characterization. he's a good person in the sense that he has strong morals, sure, but he persistently hurts others, even those he loves, out of a disregard for the consequences of his actions. he's kind of hilariously unable to plan long-term (which is also why he would be a horrible sect leader).

he's a flawed, complicated character and that's what i loved about him. and then... the Untamed happened.

and i don't wanna be petty (though i definitely can be) because to be fair i haven't watched that show—i got through the first 10 eps or so on jiang cheng but to be honest it was boring. it was dull, and it didn't catch my interest, and i moved on. simple.

but a lot of people liked it, and wwx in the Untamed is, to put it kindly, a way better person than in the book. or, well, he's framed as a much less flawed version, and the narrative supports this by making every one of his bad choices, and their consequences, somebody else's fault. it's a much less critical view of his part in his own actions, and where the blame lies. everything is a part of a conspiracy, and wwx is now an uncomplicated good guy who just got fucked over by The Evil Person™.

(note, i'm generalizing here and i'm aware of it. again, i haven't watched the full show, but this is what i got out of all those fanfics i read, and all that drama that was going on in the mdzs fandom before my interest popped like a balloon and i stopped paying attention)

and now we're back at the accountability part of it. because when you take away all of wwx's agency, when you deny him the ability to make his own choices, when his bad actions and the worst consequences are always somebody's elses fault, you're changing a core part of his character—the one i loved so much in the days of yore.

the narrative in the Untamed never held wwx accountable, and the wider fandom that built around the Untamed never did either, because uncomplicated good guys that are the underdogs despite the fun necromancy powers are like, cool, you know? (and wwx is cool, i'm not denying that.)

but... idk, i just have a lot of feelings about it. and i think a lot of it boils down to, when you're taking away wwx's ability to make poor choices out of his own volition, you're taking away his agency.

and characters with no agency are just boring.

[winepresswrath]

To what extent do you think JC actually tortured and murdered demonic cultivators? I've read fics where he never killed any of them, some where he actually helped many of them. I would personally think he probably did kill many of them, the ones far down the path. But (CQL JC in particular) I can't see him dragging back, imprisoning and torturing hundreds of people.. but maybe I've got rose tinted JC glasses on. What are your thoughts?

Oh man I've talked about this before and I stand by pretty much all of that but basically it depends on my mood? It's one of those things where I can see a pretty broad range of plausible answers, especially given the spectrum of Jiang Chengs we get in different adaptations. It’s also just not a question I think can be answered, or it’s particularly useful to try to answer? It’s a story! It's all made up anyway, and fandom is I think a fairly deliberately playful space that makes room for the wild could-have-beens and “look you can’t prove this didn’t happens.” I don't think it's likely based on what we see of Jiang Cheng in any version of the story that he was torturing hundreds of people to death at Lotus Pier, but if other people are having fun imagining that he did then I’m glad they’re enjoying themselves. All this being said when have I ever passed up an opportunity to talk about Jiang Cheng?

I don’t think there's anything about CQL Jiang Cheng that specifically suggests he tortured anyone but Wen Chao. Jin Ling has a line about him capturing demonic cultivators and not letting them go, but as a person who got into the broader MDZS universe through CQL nothing about that suggested death by torture to me. I also think Jiang Cheng in CQL has much less reason to be obsessed with demonic cultivators than other Jiang Chengs, because Wei Wuxian isn't the grandmaster of demonic cultivation in that universe and thus demonic cultivation and its side effects are much less Jiang Cheng's direct responsibility. If Jiang Cheng accepts that demonic cultivation is evil, then for MDZS Jiang Cheng it's an evil he let out into the world and I think that drastically changes his relationship with both the practice and its practitioners. He could have stopped it by stopping Wei Wuxian, and he didn’t! Fun thoughts to lay awake to.

There’s a lot more evidence in the book, but it's still mostly third hand in a novel that spends a lot of time stressing the inherent unreliability of gossip. MXTX as an author is really into emphasizing how every human being on the planet is an unreliable narrator just on the strength of their own naturally limited perspectives, and she seems like she really enjoys gotcha reveals like the wedding clothes scene or Shen Jiu going to brothels for spa days or certain trash gods being well aware of certain other people’s identities and just choosing not to think about that while we are ostensibly in their POVs. Also, I do really think it’s funny that we get Jiang Cheng grimly thinking about interrogation by any means necessary and then we see an interrogation and it’s a fluffy dog. On the one hand, that is very much a terrible thing to do to Wei Wuxian specifically, and it is a particularly terrible thing for Jiang Cheng in particular to do to Wei Wuxian. It’s a betrayal of the earliest promises they made between themselves, the foundation of their relationship! On the other, it is actually the most reliable and practical way he has of determining if a given demonic cultivator is Wei Wuxian, because Wei Wuxian’s cynophobia is a closely guarded secret. So regardless of whatever else he did to other demonic cultivators he almost certainly showed them dogs, and I know I’ve veered off track but please do join me in picturing terrified demonic cultivators facing down Sandu Shengshou in all his wrath only to have an assortment of random puppies shoved in their faces while he glares at them and waits to see if they freak out.

Anyway, if you are interested in my personal opinion, I think he probably didn’t in cql but probably did in the novel. The novel specifically gets me with this scene:

I just think that it’s very cool and fun that baby Jiang Cheng was like “obviously we kill our enemies quickly and efficiently so we can move on and kill more of them,” and Wei Wuxian responded with “you are like a little baby! some people deserve a hard death.” Then that thought rattled around in Jiang Cheng’s head and heart for years before manifesting as him believing that demonic cultivators, specifically, do not deserve easy deaths. It’s just a very fun, brutal little twist on the whole thing. I still think he probably beat them to death, as I genuinely cannot see him having the patience for like, a whole little torture room or whatever. This is, however, just my opinion, and it’s honestly not a very fixed one! My big, firm Jiang Cheng torturing demonic cultivators opinion is that if he did it it wasn’t something he did illicitly- it was his official policy. He filed the paperwork in triplicate and made little notices he passed around every town in Yunmeng. At cultivation conferences he deeply annoyed everyone with presentations about the need to be Tough on Demonic Cultivation and Jin Guangyao personally promised him the Jin were doing their bit while Nie Huaisang was just like “gross Jiang-xiong why are you ruining my appetite before lunch” and Xichen smiled and suggested that they’ll all feel better after a good meal, can they table this for next time?

[xiyao-feels]

new tu and xiyao fan from earlier. i searched ao3 as per your suggestion and there's only 500 or so fics for them. :( however, i do have a legit question - what are the differences between mdzs and tu (i've never read the latter). and if you want expand on nieyao (or xiyao) please feel free! i love reading meta! one of the few reasons i miss old school fandom spaces lol. thank you!! :D

Hmmm, I see about eight hundred if I limit to English? But I take your point! But that was just as a way to start; once you do find an author you like, you can look at their bookmarks, for example. (Also I'm not sure if you're familiar with the AO3, but if not, sorting by kudos when doing a general search is a way to get stuff that at least lots of people thought was good. I'm not saying it's perfect, but when you're starting in a fandom it can be better than the default by-date-updated.)

Also I'll take the opportunity to plug my absolute favourite xiyao author, roquen. I didn't mention them last time because they haven't I believe written a post-canon fixit, and you should know that they're mostly sticking to MDZS instead of CQL canon, although with some sprinkling of CQL elements and characterization. Some particular favourites of mine include their AtLA AU and their Sunshot/on the run fics (both series with a couple of short fics), their what you might call a mid-temple hopeful fix-it (divergence where LWJ strikes to kill and LXC takes the blow), the baby LXC fic ("Lan Xichen reverts to being a fifteen-year-old junior, and immediately gets an epic crush on Lianfang-zun"; disclaimer that I was fairly involved with the creation of this one but it's GREAT) and, of course, above all, their gigantic canon fix-it verse, it's worth it every time. It's SO GOOD and the characterization is fantastic and the prose is excellent and UGH. It's so good!!!!! Disclaimer that the second fic in the series, which is the main work, is still WIP, but roquen updates regularly and there are only a couple of chapters left; if you're still wary of WIPs, I'd at least recommend the first fic, which stands alone and is brilliant in its own right.

As to the differences between MDZS and CQL…ho boy. There are quite a few, both major and minor, and I'm by no means familar with all of them—especially the ones that don't involve 3zun, lol. I tried to google around but unfortunately the ones I found tended to be either short or, if more in-depth, contain inaccuracies about JGY/LXC—I think people tend to be more interested in the Wangxian, and then this stuff goes by the wayside. The wiki can be a good source for differences for specific incidents, and although I think it's not always accurate it /does/ usually cite chapter or episode, which can be pretty helpful. 

This, by hualiann, looks like a good overview, though I'd add that JYL, WQ and WN didn't study at Cloud Recesses in the novel and that more generally MDZS has a lot of actual undead.

In general my advice is to take things people say about the novel with a large grain of salt, myself included. And about CQL, too! I have no idea if this is you but when I joined the fandom, if people asserted stuff about CQL I tended to just kind of take it as fact—oh, I thought, I must have misremembered! My memory is pretty terrible, and honestly there was absolutely stuff I did misremember. But also sometimes other people misremember, or fanon gets taken as canon, and then there's stuff like—I mean, I'm certainly not going to blame people for not realizing that "JGY conspired with XY at the Unclean Realm" is a lot more uncertain than you might guess at first, especially if they're more Wangxian focused which most people in the fandom are, but I'm still not going to present it as straight-up fact. (veliseraptor has a recent post examining this here which I would very much recommend).

Honestly I think I'd recommend reading the MDZS NMJ Empathy flashback—chapters 48, 49, and the beginning of 50. That gets you a lot of the JGY, LXC and NMJ backstory, and then you can compare for yourself! I'm also going to recommend Mercy's thread, here, listing common fanons about MDZS (I will add to the list, since it's a bugbear of mine, the idea that LXC recognized NMJ's fierce corpse by his abs).

Okay with all that out of the way, and in no particular order, Sun's extremely idiosyncratic and particularly- aka mostly JGY-focused differences list:

-In MDZS, LXC doesn't become Sect Leader until the burning of Cloud Recesses by the Wen, when his father is injured and then succumbs to his wounds. In CQL, he's Sect Leader from the beginning of the show, his father having apparently died not too long before the show started.

-In MDZS, MY wasn't working for the Nie at all before the beginning of Sunshot; he joined the Nie forces just after Sunshot began. NMJ didn't instantly promote him to be his deputy when he's telling at the Nie men for bad-mouthing him; it takes a few more encounters and/or battles with the Wen (after which MY clears the battlefield and helps the commoners).

-In MDZS, xiyao's first meeting happens when LXC is on the run with the Lan books after the burning of Cloud Recesses. We don't see it happen on the page, and we don't know any details of that time beyond, like, MY helped LXC.

-NMJ willingly sends MY away from the Nie, with a letter of recommendation for JGS, after, uh, an extended overhearing of a conversation between MY and LXC wherein MY's desire to be recognized by his father and gain a proper place in the Jin, the opportunity offered for that by JGS recruiting talent at Langya, and the possible difficulty of obtaining permission from NMJ are all established. 

-NMJ sees MY stabbing a /Jin/ captain, at Langya, after he goes looking for MY. Rather than taking a blow for NMJ, MY stabs himself, faking suicide, then immobilizes NMJ (who's trying to save his life) and flees. This is because NMJ wants MY to go turn himself in for killing the captain; MY thinks they'll kill him, while NMJ says that if the captain has actually been mistreating MY as MY said, MY won't be killed. Personally I think that all the evidence suggests that MY is right, and NMJ is blind to the effects of his position to the extent it's a not insignificant moral failure.

-Okay, so, you know how in CQL MY stabs WRH while he's distracted with WWX, outside on the steps with the Sunshot alliance right outside? In /MDZS/, they're in the Sun Palace, WWX isn't anywhere near the place, he does it to save NMJ's life, and then he starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of the palace. And then NMJ comes to consciousness amd demands his sabre and tries to kill him. He likely only survives because of NMJ's wounds, and if LXC hadn't shown up (responding to a message MY sent for aid for NMJ) NMJ might easily have killed him. If you want a more in-depth analysis, I take a close look here in my response to someone's, er, imaginative interpretation of NMJ and JGY's relationship in MDZS.

-In CQL, NMJ's qi deviation happens at the stairs incident. In MDZS, it happens later, when he overhears JGY being upset to LXC about how NMJ treated him at the stairs, and, overcome with rage that JGY would dare (arguably in combination with being polite and pleasant to NMJ's face, although the last time he was confrontational to NMJ's face NMJ kicked him down the stairs and tried to kill him so), he kicks open the door and tries to kill him. He also kills several people as he's qi deviating (seeing them as JGY—while in CQL he also sees several JGYs they seem to be just illusions), and injures NHS.

-In MDZS, NMJ sets fire to all of NHS' nice things. I don't think we're told either way in CQL, although it's worth noting that in MDZS this happens after the stairs (and before JGY starts playing for him again). (I think they do something in FJ?? But I don't take FJ as canon for CQL; see confusion-and-more's post here).

-In CQL, JGY suggests to NMJ that he's always played the corrupted Clarity for him (though granted this is in Empathy, so it's hard to say for sure if this is what he actually said, but in any case it's the only version we're given). In MDZS, it's strongly indicated that JGY only started playing Turmoil for NMJ /after/ the stairs—there's a variety of evidence, but I think the most objective is that WWX, who in MDZS Empathy can literally feel NMJ's anger, actually observes it working beforehand:

Since [JGY started playing for NMJ], Jin GuangYao would travel from Lanling to Qinghe every few days, playing Sound of Lucidity to help quell Nie MingJue rage. He tried his hardest, without speaking even a single word of complaint. Sound of Lucidity was indeed effective. Wei WuXian could clearly feel that the hostile energy within Nie MingJue was being suppressed.

(Exiled Rebels translation, ch. 49)

And then the next scene is the stairs incident, so.

-In general, the degree to which JGY's position is completely awful is played down in CQL. confusion-and-more talks about it a bit here; I'd also note that some of JGY's dialogue defending himself is removed ( “Some trivial achievements?” He spoke in a shaking voice, “…What do you mean, some trivial achievements? ChiFeng-Zun, do you know how much work I put into such trivial achievements? How much I suffered? Glory? Without the handful of glory I have nothing!”, for example), we don't hear about his mother at the guqin scene, the temple flashback where his mother is dragged naked outside by a client and he's kicked down the brothel stairs is eliminated, etc etc.

-There is absolutely no second flutist in MDZS; also JGY tells us in the temple that QS was already pregnant before he found out about the incest. I think even in CQL it's questionable whether he actually intended to kill Zixuan (see this whole conversation), and significant unveiling or no CQL never actually says QS wasn't pregnant before their marriage so I tend to go with that too, but certainly it's easy to walk away with the impression that he definitely did both deliberately, especially if you aren't familiar with the novel.

-(In general, I think CQL JGY is a lot more sympathetic than most people think once you look closely, but he's also very much set up to look upon a more casual watching as Villain, so.)

-In CQL it's All A-Yao All The Time but in MDZS we see LXC calling him san-di after the sworn brotherhood, and then it's back to A-Yao in the present day (see my last addition on this chain here).

-In MDZS, JGY doesn't shove JL out of the way of the incoming attack.

-The LXC lifting JGY out of his bow thing is from CQL

-The watchtowers! Oh /man/ the watchtowers. God the watchtowers are so much. Uh, confusion-and-more has a post about how much they're mentioned in MDZS vs CQL here, and see my last addition to this thread for an argument that the watchtowers were indeed a force for good. God. Twelve hundred watchtowers. He must have saved so many lives...

-confusion-and-more's watchtower post also reminds me that CQL has the Guanyin temple giving out medicine, while MDZS does not

-The episode 23 scene where Sect Leaders Jin, Nie, and Lan agree to spare some of the Wen doesn't exist in MDZS (though I'll take the opportunity to observe that I disagree with popular interpretations of that scene, see point three here).

-In MDZS NMJ's fierce corpse is literally trying to kill JGY, there's no saber spirit. And like, it's been trying to kill JGY for a long damn time, that's why JGY dismembered him.

-The XY plotline—in MDZS, JGY recommends a young XY (who at thay point has a reputation but is not known to have committed any massacres) as a Jin cultivator, as part of an effort by JGS to recreate the Yin Tiger Seal. JGS has multiple people trying, but most of them aren't getting anywhere and XY is getting furthest. It's during this time that XY kills the Chang clan, and is discovered as guilty by XXC, who brings up the evidence at a conference happening in Lanling; the Jin are stalling, MMJ gets angry and shows up, he almost kills XY on the spot and gives JGS a lecture such that he's forced to relent and sentence XY to death (and incidentally scares JGY, imho quite seriously, while he's at it). Then JGS turns it into life imprisonment once NMJ has left, and then NMJ is extremely angry and attacks JGY at the stairs. (Ch. 30 and 118)

-I mentioned before but I'll add it here too: in CQL JGY asks LXC to stay and die with him, and LXC agrees.

-The CQL ending in general is...hmmm. Despite having most of the elements which complicate MDZS' ending (JL is in a terrible position!), it kind of presents as...happy ending all is fixed now? In MDZS I think it's presented as—more complicated, even though Wangxian do very much get their happy ending.

-Also LWJ is a lot less. uh. Okay, so in CQL he's more Mr Morality, and in MDZS it's much more Wei Ying Right Or Wrong. Also, he doesn't become Chief Cultivator in MDZS! I think that's my least favourite change, because it's like...LWJ hates politics, hates compromise, and never attends the cultivation conferences. At least one of 'this is going to be a major diisaster' and 'LWJ is going to have to go through some significant shifts in his worldview and approach' are going to have to happen, but that's not the vibe CQL gives off at all, and I think it really works against some of the major themes of the text :/

-OH RIGHT I knew I was forgetting something—in MDZS MXY's revenge is focused solely on the Mo; JGY is not part of the curse.

Okay I don't want to go too much on about xiyao or nieyao, because this is already quite long and I don't want you to be waiting forever, but broadly although I certainly think NMJ cares about JGY a great deal it seems to be about his competence and potential; he doesn't really seem to, like, actually like who he is as a person. JGY, meanwhile, is at first very grateful to and then increasingly exasperated by and very much fucking terrified of NMJ, but...well, he doesn't seem to be into him or interested in spending time with him for the sake of it or etc etc.

On the other hand—xiyao. Man, xiyao!!!! They just—they get each other so fast, they're /partners/, they work together so well, they like and they respect each other, they're both like—LXC and MS are on their own tier for JGY, LWJ and JGY are on their own tier for LXC, they're for each other in a way neither is for anyone else, they care a lot about the same things—it's not perfect overlap, obviously, but it's more overlap I think than either has with anyone else, they—invest, they're builders, JGY was planning the watchtowers project from way back and although I have no doubt he was driving it LXC was with him and!!!! ugh!!!!! xiyao are REALLY GREAT, okay.

[jadedbirch]

I was tagged by @hithelleth whose real name I know, mwhahaha, mwahahaha, hahahah >:) (I love you, babe)

What is your name?

I immediately thought of Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail...  They call me.... TIM!  Anyways, my name is El, and you may call me El.

What are your fandoms?

I know I’m a big multishipping slutbag, but I’m a one-fandom-at-a-time kind of gal.  So currently my fandom is MDZS/CQL, however, a part of my heart will be Black Sails 4Ever, at least until I write more fics for something than I did for that fandom.  (It was a lot of fics!)  And I’m always a sleeper agent for Dumas’ Three Musketeers, in case anyone was wondering.

Where do you post your fanfiction?

AO3.

Going by kudos, what is your most popular one-shot?

Apparently it’s Fear of Falling (Apart) which was a DeanCas Big Bang I co-authored with @3988akasha (hey girl!).  This is pretty hilarious b/c this fic was actually hidden in a private collection for several years because I have opinions about the SPN fandom, but recently we put it back.  

But my solo highest kudo’d endeavor is Breathless - a short fic I wrote for The Song of Achilles.

Going by kudos, what is your most popular multi-chapter?

Okay I don’t wanna talk about SPN anymore but b/c it was a big fandom my top 2 multichapter fics are both from that fandom.  So I’m giving you my 3rd most popular multi-chapter, one which I am personally extremely proud of still:  

Lightbringer - all the therapy writing I had to do when Black Sails aired its finale!

What is your personal favourite story, out of your current content?

I’m not sure that I have one?  Apparently I’ve written 30 stand-alone fics, not counting the kissing prompts for CQL/MDZS since April 2020, so LOL.  I’m just gonna plug my Big Bang because hey, who doesn’t like a Pirate AU?  Okay, so I’m biased.

Treasure

Although I’m also a little bit weak for my X-Files AU The Truth Is Out There.  Wangxian are so dumb and fit into this world so well!

What work were you most nervous to post?

You would’ve thought it would’ve been the incestuous tentacle porn fic, but NO, I had no problems posting that because it’s soooooo removed from real life.

It was actually Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad because as an ace spec queer myself, it felt really uncomfortable and exposing posting a fic about an explicitly ace spec character, but I did it, so there you have it!

Is there a method to how you title your work?

Nope.  Most of the time I don’t have a title until I’m done with the fic.  On rare occasions, I may title it to set the mood before I even write it.  There’s no method to my madness.

Do you outline your works or just wing it?

Half and half.  For longer fics, I might outline it, or at least outline some of it just to remind me what all needs to happen before I reach endgame.  For shorter stuff, I usually just sit down and drink a lot until it’s done.

Are you excited about any of your up-coming works?

I am currently writing a Noir AU inspired by my beautiful Son’s best Black Widow looks!  And yes, I’m excited about it :).  I even posted a tiny excerpt today for WIPWed.  And @tartapplesauce actually gave me my title, which is “Pearls For a Funeral”

What are your AO3 statistics?

This feels very invasive?  LOL.  Also, in case you were wondering what an Ancient Being I am, check out when I joined AO3 hahahah.

Total history (2010-2021):

User Subscriptions: 186

Kudos:  28161

Comment Threads:  4470 (LOL big shout to the Audience of Immortality AU!!!) @tartapplesauce @favouritealias @mariemichonao3 @thelaithlyworm @porthos4ever <3

Bookmarks:  4641

Subscriptions: 714

Word Count: 2,168,833

Hits: 344,044

And for 2020:

User Subscriptions:186

Kudos: 5506

Comment Threads: 726

Bookmarks: 1497

Subscriptions: 340

Word Count: 246,875

Hits: 51503

This was very illuminating, thank you for taking me on this wild journey! ;)  I always whine about how no one is reading my CQL fics, but it’s really all relative to how huge the fandom is.  Clearly SOMEONE is reading my fics (thank you, if you happen to be those readers!)

So now I tag some writer friends:  @donnaimmaculata @3988akasha @vowel-in-thug @eirenical @porthos4ever @old-long-john @bisexualpirateheart I don’t know, I’m sure everyone already did this back in December hahaha.  

[procrastynol]

I wasn’t tagged, but I’ll take the invitation from @theghostcaptain and just hop on the train to answer some questions about my writing. So, I guess thanks are in order? 😉❤️

AO3: @Procrastynol

Fandoms

Currently I’m trapped in the MDZS hell (focusing on songxiao, but pretty much everything else is also go, wangxian, 3zun, anything) with a side of SVSSS and FF7 (mainly tsengru and/or turks centric). I’m still working my way through the huge load of danmei, so maybe things like TGCF, 2HA or SPL will soon join the list.

Other things I can’t seem to let go of include FF15, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and a hint of Marvel and Star Wars. If you want to go really far back, you can add LotR and Hobbit to the pile.

Where You Post

You can find all of my fics on AO3 @Procrastynol

​I rarely use tumblr anymore, mostly for keeping all the links to my fics organised in one place - and to read meta that will shred my poor heart. My main social media is Twitter, so if you want to yell at me, please go over there and feel free to do so.

Most Popular Oneshot

Conflict of Interest (FF7, tsengru, domestic fluff and dogs)

I started this one on a whim in August 2020 because A) the hype for FF7 Remake was real and B) plague times, yay! It got me back into writing fanfiction after not having done so for several years, and I’m still surprised how positively it has been received among the people who read FF7 fanfictions. A follow-up is currently in its early drafting state.

Most Popular Multichap

None (so far). But I have something brewing for my songxiao gang, so I’ll just be a little tease and tell you to stay tuned for more until Summer 2021. 😉

Favourite Story You’ve Written So Far

Untethered (MDZS, songxiao, character study xxc)

That is my November/December/Christmas-procrastination baby, which started out as a midnight word vomit I wrote in a desperate attempt to find sleep. It only grew from there, and it has become my first deep dive into the character of Xiao Xingchen and the canon setting of MDZS. To this day, it just blows me away how well this story is received despite its length and the rather limited songxiao bubble. I’m really proud of what I did here, and it has been a while since I could say that about anything I have written.

Fic You Were Nervous to Post

Frostbloom Flowers (MDZS, modern songxiao, flowershop AU)

This was my absolute first fic for the fandom, and my second fic in total after the unexpected “success” of Conflict of Interest. I was so scared to get the characters or the setting wrong, even more so since this was a prompt fill for the songxiao Secret Santa event. It has done surprisingly well, so well actually, that I have turned this into a series that I will continue this February.

How You Choose Your Titles

They either come to me or the don’t. Really, there is almost nothing in between. Sometimes a poem, a line, a lyric, an image, SOMETHING sparks my imagination and the title is the first thing I have.

If it is the other way around, the idea usually revolves around a certain dialogue, scene, setting, etc. that I want to explore and I really struggle finding a title for it once the fic is finished. There are rare instances where a title comes to me simply while working on a fic, but mostly it’s hit or miss. If it is the latter, I usually sit in my room and decide to name stories after the first thing my eyes land on 5 minutes before posting them. 😅

Do You Outline

90% of times I do. Especially larger works or multichaps need an outline. I sometimes try to write non-chronologically, and I have a really hard time doing it, so the outline becomes my LIFELINE. It allows me to skip over parts I find hard and just put the famous [get there] in certain spaces, knowing I can come back later to flesh them out because the outline guides through this process.

For oneshots, I sometimes freestyle, but even then I usually write down a few lines for the scenes/dialogues I really want to include and put them in the corresponding order, so I have a goal to work towards to and don’t start meandering around.

I hate doing them, though, even though I largely depend on outlines.

Complete

All of my fics are complete at the moment, but I have two on-going series that I’m feeding with new entries in irregular intervals.

In Progress

I have some WIPS, but none of them are in the process of being published right now. But there are a few things I’m working on, so follow me to the next paragraph if you want more details on that. 😁

Coming Soon / Not Yet Started

Curiosity killed the Cat [WT] - which is a MDZS multichapter fic I have started working on last December. I really wanted to try writing a case fic for once, something more than just drama and romance (although drama and romance will still be very much part of this). Plotting a murder mystery is really new to me and sometimes exhausting, but so far I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I don’t want to spoil the details, but it will definitely focus on pre-canon songxiao and a mysterious haunting/murder they encounter during their travels.

Another thing would be the continuation of the Egret Flower series. Currently I’m finalising the second part, writing on part three and four has already begun. Part two will feature songxiao going on the date that has been teased in the first part, Frostbloom Flowers, and part three is currently giving me a hard time because I decided to include some wangxian - we’ll see how it goes.

I’m also trying to feed the Shinra fandom a bit, since it got me back into writing literally days before I got swept away by MDZS and danmei hell. But tsengru still holds a place in my heart, has done so for years, and so Conflict of Interest has now also been turned into a series, It’s me or the Dog, and the second part for this series is also outlined already and just waiting for me to flesh it out.

Upcoming Work You’re Most Excited About

Curiosity killed the Cat [WT], definitely. I have only ever finished one other multichap in my life, and I plan to complete this one before I start posting it, to feed my lovely songxiaoists in regular intervals (and to make sure this entire case fic works and does not go up in smoke halfway down). But since this involves so many new things for me at the same time, I’m equally excited and anxious to finish it and start posting it.

Tagging

Since I’m pretty much inactive on this platform I find it a bit hard to tag someone. I think @wangji-string might have something to offer, at least if they haven’t participated already (although if you don’t feel like doing this, please feel free to ignore me). I’ll just leave it open to the rest of you whoever read this and may find it interesting - if you want to do this, please, feel free to do it! 😉

[wangxianficrecs]

How I pick and present my MDZS/Untamed recs

I started reading fanfiction in this fandom after being intrigued by all the gorgeous fanart and gifs on my dash... everyone (and the scenery) was just so goddamn PRETTY.  So I looked it up on AO3 and just bullheadedly dove into all the fic without any idea who was who or what the plot was.  It took me a while to figure it out.  (After about 3 months I actually read the novel, and I only finished the web series last week!)

I usually start a new fandom by reading the high-kudos AUs, to form an idea of characterizations before getting bogged down in canon-specific plot details.  My first story here was These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou, read on October 23, 2019, omg, that’s how new I am, only 5 months in!

But I have so many stories bookmarked, and I really wanted to share them, so six weeks ago (precisely!) I made this blog.  (My ‘real’ blog is mojoflower, feel free to join me there as well, it’s a dumpster fire.)

Because of the way I started, I don’t make any distinctions between The Untamed/CQL, MDZS, the dongua, the cartoon, and I dunno, any and all other formats.  They were just all part of “fanfiction”, with differing details minor enough that it didn’t trip me up.

I always, always assume an author can see my comments (even if I couldn’t or forgot to tag them).  I am an author myself, and I know how easy it is to be hurt, so you won’t see me saying anything like, The story was great, but the grammar was execrable or Lots of intricate plot but disappointing sex.  Those things may be true, but I’m not gonna say them out loud.

I rec because story, not technical proficiency.  (That is particularly true in this fandom, which has many young people and many non-native speakers.)  If a story hits the spot, if it has all the tropes I’m dying for at that moment, Imma throw that sucker on my rec list.  If it’s written like pure poetry and I’m riveted from the first paragraph, it’ll show up here.  If it’s entirely pointless and dorky but I laugh out loud, you’ll see it recced.  If it could win the next Newberry if only the characters were original, you’ll see it here.

I will fearlessly and greedily dive into an unfinished/abandoned work if it seems to be offering the trope or storyline that I’m craving.  If it has 74k words (like this one) of THE MOST AMAZING STORY I’VE EVER READ and the author hasn’t updated in a year, that won’t stop me... because I still get to spend several hours living in that world.  This is something I’ve acquired a taste for after being involved in fandoms and fics for the past 8 years.  You miss out on so many hours of enjoyment if you’re scared away by a x/? in the chapter count.  So I implore you all to try these fics, too.  At worst, you’re left thinking about it.  And at best, your enthusiastic comment might inspire the author to churn out more.  Or hell, you might be inspired to fic your own ending to it.  It’s win/win as far as I can see.

Sometimes my comments are lengthy and detailed.  Sometimes I finish a story waaay after midnight and they’re essentially nothing more than a lol.  Sometimes my cat is sleeping on my right arm and my comment is all lowercase, lacking punctuation and pecked out with my left forefinger.  So don’t judge a story by the complexity of my comments.

I love fanfiction because everyone gets to be their own filter:  there’s no gatekeeper.  Let’s say I read a story that has one of my favorite tropes (#animal transformation is always a go-to, for example;  in this fandom in particular, I seek out #time travel fix-it), and while an English teacher might have given it a C-, I’ll still rec it because SOMEONE WROTE THAT DAMN STORY I REALLY WANTED TO READ.  It is out there in the world because someone took the time and effort and did half the work of my imagining for me, and I’m grateful for that.  And a lot of you will feel the same way.

Thank you for following me.  Somehow, there are more than 500 of you now, which I find pretty staggering and also, incredibly validating and motivating.  Thank you!  I hope you find some stories that speak to you and make you (and also the author!) happy and fulfilled.  Um.  I also hope you like my graphics!  I’m having fun learning photoshop, and playing with pictures of all these beautiful men, and I like to think y’all enjoy that, too.

[As a technical aside, could you please tell me -- from whatever device you use -- which format you prefer:  a text post like this; or a photo post like this?]

I’d also like to remind you that if you reblog a post as well as like it, you give me more exposure (which I actually don’t crave too much, I think 500 followers is plenty), and more importantly, you give the author and their story more exposure, which I strongly encourage.  (Again, as an author myself, I know how exciting it is to see your stuff circulating around.)

I’ll wrap up with apologizing for the growing number of messages languishing in my inbox.  While it is evident that the coronavirus isolation thing is giving many people significantly more creative time, I’m not one of them.  I used to be home alone all day, but now I’m home all day with a husband and two ADD sons and they keep me busy enough that it’s been a struggle to get 3 posts a day and stay a little bit ahead.  My priority is to keep a slight cushion in my Queue, followed by trying to read at least a story a day.  The problem with the messages is that it takes so much time to answer one, because I have to search through all my bookmarks and tags and try to remember specific parts of fics and then create and format a compilation....  I dunno, that will probably pick back up after I find a little more time.

I’m glad you’re here!  I’m so happy to be a part of a new and very active fandom.  I’m amazed by all the creative effort and talent being put into it, and pleased to be doing my small part to contribute to it.  Kisses to you all, and happy reading!

--Mojo

[gruffkin]

I'm doing better these days, how are you?😊 Right? 2020 feels like it lasted a decade but I can't think of a single thing. Thank you for the list! I'm soon moving back to my parents again so your recommendations came in the best time! ❤️Really? Oh my, I've been a whovian since before the 2010s and 13 is the first doctor I'd hands down die for. Also Jodie such an adorable person irl. Now I'm curious, what fandoms did you dive into and when did you join tumblr? Have a great weekend! -🐈

hey, 🐈! so glad to hear you're doing better lately 💖 i spent the whole weekend asleep! needed to recharge my batteries

when i made the list i was thinking about what stood out for me; you mentioned having some triggers, so you may not be able to watch a bunch of things. so please look things up before diving in, or feel free to ask me first 💚

i joined tumblr four months ago! i am very very new here

ten years ago i joined lj to write terrible smut for the bleach fandom, and made several friends. it was so much fun sharing fic and art and plotbunnies and enabling each other's bad ideas! they were also really enthusiastic and supportive about my writing, which i hadn't had before (or since). though i didn't stick around long (rl stuff), it was honestly one of the happiest times in my life

so when mdzs took over my entire brain, i remembered how much fun it was to be in a fandom and write things and have buddies to share stuff with, and i thought, okay, let's try that again!

i also joined tumblr to get back into beta reading for fanfic, because i love doing that 😃

though i've loved plenty of things over the years - discworld, lotr, one piece, cowboy bebop, star wars, spn, the adventure zone - i was never active in other fandoms

doctor who was never really shown here, so i only started watching with nine. who're your fave doctors?

what are your fave fandoms? and how long have you been on tumblr?

good luck with the move!

take care, stay safe, be happy! 💝💝💝

[chrisemrysfics]

That moment I can’t recall for sure when I first touched fanfics. And then you get this long post because I rambled about trying to recall and finding the clues.

Read more, but yeah if you’re curious, it’s pretty much my history with reading then writing fics, the fandoms and years, with one two little notes on what I was doing original writing wise.

Long story short: I first started reading fics in (most likely second half of) 2008 and first started writing by the end of 2009, 2009-2011 was a very productive time and it was in YGO GX fandom, then I had a burn out for multiple reason, and it’s by first half of 2013 that I finally had another good productive time with BBC Merlin (while I had mostly left YGO GX, with one fic I still open to finish in some ways), end of 2013 I started writing for Pokemon, and then for a few years I’ve picked up fandoms but never really went far, like I had short term burst of inspiration energy, and long term was just very slow updating because I didn’t wish to quit any of my fics, and then in 2017 I discovered DGM and by July 2017 I was writing for it and have been quite productive since then, especially the first year or so, a big part because it was like, the first big love I have had since BBC Merlin, and it grew as my all time favorite.

A big part of Assassin’s Light being easy to write for a period of time is because it’s half DGM, of course as you noticed things did need to slow down for me, but my love and inspiration for DGM has not lessened. MDZS did come and quickly made me fall so very deeply in love with it, I don’t hide that I love it a little bit more than DGM, but at present time, both DGM and MDZS are my focus, with a slightly easier time writing for MDZS.

(Everything else is still on-going, but very, very, very slow).

The problem is, my files for my fics, I moved them at some point, or copy paste, the oldest dates from 2014 which is two years after I stopped college, which is likely also due to how I changed laptop and such along the years. And the other problem is, I once left ffnet then came back, so I can’t see anymore the actual, initial publish dates.

The best I can use is the date of when I joined ffnet, which is in 2009, but this also places me at 17. I could have been writing my first fic before that, but I wouldn’t have been able to post it until then, and I don’t feel like I had multiple chapters to post, so it is likely that I started writing fics at 16/17. It was my second (of three) years of high school at that age range.

As I feel like I can recall I was reading fics in middle school, the best I can guess is that I started reading fics in my last year of middle school (14 to 15), probably toward the end of it, which kind of feels about right? But that means I spend around a year just reading, like if it’s at the end of middle school, it’s close to when I got to 15, so 2007 (as I would have had my 15th birthday in 2007).

Which sounds about right, I do feel “2007″ is the year I remember. In 2008 I would have had my 16th birthday, and it would have been a year or so since I’ve started reading fics, but the ffnet profile says I joined 11 December 2009, so that’s past my 17th birthday, and makes it easily two years since I started reading fics.

Which blows my mind a bit because I was convinced I started writing not long after, but apparently, not? Like I don’t recall having posted elsewhere before ffnet, so in all logic, it is in December 2009 that I made my account, and likely posted my first fic not long after. So however long I was reading, I was already 17 when I first wrote fics (or late 16 if I started writing a bit but didn’t post).

It is possible I have been mixing up my fic dates with original write, as in that case, I am certain I started writing my first novel in the end of middle school, so the “2007″ in my brain is quite likely when I started writing my first novel (it was end of middle school, so the last few months of being 14 and around being 15, which does all place the year as 2007). Which does make more sense, now that I’m trying to remember, I think I didn’t know yet fanfics when I started writing my original novel?

In short: 2007 aka 14-15, I was writing the start of my original novel (I didn’t finish back then), and somewhere 15-16 so in 2008 I started reading fics (and it was my first year of high school, which, actually does fit better the settings of the school library I vaguely recall). And roughly one year after, in 2009 when I was 17, I made my ffnet account and posted my first fic (which was written either on the spot, or started a few weeks before I made my account, but in any case I was 17 when I wrote my first fic).

For the record: that first fic was Angel and Sephirot in YGO GX, although Eventful Journey followed soon after, so both were completed somewhere in 2010 as I remember I was writing quickly back then, like it was already December 2009 so early 2010 I was very, very likely writing and posting for both fics, and by the end of 2010 I had completed Angel and Sephirot. I know my next multi chap was Hellish Chronicles, and I can find review reply from 2011 in my ffnet inbox. I do think I had some time between Angel and Sephirot and Hellish Chronicle, so that’s why I do feel I finished that first fic at most mid 2010 (and continued more slowly working on Eventful Journey).

I was writing other fics that I had adopted during/after my writing on Hellish Chronicle (which I haven’t put back as I lost contact with the original author, so out of respect I haven’t put them back up), and by September 2011 I can find messages where I mention I was working hard for the start of the second year of college, which does fit since I dropped college after I finished my second year in June 2012, and this also really slowed me down when it came to fics.

In December 2013, I can see the “oldest” fic is Always by your side in BBC Merlin, which is the first I had reposted, and my AO3 was made on February 2013, and I recall that I removed my fic from ffnet when there was some crackdown on fics, but only because I could post them on AO3, so this means I removed my fics from ffnet somewhere between february and december of 2013 (at most, from february to december, less if I didn’t remove them right away). And I started writing for BBC Merlin in 2013 (which seem to be end of 2013), which was after maybe one year or one and a half since I properly wrote anything multi chaptered (while some of the last YGO GX writing I did, one shots, were dated October 2013 so there were still months).

2007 (14-15) is first dabble in original novel, 2008 (15-16) is when I first started reading fics (and never stopped since then!), December 2009 (17) is when I created my ffnet account and so could post fics, first half of 2010 (still 17) is when I likely wrote and finished Angel and Sephirot, 2010-2011 (17-18) is when I was writing for YGO GX, end of 2001-first half of 2012 is when I had too much going on to write as much and so spent months either not writing, or like, writing one chapter every few weeks/months, but also it’s second half of 2012 that I started working again on my first novel, February 2013 I made my AO3 account, in July 2013 I first started writing for BBC Merlin, October 2013 I had written some one shots for YGO GX, but was mostly writing for BBC Merlin.

Let’s see for when I started dabbling in other fandoms. Pokemon is December 2013, December 2014 and early 2015 is when I touched KKM (didn’t go far back then in the fics though), end of 2015 is when I wrote a bit for FNAF (same, didn’t go far), March 2016 is when I started on White Collar fic (once more, didn’t go far), (and March 2016 was also when I first posted my first novel), August 2016 is when I started on Natsume Yuujinchou fic (went a few chapters with not too much time between updates), May 2017 is when I started working on Outlast fic (didn’t go far), and it’s in July of 2017 that I finally touched DGM, which soon became my focus.

Assassin’s Light was started in January 2019, or well, was posted then, I had started writing for it before, through end of 2018, but yeah early 2019 was Assassin’s Light, and in general since 2017 I have been mostly focused on DGM. And then October 2019 I posted Shadows Symphonie, and since then I mostly focused on MDZS while also working on my DGM fics when I can; and leaving everything else to work on whenever I have a higher dose of inspiration-energy. Which is rarer, but I haven’t quitted my other fics.

All in all, I was relatively able to be quick from 2009 to 2011, but college and personal stuff really burned me out, I lost interest in YGO GX especially as it felt different to how I came to write by 2013 (which is why my first two fics are the only one that I might rewrite one day), BBC Merlin stole my heart and brought me back to writing fics properly, I wrote more for it compared to all other fandoms that followed until DGM. All those other fandoms, I had a burst of inspiration, but the actual drive didn’t last, which I also suspect is because it did take me years to feel more, recovered. That and I was working on my original writing too, so. And then when I came into DGM, it brought me a large dose of inspiration, and I’ve wriiten more for it than any other fandom.

When you look at it, I have indeed the most fics in DGM (especially as I did events), then it’s BBC Merlin (which is still one of my all time favorite, alongside DGM and MDZS), and then it’s YGO GX (which is due to how I was more active very early on then the burn out hit me).

And while in number I don’t have as many MDZS fics, in spirit I certainly place it as same level as DGM.

[xsteriism]

Hey!!! do you have any fic recommendations for irondad but not whump?? thanks

hello! i recently joined a fandom (mdzs) so i haven’t been reading irondad lately, but here are some i really really enjoyed!

(all found on ao3 btw)

——

The Unmentioned Awkwardness of being the youngest Avenger

a series, i loved it, super funny, i think i cried laughing after reading it. i have reread it before, and i will reread it again. :)

——

Glowy Green Slime

another series, from a teacher’s point of view. i loved it, obviously, and i will reread it soon.

——

5 Wishes Peter Didn't Ask For and the 1 He Did

a multi-chapter fic, and it’s what the title says it is. super funny, but i don’t think i’ve finished reading it since it was ongoing when i started. it should be finished tho.

——

here are some of mine:

Get Help!

73 Questions with Tony Stark

The Aftermath (part two of 73 qns)

Peter, What Have You Done?

Loyalty

——

here’s my masterlist

——

i hope you enjoy the fics!!

[bloodgarnet]

MDZS Original Mystery Fic Idea

So I came up with this idea for a mystery plot since I was so impressed with all the fic until I read the novel and realised most of it was just minor alterations on canon :/// (still impressive though). I got pretty far in the outline before I realised it would need a lot of minor character interactions and cultural knowledge which I respectively can’t be bothered with and don’t know shit about lol. The premise was also meant to have a lot of happy trolling WWX but most of the scenes turned out pretty serious… There’s probably a 99% chance I’m never going to write this so posting it publicly as free real estate.

Tags: Case Fic, Memory Alteration, Mystery, Plot Heavy, Romance, True Love

Title: Fortune’s Memory OR One Thousand Worries (*from Chinese proverbs)

Summary: Wei Wuxian successfully manages to convince everyone that he is Mo Xuanyu… through absolutely no merit of his own.

Prologue: WWX reflects after his resurrection that even if MXY forgot to state his wishes, he still did a pretty good job—after all, with a totally untested ritual from the branch of cultivation that he invented, who knows how many things could have gone wrong. /foreboding

WWX’s wrist held by LWJ as JC and he argue. Unexpectedly, JC says this is giving him a headache and decides to leave (jin ling says you too, uncle? JC like you ARE my headache, child). LWJ says WWX is coming with him to gusu but WWX argues it and says he doesn’t want to go to such a place with LWJ, whose eyes go cloudy and he suddenly releases WWX, confused. They part ways, but WWX wonders what the heck just happened—unexpectedly lucky! He’s still interested in all the weird things happening though and decides to meet up with wen ning elsewhere.

Meanwhile, LWJ inexplicably feels a profound sense of loss.

JC goes back to Yunmeng with Jin Ling and has trouble remembering things. He tries to recall the culprit of the ghost general incident but can’t picture his face. He tries to scold jin ling but can’t remember what for; jin ling also has trouble remembering. He tells jin ling to go to his room and if he wants sympathy, go to his mother for that. Jin ling freezes and says what are you even talking about. Jiang Cheng blacks out as jin ling screams.

Lan Xichen talks to Jin Guangyao about how both Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang have come down with a mysterious illness which affects their memory—possibly a targeted curse at clan leaders, though perhaps a small smattering of rogue cultivators have also been affected. Sadly, it has even affected the Jin heir, Jin Ling, though his is a bit better. JGY reflects since it’s the opposite way, it can’t be the strength of his golden core but rather maybe his youth that makes him resistant as some spells operate that way. LXC thanks him for the advice and worries that LWJ was recently in contact with JC and JL. JGY comments that these unexpected events are the most dangerous.

WWX meets up with wen ning and they discuss what to do: he frees wen ning from chains and needles and says he could go live life if he wants, but WWX is interested in the ghost arm incident. They get wen ning a disguise and hear from locals that nie huaisang and JC have come down sick. WWX frowns and wonders about the current political climate, who knows how many people would want to take down the sect leaders. Then he hears that LWJ is possibly also ill and feels really bad about it for some reason—that’s what makes him decide to investigate himself, putting this over the ghost arm incident. Wen ning asks how to do that and WWX says they need information now more than anything—they must prepare for the upcoming conference which will discuss what is happening.

JGY attends the conference and notices a strange bird outside. He’s seconds away from touching it when LXC calls him and it flies off. They go inside and discuss the potential epidemic; LXC confesses LWJ seems to show preliminary signs but Clarity seems to be helping him remain stable for now. They discuss it’s potential as a contagious epidemic and agree to have healers share findings as well as a group of famed Lan healers (?) visit the other sects with a small entourage in order to compare patients directly. JGY notes that this subject has totally eclipsed the issue of the ghost hand, which tried to escape Gusu Lan but was caught at the barrier with no casualties but many injuries. Also JC has woken and has a clean slate memory and just seems to be much happier??? They decide to keep the whole thing quiet from the public for now to prevent panicking. Conference ends with JGY accidentally revealing that he’s forgotten something important, so he’s infected too, to LXC’s shock. The bird flies away.

Wwx discusses the situation with wen ning at a restaurant (where wen ning is like thank god my tastebuds are dead lol). Wwx says that the situation is bad but not killing anyone so far which is good. Explains to wen ning that the healers probably know this but it can’t be an epidemic because it hasn’t spread enough; it’s far more likely a targeted attack since it’s really only affecting important people. Lan Sizhui and Jingyi enter the restaurant and WWX hides his face by faceplanting in his noodles lol. WWX and wen ning eavesdrop on their plans to escort the healers back from Nie territory to Gusu Lan, noting that LWJ may have gotten worse in the time they were gone. WWX worries and decides he needs to steal a jade token, but for now they have a convenient target for a little spy.

Sizhui and Jingyi report to LXC with the healers who explain that it IS contagious, a qi transmitted virus, but only from the carrier—likely only one since it hasn’t spread far: so it must be someone who has come into contact with all of the people affected fairly recently. Also it seems like an imbalance of energies causing qi deviation. Sizhui reflects this will be hard since the victims don’t remember anything. LXC says that’s somewhere to start, though, and gets disciples/servants to fetch LWJ from seclusion since it’s not contagious. LWJ joins (sizhui happy!) and says that his illness has not progressed at all. LWJ says that the number of potential carriers is too many but to retrace his steps he might as well seek out the rest of the ghost hand’s body as the hand has conveniently pointed in that direction. Sizhui and Jingyi volunteer to go with him along with some other junior disciples; justification that it can be a low-stress learning exercise if nothing else(?) which is what LWJ was doing originally. Then takes out his sword and strikes down the hidden bird which was trying to steal his token – LXC marvels that LWJ broke a rule (no killing) but LWJ says the bird was already dead.

WWX says, “Shit.” WWX talks to wen ning and says that chasing the hand’s body now is dangerous since LWJ will be there—he wants to investigate the victims too in case there’s a demonic element but has an inexplicable bad feeling. Laughs off concerns about memory because his has always been bad. WWX says that his expertise in this area is lacking though and what they really need is a healer who knows about demonic cultivation and wouldn’t run on sight… oh. Wen Ning is like I mean. WWX like would she kill us?? Hmm. They head to Yiling Burial Mounds.

Dead bird makes everyone realise it’s related to demonic cultivation

Filler scene…? Maybe LWJ POV? Tiger seal? Body parts?

Sizhui and Jingyi realise that someone LWJ met right before this happened (along with JL and JC) is MXY, so they should find him!

Wwx and wen ning arrive at the burial mounds and talk while wwx makes chenqing 2 (joke that’s a JC name! But I can’t think of one now lol). He uses it to summon wen qing with inquiry and ask her about it. She says it’s hard to say but given that no one’s died, it may not even be intentional, maybe just a side effect or symptom of something else. WWX says since there’s no change in political power. It does weaken the sects affected temporarily but a widespread attack like this isn’t so good tactically so it could fit. Wen Qing says she’d need to examine a victim herself but would need a body for that and hers is long gone. WWX like wait you would be okay with me getting yours back? Also idk how to do that?? He explains the ritual he used to come back and she frowns. WWX like to accomplish what you suggest would need more power than I currently have in this body… perhaps by repurposing the tiger seal???

And this is where I stopped because I legit can’t remember what happened to the tiger seal at this point in canon. Probably something about Xue Yang but I skipped over his chapters because I wasn’t interested lol. Since there wasn’t really a point to bringing Wen Qing back, I imagine their plan fails but it brings them into the fold with the other characters, and she stays a ghost and has a tearful goodbye with WN at some point near the end or something. Also having to figure out exactly how the whole Nie Mingjue thing would fall apart with both Nie Huaisang and JGY incapacitated, as well as the whole Qin Su thing... blah. Wanted to change the dead bird thing since I was annoyed at myself for copying a fandom trope but couldn’t think of anything better.

Basically the points I wanted to reach were:

Sizhui and Jingyi note that the spell reveals your ‘true colours’ lol

WWX is eventually caught and interrogation reveals that he also has the virus even tho he has a very weak golden core and they realise he must be a demonic cultivator; some pity because he seems so happy without memories of abuse (his happy antics are even kind of familiar... hmm)

Full clarification that WWX is the virus carrier: it’s a golden core imbalance caused by the imperfect resurrection which infectiously causes qi deviation for people who come into contact with his demonic cultivation and triggered by emotional upheaval which is why JC gets the full thing IMMEDIATELY lol

WWX was trolling at first but then actually DOES forget everything (caused by something with LWJ? Maybe a gay panic lol), but still knows his shit and explains that if it’s an imbalance then the opposing yang/yin energy must be demonic in nature so they should just huff a demonic seal or something lol

^ political statement that demonic cultivation isn’t evil, just ~opposite~

Jin Ling has recovered a bit and says he will talk to MXY but is like wait that’s… not him?? like yes I know he forgot everything but it’s really, really Not Him???

Interrogation of JGY’s spotty memory leads to deduction of what scrolls of WWX’s MXY learnt—body sacrifice and summoning

The cure is demonic energy + confessing your sins and being happy you fucks

And then like the one scene I actually had in mind when I wrote this: WWX confused but yelling MXY is not my name!!! And LWJ, on the brink of forgetting everything, still says, “Wei Ying,” recognising him immediately despite everything. Much shock, so drama.

[pbaintthetb]

3,8,10,27 for the mdzs asks? :)

Thanks for the ask! Under cut for length

3 "How did you get into mdzs/cql and how long have you been in the fandom?"

My friend got me to watch the MDZS donghua, partly because there wasn't much to do in lockdown other than housebond, and partly because they were surprised at how much I enjoyed the beautiful trash fire that is SVSS, and that was only airing weekly so we needed more shows to watch. I then needed to feed my desire for what was going on in MDZS (S3 wasn't out and also we watched it so slowly) by reading the novel. I've been in the fandom for about 1.5 years now I guess?

8 "three headcanons: one that you believe so strongly it's pretty much canon, one that doesn't make much sense but it's very dear to your heart, and one that you don't think is close to canon at all but would be interesting if it was?"

Hmmm, in order:

LWJ & NHS had a bunch of playdates as kids. They're not friends or anything, they're too different, but they know each other pretty well, and have a lot of dirt on each other. I also think they could probably both read each other pretty well if they tried. Neither of them want to. NMJ is tired and a sect leader and wants to see his friend and wants his didi to have friends!

That MXY knew what he was getting into with NHS, assuming he didn't reach out to NHS in the first place. Idk partly it's wishful thinking but I don't know if MXY could have been entirely manipulated into doing the array. He could have told NHS to piss off as soon as it cropped up, it makes more sense for MXY to have the array. and also this is a person who worked with XY & JGY and saw all the political gaming at Koi Tower and was probably involved in some of it. I don't think he was played. On the other hand it makes way more sense for NHS to reach out cos he has to know MXY has a grudge and NHS has way more power so it would be easy to manipulate- but then again, MXY has played this game before and has to know that NHS would/could do that. WWX's narration seems to suggest MXY was kind of an idiot though, although, WWX never met him so, hmm.

JZX really tried with JGY and considered him a friend. I don't think it's canon cos JZX is too awkward and JGS would have tried too hard to separate them and ngl I don't think JZX is noble enough, like I like him but he seems a little self absorbed, if in a nice way. Do really like the idea though, especially if JGY almost lets himself fall into it before convincing himself it's a ploy because he struggles to think that not everyone is constantly scheming like he is.

10 "What character did you end up liking way more than you thought you would?"

Oh Nie Huaisang my beloved for sure, like he was fun, he was fine, he was just there yanno? I had like 2 thoughts on him, one was that he was SUS, and then I promptly forgot them both cos he was just the "useless green guy" yeah? And I feel like he gets even less screentime in the Donghua than the novel, and I got through the novel so fast it was like a fever dream, so yeah, I adore him, but I didn't have a huge amount of thoughts while consuming mdzs.

27 "Any fanfic idea(s) you're either writing or just daydreaming about and not writing?"

Hahahah oh god, so many. So I'm trying to finish up 'Drinking Games' atm, and also a MXY & NHS (or NHS/MXY) fic for the Mixtape challenge (no spoilers) which are like, good but the end of Drinking Games is making me want to scream because I know what happens and why won't it write itself cry.

Still occasionally thinking about NHS joining the Wen and getting WZL to destroy NMJ's core, I have a whole outline and a few scenes but I'm not feeling doing another massive Deadset length rn nah. Finish draining games and then oneshots only.

Mostly my daydream thoughts focusing on this one fic which is like a modern au set in an ambiguous, but very rural place and really any time between like 1950-2010. I've got some notes for it, and it's the fic that created the idea of Suihua being sunglasses in a modern au that JL never takes off. Summary is MXY is a necromancer, JGY is a serial killer, the Lan are possibly a cult, JL is too normal to be weird and too weird to be normal and NHS isn't as smart as he thinks he is. I think I'll probably start working on it seriously once the other two are done.

[creepweirdo]

hey emily! and omg they weren’t my faves lol they never covered that track! plus i doubt they would change the lyrics. i’m glad you enjoyed the cover though. yeah idk i don’t really read genderbent fics which cuts down on the wlw stories and there aren’t enough out there 😭 idk the yuri on ice soundtrack even tho i loved it so i’ll go listen! it can remind me before the new stuff comes out. oh that’s a good idea about the donghua it might help my pandemic brain to focus.

my kpop mutual did send me some art of san lang? and pointed out he looked like my bias which i admit intrigued me into trying to read it. i like all sorts of games, on my switch, rdr2, zelda. i don’t play that much but it’s a nice break if i can’t focus on reading. ive not got far in cp2077 yet but its fun! button mashing is the only way to play. your cc💜

I FORGOT QUESTIONS wow what a terrible cc. for mdzs what sect would you be in/like to join? and what is one thing that can instantly make your day better?

hi classified cultivator!!! 

ALSO WARNING FOR MY LACK OF EMOJIS </3 im writing this on my laptop lol)

whoops sorry that i've been MIA for the last couple of days - i’ve been a slave to capitalism :(((((((((((((((

LMAO that’s so funny that they weren’t your faves!! AND OH HOW INTERESTING - i think i will HAVE to stan them for not changing the gender of the song !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how exciting was the yuri on ice news !!! ahhhhh i totally lost my mind - i didn’t even believe the news at first but if this year has told us anything its that tumblr/twitter memes are the only way to find out about world/fandom news!!!

LMAO IM HOPING IT WAS FROM THE MANHUA (see below haha) !!!!!! BC I AM !!!!!! LOOKING RESPECTFULLY AND AS A LESBIAN OF COURSE BUT AHHHH WHY IS DRAWING SO FINE!!

oooo reading!! Is it mostly fanfic or are you blessed with the ability to read actually books????!!!!! I would love to be able to read a real book one day hahahah O_O

LMAOOOO HAHAH NOOO ur not terrible lol - okay!!! so this is actually really hard. a sect i’d like to be a part of is the lan sect LOL. like, i am pretty lame and have always felt bad if I don’t follow the rules set out for me. and it would be so nice to be up in the nice and cool and tranquil mountains (it’s summer for me rn and im hating my life). AND i actually think the white and light blue uniform/robe/clothes colours are so cute/pretty. and i would like the set and rigid framework life would give me there (i don’t really like spontaneous change hahah it stresses me out so much)

HOWEVER i would like to think that i would leave the lan sect once becoming a senior disciple and become a rouge cultivator bc my world view would have opened up and i would have realised that i can do so much more good for the people by being a rouge cultivator. (OMG not me making up this self insert scenario LOL)

OH AHAHAH this is so lame and such an introvert thing but one thing that can instantly make my day better is when i can have time alone and can decompress!!! especially after social catch ups and work!!! i need that time to myself or else i feel like i'm gonna go insane!! basically me spending time on tumblr and laughing at stupid memes and crying at mdzs makes my day instantly better ahaha <3 it’s a necessity LMAO

hahaha thank you for your questions!!! what sect would you wanna be in/join? and yeah, that’s a cool question - what is one thing that can instantly make your day better?

[saezutte]

Dear Yuletide Writer

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Happy end-of-the-year season! Thank you for writing for me!

This is my first time signing up for Yuletide, though I’ve been reading Yuletide fic for 14-15 years and it’s one of my favorite yearly traditions. Now I’m turning over a new leaf of active participation in my old age! I guarantee you I am much more worried about what I’m writing than what you’re writing—I’m pretty easy-going about the fic I read and I am going to try to help you out as best I can with this letter. If there’s something you’re unclear about, feel free to contact the mods or stalk me to find my preferences.

My AO3: saezutte

My public twitter: juncassis

My tumblr: here but I do not use tumblr much anymore, sorry.

Do Not Wants

[note: I have no actual triggers, nothing you can write for me will make me any more depressed or anxious than I already am]

Death (of major/important/beloved characters)

Suicide attempts

Rape

Angst without a happy ending, really too much angst at all

University/college settings

Established relationship

Cheating

Actual Unrequited Feelings

Pregnancy (the actual process; breeding kink is fine)

Scat or watersports

Hard BDSM or any kink complicated enough that the characters would have to discuss it ahead of time

Non-canon cisswapping or gender change (it’s ok if they do it in canon, e.g. HX/SQX)

Homophobia as a plot device

Excessive attention to sexual identity or queer politics

Note on AUs: I am ok with the usual popular AU tropes (except, see above, university settings) but I do not want them combined, e.g. A/B/O is fine and coffeeshop is fine, but I don’t want an omega barista getting his scent all over the lattes he makes for some alpha lawyer who comes in every morning. (Ridiculous example, but you get the point.) For AU/modern settings of fandoms with magic, I often like it when the magic is still there in the AU setting. I also like AUs which maintain the general outlines of the character’s relationships, like if the characters are childhood friends in canon, I like to keep that intact.

General preferences:

I am a pretty basic bitch when it comes to fanfic: I like it when two clueless boys pine for each other through some shenanigans and then lock eyes/lips/dicks.

If you fed a neural net every fanfic written in Stargate Atlantis fandom between 2005 and 2010, the result would probably be some nonsense I’d enjoy.

I love many tropes. Tropes! Bed-sharing. Sharing an umbrella. WASHING EACH OTHER’S HAIR? Confessions where they are having an argument and then one of them yells “Because I love you!” 

I love situations where characters are forced to spend time in close proximity and find themselves with feelings.

I love fakeness: fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, fake lust induced by sex pollen or heats, aliens make them have sex, whatever. 

I’d prefer story/romance/build-up to PWP but you are welcome to write porn

Tian Guan Ci Fu

Requested characters: He Xuan, Shi Qingxuan

Note: If you don’t want to write those two, I would be happy with Hualian! There are other pairings I like as well, like Fengqing. I requested these two because they are the ones I want the most, but I like almost all of the characters in TGCF so if you want to write me something that sells me on your pet pairing, go for it. Caveat is that I don’t like Qi Rong (sorry cousin)—he makes me anxious, haha.

Why I like the canon: Tian Guan Ci Fu is my favorite of MXTX’s novels, which took over my life this summer. What I love about it is the gods/mythology angle. The different story arcs remind me of reading myths about gods going out on adventures—I love folklore and myths! I love Xie Lian, I respect him so much, and I love Hua Cheng. I love how dark the story gets and I love that I could read it while being relatively assured of a happy ending. But with MXTX, you only ever get that happy ending for the main pair, hence why I requested my side pair.

Why I like these characters: I was in love with these two when He Xuan was pretending to be a grouchy Earth Master who reluctantly goes along with whatever Shi Qingxuan wants. When it turned out to be ABOUT REVENGE and they have FATES WHICH ARE ENTANGLED TOGETHER, I promptly lost my mind. I like the contrast in personalities.

I love Shi Qingxuan as a happy gossip god who is friends with everyone and yet also still pretty good at his job (unlike a lot of the gods around). I like his struggle with realizing he wasn’t meant to be a god and I honestly like where he ends up at the end of the novel—but personally I’d like it better if he re-qualified as a god, haha. I love his sex switching and you are welcome to play with that, though I would prefer if it weren’t a straightforward switch where he (she) settles as a woman. With He Xuan… I love that he’s on this dark completely-justified vengeance quest but he is also kind of a mess? How in debt is he to Hua Cheng? Has he totally neglected his ghostly duties to play Earth Master in heaven? How did he feel starting to be friends with SQX when he’s still planning on ruining his life?

What I would like for these two is something between pure fluff / all the issues are solved / “decapitated brother who?” and angst. I think they mirror Hualian in a lot of ways and I wish they had a chance together!

Prompts:

Them meeting again post-canon: He Xuan not knowing what to do with his (after)life now that he’s got his revenge and not being totally sure what’s keeping him around now that his business is over. SQX living his happy beggar life and HX not sure how he’s still so energetic.

A canon divergent AU where He Xuan doesn’t pull off his revenge plot ? Instead something else happens?

A soulmate AU would work well for these two IMO

Modern AU where HX is infiltrating the company that destroyed his family business and falls in love with the heir to the company president

SQX reascending to godhood as a beggar god and HX suspecting he will come for him in revenge but he just wants to be friends again

The Untamed (RPF)

Requested characters: Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan

Why I like the canon: Uh, it took over my stupid life this summer. I haven’t liked an idol in years. I have frequently said I don’t like RPF because the canon is too diffuse to keep up with! And yet look at my twitter. I’m living in a hell of my own making.

Anyway, I got into the RPF side for The Untamed initially because the fictional canon here was very overloaded with its status as an adaptation of a novel where the characters are already together and where there aren’t many points for a writer to jump in and add to it. So I got more interested in the actors’ dynamic particularly because it’s different from Wangxian—WYB is a gremlin! Xiao Zhan is the serious professional one! And then I fell in love with them and now this is my life.

Why I like these characters: I just love their stupid handsome faces, I can’t help it. Don’t look at me. I am more of a Xiao Zhan fan but I want to be Wang Yibo’s best friend and bully him.

With Xiao Zhan, I love his smile and I love that he can write a whole essay on Wei Wuxian’s character and I love that he was a regular person who worked in an office before deciding to join one of wjjw’s basically-a-scam idol raising shows and then accidentally becoming the most famous man in China. He’s so professional and serious in interviews and it’s a great contrast to how we see him goofing around with WYB and the others on set.

With Wang Yibo, I like that he’s a wild boy who will run off to race motorcycles at any minute. I would like to shove him a little bit, in an affectionate manner. I love that he’s always looking at XZ and smiling and doesn’t seem to care if anyone notices.

Prompts:

Fooling around on set leads to love? The most basic of basic  

AUs with different settings/meetings—maybe XZ is still a designer and his company ends up working with WYB (who is still an idol)? Or WYB is a pro motorcycle racer and XZ is a sports photographer?

They drift apart now but meet again in 10 years with Regrets

Porn star AU

Having to share a bed

WYB is scared of something! XZ comforts him!

Any dumb AU you want but I would like to veto ABO for this, it’s too weird for me when they’re real people.

The Untamed (TV)

Requested characters: Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian

Note: There are other CQL/MDZS pairings I like, namely Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang. I also like the junior trio (as OT3 or as various twosomes.) Also, one night I read a Jiang Cheng/Lan Sizhui fic and suddenly I got all these ideas for inappropriate uncle pairings JC/LSZ and LXC/JL. If any of that speaks to your heart instead, go wild.

Why I like the canon: So obviously I read the novel and plunged into this MXTX abyss for 100 years. With this adaptation, there are a few things I don’t like versus the novel but I’m happy to ignore them because I love what they did with the visuals and music and the acting choices. Some of the changes I also do love—I love how WWX seems to be so much more into LWJ from the beginning! I love seeing them goof around, I love drunk!WYB in the drama.

I also don’t like established relationship fic for the most part, so the censorship in this adaptation means I have more to play with in fanfic!

Why I like the characters: They invented love!!! They did. I particularly like them both as kind of messes… It’s easy to forget with how great Hanguang-jun is but he’s also bad at expressing himself and it gets him into trouble. Then you have WWX the deviant genius troublemaker with a heart of gold (even when he doesn’t have his golden core). They’re immature kids who can’t figure their shit out before things get serious and then 16 years later, they are emotionally stunted 30-somethings and (tbh) I feel that. These two are meant for each other and meant to wander the country following the chaos and getting into adventures together while fucking a lot.

Prompts:

How do Wangxian get together in this universe? Was it as teens? During the war? Did they split up? Did LWJ give in to temptation earlier than in the novel? When did WWX realize his feelings?

Fix-it for the ending where they separate!! Duh! Does anyone think them being apart is going to last?

Star Trek AU with the Lans as Vulcans

Uh, I really like A/B/O fic for these two.

MAGIC SEX CURSES. Fuck or die! Sex pollen! Particularly if they’re not a couple yet and this leads to awkwardness and getting together.

Nirvana in Fire (TV)

Requested characters: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan

Note: I also love Lin Chen so if you want to write some MCS/LC or LC/Fei Liu or LC/MCS/JINGYAN OT3??? go for it. I am also a Nihuang/Xia Dong shipper so if you want to put that in… somehow… my gay little heart would be happy. I also like Nihuang/MCS/XJY or MNH/MCS + MCS/XJY but I’d like the focus on the men in that case! 

Why I like the canon: I watched this show because someone recommended this show to me as, like, Chinese Game of Thrones but good. I think it’s genuinely one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. I love plots and revenge and good people doing bad things for justice. Even the ending is good for me though obviously it left me unsatisfied on several points.

Why I like the characters: I am deeply into sickly doomed genius MCS and every time he got even more deeply ill, I fell deeper in love. Every time he coughs up blood, my heart would race. I love his terrible schemes and stupid self-sacrificing choices. I find watching this show very soothing because I knew he would always come out on top in his schemes. I trust him. I love handsome clueless Jingyan and how he’s just so good (it’s terrible.) I love his mom and how much he cares for her. I love him but he is useless, he needs his Xiao Shu and I need fanfic to restore him to him.

Note: So my limited research on this says that male/male sex practices were accepted and well-known in this time period in history, so I really don’t want them thinking “oh no what are these weird gay feelings.” There are other barriers to them being together, like a ruler or official being overly attached to one person was considered very bad. I am also a big supporter of the socially-approved polygamy of this time period, so I don’t need Jingyan to refuse to sleep with his wife or something out of loyalty to MCS—he has to do it! Or all their plans are ruined! And he can enjoy spending time with her or the concubines without affecting his feelings for MCS—you could explore that complexity in fic if you like.

Prompts:

Mei Changsu isn’t dead, he’s hiding again, Jingyan searches for him

They start having sex during the series, the ending is averted [somehow]

Post-canon, MCS is alive and Jingyan hides him in the palace with his consort/concubines to keep him on as an advisor without anyone objecting

AU where male/male marriage is customary (maybe aristocratic men are expected to have one male and one female consort?) and so MCS decides the best way to influence and help Jingyan in the capital is by becoming his wife or one of his concubines

anything just get them together and happy.

Promare

Requested characters: Galo, Lio

Why I like the canon: I love this film but I also find it to be… not enough? I wanted more character development, I wanted more plot, I wanted the goddamn Burnish to stay burning things. So I requested it because I want more! Please help me.

Why I like the characters: I love freedom fighter idealist Lio who will kick everyone’s ass for what is right. I love idiot idealist Galo who wants to fight all fires and learns to love exactly one fire. I think now that they aren’t saving the world by punching global warming, they should have a nice romance. I also like they points where they clash in the film, so I’d love to see them adjusting to “normal life” and having to deal with not having the crisis to make sure they get along.

Prompts:

Galo and Lio rebuilding the world together

Lio regaining Burnish powers?

AU where the Burnish are still a thing but it’s not a big crisis/battle and they just have normal jobs and there are integration programs and Lio is an angry Burnish teen and Galo volunteers at a community center helping Burnish control their powers. Like a world that’s more everyday X-Men than X-men in full adventure war mode.

This is the one request where I’d probably enjoy gen fic with lots of worldbuilding.

I would also enjoy lots of horny porn, preference for Galo topping with his giant stupid dick? I’m sorry I’m like this.

I do want to note ahead of time that I might be traveling (as in, possibly literally on a plane) when fics go live, so please do not be upset if I do not comment on the fic right away! But I definitely will! I know this can be a sore spot for authors so I wanted to give some warning. 

I think that is all! Thank you very much and I’ll see you at the end of all this.