#i really really do not know how to keep wwx alive at that point. he's not making it easy and neither is anyone else

[runespoor7]

I mean obviously I’m am going to ask you about chengxian, for the ask meme

What made you ship it?

It was the most interesting relationship in the book. I'm a sucker for childhood friends with broken promises, for grief, for misunderstandings over loyalty and love, and for relationships whose resolution in canon is bittersweet.

It still took some time and effort before I started really shipping it. I was theoretically open to shipping it but I hadn't yet read fics that really sold me on it (this was in 2019, I think). Then as an experiment I put a WWX-inspired character in the setting I was GMing for the JC and JYL NPC stand-ins to have him to play off of. Turned out I did ship them.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

😬

*wide, helpless, expansive gesture*

It's never simple with them. It's always fraught. They love one another but they also resent one another. Hunting demonic cultivators is about WWX still maybe being alive. Maybe JC can bring himself to kill WWX this time, or maybe he can find a way to bring WWX back home and forgive him. WWX promises to be with JC but he ends up promising that he won't stay ("like my father served your father") but he didn't mean it with an end. the mess that is the fraughtness of WWX's liminal space when it comes to his social rank.

love hurts, what hurts is love.

the fact that the one 'leading' is WWX, not JC, going against the accepted social order. (tbh, if that wasn't the case, I probably wouldn't be into the ship.) it paints such a picture of WWX being so charismatic, and JC being so taken with him, that JC falls into being WWX's sidekick. no wonder YZY was awful about it.

JC keeping Chenqing like a mad dog and keeping Lotus Pier WWX-safe. I. god. JC rating WWX's attention >>>>>>>>>>>>> JC's self-respect every time, in every way. Amazing.

it's incredible to me how WWX asks JYL about love in a scene framed in a manner to make it subtextually point in the direction of LWJ (it's mdzs; the canon pair in mdzs is wgxn; there are no - explicit - love triangles in mdzs; and yet even WWX's original crush on LWJ is, uh. informed by JC and how WWX is with JC and the fact that LWJ is New and Not The Son of WWX's Benefactor. this is normal.), where it's apparent that WWX is scared of being in love because it changes how you act, it's a limit, it's a cage, you're limiting yourself for someone else - and then WWX does something for JC that is everything he was scared of.

and it does ruin him! it's terrible! so his romance with LWJ is everything his feelings for JC weren't. He's not the one doing the protecting. LWJ doesn't question him. There are no expectations of anything, no discussions of the future, no thoughts of society. LWJ is just such a comfort, just a good thing WWX gets because he wants it. Also LWJ isn't emotionally taxing af (this is a big one). (WWX kinda ends up YZY-ing himself at the end of the book but I'm not thinking about that.)

WWX's utter toxicity toward JC. not a iota of respect for either JC or JC's boundaries to be found, except when convenient for WWX.

they both really, really believe that WWX is better than JC in every way. it's very cool

look. i'm a simple person. arrogant genius jerk/grumpy dutiful tsundere otp.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I love the joke that chengxian isn't incest but both of them wish it were, but I think the only time one of them wished they were brothers was JC when he decided to sacrifice himself for WWX and he was lying in bed making morbid jokes. At least sacrificing yourself for your brother who is the better cultivator and can lead the sect would be simple. Forgivable. Good.

I also think they might grow to think of one another as brothers at some point post-canon, that's a sort of reconciliation that might happen, but to me it's key that during canon they don't know what they are to one another, they just know they're scarily, terrifyingly important, and there's no word for what they are to one another.

JC refused shixiong-shidi (in a shocking reversal of their normal dynamic, I think he forgot he did that and spent roughly two decades feeling insecure and weird that WWX doesn't call him shidi) and they can be nothing else, socially speaking. The love that dare not speak its name, if you would. And at that same time post-canon they could also decide that what they're to each other is that WWX used to be in love with JC, and maybe JC still is, and they're not brothers. Or maybe both! The point is, the definition of their relationship is uncharted waters and they never thought of each other as 'brothers' (much less called each other that).

2) WWX is incredibly bitter and resentful of giving his core to JC and that colors everything he thinks and says about JC afterwards, including after he's returned to life. Basically, he gave, and gave, and gave, and felt there was no gratitude, and he's unable to live the life he wanted, unable to reap the promises life made him, and JC isn't any more agreeable or tractable than before (less so, in fact!). It's not fair.

[weirdocat83]

*kicks your door down* YOU. I need to write a silly oneshot so I can fall back into writing because Losing Hope is dramaful and I can't comprehend the words I am writing. I need something goofy. Something silly. Issue? I can't think of any silly plot ideas. SOOOO, I come to you, the au/headcanon master, as a mere writer hoping to find motivation. Do you have any silly ideas that you'd be willing to let me sculpt into a quick oneshot?

Whenever I think silly ideas I default to cumplane because they’re ridiculous and them quoting memes wwhile nobody knows what they mean will never not be funny to me. I mean, imagine explaining a meme without the internet! Bonus points if some of them start picking up on how to use the memes without knowing the context.

A friend of mine told me about a svsss au they don’t intend to write where Shen Jiu is a strict teacher and Shen yuan is the TA that grades his students papers so LBH and SY end up communicating through notes and doodles :)

*takes a Quick Look at old posts because I had ideas then and I don’t have any rn*

Not really that fluffy but Any Hualian time travel or truth serum. There’s like, one truth serum fic in the TGCF fandom that’s good and Xie Lian has both so many secrets and also the sassiest thoughts. Also Xie Lian and Hua Cheng meeting while still alive (and possibly ascending together??).

I would also like to direct you to this post and this post because some aforementioned things are there but also various other ideas that could work. It was an idea day and today isn’t (unfortunately)

Any scenario in which anyone gets drunk. Literally pick a character and choose how they embarrass themselves and regret their decisions in the morning. Xie Lian could harp on about the dirty things he keeps to himself as well as insulting *so* many people, Hua Cheng could be very soft and emotional but also really kind and ends up giving so many compliments even to Feng Xin and mu qing (much to their shock and amusement) speaking of mu Qing, get him wasted. My man has so many emotions and unnecessary thoughts. Cuddle the man and make him laugh. I think he’d be a little more insecure openly but also happier. We’ve seen LWJ drunk but imagine wwx drunk. Idk if that’d be angsty or not but up to you. I think he’d be soft and VERY cuddly. Half of what he says is completely nonsensical but the other half is very sweet. Binghe would be clingy and Shen Yuan would probably be singing some modern pop song with airplane (who is equally wasted).

Outing myself here but non-explicit abo is probably one of my fav types of fluff. Idk something about people being intensely cuddly while surrounded by soft things and being incredibly vulnerable always gets me. Like, ‘nope, you’re mine to cuddle for the rest of the week. Live with it.’

Chatfics are my preferred crackfics because hell hath no chaos like a bunch of people smushed together in a gc with naming privileges and being unable to leave. Bonus points if it’s in high school so there’s extra drama and humor. Imagine Hua Cheng and Xie Lian haven’t confessed but everyone else knows? Hilarious. Mu Qing and Feng Xin fighting in the halls (again) over something stupid and getting suspended? Hilarious. SQX being girlfriends with HX and going on dates (they had a rough start with their relationship because Shi Wudu pulled some shit that was NOT run past SQX which led to a lot of difficulties but eventually they did become friends again and eventually lovers.)

Anyhow that’s all I can think of. I also had some fluffy-ish ideas for losing hope if you want those ;3

[llycaons]

ep32 (2/3): sect leader yao: how dare you! murdering innocent people is wrong! wwx: are you FUCKING kidding me-

wwx continuiing to defend himself - HE was the one to get ambushed!

such a cool line his is so hot

the laughing-crying is another EXCELLENT part of this scene. 1. wwx as a character is strongly associated with mirth, but this is a miserable and twisted laughter that conveys and brings no joy, just expresses how far he's been pushed and how close he is to his breaking point. 2. villainous laughter is a part of so many cliches and fairy tales - how many disney movies have you seen with a darkly chuckling villain or cackling megalomaniac? it fits the perception people have of him as an uncaring and malicious demon

this is such a good point! I think for wwx especially, who's had a long life of sacrifice, or unfair punishment, and of serving others, this rankles him particularly. I don't blame him for being sick of it

this is so galling omg sect leader yao being like 'all those people who you killed were innocent! how can you be so callous!" and wwx responding like 'AND THE FARMERS WHOSE LIVES I WAS TRYING TO SAVE WEREN'T???'

and this is so fucking cruel, to wwx who cares SO much and who has such a strong moral compass. this is what myu attacks him with, what jc throws in his face. diminishing and disrespecting his values and his actions. he's not out to be a hero, he's literally just trying to do the right thing and stick to his principles and all he's getting is shit from every single person around him and that INCLUDES lwj he FAILED esp in this episode and he knows it

ASKING TO PROVE A NEGATIVE!! LOGICAL FALLACY YOU BITCH

this is kind of funny. who is this irrelevant bitch. it does open up wwx for one of his greatest lines tho

I wrote a whole post about this because I didn't want it to be hidden but I love this line and I think it demonstrates important things abt wwx's character and outlook that make his relationship with lwj extremely stable

also 'you're so insignificant why would I ever care what side you're on?' lmao

this is was badass I love this so much. IS he keeping himself alive with resentful energy at this point? fuck, who knows?

HELL YEAH THEY'RE BREAKING OUT THE FIREBIRD SUITE. I think. fuck

honestly I find this action scene extremely drawn-out and boring but oh god this hurt me so bad

this was kind of a funny shot where nmj was spinning around then the camera moved behind a post and then it just stopped for a second then went to a completely different shot. thanks for showing us the back of this post I guess

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!!! wow the aesthetics here rule. the contrast. wwx is like barely holding on look at how red his eyes are

I wonder if lxc thinks that wwx is so far gone he'd hurt lwj

oof. obviously they don't want to but I don't think wwx in his paranoia and isolation sees another way out

I've complained before about it not making sense that postres wwx avoided lwj (because they were friends in the flahback!), but if I'm being fair, lwj did in fact attack wwx. with his sword. and I can see wwx waking up and being really leery about what lengths lwj would go to subdue him again.

I'm sure he knew lwj didn't want to kill him - after all, they have such a history and lwj did save him, at the very end. but there's a huge difference between wanting him dead and wanting to support and protect and hide him, and wwx wasn't expecting lwj to offer him that. because he hasn't, historically, look, he;s trying to fight him right here. and he's made it clear in the past that his feelings are secondary to his sect and the path of orthodoxy. so wwx is entirely justified in all his reactions, in fact

ALSO it's kind of hard to tell in screenshots but lwj looks extremely distressed in context I promise

JUST SAY A-YUAN IS ALIVE. JUST SAY IT. THREE WORDS. SPIT IT OUT. god. useless boyfriend

[youhideastar]

I want to thank @queenofattolia for bringing this back to my dash, because I have actually been thinking about this nonstop since I saw the original post and I have concluded that, in fact, revealing to WWX that LSZ is A-Yuan would break the whole post-flashback arc and probably irretrievably fuck up the story.

This is because a "WWX bonds with Sizhui" plotline (which would have to follow from an earlier reveal, right?) would either duplicate or (more likely) replace two other really important plot lines.

First, there's already a "WWX bonds with a junior" plotline--with Jin Ling. If WWX is also bonding with Sizhui, that would either be duplicative of the Jin Ling plotline, robbing both of their emotional force, or it would replace it, which would leave Jin Ling with very little to do, story-wise. Moreover, Jiang Cheng's role would also be severely curtailed, because at least 50% of his appearances in the post-flashback arc come about because he's chasing after Jin Ling, who is interacting with WWX. If Jiang Cheng were instead seeking out WWX directly... he would be an entirely different character and they'd have an entirely different relationship. 😂

Second, there's already a very touching "suspecting and then hoping and then knowing that A-Yuan is alive and bonding with this new grown-up version of him" plotline: it belongs to Wen Ning. Duplicating it with WWX would make both less powerful. And you can't just take that plotline away from Wen Ning to give it to WWX, because without it, Wen Ning has basically nothing to do in the post-flashback arc, emotionally, except go off on Jiang Cheng that one time.

Obviously, the writers of the drama or MXTX could have just reworked the post-flashback arc to have a different structure that could survive a timely A-Yuan reveal. (Maybe LSZ could be kidnapped, with Wen Ning, immediately after the reveal, so that he can't get to know WWX but can hang out with Wen Ning??) But with the current structure, that secret absolutely has to be kept until quite late in the game or the whole thing breaks down. (My analysis has nothing to do with the fact that the "Jin Ling bonds with WWX" and "Wen Ning bonds with LSZ" arcs are my two favorite plotlines in that post-flashback section, shhhhhh... 🤫😂)

None of this obviates the points about how it's silly for LWJ to keep the secret! I just think it's interesting.

it's always really bothered me that lan zhan waits until episode fuckign fifty to say something about yuan but the longer i think about it the more it makes sense to me that this chronically uncommunicative repressed closeted gay man could not entertain voicing these thoughts bc WHAT would he even say???? how to even explain - remember wen yuan that child you told me was your son? yeah well

after you died i discovered him all alone on the brink of starvation in the burial mounds and thereon disguised his identity to keep him safe

adopted him into my sect, gave him the courtesy name lan "to recollect and long for" sizhui

and in your absence raised him as my own

please…………..…..……………….….........................................................................….................................…don't read into any of that…….

[flyndragon]

Theres been a lot of chatting about how people don’t *get* xicheng. And that’s perfectly fine, everyone’s opinion is valid! But if your intrigued by the ship and want a crash course on why one loser likes them getting together post-canon, I thought I could provide a bit of an entry point!

So here’s 10 reasons I think they’re great:

1.  There’s a great dynamic where Jiang Cheng whispers ‘aren’t you tired of being nice, don’t you wanna go apeshit?’ And that’s something Xichen should give some thought to! He might decide that he does not, in fact, want to go apeshit, but he should at least know he has the option! And he can also look right back at Jiang Cheng and say ‘aren’t you tired of going apeshit, don’t you want to be soft?’

They both can only express like two emotions, but they're different ones so together they make maybe one emotionally functional person. Xichen needs an anger translator, and someone who will stick up for him when now he doesn't know if he can stick up for himself. Jiang Cheng needs someone with the emotional intelligence to differentiate grumpy affection and genuine anger, and Lan Xichen’s best friend was Nie Mingjue, who expressed affection similarly

 Also Jiang Cheng just needs anyone, give the man a break MXTX.

2. Both of them hate and have been hurt by lies. Lan Xichen knows that Jiang Cheng is like the opposite of jgy, he has never manipulated in his life, he just pulls out zidan. Jiang Cheng may not have as strong of feelings about the matter but he did just get golden core revealed and therefore appreciates lxc hatred of lies.

3. They are just unconnected from each others trauma enough. They both know the other is hurting but they haven't done anything to each other specifically. They can take a step back and reassure the other that what went through is fucked. Xichen probably appreciates that Jiang Cheng was not especially manipulated or hurt by jgy, so he feels he isn't responsible for any of Jiang Cheng's pain and he might be able to express his grief better like that? Jiang Cheng appreciates that Lan Xichen is completely unrelated to both his brother and his family issues. Seeing Lan Xichen isnt a constant painful reminder about anything.

4. But even though their trauma is disconnected, both had a brother kill someone or someone's they loved and then they killed their brother and everyone's expecting them to be happy about it but their not, their not. Also they both understand the weight of societal expectations from being heir, can understand the for the most part the sect comes first

5. Due to all of the above, Jiang Cheng is probably one of the only people alive post Canon who could actually get Lan Xichen to admit to his grief and sadness and the fact that he's not ok. Which Lan Xichen needs to heal! He needs to be poked and prodded in order not to fall back into his eldest sister syndrome pacifying, which got him (emotionally) into this mess to begin with!

6. In a similar vein, jiang cheng needs a soft place to fall. And he needs someone who won't invalidate him or dismiss his accomplishment (his parents), leave him (wwx), or die on him (fucking everyone he's ever loved). Xichen is extremely loyal when he gets attached. He won't jump to conclusions based on rumors. He will, in fact, assume the best of his loved ones until REALLY proven otherwise. He will defend the actions of his loved ones to others and keep loving them even if they might fuck up sometimes. Plus, he seems remarkably death resistant.

7. Outside of the internal emotion of the pair, their outwards strengths can also help each other! They both know what its like to lead a great sect and be a good sect leader. They can help each other out, even with mundane tasks.

8. Uncle-daddy solidarity (who do you think raised a-yuan when Wangji was in seclusion for three years and was also recovering from a near-fatal whipping?)

Related, they both care a lot about Jin Ling and want to see him succeed as sect leader jin (extrapolation for lxc)

9.Hnggggggg boy hot

10. It would probably piss lwj off so much can you imagine his fucking face. Hilarious!

 I also know that this list is based on post-canon but I think a lot of it applies to any point in the timeline if you put your mind to it!

I’m a firm multishipper so really this is just one facet of my extreme shipping ability. Don’t come at me if you don’t like xicheng, or prefer someone else, or a JC anti, please.

Anyone who ships them, please feel free to add on!

[admirableadmiranda]

I'm sorry if you've already answered this question. I was just wondering how ridiculous it is for both Jiang Cheng and JC stand to continuously blame WWX for the fall of Lotus Pier. It's been a minute since I've read the book, but if I recall it correctly, it was a few weeks (at least) after WWX and LWJ were rescued from the Xuanwu cave before Wang Liangjiao came to LP to demand 'punishment'. And there's also the fact that the Wens moved on BOTH Fish and Qinghe before LP. Gusu had done nothing to incur their the Wens wrath, yet they were attacked first. And yet I've seen a few posts going around saying JC is justified in his treatment of WWX because he caused the downfall of the Jiang Sect.

I've answered variations on it before, but I don't mind doing it again.

And Jiang Cheng himself knows that Wei Wuxian isn't responsible. But his mother put the idea in his head that he is blameable in some way and he tends to follow her lead. And you are correct that not only were there a few attacks already on Great Clans, but also the Wen had been trampling over and absorbing minor clans for a while! They all know that the Wen are acting this way, just think back to the Waterborne Abyss when all Lan Xichen has to do is point to the sky and they all - including Jiang Cheng - know exactly what he means.

Jiang Cheng never actually forgets this either, he just wants to turn the anger lasting in his heart onto someone living so he doesn't have to figure out how to live without it. He takes the blame off of Jin Zixuan for provoking the Wen when Jiang Yanli is engaged to him again, he stops blaming Wei Wuxian at the end of the book, but keeps his anger at Wen Ning alive. He's just spent so much of his life being angry at people for things that are long past that he doesn't even know what to do without it.

Which is kind of really sad when you think about it. To just be so mired in your own anger at things long gone that you just have to keep blaming new people for things that you know they didn't do so it has an outlet. He knows that Wei Wuxian isn't responsible for the Wen attacking, he knows that Wen Ning has saved his life and his honor multiple times, he knows that Lan Wangji has done nothing to him other than reasonably dislike him for his own personal reasons, but he just can't let that go.

Which is a shame, because if he were able to learn how to do that and move on, he'd probably become a person that people could like. And he could even still put in the work himself and improve. His relationship with Wei Wuxian is dead and gone, but he still has his nephew in his life and he's pretty young and has a strong golden core; he could start to turn his life around if he were willing to work on the bitterness and grudges.

But Jiang Cheng stans really don't like hearing that.

[littlesmartart]

Who would you say is the biggest sucker in the family? The Twin Prides of Yunmeng? Total suckers. JGY always knows, but he likes to be the indulgent uncle. LXC is too restrained, but LWJ can sometimes be persuaded.

Yanli: naturally inclined towards being incredibly indulgent (see: how she raised WWX and JC) but when you've got six kids that's just... not really a sustainable parenting attitude, so she becomes an expert in Kind But Firm.

Zixuan: starts out being an absolute sucker because he's generally not great at handling conflict so would rather just give kids what they want, but as all parents do, he learns on the job, and he gets better at being firm. his confidence as a person increases in leaps and bounds once his dad's out of the picture, and that does show in his parenting.

the rest under the cut as it got long

Mingjue: feels very strongly about being firm and disciplined and not letting kids get away with bad behaviour, but... he probably won't follow through too strictly, and well... Huaisang still winds up getting pretty much everything he wants, so secretly Mingjue really is kind of a sucker (but don't tell anyone)

Xichen: surprisingly not a sucker - like Yanli his natural impulse is to be indulgent, but he is still a Lan, so he does have strong feelings about the importance of rules and discipline, and expects a certain standard of behaviour from kids in his care. though he does also feel very strongly about being more compassionate and understanding with the next generation, so he is more likely to use rewards and praise to get good behaviour than punishment.

JGY: will be as indulgent as he reasonably can for as long as he possibly can until that conflicts with something Important, like the child's safety or health. he grew up in poverty so now he's rich af he takes every opportunity to utterly spoil all of the kids around him - partly because gift-giving is very much a love-language for him, partly because the uncomplicated affection of little kids is so important to him. not really so much of a sucker though as he is good at putting his foot down when he needs to, and all kids know not to mess with him when he gives a warning.

Wangji: WAY more of a sucker than anyone expects, but pretty much exclusively with his kid - mostly because little A-Yuan is so quiet and well-behaved (and traumatised) that Wangji really just wants to give him everything he could ever want. he is surprisingly chill with other kids though, as after WWX died Wangji likes to keep his memory alive by letting the kids he likes break inconsequential rules - but if the kids are bratty and unpleasant and he doesn't like them, he has no mercy.

JC: absolute sucker. pretends to be cranky and grumpy about it but that's just how he shows he cares. in the happy AU he's even more of a sucker than in canon because he's purely an uncle, rather than a primary caregiver, so if the kids wind up annoying and ridiculously spoiled, well, that's someone else's problem.

WWX: naturally inclined to be a sucker, but when he comes back he is perturbed to realise that Lan Zhan is the indulgent parent, and refuses to budge from that position so... does that mean HE has the be the STRICT parent??? what the hell, Lan Zhan??? (he's not very good at it, and delights in being indulgent to most kids in a way that irritates other parents)

Huaisang: sucker and proud! giving kids whatever they want is fun, unless it's something that he doesn't want to do, or it's, like, gross. at which point he'll just hand the kid back to their parents.

Qin Su: generally a healthy balance of firm and indulgent, leaning more on the indulgent side - they way her parents were with her. she'd probably be more strict if she had her own kids, but with her niblings she does enjoy being a Cool Aunt. easily bribed with cuddles and kisses!

Xuanyu: I don't feel like it counts as being a sucker if he's pretty much the same age as the kids. when he gets older, his approach is to be Down With The Kids in order to persuade them to do what he wants. the day kids start referring to him as an adult, or old, is the day he has a major crisis.

[drwcn]

Hi,

how do you feel about that whole scene where it was revealed jc had wwx's core. Because reading it in the manhua now (I've read in the translated novel and watched cql) I really hate wwx and lwj during that scene. I think they were in the wrong (wwx had himself expelled from the sect and lwj is an outsider that has no business being in there) and I was curious how you see that whole thing.

Hope you have a nice day.

Hi friend!

My personal opinion is that the only person in the wrong in that scene is Wen Ning.

I'm referring to more or less the cql plot line.

I don't feel either Jiang Cheng or Lan Wangji or Wei Wuxian are in the wrong based on the stance that they take and the information they know.

If you take Jiang Cheng's stance: you don't know jack shit. Nobody tells you anything. You still don't really know why after your shixiong went missing, he became a sith lord. You tried approaching him about it when he was alive the first time around but he just pushed you away. I mean at that time you were barely more than a kid yourself, trying to keep it together for your new found sect, trying to play at being an adult and incidentally being played by every other adult who was way better at the politcs game than you were. And then your shixiong chose to protect the Wen Remnants, which in and of itself was not a bad thing and you knew it. But you couldn't help. You wanted to, at least for Wen Qing, but you couldn't. You knew you couldn't because you're a Jiang and the Wens killed your family- slaughtered your parents - and maybe not these specific Wens, but that didn't matter and that was just how things were in the world you lived in (if you're not cn and you don't get it, just trust me on this trope, take my word for it). That was why you went to find Wei Wuxian and tried to talk to him about it but instead of explaining shit to you, Wei Wuxian decided to "defect" and then you had to fake fight about it. And then you had to pretend to hate him in front of other people. And you know...you were faking it until you made it and you thought everything would be fine. Things were kinda quiet for a while. You invited Wei Wuxian to your nephew's celebration and then HE KILLED JIN ZIXUAN. WHAT?? And then before you knew it the Wen Remnants were giving themselves up and everyone was storming Nevernight and Wei Wuxian was Sith Lord on Meth and giving Anankin Skywalker a run for his money.

And then your sister died and you just lost it. Yeah you tried stabbing Wei Wuxian, but who didn't those days am I right? Besides, he let go of Lan Wangji's hand himself...

The point is, it's been 16 years and you still don't know anything. You don't know why Wei Wuxian is doing ANY of this bullshit and you just wish you know something for once for fuck sake. The running theory is that Wei Wuxian = Evil, and you know that's not true. Wei Wuxian = Jackass, yeah, that might be true. You just don't understand why Wei Wuxian doesn't give a shit about being a Yunmeng Jiang, why he would stand with literally anyone else - the Wen Remnants, Lan Wangji, Wen Ning - but not with you.

And you're SO angry, you just want to fight him. Like the ways boys do, one fight to settle the score. Maybe you can punch the truth out of him. How did he get resurrected in the first place huh? What the fuck is that all about?

And then you know. Because Wen Ning tells you in the cruellest way possible. You know now why he couldn't stay because Wei Wuxian had given you everything he could give, and that there was nothing else left he could offer.

The truth is worse than you ever imagined, and knowing the truth doesn't fix you. You're still alone, still broken.

If you take Wei Wuxian's stance: sure you might have "defected" but you never really defected, not in your heart. You'll always be a Yunmeng Jiang. Lotus Pier is your home. You swore to Madam Yu you'd protect Jiang Cheng and you did that. Look at him, he's a sect leader now, a goddamn strong one at that. That's a success right? Then why doesn't it feel like one. Why are you still miserable, still cast out, when all you want is to come home.

Oh, yeah you know why. Because shijie is dead. She died more or less because of you, at least it feels that way. That peacock Jin Zixuan too. You still don't understand how it all went so wrong. But you're tangled up in the thick of it, and you can't extract yourself. You are responsible, at least in some sense. Responsible for being stubborn, for thinking you had everything under control. Responsible for your pride and arrogance.

You know why you can't come home. Because you still carry that one giant secret you swore you'd carry to you grave and never let anyone know. And you did technically carry that shit to the grave, but now you're alive again, and honestly who the fuck prepares for this kind of scenario? This is not the kind of truth that should ever see the light of day. You don't ever regret a single goddamn thing you ever did on that hill in Yiling, but jesus christ you miss home and you just want to come home. So now that you're here, in the ancestral hall, how can you not pay your respects?

And of course Jiang Cheng is angry, you know why he's angry. YOu never told him jack shit. But you're too tired to fight him. It's been so many years and you just want to move on. Let Jiang Cheng hate you if he wants to; you've made peace with that.

If you take Lan Wangji's stance: this fucking Jiang family drama is worse than soup drama. You're not really sure what the ever loving fuck went down between Jiang Wanyin and Wei Ying but at this point, it's too late to go through all that history. The love of your life was dead and came back to life!! Who else gets that kind of second chance?! You have your priorities, and that's to keep Wei Ying safe. There is a conspiracy going on and everybody has bigger problems now, problems like Jin Guangyao and what he did to all those people all those years ago, and the things he's still doing. That's what the focus should be.

And besides, you look at Wei Ying and you know that he never stopped loving this place - Lotus Pier. That this place is his Cloud Recesses, and no matter how far he goes, even as far as death, he will never stop seeing this place as home. So of course you follow him into the ancestral hall to pay your respects. This man is the man you want to spend the rest of your life with; his family is your family. It's only right. Of course Jiang Wanyin is angry about it, but that guy clearly has problems and you're above starting a fight with him as long as Wei Ying wants to keep it civil.

Wen Ning - fuck this guy. I don't like him and I don't care to explain it.

:)

[dustyf0x]

Ok so this is a universe where alpha women and omega men exist but they’re largely considered to be infertile and sort of a biological mistake haha (bro you fools it’s for population control you absolute idiots) ok so wwx is an omega and basically somehow during their time in cloud recesses stuff gets tweaked just a bit and he and lwj end up having sex oops and wwx ends up getting pregnant

We don’t see this scene at first, it’s mostly implied but we should work in a flashback at some point and show it in detail (especially if it’s late enough that we’re really craving a sex scene but not so late that wwx and lwj’s relationship has developed enough for them to have sex (again)

Anyway, we jump in as wwx is leaving the cloud recesses and disappearing into the night bc having premarital sex is like the greatest shame he could bring upon his own sect and also lwj so he becomes a peasant once more 

We see flashes as he travels around

Might fudge with the timeline a little idk

Anyway, we see flashes as he travels around. As he gets further along in his pregnancy more and more people start assuming he’s a woman bc he’s so pretty and obviously there’s no such thing as a pregnant male omega and if he was seen as a mpreg obviously that would get a lot of attention so he starts dressing in the feminine style of robes and such 

Obviously you shouldn’t night hunt while pregnant- no one wants a haunted baby- but wwx can’t be stopped so he keeps doing it anyway against his better judgment and he sort of gets famous/ rumors start going around about that incredibly skilled and charming pregnant cultivator.

He ends up giving birth on the road, totally alone cue whump 

Shot where he’s curled up leaning against a tree fast asleep cradling his newborn in his arms

Oh maybe when A-Yuan is first born he’s not breathing and wwx has to spark life into him

It feels weird writing wwx out of the cave scene and such but I can’t really justify him showing up until the jiang clan gets decimated 

Maybe a scene where wwx almost bumps into lwj on a night hunt haha

Maybe ch2 is sort of shenanigans where wwx is traveling around and still night hunting even with a baby on his hip

So I guess continuing his fame as a crazy cultivator/ disguised as female

Also almost bumping into jiang cheng or actually bumping into nie huisang could be fun

He hears about what happened at the wen archery thing

Or that- yeah that just gets cut out

But he does hear about theeeeeee idk what it’s called but where all of the babies were held hostage 

I think we don’t see that on screen though I think we jump right into jiang cheng’s perspective post lotus pier burning running into wwx and somehow it’s alluded to

Like wwx heard that lotus pier burned and rushed to check it out (omg he would be so certain that he would find jiang cheng and jiang Yanli’s bodies and like he didn’t want to see them but also asldfjcsdbhj like unable to stop himself or desperately needed to or like there was this sick need in him pulling him there as if he was possessed 

Anyway

So like off hand comment as that’s being explained like “He definitely wasn’t in yunmeng in the first place bc he had heard the rumors about what had happened @ the wen archery thing”

Anyway it’ll be super fun bc the readers will be like “What the fuck happened to A-yuan” but it will be from jiang cheng’s perspective who doesn’t even know A-Yuan exists and doesn’t know anything is wrong

Wwx gets Jiang Cheng out of there and like there should be some amount of like,,, jiang cheng is pissed bc wwx has just been gone for like 3 years now and Jiang Cheng just didn’t know where he was or if he was even alive and he’s missed him so dearly and also been so worried and is pissed that wwx has been alive this whole time and just chose not to be there and also is super pissed that he finally has his brother back but it has cost him the lives of his parents and his entire sect.

Oh he’s definitely like crying pissed about how if Wwx had just been there he could have stopped all this from happening

Anyway, great news, Yanli is still alive and they can and should meet up with her asap

Bad news, Wwx needs to make a pit stop to grab A-Yuan from wherever he’s hidden him but Jiang Cheng doesn’t know that so he’s absolutely livid (What could possibly be more important than meeting up with Yanli right now of all times) but Wwx will not be budged and is just like “Hey, you’re welcome to go on without me” and Jiang Cheng is like “Fuck you, as if I would let you leave my sight again.”

Ok so I’m thinking that wwx paid a prostitute to look over his kid bc hey, brothels always have kids around, and looking after one more for a little extra cash is no hard sell

Anyway so the result is Jiang Cheng is like “YOU TOOK A DETOUR FROM MEETING UP WITH A-LI TO VISIT A BROTHEL???” and wwx is like “Ahhh, Jiang Cheng, you’re so loud. It’s fine it’s fine” and then goes in and comes out WITH A BABY??

And Jiang Cheng is like ???? what the fuck

Whose baby is that

“I found him growing in a patch of turnips and he was so cute I just had to scoop him up for myself! Isn’t that right A-Yuan?” A-Yuan nods eagerly

Wwx introduces Jiang Cheng to A-Yuan “This is your Shushu. Can you say ‘Hi?’”

“Hi Shushu!”

Jiang Cheng is still acting pissed but secretly his heart is melting lmao. Absolutely in love with his new nephew even though he doesn’t realize it actually is his nephew.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: Wei Wuxian has achieved time travel! He's gonna fix so many broken things. Unfortunately, WWX has miscalculated a teensy tiny variable and instead of arriving in his original 15yo body in Lotus Pier, he's crash landed in MXY's tiny 7~8yo body at Mo Manor. But no problem, he can fix this if he can just find his real body. (Meanwhile, Yunmeng Jiang's head disciple is acting the wrong kind of childish, aka, Mo Xuanyu is having the weirdest day of his young life.)

Switcheroo - ao3

Mo Xuanyu thought that this Wei Wuxian person whose body he’d stolen must have been a really interesting person, mostly because he’d been here for three days so far and nobody’d noticed the switch yet.

Possibly it had to do with the fact that Mo Xuanyu still wasn’t exactly sure how he’d stolen the body – he’d just gone to sleep in the shed, same as always, and then he’d woken up in the softest bed he’d ever encountered in his life…no, softer than even his dreams! He’d thought it over and concluded that he must have died from cold out in the shed, turned into a fierce ghost out of resentment, grown powerful (somehow), then stolen some rich young master’s body when they weren’t paying close enough attention and, once he’d possessed the body, promptly lost all his memory of being a ghost.

It seemed like the only logical course of events.

He was very sorry about it, though. Wei Wuxian seemed like a nice, if very unusual person.

The first day, Mo Xuanyu had barely even noticed the body-switch, being quite so enamored of the soft bed he was in – he’d refused to get out of bed at all, declaring that he was going to lie in and sleep for a century or more, and the people who’d come to the door to get him didn’t beat him or anything over it, but rather just laughed or rolled their eyes and then left him to it. Luckily, at the time, he’d just assumed he was dead or something and proceeded to ignore everything in favor of napping.

He only acknowledged that he was alive later in the afternoon, when his stomach started growling – it seemed like a very unlikely thing for a dead man’s stomach to do.

Mo Xuanyu had by that point figured out that he wasn’t himself anymore, which was fine since he didn’t much like himself; he’d also figured out, through looking himself over, that he was old now. At least fifteen or sixteen, which was twice the age he last remembered himself being. That was fine, too, though: being older meant that he was stronger and faster and would be better able to handle it when people wanted to beat him or something. Most importantly, though, it meant he was old enough to enter the kitchen on his own!

Mo Xuanyu already knew that he wasn’t allowed to eat at the main table, being only the bastard son of the younger daughter, and the cook back at home was a fierce woman who didn’t allow anyone under the age of ten into her kitchen; as a result, he had to wait for his mother to bring him back some food, and it was always cold and not quite enough. Now, though, since he was older, he figured he might as well try to go to the kitchen and fill his belly that way.

Luckily, while his current body’s house was much bigger than the Mo house, all houses were generally built along the same lines, so it wasn’t hard to find the kitchen. Everyone there laughed when he showed up, even though he’d tried to be very quiet and sneak in and then screwed it up by tripping over his own feet – it seemed like everyone thought he was doing it on purpose to be funny – and then the cooks gave him a meal of his own that was hot and fresh and wonderful.

He'd wolfed it down.

“Honestly, Wei Wuxian, you eat like a hungry ghost, you’d think the Jiang clan starves you,” one of them scolded him, but with a smile, and from that Mo Xuanyu learned that the rich young master was called Wei Wuxian and that he lived with the Jiang clan. The different surnames confused him a little, but he didn’t dare ask any questions about it, so he just stuffed his mouth and pretended that was the reason he couldn’t answer.

No one questioned it.

No one questioned it when he went wandering all around instead of doing whatever chores or duties he’d been assigned, either. Someone had actually seen him hovering by a door and asked him to bring back a pheasant when he returned, so out of lack of better options he’d headed outside to try to go find one.

He had a pretty good time walking around the forest, then remembered what he’d been asked and chased the pheasants for a while, without success . Fortunately, he then got lucky and stumbled over an old snare that had three pheasants caught inside, so he’d picked up the whole box and carted it back home.

“Three,” one of the boys in purple-blue marveled as he saw Mo Xuanyu walking towards the kitchen. “You know, people say that the birds around the Lotus Pier have gotten too smart to be caught easily, but look at our da-shixiong; he makes it look easy!”

From this, Mo Xuanyu could figure out that Wei Wuxian was (apparently!) part of a cultivator clan, apparently located at a place called the Lotus Pier, and that he was the oldest or at least head disciple, to boot. He knew all about cultivator clans from his mother, since apparently his father had been a sect leader, and that meant he knew enough to call the other boy ‘shidi’ as he passed, making the other boy beam happily.

It also meant that when he chanced a guess and called the young woman in a pretty pink dress who waved at him ‘shijie’, she smiled and nodded, which meant to him that he’d done the right thing.

“I heard you slept even more of the morning away than usual,” she told him, but didn’t seem too upset about it. “I bet that means you’ll be skipping dinner and staying up all night, hmm?”

Mo Xuanyu had no intention of skipping dinner if it was anything like what the kitchens had given him earlier, actually, but while he was still trying to figure out a way to say that, she said, leaning in close to whisper, “It’s probably a good idea, anyway – Mother and Father are fighting again. Just go to the kitchens to grab something…I promise I’ll make it up to you with some soup tomorrow, pork ribs and lotus roots, your favorite. All right?”

“Shijie, you’re the best,” Mo Xuanyu said effusively, willing to die for her at once, and she laughed and tousled his hair.

“I am,” she said, looking happy. “And if my little A-Xian stays good and obedient, I may even feed him.”

She did, too, the next day when he finally tore himself out of the beautiful wonderful soft bed and went to go find her. She’d made him soup, just as he’d promised, and laughed and laughed for some reason: apparently, she interpreted him being quiet and not talking too much as his efforts to be ‘good and obedient’, which was apparently so out of the ordinary as to be a deliberate joke.

From this, Mo Xuanyu concluded that the young master he’d possessed, Wei Wuxian, was a jackass.

Well, perhaps that was a bit harsh. Arrogant and self-centered, talented and brave and probably brilliant, definitely charming and maybe even kind, but also spoiled and inclined to step on other people to get where he wanted to go, if Mo Xuanyu had to guess – why else would everyone constantly react as if him not being obnoxious was the world’s biggest stunt?

No one seemed to expect anything of him at all: he didn’t do any chores, and no one batted an eyelid; he didn’t go where he was told, and everyone just sighed…at one point the sect leader himself came and patted him on the head, scolding him in a joking tone that he hadn’t seen him leading any of the training the way he was supposed to – but when Mo Xuanyu quailed, he’d burst out laughing, telling ‘Wei Wuxian’ to stop pretending to be a scared little rabbit, that it was fine if he’d gotten distracted by some clever new invention or whatever, that someone else would handle it, that he should take as long as he needed.

Mo Xuanyu had pasted a great big smile on his face through force of effort and agreed cheerfully.

The sect leader had accepted it.

Probably a jackass, but clearly a beloved one, Mo Xuanyu thought to himself as he packed up clothing and a few small treasures that no one would miss, a little wistful. The scare of the whole encounter had put things in perspective – he wasn’t going to be able to keep up this sort of façade for long. In fact, he was shocked he’d managed it so long already; surely, no matter how many pranks this Wei Wuxian played, no matter how childishly he behaved, surely someone should’ve noticed that he was actually an eight-year-old masquerading as a sixteen-year-old?

Mo Xuanyu couldn’t decide whether it was sad that no one paid too much attention or something that this Wei Wuxian fellow had brought down on his own head by being so consistently annoying.

Either way, there was nothing for it – he was going to have to leave.

Now that part was really sad: he’d never in his life had such good food, or such a soft bed, or even so many people that just seemed plain old happy to see him as since he’d arrived in this place. But he wasn’t the one all those things were for; he was just a sad ghost possessing a person, and if he stayed, the cultivators would eventually figure out something was wrong and exorcise him.

Probably violently.

Mo Xuanyu probably deserved it, too, but despite that he wasn’t willing.

So he packed up what he could and headed out.

He got all the way to the gate before a new purple-clad disciple – about his age, if he had to guess, and holding a pack like he’d just come back from a trip, with a scowl on his face – called out for Wei Wuxian.

Mo Xuanyu waved a little, hoping that that would be enough.

For the first time, it wasn’t.

The boy’s face settled into an even deeper scowl.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “Wei Wuxian! You’re acting all weird – hey! Where are you going?”

Mo Xuanyu was running away, obviously. He wasn’t about to get tied up and exorcised, no thank you.

He didn’t think he’d make it, but it was still worth trying.

Sure enough, the purple-clad boy who was probably called Jiang Cheng, based on what everyone was calling out as they ran by, got tired of running and jumped on his sword, and there was no way Mo Xuanyu would be able to outrun a sword, not even if he tried as fast as he –

Someone picked him up.

It wasn’t Jiang Cheng.

Mo Xuanyu turned his head and stared.

It must be some sort of yao, he thought. Humans were definitely not that pretty.

“Lan Wangji!” Jiang Cheng howled. “What are you even doing in the Lotus Pier?! Put my shixiong down!”

The rescuer, Lan Wangji, frowned a little at Mo Xuanyu.

Mo Xuanyu didn’t know exactly what expression he ought to be making in return, and was a bit too dazed to even dare to guess. He’d just noticed that they were flying – flying! on a sword! – and he was clutching onto this Lan Wangji’s shoulders for dear life.

“You are not Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said. His voice sounded very definitive.

“Uh,” Mo Xuanyu said. “Sorry? Please don’t drop me.”

“I will not. What is your name?”

“Mo Xuanyu,” Mo Xuanyu admitted, and Lan Wangji’s eyes widened as if that meant something to him – except it couldn’t, of course, because Mo Xuanyu was sure he’d never met anyone even remotely like this Lan Wangji fellow in his life. “I don’t remember taking his body. I’m sorry. Can you not exorcise me? I don’t want to die.”

Lan Wangji was silent for a long moment.

He was still flying very fast, and Jiang Cheng was still following, shouting out curses and demands that he stop, not that Lan Wangji was listening.

“There will be no exorcism,” he finally said, and Mo Xuanyu exhaled in relief. “We will, however, fix this.”

“…we?”

“Wei Ying and myself.”

Mo Xuanyu nodded. That sounded more likely than anyone relying on his participation.

“Where are we going?” he asked. Jiang Cheng was falling further and further behind.

“Mo Village.”

Mo Xuanyu tensed up at once.

“You will not be left there,” Lan Wangji clarified, and – how did he know that Mo Xuanyu didn’t want to be left there? “But we must collect Wei Ying, who I suspect is currently in your body.”

“In my…I’m still alive?”

Lan Wangji was quiet again, and then said, “Yes. And you will remain so.”

That was reassuring, mostly.

“Okay,” Mo Xuanyu said, and found that he mostly felt relieved. He’d be very happy to have his normal body back again, if possible, especially if he didn’t have to stay in Mo Village…“Wait, if I don’t have to stay there, where will I go? I don’t have anywhere else to go, unless my father comes back for me. He's a sect leader –”

“He will not, and even if he did, you should not go with him. Once Wei Ying returns to his body, you will be able to stay at the Lotus Pier. If you do not wish to stay there, I will bring you back to the Cloud Recesses – that is my home – instead.”

“Oh,” Mo Xuanyu said, feeling bewildered. That was an awfully nice offer, even if Lan Wangji was feeling guilty about Wei Wuxian stealing his body by accident – which seemed like what had happened here rather than Mo Xuanyu being the one who did the stealing. Maybe he should go with Lan Wangji instead, he seemed much more responsible than Wei Wuxian was, rushing over to rescue him and explain things instead of throwing him into a body and leaving him all alone in a strange place. But on the other hand… “Is the Cloud Recesses…I mean…no offense, but…does it have…”

“Yes?”

“Does it have soft beds, too? And – and hot food?”

Mo Xuanyu didn’t need much, not really. He looked eagerly at Lan Wangji, who had an odd expression on his face briefly before wiping it back to neutral and nodding in confirmation.

“Okay,” Mo Xuanyu said, and curled up in Lan Wangji’s arms. “Then I’ll stay with you. You can take care of me.”

“I will,” Lan Wangji said, sounding strangely serious. “In return for the gift you last gave me – I will.”

[stiltonbasket]

Hi!! I love renouncement verse So Much!!! The balance of angst and fluff is just 👌 and I love every single prompt! In the one where the couple is comforting the bride, LWJ mentions a paperman. If WWX were to find it, what would his reaction be?

anon 2: I just read the ficlet with arranged marriage verse wwx and lwj talking to a nervous bride, and now I have to ask: does wwx ever find those paper men? Or any other keepsakes lwj might have of him?

Wei Wuxian finds the dusty box under Lan Zhan’s old bed.

As far as boxes go, this one is so completely unassuming that it practically blends in with the floorboards. It's nothing like the deep red wood that Wei Wuxian’s dowry boxes were made of, or the delicately carved chests that held his late mother-in-law’s old dresses. But Wei Wuxian has never been one to quash his curiosity, and Lan Zhan has often said that the jingshi and everything in it belongs as much to Wei Wuxian as it does to him--so Wei Wuxian gives in to impulse, and pries the little chest open with the point of one of his fingernails.

At first glance, the box seems to be full of letters. All of them are dated in Lan Zhan’s own hand, meaning that the chest had not belonged to Madam Lan as many of the older treasures remaining in the jingshi did; and Wei Wuxian flips through the unsealed envelopes one by one, wondering why his husband never sent them.

“They were for you.”

Wei Wuxian nearly leaps out of his skin. “Lan Zhan!” he gasps, as his husband’s soft lips brush the top of his head. “You startled me, xingan. I thought you were going to spend the afternoon in the nursery with A-Yu.”

“Mm, I was. But he wanted to play with San-shushu’s children, so I took him to visit Lan Li and Lan Yue. Third Uncle is watching over them now with Shufu.”

He goes gracefully to his knees at Wei Wuxian’s side and takes the box from his hands, setting it down between them before digging out a small grass butterfly. “A-Yuan had this in his robes when I found him in the Luanzung Gang,” Lan Zhan murmurs. “I put it here for safekeeping, since it was the only thing he had from that time save for his clothes.”

“It looks just like it did then,” Wei Wuxian marvels. The butterfly has been meticulously preserved, right down to the straw fringe on the battered wings and the dent at the bottom of the tail where A-Yuan always gripped it, so worried that his favorite toy might be lost somehow that he never learned how to hold it gently. “Have you kept it here all this time, sweetheart?”

“En, I did. Xiongzhang bought an identical one after he recovered from his fever, so I let him have that one instead.”

Casting one last reverent look at the grass butterfly, Lan Zhan returns it to the trunk and presents Wei Wuxian with what looks like one of his own red ribbons, folded away in a nest of dried mint leaves and lotus petals.

“You left this behind in your guest quarters when you stayed here during the lecture,” his husband explains. “That side of the compound survived the fires, and nobody stayed there after you did, so I found the ribbon in one of the drawers after we retook the Cloud Recesses. I meant to return it to you, but with everything that happened afterward...”

“Ah, I know. My Hanguang-jun was too shy to tell me that he went to visit the guest house I stayed in, just because I was the last one to visit there,” Wei Wuxian teases, bringing a soft flush to Lan Zhan’s cheekbones. “Lan Zhan, did you really carry my ribbon in your lapels all the way through the Sunshot Campaign?”

Lan Zhan nods. “Sometimes I wept, on days where it was plain that your cultivation was hurting you, and held the ribbon while I slept to keep nightmares at bay. And after--” and here his breath catches, as if the pain of their sixteen years apart were wearing on him still, even with Wei Wuxian alive and well in his arms. “After the Nightless City, I knew I would never have anything more of you even if I cultivated to immortality. So I put it away, and covered it with mint to prevent moths from chewing it, and lotus petals so that it would not lose the fragrance of your hair.”

Wei Wuxian trembles against him, sniffling helplessly into his shoulder as more keepsakes come forth from the box: the old drawing Wei Wuxian made in the library pavilion, one of the peonies he threw at Lan Zhan during the crowd hunt on Mount Baifeng, now dried and wrapped in white silk to protect it from crumbling, and even...

“You kept these?” he cries, as a pair of red papermen crawl out of the box. “And they still have a trace of my lingli in them! How did you manage that?”

“I preserved them in a spirit-trapping bag, because they kept trying to escape,” Lan Zhan says bashfully. “I did not know that would catch the spiritual power you put into them, but now and then I would take out the pouch, and...”

His voice trails off into silence, and Wei Wuxian bites his lip at the thought of it: Lan Zhan mourning him, wounded and in pain as he held on to the little qiankun bag to feel the tiny papermen wriggling inside, imagining that he was protecting a part of Wei Wuxian himself.

“I’m here now,” Wei Wuxian whispers. “I’m never going to leave you, Lan Zhan. You’ll never have to lose me again.”

Lan Zhan reaches out and brushes back a loose strand of his hair.

“No, I will not,” he replies. “But if I did, I would never survive it.”

I spent half a lifetime without you, is what Wei Wuxian hears instead. And if I could have joined you without leaving our son, or if I had gone to the Luanzung Gang and not found A-Yuan after the siege, the day I realized that you were dead would have been the end of me.

Lan Zhan is already aging again, Wei Wuxian knows. His own jindan is gone forever, his dantian and meridians so thoroughly damaged that he will never regain the ability to cultivate; but Lan Zhan’s body was about Wei Wuxian’s physical age when it stopped sensing the passage of time, and the first thing he did after their wedding was alter the flow of his spiritual energy, so that the both of them will age together with the coming years and pass on into death almost as one.

“We should fill another box. Perhaps more than one,” Lan Zhan says quietly. “One for A-Yu’s baby keepsakes, and A-Lan’s, and another for our wedding--and we can keep them here, beside this one and the chest where I saved Sizhui’s things. What do you think, Wei Ying?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes fill with tears.

“I’d love to,” he chokes. “But not now. I’m going to spend today right here, in your arms, and we can start tomorrow.”

[xiyao-feels]

Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the differences between Empathy and the original—per scene and then a general reflection.

Episode 10

(episode 10 differences)

Going through this chronologically, our first comparison is the captain encounter. Honestly I think NMJ was straight-up inventing most of this—even aside from the sheer absurdity of MY, what, smuggling XY out of prison, bringing him into the middle of everything (he runs into the Captain and friend AND WWX!), XY…just going back into prison…well, anyway, putting all that aside—the Captain's questions here seem like NMJ's preoccupations, not the Captain's. The Captain is hugely contemptuous of MY, but he's not, like, obsessed with his innermost heart, you know? "You're lying! I just saw that. You were talking. Tell me honestly. What's your ulterior motive?"—that's NMJ, not the Captain at all. Plus there's the way the Captain grabs MY basically the exact same way NMJ does. 

Next up there's MY telling NHS he's going to go check on XY—minor phrasing differences aside, one thing that's interesting is we don't get all of MY's reaction/decision before he tells NHS in Empathy, just the tail end:

Ahhhh, now, the bit where NMJ sees MY stab the captain! You can see here the beginning of a pattern of Empathy erasing the Wen. MY throwing himself in front of the blade to save NMJ is removed, of course, but so is NMJ fighting WZL, as he was before going to the prison in episode 10; in the Empathy he's just kind of standing there. And then sees MY, uh, creepily pick up a sword??? And follows him??? Instead of hearing that XY's escaped and running to the prison because of that, which is of course what happened in episode 10. (So XY is erased some in this scene, too; even when it comes to MY's excuses, he says It wasn't me, but we don't get to 'Xue Yang killed him', as we do in the original.)

Some other points of interest here… Of course the expression NMJ sees on MY as MY kills the captain is only shown in Empathy. Interestingly, also, while MY is quite clearly terrified at NMJ's approach in both, in episode 10 it's presented immediately, while in the Empathy he has a beat before he starts reacting that way.

The last scene—NMJ confronting MY and kicking him out of Qinghe. In the Empathy, we start with MY having been thrown onto the floor, rolling—but this isn't there in episode 10, and to be honest I think it probably didn't actually happen. First, while I can see NMJ throwing MY onto the floor, I don't actually think he'd throw him quite that hard at this point in time? And it's also got a lot of visual echoes of JGY rolling down the stairs; I think he's projecting backwards. Of course, it still takes MY longer to recover in episode 10; Empathy consistently minimizes the physical harm done to MY.

So the conversation is interesting because it's really just two different conversations in the Empathy vs episode 10. In episode 10, MY leads with the Captain's abuse of him, and he's clear that it's habitual, ongoing, long-term. In Empathy, he leads with the Captain releasing XY, /adds in/ that the Captain wanted to kill him (that's not there in episode 10!), and absolutely skips over and minimizes the abuse: the beatings aren't mentioned, the credit-stealing isn't mentioned, the insulting and humiliating… even the 'Every time' is removed from before the 'he humiliated my mother', making it seem like this was a one-off provocation instead of habitual. NMJ's somewhat unhinged rant about MY's motives, including the would you have killed everyone at the cave if I hadn't helped you, is also Empathy-only (and then when MY starts to reply NMJ is like, Don't lie to me! and MY shuts up, suggesting perhaps that a denial would have been lying, which may be part of why people think this is a remotely reasonable assertion).

Some other interesting things—in episode 10, we see NMJ lift his sabre and then lower it, unable to go through with it; in Empathy, we don't see that at all—in general I think there's less of a sense that he's struggling with his decision, in Empathy, it's more just like He Is Doing The Righteous Justice. Fascinatingly we also don't see him put Baxia away in Empathy—I think he must because we see a scene where he already had, in episode 10, but we don't actually see it. We also don't see MY, injured, get up and thank NMJ and walk out, or indeed NMJ's conflicted gaze after him; the scene cuts off too soon.

Episode 22

(episode 22 differences)

There's only one scene for episode 22: the WRH, NMJ, and MY scene, inside Sun Palace. Right off the bat, we have the Wen erasure again; the episode 22 scene starts with WRH directly addressing NMJ and tormenting him and his Nie cultivators, whereas the Empathy one only starts when MY walks in. (Although interestingly MY addresses WRH as xiandu, while he doesn't seem to say anything with his bow in episode 22).

This one is an interesting scene because there's relatively little overlap? In the episode 10 scenes, you mostly saw different versions of the same events; in this one there's some of that, but there are also large chunks of time that are only in episode 22 or only in Empathy. Most of the MY-interacting-with-NMJ is only in Empathy, including, yes, the damn sabre touch. But we do have the beginning of MY talking to NMJ in both. MY's expression is different in Episode 22 vs Empathy—it's a little hard to capture in a still, but it's a lot more, mmm, simpering-mockery in the Empathy version?

Ah, one detail that's interesting—so, in CQL—which is to say in Empathy because we don't see this sequence at all in Episode 22—when that Nie cultivator calls the place 'a den of Wen' he uses 温/温氏, for Wen, and then when people are insulting MY in this scene they're using 走狗. But in MDZS all of those are actually 温狗, Wen-dog. Which is definitely more directly disrespectful to WRH than the 走狗 insults, but I feel like in general CQL doesn't use 温狗 a lot, while in MDZS it's all over the place—so while it's an interesting detail I'm not sure it's suggestive for Empathy in particular. Hmmm.

We return to things being shown in both Empathy and Episode 22 with NMJ shoving MY back. In Empathy, we only see MY stagger a little, while in episode 22 it's quite considerable—again, Empathy's tendency to minimize the physical damage MY suffers.

And then MY kicks NMJ in return! Okay this is actually fascinating, because in Empathy, it looks like this totally wipes NMJ out, and the scene stops here. But that isn't at all what happened! He's knocked onto his back, yes, BUT he recovers and comes up and shoves MY hard enough he goes flying: 

He gets up and goes to attack MY, and would probably have killed him if WRH hadn't interfered. Which, don't get me wrong, is entirely reasonable of him given his understanding of the situation but it is not at all the impression you'd get from Empathy. If anything NMJ's collapse in the Empathy after MY kicks him looks like the collapse he has after WRH finishes with him, in episode 22. And MY saying How dare you be so rude in front of Clan Leader Wen when he kicks NMJ is also removed—the whole sequence here is really another example of the removal of the Wen from the Empathy scenes. 

Incidentally, MY didn't actually kill all the Nie cultivators, in this scene. If you look while MY is flying back, at least one of them is still alive:

And then you can see all four are dead while NMJ's attacking WRH:

But MY has been on the floor recovering from NMJ's attack, so he definitely didn't kill the at least one and quite probably two who are still alive.

WRH asks MY if NMJ killed Wen Xu question; you have MY staying quite noticeably silent, which I think is still meant to be understood as MY saving NMJ's life. I guess they changed it because the MDZS version really doesn't work with the flow of events as happens in CQL? For the record, in MDZS MY answers yes, but then immediately suggests that they torture him instead of killing him immediately, and then once WRH isn't set on killing him immediately, kills WRH on the spot and starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of there. So there's no WWX for distraction, and Sunshot's army definitely isn't right outside, there's only LXC he sent a message to and who hasn't quite shown up yet—so in MDZS he's taking a bigger risk, and more unambiguously saving NMJ's life and winning them the war. Which is not, to be clear, to in any way minimize CQL MY's astonishing bravery and achievements.

Episode 23

(episode 23 differences)

So in both we start with LXC holding NMJ and looking down at him. In episode 23, when NMJ sees MY, we see LXC see and notice his reaction and /then/ look over at MY in concern, whereas in Empathy we don't get that moment—it just goes to both of them looking at MY.

NMJ demands his sabre back, and in both MY complies, though in the Empathy one he takes a beat longer and looks more worried about it. In the original, MY also has "Let me explain" which is dropped from the Empathy.

In both we have NMJ attacking MY with Baxia, and trying to get past Shuoyue—in the Empathy it's a bit shorter, though, and we also lose LXC asking NMJ what he's doing this for. I think that goes with cutting LXC seeing NMJ react before he looks over at MY, above; the effect is to make NMJ's response seem more obvious/natural, when in fact LXC is pretty baffled by it at the time.

"he became the Wen's underling and had been helping the tyrant at Nevernight!"—the language on 'became the Wen's underling' is actually different in episode 23 vs Empathy. In episode 23, you have 原来投靠了温氏; in Empathy, though, it's 原来是做了走狗. Note the 走狗 as earlier!

Okay, and now the big one: LXC giving NMJ reasons they should trust MY/not kill him. Empathy cuts most of this. It keeps that MY is the one who sent the map, but it drops: that the reason LXC is here today is because MY sent him a message; that MY was the one who schemed to get WRH's guard down, and then /killed him/; that MY was the one who saved LXC's life after CR burned; and that MY independently approached WRH to spy on him and has been sending LXC letters the whole time. /That's really not trivial. That's a lot to cut./

I wonder if this has any relation to the common idea that LXC did not in fact have a lot of very good reasons to trust JGY.

(Incidentally it's after the MY killed WRH reveal, in episode 23, that NMJ lowers his blade.)

...also. so. In episode 23 LXC asks MY, you know, didn't he already tell NMJ about all this (a question which makes a lot more sense in MDZS, where NMJ has already woken up before LXC joins them, but I just run with it), and MY says, you saw it ZWJ, even if I had he wouldn't have believed me. And NMJ—again it's kind of hard to capture in a still, but he pretty much reacts like he thinks that's ridiculous and MY is just making excuses/being manipulative?

And then of course that gets erased from the Empathy, as well as as just mentioned most of the reasons LXC actually gave. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, this also means it cuts what I'm pretty sure is the first on-screen use of A-Yao—it does show up later in the Empathy version of this scene, so I don't think that's hugely significant, but just as a note.

Then there's MY kneeling in preparation for apology, which is in both Empathy and episode 23. The Empathy cuts make it seem like he kneels pretty much right after NMJ lowers his blade, though, and we don't get to see him making the deliberate choice to step out if LXC's protection to kneel—again, I think it makes LXC seem more understanding of NMJ than he actually is here.

The apology proper is only in Empathy; honestly it mostly seems fairly reasonable to me, although it does mean you only hear LXC saying "But I believe, when he was doing such things, deep in his heart he must have been…" after the version that cuts most of his reasons for believing that. In terms of actual changes, I wonder if LXC reacted more quickly/strongly to the bit where it looks like NMJ is actually going to kill MY? It's definitely more understated than his previous reactions, and it would fit with the other changes made.

Last scene: the oath. At this point I think it's fairly well-known that NMJ looking at JGY, and LXC turning his head to look at them both, is only in Empathy—there's also, maybe?, a small change to the text; in episode 23, "Both God and people will be furious with us" is 天人共怒, but in Empathy it's 天人共戮. I say maybe because—on the one hand, the subs definitely use a different character, and it's in both the YT subs and the Netflix subs even though those aren't always 100% identical, but while I'm not usually checking the audio for this I did here because it's just the one character and the audio pretty much sounds the same to me? (ep 23) (Empathy) Could just be my ear, or a mistake on the subs' part or the audio part, who knows.

Overview

Looking at all the changes together, a few patterns emerge.

First, people who are doing damage who aren't JGY—the Wen, XY—tend to get minimized or erased from the narrative. Similarly and to some extent as a result, the harm caused by JGY is exaggerated; also similarly, the good that JGY does is also minimized or erased. Meanwhile, the damage done /to/ JGY is minimized—both the environment of abuse he suffered at Qinghe, and the physical harm done to him, which he usually recovers from much more quickly in Empathy (even when the attack itself is made stronger as, unusually, it is in the confrontation where NMJ kicks MY out of Qinghe). Finally MY is made more manipulative than he necessarily is; while I'm not saying he's never being manipulative, NMJ understands his expressions of weakness as /purely/ manipulative and inherently false, when in fact the weakness MY expresses is very real, however calculated, or not!, its expression may be.

Honestly—in this JGY who does way more harm and way less good than he actually does, who is more powerful and experiences less damage than he actually does, who is never actually weak but only acting that way to manipulate people? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of where popular takes on JGY come from.

[featherfur]

Meng Yao should have been around when Jiang Cheng was running around with his head cut off trying to make disciples out of rogues and convince everyone to get started on the war. I just think he’d see this, probably manic, idiot who needs help and is 100% willing to be bossed around and who really doesn’t care about Meng Yao station in life because he’s just fucking desperate and wants to die but can’t because Yanli and just go “actually I’m interested”. Because Jiang Cheng would riot if he knew Meng Yao wanted to go back to his dad, and well Jiang Cheng is very pathetic when he thinks he’s being left behind (“You’re leaving me for the Jin just like Shijie? Tears and loud words for you! Tears and loud words dor a thousand years!”)

And Meng Yao would have a spot in Lotus Pier where he is VERY clearly wanted, he probably doesn’t become sworn brothers with anyone (or LXC and NMJ realize that no one needs to give the Jin any more influence and become sworn brothers with Jiang Cheng) unless it’s Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (unfortunately WWX will still probably be killed or hunted at the very least but atleast Qin Su is alive? Maybe having MY around will help calm JC into the fact that LWJ wants to bang his brother and help him so JC can convince WWX to let LWJ atleast play for him, then maybe WWX can accidentally let slip about him already destroying one half and LWJ can help destroy the other half… Dunno if the Wen Remnants survive either sorry, honestly I don’t know if anyone can stop JGS in the long run)

So there’s two ways this goes: (under read more I have Thoughts)

Meng Yao DOES go to the Jin Sect still because JC gets wanting your Dad’s Approval even when he’s a dick AND he protects Yanli who immediately adopted him when JC showed up to the war with him. Without being stuck between a Rock and a Hard place (sorry NMJ not everyone is a annoyingly stubborn with their morals as you and MY is being hurt :( leave him alone :(( ) MY is able to continue being pressured without breaking and even though JGS keeps trying to get him to manipulate JC, MY won’t and won’t manipulate NMJ either and every time he goes to Lotus Pier to ‘look into’ the Jiang Sect he actually just spends the week being plied with children and listening to Jiang Cheng explain the fashion industry Again and talk about silks vs cashmeres vs wool so he just gets a vacay and is more prepared to stand up against his dad.

Also JC and Yanli catch on pretty quick to Madam Jin abusing MY because they were there after Madam Yu would hurt WWX and they know the signs of trying to hide the pain and Yanli suddenly starts Show Up whenever Madam Jin tries anything because that is her Didi now and she will protect him and if anyone ELSE tries to mess with him she will rip them apart like when Jin Zixun tries to bother WWX.

JGS does eventually manage to frame something on WWX but MY intervenes immediately by telling JC the truth and without the ‘did my kinda insane PTSD ridden brother so this?” Panic thoughts JC gets his people and is waiting for the force of Jin and smaller sects, with his two sworn brothers on either side. Because yeah NMJ absolutely hates the Wen but can he really ignore LXC and JC? Plus NHS on the side? He’s only there to protect WWX, anyone else can get fucked and even then he’s only protecting WWX because JC asked him too because NMJ thinks WWX sucks for choosing the wens because he’s very much of the one track ‘the wens suck’ mind. MY pretends he has no idea what’s going on but he does summon Jin Zixuan on ‘accident’ who shows up, annoyed he had to leave his kid, and is like “are we really going to accuse Nie Mingjue, known Wen hater, of protecting Wei Wuxian and lying about his innocence? Because his sword is the same size as my body and I’d rather Not”

(okay he’s more polite and subtle but that’s the gist) somehow Jin Guangshan dies, I’m voting Yanli poisoned him because I think Meng Yao is 100% willing at this point to simply take the abuse because Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen aren’t essentially telling him to murder his father and that he’s stupid for not holding harder to his morals (sorry NMJ,,, you just,, I love you but MY is hurting and he’s not as stabby as you) NMJ is still very much crankily telling him his dad sucks whenever they meet but Jiang Cheng gets all sparkly whenever MY is around because MY will say he’s Doing Good, so there’s only so much room before JC start just biting anyone who even looks at MY wrong. (NMJ says he’s proud of JC once and JC just starts crying and NMJ UnderstandsTM why MY won’t leave him alone)

But Yanli has to be the one to kill him because MY wouldn’t because he’s a filial son and probably hasn’t lost his hope he will be Loved, Jin Zixuan wouldn’t because he’s like the only one in the entire show not down with murder, Madam Jin is not about to give up the power and money that comes from being the wife of Jin Guangshan even if JZX would take care of her because Yanli clearly is willing to rip everyone apart who fucks with her family and unlike Jiang Cheng is willing to change the status quo, and if JGS dies on a hunt they’ll blame WWX so Yanli just poisons him slowly and he dies from ‘illness’. JZX takes power, Meng Yao is told he’s amazing twelve times a day because JZX can do busy work and argue against anyone but he cannot have a small talk conversation to save his life. Life continues peacefully, Jiang Cheng keeps kidnapping JZX’s advisor because he misses him. Meng Yao knows how to control literally every single great sect but he’s busy chasing down his nephews and helping Jiang Cheng avoid marriage offers to do anything.

Once Jin Guangshan died, LXC and MY both swooped in to have the Wen Remnants moved somewhere else to ‘civilize’ them (using LXC’s own words here) and WWX is very much caught between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji arguing over who he’s going home with and he’s honestly never felt more Loved TM. WWX spends six months to break the rest of the tiger rally under the grumpy/watchful eye of NMJ who still isn’t happy anyone from the Wen’s is still alive but he’s weak to puppy eyes and also when he’s being strong armed by his sworn brothers, MY, and NHS (though he still keeps an eye on the actual cultivators, he’s pretty much forgotten the rest of the Wen Remnants exist he just cares about the ones who know how to use a sword). Wangxian happens, idk how I’m voting for a wild Jingyi another orphan decides that he wants to meet the Purple Angry Man and body slams into WWX’s legs trying to get to the Purple man and LWJ catches him and it’s a full on romantic moment of staring into each other’s eyes while Jiang Cheng makes disgusted noises and Meng Yao pats his hand and just tells him to accept it.

Or Meng Yao stays in Lotus Pier because Jiang Cheng has problems and Meng Yao loves a messy loudmouth aggressive bitch with a secret heart of gold. Also Jiang Cheng is the exact kind of Demi-aroace dummy to not realize Meng Yao has a crush on LXC and keeps sending him over to Cloud Recesses to help with trade or something and MY gets to hang out with his crush constantly.

MY is Jiang Cheng’s personal advisor since WWX is currently refusing to process his trauma and staying in a very traumatic place. MY does try to help but WWX doesn’t trust him and probably only half trusts him around JC, BUT MY is very good with kids and helps work with JC on how to slip WWX supplies while negotiating directly with Nie and Lan without Jin glaring over him this time, and Jin Zixuan is more than happy to help when he can because again he’s just like the only one with modern morals and wants Lotus Pier to be strong since if all the sects fall then well the fucking demons/ghosts they hunt will eat them. So WWX is slowly atleast not ready to kill him, Meng Yao finds out WWX already destroyed half the Tiger Tally and tries to get him to let NMJ and LXC help him destroy it further (because that ties the three sects closer and so WWX won’t just stab someone if someone isn’t happy about the Wen’s existing)

Yanli poisons Jin Guangshan again because I think that’s the best way for him to go, Meng Yao does grieve but also that lasts for three minutes before Jiang Cheng shows up with some children he found in Yunmeng and Meng Yao needs to explain to him again that just because the kid latches on doesn’t mean you can take them home. But with JGS out of the way it’s a lot easier to strong arm NMJ into letting the Lan take the remnants (JC and NMJ still aren’t happy about it but NMJ can’t fight the three other sects and JC is getting his brother back and he’ll take the Wen living if that means WWX is too) and WWX returns to Lotus Pier. The truth of the golden core comes out probably via WWX having a flashback or panic attack or something (or that one theory of Yanli knowing,,,) words happen, WWX storms off to find LWJ.

Meng Yao wonders why he likes messy cry babies but still helps out Jiang Cheng because they’re technically brother in laws and also because he really does care about him. Wangxian happens and now Jiang Cheng is really pissed but WWX also said he wasn’t going to just up and leave so they’re on a rotating system but honestly everyone’s just waiting for them to move permanently to Lotus Pier because Lan Wangji has this giant hole in his heart for kids who love Wei Wuxian and Lotus Pier is filled with kids who are Jiang and therefore are insane ans love WWX.

Personally I think this one is the least likely but it sounds very nice right?

[wangxianficrecs]

Fic Finder

~*~

1.  Hi, I'm looking for an Untamed fic, maybe you'll be able to help. It's a canon divergence AU in which WWX doesn't lose his core, Jiang Fengmian lives and it's implied that his core was transferred to JC (heavily implied; JFM retires as the Sect Leader after that). This is absolutely not the most important part of this fic but it's a paragraph that I've got stuck in my head and now I'm searching for the rest @_@ Thanks in advance! ~ @otemporaetmores

FOUND! by @notsobabblespace, who was reminded of  I’m aching and I know you are too by edenwolfie (part 3 in series, M, 23k, wangxian)

FOUND!  by @jim-is-spocks-thyla, who suggests ❤️ to arrive late is better than not to arrive at all by Moominmammashandbag (M, 35k, wangxian) [ETA:  Oops, not this one.  JFM has no core, but he didn’t give it to JC]

~*~

2.  Hi Mojo! I’m in need of you/your followers help in finding a fic that I read a little while ago. It was a fic where Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi lived together in Cloud Recesses and their children were Sizhui and an OOC that was younger than him. I remember SiZhui faced a lot of criticism for not being the chief cultivator’s real child? And they were happy he had a younger sibling that would be sect leader in the future because he was blood. Come to think of it, this is probably an ABO fic too. Thanks for your time 💜

FOUND! @andidontmeanto believes this is Blue Blood by PotterheadAvengerDemigod (T, 91k, wangxian, my post)

~*~

3.  Aksks it's like 3 am but I just remembered a fic and I can't find it?? I'd really, really appreciate your help. It was a wangxian fic, maybe a oneshot idk, and lwj was kind of a nerd and wwx a badboy? So basically lwj has a massive crush on him and dresses up like wwx etc. (i think he even got an undercut) and after a party they sleep with each other at lwj's place?

~*~

4.  i’m looking for a fic set in the where lwj’s mother killed his father? i don’t think that was a main plot point but it did show up in his backstory - any idea what this might be? ~ @thehype

FOUND!  @rentslirott thinks this could be ❤️the best of you by sysrae (E, 42k, wangxian, my post)

FOUND!  @castaways-logbook offers  The Right to Care by travelingneuritis (E, 39k, wangxian, WIP)

~*~

5.  ... same as #6 ...

~*~

6.  Hello friend, sorry for the inconvenience but I wanted to see if you could please find me a fic that I lost but I only remember more or less the final part, it goes more or less like this, lan zhan and wei ying are kidnapped by jin guangyao and lock them up if not I'm wrong in some cells next to lan xichen after the fights jin guangyao dies but lan xichen did know how bad jin guangyao had done and he didn't care and then to get revenge he wants to kill wei ying but lan zhan kills him and sizhui gets scared It was more or less like that, please help me ~ @isa0123lol

FOUND!  by @wangxiansfics who says that tragically it’s no longer available, but @dulachodladh found it on WaybackMachine here: Thread and Needle by haysel (M, 86k, wangxian)

~*~

7.  Hi, Mojo! I'm glad that you're back but I hope you enjoyed your time off tumblr! Can you and/or your followers help me find a fic? I think the summary was talking about wwx and somehow they were asking mingjue for help since he's the only one who can help. The summary was in italics and it's a dialogue from some guy? And a shorter summary below. Sadly this is the only thing I can remember but I hope you can still help me

FOUND!  @alwayswenning suggests love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k, wangxian, has it’s own fanfic here, I just finished this last night!, my bookmark)

~*~

8.  Sorry to bombard you as soon as you're back, but this one's driving me crazy--a modern AU where they met online. WWX thinks LWJ is an old man from how he talks. I don't remember much except the excerpt made it seem like he still was amused by/enjoyed talking to him, and Wen Qing was telling him it was a bad idea and to stop. It's not How to Fall In Love With a Catfish, tho that one is brilliant! (Also any top notch identity porn would be great) Hope your break was restful, you deserve it! Thanks

Here’s my #identity porn tag, but I’m not sure about this exact story.

I'm the anon for #8 on the fic finder. Though I'm excited to read it, the suggested fic isn't the one I was looking for. I swear I thought I saw it on here around a month ago or slightly more, but searches have failed me.

FOUND!  Rating: General Audiences by Mishaa (T, 18k, wangxian WIP) -  mysterious author LWJ (speculated to be an old man because of his formality) and infamous artist WWX paired up for an Untamed Big Bang (in an AU where JGY was the series’ antiheroic protagonist; this fic was written before the release of CQL.)

FOUND?  could you be looking for  Something Real by Latios (G, 5k, wangxian, my post) - wwx thinks lwj is an old man, but there’s no WQ.  There are many pictures of bunnies.

SIMILAR! @emilysidhe thought of ID Bro Saga by Bowandtie (T, 39k, wangxian)

~*~

9.  Hey, how are you? Could you help me please? I've read 3 fanfics once, but I can't find them anymore. 1 - Nanny Problem, Wei is going to be the babysitter of A-Yuan, he is an omega and Lan is an alpha. 2 - Doctor Perfect, Yibo is an omega nurse and Xiao is an alpha doctor. 3 - The Baby of my Omega, Yibo is omega and Xiao is alpha, both of them are bodyguards, but Yibo has to protect Xiao in the beginning. I think they were at ao3, but I really can't find them. Can you help me please? Thank you!! ~ @weallmad

~*~

10.  Hi! Im happy you’re back. I hope you had a good break. I missed your recommendations, but at the same time i got a break from fics and actually studied to my tests haha.  [Ah!  I’m glad to hear your time was spent productively!]  I’m looking for a fic like Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground. In the fic im looking for wangxian slowly lose their senses instead of all of them at once. Like they lose their hearing, then touch, sight etc, They can’t see each other or hear each other. I’m sorry i can’t explain very well.

FOUND?  Could you be thinking of  ❤️shadows in the sun rise by Yuu_chi (E, 25k, wangxian)?  Only lwj losese his senses one by one in this one, though.

~*~

11.  heyyy im trying to find this fic where wwx died the first time he was thrown in to the burial mounds then 10 years later he gets resurrected or something. I can't find it on AO3 and it's been bugging me for days. Thank you!

FOUND!  Well, @moku-youbi offers both of these as possibilities:

Did I Not Explain Why the Sunset Turns Red? by 3988Akasha (E, 100k, wangxian)

we're starting at the end by Miss_Enthusiasimal (M, 95k, wangxian)

~*~

12.  Hi I am looking for a fic where wwx is a witch (/mage?) in a world where magic is being persecuted (especially in Gusu) except for Yunmeng/Lanling I think but they're still frowned upon nonetheless. Then after accidentally hurting Shijie, wwx runs away, and ends up hiding in Gusu pretending to be a servant to lwj (lwj is a prince, lxc is the emperor) but lwj actually knows of his identity and tries not-so-discreetly to protect him from being caught. Thanks!

FOUND! by @bibliobasilisk who gives us Witchfinder by misbehavingvigilante (E, 86k, wangxian)

~*~

13.  Hi! Firstly, I'm glad to see you're back, and I hope your break was a good one! I'm trying to find a LWJ/WWX story that I had planned to read and ending up losing before I could. It was set in the immediate aftermath of the 33 lashes, LWJ is in the Jingshi recovering when a healer(?) discovers he's pregnant (by WWX). It may have been a/b/o verse, but I'm not 100% on that. Part of the story was a flashback to when WWX was still alive. Thank you!

FOUND!  by nonny themself.  It’s Unexpected Surprise by Glucose_Gremlin (E, 4k, wangxian)

SIMILAR! @mondelgel suggests my heart is kept as pure as ice in a jade vase/一片冰心在玉壶 by Daledesu (M, 21k, wangxian, WIP)

SIMILAR! from @impending-cuttlefish:  something new, something white, something blue by ariskamalt (E, 140k, wangxian, WIP)

~*~

14.  I'm trying to find this one fic where Jin Ling finds this diary that Wei Ying wrote as the Yiling Patriarch that basically reveals everything, including the golden core reveal and it even has training tips that helps Jon Ling improve. When Wei Ying comes back, he tries everything to keep him there because he is THE best uncle now. I need to find it because it is a N E E D.

FOUND? by @theladypeartree who says, “The Truth (Untold) is jl reading jyl's journals, not wwx's though. And mordant is jl returning wwx's journals that he found, not grew up with. Neither fit #14 properly, but I seriously could not find anything closer after two solid days of searching. Good luck!“

The Truth (Untold) by anxiouswreck0_0 (g, 3k, wangxian, jin ling & wei wuxian)

or this one on ffn:

mordant by tennisnotensai (M, 18k, wangxian, here’s the link for mobile)

~*~

15.  I have heard tell of a Sizhui/Jingyi fic where the boys end up going to Wangxian for advice about how to be intimate. Can you help me find it?

FOUND!  @manaika-chan says this one is On Advisement by LaMachina17 (M, 19k, wangxian, zhuiling, chengyi)

~*~

16.  nm

~*~

17.  Hi! Sorry, do you happen to know that nsfw fic where wwx is still studying in the cloud recesses and he’s reading a novel (im not sure if it was from nhs) that features a cultivator couple and there’s a scene in the book where the woman was pegging her husband? Basically wwx got curious about this and tried fingering himself. I remember he was hiding in the back mountains and then lwj eventually caught him

FOUND?  Could you be thinking of  Deep in the Woods by malkinmalkout (E, 5k, wangxian, my post)?

~*~

18.  Ahhh I'm going crazy trying to think of a fic that I've read where Lan Zhan killed Wen Chao in a locker room and nie huaisang stood guard outside the door! Then lan zhan went to lan huan and said I killed someone and he said did they deserve it? Then it's fine. And I can't remember the name of the fic! Have you heard of it? ~ @uchihaautumn

FOUND! @artemisisdiana offers So Full Of Love (Wouldn't Know Where to Start) by witchupbitch (M, 54k, wangxian, WIP)

~*~

19.  Hi, I was wondering if you could help me find a fic. I read it a while ago and I don't really remember all the details but it was a modern au where Lan Wangji was a police officer in this small town and Wei Wuxian comes back after years, having left the town due to some stuff. Thank you in advance.

Btw love your blog. I live for your fic recs.  [Thank you!]

FOUND?  Could you be looking for medium blues by dark_and_terrible (E,193k,  wangxian)?  It appears to be taken down atm, but it might come back (it’s done it before).

FOUND! by @grannyweatherwaxshat who offers When a Bird Flies, It Leaves Feathers by Bem_Kofi (not rated, 75k, wangxian)

~*~

20.  Hi mojo!! First of all I luv your blog Thank you so much for all those ficrecs.  [You’re welcome!]  Actually I’m looking for a fic I read months ago. I probably found the fic from your blog. But I can’t seem to find it now 😢 it was a modern au wangxian fic (inspired by call me by ur name?) wwx was like 5 years older than lwj. (And lwj was like 16?) Wwx lives in another city but he spent around a year in cloud recesses with lwj in the past. And wwx yanli and jc visits cloud recesses again and wangxian gets 2gether

~*~

[My ko-fi.]

[theuntamedcollages]

The Untamed, ep48, scene 2:55-10:45: Hate

JC: Never what?! Wei Wuxian, how selfless, how great you are. You've always been going good deeds and being wronged, but only keep it to yourself. How touching. Should I get down on my knees and thank you with tears rolling down?

JL: Uncle, stop it.

WWX: I never wanted you to thank me.

JC: That's right. Doing good deeds and never asking for repayment. Just for your noble personality. Surely different from me. No wonder when Father was alive, he kept saying that you were the one who really understood the Jiang Clan's motto and demeanor.

WWX: Enough.

JC: Enough what?! It's enough when you say it's enough? You know best. You're better than me at everything. Talent. Cultivation. Intelligence. Temperament. You all know. I am not that noble. Then what am I?!

JL: Uncle, your injuries!

LWJ: Clan Leader Jiang, be careful not to go too far.

LXC: Clan Leader Jiang, you have to calm down. I am afraid the more you talk, the worse your wound will get.

JC: Why, Wei Wuxian? Tell me why!

WWX: Why what?

JC: The Jiang Clan gave you so much. I was his own son. I was the successor of the Jiang Clan! But for all those years, you always got more than me in everything! Care growing up, and even their lives. My dad's. My mom's. My sister's. And even Jin Zixuan's. Because of you, Jin Ling grew up without parents. Wei Wuxian, who broke the oath first and betrayed the Jiang Clan? You said I would be the Clan leader in the future, and you would be my right-hand man. You'd assist me for your lifetime. So what if there are the Twin Jades of Gusu? We were the Twin Prides of Yunmeng. And you'd never betray the Jiang Clan. Who said that? Tell me who said that? You swallowed all your words, and what did you do instead? You went to protect some outsiders, and from the Wen clan! How much did you owe them that you defected with no hesitation? What did you take the Jiang Clan for? You've done every good thing, and it was forced every time you did something bad, right? What hardship on earth were you burdened with that you could never tell? You didn't tell me anything. Treated me as a little fool.

JL: Uncle.

JC: Wei Wuxian. How much do you owe the Jiang Clan? Shouldn't I hate you? Can't I hate you?! Why? Why do I seem supposed to feel sorry for you now? Why should I keep feeling all these years that I am like a clown? What am I then? I deserve to stay in the shadow of your glory? Shouldn't I hate you?

JL: Hanguang-Jun. My uncle is wounded.

JC: Let him come! Am I afraid of the Second Lan?

JC: Why? Why? Wei Wuxian, why didn't you tell me?

WWX: Because I didn't want to see you being like this.

JC: You said I would be the Clan leader in the future, and you would be my right-hand man. You'd assist me for your lifetime. You'd never betray the Jiang Clan. You said it yourself.

WWX: I'm sorry. I broke my promise.

JC: We've reached this point. I don't need your "sorry" now. I'm not that delicate.

JC: Sorry.

WWX: Don't apologise to me. My "sorry" is what I pay back to the Jiang Clan. As for this matter, please don't keep it in your heart. Forget it. Though I know according to your character you'll always remember it. But I have to say, I really think that all is past. All those things are like from my previous life now. Let them go, please. We both should stop lingering on them.

Previous scene (episode) - Next scene

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 10 second part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Meta)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Unclean Realm

Lan Wangji has a Louis Henry Sullivan moment on seeing the Nie family home, becoming enraptured by its overwrought monumental architecture after a lifetime of restrained good taste and single-story buildings.

He approaches the fortress with the expression of delighted wonder that he usually reserves for when he’s looking at the moon or at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian is like, yep that’s a building, all right, but he supports Lan Wangji’s kinks.  

Meng Yao tells them about the Wen Clan directive, and has what appears to be a moment of genuine, affectionate amusement at Nie Huaisang’s reaction.

Jiang Cheng kinda blames the Lans for inventing the whole “indoctrination” thing and for encouraging his brother’s disaster bi tendencies. Wei Wuxian responds by complimenting the Lan Clan, almost like someone who met his true love got some real value out of the instruction he received there.  

(more after the cut)

One of the great ironies of this story is that Wei Wuxian sort of becomes a rogue Lan disciple because of his relationship with Lan Wangji. He relies on Lan temperament techniques, uses music as a primary cultivation method, has committed all of the Lan rules to his supposedly terrible memory and cites them on multiple occasions, and is an important mentor for the younger generation Lan disciples. Because Hanguang-Jun is just that good in bed.

Xue Yang in the background of this conversation is channeling OP’s church-enduring, school-enduring inner 10-year-old.

Nie Mingjue, Chifeng-Zun, appears, and couldn’t be more different than his brother. On first watching this episode, I saw him as a grumpy, sexy, very emotional leather daddy man who is quick to anger. Rewatching, I see someone who’s struggling with a growing illness...the resentful energy kind.

Nie Mingjue’s handling of resentful energy is very different from Wei Wuxian’s straightforward interest and acceptance. NMJ has a traditional cultivator’s view of it, regarding it as evil and as something to resist, while he is literally carrying it on his back. He’s like a secret alcoholic who is preaching temperence, and can’t find a way to be reconciled with himself.  

At this point of the story, Nie Mingjue is keeping it together, but is under a hell of a lot of stress, and Baxia’s blood thirst is already maybe a problem.

The Yunmeng bros think that Nie Huaisang’s fear of his brother is hilarious, because they don’t understand the situation. They think he’s just living in a hideously toxic family dynamic like theirs, when actually he’s in a loving, sorta healthy, if parentless, family that is being crushed under a generational curse.

Compliments for the Yunmeng Bros

I’m not the first meta poster to notice how happy Jiang Cheng is to be praised by Nie Mingjue.

He never gets this at home. Jiang Yanli praises him, but in that watery “you tried your best” way that doesn’t really stick.  Nie Mingjue’s praise really means something, because he is a fearsome warrior and stern authority figure. And this is a double compliment, because Nie Mingjue says he heard it from Lan Xichen, and agrees with it.

Let’s Make Terrible Decisions

Keep Xue Yang alive, says Wei Wuxian, and Meng Yao immediately agrees, although I’m pretty sure he would have proposed that even if WWX hadn’t.

So they do, not realizing that “kill him later” is never a good plan for someone who 1. super needs killing 2. has a whole lot of death-dealing skills.

Future clan leader Jiang Cheng notices how smart and talented Meng Yao is.  Xue Yang finds it hilarious when the trio praises Meng Yao, possibly because their evil team up is already underway.

Boss’ Bed Warmer Son of a Ho

The constant insults toward Meng Yao are about his mom, but there’s another level of leering implication, that Meng Yao seems to encourage in his conversation with the soon-to-be-murdered guard captain.

Nie Mingjue elevated him way above his expectations, and he is ridiculously pretty, which has to create rumors. In the Nightless City scenes when he’s fondling Baxia and telling Nie Mingjue’s family secrets there’s definitely a sense of intimacy that’s not just “loyal retainer.”

I feel like maybe this whole exchange is a bit of theater designed to show Xue Yang something without showing it to anyone else. Meng Yao didn’t need to have this conversation in front of his prisoner.

Let’s Do Exactly What We Said We Wouldn’t

Once the younger quartet are alone with Nie Mingjue, Wei Wuxian crosses the room away from his friends and practically into Lan Wangji’s pocket, if Lan Wangji had pockets.

He has no pockets and also has no personal bubble any more, when it comes to Wei Wuxian.

We could make a weapon out of Yin Iron, Wei Wuxian says, completely forgetting his entire conversation with Lan Yi, apparently. Lan Wangji doesn’t argue with this idea.

Nie Mingjue warns Wei Wuxian not to try it.

I stabbed a man in Qinghe just to watch him die

Nie Mingjue is like the Johnny Cash of the cultivation world, carrying the weight of his poor choices and trying to steer the young folk to the path of righteousness. But--like Johnny Cash--his bad choices have made him really fucking cool, so he isn’t very good at deterring anybody.

Meng Yao Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends

Immediately after Meng Yao’s fellow Nie clan people call him “son of a whore” again, Wei Wuxian meets him, is nice to him, addresses him by his military title, bows to him, asks why he’s away from the party, and thanks him for his service.

But Meng Yao has already decided to make friends with Xue Yang, so Wei Wuxian goes onto his list of people that he doesn’t give a crap about except if they can be useful to him.  Then Meng Yao goes to make out hatch a plot with Xue Yang.

I’ll Sleep On Your Roof

Meeting SongXiao seems to have done away with the last of Lan Wangji’s resistance to his connection with Wei Wuxian.

He hears a noise on the roof and, when realizing it’s Wei Wuxian, he smiles one of his tiny reserved smiles before heading outside.

When he sees Wei Wuxian drunkenly sprawled on the roof, limbs akimbo, wine on his chin and neck, mouth full of poetry about the open road, Lan Wangji gives him the most fond look imaginable.

Then he reluctantly leaves, with his signature “say goodbye, but only when he can’t hear you” thing.

They’ve both come a really long way since their first meeting. Wei Wuxian is openly and vocally attaching himself to Lan Wangji...but is not actually entering his space or asking for anything from him; he just wants to be near him, and wants to let him know that. “I’ll sleep on your roof tonight.”

And Lan Wangji just...loves him. Wei Wuxian is drunk, embarrassing, demonstrative, eager to make a hell weapon out of yin iron, touchy feely, and absurdly sexy. And Lan Wangji is pretty okay with all of that.

I Might Have Been Drunk

Wei Wuxian carefully avoids telling Jiang Cheng where he was last night.

Even if he did get blackout drunk, he would have woken up on Lan Wangji’s roof. And I don’t think he was as drunk as that. He just knows Jiang Cheng wouldn’t like the truth.

Wen Fucking Chao, Again

Wen Chao shows up to be annoying and boring.  This leads to a pretty good fight between Nie Mingjue and Wen Zhuliu. Note that when the chips are down, Nie Huaisang stands with his Gege without any cowering. Almost as if he had hidden reserves of bravery, and is not as helpless as he lets on.

Wen Zhuliu isn’t styled to be super hot, although he’s certainly compelling, and in Dance of the Phoenix he looks good with sensitive-guy hair wispies. I wonder what actor Feng Mingjing looks like out of character?

BRB, adding a tag to my follow list

Battle Bros

When the fighting breaks out, the Yunmeng brothers are decisive and united, with Wei Wuxian giving orders to Jiang Cheng and JC following without hesitation.

I feel like if these two could have gone through a few big battles together, instead of being separated during most of the Sunshot campaign, their whole relationship would have improved. On the battlefield, they respect, trust, and understand each other.  

The Pointy End

Nie Mingjue is holding his own against Wen Zhuliu, but he gets distracted by Meng Yao hollering “Xue Yang has escaped” and then shanking the guard captain right in front of him.

Wen Zhuliu takes advantage of the distraction to aim a very slow stab at Nie Huasang, and Meng Yao jumps in front to get stabbed on his behalf.

When the Yunmeng bros show up to help NMJ, Wen Zhuliu immeiately yanks Wen Chao back behind him and points his sword at Wei Wuxian. He absolutely sees these two as a serious threat.  Considering that eventually WWX is going to kill Wen Chao while JC kills Wen Zhuliu, this concern is not misplaced.

Wei Wuxian tells Wen Chao to stop being such a jerk, and Wen Chao menaces Wei Wuxian and gloats about the burning of cloud recesses. The burning, that is, of some part of cloud recesses that doesn’t include the library, the Jingshi, the main cultivation chamber, the rabbit warren, or Lan Qiren’s house, unless the Lan Clan is really really good at rebuilding things to very exact specifications.

In a rare moment of seeing Meng Yao’s internal thoughts, he is worried about Lan Xichen when he hears about cloud recesses.

The Yelling Part

Now we have the particularly nasty breakup between Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao. It’s...got some layers. Meng Yao is cowering on the floor, but is not apologizing.

He never apologizes throughout this encounter.

孟瑤無悔  - Meng Yao (has) no regrets

This scene is amazing and excruciating to watch, even more when you know what’s ahead.

What the Fuck is Meng Yao’s Plan

On one level this is Meng Yao, manipulative sociopath, setting up a cover story for his aiding and alliance with Xue Yang.  On another, this is Meng Yao, loving subordinate, being tossed aside by his lord because he dared to stand up for himself.

He uses the same “scout’s honor” gesture we’ve seen Wei Wuxian use to swear he’s telling the truth. Wei Wuxian is always lying when he uses this gesture.

I’m...not sure exactly what Meng Yao’s plan is, with all these chess moves? By stabbing the captain in front of NHS, he created an opportunity to plant a cover story about Xue Yang’s escape. He might be hoping that Nie Mingjue will forgive him and keep him on, while Xue Yang can stay in his back pocket to be used later.

Dry eyes? Try Visene

Or he might be intending to get kicked out, given his non-apology. In any case, Nie Mingjue is weeping during this encounter, and Meng Yao...isn’t. He is signaling distress in his voice, expression, and body language, but his eyes are dry up until the last moment, and even then they just glisten a bit. In a show where every actor is an expert at crying on cue, that’s got to be a deliberate choice.

Which isn’t to say that Meng Yao is faking being full of emotion in this scene. It’s just that the emotion isn’t necessarily sorrow.

What Does Nie Mingjue’s Head Think

Flip the view and this is about Nie Mingjue being betrayed by a subordinate, who has turned out to be a self-serving murderer. And on another level it’s Nie Mingjue being betrayed by his lover, who was just using him for advancement.

I rewatched the later episode where we get the scene as Nie Mingjue’s head perceived it, and he’s particularly brokenhearted and disillusioned from his head’s POV.  In that version there is a telling addition to the conversation.

Nie Mingjue asks about the guys who were roasting Meng Yao behind his back. He asks, if I hadn’t come, would you have murdered all of them?

Um. No, dude. Of course fucking not. That’s what a patriarchal authority does. That’s the way an angry Nie Mingjue/Baxia team might solve a problem.

Meng Yao has to use subterfuge to kill his enemies. And while he super hates being called “son of a whore” it’s absolutely not enough to make him kill someone, with the risk murder brings. Likewise, being treated well isn’t enough to make him spare someone. Nie Mingjue totally doesn’t get this, because he’s been the patriarch of this clan his entire adult life.

And Here’s the Actual Problem

There is a betrayal here, but Nie Mingjue is not simply a victim.  Whether it’s a sexual relationship or a non-sexual bond of affection, there can be nothing solid in Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao’s relationship within a feudal society, because it is fundamentally unequal. Even if they love each other deeply - which I’m not convinced either of them does - every encounter they have is tainted with power dynamics.

Meng Yao has been elevated by Nie Mingjue and quite probably taken into his bed, as well as being told many family secrets, but has not been given a new surname (like, for example, Wen Zhuliu was) or independent power. More importantly, Nie Mingjue has not used his authority to remove or punish the many people who disrespect his subordinate.  Lan Qiren would have had all of those gossipy fuckers kneeling in the snow, and Wen Ruohan would feed them to his mosh pit zombies.

Meng Yao is a murderous little snake, but he is right to be angry with Nie Mingjue about some things, and his pursuit of his own agenda is understandable.

Well, That Was a Slice

Meng Yao leaves, hurt, with a dignified bow; just as he did that one time when his dad kicked him down the Carp Tower steps.

Take note, both patriarchal authorities: that is his way of saying “I’m going to murder you one day.”

Nie Mingjue sits with his broken heart, as we realize that we’ve only spent 20 minutes with this guy and we’ve gone on an entire emotional journey with him. This episode packed in a LOT.

Soundtrack: Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues