#i started mdzs in 2022

[benevolenterrancy]

alright folks, I'll probably finish SVSSS v4 by this weekend (pray for me) and then I'll be done all of MXTX's books and I have no idea which series to try next... So!! I'm going to pose the question to people that might have more experience in the genre! These are ones I've either incidentally acquired or been recommended

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Redraw of my first post on this blog. Oh how far we've come B'*)

[Now with it's own redraw!]

[fortune-maiden]

:DDD for the fic writer ask, 12 and 19?

Yay! Thank you <333

12. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Pokemon! :D

I was a geeky middle schooler writing fics about my super cool OC getting her super unique starter from Professor [Insert Tree Name] and getting all the badges and saving the world!

(Or really just the first part because even back then I never had the stamina for long fic xD)

19. How do you get over writer's block?

.........I....I don't think I do...... :')

my Writing Slump is celebrating it's third anniversary and I'm not sure I can see an end in sight ^^"

But even when I don't feel like I can write anything else, I still really enjoy writing Drabbles. I think because there's a strict word limit, I'm able to focus on just the core of story I want to tell and hide my shortcomings in everything else . Daily drabble challenges also help rebuild a habit of writing a little every day which I think is also important for overcoming writer's block

But also I think for fanfic in particular, fandom culture is very important. If a fandom no longer sparks joy then it's time to find one that does!

(I'd like to think I found one *prayer emoji*)

[pbaintthetb]

was anybody going to tell me that the first section of my junior fic was already at 7k words, or was I supposed to find that out for myself?

[doufudanshi]

ON GHOSTS AND DEMONS: Wei Wuxian's "demonic" cultivation?

There are a few big misconceptions I have repeatedly seen in English-speaking fandom about things that are fundamental to the story of MDZS. One of them is this—

Wei Wuxian is not a demonic cultivator.

To prove this, let's take a deep dive into the original Chinese text of MDZS.

(Adapted from my original gdoc posted on Twitter on May 27, 2022. All translations my own unless otherwise stated.)

Demon vs. ghost

Let's start from the very basics. In addition to orthodox cultivation using spiritual energy and a golden core, there are two other forms of cultivation that are mentioned in the novel:

魔道 (mó dào), or “demon cultivation/path.”

鬼道 (guǐ dào), or “ghost cultivation/path.”

To be clear, 魔 mo "demons" and 鬼 gui "ghosts" (and thus their respective cultivation/paths) are not interchangeable because of the in-universe worldbuilding within MDZS. Using the characters in the term 妖魔鬼怪 "monsters," MXTX created four distinct categories of beings, each of which has a strict definition in the novel. From chapter 4 (jjwxc ch 13):

妖者非人之活物所化; 魔者生人所化; 鬼者死者所化; 怪者非人之死物所化。 Yāo (妖) are transformed from non-human living beings; mó (魔) are transformed from living people; guǐ (鬼) are transformed from the deceased; guài (怪) are transformed from non-human dead beings.

And of course, WWX hoards all the ghost-type pokemon monsters at the Phoenix Mountain tournament, and he only exerts control over corpses, spirits, and the like (aka people who have already died). (As opposed to Xue Yang, who appears to have been actively trying to make 魔 "demons" out of living people with those "living corpses" of his, perhaps.) (And, ironically, in order to avoid showing necromancy / zombies on screen, CQL technically does show WWX practicing demon cultivation because everyone is "supposedly alive" even when they're corpses? Which is, funnily enough, far worse morally in the MDZS universe, lol.)

So, intuitively at least, we know that WWX must be practicing ghost cultivation—now let's look at some concrete examples from the book.

Running the numbers

1) 魔道 (mó dào) means “demon cultivation.” As such, it must use living humans.

魔道 appears one (1) time in the novel.

Yes, once. The only time it appears is in the term 魔道祖师 modao zushi, or the namesake of the novel, in chapter 2. This is a title the general public has given him through rumors:

魏无羡好歹也被人叫了这么多年无上邪尊啦、魔道祖师啦之类的称号，这种一看就知道不是什么好东西的阵法，他自然了如指掌。 Wei Wuxian wasn’t called titles like “The Evil Overlord,” “The Founder of Demon Cultivation,” and so on over the years by others for nothing—he knew these sorts of obviously shady formations like the back of his hand.

2) 鬼道 (guǐ dào) means “ghost cultivation.” As such, it must use dead humans. 

鬼道 appears 12 times in the novel.

Here is the first instance that 鬼道 appears, which I believe is the first time Wei Wuxian's method of cultivation is properly introduced. From chapter 3 (jjwxc ch 8):

蓝忘机 […] 对魏无羡修鬼道一事极不认可。 Lan Wangji […] had never approved of the fact that Wei Wuxian practiced ghost cultivation.

Here's another quote from chapter 15 (jjwxc ch 71) for funsies:

蓝忘机看着他，似乎一眼就看出他只是随口敷衍，吸了一口气，道：“魏婴。” Lan Wangji looked at him as if he saw through his half-hearted bluff. He took in a breath, then said, “Wei Ying.” 他执拗地道：“鬼道损身，损心性。” He stubbornly continued, “Ghost cultivation harms one’s body, and harms one’s nature.”

3) 邪魔歪道 (xiemowaidao) means heretical path/immoral methods/evil practices/underhanded means/etc—e.g., lying, cheating, stealing, bribery, and so on.

It appears ~24 times in the novel.

I mention this last term because it is often used to refer to Wei Wuxian's cultivation, but as a pejorative. Every instance of 邪魔歪道 is said by or to quote someone looking down upon Wei Wuxian’s cultivation (Jin Zixun, Jin Ling, etc.) and referring to it derogatorily, whereas every instance of 鬼道 guidao/ghost dao is said by someone discussing it neutrally and/or factually (Lan Jingyi, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian himself, random cultivators at discussion conferences, the narration, etc.). Here is a pertinent example with Jin Ling (derogatory) and Lan Jingyi (neutral) in chapter 9 (jjwxc ch 43):

金凌怒道：“是在谈论薛洋，我说的不对吗？薛洋干了什么？他是个禽兽不如的人渣，魏婴比他更让人恶心！什么叫‘不能一概而论’？这种邪魔歪道留在世上就是祸害，就是该统统都杀光，死光，灭绝！” “We are discussing Xue Yang,” Jin Ling said angrily. “Am I wrong? What did Xue Yang do? He’s scum that’s lower than a beast, and Wei Ying is even more disgusting than him! What do you mean ‘don’t make sweeping generalizations?’ As long as those practicing this kind of demoniac, heretical path are alive, they’ll continue to bring disaster. We should slaughter all of them, kill all of them, annihilate them once and for all!” 温宁动了动，魏无羡摆手示意他静止。只听蓝景仪也加入了，嚷道：“你发这么大火干什么？思追又没说魏无羡不该杀，他只是说修鬼道的也不一定全都是薛洋这种人，你有必要乱摔东西吗？那个我还没吃呢……” Wen Ning shuffled around. Wei Wuxian gestured at him to stay still, only to hear Lan Jingyi also cut in loudly, “Why are you getting so riled up? It’s not like Sizhui said Wei Wuxian shouldn’t have been killed. All he said was that people who practice ghost cultivation aren’t necessarily all like Xue Yang. Do you have to go around breaking things? I didn’t even get to eat any of that yet…”

Tl;dr—Wei Wuxian does not 修魔道 practice demon cultivation. When Wei Wuxian’s craft is discussed in a neutral and factual manner, it is referred to as 鬼道 ghost dao. 

In fact, Wei Wuxian’s imitators are also referred to explicitly as 鬼道修士 ghost cultivators.

魏无羡早就听说过，这些年来江澄到处抓疑似夺舍重生的鬼道修士，把这些人通通押回莲花坞严刑拷打。 Wei Wuxian had heard a while back that over the past few years, Jiang Cheng had gone around snatching any ghost cultivator suspected of being possessed or reborn, detaining them in Lotus Pier to interrogate them using torture.

So why the confusion?

Of course, there is the matter of the novel's title, which I will get into in a second. But the real issue is a matter of translation.

The idea that WWX uses "demonic cultivation" is a misconception in English-speaking fandom due to issues with the translation of terminology. Of note, EXR actually did translate 鬼道 guidao as "ghostly path" most of the time, though there were at least 3 instances of "demonic" and 1 instance of "dark," especially regarding the first few.

However, this misconception was perpetuated (and arguably worsened) by 7S's official translation, which not only mistranslated additional terms as "demonic cultivation/path" (at least in book 1), but also consistently mistranslated every instance of 鬼道 as "demonic cultivation/path."

So why is this book called 魔道祖师, commonly translated as "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation?"

One possibility is one posed in Chinese-language meta online, which often cites that WWX himself is a sort of 魔 demon. While this may be true—after all, he can hear the voices of the dead—it doesn't quite explain the fact that the title sets him up to be the 祖师 or "founder."

My take is that this novel is very much concerned with hearsay vs. truth. This is one of the many monikers WWX is given by the public, who collectively view him as evil. (Also of note is that the non-cultivator public is not aware of all the nuances that cultivators learn re: distinctions between the 妖魔鬼怪 monsters.) In the quote from earlier, note that the first title we're given is actually 无上邪尊 “The Evil Overlord,” then 魔道祖师 "The Founder of Demon Cultivation." Like, what can that be other than MXTX telling us, "please take both of these with a HUGE grain of salt, lol."

(And not only the title, but the very first line—"魏无羡死了。" / "Wei Wuxian is dead."—is a lie.)

I think the title is genius, honestly. It intentionally makes readers come into the novel with preconceived notions that Wei Wuxian practices 魔道 demon cultivation and evil techniques—just like the public in the novel. What better way to tell a story warning about the dangers of how easy it is to fall for misinformation and jump to incorrect conclusions?

(Though, in our case, perhaps it worked a little too well.)

[tossawary]

I've signed up for FTH 2025! I'll be offering fanfic, either an entirely new work or a remix of an old work (AU, prequel, sequel, alt POV, and so on), for SVSSS or any fandom I've created for before. For me, this covers both my AO3 works (including anything I've used for a fusion AU) and pretty much any fandom that I've blogged about here, posting either fic ideas or meta.

So, if there's some SVSSS fic idea I posted about here years ago but never wrote, or some particular rarepair you're hungry for, here's an opportunity to get me to write it for you! I'll keep people posted as to when the auction starts. In the meantime, here's a list of fics that I've written for previous fan events! ❤

Fandom Trumps Hate 2022

forgiveness for whose sake? (48k words) - SVSSS - A post-canon companion story / extended epilogue for "pride is not the word I'm looking for" full of alternate POVs.

love to the ones I've never met (82k words) - SVSSS - A companion story for "pride is not the word I'm looking for" in which the world of PINTWILF meets the in-progress world of SVSSS and causes more canon divergence.

hey, share the weight a little (70k words) - SVSSS - A pre-canon canon divergence story in which disciple Shang Qinghua becomes friends with and then falls in love with Yue Qingyuan.

Sit With Your Soul (61k words) - SVSSS - His Dark Materials AU. Shen Yuan transmigrates in as the original Shen Qingqiu's daemon.

Yuletide 2023 (also working off of a prompt from someone else, anonymously)

Legends That Live On (10k) - Nimona - A post-canon story in which Nimona, Ballister, and Ambrosius visit a cultural landmark / old graves together.

MXTX Remix 2021 (anonymously remixing someone else's story, of my own choice from their existing works)

this point of pale light (18k) - SVSSS - A space opera AU (partially "Star Wars" inspired) in which Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu share a body and face Shen Jiu's past. Liushen pre-slash.

MXTX Remix 2024

learning joy (12k) - SVSSS - AU in which Shen Yuan never read PIDW and doesn't know what's going on, but manages to become close to Luo Binghe anyway.

Moshang Big Bang 2023 (prompt was of my own choosing)

Servant to a Different King (151k) - SVSSS - Canon divergence in which Shang Qinghua became Tianlang-Jun's servant instead, helped save Su Xiyan, and now ten years later, the Demon Emperor is trying to play matchmaker for Moshang.

MXTX Big Bang 2021 (prompt was of my own choosing)

Catch a Falling Star (122k) - SVSSS - A "Stardust" AU in which Shen Yuan falls into the world of PIDW as a fallen star, but everything is already not following the plot. Bingliushen road trip.

Moshang Week 2020 (prompt was of my own choosing, no strict deadline)

it must follow, as the night the day (26k) - SVSSS - AU in which Shang Qinghua is a demon and Mobei-Jun is human, and they still stumble into a master-servant relationship.

Moshang Week 2021

Nothing to Me, Nothing to You (60k) - SVSSS - A "MDZS" AU for Moshang, in which teenage Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua meet at the Cloud Recesses during guest lectures.

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

Sudden Nature by everbrighter

This MDZS fic/series is a modern AU that's mostly without magic... except there's a heavenly bureaucracy. And every once in a while, it makes a mistake, and sends someone who's died back to earth. This is rare, but frequent enough that hospitals have resurrection wards just in case.

If you're at all familiar with canon, I think we can all see where this is going.

Wei Ying is a a whistleblower on the Wen Corporation in this one, who's adopted baby A-Yuan. When he's killed in an accident, Lan Zhan raises Lan Yuan and lives with his grief... and then Wei Ying comes back. This is a story that's emotional and heartfelt, and very funny in bits, about grief and loss and family, and getting something back you never thought you would, much like canon.

The series is a bunch of interconnected short fic with two long segments. The first one is from one from Lan Sizhui's point of view: "Lan Yuan has lived most of his sixteen years not knowing the man who raised him as a toddler. So when Wei Ying suddenly comes back to life, both Lan Yuan and his dad, Lan Zhan, work to make room in their lives for him. Too bad he has a science project due this week..."

The second one is from Wei Ying's: "Wei Ying comes back from the dead, all of a sudden. Over the course of a week, he remembers what it is to be alive, and what it is to be in love." (Not gonna lie, I kind of love the parts where Wei Ying is adjusting to no longer having the body of a twenty year old, in terms of sleeping for a week on the couch now has CONSEQUENCES.)

But it was the very first part of the series that hooked me, where Lan Zhan falls in love. And it's not who you think.

"Aren’t there classes for this? Aren’t there books a person is supposed to read for this? Should he have done research? Shouldn’t he have prepared? But ah, it’s too late now, and there’s a baby in his arms, face to the shoulder of Lan Zhan’s cable-knit sweater."

I finished the typeset for this fic back in the fall of 2022, and it was in my pile of text blocks to finish binding for Binderary, an annual fanbinding challenge, in February, 2023. It was the last one left. I looked at the text block. I looked at my bookcloth and paper options for the cover. I pulled out two options... and couldn't decide. It turns out, I just didn't have the right combination of colours.

In the interim, I obtained some Duo book cloth, a particular line that has a two-tone colour shift to it, gorgeous in person, but really hard to photograph. The company that makes it, sadly, has gone out of business, and the final group orders for it obtained near epic status among @renegadeguild circles. (It has its own lore. And fic.)

Which is to say, the spine of this book is Duo Dragonfly, and the cover is chiyogami paper. The endbands were my first time trying a double core, in sewing thread, and are a little bit shaky as a result, though I'm pretty happy with the colour combo. Lettering stencilled in gold acrylic paint.

I was going for an ethereal, heavenly feel with the title page, and a shout out to the Toronto setting with the spread on the table of contents. (Hello, fellow Canadians!)

A few interior shots here, and a vaguely Lan cloud used for the section breaks. I did a bit of formatting to mimic a newspaper column for the article that starts off "Thirty-Seven," the long section from Wei Ying's point of view.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and glad I held off to get the match that felt right for the cover materials!

And behind the cut for spoilers... the last sentence in the short chapter right before Wei Ying's death gets me RIGHT IN THE FEELS every single time I read it.

Lan Zhan held onto A-Yuan! He held him for fifteen minutes, and then for the next sixteen years it took for Wei Ying to come back from getting milk at the 7-11! Oh my heart. Nnngh.

(Also, I slid in a fan art illustration for the fic from GreenTeaPikachu, so enjoy the drunk!LanZhan Does Parkour as an added bonus for clicking through!)

[southernwolf16]

After coming across SVSSS-related stuff on the blogs I follow/stalk, I finally gave in to my curiosity and checked the donghua.

I tried reading the novel a while back, but it didn't entice me that much so I didn't finish it. I think seeing the donghua helped spark my interest again.

Then I held back from watching Ep 10 for the past week and started reading the novel. I'm almost finished with it.

It's so different from MDZS. I find myself laughing most of the time. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan edition) are such disasters. I'm sure the more senior fans have already written eloquent posts about how codependent they are, Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan's relationship, why Cucumber Bro and Airplane Bro transmigrated to the novel they read/wrote, why the System exists in the first place, writing what you're passionate about vs writing what'll bring in money, and who is Jiang Cheng's counterpart in SVSSS, among other things. I think I read a post suggesting it's Liu Qingge? Or is it Shen Jiu?

Anyway, back to the donghua. I hope I'm not alone in saying I like the character design. At first it was a little jarring---maybe because I'm not used to watching CGI---and the donghua isn't actually 100% polished a la FFVII remake (on a side note, someone joked that Yue Qingyuan seems to be from the PS2 era). Regardless, I appreciate the design since it gave me an idea how the characters look like.

Which is why I'm a bit surprised when I started trawling the SVSSS tags here at Tumblr and saw art depicting Luo Binghe as a curly-haired, big-muscled mountain of a man. Perhaps this is influenced by Western taste? I'm not an expert in Chinese literature or culture, but in some pics I've seen from Cdramas those of demon blood who play major roles don't have the physique of someone who can crack walnuts with their biceps. Think Wang Yue (Wang Zhuocheng) from Legend of Chongzi and that actor from Love Between Fairy and Devil. Furthermore, Luo Binghe is described as a pretty boy in the novel so at this point, I'm of the humble opinion that the donghua got his body type right. And I subscribe to the standards of beauty from the source culture.

Okay, going back to the donghua Ep 10. As we say here in my country, papunta na tayo sa exciting part---I'm going to see Luo Binghe get pushed down the Endless Abyss by his beloved Shizun. Oh, the angst, the drama.

Nope. Nothing of the sort happened.

Oh, so they saved it for Season 2 [Tries to find Season 2]

[Season 2 not yet released] 😨

What. The. Hell.

I held off finishing Season 1 because I thought Season 2's already available. The site where I watched the donghua said Season 2's release is 2022.

Dude, we're two months' shy of closing 2023. 😱

Season 2, where art thou? 😭

[mengyao]

did a little fic ask meme tagged by @saltedpin, crossposted from dw :)

1. How many works on AO3?

45 - there are other works on other, abandoned profiles plus stuff i've orphaned over the years so i think the real number is probably closer to 60-75?

2. Total word count on AO3?

452,423 (this account)

3. Top five fics by kudos?

tender prey (gk) - 897 flight of a one-winged dove (cql/mdzs) - 541 soft targets (gk) - 462 a man after midnight (gk) - 350 to keep you in that house on the hill (cql) - 342

i have jokingly called myself a fic writer's fic writer, because despite having posted fic publicly for 15 years and being a somewhat "known entity" in certain fandoms, i don't have a single work over 1000 kudos, not because i think my fic is even "unsuccessful" (however one would measure that)--it just tends to be quite niche. it finds the right readers..........

even tender prey is a bit of an anomaly, because i wrote it for the juggernaut slash ship in a nascent fandom, and there were almost no canonverse longfics. i just timed the market. once. and never again

4. What fandoms do you primarily write for?

i used to hop around a lot but i've been consistently active in various MXTX fandoms for five years now? which is crazy. i started making the switch over to tgcf mid-2022 and it's been pretty steadily that since then...

it takes me more energy to write for a lesser known fandom these days than it used to because i don't like to write for things if i haven't reviewed the canon at least once since my first pass with it, and honestly who has the time. i also just get the fanfic-writing bug less intensely than i used to, since more of my energy has moved to thinking about stories in terms of original works. i'm just still nuts about beefleaf, and i like how low stakes it feels... my little barbie dolls...

5. Do you respond to comments?

i used to be consistent about it but i lost my ability to respond to digital communication sometime in 2023 and it has not returned. i read them all instantly and cherish them deeply, though. like. seriously. if you're ever like "would they care" yes i care

6. Angstiest ending?

i talk a big game but my endings are usually bittersweet at worst... um probably bruising the velvet which involved thomas cromwell depressedly sucking off henry viii shortly before being executed... i can write fucked up little vignettes but for longform writing i'm weak

7. Fic with the happiest ending?

flight of a one-winged dove is fully just a hetero romance novel with a HEA, so probably that...

panting like a dog at the edge of your bed (aka pantingbed) maybe the most improbably happy, and it ends on a note of the protagonist feeling many intense emotions none of which i would describe as "happiness" ("the despair and exhausted relief of giving up on something that is very bad for you?") but which gesture toward the possibility of happiness in the future... and for beefleaf, what more can you ask for... [i say as if i don't have two other postcanon beefleaf wips going that also have happyish endings]

8. Do you get hate?

not regularly. seinen manga and danmei fandoms tend to be relatively less bad for that kind of thing since the canons are targeted at adults and filled with sex and violence

9. Do you write smut?

i just think it's fun to write!!! i very intentionally killed my internal embarrassment core for writing fic porn many years ago because i wanted to be powerful and able to DIY my own smut. a big part of the appeal of fandom to me is having an outlet to write low stakes BDSM erotica without having to come up with my own characters. so. naturally

10. Do you write crossovers?

i'm neurotic enough about keeping one canon straight let alone multiple

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

i honestly can't remember, so if i have it wasn't a big deal, clearly, lol. i mean besides all my stuff getting scraped for LLMs like the entire rest of the internet hayukyukyuk

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i actually don't think i have

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

not strictly, though i have a long beefleaf thread between me and a friend i've been trying to turn into a cleaned-up fic for crossposting

14. All time favorite ship?

"He Xuan/Shi Qingxuan (10)" THIS IS A LOT FOR ME OK

15. WiPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i still really want to come back to the handful of post-FOOWD vignettes, which are all sitting around half-finished, it's just been long enough that i think i'd have to reread mdzs or rewatch cql first

16. Writing strengths?

i've put a lot of effort into not erring on the side of subtlety, in favour of going to big emotional places; i'm more interested in having a scene feel layered and nuanced while still maximalist rather than the sort of... "adult alternative" of it all. idk if i succeed but i TRY

i know i put a lot more thought into setting than most people do--i'm just a very visual and sensorily-engaged person and i struggle to write a scene if i don't know what the surroundings look like, which can make stuff feel more lived-in and allow for more indirect characterization than just describing the way a character talks or acts

17. Writing weaknesses?

at my worst and laziest, one of my default character voice modes always has a faint scent of bbc sherlock; too many adverbs and prepositions that leave prose feeling starchy; there are certain sentence and paragraph rhythms i can feel myself slip into which are not original or sharply drawn enough to be voicey in a good way rather than just repetitive

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

fine in theory but i don't write it

19. First fandom you wrote for?

h*rry p*tter for OCs, percy jackson for proper fanfic (which was incest fic. about the di angelos. mainly. and nico/percy. i've LITERALLY always been like this. my he xuan characterization and my nico characterization are NOT far apart)

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

my longfics are always such a pain in the ass but i'm always the most fond of them because in all cases, i wouldn't have made it through all the work necessary to finish them if i didn't truly love the story

my nie huaisang fic is always close to my heart and a river of changing faces was the first of those, which i hoped would be about ~5k but turned out 16k and i started writing a different 92k nhs fic shortly after, so clearly i enjoyed myself

tagging anyone who would like to do it--i truly enjoy reading these

[ninjakk]

Very excited to be part of the 2023 edition of @mxtxfoodzine, which is packed full of fanfic, gorgeous art and yummy recipes for you all to try at home. Out the 31st of October!

I could not resist combining my love of cooking, writing and MDZS 🥰 So much so, I ended up with two fanfics instead of one haha.

I can't wait to see what you guys think! I have a canon universe, burial mounds settlement fic - which I absolutely adored trying my hand at writing WQ for the first time. There's also a modern au, established Wangxian, fluffy adoption fic - which is something I'm very proud of as well ❤️

Here's a little taster for you all!

In A Pickle - with tasty pickled radish recipe and cute chibi artwork by @daynight139

"What are those?" Wen Yuan's tiny voice whispered in wonder.

"Chillies. They are really hot, so don't touch them, otherwise they will burn you and make you cry," Wen Qing cautioned the child, shooting him a sharp look of warning as she spoke.

Perplexed, Wen Yuan glared at the chillies, quietly wondering why they would want to burn him and make him cry personally.

And my second fic...

Bun In The Oven - with a recipe offering two tasty baked bao fillings and adorable artwork by @daynight139 which is full of hidden things for you to spot!

Lifting the two trays of golden baked bao out of the oven, he turned to place them onto cooling racks.

"Congratulations Lan Zhan, we're now the proud parents of an abundance of little ones!" Back to his usual chirpy self, he sent his husband another cheeky wink as he held a bun up towards him. "Shall we have a whole brood too, er-gege?" he giggled as he placed the last bun down to cool.

"Hmm... Let us start with one, for now." Lan Zhan's low voice sounded by his ear as two strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him in close.

I really hope anyone who reads my two new fics enjoys them as much as I relished writing them 💞

In the meantime, you can download the 2022 edition of the zine to get a flavour of what's to come.

Yes, I'm aware I have a thing about puns... I can only apologise 🤣

[lizhly-writes]

liz's fabulous fic pipeline (February 2025)

Aight. Let's talk about my writing -- specifically, what I want to put on ao3. Ideally, I'd put out a chapter from all of my WIPs, but that's incredibly unrealistic, so here's my slightly less optimistic list of what I'd like to put up this month.

a totally normal milestone for every young adult!!! (orv, oneshot, outer gods)

My entry for Serenity Zine! I finished writing this in September, but I've been procrastinating putting this up because I didn't want to deal with the required image formatting I'd have to do to put it up on ao3...

mu qingfang's horrible romcom (svsss, multichapter, mqf/sqh)

Exactly what it says on the tin. Will possibly rename it to something less straightforward. This was supposed to be a oneshot, but it's not. I'd say we're looking at 3-4 chapters total. Chapter 1 is half-done.

azure views for two (orv, oneshot, hsy/kdj)

The genderswapped doksoo beach episode you never asked for! 2/3 done. The last part is the romance part, and brother. I am struggling. I am struggling so hard. I'm targeting Valentine's Day to roll this out, but we'll see.

the only way i know to love (orv, oneshot, kdj/yjh)

This is something that I started back in 2022. 1/2 done. Would be super cool to get this done for Valentine's Day also. Will I, though? Probably not, but I can dream.

remedies for ruin (svsss, multichapter, ???)

The peak lords engagement au. I want to get a chapter up for either the original or the battle is the cure. I think I have enough material on tumblr that it won't be super hard to put up a chapter, but... I'm not really sure which one would be easier to assemble...

if i live to be a hurricane (mdzs/svsss, multichapter, jc/sj)

The Jiang disciple Shen Jiu fic you also never asked for! I think we're looking at the chapter being 1/3 done. How long the fic will actually be is... unclear.

Stretch goals

I think it's really unlikely for me to get here, since I'll admit that the above goals are also a bit unrealistic for me to finish, but I'd like to assemble at least one more svsss chapter, from one of:

nothing but zero (lbh-sj roleswap)

schrodinger's son (amnesiac sqh)

everything is fine (mbj/og!sqh)

therapy: a wonderful innovation of the modern era (mbj/(og?)sqh)

plucking fish eyes (mdzs/svsss) (mxy/og!sqh)

[jaggededges123]

strawberry!

well, i wrote my first fanfic in a notebook when i was twelve, about me transmigrating into my fave book series at the time! but i mostly wrote original fiction for my teenage years, and then around 2018 or so i started writing a handful of fics after watching a few tv shows, but it didn’t really *stick* as a big hobby for me (separate from original fiction) until mdzs in 2022. and now here i am XD

[iantimony]

tuesday!

another two-weeker because i forgor last week but it's not actually that beefy

listening: metric albums formentera from 2022 and formentera ii from 2023 are full of good earworms. favorite songs: all comes crashing, enemies of the ocean, oh please; just the once, days of oblivion, who would you be for me ... idk all of formentera ii is really really good. easily could list all those songs as favorite. just love a good synth! just incredibly catchy albums.

i got back into the podcast sweetbitter; i listened to the first season on sappho not long after it started, but fell off when they started season 2 on pirates. i'm listening to that one now and i'm enjoying it! i'm a little leery of season 3's topic (christian bible) but i feel like they do a good and sensitive job of covering information in general. the podcast hasn't actually updated in ages which is interesting, i'm not sure if they're just on hiatus or if it's like...done? i can't seem to find any information on it, there are some tweets that were posted on reddit about it that are now deleted, maybe there was a falling out??? it's possible they say something in the most recent episode (may of last year) about a hiatus but it's not in the episode notes...in any case, god i hate the ads they have. they're so stuck in my head in the worst way possible. 0/10 on that front. get that coin but please choose less obnoxious/a wider variety of ads (i know that's not always in their control but yk).

reading: finished mdzs. restarted svsss but it's been sideburnered for a few days while i play catchup on work.

watching: finished kill la kill with the boyf...am caught up to dunmesh...been passively absorbing the black list because my roommate has been watching it...

playing: fallow but i really wanna do disco elysium soon for Real

making: pottery has been on a planned 2-week break between sessions so no reports here! i did go in briefly for open studio to attach a handle and re-trim some of my citrus juicer. otherwise, really haven't done much...i restrung a necklace for my mom as a birthday gift a few weeks ago, and i have been drawing a little again! some dunmeshi fanart, some concepts for a painting i want to do.

eating: fairly boring - two weeks ago was in florida with my grandma and that eating is always notably bland. last week my roommate and i fuck-it-we-balled a bit so it was a lot of tuna salad and adjacent things, this week we got some more recipes rolling in though. last night we did a off-the-cuff vaguely-thai rice noodle and tofu thing that was real yummy but not the most filling because there was like no fat in it. definitely could use a different protein or something to juice it up.

misc: doing okay! valiantly played homework catch-up this past week! excited to go back to pottery tmrw, thinking about upcoming wedding gifts to make!

[therapeutic-dose]

fic authors self rec! when you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love~<333333

Ohhh this is neat! Thanks Wren!

So starting from oldest to most recent:

2012 A Moment More | BBC Merlin | Merthur | G | 3,719 | Complete

It's late, Arthur is drunk, and Guinevere is gone. In the cover of night, Merlin and Arthur share what can never be.

2016 Stepping Forward | Daiya no A | MiSawa | G | 1,499| Complete

The story behind "Just recently, that four-eyes finally went to Sawamura's house and got on his knees. Of course he came back with a beauty of a shiner to show for it." Wherein Kazuya and Sawamura's coming out doesn't go especially smoothly for Kazuya's face. Based on the DnA doujinshi "Last Days" by Yuta, as scanlated by Team Karaage.

2022 Tempered  | MDZS | ZhanChengXian | Explicit | 42,099 | WIP

Jiang Cheng is dying. The insidious spread of hatred's venom has lead to the beginning stages of the dissolution of the greatest gift he never wanted: Wei Wuxian's golden core. In the face of this knowledge, he must finally learn to reconcile that hatred to what it truly is, what it only ever has been... Love. Undying, unrelenting love for the man he once called brother, and the man he once called ally and friend: Wei Wuxian and his husband, Lan Wangji.

2023 The Sun Rose on a Wednesday | KP the Series | Vegas Character Study | M | 4,512 | Complete

Vegas is familiar with the taste of ash in his mouth. There are times when the fire burns out in him, the fuel of the flames exhausted. The blood and bone and skin, cruelty and torture and death, all become ash. Only ash, only dust, only the echo of a beginning and an end, a taunt from a disgruntled audience to just let his story end. He tries not to think, as he eats this meal made with hope, with trembling hands and racing heart and tears gathered at his waterline, refusing to fall until the final curtain call. There will be no encore. --- Vegas, in the aftermath of Pete.

2024 Harmony's Overture | KP the Series | KimChayMacau | M | 44,149 | Complete

When Chay planted the stupid idea for Macau to go get hammered at a sketchy bar and see if it would somehow lure Kim out of his seven years of silence, Macau had rolled his eyes. Like, in what universe would that work? Kim doesn't give a shit about him. But when Macau made one last bid to get Kim's attention, that's exactly what he did - and boy, did he ever get it. And in the aftermath, there is Porchay, his best (only) friend. His only friend, whose feelings might not be exactly friendly... — Part two of this KimChayMacau verse, this time from Macau’s point of view.

Tbh this was tough even though I only have like 21 fics on AO3 lmao. I wanted to put some older fic up so that was fun to comb back through things!

[truly-morgan]

[AA cross-over, JC moves to the US, befriend Edgeworth]

Jiang Cheng + Miles Edgeworth | Mo Dao Zu Shi Cross-over Ace Attorney + Modern AU 30-05-2022

[#mdzs #AceAttorney cross-over, #jiangcheng #milesedgeworth, modern sett.]

Jiang Cheng hadn't been surprised when he was basically shipped to America.

"We are expanding our company, I need someone to look over it in America" his father had said.

He knew very well this was all so he wouldn't be close to him all while not angering him too much his wife as he wasn't kicking him out.

But it was alright, he could roll with it, he would show them.

and with that Jiang Cheng had started to work even harder than before, ready to prove what he could do. He was pretty satisfied that the result he had were better than what anyone else had expected at first.

all this was achieved by him never really taking a break, working hard nearly every day without much care for his health.

All this to his assistant exasperation. The man had known him even before he started working at his father's company, caring about the younger man. This lead him to force him to take a break once everything was more stable and no one could really argue about the incredible job he did.

this is how Jiang Cheng ended up forced on a vacation for a weekend, driving himself to some kind of somewhat isolated retreat spa or something like this, he didn't really follow what his assistant said as he was only thinking about the work he would be missing out on ("the tickets are already bought! You have no choice but to go" he was told).

"Maybe some calm will help me" he had sighed at some point on his way there.

He did raise a brow when he saw a car speeding in the opposite direction, wondering why anyone would drive so fast away from somewhere that was meant to make you relax.

"Gumshoe, I swear your pay will be revised in the next evaluation" he heard mumbled as he got out of his car, finding a man on the side typing on his phone.

"Everything's good sir?" Jiang Cheng asked, unsure if he should really intervene with the angry-looking man.

"I am trying to call the man who dare call himself my friend, but I have no signal" the man sighed in frustration, "May I ask if you might have any?" he politely asked while joining him.

Jiang Cheng did take a look at his own phone, offering a sorry smile to the man. "No signal either" he replied, "I see I am not the only one being forced here".

The man looked a bit surprised by his word, before letting another frustrated sigh leave him. "Dare I assume it is also because you are 'working too much'?" the stranger asked.

This made Jiang Cheng chuckle a little, still a bit frustrated about it too. "Yes".

There was a silence afterwards, making Jiang Cheng a bit awkward, unsure of what to do from here. He was relieved when the man decided to extend a hand towards him, presenting himself "I am Miles Edgeworth, prosecutor".

Jiang Cheng was a little surprised. He had heard about the man more than once before, although not always presented in a good light. He did suppose it changed a bit in recent times.

"Jiang Cheng, COO of the Jiang Corp. branch in America" he said next.

Some recognition seemed to also pass on to the other man's face. He was still not used to people vaguely knowing who he was.

"Why don't we head inside?" suggested Jiang Cheng, "If we are to be stuck here, might as well settle down and have some tea".

Edgeworth seemed to think about it, before another sigh left him, this time looking resigned to stay here. "I suppose it couldn't do too much damage to take the weekend off" he admitted.

Like this they went inside, taking care of their reservation ("It must be fate, our rooms are next to each other" Jiang Cheng had joked a little when they were given their keys).

It was already getting late on a Friday night and so they decided to have dinner together. "I am sure having some company will make this trip a little bit better" Edgeworth commented.

And it did make the weekend pass by more quickly and in a less boring (and lonely) way than he first thought it would be. He dared to assume it was the same for the lawyer.

He never expected to connect so easily with the man, both borderline workaholics.

sure the treatments at the spa helped him relax, but having someone to talk about (or sometimes bitch about) work was nice and surprisingly therapeutic. He felt like he couldn't really do this with his assistant since he was still trying to keep a vague impression of professionalism between them.

After their little forced vacation, they decided to keep in contact, meeting only now and then at first, usually to have tea or dinner.

but soon their little rendez-vous became more frequent. It was their own little way to have a day away from work (before being forced to have one again) where they could talk about work without it technically really being work.

Edgeworth would complain about his cases and how bad the investigation would have gone while drinking his tea, sometimes exasperated despite something in him not complaining that justice had been done right.

"You complain about him quite a lot, but you seem to like him just as much" Jiang Cheng teased him after yet another trial where he was up against Wright. This did earn him a scoff.

"You don't see me mentioning you also enjoying a certain young master's visit more than you would let shown" the man had argued back, which man Jiang Cheng roll his eyes, not without a small smile on his lips.

Sometimes they'd be joined by Jiang Cheng's nephew as he came to visit him with his parents. The boy had been shy at first towards the other serious-looking man, but had slowly warmed up to him despite not understanding what he would say, his jiujiu needing to play translator for them.

"I sadly never learned Chinese" Edgeworth admitted with a small smile, "maybe it could be something I should pick up one day"

"I could help you if you ever need someone's help" Jiang Cheng offered with a laugh, a little a-ling also giggling with him despite not understanding what was happening before going back to his drawing.

They enjoyed sharing a good cup of tea every Saturday, talking and sometimes just sitting in silence, enjoying the time spent together. Maybe the reason they met wasn't one they enjoyed, but they weren't so mad to have find a good friend at the same time.

====

(I ran out of ideas here but maybe one day I'll pick up this cross-over, I dunno why, I just feel like I wanna see more of these two workaholic sarcastic men together)

Original

[tossawary]

Sign-ups are open for MXTX Remix 2024 (@mxtxremix) right now and they close on February 9th. It's a gift exchange for people who already have MDZS, SVSSS, and TGCF fanworks, either art or fic. You can find details such as the eligibility rules, the FAQ, and the sign-up form itself on the AO3 collection profile.

I participated in the MXTX Remix event back in 2021 and it was a lot of fun! I ended up turning someone else's Canon Divergence Liushen fic ("tangled in the hanging tree" by technorat) into a Star Wars / Space Opera AU version of itself, in which Shen Yuan was a symbiote attached to Shen Jiu and they bickered a lot.

I also received "demons don't write what they know" from atarah, which is a Demon Liu Mingyan / Human Sha Hualing fic, inspired by my own Moshang Human/Demon Role Reversal AU.

It's on a shorter time scale than a Big Bang event, so you don't have to make a commitment half-a-year or more in advance: assignments go out on February 13th and assignments are due March 29th. The minimum requirements are also much more manageable: a complete 1,000-word fic or a clean piece of lineart. I think it's potentially a fun entry point into fan events if you've already start creating art or fic for one of these fandoms and are personally interested into dipping your toes into gift exchanges.

There is the pressure of transforming someone else's work into a gift for them, but it can also be fun to play with another fan's stuff, using someone else's story as a structure rather than starting from scratch. Though definitely not for everyone, it can also be interesting to open up your own work to someone else's transformation, and see what about your art or writing speaks to someone else. Examples of previous MXTX Remix works (2021, 2022, 2023) can be found in their parent collection: MXTX Remix.