#kaytlarambles

[guqin-and-flute]

@kaytlarambles said: I fucking love LXC and always will. In my headcanon that reflects in the fics I'm writing, he's the perfect wingman gently steering LWJ and WWX where they need to be with a fond smile and no judgement for their chaotic idiocy where the other is concerned.

As far as I’m concerned, that’s CANON.

“Hey, that new kid is pretty strong and smart isn’t he, Wangji? It’s almost like he can give you a run of your money. He’s also very charming and funny. On an unrelated note, liking boys is okay, did you know that?”

“Oh yes go to the pool to heal your wounds, Wuxian. No one else is there, I’m sure.”

“Sure, come on our lake field trip, Wuxian :3 What, you weren’t begging me to take him with your eyes, Wangji? Hmmm, that’s not what I saw!”

“YES, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, COME STAY AT THE CLOUD RECESSES AS A FUGITIVE, IS IT REALLY GONNA TAKE ONE OF YOUR DEATH’S AND 16 YEARS FOR YOU TO REALIZE YOU DON’T WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT EACH OTHER? FOR FUCKS SAKE.”

[novel!verse] “I know that this is the worst day of my life and my convictions are falling down around me and I have about 1000 other things to worry about right now but, Wuxian, if you play with my brother’s feelings, I’m gonna actually get legitimately mad for the first time in this entire goddamn book :))) ”

[artsy-alice]

I love your art! It's so adorable. <3 Wen Ning in a scrunchie, Good Boy Wangji, all of it! <3 It's made me like the idea of modern Sancheng and that is creeping its way into the fics I have planned and I'm not complaining. xD

aaaa whenever someone says i got them into sangcheng i’m just... 🙈🙈🙈

thank you! <3

[wangxianficrecs]

Sorry to see you've been getting unpleasant anon asks! I think you do a great job with your recs, you seem to put the most time into them of all the rec blogs I follow, and the stories you enjoyed don't need to be validated to anyone. You put the pairings, all the tags, your own comments and even excerpts for every one, so no one should be able to claim they were "misled" into reading something they personally don't like. It's so very easy to simply not read sometihng. Keep up the great work!

You know, sometimes I worry that my comments and tagging cross the line into Spoilers.  But then something like this might happen, and I think, no, really, some folks (like me, actually, which is why I do it) really need to know what they’re signing up for before they dive in.

Eh, well.  It’s over now.

[kaytlarambles]

Continuing the 100 Theme Challenge, here is the second completed story. This one actually is sort of like an unofficial prequel to a oneshot I’m working on. It didn’t start out that way, but somehow became it halfway through.

49. Umbrella Xue Yang & Xiao Xingchen Sprawled on someone's stoop, twirling a knife between his fingers, Xue Yang sneered up at the steely grey sky as it drizzled rain down upon Yi City. It was a cold, wet morning that aggravated his leg, though it had long since healed. The little doorway didn't provide much shelter and his hair and clothes were already damp, but he didn't want to go back to that house. The roof had been repaired, but Xiao Xingchen was out on a night hunt and the only one home was their blind little bird. He couldn't stand being around her. He wished Xiao Xingchen would get rid of her so it would be just the two of them. The knife stopped mid-twirl. Where had that come from? Xue Yang sat up a little straighter, disturbed. It had almost felt like he wanted to stay and keep living in that miserable little house with its daily routine of laughably domestic chores, but how could that be possible? That little brat's voice grated on him more and more every day, and Xiao Xingchen - There was nothing there. Xue Yang reached for the familiar hate he'd harboured and came up empty. A little frantically, he tried to remember the last time he'd taken Xiao Xingchen night hunting and put blood on his hands. Weeks ago? Months? When had he stopped? When had he become complacent? How could he possibly have become content with this simple village life? He looked at the basket of vegetables, ones he'd paid for without threatening anyone, and felt uneasy. White filled his vision and he looked up, surprised. As though summoned by his thoughts, Xiao Xingchen stood in front of him, holding an umbrella at an angle to cover them both, though Xue Yang noticed it leaned more in his favour. Self-sacrificing fool, he thought, unable to identify the strange tightening in his chest as he did. "Xiao Xingchen, you found me. How?" Xiao Xingchen smiled that enigmatic little smile of his, head angling as he followed his ears to better locate Xue Yang. "I just knew," he said simply. "Shall we go home?" Home, Xue Yang thought, as he got to his feet. Was that what it really was? He shook his head to dispel the foolishness. "Let's go," he found himself saying anyway, basket swinging from his hand as they fell into step side by side. "It's your turn to make breakfast." The umbrella leaned fully over Xue Yang the entire way.

19 - Sangcheng

[kaytlarambles]

Aww, thank you, anon, for recommending my fics! Very sweet of you. <3

if you're still after fics recs, what about his moon made manifest by kaytla? i recently found it and i like it a lot. wwx is a vampire but not a typical vampire! i'm still working through the author's other stuff rn but it's all good.

i’ll give it a read!! im saving a lot of fics for my read later so i can do a binge fest right atter exams hehe

thank you for sending me this lovely! 💓

pls send me fic recs :(

[guqin-and-flute]

madtomedgar said: imo it comes from people not understanding how dramatic irony works. we, the audience are literally seeing things about jin guangyao that lan xichen does not see. we have different information, so we can make a different assessment. he, like everyone else, makes the best decisions he can with the information he has, which is very limited. And people interpret that as stupidity constantly

EXACTLY. JGY’s sinister smiles and mask-dropping asides are for us. No one else sees it! Lan Xichen sees a young man who is looked down on by everyone who has put his life on the line several times, who has lost his mother (just like him), who has a complicated relationship with his father (just like him), who is trying his best (just like him), who has been misunderstood and not taken seriously and JGY has treated him with nothing but trust and adoration so??? What else is he supposed to think??

He is initially given very little hard evidence to the contrary, but he allows them to go find some and gives them a safe place to continue looking for it while everyone else in the cultivation world is hunting for them. He doesn’t get angry at them for suggesting it or when their first call-out fails, doesn’t say, ‘how dare you, get out’; he allows them to investigate and says straight up, ‘I don’t believe this, right now, but if you give me hard, irrefutable evidence, I will do something about it.’

Which is, like, more than you can say for?? A lot of people

@karadin said: fucking agree, fucking agree

THANK YOU, it’s a characterization I do not understand

@gingersnapwolves said: people want to believe that emotional manipulation like JGY did to LXC is a matter of intelligence, that way they believe it couldn't happen to them. they don't see that LXC falling for JGY's act was *never* about his intelligence, but about his kindness, generosity, and ability to always believe the best in people, which JGY took advantage of. ;_;

Right?? There are some discrepancies in the CQL depiction (ie. evil little lip curlings whenever bad things happened to Wuxian, using the Wen POW as target practice [which never happened in the novel, cause that’s sort of a blatant super-villain move I don’t think he would be dumb enough to do, imo?? And also didn’t really serve a purpose besides making us, the audience, more angry at the Jin Clan and not trust him specifically. Like...it really didn’t serve any socio-political gain and I just don’t think he would have done it? But alas], the moments where he very openly and clearly dropped his mask when no one but the audience was looking) but that is giving us a lead, it’s imparting information behind the other character’s backs because we’re the only ones looking.

Every time we see him with LXC, JGY is looking at him like he is the fucking sun?? This is what LXC sees. Whether you think that JGY was sincere in that is entirely up to your interpretation of the character, but I just don’t understand how being loyal to your friends, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and trying to be reasoned and rational translates into ‘dumb, naive idiot’

Also, the last time everyone decided someone was unequivocally evil, that person KILLED A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE AND THEN DIED after being demonized by the entire cultivation world so??? I can sympathize that he would really not like to repeat that??

@kaytlarambles​ said: People seem to forget that LXC's history goes bac k quite far with JGY. JGY saved his life and sheltered him after Cloud Recesses burned and he was LXC's informant inside the Wen clan during Sunshot, they became sworn brothers after, just to name a few things. JGY only ever showed him the things that looked good, so LXC chose to believe what he saw rather than what he was told, like a good friend.

LITERALLY. LXC is the guy you want on your side--what sort of friend would he be if someone came up and said, ‘I’ve got a lot of circumstantial evidence that your very very dear friend/soulmate of +16 years is pretty much a serial killer’ and his response was ‘Whaaat? No I didn’t know that, omg D: how awful thnx 4 telling me’

The most measured, neutral, thoughtful initial response you could possibly have to that is, ‘What makes you think so?’ which is what he did

[guqin-and-flute]

 @kaytlarambles said: My Yunmeng bros song is Brother by Kodaline.

HO BOY

“If I was dying on my knees/You would be the one to rescue me/And if you were drowned at sea/I’d give you my lungs so you could breathe” 

IS THAT NOT WHAT HAPPENED?

[guqin-and-flute]

@kaytlarambles said: I think the ship name is Xuanli? I don't include it often in my writing, though, so don't quote me!

@drowthelynes said: ?? i think xuanli ? Or yanxuan?

There’s a tag for both oh no ;-; I’ll just have to wing it. Thank!!

[kaytlarambles]

More 100 Theme Challenge!

This time, some modern Xuanli, which is actually my first time writing this pairing. Once again, I wrote this to avoid the things I’m actually supposed to be writing, oops.

72. Pretence Jin Zixuan/Jiang Xuanli Jin Zixuan felt like he was walking a razor’s edge. Not for the first time in his life, he questioned his choices. He’d made some spectacularly stupid ones, in the past. Said things he didn’t mean because of his pride and almost lost the one person who’d come to mean the most to him. Because of her, he’d made less stupid decisions in the six months since they’d been together, but he still wasn’t immune, apparently. Trying to keep a secret from her had had not entirely unforeseen consequences. “Just let me see her,” he insisted urgently, looking back and forth between Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng, who stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking his entry from the house. “Why?” Jiang Cheng demanded, terse as always. Jin Zixuan had never seen him without a scowl on his face, though Jiang Yanli assured him it did happen. It seemed clear to him Jiang Cheng saved that particular look for him. “I need to talk to her.” “You need to leave her alone,” Wei Ying put in, somehow managing to look even more intimidating than his brother with that mocking smirk on his face. “You’re lucky I haven’t punched you again for upsetting jiejie.” Jin Zixuan stubbornly refused to be cowed by that. They’d scuffled once before over Jiang Yanli, over his stupid choices, which he had embarrassingly lost. It had set him on the right path to realising how he truly felt, though, so he hadn’t held a grudge “Wei Ying…” Jin Zixuan paused here, clenching his jaw and steeling himself like a boxer waiting for the blow. It wasn’t easy to let go of his pride, particularly for someone he didn’t especially like. “Please. Five minutes, that’s all I need.” “No,” Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng said, almost in perfect unison. They stepped back into the house, starting to shut the door. “Wait!” he yelled, panicked, slapping a hand on the door to stop it closing. “Wait, you can’t shut me out. I - I need to see her. I need to give her something!” “Not interested,” Wei Ying drawled, moving as though to shove Jin Zixuan’s hand away. “Wei Ying, look! It’s this!” Hurriedly, giving up on all pretence, he groped around in his pocket until he could pull out a small, velvet box. Awkwardly, he opened it with one hand, revealing a ring resting on white silk, the diamond surrounded by a dozen smaller, pale amethysts. For a moment, there was silence as the two brothers stared at it. “You were planning to propose?” Jiang Cheng asked, incredulously. Behind them, there was suddenly a gasp. Unheard by any of them, Jiang Yanli had appeared in the foyer. How much she’d actually heard, he had no idea, but she’d heard enough. All the planning Jin Zixuan had done to make the moment perfect, the venues he’d checked and dismissed and checked again, had been for nothing. But suddenly, he realised none of that mattered, so long as he got the answer he wanted. Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying were distracted enough by their sister’s arrival for Jin Zixuan to push past them and reach Jiang Yanli. “A-Li…” he breathed, reaching out for her; he was relieved when she took his hand in both of hers. “A-Li, I’m sorry I worried you.” “When you kept disappearing and wouldn’t tell me where you were going, I thought…” she said quietly, looking down at where their hands were joined, “I thought… there might be someone else.” “No!” he insisted, squeezing her delicate fingers reassuringly. “No, of course not. There’s no one, I swear it.” “So… you were really going to propose?” she asked, staring up at him with wide eyes. “I - yes, I - will you -” A hand clamped down on his shoulder, pushing down. From behind him, he heard Wei Ying murmur, “If you’re going to propose to my jiejie, do it properly, you damn peacock.” Jin Zixuan swallowed back the retort on the tip of his tongue. Punching Jiang Yanli’s beloved brother right now would be a colossally stupid idea, even he could recognise that. So he allowed himself to be pushed, going down on one knee like he’d practiced at least a dozen times in front of his mirror. He looked up at her face, flushing ever so slightly pink. “A-Li -” he started, then shook his head. Wei Ying was right, he had to do this properly. “Jiang Yanli, will you marry me?” “Yes,” she said, smiling beautifully and holding out her hand for him to slip on the ring.

More 100 Theme Posts!

19. Sangcheng | 49. Xuexiao | 68. Yunmeng Bros

[kaytlarambles]

More 100 Theme Challenge!

This time not a pairing, just some Yunmeng bros humour. Honestly, I’m meant to be writing something else, but I am very good at procrastinating and this little earworm got in and wouldn’t leave, so here we are.

68. Unsettling Revelations Wei Wuxian & Jiang Cheng "Is this all you brought with you?" Jiang Cheng asked, sounding skeptical. "Hm?" Wei Wuxian murmured, distracted by digging his hand through one of his travel packs. Both were small, the pair light and easily slung over one shoulder if he needed to. Jiang Cheng was holding up the other pack in one hand. "This is really everything? For both of you? You've been travelling for months." "Well... most of what we need, we buy on the way. Anything big, Lan Zhan puts in his qiankun pouch. These are just the essentials - ink, talisman paper, treats for Lil' Apple." "Right." Instead of leaving Wei Wuxian to unpack his minimal belongings and settle in, Jiang Cheng opened up the pack and started taking things out for him. The ink and paper he set on the desk while Wei Wuxian hid a smile; there was no need for Jiang Cheng to help him settle into his old room and they both knew it. Just as Lan Wangji had known when he'd offered to stable Lil' Apple by himself. Even as an adult and a sect leader, Jiang Cheng still found it impossible to ask for what he wanted. Something heavy dropped onto the floor and Wei Wuxian glanced over. Jiang Cheng was straightening up again, balancing a small pot on his palm. "What's this?" he asked, turning it over in his hand. Wei Wuxian's mouth opened and closed uselessly, his mind racing. How was he supposed to explain what that was for? Would Jiang Cheng believe a lie? What lie would he even tell? At the most inopportune time, Wei Wuxian's quick wit failed him. Before he could stop it, Jiang Cheng pulled out the stopper and sniffed the contents; Wei Wuxian choked on air, horrified. He reached out to try and take the pot back, but Jiang Cheng held it out of his reach, peering inside at the thick, viscous fluid. Wincing, Wei Wuxian saw the exact moment his brother realised what he had in his hand. The colour leached from his face, then rushed back in moments later in angry red. "Wei Wuxian!" he yelled, outraged. "You are not doing that under my roof!"

19. Sancheng | 49. Xuexiao

[guqin-and-flute]

@madtomedgar You are co-parent to this monstrosity--do you not love your child? 😂

@kaytlarambles Perfectly cursed, cursedly perfect >:}

@gingersnapwolves It HAD to be that face. There was no other option

[guqin-and-flute]

@kaytlarambles​ said: Wow, what a reaction. XD I agree it's a bit busy, but personally, I am distracted by his hairpiece which could totally be used to stab a bitch in a pinch.

madtomedgar said: i know the overrobe is supposed to be fancy but it just looks like a massive cozy blanket-sweater thing to me and it makes me laugh that he wears his cozy-robe to the jin conference

DON’T SAY THAT, FASHION ANON WILL GET YOU AND SEND YOU RAW EGGS

(Also the thought of LXC sneakily wearing his jammies to the cultivator conference knowing that he is one of the most fashion forward young people and no one would dare say a damn thing is one that I love very much, actually)

EXCUSE ME??? You're not the biggest fan of the overrobe????? BITCH

WHAT A STRONG REACTION HOLY SHIT

I don’t DISlike it, it’s just not my favorite! I think it’s the fact that is’t the same small design and it makes it look a little busy for my tastes (but he does carry it off well because what doesn’t he?) 

Though it’s voluminous sleeves that could hold several snacks and rabbits is definitely a plus.

[kaytlarambles]

For anyone who’s interested, I just threw up a new Wangxian fic over on AO3.

It’s called Frozen and it’ll be most likely 3 chapters long, once completed.

It's a curse and case fic, where WWX has to figure out how to save LWJ from turning to ice.

[kaytlarambles]

hello!! how is your 'massive fix-it' coming along? and do you care to share one of your favorite paragraphs bc um I would care to see one 👀

The massive fix-it is expanding the more I think about character relationships! But that’s perhaps not a bad thing? It also makes me glad I didn’t just post it impulsively, like I’ve wanted to many times, because I might have to backtrack and change/add things and that’s easier done when it’s not already published...

Anyway, one of my favourite paragraphs:

Irritably, Jiang Cheng shrugged him off. "What're you laughing at? Have you seen yourself? You look like you've been drowned and dragged backwards through a bush." When Wei Wuxian's laughing didn't stop, he sneered. "If you were any skinnier, I'd think you were a Water Ghost yourself."

[kaytlarambles]

"hair" for the game, and failing that, just do one of the sentences with a bunny bc they're cute :D

There were like 4 mentions of hair in this chapter, I never realised. XD

"Stop making a fuss," Lan Wangji chided, but there was nothing behind it. "You've rolled onto the ground." With gentle hands, he lifted Wei Wuxian back into his lap, smoothing a hand over his hair and brushing the loose strands from his clammy face.

[kaytlarambles]

(yay hi! see, babby is being good and doing as they were told. in return, you must sleep and instead answer this tomorrow💖) "blush" for the game, and if you don't have that, "forget" or "music" ✨

I don’t have blush, surprisingly, but I did find “forget”. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a sentence or a paragraph, but the sentence would have been a massive let down, so went with the whole thing:

Lan Wangji had had no idea what to do. The needs to punish and pleasure, discipline and debauch, were warring within him and he could barely separate the two. He was furious, angrier than he could ever remember being, and he couldn't tell if it was directed more at himself or the man in front of him. He'd even demanded a fight with him, right there in the Library Pavilion! What a shameful travesty that would have been, had Wei Wuxian not parroted back his own clan's rules at him. That he should forget himself in a moment of frustration... He could only snap at him to get out, at that point. He had come completely undone and needed to rebuild that peerless jade immediately or he had no idea what he would do to Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji remembers his frustrated lust in the Library Pavilion, from the first chapter of my massive fix-it.