#leverage Olympics

[leverageclips]

Leverage Redemption Olympics episode but Eliot can't go undercover as an athlete of a random sport because he's too famous as multiple athletes and so the crew must convince Parker to go in

[writer-at-the-table]

Sitting here watching olympic fencing and thinking about how great a setting it would be for a leverage fic (or episode)

"Lets go steal the olympics"

[collegeoflore]

i think the thing is magpie kind of always knew on some level that varric was dead but acknowledging that would have meant acknowledging This. and i think if she had done that before now she would have died

[fourdiagnosesinatrenchcoat]

LEVERAGE TAKES ON THE NHL??? And Nate is on the side of how important enforcers are in hockey?? Is he fucking Canadian??

Ok it's a fake minor league team but the principle is the same.

Pick up Boy on Ice, the biography of Derek Boogaard, and tell me you ever want to watch another hockey fight. It's possibly worse than the fuckery they get away with in the NFL. Americans don't on the whole care about ice hockey so players with serious health complications from standard play barely even gets news attention. And Canada is so "it's not hockey without the fighting" that it's impossible to stop.

I cannot handle Eliot as a French Canadian player. I was supposed to go to bed. Dammit.

[tenobelisk]

idk man, i think a future olympics should focus more on age groups than genitals and hormones. think about over 60s volleyball with agnes slagging off derek for thinking the ball was out.

think about old vets fresh from the medals joining the crowd to cheer on some teenagers. thirty-something commentators leaving the mic on the chair to run in an event.

sure, the olympic retirement village gets a little crazy after dark but the games become a celebration of life's journey. a reminder that even though our bodies hit their peak, our mind and spirit carve a different kind of curve.

how fun it would be for a couple of nine year olds to be climbing up the side of a wall in the olympics with not one circumstance of birth separating them from being judged as equals. gangly little spiders climbing up trees at a picnic. but with medals.

and before you say bUt WhAt aBoUt BoXxi1i1i1ng?!?!? in what idealistic, theoretical future world is it acceptable to bounce your brain against your skull until you fall down or give up? i'm not against it, but it stands alone as an exception in its direct, intentional and continuous head contact, and so it must live or die as an exception. besides, you gotta give the straights and the trads something to feel good about, even if it's a violent remnant of their heyday.

[sachermorte]

friend told me I should let her set up a dating app profile for me and I committed to fake gagging so hard that I actually gagged a little for real. unsure if this was a socially acceptable response. will continue to monitor

[sunlitsorrows]

co-sponsored by the Brooklyn 99

the sport i’d add to the olympics is Stealing. there is no event or ceremony. whoever is able to locate and steal the medals technically earns them

[123ohwell]

LEVERAGE GRIFT TRACKER

I FINISHED SEASON 1! Shoutout to @grandma-waldo for the idea

Extra details in the parameters and the job list. I kept a list of all grifts in order they occur through season 1. If I thought about it before hand I would have draw a line between each episode but oh well hindsight and all that.

Any questions? Yes I welcome them and I'll try to answer them. Want to know why I split something? Just ask - there was definitely an overthought process to my madness. Any ideas on adjusting job titles? I want to hear it please. I invested too much in this lol but it's been fun.

Season 1 was tough in trying to decide what the jobs would be while trying to keep them broad and trying to think so I wouldn't need to add anymore come later seasons . Also me and excel nearly got into a fight.

I'm going to do the rest of the show but that will be slow coming. When I figure out how to make a master list with links, I'll make one. Since this is like my 4th post on the topic and there will be a bunch more to come

Surprises and Revelations

- Hardison grifts in intense spurts

- there was only 1 real royalty grift in season 1??? And it was hardison?? But there were 5 Southern Belle/Beau grifts

- Sophie was the first athelete?? Ik I already posted that but it still shocked me (Olympic luge)

- Parker interacts with people more than most of the team - she thieves in the shadows but she talks to people often as a misdirection

- FBI and just an ordinary person (Civilian) were the most common grifts of season 1 > not surprised since everyone played FBI in pilot part 2

- runner up was The Damsel. Plenty of times the team did the Damsel and Damsel's Knight grift together as a misdirection. But going "oh no I need help" to a stranger/mark was more popular

- Hardison and Parker were the most likely to play the Damsel card

(Sidenote: i thought about wanting to know all the scams the team calls out in the show. "Burn scam" "the cherry pie" etc. But I think someone has already made a list but I can't find it. Also my family might kill me if I restart the show - again. I was already getting side eyes for skipping back a few seconds to check out who was grifting when I wasn't paying attention)

If you've read this far! Thank you! Hope you have a great week!

[convenientalias]

SVSS Fic Rec List

I figured I'd make a fic rec list for the Scum Villain fics I've been reading lately, since that's been a large portion of my recent fic reading. It's 90% Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan, I am a simple woman. (I'm calling SQQ Shen Yuan for this list and original!SQQ Shen Jiu, to avoid confusion.)

Multichapter Fics:

Run For Cover--Modern setting, Shen Yuan summons a dangerous demon. Quite a bit of attempted murder!!! 56k.

If Marriage Was an Olympic Sport--Shen Yuan gets wifeplotted into a marriage hunt. Binghe, fresh out of the abyss, joins the fun. 34k.

Tarnished Gold--Binghe schemes against Gongyi-Xiao!Shen Yuan, and tries not to catch feelings. Immensely slow burn but I was living for it. 118k.

Heartbreak and Other Foreplay--Modern setting, Luo Binghe mistakes Shen Yuan for Shen Jiu and seduces him with revenge in mind. The misunderstanding doesn't last too long but it does cause some chaos. Also, this AU still has cultivation (and, notably, dual cultivation). 108k.

raised by winter winds--Shen Yuan transmigrates into a random Qing Jing disciple and becomes Shen Jiu's head disciple (their relationship is a complicated mess). When Luo Binghe arrives, he asks if he can take Luo Binghe as a pet. 35k.

you are who you love--Shen Yuan gets selective amnesia and forgets about Binghe post-canon. Binghe must seduce him in order to cure said amnesia the same way PIDW cures everything. 38k.

Tongfang--Shen Yuan transmigrates into a sickly young master who canonically is supposed to be a murder victim. Binghe is loaned out by Cang Qiong to work there seasonally. 24k.

Oneshots Or Short Enough I'm Pretending They're Oneshots:

Imposter Syndrome--Shen Yuan, Luo Binghe, Shang Qinghua, Liu Qingge, and Yue Qingyuan run into a doppelganger situation (Dungeon Meshi style, apparently, but easy to understand if you haven't watched Dungeon Meshi--I haven't). 11k.

petal and vine--Plant!Shen Yuan with amnesia, after Huayue City. 5k.

right from the start, i gave you my heart--Jinlan City confrontations grow more complicated when Shen Yuan gets pollened by an obedience curse flower. 11k.

I Want You To Be Happier--Shen Yuan gets full blown amnesia in Jinlan City. Binghe claims they're married and runs away with him. 12k.

Medical Diplomacy--Post-Abyss Binghe finagles an arranged marriage with Shen Yuan, leveraging that he can cure Without a Cure. 12k.

Consanguine--Prince!Shen Yuan and now-Emperor!Luo Binghe (they're siblings... sort of) are reunited after some misunderstandings of the past.

suno to zaraa ye phoolon ki vaadi--Plant!Shang Qinghua after Shang Qinghua gets killed, but he starts out as a tiny small child due to some miscalculations. Rare Mobei-jun/Shang Qinghua fic on this list!! 9k.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart--Unable to use spiritual power and stranded in the middle of nowhere, Mobei-jun has to watch while Shang Qinghua gets worsening hypothermia. The h/c is incredible. 16k. Once again MobeiShang!!! 16k.

Plastromancy--Shen Yuan is the Other Shizun in a sort of a Coraline AU. 16k.

I'd be interested in seeing recs from anyone else :D<3

[hrrtshape]

but should we respect religion? (clearing the crackle 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸)

let's get one thing straight off the bat, asking if we should respect religion is less ‘dropping a bomb’ and more ‘mentioning your unpopular opinion at a dinner party and watching forks pause mid-air.’ but really, should we? it's a curious little inquiry, deceptively innocent.

religion, historically speaking, has a cv about as clean as a nightclub bathroom at 3 am, complicated, a bit sticky, and requiring industrial-strength disinfectant if you want any hope of seeing its original shine. i mean, look, take the crusades for instance, europe's big, disastrous gap year. “let's invade jerusalem, lads,” they probably cried, “god said it's ours.” cue centuries of bloodshed, entirely a game of thrones prequel nobody ordered. and speaking as a lithuanian (žalgirio mūšis), we've got our own painful chapters, those baltic crusades weren't exactly a weekend picnic for us either.

and it's not just medieval melodrama. fast forward a bit and you get galileo, “guys, maybe, just maybe, the earth spins round the sun,” and the church going “did you fall and smack your little head on the pavement?” house arrest.

not to dwell purely on the medieval, modern history doesn't exactly come out sparkling, either. the irish troubles, anybody??? protestant, catholic, irish, british, if there was ever an olympics of sectarian violence, everyone involved would be podium material. it's that special kind of violence that makes you think, ‘tell me again, slowly, how god justified this.’

speaking of god, nietzsche famously declared, “god is dead and we have killed him.” not literally, obviously, humanity isn't coordinated enough for that. but metaphorically, sure. god as an unquestionable authority???? kaput. replaced by science, logic, and the unending, mildly neurotic pursuit of existential meaning. and yet, even nietzsche would admit that godly figures themselves, jesus, buddha, muhammad, aren't exactly villains. on the contrary, these figures, when stripped down to their teachings, generally advocate kindness, charity, peace. it's their followers who seem particularly skilled at missing the point, simply weaponising texts for malicious intent.

but it's not just the big-ticket religions that deserve scrutiny, paganism, often romanticised by modern spirituality, has its own skeletons (literally, sometimes). ancient pagan civilisations regularly engaged in sacrifices to appease their gods. take the incas or the aztecs, mountains of child bones discovered atop andean peaks, remnants of sacrifices performed to ensure harvests and victories. sure, paganism today conjures images of herbal teas, nature worship, and crystals, but historically speaking, it also involved rituals that would make a horror movie director pause. it’s a bit too much.

let me not sidestep cults, modern or not. scientology, jehovah's witnesses, even the amish, each holding firm to doctrines that occasionally veer from quirky to deeply problematic. scientology's controversial practices, jehovah's witnesses' isolationist beliefs and troubling allegations of abuse, and the amish's strict separatism all highlight the thin, blurry line between religion and cult. it's religion dialled up, or perhaps sideways, depending on your perspective.

historically, religion hasn't just been used to control morality but economics and class, too. 18th-century france is a classic example, where the wealthy class shrugged off starvation and suffering by asserting divine will. this is simply god's plan, they'd murmur comfortably from silk-lined chambers, entirely unfazed by revolution brewing beneath gilded balconies. religion here isn't just faith, it's a socio-economic shield, used conveniently to justify inequality. the divine right of kings, the caste systems, all leveraging faith to sanctify systemic injustices

then there's religion's notorious blind spot, its remarkable ability to excuse atrocities under the sanctified blanket of faith. sexual abuses hidden behind clerical robes, pillaging justified by holy edicts. it's not just medieval, it's modern, insidious, often institutional. whether it's abuse scandals covered up by churches or atrocities shrugged off because it's god's will, religion's convenient moral amnesia is perhaps its most damning indictment.

another deeply troubling aspect of religion is its role in perpetuating prejudices. holy texts like the bible or the quran are frequently cherry-picked and weaponised against women, lgbtq+ communities, and other minorities. verses conveniently plucked to justify oppression, inequality, and discrimination, often entirely divorced from their original context or intent. it’s the kind of selective reading that allows bigotry to masquerade as righteousness, providing cover for hate crimes, misogyny, and homophobia, cloaked smugly under “god’s word.”

and yet, hold your scepticism, we can't exactly chuck religion wholesale into the bin of history alongside phrenology, pogs, and polyester leisure suits. because religion isn't only bloody crusades or witch-burning bonfires. sometimes it's also mother teresa (controversies noted), gandhi's non-violence (also controversies noted, this isn't a disney flick), and martin luther king jr. preaching from pulpits, changing history from church steps rather than behind the cover of anonymous message boards.

take dostoyevsky, one of my favourite russian literary giants who wrote ‘the brothers karamazov,’ arguably the greatest novel that isn't gathering dust unread. dostoyevsky tackles religion not as a blind devotion or a cosy sunday brunch but as a profound, existential puzzle. ivan karamazov (my personal favourite) declares boldly, probably with a kind of smugness, that if god doesn't exist, everything is permitted. it's a certain king of nihilism wrapped neatly in theology, or theology wrapped messily in nihilism, whichever you prefer, it's a kind of philosophical russian nesting doll.

on the flip side, look at frank herbert’s ‘dune,’ religion there isn’t merely oppressive, it’s also a source of profound hope and strength. the fremen, fiercely devoted to their faith, find unity, resilience, and courage in their religious beliefs. paul atreides, emerging as muad’dib, becomes a messianic figure precisely because religion provides the scaffolding for his people’s aspirations. the fremen’s religion isn’t just dogma, it’s survival, identity, and liberation all rolled into one.

in ‘dune,’ religion serves as both narrative fuel and philosophical framework. it inspires solidarity among oppressed populations, empowering them to confront seemingly insurmountable odds. it’s not simply about unquestioning devotion but about a shared, deeply-held conviction that something better awaits, something worth fighting for. herbert’s intricate depiction highlights how religion, despite its flaws, can galvanise communities and imbue them with purpose.

thus, herbert’s universe doesn’t JUST warn about religion’s dangers (although it most definitely paints a perfect portrayal of the corruption that religion might create) it also illustrates its capacity to lift people from despair, uniting them under common cause and collective destiny.

ultimately, perhaps we respect religion not because it's inherently respectable but precisely because it isn't, because it's human, flawed, and paradoxical. religion is humanity at its most ambitious, most hopeful, and also most disastrously arrogant. respecting religion might mean simply acknowledging its complexity, admitting that it has given us both bach's magnificat and the salem witch trials, liberation theology and jihadi fundamentalism, mother teresa's kindness and the spanish inquisition's cruelty.

@reality-shitting @crunchyapple33

i lastly want to apologise if my ramblings yesterday or the day before hurt any of you, it was not my intention for this to get out of proportion or even my regular circle

[ohforfrithssake]

Okay but look at the first photo and tell me that doesn’t look like a screenshot from Leverage

“Why is snoop dogg at the Olympics-“

WRONG QUESTION!

WHY ISNT MARTHA STEWART THERE WITH HIM?

[kevinsdsy]

I just want to hear jean say jock truisms. give this man a “LETS GOOO” and a back slap. makes me go insane

i have these saved up for upcoming parts for the socmed au

but uhhhh you’re now making me think about jean playing a match with the trojans AGAINST the foxes, against kevin (and neil), with NO PRESSURE— nothing at stake.

just kevin day, the son of exy, using his charm and name to convince the olympics committee, or whoever is in charge, to use the court after the official olympics exy games just because he’s so obsessed and there’s no way he has come all this way just to watch?

and they’re all just having fun and kevin is being his obsessed fanatic self who is yelling at andrew to take the game seriously and andrew is looking at him with a bored expression telling him this is his vacation and he’s not obligated to stand on the court in the first place.

and it’s not even an official match so jean realises he doesn’t even have to worry about not ruining the trojans’ precious image; so he plays a mix of the less aggressive tactics he’s learned with the trojans while also falling back to his more aggressive tactics— and he’s never used a mix of both tactics which even catches kevin off guard and they’re all just so determined to prove something even though it’s supposed to be a friendly game (but let’s be real when has a friendly game ever been friendly?)

and jean is actually having fun. he realises he enjoys not having to worry about which tactics to use and not having to worry about the consequences. so what if they lose? it’s not an official game so it won’t even have any effect of their standings and what if they win? he can use it against kevin as leverage for as long as he likes.

and i’m not even going to think about whatever the score is going to end up being because idek— i just like to think that whenever jeremy scores a point jean goes over to celebrate. then there’s cat who makes such a great move while defending against neil that jean and cat click their sticks together proudly.

not to mention exy is an aggressive sport after all, so maybe jean hits kevin a little harder than he’s supposed to but instead of feeling remorseful he says LETS GOOO and kevin scoffes and says: “i thought you trojans were supposed to be nice?” but his tone is playful and he doesn’t seem to care at all that he just got floored. jean helps him up and even though jean’s helmet is covering his face and it’s hard to see his expression kevin is convinced jean is actually grinning under his helmet.

and oh my god i’m ranting so much and barely covered the jock truisms but in conclusion I AGREE WITH YOU— ITS NOT A WANT ITS A NEED AT THIS POINT

[silurisanguine]

Possible unpopular Caterina Dellamorte opinion.

I don't see what she did as abuse in the way many now write her. She has been demonised as a monster and I think that is unfair. Did she perhaps push too hard sometimes? Yes.

Was her training any different than any other Crow? No.

Every Crow goes through brutal training in order to be the best at what they do and maintain their well earned reputation. Caterina had two family members left of the most important House in the Crows after the rest were killed in a war of succession. She'd managed to hold the title of First Talon not only to stay in charge but to protect what family she had left from those who would take it all from her.

She old guard. Lived through the worst of it. Seen what the Black Shadow did to House Arainai and other Crows that pushed their luck.

She's seen what can happen to other Houses... ones people no longer remember the names of. She doesn't want that to happen to Lucanis and Illario. So she trains them hard.

Trains them like a trainer hones the skills of an Olympic athlete to become gold medallists. Like a Shaolin Monk trains an initiate to become a living weapon. Like specialists train spec op soldiers to withstand conditions and situations most others wouldn't. It's painful, harsh and brutal.

But needed. They will become trained assassins...Master assassins. Because they have to be the best, they have to survive and stay on top.

Because there is no alternative.

They are both Dellamorte's. Even if they wanted to leave they'd be hunted down as leverage by other Houses or anyone the Crows have made enemies of.

The only way either of those boys could leave is if they abandoned everything including their name and that wasn't going to happen, they were kids.

And they wanted to be Crows. Was her punishments for failure harsh? Yes. But we have to realise they are of the setting. This isn't a contemporary story.

We also have no idea what Illario was like as a kid either, but if he was as flippant about training as he is about doing jobs as an adult, then we can guess what he was like as a teen.

Did she fail in the way she treated Illario like he wasn't as good? Yes no doubt there, she is partly to blame for some of Illario's issues. But not all of them.

Lucanis though, I see as the quiet one, the one who wanted to do well, to please his grandmother, the only family he has left and that's why he becomes favourite, because maybe he was present, willing and enthusiastic.

It's why sometimes she pushed him too hard and he failed. She's fearful and yes I do think she did fuck up with sending him to bed with no food... but that was a standard punishment at one point, as was using a cane.

Does anyone think a naughty step was around then or would have worked for a family dedicated to assassination??? Plus all Crows go through pain and torture resistance training. Rook would have too. Many seem to forget this aspect. Rook calls Viago's training torture. Lucanis says that he hated her once but grew to understand and respect her cruelty as a way to prepare him for the life of a Master Assassin. Her training saved his life countless times and probably saved him in the Ossuary. He wouldn't be here without what she did. And we see how in Lucanis mind prison His idea of her that holds him back. Spite words it as - both tenderness and terror. rage and relief. Fear of disappointment. She is an icon to him. She survived other Houses trying to wipe her House out. She's formiddable and he admires that even if it scared him as a kid.

She is there in his mind prison because he fears being a disappointment to her, now he is an Abomination. He admires her and doesn't think he's good enough to take her place as First Talon. That's no longer hate. That's admiration. He's not the teen, fearing disappointing her. He's the adult understanding her training made him as good as he is. Yet he fears he failed her by what he became through no fault of his own ( though there is probably a part of him that feels he failed because he was caught). But we do not see Caterina reject him once on his return. She never gave up looking for him once she knew the body returned was not his. We do not see her call him an Abomination. We see her call him her grandson. We see her name him First Talon. Because he is fit for the role. The only one who could be. Often the ones who don't want to lead are the best suited for the roles and she knows it, has known it all along. Illario would never have made a good First Talon. That job involves delegation, empathy and understanding of a situation. He is analytical, keeping logbooks and understanding responsibility - already perfectly suited to the role. Illario jumps head first into things and only thinks of himself, how being First Talon will be good for him. Lucanis would be doing it for the good of the Crows and Antiva. Caterina has failings. That is not in question. She should have been more there for Illario. Nurtured his good points rather than let his bad ones fester. But we do not know what he was like, only how he is now. But she is not a monster and her tough upbringing of Lucanis and Illario wasn't abuse.

[kiefbowl]

What do you think of the Olympics boxing controversy

Very disappointed how fast "online radfems" jumped to quick conclusions with no evidence. Same thing happened to Caster Semenya. I appreciate how much feminists want female sport issues to be taken seriously, but it's clear there is a racial component to this. Many white feminists are incapable of avoiding weird race science b.s., incredibly disappointing. I think people are exposed more than ever in very casual ways to a lot of black political theories, and instead of trying to understand them and internalize them, are eager to leverage them for online clout and self-aggrandizing even if they completely misattribute them. That why you get weird takes like "black women have masculine features" because it's like a weird bastardization of black feminists who have discussed the ways culture will prescribe gendered cultural implications to black women at the detriment of black women. Black women are always, always women. They're female. They aren't a biologically different category, to believe so is both misogynistic and racist.

Additionally, I find it frustrating that so many feminists decide that intersex athletes are this huge priority. The anxiety over natural testosterone levels in otherwise biological female athletes veers on weird gender science of how women should be, what women should be, and other bio-essentialist views. All for a very tiny portion of the population who are already vulnerable and marginalized. The best faith argument is that in some sports, high testosterone in women may skew averages and create records that are near impossible to break, but given enough time outstanding performances become outliners, so I just don't see the big deal to have this much anxiety over intersex athletes. Doping, yes. Male, actual unambivalently male athletes invading female sports, yes. One singular born and raised female African athlete performing exceptionally, and well within the means of human performance? Good god there's a lot at risk here if we become insensitive, unnuanced, racist pieces of shit. Even from a pure optics point of view, if you disagree with me we certainly don't move the needle in favor to critical examine how trans gender ideas impact female athletes if it appears to everyone we really do believe "women = dainty, women are incapable, black women are men."

And since I always get the weirdest responses whenever I talk about this, please spare me you rote arguments because I've heard it before. I'm truly not moved by the argument that female intersex athletes tend to outperform in the sports they're in. I don't care. Good for them. I hope they make big bucks and live well for the rest of their lives. I don't need to know their medical history, I just don't care!! :)

[ecstarry]

snippet from pt.3 of olympic villa au - full fic here

James had been devouring and teasing Regulus, slowly making him crumble, but all Regulus needed to have James at his will was stand there. He tried to conceal his immense desire but there was no point in doing it now. All the leverage James had built for himself was lost now that an angel stood in front of him, wanting him back just as badly. He could no longer tell who was in control. 

“Do you still hate me?” James asked. 

Regulus took a moment and pressed his lips together. Still backed against the wall, his hands reached for James' shirt and slid it off. The first half had been entirely on James’ terms, but the match was not over yet. Medals weren’t won by those incapable of maintaining power for the entire match.

Finally, Regulus touched him, and James could no longer tell what winning even meant.

“Yes.”

[whetstonefires]

#4 please !

Now see this could be tricky, because generally if I don't get some key elements written down very quickly the idea flows away again and the 'yet' disappears, even if I remember generally what it was about, but I have one this time! I am still just enough plagued by this vision that it's not out of the question I'll go for the capture, but so far nada.

Idea was basically a Jiang family character study by way of modern au. (So tw canonical abuse.) I started from the reflection, in a modern au very high chance the Jiangs are divorced, because being a divorcee wouldn't necessarily ruin Yu Ziyuan in the modern world, as long as she was allowed to control the narrative enough that she didn’t look at fault, so it might be on the table.

Especially because modern views on child abuse are such that while she'd hold back more than she already does in terms of physical chastisement, Jiang Fengmian would also be under less societal pressure to not interfere in her disciplinary system too much, and both these factors mean he’s more likely to put his foot down.

So, concept: Jiang Fengmian, when his son is eight and his daughter thirteen, forces the issue of taking in his best friends' abused orphan child whom he’s just managed to track down in a nightmarish group home, probably leveraging the fact that wherever their money comes from it's mostly his, something he usually doesn't do, but she has always known he could, and been fucked up about it (reasonable) and hated him a little (less so) and hates him so much more now (understandable but still fucked up).

They were obviously still both pressured into this marriage by their families, because I literally cannot imagine them choosing one another of their own free will, and if they did that would be an au in an even more dramatic way than being modern, and no longer work as a character or relationship study as far as I'm concerned. I mean or it’s a cql-based au, but that’s not the version of this toxic marriage I find compelling.

Situation subsequently deteriorates to the point that when the boys are around twelve some outside party observes and is repulsed or otherwise upset by Yu Ziyuan's treatment of Wei Wuxian specifically--she's emotionally abusive to everyone in the family, canonically, and it harms Jiang Cheng significantly more than Wei Wuxian, which I think is also pretty explicit on the page, but she's more openly antagonistic about going after wwx because he's basically a proxy for her husband, whom she doesn't consider to be someone she's capable of harming.

And ofc in a modern family scenario, being abusive to your foster kid is more plainly personal misconduct than being unfair in how you discipline one of your husband's many students, even if it is his favorite. Which means she's very unlikely to chase him around with a whip, but whatever she does do will sting that much more emotionally.

Anyway the outside judgement provokes a more explicit confrontation than the last four years of maneuver and attempting to balance all the competing needs according to two very different standards. And the upshot is that by the time wwx is 13, the Jiangs are divorced. To avoid making a humiliating spectacle of themselves they present a weirdly united front in court and have a very smooth uncontested proceding, although the closed meetings with their respective lawyers involved a lot of vitriol.

Yu Ziyuan, despite having a smallish trust fund and probably a job of some kind, though one that's more prestigious than profitable like uh. Olympic fencing coach. Idk what they make but it's probably not enormous. She and Cangse Sanren probably competed in the same events back in the day.

Anyway she gets a solid chunk of alimony, the house, and primary custody of both her children, although Jiang Yanli is almost 18 at this point so mostly she just gets Jiang Cheng. Everyone thinks Jiang Cheng wants it that way, including sort of Jiang Cheng; he has this idea that if he has his mom to himself they'll finally have a good relationship, even though he's also terrified of being left all alone with her. He's complicated. Families are complicated.

Also she would never have forgiven him if he hadn't concurred that he wanted to stay with his mother because she was the only one On His Side.

Jiang Yanli ofc does not move out right away when she comes of age, in part because her brother needs her, but she probably does go to college, so she's only around part-time.

Jiang Fengmian, meanwhile, keeps most of his financial assets and Wei Wuxian, and gets his kids on the weekends.

So that's all setup for how you have this situation where Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are entering high school--probably the same school, together, but no longer sharing the commute except maybe Monday mornings--and Wei Wuxian's primary residence is Jiang Cheng's dad's apartment.

It’s really chill. They get a cleaning service in once a week and eat a lot of delivery food, but they do cook at least once a week. The canonical thing where they largely agree about what’s funny and what’s right-or-wrong, and so forth, on the one hand really pops when there’s mostly no external conflict disrupting it, but also probably gains more complexity now that it’s not a thread of positivity fighting for its life against a background of drama. They get to know each other better than they ever had a chance to in canon.

Some of that isn't all that positive, because now they have the space to discover the places where they do actually have the capacity for friction, but both of them are very good at dispersing tension (I do tend to suspect jfm's dad was abusive he sure acts like it), and on the whole it's a good thing.

Jiang Cheng is going to have such a mental health crisis, and Jiang Fengmian is going to handle it so badly. Because of course when his son starts replicating his ex-wife's toxic attitudes and behaviors more now that she has primary custody, he’s going to feel guilty and like it’s His Fault, but he’s going to feel like it’s his fault that Jiang Cheng is growing up to be a shitty abusive person.

And even if he’d never say that the subtext would come through, in the assumptions he made when framing communications and so forth, as in canon, so the thing where Jiang Cheng’s father loves Wei Wuxian more than him, or at any rate likes him better and thinks he’s a better person and prefers his company, would wind up feeding into a self-reinforcing loop.

(Jin Zixuan's nasty public remark about Jiang Fengmian treating Wei Wuxian better than his own children hits Jiang Cheng significantly harder in this scenario, where he's being Tormented by the feeling that all his peers know his dad walked out on him for another son. Wei Wuxian's punch is therefore even more clearly primarily for Jiang Cheng's sake, although Jiang Cheng is probably more inclined to see it as being for his dad's. Jin Zixuan is about halfway between the Jiang kids' ages here, so he's a senior saying this shit to a sophomore.)

So that cycle builds to the point where Jiang Cheng would eventually have one of those rare moments where he resorts to actual violence, because his poisoned feelings are choking him so bad his rationality deserts him.

He’s not going to be nearly as close to actually murdering Wei Wuxian as he was in canon the night the Jiang Sect was massacred, because it’s a less extreme situation, but he still goes for the neck. So Jiang Fengmian is in his home office one Saturday about a year and a half into this new normal, and realizes the boys are fighting. He hears through the wall the accusation you stole my dad. He says to himself, well that’s terrible but interjecting myself into this situation would definitely make it worse.

Then he hears sounds of violence, and then an ominous abrupt silence, and updates that analysis.

And when he opens the door to the boys’ room, Wei Wuxian is being strangled. He’s not really resisting, which is because he’s made the call that that’s way more likely to get Jiang Cheng to snap out of it, and thinks it might make Jiang Cheng feel better to get it out of his system (because he does sort of feel like what Jiang Cheng is going through is all his fault, or at any rate is much worse as a result of decisions made for his sake) and is severely underestimating the dangers of choking, but looks to a third party like he’s already passed out and Jiang Cheng is still at it. Which is to say, it looks like a serious murder attempt on the brink of success.

So that sure made that situation worse!

So yeah that's my idea that I probably won't write but it sure has its teeth in me.