#like wwx still has some kind of busted ideas

[waitineedaname]

i find wei wuxian, jin guangyao, and xue yang really interesting as foils of each other for a lot of reasons, but a big one to me is the ways they relate to gentry society

jin guangyao is extremely aware of his vulnerable position with relation to the gentry, and he's very conscious of the hypocrisy involved in the classism he experiences. still, he tries to operate within those constraints to rise in status within the gentry -- and he eventually succeeds! he becomes chief cultivator and head of the wealthiest clan around! but he never stops being hyperaware that everything could be taken away from him in an instant, a fear that is eventually proven to be justified

xue yang reacts in the exact opposite way. instead of the constructive way jgy operates to climb the social ladder, he's purely destructive. he was abused by a member of the gentry, so he'll destroy a whole clan in revenge. he saw the injustice of how he was treated because he was poor, and he decided to burn it all to the ground in revenge

so if jgy is working within gentry society, and xue yang is working against it, wei wuxian is a third option -- completely separating himself from it. sure, he had the benefit of being adopted by a gentry clan, but we saw how well that worked out for him in the long run, and he was never allowed to forget his origins. like the other two, he's very aware of the hypocrisy of the gentry and is a direct victim of it, but instead of playing by their rules or burning it to the ground, he just. fucks off. if he'd been left alone, he could've probably stayed in the burial mounds indefinitely. he wouldn't have been happy, but that's more about missing his family than missing his status. and at the end, he has married into a gentry clan again and is begrudgingly accepted by gentry society, but he's more aware than anyone how conditional that acceptance is. his fondness for rogue cultivators and his cottagecore fantasies show that he's not really concerned with class and status, he just wants to be free and happy with the people he loves, separate from the concerns of high society

[chirpycloudyrobin]

Previous || Masterlist || START || Next

wei wuxian had barely dusted off the magma from the kiln off his person when he gets rudely yanked to mo village and mo xuanyu's side. he appears before mo xuanyu still in his bloodied yiling laozu set up and theyre both ??? confused as fuck because what the hell that wasnt supposed to happen !

turns out the whole sacrificial summon array didnt account for the possibility of summoning a ghost king. so there was no soul replacement, mo xuanyu is still alive, and wei wuxian once again walks with the living. ish. hes still dead. technically

now what ?

well mo xuanyu mustve been pretty desperate to unsubscribe from the reincarnation cycle just to get revenge on his family so wei wuxian hears him out ,,, and really really doesnt like the hand that mo xuanyu has been dealt with in his life so hes like welp time to tap into ye olde wuxian the helping hand. might as well bring in some justice now that hes back and better than ever !

but first wwx shldnt walk around looking like the entire cultivation world's worst nightmare so they brainstorm a new identity for him in that little shack.

they end up deciding that wwx will be a distant mo cousin. for wwx's disguise, he gave himself the birth name mo ling and the courtesy name mo shanxi. he is mo yi, courtesy name mo xuanyu's, other maternal cousin but like further down the family tree. a fourth son of a fourth son. parents dead, siblings dead. lots of fours, lots of death in the identity and the name. it's funni, cuz wwx is dead and hes a ghost and- you get the idea.

mo shanxi's an eccentric ex-rogue cultivator whose cultivating career ended early at the hands of the late core-melting hand. he has no sword because no core. hes friendly with crows because rogue cultivator things. he has a dizi because hes a traveler, a peasant, decidedly not gentry. an absolutely fool-proof disguise. no one would guess hes wei wuxian at all ! no one !

they still bust into the meeting between madam mo and the lan juniors and wwx helps mxy embarrass the entire family. they also still stay around to watch shit happen and it's during this time where wwx gives mxy practical lessons on fighting and cultivation. not demonic cultivation, mind, wwx doesnt want to damage mxy's fledgling golden core.

mxy is witness firsthand how wwx just bluescreens and takes A Minute to process seeing adult lan wangji. mxy knows that lwj is One Fine Ass Man and he, too, would undoubtedly climb lwj like a tree but wwx's reaction to lwj is just ,,, different.

hm, mxy thinks. interesting.

soon wwx snaps out of his "holy-shit-lwj" trance, grabs mxy's hand and skedaddles out of there. its funny, its camp, mxy has more questions than answers.

the entire mo family (besides mxy) is dead. the contract is complete. mxy is free.

"ykw," wwx thinks. "let's be rogue cultivators and ill teach you everything i know !" "i have absolutely nothing better to do," mxy says. "fuck it, lets go" "great ! for ur first lesson lets check out that story of a soul eating entity at dafan mountain" "what"

so ! dafan mountain. lessons going good, mxy has a good head on his shoulders. and then wwx accidentally insults his shijie's child. and then he and mxy are trapped between jc and lwj. and then they ,,, get out of it unscathed ? um

whatever, back to the lessons !

mxy was not having the best time in his life. shit got way out of hand way too quickly. he cant do anything to help in the fight so hes just trying to keep himself alive while wwx is trying to save everyone. theres too many crows and ravens yelling.

... why the fuck is wwx playing a dizi badly ?

mxy knows wwx is some kind of powerful ghost or whatever but now is not the time for a bad dizi concert ! senior wei please !!

mxy just feels really out of his depths right now as he watches everything unfold from his safe(ish) place high up a tree with a couple of wwx's creepy red-eyed crows.

he watches as the fucking ghost general answers wwx's dizi calls apparently ? (mxy may be half insane but he still knows the ghost stories they all tell about the yiling laozu and his ghost general)

he watches as wwx attempts to lead the ghost general to safety, and how his attempt is thwarted by none other than hanguang-jun himself. and then mxy is forced to watch the world's most awkward, most tense reunion in all the earth.

and then mxy sees sandu shengshou fucking whip wwx and attempt to do it a second time and he really, really cant just sit there and watch his saviour and senior be bullied.

so mxy jumps down, startles the living shit out of everyone, and proceeds to yell at them all. accuses jc of harrassment, of abuse of power, of weird kinks. wwx catches onto what mxy is doing and joins in the insanity, adding that lwj is more his type for good measure

senior wei, mxy thinks, watching lwj gaze at wwx with something in his eyes. what the actual fuck ?

if anyone asks how the hell they both ended up becoming guests at the cloud recesses, mxy will gladly tell them that it's all wwx's fault. at least mxy ended up being roomed at actual guest quarters. god knows what kind of shit is happening with wwx getting roomed in the jingshi of all places

NAME NOTES

Mò Yí (莫怡) — mo xuanyu's birthname in this au ! i like to think his mother gave him that birth name because she really wanted him to have a happy future :]

Mò Líng (莫玲) — 玲 is an onomatopoeia, referring to the sound jades make when they are hit. i like to think wwx chose this name on the spot absolutely not thinking about how a certain jade was doing lol

Mò Shànxì (莫善戲) — now this one is fun ! i took this from one of the poems in the Classic of Poetry aka Shijing aka the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry and one of the Five Classics. it's taken from the third paragraph of the poem Qi Yu from the Odes of Wei (as in the state of Wey. unfortunately not the same wei in wwx's name. thats a diff state)

瞻彼淇奧、綠竹如簀。 有匪君子、如金如錫、如圭如璧。 寬兮綽兮、猗重較兮。 [善戲] 謔兮、不為虐兮。 Look at those recesses in the banks of the Qi, With their green bamboos, so dense together! There is our elegant and accomplished prince, - [Pure] as gold or as tin, [Soft and rich] as a sceptre of jade! How magnanimous is he and gentle! There he is in his chariot with its two high sides! Skilful is he at quips and jokes, But how does he keep from rudeness in them!

so 善戲 should translate to "good at theatrical shows" as in he's good at putting on a show ! since mo ling is essentially just a role wwx is playing and all lmao. BUT ALSO the last sentence where i took the characters describes wwx pretty well. the sentence describes the lord aka the subject of the poem as someone who is good at playing games, jokes etc. but his jokes would never be intended to harm or to be rude. so wwx :]

his disguise's courtesy name also has a nice though subtle common element w lan wangji's birth name since the zhan is thought to also be taken from the five classics uwu

[spockandawe]

Hi....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.

It’s absolutely no problem at all!! I don’t think I’ve been asked this before, but hey, I also have zero object permanence, so it keeps things fresh and new. And it’s interesting to see how my answers change over time! Lemme see, I think I’m going to go in reverse order, because I feel like then I’ll be doing the worst agonizing up front.

TGCF

Fifth favorite: YIN. YU. I know that he’s a minor character and him even making it onto the list is pretty solid performance, but I do feel guilty that he isn’t higher than this. He came out of nowhere in my first reading and punched me in the stomach with emotions. I find his sections so hard to read, and I was DEVASTATED when he died and BEYOND stoked to find out he was still alive in the extras. His story hurts so much! I am weak against characters who have relatively modest goals and still see them snatched away (see also: my next entry) and have to struggle on. I wish wish wish I had a way to see more of how he made his peace with things after being thrown out of heaven, and the nature of the (distant) relationship with Hua Cheng and what happens with Quan Yizhen now that he died in his arms, and still came back anyways, my god!

.

Fourth favorite:  He Xuannnnnn. I have a hard time articulating particulars, but. I love him a lot. I love a character with a grudge, with a deep, painful grudge, where the grudge is hurting him almost as much as it’s hurting the people around him, and setting the grudge aside would also hurt, and then what has any of this been for-- I've used this metaphor for other characters, but I don’t care if I’m overusing it, because I love it. He feels like a character caught in a thorn bush, where simply being there... hurts, but trying to escape or move in any ways is going to hurt worse, and there’s no path forward that doesn’t involve pain. And like... I don’t love the way he hurt Shi Qingxuan (who didn’t quite make this list adfasgdafsd I’M SORRY) but I wouldn’t have liked to see him swallow back down all that pain and set aside everything that happened to his family and fiancee either! I’m always, always soft for characters who have no good path forward and who grit their teeth and set out anyways.

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Third favorite: MU QING!!!!!!!!!! I have done... extensive screaming about him. And I love him veryvery much. I can already tell that this list is going to have a lot of mean boys on it, and like... no regrets. Especially since this is one of my FAVORITE flavors, an unapologetic mean boy who is rarely (but sometimes!) soft for the people around him, and who regularly tries to do decently by people, but who consistently gets shat upon and misunderstood and accused of acting in bad faith. I screamed when he and Xie Lian finally got to talk their friendship out in the book. I also screamed when I realized how immediately after Xie Lian’s return he started looking out for him again, and how sincerely, despite his horrible attitude about it. I still want to write more fic for him so badly. I love him so much.

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Second favorite: Xie Lian! What a good boy! The best boy! He’s so sweet and gentle, but also the best fightboy this world has ever seen, and also so gently snarky with the people he loves! I just... really love me some traumatized characters who have trouble recognizing that they can be Loved, and I’m not going to write this whole essay right now, but I think in some ways, he’s the most... passive about his romance, out of all the leads? Shen Qingqiu is aggressively oblivious, but Xie Lian kind of gently shrugs off the idea that he might be Hua Cheng’s special someone, until he finally gets hit with the cluestick. I generally shy away from the idea of a character “earning” love, but he’s maybe the mxtx character who moves me most with ‘you deserve to be loved’

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Most favorite: Hua Cheng. HUA CHENG. Oh my god, gotta love this boy. Gotta love this devotion. I love a mean boy who is soft for one person, and he EMBODIES it. I mean, I love Shen Jiu, but he barely manages to do the soft thing at all, while Hua Cheng is over here like ‘if I could only be the stone beneath your feet--’ It’s hard to talk about him separately from Xie Lian, because they’re a unit in my head more than just about any other characters on this list are. I don’t want to get this list to get out of control, so I’m not going to scream for too long, but... I could just watch him go forever. I want to write him forever, and that’s a huge aspect of what draws me to some characters.

MDZS

Oh god, I think I lied, I think this book is going to be hardest. Making these choices is AGONIZING.

Fifth favorite: .....Lan Wangji. Oh god, I feel bad about how low he is. But this story is just packed SO full of wonderful characters, and I’m already consumed with guilt over all the characters who aren’t going to make it. I don’t love them less! But my love for characters in this particular story is very evenly distributed. And I think that Wang Yibo’s acting is possibly scoring points with me that the book might not have earned all by itself. Microexpressions and subtle body language add SO MUCH to a character with such flat affect, and I would be drawn to such a closed-off character anyways, but it really helps. And I love, like... the combined subtlety and intensity of his relationships. It’s not that subtle once you know what to look for, and the brother/sworn brother network makes for varying degrees of how much other characters understand of the things he chooses not to explicitly express, and it gives a really interesting character to the way he interacts with the people around him. Also, love me a man with intense separation anxiety.

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Fourth favorite: Jiang Yanli? I think it has to be Jiang Yanli, but these rankings are hard. So. I just talked about how much I enjoy the flat affect and closed off nature of Lan Wangji? Well, guess what, I also love it when m’girl is just very GENUINELY AND OPENLY an absolute sweetheart of a person, and I love the contrast between her genuinely kind nature and the uncomfortable pressure that her family’s dynamics put on her to start parenting at a very young age. It’s not necessarily a happy situation, but she adores her brothers so much and they adore her so much! And it’s... a very understated element of the story, but after her parents died, her baby brothers went off to war, and one wreaked havoc as a straightforward commander and one of them disappeared for months and returned as a creepy-ass zombie puppeteer. And she STILL dotes on them like before, despite knowing what they’re capable of. Like, yes, Wei Wuxian just raised an army of corpses and forced a man to eat himself, but I shall still boop him on the nose and feed him Soup. How can I not adore energy like that?

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Third favorite: Wei Wuxian, I think. I do adore him a lot. He gives me some of the same vibes that make me ache most with Xie Lian, where he is trying his best, and is struggling to hold on in the face of lots of suffering, and I find it really interesting that when the suffering peaked, Xie Lian was forced go on because he couldn’t die, while Wei Wuxian... expired. That line about ‘he thought that no matter how large the world was, there was still no place for him’ always sticks with me, and hurts me deeply. Xie Lian had most of his personal attachments stripped away, and was left to wander on his own, while Wei Wuxian still had a number of strong connections left, but abruptly exited life. And that informs their respective trauma so interestingly! The way Wei Wuxian bounces between high energy chaos and drained exhaustion is really fascinating to me, and was the thread that held me attached to the book through a very confusing beginning. And I’m still very drawn to how intensely he loves, whether it’s Xiao Zhan’s fantastic acting, or it’s him busting out with how much he wants Lan Wangji in the middle of the Guanyin Temple scene. He’s a fantastic character, honestly, I don’t think such a convoluted book would have held together very well without a protagonist this strong.

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Second favorite: Xue Yang :X Look, he’s a good boy and I love him. Who among us hasn’t done a few mass murders that we are completely unrepentant about, but that we would really like to keep hidden from our current boyfriend, actually? Anyways, as always, love me an angry boy who makes terrible decisions for understandable reasons. And I do love a character who is consumed by agonized ragrets (see my next entry), but I DO also love me a character who has no regrets at all and doesn’t even have much interest in trying to justify himself to anyone else around him. Just look at that confidence! Look at him go!!

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Most favorite: Jiang... Cheng....... I knew he and Xue Yang were going to be at the top, but those were the only parts of this list that were easy. I mean. Love a self-sabotaging angryboy who is also super super sad and keeps hurting himself in his own confusion. And while I love the romantic thread in all of the mxtx books, the agonized family thread in mdzs is one of my favorite parts, and something that I don’t really see echoed in any of the other stories. I need ten million jc+wwx reconciliations, at LEAST. He’s so sad! And so angry! And I want to see him becoming less of that thing, and for Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian to demonstrate very firmly how much they love him, because they do. I am invested in his happiness in a way that goes far and beyond any of the other non-main characters, haha

SVSSS

Fifth favorite: Tianlang-jun. I think? Oh god, but moshang. THIS IS REALLY HARD, I HATE THIS ;-; But especially since writing my fic, Tianlang-jun has really won me over. And like, he already hurt me good in the novel, just thinking about how he was an innocent young guy, just! Trying to have a girlfriend! And instead got trapped in sensory deprivation, body-rotting-hell for twenty years, when he didn’t do anything wrong!!! He suffered, so much! And I live for his intensely strained relationship with Luo Binghe, because it’s! Perfectly understandable and painful, from both of their perspectives! And he wants to hate humans so badly, but in the end, when he’s told that Su Xiyan never betrayed him, he starts helplessly asking the people around him, ‘really? is it really true?’ and then in the end he loses the only family member he has left who cares about him, and it’s just! Everything is terrible! I have a su xiyan au brewing in my head because I can’t stand it! Someone just give this man a loving partner!!!

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Fourth favorite: Shen Qingqiu. But... moshang??? Goddammit. Anyways, this dumbass. I find him so endearing, in his dumbassery. I sometimes get a bit frustrated with Wei Wuxian for being oblivious, and Shen Qingqiu is just asking for me to react the same way, but I... don’t, for the most part? Because he thinks he has good information, and he’s slow to react to a changing playing field, and I still haven’t read another transmigration novel that strikes the same balance of hypercompetence and intense incompetence :ppp It’s a funny book, and he’s a funny character! And I really vibe with him, in most parts of the story, which covers a pretty darn wide emotional spectrum. Plus, the running internal commentary is choice.

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Third favorite: Liu Qingge. Look, I’m a woman of simple needs, and sometimes I just need a high-quality fightboy who clearly cares deeply and is absolute garbage at expressing his emotions. I can’t articulate it much better than that. I absolutely howl at the succubus extra, when Shen Qingqiu is talking to Madam Meiyin about his future partner, and Liu Qingge is like ‘oh my god, sHE IS CLEARLY DESCRIBING ME’ and Shen Qingqiu is like ‘haha, liu-shidi, i thought you thought this was stuupidddddddd’. They’re both so dumb. I love them so much. But stupidity plus war god fighting energy has a narrow lead over stupidity and internal commentary track.

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Second favorite: SHEN JIU. GOD. I’m still arguing with myself over whether he should go first, but Luo Binghe hurts me consistently through the whole entire story, so I think he wins. Shen Jiu just stabs me in the heart at strategic moments. This is it. My ideal mean boy who is soft for one (1) person, and who BOTH does unconscionable things for terrible reasons (someone just. give him a pile of girls to teach, it will be much more pleasant for everyone involved), and who ALSO gets blamed for things he didn’t do even when he tries to act in good faith. It is the best of all painful worlds. And even at the end, when he has a powerful person who wants desperately to protect him, he still tries his hardest to shove that person away, to keep him safe. I’ve got like four aus where he gets to live. I’m so invested in this character, I love him so much.

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Most favorite: Luo Binghe. He was.... made for me............ Like, the overwhelming amounts of childhood angst were baked in by Shang Qinghua, but the in-story pain and suffering is PRECISELY my jam. I love a character with separation anxiety! I love a character with massive anxieties over being unwanted! Over nobody ever, EVER just choosing him! I love a character struggling with the idea that the person he loves most in the world thinks that he’s intrinsically Disgusting! I love the kind of stubborn determination that leads him to preserve a corpse for five years, desperately hoping for a way to revive it, constantly cooking fresh food, in case, in case he someday wakes up. The way Hua Cheng loves is overpowering, but he’s had time to like... learn to be mellow when he needs to be. Luo Binghe doesn’t have a chill bone in his body, and if he’s acting chill, it’s probably because he’s done some mental math and decided that being more clingy right now will probably get him pushed away harder. I love the combination of manipulative tendencies and a very, very genuine fear of rejection and being unwanted. There is nothing I don’t love about Luo Binghe, including his worst decisions. I love him so so much.

[yuziyuanapologist]

hi rino! i would love to hear more about chengsu with jin ling moments and/or the mermaid au if you want :)

ahhhh hello lovely! thank u for asking this ahhh i love to talk about my babies

the chengsu fics really are just tiny soft moments for now, but since ive got into sprinting recently i might try and bash at least one of them out at some point soon since i know exactly what happens in them both.

so, one fic is of qin su going to find jiang cheng after noticing him get upset at some conference somewhere, and then thinking about how jiang cheng treats jin ling when he thinks no one is looking, and hoping that he will one day treat a-song the same way (ok maybe it was not all soft oops)

and the other is qin su accidentally unloading onto jiang cheng about all her fears (and some not fears, more understanding and wanting to be happy for them) regarding jgy and lxc, so its not really explicitly relationship chengsu but i just like it when they are friends so. and im usually not big on cheating and all that but also theyre. theyre like. jin guangyao is her um. anyway. i dont know! its difficult to know where i stand but anyway, chengsu,

...you get it.

the mermaid au is! an idea that i really like but am also quite very stuck on unfortunately. its half au, half canon divergence in which handwave handwave it diverges off of ep 31 but somehow the previous events have all happened without the lans because they uh. [busted voice] they live underwater.

so, wei wuxian is captured and forced to live underwater with them so that he cant speak and therefore make any music, while hes put on trial for the whole shebang of ep 31 (except jin zixuan didnt die because im a soft hearted bitch) at first lan wangji seems is unmoved by wwx's whole existence and all but as time goes on he starts to realise that wwx isnt the villain as he has been led to believe, and that he has a family that needs saving because the burial mounds is currently under siege and oh-no-what-happens-next-will-shock-you they fall in love and stuff

lil snippets of the fics under the cut if u are interested in that!

chengsu:

She finds him - where else - by the lotus pond. Jin Ling is there, three years old now, and splashing around as if making waves will turn it into a Yunmeng lake.

Jiang Cheng is watching, tense and upset, the sort of face she's seen him make with Jin Ling thrown over his shoulder because he won't stop wailing and he refuses to sleep. But this isn't about that - obviously. She's been at the conference, just as the others have - even since her marriage is so different to the way she envisioned it - A-Yao asked for her support and her presence, and she gives both willingly. She'd been at the conference, therefore, when conversation had turned to grievances of old. When Sect Leader Jin had seen fit to publically mourn his son, and daughter-in-law, and nephew, and fill the hall with cries of hatred for their murderers.

Eyes are drawn to the loudest in the room at this point, such is always the case, but Qin Su finds her eyes on the quietest. On the closed-lipped, trembling-handed anger - no, not anger - betrayal - no, nor that -

Grief.

mermaids (the snippet could be considered pretty heavy, and kind of graphic about drowning, so be careful if that bothers you!):

The water is heavy.

The water is heavy, and suffocating.

The water is heavy, and suffocating, and drowning is what he deserves.

They never wanted him to breathe down here, to survive the spell - curse, more like, that they pretended to put on him to allow him to live underwater. This was all a ruse. He knows it. His lungs are folding in on themselves under the weight of the water, and any second now they'll be crushed completely.

He can still feel the blood seeping out from the gashes on his chest, dissipating into the water behind him, the spelled blades that sank through his ribs not allowing for the blood to stop flowing so easily.

There was pain, too, but oh, how easily he ignored it. Compared to what else he's felt, this means nothing, it is nothing. He is stronger, better, above everything that they throw at him, and when he dies in this water he will become the resent and control it from the inside, and he will watch over his family at the Burial Mounds and he will have his revenge on those who -

He is still half resent. Can't push it out of himself, think without it, rise above it. Does it matter? Perhaps not, but he would like to think he could return to himself now, climb back up onto the edge he jumped off when faced with Jin Zixun - only it seemed to have snapped something inside him, and the resentful energy flows thicker than blood, waning only for small snatches before returning in full force.

With these thoughts to distract him, he hasn't noticed that he's still alive. Beneath the lake, ankles weighed down with those engraved stones, ribs still flowing over with blood - only they're not, anymore.

He's alive, no longer breathing, no longer bleeding. His hands, when he looks down, are colourless and icy cold, and the water filling his mouth no longer feels unwelcome.

Is he alive? He can't be.

Cursed, is what he is. Neither alive nor dead, neither resent nor golden energy, neither human nor creature of the deep.

He exists, but as an affront to nature. And voiceless.

Voiceless. Powerless.

Trapped.

[demonitized-cultivation]

AU where MXY is summoning WWX and? something goes batshit? he ends up blacking out and he finally wakes up and who the fuck is this pers-OH MY GOD IT'S THE YILING LAOZU I FUCKED UP I FUCKED UP. WWX has /no/ idea why he's alive but hes here? and apparently he has to kill some bitches because if he doesnt both MXY and WWX gonna die. WWX automatically adopts him and they awkwardly try to disguise WWX while MXY is trying to understand what's happening but it's better than dealing with the Mo's.

OH I LOVE THIS

“Hmm, I’m gonna keep you” “w-what?” “Nothing, dont worry about it. I’m gonna need a way to disguise myself, any suggestions?”

To make things easy we’ll say mxy has a mask like in the untamed. It’s not much but it’s better than nothing.

Then mxy’s cousin busts in wwx just knows he’s one of the cuts on mxy’s arms. He humiliates him in front of his servant(s) then promptly knocks them out. “How many cuts?” “The same, Yiling Laozu.” “Oh no, no, that won’t do. Call me wei ying.” “I-I couldn’t possibly-“ “well then call me whatever you like, but not yiling laozu.” ”w-wei yi... teacher Wei!” ”...we’ll work on it”

wwx figures he's gonna have to kill them all not just humiliate them to get rid of the cuts. The Lan disciples visiting are going to make that difficult though. He and mxy are hiding in the crowd until mxy’s stinky cousin comes back and wwx is suddenly pulled forward, recognized as mxy by the mask. Things continue basically as regular (with mxy being mortified in the crown. ‘How could he say I’d do things to my own cousin!?; ‘Why is he bothering the lan disciples, does this man have no shame!?’)

Shortly after Lwj shows up he’s snapped out of his daze by wwx suddenly appearing next to him and they make a run for it.

They head back to mxy’s ‘home’ which confuses him at first “why have we come here teacher wei?” “So you can grab what you own and we can leave, now hurry” “oh... I-I dont really own anything worth bringing along. Sorry to make you waste your time like this teacher wei!” “No need to apologize, don’t bow! And I told you stop calling me teacher wei! What am I like that old man now? Huh? What is that a donkey?” “Ah yes, but he’s quite temperamental, I wouldn’t get close if I were you.” “Nonsense! I’m gonna call you little apple”

They head to dafan mountain, but not without difficulty. And some good ole road trip conversation. “this donkey is terrible!! Ayia, I miss traveling on my sword” “I saw your sword in Jin sect’s valt. I was even allowed to try and unsheathe it but it remained sealed of course” “sealed?”; “we don’t have any money how do you expect to get food?” “My dear boy I have been training to get free things all my life.”; “aren’t you disgusted by me?” “Disgusted about what?” “I’m a cut-sleeve...” “I see no reason to be disgusted at love. No matter what kind.” “...”

They arrive at dafan mountain and quickly run into jin ling who recognizes mxy, and who mxy recognizes in turn. “Young master Jin” ‘ah, so this is my nephew :)’ “so it’s you. What are you doing here still? Get off of my sight, damn cut-sleeve.” ‘oh so THIS is my nephew :T’

Wwx doesn’t comment about JL’s mother but they still fight “what an adittude! Is this any way a sect heir should act?” “... who the fuck are you?” And their fight still attracts jiang cheng, and lan zhan.

JC and JL leave and this time it’s wwx who is recognized as mxy “Master Mo we meet again, who is this?” “Ah this is my younger brother! You see I wasn’t telling the full truth before. I was also defending him when I knocked out my cousin. I’ve decided we’ve had enough of that place. We left while there was comotion so no one would try and stop us.” “I see, well it’s nice to meet you second master mo” “Ah yes you as well. Uh te- ahem g-gege we should let them get back to their night hunt, let’s go.”

But they run into them again and Wwx is forced to summon Wen Ning in order to defeat the goddess statute to protect his nephew and newly acquired little brother. And is then required to calm him down using a melody he can barely recall. Mxy is just as shocked as everyone else at the ghost general’s appearance. But he payed more attention to how wwx is able to control him even with such a bad flute. Truly amazing.

He also sees his and lwjs stare off and he’s not sure if it looks aggressive or longing?? It has to be the first right?? There’s no way-

His musings are disrupted by jc storming in and whipping out zidian. Wwx makes a break for it towards mxy and gets them both whipped. He immediately whispers and apology for getting them not whipped on purpose and checks where mxy was hit to make sure he isn’t too hurt. As the others discuss how this proves their innocence, a lan junior (coughjingyicough) opens his big mouth about how ‘master mo couldn’t be wei ying because-‘ which Jin ling chips in and interrupts because “Master mo? That’s not mo xuanyu, the other one is!” “No that is his brother!” “Mo xuanyu hasn’t got any brothers!”

There’s a moment of quiet as everyone looks at the two. Wwx finds himself being very greatful that with one wearing a mask they seem similar. He glares down Jin ling “Of course you wouldn’t know about me, I don’t share a father with mo xuanyu.” Then he turns to the lan disciples with a regretful smile “My cousin mistook us for each other constantly. I didn’t see the point in correcting him anymore. I should’ve clarified to you earlier today, I apologize.”

Everyone finds this explanation passable. It’s not like Jin ling knew enough about mo xuanyu’s past to disprove this anyways, and now that all the mo family have passed no one will be able to disprove it. Jiang cheng still of course is angered by the fact that they’re demonic cultivators. But then Lwj says he’s taking them back to cloud recess and who can dare argue with lwj.

Oof, I’ll stop there for now I think. I’m thinking maybe wwx leaves mxy in cloud recess while he goes out with lwj to piece back together nmj’s corpse.

[one-doesnt-simply-walk-in-bagend]

MDZS Pacific Rim au

Ok I’m gay and love soulmate shit like souls just meant for each other whether platonic/familial/romantic just that shits so good and what better way to express that than in huge robots beating up giant monsters?

So jaegers right? Ok sect backgrounds

Yunmeng Jiang: Specialize in water battles with controlled yet fluid movements. They specialize in midranged battle with swords and whips that keep kaiju at a distance but theyre also very adept at close combat. They definitely have hidden daggers in every open crevice of their jaegers

Gusu Lan: Specialize in more aerial battles, not like sustained in air battles but using different maneuvers to gain the advantage over kaiju. They tend to work in pairs and work in tandem to disorient and overwhelm the kaiju. They’re strict because not only do you have to vibe with your copilot but you also have to know what other pilots are thinking so you can work together 

Qinghe Nie: Ok so Nies made some of the og jaegers with nuclear power and low shielding because it give them a Massive Boost in power but it was also dangerous for their pilots. While the other sects went for better shielding and less dangerous power sources, the nies kept the trade off because pilots felt that risking their lives was worth protecting their people. Nie pilots tend to die young

Lanling Jin: Kind of like the Nies the Jin style has trade offs. They opt for thing light plating so they are quick to maneuver and get at weak points on kaiju. They specialize in speed and precision to keep them alive and effective. They’re basically squishy genjis 

Qishan Wen: Idk I feel they have experimental but dangerous tech that they test. The sects are wary of them but they get results so there’s not much they can complain about. The wens have the advantage because so many of their population are drafted for their pilot program where the other sects take volunteers and people who want to become disciples.

This might get long so imma put the rest under a read more :L

Ok so do we want plot or soulmates first? Hmmm plot to explain the soulmates

We start with wwx and jc. Yzy trains them fast and hard with the other disciples and they both excel in their training. Wwx and jc have a jaeger named Night’s Envy. 

They are a team to be reckoned with as they balance each other. Wwx is impulsive but has great instincts and his ideas are brilliant if risky. Jc on the other hand is calculating and analytical and he takes his brothers ideas and turns them into a viable plan they can both pull off. 

Yzy is always harsh on wwx for his tactics saying hes going to get his brother hurt one day but wwx just laughs it off with jc bc they trust each other so well. 

Also because they drift, they know of each others insecurities and help each other when tensions spike etc etc. We are here for supportive brothers ok?? They are the Twin Heroes of Yunmeng and are inseparable. 

God I havent even gotten to the plot yet. Ok this is a bit of a step back to their training days but this is where wwx and lwj met. Wwx and jc go to the Cloud Recesses training facility because its the most advanced in the country. It’s strict there but their training is top notch and keeps their pilots alive. Ofc wwx gets busted by lwj for alcohol and thats how wwx gets on lwjs radar.

Lwj doesnt know how to feel about wwx, besides annoyed, because hes such an amazing pilot but doesnt control his actions. Wwx excels in the studies and training but is so carefree and flippant about everything that it frustrates him to no end. Doesn’t help that wwx loves to rile lwj up to get a reaction

They end up developing a competitive relationship and always try to outdo each other in training sims and sparing. All the other disciples know about the top two students duking it out for top spot but they keep switching between each session. Before they get to actually try drifting together wwx gets into a fight with jzx and gets kicked out (spoilers they are drift compatible) 

Ok back to our Twin Heroes. Night’s Envy gets deployed for a kaiju but their fight starts to drift into Wen territory. Idk regulations or smth say they shouldn’t infringe on anothers territory so yzy tells them to come back but wwx spots the kaiju headed for an undefended village. It would take the wens time to deploy their own pilots so wwx and jc look at each other and nod. Wwx says their headed to save the village and yzy is furious telling him off for being impulsive and not listening but it was also jc’s idea (he wont say that tho bc he doesnt want him to get into trouble)

Wwx has a wild idea, jc finds out how to make it work, and they go after the kaiju as it bears down on the village. They’re able to push it back but it gets a hit in and jc gets injured and knocked out. Wwx is left to pilot solo and manages to subdue the kaiju before piloting the jaeger to crash next to the village

This is where Wen Qing and Wen Ning come in because this is their village and they pull wwx and jc out from the wreckage. Wq stabilizes both of them and wwx is the one to wake up first. Their comms were broken in the fight and the village doesnt have advanced enough comms to get to the jiangs so wwx stays and helps the village while taking care of his brother who is still Out

Little do they know that the Wens are Unhappy about them infringing on their territory and bar yzy from sending parties to collect her pilots and jaeger and theres now Tension. (Wens are just using this as an excuse bc they want more power in the jaeger industry and want to incorporate the other sects)

Once wwx catches wind of this, he enlists wn’s help in getting them out and they’re able to get an unconscious jc back into the jiang’s hands but then he himself gets caught by wen chao and wen zhuliu. he’s able to say wn was his prisoner and forced so hes safe but wwx is now in their hands.

He gets beaten, tortured, etc for information but manages to escape and find his way back to the wen village. Wq helps him back to health bc he protected her brother and he stays there because he can be safe there. (This is where he basically adopts a-yuan bc i say so)

When jc wakes up hes back with the jiangs but his brother isn’t there. He goes Off and hes doing everything he can to try and get back to find his brother but he was unconscious and has no clue about the village let alone where it is. 

Soon war breaks out between the sects bc the wens are using their weird tech to take territories from the other sects and now the sects are fighting on two fronts: the kaiju and the wens. Finding wwx is lowest priority for the sects but jc is still out there searching and when lwj hears of it, so is he

I think once the war breaks out wwx starts to move his village of wens to a safer territory from both the wens and other sects bc he knows no one will be spared. During his time at he village, he ventures out to bigger wen cities and learns about their experimental/dangerous tech and learns how to use it and program it to his advantage

He makes his way back to the jiang territories once he has amassed a thorough knowledge of the wen tech. he uses that knowledge to take out wen pilots and outposts in the territories he pushes through and becomes a ghost. the only evidence of his presence is the destruction left in his wake. 

Jc and lwj at this point have just started searching together and thats when they stumble upon wwx using wen tech against the wens. Jc is so angry with wwx for leaving him and being away so long but hes also crying as he hugs him close. Lwj is wary of the tech wwx is using because its experimental and dangerous idk. Jc takes wwx back and they continue fighting the war.

Now the jiangs and thus the rest of the sects have an advantage because they have an insider who knows the wen’s plans (meng yao) and someone who knows how their tech works and can use it against them  (wwx). wwx is able to set up some tech to hold off kaiju so certain forces can be pushed to the wen front to end the war quicker

in the final battle wwx is able to get them a huge advantage with the tech but gets hit hard with backlash and gets knocked out during the battle and lwj and jc defend his unconscious figure as meng yao gets the final blow on wrh and the battle ends. 

Idk i want lans to still be healers cuz i want lwj to take care of an unconscious wwx while jc and the others deal with the end of war idk meetings etc plus there are still like,,, kaiju attacking lmao

jgs is gonna be targeting wwx since he knows the wens tech and its uses etc. the jins go after the remaining wens bc they want their tech blah blah. they find wq’s village and wwx goes off. he goes and rescues them (wn is injured but alive) and takes them away. jgs spins this as wwx trying to amass his own tech to take over or something and people believe that for some reason w/e

the massacre at nightless city is wwx trying to talk to them about the wen remnants being no fighting army etc etc but doesnt matter and someone attacks him and he fights back but of course experimental tech isnt always good and it accidentally gets too powerful and hurts a Lot of People (jyl is alive). wwx is knocked out by the backlash and lwj takes him to safety. 

wn is there and he takes wwx back to where the rest of the remnants are hiding and lwj fights off 33 elders who try to follow/intercept wn and wwx

I haven’t decided how the rest is gonna go but I have Ideas. Tbqh there’s a lot missing in between the bullets but i wanted to get this all down 

[lotus-mirage]

Untamed episode 20 liveblog!

Mark me down as Anxious

Right, so what’s she see? Oh, the eyeballs are still there? Huh. Peeling off what I assume was the warding talisman was probably a bad idea.

Who is that? Looks like a girl?

Oh there’s wwx! He’s behind the necromancy, assumedly?

How is he here? Isn’t it pretty far from the burial mounds? Who’s the puppet? So many questions.

Wait, what? Isn’t she still alive? I guess the villagers were too, but most of the puppets we’ve seen so far haven’t been.

Oh jeez he stabbed her okay

He’s in a much worse headspace than I thought

Oh! Illusions, then?

Ohhhh. That’s.... ohhhh jeez.

Where did he get the flute from anyway? Also wow it’s just spewing magic.

Oh jeez did she hang herself!?

Not interfering with Wen Zhuliu’s snatch-and-run rescue?

Oh. Is this happening at the same time???? What a time to arrive. Yikes.

How did these guards all die? Doesn’t look like fighting.

‘All different causes.’ Really? That’s a lot of effort.

Attacking her corpse is kind of understandable at this point frankly

Why would they have reversed talismans? That can’t have been intentional. How could they not have noticed? Illusions? He’d have to have been there already for that, right??

Just four strokes? I mean, I get it’s an unlucky number, but it was reversed by only that?

Human blood though, so probably after the fact. Why? What was the purpose, if the attacker was already there?

Oh no, a survivor from the dungeons? That’s either the other of the two wandering cultivators or a Wen sibling.

Oh no! If Wen Qing’s the only one, then presumably... noooo

Oh shoot, Wen Ning was easily affected by ghosts too, wasn’t he. Maybe he got out?

Great! He’s not confirmed dead! Well. Yet, I guess.

Awww, he kept the comb?

She did take it, then.

I thought they were going by sword flight thing?

‘Wicked energy’. Alright.

His hands

Oh jeez okay

Is that him? That’s a lot of buildup.

Yyup

Is Wen Zhuliu not going to fight him?

Very dramatic as always. Outfit is different though.

There’s the reveal!

What did LAN Wangji’s spell do? Seal them off?

Pfft, that dramatic spin. Multiple times.

He’s letting him keep playing the flute this whole time?

Her fingernails made him scream?

Is this another illusion or the real thing?

Why was he that unconcerned about Wen Zhuliu flying for his throat?

Speaking of concerning: wwx’s face didn’t change when they busted through the roof.

That’s a pretty harsh send-off

Awww.

AWWWWWWW

Yyeah, he doesn’t look too good.

I’m glad that Jiang Cheng is expressing himself.

Okay, so this confrontation is probably necessary, but it certainly could do to be tabled for later. Also Wen Chao is still right there.

twirls his flute. drama queen.

Okay, so... corrupting influence! Huzzah.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am highly concerned with how little he’s visibly emoting

Also what he’s saying. That too.

Oh finally the music kicked back in. I hadn’t realized that it has stopped.

...Yeah, that’s barely subtext.

It’s the lotus pier theme! Aahhhhhhhhh

With vocals too!

Hhhhhh

Okay that’s a decent ending point

End notes:

Okay so. In summary: incredibly concerned. Just as a general mood for the entire episode, but most so in the convo between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. So many flags. So many. I’m terrified.

So, what he tells us he’s been up to: learned another art from a book hidden in a cave. Didn’t explain anything between then and his reappearance, but implied that he’s back for the final bit of the Sunshot campaign.

Jiang Cheng hasn’t voiced assumptions, but Lan Wangji certainly has. From what he says, whatever practice he’s doing is a known thing and corrupts the wielder. For some reason he wants him to go to Gusu - WWX seemed to see that as a threat, due to the number of disciples there??

It’s nice to see him interacting with Jiang Cheng - he seems the most ‘normal’ then. Interestingly, the opposite occurs w/ LWJ.

I wonder how this works? How long it’ll last? The opening scene could go either way, but his behavior in the first two episodes seems much more in line with his earlier tomfoolery.

I just realized another factor that might be throwing me off: there’s no internal monologue from him. No reaction cuts (at least with expository emotions) or even, like, planning/thinking faces. So. No clue what’s going on inside his head, beside what he tells people, and we know that he’s not always honest.