#mzds fic

[searchingforserendipity25]

no water in the gardens, no flowers in the water.

300 words. AO3

Have you head, have you seen Sect Leader Jiang and Sect Leader Jin, whenever she comes to Koi Tower? He blushes like a boy hoping for.a moonlight walk still when he greets her. 

Hearing the gossips speak, then, one would think the affair a certainty, a sordid thing.

But their walks were done in daylight, with courtiers spying behind walls and screens, and all they spoke of was the counting of grain and the hunting of foul beasts.

They made a point of it. Deep bows when trading courtesies during Cultivation Conferences, deep but equal. No excessive toasting, and no goading to be tolerated - it never was.

No room in the Jianghu that Jiang-zongzhu could not quiet. The gossips said that, too; and mostly that, after some years passed, and old betrothals were forgotten into ancient history.

Always in company, for of course Jin Zixuan was forever surrounded by a cloud of disciples and aides, thick as dragonflies in summer at first; and then fewer, a well-pruned collection of peony-yellow robes, those few that had served in the Sunshot Campaign with him, and survived his father's underhanded displease in the years after victory.

Jiang Yanli, all knew, was forever accompanied by her sworn sword whenever she left Lotus Pier under her brother's keeping.

The Yiling Patriarch was a terror, only kept half-tame beneath her chiding glance; and he was a devoted chaperone, also, as much as he ever had been.

Devoted, in making certain no spies hid in the eaves, none besides the high moon glinting off the golden walls. Wei Wuxian leapt to his guarding place, scratched his nose. Tilted his ear towards the whispers of ghosts and demons, tried his best to ignore the murmuring. A-Xuan, A-Li. The rustling of reeds, a sound like water running, rippling.

[noswordinourlake]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jiang Yanli/Lan Qiren Characters: Jiang Yanli, Lan Qiren, Wen Ruohan, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Regency Romance inspired, Age Difference, the canon divergence tag carrying a lot of weight here, what Shijie wants Shijie gets, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

Jiang Yanli sits at the desk in her rooms in Cloud Recesses and stares at her father’s letter. It's becoming increasingly obvious that if she wants a good future, one where she can be happy, the only person who is going to actually do something to secure it is her, herself.

OR: Jiang Yanli is a shijie in want of a husband.

[labseraph]

Am reading a most delightful MDZS modern AU featuring an autistic character by the super talented @scarlettohairdye and now I'm thinking: Am I autistic? I remember feeling just like the character about things in the world as a child except that I was conditioned to pay attention to my facial expressions very closely.

You learn something new every day indeed.

Anyhoo, do go and read the fic. It's such a delight!

GIF of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying exchanging fond glances from The Untamed. Lan Zhan in pale Gusu Lan robes and forehead ribbon and Wei Ying in dark robes.

[eli-green]

I love it when a fanfic says slow burn but the entire fic is about 20,000words 😂 Girl please… I have read fics where it took them 200,000 words to just to hold hands…

[letteredlettered]

Fic Rec

Lament, by @kianspo

The premise of this fic is that WWX never comes back. LWJ as well as LXC and LSH feature. I thought that LXC’s and LSH’s parts would focus on LWJ’s grief, but this fic does something different with them.

I generally don’t want to read about the fragile beauty of making peace with grief. To me, reading about that feels more upsetting than whatever caused the grief in the first place, even though acceptance is healthy and necessary. In fact, perhaps it’s because it’s healthy and necessary that I find it so upsetting. If I’m going to read a sad fic, I want to wallow in agony, not be healthy! That said, this fic handled that differently than I was expecting, and made me feel good about everything in the end, which is pretty nice for a sad!fic.

Here are the things this fic made me think about. Slight spoilers for the story are contained herein:

LWJ. I’ve talked before about how one of my favorite things about LWJ is that he moves on. I always think of that as part of his resilience and strength, but in this fic, his decision to move on isn’t about strength, really. It isn’t a decision at all. It’s because he’s an animal.

The fact that LWJ is an animal isn’t explicitly mentioned in the fic and isn’t really what the fic is about. But the fact remains that humans are all animals, and animals are biological, and biology is a product of evolution, and life that survives happens to survive because it has mechanisms to survive. Humans like to think that we are stories, and we tell ourselves stories of who we are, and when our story is destroyed, we think that we should be destroyed too.

We forget that we have bodies, and our bodies want things for us—not just food and water and sleep. Our bodies want us to love our brothers and teach our children. Our hearts and minds want that for us, even when sometimes our conscious understanding can’t. That’s what LWJ in this story is.

LXC. Because I thought this story would focus on LWJ’s grief, I didn’t consider the range of time it might cover, which extends past the events of canon. One of LXC’s lovers murdered his other lover, among other things. LXC has his own grief, and he handles it in a completely different way than LWJ, because grief takes many forms and many shapes. The story doesn't directly discuss all the different ways we handle grief but instead shows it beautifully.

LSH. I might’ve told this story before, but once when I was maybe eight, my mom was telling me about something she and her best friend did in high school. I’d never heard of this best friend or ever even thought about my mom in high school. I asked her if she still talked to her friend, and she said probably not. I asked why, and my mom said she’d moved away and had a different life now.

Later that night I thought about it, and I cried and cried. I was heartbroken that there were things about my mom I didn’t know. I was also heartbroken that she had a different life now, that because she had her life here with me and my dad and my brothers in the place where we lived, she couldn’t also have a life with her best friend where she used to live. I was also heartbroken about the fact that I couldn’t witness or be there for the life that she had had. Basically, I was heartbroken over the fact that time exists and mind melds don't.

I think the shattering revelation that people have their own internal lives is something that’s kind of hard to hold in your brain at all times. I think it’s particularly hard for children, which makes it almost impossible to do when it comes to your parents. They’re just . . . there. They’ve always been there. A fact of existence. They do the things they do, and sometimes it’s very hard to understand that they do them for their own internal specific reasons, rather than that’s how the universe itself was built.

This is LSH in this fic. He continually is faced with the fact that his father is his own person who is built on his own history. LSH wonders about it, and yet his mind also slips off of it, because that’s just the way his father is.

But as we grow older, we often begin to understand our parents more and more. In so doing, we often begin to understand more and more about ourselves, and that’s also what this fic is about.

[labseraph]

Me currently devouring @cicerfics MZDS 'verse fics. So good.

There’s fanfiction…. And then there’s FANFICTION. The kind of shit you happen upon at like 3am or some other ungodly time because you were trying to find a fix for ur fixation at the time and you are just SUCKED IN and every sentence feels like a line of cocaine and it has quotes and imagery that permeate your brain and it’s the shit that sticks around in your consciousness forever and it never goes away and it’s always going to be one of Those Fics.

[neverwalka1one]

Not me being the most anxious little kitten in the shelter that is MZDS Big Bang author pics. LOOK this fic is CUTE and has FEELS and also VIOLENCE. Clearly it is the best. Or something. It's definitely something!

[bardicinspired]

MZDS / The Untamed fandom. Is there any fics where show Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian make up after Wei Wuxian's death? Because watching them be goofy brothers in the flashback is *heartbreaking*

[labseraph]

Jiang Cheng is a character that I feel is misunderstood by many; he is often trapped in hard places and has nothing but terrible choices, thanks to his parents' conditioning and his responsibilities.

Hence my soft spot for fics where he's shown to be a competent sect leader and has an opportunity to heal with Wei Wuxian.

This is a lovely fix-it fic that is such a satisfying read. So much ���️❤️❤️❤️❤️

GIF of Wei Wuxian on the left in black robes eating a bao with obvious enjoyment. Jiang Cheng on the right in pale grey-green robes watching him eat with a tender expression on his face.

[notarockyet]

n-naughtiness...

First thing you see after you zoom in is how you die

How you dying 👀

[eli-green]

When you find out that one of your favourite fanfic author also obsessed with the same fandoms as you @shanastoryteller and has one of the most rated WIP fic #survival is a talent, you suddenly have plans for the weekend and have to cancel everything else 😂

[whumpbby]

Is it just me not finding the right fic yet or is the thing that Modern AU MZDS fics are not using nearly enough is coma?

Like, usually we Wuxian being gone for 13/16 years is explained as him just leaving the city, but what it we went for the coma explanation? 🤔

[skygemspeaks]

I started reading mzds for the fics, there are some great (and traumatic) time travel fics and great au fics and just great other fics… I still haven’t finished canon 😅

AKLSJDALKJ don't worry nonny, we've all been there!

[weirdocat83]

The only question I have is: if WWX is HC’s nephew X times removed, was it Hua cheng’s siblings that had kids and now Hua cheng just knows that they are somewhat related through a descendant of a sibling? Or was it something else?? But yeah I’d kill for this fic.

I just come from a MXTX fanfic bender, so bear with me:

Fanfic where Wei Wuxian is a descendent of Hua Cheng (like his nephew x times removed). And Hua Cheng goes to the Burial Mounds after Wei Wuxian saved the Wen Clan but before the whole mess with the Jin Clan happens to investigate who this guy is so many cultivators are recently complaining about in their prayers. And then he meets Wei Wuxian and is like "Gege... can we please keep him?"

Because of course he recognizes his and Xie Lians own suffering in him. And he's also a clever ghost king and knows when someone is related to him.

And Wei Wuxian is like super bemused by this all of that but accepts it because yay, finally someone is on his side?

And then the thing on the bridge with the Jin clan happens, but Hua Cheng is with him because he hasn't trusted that invitation in the first place. And he's absolutely livid. Heads roll... literally. Xie Lian is a bit exasperated and like "Aaah San Lang, I don't think you actually need to remove their heads.. excuse you what did you just say about my nephew in law? Aaah, well... forget what I just said San Lang, keep going!"

Fast forward to Lan Zhan being vaguely confused how to proceed. Hua Cheng being an absolute mother hen and Xie Lian fondly watching all of that while quietly making sure Wei Wuxian is alright and will be in good hands.

[letteredlettered]

Hi! I love your fics! I was wondering if you had any more ideas for Harry Potter stories that you'd be interested in writing?

Glad you like my fics. I have no intention to write any HP fics any time soon. It's all CQL/MZDS here all the time now, sorry folks.

[thatcageofuncleanbirds]

once again fixated on vathara's mzds/valdemar crossover, a fic which says a lot about vathara and very little about anything else

i realized when reading this the first time that vathara fucking loved lan wangji, which retrospectively made a lot of her choices in the last few decades make more sense.

the fic is very good at handling a large cast and a lot of moving parts, and it does not suffer from quip obsession like vatharas writing did in the beginning, but it is still filled with her thoughts on family, violence, and authority.

i always enjoy vathara's approach to family. she is, like, one of the cornerstones of found family in fanfiction as we know it today. a significant number of fanfiction authors in their 30s or so were obsessed with her fic at some point. her idea is basically that your blood family can be important, but the circumstances of your birth shouldn't be, and disavowing your parents is the right thing to do if they are shit. you can't just erase that stuff, but it is your duty to fight against it if it sucks.

the more complicated part is the other side what she thinks duty should be. it's kind of hard to explain. the thing she always writes into her stories is, like, if you arent willing to use violence to protect your community, then you are a hypocrite that more special and important people will protect even though you may turn and stab them in the back. like, most people are sheep and those policing them are the tragic heroes they don't deserve.

mercedes lackey tended to write violence as a thing that hurt her heroes as much as it hurt their enemies, but you can still see why vathara likes valdemar as a setting if you've read those books. however, mzds is a bit more antithetical to vathara's usual philosophy, so it's funny to me that she wrote the mzds setting as only tangentially important to the story of her fic LOL

i have a lot more to say on this topic, but im not gonna do it right now.

i have no idea if i would recommend this fic to anyone, but i sure do contemplate it a lot.