#not how he THOUGHT nmj would kill him but like. he's also not surprised.

[benevolenterrancy]

I do NOT want to see what Baxia diving for a hug with Jin Guangyao looks like. x_x Poor guy will think Mingjue wants him murdered.

@little-meowyao Baxia is a Great Dane that thinks its a lapdog. JGY is not sure how to communicate to a volatile sabre spirit that it is most assuredly not.

continuation of this sword hug saga...

[truly-morgan]

[The way of the househusband AU]

XiCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 28-12-2021

[the way of the househusband, but make it #xicheng >:3]

Where Lan Xichen was high in the Lan triads, powerful and feared, gaining the name of Zewu-jun. The last story about Zewu-jun was how he beat up many people from rival groups before just... disappearing!

stories of him being killed, sent to jail or moving to another country are travelling around while no one in the Lan group will confirm anything.

But lxc isn't dead, far from it.

He is playing house husband for a hard-working salaryman He fell head over heels for the beautiful Jiang Cheng the very moment he saw him, taking his nephew out as a reward for being a good boy.

Cue a scary, but polite, man trying to seduce the tired uncle.

Jc is a bit unsure at first, but quickly finds the man intriguing and nice.

Wanting to be with jc without pulling him into a world he doesn't belong in is what caused him to want to get out of it.

Some wouldn't believe that the great Zewu-jun was now a house husband, cooking diligently for his husband, taking care of the house, loving two little boys after another one joined the weird family.

jc and the boys even got used to how weirdly lxc could speak sometimes as if he was talking about criminal activities. but this makes him endearing to jc, who finds it funnier than anything when he knows what he's talking about. The boys sure seem to be amused too.

lxc: then you cut it into little pieces, stuff it into the little bag and dump it into hot what, then the job is nearly done

oyz parent: *looks concerned*

oyz: mister lan xiao long bao are the best!!

ljy: of course, my baba's cooking is the best😤

teacher 1: Who is this scary-looking guy? Should we call the cops?

teacher 2: I don't know, I think we-

ljy: baba!!😮☺️

jl: shushu came to get us?

lxc: the boss is doing overtime 😔 but like this, we can surprise him with a good dinner, will you help me 🤭🤫

kids: yay!!

yes, I've finally started reading the 6 volume of the way of the house husband I bought this semester, and I just thought lxc could work well too 🤭 although we just gotta imagine that himbo looking scary to other people smh

also OF COURSE lxc has a cute apron with a bunny on it that the big boss (aka a-cheng) gifted him soon after they moved in together, he takes great care of it and always uses it

oh and of course all the older ladies on the street also love lxc because they find him funny and love seeing a good husband working so hard for his family. also, they love sharing tips with someone who needs it and gossiping around 🤭

I really wanna draw this now 🤭 maybe if my hands don't hurt too much once I get back from work I'll try drawing this little family adding some more for 3zun: jgy was in the triad because of jgs, taking his step-brother (jzx) path of quitting, especially after lxc just decided to quit they meet again when jgy comes by to see how jl is doing with jc, having heard that he had found someone to live with (and want to make sure that person would be safe for little a-ling).

what a surprise than to find back an old friend because of a-cheng ☺️

nmj is either still in the triads or the nie clan got disbanded after his father died and some other gang used that to attack. maybe NHS saw how it affected his family too much and left it happen (they are much happier now anyway)

maybe they meet again by "accident" when nmj "happens to be passing by the neighbourhood" (totally not jgy telling him where Zewu-jun was and him wanting to make sure he was alive and well)

nmj 100% approves of jc after seeing how he treats lxc with all the love and cares in the world.

Original

[rosethornewrites]

NR, E, & M reading since 6/27

The usual

Finished

Not Rated:

5+1 times Lan sect members tried to marry NMJ in front of LXC's salad (LXC/NMJ), by nirejseki

Prompt: A 5 + 1 idea? Untamed verse: 5 times people flirted with NMJ and he Did Not Realize, and for the one, either the one time he Did Get It, or the one time he tried to flirt with someone else.

assassin!JGY, by nirejseki

Prompt: AU where MY doesn't fight in the sunshot campaign but JGS sees the use of a bastard who's eager to please him and employs him as a spy/assassin for himself. JGS still wants NMJ dead but without the Lan songs or any previous ties NMJ proves to be a man that's annoyingly hard to kill (some 3zun or Nieyao would be nice)

NMJ ascends to godhood, by nirejseki

Prompt: NMJ’s mother really was a War Goddess. Instead of dying from JGY’s poisoned song, NMJ ascends instead.

Explicit:

Reproductive Intent, by Admiranda, Rynne (4th in a series)

When Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian rescue a lost child on a nighthunt, it leads to conversations about the future and a reaffirmation of just how much they love each other. Also the opportunity to discover new and exciting kinks.

Mature:

Aunt Knows Best, by misbehavingvigilante

In which Yu Ziyuan and Wei Wuxian manage to have a less turbulent relationship in due part to genderfuckery.

Or a what if au where Yu Ziyuan accidentally becomes a better parent and how that fixes things.

Unfinished

Not Rated:

For you, I’d dive into the depths of hell, by lightsfillthesky

Wei Wuxian travels back in time with a vengeance.

you can have the best of me, baby, by stiltonbasket

Twelve hours after Jiang Cheng and the others escape from Mount Muxi, Wei Wuxian risks wading into the lake and discovers that the underwater passage to the stream in the maple wood has been blocked behind the tortoise’s body.

“It’s sleeping right beside the opening,” he whispers, when he and Lan Zhan are safe in a tunnel of rock too narrow for the Xuanwu’s neck and head. “Judging by the current in the water, that passage was the only way out.”

Trapped in the Xuanwu's cave with no means of escape, Lan Wangji suggests a surprising course of action to strengthen himself and Wei Wuxian for battle: dual cultivation.

The session proves successful, but despite their best efforts, Wei Wuxian's golden core yields unexpected consequences for them both.

Explicit:

Blood Harmony, by Christinapere, Director_XuanWu, Lia_Rose

"Yunmeng Jiang accepts this alliance, with a condition that this marriage is an equal marriage, as it is between two sought youths, the Second Heir of Gusu Lan Sect and the Head Disciple of Yunmeng Jiang Sect.

Both will *not* marry into the other sect.

Instead, they both will be members of both sects," Sect Leader Jiang confirms.

Is the distrust among sects is at stake that they are willing to sacrifice him and Wei Ying to soothe it?

--------

An arranged marriage AU, canon divergence.

Not a fix-it, more like a different kind of angst

Discarded, by teawater

Children in Cloud Recesses are succumbing to a dark curse. There's one person who may be able to help.

Mature:

【银 劍 探 心】| Silver Jian Seeking Hearts, by stiltonbasket

“A ghost bridegroom?” Wei Wuxian asks, when he receives his latest night-hunting assignment from Uncle Jiang. “Have women been going missing?”

If brides have been going missing, this is the first that Wei Wuxian is hearing about it; which is strange, because the systematic kidnapping of brides should have quickly been recognized as spirits’ work and reported as such to the nearest cultivation sect as soon as possible.

“Three women and ten men have gone missing so far,” his uncle tells him. “Jinshan town is out of our jurisdiction, and the records say there hasn’t been a hunt in the area since before my grandfather’s time. But no one from Jinshan thought to report the disappearances until today, so the victims must be long dead by now.”

Four hundred years after the Sunshot Campaign, a reincarnated Wei Wuxian dresses himself in wedding red to defeat the ghost of a bridegroom.

Deep within the forests of Jinshan Mountain, the mourning calamity Yin Jian Tan Xin waits to marry his beloved.

Alternate, by Hanashi_o_suru

No one is actually sure what happened, or why it happened. No one died. No one made any whacked up array that backfired --to their knowledge--and no one wasn't necessarily in discontent for where they were in life...

So, why is it they're suddenly in the past to the day they had just got to the Cloud Recesses?

Impossible Remains, by Jengabears

Jiang Cheng wakes slowly to the feeling of spiritual energy swimming through his veins. Not just swimming. Singing. Flooding. He was filled with it. He didn't know if it was because he had been without any for so long or if Baoshan Sanren had chosen to make him stronger, but he had never felt so powerful in his life. It was glorious. It was everything. He felt alive again. Whole. Better than whole. He had to thank her. He had to scream his joy across the mountain. He was so infinitely grateful.

He ripped off his blindfold, turned to look around him, praises and gratitude resting on the tip of his tongue. Yet what his eyes rested on was a face he never expected to see. His joy and gratitude instantly snuffed into ashes in his mouth. His eyes widened in horror at the sight which greeted him. He wished he could take everything back. Every thought which had passed through his mind since he'd woken.

How could this happen?

OR

Wei Wuxian dies in the core transfer.

[runespoor7]

I saw a couple people wonder “what about JGY” and “what about JGY and NMJ”, and the thought wouldn't leave me alone.

It would be different depending on whether JZX was at the path or not. If he was, JGY  will be able to utilize the growing coldness between JZX and his father to ingratiate himself further, so that's good for him. In the AU I described, however, I think JZX wasn't there, and so he and JYL are still at Jinlintai. (This is relevant to my JC characterization in that AU.)

For further context, I don’t remember a scene in novel canon where JGY is kept from holding JL, so that doesn’t happen. JGY is made to be in a position to hold bb!JL by JZX; Madam Jin never relinquishes JL to him but that’s unsurprising; JGS rarely holds his grandson either (and never misses an opportunity to make JGY feel unwelcome.)

My usual reading of the text is that JGS dies because his actions resulted in JGY committing unknowing, unwilling incest. That violation of the social rules of family, the fact that because of his father JGY is already “outside” of the proper moral/social order of family, is what allows JGY to kill him. That’s what I’m going with here too. JGY isn't married yet, so...

this got too long

with LXC gone, there’s no-one left to play the world's worst mediator between NMJ and JGY. This is a very weird time between the two of them, but they bond over 100% agreeing that something must be done against LXC’s murderer. JGY doesn't have the pull to get to WWX in Cloud Recesses (LWJ has very different relations to his brother's sworn brothers than NHS would. What's a JGY. Why are you talking to me. NMJ is on thin ice but he does start with a higher LWJ-acceptance ratio at least), and NMJ refuses to assassinate WWX when LWJ has already taken his decision and imprisoned him. It’s not what NMJ would have chosen himself, but it is fitting of the Lans. LXC would have okayed that.

2. This also means that when JGS asks JGY to remove his sworn brother due to NMJ making a fuss about XY, JGY can argue that NMJ was okay with WWX surviving! (NMJ doesn't like that, even though what LWJ retorted in public about WWX’s actions being different from XY stands) they proceed to have the world’s most ill-advised angry kiss. 

Neither of them deals particularly well! 

JGY has sex issues! Cutsleeve sex would make him lose so many points with his father! NMJ is mortified that somehow hostility turned into acting on desire! (“but it’s not like this is bc of the hostility, you already thought he was attractive when he worked for you” okay but that makes it worse, you do understand how that makes it worse right? “he’s no longer under you tho also he’s your sworn brother you're basically equals” first of all phrasing, second of all NMJ isn't listening to this.)

3. Also JGY did not get access to a handy poison/assassination technique, so getting rid of NMJ for his father is, hm. Not doable. It's too early in the timeline for JGY to consider removing his father (he’s not married to Qin Su yet, he doesn't know about the surprise incest, there is no way he will patricide if his father). So it is legitimately a terrible time for Jin “I can do everything on my own and if a solution involves even the slightest social loss on my part it doesn’t exist” Guangyao. Can't remove his father, can't remove NMJ. (He considers having NMJ poisoned the regular way, maybe by having someone sell Huaisang “medicine” for his brother that would aggravate his condition in the medium term, but he abandons it because it’s just not direct enough, and the problem with WQ being alive is that NHS might tantrum that she checks on NMJ’s health.)

That leaves solving the inciting incident, preferably in a way that won't still have his father demanding to get NMJ out of the way afterwards. XY must go. To ensure that, the trick is to create a situation where there’s no possibility but for XY to die. 

JGY isn’t that motivated by keeping XY around since he asked a few vague questions about whether it would be at all possible to maybe possibly bring back someone, and XY laughed. (JGY meant LXC, which he may not have been aware of, but XY’s reaction rubbed him the worst way, so.)

For this JGY brings in JZX. JZX, it should be noted, disagreed with his father in private about what should be done with XY, but the assurance that he’ll be imprisoned/watched/etc (is it so different from what the Lans are doing with WWX?) mellowed him out. 

It’s literally just a matter of engineering a situation where XY acts out against/around the wrong person (JZX the heir; JYL his wife) and XY getting cut down in real time. JGY is aiming for JZX because there’s less risk of JZX being wounded than JYL; he has nothing against his sister-in-law and she would be in actual danger.

4. What happens is that XY sees the trap when it’s sprung and turns against JGY, who gets skewered right and proper. Whoops. Embarrassing. To his pained astonishment, JZX rushes to him shouting for help instead of doing away with XY, who gets away in the confusion.

5. JGY comes back to in his bed. NHS is by his side. From outside the room, JZX is shouting at his father that he’d told his father that XY could not be kept alive, he tried to kill JGY, if JGY hadn’t been there XY might have got to JYL or JL. It’s very dramatic, JGY is properly stunned, but he doesn’t really understand why NHS is here?...

NHS replies that his brother regrets not being able to make the trip, so NHS came instead. To see how JGY is doing. Now that JGY is awake again, he can call JZX back - this is an argument that JZX has been trying to have with his father for days apparently. Days? oh, yes, JGY was out for four days.

JZX rushes back in, thanks JGY profusely. Again, JGY is a little stunned by JZX’s certainty that JGY been hurt protecting JZX’s wife and child, but he’s *sure not going to say otherwise*. (NHS is the one who commented something that allowed JZX to reach this conclusion when JGY was out cold.)

6. (this is JGY, of course he’s going to cheat, pay no attention) JGY is a little hurt that NMJ wasn’t there, after all. He shouldn’t, there’s no reason - except that JGY apparently does think they’re still sworn brothers for real. This is all very confusing. His plan didn’t go exactly the way he wanted re:XY, but with that drama the social dynamics of Jinlintai have been altered. JZX is the rising star now, his influence growing everyday, and JGS’s decisions no longer go unquestioned - and JGY is firmly attached to JZX’s social sphere. His… brother is constanty asking JGY for advice. His sister-in-law has told Madam Jin that she considers JGY her son’s uncle.

Still, after a few weeks of no word from NMJ but visits from NHS and the growing, sinking suspicion of what must have happened to NMJ, for NMJ not to be breaking down JGS’s door bellowing about leaving XY alive… JGY goes to the Cloud Recesses. 

Respectfully asks the sect leader (who is a bit of an ass and demands as much respect as before the Lans lost some of their influence, under his leadership) for permission to borrow their Wen prisoner, the doctor, and bring her to Qinghe, to see to Sect Leader Nie’s health.

In Qinghe NHS explains that LQR is staying over to perform musical cultivation for NMJ. (LQR is throwing himself into saving NMJ the way he couldn’t save LXC. It’s apparent to JGY that something of an odd friendship, or kinship, has grown between LQR and NHS. The loss of a nephew and the threatened loss of an elder brother.)

NMJ wakes up, and smiles when he sees JGY.

There is again an extremely emotional showdown, NMJ admits that he couldn’t stand losing JGY like he lost LXC, praises JGY for his bravery, JGY admits that he was scared of losing NMJ as well. They have emotional sex. (Later, NMJ might say that he thinks JGY acted against XY as a calculation, but - he shrugs - that was good thinking. It was a good thing to get rid of XY anyway.) 

XY is still definitely around so that might be a problem for someone at some point, but he made it out of this story alive! And I gotta tell you, I didn’t think he would.

For the ask meme, au where wwx kills lxc at qiangpi path instead of jzx.

Or gender swap jc au.

Ok, so it took me a while to think this over, because there’s a lot here, and then talking it over with @demoiselledefortune I realized there’s even more than I thought! (still thinking about the genderswap jc one)

Also, poor, poor LWJ. 🙁 (LQR doesn't bear thinking about. That poor, poor man. I don't talk about LQR under the cut because it's too sad for me to contemplate.)

1) So the thing is, this isn’t a noticeably better accidental killing for WWX, because while the Lans may be less the powerhouse than the Jins, JGS will definitely try and use LXC’s death to turn against WWX. And it’s going to be stupidly easy, because LXC was a sect leader and the sworn brother of his son.

(I assume LXC was there because he was invited to JL’s 100 days ceremony and his passing there was a coincidence, while in canon he was already at Jinlintai. So maybe JZX is still in Jinlintai here, the confrontation happening earlier and thus before JZX departed; or JZX is here as well as he was in canon, and LXC was the one running late - in which case, JZX is alive and a witness and might speak up on WWX’s behalf at least to his wife and his BIL, at least to tell them that it seemed an accident. This turns out not to have much of an impact on the grand scale of things OR on JYL and JC’s understanding of what happened, bc they already trust WWX so much, but it does have an impact on JZX’s view of the world and himself. This is less about WWX than it is about politics in general and his father in specific. In that version he’s much more in-the-middle of things, much more aware of being personally dismissed. In that version there’s a chance he and JYL go live in LP.)

Besides the Jins, there’s also NMJ, who is a big fan of his sworn brothers not getting killed and of not shielding people from the consequences of their actions. Just putting it out there where we can see it. On the other hand, they’re not LXC’s most direct family. LWJ and the Lans are, so NMJ lets LWJ take point.

(There's a version of this prompt where NMJ qi-deviates when he hears about LXC's death. In that timeline should WWX get killed NHS' plans never feature bringing him back.)

2) Know for whom LXC dying instead of JZX changes things a lot, though? WQ and WN. When they decide to surrender themselves, they go to Cloud Recesses, not Jinlintai. LWJ and his sect I feel wouldn't punish WQ for LXC’s death. She wasn't there.

(WN, otoh, is very done for. There is no way GSL pulls a Jin to keep him around. He's a fierce corpse and the one who killed their sect leader at that. They execute him/lay his soul to rest. There's no further desacration of WN and that's probably the bitterest comfort WQ could hope for. WQ does try to shield WN when she realizes the Lans aren't planning on executing her, but she doesn't get that.)

WQ would easily get a promise of safety from LWJ for at least A-Yuan, probably Granny, maybe the others - on the sterner end of the scale for the adult cultivators. This is somewhat dependent on what JGS (and NMJ) are clamoring for but JGS wants the Stygian Seal more than he does the Wens and NMJ would be satisfied with the Lans supervising the fate of the Wen remnants. Besides, the most high-profile of the Wen remnants is WQ and she just surrendered herself. WN would say WWX isn’t responsible for LXC’s death, it was a freak resentful energy accident–

3) I think what LWJ does demand about WWX is... that WWX be given over to Gusu Lan. They can lock him up. And purify him of the resentful energy.

LWJ is in a frankly abysmal mental space - it’s only because his cultivation is so orthodox that he doesn't qi deviate. It’s all tearing him up, LXC’s death because of the guy LWJ has a crush on, LWJ’s want for WWX and LWJ’s wish that he could (imitate his father) bring someone back to CR and lock them up and LWJ suddenly being in the horrendous situation where he is imitating his father. The memory of the kiss is now a nightmare. It was always a mixed memory (how shameful, to lose control of himself thus - to take advantage of the one he loved - to lack even the courage to simply ask, either for the kiss, or at least for forgiveness) but now it makes him retch.

It's all twisted in the fact that LXC is dead, because of WWX. There can be nothing between LWJ and WWX now. Simply wishing there could be would be the worst betrayal.

(LWJ remembers the days of their youth, LXC’s delight and gentle teasing at LWJ’s inexplicable liking of WWX. The Water Abyss. And now LXC is dead, because of the boy he was so happy LWJ wanted for a friend. LXC always wanted LWJ to have friends, something akin to his own friendship with NMJ.)

0) (the Problem. The Problem is that I cannot see WWX staying in the Cloud Recesses if he's imprisoned there. If he wouldn't rather die at first, he will afterwards. LWJ thinks of his mother. If WWX dies LWJ would enter seclusion like his father once did. This isn’t something LWJ tells himself consciously.)

4) JC and JYL visit WWX in the Cloud Recesses while he's imprisoned there. JC hates LWJ for it, but I think he's self-aware enough to think “what if it had been Jiejie.” It’s hard to hate LWJ wholeheartedly.

5) WQ is in Cloud Recesses, too. She’ll never live outside the Cloud Recesses again, but it could have been far worse. She’s allowed time with A-Yuan (she is not in forced seclusion and neither is she A-Yuan’s mother but LWJ cannot let himself see them together, or else he starts to think of how she isn’t allowed to raise her kin herself.)

When it comes out *pretty damn early* that WWX doesn’t have a core, she’s the one who implies WZL got him.

(JC is in LWJ’s office clamoring, begging for WWX to be released into the care of YMJ in a hot minute after he finds out - which takes at least one or two visits, because no-one wrote to tell him, and it takes him asking a question about how getting WWX rid of resentful energy and not letting go when the answer’s too cagey to his taste for him to know. If it were just LWJ– but LWJ has elders. plus there’s also LXC’s sworn brothers to contend with; LWJ isn’t thinking of that, and JC will think of it later, after LWJ has refused to return WWX to YMJ.) JC is so so so angry at everyone involved - WWX for *lying to him*, why didn’t you *tell me*, I would have *helped* - WQ for hiding it from him AND not telling him when she told the Lans (to which she retorts that she isn’t exactly allowed a free correspondence. Hmph. Okay. JC allows that. WQ has negative scruples about lying to him about the core rn.) - LWJ for keeping WWX a prisoner here even though WWX is, is, WWX isn’t a cultivator anymore he’s a normal person let YMJ watch over him, let JC - even JYL for having something else in her life that she loves, that isn’t WWX locked up in another sect.

WQ is also the one who sees when WWX is seriously at risk of his life just fading away, and this time she tells JC: if WWX doesn’t get out, he will die.

The fic ends with WQ and JC breaking WWX out of the Cloud Recesses (it’s implied LWJ is looking the other way). WQ stays in CR, of course, but JC is taking WWX to Lotus Pier. There’s no plan for “later”.

[robininthelabyrinth]

This one's gonna take two asks, I'm incapable of making it more succinct. In Accurate description NHS said "I’m taking you back with me to the Nie sect when all this is over. If your parents want you back, they can come ask nicely.” Could we get that AU? And the Jiangs HAVE to ask nicely, because with the war on the horizon they can't risk alienating the Nies, but they are so bad at it? NHS's half assed plan to poach JC gets more and more solid the longer he has to watch this train wreck.(1/2)

How hard can it be to love your own flesh and blood? Even NMJ has stopped admonishing him for wanting to poach another sect's heir. What a political nightmare that would be. But JC is so relaxed with NHS's birds? And keeping up longer and longer when training with da-ge? And smiling more? And JYL said, she's never seen him so loose in the shoulders? NHS can make this work. JFM and YZY never valued JC anyway 

Part 2 of Accurate Description (necessary to read that first)

-

“Absolutely not,” was the first thing Nie Huaisang’s brother said when Nie Huaisang first raised the idea of kidnapping Jiang Cheng for his own good. “Absolutely fucking not.”

“Nie sect principle three,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Well, shit,” his brother said.

This was because Nie Huaisang’s brother is the best.

“I’ve gotten other people involved in this,” Nie Huaisang added helpfully.

“You’d better have,” his brother said. “I am not dealing with the fallout from this on my own.”

Nie Huaisang nodded happily. That was about what he’d expected.

A few moments later, his brother asked, “Why are we kidnapping him, anyway?”

-

“This is temporary,” Nie Mingjue said gruffly.

“Very temporary,” Jiang Cheng agreed, sounding stiff and awkward. “I don’t even know why I’m here.”

“You know exactly why you’re here,” Nie Huaisang objected. “I told you why!”

Jiang Cheng gave him a dirty look.

“Also I have no idea how da-ge got you here, but you’re staying,” Nie Huaisang said firmly. “For as long as it takes for your parents to show that they deserve you returning to them. You’re not getting a choice.”

Jiang Cheng’s face was turning red.

“That’s not the deal, Huaisang,” Nie Mingjue interjected. “Jiang Wanyin can return home at any time he wishes.”

Nie Huaisang glared, but his brother ignored him.

“He can also stay as long as he wishes,” he said, and this time it was Jiang Cheng’s turn to stare. “If you want others to respect him, you must first pay him the respect he deserves yourself. Now, I have to go, but Jiang Wanyin – know that our home is always open to you.”

He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, then ruffled Nie Huaisang’s hair, and left.

Jiang Cheng looked dazed.

Nie Huaisang smirked.

“…you said something about him giving out hugs?”

“Oh yeah,” Nie Huaisang said. “Great hugs.”

-

“I can’t believe you would betray me like this,” Nie Huaisang whined. “And after all I’ve done for you!”

“A little training’s not going to kill you,” Jiang Cheng said. “Come on already.”

“My brother put you up to this, didn’t he? You sold me out for a hug.”

“I sold you out for the opportunity to go on a proper night-hunt,” Jiang Cheng said. “Also, he said he was proud of the progress I’ve been making on my cultivation and sword training since I got here. And gave me a hug.”

Nie Huaisang grumbled but conceded that his brother was especially difficult to resist when he was in full big brother mode. If he wasn’t, Nie Huaisang wouldn’t have been nearly so willing to give up the neat new sword he’d found in the Xuanwu’s cave and store it down in their saber halls until his brother and Baxia could figure out how to suppress it - he hadn’t even realized it was full of resentful energy at first, and he still thought it was especially aesthetic.

“Besides, if you don’t practice something soon, he’ll come after you himself,” Jiang Cheng said. “Wouldn’t you rather train with me?”

“No. You’re just as crazy as he is.”

Jiang Cheng looked disturbingly complimented.

“I’ll come look at your birds later,” he offered.

“You’d do that anyway,” Nie Huaisang said. “You love my birds.”

Jiang Cheng did, too. Nearly as much as he loved all the feral cats that roamed the walls of the Unclean Realm, every single one of which seemed to have immediately pegged him as a soft touch and come nosing around for treats – Nie Huaisang had never seen Jiang Cheng look so calm and peaceful as when he had a cat under his palm.

It really put into perspective how stressed he looked the rest of the time.

“Oh, all right,” he groaned, and Jiang Cheng beamed. “Just know that I hate you.”

“Same to you, Nie-gongzi,” Jiang Cheng said, completely insincere. “Same to you.”

-

“You know, I’m surprised my parents haven’t shown up to demand me back yet,” Jiang Cheng said over lunch one day. “It’s not – it’s not a problem. It’s only – I thought – Mother at least –”

“Oh, they’re demanding all right,” Nie Huaisang sniggered.

“…Nie Huaisang, what have you done,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Conspired, that’s what,” Nie Mingjue said. “I don’t know if I should thank you for discovering my brother’s sole talent, namely for scheming and conspiracies, or to blame you for it, Wanyin – but you do have very loyal friends.”

Jiang Cheng blinked.

“Well, first your parents went to Lanling,” Nie Huaisang explained. “On account of Jin Zixuan and Mianmian very obviously sneaking food around and buying all sorts of things that you would like before smuggling them – very poorly and obviously, mind you – into Jinlin Tower, and of course they were also overheard talking about something that sounded an awful lot like ‘Wanyin’; everyone assumed they were hiding you. Turns out they weren’t, of course; it was just a stray dog they’d named something with similar tones. Not their fault everyone got the wrong idea!”

Jiang Cheng’s eye twitched.

“And then, of course, they went to Gusu, on account of Lan Wangji telling everyone you were his sworn brother –”

“His what?!”

“Well, close enough. On account of how you saved his life.”

“I did not!”

“I thought I heard something about how you carried him on your back as you fled from the Xuanwu’s cave and the Wen sect’s ambushes, when he was exhausted and could not walk,” Nie Mingjue said mildly, and Jiang Cheng spluttered. “Had I heard wrongly?”

“…well, no…but...”

“Of course, you weren’t at Gusu,” Nie Huaisang continued, ignoring them both. “Though there were some heavy implications for a little while that you’d gone off with Lan-gongzi –”

“Isn’t he missing?”

Nie Mingjue coughed and looked down at his plate.

“And none of you said anything?” Jiang Cheng asked, looking between them. “At any point? Did you just, what, not talk to them?”

“I have spoken with your parents several times since they have started looking for you,” Nie Mingjue said, and his voice was suddenly hot with roiling anger. “I have concluded that Huaisang had a point regarding the necessity of their learning how to ask for your return.”

Jiang Cheng blinked.

“Your parents are jerks,” Nie Huaisang volunteered. “And you deserve better.”

“Yes, thank you,” Jiang Cheng said, a little strangled. “I think I – got that.”

“Good.”

-

“It’s just, my jiejie –”

“Supports you being here. She sent you a care package. It’s in your room.”

“…Wei Wuxian –”

“Sent a note along with the package. Says to keep up the good work.”

“How did you even get something like that?!”

“I have my ways.”

-

Nie Huaisang was staring blankly at the wall when Jiang Cheng walked in and did a double take.

“Okay,” he said to Nie Mingjue, sitting patiently nearby with a letter in his hands. “You broke him. How?”

“He just discovered that he inadvertently saved a great deal of lives,” Nie Mingjue said. “As did you, by agreeing to come here.”

“I only agreed to come here because you lied and told me it was necessary to help defend my sect,” Jiang Cheng grumbled, clearly not meaning it.

Nie Huaisang let out a high-pitched and somewhat hysterical giggle.

“It was,” Nie MIngjue said solemnly, offering him the letter. “It appears that Wen Chao was given permission to attack and crush the Jiang sect, but has been delaying in anticipation of your return on account of wanting to deal with all of you at once. The delay allowed our spies time to discover his plans, and to carry warnings to your parents. They were thus able to fortify the Lotus Pier’s defenses against invasion, and to hold it off until aid could arrive – which they wouldn’t have managed if he’d attacked at once, as he would have if you’d been there.”

Jiang Cheng stared.

“Would you like to sit down and stare at the wall?” Nie Mingjue offered kindly.

“…yes please.”

-

“How’d you convince him to let me come here, anyway?” Jiang Cheng asked Nie Huaisang as he packed up his things. He was finally heading back to the Lotus Pier, albeit only long enough to collect soldiers and come back to join what they’d started calling the Sunshot Campaign – his parents had finally figured out where he was and sent word that had, in the view of the Nie, just barely qualified as sufficient to get some leeway.

Lan Wangji was waiting in the hallway to escort him there, and he’d sworn to Nie Huaisang that he would not allow either of Jiang Cheng’s parents to say anything untoward while they were there. He’d looked very serious while he said it, too, which pleased Nie Huaisang to no end and made Jiang Cheng look more than a bit nervous.

“You’re only asking that now?” Nie Huaisang asked, amused.

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “You going to tell me or not?”

“It was easy,” he said. “I just invoked Nie sect principle three.”

“…what’s that?”

“‘A fire burns all the same’,” Nie Huaisang said. “Variously interpreted as: ‘Treat your neighbor’s harm as your own’, ‘Do not stand idly by as your neighbor bleeds’, or ‘Indifference to evil is equivalent to evil’.”

Jiang Cheng stared.

“How about ‘if you see someone who needs you, you have an obligation to act’?”

Jiang Cheng blinked. “Okay,” he said. “And?”

“And what?”

“And what else did you say? You convinced him to literally kidnap the heir of another Great Sect; I can’t believe that you accomplished that simply by saying ‘hey principle three applies here, let’s do this’.”

“Maybe I did,” Nie Huaisang sniffed.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “Fine, keep your secrets. I’ll get them out of you one day.”

“Maybe you will,” Nie Huaisang said.

-

“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said. “If I wanted to keep Jiang Cheng permanently, what principle would I have to invoke for that?”

“Nineteen.”

“Nineteen?” Nie Huaisang frowned. “But, da-ge, principle nineteen is the one about marriage – oooooooh.”

[agendratum]

ok so

as usual after finishing an arc of mdzs my head is full, many thoughts. so let’s talk about the guanyin temple confrontation.

first thing that i kept paying attention to were actually the changes made in order to turn it into live-action. so in cql they had to make the gray-gray characters, the “there are no good or bad guys, just people and their circumstances” characters (unless you’re jgs, than yeah you’re a bad guy and everyone agrees on that actually) into slightly more black and white characters. by the end of cql we are lured into this fake sense of security, “haha, we know who the bad guy is!” (then a year passes and here you are, now a jgy apologist), by the end of mdzs, you just know that, well, decisions were made, unfortunate decisions, by many different people. 

cql had to make wwx into a bit nicer version of himself. the good protagonist couldn’t lose control and accidentally kill a bunch of people, and then kill another bunch of people fully willingly, cause his sister just died and that was the last connection he had to the idea that something still matters in this world. no, out protagonist should be... like a little bit nicer than that. so they lifted some of that responsibility for atrocities off him, but they couldn’t just evaporate it, could they? they had to put it somewhere. they put it on jgy. after all he’s the big bad in the end of the story, well, the only surviving person from all people that could be considered big bads, he’s the one that “did every terrible deed imaginable”. he could take that responsibility, they had to make his grayness into a slightly darker shade anyway.

i am actually kinda surprised by how different my reaction to jgy was in mdzs. obviously, there is a year difference between me watching cql and me reading this part of mdzs, and over that year i changed my opinion on jgy 5 thousand times and joined the camp “actually meng yao deserves all the best things in the world”, but anyway. when i was watching cql i was like, oh my god, can someone just kill him already, before he does something bad again, before more bullcrap comes out of his mouth, and also stop yelling at this kid about all the “valid” reasons to why you killed his dad. in mdzs my reaction to jgy’s confessions was like, “huh. he has a point”.

now don’t get me wrong there, some shitty things were done, but the thing is, the things he did really made sense from his point of view, from this position and life experience he really had no other way to go. i especially was convinced by his reasoning to why he couldn’t cancel his engagement with qin su. not only he would suffer from this story, because he already went through so much to make this marriage possible, but also qin su’s parents and herself would most likely suffer, their public image would be destroyed, only jgs wouldn’t lose anything. and you could feel the hatred and bitterness he felt towards his father talking about this, and everyone in the temple could agree with that, because he “just forgot he made another child”, he didn’t even notice.

another interesting detail for me was lxc saying, “it’s not that i didn’t know that you did some of these things, it’s that i thought you had a good reason for doing them”. so yeah, a reminder, lxc isn’t blind and he isn’t an idiot. he trusted a person he thought he knew better than anyone else, and he believed in this person. the problem, i think, is that “a good reason” is different for lxc and for jgy. lxc would understand a righteous reason, doing something for the greater good. working for wen ruohan? that was explainable. they all were fighting in a war, fighting for the better, brighter future, and meng yao’s contribution to that future was immeasurable. what if he killed some people there? he had a good reason in lxc’s eyes. but meng yao had other good reasons in his life, some of these reasons lxc never had to deal with in his life. survival, for example, is one of them. meng yao’s early years were very different from lxc’s. not to say that lxc’s life was easy, but it was never truly unstable. meng yao had to learn how to survive in a world where no one wanted him. he lived with one dream, promised to him by his mother, a future where he wouldn’t have to suffer anymore, where he wouldn’t have to smile at people he hated, please every one of their desires so they wouldn’t harm him. and then he entered this life promised to him and he still had to survive, but now in a luxurious man-eats-man world of lanling jin.

meng yao’s life really was this unstoppable ball of snow rolling down the mountain, and every decision he made just made the ball bigger and it would just roll faster. there is even a moment where jgy accuses lxc of being naive. lxc isn’t really naive, of course, it was said in the heat of the moment, but it is a fact that lxc was never kicked down a staircase, never had to crawl back up, and the thing is, at the bottom of the staircase, there are other good reasons to do things.

and in a way lxc understood that jgy in his position really didn’t have any other choices, he just couldn’t find peace in this mindset. he kept repeated through that part, “and yet, and yet, you shouldn’t have done that, you should have...” and he never said what exactly jgy should have done. because lxc doesn’t know. jgy doesn’t know. no one knows. what choices were better? how could he fix all that and still survive? in a way, lxc saying that reminded me of wangxian farewell in the burial mounds. when lwj asks, “you really indent to keep going like this?” and wwx, who wished, who longed for another solution, for some way out, asked him, “what else can i do? what method can i choose to resolve this, not use this technique and still protect people i want to protect?” and lwj didn’t have an answer. lxc didn’t have an answer either.

another amazing thing about guanyin temple confrontation, is that it’s very heavily wwx’s pov. most on the novel is his pov of course, but there were a loot of his thoughts in this arc. and he was rather understanding towards jgy. not in a way “i agree with every reasoning behind every decision you made” but in a way “i understand that you had your reasons, but all of them will become irrelevant really soon, they already are, because the crowd will only remember you as a son of a whore who did every terrible deed imaginable, and all the good deeds will be forgotten” 

now his thoughts on nhs, or who he suspected nhs to be, were way less nice. especially compared to live action, nhs didn’t make such an impression on me as he made through wwx’s thought process in the end of guanyin temple arc. of course, wwx is no sect leader yao, he is not the one to jump to conclusions, he just noticed that if you put some facts together, they actually start making a lot of sense, and formed a full picture. but he didn’t have any proof, so he kept it mostly to himself. yet he still thought for a moment about nhs as someone who didn’t care about collateral damage that much, who was ready to sacrifice lives of juniors, sect leaders, anyone, if it would add to jgy’s kill count and make his fall and destruction even more disastrous. not that those are not the things that happened in live action, but you know, when wwx put it all together like that in one paragraph, i really felt it. like, oof, dude it’s ROUGH. and not even jgy’s death was enough, as nhs basically admitted to stealing meng shi’s body and planning to repay jgy for what he did to nmj’s body. yikes

i mean i still support nhs in everything he does, but yikes

also side note, glad that the dead cats situation finally became clear for me. this whole year i was so confused about who left all these dead cats for juniors to find. i thought maybe xue yang did?? to lure wwx?? so apparently it was also nhs. good to know.

another detail, probably the last one my brain can generate for now, that pained me a great deal was my poor child jin ling. i already cried about some things related to him and this arc, but there was another little one in the very end here, after jgy died. jin ling realised, that there were now three people, wwx, wn and jgy, his little uncle, that were responsible for his parents’ death. people he had every right and reason to hate. all three of them. and yet he couldn’t hate any of them. he couldn’t avenge his parents, that died so long ago he couldn’t remember them, because all three people responsible for what happened, had something, some reasons, some circumstances, that made them really not the bad guys in jin ling’s life. and they all cared about him, protected him. how could he hate them? how could he not? and in this way this poor child repeats, unfortunately, his uncle’s curse. to have someone he wants to hate so much but just simply can’t. it warms my heart at least that jin ling has a much better support system than jc had when he had to live through that experience. so there is hope.

[leatherbookmarking]

this is nothing i think but also

recently i thought about jgy’s death in terms of like... hmm. he’s a servant, right? unimportant. low birth. etc. this means it’s okay to hurt him or vent your anger on him whenever you feel like it, but also it means that no one will take him seriously if he complains about it, because that’s what those ungrateful bastards do, right, they make up shit about being mistreated and hope they will get something out of everyone’s pity. (which they don’t, because everyone knows they’re just pretending, etc, etc, ouroboros)

or perhaps: they (he) are so unimportant that people don’t even notice when they hurt them. sometimes it’s something like a young master accidentally walking into you because he grew up with everyone getting out of his way, so he genuinely in his youthful stupidity didn’t predict the fact that someone might be... not paying attention to him at all times. sometimes it’s so vivid, as if calculated precisely to hurt all your weak spots, and it makes you wonder if you’re insane or if someone really went out of their way to make you realize how much unimportant and worthless you are

and like. it’s stupid and childish but sometimes when someone says something that hurts me so much, like a surprise punch in the face -- something that does, really, make me feel like i’m unimportant, not worth thinking about, not worth anything at all, i think -- wonder how they’d react if i killed myself. wonder what they’d do if this was our last interaction, and then they’d find my body. would that make them think twice about what they say? or would it go over their head, because why did she do that, her life was so happy and fulfilled? it’s like, feeling so powerless and worthless that you’re not even sure if your death would mean anything to anyone, but at the same time wanting to make them see, make them understand

and now, from chapter 108, chopped mercilessly:

“You, on the other hand, Zewu-jun, Lan-zongzhu, are as intolerant of me as Nie Mingjue— You refuse to spare me even a single breath of life!” Once he said this, Jin Guangyao suddenly drew back. Shuoyue slid his chest, along with gush of blood. The blood from Jin Guangyao’s severed arm trickled onto the coffin. The blood splashedacross Wei Wuxian’s painted marks, destroying the incantations, and dripped into the coffin itself. Nie Mingjue, who had just been sealed away, broke out from inside! The coffin lid shattered into pieces. A pale hand grabbed Jin Guangyao’s neck,

recently i was thinking about this scene in cql. so in cql, it’s different -- of course there’s “er-ge, stay and die with me” which does grab me by the neck every time, but also jgy very much does drag lxc towards the coffin. this takes some time! a couple of seconds, yes, but it does, and so the course of jgy’s actions isn’t as clear as in the novel. but in the novel, he says “you won’t let me live, just like nie mingjue” -- and immediately wakes nmj up, so that nmj would show lxc exactly how he won’t let jgy live.

it just -- shows so well how heartbroken and furious jgy is. at lxc, who’s always been his friend and always protected and supported him, but didn’t really... understand, fully, the extent to which jgy’s life was in danger. either because jgy didn’t tell him that he was almost physically unable to fully trust someone with himself, or because lxc as lxc just couldn’t understand, or because he seemed intent on patching jgy and nmj’s relations up.

(”well you’re not betraying us, so you don’t have to worry about da-ge wanting horrible, inhumane death to the first person who betrays us! :-)” mr zewu jun sir.)

and like. i’m super tired but you know what i mean, right!!! this is what you’re like, zewu-jun, jgy says, pointing gently to a horrifying fierce corpse breaking free from the seal, dragging jgy to his coffin and breaking his neck with a resounding crunch. you know? this man who’s tried to kill me, who was convinced that i’m secretly evil and at fault for everything that’s wrong in the world. the man that added a special gory something to our oath of brotherhood and you were like “oh don’t worry” about it. that man. you’re like him right now, when you think that i’d ever hurt you, that i’d try to do it when you have your back turned, when you know that i’m poisoned and missing a hand and bleeding profusely and weakened and your reaction to all that is to turn around without thinking and stab me in the chest, like a dangerous snake you have to gut no matter what.

i’m already dead. but in case you didn’t notice, i’m going to show you again: i am dead. and it was a collab between you and nie mingjue.

and then he pushes lxc away, and i’m sorry to say this, but 2:10 of “the woman” from sherlock s2 ost starts playing in my head, because as it turns out there are some things that stayed in my brains for years without me noticing it, and this track is what my brain associates with Overwhelming Sadness! yeah, to the point that it overwrites the actual music that played when the yunmeng kids were on the boat crying for their almost-surely-for-sure-dead parents. surprise!

anyway. he pushes lxc away. in a moment where

Lan Wangji summoned Bichen, which shot at them as fast as lightning, but Nie Mingjue wasn’t afraid of spiritual weapons. Even if Bichen struck him, it was unlikely to stop him from closing the small gap between his hand and Lan Xichen’s throat. Yet, just as Nie Mingjue was about to grab Lan Xichen’s neck,

Jin Guangyao used his one remaining hand to strike Lan Xichen’s chest, shoving Lan Xichen away.

LIKE HOLY FUCK.

not to be a horrible xiyao a-yao apologist but can you fucking imagine loving someone so much. like even after lxc has stabbed him in that one worst second of jgy’s life, confirming his fear that even lan xichen, er-ge, zewu-jun would waste no time to kill him if he just had the right view of the situation, that really no one in this world loves him unconditionally,

e v e n   t h e n

he finds it in himself to push lxc away! with all the remaining power he had! while nie mingjue’s hand was wrapped around his throat!

fuck, mxtx!!!

i fully and in 100% understand why zanzan wanted to play that scene differently, to make the stay and die with me a last request from a dying friend, and i love this scene with all my heart and zzj and lhk fucking NAILED IT but like

w   o   w

[bloody-bee-tea]

BeeTober 2020 Day 17

Moon - Falling

Day 17 of BeeTober 2020 has some more Mingcheng in store, this time in a modern au where NHS and NMJ made a pact that comes back to bite them both in the ass now.

Nie Mingjue is acutely aware that he can’t tear his eyes away from Jiang Cheng.

It’s not a problem—at least at the moment—because Jiang Cheng is accepting an award for being the youngest, most successful CEO in the last ten or so years, and he’s giving a speech.

Everyone’s eyes are on him, so it’s not too noticeable that Nie Mingjue cannot look away.

But how is Nie Mingjue supposed to look away, when the gods gifted Jiang Cheng with a face structure like that, and piercing eyes, and a soothing voice and the most precious smile.

Not even to mention how his entire beauty only seems enhanced with how the light of the moon hits him just so.

No, Nie Mingjue never stood a chance, he realizes now.

Jiang Cheng isn’t completely done with his speech when Nie Mingjue forces himself to turn away and leaves in search of the bar. Maybe some alcohol will solve his problem.

He just ordered something strong, when Jiang Cheng appears next to him.

“Not enjoying my speech?” Jiang Cheng asks, putting his award on the bar as he motions for the bartender.

“No offense, but it’s all the same blah blah,” Nie Mingjue gives back and toasts Jiang Cheng when he smiles. “To your award.”

“I got this,” Jiang Cheng says with a frown and nods towards the statue, “because I brought the company to heights it has never been at before. It wasn’t that hard with how my father ran it into the ground before me.”

Nie Mingjue very forcefully puts his glass down again and fully turns towards Jiang Cheng.

He has known him for almost all of Jiang Cheng’s life, because he and Nie Huaisang are best friends, and it always rubbed Nie Mingjue the wrong way, how Jiang Cheng continues to put himself down, time and time again.

And maybe it’s time he says something about it.

“Bullshit,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng turns wide eyes on him. “Even if your father managed to almost ruin the company, you still saved it. And even more than that; it’s one of the most successful in the city today. Not everyone could have done this and you deserve this award and so much more,” Nie Mingjue tells him and when Jiang Cheng slightly blushes at his words, Nie Mingjue turns back to his drink.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng says and gently brushes their shoulders together. “I don’t think anyone stated it this clearly before.”

“Yeah, well, they should have. You have done well, Wanyin, and you can be proud of what you achieved.”

“Are you?” Jiang Cheng asks and immediately afterwards he grimaces as if he didn’t mean to say it.

“Proud of you?” Nie Mingjue wants to know and he doesn’t wait until Jiang Cheng nods. “Of course I am. I still remember the too angry boy that would grumble on our couch when Huaisang was too enthusiastic about something and it’s a real joy to see you grow up into a too angry man that can whip even the worst company into shape,” Nie Mingjue tells him with a wink and Jiang Cheng blushes again.

“Childhood friends are the worst,” Jiang Cheng grumbles under his breath, only proving Nie Mingjue right and when warmth floods Nie Mingjue’s chest, he wonders how he never before noticed that he was falling in love with the young man.

“Nah, you love us all,” Nie Mingjue gives back and then promptly swallows the rest of his drink before he turns away. “I have to go, mingle some more, or Huaisang might actually kill me,” Nie Mingjue says with a groan and Jiang Cheng laughs.

Nie Mingjue never realized just how much he loved hearing that sound before.

“And he might just succeed, too,” Jiang Cheng playfully says and let’s Nie Mingjue go without another word.

Once he’s a very safe distance away, Nie Mingjue takes a deep breath. Normally, he’s a very straight forward kind of guy. If he’s interested in someone he tells them, and then they can figure out where to go from there.

But he can’t with Jiang Cheng, because he and Nie Huaisang made a pact when Nie Huaisang was still small, and Nie Mingjue promised to honour that pact.

And that means Jiang Cheng is off limits.

~*~*~

Nie Mingjue lets himself into Lan Xichen’s apartment and when he finds him on the couch, he promptly flops down there as well, neatly placing his head in Lan Xichen’s lap.

“Huaisang is going to kill me,” Nie Mingjue says even before Lan Xichen can ask what’s going on and he sighs when Lan Xichen starts to undo the braids in his hair.

“You’re redoing them,” Nie Mingjue grumbles, but he melts when Lan Xichen’s nails scratch his scalp.

“Of course I am,” Lan Xichen easily agrees. “Why is A-Sang going to kill you?”

“I’m in love with Jiang Cheng,” Nie Mingjue comes straight to the point and makes an unhappy noise when Lan Xichen’s fingers freeze.

“I don’t see why he’d kill you for that,” Lan Xichen eventually says as he picks up where he left off again. “They are best friends, right? Shouldn’t A-Sang be happy about this?”

“It’s because they are best friends that he’s going to kill me,” Nie Mingjue groans and then slightly shakes his head. “Fuck, I can’t believe I fell for Huaisang’s childhood friend.”

“Well, Jiang Cheng is a very admirable person,” Lan Xichen offers and Nie Mingjue looks up at him.

“Admirable? That’s the understatement of the year. He turned out so well, and I don’t just mean that in terms of looks. His family life is shit, we all know that with how his parents continue to drag everything into the spotlight, and yet he’s one of the best friends anyone could wish for their younger brothers.”

“He’s also the best brother anyone could wish for, if you believe Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli.”

“And have you seen him with his nephew?” Nie Mingjue asks and now in retrospect it’s really embarrassing that it took him so long to notice that he’s in love with Jiang Cheng.

“I did,” Lan Xichen says with a smile and flicks Nie Mingjue’s forehead. “You’re really in deep, huh?”

“Fuck,” Nie Mingjue says and presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. “And it’s not helping that he still comes over all the time. He spends almost as much time on my couch than he did when he was younger, even though I know he has his own apartment by now.”

“And that’s a problem?”

“It is, when he’s working from our couch, because I was not ready to hear him decimate old man Yao on the phone.”

“Uh, I sense a kink,” Lan Xichen teases him and Nie Mingjue can feel himself flush.

He’s normally not that shy, but it’s Jiang Cheng. It’s his baby brother’s best friend. This really is a goddamn problem.

“Never say that again,” Nie Mingjue begs, even though Lan Xichen is probably right and Lan Xichen laughs at him.

“Now, all of this still doesn’t tell me why A-Sang is going to kill you for this.”

“We made a pact when he was about seven, maybe?” Nie Mingjue starts and Lan Xichen makes an encouraging sound. “We promised each other that no matter what happens our friends are off limits for any romantic or sexual relationships,” Nie Mingjue explains and this time when Lan Xichen freezes Nie Mingjue frowns up at him.

“You think that’s strange, right?” Nie Mingjue asks, because of course he would.

Nie Huaisang was really small when they made that pact; small enough that he shouldn’t even worry about something like that at that age, but Nie Mingjue has never questioned it. Nie Huaisang has always been a bit odd to everyone. Only Nie Mingjue never minded his brother’s rather odd thoughts and requests.

“I—yeah,” Lan Xichen finally gets out, and he sounds strangled enough that Nie Mingjue sits up, his hair tumbling all over his chest.

“What’s wrong?” Nie Mingjue wants to know and Lan Xichen can’t meet his eyes before he starts to laugh.

“You really don’t have to worry about A-Sang killing you,” Lan Xichen says then and immediately sobers up. “But please promise me that you won’t kill me.”

“Why should I kill you?” Nie Mingjue asks, but he doesn’t like where this is going, not at all.

“Because maybe A-Sang and I have been seeing each other?” Lan Xichen asks as if he needs to test those words out first and Nie Mingjue springs up.

“What?” he roars because how dare Lan Xichen corrupt his precious younger brother.

“Mingjue, breathe,” Lan Xichen says and Nie Mingjue takes one gulping breath and then a second, and a third.

“I’m calm,” he finally says and it’s not even a lie.

Nie Huaisang is twenty-five now, Nie Mingjue reminds himself. He is old enough to make his own decisions, and really, if Nie Mingjue had to choose a boyfriend for him, Lan Xichen would not be a bad choice at all.

It’s just that—

“That little demon,” Nie Mingjue grumbles. “And here I worry about breaking our pact while he snogs face with my best friend.”

“Please, don’t call it that,” Lan Xichen says with a grimace. “We kissed twice. Really, we’re still seeing where this is going.”

“I do not want to hear that you kissed my baby brother,” Nie Mingjue says and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Unbelievable.”

“Actually, if you want to yell at him in person,” Lan Xichen starts and just at that moment, a key turns in the door.

“Is that him?” Nie Mingjue asks and Lan Xichen nods.

“Xichen!” Nie Huaisang calls out and he sounds way too happy for Nie Mingjue’s taste.

“Huaisang!” he bellows and feels a lot better when he’s met with a surprised squeak.

Time to show Nie Huaisang that Nie Mingjue is still his big brother.

~*~*~

Nie Mingjue refuses to be nervous as he knocks at Jiang Cheng’s door.

If Nie Huaisang managed to bag Lan Xichen who he knew since he was waddling around in pampers, then Nie Mingjue can damn well do the same with Jiang Cheng.

Especially since he is not the first to break their pact and therefore doesn’t have to feel guilty at all.

“Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng says, sounding surprised when he finally opens the door and Nie Mingjue realizes that he can count on one hand the times he has been to Jiang Cheng’s apartment, while Jiang Cheng has a key to his own.

“Is something wrong?” Jiang Cheng asks when Nie Mingjue simply continues to stare at him, but Nie Mingjue can’t help himself.

He’s allowed to stare without guilt now, at least regarding Nie Huaisang and their promise.

“No,” Nie Mingjue says. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng immediately says and steps to the side to let Nie Mingjue in. “Do you want anything to drink?” Jiang Cheng asks him, leaving for the kitchen but Nie Mingjue shakes his head.

“No, thank you,” he politely says and immediately feels uncomfortable.

He should have waited until Jiang Cheng came over the next time; it would have felt much more natural than this.

“Okay, I’m not going to lie, you’re worrying me,” Jiang Cheng says, when he comes back from the kitchen empty handed. “You don’t usually come here.”

“But you usually come to my place,” Nie Mingjue says without thinking and he startles when he sees the hurt frown on Jiang Cheng’s face.

“Should I not?” he carefully asks and Nie Mingjue rubs a hand over his face.

Usually, this is so much easier. He wonders what it is about Jiang Cheng that turns him into a fumbling fool.

“You’re always welcome, you know that,” Nie Mingjue reassures him and then sits down on the couch without waiting for permission. “I’m here because of a pact I have with Huaisang.”

“Okay?” Jiang Cheng asks and sits down on the couch next to Nie Mingjue. “What pact?”

“We’re not allowed to date the friends of our brother,” Nie Mingjue explains and rolls his eyes when Jiang Cheng has to hide a smirk. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, I know he’s dating Xichen.”

“Good,” Jiang Cheng says, amusement colouring his voice. “I would have hated to be the one to break the news to you.”

“Whatever,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and then straightens up again. “But that’s the point actually. He already broke the pact, so there’s no reason for me to honour it anymore.”

“The pact of not dating your brother’s friends,” Jiang Cheng mutters and he blushes bright red when he connects the dots. “And you’re here,” he finishes weakly and Nie Mingjue can’t stop himself from reaching out and cupping his cheek in his hand.

“And I’m here,” Nie Mingjue agrees and his heart beats faster when Jiang Cheng nuzzles into his hand.

“Because you want to date your brother’s best friend.”

“Because I’ve realized I’ve been in love with my brother’s best friend for a while now,” Nie Mingjue agrees and watches fondly as a smile slowly overtakes Jiang Cheng’s face.

“And here I thought all of my flirting was for nothing,” he says and Nie Mingjue laughs.

“Oh no, believe me, your flirting has been received very well,” Nie Mingjue promises him and gently pulls him close. “So this is okay?” he asks, because for all that Jiang Cheng has been flirting, he might still find it weird to kiss his best friend’s older brother.

“More than,” Jiang Cheng promises and closes the distance between them.

Nie Mingjue never knew that broken promises could taste this sweet.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[xiyao-feels]

I'm so confused. can jgy reincarnate or be resurrected? I know fanfic can take liberties but I've read conflicting things. plus the untamed didn't show his body or explain anything and I believe the novel says something else entirely? 😔🥺😕

So "can JGY reincarnate or be resurrected" is not a question I can really properly answer. My understanding is that the answer is yes if he's not stuck in the coffin (and a friend of mine has read a bunch of Chinese fic, albeit through Google translate, where stuff like that does in fact happen), but I'm not confident I'd know it if the answer were no! So I'm afraid I can't really help you there, I'm sorry. This is normally where I'd link you stuff from people who know more than I do but while I know I've seen stuff on the subject apparently I didn't save it, and I couldn't find anything relevant searching, either. That'll teach me not to save my links...

But I can show you what happened to JGY in MDZS, and then contrast with CQL! Let's go.

So, end of ch. 108, JGY pushes LXC away from the coffin and NMJ (not, note, out of the temple, which isn't crumbling!) and then NMJ immediately drags him into the coffin and kills him:

Yet, just as the hand was an instant from grasping Lan XiChen’s neck, Jin GuangYao used the only hand he had left to strike Lan XiChen’s chest, pushing Lan XiChen away.

He, himself, on the other hand, was dragged into the coffin by Nie MingJue, then held up like holding a puppet. The scene was beyond frightening. Jin GuangYao used his one hand to peel away at Nie MingJue’s steel-like palm. He struggled ceaselessly from the pain, hair tangled, as heavy malice shot from his eyes. He cursed with all the energy he had left, “Fuck you, Nie MingJue! You think I’m really scared of you?! I…”

With much difficulty, he coughed up some blood. Everyone present heard a crack that was abnormally clear and brutal.

A whimper of a last breath left Jin GuangYao’s throat.

There's a last short couple of sentences about JL's reaction, and then at the beginning of 109 you immediately have:

Lan XiChen staggered a few steps back from the push. He hadn’t realized what happened yet. Meanwhile, Lan WangJi struck the back of the fair-featured Guanyin statue at the center of the temple. The statue vibrated as it flew towards the coffin. Nie MingJue was still inspecting the corpse in his hand, the head had already dipped. As the heavy statue hit him, he fell right back where he’d been.

Wei WuXian leaped over and stepped onto the Guanyin’s chest. The coffin lid had broken already. They could only use the Guanyin statue as a lid to seal away Nie MingJue and his rampage. Down below, Nie MingJue struck the statue again and again in attempt to break free, while Wei WuXian also shook again and again, reeling so much he was almost thrown off.

And then LWJ lifts the coffin up, seals it with seven quqin strings and lets it fall again to the ground.

Then for the rest of chapter 109 and the beginning of 110, LXC and then WWX ask NHS some questions, after which:

After a while of silence, Wei WuXian spoke, “Let’s stop standing around for nothing. Get a few people to go find assistance. Save a few to stand by here and watch the thing. The coffin and the guqin strings won’t be able to seal ChiFeng-Zun for long.”

As though to verify his judgement, loud noises echoed within the coffin again, along with a nameless fury. Nie HuaiSang shivered. Wei WuXian glanced at him, “You see? You have to switch to a firmer coffin right now, dig a deep ditch, and bury it once more. You won’t be able to open it in at least a hundred years. If you do, it’s guaranteed it’ll continue to haunt, resulting in endless consequences…”

Right after this, the crowd comes pouring in. Some of them do indeed work on strengthening the seal; we're also told that it requires careful handling (which is why it's a few of the sect leaders who volunteer to handle it), and WWX anticipates the near future of the coffin:

Soon, this coffin would be sealed within a larger, firmer coffin. It’d be secured with seventy-two mahogany nails and buried deep underground, sealed under some mountain with stone tablets of warning.

Then we see some sect leaders carrying it outside the temple, and later LQR watches it be hauled onto a cart.

The next we hear of it is in overheard rumour in ch 113, three months later:

Someone switched the subject, “Enough, enough. Why talk about these things? Eat up, eat up No matter how powerful that Jin GuangYao used to be, right now he could be stuck in a coffin brawling with Nie MingJue.”

“I don’t think so. They loathe each other to the core, after all. I bet his bones have already been torn apart by Nie MingJue.”

“Indeed! I went to the sealing ceremony. The resentful energy in that coffin was so strong that no life grew within five hundred feet of it. I’m doubting it, really—could the coffin really seal them for a hundred years?”

Overheard rumour is not the most reliable of things, especially in MDZS—for example, I would not be surprised if it wasn't really five hundred feet. But it gives any sense, and certainly—as WWX indicated above—the coffin is /meant/ to seal them for a hundred years. (Though I have my doubts on this actually working; see here.)

Now let's look at CQL:

After JGY breaks the seal on the coffin, the blood drops onto the Tiger Seal, and resentful energy emerges and the temple starts to crumple; pretty much everyone but wangxian and xiyao flee the temple. LXC lifts his hand to push JGY away, but can't bring himself to do it; JGY asks him to stay and die with him, and he agrees. JGY then pushed him away to save his life, and wangxian catch him and LWJ brings him out of the temple to make sure he actually leaves insead of e.g. running right back in to die with JGY. WWX stays and watches a little; we see JGY turn and confront the resentful energy: "Nie Mingjue. Do you think I will be afraid of you?" The temple continues to collapse, WWX flees, and JGY runs towards the coffin.

(I'm having a hard time with the blocking on this one, I watched it a few times and it looks like they are a) immediately over the coffin when JGY bleeds on it and then immediately after they're...not? Despite not moving??? But the above is what I think is supposed to be going on.)

They're then sitting around in the courtyard outside. They seem to have been sitting around for a while even before WWX's wound heals (not a feature in MDZS, because in MDZS MXY's revenge didn't include JGY); it seems likely that JGY died before that, I think, but that's at least an end point. After this the cultivators rush into the courtyard. Now we finally get people going into the temple again, but there doesn't seem to be any sign or mention of sealing. I thought I remembered mention if a ceremony of some sort, but I can't find it in the rest of the episode and a friend doesn't remember it at all so I think it's pretty likely I was just misremembering/crossing it with MDZS.

But basically: in MDZS, they seal them together /immediately/ after JGY dies, and they proceed very quickly to a stronger, more permanent seal. In CQL, there's no sign of any of this at all! It seems quite plausible that they're not buried together, never mind sealed together. And regardless, it couldn't have happened nearly as immediately; JGY's spirit could have time to flee the coop.

It's also worth remembering that in MDZS when they seal the coffin at the end, it's to immediately deal with /fierce corpse NMJ/, who otherwise would be an extremely powerful, extraordinarily dangerous fierce corpse, made even worse—as WWX notes in ch 107—by having killed JGY.* In CQL it looks like the problem is more the Tiger Seal, I think? And it's not like they need to immediately seal it into the coffin which JGY is also in? It's not even clear that JGY's body actually ends up in the coffin, from what I can see. As far as I can tell there's not really any reason to believe they're buried together. If I had to guess (though I didn't rewatch all relevant scenes, or even all the temple scenes, and I could easily be missing something) I'd say NMJ might be going back to Honourable Burial Nie Land, and JGY's corpse....

Hmmm. That's kind of interesting, come to think of it. If it hasn't mysteriously vanished I'm not sure what would happen to it; I'm inclined to say it wouldn't be treated well except LXC is right there and he might like. Stab someone, honestly. If it /has/ mysteriously vanished—I just might change my mind about CQL LXC killing himself.** In Which a Twin Jade obsessively searches the world for their loved one because there's the possibility they might not be dead, huh.

*"After he killed Jin GuangYao, his killing intent would definitely become stronger, and he’d be more difficult to subdue!"

**I don't think this is the impression CQL as a whole is trying to give us, to be clear, it's just what I think happened.

[ibijau]

“I’ve got a sick sense of justice, but you knew that.” 3zun fic? Where things work out between them, somehow, and yet JGY still kills JGS the same way and defends that choice to LXC and NMJ (Or JZX, if he's alive)? Can go full on JGS was stealing his women's energy, hence their sickness/deaths!

warning for mentions of death, rape and murder. Yay, it’s a happy one :D

Nie Mingjue storms into the cell, only for Jin Guangyao to look up and smile at him, as if he were welcoming him into his quarters, rather than locked up and in chains. He smiles just as peacefully to Lan Xichen when he follows their lover inside, pretending not to notice the other man's obvious distress. 

"I hope Da-ge and Er-ge will forgive me if I do not stand and bow to them," Jin Guangyao calmly says, rattling his chains. 

Nie Mingjue stares at him, taken aback. 

Even though they have reached a tentative peace between them, and Jin Guangyao often makes efforts to be more open with them than he is with anyone else, he still is the same person he always was. When he gets in trouble, he makes himself pathetic before them, almost on instinct. Sometimes it annoys Nie Mingjue, but other times it feels almost like a joke between them, as long as Jin Guangyao has that twinkle in his eye to show he knows he won't be taken seriously. 

To see him this calm and detached is unsettling. Nie Mingjue can only wonder if it has something to do with that large bruise on the side of his head. Going by the colour it is at least a day old. No cultivator of Jin Guangyao's level should have let this last this long. 

"Ah, this," Jin Guangyao notes, feeling their gaze. "Zixun was not very happy and let it be known. I am sorry to present myself before you in such a state, but my powers have been sealed, and I could not do anything about it. Please, just avoid looking at it." 

That makes Nie Mingjue frown. If Jin Zixun is behind one bruise, he's ready to bet there are more, hidden under Jin Guangyao’s clothes. He forces his mind to drift away from the worry he feels, because the real problem today is… 

"Did you do it?" Lan Xichen asks, something wavering in his usually calm voice. 

Jin Guangyao placidly looks up at him. 

"What do you think, Er-ge?" 

Lan Xichen trades a glance with Nie Mingjue. 

What they think is that Jin Zixun, who uncovered the plot against his late uncle, is not the most reliable man in the world, and holds a grudge against Jin Guangyao since that near fiasco with Wei Wuxian at Jin Ling's hundredth day party. 

They think also that he did bring convincing evidence. The most critical one is the testimony of a woman who took part in the murder of Jin Guangshan. She says she did not see the man who paid for her services, but she would recognise his voice. She also did see Xue Yang, and they all know the little creep respects no one except Jin Guangyao. 

They think that Jin Zixuan is desperately trying to prove his half brother's innocence, but finding it difficult. 

They think that Jin Guangyao has killed his superiors before. 

They think he promised he wouldn't again, and they both made the choice to trust him. 

And Nie Mingjue thinks, also, that although they've disagreed on means and motives, Jin Guangyao never strikes unprovoked, which he says out loud. 

The tenderness in Jin Guangyao’s eyes as he hears this is nearly unbearable. 

“Da-ge, are you really asking for my side of the story?” he asks in disbelief. 

It might be sincere. It might be feigned. Nie Mingjue never knows with him, just as he suspects Jin Guangyao never knows what to expect from him.

“We know your father was not… the kindest of men,” Lan Xichen says gently, kneeling down next to Jin Guangyao to send some spiritual energy into him and help him heal. Jin Guangyao sighs in relief, but keeps his eyes on Nie Mingjue even as Lan Xichen continues speaking. “You have let us know about some of the things he’s done, A-Yao, and I’ve long suspected there’s more you never told us. If he did anything to deserve such an end…”

“Of course he deserved it,” Jin Guangyao cuts him, still looking at Nie Mingjue. “You both know it as well as I do. He deserved it whether I had a hand in it or not. He was a selfish man. He only joined the Sunshot Campaign because he hoped to become what Wen Ruohan had been. He only took me in because his true son, forcefully kept from the heat of the action, failed to garner glory for Lanling Jin. And I won't get into the details of everything that happened with Wei Wuxian."

"But none of these things are why you killed him," Nie Mingjue retorts, suddenly convinced that Jik Guangyao really did it. 

Once, it would have filled him with rage to realise this. Back when he first understood what sort of a person his efficient and soft spoken friend was, when he saw Jin Guangyao murder his own captain… But since then, Nie Mingjue has learned to forgive, at least somewhat. Because when Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue’s men in Nightless City, he took care to only murder those who once derided him for his background, to lightly wound the ones who never mocked him. 

It was still wrong, those were still good men, but Nie Mingjue, who had been burning for years with his hatred of the Wens, understood that better than he ought to have done. 

So there is no anger as Nie Mingjue too kneels down next to their lover. Only disappointment. In himself, for wanting to excuse this most awful crime. In Jin Guangyao, for not coming to them this time, when he thought something was wrong. They had listened about Wei Wuxian, they would have listened about this too. 

"Some brothels offer specialised services," Jin Guangyao says, the smile on his face shifting from loving to cold and polite, the way it used to be around his father. "I suppose this doesn't surprise you. Someone with money can always get what they want in this world." 

Both Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen nod uncomfortably. 

"Some of those services offered are of a rather different nature," Jin Guangyao goes on, his eyes growing distant. "They are difficult to perform, cannot be repeated, and cost an obscene amount of money… not to speak of the moral cost. It takes a certain kind of man to purchase such services. Believe it or not, even Xue Yang found it distasteful. For all the wrong reasons, but still, I think Da-ge and Er-ge will agree that it takes a lot to shock someone like Xue Yang."

Lan Xichen takes their lover's hand, trying to comfort him, but Nie Mingjue freezes. He is suddenly reminded of certain rumours, gossip so foul that it had to be exaggerated. He's always refused to pay it any mind, knowing well there were horror stories about him as well, as there always are against powerful men. 

He can't escape it now.

“It’s not hard to find human cauldrons, if you know how to look for them,” Jin Guangyao states in a voice devoid of any emotion, staring somewhere in the distance. “And some men will always look for an easy way to improve their cultivation, even if it means raping and killing a girl for it. There are addresses, and certain euphemisms. These days, you would ask to see a Wen girl. I’ve learned that a few years ago, people called them educated women.”

Nie Mingjue only frowns at that comment, but next to him Lan Xichen gasps in horror, squeezing Jin Guangayo’s hand.

“Your mother…”

Jin Guangyao blinks a few times, and forces himself to look at Lan Xichen. It appears to take him great effort. Nie Mingjue wonders if it is the topic that causes this, or if the blow to his head caused more damage than is visible.

“No, don’t worry. She was just actually educated. It didn’t mean the same thing in Yunping as it did in Lanling, but my father found her attractive enough for his other purposes, I suppose.” Jin Guangyao looks away again, his face growing harder. “Others were not as lucky. It is all too easy to get what you want, with enough money.”

“You should have told us,” Nie Mingjue says. “If you had come to us with proof…”

“My father is not so stupid that he would have left proof,” Jin Guangyao hisses between clenched teeth, still staring at the wall. “Even he would have had trouble justifying doing such a thing to augment his power. I only found out because I went to fetch him with Xue Yang at a brothel one day, and heard him discussing in detail his next… purchase. Xue Yang happened to be knowledgeable about certain euphemisms we were hearing, and thought it entertaining to explain to me. After this I started looking. It’s funny what you find, when you look for it. It wasn’t proof enough to openly attack him, not with my background. But it was enough to be sure. And then…”

Jin Guangyao chuckles darkly, his eyes finally meeting Nie Mingjue’s.

“I’ve got a sick sense of justice, but you knew that,” he says with unnerving calm. “Xue Yang was on board because he thinks that sort of thing is cheating. Torturing the dead and cutting them from their reincarnation doesn’t phase him, but he knows it could have been him, if he’d been born a girl. And so we did what had to be done. My father died the way he lived.”

He pauses a moment, taking in the expression on his lovers’ faces, from Lan Xichen’s horror at that confession to Nie Mingjue’s anger that once again, this took clever man made all the wrong choices.

“Nobody else would have dared to stand against him,” Jin Guangyao adds, smiling feverishly, his gaze on Nie Mingjue. “But I’ve always been one to do what others wouldn’t. Someone has to get their hands dirty, Da-ge. I’ve never minded doing it when my turn came. I wonder if you will, now that you know the truth? You’ve always been such a champion of justice, always telling others to be righteous. Let’s see what choice you make, now that justice isn’t such an easy thing to decide.”

[songofclarity]

I heard today is your birthday and since I saw you like catboy!WRH so I will rise to you cat!WRH

When he's young WRH finds an old scroll in the Wen treasure room, the scroll is so old and damaged it's unreadable but WRH never backs down from a challenge and decides to decipher it.

After months of hard work WRH figures out the scroll contains instructions on a array that allows the caster "to turn into a powerful and fearsome beast at will". WRH is very intrigued and immediately tries the array but to his shock he doesn't turn into a powerful and fearsome beast! Instead he is only a cat!

"useless" WRH thinks.

He spent months racking his brain to understand the scroll and in the end it turned out to be an elaborate prank some ancestor of his thought to play on their descendants!

"What a waste of time!"

Forget that shape-shifting is an extremely difficult skill very few cultivators mastered through history. WRH thinks being a cat is silly and not worth the spiritual energy!

Frustrated, WRH burns the scroll and forgets about it.

Years later WRH learns to appreciate his secret skill. Being a cat is especially useful for sneaking around and spying on things undetected, also after he becomes a sect leader turning into a cat becomes WRH's go to method to get a break on days people can't seem to leave him alone. If his duties get too much and he needs a moment to himself WRH will turn into a cat, spend a whole morning chasing butterflies all over nightless city, feast on a nice plump chicken he stole from the palace kitchen, and then spend the entire afternoon napping in the sun and watching his attendants lose their minds looking for him.

Another upside to being a cat is he can be as petty and rude as he wants to be but often can't when human.

He will for example relieve himself on JGS's new insanely expensive carpet after the latter spent two hours earlier in the day telling him the story of how he had the carpet especially commissioned and imported all the way from Persia.

Or he will sneak into YZY 's personal quarters and use his tiny but very sharp cat claws and fangs to destroy her best robes after she made him sit through the most painfully awkward dinner in his life when visiting lotus Pier to discuss sect matters with JFM.

Or he will go under LQR's window after midnight and practice his best impression of a demon cat in heat for hours and then in the morning he will find out where the lans hang their laundry and drag all their pristine newly washed robes in the mud because LQR made a thinly veiled remark about his manners the day before.

Or he will climb into NMJ's lap to annoy him but NMJ only looks mildly surprised at the strange cat that's currently laying in his lap looking very smug and proud of itself before he starts to pet it, WRH is shocked, confused, baffled... NMJ is doing a great job at petting him, his hand is very big and warm and he knows exactly the best spots to pet and scratch and he smells so nice and his lap is actually very comfortable! Soon WRH is purring and drifting to sleep when he catches himself, pukes a hairball on NMJ's robes, and runs away...

I'm also thinking WRH would be one of those very pretty "tuxedo" cats that are all black except their mouth, belly, and "socks" that are white

I am now a big, BIG fan of cat!Wen RuoHan, thank you for this!

"The reason cats are so pissy is they're God's perfect killing machines but they only weigh 8 lbs and we keep picking them up and kissing them" applies to young cat!Wen RuoHan vs. adult cat!Wen RuoHan getting his revenge game on with “It’s a beautiful day in the cultivation world, and you are a terrible cat.”

I'm imagining people in Nightless City picking up young cat!Wen RuoHan and kissing his cute little kitten head...! “Useless,” he sputters! “What a waste of time!” he thinks, after spending the last thirty minutes chasing a fuzzy toy on a string. He has important sect leader training and cultivation to get to!

But those sweet, lazy days lounging around as a cat are too tempting to ignore~

I am HOWLING (although not like Wen RuoHan lmao) at cat!Wen RuoHan making a racket outside of Lan QiRen’s room at night. (I have a headcanon that Wen RuoHan has a particular yet subtle dislike for the Lans and all their rules, so this is delightful.) RIP to all the Sect Leaders, nothing you own is sacred or out of bounds...

And then Nie MingJue prizing nothing but his saber, which Wen RuoHan knows better than to touch, leaves only Nie MingJue’s person as a target. His lap? Vulnerable! Enjoy getting fur all over your nice robes, Sect Leader Nie!! Feel the conflicting dread of not wanting to push a warm, innocent animal off your lap as your legs go numb and you go hungry!

Wen RuoHan getting unexpectedly nice scritches from Nie MingJue:

A powerful counter-attack...

I love tuxedo cats with their gorgeous, tailored coats! Although because I also love Wen RuoHan maintaining some red in his coloring, might I also suggest him as a turkish van! Those amber eyes, pure white bodies, and the colorful tails are just gorgeous.

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

MDZS/CQL RPG mechanics

I was inspired by this awesome post from @wangxian-patriarch with additions by @moonwaif. Go check it out! And assume all those clever details and mechanics mentioned there.

This would work SO WELL for a late 90s PS1-style RPG, where graphics were improving and storylines/character arcs were becoming crazy complex but it was still kind of the Wild West/anything goes/take all the risks you want. And the best games (IMO) are those that mix genres in an episodic fashion and MDZS/CQL totally fits the bill for that! CQL even does it, itself.

This got so long that I hated to clog up their post with a reblog. Bear with me here. Batshit crazy thoughts coming at a million miles per hour. In addition to all the above wonderful stuff: picture this structured like a 75%/25% split of MDZS/CQL (because I think the interspersed flashbacks work better for a game where you get to see your past choices affect the present in chunks) but with 75% of the character expansions from CQL. AKA, more Shijie, meet WQ and WN in Cloud Recesses, interact with them at the Wen Indoctrination. Your choices determine at what pace the relationship with LWJ proceeds (see below)? The POV is always WWX.

Intro/tutorial: Mo Manor. WWX is your main character, obv. The main present story arc is a mostly linear action/adventure RPG. Mo Manor is your tutorial/training ground where you’re introduced to the main game mechanics, learn a bit about the world via NPC interaction and MXY’s notes, and get handed the first mystery/what appears to be the main game goal: who did MXY want you to get revenge on? Melodies keeps popping into WWX’s head. Begin mini game where you are introduced to the game’s musical mechanics as WWX tries to remember melodies. Most are eerie and harsh, but there is one WWX finds “strangely soothing” even though he can’t remember where it is from. Remember these songs, especially that soothing one, because it’s going to be important soon! Introduction of basic sword-based cultivation battle mechanics via an impromptu party forming with the ducklings against the corpse arm (WWX can join in with talismans or something relatively innocuous for now). Eventually WWX goes secret solo battle using flute-less demonic cultivation battle mechanics. Can you remember how to play some of those tunes to summon fierce corpses? Then LWJ appears and it’s time for you to get the Hell out of Dodge before there are questions about what you just did. Cue short sequence of getting out of Mo Village before you’re caught. Begin Little Apple game mechanics.

Dafan Mountain Quest. First big mission. Gather info and piece together the mystery while avoiding too much attention from the Jiang sect cultivators or Game Over. Solve the mystery and begin the first boss fight alongside the ducklings! But talismans and whistling isn’t cutting it any longer. Flute-based demonic cultivation mechanics activate! Remember those songs WWX has had going through his head. You’re going to need all of them now. Game Over if Jin Ling is killed by the goddess! Also: surprise! the goddess can only be defeated by a finishing move which requires summoning a high level fierce corpse. Which song is it? Succeed and summon Wen Ning, but oh no! he’s in berserk mode. Hmmm, what about that soothing song? Better remember how to play it fast or Wen Ning will kill the other cultivators and Game Over.

FLASHBACK: Cloud Recesses. I need this to somehow incorporate and deconstruct the school dating sim genre. I don’t know how, but I need that. Sharing loquats and Emperor’s Smile and causing trouble will sure make you popular. The rooftop fight seems like a standard fighting setup. Is there a way to mix those two genres? A fighting mini game inside a dating sim? Because there needs to be! Is Biling Lake a mini action-platformer segment? Also agree: Jiang Cheng interaction and combo learning here—sneak out to explore the back hill and learn pair fighting dynamics. Use WWX’s original sword-based cultivation skills. Rabbit-catching mini game. Decide what colors you want to gift to increasingly grumpy Lan Zhan. Get to know Mianmian and she’ll be more active in helping you later. Befriend NHS and change dialog trees with him in present arc.

Present day Cloud Recesses: your home base. Sandbox. Your actions in the flashback effect the present day Cloud Recesses. Did you hide some Emperor’s smile somewhere 16 years ago? Home of rabbit-raising mini game and various troublemaking side quests. You get points for every Lan Clan rule you break (and how deeply you corrupt the ducklings). The challenge is in figuring out how to break them. Break enough rules and gain early access to the library’s restricted section where you can learn all kinds of new unorthodox cultivation techniques. Break all of them and get a super awesome power-up. Up to a certain point you can return here with LWJ on Bichen once he joins your party. Duckling night hunts are initiated here?

Lan WangJi Joins the Party. The main body of the game commences as you begin the quest to solve the Mo Manor mystery and figure out who MXY wanted you to get revenge on. Your choices/skill in the flashbacks as they occur will alter (somewhat) the events of this, the game’s main “spine.” Each town/city encountered on the road trip has its own aesthetic and NPC populace from which you have to collect clues and learn what your next moves should be. Lots of immersive qualities and learning about the current political/social situation. Fierce corpse and ghost fights along the way. Collect (offensively inaccurate) YLLZ and Sunshot memorabilia. Slowly grow your affinity with LWJ in battle and use the skills for pair fighting you learned with Jiang Cheng to build towards those awesome battle-couple combos. LWJ will remain in your party for the rest of the main game (excluding flashbacks) except for short bits like Yi City. You can play WWX’s dizi along the road for practice and to up your skill level. Depending on how often and in what circumstances you play Wangxian and how you interact with LWJ you’ll start to get different (but still evasive) answers if you ask him how he knew it was you. Remember to play Rest so NMJ’s pieces don’t get out of hand.

Because this is long: more below the cut

The Man-eating castle. Logic puzzle dungeon. Try to outclever NHS in dialog trees to get him to spill information.

Chang Manor. Mystery dungeon with final grave robber boss fight. Learn about the story of XXC, SL, and XY as you explore Chang manor, looking for clues as to what happened. Avoid traps set by XY.

Yi City. I mean: THE FOG. It’s Silent Hill. It’s Fatal Frame. It’s a survival horror dungeon. How long and involved should the Empathy section be? How does the gameplay change there?

Explore Jin Lin Tai. Stealth dungeon. Sneak around Jin Lin Tai as first “MXY” and later as Paperman WWX (AH! Sudden scale/mechanics change), gathering clues and looking for NMJ’s head. Empathy cutscenes.

Escape Jin Lin Tai. Action segment/beat em up. A place to really show off those growing battle-couple mechanics with LWJ.

FLASHBACK: Happy Times at Lotus Pier. The closest we’ve been to the light-hearted gameplay of the first Cloud Recesses flashback. WWX. JC, and JYL involved in shenanigans at Lotus Pier. Maybe we even get the Lotus Seed Pod Extra content of stealing lotuses from the old man. Get a chance to use those Jiang Cheng combos you learned in the CR flashback. Last chance to use those sword cultivation techniques. Nostalgia galore.

FLASHBACK (cont): Indoctrination/Xuanwu Cave. WWX/JC party using non-sword techniques. Eventually morphs into a WWX/LWJ party. This would be the first time chronologically that they would have fought together.

FLASHBACK (cont): Lotus Pier Attack and Escape. I totally agree with the above that this will ultimately work out to stealth escort missions as you work to get JC to safety with WN’s help.

FLASHBACK (cont): Thrown into Burial Mounds. This could be super expressionistic. Wandering through Burial Mounds trying to stay alive, but with crazy nightmare-like elements. Think of the way Eternal Darkness messed with player perceptions and even broke the 4th wall when it came to game mechanics. Maybe this even bleeds seamlessly into the supervisory office deaths and Wen Chao’s chase and death.

Return to Cloud Recesses. More areas to explore are unlocked. Dialog trees with LWJ. Feelings.

Journey to Burial Mounds. This is your chance to really grind and refine those battle couple combos. Side-quests? How far has word spread that the YLLZ is back? How will that effect the way you can or can’t interact with NPCs. I also like the idea of interspersing the flashbacks from Sunshot and up through the building of the Burial Mounds settlement in here, so as to have the player get to interact with and design the settlement in the past before the ruins of it are seen in the present.

FLASHBACK: Sunshot. mashup of beat em up/strategy tactics using demonic cultivation with chenqing and the tiger seal to clear a path for the army of cultivators. WWX is a party of one for this.

FLASHBACK (cont): Post Sunshot. More deconstructed social sim mechanics. Use chenqing to help JC bag prey on Phoenix Mountain. Social decision trees at that really uncomfortable conference scene. Qiongqi Path rescue of the Wen Refugees. The LWJ in the rain confrontation either does or does not happen (or happens somewhat differently) depending on how your relationship has progressed thus far in the past.

FLASHBACK (cont): Building Burial Mounds Settlement. Settlement/Survival Sim elements. Choose where and how to build and what to grow. Play with and protect a-Yuan. Work to revive WN. Make demonic cultivation tools. Whatever you make will still exist in future and can be gathered/used for the Second Siege battle. JC duel (ouch, there’s those moves you learned together being used against you). Play around in YiLing with LWJ and a-Yuan. Spend the day as a family. Feelings.

Arrive at Burial Mounds. Explore the ruins of the place you built. Feelings. Gather items. Release the Juniors. Fight with the Cultivators.

FLASHBACK: Death of JZX/Nightless City. Beat em up using Wen Ning at Qiongqi Path. At Nightless City this time you’re solo sending hordes towards the cultivators. Heart breaking solo battle against LWJ, as with JC, he now knows and can anticipate your moves based on your previous flashback interactions. HORRIBLE TRAGEDY AND MASSIVE DEATH.

Second Seige of Burial Mounds. Massive beat em up where you finally get to utilize the full extent of your battle-couple skills along with Wen Ning in a series of brawls to end all brawls, eventually the ducklings join your party for brawl wave 3. You know that really big battle that happens near the turning point of video games that’s inevitably the second or third biggest battle of the game (and sometimes more difficult than the actual final boss battles)? That’s this one.

Return to Lotus Pier. Here’s where you get memories of WWX’s first night at Lotus Pier and YanLi saving him from the tree are interspersed as you explore the heartbreakingly different present day Lotus Pier. As with the other locations that you experience in both past and present, some choices in the past effect the location in the present. FEELINGS.

YunPing City: Final major location. Explore and gather info. Prep for the final battle. Drunk LWJ mini game shenanigans. (Sexy time? I mean, Indigo Prophecy did it...) Stealth your way into Guanyin Temple.

Guanyin Temple Climax: Dialog trees with JGY determine how difficult he is to defeat here in battle. Final boss fight against NMJ’s fierce corpse: poignant party/combo with both JC and LWJ.

Denouement. Maybe the Sizhui revelation happens differently depending on how you interact with him throughout the game. Obv NOT getting the revelation is considered the BAD ending.

Ultimately, how the relationship between WWX and LWJ unfolds in CQL and MDZS is influenced by the plot structure (or at least is better served in each medium by how it makes use of the plot structure). The character of that relashionship journey is so different between the mediums, but each has wonderful aspects. How that plays out here is kind of up in the air without nailing more things down. Is it possible your actions could determine the timing and expression of the ship such that you end up with something more distinctly MDZS or something more distinctly CQL? (And by that I don’t mean one is overtly sexual and one isn’t, but rather whether the revelation of their feelings comes all at once near the end or rather more gradually, shifting in intensity and character as the plot goes along). That would be quite a thing to pull off without breaking the central narrative. I don’t even want to think about how complex that decision tree would be, but it could potentially be kind of amazing!

[queenofmoons67]

Upon the Qinghe Mountains

With Nie Mingjue's anger worsening, Nie Huaisang can't bring himself to believe his da-ge loves him anymore--and so he throws up a flower. And then some more.

Or, in which I caved and wrote a platonic NHS & NMJ Hanahaki AU.

Like all cultivators, Nie Huaisang had heard the warnings: Your golden core can do weird things when you love someone. Especially if you think they don’t love you back. The unrequited love can sink into your body and try to rot there, and your core will respond by forcing your own love to the surface. It’s a defensive mechanism, but if you let it reach the point of blooming, your core will be the death of you.

Being from the Nie Sect, Nie Huaisang wasn’t exactly new to the concept of one’s core being a death sentence. The difference this time was that there was a solution: Have a doctor remove the core. Hanahaki only appeared in cultivators, because only a golden core could let the flowers grow. Remove the core, and there were no flowers.

Staring at the bloody green and yellow petals cupped in his hands, though, Nie Huaisang knew that there would be no cure for himself. Removing the flowers also removed any memories of the loved one. If it had been anyone else… but he knew it was his da-ge.

Once, Nie Huaisang would have laughed in the face of anyone who tried to tell him his da-ge didn’t love him. But that was then. This was now, when Nie Huaisang frequently found himself hiding from Da-ge’s temper—and once, when Da-ge found him anyway, cradling both a bruised cheek and a broken fan. In the years since the Sunshot Campaign, something had changed in his da-ge.

Nie Huaisang would always love him, no matter what his da-ge did.

Nie Huaisang couldn’t say the same for Da-ge.

That love was the problem, he thought—his love, which made him hold on to every good memory of his da-ge that he had left with more desperation than he had ever turned towards the saber, and the fact the hard truth was that most of his memories involved Da-ge. Remove Da-ge, and Nie Huaisang’s mind would be riddled with holes to the point that he couldn’t say how much of Nie Huaisang would remain.

Smiling bitterly, he dropped the petals into a waste bin, rinsed his hands of blood, and then dumped the dirty water out the window to the ground below. Nie Huaisang would be even more useless than he’d ever been, with no memories of saber practice—always conducted by Da-ge—or lessons on politics—sometimes sat in on by Da-ge—or council meetings—held by Da-ge.

Perhaps that Nie Huaisang would be happier, with his ability to actually carry out his responsibilities taken away and the perfect excuse in his hands.

But this Nie Huaisang knew that some of the only times left that Da-ge actually smiled at him were when he did something like go to a council meeting without being dragged there, and this Nie Huaisang would hang on to those moments with all the life he had left in him.

Even if it killed him.

<line break>

The next few weeks passed slowly, but the disease progressed quickly. It wasn’t long before Nie Huaisang was having to hide at the mere sight of Da-ge, pressing fully-bloomed flowers into his qiankun pouch and wiping bloody hands on his inner robes. Any time they were forced to be together, Nie Huaisang found himself choking down flowers and hiding bloody teeth behind his fan.

And, as time kept moving on, Nie Huaisang felt the flowers growing. They began to come out with thorns, repeatedly tearing the inside of his throat. An average cultivator might have hoped to heal between each round.

Nie Huaisang was not an average cultivator. With a large portion of his core already unwillingly devoted to blooming flowers, what little he had left could only barely close the wounds.

And then, of course, the roots began to grow and thicken. They entered his lungs, and Nie Huaisang wished he’d never found out how hard it is to throw up when you’re already fighting for every breath.

<line break>

Between the flowers, the breathing, and the bloody robes he left for the servants every night, Nie Huaisang wasn’t surprised that some of the disciples began catching on. Their foreheads would furrow, staring at the pieces of evidence, before shock and horror made their faces relax just before worry made them tighten again. They would try to approach him, and he would shake his head no.

No, they could not come over. No, they could not tell anyone. No, he would not tell anyone himself. And no, his da-ge would not find out.

Nie Huaisang didn’t know what Da-ge would do if he did.

He didn’t particularly want to find out, either.

Would it be the sign of love he longed for, for Da-ge to demand he get the surgery? Or just another sign of hate and indifference?

Right now, Nie Huaisang could fight on, extending his life as much as possible, because a small part of him still believed that Da-ge loved him. Anything but the Hanahaki outright disappearing would just be confirmation that wasn’t true.

<line break>

In the end, it was Lan Xichen’s fault. The man came over to play Cleansing, which Nie Huaisang had known about, and Nie Mingjue insisted on Nie Huaisang listening, too, which Nie Huaisang hadn’t expected.

“You do look a little pale, A-Sang,” Lan Xichen noted. “Cleansing might help your body get rid of what is making you ill.”

Nie Huaisang smiled, blood, flowers, and thorns trapped behind his lips and further hidden behind his fan since Da-ge had entered the room. He nodded, and sat as far away from his da-ge as could be feasibly believable.

Even so, Lan Xichen’s brow wrinkled, his eyes flicking once between the two Nie brothers—and then he sat, and Nie Huaisang relaxed as he began to play.

And play.

And play.

Nie Huaisang tensed with each minute that passed. Jin Guangyao tended to play Cleansing once, sometimes twice, and then leave—perhaps because he played it so often? Lan Xichen had surely played it three times already, did he need to play it a fourth? Was he trying to make up for how much time it had been since the last time he visited?

By the time Lan Xichen began a fifth round, Nie Huaisang was swallowing as many flowers as he could, but the force of them colliding with the ones coming up was making him shake, and he couldn’t—he couldn’t breathe.

Fisting his hands in his robes to try and steady himself, Nie Huaisang made eye contact with the disciple standing guard at the door. It was one of the ones who knew about his Hanahaki. Maybe—?

No, the disciple shook his head and purposefully diverted his eyes.

Nie Huaisang had no hope of a distraction; he was stuck; he—he couldn’t breathe, the thorns had dug into his throat and the flowers had knotted themselves around them, he couldn’t swallow anymore, he was bent over and seeing spots, he had to get out, Liebing had fallen silent with one last sharp note, he had to stand, he had to—

Nie Huaisang vomited flowers and thorns and blood, and that was the last thing he knew.

<line break>

Nie Huaisang opened his eyes to white and blue robes.

“Er-ge?” he slurred. “What—?”

“A-Sang!” Lan Xichen cried, leaning forward and putting a hand on Nie Huaisang’s arm, as though to hold him down on the bed.

Nie Huaisang didn’t know how to tell him he couldn’t have moved if he tried; his entire body ached, though his throat was numb enough he thought someone might have applied an agent to it.

“What were you thinking?” Lan Xichen asked. “From how many flowers you threw up, you’ve had Hanahaki for a while, and to—to just sit there while I played, I—A-Sang, why didn’t you tell someone? Mingjue is furious.”

Nie Huaisang couldn’t help it: He laughed. “Da-ge? Er-ge, he—” for a moment, he hesitated, but no; there was no point in keeping his secret any longer. It wasn’t like Da-ge would be blind anymore to Nie Huaisang avoiding him, or throwing up flowers in his presence “—Er-ge, Da-ge’s the reason I have Hanahaki. I know he’s acting this way because of his qi, but that doesn’t change the fact he doesn’t love me anymore.”

Lan Xichen looked shocked. “A-Sang—”

“If he loved me, he’d be here!” Nie Huaisang added, glancing pointedly around the room. It was empty but for the two of them.

Lan Xichen didn’t look away from him. “A-Sang,” he said gently. “I promise you, your da-ge loves you very much. Right now, he’s out interrogating disciples, trying to figure out if anyone else knows who hurt you. He never believed it possible it could be himself.”

Nie Huaisang frowned and opened his mouth, but for the first time he’d ever seen, Lan Xichen bowled someone else’s words right over.

“I’m going to have a servant fetch him, and you two are going to have a long talk,” he said firmly. “I won’t let either of you out until you do.”

“That won’t be necessary, Xichen,” Da-ge said, and Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen both jumped and turned to him. He looked—he looked like he should be the one in the hospital bed, Nie Huaisang admitted to himself, even as he swallowed more flowers down. Da-ge’s braids had become frayed, and sweat beaded on his face. Probably from running all over the place. From trying to help Nie Huaisang. From caring for Nie Huaisang.

“Da-ge—” Nie Huaisang started, but then fell silent and looked away. He didn’t know what to say. What even could he say?

“Xichen, please leave us.”

There was the sound of footsteps, and when Nie Huaisang looked up again, Lan Xichen’s robes were disappearing out the door and Da-ge was settling into the bedside chair, hands folded awkwardly in his lap.

“Huaisang,” Da-ge said quietly, and then sighed. “Didi.”

Nie Huaisang’s heart pounded. He swallowed flowers. Da-ge watched the movement of his throat, and smiled sadly, and leaned forward and took his hand. He cupped it as though it was something precious. Something worth caring for. Something worth loving.

Nie Huaisang swallowed more flowers, and Da-ge said, “Didi, I’ll never forgive myself for this—no, let me speak. I’ve been silent long enough—I made you think I no longer loved you. I made you think you had to hide it, that you couldn’t come to me—and I didn’t see the signs that were there anyway. I’ll never forgive myself for that. But, Didi—” he squeezed Nie Huaisang’s hand “—if you’ll let me, I’ll show you how much I love you. How much I’ll always love you.”

Nie Huaisang could only stare. He was so overwhelmed, his core didn’t even try to grow more flowers. And in his silence, his da-ge kept stumbling on.

“It might be selfish of me, but I don’t want you to get the surgery, either. I don’t want you to lose the memories you have of us. I want you to still know that no matter what, I’ll always be there to hold up the world for you. And I know that if we work together, we can make those flowers disappear.”

Nie Huaisang couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, and Da-ge surged forward to clutch at his arms. The alarm was clear on his face, and Nie Huaisang couldn’t help but cry harder, which made Da-ge reach out to hold him, which made him cry even harder—and as Nie Huaisang cried his way to hiccups in his da-ge’s arms, there wasn’t a petal to be seen.

[crossdressingdeath]

(1/3) It always amuses me how stans try to justify JC actions by his abusive upbringing while there were 3 children in that family and both others turned very kind and/or very moral and not at all like JC (and frankly, he didn't even have the hardest position in the dysfunctional dynamic). Or LXC and LWJ whose upbringing was even more screwed up with a LQ who was certainly playing favorites and wanting perfection, and yet this never draw a wedge between them or created any jealousy.

(2/3)LXC loves for LWJ to excel! Same with "but JC had it so hard rebuilding Lotus Pier, WWX was goofing off with the Wens"...JC was paying people to do that for him, yes, while WWX was trying to start from scratch a settlement over a mountain of corpses with a bunch of weak or old people and not to die of hunger comes winter. While separated from all his friends and hated as a monster by the cultivation world. "But JC was so lonely during the 13/16y, so that justifies him lashing out" And WWX

(3/3) was dead, killed by his brother and thinking that there was not a person left on his side in the end, and yet, that didn't make him act like a dick? Or athg else really, because everything that JC went through in the past, WWX did also, but in a worse way because he lost his parents young, lived in the streets, didn't have JC societal privilege or money and has to harness an unstable necromancy practice on top of that. And yet no one uses it as arguments to explain his actions, only for JC 

Honestly? While none of the Jiang kids were in a good position, out of the three of them... JC did have it the easiest. It was still awful for him, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting his childhood didn’t suck, but given it was made very clear to JYL that her only purpose was to be married off to JZX so her mother could tie her bloodline to her best friend’s and WWX was treated like a servant at best... Yeah. If I had to pick, I’d choose having a distant father and dealing with a mother who’s constantly emotionally abusive over having a distant father and dealing with a mother who’s constantly emotionally abusive and being treated like a bargaining chip/treated like a servant and/or bastard and being whipped for actions that would get the rest of the clan a lecture at worst. Again, I’m not saying JC didn’t have it bad, but his siblings having it worse is... interesting, given neither of them decided to be dicks to Literally Everyone over it.

I do have to say, even though this is about JC, there’s nothing suggesting LQR was playing favourites with LXC and LWJ. He was strict, yes, probably stricter than he should’ve been, and LXC probably did get more one-on-one interaction with him, but given LXC was going to be sect leader/became sect leader at a young age that makes sense. This is not super important to the point of this post, but I do find it odd how often people make LQR out to be this horrible person who’s always awful to his nephews because he’s Strict when we... don’t actually know anything about how he raised them. I don’t like him all that much, and he probably didn’t do a fantastic job of raising them, but the man did try, and he clearly wants his nephews to be safe and happy (even though he has inaccurate views of what that entails...), and given how the parents/parental figures of the cast generally act he deserves some credit for that. Also the Twin Jades ended up considerably better-adjusted than most of their age group, which... isn’t saying much all things considered but it does say something. If nothing else neither of them seem to feel actively unsafe around him, so he’s definitely not the worst parental figure in this novel.

...I had a surprising number of thoughts on LQR there. Whoops, sorry about the tangent. Maybe I’ll make a post about him at some point. Anyway, yeah, LXC and LWJ clearly adore each other! LXC would be delighted if LWJ surpassed him at something! Same with Nie bros; they argue a lot, but there’s no denying that they love each other. That’s what insults and threats out of love look like; NMJ threatens NHS all the time, but NHS clearly isn’t all that bothered by it until JGY starts fucking with NMJ’s mind and the threats become more serious, which really isn’t NMJ’s fault. It’s because in the other sibling relationships both parties are invested in staying close. They love each other and want to be close for the rest of their lives! Meanwhile JC is obsessed with WWX outperforming him at Literally Everything, and WWX genuinely believes that JC is allowed to treat him the way he does and it’s fine and healthy.

And yeah, JC wasn’t exactly rebuilding Lotus Pier all by his lonesome with his own two hands. In fact, going by what we see all the rebuilding was done well before WWX left! And I don’t doubt for a second that WWX was involved in that process; I have very mixed feelings about the scene in CQL where he blows off his duties to go and get drunk, because on the one hand it does do a good job of showing just how bad his mental state is getting (and how JC refuses to acknowledge it despite WWX obviously being Not Okay), but on the other hand... I just can’t see WWX not throwing himself into helping JC with everything he’s got even while his mental state is coming crashing down around him. I mean, this is the guy who created an incredibly powerful weapon that even he couldn’t fully control, not knowing what using it would do to him, to help his brother win a war. I’m pretty much certain that WWX ran himself into the ground helping JC rebuild and run the sect... then when he found himself in charge of a small group of desperate people, scrambling to keep them fed and clothed and healthy, JC just abandoned him to deal with it on his own.

And the whole “Oh, but JC was so lonely, don’t you feel bad for him?” shtick. I hate it so much. If he didn’t want to be lonely, he should’ve considered that before alienating everyone in his age group and leading an army to murder his brother, the only person left who was willing to put up with him! It’s... really hard to feel bad for someone who’s brought most of their suffering on themselves through a series of generally shitty and frequently downright cruel actions with easily foreseeable consequences. If he got sick of being alone, he should’ve apologized to his peers for being a dick to... literally all of them and tried to make amends and strike up some sort of relationship. Or, if that didn’t work, go out! Meet new people! Try not to be as awful to them! Also, he’s a sect leader. If he couldn’t even maintain a positive relationship with other sect leaders, people who, let me remind you, he has to work with on a regular basis and several of whom are actually nice and friendly people, that is on him. If you are awful to people you will end up alone. And then JC decided to respond to learning that the people he was a dick to every time he saw them (and, in LWJ and NHS’s cases, caused the death of someone they cared about) wanted nothing to do with him... by whining about how lonely he was as if that wasn’t largely his fault. Like, he lost his family and that’s awful, but he could have had friends to help him through his grief, and it’s his own damn fault that he doesn’t.

WWX’s life was miserable. He had plenty of friends, yeah, but he spent years on the streets after his parents died brutal deaths; was raised in a family where he was treated like a servant and a scapegoat; lost everything in an event he was blamed for despite having nothing to do with the attack; had to sacrifice his incredibly powerful golden core (thereby losing his primary means of defending himself while on the run and drastically shortening his lifespan) to keep his brother from letting himself die; was thrown into a corpse pit for three months where he had to create an entirely new and experimental (and as such incredibly dangerous) form of cultivation and probably resort to cannibalism just to survive; had to fight a war almost immediately after escaping; spent a... good portion of time (not sure how long exactly because the MDZS timeline is more a suggestion than an actual coherent timeline) being treated alternately as a tame pet or a rabid animal and having to pretend everything was just fine while everyone tried to either control him or remove him and his brother very obviously got increasingly resentful of his skill and power; had to abandon his home, his family, and everything he had left of his old life to save a bunch of innocent people while everyone, including his brother, acted like he’d gone mad for not wanting to let them die horribly; had to go back to the corpse pit he spent three months in because it was the only place where they might be safe; accidentally killed his brother-in-law due to losing control after being ambushed on the way to a celebration for his nephew that he was invited to by people he trusted, almost certainly making him wonder on at least some level if that was why he was invited; lost two members of his new family who he clearly loved because of said accidental murdering; learned their deaths were for nothing and, when he retaliated against the planned attack that shouldn’t have happened because that’s what WQ and WN gave their lives to prevent, saw his beloved sister die to save him; and, after all that, lost the rest of his new family to a siege on a civilian population led by his brother. And after all that, his response was... to destroy the incredibly dangerous weapon he’d made because he didn’t trust the sects to not destroy each other and themselves with it and kill himself rather than risk losing control again and hurting anyone else. In the novel too; I don’t doubt for a second that WWX planned on dying in that siege, even if he didn’t expect destroying the seal to do it.

Take a look at that paragraph. All those things that happened to WWX. And in the end, he was kind. He was so, so kind, and remains kind even after thirteen years of being dead. He would have been well within his rights to go all “Then let me be evil” on the sects, but every time he attacked them they struck first, and most of the serious damage he did happened as a direct result of losing control of his experimental and mostly unknown new cultivation, which is a real risk even with spiritual cultivation; NMJ probably would have happily killed everyone in Qinghe if the qi deviation hadn’t gotten to him first, given how easy it was for him to attack even his beloved little brother. Everything bad that happened to JC is on that list, pretty much. Everything that JC suffered WWX did too, with some variations in the details (and of course dead versus alone for the same period of time). JC had the advantage of a sect at his back and a high rank by virtue of his birth, while WWX’s position was entirely reliant on JFM and, later, JC. And yet some people insist that WWX’s trauma doesn’t excuse his actions but JC’s somehow does. Now, some people argue it’s different because WWX was a mass murderer. Yeah, well, JC’s a fucking serial killer, and he doesn’t have the excuse of losing control due to using resentful energy to cultivate and being attacked by everyone he’d ever known and trusted.

...I’ve kind of lost track of where I’m going with this. Short version: I very strongly disagree with anyone who insists WWX’s trauma doesn’t excuse his actions while bending over backwards to argue that JC’s trauma excuses his.

[leatherbookmarking]

fuck that ! im gonna talk about them deadboyz!! shame is for the WEAK

overall:

belong to a much less known subsidiary company of jinhit no jgs isn’t worth the joke entertainment. if they were in any other company they would be super rookies but jgs is keeping them in the basement and it’s not even his own basement

initially i think there were some high stakes in it for jgy...? something like ‘you produce the songs and make their chores and if you flop you’ll never be on stage again’ but?? i don’t know now tbh

would have been really popular (they are Good) but less known company, etc, and also some rumors around the time of their debut made it so they’re only knows because ‘they’re kinda good at dancing aren’t they’

general concept is uh... cool dudes, kinda fucky but not too much...? gotta think about the baby (a-yu)

THE MEMBERS: meng yao (leader, main dancer, vocalist), wen chao (oldest, main rapper), su she (main vocal, dancer), xue yang (rapper, dancer, unofficially: moodmaker, if by ‘mood’ you understand ‘horror at whatever has just come out of his hellish mouth), wen ning (dancer, vocalist, sometimes rapper), mo xuanyu (vocalist, the Baby™)

MENG YAO:

leader, single-handedly responsible for making these rowdy boys (wc&xy) stop wanting to kill each other

has probably auditioned for every single company there is. was in the nie company for a bit, but it was still a mess freshly after the previous owner, nmj’s father, has died, nmj has struggled (being a producer, not a businessman) so when it turned out they’d have to let some trainees go, the other trainees made it so meng yao was the one to leave. then he temporarily was at wrh’s company where he got kind-of-semi-famous as one of wen qing’s main back dancers (the one she’s interacted with the most) during her last performance. then the company went kaputt and jgs has snatched him off for himself, and then... put him... in the basement.... for two years... after which he gave him a chance, and voila

insanely hard-working. an all-rounder. mainly he excels at dancing, but his vocal and rap skills also Fuck. persona? impeccable. he’s learning to write and compose his own songs and he’s doing well, but he can’t even upload his stuff on soundcloud, because... you know why. has doubled as a manager in their early days. also, dimples.

the fans had tried to make a dad/mom dynamic with him and uh... wen chao...? since they were the oldest and pretty much the opposites, but quickly gave up and he’s now simply known as yao-ge due to his stern but loving persona. (yao-jie, sometimes)

DOES do the split. it was his rookie trick for a year after they debuted, but he simply is just like that. one show host asked him “is there definite proof that you have bones?“ and meng yao only shrugged humbly

WEN CHAO

oldest, has been a trainee for the longest time, hasn’t debuted because... well... he wasn’t good... and that was because he’s felt too safe in his dad’s company. WELL ABOUT THAT,

his older brother wen xu has debuted Long before him, but after a few years his group disbanded, he moved on to modeling and then stopped after a couple of years, too. (he got married.)

you know how i said their image is ‘cool, a bit fucky’? well, he’s 40% of that fuckiness. he’s been told again and again that idols aren’t supposed to date/have dating experience, but he still can’t get the hang of it

yes, he and jiaojiao were an item back in the wen days. she’s a trainee at some other company now but they still hook up sometimes

initially was intent on maintaining a cool, calm and collected image... then he met xue yang and threw that idea outta the window. paradoxically, they’re interesting together, not only as rappers but also as... high-energy, chaotic energy makers of the group...

this is a happy au, so: initially he’s thought everything is bullshit, these talentless fucks are dumb and he should already be a top idol. by the time of their debut, he agrees that meng yao is one crafty motherfucker. a year after their debut, if anything happened to any of his boys, yes even xue yang, he would kill everyone in the room, etc, etc BUT YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT.

SU SHE

unfortunately, was added before their first comeback (second release) and therefore controversial. fortunately, his vocal completes the group’s image and musical flavour

was a trainee in yinshen ent where he really admired their top idol, lan wangji, until... he got to know him (?) when they were sent to compete in a survival show and decided lan wangji ain’t shit and is, in fact, a stuck-up self-centered bitch. the survival show crashed (unrelatedly), but still some serious words were exchanged. during Some Company Problems, quite a lot of trainees have left, but he was the one who left with a Bang.

joined that one subsidiary of jin ent because of meng yao, who, just like in canon, recognized him, said he loved him in (song he’s performed in the survival show) and with this he cemented his position as su she’s new Boy Who Makes Him Go !!!!.

slowly replaced meng yao as The Man Who Does This Face at the other lads’ rowdy behaviour.

fans remember he was :/ at lan wangji, so his persona wouldn’t work anyway, but he does make quite a convincing kind dude-next-door.

stubborn side of the fandom’s next candidate for the mom member, because... he’s ridiculously prepared and reliable. who carries hydrogen peroxide in their daily use backpack? this boy !

it used to be rubbing alcohol but i had too many reasons to apply it internally, he once says mournfully, and this is how xue yang discovers he has a sense of humor, sort of

unfortunately, has the juiciest ass in the group. unfortunately, because

XUE YANG

responsible for: being inappropriate. the other 60% of fuckiness, really enjoys getting into wen chao’s personal space (since wen chao is That straight dude) and just... doing whatever to make su she Scandalized.

but he’s so cute we’ll forgive him. at least until the next time he does a surprise butt grab

very agile! dance line along with meng yao and wen ning. apparently he was a stunt guy...? apparently the lived in the streets...? apparently he went to the same dance school as meng yao...? no one knows his past. no one has seen his kid photos. did he go by another name...? insert the what are birds gif but make it who is xue yang.

adds sound effects to real life. also in his raps, sometimes

started hugging and initiating physical contact with people to assert dominance to be annoying, but ended up actually liking it, even though the one he does it comfortably with is meng yao. just like... back hugs? resting his chin over a-yao’s shoulder? it’s neat. sometimes a-yao pats his hand or taps his nose absent-mindedly and it’s super neat. if he notices you noticing it, though, he will BITE

most popular member, but everyone likes him for different reasons and has a different uhhh headcanon about potentially dating him. bad boy xue yang/cute bratty didi xue yang/sweet boyfriend xue yang, etc, etc

no one knows how, but apparently he knows the iconic duo from a small company, xiao xingchen and song lan...? or rather, song lan pretends not to know or notice him, meanwhile xiao xingchen is very cute when they’re interacting, and basically it prompts a lot of dating rumors, especially since they’ve been spotted having hotpot.

WEN NING

su she was the one to join last, but actually it’s wen ning who’s the least popular member. i’m just so quiet that people don’t notice me, haha, he says while being 180cm tall and having killer charisma when he dances

seriously, what’s up with that? it’s almost like he’s a different person, a possessed one to add to that. huh!

in contrast, his voice is very gentle and even cute, and he often sings quietly to himself. sometimes to other members (there’s a video of him singing what seems to be a lullaby to mxy), sometimes to little animals (there’s a video of him singing to a tiny frog he’s found during a walk). gentle boyfriend wen ning but it’s CANON

in contrast to the contrast, he doesn’t rap often, but when he does, it’s like... who’s that?? another member??? dualism king

when wc/xy cause problems on purpose, he doesn’t react/allows them to tease him/slap his ass/bump into him when they’re fighting. he seems like a calm, gentle guy so when they’re in a variety show and it’s Time For A Punishment, of course he gets to decide/wield the squeaky hammer, WHEREUPON ‘yang-ge, three weeks ago you ate my yoghurt even though i specifically asked you not to, so...’ (whacks xy’s ass into next tuesday)

nice, sculpted shoulders make for very good pillows

MO XUANYU

a Baby, but watch out: a horny one. fully on board with xue yang’s Inappropriate Ideas Of Entertainment. there’s a video of them doing some Rather Dirty dance moves while meng yao and su she make pained faces in the bg

fashion king. make-up king. none of his selfies are bare-faced, he always has some red eye shadow/blue eyelashes/yellow blush/black lipstick going on. sometimes even at the same time. paints his nails and toenails as well. somehow yao-gege doing his make-up makes him fall asleep one minute in. (cute)

his sincere smile is a 100% foolproof way to just... melt everyone’s hearts. in wen ning’s case: with a smile as well. meng yao and su she: an eyeroll (fond). xue yang and wen chao: ‘oh, fuck you’. but it DOES

most of the time though when he does sajiao it’s totally weird. (on purpose, on purpose)

tiny boy. skinny boy. once he turned to the side and vanished. even though most of the time in videos the other members sooner or later end up giving him food! (at some point wen chao says ‘it’s so that you’d shut up’, causing a-yu to start talking animatedly, spitting crumbs into his tea. serves him right)

has a potential to end up as a vocal god. currently however his favourite method of doing things with his voice is SCREAM

famously examines what things are by putting them in his mouth/licking them. he is a little creacher. he cannot change this

bites

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Episode 22 - XuanXian friendship AU & Meng Yao can’t believe one of his boyfriends is this dumb.

Hello hello! First of all, it looks like I will have to slow down these posts to every Sunday at most, I might be able to get a few episodes per day but if you’re interested in reading you’re gonna have to wait the whole week. I started the intensive course preparing me for an exam and I have to put in 12h daily six days a week. On the upside my Sundays are completely free and I just spent the whole morning reading in my garden.

We have a romantic rooftop date and WuJi on the piano, this is gonna be good.

My bb LWJ is looking for literally the smallest sign that WWX is not going to melt his brain with his new brand of magic. He’s so worried.

They’re being so soft and vulnerable and I’m so glad WWX agreed to let LWJ help him. (Hhhhhmmmmmmgggggg the possibilities if these two idiots communicated oh my gooooooood)

That’s it, that’s the whole episode. Nothing else happens.

Ok clearly it wasn’t. But I just have to spiral down and scream about their fucking lack of armour. Maybe I’m too used to western high fantasy but they’re not even wearing leather or chainmail what the fuck.

NHS YOU CUPCAKE I ADORE YOU!

That whole battle scene with the Peacock. What the fuck

So... JC sword fighting and covered in blood. Hhhmmm... interesting visual.

(Listen I said I wasn’t gonna creep until SunShot, this is SunShot)

Something I’ve never understood: aren’t puppets mind-and-body controlled people at best, walking corpses at worst? Why would they stop if you chop off an arm? It’s not like they feel pain or have survival instincts, and if they’re corpses, or you can keep them in control after they die, delivering a mortal blow would do fuck all wouldn’t it? Solution: get a flamethrower.

... a well known man in a position of power, built like a brick shithouse and with a big-ass sword just decided he was the best for the task of infiltration and assassination. What the fuck Da-ge, was it LXC’s turn with the braincell or what? And these two just let him! I want to think if NHS had gone with them he’d smacked all three over the head with his fan.

Listen listen listen. I find my sister crying “unchaperoned” and in the company of the asshole son of a known can’t-keep-it-in-his-pants dude, IN HIS ROOM, and I’m murdering first and asking question second. And I don’t even have siblings. Hell, I find any girl crying in those circumstances and I’m getting stabby.

Ok, here’s another scene I’m taking to create a parallel btw “stable” and “unstable” WWX. You remember that when he got into a fight with the Peacock at Cloud Recesses the second Shijie appeared with a bit of manpower he backed the fuck off. Now she’s here physically holding onto him and begging him to go (remember she’s the one who’s crying and probably wants to leave and not have this turned into a public spectacle) and he’s so angry he isn’t even budging. Like, I’d understand if the fight wasn’t triggered by her being upset and she was just asking him to not fight, but she is super upset, and instead of comforting her like I’m sure he’s done a bunch of times he wants to stay and throw hands. Conclusion: get this boy to therapy.

Do NOT scream at MianMian.

Ok now I want to throw hands with the Peacock myself. (Once again I beg of you, someone re-write canon but with an actual responsible adult for these people to go to when this shit happens. Women need more female friendships and everyone needs an actual good adult role-model)

As always, any Jin disciple not MianMian is an asshole (I’m willing to forgive the one who went to fetch WWX just now).

Bless LWJ’s wrist grabs.

OH MY GOD GALAXY BRAIN MOMENT: So we remember when JC got his core melted and shoved WWX and he barely felt it. WHAT IF the Peacock already knowing WWX packs a mean punch, realises that being sent flying into a table is way too mild a response, and why would WWX hold back when he’d just made his Shijie cry you know? What is wrong with WWX, we can’t have him sick/dying this is a war and we need manpower, plus it’d make her cry and he refuses to see that ever again. So he confides in MianMian and they decide to keep an eye out for WWX, give him a hand AND try and guess tf is wrong with him. I’m not gonna say they guess it, because it’d be impossible but book MianMian was already good with herbs and medicine so maybe she gets to research? Regardless WWX suddenly has two very determined Jin puppies following him around and being nice to him? Like, genuinely? Like they seem to be pleased just by him chilling and taking a rest? I’ve always said I’d love for him and the Peacock to become friends (bc oh my god the bitchiness if those two joined forces) and LWJ going fucking insane because suddenly MIANMIAN is glued to his Wei Ying’s side would be hilarious.

In this AU she offhandedly comes out as bi, WWX either realises then and there or goes “oooohhh same” and WangJi.exe stops working for a sec while he rearranges his whole world view. Bonus if Peacock goes something like “we figured with you dating LWJ” and that’s how WangXian gets together. JC will never forgive his brother in law because fucking hell the PDA is OFF THE FUCKING CHARTS WHY. (It would be, they’re barely out of hormone hurricane hell and fighting battles all day, emotions run really high)

And that’s how, when WQ goes to ask WWX help with her brother MianMian (and probably LWJ? Idk, I don’t want to deprive myself of that “my body is ready” face he makes when WWX drinks his wine for him) is with her WN doesn’t die, WQ gets a girlfriend AND EVERYTHING IS SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS.

Aw look at 2zun talking about their boyfriend.

Have I ever mentioned that LXC’s headpiece reminds me of a (western) dragon skull? Because it does and I think it’s super cool.

NMJ just said “that asshole Wen” according to the Netflix subtitles and idk if it is accurate, but holy shit I love it.

Well, that’s not an ominous place to go and try to break into or anything.

Oh he got caught. What a surprise. Who would’ve thought.

(Sneaky Meng Yao gives me life tho)

Meng Yao is enjoying this and I’m living for it, that’s such a pleased smile. Insert here a joke about him enjoying seeing his bf all bloody and on his knees.

Also his face when NMJ goes for the kill pretty much screams “this dumbass is gonna get obliterated, why am I with him again?”

LWJ’s Wei Ying senses were tingling. Also, assume I’m screaming about these yahoos not putting their hair up, that’s a scalping wanting to happen and those shits ain’t pretty.

BATTLE COUPLE! BATTLE COUPLE! BATTLE COUPLE!

Btw I really like the fade to black cut style of the battle, helps not make me dizzy.

Nvm I’m dizzy now.

Holy shit I love how creepy YLLZ can get.

And that’s all for this episode my friends. Read you soon!