#or zidian and wangji teamwork

[limitbreaker23]

(via @tls123 ) because I want these tags framed on my wall.

I actually have a plot bunny like that on my too-large meadow, because I really enjoy whenever I can make chengzhan fight together like they're dancing (and more, tehe), and I really wanted Lan Zhan to go hnfffgh when Jiang Cheng grabs his wrist, thumb pressing into his pulse, and moves their arms around in rhythmic gymnastics of purple lightning to swing at a flock of enemies rushing towards them. And as the enemy soldiers, monsters, demons, whatever are whipped back, Zidian slithers back on Jiang Cheng's wrist, he lets go of Lan Zhan, and hurries on to fight, leaving Lan Zhan standing there with a breath caught in his throat and his heart raging where that touch still burns on his wrist. And that's just such a MOMENT!

Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji seem to have grabbed the wrong weapons. Can you help them solve this predicament before Jiang Cheng hits someone over the head with the guqin?

Cute commission of my confused boys I asked matchasakura2 to draw, thank you! <3

[featherfur]

I got questions about the daemon au— starting with names and what everyone’s daemon looks like? JC is a wolf, would WWX would be scare of them because is just an even scarier dog? Would that also play a part on JC self hatred?

You’ve unlocked something I can talk about forever. Please feel free to send in more questions because uh… this got long

Okay so:

Honestly, I like roasting Jiang Cheng so his daemon’s name is Camellia kinda like his dogs were named Jasmine, Princess, and Love. (Technically his parents would have named her but Zidian is literally just “purple lightning” so maybe his mom is also bad at names, just go with it) he gets to live with his bad name choices forever.

Wei Wuxian settles as a raven while young, something considered to be impressive and a sign of his intelligence, and his demon is Wei Liao, often called Liaoliao (meaning letting go, since Wuxian means to have no envies I thought it worked well). When he comes back as Mo Xuanyu, she’s in the form of his demon a crow (both for intelligence and the canon fact that they looked almost identical) but as WWX adjusts to the body she will slowly start to get bigger and take on more Raven like features but will never return to her original form due to soul damage.

Lan Wangji is a white stag, also named Wangji because any kid that names his guqin after himself should live his life reminded of it. (Also because I think it’s funny tho I am open to new names I just like roasting my favorite characters) given to him because Stags want to do two things: fuck shit up and fuck. Lan Wangji also wants to do those things.

Lan Xichen is a white doe, kind of running with the Twin Jades bit but he fits more into society (most daemons are opposite gender of their humans) then Wangji. Which on both a meta and literal way is fun for me and boi could I go into that. Currently unamed.

Nie Huaisang is a house cat, I’m thinking a very fluffy Maine Coon. Because he is very pampered and gives off a very tame aura, most people look at house cats and think about how cute and fluffy they are. They don’t really realize that cats are amongst the best hunters and utterly destructive to native environments and shouldn’t be outside without supervision because they destroy ecosystems. I thought it fit well with him, I think he started as a smaller long haired domestic and with Nie Mingjue’s death she started a steady shift into a bigger actual breed and very few noticed and the ones who did chalked it up to Nie Huaisang’s grief. Rather than his decision to fuck up the native ecosystem, ie the cultivation world.

Onto JC and his wolf problems below

I wrote a bit of meta before on my drawing’s post but essentially: Family is such a majorly important thing to Jiang Cheng that despite his daemon originally being intended to be a dog/canine of some type she instinctively shifted away from that even if it was painful.

Technically daemons do settle in the books at around 13-14 but while that’s when you hit puberty, at that point you are still very much who your parents raised you to be rather than who you will be, which is why personalities tend to differ so much between 10yr olds and their 17yr old counterpart. Personally I think they’re more likely to settle at around 17-20.

Jiang Cheng settles as a Harris’s Hawk during the war, whereas Wei Wuxian had settled earlier at Cloud Recesses. Harris’s Hawks are the only bird of prey to live in groups and be social animals, while they’re okay hunters on their own they’re much better with a team and do well for themselves. (I thought it was a good match of how JC isn’t as strong as WWX but it’s because his strengths lie in teamwork and leadership rather than genius and power)

He remains a Harris’s Hawk for a while but when Yanli dies the shock, pain, and hatred that he feels is enough to shift him and in my own words “marked the shift of ‘I will break you if you stand in my way’ from Jiang Cheng who was nervous and flustered easily like a bird to a ground predator ready to bare fangs quickly but still respectful of other ‘predators’ I.e. other sect leaders. Also brings forth the more feral nature Jiang Cheng gives into in order to protect his family.”

When Wei Wuxian returns he and Liao are ABSOLUTELY terrified of Camellia, and JC knows it. There’s no Fairy here, it’s just Camellia in the same room shouting at WWX the same questions her human is and snapping at him for all his shit. She doesn’t even have to growl, just yelling is enough to terrify him.

It causes major issues post canon when they start to reach out to each other again, WWX and Liao can’t stand to be near her so a lot of his and JC’s reunions are with Camellia… not there. Which means JC is splitting himself in half just for his brother to look at him, just to have a chance at his brother’s new life.

WWX hates it as much as JC does but no matter what he does he can’t squash the fear.

As for how does JC take it, well, I think this prior post answers it:

https://featherfur.tumblr.com/post/661884147721175040/personally-i-see-jiang-cheng-as-some-sort-of-cat

Or this one

https://featherfur.tumblr.com/post/670223241450782720/this-is-a-little-dark-but-man-the-idea-of-a-daemon

He absolutely LOATHES himself, to the point of lashing out at Camellia and she lashes out in turn. There’s a lot of blood spilled from each other over the first few months, hatred mixing with the love they’ve always had for each other. You don’t grow up hating your demon, your partner, you love them because they aren’t you as much as they are.

So it mixes and it gets violent because they can’t take their anger out on anyone else, everyone else is dead, and Jiang Cheng is happy that Wei Wuxian is dead!

But he isn’t! And Camellia knows it! But she also knows she’s the embodiment of protecting their home from Wei Wuxian.

But Jiang Cheng made a promise! He would never break it, he’ll always protect his brother from the thing he fears most, and yet here she stands as his soul and he hates her.

And he loves her.

Camellia is protection to the sect, love and affection JC feels towards them. She’s the embodiment of who he should have been, the protecter, the guardian of his home. She is a Wolf and Yunmeng Jiang Sect sees her and sees a promise to protect them. Everything Jiang Cheng stands for, everything that he is proud to be. Everything he strives to ensure is known by his disciples.

Jiang Cheng sees her and sees a broken promise to his brother, his best friend.

He hates her.

She hates him.

He loves her.

She loves him.

[rueluxprince]

How Much Shit Could’ve Been Avoided Had Jin Zixuan Been Even A Little Bit Politically Aware. As He Should’ve. Part 2

Jin Zixuan: “I like Jiang Yanli. I really really like her. Would totally die for her one of these days but she probably wouldn’t let me. I want to properly propose to her again. And I think a marriage alliance with the Jiang sect would be quite advantageous as well. But they have to be really strong to be truly helpful...”

A few hours later.

Jin Zixuan: *kicking down the doors of Lotus Pier* WHATUP JIANG CHENG I COME BEARING MONEY AND WORKERS AND REBUILDING SUPPLIES WHY ARE YOU BRING ZIDIAN OUT!”

Jiang Cheng: “hwat the fucke?”

Jin Zixuan: “I’m helping you rebuild! You’re my fiancé’s clan so it’s well within my rights! A-Yao is doing the same with the Lan sect! You don’t want to fall behind the other Four Greats right?”

Jiang Cheng: “ahdkahdkamxoanka fuck you bring it in”

Jin Zixuan: “lovely! Put in a good word to Lady Jiang for me would you! Okay why do you have your sword out?!”

Scene break.

Jin Zixuan: “Ahhhhhhh i talked to her! About flowers! Ahhhhhh I have to go talk to her again! AAhhhhhhhh! I should bring her pastries next time! But what kinds does she like? I should probably ask her brothers shouldn’t I? Speaking of, those two have been getting testy with each other lately, too much arguing, not enough teamwork. At this rate they’re gonna fracture the entire Jiang sect and they’ll lose influence! That can’t do...”

A few days later.

Jiang Yanli: “Young Master Jin, what are you doing here? Sitting on the steps?”

Jin Zixuan: “oh! Lady Jiang! Um! I! Well! The thing is! I LOCKED YOUR BROTHERS IN A ROOM TO SORT OUT THEIR DIFFERENCES! I’M SITTING OUT HERE TO SEE IF THEY HAVE REACHED AN UNDERSTANDING AND RECONCILED!”

Jiang Yanli: “oh! That’s. Very nice of you. Thank you!”

Jin Zixuan: “PLEASE DON’T MENTION IT! THE CONTINUED PROSPERITY OF THE JIANG SECT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME! AS LADY JIANG IS ALSO! VERY IMPORTANT!”

Jiang Yanli: “that’s... good to hear. I made some soup today, I don’t think they’re breaking through those talismans anytime soon. Would you like to come and take some?”

Jin Zixuan: “I WOULD BE DELIGHTED!”

A few hours later, after much delightful soup and losing terribly at three rounds of cards, Jin Zixuan let the two brothers out. Their eyes are rimmed red and their sleeves are ripped, and they both punched him in the face when they saw him, but all in all the air felt lighter, so Zixuan counts it as a job well done.

Scene break.

Jin Zixuan: “just a heads up my Father is building a movement against Wei Wuxian.”

Jiang Wanyin: “why the fuck?”

Jin Zixuan: “apparently he wants the Stygian Tiger Amulet. For power. Mostly power. A-Yao is keeping an eye on it.”

Jiang Cheng: “why are you telling me this?”

Jin Zixuan: “... on a personal level, I’m your family. On a moral level, I really don’t agree with what Father’s been doing lately. On a political level, keeping my in-laws strong and united means I keep more support, and you do too. So I’m really supposed to do this.”

Jiang Cheng: “fuck you how are we going to solve this?”

Jin Zixuan: “no idea. I’ll ask A-Yao. In the meantime just defend your brother at every chance possible. They can’t poke at a lamb if there’s a dragon behind it warning them away.”

Wei Wuxian, eavesdropping outside: “I’m no lamb!!!”

Jiang Cheng: “have you been here the entire time Wait is that A-Jie’s soup DID YOU EAT ALL OF IT?!?!!!!”

Scene break.

Jin Zixuan: “hey Jiang Cheng!”

Jiang Cheng: “why the fuck are there Wens in my receiving room?”

Jin Zixuan: “I brought them here because my Father was torturing them and working them to death for entertainment! One of them mentioned you would help them so”

Wen Ning: *waves shyly*

Jiang Cheng: “... what did your father think about this?”

Jin Zixuan: “oh he doesn’t know. He never leaves Koi Tower so me and A-Yao have been fabricating reports.”

Jiang Cheng: “... and no one else is going to tell him this?”

Jin Zixuan: “nope.”

Jiang Cheng: “...”

Jiang Cheng: “you’re paying for their Jiang sect uniforms. And if that’s Wei Wuxian about to give a baby his demon flute please smack his head for me.”

Scene break.

Jiang Cheng: “so your father has suffered a terrible accident.”

Jin Zixuan: “yes.”

Jiang Cheng: “... will he ever recover?”

Jin Zixuan: “probably not. Our physicians aren’t very confident.”

Jiang Cheng: “...”

Wei Wuxian: “want to pick some lotus flowers to take your mind off it?”

Jin Zixuan: “yeah why not”

Epilogue:

Jin Zixuan, kicking down the doors of Lotus Pier: “JIANG CHENG! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! AN OVERGROWN MUSCLEHEAD IS TRYING TO STEAL MY SIBLING AWAY INTO MARRIAGE!!!!”

Jiang Cheng: “...”

Jin Zixuan: “I WILL NEVER ACCEPT THIS! NO ONE IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR A-YAO!”

Wei Wuxian: “...”

Jin Zixuan: “HOW CAN LOVE BE SO BLIND! HOW CAN FATE DO THIS TO MY SWEET AND HAPLESS ANGEL!”

Jiang Cheng: “didn’t you say you had to talk Jin Guangyao out of just straight up murdering your father?”

Wei Wuxian: “yeah he’s a vicious piece of work. Knew there’s a reason I liked him”

Jin Zixuan: “NO WAY AM I ACCEPTING THIS MARRIAGE! I DON’T CARE WHAT DOWRY THE LAN SECT GIVES ME IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH!”

Lan Wangji: “...”