#to which nmj reacts like he does. (they talked! ^___^)

[leatherbookmark]

i quite wish slash hope jgy (i’m talking about him because he’s my #1 boy but this also goes for jc and xy and probably every character that inspires such takes) didn’t have the fandom just... regurgitating the most random takes and/or treating them as gospel and Such Good, Insightful Meta because it agrees with their Vibe Read of jgy, when said Vibe Read is 99% rooted in fandom and maybe 1% in zanzan’s evil smiles, and Very Little, If At All, rooted in the things that happen in canon.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 41, part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Nie Mingjue and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

Empathy continues, jumping to Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue's encounter in Nightless City. Once again, let's look at how we saw it the first time around.

In Episode 22, Nie Mingjue unwisely decided to do a stealth advance push on Nightless City, as if "stealth" and "Nie Mingjue" ever belonged in a sentence together. After his inevitable capture, Meng Yao rocks up and says hey.

We cut away to the battle outside and then come back inside where NMJ hits MY with a palm strike.

Meng Yao actually expresses anger for once, knocking NMJ over with a kick, and yelling at him for being rude in front of MY's new boss, Wen Ruohan.

NMJ comes after him again but Wen Ruohan gets involved and the fight turns into NMJ vs. WRH until Nie Mingjue is knocked out. He ends up on the floor surrounded by dead or unconscious Nie cultivators; we don't see, at this time, how they got that way.

(More behind the cut!)

In Episode 41: the encounter in front of Wen Ruohan starts the same way, but Meng Yao taunts Nie Mingjue, fondles his shoulder, and then kills a couple of his wingmen.

Meng Yao--Wen Yao?--has never looked better. He's still rocking Nie braids and Nie colors - with a nice snake pattern trimming his robe. I'd like to say this is evidence of his snakey nature, but the idea that snakes are bad and sneaky is a biblical concept, not a Chinese one.

Anyway the important thing about his look here is that his makeup is gorgeous and his demeanor is totally confident. Unfortunately I can't find the tumblr post that talks about his sassy ex-boyfriend energy in this scene, but it was a wise observation.

Nie Mingjue's sidekicks provoke Meng Yao into killing them - one by insulting the hall they're in, and the next by calling him 走狗-- literally "running dog," but Viki translates it as "lackey."

"Lackey" is a little insulting but it's basically a job description, whereas Meng Yao's reaction to being called "running dog" is more like the way people react to being called "boot licker" in English. I'm not saying it should be translated this way, however - feet have a whole lot of meanings across cultures. I think it could have just been translated "running dog" because by 41 episodes into this show, we have learned that calling someone a dog is rude and insulting, thank you Wen Chao.

Anyhoo, after Meng Yao kills the second dude he asks if anyone else wants to call him 走狗, and Nie Mingjue immediately does. Meng Yao just smiles and has his own lackeys bring Baxia, in a fancy box, to him.

Then he fondles the blade while explaining that he's been spending some quality time with it. Nie Mingjue watches helplessly, unwilling to beg but afraid of whatever's going to happen.

Meng Yao tells him that his Dad's sword was better than his, and asks him to guess how many times WRH will have to strike Baxia to break it. I'm saying "strike," but Viki translates it as "smack" and Netflix translates it as "spank," with questionable results. How many times WILL Wen Ruohan spank it, I wonder?

Meng Yao taunts him some more: Wen Ruohan broke NMJ's father's saber and sent it back to him, which caused him to die of anger. He says this while getting up in NMJ's space and putting on an expression of ecstacy.

NMJ hits him, since that's his solution to everything; Meng Yao gets mad and kicks Nie Mingjue to the floor. It's not clear to me why Meng Yao talks so much shit if he doesn't want to get hit.

Aftermath

The confrontation where Xichen protects Meng Yao is the same as episode 23, up to a point. Nie Mingjue wakes up in Lan Xichen's manly arms and has a moment of happiness before seeing Meng Yao standing by holding Baxia.

NMJ goes to attack him but Lan Xichen protects Meng Yao and explains his whole spying gig -- calling him A-Yao, which has gotta chap Nie Mingjue's ass.

Lan Xichen can block a blow from Baxia one-handed. Hot.

There's a nice parallel here, where Meng Yao uses Lan Xichen as a human shield, similar to Wei Wuxian using Lan Wangji to protect him from Fairy in Episode 34.

Wei Wuxian is, of course, way more handsy about it.

Meng Yao passive-aggressively tells Lan Xichen that he didn't explain his actions because that big meanie Nie Mingjue wouldn't have believed him anyway, and then he kneels in front of Nie Mingjue. That's as much as we got of that whole encounter, in Episode 23.

In Episode 41, after Meng Yao kneels, he explains his situation and said that he only said all that dickish stuff to Nie Mingjue to gain Wen Ruohan's trust, and he's sorry about hurting his feelings.

Nie Mingjue says how about you kneel to those dudes you killed.

Lan Xichen tells Nie Mingjue that yes, A-Yao did horrible things, but I believe that in his heart he… we don't hear the rest because Nie Mingjue interrupts by destroying a lantern, but we don't need to hear the rest because it's the same thing Lan Xichen says all the fucking time; it's become his core belief in the years since.

Meng Yao is surprised that it's the lantern that died and not him, but Nie Mingjue is in an impossible situation. Meng Yao has recruited Xichen so completely to his side that if Nie Mingjue wants to stay friends with LXC, he has to accept Meng Yao . You can see in his face that he knows he's beat.

Continued in part 3!

[thepurplewombat]

It occurs to me that part of the reason why people in fandom react so badly to JGY killing NMJ is misogyny.

Because like, he poisons him. And poison is a woman's weapon because women are, or were, often without any other weapons.

But actually it also just occurred to me that JGY is cast throughout his past in a very traditionally feminine type of way? Like, not explicitly but if you look at the way that he is dependent on the powerful men around him - JGS, NMJ, WRH - to give him status and some ability to affect his fate within the limits of what they allow...that's a feminine role! That is the role of a woman in a patriarchal society - dependent, with her reputation constantly on the edge of ruin. And being physically weaker and not as good at cultivation as the people around him also plays into that because he doesn't have the same kind of options another man might have in a similar situation - he's not in a position to go and make his fortune because he doesn't have the kind of skills or strength he'd need. Like, if WWX got sick of the Jiangs, he could absolutely go and make a good living as a rogue cultivator, but JGY? He can't do that - his options are either give up on cultivation altogether, or gain power in whatever way he can. In his case, in a way that is most often used by women in this kind of setup - ie, becoming important to important men.

And that's always been painted as such a negative thing (because the patriarchy! And because women wanting agency over their lives, livelihoods, and bodies is a Sign of the End Times!) that in part, JGY would already be subconsciously tainted in fandom's eyes. Even if he never killed NMJ. Even if he never killed anyone at all, he'd still be sus because he's a: following a traditionally feminine route to power which b: has traditionally been disdained (at some point I will talk about how 'gold digger' is an insult when for large parts of human history a woman's only path to financial security did in fact lie in marrying well).

And it's also interesting just how much of JGY's story is about sex when as far as we know the man had sex exactly once. And that's a feminine thing too! Like, he's tainted by his mother's profession and his father's reputation in a way that his father never is. He ends up married to his sister, which is somehow painted as his fault even though JGS is clearly at fault, he's harassed by his brother...the way JGY's life is affected by sex he isn't even having, by the rumors of it and his origins, that's a very feminine situation to be in, you know?

(at this point I want to take a moment to clarify that when I say feminine I'm not calling him a woman, I'm saying he occupies a role in the story that is traditionally assigned to women, and lives a life more like that of a woman in a patriarchal society than a man)

But anyway, back to NMJ and his death. So we have a big strong man lashing out physically against someone weaker than them, and eventually the big strong man dies and it turns out it was poison. And gasp! It's horrible! It's horrible in a way that NMJ swinging his sword around and threatening JGY's life doesn't seem to be for a lot of people.

But why is it that JGY's poisoning of NMJ is regarded so much more negatively than NMJ's repeated attempts to kill him? Is it just because he succeeded? Or is it maybe because poison is a woman's weapon? It's sneaky and underhanded and not 'honorable' but like, what were his other options? Challenge him to a duel?

Anyway I think I had a point but then I got distracted, but here's some closing words.

Throughout his life, JGY is put into situations that are traditionally inflicted on women, dependent on powerful men for his survival, and uses traditionally feminine means to ensure his survival when the powerful men he's beholden to turn on him. Maybe we should take a good long look at why his actions are viewed as worse than what anyone else in the story does.

[mengyao]

(not me ranting about mdzs /cql characterization takes in 2023 --)

my cross to bear is that i can't read like 90% of aus that feature NHS prominently even if they're canonverse because they make it clear the author's interpretations just do not gel with mine…

like i just don't believe that NHS would do Alla That in basically any other circumstance. the list of things he gaf enough about outside of what directly affects him/his family/loved ones is vanishingly small. he does not care about wider political contexts beyond that, especially in cql where he doesn't even end up chief cultivator at the end! i don't even mean this in a complimentary way, it can go in either direction -- people who think he was assigned supervillain at birth are super wrong but i do think he's really quite unconcerned with issues of systemic justice. please do not give your modern au huaisangs good politics it's just not right

imo huaisang is primarily motivated by devotion and affection/loyalty to very specific people, not causes or broader groups, let alone society as a whole, and once that devotion has been undermined it's gone forever. it's an interesting mix of selfishness/selflessness in the sense that his methods involve engaging in a lot of like… self-inflicted unpleasantness, like no one is making you do all that, girl…. but his criteria for what he cares about enough to engage in those methods is basically "does this affect me and mine [which is a very limited circle], y/n" and if it doesn't then he's going to continue prioritizing the pursuit of his interests/comforts/etc. if no outside threats--and not just looming intangible threats like nmj's inevitable decline but threats posed by human actors--threaten that circle then i don't see his priorities shifting so dramatically

--which isn't to say i think he would necessarily be a static character in this AU thought experiment but i see the "OTT public buffoonery by day, 4D chess by night*" turn as a response to a very specific situation not, like, his predetermined character path, and the assumptions about his internal life that lead to the latter reading are usually not ones i find as interesting

(*speaking of which, i think a lot of where this disconnect comes from is that i don't think 4D chess is actually what's going on, really. nie huaisang does not have a bbc sherlock mind palace, in my opinion. i saw a Poste a while back describe him as playing xanatos speed chess (in tvtropes parlance) and that aligns much more closely with my own feeling… like what are his actual skills, that we observe in the story? being observant, being patient, capitalizing on the fact that people let their guard down around him, being able to make accurate character judgments (most of the time) when presented with necessary information (especially wrt understanding the impulses and motivations of other people) and then gambling situationally based on assumptions about how people are likely to react, being a good liar, etc… basically a lot of stuff that doesn't involve engineering complex plans so much as it does biding time, collecting data points, and then being a chaos agent in a controlled manner with the understanding that the principal actors are probably going to react in certain ways that can be funneled towards certain ends. kind of a "steps 1-15: [a bunch of insane shit], steps 16-99: TBD, step 100: profit??" type beat

and i guess where i see this overlapping with what i was talking about before is that i don't think this strategy actually works if you care overly much about who is going to get hurt in the backlash. note, though, that that's a result of specific loss and interpersonal betrayal, not an inherent personality trait, at least not at the same level of intensity...)

[truly-morgan]

[XiCheng helps NieYao becoming a thing, feat. ace JC]

XiCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 11-01-2022

Lan Xichen knew from the start that Jiang Cheng was ace and he was happy with it. But he was still horny and had his needs.

cue them working together to a middle ground once jc finished working on some of his own confidence issues: lxc can sleep with people as long as theirs no strings attached. He can feel alright with lxc finding a sexual partner, but this is where it has to end (as if a lxc would fall for someone else). Sometimes he can find himself in the mood to do some things with lxc, as the touch of his boyfriend isn't something he hates, he just needs to be in the mood for it (which doesn't happen often).

The only person that does have some kind of connection and holds something in lxc heart is nmj, which jc is okay with.

He has heard how it had happened even before him in the past when seeking comfort. He also knew nmj had no interest in lxc either, as he needed comfort for his rather stagnant tries at courting jgy. he listens to lxc when the man complains about how these two just need to talk about the whatever between them and how nmj needs to make a move.

plus, there was something about knowing lxc was with someone safe and that he knew and trusted that also helped a lot in the process. Sure, lxc wasn't really into picking the first interested person at a bar, but it still had something reassuring to it, even more since he was pretty certain nmj wouldn't just suddenly fall in love with lxc and try to cause problems (although that idea might come from the drama he watches with wwx).

Only thing is... apparently nmj didn't know about jc until then.

nmj had stayed overnight after a spicy night with lxc, jc being out until it was late morning.

jc casually greeted the man as he was cooking, nmj stuck in the doorway to the kitchen, unsure how to react to the man who was casually cooking there.

he seemed even more confused when lxc slide past him only to go hug this person and kiss him all over his face as he protested since he was cooking.

"Wait, hold on, you finally started dating him?! when?! but we... last night..." nmj had a frown and a worried look on his face, looking towards the smaller man still cooking while hugged close to lxc. jc didn't seem even bothered in the slightest by the half-naked man covered in hickeys in his home. lc wouldn't cheat, right...

"I already know" jc affirmed as he placed everything on the table, offering him a smile, and showing him the extra plate clearly meant for nmj. "And I don't mind, I know sometimes this is something a-huan needs and I can't give that to him, honestly, it's more reassuring to know him with someone he trusts and knows than someone more random" jc admitted.

nmj was gently sat down by lxc, as his friend went back to nearly sitting right on jc's lap.

well, it was good to see lxc happy with the person he had a crush on for quite some time now but had never done anything about it because he was sure jc wasn't interested at all.

"Although, I am pretty happy to finally get to meet you properly, I kept hearing about you," jc said with a smile.

"Same here" nmj managed to smile, finally relaxing when he saw how the young man didn't seem bothered by any of this at all. "What was told about me?"

"That you also struggle in love because you can't just tell him about it," jc said bluntly, earning him a gasp from his boyfriend, "A-cheng, you can't say it like that". nmj was taken aback, having not expected to be called out like that this early in the morning.

"I guess idiot in love will make friends easily" jc hummed.

"A-cheng! 😢💔"

"But, if he can do it, I am sure you can also do it, don't just act subtly, tell him".

nmj looked as if his friend was being fakely hurt by his boyfriend's words. But he supposed it was true. He was following lxc suggestion of courting with action (which is nice, gentle and polite but didn't always work with him). yet look how long it took lxc before he finally got his boyfriend!

"actions won't make it clear?" he asked

"Well, he probably noticed, but sometimes it can be hard to know, nothing can be more clear than words".

somehow it was not even that unbelievable that jc had noticed about lxc attempt even before the man made it super clear. but the thing nmj didn't know was why jc didn't believe it at first.

"Please help me" jc seemed a bit surprised at the suggestion, but accepted.

And with that started the mission of getting nmj to actually confess to jgy.

nmj said what he knew jgy liked (some filled in by lxc) and jc helped him choose a nice restaurant for them to go to.

"Dress nicely, I am sure a man who dresses properly and nicely will be a good point on you," jc said, helped by lxc for that part. "Now don't forget, the whole point of that diner is to tell him how you truly feel, be yourself, I am sure it will be enough if he also loves you".

jc was pretty sure it would all go well. from what he got from lxc, jgy did seem somewhat interested in nmj, despite the bickering. it was a different kind of dickering, one he only had with nmj. the way he cared for the man was different from other people.

they ended up spying on them, along with nhs who wanted to make sure his da-ge would FINALLY get his man. He trusted in jc's suggestion, it all seemed pretty good.

Everything seemed to be going good, jgy was clearly enjoying their dinner.

everything went smoothly, until he looked surprised, then flustered. The trio thought maybe he had fucked up, especially when nmj seemed to be getting nervous. Then jgy smiled and nodded, seemingly accepting whatever nmj had asked him.

and this is how nieyao became.

only later did they manage to know how nmj confessed:

by telling how he loved him, how he found him pretty and sexy, how he wanted to be with him and how he wished he could do everything with him, even the thing he didn't understand but that jgy seemed to love doing

====

I feel like this took a humorous fluff turn somewhere. Not what I had in mind at first, but this is also fine, I like it skjdnkb

Original

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. hi im trying to find this fic i remember it being a hurt no comfort were instead of mxy sacrificing his like to bring wwx back its lwj who does it and lwj does it somewhere during those 13 years instead of after then theres this scene where wwx wakes up and lxc enters and said some similar to "he actually did it"

not FOUND 若有来世，你还愿意吗; if there is an afterlife, are you still willing? by luyepiaofeng (T, 5k, wangxian, major character death, hurt no comfort, angst, self-sacrifice, rituals)

FOUND! for you, all for you「 给你, 都给你 」 by headBONDmeLWJ (T, 3k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, major character death, canon divergence, angst, hurt/comfort)

not FOUND it's torture (being in love) by ryneisaterriblefan (Not rated, <1k, major character death, heavy angst, hurt no comfort, angst & feels)

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2. Hi!I have been looking for this fic for forever and keep trying to back through tags and posts, but am having no luck! I know I read it from your tumble quite a long time ago, when I was first getting into reading in the fandom and going through the blog to find recs. It’s set before WWX comes back, and it is LWJ and JC getting in some kind of fight during a cultivation world conference or something?

I am 98% sure it was LSZ point of view, and what I remember most clearly is that JC makes some kind of comment and all of a sudden LWJ just straight up decks him or something along those lines? I remember that LSZ (and everyone else) was so shocked that LWJ would do something like that no one really knows how to react. Any help would be greatly appreciated! This blog is amazing and I cannot tell you how many wonderful fics I have found and loved because of it!

FOUND? Better than a Mouthful of Blood by mondengel (T, 1k, gen)

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3. Hi, I'm looking for a fic whereby Wèi Wúxiàn and Jīang Chéng slowly reconcile and towards the end Wèi Wúxiàn was injured. They had a healer in training under an older Jīang healer which turns out to be Wen Qing. In the end there was a golden core transfer from Jīang Chéng to Wèi Wúxiàn and it becomes a shared golden core.

FOUND?💖 Twelve Moons and a Fortnight series by stiltonbasket (M, wangxian, 478k, Mojo’s post)

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4. Hi i forgot to bookmark that one fic where wwx goes back in time and gives up his sight for a second chance, do any of you know it? Thanks mods you are the bestest

FOUND? The Darkness Before Dawn by PsycheStellata707 (M, 113k, WIP, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, BAMF WWX, Time Travel, Attempt at Humor, PTSD, Oblivious WWX, WWX-centric, Blind WWX, Sentient Burial Mounds, Self-Indulgent, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Except Those Who Deserves to Die, Oblivious Pining, Not Canon Compliant)

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5. Heyo! If it's not too much trouble, I'm hoping the lovely mods and your detectives will be able to find two fics for me.

A) There's a part where WWX reminds LWJ of a point during the Sunshot Campaign where they all had to camp put in a brothel. LXC was fairly embarrassed, but NMJ pointed out there were no prostitutes there at the time (think the roof had come down or something).

B) At one point WWX remembers how as a child he once put a cushion up his shirt pretending to be pregnant and got told off by his teacher. At home Yu Ziyuan said something like 'Why can't Wei Ying be a mom?' and let he and Yanli play house. Jiang Fengmian also showed little WWX how to fold a blanket as a baby sling. Sorry for the rambling, and thank you all in advance!

5A)

FOUND! 🧡 Timing is Everything by Talayse (T, 17k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, canon levels of blood, soft, caretaker LWJ)

5B)

You Sing of Thanatos; I Hear Only Eros by kanonkita (E, 39k, WangXian, MIND THE TAGS, Modern AU, Extremely Dubious Consent, Dark!LWJ, Mild Horror, Omorashi, Tentacles, Rope Bondage, Shibari, Praise Kink, Breeding Kink, Oviposition, Non-Consensual Body Modification, soft pillow talk, Hurt/Comfort, non-consensual emotional healing, Panic Attacks, Wetting, Body Horror, Impotence, Magic, Anal Sex, PIV Sex, Mpreg, Mild Suicidal Ideation, Voyeurism, PWP, Angst, nonconsensual medical treatment) specifically in chapter 6. i hope it’s right cause it sounded super familiar and i’ve been looking for so long!!!

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6. Hi~ I'm looking for a fic I read a while back, it was like a vampire au where wwx turns into a vampire as well as the wen sect remnants. I think I remember a part where wen chao pushes him into the burial mounds and to keep wwx alive, wen qing turned him. Pls help me find this one 🙏 I enjoyed it so much that I want to reread it! Thnx!

FOUND? blacked out sky by butchgoth (GremlinGirl) (M, 45k, wangxian, vampires, blood, family drama, hurt WWX, minor character death, romance, angst w/ happy ending, hallucinations, fluff, tragedy, revenge)

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7. Hallo, I'm trying to find a fic and would be grateful for your help! It's simalar to: The Ribbon Incident (and how to fix it) by esk95, WWX finds out about the meaning of the forehead ribbon after he tore it off at the archery competition. The difference is that it wasn't LXC to tell him about the meaning, I can't exactly really remember who it was but I think it was either JYL or JC and he was at Lotus Pier when he foud out. I also remeber he was playing/swimming at the lake with his shidis/JC when this happened. Thank you!

FOUND? Changes by Duochanfan (Not Rated, 45k, WIP, WangXian, Drama, Mpreg, Shapeshifters, Sunshot Campaign, Baby LSZ, Angst with a Happy Ending, JGS is a warning unto himself, Past Miscarriage, Good YZY, injuries, Death of people ,Not anyone we like)

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8. Hi I tried finding this fix for a week myself but I really can't. It's a fix about how wx is like an immortal or god and he met wj. They keep meeting/bumping outside cloud recess. The most notable I remember is wx is like part of the royal family cause he descended back with his family or idk that's the ending sorry if it's vague that's all I really remember. thank you @ladyxyraine

FOUND? cloudy autumn heaps the sky by anatheme (T, 23k, WangXian, Fantasy, Secret Identity, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Timeline What Timeline, wwx is a little older here, wwx piling gifts on lwj and encouraging hoarding tendencies, Sharing a Bed, Literal Sleeping Together, Arranged Marriage, of sorts) 

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9. You guys do such wonderful work finding fics!

Thank you for everything you do!I’m looking for a fic I read that was complete by spring 2020. It was a longer fic, modern AU, in which wwx baked things and gifted them to people as part of his social media presence and to brighten people’s days. I think he got hired to teach either LXC or JGY how to bake so that they could bake something for the other one in order to ask him out? It also might have been a coffee shop au in which Lotus Pier was a coffee shop and the Wens were trying to buy it?

Thank you very much for everything you do!

FOUND? i swim in hollow lakes carved from memories by spookykingdomstarlight (T, 154k, wangxian, LXC/JGY, modern, coffee shop au, music, baking, social media, misunderstandings, fake dating, flashbacks, pining, angst w/ happy ending, vlogger WWX, musician LWJ, matchmaking, slow burn, second chances)

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10. hello there's a good I've spent hours trying to find so it's a complete story what when wei wuxian comes from the burial mounds he is possessed and wei wuxian is dead but there's some demon in his body and will wuxian gets resurrected in mo xuanyus body and killed the demon... Thanks a lot @mybestfriendisacinnamonroll​

FOUND? Demon in the Blood by mondengel (M, 2k, JYL & WWX, major character death, angst, body horror, horror)

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11. Hey! Can anyone please help me find the fic on ao3 where Lwj and wwx went to catch water ghouls and when lwj carried him out he performed a mouth to mouth on wwx which wwx he performed on other disciples too and wwx gets jealoused. And I guess they were betrothed so Can anyone please help? I lost it when I was reading.

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12. I'm looking for a fic I read years ago where LWJ accidentally time travels back to student days and is trying to figure out what to do about the upcoming series of disasters. LXC takes one look at him and goes: what happened? it was that bad? how could something that bad have happened without me knowing about it too? was it time travel? it must have been time travel. At least we now know what needs to be fixed! And meanwhile LWJ hasn't said anything at all and LXC is just going off his unintentional micro expressions. @marbleglove​

FOUND! This tumblr fic by @robininthelabyrinth​  I don't know if it's on AO3 or not but it sounds a lot like this post here

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13. There is a fic where the spirit/ghost/memories of one of the Lan sect founders possess each sect leader in turn through a ritual, and Lan Qiren and Lan Wanji figure it out because they don't want to lose Lan Xichen. I can't find it, please help! It was dark and angsty and probably AO3. @artemisdax

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14. Need help. Literally the only thing I can remember is Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian in a hot spring. For whatever reason they couldn't go to the cold springs because it was too cold or something and so they went to the secret natural hot springs that the Lan sect has further up the mountain. Truly can't remember anything else.

FOUND? i'd like to drown with you by vespertineflora (E, 7k, wangxian, post-canon, established relationship, smut, outdoor sex, PWP)

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15. Looking for a fic where LWJ puts tracking talismans in WWX's shoes so he can find him when WWX is traveling without him. I read it a while ago and can't remember the name of it.TY in advance. :) @isilwath​

FOUND? Scars Where They Used to Be by CwythanWind (E, 58k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Getting Together, rogue troublemaker WWX, Chief Cultivator LWJ, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Cutting, Panic Attacks, Alcohol, switch rights!, Anal Sex, Combing Each Other’s Hair, Nightmares, Tender Body Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending)

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16. Hi! I hope you are doing well :) I would like to ask for your help finding a story, I think you recommended it before, but don't remember enough to find it myself (could also be I read it on twt). It was a modern au, I just remember WWX was in love with LWJ since school, he even wrote a letter and hid it in one of LWJ's books, because he always checked what WWX gave hom back, but not that time, he actually never finds the letter. I think they meet in college as roomates. Do you know it?

FOUND! love letter threadfic by spookykingdomstarlight (T, 3k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, love letters, pining, misunderstandings, angst w/ happy ending)

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17. Hello! I don’t remember much of the fic, but I do remember that it was a “watching the series” fic and that it featured CQL’s interpretation of Nightless City, wherein the cultivators were killing each other, and Sizhui was Very Not Happy. Sorry it’s so vague!

FOUND? Song of Joy and Regrets by HelloKitten (Not Rated, 134k, wangxian, hualian, WIP, TGCF, Angst, Self-Harm, Child Abuse, characters watching their series, Time Travel Fix-it) The relevant passage is part of chapter 6, but it's a fairly brief mention and shows reactions from the entire junior quartet

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18. I've been trying to find this wangxian (I'm pretty sure it was) where WWX for one reason or another had some sort of chronic pain, (i think it was from zidian), and hed have many flare-ups of pain and JYL and JC would help and take care of him.

I just remember this specific scene where theyre camping outside Cloud Recesses after being denied entry, and JYL and JC are worried about WWX's pain from sleeping outside overnight, and help him when he almost can't move from pain in the morning.

I would really appreciate your help in finding it! @shieldherostuffs

FOUND! The Untamed Retelling by DCandMARVELnerd (T, 68k, WIP, WangXian, Chronic Pain, Chronic Illness, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Injury Recovery, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Dysfunctional Family, Abuse, Retelling, Canon Rewrite, Friends to Lovers, Romantic Friendship, Developing Friendships, Love, Fluff, Angst and Feels, Selectively Mute WWX)

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19. Hii!! Can you please help me find this fic where yu ziyuan was concubine of jin guangshan , jiang yanli and jiang cheng where his offspring and also thank so much for your hard work.

FOUND? Pretty sure this one is OOC! by A_flower_in_the_snow (T, 106k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, ooc LWJ, not Jiang friendly, protective LWJ, possessive LWJ, hurt WWX, rogue cultivator WWX, temporary amnesia, dark JYL) which has unfortunately been deleted.

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20. Hello I was looking for a new wangxian fic on ao3. I don’t remember much except that at some point wei ying was accused of blinding jgy and as punishment had to give up his eyes to to jgy and lan wangji performed the operation. After wei ying woke up, he felt betrayed by lan wangji and jumped. I also think there was something going on btw jgy and nmj @nerdalert997

FOUND? Ten miles of Lotus Flowers by Yukirin_Snow (M, 273k, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Romance, Slow Burn, Pain, Hurt/Comfort, True Love, Pregnancy, Humor, Eventual Smut, Angst, Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending) The particular scene is in chapter 28 Hope this is correct! 😁

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[xiyao-feels]

Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the differences between Empathy and the original—per scene and then a general reflection.

Episode 10

(episode 10 differences)

Going through this chronologically, our first comparison is the captain encounter. Honestly I think NMJ was straight-up inventing most of this—even aside from the sheer absurdity of MY, what, smuggling XY out of prison, bringing him into the middle of everything (he runs into the Captain and friend AND WWX!), XY…just going back into prison…well, anyway, putting all that aside—the Captain's questions here seem like NMJ's preoccupations, not the Captain's. The Captain is hugely contemptuous of MY, but he's not, like, obsessed with his innermost heart, you know? "You're lying! I just saw that. You were talking. Tell me honestly. What's your ulterior motive?"—that's NMJ, not the Captain at all. Plus there's the way the Captain grabs MY basically the exact same way NMJ does. 

Next up there's MY telling NHS he's going to go check on XY—minor phrasing differences aside, one thing that's interesting is we don't get all of MY's reaction/decision before he tells NHS in Empathy, just the tail end:

Ahhhh, now, the bit where NMJ sees MY stab the captain! You can see here the beginning of a pattern of Empathy erasing the Wen. MY throwing himself in front of the blade to save NMJ is removed, of course, but so is NMJ fighting WZL, as he was before going to the prison in episode 10; in the Empathy he's just kind of standing there. And then sees MY, uh, creepily pick up a sword??? And follows him??? Instead of hearing that XY's escaped and running to the prison because of that, which is of course what happened in episode 10. (So XY is erased some in this scene, too; even when it comes to MY's excuses, he says It wasn't me, but we don't get to 'Xue Yang killed him', as we do in the original.)

Some other points of interest here… Of course the expression NMJ sees on MY as MY kills the captain is only shown in Empathy. Interestingly, also, while MY is quite clearly terrified at NMJ's approach in both, in episode 10 it's presented immediately, while in the Empathy he has a beat before he starts reacting that way.

The last scene—NMJ confronting MY and kicking him out of Qinghe. In the Empathy, we start with MY having been thrown onto the floor, rolling—but this isn't there in episode 10, and to be honest I think it probably didn't actually happen. First, while I can see NMJ throwing MY onto the floor, I don't actually think he'd throw him quite that hard at this point in time? And it's also got a lot of visual echoes of JGY rolling down the stairs; I think he's projecting backwards. Of course, it still takes MY longer to recover in episode 10; Empathy consistently minimizes the physical harm done to MY.

So the conversation is interesting because it's really just two different conversations in the Empathy vs episode 10. In episode 10, MY leads with the Captain's abuse of him, and he's clear that it's habitual, ongoing, long-term. In Empathy, he leads with the Captain releasing XY, /adds in/ that the Captain wanted to kill him (that's not there in episode 10!), and absolutely skips over and minimizes the abuse: the beatings aren't mentioned, the credit-stealing isn't mentioned, the insulting and humiliating… even the 'Every time' is removed from before the 'he humiliated my mother', making it seem like this was a one-off provocation instead of habitual. NMJ's somewhat unhinged rant about MY's motives, including the would you have killed everyone at the cave if I hadn't helped you, is also Empathy-only (and then when MY starts to reply NMJ is like, Don't lie to me! and MY shuts up, suggesting perhaps that a denial would have been lying, which may be part of why people think this is a remotely reasonable assertion).

Some other interesting things—in episode 10, we see NMJ lift his sabre and then lower it, unable to go through with it; in Empathy, we don't see that at all—in general I think there's less of a sense that he's struggling with his decision, in Empathy, it's more just like He Is Doing The Righteous Justice. Fascinatingly we also don't see him put Baxia away in Empathy—I think he must because we see a scene where he already had, in episode 10, but we don't actually see it. We also don't see MY, injured, get up and thank NMJ and walk out, or indeed NMJ's conflicted gaze after him; the scene cuts off too soon.

Episode 22

(episode 22 differences)

There's only one scene for episode 22: the WRH, NMJ, and MY scene, inside Sun Palace. Right off the bat, we have the Wen erasure again; the episode 22 scene starts with WRH directly addressing NMJ and tormenting him and his Nie cultivators, whereas the Empathy one only starts when MY walks in. (Although interestingly MY addresses WRH as xiandu, while he doesn't seem to say anything with his bow in episode 22).

This one is an interesting scene because there's relatively little overlap? In the episode 10 scenes, you mostly saw different versions of the same events; in this one there's some of that, but there are also large chunks of time that are only in episode 22 or only in Empathy. Most of the MY-interacting-with-NMJ is only in Empathy, including, yes, the damn sabre touch. But we do have the beginning of MY talking to NMJ in both. MY's expression is different in Episode 22 vs Empathy—it's a little hard to capture in a still, but it's a lot more, mmm, simpering-mockery in the Empathy version?

Ah, one detail that's interesting—so, in CQL—which is to say in Empathy because we don't see this sequence at all in Episode 22—when that Nie cultivator calls the place 'a den of Wen' he uses 温/温氏, for Wen, and then when people are insulting MY in this scene they're using 走狗. But in MDZS all of those are actually 温狗, Wen-dog. Which is definitely more directly disrespectful to WRH than the 走狗 insults, but I feel like in general CQL doesn't use 温狗 a lot, while in MDZS it's all over the place—so while it's an interesting detail I'm not sure it's suggestive for Empathy in particular. Hmmm.

We return to things being shown in both Empathy and Episode 22 with NMJ shoving MY back. In Empathy, we only see MY stagger a little, while in episode 22 it's quite considerable—again, Empathy's tendency to minimize the physical damage MY suffers.

And then MY kicks NMJ in return! Okay this is actually fascinating, because in Empathy, it looks like this totally wipes NMJ out, and the scene stops here. But that isn't at all what happened! He's knocked onto his back, yes, BUT he recovers and comes up and shoves MY hard enough he goes flying: 

He gets up and goes to attack MY, and would probably have killed him if WRH hadn't interfered. Which, don't get me wrong, is entirely reasonable of him given his understanding of the situation but it is not at all the impression you'd get from Empathy. If anything NMJ's collapse in the Empathy after MY kicks him looks like the collapse he has after WRH finishes with him, in episode 22. And MY saying How dare you be so rude in front of Clan Leader Wen when he kicks NMJ is also removed—the whole sequence here is really another example of the removal of the Wen from the Empathy scenes. 

Incidentally, MY didn't actually kill all the Nie cultivators, in this scene. If you look while MY is flying back, at least one of them is still alive:

And then you can see all four are dead while NMJ's attacking WRH:

But MY has been on the floor recovering from NMJ's attack, so he definitely didn't kill the at least one and quite probably two who are still alive.

WRH asks MY if NMJ killed Wen Xu question; you have MY staying quite noticeably silent, which I think is still meant to be understood as MY saving NMJ's life. I guess they changed it because the MDZS version really doesn't work with the flow of events as happens in CQL? For the record, in MDZS MY answers yes, but then immediately suggests that they torture him instead of killing him immediately, and then once WRH isn't set on killing him immediately, kills WRH on the spot and starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of there. So there's no WWX for distraction, and Sunshot's army definitely isn't right outside, there's only LXC he sent a message to and who hasn't quite shown up yet—so in MDZS he's taking a bigger risk, and more unambiguously saving NMJ's life and winning them the war. Which is not, to be clear, to in any way minimize CQL MY's astonishing bravery and achievements.

Episode 23

(episode 23 differences)

So in both we start with LXC holding NMJ and looking down at him. In episode 23, when NMJ sees MY, we see LXC see and notice his reaction and /then/ look over at MY in concern, whereas in Empathy we don't get that moment—it just goes to both of them looking at MY.

NMJ demands his sabre back, and in both MY complies, though in the Empathy one he takes a beat longer and looks more worried about it. In the original, MY also has "Let me explain" which is dropped from the Empathy.

In both we have NMJ attacking MY with Baxia, and trying to get past Shuoyue—in the Empathy it's a bit shorter, though, and we also lose LXC asking NMJ what he's doing this for. I think that goes with cutting LXC seeing NMJ react before he looks over at MY, above; the effect is to make NMJ's response seem more obvious/natural, when in fact LXC is pretty baffled by it at the time.

"he became the Wen's underling and had been helping the tyrant at Nevernight!"—the language on 'became the Wen's underling' is actually different in episode 23 vs Empathy. In episode 23, you have 原来投靠了温氏; in Empathy, though, it's 原来是做了走狗. Note the 走狗 as earlier!

Okay, and now the big one: LXC giving NMJ reasons they should trust MY/not kill him. Empathy cuts most of this. It keeps that MY is the one who sent the map, but it drops: that the reason LXC is here today is because MY sent him a message; that MY was the one who schemed to get WRH's guard down, and then /killed him/; that MY was the one who saved LXC's life after CR burned; and that MY independently approached WRH to spy on him and has been sending LXC letters the whole time. /That's really not trivial. That's a lot to cut./

I wonder if this has any relation to the common idea that LXC did not in fact have a lot of very good reasons to trust JGY.

(Incidentally it's after the MY killed WRH reveal, in episode 23, that NMJ lowers his blade.)

...also. so. In episode 23 LXC asks MY, you know, didn't he already tell NMJ about all this (a question which makes a lot more sense in MDZS, where NMJ has already woken up before LXC joins them, but I just run with it), and MY says, you saw it ZWJ, even if I had he wouldn't have believed me. And NMJ—again it's kind of hard to capture in a still, but he pretty much reacts like he thinks that's ridiculous and MY is just making excuses/being manipulative?

And then of course that gets erased from the Empathy, as well as as just mentioned most of the reasons LXC actually gave. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, this also means it cuts what I'm pretty sure is the first on-screen use of A-Yao—it does show up later in the Empathy version of this scene, so I don't think that's hugely significant, but just as a note.

Then there's MY kneeling in preparation for apology, which is in both Empathy and episode 23. The Empathy cuts make it seem like he kneels pretty much right after NMJ lowers his blade, though, and we don't get to see him making the deliberate choice to step out if LXC's protection to kneel—again, I think it makes LXC seem more understanding of NMJ than he actually is here.

The apology proper is only in Empathy; honestly it mostly seems fairly reasonable to me, although it does mean you only hear LXC saying "But I believe, when he was doing such things, deep in his heart he must have been…" after the version that cuts most of his reasons for believing that. In terms of actual changes, I wonder if LXC reacted more quickly/strongly to the bit where it looks like NMJ is actually going to kill MY? It's definitely more understated than his previous reactions, and it would fit with the other changes made.

Last scene: the oath. At this point I think it's fairly well-known that NMJ looking at JGY, and LXC turning his head to look at them both, is only in Empathy—there's also, maybe?, a small change to the text; in episode 23, "Both God and people will be furious with us" is 天人共怒, but in Empathy it's 天人共戮. I say maybe because—on the one hand, the subs definitely use a different character, and it's in both the YT subs and the Netflix subs even though those aren't always 100% identical, but while I'm not usually checking the audio for this I did here because it's just the one character and the audio pretty much sounds the same to me? (ep 23) (Empathy) Could just be my ear, or a mistake on the subs' part or the audio part, who knows.

Overview

Looking at all the changes together, a few patterns emerge.

First, people who are doing damage who aren't JGY—the Wen, XY—tend to get minimized or erased from the narrative. Similarly and to some extent as a result, the harm caused by JGY is exaggerated; also similarly, the good that JGY does is also minimized or erased. Meanwhile, the damage done /to/ JGY is minimized—both the environment of abuse he suffered at Qinghe, and the physical harm done to him, which he usually recovers from much more quickly in Empathy (even when the attack itself is made stronger as, unusually, it is in the confrontation where NMJ kicks MY out of Qinghe). Finally MY is made more manipulative than he necessarily is; while I'm not saying he's never being manipulative, NMJ understands his expressions of weakness as /purely/ manipulative and inherently false, when in fact the weakness MY expresses is very real, however calculated, or not!, its expression may be.

Honestly—in this JGY who does way more harm and way less good than he actually does, who is more powerful and experiences less damage than he actually does, who is never actually weak but only acting that way to manipulate people? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of where popular takes on JGY come from.

[robininthelabyrinth]

An AU where NHS is the one JGY kills? How would NMJ react to this? Would he care about his morals in the wake of his little brother murder? Would he take JGY life as enough “justice” for his brother bc if u think about it the last time a sect killed one member of his family (the Wen) he was down to go to war and kill them all and that wasn’t someone he had swore to protect :)

Something, once shattered, could never be put together quite the same way as before; it was a truism as applicable to the soul and the heart as it was to objects. And when his brother was killed over a matter of politics, a stupid disagreement between sect leaders over a question of principle, Nie Mingjue’s heart shattered – and his convictions with it.

Wei Wuxian had once heard it said that one should fear most of all the patient man, a gentleman waiting ten years for vengeance; whoever had said that, he thought, had never met Nie Mingjue after he’d blackened. The man wasn’t patient in the slightest.

It hadn’t seemed so bad in the beginning. The man had brought his brother’s body to the Burial Mounds, the corpse curled in his arms like a child, and he had knelt before Wei Wuxian could stop him.

“You revived Wen Ning, even though he was a child of a Sect,” he said, and his eyes were like black coals, the fierce light that had once shined within them utterly extinguished. “Can you revive him, too?”

Wei Wuxian hesitated.

“I will not hold it against you if you can’t,” Nie Mingjue said. He should have been angry, Wei Wuxian would later remember thinking; Nie Mingjue was known for his anger, his rage – why wasn’t he angry? Why wasn’t he raging? It was only later that he realized that Nie Mingjue’s grief was so complete, so all-consuming, that it had pushed him somewhere beyond rage. “But I would ask that you try. In return, I will help you defend those you protect, now and going forward.”

That was a tempting offer. Wei Wuxian had been forced to split from the Jiang sect because they could not protect him; the Nie, on the other hand, were more established, stronger. If they survived this loss, they would be very good protection.

Still, Wei Wuxian wouldn’t sell a false bid of goods.

“He won’t come back to life,” Wei Wuxian said, coming forward to put a hand on Nie Huaisang’s chest. There was resentment there, not as much as Wen Ning, who had suffered so much and kept it all to himself, no, but enough. Whoever had killed him had been someone he had trusted, and he had died angry and betrayed – and no one did anger better than the Nie. It would probably be enough. “He’d still only be a corpse. You know that, right? Your sect above all others abhors the existence of evil –”

“I don’t care,” Nie Mingjue said. “It was my righteousness that failed him; I will not let it stop me again.”

“He wouldn’t be evil,” Wei Wuxian tried to explain. “Wen Ning isn’t evil. But he’d still be a corpse.”

“Even if he is evil, it doesn’t matter,” Nie Mingjue said. “I won’t be able to stop until I see him again.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what Nie Mingjue meant, and he was so uncomfortable with having the unbending, unyielding sect leader kneeling before him, begging him the way Wen Ruohan could have only dreamed of, that he doesn’t ask any more questions, merely agreed to give it his best effort.

He should have asked.

He should have –

He didn’t know what he should have done. At any rate, he would later learn that Nie Mingjue spoke the truth: he would not stop. He couldn’t stop.

He left his brother in Wei Wuxian’s care, and he returned to the Unclean Realm, and from there he set for to Lanling, to Koi Tower, where the people who had killed his brother lived. Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure what happened there, isolated from gossip as he was; by the time one of the Wens dared go down to the village and heard about it, everyone had universally started to refuse to talk about the entire event, naming it taboo.

Still, they heard enough.

Perhaps Jin Guangshan had hoped that his younger brother’s death would drive Nie Mingjue into a qi deviation, or perhaps he’d thought that Nie Mingjue would be so bound up in his belief in justice, his respect for etiquette and law, that he would not be able to respond in force. Perhaps he simply didn’t think it through at all.

He certainly didn’t think that Nie Mingjue would come to Lanling in the middle of the night, without warning nor declaration of war, and raze Koi Tower to the ground before half the cultivators of the Jin even knew what was happened. Who knew what salt was used to sow the fields, what monsters were willingly unleashed, but the entire city died almost overnight, the ground turned to ash, flames hot enough to melt gold rising up to the heavens with a roar like a dragon, the people was put to the sword – some people believed the children had been spared, others denied it. Nobody knew anything for sure.

They said Nie Mingjue was like a martial god, eyes indifferent even as he reaped life after life – Wen Ruohan had carefully cultivated his inner sect disciples from the most powerful he could find, and they almost all fell before Nie Mingjue’s blade; Jin Guangshan’s cultivators, who were selected on the basis of other considerations, didn’t stand a chance. There was no mercy, no humanity left; Nie Mingjue had left that all behind along with his righteousness, disregarded as useless and unimportant because it couldn’t even keep his brother safe – and Wei Wuxian thought of Jiang Cheng, thought of Jiang Yanli, and couldn’t say that he’d do it any differently.

Some people even said Nie Mingjue wielded demonic cultivation in his anger.

Wei Wuxian didn’t know if that was true.

He didn’t know how he’d feel if it was.

He didn’t know what to feel, when Jiang Cheng came to him – they’d broken all ties, not so long before, and so it was a surprise to see him.

“Did anyone see you –” he began.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Jiang Cheng said. His clothing was disorderly, his face unclean; he did not seem to be well. “Nothing does – the Jin sect is gone.”

Wei Wuxian felt fear for the first time. “But – shijie?”

“She’s safe,” Jiang Cheng said. “Jiang Ling, too; they’re at the Lotus Pier.”

“Jiang Ling?” Wei Wuxian echoed, eyebrows arching.

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “A surname is a small price to pay for life,” he said shortly, and that really said it all, didn’t it? “I don’t know what happened to the peacock, but I’m not holding my breath; rescuing shijie was already more than I expected…I’ve agreed not to interfere, in the future.”

“The future?” Wei Wuxian echoed. “What – what more is there? I thought the scheme was Jin Guangshan’s –”

“It was, but he wasn’t the only one who would benefit from it,” Jiang Cheng said. He ran his hands over his face. “The Jin were second only to the Wen when it came to the number of allied clans – anyone who had anything to do with it, even under suspicion, is considered guilty…I’ve all but given up our Jiang sect’s independence. If Nie Mingjue wants to wipe out one of the sects that answers to us, I won’t be able to stop him. My ancestors will be ashamed of me.”

“You did it for shijie.”

“I did it for all of us,” Jiang Cheng said. “I heard during the Sunshot Campaign that Wen Ruohan once sought an alliance with Nie Mingjue to dominate the rest of the world, which was rejected on account of what happened to the former Sect Leader – I believe it. I never thought it was true back then, but I believe it now. The masterless sabers –”

He shook his head, sealing his lips, and no matter what Wei Wuxian did, he couldn’t get another word out of him, just that ominous final phrase – the masterless sabers – how could a saber not have a master? A sword was only a spiritual weapon, guided by the cultivator that wielded it – even the Stygian Tiger Seal was only a tool.

“Why are you here, then?” Wei Wuxian finally asked.

Jiang Cheng looked at him as if he were stupid. “If I die, the Jiang Sect dies with me – where else would I be?” He saw that Wei Wuxian didn’t understand and snorted, shaking his head. “Didn’t Nie Mingjue promise you that those you protected would be kept safe? Well, here I am.”

Wei Wuxian licked suddenly dry lips. “Why would he kill you?”

“Because I would benefit,” Jiang Cheng said simply. “Whether or not I support what happened, I would benefit, a fellow sect leader…out of recognition for our former relationship, he told me that if I were here, I would live. The Lotus Pier won’t be touched. Besides, I’m here for another reason, on behalf of the cultivation world.”

“Oh? For what?”

“To get you to hurry up and bring Nie Huaisang back, of course. I don’t think anything short of that will make Nie Mingjue stop.”

I won’t be able to stop until I see him again.

“The process takes time,” Wei Wuxian protested. “Even though I have an idea of what to do, it’s not easy, it’s tricky –”

“I brought you help,” Jiang Cheng said shortly. He nodded down the mountain, where he’d left –

“That’s a small child,” Wei Wuxian said blankly.

“Somewhat undernourished,” Jiang Cheng conceded. “His name is Xue Yang; he’s a delinquent from Kuizhou, rather famous – well, infamous – for being pretty handy with demonic cultivation –”

“Jiang Cheng. That is a small child.”

“The Jin Sect took him in as a guest disciple –”

“Small! Child! How old is he, eight?”

“Twelve.”

“Jiang Cheng!”

“He’s pretty annoying, but he’ll shut up if you give him candy,” Jiang Cheng said. “I brought a bag. Now get back to fucking work before more people die.”

At first meeting, Xue Yang was a nasty little gremlin, full of spite and not a little bit of brilliance; it was extremely annoying how much it felt like looking into a slightly off-kilter mirror. He’d lost a finger, somewhere along the way, and while there was a sword buckled onto his belt he never used it – it took a while before Wei Wuxian noticed it, given that he himself didn’t use a sword and he’d assumed Xue Yang was following his example, but in fact the boy was terrified of swords.

More specifically, of sabers.

Even Nie Huaisang’s, which was – to be frank – the daintiest, frilliest saber Wei Wuxian had ever seen.

“You were a guest disciple of the Jin sect before,” Wei Wuxian said. “You saw what happened? The masterless sabers?”

Xue Yang averted his eyes and didn’t answer, which meant yes; he would otherwise have had a snappy answer of some sort.

“Was it that bad?”

“It was worse,” Xue Yang said, uncharacteristically solemn. “The masterless sabers - they hate evil. Who told them that people were evil?”

“I did,” a low voice said from behind him, and Xue Yang froze, the whites of his eyes showing; he resembled a small rabbit that had tried to demonstrate its toughness being suddenly faced with the teeth of a tiger.

“Sect Leader Nie,” Wei Wuxian said, much more respectfully than he might have otherwise, before the rumors. Nie Mingjue looked much the same as he had the first time: back straight, wearing his clan’s colors, his eyes dead inside. Even Baxia looked the same.

But he felt – wrong.

Maybe he really was using demonic cultivation, but if he was, it wasn’t anything like what Wei Wuxian had invented.

“How is my brother?” Nie Mingjue asked.

“The process is going very well so far,” Wei Wuxian hedged. “I should have a result for you within a week.”

Nie Mingjue nodded and turned to go.

“What are you going to do when he wakes?” Wei Wuxian asked, and Nie Mingjue stopped. “You said you couldn’t stop until he was back – what does it mean, that you’ll stop? Stop the killing? What will happen next?”

“Bring my brother back,” Nie Mingjue said. He didn’t turn back. “And we’ll see.”

That wasn’t reassuring. “Where are you going next?”

“The Cloud Recesses.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened. “You can’t possibly believe that the Gusu Lan sect had anything to do with it – that’s your sworn brother’s home!”

“We made an oath together,” Nie Mingjue said. “I will uphold my end of it.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t understand; he simply stood there, helpless, watching the other man leave.

There was a tug on his sleeve.

He looked down at Xue Yang.

“The one who killed his brother, on behalf of the Jin sect,” Xue Yang whispered. “It was Jin Guangyao.”

Wei Wuxian thought about what he’d heard about the contents of the oath that the three war heroes had sworn and cursed, torn between chasing Nie Mingjue and stopping him and realizing that that would be futile. Even if he could raise an army of corpses to stop him, a man with an army that could defeat the Jin sect wouldn’t be afraid of him – and he didn’t dare use the Tiger Seal now.

“Let’s do what we can,” he told Xue Yang, who nodded furiously, all reluctance and moodiness gone. “If we can get Nie Huaisang back before Nie Mingjue reaches the Cloud Recesses, that’ll – that’d be good.”

“I don’t know if it’ll help.”

Neither did Wei Wuxian.

part 2

[bloody-bee-tea]

JC Love Month 2020 Day 4

Amusement

This is entirely dedicated to @sarah-yyy because she left these tags on my BeeTober 2020 Day 31 fic: #also i would die to see that conversation between nmj and jc!!!  #was jc really not as dense as he proclaimed?? how hard did nmj have to hint at the date ahhh 

The answer is that he had to hint so hard.

Jiang Cheng is pinching the bridge of his nose before he even dials Nie Huaisang’s phone.

He just knows this phone call is going to be unpleasant, simply because Nie Huaisang cannot understand that Jiang Cheng still did not ask his brother out.

Well, Nie Huaisang can suck it, because right now there’s a dozen different things Jiang Cheng has to worry about, and his crush on Nie Mingjue is like the very least of it.

“Jiang Cheng, what a pleasure!” Nie Huaisang greets him with much more cheer than Jiang Cheng can take at that moment.

“Not today,” Jiang Cheng bites out and Nie Huaisang falls silent on the other end of the line. “Sorry, Huaisang, but not today,” Jiang Cheng repeats, much softer this time and Nie Huaisang sighs.

“What happened?”

“I need a meeting with your brother,” Jiang Cheng says and there’s a very long silence from Nie Huaisang.

“A meeting,” he finally repeats. “A business meeting?”

“A job interview,” Jiang Cheng admits and he knows that got Nie Huaisang’s attention.

“You did it,” Nie Huaisang breathes and he sounds totally excited. “Did you do it? Did it really happen?” Nie Huaisang goes on and Jiang Cheng sighs.

“Yes, yes, I did it,” Jiang Cheng tells him and then takes the phone from his ear when Nie Huaisang starts to cheer. “Would you calm down, fuck,” Jiang Cheng hisses out but it barely does anything to calm Nie Huaisang down.

“I cannot believe you really did it. Tell me everything. How did it happen? What did Wei Wuxian say? What did your father say?” he asks and Jiang Cheng feels very, very tired.

“I don’t know,” he honestly says. “I handed in my notice, but he didn’t have the time to accept it personally so I gave it to his assistant. I doubt my father already read it.”

“Oh, boo, that’s so lame,” Nie Huaisang whines. “What about Wei Wuxian?”

“Doesn’t yet know about it,” Jiang Cheng gives back. “I’ll tell him when he comes home. Father is bound to gush to him about today, about what amazing work he did and with how it’s been going recently, Wei Wuxian is not going to take it well.”

“Good,” Nie Huaisang says with vehemence and Jiang Cheng can almost see him nod vigorously, his hair flying around.

“So, a meeting with your brother?” Jiang Cheng asks again and Nie Huaisang snaps back to attention.

“You really want to work for him?” he wants to know and Jiang Cheng shrugs even though Nie Huaisang can’t see it.

“It’s not like I have much choice,” Jiang Cheng says, even though that’s not the reason at all. “Lan Qiren will sell me out to my father the second I ask him for help and I would rather kill myself than work for Jin Guangshan,” he says.

“And?” Nie Huaisang prompts.

“And I really admire the work you all do at Nie Corps and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to work for your brother.”

“Mh, sure,” Nie Huaisang says, clearly not believing Jiang Cheng at all. “Give me five minutes,” he then says and hangs up on Jiang Cheng without waiting for a reply.

“Unbelievable,” Jiang Cheng mutters but he keeps his phone close.

If Nie Huaisang says he needs five minutes then he’ll probably call back in four.

And just like Jiang Cheng predicted, his phone rings again exactly four minutes later.

“So?” Jiang Cheng asks without greeting, and Nie Huaisang lets out a put out huff.

“You could at least greet me like a normal person,” Nie Huaisang whines, but when he’s only met with silence, he goes on. “I talked to da-ge, he can squeeze you in for a meeting in an hour.”

There’s a special emphasis on squeeze, and Jiang Cheng wants to strangle Nie Huaisang, because he just knows he’s wriggling his eyebrows.

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng snaps out, but before Nie Huaisang can complain he goes on. “And thank you. Seriously.”

“No need to thank me,” Nie Huaisang says. “Just finally put da-ge and yourself out of your misery.”

“There is no—” Jiang Cheng starts, but he’s only met with the beeping tone, telling him that Nie Huaisang has yet again hung up on him.

Fine, whatever. He’s not going to pass an opportunity like this up, that much is clear, and so he gets ready to meet with Nie Mingjue.

Jiang Cheng can’t deny that he’s nervous, because he didn’t have to go to a job interview so far—it was always clear he’d get an intern position at Jiang Corps—and he curses that fact now.

And he very resolutely refuses to think about the fact that half of his nervousness is coming from seeing Nie Mingjue.

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters, because maybe Nie Huaisang is right and there is some pining and misery—at least on his side—and it’s the worst time now to think of this. He needs to be calm and serious and he needs to blow Nie Mingjue away if he wants to have a chance in his company.

Jiang Cheng takes a few deeps breaths before he enters through the main entrance of Nie Corps. It seems like he’s been expected, because he is immediately led to an office.

“If you would wait here for a moment,” Nie Zonghui tells him and Jiang Cheng can only nod before Nie Zonghui disappears in the office, where no doubt Nie Mingjue is sitting.

It’s not long before Nie Zonghui comes back out again, and he motions for Jiang Cheng to enter, which he does.

He’s glad no one can see that his knees are slightly shaking because for all that Nie Mingjue is a friend, he’s also the guy who gets to decide if Jiang Cheng is out of a job or not.

“Jiang Cheng,” Nie Mingjue greets him and points at the chair right in front of him.

“Nie Mingjue” Jiang Cheng politely gives back and he wishes this was over already.

For all that he can wrangle the most difficult deals out of anyone, he’s not good at being charming and selling his own strengths.

“I hear you are out of a job,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng shrugs as nonchalantly as he can.

“I handed in my resignation just today,” he gives back. “But I have proof I did it, and since I’m just an intern, it’s effective immediately.”

“Please tell me how your father reacted,” Nie Mingjue says and he leans forward in clear anticipation.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Jiang Cheng answers. “I doubt he realized it yet. I handed it in to my father’s assistant, since he didn’t have time to see me.”

“But you would have given it to him personally?” Nie Mingjue wants to know and Jiang Cheng nods.

“Oh yeah,” he breathes out, because he really would have.

He was actually looking forward to it, and he was strangely disappointed when he didn’t get that chance.

“What happened?” Nie Mingjue questions and Jiang Cheng is reminded yet again, that Nie Huaisang might not make a secret out of the fact that he loves gossip, but Nie Mingjue is hardly any better.

He just hides it better.

“We are launching the new phone,” Jiang Cheng tells him and he sees the frown on Nie Mingjue’s face, and it makes him wince.

It’s a heavy blow against the competition, that they get the phone out there, and now Jiang Cheng almost regrets bringing it on its way.

“So I have heard,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and Jiang Cheng gives him his most winning smile.

“If I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have pressed so hard,” he promises him and is surprised when Nie Mingjue shakes his head.

“But then you wouldn’t have quit and we wouldn’t get to employ you. So it’s alright,” he says and Jiang Cheng is honestly surprised to see that he means it.

“Ah, okay,” he breathes out and then he forces himself to shake the surprise off. “Anyway, Wei Wuxian did all of the crazy inventing, but it’s a rather ambitious project. And it wouldn’t have worked, if I didn’t manage to get as many good deals as I did, if I dare say so myself,” Jiang Cheng says and Nie Mingjue nods.

“You absolutely should dare,” he tells him. “I heard about a few of the deals, they were work of wonders,” Nie Mingjue praises him and Jiang Cheng flushes lightly.

“But my father only saw Wei Wuxian’s work. Again. And I am just tired of it. I know that I am capable and I think I deserve some recognition for my work.”

“Absolutely,” Nie Mingjue agrees yet again, and Jiang Cheng’s flush only deepens at that. “And now you’re here,” Nie Mingjue says with a very meaningful look and Jiang Cheng can’t hold his gaze a second longer.

“And now I’m here,” he agrees, but he mumbles it towards his hands, rather than at Nie Mingjue, and when Nie Mingjue chuckles, Jiang Cheng’s stomach flips.

“And you want to work for me,” Nie Mingjue goes on and Jiang Cheng nods.

“If you could find it in yourself to take me in,” he says, because he knows that it might bring some repercussions with it if Nie Mingjue employs him.

When his father finds out that Nie Corps stole him away—and that will no doubt be how Jiang Fengmian will see it—then it could possibly damage their work relationship.

“Oh, I would have taken you in ages ago, if only you would have been ready to leave Jiang Corps,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng looks up again.

Nie Mingjue seems entirely serious about this even though Jiang Cheng finds it hard to believe that anyone should want to employ him.

But he recognizes that it’s the mindset his father instilled in him, and that it’s utterly and completely wrong.

“So I don’t have to go beg Lan Qiren to give me a chance?” Jiang Cheng dares to ask and he’s entirely unprepared to see the serious look on Nie Mingjue’s face.

“Jiang Cheng, if you think you have to beg Lan Qiren for that, you’re mistaken. He would gladly take you in.”

Jiang Cheng frowns at that, because he seriously doubts it, but then Nie Mingjue goes on.

“There’s a position in the branch that Nie Zonghui handles that has a position for you,” he tells him and now Jiang Cheng frowns for real.

He had hoped to work under Nie Mingjue directly, if only so that he would see more of the other man.

“I see,” he hesitantly says, not happy at all with his, but he doesn’t know if he can ask for another position.

“That would mean that Zonghui is your direct superior,” Nie Mingjue goes on, just driving the point home by now, but it doesn’t make Jiang Cheng any happier.

“Understood.”

“You would not be working with me in any capacity and I actually don’t have any bearing on your success here,” Nie Mingjue finally says and this time Jiang Cheng kind of snaps.

“Okay, I get you, you don’t want me to work directly for you or have me associated to your name, understood!”

He expected Nie Mingjue to get angry at that, but instead he can only see amusement on his face and Jiang Cheng flushes bright red when a smile finally shows up on Nie Mingjue’s face and his dimples come out.

“Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue says and that makes Jiang Cheng feel hot for entirely different reasons. “I am just saying that if you start here and you and I were to go out for, let’s say dinner, no one would be able to accuse you of anything.”

“Dinner,” Jiang Cheng repeats, because his brain is a little bit slow right now. “Business dinner?” he asks, just to make sure, but he can already tell by the soft look on Nie Mingjue’s face that business dinner is definitely not what he meant.

“Date dinner,” Nie Mingjue immediately corrects him and Jiang Cheng’s eyes go big.

“Oh,” he breathes out. “So your brother wasn’t wrong when he implied some mutual pining and misery?” he blurts out and is rewarded when Nie Mingjue laughs out loud.

“Oh no, he definitely wasn’t wrong with that,” Nie Mingjue says and he looks so amused Jiang Cheng wants to kiss the smile right off his face.

“When?” he dares to ask and Nie Mingjue doesn’t even pretend to check his no doubt busy schedule.

“Tomorrow. Let me take you out on a date,” Nie Mingjue says, probably just to make it absolutely clear that that is what it is and Jiang Cheng nods eagerly.

“Please,” he gives back and has to sit on his hands so that he doesn’t do something stupid.

“You’ll start in the company on Monday,” Nie Mingjue informs him. “All the paperwork will be done then as well.”

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng nods.

“That means you can kiss me today, if you want,” Nie Mingjue tells him after a beat, because clearly Jiang Cheng is not taking up well on all of his hints.

“Fuck, yes,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and immediately stands up.

He leans over the table, absolutely gratified when Nie Mingjue meets him halfway, and the kiss goes on for longer than it probably should, given that they didn’t have their first proper date, yet.

“I am so looking forward to tomorrow,” Jiang Cheng mutters when they part and freezes when Nie Mingjue presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, and then his cheek before he finally sits back down.

“Not as much as I am,” Nie Mingjue promises him, and going by the heat in his eyes, Jiang Cheng even believes him.

When he leaves Nie Mingjue’s office after that, still a little but unsteady on his feet, but this time for entirely different reasons, Jiang Cheng decides that Wei Wuxian can never know about how dense Jiang Cheng was.

That is just for Nie Mingjue to know. And hopefully cherish for a long, long time.

Next part

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[restingdomface]

Lan Wangji makes extremely deadpan videos of his daily life with Wei Wuxian and their kids and nephews (and nieces if JC and JYL had more). This would include:

*shows a video of LWJ staring out the window for a solid thirty seconds, face entirely unchanged and somewhat disappointed, turns camera around to show Wei Wuxian and the kiddos putting mentos in soda bottles and trying to chuck them at each other, camera pans back to his face, still entirely devoid of emotion*

That one time Jin Ling got stuck up a tree and Wei Wuxian tried to get him down and also got stuck up there and now the other kids are looking for a ladder while LWJ just watches them from the patio, drinking tea. The kids finally give up and shamefully come to LWJ and ask him for help, he gets his husband and nephew down without a word.

The one where he buried 5yo A-Yuan in a pile of bunnies and got scolded by Lan Xichen for it because they might bite him if they get annoyed with him.

There is an entire compilation of rabbits that won’t leave him alone. Climb into his lap. Follow him with every step. Get excited when he comes outside. Hear a guqin and start looking for him. Just. He’s the rabbit whisperer. One of the black ones is just about always with him.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in any capacity is going to involve a lot of hitting each other and pushing each other over. Only-child kids think they hate each other, but people with siblings are all ‘no no, siblings are just Like That’. People think Yanli is all innocent till they realize she def only tells them to stop when she thinks they might actually get on each other’s nerves. She’s in the ‘boys will rough house and probably only have one collective braincell’ category.

People won’t stop asking him if he speaks so he vaguely makes mentions of having extremely low verbility. They ask if he does sign and he’s not really sure how (lol cause words hard) to explain to them that sign doesn’t really help when the issue is more of him not having much to say tbh. This is apparently the wrong thing to say because then people start being all ‘yeah I get you, I’m pretty dumb too, at least you’re pretty’ and he’s just sorta sitting there with this smacked fish look on his face while WWX can’t stop laughing next to him at the very idea of someone calling his husband slow. Wow. LWJ just sorta finally gets out that he has like two degrees and teaches giqun lessons and it’s amazing. The kids find out about it and can’t stop laughing for hours.

“Hey, why did you name your son ‘sorrow and longing’?” *commense 10 minute video of that time Wei Wuxian got arrested for something to do with a satanic ritual and that’s when LWJ ended up with custody of his adopted son for the next three years and he was in a really angsty mood tbh so it just kinda happened* not a single commenter expected that, even less so when he mentions that they weren’t even together at that point

Films what the viewers think is a prank at first, where he pours a dangerous amount of chili powder into a mug of hot chocolate (with a completely straight face) and then brings it to WWX who takes a drink and makes a dreamy little sigh and goes ‘you always know how to make it just like I want it’ and no one is sure how to react to this video. It’s like watching someone peel and eat a lemon.

You know that video of the girl with the deadpan voice saying she went downstairs to take a shower and there was something brown in the bottom of the tub but it turned out to be potatoes and she’s all ‘not a problem I was expecting, but a problem I can handle’? Okay so that’s how he talks in every video. WWX hands him a baby and he talks to them exactly like that. People ask if he’s good with kids and WWX is all ‘yeah, he’s not just a rabbit whisperer, he’s a baby whisperer too, he’s super great with kids’ *shows LWJ talking to a baby in That Voice while the baby looks at him in utter adoration*

“What’s it like growing up gay? Do you ever get shit for it?” LWJ.exe has stopped working, he has only met one straight couple the same age as him and they’re his sister in law. His brother has three boyfriends, one of which is his brother-in-law. He doesn’t know what a het-er-o-sexual is and he doesn’t want to. Pretty sure his uncle is acearo and hasn’t seen his parents in like 20 years.

LWJ: ‘I apologize for being so emotional in my last video.’ *viewers scrambled to find what video he meant because they ain’t ever seen that man emotional before but end up finding a video where Sizhui told him he loved him and called him papa and gave him a hug while WWX filmed, you can barely see LWJ’s left eye twitching and he pets Sizhui’s head for a moment* viewers are very confused on how this constitutes emotionalism.

Viewers ask to see his brother ‘you know, the one who apparently has three boyfriends’ and LWJ posts a video of LXC passed out on a couch with like three fully grown men all in various states of sliding off onto the floor while the teens play a game of ‘who can stack the most random objects on uncle’s bodies without them waking’ because apparently LWJ and WWX were gone for a weekend and the uncles were supposed to watch the kids (like, all ten of them probably, there’s probably a lot of kids) and it’s Sizhui filming the whole thing cause he’s the ‘good one’ and never does bad things. But he’s also like Auntie Yanli and is totally gonna egg them on from the sidelines.

WWX hands LWJ literally any food and LWJ will eat it all with a completely straight face but as soon as WWX is turned around LWJ is chugging a glass of milk with a look of death on his face. The kiddos straight up can’t stomach his cooking.

😭 someone asks why their hair is all so long and LWJ puts up a video of chatty adorable Sizhui braiding WWX’s hair while he tells him about his day at school. It’s. Too. Cute.

The never ending debate on if LWJ’s deadpan personality/speech is acting or not. No matter how much everyone assures them he’s really just Like That people just aren’t convinced.

Someone points out several times that in their house they have a room with a satanic symbol on the door. That’s just WWX’s home office it’s all good. This is treated as ‘lol WWX is so dramatic’ for like four whole weeks before LWJ posts a video of Sizhui standing outside the office looking nervous. ‘What’s wrong?’ He says. ‘Dad called me into his office.’ Sizhui replies. ‘WWX must be a very strict father,’ the viewers think. That’s not it. That’s not it at all tbh. That video got flagged on like four different platforms and kept getting removed for graphic images and half their viewers don’t. Want. To know. What happened. In that office. (WWX doesn’t even see what the big deal was, that goat was dead when he bought it shut up.)

The others do videos sometimes too lol. Videos include

Jin Ling’s compilation of ‘Mom, what’s for dinner’ and the answer is Always Lotus root and pork rib soup. Someone asks ‘lol she must make that often’ and JL is all ‘lol often, fairly sure she got same-food syndrome, it’s always soup’.

Lan Sizhui at like 17 years old: The one true secret I’ve never told my dads? My most shameful lie? Rabbits aren’t my favorite. My favorite is butterflies. *proceeds to cuddle a bun* I’m sorry Mister Bun, but you just aren’t nearly as pretty as butterflies.

Shaky video of someone sitting on the couch, pointed at NMJ: Brother, while you’re away on vacation with your boyfriends, I don’t plan on leaving this spot for even a minute. NMJ: Oh yeah? What’ll you do when you have to use the bathroom? NHS: Listen, I found a guy on Craig’s List who’s exact fetish is lazy young men who refuse to move and also diapers exist and he’ll be my slave for the week if I let him change me. NMJ: ...I’m taking you with me on vacation. NHS: Yay! NMJ: I’m also taking your phone away. NHS: -wait, no- NMJ: Too late.

Jin Ling: JiuJiu, I spilt soda on your Valentino white belt. Jiang Cheng: *incomprehensible sputtering* -soda on my Valentino white belt-!

Sizhui: *brings Jingyi a bowl of food* Here. Jingyi: Thank you! *takes a bite, face falls in terror, gives Sizhui a betrayed look* Sizhui: Dad’s worried I’m getting sick, he said this would clear my chest cold up. He didn’t consider what horrible things it would do to my bowels instead. Please eat it, he gets sad when I don’t finish what he makes. Jingyi: *glaring* Just dump it down the garbage disposal! Sizhui: *def has a fever if he didn’t think of that* Oh. Good idea.

LWJ: *swaying in place* WWX: This bitch drunk as hell. LWJ: I’m. Gonna comit. A crime. WWX: *crying a little* I love drunk hubby times. A full shot of vodka and he’s not gonna remember any of this. Hey kids, I’m taking Papa on a walk! Sizhui’s in charge!

Zizhen: *sitting quietly on the couch while LSZ, LJY and JL all argue behind him somewhere, covering his mouth with a slightly horrified look* Jingyi: I mean, that’s not fair at all! Who HASNT made out with their cousin at one point or another? Ling: ... Sizhui: You said you’d never bring that up again please shut up. Ling: ...!!!!!! Zizhen: Amazing.

That one time the kiddos hypnotized Jin Ling into thinking he was a kitten. The adults all thought it was really weird that he was finally going through the whole ‘pretending to be an animal’ phase at like ten, but then the kiddos fessed up to learning how to hypnotize and they aren’t sure how to fix it. WWX instigated a rule that no brainwashing is allowed outside his office from now on.

People ask how WWX and LWJ met and it’s told from the POV of Lan Qiren who progressively getting drunker as he tells the story of the terrible high school romance that he had to watch between bad boy WWX and his precious baby angel nephew that made him consider quitting and how no one believed them when they insisted they didn’t get together till after WWX got out of jail for the cow incident.

[killerandhealerqueen]

OMG ITS WAS AMAZING !!! Thank you so much !! I'm so happy you found the time to do it! AHH and JGY and NHS working together ?!?! Brilliant!

If you want another prompt lol sorry I have too many ideas :

Canon verse Soulmate au

5 times JC (over)hears LXC admit he doesn't want his soulmate he want JGY (NMJ soulmate ) + 1 time he realises that is not true anymore ! LXC doesn't know who is soulmate is. 3 times of that are post-canon and more or less directly to his face but LXC still doesn't who he is!

Thank you so much in advance

I hope you're safe and healthy!!

ANON HOLY SHIT, I’M SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME FOR-FUCKING-EVER TO WRITE!  PLEASE FORGIVE ME!  BUT LOOK, I DIDN’T FORGET!  I’M SORRY!  HOPE YOU LIKE IT! 

Jiang Cheng never understood soulmate tattoos.  They were all so different, which he supposed was a good thing, but that also made them a bitch when it came to finding your soulmate.  His tattoo was also a strange tattoo because it was a moving tattoo.  Now, he didn’t hate his tattoo because he thought it was beautiful, with swirling silvery-blue detailing that curled around his arm like a dragon, but the only problem with it was that it didn’t have a lot of detail, so it was hard to describe to others when they asked him about it.  Not even Wei Wuxian, who was the expert in figuring out who a person’s soulmate was based on their tattoo, could tell him who his soulmate was, which was great.   ‘Guess I’m on my own in this’ he thought to himself.

~*~*~*~*~

The first time Jiang Cheng hears Lan Xichen talking about his soulmate, he becomes interested because Lan Xichen normally doesn’t talk about his personal life, let alone his soulmate.  As he walked over to Lan Xichen, he noticed that the man was talking to Wei Wuxian and holding out his arm. “Can you tell me who you think my soulmate is, A-Xian?” he asked.  Wei Wuxian hummed and gently took Lan Xichen’s arm in his hands, looking it over.  Jiang Cheng wanted to step closer, to take a peek at what Lan Xichen’s soulmate tattoo looked like, but he restrained himself and instead opted to continue eavesdropping.  He watched from afar as Wei Wuxian looked over Lan Xichen’s arm and from where he was standing, Wei Wuxian was standing in such a way that he was blocking Jiang Cheng’s view of Lan Xichen’s arm so even if Jiang Cheng wanted to see the arm, he couldn’t.   ‘Damn it Wei Wuxian’ Jiang Cheng thought to himself, just as Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Xichen. “Do you have someone in mind of who you want to be your soulmate, Xichen-ge?” he asked.  Lan Xichen hummed. “Maybe someone like Meng Yao?” he replied.  Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng both raised an eyebrow, but Wei Wuxian’s was more surprise while Jiang Cheng’s was confusion. “But doesn’t he already have a soulmate?  Mingjue-ge, right?” Wei Wuxian asked.  Lan Xichen nodded. “He does, but I’ve heard that people can have more than one soulmate” he explained.  Wei Wuxian hummed, nodding slowly, while Jiang Cheng felt his heart clench strangely.  Lan Xichen wasn’t his soulmate, so why was his heart reacting like this?  He then looked down at his arm, which was covered by his sleeve, and slowly rolled up the fabric, revealing his tattoo to be dark and grey, just like his mood. “Huh…that’s new” he murmured before he sighed.  Lan Xichen wasn’t his soulmate, end of story.  He then turned and walked away, Wei Wuxian glancing over to where he had been standing, before he looked back at Lan Xichen. “Are you sure you want Meng Yao as your soulmate, Xichen-ge?  Or are you sure your soulmate even is Meng Yao?” he asked.  Lan Xichen shook his head. “I don’t know who my soulmate is.  You just asked who’d I’d like as my soulmate.  Meng Yao was the first person to pop into my head” he replied.  Wei Wuxian hummed before he looked down at Lan Xichen’s soulmate tattoo, which was a purple flashing lightning bolt that curled around his forearm like a snake. “I see” he murmured before he sighed mentally. ‘I know who your soulmate is…but I don’t think it’s right to tell you just yet’ he thought to himself.  He then looked at Lan Xichen and smiled before he shook his head. “I’m sorry Xichen-ge.  I can’t help you” he apologized.  Lan Xichen smiled and waved his hand. “Oh, that’s alright.  Thank you for trying however” he thanked before he turned and walked away.  Wei Wuxian nodded and watched him walk away before he groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “Jiang Cheng you idiot…” he murmured.

~*~*~*~*~

The next time Jiang Cheng overheard Lan Xichen speaking about his soulmate tattoo, he found Lan Xichen talking to Nie Huaisang, the only person both of them knew who didn’t have a soulmate tattoo (or if he did, he never spoke about it). “Huaisang, how do you know if you’ve found soulmate?” Lan Xichen asked.  Nie Huaisang huffed. “And you think I’m the right person to ask, Er-ge?” he replied, raising an eyebrow.  Lan Xichen shrugged. “You’re the most neutral person that I know, seeing as you don’t have a tattoo” he explained.  Nie Huaisang hummed. “That’s fair.  Um…I think you’ll just know?  I think Da-ge and San-ge knew pretty early on that they were each other’s soulmate.  They also had soulmate tattoos that resembled the other person in some aspect” he explained.  Lan Xichen hummed before he held out his arm for Nie Huaisang to see. “Then who resembles my tattoo?” he asked.  Nie Huaisang hummed and tilted his head as he studied the tattoo before he shook his head. “I’m not sure” he replied, for unlike when Wei Wuxian looked at the tattoo to see the flashing purple lightning bolt, he saw a small purple lotus flower.  Lan Xichen sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose before he nodded. “Thank you, Huaisang” he thanked.  Nie Huaisang smiled sadly. “I wish I could be of more help” he apologized.  Lan Xichen nodded and turned, walking away as Jiang Cheng walked over to Nie Huaisang. “What was that about?” he asked.  Nie Huaisang looked over at him before he looked down at his arm. “Give me your arm” he ordered.  Jiang Yuelou frowned before he held out his arm, Nie Huaisang quickly rolling up his sleeve to look at his tattoo.  Unlike the last time, Jiang Cheng’s tattoo was now a small blue ribbon wrapped around his wrist. “What the fuck” Nie Huaisang whispered.  Jiang Cheng frowned. “What?” he asked.  Nie Huaisang looked at him before he shook his head. “Nothing.  Nothing” he replied.  Jiang Cheng’s frown deepened. “Huaisang” he started, making Nie Huaisang shake his head. “It’s nothing.  If you’ll excuse me, Jiang-xiong, I need to speak to Wei-xiong about something” he stated before he turned and walked away, leaving Jiang Cheng confused as hell.

~*~*~*~*~

The third time Jiang Cheng heard Lan Xichen talking about his soulmate, he was speaking to Lan Wangji. “I don’t know what to do, Wangji.  I can’t figure out who my soulmate is” he grumbled.  Lan Wangji huffed. “You must have an idea, brother” he replied.  Lan Xichen shook his head. “I can’t tell.  My tattoo keeps changing so I can’t tell who they are” he grumbled.  Lan Wangji sighed and held out his hand. “Let me see” he murmured.  Lan Xichen huffed and held out his arm, Lan Wangji gently taking it in his hand as he looked at the tattoo, which was now a lotus shaped jade pendant on the inside of his forearm.  He hummed softly; he had a vague idea of who Lan Xichen’s soulmate was (it wasn’t that hard to figure out) but he wasn’t going to tell Lan Xichen anytime soon because the man needed to figure it out for himself. “I’m sorry, brother.  I’m not sure I know” he lied.  Lan Xichen looked at him, but after living with Wei Wuxian for so many years, he was getting better at lying and since his face was naturally impassive, it was hard to tell if he was lying or telling the truth.  Lan Xichen then sighed and nodded. “I see.  Thank you, Wangji” he murmured, turning and walking away from him, accidentally bumping into Jiang Cheng, causing him to stumble.  Lan Xichen’s eyes widened and he quickly reached out, grasping Jiang Cheng’s arm before he looked into Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “Oh, Wanyin.  Excuse me” he apologize, letting go of Jiang Cheng’s arm as he headed off, leaving Jiang Cheng’s arm tingling from where Lan Xichen touched. “Jiang Wanyin” Lan Wangji called out, making Jiang Cheng look over at him as he motioned for him to come over.  Jiang Cheng frowned and walked over as Lan Wangji reached out and grasped his arm, shoving up his sleeve. “Hey, Lan Wangji, what the hell—” he started. “Hush” Lan Wangji snapped as he continued to look at Jiang Cheng’s tattoo, which matched the tattoo Wei Wuxian had on his arm, which was a white dragon curling around his forearm, its tail flicking back and forth. “I knew it” he murmured.  Jiang Cheng frowned. “Knew what?” he asked.  Lan Wangji looked up at him. “You and brother are soulmates” he declared.  Jiang Cheng looked at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked.  Lan Wangji nodded. “Very” he replied.  Jiang Cheng frowned. “Then why doesn’t your brother know that I’m his soulmate?” he asked.  Lan Wangji hummed. “I think…I think brother has a specific idea of a soulmate in mind and he’s having a hard time letting that idea go” he explained.  Jiang Cheng frowned again. “Has your brother even considered me as a soulmate?” he asked.  Lan Wangji looked at him before he blinked. “I’m not sure” he replied.  Jiang Cheng sighed. “Then I’ll take that as a no” he murmured.  Lan Wangji shook his head. “That’s not what I’m saying, Jiang Cheng and you know it” he argued.  Jiang Cheng smiled sadly. “It’s alright, Lan Wangji” he replied as he slipped his arm out of Lan Wangji’s hands. “Some people just aren’t meant to find their soulmate and I guess I’m one of those people” he murmured before he turned and walked away.  Lan Wangji watched him walk away before he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Idiots…the both of them’ he thought to himself.

~*~*~*~*~

After speaking with Lan Wangji, Jiang Yuelou just stayed in his jingshi while Lan Xichen went out to try and figure out who his soulmate was (even though everyone already knew who it was but wasn’t going to tell him).  This time, he went to Nie Mingjue, Jin Guanyao’s soulmate and sighed heavily. “Mingjue, can you help me?” he whined.  Nie Mingjue hummed. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll try” he replied.  Lan Xichen sighed heavily again. “How did you and Meng Yao know that you two were soulmates?” he asked.  Nie Mingjue raised an eyebrow. “Why the sudden question?” he replied.  Lan Xichen ran a hand through his hair. “I’m trying to figure out who my soulmate is and I can’t, for the life of me, figure it out” he explained.  Nie Mingjue hummed before he sighed and shook his head. “Everyone’s experience is different, Xichen” he reminded.  Lan Xichen nodded. “I know that.  But I’ve asked everyone for help and no one has been able to help me” he grumbled.  Nie Mingjue raised an eyebrow. “Have you asked Meng Yao?  I’m sure he’d be willing to help you” he stated.  Lan Xichen sighed. “He was my last hope” he murmured.  Nie Mingjue nodded. “Then go ask him.  He’s about on Wei Wuxian’s level when it comes to interpretating soulmate tattoos” he explained.  Lan Xichen sighed and nodded before he turned, heading off to find Jin Guanyao, who was thankfully not too hard to find, since he was sitting under a tree reading a book. “Meng Yao” he called out, making Jin Guanyao look up and smiled. “Er-ge.  How can I help you?” he asked as he pushed himself to his feet and walked over to Lan Xichen. “Can you help me figure out who my soulmate is?” he asked.  Jin Guanyao smiled. “Sure.  Where is it?” he replied.  Lan Xichen slowly pushed up his sleeve, only to frown. “Where did it go?” he whispered.  Jin Guanyao raised an eyebrow. “Your tattoo moves?” he asked.  Lan Xichen nodded. “And sometimes changes as well” he replied.  Jin Guanyao hummed, silent for a moment before he looked at Lan Xichen. “Can you open up your robes?  I need to look at your chest” he declared.  Lan Xichen frowned but slowly moved the fabric of his robes and inner robes to reveal his chest.  Jin Guanyao took one look at his chest and smiled. “I know who your soulmate is” he declared.  Lan Xichen blinked. “You do?” he breathed.  Jin Guanyao nodded. “Mmhm.  Jiang Cheng” he declared.  Lan Xichen blinked in surprise. “What?” he asked.  Jin Guanyao reached out and gently touched where Lan Xichen’s heart was, a small smile on his lips. “Your soulmate tattoo is that of a purple lotus surrounded by purple electricity.  Who do we know that wears purple, has a lotus insignia, and has something to do with electricity?” he asked.  Lan Xichen frowned before his eyes widened like someone had just hit him in the back of the head with a frying pan. “Oh my god” he breathed.  Jin Guanyao smiled and nodded. “Mmhm” he replied.  Lan Xichen shook his head. “Oh, I’m such an idiot” he murmured.  Jin Guanyao frowned. “I don’t know if I would go that far, Er-ge—” he started when Lan Xichen shook his head again. “No, no, I am because every time I asked someone about my soulmate, he was always there.  And he…” he started when he groaned. “He probably heard me say that I wanted someone like you to be my soulmate.  Oh my god, what have I done” he murmured.  Jin Guanyao huffed and placed his hands on his hips. “Ya fucked up is what ya did.  Now what you should go do is apologize for being an idiot and hope, hope, that he takes you as his soulmate” he instructed.  Lan Xichen nodded and quickly turned, rushing off to where Jiang Cheng’s jingshi was.  As he ran away, Jin Guanyao shook his head sadly. “The poor thing…so smart but so dumb when it comes to love” he murmured.

~*~*~*~*~

In his jingshi, Jiang Cheng was looking forlornly at his tattoo, which was still the white dragon curled around his forearm, when the door suddenly burst open and Lan Xichen rushed in. “Wanyin!” he exclaimed, making Jiang Cheng look up in surprise. “Zewu-Jun” he breathed, quickly standing to his feet.  Lan Xichen shook his head as he stepped forward. “Wanyin, I’m so sorry, I’ve been so stupid” he apologized.  Jiang Cheng frowned. “What?” he asked.  Lan Xichen shook his head again. “All this time I’ve been searching for my soulmate when he’s been in front of me this whole time!” he explained.  Jiang Cheng blinked, his heart stuttering for a moment. “Zewu-Jun, what—” he started when Lan Xichen slowly pulled back his robes to reveal the purple lotus surrounded by the purple electricity.  Jiang Cheng’s mouth fell open in shock as Lan Xichen smiled sadly. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner” he apologized.  Jiang Cheng continued to stare at the tattoo before he let out a soft sob. “I thought…I thought I wasn’t going to have a soulmate” he whispered.  Lan Xichen shook his head as he shrugged his robes back on and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Jiang Cheng. “You have one.  But only if you’ll have me.  I’m sure I hurt you rather badly…” he murmured.  Jiang Cheng shook his head as he buried his face in Lan Xichen’s shoulder. “I’ll have you.  I’ll have you, Huan” he whispered before he sniffled and pulled away, looking into Lan Xichen’s eyes. “I was just hurt because you kept talking about Jin Guanyao” he explained.  Lan Xichen sighed. “I know and I shouldn’t have done that.  I’m sorry.  I won’t talk about anyone else’s soulmate other than my own!” he declared, a bright smile on his face.  Jiang Cheng blinked at him before he huffed and rolled his eyes. “Sap” he grumbled.  Lan Xichen smirked. “But you love me” he replied.  Jiang Cheng hummed, a small smile on his face as he nestled himself back into Lan Xichen’s embrace. “I do” he replied.  Lan Xichen grinned brightly and gave Jiang Cheng a tight squeeze, never wanting to let go.  Jiang Cheng was his soulmate; his grumpy, purple, electrifying soulmate.  And by god did Lan Xichen love him so much.

[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

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 22 part one

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Not Quite Like Old Times

We ended the previous episode in daylight, with Lan Wangji putting Wei Wuxian and swordpoint and declaring his undying love lecturing him about his lack of sword skills.

We start this episode in full night, with the two of them sitting on a roof together. Presumably they spent the missing scenes getting dinner in the mess hall, doing some laundry, and definitely not making out. Fic writers, do your thing.

Finally, FINALLY, Lan Wangji has chilled out enough to actually sit and listen to Wei Wuxian, instead of yelling at and/or physically attacking him. The Zoloft is really helping!

Wei Wuxian is indulging in romantic recollections of their first rooftop encounter. Lan Wangji, who has loved him since he first laid eyes on him and who wrote a whole song with an entire music video about their love, featuring that very same rooftop encounter, shuts him down so completely he might as well have whipped out Bichen again.

First he corrects his description of events by pointing out they were fighting, not talking, back then. Then when Wei Wuxian continues in his charming, smiley reminiscing vein, Lan Wangji says "things change, how could they stay the same" with a deep, sad, weariness.

He seems like an old man in this moment, and I feel for him, really, I do. But he's not the one who's carrying the actual essence of death around inside him. Wei Wuxian is being much more generous in this interaction than Lan Wangji is.

Wei Wuxian thanks him for not narkng to Jiang Yanli about the whole talisman/forced suicide/ghost hummer/ghost flaying thing he did back in Yiling. Like there is any way Lan Wangji would ever tell Jiang Yanli, of all people, something like that about Wei Wuxian.  He's lying to his own brother to cover for Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian totally doesn't get it.

(more after the cut)

Unfortunately, there's no reason Wei Wuxian SHOULD get it, at this point; Lan Wangji has not communicated anything but disapproval to him since his return, and Wei Wuxian, despite their (apparently temporary) mental linkup in the Turtle cave, is not a mind reader.

Lan Wangji is so hurt here, and Wei Wuxian appears to ignore that, continuing to smile and laugh; he’s still sunny, still happy. Seriously, they are so tonally out of step with each other in this conversation, it's excruciating.

Lan Wangji: I’m feeling good about my tear-holding-back ability Wei Wuxian: do I look more fuckable sitting up? Or leaning back?  

But every one of these smiles is an absolute lie. This is Wei Wuxian appeasing an authority figure; baffling with bullshit and skating by on charm. This is not a young man confiding in his soulmate.

Even when the conversation shifts, and they talk seriously about what is going on with him, Wei Wuxian is barely confiding anything. He briefly acknowledges that he was in the Burial Mounds for three months, and shudders at the memory, but Lan Wangji doesn't respond to that other than to look away from his face.

This is almost the last thing Wei Wuxian will ever say to anyone about that experience.  He only alludes to it again when Jiang Cheng visits the settlement and talks smack about their corpse turnips. Lan Wangji says he wants to know why Wei Wuxian’s cultivation changed, but he really doesn’t; he just wants to convince him to change it back.

Wei Wuxian explains about using Lan clan techniques to protect his temperament, as well as the flute and talismans, to control the resentful energy. This is a good reminder that Wei Wuxian was never a bad student. He was an outstanding cultivator within the Jiang Clan, and he learned a hell of a lot during his time in Gusu, despite getting expelled for fighting.

His original golden core was stronger than Jiang Cheng's, even though he apparently started cultivating later. Yes, he fell asleep during meditation that one time in Episode 43, but that's not because he's bad at meditating, it's because he was tired from getting railed all night by his boyfriend stabbed in the gut by his nephew.

Lan Wangji eventually manages to ask him a question like an interested fellow human being sharing knowledge, instead of like an authoritarian dick calling him to account.  

Side note: I still am flopping around trying to find good-sounding English terms for Chinese philosophical concepts. I kind of like "ghost path" vs "sword path" for the two styles of cultivation - I don't know where I saw that, apologies to the translator. I like "necromancy" for the part where the dead are reanimated and controlled, because we definitely have that in English. But there are many layers of nuance in these conversations that English is not equipped to render in a natural-sounding way.

Lan Wangji tells him, again, that it's dangerous, but this time he does it in a gentler and more poetic way, saying it's like taking grain from a burning fire, and says he's in danger of becoming the novel version of Wei Wuxian a demonic cultivator.  Wei Wuxian, also gently and seriously, says he knows.

Then he immediately goes back to his lightest tone and promises, with his three-fingers gesture, that he will not fall into demonic cultivation. This gesture is basically the Wei Wuxian "I am totally fucking lying" salute.

He is totally fucking lying, and he MUST know it. He's baking the Yin tiger amulet every day during his meditation, getting ready to use it against Wen Ruohan, getting ready to take over his army of the dead.

He has the audacity to ask Lan Wangji, "do you believe me?" and Lan Wangji, also totally fucking lying, nods.  Their relationship is just as broken right now as it was before their courtyard sparring session.

You can tell it's broken, because after they've reached this apparent place of peace, Wei Wuxian just hops down off the roof and LEAVES Lan Wangji sitting by himself. When has Wei Wuxian ever been like "gotta go!" with Lan Wangji? The last time they were here, he spent the night sleeping on the roof tiles just so he could be near him.

As he leaves, Lan Wanji stands up and says "let me help you." Wei Wuxian is not a fan of that idea, at all, if his expression is any guide.

He agrees, though, and leaves smiling, apparently for real, but maybe just practicing for all the fake smiles in his future.

Hooray for War

In the morning, Nie Mingjue makes an angry speech to the 2 dozen cultivators who apparently make up the army. Extras are expensive, y'all.

The senior cultivators are standing to the right or left of him, with the Lan brothers bracketing the Yunmeng sibs. Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng are both staking their claim to Wei Wuxian, while Lan Xichen is standing in the spot closest to Nie Mingjue; Nie Huaisang is on the opposite side with the Jins.

All of the random cultivators yell a war chant in response to Nie Mingjue's speech, while the senior cultivators are like, we don't have to do that yelling stuff, thank goodness.

Nie Mingjue's war outfit includes metal (ish) epaulets on his shoulders and a totally not-kinky belt featuring multiple rings with nothing attached to them (yet) and an angry demon face right above his junk.

Nie Mingjue says we're going to storm into Nightless city and I'm going to chop off Wen Ruohan's head! By which he means, I'm going to get captured and get my ass beat, and then my murder-babie ex-boyfriend who had this belt specially made for me is going to stab Wen Ruohan in the back while he's distracted. They do say no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Side note: Baxia makes a loud metallic "shnk" noise when NMJ takes it off his back during this speech, even though Baxia does not have a scabbard. You do you, Baxia.

All the senior cultivators file out down the center while everyone else parts to let them pass. Then everybody does the Electric Slide.

Jiang Cheng tells Wei Wuxian they should go ahead of the main force to get some killing in early, but Wei Wuxian just pulls a face and looks down, staying with Lan Wangji. 

Jiang Cheng is disappointed, and no doubt takes this as a sign of WWX choosing LWJ over him. But actually, WWX can't fight side-by-side with Jiang Cheng without showing his weakness.

LWJ and WWX exchange one of their unspoken "let's go" eye touches and get ready to ride out together with the main force. 

Lan Wangji is still super, super sad. Wei Wuxian is still fake. But something is starting to knit together between them, and once they can hit a battlefield together, it will get a lot stronger.

On A Horse With No Name

Everyone rides out on horses, which will presumably get eaten somewhere along the way, because they appear to travel on foot after this. While Wei Wuxian practices his horseback-flute-twirling, Lan Wangji asks why Wei Wuxian didn't go with the forward force to fight.

Wei Wuxian says that he has a case of the don'wannas, and Lan Wangji snarkily points out that he used to like fighting. Wei Wuxian reacts, just as he did at the end of their sword fight, with embarrassment, and doesn't answer.

Lan Wangji, sweetie. You are really not helping. 

At this point, despite their ongoing fighting, Wangxian are clearly together again. Lan Wangji isn't riding with his brother; he's RIGHT next to Wei Wuxian, and will stay close to him through the rest of the campaign.

Nie Huaisang hollers "Wei-Xiong" from the top of the battlements and tells him to take care. Wei-Xiong lifts his flute in acknowledgement while Nie Huaisang looks worried. He doesn't tell Nie Mingjue or Lan Wangji to take care, just Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is his particular friend, more than Lan Wangji is, but he may also be concerned because he can tell that Wei Wuxian isn't well.

Nie Huaisang hasn't yet developed the deep cynicism that he calls upon in his quest to avenge his brother, but he has always been a voracious collector of information, and he is keenly observant.

Side note: what the fuck is going on with this sculpture? Kudos to the artist. This has beautiful forms, and is weird and disturbing. The main head is wearing a horned skull on its forehead, small ungulates that I hesitate to call “deer” chilling on its horns, and...snakes? biting its ears? 

Boring Wen Interlude

Wen Ruohan is waving his hands around. Sigh. This is one of the more boring villain performances ever, and it's not the actor’s fault. They could have given him a sidekick to yell at or something, so we could get more than just hand waving. I’ve given up screen capping any of this; there are more interesting things to look at. 

Battle Moves

Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng and their forces have an extended fight scene with a bunch of puppet dudes and stuntmen in harnesses. 

It's pretty fun to watch. (Fanvid with more over here)

The gist of the fighting scenes is that Wen Ruohan is getting stronger, and Klingons are hard to beat.

Battle Planning

Finally we see a sidekick with Wen Ruohan, although he's blurry so it's hard to tell that he is totally Meng Yao.

The Sunshotters have set up a Battle Camp Playset. It's got chunks of gates and walls that don't connect to anything, like a Duplo set. It's just randomly open for most of the back area so that anyone can walk in. 

They've got a cage of hilarious definitely-not-zombies set up, and the rest of the wounded cultivators are lying on the ground. 

The main battle trio go chill in Nie Mingjue's incredibly fancy tent. They talk it over and say it's impossible to kill unkillable enemies, "even when we have millions of troops." And by “millions” they mean “dozens.”  

Nie Mingjue decides the way to handle it is to kill the leader and everyone else will collapse, because he has watched vampire movies and the last season of Game of Thrones and that's how it works. Watching the last season of Game of Thrones is why he is so angry all the time  He says he's going to sneak into Nightless City and assassinate Wen Ruohan.

Okay, first of all, Nie Mingjue can sneak? I don't believe it.  Second of all, if that was possible, why didn't he do it as soon as Wen Ruohan attacked his clan?

Nie Mingjue wants to take the biggest risk because he's the commander in chief, which is not how commanding is supposed to work, but okay.

He says if he dies, Zewu Jun will take over. Jiang Cheng starts to protest but Zewu Jun appears as if conjured, and shows them a map that will...dear GOD his hands are beautiful.

It's a helpful map, painted in multiple colors with careful writing on it, so if anyone were to show it to Nie Huaisang he would probably go "oh cool Meng Yao painted that" because anyone who could paint that well probably spent a fair amount of time at it on a regular basis. But, Nie Huaisang isn't here so, nope.

It’s always nice to see Jiang Cheng smile.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Waniji examine some of the puppets to see what's up. It's transmitted by touch, and Lan Wangji says that curing one dude takes three months of spiritual power. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Writing Prompt: Missing scene! How did they get from the fight in the courtyard to the talk on the roof? 

Soundtrack: 1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, by Pink Floyd 2. Electric Boogie, by Marcia Griffiths

[veliseraptor]

thinking abt JGY, esp. in the beginning & I wonder if he recognized in himself his incredible capacity for evil? & hated it - the episode where he kills the captain & NMJ catches him, JGY's face as he sits & waits for the killing stroke is weirdly hopeful, almost peaceful, of course it could be his confidence that NMJ won't follow through but I love the idea of "stop me before I become the monster because I know what I'm willing to do to survive" but then NMJ doesn't kill JGY so NMJ Has To Die

Oh boy, is it gonna be Jiggy Feelings Hour? I think it is! I mean, mostly this is going to be ‘trying to assemble my Jiggy thoughts into a coherent form, possibly, after just mostly screaming back and forth with @orodrethsgeek​ and @paradife-loft​ in DMs’ but we’ll see how it goes.

And fine, since this is a serious-ish meta-ish post I will allow him some dignity and call him by his actual name. (I want it to be clear that this is not a situation where I do this because I do not like him. I love him very much.)

I wouldn’t call it ‘capacity for evil’ (I tend to avoid using ‘evil’ w/r/t describing people in general; just a preference, mostly). I think there’s a few things going on with Jin Meng Guangyao (I mean, there’s a lot of things, but let’s start with a few of them).

One: A whole lot of anger and frustration, very thoroughly bottled up because he has internalized a kind of learned submissiveness as a coping mechanism related to his status, which he hates but also feels very stuck in. So he bottles up his resentment under a smile because there’s no point in lashing out, lashing out won’t get him anywhere but in trouble (he’s not strong in cultivation, he’s lower status, his position is always precarious, his last attempt to assert himself pre-canon ended in getting kicked down a whole lot of stairs).

But it turns out that when you’re very angry, that anger doesn’t just go away when you suppress it. It just kind of…stays there. And builds, and feeds on itself, and gets bigger, which means more to suppress, but there’s still no real way to express it that’s going to work out.

Two: An excruciating awareness of his double-bind with respect to perception. He talks about this a lot, especially during the times he confronts Nie Mingjue - about how his options are limited because of his status and origins. No matter what he does, on some level he’s always going to be an outsider. There’s this sense that he just can’t win - that regardless of how he plays the game it’s going to be the wrong way. But he can’t, or won’t, opt out. 

Or, because @paradife-loft put this better in their fic so I’m gonna go ahead and quote it:

All the hard work in the world, all the pleasant faces and pleasant words you’ve trapped yourself behind cannot make them respect you. They can’t even make you respect you; more like the opposite, because his words still ring in your ears, that appeasement is dishonesty, that dishonesty is the mark of a man with no strength of character who deserves nothing.

His berserk button - the ‘son of a prostitute’ - is always about that reminder that regardless of where he’s standing, how well he’s behaving, the role he’s playing, ultimately that’s what people are going to remember.

Three: A jacked up sense of how agency works: either he has all of it or he has none of it. Which means that either he is in control of everyone, all the time - the manipulative puppet master - or he has no power and is vulnerable to attack from anyone who wants to come at him. So in order to be safe he has to be able to, and ready to, cut down anyone who tries to undercut him. Basically:

This is not, obviously, actually how it works, but it means that in a quest to try to have agency/control over his own life, he ends up stepping on everyone else’s in the process.

But to actually get back to the point of your question, after what has probably felt like a bit of a digression - I don’t think it’s so much that he wants to die - I think JGY is a survivor. But I do think there’s a part of JGY that…tests people, and I think there’s a level of expecting violence and betrayal and retaliation. Later on, when he’s in a position to react first, that’s what he does - but in that moment I think there’s an amount of satisfaction because there, see, this is the truth of the relationship that seemed like a good one, this is what it ultimately comes down to.

All Nie Mingjue’s support, and it breaks down so fast. (Yes, yes, ‘murder’ and ‘grievous bodily harm’ but really it was for a good cause. Even if probably also a little satisfying on a personal level.)

There’s a lot of what JGY does that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and a tangle of self-justification that is very circular. I don’t think that JGY thinks he’s ‘right’ in terms of his actions being just, or good - I think JGY perceives the world as not being just or good ever and he’s less of a hypocrite about it as far as ‘doing what’s necessary to climb the ladder and have some kind of security.’ Sure, maybe he’s not playing fair, but who is?

There’s so much about the cultivation world in The Untamed that’s tied up in themes of hypocrisy and reputation and perception, and those are all things that JGY is excruciatingly conscious of. He very much lives at the nexus of those things. He knows what he’s doing, and he knows that it’s ‘wrong’ in a sense - that just doesn’t matter, because like everyone else (he believes), he’s just doing what he needs to do to survive.

[trensu]

Episode 49: The One with Too Much JGY and Not Enough Wangxian

Very little wangxiantics in this episode, guys, there’s like, VERY LITTLE wangxiantics

The fact that the show is bringing us down to breadcrumbs again is Homophobic 

But let’s get through this!

blah blah blah jgy acts all pathetic blah blah blah lxc engages jgy in a convo blah blah

lwj has to go in and be like, bro, please, don't talk to him

and wwx is like, yeah, you literally just told jc not to talk to him, follow your own advice dude 

lxc is like, hm, you make a good point...i shall continue talking to jgy regardless

jgy continues with his pity party speech and i continue not to care

BUT THEN LXC KNEELS DOWN TO SPEAK WITH JGY MORE INTIMATELY????

WTF LXC STOP THAT RIGHT NOW

lwj is like BRO

lxc is like I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING BRO

and i'm like DO YOU THO?

now he's going to question jgy and counting on him answering truthfully??

WHAT HAS HE DONE TO MAKE YOU THINK HE'LL DO ANYTHING BUT LIE, ZEWU JUN??

so we get a much less entertaining Q&A session accompanied by jgy's flashbacks 

(can we go back to lwj's drunken Q&A sesh? I’d much rather question drunk!lwj than sober!jgy)

the only point i had any actual sympathy was when jgy brings up qin su and her mom bc qin su and her mother deserved better

Ooh, lxc is getting super judgy about jgy killing jgs

This is where you draw the line, lxc?? c’mon.

i mean, judge him for how he did it, sure

there was no need to involve all those innocent women in the murder

but really, killing jgs was the only good act of public service jgy did

give credit where it's due, pal.

HELL YEAH IT'S BITCH-SLAP JGY TIME AGAIN

LOL EVEN WWX AND LWJ LOOK SURPRISED THAT LXC DID THAT

oh noooo lxc is asking about jzx and oh, wwx is PISSED

Wwx grabs the front of jgy's robes and hauls him up and yells in his face “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? SAY IT!”

cue flashback scene to jgy tricking jzx 

AND NOW MY BRATTY SON IS YANKING THE FRONT OF JGY'S ROBES SCREAMING WHY? WHY? TELL ME WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO IT??

HIS VOICE IS ALL CRACKED AND HOARSE AND HE'S CRYING 

I WANT TO WRAP HIM UP IN BLANKETS AND COZY THINGS AND PROTECT HIM FROM ALL THE BAD THINGS IN THE WORLD

jl collapses to his knees and my beautiful sunshine boy falls to his side and scoops him into his arms 

BC WWX LOVES HIS BRATTY NEPHEW AND GOD DAMN IT, JL DESERVES HUGS AND AFFECTION

oh jgy was about to touch jl's face and i was like DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE I WILL CUT THAT HAND OFF YOU

but then he pulled away bc i am very fearsome actually wwx was glaring at him 

and ofc jgy can't have people being sympathetic to anyone NOT him so he's like, what about me, huh? you never ask why I personally had to suffer!

Cue another flashback in which JGS IS A FUCKING DOUCHEBAG 

I HOPE HE ROTS IN ANCIENT FANTASY CHINA HELL

HALF OF THE PROBLEMS WERE A RESULT OF HIM NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP IT IN HIS FUCKING PANTS

ROBES

WHATEVER

ugh i hate jgy too

he's essentially telling jin ling that oh, i killed your father bc your grandfather was scum of the earth

AS IF JZX AND JL DESERVED TO SUFFER FOR JGS'S SINS

FUCK YOU JGY

suddenly jgy takes my bratty son hostage!!

wwx shouts "JIN LING" as he jerks towards his only nephew

BUT IT'S TOO LATE, jgy already has that garrote AROUND JL'S NECK

WIPE THAT SMUG SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE SU SHE

I WILL END YOU

god i need to stop threatening people, i have no ability to back it up

lol jc is like WWX YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ALL HIS WEAPONS AWAY!!

and wwx is like I DID! 

siblings always find time to bicker, even in dire situations

lwj tells them that jgy hid the garrote inside his body 

bc lwj is smart and observant

but ewwww, the idea of yanking that gold string out of a vein squicks the hell out of me

yuckyuckyuck it makes my skin crawl

jgy tightens the string around my bratty son's neck and everyone freaks out, obvs 

oh jc loves his nephew so much! he's all like, if you need a hostage take me instead and leave jin ling alone!!

JC IS A GREAT UNCLE, JC LOVES HIS FAMILY SO MUCH, JC DESERVES TO RECONCILE WITH HIS BROTHER AND HAVE A LOVING HAPPY FAMILY

jgy is like, nah bc of Reasons

then my sunshine boy is like, hey aren't you forgetting smth jgy? what about your loyal lackey here?

but ss is an idiot and is like, don't worry about me boss!

and jgy is all, cool thx lackey

now lxc and jgy do some more chitchat i don't care about

suddenly there is ominous knocking on the doors AND A WILD LAN SIZHUI APPEARS!!!

He got chucked into the temple like the football lol

NOW WEN NING IS HERE! HE’S COVERED WITH RESENTFUL ENERGY, CARRYING BAXIA LIKE A BADASS

Dude, for real, wn looks so cool here

letting the tip of the saber scrape ominously against the stone ground and walking with slow measured steps

and baxia is freaking glowing

nhs calls him "brother" but i'm pretty sure he knows it's not nmj and just said it to freak jgy out

wwx ofc recognizes wen ning

AHHHHHH WWX IS DOING HIS EERIE WHISTLE AGAIN, I LOVE IT WHEN HE DOES THAT

SO COOL, WWX, SO COOL!!

his brow is all furrowed when he sees wn is not reacting and he starts to whistle more earnestly

wwx: what's happening? why is wn not listening to me? could it be...?

cut to lwj, looking all serious bc hey, this is actually a serious situation 

lwj: he is possessed by the blade spirit

wn roars and vaults over the distance between him and jgy with baxia raised high and it looks freaking AWESOME

lol we get a quick shot here of nhs panicking and ducking behind su she

jgy lets go of the gold string around jl's neck to flee from wn which gives wwx an opening

Wwx dives forward and wraps himself around jin ling

Then he twirls them to the side away from incoming baxia and crashes them both to the ground where they're safe

as this is happening, lwj sees his opening and draws bichen

we get a quick moment where wwx and jc are both fussing over jl, it’s super sweet!

AND THEN WE GET A SHOT OF JGY'S DISEMBODIED ARM 

THE CAMERA STARTS TO TILT UPWARDS 

WE SEE THE HEM OF LWJ'S PRISTINE WHITE ROBES FRAMED BY BICHEN 

BICHEN HAS RIVULETS OF BLOOD STREAMING DOWN THE BLADE

THE CAMERA CONTINUES TO TILT UPWARD UNTIL WE SEE LWJ STANDING TALL, FACE GRIM AND SERIOUS AND JUST OVERALL HOLDING HIMSELF IN AN IMPOSING BADASS WAY

wwx is looking at him like HOLY SHIT LWJ

Which is a totally reasonable reaction bc holy shit lwj

HA, now jgy only has one arm

I may not be able to follow up on my threats but it is gratifying to see lwj follow through for me lololol

gross, ss is all begging for medicine to help jgy

stfu ss, nobody likes either of you two

wn's blow struck the ground and cracked it before so now he's back up doing his steady creepy walk to finish what he was going to do

lwj's brow furrows and he sits himself down, cross-legged and summons his guqin

lol i love how he summons his instrument tbh

he just wooshes his flowy sleeves and his guqin glitters into existence

it looks very Magical Girl and i appreciate that

someone needs to draw lwj in a Magical Girl outfit IMMEDIATELY

lxc gets his flute out and our lan bros do a duet to chill out the angry sword spirit

LOL WEN NING JUST STEPS ON JGY'S CHOPPED OFF ARM

DO IT AGAIN WN 😆😆😆

let me just say, i'm really enjoying watching jgy and ss cower away from the oncoming wen ning

but oh noo! jl calls out for his evil uncle and draws wn's attention and wn tries to attack him

i guess baxia senses jgy's blood on jl's robes or smth? Idk, doesn’t matter

wwx tries to do some sort of spell to stop wn but it doesn't work and in a fit of panic he yells out “WEN QIONGLIN!”

thankfully this snaps wn out of it enough that he stops baxia like, one inch from my bratty son's face

the lan bros are still doing their Magic Music thing and wn is trying to reign in baxia but baxia's pissed off so everyone’s struggling 

wwx starts his whistling again and it's rattling Plot Device 3

lxc tries to stop wwx but lwj shakes his head at his brother like no, back off

wwx turns to look at lwj, lwj meets his eyes and gives him a single solemn nod

AND WWX SMILES AT HIM BC HIS SOULMATE BELIEVES IN HIS ABILITIES AND TRUSTS HIM!!!

this is the first legit proper wangxiantic moment in the whole episode, what the heck

GIVE ME MORE WANGXIAN AND LESS JGY, PLZ & THX

jc: wei wuxian!!

wwx turns to see his brother and jc FLINGS THE DEMON FLUTE AT WWX bc apparently he's been carrying chenqing around THIS WHOLE TIME??

wwx nods to him (and omg jc is helping him, this is good, this is a step in the right direction!!) and brings chenqing to his lips

we get a shot of lwj staring at wwx as wwx starts to play 

and the background music starts to get SUPER INTENSE and EXCITING as wwx plays

CHENQING STARTS TO OOZE THAT SMOKY RESENTFUL MAGIC STUFF

we get a shot of JC watching wwx play and this is the softest we've seen him look at his brother since he came back from the dead

he's looking at him like it's finally hitting him that wwx is back, his big brother is alive and here and protecting him and jin ling bc that's what family is supposed to do

AND IF I CAN’T HAVE WANGXIANTICS, I WILL ACCEPT YUNMENG BROS TIME AS RECOMPENSE

oooh, Plot Device 3 starts to zoom around and we get a fun bit of camera work so it seems like we're seeing everything from Plot Device 3's perspective

which is kind of adorable for some reason???

it's just zipping along and it sees wwx and wwx guides its attention to where wn is struggling to control baxia

wwx starts to walk, getting both baxia and Plot Device 3 to follow him further into the temple

lwj sees this happening and whooshes away his guqin and follows bc he's always going to follow wwx obvs

WWX IS SO AWESOME, I LOVE WATCHING HIM WORK

EVERYBODY IS STARING AT HIM IN AWE AS THEY SHOULD BE BC MY SUNSHINE BOY IS SKILLED AS HECK

he manages to get baxia into the coffin with nmj before he starts coughing up blood 

But before we can freak out about that, nhs scream in the background 

so everyone runs to check out what's happening there

nhs is all SS WHY'D YOU TRY TO KILL ME OMG MY LEG IS ALL CUT UP NOW, EVERYTHING IS AWFUL, HELP HELP

and ss is like BUT I DIDN'T, HE'S LYING!!!

lol baxia just leaps out of the coffin buries itself in ss's chest

AND THAT’S IT FOR SU SHE

good fucking riddance

But also baxia is nmj's saber

DID IT HEAR NHS AND BE LIKE, NO I CAN'T LET MY MASTER'S BELOVED LITTLE BROTHER GET HURT BY THIS USELESS NOBODY???

BAXIAAAAAA

WHAT A GOOD SABER YOU ARE *CRIES*

wwx starts up his demon flute again even tho baxia seems much more chill now that it has finally killed someone 

But let's watch wwx be a badass on the flute anyway

look at my sunshine boy go! 

look at him corral all that resentful energy!

love my sunshine boy

baxia is finally subdued and wwx lays it and Plot Device 3 in the coffin with nmj

he covers the coffin using some of his wicked awesome red magic stuff

but it's taking a lot out of him i guess bc he stumbles back and lwj is right there to catch him 

bc they're soulmates and they love each other 

aND GOD THE WAY THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER HERE

JUST, UGH

EVERY TIME THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER MY HEART GETS PALPITATIONS

And this is the only other wangxiantic moment in this episode, wtf show

cut to the next scene, everyone's patching up wounds and whatever

lol we can hear nhs whining like a baby bc omg it hurts it hurts, lxc be more gentle

and lxc is like, chill bro it's just a stab wound

nhs is like JUST a stab wound?? r u kidding me, i'm DYING!!

Which is exactly how i would react to a stab wound lol

now lxc is with jgy and he's like jgy if you do ONE more bad thing, i will definitely finally punish you mercilessly

then he starts checking out his armless shoulder bc lxc really is too good and not all that bright apparently

lol when wwx sees lxc tending to jgy's wounds and his face is like ugh i can't believe this guy

AND THIS IS WHEN WE GET THAT AMAZING AWESOME SHOT OF NHS'S FACE GOING ALL SERIOUS AND, LIKE, VENOMOUS

WE ONLY SEE PART OF HIS FACE, THE OTHER PART COVERED BY LXC'S OUT OF FOCUS FACE

AND NHS GLOWERS AT JGY

oh, my poor sunshine boy is wincing and holding a cloth to his STILL SLUGGISHLY BLEEDING NECK WOUND

SOMEBODY GIVE MY SUNSHINE BOY MEDICINE 

TAKE WHATEVER LXC GAVE TO JGY AND GIVE IT TO MY SUNSHINE BOY STAT

lsz is watching him very intently bc he's figuring out some things about himself and wwx that LWJ DIDN'T HAVE THE GOOD GRACE TO EXPLAIN TO EITHER OF THEM YET

lwj ofc has got his eyes glued on wwx bc, i mean, what else is there worth looking at in the Temple of Doom?

And i guess this counts as a wangxiantic too bc lsz is basically wangxian’s love child anyway!

lxc has the gall to ask nhs to hand him the medicine bottle to tend to FUCKING JGY'S (AKA HIS BIG BROTHER’S MURDERER) WOUNDS

GOD JUST LET JGY BLEED OUT AND DIE ALREADY

nhs is like sure! grabs the medicine bottle and hides it in his robes 

he makes a whole show out of rooting around in his robes to ‘find’ it and lxc goes to him to grab it or whatever so his back is turned to jgy

AND NHS, THAT CLEVER CLEVER BOY, USES THIS CHANCE

he makes a show of looking over lxc's shoulder and shouts LXC LOOK OUT!!

lxc grabs his sword and whirls around and stabs it right into jgy

and nhs is all stuttery and nervously saying how omg he saw jgy reach behind him and he thought he was gonna do something awful so he panicked

Then jgy finally sees nhs AND THAT'S WHERE THE EPISODE ENDS

So another episode with way too much plot stuff, yuck

I mean, we only got 3 actual wangxian moments?? 

What is that about, huh? THAT’S NOT EVERY GAY RIGHTS OF YOU, SHOW!

The next episode is THE LAST and we’re definitely getting wangxiantics there and i will definitely cry about it

Return to Masterpost

[antiquecompass]

*knocks on the door really loudly* I’ve questions! In the LAHL verse do the Lan’s (specifically LXC & LWJ) know that the Yu’s are kinda a clan of assassins? Did they know before they got with JC & WWX? And if they didn’t how did that conversation go? JC & WWX: hey, sweetheart. U know that joke I made about my cousins probably being assassins? Yeah, I just wanted to see how u would react to the situation :p it’s kinda not a joke :’v

So sorry it took me so long to answer, but ugh, this week is always an exhausting one every single year.

So everyone knows the rumors about some members of the Yus, but very few know that truth is stranger than fiction. It’s kind of like how in Gross Pointe Blank where Martin tells everyone exactly what he does for a living and no one believes him: because it seems really unbelievable. So it’s largely played off as a joke bc the Yus are, just, the definition of intimidating.

LWJ never gets the confirmation the truth bc a) for reasons WWX isn’t in on all the Yu secrets and b) he never really has a need to know--he doesn’t ever get involved in the type of things which bring that part of the extended family to his proverbial doorstep. Xichen does know because between NMJ and Meng Yao, no secret is safe or hidden, and obviously JC gives him a ‘full disclosure’ talk whenever the threat level around JC is unusually high so LXC knows to be a bit more careful and aware of his surroundings.