#yunmeng duo

[aphel1on]

yunmeng sibs go brr (mdzs/untamed tpmeme pt 10)

[frankencanon]

Absolutely obsessed with the idea of Jiang Cheng, in the wake of the Jiang Sect's massacre, just massively overdoing it with the defensive measures in Lotus Pier —

It was bad enough when they were first rebuilding, but in the nearly two decades that followed every single time Jiang Cheng had a nightmare about his family dying and/or Lotus Pier burning down, he would immediately get up and start working on the defensive arrays, or the evacuation plans, or so on...

People think of the Impure Realm as an impenetrable fortress, but after Lotus Pier burnt down and was rebuilt? No other sect could stand a chance against Jiang Cheng's obsessive paranoia.

Lotus Pier has everything from defensive arrays, to evacuation plans and saferooms, to secret codes and signals known only to the disciples, to hidden underground and underwater tunnels, to booby traps, barriers, poison gas, etc etc etc...

Never again will Lotus Pier be sieged…not if Jiang Cheng has anything to say about it.

-

Edit: I give full blanket permission for anyone to write fanfic of this, btw. <3

[thelibranarchives]

JC: I'm a peaceful person.

WWX: You threw a chair at me earlier.

JC: Which is a peaceful compromise from the table I initially wanted to throw.

[pleasegivejinlingabreak]

Congrats A-cheng! 😿

[florscn]

Jiang Cheng being annoyed by his brother ! A simple animation for now because I haven’t animated in years and needed to get used to the app again lolzz 

Bonus:

[spriteofmushrooms]

not a lot, just forever by anti_ela

Rating: Teen

Category: Gen

Archive Warning: Major Character Death

Words: 1,700

Relationships: Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen (possibly unrequited)

Summary:

"It's my job," Jiang Cheng says, and it feels like he's floating several feet outside of his body. If the other sect leaders and their lackeys hear, he doesn't notice. "When he goes out into the darkness, it's my job to bring him home."

Lan Xichen turns to him and opens his beautiful mouth. He must say something; his lips are moving. But Jiang Cheng can already feel the grave opening before him, and he knows, now, that Wei Wuxian was right after all: he would never learn how to love anyone but his family. That there is no safe or responsible option but this, because to do anything less would be to destroy his own soul.

Or: Jiang Cheng does what he wants to do, and not what he should.

[the-forever-obsessed]

#but jiang cheng is filled with jealousy and resentment. okay. sure jan 🙄#i get so annoyed when people say jc has a jealousy problem. uhh citation needed??? where???#he is insecure but he's not jealous! there is a difference!!!#if he's ever jealous of anyone he's jealous of wen ning when wei wuxian fucks off to the burial mounds. but he's not jealous#of wei wuxian for being talented and getting attention#wei wuxian IS talented! jiang cheng thinks so too! and how does he react to that? SEE ABOVE#with pride. with trust. with tenderness!!!

[frankencanon]

jiang cheng sees dead people au

after everything, jiang cheng finds himself experiencing frequent minor qi deviations — not that anyone realizes, since most of the time zidian will discharge the excess volatile qi to stop the qi deviation in its tracks before it can get too severe.¹

unfortunately, so many minor qi deviations have had a negative effect on his mental health — specifically, the worst problem would arguably be the hallucinations of his dead family.

it was something that started small but slowly got worse — at first, just whispers of speech that sounded eerily like his parents... eventually, full-on vivid hallucinations of his entire family — his parents, his sister, even his brother...

astonishingly, there actually is a possibility for a cure — it wouldn't be easy, and it wouldn't be quick, but there exists a solid chance...

alas! jiang cheng refuses to even consider it. he knows he should, but he simply cannot bring himself to — not when this is the closest thing to his family that he has left.

and sure, he has jin ling! but jin ling is naught but a baby at this point — he treasures him, of course, its his only sister's son afterall! but as much as it sickens him to admit, he would forfeit that little baby's life in an instant if it would get him his family back... even just one of them.

but time goes by, and jiang cheng grows to love jin ling as a son — as unwilling to give him up as he would be with jiang yanli herself.

but the thing about raising a baby, is that you don't really filter yourself around them. afterall, why would you? it's not like they're going to remember any of this anyway, not when they're still this small.

but. but. the act of not filtering yourself around a specific person... it can be habit forming. you can forget yourself. when alone with them, you can completely forget that you would normally censor these things around other people. afterall! you've never stopped yourself from doing it around them ever before!

this is all to say this: jin ling grows up with an uncle (father) who talks to people who aren't there.

over the years, there's a lot of confusion over it — times when jin ling thought, maybe, that he was talking to their ghosts... until he gets a little older, and actually learns about ghosts and how they work, and realizes that it can't be that...

he never asks his uncle about it, because ever since he was small any time that he would try to mention it or bring it up, his uncle would get angry and defensive; he would lie and insist that jin ling had heard wrong, that he hadn't been talking to anyone, that he had no idea what he was talking about...

eventually jin ling learned to stop asking... but he never stopped wondering. afterall, how could he? when jiang cheng would address those not-ghosts as a-die, a-niang, a-jie, and — most damning of all — wei wuxian.

he got older. his uncle stopped denying it, but would still avoid any questions about what they were...

(jiang cheng didn't want to admit to his nephew that his dear uncle was crazy and saw dead people... didn't want to worry him...)

but as time passed he slowly eased up enough that jin ling could mention it sometimes, offhand and casual-like... say things like, "is grandmother bothering you again?" or "you should listen to mom more!"

(jin ling may not know their personalities first hand, but he can infer things based off of what his uncle would say and how he'd re/act, the faces he'd make...)

time passed by, and he got older. eventually, jin ling learned what was wrong with his uncle. he learned about hallucinations and what they were, how they worked... he understood that the people his uncle saw and spoke to weren't real, they weren't there...

but he didn't do anything. afterall, uncle had always been like this and he seemed fine. some of the hallucinations bothered him, sure (*cough* madame yu *cough*) but others... jin ling can't even imagine trying to take jiang yanli, his mother, away from jiang cheng...

he knew about what caused the hallucinations, too — afterall, how could he not? jiang cheng raised him and would frequently endeavor to spend as much time with him as possible. it's only inevitable that eventually, one day, he would witness his uncle having a qi deviation.

it would either have to be during a time when he wasn't wearing zidian so the spiritual weapon could not ease his qi — perhaps while sleeping or bathing? — or the qi deviation would have to be severe enough that it overpowered zidian's attempts to mitigate it.

during this time, jin ling would finally find out about his uncle's frequent minor qi deviations. maybe it was while he was trying to sleep or bathe, and so when jin ling sees/shows up/happens upon him, jiang cheng has to ask his nephew — through gritted teeth slick with blood — to bring him zidian, quickly.

jin ling would watch as jiang cheng slid zidian on and it immediately started sparking harsher than he'd ever seen it do before. and he would be concerned, of course, that the sparks would hurt his uncle — and so to stop him from ripping it back off, jiang cheng would then have to go through the mortifying ordeal of admitting to your nephew that you secretly suffer from frequent minor qi deviations.

and of course, after that, jin ling would never be able to forget. and so any time he saw zidian going haywire with wild sparks, he would assume (correctly) that his uncle's qi was veering into the danger zone, and so out of fear for his uncle's safety and sanity he would do his absolute best to help his uncle calm down before he hurt himself.

of course, this gets interpreted incorrectly by outsiders — they see sect leader jiang getting pissed off, zidian throwing off sparks, and they see little jin ling frantically trying to calm his uncle down, fear clear in his eyes... it doesn't paint a good picture, suffice to say.

for years and years and years, no one outside of jin ling is aware of jiang cheng's struggles with hallucinations and qi deviations — right up until one day, wei wuxian is raised from the dead.

and, well... it's one thing to try to hide something from strangers — but siblings? they're a lot harder to fool.

(that's not entirely true — jin ling may know the most, and he may be the only one that jiang cheng is even semi-open about it with — but he's far from the only one to ever suspect anything, to notice anything. the closer a disciple is to jiang cheng, the higher up they are, and/or the more they interact with him, the more likely they are to know something is up — to notice the little things jiang cheng does that he thinks no one notices... but they do — they do notice. they just... choose not to say anything. to trust in their sect leader, who has yet to ever lead them astray.

...but they're not the only ones to notice something's up, and unfortunately the next person is a lot less nice... afterall, what with jin ling and all it is only inevitable that jiang cheng will end up spending a fair amount of time with jin guangyao... and, well... let's just say that the scene in the temple goes a lot differently in this au — what with all of the additional secrets jin guangyao has undoubtedly been gathering on jiang cheng...

maybe this is when wei wuxian and et all finally find out. maybe wei wuxian's been suspecting for some time that something's up with jiang cheng but he couldn't put his finger on quite what...

until jin guangyao unflinchingly announces it in front of everyone in the temple, without hesitation. he's been waiting to use this information, this blackmail, for a while now... and finally, the opportunity has arisen.)

---

¹idea for jiang cheng's qi deviations and zidian's effect on them from anonkun's "hating the hand life has dealt us" on ao3 (strongly recommend)

(it's a sort-of crossover fic with svsss about the og shen jiu being reincarnated as jiang cheng except when jiang cheng regains his memories of being shen jiu he flat out rejects them to the point of accidentally developing a sort of dissociative identity disorder where he sees himself and shen jiu as two separate people just inhabiting the same body)

[pleasegivejinlingabreak]

[the-forever-obsessed]

#I love this because it’s peak exasperated sibling behavior#and it’s JC not wanting his sect brother to make the sect look bad#but it’s also JC looking out for WWX as he has done their entire shared childhood and will continue to do for the rest of his life#the untamed#yunmeng bros

[nadiasna7]

Once the childhood will be over After all it cannot stay Children turning into grown-ups, Each will soon fly their own way But today we are still little Growing taller bit by bit Just the heavens, just the air, Just the happiness is there Eng translation of this song

So I started writing a fic about these two throughout the years, and then I drew this. This isn't exactly a companion piece bc they're a bit older here than in the pre-canon chapter of the fic, but it still counts because the vibes are the same.

Here's the fic, btw.

[dolores-slay]

Wei Wuxian: I haven't lost my virginity because I never lose (joking, evasive)

Jiang Cheng: I haven't lost my virginity because I never lose (completely serious)

[the-forever-obsessed]

#mmm yep there is no angst quite so delectable as that of brothers sacrificing themselves for each other and MDZS has it in gallons#jc and wwx love each other so much and yet they can't find a way to reconcile because of circumstances#and it hurts so much but we hold out that tiny sliver of hope that one day they'll understand one another and recognize exactly how#important they are to each other via avaantares

#jc will always protect his shixiong as long as it doesnt put anyone else under his protection at risk#which is a good trait to have in a leader#especially in the world it is presented in#so he doesnt needlessly sacrifice his own disciples to save one#and in modern!aus are the stakes rarely that high#even if one moves everything to a corporate world#also: the reverse is true#wwx would not abbandon jc or be needlessly cruel to him without a good reason#that he sees the wens as a good reason and the ymj sect not is something i have personal grievances with#but it is a choice that fits into his character#especially since he sees himself unable to fulfil what jc/being jc's right hand by society man requires of him#which is understable since he has lost his core#it is even more traumatic because he gave it to jc#and basically that means he has given him everything and jc unknowingly demands more of him#(because you know first disciple/right hand man)#and jc lost the core only for wwx in the first place#and damn they should be locked in a room together to learn to communicate#anyway back to the topic:#having in a modern!au either wwx or jc not coming to the other one's aid at once is bonkers#will jc grumble about it? YES#will wwx joke about it? YES#will they be there for the other one? YES! via owls-untamed-blog

#this this this#it is EXTREMELY CONTEXT SPECIFIC#jiang cheng is not doing this for fun#the cultural ties for him are made of steel!!!!#not only the fact that he IS the very last barrier of safety for the tattered remains of the jiang clan#but ALSO a very reasonable and immovable blood feud with the wen clan!!!!#he CANT help them the way wwx does and still be the son he was raised to be!!!!#also ye once again i am saying: wwx spent a significant amount of time lying to jc#and it still only got him to leave him after multiple ppl DIED#JIANG CHENG LOVES HIS IDIOT BROTHER#HE JUST ALSO HAS RESPONSIBILITIES!!!!!!!! via tiramisusam

#this is the beauty and pain of their duo#jc isnt a malice or cruel person that one side of the fandom makes him out to be. he has commitments a sense of honor for his deceased#family and sect he cant be following after wwx or trying to help him outright when that could go against protecting HIS people and#protecting the legacy of his family and that of lp#the last thing jc wanted to do was let wwx go but he isnt going to keep him if wwx says he explicitly wants to leave#jc wants to know hes needed and wanted and thats why originally he wants to help wwx so desperately because wwx has always been apart of#his life has always been there. hes just as important as family. they were meant to be the yunmeng prides after all#but wwx knows that jc couldve followed after him if he could have he knows jc wouldve sacrificed more if he had the power to do so#and thats why wwx lied to get out of there. and that's why it hurts so much more for jc when wwx comes back as mxy#as a new man and yet still flees from lp#still pretends its not his home anymore. once again jc is alone.#sobbing i love those fools so much via clownxian

#why would you put the absolutely tragic helplessness of the whole war situation of canon into a modern au at all#unless there is something specific you want to hash out it's more trouble than it's worth to transplant the conflict and desperation?#what's the equivalent of forcing them into war as teens/young adults losing their entire clan and then having to pick a side in war crimes? via summerstormsandnoodles

#this is SO FUCKING IMPORTANT#JC needs a *real* and *substantive* and *pressing* reason not to stick with WWX#canon gives him people who have entrusted him with their lives#it's hard to create that same situation in modern AU but like. at least TRY.#a critical element of their split was that it was engineered and REALLY DIFFICULT to make happen actually!#2boys1core via cygnahime

#YES YES ALL OF THIS GOD#Jiang Cheng’s reasons for not helping WWX with the Wen are REAL and VALID and SUBSTANTIVE#and it STILL BREAKS HIS FUCKING HEART because he loves WWX so much he would literally die to protect him!#what he won’t do is sacrifice the people he is RESPONSIBLE FOR to protect WWX#even though having to make that choice at all guts him#and WWX knows this!#like no I don’t think WWX fully groks the extent of JC’s love for him bc he’s fucked up and has issues#but he knows goddamn well he has to Take Steps and find the right (cruel) words#in order to make JC leave him to his own devices#that’s why he says what he says#and don’t try to tell me that JC would refuse to help WWX in a modern au where his parents are alive just because YZY told him not to#or would disapprove#JC canonically put his body between WWX and YZY’s whip while she berated him for it#he would absolutely pick WWX’s safety over his mother’s approval#any version of the story that takes JC’s duty to protect and lead the Jiang Sect out of the equation#needs a damn good reason why JC would not be at WWX’s side when he needed support#‘he’s an asshole’ or ‘just because’ don’t cut it - via cerusee

a thing that really really bugs me in modern AUs is when they have Wei Wuxian still put everything on the line for the Wens, and leave his family over it/get kicked out of his support system for it, and Jiang Cheng refuses to help or support him, and it’s fraught and angsty, but there’s no equivalent given for the Jiang Clan that Jiang Cheng is protecting by doing so

Jiang Cheng isn’t refusing to help because it ~looks bad~ or because he ~hates the Wens~ or whatever, he’s refusing because they a.) murdered his entire family and b.) it would cost the lives of the family he’s built since.  If there aren’t any stakes on his side of course he’s helping Wei Wuxian.  Of course he’s helping Wen Qing.  He’s not just a bad person who does bad things for fun and profit, he too is protecting people.  He, too, is protecting the weak and innocent.  He and Wei Wuxian don’t have that disparate of moral senses, it’s just that Jiang Cheng has to keep in mind the people who are already depending on him, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t consider himself beholden to them as long as Jiang Cheng is still there doing it for him.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t, and wouldn’t, abandon Wei Wuxian for anything less than the highest calling of his duty.

and even in a modern AU where the stakes are far lower than the life-or-death ones of canon, the motivations still exist.  They should both still be protecting people that are important to them.

……….furthermore, in canon Wei Wuxian very clearly presents his case to Jiang Cheng with a heaping background of “I’m not happy in Lotus Pier, and I want to leave.  Please don’t keep me against my will” and Jiang Cheng acquiesces to that wish, because he has seen all his life what happens when you try to keep someone you love by your side against their will, and he would never.  He would never.  It’s not Wei Wuxian saying “I need your help” and Jiang Cheng saying “I’m sorry but I can’t,” it’s Jiang Cheng saying “please come home and let me help you” and Wei Wuxian saying “I don’t want you in my life, please let me go.”  Like!  Wei Wuxian is lying in order to get what he wants with a minimum of fuss!  That’s important too!  He’s saying exactly what he needs to say to get Jiang Cheng out of the line of fire!  It’s not true!  He just knows what to say that Jiang Cheng will accept and believe, no matter how much it hurts!  BUT JIANG CHENG DOESN’T KNOW THAT ok I’m good.  and also sad.  again.  fuck they love each other so much and they hurt each other so badly

[mxtxfanatic]

I would also like the mdzs fandom to stop inventing turmoil between Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli just because Jiang Fengmian had a strained relationship with Jiang Cheng. There’s nothing to say that the father-daughter duo had issues, that Jiang Fengmian was neglectful (to either of them, tbh), or that he was indifferent to his daughter's presence. You feeling like Jiang Yanli is disappeared into the background of her family life because she, like her father, doesn't have a lot of scenes is not supported by the canon. While we don’t get a lot of interactions between them (because there is literally no plot or conflict to highlight), what we do get is Jiang Fengmian sticking up for his daughter and terminating a marriage contract that his abusive wife set up, something even Jin Guangshan was afraid to do:

[Jiang Fengmian] told Jin Guangshan, “The engagement was originally made at the insistence of Ah-Li’s mother. I never agreed with it. Given what happened today, it seems both sides aren’t very fond of each other, so it’s best not to force the issue.” Startled, Jin Guangshan hesitated a bit. Regardless of the situation, ending an engagement with a member of another Great Clan was never a good thing. “What do children understand? Let them fight. Fengmian-xiong, we need not take notice.” “Jin-xiong, though we can help them arrange a marriage, we can’t live the marriage for them. In the end, they are the ones who will spend their lives together.” This marriage business wasn’t Jin Guangshan’s idea in the first place either. From the perspective of consolidating power through a marriage alliance, the Yunmeng Jiang Clan would not be his first choice, nor was it the best choice. The engagement had happened only because he was perpetually afraid of opposing his wife. But in any case, since the Jiang Clan had brought it up of their own accord, and Jin Clan was on the male side of the arrangement and thus had fewer things to be concerned about, it was not necessary to remain entangled. Besides, he knew Jin Zixuan wasn’t happy with having Jiang Yanli as his fiancée. After giving it serious consideration, Jin Guangshan found his backbone and he agreed.

—Chapt. 18: Elegance VIII, fanyiyi

We get him hand-making kites with her to decorate for Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and the rest of the disciples to play with:

Back when Wei Wuxian lived at Lotus Pier, he had played the kite shooting game with the disciples of the Jiang Clan and had placed first many times. ... Jiang Fengmian had constructed the frame himself and Jiang Yanli had drawn the design. Thus, whenever Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng had taken their kites out to compete, they had felt a kind of pride.

—Chapt. 32: Morning Dew V, fanyiyi

We get them having family dinners often enough that Wei Wuxian seems worried that he would miss one right before the Wen show up to Lotus Pier:

Wei WuXian asked, “Uncle Jiang went out so early in the morning —why hasn’t he come back yet? Would he make it in time for dinner?”

—Chapt. 57: Poisons, exr

We get him having no qualms with Jiang Yanli's hobbies such as cooking, even seems eager to partake in her creations—if we assume he hasn't before:

With a smile, Jiang YanLi wiped Wei WuXian’s mouth and chin, and walked happily out with the bowl in her hands. Jiang FengMian sat down where she had been sitting. Glancing at the porcelain jar, he seemed as if he wanted to taste it as well, but the bowl had already been taken away by Jiang YanLi.

—Chapt. 56: Poisons, exr

The reason why Jiang Cheng thinks his father hates him is because he takes any whiff of disapproval from his father to mean hatred, a trait he picked up from and that is nourished by his mother's own insistence that Jiang Fengmian "must" hate her son for being like her:

The founder of the YunmengJiang Sect, Jiang Chi, was born a rogue cultivator. The ways of the sect were honest and unrestrained. Madam Yu’s manners were the exact opposite. And, both Jiang Cheng’s looks and personality took after his mother. He hadn’t ever been to Jiang FengMian’s liking. Since birth, he taught him in many ways, yet he still couldn’t change, which was why Jiang FengMian had always seemed as though he didn’t favor him too much.

—Chapt. 56: Poisons, exr

The founding father of the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, Jiang Chi, came from a knight-errant background. The family was exuberant, honest, magnanimous, and carefree in its ways —all of which were in complete opposition to Madam Yu’s spirit. Jiang Cheng took after his mother in looks and personality, which had never been to Jiang Fengmian’s liking. He had tried to educate Jiang Cheng in a myriad of ways, but it had all been for naught. This was why it always appeared as though he didn’t favor his son.

—Volume 3, Chapt. 12: Sandu: The Three Poisons, 7seas

Notice how it doesn't say that Jiang Cheng, himself, was never to Jiang Fengmian's liking, but that Madam Yu and her personality type that Jiang Cheng inherited was never to his liking, and it only "seemed/appeared" that Jiang Fengmian did not favor his son because he spent a lot of time trying to correct Jiang Cheng's bad habits, something Jiang Cheng resented. Notice how it also does not say that Jiang Fengmian avoided or ignored his son. In fact, we are told that he tried different ways to teach Jiang Cheng, a futile action we see him still committed to even up to the fall of Lotus Pier. Jiang Fengmian never gave up on his son. Jiang Cheng gave up on himself as Jiang Fengmian's son. None of that has to do with how the Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli interacted in life nor how Jiang Yanli felt about her parents in death, still visiting their tablets regularly to clean and talk to them:

Jiang YanLi was kneeling in the ancestral hall. She cleaned her parents’ memorial tablets as she whispered. Wei WuXian poked his head inside, “Shijie? Talking to Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu again?”

—Chapt. 71: Departure, exr

To say that Jiang Fengmian is a terrible father simply because Jiang Cheng is more comfortable believing his mother’s lies than understanding that unconditional love does not mean unconditional tolerance for poor behavior does Jiang Fengmian’s character a disservice. To say that Jiang Fengmian is a terrible father to Jiang Yanli based on Madam Yu and Jiang Cheng’s own fantasies of victimhood is just an extra unnecessary lie to give credence to an idea that the story proves untrue. At worst, Jiang Fengmian was a man reserved in physical displays of affection that could have stood to hug his son more if that was what Jiang Cheng truly wanted. But if we are being truthful, Jiang Fengmian's just a regular fucking guy juggling raising kids and leading a clan with deterring his abusive wife from turning his home into a battlefield any time she deigns to show her face. Whatever issue you think Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng should have with their upbringing, the locus of the problem is named Yu Ziyuan, not Jiang Fengmian.

[cleverstudentcheesecake]

Oh, the tragedy of siblings in the MXTX verse!

Shi brothers

Nie brothers

Wen siblings

Yunmeng trio

Jin siblings

Liu siblings in the PIDW world

If we consider cousins too in the list, first we have Qi Rong and Xie Lian because their broken relationship is a tragedy to me.

Second duo would be Binghe and Zuzhi Lang as neither of them got a chance to form a real bond with each other.

If we consider Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan as twins or siblings, then we also have the Shen duo too...

[mdzs-double-trouble-fest]

It's poll time again!

MDZS Double Trouble Fest is back with another poll!

And today, our poll is specifically about the double trouble duo in all their glory, for we want to hear from you Yunmeng Shuangjie appreciators