#Alsoooo. Decay Gracefully and Sandhi and Heart To Match and Golden Fox (and Red String+Safety Concern) are all by: My Friends. Who are so

[adhdo5]

please give me any mdzs fic recs you have on hand....I'm starving here

FUCK OKAY. SO this isn't necessarily comprehensive but it's pretty sizeable, especially since some of these are quite long. Obligatory disclaimers: WATCH THE TAGS on these, some of them are explicit and many have canon-typical violence or worse; there is Something I don't agree with to varying degrees in most if not literally all of these but all of them do Something extremely right which is why they're on the reclist.

In pretty much just the order I remembered they exist in:

How to Decay Gracefully - Qin Su-centric. Only a canon divergence in that she doesn't die all the way post suicide attempt. Absolutely beautiful

Favor - 3zun + NHS Hunger Games AU! Like the one time I'll believe in this kind of self-presentation from JGY explicitly because of the setting change. FANTASTICALLY plotted. The author EXPERTLY does surgery on the plot beats and setting of MDZS to fit them to the arc of the AU to the point that I almost consider it another adaptation. Endlessly clever. It's so fucking good. Obsessed with it. Some of the most lines ever. Beautiful reveal work

Mutual Friends - Xuexiao, mid domesticity arc, have the misfortune to run into Xiyao, and it would be terribly impolite not to catch up. Absolutely impeccably tense and hilarious conversation sparring. Hidden role game of a dinner conversation.

Principles of Your Past - LAN XICHEN CHARACTER STUDY OF ALL TIMEEEE. I keep thinking about this forever. My favorite version of Xiyao first kiss during Sunshot I think

Sandhi - Lanlan postcanon thesis. Absolute masterwork of LXC POV. Another one where there's just lines in here that repeat in my head. It's wonderfully sedate and low octane and also makes me cry every time

I Don't Have the Heart to Match - Postcanon transfem JC chara study. I cry every time I reread this one also.

Here's to Upright Men - Postcanon showcanon but still delightful. ON FUCKING LOCK Huaisang POV.

Welcome to My Table, Bring Your Hunger - Showcanon timeline Xueli. It's a hear me out of a ship but by god you won't regret hearing it out. Scathing JYL POV. Absolutely vicious rumination on violence and normalization thereof that arises when putting these characters together. Fantastic shit

Obligation - 3zun. JGY-centric. There's lines in this one that I will just remember and break my head open on the wall every time about. YOU ARE NOTTTTTTTTTT NORMALLLLLLLLLLL NOBODY THINKS LIKE THIS YOU';RE A BROKEN PERSONNNNNNNN. In my head/the way this was recced to me this is kind of like part of The Canon of insane 3zun works.

Lies You Told, Lies You Didn't - Everyone had something wrong with them; you had Zewu-jun.

The Final Cut - NHS character study. Cry cry about funny Huaisang

The Golden Fox - Meng Yao, who is half fox spirit and really wants to be a cultivator, is constantly getting in some fucking situation in pursuit of the latter, which is aggravated even more by the fact that he is the former much more than he would like to be. Lan Xichen shouldn't worry about it, but also Lan Xichen shouldn't be showing interest in him either, so we're really at an impasse here.

Something to Believe - 3zun fixit casefic that makes and defends the claim "we just need to hold Lan Xichen at gunpoint until Nieyao fix their shit" with brutal, impeccable efficiency. WORK TOGETHER OR DIE!

Still Waters Run Deep - By the same author as above, HEARTRENDING LXC study, many such cases

Red String Wrapped Around Your Throat - Speaking of same author, this is by the same guy as Safety Concern, e.g. the only guy on Archive of Our Own dot gov that doesn't log on exclusively to tell lies about Nie Mingjue. Nieyao timeloop fixit. The desperation is palpable. They are both insane. Do you remember how we used to kill ourselves. WORK TOGETHER OR DIE!

Last of Our Kind - Postcanon Xiyao amnesia in Dongying. I don't believe in this Xiyao sex but I do believe in this neuroticism. I read the whole thing while nervous about my imminent choir concert in December and commented as I went, got interrupted, promised in the last comment I left that I'd comment on the end, and never got around to it. Author of that fic if you're reading this sorry I thought the ending was sweet but how much I can write comments depends on planetary alignment on any given day. The Wangxian B-plot in this one is beautiful also I adore how WWX is written

My Erstwhile Dear - ABSOLUTELY FUCKING IMPECCABLE epistolary postcanon Xiyao. I fucking love it when they yell at each other. They are both SO ANNOYING. It's PERFECT. I CRIED!

You Cut Through All The Noise - Xiyao slop. It's sweet enough to be a reprieve after some of these but it's also deeply repressed as is appropriate. Very very good.