#Nie Family

[journeytomonkiekid]

I’m curious about Wan Ji’s brother, what kind of role does he have in the story? And what kind character he is?

I know that he is a side character but, still I’m interested <:/

I understand ya'lls interest but he's not as interesting as you think he is probably ;;; I mean I'll try to bring up stuff about him in the story, but I'm gonna disappoint in that regard :/ Zixuan is an engineering student going through uni, who gained his tails at the normal age Huli-Jing descendants do, and is generally kind of a Golden-Child for the Nie family. Wan Ji cares about him a lot, but there's a natural rift in their relationship due to their family's treatment of them. Wan Ji feels like a burden and a problem to him, and he feels like Wan Ji doesn't fully try to get along with their parents. Zixuan is annoyed that Wan Ji, despite being the oldest, doesn't need to carry the same weight in expectations as him, meanwhile Wan Ji feels isolated from the family as a whole. Zixuan is also treated as something of a double agent, as Wan Ji and him are close enough where they chat or have discussions or debates, and he will return that information to the parents if anything worthwhile comes up. Wan Ji realized he was doing so several years ago, and no longer confides in him at all, but pretends to occasionally give him information that seems to matter, but doesn't in reality. She may occasionally vent her frustrations or listen to him vent, but they are fair-weather friends to each other in emotional terms. She doesn't want to rattle the relationship anymore, as she does enjoy his company and likes joking with him. A majority of the time, he doesn't live at the family house, and tends to live closer to his university, but comes back home on weekends, so their communication has been more sparse. Zixuan's personality is well-meaning, modest, quick-witted, and at times patronizing/condescending without realizing. He wants to help and he wants for the family to get along, and gets stressed out when there's conflict, preferring to avoid confrontation all-together. He's also not great at saying no, which means he often takes on more than he can handle, leading to poor sleeping patterns and mental distress. He also tends to lean into believing their parents know better and mean better, and will side with the parents given a chance.

Wan Ji and Zixuan's relationship is pretty normal in terms of siblings. They care about each other, but will never vocalize it, and they like to annoy, and harass each other given the chance. If the other is upset or sick, the other will resort to giving them space, and taking extra chores to help the other calm down or rest, and when necessary, divert the parents attention to avoid causing the downtrodden any extra stress.

This is already pretty long but I can write about his Huli-Jing abilities more later in a different post,

[br-disaster]

Niè parents! 

(Individual drawings bellow the cut)

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

With A Flap Of Wings, Part One

(okay. here we go.)

Warnings for the overall story: Implications/mentions of suicide, miscarriage.

Tags: Nie-family centric, alternate timeline, time travel fix-it, ghosts, suicide, everybody lives (I know how weird it sounds having both, you gotta trust me here), no-war timeline

----------------

Nie Huaisang sits and stares at the closed stone doors of the tomb that contains the bodies of nearly all of his family, or at least their sabers.

All except for his brother, who remains trapped in that heavens-damned coffin.

The pile of aged papers in his lap rustle in the chilly breeze, but he barely pays attention, even though the pages are the answer to one of the many questions that had been plaguing him since the first time the ritual to purify his brother’s soul had failed. 

Since the first time the time-jumping ritual had failed.

He can't remember how many times he's cast it, using his own blood to dive into the past, only to inevitably be flung back here no matter how deep he went or which events he changed.

But now he understands. 

All of the monsters and ugly twists of fate that had targeted his family... they had only been symptoms of the disease. 

He is the cause. 

He, the ill-omened child who killed his own mother with his first breath, is the one who brought calamity on all who ever knew him, death and misfortune dogging his steps before he could even walk.

This, all of this, is because of him.

But he can still fix it. 

Maybe none of the other attempts had worked, but that was because he hadn't known where to weed out the rot threatening the garden. 

Now, he does. 

Closing his eyes and bracing himself, he draws the knife from his belt for what he desperately hopes will be the last time.

–- 

Nie Leiyun is six months into her pregnancy –one month away from what would have been her death from hemorrhaging during an arduous childbirth– when she staggers and has to catch herself on a table, suddenly overcome by a horrible throbbing pain in her guts. 

But it's when the pain stops, everything inside her going unnaturally still, that she actually starts to panic and sinks down to sit on the floor, trying to call out and unable to make her voice work. 

A maid rushing to help her back to her feet is the first to see the blood starting to stain her robes and the stone beneath her, and she’s the one who screams for the healers when Nie Leiyun can’t. 

Despite all their efforts, the healers are only able to save one life. 

Once, in a timeline that has just been erased, it was the child. 

This time, it's the mother.

---

The grief that falls over the sect is heavy. 

No one seems to be more crushed by it than Nie Mingjue. 

All of six years old, he had been adamant that he didn't want a sibling and had complained to anyone who would listen. Babies were stinky and dumb and boring and either cried all the time or made messes everywhere. Gross.

And now the baby is dead, dead and gone, and no amount of hugs or kind words can convince the boy that he hadn't somehow wished his little brother away. 

Nie Haoran and Nie Linsong are gentle with their wife and son's grief -it had been Linsong's own struggles with having another child that had prompted the second wedding, after all- and it's Linsong who makes a fateful suggestion one night as the two of them are sitting by the fire one evening, Linsong spoiling her falcon with some extra preening assistance and Leiyun mending some clothing. 

"The only reason you put your search on hold was because the pregnancy was becoming too harsh on your health, wasn't it? Why not pick it back up again now once you've recovered a little?" 

---

Three and a half months later, Nie Leiyun hears rumors of a high-ranking courtesan in Yunping who has been making waves among the cultivation gentry. This by itself is nothing new, she has investigated over a dozen other women who ended up in the brothels like she originally had and have since risen to some level of fame, some even attracting the attention of sect leaders like she had. 

But none of those women had been outright carrying her long-abandoned surname of Meng. 

She does her best not to get her hopes up, but luck is on her side for a change, and three days after she first hears the whispers, Nie Leiyun -Meng Xiu- clutches her sister Meng Shi in a tearful embrace. 

She doesn't know how to feel about the tiny boy that her sister introduces her to. He is not yet two years old, so close to her Sang-er. 

They could have grown up cousins. 

Friends. 

But now- 

She wipes her eyes and puts aside her selfishness. Yao-er can still be a cousin and friend to Mingjue, and he and her sister both deserve far better than this place. 

She takes them home.

[thebiscuiteternal]

Biscuit! Sorry if I'm late to writing jam (it has been. A. Day. In lab today) and please feel free to disregard if I am, but for spooky writing jam:

Either one of the Nie Moms as ghosts?

A part of Nie Linsong's heart always prickled with guilt whenever she got the opportunity to look in on the boys.

It wasn't fair that Nie Leiyun had never been able to come on one of these visits; that her wife could only subsist on the stories and descriptions she brought back with her to the realm of the dead.

After all, she had gotten eight years with Mingjue and two years with Huaisang- Leiyun had never gotten to meet Huaisang at all before death had taken her.

The guilt made her greedy, taking in anything and everything she possibly could and committing it to memory as vividly as possible so that there would be more to give her wife.

But this time-

-this time-

-she desperately wished that she could see less and do more.

Their husband's body was, in her vision, wreathed in red flames that made sickening twisted shapes of corpses on the floor around him as he stood hunched over, an enraged, animalistic expression of rage on his face and the sturdy, calloused hands she'd always been fond of wrapped around around the throat of their younger son with crushing pressure.

Little Huaisang couldn't even scream with the force on his windpipe, and any moment, his equally fragile spine could-

-forcing herself to tear away from the horrible sight, she streaked from hall to hall, aiming for the bright spark that was their older son.

"Jue-er!" she screamed the moment she saw him, putting all the spiritual force she had in her body into her voice. "Your father's room! He's killing your brother!"

Nie Mingjue jerked, looking around in confusion. "Is someone-?"

"No time! Go! Save your brother!"

Fortunately, that was enough to get him moving, running towards Nie Haoran's room with his mother's spirit right on his heels.

She could only hope that they would be in time; that Mingjue's mad dash across the sect grounds would attract enough help.

That she wouldn't have to return to Leiyun with the news that their sons would be joining them along with their husband when this horrible night was over.

[naehja]

If Mingjue HAD had a child Nie Huaisang would be super protective and can you imagine being "forced" to let JGY interact with the child, like Lan Xichen would, so JGY would not be suspicous of him, but boiling with silent fury (and murderous thoughts) while watching it. And him thiking "it what dage felt when i was interacting too much with Jin Guangyao before?"

Maybe Huaisang would also be afraid to be the next on JGY's list because it would be so easier to "help" a tiny child to take over the sect after the tragic death of his uncle. And JGY could control Qinghe, more or less.

And how could he let his nephew/niece between the hands of their father's murderer? Lan Xichen wouldn't protect them, he didn't see what JGY did to his dage. And even if JGY wouldn't kill them, who know what he could do? Turn them into people like him?

His nephew/niece would be everything for Huaisang. and he would be even more vindicative in his revenge.

[jaimebluesq]

Mini-fic

I've been out with a cold several days now and haven't felt well enough to work on my WIPs, but I reblogged a list of December Prompts the other day and thought it a good excuse to at least flex my writing chops.

So here's a little Nie Family Bonding with the theme of Starry Night.

~ ~ ~

The cold wintry night was warmed by the heat of a campfire where Nie Mingjue and his father sat, roasting the meat of a deer they had worked together to hunt. Nie Shizheng had taught his son how to properly dress the animal with utmost efficiency, and Nie Mingjue had smiled with pride with his father’s every grunt of approval.

“Is it ready, yet, Mama?” Nie Huaisang’s small voice whined from across the campfire, muffled by the large blanket his mother had draped over the both of them. “I’m hungry.”

“It shouldn’t be much longer,” Nie Ziniao chuckled, playfully poking her son in the stomach until he burst out in giggles. “After all the rice you had at lunchtime, I would think you’d be too full to eat again.”

“Quiet, you,” He Yaling scolded affectionately. She smiled at Nie Ziniao, then reached out to ruffle Nie Huaisang’s hair from where it stuck out of the blanket. “We have two growing boys. There is no such thing as too full in this household.”

Nie Mingjue approached He Yaling with a bowl of roasted venison and bowed before her. “For you, Mama.”

She took the bowl and ate a bite immediately, grinning at her son to show her pleasure with his rudimentary cooking. “You learned well, A-Jue.”

The boy’s shoulders drew back and he practically bounced on the balls of his feet as he rushed back to his father to fetch another bowl of food.

Soon enough, they all feasted on the roasted meat, fresh from the hunt, and they traded gossip and funny stories until the last of the juices was licked away from their fingers. Nie Shizheng and his wives then began a lesson on the stars in the sky, what the constellations meant and how to use them to navigate one’s way home – Nie Mingjue listened attentively and did his best to memorize every word his father spoke, and though Nie Huaisang pretended to fall asleep on his mother’s lap, he too secretly hung upon his father’s every word.

It was a good night for family, a night to be remembered long into the future.

[bishy437]

da-ge is stressed,,,

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Let the revenge games begin.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[dalbit0]

come again soon!

[tossawary]

I find Jiang Cheng / Nie Huaisang to be an incredibly funny pairing because they both personally strike me as "I don't want someone in my house" people. I kind of feel the same way about Jiang Cheng / Wen Qing as a pairing, honestly.

Even in AUs where these three aren't carrying around massive familial burdens and buckets of violence-related trauma! (And just have their regular family issues!) Even in AUs where the characterization has them genuinely enthusiastic about romance and/or sex! Let a romantic partner into their house??? Where they live??? (Nothing wrong with partners keeping separate bedrooms or residences if that's what they prefer!)

I think other interpretations are fun and valid, of course, you do you. These three characters just all personally give me "I can love you with all my heart, but if I do not have complete control over my personal space, I WILL mentally start climbing the fucking walls" vibes.

[motylekaaany]

Przepraszam Mamo.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I know everyone here loves a good "A is injured and/or killed and their partner B absolutely loses it and puts the fear of god into everyone around them" as well as unhealthy devotion to the point of love superceding both self preservation and morality. They're classics for a reason. And I think it's fun that in mdzs basically every single one of the examples for either of these have not been romantic (I think lwj would be up for some wei wuxian-motivated murder if you put him in the right situation but the most he ever did in canon was injure some of his elders, and while intense his grief is mostly silent rather than explosive) but familial. All of the big revenge plans and post death/injury deadly freak-outs have been about family. Wei wuxian (and, honestly, Jiang Cheng) for Jiang Yanli. Wen qing and Wei Wuxian (again) for Wen Ning. Jin Guangyao for his mother. And, of course, the whole fucking plot is set in motion by Nie Huaisang going "I don't give a fuck who it sacrifices in the process i will get revenge for my brother's death" for Nie Mingjue.

It really is "unhealthy codependent family dynamics: the novel." I like it.

[br-disaster]

family <3 

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

Okay, so, trying to get into this less refined thing.

As I said before, I actually have an outline for how the Butterfly Effect AU is supposed to go past the point I couldn't keep writing. If y'all don't mind spoilers, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

(But I'm putting it behind a cut for those who don't want spoilers.)

By the time his parents and brother and cousin get close enough to get Huaisang's attention, both Papa Nie and Mingjue are suffering pretty horrible nosebleeds, maybe even bleeding from the eyes too, and Linsong and Zonghui are not doing much better.

Understandably, since this is the day Mingjue died in the old timeline, the blood only makes Huaisang panic more, which makes the shockwaves worse.

Mingjue has no idea how to reassure him, just holding on to him in the hopes that will help somehow.

Suddenly he feels the cold shock of ghostly hands reaching into his body, something that had never happened before since Huaisang had always been partially solid.

While he's still stunned, he can feel something like layers and layers of grime being burned off his core as Huaisang clutches it. As the shockwaves die down, he finds himself feeling... better. A lot better. Even though he was nowhere near the qi deviation he'd experienced in the old timeline, the resentment was still starting to accumulate, and now it's just gone.

Huaisang seems to be just as surprised that whatever he did worked, at least as a temporary fix.

He starts to reach for their dad to do the same to him, but then he... flickers a little bit, like a struggling candle flame.

Oh. Shit. Papa Nie immediately realizes that they are now very short on time and orders everyone else to go get Huaisang's mama, the other siblings/extended family members, and every healer and strong cultivator they have, because they can't hold out hope that Huaisang will hang on long enough for Lan Qiren and Wen Ruohan to arrive. They have to execute the saber preservation plan now and pray it doesn't destroy him for good.

It takes the entire rest of the day and almost all the way through the night to finish the ritual, and by the time it's done, Huaisang is more like a smoke wisp than a glow. Pretty much all of his family is in tears, but he's... smiling.

It worked. Generations of Nies will be able to use the pear tree as a place to cleanse their sabers when they start getting too demanding, and the pears to cleanse themselves.

His brother's alive. His parents are alive. His cousins are alive. He has a sister now. The war never started. He has no more regrets.

Realizing that they really are going to lose him now, Mingjue makes him promise he'll come back somehow, so that they can eventually reincarnate as brothers again.

And then he's gone.

Three months later, Mingjue turns thirty and takes on the sect leader role, his father being the first Nie leader ever to be able to peacefully retire.

Six years after that, a circus caravan is passing through, and is invited to perform for the locals in the courtyard of the Unclean Realms. Nie Xunyao is the first to notice something strange, and immediately goes to get Mingjue.

There's a small boy among the performers, caring for the trained bird flock with surprising ease. He's happy and healthy and greets Nie-zongzhu with a huge grin and an offer to hold one of the colorful parrotlets.

He has bright green eyes and a very familiar face.

[thebiscuiteternal]

Some more offhand thoughts (or not quite offhand, I just forgot to post them earlier) for the oldest view au:

Nie family owns a small inn/restaurant on the edge of their home city.

They have old heritage working in the temples/small cultivation groups (I mentioned ghost hunters earlier) but have kept that on the very down-low since the revolution and went back to their roots as butchers/cooks/etc.

Mingjue's mama is currently running the place with the help of Huaisang's mama because their dad's health is not the greatest and they're all constantly nagging him to stop pushing himself to an early grave.

Mingjue is currently off working as a bodyguard for a bigshot politician, but visits as frequently as possible.

Huaisang, as mentioned previously, works for an animal rescue much closer to home.

Mo Xuanyu's mama works at the inn and has also lived there since getting kicked out by her family when she got pregnant with him. He doesn't know yet that Jin Guangshan's his father.

Mo Xuanyu is roughly 6-7 years younger than Huaisang and has basically been raised like a little cousin. He is currently on his second gap year between high school and college for his mental health after an incident he doesn't like to talk about.

(After a couple of run-ins with the paranormal, Huaisang isn't sure letting his younger 'cousin' tag along on his abandoned building jaunts is exactly helping that mental health issue, but even if he sneaks out alone, MXY always manages to catch up somehow.)

They don't know any of the rest of the cast yet.

They'll meet Meng Yao and Xue Yang first. Turns out the never-finished hotel/leisure center/spa/whatever they're currently exploring is set to be burned down by the owner (guess who) by Xue Yang, with an unwilling Meng Yao (unwilling as in there might be blackmail of Meng Shi involved somehow) sent along to make sure there aren't any squatters inside first. Awkward!

Oh, and the building is haunted. Very, very haunted. And not just by ghosts. There's something super ugly in one of the spa areas. Time for friend/family bonding via not dying.

[frodo-of-the-nine-fingers]

i think the actual disconnect between nie mingjue and jin guangyao is that nie mingjue is dying and knows he's dying and has to stick so so so closely to his morals and virtues or else it'll have been for nothing and then he'll have to come to terms with the fact that maybe he didn't actually have to die after all vs jin guangyao who wants to live, he wants to live and be safe and have all the things he was told he could never have-was told he was never good enough to have-and will do almost anything to make it so. and these are two like irreconcilable point of views right (and both Correct and Wrong at the same time) and so they can't understand each other because they aren't even having the same argument and neither of them can see that