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guqin-and-flute · 4 years

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Jin Guangyao supervises a-Fu and a-Ling's first sleepover while Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue are night-hunting

[Well, this was SUPPOSED to be just fluffy, but that’s a little hard inside of JGY’s head]

A-Fu bounded his way into the room and flung himself into Jin Guangyao’s arms with such force that it nearly knocked him over. “Oof--my child, please--” he chuckled as he caught him and A-Fu rubbed his face all over the embroidered Sparks Amidst Snow peony on the front of his robes, likely wiping his snot off on it. His clothes were still cold and damp from their flight.

“We--” A-Fu reared his head back, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling. “Are gonna stay up all night!”

A-Yuan appeared to have stayed behind by Lan Xichen’s side, because the pair made their entrance at a more measured pace as Lan Xichen reminded, patiently, “While the rules of Carp Tower may be different than Cloud Recesses, staying up all night is not good for you.”

Rather shyly, A-Yuan bowed in greeting to Jin Guangyao and he nodded back, smiling down at the boy. It had always been vaguely amusing to him that A-Yuan had more patience and decorum than A-Fu, who was born a Lan. One had to wonder if it was the influence of the slightly more rowdy Nie Clan exposure or simply innate. “Seeing how I am the one watching you and I cannot stay up all night, I’m going to have to disagree with you, Fufu,” Jin Guangyao slotted his gentle negation right alongside Lan Xichen’s and braced for the inevitable pout.

Instead, he received a sunny smile. “Oh, okay, then you’ll just go to bed at the Lan time and we’ll stay up to help the sun rise!”

A-Yuan was looking between the adults with a rather furtive smile, as if trying to silently communicate that he did not, in fact, condone this plan and would not like to be a part of the repercussions. Jin Guangyao grinned and hefted A-Fu over to his side to brace him on his hip, his back beginning to complain. “Ah, what a creative set of ears you have, Fufu--we say ‘you’re not staying up all night’, and yet they hear ‘you’re allowed to stay up until sunrise’! Truly remarkable.”

Quite dramatically, A-Fu sighed and smushed his hands up onto Jin Guangyao’s face, smearing his cheeks around. “Dieeee, don’t be a party pooper, it’s our first Jin sleepover with all of us!”

Gently, Jin Guangyao shook his face free of his cold fingered grasp and turned toward Lan Xichen to receive the kiss to his forehead. Despite A-Fu beginning to wiggle, he leaned into it, let himself inhale the scent of ozone-sky, clean wind, and sandalwood that clung to his robes and hair. The habitual tension torqued at his core loosened, like a sigh. “Easy trip? You’re not too tired after carrying them both, are you?”

Lan Xichen chuckled, slid to kiss his temple. “I’m fine, A-Yao. I’m sorry again for the short notice--Wangji is off on his own night hunt and this cannot wait.”

Shaking his head, Jin Guangyao smiled. “It’s no trouble. A-Ling is very excited.”

“And you?”

“Also very excited--ah!” A-Fu made a lunge off of his hip, not being content to simply wiggle his displeasure at being kept from pelting about and Jin Guangyao had to stoop to catch him before he hit his head on the ground. “A-Fu!” The boy froze, guiltily, and let himself be lowered down to his feet. Jin Guangyao crouched down and straightened his robes and headband with little tugs to lessen the sting of his scolding, brushing his hair back over his shoulder. “Patience is valuable. You’ll hurt yourself that way.”

As soon as no more admonishments came, A-Fu brightened immediately. “You wouldn’t drop me. A-Yuan!! Let’s go find A-Ling!”

Darting away, he seized A-Yuan’s wrist and dragged him out and down the hall, already excitedly chattering about the plans of the night as Lan Xichen chuckled and shook his head, winding an arm about Jin Guangyao’s waist when he rose. “Good luck. He couldn’t keep still the entire trip and told me the same thing when I reminded him that dropping from my arms in the sky was a bad idea.”

“Aiya,” he shook his head and, since they were alone, turned inside his embrace and kissed the corner of his mouth. “I’m sure it will be fine,” he murmured against him. “But you will be careful, yes?”

“Mm,” Lan Xichen tilted his head, pressed a firmer, more complete kiss against his lips, slipping his arms fully around him before pulling back to smile down at him. “I always am. Da-ge will be with me.”

With practiced ease, he swept aside the tangle of anxiety, old hurt, regret, and darker things the mention of Nie Mingjue bubbled inside his gut and smiled back. “Of course.”

The boys were already fighting by the time Jin Guangyao found them in Jin Ling’s toy room down the hall--something about the colors of toy swords--but quieted down fairly quickly when he mildly suggested that perhaps they wouldn’t need more sugar after dinner because they were already so lively. Eating went well, as both A-Ling and A-Fu were too busy inhaling food like they were starving and A-Yuan was making like a good Lan child and not talking during meals. He contented himself watching them dart around afterward, announcing in grandiose little voices the various heroes they were and what monsters they were battling. Without direct adult interference, A-Yuan grew a little more vibrant and playful, and though he never reached the same volume of the other 2, he seemed to be enjoying himself. Soon, Jin Guangyao faded into the background for them like so much furniture. He smiled as he watched them play. It was funny how sometimes it worked on children as well as adults.

That is, until A-Ling twisted around like he suddenly realized something. “Hey, you’re a hero of the Sunshot Campaign, right, shushu?”

Jin Guangyao blinked and smiled. “Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say all that.” Modesty was a good trait to teach your children. In any case, his father would certainly agree with his hedging and Madam Jin would certainly take exception if her grandson began calling such a bastard a hero in her presence. “Most people of my generation were a part of the Sunshot Campaign. Why do you ask, A-Ling?”

“Well, you just seem so normal.”

Jin Guangyao did not let the slightly darker, wry humor he felt coil in his chest bleed into his perfectly reasonable smile. “I’m pleased that you think so.”

“But heroes aren’t normal, though, they’re heroes,” A-Fu seemed to understand whatever A-Ling was failing to adequately explain. “They aren’t moms and dads and stuff.”

“What should they be instead, then, A-Fu? Simply stories?”

His son squinted his eyes at him, like he was solving a particularly difficult equation and looked over at A-Yuan and back. “But...you didn’t have...like...sleepovers and things, right?”

Jin Guangyao was silent for a moment, keeping his expression perfectly balanced. There had never been another child to whisper the night away with. No adult in the corner to watch him play. Nights were not a time for fun. “No, A-Fu, I didn’t. But plenty of others have.”

A-Fu cocked his head. “Why not?”

Jin Guangyao smiled. “Why don’t we see if the cook has any sweet buns leftover? I know she baked them fresh this morning.”

After the hunt and acquisition of their prize and after the children had licked their hands clean, A-Fu looked up at him with a few crumbles of sugar stuck to the tip of his nose and said, “You can be part of the sleepover if you want, though, die, ‘cause this is our first one all together too!”

Heart pinching, flooding with warmth, he reached out and brushed the little crystals off with his thumb, tilting his head. “So thoughtful, xiao-Fu. I wouldn’t want to spoil your fun.”

“You’re fun, die! Right, A-Yuan?”

With a shy smile, A-Yuan nodded. “I liked when you taught us about the plants in the woods, that one time.”

The time in question had been more than 2 years ago when they were quite a bit younger, not too many months after the boy had recovered fully from his illness to be well enough to leave the Hanshi where he was staying with Lan Xichen and A-Yuan for extended periods of time. Even as A-Fu screwed up his face in confusion, the strange buzz of realization that he lived in the minds of these children in ways he did not control rushed through Jin Guangyao. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know this, cognitively or as if this wasn’t true of everyone, but...when they were small and unsteady on their feet, still learning the ways of the world and the words for things, one forgot to consider them people on the way to becoming themselves. Recording and collecting moments that were inconsequential to their grown ups. When he considered his own childhood, there wasn’t a boy who lived there, but himself, as he ever was, reflected back through time, the story written and unyielding. He had never felt particularly like a child.

And yet, here was a boy who remembered him fondly from an insignificant walk from some recordless day for pointing out a few edible plants along a path.

He found himself wondering if his mother had ever been taken out of her own head for a moment, watching him watch her, not knowing the picture she painted across his memory. For good or for ill.

Always good.

He blinked back to himself and made sure to smile at A-Yuan. “I’m glad.”

“I don’t remember that,” A-Fu complained just as A-Ling said, “I didn’t get that! Shushu, tell me about plants!”

That startled a genuine laugh out of Jin Guangyao and he knelt down. “I’m no expert, but in the morning, what if I took you all out to the gardens and told you about some of the plants that we have growing here in Carp Tower? Would you boys like that?”

The answering, competitively loud yells of YES from both A-Fu and A-Ling had him wincing but A-Yuan’s eager nod made him smile.

There was whining and stalling at bedtime, misuse of soap, and a hastily declared armistice of a mutinous pillow fight because there are lanterns in here, A-Ling, you know better, but, finally, they were tucked in, 3 dark little heads on the pillow with the blanket pulled up to their chins. “Are we going to greet the sun?” Jin Guangyao asked with knowing patience, kneeling beside their bed, leaning with his elbow in his own nightclothes.

“Nooo?” A-Fu widened his eyes, as if his own father didn’t know when he was trying to be innocent.

Smoothing a palm over his forehead, bare of its headband, Jin Guangyao raised his eyebrows. “What happens if I find you trying to stay up to greet the sun, A-Fu?”

“Youuuu...join us!”

Jin Guangyao blinked slowly, smile still fixed on his face. A-Fu sighed grumpily. “I probably have to clean dishes for a month or something.”

“Or something,” he agreed. “I’ll leave it up to your blue father.”

A-Ling snickered as A-Fu stiffened. “Nooo, don’t tell him!”

“Then I will advise you, Fufu, to not do it at all,” he replied indulgently, stroking his thumb between his eyebrows.

Tucked in the middle so the other two didn’t fight, A-Yuan piped up, saying, “I won’t let them, bo-fu.”

When A-Yuan gave him a smile, he felt his own soften without his say so--but here, with uncalculating eyes and sleepy shadows, he supposed that was alright. He reached over and patted A-Yuan’s round cheek, resisting the illogical parentally-encoded impulse to pinch them. “Thank you, A-Yuan.” Then, he reached farther to do the same for A-Ling. “Goodnight, boys. Sleep well.”

As Jin Guangyao rose and moved to the door, A-Fu chirped, “Love you.” He paused as the other 2 echoed the same words, like A-Fu had reminded them of an important ritual.

Drawing in a deep breath around his suddenly tight throat, he turned back and smiled. “Love you, too.”

#xiyao #3zun raise jingyi au #my fic #my stuff #jgy #lxc #ljy #jl #lsz #Thanks for the prooompt Maaads it's way angstier than I meaaaaant #madtomedgar #3zun raise jingyi content

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myfriendsarerealidiots · 4 years

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Comparing Adaptations

‘Kay so I went on one of my whims again and did something stupid. Couple weeks or so ago, I wasn’t really in the mood to watch anime so I opened up Netflix and watched a Cdrama that I wanted to watch for a while now.

That Cdrama was ‘The Untamed’ which, prior to me watching it and doing said whim, I thought was just your typical historic Cdrama. Oh boy I was wrong. As I was watching it, I was thinking to myself, “This show’s really selling itself off as BL.” Which, I found out after finishing it was because it is BL. Hah...and that was just the start of it.

As I was doing my ‘Post-show research,’ I found out that it was based of a novel, called ‘Mo Dao Zu Shi’or as translated by the people on the internet as ‘Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.’ Said novel had 2 more adaptations along with ‘The Untamed’ which were a manhua and a donghua. So me being me, I decided to watch the donghua adaptation and read both the og novel and manhua.

So how I went through this was...

The Untamed (2019)

The Donghua aka Anime I guess

The Manhua which I read while having class (such a responsible student aren’t I)

The original novel

All hail this person who has too much free time on her hands.

Anyways, as it says on the tin, I’ll be comparing the 4 adaptations/versions of the story and see what changes between them as well as the pros and cons. (Wow I sound so professional)

Some background of myself just to avoid confusion

I am not a mega hardcore Fujoshi. I don’t really enjoy reading smut, nor am I old enough to do so bear that in mind

I have 7 years worth of Chinese lessons under my belt which means I barely understand a thing and that I can get some of the jokes like how Wei Ying’s sword is called ‘Sui Bien’ and it’s funnier to hear in Chinese. In other words, compared to like actual Chinese people who live in China, I pretty much have the knowledge of a 10 year old.

The versions of the Manhua and Novel that I read were translated in English so somethings might have been lost in translation.

I have a bit of a goldfish brain so forgive me if I wrote something wrong or forgot the name of a certain character, most likely I will look it up to correct it but if I don’t...well sorry.

I am writing my opinions on each version as I finish them, so if they don’t link up to the original that’s the reasoning behind it.

All of these are my opinions and thoughts on the story. You are not entitled to follow them if you disagree. I personally believe that everyone has a voice of their own and they should use it. (Even though I don’t half of the time.)

Slight Spoiler Warning

I will be breaking down some of the scenes and characters for my comparisons so please keep that in mind.

The Untamed (2019)

As this was my first exposure to the story, I didn’t know what to expect. I loved everything about it except for the fact that literally half of the show was spent in the past, building context for what was happening in the present.

The characters were lovable and all had distict personalities, especially Wei Ying and Lan Zhan which I guess makes sense since they’re the main characters (their actors are also cute and have good chemistry.) Speaking of characters, Yanli has a more forward role in the story here compared to the other versions. The way certain characters were introduced was different too. Since it’s live action, it’s also harder to show things like extreme blushing and such so it makes Lan Zhan look very stoic and way more unexpressive here than in the other versions.

The soundtrack is nice to listen to, especially with the 2 mains singing the theme song together it’s so cute and gives it another meaning in itself. Although, I do wonder how that poor bamboo flute Wei Ying made in like 2 mins plays decent sounding music. Chen Qing(is this the name of it?), the flute he uses after his trip to the Burial Grounds has the same sound quality as that bamboo flute which is just, “how???”

They took out most of the extreme BL!!! I feel like that is the biggest difference between this version and all the rest. I know they did that to appeal to more people but it does remove some of the context to things. That doesn’t mean the moments that were kept in weren’t cute though. It did make the pair look more plantonic than romantic.

As for the story itself, as a story on its own, it’s nice, as an adaptation that’s where the line gets blurry but it leans more towards the good side. They did indeed change some things, made them work better with the medium than if they didn’t.

An example I can place is the mask. Where the other versions used white make up with oddly placed red circles around the eyes, this one used a mask instead. I agree with the choice they made, seeing as they removed the fact that Mo Xuanyu was homosexual and so the make up wouldn’t make sense. It also looks nicer than what I imagined what could’ve happened with they kept with the make up. They do make a reference to this in the show when Jin Ling and Wei Ying have a conversation in Carp Tower. “You’ve seen my face right?” “How do I know? Your face is always caked in make up or covered by that mask.”

Another issue I had which I’ll touch on later was the first episode—I had no idea what was going on for those 40 minutes of screentime.

Donghua

As of writing this post, season 3 of this has yet to come out.

My first reaction to this was “Man, the animation’s pretty, and they made Wei Ying look scarier.” Watching stuff at 12 in the morning isn’t the best thing but that’s what I do.

Anywho, this version made Wei Ying really attracted to going down the path of ‘evil’ compared to the other versions. I don’t really understand why they made this change...but they did so we have to deal with that. And his eyes glow red!! It makes him look scary and cool at the same time. I love it!!

The transitions between certain events were a bit weird to say the least. For example, at the end of episode 2/3 Wei Ying gets forcibly dragged into the Cloud Recesses and the episode ends there. By the next episode, we’re 16/23/13 however many years in the past. This makes it really confusing for someone who hasn’t watched or read any other version of the story. It definitely made me confused and I already finished one.

While ‘The Untamed’ told us everything in one long flashback, the donghua broke it up into small chunks placed whenever information was needed. I don’t think that was a good idea, but then I also think it was a better decision than what they did for the Cdrama. As I watched this adaptation, I found myself confused from time to time because what happened in the prior episode didn’t always match what happened in the current episode like I mentioned earlier.

As for the artstyle, personally, I think some of the characters look similar minus the hair. However, I do like the little ways they made Lan Zhan express his feelings towards Wei Ying.

Speaking of which, when I first saw them together in this version in the forest near the Goddess Temple, I had to do a bit of a double take because of the height difference which wasn’t so evident in ‘The Untamed’. I soon found out that Lan Zhan was taller than Wei Ying before and after he gets reincarnated(?) Prior, it was just a small gap of 2cm which later turned to 6cm after possessing Mo Xuanyu.

I didn’t notice their height gaps while watching ‘The Untamed’ because Wei Ying’s actor, Xiao Zhan, is taller than Lan Zhan’s actor, Wang Yi Bo by about 2 inches which is like 5 cm? and so they had to do some weird thing with platforms to make Xiao Zhan look shorter in comparison.

Soundtrack wise, I personally think that ‘The Untamed’ was better in that sense. Where it had an amazing souding flute, this one had minor earrape in a nutshell.

This version made itself, in my eyes look more like a historical fighting anime as opposed to the BL vibes I was getting from ‘The Untamed’ and the other versions. They added a lot of action scenes and made the mystery more interesting for me. Along with this, the overall look and feel of this made it seem like it came from a completely different source material.

Manhua

Small FYI, as of writing this post the Manhua is at 147 Chapters.

(I should’ve kept up the trend and got a screenshot from that scene in the Manhua but I didn’t so here we are with gay rabbits.)

As your local internet friend who reads more manga than normal books nowadays, I enjoyed reading the manhua and finished it in a couple days.

Compared to the first 2 versions here, these last 2 are both things that you have to read to get through, albeit one has pictures and one doesn’t.

While normally, one would read silently, I like listening to music while I do. And seeing as the OST of ‘The Untamed’ sounds really nice, I listened to it while reading both the manhua and novel when I could.

This one brought out the BL elements that were missing from the first 2. They gave Wei Ying and Lan Zhan a lot of kissing or just straight up affectionate scenes which I think ties in with the general theming of the original novel more.

As this one is probably the closest of the adaptations to the original, it’s the least confusing to read, although that might’ve been influenced by my experiencing the story for the third time at this point. I say that, however, there were many story elements that weren’t present in either one prior to this.

Examples this can be seen with their collecting of body parts that belonged to the former Nie Sect Leader. In ‘The Untamed’ they find the sword spirit which guides them through the rest of the story. In the Donghua adaptation, they get the arm, but also get the head of the the Jin with the hundred holes curse which was an original addition. Here, they get the arm from Mo Manor, find the other one then find the torso and so on before finding the head in Jin GuangYao’s possession.

The flashbacks in this version were also executed really well, in my opinion, as it doesn’t feel super confusing while reading it and it gives just enough information to help the events unfold. It also gives us a chance to see how much of an ass(sorry) Wei Ying was when he was the Yiling Patriach from his own perspective as well as give us a moment of WangXian in the middle of all that chaos.

Novel

Here’s a picture of gay rabbits for everyone.

At this point, I was switching between the novel and the Manhua to read whichever one I wanted at any given time which might have blurred my sense of what belonged in each one so I’ll try my best to make sure.

Since this one is the original source material, it was clear from the get go that this will be the one with the least confusing version of events and the most amount of detail.

I was surprised on how close the manhua and ‘The Untamed’ was to the novel. Although, the former condensed the mystery to fit within the timeframe while the latter hasn’t finished just yet.

Personally, I like this author, and will probably read more of her works further down the line. Even though the version I read was in english, I still could feel the meaning behind certain aspects which I think shows her skill as an author.

The novel clearly shows the mischief that goes through Wei Ying’s head and their gradual (I say gradual but I think Lan Zhan just snapped) change of attitudes towards each other.

Arc One- Mo Manor

Past here I’ll break down the first arc of each one because I think all of them did it in relatively different ways. Be warned for spoilers if you haven’t watched or read all of them.

The Untamed (2019)

Out of all of these versions, this one definitely had me scratching my head in confusion the most even after watching it a second time once I finished the entire show.

As the only version that had the curse issued at the start as a moving factor of the story as well as the Yin Iron which was specifically made for this version, it didn’t explain enough at the start.

There were many things I could say were wrong about this beginning, from starting at a flashback to not properly introducing us to our characters but the biggest problem in my mind was the lack of explanation at the present.

Like I mentioned, starting at a flashback is a terrible idea as it gives the viewer high expectations only for it to be crushed the second it ends. Here, it shows a small portion of the battle at the Nightless City without much context then it quickly changes to 16 years later with a seemingly random group of people.

Another issue is the amount of useless characters who were introduced. In the other versions, there were only 2 Lan disciples who were given names and were introduced properly while here there were more than I want to count. Add to that the one telling stories about the YiLing Patriarch and the weird guy walking around with a flag, and you got yourself total confusion.

Donghua

This one was slightly less confusing to watch. As it starts with a clip of Wei Ying commanding corpses which matches the overall feel of the donghua. The rumors that he died stretched over the time skip and we meet this version of Mo Xuanyu who is caked with make up, whether or not he was a cut-sleeve (gay) in this version, I forgot.

It fully explains the curse and instead of having a couple of Lan disciples just standing there watching, we get to focus on the 2 important ones, Lan Sizhui and Lan JiYing. It gives us a slightly deeper insight into Wei Ying’s mind, as he states ‘you got the wrong one,’ just after being reincarnated, indicating that he isn’t as vicious as painted by the first few minutes of the show. Like the other versions, they also show how he considers the cons of using his demonic abilities and that Sizhui would probably tell on him to Lan Zhan, meaning that Sizhui was a keen, observant young man.

Manhua and the Novel

As for the introductions, these two were very similar. Both have the rumors of the Yiling Patriarch across the screen as we get further down the story and meet our main character.

It gets the details from the Donghua adaptation and mixes it with more information to create a more detailed account of what was happening, also making this Wei Ying seem smarter compared to his counterparts in other versions. He also hesitates more on showing his abilities, knowing that he’s going to be caught if he does.

Final Thoughts

As of writing this, I’m only halfway through the novel but it covers the portion until where the manhua is currently at. I would finish reading it before posting this but it would take too long and probably make this post even longer than it currently is, which isn’t such a good idea. If I had much more patience and effort I would really like to break down each arc and their differences from one another but I can’t be bothered right now. (Sorry)

I can safely say that in terms of adaptations, ‘The Untamed’ is relatively close to the novel, albeit a very condensed version. As flashback filled as it is, it wasn’t very confusing to watch past the first two episodes.

The Donghua adaptation takes several liberties, going more of an action oriented route instead of the calmer more, I wouldn’t say love but character oriented novel.

The manhua is definitely the closest to the novel, so if you really don’t want to read a lot of words, and I mean a lot of words, then go ahead and read it.

What else do I have to say...if you’re new to the story, welcome, if you’re a veteran who’s been here longer than me, sorry for taking up space on your feed. And congrats for making it to the end.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #manhua #donghua #cdrama #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wei ying #lan zhan #fujoshi #comparisons #mdzs #wangxian #yiling patriarch #yiling lao zu #hanguang jun

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sunshine304 · 3 years

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I am so so sorry that it took me this long to continue my LoF watching posts! RL, y’know. Ep 26 felt like a good place to take a breather, as well, so that’s what I did.

Anyway, let’s move on to eps 27 and 28!

It’s exposition time! Zhou Fei and ChuChu are at a tea house and hear about an army deserter who was trained on the Mountain of the Immortals (has this been mentioned before... IDK), was poisoned and became a monk. A-Fei thinks this story sounds familiar (indeed it does, indeed it does...) and ChuChu remembers having read sth like this in a book (the book of ... Peng Lai? I think?).

Oh look, Huo Fort becomes relevant again! I forgot about them. Anyway, Huo Lintao, who is now the boss and seems to not be well liked basically everywhere, wants to fight Disha and invites people from Jianghu to his Destroy Disha Assembly (God, I just love that name XD). Li Sheng & 48 Strongholds get an invite and he wants to investigate. Huo Fort is also... attacked by random cultivators I guess?

Meanwhile, let’s check in on Yin Pei! He still can’t deal with his internal injury (loss of internal power? still not sure; I’m assuming it’s sth like severe damage to a golden core in xanxia or even complete loss of one) and scours Old Daoist Master Chongxiao’s rooms for the Phoenix Pill, which... I think gives you lots of power but is also really super dangerous?

This show sure has lots of useful but also dangerous power restoring/improving pills and needles, huh?

Anyway, Yin Pei takes the pill. He does not feel so good. Uh oh.

Li Yan and Yang Jin go in search for A-Fei again – uhm, didn’t A-Fei simply go into town with ChuChu? Why are they searching for her again, other that Yang Jin wants to fight her because one obvious defeat isn’t enough? I'm guessing there has been a time skip again...

Meanwhile, at Disha Manor! Shen Tianshu is nursing his wounded ego I guess, while Chu Tianyu, an older member, is now supposed to take care of all this drama, but he doesn’t really want to because he’s retired. How many weird members of Disha are there?

Oh okay, so Yin Pei goes kinda crazy because of the scabbard since it seems to be gone, takes more of the Phoenix Pills, which is a fucking stupid idea, we get some exposition that this might turn him into a demon of some sort, and then he kills Chongxiao for the scabbard because he thinks that the old master wants it for himself.

Which, you know, isn’t true, but that’s what you get for being so secretive, I guess. Chongxiao actually wanted the scabbard so a forger could make lots of copies of it, so that Yin Pei can keep the original one. *sigh* Well, too late now. Yin Pei also meets that evil guy from way back in ep 7 or 8 who’d fought Chongxiao and Li Sheng, who calls himself the Black Judge (I’m too lazy to look up his name and hope he doesn’t really become that relevant).

I’m kinda sad that Yin Pei simply seems to go the “Oops I’m super crazy now“ route instead of having a more interesting redemption arc. I also... don’t really know what he wants to do now? He’s got the scabbard of his father... Are there still people alive he could take revenge on? Disha I guess?

But! The song that plays while Yin Pei confronts Chongxiao is awesome! I'm in love.♥

Back to the main characters, thank you! Xie Yun is really ill and freezing, the poison taking its toll. He’s at the same inn as two new characters (noooo, no more characters, have mercy!) Zhu Chen and Zhu Ying of the small Zhu sect, who are there for that assembly. They eye XY and feel sorry for him. We instantly know that these are Good People.

Aaaaaand introducing another new character, Ying Hecong, Poison Doctor! I know he’s relevant because he’s got a poster!

Of course Zhou Fei just misses Xie Yun in that inn. *sigh* But then she meets Li Yan and Yang Jin there, which is nice.

Yet another new character! He’s Black Tortoise Ding Kui and has henchman that are dressed in a rather peculiar way. Is this now the same as with that Azure Dragon guy, and I don’t really have to remember him? He’s from the 4 Guardians Mountain (speaking of which, where tf is Mu XiaoQiao!?).

Okay okay I see now. Everyone is in LingLing for that meet up with the Huo family! Madame Nichang is there too! Ah my beloved! ♥ She tells Xie Yun to follow his heart, and not be stupid and only think of his end.

Xie Yun is all evasive of course, and then he meets up with Cheng Zichen who of course is also there! Because of this he finds out that Zhou Fei is there, too, which puts him into a conflict. Because his running away was going so well, dammit!

On to Ep 28!

Xie Yun hides out in the carriage with Ling Yu of the Feather Robe Troupe, who slyly comments on him running away from Zhou Fei. He’s sad and says that it’s not A-Fei’s fault and that he’s just an unlucky person who is not good for her. T_T Kill me, why don’t you.

A-Fei has learned a lot and notices XY’s ruse, yay go my heroine!♥

She catches him and they fight, and she asks him about the poison. Zhou Fei obviously suspects ahhhh! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ But of course when XY seems happy that she was looking for him, she goes all haughty again and is like, “It’s only because of the HYTS!“ (although no it was mainly because of him and she looks light she might burst into tears any moment now, too...)

They get distracted by the procession of Black Tortoise Master walking by and A-Fei knocks XY out. They’re even now! XD

Nice to see the whole gang together as A-Fei drags the unconscious Xie Yun to an inn! ChuChu my beloved! ♥

OMG Li Sheng and Yang Jin getting into this peacock fight! XD Li Sheng scolds his sister and Yang Jin is super pissed about it. Li Yan is looking sooo smug, like “Yep that's my very own protective himbo!“ XD

Then Li Sheng is sent off to find Madame Nichang because she at least might know what to do about Xie Yun.

Ding Kui arrives at the Hui Fort. If I understood correctly... Hui Lintao wants to... kill all the cultivators when they arrive for his assembly? Or just those other cultivators that are randomly attacking him? There's traps in the forest they have go through. He specifically mentions that the traps are set after Daoist Master Chongxiao’s design, so hm might Li Sheng be of great help here later? Anyway, that old guy from Disha is there and seems to find all of this very funny. I’m confused.

Mu Xiaoqiao my love!!!!!!! He’s back!!!! For about 5 seconds but there he is, looking fabulous! ☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

Ding Kui (who... has left the Huo Fort I guess) wants to work with him and reminds him of his debt to the Huo Fort. I had forgotten about that.

Oh let’s check in for about a minute on Yin Pei, who is still crazy and slaughters some people... uhm somewhere. He also now calls himself the true Master of Clear Light. [at least I think it’s supposed to be his new name?] Nicely written on the door in blood. Okay then.

But the instrumental of his song plays in the background, making all of this much more epic, so it’s fine.

Madame Nichang arrives, is shocked, and states that Xie Yun is poisoned, as A-Fei feared, and he has a year if he doesn’t use his internal force anymore. A-Fei is devastated and we get their love song while she rubs his (supposedly) ice-cold hand. Oh my heart. T_T

Ying Hecong arrives because he wants to see the poisoned guy! XD He has never heard of tact.

Since A-Fei is desperate she lets him in, and we get some exposition in bits and pieces. Ying Hecong first assumes that XY must’ve been poisoned about a month ago (which fits the fight against Disha, where he used the needle), but wonders how that could be because Lian Sheng (the poisoner known for bone piercing blue) has been missing for a while longer. He lets slip that he isn’t actually a doctor, uhm yeah....

Oh not A-Fei is so sad and crying, nooooo T_T She’s angry at XY, asking why he had to meddle in her affairs and then leave to just die somewhere alone. Oh nooooo. ಥ_ಥ ಥ_ಥ ಥ_ಥ

(side note: easy scene for Wang Yibo, just lying there the whole time, no lines for once XD)

A-Fei gets the Tianmen Lock from Madam Nichang (a special lock that has a double lock mechanism that is very difficult to open. Md. Nichang actually alludes to this lock being very useful for lovers and I’m like... okay XD). YunFei are kinky as ever, nothing new here – A-Fei is so pissed at XY that she doesn’t want him to have the chance to run away again. XD

Loved how XY complained about the lock destroying his posture. XD And how Zhou Fei’s like, “It’s not my fault you’re bound like that, Li Sheng is to blame!“ while the flashback tells us, that uhm no, he’s not. XD

Ending with A-Fei telling Yang Jin about the Hai Tian Yi Se. Ah they’re important relics it seems. Well whatever. XY listens in.

I really need to keep on watching, it seems stuff is happening.

#legend of fei #you fei #sabrina watches legend of fei #my posts #my gifs

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mousehole5000 · 4 years

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tgcf lb the second. chapters 7-13

love that we’re getting fu yao and nan feng described as “two little pretty boys” amazing and completely as expected also everything theyve done is 10000% funnier now

The military officials heard their impromptu, slapstick live comedy and couldn’t help but smile. The dissatisfaction in their hearts had dissipated a lot, and they felt a bit more closer to the other three. This resulted in the sedan chair becoming much more stable. - tbh it is often true that if you make people laugh they are more likely to like you in my experience. to be fair what xie lian did was funny theyre a funny trio

okay time for some creatures and beings. base slaves do sound terrifying no thank you i do not like hordes. remind me a bit of husks from mass effect and those were the worst so. also xie lian wielder of silk ribbons i like it

im very :eyes: at fu yao and nan feng rn. i think theres more going on with them..... i have suspicions but we’ll see

well goodbye butterfly boy who crushes skulls and spiritual arrays and sick boots and taught me what a vambrace is. im guessing we shall meet again i have the strangest feeling that ive heard about you

In fact, all of the dead people in this room wore wedding garments while smiling even in death. - grim!!! spooky!!!

The moment he finished saying that, he pinched that corpse’s face twice. The youngster only felt that the skin beneath his hands felt smooth like tofu, making people’s hearts feel itchy. - eww!!!! also dont feel up the corpse buddy wtf. also everyone leave little ying alone

Drip, drop. Drip, drop. This created the frightening scene of a forest filled with corpses as blood rained down from above. even more grim!! - happy halloween kids

When he heard Fu Yao’s explanation, Xie Lian thought in his heart, ‘This name was truly unnecessary. If it was a ‘Devastation’, then it was a ‘Devastation’. If it wasn’t, then it wasn’t. Just like how there were only the phrases, ‘ascended’ and ‘haven’t ascended yet’. There were no such things as ‘near ascending’ or ‘approaching ascending’. On the contrary, adding on a ‘near’ word made people feel awkward. - nevermind the deaths, xie lian needs to make some points about semantics. it has nothing to do with the situation at hand and i love it

QI RONG IVE HEARD ABOUT YOU FROM MY MUTUALS!!! terrified

Who knew how many times he had already said that phrase tonight. Every time something happened, Xie Lian would have to say it at least thirty to forty times. However, there would always be people who turned a deaf ear to his warnings. He felt truly quite helpless. - not sure if this is be xie lian is dressed up as a bride or if its just his bad luck. or if its bc thats just how people are. either way i feel you buddy

“Excuse me for this.” Xie Lian grabbed a hand from each bride before placing them on each other’s necks. The two brides suddenly touched something and were very surprised. Since they couldn’t see anything, they began to fiercely destroy each other. - xie lian stop being funny fjlkajdfs;kasj also right after this he goes into his street performer spiel upon being applauded. amazing

the visual of this fight with the villagers inside the ruoye loop and all the brides is pretty sick. also xi lian on the spirit phone to ling wen while the villagers cheer is very funny

heteronormativity obfuscates another mystery... but also a possessive jealous bride walking on her knees... thats quite a figure!! and tbh it is interesting that everyone assumed that the ghost was a bridegroom who didnt want to see happy couples and not a bride who didnt want to see happy couples. congrats xie lian for thinking

bruh she ripped his skull out and it screamed

i mean the indiscriminate killing of innocent women is bad but other than that im on her side tbh fuck this general pei guy

ow wtf i just cried a little bit. xie lian’s reassurance to little ying... her response.... wtf ;_;

As for the matter between General Pei and Xuan Ji, unless one was directly involved, it was better not to comment on who was right or wrong. He could only pity those seventeen innocent brides, the military officials and drivers who had escorted them. It truly was an unexpected disaster. - valid. still sympathetic to her tho i just am

human face plague..... bruh. okay might have to alternate between reading this and watching hannibal not sure i wanna do those together

He really wanted to hang a sign on his back saying, ‘Ascension is not as good as collecting scraps’ and promote it in the mortal world. - this lb is officially just funny xie lian moments now

The meaning behind his words were basically, the female ghost Xuan Ji causing trouble could not be blamed on General Pei, because she originally did not have the ability to cause it. If they wanted to pin the blame on someone, then they should pin it on Green Ghost Qi Rong, for it was him who took in Xuan Ji and gave her the ability to harm people. - told you. i was right to blame the men

i have indeed seen the donghua trailer so my suspicions that butterfly boy was indeed hua cheng being confirmed are just like. yep. exactly as expected.

i read the second half of chapter 12 on my phone so i didnt get any quotes but hua cheng rise to infamy funny. xie lian listening to it all and just going “hehe silver butterflies pretty” is also funny

i forgot that xie lian was in debt but im glad he paid it off good for him be free

After a while, Ling Wen really couldn’t stand it anymore and privately told him, “Your Highness ah, the things you send in the spirit communication array are all very good, however, I’m afraid that even a Heavenly Official a few hundred years older than you wouldn’t send them.” - fakhlsdfjakl; ling wen really told xie lian he was facebook grandparent posting in the spirit communication array

Since he couldn’t fix this, then it was still better to just forget about it. Xie Lian gave up on this issue, and as a result, stopped being gloomy as well. - you know what i respect that attitude i really do. xie lian said well ill just get over it and he did. i need to do this with twitter

However, this kind of problem didn’t exist for Xie Lian. With the curse upon him, he was no different compared to mortals, and thus could eat everything. And because he was a seasoned veteran of a hundred battles, no matter what he ate, he wouldn’t die. Whether it was a steamed bun that had been lying around for a month, or pastries that already sprouted some green mold, he would definitely be fine after eating those things. Since he had a constitution like this that defied the heavens, he actually got by alright during the period he collected scraps. - im sorry i know i keep saying it but xie lian is so funny i love him fjasdlfsdjfadksl literally king of eating garbage i love him so much

okay more hua cheng lore next time. and this interloper in the cart... ok

#mouse mumbles #tgcf liveblog #honestly so far everythings just really funny #except the gruesome bit and the bit where i cried #but i really do like xie lian a lot

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bloody-bee-tea · 5 years

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Untamed Winter Fest Day 26

Surprise

Another Eldritch!Lan AU, following directly after Anticipation (Untamed Winter Fest Day 24) and features more found family (Xicheng+Jingyi) than any pairings.

“Jingyi?“ Jiang Cheng calls out as he walks into Lan Jingyi’s room.

Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen had a very, very long talk about Lan Xichen’s otherness and now Jiang Cheng wants to tell Lan Jingyi hat he knows about them, and whenever Lan Jingyi is at Lotus Pier, he’s free to be who he really is there as well.

He would never admit it out loud, but he took quite the liking to Lan Jingyi and his loud mouth and his unapologetic behaviour. He knows he favours him amongst the disciples that are not Jin Ling, but Jiang Cheng can’t and won’t change that.

And Jiang Cheng wants him to know that he accepts Lan Jingyi completely.

Except, when he enters the room he’s met with a form so completely different from Lan Xichen’s that he stops dead in his tracks.

“What the fuck!” he yells out and stumbles back, because those sure are a lot of jaws on one relatively small form and he isn’t sure just how friendly it is.

Very friendly, he realizes, when the form compresses into the familiar shape of Lan Jingyi.

“Sandu Shengshou,” Lan Jingyi whispers, voice small and he hunches in on himself, takes a few steps back from Jiang Cheng.

“Holy ancestors, is that what you look like?” Jiang Cheng blurts out because Lan Xichen did not mention that they didn’t all look the same.

“I’m sorry,” Lan Jingyi says and makes himself even smaller. “I’m not dangerous, I promise, Sandu Shengshou, please don’t think of me as a threat.”

“What did I say about using that title?” Jiang Cheng wants to know on autopilot and he finally shakes the surprise off.

“To not use it,” Lan Jingyi mumbles and then bows towards Jiang Cheng. “This disciple apologizes.”

Jiang Cheng shudders with the formality in this words and he swiftly walks forward, intends to bring Lan Jingyi out of the bow, but Lan Jingyi scrambles back, presses against the wall and won’t meet Jiang Cheng’s eyes.

“I never hurt anyone,” he rushes out and Jiang Cheng stops in his tracks.

“What do you think I’m going to do, Jingyi?” he asks carefully as he takes a step away from Lan Jingyi.

“I don’t know,” Lan Jingyi whispers, and he wrings his hands in front of his chest.

“I know that none of you Lan’s are humans,” Jiang Cheng tells him. “Xichen told me, a week ago.”

“Oh,” Lan Jingyi breathes out, but he doesn’t relax. “I’m sorry you had to find out about my form this way,” he then tacks on.

“It would have been nice to know that not all of you look like Xichen, that was quite the surprise,” Jiang Cheng admits, because he expected all of them to look like Lan Xichen.

Especially since Lan Xichen never mentioned any other forms.

Jiang Cheng hopes Lan Jingyi will relax now, but he doesn’t.

“Jingyi,” he says and Lan Jingyi jerks under his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just me,” he mumbles, so lowly that Jiang Cheng can barely hear him.

“It’s just you what?” he asks for clarification.

“It’s just me who is different,” Lan Jingyi says and Jiang Cheng is horrified to hear how choked up he sounds. “Just me who won’t fit. I’m sorry you had to see, I’ll make sure it won’t happen anymore.”

“Jingyi,” Jiang Cheng softly says and carefully walks closer until he can put his hand on Lan Jingyi’s shoulder, who is shaking under his hand.

“I was just surprised. Xichen didn’t mention other forms, and I got used to his eyes already. It was a surprise,” he reiterates, but he can tell that Lan Jingyi isn’t reassured.

He decides to just fuck it and pulls Lan Jingyi into a hug. The boy is shaking in his arms and Jiang Cheng just holds him tighter.

“Of course you would be special in both your forms,” Jiang Cheng whispers and he must have said the right thing, because Lan Jingyi clings to him.

“You’re not disgusted?” he asks, voice horribly wobbly, and Jiang Cheng pushes him away to look him in the eyes.

“I am not disgusted,” he seriously tells him. “It was a surprise, and I’m sorry that I reacted badly.”

“I’m sorry you had to see,” Lan Jingyi mumbles but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.

“No, I’m not. I want to know these things. I want to know you,” he tells him and it seems that slowly, Lan Jingyi starts to believe him. “I came here to tell you not to hide at Lotus Pier. If you are with me or Xichen, you can take your form.”

“Even though I’m so different?” Lan Jingyi wants to know and Jiang Cheng sighs.

“Especially because you are different,” he says. “You’re not human. You shouldn’t have pretend to be one.”

“But I’m not like them, either,” Lan Jingyi mumbles and Jiang Cheng wonders if he needs to have words with Lan Qiren, or gods forbid, even Lan Xichen.

He will if they made Lan Jingyi think he’s worth less for being different.

“And I am not like you,” Jiang Cheng says, though he’s aware that it’s a poor comparison. “I’m not like Wei Wuxian or Lan Sizhui or even anyone else at Lotus Pier, either. No two humans are the same, and it would surprise me if two of your kind were the same.”

Lan Jingyi is quiet for a long moment and Jiang Cheng lets him think.

“None of them has mouths like I do,” he eventually brings out and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes at that.

“Well, their loss if they can’t eat,” he gives back and it startles a laugh out of Lan Jingyi.

Though it does make Jiang Cheng curious.

“Is that why you always eat so much?” he wants to know and is horrified to see that Lan Jingyi shrinks in on himself again.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to eat so much, I know I take more than the normal ration, I’m sorry.”

Jiang Cheng takes a few deep breaths, wonders again just who here he needs to beat up for making Lan Jingyi think like this, before he pushes it all away for a later time.

“Jingyi, you should always eat as much as you need. Do we not give you enough? You have to let me know so I can make sure you get enough food until you’re no longer hungry.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Lan Jingyi brings out.

“Family can’t impose,” Jiang Cheng blurts out and only realizes what he has said when Lan Jingyi turns wide eyes on him.

“What?” he breathlessly asks and Jiang Cheng decides to just fuck it.

He can’t take it back, won’t take it back and make Lan Jingyi think that he didn’t mean it. He can deal with a little bit of embarrassment. Lan Jingyi shouldn’t have to deal with a lie.

“I said, family can’t impose.”

“But I’m not,” Lan Jingyi says with a frown. “I’m not family.”

“Aren’t you?” Jiang Cheng asks. “You are aware that Xichen sees you as his adopted son, right?” Jiang Cheng asks. “And I’m sorry I’m not so good with showing emotions, but I do consider you family.”

“It always felt like you singled me out,” Lan Jingyi admits and Jiang Cheng sighs.

“I’m sorry about that, but you’re the only Lan disciple I actually more than care for,” he says and then curses his inability to just tell the boy he loves him.

He has the same problem with Jin Ling.

“I didn’t know that,” Lan Jingyi says with a happy blush and Jiang Cheng vows to do better from now on.

“You do now, so no more pretending, okay? If you need something at Lotus Pier you just ask.”

“Alright,” Lan Jingyi agrees and then darts in for a hug again. “Thank you for not hating me,” Lan Jingyi whispers and Jiang Cheng returns the hug.

“Who do I have to fight for making you think that? Do I have to fight my own cultivation partner?” he wants to know, but before he can answer, said partner storms into the room.

“Jiang Cheng, I forgot to say—,” Lan Xichen starts, but he trails off when he sees Jiang Cheng and Lan Jingyi in a hug.

“That he’s special in every way?” Jiang Cheng wants to know. “Yeah, I already figured that one out myself.”

“I can see that,” Lan Xichen says and then eyes the hand Jiang Cheng still has on Lan Jingyi’s shoulder, even after they part. “And I can also see that you don’t mind,” he says with a small smile and something in Jiang Cheng relaxes.

“So I don’t have to fight you?” he asks and while Lan Xichen stares at him in confusion, Lan Jingyi laughs.

“No, you don’t have to fight him,” he tells them. “Zewu-Jun is the only one who was never put off by my form.”

“What did I say about the title?” Lan Xichen asks and Jiang Cheng laughs at the déjà vu that sentence brings on.

“To not use it,” Lan Jingyi mumbles and then takes a step closer to Jiang Cheng before he carefully asks: “Do you really consider me to be your adopted son?”

He’s nervous, they can both tell, and Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng share a look in the silence that question leaves behind, until Lan Xichen walks forwards and takes Lan Jingyi’s hands in his.

“I’m sorry I never told you, but I do.”

Orphans are typically raised by the sect as a whole, and it’s not unusual to not have adopted parents. Wei Wuxian was different, because he didn’t have a sect, but Lan Jingyi does. So of course he wouldn’t have assumed anything.

Instead of an answer Lan Jingyi throws his arms around Lan Xichen’s neck, who promptly slings his arms around Lan Jingyi as well.

Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng share another look, before Lan Xichen smirks at him. Before Jiang Cheng can take a wary step back, Lan Xichen already pulled him into the hug as well.

Lan Jingyi makes a little sound of surprise, but he doesn’t complain, and really, there are worse fates than hugging the man Jiang Cheng loves and the kid he sees as family as well.

Next part

#bt writes #the untamed #mdzs #untamed winter fest #xicheng #in the background #found family #eldritch!lans #eldritch!jingyi #hurt/comfort #jc and lxc are the best adopted dads #like ljy deserves

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razberryyum · 5 years

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With the past arc coming to an end this week, resulting in most of our collective hearts being ripped out of our chests, I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our two dear big sisters of The Untamed/MDZS, Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing.

(novel and ep 32 spoilers below the cut)

Jiang Yanli (Shijie)

I took an immediate liking to Shijie the first moment we met her on the show since with her sweet smile and gentle eyes, she was so obviously a loving person and a caring big sister to her two unruly little brothers, there was almost no way I wouldn’t like her. She felt like the gentle type who would not harm a fly, and as we got to know her even more, I only loved her more. I’ve already talked about her kick-ass moment on Phoenix Mountain which perfectly encapsulated her greatness as a person, so I will look at other aspects of her life instead. Considering the fact that she grew up with parents who loved her in a well-respected cultivation sect, she really could have easily been a spoiled princess type of character since I doubt she was ever left wanting. And then, when her father brought home Wei Wuxian, she also could have easily either ignored the kid or worse yet treat him like crap, especially with the rumors about Wei Wuxian being her dad’s bastard son, which I’m sure she would have gotten a whiff of. Even if she had mistreated WWX, she probably would have gotten the full backing of her mom in doing so. But instead, because she is really just the most generous soul on earth, she instantly accepted him as part of the family and loved him as she did her own brother, even making sure that Jiang Cheng would accept him and treat him right as well. In fact, it is abundantly clear that Shijie had to act as more of a mother to WWX since Madame Yu most definitely had no intention of filling that role. Her attitude actually reminded me of Catelyn Stark and Jon Snow in Game of Thrones: like Catelyn Stark, she simply couldn’t forgive her husband’s infidelity and therefore could never like the child her husband brought back since she saw the boy as a daily reminder of his unfaithfulness. As much as I love Madame Yu, because she is awesome and fierce AF, it could NOT have been easy growing up in her household when one’s mere existence and presence triggered her ire. So really, thank God for Shijie, for being there and providing WWX with the motherly love and warmth that he probably sorely needed since Jiang Fengmian probably couldn’t always be around to take care of him.

As a result, I totally understand why WWX would have such bitter feelings towards someone like Jin Zixuan, since I felt the same way for a long time. Actually it wasn’t until JZX’s last moments did I finally like him as a person. Despite the fact that the live action has given us more time with him to redeem his character and make him more likable, I still held out all the way until the bitter end because, honestly, how can I ever forgive someone who had made Shijie cry like this:

But since he was also the one to make her smile and enjoy the happiest moments of her life, I could also never really hate JZX either. Mostly I’m just Shijie got to be with the man she obviously was in love with and I really appreciated the fact that the live action made him earn her forgiveness a little more. Even though she had to sneak out to let WWX see her in her beautiful bridal gown, I do believe that she had JZX’s blessing to do so because he knew how important WWX was to her, and how sad she probably already felt that he wasn’t allowed to attend her wedding. I wish the siblings’ reunion in Yiling was the last moment they could have shared together, instead of the gut-wrenching one in Nightless City.

When JZX was killed, my heart hurt so much because I instantly thought of how much his death would hurt Shijie, especially when she learned of it and more importantly, who killed him...they didn’t even have to show us her reaction since my imagination had already conjured up the worse scenario possible. I am certain WWX was thinking the same exact thoughts and conjuring up the same image, hence the pain on his face was so understandable and completely heart-wrenching.

Yet, despite being told her beloved A-Xian was the one who killed her beloved husband, that moment when she saw him at her home, she didn’t even hesitate to call out to him, using the same affectionate nickname she has always used. There was not an ounce of hatred or anger or blame on her face, only something akin to joy that she could see her brother again. Knowing he was in trouble as a result of visiting her, she then actually rushed right into the midst of battle to reunite with him again. I mean, just think about that for a second. Here she was, still in mourning for her husband, the love of her life, holding her only one month old child, but upon realizing her little brother was nearby, she dropped everything to rush after him, to see him, probably because she just could not believe he would ever do anything to hurt her like that. All the nasty things people have been saying about WWX, including how he commanded Wen Ning to murder her husband, she probably couldn’t believe because that was simply not the Xian Xian she knew and loved. In the past, every time Jiang Cheng would talk smack about WWX misbehaving or up to no good, she would always come to his defense. And even though in this particular case she had full reason to not defend him for once, she still believed in the good of WWX to go after him. Her love and faith in her A-Xian was so strong that when great danger was to befall him and she saw the sword strike heading for him, she completely forgot that she was a mother now with a child that still needed her, and just took that fatal hit for him because she just loved her brother so damn much that the only thing she was probably thinking about was A-Xian's in danger, must protect!. One might say she acted purely on instinct, without really thinking about the negative consequences of taking such a hit would have on her, but I believe that even if Shijie had one more minute to think about the situation, she would still make the same decision. Because that’s the type of selfless person she was: the caring big sister she was, the loving mother figure to WWX she will always be, the amazing mother she would have been to Jin Ling.

Even though Jin Ling grew up to be the spoiled princess instead, at least his basic nature is still good, and I’d like to think that that is what he got from his mom (while the spoiled part from his flowery peacock of a dad, lol) since God knows grumpy uncle JC and “doting” uncle Jin Guangyao probably weren’t much help in nurturing that sweet side of him, and not to mention we know he’s mostly friendless because of his disposition. Regardless of the sincerity behind JGY’s gestures when it came to his nephew, I am still utterly grateful that he gave him Fairy the floofiest doggo in the entire universe so that at least Jin Ling didn’t feel so alone when his peers mostly ignored him (even if it was kinda his own doing). I hope that wherever Shijie is, she can smile and be happy that her son grew up healthy and well and somewhat loved, and now, having finally reunited with the uncle he never knew but whom she probably would have always wanted him to meet, he could become an even better person who would make her even more proud.

Wen Qing

I owe Wen Qing a big apology. Before I started watching The Untamed, I had read rumors that they were going to change the love story between WWX and Lan Wangji to a love story between WWX and most likely Wen Qing, and therefore, I started the show with a lot of misgivings about her character. Personally, I hate when perfectly good love stories are altered due to no other reason than bigotry, so even though the character of Wen Qing is really the innocent bystander caught in the line of fire in this case (it’s not her fault if the writers had changed her character in that way), every time she shared a scene with WWX in those beginning episodes, I would actually grimace a little because I thought I knew where things were heading. Suffice it to say, I’m glad things worked out in favor of WangXian and I’m sorry I had any negative feelings towards her at all, because after WWX, she really is the most tragic character in The Untamed/MDZS.

Here's the thing, even though she didn’t turn out to be the love interest that would come between WWX and LWJ, I DO firmly believe that Wen Qing was in love with WWX, based on the way the actress played her and some of the moments we’ve seen (her reaction to having her wrist held by WWX, the way she asks about him when Jiang Chang rescues her from the Wen dungeon, the way she looks at WWX sometimes). Some might say she’s just being a big sister to him, which I would wholeheartedly agree with in terms of her novel counterpart, but on the show, that wasn’t my read of her character at all. However, I actually find it utterly reasonable that she would be in love with WWX because...hell, who wouldn’t be in that situation? Putting aside the fact that he’s her age, charming, smart, handsome, funny, kind-hearted, and talented, he’s also the savior of her treasured little brother and her clan. I would actually find it more shocking if she wasn’t in love with him. I know Wen Qing in the novel was not written that way at all, but she also didn’t appear much either despite having a pretty significant impact on certain key plot elements. Here’s the thing though, I actually think her feelings for WWX is what makes her character even more sympathetic because it’s a love unfulfilled, could never be fulfilled, not just because of her shortened lifespan, but also because during their time at the Burial Mound, it was made abundantly clear that WWX’s heart was elsewhere the entire time. Her disappointment at seeing the invitation from LWJ to his sister’s baby shower perfectly captured her understanding of that fact.

She believes WWX is staying with them only out of a sense of obligation, and one can imagine how guilt-ridden she felt since she believes her family is what has been keeping him from the people he actually loves. Even though her time at the Burial Mound is probably the happiest she‘s ever been in her short life, especially after Wen Ning woke up, she was still not afforded complete happiness because of her own sense of guilt in addition to her ever-present fear that their simple, happy days would eventually come to an end at the hands of the unforgiving world surrounding them.

Just thinking about Wen Qing’s life in general is enough to make my heart ache on her behalf. It could not have been easy growing up as basically a hostage of the Wen Sect, constantly living in fear of what Wen Ruohan would do to her little brother or her family if she didn’t do as she was told. Thank God she was blessed with the gift of being a talented physician and therefore useful to WRH, but it is also because of her talent that she acquired the unsavory reputation of being a ruthless, vicious medicine woman of the Wen sect, according to WWX when they first spoke to each other in the back hills of the Cloud Recesses. Nie Minghue’s words about her not being guiltless because she never once tried stopping WRH from doing his horrible deeds actually got to me since there is some truth to them: I mean, isn’t someone who is a part of the Nazis guilty by association, regardless of why they had to join in the first place? When she wasn’t worried about what the Wens would do to Wen Qing, Wen Qing was probably plagued with guilt since she undoubtedly witnessed the horrible things the Wens did and yet could do nothing to stop them. As someone who saved lives as a profession, seeing the Wens carelessly take lives could not have been easy on her conscience. But there was little she could have done since she had her own people to protect. It had to have been a stifling existence. And then, when the Wens were defeated, instead of being granted the freedom she probably wished for her whole life, the good guys turned around and basically imprisoned/tortured her people and even killed her beloved A-Ning whom she had lived her life for all this time. Her life went from bad to worse in a blink of an eye.

But then thanks to WWX, her little bro was miraculously brought back to life and even more miraculously retained all the sweet qualities that made him lovable so that she could at least enjoy one short year with him. Unfortunately, the semi-joyous days came to an abrupt end in the worst way possible. I can only imagine how heartbroken she was when she made the decision with Wen Ning to surrender themselves to the Jins, but I also believe that in knowing what fate would befall her brother as a result, there was no way she would be able to live with herself after that, so that’s why she chose to go to her death with him.

And honestly, her death is what haunts me and will continue to haunt me, because if memory serves, we were never really given details of how she died in the novel, nor did we get much in the show. We know she was just reduced to dust, so she was never even afforded a proper burial, but that still pales in comparison to the notion of what torture probably awaited her in the hands of that particular Jin father and son duo. There is no way Wen Qing’s death could have been pleasant. The only consolation I have is that at least she died quickly, relatively speaking, at least compared to poor Wen Ning, whom they kept around for a much, much longer period of time to experiment on. Seriously, just thinking about it now is making me sick to my stomach. For someone who probably never hurt anyone in her life, Wen Qing didn’t deserve that kind of ending. I’m glad she got to meet Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and through them, experience friendship and maybe love like any normal girl would, but it was still too small and quick an interlude in her otherwise difficult life. Personally I wish they developed her relationship with JC a little more since I actually thought the two of them had a lot of chemistry, but I doubt that would have afforded her a happy ending either since, as she pointed out, JC wouldn’t have been able to let go of his responsibilities and status as sect leader to save her and her family as WWX was willing to do. It would have still been a doomed romance in a sadly doomed life.

Before I end this tribute, I wanted to also applaud the two actresses who so wonderfully brought our two beautiful big sisters to life: Xuan Lu as Shijie and Meng Zi Yi as Wen Qing. Their performances greatly contributed to the affection I feel for these two characters and I am so glad they were chosen to embody them.

So to our dear Shijie and Wen Qing, the two fine, brave ladies of The Untamed/MDZS, I salute you, and I hope that wherever you are, you are finally at peace and happy.

#The Untamed #陈情令 #CQL #Mo Dao Zu Shi #MDZS #Jiang Yanli #Shijie #Wen Qing #novel spoilers #episode 32 spoilers #Jin Ling #Wen Ning #Wei Wuxian #Jin Zixuan #Jiang Cheng #Madame Yu

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moodyvalentinestories · 5 years

Text

A Holly Jolly Christ-Mess. Part 23. | Rachel x Hunt

23: An Invitation

“Silver bells, silver bells, it's Christmas time in the city. Ring-a-ling, hear them ring, soon it will be Christmas day.” – Silver Bells

Summary: There are some complications when someone finds out Thomas is in town.

Pairing: Thomas Hunt x Rachel Fields

Words: ~ 1,600 words

Notes: ITime for some serious mental gymnastics. Not gonna lie, I kind of forgot that it’s already the 23rd and I only have these two last parts to fit the whole Christmas thing I had planned in and... uh... I had to make some changes that maybe don’t make a whole lot of sense, but I'm determined to do the final part as I intended so... uh... that.

❥ Moodyvalentine’s Masterlist ❥ Christmas Series Masterlist

“I’m going to kill him,” Thomas said determinedly as he threw his phone on the bed in frustration. It nearly hit Rachel, who had been asleep until a few minutes ago but was now sitting up, in the chest. She let out a surprised yelp when she ducked out of the way, making him wheel around and stare at her in shock. “You’re awake.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Not by choice. You were yelling at someone. That sort of thing tends to wake people up, you know?”

“I’m sorry,” Thomas sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He should have kept his cool. But how could he have when his perfect plans for the day had just been ruined?

He’d wanted to give her the Christmas Eve experience she deserved. He was going to take her out to a romantic dinner, and perhaps take her dancing after, but not for too long. By the time they’d return to the hotel, there would be a Christmas tree waiting for them in their room that they could decorate together. Once finished, they would be cuddling under the tree, drinking hot chocolate – the recipe she loved so much with lots of cinnamon and unholy amounts of marshmallows, and waiting for midnight to come around. And the moment the clock would strike twelve, he’d give her his first present. She’d love it, and she’d give him his which he was sure he would love as well, and then it would be time for him to give her the second. The one he’d wanted to give her since the moment he’d got it for her. The one he was far more nervous – and even more excited – about than he was willing to admit.

But now, those plans had been shot to hell. All because that bastard couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut.

“What’s wrong, Thomas?” Rachel asked as she moved up behind him, placing her hands on his bare shoulders to knead them gently.

He let out another sigh, then slumped forward, burying his head in his hands. “Everything is ruined.”

“What do you mean?” She did her best to hide the panic in her voice but failed rather miserably. There was one thing, and one thing only, she could imagine that would have him react this way – someone had to have found out. “Who were you talking to just now?”

Her fingers continued moving over his shoulders, pressing deeper into his skin, and he felt himself relax a little under her touch. “Andrew knows I’m in town, and if he knows, everybody knows.”

“Who’s Andrew?” she asked. But there was an even more important question to be asked. “And how does he know?”

Thomas groaned inwardly. It was so easy to forget that she wasn’t – not yet, anyway – a part of this world he’d spent most of his adult life in. She did not yet know his acquaintances and rivals, his friends, and his enemies. He wasn’t sure, though, which category Andrew may have belonged it. “An old… colleague from my modelling days,” he said cautiously, then turned to her, seeing the worried look on his face. He immediately realised what his vague, ominous answers must have made her believe. “We haven’t been seen together. Ryan’s talked to him and let it slip that I’m here. And, believe me, he’ll pay for that.”

“Oh, thank God,” Rachel said, beyond relieved. Her brows furrowed. “So the problem is… that we can’t go outside because you’re worried about paparazzi knowing you’re here and looking for you? That’s… not ideal, but we’ll survive.”

Yes, that was part of the problem. Thomas nodded. “That is something I’m worried about.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “There’s more.”

“It’s nothing.” He got up from the bed abruptly, startling her, and began pacing around the room. “I’ll deal with it. You don’t need to worry.”

Rachel huffed as she got up from the bed, the duvet falling off her completely and revealing her fully naked body, and walked over to stand in front of him. “Talk to me. We both know keeping secrets never does either of us any favours.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he reiterated, shaking his head. “I’m not going.”

Her hand came up to cup his cheek, her thumb stroking his stubbled skin softly. “Going where, Thomas? Please.”

He sighed, leaning into her touch. He didn’t want her to worry. More importantly, he didn’t want her to say what he knew she would – that he should just go. That he didn’t have to stay with her, that she’d find a way to entertain herself while he was gone. But she was right, lying to her had never gone over well for him. And he didn’t want to lie to her. “His annual Christmas Eve ball.” He put his own hand over hers. “I already said no.”

“But you want to go,” she stated matter-of-factly. There wasn’t a hint of the disappointment he knew she felt to be heard in her voice.

He shook his head. “I don’t.”

“Then you feel like you have to.” She smiled, and though Thomas knew it wasn’t entirely genuine, it looked like it was. Damn her and her acting abilities. “It’s okay.”

He felt her try to pull her hand away, and he gripped it tighter, keeping it pressed to his cheek as he leaned down to kiss her. “I’m not going. End of discussion.”

It would come back to bite him in the ass, he knew it would. There would be speculation as to why he hadn’t attended despite being in the country – because Thomas always went, if only for an hour or less – but it didn’t matter. He was not leaving Rachel alone. Not today. Not ever, really.

“Okay,” she whispered against his lips before kissing him again. She slipped her hand out from underneath his and moved it down his neck, over his shoulder and chest, before snaking it around him and pulling him close. His own hands followed suit, caressing as much of her naked skin as he could reach. “Maybe we should—”

They were interrupted by a song that Thomas recognised as Rachel’s incredibly annoying ringtone. “Don’t answer it,” he breathed before taking her lips in another fiery kiss. Whoever it was would simply have to wait.

She chuckled against his lips, then put her hands on his shoulders to push him away a little. “Since it seems we’re going to have to stay in all day, anyway, I’m sure we’ll have more than enough time for this after I take this call.”

Thomas mumbled something about murdering the person who had dared to interrupt them, unaware that it was the exact same person whose life he’d threatened to take earlier already.

“Ryan’s calling me,” Rachel said, dumbfounded, as she looked at the caller ID on her display.

“Put it on speaker,” Thomas commanded.

She pressed answer, then did as he told her. “Hey… uh… what’s up?”

“On a scale of one to ten, how mad is Tommy right now?” Ryan’s voice came through the speakers.

“Try eleven,” Thomas answered, earning a glare from Rachel.

There was a moment of silence on the other end before Ryan spoke again. “I… should have expected that he’d be right there with you.”

“You should have,” Thomas said and, despite her protests, took the phone from Rachel. “And you should have also known better than to tell Andrew that I’m here!”

“I’m sorry. He invited me to his stupid ball, and then he somehow asked about you, and it just slipped out,” Ryan said exasperatedly. “But I’ll be there soon, and I—"

Rachel cut in again, her brows furrowed. “You’re coming to London?”

“I already am in London,” he said. “That’s why I’m calling. I want to… make things up to you.”

Thomas huffed. “And how would you do that?”

“By taking Rachel to the ball, obviously,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Thomas snapped then. How dare he! “You want to take my girlfriend out and call that making it up to me? As soon as I find out where you’re staying, I’ll—”

He was interrupted by Rachel’s hand touching his arm softly. “He may have a point. Give me the phone.”

“I will not—”

“Give me the phone, Thomas,” she repeated firmly. He sighed, then handed it to her.

He’d expected her to stay where she was, but she didn’t, turning off speakerphone as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Thomas went to follow her, but she’d actually locked the bloody door. Fuming, he returned to the bed and let himself sink into the sea of pillows and blankets as he waited for Rachel to return.

By the time she did, he’d calmed down – if only a little bit. “I hope you told him to never call you again.”

She let out a soft chuckle and shook her head. “No. Now, get up, you have a ball to get ready for.”

“I told you, I’m not—”

“Yes, you are,” she said with a mischievous grin. “And so am I.”

He shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“Thomas, he told me how important this thing is. It may not be what either of us thought we’d be doing tonight, but... when has anything ever gone as planned with us?”

Thomas let out an exasperated sigh. “We can’t be seen together. You know we can’t.”

“That’s why I’m going with Ryan. Everyone will think I came with him.”

He gritted his teeth. It was reckless. Dangerous, even. But he thought back to the masquerade over a year ago, and he remembered how happy she had seemed – before he’d revealed he knew who she was, anyway – and he groaned in defeat. It appeared he was going to take her dancing after all. “Very well. But you better not leave me for Summers, Rachel.”

Tags: @lilyofchoices @trappedinfandoms @flyawayboo @alleksa16 @silversparrow02 @hopelessromantic1352 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @oneemofungirl

#thomas hunt #professor hunt #hwu hunt #hunt x mc #rachel #wherefore art thou my professor #wherefore art thou my student #holly jolly christmess

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solarbird · 7 years

Text

The Armourer and the Living Weapon, Chapter 18: forgetting the old days

I forgot to mention, last time, but Dr. Ngcobo is based on concept-art Mercy, for those familiar with that.

This chapter is worksafe.

[AO3 link]

"Oh, I know this," Lena said from inside the sensory isolation chamber, as the song played. "You used it last time, too."

"You know it?" Angela asked by microphone, watching peripheral nervous system reactions in real time. Dr. Ngcobo, also watching by remote, noted that the ring didn't shift, but Lena talked through it, so of course it didn't. He queued the sample for replay again, later.

"Yeh. Always have."

"That's interesting," Dr. Ziegler replied, pausing the stimulus set. "It's a fairly obscure traditional tune, a lullaby - how do you know it?"

Lena shrugged, mostly relaxed and floating in the dark. "Just do, that's all. Makes me think of my mum."

"You... I did not think you remembered your mother."

"Don't, love. Pop, either, not really. But, y'know..." she waved her hands around a little in the small space. "Y'have impressions, doncha? Ideas? I do."

She's never mentioned this before, Angela thought, but when has there ever been cause? I should check her psychological profiles. Aloud, she replied, "I suppose one may well. I'm going to repeat it, later - when you hear it again, I'd like you not to talk. Let your body react to it, but nothing else. Is that all right?"

"'Course it is. I like it - particularly the tune, yah?" A little 'heh' came over the speakers. "Shame the singer sounds like, well, you know. Her."

"...Moira? Does she? I didn't notice."

"T'me she does. Particularly in the low notes."

Well, Angela thought, that's interesting. She added two more, similar snippets she had identified in advance to the queue, randomly interspersed. Let's see if that repeats, as well.

Oilliphéist and Widowmaker watched from behind glass, sitting in a viewing room, able to see the chamber and both doctors at work, and hear them as well. Lena had insisted on that in the strongest of terms, and Angela did not push back, but certainly noted it for discussion later.

Danielle considered what she'd heard. "Did... that sound like Dr. O'Deorain to you?"

Emily snorted. "Aunt Moira can't carry a tune in a bucket. But if she could - maybe, a little?" She smiled, calm but deeply aware and ready, her arm around her lover's shoulder. "I really don't know what Ziegler's chasing, here."

"Perhaps some sort of keyword, some sort of..." She tapped the armrest of the chair. "Some sort of activation phrase?"

"What, like in those old movies?" Emily laughed, a little. "Doesn't work that way. Even I know that."

"Doesn't it?" the Widowmaker asked, one eyebrow raised. "I received a 'go' code."

"You were already all there, sweet. I know, I was on the team."

"My first kill," the senior assassin sighed. "And I felt nothing at all."

"I'm sorry for that. The doctor and I both wanted it to be different for you, but..." She shook her head. "That... reminds me... of something. What... was it... oh!" She sat up straighter, silver eyes bright. "In your office at the chateau, you have a framed picture from Amélie and Gérard's wedding. It's the two of them cutting the cake."

Danielle blinked, surprised, something not easily done to the spider, and she looked directly at her counterpart. "...I do? Really?"

Emily nodded. "Yes! It's on the bookshelves, to the left of the desk. I was so confused. Why?"

"I..." She shook her head. "I suppose it was already there, and I never thought to throw it away," she replied, not as entirely convinced of that as she wanted to be. "I imagine you smashed it?"

Emily chuckled. "'Course not, sweet. It's yours! Why would I do that?"

"Because you hated him! Fiercely. I may not have felt anything yet, and I know not to entirely trust my own memories, there have been too many changes, but... I still remember how you hugged me when I returned. How happy you were that he was dead." She gave the other woman a soft smile. "That... I did feel. Just a little."

"Aw. Love you too, pet. And I remember that. But it's all water under the bridge, these days." She grinned, freely. "He's gone, you're here, we're together, I'm..." she hugged herself, and shivered a little with pleasure, "...oh, it's hard to describe, but I feel so... complete, at last."

She looked back through the window, keeping an ear out for any additional conversation from the doctors on the other side of the glass. "I really think she's starting to settle in, too. I was thinking about it a couple of nights ago, I thought it'd be such a struggle, but... no. She's become a brilliant weapon."

"She already was," Widowmaker noted, a little quirk up at the side of her mouth. "That's what got my attention at the start."

"And so easy to like! I told her back at Auntie's place that I'd never kill her, because you love her, but..." she smiled broadly, "I don't even want to!"

"I like our new sleeping arrangements," the spider said, quietly, gaze focused on the chamber.

"So do I," replied her beloved.

"We should talk more seriously about the future, you realise. Not here, of course, but..."

Oilliphéist nodded, agreeing. "Yes. I love Aunt Moira, but..." A bit of a grimace. "She's a tricky one. We'll have to stay a couple of steps ahead of her if we can, for all of our sakes."

Danielle reached over and took Emily's hand back into her own. "I'm... relieved to hear you still agree."

"Don't worry, sweet." She grinned, nuzzling at Widowmaker's hand. "I've got you. We'll be fine." A glance back up, through the window. "All three of us."

-----

"I am increasingly worried," the doctor said, sharing documents across the table to the subset of Overwatch personnel present. "But I cannot give you a firm reason why."

"She's not... acting entirely like herself, is she?" Winston said, nervously, flipping through pages of data he was not reading. "I've worked my entire life to understand human body language, and it's not always easy, but I've got a pretty decent grip on it. Hers is different, now."

"It is," Morrison nodded. "Has been since the eyes, but it's getting worse."

"She was always very tactile, very physical," Dr. Zhou said. "But you see her with them, and they're always touching. Over and over again. It's a little off-putting."

"It's a little creepy, you mean," said Hana Song, back from Korea only a few hours before. "No, it's kind of a lot creepy. And that palm nuzzling thing is just bizarre."

"She is not changing any more, not physically," Angela said. "Some of the body language, I think, is more getting used to a very different nervous system than she once had. But I have also noticed the... nearly obsessive need for physical contact with Widowmaker and Oilliphéist. With everyone else, she's hardly touch-averse, but it is different."

"That part seems pretty normal to me," Winston noted. "She still sneaks up and gives me a noogie at least once a day."

"I could fly in after the show tomorrow," Lúcio said, over comms. "I haven't seen her in a while, I could tell you how much she's changed, or hasn't..."

"If you can manage it, certainly," Angela replied. "The more data I have, the better. But I am far more concerned with the reactions in her nervous system."

She brought up a set of charts that wouldn't mean anything to anyone not a research doctor, but they gave her something to point at while speaking, and that made her feel better, like she had more of a grasp on the situation than she really had. "There is a hint of a pattern to sensory input reactions. It is not a pattern I can yet identify, it is not anything easy to find - she does not react, for example, to video samples of Moira, with or without sound." The doctor switched to paired video of Dr. O'Deorain and Lena's data, placid and nonreactive.

"It would be very tempting to make assumptions and be led seriously astray... but... there are... agh," she spat the word. "I do not like speaking in such terms. It is very un-Swiss of me, but there are... rumours and innuendoes. There are inferences in these numbers, barely outside margin of error, but... I cannot even say they are statistically significant. I simply do not understand them yet."

"She clearly hasn't been programmed to like Dr. O'Deorain," Winston said.

"No, clearly. Similarly, not Talon. It is entirely possible that it is just biases in the way her nervous system works, and it could turn out all to be something as trivial as your love of peanut butter, which is, for the record, complex in similar ways." She glared at the shifting data. "But - I am convinced something is here."

"You heard her at the debriefing," Morrison said, flatly. "Would the Lena Oxton we know - we knew - smile at Widowmaker relishing a kill?"

"That's unfair, Jack. You know how she scored on psych exams back in '68. It's why..."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But..."

"Look, n00bs," Hana Song interjected. "You're all missing the obvious. Spiderbitch is one thing, okay? She's a defector. She's a merciless assassin, but she's also a victim. So I can just about see Lena going for that, particularly given her looks. Everybody with me so far?"

"What are you getting at, Hana?" asked Lúcio.

"C'mon - Oilliphéist? Really? Oilliphéist?! She isn't a victim. We don't know much about her, but we do know she wanted this. And Lena is apparently... okay with that? And we're supposed to be okay with her being okay with that?" She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "I don't think so."

"She and I have talked about it," Winston said, "She's aware..."

"And she's still doing it. Watch 'em touch. I'm not sayin' they're in love, it's not even sexual, they're touching just all the time. Watch them. It's weird."

"Should we cancel this operation? Talon has already taken a real body blow. The governments are finally starting to set their operations in motion..." asked Winston.

"No," said Mei-Ling, firmly. "Absolutely not. The risks are too great."

"Even if it means we lose Lena to... whatever this might be?" If it's even anything, he prayed to himself.

Mei-Ling looked down at her padd, eyes haunted, and did not reply.

"Look," Winston continued, "why don't we just... get her away from them for a few hours. See how that goes. We could have an Overwatch Night Out tonight, like we used to. Hana, you come; Angela, you bring Fareeha. All of you, me, Mei, Lena... see if we can't just remind her who she's always been. She if she snaps back."

"That would be wonderful," Mei-Ling said, wistfully. "I miss those days very much. It seems so long ago already."

"The pub back in Gibraltar?" Angela asked, a bit of a smile. "It has been a while."

"Why not? It's a bit of a haul, but at least they're used to me," Winston noted, "And Athena could fly us back if we stayed up too late."

"It would be worth a try, at least," Angela said, thoughtfully tapping her chin. "We are in an alien and stressful environment, particularly for her. If she reverts to normal in a comfortable, normal situation, then perhaps... we are all just reading too much into everything."

"She is not the only one under stress," Dr. Zhou noted.

"I can't believe we're having an executive meeting to decide to go out for drinks," Morrison snarked, shaking his head.

"You have forgotten the old days, Jack." Dr. Ziegler snorted. "I absolutely can."

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dj-syrup · 7 years

Text

The Unnamed, Episode 01x08: An Old End And A New Beginning

At the end of the day, all we are is enough.

Or at least that's what my mother keeps telling me.

My name is Danielle. I'm nine years old, and I'm dying. There's something wrong with my blood and the doctors can't fix it. They won't tell me what it is, because they think it's too complicated for me to understand, but I know better. I think I could understand it.

A man came to visit me earlier today. His name is Joshua. He told me that he works for a group called World of Wishes. His group helps people like to me to enjoy their last few months by granting them a wish.

He handed me a magic wand, and I made my wish.

I wished to become a superhero.

The man said that it might take some time, but that he would get back to me.

This is the story of the night I became a superhero.

"Thank you for calling SJSF, this is Rhiannon speaking, how can I help you?"

"Hi, Rhiannon. This is Joshua at World of Wishes. I was hoping to talk to The Unnamed."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but this is important and a bit urgent. Can you just put me through please?"

This dude's tone was starting to get to Rhi. "No, I can't just 'put you through'. What do you need to talk to them about?"

The man on the other end of the line sighed and then acquiesced. "I have a little girl that I've been working with, named Danielle. She's dying of leukemia.

"I work for World of Wishes. We give terminally children a wish, and then we fulfill it."

"Oh, you mean like the Make-a-Wish Foundation?"

"Yes, more or less. We fulfill more extreme wishes. If a kid wants to go to Disneyland or Amsterdam or to a Taylor Swift concert, Make-a-Wish takes care of that. We do bigger stuff, which brings me to why I'm calling today.

"Danielle wanted to be a superhero for her wish. I was hoping that The Unnamed would be able to help with that."

This guy, for some reason, was still rubbing Rhi the wrong way. He had done what they had asked her to do, and so she decided to pass it on.

"Thank you for understanding. I'm connecting you now."

"We still haven't decided if we're taking this mission or not," said Ling. "This really falls outside of our purview. It's not really our thing."

Ms. Port, across the table, rolled her eyes at Ling. "Are you for real?" she asked. "Are you seriously suggesting that we turn down this little girl because 'it's not really our thing?'" Port was making air quotes. "She is dying. Dying!"

Port would have kept going, but for the sake of de-escalating the fight, Donnelly cut in. "Ling, she's right. We have to do this."

"I agree," said Mr. Stewart, walking in late as always. "The case of our terminal superhero is open and closed: we must try, at the very least." He paused. "Ling, don't make me make that an order."

"I want to help her," said Ling. "I really do. But this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We're not actors! We're not engineers! We spend our time fighting the real bad guys, not long-dead gods who some idiot summoned to help them take over the world."

"What am I, then?" asked Thomas. "Chopped silicon?"

Winn cut in. "Guys, can we focus, please? In two weeks, we have a date with a dying nine-year-old. What do you want to do?"

"We can't make her a superhero permanently," said Ling. "We don't have the time or the resources to do that."

"Now you're talking sense," said Donnelly.

"But we could do a single night," said Thomas. "We can make her a superhero for one night. We can go with her, and we can find some bad guys to rough up."

"Uhh... that's a lawsuit waiting to happen," said Mr. Patrick. "You'll have to find some other way."

"I volunteer as a bad guy," said Sergeant Foster. "My daughter volunteers as well, but she doesn't know it yet."

"That's better," said Mr. Stewart.

"But what about our powers?" asked Donnelly. "What about her powers?"

"Don't worry about that," said Mr. Stewart. "Let the Research and Development teams take care of that. For now, think about who you want to be instead of what you want to be. Bear in mind, though, that the most input you likely get on your suits and powers might be the choice of paint."

Nobody in research and development got much sleep that night.

Or the night after.

Or the night after that.

When this project was completed, each person who worked on it got an "I Survived the 2017 Suit Build" pin, and their choice of whiskey, within reason of course. Most of the people forgot the alcohol, and left it at work, as they stumbled home to get some sleep.

After two weeks, some a lot of patent infringement, and several acquisitions of companies, the suits were ready for primetime.

Thomas' suit ended up being so big that the floor of the hospital room couldn't hold its weight. Thomas tossed the keys to the valet and said to "keep it running". The only response to the valet's blank stare was a shrug from Ling, who looked quite breathtaking in her suit. Donnelly had already followed Thomas inside.

Danielle looked up from her iPad when they walked in. She was truly a pitiful sight: plugged into a half dozen machines, all of them either measuring her life or sustaining it. She smiled at each of them as they walked in, her smile so big that it seemed to fill the room.

She was getting her dying wish.

Based on what they had discussed in the car on the way over, Donnelly took point.

"My name is Caleb," he started, "but you can call me Extraordinario, or just X for short. We heard that there might a superhero in here somewhere, and we think it's you. What do you think, Ling?"

"Ling? Who's Ling?" asked Ling.

"Sorry, Li- Miss Z. Danielle, this is Miss Z. She's one of the other superheroes here. What do you think, Miss Z?"

"Hmm... I don't know, X," said Ling, teasingly, "But I think it's worth checking."

"You're teasing," said Danielle, laughing. "I know you guys would come. Joshua said you would come."

"Did he?" asked Donnelly. "Well, I guess that answers that question."

"What he didn't say was how you guys were going to take me. You're not planning on bringing all of this with us, are you?"

Thomas stepped out into the hallway and beckoned to the two technicians waiting for him. They wheeled their masterpiece: a suit that was capable of supporting her life every bit as well as the machines, as well as allowing her to run and jump like she used to.

And it truly was a masterpiece: an outer skin of carbon fiber, with a titanium exoskeleton that supported Danielle's weight and allowed her to move freely. The medical instruments had been miniaturized and placed inside the suit on her back, although she would not feel their weight. The helmet was made of automotive glass, and the airtight nature of the suit meant that Danielle would not need her breathing tubes. Inside this suit, she could run and jump and look like every other child.

But Danielle, smart though she was, did not know any of this. Her first reaction was one of glee.

"It's blue! How did you know that was my favorite color?"

"Well, Josh told you some things, right?" asked Ling. When Danielle nodded, Ling continued. "Josh told us some things too."

"And I don't need any of this?" She gestured to the equipment around her.

"No, sweetie," said Ling. "This suit will do the jobs of all of this stuff."

Donnelly recoiled slightly. He had never known Ling to use the word "sweetie", or any other term of endearment. Her experience, trying to rescue her parents from The People's Republic of China, had changed her in ways that Donnelly was still figuring out.

"Are you ready?" asked Donnelly, getting his wits back about him.

"I'm ready," said Danielle. "Let's go."

The technicians and doctors, both from SJSF and the hospital, spent over an hour fitting Danielle into the suit. When they were ready, they departed.

"Mr. X," said Danielle, as they were walking towards the parking lot, "what are your superpowers?"

"I'm not supposed to use them around hospitals," said Donnelly. "They don't want me giving people heart attacks. Let's get a ways out and I'll show you."

Thomas had to hang back so that he could get into his own suit.

And what a suit it was. The team that built it referred to it as The Bear, primarily because it looked like one. It could stand and walk around, under the control of its driver, and while standing it was almost ten feet tall. It could also stand on four legs, and when it did, a set of wheels extended that allowed the whole suit to roll. The general impression is that the Iron Man suit and a polar bear had a rather angular baby, and that baby was given two pairs of roller skates.

And, of course, it was well armored. The whole thing was covered in a half inch of armor steel, and the glass canopy covering Thomas' head was made of bulletproof glass.

Donnelly had kept walking for three or four paces before he realized that Danielle was no longer next to him. She had stopped short upon seeing Thomas in his suit and had been unable to move or talk since then.

And Donnelly could see it her eyes; this was the moment when it became real to her. She knew that this wasn't real, that this was just an act for her, but at this point, her awe overcame her distrust and it became real.

Tonight was going to be a good night.

Foster had talked to a few of his buddies, and they had set up a closed course. Over the course of the night, the team was going to stop a mugging, prevent a bank robbery, and stop Dr. Picard's evil plan to take over the world with cybernetic soldiers.

While Thomas' Bear was as fast as most cars, Ling and Donnelly couldn't just run to keep up, and so they had their own cars. Ling was riding a Kawasaki Ninja, a small, fast street motorcycle (which she already owned, and was her ride to work before The Nest had been built). Donnelly borrowed a convertible Chevy Camaro from Mr. Stewart's lot.

They drove from the hospital to the start of the closed course with Danielle securely mounted to Thomas' back. While she was otherwise occupied with riding a giant metal bear at 75 MPH, Ling put in her Bluetooth headset and started talking to Winn and Port.

"Is Foster's buddy ready for the mugging?" asked Ling?

"Yes," replied Port. "We're all set up here and ready to go, thank you for asking."

"I'm sorry," said Ling. "I've had a bit on my mind today. I'm concerned about this kid. She's innocent and really sweet, and I don't want to mess this up."

Port was not used to any level of emotional intelligence -- or emotion of any kind, really -- from Ling and didn't speak again for a few moments.

"Alright, Ling, you're approaching the start of the closed course," said Winn. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready."

"Then Godspeed. We'll see you on the other side."

The com line went silent at this point, but Ling knew that Port and Winn were still on the line, listening to everything going on and ready to help at a moment's notice. Ling took comfort in this.

There was a blue line spray painted across the street. That was the start of the closed course.

It was showtime.

Danielle dismounted and ran over to Donnelly and Ling. "That was awesome!" She was all smiles. "Donnelly was telling me about your powers on the way over. Is it true that you can lift a car, Mr. X?"

By way of an answer, Donnelly walked over to a car, and when he had located the right one, slipped his hands under it and pulled the back bumper three or four feet off the ground. He looked over at Danielle, smiled, and then set it down.

"I'm also bulletproof, and I can shoot lasers out of my eyes."

"Ooh, ooh, can you fly?"

"No, but I can jump really high."

"And you, Miss Z. I heard you're a human weapon. What is that like?"

"It's as awesome as it sounds," said Ling, trying her best to sound positive.

In the quiet of a city at sundown, Danielle thought she could hear a woman crying and an angry man shouting at her.

In reality, she was hearing audio piped through the Dolby Atmos sound system installed in the collar of her suit. For one of her superpowers, the team had given her enhanced hearing.

"Hey, guys?" said Danielle. "Did you hear that?"

All three of them turned to her and said in unison, "Hear what?"

"I heard something. It's coming from over there."

And she led quickly to a dark alley until all three of them could hear the same thing she had: the sound of a woman being mugged. They came to the alley right before the woman handed the thief her purse.

"Hey," said Danielle, "what do you think you're doing?"

The thief, seeing the four superheroes, ran.

The four gave chase, Danielle leading the way. Her suit gave her the strength to run and keep up with the rest of them, something she would not have been able to do in her weakened state without help.

As the thief rounded a corner, Donnelly put his hand to his temple and shot a laser from his eyes. He missed, but he put a scorch mark on a building in front of the robber.

This was exactly as it was planned.

"Stop!" yelled Ling. "I could have killed you a dozen times by now if I wanted to. Just give us the purse back; we don't want to hurt you."

The man did stop, and Danielle, not needing an invitation, walked over to him. "The purse." It was a command, regal as a nine-year-old could make it.

The man gave her the purse.

And then Danielle kicked him in the shins.

Donnelly gave the old woman a ride home. It was the least he could do, after roping his mother into something like this.

"I'm glad to see you doing something with your life, son."

"I've been doing something with my life for most of my life now," replied Donnelly. "I'm glad to be doing something good now, though."

"You know what I mean, Caleb."

"I know what you mean, Mom. Thanks for coming along on this crazy caper."

"You're welcome. Be safe out there, alright?"

"I will, Mom."

She got out, and Donnelly waited until she was inside before leaving.

"You'll have to thank your buddy, Foster," said Ling into her microphone while en route to Donnelly's mom's place.

Port handed Foster a mic. He was still at The Nest, awaiting his part in the planned bank robbery. "I would, Ling, but that wasn't my buddy. I'm not sure what the story is."

"Wait," said Port, "if that wasn't your friend, then who was it?"

"I was about to ask the same thing," said Ling.

"I don't know," said Foster, "But I'll figure it out."

"You have to be at the bank in half an hour," reminded Port.

"Hey, Winn?" called Foster.

Winn rolled her eyes. She had been listening to the entire conversation and knew exactly what Foster was going to ask. "Hey, Winn" was quickly becoming her least favorite phrase in the English language.

Donnelly had not heard this conversation. He was listening to his mother, not to his comlink.

It should be further noted that Winn had her hands full. The alley chase had been planned and had only required a single special effect: the laser that came from Donnelly's eyes. The bank robbery was much more complicated. There was a lot that could go wrong, stemming entirely from the fact that there was much less control involved.

The question of who had been doing the mugging would have to wait. Things went off without a hitch, didn't they? Winn now had to work with Port and the rest of the team to make sure the rest of the night went as smoothly.

"Donnelly, Ling, Thomas, are you guys ready?" asked Port.

Ling responded. "Yes. We're in place, ready to head over to the bank as soon as things are ready there."

"Sounds good. I'm routing the 911 call to all... now."

The speakers in Thomas' suit crackled, along with the radios in Ling's ear and Donnelly's jawbone. "We have a 487 in progress, 33 Liberty Street, Financial District, Manhattan."

"That's a bank robbery," said Donnelly, "and that's the address for the Federal Reserve Bank. You guys want to stop a bank robbery?"

His question was greeted with enthusiasm on all sides.

"Then let's go!"

Donnelly got into his Camaro, Ling got on her bike, and Danielle latched onto Thomas' back. Within seconds, they were all soaring across the pavement, headed toward what Danielle thought was the Federal Reserve. It wasn't, but she didn't know that.

"Hey, Donnelly?" asked Port, via comlink.

"Wassup?"

"Wassup? What the... never mind. Foster just went over to join the bank robbery, but just after he arrived, his com went dead. I've got a bad feeling; something is going on here that we don't know about."

Donnelly got serious very quickly. "What are you suggesting?"

"Let's scrub the bank robbery. Skip it. Tell Danielle something -- give me a minute to figure it out -- and then go straight to the final scene."

"Foster probably just forgot to put batteries in his walkie-talkie or something."

"Okay, but we have three other guys in there, and I haven't been able to reach any of them either."

"That's fishy."

"You're telling me."

"Well, someone needs to go and check on them either way."

"We could just let the police handle it," said Port.

"Eh... We're already on the way. Besides, what are you going to tell the police? 'Hi, I work for a secret organization, and we planned a fake bank robbery, but something went wrong, can you go check on our guys?' No, we can handle this."

"For once," said Ling, "I agree with Donnelly. Let's not bother the donut brokers tonight."

"What does Thomas say?" asked Port.

Thomas was talking to Danielle about the bank that was being robbed and while he could hear the conversation, he couldn't answer. Ling pulled up next to him on her bike, and Thomas nodded at her.

"I have a nod from Thomas. We're all in agreement."

"Okay, then. I'll see what information I can give you before you get there."

Donnelly was already doing 70 on a city street. He started wondering if it was safe to go faster than that.

The four arrived at the bank -- a small branch that Mr. Stewart had paid a small fortune to use -- and dismounted. Port and Winn had been unable to provide any useful information about the state of the bank or the people in it.

And so they walked in, Ling leading the way with her Mossberg 500 drawn. Thomas was rolling; it was quieter than walking.

Foster was working with his crew, doing exactly what they had planned: cracking the vault. The plan was that the vault would come open as soon as the four walked into the building.

They paused for a moment.

The vault would come open any second now. If it did, then that was their cue: everything was fine, the robbers just weren't answering their radios for some reason.

The vault didn't come open.

Thomas got on his mic, and after cutting Danielle out of the loop, he started explaining the situation to Winn and Port.

"Why can't I hear Bear?" Danielle asked Donnelly.

"He's talking to our friends at headquarters. Something's not quite right and we're trying to figure it out."

"Oh. Okay. What's not working right?"

"The robbers can't seem to get the vault open. We're supposed to wait to stop them until they have the vault open."

"Why? Can't we just stop them now?"

Donnelly looked at Ling.

Port spoke over Donnelly's jawbone piece. "I don't recommend that. We don't know what's going on here."

Donnelly looked back to Danielle. "We need to follow the plan."

Danielle looked a little disappointed but did not argue.

Winn got back on the communication loop. "So here's the deal. Somehow, we've had multiple equipment failures, both with the radios and with the mechanism that is supposed to open the vault door. The new plan is this: engage them before the door opens since we don't think it's going to. Thomas, put Danielle on your back and go straight in. Ling, take the left flank. Donnelly, the right. Remember that these people know you're coming. Donnelly, use your powers only when we tell you to. Ling, Thomas, try not to hurt anyone, including yourselves?"

Donnelly and Ling nodded, and Thomas relayed their agreement.

"Sounds good. I'm going to start setting up for the final act, but if you need me I still have my earpiece in."

After Thomas and Donnelly had explained the plan to Danielle, they got set up, and then they attacked.

Things went wrong almost immediately. Foster just stood there, not doing anything, while his buddies started taking very real swipes at Donnelly and Ling.

"Hey, Winn-" Thomas had gotten just a couple words out when an EMP wiped out the electronics in his suit, including his radio.

Donnelly's skin had shielded his transmitter a little bit, and he immediately picked up where Thomas had left off while fending off his attackers. "Something is very wrong here, Winn. These are not the people we were expecting, and they are not sticking to the script. We need-" A new man had entered the fray without Donnelly noticing, and his right hook knocked Donnelly speechless. His attackers, taking advantage of his suddenly weakened state, pinned him to the ground and zip-tied his hands and feet together.

Ling, ever the fighter, had broken noses, jaws, and kneecaps, including the removal of several of her attackers' teeth. (She would have to add them to her collection.) Unfortunately, 5 against 1 was long odds for even someone like her and she quickly found herself tied in much the same manner as Donnelly.

The new man stood, wiped the dust from his suit, and addressed the four superheroes in a soft, melodious voice.

"Welcome, Mister Donnelly, Mister Thomas, Miss Ling, and Miss Danielle. Welcome to my bank."

Ling spat out a mouthful of blood and said, "This isn't your bank."

The man laughed, a high, eerie laugh. "It is tonight.

"For a group that calls itself 'The Unnamed'," he used air quotes, "finding you was not very hard. I remember the first time I ran across your organization, almost a year ago when you dealt with a gay conversion facility. I was impressed then, and I have been impressed by your work ever since. Do you remember that man you framed?"

Ling nodded.

"I wondered if you ever felt any guilt about that. But no matter.

"After watching your work for a while, something occurred to me. Yes, at the end of the day, it's you and Donnelly getting stuff done. But you must have a massive support crew. I mean, somebody connected the dots about the drugs going through that school. I can only imagine how much time and energy that took.

"But I grew weary of your constant insistence on serving this arbitrary idea of 'the greater good'. You had the ability to make millions, perhaps billions of dollars, but you spent your time getting dates for teenagers and breaking up Neo-Nazi organizations!

"There is no greater good, only greater profits."

"Who are you?" asked Ling.

"My name is John. I work for a company called Bell Medical. We make everything from bandages to prosthetic legs. I've had my engineers working for years to create the next generation of the wheelchair, something that would restore complete mobility, instead of being constrained by a set of wheels. But they couldn't do it, they said. The costs were too high. The power sources didn't exist.

"And I knew that I couldn't just ask you to build it. I knew that if you built it, you would insist on giving it out for free or something stupid like that. I wanted it for myself, and I wanted you to design it."

"So you conned us into this, using a little girl dying of cancer?"

"Yes."

Ling at this point called John a number of foul and profane names, such that even I, your narrator, will not repeat them.

When she was done, he kept talking.

"Danielle is going with me now. She only has a week left, at most, and her body will be returned to her family as soon after her death as possible."

Donnelly stood up, shook himself off, and looked John in the eye.

"You'll take that girl over my dead body."

Ling saw him, standing tall, bleeding, bruised, soaked in what she hoped was his attackers' blood. He was not thinking clearly, and not quite himself (the blow to his head had knocked some sense out of him) but even in his weakened state, she found him to be the most regal sight she had ever laid eyes on.

"That can be arranged."

John drew a gun from the small of his back and shot Donnelly in the forehead.

Ling, who was kind of halfway up, fell back down and screeched her misery into the linoleum floor of the bank.

John walked over to Thomas, pulled Danielle off of his back, handed her to his goons, stepped over Donnelly's bleeding body and exited the building. Thomas could not exit his suit unless his suit had power, and he sat there, inside his suit, watching helplessly.

Somewhere, deep inside Ling, a fire kindled. This man had killed her friend he was going to die.

Without quite knowing how she did it, she pulled her hands out of the zip-ties, cut her feet loose with one of her knives, and grabbed her Mossberg 500 on the way out the door.

Always, Ling had exercised some level of constraint. She would have none tonight.

"STOP!" she screamed, yelling after John and his goons. "Stop, you filth, you murderers of men and children! Stop, you lousy, flea-bitten pieces of sewage!"

Her voice caught their attention, and her gun held it. They looked scared for a moment.

And then, in a rush of light and sound, the police arrived. Suddenly, the place was swarming with every police officer in a twenty-block radius, along with a SWAT team that had been scrambled from the NYPD central station.

The goons got out of their SUVs, laid down on the ground, and put their hands above their heads. John was thrown across the hood of a police cruiser.

It was over.

Ling felt very tired all of a sudden, and the concrete rushed up to meet her...

The ambulance pronounced Donnelly dead on arrival. Time of death was 10:42 PM.

Danielle died three days later, surrounded by her friends and family. Ling was ill and couldn't be there, but Winn, Port, Thomas, Sergeant Foster, Zach, Kira and Mr. Stewart were all there.

The doctors said that while her experience with The Unnamed hadn't helped her health, it probably didn't hurt her health either. The engineering team took a kind of quiet pride in that.

Donnelly's sacrifice had ensured that both Ling and Danielle walked away from the bank, by stalling for time enough to let the police arrive.

They were buried at the same funeral, Donnelly and Danielle. It seemed right.

Several days after the funeral, once Ling was feeling better, she tracked down Donnelly's boyfriend.

"You have a right to know why Donnelly died."

"I know why Donnelly died."

"No, you know how he died. I want you to know why he died."

And Ling told him about the wonderful things that Donnelly had done.

She told him about the gay conversion facility that he took down.

She told him about the drug ring at Zach's school.

She told him about the bomber he had found, and the girl who found her first real love with his help. She told him about their trip to Vietnam, about sneaking into China.

And she told him a story about a girl named Danielle, and about how in his last moments Caleb Donnelly was strong and regal and brave, and how his last words defended an innocent girl.

And she cried, and he cried, and together they mourned the loss of their best friend.

The Unnamed broke up in the months after Donnelly's death. Ling was never quite the same again. None of them were, really. They all drifted and grieved and got on with their lives. Mr. Stewart kept his think tank together, and together they brought the suit they had designed for Danielle to a much larger audience. They named it after her, and they sold it for the cost of parts and labor.

A year later, Ling received a letter in the mail. It had a return address in Seattle, Washington, but no name.

"Dear Mx. Zhi Ling," it read,

"We have heard of your actions on May 1st, 2017, and we have been watching you since. We run an alternative supermarket in the Seattle area and are hiring a security director.

"We want you to take this position. You have shown time and time again an ability to handle unforeseen situations with grace and integrity, and there is no-one else we would rather have.

"Please state your intentions to this letter, and it will relay your words back to us.

"Yours truly, Andrea Hopkirk, Store Manager at Supernatural Supermarket."

Ling was flabbergasted. She considered it for a few minutes, and then, without meaning to say anything out loud, said, "I guess it's worth a look."

The letter folded itself into an origami eagle and flew away.

Ling had no words for that. She simply thought she had gone insane.

But she had not. As she would soon find out, the store was real, and it truly was supernatural. It was a place where vampires, dragons, ghosts, werewolves, griffins, shades, and other forms of not-officially-recognized life could come and do their shopping.

And Ling? Why, she was to be in charge of protecting it.

To the end of her days, Ling never forgot about Donnelly. He was sweet, and kind, and good. And when, in her advanced age, she went the way of all the earth, she whispered below her breath, "I'm coming Donnelly, I'm coming."

And that brings this series to a close. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Ling will be returning to this blog for my next series, Supernatural Supermarket.

I am going on hiatus for the next three months. I have some responsibilities to take care of that prevent me from writing.

I’ll see you all around Valentine's Day!

#the unnamed #social justice special forces #action #this is probably never going to happen #but it would be nice #lesbian #gay #transgender #bisexual #queer #intersex #asexual #everything else #tv #movie

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