#leela watches the untamed

[presidentromana]

Fantasy AU for the Gallifrey OT4?

 This started off as headcanons and ended up more like a fic, oops 

The Time Lords are the fae. They’re terrifying and cleverand dangerous and wild and the laws of Time and Space mean nothing to them. Butthey are bound by rules and words and truths.

In this Universe, of course the Doctor still flouts everysocial convention of his species and engages with mortals on their own terms,befriending them rather than tricking them into oaths and promises they nevermeant to make. He’s remarkably merciful, some of the time, but it’d be amistake to assume he’s not as much a master of trickery as any of the Fair Folk.Especially seven. You really would not want to mess with fae seven.

Leela’s one of the manypeople the Doctor’s spirited away to his realm but unlike his brethren heusually returns them to wherever they’ve came from. The problem is they’reusually too changed by the experience to want to return to their old life. Heusually insists that they return to their reality, knowing how easily theycould get lost in the woods, how easily they could fade away in a world notmeant for them, how the air becomes poison to their bodies, given enough time.

Leela outright refuses. Shejourneys through its wilds, armed with only her knife and her wits andsurvives, for a while. Without the Doctor to watch her back she knows she hasto keep her guard up and she swears to never trust any of the Fair Folk.

And then she meets Romana, Queen of the Unseelie Court.

She’s beautiful, in the way that makes men lose their mindson moors, that makes maids stumble into faerie rings and Leela can’t pretend tobe entirely immune to her charms. But she sees there’s something more to herthan majesty and power- an innate curiosity that the others lack, a yearning tomove beyond the trappings of tradition.

At first she regards Leela as one would a mildly interestingpet but Leela challenges her and proves her tongue is as sharp and quick as herknife. She ends up with her knife at the throat of a being who could undo herentire existence in a blink of an eye.  

For a moment, her eyes flash gold and Leela finds herselfblown back to the floor. She meets Romana’s eyes, wondering if she’s crossed aline that should never have been breached but then a smile breaks across herface and for a moment Leela can’t imagine there’s anything false about her.That, she knows, is her first mistake.

“Brax,” she says, “I believe I’ve found my new bodyguard.”

“My lady, surely-“

“I’ve made my decision.”

“She’s not even immortal, what protection could she possiblyprovide?”

“Precisely. I resent the implication I cannot defend myselfand she’s heaps more interesting than anyone you’ll try to push on me. She’llbe a breath of fresh air for the Court, as gratifying as surrounding one’s selfwith sycophants can be.”

“My mortal ears can still hear you.” said Leela.

“My lady.” said Brax, with the defeated air of someone whohas lost many a similar battle.

Leela knows better than to reject the job offer. She doubtsRomana’s petty enough to smite her where she stood, but there were subtler waysto exact revenge and though it’s foolish, some part of her wants to make Romanasmile again.

She soon learns not to underestimate Braxiatel. He doesn’thave the same presence as Romana does, the way she feels like the forest andthe winds and the Winter and the Summer and the untamed wilds, all at once, sheerpower coated in a skin and shape that can’t be her own but she begins tosuspect it’s by design. Far better to be underestimated, to sink into thebackground, to be a kingmaker rather than a king. It’s never the kingmakers whoend up on the executioner’s block.

And though he can’t be much older than the Doctor, he feels ancient, even in a court full ofimmortals, like he’s living his life out of order. She thinks he might be theonly member of the Fair Folk who can lie without consequence. Or perhaps theconsequences just haven’t been able to catch up with him yet.

And then there’s Narvin. Romana warns her about him earlyon- he’s a cait sithe, a soul stealer who can melt into the shadows, not to betrusted. He’s rumoured to have the guile and boldness to spy on even the faeriequeen herself.

Leela has no trouble heeding her advice, he reeks of secretsand has nothing but disdain for mortals. Not that that’s uncommon at the Court.Fortunately, she’s adept at seeing the holes in their truths and Romana’sprotections shields her from the worst of their trickery. Few are willing torisk the anger of the Queen (Leela is one of them.)

“It is wrong,Romana.” Leela says one day. “I understand when a species hunts for itssurvival but you hunt for amusement. You bring mortals here, intentionally, orlet them wander in. You play with them and then when they no longer interestyou, when you grow bored, or they forget a rule,you throw them away, let them get lost in the woods or doom them to someeternal punishment.”  

“It’s how we work, Leela, how we always have. We’re notknown for leniency.”

“You can be kind, I know you can.”

“Kind, “she agreed, “but not merciful. It goes against ournature, our laws.”

“You do not care for the Old Laws any more than I do, I knowyou do not. And things are changing, you must feel it as strongly as I do, theoutside world is changing.”

“And why should we change with it?”

“If you don’t, you will one day regret it. You are not as separatefrom the rest of the Universe as you like to think.”

“Did the Doctor tell you that?”

“Did he tell you that?” the Queen of the court didn’t reply.“What’s the fun in being Queen if you cannot break any rules?”

She raised an eyebrow. “It’s not supposed to be fun.”

“What is it supposed to be?”

“Duty.” She replied. “I’ll consider what you’ve said.”

Leela nodded and then frowned, as if something had justoccurred to her. “Don’t do it for me.   Don’t do it in some attempt to win my affection. Only do it if you thinkit is your duty.”

Romana started to change things. Quietly, slowly, at first, afterall, she had an eternity. She hoped if she did it gradually enough no one wouldnotice, that they’d turn around in a millennia and realise their society hadbecome almost unrecognisable but decide it was too late to do anything aboutit.

But people did notice and eventually the rest of the Courtcouldn’t ignore it.

Darkel was the first to protest. “You can’t ignore the waysof old; you’ve grown arrogant, you’re not above the Old Laws.”

Soon her voice was joined by many and she felt even thebuildings and the forest turning against her.

Ironically, in her attempt to engineer the future, sheturned to the past, digging up edicts older than even the Old Laws, ones thatcould give her more power than any one entity could conceivably possess.

She invokes her rights and feels something ancient andterrible running through her veins and it feels right. But what the myths and legends forgot to tell her was thatthe ancient, terrible power had a name. Pandora.

Leela watches her, concern in her gaze. “What’s wrong?

Her eyes turn the same shade of gold as when they’d firstmet. She smiled. “Nothing.”

Believing her was her last mistake.

[wombathos]

jgy really went from staring at jin ling with love and adulation to not taking his eyes off jgs for a second when he’s told he’s not allowed to hold the baby,, this man will not even blink,, head empty, no thoughts but murder

[wombathos]

what is my favourite bit of evidence for nieyao, you ask? well it’s this moment where wei wuxian uses empathy to go through nie mingjue’s memories and in them nie mingjue tells meng yao about how he remembers the commander telling him about meng yao acting suspiciously and they show that encounter until the commander leaves but then instead of ending the scene, it has this moment where meng yao just... arranges his robes and I guess it’s meant to make him look evil? but like it’s one of his best looks lbr

anyway the commander is gone by this point and since this is meant to be wwx looking at nmj’s memories who is remembering talking to the commander, the logical conclusion at this stage is clearly that nmj imagined meng yao arranging his clothes in a faintly malevolent manner just the same way he imagined all the other evil looks meng yao does during the empathy scenes. you think this is just the director communicating meng yao’s calculating nature to the audience by showing how he drops the customer service smile when nobody’s watching?? no you fools it’s meant to show us nmj’s moral predicament by telling us that he believes that meng yao is evil but unfortunately also sexy and he doesn’t know what to do about that

you want proof? the scene is introduced like this:

commander leaves here:

then he brush:

in conclusion: this meng yao is a figment of nmj’s imagination which is a shame since it was a good look on him but also maybe he does arrange his robes in evil ways when nobody’s looking and nmj was right on this one. I rest my case.

[wombathos]

so it has been admittedly a.... while since I watched fatal journey and I know I disagreed about this with a friend at the time so it’s probably also controversial but... uh. that thing where jin guangyao gave nie huaisang the evil music to play to nmj and that’s what made nhs realise jgy was up to no good... that was dumb, right? that feels like it’s selling both of those characters for stupid, whether it’s jgy practically begging nmj’s loyal brother (who he knows is more artistically inclined than nmj!!) to put two and two together or whether it’s nhs... needing what amounts to a big neon sign over jgy’s head to begin figuring out what’s been going on. is there... any reading of that plot point that makes sense for the characters?

[wombathos]

nie huaisang just kinda going ‘you’re here too, huh’, as you do when you’re both hostages of some crazed douche living through one hell of a power trip as he vies for the prize of worst teacher ever

[wombathos]

peak aesthetic is standing amidst bodies strewn on the ground asking why have you all stopped talking, what an icon

[wombathos]

wei wuxian and jiang cheng may not agree on much, but they can both take a moment in this tense hostage situation to scold their nephew - and I think that’s beautiful

[wombathos]

what I’m still looking for more of in jin guangyao-centric fic (and if I just haven’t been reading the right jgy fic please lmk) is stuff that just hammers in the sheer tragedy of his whole life and like, doubles down on it. yes I want fix-its yes I want missing scenes and character studies and and and (and I’ve read a lot of great stuff!!), but what imho there is simply not enough of is both canon-compliant and canon-divergent stuff that just whacks the reader over the head with how every choice made leads to misery, how every facet of jgy’s character that was shaped to be that way by the society he lives in leads to a painful outcome, the catch 22 of his entire existence that is basically impossible to escape. I’m thinking time loops, I’m thinking meta kinda whacky stuff where jgy is forced to confront his role in a narrative where he ultimately cannot escape being cast as a villain, I’m thinking time-travel fix-its except it’s not a fix-it where jgy makes entirely different choices and still ends up utterly miserable. and dead. oh yeah I’m also thinking lxc being put through this same hell but from an outside perspective, where he gets the chance to ‘fix things’ and just fails and fails and fails because this son of a prostitute taught by society to be obsessed with status cannot stop chasing what will end up destroying him, how he is pushed down on a self-destructive path simply by existing... I want lxc to keep trying and trying to save jgy but just be gradually crushed by the sheer inevitability of it all. aborted redemption arcs, or actual redemption arcs where somebody just immediately executes him at the end of it because people like that can’t just be forgiven. let jgy be a better person and make less horrible choices but it to still not be enough to save him - or even worse(?), where he dies in obscurity, having never risen that high but also not falling so low. jgy hovering around/travelling through time as a ghost, hearing everything said about him and revisiting every choice that led him to where he ended up. AUs where everything is different except that jgy’s path still leads to an unaltered terrible ending - and every choice that led him there is crystal clear and horribly inevitable. the illusion that things might turn out differently this time that’s ultimately snatched away. yeah that’s right I want pain, I want tragedy, I just want to take that note of hopelessness in the canonical story and dig into it, make it really last. anyway yes that’s where I’m at these days

[wombathos]

is this not the ideal ship dynamic

[wombathos]

tfw you get turned on by death threats

[wombathos]

nie mingjue: *moves*

jiggy: time to get out of range real fast!

[wombathos]

tfw you secretly have serious notice me, senpai feelings about your heroic antagonist who did some really cool demonic culivation back in the day

[wombathos]

while jiggy is mostly just Hurting here, the way his gaze remains fixed on jin guangshan also has a real vibe of murder: an option? and I for one support it

[wombathos]

one of the greatest injustices of the untamed is in episode 23 when jiggy gets the creepy evil music treatment when he’s explaining himself to nie mingjue, even though he’s done nothing at this point to warrant the creepy evil music treatment

[wombathos]

Do you think Meng Yao freed xue yang?

uh I’ll be honest, my first reaction when someone asks me about the actual canon of untamed/mdzs is to head for the hills. but then again it is a show-specific thing and I don’t think we get definite confirmation either way, so it is up for debate!

but tbh personally I always assumed he very much did? like it’s partly just my internal occam’s razor at play, the main other suspect would be the nie sect captain and even meng yao never really came up with much of a convincing explanation for why that’s something the captain would be doing, did he. I just rewatched ep 10 and honestly the whole thing is still a little unclear to me - if someone has some information I missed lmk, but since the bit it replaces in the novel.... feels a bit more logical even if there’s also more gaps, a part of me just (perhaps uncharitably) assumes it was a way for the show of letting us know early on that meng yao is a bit sus

in-universe, however, given the way he looks when there’s the duel between nmj and wen zhuliu, it’s kind of like... well, he knows why the wen’s are on their doorstep, he can see with his own two eyes that they’re not really in a great position to handle an invasion, so I reckon he just decided to cut their losses? it strikes me as quite a practical assessment of the situation, motivated in part of a sense of self-preservation, but also actual loyalty towards the nie sect and not wanting to see them doomed either. and... well, if that commander just happens to be around and he might just happen to make a convenient fall guy/evidence of wen misconduct... well, you know how it is

idk I’m still pretty unsure about this but the way I see it going in my head is meng yao going ‘actually I would prefer for us not all to die just so xue yang remains imprisoned’ but just as he’s taking him to hand over to the wen lads... something happens, whether it’s wen-caused chaos or him being discovered by nie sect people, xue yang is set loose on the world once more and a lot of those nie disciples end up meeting an unfortunate death courtesy of him, and meng yao decides that rather than being blamed for this he’d much rather take his extremely well-deserved revenge on that nasty commander. if this was what happened, it may have been a good call not to confess all that to nmj, though I’d advise him to come up with a better alibi for his coming murders than ‘it wasn’t me!’ when you were just seen stabbing the guy

[wombathos]

jiggy straight up grabbing lan xichen’s robes to hide behind him?? the way he’s cringing a little and looking down like ‘please don’t hurt me’?? lan xichen standing in front of him to shield him from nmj??? it’s a lot it’s a lot