#who let huaisang have a blog

[madtomedgar]

I thought being a jiaojiao stan was hard but nonny truly is the most oppressed member of this fandom out here defending jgs like. Even his own friends didn't do that!

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

~*~

1. This is a bit out of the way but I was wondering if you guys could help me find a certain twitter thread about, like, a huge family dinner with the mdzs characters where "who is going to pay the bill" devolves into hijinks and a lot of politeness judo. and ends with nie huaisang going "i paid the bill while i was in the toilet"

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2. Hey there 👋🏻 some time ago I read an unfinished wangxian pirate fic I can’t seem to find anymore. I remember that there was a protective veil between the sea and the land that was simultaneously a veil between life and death somehow (I think it hasn’t been explained properly yet in the fic) and LWJ is stationed at the could recess lighthouse to keep the light burning and WWX washes ashore half dead. LWJ saves him even though he realises he should probably kill him or turn him in. LWJ thinks he is running from the YLLZ but he is running from Wen Chao. Does one of you know that fic?

FOUND! ghosts of all things that are by larkspur_9, Song_of_Storms (T, 29k, WIP, WangXian, Pirate AU, Fantasy, Lighthouse keeper LWJ, Steampunk, Angst, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Porn)

~*~

3. Do u know of a fic where baoshan sanren saves wei ying from dying and transfers her core to him thus making him her heir?

FOUND!  Ghosts Shouldn't by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 15k, wangxian, canon divergence, grief/mourning, angst w/ happy ending)

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4. Hi! could you guys help me find a fic? I never actually read it lol But the summary was something like why does Lan Wangji like it when Wei Wuxian cries during sex? When I first saw it I was like no. But I didn't forget the summary and now I'm so curious! But I can't find it. Thank you.

FOUND? oh, these are real things by typefortydeductions (E, 15k, wangxian, modern, kink negotiation, under-negotiated kink, safewording, light BDSM, dom/sub, fisting, sex tears, panic attacks, top drop)

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5. Heyyy uhm... The fic was in a modern setting where WY just got out of prison or smth like that (because of Lan elders) and then LZ is starting to plan things to get out of his uncle's clutches. A scene I remember was them fighting because LZ did not fight for WY when he was accused or something. It's also like they're a businessmen. Thanks!!! And they have teenager a-yuan here.

FOUND? Life as a House by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (T, 55k, WangXian, Modern AU, Corporate Espionage, Post-Divorce, Father-Son Relationship, Reconciliation, Therapy, Angst with a happy ending)

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6. Hi hope all is well, I do enjoy your blog it's awesome... I hoping that you can help me please I read a fanfic a couple weeks ago however, I forgot to bookmark it. It's a fanfic written after Wei Ying let's go of Lan Zhan's hand falls and supposedly dies, Lan Zhan is punished and grounded. Wei Ying in this story apparently stays with Lan Zhan at cloud recesses but as a ghost or spirit of sorts and sees the punishment and pain and hurt Lan Zhan goes through. Have you any idea what fanfic is this. I'd be grateful for your help thanks much. This is all I have to go on I'm not sure of the other details in the story as I've read so much in between then and now sorry I can't give anymore info to help you.. have a great day and thanks again for your help tc

FOUND? Ghosts Shouldn’t by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 15k, wangxian, canon divergence, grief/mourning, angst w/ happy ending)

~*~

7. HI HELLO I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR SO LONG FOR THIS ONE MDZS FIC

ok real quick before i continue, there's a trigger warning for attempted suicide so if ur not cool with that then np :)

but yeah wwx gets transfered back to the time where he was studying in cloud recess, and he comes to it when lqr is calling him. he goes "I cant do this again" books it and throws himself off a cliff. HE SURVIVES!!! the lan sect are devealoping a "mind healing" technique (basically therapy) and he does that. the jiang sect gets letters to go to cloud recess and wwx resigns from the Jiang sect bc he believes that everything Madam Yu said was true.

I think there was jiang yanli's interlude where she got the letter and overheard Madam Yu say smth along the lines of "so what that brat had the urge to fling himself off a cliff for attention" and jian fengmian agreed with her :/ Jiang siblings are very conserned ab wwx. oh and jin zixuan is there and escorts yanli around for a walk and its rlly sweet

in the mean time, wwx decideds k!lling himself isn't the answer and that he should at least stick around to make sure nothing that happened in the original time line happens again. i think it had like 20 chapters and was incomplete, and the summary says smth like "wwx wakes up in his teenage body and decidedly does not take it well" but I cant remember :(( thank you sm i rrly want to find this fic pls tag me if u do :) @vanitasthepainting

FOUND! Without end by barisan (M, 65k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time travel, Hurt/comfort, Angst, Suicide attempt, YZY & JFM Bashing, PTSD, BAMF WWX)

~*~

8. Hey so I've been looking for a couple fics for a while, i dont know if they were deleted or if i just cant find them because its been So long.

A) the first fic is where Wei Ying leaves the Jiang sect (dont know if its by his own violation or Madam Yus) and he meets meng yao his mother and sisi, but soon after madam yu sends yinzu and jinzu to kill him and they all leave and soon meet xue yang and the dafan wens.

B) the other fic is where Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have a one night stand of sorts and Wei Yong ends up having a little girl and the jiang siblings are really supportive and protective and they keep the little girl a secrer in fear that the Lan sect will take her away and a few years later she is found out and their is a discussion confernce in qinghe and Lan Zhan gets all jealous because the little girl is climbing all over nie Mingjue.

if you could find those for me it would be very thankfull 😂🥰 @fanfic-discussions

8A)

FOUND? Sounds a lot like The Debts of a Child series by Hauntcats (M, 57k, jiangs & WWX, wangxian, canon divergence, not jiang friendly, angst w/ happy ending, WIP) specifically the second one in the series

8B)

FOUND?🧡 Don't Wanna Fall by nekojita (M, 111k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, A/B/O, Sort Of, with a twist?, Mpreg, Child thief WN, Fix-It)

~*~

9. Hi! Thank you for all the wonderful work you are doing, this blog has brought me a lot of joy. I am looking for a fic where JC and WY fell out after trying to save JYL  from drowning when she was caught in a net underwater. And WY had to keep diving down to give her air, and he was really exhausted and delirious afterwards. JC got really angry at him. And the fic is about how JC had to do something similar and realised how difficult it was and tried to reconcile with WY. Hopefully that’s enough info, I can’t remember much else! Thanks very much :)

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10. Hello modss!! I hope ur doing well. I'd really like some help in finding this fic. It was after the siege and Wwx was alive he was taken by someone (?) xiao xingchen? I dont remember but it was to heal him. And there was a plot to take down the jins. During the time he was away i think he kept talking to ayuan like a ghost. and at the end when everything settled wwx returns to gusu and ayuan says baba/mama(?) is home. Thank you in advance 🥺.

FOUND? Ghosts Shouldn’t by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 15k, wangxian, canon divergence, grief/mourning, angst w/ happy ending)

~*~

11. Hi! I'm looking for a fic where lwj is a ghost and wwx can see him and they investigate his death and lwj is revived in the end or something. Thank you!!!

FOUND? lovers be lost (but love shall not) by la_muerta (T, 13k, wangxian, 1910s au, arranged marriage, ghost marriage, case fic, happy ending)

FOUND? Red Is Just Black Remembering by Zizzani (E, 41k, wangxian, angst w/ happy ending, ghosts, modern)

~*~

12. Hello! I looked through the ficfinder backlog & didn't see this one, and would love some help. Found or not, thank you!! It's a post-canon fic where NHS finds WWX wandering around without any support and brings him back to the Unclean Realm, but it's not nirejseki's Gone Shopping. It's longer and has NHS and WWX starting a school, and the Nie sect demanding WWX get paid/respect for his talismans, and WWX pines for LWJ and the Nie sect/NHS scheme to get them together. @ladymordecai

FOUND? Story-Shaped by lingering_song (T, 13k, wangxian, NHS & WWX, post-canon, chief cultivator LWJ, inventor WWX, found family, alcohol, protective NHS, not JC friendly)

~*~

13. Hi! I'm looking for a smut fic I read some months ago. (If smut requests aren't OK, please ignore this message!) What I remember is that it was a modern AU where WWX was LWJ's pet (like, for sex, not a literal animal). I have an impression that it might've been some type of omegaverse (WWX definitely wasn't fully human), but I can't find it anywhere in those tags, so maybe it was something else? Thanks for your help!

FOUND! Forever Home by fishhflake (E, 3k, WangXian, Modern AU, PWP, Master/Pet, Rabbit Hybrid WWX, Breasts, Boypussy, Shameless Smut)

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14. Hi I'm looking for a fic I read when I 1st entered this fandom. It was XiYao and Wangxian. WQ and the Lans helped WWX rebuild his golden core. The one clear scene I remember was LXC and JGY together on Phoenix Mountain watching WWX manipulate Subian from a distance. They were impressed with how much WWX improved in a few short months. Thank you!! @themlb37

FOUND! Becoming the Phoenix by Branch (E, 60k, XiYao, XuanLi, WangXian, Drama, Romance, Politics, Fluff, Angst, Porn, Action, Canon Divergence, Canon - Chinese Drama)

~*~

15. Hello! I've been trying to find this fanfiction but i don't really remember the name but there's this one scene i remember where lwj is taking peanuts from a bag from someone (which i think is wwx?) just to not speak with a lan elder (I also remember that in the summary it says that the lan elders hate/despite lwj for using the rules for an advantage or something like that) I hope this is the correct format for asking, Have a great day!

FOUND Following the Rules by BegrudginglyTumbling (SarcasticSmiler) (T, 2k, wangxian, gusu lan rules, fluff & humor, LWJ being a little shit)

~*~

16. Hello mods! I hope you're doing well! I was wondering if you guys could help me find a fanfiction that I've been searching for but can't find. I remember that it's about wwx who died and came back either as a ghost or a fierce corpse during the sungshot campaign, I'm not sure if he died when he was thrown into the burial mounds, but I remember that he helped them win the war and then passed on peacefully after, I remember that they knew he was a ghost too.

Hello! It's #16 from the Last fic Finder, unfortunately it is not that one:( if I remember correctly, wwx passed on as soon as the battle was over, on the battlefield.

NOT FOUND! Liberation by bonyenne (T, 9k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Body Horror, Fierce Corpse WWX, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mojo’s Post)

~*~

17. Hi there! I was wondering if anyone knows about this fic in which instead of mo xuanyu, Lan wangji was the one who sacrificed his body for wwx, idk if there is a happy ending or not.

FOUND! for you, all for you「 给你, 都给你 」 by headBONDmeLWJ (T, 3k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, major character death, canon divergence, angst, hurt/comfort)

NOT FOUND! While my guqin gently weeps by nival_kenival (T, 1k, LXC & LWJ, wangxian, major character death, angst, unhappy ending, WWX revival, hurt no comfort)

~*~

18. Hi I’m looking for a fic where wangxian are married and it’s a modern au! They’ve been married 10+ years and lwj suggests experimenting with a younger colleague of his (mxy I believe) and wy doesn’t like this but doesn’t make his feeling totally clear. I believe they have a 3some and wy and lwj go through a rough patch but it has a happy ending! I appreciate any help, I really can’t find this anywhere!!

FOUND! give something new a try by ilip13 (M, 12k, wangxian, LWJ/WWX/MXY, modern, established relationship, angst w/ happy ending, married life, insecurity, jelaousy, making up, metioned threesome, pov alternating)

~*~

19. Thank you for all your hard work! You guys are awesome. My problem is that I’m horrible at tags. Using them, reading them like I’m supposed to, paying attention for instances such as these…

I’m looking for a modern wangxian covid quarantine fic. I know wangxian are attending university in America. WWX must take courses continuously in order to keep his scholarship/stipend, maybe even his visa status. I think he’s majoring in medicine. In order to maintain his status and meet the requirements, he enrolls in LQR’s livestream ancient poetry class (thinking it would be relatively easy). He spots the beautiful but cold and aloof LWJ in his zoom class window and immediately develops a crush on him. LWJ is instantly annoyed with the student that leaves the voice-altering bunny filter on during every serious class discussion - even if he does make intelligent observations and salient points. WWX spends too much time talking about his crush on LWJ to his quarantine-trapped flatmates, JC and NHS. I think LQR picks WWX to be LWJ’s poetry project partner and they spend a lot of time alone together in a separate classroom screen where LWJ plays the guqin for WWX to draw/paint him playing for their assignment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

FOUND? I Would like to Be There Beside You by istartedtheapocalypse (T, 15k, WangXian, Modern AU, College AU, Long-Distance Relationship, Mutual Pining, Some Angst)

~*~

20. Hello, do you know of a time travel fic in which Wei Ying realizes that Jiang Yanli is not as good as he thought and finds out that when she makes the soup in the camp during the sunshot campaign she uses the little rations that they have. I more or less remember that the Jin have a trial and Jiang Yanli and Peacock live a common life without riches. Please help me find it is a very nice fic

FOUND? In Which Soup is NOT the Solution by such_stuff_as_dreams_are_made_on (Not Rated, 5k, WIP, WangXian, WWX & JZX, Canon Divergence, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Enemies to Friends, Somebody Lives/Not everyone dies)

~*~

[jaimebluesq]

I posted 1,420 times in 2022

That's 750 more posts than 2021!

245 posts created (17%)

1,175 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cerusee

@ibijau

@dgcatanisiri

@ntnttalksnothing

@fortune-maiden

I tagged 928 of my posts in 2022

Only 35% of my posts had no tags

#nie huaisang - 97 posts

#the untamed - 42 posts

#sangcheng - 40 posts

#writing process - 35 posts

#wip wednesday - 30 posts

#nie mingjue - 28 posts

#jiang cheng - 28 posts

#for future reference - 26 posts

#wei wuxian - 21 posts

#omfg - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 128 characters

#but you suggest two boys or two girls might like each other as more than friends and it's suddenly “stop forcing kids to be gay”

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

What My Favourite Ships Say About Me

I've seen a few "What your favourite (insert X fandom) ship says about you" videos and posts, and thought I'd make my own about some of MY favourite pairings (spoiler - they're all NHS based - big surprise to anyone who follows me >.<), all of which I have written before.

Be warned, I poke fun at them and myself - this is all for shits and giggles :D

If anyone wants to use this as an excuse to make their own, please do! The more the merrier!

So let's start with the biggest one...

SangCheng

SangChengSu

See the full post

93 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

#4

Have seen talk of non-fatal and non-romantic hanahaki and the following beast entered my brain.

Jiang Cheng

He starts coughing up lavender-tinted petals as a child. Everyone thinks it's from an unrequited crush and thinks it's cute and will go away on its own one day. Nobody really notices the petals are the same shade as Jiang Fengmian's robes nor that they get worse after Wei Wuxian is brought to Lotus Pier.

After WWX enters the family, some of the petals start taking on an aqua/teal colouring, and they always come on strongest after a derisive scolding from Madame Yu about how he's not enough and he can't allow the son of a servant to show him up.

The day WWX leaves with the Wen remnants, scarlet-tinted petals join the mix. Eventually Jiang Yanli marries and leaves Lotus Pier and every time she sees JC, her first words are always about WWX or Jin Zixuan - petals of blended purple and gold join the mix.

And then JC is left completely alone with a tiny child in his arms.

He does his best to push through his grief and do his duties to sect and nephew, by now long used to the frequent petals brought up every day.

One day he's holding Jin Ling and the baby says his first word - Jiujiu.

Another day, the nanny brings JL to JC's office and puts him on the ground - the baby gets up onto wobbly legs and takes his first steps, hands reaching out for JC.

And one day JC realizes that the only times he coughs up petals anymore is when he prays at the ancestral shrine, thinking on the family he lost. And even those eventually peter away as time scabs over the wounds in his heart.

By this time, JC knows what the petals meant.

When WWX comes back from the dead, JC fears the petals will come back.

They almost do - for a moment he coughs and feels something in his throat when he watches WWX leave with LWJ... and then Jin Ling is before him, asking if he's all right, all love and concern under a tough/snarky veneer. Just like his uncle.

He never worries about coughing up a petal again.

152 notes - Posted June 20, 2022

#3

Nie Sect headcanon of the day:

The Nie traditionally prefer riding horses to flying their sabers. They let the other sects think its for aesthetics or because their sabers are too heavy. In reality, it's because their saber spirits are terrible backseat drivers and never shut up the whole journey.

202 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

#2

Watch "【Multi Sub】《#陈情令之乱魄》/ Fatal Journey 祖传刀墓事件跌宕起伏 明玦怀桑再续陈情令不朽传奇【玄幻 | 肖战 王一博 | iQIYI大电影-欢迎订阅】" on YouTube

Guess what movie is now on Youtube?!?!

Posting for everyone who hasn't yet gotten their fill of the Nie Bros feels and Nie Huaisang's epic kubrick stare.

242 notes - Posted September 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Today I was made aware that this image exists - I will NEVER be the same!!!!!

1,010 notes - Posted April 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mousieta]

I posted 626 times in 2022

78 posts created (12%)

548 posts reblogged (88%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dangermousie

@lasenbyphoenix

@fan-man-huaisang

@griseldagimpel

@isaksbestpillow

I tagged 341 of my posts in 2022

Only 46% of my posts had no tags

#kinnporsche - 39 posts

#dmbj - 27 posts

#mousie watches bl - 22 posts

#love between fairy and devil - 18 posts

#vegaspete - 17 posts

#180 degree longitude passes through us - 15 posts

#big dragon - 12 posts

#mousie writes - 12 posts

#mousie squeaks - 11 posts

#guardian - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#when grown ups know themselves and fuck up in deeper and more devastating ways *because* they know more and are better at self sabotage

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I think there is some Meta that can be taken from 180 Degree Longitute Passes Through Us, an extrapolation of the very personal story of In and Wang.

There is a certian trauma for us Queers of a certain age who had to grow up and live our lives and make choices based on scripts written for us by deeply homophobic societies. Now, in a world that has changed so drastically but that still clings to the vestiges of its homophobia it feels like we have to confront those choices, the things we did to just survive.

Some of us didn't survive (Siam), and some of us made choices that hurt those around us (In). And some chose to remain blind and cling to harmful institutions that leave us stunted (Mol).

Wang's anger at these systems feels so righteous and powerful, as does his absolution. He represents the generation that comes after the shackles have been loosened, as the healing can now begin and we can connect to the parts of ourselves we may have hidden from for decades out of grief and shame and fear.

59 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

#4

The moment I emotionally invested:

oh.

67 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#3

Made a gif for all your judgy reaction needs

68 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#2

Livewatch Thoughts: Kei x Yaku

Episode 1

This show is doing exactly what I need it to do right off the bat (thank you @dangermousie​ but also why did I let you tempt me into a live airing show with only one episode out!?!??)

First off we start with sickly sweet couply nonsense and then devolve right into the **MurDer** 

Con, right off the bat is yes, we are gonna fridge a girl to get some man angst and motivation. Its going to be the premise of the show. Perfectly fine if that isn’t your thing (it’s an annoyance in my book) so warning in advance - and the fridging is violent and shown pretty early on and repeatedly.

Pro is that the character work going on is exquisite. Shiro is a young Yakuza boss shown in bed with another man. Everything about him screams danger and he weilds a sultry sexuality like a weapon, always calculating. Ichiro is an undercover cop tasked with getting close to him - but also desperate to solve the case of the missing girl - his mentor on the force.

The air between the two positively crackles with intensity and it is so. very. very. gay.

See the full post

95 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The bagel and the googly eye are two major symbols of this film. Not only is it a surprisingly apt and humorous take on yin and yang, but in the same stroke it explores concepts central to Buddhist philosophy. To boil down more than 2,000 years of Buddhist discourse – it is thought that all things exist only through our perception of said things. Therefore, they are without inherent meaning. They’re empty.

...

Through the googly-eyed lens, we gain the power to control our infinite emptiness. Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), the dorky husband of Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), reminds her through simple kindness that there is value where you want to create it and meaning where you choose to see it. In Buddhist thought, it’s our compassion that grounds us – makes us human – and emptiness isn’t the mark of nihilism and despair but an opportunity to leave behind the bad and cherish the good.

533 notes - Posted May 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[muqingseyeroll]

i feel like i should make a post saying what my blog is about. i mostly use tumblr on mobile (i know), and mostly i just kinda use it casually, lurking around, and saving/rbing stuff that i like. so don’t expect too much organization or original content here. but the stuff i do make myself, i tag with #made by suna.

i’m (currently) into danmei/bl, which this blog is mostly dedicated to. but again i am a disorganized mess so i will probably like and rb other stuff on here too.

if you know any good gl media set in ancient asia, please please please let me know because i am desperate for it but cannot find it anywhere :C

i consume most danmei in chinese since i grew up in china and am a native speaker, so sometimes i may be confused about the english names of places/things/people’s titles in these works. please be gentle ^_^

if you scroll down far enough you can find random stuff i rb’d before i really knew how tumblr worked and before i got into danmei so you can just ignore them :’)

under the cut: what i’ve watched/read, what’s next on my list, and my sloppy tagging system. i might update it whenever, or not. we’ll see c:

here is the list of things i’ve read/watched/am into:

mo dao zu shi / grandmaster of demonic cultivation by mxtx

i’ve watched chen qing ling / the untamed (live action adaptation)

i’ve read the book

i’ve watched the q animation

i’m a few eps into the animated adaptation but i need a subscription to continue so i put it on pause for now

have not listened to the audio dramas

my ships:

lan wangji/wei wuxian, lan xichen/jin guangyao

my no-no ships:

jiang cheng/wei wuxian, jiang cheng/wen qing, wei wuxian/wen qing

ships that i don’t feel too much about either way:

jiang cheng/nie huaisang, 3zun

any of the junior ships (they’re all so cute together, any pair would work well tbh lmao)

tian ya ke / faraway wanderers by priest

i’ve watched shan he ling / word of honor (live action adaptation)

have not watched the shl concert

have not read the book

started a little bit on the prequel book qi ye / lord seventh

my ships:

wen kexing/zhou zishu, ye baiyi/rong changqing, cao weining/gu xiang, jing beiyuan/wuxi (basically all the canon ships)

du pusa/qiao luohan (the two ladies out of the four scorpion assassins)

luo fumeng/liu qianqiao (tragicomic ghost/beauty ghost)

my no-no ships:

ye baiyi/wen kexing (seriously who came up with this? no judgment to people who enjoy it but personally it’s really not for me lmao)

ships that i feel neutral about:

hanwenzhou

tian guan ci fu / heaven official’s blessing by mxtx

i’ve watched season 1 of the animated adaptation

i’m looking forward to the live action adaptation!! (hopefully airing in 2023) i’m not sure what name it’s going by yet

i’ve just started on the book

and a long time ago i’ve watched nirvana in fire / lang ya bang, which is not bl but is still a great period drama. 10/10 recommend

on my list next, in no particular order, are the following:

svsss

2ha

sha po lang

qiang jin jiu

love between fairy and devil (bg, not bl)

kinnporsche (thai, not chinese)

hannibal (also not chinese)

feel free to send recommendations my way!!

i have an awful tagging system, but basically:

#woh -- word of honor/tian ya ke stuff

#wenzhou -- wen kexing/zhou zishu

#woh gifs, #woh fanfic, #woh fanart, #woh fan comic

#mdzs -- mo dao zu shi/chen qing ling stuff

#wangxian -- lan wangji/wei wuxian

#mdzs fanfic, #mdzs fanart, #mdzs fan comic

#tgcf -- tian guan ci fu stuff

#hualian -- hua cheng/xie lian

character tags: #wen kexing, #zhou zishu, #wei wuxian, #lan wangji, etc

my stuff: #made by suna

[nie-smh-my-head-huaisang]

i’ve been neglecting this blog im sorry but i’m here, ready to traumatize someone! Horror AU, CW: Character death, psychological horror elements, basically we’re gaslighting JGY: the AU. unreality?

Basically: NHS can’t die.

NHS can’t die, but not for a lack of JGY trying.

Unfortunately for him, NHS saw something he shouldn’t have seen, so JGY had to remove him from the narrative. As much as it hurt, he couldn’t let NHS live. LXC would be devastated, but he would heal.

The next morning they would find NHS missing and he would be found just outside of Lanling.

That’s the plan of course, JGY doesn’t expect to come out and be greeted by NHS the next day. Clearly something went wrong, he should have stayed to monitor the poison in his tea last night. Should have made sure that he wasn’t breathing when he dumped his body.

NHS just looks at him over his fan, an obvious smirk on his face.

JGY wouldn’t let this happen again.

NHS comes to him that night and JGY doesn’t hesitate. It’s fitting that NHS ends up in the same condition as his brother. 

He leaves him in an unmarked grave, secure in his knowledge that he’s dead. He may come back as a vengeful spirit, but JGY is confident that he can dispose of him a second time.

but the next morning.

As Jin Guangyao looks at his guest, he has only one question “Who did I bury last night?”

JGY quickly comes up with an excuse to explain away his look. He really didn’t get much sleep after all.

But things quickly stop making sense.

They saw each other last night of course, but JGY had something else to attend to, he didn’t have time to chat. But LXC is so sure they had a conversation. It seemed like one they would have too! He spends the day trying to figure out what LXC thinks they were talking about last night, and LXC seems so genuine that JGY starts to have doubts.

(at this point it was nearing 4am for me, so drawings lose some uh, consistency.)

He was here. He couldn’t have been here, but everyone is telling him that he was here. No, he buried Huaisang last night! But he was there. He was in his home, breathing and smiling and looking at him with that knowing gaze!

He had to check for himself. He had to figure out what happened.

All that was left behind was a broken fan.

Perhaps he’s the one who doesn’t know anything.

[hunxi-guilai]

whats up I was going thru your LQR tag bc i have a lot of thoughts about cql LQR (are these thoughts coherent? pending) and I'm thinking about the end of the scene in ep. 27 when he tells off LWJ and like. there are /tears/ in his eyes...even in a pretty sidelined and somewhat antagonistic character, the depictions of generational trauma in this show are something else. Anyway, do you know of anyone who's done a visual analysis of that scene? I'd love to read it or hear your thoughts. 1/2

okay, first of all, let me just say that "are these thoughts coherent? pending” is SUCH a mood. my brain, 90% of the time

second of all, I must also direct you to this excellent post by @dying-redshirt-noises and @hqfeels if we’re planning to have Lan Qiren feels on this blog right now

so I’ve been sneaking “JUSTICE FOR SHUFU” into my tags lately, which is a battle cry I’ve picked up from @pumpkinpaix, because I believe that Lan Qiren is a complex figure who really just wanted the best for his nephews. Unfortunately, he’s also an extremely convenient character for folks to latch onto and deploy as a token antagonistic figure in fics if the story needs a person in a position of authority, close at home, to oppose wangxian’s relationship. It helps that he’s also the sole Lan elder we’re introduced to, and the Lan elders often get dismissed as a faceless, vilified mass who really only exist to grumble conservatively and oppose our protagonists.

I get it. It’s convenient. And it’s got some amount of canonical support, what with Lan Qiren and Wei Wuxian butting heads in Gusu summer school, and Lan Qiren’s repeated exhortations to Lan Wangji to stay away from Wei Wuxian, etc, etc. But Lan Qiren, for me, has always numbered among the tragic and traumatized characters that we both love and forgive over the course of the narrative.

It’s hard for me to extricate Lan Qiren from the relationship that’s examined over and over again in this text: that of the relationship between siblings. The ways the elder siblings make countless sacrifices to protect the younger. The golden core transfer. Wen Qing and Wen Ning. Nie Mingjue’s... everything.

And one of the scariest things in CQL is how often that sacrifice falls short -- after everything they’ve sacrificed, after the prices they paid, the younger sibling is tasked with the impossibility of living on. The long version, in the translated words of Zbigniew Herbert:

The rest is not silence but belongs to me

you chose the easier part of an elegant thrust

but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching

with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair

with a view of the ant-hill and the clock’s dial

- “The Elegy of Fortinbras”

The short version, in the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda via George Washington:

“Dying is easy, young man -- living is harder.”

The younger siblings in CQL are almost always the ones who have to step up -- Jiang Cheng, in rebuilding and leading Yunmeng Jiang; Nie Huaisang, leading the Nie Sect and avenging his brother’s death; Lan Wangji, taking over the position of Chief Cultivator and a certain amount of Lan Sect Leader duties. Overwhelmingly, these moments happen offscreen, in timeskips, left to the imagination. They’re not glorious or dramatic; they’re tedious, mind-numbing, soul-crushing, especially when considered in context with the monsters of their separate griefs.

So, Lan Qiren. The narrative parallels drawn between the generations, from Lan Qiren’s to Lan Wangji’s to Lan Sizhui’s, could probably fill a research paper. If we regard Jiang Cheng with any sympathy, then we should absolutely extend that sympathy to Lan Qiren as well -- both of them are younger brothers who picked up the slack, who tried their best to honor the best part of the legacies of those who came before, who were saddled with the responsibility of parenting their nephews before they even married themselves, who had to set their own needs aside in order to lead others, who had both the courage and the endurance to live on despite everything. 

Again, we don’t know the details of what happened with Qingheng-jun and Mama Lan, but I think it’s safe to say that it happened fast. Qingheng-jun met Mama Lan, fell in love at first sight, married her secretly, locked them both away in seclusion, abdicated his position as sect leader, and after that storm, Lan Qiren was the one left to pick up the pieces. Suddenly, Lan Qiren had to assume the mantle of a sect leadership that his brother was groomed for; Lan Qiren had to take responsibility for the care and education of his nephews despite having no experience himself.

And you know what? Lan Qiren does a pretty kick-ass job. By the time we reach the maturation of the next generation, the Gusu Lan sect has a reputation so sterling that other sects send their heirs to study there. Lan Qiren is accorded more respect and authority on the basis of his reputation and accomplishment in inter-sect affairs. He raises the Twin Jades, trains them in swordsmanship, nurtures their cultivation and aptitude until they’re both held up as the ideal young masters.

Lan Qiren was saddled with responsibilities he did not expect and did not ask for, and executes them well.

But what of his own scars and self-doubt, his own grief and anxiety? What about all the nights he stayed up past curfew, eyes gritty with exhaustion, deciphering ledgers and untangling sect politics that his brother understood better? What about Lan Qiren’s resentment of Qingheng-jun, for discarding the responsibilities he held for his sect for the survival of a single person; what about Lan Qiren’s fears, that his nephews might follow their father down the same path, might dash themselves to pieces against the shoals of what it means for a Lan to fall in love?

You asked about this moment, in episode 27 -- after Wei Wuxian steals away the Wen refugees at Qiongqi Dao, Lan Qiren admonishes Lan Wangji for his actions: sneaking into the forbidden section of the Gusu Lan archives, letting Wei Wuxian and the refugees go. Lan Qiren is frustrated, yes, angry, even -- but more than anything, he’s profoundly afraid. The obsession Lan Wangji has with Wei Wuxian, to the exclusion of all else, of everyone else, reminds Lan Qiren of his brother. And so Lan Qiren tries to snap Lan Wangji out of it through discipline, the evocation of all the morals and ideals he was raised with as a child. Lan Qiren grounds Lan Wangji in Cloud Recesses in episode 24, hammers home the fifty-second principle of Gusu Lan -- do not befriend the traitorous and evil. The fifty-second principle is more than a simple rule deployed to get in the way of wangxian’s relationship; it’s a prescriptive that carries with it the tragedy of the Twin Jades’ parents, the suggestion that, had Qingheng-jun not befriended the traitorous and evil, so much pain, and heartbreak, and grief could have been avoided.

(when Lan Qiren reminds Lan Wangji of this, Lan Wangji protests -- his mother wasn’t -- and Lan Qiren cuts him off. Whether or not Mama Lan was truly, inherently evil is not the question here, nor is Wei Wuxian’s character being discussed. This isn’t about Mama Lan, or Wei Wuxian -- this is about Qingheng-jun, and Lan Wangji, and the fact that their personal preferences and prejudices do not occur in a vacuum. Their actions have consequences, and Lan Qiren knows this because he has borne his brothers’.)

Lan Qiren, of all people, knows that no matter how lofty and unsullied a person’s reputation might be, no matter how pure their moral character or righteous their conduct, all it takes is a single moment to fall in love, to make them shatter, to reduce them to a shadow of their former selves, to reject all of the responsibilities they held before and leave their loved ones reeling in the wake of such a sudden and complete devastation.

So Lan Qiren rises, moves towards Lan Wangji’s kneeling form, and there’s a moment -- blink and you’ll miss it -- where he hesitates, trying to decide if he should walk towards Lan Wangji, to raise him to his feet, or lay a hand on his shoulder. Lan Qiren hesitates, then decides not to -- he chooses instead to appeal to his nephew through carefully-reasoned words rather than physical demonstration of love, to remind Lan Wangji of his discipline and education.

Lan Qiren paces the room, reminding Lan Wangji of his family, his life with the Lan Sect, everything he stands to lose if he throws it all to the wind for Wei Wuxian. Lan Qiren confesses -- all his harshness and strictness came out of his fear that Lan Wangji would follow in his father’s footsteps.

We get this moment in the middle of those lines, when the camera snaps from here:

to here:

a jarring cut, primarily because it violates the 180-degree rule. It places Lan Qiren on the right side of the screen, where before he had been on the left.

For me, this does two things, visually -- by placing both Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji on the same side of the screen, it calls back to the fact that Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji are both the younger siblings, emphasizing the potential parallels between their lives that hinge on the decisions Lan Wangji will make. The second shot also removes Lan Wangji from the frame, unbalancing the composition. Now, there’s an absence of a figure to Lan Qiren’s left, gesturing at the absence of Qingheng-jun throughout this entire story, throughout the Twin Jades’ lives. That absence is why Lan Qiren is the way he is -- strict, unforgiving, disciplined, afraid.  Lan Qiren has spent so much of his life adhering to the rules of Gusu Lan and denying any selfish wants because he saw what happened to his brother the moment he deviated from the rules, and he’s terrified the same will happen to Lan Wangji.

So... yeah. We most often see Lan Qiren in opposition to our favorite characters -- he’s the boring old fuddy-duddy who throws a scroll at Wei Wuxian, who continually discourages Lan Wangji from reaching out to Wei Wuxian, who is often taken as a stand-in for conservatism and tradition in the show. At the same time, he is the man who raised his nephews with both love and a profound terror that they would suffer the same way he and his brother did; he is the man who sent Lan Xichen away when the Wen Sect attacked, and did not expect to survive the burning of Cloud Recesses. He is lauded, for his authority and his knowledge; he is delightfully petty, throwing jabs at Wei Wuxian at the Burial Mounds (why don’t you ask him?). In short, Lan Qiren is a person, with all of his flaws and virtues, trauma and weaknesses, and we don’t give him enough credit for everything he did.

[alice-in-wonderart]

Your writing is wonderful! I’m so happy I found your blog 😊 Could I request some nsfw hc’s for lan xichen, jin guangyao and nie huaisang? Like would they rather take care of s/o or be taken care of, who initiates first, etc. Thank you!

I'm sorry for the long wait, sweetie! It really took a while to get to the spice, but worry not, it's here to make our lives a little more interesting. Let the degenerates in us run wild~ P.S. I GET TO WRITE ABOUT JGY AND NHS CJSJXJS YAY I LOVE 'EM BOTH SM. ❤️💕❤️💕❤️💕❤️💕

Lan Xichen

Lan Xichen seems to be the sweeter, more mellow of the Twin Jades, but don't let that fool you. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing through and through. Behind that sweet smile there is an absolute beast. Part of the Lan genes, ig.

While sex isn't exactly the first thing on his mind, he's had his moments of weakness. But when you came into his life, it was a whole other story. Suddenly, he'd feel MUCH too drawn to you, his mind would occasionally wander to you, or rather - what you'd look like, underneath him, spread out on the silks of his bed, moaning his name, as he -

Gosh, he shouldn't be thinking about this in public.

"Everyday is everyday" doesn't exactly describe the humble Zewu-jun's tendencies, but he isn't any less feral. Intimacy with Lan Xichen is like fine wine - the longer the wait, the better the taste. And with his duty as sect leader, said intimacy would less often than any of you would want.

The moment you two are alone and neither is dead tired, he'd make sure to at least hint at what he desires. He'd leave heated kisses along your skin, run his fingers along your thighs, gently sliding under the fabric of your clothes. It would be pretty obvious what message he'd try to get across.

He'd usually prefer to be on top, since pleasuring you would be his number one priority. Besides, having you completely unravel underneath him would give him a sense of completion, of victory. He wouldn't be opposed to tying you up too.

He'd let you take the reigns occsionally, because of one single reason - watching you ride him is a sight he absolutely adores. The idea of you chasing your own orgasm, trying your very best to keep your balance, nails digging into his chest. Just thinking about it makes him harder than a rock.

And gosh, wrap his headband around your neck, or bite down on it and he'd lose his mind. After all - this is the highest form of intimacy, a sight for his eyes alone. You belonged to him, the way he belonged to you. (fking sap)

He may not be the most experimental per se, but he compensates with a dick worth millions and the stamina of an ancient beast. And it wouldn't take much to rile him up for more. He could easily go a few rounds and then some. He'd tire you out to a point of nearly passing out, before breaking a sweat. So much training really pays off.

Don't fuck with a Lan. Actually....fuck a Lan. Totally worth it.

His aftercare would be so sweet. He'd run both of you a nice bath to enjoy, or if it's too late and you're both tired out, he'd snuggle with you, playing with your hair, whispering how much he utterly adores you, before gradually falling asleep.

Jin Guangyao

Jin Guangyao has a specific air of gentle nobility to him, which often leads people to think he's more on the vanilla side of love-making. But boy, oh boy are they all so terribly wrong.

The boy has lived in a brothel. He's seen the difference between love-making and fucking, and he's mastered both. Sex with him is always a game of guessing, an endless array of surprises. One moment he will be kissing along your neck, gently whispering in your ear, the next he will be pounding into you mercilessly, deep and hard, until your legs go numb and you won't be able to walk for days.

He loves to be dominant and absolutely loves the thought of having you at his mercy. No, you're neither a toy, nor a possession, but he'd absolutely want to mark you up as his territory. He'd just do it in places which aren't visible to the public eye. You have dignity after all.

He'd also lowkey enjoy causing you mild pain. He wouldn't go too far, but the occasional slap on the ass, a bitemark turning blue, roughing up your insides, choking, the occasional rope, or even knife. He never goes full blown dom, but say you need him more than anything, that you miss him stretching you out and you're getting addicted to the pleasure and the pain, and he'd be on you in 5 seconds flat.

Speaking of biting, that's a kink he's more than open to admit. He adores leaving marks on that soft skin of yours. He doesn't care if you hide them, as long as you're aware they're there.

The more he trusts you, the more he'd initiate. He has a reputation to keep up, so becoming part of his private life would be difficult. Keep in mind, you have a lot of walls to climb over to get to him, but once you do - my gosh. You two are in bed ready to sleep? One look and you aready know it's gonna be a rough night. You're taking a shower? He's totally going to join and would make sure you help him clean up very thoroughly. Walking down one of the many vacant corridors in Koi Tower? He'd push you against the wall, spread your legs and make you see stars.

His movements are always carefully calculated, too. With that big brain of his he'd memorize each and every sensitive part of your body and use it to his advantage. He'd tease you to a point of begging and then deny your release until you're seconds away from breaking.

The aftercare is utterly phenomenal. He cares about you deeply, so he'd make sure you're feeling your best after one of your many sleepless nights. He'd clean you up, gently caressing any bitemark he's left, whispering sweet nothings in your ears, then dress you up in the finest silk, and depending on the time - either snuggle up with you to fall asleep, or make you some tea and fetch the two of you some breakfast. Who cares he's psychotic when he's literal perfection.

Nie Huaisang

Nie Huaisang is totally demonic and we all know it. Sex is definitely not a new subject for him. After all he owns enough porn to cover half of the Unclean Realm's grounds. And believe me, he's learned quite a bit from it. Though all the porn in the world can't satisfy his needs, thankfully you're there to lend a helping hand.

He's a 100% switch and he owns it. Sometimes he wants to roll around in bed, bratty and needly like a total pillow prince, letting you take him however you like. Other times, he'd spend hours slowly peeling off your clothes, long fingers working wonders between your legs, teasing you and exploring your body, him permanently burning his name onto your heart.

He is pretty experimental, there isn't much he wouldn't be willing to try, but if he doesn't like something, he'll never do it again, periodt. Love-making to him is a form of art and he loves exploring it to its fullest.

Teasing you in public is one of his specialties. Hidden, risqué touches, heated stares behind intricate fans, dirty promises mumbled into the skin of your neck, robes riding up or slipping off, your or his alike. Likewise, doing it in public, or more so - in a close enough vicinity, wouldn't be uncommon either. Quickies are his specialty. He can get you off nearly everywhere and he takes great pride in that. He loves the effect he has on you and how both of you seem a little more disheveled afterwards.

His biggest turn on is oral. He could spend hours buried between your legs, drowning in your desire, making you come so many times you lose sense of reality. That mouth definitely ain't just for talking. And god, does he like it messy. He loves it when you pull on his hair, thrust into his mouth, or squirm from the over-sensitivity. He loves having to pin you down and pull you towards him. He loves feeling your legs on his shoulders, he loves it all so much, he could come from that alone.

And similarly, get on your knees to suck him off and he will turn into absolute putty in your arms. He'll start off all cocky, of course. We're talking about Nie Huaisang after all. "Oh? You want a taste of me that badly? Well who am I to refuse..." But that attitude of his would fade the moment your lips wrap around him. With fingers tangled in your hair and shaky moans escaping his lips, he'd be at your mercy. Deny his release a few times and he might even beg. Might.

Of course, it never just ends with oral, unless there is absolutely no time left for more. Though even then, he'd make some time. Why work, when you have a lover to please.

Nie Huaisang ALWAYS gets hungry afterwards. So, he'd often go and bring the two of you a third of a feast to munch on. You know the cliché, where you light a cigarette after a good lovemaking? He gets food. Any kind of food. And everybody knows, that if Sect Leader Nie barges in with half a ton of food in his arms, chances are, you won't appear until much, MUCH later, a rosy pink on your cheeks and that tell tale gloss in your eyes.

Thank you for reading~

[lhaewiel]

So.

Previously on my "The Untamed/MDZS Ice Skating AU".

Unfortunately for y'all I have not finished talking about it. as always, a big thank you to @galaxy-darkmoon for giving me rope, and also @the-nonchalance-blogs for giving me the idea in the first place.

We left things at the double divorce JFM/YZY and JGS/Madam Jin.

At this point in time the other players step in. I will start with the WangXian and continue on with the SangCheng part.

I will do the XiYao drama in the next post cos this is already way too long and I need to think.

Anyway, enjoy. Under the cut

THE WANGXIAN DRAMA

Now, WWX is still competing and training under freshly divorced JFM as a solo - and possibly the star of the Jiang rink. A lot of people and journalists have a lot of things to say about the Choices™(C) made by JFM, but WWX's skills and prowess and several silver and gold medals on his rack, plus several trophies won jot all of that down.

Enter the Lans. The Lans are an extremely traditionalist family of ice skaters, who only skate with classical/traditional music and that has become through the years their trademark.

LQR, the coach and also LXC and LWJ's uncle, after the untimely disappearance of the parents, and the two brothers have trained a lot - LXC is already in the seniors category, whilst LWJ is still in the juniors category.

It's time for regional championship and WWX is also competing.

And it's clichè, but it is love at first ina bauer and toe loop for both WWX and LWJ. They both score first and whilst JFM and LQR are already down to throw hands for the gold medal, WWX blurts out a "why don't we share? we are both really good, so why don't we share the podium." This all whilst being the usual feral gremlin. LWJ is like, "no, it's not in the rules", but LXC is like "uncle, that's a really good suggestion" and LQR is at an inch from losing it, JFM deals the final blow like "you heard WWX, come on! let's praise them both!" and LQR concedes.

JC has seen the thing and he is at the "this might as well happen" point and just leaves the rink where he was watching WWX without a word. I will come back on this in just a moment.

LQR anyway invites WWX at the Gusu rink to train, stuff that happens once every blue moon, and JFM is like "yes, that is my son" "Uncle Jiang I am not your son" "Details, just go." "Ok, let me say goodbye to people."

And by "people" he means JC and Yanli, who were there to watch him compete.

Yanli congratulates him and says that JC is outside.

WWX goes to JC, who has had A Day™ and is just like "congrats, if it had been me at your place my father would have preferred to give up the position rather than have me share the podium" "Aw you know he doesn't mean that. I know you are as good as me and one day he will see that." "well, good luck then, I have stopped competing, say that to Father™"

More drama.

More misunderstanding.

JC goes back home, packs up and rents a flat near the Nie rink. He takes the position as ice skating teacher for kids over there and tries finding some sort of peace, whilst still aching over the above mentioned drama.

WWX goes to Gusu with the ache of having lost a brother completely and yes, being close to LWJ does make him feel better, but he still misses greatly his family.

Anyway the national championships approach and eventually WWX and LWJ change into a pair, become an item and end up skating into the sunset over wangxian.mp3, break several rules, get disqualified and then LQR and JFM, pressed by LXC, make an appeal and get the commission to accept them.

WWX and LWJ skating off into the sunset inspired by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpp5XKiQqBE

THE SANGCHENG DRAMA

I said that JC stops competing, goes away from YZY's rink, rents a flat and goes teaching ice skating to kids at the Nie rink.

Now, the Nie have a team of hockey players. NMJ is the coach, NZH is the captain and NHS should technically be on the team as well, but he'd rather pull out paper and pencil and sketch out the things that interest him the most, birds most notably. NHS has an extensive collection of fans as well.

NMJ is fuming bc NHS has the capability and the potential to be the perfect ice hockey player, but he'd rather just NOT participate in that. NMJ has unfortunately a chronical illness and knows he can't be forever there, he would LOVE for his brother to inherit the team, but he has not said anything about his chronical illness to NHS thinking that if he did maybe NHS would feel too much pressured. He does not know that NHS knows about the chronical illness and is the one making sure that NMJ takes his medications.

In any case, when JC starts teaching, NHS is fascinated. He watches JC gracefully glide on the ice and be generally the Ice Price Of His Dreams, If Not For The Aggressiveness, but considering that also NMJ Tends To Be That Way Too, NHS assumes that there is some turmoil going on and makes it his mission to uncover All Of That™.

THat and also NHS really enjoys drawing JC gliding gracefully on the ice - too bad JC discovers this and also NMJ is VERY perceptive, but NOT subtle at all, so when NMJ says "HUAISANG COME AND PLAY!" "One sec bro, I have to finish something" "STOP LOOKING AT THE TEACHER'S ASS AND COME HERE NOW OR I WILL BURN YOUR FANS." "... Thank you bro for destroying any chance I had."

Awkwardness ensues.

JC is unfortunately very direct and does not beat around the bush. NHS confesses. JC is in a mystic crisis bc "OMG someone likes ME, the CRANKIEST and ANGRIEST man on earth." NHS takes a step back and notes, in his 35 steps plan on how to court and conquer JC that he needs to make him understand that "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return".

It takes NHS to step in to win a game, whilst NMJ is in the hospital bc the chronic illness is too much to bear, JC taking NHS to the hospital to see NMJ alive and slightly better, NMJ's blessing to NHS and JC and NHS throwing himself onto JC after NMJ is asleep bc THE PRESSURE, THE WORRY, THE CONCERN, and JC says that he will be there and NHS wanted to be the conquering one, but he ends up conquered by the heart of gold of JC.

JC reveals all about his family and NHS convinces him to reconcile, if not with his parents, with WWX and Yanli. Things work out bc HS is great at mediating and JC is genuinely touched by him.

WWX and Yanli tell JC to go for it, bc it is clear that there is some sort of sentiment, thus forcing JC to sort himself out.

JC sorts his feelings out and declares his love to NHS by performing a choreography on "Nature Boy" by David Bowie.

See you next time with the XiYao and Xuanli part.

[mdzsartreblogs]

17,000 Post Round Up

Still busy, still a little behind on...everything...but the queue is full of Halloween and Wei Wuxian birthday art, and I'm only like three days behind on posting this, so progress, or something. The overhaul I did of my spreadsheet (did I mention that here or only on my personal blog? I took a day and like...completely changed how I track artist reblogs) has been saving me a LOT of time, so absolutely worth it. Remember, you can always take a peek "behind the scenes" at my data, and see every single tag I use (or, at least, every one as of the last 1k+ round up, since that's when I add new tags to the master list) by going to my spreadsheet, here.

Other things...

I think we're finally evening out on followers, like, hitting critical limit or something? The blog is at 1,342, which is up only 21 since my previous round up (granted, that was posted only 19 days ago, so it's still one new follower a day...)

I added 248 new tags since the last round up, bringing the total number of tags to 6,700-or-so. My reorganization found some mistakes in my old artist tag list; some got removed, some added. Based on current count, 3,665 artists have at least one work reblogged here; that's up 122 since last time!

If you know where any of the works tagged unknown location are, please let me know. Likewise, if you know any of the artists tagged unknown artist (it’s pretty much all official art), I’d appreciate your help a lot!

If you make fanart, feel free to DM it to this blog, or @ me @unforth (don’t tag @mdzsartreblogs, tumblr rarely shows me those tags). I don’t track any unique source blog tags but I do check #mdzs, #mo dao zu shi, and #the untamed daily and reblog all artwork posted there provided it doesn’t break any of my few rules (also provided that the creator hasn’t blocked me, or I haven’t blocked the creator - I’ve been blocked a handful of times and I block people who post hate in the main tag, including artists if they're antis).

Support artists by liking and reblogging their work! Yes, even if you see them on a source blog! DO THE THING! Artists need and deserve our support!

-unforth

And, finally, since I do a full audit to fix any mistakes I've made, I might as well use the data to share some stats... (read more)

The 15 Characters Tagged Most Often:

wei wuxian (8,235 works) (no change)

lan wangji (6,670 works) (no change)

jiang cheng (2,468 works (no change))

lan xichen (1,666 works) (no change)

nie huaisang (1,337 works (no change))

a yuan (1,265 works) (no change)

jin guangyao (1,167 works (no change))

jin ling (1,022 works) (no change)

nie mingjue (879 works) (no change)

wen ning (759 works) (no change)

xue yang (735 works) (no change)

xiao xingchen (725 works (no change))

jiang yanli (638 works) (no change)

lan jingyi (544 works) (no change)

wen qing (498 works) (no change)

The 15 Ships Tagged Most Often:

wangxian (4,724 works) (no change)

xicheng (338 works) (no change)

xiyao (284 works) (no change)

sangcheng (248 works) (no change)

songxiao (242 works) (no change)

xuexiao (168 works) (no change)

3zun (123 works) (no change)

xisang (117 works) (+1 from 16k post)

zhuiling (115 works) (-1 from 16k post)

xuanli (100 works) (no change)

nielan (97 works) (no change)

nieyao (80 works) (no change)

yanqing (74 works) (no change)

ningxian (49 works) (no change)

songxuexiao (36 works) (no change)

The 15 Platonic Relationships Tagged Most Often:

twin prides of yunmeng (559 works) (no change)

grape uncle (381 works) (+2 from 16k post)

twin jades of gusu (283 works) (-1 from 16k post)

wangxian are dads (276 works) (-1 from 16k post)

yunmeng siblings (269 works) (no change)

nie brothers (228 works) (no change)

wei wuxian is a dad (190 works) (no change)

junior trio (133 works) (no change)

yi city family (124 works) (+2 from 16k post)

lan wangji is a dad (119 works) (no change)

junior quartet (119 works) (-2 from 16k post)

wen siblings (117 works) (no change)

wei wuxian is an uncle (110 works) (no change)

burial mounds family (108 works) (no change)

one brain cell trio (107 works) (no change)

The 15 (+1) Artists with the Most Works Reblogged Here: (+1 is "official art")

official art (243 works) (no change)

modao18 (178 works) (no change)

littlesmartart (164 works) (+1 from 16k post)

sketchyscribbles (160 works) (-1 from 16k post)

ibijau (149 works) (no change)

joshua-beeking (124 works) (no change)

hilluhri (104 works) (no change)

elogval (98 works) (no change)

pikazchu (94 works) (no change)

candicewright (87 works) (no change)

bbeiex (86 works) (no change)

wrecklwj (83 works) (no change)

wifiwuxians (81 works) (+2 from 16k post)

valdrift (79 works) (-1 from 16k post)

xiejie-liubo (76 works) (-1 from 16k post)

soursoppi (74 works) (no change)

245bst (74 works) (new!)

Most Prolific Artists Who Posted for the First Time Since Last Tag Audit: since it's Inktober, there's definitely some new people who came in with a bang!

chemical-abcess (19 works)

uwibbit (13 works)

everdreamwithchocolate (11 works)

abadname (9 works)

sorceringing (8 works)

starbiology (7 works)

meimeimmii (5 works)

bearsbloom (5 works)

goldfishpudding (4 works)

elwelcs (4 works)

The 20 most Used Other Tags:

portrait (14,959 works) (no change)

digital art (13,939 works) (no change)

comic (2,829 works) (no change)

laughs (2,487 works) (+1 from 16k post)

flowers (2,386 works) (-1 from 16k post)

modern au (2,094 works) (no change)

chibi (1,898 works) (+1 from 16k post)

sketch (1,882 works) (-1 from 16k post)

lan wangji has golden eyes (1,597 works) (no change)

wangxian hug (1,468 works) (no change)

fantasy au (1,338 works) (no change)

yiling laozu (1,199 works) (no change)

food (1,170 works) (no change)

chenqing (1,133 works) (no change)

blood tw (1,067 works) (no change)

hearts (1,012 works) (no change)

lemon (993 works) (no change)

bunnies (987 works) (+1 from 16k post)

stars (984 works) (-1 from 16k post)

pencil drawing (980 works) (no change)

Top 5 Actors: The "cast" tag has been used 344 times.

xiao zhan (185 works) (no change)

wang yibo (135 works) (no change)

zhu zanjin (10 works) (no change)

wang zhuocheng (10 works) (+1 from 16k post)

song jiyang (10 works) (no change - tie)

Top 5 Animals:

bunnies (987 works) (no change)

birds (419 works) (no change)

butterflies (246 works) (no change)

cats (143 works) (no change)

dogs (106 works) (no change)

The 15 Character Attributes Tagged Most Often:

lan wangji has golden eyes (1,597 works) (no change)

yiling laozu (1,199 works) (no change)

lan sizhui (882 works) (no change)

wei wuxian has red eyes (745 works) (no change)

jiang cheng with braids (550 works) (no change)

fierce corpse wen ning (476 works) (no change)

child a yuan (434 works) (no change)

blind xiao xingchen (432 works) (no change)

jiang cheng has purple eyes (343 works) (no change)

nie mingjue has a mustache (308 works) (no change)

nie mingjue with braids (283 works) (no change)

wei wuxian in lan white (252 works) (no change)

wen yuan (243 works) (no change)

wei wuxian has piercings (219 works) (no change)

child wei wuxian (165 works) (no change)

The 15 Ship Attributes Tagged Most Often:

wangxian hug (1,468 works) (no change)

wangxian kiss (631 works) (no change)

wangxian holding hands (538 works) (no change)

lan wangji carrying wei wuxian (152 works) (no change)

wangxian sharing a bed (123 works) (no change)

wei wuxian wearing lan wangji's ribbon (116 works) (+1 from 16k post)

xiyao hug (112 works) (-1 from 16k post)

xicheng hug (107 works) (no change)

wangxian duet (83 works) (+1 from 16k post)

sangcheng hug (81 works) (-1 from 16k post)

wangxian wedding (70 works) (new!)

songxiao hug (70 works) (-1 from 16k post)

xuexiao hug (69 works) (no change)

shuangjie hug (69 works) (-2 from 16k post)

lan wangji wearing wei wuxian's ribbon (67 works) (-1 from 16k post)

The 15 AU Tags Used Most Often:

modern au (2,094 works) (no change)

fantasy au (1,338 works) (no change)

canon divergent au (718 works) (no change)

creature wei wuxian (621 works) (no change)

creature lan wangji (533 works) (no change)

technological anachronism (288 works) (no change)

bunxian (234 works) (+1 from 16k post)

bunji (227 works) (-1 from 16k post)

dragon (201 works) (no change)

creature jiang cheng (196 works) (no change)

cat person (154 works) (no change)

merperson (142 works) (no change)

historical au (138 works) (no change)

creature lan xichen (134 works) (no change)

bunny person (123 works) (new!)

The 10 Meme, Fandom Event, Holiday, and Character Birthdays Tagged Most Often:

october art challenge (352 works) (no change)

wangxian week (107 works) (no change)

color palette challenge (104 works) (no change)

valentine's day (100 works) (no change)

wei wuxian's birthday (94 works) (no change)

lan wangji's birthday (93 works) (no change)

draw this your style (74 works) (no change)

mermay (72 works) (no change)

mdzs reverse big bang (59 works) (no change)

lunar new year (57 works) (no change)

The 10 Instruments and Weapons Tagged Most Often:

chenqing (1,133 works) (no change)

bichen (561 works) (no change)

wangji (494 works) (no change)

zidian (449 works) (no change)

suibian (187 works) (no change)

baxia (161 works) (no change)

sandu (155 works) (no change)

shuanghua (148 works) (no change)

fuxue (117 works) (no change)

liebing (102 works) (no change)

The 15 Most Common Motifs and Objects:

flowers (2,386 works) (no change)

food (1,170 works) (no change)

hearts (1,012 works) (no change)

stars (984 works) (no change)

fan (796 works) (no change)

lotuses (720 works) (no change)

fierce corpse (599 works) (no change)

fire (544 works) (no change)

the moon (504 works) (no change)

alcohol (487 works) (no change)

jiang clan clarity bell (465 works) (no change)

the sun (456 works) (no change)

art of art (402 works) (no change)

lanterns (363 works) (no change)

scars (248 works) (no change)

The 15 Media-Related Tags Used Most Often:

portrait (14,949 works) (no change)

digital art (13,939 works) (no change)

comic (2,829 works) (no change)

laughs (2,487 works) (no change)

chibi (1,898 works) (+1 from 16k post)

sketch (1,882 works) (-1 from 16k post)

pencil drawing (980 works) (no change)

lineart (932 works) (no change)

ink work (927 works) (no change)

screen cap redraw (549 works) (no change)

watercolor (506 works) (no change)

work in progress (457 works) (no change)

meme redraw (409 works) (no change)

markers (345 works) (no change)

landscape (279 works) (no change)

The 5 Trigger Warnings Used Most Often:

blood tw (1,067 works) (no change)

lemon (993 works) (no change)

mcd/implied mcd (563 works) (no change)

body horror tw (306 works) (no change)

suicide tw (101 works) (no change)

The 5 Location and Era Tags Used Most Often:

cloud recesses (745 works) (no change)

lotus pier (391 works) (no change)

burial mounds (242 works) (+1 from 16k post)

lecture era (233 works) (-1 from 16k post)

post canon (205 works) (no change)

The 5 Lemon Tags Used Most Often:

bondage (105 works) (no change)

bondage using the lan clan ribbon (50 works) (no change)

hickies (46 works) (no change)

blindfolds (35 works) (no change)

bottom wei wuxian (33 works) (no change)

The 10 Other Fandoms Most Often Portrayed in MDZS Art Pieces:

tian guan ci fu (200 works) (no change)

ren zha fanpai zijiu xitong (168 works) (no change)

word of honor (21 works) (no change)

douluo continent (18 works) (no change)

the husky and his white cat shizun (16 works) (no change)

star wars (12 works) (no change)

legend of fei (11 works) (no change)

lang dianxia (11 works) (no change)

marvel verse (6 works) (no change)

fire emblem (5 works) (broke the tie!)

[sweetpollyolliver]

I have such big, conflicted feelings about xiyao. It’s one of the biggest ships in the circles I blog in on tumblr and I don’t like feeling left out at all. But the thought of it just makes me so sad in a way that makes me think I am really missing something important.

It’s just that Lan Xichen strikes me as a lonely character which is silly because he has more immediate family who he loves at the end than most. But, on the other hand, he is the leader of the Lan sect, of all sects, and he does not want to be like his father. I feel like there is a theme of how isolating leadership can be - look at Jiang Cheng or Nie Huaisang or even Nie Mingjue I think they are all isolated by their responsibilities and the decisions they have to make. But also, Xichen wants to not go down the route his father took - he wants to remain upright and dutiful to his sect first rather than let personal feelings come first. Ironically, he also strikes me as a person who would just love to be loved - who would never choose to be single.

So here you have this lonely person and then there is Jin Guangyao who just lights up around Lan Xichen. Who springs up like a wilted flower when watered when Lan Xichen is kind to him. Who is so clever and talented and all the more amazing for his origins in comparison to Lan Xichen. Who saves him so romantically during the war! Who understands him very well and wants the best for him! He is also a lonely person. He cherishes Lan Xichen and they have a wonderful life together for those years after Nie Mingjue dies.

But here is the thing that I can’t get over: a lot of that relationship seems to be based on lies and broken trust. It relies on Lan Xichen seeing Jin Guangyao do bad things and telling himself ‘I can’t know your motives, but I trust you are doing this for good reasons,’ and Jin Guangyao using that to his advantage. I think it is the most effective kind of lying where you use a half-truth and manipulate it.

The effect of this is awful and kind of bizarre when the truth comes out.

Lan Xichen is so hurt and angry – how is he supposed to trust someone again after this? How is he supposed to trust himself and his own sense of right and wrong which is so important to who he thinks he is? He has been supporting actions that he should have condoned for years; he was instrumental in the murder of his sworn brother. It is his father’s mistake all over again. This is Lan Xichen’s fault, but he has been thoroughly manipulated throughout their relationship by a very effective liar. The extent and duration of the lies are such that he has essentially been living a lie himself for decades.  

Lan Xichen strikes (slaps!) Jin Guangyao for killing his father which is by far the most sympathetic of his crimes and something that we, the audience, congratulate him for. Well, I know I did. A lot of good meta has gone into this slap – it’s a very dismissive thing to do like a parent would to a child or a master would to a servant. It makes the difference in class between them stark in a way that Lan Xichen has never asserted before. He hurts Jin Guangyao the way many people have before, and the way Lan Xichen has been so careful to avoid up until that point. He is distancing himself from all the things Jin Guangyao has done just like that! Because he is the 1st Jade of Lan and he can.

But this brings me back to the sense of isolation. I think they kind of isolate each other with the lies – they exist in this world that no one else does based on the story they tell each other about what is going on. When it all comes to light, they don’t even have each other. I think they both deserve better than that. I think they deserve better than each other.

Which leads me back to… why ship it? I welcome a response here – I really do feel like I am missing out and I don’t want to just sit on a high horse when I don’t have to.

I ship so many morally questionable ships – songxuexiao for example!! There are a whole lot more awful things to unpack there!!!! Do they bother me? No not really. I try not to think too hard about things like the murder of the chang sect for example, but I find it pretty easy tbh.

I also ship Jin Guangyao with a lot of other people – Su She, Xue Yang, Jiang Cheng, Nie Mingjue, Jiang Yanli (shout out to the Peony to Lotus series by Deriliarch). Lan Xichen not so much, again coming back to the whole loneliness thing with him. My point is – I want good things for them.

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: frost on the frozen ground

Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Qiren, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, Fourth Uncle, Jin Zixun

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Modern AU, Corporate Espionage, Bad Uncle Lán Qǐrén, Anxiety, Confrontations, Family, References to Depression, Bunnies, Found Family, Podfic Welcome

Summary: Wei Ying and A-Zhan are still dealing with the fallout weeks after the public arrest of Meng Yao and Jin Guangshan cleared Wei Ying's name, when an uninvited visitor shows up. Second in the moonlight falls corporate spy AU series, inspired by @angstymdzsthoughts.

Notes: See end.

AO3 link

-----------

Wei Ying was exhausted. It wasn’t even a physical sort of exhaustion, but one brought on by the absolute circus the last few weeks had been, following the very public arrest of Lan Xichen’s fiancé for the exact corporate espionage Gusu Lan Tech had accused him of and ruined his life over five years ago. 

Trust Nie Huaisang to somehow convince the FBI to arrest Meng Yao during a major family dinner for the grooms that was well-attended by the media as a sort of social gala, and to also ensure they arrested Jin Guangshan at the same time. He was only the head of Jin Enterprises, so it’s not like it didn’t send that company’s stocks tanking immediately while also humiliating Gusu Lan Tech. 

Nie Huaisang did petty well. 

Wei Ying just wished the aftermath hadn’t meant reporters hounding him and A-Zhan almost constantly, though that wasn’t Huaisang’s fault. At least, that he knew of—his old friend hadn’t reached out, and Wei Ying didn’t know whether to expect him to. 

They’d had to start screening their calls and if they did go out, it was wearing disguises and usually separately. 

It had started when Jin Guangshan’s shitty nephew had attempted to ambush interview them while they were shopping for groceries with A-Yuan. 

Everyone knew he was a hack. Jin Zixun had majored in history at a university his uncle was on the board of (the only reason he was even admitted) and barely got his degree. He’d been resoundingly rejected by every reputable employer despite his uncle’s best efforts, and could only get a job at some hack blog site pretending to be news and to have journalistic integrity. He was largely known for ludicrous conspiracy theories, vehement misogyny, and, weirdly, white nationalist talking points, but his articles and livestreams apparently got enough advertising revenue to merit his continued employment. 

He had the nerve to imply Wei Ying had somehow framed Meng Yao and Jin Guangshan. 

On the bright side, the camera had been livestreaming, and A-Zhan had verbally eviscerated him and implied that he probably had a hand in the corporate espionage, that maybe the investigation should look into him. 

“I recall your name and the insulting things you said and wrote about Wei Ying. You claimed, without evidence, there was a connection with Compu-Jiang, and then they took a financial hit. Trying to take out your uncle’s competition?”

Jin Zixun’s face had turned interesting colors and he cut the camera, but the damage was done. They learned the next day he was canned from the pseudo-journalist farce and the FBI had declared him a “person of interest” and seized his electronics. 

The interest in that led to more media coverage looking at the Weis, rekindling interest in the false accusation and Wei Ying’s blacklisting from the industry. Uncle Four had banned reporters from the premises, and since he owned the building that meant they at least weren’t buzzing the apartment from the lobby or, worse, somehow getting in and knocking on their door, for the most part at least. Now they were simply waiting across the street and accosting them if they spotted them, something that most often happened if they were together, and less if they were separate. 

Wei Ying didn’t want to revisit the year or so following the blacklisting. Even with A-Zhan beside him, it had been like a montage of humiliation and pain. He hated that these reporters wanted to put all that on display again.

The Wens had been amazing, often bringing them groceries and cooked meals, but they couldn’t stay cooped up—they had a son, and he was fond of parks and libraries. Sometimes his aunts or uncles or Granny would take him out for them if there was a congregation of reporters, and that had at least ensured the parasites hadn’t caught on to A-Yuan’s existence connected to them yet. 

As a bright spot, A-Li had contacted him. With her father-in-law in prison for the corporate espionage Wei Ying had been framed for, her husband had consented to let him meet his nephew. She was excited to meet A-Yuan. They were just waiting for some of the furor to die down. 

Even though it was Saturday, Wei Ying was finishing a coding project while A-Zhan was taking A-Yuan to the library and then a different park than usual. He wished he could go with them, but it was better not to tempt fate. 

He was nearly finished sorting out a coding error when the bell for the apartment building buzzer rang. Sighing in irritation, he stalked to the door and pressed the button to respond, careful not to press the one that unlocked the door.

“No comment. Please leave the premises.”

“I am not the press,” a gravelly male voice responded.

Wei Ying blinked. He knew that voice, but he couldn’t place it.

“Name?”

“You know perfectly well who I am.”

It was the haughtiness of the tone that pinged his memory. How could he forget, being lectured by Lan Qiren on his ungrateful nature and ruining of his nephew when he was being fired?

Just the memory made him nauseous. As far as he knew, Lan Qiren hadn’t reached out to A-Zhan, though Lan Xichen had, apologizing that they would be dragged into this again.

Quickly, he pulled his phone from his pocket and fired a text message off to A-Zhan. 

Your uncle is here

“You’ll need to make an appointment,” he said blithely. “Have Lan Xichen set it up with A-Zhan. He has his number.”

His phone dinged as the uninvited visitor made outraged sounds that he very carefully refused to allow to register as words. Then the buzzer started up again, and he ignored it.

Not invited. Do not let him in.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Wei Ying had to smile over his husband’s use of proper punctuation and capitalization, ever proper even via text.

on it, he replied. will let you know when clear

The noise from the intercom/buzzer ceased, thankfully, and Wei Ying moved back toward the office, stepping over the barrier that kept Turmeric from getting to all the cords. As he did, he texted Wen Qing to let her know what had happened.

a-zhans uncle buzzed from lobby

told him to make appt

idk what he wants

He sat down with a sigh and stretched before trying to immerse himself back in the code. He’d just found his line of coding error when a knock on the door reverberated through the apartment. Before he could even contemplate getting up, his phone chimed, a text from Wen Qing.

Auntie 6 came to me

He followed her in

Uncle 4 and I are on it

Which meant, of course, that Lan Qiren had breached the building, likely not even registering that he was trespassing, or so privileged that he felt trespassing laws didn’t apply to him.

Fuck.

He could feel his anxiety rising, something he didn’t need. Now was not the time for a Xanax, no matter how much his heart was fluttering at the idea of having to deal with A-Zhan’s uncle.

lmk when i can escape, he sent back.

Then he texted A-Zhan.

breached perimeter

qing-jie & unc 4 to rescue

will come to u

where r u?

Wei Ying crept to the living room, trying to stay quiet as the intruder knocked again, more forcefully. He debated for a moment, fiddling with his phone nervously before slipping it in his pocket, then grabbed Turmeric’s carrier, leash, and harness. The bunny needed some outdoors time, and Wei Ying would probably be able to meet A-Zhan and A-Yuan at the park.

The knocking continued, and he was certain before long Lan Qiren would lose all sense of decorum and start yelling through the door. 

plz hurry, he texted Wen Qing.

He donned a hat A-Yuan had gifted him for Father’s Day, an adorable white bucket hat with bunnies and carrots on it, and a pair of big sunglasses. He was wearing torn jeans and a black t-shirt with a binary code motif Wen Ning had given him for Christmas—it read “fuck off,” but wasn’t too inappropriate given that only coders could read it. He was as decent as he was going to get.

Wei Ying opened Turmeric’s hutch and scooped him gently into the carrier, hushing him even though he was completely quiet and cooperative. He felt like an intruder in his own home, and it left a sour taste in his mouth.

Finally, he could hear voices outside the door—Uncle Four’s boisterous voice asking what he could do for “the gentleman,” Wen Qing mentioning trespassing, Lan Qiren’s haughtiness slowly sputtering out, growing distant as they led him away.

His phone dinged twice, A-Zhan texting the location of the park, and Wen Qing giving the all-clear. Wei Ying grabbed his shoes, keys, and wallet, Turmeric’s crate and his sundries, and slipped out of the apartment in socked feet, easing the door shut and locking it as quietly as he could.

He practically tiptoed down the side staircase, the one that didn’t lead to the lobby but straight outside, and slipped his shoes on in the vestibule before slipping outside into the sunshine, making sure the door shut behind him without anyone getting in.

The park, thankfully, was not too far away, and he didn’t see any reporters on this side of the building. Likely they had seen Lan Qiren enter and were all crowded on the side near the lobby hoping to see something good.

Fat chance.

Wei Ying booked it the first few blocks before he felt like he’d escaped and started to calm, but he didn’t really relax until he could see A-Zhan in the distance, looking in his direction, A-Yuan beside him sipping on a boxed apple juice. His husband folded him into a hug, and he could feel the tension ease from his body with a soft sigh.

“I brought Turmeric. He could use some outside time.”

The tiny smile he got from A-Zhan finished the job of easing the worst of his anxiety, and they sat with A-Yuan on the grass to bring Turmeric out of the carrier and belt him into his little harness.

His fingers fumbled on the buckles and he sighed in frustration. 

“Sit, A-Ying,” A-Zhan said. “Relax.”

There was a bit of worry in his eyes, and that told Wei Ying he must look frazzled. A-Zhan knew his anxieties, knew what Lan Qiren had said to him, something he’d opened up about long ago, when they’d learned to communicate and work as a team, and when Wei Ying was learning not to push him away. 

And so Wei Ying settled back and let him finish with Turmeric, focused on the sunshine and the breeze and the soft grass beneath him. His fingers itched to pull out his phone, though he’d received no notifications, and he resisted it, instead rubbing his hand along the surface of the grass, letting the individual strands tickle his palms.

Before long, their absolutely adorable second son was contentedly exploring the grass, and curious children were starting to gather. A-Zhan explained bunnies didn’t like loud noises and sudden movements, and told them if they had permission from their parents, they could approach one at a time to pet him. 

A-Yuan tumbled into Wei Ying’s lap, content to watch Turmeric from there, and he had no doubt his son had picked up on his anxiety. He was a bright boy. 

Eventually, the children wandered away, a calm bunny only so interesting, and A-Yuan was half-asleep on his lap. A-Zhan’s phone dinged, and he handed the leash to Wei Ying before fishing it out. A bit of texting and a few alerts later, his mouth was downturned. 

“A-Zhan?” he asked.

“I sent Xichen to retrieve Qiren, but he insists he must speak to me.”

Wei Ying fantasized briefly about Lan Qiren being led from the premises in handcuffs, yelling, but he knew that wouldn’t solve anything. It could well make things worse, so he wasn’t even able to enjoy the fantasy. 

“The board voted to remove xiongzhang,” he added. “Likely he wishes to insist I take over the company.”

He felt his chest clench at that. Pity toward Xichen, who had done what he could to keep Wei Ying out of prison even if only for A-Zhan’s sake, and the grief he was facing as his life fell apart around him. But more, there was fear that A-Zhan would take it, would leave him behind—not a rational fear given everything they had weathered together, but anxiety was cruel. 

“You can take it if you want it, A-Zhan,” he said after a minute. 

A-Zhan made a noncommittal noise. 

“I am texting Wen Qing to prepare a conference room so we need not open our home to him,” he replied after a moment. “I should hear him out.”

Wei Ying looked away, swallowing hard at the taste of bile. His vision was blurred, but he kept a handle on it, refused to cry again over this.

“I… I’ll stay with A-Yuan while you meet him.”

He startled when A-Zhan knelt in front of him and took his hands.

“We are together in this and all things. Granny will meet us and watch A-Yuan during the meeting. I need you there, A-Ying. I will say no.”

Wei Ying glanced up at him.

“He will hound us until I meet with him, but I will not go back to Gusu Lan Tech,” A-Zhan said, his voice insistent, worried. “My place is with you, at Dafan.”

“You’re sure you don’t want it?” he couldn’t help asking.

This was, after all, a chance for A-Zhan to reconcile with his family and further his career. But his husband’s expression turned stormy at the question.

“They will never admit to having wronged you, A-Ying. I cannot abide that.”

Wei Ying manages a weak smile. 

“They’ll never admit they wronged you, either.”

A-Zhan nodded, the corners of his lips taut with stress. 

“Wen Qing will sit in with us since this is now a Dafan Applications matter. Uncle Four, too.”

Wei Ying blinked at him blankly for a moment before he understood. Technically Gusu Lan Tech was trying to poach A-Zhan from Dafan Applications, which made it company business. Lan Qiren was trespassing on Uncle Four’s property, which made it his business. And it meant they’d have witnesses. His husband was clever, and so was Wen Qing. 

“A-Die, baba, okay?”

A-Yuan looked up at them solemnly. The poor child had been with them at the grocery store when Jin Zixun had ambushed them, had seen so much these past weeks that he didn’t understand. He deserved some explanation. 

“We are, baobei,” Wei Ying said firmly. “Bad things happened a few years ago. Someone made it look like a-die did something bad, and they just got caught.”

He could see the moment their son understood. 

“That’s why the mean man said it was your fault?”

Wei Ying nodded, and A-Yuan squirmed out of his lap to give him a giant hug. 

“Thank you. Now baba’s uncle wants to talk to us, so we need to go home. You’ll visit with popo while we find out what he wants, okay?”

A-Yuan bit his lip, looking more anxious than a child his age should.

“Baba’s uncle won’t be mean to you, will he?”

His heart broke at his son’s concern. It was clear he’d picked up on undertones they thought they’d kept away. A-Zhan wrapped A-Yuan in a hug. 

“Baba won’t let shufu be mean to a-die,” A-Zhan said seriously.

“And your gugu will be with us, so she won’t let him be mean to either of us,” Wei Ying added. 

A-Yuan brightened—Wen Qing had a reputation, one even her five-year-old nephew was aware of. He trusted her to protect his dads. 

“Okay,” A-Yuan said. “If you bring Turmeric with you, he’ll comfort you if he’s mean!”

Wei Ying smiled at that.

“That’s why we’re leaving Turmeric with you, so he can comfort you. I know you’re worried, but baba and I will be okay. We’ll come right home when we’re done and snuggle with you and Turmeric.”

Their son seemed to accept that, and A-Zhan deftly removed Turmeric’s harness and placed him in the carrier. He pulled their disguises from a bag. Wei Ying was delighted when A-Yuan put on his brown bunny bucket hat, and he reached out to arrange the ears once the boy had it on. A-Zhan was wearing his own bucket hat, green with frog eyes, also a Father’s Day gift from A-Yuan. 

Honesty, he hadn’t expected that fatherhood would make A-Zhan even sexier, but he wasn’t complaining. 

The walk home was quiet. Wei Ying dreaded reaching home and hated that he felt that way. The home he had made with A-Zhan and A-Yuan was precious to him, and it felt like a sacred space had been violated. 

As they drew nearer, they planned to separate, A-Zhan taking A-Yuan to one side staircase, and Wei Ying taking Turmeric to the other, the plan to meet at the apartment. 

Wei Ying was actually surprised when it went off without a hitch, and he opened the stairwell door to see A-Zhan unlocking the door, Granny already hugging A-Yuan. Just a few years ago she’d have picked him up, but he was a bit big for that now. 

She smiled at his approach, reaching up to pat him on the cheek. 

“Aiya, you look so stressed. Popo will make dinner,” she said. “Auntie Three is making baozi for the building, too.”

Several of the aunties loved cooking different things in excess, so every few weeks they would make a huge batch of something delicious for the whole building, since everyone in the building was family. Auntie Three’s baozi were a favorite of his; she remembered his love for spicy food and always accommodated that in his. 

“Extra spicy for A-Ying,” he chirped, though popo clucked softly in a way that let him know she saw through his attempt at cheer. 

She headed straight for the kitchen, where she would likely catalogue the fridge to decide what to cook. Whatever she made, it would be delicious; his mouth was almost watering just thinking about it. 

He focused on getting Turmeric settled in his hutch, and A-Zhan got A-Yuan situated with a coloring book and crayons. 

“I should change,” Wei Ying said, remembering his torn jeans and the shirt Lan Qiren might be able to decode. 

He’d probably think Wei Ying wore the shirt on purpose to send a message. Frankly, Wei Ying wouldn’t mind that interpretation, but he didn’t want to antagonize. 

“What you are wearing is fine,” A-Zhan said, catching his wrist. “He interrupted our day, and he can get us as we are.”

A-Zhan was still wearing the frog bucket hat, with apparently no intent on removing it. His light blue shirt, Wei Ying noticed for the first time, was the one with a print of a rabbit wearing glasses and a bow tie, with ‘daddy’ in script underneath. Wei Ying snagged his hat with the bunnies and carrots motif from where he’d placed it atop the bunny hutch and put it back on. They’d match, to a certain extent, present a united front. 

“Be good for popo,” A-Zhan directed A-Yuan, as though their son would ever be anything but good. 

The boy simply nodded and discarded his crayon to run over and hug them both. 

The first two floors of the building were Dafan Applications office space. Though the first floor also held a lovely coffee shop and several other stores open to the public, the core of the building was the headquarters. An elevator and staircase serviced the offices, accessible with employee IDs. Each office was accessible only by swiping employee IDs, and record was kept of who entered and when. 

Since the apartments were held entirely by family, it might have seemed paranoid, but Wei Ying was glad for the security the building had—after all, the lack of it at Gusu Lan Tech had led to him being framed for corporate espionage. Poorly, but it ultimately hadn’t mattered. 

He hadn’t understood why he’d been framed, only that he’d had to correct Su She’s subpar coding many times when he’d worked there, so it wasn’t very surprising that he’d fuck up installing the code to the point where it would be caught before it could do damage. Since he’d never been anything but pleasant to Su She, that he’d been targeted had surprised him. 

When he had mentioned his confusion to A-Zhan, about a week after the news broke, he learned that Su She had tried to tell A-Zhan that Wei Ying was a poor choice as a romantic partner, implying he would be better. 

“I told him he was not qualified to speak with me,” A-Zhan had recollected. 

It made a sick sort of sense—if Wei Ying was out of the way, fired or imprisoned, Su She might think he had a shot. And given that Lan Qiren had hated him even before he and A-Zhan started dating, the frame up job was sufficient.

A-Zhan took his hand and led him into the elevator, and he realized he must have blanked out because he hadn’t even heard it arrive. His husband was watching him in concern, and he hated how much this invasion by Lan Qiren was messing with him, but he absolutely wasn’t going to abandon A-Zhan to face him alone. 

“I’m okay,” Wei Ying said. “I just want to get it over with.”

Uncle Four was waiting for them by the elevators. He offered a smile.

“I’ll bring by a few bottles of my newest brew later,” he said in greeting.

“That bad, huh?” Wei Ying asked ruefully. 

“I don’t wish to speak ill of A-Zhan’s family,” Uncle Four said deferentially. 

‘But that man…’ was heavily implied. 

A-Zhan inclined his head. 

“He decided Wei Ying’s guilt on flimsy evidence,” his husband said, his tone dismissive. 

Wei Ying squeezed his hand—it was as close to disparaging as A-Zhan had ever come toward his uncle. More often, they simply pretended he didn’t exist, which prior to this had been fairly easy. When they had spoken of it, when he had finally told A-Zhan in one of his darker moments what Lan Qiren had said to him when running him out of Gusu Lan Tech with security, his husband had simply folded him in his arms and told him he was wrong, over and over again, and reiterated that he had chosen Wei Ying. 

A-Zhan was angry, he realized. Perhaps over Lan Qiren returning to their life with all of his customary arrogance, or perhaps in defense of his brother, who was being excised from the company. He remembered, early in their relationship, learning that both brothers had been told what to major in, prepped for what Lan Qiren thought their careers should look like at Gusu Lan, which was why A-Zhan hadn’t been able to pursue music as he had wished. It was why he had expected him to break up with him, as ordered. 

He wondered what Lan Xichen had given up, what dreams he had let go to serve his family. 

“Tomorrow,” he told Uncle Four. “I think we’ll need tonight for us.”

The older man offered a sympathetic smile and escorted them to the conference room. 

It was the ostentatious one they used for particularly obnoxious or status-obsessed clients, with handsomely-carved panels with the Dafan Applications logo and an imposing table that looked expensive but were actually the work of a family member with a woodworking hobby. It had two doors, one on either side of the long table, which was ideal—they wouldn’t have to walk past Lan Qiren to get in or out. 

When they entered, Wei Ying’s gaze was drawn to Lan Xichen first, seated at the side of the table. He looked… defeated was the first word to come to mind. He glanced at his husband, could see he too was looking at his brother, concerned lines at the corners of his eyes betraying his emotions. 

“Finally,” Lan Qiren commented, drawing their attention. “I don’t have all day.”

His gaze was, as usual, disapproving, and he completely disregarded the fact that he had been the one to crash their day, not the other way around.

“My husband told you to schedule an appointment,” A-Zhan said in lieu of greeting.

He tugged Wei Ying to the head of the table, where someone had thoughtfully placed two chairs. Qing-jie was his guess, letting them present as the team they were. She was on one side of the table beside the seats, and Uncle Four sat on the other, probably as owner of the building. Wen Ning was too faint-hearted to handle this, he knew, even though he was technically the head of Dafan Applications.

“An appointment, to see my own nephew?” Lan Qiren grated, glaring at Wei Ying like it was his fault.

“You told me five years ago that I was no nephew of yours,” A-Zhan said, his voice dispassionate.

Wei Ying knew how much that had hurt A-Zhan. Part of him wanted to tell Lan Qiren that, rail at him over every emotional scar he had inflicted on the both of them, but he also knew there was no point in it—he wouldn’t listen, and he knew well enough that it wouldn’t be cathartic. It was better to let A-Zhan get this over with and be here to support him.

“You were making a mistake!”

His continued glaring at Wei Ying made it obvious what “mistake” he was referring to, and he barely managed not to flinch. It was clear this conversation was not going to be pleasant. A-Zhan took his hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently. 

“As I recall, the evidence that he was not making a mistake has been all over the news,” Wen Qing drawled.

“What business is it of yours?” Lan Qiren demanded. “Why are you here?”

“As witnesses,” she replied. “And A-Zhan and A-Ying are family. We’re here for them.”

Warmth spread through Wei Ying’s chest at her pronouncement—he often referred to her as Qing-jie, but hadn’t known the sentiment was returned. 

“And I own the building in which you are currently trespassing,” Uncle Four added.

Where he was normally a jovial and friendly man, his expression was serious and bordering on unwelcoming. Apparently Lan Qiren had made quite the impression on him. 

Lan Qiren sniffed disdainfully, but finally focused on A-Zhan. 

“The board has decided Xichen’s… indiscretions make him unfit to head the company. You have been appointed in his place. You will, of course, be expected to take the Lan name again, as will the child you’ve adopted. I’ve taken the liberty of securing housing for you, and I suppose we can find a place in the company for your husband, on a provisionary basis, of course.”

Dead silence followed his pronouncement, and Wei Ying felt dizzy with the presumption of all of this—A-Zhan was being ordered back to Gusu Lan Tech as though this wasn’t the first they’d seen or heard from Lan Qiren in over five years, clearly expected to obey without question. 

“Provisionary?” A-Zhan murmured, his voice icy with what Wei Ying recognized as fury. 

He squeezed A-Zhan’s hand, silently asking that he not be angry on his behalf. After all, he expected nothing but this treatment from Lan Qiren, so he wasn’t surprised to receive it. 

“He’ll be expected to prove himself, of course.”

“He already has,” Wen Qing cut in. “He’s been an asset to Dafan Applications since the day we hired him, paramount to our success.”

Lan Qiren sniffed dismissively. 

“Yes, well, his previous stint of employment at Gusu Lan Tech left much to be desired.”

A-Zhan’s jaw clenched. Wei Ying’s stomach roiled, remembering the constant criticism he’d faced there, how ultimately he wondered why they’d even agreed to hire him.

“I will not subject my husband to further abuse at the hands of the company that attempted to ruin his career.”

To his surprise, Lan Qiren looked satisfied by that statement. 

“Then we’ll arrange for your move. You’ll be expected to dress more professionally in the future, as the representative of the company.”

He eyed A-Zhan’s hat and clothing with distaste.

Wei Ying stole a glance at Xichen, who looked haggard and drained and was barely listening to the conversation, and felt empathy for his situation. Xichen had always treated him kindly, until he went no-contact after A-Zhan’s resignation, something he was likely ordered to do. Even so, he also sought to warn them of what had happened, and had informed A-Zhan of Lan Qiren’s intentions. And he had stood fast against the board’s desire to have him prosecuted. 

And now the man he had been set to marry is in prison, having brought Nie Innovations to its knees and attempted the same with Gusu Lan Tech, and what happiness he’d been looking forward to was just so much smoke. 

“You misunderstand,” A-Zhan said. “I do not intend to relocate, or take on the Lan name, or chair Gusu Lan Tech. I will continue to work at Dafan and live in my apartment with my husband and our son. I will remain Wei Zhan.”

Lan Qiren looked shocked, almost as though he had been physically slapped, and then the anger returned. 

“You leave me no choice. It will be a simple matter to buy out Dafan,” he said. 

Wen Qing laughed at the threat. 

“Dafan Applications is a worker cooperative. You have no power.”

For the first time he’d known him, Lan Qiren seemed incapable of words. After all, it meant that he and A-Zhan were part owners of Dafan, as all employees were, something he would never offer at Gusu Lan. Wei Ying privately hoped he was having an internal fit over the socialism of worker cooperatives. 

A-Zhan, however, had plenty to say. 

“You disrupted our Saturday after five years of silence to demand I change my life to suit your whims,” A-Zhan said coldly. “You didn’t even have the grace to apologize to Wei Ying, whose life and career you tried to destroy.”

Lan Qiren’s expression turned stormy. 

“You chose this ill-bred miscreant over your family, and you expect me to apologize to him?”

“No,” A-Zhan said. “I chose the truth. I chose love. A-Ying is my family.”

“You,” Lan Qiren snarled, turning his attention to Wei Ying. “This rebellion is all your influence! A-Zhan was filial until you came along!”

Wei Ying stayed silent. His anxiety spiked but was soothed by A-Zhan’s hand in his, in the feeling of his fingers entwined. Lan Qiren could do nothing to them—he’d already tried, and they’d ultimately come out stronger. They’d built a life and found new family. 

There was so much he could say, but he knew better than to think Lan Qiren would listen; he was a convenient scapegoat, and nothing would convince him otherwise. 

“Have you nothing to say, you ingrate?” Lan Qiren demanded.

A-Zhan tensed, but Wei Ying squeezed his hand.

“I see no point in speaking to you,” he said honestly.

“You dare!”

Lan Qiren stood, quivering with rage.

“You broke our family as completely as you broke the Jiangs, and you have the gall to sit there smirking, enjoying the mess you’ve made!”

Mention of the Jiangs hurt—it had been weeks and only A-Li had reached out, but she had never broken contact to begin with. 

Wen Qing slapped the table and stood, startling them. 

“I’ve heard quite enough. You can’t bully your estranged nephew into uprooting the life he built after you alienated him, so you go after A-Ying again. You act the victim, but you drove A-Zhan away with your unmerited vitriol toward A-Ying.”

Uncle Four stood as well. He was a calm man, but Wei Ying could see him tremble—in anger or nervousness, he didn’t know.

“You are not welcome here, Lan Qiren. Leave or you will be removed.”

“And given that you attempted to poach two of our best employees and threatened our company, you can tell your board that Dafan Applications will never do business with Gusu Lan Tech,” Wen Qing added. 

Wei Ying knew her level of petty and wondered if their new apps would unexpectedly glitch on Gusu Lan products in the future. Probably not, since she was focused on user experience. 

Maybe he was the one feeling petty, but he doubted anyone who mattered would judge him for it. 

“Clearly attempting to reason with any of you is an exercise in futility,” Lan Qiren said.

It took far too much energy to suppress a nearly-hysterical giggle building in Wei Ying’s chest at his complete lack of self awareness. 

“Come, Xichen. We’re done here.”

A-Zhan bristled further, glancing at Wei Ying with a question in his eyes, and he nodded. Xichen deserved to know he still had family. 

“Xiongzhang may stay for dinner, if he wishes,” A-Zhan said. “Our son would love to meet his bobo.”

A tiny smile lit up Xichen’s features, and Wei Ying got the impression it was the first time he’d smiled since his fiancé’s arrest.

“I would be honored to,” he said softly. 

His voice was hoarse, as though he was no longer used to speaking, or was overcome with emotion. It could easily be both. 

“Thank you, didi.”

Lan Qiren scoffed, and Wen Qing pointed at the door, raising an eyebrow. When he stomped out, she and Uncle Four followed him to escort him from the premises, leaving the three of them alone.

“Were you offered another position in the company?” A-Zhan asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence. 

Xichen shook his head, the fleeting smile gone. 

“No. Uncle believes I need time to reflect on my mistakes.”

Wei Ying didn’t hold back a scoff, given that Lan Qiren had referred to him as A-Zhan’s mistake. 

“You didn’t make any mistakes. You had no way of knowing.”

The smile Xichen offers is wrong, bitter. 

“I should have done more. Instead of letting them scapegoat you, I should have insisted on a full investigation. Maybe we would have uncovered the truth and protected you. Maybe we could have prevented the damage to Nie Innovations and Mingjue’s health, too.”

He had forgotten that Xichen and Mingjue were friends somehow. Wei Ying wanted to tell him the guilt he carried was a burden that shouldn’t be his, but he also knew from struggling with his own that it was something Xichen would need to come to terms with himself. 

“You should reach out to him,” A-Zhan said, looking at Wei Ying like he knew what he was thinking. “I doubt he blames you, and perhaps he could use the help.”

Xichen looked torn on the idea. Wei Ying could almost see the thoughts running through his head—that he would be unwelcome, a burden on his friend, but that it was a way to do penance for the sins he believed he’d committed. 

“I’ll think about it,” he finally said.

Wei Ying walked around the table and patted his shoulder, gesturing to the other door, the one that led to the interior of the building. A-Zhan had offered an olive branch with the invitation, and this was his. 

“Come on. Popo is cooking, and Auntie Three made baozi for the whole building. And A-Yuan is waiting.”

The smile returned, a little stronger this time, and Wei Ying smiled back as Xichen levered out of his seat to follow them home. 

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

Jin Zixun’s background is maybe based on a very well-known “journalist” who just constantly looks confused and outraged. To narrow it down, John Oliver did a segment on him recently. Uh, and maybe slightly on two other conspiracy theorists who pretend at journalism, one of whom keeps getting sued.

Also, I am old enough to text in full sentences most of the time. I had some friends check over Wei Ying’s panic texts so hopefully they’re believable.

This was difficult to write because of the anxiety Wei Ying was feeling and the uncomfortable conversations.

Also, I forgot the Nie company name and had to check—I couldn’t remember if it was Nie Innovations or Nie Industries. Turns out I accidentally used both in the first fic in the series. Fixed it now.

I maybe spent too much time researching worker cooperatives and employee-owned companies. It’s not a major part of this fic, but I thought it was a cool detail to bring in.

The title is, again, from the Li Bai poem.

[chenqingssuibian]

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian for the ask meme

two-for-one special, huh?

from this post!

How I feel about this character:

Jiang Yanli: ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF CHARACTERS WHO DESERVED BETTER. Jiang Yanli is everything. She is the it girl. She is my favorite female character except for MAYBE A-Qing. She makes me wish I had a big sister, y’all. God, I wish she had gotten to meet her son - like, actually meet him, and get to know him. (When she died, he was... what, a year old at most? Not MUCH personality there, gotta say.) I wish she had gotten to grow old, man. Jiang Yanli was born to be a grandma, and the fact that she never got to be. Is upsetting. My girl is artistic, she is smart, she is brave (standing up to Jin Zixun!!!! A man who is 100% stronger than her!!!!! From a much stronger and wealthier sect!!!!) and GOD is she kind. Yanli, my beloved <3

Wei Wuxian: He is the main character and he is the main character for a REASON. This man? A mess, through and through. He is also a genius and he will not let you forget it, nor will he let you forget how SEXY he is. Yes Wei Wuxian we know your ass is fat you don’t need to remind me. I love this freaky lil necromancer. So sexy of him to invent that. He doesn’t have a SINGLE uncomplicated relationship, no, that’s too easy. He doesn’t even get to have a simple relationship with A-Yuan, because of course he doesn’t. Wei Wuxian is a flawed man who has committed atrocities and kindnesses in turn. He is simultaneously a grave robber who desecrates corpses on the regular, and ALSO the kind of dude who will attempt (and succeed) to resurrect a guy who he barely knows, even though it seems hopeless, because he is duty-bound. He takes his debt to the Wen siblings so, so seriously, he takes so much so seriously and that is why he doesn’t put effort into, for example, naming his weapons, or other bullshit. He has priorities, man. I love him. 

Romantic Ships:

Jiang Yanli: I’m a slut for xuanli, my token straight ship. Half of it is because I just really love Jin Ling, and if they weren’t a thing... he wouldn’t be either. But ALSO: Jin Zixuan resents her not because she’s her, but because he is being forced to marry her. Once that pressure is pulled off (though honestly? Not completely, because let’s be real - Madame Jin was probably pushing for that marriage all through Sunshot) and he gets the chance to... actually get to know her? He falls in love, y’all. I like to think Jiang Yanli, softhearted as she is, made him work to woo her as much as she was able. Gotta put effort into Jiang Yanli, Zixuan, it’s what she DESERVES! Other than them, yanqing is very good! I read some fics where she married Lan Xichen, which was lovely, and then there’s that series where she gets married to Jin Guangyao instead of Zixuan (though I can’t remember the name of it, rip.) There are very many options, for Yanli, and all of them good. give her a harem

Wei Wuxian: Wangxian goes without saying - they’re the core of the series, after all, if I didn’t like them at least a little... there wouldn’t be a point in me running a blog for this series, would there? Ningxian, unrequited or otherwise, is also very sexy. Wangningxian, too, and, as mentioned in the ask about Lan Xichen, I am into xixian! Xiaoxian also slaps - I’ve written a blurb for them, and plan on expanding it into something larger... at some point. Also, there are some really great (though DEFINITELY not for the light-hearted) xuexian fics out there, if you’re interested.

Non-Romantic Ships/BroTPS:

Jiang Yanli: Yanli and her brothers, Yanli and Wen Ning, Yanli and Everyone, Basically. Everyone should be friends with Jiang Yanli. She is very friend-shaped, and honestly? If everyone was her friend, a lot of shit would’ve gone down better. 

Wei Wuxian: I think the dynamic between Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yanli is just. So fuckin’ delicious. There are layers of love and devotion and propriety and conflicts of all of those things and GOD. I love them. I also thing Wei Wuxian should’ve been a menace as a child on the streets with Xue Yang. I would’ve liked to see it. Nie Huaisang is also a Very Good Bro, who I love him with immensely (and also think he should kiss a little bit)

Unpopular Opinion:

Jiang Yanli: Not to NSFW, but a lot of y’all seem to think she’s the kinkiest bitch on the block, and honestly? I don’t see it. I think her favorite position is missionary. I am so sorry to the pegging stans I just don’t think she has the core strength to make that good.

Wei Wuxian: HE. IS. MORALLY. GRAY. AT. BEST. Particularly during Sunshot and the immediate aftermath, but honestly, Wei Wuxian is not the liberator of the people, or something. He is a very talented man who, when he feels it is the right thing to do, will do anything - and what is right can be subjective and situational. He’s his own villain in a lot of ways, and the villain of many other people’s stories. Honestly, I can’t blame people for being afraid of him, or trying to put limits on what he can do - unchecked power is always bad. Always. Even when someone I like has it. 

What I wish would happen/had happened in canon:

Jiang Yanli: Uh. I wish she had fucking LIVED? I get WHY she had to die, so Jin Ling could... be Jin Ling, and Jiang Cheng would finally have something he really, truly couldn’t forgive Wei Wuxian for. I get that her death is the final nail in his coffin, or whatever. But seeing her simply get INJURED for him would’ve been enough, I think? I don’t think she needed to die, is what I’m saying, and I think MDZS could’ve been even more interesting, narratively speaking, if she hadn’t. Then again, I’m a Xuan Lu simp, so it is possible I simply wish we had had More Of Her.

Wei Wuxian: Therapy, as always. Otherwise, he’s pretty much got it made? Man came back from the dead, got some old friends back, solved a mystery, found out his sort-of son he raised in a graveyard for a while wasn’t dead at all, and then got married to the love of his life. He’s good on that front. Reconciliation with Jiang Cheng is really all I want, past that.

[hunxi-guilai]

general fatal journey reactions!

okay so it only took me like a month and a million to get around to watching Fatal Journey, but boy howdy was it a trip

watched it with friends (remotely!), which meant that I had to go into this with a drinking game (which, for the record, we’d made with no concept of the plot):

FATAL JOURNEY DRINKING GAME

take a sip every time:

- Nie Huaisang smacks his palm with his fan

- Nie Huaisang says “I don’t know”

- Nie Huaisang asks someone to do something for him

- Nie Mingjue is badass

- Nie Mingjue is mean to Jin Guangyao

- Nie Mingjue remote-controls Baxia

- Jin Guangyao plays mind games with anyone

- bad CGI

- knowing the events of CQL make you cringe from the Sheer Dramatic Irony of it all

- the subtitles make you wince

I’ll include an updated version of this drinking game with the glorious clarity of hindsight, though for the record, we were still very well hydrated by the end of the movie with this one (there are just scenes that are non-stop drinking).

More specific thoughts under the cut!

Okay, first things first, I gotta talk about Nie Zonghui, because the filmmakers reached into my brain and dragged out my ideal secondary character:

ridiculously competent

genuinely loyal

s e n s i b l e (i.e. doesn’t strike up an argument about morality in the middle of a dangerous saber tomb, I love you Nie Huaisang but there is a TIME and a PLACE--)

saber dual-wielder oh my god

If you’ve stayed tuned to my blog for quite a while, you’ll know that I have a thing for capable minor characters in the background of main character drama, just chugging along doing their job making sure the world can keep turning while their sect leaders are out here destroying perfectly good capes and being dramatic.

Anyways. I loved Nie Zonghui pretty much from the moment he appeared, which made the big boss battle at the end that much more awesome.

Speaking of which, let’s talk fight choreography

this movie was SO MUCH OF WHAT I WANTED. Y’all know I have Feelings about fight choreography and Fatal Journey delivered. We have dual-wielder Nie Zonghui (I cannot overstate how much I love dual wielders, they’re the coolest ever and if I could magically obtain proficiency in a wushu field I would choose 双刀 shuangdao / double knives. Heck, forget the magic -- I’d sign up for shuangdao wushu classes in a heartbeat, uh, world willing) and like, real fight scenes

we have more than the awkward sword-smacks that we get in CQL! There are real injuries! Sabers get used as the sharp implements they are rather than blunt objects! We get a kickass Nie Mingjue and Nie Zonghui team-up! Have I mentioned how much I adore Nie Zonghui! B A T T L E B R O S 

AND THEN we get NIE MINGJUE VS. NIE ZONGHUI HECK YEAH

I was afraid when they went for Big CGI Monsters Bashing Each Other With CGI Fists, that they’d dust their hands off and call it a day for their big boss battle but no!!!! They gave us CGI fight lovingly interwoven with some kickass fight choreography and I am so here for it

you know what I’m also here for? all the magic! The way Nie Huaisang utilizes ‘astronomy’ / his three brain cells to solve the puzzles of the saber tomb -- it’s an excellent way of making Nie Huaisang absolutely integral to the success of their mission, and it also makes a lot of in-universe sense; you can only find your way out the saber tomb if you’re sane and stable enough to put the clues together

so the scene where Nie Huaisang single-handedly re-aligns all the coffins on his own? yes good you’re doing great sweetie how could anyone call you useless

(another reason to love Nie Zonghui -- Nie Huaisang calls himself useless and Nie Zonghui just looks confused like “no??? how could you think that???? tell me who said that and I’ll break his legs with my sabers. the blunt ends if they’re lucky”)

okay but I’m still thinking about Nie Zonghui, and the fact that he took the hit for Nie Mingjue that turned him into a saber spirit vessel

wait hang side note? that saber spirit? ridiculously powerful. Could go toe-to-toe with Nie Mingjue, who’s like, one of the juggernauts of the cast in terms of sheer martial prowess. Might be able to give Wen Ruohan a run for his money. Which either means that Baxia by the beginning of CQL didn’t quite have the same power levels as the ancestral tomb saber spirit, or Lan Wangji is Just That OP. Maybe both.

but that means that there is an alternate timeline (not a good alternate timeline, mind you) where Nie Zonghui doesn’t get there in time and it’s Nie Mingjue who gets possessed by the saber spirit

just... think about that for a hot second, folks

the rest of CQL could’ve happened very, very differently

Another thing I really enjoyed was seeing Nie Sect culture! That is, their assumed loyalty to each other, unhesitating unswerving unflinching willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done, and considering the fact that the Qinghe Nie Sect’s primary personality trait is “shares a border with Qishan and is constantly fending off Wen Sect invasions,” yeah, that checks out.

all righty I’m close to a thousand words into the post have have managed to write my way around the central theme of the movie, i.e. NIE BROS FEELS, but it’s getting late and that’s basically the next ask I’m working on anyway

coming full circle to the beginning of this post, I present:

FATAL JOURNEY DRINKING GAME, REVISED

take a sip every time:

- Nie Huaisang licks his brush

- Nie Huaisang says “da-ge”

- something happens to Nie Mingjue’s eyes (including crying)

- Nie Mingjue remote-controls Baxia

- Jin Guangyao plays mind games with anyone

- Nie Zonghui is the MVP of a scene

- Chekhov’s piccolo

- you recognize the CQL soundtrack

- you hear the instrumental version of 清河诀 Qinghe Jue

- good CGI

- knowing the events of CQL make you cringe from the Sheer Dramatic Irony of it all

- the subtitles make you wince

Finish your drink when:

- the electric guitar kicks in

[alice-in-wonderart]

I have found your blog and I love it!! Good look with it! Can you do headcanons for pregnancy and post-delivery for the juniors? (I see you write about them, and I don't know which other characters you are comfortable to write for). Thnkx~

I write for right about all characters! The Nies, the Jiangs, the Wens, the Lans, even all of the Jins (except Jin Zixun he can go be mean somewhere else) + Yi City power characters are all characters I write for ✌️ (I may have missed a few names) That aside, thank you so much for reading my stuff! I'm glad you enjoy them ❤️❤️ Aside from having 0 time management skills, running such a blog is so much fun! Here is your request about the Juniors being...well- themselves.

Ouyang Zizhen

You're what now?

OYZZ.exe stopped working.

Then he realised three fundamental truths at the exact same time. (if u get the reference, bless ✌️ )

Once the realization of the situation hit, his eyes watered and a loud, yet emotional whail escaped his lips, before engulfing you in a big hug. He was going to be a dad! You two were going to have a baby. And then realization hit him again.

Shit. He was going to be a father. A father to a baby - his baby. That was a lot of responsibility he was about to take. A lot of work, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of time and energy. Babies are hard.

And then realization hit him a third time. He was going to have an actual family with you. And you were the mother to his child. YOUR child. He almost couldn't believe it.

Cue OYZZ becoming 70 times more affectionate and careful. You want to go outside? By all means, but let your gentle lover accompany you. Just in case, y'know. You want something sweet? By all means, what kind of sweets does the queen desire? You need new clothes because of the baby bump? By all means, what kind of silk do you want? Colour? Pattern? Style? You want to sleep? 3, 5 or 50 pillows?

OYZZ is a walking panic bomb when it comes to your pregnancy. Conveniently, he also knows how to mostly hide said panic. But you being in pain, having morning sickness and and in general feeling off is not something he signed up for. So, he will dote over you as much as humanly possible.

But then judgement day arrived. And he was out of it. He somehow never considered the fact, that you were going to one day have to give birth to that baby.

You have never seen a more distressed looking man than OYZZ when he finally got the permission to see you. His eyes were puffy, his lips were quivering and he was so pale, he could easily pass for a corpse. It seemed as if he was the one giving birth, not you.

And he immediately dropped to his knees next to your bed, gently taking your hand in his. You were alive. You were alive and argueably healthy and that was what he needed to hear.

But then! In comes the medic, holding your child in pure white blankets, gently letting you take it. And the moment his eyes landed on that baby he knew, that his heart was stolen once more.

"Congratualtions! It's a girl."

Guess who is about to become "Daddy's little princess".

Jin Ling

"Hahahahahhahha. Funny. Oh wait, you're serious?!"

PaniK

What do you mean you're pregnant? When did that happen? When did you learn? How were you sure? Wait, you were how many months in?!

Give him time. It's not, that he isn't happy. He's just panicking like crazy. Of course, once the initial mental breakdown™️ wears off, he'd come up to you and give you the most emotional hug you've ever experienced. He'd hide his face in your hair, as he mumbled into you how incredibly grateful he actually is.

Now, as the Lanling Jin Sect's leader, of course it was expected of him to have an heir, so such news travelled quickly. Immediately this became the gossip of every household and ultimately led to you receiving a metric ton of gifts from all over the place. Jin Ling would also make sure you were living the most lavish, yet healthy lifestyle possible.

The truth is, he was utterly terrified. After all, he grew up without parents, lived only with his uncle and as a result was quite hot-tempered. More than anything, he wanted to be the best dad possible. He wanted his children to grow up in a loving family, with their parents next to them, with a mother to care for them and a father to teach them. And he was afraid whether he was capable of even being a good father. But of course, you knew he was going to be the best father in the world.

Now, speaking of hot-tempered, Jin Ling honestly would throw more hissy fits than you. In fact, he'd get more mood swings than you too. In fact, even when pregnant, you're the calm one. Because if you think he's snappy and over-protective of you usually, wait 'till you see him once he learns you're pregnant. Hoo boy.

He was at work, dealing with the pressures of leading a sect when one of Lanling's servants hurriedly burst into the room, giving him the news that made his tough guy act crumble in seconds - his wife was giving birth.

At the time, he was surrounded by now Sect Leader Lan Sizhui, (idk it's a hc), Nie Huaisang and of course - his uncle, who all ushered him to go see you. Thus, he stormed out, running towards the nursery like his life depended on it.

"What do you mean I can't enter yet, my WIFE is in there." You haven't seen scary until you've seen Jin Ling, amidst an utter mental breakdown, being held down by a few nurses, trying desperately to stop him from going in.

Once they DID let him in, he'd be by your side in 0.001 seconds, only to see you holding not one, but two babies.

"A-Ling, look. They're twins. Say hello to papa, little ones." For once, Jin Ling didn't mind the tears that began falling from his eyes, as he gently held one of his two sons in his embrace. Perhaps, being a father wouldn't be that bad after all. Not with you by his side.

Lan Jingyi

*dramatic gasp*

For once the loud, wild Jingyi was left speechless, unmoving, utterly starstruck by the news. He'd never admit it, but for a while he'd been dreaming of having a family with you. So, when you told him the news, his heart skipped a beat. His dream was coming true.

And then, with the biggest smile on his face, he'd lift you up, carrying you to your now shared room, stating how you shouldn't strain yourself and how he'd take care of everything you need.

"Er-gege, I'm only 3 months in, it's barely noticeable yet, I can take care of myself."

Denial.

Lan Jingyi will be there for you at the cost of right about everything, even if it meant breaking Lan's rules, much to yours and everybody's dismay. Macho man™️ will protect his darling flower. What he wasn't ready for was how complicated pregnancy actually is.

Whenever you're more moody, he'd be quick to anger as well, so small and pointless arguments wouldn't be uncommon. But for every little argument, there is also a sleepless night where he'd cuddle you, whenever your stomach would hurt, or you'd feel uncomfortable.

Now Lan Jingyi is a cool dad. He is a cool dad before he is officially a dad. Whenever you two are alone, lying in bed, he'd lean in to rest a hand on your stomach. And he'd always give a happy yelp whenever he felt his little one move. And gosh, how much he'd talk to the baby. He'd tell your stomach stories of his great adventures, he'd joke around and believe me, he's planned every family outing for next 10 years.

Absolutely everybody thought it was going to be a boy. Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling even bet on it, OYZZ being ABSOLUTELY sure it would be a boy.

Giving birth was a whole new adventure. He'd wake up much too early for his liking with you frantically shaking him awake.

"The baby is coming." "Who's coming?" "The baby." "THE BABY?!"

Cue, Lan Jingyi losing his damn mind. He'd be up and running in a blink of an eye, casually scaring the medics and waking up the entire Cloud Recess in his hurry. Don't run in Cloud Recess? He's not running. He's SPRINTING. Do not shout in Cloud Recess? He's not shouting, he's SCREECHING. Do not speak out of turn? FOR GOD'S SAKE MY BABY IS COMING. And he'd be like that the entire time, until he's allowed to see you. He'll write the rules a thousand times if he has to later. He won't, Lan aren't heartless.

Seeing his healthy little baby, he was right about ready to pass out. He almost didn't hear you joking how your little girl was a loud crier and was about to be just as wild as her dad.

" Wait. It's a girl? We have a little girl!" Cue Ouyang Zizhen screaming in misery, as Jin Ling victoriously smirks his way.

Lan Jingyi on the other hand couldn't have been happier.

Lan Sizhui

QWQ

"This is the best day of my life, I can't believe we're going to have our own family!"

With a bright smile, he'd pull you in for a sweet kiss, shaking with excitement. Honestly, he'd have the best reaction out of all the Juniors. He's a family guy, who gets to witness true love everyday around his fathers, so having a child of his own with you was one of his long-term goals. He was old enough and wise enough to be absolutely ready to embark on an adventure through fatherhood.

Lan Sizhui would be so loving and gentle with you. You'd have him wrapped around your finger, he'd respond to your every beg and call. He'd minimize any work-related travelling to make sure he could be as close to you as possible.

When he wasn't there, he'd assign his cultivation partner and trusty bestie Lan Jingyi to take care of you and look after you. Did you necessarily need it? No. But you understood his worry, so you let him be.

He'd be there for you when you were feeling down, through your mood swings, morning sickness. He never complained, never fought with you, never gave you anything short of his unconditional love.

In fact, he was so SO compassionate, that he'd get pregnancy cravings WITH you. Nothing like the two of you, sitting awake at 2 am, (uncommon for him) eating chocolate-covered cucumbers and apricots.

Similarly to Lan Jingyi, everybody were already 100% sure the two of you would have a little girl. With Sizhui's sweet soft-spoken behavior and big warm heart, having a little gentle flower to spoil rotten seemed like the obvious outcome.

Lan Sizhui, on the other hand, refused to give into all of those "what ifs". Only time could tell. Besides, he'd be just as happy and proud no matter what gender the baby would be.

With his careful planning and skillful avoidance of any travelling, thankfully he was there when the due date was up. On the outside, he remained as calm as physically possible, but oh, on the inside it was a storm. Few could see through his façade, but by the trembling of his fingers, discreet chewing on the inside of his lip and eyes darting all around him, his true feelings came to light.

And when he finally got to see you, you've never seen him more unlike himself. With a worried expression and hasty movements he'd make his way to you, trembling hand reaching out to cup your face. He'd leave a gentle kiss on your forehead, before turning to the newborn in your hands.

"Sizhui. Say hi to your son."

A single tear rolled down his face, carrying the weight of all of his love in it. One look at his child and his heart was pierced by a million arrows. At that very moment he vowed, that he'd protect this child with all he's got, teach him all he knows and love him with all of his heart.

Thank you for reading~

[paradife-loft]

Hi! I absolutely love the meta about NMJ's Empathy memories being unreliable, and it's got me wondering about how his qi deviation and death actually went. Since LXC says he saw the qi deviation (and Fatal Journey says it was in public), what's your take on how JGY got NMJ into his secret room so he and Xue Yang could use the Tiger Seal (and eventually kill him)? Fatal Journey has the Nie sect holding a funeral for him, so presumably NHS had /soneone's/ body to bury, but then in The Untamed LXC later says something like he 'hasn't heard from' NMJ in years and had feared the worst, so things... don't seem to add up? What do you think?

Aaah, okay, so: first off, I’m incredibly sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this, and I nonetheless  very much appreciate your interest in my opinions here <3 If you’re still hanging around/following me/reading my blog, anon, idk how obvious it’s been that I’ve… not been having the best few months brain-wise, but that’s basically all I can offer as an excuse for why this reply is coming so late. Thank you for your patience!

So, okay, I think I’m going to try and tackle this question from a couple different angles. First of all, I think it’s worth looking at the material provided in the contained story of the 50 episodes of The Untamed on its own, to see what that suggests, before bringing in outside or supplemental sources, which is what for this purpose I’d consider spin-off movies, details in other versions of the broader MDZS story material, etc. to be. Also, I want to note upfront that while I do tend to incorporate different details and versions of events from both CQL and MDZS into my personal headcanon, what I write in my fic, etc. because I think they tend to provide interesting possibilities, elaborations, and what-ifs for a broader composite MDZS-adaptation-universe – for the purposes of this post, I’m going to stick to material from The Untamed and Fatal Journey only. Mostly, my reason for that is that there’s a few logistically distinct details of how the qi deviation happens in MDZS compared to CQL – one being, it happens at Qinghe rather than Lanling – that I believe affect the timeline of what Jin Guangyao is doing with Nie Mingjue’s corpse in the first place.

Alright so, in The Untamed alone, the evidence such as we have includes: the Empathy sequence involving the qi deviation in episode 41, and Lan Xichen’s statement in episode 39 recounting that he saw it happen himself at Jinlintai, and that after hearing nothing from/about Nie Mingjue since, he’s been “mentally prepared” - presumably, for the news that he’s dead. What I’m inclined to take from those two pieces of information, is essentially a story like this: NMJ qi deviates, very publically, and at some point while this is happening, he makes a break for it and leaves Jinlintai, and whatever presumably messy trail he leaves in the process ends up going cold for anyone trying to follow, with no NMJ around to be seen. With various factors at Jinlintai invested in retrieving him for attempting to turn him into a controllable fierce corpse, it’s pretty easy to imagine that, besides whatever above-board search party tried to follow him, there would also have been another party closely watching his movements for an opportune moment to slip in and scoop him up to bring him back to the secret treasure room for fierce corpse experimentation – hence why the trail would’ve gone cold.

Now, the actual scene showing the qi deviation itself doesn’t include multiple elements I’m positing or including here – specifically, the presence of a bunch of third parties actually witnessing it, LXC included, and then also the idea that NMJ ever left that one landing at the top of the stairs during the qi deviation at all. But, since we see in other parts of the Empathy sequence that the events shown can be… a bit more impressionistic than accurate; and furthermore since it seems reasonable to posit that the memories of the time when he has a literal break with reality might be even less literally reliable than the rest of them – I think those aspects can be reasonably explained away as that scene portraying more of what the qi deviation felt like from the inside, than what an outside observer would’ve seen. Nie Mingjue’s focus is Jin Guangyao, so Jin Guangyao is all he sees – up until Nie Huaisang breaks through that monomaniacal focus and is seen, finally, as himself.

(If you particularly want to pull out some feelings, I might even suggest the idea that finally seeing a distraught NHS was the thing that pulled NMJ sufficiently out of his rage to be lucid enough to flee – and that he booked it in part because he was terrified and ashamed to possibly hurt his younger brother, whether physically or emotionally by letting him see NMJ in such an awful state.

So then, aside from that: the question of what we see in Fatal Journey. I’ve actually been trying to find an answer about what kinds of mourning customs would be followed or even possible if a family didn’t actually have their loved one’s body on hand to bury, but thusfar my internet searching hasn’t really gotten me any useful information one way or another – if anyone reading has an idea or some good sources to point me to, I’d love to hear them! Everything I’ve read so far seems to very tightly marry the performance of appropriate rites and the presence of a body together.

That said, looking back through the actual funeral scene in Fatal Journey, I also wasn’t able to notice the presence of a coffin anywhere in the set, either? We see a memorial tablet, set up in the front of the throne room at Qinghe, and what looks like a brief shot of some offerings, and NHS stoking the fire, but in the couple brief scenes of the inside of the hall, I don’t think there was a coffin set up there? (Or, for that matter, out in the courtyard which we get a longer look at, either.) Compared to what I at least assume is a coffin with Jin Zixuan’s body inside during the mourning scene in episode 32, I feel like it’s reasonable to guess that, even with Fatal Journey included, whatever mourning rites took place at Qinghe after NMJ’s death, they may simply have not involved a body or a burial at all.

- And actually, now that I’m thinking about it, taking Fatal Journey into consideration overall suggests that it might ultimately be the norm at Qinghe to hold mourning rites without a body present – because per the lore additions in the movie, the Nie sect leaders go down to die on their own at the bottom of the saber tomb, and it sure doesn’t look like anybody had been going down there to retrieve them once they did? So, I don’t know, maybe there’s some sort of symbolic burial of something associated with the sect leader as a Nie custom, to keep things looking a bit more normal and less “we build a tomb for these resentment-filled blade spirits that eat our sect leader’s sanity”, and that’s also what ended up being done for Nie Mingjue?  But, yeah, there’s no real confirmation happening even in the movie that NHS was able to come back with a body to bury, so I don’t think that necessarily contradicts the idea that NMJ could have gone missing during his qi deviation and never been properly recovered for a 100% confirmed death.

(That said, I personally don’t tend to incorporate, oh, most of the specific events or points of lore from Fatal Journey into my own readings on various elements of the story? Like, quite frankly, I don’t really like the movie that much, and I think it opens up a lot more unnecessary character and worldbuilding questions without doing a good job of integrating them back into the rest of The Untamed’s continuity (er, such as it exists XD). So I don’t necessarily have an opinion on whether “the Nie sect generally doesn’t do bodily burials of is clan leaders” is an idea anyone should pick up for The Untamed canon; merely that if you do take the events of Fatal Journey as canon, it certainly seems like it could be a possibility.)

(And again, big, big big disclaimer here that, e.g. if holding any kind of mourning rites without a body present is actually super Not Done, then what I’m saying with this part might be totally moot, and then well…. who knows, there’s plenty of speculation that could be used to cover that gap up – maybe “they never found the body” wasn’t actually widespread knowledge, but rather just information LXC had special access to due to the relationships he had with the people involved? – and some set of people depending on your preferences conspired to get another body to stand in for NMJ’s to allow them to hold a funeral? ….Which honestly sounds incredibly sketchy to me on its own, but considering all the other professionally Yikes-style desecrations of bodies that happen in this story…. who knows? I’m really just tossing out ideas here at this point, not saying I necessarily endorse any of them outside of “I think this could potentially work in some way without being out of character for anybody”.)

Anyway… I hope that answers your question, anon, and is otherwise interesting for everyone else reading? Thank you for the ask, and apologies again for taking so long to respond! <3