swamp ophelia

Literally can't believe I have finally finished and posted my Fandom Trumps Hate fic!!!


Fic: after waking
Fandom: The Untamed
Characters/Pairings: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (with brief cameos by others)
Rating: T (for language)
Wordcount: 13,730
Other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Sunshot Campaign (Modao Zushi), Angst with a Happy Ending, just lots of angst tempered by lwj being adorable and wwx being tender about it, and then a very happy ending, Drunk Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Golden Core Reveal (Modao Zushi), WangXian.mp3, the inherent eroticism of the Lan forehead ribbon
Summary:

Lan Zhan blinks at him, his eyes taking the time to visibly focus. The smallest smile appears at the edges of his soft mouth. “Wei Ying,” he says again, so sweet (so sweet in front of all these people, in front of the whole Jianghu) that Wei Wuxian feels like he’s coming out of his skin.



At the Sunshot Campaign victory banquet, Jin Zixun makes a very stupid decision. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have to face the consequences.

+ Rule of Law
Lan Wangji, Lan Jingyi, gen, post-show, G rating, 2,357 words

Lan Jingyi shuffles into the office looking as if he’s eaten something unpleasant.

“Hanguang-jun,” he says, with some trepidation. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… I think what the cultivation world needs is a—a code of rules. Written down.”

I am obsessed with every line of this fic. It's proof of just how good a really short fic can be. I mean, I teared up multiple times! Just from single lines! It's so good! Read it please!

This is a fic for all those people who are like, "Yeah, I'm not sure what LWJ as the Chief Cultivator would actually look like, he doesn't seem suited to that." But it's really a fic about all the things that still need to be changed in the jianghu to make it more just. And about Jingyi being Jingyi--I ADORE the way Dea writes Jingyi. I adore the way Dea writes period, but her Jingyi is a treat.

+ A Little Night Music
Jiang Cheng/Lan Qiren, post-show, T rating, 34,720 words

Now, I am not an automatic audience for this pairing, but this fic is doing so many things I super enjoy! Giving Jiang Cheng meaningful adult relationships (and a street orphan to love)! Exploring how much it sucks to be the only responsible person in a given situation and thus having to take on all the work! Messy sect politics regarding leadership and succession! Some chronic illness stuff! Ace!Jiang Cheng in a way that resonates a lot with me! Showing the shortcomings of characters we nonetheless love! And a backdrop of how much Jiang Cheng loves and always has loved Wei Wuxian. I enjoyed this a lot!

+ they keep the phoenix in a bamboo cage
Wei Wuxian-centric, Sizhui and Jingyi, Lan Wangji, and endgame Wangxian, T rating, 41,570 words

"In which an amnesiac Wei Wuxian concludes from the available evidence that he's been forced into a sham marriage, and acts accordingly."

INCREDIBLE premise A+++ 10/10 no notes. I probably would have executed it a bit differently, but I didn't write it! The characterization is more MDZS in that this Wangxian were not as close as they were in the show, which is not my bag (I'm a sucker for their tentative but deep friendship in the show as opposed to the "WWX thinks LWJ hates him actually" dynamic of the book), but it REALLY works here. I love a good amnesia premise and this one went full "this is pretty fucked up, really" with it, and also very "historically marriage is about one partner gaining total control over the other," and I approve.


+ something left to save
Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, A-Yuan, Yunmeng siblings, canon divergence, E, 56,915 words

This Wangxian is more CQL-inspired, imo, and really hits right for me. Very tender and intimate and a fix-it of sorts. When Wei Wuxian finally gets free of Wen Qing's needles and finds all the Wens dead, he takes A-Yuan and runs off to save him. Lan Wangji runs after him. Meanwhile, back at the ranch Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli are determined to save their brother. I just really like the Wangxian here!



The conclusion of this post is that Jingyi is the real MVP of this universe.

Yay, we can talk about Remix now!

It somehow never occurred to me when I signed up for the Remix that I might get assigned someone who only writes modern AUs...when I have zero interest in writing modern AUs. I momentarily panicked!

But fortunately, the author whose work I was assigned is a marvelous writer who focuses on emotional beats, and I discovered I could take those emotional beats and put them back in the canon setting and they would still work. It turned out to be a ton of fun!

So here's my Remix entry:

Title: winter's dispute against your heart's heat
Remix of: give up your shape to the falling snow
Fandom: The Untamed
Characters/Pairings: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji
Rating: T
Wordcount: 7,319
Additional tags: post-canon, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort
Warnings: suicidal ideation, mild non-sexual pet play
Summary: As the bitterest cold took hold, there were times when he walked through the main street of a village and not one person returned his smile. One morning, bleary from a night of little sleep (the ground too hard, the air too cold) and faint from lack of food (when was the last time he had eaten?), he walked right between a pair of bundled-up laborers, close enough to smell the ripeness of their bodies even in the sharp air, and neither of them even looked at him. A hazy thought floated to the surface of his mind: Am I invisible?

In the depths of winter, Wei Wuxian turns towards Gusu.

Title: like water on parched earth
Fandom: The Untamed, Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù (but CQL-verse)
Characters/Pairing: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji
Chapters: 2/3
Rating: E
Wordcount: 7,827 in this chapter
Warnings: It's a sex curse. So...dub-con?
Summary:
“It is a curse,” Lan Zhan says, and Wei Wuxian tries to push his way into the room. But Lan Zhan is so strong, so much stronger than him even while cursed, that Wei Wuxian cannot make the door budge. “A small curse, but tenacious.”

“Well, let me in and we’ll eliminate it!”

“We cannot.”

After a night hunt, Lan Wangji asks for two rooms at the inn. And then things go from bad to worse.

No Fannish Friday this week--I was too busy writing! Or maybe you can just think of me posting fic as Fannish Friday, albeit one not everyone on my flist cares about. 😂

(Yes, I wrote this entire thing in the past week. Yes, it is going to have a sequel. No, I did not plan any of this!)

Title: the dark, the light, the flame
Fandom: The Untamed, Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Characters/Pairing: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, with Wen Chao, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli in supporting roles
Chapters: 2/2
Rating: T
Wordcount: 17,206
Warnings: This is pretty angsty and explores the aftermath of emotional torture. But there is no non-con or sexual assault in this fic.
Additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Sunshot Campaign, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core Reveal, Wei Wuxian Whump, lan wangji’s typical inner maelstrom of emotions, there is no noncon or sexual abuse in this fic just fyi, just the aftermath of emotional torture nbd
Summary:
Wen Chao had not kept Wei Ying as a hostage in the traditional sense. He had kept him as a prize of war, a statement to his own troops, not to his enemies. Look at this defanged, declawed thing. This once-untamed creature made pathetic, all his light doused by the Wen’s black sun. Every time he hauled Wei Ying out in chains, used him as a piece of furniture, Wen Chao had been flaunting his power.

Wen Chao doesn't throw Wei Wuxian into the Burial Mounds. Lan Wangji finds him anyway. And then they both have to deal with the aftermath.

The problem with having the Untamed fandom as your main fandom is definitely not thinking of plot bunnies, I'll tell you that right now. I always have an endless amount of ideas. I just haven't written them because they would end up being at least 50k words long (or, you know, 100k) and I do not have the stamina for that.

CQL fics I would write if I had the time and energy:

+ The mpreg Jiang Cheng fic that Snick can't write me because she's not in this fandom. Jiang Cheng needs a daughter. I think this would probably be an AU before the Burial Mounds arc. But it could possibly be post-Wei Wuxian's death. I would really lean into the Jiang Cheng-is-ace reading in this one. It would basically be the equivalent of Seraph only with Jiang Cheng instead of Spike.

+ The one where Jiang Cheng goes to the Burial Mounds and finds Lan Wangji searching for Wen Yuan. When he sees what the Lan have done to Lan Wangji and hears that LWJ plans to take Wei Wuxian's son back to Gusu with him, Jiang Cheng is like, "Oh hell no." Lan Wangji passes out from blood loss and Jiang Cheng takes him and Yuan to Lotus Pier. When Lan Wangji wakes up, Jiang Cheng convinces him to stay and they become single dads together. (Someone has written this fic--actually, someone has written a number of the fics on this list--but not like I'd write it.)

+ Mo Xuanyu is a cis woman, but still sacrifices her body for Wei Wuxian. I just think everything that happens post-time jump would be very interesting if Wei Wuxian were in a body that everyone perceives as female. I think he would not care very much what kind of body he's in except when he and Lan Wangji get together, he'd be like, "Oh, no, Lan Zhan is gay! Very gay! What if he doesn't want me now?" And of course LWJ is gay, but he is mostly Wei Ying-sexual and also not a TERF. This is Wei Ying, and Wei Ying is male. It's not that complicated.

He still wants WWX to rail him though, so pegging ensues.

+ A fic wherein after Mianmian defects from the Jin sect, Jiang Cheng recruits her to the Jiang. Everything else happens according to canon, except this time when Jiang Cheng loses everyone he loves, he has someone by his side. They raise Jin Ling together and, knowing me, probably fall in love. Or maybe just become bffs. Either way, they become ride-or-die for each other. I just feel like if Jiang Cheng had had an adult someone on his side through all those years, things would have gone so much better for him, and Mianmian is not the kind of person who would take his shit. I think they'd suit each other pretty well.

+ A post-canon fic about Wei Wuxian slowly, slowly winning Lan Qiren over. Lan Qiren resists it for a long time, and even after he softens towards Wei Wuxian, he pretends he hasn't. But eventually they become bffs and argue over theory for hours, pretending to be very grumpy with each other but really enjoying it completely.

+ Jiang Yanli becomes Jiang sect leader after her parents die and then after canon happens, she still lives and becomes CHIEF CULTIVATOR. We deserve Chief Cultivator Jiang Yanli.

+ Wen Qing steals the throne from Wen Ruohan and then takes Jiang Cheng as her consort. Jiang Yanli is head of Jiang sect. Between the two of them, they figure out a way to bring the war to an end. This is basically just Girlboss: The Fic.

+ Mianmian goes to Qiongqi Path with Wei Wuxian and ends up going to the Burial Mounds with them and then Mianmian/Wen Qing ensues.

+ Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing have to get married for some reason. Cue Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng being very depressed and full of yearning. The marriage goes great, actually--Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing are a great team--but also they're not in love. Eventually they figure out this lavender marriage thing and Wangxian and Chengqing ensue.

+ WWX and the Wens are left alone in the Burial Mounds and Yuan is raised there. Fifteen years later, WWX and WQ finally decide it's okay to engage with the world again. Cue Wen Yuan engaging with the world outside of the Burial Mounds for the first time and meeting Lan Jingyi and falling in love.

+ A rewrite of the second half of canon where Jin Ling is a girl. I just think Jin Ling should have been a girl. Imagine Jiang Cheng raising a bratty little princess. I want it.

+ Fic where baby Wei Wuxian is found by the Wens before Jiang Fengmian can find him and is raised by the Wens. When Wen Ruohan decides to attack the rest of the cultivation world, Wei Wuxian has to make a lot of complicated moral choices that are only made more complicated by how drawn he is to this Lan Wangji guy who should definitely be his enemy.

+ A what-if about how things might have gone down if Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng found out about the golden core while they're watching Wei Wuxian confront Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu after the three months of radio silence.

+ A what-if about how Lan Wangji might figure out that Wei Wuxian is back if Wei Wuxian didn't play Wangxian. How long would it take? What would finally make him figure it out?

+ The Jiang siblings get thrown into the Burial Mounds with Wei Wuxian. I just want dark!Yunmeng Siblings!!!

Okay, I was just thinking about how I recently have come up with Wangxian fics in which Wangxian's brothers actually have more compelling arcs than they do, which is frustrating because I don't want to write about those arcs!

And then I was like, "Wait, why don't I want to write about them?" I know why I don't want to write about Lan Xichen--because I just don't care much about him as a character. (I get why other people do! But I do not!) But Jiang Cheng? I ADORE Jiang Cheng! I love him to death! Why would I not want to write about him?

The answer I have arrived at is that it's too much. Jiang Cheng is so inherently tragic to me in ways that just hit too close to home. His whole story is about being left behind. It's about loving but not being able to communicate that in a way that's helpful. It's about being outshone by others. IT'S ABOUT LOSING EVERYONE YOU LOVE.

And I can't write about that unless I'm going to fix it. And fixing it would take...so many words. I can't do that in 6k words or 15k words or even 30k words. That would take a novel! And I do not have the time or energy to write a novel about Jiang Cheng!

And so I avoid writing about him at all, because I refuse to write about his pain and I don't have time to write about his healing.


Here's the question: Do any of y'all have a similar character in your fannish life? One you love, but who you can't write about for whatever reason?

Title: use the wood brought in by the tide
Fandom: The Untamed, Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Characters/Pairing: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, Madam Yu, Jiang Cheng
Chapter: 5/5
Rating: M
Wordcount: 5,668
Warnings: This story features abuse from Madam Yu. I don't think it's overly graphic, but it is emotionally heavy and explores living with domestic abuse, so take care of yourself if you don't need to read it.
Additional tags: alternate universe - arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, warning for physical abuse, wwx is an adult but madam yu is madam yu, just keep in mind that the jiangs' a+ parenting is the backdrop for this fic, also featuring: falling in love with your husband, pining for your husband, sibling solidarity, dealing with your in-laws, lan wangji's typical inner maelstrom of emotions, wei wuxian whump, protective!lwj, lwj&jyl friendship, intimate hair brushing, and a happy wangxian ending
Summary:
Lan Wangji looks from face to face to face. All three of them are red-eyed and weary-looking. There is no feeling of resistance in the room. Everyone in this room knows how unjust Yu-furen’s reaction was. And yet not even Wei Ying, so quick to speak, to act when anyone else is the subject of unfairness, seems…resigned. Yes. That is the word. They are all resigned.

It curdles in Lan Wangji’s stomach, the knowledge that this must be a common occurrence. He had known that things were not right in the Jiang family, but he had not known that they were like this.


Months into his arranged marriage to the head disciple of the Jiang sect, Lan Wangji confronts family dynamics unlike any he has encountered before.

(The fact that he's desperately in love with his husband only complicates things.)

Title: use the wood brought in by the tide
Fandom: The Untamed, Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Characters/Pairing: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, Madam Yu, Jiang Cheng
Chapter: 3/4
Rating: T
Wordcount: 4,334
Warnings: This story features abuse from Madam Yu. I don't think it's overly graphic, but it is emotionally heavy and explores living with domestic abuse, so take care of yourself if you don't need to read it.
Additional tags: alternate universe - arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, warning for physical abuse, wwx is an adult but madam yu is madam yu, just keep in mind that the jiangs' a+ parenting is the backdrop for this fic, also featuring: falling in love with your husband, pining for your husband, sibling solidarity, dealing with your in-laws, lan wangji's typical inner maelstrom of emotions, wei wuxian whump, protective!lwj, lwj&jyl friendship, intimate hair brushing, and a happy wangxian ending
Summary:
Lan Wangji looks from face to face to face. All three of them are red-eyed and weary-looking. There is no feeling of resistance in the room. Everyone in this room knows how unjust Yu-furen’s reaction was. And yet not even Wei Ying, so quick to speak, to act when anyone else is the subject of unfairness, seems…resigned. Yes. That is the word. They are all resigned.

It curdles in Lan Wangji’s stomach, the knowledge that this must be a common occurrence. He had known that things were not right in the Jiang family, but he had not known that they were like this.


Months into his arranged marriage to the head disciple of the Jiang sect, Lan Wangji confronts family dynamics unlike any he has encountered before.

(The fact that he's desperately in love with his husband only complicates things.)

What the heck, y'all. I finally managed to finish my arranged marriage AU. The second two chapters still need a bit of cleaning up, but the thing is done and the first chapter is posted.

Title: use the wood brought in by the tide
Fandom: The Untamed, Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Characters/Pairing: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, Madam Yu, Jiang Cheng
Chapter: 1/4
Rating: T
Wordcount: 5,356
Warnings: This story features abuse from Madam Yu. I don't think it's overly graphic, but it is emotionally heavy and explores living with domestic abuse, so take care of yourself if you don't need to read it.
Additional tags: alternate universe - arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, warning for physical abuse, wwx is an adult but madam yu is madam yu, just keep in mind that the jiangs' a+ parenting is the backdrop for this fic, also featuring: falling in love with your husband, pining for your husband, sibling solidarity, dealing with your in-laws, lan wangji's typical inner maelstrom of emotions, wei wuxian whump, protective!lwj, lwj&jyl friendship, intimate hair brushing, and a happy wangxian ending
Summary:
Lan Wangji looks from face to face to face. All three of them are red-eyed and weary-looking. There is no feeling of resistance in the room. Everyone in this room knows how unjust Yu-furen’s reaction was. And yet not even Wei Ying, so quick to speak, to act when anyone else is the subject of unfairness, seems…resigned. Yes. That is the word. They are all resigned.

It curdles in Lan Wangji’s stomach, the knowledge that this must be a common occurrence. He had known that things were not right in the Jiang family, but he had not known that they were like this.


Months into his arranged marriage to the head disciple of the Jiang sect, Lan Wangji confronts family dynamics unlike any he has encountered before.

(The fact that he's desperately in love with his husband only complicates things.)