Lan Qiren: I Knew This Day Would Come. Little A-Ying Has Grown Up And Come For The Guest Lectures

One of my most pointless but beloved MDZS headcanons is that Lan Wangji was a fat baby. Just a little butterball until he was about 5 years old. Just the squishiest little cheeks you ever saw.

My other beloved fanon/head canon is that Lan Wangji was a biter as a small child. So that cute, wobbly-cheeked face was extremely disarming and numerous Lans have little scars from where the toddling Second Young Master Lan bit the absolute fuck outta them.

Lan er furen (sketch)

i think i made a post about this already, but i think it's really important to understanding both of them and their relationship that (in the novel) the iconic part of Wei Wuxian's first impression on Wen Ning wasn't being kind and friendly to him, after meeting him practicing alone, and wasn't the mere fact of niceness.

and it wasn't standing up for him to his shitty cousin and talking him up, and making sure he got a chance to show off, either.

it was that after Wen Ning choked under pressure and fumbled that chance and made Wei Wuxian look stupid for championing him, Wei Wuxian was not even a little bit mad at him. it did not even occur to Wei Wuxian to be mad at him. most people would be mad at that point! he clearly expected to get yelled at!

but Wei Wuxian was so far from that kind of insecurity he did not even experience these events as humiliating, and he thereby revealed he had not taken those steps to build up Wen Ning on his own behalf, with any selfish motive, but purely from the unfiltered impulse to help.

Wei Wuxian did not in the least feel that having taken Wen Ning's 'side' (unsolicited, probably almost entirely unwanted) entitled him to anything from Wen Ning.

Wen Ning actually has high standards! it was not the little bit of kindness or the brashness that won him over, it was the fact that that kindness persisted undisturbed after Wen Ning provided the provocation of failure.

The fic where Hong-er is a human sacrifice

Fic idea that I'm going to write later: canon divergence AU where a superstitious group in Xianle try to sacrifice Hong-er to the gods and to BWX, believing that Hong-er falling during the parade is the reason for Xianle's decline.

Anyways, I already wrote a little something for it:

"Hong-er hit the floor harshly. All the air was pushed out of his lungs as a heavy body pounced on top of him, pinning him to the floor. He viciously yelled, punching the man on top of him in the liver. The man grunted before delivering a powerful blow to Hong-er’s face.

Hong-er’s head was thrown back from the force of it, the back of his skull colliding with the stone floor. His vision went white and his ears were left ringing.

Suddenly, hands were grabbing at him. He weakly tried to push them away but they held him in a bruising grip.

“We got him!” “Hold him down!”

“Where’s the rope?! Who has the rope?!”

“Peng Xi has it!”

“Hurry, tie his arms and legs before he can escape!”

The sound of scuffling feet surrounded Hong-er as men filled the small shine. Hong-er was manhandled onto his chest and his arms were forced behind him. He struggled against the men, but their hands remained firm, pushing him into the ground and tying the rope tightly around him.

Blood leaked from split lip and into his mouth, painting Hong-er’s teeth red as he yelled at the men."

I'll come back to this latter, I just wanted to put this somewhere.

Something I love about WWX is that he never regrets saving the Wens. The strength of his conviction is just…inspiring.

And it’s not that he just accepts what happened in his first life. We see several moments where he’s sarcastic or otherwise recognizes the hypocrisy of the sects. We see others when he recalls the pain he endured. Even after his resurrection, he’s still not okay with how the sects treated him then and still treat him now.

It’s also not that he’s just not the type to regret his decisions. I think that’s part of it, but we saw in his conversation with JC about the core transfer that he had to persuade himself he was okay with it. He is a person who looks forward rather than backwards, but that’s a deliberate action as well as a natural perspective.

“But, let the self judge the right and the wrong, let others decide to praise or to blame, let gains and losses remain uncommented on.”

This is a hard philosophy to hold to! When someone has encountered a major loss, it’s pretty natural to wish it hadn’t happened or think about what they could have done differently. And WWX lost terribly, but he never thinks he shouldn’t have saved the Wens. He told us that whether he won or lost didn’t matter because he knew what the right thing to do was, and his resolution was put to the test, but he kept it.

It’s especially impressive because for almost the entire story, he doesn’t even know that A-Yuan survived. He goes through the story thinking he only managed to save Wen Ning, who still suffered terribly. But he never thinks that his sacrifice was in vain, and therefore it was meaningless. It wasn’t meaningless to do the right thing, even if it didn’t work out. This kind of conviction is just…really impressive.

a peaceful day

This video is EXACTLY what Lan Qiren fears is going to happen the moment he lets Wei Wuxian back into Cloud Recesses

Baggy shirt 🖤🤍

Imagining a hualian mermaid au where hua cheng is a mermaid

When he was younger some poachers caught him and they marveled at his bright red tail. he tried his best to cover it with seaweed and stay out of sight

But he gets caught

Xie Lian happens to be sailing nearby and he spots the poachers and demands they release honghong er

Honghong er is frightened by it all and swims away. He spends the rest of his youth hiding in an underwater cave. Never does he forget the kind human who saved him

Xie Lian’s village is destroyed by the poachers who turn out to be pirates because of this act. Then he is kidnapped by the pirates and made a slave aboard their boat

He tries to stay upbeat and kind toward the other victims and prisoners he encounters but it’s *hard*

Meanwhile, Hua Cheng makes a name for himself as the terror of the seas. You know he is near when the waves turn crimson

He spots this ship and attacks it for entering his domain—a haven where merfolk are safe from humankind. He watches the pirates begin to drown, a smile on his face

Then he spots one—an unconscious man in tattered white robes—a face he could never forget. He races Xie Lian to the surface and resuscitates him. Pleading with his savior to stay with him. To stay alive.

Xie Lian wakes up. He instantly recognizes Hua Cheng. He smiles.

“It’s you,” he whispers, placing a hand on the merman’s cheek. He never stopped thinking of the mermaid. He never regretted saving him.

Hua Cheng just stares and stares and stares. Disbelieving. He treats his beloved’s wounds. He can’t speak above the surface. His vocal cords don’t work right.

Xie Lian remains on a small island while he heals. Hua Cheng hunts fish for him and watches the human cook it. Xie Lian talks at length about where he is from and the life he’s lived. Hua Cheng listens with rapt attention

One day, when Xie Lian has recovered, and meat has returned to his bones, Hua Cheng offers him, on a thin silver chain, a ring made of his own scales.

When Xie Lian puts it on, he transforms into a merman. An elegant one with a pretty white and gold scaled tail.

They go to Hua Cheng’s domain and Xie Lian quickly picks up the language of the merfolk

Hua Cheng explains that Xie Lian can take off the necklace at any time and return to his human life up on land. To return home.

“Maybe I’ll visit someday,” Xie Lian smiles. “But as far as Im concerned I *am* home.”

To whom it may concern,

Yunmeng, Yiling and Yunping

Watery ways, lush vegetation, a sect that remembers being rangers.

Wandering cultivators, forgotten bones, a corrupted land that remembers being fertile.

Wanton corruption, careless promises, a temple that remembers being a brothel.

Lotus that springs from mud.Mud that is hidden beneath the lotus. Where does one begin and where does the other end?