LINKDING

summary: In the present, Wei Ying finds himself separated from his family and friends when he travels to help Lan Zhan move into a new home. In the past, Nie Huaisang brings a new friend back from summer orchestra camp. ➤ an #mdzs #wangxian modern au set during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, with flashbacks to 2003 ➤ this fic is everything to me. it's just. so beautiful & good? grounded and present to its settings, seeing its characters with open-eyed affection, funny and heartbreakingly painful-hopeful and so, so gentle ➤ I love how the fic is about many relationships at once - wwx & the wens, wwx & jiang cheng, wwx & whatever he had going on with nhs back in the day, and of course, of course, wangxian. and all of these are vital relationships in wwx's life; all of them make him who he is ➤ a "straight boy wei ying" type fic; I love how compassionately wwx is viewed as he goes through his years-long process of realisation. the fic is never mean-spirited about wwx's lack of self-knowledge. he had a lot going on & was doing his best! ➤ I've read this fic at least 3 times and it hits just right every time ➤ 25k words

Summary: Two birders with an intracommunity beef with each other are the only guests on a pelagic trip. It's Nie Huaisang's first, and he's very excited. Until he wants nothing more than to go home. ➤ a cute modern au sangcheng fic where they're both birders and end up on the same pelagic boat trip ➤ I especially loved all the birding details! ➤ 3k words in length

summary: <blockquote>“If you died,” Huaisang started, not knowing quite where he was going with this. “I mean, you did die, da-ge, but if someone had killed you… what would you want to happen next?” / In the wake of Nie Mingjue’s death, Nie Huaisang realises how much he’s been left in ignorance. How could the artsy little brother be left to run their ancestral asteroid-mining clan? What other secrets are hidden in his san-ge’s past? And how should he get revenge? Maybe having da-ge’s personality backed up on a server was supposed to help with all this. Maybe.</blockquote> ➤ mdzs space au about nie huaisang and his years-long project in avenging his da-ge ➤ a repeated theme throughout the fic is nhs visiting and talking to back-ups that had been taken of nmj's personality before death, and the way that this makes literal how HAUNTED nhs is by his brother's absence is just sooooooo good ➤ the worldbuilding is great, the things that are changed from canon due to this different context are great, the anguish and monofocus of nhs are great ➤ I AM ALL EMOTIONS ;_; ➤ 8k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The Yiling Patriarch is a living legend—a terrifying, ancient force of nature, dispensing punishment or reward with implacable, indifferent fairness. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, is a weird but oddly charming guy who wanders around the cultivation world making fun of people's art and mooching food from sect leaders. It really upsets people to find out that they're the same person.</blockquote> ➤ a fun cute look at a time travel fixit au where wwx is the alarming immortal who fixed the burial mounds and will grant wishes to deserving people, and lwj meets him for the first time at 8 years old and decides he'll marry him ➤ I enjoyed the look at how this au has changed things for all sorts of different people across the cultivation world, and the ways in which wwx both is indeed extremely powerful and also is someone who still has his blind spots and emotional vulnerabilities ➤ lots of different povs throughout the fic which is fun too! ➤ 17k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Who is to say when you first understood what really happened? At times it felt like a painting you’d looked at too closely, tracing your eyes over the delicate brushwork until you could no longer see trees and stones - so close that you could see where the ink feathered at the edge of the stroke, the way it soaked tiny claws into each individual fiber that made up the page. And then abruptly you’d blinked and there it was, as it always had been: the mountain. The waterfall. The arc of his intentions.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>In the aftermath of Guanyin Temple, Jin Ling has one question for Nie Huaisang.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Some scholars of resentment believed that strong enough resentment could bind souls together, both before and after death. Some further believed that, were this resentment to be tempered with some other powerful emotional energy, it could become magnified to the point that it could bend the laws of the natural world, even those governing space and time. Or, Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang find themselves thrown back in time to the end of the Sunshot Campaign, each determined to outmaneuver and destroy the other. Their schemes don't quite have the effects they anticipated.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Nie Huaisang doesn’t expect Lan Xichen to consider him still worth liking after everything he’s done. (He also doesn't want to admit to himself how much he'd love to be proven wrong.) Nie Huaisang had painted, in the dark of night with only the light of a dozen candles and a luminescent pearl, a vast fire-scourged plain. In the midst, offset and growing out of a rocky shelter, he’d added a single shoot of green bamboo, tall and straight despite everything. Balancing the bamboo on the other side of the scroll were two lines of poetry: The grass is burnt but not destroyed by the prairie fires / When spring winds blow they bring it back to life. Rolled up in the painting’s scroll was a note that Nie Huaisang wrote right before committing to sending it. The note, which was even more terrifyingly honest than the painting, read: I will do my best to become worthy once more of being considered your friend.</blockquote> ➤ more kind than many fics about the two of them! and I love the knifey fics but this vision of their future is good too

<blockquote>In which Wei Ying plans his return to the theater world (again) and a-Yuan moves in.</blockquote> ➤ I adore everyone in this fic, I love that everyone gets arcs, either relational or professional, and half the relationship arcs are platonic; and I love how much they all care about each other and support each other in their various ways! (and I love that nhs's arc is about his relationship with himself and his identity?)

<blockquote>Meng Yao gets dosed with truth pollen. The cure has some side effects.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Nie Huaisang's brother is dead.</blockquote> ➤ a good example of the art form of the true drabble, packs a great punch in exactly 100 words

<blockquote>War is an ugly business, even when you win. Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang, and all the destruction left in their wake.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian returns to Mo Manor to burn paper money for Mo Xuanyu. He meets Nie Huaisang there. How can you honor a dead man when you walk in his skin?</blockquote> ➤ augh (complimentary)

<blockquote>The bundle of mail from the Qinghe Nie Sect arrives in Cloud Recesses late one evening. All but one piece of the pile is a stack of invitations to this year’s Cultivation Conference, wrapped in light blue string. The last is a short, handwritten list wedged between two envelopes, unnoticeable until it flutters to the floor. (Or: the juniors stage a tiny, benevolent rebellion.)</blockquote> ➤ awww a bunch of people who care about wwx conspiring to get him better-treated!

<blockquote>‘You think me selfish,’ Lan Xichen says, still avoiding his eyes. In the following pause Nie Huaisang seriously wonders whether Lan Xichen is about to snap, grab Shuòyuè and take his head clean off. He gets to his feet, and braces himself. Lan Xichen opens the doors. The effort seems to pain him, like he has aged, or the doors are heavy. ‘You are right.’ It’s barely a whisper, strained so thin it has holes in it. Nie Huaisang thinks he might have misheard — overwhelmed by the loud, furious beating of his own heart — until Lan Xichen repeats, ‘You are right.’</blockquote> ➤ slash-flavoured gen, lxc & nhs talk post-canon about their unresolved issues

<blockquote>One day in Lanling, a little blind beggar picks Nie Huaisang’s pocket, which is the most interesting thing to happen to him in months. (AKA the one where Nie Huaisang adopts A-Qing.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>“I’m sorry,” Nie Huaisang said, so shocked that he didn’t even raise his fan in front of his face. “You want me to what now?” “Help,” Lan Wangji said. He was seated across from Nie Huaisang, as stiff-backed and formal as if they were having a discussion conference banquet rather than a meal in Nie Huaisang’s private quarters in the Unclean Realm. “Yes, I gathered as much,” Nie Huaisang said. “Two questions: Help with what? And – why me?” (a post-canon NHS & LWJ friendship fic)</blockquote>

<blockquote>It had been shaping up to be a really lovely party, and honestly, quite a nice cultivation conference in general. Instead, his last surviving brother was exchanging polite bows with Jin Rulan, and Nie Huaisang was going to spend four days on edge.</blockquote> ➤ (JGY is a character in absentia, not actually present in this fic) ➤ augh (complimentary)

<blockquote>Five times Nie Huaisang was emotionally, circumstantially, or blackmail-ly forced to acquire a Wen, and one time he declared "fuck it" and stole (rescued) them all.</blockquote> Author notes: <blockquote>This fic is dedicated to my mild annoyance at fic in which Sunshot Era or earlier!Nie Huaisang is portrayed as a competent sneaky manipulator. Nie Huaisang will realize his own potential when he is forced to and not ONE moment sooner!</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian’s hand jolts, spilling a drop of wine onto the tabletop. “Love?” he croaks, then clears his throat and tries again. “Lan Zh— uh, Hanguang-jun, in love?” “Have you not heard the story?” the other young woman asks, looking pitying. “You must, it is a truly heartrending tale of star-crossed romance and mutual pining — go to any storyhouse in town, everyone has been requesting a reading of this book.” “There’s a book?” Wei Wuxian says blankly.</blockquote>