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: Lan Zhan is — a friend. A guy. That takes the pressure off, knowing they’re doing this as friends, that Wei Ying doesn’t have to perform. And, he’ll admit, it’s flattering that Lan Zhan wants him. The guy is gorgeous. And when he said "I know how to please a man," in that deep, silky voice of his — / Straight boy Wei Ying enters a friends with benefits arrangement with his gay roommate and best friend, Lan Zhan. It absolutely doesn't awaken anything in him. ➤ modern au wangxian fic where they're friends and roommates who start a friends-with-benefits arrangement ➤ a-spec wangxian! I liked how it was handled with wwx's difficulties in recognizing what he was feeling about lwj ➤ I read this fic as a wip and I have a bad memory so I don't recall everything I thought about it in the earlier chapters but it was good! ➤70k words in length

summary: Lan Wangji summons Wei Wuxian's spirit using Inquiry. ➤ flashfic about lwj successfully summoning wwx's spirit after death to ask questions ➤ OUCHHHHHHH YES IT'S SO GOOD ➤ 350 words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The gang finds out that everyone has kissed Lan Wangji except for Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian has a meltdown about it and then fixes the problem as quickly and thoroughly as he possibly can.</blockquote> ➤ modern AU wangxian fic wherein wwx finds out that lwj has kissed all of their friends except him ➤ obviously he immediately goes insane about this ➤ I'm very charmed that this is a "mutual pining" trope fic wherein the two of them never doubt for even a moment that they are each other's most important person ➤ the writing is extremely funny. such good comedy bits overlapping with the genuine emotions in ways that make both parts better! ➤ 31k 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>Lan Wangji comes over and they kiss. Lan Wangji comes over and they have tea. Lan Wangji comes over and they talk. It turns out that the available study materials are contradictory and unenlightening.</blockquote> ➤ Because Of Reasons, wwx and jc are both married off to lwj after the destruction of lotus pier. wwx is blissfully happy about it; jc struggles with it on a NUMBER of fronts ➤ from jc's pov, about him figuring out how to have a successful relationship with his husband, with his place in his new sect, with his brother and co-spouse, with himself and his struggles in cultivation these days ⮞ jc's pov obviously doesn't like to think about any of these things straightforwardly, he's too busy being tsundere about everything lol ➤ I love seeing him finding his own way, figuring out how to have a life that works for him even if it isn't what he would have chosen! ➤ 17k words in length ➤ (also: fuck jkr and all, but if you also fondly remember helenish's hp fic "theft of assets, destruction of property" then this is the mdzs fic for you!)

Summary: <blockquote>Sequel to Late Night, North Station. Lan Zhan brings Wei Ying and A-Yuan home with him. Now he just needs to figure out how to get them to stay.</blockquote> ➤ modern au where wwx reappears after many years and lwj wants to keep him in his life in whatever way he can ➤ I love! how much they care about each other, and how they try to navigate the new/old dynamics between them with the additional perspective that being older will bring ➤ though lwj still hasn't entirely figured out the framework to understand his attraction to wwx ➤ they're both trying so hard to not overstep boundaries between them but they can both agree that whatever is best for a-Yuan is worth doing ➤ watching them slide into intimacy and intertwined lives, and how lwj comes alive with wwx and a-yuan in his life! endless delight ➤ impeccable under-negotiated d/s vibes between them ➤ I love the glimpses into all the other people in their lives as well! ➤ ahhh there are so many things I could keep saying about this fic! it's so good ➤ 106k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>"I have regrets." - Lan Wangji</blockquote> ➤ wangxian fanvid set to "Hold On, I'm Coming" by Book featuring Ndidi O ➤ damn this vidder is so good at using the motion of clips with the music to create and build intensity! ➤ I love how clear the arc is of what the vid is doing, even with almost no words in the song ➤ thanks to lookitmychicken again for reccing this one!

Summary: <blockquote>"Why would I stop loving you, a hundred years from now?"</blockquote> ➤ wangxian fanvid set to "It's Only Time" by the magnetic fields ➤ I tend to be a hard sell on vids set to slower songs but this one totally captured me ➤ a gorgeous look at the endlessness of lwj's love

Summary: <blockquote>In which Lan Zhan makes a friend at a quilt show.</blockquote> ➤ a super cute modern au where wangxian are quilters! I love how much the author is clearly familiar with quilting and is able to imbue the fic with insider perspectives on the art/hobby ➤ I love when writers port "these characters are super skilled at The Thing The Show Is About" into a completely different domain like this, especially when it's a domain that doesn't get much attention from fandom usually! ➤ the dynamics between wwx and lwj are also so fun, the way they click so easily, and push each other, and inspire each other, and love each other ➤ also I dearly want to see all the quilts that are described in the fic lol ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In which Lan Wangji attempts to reconcile who he thought he would be with who he is.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Minutes turned into hours, and the shrills of agony puncturing through the walls of the courier station did not stop. Sometimes they would diminish, even silent for a moment, before exploding into a battered howl, enough to make the wind shiver. Still, Lan Wangji did not move.</blockquote> ➤author's note: <blockquote>So yesterday i may have had a realization on twitter about why, near the end of the novel, wwx says that "you dont like when i say thank you to you" and cited the courier station as a time when he said "thank you", when he never did. I thought it might have been just an overlook by MXTX, but it was still odd considering MDZS had been revised at this point. Then I thought about how LWJ didn't leave, but waited downstairs, and that they might still have had a short interaction that day. So, this happened! It follows right after chapter 62, when LWJ walks downstairs the courier station while JC and WWX stay to kill Wen Chao, so you might wanna re-read that part (if you're able) just to refresh your mind.</blockquote> ➤ oof

Summary: <blockquote>Lan Zhan, an up-and-coming sport climber, has always kept to himself. A traditional climber, he hates Wei Ying's flashy, dynamic style on sight when they meet on the youth international competition circuit. But all that changes when a new competition format is announced, and training for it makes Lan Zhan realise that though climbing is a solo sport, it doesn't have to be a solitary one. Two years. Four cities. A Wangxian climbing AU.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>When Lan Zhan indicates a willingness to be Wei Ying's (platonic) dom, Wei Ying jumps at the chance. But then Wei Ying catches feelings. Really inappropriate feelings for someone who's supposed to be his esteemed platonic colleague. Surely the detestably respectful thing to do is to break it off rather than violate this clear boundary, right? But before Wei Ying can work up the fortitude to take that final, terrible step, he and Lan Zhan get caught up in a surprise case. One where talking to each other becomes significantly harder.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>"Yes, you've been saying my name for the past five minutes," Wei Ying says, worried, and oh heavens, yes, this is indeed his husband. "It woke me up. Were you having a bad dream?" No, it was a good one, Lan Zhan wants to say. You were yourself again – He catches the thought mid-drift, and is mortified. / Lan Zhan sometimes misses Wei Ying's old body, and it's hard knowing he'll never see it again.</blockquote>

<blockquote>After Guanyin Temple, Lan Wangji has to adjust to the fact that Wei Ying is here to stay...albeit in a body that's still unfamiliar to them both.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mianmian sets her drink down on the floor with a clink. “If she’s that perfect, it’s no wonder she can put up with you two.” The room goes silent. Across the room, Wen Qing’s expression has morphed from this might be a crisis to this is absolutely a crisis and we need damage control, stat. Jiang Wanyin bristles, opens his mouth to say something mean in response. Lan Wangji is more worried about Wei Ying, who has gone very, very still beside him. He knows that Wei Ying’s relationship with his adoptive family is complicated—a web of obligations and resentment that might never be untangled; he knows that Wei Ying constantly felt like a burden, and that Jiang Yanli was the only one who offered unconditional affection. / or, lan zhan reflects on sibling relationships while wei ying scrambles to get his jiejie the perfect birthday gift</blockquote> ➤ unfinished, possibly abandoned, but the one chapter stands alone just fine

<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>Wen Qing rubs her cheek against Wei Ying’s shirt—in the way a cat might when pretending it's not about to bite you—and says absently, “Your tits are almost bigger than mine.” Through the haze of Grandaddy Purple, something clicks into place in the rat maze of Wei Ying’s brain and a sincere, “I wish they were,” falls out before he can stop it. / Wei Ying wants tits and has some Gender about it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Sometimes Lan Zhan doesn’t work through lunch. Sometimes he makes conversation with coworkers in the halls. Sometimes he goes home instead of spending the last hour trawling through Grindr. But mostly, that’s exactly what he does. The sameness is comforting. His life spools out in easily measured increments: capsule collections, yards of hand dyed textiles, ninety day lead times, sell through figures, cost of goods sold. Every date in manufacturing can be calculated backwards and forward from a single horizon point: the date that the goods must arrive into the country where they'll be sold. Other than that, nothing else really matters.</blockquote> ➤ well this is devastatingly good

<blockquote>Lan Zhan shuts his eyes in exasperation. Lan Huan’s “Head Up and Heels Down,” shirt is confusing enough to the average person without being actively suggestive. (Every time Wei Ying sees it he proceeds to sing, “Heels down, head up, that’s the way we like to fuck!” under his breath, so the line for “actively suggestive” is… mutable.) He can’t imagine the kind of top stampede his extremely gay brother would cause by going out of the house in a t-shirt announcing, for all intents and purposes, his desire to be the star of an orgy. He tries very hard not to picture either the stampede or the orgy. “Why would you even want sixteen hands between your legs, anyway?” Wei Ying asks the room at large, sounding genuinely curious. “What would they do? I feel like at a certain point there’s, like, diminishing returns, right?” Ah. The mental image of Lan Huan’s Top Stampede has been replaced with a mental image that is both better and worse: Wei Ying as the centerpiece of a nine-person orgy. Or: A Horse Girl throw pillow, and what comes after.</blockquote> ➤ I love all the yes -anding absurdist humour, how well lwj&wwx clearly know each other, the affection and delight they have in each other!

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian is hit with a sexy curse that can only be broken by fucking or dying horny about it. In a last-ditch effort to preserve the paper-thin plausible deniability protecting his enormous crush on Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian attempts to choose ‘dying horny about it.’ He fails on all counts.</blockquote> ➤ I love the, like, pacing of the emotions reveals between them over the course of the fic? they love and trust and understand each other so WELL

<blockquote>"That was an exhibit," Lan Zhan said after a moment. Tarbosaurus bataar, the gem of the Museum of Natural History's collection. "It was," Wei Ying said smugly. "And now it has feathers!"</blockquote>

<blockquote>They say he was thrown into Luanzang Gang by the man who killed his parents; they say that he is an immortal cultivator who had been in a deep trance until the Wen sect disturbed his rest and incurred his wrath; they say that he is the fierce corpse of a cultivator who had somehow regained his mind and his spiritual powers. When Lan Wangji sees him for the first time, he understands why people talk. Meng Yao wants safety. Xue Yang wants vengeance. The Sunshot Campaign wants victory. Yiling Laozu provides, for a price. </blockquote> ➤ burial mounds as a character, wwx is basically raised by the burial mounds and the dead within, a lot more interested in the ensemble than wwx/lwj fics often are, time travel a little but not the normal kind, doing really interesting and unusual things and doing them well

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian locks his phone and puts it down, blinks at his ceiling, and picks it up again. The pictures are still there. His first thought is that Lan Zhan meant them for someone else. That he just woke up at—he checks the timestamp—6:30 am on a Sunday and decided to go absolute full nuclear seduction option on some poor boy he met on Grindr, who would now be missing out on the best thing to ever happen to him because Wei Wuxian had a bad habit of distracting—of—oh. Pieces of last night start to resurface and paste themselves together in his head. He winces.</blockquote>