Chengxian - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

woke up today with a mighty urge to put chengxian in a haunted house

I truly believe Wei Wuxian wouldn't be able to live in a world where there is no Jiang Cheng. Throughout his life Jiang Cheng has always been a presence there, a figure that bleeds into the background on mundane days and outshines even the sun on the brightest. Wei Wuxian has always lived with the knowledge that Jiang Cheng was safe somewhere.

Even when he's Yiling Laozu, in the back of his mind he knows Jiang Cheng is out there, breathing, fighting. He sees him often despite exiling himself, has Jiang Cheng practically knocking on his front door even when the world sees them as enemies.

And even when he comes back as Mo Xuanyu, Jiang Cheng lurks in the background. He knows by filtered gossip that Jiang Cheng is safe, that he's in the highest position to be so, that the core that spins in him has kept that promise of protection. Wei Wuxian can keep his distance because he knows Jiang Cheng can protect himself, understands that being around him would only cause more pain for them both.

And yet if harm came Jiang Cheng's way, no matter how far across the land Wei Wuxian was, he'd know and he'd come running.

And if Jiang Cheng died then Yiling Laozu would show himself again.

Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, has to live. It's not just his pride that keeps him alive but his honour for his family, his sect. He cannot let his own life end when he needs to avenge theirs, when he holds a little Jin Ling in his arms and knows he needs to protect that child. But the death of Wei Wuxian? That kills his spirit, takes a small part of who he is away. That's the reason why he continues to hunt Demonic Cultivators, why he tries to reason with himself that Wei Wuxian isn't dead, that there's a way to find him, bring him back kicking and screaming if he has to. Jiang Cheng refuses to acknowledge the death of Wei Wuxian because if he does then that means it's real, right? And Jiang Cheng would have to live with the knowledge that the only last person to know who he was, Jiang Cheng and not Sandu Shengshou, A-Cheng and not Jiang-Zongzhu, was truly utterly gone.

They really are the soulmates born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm not sure if tumblr allows any kind of hornee content now

Anyways, drawing hands SUCKS

The lack of a meaningful relationship in the past for wangxian, has made me a chengxian shipper (imo that's why so much vitriol against jc)

oh my god anon. anon.

this genuinely never occurred to me before, because I am highly indifferent to shipping and forget that it is a life-or-death situation in other corners of fandom, and so I have been sitting here figuring that oh, they just hate JC because they have no reading or viewing comprehension and think he hates WWX

BUT I THINK YOU'RE RIGHT

BECAUSE JC IS A REMINDER OF WWX'S LIFE BEYOND LWJ

and the enmeshment and shared history the two of them have going on is something that LWJ does not and cannot share, because it happened already! it is written! it's done! whereas Wangxian's current shared story theoretically could include JC unless pains are taken to keep him out.

hiii! for the ask game, an au where jc gets de-aged post-canon to his freshly traumatized 17 year old self? playing happy family in cloud recesses, wwx is brutally pulled out of his ‘the past is in the past’ bubble when he finds out. for extra knives, maybe wn tells him

1. I think it should be JL, and not WN, who tells WWX. JL is invested in JC (and in JC and WWX’s relationship)! WN is mostly invested in #getwreckedSLJ.

WWX doesn't really understand what JL expects of him - WWX’s heart leaped when he understood the content of JL’s letter, and his belly twisted as though he was going to be sick, but he managed to calm down enough to write a reassuring letter back to JL. (Surely that was what JL expected, right?) WWX had to sit on his own hands to keep from doing something stupid like grabbing a sword and flying off, and then he had to ask to LWJ to distract him, because it keeps buzzing, buzzing under his skin.

There's no new letter from JL. WWX forces himself to think it means everything went back to normal. And makes himself distracted (he loves his husband!) before his mind trips down the path of what if not. (JL wouldn't write then. He'd show up.)

2. There’s no second letter but JL shows up. WWX, who's been thinking that there was no reason for JL to come but if things had gone worst with JC, doesn't know what he looks like when he sees JL and doesn't really register the sound of people sliding their swords out.

“You have to come, why didn't you come! I had to leave jiujiu because you weren't coming, and I'm going to have to return to Jinlintai once I’ve brought you back, so grab your things, shibo. Oh, you don't need to take much, LP will put you up with what you need. What matters is going back so jiujiu can see you.”

JC is alive. JC is alive. Once the news break through the dull rushing sound in WWX’s ears, tension he didn't know had frozen his body seeps away.

The Jin disciple accompanying JL puts his sword away, under the misapprehension that WWX isn't ready to leave right away. LWJ says WWX’s name and presses his arm, and WWX nods fiercely. No time to waste, is there? Now JC wants him there.

3. There’s a disciple of YMJ as a welcoming committee when they fly down, or maybe two; WWX doesn't pay attention, he leaves JL and LWJ to deal with them - “hey, wait!” JL yelps, “do you even know where you’re going?”

WWX’s feet slow, stop. LP is changed. WWX isn't even sure JC left the infirmary where it once was.

JL catches up with an annoyed, worried huff. He sounds just like JC. “Here, this way.”

4. JC looks– JC looks.

WWX’s legs give up from under him.

JC looks at him with an intense frown, features almost twisted in desperation - WWX’s name on his lips. WWX scrambles on the ground, knees banging on the polished wood, fingers feverishly untangled as he reaches for the long-lost shape of WWX’s shidi, crumpled as discarded hopes, slight as a memory.

“You– why are you here?” JC's words fall like stones on WWX’s bones before WWX can reassure himself JC’s real. “They told me you live in Gusu. You don't even look like yourself, why did you come back?”

How like JC! One thousand words to cut through WWX like one thousand blades. WWX ignores him, fists his hands in JC's robes, presses his face against JC’s thighs. He needs to feel the warmth of JC’s body, make sure he’s not a ghost, not a dream.

JC's hand on his shoulder, shaking. WWX is suddenly reminded of JC’s hands pushing him down, this same JC throttling him. It feels like the last time they touched, did JC ever touch him after that, did WWX let him?

5. “I’ll fix it – I promise, JC, I’ll make it right,” WWX breathes, recklessly, helplessly. How easy it is to fall back into these old, dizzying habits!

JC’s eyes are full of shattered distrust and cloudy hopes, like he’s been told WWX lies, like he still believes WWX first.