Never Knowingly Undersold

Dirty. Dirty. Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.

[centrebullet]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 | Módào Zǔshī (Cartoon) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lan Jingyi/Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Qiren, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Jingyi, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Nie Mingjue, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan & Lan Jingyi & Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Implied Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo - Relationship Characters: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Jingyi, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Qiren, Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Original Characters, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Nominally canon-compliant, Post-Canon Modao Zushi Novel, POV Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, POV Lan Jingyi, novel canon conversation about Sizhui's virginity, canon-typical homophobia (no slurs), Wei-not-appearing-in-this-story, the precise nature of Lan Xichen's feelings about Jin Guangyao are up to the reader, this is xiyao if you want it to be, Lan Xichen working through painful memories, introspections on the theme of 'more than friends', Lan Jingyi simping like there's no tomorrow, Gusu Lan bureacracy, references to canon Gusu Lan punishments, Gusu Lan Sect Rules (Modao Zushi), references to patriarchy and VAWG, So many OCs, the relative independence of Lan women, Lan elders might suck sometimes but they're not bashed, way too much about philosophy, the mud the blood the endless poetry, Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin Deserves Better, wlw OCs, sex worker OCs, MDZS novel extra referenced - Gatecrasher + Iron Hook + Family Banquet, pouring one out for Madam Lan and Qin Su, attempted fisticuffs and horrible wartime memories Summary:

“Perhaps there is a general perception that Gusu Lan has ceased to hold fast to its precepts and is a space that welcomes those discontented with familial expectations.” Lan Jianding moved her gaze over Lan Xichen to Lan Qiren as she spoke. “Forgive me, I am unaware of what is being referred to.” Lan Qiren turned to her. “I have now seen several juniors openly engaging in overt intimacy with another of their own sex.” “Intimacy?” She pressed her lips together: “Holding hands, exchanging letters, casual physical intimacy, emotional declarations. None seemed inclined to hide this behaviour.” Post-seclusion, Lan Xichen is doing his best to lead the Lan, despite many remaining doubts. But the most scandalous couple's presence entices many newcomers to the haven of Cloud Recesses and he's caught between tradition & innovation as he defends his idea of a kinder, gentler sect in the face of his own shortcomings. Is he up to the task? Lan Jingyi, meanwhile, is OK with a bit of personal growth as long as he doesn’t have to lose anyone he loves along the way. Gusu's changing and that’s fine, but Sizhui is too and that’s harder. Can they keep drifting together?

Finally complete! First @mdzsbigbang finished a mere week late. Love to all who assisted.

[centrebullet]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, background Lan and Jiang siblings Additional Tags: Modern AU, Grief, Loss, Messy break-up, “what am I to you?”, Lan Zhan is cursed to suffer, Second person POV, there are ghosts and haunting here alright but not literally Summary:

“He hugged you goodbye, suddenly, and his hands flat on your shoulder blades felt like the sprouting of wings, carrying you up and up and up. The surprise of it pulled your breath in sharply for a moment of a moment and his fingers flexed. Your eyes and his, in a shimmering circuit, told you he knew something had shifted too.”

Wei Ying is gone. Lan Zhan grieves and remembers what they did and didn’t have together.

[centrebullet]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, background Lan and Jiang siblings Additional Tags: Modern AU, Grief, Loss, Messy break-up, “what am I to you?”, Lan Zhan is cursed to suffer, Second person POV, there are ghosts and haunting here alright but not literally Summary:

“He hugged you goodbye, suddenly, and his hands flat on your shoulder blades felt like the sprouting of wings, carrying you up and up and up. The surprise of it pulled your breath in sharply for a moment of a moment and his fingers flexed. Your eyes and his, in a shimmering circuit, told you he knew something had shifted too.”

Wei Ying is gone. Lan Zhan grieves and remembers what they did and didn’t have together.

[nilovalentine]

no! healthy relationship will kill the character! he needs an unhealthy codependent romance with a side of power imbalance to live

[wipbigbang]

The 2025 WIP Big Bang & WIP Reverse Bang Are Open For Sign-Ups!

Welcome to a new round! We're bringing back the OG WIP Big Bang, which is for finishing fic and getting art to go with it, and introducing the first full round of the WIP Reverse Bang, which is for finishing artwork and getting fic to go with it. All fandoms/ratings/ships are welcome, including original works!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Begin- April 1st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Close- May 21st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #1- May 22nd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #2- June 15th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Snippets Due- July 1st

Big Bang Art Claims/Reverse Bang Fic Claims Begin- July 17th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #3- July 22nd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #4- August 6th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Rough Drafts Due- August 15th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Ends- September 1st

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Final Drafts/Art & Fic Due- September 7th

Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Starts- September 8th

SIGN UP LINKS

WIP Big Bang | WIP Reverse Bang

FAQ

[centrebullet]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lan Jingyi/Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui Characters: Lan Jingyi, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Interstitial Scene, Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, mostly - Freeform, Romantic misunderstandings, Mencius, Confucianism, Excessive philosophy, Getting Together, Chekhov’s Cold Pond, Lan Jingyi is not a total disaster but he has his moments Series: Part 2 of We Sail Again: compasses lost at sea Summary:

“No, we have no debts,” he agrees. “A debt is a heavy weight, you could never be that.” He tempers his impulse to grasp and cling, “A debt can be discharged. But an obligation?”

Sizhui snaps back, as close to offended as Jingyi ever heard him,“Are we to speak of debt and obligation, of profit and loss, as if haggling over last year’s rice at market?”

Jingyi finds Sizhui and considers the classics.

[centrebullet]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Qiren Characters: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren, Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: postcanon, Location: Cloud Recesses (Módào Zǔshī), Injury, Family Dynamics, Recovery, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen in Seclusion, kinda sorta, he is coming out a bit but You Know, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Lan Qiren did his best, Reciprocity, this is a bit of a mini-treatise on decline, Family is complicated, yes I have added yet another OC, they can’t stop me Summary:

He recalls in one awful moment his young Huan-zhizi’s face then, contorted with pain as he fought through the night, slowly expelling the dread shadow whose claws had sunk deep and, even now, snagged in the great net of his fears. It occurs to him that a-Huan’s healing has never truly ended, that what he had learnt from the multiple mortal dangers of his youth had been caution, and a deep fear of sudden and terrible loss.

No wonder the blows of his adult years had brought him so low.

A little after their return from Yunping’s Guanyin Temple, it is Lan Qiren who now needs to heal, and his nephew who must help him.

[ninjasmudge]

worlds slowest fanfic author tries really really hard

[noodles-07]

"it's all in your head" correct! unfortunately I am also in there

[allpiesforourown]

Qiu Haitang thinking her family had taken Shen Jiu in to save him, then having her world view completely torn apart until she was wishing for death when she found out the truth... oh Haitang they could never make me hate you

[allpiesforourown]

This was her reaction to seeing a Shen Qingqiu who was alive and well. If PIDW Qiu Haitang found out the truth about Shen Jiu's abuse after Bingge had tortured him to death... holy shit I can't even imagine the pain that she would go through. She LOVED HIM.

[square-opossums]

its healthy for your paragraphs to vary in size, good for the ecodiversity of your doc

[shadow-manor]

The rest of the thread is here.

tl;dr: Don’t monetize AO3, kids.  You won’t like what happens next.

[ratherembarrassing]

read this thread. this is by far the most concise explanation of a lot of different issues that i’ve seen in fandom spaces in a while. cosigning both the linked thread and the thread about aus/uk/can law that’s linked in-thread.

[billybluboy]

AHDHXHEBSG TWITTER WRITERS DID WHAT NOW???? AND PEOPLE PAID THEM????

[prof-grace-aspen]

If someone has never taken a class that includes copyright law, they may not know this stuff, so I don’t necessarily blame random people for not knowing what copyright is, but like… maybe just maybe it’s something that should be taught????

[antifa-stray]

[mercurywells]

Just another reminder, because this always drives me crazy, but even if monetizing your fic was 100% unambiguously legal and protected, AO3 would still not let you do it because AO3 was founded and is supported by people like me who want a fandom community that is completely divested from making money off of fic.

[naryrising]

Yes, this. Lots of fanworks on AO3 are unambiguously legal. Fics based on Shakespeare plays and fairy tales and Greek mythology and The Great Gatsby and your original character from your D&D game are not violations of copyright, because no copyright applies to those things.

AO3 still doesn’t let you monetize those things on the site, because we don’t want the site to be commercial! Because that’s not what it’s for!

It’s not there for you (generic you) to make money off the efforts of the people who build and maintain the site for free! We aren’t getting paid for the work we do to give you a nice site to use, just like you aren’t getting paid for the work you do to create whatever art you share there. Because fandom is supposed to be a community where we share with each other, and therefore we all benefit.

The deal is, we give you a free, stable, safe platform to host your works. In exchange, you get a site that isn’t covered in ads and tip jars and links to gofundme and “read the next chapter at my patreon”. You get one goddamn place on the internet that isn’t trying to make money off you. And we will defend that space and keep it non-commercial.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

If you want to make money off your fics, you can instead post them somewhere like royal Road. “Oh, but Royal Road’s culture is so much more negative and stressful and lacks the supportive norms of AO3!” Yeah, because people are trying to make money there. Half the userbase is treating it as a storefront and hustling is the natural social consequence of that. AO3’s culture can only exist because it’s not commercial.

[centrebullet]

Yeah so, we’re all out here trying to survive under capitalism, but monetising fandom really isn’t going to save anyone and would probably wreck fandom as we now know it.

It’s sharing or nothing, kids.

[tadpole-apocalypse]

egg toast

30 min study

[xiyao-feels]

controversial opinion below the cut!

Keep reading

[rueluxprince]

People keep on forgetting that Jin Guangyao did the most good out of anyone in the series, on an aggregate scale. The watchtowers are the first and ONLY government sponsored welfare program, and he built over a thousand of them. Countless people are alive and unbothered today because of him. Because he chose to stay and make a different set of choices and move forward. A lot of people are alive today, common people old people poor people, because of him.

[rueluxprince]

Thank you @confusion-and-more

It’s honestly really trippy because of how much good JGY choose to do. It’s like. Local twins murders and conspires and manipulates his way to the President of the Cultivation World! His first decree! Government sponsored completely free universal healthcare! Like what the fuck?!

(And it’s also saying a lot that whenever Jin Guangyao had the chance to do a Good Thing, he always tried to do the Good Thing. He had the chance to rescue a wounded hot dude, he chose the rescue the dude (LXC) without thinking much about any personal costs. He had the chance to stab Wen Ruohan and bring Nie Mingjue out alive, he chose to bring the latter out alive. He had the chance to give Lan Xichen a lot of money to rebuild, and so he gave the Lans a lot of money. He had the chance to build a welfare program, he built the fucking welfare program.)

[xiyao-feels]

@sapphicdalliances #i know it is like. open to interpretation whether or not the watchtowers were good. but I just… want to believe they had a positive effect #or why would all the kiddos playing sunshot campaign be like ANYWAY STAN LIANFANG-ZUN tbqh #anyway #instead of brain there is jgy analysis… #it’s just literally more interesting/more tragic/funnier if he was Genuinely Good At His Dang Job #like he was instrumental to winning sunshot! #instrumental to the rebuilding of cloud recesses! #instrumental to the increase in peace and stability that remote/poorer villages enjoyed for a decade! #imagine what he could have done in a world where he didn’t have to do So Much Murder on his road to good deeds

It’s definitely true that everything’s open to interpretation, but I do think what we see about the watchtowers comes out positive!!!

In chapter 42, WWX comments that

But, speaking of it, they really are unlucky. Yi City is too remote and there aren’t any lookout towers around it. Or else, Jin Ling, SiZhui, and the rest wouldn’t have accidentally barged in. Maiden A-Qing and Daozhang Xiao XingChen’s souls wouldn’t have stayed hidden for all these years either.

And then we get this in the description of the watchtowers:

These “lookout towers” were scattered around the more remote places. Every one of them were assigned disciples from certain sects. If anything strange happened, they’d take action at once. When they couldn’t deal with the matter, they’d send out messages to other sects or rogue cultivators for help. Even if the cultivators who came wanted something in return while the locals were too poor to give them any, the money that the LanlingJin Sect gathered throughout each year would be enough to support them.

All of these happened after the death of the YiLing Patriarch. Wei WuXian only heard the ins and outs from Lan WangJi after they passed a few lookout towers during their journey. Rumors had it that Koi Tower was preparing to build the next batch of lookout towers, increasing them to three thousand in number so that they covered a greater area. Although after the first lookout towers were built, they received widespread approvals due to their notable effects, the voices of suspicion and ridicule had never died either. When the time came, the cultivation world would definitely be thrown into chaos again.

I think that the stuff in chapter 42 (which goes on for a few more paragraphs before this, I didn’t want to pull the whole thing but I definitely recommend checking it out) is most of what we see about the watchtowers in the text, but they’re mentioned in a few other chapters. In chapter 47, we learn about Rusong’s death in connection with them, though not really anything about the lookout towers themselves. In chapter 49 in the Empathy flashback we see that he was working on them with LXC: discussing (“their expressions solemn”) over a desk with “[a] few blueprints” which are “covered in notes if all colors'—I think LXC’s involvement can be taken as some additional evidence that they’re at least designed to so good, though even without it WWX’s description in chapter 42 would I think be fairly convincing.

There’s another mention in chapter 86, when everyone is playing the game of pin the awful rumour on the JGY at Lotus Pier; the rumour repeafed about the tower is that he was using pocketing some money that should have gone to the towers, not that they weren’t useful. (To be honest I suspect this is because JGY enriching himself with their money matters a great deal more to them than whether or not people’s lives are actually saved, and the context in which it’s brought up makes me doubt that even this much is true (WWX himself is like ah-HUH about the way everyone is suddenly believing every terrible rumour about JGY, directly after the watchtower rumour is mentioned), but even so it seemed worth addressing.)

In CQL I know there’s some questioning of the watchtowers? When WWX overheard some gossip in town, in episode 31, that leads into gossip about the upcoming one-month celebration for JL. But that’s when they’ve just been proposed, and I think that’s the only time they’re mentioned there? (Being a TV show it’s a lot harder to search than MDZS XP) So if we’re going to look at their actual effects, I think it makes sense to read in what we see from MDZS there too.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

re: my latest reblog (sorry for doing this twice in like 10 minutes) and my tag commentary about ambiguity around jin guangyao

i think there is a big difference between trying to absolve or condemn jin guangyao regarding jin rusong in fandom discourse, and taking a position on that topic for the purpose of writing fic or some other creative interpretation of the story.

the story as it has been published and translated is the story.* we are never going to figure out whether jin guangyao actually killed jin rusong or not because the story is not going to miraculously extrude new details on this subject into the universe, unless mxtx decides to write a sequel (please don’t) and chooses to make solving the mystery of jin rusong’s death a key component of that sequel. jin guangyao fans who assert that his death is ambiguous aren’t sneakily trying to insist that jin guangyao couldn’t possibly have done this awful thing. we’re just working to highlight what the text actually shows us—and what it shows us is contradictory information, and no means of reconciling those contradictions in the text.

in fic or art or whatever else, that’s where the transformative component of transformative work comes in: you’re absolutely allowed—encouraged!—to take a firm position on narrative details that have been left nebulous or unclear, intentionally or otherwise. because when it comes to writing fic, unless the ambiguity is part of the conceit of what you’re writing, you probably need to decide what jin guangyao is or isn’t guilty of for the purposes of your story so that it remains internally coherent and has a structure that makes sense.

okay that’s it 👋

* insert screed on treating translations as unique works unto themselves here, i’m not smart enough to write it but someone else definitely is.

[cinemairon]

Jin Guang Yao

Happy Birthday 20/2

[talk-danmei-to-me]

So I was thinking about how fun Mdzs would be, if my boy Jin Guangyao was the protagonist.

Then I realised, that already exists:

Shen Lanzhou is Jin Guangyao with protagonist privilege.

Allow me to explain:

Both are the sons of prostitutes and men from prominent clans/families (Jin Guangshan and Shen Wei respectively).

Both are shameless social climbers who will do whatever it takes and are equally clever schemers.

Both are super creative in the way they kill the people who’ve wronged them.

Jin Guangyao literally had prostitutes who were mean to his mother fuck his father to death, whilst Shen Lanzhou chose to skin a man alive.

Both are completely besotted with boys from well established, good families.

Of course I’m talking Lan Xichen and Xiao Chiye. Xiyao is canon. Fight me.

Finally, both have a running motif, Jiggy consistently gets pushed down stairs, Lanzhou gets railed.

Tl;dr Social climbing son’s of prostitutes are my new favourite danmei trope. I may love them more than Shizun fuckers.

Also I guess if you love Jin Guangyao and you haven’t read Ballad of Sword and Wine yet, you should get on that.