Grapefruit Sketches

>25 | she/her | AO3: GrapefruitSketches | Main: grapefruithalves Mostly CQL/The Untamed, TGCF and SHL right now. See some of my fics at #my-writing, all available on AO3 💜 Header from mdzspring (see #headers for reblogged post); icon from lanszhan (see #icons for reblogged post). Thanks to you both for your gorgeous work!!

[grapefruitsketches]

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

For the MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2021

Rating: T

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/F

Fandoms: MDZS/The Untamed (CQL) (cherry picking novel vs drama canon; accessible to fans of either)

Relationship: Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng/Qín Sù

Characters: Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng, Qín Sù, various other characters appearing throughout including JYL and JZX

Additional Tags: AU - Canon Divergence; AU - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies; Slow(ish) Burn; Childhood Friends; Friends to Lovers; Falling in Love; Mild Injury; Post-Sunshot Campaign; Night Hunts; Mianmian POV; Inspired by Art

Summary:

She turned north.

The moon was rising before she realized where she was going. A vision, from long ago. Pink robes fluttering before her. Gold and purple on her periphery but falling quickly behind, not quite able to keep up. The four of their giggles blending into one another’s, though Luo Qingyang could always pick out the cadence, the pitch coming from the girl that ran ahead. That same sweet floral scent carried back by the wind.

Luo Qingyang followed the voice now. Towards the one person who might understand, who would know, but had not engaged in, the horrors of politics.

She went north. And hoped Qin Su had not forgotten her.

--

After leaving everything she's ever known, Mianmian wanders. But she doesn't do so alone.

I'm so excited to finally share this with you all!! Please also go check out the art that inspired this from @esmeblaze (link in the reblog because tumblr is tumblr lol but seriously Blazie's art is amazing!! Please check it out - and wish her a happy birthday!!)

[grapefruitsketches]

And here is a link to Blazie's art!

[meltesh28]

“…I was going crazy!”

TGCF chapter 199

[rhymesswith]

ZZS: Did you make Chengling bring these all the way up here for you just for this?

WKX: Yes, he had to queue for a really long t-

[wormsound]

Where there is light A shadow appears The cause and effect When life interferes The same rule applies To goodness and grief

- Sorrow, Sleeping at Last

[ID:\ four gifs of lan xichen and song lan, the first gif is of song lan when he is standing over xiao xingchen’s coffin in episode 39, the text reads “for in our” in cursive writing. The second gif is on lan xichen at the end of episode 50 when he looks back to  guanyin temple after it has collapsed, the text reads “great sorrow”. The third gif shows the scenes of song lan walking away from yi city and of lan xichen sitting on the steps of guanyin temple, the gifs are blended together and the text reads “we learn”. The fourth gif shows both song lan and lan xichen and they are both smiling hesitantly, the scenes have been merged so its as if they are standing with each other. the text reads “what joy means”. all gifs are coloured enhanced blue and green colours. /End ID]

[mdzsnet]

MDZS Network’s Two Years with CQL Anniversary

Coming June 27th we celebrate the two years anniversary of the release of The Untamed, the live-action adaptation of MXTX’s xianxia novel Mo Dao Zu Shi. We have put together a small event to celebrate this anniversary together with all of you.

We assume most of you know the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter books that sorted the students into one of four houses, and we’re excited to introduce our very own CQL Sect Sorting Quiz! Click on the link and answer the questions to see what sect you would get sorted into, and then center your content for the anniversary around your result or something related to it that you can connect to. You’re free to choose any character, scene, color palette, quote, etc. related to your result that you want for your content. We hope it inspires you!

🐇 Rules

Reblog this post to spread the word.

You do not have to be a member to participate in the event!

The event will be open on the anniversary of CQL’s release - June 27th!

🐇 Extra Information

Create any content (fic, gif, art, etc.) for the anniversary.

Center your content around The Untamed and your sorting quiz result.

You can decide to keep your results private until the day of the event for an extra surprise, but this is not a requirement.

Mention @mdzsnet in the caption & tag #mdzsnet in the first 5 tags

If something is not clear, don’t be afraid to send us an ask!

[xiuyaas]

the Four Calamities

[alightbuthappypen]

Hope you were all waiting for that extremely niche, extremely soft Baoshan Sanren/Lan Yi content, because that’s all I have to offer right now

[pbaintthetb]

you know what, shout out to Word of Honour for looking at the calm, wise, timeless immortal trope and just going Nope, and making him the biggest immature trolling bitch known to man. An impressive feat considering Wen Kexing is in this show.

[fmd-art]

Even after thousands of years of marriage, they’d still act like dorks

[theyilinglaozus]

“I would rather carry a jug of wine to travel around the world with my soulmate while I am still healthy, and do whatever I want to do without regrets.”

[rivercinders]

life is tough and sometimes ya need some cheeb

[bichen-suibian]

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

IT’S FINALLY HERE! My first of 2 fics for the MDZS Reverse Big Bang!

The art that inspired this fic was done by @esmeblaze and can be found here.

I had so much fun doing this. Definitely will again.

***

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Yànlí/Jīn Zǐxuān Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Assassin!Madam Lan, no Lan bashing, Gusu Lan Rules - Freeform, Lan rules are a guide and not to be interpreted literally, Getting Together, Fluff, No Sunshot Campaign (Módào Zǔshī) Summary:

Lan Wangji is a good and filial son who, above all else, works to protect his mother’s secret identity as an assassin. It’s lonely work, even if he never admits it. But when he meets a trouble-making visiting disciple from Yunmeng, Lan Wangji finds out that sometimes, duty and love can exist side-by-side.

[schnaf]

[icannotreadcursive]

I feel like there’s needs to be, like, handbook for authors who post on Ao3 for effective metatext.

By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.

Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.

This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.

I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.

I think it would do fandom a lot of good.

[icannotreadcursive]

Good news, I’m writing it

[icannotreadcursive]

Update:

I’m at 9680 words, roughly 16 pages single spaced, with two or three sections to go.

[icannotreadcursive]

Update:

First draft done. 11,100 words, 29 pages with formatting

[icannotreadcursive]

The final draft is getting cleaned up right now. I’ll probably be figuring out how to post it tomorrow.

On which note, anybody know the best way to make a PDF available online?

[icannotreadcursive]

Okay it is done!

Go here for the PDF, or here to view the whole document as a tumblr post.

I recommend the PDF.

Related note: the post length limit on tumblr is apparently more than 13,000 words.

[esmeblaze]

Second RBB piece! Get your cute teenage Wangxian shenanigans ft. happy Lan family and Assassin!Madam Lan here!!

[ID: An image split into two, the first showing Jin Guangshan looking fearfully over his shoulder at a dark figure holding two small blades silhouetted against the window, and the second showing Madam Lan and Qingheng-jun sitting together at a table, chatting amiably. In the background, two small blades are leaning against the wall.]

[elogval]

It’s a nice day 🎶🌶️🍚🍷😋

[henshengs]

It’s so interesting how like, Xi Sang Gui was a much less important, male character in the novel, but the show made the (extremely good and sexy) decision to turn her into a major character and a pseudo maternal figure for WKX, except that a huge part of WKX’s essential characterization is that WKX had no one who cared for him besides Gu Xiang, and you can’t change that, it would gut his relationship arc with her. So instead we get the implication that Xi Sang Gui was just not very good at being parental. She can’t or won’t protect WKX from the Valley Chief, or help him take care of Gu Xiang or even teach him how to cook porridge for her properly.

Which makes sense. She was born to a noble cultivator family, she probably didn’t know how to take care of children or cook food, and it also makes sense that maybe she didn’t have so much power and importance and servants in the Ghost Valley before WKX took charge.

What’s more interesting is that the show keeps WKX’s line about how he had no one to teach him martial arts. Why couldn’t Xi Sang Gui teach him? Maybe it’s something to do with her mysterious illness, which LQQ says is a chronic problem for her. 

Whatever the reason, it’s deliciously angsty that the founder of the Department of the Unfaithful, whose personal mantra is “you don’t fail me and I won’t fail you,” failed in looking after the child of the couple who helped her in her most vulnerable moment. 

It’s also interesting that Gu Xiang seems to have a much more uncomplicatedly positive relationship with Xi Sang Gui and LQQ. 

[henshengs]

#god i love this#Word of Honor#the fact that they (probably unintentional but let me make this abt gender for a minute) broke the ‘all women are natural caretakers’-trope#and instead went for: ‘This woman saved this child bc she has a personal matter to settle with his parents and is paying them back -#’- but beyond keeping him alive and probably giving him advice abt how to survive the valley etc she can’t do anything bc she doesn’t know#how to do that and she IS NOT a natural caretaker and absolutely not a maternal person no matter if she is a woman of not’#makes me so happy bc at the same time they clearly show that A-Xiang was spared most of the trauma that WKX went through#bc WKX - as much as he doesn’t wanna hear it - IS a caretaker. and a good one at that#like.. he is filled to the brim with trauma and terrible decision making skills but he also did so INCREDIBLY well with a-xiang in the#situation he was in that i can only applaud him for the fantastic job he did with her upbringing#i also think that’s why a-xiang is much closer with tragicomic ghost and beauty ghost??? bc both of them didn’t have to be primary#caretakers for her - wkx had that spot - they could just be aunties and make sure she had an actual ‘family’ around her once wkx took over#god i’m rambling OP I’m so sorry but this storyline between them is SO fascinating to me (don’t get me started on how obvious it is that -#- wkx was raised by a bunch of women even if those women couldn’t really do anything for him)#woh brain go brrrrrrrrrr

@universesvisiting don’t apologize I love this!!! it makes my brain go brrrrr as well!!! yes yes yes you hit on all the aspects of this situation that I LOVE. I love that WKX is very traumatized and extremely bad at humaning and yet he IS such a good caretaker in such a nongendered way, he does an amazing job with both Gu Xiang and Zhang Chengling considering everything. and it shows in how much better adjusted and better at humaning GX is than he is. 

and augh, yes, Tragicomic Ghost is “Auntie Luo” to both of them, but Gu Xiang uses that term of address so freely and affectionately, while it feels really fraught for WKX- and yet he does tell her he owes her a debt he can never repay for saving him- and yet I genuinely believe he was planning on letting Gao Chong execute her! Augh.