Jan 25, 2022
(3/6) mdzs x wings of fire , anyone?
- lwj is an icewing, wwx is a nightwing (bssr line) / seawing (jiang line) hybrid, nhs is a mudwing
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(3/6) mdzs x wings of fire , anyone?
- lwj is an icewing, wwx is a nightwing (bssr line) / seawing (jiang line) hybrid, nhs is a mudwing
I'm just picturing dragon!NHS in Gusu excited to be outside the Unclean Realm for the first time and curious about everything! And wondering how others react to meeting this extremely un-Nie-like Nie who is spoiled rotten by his family apparently but has never been allowed to go out before?
1
“How did you even manage to fail a class like that?” Nie Mingjue asked, honestly bemused. “You listen, you nod, you smile, you parrot back whatever you’re told – it’s practically your best skillset.”
Nie Huaisang giggled behind his fan. “Well, there were pop quizzes. You know how I get when there’s pressure, da-ge; my brain goes totally blank.”
“Your brain,” Nie Mingjue said, aiming for severe, “has never once gone so blank that you lose your ability to scam people.”
“Da-ge! I don’t scam people. I help them realize that our interests are more aligned than they previously suspected, that’s all.”
“We can fertilize three fields with the amount of bullshit that just came out of your mouth,” Nie Mingjue said. “Do I want to know?”
AU where the Nie clan has dragon blood in their lineage, and usually it just manifests as bad temper and a generally martial inclination. Except, once in a rare while, generations apart, an actual dragon will be born among them... (aka nobody really expected that NHS was the latest Nie dragon).
The Nie sect’s ancestors were butchers; that lowly heritage is well known and widely celebrated, much to the not-entirely-concealed disdain of some of the more refined, gentlemanly sects. Butchers at home and butchers at war – everyone knows that.
What’s rather less well known is that the third sect leader, colloquially known among his descendants as ‘that idiot’, rather heroically saved an imperial princess in battle and then – and this was why he was that idiot – married her. She was a proper princess, too, the true-born daughter of the emperor; other sects might see that as a good thing, since for all that cultivation sects saw themselves as being above petty things like the politics of the common folk, a princess was still a princess.
The Nie did not.
The reason for this was quite simple. What does a cultivation style that already incorporates an increased chance of death through anger most assuredly does not need?
The blood of the eight-clawed dragon, that’s what.
Arrogant, explosive, unruly –
It was a mess.
The sixth sect leader came up with the saber halls to honor his father and grandfather – most especially his grandfather, who’d had a bad tendency towards slit-pupiled eyes when he’d been especially enraged, and whose saber had absorbed every ounce of his ferocity – and the next few generations made a point of finding especially meek daughters or sons for their children to marry, and that was that; everyone hoped that that idiot’s mistake could be diluted out of existence.
It was, for the most part.
But every few generations, imperial blood ran true, and not only in terms of majesty or arrogance, and then the entire sect had to close its doors to the outside world and pretend with all their might that no, of course there wasn’t a rampaging beast of an especially draconic variety raging behind the extremely sturdy walls of the Unclean Realm, what nonsense that would be.
Still, if Lao Nie had to wager on one of his children being a dragon, he probably would have put money on it being his firstborn: already far too tall for his age, a brilliant prodigy with his saber, and a temper that rivaled some of the older members of the clan.
Certainly not Huaisang.
The only time that child hadn’t been a disappointment was when he was a baby: he’d been remarkably lazy even back then, sleeping more hours of the day than he didn’t even past infancy, and what had been a relief to his nursemaids quickly turned to annoyance by everyone else. It was commonly believed that such a weak and unlively child was likely to grow up to be slow-witted and dull, and, worse, the doctors confirmed his muscle tone was underdeveloped; even with a great deal of practice, he would likely always be a bit behind those his own age.
As he grew older, his penchant of sleeping twenty hours out of every day got even more noticeable, and the family largely lost interest.
Well, most of them. His older brother, who’d quietly taken on the responsibility for caring for Huaisang when no one else in the family had had the time or, truthfully, the interest in the disappointing son of an especially fortunate (unfortunate?) family maid-turned-concubine, indulged him far too much, even carrying him from place to place.
“You’re not a mule, Mingjue,” Lao Nie scolded one day, reinforcing the lesson through swipes of the flat of his saber. “Have some dignity! If Huaisang wants to go places, he can damn well walk there himself!”
Nie Mingjue bowed his head, obedient and filial in every way except for the fact that he didn’t listen; if anything, it got even worse from that point on, the boy barely being seen anywhere without a napping toddler as an accoutrement.
“Did you hear what I said?” Lao Nie roared at him.
“I’m not a mule,” Nie Mingjue recited. “If he wants to go places, he can walk there himself.”
“If you heard me and persisted regardless, you’re undisciplined,” Lao Nie said, arms crossed.
“I accept whatever punishment is appropriate,” Nie Mingjue said, and that was most irritating of all: why would his otherwise perfect eldest son insisted on being beaten once a week when all he had to do was leave that useless lump behind in his rooms, where he’d be happier anyway? It wasn’t as though Nie Huaisang even wanted to be outside: sometimes it seemed he’d only learned to talk in order to complain about how uncomfortable he was, how hot, how sweaty – and he even had the gall to keep complaining even after his older brother fetched a fan for him, like a loyal dog.
Discipline was paramount in the Nie sect; to be undisciplined is to risk being monstrous, and with their cultivation style they could not tolerate such a thing. That was why their punishments were so strict, even if the rules were relatively sparse - more principle than rule, really. But on the other hand, their family had always been the sort that would rather break than bend: if Nie Mingjue wanted to pay for his willfulness by accepting punishments, he was entitled to do so.
Still – there was punishment, and there was wanton cruelty; at some point, one of the men in the punishment hall abandoned the former for the latter. He was a popular man, the son of another sect’s diplomat that had married a close cousin of the main family and stayed in Qinghe; for some reason he’d developed an intense dislike of Nie Mingjue – a dislike which was mutual, and likely to cause trouble in the future when Nie MIngjue became Sect Leader, but which currently put Nie MIngjue in a very bad position given the man’s status as his elder.
Lao Nie only learned about the whole matter much later, and when he did he was so spitting mad he grabbed his saber and would have spitted the man on it, cousin or no cousin, if he hadn’t been held back; but at the time he had no idea, busy as he was defending the borders of his lands against troubles caused by that ever-smiling bastard Wen Ruohan.
When he did hear about it, though, he was infuriated: his son and heir had been beaten three times the usual amount, a compilation of a thousand little offenses that could only technically be termed breaches of discipline, forced to complete several dozen of their most demanding exercises, and then made to kneel outside on the hottest day of the year; to no one’s surprise, he had eventually collapsed rather than yield and beg for mercy, his skin cracking and lips starting to bleed as his consciousness left him.
He was after all a Nie.
Who knows how far that bastard might have gone, his eyes fixed on a prize he would never inherit with his outsider’s surname, if Nie Huaisang hadn’t been there, tucked away curled up underneath a shady tree and made to watch despite Nie Mingjue’s request that he be sent back to his rooms.
Those who were near enough to see – and Lao Nie had plans to punish the whole lot of them for not having interfered: what was the point of a clan motto that prioritized justice and suppression of evil no matter what the consequences if they would allow it to happen in their own damn home? – said that it didn’t happen at once, that there was a pause when Nie Mingjue’s body hit the ground; perhaps it was only that Nie Huaisang was slow to realized what was happening.
Perhaps it just took a while for the change to happen.
Either way, everyone agreed on what happened next: the unfurling of a serpentine body twice the length of a fully grown man, although only about as wide around as a goat, a red-eyed glare that was backed with teeth and claw, and a roar of challenge at anyone who even thought about pulling Nie Mingjue’s body away from the center of those coils.
Apparently Nie Huaisang had needed all that sleep because he was still growing. Who would have known?
It was the youngest full transformation they’d ever had in their clan by far. The boy hadn’t even reached the age of three!
“If he’s stopped sweating, he has heatstroke,” Lao Nie told his apparently not useless younger son, having been urgently summoned to the training field. “He needs to be taken inside at once; you’re only making things worse.”
Nie Huaisang bared his teeth at him, and Lao Nie bared his teeth right back.
He might not be a dragon, but his son’s blood had come from somewhere.
“I am your father,” he snarled. “You will listen to me and obey. You hear me? You will get off of him this instant. If he doesn’t get water soon, he will die.”
Lao Nie will never know if it was the demand for filial piety or the threat to Nie Mingjue’s life that got Nie Huaisang to comply – he suspected the latter – but Nie Huaisang gave in and backed off, allowing the clan’s medics to rush over and take Nie Mingjue away.
Lao Nie looked at the dragon, thinking to himself that the vastness of the underground caverns beneath the Unclean Realm weren’t for nothing: if this was what a two-year-old dragon looked like, he’d be a full-fledged calamity when full grown.
His saber itched in his palm at the thought, but he ignored it. The embarrassing yao-derived portion of their bloodline aside, the Nie sect set itself against evil, and Nie Huaisang was lazy, not evil.
“This is going to be trouble,” he finally said. “It can’t be allowed to get out.”
You can’t go out, he meant, but maybe Nie Huaisang in all his laziness wouldn’t mind being restricted to the Unclean Realm. Maybe, if they were lucky, they could teach him to like paintings and books instead, since he could never be allowed out to join a proper battlefield.
He’d be locked at home forever, unless the Sect Leader decided otherwise - and that meant Lao Nie would be the one responsible for it.
Ancestor or not, damn that idiot.
In the end, Nie Huaisang didn’t respond to him at all, merely took to the air – flying must be inherent, since he didn’t seem especially bothered by what should be something brand new – and headed inwards, aiming towards…
His brother’s bedroom.
Not really a surprise, that.
A bit of a surprise that he could find it so quickly, though, from such an unfamiliar angle…
Lao Nie’s eye twitched.
If his stubborn older son had known about this, he was going to wish he’d died of heatstroke.
I love dragon!nhs wrapping himself around Mingjue and threatening people it's great. I'd love to see lxc interacting with nhs after he finds out he's a dragon. With Mingjue there?
See, the “with Mingjue there” bit is what makes this weird, because Mingjue steadfastly refuses to even so much as verbally or physically admit that there’s anything weird about...anything.
Lan Xichen is all “how did I miss this??”
Nie Mingjue: “I always told you he had potential under there. Sadly, he squanders it.”
Lan Xichen: “I...didn’t realize that was what you meant. In fact, I’m sure it’s not what you meant. You’re talking about him not practicing his saber again.”
Nie Mingjue: *nod*
Lan Xichen: “His claws are longer than the saber, da-ge.”
Nie Mingjue: “So, what? He should just abandon all the traditions of our ancestors? No.”
Lan Xichen: “Some of your ancestors came by and said hello the other day. One of them asked if Lan Yi was still around, and was a bit disappointed when we explained that she was dead. Apparently she was, and I quote, ‘extremely hot’.”
Nie Mingjue: “What, you’re surprised that your ancestors were attractive? Have you looked in a mirror?”
Lan Xichen: “No, it’s - the person who said this is still around.”
Nie Mingjue: “Yeah, that’s the problem with ancestors. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them, right? We’re always following in their footsteps.”
Lan Xichen: “Da-ge. Are you doing this on purpose?”
Nie Mingjue: “I have no idea what you mean.”
Lan Xichen: “Your brother ATE our sworn brother.”
Nie Mingjue: “He violated his oaths, he deserved it.”
Lan Xichen: “ATE, da-ge.”
Nie Mingjue: “So, what, I should check to see if Huaisang has indigestion? I swear, I’ve been telling him not to put dirty things in his mouth since he was a baby, but does he listen? No. He does not.”
Lan Xichen: *gives up*
Sooooo.... how many times does the Nie sect witness their leader shouting at a baby dragon trying to get him to do something? :-D Also I love how Nie Lao is all "you're never leaving" and Huaisang just looks at him and is like "I'M OUT" and flies away.
It’s funny when it’s a baby dragon: long and lithe but still, you know, manageable. Their heads are about the same size, even if the dragon’s body is super long. They glare at each other eye-to-eye.
It’s - still funny, when the dragon is a child: he’ll wrap himself around the walls of one of the towers and cling to it, looking sad and pathetic with drooping whiskers, as his older brother shouted at him to get down or he’d break his legs. Paws. Claws? Whatever.
It’s...somewhat less funny, when the dragon is a teenager. It happens in a blink of an eye, it seems: you were all stepping on shed scales for months and months, sure, and Nie Huaisang had the world’s most terrible case of acne that kept him hiding behind his fan almost permanently, and then the next thing you know the brothers are having their monthly yelling match out on the training field when suddenly there is no field. Just dragon. Apparently the shedding is a sign of exponential growth.
It’s basically not funny at all when your ridiculous, reckless crazy person of a sect leader is shouting at the top of his lung at a dragon with a mouth large enough to swallow him, with teeth as long as a forearm, a hissing tongue longer than Baxia. The saber the dragon is refusing to pick up is shorter than its longest claw. This does not dissuade your sect leader in the slightest.
(it’s worse, when you don’t see the dragon for years and years. there’s no yelling, no fighting, no scales on the ground; the new sect leader still doesn’t train his saber, but he does keep it in a place of honor near his chair. he goes on long trips, looking secretive, and sometimes there’s blood on his hands, on his teeth, and you don’t ask any questions. people outside the sect pity you, but for all the wrong reasons.)
You don’t know if the storm was so large that it covered the distance between Yunping and Qinghe, or if your new sect leader brought the storm with him when he came back, heavenly lightning lashing out uselessly against his scales, its arguments that he was violating heavenly law as pointless and futile as his older brother’s exhortation about saber training had been. There’s almost more dragon than there is fortress at that point, rippling coils and shining scales as far as the eye can see, and he looks almost disturbingly pleased as he gently laid down his prize at the gate of the Unclean Realm. His roar shakes the heavens.
The old sect leader, a few scars where some things had to be put back together but otherwise in surprisingly good shape for someone who spent over a decade in the earth, still goes out to the training field, even though no one in the entire cultivation world is going to start anything with the Qinghe Nie after the display the new sect leader put on for them.
Every one in a while, he will pick up his younger brother by the back of the neck and drag him out there, lecturing the entire time.
It’s funny.
MDZS Prompt: In Chinese mythology, the Dragon's Gate is located at the top of a waterfall cascading from a legendary mountain. If a carp successfully makes the jump, it becomes a dragon.
sequel to dragon NHS (also on ao3)
--
There were places where humans were not, and have never been, welcome.
It was more than just a feeling – the rocks reached out to trip your feet, hoping to break your neck; the trees lashed out with branches and refused to burn when cut, hoping to see you freeze; the clear water abruptly turned polluted if it even suspected you wanted to drink.
And then there was the weather.
Nie Mingjue staggered when the heavenly lightning arced down towards him for the countless time. It was almost as if it realized that simply giving warning blows wasn’t enough, escalated to strikes with murderous intentions, and then to its frustration realized that it wasn’t as easy to kill him.
At least, not by hitting him with lightning.
Will dragon!nhs spit fire in human form when he eat wwx spicy glutinous rice congee?
WWX: “Try some!”
NHS: *takes a bite to be polite*
NHS: *face goes green*
NHS: *starts coughing*
WWX: “Huh, too spicy for you? Sorry about that, have some milk -”
NHS: *belches out flame*
WWX: “...wow, I REALLY overdid that one, didn’t I?”
JC: “I didn’t even know it was possible to overdo it that much.”
NHS: *tears streaming doing his face as he gulps down milk* “...ah, Wei-xiong, your cooking could be used as a weapon.”
I will forever love WWX and JC being so fiercely protective of NHS because he’s their friend that they get into fights with the Nie sect because they seem to be upset??? With them and NHS??? Which is not allowed?? Also. NMJ reaction to NHS bringing home two(!!!!) friends(!!!!!!!!!!) who don’t know/don’t care that he’s a dragon!!! NHS is overjoyed! NMJ is probably waiting to see if there’s another shoe waiting to drop, but also happy
NMJ is really happy his brother is making friends, even if their collective IQ seems to be lower than any of them separately. everyone else is just glad that these people seem somewhat normal
somewhat