MDZS / The Untamed / CQL fanfic recs
(I have read around 600,000 words of mdzs/the untamed fanfic in the last *checks notes* 3 days. These are listed in the order I read them in. I’m pretty sure they all have happy endings, and for most, no archive warnings apply.)
What Could Have Been by tucuxi @tux-kate (part 1 of Working Title: Everyone Lives (With Knives)). T, 27k, series total 50k. Jin Guangyao-centric in an AU.
Crumpled at the base of Koi Tower’s long stairs for the second time, Jin Guangyao presses his face into the stone, takes a deep breath despite re-broken ribs, and arranges his features as carefully as he knows how. Then he stands, moving carefully around the pain, and bows deep, arms held straight and true. The walk back up the steps to his father's side is painful enough to wipe the smile from his face; it is not painful enough to prevent him re-taking his place as seneschal, bowing again at the top of the steps. As he straightens, he prioritizes his plans for his father’s demise over all else.
places under the sky by narie (narie on Dreamwidth). T, 18k. During his wanderings, Wei Wuxian happens across the village where his father, Wei Changze, was born.
Wei Wuxian braces himself for what might come next, the story of how this man died by the Yiling Patriarch's hand—at Nightless City, at the Burial Mounds, as the rest of the sects tried to bring that great villain to account. "What was his name?"
Uncle Gan sits back, twiddles his thumbs as he thinks. "Well, it'd be Wei something, of course."
"Wei Changze, wasn't it?" chimes in a new person, and if anyone agrees or disagrees, Wei Wuxian does not hear them. His wine bowl slips from his grip and the sudden clatter of it barely registers over the unexpected sounds of his father's name. Wei Changze, slipping so careless from a stranger's mouth here in small Taozi, here of all places under the open sky.
Wei Wuxian meets his grandmother. No, not the immortal one. The other one.
abstract concepts, applicable by narie. T, 13k. Modern academia AU.
Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian in Foundations of Machine Learning, which Lan Wangji is taking as an elective because he expects he'll get asked to teach something like this as soon as he lands his own tenure track job. He doesn't expect to enjoy it, and he doesn't.
Science AU time! In which Lan Zhan and Wei Ying meet in grad school in the USA at a fancy Ivy League university, and things progress from there (actual science content is light, never fear).
Dragon's Gall by ritualist @jelenedra. M, 5k, epistolary as a future analysis of messages hidden within Madam Lan’s weaving.
Recovered from the excavation of the Cloud Recesses in 34 Chongjian, the tapestries of Shui Jiuzai are one of the only surviving examples of the fibrecrafts of the Yangyan era.
(Or, the marriage of Madam Lan, in her own words.)
Restoration by ritualist. M, 85k, Yiling Wei sect AU.
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.
The Life Cycle of the Frog and the Fish by Aerlalaith @aerlalaith. T, 53k, modern reincarnation AU with Wei Wuxian raised partially by Baoshan Sanren.
“Huh,” Wei Wuxian said finally. He was staring at the guy’s face, lips parted. “He’s kind of…” he tilted his head. “Hot?”
“Don’t you dare,” said Jiang Cheng, “try and sleep with the random hobo we found sleeping in a haunted fucking cave.”
(Reincarnation has its pitfalls.)
somehow, someway, we all get to someday by Stratisphyre. T, 76k, role reversal AU with Cangse Sanren x Wei Changze x Lan Qiren.
“That’s not why they called us,” Wei Changze said, brow creased in utter disbelief. “They want us to step in and take over leadership of YunmengJiang.”
When Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan die while on a night hunt, the leadership of the Jiang sect unexpectedly falls to a former servant and a rogue cultivator.
a convergence of lightning by Stratisphyre. T, 33k, modern AU centering around Lan Qiren, and also again featuring CSSR and WCZ.
In the end, the decision was easy.
"I've come to tell you I have accepted a position at Yiling University."
Qingheng-jun's attention drifted back to his phone. "Not very prestigious is it?”
"I am taking the professorship. I am also taking the boys."
After the death of their mother, Lan Qiren removes his nephews from Cloud Recesses to Yiling.
there is no limited dimensions by Stratisphyre. M, 84k (WIP with one chapter remaining), Star Trek AU.
Wei Wuxian whistled. "Wow, Captain, you’re probably glad you managed to deal with that before the new stuffed shirts from Starfleet arrived."
Nie Mingjue heaved a sigh which practically shook the station. Whoever said the only emotion Klingons knew how to emote was anger clearly had never seen one of them irritated. Wei Wuxian had a lot of firsthand experience with it.
Nie Mingjue straightened and turned to the Vulcans standing alongside Wei Wuxian. "Commander Lan, Lieutenant Commander Lan. Welcome to Baxia Station."
"Are you Lieutenant Commander Lan or Commander Lan?" Wei Wuxian asked the painfully beautiful and definitely annoyed Vulcan beside him.
The question earned him a cutting glare. "Lieutenant Commander Lan Wangji."
Well, that had to count for something, right?
Lieutenant Commander Lan Wangji joins Baxia Station as Head Science Officer. Of all the things he anticipates upon accepting the commission, Wei Wuxian is not among them.
i’ll take a secondhand monster by Stratisphyre. T, 25k, young Mo Xuanyu meets Wei Wuxian
“You must not stray to the lower levels, A-Yu,” Yao-ge told him with his scary, empty smile. “Or else I shall tell the beast down there to eat you.”
There is a monster in Koi Tower.
the cow says moo, the chicken says squawk, and the demon beast of yiling says by Dragonskye. T, 58k, Beauty and the Beast AU.
If Lan Wangji had been asking for reasons of fame or money or power (not that he was suffering a shortage of any of those attributes) that would have been one thing. But siblings were a different story entirely. If Jiang Cheng and Yanli were sick, then Wei Wuxian probably would have done just about anything to get those flowers.
"Huh," Wei Wuxian said. "Alright, you can have them."
Lan Wangji's eyes went wide, and Wei Wuxian choked. "I mean-! You can have them if you become my prisoner forever!"
In which Lan Wangji, famed Second Jade of Lan, is not actually taken captive by the fearsome Demon Beast of Yiling. But for some reason, he stays anyways.
