Feb 22
/vibrates so excitedly at zhu’s first impression of ouyang
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/vibrates so excitedly at zhu’s first impression of ouyang
Feeling a perfectly normal amount of completely hinged emotions about the scene where Zhu visits Ouyang’s ger even though she has just barely recovered from having her hand cut off by him…..
"For a moment they just stood. The next, she was pinned against the tent wall with General Ouyang’s studded leather wristguard crushing her throat. She choked and kicked. Despite his small size, she might as well have tried to free herself from a statue’s grip. The scratchy tent fabric bowed outwards under their combined weight. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Wasn’t losing one hand enough?” – “Take what you like,” she ground out. “It takes more than that to destroy me.” – He took the lip of her helmet and lifted her head up so they were eye to eye. Even in her pain she marveled at the dark sweep of his lashes, and the fine brushstroke of his brows. As if he had some idea of her thoughts, he mused, “Apparently being as ugly as a cockroach makes you as resilient as one, too. But there are certain things nobody comes back from. Shall we try them, one by one?”"
I know zhu and ouyang are meant to mirror and be parallels for each other in the narrative but it's still kinda insane how if you look at their life stories they are practically the same person, like
both watch their families die violently at ~10 years old
with their families dead they are both still so determined to survive they carve themselves a way to keep on living anyway even if it’s insanely hard; ouyang becoming a eunuch and zhu waiting on the steps of the monastery for days
in order to keep on living, they also have to hide some essential part of who they are; zhu her gender, and ouyang his desire for revenge
they manage to spend their teenage years and early adulthood in relative comfort hiding away from the fate that they don’t want but are aware is waiting for them
and by not wanting their fates I mean they really, actively, DO NOT WANT IT!! zhu just wants to stay in the monastery hidden from the world and her nothing fate, and ouyang wants to play war with esen without having to think about his revenge forever
but of course they end up destroying each other’s comfortable bubbles (ouyang burning down the monastery and zhu causing ouyang the worst professional failure and humiliation of his life), becoming a catalyst for each other’s fates
and as the story progresses, those fates become the thing they want more than anything else, something they’ll be willing to hurt their loved ones over, no matter how much it hurts them too
at the end of swbts, they both have committed some atrocity (zhu killing the prince of radiance and ouyang killing esen) that allows them the command of an army, promising that army a victory over their mongol rulers
and then there’s of course the gender stuff
both of them share the core experience of hating or fearing their body growing up, wishing it was the ’perfect male body’ instead
which of corse meant that basic things like bathing became something to be feared and loathed because it would reveal the state of their body to themselves and/or others
their looks are very frequently commented on by others
and most importantly they are both specifically diagnosed by a medical practitioner of some kind to have a lack of masculine yang energy. yay!!!!
What’s your favorite scene with Zhu and Ouyang?
Ouyang cutting Zhu’s hand off
Zhu visiting Ouyang’s ger alone
Zhu walking a tied up and masked Ouyang around town
Zhu mentioning thinking about Ouyang’s underwear
”Who knew salt water would make my hair look this good!”
Speculating about flute playing skills together
Pretending to be a married couple
Finger biting
”Then make me do it.”
Zhu promising Ouyang’s ghost to bury him and Esen together
Other (please elaborate in the tags)
Show me the results
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Happy Zhuyang New Year!
2K words, rated T
Canon divergent AU, Ouyang dealing with the aftermath of Lake Poyang together with Zhu
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
11k words, rated M
Modern AU, crack
Zhuyang as the world's most cursed fake married couple as god (SPC) intended
”Our fates lead to the same place, General. They’re entwined. Don’t you feel it? They always have been. Because we’re alike.” It was his sword she held, but their sameness pulsed together as intimately as if she’d thrust her ghost hand inside him and grasped the slippery beating flesh of his heart. Their chests rose and fell in rhythm.
- He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, chapter 9
Like holding his own hand
Zhu/Ouyang
4k words, rated M
More canon-typically sexy Zhuyang
Stitch removal as a fun bonding activity
Also featuring Ouyang’s unhinged imagination and some cuddling