I’m having a lot of thoughts and feelings about Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling’s relationship right now. Jin Ling most likely went through a phase where he called Jiang Cheng ‘A-Die’, because when you’re young, your parent is determined by who takes care of you, not blood relation. The first time Jin Ling does it, Jiang Cheng, for a split second, feels happiness and pride, before being overcome with guilt and devastation. Jiang Cheng should have never had to play such a role in Jin Ling’s life in the first place, and he felt he was never going to do as good as a job as Yanli and Zixuan, yet he was what Jin Ling had. He never wanted them to be replaced or forgotten, so from then on, he does everything he can to make sure Jin Ling knows he is not his A-Die. He also hates the fact that Jin Ling mourning his parents is something that he had to almost be taught, and not something that happened naturally, because Jin Ling never got to know his parents enough to even know what he was missing.
Angst aside though, I also like to imagine that as the years go by, being called 'A-Die’ bothers him less and less. He never gave Jin Ling permission to do so, but Jin Ling still slips up from time to time, and eventually (when Jin Ling is in his 20s or something) Jiang Cheng just stops correcting him, since being called 'A-Die’ doesn’t hurt as much as it once did.
I love the idea of Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan becoming besties. Like, it starts off with Jin Ling conning them into “helping” with his different school projects, building solar systems, volcanos, etc… until it becomes a routine that whenever Jin Ling has a school project, they spend hours bonding working on it together (90% of the time Jin ling isn’t even there). When there is a lull in the projects Jin Ling gets assigned, jc and jzx feel like they’ve lost their excuse for hanging out, and are both too awkward to reach out. It comes to a head when Yanli gets tired of seeing jzx mope around the house, sighing at the birdhouse he and jc ‘helped’ a-ling build for his woodshop class, and forces him to reach out to jc. She reassures him that 'yes, jc misses you too, he asks if Jin ling has any school projects every time I talk to him’, jzx finds the courage to invite jc out, and a beautiful friendship is born. They go out multiple times a month and text all the time, jc has even called jzx 'xuan-ge’ and wwx has never felt more betrayed
Atlas: Enneagram + The Untamed Characters (13/14) ➵ Type One: Jin Zixuan
“Ones resist being affected by their instinctual drives [–]. They are usually seen by others as highly self-controlled, even rigid, although this is not how Ones experience themselves. It seems to them that they are sitting on a cauldron of passions and desires.”
yunmeng trio personality swap ?? or just extra protective jiang sibs i guess !!
It was Wei Wuxian’s idea first
His shixiong, his brave and kind and way out Lan Wangji’s league shixiong, had mention something like this back at the cloud recess classes.
“Energy is energy so why resentful energy can’t be used as spiritual energy?”
There might be people who took those words as heretical arrogance (see: stuck up Lans who doesnt deserve Shixiong), but both Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli knew Wei Wuxian, they knew his character, he was kind, so, so kind despite the harsh words from the world about his less than ideal cultivation (he’s a genius okay??? It’s just that he spent too many years on the street and was sickly because of it, but he’s still a master in all six arts and specially talismans and arrays), so both Jiang siblings knew that behind such outrageous words, was a kind and maybe naïve way of seeing everything in a positive light, that maybe dark energy could be use for good, that maybe places like burial mounds werent so bad and could be cleanse, that maybe something so despised as resentful energy could have a positive use…
Jiang Cheng has half a mind to remember and consider his dear shixiong’s words as he fights his damnest to survive the same damn Burial Mounds
That fucking Wen Chao had captured him as he diverted the wen’s troops’ attention from his sister, because she was buying medicine for their brother, who had collapse with an awful fever after being whipped by their mother half to death.
Jiang Cheng groaned as he tried to keep the resentful energy circulating through his empty meridians (and fuck Wen Zhuliu for that). His last thought before succumbing to the darkness was that he hoped that at least Wen Qing could help his siblings
I’ll give you everything I have I’ll teach you everything I know I promise I’ll do better I will always hold you close But I will learn to let you go I promise I’ll do better
hmmmm something something deliberately breaking bad parenting cycles
I know Zixuan likely got the least awful treatment out of all his siblings but I think it’s fair to assume that JGS likely didn’t have much of a genuine connection with him (evidence: JZX is a socially awkward jock with a strong moral code and not a single manipulative bone in his body… literally the only influence of JGS I can see in him is his arrogant Rich Guy™ bullshit which cannot have been particularly strongly ingrained as he grows out of it pretty quick), and having a dad who doesn’t really give much of a shit about you as a person is still its own kind of trauma… the kind of trauma that I’m confident he would have wanted to break the cycle of with A-Ling, and in my happy AU he gets that chance!!!
I made art for this AU, where the Wens threw the heirs into the Burial Mounds together, resulting in all four becoming demonic cultivators.
(click for better quality)
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[Image Description:
Fanarts depicting the characters Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, and Jin Zixuan (shown in that order, with the final image being all four of them in that order from left to right) from Mo Dao Zu Shi, the character designs being that from the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua and manhua. All four characters are shown from waist up. Each image is framed by an unique border.
Lan Wangji’s eyes are closed, his mouth slightly open, and he holds up his index and middle fingers from his left hand that’s just below his face. A green glow emanates from his fingers, casting green light onto his hand, arm, face, hair, and forehead ribbon. Red light also shines from behind him, creating a secondary red rim light along the edges of his hair and hairpin. Blood drips from Lan Wangji’s hairline, staining his forehead ribbon, including its metal clasp, and forming two lines below each of his eyes, resembling bloody tears. Blood also drips from his raised left hand, and it further stains parts of his clothes. Furthermore, his face, hand, and clothes are covered with a layer of frost. What should be the whites of his forehead ribbon and his clothes are gray instead. Snow flies around him. He is framed by a border made of ice.
Jiang Cheng’s eyes are narrowed in anger and his mouth is twisted into a snarl. His eyes are entirely black except for two small pinpoints purple glows in each, which cast purple light onto the rest of his face and edges of the hair that frames his face. His cheeks are sunken in and black liquid drips from his eyes and his mouth. His clothes are ripped, and beneath the rips on his sleeve, bloody scratches are visible on his arm. Jiang Cheng’s right hand that is raised to chest level and more black liquid streams from his fingers. Strips of this black liquid swirls around him. Behind him are storm clouds with purple lightning within. The clouds are lit up in green, and there is a green rim light along the edges of Jiang Cheng’s hair and hair ribbon. Rain falls down from the sky around him. He is framed by a border of water patterns.
Nie Huaisang’s expression is mostly apathetic. His sclera is a dark red rather than white and he has no pupils. Instead, his eyes are pure sheets of metallic gold that shines in the darkness of the image. Furthermore, his eyes are deeply sunken in, ringed by purple shadows. He holds his fan up with his right hand and several large rips have been torn through it. Four fingers from his right hand are visible in front of the fan and they are fitted with claws in the same glowing metallic gold as his eyes. The back of Nie Huaiang’s head is lit up by a red rim light while the very bottom of his bangs and the bottom of his face has a slight pale green rim light. Behind him hangs several slabs of meat hang on hooks. The bones of the meat has a green sheen and blood drips from them. More bright red blood drips from the top of the image and falls around Nie Huaisang, with one streak of blood falling directly in front of his right eye and landing on the top edge of his fan, staining it. He is framed by a metal border.
Jin Zixuan has an impassive expression. His eyes are pure glowing white, lacking both irises and pupils. Glowing orange cracks spread out across his face, stemming from his eyes. More of these cracks are visible on his neck and right hand, which is positioned near the bottom of the image. In that hand, he holds a sword of green fire that reaches the very top of the image. This green fire casts a bright green light on Jin Zixuan’s left side, creating a sharp contrast between light and shadow in the image. A smaller red rim light runs along Jin Zixuan’s right side, casted by the orange fire behind him. Embers and sparks fly around him. He is framed by a border of lava.
