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Entry tags:
(cql) flight of a one-winged dove: masterpost
Title: flight of a one-winged dove
Fandom: The Untamed / MDZS
Subject: Nie Huaisang, with post-canon ensemble cast appearances; Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng, with background Wangxian and Jiang Cheng & Jin Ling dynamics
Length: 91,000 words exclusive of extras/bonus stories
Rating: E
Themes & tags: post-canon, character study, trans fic, grief/mourning, dark comedy, sex before feelings, femdom, romance, BDSM, twisted and fluffy feelings, angst with a happy ending
Content warnings: suicidality, gender dysphoria, self-destructive behaviour, interpersonal callousness & cruelty, grief (more detailed content notes in A/N)
Summary: Talking at someone is only fun for so long. That's all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. It's so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face one’s equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. It’s one of Jiang Cheng’s best qualities. (In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.)
Original posting date: This fic was written and posted from October 2020-December 2021 (ao3 link).
On content warnings:
That being said... this is also a silly romance novel.
Longer spiel: This fic was started with the intention that I would never post it anywhere, and thus could be as self-indulgent as possible. I was encouraged by friends to share it, but it remains a personal project first and a work for the public second. That doesn't mean it's just a fluffy story in which nothing bad happens; there are some pretty heavy emotional undercurrents, though it's an attempt to carve out a "good ending" for the focus characters that feels continuous with their unresolved issues. Closely related: this is "trans headcanon" fic. It is also, on the whole, canon compliant. Contemporary terms aren't used, and I take liberties with concepts such as "qi manipulation for cultivational HRT", but there's no hedging about the fact this is capital-T Trans Fic, though it's about a lot of other things too. Along these lines, this is not escapist fic where characters' transness is incidental to the story. Rather, it's about self-actualization within a universe where there are gendered expectations placed on you from birth and there are consequences for straying from them.
NHS's gendered self-concept is not static throughout the fic. Before the 20th century, the Mandarin third person pronoun for humans was 他 regardless of the gender of the subject (and he, she, and it are still indistinguishable in speech; the distinction is in the written character), and I've run with that in an assumption that a linguistic personal pronoun division is not something the characters have to consider in-universe (putting things through an old timey language filter in my mind, as it were.) As such, the use of pronouns within the fic is not necessarily intended to reflect some deep personal "truth" beyond being a function of grammar. TL;DR if reading something wherein a transfeminine character is referred to by he/him pronouns for much (not all) of the story will feel bad to you, you may be better off skipping this.
On canonicity: this fic is largely based on The Untamed's continuity, particularly in terms of age. The fic is set an unspecified number of years (no less than two or more than five) after the end of the series, and I assume that Wei Wuxian and other members of his generation were in their early twenties or very late teens at his death. Accordingly, sixteen-years-and-change later, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng are both approaching forty. Fatal Journey is also taken as canon (besides the minor NHS-playing-the-flute twist, because I think it's dumb), and Lan Wangji, not Nie Huaisang, is Chief Cultivator. On the other hand, there are a few references to a MDZS-characterized Mo Xuanyu (though I describe him looking like Xiao Zhan, lol), and the situation with Nie Mingjue's body before, during, and after Guanyin Temple is taken from MDZS.
The many credits & acknowledgements are in the final author's note.
* Between Chapters 9 and 10 is an interlude bonus chapter: strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart.
There's also a (WIP) collection of post-epilogue vignettes/extra stories: one day we'll get that way.
Fandom: The Untamed / MDZS
Subject: Nie Huaisang, with post-canon ensemble cast appearances; Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng, with background Wangxian and Jiang Cheng & Jin Ling dynamics
Length: 91,000 words exclusive of extras/bonus stories
Rating: E
Themes & tags: post-canon, character study, trans fic, grief/mourning, dark comedy, sex before feelings, femdom, romance, BDSM, twisted and fluffy feelings, angst with a happy ending
Content warnings: suicidality, gender dysphoria, self-destructive behaviour, interpersonal callousness & cruelty, grief (more detailed content notes in A/N)
Summary: Talking at someone is only fun for so long. That's all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. It's so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face one’s equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. It’s one of Jiang Cheng’s best qualities. (In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.)
Original posting date: This fic was written and posted from October 2020-December 2021 (ao3 link).
Author's note and detailed content warnings
On content warnings:
- Though it's only directly referenced a couple times, and never graphically, the possibility of suicide, as well as the reality of Mo Xuanyu's suicide (which Nie Huaisang played a role in engineering), underscores this story. It's also a story about grief. I think the fic ends up in a pretty life-affirming place, but it's 91k of someone who really hates themself trying to figure out how to stay alive, and features an ambiance of self-destructive behaviours and interpersonal callousness.
- A lot of the story involves processing and navigating what we might call social and physical gender dysphoria, including during sex, of which there is a lot. Terminology for NHS's sexual body is generally kept nonspecific, but cock/dick is used occasionally.
- Relatedly, there's a lot of consensual but minimally negotiated D/s dynamics and BDSM (NHS as the dom, JC as the sub, no switching). Overarching themes include verbal humiliation, service submission, comeplay, overstimulation, and shades of petplay.
- There's particular focus paid to the postcanon NHS & LXC and JC & JL dynamics: please anticipate the canon-typical baggage.
That being said... this is also a silly romance novel.
Longer spiel: This fic was started with the intention that I would never post it anywhere, and thus could be as self-indulgent as possible. I was encouraged by friends to share it, but it remains a personal project first and a work for the public second. That doesn't mean it's just a fluffy story in which nothing bad happens; there are some pretty heavy emotional undercurrents, though it's an attempt to carve out a "good ending" for the focus characters that feels continuous with their unresolved issues. Closely related: this is "trans headcanon" fic. It is also, on the whole, canon compliant. Contemporary terms aren't used, and I take liberties with concepts such as "qi manipulation for cultivational HRT", but there's no hedging about the fact this is capital-T Trans Fic, though it's about a lot of other things too. Along these lines, this is not escapist fic where characters' transness is incidental to the story. Rather, it's about self-actualization within a universe where there are gendered expectations placed on you from birth and there are consequences for straying from them.
NHS's gendered self-concept is not static throughout the fic. Before the 20th century, the Mandarin third person pronoun for humans was 他 regardless of the gender of the subject (and he, she, and it are still indistinguishable in speech; the distinction is in the written character), and I've run with that in an assumption that a linguistic personal pronoun division is not something the characters have to consider in-universe (putting things through an old timey language filter in my mind, as it were.) As such, the use of pronouns within the fic is not necessarily intended to reflect some deep personal "truth" beyond being a function of grammar. TL;DR if reading something wherein a transfeminine character is referred to by he/him pronouns for much (not all) of the story will feel bad to you, you may be better off skipping this.
On canonicity: this fic is largely based on The Untamed's continuity, particularly in terms of age. The fic is set an unspecified number of years (no less than two or more than five) after the end of the series, and I assume that Wei Wuxian and other members of his generation were in their early twenties or very late teens at his death. Accordingly, sixteen-years-and-change later, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng are both approaching forty. Fatal Journey is also taken as canon (besides the minor NHS-playing-the-flute twist, because I think it's dumb), and Lan Wangji, not Nie Huaisang, is Chief Cultivator. On the other hand, there are a few references to a MDZS-characterized Mo Xuanyu (though I describe him looking like Xiao Zhan, lol), and the situation with Nie Mingjue's body before, during, and after Guanyin Temple is taken from MDZS.
The many credits & acknowledgements are in the final author's note.
Table of contents
Table of contents
- Chapter 1: GUSU I
- Chapter 2: QINGHE I
- Chapter 3: QINGHE II
- Chapter 4: QINGHE III / GUSU II
- Chapter 5: YUNPING I
- Chapter 6: YUNPING II
- Chapter 7: YUNPING III
- Chapter 8: QINGHE IV / LANLING I
- Chapter 9: LANLING II *
- Chapter 10: GUSU III
- Chapter 11: GUSU IV
- Epilogue
* Between Chapters 9 and 10 is an interlude bonus chapter: strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart.
There's also a (WIP) collection of post-epilogue vignettes/extra stories: one day we'll get that way.
