wingfic au (with art!)

[ehyde]

One of my friends created a lovely wingfic au for MDZS, winged humans living in the modern era, that sort of deal, and it was excellent, but I kept thinking about moving it to the canon setting. And a couple more ideas wouldn't leave me alone, either--the image of Wen Ruohan as a tyrannical angel, and the idea of Lan Sizhui having some feature that would openly reveal his Wen heritage. So here's a canon-setting wingfic au where it's mostly the Wens who are winged, crossposted from my tumblr/twitter. 

After a magical adventure that’s lost to history, both Wen Mao and Baoshan Sanren grew wings (the official Wen account says he was blessed by a god, but that version doesn’t mention BSSR, so take it with a grain of salt). Since then, all of Wen Mao’s descendants have grown wings shortly after developing their golden core. It was assumed to be genetic, until BSSR’s disciples who descended the mountain had wings, too. Wei Wuxian inherited wings from his mother. 

As the only non-Wen with wings, he drew a lot of attention and Madam Yu resented him even more, but things were mostly the same as canon up until the attack on Lotus Pier. (Insert all sorts of winged mischief in the Cloud Recesses flashback, etc.) 

In a way, the decision to give Jiang Cheng his golden core was easier, because he’d still be able to fly. But what he didn’t know was that without a core, his wings would become a dead weight. (Though this hardly mattered in the long run–before throwing him into burial mound, Wen Chao tore off WWX’s wings. He hated the idea of a non-Wen having wings, especially WWX.) 

The other thing that neither WWX nor Wen Qing predicted was that after receiving WWX’s core, Jiang Cheng would grow wings of his own. He tried to pretend they were a bonus gift from BSSR but he couldn’t lie to himself; those weren’t just any wings, they were Wei Wuxian’s. This happened when he and Lan Wangji were searching together. So, that secret got exposed right away.

One would not expect the Core-Melting Hand to have wings, as he was only adopted by the Wens. But he does, so WRH must have, like BSSR, discovered how to bestow them upon his chosen few. This includes Meng Yao. After the Sunshot Campaign was over, Meng Yao hid his wings, since such an obvious reminder of his association with the Wen sect would hinder his rise to power in the Jin sect. (If qiankun bags and sleeves exist then I assume enchanting a piece of clothing to hide wings is possible too). Nie Mingjue was the only one who had seen them and lived. It’s not very nice, having wings and never being able to use them, so oftentimes, he’s glad NMJ knows (NMJ: what’s the big deal? just use your sword to fly!) 

 After the Sunshot Campaign, the remaining winged Wens had their wings clipped, but when he came back as a fierce corpse, Wen Ning could fly again. Most of the Wen remnants weren’t direct family though. LWJ never knew exactly whose kid A-Yuan was and when he took him in he wasn’t thinking that he might grow wings one day. It took Sizhui completely by surprise. Jingyi was there when it happened and they told LWJ but aside from that, LSZ keeps his wings hidden too for now. LWJ considered sending him to Lotus Pier to train with Jiang Cheng, but JC’s hatred of the Wens is well known. So LWJ helped LSZ learn to use and care for them based on his memories of Wei Ying.

After I posted this, clockworkspider suggested the image of Jin Guangyao slowly unfurling his wings while playing guqin for Nie Mingjue, and it seems that wings are what it takes to get me to take up drawing again, so I drew this. I'm out of practice.


 
I'm also finally getting started with my cosplay! I keep hearing about all these supposed "rules" for MDZS cosplay, but I'm ignoring them. It seems that the point of the rules is to get people to buy the official costumes, but for me, making a costume is the entire point of cosplay, so I was never a potential customer in the first place. Plus, the only Wen Qing costume I've seen for sale isn't even screen-accurate.

I'll be basing my costume on the donghua designs, except I hate using flat solid colors in cosplay (for me the goal is NOT to look like I stepped out of a cartoon) so I'm using some textured fabric. For about six years I've held onto a piece of red silky fabric with an abstract flame-like pattern woven into it, saving it for the "perfect" project. A year ago I decided that was an unhealthy attitude to take towards craft supplies and used it to line a pen case. But, it turns out I still have enough left for the flame motifs on Wen Qing's dress. I didn't have enough left of the darker shade of red that I wanted to use for the skirt, and found myself disappointed by the red fabric offerings at two different fabric stores. Everything was either too bright or too berry (result: for the skirt I'll be layering bright red chiffon over berry red chiffon). 

Have not yet decided how to do the edging on the flame patterns. Machine-stitched applique edging is the easiest buuut it's REALLY not the right look. Thinking about how nice it would look beaded but I probably don't have the time. Maybe couched satin cord?