Chapter 3 of A Long Road, “That Went Well“, is now up on Archive of Our Own.
…Poor Kero. Nie Huaisang-level shenanigans are above her pay grade….
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Chapter 3 of A Long Road, “That Went Well“, is now up on Archive of Our Own.
…Poor Kero. Nie Huaisang-level shenanigans are above her pay grade….
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Read it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I thought the scene with Bethony and Lotus Cloud was very sweet, it was obvious that while the ghost bride is not ready to move on she was happy someone else could.
Lan Zhan desperately wanting a family hit hard. If he didn’t have A-Yuan in cannon I could see bad things happening.
Huaisang having that portrait up his sleeve and ready to go almost killed me😂
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Someone wrote a meta that Jing Guangyao is more the Mastermind, while Huaisang is better at Xanatos Speed Chess. i.e., he rolls with it!
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Yay!
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Oh I just had a nasty thought. Wei Wuxian is furious he just trusted the Jin, which he actually had canonically understandable reasons for why, but in this AU we have the Companions, and I love and adore them but they made an entire country forget magic and kept the rest of the world from reminding them. And I remember Eldan’s Companion keeping Kero from telling him that she already knew Companions were spirits. She had to modify it to ‘special.’ (She had some words to say about it too. (Yes, given their years long, long distance mental connection I do tend to head canon them as a Lifebonded pair. Otherwise Kero would’ve had a lot more problems with her Mindspeech then we see her having.)) And Kellan is saying he might have a reason besides upbringing that prevented Lan Wangji from helping Wei Wuxian. And the mind control arrays are missing.
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As of chapter 4, Wei Wuxian is working on an answer to vrondi.
As of 5, he will have at least temporary measures. *G*
(5 is likely to also give him info he needs to go rescue one stubborn Lan….)
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Yes, but in what chapter will he get to actually put either of those to use?
(Or in other words, how many more chapters of looking at Wei Wuxian’s group and going “Are We There Yet?”)
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At this point in time they’ll be on the edge of Valdemar in 4, and setting up a refuge in 5. Chapter 6 is when WWX is going to get the leeway to head for Haven at speed.
…Bunnies now want to title 6 “For the Dead Travel Fast”.
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/Alberich believed in priests. Well, some of them./
“I’m having some trouble with belief Father.”
“I assure you, God exists.”
“Oh I know God exists, I’m not sure *you* exist.”
“…”
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You know, I can see him saying that to some of the windbags. 😉
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Thanks for another chapter. The cultural chasm and mutual ignorance is really showing up. Adding Lan Wangji to the Heralds starts making more and more sense if you think of him as trying to learn about Valdemar from a fairly stable shelter spot. A picture of Nie Huaisang’s Big Brother is really a good conversation piece, as a practical matter Valdemar is too far away for a political marriage to bring the Nie any real benefit.
If LWJ goes to live with the Heralds, the Nie need to visit daily to keep him from being isolated and to discuss what he has learned.
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Oh, they plan to be there as much as possible. Nie Huaisang has a whole Collegium to ask questions of! One of the first of which is, “where are the weather-witch cultivation manuals?”
Collegium: “…Manuals?”
NHS: (Oh no.)
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But that just means Niè Huaisang can haul home anyone he deems worthy and make up a title or suitably grandiose heritage. Or not. His mother was an innkeeper’s daughter, and there are rumors his brother’s father was an actual goddess. The Niè are descended from butchers in a society where any death leaves traces of resentment. He’s just looking for a brave woman with stable meridians (power is not a problem the Niè have) who wouldn’t mind moving countries of it means a stable home. Pretty would be a bonus, might help keep things active in the bedroom. But overall he wants someone who could at least be friends with his brother.
He really would like more people between him and the leadership role. Given everything, he’s an excellent spymaster. That doesn’t mean you want him in charge, no matter how fond you are.
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*Thumbs up* This. Nie Huaisang’s looking for stable, sane, willing to learn women whom Nie Zonghui gives a thumbs-up. (Given the first disciple of the sect is older than either of them, and knows Nie Mingjue very well.)
Preferably he’d be looking for several women, there are a bunch of unmarried bachelors back home… and widowers, given the war.
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Okay, this chapter puts this fic firmly alongside Track of the Apocalypse and Whispers of Fire as ‘I really hope Vathara keeps this going for many tens of thousands of words, before bringing it all to a satisfying conclusion’.
-Albert
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Oh, and magical storage: _So_ very useful, so very quality-of-life, but one of those things I’m always leery about allowing in a setting. So how long before Sayvil decides, ‘screw the masquerade, I’m reaching back into my time as Herald-Mage and getting me some adornments of holding’?
-Albert
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*Snrk* That last would not be an option, I think.
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*Knocks on wood.* With any luck my life is heading toward much more stability, which means more and better writing. It’s just really, really hard to power your way all the way to The End of anything when you’re in a situation of “oh, we may have to move at a moment’s notice because jerk siblings changed the house key locks on us.”
…Which actually happened. Fortunately after we’d already moved to the new place.
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How’s that going, in terms of severing any and all legal obligations that you might have towards them?
-Albert
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The county property office finally recognized title had been transferred… geh, only last week. And we need to wait ’til next month to be absolutely sure all the billing accounts are closed before we can call it quits on one last set of paperwork.
After that, hopefully, we’re in the clear!
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*tries not to hold breath*
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You and me both!
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//If this is supposed to be the Nie helping the Lan… Wangji’s one Lan, alone. And there’s just two Nie? If they’re worried about time, yes, a small group travels faster – but not even one Jiang? Why?//
“I have to ask, why didn’t you bring someone from Jiang?”
“Oh, well, he’ll catch up…”
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Bingo! 😉
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The best part of this was the fact that it came after WWX thinking of how the Jiang are now well-situated since he was officially recognized as separate from the Jiang. I started giggling. 🙂
I can’t wait until WWX realizes NHS set this all up so he can go home. I love their friendship. 🙂
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Well, not just for that! NHS can multitask!
But yes, a lot of this plan is NHS wanting desperately to fix things so he can talk to all of his friends who are still alive.
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Thanks.
Re: Wei Wuxian meeting Tony Stark, I’ve been thinking that the question of Wen Qing figuring out the Golden Core transfer surgery might be partly explained by the Wen occasionally throwing out weak Sparks.
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