April recs

[spatz]

Alright, here we go! I’ve got seven recs for The Untamed and two for BNHA this month.

THE UNTAMED

Starting with some Nie Huaisang content today, an imperial-with-magic AU, a couple of Wangxian fairytales in very different flavors, a WWX-adopted-by-someone-else AU (eventually Wangxian, but not the focus), and a postcanon Wangxian casefile.

here's to upright men by @isozyme

It had been shaping up to be a really lovely party, and honestly, quite a nice cultivation conference in general. Instead, his last surviving brother was exchanging polite bows with Jin Rulan, and Nie Huaisang was going to spend four days on edge.

Fantastic NHS characterization in this, messy and traumatized and angry and a little hopeful.

The sparrow's curious song by @mhalachai

One day in Lanling, a little blind beggar picks Nie Huaisang’s pocket, which is the most interesting thing to happen to him in months. (AKA the one where Nie Huaisang adopts A-Qing.)

I am here for all A-Qing AU happy endings, of course, but Nie Huaisang is very compelling in this: the contrast between his perceptiveness and his ditzy act, struggling with his grief and vengeance, and A-Qing’s presence reminding him that he’s forgotten about his future.

The Concubine Mo Chronicles by EnigmaTree

An AU where the Lan Xichen is the Emperor; Lan Wangji is the Crown Prince; the Jin, Jiang, and Nie are Dukedoms; and even 13 years dead, Wei Wuxian is still the most feared man in all of China. Newly resurrected, Wei Wuxian would love nothing more than to cultivate a core and go become a rogue cultivator.
Except, there's something very suspicious going on in the Imperial Palace, and while Wei Wuxian might not be able to help Lan Wangji in solving it, the unassuming and soft-spoken "Prince-Concubine Mo" sure can.

I very rarely recs WIPs - the first two stories in the series are complete, but the overall plot is not - but I’m enjoying this story so much and I wanna drag more people in with me. Basically, imagine if instead of a murder mystery roadtrip, you get an inner-palace murder mystery intrigue fest, with all the additional dangers of playing on JGY’s turf? A WWX who is both fully a gremlin and also very very dangerous, and written that way? Delightful.

Restoration by @jelenedra​

They say he was thrown into Luanzang Gang by the man who killed his parents; they say that he is an immortal cultivator who had been in a deep trance until the Wen sect disturbed his rest and incurred his wrath; they say that he is the fierce corpse of a cultivator who had somehow regained his mind and his spiritual powers.    
When Lan Wangji sees him for the first time, he understands why people talk.

Meng Yao wants safety. Xue Yang wants vengeance. The Sunshot Campaign wants victory. Yiling Laozu provides, for a price.

This has such a gorgeous fairytale feeling to it - but one where you're not sure if there's going to be a happy ending or someone's going to die gruesomely until the very end. (Or both!) Lots of weird eerie Burial Mounds in this one, lots of fix-its for various characters, and a very different but still epic Wangxian romance.

Winter Bloom by Niitza / @princessniitza

When lotuses bloom in Wei Ying’s pond in the middle of winter, he recognizes them at once for what they really are: an auspicious sign. It cannot be meant for him, though. He is nothing but a modest farmer. Such a miracle has to have appeared for someone else: a cultivator, a nobleman, a king.

So lovely, in a more classically fairytale way than Restoration. A little magical, a little romance, and a lot of just rewards.

what builds a home by @stratisphyre​

Two children, Meng Shi decides, cannot possibly be that much more work than one.
On the run from the Jin, Meng Shi encounters another young boy in need of love, a family and a home.

Wei Wuxian and Meng Yao as adoptive brothers is fantastic (the found family feels are strong with this one, and keep getting stronger as you go), and I love the way Lan Wangji shows up later and the plot fallout from that, but there’s also a lot of quietly fascinating timeline shifts that get revealed as the story progresses that I enjoyed.

through the warmth, through the cold (keep running til we're there) by @fleurdeliser​

Five months into his travels, Wei Wuxian gets word that Lan Wangji has disappeared. Everything changes.

Creepy, tense casefile with some cool resentful energy stuff (haunted garden!), Wei Wuxian making other people terrified because he’s terrified for LWJ, having to team up with Jiang Cheng, and a lovely ending: this fic has it all!

BNHA

The Best Worst Case Scenario by maskedfangirl (Shinsou/Midoriya)

Shinsou is a promising student with a history of trauma, a Quirk that landed him in a residential care facility for dangerous kids, and a perfectly reasonable distrust of adults. Aizawa knows immediately that he's going to get over-invested in this one.

You can tell Shinsou is one of my favorites because I love watching him suffer (until the author makes it better)! But yeah, lots of that h/c goodness here, plus LGBT+ feels and a great married EraserMic.

Cotyledon by Sholosha (Shinsou/Midoriya/Todoroki)

It's his second year at UA, and Shinsou is finally, finally, transferring to the hero course. He's ready, he thinks, or hopes— either way, it doesn't matter, 'cause he's going to show everyone he's got what it takes. And it also doesn't matter that the longer he spends in the program, the more he can't stop thinking about a certain freckled wannabe-friend, and the more he's noticing that a certain stoic classmate is paying him a lot more attention than he'd like.

Whatever. Irrelevant. He's here to be a hero, not make friends. Even if they would be the first ones he's made in...ever. But it's his second year, and he's going to make it count by focusing on what's important.

His name is Shinsou Hitoshi, and he's going to be a goddamn hero.

Really gorgeous poly slow burn. Heavy on the boarding school & threesome romance/kink discovery aspects, but there's also a great casefile subplot midway through.