The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) fandom starter kit

Useful links, where to watch, some meta commentary, and other things that will hopefully get you started in this fandom.

written by Caroline aka avawtsn in 2021, last reviewed and ported into website format 24.12.08

fic recs

Everything here is wangxian unless noted otherwise, because that's pretty much how I roll.

spoiler-free

For a Good Time, Call, by ScarlettStorm
170k, rated E, modern AU, OnlyFans sex worker!WWX, neuroatypical thirsting LWJ, therapy

The picture is of Wei Ying, that much is clear. It’s of a lot more of Wei Ying than Lan Zhan is used to seeing. He supposes that, technically, Wei Ying is dressed. It’s a bare technicality, since one of Wei Ying’s hands has rucked up his black tank top practically to his collarbone, showing a long expanse of abdomen and one nipple. Sweat beads on his sternum, catching the light like jewels. His other hand is--Lan Zhan feels his eyes widen, as though unable to look away from a train wreck--on his hip, one thumb tugging down the waistband of a pair of red briefs. Wei Ying is biting his lower lip and looking directly into the camera, sultry, his eyes dark and inviting. His erection is obvious, outlined against the red of the briefs and framed carefully with the hand on his hip. Lan Zhan’s brain goes wildly, screamingly blank.

The Simplest Way Forward, by harriet_vane
71k, rated E, modern AU, green card marriage, accidental baby acquisition

It’s a really unfortunate thing, developing a crush on your husband. Wei Ying had assumed this would be easy. Lan Zhan had been so icy and unpleasant to him, it had never occurred to him that he might end up spending the next however many years with this dumb, burning feeling in his chest whenever he looks at him.
“Okay,” says Wei Ying. “But tell me if I…if the pretending gets to be too hard, okay?”
“It will not,” says Lan Zhan, quietly certain.

live from new york, by varnes
87k, rated E, modern AU, SNL AU, comedy

Wei Ying lets out a long, ugly groan. “I am fine, Lan Zhan. Everybody is overreacting, it’s so embarrassing for all of you.”
“You had undiagnosed pneumonia, which you walked around with for weeks until you passed out during dress,” Lan Wangji corrects him. “It got a big laugh, until everyone thought you were dead.”
He keeps his voice even and does not tell Wei Ying that it had been Lan Wangji who caught him, who called the ambulance, and who rode with him to the hospital, where he was yelled at by nurses who wanted to know why he hadn’t noticed that Wei Ying couldn’t stop shivering or string proper sentences together.
“Rumors of my demise have been vastly overstated,” Wei Ying says. “Anyway, I’m already feeling much better. Basically fine. Really almost completely back to normal, so stop babying me and tell me why the fuck you let your stupid brother hire the worst man in the world to host our show.”

Pentimento., by orange_crushed
73k, rated E, modern AU, art conservation

When Wangji was eighteen he’d walked into the first class of his fall semester painting module and there’d been a boy in a hilariously ugly floppy knit hat sitting cross-legged on the floor at the front of the room. He’d had a sheet of canvas paper taped to his board and his board clamped between his legs and a tackle box of brushes and tubes—a real fishing tackle box, with a fish-shaped logo on it that said BASS, not one of the nice art supply storage boxes they sold in the campus bookstore, like the one Wangji was carrying—open beside him. Everyone else had settled into the rows of stools and easels, but that boy had stayed on the floor for the whole two hour and thirty minute studio. Wangji had looked at him and thought, that idiot’s back is going to hurt.

speeding up my heartbeat, by plonk
24k, NR (but more like E), modern with magic AU, cultivation gyms

The guy is so stupid hot that Wei Ying doesn’t turn away in time. He can’t be absolutely sure, but he thinks the guy sees him sort of turned towards him. Not as bad as being caught outright staring at someone on the subway, except that it’s actually probably worse, because they’re in the cultivation gym’s locker room.

i'll be your girl, by plonk
30k, rated E, wangxian

At Nie Huaisang’s Halloween party, Wei Ying hits on noted heterosexual Lan Zhan. Successfully.

among the stars, by plonk
61k, rated E (but various ratings; each chapter a different Firefly AU), wangxian

Twelve takes on Wangxian in Firefly-flavored space western settings, plus one in our world.

through a window softly, by impossibletruths
14k, rated T, modern AU, college, music, romantic

Wei Wuxian plays the flute. Someone in Wei Wuxian's apartment complex plays violin. Sometimes, they play the flute and the violin together, and it's... nice. It's really nice. It's sort of the nicest thing going on in his life right now, honestly.

Straight Boy Wei Ying series, by raitala
6-28k, rated E, modern AU

Lan Zhan has been in love with his tragically straight best friend Wei Ying forever. So what if some girl says Wei Ying is a bad kisser? Lan Zhan has to prove to Wei Ying that this is incorrect. Because Lan Zhan is a good friend. He out does himself.

here's to the goth twinks who brunch, by damnslippyplanet
3.6k, rated M, modern AU

The Brunch Twink Goth had been wearing so much makeup.
“It was so early for a full smoky eye, what the fuck,” was how Wei Wuxian had put it later.
The Brunch Goth had made a thinly veiled dick joke - and Lan Wangji didn’t seem to be mad about it?
Wei Wuxian's texts had started to fly as fast as he could type: This means something. He has a secret life. I have Questions.

Multiphonics, by androktasia
63k, rated E, modern AU, college AU

Second year of uni is going great for Wei Ying! Okay, so maybe there’s a growing patch of mould on his ceiling, and perhaps Madam Yu keeps threatening to kick him out of orchestra, but aside from that it’s going fine. The rest of the woodwind section is a bit of a nightmare, but that’s easy to ignore when he spends most of his time in rehearsals trying to catch Lan Zhan’s eye from across the room.
For friend reasons. They’re going to be great friends.
If only he could figure out why his heart keeps doing strange things whenever he manages to hang out with Lan Zhan. And why Huaisang seems to understand Wei Ying more than Wei Ying does himself. And why one of his professors seems to hate all his bold ideas to revolutionise musical composition. And –
Okay, perhaps it isn’t going so great. But there’s still time – and plenty of orchestra rehearsals before the end of the year – to figure it all out.

"The Efficacy of Spanking on Behavioural Change", by redscudery
15k, rated E, modern AU, mild alcohol and marijuana use

“You were looking for a way to test your theory of discipline,” Lan Zhan says.
Wei Ying frowns, then the penny drops. “The spanking!”
“Do you think that physical pain will deter you from this specific behaviour?”
“It could. I think there would have to be verbal reinforcement.” Wei Ying’s brain is whirring. “And if we’re really doing ‘spanking best practices’—like that’s a thing—there should be some consistency in the place it’s done?” He looks around the apartment. “Over the couch?”
“Mn.”
“Okay. But wait—are you okay with this? Do you want to do this?”
“It is very unpleasant when you leave food scraps in the sink.”
Wei Ying laughs. “And you want revenge, even if it means touching my ass.”
Lan Zhan raises his eyebrows and says nothing.

come to the harbor of your longing, by occultings (microcomets)
32k, rated E, modern with magic AU, cottagecore, medium!WWX, ghosts

Lan Zhan has his daily rituals, before the medium shows up.

Unstrictly Ballroom, by Ariaste
47k, rated T, modern AU, ballroom dance, stripper AU

Thirteen years ago, Wei Wuxian brought scandal and shame down upon his head and was thrown out of the competitive ballroom dance circuit. He vanished, never to be heard from again.
Lan Wangji aches when he remembers the way Wei Ying danced--like a laugh given movement and form. He has never stopped searching for him.

on your marks, get set, bake!, by BlackWiresOnHerHead
41k, rated G, modern AU, GBBO AU, college AU

Jin Ling resumes thumping on the door to room 721, and the small collection of freshmen starts chanting “Senior Wei! Senior Wei! Senior Wei!” with increasing volume until finally Wei Wuxian opens the door.
“Yes?” he says with his widest, most innocent eyes.
“Senior Wei!” demands Lan Jingyi, shoving himself to the front of the group. “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a contestant on this year’s season of The Great Gusu Bake Off?!?”

plot spoilers

And Time is But a Paper Moon, by sami
139k, rated M, time travel, fix-it

"Zewu-Jun. You once told me about a house surrounded by gentians, where you visited once a month, and how Lan Zhan still waited there, even when the door no longer opened."
Xichen feels light-headed. He feels shocked, and angry. He has never told anyone such a thing, but Lan Zhan is giving Xichen a look of utter betrayal.
"You told him?" Lan Zhan whispers. "When?"
Wei Wuxian takes Lan Zhan's hand. "About twenty years from now."

anyway, here's wuji, by kakikaeru
18k, rated T, juniors-centric

The melody gets a little clearer when he breaks out of the trees, and Jingyi changes course with certainty, barreling down the back hill and through the Cloud Recesses, dodging scandalized disciples left and right. He throws open the doors to the Receiving Hall without announcement and bows nearly double, eyes on the floor instead of on the shocked faces of the Mei delegation and the impenetrable gaze of the Chief Cultivator.
"Forgive this disciple," Jingyi shouts, because he's going to get punished for rule breaking regardless. "From the back hill, Hanguang-jun, there is a song in the wind!"

The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts, by aubreyli
19k, rated T, juniors-centric

Wei Wuxian’s hand jolts, spilling a drop of wine onto the tabletop. “Love?” he croaks, then clears his throat and tries again. “Lan Zh— uh, Hanguang-jun, in love?”
“Have you not heard the story?” the other young woman asks, looking pitying. “You must, it is a truly heartrending tale of star-crossed romance and mutual pining — go to any storyhouse in town, everyone has been requesting a reading of this book.”
“There’s a book?” Wei Wuxian says blankly.

the heartlines on our hands, by occultings (microcomets)
47k, rated E

Among the cultivation sects and beyond, the soulmate threads are a shared and common knowledge: blue for a familial soulmate. Silver for a friend. Red for a lover.
Lan Zhan is eight years old when the red thread first appears on his wrist.

A Narrow Bridge, by FrameofMind and JoLasalle
700k, rated E, time travel, fix-it, burial mounds, canon divergence

Once, Lan Wangji made a choice to step aside. Ten years after Wei Ying’s death, he finds a way back to choose again.

Rotten Work, by ShanaStoryteller
64k, NR

Jin Ling hadn’t thought to keep track of Wei Wuxian.
Clearly that had been a mistake.

Lynchpin, by ShanaStoryteller
103k, NR

He can’t get Jin Guangyao’s words out of his head.
If he’d only believed in Wei Wuxian, if he’d only been willing to stand up for him, could it all have been avoided?

a stone to break your soul, a song to save it, by rikke
180k, rated E

When the entire cultivation world turns against Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng comes up with a plan to save him and arranges a marriage between his brother and the Second Jade of Lan, Lan Wangji.

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