Nie Huaisang and painting

time loop with two people in it but one person refuses to acknowledge the loop and pretends to be looping with everyone else. meanwhile the other person is freaking out

It's so fun to me that we don't have any proof that Nie Huaisang actually knows for sure that Jin Guangyao killed his brother. Like. He certainly seems to think so. But can he even prove it. It's also like. All the discussions of why he went about getting revenge the way he did seem to assume he had some proof he just wasn't sharing. And while it's plausible he didn't feel like it would be enough, or just that he wanted something more visceral. Like. We don't even know what he actually knows! It's so fun!

Kind of haunted in general by the idea of Nie Huaisang getting ill and Nie Mingjue having to take care of him when they are both young. Maybe papa Nie is out on a nighthunt he couldn’t delay, and Nie Huaisangs’ mother can’t hold him because she’s always had low cultivation and is at too high a risk of being infected herself. Maybe their parents are already gone. However the coin drops, Nie Mingjue has to be there for his brother, keeping him cool, soothing him and giving him drops of spiritual energy so he’ll heal sooner. And it’s terrifying; Nie Huaisang is clearly very sick, sick in a way cultivator children aren’t supposed to get, sick in a way that might be fatal if he doesn’t watch out. And he’s hot, and he has strange marks on his skin, and he keeps crying and whining and asking for his mother, and at least that’s better than when he falls silent and stares ahead with glassy eyes, when getting into contact with him is almost impossible. And of course for Nie Huaisang this is terrible, but I think for Nie Mingjue it might be worse. He’s only what, twelve, thirteen, and he knows that if he does something wrong now, Huaisang will die and he would never forgive himself. I don’t think he ever gets over it. I think that years after Nie Huaisang has recovered and is back to normal, he’ll be paranoid he’ll catch something again. He doesn’t like letting him leave Bujing Shi because what if something happens that he can’t protect him from. If only Nie Huaisang would train more so that he’d be better protected. He can never fully leave Nie Huaisangs’ childhood bedroom, in the depth of night, with straw dolls and crudely folded paper fans strewn on the floor, while his little brother begged him to make him stop hurting.

And then comes the Big Showdown… In this corner, LWJ who does NOT like to share his brother with anyone, not even people he likes, and will bite you for it; in that corner, NHS who loves to pimp his brother out as Everyone’s Da-ge so that HE can have all the older brothers to spoil him. Who will win the battle of the didis? I love the idea of them having a very longstanding feud, fighting for LXC’s attention XD

Ahaha, I just imagined LWJ biting NHS, and NHS biting him back because, hey, it hurts, so let him hurt too. And they just don't let go of each other until their brothers pull them apart.

Nie Mingjue: Why are you drawing a pentagram on the floor? Nie Huaisang: You told me to satanize the house. Nie Mingjue: I SAID ‘SANITIZE’!