Over on mastodon, someone I follow started a thing where for each day in December you post a rec for something. I decided to join in! And now that it's the end of December, I'm crossposting all my recs here in one big long list. It's all mxtx fic, mostly mdzs and svsss but a bit of tgcf, and of a wide variety of tones and ships. I hope you find something in here to enjoy!


for #DecRecs I'm going to be going through my bookmarks from when I first started reading fic for mxtx fandoms, and rec a fic for each month I've been in the fandom(s)! We'll start day 1 with the first untamed fic I ever read: "and they were roommates..." by harriet_vane. It's a modern au, rule 63 femslash wangxian. Super charming and delightful, and it was a great way to get me introduced to the characters without having to know a lot of context! https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400138

for day 2 of #decrecs is "to the act of making noise", by words-writ-in-starlight - an untamed fic from Lan Sizhui's pov, about family and grief and his relationship with the song Inquiry. It's incredible and made me feel many feels!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22944457

for #DecRecs day 3, a fic I first read in Apr 2020, still very early into my forays into untamed fandom! "the soft animal" by cafecliche is an exploration of wwx's relationship with mxy's body post-canon, figuring out how to make a home in it, and I was fascinated! I love how this canon allows for different kinds of explorations of embodiment, and I love how steadily lwj supports wwx throughout this fic too. https://archiveofourown.org/works/23640610

ooh already time for #DecRecs day 4! Moving to a fic I read in Sept 2020, "Call and Response" by x_los is from lxc's pov about his relationship with his parents and his brother, and his parents' relationship with each other, and how lxc sees those reflected in both himself and lwj. It starts with lcx & lwj's efforts as children to learn the truth of their mother's imprisonment and it continues all the way to the end of canon, and it's excruciatingly good the whole way https://archiveofourown.org/works/25216897 

let's be emotionally devastated some more with today's #DecRecs day 5! "the final cut" by wildehack is nie huaisaing/mo xuanyu!!!! I love how it portrays the complicated mix of emotions and motivations that nhs and mxy have, and the way everything leads inexorably to this horrible and perfect end. I was riveted throughout. https://archiveofourown.org/works/25494802 

ok for #DecRecs day 6 let's move on from devastating to FUN AND INTERESTING with a modern-au-with-cultivation for the untamed! I love the premise of the au of "I feel like I win when I lose" by so_shhy, which turns cultivation into a sports drama - but cultivation can still be real, and dangerous, and not just a game! I adore it when people turn modern au's into a chance for having fun with worldbuilding. And then of course wangxian prove love is real ahhhhhhhh. https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197516

#DecRecs day 7, where we get to the point where I was reading enough untamed fic to go to a rec for each month of my fandom history, for the rest of my recs! "best friends forever" by varnes is a super adorable next-gen fic about jin ling and lan jingyi getting engaged for political reasons. I love EVERY ONE of the juniors in every possible permutation, and this whole fic just embodies the feeling of grinning delightedly from every pore. https://archiveofourown.org/works/27779227

#DecRecs day 8! "Gathered Herbs & Sweet Grasses" by hansbekhart is about Lan Sizhui and his experience of being parented by Lan Wangji, and does an incredible job of evoking a tone and mood, and the quiet delicate complexities of emotions. Masterfully done, and many feelings! https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687075 

ok for this day of #DecRecs I'm reccing a vid instead of a fic, but I needed to! because this vid!!! "a love that won't sit still" by Ari is about lwj's experience of his love for wwx, to the song Stray Italian Greyhound, and it's suuuuuuuuuuch a good use of the song, like, I love how the vidder manages to include the layers and pain and complexities that come with loving wwx, even while it is ultimately a good thing. https://archiveofourown.org/works/22973692

For #DecRecs day 10, a modern au about wangxian as larpers! "Mud and Canvas" by StormsBreadth. I loved how much this fic is a love-letter to larping, how clearly the author knows and understands the hobby intimately and shares that with the reader, and I also loved seeing how things were translated from canon in terms of what was IC and what was OC for the folks in this story/in their larp. A totally delightful read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/29645175

At this point in my #DecRecs series, where I'm going through my history in the mxtx fandom, we reach April 2021, when I finally discovered the joys of svsss! So today I'm reccing "SV Wishes" by Feynite, the fic that started it all for me - an epic length au where the novel that Shen Yuan transmigrates into is a gay harem drama. It's so much fun! It's so long! I've read it multiple times! https://archiveofourown.org/series/1285562

#DecRecs day 12. Just one month later, May 2021, I read my first tgcf fic. It took me a while to get into tgcf, but I was possessed by beefleaf since this moment regardless! I just reread "like a siren that can't swim anymore" by LuckyDiceKirby, now with canon knowledge, and I am dying, I am murdered, I love it so much. 5 times they almost kiss and 1 time they do! The author calls it the opposite of angst with a happy ending, and like, yeah. The beefleaf experience!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25453030

For #DecRecs day 13, only a little late, here's "Advanced Self-Saving" by kitschlet! An svsss bingqiu fic, where where sqq dies and goes back to the modern world, and lbh gets there to join him the long way. I am endlessly delighted by sqq's ability to not recognize his own feelings, and it is perfectly done in this fic! Also I love every single detail in the author's notes at the end omg. https://archiveofourown.org/works/31790119

And for #DecRecs day 14, let's return to the untamed for more about Nie Huaisang having emotionally complicated relationships with men whose lives he ruthlessly alters, because I will read about EVERY possibility here! Today's is "跟天书一样 / Gēn Tiānshū Yíyàng / Like Heavenly Script" by monsteraa and it's gen (with a frisson of sexual tension, for flavour) in which Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang talk post-canon about their unresolved issues with each other. Delicious! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25364701

It's #DecRecs day 15, and I have a svsss fic to recommend, this one moshang! It's "Save Point" by Neery. I love amnesia fic and this one is such fun: a post-canon, happily married sqh loses his transmigration memories and is stuck trying to interpret what's going on when the tour guide to his new life is man-of-few-words mbj. It's an absolutely delightful read, and you can see how hard mbj is trying, even as sqh assumes the worst possible interpretation of everything! https://archiveofourown.org/works/33495178

#DecRecs day 16! Today' s "Why Paradise Defer" by violettressed, an untamed fic from Lan Sizhui's perspective about wangxian, with wwx travelling in the summers and returning to Gusu in the winters - then one winter, wwx isn't back when expected. A lovely look at a mature, well-negotiated relationship, and also at Sizhui and the other juniors and their relationship with each other and the adults in their lives. It's soooooo good, many feelings! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25518661

For #DecRecs day 17, a svsss fic that's difficult to describe! It's a post-canon fic about cumplane being basically soulmates, even as moshang and bingqiu are each very happy together. It's kind of... weirdly wistful and lovely, and both sad and happy at the same time, and also a comedy? It's basically magic. "Invisible Strings" by tyleet! there's a sequel too, also extremely worth reading! https://archiveofourown.org/works/34402579

#DecRecs day 18! "the heart's reasons seen clearly" by Lirazel is a gorgeous look at a Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing au where Jiang Yanli goes with her brothers to Nightless City and ends up a patient of Wen Qing. It's about chronic pain, about hard choices, about being an eldest sibling, and about what it means to be a good person. I definitely got teary-eyed at the end! https://archiveofourown.org/works/30986741

#DecRecs day 19! "the act of just being here" by Euphorion is an svsss bingqiu fic where sqq is forced into the realization that the plot is over and he lives in a normal world with real actualized people around him, including both himself and binghe. and then has to handle this idea through the means of sexy roleplay because he can't actually admit to himself that he can be a person with wants and desires and for that to be okay; it's both very funny and very tender! https://archiveofourown.org/works/36003646

#DecRecs day 20, and tiiiiiime for another fic about nhs having complicated relationships with men whose life he irreparably alters! "I am not there; I do not sleep" by lianhua_lianzi is about wwx and nhs going to mxy's hometown for the Ghost Festival to mourn him, and end up talking to each other about mxy, and about choices made. It feels very true and appropriately complicatedly painful for all involved! https://archiveofourown.org/works/36590410

#DecRecs day 21! "friends from the same hometown" is a fic by kitschlet wherein the svsss version of Ning Yingying gets caught in a wifeplot with Luo Binghe and they have to be Honest about their feelings for each other! Which means talking about the complexities that have hindered their being able to be friends after lbh's return from the abyss. I loooooove fic that takes friendship seriously as an important relationship and this one does it so well! https://archiveofourown.org/works/35689654

#DecRecs day 22! "Say So" by FeelsForBreakfast is a wangxian fic where wwx gets hit by a curse where he has to have sex or die! A good classic trope. But I love the, like, pacing of the emotions reveals between them over the course of the fic? they love and trust and understand each other so WELL ahhhhhh! https://archiveofourown.org/works/32433184

#DecRecs day 23! Today let us ponder the joys of four iterations on the theme of moshang. "a case study of four great beauties" by 1littlerabbit1 is really four fics in one, but they read together beautifully, and the reading of it is just suffused with a feeling of earnest happiness and it's so lovely!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/38024938

#DecRecs day 24! and ooh it is rarepare time today! "it may be that it doesn't matter" by tyleet is a wonderful post-canon Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning fic, and I love how it portrays the complex emotional history between these two, colouring their interactions! https://archiveofourown.org/works/28496277

#DecRecs day 25! Aw yisss it is time to rec the wangxian fic where lqr is cursed to be mind-bonded to wwx, hearing his thoughts and feeling his sensations! I love getting outside pov's on characters I like, and it's so fun how this is from lqr's pov AND wwx's pov at the same time, because lqr is experiencing wwx's life! (the fic is not just fun though, it's also feelings!) https://archiveofourown.org/works/39277557

#DecRecs day 26! "blue night" by fruitys is a modern au wangxian fic, and the author says in one of the fic tags that "the Softness is the plot actually" and like YEAH actually! Which is REAL COOL how that's done, and honestly I don't know how else to describe it? it's so GOOD. It creates a mood and a tone so WELL. and the softness IS the plot! https://archiveofourown.org/works/31476176

oops I missed yesterday! Here's #DecRecs for day 27: Cumplane Forums AU, by euphorion in collaboration with a bunch of other people. It was originally written on twitter as I understand it, a grand "let's have fun together" experience of a bunch of twitter friends, and it blossomed into a full and proper story which was eventually put on AO3. It's a #cumplane no-transmigration au where they meet on a roleplaying forum and literally everything about it is a delight! https://archiveofourown.org/works/36296563

and now TODAY'S #DecRecs, Day 28! "Taking Responsibility" by Violent_entertainment is a completely delightful #svsss fic starring Liu Qingge/Shang Qinghua. I adore their dynamic in this! https://archiveofourown.org/works/37841869

#DecRecs day 29! Yes more #svsss! This time it's Yue Qingyuan/Original Shen Qingqiu. I love these two and how much of a disaster they are. In "these shadows keep on changing" by WhenasInSilks, they prove that true romance is haunting each other for eternity! Love this for them. https://archiveofourown.org/works/42610716

#DecRecs day 30! In "Tucked inside the heart of every nice girl" by phnelt, it's time for some modern au Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan in which they are t4t! I love seeing the complexities of jyl's relationship with gender here, and I am always here for trans girl jzx. https://archiveofourown.org/works/39102777

And for my last #DecRecs, day 31, it's "Infinite First Dates" by pallas_rose! An svsss bingqiu fic where during the 5 years of sqq being dead, lbh is able to access a dream-world bubble where sqq is trapped (as his sy self), and every time lbh accesses it, sqq's memories are reset. I love seeing their interactions in this, how fully both of them are their insufferable (complimentary) selves, and everything about the fic is delightful. And then the ending is SO funny! https://archiveofourown.org/works/43736436