Sneaking in at the end of @mxtxdiaspora-may this year with both art and a fic! Featuring songxiao having an iconic Lady White Snake moment 🐍🌱
Just some completely normal humans having a springtime meetcute! Snake demons? What are you talking about.
spring rain and apricot blossoms (G, 8.8k)
[ID: Digital art of Song Lan, A-Qing, and Xiao Xingchen from Modao Zushi, meeting on a bridge in the rain. A-Qing looks at Xiao Xingchen as she grins behind her fan; Xiao Xingchen looks wide-eyed at Song Lan, who has run up and to return a golden hairpin matching one in Xiao Xingchen's hair. Song Lan extends his umbrella to cover the other two from the rain. /end ID]
TITLES TIME: ONE DAY, LEAVING, QINGSU AND T4T SONGXIAO TO NOT FLOOD YOU WITH SEVERAL ASKS
ALRIGHT. Here we go! For the WIP Ask Game
One Day
The premise of this one is actually an exploration of a friendship between Song Lan and Mianmian over the years! The structure is based on the movie One Day (2011), based on the book of the same name, which follows two people over a number of years, checking in on what they're doing, separately or together, on the anniversaries of their first meeting.
Right now, this fic is starting with the two of them meeting when Song Lan brings Jiang Yanli to Jinlintai in CQL, and would follow them through Mianmian's exit from the Jin sect, them resettling Qishan refugees together, Mianmian mourning Jin Zixuan's death and building a family, Song Lan's continued search for Xiao Xingchen and his eventual disappearance....
She watches Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan’s stilted reunion, but the sect heir’s relief is obvious – at least to Luo Qingyang. She oversees Jiang Yanli’s escort into the Jin household and into safety.
Song Daozhang remains on the fringes doing the same. He speaks little, but he cuts in as needed. He has a private conversation with Jin Zixuan, with Luo Qingyang to listen, and he explains the circumstances of Jiang Yanli’s arrival, the fate of the Jiang clan, and the anticipated later arrival of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian alike. He emphasizes the strict secrecy of this information.
But when his role is fulfilled, he steps back into the shadows, letting the chaos of the night wash through the Jin household while he watches from the sidelines.
Leaving
This is my take on what would happen if Song Lan got ahold of Xiao Xingchen before Xiao Xingchen left the celestial mountain post-surgery. It's not a pretty encounter.
Song Lan is sleeping, five steps away. Xiao Xingchen wonders how he looks, lying in the dark. If the worst of the cuts and chemical burns are still visible on his skin, and if the immortal master’s miraculous healing has mended his broken bones by now. If his face is still troubled by pain and grief beneath the bandages over his eyes, or if he’s finally managed to achieve some peace in sleep’s oblivion.
He could be within arm’s reach in a breath. Xiao Xingchen could so easily run his hand through Song Lan’s long hair, press a final kiss to the top of his head before parting ways with him forever. He stands there, his fingers curling at his side.
His shifu's cold words from days before echo in his mind. “This isn’t your home anymore.”
He can’t stay here.
Qingsu
Wen Qing/Qin Su is my ultimate MDZS wlw ship and the idea is maybe someday I write about it. Premise is Jin Guangyao wasn't going to just squander the talent of the greatest doctor of their generation and Wen Qing has been yet another Jin Dungeon Secret right up until the time of Qin Su's suicide... attempt. Jin Guangyao pronounces her dead, but he actually hides her away with the best medical care available. And she also becomes a Jin Secret. For how long? Enough for some healing to happen and some romance to blossom.
Even with the thick veil obscuring her lower face, Qin Su thinks she would be beautiful, if not for the heavy darkness beneath her eyes and the sallowness of her skin. Her hair has gone grey at the temples, flying away from her plain topknot bun, and framing her level, piercing gaze.
She's hard to look away from.
T4T Songxiao
As it says on the tin, Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are both trans men. They discover this when Song Lan's possible endometriosis rears its head :( So it's a hurt/comfort piece with Xiao Xingchen looking after him, followed by some meaningful self-disclosure, including Xiao Xingchen sharing information about xianxia testosterone and celestial top surgery lol
“Song Daozhang,” he calls – just loud enough that he hopes he’ll be heard, but soft as possible to keep Song Lan from startling. “I’m back.”
A miserable groan rises from the other side of the tent wall, followed by the heavy rustling of fabrics.
“Can I come in?”
A few moments with some further rustling pass, and then an affirmative grunt comes.
Xiao Xingchen pokes his head into the tent to find Song Lan on his side, bundled in blankets, although there’s barely a chill in the evening air. His unbound hair tangles all around his face, which is twisted up in discomfort. His outer robe lies shrugged off to the side, and his boots are haphazardly flopped near the tent’s entrance, nothing like the neat piles Song Lan usually keeps his belongings organized in.
Never has Xiao Xingchen seen the honorable, dignified Song Zichen Daozhang in such a state. Something aches in his chest when he looks at him, unguarded and hurting like this.
For the WIP Folder Ask Game, I'm so curious about "Better run king!", Combs and "I Should Live in Salt", wait and also "Last Words of a Shooting Star". Feed me scraps plz :)
WIP Ask Game
Gladly! You already saw me talk a bit about the WIP known as Better run king! but I'll share another little excerpt:
Xiao Xingchen’s jaw clenched, and his grip on his sword tightened.
He didn’t like any of this.
He didn’t like Xue Yang running loose under the eye of the great sects. He didn’t like what the blood on his face suggested, or the fact that Xue Yang had evidently been looking for Xiao Xingchen, and found him. He didn’t like the feeling of standing in the middle of some unknown, baited trap, all while Xue Yang tried to divert him with his typical pseudo-friendly banter and easy, wicked grin.
He didn’t like the sound of Song Lan’s name in that mouth.
Combs
This one and "I Should Live in Salt" are both post-Yi City songxiao, where Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing (alive) and Song Lan (a fierce corpse) have made it out and are at different stages of moving on with their lives. The unnamed comb story is newer and has less written, but it runs with the comb-giving practice introduced in CQL and featured with chengqing! Our trio are all reasonably well-adjusted a good while (a few years?) after Yi City, and Xiao Xingchen is in a place where he feels like he can focus on his developing romantic relationship with Song Lan. For all his progressive ideas and unorthodox existence, Song Lan is still a man who places some value on tradition in some ways, and Xiao Xingchen decides to put his woodcarving skills to work.
Xiao Xingchen pulls the little bundle of soft fabric out from inside his robes.
“I care for you, Zichen. And I like you quite a lot. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He finds Song Lan’s open hand, and he places the bundle in it. A hesitant moment passes before he hears the faint rustle of the fabric as Song Lan unwraps the comb within.
Dead silence follows. Song Lan is no longer breathing.
Face turning warm, Xiao Xingchen pushes on before he loses his nerve. “I wish to court you, Song Zichen. Properly, this time. As I should have from the start.”
I Should Live in Salt
This, meanwhile, takes place maybe a few months after leaving Yi City. None of the characters are in crisis mode, but everyone's still struggling, to some degree or another. Xiao Xingchen is still wrestling with a lot of quiet guilt around Song Lan's death and revival, and he and Song Lan are still trying to learn how to be around each other again -- they look after each other, there's a physical closeness, but they're never quite in sync the way they used to be. This is a hurt/comfort WIP where songxiao get to address some of the distance between them and bridge it. Featuring: letting your bestie examine the murder wounds he inflicted on you.
He finds what he's been looking for: the incision from which the cold curls out in blooming spirals, directly over Song Lan's heart. It's a short, thin puncture in the skin, little more than a sliver; Xiao Xingchen knows a twin mark kisses Song Lan's upper back. The cuts are unassuming, but they pulse with resentful energy. Xiao Xingchen can practically feel the sluggish, writhing darkness that has messily knit the muscle and sinew back together.
Still, the cuts themselves are clean. They're exact, created expertly with a cold, emotionless precision.
It makes Xiao Xingchen sick to his stomach.
Last Words of a Shooting Star
Another song title! Thank you, Mitski. This is actually almost ready to post. It's also possibly one of the meanest things I've written, so I keep hesitating. I'm personally of the opinion that Xiao Xingchen dealt with some pretty severe depression, including active suicidal ideation, for a while after the Baixue massacre. Like, years. His actual suicide wasn't completely of the blue, in my heart. This WIP is basically a character study looking at Xiao Xingchen through that particular lens. Bearing all that in mind, I'm keeping this excerpt on the less-heavy side with an A-Qing feature!
But then A-Qing had come along. Despite his protests, she invited herself into his life and nestled in like she belonged there and always had.
Suddenly, there was someone who expected him to be there for her. Someone whom he could help, someone who would not be better off in another person’s care because there was no one else. A-Qing was a survivor, quick and wickedly clever, but that also occasionally led her into trouble. And she insisted that she needed him, whether or not Xiao Xingchen could believe that himself. But it was something more to hold onto and pull him through the bad days. She was something more. She still is.
🌔 Turn of the century USA with magic/cultivation
🌔 Fantasy/horror AU oneshot
🌔 Yi City Appalachian gothic
Engrossed in his work, he hadn’t noticed the crickets when they began to strike up their song. The evening birds are quieting, and the air is cooling around him. Already, twilight is settling in.
It’s later than he realized. Something anxious prickles beneath Xiao Xingchen's skin.
give me better run king since its just you and me on this bitch of an earth
WIP Ask Game
The eloquently titled "Better run, king!" WIP is just a quick scene. But I offer you the scenario where, some hours after the Baixue Temple massacre, Xue Yang skips along to find where Xiao Xingchen is and see if he'll be along any time soon. Things aren't going to be as fun if Song Lan succumbs to his various wounds before Xiao Xingchen gets there!
“What do you want?” Xiao Xingchen demanded.
“A man can't just check in on the person who tried and failed to ruin his life? I have to want something from you? What a sad age we live in.”
“Xue Yang.”
Xue Yang sighed. “All this trouble I go through to find you, and I get such a cold greeting. Clearly, you've been taking lessons from Song Lan Daozhang,” he said with a snort.
on the wild nights, who can call you home? (T, 16k)
🌿 Syncretic cultivators/monster hunters songxiao
🌿 Southern USA, early 1900s
🌿 A-Qing and her secrets
🌿 Case fic/adoption fic
Summer is not yet come, but the sun burns hot, and the air is thick with moisture. New Orleans, delta built and water bound, thirsts for the respite of rain.
While working on a case of disappearances in the bayous of Louisiana, cultivators and monster hunters Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen meet a young girl who will change their lives.
Written for @mxtxdiaspora-may 2024! It was lovely getting to participate this year <3
For weeks, it’s been the plan that they would part ways at the crossroads outside of this town. It’s a logical plan. They can cover more ground when they are apart. They can help more people, put down more threats, save more lives.
But Xiao Xingchen is facing the reality of saying goodbye to his dearest friend in mere hours, and he does not want morning to come.
A very soft and bittersweet songxiao fic for the conclusion of @songlanweek2023, and a really lovely collaboration with @shuang-hua who did some absolutely gorgeous illustration work for it!
This has been such a nice and cozy little event -- thank you to everyone who's been contributing and creating all these works of love for Song Lan!
songxiao (and others of your choice) search and rescue mission in dangerous snowy mountains AU >:) i don't know you know i listen to too many pastas - DJ
So this got away from me. Badly. Here's some creepy mountain rescue:
Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen do SAR work on a volunteer basis in the mountains near their home. There's a lot of tourist traffic that comes through, a handful of popular ski resorts. Visitors tend to underestimate how dangerous these mountains can be, so SAR missions are unfortunately kind of frequent.
Unusually, a call goes out for a girl from the mountains (A-Qing) who had gone out to meet up with some friends when a freak snowstorm hit, and she hasn't been heard from since. A little volunteer squad heads up the mountains and fans out, but their communication devices are on the fritz after the storm. As a pair, songxiao come across evidence of a rock slide, revealing a cave, where the sparse, possible-A-Qing-trail they've found stops. Honestly, a pretty good place to take shelter from the snow in an emergency, so they're hoping their girl's in there.
They have to move some rocks, but they squeeze into this cave, or maybe more of a crevice that sprawls forward into the darkness. And the uncovering of the cave is a new development, right? The rock slide moved a LOT of material to unblock the entrance, those rocks had been undisturbed for a very long time, and while comms are working, the guys confirm that no one at base has heard of any notable caves here, not even Nie Mingjue, whose family has lived in the mountains for generations. So as they push through the space, pressing up against the walls, it's weird to see markings carved into the stone. There's been enough water erosion and lichen growth that it's hard to make out any of the words, but there are odd symbols, too. Are they curse marks? Protective sigils? Sealing glyphs? Innocuous cave art...? It's a little creepy, but there's one of A-Qing's gloves on the ground, and hearing no response when they call for her, they have to press onward.
Eventually, the cave opens up into a wider space, and A-Qing is there! She's slumped against a wall, unresponsive but alive, and Xiao Xingchen immediately clambers over the debris at the entrance of the space to administer first aid. Meanwhile, Song Lan clocks their surroundings, and, uh. Well, the sigil work is heaviest right at the entrance of this cave-room, then stops abruptly. There are... broken chains amid the debris on the ground? And that dark slickness on the walls, seeming to seep out of the stone? That can't be blood, right. Right? Song Lan has a Very Bad Feeling About This™, but Xingchen doesn't want to move A-Qing until she's stabilized. And brilliantly, the snow's picked back up something fierce, night is falling (wasn't it around noon when they got here?), and they're only able to let base know that they're alive with A-Qing at these coordinates, assuming the message actually went through before comms dropped for good. So, far out in the wilderness as they are, overnighting in the blood cave is very unfortunately looking like the best option available. Even if Song Lan can swear he hears the echoes of a high, metallic laughter as the wind blows outside.
Xiao Xingchen is leery about the situation, too, but he devotes his attention to A-Qing. She's been cold, but not dangerously so, and there's no evidence of significant injury, but she didn't leave the cave when the first snow storm passed, and she's been basically catatonic since they found her. Xiao Xingchen is glad Wen Qing was off duty today and not now stuck in this mess, but she'd know what to do in this situation. At least Song Lan's agitation at being trapped in the cave seems to be settling, as he's quieted down and stopped pacing around. And. Well. A scene to close out this point and this post, warning for possession:
Around nightfall, things change. A-Qing stirs, slowly rousing from her stupor. She doesn't respond to Xiao Xingchen's explanations or his questions, just glances around the cave with flitting, anxious eyes. A long time passes. A-Qing's lips move, but it takes a few moments more before the words form into a question of her own. "Is he gone?" she whispers roughly.
Xiao Xingchen blinks, puzzled. "Is who gone?"
"Is who gone?" Song Lan's voice echoes from the other side of the room. It's the first he's spoken in a while. He sounds calm. Oddly so.
A-Qing's eyes widen as she focuses on Song Lan, turned away from them, beyond the light of the lantern. She grabs Xiao Xingchen's sleeve.
A chill runs down Xiao Xingchen's spine. He puts a hand around A-Qing's arm. "Zichen?"
Song Lan turns back toward them, but he doesn't quite look at them. His eyes, unfocused, gleam for a moment. He tilts his head slightly. "Zichen?"
