For round 2 of the WIP guessing game, how about finger/fingers? With “desperate” as a back up? (And let’s say MLC or DMBJ again for fandoms!)
Thank you, @bbcphile! Again, I went with DMBJ because I'm pretty sure you've read everything MLCB that I've written thus far. Wu Xie has woken up in Yucun Biji time with no memory of anything between TLT2 time and now. This is shortly after he wakes up. ^_^
Wu Xie traced each one of them, fingers barely skimming flesh as they wandered over this changed body. Some scars were puckered, ugly things, pulling at the flesh around them in permanent disfigurements. Others were light, barely visible, but clear to the touch of fingers which had never known them. But it was the scars on his arm that finally dropped him to sit on the edge of the bathtub, the shaking in his hands spreading to the rest of his body.
Seventeen.
He counted them twice.
Three times.
All neatly in a row on his left inner arm. All precisely placed where the knife would have landed if held in his right hand.
He'd carved these wounds himself.
Why… why would he have done that?
If anyone else would like to send a word (+/- a fandom), feel free, but please send it to this blog (rensrendition).
For the WIP ask meme, how about the figure skating AU?
This is the Canglan figure skating AU! Here's a snippet of dialogue with a tiny bit of narration mixed in. Sometimes I just write dialogue down that I have in my head and then add the rest of the narration later. In this story, DFQC is a former singles skater who has taken up pairs with Xiao Lanhua. For the first time in his life, with her, he's free of his dad's control (dad was also his coach). There's more on it here and here.
“Do you have any ideas for music?”
“No.”
“Well, how did you choose it before, when you were skating by yourself?”
“I didn’t choose. I’m sure this won’t surprise you, but my father did.”
“Ah and— how did he choose?”
“He chose whatever he believed the judges would like best.”
“When you were injured…” Xiao Lanhua glanced down to her feet and bit her lip. She knew he didn’t like that time being brought up. “Did he have any plans for you next season?”
“My father had brought up Carmina Burana, but he had not made any decisions about that.”
Xiao Lanhua wrinkled her nose. He sighed. “It didn’t matter, Xiao Lanhua. It did not matter what he chose; I would skate the same.”
“Daqiang,” she said softly, and her voice was hesitant, but kind. She rested her fingers atop his hand, tracing circles with the tip of her thumb. He tensed, but then relaxed. “When you go home tonight, can you do me a favor?”
A small nod, barely there.
“Write down ten songs you like. They don’t need to be music that works for skating,” she explained. “Just— ten songs you enjoy listening to.”
For Fangs of Fortune (Pei Sijing and Wen Xiao) fic meme:
#20: things you said that i wasn’t meant to hear
fic meme open for fof and mlc! please give me prompts, it's how i work up to writing anything longer.
*
pei sijing can feel the ache starting behind her eyes as she stares down at the duty roster in the candlelight, vision going soft around the edges as she struggles not to yawn. there's been a record number of recruits since she took over as head of the demon hunting bureau, and paperwork to match. the halls of what was once zhuo manor once again ring with chatter of trainees, though the sound no longer belong to those pei sijing holds dear. siheng is gone. bai jiu is gone. ying lei is gone. even zhuo yichen is gone, searching the world for the scrap of zhao yuanzhou spared by his sword. the only one left is pei sijing and, when the great wilderness can spare her, wen xiao.
the mantle of baize goddess is heavy on wen xiao's slender shoulders, her bright smile shadowed. they're both haunted by grief, the grasping, murky cold of it; pei sijing has lost her brother twice and wen xiao has lost two fathers, even before the losses they share. so pei sijing throws herself into training recruits with the hope that no one will ever have to mourn them and wen xiao keeps watch over the wilderness to safeguard the lives of humans and demons alike. they orbit one another, in work and in life, tender gazes and hushed whispers, stolen pockets of time sealed with seasalt kisses and unspoken promises. it's never enough, but it shores pei sijing up through the worst of it, the nights of restless anger and the gnawing pain in the pit of her stomach.
now, wen xiao's sleeping weight against her shoulder keeps pei sijing grounded, even as her task starts slippng through her weary fingers. it's all right; she's checked it twice before and the assignments should be fine. going through it again is for her own peace of mind, in that the busier she is, the less likely she is to dream. last week she'd heard a laugh from the training yard that reminded her so much of siheng that her steps had picked up speed before she remembered that her brother would never laugh again. the next night she'd dreamed of searching for her brother through a shifting kaleidoscopic landscape, one moment the familiar halls of home, another the nightmarish corridors of chongwu camp's dungeon, then the winding paths of kunlun mountain. she chased that laugh through countless doorways, never so much as glimpsing him. pei sijing puts down her brush, chest aching deep and fierce, wave of grief breaking over her head without warning. her next breath comes out wet, half sob and half gasp, and she covers her mouth, glad wen xiao isn't awake to see this. she has enough worries of her own.
"i'm sorry," she whispers into the cavern of her own hands, damp with tears and regret,"i'm sorry, i'm so sorry. i should have been stronger, i'm sorry."
wen xiao shifts and pei sijing freezes, choked on a wheeze, trying to hold herself still until wen xiao settles back down. instead, wen xiao slides her arms around pei sijing's waist without lifting her head, pressing in warm and close. "you have nothing to be sorry for," she says, and pei sijing coughs, sob caught in her throat.
"i didn't mean to wake you," she says, wiping hastily at her eyes, rubbing her damp palms on her clothing.
"you didn't," wen xiao says, sitting up without moving away, arms tightening even as her eyes flash with reflected flame. "and don't do that with me."
pei sijing blinks away another tear, wrapping an arm around wen xiao's shoulders. "do what?" she says, knowing how weak it sounds.
"that. this. you don't need to hide it from me."
"i don't want to burden you with my—"
"no," wen xiao says firmly. "you're never a burden. " she looks at pei sijing steadily, the way she might someone she's passing judgment on, with compassion, with mercy. she says, "i love you," and pei sijing breaks, burying her face against wen xiao's neck and crying until she's dry. wen xiao murmurs to her quietly, stroking tender fingers through her hair, and afterward, helps pei sijing to her room and into bed.
"you do so much for me," pei sijing says, as wen xiao gently arranges her heavy limbs and climbs in next to her.
"no more than you do for me," wen xiao says, kissing her brow. "so let me take care of you when you need it."
"it seems like you'll do it whether i let you or not," pei sijing says, eyes drifting shut, warm and tired and loved.
"yes," wen xiao says. "so don't fight me."
the sound pei sijiing makes in response is incoherent, but she curls toward wen xiao obediently, relaxed for the first time in weeks.
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤
Thank you! Being asked to ramble a little about my own fics is always fun :3
Step by Step (Mysterious Lotus Casebook; liansanjiao) - One night in the world where a recovering Li Lianhua deals with having to live on after a decade of expecting death.
This is the most recent one I've posted and I absolutely loved writing it. Li Lianhua's lingering sense of 'this is not how it's supposed to be' along with the begrudgingly growing will go on and share his life with dfs and fdb is so much fun. The ending of this was particularly hard to fix on, but I love how it turned out :)
Next Time We'll Meet Beyond The Stars Above (Mysterious Lotus Casebook; feihua) - Di Feisheng And Li Xiangyi, from their first meeting to the East Sea battle.
This one was the end result of thinking way too long about what the hell Di Feisheng and Li Xiangyi were to each other before the Donghai battle to be the way they are in canon. Rewatching the fight so many times for the final chapter broke my brain and heart a little, but that was one of my favourite bits to write.
Found (The Untamed; lwj/oc) - A grieving and lost Lan Wangji steps beyond the furthest reaches of the cultivation world, and finds someone who catches him as he falls. (set in the period bwtween Wei Wuxian's first death and resurrection).
This is the most self-indulgent thing I've written. In retrospect, there is a lot I would do differently now in terms of worldbuilding, and in Lan Wangji's characterisation. I love all my OCs in this with my entire heart and I'm still hoping to get around to a post-canon sequel for this where Wei Wuxian gets to meet his husband's old flame!
Foolish (The Untamed; sangcheng) - Jiang Cheng is thirty-five, single, still confused about his sexuality and mad about it. He decides to hook up with a stranger at a badly-lit gay bar. It goes… a little bit differently than expected.
ALL TIME FAVOURITE THING I'VE WRITTEN! It's hard to go wrong with Jiang Cheng having a sexuality crisis. This is the one fic I can re-read and enjoy without author-brain elbowing in to point out how I could've written it better.
An Earthly Desire (Love Between Fairy and Devil) - The God of War who was unable to see beyond loss finds her miracle of hope. (Lady Chidi's POV on meeting and saving Rong Hao in the mortal realm.)
I wrote this in a daze immediately after finishing the show. I don't know how it happened. I love it.
bbcphile replied to your post “TO WHOEVER LEFT A COMMENT ON U PRO O ASKING IF THE BOYS LIVE IN MCAFEE”
Yay for Wellesley alums! (I lived in Bates and Stone D when I was there back in the day, so although I have no idea what this is referencing, I am super excited to see Wellesley mentioned!)
AH HELLO!!!
the short version, for the other W folk who follow me, is that I have a, uh, let’s call it a long-running serial *coughs* that is a Musketeers college AU
I don’t think i’ve ever said this explicitly but since I didn’t feel like making my own map, it is functionally set at W, and Athos lives in my senior year single in Bates; the dorm the boys live in is a convenient mashup of Bates and Stone-D (where I lived for the other three years)
and no one has ever, I think, in the--[checks notes] jesus christ six years I have been writing this story, been able to DIVINE THE LOCATION FROM THE FUCKING ETHER OF THE STORY SO I WAS JUST VERY PUMPED???
(anonymous w ghost if you are shy that is fine i was just jazzed, thank you for reading my fannèd fiction)
