For the Writing Jam!
Maybe a Historical AU (? Non-cultivators ??) / Imperial AU with ruosang? (Any flavour)
WRH as The Emperor and NHS as General's brother to Disguised Servant turned Concubine
Or something related to sangyao fate/birth swap AU you've written once. Perhaps a divergence AU² from the original story 🥹 Really loved that one
Sending my love to u 🩷🩷🩷
I would have to do separate posts anyway, so if it's cool with you, Nonnie, I'm gonna ask you to come back and elaborate a little more on what you'd like from the reversed fate storylines?
As for the historical AU, I don't have a full-fledged fic in my brain yet, but I have some fun ideas!
Let's say that since Wen Ruohan is still (semi) sane, just strangely young-looking for his advanced age, Papa Nie is still around and still high General, though everybody knows his son Mingjue, who has asskicked and war-heroed his way through the ranks, will be taking over any day now.
Except for Emperor Wen and a couple of other very specific people in the palace, nobody outside of the Nie family estate even knows there's a second son. "Common Knowledge" is that the second wife and the child she was carrying both died during labor.
This is for the best, because Huaisang's health growing up was extremely precarious and he would have made a great target for anyone looking to topple the Nie family.
After an assassination attempt on Emperor Wen is almost successful due to a turncoat aide, General Papa Nie suggests placing one of his own people at his Emperor's side, someone who would be loyal, go unnoticed, and is good at reading people and observing situations.
That someone being his second son so few people know about.
Wen Ruohan takes this suggestion with a bit of humor, since he's aware of how sick Huaisang was as a child. And indeed, when they first meet, Huaisang still looks like a stiff breeze would break him into little pieces, like a cracked doll that's still very pretty.
(Wen Ruohan is not immune to the charm)
A trial basis is decided. "A-Sang's" job is basically just keeping notes and itineraries, something that's a good excuse to always be present without being so busy that he might miss important clues.
He winds up proving his usefulness when he notices an otherwise harmless soup and drink combination that, together, would make everyone at the table incredibly sick. It's not another assassination attempt, just a genuine mistake, and Wen Ruohan is further impressed when A-Sang says as much rather than just staying back and letting the cooks beg forgiveness on their own. Hah, he really is Haoran's son and Mingjue's brother!
I'm not exactly sure yet how this would eventually translate into Huaisang being taken into the Imperial Harem, other than the not being immune to him being cute and charming part, but it was fun just getting this far.
