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#(by 'falling into my hands' i mean 'i was chronically ill and isolated and bought them for myself to have something to enjoy'
anghraine · 5 months
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This has nothing to do with SW, I just felt like saying it:
I feel like a lot of us on this site probably could identify a specific book or series we read as children or teenagers that impacted us more than any other. It's the book/series that disproportionately shaped our senses of what a book or a genre could be and changed us in some fundamental way beyond the reach of every other book we were reading at the time. People joke these days about books or other media that "alter your brain chemistry," but this book honestly did feel like that.
Maybe this isn't everyone, but it was definitely something that happened to me as a kid. I still own the same copy of the book that did this for me. I've hung onto it for over 20 years, partly because I still love the story, and partly because I have such a strong sentimental attachment to my particular paperback copy of a book that blew open my sense of what a fantasy story could be and what ideas it could engage with.
It not only made me want to read the next book in its series, it made me want to write books myself and imagine my own worlds beyond my hobby of writing little sketches and stories for myself. I previously had no intention of showing those scraps to anyone else, but this book made me want to write fantasy seriously, to write things I might some day show other people without being embarrassed about it. And the book not only inspired me to want this, but convinced me I could do it. I started writing creatively in earnest and I never stopped.
It wasn't any of the books I usually talk about, either. Here's what it was for me:
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[Photographs of a paperback copy of Diane Duane's High Wizardry from around 2001]
I've been thinking of what fantasy favorites I'll re-read after I drag myself through what remains of my dissertation and ... honestly, it will probably be High Wizardry.
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vvienne · 3 years
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RANWAN FIC RECS
Absolute Zero by jitterati
Pathologically solitary academic Chu Wanning left behind a life of research to enlist with the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps Jaeger team when giant monsters began to emerge from the Pacific ocean, eager to leave his personal entanglements behind him and join humanity's collective battle against the threat of extinction.
His goal is to build an artificial intelligence that will allow a pilot to operate a Jaeger mech solo - eliminating the need for pilot compatibility and the mortifying ordeal of being totally known by another person, a "neurological handshake" known colloquially as the drift.
He didn't expect his former students to follow him all the way to front line of the war against the kaiju.
Featuring lots of side character interaction, pining, yearning, questions on the nature of personhood, friendship between jerks, people coping badly with loss, snarky AI, and giant robots. Illustrations by Saika & Daru
Husky and his White Kitten Disciple by JustAMoon123
Within a lonely heart, the seeds of hatred start to grow.
-A 2ha Age and Role-Reversal AU.-
NOTE: This Story is Now E Rated!
[Before meeting Chu Wanning, Mo Ran had drawn his power exclusively from the Wood side of his dual Spiritual Root, and his Qi had always glowed green.
Now, only when in battle did it do so, with Bugui’s blade encased in a tyrannical green light.
Outside of battle, like when he set barriers of warmth; or made Crystal Butterflies to tease golden flowers; or cast a small array to keep a box of food warm, his Qi manifested with a gentle red glow.
Mo Ran’s Wood was destructive, while his Fire was protective.
Ah, Mo Weiyu, Mo Weiyu. Even your power betrays you.]
Burn, Pine, and Perish by moonqueenmaia
It’s been two days since Taxian-Jun’s last visit, and Mo Ran hasn’t touched Chu Wanning at all, beyond gentle and fleeting caresses. Chu Wanning decides to take matters into his own hands by surprising Mo Ran when he comes back to their home after a trip down the mountain.
it's no coincidence (it's a kitty-incidence) by lanzhan (gothguk)
There’s a white cat lounging in the middle of Mo Ran's bed.
to touch you with bare hands (even if it burns) by moonqueenmaia
Chu Wanning is a renowned professor of mechanical engineering at Sisheng Peak University. Beautiful, lonely, and talented beyond belief, he has spent his 32 years mostly by himself, silently and secretly yearning for affection and companionship. Yet Chu Wanning has resolved to himself that he will spend the rest of his life alone, no matter his hidden fantasies.
Enter Taxian-jun, an unruly, arrogant, and struggling student, fiery and domineering, who comes in and shatters the calm of Chu Wanning's life. They enter into an agreement, both burying their feelings underneath a storm of lust and lies. Yet amidst it all, something deeper may be helplessly and slowly blooming.
It is up to them to cultivate it, or destroy it for good.
cursed by devilsoupe
Chu Wanning and his disciples are sent to investigate an abandoned village, and Chu Wanning is hit with a curse.
Mo Ran was determined to treat his shizun respectfully in this life, but what choice does he have?
liar liar cock on fire by lofikv
I (32M) walked in on my roommate (23M) masturbating in our living room. Ever since then I couldn't erase the image of his penis in my mind but I found a sex toy online that is almost as big as him, so I bought it and tried it on myself so that I can imagine how he would feel inside me. I have also been romantically attracted to him ever since we started living together. How can I cope with this?
UPDATE: He caught me in the middle of an emergency.
(Absolute) Unit 311 by devilsoupe
Chu Wanning doesn't have a soulmark.
Neither does Mo Ran.
ducks entering highway by Sectionladvivi
Mo Ran finds out his well-respected, MILF-coded, tears-of-angels-tight-ass robotics professor moonlights as an erotic novelist. He immediately leverages this knowledge for an opportunity to play tonsil hockey.
to yearn by devilsoupe
Chu Wanning starts to cough up flowers. Taxian-Jun is angry. Chu Wanning is not allowed to die pining for someone else.
When it starts happening again in his second life, Mo Ran knows enough to worry.
from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom by Wildehack (tyleet)
Taxian Jun is the victim of a flower curse.
sticky fingers by fakeplasticlily
The man tosses the towel unceremoniously back at Mo Ran’s chest, like he’s personally offended by it. And the fact that his hands had just been all over said chest barely minutes earlier, maybe. “Please pack a box of egg tarts with extra custard filling, a box of red bean paste buns with extra syrup, a rice pudding with extra candied fruit garnish, and a box of osmanthus cakes with extra sweet pear jam.” Mo Ran’s eyes grow progressively wider as he lists the items. It’s him. Not the suburban mother of four, not the elderly guy dealing with a midlife crisis, but quite possibly the hottest guy he’s ever seen. Who also happens to have the highest sugar tolerance Mo Ran has seen in a human being in his two years of running this bakery. 
Hard to Love The Lonely Night by bloodsongs
Chu Wanning glares up at him, adjusting his women’s robes. “Still, why couldn’t you have been the wife instead?”
Coughing politely, Mo Ran looks to the side, avoiding his gaze. “Shizun’s skills with the illusion barrier far surpass this humble disciple’s, and, well…”
He doesn’t need to complete his sentence—it’s infuriating, but Mo Ran is now taller than him, broader than him, larger than him. Very much so. The young sapling he raised in Sisheng Peak is now a full-fledged tree, a man built like the mountains Chu Wanning has seen in his travels.
Chu Wanning and Mo Ran pretend to be a married couple visiting a small mountain town to investigate some suspicious disappearances. Mini Canon AU casefic. Contains spoilers up to Chapter 130 or so of the novel.
Purple Ink by jeejaschocolate
Chu Wanning is a robotics engineer who lives a life of isolation and loneliness, only partially due to his chronic illness. Eventually he gets so sick that he requires the help of a full-time medical assistant.
Of course, these days, all those jobs are given to CyberLife androids.
Chu Wanning resents the android they give him. From his fiery eyes to his long black hair, to his incomparable tenderness and consideration for Wanning’s feelings.
He resents him. All the way until he falls in love with him.
Fallen Flowers in Swallows' Nests by bloodsongs
You deserve better—I refuse to disrespect you ever again. I want to be better. I must be better.
But I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know where Taxian-Jun ends and Mo-Zongshi begins.
I only know now that I cannot lie to myself: I want you so fiercely that I burn with it, I am consumed with the desire to make you mine and mine alone. To become one with you, feeling your fire twine with mine.
Or, Chu Wanning finds letters from Mo-Zongshi that were never shared with him.
These hitherto undiscovered letters cover a range of emotions that weren't present in the book he gifted his Shizun: contrition, yearning, and desire.
Counterpoint by senchafloat
Five years ago, Mo Ran was just a boy who loved playing piano—there were many things he didn't know. He didn't know how capricious and unforgiving the world of classical music could be. He didn't know just how lucky he was to have Chu Wanning as his teacher.
Five years later, Chu Wanning is now a renowned concert pianist, and Mo Ran is an upstart conducting student. When Chu Wanning shows up unannounced at his alma mater, Mo Ran has plenty of questions, along with a desire to prove his worth to his old teacher. But as it turns out, Chu Wanning isn't as invincible as he once seemed. As old secrets come up to the surface, the two of them are forced to reinvent the ways they'll make music together.
impatient to adore you by riverdanceeee
At some heartbreaking point in his life, Mo Ran accepted that Chu Wanning would never reciprocate his feelings, so he dealt with it as any other person would. He'd rid himself of his affection, respect their friendship, and learn to move on. But Mo Ran's affection runs too deep, and when any opportunity to spend time with Chu Wanning knocks on his door, he goes running to answer and accept. Even if it means he has to break up a potentially dangerous dog fighting ring.
To Bow Before A Willow Vine by bloodsongs
“I…” Mo Ran hadn’t thought that far. He shakes his head, lowering his head in deference, resting his forehead against Chu Wanning’s knuckles. "I'll do anything you want of me."
The silence stretches on for a beat too long.
"Anything?" Chu Wanning says eventually, tilting his head.
Written for 2Ha Week, Day 4: Reverse AU for the 0.5 timeline. When Chu Wanning storms Sisheng Peak and crowns himself the cultivation world's new emperor, Mo Ran trades his life for Xue Meng's. Contains spoilers for up to the end of the novel.
Call me by my name by rinsled05
When the man called Taxian-Jun arrives, years later, it’s the coming of a storm.
He sweeps into a dinner appointment between Chu Wanning and a client, clad in black, a smirk tugging at his mouth. Over the spark of irritation, Chu Wanning can’t help but admire his lean frame, the way his hair, cut rebelliously short, falls over smoldering, dark eyes. The way he towers over him, even when Chu Wanning rises to full height.
Chu Wanning’s heart races as Taxian-Jun leans in close, ignoring the shouts and gasps around them.
“Sakaki of Ran,” he purrs in their native tongue. “You’re mine.”
Chu Wanning lifts his chin. “I don’t know you.”
“You will,” Taxian-Jun says, and leaves.
In which Chu Wanning is a courtesan serving Chinese merchants in Nagasaki, Japan, and Taxian-Jun decides to make him his.
荷官牌型 ♠️ The Croupier's Hand by bloodsongs
In deep financial straits after losing his job as a teacher, a desperate Chu Wanning becomes a croupier at Sisheng's new casino.
The once sleepy town of Sisheng Peak grows busier by the day as the casino draws more and more tourists to their mountains. Consumed by his lingering regrets over the worst mistake of his life that destroyed his teaching career, Chu Wanning is too distracted to worry about anything else but his next shift, his next paycheck.
Except that's when Mo Ran, the reason Chu Wanning lost everything, returns to Sisheng Peak.
As the heir to the casino.
White Rabbit Club by minkit
Desperate to rid himself of a few pesky things called virginity and desire, Chu Wanning waltzes into a world he knows little about and right into the embrace of a mysterious stranger who reminds him of the student he's been dreaming about all year. The lust fueled dreams his student stars in are the very reason Chu Wanning applied to the sex club in the first place, and now he's desperate to get rid of these filthy impulses once and for all.
Congratulations, Chu Wanning, on your acceptance into the White Rabbit Club. We hope you enjoy your stay.
Risk and Restraint by purloinedinpetrograd
There is nobody Mo Ran works with who does not love him. He’s worked hard to cultivate this image while he climbs the corporate ladder at Sisheng, and it’s paid off in dividends. He’s in every WeChat group. He can call in favors with any division of any department. He can make even the tightest of deadlines relax their stranglehold on his team.
That is, there is nobody except, of course, Chu Wanning.
A Lingering Sweetness by theherocomplex
Chu Wanning is now all too aware of what he looks like: a dry stick of a man, never handsome, angular and cold and pale. A drab, short-tempered creature, as appealing as a splinter in one's foot. But Mo Ran looks at him as if he will never get his fill, and part of Chu Wanning thinks, What if —?
At the end of the line by PearlAquaBlue 
“So … I reckon someone thought you needed to loosen up a little bit. Now that you’re here, want to try it?”
Chu Wanning hangs up. Throws her phone on her pillow with a disgusted glare after it. Stands up and paces to the kitchen in long, angry strides. Her cheeks are burning. With trembling fingers, she grabs a glass and pours herself some water, gulping it down in one go. It doesn’t help much. She grips the kitchen counter tightly, then marches back into the bedroom to glare at the phone again. Her fingertips itch, and it’s as if some kind of magnetic force draws her closer and closer to her bed until her fingertips are but an inch away from that tempting black mirror. Before she knows it, she’s unlocked it unsteadily and pressed “repeat” on the last call.
“Welcome to Sisheng Peak – ”
“And what would that entail?” she asks, a little too breathless.
Let's Fall in Love for the Night by purloinedinpetrograd
Chu Wanning could only stare in horror as a large cloud of sickeningly yellow pollen rose from the field, blanketing the place where Mo Ran stood in a heavy fog. “Um,” he said lamely.
“Fuck,” Mo Ran cursed, and Chu Wanning didn’t even have the heart to chastise him for his coarse language, because he was too preoccupied wrestling the surge of fear at seeing his disciple disappear behind the haze of that indeterminately threatening dust.
A million terrible possibilities raced through his mind, each one more dramatic and gruesome than the last. His heart hammered against his ribcage, threatening to crack the bones. “Mo Ran,” he said slowly, “I think you should tell me what that does, now.”
Xue Zhengyong sends Chu Wanning and Mo Ran on a mission to find a specific ingredient for some concoction of his wife’s. Chu Wanning is torn between rejoicing at the chance to spend time alone with Mo Ran... and grieving over the very same thing.
But, well, it’s just flowers. What could go wrong, right? (Spoiler alert: it’s sex pollen.)
the day dawns in your hues by localshabba
2ha Week 2020 Day 1 prompt - Haitang
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Schoolteacher Mo Ran is having an ordinary day until he has an awkward encounter with the notoriously rigid school librarian, which leads to the start of something new.
Also features: flowers, dinosaurs and lots of tenderness and pining.
helping hands by verity
When Mo Ran was but a young, innocent, virtuous grad student—well, one of those things—she built that couch from a flatpack box with her own two hands. Over the years, the smell of polyester and cheap foam padding has given way to an equally aromatic blend of Chu Wanning's haitang blossom perfume, spilled coffee, and white lithium grease. Chu Wanning herself is always perfectly dressed without a stain in sight. Even right now, her head tucked onto one folded arm, the other loosely gripping her tablet, she looks so formal.
Mo Ran gently rests a hand on Chu Wanning's socked ankle where it peeks out of those tailored white trousers. She really should behave herself.
She really should... behave herself...
in plain sight by localshabba
Written for a prompt fill in the 2ha Kink Meme.
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"I have a surprise," Mo Ran breathed, coming to stand so close behind him that his breath landed on Chu Wanning's nape. Not touching Chu Wanning any other way, because he likes to make Chu Wanning lean back just a little bit, to seek out that contact himself.
"I think Chu-laoshi will enjoy it."
Chu Wanning is sure he agreed to the whole idea; he's just unclear on when. Things got hazy around the point when Mo Ran turned him around by the shoulders, got down on his knees and...well. Apparently he'd skipped breakfast that morning.
When he returned to his senses, his clothes were all neatly tucked into place, not a stain on them, and a charmingly pink sexual aid was nestled comfortably up his--ahem, inside him.
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Now available in Spanish!
casually acquainted by tagteamme
Chu Wanning knows what he is and what he isn’t. And where he lacks in pleasantries and outward appeal, he makes up for in untouchable grace and dignity.
It threatens to unravel once he meets a familiar face in an unfamiliar city.
“So quick to run away from me, Chu-laoshi,” Mo Ran says, voice gently teasing as Chu Wanning refuses to make eye contact with him. “After you came all the way from…”
He trails off, waiting for Chu Wanning to let him know, but he sees the map open on Chu Wanning’s phone and grins wider. “You want directions?”
Chu Wanning clears his throat, and shakes his head. He should say something— instead, he stays silent as he looks down at his phone and punches in the hotel name again.
Happily, his phone tells him to try again when he has signal.
The Right Hand of Light by gedsparrowhawk (FaceChanger)
Chu Wanning is asleep on the bed, clutching his hands tightly to his chest and curled in on himself. He’s still wearing the same robes he was in in the water prison. On the writing desk, a bowl of water and clean linen for bandages sit untouched, and a tub of bathwater has cooled without being used. Mo Ran sighs to himself. Wanning is truly hopeless.
He sits on the side of the bed and touches Chu Wanning’s shoulder. “Wanning,” he says. “Wanning, wake up.”
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Rare 0.5 tenderness, after the water prison.
nothing can consume you by tagteamme
Mo Ran’s violent history has never had to catch up to him.
It’s already embedded itself into him as scars on his body, as a tattoo on his forearm, as the lingering taste of blood in his sleep and finally, as the searing brand pressed against his chest before he’s thrown into the sea as punishment. He knows that this is where all his chances come to an end.
But as the deep fathom of the water swallows him up, something else saves him and pulls him to a tiny cove tucked away off the coast of an overlooked port town. When he wakes up under the care of a mythical creature wearing a familiar face, an even older and more distant past finally finds him.
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