#AU ASK game

[diazsdimples]

BuckTommy Sports or Olympics AU ✨

I sat here for ages wondering what the heck kind of sports our boys would be into that also allows them to have that physique and then it hit me!

Buck and Tommy are both gymnasts representing the USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics. They're both doing the Men's Individual All-Around Event and have been competitors in the states for it, but have always had a sense of friendly rivalry. Buck is also competing on the Horizontal Bar and Tommy is competing on the Rings.

Once they get to Paris, Buck and Tommy often end up training at roughly the same time and often try better the other. Buck loves to rub it in how his vault scores are consistently higher than Tommy's, but Tommy can whip Buck's ass on the pommel horse any day of the week. Even though they'll be going against one another for gold, they often end up helping out one another with their training and give each other pointers.

They both get through the first rounds of heats easy enough, but Tommy sustains a shoulder injury on the Parallel Bars in the semi-finals that almost puts him out of the competition. Buck sit with him between his own rotations, unwilling to leave Tommy's side for anything else, much to Bobby's (his coach) frustration. Both Tommy and Buck qualify for the finals, with Buck at the top of the leaderboard and Tommy 2nd to last.

They both know this is likely Tommy's last Olympics, what with his age and this injury, it's unlikely he'll manage another one. Tommy and one other gymnast are Buck's main competition (when Tommy's in shape) and Tommy pulls him aside the night before the finals to tell Buck that he's pulling out of the competition. He wants to keep his strength for the Rings, which he thinks he'll be able to manage with the extensive physio he's receiving. Buck is distraught at the idea of them not being able to be on the podium together, and Tommy comforts him. They walk along the Seine together. Before they go back to the hotel, Tommy kisses him. "For luck," he claims.

The next day is the finals, and Buck doesn't know how to do it without Tommy by his side, egging him on. He wants to do it - this is his best shot at Gold - but it feels wrong without Tommy. But when he gets there, he sees Tommy next to Bobby, both men there to cheer him and provide pointers and coach him every step of the way. Buck put every ounce of effort he has into the competition and wins the gold. And because he's so high on his victory, after receiving his medal, he rushes across floor and throws himself into Tommy's arms, kissing him in front of the whole stadium. This is a move that Tommy will repeat when he wins Gold for Rings a couple of days later (while holding his shoulder cause man, it's really fucked now), and Buck once again when he wins Gold for Horizontal Bars

[jessicas-pi]

For the AU Ask Game

What about any members of the Ghost crew in a Jurassic Park situation?

this. uh. might not be what you had in mind? But it is situation straight out of Jurassic Park and it is the Ghost crew members and it's what I was inspired to do so I'm gonna say it kinda counts!

--

Hera had never regretted anything more than she regretted accepting this invitation.

She should have known better. She should never have agreed. But---but Sabine had been so happy.

Sabine hadn't been happy in a long time.

(It had seemed like she might be, when she'd had hope for finding Ezra, but... well. That hadn't gone very well. There had been an argument, and Sabine and Ezra hadn't talked in months.)

"There's this scientist," Sabine had said, when she was trying to convince her to go along with her. "He's been collecting bio-samples from parts of Mandalore since before the Empire glassed it. He's cloned animals and plants, and begun to repopulate one of Mandalore's moons with them. The whole thing is a park. There are species that were wiped out in wars almost a century ago. He's healing my home, Hera."

The problem was, cloning was not allowed by the New Republic, and they were trying to shut down the project. This scientist sought Sabine out, asking her to come see what was being done, hoping that having a war hero vouch for his project would help convince the New Republic to make an exception.

And Sabine had begged Hera to come along, too. The scientist had added that she could bring her son, that there was a petting zoo filled with cute little critters, that he would have a wonderful time.

At the time, Hera had thought it was perfect---they could bring Ezra, and Zeb, too, and Ahsoka, and it would be an opportunity to try and mend burned bridges and bring their family together again.

She was so, so wrong.

The animals---the big ones, the mean ones, the ones that the scientist hadn't mentioned---were loose. The fences were all down. The power was out. Zeb was stranded. Ahsoka was missing. And worst of all, her kids---Sabine, and Ezra, and her own precious little boy---were out there. In the dark. In a storm. Alone.

And Hera was stuck in this control building, with all the lights out, at the end of a long table, unable to do anything but eat half-melted ice cream and wish that they were all home.

(She would not be endorsing this park.)

[koolkat9]

Send me a "👀" and I'll ramble about an au I have but don't know if I'll ever get to writing it.

[least-carpet]

AU ask game: (I keep forgetting the name) daemon au? The one where they have spirit like animal companions, technically their soul manifest.

Hi, thanks for the ask!

Oh, hey, that's His Dark Materials—sure! Also, I don't know much about naming daemons in Chinese, so I haven't named any of them.

Neither Jiang Cheng nor Wei Wuxian's daemon had settled before the fall of Lotus Pier. They were often similar so they could play together and accompany the duo more easily, Jiang Cheng's in the form of a leopard cat and Wei Wuxian's in the form of a fox, or an Asian small-clawed otter, or a monkey that liked to ride on Jiang Cheng's daemon's back.

(Before Wei Wuxian came to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng's daemon was most often a dog—a "superior dog," which reduced but did not eliminate his mother's criticism. Either a Chow-Chow or a Tibetan mastiff—big, tough, smart working dogs who only like their people. He liked his daemon like that, but the leopard cat was also good, since they can swim and play in the water. So it was fine, he could do it for Wei Wuxian. Sometimes, when she was startled, or if Jiang Cheng was really mad, she turned into a tiger. His mother liked this form best of all.)

After Jiang Cheng's core was crushed, his daemon disappeared; but after he got his core back, she appeared again, settled as a tiger, ready to search for Wei Wuxian. When they found him, his daemon had gone, and he said simply that they had been separated by the Wen. Jiang Cheng looked for her often, with no luck.

When Wei Wuxian returns, his daemon's settled form—a crow—matches well with Lan Wangji's elegant male crane.

Jiang Yanli's daemon was a soft-spoken butterfly. Jin Ling tells himself he will never, ever, ever have a daemon that fragile.

[wifiwuxians]

Hear me out... Tokyo Mew Mew AU for the Yi City Fam

STOPPP I LITERALLY HAVE A TOKYO MEW MEW AU FOR LIKE A BUNCH OF CHARACTERS AND THEY'RE IN IT LOL BUT THIS NEEDS SOME REWORKING UH

first off, the cast. XY is Kisshu. he has to be. not because of any choice opinions on how to treat a lady or anything but because they're both the little shit who has given me gender envy. AQ is Pudding because look at them. enough said. also ever since i was a kid i was obsessed with the idea of Kisshu and Pudding having a sibling banter bond and i was robbed. i suppose XXC would be the obvious protagonist so Ichigo? I only say this bc I really REALLY WANT SL TO BE DEEP BLUE LMAOOO THAT HAIR!!!!!!! SL is in his villain era now

That aside, obviously it's not all 1:1. I still want to make AQ a monkey girl because that's too cute, but she fights with a staff! The cafe, which in this would be run by XXC himself (inherited it and the research from BSSR?) is less cutesy because they don't need to lure in teenage girls, but it's still a cozy and traditional place where you can rent out hanfu for the day or something adorable like that. Still 100% a front for a secret lab though. XXC's animal would be a great white heron, he'd get majestic wings and a flowy outfit that would still allow him to fight (and fly)! Since it's sort of lame to just have 2 animal people I sort of want SL to also be an animal person (a human-alien hybrid thing who is now also an animal person... save some for the rest of us), so he'd be a leopard >:) XY is just a cute lil alien showing his midriff and fucking around and waiting for his Great Leader to wake the fuck up so everyone can go home and he can kill every human on earth

XY's reason for hating humans, aside from the fact they stole his homeland and poisoned it, is that he was captured as an infant on a recon mission and terribly experimented on. that same recon mission resulted in the death of BSSR and SL's adoptive parents, who were working with her on her alien research. however, they were not the ones to cut this poor boy open, but it doesn't matter. All Scientists Must Die and all humans too.

XXC took AQ off the streets where she was performing for cash and had been doing so for years, he's trying to get her paperwork in order so she can go to school properly. she has no family save for him. they met on a rainy day, where XXC got in an accident trying to prevent AQ from suffering the same fate. she took him to the hospital and stayed by his side and they've been inseparable ever since. XXC never intended for her to get infused with animal DNA, as he wanted this to be a solo thing (it's XXC, he's self sacrificial to a fault), but the machine malfunctioned and she got caught in the blast. she's fine with this, as she would do anything to make XXC happy, even if she hates dealing with customers at the cafe and prefers to be the bookkeeper.

SL was also caught in the blast, as he was visiting the cafe to try and return a book to XXC. they both take the same environmentalism course at uni!! SL is unaware of his adoptive parents' work (until the story conveniently reveals it to him) and only knows they were researching the environment, so he's very studious and dedicated, serious and passionate, so their memory can live on and he can make them proud. but also he just loves nature. he's also unaware of the Darkness Inside Him though he has scary dreams sometimes. XXC is at first horrified to get him involved, but soon loves having him by his side; they train together and uncover more of their parents' research while fighting big weird aliens. XXC has been so alone ever since his mother's passing, putting on a brave face for everyone and trying to keep his spirits high, but AQ and SL becoming important parts of his life has been a balm for his soul. but then XY is there outside his window at 3 AM demanding they throw knives at each other until someone dies or some shit so his studies are falling behind a little bit lmao

as a fun extra, in the original massive AU with a bunch of non Yi City characters, XY was split into two (as i tend to do) and one was Kisshu and the other was Ichigo. think of XY in fun lil strawberry shorts and with the whole cat getup. it was great

SORRY THIS IS SO RAMBLY LMAO I LOVE TMM SM AHHH

[lovvecherrymotion]

ooohhhh for that ask game: jance + au where they work on a cruise ship, nace plays in one of the entertainment bands and jan is a chef in the kitchen :3 (or other jobs if youd like idk how this game works but i think this would be fun)

OHHHH this was so fun to think about (i've never been on a cruise ship and have no idea how they work but)

also this got out of my control, i'm sorry 😭

let's reverse the roles a little bit, shall we? jan is the new guy - he's worked in several restaurants but he's not quite sure what he wants to do in life and his dad knows a guy and that's how he ends up in a cruise ship cooking boring food for a bunch of retirees (he has nothing against them, personally, but after the first two weeks he's pretty sure this is not what he wants to do)

anyway, he mostly keeps to himself. he's met some of the staff and he really hit it off with jure, who's in charge of repair work, and has led a pretty interesting life (worked at his parents farm for a couple of years, then as a camera man, then as a mildly successful drummer for a slovenian band called apokalipsa...) he's nice, doesn't ask too many questions and jan feels pretty comfortable spending his free time with him, while listening to jure talk about whatever it is that's going on in his life

(he hears about bojan and nace, who work on the cruise ship as well, as part of the band, and his friend martin, who was also a part of apokalipsa with them, and is now working in IT, and kris, bojan's on and off boyfriend and also best friend - it's too complicated for jan to keep up, honestly)

eventually jure decides this isn't enough though and starts dragging him around - he starts befriending more staff members and eventually he meets the famous bojan and nace. bojan is warm and friendly and accepts jan with open arms but it's nace who catches jan's eye (and despite a bit of an awkward first meeting because jan very much Does Not Know how to act around someone he finds attractive, they quickly become very very close)

and as they get closer, jan finds himself with a crush. a crush on nace, with his tattoos and stupidly handsome face and his loud laugh that makes jan feel butterflies in his stomach. nace who's always so kind and listens to jan ramble for hours after a particularly stressful day and somehow always knows what to say. nace who has somehow carved a place in his life without even trying and says his chicken soup is the best one he's ever had and-

jan realizes he's in love with nace the night before he's supposed to make a decision about his future. he's been giving the chance to stick around because they like him there and he's competent and his dad's friend is happy to offer him a new contract. jan had been pretty sure he didn't want to stick around any longer than he needed but, when the realization hits him, he's not sure what to do. he doesn't love the work he does, but he can no longer imagine his days without nace around - he doesn't want to imagine his days without nace around

(he signs a new contract the following afternoon and when they all get together at the end of the night, and he's safely tucked in under nace's arm, a blinding smile on nace's lips, as they all celebrate jan staying with them, he knows he's made the right decision)

Leave an AU and a pairing in my ask and I’ll give you the plot of the fic I won’t write for it

[ashintheairlikesnow]

For the potential AU, maybe a lab experiment one? Just been on a kick for experiment whump lately 😅

I dunno if Areyto would fit in one or not, but it’ll be interesting to see him in a scenario

Lab whump for my siren boy!

Areyto locked in a plain white featureless room. To soothe his signs of stress, they play ocean sounds through a speaker. Sometimes it helps. Mostly it makes things worse.

Areyto sitting before a screen with a strange kind of muzzle strapped onto his head. It locks over his mouth and nose. A tube on the end hooks into the screen. They tell him to sing, so the machine can learn the exact timbre of his voice to replicate it. He grows to hate the muffled sound of his own voice, going ragged and hoarse after days of nonstop singing.

Frustrated by the way the recorded voice doesn't hold the magic of the real one, they put Areyto into rooms with 'test subjects' and tell him what to compel them to do. It's exhausting and to Areyto utterly pointless. Sometimes he gets angry enough to lash out for what control he can by forcing the test subjects to harm themselves. But then he realizes they're prisoners, too.

The researchers never explain the reasons for anything to him. He has to glean their plans from moments of overhearing their conversations with each other.

When not being studied, he wears a muzzle that locks his jaw shut so he can't sing. Even soft humming is harshly punished. He learns to stay silent, no matter how sound swells and begs within him.

[mollywog]

AU game: Cinderella!Everlark

So I’m actually writing something like this so I’ll share parts of my WIP!

Peeta is the Prince, but is also the ‘Cinderella’ of the story.

After Katniss’s father dies, her mother remarries the baker (no relation to Peeta)

Peeta conceals his blonde hair with soot/cinders 👀 so he’s not recognizable as the prince

He wins a wrestling tournament at the harvest festival. Emboldened by his Victory, he asks Katniss to dance.

It’s not a rags to riches story, rather a rich and miserable to happy and not-rich.

Thank you for playing the AU Game!!

[meekmedea]

re: tag game

i'd love to read more about the great presidential election wip!

Sure!

I will preface with the fact that despite being named such, we don't focus on the presidential election that much. But I can tell you some of the key figures of who's in the running: Coriolanus, Felix, Festus, Clemensia.

Nobody dies of poisoning.

Though Coriolanus considers it when the debate that's being filmed sort of derails into Felix/Festus/Coriolanus debating about something from their academy days while Flickerman just stares at them, "they do know we're live, right?"

Max is just chilling in the background, but his health is worsening, hence he announced that he was stepping down. Clemmie occasionally visits him for advice because against all odds, she's won? (yeah she's trying to figure that out too. blame Felix?)

Max: Ah well if your social life is in danger, then something is going right with your work life.

Also, I think he's trying to set her up with someone in his family. He's not picky - he's got a lot of grandnieces/grandnephews. Clemmie despairs over this, because she was hoping that becoming president would get people off her back of when she's going to marry.

`

We sort of focus more on after the election and her as president. Some possible plot points:

ending the games

education reform

tesserae (changed from what it is in the books, since the games no longer exist)

work-life balance - she's part of an old family, she grew up amongst other kids who were part of other the old families. this doesn't always mean conducting business is easier with them.

murder attempt #??? (there's more than 1. Clemmie only knows of a few though. In her defence, does it count as a murder attempt if she's immune to the poison in her coffee?)

A lot of the other mentors also come and go, but some memorable ones

we've got Lyssie as her personal doctor for some time

Coriolanus as Vice President

Felix is just there

[notsocooljess]

Halloween themed AU?

a modern spooky AU!

Katniss is an avid horror/thriller movie fan, and she's convinced that nothing from these movies could really scare her in person. When her local Six Flags announces that a new, multi-level haunted house will be opened for their Fright Fest, she convinces her friends Gale and Madge to go with her.

When they arrive to the haunted house, they are presented with waivers that explain each of the 13 floors is a different theme (though they don't say what the themes are), and this immediately makes Madge back out. Katniss and Gale continue on.

Gale makes it to the fifth floor (something about clowns makes his skin crawl), but Katniss chooses to continue on. She is doing totally fine until she reaches the eleventh floor, which is designed to make the person feel like the walls are closing in on them. Always afraid of tight spaces (especially since her dad passed), she begins to panic and sits on the floor.

A worker notices her squatting, and come to help her out. During his training, he was told to never break character, but when he sees the panic in her eyes, he takes off his masks and talks her out of her fears. He helps her up and escorts her to the exit and out of the haunted house.

Katniss can't help but notice the way this worker's soothing words get to her through her fear, the way his blue eyes help distract her from her surroundings and his hands on her shoulders keep her grounded. When they're outside, she thanks him, and blushes when she notices how handsome he is. She learns his name is Peeta.

[diazsdimples]

hmm... hmm... teacher AU + bucktommy

Ohhhh @theotherbuckley is writing one of them right now, just as a little friendly promo between mutuals. Anyways, this is my version.

Tommy is a drama teacher and Buck teaches history. Buck meets Tommy on his first day. The first thing he sees is Tommy in the middle of a group of teachers, telling a very animated story about the time he went on a school camp and had to put out a fire one of the kids started in the kitchen, and all Buck can think is "ohh that guy's cool. I like that guy."

Also the rest of the 118 is in this too with Bobby as the principal, Hen teaches Health, Chimney teaches Band, and Eddie takes Gym. Buck becomes very good friends with Eddie but he's got a serious crush on Tommy, and finds himself bumbling with his words whenever Tommy is within 5 feet of him.

The school puts on a play for the 4th of July and Buck is roped in to helping Tommy write the script, because of his history knowledge. Buck goes around to Tommy's house one evening and they settle down with a blank piece of paper and a whole load of history books. Buck might have drunk a bit much wine and that's the excuse he's going to use when he gets all giggly

They end up having another couple of evenings together, because scripts aren't written in a day, and one evening, just before Buck leaves, Tommy catches his wrist and pulls him in, kissing him hard on the lips. Buck instantly melts into him and they make out for a bit. Tommy lets him go and looks far too pleased for himself when he tells Buck he'll see him at work, but he also asks him if he's free that weekend.

They finish the script within the week (between a number of heated makeout sessions) and Buck keeps finding reasons to partake in the planning of the play (the costumes have to be correct, the backdrop has to be correct, the kids need period-typical accents etc), mostly just because it's a convenient excuse to be around his hot new boyfriend. He and Tommy agree to give the relationship a go, and they tell Bobby, who is okay with it as long as the kids don't find out. The other teachers, however, do find out and Buck gets razzed to hell about it but he secretly loves it. They enjoy small, fleeting touches in the staff room, and often go around to each other's houses to mark homework, and generally just enjoy being in each other's presence

Send me an AU and I'll tell you what happens!

[jessicas-pi]

Sabezra in a fantasy au for the ask game?

I have no idea if this was what you were looking for but it's what my brain invented, so ta-da!

--

Mother had forbidden---Forbidden, actually with a capital F---Sabine from leaving the Seelie realm to look for trouble.

So the next time she got restless, she made sure she'd already found trouble before she left.

Today, trouble looked like a grungy teenage boy, in ratty jeans and a faded orange sweatshirt, stomping through the woods. He seemed like the type she could mess with. Bored with life, discontent, easily fooled. Maybe she could even trick him into following her home for a while and see how he fared there.

(She'd ask him for his name, first, of course. She always did. It was an old trick, and rather overdone, but that was why she did it. If a human was stupid enough to ignore all the old stories and warnings and just tell her that right off the bat, she didn't feel bad about causing them further trouble. They earned it.)

She waited, unseen, until he had passed her by. Then, with a last glance over her shoulder to make sure no one of her mother's Court had noticed her, Sabine slipped through the dark mists that parted one world from the other.

"Hey, there!" Sabine called out at his back. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at her in curiosity, but with far too little suspicion.

Sabine smiled.

This boy may not know what she was---not yet---but if Sabine had her way, he would find out.

Oh, he would find out.

[highladyluck]

No one asked me about the Mat/Tuon military college Modern AU but I'm going to tell you what I have for it anyway, which is basically just character profiles.

Tuon is the chosen successor of an authoritarian homophobic religious cult, sent to a military college. She has minders among the staff, of course; luckily for her, the ones here are personally loyal to her as much as her cult. She's being groomed for mainstream political power. Like Tulsi Gabbard, can't bring herself to admit a structural or moral problem with authoritarian leaders. Possibly autistic, possibly just not socialized like everyone else, possibly six of one and half a dozen of the other. She's still a horse girl doing dressage and also raises/fosters working dogs (service dogs or police dogs). Bisexual And Not Aware Of It (will change to I'm Repressing That Ruthlessly So It's Irrelevant And Also DO NOT TELL ANYONE over the course of the narrative, thanks Egwene!)

Mat is the last person you'd think would join the military, but if you ask him why he's in OCS he'll tell you he didn't have a choice (the details change every time and are lies, but it's true that he didn't feel he had a choice). Surprisingly, he's kind of thriving in the military and feels real weird about it. Definitely ADHD, has medical trauma from an addiction detox situation that He Will Not Discuss. Volunteers at Big Brothers Big Sisters. Secret history buff, but not a big reader because of the dyslexia- everything he knows is from documentaries/lectures/audiobooks. He gets pocket money by selling random shit he collects on Craigslist (and Ebay/Facebook Marketplace/trade shows) and gambling. His dad is a used car salesman, among other pursuits, and as a result he's a car guy. Bisexual and his first serious relationship was with Rand. It ended messily and He Will Not Discuss It. There are many things Mat Will Not Discuss and they're probably connected.

[least-carpet]

hello!! 👀 (for the au ask game)?

Hello!! This is so extremely belated, I'm very sorry.

One AU I will never write is one I've outlined loosely in its entirety (so maybe I should just post the outline?) and it's the AU where Jin Ling is a cis girl. This is one of my earliest attempts to answer the question "what would actually make Jiang Cheng happy?" and it involved the conclusion of "Jin Ling living in Lotus Pier and inheriting without the sect being absorbed into the Jin." And I felt like I could make it happen for girl!Jin Ling!

Because the Jin Sect especially sucks, Jin Ling being a girl removes her from the line of succession. She's still given to Jiang Cheng to care for, and like canon Jin Ling, she splits time between both sects with the understanding that she still technically belongs to the Jin, despite them being unwilling to make her sect heir. After Jin Guangshan dies, Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng come to an unofficial agreement that she will marry a Jiang disciple of suitably high cultivation and rank and inherit the sect that way.

Jin Rusong, the only available male heir who's not Mo Xuanyu, is watched like a hawk and doesn't get murdered. (I am agnostic re: whether Jin Guangyao had him killed or not. Either way, needing a direct heir and there being more of a reason to expect Rusong to be at risk are both elements that could change the outcome there.) He's a very sweet kid, and much, much smarter than he looks, but he is spoiled to pieces, including by Jin Ling. That's her cute baby cousin! Of course he can have everything he wants!

Qin Su, having her son to protect, does not commit suicide despite finding out about the incest (although she ain't doing too good). The incest is also not revealed publicly. Unfortunately, an Evil Jin Elder—Jin Chan's grandfather—finds out about it somehow.

When Jin Ling returns to the Jin Sect to protect Jin Rusong and investigate Jin Guangyao's secret room, she gains access to—among other things—a treasure trove of blackmail material about the Jin elders.

The Evil Jin Elder, not wanting to be blackmailed or publicly dragged up on charges, blackmails Qin Su into using Jin Ling to fulfill an old written offer of marriage from the Lan sect. This solves a number of different problems for him: no more secret sect investigation, weakens Jin Rusong's faction, reaffirms now-shaky relationship with the Lan. So many birds with one stone! Qin Su is not about this but is also very, very desperate to remain in her position in order to protect Jin Rusong.

Jin Ling wakes up, bound hand and foot, in a carriage to the Lan sect, without her bow, Suihua, or Fairy. (Despite being all tied up, she still resists strenuously with her teeth. "Why does she even need that dog," says one of Evil Jin Elder's henchmen bitterly, as they haul her from carriage to palanquin.) Once there, she learns that the offer specifies a member of the inner family, but not who; and that a certain faction of elders is proposing that she be married to Lan Xichen, i.e. her uncle's secret boyfriend who killed him.

Jin Ling has never gone along quietly with anything she didn't like in her entire life. Her escape involves Lan Qiren, Lan Jingyi, Wei Wuxian, and Li'l Apple on a boat.

Story 1 is the story of how Jin Ling becomes the (still unmarried) heir to the Jiang sect, and it's pre-lingyi. Story 2 involves her eventual marriage, since, as Jiang Sect heir, Jin Ling needs to find a husband. She proposes (like the great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan) that any potential husband has to beat her in a contest that she chooses. Then she has to frantically brainstorm a contest of martial prowess that Lan Jingyi can beat her at. (Wrestling. It's wrestling. This is 100% because Lan Jingyi sucks at so many things and not an excuse for her to get wrestled to the ground by the goofy Lan boy with the very nice arms, Jin Rusong, how dare you insinuate things of that nature—)

[stiltonbasket]

for the ask game, a 'til the end of the moon au?

Here goes! You'd think that either Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji would be Ye Xiwu, but I'm imagining a sixteen-year-old Lan Sizhui being sent back in time to stop Wei Wuxian from "coming to power" after Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen end up as casualties of JGY's general villainy. Their deaths (and the deaths of several other people A-Yuan is close to) are put down to a (very dormant) Wei Wuxian returning as a fierce ghost/corpse; but when Sizhui reaches the past, he reverts to his baby self and spends 90% of his time in Wei Wuxian's arms...whereupon he realizes that certain past events did not go down in quite the way he was told they did.

[wifiwuxians]

Au where Baoshan Sanren didn't change XXC's eyes to Song Lan's

HO HUMMMM...

BSSR turns them away. she refuses outright to break her word, and, more than that, to harm someone she considers a son. she just can't do it. she can't spill XXC's blood. so he's gotta head down off the mountain again lmao with SL unconscious against his shoulder, because XXC doesn't want him awake for any of this so he's been giving him sleeping aid TM

when SL does eventually come to, it's in a little run down house that XXC is repurposing into a clinic so he can dig out his eyes himself and hand them off to his bestie once he can find someone willing to assist him for any price necessary. just a regular Tuesday. SL can smell all the medicine and he can feel all the open books and scalpels and shit and in that moment all his issues are completely exacerbated and he blows his top. but in a 'what the hell do you think you're doing here' way. demands to know how XXC could ever think blinding himself for him would ever fix anything or make him feel better, it would just cause more misery and pain and if it went wrong they'd both end up blind

XXC is eating himself with guilt, especially now that he's overwhelmed SL who is already grieving with even more shit to feel bad about, and SL is genuinely fighting with the urge to tell him to go away and just leave him alone and to not play god with him and his fate. he eventually realizes he cannot be alone as being alone would be so much worse even if the solitude would help him process or whatever. XXC doesn't know how to make it up to him and SL eventually has to swallow everything down and tell him it wasn't his fault. it takes a bit but it's basically just cutting out the 2 years of yi city lmao

SL just tells XXC to please be his eyes until he gets used to this new world and that they can navigate it together if he's willing to stay with him. XXC battles with feeling unworthy of that but still does as he asks, and little by little SL learns to navigate the world just as well as he would've when he could see. So it's a SL!XXC AU here because he gets to wear the blindfold!

SL also eventually confesses to having preferred being blind at first since he doesn't have to Literally See the world in which he lost all his family. he prefers the darkness. he's not plagued with images of their bodies as much as he thought he would be. instead, he sees what XXC tells him to see, and he's happy like that. as happy as he can be anyway. this also enables him to slowly become more comfortable with touch since he's one sense down

and whatever happens beyond that point is up to you...........