#this was challenging to write bc ive never written any trans characters before

[bee-calm]

Hello!! For the ask game :

10 and 26 for Lightning strikes twice

1, 2 & 11 for the Road to nowhere?

This is quite a lot hehe but I love these two fics of yours dearly sooo

no worries honestly, im always happy for an excuse to ramble! answers will be under the cut

lightning strikes twice

10. How did you approach writing the fic? (e.g. wrote it start to finish in order, started with the ending, starting with the twist)

lightning strikes twice started when the phrase ‘minamoto teru is (not) infallible’ came to me in the shower, and was frantically written down in my notes app. i then went into some kind of fugue state and wrote almost the whole thing in the space of a day while i avoided literally every single one of my lecture notes. i think something may have possessed me but i am not complaining

26. Share your favourite detail

it’s a bit of an obvious one, but possibly the lightning imagery! im very happy with how i managed to kind of shape teru’s lightning based on what stage of his life he’s at- from the live wire of childhood to the controlled burn of highschool- i think the minamotos and their lightning are one of my favourite details to write. also the small mentions of trans teru because that hc means a lot to me!

the road to nowhere

1. Start to finish, how long did it take to plan and write? Did you take breaks during the process?

in total it took me about a month and a half! the half was just brainstorming and planning, plus me sitting on my plan for a few weeks while i tried to figure out how i wanted to handle akane’s pov (and stalled for time by planning an Actual route for their roadtrip bc i refuse to do things by halves) and then about a month for the actual writing part! most of the writing was done in the evenings after i finished work, so i just chipped away at it fairly consistently over the month

2. How did you come up with the idea?

i was hit out of nowhere with the idea for a terukane roadtrip (i think i was mid-experiment in the lab and it popped into my brain + refused to leave) and it kind of just spiralled from there! i had a few vague scenes in mind for a while (sleeping in the construction site, bad singalongs) and then as soon as the whole plot with teru’s dad came to me, it really brought everything together! id never written akane pov before so it was quite daunting knowing that the plot would only work from his perspective especially since it had been a While since id written terukane, but i ended up really enjoying it!

11. what was the most challenging aspect of writing it?

like i said before, probably writing akane’s pov- ive never written from his perspective before and trying to get into a new pov after not writing a particular dynamic for Years was. definitely a bit scary dfgdh especially since akane has a Lot going on and i wanted to really dig into his thoughts with this one! trying to keep a cohesive narrative while bouncing back and forth between the past and present was also a bit of a challenge, i wanted to make sure i was as consistent as possible with where the characters were at emotionally. also trying to reveal enough to create a decent buildup to the scene on the cliff, while not also giving everything away, while also dealing with teru being allergic to feelings and not wanting to drop any of the hints i need him to hdfgdh

thank you so much for asking!!

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

@sasumimo

🏳️‍⚧️♨️🌌

Steam rose from the hot spring like a thin, white veil, winding upwards through the cold night air. Stars glimmered above, the sky clear, so clear that one could see the dim band of the Milky Way stretch over the horizon, a colorful gash of stardust and nebulae.

Wei Wuxian glanced up, mesmerized with the sight for a few moments before stepping into the hot water, skin prickling pleasantly at the warmth. Lan Wangji waited for him there already, eyes closed as he relaxed into the water, skin rosy with the heat. He didn't appear to have noticed Wei Wuxian about to join him, so he decided to maintain the advantage and sneak up on his husband and scare him a little.

However, though he waddled soundlessly into the water, he found himself hoisted into Lan Wangji's arms just before he pounced - all while Lan Wangji's eyes remained closed.

"I thought you fell asleep! Here I was trying to scare you, and you ruined it!"

Lan Wangji cracked an eye open. "I could pretend to be scared now."

Wei Wuxian leaned against his husband's chest, laughing. "We both know you're a terrible actor, Lan Zhan."

"Mn..."

A few moments of comfortable silence followed, the two sharing an embrace in the quiet space. Wei Wuxian's eyes drifted towards the sky again, taking in the multitude of stars.

"Lan Zhan."

"Hm?"

"When I was little, there was a legend I heard in Lotus Pier, about the stars in the night sky. It was said that the stars above are people that died but that did not want to leave their loved ones behind. So, the gods turned them into stars, so they could watch over the earth. And if you ever miss someone that's gone, you can talk to the stars and maybe your loved one is there and they'll hear you..."

Lan Zhan opened his eyes, looking to the stars himself. He had talked to them many times, but not in a tender way - he had raged to the heavens about his fate, about Wei Ying's, about A-Yuan's. He had asked why such a good man had to die in such a gruesome way, why nobody could see the truth the way he did.

He had been angry, resentful, grieving - never had it ever crossed his mind to try and seek Wei Ying among the stars. He should have, if anybody deserved to live on into the heavens, it was him. Still, Lan Zhan could only be glad he hadn't, returning instead on earth, to him.

"I've been thinking a lot about Mo Xuanyu recently... I've been having these dreams that I think were his, and it's... difficult."

Lan Zhan ran his fingers through the ends of Wei Ying's hair, watching the strands dance into the water as he let go. Then, cupping some of the warm water in his palm, he gently wet Wei Ying's back, warming up the drying skin.

"I think... based off these dreams and what I remember reading in the notes I found in that shack at the Mo manor, that Mo Xuanyu wasn't a man, or at least didn't feel like one. There was makeup on my face when I woke up, and I also found some tattered clothes that I didn't think much of at the time, but now I think they were parts of dresses...I keep dreaming about being made fun of, hiding something important, feeling out of place..."

There was a pause yet again, and Lan Zhan found himself wanting to leave a kiss on Wei Ying's forehead. "You are feeling troubled by this knowledge."

"Yeah, but it's not - I don't have any problem with that, you know, I just don't know how to refer to... him? her? Them? I'm one of the very few people that still remember Mo Xuanyu and probably the only one that tries to honor their memory. And I feel like I've been disrespectful of them in many ways, even just by referring to them as a man..."

"I think they would understand. They did not reveal that information to you right away, either." Lan Zhan replied, after a long moment. "They simply summoned you with a purpose, and allowed you to live in their body as you please after that purpose has been fulfilled. But, of course, we must be mindful to refer to them in a more respectful way now that we know of this facet of their identity."

"Yeah... I just hope they didn't get too upset about being referred to as someone they were not." Wei Wuxian's eyes flitted to the sky again. "Wherever they may be."