Secret Santa fics
Dec. 28th, 2018 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ehyde Finally all three have been cleared to share publicly, so here they are!
Inquiry, Reprise - giftee asked for WangXian fluff. I decided to work an image I had - of the couple conversing via guqin - into an actual story, in which Wei Ying tries to give Lan Zhan what he couldn't before - an answer to his Inquiry. I like the idea of communicating with music, and MXTX was vague enough on the fantasy worldbuilding elements that there's room for a lot of handwaving and headcanoning, and I think I'm going to do something else with Inquiry in the future, too. Fun things - this fic has the honor of being my most-kudosed-in-its-first-day fic, at just over 150. Not sure it deserves the honor, but I'll take it.
Warmth - giftee asked for Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing. I've seen this ship discussed before, but it seems I'm the first to write it, on ao3 at any rate. The characters never met in canon, so it's understandable (although I've seen couples that make far less sense to me get more attention). I wrote a slight divergence from canon, in which the Wen siblings were discovered helping Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and had to flee their sect; this was what brought Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli together. I'll admit I was a little disappointed by Jiang Yanli's role in canon (weak, motherly, sacrificial), but I've seen some fics attempting to "fix" her by, basically, handing her a sword and it's all good. I didn't delve too deep into that here but I tried to find a place in the middle for her. I hope I'll see other people writing JYL/WQ in the future too!
I Really Don't Know - giftee asked for Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng, which I didn't particularly ship beforehand but had nothing really against, either. Then I thought, fake dating, and thus, this. It's short and I tried to be funny, but I'm not sure if it worked. It felt OOC to me when I was done, but judging by the response, some people liked it at least. At least one person has asked for a continuation, but at this point, I don't have any plans for one. Oh - you might think the title is because of Nie Huaisang's role in the story; in fact, it's really just that I couldn't think of a title, and realized I could get away with it.
Now that these are done, I'm getting back to Butterfly Effect - I keep getting distracted from the main point of the story by plotting out every which way the alternate timeline has gone, specifically where it involves Jin Guangyao. Oops. Relatives are visiting, which has meant a little more free time away from kids, but not really any more writing time.
Inquiry, Reprise - giftee asked for WangXian fluff. I decided to work an image I had - of the couple conversing via guqin - into an actual story, in which Wei Ying tries to give Lan Zhan what he couldn't before - an answer to his Inquiry. I like the idea of communicating with music, and MXTX was vague enough on the fantasy worldbuilding elements that there's room for a lot of handwaving and headcanoning, and I think I'm going to do something else with Inquiry in the future, too. Fun things - this fic has the honor of being my most-kudosed-in-its-first-day fic, at just over 150. Not sure it deserves the honor, but I'll take it.
Warmth - giftee asked for Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing. I've seen this ship discussed before, but it seems I'm the first to write it, on ao3 at any rate. The characters never met in canon, so it's understandable (although I've seen couples that make far less sense to me get more attention). I wrote a slight divergence from canon, in which the Wen siblings were discovered helping Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and had to flee their sect; this was what brought Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli together. I'll admit I was a little disappointed by Jiang Yanli's role in canon (weak, motherly, sacrificial), but I've seen some fics attempting to "fix" her by, basically, handing her a sword and it's all good. I didn't delve too deep into that here but I tried to find a place in the middle for her. I hope I'll see other people writing JYL/WQ in the future too!
I Really Don't Know - giftee asked for Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng, which I didn't particularly ship beforehand but had nothing really against, either. Then I thought, fake dating, and thus, this. It's short and I tried to be funny, but I'm not sure if it worked. It felt OOC to me when I was done, but judging by the response, some people liked it at least. At least one person has asked for a continuation, but at this point, I don't have any plans for one. Oh - you might think the title is because of Nie Huaisang's role in the story; in fact, it's really just that I couldn't think of a title, and realized I could get away with it.
Now that these are done, I'm getting back to Butterfly Effect - I keep getting distracted from the main point of the story by plotting out every which way the alternate timeline has gone, specifically where it involves Jin Guangyao. Oops. Relatives are visiting, which has meant a little more free time away from kids, but not really any more writing time.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-29 05:39 pm (UTC)IMO, Jiang Yanli is very much shaped by her parents – she saw her mother's opinionatedness and strength lead to naught but an unhappy marriage and her father's disregard, so she went into the other direction. She also had a betrothal to Jin Zixuan, so she could fantasize about marrying out of the arguments to some nice man whom she could construct into her very own Prince Charming. I, too, was disappointed by her role in canon, but I agree that just giving her a sword would be OOC. Deal with her unique neuroses and insecurities, and idk make her more in her father's mould? I want to write a meta about the Yunmeng Three and how the Lotus Pier affected them, but that'd require a bit more thinking first.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-09 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-11 10:03 pm (UTC)This ... does cast them in a much more uncomfortable light, yes.
My small annoyance with Jiang Yanli is more about how ubiquitous her character type is for female characters – gentle, nurturing, etc. (The annoyance would probably be nonexistent were there more female characters, or the non-Jiang Yanli ones get more pagetime, whether they be Wang Lingjiao or Madam Jin, who deserves a name.) Though in a way, the gentleness and nurturing are horror, once one realizes what was the motivation behind them...