LINKDING

summary: He Xuan has little money, no stable job, an eating disorder, and a great deal of resentment at the way their life has fallen apart. Shi Qingxuan, whom they met on an online eating disorder community, is also going through a challenging time. Perhaps it is good, then, that they have each other to depend on. ➜ beefleaf modern au ➜ sqx and hx, their respective struggles with eating disorders, and the relationship they have with each other ➜ told in a really cool non-traditional way, largely through the digital records hx keeps -- texts with sqx, web searches, youtube history, to do lists, notes to self, etc ➜ I love how the form allows this really great window into hx's state of mind, with a sort of spareness that packs a big punch ➜ and the translation to the modern context of the beefleaf relationship pre-black-water-arc is so good! ➜ what a good. I'm so impressed! ➜ 7k words long

summary: Sokka’s ready for everything. He’s got his gear. He’s got his tickets. Nothing can shake him, the best-prepared spectator at the 2020 Olympic Games... Until he meets Lee, a young dancer with a strange knack for broadswords, and they fall into a game all their own. ➜ atla modern au about the olympics ➜ ft sokka, enthusiastic fan of all sports, making the most of going to the olympics ➜ and making friends with a dude called Lee who he has fun sparring with in the evenings ➜ and, totally separately, getting extremely worked up in support of an athlete named Zuko in the bronze match for men's epee ➜ I LOVE sokka's pov here, he's such a delight, and you can really tell why Zuko likes him so much! ➜ just a very charming story ➜ 21k words long

summary: Disgraced former child star and current struggling street musician Xie Lian sends off an audition tape to a new movie on a wild impulse, and then runs into an interesting man while he's performing. And again that evening, and again the next day. When he's asked to travel to Atlantic City for a table read for the movie, his new friend, Hua Cheng, offers to drive him, and he proceeds to run into a number of old acquaintances (many of whom he didn't realize still considered him a friend), learn a few heart-breaking secrets, and fall absolutely catastrophically in love with a man he's pretty sure is already taken. ➜ tgcf hualian modern au ➜ xie lian is a former child actor who gets by by busking, hua cheng is a mysterious handsome goth he keeps running into, and bai wuxian is the twitter troll who ruined xl's previous career ➜ I love watching hualian's interactions with each other, how much fun they have teasing each other and how much they like each other (and are weird about each other) ➜ lots of secondary characters they have connections to ➜ yin yu as hbomberguy equivalent...this gives me life ➜ charming and fun and exactly what I needed on the day I read it ➜ 19k words

summary: The air conditioned chill of Wei Ying's office gave way to a wall of humid heat as soon as they left the building. The walk to the station was only a few blocks, but the back of Lan Zhan's shirt was damp with sweat by the time she went underground. "So what's the curse, exactly," Wei Ying said as they jammed themselves into a packed subway car. At lunchtime on a weekday during summer break. Lan Zhan steadied herself against the car door. "I believe it's bad luck." "Holy shit," Wei Ying said. "Did she curse you to step on a Lego?" ➤ modern au f/f mdzs wangxian fic ➤ lwj and wwx are academic colleagues; lwj comes to wwx for help dealing with a minor curse ➤ I love the glimpses into their broader world, the way cultivation is a part of modern life, the dynamics lwj has with her family, etc ➤ the way lwj being a poet affects the prose of the piece, and her point of view! ➤ and the dynamics between lwj and wwx are soooo good <3 ➤ 1.7k words in length

summary: In the present, Wei Ying finds himself separated from his family and friends when he travels to help Lan Zhan move into a new home. In the past, Nie Huaisang brings a new friend back from summer orchestra camp. ➤ an #mdzs #wangxian modern au set during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, with flashbacks to 2003 ➤ this fic is everything to me. it's just. so beautiful & good? grounded and present to its settings, seeing its characters with open-eyed affection, funny and heartbreakingly painful-hopeful and so, so gentle ➤ I love how the fic is about many relationships at once - wwx & the wens, wwx & jiang cheng, wwx & whatever he had going on with nhs back in the day, and of course, of course, wangxian. and all of these are vital relationships in wwx's life; all of them make him who he is ➤ a "straight boy wei ying" type fic; I love how compassionately wwx is viewed as he goes through his years-long process of realisation. the fic is never mean-spirited about wwx's lack of self-knowledge. he had a lot going on & was doing his best! ➤ I've read this fic at least 3 times and it hits just right every time ➤ 25k words

Summary: Luo Binghe did not win his place at Shen Yuan's side easily. It took countless tries - countless attempts at entering an iteration of Shen Yuan's world only to find that the 'Shen Yuan' there was destined to transmigrate into a world with a different 'Luo Binghe.' This is fine, though, because Luo Binghe has finally managed to find a Shen Yuan of his own. He's managed to get close to him, even, to form a relationship so sticky sweet that it makes Luo Binghe want to carefully cut open his chest and place Shen Yuan inside so that they might press themselves so close to each other. What Luo Binghe witnessed in the past - the death and transmigration of so many 'Shen Yuans' - is fine. And then /his/ Shen Yuan catches a cold. ➤ reverse transmigration! original luo binghe has been searching for a shen yuan who can be HIS, when the other shen yuans he's found have all immediately died and transmigrated to love a different luo binghe. ➤ luo binghe doesn't want anything to take his shen yuan away!!!!! then shen yuan gets a cold. luo binghe worries. ➤ so cute and so them! <3 ➤ I love all the ways these two have come to know each other and love each other in all their realness. how ridiculous they are about each other! how mad binghe is about all the dangers and unpleasantness of the modern world (because it might injure his shen yuan!!!) ➤ you've fucked up a perfectly good protagonist. look at him. he's got anxiety~ ➤ 5k words

Summary: Two birders with an intracommunity beef with each other are the only guests on a pelagic trip. It's Nie Huaisang's first, and he's very excited. Until he wants nothing more than to go home. ➤ a cute modern au sangcheng fic where they're both birders and end up on the same pelagic boat trip ➤ I especially loved all the birding details! ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe get themselves into a Situation at Shen Yuan's sister's wedding. ➤ modern au svsss, liu qingge and luo binghe as guests at a wedding, dancing with each other to get shen yuan's attention ➤ the dynamics between all of them here are so perfect, the unwilling attraction between bingliu and the unspoken understanding between them at the end! ➤ 900 words in length

Summary: Lan Zhan is — a friend. A guy. That takes the pressure off, knowing they’re doing this as friends, that Wei Ying doesn’t have to perform. And, he’ll admit, it’s flattering that Lan Zhan wants him. The guy is gorgeous. And when he said "I know how to please a man," in that deep, silky voice of his — / Straight boy Wei Ying enters a friends with benefits arrangement with his gay roommate and best friend, Lan Zhan. It absolutely doesn't awaken anything in him. ➤ modern au wangxian fic where they're friends and roommates who start a friends-with-benefits arrangement ➤ a-spec wangxian! I liked how it was handled with wwx's difficulties in recognizing what he was feeling about lwj ➤ I read this fic as a wip and I have a bad memory so I don't recall everything I thought about it in the earlier chapters but it was good! ➤70k words in length

Summary: On the desk in between Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu was a printout of the email. Shen Qingqiu refused to look at it. If he tried very hard, he could pretend it wasn’t there. When the email had hit his inbox this morning, Shen Qingqiu had read it and reread enough to have it memorized, as he tried to comprehend the meaning of these words arranged in this order. The second that comprehension dawned upon him, he’d deleted the email then promptly tried to forget everything about it. He wasn’t being very successful on that front. The message, written with the extraordinary eloquence that Shen Qingqiu knew Luo Binghe was capable of, had been sent en masse to the entire faculty and student body. It stated two main points. Firstly, that Luo Binghe attested that Shen Qingqiu had never slept with, assaulted, molested, groomed, or was in any way inappropriate to him during his time at Cang Qiong Academy (thanks for the endorsement, Binghe!!). Secondly, that Luo Binghe was announcing this because he intended to marry Shen Qingqiu and did not want even the whisper of false impropriety to stain his Shizun’s name. ➤ cackling with delighted laughter over this svsss bingqiu modern au ➤ these complete weirdos!!! (affectionate) ➤ lbh, a former student of sqq who has since become an international superstar, sends a mass email announcing his interest in sqq. sqq is more worried about his old student's feelings being hurt than he is about the evident stalking the email reveals ➤ the fic is so funny, with so many perfect details. and the last line!!! I'm dead. ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: Whenever Shen Yuan thought of Luo Binghe, she got a weird feeling in her stomach, like she was hungry, like she was about to fall. So she stopped thinking long enough to lay down on the sofa. Luo Binghe wasn’t like other women. She had a perfect body: strong, but also soft. She could pick Shen Yuan up, but she also made a good pillow. She was an excellent cook, but she hated to have help in the kitchen and would only let Shen Yuan sit on the counter and watch. She was highly intelligent, with a memory like a trap and a natural aptitude for learning. But she was cute, too—she liked to hold onto Shen Yuan during scary movies, and if Shen Yuan didn’t pat her on the head and tell her ‘good job’, she pouted. ➤ a cute little modern au f/f bingqiu get-together! ➤ lbh comes over to sy's apartment to cook for her on a rainy day ➤ binghe is SO good at working around her yuan-jie's heterosexual hangups 🥰 ➤ 2.5k words in length

Summary: The Institute of Religious Studies was housed in one of the oldest structures at the university, an ornate hipped-roof building that overlooked the campus from the foot of the northern peaks. Aside from the narrow drive that wound up the rise from the other side of campus, the only access was via a steep staircase or a switchbacked path that took twenty minutes to ascend. Most people on campus called it the Mountain. ➤ songxuexiao t4t4t modern au where they're grad students in china ➤ I had the pleasure of getting to see this fic as it came together, and the thought and care verity puts into their writing is always so evident in their beautifully written and beautifully constructed stories! ➤ from song lan's pov as he watches creepy stalker xue yang entwine herself into his bff (and object of pining) xiao xingchen's life ➤ sl DOESN'T trust xy, he DOES find it super hot to put her in her place and have sex with her, he DOES struggle to be fully vulnerable with xxc despite everything she is to him ➤ the vibes are so good, I love how real and present each character and their complex emotions about each other are, and I love the way the theme of the weather runs through the whole fic holding things together ➤ highly recommend! ➤ 12k words in length

Summary: Shang Qinghua is dropped without warning into an archaic alternate universe, ie. the Oxford University collegiate system. And, okay, there would have been a warning if she read the college brochure properly before she applied… ➤ modern AU f/f moshang where they meet as college roommates ➤ I appreciate that it's set in a specific college and the details about it are made use of to build out the sense of setting ➤ I love sqh's narrative pov, she's so funny! ➤ I also love the glimpses we get into the cumplane friendship and into the whole....situation sqq has going on with the harem of young men who are in love with him while sqq is oblivious to how gay everything is. ➤ and the moshang is super cute. mbj and sqh are both bad at communicating, in very different ways, and mbj is doing her best! ➤ 9k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Even from the bar's parking lot, Lan Wangji could feel the presence of the spirits inside. This place was haunted. There was evidence of demonic cultivation everywhere from the wards to Wei Wuxian's bed. Lest he crawl back into it, Lan Wangji unsheathed Bichen and climbed on.</blockquote> ➤ mdzs wangxian modern-with-cultivation au where lwj is a trans man and wwx is a trans woman ➤ and ahhhh it just makes me so emotional about how GREAT wangxian are!!! ➤ wonderfully integrated characters/plot into a world they inhabit where friends and work and weird tastes in books are part of their lives, and also, lwj and wwx find each other and are immediately obsessed with each other, finding something in each other that allow them to best be themselves ➤ so many very funny details also, at the same time that it's many feelings ➤ 10k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The gang finds out that everyone has kissed Lan Wangji except for Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian has a meltdown about it and then fixes the problem as quickly and thoroughly as he possibly can.</blockquote> ➤ modern AU wangxian fic wherein wwx finds out that lwj has kissed all of their friends except him ➤ obviously he immediately goes insane about this ➤ I'm very charmed that this is a "mutual pining" trope fic wherein the two of them never doubt for even a moment that they are each other's most important person ➤ the writing is extremely funny. such good comedy bits overlapping with the genuine emotions in ways that make both parts better! ➤ 31k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Sequel to Late Night, North Station. Lan Zhan brings Wei Ying and A-Yuan home with him. Now he just needs to figure out how to get them to stay.</blockquote> ➤ modern au where wwx reappears after many years and lwj wants to keep him in his life in whatever way he can ➤ I love! how much they care about each other, and how they try to navigate the new/old dynamics between them with the additional perspective that being older will bring ➤ though lwj still hasn't entirely figured out the framework to understand his attraction to wwx ➤ they're both trying so hard to not overstep boundaries between them but they can both agree that whatever is best for a-Yuan is worth doing ➤ watching them slide into intimacy and intertwined lives, and how lwj comes alive with wwx and a-yuan in his life! endless delight ➤ impeccable under-negotiated d/s vibes between them ➤ I love the glimpses into all the other people in their lives as well! ➤ ahhh there are so many things I could keep saying about this fic! it's so good ➤ 106k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>He watches her that night, like he hasn’t done in months, a specter outside her bedroom window, a breeze in the dark night. Her things are, as always, scattered around her bed where she dropped them upon falling asleep. He can’t help but take notice that the fan is in a place of pride, tacked up on the wall next to polaroid pictures of — he realizes with a start — the two of them. He remembers her taking the pictures, shoving that too-big retro camera in his face and squishing the two of them together tight enough that He Xuan’s cheek brushed against hers. He shakes the memory off and watches her sleep, her chest slowly rising and falling with each inhale and exhale.</blockquote> ➤ beefleaf modern reincarnation! reincarnation isn't usually my thing but I liked how it was handled here ➤ he xuan has not developed any more chill over the years between when sqx dies and when sqx is finally reincarnated ➤ he xuan's pov is very fun. the drama! the pathos! meanwhile sqx is clearly just having a nice time bonding with he-jie. beefleaf always about contrasts :) ➤ I believe in u, he xuan! you can do it! have an actual relationship with sqx!! ➤ also the gender stuff is great. ➤ 6k words in length ➤ thanks to roland for the rec!

Summary: <blockquote>Tennal runs a coffee shop. Surit doesn't go to a lot of coffee shops, but he's pretty sure the rest of them aren't like this.</blockquote> ➤ coffee shop au for Ocean's Echo! ➤ wherein Tennal runs a froofy indie coffee shop and Surit is on a budge that doesn't allow for froofy drinks ➤ super cute! ➤ 4k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The most shocking thing about Ghost City was how modern it was. Billboards! Traffic lights! KFC! Xie Lian could never get over the demons taking pictures of street food. The first time she saw it happen, she pulled on Hua Cheng’s sleeve and whispered, “San Lang… why is that man photographing his dumplings?” Hua Cheng glanced at Xie Lian. “People post photos online. On Weibo, usually.” Xie Lian had the vague sense that Weibo was sort of like a public communication array. She wasn’t sure why anyone would share photos of their food there, but she didn’t know anyone who would be interested besides Hua Cheng. “Ah, I see.” “I’ll show you, jiejie.” Hua Cheng fished her phone out of her pocket. Her suit was so low-cut that Xie Lian could barely look at her; the fake fur trim ran down to the navel, exposing the soft curves of Hua Cheng’s breasts and the garish necklace suspended between them. “Here, look through this.”</blockquote> ➤ rule 63 modern au hualian ➤ it is so SOFT and suffused with care that I am all emotions!!!! ➤ also. the outfits. I die. ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In which Lan Zhan makes a friend at a quilt show.</blockquote> ➤ a super cute modern au where wangxian are quilters! I love how much the author is clearly familiar with quilting and is able to imbue the fic with insider perspectives on the art/hobby ➤ I love when writers port "these characters are super skilled at The Thing The Show Is About" into a completely different domain like this, especially when it's a domain that doesn't get much attention from fandom usually! ➤ the dynamics between wwx and lwj are also so fun, the way they click so easily, and push each other, and inspire each other, and love each other ➤ also I dearly want to see all the quilts that are described in the fic lol ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>After Mobei Jun loses access to his trust fund, he needs a new income source. Luckily for him, Shang Qinghua is rich, single, and inoffensive. What more could you need in a man?</blockquote> ➤ tshirt is a genius, this is SO funny, I'm dying ➤ modern au where mbj is a trust fund baby who's lost access to his trust fund, and what is he going to do, WORK for money?? no. ➤ enter sugar daddy sqh, or possibly findom mbj's paypig sqh ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“What do you think about,” Wei Ying said aloud, before she could stop herself, before she could even think twice about the repercussions. “When you.” She finally found Lan Zhan’s eyes, molten in the low light, and swallowed in a tiny, audible gulp. “You know.” On Wei Ying, Lan Zhan’s gaze didn’t waver even a fraction. “Giving head,” she said. Wei Ying was certain she’d misheard. “Getting head?” “No,” said Lan Zhan. / After a surprise party gone awry, Wei Ying surprises herself.</blockquote> ➤ i loved the unusual detail of them being swimmers/divers, and all the water stuff worked into the prose

Summary: <blockquote>Thinking about wlw Wei Ying wearing skimpier and skimpier outfits to do her early morning workouts in the living room of the apartment she shares with Lan Zhan. She’s never worked out so much before, but Lan Zhan looks so good with delicately flushed ears and a flat startled look.</blockquote>