LINKDING

Summary: <blockquote>Despite, well, all the bad parts, Mo Ran's new apartment's got some perks: the size of it—enough to fit a whole family; the proximity to his job—no more getting home from work way past 1 AM; and his neighbor—65, bitchy, surprisingly kind, slim waist hidden under all those hideous clothes, insanely flexible-- Yeah, Mo Ran likes his new place just fine.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Wow,” he says. “Well, in that case.” He leans against the counter and looks at his quiet apartment. The thing is: he was always going to say yes. He has no impulse control and he’s always good for a laugh and he’s kind of lonely. And since he knows Lan Zhan would never want to actually date him, he might as well take what he can get. “In that case,” he says a little more firmly, “I’m in.” So that’s how it starts. The worst, best thing to ever happen to Wei Ying.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>When Lan Zhan indicates a willingness to be Wei Ying's (platonic) dom, Wei Ying jumps at the chance. But then Wei Ying catches feelings. Really inappropriate feelings for someone who's supposed to be his esteemed platonic colleague. Surely the detestably respectful thing to do is to break it off rather than violate this clear boundary, right? But before Wei Ying can work up the fortitude to take that final, terrible step, he and Lan Zhan get caught up in a surprise case. One where talking to each other becomes significantly harder.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"You've never had an orgasm?!" Both Wen Qing and Mianmian are watching Wei Ying with huge eyes, straws slipping out of their mouths. Wei Ying squirms in place, biting on her own straw. "It's not that big a deal, is it?"</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Do you—” Quan Yizhen started, and then on the other side of the room Pei Ming started up his jackhammer, so he waited, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and then said all in a rush, “doyouknowHuaCheng?” Xie Lian blinked. “You know—him?” she asked, in case 'San Lang' was some kind of private name, a secret code just for her. She liked the thought of that. Quan Yizhen shook his head vigorously, his curls bouncing. “No!” he said. “But Yin-ge said you were with him at Home Depot and you left together!” Xie Lian stared at him. One of the employees that had helped her a few weeks ago had been called Yin something, she was pretty sure, but that’s about as far as she could follow what was happening here. “Yizhen, if you don’t know Hua Cheng, why is this… notable?” “He’s famous. Or like. The bad one. Infamous. I thought—” His eyes gleamed. “I thought maybe you fought him.” / Retired (read: disgraced) famous boxer Xie Lian meets a helpful stranger while at Home Depot attempting to fix her collapsing roof.</blockquote> ➤ the mafia element is very minor

<blockquote>Three months ago, Lan Xichen introduced Wei Wuxian by bringing him to Lan Wangji’s office and saying, “Wangji, this is our new teen librarian. I’m sure you’ll be happy to show him around since you’ll be working closely together.” Lan Wangji did not and does not feel that this was in any way an adequate introduction to Wei Wuxian. / Featuring: critical librarianship, rabbit-themed office supplies, and an elderly cat named Bunny.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“She gave you weed?” She asks, and then, scowling, “you’re not suggesting we—” Feng Xin makes a face at her. “No, are you kidding? With my baby in the room? You really think a lot of my parenting skills, huh.” “Sorry,” Mu Qing mutters, because Feng Xin is a good dad, for the most part, once she stopped being stupid about leaving dangerous shit around her apartment. “I thought,” says Feng Xin slowly. “I thought you might want it?” “I don’t even drink,” Mu Qing says incredulously, “and you think I might want the shitty weed you got from the potential cannibal you went on a bad date with?” “Weed is different from booze,” Feng Xin argues. “Maybe it’ll help you, like. Relax, a little.” “Who the fuck says I need to relax,” Mu Qing snaps. “Fuck,” says Cuocuo, gummily but unmistakably. Mu Qing stares at Feng Xin, who stares right back. “Please tell me that wasn’t his first word.” </blockquote>

<blockquote>Mobei Jun and Shang Qinghua fit together like a 3D puzzle: with a lot of missteps, rearranging, and precision. Too bad their friends are, like, really bad at spatial reasoning. OR: 5 times no one realized moshang were together, and one time it was too obvious to miss</blockquote>

<blockquote>When the protagonist from a webnovel you’ve wasted your youth on shows up in your living room out of nowhere, naturally you have to play host! Unfortunately for Shen Yuan, Luo Binghe—the Heavenly Ruler of the Three Realms and stallion extraordinaire—is not exactly what you’d call a light guest.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“He smiles too much,” Lan Wangji says, frowning at the pixelated headshot of the instructor. Flippancy is not necessarily forbidden, but it is strongly discouraged, especially when one is a thousand feet above ground instructing the light of someone else’s life. Lan Sizhui is going for his Sword Flight Licence. Lan Wangji is panicked.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Ying thinks he’s going to meet a younger version of Professor Lan, since they’re brothers- gently smiling, a little sad way back somewhere, smart as a whip and just a touch gullible, but instead he meets a drop dead gorgeous sonovabitch who refuses to make more than cursory eye contact and has about as much empathy in him as a brick fucking wall. In which Wei Ying is forced to take AAS100: Intro to Asian American Studies to graduate. He has a cruelly strict grader, and his only hope of passing the class is attending extra credit movie nights in a ridiculous dorm with 3,000 rules. Or: I watched a Chinese piece of media, promptly had a whole pile of feelings about being Chinese-American, and dumped them into a fanfiction.</blockquote> ➤ Chinese American identity is important theme

<blockquote>Lan Zhan knows that face. It's Wei Ying. His head is thrown back, eyes closed, baring a long line of throat interrupted only by his adam's apple. He's pulling the mic stand towards him as he belts out a high note, long and piercing, the crowd screaming along with him. He cuts it off and snaps his eyes open – the camera catches it head on and for a single breath, it's almost as if he's looking straight at Lan Zhan. - The ballet dancer!LWJ and rockstar!WWX AU</blockquote>

<blockquote>Ah. The Asshole Dog is loose again. Lan Zhan knows that it is not the dog’s fault for being an asshole, but The Asshole Dog is the reason Lan Zhan had a fence put in at a significant personal expense, because the alternative was allowing his garden to be destroyed and for Bunny to be menaced on her leashed outdoor adventures. Unacceptable. The Most Beautiful Man in the World cringes at the barking, scooting further away from the door through a sea of a dozen broken eggs and leaving a yolky trail in his wake. “Fuck,” he whimpers, curling into a ball, both hands wrapped around the back of his neck as if to—as if to protect himself, Lan Zhan realizes. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, please—” The Most Beautiful Man in the World begs, voice ragged. He’s definitely hyperventilating now, from what Lan Zhan can tell between the audible sobs. There’s another bark from outside, and The Most Beautiful Man in the World flinches bodily, making a terrified sound that Lan Zhan feels behind his ribs. Or: A meet ugly, a dog, and the beginning of something wonderful.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Have you heard of Wei Wuxian?" someone bellows. It's a teenager with a microphone, the speakers loud and obnoxious above his head. "Come join the Yiling Wei sect and earn the opportunity for her to teach you personally!" He has a stall and everything. There's another teenage boy with him, handing out leaflets. Wei Ying pulls her hair down to cover the sides of her face and walks up. "Hey! Are you interested in demonic cultivation?" asks the kid brightly. He grabs a leaflet off the stall and thrusts it at her. "Uh, I don't really know a lot about it," Wei Ying says, "but you said Wei Wuxian could personally teach me?" / Aka the casefic where someone is impersonating Wei Wuxian and has founded a sect, or possibly a cult, or possibly a multi-level marketing scheme, in her name. Aka the wlw mlm fic.</blockquote> ➤ the one where xy founds the yiling Wei sect pretending to be wwx

<blockquote>Lan Zhan is a man. Like, a red-blooded, Michelangelo-sculpted man. One time, maybe a couple weeks into their newly instated regular workout sessions, Wei Ying had been struggling to do an overheard press, and Lan Zhan had come right up behind him, chest to back, and steadied Wei Ying’s hips with his enormous hands. Wei Ying had looked down to see the fucking size of Lan Zhan’s thighs next to his, rippling and boy oh boy, how do thighs have veins? That are visible? And talk about a solid pelvis. Wei Ying’s never felt a more solid pelvis pressed against his ass, like, ever. Wei Ying meets his new best bro, Lan Zhan, at the gym. Wei Ying is also under the impression that he and his new best bro are very straight.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The one where Wei Ying (straight) and Lan Zhan (gay) make a shared tinder account to save money, because Wei Ying has brilliant ideas. (Wei Ying has terrible ideas.)</blockquote> ➤ endgame lwj/wwx

<blockquote>Wei Ying grabs a pen from Lan Zhan’s desk, curling his legs into a lotus pose under the arms of the chair so he can easily spread the journal out across his lap. Even upside down, Lan Zhan can read his large, messy characters scrawled across the top: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s Rules for Dating. Perhaps this was a bad idea.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Did you break the ward to come in?” Lan Wangji asks, point-blank. He has his sword out and pointed at Wei Wuxian, no bothering with niceties like hello I’m Lan Wangji, and you are? Wei Wuxian eyes the sword, but doesn’t react. He keeps lazing back on the roof, casually drinking his wine, as if this is the usual way he meets new people. (And maybe it is! I don’t know your life, Wei Wuxian!) Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian meet on Season 8 of The Cultivation World. Ouyang Zizhen writes the recaps.</blockquote> ➤ the cultivation world is like a reality tv show where a bunch of cultivators have to live as though it's historical times

<blockquote>One of the first things Wei Wuxian’s new co-star said to him was “this show isn’t a gay love story.” Vignettes of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian performing Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, not in order</blockquote>

<blockquote>Outside, it’s grown dark and the air smells faintly of woodsmoke and petrol and car exhaust fumes; all the familiar autumn London scents. Lan Wangji is glad for his jacket. Without the sun, the wind cuts through him. He looks at Wei Wuxian’s thin tunic and thinks, He must be cold. “Ahh,” Wei Wuxian sighs, taking a deep breath in. “I love the smell of September. Always reminds me of that back-to-school feeling, you know? It makes me think of new beginnings.” He looks directly at Lan Wangji when he says new beginnings. Lan Wangji swallows. — A love story told through various acts of civil disobedience, visits to London landmarks, activist rallies, and elaborate cooking endeavours.</blockquote> ➤ A modern activist au that actually feels grounded and realistic, though I had to fight vague feelings I was reading Les mis fic the whole time! this is totally the kind of fic les mis fandom would have written

<blockquote>Shang Qinghua knows better than anybody that he doesn’t get a second look so long as Shen Yuan is around.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian locks his phone and puts it down, blinks at his ceiling, and picks it up again. The pictures are still there. His first thought is that Lan Zhan meant them for someone else. That he just woke up at—he checks the timestamp—6:30 am on a Sunday and decided to go absolute full nuclear seduction option on some poor boy he met on Grindr, who would now be missing out on the best thing to ever happen to him because Wei Wuxian had a bad habit of distracting—of—oh. Pieces of last night start to resurface and paste themselves together in his head. He winces.</blockquote>

<blockquote>To be fair, Joe did know there were some things Nicky wasn’t quite telling him. But it didn’t matter to him who Nicky’s ancestors had been. What mattered was Nicky, who was kind, and thoughtful, and relentlessly committed to doing the right thing, including his share of the dishes. Really, what else did you need to know that someone was a keeper?</blockquote> ➤ I enjoyed that the relationship arc wasn't "will they get together" but "how will their relationship handle this major stressor"; a fun switch-up from the usual sort of thing

<blockquote>Wei Ying is at his first Grand Final, rated fifth in the solo cultivator rankings, with the Qishan and Lanling silver medals tucked away in his sock drawer, and he’s about to walk into the arena for a match that everyone knows he’s going to lose. A modern competitive cultivation AU.</blockquote> ➤ love the premise of this modern au

<blockquote>The guy is so stupid hot that Wei Ying doesn’t turn away in time. He can’t be absolutely sure, but he thinks the guy sees him sort of turned towards him. Not as bad as being caught outright staring at someone on the subway, except that it’s actually probably worse, because they’re in the cultivation gym’s locker room.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“So do you have a name?” “Yeah.” The man who had saved his life less than an hour ago – the white-haired, absurdly buff, weirdly sexy man Jaskier might have called taciturn if he was feeling charitable and surly if he was feeling less so – dug into his second burger. Jaskier waited. “Are… you going to tell me what it is?” The man paused mid-bite, and looked at him reproachfully as if to say how dare you. How dare you interrupt me. Can’t you see I’m enjoying my cheeseburger. Can’t you see this cheeseburger is the most important thing in my life right at the moment. He swallowed, and said, “Geralt.”</blockquote> ➤ modern au but Geralt is still a witcher

<blockquote>Very few jobs give you the perfect storm of moral high ground, manic energy, and being a huge dick to people on the regular that Wei Wuxian finds so satisfying about trauma surgery. However, they don't call it trauma for its psychological wellness. A year of q2 36 hour call would be unbearable if Lan Wangji weren't the other fellow that he shares a call bed with. A "What If All The Cultivators Were Surgeons?" AU.</blockquote> ➤ This fic is the epitome of Take Your Fandom To Work, making wonderful use of how closely the author is familiar with the context of the au setting and really bringing it to life.

<blockquote>"Lan Zhan!” Wuxian exclaims as soon as the door to Lan Wangji's apartment opens. “Fake-date me!” The door slams shut in his face. or, The Best Laid Plans of Wei Wuxian.</blockquote> ➤ the one where they're very involved in a Chinese Cultural Society

<blockquote>Luke Skywalker's parents are never going to be able to afford the college of his dreams. Luke resigns himself to community college. His best friend, Wedge, has a different idea. / Mind still scrambling for some sort of solution, Wedge asked, "Marriage? It's legal for you to get married." "And thank God for that." Luke rolled his eyes. "I don't know if you've noticed, buddy, but supreme court decision aside, there's not a lot of options for gay guys around here. Besides, how does that pitch go, marry me for the student loan debt?" "Okay," Wedge responded. </blockquote>

<blockquote>The one where Keith and Shiro decide that pretending to be dating at Shiro's ex's sister's wedding is the best idea ever.</blockquote>