#ghost hunting is an inherently gay profession

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au idea: wacky comedy fic in the “inexperienced young hero on a worthy quest with a secret magical guide/teacher who also provides comic relief” genre, but the young hero is mo xuanyu and the guide is nie mingjue’s severed head that mo xuanyu stole from jinlintai as his severance package

[sashabarkov]

happy birthday jin zixuan! it’s pink time!

[for @mdzsnet​‘s jzx/jgy birthday event!]

bonus for mr jin guangyao, whose birthday it also is, but he already got to be pink so i made his hat pink instead. the details on his hat are the bane of my life and i cannot make them not look fuzzy. and yes, i am considering murder about it. i suffer for art

[sashabarkov]

to brave the storm-dark sea

for a kiss prompt (a kiss to give up control) from @theleakypen on twitter

Wei Wuxian sneaks into the settlement at Gaoshandao under cover of the last hour of darkness, stowing his tiny boat in one of the rocky northeastern coves. He isn’t supposed be there. He isn’t supposed to be able to get there; that was the whole point of settling the Wens out on this remote island, where the only points of arrival are by sword or boat. The only official visitors to Gaoshandao are the disciples sent by the sects once a month to check in with the settlement.

Well. Sometimes Madam Jin visits too. But she’s only there to see her son, and she pointedly ignores the rest of the settlement as she tries to convince Jin Zixuan to return to lanling, so Wei Wuxian thinks she shouldn’t really count.

There’s a path carved into the cliffs in this cove, steep and narrow enough to overlook if you don’t already know of it. The official visitors dock on the south beach, but Wei Wuxian has to navigate that treacherous path, dodging bird nests the whole way. He slips into the settlement and makes his way to the house closest to the dock, where the door is unlocked for him.

Jin Zixuan is still in bed, although he looks up and murmurs a drowsy hello when the door slides open. That hello turns into something more awake when Wei Wuxian crosses the room without a word and collapses onto the bed, burying his face in Jin Zixuan’s shoulder.

“That bad, huh?” Jin Zixuan asks, patting Wei Wuxian’s back.

Wei Wuxian groans into the silk of Jin Zixuan’s robes and then moves his head sideways a little to mouth at Jin Zixuan’s collarbone. Now that he’s here, he can stop trying to ignore the furious thrum of resentment slicing through him, cold and demanding against his bones. It’s built up pretty significantly since he was last here, and he needs a little time outside of his own head, a little time with someone else in control, to settle him into his skin again.

“Want some quiet time?” Jin Zixuan hums.

Wei Wuxian nods and kisses a line up to the corner of Jin Zixuan’s jaw. It’s okay. He can trust Jin Zixuan to take control.

He isn’t being naive about this. He knows that Jin Zixuan didn’t ruin his whole future and reputation for him, or for any of the Wen remnants except one. He knows that Jin Zixuan had really only been thinking of A-Tao back then, when he’d stood before the world and stammered out the biggest lie of his life, claiming his infant half-sister as his own child. But they’re allies now, and a lot less reluctantly so than they were when the resettlement negotiations were first beginning, so Wei Wuxian also knows that when he’s in need like this, Jin Zixuan will help him out.

“Alright,” Jin Zixuan says, and his voice swings sharp enough that if Wei Wuxian didn’t know what to look for by now, he’d miss the care and worry underneath that haughty tone. “Go take A-Tao over to Wen-popo, and give me a little time to wake up first. Then we can get started.”

[sashabarkov]

cql x @normal-horoscopes (1/??)

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time to subject ppl to my objectively correct opinions!!

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thank you so much!!! it’s perfect

SO *coughcough*…hum, where to begin…

This is a commission for @lesbianjinzixuan featuring Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng. L-Let’s just say the Lotus throne gave me the most trouble to draw but it was a nice challenge!

[sashabarkov]

not enough modern aus that let jin zixuan be the weird rich horse boy he was always meant to be

[sashabarkov]

oooo, smut prompts? how about wen xu/jin zixuan with 6 “We’re really going to fuck here? What if someone sees us?”

Warning: NSFW content under the cut.

This contains nipple play, mild exhibitionism, and Wen Xu having a rather monstrous self-image.

“We’re really going to fuck here?” Jin Zixuan pants, his back pressed against the garden pavilion wall and his wrists twisting in the tight grip holding them. “What if someone sees us?”

There’s mild alarm on his face, but none of the fear that should be there—that would be there, if Wen Xu’s dear treasure was a smarter man. Or perhaps he is too smart to worry, sharp enough to see beyond the fearsome reputation and know that he is in no true danger. Here, in the Nightless City, there is only one beast more deadly than Wen Xu; here, even with the ongoing discussion conference drawing in all those cultivators from lesser sects, there is no threat but one that could match him in his own home. He is a fiendish predator, his claws sheathed only for his own mate.

Wen Xu grins and presses closer to his treasure, wedging a thigh up between Jin Zixuan’s legs and delighting in the gasp that elicits. “Let them look,” he snarls, and sets his teeth against the side of Jin Zixuan’s neck, not hard enough to break the skin but mean enough to bruise. “Let them watch as I mark you. Let them stare as you open for me. Let them see that you’re mine.”

Jin Zixuan actually whines at that, his hips bucking up against Wen Xu’s leg and making the hand that Wen Xu is working into his pants slide further in. “Okay,” he gasps, “that’s, ah, hot to think about, but we should actually take this inside somewhere, because if my mother finds—nnnghhh—”

Wen Xu strokes his treasure’s hard length again, slow and tantalizing, savoring the way Jin Zixuan’s eyes slip closed and his body trembles in Wen Xu’s grip. He reacts so well, so beautifully sensitive and responsive, his body clearly saying what his words rarely manage. It’s beautiful, a delicious meal spread out before Wen Xu’s eyes, and he intends to savor it.

It’s the work of an instant to remove Jin Zixuan’s belt and loop it around his wrists, anchoring it to one of the pavilion’s decorative protrusions. It takes another instant for Wen Xu to part Jin Zixuan’s robes and apply his hands to the lean abs and peaked nipples there, twisting the brown nubs between his fingers until his dear treasure is writhing before him, begging frantically for more. He ducks down and mouths at one nipple, sucking and licking and even using his teeth a little, until there are real tears on Jin Zixuan’s face; then he switches over to the other one and repeats the process. It’s a heady, powerful feeling, to have Jin Zixuan at his mercy like this, completely and exquisitely undone, and he doesn’t want it to end.

“Please,” Jin Zixuan keens, “please, please, fuck me, please—”

“What happened to wanting to go inside for that?” Wen Xu asks meanly, grinding his thumbs into those swollen, sore nipples and laughing as Jin Zixuan tries to push closer and pull away at the same time.

“Don’t care,” Jin Zixuan sobs, “just—ah!—just fuck me, please, fuck—”

“Patience,” Wen Xu sneers, trailing his hands down Jin Zixuan’s sides and pushing his pants down as well when he reaches them. He cups Jin Zixuan’s ass, squeezing and fondling the cheeks for a while until he dips a finger between them—

Something’s already there.

It’s a bronze plug, warm from the heat of Jin Zixuan’s body and slick and wet around the edges, and the sight of it sets the beast in Wen Xu ablaze. He tosses the plug aside and yanks Jin Zixuan’s thighs up, the realization that his treasure had prepared for him driving him into an animalistic frenzy as he thrusts in with a throaty growl, obeying his dear treasure’s pleading request.

Wen Xu already knows that he is a vicious, cruel monster, with an insatiable appetite and a taste for blood. He already knows that his very fundamentals are corrupt, his morals as broken as the skulls he shatters. He already knows that he has no remorse and no mercy.

One day, his precious treasure will ask him to kill his father.

He already knows that the answer will be yes.

[sashabarkov]

how jin ling figures out she’s trans

lan jingyi: young mistress

jin ling:

[sashabarkov]

for the prompts: xuanli, 42 (matching clothes)

Modern AU. Jin Zixuan is a trans woman in this because I said so; it’s my turn to trans some genders.

When Jiang Yanli gets back from her errands, Jin Zixuan is settled on the couch by the door with her feet tucked up under her, scrolling through something on her tablet. She scrambles up when Jiang Yanli walks in, rushing over to help her out of the three scarves and two jackets that Jiang Yanli needs to survive winters here, and despite the way she can barely feel her face, she can’t help but lean up and kiss her wife as soon as the scarves are out of the way.

It’s only their third winter in Toronto, and she still isn’t used to the biting cold and just how much snow the wind can tuck into the folds of her jacket. Her childhood in Xiaogan had rarely featured snow, and while her wife’s had seen it slightly more frequently, it’s nothing compared to the ice and slush that coat the streets and sidewalks here—or more rarely, when the winds change, the lake effect snow that can plunge the entire city into a whiteout. The move was necessary, to get them out of the long reach of Jin Zixuan’s father, but during these long winter months, she can’t deny that she misses the easier winters almost as much as she misses her brothers.

Jin Zixuan slips into the kitchen while Jiang Yanli is coaxing her boots off, and returns with hand sanitizer and a freshly brewed cup of tea just as the boots finally acquiesce. She accepts gratefully, letting the warmth seep into her stiff fingers as her wife hangs up her second coat and tugs her over to the couch, settling them together and wrapping a blanket around them before picking up the tablet again. The cold doesn’t hit Jin Zixuan anywhere near as hard, but she loves to use it as an excuse to cuddle, and Jiang Yanli definitely doesn’t mind.

In no time at all, her hands are warm again, and she sets the empty cup aside and reaches for her wife’s hair, smiling as Jin Zixuan scoots around to face away from her and give her greater access. It’s a nightly tradition for them, an expression of love and closeness and affirmation all in one. Sometimes, on the nights when she needs a distraction, the hairstyles are intricate, but tonight she keeps it simple, plaiting a single thick braid running down her wife’s back.

Jin Zixuan hums contentedly, reaching behind her to squeeze Jiang Yanli’s hand lovingly, before turning back to the tablet.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Yanli asks as she nears the end of the braid.

Jin Zixuan blushes, the bashful, endearing one that she gets when she wants something but doesn’t know how to ask for it. “I’m—eh, it’s just silly, really, but. I, um...

She holds up the tablet, and Jiang Yanli rises up on her knees to get a better look at the screen. It shows a pair of t-shirts, heather gray, with pastel rainbow lettering on the front that says “I’M HERS”, and arrows below the words pointing towards each other.

A burst of affection swells up within Jiang Yanli’s chest. She knows her wife loves her—Jin Zixuan has gotten so much more open about showing it, now that she’s more comfortable with herself—but every such moment still feels precious. Besides, this isn’t just a tender exchange between the two of them; this is, no matter how silly, a larger proclamation.

She smiles, tying off the end of the braid with a well-worn ribbon. “I like it.”

Jin Zixuan ducks her head. “It’s dumb,” she mumbles. “Tacky.”

“It makes you happy.” Jiang Yanli leans forward and settles herself against her wife’s back, sweeping Jin Zixuan’s fresh braid aside and pressing a kiss on the side of her neck. “And when you’re happy, that makes me happy too.”

“There’s better things to spend our money on,” Jin Zixuan objects half-heartedly. She’s not the best with money, still struggling to beat the habits she was raised with, but getting cut out of the Jin family fortune has left its mark.

Jiang Yanli hums and reaches over her wife’s shoulder to hit the ‘Add to Cart’ button. “It’s two shirts, we can afford it. If it makes you happy, then it’s worth it.” She tugs on Jin Zixuan’s arm until her wife twists around to look at her. “And if you kiss me, I’ll let you in on a secret.”

Jin Zixuan sighs, gently exasperated. “I’d do that anyway, A-Li,” she says, and sets the tablet aside to lean in properly. It’s a good kiss, warm and slow and tender, and when they finish she doesn’t pull away, just resettles them so that Jiang Yanli is tucked against her chest, ear pressed to her collarbone, listening to her heartbeat echo steadily underneath.

“So? What’s the secret?”

Jiang Yanli smiles into her wife’s shirt. “It would make me happy too.”

[sashabarkov]

◉ poetry head canon -- LWJ, WN, JGY

lan wangji has many meticulously tended notebooks of poetry (song lyrics) about wei wuxian that he keeps under the floorboards in the jingshi. they’re all precious to him, but the one that he goes back to the most is the first one—the original composition notes for wangxian.mp3, showing the many drafts of the song and the numerous rejected lines, most of which were written before lan wangji fully realized/accepted that he was writing a love song for wei wuxian.

wen ning likes reading poetry, but he doesn’t consider himself any good at writing it. he used to have a little book of poems his grandfather had written (mostly about the natural beauty of dafan mountain) that he’d pull out when he was helping wen qing prepare medicine and it reached a step where he had a break to read in. the book got destroyed by water damage at qiongqi path.

jin guangyao has an astoundingly large number of poems memorized. most of these are just the result of his accurate mental recall, but some of them he actively revisits to make sure they’re still perfectly memorized. there’s no discernible pattern between those specific poems that anyone else would notice, because only jin guangyao knows that those were the poems that his mother taught him with.

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it’s @bitterfrosts’s birthday! have a snippet of a sci-fi songxue au, as a treat!

***

Xue Yang pulls himself up out of the coolant tank and kicks the floor panel back into place, whistling in his typical jaunty fashion of his, so off-key that it makes Song Lan’s skin crawl. He saunters through the ship’s small kitchen, swinging a sopping sleeve at Song Lan’s head as he passes; Song Lan ducks on instinct, sighing internally as drops of coolant splash against the wall behind him.

His ship used to be clean, once.

He shakes his head and holds up the datapad again, trying to focus on the latest invoice. His visual processor is on the fritz again, scrambling most of his right side input and making it difficult to read all but the most basic of characters, even when he magnifies the text to fill the whole screen. If he hadn’t taken that blow to the head back on Guangfeng Four, then he wouldn’t be dealing with this problem right now; the implant casing near his right temple is still dented, probably pinching some wires somewhere. If he hadn’t had to leave the ship during that stop, the way things were supposed to go, then he’d be able to see just fine—

But if Song Lan hadn’t left the ship and gone after Xue Yang, then his shipmate would’ve died.

“Eyes acting up again?” Xue Yang asks, dropping down into the seat across from him and leaning back, resting his slime-stained boots on the table. Song Lan glares at him, but he only grins back, unrepentant, his sharp canines on full display. “I’ve told you, if you’d just let me take a look at them I’m sure I could fix you up just fine! Maybe even throw in a couple upgrades, free of charge!”

Song Lan chooses to ignore most of that; they’ve discussed this before, and there’s no way he’s letting anyone other than a trained cybernetic engineer near his visual processor. “If these ‘upgrades’ are anything like the butchery you tried to do to my ship, then I don’t want them.”

“Aww, c’mon, don’t be so grumpy!” Xue Yang says, sitting up properly and leaning across the table, his prosthetic hand aiming for Song Lan’s shoulder—

Song Lan twists away from him, eyeing the coolant-covered glove with distaste. “Do not touch me until you’ve cleaned that gunk off.”

Xue Yang huffs. “Alright, fine, have it your way.” He drops his hand and scrambles to his feet, stalking away from the table. “Your veggies are shit, I’ll cook tonight,” he throws over his shoulder, just before the door of the lavatory closes behind him.

Xue Yang cooking is going to mean oversweetened boxed pancakes for the fourth time this week. Song Lan grimaces, mentally preparing his mouth for the ordeal, and half-wishes that he hadn’t learned to read between the lines of Xue Yang’s capricious words—if he couldn’t tell that ‘I’ll cook tonight’ really meant ‘take a night off and give your visual processor some rest,’ then he wouldn’t have to deal with the knowledge that on some level, this asshole stowaway delinquent has grown to care about him.

[sashabarkov]

wangxianxuan?

oh i LOVE me some good wangxianxuan, it’s one of my favorite rare ships

the “unhealthily” and “unrequited” circles are situational; it entirely depends upon when in time we’re talking about. in the gusu days it would probably be (or at least start out as) either unhealthy or unrequited (possibly both!), with a fair amount of repression, jealousy, denial, and hate-makeouts that are definitely based in more than hate—in short, Very Messy. after all, wwx and lwj already have their thing going on, and the wwx vs jzx rivalry is well known; it’s not that much of a stretch to throw in lwj’s famed vinegar-drinking abilities and center the jealousy around wwx having a rivalry with someone other than him. maybe that’s where the hate-makeouts come in! maybe lwj tries to stake a claim (thus giving jzx an eye-opening “mark me down as scared and horny” moment). maybe lwj accidentally stakes the wrong claim! cue a furious lecture from lqr about how “you can’t kiss people who’re already betrothed! i expected better from you, wangji!”, and an engagement cancellation from jfm bc “evidently the current engagement was not to jin zixuan’s tastes”, and a Whole lot of artwork from nhs bc “eligible bachelors #2 and 3 kissing each other? hot!”, and most importantly a whole mess of complicated feelings and emotions from wwx. which he’s not gonna think about right now. or maybe ever. just like he’s not gonna think about lan zhan kissing the peacock!

...oh no, now he’s thinking about lan zhan kissing the peacock. oh no, why can’t he stop thinking about lan zhan kissing the peacock?!

and i’m gonna stop there before i plot a whole fic on this post but you get the idea