Dear Pingxie Creator,

[eirenical]

First and foremost, I'd like to offer up a huge "Thank You!!" to you for creating a gift for me. I know how difficult it can be to put any part of your creative process into the hands of another individual, so I will do my best to treat that trust with the care and respect it deserves. ^_^

Gifting is turned on and treats of any variety are welcome. ^_^

AO3: eirenical (chibi1723)
tumblr: eirenical

Fic versus Art

Most of the more specific prompts have been written mostly with fic in mind just because I’m a writer and that’s how my brain works, but there are more nonspecific prompts in the “Likes” and “Prompts that work for all canons” sections that I think would make good art prompts? Of course, you are also welcome to delve into the sprawling mass of the other sections as well if you’d like something more specific. ^_^

Notes on rating, kink and general likes and dislikes (DNWs):

Rating and kink:

Rating: Any rating is fine for fic. For art, I would prefer to keep it SFW.

Kinks: I'll specify within specific fandoms and prompts if there are any particular kinks I might be interested in. (Fair warning, I do have a noncon kink a mile wide, but I'll put those behind spoiler tags.)

When it comes to whump and sexual activities, I generally prefer Wu Xie to be on the receiving end of both, but I am not opposed to Xiaoge being on the receiving end, if you have a strong preference in the other direction. (Or they can BOTH get whumped and do some switching. Both is good! ;D)

Likes: Some general things I like, along with some nonspecific tropes that I'm always up for, in case none of my prompts strike your fancy...

1. Hurt/comfort
2. Sick!fic
3. Blanket scenario
4. Caretaking (i.e., hair brushing, drawing a bath for someone/helping wash them, food is love, snuggling, hugging, all the nice nonsexual physical affections, etc.)
5. There was only one bed/sleeping bag/cave!
6. Huddling for Warmth
7. Nightmares/soothing from nightmares
8. Dramatic Irony Injury Reveal (Audience Knows About It But Other Characters Do Not)
9. Curtain fic/Slice of Life
10. PWP
11. Canon Divergence
12. Competence Porn
13. King and Lionheart/fealty
14. Found family
15. Time Travel fix-its
16. Time Loops
17. Outsider POV

DNWs (do not wants):

1. Entirely changed setting AUs, particularly mundane AUs (i.e. coffeehouse AUs, high school AUs, etc.) but also historical AUs, modern AUs, fantasy AUs, superhero AUs, etc., unless specified. (AUs of the canon divergence variety are fine.)
2. Infidelity/cheating/going behind someone's back/etc.
3. Embarrassment/secondhand embarrassment/humiliation
4. Animal abuse or pet death. Referring to animals with the pronoun "it."
5. Derealization: character believes they are in one situation and that turns out not to be true. (The old "it turns out the character is in a mental institution and all of canon was a hallucination" trope is a classic example of this.)
6. No unrequested gender or sexuality headcanons or swaps
7. The following kinks: Age play/infantilism, scat, watersports, omegaverse. (...basically, if I haven't listed it as something I'd like for a particular prompt/fandom, please err on the side of caution and just don't include it. Thanks!)
8. Unrequested background ships. Within each canon, I will list any background ships I might be open to if you want to include them.

Prompts:

(Overall disclaimer: for any of these general prompts that aren’t sexual, Pangzi can absolutely be there, too, because I DO see him as being just as integral a part of the Iron Triangle as Wu Xie and Xiaoge are, but I do not want him as part of the ship or implied to be part of the ship.)

Prompts that work for all requested canons:

1. Wu Xie gets injured in a tomb (or anywhere else for that matter XD) and Xiaoge has to take care of him/get him home safely.


2. Wu Xie gets sick and Xiaoge has to take care of him. This can be anything from a minor cold with more fussing than is at all necessary to Wu Xie’s canonical cancer in TLTR.


3. Getting together/first time fic: who makes the first move? Is it either of their first times? When does this happen? Does either of them think it’s just sex and if so, how does that complicate things?


4. COZY DOMESTIC PINGXIE. Curling up on the couch together, watching movies, reading to each other, soft, gentle caretaking like bathing together or brushing each other’s hair, soft gentle massages and/or hair petting, sitting inside warm and toasty with blankets and a fire going while snow falls outside, IDEK, but just… anything soft, cozy and domestic. ^_^


5. Wu Xie taking Xiaoge out to have some fun somewhere, maybe? The beach? The movies? An amusement park? An outdoor festival? Fireworks? Or maybe Xiaoge introducing Wu Xie to something HE likes to do?


6. Time Loop: one of them gets caught in a time loop and has to get them out of it, maybe falling in love with the other through the process?


7. Time travel fix-it: One of them goes back in time and has to decide whether or not they want the course of their time together to change, and if so, what do they decide to change?


8. Noncon prompt

   *coughs* As mentioned, I have a noncon kink a mile wide, so… Wu Xie gets raped and Xiaoge has to help him through it/after the fact. (This could be a person or group of people or some creature in a tomb… tentacles could be fun… just saying… ^_^) Bonus: maybe Xiaoge has to watch it happening because he can’t interfere just yet or he’ll get them both killed?

Specific Requests:

1. Movies: Time Raiders (2016)
2. Novels: The Grave Robbers' Chronicles
3. TV: The Lost Tomb 2 - Explore with the Note
4. Video Games: Time Raiders (mobile game)

You are free to utilize any prompt I toss out there or none of them. If reading what I like about the characters/worlds sparks a fic idea in your head, feel free to ignore the prompts and run with it. ^_^


1. Movies: Time Raiders (2016)
Other Characters in the canon I also love: Wang Pangzi, A-Ning
Non-Pingxie ships I like: A-Ning x Wang Pangzi

The more times I watch this movie, the more I legit fall in love with it. It really is almost the steampunk futuristic AU of DMBJ canon. XD I love Xiaoge's almost mystical type origins and the way he and Wu Xie are just drawn to each other from the start. I love his little move where he cuts the cord on Wu Xie's necklace just so he can catch the coin and give it back to him. SMOOTH, XIAOGE. SO SMOOTH. I love his little brooding episode on the roof of the building while he stares at Wu Xie's image on a giant billboard news screen. I love the overall EPICNESS of everything in this canon. The stakes feel so high. Wu Xie and Xiaoge are just ride-or-die for each other in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY from the very beginning. But I love the moments of humor and the way this Xiaoge smiles and laughs so freely. (I also LOVE Pangzi and A-Ning in this so much and the way Pangzi so very clearly would happily follow her around on a leash by the end. XD)

This movie just FEELS like epic fantasy to me, with Xiaoge the fabled warrior returned from the past or waiting for a hundred years to fulfill his destiny, and the rivalry between he and Cox Hendry that ends up extending to the young scholar who's taken his side (Wu Xie) as a foil for the evil genius hiding in his futuristic lair. It's just SO MUCH. It feels grand and unapologetic about it and yet it doesn't take itself too seriously either? I mean... THE DANCE SEQUENCE. And Wu Xie, the pied piper of all things creepy and crawlie. SO MANY HILARIOUS THINGS PLAYED SO STRAIGHT EVEN WITH TONGUES PLANTED FIRMLY IN CHEEKS. XD IT'S A AMAZING. And it's become such a comfort movie for me. ^_^

Specific Prompts: So anything that leans into that would be wonderful. ^_^

Some kind of mucking about with time and immortality or time travel would work really well for this canon, I think.

I'd also really love to see some kind of closure where Wu Xie and Xiaoge get their happy ending.

Maybe Wu Xie comes home from telling his tale to the writer/reporter and Xiaoge is waiting for him.

Or Wu Xie put that tale out into the world to draw Xiaoge back to him somehow. IDK. I just want them to get to live happily ever after after all of THAT. ^_^

Some kind of crossover with main book canon might be fun, too. I'm not even sure exactly how you'd accomplish that, but these versions of the characters are just SO DIFFERENT from their main novel counterparts and I think them meeting each other or swapping places could make for some really great shenanigans. ^_^

2. Novels: The Grave Robbers' Chronicles)
Other Characters in the canon I also love: Wang Pangzi, Wu Yiqiong (Wu Xie’s father), Xie Yuchen, Huo Xiuxiu, Wu Erbai, Hei Xiazi, Pan Zi, Li Cu.

Books I have read: The main novel series, Chinese New Year’s Special Extras 1 (2009), 2 (2014), 3 (2015), Tibetan Sea Flower, Sand Sea (I have not, however, seen Tomb of the Sea, yet, so if you want to play in this canon era, please keep it to novel canon and novel characters or I’m liable to end up very confused O_o), Ten Years Later, Notes in Rain Village 1, 2. I have started the Restart novels, but have not gotten very far yet. I have read many of the tiny extras like Three Days of Silence, the ice bucket challenge extra, and quite a few others, but not all of them by any stretch.

Books I haven’t read: any of the Mystic Nine timeline, Southern Archives, DHXS, or WSJY. (Those last two are the ones merebear lists as Restart 3 & 4.)

Specific prompts:

I would love anything set in the Yucun Biji time period. Just sweet, gentle domesticity.

Also, how do they fit into the town?

We know Xiaoge can be a bit of a troll (understatement). How does that play out against the neighbors?

Wu Xie has that moment of returning to mob boss!Wu Xie when someone is threatening nastiness in their Yucun. How does Xiaoge react to that? (Maybe he finds it hot. Maybe a little role play ensues. ;D)

Just anything about them settling into this sleepy little town and what that looks like.

Could also be a fun instance for some outsider POV. The town gossips keeping track of the strange young men living in the farmhouse restaurant and the even stranger people who come visit them perhaps? ;D

Prompts cribbed from an earlier letter:

After the Iron Triangle’s expedition to Xisha (unlike in TLT2) the entire Iron Triangle is basically stuck in a beach house together for a week. Wu Xie spends the time plying Xiaoge with questions and trying to get him to play games and do things with he and Pangzi, and Xiaoge spends a lot of time staring at ceilings. What if Wu Xie did get him to open up? What if he did get Xiaoge to play with him? (*coughs* I’m perfectly OK with you interpreting that as fluffy actual games like board games or beach volleyball OR as the NSFW kind of play. Maybe that’s the only way Xiaoge can think to get Wu Xie to stop asking questions? IDK. ^_^) I mean, it’s Pingxie/Iron Triangle sharing a beach house for a week. THERE’S A LOT OF POTENTIAL FOR FUN THERE, IS ALL I’M SAYING, so do with that what you will. ^_^

OMG, ANYTHING soft and domestic from the Yucun Biji era. I love Xiaoge and cats. I love Wu Xie unabashedly staring at Xiaoge in the courtyard for literal hours. I love Wu Xie building a HOUSE for them all to live in and them utterly failing to dig a pond because they defaulted to digging a grave robbers’ tunnel (at first; they sorted it out in the end ;D). And I love that Xiaoge’s job in the restaurant is literally to stand there, look pretty, and point at the QR code. I love that Wu Xie wrote literal fanfiction of them on the village bulletin boards. (I shit you not, that is canon. XD) I love Wu Xie hanging that huge damned portrait of Xiaoge in the entryway of their house and planting/moving trees around so Xiaoge can lounge in them whenever he wants to. I just LOVE THEM TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER in ways that let them all play to their strengths. And I especially love that mob boss!Wu Xie rears his head just often enough to ensure that the people in the village don’t give them trouble. So, just… more of ANY of that would be welcome. Yucun Biji owns my entire heart and NPSS is being VERY slow at writing more of it. XD

I also love that Wu Xie’s parents (and Xiao Hua and Huo Xiuxiu) have canonically visited them in Yucun and kind of… gotten up in their business. And that Pangzi threw himself on the grenade by singing to divert them and Xiaoge fled the house so he wouldn’t have to sing. It’s just so… normal?? So the prompt buried in this babble is… do Wu Xie’s parents ever find out about Xiaoge? His father guesses that he’s lovelorn when he loses Xiaoge for that year in book 8.2. He also knows about the importance of the August 17th date when they’re a year out from it. But do he and Wu Xie’s mom ever find out about the double-life their son has been living? And what a huge part Xiaoge has played in it? Does Wu Xie’s dad kind of… adopt Xiaoge as a son-in-law? (I mean, it’s only fair; the Zhangs are treating Wu Xie like Xiaoge’s wife by that point and assuming he’ll fill all the bureaucratic functions of the role. ;D) Anyway. The punchline is that I love Wu Xie’s dad a LOT and if you wanted to include him and play with his relationship with Wu Xie and Xiaoge in any way, I would welcome that. ^_^

In the Bronze Tree Arc, Wu Xie picks up a particular magical power to rewrite reality that is… never ever mentioned again? And I am FASCINATED by it and would love to know more. Does he ever learn to use it or does it remain something he can only do subconsciously? Does it change anything about him? Give him increased longevity maybe that they don’t figure out until later?

If you want to take this to a dark place…

Does Xiaoge ever notice things changing around them? How does he react to it? His memory is so shaky to begin with, does that destabilize him at all?
Does Wu Xie go full-on mob boss/Dark!Wu Xie a little early? Like when Xiaoge goes behind the Bronze Gate for the first time? (Or even on schedule when Xiaoge is gone for ten years.) Does he remake the world out of grief to bring Xiaoge home? How does Xiaoge feel about that? Post 10 years Xiaoge has already figured out that Wu Xie is his one connection to the world, so does he just go all-in and support Wu Xie no matter how Dark Overlord he’s gone? There’s some fun potential for dark fic here. ^_^

3. TV: The Lost Tomb 2 - Explore with the Note
Other Characters in the canon I also love: Wang Pangzi, Xie Yuchen, Zhai Xingyao, Huo Xiuxiu, A-Ning, Pan Zi. (I also LOVE the flashback characters from episode 30-something, but I have no idea how you’d work them into a present day story. Time travel? Xiagoe knew Buxun before Buxun took up with Zhang Gaoyuan and has a flashback? Buxun actually wakes up in the present day? IDEK. It’s getting late and I’m getting a bit punchy. XD)
Non-Pingxie ships I like: Huo Xiuxiu x Xie Yuchen, Dou Cheng x Zhang Buxun, please no HeiHua.

One of the reasons that TLT2 stands out so much to me is that its Xiaoge is just SO. DIFFERENT. than most other Xiaoges. He and TLT1 Xiaoge are standing to the closest to the trauma of being zombie bait and being kept naked in a basket and the trauma of Golmud. He's so world-weary and so depressed, but Wu Xie has come along and just breathed life into him. And in TLT2 in particular you can see him starting to embrace that just a little. The way he shows up at the beginning as Old Man Zhang; feeling so much and so deeply for the first time in so long that he can't be himself and feel that much, so he has to become someone who can, even if only for a little while. And the way he trolls Pangzi all through the Bronze Tree arc. But he's rusty at it. He's still far too quiet. (He even hides in corners drinking when it gets to be too much. ;D) It's just a really interesting juxtaposition: the way he's so very depressed but also just so swept up in the whirlwind that is Wu Xie that it awakens his long lost desire to PLAY. And I love that about him. ^_^

Specific Prompts:

BRONZE TREE FACETIME – does that stick around? Are there after effects? Maybe they come out of it able to feel what the other feels or communicate telepathically?

When Wu Xie wakes up in the hospital after the whole Bronze Tree thing, he and Xiaoge have several adorable moments–again Xiaoge indulging Wu Xie’s every whim in helping him chase after Pangzi by putting the railing down, that fond smile on his face when he waves Wu Xie quiet when he’s all high-pitched, and that look of unbearable fondness when Wu Xie gives him that watch. And I’m sure Xiaoge sat with him in the hospital before he woke up… good opportunity for some hurt/comfort. ^_^ But to come back to the watch… obviously that’s a dropped plot point. What was that about? Is there a connection to Buxun’s watch? Did they grow up together? Know each other? Is this a huge chunk of his past that Wu Xie managed to give back to him? I’d love to know. ^_^

Wu Xie’s capture by Qiu Dekao: …WHERE DO I EVEN START. XD Anything to do with Wu Xie’s rescue by Xiaoge. There is SO MUCH hurt/comfort potential there. What had Wu Xie been through before Xiaoge got there? (...did the guards maybe have a little fun with him? Beat him up a little?) Canonically Xiaoge leaves once Wu Xie is safely with the others, but what if he had stayed to take care of Wu Xie? Or what if he came back later and snuck into Wu Xie’s hotel room to take care of him then? Or just to cuddle up around him and reassure himself that Wu Xie is OK? Does Wu Xie have flashbacks to his time in captivity later? Nightmares that Xiaoge helps soothe him out of? There are so many possibilities. ^____^

Those last few episodes are just MADE for a huddling for warmth scenario, aren’t they? ^_^ Alternately a “we snuck off into a secluded part of the cave for comfort sex” scenario?

There’s also that whole subplot of Xiaoge being drugged during those episodes so he doesn’t recognize Wu Xie and periodically loses control of himself and that leads to violence. That got dropped and never picked up again, but I’d love a look at how they got that out of his system. Did he hurt anyone (...maybe Wu Xie) before the drug ran its course? How did he feel when he finally remembered Wu Xie?

PWP/Porny Prompts: I’m going to half crib some of these out of the above prompts to expand on…

Bronze Tree Facetime: If Wu Xie and Xiaoge CAN feel what each other feels after the Bronze Tree Arc… that could be VERY fun. Maybe Wu Xie is masterbating or something, trying to take the edge off after everything and Xiaoge FEELS that and can’t stop himself from trying to find out what’s happening. Or maybe they’re already together and when they start touching each other, they feel that feedback loop setting up where they can feel what they’re both feeling and decide to experiment with that? COULD BE FUN. ^_^

Wu Xie’s capture by Qiu Dekao:

Noncon prompt
OK, I’m just going to put this out there… that’s a setup practically begging for a rape/gang rape scenario if you’re up for it. Or the aftermath of one once Wu Xie is rescued. ^_^

Alternately, this could also be a good time for comfort sex. Maybe Xiaoge shows up at the hotel after Wu Xie thought he was long gone? But he just couldn’t stay away, couldn’t really leave until he was sure Wu Xie was all right, and then sex happens as a comfort for both of them?

During the last few episodes… there was only one cave? They sneak off to have sex in the hot springs? Huddling for warmth? ^_^

Xiaoge being drugged: Maybe the only way to get the drug out of his system is to have sex? Good old “fuck or die?” ^_~ And maybe THAT’S why he stays away from Wu Xie initially, because he doesn’t want the drug to make him take something that Wu Xie isn’t willing to give? But the minute Wu Xie finds out that that’s what’s necessary, he’s ABSOLUTELY down for it? (Even if it turns into SUPER MARATHON SEX with a highly oversensitive Wu Xie? Just as a fun added bonus? ;D)

4. Video Games: Time Raiders (mobile game)
Other Characters in the canon I also love: Wang Pangzi, Xie Yuchen, Hei Xiazi, main character, many many others.

(Forgive me; I'm going to ramble. XD)

There is SO MUCH that is interesting to me about this game that I would love to see how it plays out in actual fic. Everyone and their sibling lives in Hangzhou and hangs out at Wushanju at some point and that's just so ridiculous to me. It's very 2012 Avengers Tower, if you're familiar with MCU fandom lore. XD Hell, there are routinely people just... randomly hanging out in Wu Xie's bedroom. How on earth does he ever even sleep, much less get any alone time with Xiaoge?

And let's not forget that every dead character is alive somewhere in this canon. Pan Zi (and A-Ning, IIRC?) even reference their deaths in canon. How does Wu Xie feel about having all of these people come back to life and just hang out in this shop? Is this some really complicated afterlife and Wu Xie is somehow in charge of? Is everyone else dead too? Or maybe he's in a coma and only visiting the afterlife temporarily?

And then there are the game mechanics. As a companion, Xiaoge literally possesses another companion and when called, he takes the place of the main character to take their injuries for them until his health drops to zero and he recharges. In my game, I have him possessing Wu Xie, and I think that could be really fun to explore. How does that WORK? Are they sharing a body somehow? Does Wu Xie ever refuse to let the main character call Xiaoge and try to take his injuries instead? Or maybe Wu Xie feels Xiaoge's injuries too, since it's his body Xiaoge is possessing. Or maybe though Xiaoge takes the injuries for the main character, do they transfer to Wu Xie once out of the tomb? Because the body sharing only lasts through tombs (they are seen to have separate bodies outside of game dungeons)? Or for a less angsty look at that: does the tomb-body-sharing leave vestiges of shared feeling behind? Like, Xiaoge has an itch and scratches it and Wu Xie feels it too? (Or feel free to take than in a PWP direction, if you care to. ;D)

Also there is just some genuinely beautiful scenery in the game. Maybe they have a picnic in the back mountains of Lu Village. Or go off for a beach vacation on Lin Island to escape the constant stream of people barging in on them at Wushanju? Just some basic domesticity within the confines of the game could be fun. ^_^

Porny Prompts:

Playing off that shared sensation idea: do they ever engage in sexual activities while body sharing? Can that shared sensation extend beyond when they share bodies? Do they ever do the "shared physical sensation" version of phone sex? I can absolutely see the troll that Xiaoge is deciding to play with himself while Wu Xie is in some important meeting and Wu Xie has to hide the signs of it until he can get home and pounce Xiaoge? ;D