Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2020 Letter

[straightforwardly]

Table of Contents

General Information
   ★ General Likes
   ★ DNWs

Heaven Official’s Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu
   ★ Shi Wudu & Shi Qingxuan

Original Work
   ★ Male Tang Dynasty Scholar/Male Hulijing

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System
   ★ Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu
   ★ Original Luo Binghe/Shen Jiu

General Information [↑]

I didn’t write prompts for all of my requested tags because… that would be a lot, and because there would too many where I all have to say about it is “yes good”, but rest assured that if I requested it, then I want it! Also, any specific prompts are just meant to inspire. If I have a specific prompt for a tag and you have a different idea for it that you think I’d like, then go for it!

AO3: straightforwardly

General Likes [↑]

• blood, blood-drinking, blood kink.
• canon settings.
• canon divergence AUs.
• castles, shrines, abandoned ruins, dark forests, haunted locations, places with a deep sense of atmosphere and/or history.
• crossovers between my requested canons.
• dysfunctional or otherwise complicated relationships, especially if the people involved genuinely care about one another.
• ghosts ghosts ghosts GHOSTS.
• hair kink, loving descriptions of long hair, hair brushing, hair petting.
• hand-holding, casual touching, any focus on hands.
• mutual pining, especially if the characters retain their canon levels of competency.
• trapped together / huddling for warmth scenarios.
• tea and tea-drinking.
• any time-related shenanigans: time travel, time loops, peggy sue, etc.
• unusual formats (e.g., epistolary, interactive fiction, non-linear storytelling, & so on.)
• winter/autumn settings and atmosphere (e.g., snow, autumn leaves, pumpkins, fog, tea, etc.)
• worldbuilding.

Do Not Wants [↑]

• a/b/o & similar AUs based around defined biological roles.
• cannibalism/anything being eaten alive.
• characters who are young in canon growing old and/or dying of old age.
• eye injuries.
• first person POV (exception: epistolary).
• identity headcanons.
• pregnancy/childbirth/small children/stories about “the next generation”, whether canonical or not.
• serial killers; main characters kidnapping someone with the intention of murdering them later.
• unrequested setting-change AUs; mundane AUs.
• zombies/any of the rotting undead.

Smut-specific DNWs: anal tearing/bleeding, belly kink, come eating, come inflation, daddy/mommy kink, foot kink (exception: boot kink is definitely, definitely allowed!), lactation, rimming, sounding, sex acts involving characters under the age of fifteen (you don’t need to namedrop their age, but don’t refer to them as being younger than that or describe them in ways that would only apply to a child)

Heaven Official’s Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu [↑]

Shi Wudu & Shi Qingxuan (hurt Shi Wudu)

Requested Tags

• Accepting Injury to Protect Someone
• BAMF character A is hurt and is still a BAMF; character B provides comfort anyway
• Came back to life wrong
• Catching Hurt Character as They Collapse
• Character A pushes themself to the limit and beyond for B; B tells them to take it easy
• Character doesn't realize how badly they're hurt until they collapse
• Character is Injured while Protecting Another
• Collapsing from exhaustion
• Comforter arrives too late to prevent hurt
• Comforter's mistake gets Comfortee hurt
• Coughing Up Blood
• Enduring Pain to Protect Another
• Forced to watch the other undertaking a dangerous task
• Hiding injuries from onlookers but comforter knows
• hurt character still being the protective one
• Hurt Protector Keeps On Protecting Despite Needing Protectee(s) To Keep Them Upright/Mobile
• Hurt to Protect the Comforter
• Hurt with no way of knowing the other is safe
• Mistakenly Believes the Other is Dead
• Qi Deviation
• Time Loop - Looping Character Keeps Dying
• Time looping X forced to watch loved one die repeatedly; loop is broken by loved one’s survival
• Trying to prevent Hurt foreseen in vision - partially successful
• Wingfic - magic wings permanently broken from corruption

I LOVE AND ADORE ONE TYRANNICAL WATER MASTER.

Shi Wudu is easily my favorite character in TGCF, while SWD & SQX is my favorite relationship in the novel. A terrible person who would do absolutely anything to protect their beloved sibling? It’s like MXTX wrote him just for me.

I love how much these two care about each other. I love how Shi Qingxuan is the more moral of the two of them—how he actually cares about justice—and is genuinely horrified when he learned what SWD did for him, but that also isn’t enough to override his concern for SWD’s well-being. On SWD’s side, again, I love how deeply protective he is and how little he cares for morality—or, ultimately, his own well-being—when it comes to keeping SQX safe. 124 was absolutely heartbreaking, but one thing that struck me was the difference between their reactions—SQX with his, “it doesn’t matter what happens to us as long as we’re together” versus SWD’s “my own life doesn’t matter, as long as you’re well”. (...Also, his manipulating HX into killing him so that SQX didn’t have to was really impressive, I have to say!)

On the hurt/comfort side of things, I also really love how they have those longevity lockets that tell them when the other’s hurt. So ideal for hurt/comfort! ♥ Ultimately, the main thing I want is for these two to end up relatively happy and by one another’s side. Pre-canon fic is probably the easiest way to manage that, and I am very, very here for that, but I’m also up for certain kinds of canon divergences and post-canon fix-its!

Finally, I’m not particularly interested in He Xuan. He can appear in the fic if necessary, but I don’t want him to be a main focus.

Accepting Injury to Protect Someone
Character is Injured while Protecting Another
Comforter's mistake gets Comfortee hurt
Enduring Pain to Protect Another
Hurt to Protect the Comforter
Shi Wudu getting hurt for Shi Qingxuan’s sake is just… everything to me…

Came back to life wrong
I’m so weak for came back wrong scenarios! It’s up to you how you define “wrong”, though I do ask that SWD’s intelligence is retained.

Maybe mortal belief can revive gods, but it makes them come back wrong? Or maybe, at the moment of his death, SWD somehow managed to devour HX and became some unnatural combination of god and ghost? Or perhaps instead of reentering the reincarnation cycle, dead gods become spirits that no one can see or touch. I’d love to see Shi Wudu looking after his brother without anyone knowing—especially if Shi Qingxuan does, slowly, become able to see him in an exception to that general rule. Or perhaps, unbeknownst to anyone else (including his brother), that wasn’t the first time Shi Wudu had died—he just (to quote a freeform tag from another exchange) “always comes back from the dead. In water. Naked.” Or maybe he always comes back, but loses something of himself each time? Metaphorically, literally, it’s all good, as long as he never loses his love for his brother.

Or whatever comes to mind! I’d prefer if the coming back was due to SWD himself, an outside force (Ling Wen trying to get herself an ally for the Brocade Immortal situation, maybe?), or something unexplained rather than being because of something Shi Qingxuan did, but beyond that, I’m up for just about anything!

Forced to watch the other undertaking a dangerous task
I was thinking SWD being forced to watch SQX do something dangerous, because his worry levels would be through the charts and it’d be a delight to see, but if you have an interesting idea for the other way around, I’m here for it!

hurt character still being the protective one
IF THIS ISN’T SHI WUDU THEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS

Hurt with no way of knowing the other is safe
I LOVE HOW FRANTIC SHI WUDU GETS WHEN HE DOESN’T KNOW THAT SQX IS SAFE. His being injured for whatever reason and cutting down everyone and everything standing in his way until he finds Shi Qingxuan again would be fantastic. As would any other take on this tag! I ate up that bit in canon where he couldn’t focus on passing his Heavenly Calamity because he didn’t know where SQX was or if he was safe. (And then how insistent he was on SQX kneeling by his side so that he could keep him within his sight after they reunited! ♥)

Mistakenly Believes the Other is Dead
Same as the above, but even more intense! Maybe SQX’s locket breaks or gets damaged for some reason, and the resulting reaction from SWD’s locket makes him think that his brother’s dead? SHIPS EVERYWHERE BETTER WATCH OUT.

Time looping X forced to watch loved one die repeatedly; loop is broken by loved one’s survival
I feel like the Wind & Water Master Arc is the obvious choice for this one, and I’d be here for that, but I’m also open for pre-canon time loops that don’t have any connection to the HX mess! Or—going further back—maybe something set in that time period when SQX was in the Middle Court and the Reverend of Empty Words was still after him?

Wingfic - magic wings permanently broken from corruption
Ascending Gives You Wings!

Red Bull jokes aside… while I’m normally fairly neutral on wingfic, there’s something about this tag that really caught my attention. If you have a different idea in mind, feel free to go for it, but my mind jumped straight to an AU where ascension also gives the gods a pair of wings that become damaged or broken with corruption. I can absolutely see SWD finding ways to hide the corruption in his wings somehow (illusions? some sort of magical treasure?) and SQX having no idea… at least, not until something happens that leads to him discovering what an awful state his brother’s wings are in.

(...Though, considering the state of the heavens in canon, there’d probably be more people hiding their damaged wings in this sort of AU than people whose wings are genuinely fine, haha.)

Original Work [↑]

Male Tang Dynasty Scholar/Male Hulijing (hurt Hulijing)

Requested Tags

• Arrow Wound
• Blood Drinking
• Carrying A Sick/Hurt/Exhausted Character To Bed
• Catching Hurt Character as They Collapse
• Collapsing on character's doorstep
• Coughing Up Blood

I… love foxes…

This is an m/m relationship, but, for the record, I’d also be very much here for an f/f take on this! (If you go that route, maybe the female scholar is crossdressing? I’m always here for that time-honored tradition of “taking on her dead brother’s identity for Reasons”.)

I don’t have too much to say about this request beyond “yes please”. I just really like the fox/scholar romances in Chinese literature and would love to see more m/m (or f/f) takes on it. Plus… I love how the setting means beautiful long hair… I am always here for beautiful long hair.

First encounters, getting together scenarios, and established sexual relationships where they don’t know that the other also genuinely loves them would all be great! As for how the hurt happens: maybe an encounter with a rival goes wrong, and the hulijing instinctively makes his way towards where he feels safest? Or maybe the hulijing is fleeing from humans (an arrow wound!) and the scholar hides him in his household? Or whatever comes to mind!

I’d love the scholar being really into the hulijing’s more inhuman aspects.

Blood Drinking
Blood drinking to heal wounds, maybe? Or maybe the fox struggles to hold back his more predatory/violent instincts in his weakened state, which leads to the blood drinking?

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System [↑]

Fandom-Specific DNWs: SJ being referred to as “A-Jiu”, the Shen twins headcanon / Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan being family in any way, LBH referring to SQQ with any variation of the name “Shen Yuan”, unhappy endings for Bingqiu (including anything that breaks them up).

Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu (hurt LBH)

Requested Tags

• Accepting Injury to Protect Someone
• Accidental feelings reveal while temporarily blinded and feeling completely helpless for it
• Accidental love confession from hurt character due to them not thinking clearly
• BAMF character A is hurt and is still a BAMF; character B provides comfort anyway
• Bridal/Princess Style Carrying
• Carrying A Sick/Hurt/Exhausted Character To Bed
• Character Cradling Sick Character's Head In Their Lap
• Character manages to injure arch-foe and realizes they don’t actually want to hurt them
• Checking For Fever With A Gentle Touch That Lingers
• Comforter Is Oblivious That Hurt Character Is Pining For Them
• Coughing Up Blood
• Crying During Sex
• Delirious character asking for the one they're pining for
• Fever sex
• Feverish Confessions
• Forcing Exhausted Character to Get Some Sleep
• Gentle Sex Because One Partner Is Injured/Ill
• Hiding injuries from onlookers but comforter knows
• Hurt Character Clinging to Comforter
• Hurt/sick character isn't quite lucid
• Hurt/sick character needs to be carried
• Loneliness
• Long Overdue Breaking Point
• Loss of Control of Superpower/Magic - Due to Emotional Distress
• Love confession by sick/hurt character
• Near Death Experience Makes Unaffected Character Realize They Love the Victim
• Pining character reveals their feelings while not quite lucid (hurt/drunk/etc.)
• Pretending the hurt is worse than it is to get extra comfort
• Self-Loathing
• Treatment Of Injury Leads To Inconvenient Arousal In Injured Party
• Waking from coma or deep sleep and realizing the beloved caretaker is near

I love these two so much—more than words can say, really. I love it in all its forms: pre-ship, alternate getting-together scenarios, established relationship… as long as the two of them ultimately get a happy ending, it’s hard to go wrong.

I’m good with fic set at any point in canon, though if it’s set pre-Endless Abyss, please keep their relationship to the Binghe pining/SQQ oblivious model from canon. Relatedly, please don’t set any of the love confession tags pre-Endless Abyss!

Accidental feelings reveal while temporarily blinded and feeling completely helpless for it
Accidental love confession from hurt character due to them not thinking clearly
Feverish Confessions
Love confession by sick/hurt character
Pining character reveals their feelings while not quite lucid (hurt/drunk/etc.)
Grouping these together because they all have a similar theme—namely, Shen Qingqiu finding out about Luo Binghe’s feelings in a different way than he did in canon. I love secret reveals, especially when the person didn’t actually intend to reveal it, so all of these scenarios are really iddy for me!

Bridal/Princess Style Carrying
While I am always here for bridal-style carrying between these two regardless of who plays which role, I have to admit to a special fondness for SQQ carrying Binghe. Especially if it’s adult Binghe!!!

Character manages to injure arch-foe and realizes they don’t actually want to hurt them
Or “arch-foe”. I love the idea of SQQ accidentally managing to seriously injure Binghe during that period where he’s convinced that Binghe wants to kill him—especially if his first reaction is to help Binghe. Honestly, any scenario where Binghe, convinced that his Shizun hates him, gets to see SQQ worrying and/or caring for him just makes me melt.

Checking For Fever With A Gentle Touch That Lingers
help this gives me too many feelings

Loneliness
Long Overdue Breaking Point
Self-Loathing
Binghe… ;_; I have such a love for well-earned emotional breakdowns. His low opinion of himself breaks my heart, and I’d love any sort of emotional hurt/comfort dealing with that. Especially if the comfort he gets is technically awkward/bad (after all, this is SQQ, who isn’t… exactly the greatest with feelings…), but still means more than anything to him, because it’s coming from his Shizun.

Near Death Experience Makes Unaffected Character Realize They Love the Victim
Shen Qingqiu is kind of amazingly oblivious to his own feelings, and while I do enjoy that, I’m also really, really into the idea of him somehow figuring it out without Binghe having to ease him into that realization. Plus, I also just love Binghe getting hurt and SQQ being distressed because of it.

Pretending the hurt is worse than it is to get extra comfort
This is such a Binghe thing to do, and I can never get enough of it.

Waking from coma or deep sleep and realizing the beloved caretaker is near
Tbh, I’m just picturing Luo Binghe from any point post-Endless Abyss waking up and realizing that his beloved Shizun is actually there by his side and wanting to cry a lot about all the feelings that gives me. If you need a specific prompt, maybe a canon divergence AU where he wakes up while SQQ was holding on to him inside that coffin? (Whether it’s because SQQ stayed there longer or he woke up earlier—both is fine.)

Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu (hurt SQQ)

Requested Tags

• A's seriously injured on mission; B's ordered to leave A and proceed with the mission but disobeys
• Accepting Injury to Protect Someone
• Bridal/Princess Style Carrying
• Character doesn't realize how badly they're hurt until they collapse
• Character is Injured while Protecting Another
• Character is suffering after the disappearance of loved one until said loved one returns
• Comforter lends clothes to hurt character
• Comforter Rains Down Retribution On Hurt Character's Behalf
• A confesses feelings because they think B is unconscious
• Coughing Up Blood
• Hiding injuries from onlookers but comforter knows
• Hurt Character is at no real risk but Comforter insists on making a big deal out of it
• Hurt Character Is Oblivious That Comforter Is Pining For Them
• Love confession to sick/hurt character
• Sudden Ability to Feel Others' Feelings Results in Distress

A's seriously injured on mission; B's ordered to leave A and proceed with the mission but disobeys
I feel like this probably fits best in a pre-Endless Abyss scenario? Binghe’s normally an obedient disciple, but there’s no way that he’ll abandon his Shizun!

Character is suffering after the disappearance of loved one until said loved one returns
SQQ during those three years while Binghe is in the Endless Abyss. ;_; Though post-canon / canon divergence AUs are also excellent! I love SQQ missing Binghe, especially when he’s unwilling to admit that’s what’s happening even to himself. Or: maybe an AU where, for any reason, Binghe’s return from the Abyss happens later than in PIDW rather than earlier, making SQQ worry?

Comforter lends clothes to hurt character
SQQ wearing LBH’s clothing… *_* And then Binghe being hot for it.

A confesses feelings because they think B is unconscious
Similar to what I said in the hurt Binghe category—what I like about this is the idea of SQQ finding out about Binghe’s feelings in a different (and more hurt/comfort-y!) way than he did in canon. Maybe he might not be unconscious, but he is immobilized, and so he’s absolutely convinced that he’s done for until Binghe starts taking care of him?

Hurt Character is at no real risk but Comforter insists on making a big deal out of it
THIS IS SO CUTE omg, and I can absolutely see Binghe making a fuss over SQQ having even the slightest injury/mildest illness. (If you go the illness route, I really, really love fevers.)

Sudden Ability to Feel Others' Feelings Results in Distress
WHAT IF SQQ unlocked the ability to sense Binghe’s emotions right after he tossed Binghe into the Endless Abyss?? Maybe it’s a System feature? Regardless, SQQ trying to repress his own heartbreak like he does in canon while having to feel every bit of Binghe’s own is just… such a delicious concept. How could this affect their reunion?

Or, maybe the ability to feel Binghe’s emotions is unlocked at a later point! Jinlan City? During his denunciation? In the water prison? Some point between when he realizes Binghe’s feelings for him but before Maigu Ridge, forcing him to realize just how deep Binghe’s self-loathing and emotional agony runs? So many possibilities!!

Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu (both hurt)

Requested Tags

• Blaming Themself for the Other Character Being Injured
• A confession in a desperate situation has to be dealt with afterwards
• Holding Hands For Comfort While in Front of an Angry Public
• Loyalty even after comfortee has been changed to monstrous/horrible form
• Physically Injured Character Comforting Emotionally Distressed Character
• Sharing a bed to comfort hurt character
• Soulbonds - Feeling Each Other's Emotions
• Soulmate AU: Shared Scars - Figuring out soulmate’s identity from wounds you caused them
• Time Loop - Escape by Revealing Feelings

Loyalty even after comfortee has been changed to monstrous/horrible form
I’d rather it not be a permanent transformation, though the characters don’t have to know that! I also have a preference for Luo Binghe being the one who was transformed. Maybe something dealing with his demon blood?

Physically Injured Character Comforting Emotionally Distressed Character
I’m seeing this as a physically injured SQQ comforting an upset LBH? Though I could go for the other way around as well, if you feel more inspired by that.

Soulbonds - Feeling Each Other's Emotions
Please see what I wrote for the “Sudden Ability to Feel Others' Feelings Results in Distress” tag in the hurt SQQ section for some ideas!

Beyond that, I’d love it if the soulbond wasn’t something SQQ automatically had when he transmigrated, but rather something that was suddenly unlocked at some point. (Does… does he even realize what he’s feeling at first? Does he know about soulbonds? How does he try to explain it away, if he does? SQQ trying to repress the emotions he’s feeling from Binghe without realizing they aren’t his own emotions could also be interesting!)

And Binghe!! Especially Jinlan City!Binghe! How would he react to the knowledge that SQQ doesn’t hate him but is terrified of him? OR, if it unlocked when Binghe fell into the Endless Abyss/just before: his not only having to deal with being pushed into the Abyss, but also with the contrast between the cold face SQQ put on when he did it and what he was actually feeling (i.e., not hatred)!

Soulmate AU: Shared Scars - Figuring out soulmate’s identity from wounds you caused them
I’M JUST GOING TO POINT OUT SQQ ACCIDENTALLY STABBING LBH BEFORE PUSHING HIM INTO THE ENDLESS ABYSS.

And/or: LBH allowing SQQ to stab him in the hand in Jinlan City, and then finding out that SQQ’s his soulmate when he sees the same wound appear on SQQ’s hand?!??

Time Loop - Escape by Revealing Feelings
Please, please don’t set this during Jinlan City, but any other point post-Endless Abyss would be welcome! Or, alternatively, if you want to interpret “revealing feelings” not as “I love you” from either of them, but rather a “I don’t hate you” from SQQ, a time loop set during the Immortal Alliance Conference could be interesting!

Original Luo Binghe/Shen Jiu (hurt SJ)

Requested Tags

• Comfort as Cruelty
• Comforter Caused the Hurt
• Delirious character asking where a dead character is
• Fever Dreams
• Hair matted with blood
• Injured A deliberately emotionally attacking uninjured B
• The many downsides of immortality
• No One Is Allowed to Hurt You Except Me
• Non-Consensual Blood Drinking
• Non-Consensual Comfort

In regards to my eye injuries DNW: you can make references to SJ’s missing eye for fic set after that point in canon, but please don’t go into detail, nor do I want to see the scene where he lost that eye.

This pairing is so fucked-up and I am all here for that. Bad endings are fine, as is character death. When it comes to sex, though, I don’t want flat-out noncon, but dubcon is also more than welcome. I do ship Yue Qingyuan/Shen Jiu, so references to that ship are also more than fine—welcomed, even.

Relatedly, I’m also really into one-sided takes on this ship where LBH wants SJ (...while being disgusted by or hating himself for it, or even in denial about it) while SJ’s eyes are never taken off of YQY. Though, of course, I’m also very into it also being mutual! I love these two wanting each other just as much as they hate each other, and if they’re disgusted (with themselves, with each other, or both!) for feeling that desire, well, all the better!

Comfort as Cruelty
Comforter Caused the Hurt
Non-Consensual Comfort
Fucked-up, tender caretaking of the DAMAGE HE CAUSED is one of my absolute favorite scenarios for these two. I love it in basically every form I can think of: SJ bitter and spiteful, SJ resisting, SJ broken, SJ wanted to be disgusted but being unable to keep himself from soaking in the care because he’s become just that touch-starved over the years, SJ wanting to die but being unable to hold back his body’s hunger for comfort, SJ wanting to die but being forced to live on longer through those occasional moments of care… just, all of it. ♥

Delirious character asking where a dead character is
SJ forgetting when/where he is (maybe even thinking he’s back with the Qiu’s?) and deliriously calling out for his Qi-ge, yes/yes?

Hair matted with blood
Bing-ge cleaning off years—maybe even decades—of filth from SJ’s destroyed body… washing the blood from his hair, combing through the strands…

Injured A deliberately emotionally attacking uninjured B
Look, SJ absolutely would. I loved that bit in the 79 extras where he tells YQY that he doesn’t regret anything that he did, and I’d love it if he used some of that energy to lash out at Bing-ge where it hurts. Maybe while Binghe is forcing “comfort” on him?