“38.5, big guy,” Xue Yang says as he shakes the end of the thermometer in his right hand. On the bed next to him, Song Lan groans in response.
“Want me to call in to work for you?” He asks, reaching for Song Lan’s work phone. All he gets in response is a brief nod before Song Lan rolls over onto his side, the side away from Xue Yang, and coughs.
No biting quip from Song Lan about his shitty nursing ability, like Xue Yang has come to expect from him. It’s what their whole relationship is built on. Xue Yang jokingly babies or insults Song Lan, and in return Song Lan playfully smacks the back of his head or gives him some kind of witty one liner before they move on with their day.
Not today. Song Lan still has the fever he came down with over the weekend and doesn’t even seem capable of sitting up in bed by himself, let alone letting off some offhanded comment about Xue Yang needing to go back to nursing school if he’s going to continue to do the worst job possible. Song Lan’s breathing slows down to a deep and even rattle, dozing on his side. Xue Yang shakes his head and leaves the room, calling Song Lan’s boss to inform him he’s not feeling well and he won’t be in today.
While picking all the marshmallows out of his cereal, he recalls that Song Lan had a light sheen of sweat on his face, and Xue Yang grimaces, remembering that it’s the sort of thing Song Lan would find unbearable. The poor guy is too sick to wipe it off himself, so Xue Yang decides to be nice for once (so Song Lan will owe him! He tells himself as he wanders over to the sink) and wets a dark blue washcloth with cold water and rings it out before heading back to the bedroom, the door left slightly ajar in case Song Lan needs anything.
Song Lan’s body limply rolls toward the dip in the mattress Xue Yang makes when he sits down on Song Lan’s side, and Song Lan himself lightly jolts awake when he feels Xue Yang gently touch his forehead with the wet washcloth.
“Go back to sleep,” Xue Yang mutters. “Just… let me do this, okay?”
Song Lan blinks, then slowly closes his eyes again.
“Alright,” he croaks.
Xue Yang gently wipes off the sweat beading on his forehead, relishing the way Song Lan sleepily nuzzles into Xue Yang’s hand.
Sect Leaders by How Likely Their Disciples Are to Accidentally Call Them “Dad”
Most Jiang sect disciples have slipped up and accidentally called Jiang Fengmian “dad” at least once. Look at that archery lesson! Strong dad energy.
One notable exception is Wei Wuxian, who is so terrified that he might accidentally call Jiang Fengmian “dad” where someone could hear that he’s constantly on alert for it.
By contrast, no Jiang sect disciples have ever accidentally called Jiang Cheng “dad.” However, at least one sleep-deprived disciple has accidentally called him “jiujiu” after a long night wrangling Jin Ling.
Nobody in the Wen sect would dare accidentally call Wen Ruohan “dad.” Xue Yang called him “daddy” once, but that was on purpose to see what would happen — sadly, Wen Ruohan was too far gone at that point to notice or care, and the telepathic chokings neither increased or decreased in frequency or quality.
It’s pretty rare for Lan disciples to call Lan Qiren “dad,” but he secretly loves it when they do; sadly, neither Lan Xichen nor Lan Wangji ever make this error.
Lan disciples will, occasionally, call Lan Xichen “dad,” but it’s usually not a slip-up in front of the class, it’s more of an on-purpose thing: he’s like “Don’t forget, curfew’s in an hour!” and they’re like “thanks dad!”
Nobody except Lan Sizhui ever calls Lan Wangji “dad” but somehow they say “Hanguang-Jun” in a way that sounds like “dad.”
Lots of people call Jin Guangshan “dad,” but not in an “accidentally slip up in front of the class” kind of way, more in a “surprise, I’m your bastard child” kind of way.
No Jin disciples call Jin Guangyao “dad,” and this hurts his feelings and he secretly suspects it’s because they don’t respect him.
No Nie disciples call Nie Mingjue “dad” but every single Nie disciple has accidentally called him “da-ge” at leastonce. It’s almost a rite of passage.
not to post even more Villains Discourse on main but it really bugs me how people read giving villains tragic backstories as inherently excusing their actions and/or demonizing trauma survivors.
theactual message of Tragic Villains is (almost) always “people who are never taught or given any healthy, constructive outlets for their emotions will often find unhealthy,destructive outlets.” it’s that people who are traumatized and never learn how to cope with that trauma can become a danger to themselves and others. the message isn’t “trauma makes you evil!!!!” or “genocide is okay if you’ve been sad before!!!!” it’s “people need compassion and help to recover from trauma instead of becoming increasingly angry and harming themselves and others in the process.”
this site takes an alarmingly behaviorist and punitive approach to everything and it’s literally the most annoying thing. y’all have this concept that “if we just punish people hard enough, if we just scare them enough, if we just make them feel guilty enough.” that people just Do Bad Things Because They Do Bad Things, I Guess, and Because We Didn’t Threaten Them And Shame Them Enough. but humans are an innately social species. at our very core, we need compassion and kindness. we need healthy relationships with other humans.
you can keep looking at traumatized villains and being like “haha this dumb pathetic sadboi thinks murder is okay because his parents died” but as a survivor myself, unaddressed/untreated trauma absolutely can make you ragey and destructive. i was lucky enough to have support and eventually get the treatment i needed. but it’s not hard at all for me to imagine how, if that hadn’t been the case, that could’ve been me. obviously not on a movie-villain scale like murder or war crimes, but it’s so irritating as someone whose trauma has always manifested as anger to watch people on this site be like “this is just bad writing!!! real survivors/good survivors don’t end up like that the writers just hate survivors and want the audience to condone murder!”
Hmmm thinking if I should start posting my art on tumblr again :/ here’s some art from when I was in the cql fandom! I have a few more comics I’ll put up slowly as well! (:
Pairing: Song Lan/Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen (Focus is on the SongXue)
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Choose not to warn
Excerpt:
‘- and code violet, Xuē Chéngměi, you are up,’ his supervisor rattles off. ‘Get going now!’
Xuē Yáng’s shoulders sag and he shoves the rest of his bun into his mouth, chewing it as fast as he possibly can while he stands up. Luó Qīngyáng tosses him Jiàngzāi. He catches his sword and only just holds himself back from snarling at her for touching it. It would have been no use. She has already turned around, her own sword in hand as they race through the station towards their ambulance.
