#i have an excel spreadsheet planning meng yao;s games out adklfsjghr

[stranded-in-the-gobi-desert]

hello....... xiyao hunger games au........ pls say more

are they both tributes

hello anon u have opened a can of worms i have been thinking abt this au for over a year. my xiyao hunger games au.... theyre technically both tributes, just not in the same games..?

they meet each other as victors, a few days after meng yao wins his games, as he waits for his victor interview with ceaser flickerman.

lan xichen had won the games previous to this, dominating both the in-game and out-of-game play, his early life career training from belonging to district 1 combined with his 'prince charming' aura makes him a favourite for the capitoltes, who clamour to sponsor him, and a BEAST in the games.

meng yao, who was not of a fan of the games as so much he saw it as an egregious feat of capitol power, and a fascinating lesson in propaganda, watched this with both awe and an analytical eye.

he would not volunteer for the games (he's neither stupid nor suicidal), but if the opportunity came to either rise up from the poor life he's living in district 11, or give his mother one less mouth to feed, he'd grab the chance with both hands.

they won in contrasting ways, due to their very different backgrounds and personalities

lan xichen won with honour (as much as children killing other children can be considered honourable). mainting his single alliance with his district mate until the end, winning with a final sword duel that had the capitolites swooning in their seats. he's the image of perfection, a low kill count leaves little blood to mar his image.

meng yao won with deception, almost all his kills coming from either literal or figurative backstabbing. as one of the underdogs, and malnourished 15 years old from district 11, he wouldnt win in a straight fight with most tributes, let alone the careers. despite this, he left a bloody trail behind him to become victor, with 2 direct and 4 infirect kills under his belt. (he's still a capitol darling, as most victors are, but in a more - we like you right now but we can and will turn on you if you make a slight mistake)

meng yao did not expect to win once reaped and is struggling to deal with being alive when he thought he'd be dead, so is having a minor breakdown waiting to be interviewed.

lan xichen decides to visit the new victor and give them some advice on how to deal with the victory tour and [gestures vageuly to capitol] that, and kindly interrupts the start of said breakdown. this somehow leads into mimicking the iconic hand-caressing-intense-eye-contact-meeting scene from cql (i love the scenet too much not to include it).

ANYWAYS this is getting too long now, but just know that meng yao had a MASSIVE crush on lan xichen as he watched him win his games, and if it weren't for his mini breakdown whilst waiting to be interviewed he would totally be internally fangirling, and that lan xichen is completealy enamoured with meng yao after meeting him once.

they become a favourite capitol pairing (not couple just yet), constrasting heights and images creating a perfect pair (this is self indulgeant).

hopefully this makes some sense to u anon, and u enjoyed the rambling

#wiggles asks #xiyao #lan xichen #meng yao #apologies this got so long anon i rambled sm #i love hunger games au sm i always end up planning one for every fandom i get into #as per usual this took me like an hour to write akldsfjg #hopefully u found some of this interesting #nie mingjue is the next year's victor (i cant help 3zun ok.) and the three of them do become tentative friends #i have an excel spreadsheet planning meng yao;s games out adklfsjghr #although meng yao did kill of one nie mingjue's friends (? more like they trained together.. coworker??) so thats some beef they have #its mostly one sided at the beginning bc nmj gets annoed at my when he watches them bc he doesnt quite grasp the reality of the games until #he enters (and then has complicated feelings abt it once he examines them) #oh also jgs is a former victor thats also why my is interested in the games #i would have made them both tributes but i cant handle that level of drama and planning. #im saying that as if i dont have a full spreadsheet and 10 different notes planning the timeline a;dklsfjg