Fic: Not All Those Who Wander
May. 25th, 2019 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotAs mentioned, this was my fic for the 520 Day Guardian Exchange:
Not All Those Who Wander (23,476 words) by Xparrot
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán, Kūn Lún/Shěn Wēi
Characters: Kūn Lún, Zhào Yúnlán, Shěn Wēi, Dà Qìng
Additional Tags: canon AU, Drama, Angst, epic fantasy, or else scifi?, Old Haixing Era, Post-Apocalypse, Show-Book Fusion, Fix-It of Sorts
Summary:
(While a drama-novel fusion, it's specifically an AU of the drama and should make sense even if you haven't read the novel.)
I wrote this fic in a week and a half, and it devoured my life for that time. Have you ever had a story that feels less like you're inventing it, and more like it exists already and you're just serving as the transcriber, the vessel that it's poured through to come into being? Yeah, one of those. I'm pleased it exists and excited about it like it's not really mine at all; it surprised me as much as it could any reader as it developed. And there were some things that didn't make it into the story, due to the limitations of the POV. So these are the DVD extras, for my own fun, and for anyone curious.
The plan: I signed up for the 520 exchange confident I could make the very forgiving 300 word requirement; my concern from the start was my tendency for fic to become...slightly longer than expected (by 140K words in one alarming case.) And that's been especially bad for Guardian -- I love these guys, okay, I love just letting them do their thing while I watch. So I came up with a clever solution: wait until the last week to write the fic, and then I'd have to keep it short!
...So, yeah, I ended up writing half a NaNo in a little over a week (technically, this counts as success; this fic could've been 100K words easy. As it stands I basically ended up with an abridged version of an epic fantasy novel, but hopefully an effective one?)
I'd signed up for either drama canon or novel-drama combo, because I love the novel as much as the show but hadn't done anything with it (it's less inspiring for fic because the end is so much more satisfying for me!)lola's actual request was "Fanfic that in some way blends the two versions of the story together, so that SW is both ghost slayer and black cloak, or maybe that takes part novel part series." Which was the best kind of prompt for me, both specific and wonderfully open-ended. I'm so grateful for it, because without that impetus I wouldn't have come up with this story at all, much less attempted to write it.
While considering how Shen Wei could be both roles, I jumped to thinking about Zhao Yunlan instead: could he possibly be both himself and Kunlun -- Kunlun of the novel, the aging god? But rather than the god Kunlun reincarnating as the human Zhao Yunlan, what if the human Zhao Yunlan became the god...
The rest fell into place from there, with various adjustments along the way.
The sci-fi backstory: I am weirdly amused that to get the story closer to the novel's epic fantasy/mythology, the solution was to lean in harder to the handwavy scifi of the drama.
The origin story given in the fic itself is missing some pieces, because none of the characters fully understand what's happening. So: the first glowing light that appears on the mountain is an alien vessel designed for a benevolent type of terraforming -- to make a land under the planet's crust, where it won't impact local life (the aliens that sent it are probably just observers, interstellar naturalists? They've sent a lot of ships out and don't always have time to follow up.) Only there's something wrong with the vessel, it's damaged, so some of that terraforming happens on the surface before it can burrow down, affecting the native life to make the Yashou and Dixingren.
The other star in the sky is the power source for this vessel -- because it's too dangerous to expose to life, it's supposed to stay in low orbit and transmit its power to the "star" in the underground land via a controlled wormhole. Except that power source is also damaged, dropping out of orbit. And when it finally falls, it's drawn to the parallel energy source on the planet: Kunlun, imbued with the power of the Hallows, which are later crafted from that fallen source.
(In my original concept for the story, Kunlun was a lot more powerful; he'd have taken the Hallows back with him in time and spent the 10K years learning to use their power. The Dixingren origin story was more complicated, too; they were actually alien spirits that possessed the local villagers (as Naye remarked, how L. Ron Hubbard of them) to grant them powers, to more closely align with the hell ghosts of the novels. And in a very early mental draft, Shen Wei and Ye Zun were basically Trigun's Vash and Knives -- the human incarnations of this vessel and its power source.)
Novel parallels: None of this origin story is from the novel, which is pure fantasy/mythology and has more fantastical creation myths. But the characters, in this altered universe, end up with pasts more closely aligned with their novel versions, and their characterization so shaped. The god Kunlun meeting a feral young ghost king has allusions to their meeting in the novel (Wei trying to politely eat a monster in front of this noble and aghast god is a favorite moment of mine, though it's a lot funnier in the novel.)
I also lifted some of the novel's best lines that didn't make it into the drama, in particular Kunlun's "From head to toe, the only thing on me that’s probably worth a thing is my heart. You want it? Take it!" (which Bai Yu himself read here, because he loves us fans even if the censors don't). The ghost king threatening death and destruction if Kunlun is taken from him is something I've wanted to see in some form in the dramaverse forever (but hadn't managed to fit it in my previous take on the past), though Kunlun's reaction in the novel is a bit different.
The Ghost Slayer's title and concealing mists are all from the novel (only hinted at in the show as the budget allowed). His disinterest/hatred of his people goes back to the little ghost king who rejects the savage violence of the demonic race and longs for beauty and purity and love, against his nature. (And at the same time in his rejection proves that there's more to that race, even if they're soulless.)
Team Kunlun: Da Qing's presence is entirely thanks tonaye. Lolachrome only had two DNWs: character death, and unalleviated angst; by about halfway through the story I was starting to serious worry about the alleviation or lack thereof. Naye brilliantly pointed out that a cat can mitigate any angst!
I could've written another 20K words of Kunlun, the Ghost Slayer, and Daqing's adventures, I kind of fell in love with their little group. (That whole part, I realized after the fact, is strongly drawing on Minekura Kazuya's Saiyuki: broken guys with epically tragic backstories traveling around on a divine quest, getting attacked by random demons who have been driven mad by one of their own on a powertrip...sounds familiar? But then Guardian in general has a lot in common with Saiyuki; a number of us WeiLan fans shipped Gojyo/Hakkai back in the day.)
The end: I love the end of this story, and I say that as a reader more than a writer because I didn't know for sure where the story was going until it got there. I woke up Sunday morning (with the fic due Monday) not knowing how exactly it was going to end -- Shen Wei was waiting in the wormhole, that was about all I knew for sure. And Kunlun would find the Hallows...but what happened then? Then I wrote nearly 7K words in a day and when I got to those final scenes, the characters fortunately knew exactly what was going on.
The end itself is a reverse of the novel. While the novel has Shen Wei sacrificing himself to save the world after putting Zhao Yunlan to sleep, only to be called back into being by Kunlun, in this Kunlun puts Shen Wei to sleep and makes his sacrifice, and then Shen Wei calls back Zhao Yunlan. (It also echoes the fic itself; on the lake shore and then at the end, Kunlun closes his eyes, ready to let go, but Shen Wei's voice calls him back.)
There wasn't a way to get this into the story, but for all the 10K years Shen Wei was watching from the wormhole, he had two other choices: he could always either collapse the wormhole (and go back to the present time, alone); or he could exit it to join Yunlan in the past (and then the wormhole would've collapsed and stranded them both) -- and there must've been times that second choice especially tempted him, to be with Yunlan again, to protect and comfort him and have his voice be heard. But he held out for choice C, that the Hallows once created would be able to get Yunlan into the wormhole again, and then they'd finally have a chance to make a future together.
Also, Shen Wei's "It's not the same, the way time passes in a wormhole" -- this is technically true. Shen Wei could've "fastforwarded" through most of what he witnessed from the wormhole -- time still flows in only one direction in it, but the rate of experiencing it is variable. ...I don't think he did, though. At first he wasn't sure how far Zhao Yunlan was from meeting him, and he didn't want to risk overshooting. Then as the centuries passed, he couldn't bear to abandon Yunlan to that loneliness, even if Yunlan could never know he was there.
(And yes, Shen Wei's still got Haixing light energy in him, but with 10K years he definitely figured out solutions! So after this they handily defeat Ye Zun and put him into therapy and then live happily ever after. ...Possibly for a very long time, because I'm not sure how much Hallows power might still be in either of them...)
So that's the story. And thank you so much, everyone who's taken to time to read it, and kudos'ed or left a comment; after living with one foot in this fic's world, I can't tell you have happy I am to have company. It means everything to me to know anyone's enjoyed it!
Not All Those Who Wander (23,476 words) by Xparrot
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán, Kūn Lún/Shěn Wēi
Characters: Kūn Lún, Zhào Yúnlán, Shěn Wēi, Dà Qìng
Additional Tags: canon AU, Drama, Angst, epic fantasy, or else scifi?, Old Haixing Era, Post-Apocalypse, Show-Book Fusion, Fix-It of Sorts
Summary:
The god Kunlun is as old as the mountain range that bears his name, if not older. Or so the villagers say. He was here before any people were, as eternal as the mountains — moreso, in truth. The mountains might change, but Kunlun remains Kunlun.
(While a drama-novel fusion, it's specifically an AU of the drama and should make sense even if you haven't read the novel.)
I wrote this fic in a week and a half, and it devoured my life for that time. Have you ever had a story that feels less like you're inventing it, and more like it exists already and you're just serving as the transcriber, the vessel that it's poured through to come into being? Yeah, one of those. I'm pleased it exists and excited about it like it's not really mine at all; it surprised me as much as it could any reader as it developed. And there were some things that didn't make it into the story, due to the limitations of the POV. So these are the DVD extras, for my own fun, and for anyone curious.
The plan: I signed up for the 520 exchange confident I could make the very forgiving 300 word requirement; my concern from the start was my tendency for fic to become...slightly longer than expected (by 140K words in one alarming case.) And that's been especially bad for Guardian -- I love these guys, okay, I love just letting them do their thing while I watch. So I came up with a clever solution: wait until the last week to write the fic, and then I'd have to keep it short!
...So, yeah, I ended up writing half a NaNo in a little over a week (technically, this counts as success; this fic could've been 100K words easy. As it stands I basically ended up with an abridged version of an epic fantasy novel, but hopefully an effective one?)
I'd signed up for either drama canon or novel-drama combo, because I love the novel as much as the show but hadn't done anything with it (it's less inspiring for fic because the end is so much more satisfying for me!)
lola's actual request was "Fanfic that in some way blends the two versions of the story together, so that SW is both ghost slayer and black cloak, or maybe that takes part novel part series." Which was the best kind of prompt for me, both specific and wonderfully open-ended. I'm so grateful for it, because without that impetus I wouldn't have come up with this story at all, much less attempted to write it.While considering how Shen Wei could be both roles, I jumped to thinking about Zhao Yunlan instead: could he possibly be both himself and Kunlun -- Kunlun of the novel, the aging god? But rather than the god Kunlun reincarnating as the human Zhao Yunlan, what if the human Zhao Yunlan became the god...
The rest fell into place from there, with various adjustments along the way.
The sci-fi backstory: I am weirdly amused that to get the story closer to the novel's epic fantasy/mythology, the solution was to lean in harder to the handwavy scifi of the drama.
The origin story given in the fic itself is missing some pieces, because none of the characters fully understand what's happening. So: the first glowing light that appears on the mountain is an alien vessel designed for a benevolent type of terraforming -- to make a land under the planet's crust, where it won't impact local life (the aliens that sent it are probably just observers, interstellar naturalists? They've sent a lot of ships out and don't always have time to follow up.) Only there's something wrong with the vessel, it's damaged, so some of that terraforming happens on the surface before it can burrow down, affecting the native life to make the Yashou and Dixingren.
The other star in the sky is the power source for this vessel -- because it's too dangerous to expose to life, it's supposed to stay in low orbit and transmit its power to the "star" in the underground land via a controlled wormhole. Except that power source is also damaged, dropping out of orbit. And when it finally falls, it's drawn to the parallel energy source on the planet: Kunlun, imbued with the power of the Hallows, which are later crafted from that fallen source.
(In my original concept for the story, Kunlun was a lot more powerful; he'd have taken the Hallows back with him in time and spent the 10K years learning to use their power. The Dixingren origin story was more complicated, too; they were actually alien spirits that possessed the local villagers (as Naye remarked, how L. Ron Hubbard of them) to grant them powers, to more closely align with the hell ghosts of the novels. And in a very early mental draft, Shen Wei and Ye Zun were basically Trigun's Vash and Knives -- the human incarnations of this vessel and its power source.)
Novel parallels: None of this origin story is from the novel, which is pure fantasy/mythology and has more fantastical creation myths. But the characters, in this altered universe, end up with pasts more closely aligned with their novel versions, and their characterization so shaped. The god Kunlun meeting a feral young ghost king has allusions to their meeting in the novel (Wei trying to politely eat a monster in front of this noble and aghast god is a favorite moment of mine, though it's a lot funnier in the novel.)
I also lifted some of the novel's best lines that didn't make it into the drama, in particular Kunlun's "From head to toe, the only thing on me that’s probably worth a thing is my heart. You want it? Take it!" (which Bai Yu himself read here, because he loves us fans even if the censors don't). The ghost king threatening death and destruction if Kunlun is taken from him is something I've wanted to see in some form in the dramaverse forever (but hadn't managed to fit it in my previous take on the past), though Kunlun's reaction in the novel is a bit different.
The Ghost Slayer's title and concealing mists are all from the novel (only hinted at in the show as the budget allowed). His disinterest/hatred of his people goes back to the little ghost king who rejects the savage violence of the demonic race and longs for beauty and purity and love, against his nature. (And at the same time in his rejection proves that there's more to that race, even if they're soulless.)
Team Kunlun: Da Qing's presence is entirely thanks to
naye. Lolachrome only had two DNWs: character death, and unalleviated angst; by about halfway through the story I was starting to serious worry about the alleviation or lack thereof. Naye brilliantly pointed out that a cat can mitigate any angst!I could've written another 20K words of Kunlun, the Ghost Slayer, and Daqing's adventures, I kind of fell in love with their little group. (That whole part, I realized after the fact, is strongly drawing on Minekura Kazuya's Saiyuki: broken guys with epically tragic backstories traveling around on a divine quest, getting attacked by random demons who have been driven mad by one of their own on a powertrip...sounds familiar? But then Guardian in general has a lot in common with Saiyuki; a number of us WeiLan fans shipped Gojyo/Hakkai back in the day.)
The end: I love the end of this story, and I say that as a reader more than a writer because I didn't know for sure where the story was going until it got there. I woke up Sunday morning (with the fic due Monday) not knowing how exactly it was going to end -- Shen Wei was waiting in the wormhole, that was about all I knew for sure. And Kunlun would find the Hallows...but what happened then? Then I wrote nearly 7K words in a day and when I got to those final scenes, the characters fortunately knew exactly what was going on.
The end itself is a reverse of the novel. While the novel has Shen Wei sacrificing himself to save the world after putting Zhao Yunlan to sleep, only to be called back into being by Kunlun, in this Kunlun puts Shen Wei to sleep and makes his sacrifice, and then Shen Wei calls back Zhao Yunlan. (It also echoes the fic itself; on the lake shore and then at the end, Kunlun closes his eyes, ready to let go, but Shen Wei's voice calls him back.)
There wasn't a way to get this into the story, but for all the 10K years Shen Wei was watching from the wormhole, he had two other choices: he could always either collapse the wormhole (and go back to the present time, alone); or he could exit it to join Yunlan in the past (and then the wormhole would've collapsed and stranded them both) -- and there must've been times that second choice especially tempted him, to be with Yunlan again, to protect and comfort him and have his voice be heard. But he held out for choice C, that the Hallows once created would be able to get Yunlan into the wormhole again, and then they'd finally have a chance to make a future together.
Also, Shen Wei's "It's not the same, the way time passes in a wormhole" -- this is technically true. Shen Wei could've "fastforwarded" through most of what he witnessed from the wormhole -- time still flows in only one direction in it, but the rate of experiencing it is variable. ...I don't think he did, though. At first he wasn't sure how far Zhao Yunlan was from meeting him, and he didn't want to risk overshooting. Then as the centuries passed, he couldn't bear to abandon Yunlan to that loneliness, even if Yunlan could never know he was there.
(And yes, Shen Wei's still got Haixing light energy in him, but with 10K years he definitely figured out solutions! So after this they handily defeat Ye Zun and put him into therapy and then live happily ever after. ...Possibly for a very long time, because I'm not sure how much Hallows power might still be in either of them...)
So that's the story. And thank you so much, everyone who's taken to time to read it, and kudos'ed or left a comment; after living with one foot in this fic's world, I can't tell you have happy I am to have company. It means everything to me to know anyone's enjoyed it!
no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:23 am (UTC)Wei trying to politely eat a monster in front of this noble and aghast god is a favorite moment of mine, though it's a lot funnier in the novel.
Oh man, that is one of the top most iconic moments in the novel for me. (The others are: Zhao Yunlan's horrifying morning after ramen breakfast, Zhao Yunlan buying a house for Shen Wei before they even kissed, that line about his heart!!!, and who could forget Shen Wei's "no bed only Kunlun" bedroom shrine XD)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:35 am (UTC)OMG YES those are some of my favorite novel moments as well! Also Zhao Yunlan finding the shrine, and his reaction to be ":D :D HE REALLY LIKES ME :D" rather than y'know, terrified of the immortal stalker like a sane person might be. But Zhao Yunlan buying a house, oh man. (My other favorite scene is Shen Wei getting drunk and making out and passing out and Zhao Yunlan calling the emergency number on him and then realizing what a huge mistake he made, that whole sequence is just hilarious to me, brilliant comedy! What I would've paid to get that in the show...)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 08:07 am (UTC)I would totally have read another 100k about the adventures of General Kunlun, The Ghost Slayer and Da Qing the amazing Cat. Awwwwwwww. But! I'm also glad it ended up being 24k because it's so nice and neat and tight and you get the entire story in a sweep if you put a couple of hours aside.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-26 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 07:30 pm (UTC)When I commented on the fic I was on my phone and so couldn't froth at you as much I wanted to about how incredible it is, so I'm especially glad you made this post!
Basically, I was reading it on the tube, got to the part about Zhao Yunlan remembering Shen Wei's name even though he'd forgotten his own, started crying, and had to have a brief reading break to calm the fuck down. That part meant SO MUCH to me, and I've got a lump in my throat right now just thinking about it.
ZYL/Kunlun's story is just so painful and epic and raw and hopeful... The way you told it felt like a founding myth. Like, this is it; this is how it happened.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-31 05:20 am (UTC)Zhao Yunlan remembering Shen Wei's name, yes...he did for all of it, the one thing he never could forget, could not bear to lock away from himself. And oh, to the tears...I'm sorry? but I'm also so so thrilled to know that it moved you!
I know this isn't how the show canon really went, but now in my head...it kind of is, a bit? I'm still surprised by how well it works together!
no subject
Date: 2019-06-05 04:05 pm (UTC)Yes, yes it is VERY EFFECTIVE. =D
Wow, I love the backstory with the ships and tech-gone-wrong. That's brilliant!
I could've written another 20K words of Kunlun, the Ghost Slayer, and Daqing's adventures, I kind of fell in love with their little group.
I would've read it!
Shen Wei's patience is one of my favorite things about him so thank you for noting the three options available to him watching through the wormhole. It'll make re-reads that much more compelling!
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 03:42 am (UTC)I'm so glad you liked the scifi backstory, I had fun with that even if I couldn't get it into the story!
And Shen Wei in the wormhole is the one bit I'm tempted to write a tag/timestamp for, because, oh, I really believe this is what he would do, and I love that he's a character who would. Patient, as you say, on a scale that is almost beyond human comprehension...just, wow.