X Never Marks the Spot

The sundial_exchange went live last Friday and now is up to an incredibly 171 works and counting! Guardian had a great showing but The Lost Tomb came in a strong second.

My gift was amazing:

A Tolerance for Pain (18470 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan, Da Qing (Guardian)
Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Presumed Dead, Not Really Character Death, set after Episode 23 (the one with the Kitchen Scene), Canon Divergence, Magical Exhaustion
Summary:

Shen Wei faced the storm and let it break around him. In the center of catastrophe, he closed his eyes. He could hear no heartbeats, could feel no life around him other than his own.

Zhao Yunlan. Where are you?

18K of presumed dead!!! and other angst!!! Shen Wei being totally metal and then getting to nap (in Zhao Yunlan's arms, of course) -- I could not have asked for more (actually I didn't, I totally forgot to put "presumed dead" in my wants, but marycrawford is a mind-reader among her other skills and knew just what I want!) Plus the resolution of the antagonist is just what I like (Zhao Yunlan, you softie) and there are tasty bits of headcanon for flavor throughout -- so good!


And I also! got treats?!

Cover art for my story "How to break up with your boyfriend" by naye
Such an adorable image, with the blog title and everything, and HAH Zhu Hong! Such the perfect attitude!

Fanart: Traces in the snow by yue_ix
Gorgeous Zhao Yunlan h/c that manages to tell a whole story in a single image (Shen Weeeeiiiii come rescue your boyfriend stat!!)


I wrote a The Lost Tomb Reboot post-canon fic for laireshi, who has the most excellent taste in h/c, and Xiaoge hides pain with the best iron woobies (until he can't):

Nor Shall the Flame Scorch You (11546 words) by Xparrot
Fandom: 盗墓笔记重启 | The Lost Tomb Reboot (TV), 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Xu Lei
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wang Pangzi & Wu Xie & Zhang Qiling, Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling
Characters: Zhang Qiling, Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Wang Pangzi
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Action/Adventure, Post-Canon, Poison, Fever, Peril, just constant peril, Xiaoge Has a Bad Day, Tombs Are Very Dangerous, especially when your resident badass is down for the count, (technically it's a temple but who's counting), Iron Triangle feels

The bronze needle was tiny, not three centimeters long and without even a tuft of feathers to mark it. Zhang Qiling closed his fingers around it, plucked it from his biceps and tossed it away.


I've been working through the rest, should do some recs later!

--But don't miss naye's TLTR vid! I've been waiting for this one to come out since she finished it. If you know the Iron Triangle, here is 3 minutes of solid squee; and if you don't know them yet, find out why you should if you're an h/c fan:

[vid] I'll Wait (314 words) by Naye Visuals
Fandom: 盗墓笔记重启 | The Lost Tomb Reboot (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wang Pangzi & Wu Xie & Zhang Qiling
Characters: Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Wang Pangzi, Zhang Qiling
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Iron Triangle feels, Any configuration you want them, It's all about the love, Also about the whump and the holding, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Video Format: Streaming, Video Format: MP4
Summary:

3-minute fanvid celebrating the love the Iron Triangle have for each other.

I'll wait, I'll wait to be the one
To catch you when you're falling
Always, always, I'll be the one
To answer when you're calling

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate, and happy fanning likewise!

--And I am planning on doing days 4-6 of WeiLan week eventually, but for now:

Weilan Week 2019 day 7 prompt: Say one Weilan/Guardian thing you're grateful for, and wish Guardian a happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Guardian! I'm grateful to be in a fandom with so many other creative people to collaborate with and enjoy what they make!

Such as my marvelous naye, who recently got into reading podfic -- and not only did she read several of her own awesome stories (I especially enjoyed her poetical rendition of This heart I gave you to hold is still beating), but two of mine as well:
Scars, and 'Twas Brillig -- which is over 20K words; the podfic is almost two and a half hours long!! I think it works even better in audio form, especially the end; the first time you actually hear Shen Wei's name is so affecting.

Then, frith_in_thorns is almost done posting Goblin Fruit, just one chapter to go, and I...cannot give a coherent rec of this fic, it is such a direct shot to my id, the most incredible mix of angsty h/c and devotion and magic-drug-altered POVs. But so much gratitude to Frith for letting me pre-read/beta and putting up with reactions that were 40% incoherent gibbering, 40% ridiculously overthinking nitpicking, and 40% shameless begging for even more (yes that's 120%. I'm so sorry, Frith! ^^;;;)

Finally, dzenka , who translated several of my fic into Russian and has been sharing with me a taste of the squeeful, seagull-screeching crack that is the Russian Guardian fandom (e.g. a Black-Cloaked Envoy vid...to the Darkwing Duck theme...in Russian) and is now posting their first English-language fic (a translation of their own fic from the original Russian) which I am helping beta: Where All the Light Burns Out, a long fix-it that diverges from canon in the last episodes, and I am so looking forward to seeing where it's going!

Tomorrow I leave on a several week vacation overseas, to be roadtripping with my family + naye and doctorskuld! \o/

...So today instead of packing I've been poking at the epilogue of my current Guardian WIP (bonibaru gave me excellent beta feedback that helped me figure out what was troubling me about it, but it means rewrites) and making rec posts I've been intending to do for weeks...

So to add to the other themed rec lists for Guardian -- here's seven of my favorite fix-its in the fandom, working in and around and through to a different end than what canon gave us.

( Some spoilers for the drama, so behind a cut! )

The sid_guardian Guardian 520 exchange is live!!! And there is SO MUCH fantastic stuff, omg. (Especially given that the word limit was a friendly 300 words...that lured us all in and then inspiration took us all for a ride!)

First my gift is this amazing adorably domestic fanart from the incomparable Altie:
Ties
There is a tie! And Zhao Yunlan being sweetly naughty and Shen Wei not minding one bit, and Da Qing has a fish so you know all is right with the world <3

Then there is an incredible amount of awesomeness that I'm just starting to work through. And before that, this (because I had the pleasure of beta'ing so didn't need more time to savor it now!):

naye's To fall but in your arms
16K (!?!) of delightful h/c and UST, set early series, when they run into a detour in the journey up the mountains in episode 9. It's from Shen Wei's POV and he's as big a basket of delicious issues and unreliable narration and eternal longing as anyone could hope for.

And a few more recs in no particular order:

galaxysoup's In Vino Veritas
The conversation and bonding between Zhu Hong and Shen Wei that I always wanted (plus so many gorgeous insightful things about Shen Wei and everything that makes him as beautiful a character as he is, I can't quote them all, but: "He puts down his chopsticks and takes off his glasses, setting them down beside his plate. He looks different without them - less friendly but more honest, a strange meeting point between the Professor and the Envoy.")

singlecrow's justice gave me an amber necklace
A fix-it with the challenges of moving on; the end is an exquisite breath of relief.

ranalore's The Touch of Your Mouth (your heart's truth tells me)
Four first kisses and then the fifth -- beautiful writing, and then, the end...the end!!!

Speaking of kisses, Goss's fanart Forever be colliding is a gorgeous one, as is abyss_valkyrie's Always stay here and never leave me and Tinny's manips!

Plus because this was a multimedia exchange, we also got lolachrome's vid Bury a Crown for all your BAMF!Shen Wei needs (that bit at the end when he screams, hot damn.)

(And my own is the absurdly over-long Not All Those Who Wander -- and frankly I'm proud to have brought it in at under 24K words; it could've been 150K. This story ate my life for a couple weeks so it'll be getting its own post, for my sake if no one else's!)

There's nothing like a good vid, combining clips and music such that you see a show or a song in a whole new way, and fall that much more in love with your fandom for it. When I'm in the right mood I like going back and rewatching favorite vids, feeling the warm fuzzies for fandoms I haven't thought about for a while.

I was in the right mood today. So here's 5 awesome vids for older fandoms - maybe not the best in show, or even my personal favorites, but ones I adore for various reasons:

Smallville: Bad Romance by sisabet
"Bad Romance" is the perfect Clex song. ...Well, so is every other song about bad romances ever written, but this one is their anthem. So it was a great gift to all of fandom that Sisabet went ahead and vidded it, despite all the Clex vids before it that covered the same ground - only she went and found something new, not just in the later seasons of SV that most of us either weren't watching or wished we hadn't, but also in other incarnations of Lex & Clark, comics and cartoons and movies, to show how far their romance goes, bad to the bone and everlasting (oh the shot of DCAU!Lex getting up close & personal, an inch more and they'd be kissing...)

Stargate Atlantis: Rockstar by chayiana
There are a zillion brilliant SGA vids and Chayiana did like half of them. I can't say if this is my favorite of hers but it might be the one I've watched the most, being about the cleverest semi-literal interpretation of lyrics vids I've seen. The movie-star whale gets me every time. And the speed-dial bits. And all the big rock stars. And Todd!!!

The Man from UNCLE: Malchik Gay by gnine
Totally cheaty, this one, since the song was my suggestion to begin with, and I beta'd the vid - but I still love how perfectly it showcases Illya in all his tiny blond awesomeness (his gay, gay, why-oh-why-do-all-these-girls-like-me awesomeness). And Illya/Napoleon and their trust and friendship and outrageous lack of personal space. And the amazing giddy ridiculousness of '60s TV. And just a hint of the bondage that made MUNCLE what it was. ...And did I mention Illya? Gah.

Princess Tutu: Hold Me Now by alkampfer81 [Youtube link]
AMVs tend to be more about rhythm and motion and action than emotions (not that they can't be intensely emotional; but the nature of an animated source is such that it lends itself to the visuals) and this is one of the greatest examples of the form, so beautifully composed that it resonates even if you can't understand the lyrics and don't know the source. (Though I highly, highly recommend said source to anyone who likes fairy tales, storytelling meta, or adorkable girls who happen to be enchanted ducks.) While it's technically spoilery, in truth if you don't know the series you likely won't make enough sense of anything to actually be spoiled, and just - there are instances where the imagery so perfectly matches the beat that your heart clenches with it. My favorite moments are when Kraehe's black wings burst out, and the town walls cracking near the end.

One Piece: Sail On by ManyLemons [ddl at bottom of link, or Youtube link]
Okay, so OP is still ongoing and I'm still into it, but this is an older vid - it's missing some of my favorite chars and moments in the series. It's still my favorite OP vid; it so perfectly captures the comedy and excitement and most importantly the epic adventure. It's everything I love about One Piece, what makes it one of my favorite stories of all times, in 5 minutes. (I admit to especially loving the "turn the page and see your savior" because it's cheesy and a silly effect but...but it's Luffy, and the fall of Arlong Park, and just, yes, yes.) (...That being said, I can't help but wish for a updated version, with all the nakama and bits from later arcs...)

So if you're not subscribed to me on ff.net or AO3 (erm, and if anyone is subscribed to me on AO3, my profound apologies for all the random test-archive spam you may have gotten - there is a major deploy coming within the week and I've been rather busy with the testing, and the bug of notifications going out from Test was just discovered ^^;) - there are 2 more chapters of Tiger Hunt posted - it took me a bit to get back in the groove, but this is about the point it picks up again, I feel.

Otherwise I have succeeded in dragging more victims into the dark abyss getting a few folks into Homestuck, to which I can only say MWAHAHAHAHA TRIUMPH umm, sorry if you actually wanted to, y'know, do anything besides read webcomics for a week solid (but really, why would you?)

(Or you can be like me and put Descend (a.k.a. the end of Act 4) on loop six times in a row! And then boggle at the guy playing it on a keyboard by ear.) (Actually Umbral Ultimatum is what I've been looping lately - better known as the music for the animation of OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD.)(Youtube dude plays that one too. Someone needs to get this kid a grand piano and a concert hall.)

If you're curious about fic, I've got bookmarks on AO3 (for a smaller fandom the amount of quality fic is seriously impressive.) If you love Karkat as much as me check out askvantas (Tumblr, I have discovered, is possibly more dangerous than Pixiv. If you are not careful you may lose several more hours to going through all the archives of certain blogs and wondering how squeeing over thirteen-year-old kids making out with six-sweep-old trolls is apparently now your fannish life.)(but come on, AWWWW!)(Though honestly this is the most beautiful JohnKat that will ever be.)(This is a close second.)

(John/Karkat is not in fact my OTP; my fannish soul continues to confuse and baffle by not offering me one. I love everybody and everybody with everybody. Especially if there are hugs. Need more hugs!)

As threatened! And because I can't be the only one who's been noticing the growing number of fic on AO3 and wondering what was up with that (I got it confused with Homestar Runner for a good couple months there...) and then if/when you do look it up, you end up on MSPaint Adventures baffled (or possibly worse, the MSPA Wiki, which in my experience is terrifying to the uninitiated.)(And then I spent two hours on it last night when I ran out of new pages...)

The brief explanation: [mostly spoiler-free, provided you don't click the links; I mention a few future things but trust me, there's a lot going on and I'm not giving any of the surprises away.] Homestuck is the latest and longest-running story on MSPA (unrelated to previous adventures, none of which I've read.) It's nominally a webcomic, insofar as you have to call it something; it might be easier to think of it as a detailed walk-through to an illustrated text adventure game that doesn't actually exist. It's not particularly interactive (with the exception of a few fun little RPG-style flash mini-games); it's not a game but an unusual narrative device, with the story being told mostly through text-adventure style descriptions and commands, and chat logs.

( This got long, so I'm cutting to spare you. )

So, that's Homestuck. If you're still not sure, I'd suggest going to the beginning and starting to read. The opening is mostly nonsense; the story takes a bit to get going, and you can skim until you get to the first chat logs. I'd recommend going through to the end of Act 1 before you really decide how you feel - that's only a fraction of the full work, but it'll give you a decent impression. (Oh, and I'd try looking at it in different browsers, or else turning off fonts - for some reason the primary fixed-width text is bolded weird and hard for me to read in Firefox, but looks fine in Chrome.)

So I am definitely back on an anime & manga kick. Have watched or rewatched a few awesome anime (am inflicting Princess Tutu on the bro now; it remains one of my favorite series of all time. Also the bro keeps calling Drosselmeyer "Dross Whedon" which if you know Tutu and you know Whedon is...way, way too appropriate XDXDXD;;;;;) and I've also been reading manga (my Kindle is great for that, I've found, as long as it's not a series like GetBackers with tons of little tiny illegible text everywhere.)

So, for anyone looking for recs, three entirely different series I've recently devoured. (Mostly spoiler-free reviews/squee - the plot points I mention are mostly from the first volume or so.)

First up, Urasawa Naoki's Monster (there's an anime, too, but I've only read the manga). It's a seinen (adult male-aimed comics) but rather than going for the sex or hyperviolence, Monster is suspense/drama. ( Go on... )

Then there's Katsumoto Kasane's Sono Te wo Dokero (aka Hands Off!), an 8-volume shoujo manga about three psychically gifted high school boys. ( Okay, I love this series to pieces for no good reason. )

Last is the BL classic Love Mode, which is...well, if you like Boys Love you probably know it already, and if BL's not your genre then I don't think this one would change your mind. ( Uh...yeah... )

And now, speaking of Quest, gotta get back to that writing; I've got a quota to fill...!

Belated Merry Christmas to those who celebrate that, early Happy New Years to those who celebrate this now, and happy holidays to all!

Am having a good vacation myself, back at my parents', but busy with all the relations about the house 'til lately. I have had time to read a bit of Yuletide fic, though I've still got most of the archive to go through:

Firstly, my gift - I got Ben 10! With Kevin/Gwen! A post-recent-finale tag (which episodes badly were in need of tagging - did love the end of this season, btw, though in classic B10 fashion it went way too fast - gotta love the way kids' shows - and that one in particular - can stuff two hours of plot into twenty minutes): Missing Kevin

Speaking of kids' fiction - much enjoyed this blast from the past: All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Science Fiction, fic for The Girl with the Silver Eyes, which book I adored when I was ten (I believe it's where I learned the word "telekinesis", in fact). This story made me dig out my old copy and reread it. It's fascinating how books read twenty years after the fact, what parts of the stories you remember, what you've forgotten (oh, how parents often suffer in kids' books, with their children always running away, whether down the block or to the Met or to outer space..)

While I'm at it, this is from last year's Yuletide, but just as sentimental - Epilogue, Part II for the My Teacher Is an Alien series, which books I also just reread and still rather love (I suspect my love of multi-species space opera comes from that series as much as from Diane Duane's Star Trek novels...)

Then, writing for Futurama last year inspired me to check out this year's batch, which lead to The Start of a Beautiful Something, which is Fry/Leela/Bender OT3 and more cute than crack. No really.

Cute also applies to The Roommate of +10 Confusion - Jason Fox meets Calvin (& Hobbes). While most of the Calvin & Hobbes fic I've seen over previous Yuletides goes for evoking the wistful melancholy of growing up, this one is just fun and adorable, and I loved it for that.

And I'm assuming you've seen the Old Spice Man writing for Yuletide, but if you've missed it: Meta Yuletide Fic (The Fic You Wish Your Fic Smelled Like)

(I would apologize for spamming your flist, but...this is like the first time I've really posted in a month, so...) I forgot to put this in the last post, so it gets its own, in the name of positive squee about fandom - if you haven't seen, after six years, lanning is posting the next story in her Identical series, one of my favorite fanfic series of all time. I assume if you've read any Smallville or Clex fic that you've read Identical (if you're like me, half a dozen times), but in case you haven't - Identical is a Clex canon AU, diverging from the end of SV's first season but incorporating later canon, and future Superman canon as well, and I tend to forget that it's not the real canon because dang it, it should have been. It's got h/c, it's got angst, it's got true love, it's got the Kents slowly adopting Lex into their family, it's got wicked evil villains. It's got Eli Cohen, my favorite fic OC ever, and he is as awesome as ever, if not moreso. It's got this fantastic and gorgeous trailer vid. And now it's got a new story, which is shaping up to be as good as anything before it!

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails