X Never Marks the Spot

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!

Weilan Week 2019 day 2 prompt: What do you love the most about Weilan?

The MOST? Ask a fan to choose one thing about her OTP?? Impossible!

But if I must...I think my favorite thing about them is their fantastic compatibility. Which cheatingly covers a whole range of things, but it's what makes them so satisfying. Especially because they're people who on the surface don't seem that compatible. They can come across as an opposites-attract couple because their exterior presentations are so different, between Shen Wei's ultra-reserved, iron-willed control and dignity, with his rigid posture and rigorously tailored suits and his actual literal mask; contrasted to Zhao Yunlan's casually insouciant slouching and scruffy distressed jeans, his aggressively informal attitude toward public and personal space and his easily expressed moods.

Except that there's so much more with them that is shared and mutual, when you look at little closer. ( Read more... )