china_shop posting in

I wrote a treat for

idproquo and another

fan_flashworks flashfic. :-)

Title: Sunshine and Honey (4126 words) [Mature]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Ye Olde Haixing Era, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Outdoor Sex, Feeding, Finger Sucking, Oral Fixation, First Kiss (for one of them), First time (for one of them), Treat
Summary:

They were halfway to the Allied Forces’ southern boundary when the sun came out. Shen Wei pulled back his hood and looked around, conscious of the breeze on his bare face. The heavy clouds were finally breaking up.

Meanwhile, Kunlun had dropped his bag and flopped onto his back on the grassy slope. “Let’s rest here a while.”

Title: Pages for You (1762 words) [Teen and Up]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Fade to Black, Community: fan_flashworks
Summary:

Over the course of the evening, an impulse had taken root, and now Shen Wei submitted to it. He switched on his desk lamp, laid out several large sheets of paper and quietly ground some ink. If Zhao Yunlan wanted to read of their time together through the eyes of a Dixingren soldier, who better than Shen Wei to write an account—to show Zhao Yunlan exactly how much his arrival had meant to the war effort and to Shen Wei himself.

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Poll #33318 Location, location, location

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

View Respondents

What's your favourite location in the show?

View Answers

the main room at the SID
8 (66.7%)

Zhao Yunlan's flat
8 (66.7%)

Shen Wei's office
2 (16.7%)

the Dijun's palace
0 (0.0%)

the Sky Pillar in its field of ruins
3 (25.0%)

the SID lab
0 (0.0%)

the Inspectorate lab
0 (0.0%)

Shen Wei's flat
3 (25.0%)

the streets of Dragon City
1 (8.3%)

the streets of Dixing
2 (16.7%)

the Dixing bar
3 (25.0%)

the Allied Forces Head Quarters (YOHE)
0 (0.0%)

other (please specify)
2 (16.7%)

When we first see Da Qing in Ye Olde Haixing Era, how long has he been wandering around looking for Kunlun?

View Answers

thanks to the Hallows' planning, only a few hours
2 (15.4%)

a day or less
2 (15.4%)

several days
1 (7.7%)

one to two weeks
0 (0.0%)

he kept getting distracted chasing mice and birds, so more than two weeks
4 (30.8%)

Shen Wei sent news of his benefactor (short hair; strange weapon) to Ma Gui and Fu You, who did the math and sent Da Qing out to find him, so less than an hour
8 (61.5%)

other (please specify)
1 (7.7%)

trobadora

It rained for three hours straight - thunderstorm, hail and torrential rain - and didn't cool done one bit. That shouldn't be allowed. And now we have all the heat and all the humidity, and ugh.

(Hi! I'm still here. Things are just very busy and I can't seem to find the time or energy for posting, much less keeping up with anything other than the

sid_guardian discussions ... I hope everyone's doing well, whether you're caught in this heat wave too or not.)

tehfanglyfish posting in

sid_guardian

Greetings Guardian Bingo Participants!

Somehow we have already made it through one month of Bonus Bingo and July is upon us. New prompts are listed below.

If you missed out on June, no worries! You can join the fest at any point. You can turn in fills for months you missed during our November grace period month.

July (I) Prompts:

Cake | Reconciliation | Emergency

As with last month, you only need to create for one of these prompts to earn a fill for this month, though you’re welcome to create more if you feel so inspired.

While the fest account is located on Tumblr, you don't have to be a Tumblr user to participate or to earn a badge at the end of the fest. (Filling one prompt per month over five months is what matters for earning the badge, not where you post your fills.)

Friendly Fest Reminders:

This is a low-stress fest. The point is to create fan works and have fun.
All modes of creation are accepted!
All ratings, all ships, rpf, Weilan derivatives, and even works based on other Priest novels are accepted. Please tag accordingly.
While each month will have three prompts listed, you only need to create for one prompt to earn a fill for that month. (You are, however, welcome to complete or combine all of them if you wish.)
Prompts are inspiration only – follow them as strictly or as loosely as you’d like
No min/max content requirements.
No works created using generative AI

About/FAQ - Contains full fest info

AO3 Collection - You may also post in other places (tumblr, Dreamwidth, etc.)

If you @ our tumblr account, we’ll happily reblog your fill.

Let us know if you have any questions. Have fun and happy creating!

Fest Prompt Master List:

June (B): Chase | Door Key | Respite

July (I): Cake | Reconciliation | Emergency

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

This is the fanworks round-up post for June! Please link in the comments to any Guardian (or related fandoms) fanworks you created or enjoyed last month.

all kinds of fanworks are welcome – fic, art, vids, picspams, etc. - including those made for exchanges and events
new chapters of WIPs count
meta or discussion posts, too
whether or not you've already linked these in a post of their own, we still want them here!

If you're linking to fanworks you didn't create yourself, please clearly mark these "REC", so there's no confusion about authorship/creatorship.

(And please still do link your fanworks, meta, etc. separately, in their own post, at any time!)

So ... what Guardian and related fandoms works did you create or enjoy in June?

alierak posting in

dw_maintenance

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

amedia posting in

sid_guardian

DC-Slash is an online convention coming up at the end of July. We still have ONE DAY for people to make panel suggestions (https://www.dcslash.org/dc-slash-con/programming) and I for one would LOVE to see MOAR Asian Drama-related suggestions!!!

( Read more... )

umadoshi

With Canada Day rudely falling on a Tuesday,

scruloose and I both booked today off. I haven't managed a whole lot of manga work yet, but hopefully between today (as soon as I finish this post) and tomorrow I'll get a reasonable amount done. While I'm doing at-my-desk things,

scruloose is working on the next step(s) in getting a dedicated hose set up for our individual townhouse.

Last night we finally got around to switching the desk chairs in our offices, ( cut for the uninterested )

It occurred to me very late in the game that I might do better at spending non-work time at my desk (where, y'know, most of my writing used to happen) if I didn't hate my chair; I've been attributing the fact that I spend 95% of my evenings down in the living room these days to the fact that Sinha's such a lapcat, and that's definitely a huge factor, but...being able to sit comfortably in here would sure help.

Another pleasing tech-related development has to do with my phone keyboard. ( again, cut for the uninterested )

Speaking of things that feel so much better now, Saturday also involved Ginny chopping my hair off for me. I've been leaving it alone (other than the undercut) since whenever the last time we buzz cut it was, and maybe a month ago I found that it was long enough to easily ponytail. That was pleasantly novel for about a week, even though the front bits weren't long enough to get into the ponytail and quickly started to need clips or something when it got hot. By last weekend, I was very, very done with the whole thing, and this weekend Ginny was able to deal with it. Such a relief.

My younger nibling and their spouse of eight months or so stopped by a few days ago to pick up a few years' worth of my spare comp copies from Seven Seas. Only one box, since I've technically scaled back my freelance workload (and I think there's also a backlog of comps that I should be getting sooner rather than later), but a hefty box that was bulging a bit at the seams, so it's nice to have that all sent off to a new home. It was lovely to see my nibling and meet their spouse, however briefly. (They politely rolled with the "we're going to stand in our driveway and chat while masked and overheat more than a little" element.)

A final thing before calling this a post and getting to work: last weekend

scruloose and I gave the Sensation lilac a long-overdue aggressive pruning (and it should probably get the same amount cut out of it in a year). The poor thing was all spindly limbs and mostly-high-up blooms, so hopefully this will help it for next year.( But what to do with the mutant hybrid? )

Current Mood: apathetic

facethestrange posting in

sid_guardian

Two novelverse fics and Zhubai art. :)

Let It Out (2475 words) by facethestrange
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian - priest
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: rough sex turns unexpectedly tender and/or emotional, Biting, Blood Drinking, Crying, Being praised for crying during sex, Praise Kink, Endearments, Anal Sex, Multiple Orgasms, First Time, slightly different take on their canon first time, First Time Bottoming, Canonical Life Force Drain, Porn with Feelings
Summary:
"Oh heavens, Xiao Wei, you look so beautiful right now."

The words slip out before he can stop them, and he's already mentally scolding himself for saying the least helpful thing when he registers Shen Wei's reaction—eyes wide, lips parted, suddenly so entirely unguarded that Zhao Yunlan forgets how to breathe.

Gods Gone Wild (731 words) by facethestrange
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian - priest
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kunlun/Zhao Yunlan, Kunlun/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Kunlun (Guardian)
Additional Tags: Self-cest, Hand Jobs, Naked/Clothed Sex, use of powers during sex, Dream Sex, Voyeurism, Shen Wei is not there but he is watching, this may read like dubcon at the beginning but it turns into very enthusiastic consent very fast, Zhao Yunlan Being Zhao Yunlan
Summary:
Maybe he shouldn't always believe himself, but this opens up so many tantalizing possibilities that he can't help quipping, "If this is a dream, can I just magic away your clothes?"

It's as hot as it is frustrating that Kunlun is wrapped in layers of perfectly arranged fabric while casually doing this to Zhao Yunlan.

"I didn't say it was your dream."

Can't Get Enough of You by facethestrange
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, Chinese Actor RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bai Yu/Zhu Yilong
Characters: Bai Yu (Actor), Zhu Yilong
Additional Tags: shoulder kiss, Undressing, despite the tags this is not even a little bit explicit, Tenderness, Guardian Bingo, Fanart, Drawing
Series: Part 7 of Zhubai ~canon~ but with more kissing
Summary:
The door is locked, that's the important part. (The key card ends up on the floor.)

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

Welcome aboard for this week's chapters of our Guardian readalong!

Here are last week's chapters. You can find all previous discussions on the schedule post (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), or via the !readalong tag.

This week's chapters:

Chapter 15: Daqing comes searching for Zhao Yunlan, finds Shen Wei, and is dispatched to buy breakfast. Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei learn that Lin Jing is missing, and receive a delayed message from Lin Jing. Earthquakes from the Netherworld shake the city, and the team heads towards the resort Lin Jing was investigating, which is deserted.
Chapter 16: Zhu Hong reacts badly to being sent off with Xiao-Guo, and takes off after Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei et al. investigate the resort and discover everyone's been turned to dust by something escaping from beneath. Zhao Yunlan realises this is a trap - and then gui come climbing out of the ground, and Shen Wei uses his blade ...

The corresponding part in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation are chapters 95-97.

Excerpts:

( 1) Daqing buys breakfast )

( 2) Shen Wei, hologram generator )

( 3) Zhao Yunlan vs. Shen Wei vs. modern tech )

( 4) Turned to dust )

( 5) The blade strikes )

Questions:

What's your favourite part in these chapters? Which SID member gets the best moment? What do you think about Shen Wei's carefree fatalism here? And about Zhao Yunlan's treatment of Shen Wei? How well are you following events here? Any thoughts about the parts that made it into the drama?

(As usual, these are just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like!)

Our schedule - please sign up to host a post if you can!

umadoshi

A weekend post never happened last weekend, but here's what I'm been reading over the last couple of weeks. (Watching has been basically unchanged: we're up to date on Murderbot and continuing to slowly work through Leverage season 4.)

I finished reading Tchaikovsky's Service Model, which I thought was...fine? It was interesting enough, but if it had been my first exposure to his work it wouldn't have made me rush out and try more right away.

I read and liked Margaret Owen's Little Thieves in April, and Jenny Hamilton on Bluesky was recently talking about the trilogy as a whole (and this reminds me that now I can go read her "How to Break a Heart: Subverting the Hero’s Breakup Trope"), so when I decided a week or so ago to finally burn through all of my Kobo points and clear at least a bit of my wishlist, I included the second book, Painted Devils, which I enjoyed enough to want to read the third (Holy Terrors) right away. I try not to buy many ebooks at full price, though, given how many more I buy overall than I'm ever going to manage to read, and thankfully my library not only has it but had it available right away.

Consider that a recommendation, but beyond it I'm just going to quote the non-spoilery part of Jenny's essay that describes the series (and the essay then details how things stood at the end of book 2, so consider that the spoiler warning):

This year brought us Margaret Owen’s Holy Terrors. It’s the third in a trilogy about an angry, selfish girl named Vanja who made it through a lifetime of neglect and abuse with a crop of emotional and physical scars, a talent for picking pockets, the favor of the gods (sometimes), and a healthy hostility for rich people. Against both their better judgment, she falls in love with prefect Emeric Conrad, whom she variously describes as a “human civics primer,” an “accounting ledger made flesh,” and an “intolerable filing cabinet.”

(Here the author of this piece has been compelled to delete a ten thousand–word manifesto about the greatness of the Little Thieves series. If you like the TV show Leverage, or you enjoy digging your teeth into solid character development, or you just hate rich people, you should read it. The first book is Little Thieves. Thank me later.)

For a dramatic change of pace, I'm now reading Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (also a with-points acquisition), which I keep wanting to file under non-fiction, although the title will clearly tell you that it's speculative fiction. (IIRC I learned about it from

skygiants' post.) Its fictional interviews build a distressingly plausible picture of global collapse through this decade and the couple to come, but also offer glimpses into how we could come out on the other side, if we're willing to largely raze and rebuild ~human society~ in a way that actually takes care of people. (The book came out in...2022?...so it in no way accounts for the most recent and current forms of the political hellscape.)

On the non-fiction side, I read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, a book of essays and corresponding recipes that I'd previously read maybe ten years ago. Colwin died in 1992 (I think I've got that right), and this book (and the follow-up, More Home Cooking) is a food-writing classic for good reason, although also very much of its place and time--very American, very '80s.

(The rest of my using-all-my-Kobo-points haul: The Hands of the Emperor, We Are All Completely Fine, Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower, All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China, and Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World. Did this put a visible dent in my Kobo wishlist [which is a relatively curated list of books I keep an eye on for preorder purposes and sighting sales]? Yes. Has the dent since been filled in? Also yes.)

extrapenguin

I recently got Pertti Nieminen's compilation of translations Veden hohde, vuorten värit, with a bunch of translations from the Book of Poetry (詩經 Shi Jing) onwards, and have been slowly making my way through it. (Out of print, so I got it via antikvaari.fi and ended up paying more for postage than the actual book lol. Joys of living abroad.) This was for the most part an exercise in seeing whether Chinese poetry works better translated into Finnish than into English, given that all three poetic traditions have different defaults of what is considered poetic. Anyway, the short answer is "yes". I picked a few poems I liked from the Shi Jing to illustrate the differences. The text itself is available on ctext, along with out of copyright 1800s translations by James Legge, to which I shall compare.

(My largest annoyance with the book so far: the transliteration chosen is, uh, not pinyin, so I'm here like "who tf is Su T'ung-po" whenever a name comes up. My copy already has a random inscription on the front so I might add a pinyin gloss to the authors' names with pencil at some point.)

( intenseish poetry discussion )

I might do some similar comparisons of the Tang poets and then, later on, other sections – I think there must be enough famous Ming poets that one of them has also been translated into English, and at the very least I can talk about Mao Zedong's stuff for the Republic/People's Republic section.

eirenical

First and foremost, I'd like to offer up a huge "Thank You!!" to you for creating a gift for me. I know how difficult it can be to put any part of your creative process into the hands of another individual, so I will do my best to treat that trust with the care and respect it deserves. ^_^

Gifting is turned on and treats of any variety are welcome. ^_^

AO3: eirenical (chibi1723)
tumblr: eirenical

Fic versus Art

Most of the more specific prompts have been written mostly with fic in mind just because I’m a writer and that’s how my brain works, but there are more nonspecific prompts in the “Likes” and “Prompts that work for all canons” sections that I think would make good art prompts? Of course, you are also welcome to delve into the sprawling mass of the other sections as well if you’d like something more specific. ^_^

Vid prompts

I'm honestly game for just about anything you'd like to do with a video, since I know that you're going to be limited by what scenes are available in canon, so feel free to borrow from any of the prompts below if they're helpful or to come up with your own ideas. ^_^ In terms of visuals, TLT2 and Time Raiders (movie) would be my canons of choice of those I requested, but if you need to borrow from unrequested canons to make the scenes you want to make work, I'm fine with you using scenes from TLT1, UN, and Reboot, as well. In terms of music... ok, that's a hard one. XD My music taste is quite eclectic.

Some current favorites:

Мельница – «Прощай» (Official video) (Melnitsa - "Goodbye") is a song I've been obsessed with since I saw it in a Fanghua vid which has since disappeared from Youtube. TT^TT

Barns Courtney -- Glitter and Gold -- I also like a lot of his other songs, so feel free to explore. ^_^

Pretty much anything by WILD -- Silver and Gold was the first of their songs I fell in love with and I've made vids of my own for Just Begun and Haunted Heart, but I don't think I've ever heard a song of theirs that I don't like, so have fun? ^_^

The Arcadian Wild -- This is another band that I don't think I've ever really disliked a song from, but my favorite album is their self-titled album, The Arcadian Wild, and a few of their singles: Wolves of the Revolution, The Storm, Envy Green, Dopamine, and Willow. I also like Hey, Runner from the Finch in the Pantry album.

A bit obsessed with the Kill Me Love Me OST song 焰 | Flame and the lyrics strike me as fairly Pingxie appropriate for some of the darker parts of their timeline.

She Keeps Me Warm by Mary Lambert seems a nice soft Pingxie song, too. ^_^

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head, but if none of those are speaking to you, feel free to reach out to the mod and I can look for other songs. ^_^

Notes on rating, kink and general likes and dislikes (DNWs):

( Rating and kink )

( Likes )

( DNWs (do not wants )

Prompts:

(Overall disclaimer: for any of these general prompts that aren’t sexual, Pangzi can absolutely be there, too, because I DO see him as being just as integral a part of the Iron Triangle as Wu Xie and Xiaoge are, but I do not want him as part of the ship or implied to be part of the ship.)

( Prompts that work for all requested canons )

Specific Requests:

Movies: Time Raiders (2016)
Novels: The Grave Robbers' Chronicles
TV: The Lost Tomb 2 - Explore with the Note
Video Games: Time Raiders (mobile game)

You are free to utilize any prompt I toss out there or none of them. If reading what I like about the characters/worlds sparks a fic idea in your head, feel free to ignore the prompts and run with it. ^_^

( 1. Movies: Time Raiders (2016) )

( 2. Novels: The Grave Robbers' Chronicles )

( 3. TV: The Lost Tomb 2 - Explore with the Note )

( 4. Video Games: Time Raiders (mobile game) )

china_shop

I wrote most of this on Tuesday, and now it's Friday, so some unrepaired time dilation might slip through.

Pandemic life
( Protocol slippage. )

Previous poll review
In the Impending doom of the natural variety poll, the most common natural disaster threatening respondents is drought/heat (55.6%), followed by flood (44.4%), then blizzard (40.7%). Twelve of us (including me) are at risk of earthquakes.

In ticky-boxes, hugs won by a landslide with 70.4%, followed by "ticky-box made of Möbius strips and Escher staircases" with 48.1%. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
A little more Neurotribes, but the focus on kids and parenting is not holding my interest. Nothing wrong with it; I'm just not the right audience. A chapter of Guardian. A smidgen more of The Book of Three, and the first few hours of Incandescent by Emily Tesh, read by Zara Ramm (very heavy on introductions and the nitty-gritty of school administration so far, but I like the POV character - no spoilers, please).

TV & movies
Four episodes of The Expanse season 6 with a friend; we're watching the other two tonight. Murderbot (really enjoyed the last episode). Poker Face (haven't seen the latest). Andor S02E06 (maybe we're watching this too slowly? so far this season isn't clicking for me).

Episode 2 of Stick, which... I enjoyed watching Lydio Ko play on TV, one time, but I just don't know how much golf I can engage with, especially in fiction. Swings all look the same to me, so after the first three or four, there's none of the physical competence porn you get in more overtly active sports. And I don't find Owen Wilson inherently charming or interesting. I think the biggest appeal of the show is actually that so much of it is set outside with trees around, and that's still a very manicured, artificial setting. /fussy /tl;dr, We're in the market for a new show.

Our Unwritten Seoul (Kdrama on Netflix). I'm enjoying this so much! Two episodes and several revelations yet to go.

Materialists at the movies. We went to this because a friend and I have a running conversation about the death of the romcom, and this nominally was one. But it turned out to not really be rom or com, and the title should have clued me in that Andrew wouldn't like it (he disliked the main character and wasn't at all invested in the outcome). It's interestingly structured, and the cast is good, but it's mostly about entitled people approaching dating in terms of checkboxes (age, height, income, etc).

Spoilery things about the structure.

The main character, Lucy, is a professional matchmaker in NYC, and the film is in three parts: the first third is a wealth-porn romance between her and Pedro Pascale; he pursues her after they meet at the wedding of his brother, her former client. They go to a lot of expensive restaurants, have sex on satin sheets in his $12m penthouse, and talk a lot of numbers at each other. He wants to take her to Iceland on holiday. The middle third (or possibly third act of four? I wasn't timing it) starts when one of Lucy's clients is sexually assaulted on a date Lucy set up. This all happens off-screen, and I don't think we even see the assaulter. The victim is the nicest, warmest of Lucy's clients, but the film is mostly concerned with Lucy's crisis, as the assault brings home that the checkboxes don't matter. The final third or act is a second-time-around romance with her struggling-actor/cater-waiter ex-boyfriend, Chris Evans. Lucy broke up with him over money, and now at the culmination of her character arc, she decides she loves him enough to make it work after all. Conveniently, he is still extremely hung up on her.

I don't think I've ever seen a relationship movie that starts out focused on one pairing getting together (they feel pretty well-matched, and Pedro Pascale's character is smart, open, attentive and kind), then transitions to another pairing. Huh.

The Wild Robot on Netflix. Okay, this was really cute and funny. I especially enjoyed the possum babies. (I kept missing quips, though -- poor sound mixing, or is my hearing going?) As an aside, I was amused that the corporation was called Universal Dynamics, given Global Dynamics in Eureka (2006) and Massive Dynamics in Fringe (2008). What comes after "universal"?

October Sky on Netflix. Fictionalised biopic about a kid in a coal-mining company town in 1957 who is inspired by Sputnik to create a rocket, learn trigonometry, and get a college scholarship. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Laura Linney. It was fine, but wow, I wanted the story to be about overthrowing the company.

Audio entertainment
I spent four or five hours over the weekend listening to Melanie Nelson of Coherent podcast interviewing politicians, academics and a disability activist about the "Let's Make Everything Libertarian" Bill for which submissions closed lunchtime Monday. (Locals, it's not too late to weigh in! Talk to your MP!) Since then, Writing Excuses and a bunch of Midnight Burger. (I bounced off Midnight Burger when I first tried it a year or two ago, but now I'm really enjoying the physics and other science aspects, and the characters are growing on me. Ava is my fav. I'm most of the way through episode 11.)

Online life
Catching up on comments. Still have a billion unread emails, and let's not even talk about my tabs.

Writing/making things
I spent the weekend juggling multiple urgent things. Now I have some breathing space, of course, when I sit down to write (aiming for a combination

fan_flashworks entry and Guardian Bingo), I can't make sentences.

Whining.

A contributing factor is that I'm having another "argh, my prose sucks" crisis of confidence. This happens periodically. You can't be on a roll indefinitely without hitting a bump, I guess. For me, usually it means it's time to read a particular type of literary novel, preferably in paper format. The one I remember being most successful is Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible; the very close, very voice-y rotating POVs, the playful intricate language use, and the thoughtful exploration of context help me to sink into whatever POV I'm writing, rather than skating over the surface and Lego-ing together tired phrases. I wrote some really good fic after re-reading it a few years ago. Whereas re-reading Byatt's Possession just meant I produced endless run-on sentences, heh. Anyway, I guess I should get on that soon...

Finished and posted an old outsider POV writing exercise for

fan_flashworks's Yield challenge.

Life/health/mental state things
I got my political submission in (thanks to

cyphomandra for beta) and wrote an outraged email to the Prime Minister about the Deputy Prime Minister's engaging in stochastic harrassment.

In general, I've been feeling needlessly stressed and vaguely sick, but today my alarm didn't go off and I slept an extra hour and a half. So much better.

Good things
Un-punctured bike tyre. Kdrama. New intermediate glasses making it easier to do crosswords and to read while I exercise. New bathroom sink taps.

sid_guardian commentpalooza. I'll probably get back on my writing feet again soon. Andrew and Halle and books and fandom.

Poll #33295 Routine

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

View Respondents

Night-time getting-ready-for-bed routine

View Answers

I brush my teeth
48 (84.2%)

I lock up and switch things off around the house
29 (50.9%)

I tend to pets
19 (33.3%)

there are a few skincare- and/or haircare-type steps
18 (31.6%)

kind of a lot of steps, of various kinds
10 (17.5%)

it takes me more than half an hour
14 (24.6%)

sometimes it takes me an hour or more
4 (7.0%)

what routine? I'm always ready for bed
8 (14.0%)

other
9 (15.8%)

ticky-box of it's normal to have strong opinions about taps (AKA faucets)
24 (42.1%)

ticky-box of how stressful it is to ask tradespeople to change things they've done
33 (57.9%)

ticky-box of wondering if today is the day you'll unexpectedly step through a portal into another time or world
23 (40.4%)

ticky-box full of sitting on a mountain ledge in the moonlight, listening to owls
32 (56.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
43 (75.4%)

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

( More pics. )

Poll #33289 Temperature and revenue

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

View Respondents

What else could Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng and Ye Huo have tried to keep warm in the zero-degree lab?

View Answers

cover the vent
6 (50.0%)

jam the giant fan
4 (33.3%)

check the shelves for materials to make a tent
5 (41.7%)

ransack the room for materials to burn
1 (8.3%)

put their hoodies' hoods up
9 (75.0%)

closer huddling (all three)...
8 (66.7%)

...on one of the bed things instead of the floor
3 (25.0%)

take selfies with the camera (won't keep them warm, but will pass the time)
0 (0.0%)

Chu Shuzhi could use his strings to rip the control panel off the wall
5 (41.7%)

Chu Shuzhi could use his strings to pull the door off its hinges or the linings off the walls (like he broke into the Hanga caves)
8 (66.7%)

like, NOT close the cover on the OFF switch (Changcheng, ILU)
6 (50.0%)

other
4 (33.3%)

What are Shen Wei's revenue streams?

View Answers

stipend from Dixing
10 (83.3%)

pay from the university
12 (100.0%)

investments from when he first came to Haixing
2 (16.7%)

investments in a lollipop factory, specifically
4 (33.3%)

an alchemical/Midas power
2 (16.7%)

a trust set up by his fellow soldiers from the ancient war that has been held in his name for ten thousand years in the belief that he will return one day
1 (8.3%)

moonlighting as a fashion model
1 (8.3%)

moonlighting as a restaurant chef
0 (0.0%)

secretly a best-selling author of epic historical novels
0 (0.0%)

he's actually a man of fairly modest means
6 (50.0%)

other (please specify in comments)
0 (0.0%)

umadoshi

Over a month after the arrival of our (in my case, long-yearned-for) Microclimate Air3 powered respirators, I finally took mine out on its maiden voyage yesterday. (It may result in me going more places than I have been, but it may also mainly result in me feeling safer in the places I do go.)

Yesterday there was a casual in-person meeting at Dayjob where the team properly met the two people who our office's managing editor answers to. Donuts were promised (and turned out to be quality donuts, although I opted not to bring one home with me [since I sure wasn't about to unmask to eat anything there!]. Fun times in needing to be picky about what I spend my sugar intake on). We also had a heat warning, so I was all the more glad/relieved to have a drive to and from the meeting rather than taking transit for the first time in, oh, three years or so.

I'll put most of the rest under a cut, but I do want to note--especially since probably at least one or two of you clicked on the link for the Air3, and the price looks horrifying--that I'm incredibly glad we didn't order ours immediately when they first became available, because at that point the Air3 alone (as opposed to the kit) was more like $1000 USD. The original plan wasn't for

scruloose to get one at all, given that initial price and given that they have a respirator setup that works well for them. But then a few weeks later, the price dropped to $549(/$649 for the kit with extra stuff, which is what we opted for, as well as a few extra filters etc. in the name of minimizing future need to deal with shipping), so we got to say "Well, that's still really spendy, but it's also now not completely outrageous to get two." (And then we wound up having to contact the company because of shipping/import charge shenanigans, but those were on the courier's side, not Microclimate's, and the person

scruloose dealt with was great, so it's all good.)

I should also note that one of the review videos I watched about this made sure to point out clearly that its price (which initially was a MAJOR jump up from how much the Air2 cost when that was available) was in line with the cost of other NIOSH-certified powered respirators. It's far from cheap, but it's not the gouging attempt it might seem like. (I do wonder what the deal was with the massive price drop so soon after its release, though!)

( And now, the actual experience: )

Current Mood: pleased

sef1029 posting in

sid_guardian

Title: Voices
Words: 33,672 words
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Weilan, Chuguo
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Xinci, Shen Xi, Zhang Shi, Da Qing, Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, Zhu Hong, SID team, Fu You
Additional tags: Fix-It, Follow-on from episode 17, Multiple POVs, Story of the gun, Loss of Shen Xi
Summary: Zhao Yunlan's first visit to Dixing reveals the reason for his mother's death and the origin of his father's magic gun. Fu You had a plan.

china_shop

I finished off an old writing exercise for the Yield challenge on

fan_flashworks:

Title: Supplanted (1541 words) [General Audiences]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Characters: Xiao Quan (Shen Wei's student), Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Jiajia
Additional Tags: Episode Related, Canon Scene, Canon Dialogue, POV Outsider, Episode 9 roadtrip, Zhao Yunlan is my blorbo, but sometimes he's a bit of a dick, Xiao Quan don't get no respect

Summary:

The responsibility for getting them back on the road rests on Luo Quan’s shoulders—and when he achieves it, the glory will be his, too. Jiajia will clap her hands and promise to buy him a drink when they get back to Dragon City. Professor Shen will give an approving smile.

amedia posting in

sid_guardian

This year's Guardian Bonus Bingo features three (3) prompts for June! I only meant to do one of them, but two more plot bunnies hopped in and I could not resist them. So here are links to all three.

Each ficlet belongs to a different series of Guardian fics that I've written, but should be readable even if one hasn't read the other fics in the series.

Summer 2025 Guardian Bonus Bingo prompt for June: "Chase."
Title Triple Digits
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Relationship/Characters: ChuGuoYeHuo, Weilan
Word count: 1,397
Summary: Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, and Ye Huo are unexpectedly summoned to Chief Zhao's office. (Part
6 of Heart Fire.)

Summer 2025 Guardian Bonus Bingo prompt for June: "Respite."
Title From Fray to Friendship
Fandom: Guardian (drama)-Arthurian fusion
Relationship/Characters: Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, and Ye Huo
Word count: 813
Summary: A little tale of how Ye Huo ("Wildfire") first encountered members of King Zhao's company.
(Part 2 of Zhao Yunlan's Round Table.)

Summer 2025 Guardian Bonus Bingo prompt for June: "Door Key."
Title Door Key - Why yes, I ran out of titles and just used the prompt this time!
Fandom: Guardian (drama)/Time Engraver commercials
Relationship/Characters: ChuGuo, Ye Zun
Word count: 600
Summary: Guo Changcheng wonders whether he and Chu Shuzhi need to be able to lock their door. Because ... activities. (Part
6 of Ye Zun, Temporary Time Engraver.)

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

I finished off an old writing exercise for the Yield challenge on

Profile

onemuseleft

February 2021

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Page Summary

china_shop in sid_guardian - Two Weilan fics: Sunshine and Honey (M-rated) and Pages for You (T-rated)
china_shop in sid_guardian - Poll: Location, location, location (drama)
trobadora - what fresh hell is this?
tehfanglyfish in sid_guardian - Guardian Bonus Bingo July Prompts
china_shop in sid_guardian - June fanworks round-up post!
alierak in dw_maintenance - Rebuilding journal search again
amedia in sid_guardian - DC-Slash Con Seeking Panel Suggestions Today
umadoshi - Extra-long-weekend mishmash post: office furniture, phone keyboards, family, hair, lilacs...
facethestrange in sid_guardian - My latest Guardian fanworks
trobadora in sid_guardian - Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 15 & 16
umadoshi - Two weeks' worth of reading
extrapenguin - Poetry in translation: Chinese to Finnish
eirenical - Dear Pingxie Creator,
china_shop - Me-and-media update
china_shop in sid_guardian - Poll: Survival Strategies and Revenue Streams (drama)
umadoshi - Initial Air3 usage report!
sef1029 in sid_guardian - Fic: Voices (Guardian drama)
china_shop - Guardian fic: Supplanted (episode 9 gen, Xiao Quan POV)
amedia in sid_guardian - Three Ficlets for the June Bonus Bingo
china_shop in sid_guardian - Fic: Supplanted (Guardian, episode 9 gen, Xiao Quan POV)

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