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Lost Tomb - ep 5 and ep 6

Lost Tomb is really fun - I see ppl are racing through it but I am plodding behind, and I just watched ep 5 and just enough of ep 6 to see the cliffhanger resolved. Sometimes it feels a lot like watching someone play Skyrim for the first time, very badly:

( some spoilers )

ETA some spoiler-free screencaps from ep 6 just For Reasons:

( the camera loves Wu Xie )

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Lost Tomb - Zhu Yilong picspam

I watched the first four eps of Lost Tomb on ipad, #3 and #4 today after going to the dentist (on a tram full of people, at least in facemasks, but still lots of no fun).

It was an excellent reward, and I had to keep pausing to make screencaps, so I will share below.

These are 100% spoiler free because all they feature is Zhu Yilong's face and his ENORMOUS DEER EYES,not to mention those cheekbones that are worryingly sharp,

( someone please feed him )

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Lost Tomb episodes are LIVE

It looks like you can watch Zhu Yilong's new tombraider adventure show free, with English subs, legally, here:

https://www.iq.com/play/2ffkws2vkdd

It's only the HD version you pay for, but up to 720 is free? And we don't even need to beg fans to make us subs?

I'm amazed. Also amazed at the terrible English title, "Reunion: The Sound of the Providence" -- yeah no. It's called Lost Tomb, end of.

gonna watch at least one ep before I go to bed...

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Guardian-adjacent joys

Two happymaking things:

1) the new trailer for Zhu Yilong in Lost Tomb, where he wields a sword, spits blood, gets drenched and looks unreasonably gorgeous as always, PLUS is not dressed in Louis Vuitton:

Watch on YouTube

(many thanks to wenella for the subs!)

2) the staggeringly gorgeous Guardian fanart by LovelyPlant, of which my favorite is Professor Shen wielding his blade, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, but please also check out her lambent Ye Zun and this Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan dual portrait that should be a giant billboard somewhere.

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New Guardian fic: "Under a Cloudless Sky"

I picked up a pinch hit for

frith_in_thorns for the Hurt/Comfort Exchange, so needless to say, I wrote her some Shen Wei hurt/comfort. XD

dorinda,

naye and

xparrot provided exceptional help in the way of handholding and cheering-on as well as beta, and I'm very grateful.

Under a Cloudless Sky (19202 words) by marycrawford
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: Altered Mental States, Fever, Magical Exhaustion, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Summary:

They were having lunch in the garden, it was a lovely day, and Shen Wei was certainly not going mad.

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Signal Boost: Murderbot Ebook Giveaway

Whoa! All four Murderbot books by Martha Wells are being given away as freebies.

NB: this giveaway is US and Canada only, because legal reason blahcakes. But if you are in those places, grab these books! And if you're not in those places, just buy them. These are fantastic, short tight SF reads, and I love them and am looking forward to the novel with happy anticipation.

Murderbot is a quiet sarcastic artificial person who just happens to have guns built into their arms, is brutally efficient at their job, only likes drama when it's on TV, and certainly doesn't care for any of the people they protect, whatever some of them may say.

(Murderbot is also people, but doesn't get treated that way, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.)

marthawells posted: Murderbot Ebook Giveaway

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Zhu Yilong interviews - in English

On Twitter, wenella posted about a pdf with a ton of Zhu Yilong magazine interviews translated in English:

You can get to the files using the link and password code she provided, and I can see them (a .pdf and a .doc) and read them in my browser, but I'd really like to download them so I can use a PDF reader, use better text options etc. The website is in Chinese (Baidu) and when I try to download, I get some kind of popup and I can't proceed. Wenella says she will help anyone who has trouble, but I don't have a Twitter account, so I can't ask.

EDIT: I'm good, thanks to a PDF download link from a friend, feel free to send me a private message if you need one too?

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(no subject)

It's Zhu Yilong's birthday (not that he HAS a birthday, honestly, I am convinced he has a portrait of himself in the attic, because he certainly isn't aging any).

In his honor, I want to post my first piece of Guardian fanart! This is pen and watercolor, and I used a screencap for reference.

Calling Zhao Yunlan "you idiot" is basically Shen Wei's love language, isn't it? <3

Shen Wei at Zhao Yunlan's bedside, looking fed up

Shen Wei at Zhao Yunlan's bedside, looking fed up

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At this point, who can live

Oh dear me Zhu Yilong MUST YOU come for me like this?

I mean I had plans for today.

Bonus: this fan edit showing just what to do with those ReFa rollers.

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New Guardian story for Pornday! "Long Distance Call"

So @glymr declared @Pornday, which I hadn't heard of before, but it's basically a fantastic way to give yourself a very, very tight deadline to write something rated Explicit.

I had about 600 words lying around based on this prompt, that I wanted to get back to, and then thanks to the deadline, I did - I wrote 3000 words in a day and it was a long day but I have to admit I really enjoyed it. Plus @torch cheered me on and helped me get over the hurdle of the ending. (Why are endings always so difficult?)

Long Distance Call (3612 words) by marycrawford
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: Phone Sex, Porn Video, Porn with Feelings
Summary:

Zhao Yunlan discovers Shen Wei’s other research. Shen Wei discovers phone sex.

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New Guardian fic: "Only the plum trees"

I have a friend staying with me this week, which is great fun but means not a lot of time for posting, so this is a little late. I wrote a Guardian story for

kalakirya for the Sundial Exchange, and it's basically the kind of story I would have wanted to read after watching the last four episodes of the show.

(Can someone explain to me why there is no official "Idyll" tag on the AO3 yet? How is that not a super common trope? I'm baffled.)

Only the plum trees (7374 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Characters: Shěn Wēi, Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: idyll, Getting Together, First Time, Romance, Post-Canon, Fix-It, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Shen Wei deserves nice things
Summary:

Ai-ya, trying to get Shen Wei to take time for himself was like dragging a stone statue up a mountainside. Backwards, blindfolded, through the brambles, and barefoot.

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Sundial Exchange: a Guardian gift! WHAT IF SNOW?

So I got very lucky for this first Sundial Exchange -

frith_in_thorns wrote me a Guardian story! And she obviously read the heavily encoded secret signal of my heart, because she wrote me a "WHAT IF SNOW?" story, AGAIN. She is amazing like that. And as I may have mentioned before, that slogan just covers everything I want out of fanfic, because it's hurt/comfort stripped down to its bare bones. What if snow? What if hurt? What if frozen? What IF?

But I should clarify that this is not any kind of remake - this is a new and original story, with a clever take on Shen Wei's powers that I just love, and with a gorgeous, intense setting that I would love to see on film. And Shen Wei is hurt, and Zhao Yunlan is there for him, and oh, happy sigh...

Ice and Shard (5367 words) by frith_in_thorns
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Characters: Shěn Wēi, Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Snow and Ice, Dixing powers do what I want them to, Fever, Delirium, handwavy post-canon
Summary:

Zhao Yunlan didn't know what made him realise that something was wrong. But something definitely was.

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Guardian-adjacent vid rec

Okay, I am not the best person to rec this vid, because I can't read Chinese and so I can't name the person who made it, or the title, or what shows the footage is even from.

However: this is a constructed reality vid that is just gorgeously well done, where Bai Yu is a cop and Zhu Yilong is some kind of criminal mastermind, and it is HOT TO DEATH.

There is some dialogue subtitled in English, setting up the story very sparely, and there is a single sequence I recognize from Guardian (Shen Wei healing the scrapes on his shoulder) which just fits in seamlessly here, even though I know we didn't see Shen Wei taking a shower afterwards (and really, why not??).

The sequence starting at 00:30 where Zhu Yilong is in disguise as a waiter, recognizes Bai Yu as a cop, there is a fight, and then ZYL abseils off the building is amazing. I would watch this movie, just saying.

(Special mention for Zhu Yilong's little side-smile at 1:36, which is just perfectly placed in the middle of Shit Blowing Up that he certainly didn't have anything to do with. Yum.)

Watch on YouTube

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Yuletide reveals!

Yuletide reveals are live (so many Guardian stories!) and I'm happy to reveal that I wrote two Yuletide treats, one for

bonibaru:

Get You A Man Who Can Do Both (10976 words)
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán, Dà Qìng & Zhào Yúnlán
Characters: Dà Qìng, Zhào Yúnlán, Shěn Wēi
Additional Tags: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Cat Tribe Best Tribe, Yashou customs, no spoilers past episode 13, Unreliable Narrator (LIES - Cat Narrator is Best Narrator), Secret Identity, Misunderstandings, Canon Related, Yuletide Treat

The first time Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei met was while they were both petting Da Qing, so it was only reasonable that Da Qing got invested into their relationship right from the start. Also, Shen Wei’s first words to Zhao Yunlan were “This is a very intelligent cat,” which was the best and most appropriate come-hither line anyone ever used on anyone about anything, end of discussion. Da Qing just prayed that Zhao Yunlan wouldn’t fuck this up.

and one for

qikiqtarjuaq:

Three Moments in Dixing (1529 words)
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Characters: Shěn Wēi, Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Canon Related, set during ep 33, Yuletide Treat

Shen Wei has been chained forever. There is no past, no future: not here in Dixing, where clocks have never been invented and the night has never surrendered to the day.

I had a lot of fun working on these. The first is pure cat-snark where Da Qing becomes convinced that Zhao Yunlan is making terrible dating decisions (I really can't say I blame him), and the second is a little ball of angsty hurt/comfort that lets me wallow in episode 33 some more, because I love it so.

Also, it didn't occur to me until I was nearly done with the second story, but one of my

sundial_exchange prompts talks about the same moment I used here, the "Why is that blade in your hands?" one. It's unlikely, but if someone happens to be planning a story around that moment for me: I want to read it, I want all of the stories around chained up Shen Wei, it is A+++ prime angst and you will not disappoint me if you choose to use it, I guarantee.

Many thanks to

dorinda for cheerleading and beta, and to my cat beta for invaluable insight into Da Qing. XD

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an Untamed story rec

‘This area is mostly stories about concubines and favourites who win their favour from the Emperor by whatever means necessary,’ Nie Huisang said matter-of-factly, and waved his fan at a wide area of the shelves in his bedroom antechamber. ‘Over here, we have villainous women who have to take men for their companions so they can keep their matriarchal tribe going, and this bit,’ he waved the fan again, ‘is the stuff about sworn brothers who are trapped on the road together when it snows and have to shelter in very small caves. You might want to start here?’

from Adult Learning by halotolerant, or Five Times Lan Wangji learnt something about sex

So I said I wasn't going to read Untamed fic - I blame @bonibaru and her ways - and this bit of meta humor made me laugh so much. Yes, indeed, Lan Zhan might start his education there, and I have lingered by those shelves myself an AWFUL long time.

I just posted my signup letter for the @sundial_exchange and I honestly think I could have replaced all my words with WHAT IF SNOW? because really, that covers everything.

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guardian (tv)

Signal Boost: Announcement: Sundial Exchange for Chinese New Year

sid_guardian posted: Announcement: Sundial Exchange for Chinese New Year

This is a brand new exchange for Guardian and Guardian-related canons, in which any kind of fanworks (fic, art, vids, mixes etc) are welcomed. Show and novel canons, as well as any canon in which one of the Guardian actors has appeared, are all eligible, as is RPF.

Sign-ups are OPEN from now until December 13th -- head over to the FAQ and Schedule post for more details.

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travel

gallivanting

Lots of people are posting things for Weilan week, which is a lot of fun and I wish I could participate, but I'm off to Vienna until Friday.

The main reason is to see the Duerer exhibit - these are the drawings and watercolor paintings that rarely get shown at all, and I can't wait, the man was a wizard - but I also hope to visit Schonbrunn (not the whole castle, but the Palm House and Desert House sound like they would be fun to visit at this cold wet time of year) and just wander around the city and eat a lot of pastry. (We're not going to the opera, the only affordable tickets were standing-only and I am not that much of a masochist...)

I've never been to Vienna before, do any of you have any tips?

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YAY I Got Fic: "Like a snowglobe"

This gorgeous h/c story landed in my inbox directly after I rewatched episode 38 (;__;) and the timing could not have been more perfect, I'm all verklempt:

Like a snowglobe (1131 words) by frith_in_thorns

Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán
Characters: Shěn Wēi, Zhào Yúnlán
Additional Tags: Snow and Ice, Dixing Powers, Hypothermia

Summary: Shen Wei's polished shoe skidded and nearly turned on a patch of ice. Neither of them were at all dressed for the weather, which had transformed from cool spring to deep arctic winter less than an hour ago.

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Signal Boost: AO3 Update, Guardian good things

naye posted: AO3 Update relevant to C-drama fandom

Finally, no more "English as default" for new fanworks! I was one of the people who wrote in to the AO3 Support to request this, and I'm very happy with this update.

There's a new recs comm for Guardian fanworks, which is great, and which asks people who post recs to actually talk a bit about WHY they want to recommend something, and that is my jam. I love reading recs even for stories and vids I already am familiar with, just to see what others think about them.

merit_brush_recs

Welcome to Merit Brush Recs! We are a recommendations posting community for fanworks of all kinds (fic, vids, art, etc.) for 镇魂 | Guardian (both the novel and drama), related RPF, and other projects starring the lead actors, Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong. This includes commercials in which they play characters clearly separate from their own public personas.

For my first rec, I posted Fanvid: Honey Meta Edit by @lola

This is a gorgeous vid using Zhu Yilong's commercial and behind the scenes footage, set to lovely ethereal sensual music that fits him to a T, and including that amazing Time Engraver commercial. The mood is a little subdued and pastel/black&white until 0:36 where the beat kicks in, the color explodes gloriously, and the lyric is "I got your honey, baby" - well YES. Yes, I do believe you do.

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the untamed

The Untamed - name guide?

Okay, so I tripped and accidentally fell into 50 episodes of The Untamed on Youtube, and reader, I watched ALL of them. Quoting some of my reactions from fannish chat:

wei ying is reminding me more and more of Miles Vorkosigan
locked up in a cave with a mob who wants to kill him
and now they’re sheepishly asking him what to do next
it’s fabulous

wei ying is pontificating in front of the previously murderous mob
and one of them is saying “stop this nonsense, just kill me now”
he is SO miles

still getting such vorkosigan vibes from our hero:
“you set him up!”
“if I set him up he wouldn’t just have a wounded arm..”

“stop bluffing to intimidate us!” yells the guy holding a sword at his jugular
<3

I do love Wei Ying a LOT, and Lan Zhan slowly started growing on me, also the very VERY fraught and blink-you'll-miss-it secondary pairing I'm not sure is book canon (but probably is? Lan Zhan's adorable shipper big brother and the little :koff: innocent in the big hat?)

I don't think I want to write fanfic for it or stare endlessly at pics of the main actor(s) the way I do with Guardian, but I would still like to watch it again now that I know What Will Happen and also possibly have some slightly better chance of telling everyone apart. Though I will also probably skip a lot of the really harrowing moments, because, just fyi if you're considering watching it, this show is like GoT in brutality and that's not even counting the zombies.

So, before I rewatch, is there a name guide or person guide or something to The Untamed, for hapless non-Chinese-speaking fans, that a kind soul could link me to, that shows me how everyone is related to everyone else and what all their names are? Or something like that twitter thread from Pru, that explains a lot of naming nuance as well as cracking me up?

I feel like I only JUST got the hang of how it works in modern shows like Guardian, what the -lao and -ge suffixes can mean, etc, but this is something else again: everyone has like five names and then they CHANGE them or get adopted by a different clan and IDEFK. Help?