marycrawford | Entries tagged with guardian (tv)

There's a couple days left to sign up for

guardian_wishlist, and I managed to get my wishlist done too. It's a fun very low-key Guardian and related fandoms event where you can comment on someone's wishlist to give them something they requested (fanart, fic, picspams, podfic, all kinds of goodness) and then it all goes live at once in a month's time. And you don't need to sign up for anything if you just want to give a gift to someone else, it's a free for all.

Much like Zhu Yilong's movie promo - it's such a typical Long-ge fandom experience that there's no news for months except for maybe some commercials, and then BOOM a firehose of content. He grew his hair, he dyed it blue, he gave a concert on the beach! And on it goes.

New weird meta-romcom movie will be shown in the US and I am very jealous. I really doubt this one will make it to Dutch cinema - I know I said that about the last one too, but that one made it to Cannes and that must have helped enormously.

Testing out the new Create Entries beta for DW before it goes live seems like a smart idea, let me know if anything looks odd on your end.

I've been in hibernation mostly, fannish and otherwise, but I wrote a small addition to the ongoing Dreamtime podfic that

sef1029 is organizing and recording. It's an impression of Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's evening, told in fragments by multiple authors, with the express intention of sending the listener to a peaceful sleep. I really like this idea and I hope it has some benefits to anyone who has trouble sleeping.

I posted the final chapter of my Guardian AU today:

Close Your Eyes and See Me (88053 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 17/17
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Summary:
It seemed like a good idea to Zhao Yunlan at the time. Take a job as a life drawing model, observe the students, try to figure out if one of them murdered the previous art professor.
Get paid to sit on a chair, basically. Piece of cake, right?

It was a whole new thing to me, posting a story in chapters, and I enjoyed it (people yelled at me about the cliffhangers, which was delightful).

Except for my dilly-dallying over the final chapters, which I started rewriting back in October as I posted the first chapters, and then...kept going. Or rather, not so much going as opening the file and closing it again before running away in a complete collapse of confidence. Without a

dorinda to gently poke me into actually Doing the Thing, it might never have gotten there. But now it's done, happy sigh, and I can start poking at other ideas that have been lying fallow (and the other AU that I wrote 20K of in the before times, do I even remember where I was going?)

So I wrote a very short story for

mumblemumble for fandomtrees, about Chu Shuzhi at a slave auction, being put on display by his Lord Envoy for Reasons.

And then

mumblemumble wrote a sequel that goes into more detail about the things Chu Shuzhi would do for his Lord and what his Lord Envoy would ask of him, and it is glorious and you should all read it:

Aftermath (2360 words) by A
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei
Characters: Chu Shuzhi, Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Slaves, Submission, Loyalty Kink, And About Fifteen Other Kinks, Aftercare
Summary:

"Quiet," his Lordship commands, and the room falls silent. His finger settles under Chu Shuzhi's chin to tilt his head up, his gaze heavy on Chu Shuzhi, his eyes dark as a storm underneath the mask. "This one isn't mine to discipline anymore," he says coldly, causing a victorious murmur among the crowd.

Chu Shuzhi doesn't flinch. He doesn't move at all. He has to remind himself to breathe.

A while ago, I wrote two stories that featured Shen Wei's very ~~opinionated~~ skilled tailor, the man responsible for all those tightly tailored suits (yum). And then

mumblemumble came in and wrote a sequel! It was such a cool surprise, I've never had an original character appear in someone else's work before, and it's a fantastic story.

clean shirt, new shoes (1395 words) by A
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei (Guardian), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fluff, Suit Kink, Lollipops, Academia
Series: Part 6 of Higher Education
Summary:

"You like it?" Yunlan grins, taking the lollipop out of his mouth to do a little twirl. "You have to like it, I'm not getting changed."

I started posting my long Guardian art AU, yay! It's about 85k which I'm still cutting into chapters, and I need to fix and expand some scenes toward the end so it's not quite done yet. But posting once a week or so will give me time to work on that.

Close Your Eyes and See Me (4006 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Art School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, except the power of Art, Drawing, Painting, Professor Shen Wei (Guardian), Detective Zhao Yunlan, Undercover, Nude Modeling, Identity Porn, Romance, Slow Burn
Summary: It seemed like a good idea to Zhao Yunlan at the time. Take a job as a life drawing model, observe the students, try to figure out if one of them murdered the previous art professor.
Get paid to sit on a chair, basically. Piece of cake, right?
Well.

This all started from a delightful prompt by

cyberbrain in the Guardian Prompt Fest in May 2020. Yeah. It's been a while, but this story kept me company through the upheaval of the past years.

Today (20 August) is the last day to sign up for

guardian_wishlist by posting a wishlist there, so if you've been meaning to do it, here's your reminder.

But if you'd prefer to look at people's wishlists (here's mine) and see if anything strikes your fancy, you can do that until September 10th and you don't need to sign up for that.

The

guardian_wishlist event has started, and I signed up here. It's a lovely lowkey little event where you post wishes related to Guardian and adjacent fandoms (anything the actors have appeared in) and people comment on your wishlist to fulfill some wishes. You don't have to be signed up to the event to comment, you can just wander along the wishlists once they're live and see if anything sparks your imagination.

ETA: as

trobadora says below, in a fest like this it's just as important to provide prompts for other people as it is to make gifts. For me personally, an event like this is a fic prompt and deadline generator, and the more prompts there are, the more likely it is that one of them will spark an idea for a story. So if you're thinking "I want to post a wishlist but I don't have time to do anything else" that is 100% okay and encouraged.

In the wishlist, you can ask for fic and fanart, but also things like screencaps from that one episode, or translations, or recs for things you would enjoy. This year I asked for fanart for other people's fic, because I have some favorites that would be fun to see illustrated. (This is where a transformative works policy on one's AO3 profile comes in handy.)

You can sign up until August 20th, and then comment on other people's wishlists right until September 10th, where all the comments get revealed at once.

In the hottest week of the year so far, sitting indoors and waiting for better times, I wrote some self-indulgent fluff:

the day of harvest
(Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, 3k words, rated Teen)

“You buying Shen Wei a kitchen appliance was already a terrible idea,” Da Qing says, with a slowly increasing look of horror. He backs away from the countertop, eyes wide. “You messing with the thing before Shen Wei gets home is an even worse idea. You should just return it and get him…I don’t know…a watch or something.”

“Yeah, because that’s romantic,” Zhao Yunlan scoffs.

I've been in a weird headspace re: fandom where I've mostly stopped reading Guardian fanfic because I love it so much, and it has such good writers, that reading anything awesome will do my head in as far as writing goes. (And I'm inching closer on finishing the AU I started, whoops, two years ago? Still a way from the finish, and then there's beta, but things are looking up.) I want to get this story out and catch up to everything I missed, damn it.

But here's a story from a while ago that lit my imagination on fire:

Follow You Everywhere (5091 words) by achray
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan, SID team
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Kuroshitsuji Fusion, Canon-Typical dark content for Black Butler canon, Canon-typical violence for Black Butler canon, black humour, Constant Innuendo, Demonic Contracts (Kuroshitsuji), Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan as themselves
Summary:

Never had Shen Wei known such enjoyment, in fulfilling the duties a demonic contract required.

It's a crossover with a manga/anime series I had never heard of, and it doesn't matter because I found the story entirely comprehensible and deeply delicious. And then I fell into a hole and read a whole bunch of the manga, and watched the anime as well. Good times.

And now Guardian has been removed from Youtube, again, which sucks, since it's just so handy to rewatch a scene or an episode through Youtube for a quick fix. And to attract new fans.

But fandom has access to all the beautiful HD files with fan-curated subs. (That link goes straight to a Mega download site that I share with permission!)

sef1029 posted: One day left for Ukraine auction bids

I feel like this auction sort of bypassed my small area of fandom - I hadn't heard of it before signups were already closed, and there are three Guardian creators to bid on for fic and podfic, which is awesome, but feels like a low number? And no Lost Tomb Reboot offers, for example. Anyway, go bid!

sef1029 posted: Sunflower auction (for Ukraine) now open

fandomtrees just went live after a week's delay, and there are 8 Guardian stories!

I had too little oomph to sign up, but I was treated extremely generously last year, so I can only pay it forward. What I really needed this year was a deadline, to get anything done at all, and it worked!

For

laireshi, who always has the best hurt/comfort prompts, I wrote:

Snowmelt (2790 words)
(Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan)

Shen Wei felt heavier when he was unconscious. The idea was ridiculous, of course. Or maybe it wasn’t. If anyone could find a way to make himself less of a burden, it would be Shen Wei.

I liked seeing

elenothar's fanfic year in review post, and it made me want to do one too.

January
Two stories for

fandomtrees:

Threat Level: Bears for

laireshi. Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. The one with the bears.

the food of sweet and bitter fancy for

shipperslist. Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. The one with the outside POV.

February
Three stories for

sundial_exchange:

Tailor-made for

sakana17. Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. The one where Shen Wei visits his tailor.

A Tolerance for Pain for

xparrot. Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. The one where Zhao Yunlan is lost and Shen Wei goes metal.

like thunder under earth for

dorinda. Guardian, Chu Shuzhi & Shen Wei. The one where Chu Shuzhi is wounded and doesn't need any help from his Lord.

May
The Wake. Star Trek: TOS, Kirk/Spock. Not actually new fic, this is a tiny dialogue-only story I once wrote for a K/S con.

September
Two stories for

guardian_wishlist:

Seamless for

sakana17. Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. The sequel to Tailor-made: Shen Wei takes Zhao Yunlan to his tailor.

spoils of war for

sasamelons. Guardian, Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing. The one where Da Qing leaves Zhao Yunlan a present.

October
The Catboy's Day Off. Fanfic for an original AO3 series. Irredeemable filth. The one where a catboy gets more help than he can handle.

Most of the year I've also been working on a Guardian AU in fits and starts (the one where Shen Wei is an art teacher and Zhao Yunlan becomes his model). I really hope that I can post it in 2022, I want to get the plane out the hangar!

And from this list, it's quickly evident how much I enjoy fanfic challenges and writing treats for people; having a deadline to work up to has been a saving grace in a year when it's been so hard to concentrate and get anything done. I have a story for

fandomtrees this year, too, but it won't be live until tomorrow.

I wrote two stories for the

guardian_wishlist event. For

sakana17, a sequel to a previous short story about Shen Wei's extremely opinionated tailor:

Seamless (4181 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 1/1
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, Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Fashion & Couture, Tailoring, Shopping, Unexpected Inlaws, Established Relationship
Series: Part 2 of Made By Hand
Summary: Zhao Yunlan waited to see if Lao Xie would take the bait. He had a whole speech prepared, dwelling on the fit of Shen Wei’s pants and the taut elastic of those garters spanning his biceps. Maybe he could get Shen Wei to blush a bit, or fidget, or give him one of those looks that promised retribution later.
--
Or: Shen Wei introduces Zhao Yunlan to his tailor.

On the last day before the deadline I managed one more little story for

sasamelons, for the "Da Qing being very cat" prompt that spoke to me:

spoils of war (766 words) by marycrawford
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Da Qing & Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Da Qing (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff, Bugs & Insects, Jail for Father for Ten Thousand Years, Cat Tribe Best Tribe (Guardian)
Summary: Zhao Yunlan has had a Very Long Day, and Da Qing has left him a present.

There were a LOT of great prompts on everyone's wishlists, and I bookmarked several pages to come back to later. (Asking for a friend, who is me: if you're working on a long (50K-ish) fic that is unrelated to this event but fits someone's prompt ideas perfectly, is it an imposition to gift it to them when it's finally done? 👀)

Slightly more brain today means that I realize yesterday wasn't the solstice but the equinox. Neither of those words have ever held any real meaning to me though, I must admit. The Dutch word for solstice is pretty, but we don't seem to have an equinox equivalent, just like English doesn't.

I got three wonderful story gifts for

guardian_wishlist !

I didn't even think to put this in my prompts, but I love "5 things" fics. There's just something about the structure that makes interesting things happen, and both of these use it beautifully in different ways:

Domesticity (2414 words) by buriedbybooks
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Da Qing (Guardian), Zhu Hong (Guardian), Lin Jing (Guardian), Jiajia (Guardian), Guo Changcheng, Chu Shuzhi
Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Domesticity, soft moments, Fluff, SID escapades
Summary:

Five times Wēilán was caught acting married and one time it was just them.

in the smallest of ways (1837 words) by china_shop
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan & Da Qing
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shěn Wēi, The SID Team
Additional Tags: Caretaking in the smallest of ways, Missing Scenes, episode 14, Episode 19, Family, Lowkey get-together, Five Times
Summary:

Five times Zhao Yunlan looked out for Shen Wei.

And

elenothar took on the prompt of "Shen Wei's students Find Out" and boy, do they. I adore Shen Wei's student Jiajia, and to get her PoV of events as well as Zhao Yunlan's and Shen Wei's is so satisfying:

One for the conspiracy theorists (4638 words) by Elenothar
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Jiajia & Shen Wei (Guardian)
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan, Jiajia (Guardian), Li Qian (Guardian), Da Qing (Guardian), Lin Jing (Guardian)
Additional Tags: Identity Reveal, Post-Canon, dragon city university students, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Protective Shen Wei (Guardian), hei pao shi in professor shen's clothing
Summary:

Shen Wei's identity is revealed to his students in the most dramatic way possible.

(No grad students were harmed during the writing of this fic.)

I had a day today, nothing terrible just busy, and it ended with a family Zoom across timezones and continents where everyone talked over each other. The best moment was getting our cats to wave at each other.

Today is also the solstice and the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which means that all the gifts for

guardian_wishlist just went live.

I want to comment on the fabulous fics I received, but I'm completely out of brain, so I will leave anything requiring...thought...? to tomorrow. Today, let me draw your attention to the pics and gifs, which all feel like they were chosen specifically for my tired synapses to appreciate:

-

mumblemumble's Zhu Yilong murder barber gifs with bonus! picspam of Zhu Yilong with cute animals
- ober-affen-geil's gifspam of Shen Wei protecting and caring for Zhao Yunlan
-

sakana17's curated collection of Zhu Yilong 🍑, that is to say, butt shots. Mmmmmm.

Please have a wonderful solstice/festival/full moon, and thanks so much to everyone. <3

I have a rice cooker for the first time ever, and now I want to make All The Rice Dishes. It's tiny, because in a two person household we eat at most a cup of (uncooked) rice a day, and it has fuzzy logic magic. It's a Cuckoo model, Korean, and it's adorably shaped like an egg, which makes me wonder if it's going to hatch into something that will throw all our other appliances out of the nest.

Please hit me up with your rice cooker tips, tricks, recipes? So far I've only made basmati in it, but I've been watching this Chinese (subtitled) cooking channel and she does some amazing things. If you're in Europe, tips for good asian rice brands would also be welcome - my Aldi basmati is okay but unexciting, and I want to branch out to other flavors. We have a big Asian supermarket in town, so I'll probably have choice paralysis.

I've signed up for

guardian_wishlist, a nice lowkey fic/art/anything challenge that works like

fandomtrees: you sign up with a wishlist, the mods post it, and anyone can comment on that post with something that fits your wishes.

fandomtrees was a blast, and I hope this will be as well. Signups are open until the end of the month, but there's no need to sign up yourself if you only want to make treats for other people. (I'm a big fan of that option: I'm hesitant to sign up for many types of challenges, but the option to make treats is always exciting.)

Somewhere in the summer of 2019 I was watching Guardian for the first time, and fell back into fandom as a result - I wrote a story before I'd even seen the last dozen episodes of the show. And I'm still there: I've been working on a Guardian AU for the past year which I want to get off the runway and into the air, even if it feels like I'm attaching wings to an elephant sometimes.

I wish I'd taken notes while watching Guardian for the first time, because it's always fun to come back to those later and see what my first impressions were. I've mostly forgotten them now, though I do remember thinking that Shen Wei's pendant had to be one of the Tools that he was hiding for some reason.

And now with Nirvana in Fire I also feel like it would be fun to write down my reactions, but I just don't have the stamina for any detailed recaps. So instead please hold my hand, for I have about 10 episodes left, and what a ride it promises to be. Without spoilers: the last few episodes felt like being on a rollercoaster that was cranking up slowly but surely from day 1 and now we're going downnnn, baby.

As a monofannish type, I don't currently think that I will want to write any fic for Nirvana in Fire, but I'm deeply worried and concerned about basically everyone on Mei Changsu's side, and at the same time I feel like their competence ought to be rewarded. This show and the competence porn, I swear. Although I also love Meng Zhi, who is extremely competent in his areas of expertise, and in other areas a bit of a Jam Watson.

I already know I will want to rewatch, and to continue drawing the hair ornaments and facial expressions for practice. (Consort Yue is my favorite, she is so expressive and so delightfully awful.)

I recently fell down a Wikipedia hole, and one of the shiny bits of treasure I dug up was this letter from Dorothy L. Sayers, about her book Murder Must Advertise:

The new book is nearly done. I hate it because it isn't the one I wanted to write, but I had to shove it in because I couldn't get the technical dope on The Nine Tailors in time. Still, you never know what people will fancy, do you? It...deals with the dope-traffic, which is fashionable at the moment, but I don't feel that this part is very convincing, as I can't say "I know dope". Not one of my best efforts.

I mean. Wow. First of all, it is one of her best efforts--it's easily my favorite, even though yes, she's right, the dope-traffic stuff is the part I usually skip. The book is half pulp novel and half advertising agency comedy, and the latter half is pure gold. I could read a whole series set in the agency, with all its petty drama and delightful characters.

But second of all--she wrote this letter to her publisher. "Hi, here's my book, I hate it".

OH DLS, I lo-five you across time, because that feels very familiar, even if I'm just working on a long-ass fanfic. Once it's done I will get the urge to hurl it to a beta reader with some uncomplimentary words about it, as if that would entice anyone into reading, and seeing DLS do the same thing makes me feel better.

I was talking to

sakana17 about some favorite tropes, like character X transforming into a monster and character Y immediately recognizing them anyway (sigh!) and she wrote me this delicious bonbon:

The Monster Who Came Back (3652 words) by sakana17
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Transformation, Fix-It of Sorts
Summary:

"Shen Wei?" Zhao Yunlan said as he looked into the large, troubled, teary eyes of the man he loved.

'I hurt him,' he thought. 'I was the one who broke his heart.' What could he say now?

wenella_subs posted some images from Guardian that I've never seen before - early costume options for Shen Wei, mostly. And they're so fascinatingly wrong. Those thick-framed glasses!

Shen Wei is also fascinatingly wrong - he doesn't look like himself, yet. His smile is somewhere halfway between Shen Wei and Ye Zun. If I wanted to be Watsonian about this photo, I would say that it was Shen Wei trying for a full 'nerdy academic' look. Just to be safe, because they were taking his photograph for his University ID, and he had no idea if the image was going to leak dark energy around the edges or anything.

And then this wrong!Shen Wei wore this cardigan and I have to laugh. It's too drapey and doesn't fit him right, the color is blah, and just as Lao Xie imagined in my story for

sakana17, it is all kinds of wrong on him. It's not quite maroon, but it's so close!

“Hmmm,” said Lao Xie. He was walking around Shen Wei now, slowly and carefully, tottering artistically now and then before going back to his murder stalk. “What color? What fabric?” His hand shot out, to pinch at a fold of Shen Wei’s suit jacket. Shen Wei had carefully chosen his most conservative three-piece suit for this appointment, in an attempt to pacify his tailor for not coming to see him in several months. An attempt that had backfired as soon as he uttered the dreadful word ‘leisurewear.’

“Navy,” Shen Wei reported. “With a white bar on the arm. And—cashmere.” He admitted, “I bought it in heather grey, as well.” The cardigans were soft and silky to the touch. Not like armor. Much more inviting. More—approachable.

Lao Xie paused for a long moment, then sniffed. “At least you have not lost your reason entirely. I was expecting you to say maroon, or salmon pink, or something even more offensive, like acrylics. What else did you buy?”

(from Tailor-made)

The cardigans Shen Wei actually wore on the show look infinitely better on him, like this one. (Image is from

sakana17 's Guardian costume gallery, a fabulous resource.)

And also this one, in heather grey, perfect for flirting sweetly with your boyfriend:

Shen Wei's nice pullover

(It's not actually a cardigan, it's a sweater or a pullover, but I like imagining Shen Wei's confusion about those terms, not least because US clothing terms are often a mystery to me as well.)

And just in case you like digging into this silly stuff as much as I do - in our world, these pullovers are by Thom Browne, a US brand recognizable by the four bar pattern on the arm, and they cost ridiculous money. Here's the 4-bar cashmere pullover for only $1590 (choke).

So I have to wonder - did these brands sponsor this show? Because Shen Wei does wear a lot of Thom Browne. Or is the rumor that the actors wore some of their own clothing on the show to save money true?

sundial_exchange really delivered a ton of goodies this year, for Guardian and Lost Tomb Reboot and smaller fandoms, and I haven't gone through half the things I bookmarked yet.

I received:

Squared Black Pots and Their Kettles by BadPennyGirl
Shen Wei wakes with the worst headache in the world. But there are bigger problems in the dark where he's trapped with Zhao Yunlan on top of him.

A gorgeous, INTENSE h/c story full of my favorite tropes: cave-ins! "Leave me and go"! Self-sacrifice! Hiding a wound! It's got it all, and some delightful post-canon worldbuilding into the bargain.
This is the author's first story in Guardian fandom and she made her way to the deadline through some major mishaps, so please check it out!

Gorgeous artwork by

naye for my story Under a Cloudless Sky. Such a thrill to get a treat like this, with a great choice of headshots for Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei, full of suffering and tension (sigh, that's the good stuff).

I wrote:

A Tolerance for Pain (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, rated T, angst, h/c and Presumed Dead, 18k words) - my main gift for

xparrot
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?

I worked on this story for ages, and then in the last week before the deadline I managed two short stories as treats:

like thunder under earth (Gen, 1726 words, Chu Shuzhi & Shen Wei)
Chu Shuzhi is wounded and his Lordship can’t help him, but that’s all right. He doesn’t deserve the help, anyway.

Tailor-made (Rated G, 1905 words, Shen Wei and his tailor)
"You mean to tell me—you sit here drinking my tea and you mean to tell me that you have been visiting shops that sell leisure apparel?" Lao Xie could not have sounded more horrified if Shen Wei had confessed to being a crime boss.

I enjoyed the fandomtrees experience a lot: it felt very low-key and enjoyable, and I managed to write two short stories in a weekend, which is a record for me. Deadlines are magic.

Threat Level: Bears (3492 words) by marycrawford

Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei (Guardian)
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Rescue, Established Relationship, Post-Canon, Bears
Summary:

It was ironic, Shen Wei thought. After all the nonsensical information he had made Zhao Yunlan sit through, he had still not expected to be attacked by bears.

the food of sweet and bitter fancy (2278 words) by marycrawford

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, Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Uneasy Allies, Cooking, Pining, Ye Olde Haixing Era, POV Outsider
Summary:

It was all wrong. Why didn’t anyone else seem to see that it was all wrong?

They were all falling over themselves to welcome General Kunlun, to show him the camp, to vie for his attention, and there were rumors that the Black-Cloaked Envoy had smiled at him.

I posted about

fandomtrees gifts earlier, but that was before the AO3 collection was unlocked, so I only got to rave about half and there were more stories and a VID!

Please enjoy:

three amazing cookie recipes from different countries
a gorgeous artwork of a heartfelt Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan embrace from grayswandir
a terrific "Leave Me And Go" Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan story by onemuseleft (I don't know if that's the official name for the trope, btw, but it's the moment where one character is in dire straits and begs the other character to leave them for their own safety.... WELP. You can imagine how Weilan deals with that. I love that trope and would read any amount of stories featuring it, and this is a delicious angsty take.
A WU XIE VID by trickytricky (Lost Tomb Reboot)! A perfect recruiter vid, spoiler-free, featuring everything I love best about LTR, which is basically Wu Xie being badass, sexy, innocent, flirty, snarky, and also more or less naked now and then (which is to say, we can see his bare arms and collarbone, but for Z1L that is a LOT.) It's a total mood lifter and I recommend it highly.
an intriguing take on a Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan moment from early Guardian canon in this story by trobadora which does that satisfying thing where I go "huh, that never really made sense to me but NOW it does"!
a short intense Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan h/c story by laireshi full of ALL the good tropes, including cave-ins, my favorite XD

fandomtrees gifts are going live, and I am wondering if the mod has to unscreen each comment by hand? (I really hope not, that sounds like a huge pain for them, but I've been away from DW so long that I have no clue how anything works anymore.)

Mine are unscreened now, and I got some amazing cookie recipes from different countries, a gorgeous Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan embrace from

grayswandir, and a fantastic "Leave Me And Go" story by

nightwalker, go check them out!! And there are some other tantalizing treats that I can't access on AO3 yet.

This is the BEST mood. ❤

Hi there! I'm

marycrawford on AO3, and I asked for Guardian (drama) fic or art, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, because I am stuck on them.

I love these guys so much, and I would love fanfic or art for them. I love how the entire show is such a glorious dive into hurt/comfort and angst and self-sacrifice, and all the tropes that come with that, because that's where my fannish id lives. If that's not your thing - I am also a big fan of domestic sweetness, because if ever anyone needed a day off it’s these two.

I dearly love their mutual caretaking, competence, devotion, and loyalty, and in general I love all the angst and knives, preferably with a happy ending.

Smut is entirely optional - the romance is essential. I live for the emotional intensity of Shen Wei's fathomless devotion and Zhao Yunlan's crackling need. For me the best "I love you" doesn't need to be spoken: it's Shen Wei's careful hand warming the congee, or Zhao Yunlan raising his gun and trusting Shen Wei to understand his intent.

Favorite fic tropes: “leave me and go”, a hidden wound, presumed dead, powers spiraling out of control, cave-ins.

Art: I am smitten with Shen Wei and I admit it. The cheekbones, the eyelashes, the arm garters, the swordfighting, the infinitely subtle expressions that speak of enormous emotions...sigh. I love almost all of his outfits, with a special mention for that damn chain in episode 8. And I love how Zhao Yunlan is his visual counterpoint, stylish and seductive in torn jeans and boots and motorcycle jackets, all pushy exuberance where Shen Wei is all restraint. I'm also a big fan of Da Qing being part of their lives in cat form and just making himself welcome wherever.

I like the idea of art showing us the things that the show couldn't for censorship reasons - kisses, embraces, the sweetness of waking up together or the anguish of being torn apart.

Maru (the Cat who Sits in Boxes) and Hana now have a kitten to deal with.

I'm still watching Lost Tomb Reboot, going very very slowly, mostly because of my fractured attention span but also, I admit it, because I keep pausing to stare at Sir's Face. The best thing about this show is just how much they labor to give Zhu Yilong room to work his microexpression magic and nuanced character acting in the midst of all the action-adventure (he got threatened by clams in the most recent episode, and it was amazing), and to light him beautifully while he does it. They read the label when they bought him, and I really hope other shows will do the same.

I signed up for fandomtrees, which is a really nice little fannish gift challenge that would be especially suitable for anyone who isn't feeling up to the big ones this year, like yuletide. You simply ask for a gift in a fandom of your choice - art, fic, anything. Officially you must request three fandoms, but they can also be non-fannish things like recipes, song recommendations or whatever, so it's suitable for monofannish people like me. And all you need to do to give someone a gift is post a comment under their letter, no need to sign up or anything. It's a 100 word minimum for fic, so it's super low-key, and I will be stalking people's letters to see what tasty things I can offer.

My fandomtrees letter is here, and there are already four Guardian requests!

And the Sundial Exchange signups have started, too, yay! I haven't signed up yet but I plan to, and I'm really looking forward to it. This is for Guardian and Guardian-related fandoms, and there was some spectacular art and fic for it last year.

sakana17 has an inspirational picspam of Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong lounging against walls, floors, windows, etc.

We had a heatwave here, in a country that isn't equipped for it. Last year it lasted half a week of 35+C temps during the day, and I took refuge in a library that had A/C and sweated it out at home for the last day, when even crossing the street felt impossible. This year it lasted a FULL WEEK and I am starting to think that we may need to invest in home A/C; even one week a year of this is devastating and it takes me at least another week to recover.

Last year, during the heatwave, I was watching Guardian for the first time and it was a sheer delight, if you can call a show a delight when it's filled with angst and h/c and self-sacrifice (yes, yes I can, because those are some of my favorite things).

During this year's heatwave I was mostly watching Lost Tomb Reboot Sir: Your Face (I'm at the start of ep 22; Wu Xie just knocked over a huge vase he was forbidden to touch, because he is Like That) as well as rewatching some Guardian eps. I still have two Guardian stories in progress that I want to finish writing, as well as some that are in the planning stage; I have so many stories by others that I want to leave feedback on that it's making me feel overwhelmed; at this point, I haven't written a word of either feedback or fic in weeks, and the rock to push uphill feels bigger than it did before.

But it's a new day, it's actually cool outside, and I could at least open the Scrivener file...?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

‘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.

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.

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.

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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