Just let me lie here on the tile

There are Strange People Working in the House (wearing face masks, at least, oof) and the cat has flattened herself between a desk and a radiator in the hope that she will become invisible. I feel the same way, frankly.

To distract myself, let me ramble on about pens. I started drawing with fountain pens a while ago, since I love writing with them so much that it felt natural to draw with them, too. And I went down a whole rabbit hole figuring out how to use waterproof ink in fountain pens without clogging them up. That way I can draw something and then use watercolor paint on it later, which is my favorite way of working with paint so far.

One of the best waterproof inks I found is Platinum Carbon Black, which is just a gorgeous deep, deep black that also dries rapidly and is 100% waterproof. It's from Japan, comes in cartridges as well as bottled ink, and you can use it in ordinary fountain pens, though probably you shouldn't let them sit for a long time without using them. But Platinum also makes a couple of fountain pens that are specifically designed to use the waterproof ink. The Preppy is one, and the Platinum Carbon Ink Desk Pen is another, and the one I use for drawing. I have multiples of this pen now - it's cheap, it's plastic, it looks odd with the long tail because it's meant to go in a desk stand, it draws a very fine line, it always starts up immediately, and I absolutely love it. I've seen people describe it as a cheap-looking pen that writes like a $200 nib. (I don't have any fancy nib pens to compare it to, but I believe it.)

And so, in Lost Tomb Reboot, when Wu Xie started writing in his uncle's diary with that lovely long-tailed red pen, I recognized it immediately.

( Wu Xie's desk pen )

I love that whole setting with the desk and the diary and the warm light, and I love the elegance of that pen in Wu Xie's hand.

There's a great blog post by a sketcher in Singapore here, with lots of detail about the different desk pens he uses. He managed to find a version of Wu Xie's pen that has an actual 14K gold nib, which I've never seen for sale.

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

This is an Entirely Gratuitous Post of Zhu Yilong looking lovely and defiant and sleeveless - I couldn't find any caps for this specific moment in Lost Tomb ep 26 so I made some. No spoilers at all, just hotness.

( Wu Xie has no fucks to give, and also no sleeves )

LOOK LOOK naye made more caps and they are spectacular!

And how do the cap and goggles look so good on him?

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...?

Here's a cool interview with the director of Lost Tomb Reboot, kindly translated by wenella (Spoilers for early eps, especially ep 5 and 6!) and illustrated with gorgeous pictures.

I love the detail about Z1L drawing on a scar to get into the role every day, even when he was wearing something that wouldn't show it. (I have to admit, I have not actually noticed the scar at all yet?)

This behind the scenes shot was distributed very early on, and is still one of my favorites ever. The composition, the chiaroscuro, everything about it is just <3.

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 )

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...