520 Days Reverse Exchange

[miss_ingno]

Ahhhh, I'm finally off work OTL I'm so excited to delve further into the sid_guardian's Fourth Annual Interdimensional Haixing-Dixing 520 Day Reverse Exchange collection and enjoy all these lovely new works. I've only had time to check out my own gift, the fanart and two shorter fics so far, I'm excited! The summaries and tags are 👀👌

First of all, big shout-out to china_shop who wrote me an utterly incredible story that hits all of my favourite things about this scenario on the nail and provided me with even more fodder for thought. Ngl while I loved all the ads I chose to request for, this one was definitely the one I was secretly hoping would get picked because I'm a sucker for political worldbuilding and group dynamics, and the political tension + mentor vibes china_shop managed to pack into this are superb. Nevermind the incredible Weilan dynamic, both as a team and as finally, finally getting their shit together and kissing. Go check it out if you haven't yet, it's absolutely worth it!

Twenty-Four Hours in New Dixing by china_shop

I'm also very happy with how my gift for the amazing elenothar turned out. Ngl, I was surprised and pleased to get her as a giftee, I feel I have a pretty good grasp of what she likes and I'm always happy to write more Shen Wei's students, even if I'm often stumped on what plot to work with in that regard. So this was a great excuse to explore the direct aftermath of a potential fix-it and how it affects Shen Wei's civilian identity as a professor :D (shout-out to ishipallthings for the beta <3)

Keep On Going by missingnowrites

I could probably write a whole post of the ups and downs of writing this fic, and I might even do it later. I have... like four outtakes I will post into my outtakes collection at some point, too lmao because this fic kept changing on me. I'm not used to pantsing this much! But it turned out alright, and the response so far has been reassuring, too <3 (plus the important thing was of course that Elenothar likes it, so it's a success!)

(also I gotta admit I'm unbearably curious who else requested for my ad lmao but I understand why it's anonymous. If you're out there and reading this, feel free to let me know! Only if you're comfortable with it, though <3)

Comments

[elenothar]

I was surprised and pleased to get her as a giftee, I feel I have a pretty good grasp of what she likes

🥰🥰🥰 you do have a good grasp, yes! much to my advantage ;)

[miss_ingno]

And I'm glad you agree!! :D

(honestly my guideline thought was "just make it about Shen Wei and his students, she'll love that", so the work was just figuring out how to do that xD

[elenothar]

I've never minded being predictable less XD

[velithya]

The whole collection is really great! Everyone did such top-notch work :3 :3 :3

The implications and consequences of what happens post-canon (with or without a fix it!) are such fertile territory for telling stories! I don't think I mentioned this in my comment but I liked that it wasn't "Professor Shen is Heipaoshi" it was just "Professor Shen is Dixingren" so it was common fear and prejudice working against him rather than any fear of him specifically!

(I'm also curious about who requested for my ad but also... the ads are anonymous so short of shouting my number from the rooftops I'm not sure how to tell! ^^;; I know that one of the people I requested was almost certainly Elenothar and obvs my actual gifter was the second one but the third one ??? no idea!)

[miss_ingno]

It is! I'm not done yet reading everything (I'm a slow reader and busy RIP :'D) but I've had so much fun with all of them <3
(yours I'm reading currently but probably gonna take a while to finish because I'm nodding off RIP)

Honestly, I love exploring various implications of canon, especially in the direction of worldbuilding/politics (I'm a simple girl, I love group and social dynamics, haha) but I usually tend to do so more in Canon AUs I've found? Idky it's just where my brain goes apparently lol. (Like the Arranged Marriage AU will be chockful of Haixing-Dixing politics obviously, since it's a political marriage, but it's a Canon AU and not canon compliant, so, uh...

I don't think I mentioned this in my comment but I liked that it wasn't "Professor Shen is Heipaoshi" it was just "Professor Shen is Dixingren" so it was common fear and prejudice working against him rather than any fear of him specifically!

Ahhhh, I'm happy to hear that! :D It's why I didn't want his identity to be entirely revealed (I love secret identities and the complications that come with them and will forever be salty that we didn't get to see the SID's live reactions. And that Zhao Xinci already knew lmao). And anti-Dixing prejudice makes sense, both in general because xenophobia and in specific because weird powers, and in most specifically in the aftermath of an aggressive invasion <.< I was happy to explore a variety of reactions to that reveal :D connecting Shen Wei to his people by having him face the same prejudice was kinda fun, too

(I honestly don't even remember the numbers I requested for, just that one was an artist with a Weilan+Da Qing focus, the other was a fellow writer, and obviously one of them turned out to be china_shop :D)

I do remember that my number was #23 though! Because 22 is my fave number and I was one off 😂

[velithya]

Ah, if you're tired please take a rest! There's no rush! ♥

Worldbuilding is very fun! I'm less good at the politics side of things so I'm happy that there are people like yourself who are all over it so that I can experience it without having to create it myself hehehe ♥ and you are, of course, excellent at it! :3

> I love secret identities and the complications that come with them and will forever be salty that we didn't get to see the SID's live reactions.

THE WAY THE SHOW CUT AWAY FROM ZHU HONG'S REVEAL skjdnfkjsndkdjng I mean I guess that means we can imagine whatever we want? STILL ;_;

AHAHAHAHA MISSY you were definitely one of my three requests! :D :D :D
♥

[miss_ingno]

> Worldbuilding is very fun! I'm less good at the politics side of things so I'm happy that there are people like yourself who are all over it so that I can experience it without having to create it myself hehehe ♥ and you are, of course, excellent at it! :3

Aiya, you're making me blush!! ^///^ but also if you ever wanna tackle politics or similar intrigue stuff hmu I'm willing to beta/collab (honestly, on anything else too if you wanted lmao. I feel like I have Too Many WIPs rn but also, I would really love to ♥)

> THE WAY THE SHOW CUT AWAY FROM ZHU HONG'S REVEAL skjdnfkjsndkdjng I mean I guess that means we can imagine whatever we want? STILL ;_;

EXACTLY!!!! lmao guess we'll just. have to re-imagine it over... and over... and over...

> AHAHAHAHA MISSY you were definitely one of my three requests! :D :D :D

aldghasdghlagaghk omg! that's amazing, I'm glad my ad spoke to you <3

[velithya]

Ah, thank you for the offer! I won't say it definitely won't happen but I, uh, definitely am very protective and specific about my fic ideas and I genuinely don't know that I would be capable of collabing with someone in the actual writing process ^^;; I'll definitely hit you up for brainstorming politics stuff in advance of writing if I'm ever tackling something like that and need help, though! ♥

[miss_ingno]

Ha! Valid :'D I'm also the protective, stubborn type whose terrible at letting go of certain ideas, so a collab would have to be something I haven't got a firm goal on, or agree with my collaborator what it should look like 😂 the few times I've done it I've actually really enjoyed the process though, but tbf most often it's been with my bff and we are In Sync about this shit lol

always happy to help brainstorm! <3

[velithya]

> I'm also the protective, stubborn type whose terrible at letting go of certain ideas
yes. this, exactly. The second my collab-er would be "oh lets do this" and I disagree I'd have to choose between inwardly seething about how WRONG it is or bailing ^^;;;; Better just not to collab in the first place???

♥

[miss_ingno]

For me, it's more a matter of figuring out "what's an idea I don't feel too precious about" and then finding people who agree on my character/relationship interpretations to collab with <3 but I totally get why you wouldn't want to, no pressure! ♥

[velithya]

ahahahaha an idea I don't feel too precious about.... hahahahahaha OTL

[miss_ingno]

😂😂😂 :') yeah not easy, I know

[velithya]

My needle apparently swings wildly from "CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT" to "HAVE NO OPINION/NOT INTO IT" and nothing in between ^^;;;;;

[china_shop]

*beams like a lighthouse* <3 <3 <3

(I'm getting through the collection soooo sloooowly... :-)

[miss_ingno]

<3333

(it's a lot of fic, and several of them long! I think I'm 2/3rds through now?)

[china_shop]

(The other day, in a fit of dorkiness, I calculated the average length of fic in the exchange (excluding art and podfic), and it was over 6k! For a 300w minimum! :D :D :D)

[miss_ingno]

Omg! :O that's a high average!

(I mean, I know I'm wordy and I know Vel and Elenothar both got wordy, too, but xD)